Caught between presence and absence: Shakespeare's tragic women on film

In offering readings of Shakespeare’s tragic women on film, this thesis explores bodies that are caught between signifiers of absence and presence: the woman’s body that is present with absent body parts; the woman’s body that is spoken about or alluded to when absent from view; the woman’s living body that appears as a corpse; the woman’s body that must be exposed and concealed from sight. These are bodies that appear on the borderline of meaning, that open up a marginal or liminal space of investigation. In concentrating on a state of ‘betweenness’, I am seeking to offer new interpretive possibilities for bodies that have become the site of much critical anxiety, and bodies that, due to their own peculiar liminality, have so far been critically ignored. In reading Shakespeare’s tragic women on film, I am interested specifically in screen representations of Gertrude’s sexualised body that is both absent and present in Shakespeare’s Hamlet; Desdemona’s (un)chaste body that is both exposed and concealed in film adaptations of Othello; Juliet’s ‘living corpse’ that represents life and death in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet; the woman’s naked body in Roman Polanski’s Macbeth (1971) that is absent from Shakespeare’s play-text; and Lavinia’s violated, dismembered body in Julie Taymor’s (Titus, 1999) and Titus Andronicus, which, in signifying both life and death, wholeness and fragmentation, absence and presence, something and nothing, embodies many of the paradoxes explored within this thesis. Through readings that demonstrate a combined interest in Shakespeare’s plays, Shakespeare films, and Shakespeare criticism, this thesis brings these liminal bodies into focus, revealing how an understanding of their ‘absent presence’ can affect our responses as spectators of Shakespeare’s tragedies on film

Working mothers see penalties when they adjust work schedules after having children

President Obama’s State of the Union address last month recognized that working women—and men—should not face hardship for taking care of their family responsibilities. Recent research by sociologists, Julie A. Kmec, Lindsey Trimble O’Connor and Scott Schieman suggests that workplaces have a long way to go before realizing the President’s message. In new research, they find that working mothers perceive penalties—like feeling ignored and that they are given the worst tasks—when they adjust their work schedules after having children. They suggest that policies and practices that challenge societal assumptions about ideal work are a good starting place in attempts to realize President Obama’s call to give working parents a “break.

A step-wise approach to a national hepatitis C screening strategy in Malaysia to meet the WHO 2030 targets: proposed strategy, coverage, and costs

In Malaysia, more than 330 000 individuals are estimated to be chronically infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV), but less than 2% have been treated to date. To estimate the required coverage and costs of a national screening strategy to inform the launch of an HCV elimination program. We designed an HCV screening strategy based on a "stepwise" approach. This approach relied on targeting of people who inject drugs in the early years, with delayed onset of widespread general population screening. Annual coverage requirements and associated costs were estimated to ensure that the World Health Organization elimination treatment targets were met. In total, 6 million individuals would have to be screened between 2018 and 2030. Targeting of people who inject drugs in the early years would limit annual screening coverage to less than 1 million individuals from 2018 to 2026. General population screening would have to be launched by 2026. Total costs were estimated at MYR 222 million ($58 million). Proportional to coverage targets, 60% of program costs would fall from 2026 to 2030

A complex record of last interglacial sea-level history and paleozoogeography, Santa Rosa Island, Channel Islands National Park, California, USA

Studies of marine terraces and their fossils can yield important information about sea level history, tectonic uplift rates, and paleozoogeography, but some aspects of terrace history, particularly with regard to their fossil record, are not clearly understood. Marine terraces are well preserved on Santa Rosa Island, California, and the island is situated near a major marine faunal boundary. Two prominent low-elevation terraces record the ~80 ka (marine isotope stage [MIS] 5a) and ~120 ka (MIS 5e) high-sea stands, based on U-series dating of fossil corals and aminostratigraphic correlation to dated localities elsewhere in California and Baja California. Low uplift rates are implied by an interpretation of these ages, along with their elevations. The fossil assemblage from the ~120 ka (2nd) terrace contains a number of northern, cool-water species, along with several southern, warm-water species, a classic example of what has been called a thermally anomalous fauna. Low uplift rates in the late Pleistocene, combined with glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) processes, could have resulted in reoccupation of the ~120 ka (MIS 5e), 2nd terrace during the ~100 ka (MIS 5c) high-sea stand, explaining the mix of warmwater (~120 ka?) and cool-water (~100 ka?) fossils in the terrace deposits. In addition, however, sea surface temperature (SST) variability during MIS 5e may have been a contributing factor, given that Santa Rosa Island is bathed at times by the cold California Current with its upwelling and at other times is subject to El Ni˜no warm waters, evident in the Holocene SST record. Study of an older, high-elevation marine terrace on the western part of Santa Rosa Island shows more obvious evidence of fossil mixing. Strontium isotope ages span a large range, from ~2.3 Ma to ~0.91 Ma. These analyses indicate an age range of ~500 ka at one locality and ~ 600 ka at another locality, interpreted to be due to terrace reoccupation and fossil reworking. Consideration of elevations and ages here also yield low, long-term uplift rates, which in part explains the potential for terrace reoccupation in the early Pleistocene. In addition, however, early Pleistocene glacial-interglacial cycles were of much shorter duration, linked to the ~41 ka obliquity cycle of orbital forcing, a factor that would also enhance terrace reoccupation in regions of low uplift rate. It is likely that other Pacific Coast marine terrace localities of early Pleistocene age, in areas with low uplift rates, also have evidence of fossil mixing from these processes, an hypothesis that can be tested in future studies

Tectonic influences on the preservation of marine terraces: Old and new evidence from Santa Catalina Island, California

The California Channel Islands contain some of the best geologic records of past climate and sea-level changes, recorded in uplifted, fossil-bearing marine terrace deposits. Among the eight California Channel Islands and the nearby Palos Verdes Hills, only Santa Catalina Island does not exhibit prominent emergent marine terraces, though the same terrace-forming processes that acted on the other Channel Islands must also have occurred on Santa Catalina. We re-evaluated previous researchers\u27 field evidence and examined new topographic, bathymetric, and stream-profile data in order to find possible explanations for the lack of obvious marine terrace landforms or deposits on the island today. The most likely explanation is associated with the island\u27s unresolved tectonic history, with evidence for both recent uplift and subsidence being offered by different researchers. Bathymetric and seismic reflection data indicate the presence of submerged terrace-like landforms from a few meters below present sea level to depths far exceeding that of the lowest glacial lowstand, suggesting that the Catalina Island block may have subsided, submerging marine terraces that would have formed in the late Quaternary. Similar submerged marine terrace landforms exist offshore of all of the other California Channel Islands, including some at anomalously great depths, but late Quaternary uplift is well documented on those islands. Therefore, such submarine features must be more thoroughly investigated and adequately explained before they can be accepted as definitive evidence of subsidence. Nevertheless, the striking similarity of the terrace-like features around Santa Catalina Island to those surrounding the other, uplifting, Channel Islands prompted us to investigate other lines of evidence of tectonic activity, such as stream profile data. Recent uplift is suggested by disequilibrium stream profiles on the western side of the island, including nickpoints and profile convexities. Rapid uplift is also indicated by the island\u27s highly dissected, steep topography and abundant landslides. A likely cause of uplift is a restraining bend in the offshore Catalina strike-slip fault. Our analysis suggests that Santa Catalina Island has recently experienced, and may still be experiencing, relatively rapid uplift, causing intense landscape rejuvenation that removed nearly all traces of marine terraces by erosion. A similar research approach, incorporating submarine as well as subaerial geomorphic data, could be applied to many tectonically active coastlines in which a marine terrace record appears to be missing

Estimating the population size of people who inject drugs in Malaysia for 2014 and 2017 using the benchmark-multiplier method

Background: As hepatitis C elimination efforts are launched, national strategies for screening and treatment scale-up in countries, such as Malaysia, must be designed and implemented. Strategic information, including estimates of the total number of patients chronically-infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and the size of key populations, such as people who inject drugs (PWID), is critical to informing these efforts. For Malaysia, the estimate of the PWID population size most frequently reported in global systematic reviews is for the year 2009. Objectives: To support ongoing national HCV planning efforts, we aimed to estimate the national population size of active PWID in Malaysia, for the years 2014 and 2017. Methods: To estimate the PWID population size, we applied standard benchmark-multiplier methodology, frequently used for PWID population size estimation, and extended it by adjusting for cessation of injecting drug use within the benchmark and calculating statistical uncertainty intervals. Results: The estimated active PWID population size was 153,000 (95% uncertainty interval (UI): 136,000-172,000) for 2014 and 156,000 (95% UI: 137,000-188,000) for 2017. Conclusions/importance: This updated estimate of the active PWID population size in Malaysia will help inform effective planning for the scale-up of HCV screening and treatment services. The proposed methodology is applicable to other countries that maintain national HIV registries and have conducted Integrated Biological and Behavioral Surveys among active PWID

Early impact of Medicare accountable care organizations on cancer surgery outcomes

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134271/1/cncr30111.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134271/2/cncr30111_am.pd

Coastal tectonics on the eastern margin of the Pacific Rim: late Quaternary sea-level history and uplift rates, Channel Islands National Park, California, USA

The Pacific Rim is a region where tectonic processes play a significant role in coastal landscape evolution. Coastal California, on the eastern margin of the Pacific Rim, is very active tectonically and geomorphic expressions of this include uplifted marine terraces. There have been, however, conflicting estimates of the rate of late Quaternary uplift of marine terraces in coastal California, particularly for the northern Channel Islands. In the present study, the terraces on San Miguel Island and Santa Rosa Island were mapped and new age estimates were generated using uranium-series dating of fossil corals and amino acid geochronology of fossil mollusks. Results indicate that the 2nd terrace on both islands is ~120 ka and the 1st terrace on Santa Rosa Island is ~80 ka. These ages correspond to two global high-sea stands of the Last Interglacial complex, marine isotope stages (MIS) 5.5 and 5.1, respectively. The age estimates indicate that San Miguel Island and Santa Rosa Island have been tectonically uplifted at rates of 0.12-0.20 m/ka in the late Quaternary, similar to uplift rates inferred from previous studies on neighboring Santa Cruz Island. The newly estimated uplift rates for the northern Channel Islands are, however, an order of magnitude lower than a recent study that generated uplift rates from an offshore terrace dating to the Last Glacial period. The differences between the estimated uplift rates in the present study and the offshore study are explained by the magnitude of glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) effects that were not known at the time of the earlier study. Set in the larger context of northeastern Pacific Rim tectonics, Channel Islands uplift rates are higher than those coastal localities on the margin of the East Pacific Rise spreading center, but slightly lower than those of most localities adjacent to the Cascadia subduction zone. The uplift rates reported here for the northern Channel Islands are similar to those reported for most other localities where strike-slip tectonics are dominant, but lower than localities where restraining bends (such as the Big Bend of the San Andreas Fault) result in crustal shortening

Assessing School and Student Predictors of Weapons Reporting

School violence and weapons at school are a major concern for community members, school administrators, and policy makers. This research examines both student-level and school-level variables that predict middle school students’ willingness to report a weapon at school under several reporting conditions. Results substantiate previous analyses of these data that student-level variables explain students’ willingness to report a weapon but extend these findings to include school climate variables that affect willingness to report (i.e., collective identity and conflict). School climate variables were also shown to influence reporting under conditions in which there would be consequences for the weapons-carrying student or for the reporting student; however, school climate was not found to influence anonymous reporting conditions. Although policies aimed at improving school climate may increase a student’s willingness to report and are important in their own right, improving a school’s climate may be a daunting task. This research, therefore, suggests that the most efficient way to encourage weapons reporting is to provide students with an anonymous way to report