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Huangshan sonnet and scenes from last night in guangzhou
No full textTwo poems: 'Huangshan sonnet' and 'scenes from last night in guangzhou
The Struggle for Identity and the Need for Documenting History in Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Get PDFThe work which will be the primary source of analysis in this paper is The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2008) by Junot Díaz. The novel places the concept of diasporic identity formation as a challenge which directly affects the daily lives of second generation Dominican-Americans living in Latino and Caribbean majority neighbourhoods in the United States. These groups often suffer categorisation practices imposed on them both by the mainstream North American society and by members of their same community. These practices, added to the generational gap between them and their immigrant parents, often translate into fragility and fragmentation when developing an identity. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao has been chosen for the paper because it includes some chapters dealing with the past of the Dominican Republic. In this way, it does not consider diaspora an isolated phenomenon, but rather relates it to past historical events. The purpose of the broad historical scope of the novel is to highlight the importance of transmitting a critical historical memory of the country of origin to the second-generation individual. Documenting the past might help these characters overcome fragility in the formation of a stable Dominican-American identity. This need of providing young generations with critical historical information is reflected in the novel through the efforts that the narrator makes to recollect and retell the personal story of Oscar, the protagonist of the book, and his family
Review of Teaching Australian and New Zealand Literature edited by Nicholas Birns, Nicole Moore and Sarah Shieff.
Get PDFReview of Teaching Australian and New Zealand Literature edited by Nicholas Birns, Nicole Moore and Sarah Shieff
‘Trans-Cultural Exchange’: Reframing Historical Metanarratives in Ishtiyaq Shukri’s The Silent Minaret
Get PDFThe following article considers how historical metanarratives are critiqued in The Silent Minaret (2005), a novel by South African author Ishtiyaq Shukri. With reference to Judith Butler’s (2009) notion of the frame and Kerwin Lee Klein’s (1995) understanding of historical metanarratives, this paper examines how Shukri’s protagonist, Issa Shamsuddin, a South African PhD student who vanishes inexplicably from London, attempts to uncover and expose the residual influence that historical forms of unaccountable state power have over contemporary manifestations of political authority. Moreover, this article argues that Issa – through both his interactions with other characters and the work done in his PhD thesis – draws out the inevitable connections that seemingly disparate cultures, religions and nations share. In doing so, he encourages the reader to recognise the ‘trans-cultural’ dimensions of human experience in order to challenge absolutist framings of recorded history
Factors that impact access to ongoing health care for First Nation children with a chronic condition
Get PDF© The Author(s). 2018 This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Abstract
Background
Access to multidisciplinary health care services for First Nation children with a chronic condition is critical for the child’s health and well-being, but disparities and inequality in health care systems have been almost impossible to eradicate for First Nation people globally. The objective of this review is to identify the factors that impact access and ongoing care for First Nation children globally with a chronic condition.
Methods
An extensive systematic search was conducted of nine electronic databases to identify primary studies that explored factors affecting access to ongoing services for First Nation children with a chronic disease or injury. Due to the heterogeneity of included studies the Mixed Method Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was used to assess study quality.
Results
A total of six studies from Australia, New Zealand and Canada were identified and included in this review. Four studies applied qualitative approaches using in-depth semi structured interviews, focus groups and community fora. Two of the six studies used quantitative approaches. Facilitators included the utilisation of First Nation liaison workers or First Nation Health workers. Key barriers that emerged included lack of culturally appropriate health care, distance, language and cultural barriers, racism, the lack of incorporation of First Nation workers in services, financial difficulties and transport issues.
Conclusion
There are few studies that have identified positive factors that facilitate access to health care for First Nation children. There is an urgent need to develop programs and processes to facilitate access to appropriate health care that are inclusive of the cultural needs of First Nation children
Pilot test of brief instructions to improve the self-management of general food cravings
Get PDF© 2018 Elsevier. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
This author accepted manuscript is made available following 24 month embargo from date of publication (May 2018) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policy.Objective. To provide a preliminary investigation into the impact of brief online acceptance-based
vs. control-based techniques to self-manage food cravings in women.
Method. Female participants (N = 151) were randomised to ‘acceptance’ or ‘control’ groups. Measures of
general food cravings (primary outcome), and depression, anxiety and stress (secondary
outcomes) were taken at baseline, two weeks and four weeks.
Results. Linear mixed models showed a significant group x time interaction, with food cravings significantly reduced in the
thought-control group compared to the acceptance group over four weeks, along with a
reduction in food consumption. Levels of depression, anxiety and stress decreased over the
course of the study, but did not differ by group.
Conclusion: These findings provide
preliminary support for the acceptability of a minimal technique to self-manage food cravings
without deleterious effects, and suggest that simple control-based techniques may be useful in
non-clinical, real-world settings
Characterising shape patterns using features derived from best-fitting ellipsoids
Get PDF© 2018 Elsevier. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
This author accepted manuscript is made available following 24 month embargo from date of publication (June 2018) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyA method is developed to characterise highly irregular shape patterns, especially those appearing in biomedical settings. A collection of best-fitting ellipsoids is found using principal component analysis, and features are defined based on these ellipsoids in four different ways. The method is defined in a general setting, but is illustrated using two-dimensional images of dimorphic yeast exhibiting pseudohyphal growth, three-dimensional images of cancellous bone and three-dimensional images of marbling in beef. Classifiers successfully distinguish between the yeast colonies with a mean classification accuracy of 0.843 (SD=0.021), and between cancellous bone from rats in different experimental groups with a mean classification accuracy of 0.745 (SD-0.024). A strong correlation (R2=0.797) is found between marbling ratio and a shape feature. Key aspects of the method are that local shape patterns, including orientation, are learned automatically from the data, and the method applies to objects that are irregular in shape to the point where landmark points cannot be identified between samples
Trust in driverless cars: Investigating key factors influencing the adoption of driverless cars
Get PDF© 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY/4.0/).Driverless cars are seen as one of the key disruptors in the next technology revolution. However,
the main barrier to adoption is the lack of public trust. The purpose of this study is to investigate
the key factors influencing the adoption of driverless cars. Drawing on quantitative evidence, the
study found that the ability of the driverless car to meet performance expectations and its reliability
were important adoption determinants. Significant concerns included privacy (autonomy,
location tracking and surveillance) and security (from hackers). The paper provides
implications for firms developing the next generation of car features and early implementation
sites
Genome-wide association study of intraocular pressure uncovers new pathways to glaucoma
Get PDFThis article has been archived in accordance with the publisher's policy. © 2018 Springer Nature Limited.
This author accepted manuscript is made available following 6 month embargo from date of publication (July 2018) in accordance with the publisher’s copyright policyIntraocular pressure (IOP) is currently the sole modifiable risk factor for primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), one of the leading causes of blindness worldwide. Both IOP and POAG are highly heritable. We report a combined analysis of participants from the UK Biobank (n = 103,914) and previously published data from the International Glaucoma Genetic Consortium (n = 29,578) that identified 101 statistically independent genome-wide-significant SNPs for IOP, 85 of which have not been previously reported. We examined these SNPs in 11,018 glaucoma cases and 126,069 controls, and 53 SNPs showed evidence of association. Gene-based tests implicated an additional 22 independent genes associated with IOP. We derived an allele score based on the IOP loci and loci influencing optic nerve head morphology. In 1,734 people with advanced glaucoma and 2,938 controls, participants in the top decile of the allele score were at increased risk (odds ratio (OR) = 5.6; 95% confidence interval (CI): 4.1–7.6) of glaucoma relative to the bottom decile
The mercury problem in artisanal and small-scale gold mining
Get PDFThis is an open access article under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution
NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction
in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is
not used for commercial purposes.Mercury‐dependent artisanal and small‐scale gold mining (ASGM) is the largest source of mercury pollution on Earth. In this practice, elemental mercury is used to extract gold from ore as an amalgam. The amalgam is typically isolated by hand and then heated—often with a torch or over a stove—to distill the mercury and isolate the gold. Mercury release from tailings and vaporized mercury exceed 1000 tonnes each year from ASGM. The health effects on the miners are dire, with inhaled mercury leading to neurological damage and other health issues. The communities near these mines are also affected due to mercury contamination of water and soil and subsequent accumulation in food staples, such as fish—a major source of dietary protein in many ASGM regions. The risks to children are also substantial, with mercury emissions from ASGM resulting in both physical and mental disabilities and compromised development. Between 10 and 19 million people use mercury to mine for gold in more than 70 countries, making mercury pollution from ASGM a global issue. With the Minamata Convention on Mercury entering force this year, there is political motivation to help overcome the problem of mercury in ASGM. In this effort, chemists can play a central role. Here, the problem of mercury in ASGM is reviewed with a discussion on how the chemistry community can contribute solutions. Introducing portable and low‐cost mercury sensors, inexpensive and scalable remediation technologies, novel methods to prevent mercury uptake in fish and food crops, and efficient and easy‐to‐use mercury‐free mining techniques are all ways in which the chemistry community can help. To meet these challenges, it is critical that new technologies or techniques are low‐cost and adaptable to the remote and under‐resourced areas in which ASGM is most common. The problem of mercury pollution in ASGM is inherently a chemistry problem. We therefore encourage the chemistry community to consider and address this issue that affects the health of millions of people.The authors are grateful for the generous financial support
provided by Flinders University, The Australian Research Council
(DE150101863), and the Australian Government National Environmental
Science Programme Emerging Priorities Funding