A cave of their own: A comparative examination of recurring social and psychological themes in gothic fiction and gothic youth subculture through the song lyrics and fiction of Nick Cave

The aim of this thesis is to examine the Gothic phenomenon as it pertains to late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century fiction, and extrapolate its social and psychological concerns as they relate to the Gothic revival in the late nineteenth-century Decadent movement and late twentieth-century gothic subculture. This examination focuses on recurrent social and psychological themes in eighteenth/nineteenth-century Gothic fiction, the late nineteenth-century Decadent movement and twentieth-century gothic music and subculture, which, in turn, are compared to the themes and motifs of the song lyrics and fiction of Nick Cave. Within this context, the recurring theme of the psychological exploration of the effect of the alienation of the individual subject within a rapidly changing social environment will be explored. Chapter one introduces the concept of examining song lyrics as poetry, and provides an overview of the social and psychological themes and motifs of Gothic fiction and gothic music and subculture. It concludes by placing the work of Nick Cave in a Gothic fiction context within the sociological framework of a gothic subculture context. Chapter two compares some of the psychological themes of early nineteenth-century Gothic fiction, twentieth-century gothic subculture and the lyrics and fiction of Nick Cave. It shows how fears and apprehensions invoked by divergent social changes result in the fictional expression of converging psychological themes. This chapter addresses the recurring theme of alienation. Chapter three focuses on some of the concerns associated with the western phenomenon known as the fin de siècle. Specifically, it shows how the fears and apprehensions of the fin de siècle that deal with masculinity and sexuality have manifested in the male psyche. These fears that were abundant in the tum of the century Decadent movement are mirrored and, indeed, expanded upon within gothic subculture and, in particular, the fiction of Nick Cave. The chapter concludes by drawing attention to some of the social changes that could be informing the current concerns that underpin the latest occurrence of the gothic phenomenon. The concluding chapter examines the notion that Gothic fiction looks to the future and speculates, albeit pessimistically, about the future of society and humanity, specifically examines various Cave song lyrics and gives emphasis to their recurring images and the theme of apocalypse. The notion that the \u27black\u27 aesthetic of gothic subculture and music derived from this pessimistic view of the future is highlighted through a close reading of apocalyptic images in Nick Cave\u27s song lyrics

Rice, Tobacco, and Agricultural Globalization: Exploring the Narrative of the Chinese Agricultural Colony in Sub-Saharan Africa

According to media outlets, China\u27s involvement in the Sub-Saharan African agricultural sector is part of a colonial land grab to meet the needs of a modernizing China. This paper challenges this narrative by examining the two constituent narrative elements: 1) China actively purchases land or land rights to meet the food needs at home and 2) that this process has led to decreased food security for African states. Using Zimbabwe and Mozambique as cases, this paper demonstrates China\u27s participation is not part of a long-term food security strategy and is better understood in light of the Go Out Policy. However, this paper concludes that such interactions do have potentially deleterious consequences for food security of partner states

Involving citizens in priority setting for public health research: Implementation in infection research

Background Public sources fund the majority of UK infection research, but citizens currently have no formal role in resource allocation. To explore the feasibility and willingness of citizens to engage in strategic decision making, we developed and tested a practical tool to capture public priorities for research. Method A scenario including six infection themes for funding was developed to assess citizen priorities for research funding. This was tested over two days at a university public festival. Votes were cast anonymously along with rationale for selection. The scenario was then implemented during a three-hour focus group exploring views on engagement in strategic decisions and in-depth evaluation of the tool. Results 188/491(38%) prioritized funding research into drug-resistant infections followed by emerging infections(18%). Results were similar between both days. Focus groups contained a total of 20 citizens with an equal gender split, range of ethnicities and ages ranging from 18 to >70 years. The tool was perceived as clear with participants able to make informed comparisons. Rationale for funding choices provided by voters and focus group participants are grouped into three major themes: (i) Information processing; (ii) Knowledge of the problem; (iii) Responsibility; and a unique theme within the focus groups (iv) The potential role of citizens in decision making. Divergent perceptions of relevance and confidence of “non-experts” as decision makers were expressed. Conclusion Voting scenarios can be used to collect, en-masse, citizens' choices and rationale for research priorities. Ensuring adequate levels of citizen information and confidence is important to allow deployment in other formats

A Comparison of Methods for Determining the Age Distribution of Star Clusters: Application to the Large Magellanic Cloud

The age distribution of star clusters in nearby galaxies plays a crucial role in evaluating the lifetimes and disruption mechanisms of the clusters. Two very different results have been found recently for the age distribution chi(t) of clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). We found that chi(t) can be described approximately by a power law chi(t) propto t^{gamma}, with gamma -0.8, by counting clusters in the mass-age plane, i.e., by constructing chi(t) directly from mass-limited samples. Gieles & Bastian inferred a value of gamma~, based on the slope of the relation between the maximum mass of clusters in equal intervals of log t, hereafter the M_max method, an indirect technique that requires additional assumptions about the upper end of the mass function. However, our own analysis shows that the M_max method gives a result consistent with our direct counting method for clusters in the LMC, namely chi(t) propto t^-0.8 for t<10^9 yr. The reason for the apparent discrepancy is that our analysis includes many massive (M>1.5x10^3 M_sol), recently formed (t<10^7 yr) clusters, which are known to exist in the LMC, whereas Gieles & Bastian are missing such clusters. We compile recent results from the literature showing that the age distribution of young star clusters in more than a dozen galaxies, including dwarf and giant galaxies, isolated and interacting galaxies, irregular and spiral galaxies, has a similar declining shape. We interpret this approximately "universal" shape as due primarily to the progressive disruption of star clusters over their first ~few x 10^8 yr, starting soon after formation, and discuss some observational and physical implications of this early disruption for stellar populations in galaxies.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, published in the Astrophysical Journal, volume 713, page 134

The magnitude of educational disadvantage amongst indigenous minority groups in Australia.

Indigenous groups are amongst the most disadvantaged minority groups in the developed world. This paper examines the educational disadvantage of indigenous Australians by assessing academic performance at a relatively early age. We find that, by the age of 10, indigenous Australians are substantially behind non-indigenous Australians in academic achievement. Their relative performance deteriorates further over the next 2 years. School and locality do not appear to be important determinants of the indigenous to non-indigenous achievement gap. However, geographic remoteness, indigenous ethnicity and language use at home have a marked influence on educational achievement. A current focus of Australian indigenous policy is to increase school resources. Our results suggest that this will not eliminate indigenous educational disadvantage on its own

FieldML

FieldML is an open format for storing and exchanging models containing field information. It is able to represent a wide variety of field value types, including scalar, vector, tensor, logical, and strings. Fields are defined over domains explicitly in terms of functions. Domains may be nested to form embedding hierarchies

Central Nervous System Parasitosis and Neuroinflammation Ameliorated by Systemic IL-10 Administration in Trypanosoma brucei-Infected Mice

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