Greater Endurance Research Articles

Twentieth-Century Women Writers from the English-Speaking Caribbean

Twentieth-Century Women Writers from the English-Speaking Caribbean Laura Niesen de Abruña (bio) "Alienation Within Alienation"—political and social—this, in Kenneth Ramchand's phrase (Novel 231), is the inchoate pain of the women writers from the English-speaking Caribbean. That they are writing fine poetry and fiction is a simple statement but one we do not hear often. Until the late Seventies little was written about these authors while the critics' attention focused on the male writers Wilson Harris, George Lamming, Edgard Mittelholzer, V. S. Naipaul, and Edward Brathwaite. As late as 1979, the popular critical text West Indian Literature, edited by Bruce King, mentions only Jean Rhys among the many women writers from this area. As Judith Fetterley has taught us, we must resist rather than assent to this reading of West Indian literature because the story that is missing here is the woman's story, and the omission is so acceptable that it is not even noticed (Davidson 43). Twentieth-century women writers from the English-speaking Caribbean—those who were born or grew up in the former British colonies in the West Indies—live in societies of extreme diversity and grave fragmentation of both European and African cultures. The insecurity in human relationships within tense social and political climates—particularly between woman and woman, man and woman, or mother and daughter—as [End Page 85] well as the uneasiness about personal identity are the most common concerns of the prominent women writers: Phyllis Shand Allfrey (Dominica), Zee Edgell (Belize), Merle Hodge (Trinidad), Jamaica Kincaid (Antigua), Paule Marshall (Barbados), Jean Rhys (Dominica), and Sylvia Wynter (Jamaica). Despite significant differences, these women writers have two things in common: the imbalance of power between men and women in their societies and the problems of identity and inequality in relation to male dominance (Brown 12). And, in many of these novels, the women characters best able to survive form a bond, a type of "mirroring" relationship with other women. The critics Leota Lawrence, Merle Hodge, and Hermione McKenzie have all pointed to several features of women's lives in the West Indies that have become part of literary discussion. The preponderance of the matriarchal family is, according to Lawrence, "the result of a synthesis of an African cultural survival with the realities of slavery in the area" (4). In many cases, the women live in a society in which sexual and emotional relationships have been destroyed by demoralizing and alienating economic manipulations in colonial and neocolonial societies (McKenzie ix). The single female head of household can be "among the most powerless of the society, the absence of a spouse often implying the absence of a stable family income" (Mathurin 5-6). Lucille Mathurin points out that this economically depressed condition makes the woman as "sexually vulnerable as she was in the darker days of her history" (6). Countering the myth of the self-sufficient black matriarchal figures, Hodge points out in a special edition of Savacou that the ultimate vocation of all women in the West Indies is to marry and/or become mothers (41). Lawrence goes further: It is a fact that many a young woman in the Caribbean has deliberately stifled any pretensions to a career, lest in doing so she outshine her male counterpart and thereby end up an "old maid." Thus, with very few exceptions there are no women writers; with very few exceptions there are no women calypsonians. The portrait of women that is revealed to the world in the written and oral literature is that given them by men. (4-5) Despite Lawrence's assertion that there are no women writers, there are many Caribbean women writing, although, as she admits, sometimes with great anxiety because their models are usually male writers and their societies emphasize the vocation of all women as nurturing their relationships with men and as bearing and raising children. Overcoming these obstacles, women writers have created characters who are self-supporting and who have great strength and endurance. They struggle and survive because of their basic respect for life; they depend on a strong bonding between and among women in their communities in the fight for basic survival...

Sex-Role Orientation and the Responses of Men to Exercise Stress

Abstract The present investigation was designed to investigate whether males' gender roles mediate their perception of strenuous physical exercise, a stereotypically masculine task. Forty-two college-age males from three sex-role categories (masculine, feminine, and androgynous) performed a bicycle ergometer exercise at comparable work intensities. Results indicated that, in comparison to feminine males, masculine males reported lower physical strain (via general RPEs), while androgynous males had more positive affect and greater endurance. These findings suggest that inadequate experience with cross-gender behaviors may have a greater influence upon perceptions of an activity than the gender inappropriateness of such behavior.

SWEDISH COAST GUARD STARTS USING THIRD GENERATION MARITIME SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM

ABSTRACT Since 1981, the Swedish Coast Guard has been conducting daily oil spill surveillance patrols using small aircraft equipped with a remote sensing system. During this time, the use of the aircraft has widened to include a number of Coast Guard tasks such as fishery protection and sea traffic surveillance. This has necessitated the acquisition of aircraft with greater endurance and more loading capability. Two CASA 212 aircraft were delivered in 1986. In response to requests from Coast Guard operators, the remote sensing system has at the same time gone through a major revision. One of the main ideas in the third generation system is to give the operator computer aid in producing charts and reports for documenting routine missions, violations, and accidents. When necessary, as in the case of an accident, the charts can be immediately telecopied from the computer in the aircraft to a Coast Guard Command Center to ensure a quick and proper response.

Distracting Attentional Focus from Fatigues Does Task Complexity Make a Difference?

This study examined how exercise endurance was influenced by varying the task complexity of dissociative coping. In Trial 1, 60 subjects were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a simple cognitive task (SCT), a complex cognitive task (CCT), or a control group (CG). All subjects were instructed to maintain an isometric contraction of 40% maximum on a handgrip dynamometer for as long as possible. Results revealed that subjects in the SCT and CCT conditions had greater endurance than those in the CG; however, varying the complexity of the task made no difference. Trial 2, a within-subjects design, was implemented to examine the potential mediating effects of task preference on cognitive coping. The protocol was identical to Trial 1 except that subjects previously assigned to the SCT condition were given the CCT and vice versa. Upon completion of Trial 2, subjects were asked which coping style they had preferred. A two-way mixed ANO-VA resulted in a significant coping style X preference interaction term. Specifically, subjects who preferred the complex task did equally well in both conditions, whereas subjects who preferred the simple task performed significantly better with the simple than with the complex task.

The Granite Quarrying Industry in Devon and Cornwall: Part Two 1910-85

Abstract Part One of this article (Industrial Archaeology Review, VII, no 2, Spring 1985, 171-89) described nineteenth century granite working techniques, with an outline history of the industry in Devon and Cornwall. Granite quarrying developed as a direct result of public civil engineering works in the Victorian period, such as breakwaters, bridges, docks, dockyards, lighthouses and public buildings. All required a material of great endurance, and granite was able to meet this need. Access to shipping ports was an important factor in the growth of quarrying in certain districts of the two counties. In Cornwall, the industry came to be developed by John Freeman & Sons, formerly of Westminster, but with a headquarters and large masons' yard on the quayside at Penryn. The trade was subject to fluctuations in demand, but a crisis was reached at the turn of the century, when strong competiton from Scandinavia left the home industry in a very sorry state, with many quarries closed in the resulting depression....

The effect of body temperature on the locomotory energetics of lizards.

Oxygen consumption (VO2), carbon dioxide production (VCO2), and stamina were measured in the lizard Tupinambis nigropunctatus running at sustainable and non-sustainable velocities (v) on a motor-driven treadmill. Three experimental groups were measured: field-fresh animals at body temperature (Tb) = 35 degrees C and laboratory-maintained animals at Tb = 35 and 25 degrees C. Mean preferred Tb was determined to be 35.2 degrees C. At 35 degrees C, field-fresh animals had a greater maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max corr) (4.22 vs 3.60 ml O2 g-0.76h-1) and a greater endurance. The net cost of transport (slope of VO2 on v) did not differ between the groups (= 2.60 ml O2 g-0.76)km-1). Velocity at which VO2max is attained (MAS) is 0.84 km h-1. The respiratory exchange ratio (R) exceeded 1.0 at v above MAS, indicating supplementary anaerobic metabolism. At 25 degrees C, VO2max corr was lower (2.34 ml O2 g-0.76h-1) as was endurance, MAS occurring at 0.5 km h-1. Net cost of transport was not significantly different than at 35 degrees C. The effect of Tb on locomotory costs was analyzed for this lizard and other species. It was concluded that the net cost of transport is temperature independent in all species examined and the total cost of locomotion (VO2 v-1) is temperature dependent in Tupinambis (Q10 = 1.4-2.0) and all other species examined except one. The energetic cost of locomotion [(VO2active-VO2rest)v-1], previously reported to be temperature independent in lizards, is temperature dependent in Tupinambis (Q10 = 1.3-1.6) and in two other species.2r

Improvement in pulmonary function in patients having combined anterior and posterior spine fusion for myelomeningocele scoliosis.

Thirteen patients with myelomeningocele scoliosis whose surgery necessitated anterior exposure of the thoracic spine were tested for changes in pulmonary function following spinal stabilization. The majority of patients exhibited a T12 level paralysis and a mean scoliosis of 72 degrees. Average correction of scoliosis for the series was 63%, and two cases with one level pseudarthrosis had no loss of correction. Ten of 13 patients were tested for pulmonary function one month prior to surgery and an average of ten months postoperatively. Eight of the ten patients demonstrated increase in peak flow postoperatively. Five demonstrated increase in maximum voluntary ventilation, and six cases showed increased functional residual capacity. Forced vital capacity increased in two, decreased in five, and showed no change in three patients. Improvement in peak flow, maximum voluntary ventilation, and functional residual capacity was noted in all five cases with scoliotic deformity in excess of 60 degrees (mean 93 degrees). It is postulated that, following spinal stabilization, these patients are able to improve their thoracic mechanics, enhancing greater expiratory flow with greater endurance.

Design aspects of non rigid airship envelopes

There are two main reasons for the modern resurgence of interest in airships. The first is that it can have a greater endurance than any other flight vehicle. This makes it particularly suitable for such offshore tapestry duties as fishery patrol and oilfield surveillance. The second is that it does not require power to sustain lift. It can thus transport a given load with a low expenditure of fuel which is continually rising in price.

Properties of anodic oxide films prepared on nitrogen-doped tantalum films

Capacitors prepared from thin films of tantalum nitride, which has an h.c.p. structure, show various excellent electrical properties. TaN capacitors, in particular, exhibit great endurance to heat treatment and have no polarity in their anodic and cathodic leakage currents. The structure of these anodic films, their dielectric properties and their electrical conduction characteristics were studied. An anodic film formed on a nitrogen-doped tantalum film was shown to consist of two layers by analysis using the chemical etching method and by Auger electron spectroscopy. The first layer, which is situated at the oxide-electrolyte interface, has a high density and includes very little nitrogen. The second layer is porous and contains excess nitrogen.

Anson Burlingame: Reformer and Diplomat

ANSON BURLINGAME: REFORMER AND DIPLOMAT David L. Anderson It is no coincidence that one of the most innovative American diplomats ever to serve in China was also one of the most active participants in die New England antislavery struggle of the 1840's and 1850's. Former Massachusetts Congressman Anson Burlingame went to Peking in 1861 as the first United States minister plenipotentiary to reside in the Chinese capital. He traveled to his new postwith no diplomatic experience, after having spent more than a decade laboring in the ranks of the Free Soil movement and the new Republican party. Burlingame was young— only 41 years old—when he went to China. He was a reformer and a politician, not a diplomat, and his fresh approach to Sino-Western relations reflected his background. He disagreed with the belief, prevalent among Westerners in China, that the Chinese were an inferior race and not due respect as a people or a nation. Usinghis political skills, Burlingame endeavored to change the assumptions and methods of Western diplomacy in Peking. In recognition of his efforts, the Chinese government in 1867 named him China's first official envoy to the West. The same reform propensity that propelled Burlingame into the political drama that led to the Civil War also carried him to the fore in the Western encounter with China's centuries-old isolation. Burlingame's humble frontier beginnings gave little hint of his future political and diplomatic success. He was born on November 14, 1820, in New Berlin, a farm community in central New York. Joel Burlingame, Anson's father, was a farmer, school teacher, and Methodist lay preacher. When Anson was three, the family moved to Seneca County, Ohio, and in 1833 moved again to the frontier city of Detroit. After only two years in Detroit, the Burlingames made their final move one hundred miles soudiwest to a farm in Branch County, Michigan. Young Anson remained behind, however, to continue his education.1 At age seventeen Burlingame entered the Detroit branch of the fledgling University of Michigan. Since his family was very poor, his 1 Burlingame to his parents, June 30, 1839, Burlingame Family Papers, Library of Congress; Frederick Wells Williams, Anson Burlingame and the First Chinese Mission to Foreign Powers (New York, 1912), 3-5. Civil War History, Vol. XXV, No. 4 Copyright ß 1979 by The Kent State University Press 0009-8078/79/2504-0001 $0.90/0 293 294CIVIL WAR HISTORY only assets were "a frank, noble disposition, habits of industry, a charming and persuasive manner, and promising talents as an orator."2 He attended class irregularly because he had to work to support himself. He copied deeds and documents in a law office, worked on survey crews, and was employed by die Indian Commission in negotiating treaties with tribes in the Great Lakes region. At the university his academic record was not distinguished. He excelled, however, in one area: oratory. His platform talents brought him notice and a wide circle of friends. He became prominent in a literary society and in college politics. At his final examination in rhetoric Burlingame's speech received a loud ovation, which was not only extremely rare for such occasions but also against the rules.3 Burlingame's accomplishments as an outdoorsman, even more than his effective stump-speaking style, revealed his rural, Western background. A man of great strength and endurance, he frequently took walks of fifteen and twenty miles>into the country just for recreation. He enjoyed hunting and was an excellent marksman. Everyone around Detroit knew and talked about his ability to hit an owl in the steeple of the Presbyterian Church at a distance unmatched by anyone else. His reputation with a rifle played almost as important a role as his oratory in his later public career.4 After leaving the university Burlingame entered a law office in Detroit. He acquired a circle of influential friends and patrons, including Zepheniah Piatt, former attorney general of Michigan. He was in frequent demand as a speaker at Washington's Birthday celebrations, lodge meetings, and other occasions. In 1843, however, Burlingame made a momentous decision. He left Detroit and his rapid but modest successes there...

Thermal fatigue of chromium-molybdenum steels used in sintering machine and roasting furnace components

1. A method has been developed that makes it possible to obtain information on temperature and cyclic and unidirectional plastic strains in the probable fracture zone of a specimen during testing. 2. The use of control elements makes it possible to reliably determine the amount of unidirectional plastic strain and the stress cycle asymmetry. 3. The endurance of steels 15KhM1 and 20KhM1 within the investigated range of force parameters is determined mainly by time processes rather than by the cyclicity of load application. 4. Given identical cycle stresses, highly asymmetric cycles provide for greater endurance.

Muscular Endurance Retention as a Function of Length of Detraining

Abstract Male university students (N = 53) participated three times weekly in a 7-week training program. During each session, one all-out bout of right elbow flexion was performed on an arm-lever ergometer at a cadence of 40 repetitions per minute against a 9.60-lb. resistance. Following training, the subjects were randomly divided into three experimental groups and stopped training for 1, 3, or 5 weeks. Upon completion of the inactivity periods, a retention test was administered. The data analysis revealed that all groups enhanced their muscular endurance levels during training and retained a significant amount of the endurance acquisition following the inactivity periods. No appreciable amount of muscular endurance was lost as a result of the 1-week inactivity period, but curtailment of training for at least 3 weeks caused a significant decrement. The 3- and 5-week inactivity periods did not differ significantly, but both resulted in greater endurance decrements than did the 1-week layoff.

MAXIMUM VENTILATORY PERFORMANCE AND ITS LIMITING FACTORS.

Pressure-volume-flow relationships during maximum-effort expirations and inspirations were analyzed in 27 studies on 7 superbly conditioned nonsmoking athletes, 5 nonathletic nonsmokers, and 7 nonathletic smokers. The athletes had larger mean vital capacity and maximum breathing capacity as well as higher airflow during the first half of forced inspiration than the other subjects. In contrast, smokers exhibited lower mean vital capacity, lower air flows, and higher transpulmonary pressures during forced expirations than the nonsmokers. Transpulmonary pressures at peak flow during maximal forced expirations were higher in the present study than those commonly reported and may have been due to the technique used to perform this maneuver. Limiting factors apparently operate to prevent superior athletic conditioning from effecting comparable improvement in ventilatory performance. The favorable alterations in this performance which were observed in the athletes do not seem sufficient to explain their greater endurance. Mild decreases in ventilatory performance were exhibited by the smokers, probably due to the chronic effects of cigarette smoking on the pulmonary airways. respiratory pressure-volume-flow relationships; vital capacity and maximum breathing capacity in athletes; esophageal balloon system for measuring transpulmonary pressure Submitted on April 25, 1963

Sir Farquhar Buzzard, Bart., K. C. V. O

SIR FARQTTHAR BUZZARD died at Oxford of coronary thrombosis on December 17 in his seventy-fourth year. Like his father, Dr. Thomas Buzzard, of the National Hospital, Queen Square, he was a distinguished neurologist. After graduation from Oxford and St. Thomas's Hospital, he became house physician at Queen Square to the great Hughlings Jackson, an old friend of his family. He was elected to the staff at Queen Square in 1905, and later to St. Thomas's. His published contributions to neurology consist of a well-known book on the “Pathology of the Nervous System”(with J. G. Greenfield) and numerous articles and lectures on clinical subjects, including the Goulstonian and Lettsomian Lectures and the Harveian Oration. These reveal him as a keen clinical observer, with a deep understanding of the psychological aspects of illness. He was, indeed, a pioneer among organic neurologists in recognizing the importance of minor psychological ailments and their relationship to the major psychoses, at a time when it was considered at Queen Square that a neurologist ought not to concern himself with the functional side of neurology. His opinion on difficult cases was much sought, for he had to a marked degree the qualities of a good consultant: he was imperturbable yet sympathetic, direct and honest with patient and medical man alike-and with himself in his own unobtrusive way ; and he had a strong constitution and great physical and moral endurance.

The Negro as a Biological Element in the American Population

The essential facts about the Negro as a biological element in the American population are common knowledge. He is a hybrid, presenting varying degrees of admixture of African, Indian and European blood. He is today an intrabreeding group, being prevented by circumstance and law from large scale intermixture with the white majority. He is fecund, having maintained under adverse conditions a consistently high birth rate which has. raised his numbers to approximately thirteen millions, despite a high mortality rate. He is physically strong, showing great endurance at strenuous labor under severe climatic and nutritional hardships, and producing a disproportionately large number of champions in representative fields of athletics. He is mentally able, having produced individuals of exceptional attainments in nearly every line of intellectual endeavor and integrated himself into all phases of modern life in which opportunity has opened. He is possessed of special aptitudes, as exemplified by an acute perception of pitch and rhythm, which in association with other factors, has resulted in the spirituals and jazz. He has exhibited marked adaptability to changing conditions, a fact of considerable importance in his survival on this continent. In the absence of external restrictions, he freely blends his society and his blood with those of peoples with whom he may be in contact. His future would appear to rest upon other factors than his biological quality.

Mr. Charles Hedley

THE sudden death of Mr. Charles Hedley at Mosman, Sydney, on September 14, deprives Australia of one of its foremost scientists, who was deservedly popular among a wide circle of friends. Hedley was the younger son of the Rev. Canon Hedley, and was born at Masham, Yorkshire, on February 27, 1862. Though in later years he was capable of great physical endurance, as a youth he was delicate, and on that account his school life was limited to two years at Eastbourne College; his wide knowledge was acquired by reading and observation, and instruction received from his father, who was a distinguished graduate of the University of Cambridge. For health reasons he spent much of his youth in the south of France and in Switzerland, where he acquired a taste for long walks and mountain climbing, two avocations from which he always derived much pleasure.

The Commercial Use of Airships

THE future of the rigid airship from the commercial point of view is brought prominently into notice by a paper lately issued by the Air Ministry entitled “Notes on Airships for Commercial Purposes.” This memorandum discusses at length the possibility of the use of airships in the immediate future, and enters into a detailed1 comparison between the large aeroplane and the rigid airship. At the outset it is stated, however, that the two types of aircraft, as at present developed, are not likely to compete with one another seriously, since their characteristics are widely different, the aeroplane being essentially a highspeed, short-distance machine, while the rigid airship is a long-distance, weight-carrying craft. The great endurance of the airship and its power of remaining in the air during a temporary breakdown of the machinery are valuable assets when long flights over sea or mountainous country are contemplated. The safety and comfort of passengers are considered to be greater in the case of the airship than in that of the aeroplane. In connection with the possibility of loss by fire in the former case the Air Ministry -points.out that there has: been only one such loss since 1914, despite the fact that about 2½ million miles have been covered, and that in this one case the cause of fire has been ascertained and eliminated. It is conceded that at present the airship is more affected by bad weather than the aeroplane, but it is stated that up to the end of November there were only nine days in 1918 on which no airship flight took place in the British Isles.

THE DEMANDS OF THE CHILD BY VIRTUE OF RIGHT.CHAIRMAN'S ADDRESS BEFORE THE SECTION ON DISEASES OF CHILDREN, AT THE FIFTY-FIFTH ANNUAL SESSION OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, AT ATLANTIC CITY, JUNE 7-10, 1904.

Among mammals, animals of the higher development, helplessness and dependence characterize the state of the young. The duration of the dependence varies with the different types of animal. Until able to care for itself the young mammal's wants are supplied by those responsible for its existence—a duty which is instinctively assumed. For the growth and development of mammals, of which man is the highest type, there must be means of nutrition, and surroundings suitable to the habits of the animal—conditions ordained by Nature, which, when not followed out, invariably produce inferior growth and physical degeneration. The man who breeds a horse for the track, a horse to excel in intelligence and speed, one sound in body and of great endurance, the horse which is to win the Suburban, begins during the animal's fetal life to prepare him for the future. The first step is the proper care of the mother.

The Institution of Naval Architects

THE twentieth session of the Institution of Naval Architects has now been brought to a close. The meeting, with Lord Hampton in the chair, was held at the house of the Society of Arts, John Street, Adelphi, and was well attended throughout. One of the latest developments in ship-building is shown in the paper on “The Structural Arrangements and Proportions of H.M.S. Iris,” by W. H. White, Assistant-Constructor of the Navy. The construction of the Iris marks a new era in the British Navy, being the first vessel built wholly of steel; she is an unarmoured dispatch vessel, specially designed for high speed and great coal endurance. Her principal dimensions are: length between perpendiculars, 300 feet, breadth, extreme, 46 feet, mean load draught, 19 feet 9 inches, displacement, 3,735 tons.