Commonplace Research Articles

Joep Leerssen’s imagology and Yuri Lotman’s semiotic ideas

Having emerged as an independent branch of literary studies, today, imagology is represented by various schools. Its most prominent representative, Joep Leerssen, has developed a holistic version of the imagological theory, which, in many respects, correlates with constructivist approaches to understanding nationalism. The main categories of imagology as interpreted by this school are ethnic stereotype, ethnotype, category of the imaginary, non-falsifiability, imagotypes, imaginary discourse, auto-image, hetero-image, context, common places, imagemes, and the representativeness trap.From the point of view of semiology, ethnic stereotypes, which are studied by imagology, are the signs by means of which their bearer interprets for himself the sphere of interaction between people, in which they act as representatives of certain nations. Thus, the imagosphere can be interpreted as part of the semeosphere, distinguished from it only by problem-thematic rather than by structural-functional features. Accordingly, many of Yuri Lotman’s semiotic ideas can potentially be productive for research in the field of imagology.Imagologists and semiologists analyze the same works of literature and formulate different conclusions largely because they use different types of the scientific discourse in the categories of which they conduct their research. However, in essence, these conclusions are often not so different, at least not mutually exclusive.

A study on environmental elements of residential open spaces for grandparent-child rearing based on a field survey in Tianjin, China

With the advent of an aging society, grandparents' involvement in childcare is becoming increasingly common, saving families and society huge nursing costs. Residential open space (ROS) is a common place for grandparents' outdoor childcare activities, influencing the health of grandparents and children. However, existing research on the ROS environmental needs of intergenerational users is still insufficient. This study regards grandparents and children as a cohesive entity, based on environment behavior theory, and constructs a research framework for the ROS environmental elements needs for grandparent-child rearing. Taking a residential area in Tianjin as an example, four types of grandparent-child rearing are identified based on the age of the children. Through interviews with grandparents and observation of outdoor activities involving grandparent-child rearing, significant differences in the needs of ROS environmental elements such as enclosure feeling, pet control, and adult fitness equipment among different types of grandparent-child rearing were found, stemming from different caregiving patterns. This study provides important implications for constructing supportive childcare environments and promoting physical activities and childcare education among intergenerational populations.

Pattern of Drowning among Autopsies Conducted at Baroda Medical College and S.S.G Hospital

Drowning kills at least 3,72,000 people every year and is the 3rd leading cause of unintentional deaths. In addition to the human tragedy, drowning represents a huge economic problem with direct and indirect costs, including many Disability-Adjusted Life Years. In India, there is limited knowledge about the epidemiology of drowning.The objective of the study was to study the incidence, manner and epidemiology of deaths due to drowning in and around Vadodara region.The present study was conducted from May 2022 to April 2023 in Government Medical College, Baroda on 82 cases to study the various epidemiological parameters of drowning. In this study period, 1989 cases of post-mortem examination were done out of which 82 cases were of drowning deaths. A maximum number of cases were seen in the age group of 21–30 years with 43% cases of males, dominating the study population. 62% of deaths were accidental in nature and occurred during the rainy season. The most common place of occurrence of drowning was river (38%) followed by water canal (31%). Soddening of hands and feet was the most common external feature of drowning followed by the presence of froth at mouth and nostril. Drowning is a most ignored public hazard worldwide with serious implications for the society. Public awareness regarding safety measures and drowning prevention strategies suitable to the needs of geographical region should be adapted.

What is the carbon footprint of academic clinical trials? A study of hotspots in 10 trials

BackgroundClinical trials are fundamental to healthcare, however, they also contribute to anthropogenic climate change. Following previous work to develop and test a method and guidance to calculate the carbon footprint...

Unveiling the Nexus: Elevating marketing strategies for enhancing satisfaction and loyalty in elderly health care services

The study aimed to examine whether there is an association of marketing mix, and perception with customer’s satisfaction, and loyalty among elderly people. A total of 400 participants were included in the study. The study population comprised individuals aged 65 years and above from Assam, India including both males and females. Participants were primarily selected from residential homes, old age homes, and various common gathering places such as parks, shops, Namghar (a holy place), and community halls. The study indicated a significant correlation between the dimensions of the marketing mix, perception, satisfaction, and loyalty. Moreover, the findings from the linear regression analysis, revealed customer satisfaction towards the marketing of healthcare services can be attributed to product, price, place, process, and physical evidence (7 P’s) and customer perception (R2=.54; .53 respectively). Additionally, customer loyalty towards the marketing of healthcare services is influenced by product and price (7P’s), and customer perception (R2=.54; .2 respectively). This study contributes to understanding the overlooked aspect of marketing to the elderly population, providing valuable insights for healthcare companies to develop improved marketing strategies. Hence, irrespective of the organization's size, type, or location, whether it's a startup or an established entity, privately owned or government-operated, local or global, the role of business managers is vital in making informed decisions and establishing strategic priorities to allocate resources efficiently in order to meet evolving customer demands and achieve business success. As a result, commercial enterprises need to develop tools, concepts, and strategies to effectively navigate the dynamic and unpredictable marketing landscape.

Digitalization of administrative work at home

Abstract People must perform bureaucratic, administrative work in daily life, such as applying for official documents, concluding contracts, organizing purchases, managing pension plans, etc. This work is time-consuming and unequally distributed in the household. At its best, it is perceived as boring; at its worst, it is mentally and emotionally stressful, leaving people overwhelmed and unable to fulfill their obligations. People can benefit from the digitalization of domestic bureaucracy automating repetitive tasks, reducing mental effort, and saving time for leisure activities. In recent years, there has been a need for more empirical knowledge about the use of technology or the working environment for this purpose. This paper presents insights from an online survey with 617 socio-demographically distributed participants highlighting the devices, tools, special software, and common places people favor for accomplishing these office-like household chores. Our results provide a solid empirical basis that not only quantifies previous qualitative results now using the German adult population but also offers orientation for further in-depth research as well as design.

Socio-monetary and Demographic Profile of Gujjar and Bakkarwals of Poonch District

The present study is an attempt to understand the educational backwardness of scheduled tribes of district Poonch of Jammu and Kashmir. The Scheduled Tribes (ST’s) are the socially and educationally deprived people in India. Scheduled Tribes have specific histories of social and monetary deprivation and the underlying reasons in their educational marginalization are also strikingly awesome. Schooling forms a crucial factor inside the average improvement of people, enabling them to get extra awareness, higher comprehension in their social, political and cultural surroundings and additionally facilitating inside the development of their socio-monetary conditions. The time period “tribe” was earlier used for a network which constituted a homogenous institution that lived in overall isolation having a particularly self-sustaining economic system independent political setup and which maintained wonderful customs, religions practices inherited from one common place ancestor. The scheduled tribes are the oldest settlers, if no longer the primary in India and India has the second one biggest concentration of the tribes inside internationally. Scheduled tribe population constitutes 8.6% of the entire population in India. Jammu and Kashmir has many tribal communities having their own traditions, cultures and customs. Scheduled Tribe groups have traditionally lived in remote and some difficult terrains in the direction of forests and natural assets. Most of the tribes live in inaccessible areas.

Multinomial Logit Modeling of Financial Inclusion and Financial Literacy of Women MSMEs in Tangerang

This research will examine the determinants of financial literacy and inclusion using sociodemographic variables of women MSMEs in Tangerang. The sociodemographic variables used are education, age, length of business, turnover, source of financing, type of savings, type of credit, credit ceiling, financial literacy score (OJK) and financial inclusion score (OJK). In Indonesia, there has been a lot of research on socio-demographic factors as determinants of financial literacy with mixed and unsatisfactory results, making it less reliable as a research reference. Some of the errors in previous research were that the respondents were not precise enough, for example only students or MSMEs at random. These two things result in the results of entering sociodemographic data being less reliable and ineffective when tested with categorical equation models from the simplest, namely logit, probit and tobit as well as binary logistic to the most complex models such as multinomial logit. Logit, probit and tobit and binary logistics models generally only use two categories of dependent variables, namely 0 if there is no decision or certain condition and 1 if there is a certain decision or condition. Preliminary research data before the Covid 19 pandemic, namely 150 women MSMEs who had unique characteristics in terms of socio-demographic factors as well as levels of literacy and financial inclusion, can be tried to prove empirically that these three variables will play an important role in each other through the multinomial logit categorical equation model according to Bayar et research procedures. al. (2020). The important result to be achieved is that the researcher wants to prove the business potential of women MSME actors in Tangerang, which so far has not been exposed enough to BI UMKM as one of the common market places for all MSME actors in Indonesia. There is a stigma that the low literacy and financial inclusion (OJK) scores of MSME players are a negative effect of less exposure to the business potential of MSME players in the local area. The results of this research succeeded in describing the socio-demographic profile of female MSMEs in Tangerang with several distinctive characteristics, namely the predominance of those with a productive age of 40 - 55 years, the majority having a tertiary education; have a turnover of more than 10-25 million per month and most of them use access to bank and non-bank financial institutions, usually pawnshops, for storage purposes and credit applications. Furthermore, this research succeeded in proposing a categorical equation model with multinomial logistic regression using STATA 13.0 software referring to the research model from Bayar et.al. (2020) and managed to find that socio-demographic variables of financial institutions are always a determining factor in financial inclusion and literacy. The implication is that individual women MSME actors in Tangerang can make financial decisions more quickly considering that they are so close to access to existing financial institutions.

Bioinformatics in Russia: history and present-day landscape.

Bioinformatics has become an interdisciplinary subject due to its universal role in molecular biology research. The current status of Russia's bioinformatics research in Russia is not known. Here, we review the history of bioinformatics in Russia, present the current landscape, and highlight future directions and challenges. Bioinformatics research in Russia is driven by four major industries: information technology, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and agriculture. Over the past three decades, despite a delayed start, the field has gained momentum, especially in protein and nucleic acid research. Dedicated and shared centers for genomics, proteomics, and bioinformatics are active in different regions of Russia. Present-day bioinformatics in Russia is characterized by research issues related to genetics, metagenomics, OMICs, medical informatics, computational biology, environmental informatics, and structural bioinformatics. Notable developments are in the fields of software (tools, algorithms, and pipelines), use of high computation power (e.g. by the Siberian Supercomputer Center), and large-scale sequencing projects (the sequencing of 100 000 human genomes). Government funding is increasing, policies are being changed, and a National Genomic Information Database is being established. An increased focus on eukaryotic genome sequencing, the development of a common place for developers and researchers to share tools and data, and the use of biological modeling, machine learning, and biostatistics are key areas for future focus. Universities and research institutes have started to implement bioinformatics modules. A critical mass of bioinformaticians is essential to catch up with the global pace in the discipline.

The Impact of Home Medication Management Practices on Medication Adherence.

Medication adherence is a vexing challenge, with over 50% of US adults not adhering to their prescribed medication regimen. Most medications are self-administered by patients at home, requiring them to independently develop and manage their own medication routines. By understanding these home-based practices, such as where patients store their medications and how different storage locations impact adherence, we can develop targeted interventions to improve adherence rates. Our goal was to identify and categorize self-reported home medication management practices and determine which practices are associated with self-reported medication adherence. From the 1673 total survey respondents we learned that the most common places people store their medications at home are nightstand drawers (28%), on top of nightstands (27%), kitchen cabinets (22%), and bathroom medicine cabinets (20%). Kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities were significantly associated with increased odds of having ever forgotten to take a medication. On the other hand, desks, dining room tables, and the inside of nightstand drawers were associated with the greatest statistically significant decrease in odds of having ever forgotten to take a medication. Almost all (96%) respondents were receptive to receiving guidance from healthcare providers on how to store medications. Patients are largely responsible for creating their own home medication management practices, including deciding where to store their medication at home. Understanding which home storage locations are associated with medication adherence can lead to innovative approaches to improve adherence, including personalized guidance to patients from their healthcare providers for patients.

‘Christian notes sound sweetest suffering’: birds, books and textual circulation in Sir John Gibson’s commonplace book (BL Add 37719)

ABSTRACT A growing body of scholarship has worked to recover the vocal dimensions of early modern reading and the effects of aural reading cultures on literary composition. Where these studies have focused on the relationship between the human voice and early modern texts, this article examines how the seventeenth-century royalist prisoner Sir John Gibson deploys early modern ideas about birds and birdsong as he seeks consolation through the material and textual processes of literary composition, manuscript compilation, and epistolary exchange. These efforts are evident in his physical and imaginative construction of his miscellany (BL Add 37719) as possessing bird-like capacities for movement and communication. While Gibson’s miscellany does draw on familiar seventeenth-century ideas about music and the human voice, I argue that his invocations of birds and birdsong produce intriguing and powerful claims for the ways written texts can extend the capabilities of the human voice and body.

‘Der Todtenkopf soll mir zu Ehren wegbleiben’: Ottilie Goethes Zuarbeiten für Anna Jameson

ABSTRACT This article examines Ottilie (von) Goethe's work for Anna Jameson and her preference for anonymity in the context of creative women’s struggle for self-determination. I ponder whether Goethe may have contributed illustrations in Jameson's anthology A Commonplace Book (1854), investigating for the first time their sources and, where applicable, previous discussion or publication: I can proof that the ‘Daughter of Fire’ and two compositions with cupids are reproductions of creations by the late-romantic painter Moritz von Schwind, a friend of Ottilie Goethe, while the statuette of an owlet on a youth's head from Johann Wolfgang Goethe's art collection as well as an enigmatic vignette of a skull are likely original designs. Goethe’s daughter-in-law can be connected with all three illustrations, and therefore she may have provided the drawings for the reproductions or at least have stimulated Jameson to include them in her illustrated book of excerpts, quotes, and new writings.

Th e “soil” by F.M. Dostoevsky and the “hillbilly” writers: a problematic fi eld

The article deals with the problem of the continuity of “hillbilly” writers in relation to F.M. Dostoevsky in their belonging to the phenomenon of “soil science”. Such a statement is a common place in modern literary criticism and mass consciousness. This paper proposes a radical revision of this view. In the problem field, the author identifies two fundamental points. The first point is the well—established ideology of the continuity of history, the idea of time as a linear process that brings progress. The dominance of this ideology in the Soviet era generated a negative attitude towards patriarchy in combination with the national and religious — Orthodox — origin of Russian society. The author of the article contrasts the concept of linearity of time with its cyclicality, referring to both the agricultural cycle and the Orthodox calendar. The word “peasant” etymologically goes back to the word “Christian”. Christianity, a synonym for the word “peasantry”, is the second fundamental point of the problem field. The Russian countryside and the Russian peasantry, to whom the work of the “hillbillies” writers is dedicated, for internal political reasons were deprived of their organizing principle, their “soil” — Christianity. Therefore, the fate of the village in the works of ”hillbillies” does not show progress, but commemorations of the village, and the coined term “neo-soil” reveals a separation from the basic foundations of “soil science”.

Spirit of the Age

This essay turns a spotlight on Elizabeth Barret Barrett's unpublished 1822-26 notebook (now in Wellesley College Library). A seldom-cited archival text, the 231-page notebook opens a window on Romantic culture and writers in the years it spans. It also illumines the intellectual and artistic formation of the gifted juvenile author who would become England’s most internationally influential woman poet by 1850 under the name of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The notebook includes drafts of original compositions, memoranda (for example, “Stray Thoughts,” “List of Books I wish to have”), and extracts or analyses documenting EBB’s self-education through wide-ranging reading across genres, fields, and national boundaries. The largest category of entries is made up of review-like commentaries, principally on recently published books, in which EBB hones a critical voice shaped by the periodical press of the period. Writers treated range from major literary figures like Lord Byron, Letitia Landon, Madame de Staël, and Mary Shelley, to others influential or emerging at the time (e.g., Robert Southey, James Hogg, Anna Jameson, James Fenimore Cooper), to authors of memoirs, biographies, histories, and works of political philosophy. Examination of the hybrid form as well as the mixed contents of the notebook indicates that it both participates in the commonplace book tradition and reflects Romantic transformations in that tradition exemplified by Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s notebooks. In the process, EBB’s 1822-26 notebook offers a perspective on the mid-1820s very different from William Hazlitt’s in The Spirit of the Age (1824-25); it also demonstrates the budding acumen as a literary critic later expressed in her contributions to Richard Hengist Horne’s A New Spirit of the Age (1844). Notably too, the notebook underscores the cosmopolitanism and engagement with contemporary subject matter that underpins her later artistic practice, especially in her representation of “this live, throbbing” modern age in Aurora Leigh (1856).

Accounting for site-to-site DNA transfer on a packaged exhibit in an evaluation given activity level propositions

Considering activity level propositions in the evaluation of forensic biology findings is becoming more common place. There are increasing numbers of publications demonstrating different transfer mechanisms that can occur under a variety of circumstances. Some of these publications have shown the possibility of DNA transfer from site to site on an exhibit, for instance as a result of packaging and transport. If such a possibility exists, and the case circumstances are such that the area on an exhibit where DNA is present or absent is an observation that is an important diagnostic characteristic given the propositions, then site to site transfer should be taken into account during the evaluation of observations. In this work we demonstrate the ways in which site to site transfer can be built into Bayesian networks when carrying out activity level evaluations of forensic biology findings. We explore the effects of considering qualitative vs quantitative categorisation of DNA results. We also show the importance of taking into account multiple individual’s DNA being transferred (such as unknown or wearer DNA), even if the main focus of the evaluation is the activity of one individual.

A cross-sectional study assessing concordance with advance care directives in a rural health district.

To measure compliance with Advance Care Directives (ACDs) for decedents in a rural setting. Observational, cross-sectional medical records audit comparing requests in ACDs with actual outcomes. Rural Australian coastal district. People who had an ACD, died during the study period (30 May 2020 to 15 December 2021) and participated in a local research project. Compliance was measured by comparing stated requests in the ACD with outcomes recorded in medical records. This included the place of death and a list of 'unacceptable interventions'. Sixty-eight people met the inclusion criteria (age range of 46-92 [mean 67 years; median 74 years]; 42 [62%] male). The main cause of death was cancer (n = 48; 71%). Preferred place of death was not stated in 16 ACDs. Compliance with documented preferred place of death was 63% (33/52): 48% (16/33) when the preferred place of death was home; 78% (7/9) when sub-acute was preferred; and 100% (10/10) when hospital was preferred. Compliance was 100% with 'unacceptable interventions'. These results demonstrate strong compliance with rural patients' requests in ACDs, particularly 'unacceptable interventions'. Home was the most common preferred place of death, but the compliance measure (48%) was the lowest in this study. This requires further exploration.

Migration intentions among nursing students in a low-middle-income country

BackgroundMigration among skilled labour has been noted as one of the major issues in recent times, especially among health workers. Data from the United Nations show that almost two thirds of people migrating are labor migrants and international migrants constitute 3.5% of the global migration population. Out of the millions of people who migrate across the globe, health workers, especially nurses form a greater portion of these numbers. This study explored nursing students’ intention to migrate to other countries after completing their programs.MethodA descriptive cross-sectional design approach was adopted using self-administered questionnaire that contain aspects of open-ended questions. A sample size of 226 nursing students were recruited using convenient sampling technique.ResultsThe results overall, revealed that 226 nursing students participated in the study. Out of this, most of the respondents 42.5% were aged between 25 and 30 years with majority 53.1% being males. Also, 35% of the participants were married with more than half 59.7% of the respondents being Christians. The results further revealed that most of the participants 64.2% had intention of migrating to other countries. Among those who intended to migrate, 11.7% identified lack of jobs, 39.3% identified low salaries in Ghana while 50.3% identified bad working conditions. The rest 2.8% attributed their intentions to migrate to educational opportunities. Common places of destination included Canada, USA, UK and Australia.ConclusionThe outcome of this study points to the urgent need for low-income countries such as Ghana to urgently put in measures to curb the menace of brain drain among nurses. Improvement in working condition of nurses must be prioritized to motivate their stay.

Commonplace Jacobitism: Commonplace Books and Scottish Jacobite Social Imaginaries, 1688-1765

Commonplace Jacobitism: Commonplace Books and Scottish Jacobite Social Imaginaries, 1688-1765

Dostoevsky’s Great Pentateuch: Concept, Translation, Interpretation

Dostoevsky has been successfully translated into different languages. He remains himself even in unsuccessful translations. Every translation is an interpretation. Interpretations include not only critical publications, but also theatrical productions and screen adaptations. Translations and interpretations expand the corpus of Dostoevsky’s texts. Translation is universal. Dostoevsky is in demand for translations not only into foreign languages, but also from Russian into Russian: manuscript to printed text, printed text to multimedia format. Over the last hundred years, the graphics, orthography and punctuation of the Russian language have changed. Changes in the language distort the meaning of Dostoevsky’s works. Both the shortcomings and the achievements of Soviet and post-Soviet textology are most fully presented in the Complete Works of Dostoevsky. They resulted in the amended texts of the writer, which, in turn, required new translations into foreign languages. The concept of “Dostoevsky’s Pentateuch” is tentative. Had Dostoevsky lived longer, he may have written more great novels: not five, but six or more. And now “Poor People,” “Notes from the Dead House,” “Notes from Underground,” “Diary of a Writer” are added to Dostoevsky’s five great novels . Of the different Pentateuchs, there are two personal ones: one by Moses, the other by Dostoevsky, which was immediately labeled “great.” The concept of the “great Pentateuch” has many authors. It became common place in conference debates as early as the 1970s. At first, it was a rhetorical figure that stated the number of Dostoevsky’s famous novels. At present it is a concept that expresses the ideological content, genre and poetics of the writer’s late novels.

Evaluation of incest cases in Sivas: Ten‐year retrospective study

AbstractAlthough incest is generally perceived as all kinds of verbal, non‐verbal, physical and visual sexual behaviour of family members and close relatives toward children, it is also a special type of sexual abuse defined as consensual sexual intercourse between close relatives or between minors who are legally prohibited from marrying. This study aimed to analyse the sociodemographic data, physical‐mental examination and laboratory findings of the incest cases. Incest cases among sexual abuse and sexual assault cases sent to Sivas Cumhuriyet University Hospital Forensic Medicine outpatient clinic for examination between 2012 and 2021 were evaluated. Statistical analysis of the data was performed using the SPSS 23.0 program. P‐values below 0.05 were considered significant. The records of 61 incest victims were retrospectively analysed. The cases were examined in terms of age, gender, incident, perpetrator, type of abuse, examination findings and mental status. Fifty‐four (88.5%) of the incest victims were female, and the highest rate (n = 9, 14.8%) was 16 years old. Most of the victims were high school graduates (29%), 56% were in a nuclear family 57.4% of the assailants were family members, most of the case reports (73.8%) were made by the victim herself/himself, and the most common place of incident (70.3%) was the victim's home. In this study, the clinical, social and forensic outcomes of incest cases, which have many causes and tragic consequences, were investigated, and it was aimed to contribute to the solution of the problem by discussing the literature.