277 research outputs found
Columbus\u27s Ghost: Tourism, Art and National Identity in the Bahamas
No full textIan Gregory Strachan (1969-), Bahamian writer, Chair of English Studies at College of the Bahamas, author of God\u27s Angry Babies (1997) and Paradise and Plantation (2002)
El fantasma de Colón: El turismo, el arte y la identidad nacional en las Bahamas
No full textIan Gregory Strachan (1969-), Bahamian writer, Chair of English Studies at College of the Bahamas, author of God's Angry Babies (1997) and Paradise and Plantation (2002).
Researching in cross cultural contexts: a socially just process.
No full textIn this paper, we explore culture and its relationship to cross cultural research. The context for this research is Vanuatu, a small South Pacific Island nation. The action research process used was a collaboration between two New Zealand academics, two Ni Vanuatu women researchers and 13 participants over a two year period. The focus of the action research was the design and delivery of a culturally appropriate educational leadership development programme for women. The collaborative research process raised a number of ethical and methodological considerations, for example, the importance of mutually respectful relationships, working in partnership, collaboration, capacity building, transparent communication and consideration of the local context. Using stories from the Vanuatu context, we illustrate how we navigated culture to be able to research in socially just ways. Being involved in socially just, cross cultural research calls for a thoughtful, well-designed and culturally informed approach throughout all stages of the research process, from initial planning through to follow up and capacity building and finally, the sharing of research findings
Geology of the Strachan Creek area, British Columbia
No full textThe Strachan Creek area is on the east shore of Howe Sound about three miles north of the town of Horseshoe Bay, B.C. The rocks of the area consist of migmatite of the Bowen Island group, volcanic rocks of the Gambier group, plutonic rocks of the Coast Intrusions, and late basic and acidic dykes. These rocks are described and their relationships discussed,
A striking feature of the Strachan Creek area is the banding in the diorite, one of the units of the Coast Intrusions. Each complete band is a couplet composed of one light- and one dark-coloured layer, one layer grading into the other. The light-coloured layer is composed mostly of plagioclase, whereas the dark-coloured layer is composed mostly of hornblende and magnetite. Generally, the ratio of hornblende (plus magnetite) to plagioclase decreases downward from a sharp contact, the couplets thus resembling inverted "graded-bedding". The author tentatively concludes that the banding in the diorite originated by a process of differentiation and crystal rising within a cooling diorite magma.Science, Faculty ofEarth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department ofGraduat
'n Intertekstuele studie : Die werfbobbejaan van Alexander Strachan
No full textThe title, "'n Intertekstuele studie: Die werfbobbejaan van Alexander Strachan", refers to an analysis of the way in which intertextual processes generate meaning in this text. It is analysed with specific regard to the way in which it enters into signifying and detennining relationships with other texts, notably texts by the same author. A significant part of the intertexts that are reassembled, refined, restated, amplified, contradicted or diffused throughout Die werfbobbejaan are located in other works in the Strachan oeuvre: n Wereld sonder grense (1984) and Die jakkalsjagter (1990). These three texts are related as a triptych of intertextual association, and the boundaries between them are not hermetically sealed. Intertextual activity in Die werfbobbejaan involves an intricate network of interfigural relationships. The identities of numerous characters in the text start to coincide with those of other characters to which they are linked intertextually. Characters travel across the boundaries supposedly separating "different" texts. The doubling and displacing of characters alert us to the fact that the text is not fixed within stable boundaries. Codes, scenes, snippets of dialogue and even moods also penetrate the boundaries between "different" texts and recur in the form of mirror images or ghostly transformations of themselves. These intertextual patterns mobilise an active reading process and unify the act of reading with that of writing in "a single signifying process" (Barthes 1979: 79). The narrator in Die werfbobbejaan is a woman writing a biography about an author. Reading his novels and unpublished manuscript she finds that the manuscript of her subject anticipates and later even dictates "extra-textual" reality and inserts her into the fiction. The way in which the biography is taken up in the play of intertextuality leads to the perception that the fictional author is an intertextual mirror image of the real author, who belongs to the extra-textual world outside the book. In this way intertextual activity in Die werfbobbejaan destabilizes the frame between fiction and reality. No reading of Die werfbobbejaan can be complete without taking into account the plurality of simultaneously perceived meanings triggered by intertextual activity in the text
Verhale as singewing : Alexander Strachan en Cormac McCarthy
No full textM.A.Even at a superficial glance there seems to be remarkable similarities between the "Border trilogy" of the American author Cormac McCarthy and the work of the Afrikaans author Alexander Strachan. The last three novels by McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses (1992), The Crossing (1994) and Cities of the Plain (1999), are referred to as the "Border trilogy". The first three novels by Strachan are also sometimes referred to as a "trilogy". Frontiers/borders are important in the novels under discussion: The Crossing (1994), Die jakkalsjagter (1990) and Die werfbobbejaan (1994). The Crossing is the second novel of the 'Border trilogy". The title of Strachan's fist work is 'n Wereld sonder grense ("A world without borders"). In The Crossing tracking a wolf plays an important role while Die jakkalsjagter is about hunting a jackal. Die werfbobbejaan is about hunting down a baboon. Both McCarthy's and Strachan's works have been compared to the Western (films/novels dealing with the cowboys of North America). These superficial similarities seem to invite further comparison. The following themes are present in both authors' works and are compared in this study: The world can never be known The world is incomprehensible. It is constantly changing and always out of reach. The world is like "a snowflake" and like "breath" and cannot be held, because it only exists in people's hearts. The world is also incomprehensible in Strachan's work, because all certainties are undermined. Khera cannot understand Zuhiland in the same "logical" way that she could understand her world in Cape Town. The strange stories told by the people in Zululand (izinganekwane) make her aware of supernatural powers. Nothing can really be known about the world. The story that the witness tells becomes the world All objects are without meaning unless their stories are known. Truth is only to be found in narration. The world exists in narration. Therefore "the witness is all". Free will and predetermination The view of the world and our destiny in the world in The Crossing is compared with the view of the world in Die jakkalsjagter and Die werfbobbejaan. There is not one final answer to the question of determinism and free will in The Crossing. On the one hand it seems that history happens according to a predetermined plan of God. On the other hand it seems that human beings can make decisions and be in control. In this novel we find the idea that the future and the past can only be known as it exists in the present. The Strachan novels, Die jakkalsjagter en Die werfbobbejaan, reflect a certain determinism. Everything heads towards a final showdown with the death of the old man in the sod house. Khera's actions are predetermined. Things happen without her intention. The importance of stories is found in all three novels under discussion, The Crossing, Die jakkalsjagter and Die werfbobbejaan. "Things separate from their stories have no meaning. They are only shapes. Of a certain size and color. A certain weight. When their meaning has become lost to us they no longer have even a name. The story on the other hand can never be lost from its place in the world for it is that place" (Crossing: 142-143). The importance of the story is that it gives meaning to the things. All stories are the same story. The izinganekwane could be parallelled to the corrido (Spanish tales). Both are part of a hostile country, a different language and both are old tales that seem to determine the future
The epidemiology of chronic liver disease in older people with type 2 diabetes mellitus: the Edinburgh Type 2 Diabetes Study
No full textIncreasingly chronic liver disease is being acknowledged as a complication of type 2
diabetes, in particular non-alcoholic fatty liver and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
Rates of non-alcoholic fatty liver are higher in people with type 2 diabetes than in the
general population, with prevalence rates believed to be between 40-70%. Given the
aging Scottish population and the obesity driven diabetes epidemic, the problem of
chronic liver disease is likely to increase.
Despite this there has been little investigation into the natural history of nonalcoholic
fatty liver disease and the risks of clinically significant chronic liver
disease in community based cohorts because diagnosis has been heavily reliant on
liver biopsy. The use of liver biopsy is limited in both research and clinical practice
due to its associated high mortality (1/1000) and morbidity and also due to practical
limitations (sampling variability, semi-quantitative scoring systems). As a result the
use of non-invasive markers of liver injury (non-specific liver injury, steatosis,
steatohepatitis, liver fibrosis and surrogates of advanced portal hypertension) are
rising, in the diagnosis of chronic liver disease, however, their utility in both
community cohorts and patients with type 2 diabetes has not been widely studied.
The aims of the studies presented in the thesis, using the Edinburgh Type 2 Diabetes
Study, were: (i) to describe the distributions of a range of non-invasive markers of
steatohepatitis and liver fibrosis in older people with type 2 diabetes, their
relationship with metabolic and liver disease risk factors, and to compare the
agreement of different non-invasive markers of hepatic fibrosis; (ii) to determine the
frequency (prevalence and incidence) of and risk factors for clinically significant
chronic liver disease in people with type 2 diabetes; and (iii) to determine the
importance of chronic liver disease as a risk factor (or risk marker) for cardiovascular
mortality or morbidity in type 2 diabetes.
Prior to undertaking this work I undertook a detailed systematic review of the
literature relating to the use of non-invasive markers of hepatic fibrosis to inform the
choice of markers used in the study.
Examination of a wide range of potential markers of steatohepatitis and liver fibrosis
found varied relationships with diabetes history. Most commonly, elevated markers
of steatohepatitis and liver fibrosis were associated with older age and higher body
fat measures. However, most of these relationships between liver markers and body
fat measures lost statistical significance when limiting the population to only those
with hepatic steatosis and/or non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/21101
There were marked differences in the associations between different liver fibrosis
markers and potential diabetes and metabolic risk factors, suggesting that these
markers are not actually measuring the same underlying “fibrosis” condition. There
was poor correlation between the five markers of liver fibrosis studied. Using the top
vigintile (5%) of each marker resulted in excellent agreement on the absence of
advanced liver disease but poor agreement on the presence of advanced liver disease.
The prevalence of clinically significant CLD (defined as cirrhosis, HCC or gastrooesophageal
varices) was 2.2% - 0.9% diagnosed prior to enrolment with an
additional 1.4% identified by study investigations. Over nearly 6 years of follow-up,
only 1.4% of the cohort developed incident clinically significant CLD.
Higher levels of systemic inflammation, steatohepatitis and hepatic fibrosis markers
were associated with both unknown prevalent and incident clinically significant
chronic liver disease. Less than half of participants developing incident significant
disease were identified as high risk by the study investigations. Abnormal liver
enzymes were statistically significantly associated with incident cases, however the
presence of hepatic steatosis was not.
There were 372/1033 (36.0%) patients with prevalent CVD and 319 (30.9%) with
prevalent CAD at baseline. After mean follow-up of 4.4 years there were 44/663
incident CVD events, including 27 CAD events. There were 30/82 CVD related
deaths.
However, risk of dying from or developing CVD was no higher in subjects with
steatosis than in those without. There was also no statistically significant
relationship between CVD and steatohepatitis or liver fibrosis. The only statistically
significant relationship between CVD and any liver markers was with GGT
(prevalent CVD, OR 1.28, p=0.007; incident CAD, OR 2.35, p=0.042), suggesting
that in our study population, CLD may have little effect on the development of, or
mortality from, CVD.
In conclusion, the potential for using non-invasive biomarkers to diagnose clinically
significant chronic liver disease in type 2 diabetes remains limited, however chronic
liver disease is a significant problem in older people with type 2 diabetes and is
frequently undiagnosed
Genetics and Genomics in Medicine
No full textEvery geneticist knows ‘the Strachan and Read’, probably the most popular textbook for Human Molecular Genetics. Now, the first author Tom Strachan from Newcastle upon Tyne, presents, together with two coauthors, a further textbook on ‘Genetics
and Genomics in Medicine’. Already the title tells us that the field has broadened and that knowledge has increased
Impact of heterogeneity on infection probability : Insights from single-hit dose-response models
No full textOpen Access via the Elsevier agreement The author acknowledges fruitful discussions with Norval Strachan, Ovidiu Rotariu and Ken ForbesPeer reviewe
Sustaining organisational change: Teacher education in the Solomon Islands.
No full text"Sustainability is the capacity of education reform initiatives to continue" (Webster, Silova, Moyer, & McAllister, 2011, para. 12). In this article we reflect upon the process of organisational strengthening that was a key component of the Partnership between the Faculty of Education at the University of Waikato and the School of Education, Solomon Islands College of Higher Education. We argue that within the New Zealand Aid Programmei funded partnership, the building of mutually respectful relationships, building leadership capacity and the respect for and inclusion of indigenous cultural considerations were key to the organisational change process and its sustainability
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