http://hdl.handle.net/1957/3013 2013-05-25T12:42:26Z http://hdl.handle.net/1957/30034 Slipping into the Dark: Death as a Means of Discovery in Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo and Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping Hansen, Sarah Anne This thesis compares and contrasts Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo and Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping to explore how Mexican and American cultures perceive death. By examining the thoughts and actions of the young protagonists through the lens of the uncanny, it becomes obvious that they are searching for a history that has been repressed by society. In Pedro Páramo, Juan Preciado learns to accept the ghosts who populate his hometown in order to understand his own repressed history. Ruth, the protagonist in Housekeeping, yearns to be closer to her deceased mother and escapes her repressed society by becoming a transient. Though their plots are similar, each book varies in the way that death is repressed and how the characters come to accept death. While culture dictates that these feelings of closeness towards the dead should remain hidden, the characters struggle to bring them into the open to challenge conceptions of a reality constructed by society. 2012-03-16T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1957/26546 Differences in Societal and Behavioral Attitudes toward Skin Cancer between Japanese American and Japanese Nguyen, Vananh The rate of melanoma among Asian American has been steadily increasing in the past five years, while in other Asian countries, such as Japan, the incident rate remains relatively the same. Does the culture and societal attitudes toward skin cancer make a difference in the incident rate of melanoma? This survey research investigated this disparity. The populations of interest wereJapanese American and Japanese living in Japan. Skin tone preference, the usage of SPFcontained products, hat and umbrella, skin whitening and tanning products, opinion on white and tanned skin and perceptions on skin cancer were used as premises for comparison. Contrary to the neutral opinions from Japanese American, the majority of Japanese view fondly of white skin over tanned skin.There were some distinct differences in the practice of using umbrella, whitening and tanning skin products. However, there was not a significant difference in the use of SPF-contained products. Additionally, both populations also share similar perceptions about skin cancer. Beauty value generates societal and behavioral attitudes. Since white skin preference is an important aspect valued not just as an esthetic matter but also as an indicator of social class, skin care practice is prioritized in beauty care in Japan. As a result, certain behaviors in skin cancer prevention practices found in native Japanese diverge from Japanese living in other Western countries such as America.The results for this project contribute to the understanding of cultural effects on skin protection and prevention. It has a potentially important role in public health promotion and prevention in America. 2012-01-06T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1957/26545 How the Sun Drives Us: Photovoltaics in the US and Germany Hyde, Alison With the realization that traditional means of providing useful energy have formidable environmental and economical repercussions, many counties have begun to explore more benign and sustainable energy sources—renewables. Photovoltaics (PV), a sub-group of renewable energy technologies, convert incident solar radiation into electrical power. Germany, the US and Japan are racing to attain and maintain global PV prowess. Global leadership guarantees the leading nation the economical benefits of a booming technological industry, a secure, reliable energy source, and a limitless, environmentally responsible energy. As Germany and the United States are two very politically and economically influential nations with sophisticated industrial sectors and substantial populations to power, it is only fitting that these counties be in the forefront of a PV revolution. This thesis compares the federal efforts made by the German and the American governments to support the technological development, market integration and implementation of PV technology. It examines the resulting state of each nation’s industry and considers why, despite having nearly twice the solar resource of Germany and 28 times more land on which it falls, the US is trailing behind Germany. 2012-01-06T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1957/25851 Defining Basic Health Care As a Right: An Analysis of Health Care Access and Rights Philosophy in Germany and the United States Wagner, Jeff R. At the conclusion of the novel The Healing of America, T.R. Reid challenges the American people to decide whether health care is a human right prior to any appropriate service reform occurring. From Reid’s perspective, the design of any nation’s health service system is primarily dictated by the morals of society. In a response to Reid’s challenge, this analysis looks at the historical development of the human rights construct and how rights language is associated with health and health care access. Specifically, this investigation looks at the nature of negative versus positive rights, and the distinction between human rights and political-­legal rights. In an effort to look beyond the health service system of the US, this analysis also investigates how the German Health Service is shaped. In comparing the two nations, the goal of this study was to see whether rights language, particularly the language of human rights, factors into how both nations systems are structured. Using secondary research of academic and philosophical literature, this study brought together a wide array of data to investigate the abstract concepts of rights language and health. Based on the research conducted, there are great difficulties in establishing grounds for health care access as a human right. As it pertains to rights language, it is more efficient to stipulate health care access as a political-­legal right based on the societal value of compassionate beneficence. This creates a decent minimum of services individuals have a right to access due to the charity of society. Looking at Germany and US, the German Health Service is a national health service based on health care access being a political-­legal right, were the system seeks to provide a decent minimum of service to promote health to a larger degree the “patchwork” system of the US. 2011-12-02T01:50:07Z