Irish voices for Irish visions: Gael Linn’s documentary film projects

This paper seeks to analyse three important documentary film projects of Gael Linn – the Amharc Éireann newsreel series, Mise Eire and Saoirse? – in terms of the connection that they create between Irish-language cinema and the ideologies of Irish nationalism. Since Gael Linn was founded in 1953 in direct response to a perceived failure on the part of the newly independent Irish state to revive the Irish language, I will begin with a very short overview of the Irish government’s efforts in this direction, followed by an examination of the goals and objectives of Gael Linn when it was founded, before moving on to an analysis of the film projects

Finding a Voice: The Role of Irish-Language Film in Irish National Cinema

This dissertation investigates the history of film production in the minority language of Irish Gaelic. The objective is to determine what this history reveals about the changing roles of both the national language and national cinema in Ireland. The study of Irish-language film provides an illustrative and significant example of the participation of a minority perspective within a small national cinema. It is also illustrates the potential role of cinema in language maintenance and revitalization. Research is focused on policies and practices of filmmaking, with additional consideration given to film distribution, exhibition, and reception. Furthermore, films are analysed based on the strategies used by filmmakers to integrate the traditional Irish language with the modern medium of film, as well as their motivations for doing so. Research methods included archival work, textual analysis, personal interviews, and review of scholarly, popular, and trade publications. Case studies are offered on three movements in Irish-language film. First, the Irish-language organization Gael Linn produced documentaries in the 1950s and 1960s that promoted a strongly nationalist version of Irish history while also exacerbating the view of Irish as a “private discourse” of nationalism. Second, independent filmmaker Bob Quinn operated in the Irish-speaking area of Connemara in the 1970s; his fiction films from that era situated the regional affiliations of the language within the national context. Finally, films made since the 1990s benefited from generous public subsidies from TG4 (the Irish-language television station) and the Irish Film Board; this funding attracted a large cross-section of filmmakers whose diverse linguistic identities are reflected in the texts of the films themselves. Although historically there have been successful examples of independently produced Irish-language films, current production is dependent on public funding, and the future of Irish-language cinema appears to be very closely linked to policy decisions of both film and language agencies

Irish voices for Irish visions: Gael Linn’s documentary film projects

This paper seeks to analyse three important documentary film projects of Gael Linn – the Amharc Éireann newsreel series, Mise Eire and Saoirse? – in terms of the connection that they create between Irish-language cinema and the ideologies of Irish nationalism. Since Gael Linn was founded in 1953 in direct response to a perceived failure on the part of the newly independent Irish state to revive the Irish language, I will begin with a very short overview of the Irish government’s efforts in this direction, followed by an examination of the goals and objectives of Gael Linn when it was founded, before moving on to an analysis of the film projects

Immune Profiles Vary Seasonally, But Are Not Significantly Related To Migration Distance Or Natal Dispersal, In A Migratory Songbird

A central tenet of ecoimmunology is that an organism’s environment shapes its optimal investment in immunity. For example, the benefits of acquired (relatively pathogen-specific) versus innate (non-specific) immune defences are thought to vary with the risk of encountering familiar versus unfamiliar pathogens. Because pathogen communities vary geographically, individuals that travel farther during seasonal migration or natal dispersal are predicted to have higher exposure to novel pathogens, and lower exposure to familiar pathogens, potentially favoring investment in innate immunity. During the breeding season, migratory animals’ exposure to familiar pathogens should increase, potentially favoring investment in acquired immunity. We hypothesized that song sparrows Melospiza melodia adjust their constitutive immune profiles in response to risk of encountering novel versus familiar pathogens. We predicted that individuals migrating longer distances (inferred from stable hydrogen isotope analysis of claws) and less philopatric individuals (inferred from microsatellite assignment testing) would rely more heavily on acquired than innate defences. We also predicted that reliance on acquired defences would increase throughout the early breeding season. Consistent with trade-offs between acquired and innate defences, levels of immunoglobulin Y (acquired) varied negatively with macrophage phagocytosis activity (innate). Levels of acquired relative to innate immunity did not vary significantly with migration distance or philopatry, but increased throughout the early breeding season. Macrophage phagocytosis was not significantly repeatable between years. Song sparrows appear to shift from innate defences immediately after migration, to acquired defences with increasing time at the breeding grounds. These patterns highlight the plasticity of constitutive immune defences in migratory animals

Randomized trial comparing proactive, high-dose versus reactive, low-dose intravenous iron supplementation in hemodialysis (PIVOTAL) : Study design and baseline data

Background: Intravenous (IV) iron supplementation is a standard maintenance treatment for hemodialysis (HD) patients, but the optimum dosing regimen is unknown. Methods: PIVOTAL (Proactive IV irOn Therapy in hemodiALysis patients) is a multicenter, open-label, blinded endpoint, randomized controlled (PROBE) trial. Incident HD adults with a serum ferritin 700 μg/L and/or TSAT ≥40%) or a reactive, low-dose IV iron arm (iron sucrose administered if ferritin <200 μg/L or TSAT < 20%). We hypothesized that proactive, high-dose IV iron would be noninferior to reactive, low-dose IV iron for the primary outcome of first occurrence of nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI), nonfatal stroke, hospitalization for heart failure or death from any cause. If noninferiority is confirmed with a noninferiority limit of 1.25 for the hazard ratio of the proactive strategy relative to the reactive strategy, a test for superiority will be carried out. Secondary outcomes include infection-related endpoints, ESA dose requirements, and quality-of-life measures. As an event-driven trial, the study will continue until at least 631 primary outcome events have accrued, but the expected duration of follow-up is 2-4 years. Results: Of the 2,589 patients screened across 50 UK sites, 2,141 (83%) were randomized. At baseline, 65.3% were male, the median age was 65 years, and 79% were white. According to eligibility criteria, all patients were on ESA at screening. Prior stroke and MI were present in 8 and 9% of the cohort, respectively, and 44% of patients had diabetes at baseline. Baseline data for the randomized cohort were generally concordant with recent data from the UK Renal Registry. Conclusions: PIVOTAL will provide important information about the optimum dosing of IV iron in HD patients representative of usual clinical practice. Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2013-002267-25.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Seasonal Migration Distance Varies With Natal Dispersal and Predicts Parasitic Infection in Song Sparrows

Seasonal migration and natal dispersal represent the major large-scale movements in the lives of animals. Individuals that are relatively prone to movement and exploration might thus be more likely to disperse and also to migrate farther. Such movement might be either negatively associated with parasitic infection (if infection prevents hosts from successful long-distance migration) or positively associated (e.g. if longer-distance migrants encounter more abundant or more diverse parasites). We examined whether natal dispersal tendency predicts seasonal migration distance in song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) and whether migration distance predicts infection with bloodborne parasites upon arrival at the breeding grounds. Migration distance, inferred from stable hydrogen isotope analysis (δ2H) of winter-grown tissue, was repeatable (repeatability = 0.41) over years. Birds that were more likely to have immigrated from outside the breeding grounds, as inferred from genetic assignment tests, also overwintered farther south, as inferred from stable isotope analysis. The finding that individuals more prone to movement in the context of natal dispersal also tended to travel farther, on average, in the context of seasonal migration suggests consistent individual variation in large-scale movements across these two contexts. Although statistically significant, this effect was modest in scope and subtle relative to sex differences in inferred migration distance. Among after-second-year individuals, but not yearlings, longer-distance migrants were more likely, on average, to be infected with bloodborne parasites. Individual variation in propensity to long-distance movement may interact with age-related variation in exposure or susceptibility to parasites, to shape the role of animal migration in transporting infectious disease

Intramolecular homolytic substitution in selenoxides and selenones

G3(MP2)-RAD calculations provide activation energies for intramolecular homolytic substitution in the 4-(alkylselenoxo)butyl and 4-(alkylselendioxo)butyl radicals ranging from 21–39 kJ mol−1, and 143–170 kJ mol−1 for the selenoxide and selenone, respectively. Arrhenius data translate into rate constants for ring-closure of 1.5×105−2.5×108 s−1 (80°) for the selenoxides, and 5.4×10−14−5.1×10−11 s−1 (80°) for the corresponding selenones. NBO analyses show alkyl radicals are electrophilic during homolytic substitution at selenoxide selenium. The dominant orbital interaction in the transition state is worth 2413 kJ mol−1 and involves the SOMO and the lone-pair of electrons on selenium. The corresponding selenones are calculated to ring-close through transition states in which alkyl radicals are nucleophilic, but involve weak (SOMO--> σ* and SOMO--> π*) interactions. Consequently, this chemistry is not viable for selenones because of the lack of lone-pairs of electrons on the chalcogen

7-Selenabicyclo2.2.1heptane

Thermolysis of a benzene solution of N-4-(p-(methoxybenzyl)seleno) cyclohexanoyl-N,S-dimethyldithiocarbonate affords the hitherto unknown 7-selenabicyclo2.2.1heptane in 48% conversion and in 20% yield after chromatography. G3(MP2)-RAD calculations predict a rate constant of 5 X 104 s-1 at 80 °C (3.8 X 106 s -1 at 200 °C) for the intramolecular homolytic substitution process involved in this cyclization