2,946 research outputs found
Improving household satisfaction with government-provided houses in the city of Durban
No full textSubmitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Management Sciences Specialising in Public Administration, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2025.The South African government provides low-cost houses to households whose
combined average monthly income is below R3 500. This is done to promote an
integrated society by developing sustainable human settlements and quality housing
within a subsidy system for different income groups. Nevertheless, occupants
frequently express dissatisfaction with their homes, often citing common complaints
about the subpar quality of these houses. The government spends a lot of money on
constructing these houses, and occupants ought to derive maximum satisfaction. This
study sought to establish possible ways to improve household satisfaction with the
low-cost houses provided by the government. The study adopted a descriptive crosssectional design, collecting quantitative data from 375 occupants of governmentprovided low-cost houses across the city of Durban. The principal component analysis
and probit regression models were then used to estimate the key determinants of
household satisfaction with government-provided houses. The results from the study
are essential for informing public policy on the planning and construction of low-cost
houses. More precisely, the results inform public policy on human settlements.
ESP Across Cultures
No full textThis present volume constitutes the third online edition of ESP Across Cultures.
The decision to change from a paper-based to an online edition has undoubtedly
been beneficial in terms of enjoying greater visibility within the international academic
community. One thing that has not changed over the years, however, since
the inception of the journal in 2004, has been the policy of double-blind peer reviewing,
which means that only a selected number of the papers submitted end up as
being published.
There are seven papers in the current issue, each one analysing a particular aspect
of English for Specific Purposes from a cross-cultural perspective.
The first paper, by Hmoud S. Alotaibi, focuses on research article introductions
in Arabic, analysing the extent to which scholars writing in Arabic in the sphere of
education adhere to the CARS (Create A Research Space) model delineated by John
Swales which was elaborated in particular with regard to the academic conventions
widely adopted in the English-speaking world. Instead of restricting the investigation
to the introductory section as past studies in this field did, the author examines
all of the subheadings and he concludes that all introductions include Move 2 in a
subheading entitled the Problem of the Study, a result that contradicts previous
findings where the paucity of Move 2 was common in non-English RAs, and especially
in Arabic ones.
Patrizia Anesa analyses the websites of the main arbitration centres operating in
Asia from a textual perspective to define how they are discursively constructed and
can be used as promotional tools, thereby helping us to evaluate the importance assumed
by internationalization processes or by local cultural elements in promoting a
particular centre as a seat for international arbitration. She concludes that while
some scholars argue that we are witnessing the ‘Asianization’ of arbitration, with
the increasing bargaining power of Asian parties, on the other hand a phenomenon
of ‘Universal Arbitration’ is also emerging, i.e. a form of convergence of how disputes
are resolved so that parties of any nationality can operate in the same way
with ever fewer language barriers.
In their paper, Mahmood Reza Atai and Fatemeh Asadnia examine the communicative
and promotional function of university homepages by looking at the ‘university
overview’, ‘university mission statement’, and ‘university introduction at a
glance’ genres, using a corpus of 210 texts selected from homepages of the top 500
universities ranked by the Academic Ranking of World Universities. The findings
demonstrated that the three genres shared communicative purposes, functional
units, certain moves and steps, socio-academic contexts, and discourse community
members that led to the formation of a genre set.
Gaetano Falco explores ways of using comics in an MA course on translation of
economic texts as a means of stimulating the interest of language students with no
economics skills in order to introduce economics-related lexis and improve thematic
competence in general. He observes that empirical research has shown that films
and comics can indeed be useful resources to teach economic translation to students
with no skills in economics. However, the author warns that the use of comics for
educational purposes may have its drawbacks, e.g. when students deal with complex
sign systems which embody complex economic concepts, where often the humorous
element is lost.
In her paper, Irina Khoutyz describes the differences in how scholars present
their findings in research articles (RA) in international journals in English and in
Beyza Björkman
Christian Burgers
Jan Chovanec
Anda-Elena Cretiu
Erika Dalan
John Douthwaite
Hanem El-Farahaty
Said Faiq
Silvia Ferreri
Inmaculada Fortanet-Gómez
Pedro Fuertes-Olivera
Giuliana Garzone
Christoph Hafner
Ruba Khamam
Anna Loiacono
Geraldine Ludbrook
John McRae
Susan Petrilli
Silvia Pireddu
Tarja Salmi-Tolonen
Jeffrey Segrave
Charlotte Taylor
Margherita Ulrych
John Kenneth White
Jessica Williams
I hope you will enjoy the current issue of this journal and will make the most of
the free access to all past issues.
Christopher Williams
(Chief Editor)
6 FOREWORD
local journals in Russian. She then looks into the reasons for these differences, seeking
explanations from the sociocultural contexts in which these RAs were written,
as well as providing advice to local authors as to how to make their RAs more competitive
at the international level. The differences include the apparent lack of
structure of Russian RAs with respect to English RAs; the tendency in Russian authors
not to specify the purpose in writing a paper; and the tendency of Russian authors
to present the methodology used in less detail compared with English RAs.
Luisella Leonzini investigates the use of verbal and visual metaphors in economic-
media discourse within the context of the euro crisis by studying the correlation
between linguistic and pictorial metaphors and text-image intersemiotic relations.
The research is based on a cross-analysis of English and Italian editorial
articles published between 2009 and 2012. In both corpora, metaphorical realizations
frame the economic crisis which hit the single currency and the eurozone in
2009 as a partial collapse and hint at a possible return to stability in the form of a
recovery. The aim of this paper is to analyse the collapse/caduta and
recovery/ripresa metaphors across languages in the press.
Ian Robinson reports on using corpus linguistics to aid students in writing a creative
text. He looks at the available literature to help understand what is meant by
‘creativity’. A worksheet was prepared using a corpus linguistic analysis of modern,
English versions of the stories of the Brothers Grimm. This worksheet was constructed
with the use of a specialized corpus, and a stop-list was created which contained
single words as well as word clusters found in the tales. Students were then
asked to select some of these words and phrases to help them write stories which
were then analysed, and a follow-up questionnaire was used to elicit the students’
perceptions concerning creativity. The author concludes that creativity is essential
in EFL and that it is something to be fostered in students
Transformation in Rock Harmony: An Explanatory Strategy
No full textMusical transformation is an extremely broad, abstract explanatory concept, capable of covering not just instances of radical conversion but, in fact, all degrees of musical change. When it comes to rock, transformations are among the most powerful and talked-about musical effects. Many of these effects are harmonic, and this article seeks to give voice to a number of these. To this end, I will present several musical examples from the rock repertoire that will help clarify some common kinds of harmonic transformations, as well as some common kinds of harmonic structures involved in such transformations.Peer reviewe
“A Convenient Ventriloquist’s Dummy”: The “Christopher Isherwood” Character in Christopher Isherwood
No full textThe “Christopher Isherwood” character first appears in Lions and Shadows (1938), Christopher Isherwood’s lightly fictionalised autobiography. Its foreword claims that “Isherwood” is merely a “guinea-pig” and asks us to read Lions and Shadows “as a novel” (xv). In the foreword to Goodbye to Berlin (1939), the author distances himself from his namesake once again: “‘Christopher Isherwood’ is a convenient ventriloquist’s dummy, nothing more” (np). This thesis examines Christopher Isherwood’s relationship with the “Christopher Isherwood” character in five texts: Lions and Shadows, Goodbye to Berlin, Prater Violet (1945), Down There on a Visit (1962), and Christopher and His Kind (1976). In doing so, I attempt to answer the question, ‘what happens when Christopher Isherwood gives his name to the narrator of his fiction?’
The second paragraph of Goodbye to Berlin begins, “I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking” (1). The critical consensus is that this paragraph is indicative of a namesake narrator who acts as a detached observer, withholding judgment, existing only as a vessel through which the story can be told. I maintain, however, that as Isherwood and “Isherwood” have the same name, we are compelled to compare and contrast the two. Isherwood’s biographer, Peter Parker, claims that “Isherwood liked to imagine himself his own creation” (np). Through his construction of “Isherwood,” Isherwood creates a self – one that does not pre-exist his texts.
Isherwood’s novels anticipate a new kind of autobiographical writing, transparent and aware in their fictionality, four decades before it is formally recognised as a genre; while contemporary writers all over the world are now publishing autofiction more than ever before, there was a writer, alone the English island in the 1930s who preceded them all. His name, and his character, is Christopher Isherwood
From author to translator. Re-readings on Christopher Columbus’s Journal (1972-1992)
No full textIn this article, we seek to: i) draw a “map of positions” derived from readings of Christopher Columbus’s Journal by Latin American novelists between 1972 and 1992, particularly those disparately incorporating fragments of the Journal in a disparate way, such as Severo Sarduy’s Cobra (1972) and Alejo Carpetier’s El arpa y la sombra (1979), and Graciela Freilich’s Colombina descubierta (1991) and Augusto Roa Bastos’ Vigilia del Almirante (1992); ii) to consider in each one of them the presence of an “author / translator” of the source text, particularly focused on the political value of words and the figure of the “Discoverer;” iii) to visualize a “map of author / translators” whose re-readings clinging on the novels had an impact on models of universal / American, Indian / Western, past / present, identity / alterity tensions
The effects of estrogen deficiency on cortical bone microporosity and mineralization
No full textRecent studies have demonstrated matrix-mineral alterations in bone tissue surrounding osteocytes in estrogen-deficient animals.While cortical bone porosity has been shown to be a contributor to the mechanical properties of bone tissue, little analysis has been done to investigate the effects of estrogen deficiency on bone's microporosities, including the vascular and osteocyte lacunar porosities. In this study we examined alterations in cortical bone microporosity, mineralization, and cancellous bone architecture due to estrogen deficiency in the ovariectomized rat model of postmenopausal osteoporosis. Twenty-week-old female Sprague–Dawley rats were subjected to either ovariectomy or sham surgery. Six weeks post-surgery tibiae were analyzed using high-resolution micro-CT, backscattered electron imaging, nanoindentation, and dynamic histomorphometry. Estrogen deficiency caused an increase in cortical bone vascular porosity, with enlarged vascular pores and little change in tissue mineral density in the proximal tibial metaphysis. Measurements of cancellous architecture corresponded to previous studies reporting a decrease in bone volume fraction, an increase in trabecular separation, and a decrease in trabecular number in the proximal tibia due to estrogen deficiency. Nanoindentation results showed no differences in matrix stiffness in osteocyte-rich areas of the proximal tibia of estrogen-deficient rats, and bone labeling and backscattered electron imaging showed no significant changes in mineralization around the vascular pores. The findings demonstrate local surface alterations of vascular pores due to estrogen deficiency. An increase in cortical vascular porosity may diminish bone strength as well as alter bone mechanotransduction via interstitial fluid flow, both of which could contribute to bone fragility during postmenopausal osteoporosis.Peer reviewe
The Life of Christopher
No full textChristopher, a native of Baghdad who became patriarch of Antioch in about 349/960, was assassinated by Muslim rebels in 356/967 because of his loyalty to their Muslim ruler. When the Byzantines conquered Antioch two years later, his story was told in a variety of ways by those with different and competing interests. Christopher was mentioned in Byzantine histories and in Antiochian liturgies. However, by far the most extensive and detailed version of the story comes to us in the Life of Christopher, written by Ibrāhīm b. Yūḥannā, a Byzantine bureaucrat and translator who grew up in Antioch and knew Christopher when he, Ibrāhīm, was a young boy. The hagiography was originally composed in Greek and translated by its author into Arabic, but only the Arabic survives. Here I provide, for the first time, both a critical edition of the two known Arabic manuscripts and a full English translation. This text is a valuable testimony to Christian life in Antioch under both the Ḥamdānids and the Byzantines, and to the difficulties of life along the constantly shifting frontier of medieval northern Syria
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The Life of Christopher
No full textChristopher, a native of Baghdad who became patriarch of Antioch in about 349/960, was assassinated by Muslim rebels in 356/967 because of his loyalty to their Muslim ruler. When the Byzantines conquered Antioch two years later, his story was told in a variety of ways by those with different and competing interests. Christopher was mentioned in Byzantine histories and in Antiochian liturgies. However, by far the most extensive and detailed version of the story comes to us in the Life of Christopher, written by Ibrāhīm b. Yūḥannā, a Byzantine bureaucrat and translator who grew up in Antioch and knew Christopher when he, Ibrāhīm, was a young boy. The hagiography was originally composed in Greek and translated by its author into Arabic, but only the Arabic survives. Here I provide, for the first time, both a critical edition of the two known Arabic manuscripts and a full English translation. This text is a valuable testimony to Christian life in Antioch under both the Ḥamdānids and the Byzantines, and to the difficulties of life along the constantly shifting frontier of medieval northern Syria
Striving for visibility : representations of elderly gay men in Christopher Bram's 'Father of Frankenstein' and ITV's 'Vicious'
No full textMotivated by the lack of visibility experienced by LGBT elders in present-day media, this dissertation explores two radically different texts dealing with elderly gay men, American author Christopher Bram's tragic novel Father of Frankenstein (1995) and ITV's British sitcom Vicious (2013-). Through my analysis of these texts, I seek to argue that, despite prejudices concerning gay and old people, elderly gay men can be represented in fiction as strong-willed, resolute and capable of agency, resisting and subverting social stigmas. In so doing, I also wish to claim visibility for this overlooked demographic, concluding with a prediction that, as new generations reach old age, a more solid tradition of works on this collective will emerge.Motivada por la falta de visibilidad experimentada por miembros mayores de la comunidad LGBT en los medios, esta disertación analiza dos textos radicalmente diferentes sobre hombres homosexuales mayores: la trágica novela Father of Frankenstein del autor americano Christopher Bram (1995) y una comedia del canal británico ITV, Vicious (2013-). A través de mi análisis de estos textos deseo probar que, a pesar de los prejuicios que rodean a la gente mayor y homosexual, los hombres homosexuales mayores pueden ser mostrados como individuos decididos y capaces de agentividad, resistiendo y desafiando estigmas sociales. Al mismo tiempo, también pretendo incrementar la conciencia social sobre esta ignorada parte de la sociedad, concluyendo con la predicción de que más textos sobre este colectivo aparecerán conforme nuevas generaciones envejezcan.Motivada per la falta de visibilitat experimentada per membres d'edat avançada de la comunitat LGBT als mitjans, aquesta tesina analitza dos textos radicalment diferents sobre homes homosexuals d'edat avançada: la tràgica novel·la Father of Frankenstein de l'autor americà Christopher Bram (1995) i una comèdia del canal britànic ITV, Vicious (2013-). A través del meu anàlisi d'aquests textos desitjo demostrar que, tot i els prejudicis que rodegen a la gent gran i homosexual, els homes homosexuals poden ser mostrats com individus decidits i capaços d'agentivitat, resistint i desafiant estigmes socials. Al mateix temps, també pretenc incrementar la consciència social sobre aquesta ignorada part de la societat, concloent en la predicció que més textos sobre aquest col·lectiu apareixeran a mesura que noves generacions envelleixin
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