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"Getting There": Diversity Trainings as Tools for Change in a Post-Racial EraWatsula, David A. January 2011 (has links)
Thesis advisor: Deborah Piatelli / This study serves to contribute to the growing literature on the effectiveness of diversity trainings. Previous studies on diversity training have produced inconclusive results for diversity training goals, evaluation techniques, and success. These studies rely largely on quantitative methods and large data sets looking at representation, biases, and economics. This study examines the impact of diversity trainings from a different lens. Specifically, in a society that increasingly adheres to a post-racial ideology, diversity trainings can serve as a tool to deconstruct the basis for racial power and privilege and expose the persistence of racism in the workplace. This qualitative, inductive study allows diversity trainers and managers to discuss in-depth their views on diversity and diversity training. Diversity trainers delineated five diversity training models, all of which discuss power and privilege in different ways or not at all. The presence and nature of this discussion becomes a product of a diversity trainer’s personal beliefs and the culture of the organization where training will occur. Manager interviews showed that individual differences in racial awareness entering the training can mediate how managers respond and react to diversity training material. The combination of the training model, organizational culture, and individual racial awareness combine to determine whether or not individual and institutional change around racial power and privilege will occur. Overall, power and privilege is not a common feature of diversity trainings, however diversity training can be used to further this discussion and fight against racism. A model is proposed that presents a way for diversity trainers to combine diversity training models to promote organizational goals, as well as counter post-racial ideology to create critically inclusive and egalitarian workplaces. Moreover, suggestions are made for researchers to better evaluate diversity trainings in the future, so as to truly determine the extent to which diversity training can be used to further organizational goals. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology Honors Program. / Discipline: Sociology.
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Living dangerouslyMcGregor, Elizabeth Ann 19 February 2007 (has links)
Student Number :0318744F -
MA research report -
School of Arts -
Faculty of Humanities / Title: LIVING DANGEROUSLY
Subtitle: HIV/Aids, masculinity and the post-apartheid generation: A case study
AIM: to investigate via the story of one young South African man the complexity of
dealing with HIV/Aids in South Africa.
RATIONALE: With the ending of apartheid and the rise of HIV/Aids, there has been a
clear crisis of masculinity in the wake of social change. Government response to the
epidemic has been ambiguous. Fana Khaba, aka Yfm DJ Khabzela, was the first young
black celebrity to publicly declare he had Aids. I plan to follow his story and to look at
HIV/Aids campaigns and to examine why they are not working.
METHODOLOGY: Through a literature review, an examination of statistics and public
health messaging on HIV/Aids and my investigation into the life of Fana Khaba, I will
show the complexities currently not being considered in the compilation of public health
messaging. The reason I chose to follow the story of Fana Khaba is because I am a South
African deeply concerned about HIV/Aids. I found his life compelling because it
encapsulated so much of the rapid and intense culture shift that followed the arrival of
democracy in 1994. And because his life echoed that of a pivotal generation in the
apartheid struggle: the generation who grew up in Soweto in the seventies and eighties and came to adulthood with democracy. The so-called “lost generation” who later
became known as the “Y generation”, they are deeply affected by the pandemic. I intend
to show that Fana Khaba was a hugely popular iconic figure for the generation because
he spoke to their aspirations and their anxieties. I will argue that because his life
experience resonated so strongly with this generation, it is reasonable to draw more
general lessons from it.
The chief executive officer of Yfm was a friend of mine and, through him, I am able to
gain access to Khabzela, his family, friends and colleagues at Yfm. This is an
exceptional opportunity to gain an inside view of a life not readily available to relative
outsiders such as myself. Clearly there is an ethical issue here. I will at all times keep my
interviewees informed about the purpose of my research. I hope to help shed light on this
anguished, important and under-debated sphere of life in South Africa..
The format I choose is part investigative journalism, part biography. The reason for this
is that I have worked as a journalist for 25 years so all my skills and training point me in
that direction. I wanted to make it accessible in order to reach as many people as possible.
The narrative-biographical form is conducive to this because it is easy to engage with. In
order to give the narrative tension and focus, I shall repeatedly employ the central
question of why Fana Khaba refused to take the anti-retrovirals which might have saved
his life.
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Bosbefok: Constructed images and the memory of the South African 'border war 'Doherty, C M W 20 June 2014 (has links)
This
thesis
is
part
of
a
creative
arts
PhD
which
explores
the
possibilities
of
constructed
images
and
the
memory
of
the
South
African
Border
War.
It
was
presented
together
with
an
exhibition
of
constructed
photographic
images
entitled
BOS.
In
the
thesis
I
argue
that
the
memory
of
the
war,
an
event
now
almost
three
decades
past,
continues
to
be
problematic.
I
also
argue
that
photographs
are
themselves
complex
and
constructed
objects
that
do
not
provide
a
simple
truth
about
either
history
or
memory.
Photographs
can
supplement
or
support
memories
but
they
are
always
to
be
viewed
with
suspicion.
In
Chapter
One
I
explore
the
limitations
imposed
on
the
speech
of
conscripts,
both
during
the
conflict
and
in
the
years
following
the
conclusion
of
hostilities.
In
Chapter
Two
I
examine
the
recent
appearance
of
several
‘anti-‐
heroic’
memoirs
of
the
conflict
written
by
conscripts.
The
use
of
the
medical
diagnosis
of
post-‐traumatic
stress
syndrome
(PTSD)
in
these
writings
is
critically
examined.
Chapter
Three
focuses
on
a
development
in
the
ideas
of
the
two
most
influential
figures
in
the
field
of
Anglophone
photographic
theory,
Susan
Sontag
and
Roland
Barthes.
I
argue
that
their
initial
hostility
to
the
photographic
image
on
ethical/political
grounds
has
been
replaced
by
a
more
nuanced
engagement
with
the
power
of
the
image.
I
then
examine
the
views
of
two
contemporary
writers
on
photography,
both
deeply
involved
with
the
analysis
of
traumatic
images:
Ariella
Azoulay
and
Susie
Linfield.
In
Chapter
Four,
I
engage
with
the
artistic
practice
of
the
American
photographer,
David
Levinthal,
an
important
reference
point
for
this
project
because
of
his
photographic
work
with
miniatures
and
toys
and
his
place
within
what
I
describe
as
‘critical
postmodernism’.
In
Chapter
Five,
I
examine
the
themes
of
silence
and
censorship
as
these
pertain
to
the
photography
of
the
Border
War
using
Susan
Sontag’s
notion
of
the
“ecology
of
images”.
I
analyze
the
types
of
images
which
have
been
produced
from
the
war,
looking
at
the
“limited
photojournalism”
of
John
Liebenberg
and
the
role
of
iconic
images
in
the
propaganda
war.
Finally,
in
Chapter
Six,
I
present
an
account
of
the
process
of
creating
the
work
for
the
BOS
exhibition
in
which
I
employed
a
combination
of
strategies
involving
appropriation,
miniaturization,
and
re-‐staging.
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Sustained Post-exercise Vasodilation: Histaminergic Mechanisms and AdaptationsRomero, Steven 14 January 2015 (has links)
Blood flow to the previously active skeletal muscle remains elevated for several hours following an acute bout of aerobic exercise and is dependent on activation of H1 and H2 histamine receptors. Many questions remain unanswered in humans regarding the mechanisms mediating this sustained post-exercise vasodilation and what benefits come of this physiological phenomenon. The studies detailed in this dissertation were designed to examine the upstream mechanisms and explore a potential benefit associated with sustained post-exercise vasodilation.
In chapter IV, we examined if oxidative stress is the upstream exercise-related factor mediating sustained post-exercise vasodilation. Intravenously infusing the antioxidant ascorbate blunted sustained post-exercise vasodilation, and this reduction was similar in magnitude to that observed with H1/H2 blockade. However, ascorbate may directly degrade histamine and may also inhibit its formation. Therefore, we conducted a follow-up study to verify the findings in study 1. In this study, we intravenously infused n-acetylcysteine, a potent antioxidant with no known histaminergic interactions. We found that n-acetylcysteine had no effect on sustained post-exercise vasodilation, indicating that exercise-induced oxidative stress is not the exercise related factor mediating sustained post-exercise vasodilation.
In chapter V, we attempted to measure interstitial histamine in an effort to demonstrate that exercise induces the local formation of histamine in previously active skeletal muscle. We found that histamine is increased in the interstitial fluid within skeletal muscle during and after exercise. Additionally, we determined that de novo synthesis via histidine decarboxylase contributes to the rise in histamine during and following exercise. We also demonstrated a possible role of mast cells as an additional mechanism augmenting histamine in skeletal muscle. Collectively, these studies demonstrate that histamine is the ligand activating histamine receptors and activation is due to the induction of histidine decarboxylase and mast cell activation.
In chapter VI, we attempted to determine if histamine receptor activation contributes to the expression of pro- and anti-angiogenic growth factors during the recovery from exercise. Our preliminary findings indicate that activation of histamine receptors may play a role in the expression of pro-angiogenic growth factors during the recovery from acute aerobic exercise.
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BEHAVIORAL RESPONSES TO POST-HARVEST CHALLENGES IN EAST AFRICA: LESSONS FROM FIELD EXPERIMENTSHira Channa (6634460) 10 June 2019 (has links)
This dissertation consists of three different essays evaluating solutions to postharvest challenges faced by farmers in Kenya and Tanzania. In the first essay we see that demand for a new storage technology the Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bags in Western Kenya, a completely new technology for almost the entire sample, was highly elastic and that a small proportion of the population would buy at the current market price. In the second essay we find evidence that farmers, who are primarily growing for maize consumption are more concerned about food safety in maize than traders, who are willing to pay less to keep the maize safer. In the third essay in Tanzania, we find that liquidity concerns at harvest prevent farmers from optimizing maize storage and sales decisions.
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The post-genocidal condition: Ghosts of genocide, genocidal violence, and representationVan Der Rede, Lauren January 2018 (has links)
Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / As a literary intervention, The Post-Genocidal Condition: Ghosts of Genocide, Genocidal
Violence, and Representation is situated at the intersection of genocide studies,
psychoanalysis, and literature so as to enable a critical engagement with the question of
genocide and an attempt to think beyond its formulation as phenomenon. As the dominant
framework for thinking genocide within international jurisprudence, and operating as the
guiding terrain for interventions by scholars such as Mamood Mamdani, Linda Melvern, and
William Schabas, the presumption that genocide may be reduced to a marked beginning and
end, etched out by the limits of its bloodiness, is, I argue, incomplete and thus a misdiagnosis
of the problem, to various effects. Moreover, I contend that it is this misdiagnosis that has led
to what I name as the post-genocidal condition: a deferred return to the latent violences of
genocide; enabled often through various mechanisms of transitional justice. This intervention is not a denial that under the rubric of the crime of genocide, as an attempt
to destroy in whole or in part what Raphael Lemkin referred to as an “enemy group”, millions
of people have died. Rather what I posit is that the physical violence of genocide is a false
limit – that the bloodiness of genocide has been mistaken for the thing-in-itself. Thus this
intervention is an attempt to offer another way of thinking the question of genocide by
reading it as concept, enabling a consideration of its more latent violences, its ghosts. As
such, I argue that genocide is first an attack on the minds of the persons who form the
targeted people or group, through the destruction of cultural apparatuses, such as books,
works of art, and the language of a people, to name but a few; and is lastly an attempt to
physically exterminate a people. Thus this intervention invites a return to Lemkin’s formulation of the term in Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation, Analysis of
Government, Proposals for Redress (1944); that the word genocide is meant to “signify”, and
as such offers a reading of the question of genocide as signifier, understood, I suggest, in the
Lacanian sense. Thus, I posit that genocide, as signifier, operates on both the levels of
metaphor and metonym, and as such both condenses and displaces its violence(s). The
metaphor for genocide as signifier is, furthermore, rather than the signifying chain as Lacan
would have it, the network. As such genocide is marked as text, rather than work; its
perpetrators not authors, as Lemkin and various pieces of legislation have described them, but
writers; and those who engage with the question of genocide, to whatever degree, as readers
rather than critics. Consequently, this intervention stages the question of the reach of
impunity and complicity, beyond the limit of judicial guilt and innocence. Metonymically,
the relational displacement at work within the network of genocide allows for a reading of the
various constitutive examples of the violence(s) that, in combinations and as collective,
produce a new signification, other than that of the definitional referent.
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Transcriptomic basis of post-mating responses in females of the parasitic wasp Nasonia vitripennisWatt, Rebekah January 2012 (has links)
Mating in insects influences suites of behavioural and physiological changes in females. These changes can include key female traits such as dispersal, foraging, oviposition and female remating or receptivity. Whilst much is known at the phenotypic level about post-mating changes in reproductive biology across many species, much less is known at the genetic level, especially outside of established model organisms such as Drosophila melanogaster. In the parasitic wasp Nasonia vitripennis courtship behaviour, rather than copulation, is believed to be primarily responsible for driving changes in female post-mating behaviour. Here we have studied female receptivity and post-mating gene expression changes associated with courtship and copulation in Nasonia vitripennis. Firstly we considered the influence of the duration of various elements of courtship and mating on female re-mating rates. We were able to identify an association between long pre-copulatory courtship durations and females which are less likely to re-mate (after 24 hours) and suggest that this may be driven by females which are generally less receptive. We also observed that males may be capable of determining female mating state, taking longer to engage in courtship with mated females than virgin females. To further explore the influence of mating on female post-mating behavioural and physiological processes, we explored changes in gene expression occurring in response to mating. To do this we utilised two different transcriptomic sequencing approaches developed for the Illumina next-generation sequencing platform. Using a tag-seq approach we considered the differential gene expression occurring in response to mating in head and body (comprising of the thorax and abdomen) tissues across two time-points (30 minutes and four hours). We were able to identify large changes in expression in head tissues across time-points in comparison to more subtle changes in body tissues. We suggest that head tissues may be more closely associated with post-mating changes in behaviour, whilst body tissues are perhaps physiologically more associated with egg production and influenced less by mating per se. Finally, using an RNA-seq approach, we considered the gene expression changes occurring in female body tissues in response to three elements of male courtship across two time-points (30 minutes and 24 hours). We hoped to narrow down the role of male courtship and/or insemination in post-mating gene expression differences, addressing first the more limited changed in body tissues. We showed that time-point was the most important factor associated with post-mating gene expression, with the courtship components tested being associated with very little expressional change. The data presented in this thesis suggests that male courtship may not be that important for driving the post-mating behavioural and genetic changes seen in Nasonia, perhaps limiting the scope for sexual conflict over reproduction in this species.
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Contemporary international political theory and global environmental politics : bridging artificial divides?Karlsson, Susanna January 2010 (has links)
This thesis studies the intersection between contemporary international political theory and global environmental politics. It asks whether concern for global environmental degradation requires a rethinking of the assumptions that underlie international political theory as a field of study within the discipline of International Relations. Answering this question, the thesis introduces three ‗images‘ of international political theory: the liberal cosmopolitan, the critical-theoretical, and the anti-foundationalist. It investigates the contributions of these three images of international political theory to global environmental politics. Assessing, through the three images, the status of contemporary international political theory in light of environmental concerns, the thesis suggests that while international political theory offers many important insights into discussions of global environmental politics it also appears significantly limited when dealing with environmental concerns. Key among its limitations is the human-centred framework and mission of contemporary international political theory that an encounter with environmental concerns helps expose. The thesis argues that international political theory, both to be true to its purpose – that is, the extension of moral and political inclusion in world politics – and to maintain its relevance in the contemporary world, must seek a more thorough engagement with environmental concerns. The thesis contends that a fundamental rethinking of the assumptions that underlie contemporary international political theory forms an important – and necessary – part of this engagement.
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'New' femininities in the culture of intoxication : exploring young Women's participation in the night-time economy, in the context of sexualised culture, neo-liberalism and postfeminismMackiewicz, Alison January 2013 (has links)
The thesis explores current debates ,around postfeminism and neoliberalism, and young women's articulations of femininity within the context of young women's excessive drinking practices. Alcohol plays a key ro le in UK culture today, and for young people, getting drunk is an accepted, expected and indeed normalised part of a night out in the current 'culture of intoxication'. It is also a space for enacting highly visible displays of gender, femininities and class, and one that represents an important 'space of attention' for exploring contemporary subjectivity. As such this space provides a productive source for carrying out in-depth analysis of how young women negotiate and manage 21st century femininities in the UK. Data is provided in the form of white working-class women's accounts of excessive drinking in various drinking venues within the county of Hampshire, England. Thirty-three women, aged between 18 and 24 years, took part in several phases of data collection, and these include individual interviews, friendship group discussions, and ethnographic methods. I employed a version of Foucauldian discourse analysis to identify key themes and discourses in the young women's talk, and note how young women use excessive alcohol for confidence within what has become a drinking culture of hyper-sexuality, where the emphasis is on the traditional male gaze, but also and possibly even more powerfully, the postfeminist female gaze. The young women draw on a number of discourses to construct drunkenness as a routine part of going out, and how the female gaze plays an important role in 'mirroring' and/or 'othering' women in terms of their feminine recognition. Furthermore, the women draw on postfeminist discourses to emphasise how painful and hard it is becoming a young female subject today.
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Design of a non-snagging guardrail postKarlsson, Jessica E 23 June 2000 (has links)
"The purpose of this project is to design a non-snagging guardrail post. The procedure will be to first develop a simple finite element (FE) model of a single post, wheel and suspension to explore the snag potential for some existing standard guardrail posts. The next step in the procedure will be to develop appropriate design changes that could prevent wheel snagging and investigate if they do by using a one-post sub-model. An attempt to validate the used material model for wood will also be done by comparison between laboratory tests and finite element simulations."
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