Major Role In Life Research Articles

The Blurring of Distinction: Performance and Jewish Identities in Late Nineteenth-Century Vienna

In fin-de-siècle Vienna, Jews constituted about ten percent of the city’s population. They formed a visible community, and some of its members played a major role in Austrian political, cultural and scholarly life. Even if they faced myriad forms of discrimination, Viennese Jews socialized with non-Jews. Such interactions across ethnic and religious boundaries often blurred the lines that separated their respective cultural spheres. These intimate ties between Jews and other inhabitants of the city raises the question about the circumscription of Jews and the determination of “things Jewish.” Is it possible to differentiate Jews from non-Jews without drawing upon some essentialized notion of Jewishness? What might be the best way to explore the relationship between Jews and society at large? Against the background of Viennese Jewish history, this article will explore how notions of performance might help to write Jewish history and to develop a de-essentialized concept of “things Jewish.”

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kotelnikov: pioneer of the sampling theorem, cryptography, optimal detection, planetary mapping... [History of Communications

In 1933 the young Russian communications engineer Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kotelnikov published a paper in which he formulated, for the first time in an engineering context, the sampling theorem for lowpass and bandpass signals. He also considered the bandwidth requirements of discrete signal transmission for telegraphy and images. Kotelnikov subsequently worked on scrambling, cryptography, optimal detection, and planetary radar (including the radar-assisted cartography of Venus). He was awarded numerous Soviet and international prizes, and played a major role in Soviet academic and professional life in the field of radio engineering. Yet his achievements are still comparatively little known outside Russia.

Silent Eloquence: Lucian and Pantomime Dancing (review)

Reviewed by: Silent Eloquence: Lucian and Pantomime Dancing Simone Beta Ismene Lada-Richards . Silent Eloquence: Lucian and Pantomime Dancing. Classical Literature and Society. London: Duckworth, 2007. Pp. 240. $31.00 (pb.). ISBN 978-0-7156-3491-2. In 2005, in Oxford, the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama held a symposium on New Perspectives on Ancient Pantomime, now [End Page 117] published as E. Hall and R. Wyles (eds.), New Directions in Ancient Pantomime (Oxford 2008), but the general content of the paper delivered there by Ismene Lada-Richards can now be read in this book. While chapter 1 traces the chronological history of pantomime, chapter 2 is dedicated to the other performative genres with which pantomime competed. In dealing with tragedy, Lada-Richards stresses both similarities (the subject-matters) and differences (drama of the body vs. drama of words). The technical aspects of the performance—venues, music, lyrics—are the subject of chapter 3, where special attention is given to the professional preparation of the dancer, his ability at imitating and creating êthê ("characters") and pathê ("passions"), his memory, his performative language. Pantomime dancing always provoked different reactions: praise and blame, love and hate, acceptance and refusal, etc. While chapter 4 explains why so many politicians struggled to include the most popular performers in the festivals they organized, chapter 5 tells why dancers were kept apart from the urbane citizenry. In Greece dance played a major role in education and cultural life; in Rome, on the other hand, the dancers' social status was very low; their job gave them high popularity but carried the negative connotation of mollitia ("debauchery"). This hybrid heart of pantomime is reflected by the arguments put forth by the protagonists of Lucian's treatise, the criticism of Crato and the praise of Lycinus. The main point of Lycinus' harangue is that pantomime dancing was a learned and educational spectacle (paideusis is a key word), with ample moral essence, addressed to a sophisticated audience. Its learned features were justified by the genre's affiliation to the powers of memorization, rhetoric, and philosophy; its morality was guaranteed by the paradigmatic force of the exempla narrated by the dancer. The pantomime performer fashioned by Lycinus was molded in accordance with the cultural preoccupations of the Second Sophistic. But was this self-presentation really consistent? The answer is given in the last chapters, where Lada-Richards deals with the way political and cultural elites considered pantomime. Since they wanted to show themselves as upholders of the acquisition of literacy through the art of logos, they could not be for a nonliterary teaching such as pantomime, because such a performative genre was a very unlikely candidate for the dissemination of an educational legitimacy based on a "textual" culture. At the same time, in his attempt at intellectualizing the dancer, Lycinus overlooked the most interesting aspect of pantomime, its peculiar value as a communicative channel that depended on its ability to affect those inner regions unattainable by verbal language. Public declaimers understood well this truth, since their career paths often crossed with pantomime dancers: their life might be equally glamorous, but was also precarious, because it depended on the public; their fame had to be "visible" (that is, enacted in public performances); they had to defy dancers in their territories by improving their art of impersonation, using a physical dramaturgy, and exploiting the gestural vocabulary of bodily communication. Since he too was a public declaimer, however, what were Lucian's real feelings (his own, not just Lycinus') toward this genre? The last chapter deals with this question. Since Lucian was not a real member of the club of the Second Sophistic, his attitude might have been different from his colleagues. This explains why in the dialogue the overall picture of pantomime is positive; the extoling of pantomime was both a compliment to Lucius Verus for his choice of entertainment and an attempt at showing himself "as a bold path-maker and reliable taste-maker, a wielder of true power, actively shaping and guiding, rather that being shaped and guided by, current perceptions of the boundaries between cultural legitimacy and illegitimacy." [End Page 118] As this summary shows, Lada-Richards...

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Landlord Villages of the Tehran Plain, Iran and Historical Archaeology in Iran

Landlord villages played a major role in rural life for many centuries in the Tehran Plain and many other parts of Iran. Although they are now abandoned, they were occupied within living memory, and thus offer the opportunity for study as an historical archaeology project, with a methodology that draws together analysis of standing buildings, oral testimony, excavation and, in the future, historical records. These analyses allow us to begin to consider issues such as social hierarchies and relationships, identity and activities within the villages. This article discusses the results of the fieldwork to date and explores the potential for Historical Archaeology projects in Iran.

Occupational identity, occupational competence and occupational settings (environment): Influences on return to work in men living with HIV/AIDS

Aims: The aim of this study was to examine and describe the relationship between the efforts of twelve men living with AIDS to reestablish a worker role following completion of a vocational rehabilitation program and changes in their occupational identity, occupational competence and perception of occupational settings (environment). Methods: A series of in-depth interviews were conducted, transcribed and analyzed via categorical content analysis using sections of the text as the unit of analysis. Findings: Findings illustrate how constructs measured by the sub-scales of the OPHI-II may be helpful in understanding how persons frame past, present and anticipated experiences as they attempt to reestablish a life role lost after the onset of disability. The findings are supported by the quantitative item hierarchies of the occupational identity, occupational competence and occupational settings (environment) scales established in earlier quantitative research via Rasch analysis. Conclusion: The constructs of occupational identity, occupational competence and occupational settings (environment) are useful constructs to aid in understanding the experiences and narratives of persons attempting to reenter a major life role.

Inertia and Incentives: Bridging Organizational Economics and Organizational Theory

Organizational theorists have long acknowledged the importance of the formal and informal incentives facing a firm’s employees, stressing that the political economy of a firm plays a major role in shaping organizational life and firm behavior. Yet the detailed study of incentive systems has traditionally been left in the hands of (organizational) economists, with most organizational theorists focusing their attention on critical problems in culture, network structure, framing, and so on—in essence, the social context in which economics and incentive systems are embedded. We argue that this separation of domains is problematic. The economics literature, for example, is unable to explain why organizations should find it difficult to change incentive structures in the face of environmental change, while the organizational literature focuses heavily on the role of inertia as sources of organizational rigidity. Drawing on recent research on incentives in organizational economics and on cognition in organizational theory, we build a framework for the analysis of incentives that highlights the ways in which incentives and cognition—while being analytically distinct concepts—are phenomenologically deeply intertwined. We suggest that incentives and cognition coevolve so that organizational competencies or routines are as much about building knowledge of “what should be rewarded” as they are about “what should be done.” We argue that this recognition has important implications for our understanding of organizational inertia in the face of environmental change, and that it opens up important new areas for further research.

Work-Family Interface for Same-Sex, Dual-Earner Couples: Implications for Counselors

The author highlights information for career counselors to consider when addressing work-family interface with individuals who are members of same-sex, dual-earner couples or families. D. E. Super's (1990) life-span, life-space theory is the framework used to organize the literature review and discussion of current trends. Issues related to the roles of worker, partner, parent, stepparent, and caregiver are discussed. Suggestions are provided for career counselors. A significant amount of research has been devoted to the study of workfamily interface (for a review, see Perry-Jenkins, Repetti, & Crouter, 2000). The majority of this research has focused on heterosexual dual-earner couples. Although they share some similar experiences with heterosexual, dual-earner couples, same-sex, dual-earner couples encounter additional obstacles and have unique advantages over heterosexual dual-earner couples. The focus of this article is on issues for career counselors to consider when counseling individuals who are members of same-sex, dual-earner couples. Current trends in the workplace are analyzed in relation to counseling with this population, and some potentially useful theoretical approaches and counseling strategies are discussed. Super's (1990) life-span, life-space theory emphasizes the importance of implementing one's self-concept through a combination of life roles. The work role is addressed in the context of other life roles. Individuals experience varying degrees of participation in, valuing of, and commitment to these roles (Super, 1990). In this article, the roles of worker, partner, parent, stepparent, and caregiver for individuals within same-sex, dual-earner couples are discussed. If career counselors can help these individuals learn to combine work and family roles in productive and satisfying ways, counselors have the opportunity to enhance their quality of life significantly. The Work Role In recent years, dramatic workplace changes, such as widespread downsizing and large plant closures, have threatened job security for millions of workers (Crouter & Manke, 1994), and the rate of involuntary job loss has been increasing (Attewell, 1999). Employees who lose their job as a result of downsizing may need to retrain for different jobs, relocate to other geographic locations, or learn to cope with being forced into unemployment. Employees who remain in an organization after major downsizing has occurred often have increased workloads because they must assume responsibility for some of the work that had previously been done by workers who were let go, resulting in job stress and decreased workplace morale. Approximately 30% of displaced workers may be unemployed for a year or more (Attewell, 1999). Longer unemployment can lead to decreased salaries and greater chances of future job displacements (Attewell, 1999) as well as to lower self-esteem. Career counselors must help individuals define their work role in these uncertain and unpredictable times. Counselors can encourage clients to develop a broad range of transferable skills and to keep skills current through continuing education and training. Counselors can also help clients who have lost their jobs learn to cope with the stress of this event and transition toward new positions. Career counselors are also increasingly called on to help clients make career decisions within the context of their family roles as well as in the context of their other major life roles. Members of same-sex, dual-earner couples face additional challenges in this volatile work environment. In most cases, insurance covers only the employed individual and not the family members of same-sex couples. Thus, if one partner loses a job, he or she cannot rely on the other partner's insurance benefits. The financial burden of paying for health care compounds the hardship caused by loss of wages. Another economic issue discussed by Fassinger (1995) is that women's earnings remain consistently lower than men's, and lesbian couples are more likely to have children living with them than are gay male couples. …

Masshouses and Meetinghouses: The Archaeology of the Penal Laws in Early Modern Ireland

Archaeology has demonstrated that it can provide added insight into the study of early modern Ireland, although there has been a notable tendency for research to concentrate on secular aspects of society. Investigations into the period, however, would benefit from a greater awareness of contemporary religion, since this was a factor that played a major role in political, social, and economic life. An example of this is the introduction of Penal legislation by the Protestant-dominated Irish parliament in the early eighteenth century, directed at those whose religious outlook did not correspond to that of the Established Church.

The Melting Pot in Israel: The Commission of Inquiry Concerning the Education of Immigrant Children during the Early Years of the State (review)

Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002. 337 pp. $29.95. In January of 1950, the Israeli government, under pressure from the religious public, launched a Commission of Inquiry to investigate matters in the immigrant camps. The inquiry, which lasted three and a half months, set out to study the issue of anti-religious coercion in the camps, clarify accusations of such coercion that had been made in the press, and examine the sources of propaganda abroad that concerned these accusations. This commission, chaired by former Supreme Court Justice Gad Frumkin, is the major focus of Zvi Zameret's illuminating study. Within the context of this painstaking investigation, however, Zameret also provides a highly useful historical study of a host of issues involved with the immigration of Mizrachi Jews to Israel through the early 1950s, with a special focus on education and politics. In the process, he convincingly demonstrates how these events not only played a major role in Israeli political life of the era, but also how they contributed to more contemporary dynamics including alienation between secular and religious publics, and the rise of Shas as a political force. Zameret sets out in great detail the forces that pressured Ben-Gurion into forming the Frumkin Commission, one of the first of its kind in Israel. These included growing alarm by the religious leadership of the Mizrachim within Israel at the stream of reports from immigrant camps detailing anti-religious educational activities as well as physical coercion such as the forcible cutting of boys' payot. Additionally, foreign pressure was brought to bear, especially by American Orthodox Jews, who staged a mass protest in Manhattan in 1950, the largest Jewish demonstration in the United States since the founding of the State of Israel. While the Prime Minister supported the educational efforts of Labor-oriented teachers in the camps and believed that inevitably Oriental Jews in Israel would take on modern ways and a Zionist ideology, he also recognized that local and foreign religious populations needed to be mollified and so formed the commission of inquiry both to diffuse their concerns and out of personal concern regarding immigrant issues. The commission's conclusions, however, created political problems for Ben-Gurion. After 33 sessions in which it heard the testimonies of 101 witnesses, it issued its report. While denying that there was systematic anti-religious coercion across the immigrant camps, it found numerous instances of pressure. Further, it raised questions about the degree to which sensitivity was paid to immigrants' religious needs, and about the viability of a single model of purely secular education. In the process, Zameret argues, the commission rejected the melting pot theory of immigrant socialization in favor of a more pluralistic societal model. These conclusions flew in the face of the ideology and social agenda of the Labor Zionists who controlled national politics. Zameret judiciously assesses the commission's operation and findings. He considers that the basic conclusions about anti-religious coercion in the camps, based on testimony and archival data, were well founded. However, he believes that the commission erred in grading the various political movements on the basis of the sensitivity of their education programs to immigrant traditions and rightly insists that it came up short in specifically blaming Nahum Levin, of the Culture Department, Y. …

Iris Murdoch: A Life

A full and revealing biography of one of the century's greatest English writers and an icon to a generation. Dame Iris Murdoch has played a major role in English life and letter for nearly half a century. As A.S.Byatt notes, she is 'absolutely central to our culture'. As a novelist, as a thinker, and as a private individual, her life has significance for our age. There is a recognisable Murdoch world, and the adjective 'Murdochian' has entered the language to describe situations where a small group of people interract intricately and strangely. Her story is as emotionally fascinating as that of Virginia Woolf, but far less well known; hers has been an adventurous, highly eventful life, a life of phenomenal emotional and intellectual pressures, and her books portray a real world which is if anything toned down as well as mythicised. For Iris's formative years, astonishingly, movingly and intimately documented by Conradi's meticulous research, were spent among the leading European and British intellectuals who fought and endured World War II, and her life like her books, was full of the most extraordinary passions and profound relationships with some of the most inspiring and influential thinkers, artists, writers and poets of that turbulent time and after. Peter Conradi was very close to both Iris Murdoch and John Bayley, Iris's husband, whose memoir of their life together has itself been the subject of an enormous amount of attention and acclaim. This will be an extraordinarily full biography, for there are vast resources in diaries and papers and friends' recollections, and while it is a superlative biography it is also a superb history of a generation who have profoundly influenced our world today.

Midlife women's attributions about perceived memory changes: observations from the Seattle Midlife Women's Health Study.

Memory changes are of increasing interest as midlife women approach menopause. Recent studies of relationships between estrogen and Alzheimer's disease have prompted interest in memory experiences around the time of menopause. The purpose of this analysis, part of the larger Seattle Midlife Women's Health Study (SMWHS), was to describe the types of memory changes women perceived during midlife, to describe their attributions about the memory changes, and to describe the relationship among these types and attributions of memory changes and age, menopausal transition stage, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) use, stress, and major life roles. Women (n = 230) with a mean age of 46.7 years, enrolled in the SMWHS, described whether they had noticed any changes in their memory, when they noticed them first, the nature of the changes, and what they thought were the reasons for the changes. Types of memory changes were collapsed into five categories, which included difficulty recalling words or numbers, forgetting related to everyday behavior, concentration problems, need for memory aids, and forgetting events. Six categories describing attributions about the memory changes were increased role burden and stress, getting older, physical health, menstrual cycle changes/hormones, inadequate concentration, and emotional factors. Stress, physical health, and aging as attributions, rather than the menstrual cycle or hormone use, were linked to most types of memory change.

Living with under-Fives: A Programme for Parents with a Mental Illness

Parenthood is considered a major life role. Yet for people with a major mental illness, it is one that is fraught with difficulties and for which they receive the least support. Research on parenting and parenting programmes for people with a major mental illness is sparse and most of the papers presented do not provide a working model that can be easily replicated. This lack of support for parents or knowledge of working parenting programmes has often resulted in children being placed in care. Occupational therapists working in an Australian mental health service developed a two-stream programme which aimed to consolidate the parent/child relationship and enable the parents to develop effective parenting skills. This programme has a parents' educational stream and a stream with developmentally appropriate activities for the children. Observed outcomes have included the parents becoming more responsive to their children, increased treatment compliance, improved community access, and a decrease in the number of children in temporary foster care.

Etiologic and demographic characteristics of poisoning: a prospective hospital-based study in Oman.

The health care system in Oman is characterized by its rapid development and free medical services for all its nationals although traditional medicine still plays a major role in daily life. Epidemiological data on poisoning are scanty. To determine the annual rate of poisoning-related Accident & Emergency Department visits at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital in Oman and to evaluate, in both children and adults, the etiologic and demographic characteristics of poisoning cases. The poisoning pattern is contrasted to that of other countries. A prospective observational study included all symptomatic and asymptomatic poisoning-related Accident & Emergency Department visits over 4 years (1996-1999). Data were recorded on a specifically designed poison reporting form. Two hundred and four poisoning-related Accident & Emergency Department visits were recorded corresponding to an average annual rate of 1.8/1000 Accident & Emergency Department visits. Therapeutic agents were most commonly involved (50% of all cases). Accidental poisoning in toddlers was most commonly caused by drugs. Intentional poisoning in adults involved mainly therapeutic agents (50%), particularly analgesics, followed by industrial and environmental agents (25%). Animal poisoning (14%) was most commonly encountered in adult males. Traditional remedies constituted 7% of all poisoning cases. A total of 148 patients (73%) were admitted for 1 to 175 days. Compared to studies performed in urban hospitals in other countries, (1) the annual rate of poisoning-related Accident & Emergency Department visits was substantially lower, (2) psychoactive drugs were less frequently incriminated in intentional ingestions, and (3) we found a significantly higher frequency of poisoning by animals and traditional remedies than reported by urban hospitals in other Middle Eastern countries. The limitations of our study (Accident & Emergency Department-based data collection in an urban hospital) do not permit extrapolation to the rest of the country.

An approach to balancing the positive and negative effects of elevated nitrogen oxides in the lower atmosphere on terrestrial plants.

Elevated NOx in the lower atmosphere has three major effects on terrestrial plants. On the one hand, it causes an increase in surface ozone concentration. This reduces plant growth rate. On the other hand, elevated NOx causes an increase in the flux of oxidized N compounds from the atmosphere to the land surface. This plays a dual role in the life of terrestrial plants. Additional N in soils stimulates plant growth (N-fertilization effect), whereas soil acidification may negatively affect plants. A simple empirical model for calculating the overall effect of anthropogenic increase in NOx level has been developed. The model is based on experimental “cause-response” data presented in world scientific literature. Calculations showed that at the large scale, among the above-mentioned changes, elevated O3 plays a major and negative role in plant life. Its negative effect on plants is partly compensated by N fertilization in unmanaged ecosystems. Such compensation appears to be negligible in agricultural lands. There are vast territories in Euro-Asia — for instance, a territory of Russia — in which acid atmospheric deposition has no significant effect on terrestrial plants.

Biographical dictionary of modern Egypt

Provides biographical sketches and source material for about 400 men and women who have played a major role in Egypt's national life. Entries range in length from half a page to two pages, and describe the contributions of politicians, writers, diplomats, religious leaders, and scholars, as well as founders of newspapers, department stores, theatrical troupes, and innovative techniques of visual representation. Earliest figures profiled are from the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Meeting the needs of parents with mental illness

Parenthood is considered a major life role for most people, but many parents with a mental illness have had difficulty assuming a parenting role as a result of a number of different factors. An early intervention approach adopted by occupational therapists in one mental-health service has attempted to address these issues by developing a parenting programme for parents with a mental illness.

The virtual university: a learning university

This account aims to introduce contrasting perspectives on teaching and learning methods, and to detail the growth of new forms and vocabularies of access to learning. As we move towards the new millennium, the development of national, yet diversified, credit frameworks and systems will provide an essential underpinning for the organisational culture that will be needed to sustain the wellbeing and growth of the educational system. These new systems are already being incorporated into the practice of ‘virtual’ education. Lifelong learning has widespread support across the social and political spectrum and its importance can hardly be over‐stated as we seek to maintain competitiveness in a changing world. Increasing knowledge and understanding to serve both the needs of the economy and of individuals to play a major role in democratic life has become an agenda of necessity as well as desire. An open society requires open systems of knowledge. A prognosis for the future is submitted where the significance of part‐time modular and open flexible learning is evaluated in terms of a curriculum rooted in useful knowledge and competences, acquired at different sites of learning, including the workplace. It is argued that modular structures, using the potential offered by credit accumulation and transfer to different institutions with different missions, can transcend and transform the learning opportunities for students in a mass system of higher education which is rapidly becoming part of a global market economy and society. Continuous lifelong learning involving its key features of open access, recognition of learning wherever it takes place and the growth of new learning networks and partnerships, is at the conceptual heart of the development of the virtual university.

Clay and man: clay raw materials in the service of man

Clay has always played a major role in human life. Clay raw materials are used and their value recognized in many economic branches, agriculture, civil engineering and environmental studies. This is largely because of their wide-ranging properties, high resistance to atmospheric conditions, geochemical purity, easy access to their deposits near the earth's surface and low price.Clay minerals, the essential constituents of argillaceous rocks, can be classified in seven groups according, to their crystal structure and crystal chemistry. Clay raw materials are divided in the same way into seven groups. An eighth group covers clay ochres and pigments. Further classification is based on the purpose-made technological application. Some examples show relations between the crystal structure or crystal chemistry of the dominant phyllosilicate and the technological properties. The chapter “Utilization of clay raw materials in industry and other human activities” is the most extensive. It gives information on the application of clay raw materials or individual clay minerals: in the production of foods, feedstuffs, beverages, paper, rubber, plastics, artificial leather, protective coatings for interior and exterior use, pharmaceutics, cosmetics, paints, pencils, pastels, porcelain, electro-porcelain and other fine ceramics, coarse ceramics and sialon ceramics; in the foundries, various branches of the chemical, petroleum and cement industries, agriculture and forestry; in the preparation of agrochemicals and special fertilizers, lubricating oils and gels, lightweight ceramics and effective sorbents; in the manufacture of mineral wool, in briquetting and pelletizing processes; as ingredients in grinding and polishing pastes, in the insulations of dumps of various kinds of waste (including toxic and radioactive waste), in thermally, electrically, acoustically and chemically resistant insulations, and in filters for the treatment of industrial, agricultural and similar outflows.The earth sciences use the clay minerals in the earth crust: (1) as indicators of the environment during weathering, allothi- and authigenesis in the sediments and in the study of the source areas of the detrital supply; (2) as pH indicators and indicators of processes in micro- and mega-environments and of changes in the course of diagenesis and metamorphosis. Mineralogical, petrological, geological and geochemical investigations directed to clay minerals serve as one of the correlation methods, in the recognition of processes in the petroleum-bearing sediments, coal-bearing formations, origin of riverine, lacustrine, marine and oceanic sediments and in the climatic, geodynamic, paleogeographical, stratigraphic and weathering rate interpretations.

Middle generation roles and the well-being of men and women.

Sociological literature on gender, work, and families has focused on both conflict and benefits created by combining the spouse, parent, and paid worker roles, whereas research by family gerontologists has focused on stress experienced by those who provide care to frail elderly parents as well as other roles associated with being in the "middle generation." We examine consequences of adding middle generation roles to other major life roles during the middle years. We find that giving help to parents increases men's distress, while giving help to adult children enhances women's well-being. When help to biological parents is examined separately, it is found to increase both men's and women's distress. Women are unaffected by the multiplicity of roles while, for men, there is evidence of both role buffering and strain from conflicting demands. We discuss further directions for research on consequences of roles for well-being.