‘Pushing on through transparencies’ : H.D.’s shores and the creation of new space

‘If she could have gone to Point Pleasant, listened to the sea, everything would come right… escape through barriers…’ (H.D., HERmione). Shorelines and natural borders recur throughout H.D.’s work; Atlantic coasts and English coasts in her prose, Greek islands and deconstructed dreamscapes in her poetry, even riverbanks and animal cages in her work with Pool Films. In this essay, I examine the way in which H.D.’s shores construct “new spaces” in which H.D. tests the definitions and boundaries of conventional society, including the break between “elsewhere” and “here” in the imaginations of the novel HERmione, the space between beauty and ugliness in the coastal wildflower poems of Sea Garden, and the construction of a space in which man and nature are unified in ‘Oread’. Hidden in these spaces are implications for H.D.’s dealings with androgyny and gender, and a vision for a more unified natural world and environmental poetic.peer-reviewe

Rights based approaches to addressing food poverty and food insecurity in Ireland and UK

Food poverty is an important contributing factor to health inequalities in industrialized countries; it refers to the inability to acquire or eat an adequate quality or sufficient quantity of food in socially acceptable ways (or the uncertainty of being able to do so). Synonymous with household food insecurity, the issue needs to be located within a social justice framework. Recognising the clear interdependence between the right to food and the right to health, this paper explores how international human rights obligations could inform approaches to addressing food poverty and insecurity with specific reference to Ireland and the UK. Little attention has been paid to how countries should meet their obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the right to food in developed countries. The paper contributes by examining the social and policy circumstances which inhibit poor households from obtaining sufficient food to eat healthily, along with strategies and interventions from State and civil society actors in the two countries. In practice, problems and potential solutions have largely been directed towards the individual rather than at social determinants, particularly as research on environmental factors such as distance to shops has produced equivocal results. Other key structural aspects such as income sufficiency for food are broadly ignored by the State, and anti-poverty strategies are often implemented without monitoring for effects on food outcomes. Thus scant evidence exists for either Ireland or the UK meeting its rights to food obligations to date, in terms of roles and responsibilities in ensuring access to affordable, available and appropriate food for all

Book review: the lure of technocracy

In his latest offering, The Lure of Technocracy, Jüregen Habermas argues for Europe to continue working towards a closer political union based upon a discourse-theoretical model of politics. Elizabeth Folan O’Connor writes that this model can help the continent reach a ‘place where the all the nations of Europe stand alongside each other as equals in a democratically legitimate political union as opposed to creditor and debtor member states of a dysfunctional monetary union’

Female Pubertal Development in the United Kingdom: Trends in Onset, Progress and Duration from 1948 to the Present

Female pubertal development is the process of physical changes from the child to adult female bodies. The nature of human adaptation creates huge inter and intra-population variation in female pubertal development in response to both heritable and environmental determinants. Age at menarche has been declining globally in response to urbanisation and industrialisation. In the USA and other developed countries age at pubertal onset, specifically age at thelarche, appears to be declining with the concurrent rise in overweight and obesity. Longitudinal cohort datasets from the UK were analysed to replicate these findings in the UK population from 1948-2005. These data show evidence for a continued downward secular trend in age at menarche, and show a downward secular trend in age at pubertal onset, in response to increased weight status. Over the period 1948-2005, age at menarche decreased by 0.30 years, and age at thelarche decreased by one year. The average interval between pubertal onset and age at menarche increased from 2.3 years to 2.7 years. More than half of the total decrease in age at thelarche took place between 1980 and 2001. Some of the variance in pubertal development, and specifically the large decrease in age at thelarche, may to be the result of increasing exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals over the last 50-60 years. Lipophilic endocrine disruptors have the potential to accelerate pubertal development in overweight girls who have the capacity to store dangerous levels of these toxic substances in their high fat mass. The changes in timing and tempo of female pubertal development in the UK should be considered on a continuum of adaptive plasticity that is evident in the population variation of female pubertal development, rather than measuring recent changes as pathology. Earlier age at puberty has a number of implications for negative health outcomes, specifically increased risk of reproductive cancers. Moreover, the interaction between increased weight status and increased exposure to endocrine disruptors may exacerbate these negative effects

Sociology for junior high school pupils

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Giving voice to equitable collaboration in participatory design

An AHRC funded research project titled Experimenting with the Co-experience Environment (June 2005 – June 2006) culminated in a physical environment designed in resonance with a small group of participants. The participants emerged from different disciplines coming together as a group to share their expertise and contribute their knowledge to design. They engaged in storytelling, individual and co-thinking, creating and co-creating, sharing ideas that did not require justification, proposed designs even though most were not designers …and played. The research questioned how a physical environment designed specifically for co-experiencing might contribute to new knowledge in design? Through play and by working in action together the participants demonstrated the potential of a physical co-experience environment to function as a scaffold for inter-disciplinary design thinking,saying, doing and making (Ivey & Sanders 2006). Ultimately the research questioned how this outcome might influence our approach to engaging participants in design research and experimentation

The Rebellion of James Eustace, Viscount Baltinglass III , 1580 - 81: A study of the causes, course and consequences of the response of an Anglo - Irish Catholic layman to Elizabethan religious repression

Traditionally the Baltinglass rebellion was seen as a Catholic crusade led by a zealous but misguided idealist. This was based on the view that James Eustace, Viscount Baltinglass 111, was motivated by religious fervour and was prepared to risk his position as a privileged member of the Pale elite in pursuit of his goal - the restoration of the lawful practice of Catholicism in Ireland. More recently the reason for Eustace's uprising has been subjected to Scrutiny in the light of developments in Irish Tudor historiography, resulting in the modification of the view of the accepted interpretation that the viscount was solely impelled by credal conviction. The possibility of his representing the economic ans social grievances of his social order has been posited. As a prelude to this study of the background, course and results of the Baltinglass rebellion, it may be appropriate to survey briefly the historiographical tradition relating to the rebellion in some detail and also to comment briefly on the nature of the source-material which is available for such an investigation

H.D. and the shore: an ecocritical study

This thesis explores the significance of littoral imagery in the poetry and prose of the American modernist H.D. (1886-1961), and asserts the shore and its ecology as a central, unexplored aspect of her work. Over the course of H.D.’s career, the shore is used to explore palimpsests of landscape, ecology, identity and myth over European and U.S. shorelines, reflecting on our own cultural understanding of the shore and modern conceptualisations of these mutable and now extremely vulnerable landscapes. An ecocritical approach is used to situate H.D.’s poetic shores within the coastal places she knew and visited during her life, highlighting her close engagement with specific littoral places, flora and fauna. It also considers H.D.’s investment in littoral ecology and wildlife, namely jellyfish, molluscs, sea-birds, migratory flocks and coastal flora. As well as documenting H.D.’s naturalistic observation of particular shores, this thesis also explores the interaction of mythology and nature in H.D.’s work, and examines the shore’s symbolic significance to H.D. within a larger network of cultural associations with the shore. The thesis also suggests further opportunity in considering how modernist writers engaged with ecology, animals and landscapes, and explores how this legacy reflects our own contemporary environmental concerns

Cognitive Speed of Processing Training Can Promote Community Mobility among Older Adults: A Brief Review

Background. Community mobility is crucial for maintaining independent functioning and quality of life for older adults. Purpose. The present paper describes the relationship of cognition, particularly speed of processing as measured by the Useful Field of View Test, to mobility as indicated by driving behaviors, life space, and falls among healthy older adults. Research examining the impact of cognitive speed of processing training (SOPT) on older adults' community mobility (i.e., driving behaviors) is also summarized. Key Issues. Even slight cognitive declines can place older adults at risk for mobility limitations. However, cognitive interventions like SOPT can mitigate declines in driving mobility. Implications. The potential of SOPT to sustain community mobility among older adults is discussed

Motivations of assessment item writers in medical programs : a qualitative study

Background: The challenge of generating sufficient quality items for medical student examinations is a common experience for medical program coordinators. Faculty development strategies are commonly used, but there is little research on the factors influencing medical educators to engage in item writing. To assist with designing evidence-based strategies to improve engagement, we conducted an interview study informed by self-determination theory (SDT) to understand educators' motivations to write items. Methods: We conducted 11 semi-structured interviews with educators in an established medical program. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and underwent open coding and thematic analysis. Results: Major themes included; responsibility for item writing and item writer motivations, barriers and enablers; perceptions of the level of content expertise required to write items; and differences in the writing process between clinicians and non-clinicians. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that flexible item writing training, strengthening of peer review processes and institutional improvements such as improved communication of expectations, allocation of time for item writing and pairing new writers with experienced writers for mentorship could enhance writer engagement