An examination of point of view in selected British, American and African novels

This thesis is a contribution to the ongoing debate over standards of criticism for the novel in Africa. After reviewing the three main approaches, the 'Afro-centric', the 'Euro-centric ' and the 'syncretic', and highlighting their shortcomings, I hope to demonstrate that if the devices of point of view ' are used properly they may provide a valuable tool for a useful reading of the novels. Point of view is seen as a holistic device and not, as Lubbock and others suggest, a question of 'the relationship of the narrator to the story'. The views of Boris Uspensky, Gerard Genette and Susan Lanser on this subject are modified to suit the eclectic and comparative designs of the study. Point of view is thus seen as the means through which a given device operates in a specific context, what it reveals, and how it relates to other textual elements. Four main categories are proposed, namely the dramatized, the inward, the multiple and the communal perspectives. These categories demonstrate the flexibility of method which point of view allows and they show how novels from different backgrounds may be examined under one 'convention' without depriving such novels of their originality. Twenty novels by British, American and African novelists are subsequently divided into these four categories and each of the novels is described, allowing them to define one another. The communal perspective is found to be a unique feature of the five African novels examined in the last three chapters. These novels require the reader to modify his opinions about point of view, for the novelists seem to speak on behalf of their communities. The communal pose thus becomes a literary device. It is a device which manifests itself in the case of the novels of Chinua Achebe, Ayi Kwei Armah and Gabriel Okara through the skilful use of character, language and setting. The reader who comes to the novels with the conviction that character is a paradigm of traits will need to bear in mind that traits in these novels are what are normally known as characters in other novels and that in the novels, therefore, characterisation is largely transferred from the individual person to the communal personality. This is the contribution these African novelists have made to world fiction. It is nevertheless shown that this distinct feature need not deny a common ground from which the critic of the African novel can define the novels' themes and methods and that ultimately the isolation which the three main approaches seem to recommend is neither desirable, nor is it helpful as a way of making the reader aware of the form and content of the novels

Admission to a psychiatric unit and changes in tobacco smoking

Smoking and withdrawal from smoking complicates the assessment and treatment of mental illness. We aimed to establish whether psychiatric inpatients smoke different amounts after admission than beforehand and, if so, to find out why. Forty-three inpatients on a working age adult psychiatry ward completed self-report questionnaires about smoking habits. Those who smoked a different amount after admission had a follow-up interview to find out why they thought this had occurred. The interview incorporated qualitative and quantitative aspects which were analysed accordingly

Surface passivation of InAs avalanche photodiodes for low-noise infrared imaging

The effect of surface passivation on the etched-mesa InAs diodes was investigated by carrying out the fabrication and passivation of InAs diodes. Extensive and detailed current-voltage characterization was done to determine the most suitable type of insulating material for the surface passivation. SU-8, silicon nitride, silicon dioxide and B-staged Bisbenzocyclobutene were used for the purpose of minimizing the conductivity of the etched mesa surface of InAs diodes. The forward- and reverse-biased characteristics of InAs diodes were measured at room temperature and 77 K in order to carefully investigate the effect of different surface passivation schemes. The results of this work categorically indicated that SU-8 is the most effective surface passivation material for InAs diodes, whereas silicon nitride and silicon dioxide have contributed to an even higher surface leakage current. Furthermore, SU-8 passivated InAs diodes were more sustainable to high bias voltages and its robustness increases the opportunity of its utilization for practical applications such as infrared imaging

Textbook, chalkboard, notebook: resemiotization in a Mozambican primary school

Includes bibliographical references.This ethnographic, sociolinguistic study describes the writing practices of teachers and students in a Portuguese-language primary school in Mozambique. In the classroom, teachers and students engage in a text-chain ritual in which the teacher copies a text from the textbook onto the chalkboard, which is then copied by the students into their notebooks. Using the theoretical framework of social semiotics, this study situates classroom writing within a range of multimodal practices which scaffold the written texts. This study employs the notion of resemiotization in order to describe the ways in which signs are transformed as they move between different sites of display. This resemiotization is framed by educational ritual with the language of instruction, Portuguese, being a second language (hereafter ‘L2’) to most of the students. Because of the linguistic constraints of the L2, rote- copying practices predominate in the classroom. Copying allows lessons to move forward despite the comprehension difficulties of the students. The text-chain is shown to be simultaneously reductive and expansive. Subsequent links tend to be reduced representations of their originating signs even while these signs serve as the basis for expansive multimodal ensembles which include speech, drawing and gesture, as well as the use of the students’ home language. This study employ s the notion of mimesis in order to account for the ways in which the resemiotization observed in the classroom is both imitative and creative. Each instance of writing imitates a previous link in the text-chain but also shows evidence of teachers and students creatively shaping their texts. In order to study these writing practices, more than 40 classroom lessons were observed during two research trips to Tete, Mozambique. This study used observation and photographic data-records to trace the movement of texts over the course of a lesson. Photographs of the chalkboard were taken as the chalkboard text grew and changed. In each classroom, six students were selected and their notebook writing photographed. The photographing of the chalkboard and notebooks allowed for the comparison of these texts as they were produced in the classroom. Additionally, teachers and educators were interviewed to provide insight on classroom writing practices. During these interviews, teachers were asked to describe their schooling experience and compare it with schooling today. Teachers and educators also provided background information on bilingual education and their use of a technique known as currículo local , ‘local curriculum’ , in which teachers use local language and culture to create connections between classroom knowledge and students’ existing knowledge. This thesis draws attention to the complexity of writing practices in L2 classrooms. Writing is shown to be a term that covers a wide range of practices including rote copying, drawing, doodling, and pseudo-writing. These writing practices take place in an environment marked by linguistic and semiotic diversity. This thesis expands the use of the term resemiotization by looking in detail at the material and social processes that occur in the classroom. Additionally, this thesis draws attention to ritual as an organizing principle for resemiotizing processes in which institutional forces and authorized language influence and shape local practices. The use of the notion of mimesis allows this analysis to account for the ways in which resemiotization involves both imitation and creativity in a text-chain that exhibits signs of semiotic reduction while simultaneously facilitating instances of profuse multimodal communication

Tranexamic acid in bleeding trauma patients: an exploration of benefits and harms.

BACKGROUND: The CRASH-2 trial showed that tranexamic acid (TXA) administration reduces mortality in bleeding trauma patients. However, the effect appeared to depend on how soon after injury TXA treatment was started. Treatment within 3 h reduced bleeding deaths whereas treatment after 3 h increased the risk. We examine how patient characteristics vary by time to treatment and explore whether any such variations explain the time-dependent treatment effect. METHODS: Exploratory analysis were carried out, including per-protocol analyses, of data from the CRASH-2 trial, a randomised placebo-controlled trial of the effect of TXA on mortality in 20,211 trauma patients with, or at risk of, significant bleeding. We examine how patient characteristics (age, type of injury, presence or absence of head injury, Glasgow coma scale (GCS), systolic blood pressure and capillary refill time) vary with time to treatment and use univariable (restriction) and multivariable methods to examine whether any such variations explain the time-dependent effect of TXA. If not explained by differences in patient characteristics, we planned to conduct separate prespecified subgroup analyses for the early benefit and late harm. RESULTS: There was no substantial variation in age or capillary refill by time to treatment. However, the proportion of patients with blunt trauma, the proportion with head injury and mean systolic blood pressure increased as time to treatment increased. Mean GCS decreased as time to treatment increased. Analyses restricted to patients with blunt trauma, those without head injury and those with a systolic blood pressure 89 mmHg); GCS (severe 3-8, moderate 9-12, mild 13-15); and type of injury (penetrating versus blunt) showed no significant heterogeneity. CONCLUSIONS: The time-dependent effect of TXA in bleeding trauma patients is not explained by the type of injury, the presence or absence of head injury or systolic blood pressure. When given within 3 h of injury, TXA reduces death due to bleeding regardless of type of injury, GCS or blood pressure. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT00375258 . Registered on 11 September 2006

Therapeutic efficacy of intravenously administered transferrin-conjugated dendriplexes on prostate carcinomas

Aim: Improved treatments for prostate cancer are critically needed in order to overcome metastasis and lethal recurrence. Intravenously administered gene therapy would be an attractive anticancer treatment strategy; however, the lack of suitable carrier systems able to selectively deliver therapeutic genes to tumors has so far limited this investigation. Given that transferrin receptors are overexpressed on prostate cancer cells, the purpose of this study is to determine whether transferrin-conjugated dendriplexes encoding TNF-α, TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand and IL-12 would suppress the growth of prostate cancer cell lines in vitro and in vivo. Materials & methods: Transferrin-conjugated dendriplexes encoding TNF-α, TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand and IL-12 were intravenously administered to mice bearing subcutaneous PC-3 and DU145 tumors. Results: The administration of the transferrin-conjugated generation 3 diaminobutyric polypropylenimine dendriplex encoding TNF-α resulted in tumor suppression for 60% of PC-3 and 50% of DU145 prostate tumors. Conclusion: These dendriplexes hold great potential as a novel approach for prostate cancer therapy

Prevalence and causes of prescribing errors: the prescribing outcomes for trainee doctors engaged in clinical training (PROTECT) study

Objectives Study objectives were to investigate the prevalence and causes of prescribing errors amongst foundation doctors (i.e. junior doctors in their first (F1) or second (F2) year of post-graduate training), describe their knowledge and experience of prescribing errors, and explore their self-efficacy (i.e. confidence) in prescribing. Method A three-part mixed-methods design was used, comprising: prospective observational study; semi-structured interviews and cross-sectional survey. All doctors prescribing in eight purposively selected hospitals in Scotland participated. All foundation doctors throughout Scotland participated in the survey. The number of prescribing errors per patient, doctor, ward and hospital, perceived causes of errors and a measure of doctors' self-efficacy were established. Results 4710 patient charts and 44,726 prescribed medicines were reviewed. There were 3364 errors, affecting 1700 (36.1%) charts (overall error rate: 7.5%; F1:7.4%; F2:8.6%; consultants:6.3%). Higher error rates were associated with : teaching hospitals (p&#60;0.001), surgical (p = &#60;0.001) or mixed wards (0.008) rather thanmedical ward, higher patient turnover wards (p&#60;0.001), a greater number of prescribed medicines (p&#60;0.001) and the months December and June (p&#60;0.001). One hundred errors were discussed in 40 interviews. Error causation was multi-factorial; work environment and team factors were particularly noted. Of 548 completed questionnaires (national response rate of 35.4%), 508 (92.7% of respondents) reported errors, most of which (328 (64.6%) did not reach the patient. Pressure from other staff, workload and interruptions were cited as the main causes of errors. Foundation year 2 doctors reported greater confidence than year 1 doctors in deciding the most appropriate medication regimen. Conclusions Prescribing errors are frequent and of complex causation. Foundation doctors made more errors than other doctors, but undertook the majority of prescribing, making them a key target for intervention. Contributing causes included work environment, team, task, individual and patient factors. Further work is needed to develop and assess interventions that address these.</p

Effect of treatment delay on the effectiveness and safety of antifibrinolytics in acute severe haemorrhage: a meta-analysis of individual patient-level data from 40 138 bleeding patients.

BACKGROUND: Antifibrinolytics reduce death from bleeding in trauma and post-partum haemorrhage. We examined the effect of treatment delay on the effectiveness of antifibrinolytics. METHODS: We did an individual patient-level data meta-analysis of randomised trials done with more than 1000 patients that assessed antifibrinolytics in acute severe bleeding. We identified trials done between Jan 1, 1946, and April 7, 2017, from MEDLINE, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Web of Science, PubMed, Popline, and the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform. The primary measure of treatment benefit was absence of death from bleeding. We examined the effect of treatment delay on treatment effectiveness using logistic regression models. We investigated the effect of measurement error (misclassification) in sensitivity analyses. This study is registered with PROSPERO, number 42016052155. FINDINGS: We obtained data for 40 138 patients from two randomised trials of tranexamic acid in acute severe bleeding (traumatic and post-partum haemorrhage). Overall, there were 3558 deaths, of which 1408 (40%) were from bleeding. Most (884 [63%] of 1408) bleeding deaths occurred within 12 h of onset. Deaths from post-partum haemorrhage peaked 2-3 h after childbirth. Tranexamic acid significantly increased overall survival from bleeding (odds ratio [OR] 1·20, 95% CI 1·08-1·33; p=0·001), with no heterogeneity by site of bleeding (interaction p=0·7243). Treatment delay reduced the treatment benefit (p<0·0001). Immediate treatment improved survival by more than 70% (OR 1·72, 95% CI 1·42-2·10; p<0·0001). Thereafter, the survival benefit decreased by 10% for every 15 min of treatment delay until 3 h, after which there was no benefit. There was no increase in vascular occlusive events with tranexamic acid, with no heterogeneity by site of bleeding (p=0·5956). Treatment delay did not modify the effect of tranexamic acid on vascular occlusive events. INTERPRETATION: Death from bleeding occurs soon after onset and even a short delay in treatment reduces the benefit of tranexamic acid administration. Patients must be treated immediately. Further research is needed to deepen our understanding of the mechanism of action of tranexamic acid. FUNDING: UK NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme, Pfizer, BUPA Foundation, and J P Moulton Charitable Foundation (CRASH-2 trial). London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Pfizer, UK Department of Health, Wellcome Trust, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (WOMAN trial)

Progress with the LOFAR Imaging Pipeline

One of the science drivers of the new Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) is large-area surveys of the low-frequency radio sky. Realizing this goal requires automated processing of the interferometric data, such that fully calibrated images are produced by the system during survey operations. The LOFAR Imaging Pipeline is the tool intended for this purpose, and is now undergoing significant commissioning work. The pipeline is now functional as an automated processing chain. Here we present several recent LOFAR images that have been produced during the still ongoing commissioning period. These early LOFAR images are representative of some of the science goals of the commissioning team members.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in proceedings of "ISKAF2010 Science Meeting", PoS(ISKAF2010)05