This essay argues that Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone helps young people to better understand social intolerance and racial prejudice in today’s society. Specific examples will be analyzed with the aid of New Critical close reading.

This thesis aims to increase the knowledge on people with symptoms attributed to electromagnetic fields (EMF) by investigating the effects of EMF exposure and by additional description of the heterogeneous group of people reporting EMF-related symptoms. The effect of mobile phone (MP)-like radio frequency (RF) fields on symptoms, autonomic nervous system (ANS) parameters, short-term memory, and reaction time in persons with MP-related symptoms (MP participants) was investigated in a provocation study. A second provocation study investigated the effect of similar exposure on serum concentration of biomarkers in persons with atopic dermatitis. No effect of exposure was detected in either study. MP participants displayed changes in heart rate variability (HRV) during cognitive tests, but not during rest. This contrasts with earlier findings, participants with symptoms attributed to EMF sources in general (EHS participants) displayed an elevated sympathetic nervous system activity both during cognitive tests and during rest. Proposed differences between subgroups of persons with EMF-related symptoms with respect to symptoms, personality traits and stress were investigated in a questionnaire study. MP participants reported primarily symptoms from the head; EHS participants reported symptoms from many organ systems. Furthermore, EHS participants reported higher levels of anxiety, depression, stress, and exhaustion when compared with a reference group. MP participants reported higher levels of anxiety and exhaustion only. In a pilot study, 24-hour and short-term HRV were investigated in EHS participants, to examine whether the previously observed sympathovagal imbalance would still be present. There was a tendency toward increased parasympathetic activity compared with earlier recordings, and a reduction of symptoms. Twenty-four hour and short-term recordings were fairly similar for each participant; however, there were large between-subject differences. The results do not support the hypothesis of effects of MP-like RF exposure on symptoms, ANS activity, CFFT, cognitive function, or biomarkers. However, they do support the hypothesis that persons with different symptom attribution (MP and EHS) may differ also in ANS activity and psychological aspects.

As a result of rising right-wing populism and widespread Islamophobic discourse, many of the most ‘tolerant’ societies of Western Europe appear to be regressing after decades of post-WWII progress. This thesis questions whether or not there has been a shift in the standard of ethnic tolerance in Western Europe. This thesis asserts that post-War ‘progress’ was not universal and certainly never extended to the tolerance of ethnic diversity. The reality is that ethnic intolerance lingered after the Second World War, in spite of the attempts by post-War leaders to forget the past as quickly as possible. A post-War failure to adequately acknowledge the impact of racism on Western European societies has allowed the current anti-Islamic sentiment visible in policies, politics and public discourse in many nations to flourish. This thesis traces the evolution of ethnic intolerance in the Netherlands since the end of WWII. In the twenty-first century, the Dutch have abandoned the ‘multicultural’ policies of the previous century in favour of some of Western Europe’s strictest immigration and integration requirements. Due mainly to the success of key figures that pushed forward a lingering ethnic intolerance, the reputation for ‘tolerance’ that has previously been ascribed to the Dutch is now being called into question. Based on these developments, this thesis concludes that in the Netherlands ‘progressive’ social values have, until recently, overshadowed the more stagnant and, at times regressive, attitudes and policies directed at ethnic minorities. Finally, this thesis assesses the impact of Dutch developments on the rest of Western Europe, concluding that the ‘new’ right politics that emerged out of the Netherlands have legitimized ethnic intolerance, thereby enabling other Western European nations to adopt similar approaches to the immigration and integration of ethnic minorities while maintaining ‘liberal’ values.

Abstract Primary lactose intolerance has been associated with a single nucleotide polymorphism located upstream of the lactase gene. The most common diagnostic tests for lactose intolerance are time-consuming and the patient is not allowed to eat and drink for 12 hours before the test is carried out. A method that can establish the genotype would be an easier way of diagnosing lactose intolerance compared to fenotypic lactose intolerance tests. Optimization and validation of a previously published method was performed with real-time polymerase chain reaction. We used whole blood from de-identified blood donors. During the optimization and validation we used a positive control, genotype C/T from Laboratoriemedicin Västernorrland, Sundsvall. The whole-blood was extracted using the MagNa Pure LC instrument. The reagent used was KAPA PROBE FAST qPCR Master Mix. The optimized program for real-time PCR was established to be 95°C 3min [95°C x 3sec, 55°C x 20sec, detection, 72°C x 15sec] x 50 cycles. Optimal probe concentration was found to be 0.2µM and primer concentration will be 0.5µM. This genotyping method is a good first-stage screening test for lactoseintolerance. Before it can be used as a routine method further validation will be necessary in order to ensure that the evaluation of the results can be done in an easy and secure way.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2008. / Title from electronic title page (viewed Mar. 10, 2010). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Political Science, Concentration TransAtlantic Studies." Discipline: Political Science; Department/School: Political Science.

As a result of rising right-wing populism and widespread Islamophobic discourse, many of the most ‘tolerant’ societies of Western Europe appear to be regressing after decades of post-WWII progress. This thesis questions whether or not there has been a shift in the standard of ethnic tolerance in Western Europe. This thesis asserts that post-War ‘progress’ was not universal and certainly never extended to the tolerance of ethnic diversity. The reality is that ethnic intolerance lingered after the Second World War, in spite of the attempts by post-War leaders to forget the past as quickly as possible. A post-War failure to adequately acknowledge the impact of racism on Western European societies has allowed the current anti-Islamic sentiment visible in policies, politics and public discourse in many nations to flourish. This thesis traces the evolution of ethnic intolerance in the Netherlands since the end of WWII. In the twenty-first century, the Dutch have abandoned the ‘multicultural’ policies of the previous century in favour of some of Western Europe’s strictest immigration and integration requirements. Due mainly to the success of key figures that pushed forward a lingering ethnic intolerance, the reputation for ‘tolerance’ that has previously been ascribed to the Dutch is now being called into question. Based on these developments, this thesis concludes that in the Netherlands ‘progressive’ social values have, until recently, overshadowed the more stagnant and, at times regressive, attitudes and policies directed at ethnic minorities. Finally, this thesis assesses the impact of Dutch developments on the rest of Western Europe, concluding that the ‘new’ right politics that emerged out of the Netherlands have legitimized ethnic intolerance, thereby enabling other Western European nations to adopt similar approaches to the immigration and integration of ethnic minorities while maintaining ‘liberal’ values.

No description available.

The increasing pace of immigration to the Western world and the subsequent xenophobic backlashes to immigrants has created an urgent need for empirical research that examines the dynamics of immigration and xenophobia. This project addresses that dynamic through a comparative analysis of Denmark and Canada, whose histories since World War II have shaped both official responses and dominant discourses in ways that position the two countries at near opposite ends of the spectrum of immigration responses in the Western world. Moving away from linear, macro-level models employed in most immigration research, this project employs methods triangulation. It uses both qualitative and quantitative data to explore the hypothesis that the perceived level of diversity – of the 'self' and the 'other' – is instrumental in shaping the dynamics within which discourses and attitudes about immigration are negotiated. The research findings support the diversity hypothesis while also causing us to expand on it: not only is the receiving population's negotiation of the national identity vis a vis diversity central in shaping responses to immigration, but the nature of the distinction between the 'self' and the 'other' is instrumental in this negotiation process. Furthermore, the level of society from which the identity negotiation process stems - whether group-based or focused on the individual - plays a large role in shaping the responses to immigration.

The primary goal of this research was to investigate the relationship between worry, intolerance of uncertainty, and fear of anxiety in a community sample of adolescents. Study 1 examined the association between adolescent worry, intolerance of uncertainty, and fear of anxiety ( N = 258). The results showed that intolerance of uncertainty and fear of anxiety were strongly, uniquely, and specifically related to adolescent worry above and beyond shared variance with gender, depression, and trait anxiety. The interaction between intolerance of uncertainty and fear of anxiety did not significantly predict worry above their separate and unique effects. Study 2 sought to delineate the normative adolescent trajectories of worry, intolerance of uncertainty, and fear of anxiety over time, and explored the longitudinal nature of the associations between worry and intolerance of uncertainty, and between worry and fear of anxiety ( N = 338). Data were collected from each participant twice a year for five years. The findings revealed modest, concave upward (i.e. U-shaped) trajectories for adolescent worry, intolerance of uncertainty, and fear of anxiety over the 10 assessment points. Gender differences in these trajectories were observed, with girls reporting more worry and fear of anxiety than boys across the study period. Unexpectedly, intolerance of uncertainty increased between the midpoint and endpoint of the study for girls, but not for boys. Support was found for a bidirectional and reciprocal relationship between adolescent worry and intolerance of uncertainty, with change in one partially mediating change in the other, even when controlling for depression and trait anxiety. Conversely, adolescent worry and fear of anxiety showed a predominantly unidirectional relationship, with change in worry showing a stronger mediational effect on change in fear of anxiety than vice versa, a result which remained once the variance with depression and trait anxiety was partialled out. Overall, the findings highlight the important role of cognitive processes, such as intolerance of uncertainty and fear of anxiety, in our understanding of adolescent worry. These findings have important implications for our understanding of worry during this critical period of development.

No description available.