Status, Closure, and Plot: The Perpetuation of Social Hierarchy In The Greek Ideal Novel

The scenes which bring closure to the plots of the Greek ideal novels are all fundamentally supportive of the hierarchies of social order. The happy endings of these novels are happy not only because the lovers reunite, but also because elite youth are returned from slavery and degradation to their original elite station and accepted back into their natal families by their fathers. The joy of their return to high status is shared by the whole community, from the powerful citizens who control and represent it to the people who are left behind in slavery while the protagonists are rescued. The correctness of the social hierarchies of freedom, political power, and familial power is reinforced by the communal relief and satisfaction in seeing the characters correctly placed within the hierarchy. This pro-elite ideology is inherent to the plot structure of the novels and appears to be inherited along with it, as the same ideology is visible in the Odyssey as well. This ideology does not permeate the texts in their entirety, but only becomes unavoidable in the scenes that resolve the plot. Several of the texts have scenes earlier on that could be interpreted as drawing attention to the suffering of less powerful people in society and even the unfairness of that suffering. This suggests that the authors were not entirely committed to the pro-elite ideology themselves. The persistent presence of this ideology in the closural scenes is then best attributed to the structure of the plot itself. Part of the drama of this plot is the protagonists&rsquo; loss of status and their triumphant resumption of their original status in the closural scenes; this can only happen within a hierarchical society, and the more severe the suffering of the lower classes, the more dramatic the return to the ranks of the elite is.</p

Numerical abundance and biomass reveal different temporal trends of functional diversity change in tropical fish assemblages

Funding: Fisheries Society of the British Isles; European Research Council (Grant Number(s): ERC AdG BioTIME 250189); The Leverhulme Trust (Grant Number(s): RPG-2019-402).Understanding how the biodiversity of freshwater fish assemblages changes over time is an important challenge. Until recently most emphasis has been on taxonomic diversity but it is now clear that measures of functional diversity can shed new light on the mechanisms that underpin this temporal change. Fish biologists use different currencies, such as numerical abundance and biomass, to measure the abundance of fish species. However, because they are not necessarily equivalent, these alternative currencies have the potential to reveal different insights into trends of functional diversity in natural assemblages. Here we asked how conclusions about temporal trends in functional diversity are influenced by the way in which the abundance of species has been quantified. To do this we computed two informative metrics, for each currency, for 16 freshwater fish assemblages in Trinidad's Northern Range that had been surveyed repeatedly over five years. We found that numerical abundance and biomass uncover different directional trends in these assemblages for each facet of functional diversity, and as such inform hypotheses about the ways in which these systems are being restructured. On the basis of these results we concluded that a combined approach, in which both currencies are employed, contributes to our understanding of the ecological processes that are involved in biodiversity change in freshwater fish assemblages.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

An importance-performance assessment of delegates' satisfaction with the catering component of courses offered by continuing education at the University of Pretoria

Die gebruik van ʼn belang-prestasie-analise is ʼn instrument om die spysenieringskomponent van kursusse aangebied deur Voortgesette Onderrig aan die Universiteit van Pretoria (CE at UP), ’n inrigting vir hoër onderwys, te assesseer asook die bydrae tot gasvryheidstudies en toerisme uit te lig. Voortgesette Onderrig aan die Universiteit van Pretoria is ’n onderriginstelling wat sertifikaatkursusse vir nagraadse individue in verskeie studierigtings aanbied en die spysenie-ringskomponent is uitgekontrakteer aan voed-seldiensverskaffers wat op die kampus geleë is. Die spysenieringskomponent is ’n kommer-wekkende aangeleentheid, aangesien dit die laagste puntetelling ontvang het tydens vorige evaluerings. Data is versamel deur gebruik te maak van verkennende metodologie bestaande uit beide kwalitatiewe en kwantitatiewe navorsingsteg-nieke. Kenmerke vir spyseniering is verkry deur middel van ongestruktureerde een-tot-een on-derhoude en fokusgroepe. Daarna is ’n totaal van 357 vraelyste versamel. Dié studie het gebruik gemaak van beskrywende statistieke wat ook eenvoudige frekwensies insluit. Gemiddelde waardes en standaardafwykings is bereken deur gebruik te maak van data met betrekking tot respondente se demografiese profiele en ook met betrekking tot die 25 geïdentifiseerde kenmerke vir spyseniering. Die prestasie en die belangrikheid van elke spysenieringskenmerk is bepaal en bespreek. Die assessering van ʼn betrokke maatskappy se spysenieringskomponent sal daardie instansie in staat stel om toepaslike en noodsaaklike bestuursbesluite te neem ten einde die maat-skappy se bestaande kliëntebasis te behou asook die kliëntebasis uit te brei.Article based on a paper read at the joint 11th International SAAFECS Conference and the 6th IHEA Regional African Conference, Pretoria, South Africa. 27 February 2013 – 1 March 2013.http://www.up.ac.za/saafecs/am201

Modelling activities at a neurological rehabilitation unit

A queuing model of a specialist neurological rehabilitation unit is studied. The application is to the Neurological Rehabilitation Centre at Rookwood Hospital (Cardiff, UK), the national rehabilitation unit for Wales. Due to high demand this 21-bed inpatient facility is nearly always at maximum occupancy, and with a significant bed-cost per day this makes it a prime candidate for mathematical modelling. Central to this study is the concept that treatment intensity has an effect on patient length of stay. The model is constructed in four stages. First, appropriate patient groups are determined based on a number of patient-related attributes. Second, a purpose-built scheduling program is used to deduce typical levels of treatment to patients of each group. These are then used to estimate the mean length of stay for each patient group. Finally, the queuing model is constructed. This consists of a number of disconnected homogeneous server queuing systems; one for each patient group. A Coxian phase-type distribution is fitted to the length of time from admission until discharge readiness and an exponential distribution models the remainder of time until discharge. Some hypothetical scenarios suggested by senior management are then considered and compared on the grounds of a number of performance measures and cost implications

Behavioral and Other Phenotypes in a Cytoplasmic Dynein Light Intermediate Chain 1 Mutant Mouse

The cytoplasmic dynein complex is fundamentally important to all eukaryotic cells for transporting a variety of essential cargoes along microtubules within the cell. This complex also plays more specialized roles in neurons. The complex consists of 11 types of protein that interact with each other and with external adaptors, regulators and cargoes. Despite the importance of the cytoplasmic dynein complex, we know comparatively little of the roles of each component protein, and in mammals few mutants exist that allow us to explore the effects of defects in dynein-controlled processes in the context of the whole organism. Here we have taken a genotype-driven approach in mouse (Mus musculus) to analyze the role of one subunit, the dynein light intermediate chain 1 (Dync1li1). We find that, surprisingly, an N235Y point mutation in this protein results in altered neuronal development, as shown from in vivo studies in the developing cortex, and analyses of electrophysiological function. Moreover, mutant mice display increased anxiety, thus linking dynein functions to a behavioral phenotype in mammals for the first time. These results demonstrate the important role that dynein-controlled processes play in the correct development and function of the mammalian nervous system