Patriarchal Hauntings: Re-reading Villainy and Gender in Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca

Criticism of Daphne du Maurier’s popular classic Rebecca (1938) can be divided into two mainstream interpretations. On the one hand, it was traditionally marketed as a gothic romance where the hero and the heroine conquered the evil women that separated them. On the other, certain feminist critics have recently provided a very diff erent view of the story, aligning it with gothic narratives that deal with the dangers women suff er under the patriarchal control of their husbands. Th is would imply that du Maurier’s novel should not be read as a traditional romance that promotes patriarchy, as the former interpretation suggested. In this article, I propose, through a Gothic Studies and a Gender Studies reading, that villainy in this novel is not exclusively linked to gender and, therefore, the victim and abuser statuses cannot be equated to femininity and masculinity, respectively. Instead, I argue that villainy in the novel is inextricably connected to being in a powerful position within patriarchy, and that it is the desire to maintain this position and perpetuate the patriarchal system that leads the main characters (men and women) to commit acts of villainy.

Lecture d'articles médicaux: quelques pièges à éviter [Reading medical articles--what pitfalls to avoid]

Critical reading and careful interpretation of results of the medical literature is a difficult task for primary care physicians. Being aware of common potential pitfalls that may bias results of a study is helpful. Among common pitfalls, odds ratios are often interpreted as relative risks, which overestimate the impact of a risk factor. Randomized controlled trials assessing the effectiveness of a new drug or a new target disease often use surrogate markers instead of clinical events as outcomes. Results of these trials should be considered with caution before using their results for clinical practice. For screening, observational studies often yield potentially biased or conflicting results. As clinical guidelines and expert opinions are often conflicting, primary care physicians should wait for results of large clinical trials in clinical events before changing their practice for screening or new drugs.

Metric Plan Reading Course, HR-324, 1997

This Plan Reading Course was developed by the Department of Civil and Construction Engineering of Iowa State University under contract with the Iowa Highway Research Board, Project HR-324. It is intended to be an instructional tool for Iowa DOT, county and municipal employees within the state of Iowa. Under this contract, a previous Plan Reading Course, prepared for the Iowa State Highway Commission in 1965, has been completely revised using a new format, new plans, updated specifications, and new material. This course is a self-taught course consisting of two parts; Highway Plans, and Bridge and Culvert plans. Each part consists of a self-instruction book, a set of plans, a question booklet, and an answer booklet. This is the self-instruction book for the Bridge and Culvert Plans part of the course. The example structures included in this part of the course are a prestressed concrete beam bridge and a reinforced concrete box culvert.

Plan Reading Course, HR-324

This booklet is part of the Bridge Plan Reading Course developed by the Department of Civil and Construction Engineering of Iowa State University under contract with the Highway Research Advisory Board, Project HR-324. It is intended to be an instructional tool for Iowa DOT and county and municipal employees within the state of Iowa. The questions in this booklet are designed to test your knowledge of the material in the Bridge Plan Reading Course. You are free to use both the plans and the text material to assist you in answering these questions. There is a separate ANSWER BOOKLET which contains the answers to these questions. Consult that booklet to make sure you have answered these questions correctly. If you miss the answer to a question, go back and review the text material and the plans to make sure you understand the correct answer.

The psychosocial difficulties in brain disorders that explain short term changes in health outcomes.

BACKGROUND: This study identifies a set of psychosocial difficulties that are associated with short term changes in health outcomes across a heterogeneous set of brain disorders, neurological and psychiatric. METHODS: Longitudinal observational study over approximately 12 weeks with three time points of assessment and 741 patients with depression, bipolar disorders, multiple sclerosis, parkinson's disease, migraine, traumatic brain injury and stroke. The data on disability was collected with the checklist of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. The selected health outcomes were the Short Form 36 and the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule. Multilevel models for change were applied controlling for age, gender and disease severity. RESULTS: The psychosocial difficulties that explain the variability and change over time of the selected health outcomes were energy and drive, sleep, and emotional functions, and a broad range of activities and participation domains, such as solving problems, conversation, areas of mobility and self-care, relationships, community life and recreation and leisure. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings are of interest to researchers and clinicians for interventions and health systems planning as they show that in addition to difficulties that are diagnostic criteria of these disorders, there are other difficulties that explain small changes in health outcomes over short periods of time.

Viivakoodin lukeminen matkapuhelimella

Purpose of this work was to study different types of barcodes and possibilities of reading them with mobile phones camera. Another goal was to transfer product information from a server to a mobile phone according to a barcode. There is existing software to read barcodes with mobile phones camera. They also open a www – page to mobile phones browser according to a URL address interpreted from a barcode. I simulated a use-case scenario, in which product delivery related information was controlled by a mobile phone. The information was located in a MySQL database and it was controlled with www – pages through mobile phones browser. I also made tests about how possible difficulties effect on successful interpretation of a barcode.

Ribosome profiling reveals the rhythmic liver translatome and circadian clock regulation by upstream open reading frames.

Mammalian gene expression displays widespread circadian oscillations. Rhythmic transcription underlies the core clock mechanism, but it cannot explain numerous observations made at the level of protein rhythmicity. We have used ribosome profiling in mouse liver to measure the translation of mRNAs into protein around the clock and at high temporal and nucleotide resolution. We discovered, transcriptome-wide, extensive rhythms in ribosome occupancy and identified a core set of approximately 150 mRNAs subject to particularly robust daily changes in translation efficiency. Cycling proteins produced from nonoscillating transcripts revealed thus-far-unknown rhythmic regulation associated with specific pathways (notably in iron metabolism, through the rhythmic translation of transcripts containing iron responsive elements), and indicated feedback to the rhythmic transcriptome through novel rhythmic transcription factors. Moreover, estimates of relative levels of core clock protein biosynthesis that we deduced from the data explained known features of the circadian clock better than did mRNA expression alone. Finally, we identified uORF translation as a novel regulatory mechanism within the clock circuitry. Consistent with the occurrence of translated uORFs in several core clock transcripts, loss-of-function of Denr, a known regulator of reinitiation after uORF usage and of ribosome recycling, led to circadian period shortening in cells. In summary, our data offer a framework for understanding the dynamics of translational regulation, circadian gene expression, and metabolic control in a solid mammalian organ.

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-Fin) among Finnish children and adolescents

Objective: The psychometric properties of The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-Fin), a Finnish version of a brief screening instrument were studied. Emotional and behavioural problems of 7- to 15-year-olds measured by the SDQ were reported, as well as the occurrence of self-reported eating disturbance symptoms and alcohol use among adolescents. Methods and samples: The cross-sectional school survey included 25 items of the SDQ-Fin, items about eating disturbance, alchol use and child psychiatric help-seeking. The study consists of three community samples: 1. The SDQ-Fin parent (n = 703) and teacher (n = 376) versions of 7 – 12 –year-olds, and self-report versions (n = 528) of 11 – 16 years-olds were obtained, and 2. the parent (n = 81) and self-report versions of 15-16 –year olds (n = 129) were obtained in Laitila and Pyhäranta. 3. The self-report versions of 13 – 16 – year-olds (n = 1458) in Salo and Rovaniemi were obtained. Results: The psychometric properties of the SDQ-Fin were for the most part comparable with the other European SDQ research results. The internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.71 in all informants’ reports) and inter-rater reliability (between the pairs of reports r = 0.38 - 0.44) were adequate. The concurrent validity (r = 0.75 between the SDQ and the CBCL total scores; r = 0.71 between the SDQ and the YSR total scores) was sufficient. Factor analysis of the SDQ self-report generally confirmed the postulated structure for girls and boys, except for the conduct problems scale of boys, which was fused with emotional symptoms and with hyperactivity. The response rates, means and cut-off points of the SDQ self-report scores were similar to those found, e.g. in Norway and in Britain. A high level of psychological problems, especially emotional and conduct problems and hyperactivity-inattention, were associated with high level of eating disturbance symptoms and alcohol use. Conclusion: The results showed that the psychometric properties of the SDQ-Fin are adequate and provide additional confirmation of the usefulness of the SDQ-Fin for, e.g. screening, epidemiological research and clinical purposes.