1,400 research outputs found
Achieving Foundation Accountability and Transparency: Lessons From the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s \u3ci\u3eScorecard\u3c/i\u3e
No full text· The purpose of this article is to help foundations in their accountability and transparency efforts by sharing lessons from one foundation’s journey to develop a scorecard.
· A commitment to funding and sharing the results from rigorous evaluations set the tone for Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) accountability.
· The Scorecard is a powerful tool for RWJF to set goals, track organizational effectiveness, and motivate responses to shortcomings.
· Foundations can tailor their scorecard to include what best serves their needs.
· With its Scorecard, RWJF found that comparative and quantitative measures are the most powerful forces to motivate change.
· Setting targets motivates staff to focus their efforts on certain areas and make improvements
The 'true use of reading' : Sarah Fielding and mid eighteenth-century literary strategies.
No full textPhDThe aim of this thesis is to explore, by examining her life and
works, how Sarah Fielding (1710-68) established her identity as an author.
The definition of her role involves her notions of the functions of
writing and reading.
Sarah Fielding attempts to invite readers to form a sense of ties
by tacit understanding of her messages. As she believes that a work
of literature is produced through collaboration between the writer and
the reader, it is an important task in her view to show her attentiveness
toward reading practice. In her consideration of reading, she has two
distinct, even opposite views of her audience: on the one hand a familiar
and limited circle of readers with shared moral and cultural values and
on the other potential readers among the unknown mass of people. The
dual targets direct her to devise various strategies. She tries to
appeal to those who can endorse and appreciate her moral values as well
as her learning. Her writings and letters testify that she is sensitive
to the demands of the literary market, trying to lead the taste of readers
by inventing new forms.
The thesis opens with an overview of Sarah Fielding's career,
followed by a consideration of her critical attention to the roles of
reading. I go on to examine the narrative structures and strategies
she deploys, with a particular emphasis on her use of the epistolary
method. The following chapter deals with her attention to the reading
of the moral message tangibly embodied in her educational writing. It
is followed by an analysis of the activity which earned her a reputation
as a learned woman. Various as the forms of her works are, they invariably
reflect her attempt to balance herself between the two demands of
inventiveness and familiarity
Sarah Fielding: Satire and Subversion in the Eighteenth-Century Novel
No full textThis study of Sarah Fielding (1710―68) is an original contribution to Fielding scholarship that has a dual purpose: to support those who are striving to re-introduce her to the modern literary landscape in an effort to restore her eighteenth-century literary standing, and to firmly establish Fielding as an early feminist writer. It is argued here that throughout her oeuvre Fielding challenged prevailing traditions that denied women a choice, particularly in education, employment and marriage. These themes are also considered in the political treatises of Mary Astell (1666―1731) and Mary Wollstonecraft (1759―97), who are now widely recognised as feminist writers.
It is further argued that Fielding’s subversion in fiction of the English patriarchal system is underscored by her unorthodox performance in the literary arena. This is fully explored alongside her use of sentimentalism as a literary tool with which she challenges her seemingly inhumane society. Fielding’s interest in ‘the Labyrinths of the Mind’ (in modern terms, human psychology) will also be addressed as will her placement in the history of feminism and her placement in the sentimental novel tradition. Fielding’s performance as a literary critic will be compared with the few female authors who, like her, dared to publish literary criticism during her writing career. Accordingly, extracts from Fielding’s novels and her two critical pamphlets will be thoroughly examined.
An updated biography of Fielding that is also included here will provide evidence for a further claim, that her fiction is autobiographical in part. A comprehensive account of Fielding’s performance as a literary critic forms the final chapter of this work. It is the first full-length examination of her contribution to the genre and includes an appraisal of her recently unearthed critical pamphlet entitled A Comparison Between the Horace of Corneille and The Roman Father of Mr. Whitehead (1750) that is yet to be formerly attributed to her. Ultimately this study of Fielding will go far beyond what has previously been written about this remarkable eighteenth-century author, particularly regarding her feminist activity
'F- F- Felt it': Breathing Feminist, Queer and Clown Thinking into the Practice and Study of Sarah Kane’s Cleansed and Blasted
No full textThis thesis uses studio practice, scholarly research, close reading of text, performance observation and conversation with practitioners to establish diverse readings of Sarah Kane’s Cleansed. It includes original material from the 2012 productions of Cleansed in Japan (Kamome-za Fringe Theatre), and in Ireland (Bare Cheek Theatre). It notes practice on Cleansed in gallery spaces (Cast-Off Drama, UK). It offers a dramaturgical approach to workshopping the play from a feminist and queer position, informed by theories of gender and transgender, and the marginalised, loving and delinquent practice of clowning. The research discusses principles of breath, voice and sexuate difference drawing primarily on the philosophies of Luce Irigaray, on the voice practice of Cicely Berry and the clown teaching of Sue Morrison.
The work challenges the ‘in-yer-face’ theatre discourse on Kane arguing that it represents a McDonaldization of its subject matter, and an insidious trivialisation of her texts. It offers new thinking on the opening night of Blasted (1995), suggesting that the ‘furore’ was fuelled by collective male hysteria and superstition; its roots centred in mourning. Analysing Cleansed in relation to Edward Bond’s Saved and Lear, it explores tropes of ghosts, stitching and the silent scream, and argues that Kane militates for gynocentric time and becoming. It analyses the symbol of the perimeter fence as a feature of 1980s Britain, noting the strength of binary associations configured in it with reference to both English football hooliganism (male) and the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp (female). It argues that Kane sets up heteronormative binaries in Cleansed to debate and contest them.
A key conclusion of the thesis is that Cleansed politically addresses and dramatises issues of transgender experience presenting accounts of gender violence, mutability, transitioning, the sharp fractures and silences of gender dysphoria, but also, ultimately, queer desire, love and optimism
Crisi, modello europeo e riforma del lavoro [Crisis, European social model and work reform]
No full textStarting from a synthetic reconstruction of the historical and systemic roots of labour law of the European social model, the author describes the "neo-liberal" evolution of Europe during the last decades, considered as a "liberalistic drift". The crisis has been approached by governments and political centre-rights majorities assuming labour law as responsible of the occupational situation and, as a consequence, the insisted demand of flexibility and of cuts in public social expenditure. On the contrary, the author asserts that the crisis is due to other factors, such as the financial structure of global economy and some choices of governments in the first phase of the crisis itself. The paradoxical result being that those who have no responsibility - workers, pensioners and in general lower social classes - are going to carry its heaviest burden. At the same time the author underlines that the crisis could be also an opportunity for the European trade union movements to mobilize their forces to contrast the liberalistic drift and in view of a project of sociality and democracy
The severe crisis of Labour Law
No full textIn this abridged version of his introductory report to the 10th European Congress of Labour Law (Sevilla, Spain 23-25 September 2011) the author sketches the main features of the present crisis of Labour Law. The main chapters of this crisis are considered to be the consequences of the changed relationship between the recent economic developments and the institutional framework in democratic societies. Particularly, unemployment is the elements which challenges Labour Law and - at least according to some approaches - is going to change its very nature: from rebalancing the power of the parties to the creation of employment opportunities. The author concludes on this point asserting that Labour Law must continue to guarantee dignity and freedom of workers even taking into account the context of new economic conditions
Kinetics of Spontaneous and EF-G-Accelerated Rotation of Ribosomal Subunits
No full textSummaryRibosome dynamics play an important role in translation. The rotation of the ribosomal subunits relative to one another is essential for tRNA-mRNA translocation. An important unresolved question is whether subunit rotation limits the rate of translocation. Here, we monitor subunit rotation relative to peptide bond formation and translocation using ensemble kinetics and single-molecule FRET. We observe that spontaneous forward subunit rotation occurs at a rate of 40 s−1, independent of the rate of preceding peptide bond formation. Elongation factor G (EF-G) accelerates forward subunit rotation to 200 s−1. tRNA-mRNA movement is much slower (10–40 s−1), suggesting that forward subunit rotation does not limit the rate of translocation. The transition back to the non-rotated state of the ribosome kinetically coincides with tRNA-mRNA movement. Thus, large-scale movements of the ribosome are intrinsically rapid and gated by its ligands such as EF-G and tRNA
Depression and Gender: The Expression and Experience of Melancholy in the Eighteenth Century
No full textThis thesis investigates the life and work of six eighteenth-century writers, two male and four female. It explores their experience of depression through their letters and other autobiographical material, and examines the ways in which they represent melancholy in their poetry and prose. The subject of Chapter Two is Thomas Gray, whose real life persona as the lonely intellectual is also identifiable in his poetry. The Scottish poet Robert Fergusson is studied in Chapter Three. Fergusson’s lively and vigorous mind was shattered in the months leading up to his death, during which time some of his writing became darkly nihilistic. Chapter Four looks at Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, a lifelong depressive who often wrote about her feelings of despair in her poetry. Chapter Five explores Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. She was a courageous and controversial figure, but despite her resilience, on occasion in her letters she reveals her vulnerability and susceptibility to low spirits, a mood which is sometimes expressed in her creative writing. Sarah Scott, whose life and work have not yet been considered in relation to the subject of melancholy, is examined in Chapter Six. Her novel includes several low-spirited and depressed female characters who are continually seeking asylum from a hostile world. Chapter Seven analyses Charlotte Smith, a mother of twelve children whose unhappy marriage ended in separation. Smith wrote extensively about her depression in her letters, prefaces, poetry and novels.
This study shows that the women in particular use their writing on melancholy and depression to express their discontent with the confined way in which they are often expected to live out their lives
The exercise and mood relation: testing the dual-mode model and self-selected speeds
No full textEvidence indicates that exercise improves mood, but not enough is known about the level of exertion required for optimum mood benefit. The present study examined the nature of the relation between exertion level and mood improvement in the theoretical context of the dual-mode hypothesis and opponent-process theory by testing mood changes in highly active and sedentary college-age participants in both assigned and self-selected conditions. As expected, exercise produced in-task arousal, and post-task mood improvement. As predicted by the dual-mode hypothesis and opponent-process theory, at low levels of exertion, in-task and post-task mood improvement was observed, and at high levels of exertion, in-task mood worsened, but post-task mood improved. Participants chose speeds close to 5% below lactate threshold. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.Ph.D.Includes abstractVitaIncludes bibliographical referencesby Sarah Melinda Markowit
Executive compensation, corporate governance and corporate performance: A simultaneous equation approach
No full textThis paper investigates the association between executive compensation and performance. It uniquely utilises a comprehensive set of corporate governance mechanisms within a three-stage least squares (3SLS) simultaneous equation framework. Results based on estimating a conventional single equation model indicate that the executive pay and performance sensitivity is relatively weak, whereas those based on estimating a 3SLS model generally suggest improved executive pay and performance sensitivity. Our findings highlight the need for future research to control for possible simultaneous interdependencies when estimating the executive pay and performance link. The findings are generally robust across a raft of econometric models that control for different types of endogeneities, executive pay and performance proxies.<br/
- …
