44 research outputs found
Antropomorfisme by diere in die afrikaanse volkslied: 'n Analise van "Apie se bruilof"
No full textOPSOMMING: Die skaarste aan tradisionele Afrikaanse volksballades maak dit uit 'n volkskundige, kultuurhistoriese en akademiese oogpunt van belang dat dié wat wel opgeteken is, deeglik ondersoek en geanaliseer word. Die lied "Apie se bruilof", of, soos oorspronklik deur Melt Brink geskep, "Die bruilof van Miss Aap", bied baie stof vir analise, omdat dit die interessante tegniek van antropomorfisme gebruik. Dit is 'n tegniek wat uiters skaars is in Afrikaanse ballades, hoewel volop in kinderryme en -liedjies, sowel as in volksverhale. Die menslike rolle wat in die ballade aan diere toegeken word, is in hierdie ondersoek ontleed deur onder meer te probeer vasstel of daar spesifieke redes vir die spesifieke rolle is. Die ander twee elemente in die lied wat ondersoek word, is die samestelling van die refrein, wat spesifiek na die dansparty verwys, en die addisionele element van "nuttige resepte" wat in die ballade ingebring word deur middel van die spyskaart van die bruilofsfees. Die abstrakte "bestanddele' van die resepte is van diere-herkoms, wat dit laat inskakel by die gebruik van antropomorfisme, en die aanbied van ander diere en insekte op die spyskaart. ABSTRACT: From a folkloristic, cultural historical and academic perspective it is important to analyse the existing traditional Afrikaans folk ballads, because of the scarcity thereof. The song "Apie se bruilof" (The monkey's wedding), or, as titled originally by the author Melt Brink, "Die bruilof van Miss Aap" (The wedding of Miss Monkey), lends itself to thorough analysis, because of the technique of anthropomorphism that is applied - a technique very rare in Afrikaans ballads, though abundant in children's songs and rhymes, as well as in folk tales. In this ballad the human roles allocated to animals will be analysed by trying to establish, amongst other things, whether there are specific reasons for specific roles. The two other elements in the ballad that are investigated are the chorus, referring to the dance at the wedding, and the additional element of "useful recipes", brought into the ballad by the menu of the wedding dinner. The abstract "ingredients" of the recipes are of animal origin, which connects them to the use of anthropomorphism and the appearance of other animals and insects on the menu
On the Sherlocks, Jane Coleman and County Kildare in the Eighteen Forties
No full textIn the late 1980s and early 1990s the author acquired about 30,000 letters written mainly in the 1840s. These pertained to estates throughout Ireland managed by the firm of James Robert Stewart and Joseph Kincaid, hereafter denoted SK. Until the letters – called the SK correspondence in what follows – became the author’s property, they had not seen light of day since the 1840s. Addressed mainly to the firm’s office in Dublin, they were written by landlords, tenants, the partners in SK, local agents, etc. After about 200 years in operation as a land agency, the firm in which members of the Stewart family were the principal partners – Messrs J. R. Stewart & Son(s) from the mid- 1880s onwards – ceased operations in the mid-1980s. Since 1994 the author has been researching the SK correspondence of the 1840s. It gives many new insights into economic and social conditions in Ireland during the decade of the great famine, and into the operation of Ireland’s most important land agency during those years. It is intended ultimately to publish details on several of the estates managed by SK in a study more comprehensive than the present article, in book form. The proposed title is Landlords, tenants, famine: business of an Irish land agency in the 1840s, a draft of which has now been completed. A majority of the letters in that study are on themes some of which one might expect - rents, distraint (seizure of assets in lieu of rent); ‘voluntary’ surrender of land in return for ‘compensation’ upon quitting quietly; formal ejectment (a matter of last resort on estates managed by SK); landlordassisted emigration (on a scale much more extensive than most historians of Ireland in the 1840s appear to believe); petitions from tenants; complaints by tenants, both about other tenants and about local agents; landlord-financed and other relief of distress both before and during the great famine; major works of improvement (on almost all of the estates managed by SK which have been investigated in detail in the draft book); applications by SK, on behalf of landlords, for government loans to finance improvements; recommendations of agricultural advisers hired by SK, etc. Thus, most of the SK correspondence is about aspects of estate management. But the firm of SK was not only a manager of land. The correspondence reveals only two estates in Kildare, each of them relatively small, managed by SK in the 1840s. These were the lands of the Sherlocks near Naas and of Jane Coleman in the Kilcullen district. The correspondence on these properties differs substantively from most of those discussed in detail in the draft of Landlords, tenants, famine: first, it is relatively small in quantity, and secondly, it contains relatively little on the core aspects of estate management indicated above. Much of that on the Sherlocks focuses on misfortunes among family members, while the correspondence on Jane Coleman highlights the benevolence of that proprietor.
Roald Dahl: the Author for Two Audiences. A comparison of His Writings for Children and Adults
No full textKatedra anglistiky a amerikanistikyDokončená práce s úspěšnou obhajobo
Establishment of Joint Attention in Dyads Involving Hearing Mothers of Deaf and Hearing Children, and Its Relation to Adaptive Social Behavior
No full textMounting evidence points to joint attention as a mediating variable in children's adaptive behavior development. Joint attention in interactions between hearing mothers and congenitally deaf (n = 27) and hearing (n = 29) children, ages 18–36 months, was examined. All deaf children had severe to profound hearing loss. Mother-child interactions were coded for maternally initiated and child-initiated success rates in establishing joint attention; mothers completed ratings of their children's adaptive behavior. Hearing mother–deaf child dyads had significantly lower maternally initiated success rates. No significant between-group differences on child-initiated success rates were shown. Maternal ratings of adaptive behavior were significantly lower for deaf children, and related positively and significantly to both child-initiated and maternally initiated success rates. The findings suggest that mother-child interactions that are low in successful establishment of joint attention might mediate the development of socioemotional problems evident in deaf children with hearing families.The research for the present study was supported by a predoctoral scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada awarded to the first author, Matilda E. Nowakowski, under the direction of the third author, Louis A. Schmidt, and an operating grant from SSHRC awarded to Schmidt.FacultyReviewe
'Keeping the bastards honest': the promise and practice of freedom of information legislation
No full textIn the last decade the number of countries that have enacted Freedom of Information (FOI) laws have increased dramatically. In many respects FOI laws have become a democratic 'right of passage'. No FOI, no 'proper' democracy.
The promises of FOI regimes are far-reaching: access to personal information and increased transparency in the form of third-party independent access to government-held information will prevent corruption and maladministration and encourage the public to participate more fully in the political process. But are the promises borne out by the practice of FOI?
To answer this question this thesis will track a number of real-life FOI requests in five countries. Based on this and other data this project will lay the foundation for the first International Freedom of Information Index, ranking five countries on how their FOI regimes deliver on the promises made. Included in the ranking will also be an evaluation of the legal situation for media whistleblowers and shield laws for journalists.
The thesis will show that it is easier to promise information access than to implement it. It will demonstrate that for most of the countries of study FOI laws serve more as a PR tool projecting an illusion of an informed public, rather than granting real independent access to quality information
Cultural Performances in Medieval France: Essays in Honor of Nancy Freeman Regalado
No full textThis collection of essays pays tribute to Nancy Freeman Regalado, a groundbreaking scholar in the field of medieval French literature whose research has always pushed beyond disciplinary boundaries. The articles in the volume reflect the depth and diversity of her scholarship, as well as her collaborations with literary critics, philologists, historians, art historians, musicologists, and vocalists — in France, England, and the United States. Inspired by her most recent work, these twenty-four essays are tied together by a single question, rich in ramifications: How does performance shape our understanding of medieval and pre-modern literature and culture, whether the nature of that performance is visual, linguistic, theatrical, musical, religious, didactic, socio-political, or editorial? The studies presented here invite us to look afresh at the interrelationship of audience, author, text, and artifact, to imagine new ways of conceptualizing the creation, transmission, and reception of medieval literature, music, and art.
Contributors: Anne Azéma, Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Cynthia J. Brown, Elizabeth A. R. Brown, Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner, E. Jane Burns, Ardis Butterfield, Kimberlee Campbell, Robert L. A. Clark, Mark Cruse, Kathryn A. Duys, Elizabeth Emery, Sylvia Huot, Marilyn Lawrence, Kathleen A. Loysen, Laurie Postlewate, Edward H. Roesner, Samuel N. Rosenberg, Lucy Freeman Sandler, Pamela Sheingorn, Helen Solterer, Jane H. M. Taylor, Evelyn Birge Vitz, Lori J. Walters, and Michel Zink.https://scholarworks.smith.edu/frn_books/1004/thumbnail.jp
The feminization of fame from Rousseau to de Staël
No full textThis thesis seeks to address the literary, cultural and historical questions surrounding what I will suggest was the reconceptualization of fame in the second half of the eighteenth and the first two decades of the nineteenth centuries. The only previous analyses of celebrity in this period by Leo Braudy and by Frank Donoghue have claimed categorically that even though a democratization of fame occurred in this period only men had sufficient access to the fame machine and thus to the experience of the frenzy of renown. While I argue that this period witnessed the birth of modern concepts of celebrity, I will suggest that a modernization necessarily entailed a feminization of fame.
Traditionally, heroic self-sacrifice had led to assured immortality, but with the rapidly expanding print culture of this period, celebrity was often instantaneous, achieved during a lifetime rather than a lifetime achievement. With the dissemination of the media, the rise of newspaper and periodicals and thus, more importantly, the increasing visibility of the celebrity as a person to be admired and emulated came the means to seduce an eager audience by manipulating one’s career or personal image. Opening with an examination of the confessional politics of Jean-Jacques Rousseau who sought and found a desiring audience for this outpouring of private sensibility and thus initiated a discourse of fame which no longer relied upon the classical stoicism apparent since Ancient Rome, I will investigate how women writers not only ‘puffed’ themselves in the press, but actively engaged in constructing distinct authorial personae in and through their writings. Far from cowering anonymously in the shades, women writers were actively seeking and achieving the limelight, attaining a level of cultural centrality previously thought by critics such as Braudy and Donoghue to be unattainable. Embracing the public and publicity itself, they took advantage of the shifting mechanics of celebrity to place their writings and, ultimately, themselves, on the rostrum, more than eager to gain literary laurels
Shifting levels of ecological network’s analysis reveals different system properties
No full textPublisher: Royal Society PublishingInternational audienceNetwork analyses applied to models of complex systems generally contain at least three levels of analyses. Whole-network metrics summarize general organizational features (properties or relationships) of the entire network, while node-level metrics summarize similar organization features but consider individual nodes. The network- and node-level metrics build upon the primary pairwise relationships in the model. As with many analyses, sometimes there are interesting differences at one level that disappear in the summary at another level of analysis. We illustrate this phenomenon with ecosystem network models, where nodes are trophic compartments and pairwise relationships are flows of organic carbon, such as when a predator eats a prey. For this demonstration, we analysed a time-series of 16 models of a lake planktonic food web that describes carbon exchanges within an autumn cyanobacteria bloom and compared the ecological conclusions drawn from the three levels of analysis based on inter-time-step comparisons. A general pattern in our analyses was that the closer the levels are in hierarchy (node versus network, or flow versus node level), the more they tend to align in their conclusions. Our analyses suggest that selecting the appropriate level of analysis, and above all regularly using multiple levels, may be a critical analytical decision. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Unifying the essential concepts of biological networks: biological insights and philosophical foundations’. © 2020 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved
Proton pump inhibitors and the risk of Clostridioides difficile infection : a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis
No full textAbstract: Background: Clostridioides difficile is a leading cause of healthcare-associated infections globally with proton pump inhibitor (PPI) use as important modifiable risk factor. This study aimed to systematically synthesise global evidence on the dose-response relationship of PPI usage and the Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) risk and to identify potential safe thresholds of PPI usage regarding CDI. Methods: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library were searched for longitudinal studies regarding PPIs and CDI. Aggregated data were included in two separate two-stage random-effects doseresponse meta-analyses regarding Defined Daily Dose (DDD) and PPI therapy duration. Pooled adjusted relative risks (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals compared to non-users of PPIs were estimated. Findings: Overall, 15 observational cohort and case-control studies were included with 7 studies (n=483,821) in the meta-analysis per DDD and 7 studies (n=516,441) per PPI therapy duration. The risk of bias was modest. Pooled dose-response estimates suggest linear trends with a RR of 1.05 (95% CI 0.89,1.23) per 10 mg DDD and of 1.02 (95% CI 1.00,1.05) per day of PPI therapy. Substantial residual heterogeneity was detected in both analyses (I2=91.4% per DDD and I2=99.4% per therapy duration), but inferring potential sources was limited. Interpretation: Our results indicate a possible increase in the risk of CDI with increasing dose and duration of PPI therapy. Underlying mechanisms and dosage thresholds for a clinically relevant risk increase remain unclear. (c) 2025 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The British Infection Association. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
From childhood blue space exposure to adult environmentalism: The role of nature connectedness and nature contact
No full textNature contact in childhood is associated with pro-environmental behaviours (PEB) later in life. While previous literature focused on nature contact in general, the current work specifically explored childhood blue space exposure (coasts, rivers, lakes etc.) and potential mechanisms underlying any relationship with PEBs in adulthood. Cross-sectional data from an Austrian sample representative on age, gender, and region (N = 2,370) were used to test a serial-parallel mediation model linking recalled childhood blue space exposure to self-reported adult PEBs via, first, nature connectedness and, second, recent visits to green and blue spaces. Results supported significant serial mediation, with recalled childhood blue space exposure linked to nature connectedness in adulthood, which was in turn associated with more frequent recent visits to green and blue spaces, which in turn predicted PEB. Significant direct and indirect effects were observed, while controlling for known individual- and area-level covariates. Findings highlight the potential importance of childhood blue space exposure as well as life-long nature contact for improving nature connectedness and PEB and add to calls for protecting and maintaining natural water bodies and to improve their safety, as spending time around them in childhood may play a role in fostering PEB and ultimately improving planetary health.This work was conducted as part of an MSc in Psychology undertaken by the first author and supervised by the second author. The work was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No 666773 (BlueHealth), and MW, SP, LE and MvdB were supported by the EU’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101081420 (RESONATE). MvdB acknowledges support from the grant CEX2018-000806-S funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, and support from the Generalitat de Catalunya through the CERCA Program. The funders had no role in the conceptualisation, design, analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript
