bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
L'expression terrestre de la "réalite humaine" chez beckett
Authors: Sivetidou Aphrodite
Published: January 2016

Primary elements are depicted on the Beckettian stage, producing catastrophic images which represent a desolate inner landscape. The rootedness of this writing in the earth, combined with the disintegration of dramatic forms, gives Beckett's theatre an incomparable tension. Focusing on the primary elements of life, our attention is drawn to the essential relationship between body and earth. This paper will focus mainly on Beckett's plays, although reference will also be made to some of the novels and novellas.
"World stuff": Éléments présocratiques dans la genèse de l'œuvre beckettienne
Authors: Van Hulle Dirk
Published: January 2016

The notes on the Presocratics, which Samuel Beckett wrote in the 1930s, are interesting and perhaps even paradigmatic for genetic Beckett studies. To examine this presocratic matter, this essay opens with some pre-Beckettian observations. After a short analysis of Beckett's notes on the Presocratics and of their reverberations in his post-war texts, the essay concludes with an examination of the way in which these notes may be of help in making a methodological distinction between source studies and genetic criticism.
Traces du regard: Dioptrique de beckett
Authors: Guilbard Anne-Cécile
Published: January 2016

Whereas the enunciative authority often multiplies itself in the beckettian text, the spatialization which is peculiar to visual images settles the singularity of a unique point of view. The comparison with Descartes' makes appear, beyond some effects of intertextuality, the prints that the beckettian subject has left. Thus, the analysis of some beckettian diagrams and descriptions enables us to recover, within a recurrent scheme, the same figure which presents itself as the subject's image. It ultimately always appears in the singular shape of a narrow emptiness.
"Gnawing to be naught": Beckett and Pre-Socratic Nihilism
Authors: Weller Shane
Published: January 2016

This essay re-examines Beckett's relation to nihilism in the light of his 1930s reading notes on pre-Socratic philosophy, in particular Democritus, Gorgias and Thrasymachos. Focusing on the distinction between "cosmological nihilism" and "ethical nihilism" in John Burnet's , I chart Beckett's abiding concern with the "nothing" conceived both ontologically and ethically, and assess the importance for him of Archibald Alexander's phrasing of the atomist paradox and the cosmological nihilism of Gorgias.
En traversant l'aphasie
Authors: Hubard Gabriela García
Published: January 2016

In Beckett's oeuvre, the multiple explicit and implicit references to aphasia provoke a 'contaminated' reading (at the same time literary, linguistic, philosophical, 'tragic' and neuronal) that underlines and destabilizes the concept of intentionality.
Des cendres à la poussière, une ontologie résiduelle
Authors: Siboni Julia
Published: January 2016

As they are made up of dust, Beckett's creatures are both the seat of minute reduction and that of resistance to time, to ending. Indeed, dust and ashes need not be seen as the only possible expressions of death and of destruction at work. In this context, the Biblical treatment of such volatile elements may shed a new light on that which appears in Beckett's work as "residue." Thus man becomes a trace, the memory of this resistance of the residue, outlining a new, highly dynamic space. However, this play on pressure and on contrary forces – between being born and dying, beginning and ending – defines Beckett's creatures as creatures of tension.
Prolegomena to a critique of excavatory reason: Reply to Matthew Feldman
Authors: Dowd Garin
Published: January 2016

This essay is a reply to Matthew Feldman's identification and advocacy (in 16) of a methodological "partition" in Beckett studies. It argues that the 'critical tribunal' set up by his article may be contested on the grounds that: the advocated paradigm for research makes a contentious journey from science to literature; it dogmatically imposes restrictions on the range of literary critical interventions deemed to be of value; it employs a 'black box' approach to its own argument.
Beckett and Seventeenth-Century Dutch and Flemish Art
Authors: Knowlson James
Published: January 2016

Knowlson focusses on Beckett's passion for seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish art. This interest is examined in Beckett's correspondence and in his German diaries. He took detailed notes on R. H. Wilenski's and the art critic's perspective on painters such as Brouwer, Vermeer, Rembrandt (and the German painter Elsheimer) shaped his response. But Knowlson also suggests that Beckett's own approach to the theatre and his creation of certain stage tableaux and visual images may have been related to his close knowledge of the work of the Dutch and Flemish masters and to the account he found in Wilenski.
The Ideal Real: A Frustrated Impulse in Samuel Beckett's Writing
Authors: Ackerley Chris
Published: January 2016

Samuel Beckett's attraction to mysticism is most obvious in his interest in negative theology and the ; but it first presented itself in aesthetic rather than religious terms, through Proust's concept of the “ideal real,” as reflected in involuntary memory. For a time Beckett saw this as a viable aesthetic; that conviction was short-lived, but the “ideal real” left lasting traces on his work, though subject to increasing irony and the sense of the mind “devising.” In Beckett's most deliberate account of the transcendental experience, Arsene's moment in the sun in , the reality of the event is not in doubt but any validation of its meaning is emphatically withheld.
The Excluded Child: Brian Friel's and Beckett's
Authors: Lawley Paul
Published: January 2016

This essay pursues a comparative study of Brian Friel's (1979) and Beckett's (1958), with particular focus on the figure of the excluded child. Such a figure appears, in literal or displaced forms, in action or recollection, in both plays. Its association, or alignment, with both biological fertility and imaginative creation is examined in each play. Finally, the relation between the plays themselves is considered speculatively, and described using the figure of the excluded child as metaphor.
Beckett, Yeats, and Noh: as Theatre of Evocation
Authors: Okamuro Minako
Published: January 2016

In , the ritualistic movements of M1 culminate in his conjuring of a woman who quotes from “The Tower,” the poem in which W. B. Yeats, who was profoundly influenced by Japanese noh theatre, evokes a number of ghosts. In this study, I demonstrate that Beckett was influenced in his writing of both by the highly stylised noh – the noh of dreams and phantoms – and Yeats's experience of noh.
“Delite in Swynes Draf”: Husks and Lees, Sugarbeet Pulp and Roses in Samuel Beckett's “Draff”
Authors: Ackerley Chris
Published: January 2016

This essay argues that “Draff,” the final story of , by taking its title from the of Thomas à Kempis, relates the latter's metaphor of the fallen angels delighting in empty husks of grain to the wider literary tradition and also to Beckett's own writings, all mashed with apparent coarse disregard for tonal unity. This constitutes both a critique of that literary tradition and a new way of handling in art the traumatic impact of the recent deaths of Peggy Sinclair and Beckett's own father. The seeming casualness of style works by indirection to achieve a new aesthetic that is both satisfying swill and an unexpected reconciliation of sorrow.
Staging Psychoanalysis: and the Freudian Theory of the Anal-Sadistic Phase
Authors: Weller Shane
Published: January 2016

This essay aims to show that, when composing in the mid-1950s, Beckett proceeded in a strikingly systematic manner to include the principal traits of the anal-sadistic personality as outlined in Ernest Jones's chapter on “Anal-Erotic Character Traits” in his (1912), a work read by Beckett in early 1934. Once this intertextual relation is taken into account, not only do many of the details in the play become intelligible, but its very form and rhythm can be seen to be indebted to the Freudian theory of the anal-sadistic phase.
“Nor by the Eye of Flesh Nor by the OtheR”: Fleshly, Creative and Mystical Vision in Late Beckett
Authors: Tonning Erik
Published: January 2016

This essay proposes that Beckett's much earlier reading of William Inge's underlies the stage image in an abandoned 1980 play fragment, where an old man with eye problems stands on a pedestal trying to thread a needle. A network of connections between mystic, creative and fleshly 'vision' is traceable both in these drafts and in Beckett's thought and work generally. What is more, Beckett's concerns here seem to provide vital clues to interpreting the contemporaneous , a text obsessed with eyes, and with failing sight.
Rest of Stage in Darkness: Beckett, his Directors and Place
Authors: Addyman David
Published: January 2016

This paper analyses the treatment of place in Beckett's dramatic works. A number of directors have made Beckett's places much more naturalistic than the texts actually allow. Place is by something else, but the attitude misses the way in which the texts juxtapose heterogeneous places – something only possible in the theatre – the effect of which is precisely to prevent places cohering into wider, naturalistic regions, while at the same time insisting on the irreducible facticity of existence and thus resisting the reduction to placelessness found in some criticism.
Beckett – Frisch – Dürrenmatt
Authors: Nixon Mark
Published: January 2016

This paper examines the way in which the two Swiss writers Max Frisch and Friedrich Dürrenmatt responded to Beckett's work. Both of these authors profoundly engaged with Beckett's dramatic and novelistic texts in their writings on theatre, and read him as being apart, rather than a part of, the Theatre of the Absurd. Frisch, in particular, was ostensibly interested in, and to a certain degree influenced by Beckett's work. At the same time, this essay charts Beckett's own reading of Frisch and his reactions on seeing his plays in performance. Finally, a shared emphasis on form and autographical writing is examined through a reading of Frisch's novel and Beckett's .
An Interview with Dr Rosemary Pountney
Authors: Pountney Rosemary , Feldman Matthew
Published: January 2016

Rosemary Pountney [RP] trained as an actor before taking an English degree at Oxford, followed by a D. Phil on Beckett's drama, later published as Now retired, she was Lecturer in English at University College Dublin and Jesus College, Oxford, Senior Lecturer in Drama at the University of Winchester, and is now an Hon. Fellow of St. Anne's College, Oxford. She began performing Beckett's one-woman plays while working on her thesis and subsequently made numerous tours in Europe and worldwide, performing the plays and lecturing on Beckett's drama.
Samuel Beckett/Bruce Nauman: Un nouveau lieu de création spatio-temporel
Authors: Delaporte Marie-Laure
Published: January 2016

From his first films, recorded performances in studio, Bruce Nauman shows the influences of Samuel Beckett's works: daily activities repeated, fragmented bodies and human condition questioned. References to novels and plays act in harmony with films and television works in which the body finds its full expression. These 'choreographic' piece take a new dimension, spatial and temporal, through the camera, showing the mutual influence of both artists to the very recent art installations of Nauman.
Samuel Beckett et La Tension Homme-machine Dans De Kris Verdonck
Authors: Bouko Catherine
Published: January 2016

The paper aims to study the Beckettian lineage that can be identified in by the Belgian artist Kris Verdonck. Beyond the core reflexion on the relationship between man and machine, this performance, inspired by Beckett's , renews many questions dear to the Irish dramaturg: the manipulation of language, the intermediate status of existence, the separation between subject and object. In an aesthetic approach to , the theme of the homunculus, an artificially-created human prototype, is questioned in particular.
Quad-Ratures: Visions graphiques dans la poésie de Gabriele Frasca
Authors: Labbate Ettore
Published: January 2016

Graphic visions in the poetry of Gabriele Frasca.

The writing of Gabriele Frasca, critic and translator of Samuel Beckett in Italy, can be considered Beckettian in its approach, for it is a plastic approach where page and image, canvas and model try to coincide, or, at least, to reach one another ceaselessly. Following a literary and pictorial tradition dear to Beckett, Frasca indeed tries to create 'squared circles' where combinatory logic, language exhaustion or bilingualism (in the Mallarmean sense of this word, as 'défaut des languages') prevail. In such an approach, the necessity of a graphic form wins over any nominalism.
Écritures, Résistance et Exil: Samuel Beckett et Fatos Kongoli
Authors: Sinoimeri Lea
Published: January 2016

Errant lives and the exile of unnamed and unnamable characters: these are motives that constitute one of the central items of Kongoli's writing. These issues establish a double and complex relation with the works of Samuel Beckett. This paper examines the 'filiation' that exists between Kongoli and Beckett analysing the reception of Beckett in Albania during the 1970th and the reception of Kongoli in France today.
A Demented form of the Particular: Surrealism, and
Authors: Bolin John
Published: January 2016

It has become a commonplace to note that Beckett's use of a disoriented and derelict first-person speaker in the novellas presents a break with his technique in earlier fictional efforts. Yet there is good reason to believe that Beckett's narrators in the post-war fiction are indebted to experiments in , and that Beckett's writing in that book reveals the influence of a long-suspected source: Sartre's . This essay suggests that is part of larger body of Surrealist-influenced writing and theory which impacted Beckett's post-war work, including and .
Écho-Graphie et Précipitations Beckettiennes dans : Ovide et Montale
Authors: Masó Joana , Hubard Gabriela García
Published: January 2016

In , his publication of the 1930th, Beckett invents a curious way of quoting that we try to understand in following Derrida's ideas about writing and echo. This will permit us to reflect on Beckett's rewriting of the of Ovid and of Montale's . These two authors will bring us to the question of writing as metamorphosis and as an event at the limit of the organic and the unorganic, of sense and non-sense.
Beckett Émondeur de Proust
Authors: Bernier Frédérique
Published: January 2016

In his study of the work of Proust, Beckett accentuates the importance of botanic images, but he gives them a very severe treatment and his evaluation of these images of fertility in is full of negativity. In this way the images constitute a thematic and stylistic motive that reveals all the complexity of the relation between Beckett and the profuse work of Proust (in this early essay as well as in later texts). The vegetal metaphor is considered here as far as it shows the irresolvable dialectics that link fecundity and sterility, loss and remainder, literature and the world, in the work of these two authors.
“Too Red a Herring”: The Unattainable Self in
Authors: Flatt Michael
Published: January 2016

Brian McHale posits that the distinction between the modern and the post-modern lies in their respective emphases upon epistemological and ontological considerations. Samuel Beckett, long considered a liminal author, provides a bridge between the modern and the postmodern in in the shape (or lack thereof) of his unnamed character. Viewed from this light, provides answers for and yet demands further questions regarding both the modern and the post-modern.
Beckett's Posthuman: The Ontopology of
Authors: Effinger Elizabeth
Published: January 2016

Identifying the posthuman as that which is locatable within a half-posthumous space and which both has a subjectivity that is always divided and distanced from itself, and a corporeality of the same quality, this paper considers the mutually reflective ontology and topology of the unnamable narrator in Beckett's through the terms and . Drawing on Derrida, Blanchot, Butler and Latour, while engaging the recent turn to posthumanism in Beckett criticism, this paper examines how the unnamable posthuman and its narrative engage and nuance ontological questions of what it means to think subjectivity without a subject.
Le Molière de Beckett
Authors: Taban Carla
Published: January 2016

This contribution tackles Molière's presence in Beckett's work by specifying the verified biographical circumstances in which Beckett engaged with Molière's writings; by detailing concrete 'traces' of Molière's comedies in Beckett's texts; and by suggesting likely intertextual relationships between the two authors' corpora that operate via Proust.
“Worst in Need of Worse”: , and the Trajectory of Worsening
Authors: Chattopadhyay Arka
Published: January 2016

This essay examines the thematic, structural and stylistic import of Beckett's use of Edgar's lines from Shakespeare's play in the framing of his prose piece . It also seeks to consider if Beckett's text can be seen as an oblique commentary on Shakespeare's play, opening up questions of intertextual appropriation, generic transformation of tragedy and Beckett's project of linguistic critique.
Light and Darkness in Elsheimer, Caravaggio, Rembrandt and Beckett
Authors: Shaw Joanne
Published: January 2016

This essay looks at Beckett's studies of directed light in the paintings of Elsheimer, Caravaggio and Rembrandt. It examines the effect that definable fields of light within a darker matrix had on his short prose works , and . It considers how Beckett uses his particular interpretations of the painters' use of light to illuminate his own characters (both literally and figuratively), bearing in mind the ambiguous nature of light for them. Finally, it considers the shade and darkness within which they also exist.
Light, Landscape and Beckett
Authors: Bird Dúnlaith
Published: January 2016

This article considers light and landscape in Beckett's 1946 radio text, “The Capital of the Ruins,” as a piece of writing between shadows and the subterranean, the tendrils of which reach forward into Beckett's later work.
“L'au-Delà du Dehors-Dedans”: Paradox, Space and Movement in Beckett
Authors: Wall John
Published: January 2016

It is argued here that several of Beckett's texts offer a sustained meditation on space. What is meant by 'space' is laid out with reference to the formulations of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Henri Bergson; namely, a non-metric, indivisible and qualitative space. Using Beckett's texts, the question of the significance of literary space is addressed. It is claimed that the Beckettian figures of aporia, paradox, metaphysical absurdity, and spatial relativity may be drawn on to trace the contours of a qualitative and exemplarily literary space in the texts in question.
Beckett, Bilingualism and the Bible
Authors: Bailey Iain
Published: January 2016

The starting point for this article is a critical consensus that biblical references are more prevalent in Beckett's English than his French writing. Through a close reading of as well as existing critical discourses on the Bible's status for Beckett, I argue that there may be more scope for a detailed attention to biblical intertextuality in Beckett's French texts than has previously been allowed.
Paradigms of an Intertextual Dialogue: 'Race' and Gender in Nigerian Literature
Authors: Arndt Susan
Published: January 2016

In terms of Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of dialogism, the poetics of writing back presents itself as an intertextual dialogue between postcolonial literatures, on the one hand, and the colonialist mentality, its literary manifestations and their influence, on the other. Chinua Achebe is considered a classic of writing back, especially with his novel . However, in the context of literary and social processes of transformation, this showpiece of writing back has become a pre-text of differently oriented intertextual dialogues which likewise increasingly come under the heading of writing back. In this essay, I will take as my point of departure and discuss not only the narrow understanding of writing back in its original orientation, but also two more recent manifestations of this intertextual dialogue in Nigerian literature. With an emphasis on novels by Flora Nwapa and Akachi Adimora–Ezeigbo, I wish to focus on the intertextual dialogue between Nigerian women's writing and both Igbo oral narratives and writings by male Nigerian authors.
Autobiographical Memory, Identity Re/Construction, and Stylistic Creativity in Tayo Olafioye's
Authors: Adegoju Adeyemi
Published: January 2016

This essay attempts a deconstructive reading of Tayo Olafioye's by stylistically analysing the autobiographer's linguistic inventiveness in evoking memories that revolve around the culture of naming in Africa vis-à-vis the protagonist's identity, which inexorably raises socio-cultural and philosophical issues about the fe/male figure in a typical African society. Further, the essay interrogates the autobiographer's invocation of the archetypal maternal figure in Africa as epitomized by his grand/mother's apprehensions about his well-being and prospects, on the one hand, and his mother's struggles in a patriarchal African world, on the other. Given the motif of identity-construction that underlies the autobiographer's narrative imagination, the article considers autobiographical fiction as a rich literary resource for the African writer not just to project individuality but also to locate it in a universal realm in a bid to probe and appreciate communal experiences as well.
Islam and Culture Two Epistemic Catalysts for Moral Dilemmas in the African Democratic Experiment
Authors: Asekuno Anthony Afe. , Izibili Matthew
Published: January 2016

Democracy as historical practice has managed to survive twists and turns in its gestation, birth, and growth to maturity. In Greek Antiquity, the inclusion of women and slaves was an issue to contend with. This was hardly resolved before the Athenian States were dissolved into the Roman empires. With much larger populations, more effective rationality, vital civilization and sophistication, democracy was resuscitated in the eighteenth century in Britain and North America, and has spread around the world. This is not to imply a sense of security, which would be false; newer and still more sophisticated, tremors, contractions, and paroxysms have emerged. But these problems have often led to moral dilemmas and conflicting traditions. This essay arguees that two formidable obstacles to the steady development of democracy and liberty and an exacerbation of the dilemma of democratic tradition arise from Islam and traditional cultural accretions. By reviewing the basic concepts and issues associated with the notion and practiceof democracy, this article identifies specific areas of culture and Islam within the Nigerian context that tend to frustrate democratic processes – a problem that calls for caution on the part of practitioners, active and prospective.
'Acquisitive Culture' and its Impact on Nigeria's Socio-Economic Development
Authors: Ademakinwa Adebisi
Published: January 2016

This is an interdisciplinary study of the role of culture in the development of Nigeria as a nation. The essay raises questions, among which are: what are the externalized and internalized aspects of Nigerian national culture? Which innate concepts of this culture do contemporary Nigerians understand and which concepts are grasped or misunderstood by foreigners? Russian and Nigerian literary works – Nikolai Gogol's and Chinua Achebe's, to mention but two – are utilized to determine similarity and dissimilarity of the pervasive nature of materialism in two different cultures. The essay finds philistine the platitude of Nigerian cultural managers inherent in such externalized cultural fiestas as FESTAC '77 and Nigerian Carnivals, while the more beneficial one, the internalized aspects which we call the fundamental culture, are merely mulled over, wholly misjudged, and mostly left unexplored. The essay finds, furthermore, that development can only be strengthened when the internalized aspects of Nigerian traditional societies are understood and synthesized with modern hybrid cultures before human development can take place. The essay makes no pretence to being a specialist study; rather, it crosses the borders of fiction, the social sciences, cultural anthropology, and history.
The Decline of the Nigerian Educational System Its Impact on the Younger Generation
Authors: Adeaga Tomi
Published: January 2016

In the 1960s through to the 1980s, the Nigerian educational system as a whole was a role model for a number of other African countries, and its institutions of higher learning attracted many gifted scholars from all over the continent and beyond. It is on this strong foundation that contemporary Nigerian literature, for example, was also built. Significantly, this literature grew out of the group of vibrant Nigerian and African scholars including Chinua Achebe, Christopher Okigbo, Wole Soyinka, and J.P. Clark, as well as the unforgettable German scholar, Ulli Beier. They brought Nigerian literature to heights which to date remains unsurpassed. However, those proponents of Nigerian literature who, years ago, prognosticated a rapid growth of Nigerian literature would be disappointed to find out that its progress has been slower than anticipated. This can be attributed to the drastic decline in Nigerian educational standards. It is in this vein that this essay seeks to explore the impediments in the continued growth of the Nigerian educational system in relation to literary studies. The focus is on the present younger generation and the role good education plays in their lives. The primary and the secondary school systems are analysed; the latter is exemplified by poor performance in the Joint Matriculation Examinations and the low number of highly qualified teachers. Also, the role of the universities and other institutions of higher learning are analysed and future prospects discussed. This is linked to those Nigerian scholars whose dedication to their professions is reflected in their efforts to revitalize the Nigerian educational system and to keep it from breaking down completely.
Tokens of Metaphoric Expressions in Yorùbá Anthroponyms Wole Soyinka's Poetry and the Dialectic of Liberal Humanism
Authors: Ogunwale Joshua Abiodun
Published: January 2016

Non-conventional meanings associated with some forms used in a class of anthroponyms (Yorùbá personal-names, henceforth Y P N s) can only be understood in the context of a metaphoric system. This claim is based on the fact that the corpus involved is wholly mono-morphemic and thus belong to the semantic category of connotative meaning. But YPNs also maintain a system of lexico-semantic idiosyncracy on the morphological and semantic levels (i.e. lexical formation and interpretation), and it is only through the interpretations adduced from them that they can be relevant as anthroponyms. This study, therefore, not only reports the strange sense-relation of form and meaning as attested to in a set of YPNs, it also illustrates a number of sociocultural indices which underlie their formulations and usages. The study concludes by positing that the semantic values of YPNs transcend mere identification labels and are found to communicate arrays of information about Yorùbá folk-psychology and sociocultural realities.
Aquinas’s five ways: A pastoral interpretation
Authors: Schumacher Lydia
Published: January 2016

The famous ‘five ways’ to demonstrate the existence of God, which Aquinas presents at the outset of his magisterial Summa Theologiae, represent one of the most revisited and researched topics in the history of philosophy and theology.1 Yet the question as to how to interpret them remains heavily contested. In this article, I will shed some new light on the purpose and significance of the five ways, by interpreting them with reference to some other key articles in the Summa on the nature of knowledge of God, and, indeed, with reference to the broader context of this text. This interpretation will draw attention to the pastoral or pedagogical function that the proofs can be understood to perform, a function which has not been highlighted sufficiently in the past.
Numerical and experimental analysis of fluid–fluid interaction and flow through micro clearance to estimate leakages in a fuel injection pump
Authors: Kamaraj Balasakthivel , Subramanian Shankar C , Rakkiappan Baskaran
Published: January 2016

It has been observed during the operation of the diesel engine fuel injection pump that the fuel and the lubrication oil leak through the working clearance between the piston and the cylinder bore and mix with each other. The leakage of lubrication oil to fuel (OtF) leads to injector nozzle coking and emission, which necessitates the automotive industry to design a robust fuel injection pump to meet stringent emission norms. Similarly, the leakage of fuel to lubrication oil leads to depreciation of lubrication property of the oil, thereby reducing the life of engine oil lubricated components. In this research, the leakage flow through this clearance gap was studied using the numerical simulation tool, Ansys CFX, to estimate the volume flow rate of lubrication oil to fuel and fuel to lubrication oil. Pressure and drag effects are two important mechanisms that drive the leakage process. The simulation was carried out for various design parameters such as clearance, clearance taper and speed, and experiments were performed to determine the lubrication oil to fuel and fuel to lubrication oil flow rates. The diluted samples collected from fuel and lubrication oil tanks were analyzed using ICP-AES (inductively coupled plasma – atomic emission spectrometry) for calcium and barium element tracing. Calibration was performed on the ICP bench to study the accuracy and repeatability of the test sample analysis method. The results of numerical simulations and experiments were compared for various design parameters. The proposed analysis could serve as a valuable aid in the fuel injection pump development process.
Reaching across the aisle
Authors: Louwerse Tom , Otjes Simon , Willumsen David M , Öhberg Patrik
Published: January 2016

The divide between government and opposition is clearly visible in the way members of parliament vote, but the variation in government–opposition voting has been left relatively unexplored. This is particularly the case for contextual variation in the extent to which parliamentary voting behaviour follows the government–opposition divide. This article attempts to explain levels of government–opposition voting by looking at three factors: first, the majority status of cabinets (differentiating between majority and minority cabinets), cabinet ideology (differentiating between more centrist and more extremist cabinets) and norms about cabinet formation (differentiating between wholesale and partial alternation in government). The study includes variation at the level of the country, the government and the vote. The article examines voting in the Netherlands (with a history of partial alternation) and Sweden (with a history of wholesale alternation). We find strong support for the effect of cabinet majority status, cabinet ideology and norms about cabinet formation on government–opposition voting.
The Hamlet Syndrome
Authors: Wilson Jeffrey R. , Fradella Henry F.
Published: January 2016

Bringing together legal, literary, and cultural studies, this article builds from a close reading of madness in William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet to some psycho-social theories of malingering and the insanity defense in the modern United States. The basis of these theories is the notion that feigned madness – whether purposeful malingering or a failed insanity defense – often signifies actual madness of a lesser sort. When someone is found to be “faking it,” however, that discovery can result in a widespread assumption of mental health in the person on trial, an assumption that often turns out to be wrong.
Extracorporeal shock wave therapy versus corticosteroid injection in the treatment of trigger finger: a randomized controlled study
Authors: Yildirim P. , Gultekin A. , Yildirim A. , Karahan A. Y. , Tok F.
Published: January 2016

The purpose of this study was to compare the efﬁcacies of extracorporeal shock wave therapy and corticosteroid injection for the management of trigger finger. In this prospective randomized clinical trial, 40 patients with actively correctable trigger fingers were randomly assigned to extracorporeal shock wave therapy (1000 impulses and 2.1 bar) or injection groups. The effectiveness of the treatment was assessed using cure rates, a visual analogue scale, the frequency of triggering, the severity of triggering, the functional impact of triggering, and the Quick-Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand questionnaire at 1, 3, and 6 months after treatment. An intention-to- treat analysis was used in this study. Both groups demonstrated statistically significant improvements in all outcome measures after treatment. The intention-to-treat analyses showed no between-group differences for cure rates, pain, and functional status at follow-up. We conclude that extracorporeal shock wave therapy could be a non-invasive option for treating trigger finger, especially for those patients who wish to avoid steroid injections.

Level of evidence: Level II.
Neighborhood Disadvantage Alters the Origins of Children’s Nonaggressive Conduct Problems
Authors: Burt S. Alexandra , Klump Kelly L. , Gorman-Smith Deborah , Neiderhiser Jenae M.
Published: January 2016

Neighborhood disadvantage plays a pivotal role in child mental health, including child antisocial behavior (e.g., lying, theft, vandalism; assault, cruelty). Prior studies have indicated that shared environmental influences on youth antisocial behavior increase with increasing disadvantage, but researchers have been unable to confirm that these findings persist once various selection confounds are considered. In the current study, we sought to fill this gap in the literature by examining whether and how neighborhood disadvantage alters the genetic and environmental origins of child antisocial behavior. Our sample consisted of 2,054 child twins participating in the Michigan State University Twin Registry, half of whom were oversampled to reside in modestly-to-severely impoverished neighborhoods. We made use of an innovative set of nuclear twin family models, thereby allowing us to disambiguate between, and simultaneously estimate, multiple elements of the shared environment as well as genetic influences. Although there was no evidence that the etiology of aggressive antisocial behavior was moderated by neighborhood disadvantage, the etiology of nonaggressive antisocial behavior shifted dramatically with increasing neighborhood disadvantage. Sibling-level shared environmental influences were estimated to be near zero in the wealthiest neighborhoods and increased dramatically in the most impoverished neighborhoods. By contrast, both genetic risk and family-level shared environmental transmission were significantly more influential in middle- and upper-class neighborhoods than in impoverished neighborhoods. Such results collectively highlight the profound role that pervasive neighborhood poverty plays in shaping the etiology of child nonaggressive antisocial behavior. Implications are discussed.
Emotional Intelligence and Employee Creativity: Moderating Role of Proactive Personality and Organizational Climate
Authors: Jafri Md. Hassan , Dem Chimi , Choden Sonam
Published: January 2016

This study examined the relationships between emotional intelligence and employee creativity and specifically the moderating role of proactive personality and organizational climate in emotional intelligence—employee creativity relationship. The study was conducted on 250 full-time employees working at different levels from two public sector organizations in Bhutan. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to test hypotheses of the study. Results revealed the positive and significant relationship between emotional intelligence and creativity. Moderated regression analyses revealed that employee’s proactive personality and organizational climate both influenced the relationship between emotional intelligence and employee creativity. Specifically, emotional intelligence exhibited the highest employee creativity when employee showed more proactive personality and when organizational climate were favorable for creativity. Decisively, the implications of the study have been explicated in the research.
Project Outcomes Improved by Emotional Intelligence
Authors: Trejo Arturo
Published: January 2016

Besides the business pressures to keep projects performing, the technology sector faces ever increasing diversity in its workforce, bringing to the project teams challenge of developing soft skills such as emotional intelligence (EI). In the present study, the focus was on the Hispanic population because few researchers have conducted studies involving the significant value of EI and project outcomes from the Hispanic perspective. The purpose of the quantitative correlational research study was to examine whether a significant relationship existed between the EI competencies of Hispanic team members and project outcomes within the technology sector in the United States. The results of the statistical analyses were convincing in establishing a statistically significant relationship between EI competencies, identified as predictor variables and the project outcomes identified as criterion variables. A significant recommendation is to explore the possibilities of integrating EI in the employee development curriculum for project teams. Project managers should explore means to make EI training a routine part of employee development. Managers might also practice EI skills in their daily interactions with project team members inside and outside the organization.
Posttransplantation cyclophosphamide for prevention of graft-versus-host disease after HLA-matched mobilized blood cell transplantation
Authors: Mielcarek Marco , Furlong Terry , O’Donnell Paul V. , Storer Barry E. , McCune Jeannine S. , Storb Rainer , Carpenter Paul A. , Flowers Mary E. D. , Appelbaum Frederick R. , Martin Paul J.
Published: January 2016

Key Points

With conventional immunosuppression, the incidence of chronic GVHD is higher after transplantation of mobilized blood compared with marrow. Administration of cyclophosphamide after mobilized blood cell transplantation is associated with a low incidence of chronic GVHD.
Postibrutinib outcomes in patients with mantle cell lymphoma
Authors: Martin Peter , Maddocks Kami , Leonard John P. , Ruan Jia , Goy Andre , Wagner-Johnston Nina , Rule Simon , Advani Ranjana , Iberri David , Phillips Tycel , Spurgeon Stephen , Kozin Eliana , Noto Katherine , Chen Zhengming , Jurczak Wojciech , Auer Rebecca , Chmielowska Ewa , Stilgenbauer Stephan , Bloehdorn Johannes , Portell Craig , Williams Michael E. , Dreyling Martin , Barr Paul M. , Chen-Kiang Selina , DiLiberto Maurizio , Furman Richard R. , Blum Kristie A.
Published: January 2016

Key Points

Patients with mantle cell lymphoma who progressed during treatment with ibrutinib have a poor outcome. There are no therapies that appear to be uniquely successful in the postibrutinib setting. The postibrutinib setting is an unmet need.
NOBLE – Flexible concept recognition for large-scale biomedical natural language processing
Authors: Tseytlin Eugene , Mitchell Kevin , Legowski Elizabeth , Corrigan Julia , Chavan Girish , Jacobson Rebecca S.
Published: January 2016

Background

Natural language processing (NLP) applications are increasingly important in biomedical data analysis, knowledge engineering, and decision support. Concept recognition is an important component task for NLP pipelines, and can be either general-purpose or domain-specific. We describe a novel, flexible, and general-purpose concept recognition component for NLP pipelines, and compare its speed and accuracy against five commonly used alternatives on both a biological and clinical corpus.

NOBLE Coder implements a general algorithm for matching terms to concepts from an arbitrary vocabulary set. The system’s matching options can be configured individually or in combination to yield specific system behavior for a variety of NLP tasks. The software is open source, freely available, and easily integrated into UIMA or GATE. We benchmarked speed and accuracy of the system against the CRAFT and ShARe corpora as reference standards and compared it to MMTx, MGrep, Concept Mapper, cTAKES Dictionary Lookup Annotator, and cTAKES Fast Dictionary Lookup Annotator.

Results

We describe key advantages of the NOBLE Coder system and associated tools, including its greedy algorithm, configurable matching strategies, and multiple terminology input formats. These features provide unique functionality when compared with existing alternatives, including state-of-the-art systems. On two benchmarking tasks, NOBLE’s performance exceeded commonly used alternatives, performing almost as well as the most advanced systems. Error analysis revealed differences in error profiles among systems.

Conclusion

NOBLE Coder is comparable to other widely used concept recognition systems in terms of accuracy and speed. Advantages of NOBLE Coder include its interactive terminology builder tool, ease of configuration, and adaptability to various domains and tasks. NOBLE provides a term-to-concept matching system suitable for general concept recognition in biomedical NLP pipelines.
Tuberculosis Diagnosis Delaying Treatment of Cancer: Experience From a New Oncology Unit in Blantyre, Malawi
Authors: Masamba Leo Peter Lockie , Jere Yankho , Brown Ewan Russell Stewart , Gorman Dermot Robert
Published: January 2016

Purpose

Malawi is a low-income country in sub-Saharan Africa with limited health care infrastructure and high prevalance of HIV and tuberculosis. This study aims to determine the characteristics of patients presenting to Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital Oncology Unit, Blantyre, Malawi, who had been treated for tuberculosis before they were diagnosed with cancer.

Methods

Clinical data on all patients presenting to the oncology unit at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital from 2010 to 2014 after a prior diagnosis of tuberculosis were prospectively recorded, and a descriptive analysis was undertaken.

Results

Thirty-four patients who had been treated for tuberculosis before being diagnosed with cancer were identified between 2010 and 2014, which represents approximately 1% of new referrals to the oncology unit. Forty-one percent of patients were HIV positive. Mean duration of tuberculosis treatment before presentation to the oncology unit was 3.6 months. The most common clinical presentation was a neck mass or generalized lymphadenopathy. Lymphoma was the most common malignancy that was subsequently diagnosed in 23 patients.

Conclusion

Misdiagnosis of cancer as tuberculosis is a significant clinical problem in Malawi. This study underlines the importance of closely monitoring the response to tuberculosis treatment, being aware of the possibility of a cancer diagnosis, and seeking a biopsy early if cancer is suspected.
Comparative characteristic of lymphatic channels of the regional lymphatic nodes in the small pelvis of women during the reproductive and postmenopausal periods
Authors: Бураева  , Buraeva Zarina
Published: January 2016

The results present the investigation of the state of the lymphatic channel of the regional lymphatic notes of the small pelvis of the 36 women at the aged aspect. With the use of all histologic methods with subsequent stereometric assessment of volume density of the lymphatic sinuses of lymphatic nodes, it is shown that the drainage function of the lymphatic nodes in post-climacteric period was much lower, than in women of childbearing period.
Indications of functional activity of lymphocytes and neutrophils in patients with generalized parodontitis
Authors: Плахтий  , Plakhtiy Lyudmila , Гатиева  , Gatieva E. , Цховребов  , Tskhovrebov Alan
Published: January 2016

According to the research data of the immune status in 37 patients with the generalized parodontitis 3 types of immune response were selected: with high reactivity of the T-system and low reactivity the normal reactivity of the T-system. While the first variant T-system indications as a whole were characterized at the level of high limit of normal, by high activity of phagocytic cells and by the reaction blast transformation of lymphocytes higher the upper limit of the norm. The second immunologic variant of the periodontal disease development was characterized by the distribution of the main immunologic parameters of T-system on the level of the lower limit of norm, by the decreased activity of phagocytic cells and with the reaction of blasttransformation in the low limit of the norm.
Investigating staff knowledge of safeguarding and pressure ulcers in care homes
Authors: Ousey K. , Kaye V. , McCormick K. , Stephenson J.
Published: January 2016

Objective:

To investigate whether nursing/care home staff regard pressure ulceration as a safeguarding issue; and to explore reporting mechanisms for pressure ulcers (PUs) in nursing/care homes.

Method:

Within one clinical commissioning group, 65 staff members from 50 homes completed a questionnaire assessing their experiences of avoidable and unavoidable PUs, grading systems, and systems in place for referral to safeguarding teams. Understanding of safeguarding was assessed in depth by interviews with 11 staff members.

Results:

Staff observed an average of 2.72 PUs in their workplaces over the previous 12 months, judging 45.6% to be avoidable. Only a minority of respondents reported knowledge of a grading system (mostly the EPUAP/NPUAP system). Most respondents would refer PUs to the safeguarding team: the existence of a grading system, or guidance, appeared to increase that likelihood. Safeguarding was considered a priority in most homes; interviewees were familiar with the term safeguarding, but some confusion over its meaning was apparent. Quality of written documentation and verbal communication received before residents returned from hospital was highlighted. However, respondents expressed concern over lack of information regarding skin integrity. Most staff had received education regarding ulcer prevention or wound management during training, but none reported post-registration training or formal education programmes; reliance was placed on advice of district nurses or tissue viability specialists.

Conclusion:

Staff within nursing/care homes understand the fundamentals of managing skin integrity and the importance of reporting skin damage; however, national education programmes are needed to develop knowledge and skills to promote patient health-related quality of life, and to reduce the health-care costs of pressure damage. Further research to investigate understanding, knowledge and skills of nursing/care home staff concerning pressure ulcer development and safeguarding will become increasingly necessary, as levels of the older population who may require assisted living continue to rise.
On the Robust Stability of Polynomial Matrix Families
Authors: Buyukkoroglu Taner , Celebi Gokhan , Dzhafarov Vakif
Published: January 2016

In this study, the problem of robust asymptotic stability of n by n polynomial matrix family, in both continuous-time and discrete-time cases, is considered. It is shown that in the continuous case the problem can be reduced to positivity of two specially constructed multivariable polynomials, whereas in the discrete-time case it is required three polynomials. A number of examples are given, where the Bernstein expansion method and sufficient conditions from [L.H. Keel and S.P. Bhattacharya. Robust stability via sign-definite decomposition. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 56(1):140â145, 2011.] are applied to test positivity of the obtained multivariable polynomials. Sufficient conditions for matrix polytopes and one interesting negative result for companion matrices are also considered.