Guitar Strings and Broken Jukeboxes: Applying Feminist Criticism to Classic Country

Historically, Classic Country music has reinforced the domestic sphere as the appropriate placement for women. The lyrics of artists such as Conway Twitty, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Kitty Wells, and Tammy Wynette, highlight the notions of gendered expectations. These artists act as iconic staples, and their interpretation of country life directly resembles the attitudes of the South. By considering the reactions of several artists during the women’s liberation movement, an area that many scholars have ignored in the past, this essay will argue that despite the advancement towards equality, the female artist is only iconic for her appearance. Providing a brief history of the genre and the totems found throughout the narratives will confirm the distaste some artists have for equality and how lyrical themes even constrict track length for women. Regardless of evolving gendered expectations the genre continues to place men as gods and women as devils

Place for video games : a theoretical and pedagogical framework for multiliteracies learning in English studies

Students are now involved in a vastly different textual landscape than many English scholars, one that relies on the “reading” and interpretation of multiple channels of simultaneous information. As a response to these new kinds of literate practices, my dissertation adds to the growing body of research on multimodal literacies, narratology in new media, and rhetoric through an examination of the place of video games in English teaching and research. I describe in this dissertation a hybridized theoretical basis for incorporating video games in English classrooms. This framework for textual analysis includes elements from narrative theory in literary study, rhetorical theory, and literacy theory, and when combined to account for the multiple modalities and complexities of gaming, can provide new insights about those theories and practices across all kinds of media, whether in written texts, films, or video games. In creating this framework, I hope to encourage students to view texts from a meta-level perspective, encompassing textual construction, use, and interpretation. In order to foster meta-level learning in an English course, I use specific theoretical frameworks from the fields of literary studies, narratology, film theory, aural theory, reader-response criticism, game studies, and multiliteracies theory to analyze a particular video game: World of Goo. These theoretical frameworks inform pedagogical practices used in the classroom for textual analysis of multiple media. Examining a video game from these perspectives, I use analytical methods from each, including close reading, explication, textual analysis, and individual elements of multiliteracies theory and pedagogy. In undertaking an in-depth analysis of World of Goo, I demonstrate the possibilities for classroom instruction with a complex blend of theories and pedagogies in English courses. This blend of theories and practices is meant to foster literacy learning across media, helping students develop metaknowledge of their own literate practices in multiple modes. Finally, I outline a design for a multiliteracies course that would allow English scholars to use video games along with other texts to interrogate texts as systems of information. In doing so, students can hopefully view and transform systems in their own lives as audiences, citizens, and workers

The corner poset with an application to an n-dimensional hypercube stacking puzzle

For any dimension n ≥ 3, we establish the corner poset, a natural triangular poset structure on the corners of 2-color hypercubes. We use this poset to study a problem motivated by a classical cube stacking puzzle posed by Percy MacMahon as well as Eric Cross’s more recent “Eight Blocks to Madness.” We say that a hypercube is 2-color when each of its facets has one of two colors. Given an arbitrary multiset of 2-color unit n-dimensional hypercubes, we investigate when it is possible to find a submultiset of 2n hypercubes that can be arranged into a larger hypercube of side length 2 with monochrome facets. Through a careful analysis of the poset and its properties, we construct interesting puzzles, find and enumerate solutions, and study the maximum size, S(n), for a puzzle that does not contain a solution. Further, we find bounds on S(n), showing that it grows as Θ(n2n)

Community readiness assessment : is it an issue?

Is Sedalia ready to address substance abuse in adolescents

A Review of Salvage Treatment Options for Disease Progression After Radiation Therapy for Localized Prostate Cancer

Recurrence of prostate cancer after initial treatment with radiation therapy (RT) is highly dependent on pretreatment risk group and unfortunately, a proportion of patients fail primary treatment. The treatment of recurrence after primary radiation is rapidly changing with advances in imaging and it is important to distinguish those with a local failure from those with distant failure. If disease remains locally confined, salvage treatment with a variety of techniques can still provide a potential cure. Patients with distant failure are often treated with androgen deprivation, or in those with a shorter life expectancy, conservative management. In patients with a higher burden of metastatic disease, there is emerging evidence that chemotherapy and advanced androgen therapy can improve survival. We review the relevant literature on available salvage treatment options and appropriate patient selection for patients with recurrent prostate cancer after RT. We report on the efficacy and adverse effects of the currently available local salvage modalities including salvage radical prostatectomy, high dose rate and low dose rate brachytherapy, cryotherapy, high intensity focused ultrasound, and stereotactic body RT. We additionally discuss diagnosis of oligometastatic disease on imaging and current approaches to treatment with either radiation or surgery. While a full review of chemotherapy and advanced androgen therapies is beyond the scope of this article we briefly discuss their use in the treatment of newly diagnosed recurrence after radiation

Regulation of DEPTOR Ubiquitination by Uric Acid in the Pancreatic β-Cell

As rates of non-communicable disease such as diabetes mellitus raise the questions regarding how these diseases arise becomes more pertinent. One of the major causes of these types of disease is the effects of the modern diet which is typically high in nutrients including sugars, fats, purines and salt. Of these nutrients, the effects of high purines have been underrepresented in the current body of research. Increased dietary purines result in a commensurate increase in the synthesis of uric acid elevating serum uric acid level. This increase induces hyperuricemia and has been correlated through epidemiological studies to the development and progression of degenerative diseases including diabetes mellitus. In an attempt to shed light on the mechanism that underpins this effect we have elected to investigate the effects of hyperuricemic conditions on the viability and growth of pancreatic β-cells through the use of live cell assays to evaluate: cellular metabolism, cell count, autophagy, and apoptosis. To explain any changes in pancreatic β-cell viability and proliferation, we also investigated how the stability of a cellular growth and viability regulating protein, DEPTOR, may change under hyperuricemic conditions. We did this by directly measuring DEPTOR-bound ubiquitin though the use of co-immunoprecipitation. To explain any observed changes in DEPTOR ubiquitination we also investigated the expression of proteins responsible for DEPTOR ubiquitination, β-TrCP, and DEPTOR deubiquitination, USP3. Finally, we investigated if there was any direct interaction between DEPTOR and uric acid using co-immunoprecipitation to test for any potential bound uric acid as it may provide insights into any changes in DEPTOR ubiquitination, β-TrCP expression, or USP3 expression. As a result of this investigation, we found that hyperuricemic conditions are sufficient to cause significant reductions in pancreatic β-cell metabolism and cell mass and a significant increase in iii autophagy and apoptosis. This was paired with an increase in DEPTOR stability arising from the observed reduction in DEPTOR-bound ubiquitin. This reduction in DEPTOR-bound ubiquitin was caused by a significant shift in the expression of β-TrCP and USP3 which resulted in a net shift in the balance if ubiquitination to favour the removal of ubiquitin over its binding. Additionally, our attempts to probe for potential DEPTOR-bound uric acid were successful and found that uric acid did in fact bind to DEPTOR and that this binding may explain what initiated the shifted balance of DEPTOR ubiquitination. These results have presented some interesting questions as they are the first to indicate: uric acid is capable of modifying DEPTOR ubiquitination, USP3 was identified as a new major regulator of DEPTOR stability within the pancreatic β-cell, uric acid as a possible new regulator of cell function that has as yet gone unnoticed, and finally the differences between mouse and human responses to hyperuricemia may provide new insights into the potential mechanism that underpins uric acid’s role in the regulation of ubiquitination. In summary, in our attempts to better understand the causes of uric acid driven increases in diabetes mellitus risk we have found that hyperuricemic conditions are sufficient to reduce the function and mass of pancreatic β-cells and that this effect is caused by a previously undescribed uric acid-driven change in regulatory protein levels

Factors supporting substance use improvement for Black Americans: A population health observational study

BACKGROUND: Black clients in substance use disorder (SUD) treatment are associated with the lowest successful completion and substance use reductions. More work is needed to identify specific factors that support successful recovery of Black clients. METHODS: Data from U.S. outpatient SUD treatment facilities receiving public funding from 2015 to 2019 were analyzed (N = 2239, 197). Primary analyses consisted of Black clients (n = 277, 726) reporting admission and discharge substance use frequency. Multiple logistic regression was used to predict substance use frequency improvement from Black client demographic, recovery capital, treatment characteristics, and state. Disparities were compared between Black and non-Black clients. RESULTS: The overall Black client improvement percentage was 46.95%. Mutual-help group attendance and Length of Stay demonstrated clinically meaningful effect sizes controlling for all other variables and state. Attending mutual-help groups 8-30 times per month (State aOR = 2.54, 95% CI = 2.43, 2.64) and outpatient treatment stays of 4 months or more (State aOR = 2.50, 95% CI = 2.44, 2.56) were factors supporting Black client improvement. Importantly, states are associated with disparate Black client risk differences and only South Dakota had greater Black improvement (RD = 6.35, 95% CI = 1.00, 11.71). CONCLUSIONS: Black client factors supporting substance use improvement include ancillary mutual-help group attendance and increased treatment retention. These factors may be more critical in states with larger Black improvement disparities. In general, treatment providers increasing access to mutual-help groups, and adjusting program inclusiveness and motivational factors for retention, would make strides in increasing improvement outcomes for Black clients