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Mark Twain was not only a wit but a literary man. He could paint a scene and he could make a character live, but could he plot a novel? It is the purpose of this study to analyze his methods and his products, with emphasis upon the building of plots.

Thesis advisor: Maia M. McAleavey / “Singular Plots” challenges the commonplace that the marriage plot defines the nineteenth-century British novel by uncovering the plot of vocational singleness. In this plot, a heroine renounces marriage and seeks another occupation – caring for parents or siblings; participating in philanthropy, business, or art. “Singular Plots” traces the history of representations of single women, arguing that unmarried women were often represented as plotless in the early century, while around mid-century the vocational plot coalesced in novels including Brontë’s Villette, Trollope’s The Small House at Allington, and Charlotte Yonge’s The Daisy Chain. In order to uncover vocational plots that exist alongside and against marriage plots, I advocate a method of reading called “analeptic reading” in which readers pivot from the final pages back to the more radical center and outward past the end – a process that expands our notion of which moments in a plot can be definitive. The project joins recent work by scholars including Sharon Marcus and Talia Schaffer to challenge and expand our understanding of the role of the marriage plot in nineteenth-century literature. “Singular Plots” uncovers single women as a group with uniquely and instructively particular relationships to gender, marriage, work, and the form of the novel itself. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: English.

The purpose of this study is to understand the composition of the secondary forest of Nanjenshan area. A 5-ha plot was established at altitudes 200-264m on the north ridge of Nanjenshan. All free-standing woody plantsin the plot with DBH¡Ù1cm were identified, measured, tagged and mapped. A total of 108 tree species belonging to 40 families and 77 genera was recorded. The dominant species are Acacia confusa, Lagerstroemia subcostata, Psychotria rubra, Ficus septica¤ÎDendrocnide meyeniana. The dominant families are Fabaceae, Moraceae, Euphorbiaceae, Rubiaceae¤ÎLythraceae. TWINSPAN analysis reveales four groups. Group 1 is dominanted by Acacia confusa, Glochidion philippicum and Psychotria rubra. Group 2 is dominanted by Acacia confusa, Psychotria rubra and Lagerstroemia subcostata. Group 3 is dominanted by Acacia confusa, Psychotria rubra and Glochidion rubrum. Group 4 is dominanted by Acacia confusa, Lagerstroemia subcostata and Dendrocnide meyeniana. There are four kind of distribution pattern in this plot. Machilus obovatifolia and Osmanthus marginatus occurred on the hilltop; Dendrocnide meyeniana and Ficus virgata occurred on the middle-woody site; Zanthoxylum ailanthoides and Wendlandia uvariifolia only occurred along the steamside; Acacia confusa and Psychotria rubra were commonly distributed over the plot.

Rates of population growth in developing country cities are straining the capacity of sanitation service providers. In spite of widespread sector recognition of the need to adopt low-cost, people centred approaches, 80 per cent of investments in the water and sanitation sector continue to be allocated to high cost technologies for urban elites. Household level, on-plot sanitation systems potentially offer a solution to the sanitary needs of the urban poor. Nevertheless, commonly held assumptions amongst sector professionals that lower cost, on-plot systems are inappropriate and unacceptable in urban communities impede-their wider application. There is little empirical evidence to justify this position. The scope of this work examines the technical appropriateness and user acceptability of on-plot sanitation options. The thesis contributes to an improved understanding of the context in which on-plot systems operate, what factors constrain their application, and what issues need consideration when deciding on sanitary options in low-income communities. The research adopted a mix of methodological techniques to improve the reliability and validity of findings, with both quantitative and qualitative methods applied during fieldwork. Findings from Ghana, Mozambique and India are included in the thesis in order to permit sampling of key latrine types used internationally. The thesis concludes that user based perceptions of the performance and acceptability of on-plot systems varies markedly to those of sector professionals, particularly in relation to plot size, satisfaction levels and reasons for absence of household latrine. Furthermore, user based criteria of performance are developed for consideration practitioners when narrowing decision making on sanitary options. The implications of the study highlight the need for integration of user concerns into strategic planning for sanitation, more effective stimulation and negotiation of demand for sanitation systems and challenges for agencies in adopting a user oriented approach. The recommendations from the thesis include practitioner focused policy changes that affect project planning and support systems for user education. Potential areas of further research interest include ranking user perceptions, an holistic understanding of excreta management processes and institutional constraints affecting user-service provider consultations.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1967. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis brings together eighteenth-century attitudes to the abduction of women portrayed by the law, by newspapers, and in fiction. I focus attention on the interest these different forms of narrative share in scrutinizing women’s behaviour and argue that the abduction plot is more important than its status as a stock literary convention would imply. Rather, it is a pliant, complex, and nuanced motif that allows writers the space to explore the difficult and contradictory position of women and attitudes to sexual relations. This thesis is divided into two parts. The first part comprises two chapters that look at abduction from an historical perspective. The first chapter examines the legal context of abduction as a criminal act and the second chapter examines the social context of ‘abduction’ as a euphemism for a sexual adventure. This part includes preliminary analysis of abduction plots in Charlotte Smith’s Emmeline, the Orphan of the Castle (1788) and Ann Radcliffe’s The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne: A Highland Story (1789). The second part comprises three chapters in which I read a range of novels for their abduction plots and scenes. Chapter three focusses on reviewing and on lesser known novels that are not widely read today. It examines the uneasy dialogue between novels and the way they were conveyed to readers. I argue that reviewing presents a discourse of aggression towards women. Chapter four considers abduction plots in domestic fiction focussing on a short story from Eliza Haywood’s The Female Spectator (1744-46), Samuel Richardson’s The History of Sir Charles Grandison (1753-54), and Sarah Fielding’s The History of Ophelia (1760). Chapter five considers the gothic abduction plot in Frances Burney’s Camilla, or a Picture of Youth (1796), Charlotte Smith’s The Young Philosopher (1798) and Ann Radcliffe’s The Romance of the Forest (1791). I take an historicist approach and underpin my analysis of fictional abduction plots with newspaper research that suggests ‘abduction’ had a meaning in social and cultural discourse that associated it with gossip and innuendo. This research demonstrates that newspapers played an important role in establishing the ambiguity of ‘abduction’ in the public consciousness. I argue that this journalistic discourse contributed to the suppression of abduction as a violent crime that endangered women. I suggest that the introduction of comprehensive reviewing created the space for a discourse of aggression to flourish. Many reviews are short, pithy comments criticising a novel as derivative, badly written, and immoral. I argue that a series of reviews appearing on a single page gives the impression that violence towards women is a normal everyday occurrence and abduction is a familiar hazard on the road to domestic felicity. I conclude that ‘abduction’ is a porous term in which disparate ideas – sexual aggression, violent crime, and euphemistic social commentary – are held in tension with each other. This tension enables a complex interpretation of what at first appears to be a simple narrative of violent male aggression and female culpability. The ambiguity this tension creates reveals the abduction plot as a versatile motif that challenges the social hierarchy and posits an alternative narrative for women.

Master of Arts / Department of History / Donald J. Mrozek / In the fall of 1934 Major General Smedley Butler, U.S.M.C. (ret.) testified before Congress that he had been approached by a representative of a cabal of wealthy Wall Street bankers, powerful industrial magnates, and shady political operatives to lead a fascist coup to overthrow the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Congress investigated Butler’s allegations of a conspiracy against the government and deemed them to be true. The American news media, however, was noticeably divided in the nature of their coverage of the congressional investigation. Previous historians have claimed that elements of the American news media were markedly sympathetic toward fascism in the United States during the 1930s. An analysis of the newspaper coverage of this investigation reveals a stark contrast between ways in which media outlets headed by individuals suspected of fascist sympathies portrayed the story as opposed to media outlets known to be editorially anti-fascist. These findings lend credence to previous historians’ claims about identifiably pro-fascist strains in the American media during the time in question.

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Análises estruturais de tamanho e diversidade em florestas tropicais, fornecem informações preciosas para o conhecimento e entendimento da comunidade. Uma maneira de analisar estruturalmente essas áreas são por meio de padrões ou análises comportamentais de atributos, os quais auxiliam na explicação da organização e funcionamento dessas comunidades. No decorrer do trabalho, foram analisados atributos quantitativos, como densidade de estande, área basal, diâmetro médio e diâmetro médio quadrático, tanto em valores absolutos como em relações gráficas abordando estruturalmente comunidades quanto ao seu tamanho e diversidade. O primeiro objetivo foi analisar os atributos quantitativos e verificar se por meio desses é possível discriminar a fitofisionomia da área em questão. Para isso, foram analisadas cinco parcelas permanentes abrangendo três fitofisionomias (cerradão, estacional e ombrófila) e concluiu-se que os padrões/comportamentos gerados pelos atributos nas áreas de mesma fitofisionomia nem sempre foram semelhantes. Contudo, a fitofisionomia classificada como cerradão, na maioria das vezes, gerou um comportamento distinto, se destacando e se diferenciando das demais. Já o segundo objetivo foi avaliar a influência de diferentes tipos de unidades amostrais na análise de atributos quantitativos em florestas tropicais nativas. Assim, foram analisados dados correspondentes a três tipos de unidades amostrais (pontos de Bitterlich, parcela circular e parcela retangular), em diferentes fitofisionomias: cerradão (Assis), ombrófila (Carlos Botelho) e estacional (Caetetus). Diante das análises feitas com esses dados, viu-se que para alguns atributos quantitativos, o tipo de unidade amostral influenciou nos resultados. A amostragem por Bitterlich, por exemplo estima com precisão a área basal e volume, mas tende a gerar estimativas enviesadas quando se trata de áreas com presença de muitas árvores pequenas, como no caso da área do cerradão. Na maioria das vezes, as parcelas de área fixa, como as parcelas circulares e retangulares, geraram padrões semelhantes, sendo que quaisquer diferenças podem ser devido à distribuição espacial das espécies, fatores não controlados ou ao acaso. Já a amostragem por pontos de Bitterlich, gerou resultados distintos, principalmente quando a área basal foi utilizada como medida de avaliação. Assim, dependendo da variável de interesse e da fitofisionomia amostrada, é preciso ser cauteloso na escolha do tipo de unidades amostral, pois dependendo destes fatores, os atributos quantitativos poderão gerar comportamentos e respostas diferenciadas. / Structural analyzes of size and diversity in tropical forests provide valuable information for knowledge and community understanding. One way of analyzing these areas structurally is by patterns or behavioral analyzes of attributes which help in explaining the organization and functioning of these communities. In the study quantitative attributes such as stand density, basal area, mean diameter and mean square diameter were analyzed both in absolute values and in graphical relations, structurally approaching communities as to their size and diversity. The first objective was to analyze the quantitative attributes and verify if it is possible to discriminate the phytophysiognomy of the area in question. For this, five permanent plots were analyzed covering three phytophysiognomies (cerradão, seasonal and ombrophilous) and it was concluded that the patterns/behaviors generated by the attributes in the areas of the same phytophysiognomy were not always similar. However, the phytophysiognomy classified as cerradão, in most cases, generated a distinct behavior standing out and differentiating itself from the others. The second objective was to evaluate the influence of different types of sample units on the analysis of quantitative attributes in native tropical forests. Thus, data corresponding to three types of sampling units (Bitterlich points, circular plot and rectangular plot) were analyzed in different phytophysiognomies: cerradão (Assis), ombrophilous (Carlos Botelho) and seasonal (Caetetus). Considering the analyzes made was observed that for some quantitative attributes the sample unit type influenced the results. Bitterlich sampling, for example, precisely estimates basal area and volume but tends to generate biased estimates when dealing with areas with presence of many small trees as in the case of the cerradão area. Most often, fixed-area plots such as circular and rectangular plots have generated similar patterns and any differences may be due to spatial distribution of species, uncontrolled or random factors. The Bitterlich point sampling generated different results from fixed-area plots, especially when the basal area was used as an evaluation measure. Thus, depending interest parameterand the phytophysiognomy sampled it is necessary to be cautious in choosing the type of sample units because depending on these factors the quantitative attributes may generate different behaviors and responses.