Whose Sexuality Is It Anyway? Women's Experiences of Viewing Lesbians on Screen

While critical analyses of media representations of lesbians continue to grow, less attention is paid to audience responses to those representations. This paper explores women’s experiences of viewing lesbians on screen, analysing qualitative data from focus groups with audiences of a women-only film season screened in a UK cinema: “Lesbians on Screen: How far Have We Come?” We consider how the internalisation of the “male gaze” complicates some women’s viewing of lesbian characters and how women attempt to challenge and resist that gaze through their viewing practices and strategies. We discuss audience creativity in re-signifying representations of women, as well as other strategies including choosing to view privately or in women-only spaces. These acts of resistance disrupt the dominance of the male gaze, patriarchal cinema spaces and reception of images on screen. By examining women’s reflections on the experience of being in a women-only audience, a unique cinema space that “felt free” of conventional constraints of heteronormativity and patriarchy, this paper also examines how the gendered cinema space affects audience experiences

Evaluating learning and teaching technologies in further education

With the current emphasis on quality assessment and the role of evaluation in quality assessment, it is likely that teachers in post‐compulsory education will increasingly be expected to evaluate their teaching, especially when making changes to their teaching methods. In Further Education (FE), there have been a number of developments to foster the use of Information and Learning Technologies (ILT), following the publication of the Higginson Report in 1996. However, there is some evidence that the adoption of ILT has been patchy

Novel bodies : corporeality and textuality in contemporary women's fiction.

This thesis queries whether a relationship between bodies in texts and the narratology and stylistics of texts might be reconceived beyond metaphor. Specifically, it examines the textual politics arising from the representation of ambiguously-bounded bodies. Each of the four contemporary women's novels that I examine represents disorderly bodies in the first-person narrative voice, and the implications of this for considerations of identity, agency and feminism are considered. The thesis is divided into five chapters, the first introducing the reader to theories that frame the subsequent close textual analyses of the novels. Chapter One contextualizes my work in relation to the existing parameters of discussions of textual-corporeal relations and considers approaches to the ambiguously-bounded body and its symbolic function in society, ranging from the work of Mary Douglas and Mikhail Bakhtin to that of Susan Bordo and Julia Kristeva. In Chapter Two, the transsexual metamorph of Angela Carter's The Passion of New Eve (1977) is examined in terms of its transformative properties and its relationship to intertextuality. The plural, fluid, lesbian bodies of Monique Wittig's The Lesbian Body (1973) are discussed in connection with the text's transitivity choices and manipulations of discourses, in Chapter Three. Chapter Four investigates the depiction of the ambiguously-gendered body of the narrator of Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body (1992) in comparison with the novel's depiction of sexed bodies through a discussion of concealment, cliche, synecdoche and focalization. Chapter Five examines the anorexic body of Jenefer Shute's Life-Size (1992) and the representation of its relationship to language on diegetic and narrative levels. In the Conclusion to the thesis, I indicate the ways in which taking a stylistic or narratological approach to textual-corporeal relations can be productive in illuminating textual politics, particularly from a feminist perspective

Listening to boys write – an exploration of the complex relationship between 10 year-old boys’ writing practices and their evolving identities

Being literate has long been considered essential in order for individuals to make their way in the adult world, become productive and contribute to society (Olson, 1994). However, across the western world there appears to be a literacy crisis in the form of a gender gap in which ‘boys do less well than girls’ (Moss, 2007: 13). As a result, boys have been categorised as a problem (Clandinin et al, 2006). Previous research has focused on solving the ‘boy problem’, however, this study offers an alternative perspective in that it explores the complex relationship between pre-adolescent boys’ writing practices and their evolving identities in the domains of school and home. The study draws on sociocultural theories of New Literacy Studies and the concept of ‘Figured Worlds’, as described by Holland et al (1998) in order to consider how three 10 year-old boys participate in the production of themselves as writers and the impact of adult mediation on the boys’ developing identities as writers both at home and in school. This comparative case study is informed by both ethnography and narrative inquiry in order to produce three rich narrative accounts which are centred around the boys’ writing practices both in and out of school. Each narrative offers a unique insight into each boy’s life and their perception of what it means to be a writer through an exploration of their experiences, their ambitions and their relationships with people, technology and curriculum. The narratives are then compared to reveal key themes which highlight the ways in which wider policy and institutional demands influence local practices which in turn impacts on the boys’ identity formation. The significant findings relate to a common theme of relationships. Findings suggest that writing practices are bound to close familial relationships and to each family’s figurative or narrativised identity. Therefore, educators may need to look beyond engaging experiences in the classroom to the space and structures of homes in order to both fully understand boys’ meaning making and to inform their assessments of boys as writers. This extends the current research on early mark making and relationships in pre-school children to this under-explored group of pre-adolescent boys. In addition, the findings also suggest that the way in which schools engage with digital practices will have to be carefully considered if children are to understand digital communications as being writing and not talking. Therefore, the findings offer an alternative perspective to the two great divides in literacy, those being school and home and speaking and writing

Exploring the ‘middle ground’ between state and market: the example of China

Studies of housing systems lying in the ‘middle ground’ between state and market are subject to three important shortcomings. First, the widely used Esping-Andersen (EA) approach assesses only a subset of the key housing outcomes and may be less helpful for describing changes in housing policy regimes. Second, there is too much emphasis on tenure transitions, and an assumed close correspondence between tenure labels and effective system functioning may not be valid. Third, due attention has not been given to the spatial dimensions in which housing systems operate, in particular when housing policies have a significant devolved or localised emphasis. Updating EA’s framework, we suggest a preliminary list of housing system indicators in order to capture the nature of the housing systems being developed and devolved. We verified the applicability of this indicator system with the case of China. This illustrates clearly the need for a more nuanced and systematic basis for categorising differences and changes in welfare and housing policies

A Novel Plaque Enriched Long Noncoding RNA in Atherosclerotic Macrophage Regulation (PELATON)

Objective: Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are an emergent class of molecules with diverse functional roles, widely expressed in human physiology and disease. Although some lncRNAs have been identified in cardiovascular disease, their potential as novel targets in the prevention of atherosclerosis is unknown. We set out to discover important lncRNAs in unstable plaque and gain insight into their functional relevance. Approach and Results: Analysis of RNA sequencing previously performed on stable and unstable atherosclerotic plaque identified a panel of 47 differentially regulated lncRNAs. We focused on LINC01272, a lncRNA upregulated in unstable plaque previously detected in inflammatory bowel disease, which we termed PELATON (plaque enriched lncRNA in atherosclerotic and inflammatory bowel macrophage regulation). Here, we demonstrate that PELATON is highly monocyte- and macrophage-specific across vascular cell types, and almost entirely nuclear by cellular fractionation (90%-98%). In situ hybridization confirmed enrichment of PELATON in areas of plaque inflammation, colocalizing with macrophages around the shoulders and necrotic core of human plaque sections. Consistent with its nuclear localization, and despite containing a predicted open reading frame, PELATON did not demonstrate any protein-coding potential in vitro. Functionally, knockdown of PELATON significantly reduced phagocytosis, lipid uptake and reactive oxygen species production in high-content analysis, with a significant reduction in phagocytosis independently validated. Furthermore, CD36, a key mediator of phagocytic oxLDL (oxidized low-density lipoprotein) uptake was significantly reduced with PELATON knockdown. Conclusions: PELATON is a nuclear expressed, monocyte- and macrophage-specific lncRNA, upregulated in unstable atherosclerotic plaque. Knockdown of PELATON affects cellular functions associated with plaque progression

CARMN loss regulates smooth muscle cells and accelerates atherosclerosis in mice

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Beta-blocker Therapy and Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Moderate COPD and Heightened Cardiovascular Risk:An Observational Sub-study of SUMMIT

Rationale: Cardiovascular disease is a common comorbidity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Although beta-blockers can be used safely in COPD, concerns remain regarding safety and efficacy interactions in patients using concomitant inhaled long-acting beta-agonists. Objectives: To compare the differential effects of long-acting beta agonist or inhaled corticosteroid use on clinical outcomes in patients with heightened cardiovascular risk treated and not treated with beta-blockers. Methods: We examined data from 16,485 participants in the Study to Understand Mortality and MorbidITy in COPD (SUMMIT) who were randomized to once daily inhaled fluticasone furoate (FF), vilanterol (VI), their combination (FF/VI), or placebo and examined the associations between treatment allocation and lung function, COPD exacerbations, cardiovascular events, and all-cause mortality stratified by baseline beta-blocker therapy. Results: Baseline beta-blocker therapy was used by 31% (n=5,159) of SUMMIT participants. There was no evidence of an interaction between baseline beta-blocker therapy and the association between inhaled treatments and FEV1 at 3 months (p=0.27), 6 months (p=0.14), or 12 months (p=0.33). The placebo-adjusted mean difference in post-bronchodilator FEV1 at 3 months in the VI alone group was 58 mL [95% confidence interval (CI) 38, 78] in those taking baseline beta-blocker therapy, and 51 mL [95%CI 38, 65], in those not taking baseline beta-blocker therapy. The placebo-adjusted mean difference in post-bronchodilator FEV1 at 3 months in the FF/VI group was 85 mL [95%CI 65, 105] in those taking baseline beta-blocker therapy, and 68 mL [95%CI 54, 82] in those not taking baseline beta-blocker therapy. Overall, there was no evidence of interactions by randomized treatment, including VI alone or in combination with FF, for COPD exacerbations (p=0.18), cardiovascular composite events (p=0.33), and all-cause mortality (p=0.41). Conclusions: There is no evidence to suggest that baseline beta-blocker therapy reduces the respiratory benefits or increases the cardiovascular risk of inhaled long-acting beta-agonists in patients with COPD and heightened cardiovascular risk. Clinical trial registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01313676