The Once and Future King: A New Approach to Ancient Maya Mortuary Monuments from Palenque, Tikal, and Copan

This dissertation examines the Temple of the Inscriptions, Temple I, and Temple 26 and explores what could have motivated the Maya to construct these large monuments and how they might have been meaningful. Traditional art historical methods of comparative and formal analyses are employed as tools for discussing patterns of meaning among these temples. The structural and decorative programs shared by all three temples signal that they are part of a separate genre of architecture that is specifically mortuary and interactive. Furthermore, these features are also a mode of communication. Messages depicted in the offerings, sculpture, and spaces of the royal interment resonated throughout the entire monument thus creating parallel environments. Architecture and imagery thereby become the agents for experience and meaning: these structures were active places that engaged the viewer, set up a series of experiences, and elicited a particular set of responses. These three monuments symbolized a continuum and depicted in their forms, spaces, and imagery was the cyclical progression of life and rebirth. In the years between 683 to 734 C.E., the ancient Maya cities of Palenque, Tikal, and Copan experienced great change caused by the death and burial of powerful kings and the accession of new kings. As demonstrated in evidence from the mortuary rituals and interments of Kinich Janaab Pakal, Jasaw Chan K\u27awiil, and K\u27ahk Uti\u27 Wiz\u27 K\u27awiil and in their respective mortuary monuments, the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque, Temple I at Tikal, and Temple 26 at Copan, these funerary events initiated new forms of art and architecture that changed the ceremonial cores of their respective cities. Memorializing a dead king was not the function of these temples. Instead, they were statements of continuity that were articulated in themes of renewal, transformation, and intergenerational convergence. Evidence suggests that the ancient Maya understood these monuments in their entirety; they were thus comprehended as funerary temples that were designed to be experienced in a manner that went beyond cognitive understanding. This dissertation examines the Temple of the Inscriptions, Temple I, and Temple 26 and explores what could have motivated the Maya to construct these large monuments and how they might have been meaningful. Traditional art historical methods of comparative and formal analyses are employed as tools for discussing patterns of meaning among these temples. The structural and decorative programs shared by all three temples signal that they are part of a separate genre of architecture that is specifically mortuary and interactive. Furthermore, these features are also a mode of communication. Messages depicted in the offerings, sculpture, and spaces of the royal interment resonated throughout the entire monument thus creating parallel environments. Architecture and imagery thereby become the agents for experience and meaning: these structures were active places that engaged the viewer, set up a series of experiences, and elicited a particular set of responses. These three monuments symbolized a continuum and depicted in their forms, spaces, and imagery was the cyclical progression of life and rebirth.\u2

Reducing Levels of Maladaptive Perfectionism in Gifted and Talented Youth Through a Mindfulness Intervention

This study examined the impact of a mindfulness program on 42 middle school students who had been identified as Gifted and Talented. Participants completed a six-week intervention designed to teach mindfulness. Before starting the group, students completed the Child and Adolescent Perfectionism Scale (CAPS; Flett et al., 2016) which provides a measure of self (i.e., setting excessively high goals and standards for self) as well as socially-prescribed (i.e., perception that others are holding individual to unrealistic standards) perfectionism. Additionally, participants’ use of mindfulness was measured. All measures were completed at pre-, post-intervention, and at follow up to determine whether the intervention decreased perfectionism and increased the practice of mindfulness. Three Bonferroni-adjusted, one-way, repeated measures MANOVAs were performed on each of the scales to ascertain whether results were impacted by the intervention. Results included a significant change in Self-Oriented Perfectionism and mindfulness was found at the end of group as well as at follow up. In both cases, there were significant differences between pre- and post-tests and between pre- and follow-up tests. Results indicate that mindfulness may be an appropriate intervention to reduce selfimposed forms of perfectionism on middle school students who are in Gifted and Talented programming

Guidance Program Of Booker T. Washington High School Dallas, Texas

Since the dawn of civilization upon the earth, man 1ms passed through various economical stages. Namely, 1. The hunting and fishing stage, 2. She pastoral or nomadic stage, 3. The agricultural stage, 4. The handicraft or trades and commerce stage, and 5. The Industrial stage. Although time has brought various economic changes, the underlying principles have remained the same. As times and custom have changed, man\u27s problem of making a living has changed but somehow and in some manner he must always make a living. If It were not for adding to the historical background of this thesis, the first four of these economic stages, Which man has passed through., would be of no direct value to this thesis, since the men of today are in the midst of the fifth or the Industrial stage The present day trends are towards mamoth industries , big business , and gigantic or colossal organizations . with the rapid increase of population has come, also, a very rapid increase in the means and opportunities by which man is aided in solving Ms economic problem

A spatial judgement task to determine background emotional state in laboratory rats (Rattus norvegicus)

Humans experiencing different background emotional states display contrasting cognitive (e.g. judgement) biases when responding to ambiguous stimuli. We have proposed that such biases may be used as indicators of animal emotional state. Here, we use a spatial judgement task, in which animals are trained to expect food in one location and not another, to determine whether rats in relatively positive or negative emotional states respond differently to ambiguous stimuli of intermediate spatial location. We housed 24 rats with environmental enrichment for seven weeks. Enrichment was removed for half the animals prior to the start of training (‘U’: unenriched) to induce a relatively negative emotional state, whilst being left in place for the remaining rats (‘E’: enriched). After six training days, the rats successfully discriminated between the rewarded and unrewarded locations in terms of an increased latency to arrive at the unrewarded location, with no housing treatment difference. The subjects then received three days of testing in which three ambiguous ‘probe’ locations, intermediate between the rewarded and unrewarded locations, were introduced. There was no difference between the treatments in the rats’ judgement of two out of the three probe locations, the exception being when the ambiguous probe was positioned closest to the unrewarded location. This result suggests that rats housed without enrichment, and in an assumed relatively negative emotional state, respond differently to an ambiguous stimulus compared to rats housed with enrichment, providing evidence that cognitive biases may be used to assess animal emotional state in a spatial judgement task

A rapidly acquired foraging-based working memory task, sensitive to hippocampal lesions, reveals age-dependent and age-independent behavioural changes in a mouse model of amyloid pathology

© 2018 Elsevier Inc. Three experiments examined the ability of mice to forage efficiently for liquid rewards in pots located in an open field arena. Search behaviour was unconstrained other than by the walls of the arena. All mice acquired the task within 4 days of training, with one trial per day. Experiment 1 tested the hypothesis that hippocampal lesions would disrupt foraging behaviour using extramaze cues. Mice with hippocampal lesions showed normal latency to initiate foraging and to complete the task relative to sham-operated mice. However, lesioned mice showed increased perseverative responding (sensitization) to recently rewarded locations, increased total working memory errors and an increased propensity to search near previously rewarded locations. In Experiment 2, the extramaze cues were obscured and each pot was identified by a unique pattern. Under these conditions, mice with hippocampal lesions showed comparable working memory errors to control mice. However, lesioned mice continued to display increased perseverative responding and altered search strategies. Experiment 3 tested the hypothesis that age-related accumulation of amyloid would disrupt foraging behaviour in transgenic PDAPP mice expressing the V717F amyloid precursor protein (APP) mutation. Consistent with previous findings, PDAPP mice showed both age-dependent and age-independent behavioural changes. More specifically, 14–16 month-old PDAPP mice showed a deficit in perseverative responding and working memory errors. In contrast, changes in search behaviour, such as systematic circling, were present throughout development. The latter indicates that APP overexpression contributed to some features of the PDAPP behavioural phenotype, whereas working memory and flexible responding was sensitive to ageing and β-amyloid burden. In conclusion, the present study provided novel insight into the role of the hippocampus and the effects of APP overexpression on memory and search behaviour in an open-field foraging task

Effects of hippocampal damage on reward threshold and response rate during self-stimulation of the ventral tegmental area in the rat

The main purpose of this study was to explore the role of the hippocampus in motivated behavior. Rats with bilateral excitotoxic lesions of the hippocampus and controls were trained to lever press for electrical stimulation of the ventral tegmental area. Rate intensity functions were generated from an ascending and descending series of current intensities. Lesion-induced changes in sensitivity to reward were distinguished from enhancements in motor output by calculating reward thresholds and maximal response rates from the rate-intensity functions. Rats with hippocampal damage showed lower reward thresholds and higher maximal response rates than controls. These results provide further evidence of hippocampal modulation of the nucleus accumbens, suggesting that lesions of this structure enhance sensitivity to reward and increase motor output