Masochism and literature, with reference to selected literary texts from Sacher-Masoch to Duras.

PhDThe introductory section of the thesis puts forward a view of the usefulness of the concept of masochism in studying literature, arguing that the tendency has been inadequately formulated by psychoanalytic theory. It refers to debates within gay studies, feminism, psychoanalysis and literary studies to contextualise the argument of the thesis. The first chapter analyses Freud's key essay on masochism, 'The Economic Problem of Masochism' (1924) and appraises other theoretical contributions which have discussed the relation of masochism to artistic creativity. It goes on to critique the feminist view of women's masochism as reflecting patriarchal relations, and examines Jungian perspectives which focus on the notion of an imitatio Christi. Chapter two contrasts a Christian view of suffering with that of psychoanalysis. It examines Simone Weil's life and ideas in the light of a sublimatory or moral masochism, and looks at the 'agonic' thought of Unamuno. The historical moment at which the term masochism was coined is the focus of the opening part of chapter three. Sacher-Masoch's novel Venus in Furs is analysed, referring to Deleuze's commentary which emphasises the death instinct. Sacher-Masoch's untranslated novel, Die Seelenfängerin, is also discussed. Chapter four deals with Michel Leiris's L'age d'homme, analysing the central themes of masculinity, the risk inherent in literary creativity and the sacred element in masochistic self-exposures. The final chapter on works by Marguerite Duras examines a novella, L'homme assis dans le couloir, describing the process of reading as a form of masochistic introjection. It then looks at La douleur to focus on a masochistic, feminine rite of passage. A discussion of La maladie de la mort locates a shattered solitude within masochistic desire. The thesis concludes by proposing a more nuanced dialogue between psychoanalysis and literature, by emphasising the importance of an exploratory women's writing, and suggesting the need for a more consciously masochistic body politic

Frequency of Cell Phone Texting and Social Competency in Adolescents

There is no current research on the relationship between texting frequency, social competency development, and the moderating effect of gender in adolescents. A quantitative study involving a moderation design using multiple regression assisted in determining the relationship between cell phone texting and gender and whether or not the interaction of these variables predicted social competency development. The theoretical base that grounded this study was the taxonomic model of social competence, which identified the importance of examining social awareness abilities such as communication, an essential component for the development of social competency. The study included 74 participants. The participants were parents who completed observation checklists of their adolescent children and reported on skills related to social competency development using the Social Emotional Assets and Resilience Scales-Parent Form. A general measure of cell phone use was also reported by participants. The results showed that frequency of texting and gender predicted adolescent social competency. Adolescents who texted frequently had lower social competency scores. Adolescent females had higher social competency than adolescent males. Gender was not found to moderate the relationship between the variables. The results can be used to development curricula, programs, and screening tools for counseling psychologists and other professionals to use to improve the lives of adolescents

Developing core economic outcome sets for asthma studies: a protocol for a systematic review

Introduction Core outcome sets are standardised lists of outcomes, which should be measured and reported in all clinical studies of a specific condition. This study aims to develop core outcome sets for economic evaluations in asthma studies. Economic outcomes include items such as costs, resource use or quality-adjusted life years. The starting point in developing core outcome sets will be conducting a systematic literature review to establish a preliminary list of reporting items to be considered for inclusion in the core outcome set. Methods and analysis We will conduct literature searches of peer-reviewed studies published from January 1990 to January 2017. These will include any comparative or observational studies (including economic models) and systematic reviews reporting economic outcomes. All identified economic outcomes will be tabulated together with the major study characteristics, such as population, study design, the nature and intensity of the intervention, mode of data collection and instrument(s) used to derive an outcome. We will undertake a ‘realist synthesis review’ to analyse the identified economic outcomes. The outcomes will be summarised in the context of evaluation perspectives, types of economic evaluation and methodological approaches. Parallel to undertaking a systematic review, we will conduct semistructured interviews with stakeholders (including people with personal experience of asthma, health professionals, researchers and decision makers) in order to explore additional outcomes which have not been considered, or used, in published studies. The list of outcomes generated from the systematic review and interviews with stakeholders will form the basis of a Delphi survey to refine the identified outcomes into a core outcome set. Ethics and dissemination The review will not involve access to individual-level data. Findings from our systematic review will be communicated to a broad range of stakeholders including clinical guideline developers, research funders, trial registries, ethics committees and other regulators

Conquering the publishing silences of black academic women

Although women fulfil and play meaningful roles in the academic life of universities, their contributions have seldom been acknowledged. The voices of women outside of the dominant western context of knowledge production such as women in South African historically black universities(HBUs), remains largely maginalized. Women at these HUBs have indicated a need for mentoring and support to assist with their scholarly endeavour

Rethinking Socio-Economic Models for Migrant Settlement in Regional Australia Post COVID-19

This report draws on a desk-based review of literature and interviews with key informants (policy experts and stakeholders) conducted between 2021 and 2022 to provide insights and recommendations to enhance existing frameworks for regional settlement in Australia with a focus on local community centred settlement, economically driven regional settlement that changes the discourse towards migrants and refugees as assets and allies for longer-term sustainable settlement. It argues that addressing the 'triple nexus' of economic development – local community empowerment – long-term migrant settlement is a matter of serious concern that has been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic with international borders closed. This research also offers a conceptual framework for enabling sustainable migrant settlement in regional areas away from urban areas in Australia. Further, it is a paradigm shift from a charitable view of migrant settlement to regional socio-economic development that ensures new arrivals' quality of life

EURAMET’s European Metrology Network for Advanced Manufacturing

Advanced manufacturing has been identified by the European Commission as one of the key enabling technologies (KET). These KETs are predicted to increase industrial innovation by addressing societal challenges and creating innovative and sustainable economies. Developments in the field of advanced manufacturing are progressing rapidly, particularly accelerated by digitalisation technologies, demanding appropriate evaluation methods, measuring devices, guidelines and standards for quality control of manufacturing processes and products in multiple industries. The metrology needs of these industry sectors are regularly surveyed on workshops by the European Metrology Network (EMN) and prioritised according to the advice of the EMN’s Stakeholder Council, which is currently consisting of 13 industry representatives. These metrology needs are published in the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) and are regularly revised to address the most recent metrology requirements in the field of advanced manufacturing. The SRA serves as a guide for decision-makers from industry and politics, and scientists who apply for funding of their research. This article introduces the purpose of the SRA and a new approach for a planned ongoing survey of stakeholder needs on the EMN website

Galaxy Nurseries: Crowdsourced analysis of slitless spectroscopic data

We present the results of Galaxy Nurseries project, which was designed to enable crowdsourced analysis of slitless spectroscopic data by volunteer citizen scientists using the Zooniverse online interface. The dataset was obtained by the WFC3 Infrared Spectroscopic Parallel (WISP) Survey collaboration and comprises NIR grism (G102 and G141) and direct imaging. Volunteers were instructed to evaluate indicated spectral features and decide whether it was a genuine emission line or more likely an artifact. Galaxy Nurseries was completed in only 40 days, gathering 414,360 classifications from 3003 volunteers for 27,333 putative emission lines. The results of Galaxy Nurseries demonstrate the feasibility of identifying genuine emission lines in slitless spectra by citizen scientists. Volunteer responses for each subject were aggregated to compute $f_{\mathrm{Real}}$, the fraction of volunteers who classified the corresponding emission line as "Real". To evaluate the accuracy of volunteer classifications, their aggregated responses were compared with independent assessments provided by members of the WISP Survey Science Team (WSST). Overall, there is a broad agreement between the WSST and volunteers' classifications, although we recognize that robust scientific analyses typically require samples with higher purity and completeness than raw volunteer classifications provide. Nonetheless, choosing optimal threshold values for $f_{\mathrm{Real}}$ allows a large fraction of spurious lines to be vetoed, substantially reducing the timescale for subsequent professional analysis of the remaining potential lines.Comment: Accepted for publication in Research Notes of the AA

The 3M National Teaching Fellowship: A high impact community of practice in higher education

The 3M National Teaching Fellowship is a national teaching award program that has recognized over 300 teachers at more than 80 Canadian universities for their teaching excellence and outstanding educational leadership. Despite its rich, 30 plus-year history, its impact has remained largely anecdotal. In this study, we build on Hannah and Lester’s (2009) original, multilevel approach that looks at interactions between the individual, network, and systems levels to explore the impact of the 3M National Teaching Fellowship program on furthering and enriching teaching and learning in higher education. Through the analysis of a large collection of program artefacts corroborated with in-depth interviews with 11 fellows (key informants), we were able to gain a deeper understanding of the ways in which the program has had impact at the individual (micro), departmental (meso), institutional (macro), and national/international (mega) levels. In this article, we outline our scholarly exploration of the program’s influence and explore its role as a high-impact community of practice in higher education

Progress of the European Metrology Network for Advanced Manufacturing

The European Metrology Network (EMN) for Advanced Manufacturing has been established in June 2021. Currently nine EMNs focussing on different important topics of strategic importance for Europe exist and form an integral part of EURAMET, the European Association of National Metrology Institutes (NMI). All EMNs are tasked to develop a high-level coordination of the metrology community in Europe in a close dialogue with the respective stakeholders. The development of a Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) is a key task for all EMNs in their thematic areas as important input for the European Partnership on Metrology programme in alignment with other relevant European Partnerships. This task will be based on an analysis of the existing metrology infrastructure and capabilities of the NMIs, the metrology research needs for advanced manufacturing identified in close cooperation with industrial stakeholders and a resulting gap analysis. Here we report on the progress of the EMN for Advanced Manufacturing

European Metrology Network (EMN) for Advanced Manufacturing ─ Development of the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA)

The European Commission has identified Advanced Manufacturing and Advanced Materials as two of six Key Enabling Technologies (KETs). It is considered that Metrology is a key enabler for the advancement of these KETs. Consequently, EURAMET, the association of metrology institutes in Europe, has strengthened the role of Metrology for these KETs by enabling the creation of a European Metrology Network (EMN) for Advanced Manufacturing. The EMN is comprised of National Metrology Institutes (NMIs) and Designated Institutes (DIs) from across Europe and was formally established in October 2021. The aim of the EMN is to provide a high-level coordination of European metrology activities for the Advanced Manufacturing community. The EMN itself is organized in three sections representing the major stages of the manufacturing chain: 1) Advanced Materials, 2) Smart Manufacturing Systems, and 3) Manufactured Components & Products. The EMN for Advanced Manufacturing is engaging with stakeholders in the field of Advanced Manufacturing (large companies & SMEs, industry organisations, existing networks, and academia), as well as the wider Metrology community, including Technical Committees, to provide input for the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) on Metrology for Advanced Manufacturing. This contribution will give an overview about the first version of the SRA prepared by the EMN for Advanced Manufacturing