Representations of gothic children in contemporary irish literature: a search for identity in Patrick McCabe\u27s The Butcher Boy, Seamus Deane\u27s Reading in the Dark, and Anna Burns\u27 No Bones

Ireland is not a country unfamiliar with trauma. It is an island widely known for its history with Vikings, famine, and as a colony of the English empire. Inevitably, then, these traumas surface in the literature from the nation. Much of the literature that was produced, especially after the decline in the Irish language after the Great Famine of the 1840s, focused on national identity. In the nineteenth century, there was a growing movement for Irish cultural identity, illustrated by authors John Millington Synge and William Butler Yeats; this movement was identified as the Gaelic Revival. Another movement in literature began in the nineteenth century and it reflected the social and political anxieties of the Anglo-Irish middle class in Ireland. This movement is the beginning of the Gothic genre in Irish literature. Dominated by authors such as Sheridan Le Fanu and Bram Stoker, Gothic novels used aspects of the sublime and the uncanny to express the fears and apprehensions that existed in Anglo-Irish identity in the nineteenth century. My goal in writing this thesis is to examine Gothic aspects of contemporary Irish fiction in order to address the anxieties of Irish identity after the Irish War of Independence that began in 1919 and the resulting division of Ireland into two countries. I will be examining Patrick McCabe\u27s The Butcher Boy, Seamus Deane\u27s Reading in the Dark, and Anna Burns\u27 No Bones in order to evaluate their use of children amidst the trouble surrounding the formation of identity, both personal and national, in Northern Ireland. All three novels use gothic elements in order to produce an atmosphere of the uncanny (Freud); this effect is used to enlighten the theme of arrested development in national identity through the children protagonists, who are inescapably haunted by Ireland\u27s repressed traumatic history.; Specifically, I will be focusing on the use of ghosts, violence, and hauntings to illuminate the social anxieties felt by Northern Ireland after the Irish War of Independence

Diachrony or Synchrony? Accounting for the Old Japanese Particle -tu

This paper investigates the Old Japanese (OJ) postposition -tu, a problematic morpheme with both genitive-like and numeral usages, and proposes a diachronic account of its distribution that eschews the traditional ‘locative-genitive’ analysis in favor of reconstructing pre-OJ *tu as a dual ‘allative / instrumental’ postposition. I show that both genitive and attributive uses of OJ -tu can be seen as developments out of a pre-OJ allative or directional sense, and show that reconstructing a pre-OJ allative can account for why OJ -tu is mostly found in locative expressions. I also propose that the use of OJ -tu in counting could reflect an original instrumental sense developing via a distributive, functions notably lacking among pre-OJ postpositions. Not only does this resolve syntactic problems in synchronic genitive analyses attempting to unify these two usages, it also explains why both bare numeral expressions and numerals suffixed with -tu are attested in Old Japanese. Reconstructing pre-OJ *tu as a dual ‘allative / instrumental’ reveals a striking match with the Middle Korean allative / instrumental particle -lwo, from which I reconstruct proto-Korean-Japanese *two via well-attested sound correspondences between Japanese and Korean. Unlike many of the synchronic analyses proposed thus far, this diachronic look at OJ -tu offers a unified analysis of its attestations that accounts for its locative distribution and even reveals a cognate with Korean. At a time when synchronic approaches predominate in our fields, this analysis helps highlight the value of diachronic approaches towards understanding distributions

Enhancing API Documentation through BERTopic Modeling and Summarization

As the amount of textual data in various fields, including software development, continues to grow, there is a pressing demand for efficient and effective extraction and presentation of meaningful insights. This paper presents a unique approach to address this need, focusing on the complexities of interpreting Application Programming Interface (API) documentation. While official API documentation serves as a primary source of information for developers, it can often be extensive and lacks user-friendliness. In light of this, developers frequently resort to unofficial sources like Stack Overflow and GitHub. Our novel approach employs the strengths of BERTopic for topic modeling and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to automatically generate summaries of API documentation, thereby creating a more efficient method for developers to extract the information they need. The produced summaries and topics are evaluated based on their performance, coherence, and interoperability. The findings of this research contribute to the field of API documentation analysis by providing insights into recurring topics, identifying common issues, and generating potential solutions. By improving the accessibility and efficiency of API documentation comprehension, our work aims to enhance the software development process and empower developers with practical tools for navigating complex APIs

Healthcare system efficiency evaluation: foreign experience

Актуальность представленного исследования определяется возрастающим в последние десятилетия значением качества жизни населения при реализации текущей государственной политики и планирования стратегического развития страны. Как в развитых, так и в развивающихся странах острой остается проблема повышения эффективности государственного управления в сфере здравоохранения. В настоящее время не существует единой, наиболее эффективной модели системы здравоохранения, что приводит к необходимости проведения реформ даже в странах с высокими показателями здоровья населения и уровня жизни. Цель работы: проанализировать специфические особенности формирования и функционирования моделей здравоохранения, обобщить опыт применения различных методов управления системой здравоохранения в развитых и развивающихся странах. Методы исследования. Для исследования проблемы в качестве инструментально- методического аппарата используются дескриптивные методы исследования, метод аналогии, группировок, научно-фактологический, системный, сравнительный и ретроспективный анализ с применением общенаучных методов исследования - индукции, дедукции, сбора и обработки статистической информации, являющейся основой для сравнений развития инструментов управления здоровьем населения, применяемых в зарубежных странах. Результаты. Анализ направлений раз- вития систем здравоохранения развитых и развивающихся стран позволяет сделать вывод о том, что цели, задачи и механизмы развития могут быть как схожи, так и существенно отличаться, в зависимости от существующей системы оказания медицинской помощи.The relevance of the research is determined by the increasing value of population life quality due to current national policy and state strategic management. In both developed and developing countries the problem of increasing the efficiency of public administration in the health sector remains relevant. Currently there is no single one most effective healthcare system model which leads to the necessity of reforming healthcare systems, even in countries with high levels of public health and quality of life. The main aim of the study is to analyze specific features of healthcare systems, summarize the experience of health system management in developed and developing countries. Methods. As instrumental and methodological apparatus to investigate the problem, we used descriptive research methods, analogy method, groups method, scientific, factual, systematic, comparative and retrospective analysis with scientific methods of research - induction, deduction, methods of collection and processing of statistical information, which is the basis for the comparison of health population management tools used in foreign countries. Results. An analysis of development trends in developed and developing countries' healthcare systems leads to the conclusion that the goals, objectives and mechanisms of development can be both similar and differ significantly, depending on the existing healthcare system. The search of optimal model in both developed and developing countries is associated with the lack of possibility to create a unified approach to healthcare system development, which could ensure the creation of the most effective model. The effectiveness of the healthcare system, progress in achieving its goal (to improve population health) depends on the implementation of specific control methods as well as on social and economic conditions of their implementation. This is confirmed by similar growth rate of life expectancy at birth in developed countries, despite the significant difference in the management tools

PENERAPAN TEKNIK ASK THE WINNER DALAM MENINGKATKAN HASIL BELAJAR SISWA KELAS VIII DI UPT SPF SMP NEGERI 49 MAKASSAR

Penelitian ini bertujuan mengetahui penerapan Teknik Ask the Winner dalam meningkatkan hasil belajar siswa kelas VIII di UPT SPF SMP Negeri 49 Makassar yang dilakukan melalui metode penelitian tindakan kelas dengan subjek penelitian sebanyak 20 orang siswa. Penelitian ini terdiri dari dua siklus yang setiap siklusnya terdapat empat pertemuan. Teknik pengumpulan data menggunakan observasi, tes dan dokumentasi. Teknik analisis data menggunakan kuantitatif deskriptif, analisis data aktivitas siswa, dan ketuntasan hasil belajar. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan metode Ask the Winner dapat meningkatkan hasil belajar siswa yang didasarkan pada data aktivitas dan hasil belajar yang menunjukkan peningkatan di setiap pertemuanny

The importance of scientific competencies in German medical curricula - the student perspective

Background: Scientific competencies are of great importance for physicians; not only for conducting reliable research, but also for patient care. However, there is growing concern that a lack of scientific competencies among physicians may lead to a deterioration in the quality on biomedical research. This study aims at assessing medical students’ perspectives on the implementation of scientific competency training in German medical curricula. Methods: An online survey was conducted in order to collect German medical students’ opinions on the importance of acquiring scientific competencies during their medical studies and to provide us with an assessment of their current levels of basic scientific competencies by having them conduct a self-evaluation. Moreover, we wanted to understand their perceptions of current curricular content and to receive suggestions for improving scientific competency training. Participants were reached via the mailing lists of the German Medical Students’ Association, as well as of local medical student committees, and the German Medical Students’ Associations social media channel on Facebook. Results: In total, 2380 medical students from across all 37 German medical faculties participated in the survey. The majority of students agreed that the ability to critically evaluate the relevant literature is an important competency for physicians, and that every student should conduct a research project during their medical studies. However, the students evaluated their scientific competencies as unsatisfactory, especially with regard to statistics and scientific writing. They were strongly in favor of receiving extended research training. Conclusion: Our study provides insight into German medical students’ self-perception in relation to both patient care and biomedical research, and makes recommendations for potential improvements in scientific training. The study demonstrates that scientific competencies are of great importance to medical students in Germany. Students are not lacking motivation for scientific practice and have numerous ideas for enhancing scientific teaching opportunities. Scientific training should follow a holistic approach based on three pillars: (i) a scientific core curriculum, (ii) intracurricular research projects, and (iii) special research programs for students strongly interested in medical research

Trophic interactions of the freshwater jellyfish Craspedacusta sowerbii

The predatory impact and the trophic role of the freshwater jellyfish, Craspedacusta sowerbii, was studied using microcosm and enclosure experiments as well as a 3-year pond survey. The results showed a significant decrease of small herbivorous crustaceans, i.e. Bosmina longirostris and juvenile cyclopoid copepods, in the medusa treatments of the microcosms and the enclosure experiments. Chlorophyll concentrations in the enclosure experiment were significantly increased in the medusa treatment, suggesting that C. sowerbii may cause cascading effects in the food chain. A comparison of daily zooplankton losses during the pond survey caused by medusae and fish (roach, Rutilus rutilus), and their food selectivities suggest food separation of these two predators and reveal a strong negative impact of medusae on the copepod pond community. In the case of a jellyfish bloom, our results show that both food chains can co-occur in lakes because of a weak interaction between these top predators, fish and jellyfish, with simultaneous impacts on the zooplankton structur