GIRL POWER?: 2017’S WONDER WOMAN AS A FEMINIST TEXT AND ICON IN AN ERA OF POST-FEMINIST MEDIA

Media, including film, have the incredible potential to influence viewers and disrupt or contribute to dominant ideologies. In an era of post-feminist media where women are seemingly empowered under the guise of ‘girl power,’ there continues to be very limited social, financial, and professional options for women and girls. The same can be said for film when female characters appear to be in control of their own lives and bodies, though they are pressured into making the ‘correct’ choices. The 2017 film rendition of Wonder Womandirected by Patty Jenkins intended to change that. This textual analysis of the film identified feminist and post-feminist themes within the text. This is followed by a critical discourse analysis rooted in feminist theory that examines viewers’ reviews of the film

Home away from the home front: the British in the Balkans during the Great War

This thesis is a social history of the British in Serbia, Greece, and what is today Macedonia during the Great War. It explores British wartime experiences by examining their perception of national identity and their attitude towards other nationalities, their relationships and standards of propriety and appearance, aspects of everyday life including recreation, food and drink, the role that events played in forming a communal identity, reactions to and interactions with space and place in Salonika, and their motivations and perceptions of the worth of their work. British people on the Balkan front adapted to their wartime experiences and circumstances with the aid of their cultural background and priorities, existing connections and relationships, their interpretation of their environments, and their sense of duty and accomplishments. Rather than considering or acting as though their wartime experiences were a deviation from their prewar lives, Britons actively integrated these experiences into their everyday lives, and furthermore relied upon their prewar perceptions, connections, and understanding in order to make sense of their wartime lives

Associative learning and thiamine based flavor preference

The current experiment explored the extent to which thiamine deficiency at the time of conditioning is important as well as the importance of thiamine deficiency at the time of testing. This experiment controlled for previous experiments' flaws. Our experiment controlled for the time of thiamine deprivation, whether it was during the time of conditioning or at the time of test. Based on our results, thiamine deficiency did not influence consumption of a flavored solution that had been paired with thiamine. This was true for thiamine deficiency at the time of conditioning pairings and at the time of testing

The ability of an extinguished CS and a CS given conditioned inhibition training to pass tests for inhibition

Conditioned inhibition (CI) is a classical conditioning procedure that results in a conditioned stimulus (CS) that predicts the absence of an unconditioned stimulus (US). A procedure known as Pavlovian conditioned inhibition training is the most common procedure for producing CI. In this procedure, a nontarget CS (CS A) is paired with the US and then CS A is presented with the target CS (CS X) without the US. Therefore, AUS trials and AX-noUS trials are given. CS X acquires inhibitory properties during these AX trials. Research has shown that extinction also produces CI. Extinction occurs when a CS (CS X) is paired with the US during conditioning and then this CS is presented alone without the US. The Rescorla-Wagner model predicts that the two CSs during AX-noUS trials will compete for learning and this should lead to slow and limited learning about those cues (a loss of excitation for CS A and inhibition acquired for CS X) due to this competition. During extinction trials, CS X does not compete for learning, so the subject should learn rapidly about the CS. The following experiments found that extinction produced less inhibition than Pavlovian conditioned inhibition training.Includes bibliographical reference

Evaluating Retirement Planning : The Proper Mix of Investments?

This decision-based case developed from primary sources utilizes disguised names, but actual data to afford students the opportunity to evaluate and suggest changes to a real retirement portfolio. Leon and Billie Reynolds have asked their niece, Stacie, to review their retirement planning. The couple has accumulated just over $1,000,000 in investments with Teachers Insurance Annuity Association (TIAA) and College Retirement Equities Fund (CREF). The case gives the couple’s net worth, current salaries, insights into their spending habits, target retirement ages, family situation, and current allocations of their retirement funds. The case asks students to apply his or her financial planning skills to review the adequacy of the couple’s retirement planning

Factors Influencing Pika Foraging Behavior in the North Cascades National Park Service Complex, Washington

The American pika (Ochotona princeps) is a small lagomorph restricted to talus slopes at higher elevations or latitudes throughout mountainous regions in western North America. Pikas respond to seasonal fluctuations in food availability by haying, i.e., storing, vegetation for use during winter, and are considered a climate change indicator species because of their sensitivity to heat and restricted habitat requirements. Prior to 2009, no data existed on pika populations or foraging behavior in the North Cascades National Park Service Complex (NOCA) in Washington. To help address these data needs, we collected behavioral data on 95 foraging pikas throughout NOCA during summer 2009 and 2010 to better understand abiotic and biotic factors affecting foraging behavior and potential impacts of climate change on pikas. We calculated the proportion of time pikas spent grazing and haying, and developed competing hypotheses for each behavior expressed as logistic regression models consisting of climate, vegetation, elevation, date, and year covariates. We selected top models for both behaviors using information-theoretic techniques, and found that time spent grazing decreased while haying behavior increased through summer. Pikas spent more time haying as elevation increased while time spent grazing was negatively correlated with elevation, suggesting possible constraints in time available for foraging at higher elevations. Time spent grazing was also negatively correlated with temperature, a result likely in response to thermoregulation limitations of pikas. These results demonstrate how multiple factors may affect pika foraging behavior, thereby providing an opportunity to assist resource managers in future decisions regarding pika conservation

A measure of nature connectedness for children and adults: Validation, performance, and insights

With benefits to both human well-being and pro-nature conservation behaviors, nature connectedness is emerging as an important psychological construct for a sustainable future. The growing research and applied and policy-related interests require a straightforward measure of nature connectedness that is suitable for both children and adult populations. To establish the reliability of the new Nature Connection Index (NCI) three factor analyses were conducted. One was based on a large Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment (MENE) dataset for adults (n = 3568) with a replication from data sets collected online (n = 553), and a third used MENE data from children (n = 351). To validate the NCI as a measure for nature connectedness an online comparison study (n = 153) included the NCI alongside other established measures. The results showed that the NCI was a reliable and valid scale that offers a short, simple alternative to other measures of nature connectedness, particularly for populations including both children and adults, measured face to face or online. The utility of the NCI is also supported, with variations associated with various pro-environmental and pro-conservation behaviors observed, and importantly the NCI also revealed changes in nature connectedness across the lifespan.N/