Mary College Research Articles

The Post-Sojourn in Study Abroad Research—Another Frontier

John L. Plews, Saint Mary's UniversityThe four articles collected in this special issue of Comparative and International Education/ Education comparee et internationale are extended versions of original papers presented at the of Study Abroad for Second conference, held on July 14-17, 2015, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This conference was organized in association with the Network on Study Abroad and Learning, a special investigative sub-group of the Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquee, and financially supported by Saint Mary's University and a Connection Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The conference brought together researchers and practitioners from across the world for presentations and discussions on various facets of residence and study abroad (SA) for second languages (L2). While concerned with the broadly defined topic of culture in the SA context, the conference's call for papers emphasized five specific sub-themes: participants' / stakeholders' culture; cultural and intercultural learning (in relation to language acquisition); the post-sojourn effect of cultural learning; the cultural specificity of study abroad in and from Canada (especially regarding the French language); and the cultural interests of L2 students moving to, from, or within Asia. The articles gathered in this special issue, under the title Language and Culture after Study Abroad, derive from papers that primarily addressed the third of the aforementioned sub-themes, whose scope was to explore through empirical research and critical scholarship the afterlife of cultural, intercultural, and language learning on L2 SA programming, when participants return to their domestic universities or workplaces.1The conference's five sub-themes were chosen specifically because they were sufficiently original in scope to engage anew scholars from across the Modern Languages disciplines, Second Acquisition research, and Study Abroad and International Education sectors. That is, they were to inspire new directions in disciplinary discussion. Certainly, post-sojourn experiences-re-entry, reintegration, renegotiation, reflection, re-assessment, remembering, retelling, re-envisioning, and further renewal-represent aspects or stages of the overall SA process that are less explored in research than are pre-departure motivation and preparation, the many aspects of the in-sojourn experience, or immediate learning outcomes. This has prompted the eminent Jim Coleman (2013, p. 27) to lament that the list of studies of the long-term impact of study abroad [...] is woefully short; he lists only seven.2Indeed, beginning in the late 1960s, research into SA has traditionally focused on two areas: (1) measuring L2 proficiency and fluency, both in relation to the general SA context and also in correlation with specific qualities of the experience abroad, and (2) communicative competence;3 more recently this has been complemented by inquiries into a third area: (3) participants' intercultural development and L2 identities.4 While this research has provided insight into linguistic gains, intercultural competence, personal human development, and academic performance that generally supports the achievement of such goals through SA for most students, the standard design focus on pre- and immediate end-of-sojourn measures or in-sojourn reflection without post-sojourn follow-up means that results are limited to initial responses and short-term effects. Conclusions concerning long-term linguistic or intercultural effects, sustained shifts in individual perspectives or identity, or potential extended community benefits can be drawn only with caution from most SA research or remain indeterminable or speculative. Despite the positive inroads into understanding the multifaceted and highly variable phenomenon of SA made by innumerable scholars working across the breadth of the field for some 50 years, we know relatively little about participants' re-entry into the domestic sphere and the ongoing, perhaps reconfigured or even diminishing, real and perceived linguistic and intercultural effects of SA after returning home. …

EVALUATING HORRIFIC CINEMA FROM THE HYPOTHESES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS ON COLLEGE STUDENTS OF TWO CITIES OF PAKISTAN.

31Aug 2016 EVALUATING HORRIFIC CINEMA FROM THE HYPOTHESES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS ON COLLEGE STUDENTS OF TWO CITIES OF PAKISTAN. Mudassar Hussain Shah , Saima Kausar and Ashok Kumar. Department of Communication Studies, University of Sargodha, Sargodha- Pakistan. Department of Mass Communication, Queen Mary College, Lahore-Pakistan. College of Management, Wuhan University of Technology, 122 Luoshi Road, 430070 Wuhan- People’s Republic of China.

Stanley Gregory

Stanley Gregory

An innovative model for professional development

This paper considers an innovative model of continuing professional development in addressing the needs of children with literacy difficulties, namely the Special Educational Needs Continuing Professional Development Literacy Project. Stranmillis University College, in partnership with St Mary's University College, Belfast secured £4.06 million over 3 years to enable primary school teachers in Northern Ireland to participate in an online course held in their own school, and for two teachers from each school to attend specialist face‐to‐face seminars taught at Master's level. One teacher from each school had the opportunity to complete two Master's modules and to be assessed for the award of Approved Teacher Status from the British Dyslexia Association. This project is one of the largest professional development projects to be undertaken in Northern Ireland. The project is aligned to two key Department strategies: one is to address the provision for special educational needs in mainstream schools within an inclusive school environment, and the second is to improve outcomes in literacy; a key focus is on early identification of individual needs and appropriately matched intervention. This paper discusses the design and delivery of this continuing professional development programme using this novel integrated model. It considers how this model has facilitated stronger theory‐practice links among practitioners leading to increased confidence and competence in meeting the needs of children with literacy difficulties.

Chemical and Biochemical Stability of Guanine Lysine Crosslinks Formed by Guanine Oxidation

Guanine is the most susceptible DNA base that can be oxidized because it holds the lowest oxidation potential value in comparison to the rest of the DNA bases. Due to the formation of radicals in the guanine base, the stability of the damaged DNA is often compensated with the formation of DNA‐protein crosslinks. DNA‐protein crosslinks are adducts between DNA and protein that are not easily repaired as lesions.Since it has been recognized that the understanding of such crosslinks is of high importance due to the health impacts they lead to, there have been techniques developed to further convey the chemical and molecular interactions of this biological macromolecules under stress. The flash‐quench technique was engineered to study the electron transfer in proteins due to reactions of guanine radicals with DNA. To start the process, a photosensitive Intercalator is excited by visible light and transforms into a powerful oxidant by an oxidative quenching reaction; the newly oxidized intercalator removes an electron from the nearest guanine base. Using Ru(phen)2dppz2+ as the photosensitive intercalator and Co(NH3)5Cl2+, as the quencher, we detected the radical in poly(dG‐dC) using transient absorption spectroscopy and showed its UV‐visible spectrum to be similar to the neutral form. Previous work has shown that guanine oxidation can lead to DNA‐protein crosslinking and here we examined whether such crosslinks are stable under physiological conditions. Using Poly(lysine) as a model protein, we examined the stability of the guanine‐lysine crosslinks under several conditions, subjecting the crosslinked samples to i) Room temperature, ii) High temperature, iii)) High temperature with hot alkali, or iv) digestion with Formamidopyramidine (Fpg), a glycosylase that releases damaged guanine bases such as 8‐oxoguanine from DNA, and Proteinase K, a serine protease. Samples containing DNA, Poly(lysine), Ru(phen)2dppz2+ [phen = phenanthroline, dppz = dipyridophenazine], and Co(NH3)5Cl2+ were irradiated with the 442 nm output of a HeCd laser. The samples, once the crosslinks were induced by flash quench as above, were then analyzed for crosslinking using either the chloroform extraction assay or a gel shift assay. Crosslinks were stable for days at room temperature, but high temperature was sufficient to cleave some of the crosslinks; however, treatment with hot alkali (Piperidine) cleaved all of the crosslinks. The gel shift assay was used to monitor the ability of Fpg and Proteinase K to cleave DNA‐protein crosslinks. Treatment with Fpg enzyme impacted the mobility of the DNA crosslinked by converting supercoiled to nicked DNA. However, it is not evident that Fpg excises the crosslinked material. Though, digestion with Proteinase K displayed more nicked DNA as irradiation time increases, which is consistent with cleavage of crosslinks by Proteinase K. Thus, since extreme temperatures are necessary to cleave the crosslinks and Fpg is not efficient in cleaving the DNA‐lysine crosslinks, it appears that guanine lysine crosslinks would persist in vivo.Support or Funding InformationNSF (MCB 0345478), Denault‐Loring Research Fellowship, Mount Saint Mary's University, Title III STEM Grant

People

People

DuBourg's Defense of St. Mary's College: Apologetics and the Creation of a Catholic Identity in the Early American Republic

When the Baltimore Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church issued a pastoral letter critical of St. Mary's College in 1811 it provided an opportunity for Louis DuBourg, the college's president, to respond with an apologetic defense of the college and of Catholicism more generally. In doing so he synthesized several strands of Catholic apologetics, including thevia notarum, the utilitarianism that came to dominate French Catholic apologetics in the eighteenth century, the emphasis upon beauty and emotion that characterized Chateaubriand'sGenuius of Christianity, and the earlier work of Bishop Bossuet critical of the doctrinal instability of protestantism. Aimed at a popular audience, DuBourg's apologetics created an identity for the American Catholic Church that emphasized its place within the largest part of worldwide Christianity, its role as educator of the best minds of Western civilization, and the beauty of its worship.

Why I became a cancer surgeon

Graeme Poston speaks to Roshaine Gunawardana, Managing Commissioning Editor: Graeme Poston (DSc MB BS, MS, FRCS[Eng], FRCS[Ed]) is a consultant hepatobiliary surgeon at the University Hospital Aintree, Liverpool, UK and Professor of Surgery at the University of Liverpool. He enjoys an international reputation in hepatobiliary surgery. To date, he has personally performed over 900 major hepatobiliary resections. His unit at University Hospital Aintree is one of the largest tertiary resectional hepatobiliary practices in the UK, having performed over 2000 liver resections over the last 20 years. He gained his undergraduate medical training at St Georges Hospital Medical School, London, and postgraduate training at The Hammersmith Hospital and St Mary's Hospital, London and University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, USA. He is a past President of the European Society of Surgical Oncology, the Association of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, and the British Association of Surgical Oncology. He is Chair of National Health Service England, Hepato Pancreato Biliary Specialized Commissioning, Chair of the NICE Colorectal Cancer Guideline Development Group and Quality Standards Committee, and past Chair of the Cancer Services Committee of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He is a principal investigator of a number of ongoing national and international clinical trials in hepatobiliary surgery, and co-author of numerous national and international guidelines for the management of hepatobiliary cancers, nine textbooks of surgery, and over 230 papers. Honors and distinctions include a Doctorate of Science honoris causa of King George V University, Lucknow; Ernest Miles Medal of the Royal Marsden Surgical Society; Olaf ac Acrel Medal of the Swedish Surgical Association; Stanford Cade Medal of the Royal College of Surgeons of England; Kilroe Medal of the Christie Hospital, Manchester; N K Misra Medal of the Indian Association of Surgical Oncology; Honorary Fellow of the Association of Surgeons of India and the College of Surgeons of Sri Lanka; Hunterian Professor of the Royal College of Surgeons of England; and numerous international visiting professorships. In what little spare time he has, he enjoys trekking in high places (climbed Kilimanjaro, trekked to Everest and Annapurna Base Camps, and crossed the Lakya La).

Aches, Pains, Sprains, and Strains: Incorporating Online MP3 Media in Medical Screening for Patient Referral Physical Therapy Curricula

Background and Purpose. Online media player 3 (mp3) media has the potential to be a user-friendly method for improving student learning of medical screening and patient referral in physical therapy curricula. The purpose of this case report is to describe educational multimedia innovations used in the “Medical Screening for Patient Referral” course at the Mount Saint Mary's University (MSMU), Los Angeles Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program. Case Description. Physical therapist (PT) students in their final academic year accessed 3 consecutive years of archives from a monthly online national public radio (NPR: The Larry Meiller Show) mp3 media program titled “Aches, Pains, Sprains and Strains - Talk to Your Physical Therapist.” Based on information provided by the callers, PT students determined whether callers required further medical screening in a writing assignment. Upon completion of the assignment and classroom group discussions, a face-to-face videoconferencing between one of the PTs from the NPR program and PT students was conducted to discuss the challenge of screening callers for patient referral and relevance to clinical practice. Outcomes. The archived online mp3 media program was incorporated into a medical screening course with minimal faculty resources and positive student feedback. Overall, PTs on the mp3 media program noted 12.3% of 608 callers in 3 years required a physician referral. In addition, the majority of the callers were not examined by a physician prior to speaking with PTs. Discussion and Conclusion. An online mp3 media program that screens callers with aches, pains, sprains, and strains may provide an additional educational strategy to reinforce decision-making skills necessary for medical screening and patient referral in physical therapy curricula. Classroom discussion with PT students and faculty are warranted to discern medical screening cases from online mp3 media requiring a physician referral.

International conference “’Between the Carrot and the Stick’: Emerging Needsand Forms for Non-State Actors including NGOs and Informal Organizationsin Contemporary Russia”, University of Helsinki, Finland, January 28−29, 2016.

The international conference “‘Between the Carrot and the Stick’: Emerging Needs and Forms for Non-State Actors including NGOs and Informal Organizations in Contemporary Russia” was held at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, on January 28-29, 2016. The conference was organized by the Centre for Independent Social Research (St. Petersburg, Russia) in collaboration with the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki (Helsinki, Finland), Uppsala University (Uppsala, Sweden), and the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Studies (Oslo, Norway). The organizing committee comprised Linda Cook (Brown University, USA), Ann-Mari Satre (Uppsala University, Sweden), Elena Bogdanova (Centre for Independent Social Research, Russia), Meri Kulmala (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland), Aadne Aasland (Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Studies, Norway), and Eleanor Bindman (Queen Mary College, University of London, United Kingdom). The conference was dedicated to the problems of non-profit organizations in Russia in the context of the transformation of the political and legal conditions. The conference consisted of six sections, covering such topics as the transformation of the institutional conditions of the NGO sector in Russia, Russian NGOs in an international dimension, and new types of NGO emerging in the changing organizational environment. There were 24 papers presented during the conference by researchers from 10 countries. In addition, a round table was organized with participants from Russian and Finnish NGOs and researchers, during which issues of cooperation between social scientists and representatives of NGOs was discussed. Over 70 people attended the conference. The working language of the conference was English.

Major incident in Kent: a case report.

A major incident was declared after a road traffic accident involving 150 cars and 200 people in Kent, England. The emergency services oversaw coordination of the scene, recovery and triage of casualties and transfer of patients to hospital. The crash was one of the worst seen on British roads and it has been hailed as a miracle that there were no deaths and very few serious injuries.This case report is a retrospective analysis of the regional health system’s response to the crash. The structure is based on the content of a report submitted using an online open access template for major incident reporting (Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med 22: 5, 2014; http://www.majorincidentreporting.org). A more comprehensive analysis of the incident has also been the theme of a Masters thesis (Hardy S. Reporting Major Incidents in England: Putting Theory into Practice. England: Queen Mary’s University of London; 2014).

Seamus Heaney:

In late 1979 and early 1980, the late Seamus Heaney was in a flurry of activity. Employed from 1976 to 1981 as head of the English Department at Carysfort, a teachers' training college in Dublin, in 1979 he spent a semester teaching a poetry workshop at Harvard University where in January 1982 he began a five-year contract teaching one semester a year. Field Work, published by Faber and Faber, was issued on 15 October 1979, and in November, Charlotte Press Publications, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, published Gravities: A Collection of Poems with drawings by Noel Connor. Also in a limited edition in December 1979, the Byron Press produced Heaney's A Family Album.On 5 February 1980, Heaney found time to visit, read his poems, and speak at St. Mary's Catholic teachers' training college, Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, Middlesex. He was interviewed after his reading by a student named Georginia Mills. This subsequently was published in the literary magazine Strawberry Fare produced by the English Department at St. Mary's College. During its short run the magazine published fascinating interviews with leading literary figures, apart from Heaney these included Peter Porter, David Lodge, Beryl Bainbridge, D. J. Enright, Michael Holroyd, Richard Ellmann, Tom Stoppard, and others. Today, copies of the journal are extremely scarce; it ran from the mid-1970s to Autumn 1989. An incomplete run is in the British Library, call mark ZK.9. a. 41. A complete run is held in the archives of the college, which generously sent most of its duplicate copies to the present writer.John Iddon, who lectured at St Mary's College from 1970 to 2000 and edited the Strawberry Fare issue of Autumn 1980 in which Heaney's interview appeared (pp. 14–18), has generously given permission for it to be reprinted as has Faber and Faber permissions department responsible for the publication of Seamus Heaney's writings. The interview is recorded in Rand Brandes and the late Michael J. Durkan's magnificent Seamus Heaney: A Bibliography 1959–2003 as item F 17 (p. 426). It is followed in Strawberry Fare by Heaney's: “Hercules and Antaeus” (Brandes and Durkan: C326). The interview contains some references that need brief explication. “Summer 1969” refers to a poem in the second part of Heaney's collection North, published by Faber and Faber in 1975. Other Heaney poems referred to are “A Constable Calls,” “The Ministry of Fear,” and “Fosterage” found in North, and “Kinship,” appearing in Bog poems, also published in 1975. Georgina Mills [GM] refers to Heaney's experiences at “St Columbus” echoing St Columb's College, in Derry City where Heaney was a boarder from 1951 to 1957. Heaney's close friend Seamus Deane (b. 1940) the novelist, poet, and critic also attended St Columb's at the same time as Seamus Heaney. Ian Crichton Smith (1928–1998) was a prolific Scottish author from a strict Presbyterian background who wrote in English and Scottish Gaelic. Michael McClaverty (1904–1992), “a short story writer” and Heaney's “first headmaster” when he taught in 1962–1963 at St Thomas' Secondary School along the Whiterock Road in the upper Falls Road area of West Belfast, wrote novels and short stories. In this interview there are also references to Joyce, to Tacitus, to W. B. Yeats's poetry, the significance of Antaeus, and Philip Larkin's “Toads.”

The Juvenilization of American Christianity by Thomas E. Bergler (review)

Reviewed by: The Juvenilization of American Christianity by Thomas E. Bergler Helen Ciernick The Juvenilization of American Christianity. By Thomas E. Bergler. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing. 2012. Pp. x, 281. $25.00 paperback. ISBN 978-0-8028-6684-4.) Thomas E. Bergler has written an important book for the historian of American Christianity. Beginning in the 1940s, Bergler takes the reader on an historical journey through the development of youth ministry and youth culture in the United States to outline the origins and process of the juvenilization of American Christianity and “how it has benefitted and hurt each of the major streams of Christianity in America” (p. 7). Along the way, Bergler draws upon archival documents, national publications, published memoirs, and the work of sociologists and historians. He does not intend to blame youth ministry for the current state of American Christianity; nor does he intend to explain how to eliminate juvenilization. Rather, he hopes “that by understanding where we have come from and how we got here, we might be able to choose the best paths forward” (p. 7). In his introduction, “We’re All Adolescents Now,” Bergler examines adolescence in American culture and briefly defines adolescent Christianity as “any way of understanding, experiencing, or practicing the Christian faith that conforms to the patterns of adolescence in American culture” (p. 8). He then continues by offering a brief overview of the process of juvenilization and examining the current state of American Christianity. In chapter 1, “Youth, Christianity, and the Crisis of Civilization,” he examines the perceived crisis of civilization in the 1940s that provided the impetus for the development of youth ministry, before introducing his four study groups: (1) Mainline Protestants represented by the Methodist Episcopal Church, (2) Evangelical Protestants as seen in Youth for Christ, (3) Roman Catholics and the American bishops’ Catholic Youth Organization program, and (4) African Americans of the Baptist denomination. He opens chapter 2, “Misreading the Signs of the Times: From Political Youth to Trivial Teenagers” with a discussion of the developing youth culture of the late 1940s and 1950s before looking closely at each group’s response to the cultural shifts that put American Christianity on the path to juvenilization. The next four chapters look at each group’s approach to youth ministry from the 1950s through the early1960s. Chapter 3 examines liberal Protestantism’s failure to move youth to Christian political action as it effectively undermined youth’s view of organized religion. Chapter 4 chronicles the crucial role that African American churches played in the civil rights movement as they placed their emphasis upon and hope in young people’s willingness to fight. Chapter 5 focuses on the American Catholic Church’s supportive network of parishes, schools, and national youth programs that formed youth in the faith. Chapter 6 returns to evangelical Protestantism, analyzing its continued success in adapting to the ever-changing youth culture even as some ministers worried about the cost of cultural adaptation. Chapter 7 elucidates the connection between the youth ministry of the 1940s and 1950s and the seemingly sudden juvenilization of the American Christianity. Chapter 8, “The Triumph and Taming of Juvenilization,” offers a timely and keen analysis of the state of American Christianity and suggestions for dealing with it. [End Page 958] Although Bergler focuses on youth ministry, the college professor will benefit from a careful reading of The Juvenilization of American Christianity, especially the final chapter. His work offers insights into college students’ experiences and perceptions of Christianity and suggestions that professors may want to keep in mind when structuring courses and leading classroom discussions. Without straying into the arena of campus ministry, professors can help students to develop an understanding of Christianity beyond what Christian Smith labeled “Moralistic, Therapeutic Deism” (p. 219). Helen Ciernick Mount Mary College Yankton, SD Copyright © 2015 The Catholic University of America Press

Specifying the Canadian: Four Books on Hockey

Specifying Canadian: Four Books on Hockey A Great Game: The Forgotten Leafs and Rise of Professional Hockey. By Stephen J. Harper. Toronto: Simon and Schuster, 2013. 368 pp. $34.99 (hardcover) ISBN 978-1-4767-1653-4. $22.00 (paper) ISBN 978-1-4767-1654-1.Hockey, PQ: Canada's Game in Quebec's Popular Culture. By Amy J. Ransom. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014. 265 pp. $70.00 (cloth) ISBN 978-1-4426-4813-5. $29.95 (paper) ISBN 978-1-4426-1619-6. $29.95 (ebook, EPUB format) ISBN 978-1-4426-7002-0.Refereeing Identity: The Cultural Work of Canadian Hockey Novels. By Michael Buma. Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2012. 324 pp. $95.00 (cloth) ISBN 978-0-7735-3987-7. $29.95 (paper) ISBN 978-0-7735-3988-4.Stickhandling through Margins: First Nations Hockey in Canada. By Michael Robidoux. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012. 176 pp. $21.95 (paper) ISBN 978-1-4426-1338-6. $14.95 (ebook, EPUB format) ISBN 978-1-4426-6214-8.The idea that a sport like might Canada is one that might inspire instinctive resistance, but in an era of discredited metanarratives we should come to accept that topics of broad national resonance, no matter what topic, may have power to explain essential features of Canadian society. Certainly, writers have acknowledged this. Al Purdy famously referred to as the Canadian specific (Purdy 1986, 55), and others have invariably pointed out that stories about carry a national narrative-of northernness, of our social values, and of Canada's collective nature (Harrison and Dopp 2009). It is, however, only in last decade that scholars have begun to bring critical attention to these notions, and in new millennium a subfield that Andrew Holman (2009, 7) has called hockey studies has begun to flourish.Seminal works such as Richard Gruneau and David Whitson's Hockey Night in Canada: Sports, Identities, and Cultural Politics (1993) look more critically at meaning and implications of Canada's national game.1 Proponents of subfield have followed their lead through a series of interdisciplinary conferences on held more or less biannually since 2001. The first was convened by Colin Howell at St. Mary's University in Halifax, and resulted in two conference volumes (Howell 2002) that showed variety of work being done on hockey, from climate of indoor rinks to perennial question of origins of game. Subsequent gatherings in Fredericton, Plymouth, Victoria, and Buffalo have allowed a vibrant community of scholars to emerge, and several more publications that pushed forward critical analysis, including a special issue of Sport History Review (Holman 2006) and edited collections by Whitson and Gruneau (2006), Richard Harrison and Jamie Dopp (2009), and Andrew Holman (2009).2 Many of same scholars have contributed to other important, more focussed collections, including those examining national spread of (Wong 2009), cultural place of Montreal Canadiens (Laurin-Lamothe and Moreau 2011), and of course, 1972 Summit Series (Kennedy 2014).The last half-decade has also produced several substantial individual works that address major concerns of scholars (primarily meaning of game in Canadian context) and approach questions in a variety of ways. In this essay, I consider four books that to various degrees make compelling claims about how study of and its motivating myths illumine interactions of major themes of Canadian society in modern age-colonialism, national identity, ethnicity, gender, and capitalism.It must be said that studying has a few perks, and to generate Refereeing Identity: The Cultural Work of Canadian Hockey Novels (2012), Michael Buma had enviable task of reading dozens of Canadian novels and placing them in context of Canadian literary criticism. His work followed swiftly on heels of Jason Blake's Canadian Hockey Literature (2010), which surveyed more broadly fiction, poetry, and drama. …

Pressure Ulcer Research: Current and Future Perspectives

This multi-author volume brings together 30 contributors under an international editorship. The four editors include three biomedical engineers (one from Queen Mary's College, University of London and two from the Eindhoven University of Technology) and the medical director of l'Arche Rehabilitation Centre in France, who is the only clinical author. The final chapter on tissue repair strategies, which is of most surgical interest, focuses on ‘biochemical stimulation of the wound bed to improve wound healing. Important new therapeutics in this category are reviewed such as: (i) exogenous application of growth factors; (ii) tissue-engineered skin grafts; and (iii) gene therapy.’ The two authors from the Eindhoven University of Technology are (according to an internet search) not medically qualified, so understandably their viewpoints do not set out the full range of current reconstructive surgical options or ‘future perspectives’ in clinical surgery. The publishers have adopted the convention of excluding any reference to the contributors' professional qualifications. With this handicap, the clinical reader cannot effectively assess treatment strategies mentioned by the authors as merely being references from the literature or from the author's own authoritative experience. Nevertheless, this is a useful and unique contribution to a neglected area. Risk assessment, basic science and human and animal research are fully reviewed. Epidemiological studies from The Netherlands on the costs of pressure ulcer care and the medicolegal review from the US add significant practical insights. The chapter on the role of oxidative stress in the development and persistence of pressure ulcers is a particularly helpful summary of ischaemia-reperfusion injury from two Oxford biochemists who support their chapter with a comprehensive reference list. The editors have generally avoided repetition (a significant achievement in a multi-author text) though there is a colour illustration of a section through human skin that is a reiteration of a black and white graphic. This slim volume succeeds in its aim of providing ‘a clearer understanding of the mechanisms associated with the aetiology of pressure ulcers and to identify the risk levels of individuals’. Surgeons with a pressure sore and wound-healing interest will find a useful reference even if it does not find wider surgical acceptance. I would certainly want to have this on my medical bookshelf.

David Lodge Interviewed by Chris Walsh

The Eminent British Novelist and Literary critic David Lodge was interviewed in 1984 by Chris Walsh, then a lecturer in English at St Mary's Teachers Training College, now St Mary's University, Twickenham, London. Lodge spoke about his background—his Catholic education and its influence on him, his early reading of Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh—and about literary criticism and fiction. The interview was published in the literary magazine Strawberry Fare, produced by the English department at St Mary's, which is situated on Strawberry Hill. During its short run, from 1981 to 1989, Strawberry Fare published fascinating interviews with leading literary figures, including, in addition to Lodge, Tom Stoppard, Seamus Heaney, Beryl Bainbridge, and others. Today copies of the journal are extremely scarce. The only complete runs appear to be in the British Library (call number ZK.9.a.41) and in the archives of St Mary's.

Stephen Allen. The Chagos Islanders and International Law

The tale of the Chagos Archipelago (British Indian Ocean Territory, BIOT) raises a wide spectrum of transnational legal questions, all across the fields of human rights, environment and disarmament. Last-born of the Empire's colonies, the BIOT was established - and systematically depopulated - for the sole purpose of accommodating a strategic US military base during the Cold War years in 1965-1966.1 The territory has since generated extensive litigation in the national courts of the United Kingdom (UK) and the USA as well as proceedings in the European Court of Human Rights and an arbitration under Annex VII of the Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Stephen Allen, senior lecturer at the University of London's Queen Mary College, has long followed and commented on legal developments in the Chagos cases as an observer. The focus of his attention remains the plight of the native Chagossians, a small Kreol-speaking people of African and Malgasy origin, whose exile (mainly to Mauritius, the Seychelles and the UK) has lasted for more than 40 years. The first two chapters of the book summarize and analyse the unsuccessful attempts by the Chagos islanders to seek judicial redress for their expulsion. Their case ultimately turned on the continuing force of 19th-century imperial law (the Colonial Laws Validity Act) under which the BIOT was created, versus the islanders' right of abode, which was effectively abolished in 1971, restored in 2000 and re-abolished in 2004 by simple executive orders-in-council under royal prerogative powers. In 2008, a narrow three-to-two majority of the House of Lords' Appellate Committee upheld the legitimacy of this Victorian remnant of colonial law-making (characterized as an anachronistic survival in the scathing dissent by Lord Justice Bingham).

Structural Determinants in Hinge‐Bend Motions of Neurolysin

Neurolysin (EC 3.4.24.16; NLN) is a zinc (II) metallopeptidase, in the M3 family of enzymes, along with close relatives such as thimet oligopeptidase (TOP). NLN is believed to play a role in diverse physiological processes through cleavage of neuropeptides, including neurotensin and bradykinin. NLN and similar enzymes are thought to operate via a hinge‐clasp mechanism whereby a substrate enters the active site of the open, inactive form and conformational changes in the hinge region lead the enzyme to adopt a closed, active form. These conformational changes likely provide a mechanism for limiting the length of peptides processed by NLN and TOP. This research will use site‐directed mutagenesis followed by spectroscopic and kinetic assays of the engineered enzymes to examine the importance of residues in the clasp region on the mechanism of substrate selectivity and hydrolysis. To this end we have optimized the expression and purification of the cytosolic isoform of mouse NLN – subcloned into a pET28b(+) vector, overexpressed in E. coli, and purified by Ni‐affinity chromatography. We have created homology models of the open and closed conformations of mouse neurolysin; these models suggest that alpha helices 3 and 6, located on either side of the hinge region, play a role in modulating the stability of the closed, active form of the enzyme. Using our homology models, we have analyzed this region and identified several potential stabilizing interactions, including a salt bridge between GLU135 and LYS189, residues highly conserved in NLN and similar enzymes. Analysis of the effect of mutations in the clasp region on enzyme stability and activity are currently underway.Grant Funding SourceThis research was funded by the Robert W. and Beverly J. Summers Scholarship through Saint Mary's College of California's Summer Research Program.

Implementation and Benefits of a Capstone Undergraduate Research Program

The benefits of an undergraduate research opportunity have been well documented. At Saint Mary's University of Minnesota, undergraduate research in the Biology and Chemistry Departments has been an integral requirement of the majors for nearly 70 years. The requirements are that the students complete an original research project that must be laboratory or field‐oriented. Courses in research design and implementation of the research prepare students to perform and accomplish the capstone research project. Students are assessed on their ability to communicate by utilizing both a written thesis and oral presentation. This poster will outline the learning goals, learning outcomes, and assessment tools used to monitor student progress as they gain confidence to become an independent researcher.

Crossing the Cobequid: Meeting Places/Lieux de rencontre

Canadian studies has long served as meeting for disciplinary approaches. As this theme issue of the Journal of Canadian Studies demonstrates, Canadian studies continues to offer tremendous potential for interdisciplinary connection and co-operation. The essays assembled here were originally presented as papers at conference jointly organized by the Centre for Canadian Studies at Mount Allison University and the Gorsebrook Research Institute at Saint Mary's University in September 2013. Places: An International Canadian Studies Conference/Lieux de rencontre: Colloque international en etudes canadiennes brought together academics, artists, and authors interested in placebased cultures and in creative and scholarly collaboration and production; they came from across Canada and around the world. As special feature of the conference, participants travelled from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Sackville, New Brunswick, crossing the Cobequid Pass and tracing the movements of Indigenous peoples through the millennia. In recognition, we broke the journey at the Glooscap Heritage Centre (now known as the Millbrook Cultural and Heritage Centre) in Millbrook, Nova Scotia, the authors of The Language of This Land, Trudy Sable and Bernie Francis, introduced Mi'kma'ki as a fluid and living landscape filled with networks of reciprocal relationships and moral obligations (2012, 25). Crossing the Cobequid little later that day became the occasion for reflecting on how the land is deeply embedded in Indigenous knowledge and society. As participants travelled from one place to another, from Halifax to Sackville, across the Cobequid Pass and the provincial border between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, sharing their knowledge and learning from each other, ideas took shape and the interdisciplinary essays published here are the result.In addition to academic sessions and to keynotes by Andrea Bear Nicholas, Cole Harris, Tania Martin, and Graeme Wynn, the Meeting Places Exhibition featured work and performances by artists Alison Creba, Ray Fenwick, Eryn Foster, Frank Shebageget, Tom Sherman, Aaron Weldon, and Mitchell Wiebe, curated by Gemey Kelley at the Owens Art Gallery. The creative writers who gave public readings at the conference are similarly engaged in reimagining place. Poems and films by Hermenegilde Chiasson and stories by Alexander MacLeod are embedded in real and imagined places. Aritha van Herk's Mavericks: An Incorrigible History of Alberta (2002) and Michael Crummey's pictorial elegy Newfoundland: Journey into Lost Nation (2004), written in collaboration with Greg Locke, meditate on the authors' relationship to the places they live. Each of their readings, like the artworks on display, enacted the generative role of in Canadian arts and culture.This theme issue shares some of the highlights of the gathering with readers everywhere. Since the emergence of Canadian Studies in the 1960s, has served as both marker of identity and an object of study. Understanding Canada as and understanding place(s) within Canada have been integral to the development of Canadian Studies, from Northrop Frye's inquiry where is here? in the Literary History of Canada (1965, 826), to the situatedness Smaro Kamboureli considers formative in Canadian literary culture (2014, 7), and to the critical readings of displacement, movement, and belonging produced from various inter- and transdisciplinary perspectives. Studies of region and regionalism in literature, from Laurie Ricou's influential Vertical Man, Horizontal World (1973) and Frank Davey's cultural critique in From There to Here (1974) to Patrick O'Flaherty's The Rock Observed (1979), proliferated in the 1970s.Although early studies of region may seem dated in an era when, under the pressure of globalization, national identities seem to dissolve with their borders, these readings of local and regional cultures in Canada shaped the emerging field of Canadian Studies, often creating their own object of study as well as new cultural expressions and products. …