West Indian literature and Federation: imaginative accord and uneven realities

This essay explores the particular importance conferred on literary expression within a wide range of writings dedicated to understanding and responding to the project of the West Indies Federation. Although federation was conceived, and briefly achieved, as a political expression of community building and people making, the consistent practice of referencing and invoking literary works across these writings reveals the project’s central and necessary investment in the reimagination of identities and belongings. Yet while the literary expression of a West Indian sensibility helped to articulate the political consciousness necessary for change, it could not finally overcome the sources of tension in the region. Importantly, too, the same West Indian writers who symbolized the collective belonging to the region, so cherished by federation, were themselves embroiled in the discordant realities of economic markets and measures and caught between national and international belongings

The effect of hardiness on the relationship between stress and well-being: Moderator, mediator, or both?

Stress, and particularly its negative impact on health; is an important concern to society. Most research, however, has found the magnitude of the relationship between stress and well-being to be moderate, indicating that people\u27s reaction to stress can be varied (Dohrenwend & Dohrenwend, 1981). These results have led researchers to question what factors influence a person\u27s response to stress and to investigate individual differences as potential intervening factors between stress and well-being. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a model of hardiness on the relationship between stress and both physical and mental well-being. Research has suggested that hardiness has direct effects on well-being, that hardiness is a moderator between stress and well-being, and that hardiness is a mediator between stress and well-being. These relationships were empirically evaluated. Participants were assessed using the College Schedule of Recent Experience-Modified (CSRE-M), the Personal Views Survey III-Revised (PVS III-R), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the Coping Responses Inventory (CRI), the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), the Personal Lifestyles Questionnaire (PLQ), the Pennebaker Inventory of Limbic Languidness (PILL), and the General Well-Being Schedule (GWB). Results revealed that hardiness was not a moderator in the stress and physical well-being relationship; however, hardiness did have direct effects on physical well-being. Hardiness was found to be a moderator in the stress and mental well-being relationship. Additionally, results revealed that overall hardiness was not a mediator in the stress and physical well-being relationship or in the stress and mental well-being relationship; however, several individual variables of that model were found to be significant mediators

What’s in a name? Circles of attention and critical sensibilities

This article reflects on the history of The Journal of Commonwealth Literature as it connects to my personal engagement with the naming and re-naming of the field of Commonwealth / postcolonial / Empire studies across my academic career and contrasting institutional orientations. It considers the ways in which we can shape our field by aligning our critical attention with particular modes of scholarly engagement and sociopolitical commitments

Introduction au numéro « Caribbean Literary Archives »

This special issue on Caribbean literary archives is part of a growing conversation around literary heritage and the future of the region’s literary past. The essays collected here demonstrate the significant potential of current research and professional collaborations for enriching, enlarging and democratising the archive. Yet, they do not shy away from the threats, silences and inequalities that also characterise this archive as we can conceive of it at present. Thinking seriously about th..

Independent Publishing: Making and Preserving Culture in a Global Literary Marketplace

First paragraph: This report results from a Programme of Enquiry funded and hosted by the Scottish Insight Universities Institute (Scottish Insight), on the theme of Independent Publishing: Making and Preserving Culture in a Global Literary Marketplace. A series of events was held from June-August 2011 in Scottish Insight's premises in Glasgow, with an additional event held at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in association with Publishing Scotland in August 2011. The events brought together publishers, authors, policy makers, government, librarians, academics from multidisciplinary backgrounds, publishing students, and others with an involvement in books and publishing from Scotland, the UK and beyond. The Programme was supplemented by a series of interviews with independent publishers

DEXA Body Composition and Cardiovascular Risk Factors Weakly Related in Police Officers

There is currently little research on whether fat mass and distribution is a predictive factor of cardiovascular risk. PURPOSE: To determine if obesity measures, such as fat mass and distribution (android vs gynoid), could be used to predict cardiovascular risk, particularly lipid levels, systolic blood pressure (SBP) and blood glucose. Our hypothesis was that fat mass is not an accurate predictor of these cardiovascular risk factors. METHODS: 182 police officers (166 males, 16 females; age 37.6±8.1 yrs; ht 1.7±0.1 m; wt 92.2±17.8 kg; BMI 28.9±4.8) were part of an annual cardiovascular risk profile testing group. We measured resting heart rate and blood pressure, and body composition via DEXA scan (SBP 127.16±10.33 mmHg; fat mass 26.85±9.99 kg; lean mass 62.01±9.90 kg; percent android fat 35.54±10.07; percent gynoid fat 29.65±6.91). Fasting blood samples were drawn and analyzed by a clinically certified lab to determine total blood cholesterol (TC) (191.79±37.31 mg/dL), LDL (119.23±34.74 mg/dL), HDL (46.39±10.48 mg/dL), triglycerides (128.94±99.25 mg/dL), and glucose (86.67±18.65 mg/dL). Correlations were determined by using a bivariate Pearson correlation matrix, significance was set at and p\u3c0.01**. RESULTS: As fat mass increased, total cholesterol and LDL increased and HDL decreased. Triglycerides, glucose, and SBP also increased as fat mass increased. There were also significant increases in total cholesterol, LDL, triglycerides, glucose and SBP as android fat percentage increased. HDL decreased significantly as android fat percentage increased. CONCLUSION: Fat mass weakly correlates with blood cholesterol levels. We suggest that factors other than fat mass affect cholesterol, such as genetics and lifestyle. More research is needed to see if this correlation holds or is stronger in similar and different populations

Bacterial Adaptation through Loss of Function

The metabolic capabilities and regulatory networks of bacteria have been optimized by evolution in response to selective pressures present in each species' native ecological niche. In a new environment, however, the same bacteria may grow poorly due to regulatory constraints or biochemical deficiencies. Adaptation to such conditions can proceed through the acquisition of new cellular functionality due to gain of function mutations or via modulation of cellular networks. Using selection experiments on transposon-mutagenized libraries of bacteria, we illustrate that even under conditions of extreme nutrient limitation, substantial adaptation can be achieved solely through loss of function mutations, which rewire the metabolism of the cell without gain of enzymatic or sensory function. A systematic analysis of similar experiments under more than 100 conditions reveals that adaptive loss of function mutations exist for many environmental challenges. Drawing on a wealth of examples from published articles, we detail the range of mechanisms through which loss-of-function mutations can generate such beneficial regulatory changes, without the need for rare, specific mutations to fine-tune enzymatic activities or network connections. The high rate at which loss-of-function mutations occur suggests that null mutations play an underappreciated role in the early stages of adaption of bacterial populations to new environments

Increased HIV Incidence in Men Who Have Sex with Men Despite High Levels of ART-Induced Viral Suppression: Analysis of an Extensively Documented Epidemic

Background: There is interest in expanding ART to prevent HIV transmission, but in the group with the highest levels of ART use, men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM), numbers of new infections diagnosed each year have not decreased as ART coverage has increased for reasons which remain unclear. Methods: We analysed data on the HIV-epidemic in MSM in the UK from a range of sources using an individual-based simulation model. Model runs using parameter sets found to result in good model fit were used to infer changes in HIV-incidence and risk behaviour. Results: HIV-incidence has increased (estimated mean incidence 0.30/100 person-years 1990–1997, 0.45/100 py 1998–2010), associated with a modest (26%) rise in condomless sex. We also explored counter-factual scenarios: had ART not been introduced, but the rise in condomless sex had still occurred, then incidence 2006–2010 was 68% higher; a policy of ART initiation in all diagnosed with HIV from 2001 resulted in 32% lower incidence; had levels of HIV testing been higher (68% tested/year instead of 25%) incidence was 25% lower; a combination of higher testing and ART at diagnosis resulted in 62% lower incidence; cessation of all condom use in 2000 resulted in a 424% increase in incidence. In 2010, we estimate that undiagnosed men, the majority in primary infection, accounted for 82% of new infections. Conclusion: A rise in HIV-incidence has occurred in MSM in the UK despite an only modest increase in levels of condomless sex and high coverage of ART. ART has almost certainly exerted a limiting effect on incidence. Much higher rates of HIV testing combined with initiation of ART at diagnosis would be likely to lead to substantial reductions in HIV incidence. Increased condom use should be promoted to avoid the erosion of the benefits of ART and to prevent other serious sexually transmitted infections

Contradictory (W)omens?- Gender Consciousness in the Poetry of Una Marson

Scholarship during the last decade has successfully highlighted the wealth of creative talent and literary innovation from contemporary Caribbean women writers, yet there remains a dearth of research and criticism on early women\u27s writing in the region. Even Out of the Kumbla, the recent study on Caribbean women and literature, introduces its volume of scholarship with the bold declaration that \u27Out of this voicelessness and absence, contemporary Caribbean women writers are beginning some bold steps to creative expression.\u27 1 In general terms 1t might well be significant to note that Caribbean women\u27s writing, like many other literary traditions outside of Western metropolitan male interest, has been subjected to a whole range of material obstacles and critical biases which have affected the quality of literary production and reception

Dreaming of Daffodils: Cultural Resistance in the Narratives of Theory

Many critics have pointed to Jamaica Kincaid as one of the most innovative and interesting of contemporary Caribbean writers, and there have been several articles engaging with her fiction through contemporary literary theory. Such approaches have tended to focus on the convergence of feminist and psycho-analytic theories which are centrally concerned, as Kincaid\u27s writing appears to be, with the mother-daughter relationship.1 In this paper, I wish to shift the critical axis away from the application of theory to Kincaid\u27s writing, in order to explore the way in which her writing itself could be seen as an alternative theory, a \u27literary\u27 theory which questions the assumptions within orthodox modes of interpretation, including feminist and psychoanalytic models. In other words, my interest lies with the ways in which post-colonial literature might help us to understand the limitations of certain theories, rather than with the ways in which theory can help us to understand post-colonial literature