716 research outputs found
Music in words : the music of Anthony Burgess, and the role of music in his literature
No full textTheý principal focus of the thesis is Anthony Burgess, a prolific novelist whose first and
enduring creative passion was music in general and composition in particular. Burgess
criticism is limited and largely out-of-date, showing little recognition of the aural or musical
elements in his fiction, and virtually no specialist commentary on the music and its
relationships with the literature. The main aim of the thesis, therefore, is to demonstrate the
variety and strength of the widespread musical elements in Burgess's literature, including the
importance he attaches to the sonic basis of language, and to show that these are supported by
the musical sensibility and technical competence evident in his. compositions. It is suggested
that in the inevitable reassessmenot f his work following his death in 1993, the effects of his
musicianship on his literary work should play a greater part than hitherto, and the thesis makes
a contribution to this reassessmenbt oth through its original critical commentaries on his music
and through the music-orientated discussion of his literature.
After an introduction and literature review, the first chapter examines three examples of
Burgess's little-known music. All are associated with verbal texts, though the range is
otherwise wide, and through them it is possible to draw conclusions about the competence of
his handling of musical language and structure. The second and third chapters examine the
more familiar work of Burgess the acclaimed author, but from the unfamiliar viewpoint of its
musical content, including not only surface references but also hidden allusions and technical
puzzles aimed at the musician reader. Two instances of music serving as a structural template
for literature are analysed in detail, and attention is also drawn to Burgess's awareness of
musical elements in the content and language of the, work of some. of his predecessors. The
final core-chapter,e xamines the fusion of Burgess's literary and,m usical skills in the context of
his music and words for stage and radio.
What emerges is the clear intermeshing of his parallel careers;, and the production within his
distinctive literary output of work which, due to the radical extent of its musicalisation, has to
be viewed as musically-aware literature for specialised readers, at times evincing, it is
proposed, a logic which springs primarily from music
Synthetic peptides derived from the C-terminal 6kDa region of Plasmodium falciparum SERA5 inhibit the enzyme activity and malaria parasite development
No full textBackground Plasmodium falciparum serine repeat antigen 5 (PfSERA5) is an abundant blood stage protein that plays an essential role in merozoite egress and invasion. The native protein undergoes extensive proteolytic cleavage that appears to be tightly regulated. PfSERA5 N-terminal fragment is being developed as vaccine candidate antigen. Although PfSERA5 belongs to papain-like cysteine protease family, its catalytic domain has a serine in place of cysteine at the active site. Methods In the present study, we synthesized a number of peptides from the N- and C-terminal regions of PfSERA5 active domain and evaluated their inhibitory potential. Results The final proteolytic step of PfSERA5 involves removal of a C-terminal ∼ 6 kDa fragment that results in the generation of a catalytically active ∼ 50 kDa enzyme. In the present study, we demonstrate that two of the peptides derived from the C-terminal ∼ 6 kDa region inhibit the parasite growth and also cause a delay in the parasite development. These peptides reduced the enzyme activity of the recombinant protein and co-localized with the PfSERA5 protein within the parasite, thereby indicating the specific inhibition of PfSERA5 activity. Molecular docking studies revealed that the inhibitory peptides interact with the active site of the protein. Interestingly, the peptides did not have an effect on the processing of PfSERA5. Conclusions Our observations indicate the temporal regulation of the final proteolytic cleavage step that occurs just prior to egress. General significance These results reinforce the role of PfSERA5 for the intra-erythrocytic development of malaria parasite and show the role of carboxy terminal ∼ 6 kDa fragments in the regulation of PfSERA5 activity. The results also suggest that final cleavage step of PfSERA5 can be targeted for the development of new anti-malarials
Troubled Closeness or Satisfied Distance? Researching Media Consumption and Public Connection
No full textThere is a key ambiguity in media phenomenology which Raymond Williams expressed better than anyone when he wrote about media as:
… a form of unevenly shared consciousness of persistently external events. [Media] is what appears to happen, in these powerfully transmitted and mediated ways, in a world within which we have no other perceptible connections but we feel is at once central and marginal to our lives. (Williams, 1973: 295–6, added emphasis)
We cannot grasp this paradox unless we accept that media, particularly broadcast media, are important in the phenomenology of everyday experience, something Paddy Scannell’s work has done so much to establish as a dimension of media research. We need, however, a more differentiated view of the varieties and tensions at work within this phenomenology, which we will try to develop by drawing on our recent empirical research1 which asked what everyday media consumption contributes to people’s orientation towards, or away from, a world of public issues beyond the purely private. Through written or spoken diaries produced over an extended period of three months, and interviews/focus groups with participating diarists during a fieldwork relationship lasting up to one year, we tried to understand from multiple perspectives how individual citizens fit media use into their wider practice and how this contributes, or not, to their sense of orientation to a public world. Our research complicates Scannell’s account of how media expand the horizons of everyday life, at least in relation to the public and potentially political dimensions of media consumption
Pre-admission assessment of elderly applicants to long-term care
No full textAim: to identify whether pre-admission assessment of elderly applicants could be an effective means of identifying actual need for long term care Methods: 105 applicants to long term care were assessed at source for suitability for admission. Assessment instruments used were OARS and CAPE. All subjects were followed up after 3 months to assess actual outcome. Findings: Assessment findings showed that of the study group (n=105), 22% could remain in the community, 21% could benefit from hospital care / rehabilitation and 57% required institutionalisation. Unmet need was identified in applicants in the community (n=40) for home help, day care, social worker, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and community nursing. Conclusion: Pre-admission assessment appropriately identifies the actual needs of applicants to long-term care and prevents inappropriate admission.peer-reviewe
The impact of the struggle for racial equality in the United States on British racialised relations from 1958 to 1968
No full textDuring the late 1950s and the 1960s America faced a high level of racial tension. At the same time Britain imposed racially discriminatory immigration controls and passed legislation to outlaw racial discrimination. This thesis asks to what extent the events in the United States had an impact on the response of British institutions to the development of a multi-racial society and increased rate of non-white immigration during these crucial years between the 1958 race riots to the Kenyan Asian crisis. The first part of the thesis examines the background to British perceptions about both the 'special relationship' with the United States and images of African Americans in the period prior to the years under review. It explores the ways in which the white British population was more informed about African Americans than the inhabitants of the colonies, and subsequently the Commonwealth. The following section examines ways in which the press and government drew on the activities of the Civil Rights Movement and the rise of Black Power in the United States during the 1960s to illustrate and support their arguments. It notes the high level of interest in Britainin American news and the increasing sense of concern within press reports and debates in the House that Britain was heading for an American style racial conflict. The third part of the thesis examines four sections of the British population which could be said to have a special interest in this issue: the non-white immigrants themselves; antiimmigrants groups; the religious denominations and British Jews: and organisations which sought to promote racial harmony. The study examines not only the response of these sections of the population to American racial trouble but the ways in which their activities had an impact on British perceptions. As the most concerned sections of the population, their activities were those most frequently reported by the press. In varying degrees, the responses of these sections of the population to the issues of immigration and racial discrimination reflected a growing concern that Britain was following the United States towards racial conflict. This perception was fed by both the press and government action and in turn had an impact on both public opinion and politicians and created a national mood in which debate over these related issues was coloured by the increasingly tense racial situation in the United States. 1967 and 1968 were the years in which this national perception was at its height and witnessed the passage of the Immigration Bill which excluded the entry of Kenyan Asians and the extension of Race Relations legislation. This thesis traces the development ofthis national mood, the significance of which has previously been underestimated
Defining the antigenic diversity of Plasmodium falciparum Apical Membrane Antigen 1 and the requirements for a multi-allele vaccine against malaria
No full textApical Membrane Antigen 1 (AMA1) is a leading malaria vaccine candidate and a target of naturally-acquired human immunity. Plasmodium falciparum AMA1 is polymorphic and in vaccine trials it induces strain-specific protection. This antigenic diversity is a major roadblock to development of AMA1 as a malaria vaccine and understanding how to overcome it is essential. To assess how AMA1 antigenic diversity limits cross-strain growth inhibition, we assembled a panel of 18 different P. falciparum isolates which are broadly representative of global AMA1 sequence diversity. Antibodies raised against four well studied AMA1 alleles (W2Mef, 3D7, HB3 and FVO) were tested for growth inhibition of the 18 different P. falciparum isolates in growth inhibition assays (GIA). All antibodies demonstrated substantial cross-inhibitory activity against different isolates and a mixture of the four different AMA1 antibodies inhibited all 18 isolates tested, suggesting significant antigenic overlap between AMA1 alleles and limited antigenic diversity of AMA1. Cross-strain inhibition by antibodies was only moderately and inconsistently correlated with the level of sequence diversity between AMA1 alleles, suggesting that sequence differences are not a strong predictor of antigenic differences or the cross-inhibitory activity of anti-allele antibodies. The importance of the highly polymorphic C1-L region for inhibitory antibodies and potential vaccine escape was assessed by generating novel transgenic P. falciparum lines for testing in GIA. While the polymorphic C1-L epitope was identified as a significant target of some growth-inhibitory antibodies, these antibodies only constituted a minor proportion of the total inhibitory antibody repertoire, suggesting that the antigenic diversity of inhibitory epitopes is limited. Our findings support the concept that a multi-allele AMA1 vaccine would give broad coverage against the diversity of AMA1 alleles and establish new tools to define polymorphisms important for vaccine escape.Damien R. Drew, Anthony N. Hodder, Danny W. Wilson, Michael Foley, Ivo Mueller, Peter M. Siba, Arlene E. Dent, Alan F. Cowman, James G. Beeso
The sacred choral music of Francis Poulenc: a contextual and analytical study
No full textPoulenc is perhaps best known for his instrumental works, for his adherence to the aesthetics of Neo-classicism, and his place among the Parisian intellectual circles in tJie 1920s and 1930s in which his friend, Jean Cocteau, played a central role. This essentially secular side of Poulenc's creativity was, after the composer's return to Roman Catholicism in 1936, challenged by a need to express a newly-found religious conviction in sacred music. Consequently Poulenc, who had been accustomed to the secular aesthetics of Neo-classicism of Parisian artistic life and the French capital's concert halls, found it necessary to 'rediscover' and assimilate the language of French church music and its history (notably through the filter of the Cecilian Movement, Niedermeyer and the pkinchant of Solesmes) in order to create for himself an appropriate 'sacred style’ that could also incorporate those essential elements of his characteristically playful and sensual, 'secular' language. This study aims to explore this confrontation of styles and how Poulenc successfully forged a cohesive and congruent language for his sacred works. The opening chapters have several distinct perspectives: chapter one outlines the tortuous history of the Church's relationship with the State in France dating back to the pivotal effects of the 1789 Revolution, in an attempt to provide a necessary context for the importance that Poulenc and his predecessors and contemporaries (most significantly Debussy) attached to the past; chapter two, by contrast, discusses some of the principal issues at the heart of Parisian artistic society in the early decades of the twentieth century and focuses on the lively artistic community which existed in Paris with the influx of large numbers of foreign musicians (particularly Americans and Russians) and artists, the emergence of 'Les Six' (of which Poulenc was a member) and the artistic leadership and inspiration given by figures such as Jean Cocteau, Serge Diaghilev and Igor Stravinsky. Cocteau and Stravinsky, indeed, had a huge impact on the young Poulenc. The second part of the thesis is an analytical study of Poulenc's sacred works (putting aside the Gloria, Stabat Mater and Sept Repais de Tetibres which are unmistakably concert works) and connects these analyses with the issues presented in the earlier chapters, beginning with the emotionally powerful Litanies a la vierge noire for women’s voices, composed soon after his Catholic faith returned in 1936, and ending with the decidedly hard-edged, Stravinskian Neo-classicism, yet relative placidity, of the Laudes de Saint Antoine de Padoue for men's voices, completed in Cannes in 1959. Central to the analytical discussion are the well known eclectic Mass in G (1937), the dramatic Quatre motets pour un temps de penitence (1939) and the stylistically distilled Quatre petite prieres de Saint Francois d'Assise which display the greatest variety of style and form and which combine to present significant examples of Poulenc's skilful unification of sacred and secular, ancient and modem sound worlds
A novel approach to identifying patterns of human invasion-inhibitory antibodies guides the design of malaria vaccines incorporating polymorphic antigens
No full textBackground: The polymorphic nature of many malaria vaccine candidates presents major challenges to achieving highly efficacious vaccines. Presently, there is very little knowledge on the prevalence and patterns of functional immune responses to polymorphic vaccine candidates in populations to guide vaccine design. A leading polymorphic vaccine candidate against blood-stage Plasmodium falciparum is apical membrane antigen 1 (AMA1), which is essential for erythrocyte invasion. The importance of AMA1 as a target of acquired human inhibitory antibodies, their allele specificity and prevalence in populations is unknown, but crucial for vaccine design. Methods: P. falciparum lines expressing different AMA1 alleles were genetically engineered and used to quantify functional antibodies from two malaria-exposed populations of adults and children. The acquisition of AMA1 antibodies was also detected using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and competition ELISA (using different AMA1 alleles) from the same populations. Results: We found that AMA1 was a major target of naturally acquired invasion-inhibitory antibodies that were highly prevalent in malaria-endemic populations and showed a high degree of allele specificity. Significantly, the prevalence of inhibitory antibodies to different alleles varied substantially within populations and between geographic locations. Inhibitory antibodies to three specific alleles were highly prevalent (FVO and W2mef in Papua New Guinea; FVO and XIE in Kenya), identifying them for potential vaccine inclusion. Measurement of antibodies by standard or competition ELISA was not strongly predictive of allele-specific inhibitory antibodies. The patterns of allele-specific functional antibody responses detected with our novel assays may indicate that acquired immunity is elicited towards serotypes that are prevalent in each geographic location. Conclusions These findings provide new insights into the nature and acquisition of functional immunity to a polymorphic vaccine candidate and strategies to quantify functional immunity in populations to guide rational vaccine design.Damien R. Drew, Danny W. Wilson, Salenna R. Elliott, Nadia Cross, Ulrich Terheggen, Anthony N. Hodder, Peter M. Siba, Kiprotich Chelimo, Arlene E. Dent, James W. Kazura, Ivo Mueller and James G. Beeso
Democracy
No full textA thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Master of PhilosophyThis thesis investigates how the Conservative party coped with the far-reaching effects of democratic reform between 1867 and 1914. It analyses the performance of successive party leaders through their exploitation of high politics; and how ideology influenced their policy, and decision making. It also examines how the party’s organization was periodically revised to manage changing political circumstances. The relationships between these three elements, high politics, ideology, and organization are then analysed to explain the Conservative party’s appeal for electoral support during the period of study. The respective contributions made by the three elements to the party’s electoral performance are considered in relation to each other. Using this approach the thesis explains how the Conservative party managed to improve upon its dismal electoral record between 1832 and 1874; how it achieved electoral dominance between 1886 and 1906; and why its electoral fortunes declined so dramatically thereafter. The conclusions reached are threefold. Firstly, the importance attached to high politics by the Peterhouse school of thought may, in some respects, be exaggerated, certainly regarding elections. High politics, by its very nature seeks to exert influence at a level far removed from the mass electorate. Political rhetoric has obvious uses during elections, not least in the field of extra-parliamentary speech-making. But in the absence of any reliable indicators of what the electorate actually felt or desired, the effectiveness of political rhetoric could not be gauged a priori. The results of political manoeuvring at the highest levels may have been apparent to voters, but was of little concern to them. At worst, they were ignorant of it, and at best, ambivalent to it. Secondly, party leaders, whether knowingly or unknowingly, exploited the flexibility of Conservative ideology in their quest for votes. However, the core concepts of that ideology remained inviolable, only contingent values were successfully subjected to re-appraisal and revision to attract the voters. When ideological core values were misunderstood or misinterpreted the party suffered accordingly. Thirdly, the value of the Conservative party’s organization has been underestimated. High politics and ideology may have combined to produce a Conservative message for the voters, but the appeal of that message was unknowable. On the other hand, the party’s organization, when empowered to do so, adroitly and effectively utilized all the tools available to them to manage and maximize all potential Conservative support. Organization may be viewed as a make-weight, but like all make-weights it possessed the power to tip the electoral scales one way or the other
Christian views of euthanasia: a comparison of Russian and western perspectives
No full textThe following research aims at unfolding an authentic Christian attitude to euthanasia by means of a comparative analysis of Christian bioethical thinking and practice in Russia and in the West. It seeks to establish what is euthanasia, whether it is incompatible with Christianity and, if so, what is the alternative. The first chapter explores the meaning of 'euthanasia', comparing and rethinking a number of definitions from the existing multitude. Through the psychological thicket of slogans such as "mercy killing", "personal autonomy" and "death with dignity" the core characteristic of euthanasia - deadly intention - is hardly ever seen. With some notable exceptions with regard to self-defence, just war, or capital punishment, in Christianity intending to kill has always been regarded as a grave sin of breaking the sixth commandment. The second chapter shows how Western Christian bioethics has gone from the ethics of Paul Ramsey to the ethics of Tristram Engelhardt, from balancing between justifying certain forms of intentional killing while condemning others to purifying one's heart and cultivating one's soul in order to prevent the formation of an intention to kill. The third chapter is dedicated to the development of Christian bioethics in Russia. In a country with over a millennium of Orthodox tradition there is an exceptional opportunity for the bioethical framework of Engelhardt to settle in naturally. The fourth chapter presents a number of well-publicized medical situations in Britain where choices between life and death were exercised. The analysis based on the material of the previous chapters shows most of them to be clear cases of euthanasia, while others have a recognizable potential to be described as such. The history and an ongoing story of the modem hospice movement - a living alternative to euthanasia - are the focus of the fifth and last chapter of this dissertation. Its core ability - to live with suffering - sustains the opposition to euthanasia and is essentially a Christian virtue
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