Freedom and captivity in Frances Burney’s Evelina

Frances Burney’s Evelina (1779) is, as the novel’s subtitle states, ‘The History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World’. Upon publication it created an immediate sensation – indeed, with Richardson’s Pamela (1740) and Clarissa (1748), it is still the most popular English epistolary novel of the eighteenth century. In ‘entering’ the world, Burney’s young heroine Evelina Anville leaves the sheltered abode where she was brought up to experience the ‘gaieties of a London life’.peer-reviewe

The typology of the school building : its importance in educational policies and practices

The typology of the school has never been easy to define. All kinds of buildings have at one time or another been used as educational establishements, and so many different parameters have been used to define the effectiveness or otherwise of these institutions, that the role of the school building itself has either been ignored or considered of secondary importance when compared to more direct concerns such as curriculum development, mass education, etc,. However, there are very clear indications that the building is of primary importance when it comes to assessing the effectiveness of a school, a fact recognised as early as the nineteenth century by an English Victorian headmaster when he wrote: Whatever men may say or think, the Almighty Wall is, after all, the supreme and final arbiter of schools. I mean no living power in the world can overcome the dead, unfeeling, everlasting pressure of the permanent structures, of the permanent conditions under which work has to be done... Never rest till you have got the Almighty Wall on your side, and not against you. Never rest till you have jot all the fixed machinery for work, the best possible. The waste in a teacher's workshop is the lives of men.peer-reviewe

‘She would rewrite the past’ : Briony as narrator-manipulator in Ian McEwan’s Atonement

Ian McEwan’s 2001 novel Atonement1 is mainly concerned with the protagonist Briony Tallis’s efforts to atone for a crime she committed in 1935 as a young teenager. This crime was that of bearing false witness. Briony’s mendacious testimony condemns an upright young man – Robbie Turner, son of the Tallises’ charwoman – to public ignominy and a long prison sentence for rape. Briony also separates her older sister Cecilia from Robbie, whom the young woman is secretly in love with. Both the lovers die in the Second World War, leaving behind a Briony racked with guilt, hoping to find a way to atone for the harm she has done them. After much soul-searching she decides that the best way in which she can atone for her crime is through the medium of her chosen vocation – that of fiction. Like McEwan himself, in fact, Briony Tallis is a writer. Shortly after the lovers’ deaths, she determines to write a novel which will constitute her ‘atonement’ (p. 349). Briony’s ‘atonement novel’, the reader discovers in the coda (pp. 351–72) is, in effect, the novel he holds in his hands. This paper sets out to assess Briony’s success in atoning for her crime by means of the novel Atonement. The main point it seeks to make is that, far from representing an adequate atonement for a serious crime, Atonement is yet another of this devious character’s diversionary ploys.peer-reviewe

Meningococcus this Winter : what was going on?

There was a time in the not very distant past when meningococcus was not being recognised locally. While laboratory sensitivity used to isolate Neisseria meningitidis has not changed in Malta, the frequency of its detection has increased, more so in the last few months. In this discussion, it is assumed that the sensitivity of detection and degree of reporting of the condition has remained stable throughout the past eleven year period, so that the observed trend remains interpretable. Early, aggressive treatment with antimicrobials makes subsequent microbiological ascertainment difficult. Although meningococcal disease is notifiable by law, it is assumed that reporting of the recognised condition may not be full.peer-reviewe

Spirit of experiment : the proposed Santa Lucija secondary school

Government's commitment to build a new secondary school at Sta Lucija is an indication of its modern direction in the face of today's needs in the education sector in Malta and of the fact that, despite the media explosion and all recent developments in information technology, the school will certainly remain the focal venue for information exchange and student interaction. In March, 1992, the Education Division of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources undertook a global audit of accommodation in state secondary schools. The secondary sector was divided into four areas: boys' junior lyceums, girls' junior lyceums, boys' general secondary schools and girls' general secondary schools. The most glaring revelation arising from this survey was the fact that whereas the average population in State-run junior lyceums for boys stood at around 800, in the case of girls' junior lyceums, the average student population was around 1 ,200. This anomaly was further compounded by the fact that private schools were serving to relieve the pressure from State schools in the boys' sector whereas in the girls' sector a reverse trend was observed, with girls from private schools at primary level moving on to state secondary schools. Among the recommendations arising from the report was the need to address the equity between boys' and girls' secondary schools with the construction of a girls' secondary school in the area between Blata 1-Bajda and Zejtun.peer-reviewe

A case of neuroleptic malignant syndrome on withdrawal of benzhexol

The neuroleptic malignant syndrome is a rare and potentially lethal reaction which is usually associated with the use of medications with antidopaminergic properties. This article describes the case of an elderly gentleman who developed the neuroleptic malignant syndrome after withdrawal of the anticholinergic agent benzhexol (trihexyphenidyl hydrochloride), which he was taking for Parkinson’s disease. The patient improved rapidly after treatment was restarted. This case adds to the evidence that antidopaminergic agents may not be necessary for the development of this syndrome, and increased awareness of this possibility is advisable in such circumstances.peer-reviewe

Escherichia coli O157:H7 in Malta for the first time

The emergence of E coli O157:H7 in Malta is a sign of the times. It represents one of the newly emerging infections associated with food. The first two documented cases of E coli 0157:H7 infection in Malta occurred in July and August, 1996. Food types classically incriminated were surveyed by the Department of Public Health. Epidemiological investigation aimed to trace the environmental sources of infection.• Microbiology was performed jointly by diagnostic and public health laboratories. Facts about infection and control of the disease are highlighted with a view to alerting local practitioners to the condition.peer-reviewe

A study of seroprevalence of rubella IgG in Maltese adolescents

The objective of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of rubella IgG antibodies in Maltese adolescents, through a cross-sectional study, with mailed questionnaire and blood sampling. The subjects tested were 172 individuals, aged 14-15 years from Malta and Gozo for the prevalence of vaccination and seropositivity (IgG) for rubella. The results of the 85% individuals vaccinated seropositivity was detected in 168 youths (97.7%). The study showed a high level of detectable humoral immunity to rubella but this could not be definitively attributed to vaccination alone.peer-reviewe

Duration of type 2 diabetes is a predictor of elevated plantar foot pressure

AIMS: Elevated plantar pressure is considered a significant risk factor for ulceration in diabetes mellitus. The aim of this study was to determine whether duration of diabetes could affect plantar pressure in patients with no known significant comorbidity or foot pathology.METHODS: Participants with type 2 diabetes, but without known confounding factors that could alter peak pressure, were matched for age, weight, and gender and categorized into 3 groups of diabetes duration: group 1 (1-5 yr), group 2 (6-10 yr), and group 3 (11-15 yr). Plantar pressures were recorded utilizing a twostep protocol at a self-selected speed.RESULTS: One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant differences in mean peak plantar pressures between the three groups under the 2nd - 4th metatarsophalangeal joint (MPJ) region of interest (ROI) (p = 0.012 and p = 0.022, respectively) and left heel (p = 0.049). Also, a significant difference in mean pressure-time integral under the left 2nd - 4th MPJ ROI (p = 0.021) and right heel (p = 0.048) was observed. Regression analysis confirmed that mean peak plantar pressures in the first group (but not in the second group) were significantly lower than in the third group (p = 0.005).CONCLUSIONS: As the duration of diabetes increased, peak plantar pressure increased significantly under the 2nd - 4th MPJ ROIs. These findings suggest that clinicians should make more use of pressure mapping technology as part of their clinical management plan in patients with diabetes >10 yr, even if they have no complications or deformities, to preserve functional limbs in this high-risk population.peer-reviewe