Haunted houses: influence and the creative process in Virginia Woolf's novels

This thesis argues that rather than being an innovative, modernist writer, Virginia Woolfs methods, themes, and aspirations were conservative in certain central ways, for her novels were influenced profoundly by the work of writers from earlier eras. This argument is developed both by demonstrating that Woolf was influenced by other writers, and also by exploring the dynamics of how this process of influence took place. The thesis contends that this process included identification with past writers and a longing for the literary past, which complicated Woolfs attempts to negotiate the past and its values. After a chapter examining theoretical approaches to the concept of literary influence, the thesis makes a detailed study of Woolf's engagement with her influences in eight of her novels. Woolf s responses to influence are divided into three phases. In the first phase, up to the mid- 1920s, she wrestled with existing perceptions of the woman writer as she looked to female precursors as role models and struggled with their legacies. At the same time, she sought refuge from such a problematic inheritance by turning to her male precursors to try and gain covert access to the literary traditions which were thought to be the birthright of the men of her generation. In the second phase of her career, in the late 1920s, Woolf continued to deal with the absence of a ready-made tradition by elegizing writers she had known and the literary traditions they represented. In the process of mourning other writers, it is suggested, Woolf remade them in her imagination to be like herself. This process of identification continued in the third phase, in The Naves and Between the Acts, when Woolf drew on the work of Wordsworth and Coleridge, respectively, to explore and develop her mature identity as a writer

Preparing potential teachers for the transition from employment to teacher training: an evaluative case study of a Maths Enhancement Course

In response to a UK government drive to improve maths teaching in schools, the South West London Maths Enhancement Course (MEC) has been set up though collaboration between three Higher Education institutions (HEIs) to provide an efficient route for non maths graduates in employment to upgrade their subject knowledge and give a smooth transition into teacher training (PGCE). An evaluation of the scheme, measured against Teacher Development Agency (TDA) objectives and success criteria agreed by university staff, involved thematic analysis of focus group discussions and interviews with students and staff during both the MEC and PGCE courses. This has revealed a high level of satisfaction and success related to a number of underlying issues, particularly around student recruitment, curriculum design, peer support and staff collaboration. The model offers an example of practice transferable to a range of programmes aimed at supporting students in the transition between levels and institutions

Islington Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) employment research project

Final Report of the Islington BAME Employment project - looking at the levles of unemployment and the barriers to accessing employment face by different ethnic minoritised residents in the Borough

Islington disability and long-term health conditions employment project: final report

The aim of this research, conducted by London Metropolitan University in partnership with the London Borough of Islington, is to identify the levels of unemployment among residents with different disabilities and long-term health conditions including deafness and visual impairment living in the Borough and the extent to which existing employment services in the Borough support them getting into work. The research had two key elements: a quantitative analysis of economic inactivity and employment to identify both the levels of unemployment among people with disabilities but also whether there are people with particular disabilities and long-term health conditions who suffer more from unemployment, and secondly, a series of focus groups with those groups of people with particular disabilities to further investigate the barriers to employment they experience. The key point here is that ‘disability’ is an umbrella term and that people with particular disabilities and health conditions have different experiences and needs which need to be addressed if they are to be enabled to successfully access work. The research is part of the London Metropolitan University, London Met Lab Empowering London initiative, which aims to engage the University with its community partners. The key barriers to assessing work emerging from the research were: The key barriers identified by participants in the focus groups are highlighted below. • Unfair treatment, discrimination and lack of awareness, training and support from employers – perhaps the key barrier to emerge across all focus groups was unfair treatment and discrimination both in trying to get a job and when in the workplace. The issues highlighted time and again were a lack of awareness and support by employers in the workplace and associated issues of stigma, stereotyping and ignorance concerning people with mental health conditions, neuro-diverse people, people with learning disabilities, deaf people and people with visual impairment in particular. Many examples were given of the lack of support and awareness of the needs of neuro-diverse people or people with mental health conditions or of deaf people in the workplace. A number of participants in the deaf focus group had left jobs as a result of discrimination from managers and co-workers. There was a general emphasis on the need for disability awareness in workplaces. ‘in terms of reasonable adjustments, some organisations don’t know how to do that, it’s training. I think it’s about training and educating companies, organisations about how to support and how to make reasonable adjustments’ (Mental health focus group participant) A related issue was that of disclosure and the uncertainty and lack of clarity over at what point and to whom to disclose information about a health and especially a mental health condition. Participants in the focus group with people with mental health problems among others identified a sense that employers are scared of dealing with mental health issues in the workplace. Deaf participants had experienced discrimination extensively both in the workplace and in applying for jobs and raised a number of issues concerning the need for deaf awareness in the workplace including simple changes such as fire alarms for deaf people and more widely to challenge the endemic and harmful stereotyping of deaf people cognitive and overall abilities which prevents them securing employment. • Lack of opportunities in deaf and learning disability and general disability aware work environments. • Recruitment processes – the recruitment process was also highlighted as a key barrier to people with disabilities across all the focus groups although the reasons varied for particular groups. Telephone interviews especially for people with learning disabilities were given as one example of a barrier to accessing work while more widely, issues of online application processes and digital literacy were raised. • Digital literacy and exclusion –the increasing shift to online recruitment processes present a major barrier for people with lower levels of digital literacy or who lack access to a laptop and broadband at home as many people with disabilities on low incomes in the focus groups did. • History of low skilled and low paid employment – the experiences of many participants was of having access at best to low paid and low skilled employment. While this results in feelings of low confidence and expectations it also has the effect of pushing people with disabilities, sensory impairments and health conditions into poverty and many of the participants found themselves struggling with the cost of living. ‘The deaf people I work with tend to apply for and are more successful in working in less skilled sectors. These include cleaning roles, hospitality, care sector and retail positions’ (Employment support services stakeholder focus group) • Lack of confidence and low expectations – because of the discrimination and unfair treatment people with disabilities, sensory impairments and long term health conditions experience in accessing employment, there was a very strong sense of having low expectations about the possibility of finding a job let alone a well-paid or skilled job. Many people reported having a lack of confidence and self-esteem. • Low level of educational qualifications – whilst there was a spread of qualifications across the participants in focus groups, with high levels of qualifications amongst many people with mental health problems and neuro-diverse conditions, in general and amongst people with learning disabilities and deaf people in particular, participants had low levels of educational qualifications. • Negative experiences of education – participants with learning disabilities and deaf participants in particular voiced their negative experiences of mainstream education at both school and college. Again, this reflected both a lack of awareness of needs and lack of appropriate support. ‘I went to a deaf school and it was fantastic, I had all the access there that I needed. I was very lively person in the classroom. And then I went on to further education and I felt I was just completely knocked.’ (Deaf focus group participant) • Literacy – levels of literacy, especially literacy in the use of English amongst deaf participants whose first language is British Sign Language (BSL), was raised as a barrier to accessing employment and recruitment processes. • Complexity of the benefits system – for many participants a major concern and barrier is how getting a job will affect their benefits. In particular, people with learning disabilities or people with mental health conditions returning to work after a gap in employment, may need to try work in more than one workplace before they find something which suits their needs and are fearful of the impact this will have on their benefits. • Lack of disability awareness and support in services – the DWP and Job Centre were perceived by some participants and groups as having a lack of awareness and providing little support for people with learning difficulties and mental health problems in particular. There was a perception that support workers were not as supportive as they should be and that personnel changed frequently. However, many of the deaf participants had nothing but praise for the one deaf aware and BSL trained support worker in the local Barnsbury Job Centre who provided a crucial service to deaf service users, and highlighted the importance of deaf aware staff and support. ‘that one person is excellent. She's got the awareness, if that person wasn't there, we wouldn't have that access. Really, it's to do with her. We love her. She's really supportive of deaf people’ (Deaf focus group participant) • Lack of BSL support – the focus group with deaf participants highlighted the lack of BSL support as a barrier in accessing both education and employment. ‘lack of access to support in BSL is a barrier to deaf people in applying for job roles and navigating the employment system’ (Deaf focus group participant) • Length and cost of diagnosis for neuro-diverse conditions – a number of participants had received late diagnosis of autism and ADHD and raised issues concerning the length of time and cost of diagnosis as well as the lack of support for neuro-diverse employees in the workplace including a lack of consideration of needs in terms of workspace, lighting and methods of communication. • Cost of living – and cost and lack of access to gym and swimming facilities essential for rehabilitation – living on a low income is a reality for many people with disabilities and health conditions and was a key issue raised by participants. Almost all participants in the focus group with people with physical disabilities were struggling with the cost of living and identified a need in particular, for affordable, regular access to the gym or swimming pool for their rehabilitation

The Iowa Homemaker vol.16, no.8

Billy Eats, Sleeps and Plays by Barbara Fischer, page 2 Foods for Gods from the Buffet by Helen Miller, page 3 Swing Into Spring! by Beth Johnson, page 4 Color Passports to Spring by Gaynold Carroll, page 5 Teachers Reveal Pets and Peeves by Peggy Schenk, page 6 Awearin’ the Green by Mildred Gauley, page 7 Table Shamrocks by Doris Ingle, page 7 What’s New in Home Economics, page 8 News in the Mail from Graduates by Faithe Danielson, page 10 Glad-irons Replace Sad-irons by Ida Ruth Younkin, page 11 Children Around the World by Mae Louise Buchanan, page 11 Behind Bright Jackets, page 12 Hopes in a Chest by Gwen Griffith, page 13 Spring Inventory by Gay Starrak, page 14 French Cookery Puzzles by Beth Cummings, page 16 Wear Polished Nails by Jane Helser, page 1

Liver-Targeting of Interferon-Alpha with Tissue-Specific Domain Antibodies

PMCID: PMC3581439This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Forefoot pathology in rheumatoid arthritis identified with ultrasound may not localise to areas of highest pressure: cohort observations at baseline and twelve months

BackgroundPlantar pressures are commonly used as clinical measures, especially to determine optimum foot orthotic design. In rheumatoid arthritis (RA) high plantar foot pressures have been linked to metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint radiological erosion scores. However, the sensitivity of foot pressure measurement to soft tissue pathology within the foot is unknown. The aim of this study was to observe plantar foot pressures and forefoot soft tissue pathology in patients who have RA.Methods A total of 114 patients with established RA (1987 ACR criteria) and 50 healthy volunteers were assessed at baseline. All RA participants returned for reassessment at twelve months. Interface foot-shoe plantar pressures were recorded using an F-Scan® system. The presence of forefoot soft tissue pathology was assessed using a DIASUS musculoskeletal ultrasound (US) system. Chi-square analyses and independent t-tests were used to determine statistical differences between baseline and twelve months. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to determine interrelationships between soft tissue pathology and foot pressures.ResultsAt baseline, RA patients had a significantly higher peak foot pressures compared to healthy participants and peak pressures were located in the medial aspect of the forefoot in both groups. In contrast, RA participants had US detectable soft tissue pathology in the lateral aspect of the forefoot. Analysis of person specific data suggests that there are considerable variations over time with more than half the RA cohort having unstable presence of US detectable forefoot soft tissue pathology. Findings also indicated that, over time, changes in US detectable soft tissue pathology are out of phase with changes in foot-shoe interface pressures both temporally and spatially.Conclusions We found that US detectable forefoot soft tissue pathology may be unrelated to peak forefoot pressures and suggest that patients with RA may biomechanically adapt to soft tissue forefoot pathology. In addition, we have observed that, in patients with RA, interface foot-shoe pressures and the presence of US detectable forefoot pathology may vary substantially over time. This has implications for clinical strategies that aim to offload peak plantar pressures

Patterns of periodontal disease progression based on linear mixed models of clinical attachment loss

AimThe goal of the present longitudinal cohort study was to examine patterns of periodontal disease progression at progressing sites and subjects defined based on linear mixed models (LMM) of clinical attachment loss (CAL).Materials and MethodsA total of 113 periodontally healthy and 302 periodontitis subjects had their CAL calculated bimonthly for 12 months. LMMs were fitted for each site and the predicted CAL levels used to categorize their progression state. Participants were grouped based on the number of progressing sites into unchanged, transitional and active subjects. Patterns of periodontal disease progression were explored using descriptive statistics.ResultsProgression occurred primarily at molars (50% of progressing sites) and inter‐proximal sites (72%), affected a higher proportion of deep than shallow sites (2.7% versus 0.7%), and pocketing was the main mode of progression (49%). We found a low level of agreement (47%) between the LMM and traditional approaches to determine progression such as change in CAL ≥3 mm. Fourteen per cent of subjects were classified as active and among those 93% had periodontitis. The annual mean rate of progression for the active subjects was 0.35 mm/year.ConclusionProgressing sites and subjects defined based on LMMs presented patterns of disease progression similar to those previously reported in the literature.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142020/1/jcpe12827.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142020/2/jcpe12827_am.pd

Immunochip analysis identifies multiple susceptibility loci for systemic sclerosis

In this study, 1,833 systemic sclerosis (SSc) cases and 3,466 controls were genotyped with the Immunochip array. Classical alleles, amino acid residues, and SNPs across the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region were imputed and tested. These analyses resulted in a model composed of six polymorphic amino acid positions and seven SNPs that explained the observed significant associations in the region. In addition, a replication step comprising 4,017 SSc cases and 5,935 controls was carried out for several selected non-HLA variants, reaching a total of 5,850 cases and 9,401 controls of European ancestry. Following this strategy, we identified and validated three SSc risk loci, including DNASE1L3 at 3p14, the SCHIP1-IL12A locus at 3q25, and ATG5 at 6q21, as well as a suggested association of the TREH-DDX6 locus at 11q23. The associations of several previously reported SSc risk loci were validated and further refined, and the observed peak of association in PXK was related to DNASE1L3. Our study has increased the number of known genetic associations with SSc, provided further insight into the pleiotropic effects of shared autoimmune risk factors, and highlighted the power of dense mapping for detecting previously overlooked susceptibility loci