KU ScholarWorks

KU ScholarWorks is the institutional repository of the University of Kansas, featuring scholarly work by KU faculty, staff and students.

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The Discourse of Desire During Times of Crisis in Mexican Novels of the 1980's
(University of Kansas, 2003-05-31) Avellanet, Sheila Koessler
After enjoying nearly four decades of unprecedented political stability and economic growth later labeled the "Mexican Miracle" (1940-1980), Mexico plunged into the depths of economic and social crisis when petroleum prices plummeted in 1982. What followed was a long period of economic and political uncertainty, impacting society on many different levels. This study explores how this cultural and spiritual angst is manifested in the literature of the 1980s. The literature published during this time of crisis in Mexico provides an intriguing framework in which to explore issues of national and cultural identity. Much of the fiction of this decade deals with thematic variants of desire: profound nostalgia (desire for an idealized past), anguished self-questioning (desire to know the self), or intense yearning for spiritual or sexual connections (desire for another). This overt preoccupation with desire informs the central question of my own exploration--that is, the theoretical significance of desire in the novels published in Mexico during the turbulent decade of the 1980s. Three novels stand out for their treatment of desire and its relation to questions of national and cultural identity: Angeles Mastretta's Arrancame la vida (1985), Alberto Ruy Sanchez's Los nombres del aire (1987) and Federico Patan's Puertas antiguas (1989). While portraying desire as an integral thematic component, each offers diverging views on what constitutes Mexican identity. Thus, through my exploration of Mexican subjectivity, gender formation, and desire, my goal in this study has been to show that Mexican identity is not so easily defined. In summary, ·this study explores how the discourse of desire in recent Mexican novels participates in the articulation of a nation's anxieties during times of crisis.
A study of the effectiveness of a Chapter I reading program at the first grade level designed to provide oral language development, readiness and beginning reading training, and computer assisted drill and practice correlated with classroom instruction
(University of Kansas, 1984-12-31) Burnett, Joan Carol
The purpose of this study was to determine if the Chapter I reading program could be instrumental in a preventive approach in the first grades. Students were identified as not having basic readiness skills intact upon entering first grade by the district language arts consultant, classroom teacher, and the Chapter I reading specialist. There were four experimental groups that received additional readiness and oral language development training, as well as being given more time on reading tasks taught in the regular classroom. The micro-computer was used with software that was designed by the basal publisher to parallel the reading skills being taught in the regular classroom. The objective was to correlate beginning reading instruction closely with classroom instruction while providing a research-based eclectic approach to compensatory language development and readiness instruction. There were four groups of students identified in the same manner who did not receive the additional reading classes until it was possible under the normal Chapter I policy guidelines, after January on a space available basis, or who did not receive special services at all. The ~l students selected for the study attended three Chapter I elementary schools in Unified School District 497, Lawrence, Kansas. Nineteen of the first graders were enrolled in the Chapter I reading program and received reading instruction 30 minutes daily four days a week. Scores for data analysis were obtained from seven testing instruments: the Clymer-Barrett Readiness Test, the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts, the Structured Photographic Language Test II, and four subtests of an informal survey designed by the reading specialists: (1) independent written production of upper case letters in sequence (2) written production of dictated, lower case, out-of-sequence letters (3) auditory recognition of and verbal production of initial consonant sounds (4) auditory recognition of rhyming words. These seven tests were administered twice during the 1983-1984 school year as pretests and posttests. Raw scores were the criteria used to measure the dependent variable, reading achievement, except for the Structured Photographic Language Test which required the use of percentage scores. The t-test was used to determine the level of difference between the control group and experimental group results. The .05 level of significance was selected as the appropriate level for acceptance or rejection of the null hypothesis. This study demonstrated that there were significant main effects for treatment groups on three measures: the Clymer-Barrett Readiness Test, the written independent production of upper case letters in sequence, and the written production of dictated, lower case, out-of-sequence letters. There was no significant main effect on the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts, the Structured Photographic Language Test II, the auditory recognition and verbal production of initial consonant sounds, and the auditory recognition of rhyming words.
Development of an instrument : maternal postpartum adaptation to motherhood
(University of Kansas, 1984-08-31) Chaffin, Dee Englebrecht
The purpose of this study was to construct a valid and reliable instrument designed to measure postpartum adaptation to motherhood. Subjects were postpartum clients in a large midwestern medical center. A convenience sample (N=54) completed two questionnaires as inpatients; a demographic profile and a Marital Adjustment Sematic Differential Scale. The Maternal Postpartum Adaptation to Motherhood questionnaire was completed Day 12 and Day 14 after discharge. The instrument under study was developed by this investigator. Items were designed from five constructs described in the conceptual framework; "Self, Maternal History, Newborn, Role Adjustment, and Situation". Content validity was analyzed through the use of a panel of experts and examination of open-ended questions. The percent agreement between investigator and the panel of experts was 73.73% which closely approximated but did not attain the 75% agreement desired for content validation. Construct validation was analyzed through comparison of contrasted groups and factor analysis. Instrument scores of the contrasted groups "expected positive" and "expected negative" postpartum adaptation supported construct validity as differences between the mean scores were statistically significant, p=0.0135 (significance was set at p L 0.05), the difference was in the appropriate direction. Instrument items were submitted to factor analysis using an oblique rotation (PROMAX). Eight factors were found to have eigenvalues> 1.0 and to share 80% of the total variance. Four of the five theoretical constructs were seen as equivalent to, or subsets of, the factored constructs. One constructs was not evident through factor analysis. Constructs which were identified through factor analysis were: Satisfaction, Role Adaptation, Childhood History, Family Influence, Dependency, Acceptance, Sexuality, and Role Incorporation. Further research is needed to validate these labels as correct interpretations of the factors. Test-retest reliability was examined through the use of the statistical test Spearman correlation coefficient. Results were r=.8035. Internal consistency of the instrument was examined through the use of the statistical test, Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The coefficient found was 0.760. These reliability coefficients are within acceptable limits for instruments designed to measure differences between groups.
Bubble point pressure data of the CO2-n-butane-n-decane, CO2-n-butane-n-butycyclohexane and CO2-n-butane-n-butylbenzene systems at 160 F. and 1400 psia
(University of Kansas, 1983-05-31) Cramer, Harlan C.
There are an estimated 300 billion barrels of crude oil in Known oil reservoirs in the United Stales which will not be recovered by primary or secondary production (National Petroleum Council, 1976}. Some of this oil can be recovered by tertiary methods, one of which is carbon dioxide miscible flooding. The purpose of this work was to determine experimentally the effect of the PNA distribution on the ability of CO2 to become miscible with hydrocarbon mixtures. Therefore, bubble point pressure data were taken on CO2 n-butane - C10 systems by the pressure - volume intersection method. The results of this work concerning the PNA distribution are inconclusive. Therefore, it is recommended that the accuracy of the MMC predictions be tested by slim tube experiments. In addition, this effect should be studied at higher pressure, where any effect should be more pronounced and the relative amounts of light and intermediate hydrocarbons to heavy hydrocarbons should be closer to those of real crude oils. Finally, more information is needed to accurately determine interaction coefficients. It is suggested that an experimental program employing both bubble point pressure determination and sampling of the coexisting vapor phase be considered.
Follow-up study on the relationship of dietary, environmental, and biochemical factors to bone density in a population of elderly men and women
(University of Kansas, 1984-05-31) Doolan, Linda Sue
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the relationship of dietary, environmental, and biochemical factors to bone density changed over a four year period in a group of normal healthy elderly residents in southeast Kansas. Fifteen of thirty-five male and sixteen of twenty-nine female volunteers between the ages of 67 and 88 who participated in two previous studies completed the study. Dietary intakes of calcium, phosphorus, ratio, vitamins D and C, animal and vegetable protein, and calories were determined using the Missouri Nutrition Survey. Amount of sunlight exposure and physical activity were determined by questionnaire. Bone density was measured by photon absorption with a bone densitometer. Serum levels of calcium, 25-hydroxyvitamin D, and parathyroid hormone were measured. Mean dietary intake of calcium, vitamin D, and animal and vegetable protein decreased considerably in the men. Less change in dietary intake was found in the women except for a sizeable increase in intake of vitamins D and C. Mean sunlight exposure and bone density decreased for both men and women; physical activity decreased in the women. Stepwise multiple regression analysis demonstrated a significant relationship between a lower sunlight exposure, higher serum calcium level, and higher calcium intake with a higher bone density in the men; and between a younger age and higher vitamin C intake with a higher bone density in the women. A regression analysis of the change in values for the factors studied predicted that women who consumed less vegetable protein and engaged in less physical activity had less of a decrease in bone density; no significant associations were found in the men.