Reading, Writing, and Re-Visioning the Past: the historical novel in history. (Part I)

Seminario (1 hora de duración) impartido por la dra. Kate Mitchell (Australian National Unviersity)The extraordinary popularity of historical fiction shows no sign of abating. Historical novels have been attempted by most major contemporary novelists; they regularly top bestseller lists and win literary prizes; and the genre is also discussed by a range of scholars, who often distinguish between bodice-rippers, or ‘costume’ novels, and more serious, often revisionist, engagements with the past in fiction. What is the historical novel now? How does it draw on, revise, and extend examples from the 18th and 19th centuries? What role might it play in the telling of national histories and contested pasts? Drawing on examples from Australian and British fiction, this seminar will discuss the history of the historical novel, and consider specific debates that attach to the genre, particularly: who owns the past?Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Phase VI Glove Durability Testing

The current state-of-the-art space suit gloves, the Phase VI gloves, have an operational life of 25 -- 8 hour Extravehicular Activities (EVAs) in a dust free, manufactured microgravity EVA environment. Future planetary outpost missions create the need for space suit gloves which can endure up to 90 -- 8 hour traditional EVAs or 576 -- 45 minute suit port-based EVAs in a dirty, uncontrolled planetary environment. Prior to developing improved space suit gloves for use in planetary environments, it is necessary to understand how the current state-of-the-art performs in these environments. The Phase VI glove operational life has traditionally been certified through cycle testing consisting of International Space Station (ISS)-based EVA tasks in a clean environment, and glove durability while performing planetary EVA tasks in a dirty environment has not previously been characterized. Testing was performed in the spring of 2010 by the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) Crew and Thermal Systems Division (CTSD) to characterize the durability of the Phase VI Glove and identify areas of the glove design which need improvement to meet the requirements of future NASA missions. Lunar simulant was used in this test to help replicate the dirty lunar environment, and generic planetary surface EVA tasks were performed during testing. A total of 50 manned, pressurized test sessions were completed in the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) using one pair of Phase VI gloves as the test article. The 50 test sessions were designed to mimic the total amount of pressurized cycling the gloves would experience over a 6 month planetary outpost mission. The gloves were inspected periodically throughout testing, to assess their condition at various stages in the test and to monitor the gloves for failures. Additionally, motion capture and force data were collected during 18 of the 50 test sessions to assess the accuracy of the cycle model predictions used in testing and to feed into the development of improved cycle model tables. This paper provides a detailed description of the test hardware and methodology, shares the results of the testing, and provides recommendations for future work

‘We Can\u27t Tolerate That Behavior in This School!’: The Consequences of excluding Children with Behavioral Health Conditions and the Limits of the Law

The disciplinary exclusion of children with behavioral health conditions is rampant in public schools in the United States. The practice of suspending and expelling students with behavioral challenges, caused in part by a lack of understanding of the causes of children\u27s behavioral challenges and failures by schools to implement appropriate behavioral supports and interventions, results in the isolation and segregation of some of the most vulnerable students. Research has clearly established that these exclusionary practices are ineffective both in addressing behavioral challenges and in keeping schools safer. In fact, disciplinary removals result in lost educational opportunities, increased dropout risk, criminal justice involvement, increased public expense, and lost opportunities for economic self-sufficiency in life. Yet, while we know that exclusionary discipline practices destroy the lives and opportunities of young people, public schools persist in suspending nearly three million students per year, including nearly 700,000 students with disabilities. A disproportionate number of these suspended students are students with behavioral health conditions and particularly students of color with behavioral health conditions. Students with disabilities lack sufficient legal remedies to stop this tremendously harmful cycle of disciplinary exclusion. This article proposes (1) amendments to special education laws and new guidance from the United States Department of Education, (2) increased oversight and vigilance in the enforcement of special education laws, and (3) increased funding for educational advocacy to ensure that students with disabilities, particularly those with behavioral health conditions, have access to an education and meaningful opportunities beyond

History and Cultural Memory in Neo-Victorian Fiction

History and Cultural Memory in Neo-Victorian Fiction combines innovative literary and historiographical analysis to investigate the way neo-Victorian novels conceptualise our relationship to the Victorian past, and to analyse their role in the production and communication of historical knowledge. Positioning neo-Victorian novels as dynamic participants in the contemporary historical imaginary, it explores their use of the Victorians' own vocabularies of history, memory and loss to re-member the nineteenth century today. While her focus is neo-Victorian fiction, Mitchell positions these novels in relation to debates about historical fiction's contribution to historical knowledge since the eighteenth century. Her use of memory discourse as a framework for understanding the ways in which they do lay claim to historical recollection, one which opens up a range of questions beyond historical fidelity on the one hand, and the problematics of representation on the other, suggests new ways of thinking about contemporary historical fiction and its prevalence, popular appeal, and nmnenonic function today

The Promise and Failures of Children\u27s Medicaid and the Role of Medical-Legal Partnerships as Monitors and Advocates

For decades we have known that access to early and preventive diagnosis and treatment can dramatically alter the course of a child’s life. Because of this knowledge, immediately after Congress enacted Medicaid, it created the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment, or EPSDT, program. EPSDT requires broad, holistic, and preventive care to correct or ameliorate health defects identified in Medicaid-eligible children. This coverage currently extends to 2 out of 5 children in the United States, and 47 percent of children with special health care needs. Because of the broad parameters of coverage mandated by EPSDT, Medicaid-eligible children should receive more enhanced access to care than adults on Medicaid, including any and all necessary medical care indicated by their health care providers. Tragically, for children like Savannah, a Medicaideligible girl with complex medical needs in Michigan, failures in EPSDT implementation resulted in unmet needs and dire consequences. Savannah was denied access to physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy critical to maintaining her ability to walk, feed herself, and function with some independence. As states have modified their Medicaid plan guidelines and transitioned to privatized Medicaid in an effort to cut growing costs, coverage gaps for vulnerable children like Savannah have intensified, leaving parents and providers feeling helpless and unable to give their patients and children the care they need. Medical-legal partnerships—interdisciplinary collaborations between health care providers and lawyers—are well suited to monitor EPSDT compliance, engage medical providers in informed patient advocacy, facilitate exchange of information regarding failures in coverage, and hold Medicaid programs accountable to low-income children. This article will review the history of the public health insurance system, outline the current legal mandates and landscape of EPSDT, and discuss the role that medical-legal partnerships can play in ensuring that EPSDT fulfills its purpose

History and Cultural Memory in Neo-Victorian Fiction

History and Cultural Memory in Neo-Victorian Fiction combines innovative literary and historiographical analysis to investigate the way neo-Victorian novels conceptualise our relationship to the Victorian past, and to analyse their role in the production and communication of historical knowledge. Positioning neo-Victorian novels as dynamic participants in the contemporary historical imaginary, it explores their use of the Victorians' own vocabularies of history, memory and loss to re-member the nineteenth century today. While her focus is neo-Victorian fiction, Mitchell positions these novels in relation to debates about historical fiction's contribution to historical knowledge since the eighteenth century. Her use of memory discourse as a framework for understanding the ways in which they do lay claim to historical recollection, one which opens up a range of questions beyond historical fidelity on the one hand, and the problematics of representation on the other, suggests new ways of thinking about contemporary historical fiction and its prevalence, popular appeal, and nmnenonic function today

Bear/People Conflicts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee: An Analysis of the Social, Political, and Ecological Elements

Nuisance black bears cause property damage, threaten public safety, and heighten wildlife use conflicts among people across the United States. Wildlife managers have solutions to control nuisance black bear behavior and the accompanying conflicts that occur. The solutions are to require bear-proof garbage disposal, to prohibit intentional feeding, and to educate the public about black bear behavior. However, these solutions are either slow to be adopted or are ignored by local legislative bodies. In 1999, Gatlinburg, Tennessee, adopted a local ordinance mandating bear-proof garbage containers. This thesis will explain why the city of Gatlinburg adopted the ordinance by documenting the influence of the cultural, political, economic, and ecological dynamics contributing to this decision concerning wildlife policy. The symptoms of these dynamic human interactions are revealed through the bear/people conflicts and related people/people conflicts that occurred at an increasing rate in the area. This thesis will assert that Gatlinburg adopted the ordinance due to negative publicity and public pressures that threatened the success of the tourism industry. The model used to test this hypothesis is Stephen Kellert\u27s (1994) wildlife policy model. The model categorizes the types of human interactions that influence constituency relations over time into four forces: biophysical; valuational; socio-structural forces; and the institutional regulatory. Each force interacts and influences one another. The information sources used to test this hypothesis are newspaper articles, memos, letters, interviews, pamphlets, ordinances, and brochures. The model provides a framework to analyze these dynamic human interactions and their effect on the constituency decision-making process. The findings show that two mast crop failures at the height of the natural black bear population rise sent a larger than previously experienced number of black bears into Gatlinburg in search of food and to establish new home ranges. To offset this out movement of the black bear population, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) implemented an October hunting season. During the same time frame, Gatlinburg developed at urban densities adjacent to the largest black bear reserve in the southeast. Gatlinburg focused policy decisions around tourism without identifying with a responsibility to public safety or to stewardship of the park wildlife resources such as the black bear. Resulting property damage from nuisance black bear behavior and property rights conflicts over hunting in the city limits changed the balance of perspective towards the black bear. Citizen began to take action to find solutions to the problem. The conflicting values of the visitors and the residents perpetuate different levels of and approaches to wildlife use. Current-state laws inhibit the exercise of local control over hunting and feeding black bears. Groups representing the federal, state, county, and city governments disconnected when trying to solve the conflict. Confusion over who has control and jurisdiction over hunting, wildlife, and garbage in the city perpetuated the apathy towards positive decision making. Tourism has slowed Gatlinburg\u27s adoption of a local ordinance that controls garbage disposal. The black bear attracts people to the area. The city did not adopt a local garbage ordinance until public pressure against hunting of bears threatened the health of the tourism industry. The city, unable to override state control, adopted a local ordinance mandating the use of bear-proof garbage containers that has been suggested as a solution by experts for years. Due to the fatal black bear mauling of a woman in the GSMNP, proposed legislation is going before the state to stop the intentional feeding of the black bears. Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) supports this proposal and intends to proclamate the intentional feeding of bears in certain areas