The Poets Deliver : Procreation, Communication, and Incarnation in Sidney and Wordsworth

Artikeln jämför de båda engelska poeterna Philip Sidneys och William Wordsworths inställning till den skapande processen, och till språket som kommunikativt medium

Severus Snape : The Complexity and Unconventional Heroism of Severus Snape in the Harry Potter Books

Being an evildoer and being evil is not always the same thing; author J.K Rowling’s character Professor Severus Snape from the Harry Potter series is balancing on that very line. Although being unfair and mean to the protagonist Harry Potter all through the series, Professor Snape is revealed as a hero in the seventh book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007). This essay focuses on some of the complex psychological reasons as to why Snape acts the way he does towards Harry and why many readers consider him to be just as great a hero as the protagonist. It argues that his difficult upbringing is the cause of his complexity and the series of books are analyzed from a structuralist perspective, using A.J Greimas’ actantial model and Frank Kermode’s theories about endings and plot twists. Snape’s hate for Harry’s father, caused by years of bullying, is examined as well as his love for Harry’s mother. This essay also discusses in what ways Snape’s change of allegiance, brought on by his eternal love for Harry’s mother, is a great aid in defeating the Dark Lord.

Reproductive competition triggers mass eviction in cooperative banded mongooses.

In many vertebrate societies, forced eviction of group members is an important determinant of population structure, but little is known about what triggers eviction. Three main explanations are: (i) the reproductive competition hypothesis, (ii) the coercion of cooperation hypothesis, and (iii) the adaptive forced dispersal hypothesis. The last hypothesis proposes that dominant individuals use eviction as an adaptive strategy to propagate copies of their alleles through a highly structured population. We tested these hypotheses as explanations for eviction in cooperatively breeding banded mongooses (Mungos mungo), using a 16-year dataset on life history, behaviour and relatedness. In this species, groups of females, or mixed-sex groups, are periodically evicted en masse. Our evidence suggests that reproductive competition is the main ultimate trigger for eviction for both sexes. We find little evidence that mass eviction is used to coerce helping, or as a mechanism to force dispersal of relatives into the population. Eviction of females changes the landscape of reproductive competition for remaining males, which may explain why males are evicted alongside females. Our results show that the consequences of resolving within-group conflict resonate through groups and populations to affect population structure, with important implications for social evolution.

Evidence of oxidative shielding of offspring in a wild mammal.

Oxidative damage has been proposed as a potential mechanism underlying a life history tradeoff between survival and reproduction. However, evidence that reproduction is associated with increased oxidative damage is equivocal, and some studies have found that breeding females exhibit reduced, rather than elevated, levels of oxidative damage compared to equivalent non-breeders. Recently it was hypothesized that oxidative damage could have negative impacts on developing offspring, and that mothers might down-regulate oxidative damage during reproduction to shield their offspring from such damage. We tested this hypothesis through a longitudinal study of adult survival, reproduction, and oxidative damage in wild banded mongooses (Mungos mungo) in Uganda. High levels of oxidative damage as measured by malondialdehyde (MDA) were associated with reduced survival in both sexes. Levels of protein carbonyls were not linked to survival. Mothers showed reduced levels of MDA during pregnancy, and individuals with higher MDA levels gestated fewer offspring and had lower pup survival. These results suggest that maternal oxidative damage has transgenerational costs, and are consistent with the idea that mothers may attempt to shield their offspring from particularly harmful types of oxidative damage during pregnancy. We suggest that further advance in understanding of life history variation could benefit from theoretical and empirical exploration of the potential transgenerational costs of reproduction.

Harry Potter -kirjojen henkilönnimien käännösstrategiat

Tämä tutkielma käsittelee henkilönnimien käännösstrategioita neljän ensimmäisen Harry Potter -kirjan suomennoksissa ja ranskannoksissa. Tutkimuksessa verrataan kvantitatiivisesti suomentajan ja ranskantajan käyttämiä käännösstrategioita ja pyritään löytämään lainalaisuuksia. Alkuhypoteeseina ovat, että suomentaja olisi käyttänyt useimmiten strategianaan käännöstä, ja että ranskantaja olisi useimmiten päätynyt suoraan lainaan. Lisäksi tutkitaan, onko henkilöhahmon tyypillä, esimerkiksi, onko kyseessä eläin, taulu vai aave, ollut vaikutusta käytettyyn käännösstrategiaan. Strategioiden luokitteluun käytettiin Minna Saarelman (2008) kirjallisuuden erisnimien käännösstrategioiden luokittelua. Hahmotyyppien luokittelu muodostettiin aineistona toimivien kirjojen aikaisemman tuntemuksen perusteella. Keskeisimmät tulokset ovat, että suomentaja ja ranskantaja ovat käyttäneet yhtälailla pääasiallisena käännösstrategianaan nimen suoraa lainaa. Itse asiassa lainojen osuus kummissakin käännöksissä oli varsin huomattava. Yllättävä tulos oli, että suomennoksissa käännösten osuus oli varsin pieni verrattuna lainojen määrään. Hahmotyypillä ei havaittu olevan suoranaista vaikutusta valittuun käännösstrategiaan. Katseena tulevaisuuteen mahdollisiksi jatkotutkimuksen aiheiksi suositellaan kvantitatiivista tutkimusta kunkin erisnimen esiintymismääristä. Tällaisella tutkimuksella voitaisiin tutkia, miksi esimerkiksi suomennoksia lukiessa syntyy vaikutelma, että valtaosa henkilönnimistä on käännetty eikä suinkaan lainattu.

Att översätta naturens processer : Hur erfarenheter av skog och skogsbruk representeras i texter av Harry Martinson, Sten Selander och Kerstin Ekman

Syftet med denna översiktliga artikel är att beskriva tre författares sätt att överföra erfarenheter av naturupplevelser förknippade med skog och skogsbruk till ett textmedium. Textstudierna är relaterade till en pragmatisk kontext där den faktiska betydelsen av naturskildringar för praktiskt bruk är av vikt. Med utgångspunkt i dessa mer deskriptiva avdelningar kommer jag avslutningsvis att försöka kategorisera naturskildringsmetoderna på ett sådant sätt att kategorierna skulle kunna fungera som grova matriser för beskrivningar av naturskildringar överlag.

Agreed-upon procedures report on the City of Sidney, Iowa for the period July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016

Agreed-upon procedures report on the City of Sidney, Iowa for the period July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016

Music of Today Series presents Newband featuring the Harry Partch Instrument Collection November 7, 2012

Concert Program

International rigid contact lens prescribing

Rigid lenses have been fitted less since the introduction of soft lenses nearly 40 years ago. Data that we have gathered from annual contact lens fitting surveys conducted in Australia, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, the UK and the USA between 2000 and 2008 facilitate an accurate characterization of the pattern of the decline of rigid lens fitting during the first decade of this century. There is a trend for rigid lenses to be utilized primarily for refitting those patients who are already successful rigid lens wearers—most typically older females being refit with higher Dk materials. Rigid lenses are generally fitted on a full-time basis (four or more days of wear per week) without a planned replacement schedule. Orthokeratology is especially popular in the Netherlands, but is seldom prescribed in the other countries surveyed.

Global trends in prescribing contact lenses for extended wear

Extended wear has long been the ‘holy grail’ of contact lenses by virtue of the increased convenience and freedom of lifestyle which they accord; however, this modality enjoyed only limited market success during the last quarter of the 20th century. The introduction of silicone hydrogel materials into the market at the beginning of this century heralded the promise of successful extended wear due to the superior oxygen performance of this lens type. To assess patterns of contact lens fitting, including extended wear, over the past decade, up to 1000 survey forms were sent to contact lens fitters in Australia, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, the UK and the USA each year between 2000 and 2009. Practitioners were asked to record data relating to the first 10 contact lens fits or refits performed after receiving the survey form. Analysis of returned forms revealed that, averaged over this period, 9% of all soft lenses prescribed were for extended wear, with national figures ranging from 2% in Japan to 17% in Norway. The trend over the past decade has been for an increase from about 5% of all soft lens fits in 2000 to a peak of between 9 and 12% between 2002 and 2007, followed by a decline to around 7% in 2009. A person receiving extended wear lenses is likely to be an older female who is being refitted with silicone hydrogel lenses for full-time wear. Although extended wear has yet again failed to fulfil the promise of being the dominant contact lens wearing modality, it is still a viable option for many people.

Twenty first century trends in silicone hydrogel contact lens fitting : an international perspective

Silicone hydrogel contact lenses were introduced into the market in 1999. To assess prescribing trends of this lens type since then, up to 1000 survey forms were sent to contact lens fitters in Australia, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, the UK and the USA each year between 2000 and 2008. Practitioners were asked to record data relating to the first 10 contact lens fits or refits performed after receiving the survey form. Analysis of returned forms revealed a rapid increase in the prescribing of silicone hydrogel lenses over the survey period. In 2008, silicone hydrogel lenses represented 36% of all soft lenses prescribed. The categorization of the majority of lenses prescribed as ‘refits’ is primarily attributed to the mass conversion of lens wearers from hydrogel to silicone hydrogel lenses. Silicone hydrogels may soon represent the majority of soft contact lenses prescribed.