The Theory of the Copy: Henry Fox Talbot and The Pencil of Nature

This paper explores how Henry Fox Talbot's enigmatic mid-nineteenth-century "book" The Pencil of Nature staged a key moment in media history. By working through some of the key themes that framed Talbot's concep­tion of the copying process, it is possible to examine a vital moment in the historical drama of mechanical reproduction. In this paper I argue that, de­parting from Walter Benjamin's formulation of the copy, Talbot's emotional investment in the copying process effectively imbricates the modern image in an affective field of historical memory, securing the meaning of the copy for futurity. The Pencil of Nature demonstrates in its relation to images, and to the copying process, a particular mode of collecting, constructing, cultivating, and transferring meaning. Reading The Pencil of Nature as a manifestation of lyrical, etymological, and antiquarian modes of nine­teenth-century thought, this essay negotiates how Talbot nostalgically and sentimentally positions the reproducible modern image, prefiguring image production systems in modernity and postmodernity

Rancire and Contemporary Political Problems

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The Death of Margaret Thatcher and the question of the media event

This paper discusses the death and subsequent funeral of Margaret Thatcher through a critical interrogation of Dayan and Katz's notion of 'media events'. By considering the internal theoretical coherence of the notion, and some of the 'media events' that have occurred since its initial formulation, the notion of 'media events' is used as a problematic in order to analyse television coverage of the death and funeral of Margaret Thatcher. The paper focuses on the political dimension of the coverage in order to indicate the ways that the problem of Thatcher's material and symbolic legacy is established in the context of the continuation of the unprecedented financial crisis of capitalism and the attempts of the UK government of the Conservative-Liberal- Democratic alliance to manage its consequences. The paper argues that the event can be understood in terms of the convergence of a residual nostalgia for the social divisions associated with Thatcher, a dominant strategic political ambiguity, and an emergent effervescence around the absence of 'the people'. The paper concludes with a discussion of the problem of democratic politics as precisely the absence of the 'the people'.div_MCaPApub3289pub

Un-Decadence: Counter-Poetries and Decadent Aesthetics in the British Fin-De-Siècle

This dissertation examines and categorically reforms the accepted construction of fin-de-siècle decadence. In this study I grapple with how we understand the nature of fin-de-siècle cultural history and how theories of decadence during the late-nineteenth century may be usefully complicated by an analysis of fin-de-siècle decadence as a non-unitary discursive program. Cumulatively this study reimagines Victorian, fin-de-siècle and modernist literatures in relation to decadent aesthetics read through a sustained investigation of discourse and generic forms in the period. To this end I examine three late-Victorian poets’ methods of construction and models of poetic and aesthetic form as they wrote, shaped and published their works in order to demonstrate how they incite us to alter and re-define our conception of decadence as a historical category. For this critical intervention I have chosen a set of authors—Edward Carpenter, John Davidson and Sarojini Naidu—whose work exemplifies three poetic models that, I argue, actively engaged with and reformed the tropes, arguments and methods of fin-de-siècle decadence. Edward Carpenter’s poetry is emblematic of democratic decadence and exemplifies a homoerotic, vegetarian, fraternal, and socialistic decadence that combines late-century aestheticism and utopianism with the embrace of a cosmic Whitmanian self and an ardent embrace of Indian spirituality and culture. John Davidson’s poetics are a case-study in muscular decadence with its roots in Nietzsche, the Nietzschean will to power and in a cross-fertilization of German and European pessimism with particularly British ideas of national culture and the great self. Sarojini Naidu’s poetics are a case-study in poly-decadence, a poly-cultural, poly-theistic, and poly-valent poetics that explores the international shape of decadent symbolism and a wide movement toward an emancipatory decadence intertwined with a nationalistic feminism. By organizing and naming the key decadent aesthetic fields that the authors engaged with this study traces the dialectical interplay between poetry and decadent theory during the period and attempts to broaden and complicate how we understand decadence, discourse and aesthetics as key drivers in the production of culture

Un-Decadence: Counter-Poetries and Decadent Aesthetics in the British Fin-De-Siècle

This dissertation examines and categorically reforms the accepted construction of fin-de-siècle decadence. In this study I grapple with how we understand the nature of fin-de-siècle cultural history and how theories of decadence during the late-nineteenth century may be usefully complicated by an analysis of fin-de-siècle decadence as a non-unitary discursive program. Cumulatively this study reimagines Victorian, fin-de-siècle and modernist literatures in relation to decadent aesthetics read through a sustained investigation of discourse and generic forms in the period. To this end I examine three late-Victorian poets’ methods of construction and models of poetic and aesthetic form as they wrote, shaped and published their works in order to demonstrate how they incite us to alter and re-define our conception of decadence as a historical category. For this critical intervention I have chosen a set of authors—Edward Carpenter, John Davidson and Sarojini Naidu—whose work exemplifies three poetic models that, I argue, actively engaged with and reformed the tropes, arguments and methods of fin-de-siècle decadence. Edward Carpenter’s poetry is emblematic of democratic decadence and exemplifies a homoerotic, vegetarian, fraternal, and socialistic decadence that combines late-century aestheticism and utopianism with the embrace of a cosmic Whitmanian self and an ardent embrace of Indian spirituality and culture. John Davidson’s poetics are a case-study in muscular decadence with its roots in Nietzsche, the Nietzschean will to power and in a cross-fertilization of German and European pessimism with particularly British ideas of national culture and the great self. Sarojini Naidu’s poetics are a case-study in poly-decadence, a poly-cultural, poly-theistic, and poly-valent poetics that explores the international shape of decadent symbolism and a wide movement toward an emancipatory decadence intertwined with a nationalistic feminism. By organizing and naming the key decadent aesthetic fields that the authors engaged with this study traces the dialectical interplay between poetry and decadent theory during the period and attempts to broaden and complicate how we understand decadence, discourse and aesthetics as key drivers in the production of culture

The invasive colonial ascidian Didemnum vexillum on Georges Bank - Ecological effects and genetic identification

Since the discovery of the invasive colonial tunicate Didemnum vexillum Kott, 2002 on Georges Bank in 2002, research has focused on investigating the spread of the tunicate invasion, evaluating its potential impact on the benthic community, identifying it to species level, and determining its region of origin. The percent cover of Didemnum vexillum, measured from bottom photographs, ranges from 0-100% in individual photos and between 0-79% when averaged within photo transects. Individual photos represent an area of the seabed measuring ~ 0.39 m2 while photo transects range from ~ 700-1000 meters in length. Hydroids are the second most abundant epifaunal taxon. The macrofauna identified in bottom photo analysis comprises 21 different taxa, of which burrowing and non-burrowing anemones are the most numerous. Our detailed analysis of bottom photographs suggests that Didemnum vexillum is able to out-compete other epifaunal and macrofaunal taxa. An Analysis of Similarity (ANOSIM) test on macrofauna abundance data collected with a Naturalist dredge from 1994 to 2006, indicates that Didemnum vexillum has had a significant impact on the species composition of the benthic community. The abundance of two polychaete species, Nereis zonata Malmgren, 1867 and Harmothoe extenuata Grube, 1840, increased significantly in infested areas compared with uninfested areas, according to two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). We found four distinct nucleotide sequences of the 18s rDNA gene among 17 samples of Didemnum species, three from Georges Bank and one from New Zealand. Two of the Georges Bank sequences were identified as Didemnum albidum Verrill, 1871, a species native to the northeast United States. The third sequence represents the invasive Didemnum vexillum from Georges Bank, and the fourth sequence an undescribed species from New Zealand (not D. vexillum)

Instructional leadership and student achievement in Belizean secondary schools

Scope and Method of Study:The hypotheses were tested through quantitative non-experimental methodology. The study is considered to be causal comparison research. The purpose was to determine if differences existed in CXC scores of students in Mathematics and English Language at secondary schools with and without leaders who exemplify instructional leadership behavior. Differences among the scores of students based on the instructional leadership behavior of the principals were determined through the computation of the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The statistical analyses were done using IBM SPSS Statistic version 19.Findings and Conclusions:The results indicate differences in the scores of students based on the instructional leadership behaviors of the principals. Students attending schools led by instructional leaders performed better in general than students attending schools not led by instructional leaders. The results also indicated that students attending secondary schools with entrance requirements perform better academically than students who attend schools with no entrance requirements.Recommendations:The Ministry of Education can improve the status-quo by helping the leaders of all learning institutions in the country become qualified in leadership. The ministry should also adopt a policy that insists all principals lead according to the instructional leadership model. Principals in Belize need to adopt instructional leadership principles of defining and communicating shared goals, monitoring and providing feedback on the teaching and learning process, and promoting school-wide professional development.Teachers need to see themselves as co-leaders in the institutions where they teach and be open to the ideas of professional development, supervision, and curriculum development. All of these lead to quality instruction which is an indication of improved learning.Parents have two issues to bear in mind as they choose educational institutions for their children to attend. First, students who attend secondary schools led by instructional leaders perform better than students who do not attend such institutions. Second, students who attend schools that have entrance requirements perform better than students who attend schools that have no entrance requirements

Adjunct Therapy in Type 1 Diabetes: A Survey to Uncover Unmet Needs and Patient Preferences Beyond HbA1c Measures.

Background: Adjunct therapy can help patients with type 1 diabetes achieve glycemic goals while potentially mitigating some of the side effects of insulin. In this study, we used a patient survey to identify the unmet needs in type 1 diabetes therapy, patient views of treatment benefit-risk trade-offs, and patient preferences for the use of an adjunct therapy. Methods: A quantitative survey was sent to 2084 adults with type 1 diabetes in November 2017. "Jobs-to-be-done" and conjoint analyses were performed on survey responses to identify unmet needs and the importance of treatment-associated benefits and risks to patients. A 5-point Likert scale measured the importance and satisfaction with patients' current therapy, and with gaps relating to unmet needs. In the conjoint analysis, patients were asked to choose between "packages" of attributes of two doses of adjunct therapy (200 and 400 mg) and placebo, based on established benefits and side effects. Results: A total of 1313 patients (63%) responded. The greatest unmet needs identified were simplifying treatment, lowering/maintaining glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), reducing mental effort, and increasing time in range (TIR). Conjoint analysis showed that reductions in body weight and TIR had the highest attribute importance (25% and 18%, respectively). The majority (93%) of patients had a preference for the adjunct therapy (either dose) over placebo. Conclusions: This survey highlights the importance of measures beyond HbA1c, such as treatment simplification and TIR, and patient preference for adjunct therapies that help address unmet needs in type 1 diabetes treatment

A human rights approach to advocacy for people with dementia: A review of current provision in England and Wales

In this article, we review current advocacy services for people with dementia in England and Wales (provided, respectively, under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, the Mental Health Act 1983/2007 and the Care Act 2014) through the lens of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). We examine what a human rights’ approach to advocacy support would entail, and whether current frameworks in England and Wales are adequate for this approach and provide a sufficient safeguard. First, we consider how the human rights of persons with dementia have become increasingly important and the extent to which the CRPD provides an opportunity to bolster safeguards and protection. Second, we discuss cause and case advocacy, and how these advocacy models could be shaped by the CRPD to promote the rights of persons with dementia at each stage of the disease. Third, we highlight current dilemmas and challenges in the provision of advocacy support in England and Wales by focusing on case law, commissioning of services and current practice. In particular, we analyse how the different legislative schemes have given rise to some confusion about the various advocacy provisions, as well as potential for overlap and discrepancies between different regimes. We also highlight the need for further research to address important gaps in knowledge, including the scale of need, patterns of referral and attitudes to advocacy services. The article concludes by highlighting how advocacy support could be recalibrated as a universal right to promote the aims and aspirations of the CRPD, and how education is needed to address the stigma of dementia and promote the benefits of advocacy in protecting the rights of those with dementia