Constructing the monster : notions of the monstrous in classical antiquity

Focussing on humaniod monsters, this thesis uses insights from Foucault\u27s theory about the "archaeology" of discourses and Derrida\u27s practice of deconstruction to examine how monstrosity was spoken of in antiquity, and how the various "sciences" dealt with anomalous monsters without jeopardising their epistemological credibility. Discussion begins with a survey of the semantic field of teras and monstrum. Since portentousness was central to both terms, the signification of monstrous portents in divinatory practice is next aalysed in the historiography of Herodotus, Livy, and others. Cicero\u27s De divinatione reveals the theory and the problem for that science posed by accidental monstrosities. Chance and novelty are also issues in mythical and scientific cosmogonies , where monsters arise and are dealt with while cosmic regularities, reproductive and ethical, are being established. Teleology and the stability of species\u27forms emerge as important concerns. These issues are further considered in Aristotle\u27s bioogy and in medical writings from Hippocrates to Galen. There, theories are produced about monstrous embryology which attempt to answer the question of how deformities occur if species\u27 forms are perpetuated through repro-duction. Biological and taxonomic--as well as ethical--boundaries are violated also by mythic human-beast hybrids. Narratives about such anomalies clarify the nature of monstrous deviance and enact solutions to the problem. Their strategies have much in common with other modes of discourse. Ethnography is posed similar questions about monstrous races\u27 physical and ethical deviations from the civilised norm; it speaks of those issues in terms of invariance of form through generations, geographical remoteness and the codes which situate those races ethically. Finally, Augustine’s discourse on monstrous individuals and races is examined as Christianity’s belief in God’s governance reformulates the ancient’s discussions of chane or novelty and the invariance of species. In all these discourses founded on determinate meaning, the persistant paradox of monstrosity need offer no challenge to rationality provided its indefinable diversity is unacknowledged and the notion is constructed in such a way as to reaffirm the certainties

Editorial

In lieu of abstract, here is the first paragraph of the article: When The Who sang about teenage angst in the 60s, their rock anthem ‘Talking about my Generation’ captured the divide between youth and beyond. Today, another divide – the digital divide – speaks to the issues of access, capital, and input that follow digital technologies. Like the earlier ‘me generation’, the new millennium D(igital) generation remains enigmatic, its members variously praised for their technological wizardry, criticised for their self-absorption, and pathologised for their unsociability. The D generation does not comprise youth alone, but the young are more exposed than others to the influence of new media and digital technologies. And like previous youth generations, they are often viewed as degenerate. A cybernetic degeneration symbolising society’s fears and cultural anxieties concerning the dehumanising prospects of technology appears most vividly in arguments about youth (Green & Bigum’s ‘aliens in the classroom’ [1993] is an apt description in this respect). Such negative rhetoric presents a dystopic view that tempers the more utopian, but equally reductionist visions of new technologies

Aspiration Problems for the Indian Rural Poor: Research on Self-Help Groups and Micro-Finance

Our paper explores how poor rural households in India are increasingly accumulating debt through micro-finance initiatives channelled through local self-help groups (SHGs). The aim of micro-finance and SHGs is to provide a cheap source of capital for investment in self-sustaining economic practices — typified by the Velugu programme. However, the reality of micro-finance has been more complicated. It has created a class- and caste-related debt-dependency and vulnerability whilst also channelling poor households, and women in particular, into subordinate areas of the economy, which ultimately serve to maintain fundamental inequalities in Indian society. The initiatives may, in addition, be viewed as aspects of broader processes of financialisation. </jats:p

Employed women's well-being: The global And daily impact of work: Working paper series--04-05

Using the 1993 wave of the National Longitudinal Survey (NLS) Young Women's Cohort, this paper develops and tests a two-equation model of women's well-being. The model conceptualizes and measures well-being at both a global level and a daily level. A priori, distinct antecedent individual, family, and work variables are postulated to affect global and daily well-being. Ordinal regression and OLS regression are used to estimate the global and daily equations, respectively. In addition to various individual and family variables, it is found that having supervisory capacity, receiving a recent promotion, and government employee status significantly increase women's global well-being, while union membership decreases it. It is also found that working an irregular shift, paid leave, and telecommuting in current job significantly decrease women's daily well-being

Wages, training, and voluntary labor turnover: Comparing IT workers with other professionals: Working paper series--02-12

Job turnover among IT workers has been an important issue for employers and employer concern about turnover was heightened during the IT boom of the late 1990s. Job satisfaction studies have suggested that IT professionals are most satisfied when they have new and challenging work that allows them to acquire new skills. However, the application of computing technology may cause skills to become more generally-valued and less firm-specific. This, in-turn, may contribute to a new labor contract between employer and employees which places less value on loyalty and places more of the responsibility for skill management on the worker

Promoting engagement in active-learning classroom design

While the interior design of classroom spaces has evolved to support active learning methods, few studies have isolated environment changes from curriculum changes to understand the impact of space on behavior (Brooks, Walker, & Baepler, 2014).  Adapting an observation instrument from the Brooks (2012) study, “Space and Consequences”, this research  extends previous work in a unique circumstance that allowed the observation of a course which alternated class meetings between two differently designed spaces.  We gathered perspectives from 296 students and 9 instructors along with classroom observations which highlighted eye contact as important to both instructors and students in promoting engagement

Oxidative Stress and MicroRNAs in Endothelial Cells under Metabolic Disorders

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are radical oxygen intermediates that serve as important second messengers in signal transduction. However, when the accumulation of these molecules exceeds the buffering capacity of antioxidant enzymes, oxidative stress and endothelial cell (EC) dysfunction occur. EC dysfunction shifts the vascular system into a pro-coagulative, proinflammatory state, thereby increasing the risk of developing cardiovascular (CV) diseases and metabolic disorders. Studies have turned to the investigation of microRNA treatment for CV risk factors, as these post-transcription regulators are known to co-regulate ROS. In this review, we will discuss ROS pathways and generation, normal endothelial cell physiology and ROS-induced dysfunction, and the current knowledge of common metabolic disorders and their connection to oxidative stress. Therapeutic strategies based on microRNAs in response to oxidative stress and microRNA’s regulatory roles in controlling ROS will also be explored. It is important to gain an in-depth comprehension of the mechanisms generating ROS and how manipulating these enzymatic byproducts can protect endothelial cell function from oxidative stress and prevent the development of vascular disorders