Nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a tumor arising from the epithelial cells that cover the surface and line the nasopharynx. The annual incidence of NPC in the UK is 0.3 per million at age 0–14 years, and 1 to 2 per million at age 15–19 years. Incidence is higher in the Chinese and Tunisian populations. Although rare, NPC accounts for about one third of childhood nasopharyngeal neoplasms. Three subtypes of NPC are recognized in the World Health Organization (WHO) classification: 1) squamous cell carcinoma, typically found in the older adult population; 2) non-keratinizing carcinoma; 3) undifferentiated carcinoma. The tumor can extend within or out of the nasopharynx to the other lateral wall and/or posterosuperiorly to the base of the skull or the palate, nasal cavity or oropharynx. It then typically metastases to cervical lymph nodes. Cervical lymphadenopathy is the initial presentation in many patients, and the diagnosis of NPC is often made by lymph node biopsy. Symptoms related to the primary tumor include trismus, pain, otitis media, nasal regurgitation due to paresis of the soft palate, hearing loss and cranial nerve palsies. Larger growths may produce nasal obstruction or bleeding and a "nasal twang". Etiological factors include Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), genetic susceptibility and consumption of food with possible carcinogens – volatile nitrosamines. The recommended treatment schedule consists of three courses of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, irradiation, and adjuvant interferon (IFN)-beta therapy

Commercialising the cúpla focal: New speakers, language ownership, and the promotion of Irish as a business resource

This article draws on ethnographic fieldwork in two Irish towns to examine the mobilisation of the Irish language as a resource for business by new speakers of Irish. We examine how local community-level Irish language advocacy organisations have implemented initiatives to specifically promote the use of Irish in business, primarily as visual commercial engagement with the language paired with the use of the cúpla focal. The article explores how new speakers of Irish understand what might be perceived as the tokenistic mobilisation of Irish and what value they invest in their efforts to use the cúpla focal. We explore tensions over language ownership that emerge as more fluent proprietors of ‘bilingual businesses’ position themselves in relation to the ‘newness’ of these speakers

Riders in the Chariot: A Tale for our Times

This article rereads Patrick White's Riders in the Chariot against some of the past criticism of the text. It argues that the text has much to say about the contemporary politics of fear operating in Australia and demonstrates that many of the historical readings of White as an elitist, alienated Modernist cannot be sustained. The contemporary relevance and force of this novel arises from a double movement: the beauty of White’s prose operates continually to allow us to perceive the “infinite in everything” but it also helps us understand the absolutely ordinary fears and insecurities of the suburban Australian consciousness. Through the ordinary everydayness of his Australian characters (other than the riders) we see all too clearly how the ignorance and prejudice of a very small few have the ability to snowball with catastrophic consequences. Himmelfarb, in the face of horror, turned away from literature believing that intellectual reasoning had failed humanity. Today it is the fear of intellectual reasoning that has the potential to make us all less than we have the potential to be

Tracing the Spectre of Death in Francis Webb's Last Poems

In much of Francis Webb's poetry "the tale brings death" ("A Drum for Ben Boyd") but death remains largely off-stage. The poetry eschews the space of death and seems unwilling to explore the possibility of nothingness. There is a significant change, however, that is particularly noticeable in Webb's last three published poems. This paper focusses on the naming of death in "Sturt and the Vultures" but it traces first a progression in Webb's poetry - from "A Death at Winson Green" through "Socrates" and "Rondo Burleske: Mahler's Ninth" - in which the poet seems increasingly ready to contemplate the possibilities of the void

Brian Castro's Tokyo: Schizophrenic Semiotic

The article argues that Brian Castro's novel Stepper is interested in the 'space of literature' or Blanchot's 'the nowhere which is here', evident in its depiction of Tokyo

Singing it anew: David Malouf's Ransom

In 2009 David Malouf's Ransom was published to great critical and popular acclaim. Ransom presents itself very simply as a beautiful story about (among other things) loss, love, vulnerability and storytelling. But what does it mean to talk about the beautiful in writing? Etienne Gilson argues that writing is a making before it is a knowing or willing, so its primary concern is not a truth to be known or a good to be willed. Its primary concern is beauty. This paper explores how the beautiful operates in, and structures, Ransom

Bringing them Home The Power of Story as Public Discourse

This article discusses the response to the stories of Aboriginal suffering in the Bringing them Home report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families