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Author's abstract: The public school curriculum has devolved into merely being a political football for the forces of the dominant culture, no longer even attempting to serve the People of the community or the students that the school ostensibly should serve. In the absence of a curriculum that is meaningful to People, another curriculum has spontaneously appeared outside of school via shared online media between social networks. This new curriculum, identified by a relatively wide viewership and its challenge to social injustice, oppressive conventions or hegemonic forces, is a curriculum of viral videos shared because of their meaning and cogence in the moment. This inquiry examines a number of these videos through a modified method of Critical Discourse Analysis that utilizes aesthetic analysis as its primary lens to attempt to determine meaning.

Aging is associated with a reduced ability to buffer oxidants along with an increase in oxidant production, resulting in chronic oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is a putative factor responsible for reducing function ability of skeletal muscle and increasing oxidative damage. The objective of this set of investigations was to evaluate the efficacy of reducing oxidative stress on improving muscle function the adaptive response of skeletal muscle to repetitive loading exercise in aging rodents. To achieve this objective, three methods of reducing oxidative stress were utilized; the antioxidant vitamins E&C were used to buffer oxidants, the nutraceutical resveratrol was used to inhibit oxidant production and the pharmacological agent allopurinol was used to attenuate oxidant production specifically through the inhibition of xanthine oxidase activity. This set of investigations show evidence that muscles from aged animals have high basal levels of xanthine oxidase, and this is further exacerbated by resistance exercise. Antioxidant treatment in aged rodents will reduce oxidative stress associated with both aging and exercise. Furthermore, an increase in xanthine oxidase activity is a major contributor to the oxidative stress associated with resistance exercise (i.e. repetitive loading). Modulation of exercise-induced oxidative stress will effect adaptation of the endogenous antioxidant system and different therapeutic methods of reducing oxidative stress in aged muscle produce slightly different results in muscle function. The results suggest that resistance training increases xanthine oxidase activity, which contributes to exercise-induced oxidative stress in muscles of aged mice. Furthermore, resistance exercise invokes a distinctive response in the endogenous antioxidant enzymes that differ from that typically observed with aerobic exercise.

This study was undertaken to develop a standard .for the minimum level of proficiency in gymnastics skills for male physical education majors at Dickinson State College.To set the desired standard, a skill proficiency test in gymnastics had to be devised. This test was constructed in the following fashion. First, an instrument had to be designed which would secure from selected NAIA and NCAA gymnastics coaches and physical education instructors their opinions as to which skills in gymnastics male physical education majors should be able to perform. These data were collected by the use of a questionnaire.From the results of the questionnaire, the writer determined which gymnastics skills to use as test items. This test was then administered to seventy male physical education majors at Dickinson State College during the 1969-1970 ^school year and to twenty-three physical education majors during the 1970-1971 school year. The scores were totaled and recorded for each student according to the seven competitive areas of gymnastics.After these data were collected, group means and standard deviations were computed at the University of North Dakota computer center. From these norms a standard or minimum level of proficiency in gymnastics skills for male physical education majors at Dickinson State College was set at 30 on a table of standard scores.

This dissertation has concentrated on a study of a particular class of foreign direct investment (FDI) and multinational firms (MNFs), that of services and supermarket firms. This focus contrasts sharply with most previous works on FDI, which have concentrated on manufacturing FDI and manufacturing firms. While the empirical works on FDI have also typically used aggregated data in conjunction with econometric methods to establish statistically significant determinants, this dissertation in addition has looked more deeply at micro economic analysis. This dissertation is also different from previous works because it has considered FDI from various perspectives, including not only from the well-known perspective of the FDI theory but also from a firm specific approach of vertical integration and regulation. In contrast to the macro and aggregative results of the FDI approach the results stemming from the micro methodology are disaggregated and firm specific. The key feature of the aggregate FDI approach taken here is a service-manufacturing distinction. Based on that distinction it is shown that there is a difference in the magnitude of the variables (relative to their standard errors) between services and manufacturing FDI in Malaysia and also for the UK. These results, which are established and explored in Chapter Five, suggest that at a macro level there is a service related result quite different from the manufacturing case for any government seeking to attract services as well as manufacturing FDI. One of the key variables to the services manufacturing distinction is the openness variable and this variable is also central in the context of regulation. This dissertation has also looked at vertical integration analysis because MNFs and firms in the supermarket activity are vertically integrated or coordinated corporations spanning services as well as manufacturing related activities. In this context this dissertation has expanded on the earlier work on vertical integration by Hasan and Ryan (2003) and has also given a multinational dimension to that analysis. It has looked at the factors affecting the degree of integration or coordination between retailers and suppliers and ways in which a relative advantage in productivity may relate to a difference in the transfer price. Additionally it comprehends the distributional impact on profits, suppliers, workers and consumers. It is argued that in the multinational interpretations a net welfare gain to the host nation may only accrue to its consumers because profits of the MNFs may be taken out of the country and inputs may be outsourced, benefiting suppliers or workers from different nations instead of the host country. The micro economic approach has also looked at regulation mechanisms and ways in which the rate of entry of FDI and the MNFs may be regulated. In this context the openness variable, which is a standard and statistically significant variable in aggregate econometric approaches, is also a key variable in the micro regulation model, where it has a wider application including not only to tariffs on imports and exports but also on the rate of profits. In general the regulation model has shown how variations in the magnitude of taxes on the profits of MNFs may have an impact not only on the rate and magnitude of entry of FDI but also on the type of FDI (manufacturing or services) that is encouraged or discouraged by a host government. In a more specific analysis, the model has also looked at how market structures as well as the level of integration or disintegration may be affected by varying the level of taxes and subsidies on the inputs. These outcomes on vertical integration and regulation, together with the macro aggregate results, may have implications both for theory and for policy, as well as for the way host government may manipulate these aspects. From the theoretical context this dissertation has made contributions to the study on FDI and the MNFs where the analysis has looked at both macro and the micro methodology. The macro analysis has looked at the services-manufacturing distinction, whereas in the disaggregated methodology services and manufacturing may be systematically integrated or coordinated and the services-manufacturing distinction is harder to draw. With regard to policy, this dissertation has looked at the implications for the determinants affecting FDI entry, the multinational interpretations on vertical integration as well as its distributional impact, and also regulation mechanisms. It was shown how results on the impact of regulating taxes and subsidies which may shape industrial structure leading to integration or disintegration may be crucial. In general the policy is to encourage the entry of FDI and the MNFs but with some trade-offs as these firms may drive out local firms. Finally the competition policy in Malaysia is not well developed and therefore not comparable or analogous to the more developed competition policy of the EU and the UK. Therefore there are good grounds for Malaysia to examine the well developed competition policy of these countries, as useful lessons could be drawn from the EU and the UK in particular, where the emphasis might be different.