Spectrum (E-Journal)
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To Go or Not to Go: Exploring brain activation during response inhibition reading tasks
Get PDFObjective: Response inhibition is an understudied component of reading that aids in the selection of appropriate responses amidst complicated tasks. Our objective was to explore the contribution of brain regions associated with response inhibition processing in reading tasks that vary in difficulty of response inhibition.
Method: Participants (N = 15) completed two go/no-go reading tasks while in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner, with the instructions to “name aloud the letter strings that spell a real word.” For the minimal response inhibition condition, the foils, which are stimuli that should not be repsonded to, were nonwords with unfamiliar spelling and sound (e.g., “bink”). For the maximal response inhibition condition, the foils were pseudohomophones with unfamiliar spelling but familiar sound (e.g., “pynt”). The following brain regions associated with decision-making processes were analyzed: the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC), the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), the middle temporal gyrus (MTG), the middle occipital gyrus (MOG), and the posterior insula (PI).
Results: Significant differences in activation within the nonword task were found for the DMPFC and the PI (the ACC approached significance). Significant differences in activation within the pseudohomophone task were found for the ACC, the MTG, and the PI. The IFG was found to be greatly activated for all words that had familiar phonemes (sounds). The MOG was found to be activated across all tasks.
Conclusion: We provide evidence for differential response inhibition processing in the decision-making network during reading tasks. This work is a necessary step in better understanding response inhibition ability for individuals with and without reading impairments
Vulgar Imagery and Biological Themes: An Analysis of the Nazi’s Anti-Semitic Dialogue
Get PDFDuring World War Two, the Nazi regime created a mechanized and systematic killing process with the intention of eliminating the “undesirables” of their occupied territory—now referred to as the Holocaust. While the true scale of this system was not openly publicized at the time, the motivation for its existence was an entrenched element of the Nazi ideology—the creation of a racially pure German state. The question stands as to how a political party could bring a nation in line with an ideology predicated on racism, ethnonationalism and the destruction of an entire people? This paper will provide an analysis of the type of language the Nazis used to do exactly that. Through studying their vocabulary, we find that their persistent use of biological themes and metaphors supported their self-defined “scientific anti-Semitism” and we can follow the effect this had on the general public. The Nazis were not the first group to push a violently discriminatory agenda upon their general population nor were they the last. By analyzing how they spoke on the topic we can see patterns and general themes emerge, giving us the ability to spot them in contemporary examples and helping us identify the emergence of dangerous movements before they take control
A Reflection of Assessment of Treatment of Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Child, Adolescent, and Adult Populations
Get PDFGeneralized anxiety disorder (GAD) was initially introduced in the revised third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III-R) as a diagnosis to help characterize chronic and excessive worry. Today, GAD is one of the most common anxiety disorders in the general population and practice. Although GAD is an increasingly popular area of research, it remains in a premature state. This is evident by a lack of empirically supported assessment measures, intervention strategies, and treatment options. The purpose of this paper is to briefly review current empirically based assessment and treatment interventions for GAD commonly used in child, adolescent, and adult populations
Highlighting Difficulties in Idiomatic Translation
Get PDFIdioms are fixed phrases with little to no possible syntactic reconfiguration, whose lexemes are not representative of the meaning they convey in any given language. Their complexity is rooted in deep semantic structures from ages of cultural history. In translation, idioms pose great difficulty due to their innate dichotomous nature and deep cultural roots. For an idiom to be translated from the source language into the target language, an equivalent idiom must be found in the target language in order for the translated idiom to have the same effect on the audience. This paper examines three English and German idioms in comparison to determine what allows for equivalency between translated idioms. Between the three levels of equivalence, strong, weak, and zero equivalence, there are different factors that add to the complexity of translation and their counterparts in translation. In this paper, I explore three levels of idiomatic equivalence and discuss how these three levels are different from each other
Top-Down Processing: A Network Analysis of The Lord of the Rings as a Means of Defining Good and Evil
Get PDFThis essay was written for Dr. Quamen’s ENGL 486 class on the Internet as Environment. Using networktheory, I seek to analyze the structural characteristics of power and authority in J.R.R. Tolkien’s TheLord of the Rings. I then compare my findings with H.C. Mack’s parametric analysis of the texts, andsuggest that both structural methodologies serve to reinforce the idea that concepts of sight andegotism play a key role in Tolkien’s binary portrayal of characters as being either good or evil. Theessay concludes with the suggestion that the configurations power and authority in LotR are deeply tiedto Tolkien’s portrayal of the nature of good and evil, and suggests further research into the questionof whether such power configurations may have since become mythic tropes in Western fantasy
The Agony of Love and Fear: Nazism and the German Queer Community, 1920-1945
Get PDFThe Nazis’ persecution of LGBTQ individuals is an often-overlooked topic in the wider study of theSecond World War. This paper synthesises recent research on this subject to provide an introductionto queer life in Germany between 1920 and 1945; it deals largely with the lives and experiences of gaymen, particularly their fight for legal equality in the interwar years and their mistreatment during the Naziperiod. Although not aiming to break new ground in this field, this paper aims to raise awareness of andgenerate interest in this topic among a general, interdisciplinary audience, and also to remind readersthat the struggles faced by the worldwide queer community neither began nor ended with the Third Reich
Auto Sequencer: A DNA Sequence Alignment and Assembly Tool
Get PDFThe process of determining the exact order of nucleotides in DNA is a crucial component of a wide varietyof research applications known as DNA sequencing. Over the last fifty years, several DNA sequencingtechnologies have been well characterized through their nature and the kind of output they provide. Evenwith significant advances in DNA sequencing technology, sequencing and assembly of large pieces ofDNA remains a complex task. It requires sequencing small reads of DNA at a time, and performing DNAsequence assembly to merge the individual pieces into a single contiguous sequence. DNA sequenceassembly, albeit tedious and time consuming, is a process in which short DNA sequence fragments aremerged into longer fragments in the attempt to reconstruct the original DNA sequence. This is usuallyachieved by manually identifying sequence overlaps between two reads before aligning them intoone contiguous sequence. Then, with the aid of online tools or software, this contiguous sequence istranslated into protein sequence. While this process may only take a few minutes, the complexity ofsequence translation and assembly can be driven by two major challenges: finding the most reasonableoverlap in sequences that may contain repeats or low quality regions, and outputting both nucleotideand protein sequence in an easy to use, comprehensive output. To facilitate this process, we introducean all-in-one tool: Auto Sequencer. This user-friendly tool can combine and translate raw DNA sequencefiles by finding the most reasonable overlap between them displaying outputs in flexible formats
Leadership Models in the Fashion Industry: Which Leadership Style is Most Stylish in Today’s Market?
Get PDFThe influence of fashion is inevitable in our everyday lives. With the rise of social media, anyone cannow be a trendsetter. As such, the fashion industry has become a rapidly changing industry, and manycompanies are struggling to keep up with changing consumer demands. Part of the problem may be thatfashion executives continue to lead companies with a classical, hierarchical approach that is conduciveto a lack of flexibility and creativity. What should fashion companies do to stay competitive?The purpose of this essay is to examine the importance of leadership within fashion companies andto explore which leadership style fits best in a rapidly changing fashion market. I argue that to staycompetitive in this field, fashion company executives should consider a transformational leadershipapproach in order to avoid biases thriving in hierarchies that limit their flexibility and creativity.Ultimately, although it is difficult to completely abandon hierarchies within fashion companies, evenimplementing aspects of the transformational style into a classical approach could help companies stayrelevant in today’s fashion industry
Does Gender Diversity on Corporate Boards Affect Firm Performance?
Get PDFThis current literature review focuses on the diversity of members on the board of directors in corporations. By exploring contemporary literature in finance, this article seeks to understand the effects of board member gender diversity on firm financial performance. Firstly, diversity in board members is shown to have mixed results on firm performance. Secondly, heterogeneous board members’ different life experiences and demographic characteristics lead them to solve problems and make decisions in various ways which could ultimately impact the financial performance of the firms they serve. Thirdly, gender diversity is a topic that has gained much attention on modern corporate boards. Appointing women to executive boards has proven to have effects on firm performance. In addition, governments around the world have taken action to promote gender equality by enacting gender quota legislation or by implementing codes of good governance. Furthermore, when appointed to the executive board, women face additional difficulties once in the boardroom. Lastly, the effects of gender diversity on firm performance are found to be mixed and varied
Taxation on Ultra-processed Foods to Trim Obesity: Is it Plausible in Canada?
Get PDFAs the prevalence of excess body weight has become normalized in Canadian society, this paper arguesfor implementation of a sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) and high saturated fat (SF) food taxation inCanada. These harmful foods and beverages are associated with excess calorie intake, lower nutrientintake, and a rise in body mass index. As the waistlines of Canadians continue to grow, it is of utmostimportance for obesity and overweight to be externally managed by the government with taxation onunhealthy substances, and a simultaneous subsidy on healthier alternatives. Potentially pairing SSB/SFtaxation with a fruits and vegetables subsidy could be one of the most effective means of achieving alteredconsumption patterns. The purpose is to curb availability of the former, increase consumption of the latter,and reduce weight gain and the harms that come along with it (e.g. metabolic disease and type II diabetes).The paper’s analysis focuses on children, adolescents (12-17 years old), and lower socioeconomic statuspopulations, as these populations are at a higher risk for overweight and obesity and would be mostpositively affected by the proposed taxation and subsidy. Briefly outlining the options governments have inreducing the levels of SSB/SF, questions are posed for future research regarding the area of ultra-processedfood taxations. Finally, notable objections to SSB/SF taxation are considered and alternative methods aresuggested such as income-based subsidy programs, which address inequitable distributions of proposedtaxation on vulnerable groups like children, adolescents, and lower socioeconomic status groups.
Keywords: Canada, fat tax, obesity, subsidy, taxation, ultra-processed food