Some Spirit Was Pursuing All of Us : Literary Perspectives on Death

This paper will pursue the theme of death as a transgression against the created order through the works of five authors-the Apostle Paul, William Shakespeare, Alfred Telmyson, Dylan Thomas, and J.R.R. Tolkien-while also providing a brief overview of the perspectives on death presented in each author\u27s writings. The paper will demonstrate that although the five authors treat death with varying degrees of positive and negative tone, often in proportion to the orthodoxy of their Christian beliefs, their writings are in agreement that man was not created to die, and that death should not be spoken or written of lightly

Talking to Strangers: The Use of a Cameraman in The Office and What It Reveals about Communication

In the television mock-documentary The Office, co-workers Jim and Pam tell the cameraman they are dating before they tell their fellow co-workers in the office. The cameraman sees them getting engaged before anyone in the office has a clue. Even the news of their pregnancy is witnessed first by the camera crew. Jim and Pam’s boss, Michael, and other employees, such as Dwight, Angela and others, also share this trend of self-disclosure to the cameraman. They reveal secrets and embarrassing stories to the cameraman, showing a private side of themselves that most of their co-workers never see. First the term “mock-documentary” is explained before specifically discussing the The Office. Next the terms and theories from scholarly sources that relate the topic of self-disclosure to strangers are reviewed. Consequential strangers, weak ties, the stranger-on-a-train phenomenon, and para-social interaction are studied in relation to the development of a new listening stranger theory. Examples of self-disclosure from episodes of The Office are used by dividing the situations into different categories based on how the person interacted with the cameraman. Conclusions are then drawn from the instances of communication with the cameramen from The Office, after which the listening stranger theory will be defined and explained. Last, the listening stranger theory is related to real-life situations and supported by communication research from books and journal articles

Life Wants Padding : Food, Eating, and Bodies in George Eliot\u27s Novels

This thesis uses six of the novels of George Eliot (those that take place entirely in rural England), works from the field of psychology, the concepts of realism and sympathy, and a metaphor of liquidity from Thomas Carlyle to explore several ways that body fat shapes identity and mediates relationships with others. Boundaries are the guiding concept: the chapters move from a demonstration of how boundaries between the self and others are created (padding), through a discussion of how sympathy can enable those boundaries to be broken (stuffing), to two case studies of characters whose boundaries of selfhood are in flux because of identity confusion. At the same time, the thesis demonstrates how Eliot pushes the boundaries of novelistic convention by portraying characters who do not fit into any easily defined role, and by refusing to create a tidy ending for all characters

Supporting Minority Students Through Mentoring: Best Practices for Formal Mentoring Programs

Approaches such as universal education, state and national standards, and reform acts have sought to ensure that all students in America receive the same level of education. However, education systems are limited by institutionalized racism. An analysis of the education system through the lens of Critical Race Theory highlights the need to look outside of the traditional school setting, while Culturally Relevant Pedagogy gives insights for understanding the best practices in meeting the needs of minority students. This research considers how mentoring provides support and success for minority students by working with students outside of the school structure. Using the philosophies of friendship and caring, combined with the noted success of informal mentoring, formal mentoring relationships can support minority students through natural caring friendships. Future implementations for formalized mentoring programs are offered that might replicate the successful aspects of natural mentoring and increase the effectiveness of the programs

Comparative insights into questions of lepidopteran wing pattern homology

BACKGROUND: Butterfly and moth eyespots can share a similar appearance, involving multiple concentric rings of colored scales, but usually occuring in non-homologous positions on the wing. Within the butterflies, on the other hand, spots that share the same homologous position may not share the concentric ring structure; and, in butterfly species that have eyespots with concentric rings, ectopic eyespots with a similar ring structure can be induced by means of a simple epidermal wound. The extent to which all these eyespots, natural or induced, share similar genes and developmental mechanisms is investigated here by means of protein in-situ localizations in selected butterfly and moth species. In addition to looking at some of the transcription factors previously identified as being involved in eyespot formation, we also tested the involvement of candidate genes from the Wingless and TGF-β signaling pathways as putative morphogens for eyespot development. RESULTS: Saturniid moth and nymphalid butterfly eyespots with concentric rings of color express at least two transcription factors, Distal-less and Engrailed, in the center of the future pattern. Nymphalid eyespots centers also express the ligand Wingless and an activated signal transducer, a phosphorylated Smad protein, but neither these proteins nor the previous two proteins are found in pierid spot centers, which consist of a single patch of color. Both butterfly wing patterns, however, express a third transcription factor, Spalt, a portion of whose expression domain maps to the black scales on the adult wing. Wounding a nymphalid wing, on the other hand, leads to upregulation of Distal-less, engrailed and spalt in subsets of cells around the wounding site, mimicking concentric eyespot development. CONCLUSION: Wingless and TGF-β ligands are both candidate morphogens involved in nymphalid butterfly eyespot formation. These eyespots, as well as saturniid moth eyespots with concentric circles, share two genes that are associated with the differentiation of the signaling cells in nymphalid eyespots. This commonality suggests that they may be produced via the same developmental mechanism despite their non-homologous location. By contrast, pierid butterfly spots of a single color share some of the same genes but appear to be produced by a different mechanism. Eyespots with concentric rings may have co-opted a wound healing genetic network during their evolution

Multi-neuron intracellular recording in vivo via interacting autopatching robots

The activities of groups of neurons in a circuit or brain region are important for neuronal computations that contribute to behaviors and disease states. Traditional extracellular recordings have been powerful and scalable, but much less is known about the intracellular processes that lead to spiking activity. We present a robotic system, the multipatcher, capable of automatically obtaining blind whole-cell patch clamp recordings from multiple neurons simultaneously. The multipatcher significantly extends automated patch clamping, or ’autopatching’, to guide four interacting electrodes in a coordinated fashion, avoiding mechanical coupling in the brain. We demonstrate its performance in the cortex of anesthetized and awake mice. A multipatcher with four electrodes took an average of 10 min to obtain dual or triple recordings in 29% of trials in anesthetized mice, and in 18% of the trials in awake mice, thus illustrating practical yield and throughput to obtain multiple, simultaneous whole-cell recordings in vivo

The impact of single-gendered versus coeducational physical education settings on female adolescent body image and self-esteem: resisting the weight of body image and self-esteem issues in adolescence

Resistance training is related to disease prevention, improved health, and positive psychosocial well-being in adults and adolescents. Further, resistance training is positively associated with body image and self-esteem. However, most adolescents do not meet activity guidelines, particularly for resistance training. Schools play an essential role for increasing physical activity. Little is known about the effects of different classroom formats for resistance training, i.e., single-gendered versus coeducational, on body image and self-esteem in female adolescents. PURPOSE: To determine the effects of single-gendered versus coeducational resistance training on body image and self-esteem in adolescent females. METHODS: High school females (n = 30) completed 6-weeks of resistance training in a single-gendered or coeducational class. Body image and self-esteem were measured at week 0 and week 6. Data were analyzed using a 2 x 2 repeated measures ANOVA. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in body image between groups (p = .32) or over time (p = .78). Further, there were no differences in self-esteem due to group (p = .36) or time (p = .86). Self-esteem scores for the single-gendered group remained consistent from weeks 0 (25.31. ± 5.08) to 6 (25.31 ± 4.14). Although slightly higher, the coeducational scores did not differ from weeks 0 (26.36 ± 3.65) to 6 (26.64 ± 3.0). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that resistance training classroom setting may not impact body image or self-esteem. Further, neither classroom setting negatively influenced psychosocial well-being. Future research should use a longer intervention in more diverse populations of high school females