Irrevocable Change Research Articles

Influenze digitali sull’albo illustrato: metamorfosi artistiche e sfide di “iper-lettura”

The influence of electronic and digital codes on children's literature represents one of the most interesting aspects of the artistic and literary productions of the last decades. Signs of the profound and irrevocable change that has taken place in children’s literature and in the ecosystem to be read of the electronic age are particular picturebooks, which reflect how even the printed book has drawn from the multilinear structures of the digital and from the expressive codes of the screens. In the context of this cultural mutation, the present contribution explores two illustrated books representative of the media technology mutation and integration, which, on the one hand, maintain the stability of reading on a traditional printed book, on the other, they contain the challenges of a "hyper-reading" experience.

Development and Validation of the Digital Life Balance (DLB) Scale: A Brand-New Measure for Both Harmonic and Disharmonic Use of ICTs.

The use of new technologies and information communication technology services (ICTs) has greatly increased, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in an irrevocable change in people's work-life balance (WLB). Despite the thriving literature on the dysfunctional use of new technologies, a functional use of ICTs also seems to be possible. Inspired by the theory of psychology of harmony and referring to behavioral addiction models and substance use models, we defined the construct of digital life balance to indicate a harmonic balance between digital life and real life. In this context, the imbalance between online and offline life may reflect a dysfunctional use of ICTs and can be seen as a process of disharmonization. With this perspective in mind, the aim of this study was to develop a dedicated measuring instrument that could capture both people's balanced and unbalanced use of ICTs. Through two cross-sectional studies (Study 1= 1473 participants; Study 2 = 953 participants), we validated the scale internally and externally. In line with the literature, Digital Life Balance scores appeared to be negatively associated with addiction measures and positively associated with well-being measures. In conclusion, the Digital Life Balance (DLB) Scale appears to be a reliable (ω = 0.89) and valid instrument to investigate people's harmonic and disharmonic use of ICTs.

Unmasking Intimacies of Death and Dying

This article was written during the early days of quarantine (circa Spring 2020) as a direct response to the concerns I and other disability justice advocates, and I began to feel around the treatment of disabled people amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Chief among these concerns was the killing and letting die of disabled folx, as well as other "expendable" persons, such as frontline workers. Grounded in a radical approach to disability justice, below I analyze the constructions of death, dying, and personhood during the start of the global pandemic through the lens of “bare life” and the “state of exception". Drawing on these concepts, I examine the Canadian state’s response to sickness as an invocation of catastrophe politics, something, which I argue, has led to an irrevocable change in how the deaths of marginalized populations, especially disabled folx, may be justified as inevitable, despite being completely preventable. These attitudes, which allow us to accept death for some and not for others, are another form of normalizing the culling down of life through state-sanctioned control. I thus conclude that COVID-19 has proven to be a state exercise in violence against “expendable” populations.

The Archaeology of the Convict Probation System: The Labor Landscapes of Port Arthur and the Cascades Probation Station, 1839–55

In the British colony of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania, Australia) the period 1839-53 witnessed an irrevocable change in the way in which prisoners (convicts) were managed. Known as the “probation system”, its introduction saw convicts newly transported from the corners of the Empire sequestered in government-run stations across the colony’s length and breadth. At these places, rigorous and uncompromising discipline, classificatory regimes, religious inculcation and trades-training would see the convict molded into working stock for the colony. In reality, such ideologies were to be undone by reactive planning, miscommunication and chronic under-resourcing, as well as helplessly undermined by unforeseen economic and political circumstances. Condemned as a failure, probation has nonetheless left an indelible mark on Tasmania’s landscape. A system only implemented in Van Diemen’s Land and Norfolk Island, it can rightfully claim a significance that extends well beyond these islands’ shores, playing a critical role in Britain’s globe-spanning penological enterprise. In this paper, we chart the course of probation, simultaneously outlining a framework for engaging with these landscapes where penology and labor was so closely intertwined. It will be illustrated with two examples drawn from the Tasman Peninsula: the Port Arthur penal station (1830-77) and Cascades probation station (1842-55). Using archeological and historical enquiry, the different impacts that probation had upon the penological and labor management of these places are examined, providing examples of how the significant landscapes of the probation-era can be examined.

ЭДВАРДИАНСКИЙ КОД В АНГЛИЙСКОЙ ПРОЗЕ ХХI ВЕКА

The article considers the references of modern authors to the traditions of Edwardianism. This period can be characterized as a vibrant cultural era, with writers who were determined to break away from the stifling influence of preceding Victorian literature and provided the cultural foundation for the coming century. The ‘Edwardian code’ fully developed in literature of the interwar decades (1920s–1930s) and revived in the early 21 st century. It includes such elements as the image of the manor house, the motifs of Arts & Crafts movement, the theme of childhood and associated themes of the English fairy tale, which went through its ‘golden age’ in the abovenamed period. The code also comprises motifs of social change and other related issues. All parts of the Edwardian code are found in A. Byatt’s novel Childhood`s Book (2009). The novel covers the period from 1895 to the end of the Great War. It represents a tangle of many fates, each of which is concerned with the conflicts of the era and the general atmosphere of the Edwardian time. The characters are united by the desire to formulate a clear goal of their existence and specific personal qualities determined by the artistry of the era. In the 21st century, the ‘Edwardian code’ is found in non-fiction literature, in TV series and in the aspiration of the national consciousness to the value orientations of Edwardianism. A typical example is J. Nicolson’s The Perfect Summer: England 1911, Just Before the Storm (2008). The Perfect Summer chronicles a glorious English summer a century ago, when the world was on the cusp of irrevocable change. Through the tight lens of four months, Juliet Nicolson’s rich storytelling gift rivets us with the sights, colors, and feelings of the bygone era. This book is a vividly rendered glimpse of the twilight of the Edwardian era. The commercial success of the novels with the Edwardian code reflects the interest of the reading public to it. The goal-setting required in this code and its distinct axiology evidence the over­coming of postmodern moral relativism. The author of the paper makes an assumption about the formation of ‘Neo-Edwardianism’ in the modern culture of Great Britain.

Philosophie als Literatur bei Nietzsche, Deleuze und Borges

The interweavement of philosophy and literature allows to gain a new sense from the own, lived experiences and to express them through narrations, as the paradigmatic works of Nietzsche, Deleuze and Borges show. They all deal with the inexorability of time and the fact of being at the mercy of the unwanted aspects of Being-in-the-world, the detailed reading of which allows us to assert that the event of the emergence of a new sense lies in the experience of the creative power of the instant, wherein the difference is introduced as the first principle through a Copernican turn and where the eternity expresses itself. In fact, the instant in its repetition results from a strike of chance, an assumption which leads to a new understanding not only of time as a network of destinies, but of eternity as extensive, intensive or ecstatic eternity. Being involved in this experience means to undergo an existential experience of time which produces an irrevocable change of the self.

Rupture and renewal in the Polynesian iconoclasm Sissons, Jeffrey (2014) The Polynesian Iconoclasm: Religious Revolution and the Seasonality of Power. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 160 pp, USD85.00, hbk, ISBN: 9781782384137.

Rupture and renewal in the Polynesian iconoclasm Sissons, Jeffrey (2014) The Polynesian Iconoclasm: Religious Revolution and the Seasonality of Power. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 160 pp, USD85.00, hbk, ISBN: 9781782384137.

COMPARISON OF VARIOUS FILTERING TECHNIQUES USED FOR REMOVING HIGH FREQUENCY NOISE IN ECG SIGNAL

About 8.8 million males and 6.6 million females alive today have been affected by Coronary Heart Disease (CHD). Of these 5.0 million males and 2.6 million females have been diagnosed with Myocardial Infarction (MI), according to the statistics updated by the American Heart Association (AHA) in 2013 [1]. Early diagnosis and appropriate treatment of CHD is essential to minify the mortality rate due to CHD.This accentuates the need for an accurate and reliable equipment for monitoring the health conditions of hearts of human beings to treat the disease in advance before it brings about an irrevocable change in their body. One of the equipment’s used for this purpose is an Electrocardiograph, and the acquired signal is called an ECG signal. The acquisition process of this signal is hindered by a number of artifacts and removal of these artifacts is of paramount importance before the ECG signal could be used for disease diagnosis purpose.

Nuclear bombs and economic sanctions

We examine the efficacy of trade sanctions when a target's action causes an irrevocable change in the status quo; for example, sanctions to stop a target's nuclear weapons development program. We find that when a sanctioning country cannot precommit to maintain sanctions long after a target becomes a nuclear power, sanctions are not only inefficacious but they backfire, spurring a target to intensify its effort to complete the nuclear program. If the nuclear program has several stages to complete, gradually increasing sanctions as the nuclear threat becomes more imminent may also backfire even though the program is potentially stoppable when sufficient pressure is applied earlier on. We also discuss the policy implications of our analysis.

Teaching nontraditional adult students: adult learning theories in practice

As the USA experiences rapid growth of nontraditional adult students in higher education, educators and institutions will increasingly need to look beyond the traditional youth-centric educational models to better address adult learning needs. To date, no research has been conducted examining the learning experiences of adult students enrolled in a disciplinary course that was built upon core principles of adult learning. Ten adult students (mean age = 45.4 years), enrolled in an American university with a college dedicated to adult students, were interviewed to assess their learning experiences and felt impact after completing a psychology course created upon adult learning principles. Findings revealed that students progressed through a five-themed model that challenged their pre-existing meaning structures, caused emotional and cognitive disequilibrium, and pushed them toward irrevocable change.

Editors’ Page

1 EDITORS’ PAGE I n fiction, we like to watch people work their way through difficult situations, and so writers create interesting characters —sometimes likeable, sometimes not, sometimes a little of both—and place them in trying circumstances or, as others have described it, visit trouble upon them. It’s one thing, though, for people to struggle with each other in private, and quite another when they must do so in the company of others. The characters in this issue’s fiction—a section we could call “On Our Best Worst Behavior”—find themselves having to work things out while they are guests and hosts. In Andrea Dupree’s “Lineage,” Roger and Claire, off on the wrong foot with their hosts from the very start, attempt to reconnect with each other through the strain of illness, infants, and infidelity, while trying to be gracious guests on their friends’ French estate. Ben and Phoebe, exploring the new contours of sobriety and trying to combat Phoebe’s chronic depression, must reckon with a lie she tells at a dinner party—and ultimately with the difference in their capacities for happiness—in Antonya Nelson’s “Funny Once.” On a road trip with his charming father and stiff, older cousin visiting from Germany, the narrator of Charles Haverty’s “Tribes” begins to see the cracks in his father’s integrity and, reacting to them, suffers his cousin’s searing reproach. And in Heidi Diehl’s “Weisshorn,” a resentful daughter, the guest of her stepfamily in Switzerland, longs to confront her elderly mother about their contentious relationship. In nonfiction, we have two essays that address similar phenomena : the accrual of choices and actions, one thing leading to another and resulting in some kind of irrevocable change. In “Landslide,” Regina Drexler recounts the story of a friendship and a series of circumstances and misunderstandings that bring about devastating consequences for nearly everyone involved. Contributing editor Charles Baxter’s personal/ craft essay “Undoings” examines that moment in a plot when colorado review 2 everything changes, what he calls “the one-way-gate action”; it is a moment, he writes, “when characters . . . cannot get back to the place where they started from because the actions have changed the fundamental situation.” It is probably, and unfortunately, a moment we all recognize from our own lives, our own narratives. But what better season to encounter these pieces than spring, a time of renewal, of starting over. —sg • • • Deep in this winter of electoral discontent, amid the din and barrenness of old, old voices, we are more than usually eager for new sounds and for the music of an unabashed, uncompromised elsewhere. Among the poets we’ve gathered for this spring issue, Elsewhere is wonderfully announced. In the carnelian outcry of Gillian Cummings, in the flexions and bangings of Ann Douglas ’s blessed crow, in the brash “wind/flattening the cattails” through Jacques J. Rancourt’s “The Taking of the Earth,” we hear fresh sounds beyond our deserving. As we listen, we may begin to imagine honor, and the warmth of honor, once again. —donald revell ...

Head cases

Michael Paul Mason is a brain-injury case manager at the Brookhaven Hospital Neurologic Rehabilitation Institute in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In Head cases, he provides a very useful commentary on the outcome of brain injury that should be considered by patients and their families, health-care professionals and administrators, and those responsible for public policy on health-care delivery. Drawing on the author’s professional experience, Head cases is essentially a personal narrative organized into a series of patient vignettes. Each chapter focuses on the outcome of a patient’s brain injury, both in terms of the specific medical impairment and of the consequences this has for the patient’s ability to continue with life. Typically, postinjury life is impaired and differs substantially from the patient’s preinjury lifestyle. However, there are some poignant examples in which good may arise from the outcome, which helps to illustrate the complex and individual nature of brain injuries. There is a suitably broad representation of the range and severity of brain injuries and the long-term impact these have on patients and their loved ones. In an early chapter, Mason successfully introduces the basic neurobiology and neuropsychology underlying the vast range of outcomes that can result from a momentary and localized brain injury. The term brain insult is used to define the point of injury, and Mason explores the extended meaning of this term with regard to the consequences that the patient must live with following this pivotal event. Examples are given of injury resulting in severe seizures, memory loss, aggression, dissociative fugue state, and cognitive impairment. There is a particularly enlightening example of locked-in syndrome, a condition in which a patient is awake and aware but unable to move or communicate due to complete paralysis of nearly all voluntary muscles in the body. Pathology-derived injury is also addressed through examples of brain tumors and viral infection. A chapter describing brain injury and the consequences of posttraumatic stress disorder in Iraq War veterans is particularly moving and conveys the urgent need for rational reform of rehabilitation policy, as one considers the long-term care requirements of the injured, both military and civilian. What makes Head cases significant is not that the author has these experiences to relate but that he achieves a consistent and well-developed narrative that ties these individual stories into a comprehensive commentary on our ability to care for and accommodate these most vulnerable members of our society. The text is well written, reflecting an engaging style with strong and precise narrative construction distilling each vignette into a powerful, self-contained message that leaves the reader pausing to reflect. Classical references, philosophical musings, and discussion of the separation of mind and brain serve the author’s purpose of humanizing the brain-injury patient. As the author states in conclusion, “Their brains have undergone irrevocable change, but their humanity abides.” Head cases is not a call to action, but rather a call to understanding. Mason compels us to consider whether the current state of care for these patients is appropriate, without forcing a specific policy upon the reader. Brain injury may not always respond to rehabilitation, and long-term personalized care may be needed. Thus, this patient group, perhaps more than any other, illustrates that there is no single treatment plan or health-care policy that will meet the needs of all patients. Health-care professionals and administrators may find some of the matter-of-fact observations uncomfortable at times. But the real obstacle to progress identified in this book is the neglect of long-term care of brain-injury patients engendered by inadequate policies and insufficient resources. Unfortunately, the patchwork or absent provisions in many states are consistent with many aspects of health-care delivery in the US. One chapter tells the compelling story of a patient with a poor care outcome due to living on the wrong side of a state boundary. Empathy may be rekindled in reading, but policy change requires more dispassionate measurements to effect systematic change. There is a need to fund and conduct careful studies documenting the benefits and success rates of the longer and more intensive patient-tailored rehabilitative processes advocated in this book. Such data are needed to truly influence policy, and this book will have made an important contribution if it encourages such studies. Head cases is compelling reading and will bring needed information and a sense of community and realism to brain-injury patients and their families. However, it also provides a valuable commentary on the health-care field and should be read by those in a position to influence public policy on rehabilitation programs. For the research community, Mason presents a humbling realization of how difficult the challenge of neurological restoration is while underscoring how important it is to pursue.

Rover (review)

Reviewed by: Rover April Spisak French, Jackie Rover. HarperCollins, 2007283p Library ed. ISBN 0-06-085079-5$17.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-085078-7$16.99 R Gr. 6-8 Though Hekja knows her family is poor, she is quite happy at home with her mother and their new puppy, a rejected runt whose name, Mighty Rover, belies his current size and status. Ships on the horizon bring horror and irrevocable change for Hekja and her village, however, when invading Vikings rob and murder everyone she loves. Hekja is taken on as a slave for Freydis, Erik the Red's daughter, and she quickly adapts to her new life and her new surroundings, though she never stops imagining ways to escape. She is fortunate indeed to still have Rover as her constant companion, after inspiring enough sympathy and admiration (Hekja is as daring, outspoken, and brilliant as her new mistress) to have been granted ownership of him. Ultimately, Hekja and Freydis form a close bond that helps both as they explore new lands, battle for recognition and survival, and, ultimately, each find a peace of sorts for their lives. Even with a large cast, French has created compelling, fully realized characters that surround the richly developed Hekja, whose defiance plays out in realistic ways given the Viking setting (the author admirably avoids creating Hekja as a twenty-first-century girl squashed into a historical fiction). In addition, the haunting setting, recalling Nancy Farmer's Sea of Trolls (BCCB 11/04), is mainly drawn out of real geographical and historical details of eleventh-century Scotland, Greenland, and Iceland; a map, author's note, and occasional footnotes will help readers sort out fact from fiction and may inspire further interest. A girl and her dog against an entire world is compelling enough, and the fact that readers get a brief update on her adult life makes this an irresistibly well-crafted historical fiction that is also a powerful coming-of-age novel as Hekja grows into a woman who, even in situations that are often troubling, complex, or grim, seeks love and beauty. Copyright © 2007 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Bush Tucker, Bush Pets, and Bush Threats: Cooperative Management of Feral Animals in Australia's Kakadu National Park

Abstract: Although feral animal management is often based on the proposition that introduced species threaten ecological and conservation values, that view is not necessarily shared by all stakeholders, including those indigenous people who own and co‐manage Kakadu National Park with Australia's federal government. Drawing on field‐based interviews with the Jawoyn people, we found that these indigenous people categorize water buffalo ( Bubalus bubalis) as an important food source (tucker), view horses ( Equus caballus) as bush pets, and consider pigs ( Sus scrofa) a threat to their lands. As a result, Jawoyn people want more water buffalo in the park, have high tolerance of environmental damage caused by horses, and are open to the idea that pig population densities should be reduced. Jawoyn also advocate an adaptive and participatory approach to feral animal control so that the consequences of any management actions can be properly understood before irrevocable change occurs. These findings highlight one example of how indigenous people's ecological knowledge has adapted in response to changing landscapes and community aspirations. Co‐management strategies that aim to incorporate the dynamics of indigenous people's views need to start with issues on which there is agreement between different groups and take a cautious approach to joint exploration of more contentious issues. That approach should include ongoing and on‐site monitoring so that the consequences of management actions can be properly understood and comprehensively negotiated by all parties.

Transfer pricing as strategic planning tool for multinational enterprises in a post-isolation South Africa

Political and trade liberalisation leads to irrevocable change, exposing South Africa to the demands of the dynamic global market, driven by a deluge of competitive forces, demanding world-class, global competitiveness. The challenge facing South African organisations is to successfully transform in an economy undergoing structural change, moving away from import substitution to global competitiveness. Historically, stringent exchange controls prevented profits to emigrate from South Africa. Trade liberalisation necessitates the introduction of transfer pricing legislation to protect the national tax base. Application of transfer pricing in practice is complex, information constraints compel the use of foreign comparables in determining a reward consistent with the arm's length standard, challenging objectiveness and risk adjustment. Strategic opportunities exist if transfer pricing is not entrenched in national regulation compliance.

Deciding when to forget in the Elephant file system

Modern file systems associate the deletion of a file with the immediate release of storage, and file writes with the irrevocable change of file contents. We argue that this behavior is a relic of the past, when disk storage was a scarce resource. Today, large cheap disks make it possible for the file system to protect valuable data from accidental delete or overwrite.This paper describes the design, implementation, and performance of the Elephant file system, which automatically retains all important versions of user files. Users name previous file versions by combining a traditional pathname with a time when the desired version of a file or directory existed. Storage in Elephant is managed by the system using file-grain user-specified retention policies. This approach contrasts with checkpointing file systems such as Plan-9, AFS, and WAFL that periodically generate efficient checkpoints of entire file systems and thus restrict retention to be guided by a single policy for all files within that file system.Elephant is implemented as a new Virtual File System in the FreeBSD kernel.

The Snow Lion and the Dragon: China, Tibet, and the Dalai Lama (review)

122 China Review International: Vol. 6, No. i, Spring 1999 ship makes threatening statements or when American intelligence detects any possible PLA preparation for the use offorce in the Taiwan Strait. John Garver is to be commended for producing an excellent in-depth analysis of the 1996 crisis. Academicians, policy makers, and the general public will enjoy reading this book as it illuminates the impact of the political dynamics on foreign policy decisions within China, the United States, and Taiwan that gave rise to the 1996 crisis. Garver differentiates between Chinese "anti-hegemonist conservatives " and the "realpolitik mainstream" and shows not only that the PRC leadership is not monolithic, but that whatever point ofview prevails in Beijing is of enormous consequence. Moreover, Garver also raises thought-provoking policy issues with regard to China and Taiwan, challenging American policy makers to define U.S. policy interests in Taiwan clearly and think through the problem of how to cope with a rising China. Parris H. Chang Pennsylvania State University Parris H. Chang is a professor emeritus ofpolitical science and President ofthe Taiwan Institute ofPolitical, Economic and Strategic Studies, and concurrently a member ofTaiwan's Legislative Yuan (Parliament). mm Melvyn C. Goldstein. The Snow Lion and the Dragon: China, Tibet, and the Dalai Lama. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1997. xiii, 152 pp. Hardcover $19.95, ISBN 520-21254-1. In recent years the Tibet Question, that is, the issue ofthe political status ofTibet vis-à-vis China, has emerged at the forefront ofAmerican culture and politics. Both specialists and novices interested in this issue, as well as watchers ofcontemporary China, will find Melvyn Goldstein's The Snow Lion and the Dragon an invaluable, but not incontrovertible, resource. In this concise monograph Goldstein skillfully explains the history ofthe Tibet Question, critically analyzes the contemporary motivations and intentions ofkey figures in both Beijing and Dharamsala, and boldly offers a peaceful solution to a question that has plagued 1 " China's internal and external relations, brought undue suffering to all Tibetans, and is threatening Tibetan culture with irrevocable change. By dividing the body ofhis text into discrete sections, Goldstein suggests that Sino-Tibetan relations have existed in five distinct forms. In section one, "The ofHawai'i Press Reviews 123 Imperial Era" (which he leaves undefined), Goldstein asserts that "Tibet was in no way subordinate to China," and that "each was a distinct and independent political entity" (p. 1). While this assertion is generally accurate, substantial evidence exists suggesting some degree ofpolitical suzerainty over Tibet by the Mongols and the Manchus, two non-Han ethnic groups who maintained dynastic rule over China. Striving to present history in a fair and balanced manner, Goldstein qualifies his broad assertion by discussing this suzerainty in terms of a system of "passive hegemony" that was created by Qing (Manchu) emperors to exert their influence in Tibet, while also emphasizing that actual Chinese influence there varied dramatically during the Qing dynasty (1644-1912). Having dealt in great depth with Tibet's period of de facto independence from China following the fall of the Qing elsewhere,1 Goldstein briefly summarizes in section two die crucial period from 1912 to 1949 during which Tibet managed its affairs free from any Chinese influence. Here Goldstein highlights the importance of the failed Simla Convention in shaping our contemporary understanding of the Tibet Question as a conflict over the de jure political status of Tibet vis-à-vis China, as well as the development ofthe "bad-friend syndrome" between Tibet and various Western powers. In his discussion ofthe third phase of Sino-Tibetan relations, Goldstein cogently analyzes the circumstances surrounding the development ofthe first formal written agreement between China and Tibet acknowledging the sovereignly of the former over the latter—the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation ofTibet. In so doing he dispels the common misunderstanding in the West that radical Maoist reforms began in Tibet immediately following the signing ofthis agreement by pointing out that Mao, at least initially, adopted a policy of "gradualism" with regard to reform in Tibet. Moreover, Goldstein lucidly shows how the failure of this policy was due both to overzealous Chinese socialist reformers and competing forces in...

Call School: Rural Education in the Midwest to 1918

Paul Theobald chronicles the history of the one-room country schools that were spread throughout the rural Midwest during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.Focusing on the region s educational history in light of the religious, economic, and political atmosphere, Theobald explores the tight connection between educational preferences and religious views, between the economics of the countryside and the educational experiences of children, and between the politics of local power and the educational prospects of the powerless.Basing his study on extensive archival research, including findings from eight midwestern states, Theobald neither condemns nor lauds the one-room school experience. Providing an objective evaluation, he examines rural school records, correspondence of early school officers, contemporary texts, and diaries and letters of rural students and teachers.As he weaves together a contextualized account of the circumstances surrounding and within the one-room country schools of the Midwest, Theobald stresses that religion was of primary importance in nineteenth-century American life. Yet he also looks carefully at the shifting economic environment at work in the countryside, particularly in regard to the development of widespread farm tenancy and the consolidation of agricultural and related industries. He challenges readers to analyze how a national move from an agrarian to an industrial view caused conflict and confusion, thereby introducing irrevocable change into rural American life.Theobald s study illuminates the history of education on the plains and sheds light on the social foundations of the period.

The (R)Evolution of my Epistemology: my experience as a postgraduate research student

ABSTRACT This paper describes my experience as a postgraduate student undertaking a research study towards a Master of Science degree in science education. During that time I experienced a growing sense of frustration and disempowerment as my supervisor and I grappled with a number of problematic issues that arose as our relationship evolved. Described herein, from my perspective, are the nature of these problems and our attempts to resolve them. This reflective process has led to an irrevocable change in my epistemology.

Children of Choice: Freedom and the New Reproductive Technologies

This book is a valuable boost to the perpetual effort of society to overtake and accommodate new technology, specifically that affecting reproduction. Professor Robertson has produced in his characteristic way a well-referenced evaluation that is consistent and coherent although not without controversy. The analysis subjects seven technical interventions to scrutiny through the lens of procreative liberty. Robertson is the first to admit that the majority of reproduction will continue in the accustomed way, but he notes that an irrevocable change has occurred in the nature of human reproduction. Technology continually adds to choice in whether (and when) to procreate, continue a pregnancy after conception, attempt to overcome infertility, widen the collaborative character of reproduction beyond the traditional father and mother couple, genetically shape offspring (and how far to go to prevent harm to those in utero), and use reproductive capacity for nonreproductive purposes such as fetal tissue transplantation. He asserts