Discovering Australia Through Fiction: French Translators as Aventuriers

The translation into French of referents of Australia and Australianness in fiction necessitates a considerable variety of translational tendencies and interpretive choices. This study focuses on French translations of selected passages and blurbs from Australian fiction set in regional Australia to determine how referents of Australian flora, fauna, landscape and people are translated and interpreted in a non-English speaking cultural system. Guided by concerns for the target readers’ understanding of the text, French translators employ normative strategies and adaptive procedures common to translation to enhance reader orientation. There is, nonetheless, evidence of culture-specific appropriation of the text and systematic manipulation of Australian referents that goes beyond normative solutions. Such appropriation and manipulation stem from a desire to create and foster culture-specific suppositions about Australia consistent with French preoccupations with colonialism, the exotic, exploration and adventure.La traduction en français des référents de l’Australie et d’« australianité » dans la fiction rend nécessaire une variété considérable de tendances de traduction et de choix interprétatifs. Cette étude se concentre sur des traductions françaises des passages et des textes de présentation choisis de l’ensemble australien de fiction en Australie régionale pour déterminer comment des référents australiens de la flore, de la faune, du paysage et des gens sont traduits et interprétés dans un système culturel en dehors du monde d’expression anglaise. Favorisant les lecteurs dans la culture cible, les traducteurs tendent à recourir aux stratégies et aux normes de traduction qui soulignent l’orientation du lecteur et la compréhension du texte. Il existe néanmoins l’évidence de l’appropriation du texte et d’une manipulation systématique des référents australiens qui dépasse les normes de traduction et qui reflète certaines préoccupations françaises. De telles manipulations et appropriations proviennent d’un désir de créer et stimuler des suppositions culture-spécifiques au sujet de l’Australie qui soient conformes aux préoccupations françaises du colonialisme, de l’exotisme, de l’exploration et de l’aventure

The interaction between voice and appearance in the embodiment of a robot tutor

Robot embodiment is, by its very nature, holistic and understanding how various aspects contribute to the user perception of the robot is non-trivial. A study is presented here that investigates whether there is an interaction effect between voice and other aspects of embodiment, such as movement and appearance, in a pedagogical setting. An on-line study was distributed to children aged 11–17 that uses a modified Godspeed questionnaire. We show an interaction effect between the robot embodiment and voice in terms of perceived lifelikeness of the robot. Politeness is a key strategy used in learning and teaching, and here an effect is also observed for perceived politeness. Interestingly, participants’ overall preference was for embodiment combinations that are deemed polite and more like a teacher, but are not necessarily the most lifelike. From these findings, we are able to inform the design of robotic tutors going forward

The development and year one implementation of the Local Justice Reinvestment Pilot

This report focuses on the initial findings from a process evaluation of the Local Justice Reinvestment pilot (commissioned by the Ministry of Justice), which examines the early development and implementation of the pilot in the first test year. The pilot is one of the Ministry of Justice Payment by Results (PbR) schemes. The methodology was primarily qualitative and included: interviews with strategic and operational managers; interviews and focus groups with front line staff; workshops to map partnership and criminal justice system changes and a focus on exemplar interventions at three sites

Modernization Forces in Maria Theresa's Peasant Policies, 1740-1780

The article explores much neglected aspects of the antecedents of peasant emancipation in Austria and Bohemia on the eve of the French Revolution. The Bohemian peasant uprising of 1775 and the unrest of the 1770s in Silesia and Austria are described according to recent trends of interpretation. The main emphasis is on Maria Theresa's peasant policies in the era 1760-80. It is argued that the Theresian reforms aimed to modernize rural society by encouraging the conversion of the tenant farmers into private property owners. This was to be achieved by encouraging private contracts and by restructuring the exploitation of the lower orders of the peasantry, by enacting laws which limited the Robota (labour obligations) exacted by the feudal landlords. The conflicts at court and the difficulties faced in achieving this legislation are described. Joseph II is depicted as on the whole more sympathetic to the landlords despite his sometime popularity with the peasantry. À bien des égards, on avait jusqu’ici laissé dans l’ombre les antécédents de l’émancipation paysanne en Autriche et en Bohême à la veille de la Révolution française. Nous situons ici le soulèvement de 1775 en Bohême et les troubles des années 1770 en Silésie dans l’historiographie récente, tout en mettant l’accent sur les politiques pratiquées par Marie-Thérèse entre 1760 et 1780. Les réformes mises en oeuvre pour moderniser la société rurale encouragèrent la conversion des tenanciers en propriétaires et visèrent à transformer l’exploitation des couches inférieures de la paysannerie, par le biais d’une limitation des Robota (corvées) exigés par les seigneurs féodaux. Ces efforts législatifs suscitèrent des conflits à la cour, qui se prolongèrent sous Joseph II pourtant mieux disposé envers les grands propriétaires fonciers

Physiotherapy Students’ Experiences of Role Emerging Placements; a Qualitative Study

Role emerging placements (REPs) have been firmly embedded into undergraduate occupational therapy curricula for a number of years. REPs aim to facilitate the development of essential professional skills to prepare students for an increasingly diverse and evolving workplace. The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) has also emphasized the importance of adequately preparing graduates for new and emerging areas of practice. To date, however, there has been no published research exploring the use of REPs in physiotherapy. This study aimed to explore the experiences of undergraduate physiotherapy students who had each undertaken a REP. Six participants volunteered to take part in a focus group which used a research informed semi-structured topic guide. Group discussions were digitally recorded and professionally transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis of the data revealed five main themes: (1) Establishing a Physiotherapy Role Independently; (2) Finding a Voice and Influencing Change; (3) Developing Professional Identity; (4) Professional Development and (5) Support. The findings highlighted the variability of student experiences in REP settings, both positive and negative. However, all appeared to result in professional and personal benefits for the students, through promoting graduate attributes and skills that may be attractive to employers

A revision of the fish genus Oxyurichthys (Gobioidei: Gobiidae) with descriptions of four new species

The widespread tropical gobionelline fish genus Oxyurichthys is monophyletic due to its species sharing two characters considered derived within the Stenogobius Group of the Gobionellinae (Gobioidei: Gobiidae), a transversely broadened (spatulate) third neural spine that is usually bifid, and no preopercular cephalic lateralis canal. It is most closely related to Oligolepis, also of the Indo-west Pacific, and Ctenogobius, an Atlantic-eastern Pacific genus. Sixteen valid species of Oxyurichthys are redescribed and illustrated and four new species are described, O. limophilus from the western Indian Ocean, O. rapa from French Polynesia, and O. chinensis and O. zeta from the western Pacific. Nineteen species share two additional synapomorphies, a rounded fleshy tongue and a palatine lacking an elongate posterior strut, and form the sister group to the plesiomorphous Oxyurichthys keiensis, known from South Africa and Madagascar. One species, O. stigmalophius, occurs in the western Atlantic. There are no records of this genus from the continental eastern Pacific or the eastern Atlantic. Previous accounts from the Gulf of Guinea region of West Africa are references to Gobionellus occidentalis. Many Oxyurichthys species are limited to shallow estuarine and coastal waters with bottom substrates of silt or other fine sediments, but several are known from depths exceeding 10 m and are often collected by trawling

A revision of the fish genus Oxyurichthys (Gobioidei: Gobiidae) with descriptions of four new species

The widespread tropical gobionelline fish genus Oxyurichthys is monophyletic due to its species sharing two characters considered derived within the Stenogobius Group of the Gobionellinae (Gobioidei: Gobiidae), a transversely broadened (spatulate) third neural spine that is usually bifid, and no preopercular cephalic lateralis canal. It is most closely related to Oligolepis, also of the Indo-west Pacific, and Ctenogobius, an Atlantic-eastern Pacific genus. Sixteen valid species of Oxyurichthys are redescribed and illustrated and four new species are described, O. limophilus from the western Indian Ocean, O. rapa from French Polynesia, and O. chinensis and O. zeta from the western Pacific. Nineteen species share two additional synapomorphies, a rounded fleshy tongue and a palatine lacking an elongate posterior strut, and form the sister group to the plesiomorphous Oxyurichthys keiensis, known from South Africa and Madagascar. One species, O. stigmalophius, occurs in the western Atlantic. There are no records of this genus from the continental eastern Pacific or the eastern Atlantic. Previous accounts from the Gulf of Guinea region of West Africa are references to Gobionellus occidentalis. Many Oxyurichthys species are limited to shallow estuarine and coastal waters with bottom substrates of silt or other fine sediments, but several are known from depths exceeding 10 m and are often collected by trawling

\u3ci\u3ePanthera atrox\u3c/i\u3e (Mammalia: Felidae) from Central Alaska

A lower jaw of the large Pleistocene cat Panthera atrox (Leidy) was found on an alluvial flat near the mouth of Lost Chicken Creek, about 180 miles northeast of Fairbanks, Alaska. It was probably washed out of carbonaceous silt deposits which, in the adjacent area, have also yielded bones of Equus, Bison, Rangifer, Cervus, and Elephantidae. The Panthera jaw falls within the size range of the series from Rancho La Brea, California, and differs from Rancho La Brea specimens only in a few characteristics. P. atrox appears to have been significantly larger than extinct or modern Asian tigers. Despite continuity of the American and Asian land masses at times during the late Pleistocene, present evidence indicates discontinuity between the populations of great cats on the two continents