FATHERS AND SONS IN MODERN BRITISH, IRISH, AND POSTCOLONIAL FICTION

In this dissertation, I examine the portrayal of filial relationships in the fiction of James Joyce, Hanif Kureishi, and Zadie Smith. I assert that each of these authors, albeit in different ways, uses the archetypal father and son relationship to interrogate the formation of national identity and the concept of national belonging in modern, anticolonial or postcolonial cultures, including Ireland at the dawn of the twentieth century and Britain in the late twentieth century. Chapter one focuses on Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Ulysses (1922). I argue that rather than solely bonding in a symbolic father and son relationship, Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom also develop a companionable friendship and their differing qualities merge to uncover a modern voice with which an artist may represent Ireland. In chapter two, I analyze Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) and argue that the protagonist’s relationship with his father illustrates the benefits of commodifying one’s identity in postcolonial Britain. Chapter 3 examines Zadie Smith’s first two novels: White Teeth (2000) and The Autograph Man (2002). I argue that the father, Samad Iqbal in White Teeth, refuses to embrace his multifaceted, ambiguous identity, and instead adopts a binary mindset, which significantly affects his parenting choices and therefore influences the national identity formation of his twin sons. Alex Li-Tandem, the protagonist of The Autograph Man, similarly works to understand his complex identity with oversimplified methods. I assert that both texts demonstrate the inadequacies of essentialist thinking because the multicultural environment of the twentieth century necessitates a willingness to accept multiple, complex identities and to explore one’s own intersectionality. Taken together, the works of Joyce, Kureishi, and Smith show that the archetype of the father and son relationship remains a valuable lens through which to explore essentialism, multiculturalism, and hybridity

Clinical Leadership and Management Perceptions of Inpatients with Obesity: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

While obesity is recognized as a key global public health issue, there has been no research to date on the perceptions of care for people with this condition held by individuals in positions of organizational power. The aim of this study was therefore to describe the perceptions and experiences of clinical leaders and managers of providing care to inpatients with obesity at a metropolitan public health service. This study applied an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach to qualitative research, conducting interviews with 17 participants. Their perceptions of care for inpatients with obesity encompassed both their personal understanding as an individual, and their observations about the organizational, patient and carer perspectives. Three overall themes were identified: (1) the problem of inpatients with obesity, (2) inpatients with obesity as sources of risk and (3) personal and professional perceptions of inpatients with obesity. While clinical leaders and managers were aware of the potential impact of stigma and weight bias on care given to this cohort, elements of implicit bias, stereotyping, “othering” and ambivalence were frequently present in the data. Ongoing efforts to improve care for patients with obesity must therefore include efforts to address perceptions and attitudes at all organisational levels of the workforce

The development of short-term visual memory in young children.

A probed memory task was used to investigate children's short-term visual memory for an object's spatial location or colour. In Experiment 1, 5-yearolds recognised the location of one of three coloured shapes that had appeared in a random spatio-temporal order. Two aspects of the children's performance confirmed their reliance on visual memory. First, performance was impaired when the shapes were visually similar. Secondly, the serial position curve was characteristic of visual memory, with a final-item recency effect and no primacy effect. Experiment 2 assessed 5and 7-year-old children's memory for a shape's colour or its spatial location. Although there was developmental improvement in memory for spatial location, that was confined to pre-recency items, there was no effect of age with regard to the recall of colour. The results go against Hasher and Zacks' (1979) proposal that, in contrast to colour, spatial location would not show developmental improvement because it is remembered automatically. The concept of an object file, that was devised specifically to explain how different visual features of an object are represented (Kahneman & Treisman, 1984), is considered as a potential explanation of both the serial position curve and the distinctive behaviour of different visual features. It is suggested that although 5-year-olds are as adept as 7-year-olds at creating and immediately accessing an object file, they are less able to access information about the visual features of objects whose files are no longer current

Research translation mentoring for emerging clinician researchers in rural and regional health settings: a qualitative study

Abstract Background Building clinician and organisation-level research translation capacity and capability is fundamental for increasing the implementation of research into health practice and policy and improving health outcomes. Research translation capacity and capability building is particularly crucial in rural and regional settings to address complex problems impacting these socially and economically disadvantaged communities. Programs to build clinicians’ research translation capability typically involve training and mentoring. Little is known about the features of and influences on mentorships in the context of training for emerging clinician-researchers working in rural and regional healthcare settings. Research translation mentorships were established as part of the Supporting Translation Research in Rural and Regional settings (STaRR) program developed and delivered in Victoria, Australia from 2020 to 2021. The study sought to address the following research questions: 1) What context-specific types of support do research translation mentors provide to emerging researchers?. 2) How does the mentoring element of a rural research translational training program influence research translation capacity and capability development in rural emerging researchers and mentors, if at all?. 3) How does the mentoring element of the program influence translation capacity and capability at the organisational and regional level, if at all? Methods We conducted a qualitative descriptive study. Interviews with individuals involved in the STaRR program took place approximately 12 months after the program and explored participants’ experiences of the mentored training. Interviews were undertaken via telephone, audio-recorded, and transcribed. Data were analysed using a team-based five-stage framework approach. Results Participants included emerging researchers (n = 9), mentors (n = 5), and managers (n = 4), from five health services and two universities. We identified four themes in the interview data: (1) Mentors play an educative role; (2) Mentoring enhanced by a collaborative environment; (3) Organisational challenges can influence mentorships, and (4) Mentorships help develop research networks and collective research and translation capacity. Conclusions Mentorships contributed to the development of research translation capabilities. The capabilities were developed through mentors’ deepened understanding of the rural and regional healthcare contexts in which their emerging researchers worked, the broadening and strengthening of rural and regional research networks, and building and sharing research translation knowledge and skills

Translating research into rural health practice: a qualitative study of perceived capability building needs

Translating research into rural health practice: a qualitative study of perceived capability building need

Developmental dyscalculia is related to visuo-spatial memory and inhibition impairment

Developmental dyscalculia is thought to be a specific impairment of mathematics ability. Currently dominant cognitive neuroscience theories of developmental dyscalculia suggest that it originates from the impairment of the magnitude representation of the human brain, residing in the intraparietal sulcus, or from impaired connections between number symbols and the magnitude representation. However, behavioral research offers several alternative theories for developmental dyscalculia and neuro-imaging also suggests that impairments in developmental dyscalculia may be linked to disruptions of other functions of the intraparietal sulcus than the magnitude representation. Strikingly, the magnitude representation theory has never been explicitly contrasted with a range of alternatives in a systematic fashion. Here we have filled this gap by directly contrasting five alternative theories (magnitude representation, working memory, inhibition, attention and spatial processing) of developmental dyscalculia in 9–10-year-old primary school children. Participants were selected from a pool of 1004 children and took part in 16 tests and nine experiments. The dominant features of developmental dyscalculia are visuo-spatial working memory, visuo-spatial short-term memory and inhibitory function (interference suppression) impairment. We hypothesize that inhibition impairment is related to the disruption of central executive memory function. Potential problems of visuo-spatial processing and attentional function in developmental dyscalculia probably depend on short-term memory/working memory and inhibition impairments. The magnitude representation theory of developmental dyscalculia was not supported