Great Expectations Research Articles

Jaggers the Plotter and the Pretty Child: Masculine Vulnerability to Beauty in Great Expectations

Abstract: This article examines the role of the criminal lawyer Mr. Jaggers in Great Expectations , arguing that beyond his function as the hidden link between Miss Havisham and Abel Magwitch, his masculine vulnerability before the pretty little child who becomes Estella is an essential plot element. Jaggers's decision to save this child from poverty, and perhaps prostitution, characterizes the lawyer as Dickens's main authorial collaborator and key plotter. Jaggers's actions, wholly disclosed in Chapter 51, characterize him thus as a fully rounded minor or supporting character. His motivations to rescue Estella, however, are ambiguous, appearing to be either an example of compassionate chivalry or, in a darker reading, a strategy to control his sexual impulses.

Charles Dickens and Colonial Expansionism ‘Obscured’ in "When We Were Orphans" by Kazuo Ishiguro

The intertextual associations with Charles Dickens’s novel Great Expectations in When We Were Orphans seem unobvious. In this paper I will show that Dickensian motifs are nonetheless noticeable in Ishiguro’s novel and, relating to Dickens’s fictionalised biography by Peter Ackroyd, some events from his turbulent life can also be recognised. The concept of “obscurity” of the image that derives from Emanuel Levinas, and which was later elucidated by Homi K. Bhabha, will be employed in my analysis. Ishiguro seems to conceal a true picture of British colonialism, drawing the reader’s attention to Christopher Banks’s futile mission to find his missing parents, remaining myopic to the real evil around him. The enunciation of “the unspoken,” that is to say, the history of colonial power dynamics will be particularly clear while elaborating on the story of Christopher’s mother, Diana Banks. I will also demonstrate that When We Were Orphans accentuates the issue of the binary opposition between the West and the East, which explicitly alludes to Edward Said’s politics of bipolarity.

Analyzing the Influences on Women’s Upbringing and Their Educational Significance Using the Case of Estella, the Heroine of Great Expectations

This paper explores the influences on women’s upbringing and their educational significance by using the character Estella from Great Expectations as a case study. Through analyzing the impact of social environment, family education, and self-awakening, this article aims to promote gender equality and the construction of a feminist cognitive community. It delves into the class divisions of 19th-century England, the manipulative family education imposed on Estella by Miss Havisham, and Estella’s journey towards self-consciousness after her foster mother’s death. The study highlights the challenges faced by women in societal constraints, family expectations, and the importance of self-discovery in overcoming these limitations.

Translation in the Dubbed Films in “Seventeen Years” (1949-1966) from an Occidentalism Approach: Two Case Studies of Great Expectations and Salt of the Earth

This paper focuses on dubbed films in the “Seventeen Years” (1949-1966) after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, during which period China imported and translated 18 films from the United Kingdom and the United States to construct unreal, hallucinating images of the Western world. Two case studies, namely Great Expectations and Salt of the Earth, are examined and the study finds that translation played a significant role in changing the plot, lines and narratives. Simultaneously, translation helped maintain the humanistic values and literary content in the films. Occidentalism is used as the framework to explore the role of translation and media production in molding the products of multicultural literature in different cultures. The study of the film industry in the “Seventeen Years”, especially the dubbed and subtitled films, requires a rethinking of the contents and functions. Dubbed and subtitled films from the West followed the Occidentalist discourse, like those imported from the Soviet bloc, and helped promote China’s cultural leadership and supported its social and political practices, but at the same time the translation helped retain the aesthetic and humanistic aspects of the original films and served as counter-Occidentalist discourse. The findings reveal that Occidentalist discourse in translation functions to strengthen the state ideology and translation also functions as counter-Occidentalist through retaining humanism and artistic features of the films.

The struggle for life in Charles Dickens’s novel Great Expectations

In the Dickensian novel “Great Expectations” (1861), characters pursue various aims and typically achieve both gains and losses through their efforts. This research will textually examine their struggles in order to better comprehend the difficulties Pip and other significant characters have as they (re)construct their (self)identities, seek their ambitions, and either ascend to or preserve their social status. The analysis illustrates how characters struggle for existence both psychologically and physically: one’s struggle, at times, equals a coming of age. According to the study’s findings, the novel’s characters re-imagine their convictions as reality changes their prior ideals.

The National Security Debacle: Escalating the Bald Conversations on Rural Banditry in Northern Nigeria

Scholarly preoccupation with socio-political development in Nigeria appeared to have dwelt more on the fulfillment of great expectations and much less on the uncertainties of social change brought about by democratization in Africa. Thus, when Huntington reflected on the possibility of reversal following the onset of ‘Third wave’ in Africa, the emphasis on social conflict is very instructive in the democratization process of many states in Africa. Whereas some democracies have managed to consolidate or are still democratizing, a few others have relapsed into reverse wave or at best, are caught up in what Thomas Carothers described as “The gray zone”. In Nigeria for example, after almost half a century of democratization, there is rising wave of atavistic consciousness or what Engels described as the “Lowest instinct or passion in man”, where the political space is characterized by rampaging non-state actors. In specific terms, the new wave of dramatic reverses relates to terrorist attacks, ethnic violence, armed banditry, farmers-herders imbroglio, cattle rustling, kidnapping for ransom, and unknown gunmen. In the circumstance, marauders and brigands now reign supreme over what is described as ungoverned space, prompting a convergence of expert opinions that Nigeria is fast degenerating unto a failed state. Among the various descriptions of criminal enterprises in Nigeria, there is scholarly preoccupation with the nuances and pattern of armed banditry. This paper seeks to deepen this preoccupation by scoping the infamy of rural banditry in northern Nigeria. It argues that, beyond the much-touted ethno-religious sentiment and convoluted diversity, the worsening human condition occasioned by the increasing parlous governance situation in the country, are more persuasive in explaining the dramatic wave of criminal enterprises. The theoretical perspective of Cohen and Felson which treat crime as the consequence of the convergence of a motivated offender, a vulnerable target and the absence of capable guardian, comes close to a real-life connotation of rural banditry in northern Nigeria. The paper recommends among others, the urgent need to ups the quality of good governance in order to address the human condition, and that a collaboration among the leadership strata in the wider society must demonstrate sufficient commitment to compliment government efforts in a genuine governance project that seeks to emancipate Nigeria from her current sorry state.

Crosstalk between alternative splicing and inflammatory bowel disease: Basic mechanisms, biotechnological progresses and future perspectives.

Alternative splicing (AS) is an omnipresent regulatory mechanism of gene expression that enables the generation of diverse splice isoforms from a single gene. Recently, AS events have gained considerable momentum in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Our review has summarized the complex process of RNA splicing, and firstly highlighted the potential involved molecules that target aberrant splicing events in IBD. The quantitative transcriptome analyses such as microarrays, next-generation sequencing (NGS) for AS events in IBD have been also discussed. Available evidence suggests that some abnormal splicing RNAs can lead to multiple intestinal disorders during the onset of IBD as well as the progression to colitis-associated cancer (CAC), including gut microbiota perturbations, intestinal barrier dysfunctions, innate/adaptive immune dysregulations, pro-fibrosis activation and some other risk factors. Moreover, current data show that the advanced technologies, including microarrays and NGS, have been pioneeringly employed to screen the AS candidates and elucidate the potential regulatory mechanisms of IBD. Besides, other biotechnological progresses such as the applications of third-generation sequencing (TGS), single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and spatial transcriptomics (ST), will be desired with great expectations. To our knowledge, the current review is the first one to evaluate the potential regulatory mechanisms of AS events in IBD. The expanding list of aberrantly spliced genes in IBD along with the developed technologies provide us new clues to how IBD develops, and how these important AS events can be explored for future treatment.

Charging the Dead: The Necroeconomies of Burial Laws and the Legal Suspension of the Dead

While Victorian studies have traditionally examined anatomy laws and the dissection of executed criminals, this article discusses laws that required payment for execution and burial costs, and uncovers actual cases in which families refused payment and as a result the state refused to release the corpse. Capital punishment looms over novels such as Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, and Great Expectations, and Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Yet, conspicuously absent from these novels are the necropolitics and economics surrounding the dead body of the executed, which saw more legal protections in the nineteenth century. The aim is to not only excavate laws rarely discussed in critical literature, but to interrogate the astonishing lengths the common law and ecclesiastical court systems were taking in order to manage bodies (through fees, burial prescriptives, customary laws, and so on). Execution and burial fees were designed to financially exploit the grieving poor. Therefore, what often resulted was a suspension of burial – a delay caused by necroeconomies built into these grim financial systems. The article thus brings together ecclesiastical court cases to underscore the tension between customary burial fees, Poor Laws, and their critique in fiction.

Great expectations: our writing tendencies for actionable self-knowledge

We all know that writing for publication is a valuable activity and one that many of us aspire to. We have previously presented it as a form of liberatory practice for Learning Development (Syska and Buckley, 2022) showing how it allows us to shape and develop our ideas as part of a wider conversation in LD, and how in doing so it helps to build the field and our own professional profiles. Yet many of us struggle to write. We explored some of the reasons behind this in a small study and although lack of time is consistently cited as a factor, we believe the root of the issue lies in managing the expectations we have for ourselves alongside those that others have for us and, most crucially, how we respond to those. In her book The Four Tendencies, Gretchen Rubin identified that internal and external expectations, enmeshed with our particular predisposition when it comes to responding to tasks, go far to explain ‘why we act and why we don’t act’ (Rubin, 2017, p.12). While her Tendencies relate to the four possible combinations of meeting or not meeting inner and outer expectations generally, we have translated this specifically to writing as a way of understanding why many people struggle to write and how they can be supported. The four writing tendencies we have identified – Strivers, Pragmatists, Actualisers and Freelancers – have their own blocks to writing, but also have their own strategies for effectively overcoming those blocks. In this presentation we therefore outlined the nature of the four writing tendencies, helped participants identify their own, and showed how self-knowledge can have a significant impact on our approach to writing, which we can then pass on to our students.

Assessing Data Quality Inconsistencies in Brazilian Governmental Data

In recent years, vast volumes of data are constantly being made available on the Web, and they have been increasingly used as decision support in different contexts. However, for these decisions to be more assertive and reliable, it is necessary to ensure data quality. Although there are several definitions for this area, it is a consensus that data quality is always associated with a specific context. This work aims to analyze data quality in a data warehouse with governmental information of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. We first present a brief comparison of eight open-source data quality tools and then choose the Great Expectations tool for analyzing such data in two real applications: public bids and public expenditure. Our analyses show that the chosen tool has relevant characteristics to generate good data quality indicators to reveal data quality issues that may directly impact the construction of final applications using such data.

Great Expectations: The Importance of Procedural Justice and Parenting for Perceptions of Success Among Youth on Probation

Juvenile probation can be a critical inflection point. As such, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners are interested in enhancing youths’ success on probation, especially pertaining to reducing recidivism and promoting their success in education and employment. Informed by the risk–need–responsivity framework, the present study examined how theoretically derived familial/peer (e.g., social bonds, parental monitoring), societal/community (e.g., labeling theory), and individual-level (e.g., impulsivity, procedural justice) factors were associated with youths’ expectations for success on probation as well as more general life course outcomes. Within samples of youth starting probation ( N = 301) and 6 months into probation ( N = 253), we combined cross-sectional data from the jurisdiction’s risk/needs tool with a self-reported survey from youth. Youths’ perceptions of parental monitoring and procedural justice were consistently associated with their self-expectations for completing probation. However, for more general life course success, only perceptions of parental monitoring promoted self-expectations. Implications for theory, policy, and practice are discussed.

Membrane and Lumen-Compartmentalized Polymersomes for Biocatalysis and Cell Mimics.

Compartmentalization is a crucial feature of a natural cell, manifested in cell membrane and inner lumen. Inspired by the cellular structure, multicompartment polymersomes (MCPs), including membrane-compartmentalized polymersomes and lumen-compartmentalized polymersomes (polymersomes-in-polymersomes), have aroused great expectations for biological applications such as biocatalysis and cell mimics in the past decades. Compared with traditional polymersomes, MCPs have advantages in encapsulating multiple enzymes separately for multistep enzymatic cascade reactions. In this review, first, the design principles and preparation methods of membrane-compartmentalized and lumen-compartmentalized polymersomes are summarized. Next, recent advances of MCPs as nanoreactors and cell mimics to mimic subcellular organelles or artificial cells are discussed. Finally, the future research directions of MCPs are prospected.

“Sea rice”: From traditional culinary customs to sustainable crop for high-end gastronomy?

Seaweed cuisine is booming in Western countries, but the nutritional and culinary potential of seagrasses remains largely unexplored. Seagrasses, unlike seaweeds, produce seeds. In the case of Zostera marina its seeds (commonly known as “sea rice”) have historically been used an as staple food by indigenous cultures, such as Seri Indians. Very recently, great expectations have been raised, with worldwide media coverage, about the use of the seeds as a new ingredient in some avant-garde restaurant. This article provides basic information on the biology of Z. marina, especially with regard to reproduction by seeds (the valuable gastronomic ingredient). It is important to know what are the main bottlenecks for seed production and meadow growth if seeds are to be used as novel and sustainable ingredients. One way to achieve enough seed production for gastronomic purposes may be throughout the “domestication” (farming) in natural earthen ponds near coastal areas where meadows are currently very scarce, such as in the Bay of Cadiz. This domestication not only opens up gastronomic possibilities, but part of the seed production can be used to meadow restoration, boosting the local economy, sustainability and blue carbon removal, and making the binomial gastronomy-sustainability a reality.

Ethical aspects of hemophilia gene therapy: a qualitative interview study with stakeholders

BackgroundThere are great expectations for the potential role of gene therapy in the treatment of hemophilia. At the same time, developments in the field of hemophilia gene therapy have always raised ethical issues. It remains unknown how these ethical issues are perceived by stakeholders, particularly regarding the most recent developments in the field. ObjectivesTo obtain insight into stakeholders’ morally reasoned opinions on gene therapy for hemophilia. MethodsWe conducted qualitative research with Dutch people with hemophilia (n = 13), parents of children with hemophilia (n = 5), physicians (n = 4), nurses (n = 3), a regulator (n = 1), and a representative from a pharmaceutical company (n = 1). We conducted semistructured interviews based on a topic list and reported the results according to the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research guidelines. ResultsWe identified 3 main themes. The theme freedom and independence describes the hope people with hemophilia have of increasing their freedom through gene therapy, as well as concerns that gene therapy increases their dependence on their treatment center. The theme trust and altruism describes how people with hemophilia have a high level of trust in their physician and treatment center as well as in scientific research. As a result of this trust, they are willing to participate in research to help other people with hemophilia. The theme incremental benefits describes doubts respondents have about the added value of gene therapy compared to standard treatment. ConclusionStakeholders embrace the theoretical potential of gene therapy, while several people with hemophilia question the added value of the current gene transfer products for themselves.

Great expectations? A taxonomy for expectancy research in journalism studies

Expectancy research in journalism studies is characterized by a heterogeneous use of terms related to expectations, reflecting the complexity and ambiguity of the expectation construct. To enable a systematization and classification of different expectation concepts, we develop a taxonomy comprising seven criteria: Whereas the (1) dimension specifies the content of expectations and (2) dimensionality indicates the degree of complexity of the concept, the criteria (3) perspective and (4) object specify whose expectations are being addressed and to whom they are directed. The (5) level of expectation distinguishes between first- and second-order expectations. The (6) level of analysis helps locating expectation concepts, either at the micro, meso, or macro level. Finally, the (7) mode allows for classifying expectations as prescriptive, probabilistic, or valuative. An exemplary application of the taxonomy to the expectation concept of journalistic roles reveals the focus points of previous research and research gaps. Besides, the taxonomy can be used in further theory building and in developing measures of expectation concepts.

Development of artificial intelligence prognostic model for surgically resected non-small cell lung cancer

There are great expectations for artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine. We aimed to develop an AI prognostic model for surgically resected non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This study enrolled 1049 patients with pathological stage I–IIIA surgically resected NSCLC at Kyushu University. We set 17 clinicopathological factors and 30 preoperative and 22 postoperative blood test results as explanatory variables. Disease-free survival (DFS), overall survival (OS), and cancer-specific survival (CSS) were set as objective variables. The eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) was used as the machine learning algorithm. The median age was 69 (23–89) years, and 605 patients (57.7%) were male. The numbers of patients with pathological stage IA, IB, IIA, IIB, and IIIA were 553 (52.7%), 223 (21.4%), 100 (9.5%), 55 (5.3%), and 118 (11.2%), respectively. The 5-year DFS, OS, and CSS rates were 71.0%, 82.8%, and 88.7%, respectively. Our AI prognostic model showed that the areas under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic curves of DFS, OS, and CSS at 5 years were 0.890, 0.926, and 0.960, respectively. The AI prognostic model using XGBoost showed good prediction accuracy and provided accurate predictive probability of postoperative prognosis of NSCLC.

Insurrection and Narrativity: The Vitality of Clothes in Great Expectations

Insurrection and Narrativity: The Vitality of Clothes in Great Expectations

6 Exploring professional-robot interactions in care settings: a case of adopting an Irish air-disinfection device in a nursing home in Japan

Abstract Background Digital welfare technologies are increasingly expected to perform a broader set of functions and roles. The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic further underscored use of technology, as it heightened the need for security and safety in care settings, with cleanliness and infection control becoming an even more important aspect of care delivery. While there are great expectations for digitalization and automation of care work, bringing new technologies such as robots into a workplace remains a challenge in terms of acceptance and usability, as well as a reflection of user preferences and needs. Methods An original air-disinfection ‘robot’ was developed for a cross-cultural research project, and was introduced to a residential nursing home in Japan. Prior to its instalment, seven main users (physiotherapists, nurses and social care professionals) were trained by the developer. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted before, during and after the trial in order to understand care professionals’ needs regarding and impressions of the device. The System Usability Scale (SUS) was also used to test professionals’ experience with the device. Results Overall, the users had a positive experience of using the robot (SUS score of 74.3/100). During the trial, the team of users changed the inorganic appearance of the robot by adding a face, hair, hands and music to it. The qualitative data reveal how additional efforts were made to transform a piece of air-disinfection equipment into an interactive and accessible robot for older adults. The appropriate size and the level of automation were also raised as essential points for design consideration. Conclusion There is great potential for a variety of care robots to be deployed and evaluated beyond cultural boundaries, but local knowledge and professional expertise are crucial to smooth implementation. The study ‘Harmonisation towards the establishment of Person-centred, Robotics-aided Care System’ was supported by the Toyota Foundation (D18-ST-0005, 2019–2022).

Law and Artificial Intelligence: Possibilities and Regulations on the Road to the Consummation of the Digital Verdict

Aim: The continuous growing influence of technologies based on artificial intelligence will continue to have an increasingly strong impact on various fields of society, which is evident in the generation of a great expectation in continuous evolution that revolutionises many activities, including those of the legal sector.
 
 Methodology: That is why this paper aims to shed light on those aspects of artificial intelligence in the legal field that are not very clear and on some of the most relevant implications that, despite not being well known, will have a considerable impact on society at various levels, such as the role of bots in law firms, algorithms to assist in the treatment of cases and dilemmas such as whether non-professional users can trust the decision(s) that such tools would recommend, among others.
 
 Results: It also examines the ethical criteria linked to the application and its development.
 
 Conclusion: It concludes with a critical exposition from an academic perspective, without neglecting the aspect of public access to artificial intelligence and how to bring together a process of globalisation of the regulatory framework of these technologies.
 
 Originality/Value: this study highlities technologies based on artificial intelligence.

Great expectations? A reply to ‘Why do climate change negotiations stall? Scientific evidence and solutions for some structural problems’ by Ulrich J. Frey and Jazmin Burgess

"Great expectations? A reply to ‘Why do climate change negotiations stall? Scientific evidence and solutions for some structural problems’ by Ulrich Frey and Jazmin Burgess" published on 23 Sep 2022 by Bristol University Press.