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Oriental enlightenment: the problematic military experiences and cultural claims of Count Maurice Auguste comte de Benyowsky in Formosa during 1771
No full textMaurice Benyowsky's colourful version of his global adventures during the heady, expansive days of the late-Enlightenment remains still as an historical account, and is perhaps destined for reification at a time of romantic, postmodernist cultural affirmation. Yet this paper argues that within it there lies a virile and possibly dangerous Orientalism, one at least partially based upon a lurid, opportunistic and self-seeking fabrication of his visit to Taiwan (Formosa) in the year 1771. This paper examines the veracity, provenance and historiography of the Benyowsky account of late-eighteenth century Formosa, both as an exercise in one facet of Taiwanese history and as some exploration of the origin and maintenance of European views of the "other" and of the "orient" as they were transforming during the late-Enlightenment period. Furthermore a principal task is to provide an historiographical analysis that illustrates both the initial reasons for the acceptance of Benyowsky's lurid account as well as the wider contexts of its long life as a seemingly reliable and authentic tale. Questions remain as to the cultural contexts of any general acceptance of otherwise doubtful stories, experiments, claims and "adventures". Here there is little doubt that the original Memoirs were given greater credence by Benyowsky's talent in self-fashioning his character and status as those of a reliable gentleman
The Acceptability of Musculoskeletal Community Appointment Days: A Mixed-Methods Service Evaluation.
No full textThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properlycited.
© 2025 The Author(s). Musculoskeletal Care published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Background
Musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions represent an increasing challenge within the NHS. Rising demand has driven a national shift towards more community-based care and supported self-management. Community Appointment Days (CAD) are community-based, full-day events providing access to clinical expertise, community partners and voluntary sector services. The collaborative ethos facilitates a personalised and holistic approach to musculoskeletal health. This evaluation aimed to explore the acceptability of the CAD model.
Methods
Following a CAD in the Southwest of England, patient experience was collected using the Friends and Family test and CollaboRATE measure for level of shared decision-making. Interviews were conducted with patients, and a focus group was held with staff. The Theoretical Framework of Acceptability (TFA) informed the interview and focus group guides, and data analysis. Thematic analysis employed a hybrid deductive/inductive approach.
Results
The CAD was attended by 130/160 (81%) patients. Experience measures were completed by 97/130 (75%) patients. The Friends and Family test demonstrated that most patients were ‘extremely likely’ (n = 63, 65%) or ‘likely’ (n = 32, 33%) to recommend a CAD. The average CollaboRATE score was 10.8/12. One-to-one interviews were completed with 13 patients, and a focus group with 10 staff. Four themes were identified: (1) a positive response to the CAD ethos; (2) the importance of effective planning and communication; (3) effective implementation of the CAD; and (4) potential impact and integration with existing musculoskeletal pathways.
Conclusion
The CAD was perceived as an acceptable, personalised, and holistic model of care that supports self-management and cross-sector collaboration for supporting MSK health
Practical scalable image analysis and indexing using Hadoop
No full textThe ability to handle very large amounts of image data is important for image analysis, indexing and retrieval applications. Sadly, in the literature, scalability aspects are often ignored or glanced over, especially with respect to the intricacies of actual implementation details.In this paper we present a case-study showing how a standard bag-of-visual-words image indexing pipeline can be scaled across a distributed cluster of machines. In order to achieve scalability, we investigate the optimal combination of hybridisations of the MapReduce distributed computational framework which allows the components of the analysis and indexing pipeline to be effectively mapped and run on modern server hardware. We then demonstrate the scalability of the approach practically with a set of image analysis and indexing tools built on top of the Apache Hadoop MapReduce framework. The tools used for our experiments are freely available as open-source software, and the paper fully describes the nuances of their implementation
Harmony and discord within the English ‘counter-culture’, 1965-1975, with particular reference to the ‘rock operas’ Hair, Godspell, Tommy and Jesus Christ Superstar
No full textPhDThis thesis considers the discrete, historically-specific theatrical and musical sub-genre of ‘Rock Opera’ as a lens through which to examine the cultural, political and social changes that are widely assumed to have characterised ‘The Sixties’ in Britain. The musical and dramatic texts, creation and production of Hair (1967), Tommy (1969), Godspell (1971), Jesus Christ Superstar (1970) and other neglected ‘Rock Operas’ of the period are analysed. Their great popularity with ‘mainstream’ audiences is considered and contrasted with the overwhelmingly negative and often internally contradictory reaction towards them from the English ‘counter-culture’. This examination offers new insights into both the ‘counter-culture’ and the ‘mainstream’ against which it claimed to define and differentiate itself.
The four ‘Rock Operas’, two of which are based upon Christian scriptures, are considered as narratives of spiritual quest. The relationship between the often controversial quests for re-defined forms of faith and the apparently precipitous ‘secularization’ and ‘de-Christianization’ of British society during the 1960s and 1970s is considered.
The thesis therefore analyses the ‘Rock Operas’ as significant, enlightening prisms through which to view many of the profound societal debates – over ‘faith’ and ‘belief’ in the widest senses, sexuality, the Vietnam war, generational conflict, drugs and ‘spiritual enlightenment’, and race – which were, to some considerable extent, elevated onto the national, political agenda by the activities of the broadly-defined ‘counter-culture’. It considers subsequent representations of the ‘counter-culture’ as the root of a contested but enduring popular legacy of ‘The Sixties' as a period of profound cultural change
Shifting the Burden of HIV/AIDS
No full textAs the economic burden of HIV/AIDS increases in sub-Saharan Africa, the allocation of the burden among levels and sectors of societies is changing. The private sector has greater scope than government, households, or NGOs to avoid the economic burden of AIDS, and a systematic shifting of the burden away from the private sector is underway. Common practices that shift the AIDS burden from businesses to households and government include pre-employment screening, reduced employee benefits, restructured employment contracts, outsourcing of less skilled jobs, selective retrenchments, and changes in production technologies. In South Africa, more than two thirds of large employers have reduced health care benefits or required larger contributions by employees. Most firms have replaced defined benefit retirement funds, which expose the firm to large annual costs but provide long-term support for families, with defined contribution funds, which eliminate firm risk but provide little to families of younger workers who die of AIDS. Contracting out of previously permanent jobs also shields firms from costs while leaving households and government to care for affected workers and their families. Many of these changes are responses to globalization and would have occurred in the absence of AIDS, but they are devastating for employees with HIV/AIDS. This paper argues that the shifting of the economic burden of AIDS is a predictable response by business to which a thoughtful public policy response is needed. Countries should make explicit decisions about each sector’s responsibilities if a socially desirable allocation is to be achieved
Shifting the burden: the private sector's response to the AIDS epidemic in Africa
No full textAs the economic burden of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) increases in sub-Saharan Africa, allocation of the burden among levels and sectors of society is changing. The private sector has more scope to avoid the economic burden of AIDS than governments, households, or nongovernmental organizations, and the burden is being systematically shifted away from the private sector. Common practices that transfer the burden to households and government include pre-employment screening, reductions in employee benefits, restructured employment contracts, outsourcing of low skilled jobs, selective retrenchments, and changes in production technologies. Between 1997 and 1999 more than two-thirds of large South African employers reduced the level of health care benefits or increased employee contributions. Most firms also have replaced defined-benefit retirement funds, which expose the firm to large annual costs but provide long-term support for families, with defined-contribution funds, which eliminate risks to the firm but provide little for families of younger workers who die of AIDS. Contracting out previously permanent jobs is also shielding firms from benefit and turnover costs, effectively shifting the responsibility to care for affected workers and their families to households, nongovernmental organizations, and the government. Many of these changes are responses to globalization that would have occurred in the absence of AIDS, but they are devastating for the households of employees with HIV/AIDS. We argue that the shift in the economic burden of AIDS is a predictable response by business to which a deliberate public policy response is needed. Countries should make explicit decisions about each sector's responsibilities if a socially desirable allocation is to be achieved
Abstract 5281: Komen Tissue Bank donors: Genetically determined ethnicity and race
No full textAbstract
Background: Several evidences indicate that different racial and ethnic backgrounds affect the incidence and severity of diseases such as breast cancer and diabetes, and the response to therapy. For example White and African American women are more likely to develop breast cancer than Hispanic and Asian women. Moreover, African American women are more likely to develop more aggressive (Triple Negative Breast Cancer), more advanced-stage breast cancer at a young age. Therefore, given the health disparity and with the advance of personalized medicine, it is becoming critical to address population stratification. The Komen Tissue Bank at IU Simon Cancer Center (KTB), the only biobank of normal breast tissue from healthy women, is employing a more accurate approach to detect population stratification through the use of Ancestry Informative Markers (AIMs).
Methodology: A total of 2,973 DNA samples were obtained from the KTB. Genotyping was performed using the KASP technology (LGC Genomics) and a 41-SNP panel (labeled 41-AIM panel) selected from Nievergelt et al, 2013. Genotype analysis using the 41-AIM panel along with a Bayesian clustering method (STRUCTURE) was able to discern continental origins including European/ Middle East (Caucasian), East Asia, Central/South Asia, Africa, Americas, and Oceania. A reference set was obtained from the HeatMap. The results were compared with the self-reported data.
Results/Conclusion: Our genetic ancestry analysis indicates that out of 2,973 KTB tissue donors, 2,132 are primarily Caucasian, 532 African, 234 of Asian, 72 Latino, 3 Oceanic origins. High mixture of racial markers was observed in several samples. Moreover, when we compare these findings with the self-reported data we find a 10.9% of discrepancies indicating the imprecision of the self-reported information. The implementation of the genetic ancestry data into the KTB creates the potential for a more accurate study of health disparities.
Citation Format: Julia R. McCarty, Guanlong Jiang, Mariah L. Johnson, Teresa Mahin, Nicholas Scherer, Jonathon Dunn, Anna Maria Storniolo, Natascia Marino. Komen Tissue Bank donors: Genetically determined ethnicity and race [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 5281. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-5281</jats:p
Reading acts of narrative appropriation: four instances of fraudulent memoir
No full textPhDThis thesis examines acts of narrative appropriation, the telling of purportedly‘authentic’ life stories by those for whom the stories are not theirs to tell. This
misuse or subversion of genre - the discipline of historical writing and the category
of autobiography - becomes a means for cultural, social and political dissimulation,
and the analysis focuses both on the act: the event, trespass, or ‘theft’ of another’s
life story, and on the cultural meaning that this event reveals. These narrative acts
are approached theoretically through discussions of what it means to be an author, a
reader, and through the consideration of literary and social genre, category and form.
In exploring identities at particular risk of appropriation, this thesis shows how
fraudulent appropriated narratives affect our reading of the world, and in turn
influence our perception of already marginalized social groups. My primary
examples include prostitution ‘narratives’, Native North American ‘memoir,’ and
fraudulent Holocaust survivor ‘testimony,’ with each text providing decoded
evidence of ‘genre-bending’ exhibiting a social and political intent. These works
seek to be read as authentic personal narratives, as autobiography, and that is how
they have been presented to the reader. However, they are imposters – fictional tales
desiring the elevated status of historical authenticity and willing to bend the rules
and contracts of genre to achieve their end. Here the appearance of authenticity is
achieved through the use of cultural and social ‘myth,’ or perceptions of cultural
identity, and as such its fraudulent construction is first and foremost a social act,
with a social and economic motivation. As this thesis concludes, these texts are
most successful when their own political and social ideologies echo and confirm that
of the readership; when their subjects, the fraudulent ‘I’ at the center of the text is
also a performative elaboration of cultural belief
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