Study Objectives: Nocturnal awakenings may constitute a unique risk for falls among older adults. We describe differences in gait and balance between presleep and midsleep testing, and whether changes in the lighting environment during the midsleep testing further affect gait and balance. Methods: Twenty-one healthy, late middle-aged and older (64.7 ± 8.0 y) adults participated in this repeated-measures design consisting of four overnight laboratory stays. Each night, participants completed baseline visual acuity, gait, and balance testing. After a 2-h sleep opportunity, they were awakened for 13 min into one of four lighting conditions: very dim white light (< 0.5 lux); dim white light (∼28.0 lux); dim orange light (∼28.0 lux); and white room-level light (∼200 lux). During this awakening, participants completed the same sequence of testing as at baseline. Results: Low-contrast visual acuity significantly decreased with decreasing illuminance conditions (F(3,45) = 98.26, p < 0.001). Our a priori hypothesis was confirmed in that variation in stride velocity and center of pressure path length were significantly worse during the mid-sleep awakening compared to presleep baseline. Lighting conditions during the awakening, however, did not influence these parameters. In exploratory analyses, we found that over one-third of the tested gait and balance parameters were significantly worse at the midsleep awakening as compared to baseline (p < 0.05), and nearly one-quarter had medium to large effect sizes (Cohen d ≥ 0.5; r ≥ 0.3). Conclusions: Balance and gait are impaired during midsleep awakenings among healthy, late middle-aged and older adults. This impairment is not ameliorated by exposure to room lighting, when compared to dim lights.

This thesis examines the revivalist writings of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) and George Whitefield (1714-1770) for evidence that the Great Awakening altered their perspective on revival. It is principally based on primary sources written between 1736 and 1743. Six separate chapters explore their background, their understanding of revival, their efforts at propagating it, their techniques in managing the revival, their defense of revival, and their institutionalization of revival. Both their understandings of revival came from their own observations of the revivals that accompanied their evangelistic efforts. Their theological background, heavily influenced by Calvin, insisted that God was responsible for both conversions and revival. The thesis notes that Whitefield�s and Edwards� use of four primary techniques to propagate revival evolved as they experienced revival. Their preaching, their organization of small, religious education groups, their publishing of sermons, and their written narratives of revival all show signs of adaptation to changing circumstances. Both managed revival by using small groups and publications to guide people way from inappropriate spiritual expressions. These groups and documents also provided opportunities to educate new converts about their spiritual experiences. Edwards and Whitefield had the opportunity to clarify their understanding of revival as they defended the revival against those critics who questioned their claims about God�s role in the religious events of 1735-1743. Both institutionalized revival by interacting with the next generation of evangelical ministers and by making available their doctrines and their own experiences in their published narratives. This propensity to publish their reflections on revival allowed future generations access to their revival principles. The overriding hypothesis of this study is that Whitefield�s and Edwards� understanding of revival grew out of their involvement in revival in the eighteenth century religious revivals of colonial North America and that their revival writings and preaching were attempts to codify and transfer the lessons they had learned about revival to future generations of Christians who might, they hoped, themselves experience a God-ordained time of revival. The key conclusions of this study are that 1) Whitefield�s and Edwards� positions on revival issues developed through repeated exposures to revival, 2) Whitefield and Edwards used similar means to propagate, manage, defend, and institutionalize revival, 3) Whitefield�s sermons and journals themselves express a clear and concise theology, 4) a comparison of Whitefield�s and Edwards� theology refutes the suggestion that the lack of a uniform theology throughout the colonies negates the reality of the Great Awakening, 5) a careful study of Whitefield�s and Edwards� revival writings produces a heightened awareness of the nature of their narrative works, 6) Edwards� revival writings show a concern for worship that is too often missed in studies of his work, 7) Edwards and Whitefield were actively involved in developing, recording, and teaching the principles of authentic revival.

This thesis aims at exploring the consequences of migration in Jhumpa Lahirir¡¦s novel The Namesake. Set in India and America, the story represents such immigrant experiences as the clash of cultures, the conflicts of assimilation, and the tangled ties between generations. In addition to introduction and conclusion, the thesis consists of three chapters, devoted respectively to issues of nostalgia, identity, and cultural hybridity. Chapter One explores the way nostalgia affects the Ganguli family in their daily life, including such aspects as food, clothing, their circle of friends, festivals and celebrations. To analyze Indian immigrants¡¦ longing for home and their attempts to retain homeland culture, I employ Svetlana Boym¡¦s theory on nostalgia, wherein two kinds of nostalgia are distinguished: the restorative and the reflective. Chapter Two focuses on immigrants¡¦ identity formation. The process of identity formation is associated with naming and generational problems. I adopt the Freudian theory of the Oedipus complex to explain the father-son conflicts: how the protagonist defies his father as well as the name given by him. Then, drawing upon Cathy Caruth¡¦s concept of traumatic awakening, I trace how the protagonist reconciles with his father and reaches maturity. Chapter Three examines how immigrants come to invent a hybrid cultural identity. I employ Homi Bhabha¡¦s concepts of in-bewteenness and the Third Space to point out the interplay of the Bengali heritage and the dominant American culture, which results in the phenomenon of a new, dynamic, and mixed culture. With globalization, borders and boundaries are constantly changing so that migration comes to be typical of human condition. In this sense, the immigrant experience stated in The Namesake foregrounds problems which might be encountered by all diasporas.

Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening fundamentally share the universal feminist yearning for personal freedom and independence within an oppressive, patriarchal society. With regards to the texts’ stylistic differences and disparate social contexts, their heroines seek to ideologically oppose social rules and conventions for women without achieving the same results. This difference lies in the fact that Chopin’s text fosters the traditional feminism embraced by the majority culture, while Walker’s text makes use of womanism. The availability and authenticity of feminine space for the generation of women’s culture also determine the extent of changes achieved.

This thesis aims at presenting the historical panorama of the early Kurdish cultural activities in Anatolia which began to rise as a political subject after the First World War but could begin to express its nationalist demands after the foundation of the Republican government. It is claimed in the thesis that Kurdish nationalist identity as a collective body could begun to be formed in the last period of the Ottoman Empire when the Empire was in an inevitable dissolution. This progress in question took its start during the reign of Abdulhamid II, and accelerated during the Committee of Union and Progress period. Especially after the 1908 Constitution, Kurdish intellectuals have begun to create &ldquo / Kurdish&rdquo / publications and cultural institutions seeking to improve the conditions in the regions that the Kurds inhabited. These facts lead us to some questions to begin with and this thesis seeks answers for the following important questions: &ldquo / By considering the awakening of Kurdish nationalist identity, how did the policies centered on the provinces after 1908, influence the Kurdish regions?&rdquo / , &ldquo / What is the response of the Kurdish regions to the new state policies of the period?&rdquo / , &ldquo / Considering the social associations formed by Kurds during the CUP period what were the effects of them on the formation of a new Kurdish identity?&rdquo

Notre analyse porte sur la notion d’éveil au sein du Sûtra de Vimalakîrti. Premièrement, nous présentons et comparons les modèles d’éveil exposés dans ce texte, soit la figure du bouddha et – surtout – celle du bodhisattva; nous analysons leurs deux grands traits caractéristiques, c’est-à-dire la connaissance transcendante et les méthodes habiles, puis élaborons leur rôle par rapport à l’éveil. Il apparaît d’emblée que la connaissance transcendante est une connaissance non discursive de la réelle nature de toute chose et qu’elle est une condition nécessaire à l’éveil, alors que les méthodes habiles – aussi appelées expédients salvifiques – constituent la myriade de moyens rusés et provisoires conçus et employés par les bouddhas et bodhisattva dans le but d’amener les êtres ignorants à l’éveil et d’ainsi les libérer de l’attachement et de la souffrance. Dans le second chapitre, nous caractérisons l’état de conscience de l’éveillé à l’aide de notions telles la non-dualité, la non-discrimination et la non-pensée, puis présentons la conception de la pratique méditationnelle soutenue dans notre sûtra. Nous montrons que l’état d’éveil est un état de conscience non discriminateur au sein duquel l’identité personnelle et les phénomènes – ou la dualité sujet-objet – sont reconnus comme étant des illusions ou, plus précisément, des constructions mentales et langagières. Ainsi, la méditation apparaît comme étant une méthode habile provisoire dont les buts sont essentiellement la déconstruction du paradigme dualiste de la pensée discursive et la réalisation qu’il n’existe, ultimement et paradoxalement, aucune réelle entrave à l’éveil et aucune pratique méditationnelle nécessaire à l’expérience de l’éveil. / Our analysis pertains to the notion of awakening in the Vimalakîrti Sûtra. Firstly, we present and compare the models of awakening exposed in this text, namely the figure of the buddha and – especially – that of the bodhisattva; we analyze their two major characteristic traits, that is to say transcendent knowledge and skillful means, and elaborate on their relation to awakening. We quickly find that transcendent knowledge is a non discursive knowledge of the real nature of all things and that it is a necessary condition to awakening, whereas skillful means – also called salvific expedients – constitute the myriad of clever and merely provisory means conceived and used by buddhas and bodhisattva in order to bring all ignorant beings to awakening and thus to liberate them from attachment and suffering. In the second chapter, we characterize the state of consciousness of the awakened through notions such as non-duality, non-discrimination and no-mind, and present the conception of meditational practice upheld in our sûtra. We show that the state of awakening is a non discriminating state of consciousness in which personal identity and phenomena – or the subject-object duality – are recognized as illusions or, more precisely, as mental and linguistic constructions. Meditation thus appears to be a provisory skillful mean, the goals of which are the deconstruction of discursive thought’s dualist paradigm and the realization that, ultimately and paradoxically, there exist no real obstacles to awakening and no necessary meditational practice to the experience of awakening.

This thesis examines the revivalist writings of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) and George Whitefield (1714-1770) for evidence that the Great Awakening altered their perspective on revival. It is principally based on primary sources written between 1736 and 1743. Six separate chapters explore their background, their understanding of revival, their efforts at propagating it, their techniques in managing the revival, their defense of revival, and their institutionalization of revival. Both their understandings of revival came from their own observations of the revivals that accompanied their evangelistic efforts. Their theological background, heavily influenced by Calvin, insisted that God was responsible for both conversions and revival. The thesis notes that Whitefield�s and Edwards� use of four primary techniques to propagate revival evolved as they experienced revival. Their preaching, their organization of small, religious education groups, their publishing of sermons, and their written narratives of revival all show signs of adaptation to changing circumstances. Both managed revival by using small groups and publications to guide people way from inappropriate spiritual expressions. These groups and documents also provided opportunities to educate new converts about their spiritual experiences. Edwards and Whitefield had the opportunity to clarify their understanding of revival as they defended the revival against those critics who questioned their claims about God�s role in the religious events of 1735-1743. Both institutionalized revival by interacting with the next generation of evangelical ministers and by making available their doctrines and their own experiences in their published narratives. This propensity to publish their reflections on revival allowed future generations access to their revival principles. The overriding hypothesis of this study is that Whitefield�s and Edwards� understanding of revival grew out of their involvement in revival in the eighteenth century religious revivals of colonial North America and that their revival writings and preaching were attempts to codify and transfer the lessons they had learned about revival to future generations of Christians who might, they hoped, themselves experience a God-ordained time of revival. The key conclusions of this study are that 1) Whitefield�s and Edwards� positions on revival issues developed through repeated exposures to revival, 2) Whitefield and Edwards used similar means to propagate, manage, defend, and institutionalize revival, 3) Whitefield�s sermons and journals themselves express a clear and concise theology, 4) a comparison of Whitefield�s and Edwards� theology refutes the suggestion that the lack of a uniform theology throughout the colonies negates the reality of the Great Awakening, 5) a careful study of Whitefield�s and Edwards� revival writings produces a heightened awareness of the nature of their narrative works, 6) Edwards� revival writings show a concern for worship that is too often missed in studies of his work, 7) Edwards and Whitefield were actively involved in developing, recording, and teaching the principles of authentic revival.

Thesis (M.A.)--Wheaton College, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-92).

Thesis (M.A.)--Wheaton College, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-92).

abstract: Built upon Control Value Theory, this dissertation consists of two studies that examine university students’ future-oriented motivation, socio-emotional regulation, and diurnal cortisol patterns in understanding students’ well-being in the academic-context. Study 1 examined the roles that Learning-related Hopelessness and Future Time Perspective Connectedness play in predicting students’ diurnal cortisol patterns, diurnal cortisol slope (DS) and cortisol awakening response (CAR). Self-reported surveys were collected (N = 60), and diurnal cortisol samples were provided over two waves, the week before a mid-term examination (n = 46), and the week during students’ mid-term (n = 40). Using multi-nomial logistic regression, results showed that Learning-related Hopelessness was not predictive of diurnal cortisol pattern change after adjusting for key covariates; and that Future Time Perspective Connectedness predicted higher likelihood for students to have low CAR across both waves of data collection. Study 2 examined students’ future-oriented motivation (Future Time Perspective Value) and socio-emotional regulation (Effortful Control and Social Support) in predicting diurnal cortisol patterns over the course of a semester. Self-reported surveys were collected (N = 67), and diurnal cortisol samples were provided over three waves of data collection, at the beginning of the semester (n = 63), during a stressful academic period (n = 47), and during a relaxation phase near the end of the semester (n = 43). Results from RM ANCOVA showed that Non-academic Social Support was negatively associated with CAR at the beginning of the semester. Multi-nomial logistics regression results indicated that Future Time Perspective Value and Academic Social Support jointly predicted CAR pattern change. Specifically, the interaction term marginally predicted a higher likelihood of students switching from having high CAR at the beginning or stressful times in the semester to having low CAR at the end the semester, compared to those who had low CAR over all three waves. The two studies have major limits in sample size, which restricted the full inclusion of all hypothesized covariates in statistical models, and compromised interpretability of the data. However, the methodology and theoretical implications are unique, providing contributions to educational research, specifically with regard to post-secondary students’ academic experience and well-being. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Family and Human Development 2017