Tragedy and The Vicious: Moral Education in Aristotle’s Poetics and Future Applications to Contemporary Art

This project interprets Aristotle’s Poetics through a morally educative approach. More specifically, expanding on past research of Poetics by individuals such as Isaiah Smithson, this project will examine the affective influence of tragedy on morally unknowing audience members of vicious character types. Through the associations between the sensory experiences incorporated in a tragedy and moral messages portrayed in the plot, the vicious character can begin a process of becoming morally knowing subjects. In others words, this experience with morally charged tragedies can teach vicious characters what is morally good. Moreover, the vicious audience members can learn how what is morally good through the observation and interaction with surrounding audience members. By experiencing the reactions of morally knowing subjects in the audience of the tragedy, the vicious character can passively habituate actions of a higher moral character. This project will also explore the ways in which the moral reexamination of Poetics can aid in the understanding of the morally educative power of contemporary artworks to illuminate the injustices of racism and homophobia

Fixed or flexible: the effect of negative feedback on one\u27s religious identity

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of negative feedback on self-reported religious identity among Christian students. After initially rating themselves on a computer-administered continuous scale ranging from as religious as possible to not at all religious, participants completed a difficult Bible trivia quiz and received negative feedback regarding their performance. The participants were then made to believe that their initial computer ratings had been lost, and were asked to rate themselves a second time. Individuals also completed the Spiritual Involvement and Beliefs Scale and were divided into high and low religiosity groups. Statistical analyses revealed that participants were consistent in their pre- and post-ratings despite the negative feedback on the quiz; low and high religiosity groups were equally consistent. The results therefore suggest that self-reported religiosity is a resilient construct. Given the low level of statistical power of this study, however, more research is needed before more definitive conclusions can be drawn

PUBLIC LIBRARIES ARE ESSENTIAL TO COMMUNITY, AND THE ERASURE OF LIBRARIES WOULD BE DETRIMENTAL

This article demonstrates the importance of public libraries and their collections. Their job descriptions include gathering information and searching for books and resources for the patron’s professional or personal use. Public libraries benefit everyone regardless of who they are, because of the vast free resources offered, hard work put in by the librarian and staff, and therefore should be protected against the threatening competition. &nbsp

The epigenetic regulation of RIZ1 in human leukemia

Cancer has been thought of as a mostly genetic phenomenon, however recent research into epigenetic causes of cancer emphasizes that these causes of cancer are also important. RIZ1 is a tumor suppressor which is silenced in many human leukemias, such as human Acute Myeloid Leukemia and Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia. It was the goal of this thesis to re-express RIZ1 using three epigenetic drugs: decitabine, a DNA methylation inhibitor, Trichostatin A, a histone deacetylase inhibitor and chaetocin, an inhibitor of SUV39h1. Cells were treated with these drugs and analyzed for toxicity, methylation status, and RIZ1 expression levels. The synergy between the drugs was also determined. It was found that cells treated with decitabine and chaetocin had an induction of RIZ1 expression. Chaetocin induced RIZ1 expression without affecting the methylation status of the cell. Also, cells which were treated with decitabine paired with either Trichostatin A or chaetocin showed the highest amount of RIZ1 expression. Cells treated with all three drugs together had a higher amount of RIZ1 expression than cells treated with either drug alone, however had less expression than cells which had been treated with decitabine paired with either Trichostatin A or chaetocin. Using these data a model was developed in which H3K9 methylation is the dominant epigenetic event in transcriptional silencing

The Impacts of Retail Promotions on the Demand for Orange Juice: A Study of a Retail Chain

This study examined the impacts of retail promotions on the demand for five brands of orange juices for a retail chain (referred to as Retailer X) and its competitors using the Rotterdam model. Results show that the combination of feature ads and displays had the largest impacts on retail revenue among the four promotional tactics considered, while temporary price reductions had no additional advertising impacts other than price impacts on retail revenues. Results also show that when Retailer X promotes an OJ brand using any of the tactics studied, a larger portion of the increased demand for the promoted brand came from reduced demand for other brands of OJ in the same store and a smaller portion came from the decreased demand in competing stores in the same trading area.Demand and Price Analysis, Marketing,

Religious Orientation and the Affective Modulation of the Startle Response

The current study integrated research on one's religious orientation (Allport, 1966; Allport & Ross, 1967) and the affective modulation of the startle response, specifically motivational priming theory (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 1990). The primary goal was to differentiate between individuals in four religious orientation groups using their autonomic responses to religious images. A secondary aim was to improve upon current protocol for classifying individuals into religious orientations. Autonomic data were collected first using the Affective Modulation of the Startle Response task, followed by participants' conscious ratings of the images using the Self-Assessment Manikin (Bradley & Lang, 1994). Finally, in counterbalanced order, participants completed a standard measure of religious orientation: the Intrinsic/Extrinsic-Revised Scale (Gorsuch & McPherson, 1989), the Religious Orientation Vignettes (designed to improve upon the current methodology), and a Religious Affiliation and Behaviors questionnaire. Data were analyzed using Observation Oriented Modeling (Grice, 2011). The pattern predicted under motivational priming theory (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 1990) was not found in the autonomic data. As a result, the four religious orientation groups could only be differentiated using the conscious ratings. The intrinsic group responded most favorably to the religious images, followed closely by the extrinsic and indiscriminate groups. The nonreligious group responded least favorably. A pattern analysis revealed a 71% overlap between the standard method of using median splits (Hood, 1970) on the Intinsic/Extrinsic-Revised Scale (Gorsuch & McPherson, 1989) and the Religious Orientation Vignettes in the classification of individuals into religious orientation groups. It is suggested that the Religious Orientation Vignettes provide a more straightforward, theoretically sound method of classification than the Intrinsic/Extrinsic-Revised Scale for all four religious orientations, especially the nonreligious group.Department of Psycholog