The Masculine Sea and the Impossibility of Awakening in Chopin's the Awakening

Kate Chopin has a firm place in American women's writing. A persistent theme in her works is said to be women's emotional liberation. The Awakening (1899) as a feminist novel is no exception. In the novel, Edna's inner voice and desire for escape from a male-dominated society awaken in her. Edna's suicide has been interpreted as her victory over the society however, this study argues that the idea of female defeat has been ignored to a great extent the main reason for which is the ignorance or a misreading of sea imagery. The sea of the novel that dissolves Edna is a signifier of male society and language signifying Edna's failure to find a place within the male dialogue of the society. Extra-marital relationships with Alcee or Robert are not promising, for the climax of such relationships is no more than the old requirement of becoming the good wife and mother that the society prescribes to women. By her ultimate suicidal choice, Edna determines to find a voice and be seen but is totally perished instead to prove that women cannot speak. This study intends to argue and conclude that Chopin had this Kristevaesque belief that the male socio-cultural formation does not let women experience freedom. A new interpretation of the sea as a patriarchal element is offered which makes Edna's drowning a total defeat rather than victory as suggested by many critics

Strong coupling constant of hb_{b} vector to the pseudoscalar and vector BcB_{c} mesons in QCD sum rules

The strong coupling constant g$_{h_{b}B_{c}^{PS}B_{c}^{V}}$ is calculated using the three-point QCD sum rules method. We use correlation functions to obtain these strong coupling constants with contributions of both B$_{c}^{PS}$ and B$_{c}^{V}$mesons as off-shell states. The contributions of two gluon condensates as a radiative correction are considered. The results show that g$_{h_{b}B_{c}^{PS}B_{c}^{V}}=8.80\pm 2.84 GeV^{-1}$and g$_{h_{b}B_{c}^{V} B_{c}^{PS}}=9.34\pm 3.12 GeV^{-1}$ in the $B_{c}^{PS}$ and $B_{c}^{V}$ off-shell state, respectively.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Some evidences about Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever

[No abstract available

Dynamic Compression of in situ Grown Living Polymer Brush: Simulation and Experiment

A comparative dynamic Monte Carlo simulation study of polydisperse living polymer brushes, created by surface initiated living polymerization, and conventional polymer monodisperse brush, comprising linear polymer chains, grafted to a planar substrate under good solvent conditions, is presented. The living brush is created by end-monomer (de)polymerization reaction after placing an array of initiators on a grafting plane in contact with a solution of initially non-bonded segments (monomers). At equilibrium, the monomer density profile \phi(z) of the LPB is found to decline as \phi(z) ~ z^{-\alpha} with the distance from the grafting plane z, while the distribution of chain lengths in the brush scales as c(N) ~ N^{-\tau}. The measured values \alpha = 0.64 and \tau = 1.70 are very close to those, predicted within the framework of the Diffusion-Limited Aggregation theory, \alpha = 2/3 and \tau = 7/4. At varying mean degree of polymerization (from L = 28 to L = 170) and effective grafting density (from \sigma_g = 0.0625 to \sigma_g = 1.0), we observe a nearly perfect agreement in the force-distance behavior of the simulated LPB with own experimental data obtained from colloidal probe AFM analysis on PNIPAAm brush and with data obtained by Plunkett et. al., [Langmuir 2006, 22, 4259] from SFA measurements on same polymer

Anti-influenza antibody level after vaccination in north of Iran

Objective:Influenza is a highly transmitted disease and about 10% of the world's population is affected by this disease annually. The aim of this research was to study the variation of serum antibody levels among subjects who had already been vaccinated against influenza. Methods And Materials:This descriptive-analytical study was carried out on 196 subjects who had influenza vaccination (influvac 2005/2006) and on 200 subjects who were matched with the vaccinated subjects by their ages in Gorgan which is located in the northeast of Iran. The subject's sera were prepared seven weeks after the influenza vaccination. Their serum antibody levels were determinated by the heamaglutination inhibition test. Results:The antibody titre in 81 subjects of the vaccinated group and in 175 subjects of the control group was less then 1/40. The mean antibody titre of the vaccinated subjects and the control group was 143.4±10.89 and 18.34±3.2, respectively. The difference was statistically significant (P value=0.000). Conclusion:The findings showed that the mean titre of the antibodies in the vaccinated and control groups was statistically different. This means that the influenza vaccine has good efficacy in our population

The Ideological Questions of Marriage in Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure

As one of the prominent ideologies of the nineteenth-century— in a complex interrelation with other contemporary ideological discourses particularly femininity and marriage—religion adopts a critical stance in Hardy's presentation of characters. Breaching the religio-conventional image of femininity as “Angel in the House” and “Cow Woman,” Hardy's Jude the Obscure (1895) is indeed deemed to be his milestone in presenting his anti-Christian attitudes towards the contemporary religion. This study aims to present Hardy's outright hostility towards the nineteenth-century Christianity through his creation of non-conformist characters, necessitating a parallel study with other contemporary discourses regarding marriage and femininity, and conflict with the religion of the time. Hardy's magnum opus, the work on which he was to stake his final reputation as a novelist, was clearly Jude the Obscure which as a noticeable socio-religious experimentation of the late nineteenth-century, reveals Hardy's perception of new ideas about femininity and marriage by presenting the hot contemporary issues of “New Woman” and “Free Union” through the development and presentation of Sue Bridehead and her free union with Jude, respectively. Hardy's presentation of Sue Bridehead as a “New Woman,” and employing the “Free Union” in marked contrast with the nineteenth-century convention of marriage as a “Bonded Pair” is Hardy's closing upshot of his final novelistic attempt. The non-conformist Jude and Sue are presented as figures touching the Victorian Christian standards of morality, while, the final tragic destiny of Jude and Sue's helplessness attest to the writer's substantial contribution as a Victorian male novelist to the ideologies circulating at the time

Crimean-congo hemorrhagic fever: Case series from a medical center in golestan province, Northeast of Iran (2004-2006)

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a widely distributed lethal disease, worldwide. Humans are usually infected with CCHF virus through a tick bite or close contact with viral contaminated tissues or with blood of domestic animals or of infected patients. The present study reports six cases of CCHF, who were in contact with both infected tissues and blood from sheep. In some regions like Golestan province (North of Iran), clinician suspicion may have an important role in early diagnosis and treatment of the disease. Conservative therapy (intensive monitoring) and prescription of antiviral medication (Ribavirin) accompanied with corticosteroids, was useful at the early stage of CCHF

Differences in intention to use educational RSS feeds between Lebanese and British students: A multi‑group analysis based on the technology acceptance model

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) offers a means for university students to receive timely updates from virtual learning environments. However, despite its utility, only 21% of home students surveyed at a university in Lebanon claim to have ever used the technology. To investigate whether national culture could be an influence on intention to use RSS, the survey was extended to British students in the UK. Using the Technology Adoption Model (TAM) as a research framework, 437 students responded to a questionnaire containing four constructs: behavioral intention to use; attitude towards benefit; perceived usefulness; and perceived ease of use. Principle components analysis and structural equation modelling were used to explore the psychometric qualities and utility of TAM in both contexts. The results show that adoption was significantly higher, but also modest, in the British context at 36%. Configural and metric invariance were fully supported, while scalar and factorial invariance were partially supported. Further analysis shows significant differences between perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use across the two contexts studied. Therefore, it is recommended that faculty demonstrate to students how educational RSS feeds can be used effectively to increase awareness and emphasize usefulness in both contexts