William Mcllvanney and the Provocative Witness: Resistance in the 'Laidlaw' Trilogy

My paper proposes the continuing centrality of McIlvanney’s body of writing to the purportedly new trends and generations in Scottish prose fiction. Where, in Remedy Is None, A Gift from Nessus, and Docherty, McIlvanney makes use of canonical (English) intertextual devices to promote the centrality of his Scottish, working class communities, in Laidlaw, The Papers of Tony Veitch and Strange Loyalties, McIlvanney turns more directly to the American canon. His chosen author, Raymond Chandler, a fairly recently ‘recuperated’ writer in the United States, has held a long and forceful sway among British readers across class and academic boundaries. McIlvanney’s intertexts from Chandler and Vidal are demonstrable (in spite of the slight critical treatment of them) in both the novels and the aesthetic ‘manifesto.’ Such mimicry is far from slavish, especially given the cultural politics that provide the most pertinent context for the works. Kennedy, Burnside, Warner, Welsh, McLean and Galloway are significant and important prose stylists. Their newness, however, is principally a repetition for a slightly different cast(e) of audience than that developed by William McIlvanney

British Red Squirrels Remain the Only Known Wild Rodent Host for Leprosy Bacilli

<p>Eurasian red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) in the British Isles are the most recently discovered animal reservoir for the leprosy bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Initial data suggest that prevalence of leprosy infection is variable and often low in different squirrel populations. Nothing is known about the presence of leprosy bacilli in other wild squirrel species despite two others (Siberian chipmunk [Tamias sibiricus], and Thirteen-lined ground squirrel [Ictidomys tridecemlineatus]) having been reported to be susceptible to experimental infection with M. leprae. Rats, a food-source in some countries where human leprosy occurs, have been suggested as potential reservoirs for leprosy bacilli, but no evidence supporting this hypothesis is currently available. We screened 301 squirrel samples covering four species [96 Eurasian red squirrels, 67 Eastern gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis), 35 Siberian chipmunks, and 103 Pallas's squirrels (Callosciurus erythraeus)] from Europe and 72 Mexican white-throated woodrats (Neotoma albigula) for the presence of M. leprae and M. lepromatosis using validated PCR protocols. No DNA from leprosy bacilli was detected in any of the samples tested. Given our sample-size, the pathogen should have been detected if the prevalence and/or bacillary load in the populations investigated were similar to those found for British red squirrels.</p

Postcolonial Resistance: Class, Gender and Race in Mcllvanney's The BigMan

Este artículo es una extensión de trabajos previos realizados sobre el escritor escocés, William McIlvanney, en el cual se sitúa a la novela The Big Man (1986) dentro de ámbitos teóricos postcoloniales. Basándonos en los escritos postcoloniales de Edward Said, Diane Brydon y Simon During, utilizamos la definición tripartita de Mishra y Hodge —desequilibrios de poder, segunda lengua, raza— para ilustrar la viabilidad de los análisis postcoloniales dentro de los antiguos dominios coloniales, hasta considerar al postcolonialismo como un término exclusivo. El análisis de clase, género y raza limitada, efectuado sobre The Big Man, nos conduce a un postcolonialismo inclusivo y basado en la experiencia (en cuanto a estrategia narrativa y temática) que promueve la articulación y la acción.This article is an extension of previous work on the Scottish writer, William McIlvanney, situating McIlvanney’s novel, The Big Man (1986), within postcolonial theoretical concerns. Drawing on the postcolonial writing of Edward Said, Diane Brydon and Simon During, McLuckie uses the three point definition of Mishra and Hodge —power imbalance, second language, race— to illustrate the viability of postcolonial analyses within former colonial terrain, thus expanding postcolonialism as an exclusive term. The class, gender and limited race analysis of The Big Man leads to an inclusive, experience-based postcoloniality (in narrative strategy and theme) that promotes articulation and action

Accuracy and precision of minimally-invasive cardiac output monitoring in children: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Several minimally-invasive technologies are available for cardiac output (CO) measurement in children, but the accuracy and precision of these devices have not yet been evaluated in a systematic review and meta-analysis. We conducted a comprehensive search of the medical literature in PubMed, Cochrane Library of Clinical Trials, Scopus, and Web of Science from its inception to June 2014 assessing the accuracy and precision of all minimally-invasive CO monitoring systems used in children when compared with CO monitoring reference methods. Pooled mean bias, standard deviation, and mean percentage error of included studies were calculated using a random-effects model. The inter-study heterogeneity was also assessed using an I2 statistic. A total of 20 studies (624 patients) were included. The overall random-effects pooled bias, and mean percentage error were 0.13 ± 0.44 l min−1 and 29.1 %, respectively. Significant inter-study heterogeneity was detected (P < 0.0001, I2 = 98.3 %). In the sub-analysis regarding the device, electrical cardiometry showed the smallest bias (−0.03 l min−1) and lowest percentage error (23.6 %). Significant residual heterogeneity remained after conducting sensitivity and subgroup analyses based on the various study characteristics. By meta-regression analysis, we found no independent effects of study characteristics on weighted mean difference between reference and tested methods. Although the pooled bias was small, the mean pooled percentage error was in the gray zone of clinical applicability. In the sub-group analysis, electrical cardiometry was the device that provided the most accurate measurement. However, a high heterogeneity between studies was found, likely due to a wide range of study characteristics.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe