Hell On Earth: A Modern Day Inferno in Cormac McCarthy\u27s The Road

Cormac McCarthy\u27s The Road and Dante\u27s the Inferno contain textual and thematic comparisons. While the Inferno creates a world that exhibits the worst fears of the medieval Catholic subconscious of Dante\u27s time, The Road paints a world of the darkest fears of the current American subconscious. Both texts reflect a critical dystopia that speculates on human spirituality and offers a critique of society through a tour of sin and suffering in a desolate setting

Financial Efficiency In the Nonprofit Sector: An Analysis of Factors Affecting Expense Ratios of Kentucky Nonprofits

Statement of Problem Recent events in both the public and private sectors have lead to an environment of mistrust and caution surrounding the way organizations are managed and funds are handled. For the nonprofit sector, this has led to an emergence of charity rating or watchdog organizations and increased scrutiny of finances. Individual donors, charity rating agencies, and funding institutions have begun using expense ratios as a measure of financial efficiency. Decisions on the financial efficiency of organizations are being made without a good understanding of what factors affect these ratios. Research Questions The purpose of this paper is to answer the following questions: Do regional and organizational characteristics affect nonprofit administrative expense ratios? Do regional and organizational characteristics affect nonprofit fundraising expense ratios? Methodology A simple random sample (n=200) was conducted of nonprofit organizations within Kentucky filing IRS Form 990 Returns in the 2000 tax year. The data were analyzed using Intercool Stata 8 to calculate frequency distributions, summary statistics, a correlation matrix, and multiple regressions. Results The analysis found the age of an organization and six National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities categories to be statistically significant in affecting change in administrative expense ratios. The regression model as a whole was significant at the 95% confidence level and explained 19% of variation in the dependent variable. The analysis found no variables statistically significant in affecting change in fundraising expense ratios. The model itself was not statistically significant and explained only 5% of variance in the dependent variable. Conclusion and Recommendations From this analysis it is concluded that further research is needed to understand what factors affect expense ratios and the financial efficiency of nonprofit organizations. It is recommended for future studies that: (1) a larger sample size be used, (2) less aggregated data (county demographics instead of region) be used to increase statistical power, (3) a stratified random sample be used in order to better represent counties/regions that have fewer nonprofit organizations, and (4) variables be included in the regression model that capture characteristics internal to an organization

Exploring the Needs and Preferences for a Diabetes Self-Management Program in Hispanics Living in the Central Valley of California

Diabetes mellitus type 2 is an ever increasing threat to the health of people living in the United States, especially those of Hispanic ethnicity. This ethnic group is disproportionately afflicted with the chronic condition and is also more likely than non-Hispanic whites to suffer from serious complications of diabetes. This project examines this growing problem among Hispanics living in the Central Valley of California by exploring how best to structure diabetes self-management education in a network of community health centers. The Social Cognitive Theory provides a theoretical basis for investigation into motivation for diabetes self-management. This needs assessment specifically explored data on barriers to diabetes care, patient education preferences, and existing diabetes knowledge by asking subjects to complete two low-literacy bilingual surveys. Ninety-four completed survey packets from two health center locations were received. Data analysis revealed that the sample was relatively homogenous demographically. Education preferences showed strong support for individual education sessions with certified diabetes educators or patients’ regular medical providers, preferably Hispanic individuals. The need for diabetes education is supported by an average score of roughly 50% correct on the diabetes knowledge surveys. Recommendations resulting from this data center on utilizing diabetes educators within the health centers

GESTURE AND THE AUDITORY IMPACT ON THE PERCEPTION OF SOUND: A PERFORMANCE GUIDE FOR UNDERSTANDING GESTURAL FUNCTION ON PERCUSSION PEDAGOGY AND PERFORMANCE

I will address the concept of physical gestures and discuss how they are applicable to the way percussionists visually and audibly perceive music. Through my research, I will focus on performance and pedagogy, seeking new possibilities for introducing percussionists at all ability levels to different articulations. Percussionists have traditionally been led to believe that they do not have the versatility over the initial musical attack and sustain that wind and string players do. This document has been developed to provide a more in-depth approach to how physical and musical gestures can function to create a more versatile and musical percussionist. This project will discuss both musical and physical gestures and the current research behind them, as well as a spectromorphology, a method developed by Dennis Smalley to analyze graphic notation from computer-generated scores. By applying spectromorphology to percussion scores, I will examine how musical gestures are present in solo and ensemble literature, and I will offer suggestions on how to effectively apply these findings to methods of study and performance. This project concludes with a thorough breakdown of standard articulations across marimba/mallet instruments, snare drum, and timpani and provides suggestions on how to functionally utilize gestures for these articulations while offering graphs for each category that highlight the focal points for continued use