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The Cosmopolitan Legacy of Michael Handelsman
Get PDFThis text seeks to explore the cosmopolitan character of critiques on Ecuadorian authors in the essayistic works of Michael Handelsman. One of the fundamental contributions of the American critic is revaluating Ecuadorian Literature from a critical, liberating and universal approach
Bawdy Blows: VET Tv and the Comedy of Combat Masculinity
Get PDFIt is a practical truism that hypermasculine rules of engagement pervade U.S. military culture. Veteran Television (VET Tv), the self-proclaimed “Comedy Central of the military,” amplifies it to the ribald. This article takes up the online network’s contention that bloodthirstiness, indecency, cocksureness, and libidinous impudence characterize the new normal of the post-9/11 male soldier. By examining its comic framework for aligning bawdry with masculinity in bello (in or at war), I argue that VET Tv promotes the vice of male decadence in the guise of military virtue, particularly by making women the stooges for flippant misogyny, unadulterated maleness, and warlike eroticism on the home front
Reframing Disability through an Ecocritical Perspective in Sara Mesa\u27a \u3cem\u3eCara de pan\u3c/em\u3e
Get PDFThis article establishes a dialogue between disability studies and ecocriticism to analyze Sara Mesa’s novel Cara de pan (2018), which narrates the relationship between a thirteen-year-old girl bullied at school and a fifty-four-year-old man with an atypical appearance who fixates on limited topics. The analysis examines the hegemony of normativity and dominant social narratives about disability, gender, and sexuality. Grounded in the idea that people with disabilities actively intervene in their environment, the essay argues that the characters’ environmental empathy supports the need for a diversity of experiences and perspectives, positively resituating disability and autism
Brand Loyalty in a Bertrand-Type Oligopoly Setting
Get PDFIt appears that in today’s brand-proliferating, constantly market-segmenting and technologically evolving global economy, consumer perceptions affect an entire industry in which brand loyalty is possible such as the extremely hot and rapidly developing global smartphone industry. In a brand-loyalty-prone industry, what are the implications of brand loyalty in terms of, among others, industry price, sales and profit? I propose a market structure in which each firm’s profit depends on sales of a brand realized in a captive market segment as well as on sales of the same brand realized in a non-captive market segment; ignoring costs of production and assuming that all firms simultaneously enter into the two market segments and that price discrimination of the 3rd degree is not possible, I employ a Bertrand-type duopoly structure and then aggregate over n firms. Counterintuitively, industry price, quantity and profit all rise with entry. The findings are primarily due to the assumed entry condition (that each entrant enters into two market segments one of which is a monopoly) and secondarily to the inability of the sellers to price discriminate. I conclude that experience-type data in the smartphone industry can be considered as somewhat supportive of the proposed structure and the derived theoretical results
Alpha Band Signatures of Social Synchrony
Get PDFPrevious research has reported changes in mu rhythm, the central rhythm of the alpha frequency band, in both intentional and spontaneous interpersonal coordination. The current study was designed to extend existing findings on social synchrony to the pendulum swinging task and simultaneously measured time unfolding behavioral synchrony and EEG estimation of mu activity during spontaneous, intentional in-phase and intentional anti-phase interpersonal coordination. As expected, the behavioral measures of synchrony demonstrated the expected pattern of weak synchronization for spontaneous coordination, moderate synchronization for intentional anti-phase coordination, and strong synchronization for in-phase coordination. With respect to the EEG measures, we found evidence for mu enhancement for spontaneous coordination in contrast to mu suppression for intentional coordination (both in phase and anti-phase), with higher levels of synchronization associated with higher levels of mu suppression in the right hemisphere. The implications of the research findings and methodology for understanding the underlying mechanisms contributing to social problems in psychological disorders, leader-follower relationships, and inter-brain dynamics are discussed
Entrepreneurship in Marinas: Does a Business Plan Translate into a Successful Business?
Get PDFThe field of entrepreneurship is recognized as being of fundamental importance for our economy. Small business entrepreneurs play a crucial role in generating new products and new employment in the United States. However, according to U.S statistics, eight out of ten entrepreneurs who start businesses fail within the first eighteen months. Understanding the factors that can increase the likelihood of success is crucial. One theory of successful entrepreneurship is that it stems from a strong business plan. This thesis will examine how this is indeed the case for owning a marina on Long Island
The Microbial Community of Kitchen Sponges: Experimental Study Investigating Bacterial Number, Resistance and Transfer
Get PDFThere are over 48 million episodes of foodborne illnesses in the U.S each year, 3,000 of which result in death (CDC, 2018). Many of these cases may have been prevented with improved sanitation techniques. Previous studies results suggest that kitchen sponges are reservoirs for pathogens and can serve as vector of cross-contamination (Rossi et al., 2013). This hypothesis proposes that the moist, porous nature of kitchen sponges not only provides microbes the perfect physical and nutritional environment, but it also provides a vehicle that allows potential pathogens to move from place to place. The goal of this 12-week research study was to quantify the bacterial number in and on typical household kitchen sponges and to test the effectiveness of common household sanitation techniques on bacterial number. In addition, the transfer of bacteria from sponge to surface was also investigated. To do this, five sponges were distributed to five participants of the Assumption College community who agreed to partake in this study. Every 7 days for a total of 28 days, a square centimeter from each sponge was removed and the bacterial load was quantified in triplicate using colony forming units (CFU) per cm3 on nutrient agar media. Out of the 14 samples, 3 samples reached a log value \u3e1x109 CFU/cm3 (\u3e9 log CFU/cm3). Surprisingly, a significant correlation between the bacterial load and the amount of time the sponge was used was not observed as there was only a 0.4% increase in log10 in the bacterial abundance from week two to week three suggesting consistent bacterial loads after two weeks of use. To determine the most effective strategies for decontamination, sponges that had been used for 28 days were subjected to various treatments. Bacterial abundance was significantly reduced with the use of all sanitation methods apart from the use of hot soapy water as a cleaning technique. Bleach and ethanol treated sponges both showed a 99.9% log CFU/cm3 decrease in bacterial growth. Lastly to test the ability sponges to transfer bacteria, a four-week old sponge was scrubbed against a benchtop and the surface was quantified for bacterial number. The results showed an average of 5.12% bacterial transfer from sponge to surface. These data support previous studies which suggest that kitchen sponges provide a hospitable environment for microbial growth. Moreover, our data provides a clear protocol on how to properly eliminate bacterial contamination in kitchen sponges
2019-2020 Undergraduate Catalog
Get PDFContains course descriptions, academic calendar, directory, and related information.https://digitalcommons.assumption.edu/undergraduate-catalogs/1007/thumbnail.jp
Technology Change or Resistance to Changing Institutional Logics: The Rise and Fall of Digital Equipment Corporation
Get PDFThis article uses an institutional lens to analyze organizational failure. It does this through a historical case study of Digital Equipment Corporation, an innovator and market leader of minicomputers who faltered and eventually failed during the period of technological change brought on by the emergence of the personal computer. The failure of Digital Equipment Corporation is interesting because it occurred despite its ability to adapt to changing technological forces. An institutional analysis shows that while Digital Equipment Corporation was able to develop personal computers widely considered technologically superior to its competitors, it resisted broader changes occurring in its institutional context. This study suggests that responding to external forces of change, such as technology, may not be enough. An organization must determine if and how such change might lead to a shift in its institutional context and then develop strategies to address such change
Developmental Changes in Imitation During Mother-Infant Interactions
Get PDFWe investigated the continuity and stability of imitative episodes (IMEs) to shed light on the nature of early infant imitative ability. We observed and analyzed interactions of 27 mother-infant pairs as they played in their homes at one and 10 months. We coded the initiator, frequency, duration, kind, structure, and affect of IMEs. At 10 months, dyads engaged in more frequent and longer IMEs that tended to be vocal, turn-takings, and positive in affect. Significant stability was observed. Mothers who initiated more IMEs and expressed more positive affect had infants who did the same. Findings suggest that dyads set stable communication patterns early on, even though all of these variables increased significantly over time. These patterns may be driven or be highly influenced by early individual differences in communicative ability. Findings also imply that building a history of positive exchanges may be critical in demonstrating stability in imitative episodes