The language of an exploitive economy: centering women’s narratives in William Faulkner’s The sound and the fury AND Language and loss: modernity’s reckoning with failure in William Faulkner’s “A rose for Emily”

In this essay I will be focusing on William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury Jason Compson’s narrative section. Contained in his narration is a violent linguistic system that commodifies women, primarily his sister Caddy Compson and his niece Quentin Compson. His exploitation and monetization of these two women turns them into a currency so they can be bartered. Jason’s patriarchal-phallocentric economy is driven by his need to acquire and hoard money. In the process, the women in Jason’s life become a means for an economic gain. This essay analyzes how Jason exploits Caddy’s desire to mother her daughter even when she’s denied access to her daughter and how Miss Quentin avoids being explicated in her uncle’s exploitive economy. Caddy’s motherhood, sexuality and economic status grant her the ability to freely maneuver through and within Faulkner’s text and Jason’s violent and manipulative tendencies. Miss Quentin is not granted the same freedoms as her mother. Miss Quentin’s stakes in Jason’s economy are much different than Caddy’s, in that she has less to lose because she has already lost her mother and her father has never been present in her life. Miss Quentin rejects her uncle because there is very little left that he can take from her. Caddy’s maneuvering isn’t always successful, but her ability is a hopeful approach to exploring spaces controlled by male speech and perspective. The fabric of Faulkner’s text unravels when Miss Quentin escapes Jason’s “economic game” in her rejection of familiar and familial ties to the Compson family. She avoids ever exchanging with her uncle. When readers and scholars focus on Caddy’s adherence to Jason’s rule of paying to see her daughter, one question lingers: what “moves” does Miss Quentin perform to destabilize Jason’s patriarchal-phallocentric economy that extend to how Caddy performs within her brother’s authoritarian economy? This pursuit of centering Caddy and Miss Quentin’s narratives is achieved through a close examination of how Faulkner’s male-centered narrative works to marginalize his female characters, while close attention to Caddy and Miss Quentin de-centers the male perspective, making the reader inclined to see the two women as subjects who are present in the novel and have a language worth hearing. AND This essay will explore in William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” the difficultly of considering personal and communal loss beyond symbolic representation. Through patriarchal-phallocentric language Miss Emily is propagated to the status of monument so far as she becomes a contact point for the men of the Southern town of Jefferson to access their past traditions of chivalry, gender, and class. An analysis of Emily Grierson is pivotal for critiquing the story’s mistreatment of her life and her losses. This paper proposes the difficulties of accessing sites of loss and trauma in the life of Miss Emily. This ultimately reveals the traditional gender and class structures that attempt stability through the language of a communal male narrator. How is Faulkner then making Miss Emily represent the loss and struggles of Southern town of Jefferson while simultaneously producing her own conflict with the loss of her father Mr. Grierson and the desertion of her lover Homer Barron? The reader cannot be tricked in feeling remorse for Mr. Grierson’s death because it’s not her father Miss Emily mourns, but the loss of a chance to marry that he prevented her from obtaining. Mr. Grierson is the suppressor of his daughter’s life and he becomes the site for her “working through” loss and trauma. This essay is organized into two parts: first, a close analysis of scenes in “A Rose for Emily” that call for close attention and scrutiny of the male-controlled depictions of Miss Emily as representing the losses endured by the South. Her symbolic status is problematized by her proximity to the story’s investment in desire and time. The second part of this essay, through psychoanalytic and feminist scholarship, attempts to undo the patriarchal-phallocentric structural tendencies of Faulkner’s narrative. These approaches and the scholars doing this work help consider the lacks in “A Rose for Emily” where Faulkner’s treatment of personal experiences does not consider Miss Emily’s unique struggle with loss and trauma as essential to the fabric of a Southern society grappling with loss on a personal and communal scale

Paintings in oils and acrylics

In this group of paintings I have explored a number of possibilities for arranging geometric--essentially architectural--forms in a spacial setting as a vehicle or means for statements about my own experience in life thus far. They are, in a sense, a contemplation of this experience, seen as a series of shifting appearances, of open and closed structures that dissolve and reform as the observer moves within it. To this extent, they are metaphoric statements in which I have attempted to fix as concisely as possible some aspects of my own reality of living stripped of anecdotal content, while allowing the painting as much self-sufficiency as possible as an object with its own presence, its own conditions and implications. In some cases the paintings operate as clearly defined forms caught in a subdued light. Shifts in the direction of a surface or overlaps may create ambiguities in the reading that cause sudden changes in the orientation of forms. Elsewhere, subtle alterations in color or in the texture of the paint condition the position of a space or surface. Linear elements may carry vestiges of representation: parallel lines arranged in expanding or diminishing intervals suggest the fluting of a column; the outer edge of a parallelogram expands to form a labyrinth, while its inside contour encloses a space within which a knife-like form can become a guillotine. But such readings are the personal excursions of the viewer along its pathways

The effect of growth regulating compounds on isolated stem sections

Recently, plant physiologists have witnessed what in all probability will be a milestone in understanding plant growth. This is due to observations that growth is regulated by hormone-like chemical compounds, referred to as plant growth substances. It is with several of these growth regulating substances that the present investigation was concerned. The first growth substance discovered was "auxin". Fritz Went (1926), using the coleoptile of an oat seedling, discovered the presence of a certain growth promoting factor. After the removal of the tip of the coleoptile, Went placed the excised tip on a block of agar. He then discarded the tip, removed the tip of a second coleoptile, and placed the block of agar to one side of the stump of this plant. The fact that the seedling bent away from the agar block side indicated growth had occured more rapidly under the block. This led Went to conclude that the coleoptile tip produced a hormone that influenced plant growth

A Brief History of the Mathematics Curricula in the United States

This paper provides a historical overview of how the mathematics curricula has evolved from Colonial times to modern-day America. This paper offers a historical perspective of how math has been taught and how historical events, such as the Great Depression and World War II, affected mathematics education in the United States. It also discusses how the value of math education has changed and how different views of mathematics affected what was taught in the classroom. Government legislation and its effects, both positive and negative, are also addressed. The purpose of this paper is not to critique the way that math has been taught, but rather to provide valuable insight into the development of mathematics education and its dynamic nature

Patients' management of type 2 diabetes in Middle Eastern countries: review of studies

The increased prevalence of diabetes in Middle Eastern countries is a health policy priority. Important risk factors for diabetes have been identified. Lifestyle interventions and adherence to medications are central to disease prevention and management. This review focuses on the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus in Middle Eastern countries. The aim is to identify the ways in which knowledge, health beliefs, and social and cultural factors influence adherence to medication and lifestyle measures. Thirty-four studies were identified following a systematic search of the literature. The studies describe the influence of knowledge, health beliefs, culture, and lifestyle on the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus in the Middle East. Findings indicate a lack of health knowledge about diabetes among populations, which has implications for health behaviors, medication adherence, and treatment outcomes. Many identified health beliefs and cultural lifestyle factors, such as religious beliefs, beliefs about fasting during Ramadan, and sedentary lifestyles played a role in patients’ decisions. For better management of this disease, a collaborative approach between patients, their families, health care professionals, and governments should be adopted. Implementing behavioral strategies and psychological interventions that incorporate all health care professionals in the management process have been shown to be effective methods. Such services help patients change their behavior. However, the utilization of such services and interventions is still limited in Arabian countries. Physicians in the Middle East are the health care professionals most involved in the care process

Fetal growth compromise moderates associations between SNPs within angiogenic and neurotrophic genes and AD/HD symptom severity

Low birth weight, a form of fetal growth compromise, is a well-established risk factor for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD; Nigg, Nikolas, & Burt, 2010); however, it is unclear how birth weight moderates genetic risk for AD/HD. From a Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (Gluckman & Hanson, 2004) framework, this study investigated if fetal growth compromise moderated relationships between SNPs within angiogenic, dopaminergic and neurotrophic genes and AD/HD symptom severity. A total of 398 youth from two multi-site, family-based studies of AD/HD were included in the current analysis. Results demonstrated that fetal growth compromise moderated associations between SNPs within angiogenic (HIF1A and NRP1) and a neurotrophic gene (NTRK3), but not dopamine genes, and AD/HD symptom severity. The gene x environment interactions remained significant after controlling for SNPs associated with birth weight and adjusting for multiple testing. Taken together, findings may suggest that prenatal ischemia/hypoxia is an environmental pathogen for AD/HD which confers vulnerability for the disorder through regulating the expression of angiogenic and neurotrophic genes

Targeting specific cell signaling transduction pathways by dietary and medicinal phytochemicals in cancer chemoprevention

Natural phytochemicals derived from dietary sources or medicinal plants have gained significant recognition in the potential management of several human clinical conditions. Much research has also been geared towards the evaluation of plant extracts as effective prophylactic agents since they can act on specific and/or multiple molecular and cellular targets. Plants have been an abundant source of highly effective phytochemicals which offer great potential in the fight against cancer by inhibiting the process of carcinogenesis through the upregulation of cytoprotective genes that encode for carcinogen detoxifying enzymes and antioxidant enzymes. The mechanistic insight into chemoprevention further includes induction of cell cycle arrest and apoptosis or inhibition of signal transduction pathways mainly the mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK), protein kinases C (PKC), phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), glycogen synthase kinase (GSK) which lead to abnormal cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), activator protein-1 (AP-1), nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-?B) and c-myc expression. Effectiveness of chemopreventive agents reflects their ability to counteract certain upstream signals that leads to genotoxic damage, redox imbalances and other forms of cellular stress. Targeting malfunctioning molecules along the disrupted signal transduction pathway in cancer represent a rational strategy in chemoprevention. NF-?B and AP-1 provide mechanistic links between inflammation and cancer, and moreover regulate tumor angiogenesis and invasiveness, indicating that signaling pathways that mediate their activation provide attractive targets for new chemotherapeutic approaches. Thus cell signaling cascades and their interacting factors have become important targets of chemoprevention and phenolic phytochemicals and plant extracts seem to be promising in this endeavor

Presidents' and trustee chairmen's perceptions of trustee selection and tenure in the North Carolina community college system

This dissertation studies the critical aspect of local governance in the North Carolina Community College System. The researcher concentrated on the question of local trustee service on the 58 community college/technical college/technical institute boards in the North Carolina system and sought to expand the knowledge base concerning the areas of (1) trustee selection, (2) criteria for service, and (3) length of trustee service. The study sought to answer the following questions: (1) What are the criteria upon which the selection of local boards of trustees is based? (2) By what methods or by what governing agencies are local trustees selected (elected or appointed)? (3) What is the length of service for board of trustee members? In addition, the study surveyed state community college leaders to find out their perceptions of the current trustee governance policy and several key issues surrounding this policy. Data were collected from a review of the available literature on the subject, a study of the legal policies of community colleges in other states, interviews with key leaders in the North Carolina Community College System, and a survey of community college presidents and trustee chairmen

The use of microteaching to aid preservice physical educators in the acquisition of a variety of teaching strategies as identified by the amount and kind of student decisions

It was the purpose of this study to investigate the use of microteaching in the preservice preparation of physical educators. More specifically, the study dealt with the use of microteaching in the acquisition of knowledge and skills relative to the use of varied teaching strategies which directly relate to the amount and kind of student decision making. The subjects were asked to employ different teaching strategies in three microlessons in order for varying amounts of procedural and performance decisions to result. An incidence chart was designed to identify the types of student decisions. It had nine categories arranged under two broad headings; procedure decisions, and performance decisions. The chart further delineated decisions as either teacher-made or student-made. It was field tested over a year's time in two courses in methods of teaching. The supervisor was trained to be objective in the use of this chart by working with a training judge and a series of training tapes in 13 sessions for a total of 21 hours. The acceptable standard established for objectivity of the supervisor was 80% using the Bijou Reliability Index

Molecular docking and analysis of interactions between vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and SPARC protein

The extracellular module of SPARC/osteonectin binds to vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and inhibits VEGF-stimulated proliferation of endothelial cells. In an attempt to identify the binding site for SPARC on VEGF, we hypothesized that this binding site could overlap at least partially the binding site of VEGF receptor 1 (VEGFR-1), as SPARC acts by preventing VEGF-induced phosphorylation of VEGFR-1. To this end, a docking simulation was carried out using a predictive docking tool to obtain modeled structures of the VEGF–SPARC complex. The predicted structure of VEGF–SPARC complex indicates that the extracellular domain of SPARC interacts with the VEGFR-1 binding site of VEGF, and is consistent with known biochemical data. Following molecular dynamics refinement, side-chain interactions at the protein interface were identified that were predicted to contribute substantially to the free energy of binding. These provide a detailed prediction of key amino acid side-chain interactions at the protein–protein interface. To validate the model further, the identified interactions will be used for designing mutagenesis studies to investigate their effect on binding activity. This model of the VEGF–SPARC complex should provide a basis for future studies aimed at identifying inhibitors of VEGF-induced angiogenesis