bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
EFFECTIVENESS, EFFICIENCY, AND PROMPTNESS OF CLAIMS HANDLING PROCESS IN THE NIGERIAN INSURANCE INDUSTRY
Authors: Yusuf Tajudeen Olalekan , Ajemunigbohun Sunday Stephen
Published: March 2016

This study was designed with the aim of investigating the effectiveness, efficiency and promptness of claims handling process within the Nigerian insurance industry. To this end, the researchers have been able to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of claims handling process and thus, examine its promptness in relation to the organizational productivity of insurance companies in Nigeria. The study employed a cross-sectional type of survey design. A judgmental sampling technique was employed and relevant data were gathered through the use of structured questionnaire. The sample population consisted of 107 respondents made up of some members of staff within claims department drawn from 33 insurance companies which were selected from the directory of member companies. The major statistical technique employed for this study was a One Sample T-test. Two hypotheses were tested in this study. The hypotheses tested in the study found that managing claims effectively and efficiently will significantly affect operational process in claims management and thus, promptness in claims handling processes does essentially assist in fraud detection and prevention. The study recommends that claims manager should put forward strategic plans to ensuring that insurance claims complaint files are properly kept, monitored and handled for needs that may warrant its usefulness in the future. Claims handling procedures should be promptly managed to avoid deficiency in organization’s operational objectives, and lastly, Government should ammonize their resources and technical knowhow with the Nigerian insurance industry in ensuring that insurance claims are well designed to curtail fraudulent claims experienced in the past.
THE ROLE OF PATIENTS IN THE MANAGEMENT OF CHRONIC DISEASES: RESULTS OF THE FOCUS-GROUP STUDY
Authors: Dimcheva Teodora , Foreva Gergana , Аsenova Radost , Маteva Nonka , Stoev Todor , Dimova Rosica
Published: March 2016

The management of chronic diseases shall be considered a priority in the work of the global international institutions, which are related to health policies. In the search for effective and efficient solutions for the treatment of chronic diseases, scientists are developing different programs. In Bulgaria the continuous monitoring of chronically ill people is defined with the term dispensarization. The objective of the research is to analyze the place and the role of patients in the monitoring of their chronic diseases and how the concept of quality of life relates to this process.Method The research in focus groups is planned within a research project on the monitoring of chronic diseases. Five group discussions were held. The number of participants in all focus groups was sixty.Results The two discussed directions - the active role of the patient and the focus on the results are weak links in the current organization of the care for the chronically ill people. The topic of creating and adopting an Act of the patient was also presented, in which to be paid attention to the evaluation of the quality of life. In general was brought the need for a clear delineation of the roles and the competencies of everyone involved in the monitoring process of chronic diseases. The chronic disease cannot be defined only as a medical problem, as there are economic and social, including political consequences.Conclusions The management of the chronic disease requires coordination of doctor-patient interaction, a model of partnership and trust in the relations, self-management of the condition by the patients and their inclusion in the health team. The most important step to achieve this goal is the education of the patients, increasing their knowledge and motivation, psycho-emotional support, instilling hope and faith in the capacity of the patients.
Suffering Girls: The Work of Anti-Catholicism in Martha Finley’s Novels
Authors: Giffen Allison
Published: March 2016

In this essay I argue for the centrality of anti-Catholic discourse to Martha Finley’s literary project. I first examine her overlooked anti-Catholic novel Casella: or the Children of the Valleys (1868) in the context of popular convent tales. I then investigate the striking similarities between Casella and Elsie Dinsmore (1867) and Holidays at Roselands (1868), reading these novels in the context of the rhetoric that emerged from the Protestant and Catholic tensions during the rise of the Common School movement. I argue that such a move clarifies Finley’s contribution to the consolidation of a Protestant identity that constructs itself oppositionally to Catholicism.
What We Believe We Believe
Authors: McKay Becka Mara
Published: March 2016

“What We Believe We Believe” is about the uselessness and necessity of communicating with whatever we call God.
From “Human Knowledge”
Authors: Donish Cassie
Published: March 2016

This poem consists of excerpts from a longer sequence entitled “Human Knowledge,” a lyric poem that explores themes of the body, knowledge, sensuality, and how we make connections through language, memory, and image.
Rideau
Authors: Showler Suzannah
Published: March 2016

In this essay, Suzannah Showler describes ice skating to school while growing up beside the Rideau Canal in Ottawa, Canada. The essay discusses the history of the Canal's origins and considers both the appeal and limitations of forging a personal identity in relation to a national one.
Black Acres
Authors: Arning Bonnie
Published: March 2016

This poem deals with the speaker's psyche. "Black Acres" is a poem in which a speaker, who has recently divorced her husband, attempts to take inventory of her new life. In a move towards dark optimism, the speaker finds peace in her ownership of the destructed landscape.
Barnyard Deportees and Refugees
Authors: Lieberman Laurence
Published: March 2016

My friend Julio Maduro, who call himself a “Nationalist Historian of Aruba,” takes me on a tour of the island in his jeep. We survey the various breeds of wild animals as we drive inland from the shore. Julio names and describes the different species, and gives me a rough estimate of the total number of each type of creature. giving the history of the livestock, he explains the farm shutdown of the 1940’s that led to this continuing sprawl of animals, highlighting the dramatic appearance of the noisy wild donkeys.
The Icefield
Authors: Reed Mary Lynn
Published: March 2016

A female graduate student in mathematics attends a conference in Banff, and finds herself drawn to the area's natural wonders, its wildlife, and the residents of a neighboring artist colony.
New to the Bottom of Stone
Authors: Lodge-Rigal Susannah
Published: March 2016

“New to the Bottom of Stone” reflects on an afternoon spent bug hunting in Plum Creek. Too, this poem considers the tasks of catching and releasing, of discovering something and turning it back to the current.
5.21, and: 93.14
Authors: Nadler Daniel
Published: March 2016

“5.21” considers the hand as a tool, a source of compfort, and its effect of physical connection to another person. "93.14" considers the effects of human-caused impacts on the environment in a meditation on rain so hot it kills fish and turns the sand to glass.
Transubstantiation
Authors: Welch David
Published: March 2016

A pastoral poem exploring myth and evolution.
Last Night I Ruined Everything I Love
Authors: Lynch Alessandra
Published: March 2016

The poem comes from a dream and unfurls as a dream. It is a kind of revelation.
Samizdat: A Private Collection
Authors: Bilocerkowycz Sonya
Published: March 2016

In this essay, Sonya Bilocerkowycz explores her family’s legacy of political dissent amid a swirling backdrop of literary texts and current events in the post-Soviet space.
Green
Authors: Stancek Claire Marie
Published: March 2016

An experimental corpse poem whose shifting and indeterminate subject implicates the canon’s fragmentary remains, the decomposing lines of the poem, and the reader herself.
Rhode Island Easter
Authors: Keenan Michael
Published: March 2016

“Rhode Island Easter” is a poem that starts with an unnamed character sitting by King Tutankhamun’s grave reading a book by French poet Rimbuad. When King Tutankhamun suddenly wakes up, the two characters talk like old friends, seeming to pick up where they left off the last time they saw each other.
Providence, Creation, and Gnosticism According to the Gnostics
Authors: Burns Dylan M.
Published: March 2016

So many aspersions have been cast upon the term “Gnosticism” that even studies about “Gnostics” prefer to avoid it. Did the Gnostics then teach no Gnosticism? The extant works (mostly from Nag Hammadi) which seem to resemble their thought prefer the language of myth to the concise, syllogistic formulations that would help modern scholars define “Gnosticism.” However, Gnostic myths are often glossed with the philosophical terminology of their day, particularly regarding the concept of divine care, or providence (πρόνοια). When set aside contemporary Platonic, Stoic, and early Christian views about providence’s activity in creation, it becomes clear that Gnostic myths express a distinctive view that presupposes a disjunction between the creator of the cosmos and the true God, who expresses Its fundamental kinship with human beings through intervention in the creation of terrestrial humanity—not the terrestrial world. Gnostic texts that emphasize instead the ubiquity of God’s will in creation seem to attempt to hedge or mitigate this perspective, rather than contradict it. From the standpoint of ancient Greco-Roman philosophy, then, we might say that there certainly was a distinctively Gnostic view about divine providence, inviting us to rehabilitate the term “Gnosticism” accordingly.
“Child! Now you are”: Identity Registration, Labor, and the Definition of Childhood in Colonial Tanganyika, 1910–1950
Authors: Walters Sarah
Published: March 2016

Abstract:
This paper explores the relationship between identity registration and the regulation of child labor in colonial Tanganyika. The lack of identity registration in colonial Africa rendered childhood a malleable concept that could be variously manipulated. In Tanganyika, children were employed in both industrial and agricultural settings, working for both kin and non-kin, including in large colonial concerns. The lack of age data precluded regulation of labor and sparked debate about how to identify a child. Different actors defined “childhood” to suit their own ends, leading to both the exploitation and the empowerment of the Tanganyikan child. The discussion is situated against wider consideration of the role of civil registration in enabling child protection.
The Role of Race in Legitimizing Institutionalization: A Comparative Analysis of Early Child Welfare Initiatives in the United States
Authors: Bates Julia
Published: March 2016

In 1888, two conferences addressed the institutionalization of children. At the National Conference of Charities and Corrections, philanthropists determined that American and western European immigrant children whose parents were unable or unwilling to care for them should be protected from institutionalization and placed in foster homes. Conversely, the philanthropists and religious missionaries who met at the annual Lake Mohonk Conference concluded that American Indian children should be institutionalized in off-reservation boarding schools. Although both groups of children were depicted as a threat to social order at the conferences, presenters at the National Conference of Charities and Corrections used new theories of childhood development to oppose the institutionalization of American and western European children. At the Lake Mohonk Conference, presenters used theories of American Indians’ racial inferiority to justify American Indian children’s institutionalization in off-reservation boarding schools.
Assent as Agency in the Early Years of the Children of the American Revolution
Authors: Miller Susan A.
Published: March 2016

The Children of the American Revolution, founded in 1895 by Harriett M. Lothrop, was part of a fin-de-siècle surge in the growth of hereditary organizations, most of which took up a staunchly nationalist position as legitimate guardians of American tradition. But even within these parameters, children asserted their will. Using a definition of children’s agency that includes both resistance and compliance, I argue that children of the CAR found it in their interest to adopt the privileges and practices of the hereditary patriotic organization but to carve out a youth culture within those parameters. They shaped the organization’s activities to suit their own interests in the American past.
Transculturation of Madness: The Double Origin of Lu Xun’s “Diary of a Madman”
Authors: Ma Xiaolu
Published: March 2016

Over the years scholars have examined the allegorical features of the depiction of madness in Lu Xun’s “Diary of a Madman,” yet to date little research has taken into consideration the intercultural angle embedded in the narrative’s intersection of three cultures, namely Russian, Japanese and Chinese. This paper traces the European-Japanese-Sino route of modern neologisms of madness to explore the introduction of such neologisms into the modern Chinese language and how it corresponds with changing patterns of knowledge and power. I use my study of transculturation on the macro scale to frame a reexamination of the lexicon in “Diary of a Madman.” I focus especially on kuangren and pohaikuang , the two key words employed by Lu Xun, to see how they contribute to the ambiguity in his attitude towards the power struggle between the East and the West, the old and the new.
On the Unruly Power of Pain in Middle English Drama
Authors: Nakley Susan
Published: March 2016

Late medieval culture tends to value pain highly and positively. Accordingly, much medievalist scholarship links pain with fear and emphasizes their usefulness in the period’s philosophy, literature, visual art, and drama. Yet, key moments in The York Play of the Crucifixion, The Second Shepherds’ Play , and The Tretise of Miraclis Pleyinge trouble the significance of pain and its relationships with punishment and performance; these works admit the unreliability of pain and fear, even as they harness the formidable power pain holds throughout Middle English literature. This essay analyzes passages from all three texts to demonstrate their deep skepticism about the signifying power of pain alongside their abiding investments in pain’s utility. I argue that these texts ultimately challenge Middle English drama’s dominant discourses of patriarchy and empire by way of their representations of pain.
Waste not, Want not: Manuscript Fragments in the Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland
Authors: Barratt Alexandra
Published: March 2016

Early binders often used medieval manuscript material as wrappers, pastedowns, quire-guards, and spine liners. A careful examination of early printed books in the Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, unearthed a number of such fragments, while the availability of online Latin texts and of easy digital photography facilitated their identification, and that of previously known fragments. Notably, one substantial group proved to be from the earliest known medieval manuscript in the Southern Hemisphere: a Carolingian Bible. The Auckland fragments also generally confirm an international pattern: early binders preferred manuscripts that had become obsolete, particularly those of texts newly available in print.
Invidious Comparisons: Manuscripts and Incunabula in the Libraries Donated by Sir George Grey to Cape Town and Auckland
Authors: Hollis Stephanie
Published: March 2016

The manuscript collection Sir George Grey donated to Auckland is not a ‘mirror’ of the one he presented to Cape Town. Grey’s Cape Town library was assembled for his own use and enjoyment, particularly for the scholarly retirement he was then envisaging for his later life. His Auckland library was collected from the outset with the intention of donating it to his fellow citizens. Market forces and Grey’s distance from European salerooms, generally regarded as having restricted his acquisition of manuscripts, had significantly more effect on his acquisition of incunabula. Consideration of his incunabula, particularly his interest in early English printers, brings into sharp relief the absence of Middle English manuscripts from both of his collections, despite his personal and ideological attachment to Chaucer and his contemporaries.
The Disturbance
Authors: Smith Ryan Ruff
Published: March 2016

The Winter 2015-16 issue of Ploughshares. Ploughshares is an award-winning journal of new writing. Two out of each year’s three issues are guest-edited by prominent writers who explore different personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles, with the Winter issue staff-edited. The stories, poems, and essays that comprise this staff-edited issue of Ploughshares are diverse and timely. Visit a South African laundromat in Laurie Baker’s short story, “Here I Am, Laughing with Boers”; fly over the American midwest in George Bilgere’s poem, “Way Above Illinois”; and read about life as a border patrol agent in New Mexico in Francisco Cantú’s essay, “Bajadas.” The pieces jump from Manhattan to China to Idaho, but the common thread of humanity is never lost. Read new prose from Meng Jin, Ryan Ruff Smith, and Joan Murray, and poetry from Matthew Lippman, Natalie Shapero, and more. The winners of our Emerging Writer’s Contest appear here, along with the announcement of our Zacharis Award winner. This issue is dedicated to William H. Berman (1936-2015), an advisory board member and Emerson College overseer.
Ana’s Face
Authors: Hernández Felisberto
Published: March 2016

The Winter 2015-16 issue of Ploughshares. Ploughshares is an award-winning journal of new writing. Two out of each year’s three issues are guest-edited by prominent writers who explore different personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles, with the Winter issue staff-edited. The stories, poems, and essays that comprise this staff-edited issue of Ploughshares are diverse and timely. Visit a South African laundromat in Laurie Baker’s short story, “Here I Am, Laughing with Boers”; fly over the American midwest in George Bilgere’s poem, “Way Above Illinois”; and read about life as a border patrol agent in New Mexico in Francisco Cantú’s essay, “Bajadas.” The pieces jump from Manhattan to China to Idaho, but the common thread of humanity is never lost. Read new prose from Meng Jin, Ryan Ruff Smith, and Joan Murray, and poetry from Matthew Lippman, Natalie Shapero, and more. The winners of our Emerging Writer’s Contest appear here, along with the announcement of our Zacharis Award winner. This issue is dedicated to William H. Berman (1936-2015), an advisory board member and Emerson College overseer.
Bajadas
Authors: Cantú Francisco
Published: March 2016

The Winter 2015-16 issue of Ploughshares. Ploughshares is an award-winning journal of new writing. Two out of each year’s three issues are guest-edited by prominent writers who explore different personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles, with the Winter issue staff-edited. The stories, poems, and essays that comprise this staff-edited issue of Ploughshares are diverse and timely. Visit a South African laundromat in Laurie Baker’s short story, “Here I Am, Laughing with Boers”; fly over the American midwest in George Bilgere’s poem, “Way Above Illinois”; and read about life as a border patrol agent in New Mexico in Francisco Cantú’s essay, “Bajadas.” The pieces jump from Manhattan to China to Idaho, but the common thread of humanity is never lost. Read new prose from Meng Jin, Ryan Ruff Smith, and Joan Murray, and poetry from Matthew Lippman, Natalie Shapero, and more. The winners of our Emerging Writer’s Contest appear here, along with the announcement of our Zacharis Award winner. This issue is dedicated to William H. Berman (1936-2015), an advisory board member and Emerson College overseer.
History of the Horsemen
Authors: Whitmarsh Jason
Published: March 2016

The Winter 2015-16 issue of Ploughshares. Ploughshares is an award-winning journal of new writing. Two out of each year’s three issues are guest-edited by prominent writers who explore different personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles, with the Winter issue staff-edited. The stories, poems, and essays that comprise this staff-edited issue of Ploughshares are diverse and timely. Visit a South African laundromat in Laurie Baker’s short story, “Here I Am, Laughing with Boers”; fly over the American midwest in George Bilgere’s poem, “Way Above Illinois”; and read about life as a border patrol agent in New Mexico in Francisco Cantú’s essay, “Bajadas.” The pieces jump from Manhattan to China to Idaho, but the common thread of humanity is never lost. Read new prose from Meng Jin, Ryan Ruff Smith, and Joan Murray, and poetry from Matthew Lippman, Natalie Shapero, and more. The winners of our Emerging Writer’s Contest appear here, along with the announcement of our Zacharis Award winner. This issue is dedicated to William H. Berman (1936-2015), an advisory board member and Emerson College overseer.
Self-Portrait with Prevarication
Authors: Rader Dean
Published: March 2016

The Winter 2015-16 issue of Ploughshares. Ploughshares is an award-winning journal of new writing. Two out of each year’s three issues are guest-edited by prominent writers who explore different personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles, with the Winter issue staff-edited. The stories, poems, and essays that comprise this staff-edited issue of Ploughshares are diverse and timely. Visit a South African laundromat in Laurie Baker’s short story, “Here I Am, Laughing with Boers”; fly over the American midwest in George Bilgere’s poem, “Way Above Illinois”; and read about life as a border patrol agent in New Mexico in Francisco Cantú’s essay, “Bajadas.” The pieces jump from Manhattan to China to Idaho, but the common thread of humanity is never lost. Read new prose from Meng Jin, Ryan Ruff Smith, and Joan Murray, and poetry from Matthew Lippman, Natalie Shapero, and more. The winners of our Emerging Writer’s Contest appear here, along with the announcement of our Zacharis Award winner. This issue is dedicated to William H. Berman (1936-2015), an advisory board member and Emerson College overseer.
Way Above Illinois
Authors: Bilgere George
Published: March 2016

The Winter 2015-16 issue of Ploughshares. Ploughshares is an award-winning journal of new writing. Two out of each year’s three issues are guest-edited by prominent writers who explore different personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles, with the Winter issue staff-edited. The stories, poems, and essays that comprise this staff-edited issue of Ploughshares are diverse and timely. Visit a South African laundromat in Laurie Baker’s short story, “Here I Am, Laughing with Boers”; fly over the American midwest in George Bilgere’s poem, “Way Above Illinois”; and read about life as a border patrol agent in New Mexico in Francisco Cantú’s essay, “Bajadas.” The pieces jump from Manhattan to China to Idaho, but the common thread of humanity is never lost. Read new prose from Meng Jin, Ryan Ruff Smith, and Joan Murray, and poetry from Matthew Lippman, Natalie Shapero, and more. The winners of our Emerging Writer’s Contest appear here, along with the announcement of our Zacharis Award winner. This issue is dedicated to William H. Berman (1936-2015), an advisory board member and Emerson College overseer.
Wild Though the Sea
Authors: Rancourt Jacques
Published: March 2016

The Winter 2015-16 issue of Ploughshares. Ploughshares is an award-winning journal of new writing. Two out of each year’s three issues are guest-edited by prominent writers who explore different personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles, with the Winter issue staff-edited. The stories, poems, and essays that comprise this staff-edited issue of Ploughshares are diverse and timely. Visit a South African laundromat in Laurie Baker’s short story, “Here I Am, Laughing with Boers”; fly over the American midwest in George Bilgere’s poem, “Way Above Illinois”; and read about life as a border patrol agent in New Mexico in Francisco Cantú’s essay, “Bajadas.” The pieces jump from Manhattan to China to Idaho, but the common thread of humanity is never lost. Read new prose from Meng Jin, Ryan Ruff Smith, and Joan Murray, and poetry from Matthew Lippman, Natalie Shapero, and more. The winners of our Emerging Writer’s Contest appear here, along with the announcement of our Zacharis Award winner. This issue is dedicated to William H. Berman (1936-2015), an advisory board member and Emerson College overseer.
Restitution
Authors: Whitus Jerry
Published: March 2016

The Winter 2015-16 issue of Ploughshares. Ploughshares is an award-winning journal of new writing. Two out of each year’s three issues are guest-edited by prominent writers who explore different personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles, with the Winter issue staff-edited. The stories, poems, and essays that comprise this staff-edited issue of Ploughshares are diverse and timely. Visit a South African laundromat in Laurie Baker’s short story, “Here I Am, Laughing with Boers”; fly over the American midwest in George Bilgere’s poem, “Way Above Illinois”; and read about life as a border patrol agent in New Mexico in Francisco Cantú’s essay, “Bajadas.” The pieces jump from Manhattan to China to Idaho, but the common thread of humanity is never lost. Read new prose from Meng Jin, Ryan Ruff Smith, and Joan Murray, and poetry from Matthew Lippman, Natalie Shapero, and more. The winners of our Emerging Writer’s Contest appear here, along with the announcement of our Zacharis Award winner. This issue is dedicated to William H. Berman (1936-2015), an advisory board member and Emerson College overseer.
Titration
Authors: Peak Megan
Published: March 2016

The Winter 2015-16 issue of Ploughshares. Ploughshares is an award-winning journal of new writing. Two out of each year’s three issues are guest-edited by prominent writers who explore different personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles, with the Winter issue staff-edited. The stories, poems, and essays that comprise this staff-edited issue of Ploughshares are diverse and timely. Visit a South African laundromat in Laurie Baker’s short story, “Here I Am, Laughing with Boers”; fly over the American midwest in George Bilgere’s poem, “Way Above Illinois”; and read about life as a border patrol agent in New Mexico in Francisco Cantú’s essay, “Bajadas.” The pieces jump from Manhattan to China to Idaho, but the common thread of humanity is never lost. Read new prose from Meng Jin, Ryan Ruff Smith, and Joan Murray, and poetry from Matthew Lippman, Natalie Shapero, and more. The winners of our Emerging Writer’s Contest appear here, along with the announcement of our Zacharis Award winner. This issue is dedicated to William H. Berman (1936-2015), an advisory board member and Emerson College overseer.
Here I Am, Laughing with Boers
Authors: Baker Laurie
Published: March 2016

The Winter 2015-16 issue of Ploughshares. Ploughshares is an award-winning journal of new writing. Two out of each year’s three issues are guest-edited by prominent writers who explore different personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles, with the Winter issue staff-edited. The stories, poems, and essays that comprise this staff-edited issue of Ploughshares are diverse and timely. Visit a South African laundromat in Laurie Baker’s short story, “Here I Am, Laughing with Boers”; fly over the American midwest in George Bilgere’s poem, “Way Above Illinois”; and read about life as a border patrol agent in New Mexico in Francisco Cantú’s essay, “Bajadas.” The pieces jump from Manhattan to China to Idaho, but the common thread of humanity is never lost. Read new prose from Meng Jin, Ryan Ruff Smith, and Joan Murray, and poetry from Matthew Lippman, Natalie Shapero, and more. The winners of our Emerging Writer’s Contest appear here, along with the announcement of our Zacharis Award winner. This issue is dedicated to William H. Berman (1936-2015), an advisory board member and Emerson College overseer.
Tomorrow Will Be Fine
Authors: Ledbetter J.T.
Published: March 2016

The Winter 2015-16 issue of Ploughshares. Ploughshares is an award-winning journal of new writing. Two out of each year’s three issues are guest-edited by prominent writers who explore different personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles, with the Winter issue staff-edited. The stories, poems, and essays that comprise this staff-edited issue of Ploughshares are diverse and timely. Visit a South African laundromat in Laurie Baker’s short story, “Here I Am, Laughing with Boers”; fly over the American midwest in George Bilgere’s poem, “Way Above Illinois”; and read about life as a border patrol agent in New Mexico in Francisco Cantú’s essay, “Bajadas.” The pieces jump from Manhattan to China to Idaho, but the common thread of humanity is never lost. Read new prose from Meng Jin, Ryan Ruff Smith, and Joan Murray, and poetry from Matthew Lippman, Natalie Shapero, and more. The winners of our Emerging Writer’s Contest appear here, along with the announcement of our Zacharis Award winner. This issue is dedicated to William H. Berman (1936-2015), an advisory board member and Emerson College overseer.
Felisberto: A Look2 Essay on Felisberto Hernández
Authors: Fetchko Lisa
Published: March 2016

The Winter 2015-16 issue of Ploughshares. Ploughshares is an award-winning journal of new writing. Two out of each year’s three issues are guest-edited by prominent writers who explore different personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles, with the Winter issue staff-edited. The stories, poems, and essays that comprise this staff-edited issue of Ploughshares are diverse and timely. Visit a South African laundromat in Laurie Baker’s short story, “Here I Am, Laughing with Boers”; fly over the American midwest in George Bilgere’s poem, “Way Above Illinois”; and read about life as a border patrol agent in New Mexico in Francisco Cantú’s essay, “Bajadas.” The pieces jump from Manhattan to China to Idaho, but the common thread of humanity is never lost. Read new prose from Meng Jin, Ryan Ruff Smith, and Joan Murray, and poetry from Matthew Lippman, Natalie Shapero, and more. The winners of our Emerging Writer’s Contest appear here, along with the announcement of our Zacharis Award winner. This issue is dedicated to William H. Berman (1936-2015), an advisory board member and Emerson College overseer.
Edna Ferber and the Problems of the Middlebrow
Authors: Vigiletti Elyse
Published: March 2016

“Edna Ferber and the Problems of the Middlebrow” considers the career of one of the most popular writers of the twentieth century, Edna Ferber, in terms of a mode of writing sometimes called “middlebrow.” Through a middle-distance reading of several of her best novels, it argues that Ferber used the very strategies of her work that predicated both her mid-twentieth-century success and her current relative obscurity to simultaneously criticize and entertain the American middle class. This essay shows how the protest invariably at the core of Ferber’s novels could be deployed as an asset, rather than a liability, for attracting her tremendous mass appeal.
Queering Philip Roth: Homosocial Discourse in “An Actor’s Life for Me,” Letting Go, Sabbath’s Theater , and the “American Trilogy”
Authors: Brauner David
Published: March 2016

Much has been written on Roth’s representation of masculinity, but this critical discourse has tended to be situated within a heteronormative frame of reference, perhaps because of Roth’s popular reputation as an aggressively heterosexual, libidinous, masculinist, in some versions sexist or even misogynist author. In this essay I argue that Roth’s representation of male sexuality is more complex, ambiguous, and ambivalent than has been generally recognized. Tracing a strong thread of what I call homosocial discourse running through Roth’s oeuvre, I suggest that the series of intimate relationships with other men that many of Roth’s protagonists form are conspicuously couched in this discourse and that a recognition of this ought to reconfigure our sense of the sexual politics of Roth’s career, demonstrating in particular that masculinity in his work is too fluid and dynamic to be accommodated by the conventional binaries of heterosexual and homosexual, feminized Jew and hyper-masculine Gentile, the “ordinary sexual man” and the transgressively desiring male subject.
Affect Contagion in John Donne’s Deaths Duell
Authors: King Emily L.
Published: March 2016

Although emotion was central to the delivery of the early modern sermon, the conversion from performance to print makes this aspect inaccessible. To hypothesize how scholars might recover an affective archive, I read John Donne’s Deaths Duell (1631) alongside early modern medical texts and contemporary affective neuroscience. Making use of the concept of affect contagion, I argue that the delivery of Deaths Duell transmitted intensely negative emotions as well as their concomitant physiological markers, and that chemical signals (i.e., pheromones) were the vehicles through which the transmission occurred. Consequently, this essay suggests innovative modes for interpreting the early modern sermon genre, for envisioning the complex effects generated by a sermon’s delivery, and for theorizing the affective interplay among preacher, audience, and the environment they create.
Nicholas Breton, the Earl of Essex, and Elizabethan Penitential Poetry
Authors: Gazzard Hugh
Published: March 2016

This essay reexamines the authorship of The Passion of a Discontented Minde (1601, 1602, 1621), a long penitential poem. It challenges on several counts the poem’s generally accepted attribution to Robert Devereux, Second Earl of Essex, and argues the older case for Nicholas Breton. Analyzing aspects of the poem’s transmission in manuscript and print, I compare some verbal details in the poem with those in attested works by Breton. The poem’s attribution to Essex necessitates an extraordinary and implausible picture of his final hours in the Tower, whereas the work sits well alongside Breton’s contemporaneous devotional writings.
“Savoury Words”: Milton and the Consumption of Manna
Authors: Tsentourou Naya
Published: March 2016

This article is concerned with the representation of manna as physical and spiritual food in the seventeenth-century literary imagination and, in particular, in the works of Milton. The article argues that manna occupies a peculiar place in early modern writings, being constantly suspended between the metaphor and physicality of eating. The study of manna in the work of Milton and his contemporaries enlightens our understanding of biblical interpretation and reveals the role of this biblical image in the seventeenth-century controversy over prescribed and extempore prayers.
A investigating on pre-service secondary school mathematics teachers’ perceptions of the concept of problem
Ortaokul matematik öğretmen adaylarının problem kavramına ilişkin algıları üzerine bir inceleme
Authors: Baş Fatih , Özturan Sağırlı Meryem
Published: March 2016

In this study, it is aimed to define the perception of problem concept formed in pre-service secondary school mathematics teachers’ mind on account of their own definitions and the qualification problems posed by them. The research was designed on the basis of the case study method. Participants consist of 51 pre-service secondary school mathematics teachers; 23 of them were second graders at the university, other 28 were fourth graders. Data, collected with an open-ended questionairre prepared as data collection tool, were analysed with descriptive analysis and contents analysis. From the results, it was determined that the shape problem concept in pre-service mathematics teachers’ mind is mainly a situation that creating problem. Yet, during the definition of problem concept, the situation of solving procedure firstly not being ready, were not emphasized by most of the pre-service teachers. In accordance with those perceptions, even the problems posed by the participants were realized to be solved easily in the process of mathematical operations.  In order to crate a more correct problem perception in pre service teachers’ minds, it is suggested to provide comparing them with the situations- examples consisting all the specialities contained in the concept. ÖzetBu araştırmada ortaokul matematik öğretmen adaylarının zihinlerinde oluşan problem kavramı algısının kendi tanımlamaları ve kurdukları problemlerin nitelikleri üzerinden ortaya konması amaçlanmıştır. Araştırma durum çalışması yöntemi temel alınarak dizayn edilmiştir. Çalışma grubu 23’ü ikinci 28’si ise dördüncü sınıfta öğrenim görmekte olan 51 ortaokul matematik öğretmen adayından oluşmaktadır. Hazırlanan açık uçlu anket formu ile toplanan veriler betimsel analize ve içerik analizine tabi tutulmuştur. Ulaşılan bulgulardan hareketle öğretmen adaylarının zihnindeki problem kavramının daha çok sorun teşkil eden durum şeklinde olduğu belirlenmiştir. Fakat problem kavramını ifade ederken problemin ilk bakışta çözüm prosedürünün hali hazırda olmaması durumu öğretmen adaylarının çok büyük bir bölümü tarafından vurgulanmamıştır. Bu algılara paralel olarak katılımcıların kurdukları problemlerin de çoğunlukla matematiksel işlemlerin uygulanmasıyla rahatlıkla çözülebilen nitelikte olduğu görülmüştür. Öğretmen adaylarının zihninde daha doğru bir problem algısı oluşturabilmek için kavramın sahip olduğu tüm özellikleri içinde barındıran durumlarla-örneklerle karşılaşmalarının sağlanması önerilmektedir.
Uma proposta para avaliação da sustentabilidade socioambiental utilizando suporte analítico e gráfico
Authors: Teles Camila Duarte , Dutra Camila Costa , Ribeiro José Luis Duarte , Guimarães Lia Buarque de Macedo
Published: March 2016

Resumo Este trabalho apresenta um procedimento para auxiliar as empresas na avaliação da sustentabilidade socioambiental, aspecto que tem se mostrado essencial para a competitividade das mesmas. O procedimento desenvolvido emprega suporte analítico e gráfico para avaliação das dimensões ambiental e social das empresas, considerando tanto o desempenho interno quanto o externo. O desenvolvimento do procedimento contemplou cinco etapas: identificação dos itens de avaliação; organização dos itens em dimensões a serem analisadas; aplicação de questionário; totalização e visualização gráfica dos resultados. O questionário foi aplicado em 12 empresas. Para a visualização gráfica dos resultados, foi utilizado um gráfico radar, no qual os eixos representam as dimensões social, ambiental, interna e externa. As empresas pesquisadas revelaram melhor desempenho socioambiental externo, provavelmente em virtude da preocupação com a sua imagem. Além disso, verificou-se que empresas exportadoras possuem melhor desempenho socioambiental, fato que pode ser oriundo da maior concorrência e exigência do mercado externo.
Proposta de seleção e priorização do portfólio de novos produtos em uma empresa têxtil
Authors: Loos Mauricio Johnny , Miguel Paulo Augusto Cauchick
Published: March 2016

Resumo A gestão de portfólio de produtos é um dos processos responsáveis por manter a posição competitiva das organizações, alocar adequadamente os recursos de desenvolvimento e assegurar maior objetividade e eficácia na seleção dos projetos de novos produtos. Assim sendo, empresas de diversos setores industriais vêm estruturando seus processos de gestão de portfólio no processo de desenvolvimento de produtos (PDP). Nesse contexto, o presente trabalho objetiva desenvolver uma proposta de seleção e priorização de projetos de novos produtos voltada para uma empresa fabricante de produtos têxteis. Com base em um diagnóstico inicial para identificar oportunidades de melhoria na gestão de portfólio de produtos, é feita uma proposta baseada em critérios tais como: importância estratégica, margem de contribuição, volume de venda previsto, dentre outros. A proposta foi então confrontada com dados históricos advindos de situação real, onde constataram-se alterações significativas na priorização dos produtos a serem desenvolvidos, devido a alguns fatores, dentre os quais os principais foram o superdimensionamento das margens de contribuição e dos volumes de venda. Por meio da comparação na aplicação da proposta, conclui-se que esta possibilita que a seleção e priorização de produtos a serem desenvolvidos pela empresa ocorram de forma mais bem estruturada e criteriosa.
Interference of spray volume, fruit growth and rainfall on spray deposits in citrus black spot control periods
Authors: Araújo Demétrius de , Raetano Carlos Gilberto , Ramos Hamilton Humberto , Rocha Douglas Sampaio Ribeiro da , Prado Evandro Pereira , Aguiar Viviane Corrêa
Published: March 2016

ABSTRACT: Citrus black spot (CBS) caused by Guignardia citricarpa is one of the most serious Brazilian citrus diseases. This study aims to assess the interference of three application volumes in spray deposition citrus fruit, as well as fruit growth and rainfall effects on spray deposit reduction during the CBS control period. The experiment was carried out in a commercial citrus orchard, with sixteen-year-old trees of the Valencia variety, in Mogi Guaçu, São Paulo State, Brazil. The spray volumes were: 3.5 (1333L ha-1), 4.5 (1714L ha-1) and 8.5 (3238L ha-1) litres per tree, sprayed by an airblast sprayer using fungicides at recommended periods for disease control. The spray deposition quantification and residue was done by spectrophotometry using a copper oxychloride tracer. Samples were collected in three height zones of the tree (top, middle and bottom) and placed between trees on line plantation. Spray depositions were significantly smaller in the first application as a consequence of reduced fruit size. The spray losses on average for each day of rainfall ranged from 4.0 to 5.7%. There was no significant difference between application volumes regarding spray deposition on citrus fruit,which makes possible the reduction of application volumes, however, it is necessary to improve spraying techniques for the top zone of the citrus tree.
Entre fluxos e projetos terapêuticos: revisitando as noções de linha do cuidado em saúde e itinerários terapêuticos
Authors: Silva Neide Emy Kurokawa e , Sancho Leyla Gomes , Figueiredo Wagner dos Santos
Published: March 2016

Resumo Trata-se de ensaio que discute possibilidades de conexões conceituais e práticas entre as noções de linha do cuidado e de itinerários terapêuticos, a partir dos aportes teóricos que embasam a Linha do Cuidado Integral em Saúde e das abordagens hermenêuticas sobre o Cuidado. Vislumbra-se a implementação de linhas do cuidado afinadas com as necessidades de saúde – individuais e coletivas – a partir da construção de projetos terapêuticos, na medida em que privilegiam as particularidades de cada situação na pactuação de fluxos de consultas, exames e demais procedimentos. O projeto terapêutico, tomado como arranjo, estratégia, dispositivo ou dimensão basilar do Cuidado no processo de trabalho em saúde, pode ser concebido como imagem que desenha uma possibilidade de futuro, este, por sua vez, uma projeção condicionada por experiências prévias – de saúde, de doença, de vida. Da crítica aos modelos explicativos, pregnantes nos estudos sobre itinerários terapêuticos, defende-se o investimento em abordagens que privilegiam a interpretação e a compreensão, capazes de recuperar, contextualizar e reconstruir as trajetórias, a partir dos sujeitos implicados no processo do cuidado.
Sexual violence, mood disorders and suicide risk: a population-based study
Authors: Mondin Thaíse Campos , Cardoso Taiane de Azevedo , Jansen Karen , Konradt Caroline Elizabeth , Zaltron Rosana Ferrazza , Behenck Monalisa de Oliveira , Mattos Luciano Dias de , Silva Ricardo Azevedo da
Published: March 2016

Abstract This article seeks to analyze the association between sexual violence, manic and depressive episodes, and suicide risk among young adults. This is a cross-sectional population-based study carried out with young people between 18 and 24 years of age in a town in southern Brazil. The sample was selected through clusters. The prevalence of sexual violence, manic, depressive and mixed episodes and suicide risk were evaluated, as well as the association between them. The chi-square test and Poisson regression were used for statistical analysis. The study sample comprised 1,560 subjects. Among these, 3.1% had suffered sexual violence at some point in their life. The prevalence of depressive, mixed episodes, and (hypo)manic episodes were 10%, 2.4% and 2.3%, respectively. Suicide risk had a prevalence of 8.6% in the total sample. Young people who have suffered sexual violence are more likely to be subject to mood changes or suicide risk than those who have not (p < 0.05), except for the occurrence of (hypo)manic episodes. These results revealed a strong association between sexual violence and depressive and mixed episodes and suicide risk.
Desempleo y salud mental en la población de origen hispano en Estados Unidos: un análisis epidemiológico
Authors: Caicedo Maritza , van Gameren Edwin
Published: March 2016

Resumen Las altas tasas desempleo observadas en Estados Unidos durante la reciente crisis económica, que además son diferenciadas de acuerdo al origen étnico, hacen pertinente indagar acerca de cómo este problema se relaciona con la salud mental de los empleados y desempleados. Por tanto, en este artículo analizamos la relación entre desempleo y salud mental de los inmigrantes mexicanos, mexicanos nacidos en EE.UU, y otros hispanos en comparación con nativos blancos no hispanos y afroestadounidenses. Para alcanzar este propósito calculamos prevalencias, razones de prevalencias y razones de momios en la población entre 18 y 65 años en la fuerza laboral. Utilizamos información de la National Health Interview Survey (1999 y 2009). Encontramos que en tiempos de crisis aumenta la prevalencia de Tensión Psicológica no Específica (TPNE) en la fuerza laboral para todos los grupos étnicos. Las razones de prevalencias indican que los desempleados tienen mayor riesgo de presentar una TPNE que los empleados, particularmente los hispanos no mexicanos, en contraste, los inmigrantes mexicanos muestran riesgos más bajos.
Avaliação de cloradores simplificados por difusão para descontaminação de água de poços em assentamento rural na Amazônia, Brasil
Authors: Ferreira Danielle Costa , Luz Sergio Luiz Bessa , Buss Daniel Forsin
Published: March 2016

Resumo Apesar da região amazônica abrigar a maior reserva de água doce do planeta, a falta de saneamento e de tratamento de água, sobretudo na zona rural, causa problemas ambientais e de saúde. Em assentamentos rurais isolados, o abastecimento geralmente é feito por poços rasos (cacimbões) e a qualidade da água é uma preocupação dos moradores. Nestes casos, as opções de tratamento de água são restritas. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar o uso de cloradores simplificados por difusão como método alternativo de tratamento de água. Foram realizadas análises bacteriológicas de 100 amostras de água dos poços, antes e após a aplicação dos cloradores, no Assentamento Rural do Rio Pardo, Presidente Figueiredo (AM). As fontes analisadas foram consideradas inadequadas para consumo sem tratamento prévio, e o uso dos cloradores zerou a contaminação por coliformes termotolerantes, na grande maioria dos casos. Além disso, o método teve boa receptividade pelos moradores por não conferir sabor à água de consumo, por ter relativo baixo custo e ser de fácil manuseio. Discutimos as vantagens e as limitações do uso deste método de tratamento para esse contexto socioambiental e apresentamos sugestões de melhoria e adaptação para a aplicação desta metodologia em outros assentamentos.