published_or_final_version / Buddhist Studies / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2003. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 144 p.; also includes graphics. Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-125). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

This study, an analysis of participants in university extension liberal arts non-credit courses at the University of British Columbia, is based on 1005 interviews which were given during the spring of 1968. The clientele has been described in terms of socio economic characteristics, motivation, participation in adult education, reactions about the scheduling of classes, and methods of obtaining information concerning the courses. The data were furthermore utilized interesting the hypothesis that no statistically significant differences at the one per cent level existed between males and females, between veterans and novices, or between non-committed and committed learners with respect to selected socio-economic and psychological characteristics and specified ways of obtaining information about extension courses. Participants differed from the general population in that they had a higher ratio of women to men, constituted greater percentages of people in each of the age categories from 25 to 54 years, possessed higher socio-economic status and were more actively involved in the formally organized life of their community. Learning-orientation—the desire to seek knowledge for its own sake—emerged as the prime motivator for most participants. Three-quarters of them reported previous involvement in adult education, and a similar proportion indicated strong intentions to enrol in future extension classes. One-half of the clientele were novices in university extension classes. Virtually all respondents resided in the greater Vancouver area, and spent less than thirty minutes travelling to class. Direct mailing techniques of promotional material influenced more participants than did newspaper advertising. Less than one-third of all respondents indicated that they had learned about classes through other people. Testing of the hypothesis revealed statistically significant differences between male and female participants with respect to educational level, goal-orientation, learning-orientation, interest in subjects, attendance during specified times of the day, preferences for starting times of classes, attendance on specified days of the week, interest in weekend seminars, and the type of announcement received for the course. Participants with prior experience in adult education differed significantly from novices in their distributions according to age, occupational ranking, income, social participation, type of announcement received for the course, and the extent of their use of the two step information flow. Committed and non-committed learners were significantly different from each other in the distributions according to marital status, income, learning-orientation, previous participation in university extension activities, interest in weekend seminars, and in their utilization of the two step information flow. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

The article is about the origins of rhe humanistic and psychological orientation, its principal characteristics like our capacity to choose and modify our vital situation, to be orienred to the action of the values that give us identity and permit us unroll an active ego that in spite of rhe conditionant influence elaborare a self evolution. Ir analyses the concept of self realization and the way that psychorerapy process takes place. / El artículo trata sobre los orígenes del enfoque humanístico psicológico, sus características principales por ejemplo nuestra capacidad de elegir y modificar nuestra situación vital, el estar orientados hacia la realización de valores que nos otorgan identidad y nos permiten desarrollar un yo activo que pese a los influjos condicionantes, elabora su propia evolución. Se analiza el concepto de autorrealización y la manera cómo se lleva a cabo el proceso psicoterapéutico.

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Thesis (S.M. in Science Writing)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Humanities, Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 22-23). / Neutrinos are ubiquitous particles, but they don't like to mingle. Each second, billions of them pass through our bodies, slicing imperceptibly through our delicate internal organs. They can barrel through the sun, stars, and planets without a single interaction. Only one in every ten billion of the invisible, chargeless, nearly massless particles will interact through a weak force with another atom, leaving an observable trace of its existence. But in a small town in western South Dakota called Lead (rhymes with 'need'), a 125-year history of mining ore and gold out of the ground may be replaced by these impalpable particles. Lead was the birthplace of neutrino science when chemist Ray Davis began his work on solar neutrinos over thirty years ago. He installed a tank filled with 100,000 gallons of dry cleaning fluid a mile underground in Lead's Homestake mine and began counting neutrino interactions. Eventually, he earned the Nobel Prize for his work; his surprising results changed the world of particle physics. Now that the Homestake mine is closed, scientists, politicians and local citizens have converged on this small town with the hopes of turning it into a national underground laboratory that houses experiments ranging from astrophysics to deep subsurface geobiology. In the process, the state of South Dakota has introduced a unique funding scheme in which science is democratic. Politicians, scientists and regular folks play important roles in the neutrino populist movement, working together to preserve a scientific resource and life in a small town. / by Carolyn Y. Johnson. / S.M.in Science Writing

Thesis (S.M. in Science Writing)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Humanities, Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies, 2004. / Vita. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-43). / We have always been fascinated by borderline creatures. Chimeras, hybrids of multiple animals-and sometimes humans-appear repeatedly in mythology across cultures from ancient times to the present. Since the early 1980s, scientists have been creating cross-species chimeras, first combining mouse species that could not interbreed naturally, then moving on to create chimeras from even more distantly related animals such as sheep and goats. Scientists use chimeras to study fundamental processes of life such as pregnancy, fetal development, and the progress of disease. Chimeras allow scientists to perform experiments that would otherwise be impossible. Ancient chimera myths played on our anxieties about the boundary between man and animal. Interspecies chimeras strike the same chords of disgust and fear in some people as these ancient mythical chimeras did. This paper examines the science of chimeras and biological borderlines and the social implications of creatures that challenge accepted and comfortable ideas about the divisibility of the animal and human worlds. Can human-animal chimeras be made? Activists Stuart Newman and Jeremy Rifkin have filed a patent application for human-animal chimeras, such as the humanzee, to protest patents on all life forms. Newman and Rifkin believe chimeras are emblematic of abuses of biotechnology and are on a slippery slope to human cloning and elimination of the distinction between natural and manufactured things. They are not alone in believing scientists should be more concerned about the ethical implications of their work. However, a majority of scientists, bioethicists, and scholars find Newman and Rifkin's viewpoint extreme. The creation of chimeras between species-groups of animals that / (cont.) definition cannot interbreed-may seem to challenge the historically-shaky biological species concept. Goat and sheep cells can work together in a single healthy organism. Does this undermine the taxonomical boundaries between them? While existing in a confusing zone between species, chimeras do not challenge the biological species concept as directly as may seem. When these chimeras are viable, they demonstrate shared common ancestry through evolution. Because chimeras cannot breed and generate more chimeras, they do not challenge the species concept. / by Katherine Anne Bourzac. / S.M.in Science Writing

Thesis (S.B. in Creative Writing)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Humanities, Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies, 2004. / Stick Shift is a novel that has undergone several rounds of significant revision. Scott, the book's main character, is a sarcastic American who travels to England to move in with an ex-girlfriend. He experiences all of the obstacles involved in moving to a new country, leaving his home, and settling down with a woman in a comic sequence told in seven chapters.The introduction to this piece outlines my history as a writer, primarily focusing on my development at MIT. The thesis project is discussed and followed from its initial seed all the way through to its current state. / by Aaron Parness. / S.B.in Creative Writing

Thesis (S.M. in Science Writing)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Humanities, Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies, 2004. / Vita. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 35-41). / The late John Martin demonstrated the paramount importance of iron for microscopic plant growth in large areas of the world's oceans. Iron, he hypothesized, was the nutrient that limited green life in seawater. Over twenty years later, Martin's iron hypothesis is widely considered to be the major contribution to oceanography in the second half of the 20th century. Originating as an ecosystem experiment to test Martin's iron hypothesis, iron fertilization experiments are now used as powerful tools to study the world's oceans. Some oceanographers are concerned that these experiments are catapulting ocean science into a new era. The vast stretches of ocean play a key role in the global carbon cycle, and thus in regulating Earth's climate. Some scientists, engineers and international policy makers claim that dissolving iron in the ocean will help stop global warming. Adding large amounts of iron to the oceans may drastically increase the amount of carbon dioxide that phytoplankton can capture from the atmosphere, thereby reducing the most common greenhouse gas. But intentional iron fertilization over great expanses of the ocean may have unintended consequences for the world's largest ecosystem. The open ocean is one of the planet's last frontiers and a part of the global commons. As such, using the open ocean as a means to solve the complex problem of global warming raises deep questions about how humans think of and use the Earth. The question remains: Should humans use the ocean as a means to regulate a changing climate? / by Megan Jacqueline Ogilvie. / S.M.in Science Writing

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Humanities, Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 38). / Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) is a reproductive medicine technology that allows the genetic characteristics of embryos to be examined. Created through in vitro fertilization, embryos are grown in a Petri dish for three days, at which point they have eight cells. One cell is then removed from each embryo and tested for certain genetic characteristics. Based on the results, selected embryos are transferred into a woman's uterus. Originally developed as a way to screen embryos for genetic disorders, PGD was used among a limited number of patients. More recently, however, some physicians and researchers have deemed PGD a useful infertility treatment. As a result, the number of people using PGD has increased every year since the technology was first developed in 1989. The role of PCGD as an emerging infertility treatment was examined from research, clinical, and personal perspectives. This was done through literature searches, interviews, laboratory observations, and attendance at infertility support meetings. / by Maureen McDonough . / S.M.