Ari J. Blatt and Edward Welch, editors. France in Flux: Space, Territory, and Contemporary Culture. Liverpool UP, 2019.

Review of Ari J. Blatt and Edward Welch, editors. France in Flux: Space, Territory, and Contemporary Culture. Liverpool UP, 2019. xiii + 221 pp

Use of an agile bridge in the development of assistive technology

Engaging with end users in the development of assistive technologies remains one of the major challenges for researchers and developers in the field of accessibility and HCI. Developing usable software systems for people with complex disabilities is problematic, software developers are wary of using user-centred design, one of the main methods by which usability can be improved, due to concerns about how best to work with adults with complex disabilities, in particular Severe Speech and Physical Impairments (SSPI) and how to involve them in research. This paper reports on how the adoption of an adapted agile approach involving the incorporation of a user advocate on the research team helped in meeting this challenge in one software project and offers suggestions for how this could be used by other development teams

REMEMBERING THOSE WE HAVE LOST; COLLEGE STUDENTS’ USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE CONTINUING BONDS OF GRIEF

This dissertation is an exploratory study of grieving college students and their usage of social media and if this usage creates a continuing bond. In this mixed method study, the researcher explored grieving undergraduate and graduate students ages 18-24 who had experienced a death within the last 24 months, their use of social media and their understanding and creation of continuing bonds. Students received an email and self-selected to answer a survey and two instruments describing how grief and continuing bonds are experienced and how social media influences their ability to cope with loss. The data did not support that college students use social media to create or maintain a continuing bond, however exploratory data indicates that students do find a continuing bond important. In this sample, descriptive analysis indicated that college students do use social media to express and cope with their grieving experience and are often ambivalent about sharing their grief and loss experience over social media. Further research is needed to explore how students use the ever-evolving platforms on social media to express their emotions and thoughts during the grieving process

The Archontic Holmes: Understanding adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories in the context of Jacques Derrida's “Archive”

A consideration of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes detective stories and their subsequent adaptations reveals a complex web of interdependency, which is in keeping with Jacques Derrida's concept of the archive, and can be extended to describe the functions and relations of all texts, not just those that claim explicit inter-relations

REMEMBERING THOSE WE HAVE LOST; COLLEGE STUDENTS’ USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE CONTINUING BONDS OF GRIEF

This dissertation is an exploratory study of grieving college students and their usage of social media and if this usage creates a continuing bond. In this mixed method study, the researcher explored grieving undergraduate and graduate students ages 18-24 who had experienced a death within the last 24 months, their use of social media and their understanding and creation of continuing bonds. Students received an email and self-selected to answer a survey and two instruments describing how grief and continuing bonds are experienced and how social media influences their ability to cope with loss. The data did not support that college students use social media to create or maintain a continuing bond, however exploratory data indicates that students do find a continuing bond important. In this sample, descriptive analysis indicated that college students do use social media to express and cope with their grieving experience and are often ambivalent about sharing their grief and loss experience over social media. Further research is needed to explore how students use the ever-evolving platforms on social media to express their emotions and thoughts during the grieving process

Editors’ Note to Vol 5: Issue 1: On Publishing Survive and Thrive: Journal of Medical Humanities and Narrative Medicine During the 2020 Global Pandemic

This Editors\u27 Note reflects the thoughts and feelings of the Editors of _Survive and Thrive_ on Vol 5: Issue 1, summarizes its contents, and reflects on the publication of the issue during a global pandemic. While the issue is not a direct response to the pandemic, the Editors humbly offer it as what writer, rhetorician, and literary critic Kenneth Burke called equipment for living

Michigan Production Costs for Tart Cherries by Production Region

The weighted average cost of producing tart cherries in Michigan on a representative farm in 2009 is $0.36/lb. This cost was averaged across the three main production regions in Michigan and weighted by average per acre production for each region as published by the Michigan Agricultural Statistics Service. --Costs vary across the main production regions and by farm size. Costs are about$0.04/lb less for mid-sized farms in Northwest Michigan and $0.08/lb and$0.10/lb in West Central and Southwest Michigan, respectively. --This report was developed through interviews with tart cherry growers and other experts in each of the three main growing regions in 2005 and 2006. Many of the numbers were updated in 2009. --The cost of production calculation is based on estimates of operating costs, harvest costs, and management, interest and tax costs. It also includes an amortized cost of establishing an orchard and employing the land in production (versus some other use). The following tables summarize the cost findings for each of the production regions.Tart cherry, costs, production, Michigan, Agribusiness, Crop Production/Industries, Q100, Q120,

Evaluating Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion activities within Creative Industries Clusters: A report from Creative Informatics

In 2018 UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) created the Creative Industries Clusters Programme (CICP), which has funded nine large-scale Creative Research and Development Partnerships (CRDPs) across the UK, including Creative Informatics. Creative Informatics (2018–2024) focuses on supporting the Creative Industries in Edinburgh and the South-East Scotland Region to use data to innovate in the production of goods and services. With a network of over 6000 people, and leading to 352 new and safeguarded jobs, Creative Informatics has had a huge impact on the creative industries in its region. But has this been done in a way that advances Equality, Diversity and Inclusion?This report evaluates the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (ED&I) activities (based on data published up to July 2023) of Creative Informatics (CI) in the context of other funding, policy and research organisations also operating in the space of the Creative Industries. These organisations are Clwstwr, Bristol + Bath Creative Research + Development, and XR Stories and the associated Research England-funded project, SIGN, which are three other regional beneficiaries of the Creative Industries Clusters Programme (CICP), and the Creative Industries Policy & Evidence Centre, which is also part of the CICP. We also offer an overview of ED&I activities by Creative Scotland as a comparable Scottish funder of the Creative Industries.Each of these organisations publishes its own material about ED&I aims, priorities, actions, accountability and reporting, and in this report we introduce the organisations and their self-stated objectives and targets. We then discuss their data collection activities as part of their monitoring practices as well as their reasons for collecting specific data, their comparisons of these data against benchmarks, and how they incorporate intersectionality. Next we look at the collaborators and beneficiaries of projects funded by these organisations and finally we address three recurring issues raised by many of the organisations: how to achieve continued improvement, change at senior levels, and socio-economic inequalities. All of this is placed in the context of wider ED&I activities within the Creative Industries. After introducing this overview of each organisation's activities, our discussion section draws out some common themes and, finally, we offer some recommendations for how to expand upon the evidence and knowledge already circulating in the Creative Industries

The Archontic Holmes: Understanding adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories in the context of Jacques Derrida's “Archive”

A consideration of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes detective stories and their subsequent adaptations reveals a complex web of interdependency, which is in keeping with Jacques Derrida's concept of the archive, and can be extended to describe the functions and relations of all texts, not just those that claim explicit inter-relations

Diversity and inclusion in the data-driven creative economy:An analysis of Creative Industries Clusters Programme approaches

What is the role of data in our understanding of diversity and inclusion in the creative economy? How can decision-making be supported by the available data we have about the different characteristics of those employed, and innovating, in the creative economy? Focusing on the activities of Creative Informatics and other clusters in the Creative Industries Clusters Programme, this chapter will establish the importance of attending to the intersection of race, class and gender in the creative sectors and show how data can inform our understanding of mechanisms of exclusion in creative occupations. It will particularly focus on what we know about the makeup of the data-driven cultural economy and make recommendations on what we must do to ensure that both a diverse workforce and audience can engage in digital aspects of the creative industries