Girls coming of age: possibilites and potentials within young adult literature

Although the primary purpose of the adolescent novel may appear to be a depiction of growth, growth in this genre is inevitably represented as being linked to what the adolescent has learned about power. Without experiences gradations between power and powerlessness, the adolescent cannot grow (Seelinger-Trites, x). The quote above asserts that an analysis of power must be considered when analyzing young adult literature. Rebecca Seelinger-Trites further explains that adolescents (in society and in literature) are both powerful and disempowered. Coming of age presents an opportunity to grow toward adulthood and gain certain power and privileges, while simultaneously losing certain power and privileges. We judge our adulthood as well as that of others in reference to institutions and practices, mentalities, worldviews, and sensibilities that are quasi outside of ourself\u27 (Blatterer,2). But who defines these practices and what makes them necessary? In addition to examining powerful social structures that affect character\u27 sexperiences, in this thesis, I am gendering this analysis by examining how the young female protagonists explore their own power through acts of resilience and resistance, and how young female readers respond to this exploration. I begin to answer questions such as, how does gendering this project change the kinds of power utilized? Does it? How do female characters resist oppressive power? What does a female coming of age story look like? How diverse are the voices present in young adult literature? What does empowerment and transformation mean to these characters? I argue that young adult literature is an important space within feminist scholarship and critique. I argue that empowerment and transformation must be discussed when examining young female protagonist\u27s experiences. In addition, after an extensive literature review, I selected five books with young female protagonists to examine specifically. The books I have selected to analyze are Dangerous Angels by Francesca Lia Block, Lost at Sea by Brian Lee O\u27Malley, Story ofa Girl by Sara Zarr, A Girl Like eke Guevara by Teresa de la Caridad Doval and Keeping You A Secret by Julie Anne Peters. I think these books exemplify the trans formative power of young adult literature through their characterization of three dimensional and complex young female protagonists. Finally, I utilized this research to create a proposed thematic unit lesson for a girl\u27s leadership camp or afterschool program. The program is entitled, Empowerment and Identity Exploration: Young Adult Literature & Creative Expression. Utilizing the five books (Dangerous Angels, Lost at Sea, Story ofa Girl, A Girl Like Che Guevera, and Keeping You a Secret) as a point of departure, students in this program will focus on the major themes in the books: girls\u27 coming of age experiences, friendship, bullying and harassment, identity, race, class, etc. In doing so, they will connect their own life experiences to the experiences of the five young female protagonists through a creative project ofjournaiing, zine making, spoken word or creating an art work of their choice

Effects of an Early Handling-Like Procedure and Individual Housing on Anxiety-Like Behavior in Adult C57BL/6J and DBA/2J Mice

Manipulations of rearing conditions have been used to examine the effects of early experience on adult behavior with varying results. Evidence suggests that postnatal days (PND) 15–21 are a time of particular susceptibility to environmental influences on anxiety-like behavior in mice. To examine this, we subjected C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice to an early handling-like procedure. Pups were separated from dams from PND 12–20 for 30 minutes daily or received standard care. On PND 21, pups were weaned and either individually- or group- housed. On PND 60, anxiety-like behavior was examined on the elevated zero-maze. Although individually- housed animals took longer to enter an open quadrant of the maze, they spent more time in the open than group-housed animals. Additionally, we observed a trend of reduced anxiety-like behavior in C57BL/6J, but not DBA/2J mice that underwent the handling-like procedure

Paramedic assessment of pain in the cognitively impaired adult patient

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Paramedics are often a first point of contact for people experiencing pain in the community. Wherever possible the patient's self report of pain should be sought to guide the assessment and management of this complaint. Communication difficulty or disability such as cognitive impairment associated with dementia may limit the patient's ability to report their pain experience, and this has the potential to affect the quality of care. The primary objective of this study was to systematically locate evidence relating to the use of pain assessment tools that have been validated for use with cognitively impaired adults and to identify those that have been recommended for use by paramedics.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A systematic search of health databases for evidence relating to the use of pain assessment tools that have been validated for use with cognitively impaired adults was undertaken using specific search criteria. An extended search included position statements and clinical practice guidelines developed by health agencies to identify evidence-based recommendations regarding pain assessment in older adults.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Two systematic reviews met study inclusion criteria. Weaknesses in tools evaluated by these studies limited their application in assessing pain in the population of interest. Only one tool was designed to assess pain in acute care settings. No tools were located that are designed for paramedic use.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The reviews of pain assessment tools found that the majority were developed to assess chronic pain in aged care, hospital or hospice settings. An analysis of the characteristics of these pain assessment tools identified attributes that may limit their use in paramedic practice. One tool - the Abbey Pain Scale - may have application in paramedic assessment of pain, but clinical evaluation is required to validate this tool in the paramedic practice setting. Further research is recommended to evaluate the Abbey Pain Scale and to evaluate the effectiveness of paramedic pain management practice in older adults to ensure that the care of all patients is unaffected by age or disability.</p

Aqueous alteration processes in Jezero crater, Mars—implications for organic geochemistry

The Perseverance rover landed in Jezero crater, Mars, in February 2021. We used the Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC) instrument to perform deep-ultraviolet Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy of three rocks within the crater. We identify evidence for two distinct ancient aqueous environments at different times. Reactions with liquid water formed carbonates in an olivine-rich igneous rock. A sulfate-perchlorate mixture is present in the rocks, which probably formed by later modifications of the rocks by brine. Fluorescence signatures consistent with aromatic organic compounds occur throughout these rocks and are preserved in minerals related to both aqueous environments

Remanufacturing and consumers' risky choices: Behavioral modeling and the role of ambiguity aversion

Willingness to pay (WTP) is known to be lower for remanufactured products than for comparable new products. Normative work to date has assumed that a consumer\u27s WTP for a remanufactured product is a fraction, called discount factor, of the consumer\u27s WTP for a corresponding new product, and that this discount factor is constant across consumers. Recent empirical research demonstrates, however, that the discount factor is not constant across consumers. This discovery has led researchers to call for an exploration of more refined utility models that incorporate heterogeneous risk preferences through elements such as risk aversion, loss aversion, and ambiguity aversion. To address this call, this manuscript assesses each of these risk preference elements by empirically deriving WTP distributions from two interlinked studies. To provide triangulation in both the empirical method and sample, the interlinked studies employ an online survey and a laboratory experiment that elicits WTP for framed lotteries that proxy the situation of buying remanufactured products. The empirical results and robustness verifications demonstrate that a parsimonious standard utility model incorporating only risk aversion explains the WTP data reasonably well