927 research outputs found
Self-consciousness and the image of self in the poetry of Stephen Spender, 1928 to 1934
No full textThe purpose of this thesis is twofold. First, to demonstrate the value and significance of Spender's early poetry in terms of its vision and technique. Through a series of close readings the thesis traces the ways in which Spender's early poetry not only shows itself to be self-conscious but also manipulates images of self. Presenting images of self, Spender achieves a balance between engagement with and distance from the self, and the reader shares in the process of poetic self-awareness. Secondly, to demonstrate the broader value of the poetry. Spender's poetry presents a distinctive exploration of the possibilities of self in relation to the external world. The resolution of Spender’s questioning and selection of both personal and public values, rooted in his contemporary situation and private circumstances, in his poetry takes the form less of historical document than of human record. The period on which I focus, 1928 to 1934, represents Spender’s first, and arguably most significant, poetic phase. The thesis is specifically concerned with four texts: Nine Experiments. Spender's contributions to Oxford Poetry (1929 and 1930), Twenty Poems and Poems (1933 and 1934). Nine Experiments marks the beginning of a particular approach and lyric style which finds its culmination in Poems (1933 and 1934). The earliest poetry is interesting largely insofar as it looks forward to later themes and techniques. In Nine Experiments and Oxford Poetry (1929 and 1930) we see Spender's often successful struggle to achieve effective forms in which to explore issues of self and value. Twenty Poems and Poems (1933 and 1934) concentrate on themes of love and friendship and the pressure on the poet of the contemporary political scene. The poetry does not reconcile the demands of the external, public world with his inner desires and aspirations, but presents a series of fascinatingly unresolved tensions. The thesis explores the way these poems strive for certainty. This striving stems from the tension between Spender's desire to politicize poetry and his tendency to the lyrical, personal statement
Letter From Stephen Coleridge to Frank T. {Margrat} Esq.
No full textabstract: Concerning Coleridge's refusal to write something on Matthew Arnold for the recipient's series.Curator's Note: The letter was written the same year Matthew Arnold died.Paper Details: Originally glued into a book. Leterhead.Provenance: Bookplate inside the book reads "The Edward Bliss Hill and Clara Hood Hill Memorial Collection of Literature given to the Matthews Library Arizona State College at Tempe by their Daughter Gertrude Francis Hill
Capacity utilization and lean manufacturing at a plastic medical device components manufacturer
No full textThesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, in conjunction with the Leaders for Global Operations Program at MIT, 2017.Thesis: M.B.A., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, in conjunction with the Leaders for Global Operations Program at MIT, 2017.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 93-94).An understanding of capacity utilization within any manufacturing system is critical in setting operational strategy. Production lines and machines must have their performance accurately tracked and available for reporting if a business is to continually improve their performance. With capacity utilization and manufacturing performance known, a business can provide short-term corrections and also adapt its manufacturing capabilities to meet long-term market requirements. Boston Scientific is a manufacturer of medical devices and is known for its ability to scale up new technologies through the use of an applied Lean Manufacturing framework in its final product assembly. The company also internally houses several component manufacturing groups that supply its assembly operations. While the company has a defined strategy for its assembly operations, strategy for its internal components suppliers is less clear. This thesis discusses building the foundation to transform the Spencer Components manufacturing group into a world class plastics operation. In particular, the ability to utilize manufacturing data to inform short and long term decisions is a critical foundation for any organization in its quest to become World Class. This thesis studies how Spencer Components, a Boston Scientific internal component manufacturer, utilizes newly acquired manufacturing data to improve its operations and begin its transformation into a world class high-mix low-volume plastic components manufacturer. Prior to this research internship, no electronic performance data systems were in use, and Boston Scientific was blind to the operational performance of Spencer Components. While the technology of the new data system is several decades old, a considerable amount of effort was required to successfully implement it within the well-established manufacturing system. Upon implementation equipment utilization improved and inventory targets that previously appeared unattainable were achieved. In addition, a continuous improvement environment was created and allowed Lean Manufacturing techniques such as Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) and operational improvements such as Economic Order Quantities (EOQ) to be implemented, tracked, and iteratively improved. A new capacity planning tool was created to identify long-term capital requirements associated with component demand. While Spencer Components is not yet a World Class manufacturer, it now has the tools to achieve its goal of becoming one.by Stephen Edward Laskowski.S.M.M.B.A
Writing from the shadowlands: how cross-cultural literature negotiates the legacy of Edward Said
No full textThis thesis examines the impact of Edward Said's influential work Orientalism and its legacy in respect of contemporary reading and writing across cultures. It also questions the legitimacy of Said's retrospective stereotyping of early examples of cross-cultural representation in literature as uncompromisingly 'orientalist'.
It is well known that the release of Edward Said's Orientalism in 1978 was responsible for the rise of a range of cultural and critical theories from multiculturalism to postcolonialism. It was a study that not only polarized critics and forced scholars to re-examine orientalist archives, but persuaded creative writers to re-think their ethnographic positions when it came to the literary representations of cultures other than their own. Without detracting from the enormous impact of Said, this thesis isolates gaps and silences in Said that need correcting. Furthermore, there is an element of intransigence, an uncompromising refusal to fine-tune what is essentially a binary discourse of the West and its other in Said's work, that encourages the continued interrogation of power relations but which, because of its very boldness, paradoxically disallows the extent to which the conflict of cultures indeed produced new, hybrid social and cultural formations.
In an attempt to challenge the severity of Said's claim that 'every European, in what he could say about the Orient, was consequently a racist, an imperialist, and almost totally ethnocentric', the thesis examines a number of different discursive contexts in which such a presumption is challenged. Thus while the second chapter discusses the 'traditional' profession-based orientalism of nineteenth-century E. G. Browne, the third considers the anti-imperialism of colonial administrator Leonard Woolf. The fourth chapter provides a reflection on the difficulties of diasporic 'orientalism' through the works of Michael Ondaatje while chapter five demonstrates the effects of the dialogism used by Amitav Ghosh as a defence against 'orientalism'. The thesis concludes with an examination of contemporary writing by Andrea Levy that appositely illustrates the legacy of Said's influence.
While the restrictive parameters of Said's work make it difficult to mount a thorough-going critique of Said, this thesis shows that, indeed, it is within the restraints of these parameters and in the very discourse that Said employs that he traps himself. This study claims that even Said is susceptible to 'orientalist' criticism in that he is as much an 'orientalist' as those at whom he directs his polemic
The Narrative Dispossession of People Living with Dementia: Thinking About the Theory and Method of Narrative
No full textIn the beginning …
Once upon a time …
This is the story of …
That’s a good story ….
And they all lived ….
Let me tell you a story ….
Narrative, it seems, is all around us. Bruner (2002) states that we are
‘constantly in the process of making narratives’ (p.3) and that narrative is so
much part and parcel of life that ‘human society cannot run without it’. In
everyday life we recount stories about ourselves and others and in so doing
both represent and construct ourselves. We are the heroes and heroines of our
own stories and occasionally of the stories of others. Our experience, lives and
Selves are storied. In academia narrative has also found a place not only in the
humanities but also the social sciences and even the natural sciences. It would
seem there is no escape from participation in the narrative enterprise - it is a
way of experiencing, relating, thinking and, ultimately, being in the world.
Narrative, as Barthes (1977) said, ‘is simply there, like life itself’ (p.79).
To be sure, the development of narrative as a theory and method has
brought (or constructed) insights into all manner of things. Narrative, emerging
as it did from an interest in the experience of powerlessness (MacKinnon,
1996), was seen as a means of giving voice to those previously at the margins
and has effectively, and prolifically, expanded our understanding of what it is
like to be marginalised, oppressed, victimised, ignored and silenced. But even
as this is so, it is my contention, contra Barthes, that narrative and the process
of narration (narrativity) as we currently conceive and operationalise it
excludes certain individuals and groups of people, creating people without
narrative. These people are those I shall call the ‘narratively dispossessed’. In
the first part of this paper I will seek to outline what I mean by this and work
towards a tentative definition. In the latter part I will attempt to suggest some
ways in which we might try to think about narrative/narrativity somewhat
differently so as to narratively ‘re-possess’ these individuals and groups
Utilization of artificial nesting cavities by wood ducks (Aix sponsa) in central Texas
No full textDue to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to [email protected], referencing the URI of the item.Bibliography: leaves 41-42.Not availabl
First report of Myxobolus neurofontinalis (Bivalvulida: Myxobolidae) infecting anadromous Brook Trout from Prince Edward Island, Canada
No full textObjective
During routine histological examination of tissues from mortality events of anadromous Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalis from Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada, myxospores consistent with Myxobolus were observed infecting the central nervous system. The objective of this study was to identify the species of Myxobolus infecting the nervous system of anadromous Brook Trout from PEI, Canada.
Methods
Myxospore morphology, small subunit (SSU) ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequence data, and histology were used to identify myxospores isolated from infected Brook Trout.
Result
Myxospore measurements from the PEI samples matched those reported in the description of Myxobolus neurofontinalis from North Carolina. A 1057-bp fragment of the SSU rDNA from myxospores collected from Brook Trout in PEI was identical to an isolate of M. neurofontinalis (MN191598) collected previously from the type locality, New River basin, North Carolina. Histological sections confirmed infections were intercellular in the central nervous system. Minimal host response was observed, with only sparse mononuclear inflammatory infiltrates present at the periphery of and within dispersed myxospores, suggesting that infections are not pathogenic to Brook Trout.
Conclusion
Myxospores were identified as M. neurofontinalis, which was previously described from the central nervous system of Brook Trout from the New River basin, North Carolina, USA. This constitutes the first time M. neurofontinalis has been documented outside of the New River basin in North Carolina
William Morris and Edward Carpenter: back to the land and the simple life, 1880-1910
No full textThis thesis focuses on the influence of William Morris and Edward Carpenter on
aspects of the back-to-the-land and simple-life movements between the years 1880-
1910. Specifically, it seeks to define and explore the convergence and divergence of
both writers' return-to-nature ideology, and considers their influence on the
development of particular groups, who represented some of the multiplicity of backto-
the-land ideas and experiments current during this period. The thesis is divided
into three main parts; the intellectual framework for the study is broad, and takes into
account the historical context, the cultural significance and the character of the
material in each section.
The first part of the thesis undertakes an expository evaluation of key texts
from Morris's and Carpenter's political journalism, lectures and imaginative writing,
examining how both writers developed an appropriate language to convey their
social and political ideals. The critical method employed uses detailed textual
analysis, identifying and discussing the individual qualities of Morris's and
Carpenter's back-to-the-land writing, and reflecting on the differing emphases of
their utopian rhetoric. The second part of the research explores the take-up of
Morris's and Carpenter's ethos in four diverse and little known late-nineteenthcentury
journals, concerned with simple-life issues and a return to the land, namely
Seed-time, The New Order, Land and Labor and Land and People. It employs the
thinking of Pierre Bourdieu and Mikhail Bakhtin to establish an appropriate balance
between critical theory and empirical study. Lastly using a historical and descriptive
method the thesis uses archival material to examine the nature and extent of both
writers' influence on two Cotswold back-to-the-land experiments - the Whiteway
Colony and the Chipping Campden Guild of Handicraft. These provide a particular
opportunity to consider and compare the practical outcomes of return-to-the-land and
simple-life ideologies.
The study extends scholarship in this area by significantly re-appraising the
relationship between Morris's and Carpenter's back-to-the-land writing, and reinstating
Carpenter as a germinal influence. It also increases our understanding of the
values and function of the journals in the study, and establishes an insight into the
wider cultural assimilation of both writers' ideals
The Household knights of Edward I.
No full textThe royal household lay at the heart of the king's army in the late thirteenth century. The military importance of the knights attached to Edward's household has been examined by M.0 Prestwich. Although Prestwich acknowledged that the knights did serve in other areas of royal government no systematic study of their role has been attempted.
Based on an examination of the surviving wardrobe accounts and other documents the role of the household knights in many areas of royal government in England and Edward's other dominions has been assessed. The part they played in newly or partially conquered territories of Wales and Scotland has also been considered. The knights attached to Edward's familia were employed as sheriffs, justices, constables of castles and diplomats and councillors. However the proportion of knights who served in these areas remained small. The knights were appointed With any regularity only to posts which demanded a combination of military and administrative skills. A large number held royal offices in Scotland and Wales. However, there were a small number of knights hose skills as diplomats and councillors were clearly of more importance to the king than military prowess. This inner circle of knights were probably the forerunners of the chamber knights of the fourteenth century.
The rewards received by the knights in return for their services have also been considered in great detail. The knights were rewarded in accordance with their status and length of service within the household. The major grants of lands, wardships and offices went to a fairly small group of men. The others received more minor gifts of grants of timber and animals. Edward was not a king who was renowned for his generosity. However, the loyalty of the knights to their master suggests that the rewards they received were adequate
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