Western Libraries OJS
Not a member yet
7960 research outputs found
Sort by
Heyes’s Responses to Readers
No full textIn this response to readers, I start by summarizing and extending Megan Burke’s comments on interrupted time in the context of houselessness and the way vulnerable people are often denied their own temporality altogether. Burke suggests that there is something called “anaesthetized time” that approaches death, and they invite the project to consider more closely the varieties of power that some have over others’ time. I relate these remarks to a political tradition in African American philosophy that Elizabeth Freeman calls thanatomimesis. In her response to the book, Talia Bettcher argues that two of the overly dichotomous framings need to be broken up: postdisciplinary and anaesthetic time, and agency and passivity. I clarify this point and suggest that these comments might point toward more generative work, including in relation to Bettcher’s own project on intimate agency. Finally Alisa Bierria relates the work of Anaesthetics to her own project on incarceration, suggesting that in addition to being denied their own time, prisoners are rendered into temporal property. This is a helpful concept that, I suggest, could be linked more clearly to Bierria’s understanding of revelatory agency and to the time of the contracted present
Representation and Misconceptions of Intimate Partner Violence in the Media
No full textThe media's portrayal of intimate-partner violence (IPV) has far-reaching consequences that are often overlooked. The genre of true crime often provides ‘safety tips’ to the audience. This contributes to victim-blaming narratives, implying that there are ways for victims to prevent their partners from abusing them. By placing the onus of the abuse on the victim, it serves to absolve the abuser from the crime. Furthermore, recounts of IPV in the media lack representation of emotional abuse (which is the most common type of IPV), portraying IPV as a singular incident. This carries profound implications for the perception of IPV in the public sphere. Firstly, it implies that abuse must be physical for it to be considered “real.” Secondly, IPV is a process of abuse as opposed to a single incident. Instances of IPV typically increase in frequency and severity as an intimate relationship progresses. Given that these communities also face high rates of IPV, this work looks at the importance of ensuring that these stories are adequately represented in the media.
CW: this work contains themes and mentions of intimate-partner violence, emotional and physical abuse, and victim-blamin
(A)Sexuality Online: Self-Discovery, Exclusion, and Community in the Digital Age of Asexuality
No full textThe introduction of the internet and related online platforms such as social media and online forums has revolutionized the way people interact with each other and understand themselves. This is especially true for marginalized communities in which meeting people with shared experiences is difficult and representation in mainstream media is scarce. This essay explores how the internet facilitates self-discovery and community building for asexual people, the impact of the lack of asexual representation, and the flawed nature of the few instances of asexual representation in mainstream media on both the asexual community and society as a whole.
CW: this work contains themes and mentions of exclusion, acephobia (or aphobia), sexuality, and visibilit
Harm Reduction in Prisons: Restraints within the Prisoners’ Rights Discourse
No full textA growing gap exists between the availability of harm reduction initiatives in mainstream society and those offered in correctional institutions. The quality of current risk-reducing measures in penitentiaries and the absence of more ambitious programs have led prisoners’ rights advocates to seek relief through litigation, often unsuccessfully. The author deconstructs these cases and traces litigants’ lack of success to two factors, which he contends condition harm reduction litigation in the prison context. While the law is clear that inmates retain their civil rights behind bars, the author concludes that the generic legal channels through which inmates must litigate their rights and a widespread conception of health that centres on treatment rather than prevention impede efforts to import harm reduction initiatives into penitentiaries. Although past prison litigation reveals great strides to providing inmates with the same rights and protections as members of the general population, challenges to the availability of harm reduction initiatives fit uneasily within the established pattern of prisoners’ rights litigation. In order to accommodate harm reduction claims, the prisoners’ rights discourse would need to be reconceptualized at the stakeholder and judicial levels
Isolated small bowel disease and multiple lung nodules: an unusual initial presentation of pediatric Crohn’s disease
No full textCrohn’s disease (CD) is a chronic idiopathic inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract characterized by transmural inflammation, skip lesions, and architectural changes. Isolated small bowel involvement is seen in approximately 1% of patients with CD at diagnosis. Extraintestinal manifestations can occur, with pulmonary involvement seen in <1% of all CD. We report an unusual case of a previously healthy 12-year old male who presented to hospital with acute abdominal pain, emesis, and fever. He had microcytic anemia, thrombocytosis, elevated C-reactive protein, hypoalbuminemia, digital clubbing, and poor growth. Interestingly, initial upper endoscopy and ileocolonoscopy were unremarkable. Pathology revealed colonic nonnecrotizing granulomas without inflammation. He incidentally was found to have multiple lung nodules despite the absence of respiratory symptoms, and MRE revealed five small bowel strictures. This prompted work-up for alternative etiologies including infectious and rheumatologic, which were negative. Ultimately, five months later, double balloon enteroscopy revealed ileal ulcerations at the strictures and several small aphthous ulcers in the transverse and sigmoid colon. Biopsies showed active ileitis and chronic active colitis with nonnecrotizing granulomas. He developed perianal disease, confirmed on MR pelvis, and a diagnosis of CD was made. The patient started infliximab therapy and is clinically in remission. This is a rare and unique phenotype of CD with initial presentation of multiple lung nodules and isolated small bowel disease. This case highlights the importance of recognizing that pulmonary manifestations should be considered in the absence of respiratory symptoms and that a normal first endoscopy does not preclude a diagnosis of CD
Claude Simon : graphein en traduction
No full textSince Lessing's famous Laocoon, a theoretical essay on the respective nature of the arts (literature and plastic arts), the debate on the categorization of the arts has grown to the point of creating borders and discontinuities between what was originally one. Claude Simon then updates the reflection, notably on the notions of drawing and writing in the field of literature. The frontier between these two notions derived from the Greek graphein is considered by the author as a symbolic and social construction, marked sometimes by links of cooperation, sometimes by forms of opposition between the elements in presence. Finally, this concomitant convocation of the two derivatives of graphein induces an aesthetic of compensation and avoidance.Depuis le célèbre Laocoon, essai théorique sur la nature respective des arts (Littérature et arts plastiques) de Lessing, le débat sur la catégorisation des arts s’est amplifié au point de créer des frontières, des discontinuités entre ce qui originellement n’était qu’un. Pour sa part, Claude Simon a tenté de réactualiser la question, notamment sur les notions du dessiner et de l’écrire dans le champ de la littérature. La frontière entre ces deux notions dérivées du grec graphein est envisagée chez l’auteur comme une construction symbolique et sociale, marquée tantôt par des liens de conjonction, tantôt par des formes d’opposition entre les éléments en présence. En fait, cette convocation concomitante des deux dérivés de graphein induit une esthétique de la compensation et de l’évitement
Graphing the Remainder
No full textEmploying the Remainder Theorem, analytic and graphical tools, and dynamic applets, this paper investigates when the graphs of rational functions intersect horizontal, oblique, and curved asymptotes. Additionally, we consider how the respective remainder function perturbs the asymptotic function to producethe rational function. Dynamic applets assist in the development of the ideas herein. Finally, this paper endswith a significant number of student investigations
The Benefits of the Everyone In Initiative and the Deeper-Rooted Problems It Revealed for Migrants Experiencing Homelessness
No full textThis article addresses the broad research aim of understanding migrants’ experiences of homelessness during the Coronavirus Disease of (COVID-19) pandemic through a novel combination of linguistic and sociological analysis. In our analysis of life story interviews, we find that the United Kingdom (UK) Government’s Everyone In initiative, which suspended eligibility criteria to provide support and accommodation to those experiencing homelessness or deemed to be at risk of rough sleeping, was hugely beneficial for migrants. This indicates what is possible when there is the political will to end rough sleeping. In its analysis of life stories gathered during the pandemic, the article proceeds to identify deeper-rooted problems relating to the weak and restricted structural position of migrants experiencing homelessness. Having spent time in the UK with an ‘inferior status’, with limited access to work and welfare, economic and social capital, and often with experiences of trauma in the UK and/or in their countries of origin, many of our research participants express a lack of control and a sense of being controlled in their conditions of existence. Further, their isolation and loneliness in the individual rooms provided in the emergency accommodation is indicative of a deeper-rooted sense of separation deriving from years spent sleeping rough or living in temporary and insecure accommodation. Experiences of isolation and the sense of a lack of control are corrosive to mental health, and during the pandemic, mental health problems were also exacerbated by welfare checks and other rule-based practices that are potentially re-traumatising
On the conditioning of some structured generalized eigenvalue problems
No full textThis work continues the analysis of the conditioning of a Hankel structured generalized eigenvalue problem (GEP) started in [1]. The considered generalized eigenvalue problem appears in exponential analysis and sparse interpolation.
We generalize the proof in [1] and add expressions for the relative condition numbers of two reformulations of the GEP, a reformulation as a Loewner GEP valid for general complex data, and a compression to a Hankel+Toeplitz GEP in the case of real data. Both reformulations are compared to the original Hankel GEP. The analysis is concluded with ample numerical illustrations
The Effect of Perceived Locus of Control on Learned Helplessness: A Multivariate Analysis of Variance
No full textThe purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the ability to control the on or off status of music being played while performing a mathematical task on task performance by participants high or low on locus of control. 36 undergraduate students at Western University participated in the study. Each participant was provided with a nine-page booklet that included a letter of information, consent form, and a debriefing form. Within the booklet included Rotter’s I-E scale to measure for external locus of control and a set of 12 math questions. Half the participants were exposed to a control condition that included listening to music through a set of headphones while completing the mathematics questions. Half the participants were exposed to an experimental condition that was identical to the control condition, however this group had the choice to turn the music off any point throughout the task. A two-way MANOVA showed that there was no significant main effect of situational control or locus of control on performance nor did these predictor variables interact. Results are discussed in terms of past and future research, and limitations