"The Roma Do Not Exist": The Roma as an Object of Cinematic Representation and the Question of Authenticity

Representations of the Roma are ubiquitous in the history of Balkan cin­ema. These films have tended to be by non-Roma directors, with the Ro­ma as the object of representation. Consequently, the critical reception of the films has focused on the issue of verisimilitude. In recent scholarship critics have utilized the psychoanalytic concept of "projective identifica­tion" to account for the persistent interest in Gypsy culture and life. In this paper I draw on an alternative tradition of Lacanian psychoanalysis to argue that Tony Gatlif's Gadjo dilo, rather than presenting an authen­tic picture of Roma culture, foregrounds the impossibility of representa­tion ever truthfully capturing the object. Deploying the Lacanian con­cepts of das Ding and "The Woman does not exist," the paper demon­strates how Gatlif problematises the very notion of the Roma as a ho­mogenized culture and identity

The Sublime Object of Slavoj Žižek

Myers, Tony. Slavoj Žižek. London: Routledge, 2003 (pp 166). ISBN 0415262658.Kay, Sarah. Žižek: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2003 (pp 205). ISBN 0745622089.Parker, Ian. Slavoj Žižek: A Critical Introduction. London: Pluto Press, 2004 (pp 179). ISBN 0745320716.Sharpe, Matthew. Slavoj Žižek: A Little Piece of the Real. Hants, UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2004 (pp 281). ISBN 0754639185.Boucher, Geoff, Jason Glynos and Matthew Sharpe, eds. Traversing the Fantasy: Critical Responses to Slavoj Žižek. Hants, UK: Ashgate Pub­lishing, 2005 (pp 286). ISBN 0754651924

The Founding Trauma of National Identity in Films of Milčo Mančevski

The Macedonian filmmaker Milčo Mančevski is adamant that there is no such thing as Balkan cinema and he is not “a Balkan filmmaker”. He has repeatedly stated that his films are about people and not place, and insists that it is a fundamental mistake to read a film that is from somewhere as necessarily about somewhere. In this paper I argue, to the contrary, that Mančevski’s films are deeply rooted in a specific geopolitical space. Mančevski’s films range across genre, time and place, their experimental form disrupts narrative conventions and presents the past as discontinuous and open. The films engage in complicated and often indirect ways with our relationship to the past and how the past can be represented. Mančevski’s films, I contend, struggle with the “founding trauma” of national identity, that is to say, with the creation of the modern Macedonian state out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the twentieth century and more recently the expulsion of the Slavic population from Northern Greece after the end of the Second World War. Furthermore, his films deploy elements of a national imaginary to construct a unique “timeless” and “mythical” Macedonian national identity

Fredric Jameson : beyond a Marxist hermeneutic?

This thesis provides a critical study of the theoretical work of the North American Marxist theoretician and critic Fredric Jameson. Jameson has been described as probably the most important cultural critic writing in English today and yet there has been no major study of his work published to date. This thesis sets out to contribute to such a study. One reason for Jameson's relative critical neglect has been his adherence to a tradition of Marxist thought, that both within Marxism itself and theoretical discourse in general has been superseded by Structuralist and more recently Post-structuralist modes of thought. The first chapter, therefore, provides an exposition of Jameson's Hegelianism which is rather more sympathetic to Hegel and dialectical theory than the accounts one usually encounters today filtered through Structuralist and Post-structuralist readings. The following three chapters focus upon key areas of theoretical debates that have emerged over the last two decades - that is, questions of history and representation, desire and subjectivity and finally postmodernism. The concluding chapter returns to the concerns with which this study opened and once more reflects upon issues of totality, politics and style from the perspective of having worked through Jameson's own corpus of work

The Effect of Ethanol Fuel-Diluted Lubricants on the Friction of Oil Control Ring Conjunction: A Combined Analytical and Experimental Investigation

This paper presents an investigation of the frictional behaviour of three-piece piston oil control rings. A bespoke tribometer replicates the kinematics of the contact between a full oil control ring and the cylinder liner. The three-piece oil control ring is composed of two segments, separated by a waveform-type expander. The experimental results indicate the dominance of a mixed regime of lubrication throughout the stroke. This is particularly the case when the experiments are conducted at 80 °C, a typical engine sump temperature, when compared with those at 20 °C (a typical engine start-up temperature in the UK in the summer). A mixed hydrodynamic analytical model of the oil control ring–cylinder liner tribological interface is employed to apportion frictional contributions with their physical underlying mechanisms. Therefore, combined numerical and experimental investigations are extended to lubricant contamination/dilution by ethanol-based fuels. This study shows that the transition from E10 to E85 would have an insignificant effect on the friction generated in the oil control ring conjunction. This holistic approach, using a detailed predictive l mixed regime of lubrication model and a representative bespoke tribometry, has not hitherto been reported in the open literature

Conservative management versus tonsillectomy in adults with recurrent acute tonsillitis in the UK (NATTINA) : a multicentre, open-label, randomised controlled trial

This study was funded by the NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme (12/146/06).Background Tonsillectomy is regularly performed in adults with acute tonsillitis, but with scarce evidence. A reduction in tonsillectomies has coincided with an increase in acute adult hospitalisation for tonsillitis complications. We aimed to assess the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of conservative management versus tonsillectomy in patients with recurrent acute tonsillitis. Methods This pragmatic multicentre, open-label, randomised controlled trial was conducted in 27 hospitals in the UK. Participants were adults aged 16 years or older who were newly referred to secondary care otolaryngology clinics with recurrent acute tonsillitis. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive tonsillectomy or conservative management using random permuted blocks of variable length. Stratification by recruiting centre and baseline symptom severity was assessed using the Tonsil Outcome Inventory-14 score (categories defined as mild 0–35, moderate 36–48, or severe 49–70). Participants in the tonsillectomy group received elective surgery to dissect the palatine tonsils within 8 weeks after random assignment and those in the conservative management group received standard non-surgical care during 24 months. The primary outcome was the number of sore throat days collected during 24 months after random assignment, reported once per week with a text message. The primary analysis was done in the intention-to-treat (ITT) population. This study is registered with the ISRCTN registry, 55284102. Findings Between May 11, 2015, and April 30, 2018, 4165 participants with recurrent acute tonsillitis were assessed for eligibility and 3712 were excluded. 453 eligible participants were randomly assigned (233 in the immediate tonsillectomy group vs 220 in the conservative management group). 429 (95%) patients were included in the primary ITT analysis (224 vs 205). The median age of participants was 23 years (IQR 19–30), with 355 (78%) females and 97 (21%) males. Most participants were White (407 [90%]). Participants in the immediate tonsillectomy group had fewer days of sore throat during 24 months than those in the conservative management group (median 23 days [IQR 11–46] vs 30 days [14–65]). After adjustment for site and baseline severity, the incident rate ratio of total sore throat days in the immediate tonsillectomy group (n=224) compared with the conservative management group (n=205) was 0·53 (95% CI 0·43 to 0·65;Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Tonsillectomy compared with conservative management in patients over 16 years with recurrent sore throat:the NATTINA RCT and economic evaluation

BACKGROUND: The place of tonsillectomy in the management of sore throat in adults remains uncertain.OBJECTIVES: To establish the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of tonsillectomy, compared with conservative management, for tonsillitis in adults, and to evaluate the impact of alternative sore throat patient pathways.DESIGN: This was a multicentre, randomised controlled trial comparing tonsillectomy with conservative management. The trial included a qualitative process evaluation and an economic evaluation.SETTING: The study took place at 27 NHS secondary care hospitals in Great Britain.PARTICIPANTS: A total of 453 eligible participants with recurrent sore throats were recruited to the main trial.INTERVENTIONS: Patients were randomised on a 1 : 1 basis between tonsil dissection and conservative management (i.e. deferred surgery) using a variable block-stratified design, stratified by (1) centre and (2) severity.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome measure was the total number of sore throat days over 24 months following randomisation. The secondary outcome measures were the number of sore throat episodes and five characteristics from Sore Throat Alert Return, describing severity of the sore throat, use of medications, time away from usual activities and the Short Form questionnaire-12 items. Additional secondary outcomes were the Tonsil Outcome Inventory-14 total and subscales and Short Form questionnaire-12 items 6 monthly. Evaluation of the impact of alternative sore throat patient pathways by observation and statistical modelling of outcomes against baseline severity, as assessed by Tonsil Outcome Inventory-14 score at recruitment. The incremental cost per sore throat day avoided, the incremental cost per quality-adjusted life-year gained based on responses to the Short Form questionnaire-12 items and the incremental net benefit based on costs and responses to a contingent valuation exercise. A qualitative process evaluation examined acceptability of trial processes and ramdomised arms.RESULTS: There was a median of 27 (interquartile range 12-52) sore throats over the 24-month follow-up. A smaller number of sore throats was reported in the tonsillectomy arm [median 23 (interquartile range 11-46)] than in the conservative management arm [median 30 (interquartile range 14-65)]. On an intention-to-treat basis, there were fewer sore throats in the tonsillectomy arm (incident rate ratio 0.53, 95% confidence interval 0.43 to 0.65). Sensitivity analyses confirmed this, as did the secondary outcomes. There were 52 episodes of post-operative haemorrhage reported in 231 participants undergoing tonsillectomy (22.5%). There were 47 re-admissions following tonsillectomy (20.3%), 35 relating to haemorrhage. On average, tonsillectomy was more costly and more effective in terms of both sore throat days avoided and quality-adjusted life-years gained. Tonsillectomy had a 100% probability of being considered cost-effective if the threshold for an additional quality-adjusted life year was £20,000. Tonsillectomy had a 69% probability of having a higher net benefit than conservative management. Trial processes were deemed to be acceptable. Patients who received surgery were unanimous in reporting to be happy to have received it.LIMITATIONS: The decliners who provided data tended to have higher Tonsillectomy Outcome Inventory-14 scores than those willing to be randomised implying that patients with a higher burden of tonsillitis symptoms may have declined entry into the trial.CONCLUSIONS: The tonsillectomy arm had fewer sore throat days over 24 months than the conservative management arm, and had a high probability of being considered cost-effective over the ranges considered. Further work should focus on when tonsillectomy should be offered. National Trial of Tonsillectomy IN Adults has assessed the effectiveness of tonsillectomy when offered for the current UK threshold of disease burden. Further research is required to define the minimum disease burden at which tonsillectomy becomes clinically effective and cost-effective.TRIAL REGISTRATION: This trial is registered as ISRCTN55284102.FUNDING: This award was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme (NIHR award ref: 12/146/06) and is published in full in Health Technology Assessment; Vol. 27, No. 31. See the NIHR Funding and Awards website for further award information. </p