The work of death in Brontë's and Dickinson's poetry

Death determines distinctly different, almost inverse, responses and outcomes for Emily Dickinson and Emily Brontë. Death is an imaginative poetic solution for Dickinson, demonstrating her belief that art is the only way to transcend death. But death is the ultimate solution for Brontë, for whom freedom of the imagination leads to mystical unity and continuity.

Perceptions of athletic competence and fear of negative evaluation during physical education

Background. Physical education (PE) aims to enhance self-esteem, develop sporting interests and to encourage a physically active life-style. However, little is known about how a fear of negative evaluation (FNE), the socially evaluative aspect of social anxiety, affects children's attitudes to PE.

Aim. The aim of the study was to investigate the relationships between perceived athletic competence and FNE within PE lessons, specifically looking at differences between boys and girls and primary and secondary schools.

Sample. The participants were 192 children in three primary schools (N=85, mean age=9.5±1.1 years) and two secondary schools (N=107, mean age=14.5±0.8 years) from rural areas of North Wales and the Midlands region of England.

Methods. The participants completed the Brief-FNE Scale and the Self-Perception Profile for Children immediately post-lesson on one occasion.

Results. Girls had higher FNE but lower perceptions of athletic competence than did boys. Older girls had higher FNE and lower perceived competence than the remaining three groups. Additionally, a significant and reverse but weak correlation was observed between girls' perceived athletic competence and FNE.

Conclusions. The findings suggest that girls with a high FNE report lower perceptions of their athletic competence. Individuals who are high in FNE behave in ways to avoid the prospect of being evaluated negatively. However, they may seek feedback from significant others as a signal that unfavourable evaluations have been avoided. Therefore, positive, encouraging feedback used in child-centred learning strategies may foster feelings of competence in boys and girls and could reduce the girls' social anxiety.

Comparing British and Australian fear of terrorism pre and post the Iraqi war

Public attitudes to terrorism influence government positions in opinion polls and highlight the effectiveness of terrorism as a political strategy. British (N = 47) and Australian (N = 42) participants' fear of terrorism at the onset of. and after, the Iraqi war were measured. Self-efficacy, locus of control, media consumption, belief in a just world and war opinions were also measured. Initially, the British were more fearful of terrorism than Australians. However, British fear declined after the war. It is postulated that fear of terrorism is influenced by war opinions with a pro-war attitude protecting against fear.

Multifaceted role of nitric oxide in an in vitro mouse neuronal injury model: transcriptomic profiling defines the temporal recruitment of death signalling cascades

Nitric oxide is implicated in the pathogenesis of various neuropathologies characterized by oxidative stress. Although nitric oxide has been reported to be involved in the exacerbation of oxidative stress observed in several neuropathologies, existent data fail to provide a holistic description of how nitrergic pathobiology elicits neuronal injury. Here we provide a comprehensive description of mechanisms contributing to nitric oxide induced neuronal injury by global transcriptomic profiling. Microarray analyses were undertaken on RNA from murine primary cortical neurons treated with the nitric oxide generator DETA-NONOate (NOC-18, 0.5 mM) for 8–24 hrs. Biological pathway analysis focused upon 3672 gene probes which demonstrated at least a ±1.5-fold expression in a minimum of one out of three time-points and passed statistical analysis (one-way anova, P < 0.05). Numerous enriched processes potentially determining nitric oxide mediated neuronal injury were identified from the transcriptomic profile: cell death, developmental growth and survival, cell cycle, calcium ion homeostasis, endoplasmic reticulum stress, oxidative stress, mitochondrial homeostasis, ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis, and GSH and nitric oxide metabolism. Our detailed time-course study of nitric oxide induced neuronal injury allowed us to provide the first time a holistic description of the temporal sequence of cellular events contributing to nitrergic injury. These data form a foundation for the development of screening platforms and define targets for intervention in nitric oxide neuropathologies where nitric oxide mediated injury is causative.

Fear of music : sounded poetry and the poetry soundtrack

This essay proposes the term ‘poetry soundtrack’ for a form of sounded poetry that I have been practising for some years (examples of which can be found in this issue of Axon). The poetry soundtrack is a sonic object made up of original poetry, music, and sound design. Such a form is now being produced—under various names—by numerous poets, thanks to the development of the Digital Audio Workstation (or DAW). In my essay, I argue that the poetry soundtrack has occupied an aesthetic no man’s land between avant-garde ‘sound poetry’ and documentary-style recordings of poetry readings. I propose that a general ‘fear of music’ has led critics to favour such forms, and concomitantly to ignore musico-poetic forms of sounded poetry. In addition, I analyse the ‘digital poetics’ that can be found in producing sounded poetry with a DAW, especially with regard to the ‘vocal staging’ that such technology can produce in the poetry soundtrack.

Learning from sustainable landscapes of death in Bali : landscape planning and Tri Hita Karana

Landscape planning in many countries is predicated upon on fulfilling the functions for human living objectives. Many land use practices have been plotted for living, busines~, trading, industrial, farming as well as providing places for dead people primarily through cemeteries. Research in Palm Beach County, FL, has demonstrated the need to plan for 30 years of demand of land use functions to service death (Coutts, Basmaj ian et al. 20 I I). Coutts et al assert that planners are required and responsible for the planning of funeral necessities. Therefore, the protection of landscapes of death is an important consideration in the planning of landscapes. Bali is popular with its beautiful landscape, hospitality, and traditional architecture as demonstrating the integrity between human, environment and God, as expressed in the Balinese Tri Hita Karana concept. Balinese commemorate life from birth to death through their traditional ceremonies which informs their traditional cultural landscape. One of the most important landscapes, which cannot be separated fi·om Balinese life are graveyards which are used for deceased ceremonies. This landscape is an integral part of traditional village patterns across Bali. Culturally, Balinese people have their own traditional cremation ceremony which is call the Ngaben Ceremony. The Ceremony takes place in graveyards and thereupon ashes are placed in the sea waters surrounding Bali. An interesting point of planning in Bali is how to enable eco-friendly interment extensions to villages. This is occurring because of the increasing number of corpses that require cremation thus necessitating no accretions in land provision of graveyards. This research investigates the landscape of death in Bali expressed in its traditional values in the area of planning which implicate sustainable environments and land conservation topics. Other functions of graveyards, as noted by Strangstad ( 1988), include ceremonial and their role as educational tools for history lessons, art, sociology, geology, English lessons, as well as for scavenger hunts.

Fear of self and obsessionality: development and validation of the Fear of Self Questionnaire

Obsessions – particularly those directly relating to causing harm – often contain or imply evaluative dimensions about the self, reflecting a fear as to who the person might be – or might become. Following from research indicating that such beliefs are relevant to OCD, and the wider literature in social psychology regarding ‘feared’ or ‘undesired’ self-guides, the current study describes the development and validation of a new questionnaire—the Fear of Self Questionnaire, in 8- and 20-item versions.

The questionnaire was piloted in two non-clinical samples (n=258; n=292). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported the unidimensionality of the measure. The questionnaire showed a strong internal inconsistency, and good divergent and convergent validity, including strong relationships to obsessional symptoms and with other processes implicated in cognitive models of OCD (e.g. obsessive beliefs, inferential confusion). Implications are discussed.

Review of Pat Jalland's 'Changing way of death in twentieth century Australia: war, medicine and the funeral business'

Tanja Luckins of La Trobe University reviews Changing Ways of Death in Twentieth Century Australia: War, Medicine and the Funeral Business, by Pat Jalland. (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press; 2006)