A Critical Textual Analysis of Gender Disparities in Reneilwe Malatji’s Selected Short Stories

This article demonstrates the abstractness of the gender theory of motherism posited by Nigerian scholar Catherine Acholonu, showing its weakness as a theory by which to gauge rural women’s experiences in Africa. Using the short stories of South African writer Reneilwe Malatji as literary data, the article argues that gender works in conspiracy with culture, age, marital status and ethnicity to constrain rural women from exiting abusive marriages, speaking up against their husbands’ infidelities, ending dissatisfactory marriages, and fighting poverty. At the same time, Malatji’s short stories highlight the agency of rural women in resisting gender constraints to attain self-empowerment. The article proposes ultimately that a re-theorization of motherism must reflect the harsh realities in rural women’s lives and simultaneously show that alongside the debilitating experiences of patriarchal oppression women are also acting as agents of their own transformation.

The Limits of Shared Panethnic Status: Considering Culture, Age, and Language in Qualitative Research

The increase of qualitative research in gerontology invites discussion of the effects of researcher positionality on data collection and analysis. Analyses of the interviewing experiences of three researchers who conducted a qualitative study of aging Asian Americans illustrate the complexities of negotiating “insider” status. Despite the interviewers’ shared panethnic status (Asian) with the participants, they experienced different levels of insider status, which were based, in part, on cultural competence related to cultural norms and practices, age hierarchies, and language. This suggests that qualitative researchers should engage in reflexive practices that consider researcher positionality in relation to research participants. Researchers need to pay attention to the possible implications of cultural competence on negotiating insider status and when gathering and analyzing data, similar to considerations of culturally relevant approaches in practical settings.

Intermediate thermoresistance in black yeast asexual cells variably increases with culture age, promoting survival and spoilage in thermally processed shelf-stable foods

Black yeasts are a functional group that has caused spoilage in cold-filled and hot-filled beverages as well as other water activity (a w )-controlled food products. We established quantitative thermoresistance parameters for the inactivation of 12 Aureobasidium and Exophiala isolates through isothermal experiments and a challenge study. Culture age (2-day vs. 28-day) variably affected the thermoresisitance among the black yeast strains. Variation in thermoresistance exists within each genus, but the two most resistant strains were the Exophiala isolates. The two most heat resistant isolates were E. phaeomuriformis FSL-E2-0572 with a D 60 -value of 7.69±0.63 min in 28-day culture and E. dermatitidis YB-734 with a D 60 -value of 16.32±2.13 min in 28-day culture. While these thermoresistance levels were, in some cases, greater than those for conidia and vegetative cells from other common food spoilage fungi, they were much more sensitive than the ascospores of heat resistant molds most associated with spoilage of hot-filled products. However, given that black yeasts have caused spoilage in hot-filled products, we hypothesized that this intermediate degree of thermoresistance may support survival following introduction during active cooling before package seals have formed. A challenge study was performed in an acidic (apple cider) and a w -controlled (maple syrup) product to evaluate survival. When apple cider was hot-filled at 82C, black yeast counts were reduced by 4.1-log CFU/ml 24 h after the heat treatment, but the survivors increased up to 6.7-log CFU/ml after two weeks. In comparison, the counts were below the detection limit after both 24 h and 14 days of shelf-life in both products when filled at their boiling points. This suggests that ensuring water microbial quality in cooling tunnels and nozzle sanitation may be essential in mitigating the introduction of these fungi.

Effects of in vitro plant ages on the subsequent growth of Plumbago indica l. after ex vitro transplantation

The Indian leadwort (Plumbago indica L.) of the family Plumbaginaceae is a plant with high pharmaceutical value, as it contains plumbagin, a naphthoquinone with antibacterial, antifungal and anticancer properties. Among the propagation methods for the Indian leadwort, in vitro propagation is considered an effective method in producing disease-free transplants in a short period of time with high propagation rate. When plants grown in vitro are transferred to ex vitro condition, the environmental factors in the nursery house such as light, temperature, humidity and microorganism in the soil will affect their growth. Characteristics of transplants themselves is also critical for the subsequent growth. It is, thus, essential to establish the standards to evaluate and qualify in vitro plants for transplanting to ex vitro condition. Among these standards, the culture age of in vitro plants affects the maturations of their root, stem and leaves, which can in turn influence the acclimating ability and growth of in vitro plants after transplantation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the culture age of in vitro Indian leadwort plants on their performance during ex vitro stage. For this purpose, three different culture ages of uniform in vitro plants, 35, 42 and 49 day-old, were studied. After 28 days of cultivation in the nursery house under the light intensity of 70 ± 10 µmol m-2 s-1, temperature of 35 ± 4 oC and relative humidity (RH) of 60 ± 10%, all three treatments achieved 100% survival rate. Increased fresh and dry weights and percentage of dry matter after cultivation in ex vitro condition were not statistically different between 42 day-old and 49 day-old in vitro plants, but were significantly different between these plants and 35 day-old in vitro plants. The development of shoot and root in ex vitro stage of 42 day-old and 49 day-old in vitro plants was more balanced, as shown by the higher ratio of shoot/root dry weight, than 35 day-old in vitro plants. The results of this study showed that for this Plumbago species, bigger in vitro plants led to better growth during ex vitro stage. These results also indicated that it was possible to transfer in vitro Plumbago plants to ex vitro condition after 5 weeks of in vitro culture stage.

Impact of Hormones on the Proliferation of Shoots and Initiation of Roots in Salvia santolinifolia (Boiss), A High Value Medicinal Herb

Salvia santolinifolia is a medicinal plant and an efficient in vitro conservation system is established. The influence of N6Benzylaminopurine (BAP), N6-(2-isopentyl)-adenine (2iP) and Kinetin at various concentrations were evaluated, single and in mixture with NAA (Naphthalene acetic acid) for the production of auxiliary shoots from nodal explants of S. santolinifolia. BAP at 3.0 mg/L in MS1 media produced maximum (11.66±3.38) number of shoots while elongated (5.37±1.45) shoots were produced in the MS2 medium in subcultures at 2.0 mg/L of 2iP. Least number of shoots were formed when auxin and cytokinin were used in combination. Length of culture, age was an important consideration for the initiation and development of roots. Rooting of shoot was attained with Indol-3-butyric acid (IBA) (3.0 mg/L) from shoots of 4th, 5th and 6th subculture while shoots taken from 1st, 2nd and 3rd subculture failed to form roots.

I would like to live over the rainbow: Dreams of young children

Dreams are an indicator of the extent of imagination. Young children have simple, fabulous and happy dreams. This study tries to determine the dreams of young children. For this purpose, drawings and narrations of 483 children aged between 3–4 and 5 years attending the kindergartens and pre-school classes in a city and district in the southwestern Turkey concerning their dreams were examined. In the study, Clark’s Drawing Abilities Test was used and the drawings were classified according to their subject areas. At the end of the study, it was determined that young children made drawings reflecting the culture in their dreams, and their dreams varied according to their age, gender and residence location. Dreaming is a multi-directional cognitive process that is affected by factors like culture, age, gender and residence location.

Back to the future? The role of temporal focus for mapping time onto space

Do we conceptualise the future as being behind us or in front of us? Although this question has traditionally been investigated through the lens of spatiotemporal metaphors, new impetus was recently provided by the Temporal-Focus Hypothesis. This hypothesis holds that the mapping of temporal concepts onto the front–back axis is determined by an individual’s temporal focus, which varies as a function of culture, age, and short-term attention shifts. Here, we instead show that participants map the future on to a frontal position, regardless of cultural background and short-term shifts. However, one factor that does influence temporal mappings is age, such that older participants are more likely to map the future as behind than younger participants. These findings suggest that ageing may be a major determinant of space–time mappings, and that additional data need to be collected before concluding that culture or short-term attention do influence space–time mappings.