229 research outputs found
Innocent Victims Poetic Injustice in Shakespearean Tragedy
No full textThis is a revised version of the book which was privately published by the author in 1982. At the time, the book was widely welcomed by Shakespearean scholars as a trenchant, scholarly and highly orginal contribution to the field of Shakespearean studies. The book's argument is that a full response to Shakespearean tragedy has to take account of the fate of the victims as well as of the tragic heroesl and this thesis is illustrated and developed by a consideration of Lavinia, Lucrece and the children in Richard III, Macbeth and King John; and to the thee principal Shakespearean tragic victims, Ophelia, Desemona and Cordelia.Intro -- Contents -- Preface to second edition -- I: Fore Thoughts -- II: Innocent Victims -- III: Lavinia -- IV: Lucrece -- V: Children -- VI: Ophelia -- VII: Desdemona -- VIII: Cordelia -- IX: After Thoughts -- Appendix: Critics and Victims -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- YThis is a revised version of the book which was privately published by the author in 1982. At the time, the book was widely welcomed by Shakespearean scholars as a trenchant, scholarly and highly orginal contribution to the field of Shakespearean studies. The book's argument is that a full response to Shakespearean tragedy has to take account of the fate of the victims as well as of the tragic heroesl and this thesis is illustrated and developed by a consideration of Lavinia, Lucrece and the children in Richard III, Macbeth and King John; and to the thee principal Shakespearean tragic victims, Ophelia, Desemona and Cordelia.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
Ian McEwan’s Innocent Spies
No full textWhen Ian McEwan published a new novel, The Innocent, at the beginning of 1990, after three years of silence, many reviewers were rather perplexed. The Innocent seemed to be a traditional, linear spy story, apparently without any postmodern winks to deeper hidden meanings. It did not reveal, either, any metafictional or auto-referential elements disguised as popular fiction tricks. It was just a spy story, belonging to a “minor” genre, even though it was written by a major author. This is why, while looking for all the possible interpretations suggested by the novel’s title and the subtitle – A Special Relationship – in this essay I take into account the specificity of spy fiction as a genre, on the one hand, all possible readings springing from the usual scenario of spy stories, and the deeper meaning the novel acquires thanks to the author’s explicit or implicit reference to narrative and filmic intertexts. More than twenty years after The Innocent, McEwan published another spy story: Sweet Tooth. In a way, Sweet Tooth seems to be a light the counterpart of The Innocent, because the tone of the narration is almost cheerful, there is no violence and narrative tricks substitute suspense. Here McEwan does what he did not do with The Innocent: that is to say, he uses a spy fiction plot for other purposes. While the story of The Innocent was first and foremost a spy thriller, with a tinge of noir, Sweet Tooth is a metafictional tour de force contrived as a spy story. It is apparent that, despite all the references to the Cold War, the miners’ strikes, the power crisis, the IRA, the soaring crime rate, we are a long way from spy fiction. Or maybe we are not. According to an unconfirmed quote, McEwan believes that “All novels are spy novels [...] as all writers are spies”
Choosing How to Choose: Self-Stable Majority Rules and Constitutions
No full textConstitutional arrangements affect the decisions made by a society. We study how this effect leads to preferences of citizens over constitutions; and ultimately how this has a feedback that determines which constitutions can survive in a given society. Constitutions are stylized here, to consist of a voting rule for ordinary business and possibly different voting rule for making changes to the constitution. We deffine an equilibrium notion for constitutions, called self-stability, whereby under the rules of a self-stable constitution, the society would not vote to change the constitution. We argue that only self-stable constitutions will endure. We prove that self-stable constitutions always exist, but that most constitutions (even very prominent ones) may not be self-stable for some societies. We show that constitutions where the voting rule used to amend the constitution is the same as the voting rule used for ordinary business are dangerously simplistic, and there are (many) societies for which no such constitution is self-stable rule. We conclude with a characterization of the set of self-stable constitutions that use majority rule for ordinary business.
Mosquito Larvicidal Constituents from Lantana Viburnoides SP Viburnoides Var Kisi (A. rich) Verdc (Verbenaceae).
No full text\ud
\ud
Lantana viburnoides sp viburnoides var kisi is used in Tanzania ethnobotanically to repel mosquitoes as well as in traditional medicine for stomach ache relief. Bioassay-guided fractionation and subtraction bioassays of the dichloromethane extract of the root barks were carried out in order to identify the bioactive components for controlling Anopheles gambiae s.s. mosquito larvae. Twenty late III or early IV instar larvae of An. gambiae s.s. were exposed to various concentrations of the plant extracts, fractions, blends and pure compounds, and were assayed in the laboratory by using the protocol of WHO 1996. Mean mortalities were compared using Dunnett's test (p < 0.05) and lethal concentration calculated by Lackfit Inversel of the SAS programme. The crude extract (LC50 = 7.70 ppm in 72 h) and fractions exhibited different level of mosquito larvicidal activity with subtraction of some fractions resulting in activity enhancement. The active fractions contained furanonaphthaquinones regio-isomers (LC50 = 5.48-5.70 ppm in 72 h) and the lantadene triterpenoid camaric acid (LC50 = 6.19 ppm in 72 h) as active principles while the lupane triterpenoid betulinic acid (LC50 < 10 ppm in 72 h) was obtained from the least active fraction. Crude extracts and some fractions had higher or comparable larvicidal activity to the pure compounds. These results demonstrate that L. viburnoides sp viburnoides var kisi extracts may serve as larvicides for managing various mosquito habitats even in their semi-purified form. The isolated compounds can be used as distinct markers in the active extracts or plant materials belonging to the genus Lantana
Studies towards the development of a device for the Raman characterisation of the Sars-CoV-2 antibody
No full textHuman Civilization is no stranger to infectious diseases, throughout the abundance of time infectious diseases, famine and wars have been a major threat to human existence and progress. These disease are caused by micrometer to nanometer sized microorganisms like bacteria, pathogens, and viruses. They are of various types, with each having its own unique effect on the infected host. It becomes self evident that only early detection, quarantine and treatment of the infected can curtail a possible exonential growth rate of infections and the possibility of mutation of a given virus to a more virulent strain. The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in december 2019 has brought about a unified global effort to characterise and curtail the virus. This effort has met with some difficulties, the inability to contain the rapid spread of COVID-19 proceeds from the unavailability of simple, reliable, cheap and rapid testing methods. Lab based testing during epidemics cannot cater for the overwhelming number of test to be done. In such a Pandemic situation, an interplay of the above situational dynamics, begs the need for very sensitive and efficient point of care device that simplifies diagnoses of SARs-CoV-2 virus. The WHO stipulates that all such point of care devices should meet with following standards: (i) affordable; (ii)sensitive; (iii) specific; (iv) user-friendly; (v) rapid and robust; (vi)equipment-free;and (vii) deliverable to end-users. In this thesis, an immunoassay based on surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) was used to investigate SARs-CoV-2 antibody for its characteristic Raman finger print. Characterization of SERS substrate like Nanoporous gold, gold nanoparticles deposited on topaz and sputtered on borosilicate glass showed a decent enhancement factor of about 10^3 to 10^4 , it was also observed on all SERS substrate that a 1µm height of deposited nanoparticles was sufficient for SERS enhancement. The immobilization of the Genetex SARs-CoV-2 was done using Cysteamine hydrochloride and Lomants reagent, linkage was only possible only after sufficient cleaning was effected on the SERS substrates, the Raman spectrum obtained was same for both protocols, however noise and substrate instability was observed. The presence of Cysteamine Hydrochloride monolayers was confirmed by the Raman peaks 510, 643, 726, 938, 1015, 2557, 2928, and2962cm−1 each respectively assigned to ν(S − S), ν(C − S), ν(C − S), ν(C − C(−N)), ν(C − C(−N)), ν(S − H), νas(CH2) and ν2(CH2) . The characteristic disufide band, Aliphatic and Aromatic bands, Amide I and Amide III bands were identified for both linking protocols and tentatively assigned. since adsorption of the thiol monolayers was from solution a Langmuir growth model is proposed as the means of thiol growth and orientation.Mechanical Engineering | Micro and Nano Engineerin
A review of coupled hydrologic-hydraulic models for floodplain assessments in Africa: Opportunities and challenges for floodplain wetland management
No full textFloodplain wetlands are a fundamental part of the African continent’s ecosystem and serve as habitat for fish and wildlife species, biodiversity, and micro-organisms that support life. It is generally recognised that wetlands are and remain fragile ecosystems that should be subject to sustainable conservation and management through the use of sustainable tools. In this paper, we propose a synthesis of the state of art concerning coupled hydrologic and hydraulic models for floodplains assessments in Africa. Case studies reviewed in this paper have pointed out the potential of applying coupled hydrologic and hydraulic models and the opportunities present to be used in Africa especially for data scarce and large basin for floodplain assessments through the use of available open access models, coupling frameworks and remotely sensed datasets. To our knowledge this is the first case study review of this kind on this topic. A Hydrological model coupled with Hydraulic Model of the floodplain provides improvements in floodplain model simulations and hence better information for floodplain management. Consequently, this would lead to improved decision-making and planning of adaption and mitigation measures for sound floodplain wetland management plans and programmes especially with the advent of climate change and variability.Water Resource
Integrated Hydrologic-Hydrodynamic Inundation Modeling in a Groundwater Dependent Tropical Floodplain
No full textThe rapid development of free and open-access hydrological models and coupling framework tools continues to present more opportunities for coupled model development for improved assessment of floodplain hydrology. In this study, we set up an Upper Zambezi hydrological model and a fully spatially hydrological-hydrodynamic coupled model for the Barotse Floodplain using GLOFRIM (GLObally applicable computational FRamework for Integrated hydrological– hydrodynamic Modelling). The hydrological and hydrodynamic models used are WFLOW and LISFLOOD-FP, respectively. The simulated flows generated by the wflow model for the upstream gauge stations before the Barotse Floodplain were quite similar and closely matched the observed flow as indicated by the evaluation statistics; Chavuma, nse = 0.738; kge = 0.738; pbias = 2.561 and RSR = 0.511; Watopa, nse = 0.684; kge = 0.816; pbias = 10.577 and RSR = 0.557; and Lukulu, nse = 0.736; kge = 0.795; pbias = 10.437 and RSR = 0.509. However, even though the wflow hydrological model was able to simulate the upstream hydrology very well, the results at the floodplain outlet gauge stations did not quite match the observed monthly flows at Senanga gauge station as indicated by the evaluation statistics: nse = 0.132; kge = 0.509; pbias = 37.740 and RSR = 0.9233. This is mainly because the representation of both floodplain channel hydrodynamics and vertical hydrological processes is necessary to correctly capture floodplain dynamics. Thus, the need for an approach that saves as a basis for developing fully spatially distributed coupled hydrodynamic and hydraulic models’ assessments for groundwater dependent tropical floodplains such as the Barotse floodplain, in closing the gap between hydrology and hydrodynamics in floodplain assessments. A fully coupled model has the potential to be used in implementing adaptive wetland management strategies for water resources allocation, environmental flow (eflows), flood control, land use and climate change impact assessments.Water Resource
Retelling racialized violence, remaking white innocence: the politics of interlocking oppressions in transgender day of remembrance
No full textTransgender Day of Remembrance has become a significant political event among those resisting violence against gender-variant persons. Commemorated in more than 250 locations worldwide, this day honors individuals who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. However, by focusing on transphobia as the definitive cause of violence, this ritual potentially obscures the ways in which hierarchies of race, class, and sexuality constitute such acts. Taking the Transgender Day of Remembrance/Remembering Our Dead project as a case study for considering the politics of memorialization, as well as tracing the narrative history of the Fred F. C. Martinez murder case in Colorado, the author argues that deracialized accounts of violence produce seemingly innocent White witnesses who can consume these spectacles of domination without confronting their own complicity in such acts. The author suggests that remembrance practices require critical rethinking if we are to confront violence in more effective ways. Description from publisher's site: http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1525/srsp.2008.5.1.2
Venetian cardinals at the Papal Court during the pontificates of Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII : 1471-1492
No full textThe histories of particular cities and states within that myriad-faceted
slice of civilisation, the Renaissance in Italy, have received
more scholarly attention than have the diplomatic, ecclesiastical and
cultural connections between them. This study is part of a balance-redressing
process. Senior clerics traversed frontiers, owing
allegiance to their native state, their benefices and, above all, to
the Papacy. The purpose of this exploration of the curial careers of
four later quattrocento Venetian cardinals is essentially twofold : to
account for relations between Venice and the Papacy with reference to
individuals who were at once Venetian patricians and princes of the
Church; and to examine the cardinals' responses to this situation in
terms of political, ecclesiastical and cultural patronage. Where did
their loyalty lie? To Venice, with its perennial suspicion of the
Church and peculiar notion of the characteristics of a Venetian
cardinal? Or to the Pope, expressing overt hostility towards the
Republic in the War of Ferrara and placing it under an interdict?
Chapter one sets Merco Barbo, Pietro Foscari, Giovanni Michiel and
Giovanni Battista Zeno in a Venetian context. Chapters two and three
chart relations between the two powers, from the exposure of Cardinal
Zeno's involvement in a scheme to transmit Venetian state secrets to
Rome in exchange for ecclesiastical preferment, through to Ermolao
Barbaro's controversial appointment to the patriarchate of Aquileia,
via the short-lived Papal-Venetian league negotiated by Cardinal
Foscari in 1480. The fourth chapter considers their proximity to the
Supreme Pontiff and how their material fortunes varied under popes
Sixtus and Innocent, after which an assessment of the nature, extent
and effectiveness of their patronage is divided between chapters five
and six, focussing pa.rticularly on Venetian connections. Despite
diverging careers, it is concluded that all were bound by variations
of the Venetian inheritance
Thomistic Personalism as the Key to Understanding Human Altruism
No full textIn this paper, the author attempts to explain human altruism within the framework of Thomistic personalism. He claims that (1) Thomistic personalism provides the necessary tools for understanding the human being as person in relation to other persons, and (2) it makes it possible to see the differences between personal and non-personal forms of human dynamism, which, when disregarded, easily lead to confusion. He concludes that, as an extention of love, altruism belongs to the personal, and, consequently, there is an intrinsic connection between personalism and altruism
- …
