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You Have Legs Like Everybody Else : How The Secret Garden Brought the Medical Model of Disability and the Cure Narrative into a New Era
Full text linkThe Spartan Mirage; A Study into Spartan Women
Full text linkA myth has been perpetuated about the Greek city-state of Sparta which has shrouded it in a mirage. This mirage can make it difficult to determine what Sparta was truly like, which includes the reality of its women. Scholars tend to present Spartan women within extremes that either showcase them as no different from other women or as the ones holding all the power. Spartan women were key in passing on important values to their children such as to die bravely in battle or not come home at all. By looking into Spartan women, we can find strong evidence that they were different from women at that time, but we must look closer to see what “different” truly implies. For this paper, I plan to closely examine sources to draw the strongest conclusions about what it meant to be a Spartan woman and peel back the Spartan mirage
How Mental and Emotional Stress Impacts Vocal Phonation in Adolescent Singers
Full text linkThis study examines the relationship between mental/emotional stress and vocal phonation abilities in high school choir students. 17 pairs of General Health Questionnaires and Vocal Screenings were completed by four student participants. These questionnaires and screenings were completed on a weekly basis. Within the General Health Questionnaire, there were several negative correlations with “Concentration” from the General Health Questionnaire results, those being “Loss of Sleep” (r = -0.547, p = 0.023) and “Losing Confidence in Self” (r = 0.575, p = 0.016), as detailed in Table 3. The largest correlations to “Concentration” are “Under Strain” (r = -0.742, p = \u3c.001) and “Feeling Unhappy” (r = -0.746, p = \u3c.001). From the documented screenings, there was very little impact noted on the phonological abilities of the participants. Presence of “Non-Musical Sounds” had a strong correlation with “Tone Quality” (r = 0.683, p = 0.001), showing that there was an increase of non-musical sounds when tone quality had decreased in score
GUBIC: The global urban biological invasions compendium for plants
Full text linkAbstract Urban areas are foci for the introduction of non-native plant species, and they often act as launching sites for invasions into the wider environment. Although interest in biological invasions in urban areas is growing rapidly, and the extent and complexity of problems associated with invasions in these systems have increased, data on the composition and numbers of non-native plants in urbanized areas remain scattered and idiosyncratic. We assembled data from multiple sources to create the Global Urban Biological Invasions Compendium (GUBIC) for vascular plants representing 553 urban centres from 61 countries across every continent except Antarctica. The GUBIC repository includes 8140 non-native plant species from 253 families. The number of urban centres in which these non-native species occurred had a log-normal distribution, with 65.2% of non-native species occurring in fewer than 10 urban centres. Practical implications: The dataset has wider applications for urban ecology, invasion biology, macroecology, conservation, urban planning and sustainability. We hope this dataset will stimulate future research in invasion ecology related to the diversity and distributional patterns of non-native flora across urban centres worldwide. Further, this information should aid the early detection and risk assessment of potential invasive species, inform policy development and assist in setting management priorities
The Main Portal of St. Mark’s Basilica: An Amalgam of Venetian Pride and Success and Foreign Influence
Full text linkSt. Mark’s Basilica in Venice stands as a testament to the city’s complex historical and cultural narrative, intertwining elements of conquest, religion, and artistry. This essay delves into the western façade of the basilica, focusing particularly on the main portal—richly adorned with Byzantine bronze doors, marble columns, and mosaics of the Last Judgement. These elements not only serve as relics of Venetian pride and power but also signify the city’s historical relations with the Byzantine Empire, especially following the Fourth Crusade. The façade’s elaborate decoration showcases Venice’s capability to integrate spoils of conquest with local architectural traditions, reflecting both a celebration of its past victories and its ongoing ecclesiastical significance. Through detailed examination of the façade’s structure and ornamentation, this essay explores how Venice has used the basilica to project its identity, in both historical and modern contexts
Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Drug Addiction: Insights from the Predictive Processing Framework
Full text linkDrug addiction, a globally prevalent and burdensome psychiatric disorder, poses a significant challenge to conventional treatments, necessitating a deeper understanding of its mechanisms and exploration of alternative approaches for effective intervention. Despite initial success in research trials, mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have been met with skepticism due to a lack of comprehensive understanding of their underlying treatment mechanisms. The present paper argues that the predictive processing (PP) framework can provide unifying accounts of addiction and MBIs, and that a closer examination of the underlying mechanisms involved in both the disorder and the treatment can offer important insights for intervention and recovery. This paper highlights various features of the clinical profile of addiction within the PP framework, including poor self-control, cravings, and a lack of corrective learning. Further, it details a comprehensive account of three key mechanisms involved in the treatment action of MBIs: “being mode,” decentering, and reactivity. Future directions and treatment implications of this framework are discussed. The arguments presented in this paper bear significance for the optimization of addiction treatments with MBIs
Lost out at Sea on “Floating Palaces”: Examining the Overlooked Tale of the Ocean Liner Stewardess, 1890–1919
Full text linkThis paper examines the lives and experiences of women working aboard ocean liners during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During this era of “floating palaces,” women went to work at sea as stewardesses and nurses. By relying on the testimonies of stewardess Violet Jessop and other unnamed working women aboard ocean liners from 1890 to 1919, I argue how these women had more freedom and opportunities than their land counterparts and challenged the notion of the sea as a male-dominated space. Glossing over their stories undermines their efforts and reduces them to a secondary role in the transatlantic travel narrative. This paper focuses on women employed on ocean liners as they navigated the organization and structure of their ships, social standards at the time—including their experience with sexual assault and disasters—and opportunities available to them. Their lives showcase the opportunities and freedoms presented with employment on ocean liners
The Impact of Bilingualism on Executive Functioning and Mathematical Abilities Throughout Development
Full text linkResearch suggests that a bilingual advantage is present for domain-general cognitive abilities, such as working memory (López, 2021), leaving it unclear whether an advantage exists for domain-specific abilities (e.g., mathematics abilities). Given the role of working memory and executive functioning in math achievement, this project explored the cognitive effects of bilingualism. It was hypothesized that participants who are bilingual, or who spoke a language other than English at home, would have enhanced performances on working memory and executive functioning tasks. It was further hypothesized that if an executive functioning bilingual advantage existed, then bilinguals would exhibit stronger math abilities. College students (N = 42, nBilingual = 14, nMonolingual = 28) and elementary schoolers (N = 31, nBilingual = 14, nMonolingual = 17) participated in the study. Participants completed the Corsi Block Task (assessed working memory), the Flanker Task (assessed executive functioning), and the Woodcock Johnson Task (assessed math). There was no indication of a bilingual advantage in regard to working memory, executive functioning, or math abilities among the college and elementary samples. No significant correlations between degree of bilingualism and performance on each task were found in the college and elementary samples. However, there were significant correlations denoted between performance on specific tasks (e.g., Corsi Task and Woodcock Johnson Task, Corsi Task and Flanker Task, and Woodcock Johnson and Flanker 5 Block Task) in the elementary sample. In the future, a second elementary sample from a monolingual school could be collected to better understand the effect of bilingualism on one’s cognition