50 research outputs found
Back to where we came from: evolutionary psychology and childrenâs literature and media
In 2010, The New York Times ran an article which announced that âthe next big thing in English [Studies]â was âusing evolutionary theory to explain fictionâ. This announcement may be considered somewhat belated, given that the interest in the potential relevance of evolutionary psychology to literary studies might be traced back to a considerably earlier date than 2010. Joseph Carroll first published on the subject as far back as 1995, and by 2002 Steven Pinker could claim that âwithin the academy, a growing number of mavericks are looking to Evolutionary psychology and cognitive science in an effort to re-establish human nature as the center of any understanding of the artsâ. Nevertheless, The New York Timesâs announcement may be taken as a measure of an increasingly visible trend in both popular and academic thinking.
We argue in this chapter that this trend is motivated specifically by nostalgia, or the longing for a past which seems forever lost. A second aspect of this nostalgia will also be discussed to do with the way that we argue that this supposedly ânewâ area of research repeats exactly a long history of prior claims of many eminent childrenâs literature critics with respect to ideas of childhood, language and childrenâs literature and media. Despite the repeated, insistent claims of several of the Literary Darwinists, including, for instance, Joseph Carroll, one of the founders of this way of thinking, that they are working in heroic opposition to a dominant, obscurantist and anti-science âliterary theoryâ, we argue here that in fact there is a high degree of convergence between the claims made about childhood, language and childrenâs literature in Literary Darwinism and much childrenâs literature criticism. We therefore see Literary Darwinism and (childrenâs) literature studies as not being in any sense about an opposition or separation between science and literary or humanist studies, but about a convergence underpinned and driven by the same nostalgia for a singular, stable, uniform and universal past, leading to a singular, stable, uniform and universal present.
Finally, we suggest that it is not just in these two fields in which this nostalgia operates, but that this can currently be seen in sub-streams within many disciplines â in both in arts, sciences and humanities -- as a founding, powerfully political, driver
âUncannyâ repetitions in Lillian Hellmanâs 'The Childrenâs Hour'
This article addresses Lilian Hellmanâs The Childrenâs Hour in terms of âthe uncanny,â that is as a play concerned with doubling and instability. Although this is not in itself an original approach the play, it is claimed that the unsettling iterations of the work can be understood to extend further than has been read within the handful of critical accounts thus far produced. In following Sigmund Freudâs âThe Uncannyâ and Judith Butlerâs âImitation and Gender Insubordinationâ in their understanding of the disruptive effects of retrospection and repetition, the article works through various threats to identity and structure in Hellmanâs play, concluding with a questioning account of recent moves to situate the work within a contextual frame of performance history
Gender, genre and dracula: Joan Copjec and âvampire fictionâ
In Joan Copjecâs celebrated reading of âvampire fictionâ, the genre is understood to be defined by the âoverwhelming presence of the realâ for which all âinterpretation [âŠ] is superfluous and inappropriate.â According to this analysis, criticism that focuses on the textual construction of the vampire will miss what is really important: the anxiety inducing ânothingâ upon which all identity is founded. This article questions this Lacanian approach through returning a textual focus to a critical engagement with Dracula. Through such an approach, Copjecâs understanding of ideas of gender and genre as they relate to âvampire fictionâ are also critiqued. Close textual analysis disrupts the complex yet limited gender trouble Copjec identifies, whilst also working through some of the attendant difficulties in locating genre either within the bare bones of textual structure, or in an unreadable âauraâ surrounding the text. To this end, this article closes with a tentative comparative reading of Dracula and Rousseauâs Ămile a text that Copjec takes to be its âprecise equivalentâ
The flight of (the) concord: Joan Copjec and Slavoj ĆœiĆŸek read âIrmaâs Injectionâ
In this article, I return to the âover-interpreted anxiety dreamâ (Copjec, 2015) of âIrmaâs Injectionâ to make a wider claim concerning an unacknowledged investment in structure that I understand to return to ĆœiĆŸekian appeals to the disruptive structure of the Real. I begin with the analysis of Freudâs first specimen dream, and Lacanâs response to this, offered by Joan Copjec, ĆœiĆŸekâs fellow traveller in theory. My concern is with Copjecâs staging of the encounter with the Real, both in its imaginary and symbolic modes, and the extent to which a renewed focus on the narrational frames of psychoanalytic accounts of âIrmaâs Injectionâ can help bring to light their otherwise neglected appeals to structure. Rather than a simple deconstructive evasion of the Real, I argue that such a move enables a questioning the location of the limit within Copjecâs account of âIrmaâs Injectionâ: a return of the Real to the Real.
This discussion results also in a more straightforward reassessment of the understanding of structure in âIrmaâs Injectionâ as read by both Copjec and ĆœiĆŸek. I focus on one particular aspect, âflightâ, understood to be: central to the structure of the dream; disruptive to this structure; a remaining and an escape; evasion and fidelity. Through the frame of âflightâ, I re-evaluate the dream within/ across the work of ĆœiĆŸek and Copjec before, finally, contemplating how âflightâ might help to refigure the relationship between the two theorists, and the deconstructive practice that both question within their various responses to âIrmaâs Injection
On the evaluation of the Bauschinger effect in an austenitic stainless steelâThe role of multiscale residual stresses
In this work, a physically based self-consistent model is developed and employed to examine the microscopic lattice response of pre-strained Type 316H polycrystalline austenitic stainless steel subjected to uniaxial tensile and compressive loading. The model is also used to explain the Bauschinger effect observed at the macroscopic length-scale. Formulated in a crystal based plasticity framework, the model incorporates detailed strengthening effects associated with different microstructural elements such as forest dislocation junctions, solute atoms and precipitates on individual crystallographic slip planes of each individual grain within the polycrystal. The elastoplastic response of the bulk polycrystal is obtained by homogenizing the response of all the constituent grains using a self-consistent approach. Micro-plasticity mechanisms and how these influence the Bauschinger effect are illustrated in terms of the role of residual stresses at different length-scales. Overall, predictions are in good agreement with experimental data of the Bauschinger effect and the corresponding meso-scale lattice response of the material, with the latter measured by neutron diffraction. The results demonstrate that transient softening of the material is related to residual stresses at different length scales. In addition, the (Type III) residual stress at the micro-scale slip system level extends the strain range over which the tensile and compressive reloading curves of the pre-strained material merge
Content validity of the EORTC quality of life questionnaire QLQ-C30 for use in cancer
Aim
The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30 (QLQ-C30) is among the most widely used patient-reported outcome measures in cancer research and practice. It was developed prior to guidance that content should be established directly from patients to confirm it measures concepts of interest and is appropriate and comprehensive for the intended population. This study evaluated the content validity of the QLQ-C30 for use with cancer patients.
Methods
Adults undergoing cancer treatment in Europe and the USA participated in open-ended concept elicitation interviews regarding their functional health, symptoms, side-effects and impacts on health-related quality of life. Thematic analysis was conducted, and similarities across cancer types, disease stages and countries or languages were explored.
Results
Interviews with 113 patients with cancer (85 European, 28 USA) including breast, lung, prostate, colorectal and other cancers were conducted between 2016 and 2020. Conceptual saturation was achieved. The most frequently reported concepts were included in the QLQ-C30 conceptual framework. QLQ-C30 items were widely understood across language versions and were relevant to patients across cancer types and disease stages. While several new concepts were elicited such as difficulty climbing steps or stairs, weight loss, skin problems and numbness, many were not widely experienced and/or could be considered sub-concepts of existing concepts.
Conclusions
The QLQ-C30 demonstrates good evidence of content validity for the assessment of functional health, symptom burden and health-related quality of life in patients with localised-to-advanced cancer
The effect of isolates from 'Cassipourea flanaganii' (Schinz) alston, a plant used as a skin lightning agent, on melanin production and tyrosinase inhibition
Ethnopharmacological relevance
The Zulu and Xhosa people of South Africa use the stem bark of Cassipourea flanaganii as a skin-lightning cosmetic.
Aim of the study
To isolate and identify compounds responsible for the skin lightning properties from the stem bark of Cassipourea flanaganii and to evaluate their cytotoxicity towards skin cells.
Materials and methods
Extracts from the stem bark of Cassipourea flanaganii were isolated using chromatographic methods and structures were determined using NMR, IR and MS analysis. The tyrosinase inhibitory activity and the ability to inhibit the production of melanin were determined using human primary epidermal melanocyte cells. Cytoxicity was established using the same melanocytes and a neutral red assay.
Results
One previously undescribed compound, ent-atis-16-en-19-al (1) along with the known ent-atis-16-en-19-oic acid (2), ent-atis-16-en-19-ol (3), ent-kaur-16-en-19-oic acid (4), ent-kaur-16-en-19-al (5), ent-manoyl oxide (6), guinesine A (7), guinesine B (8), guinesine C (9), lichenxanthone (10), 2,4-dihydroxy-3,6-dimethyl benzoic acid methyl ester (11), lynoside (12), lupeol (13), ÎČ-amyrin (14), docosyl ferulate (15), stigmasterol, sitosterol and sitosterol-O-glucoside were isolated in this investigation. An impure fraction containing compound 3 was acetylated to obtain 19-acetoxy-ent-atis-16-ene (3a). Compounds 10 and 11 are usually isolated from lichen, hence they are possible contaminants of lichen harvested with the bark. Compounds 1, 3a, 5â14 were not significantly cytotoxic to the primary epidermal melanocyte cells (P > 0.05) when compared to the negative and positive controls (DMSO, 0.1% and hydrogen peroxide, 30 wt% in water). Inhibition of tyrosinase was significantly greater with respect to the negative control (P < 0.001) for compounds 3a, 5â8 and 9â10 at 10 ÎŒM and for compounds 5â8 and 9â10 at 100 ÎŒM. Compared to hydroquinone (the positive control) at 10 ÎŒM, the level of inhibition was comparable or to that of compounds 3a, 5, 6, and 8â10 at 10 ÎŒM, with 9 and 10 showing a greater level of inhibition. Inhibition of melanin was both concentration and time dependent for all compounds tested with higher melanin content at 24 h compared to 48 h s and at 10 mM compared to100 mM at both time points; melanin content was significantly lower for hydroquinone at both time points and concentrations.
Conclusions
Compounds 1, 5â14, isolated from Cassipourea flanaganii and the derivative 3a showed low cytotoxicity. All compounds had a clear time and concentration dependent effect on melanin content which did not appear to be dependent on their inhibition of tyrosinase
Global wealth disparities drive adherence to COVID-safe pathways in head and neck cancer surgery
Peer reviewe
The school story
A brief encyclopedia entry outlining the history and significance of The School Story genre
Student-centred: education, freedom, and the idea of audience. 2nd edition
An updated second edition of the classic, questioning account of the relationship between student-centred learning and managerialism, with a new introduction by the author, arguing for its continuing relevance