North American Literature Research Articles

Delirium and Desire in Nicole Brossard's Le Désert Mauve/Mauve Desert

susan holbrook teaches North American literatures and creative writing at the University of Windsor. Other articles on twentieth-century writing can be found in journals such as American Literature, tessera,Essays on Canadian Writing, and Open Letter. Her fi rst book of poetry is entitled misled (Red Deer Press, 1999).

Medication-induced (analgesic rebound) headache: historical aspects and initial descriptions of the North American experience.

A review of the initial descriptions of medication-induced (misuse) headache in the North American literature indicates that this disorder was first identified in the mid-1950s. It was not until the early 1980s that this phenomenon became well established.

Digital Divide or Digital Opportunity? The Role of Technology in Overcoming Social Exclusion in U.S. Education

The use of information technology in education is now a political orthodoxy, seen by many politicians and educators as a ready means of widening participation to those social groups traditionally excluded from learning. However; the role of technology in overcoming social exclusion in education and lifetime learning practices has often failed to be objectively discussed, with a tendency for many educationalists to adopt either overtly optimistic or pessimistic positions. From this background, the present article objectively examines both current patterns of exclusion from education and technology alongside the range of ongoing policies and initiatives established in the United States concerned with technology and education. Moreover; based on a range of North American and European research literature concerned with participation in education, the article then discusses the issues and problems faced by U.S. educationalists and policy makers in proactively using technology as a means of reducing social exclusion in lifelong education.

Social and Environmental Disclosure and Corporate Characteristics: A Research Note and Extension

This paper is concerned with the attempts to explain the disclosure of social and environmental information in the annual reports of large companies by reference to observable characteristics of those companies. An extensive literature has sought to establish whether variables such as corporate size, profit and industry segments can explain corporations' disclosure practices. The results from that predominantly North American and Australasian literature are largely inconclusive. This paper provides an extension of that literature by considering a more disaggregated specification of social and environmental disclosure and by employing a detailed time‐series data set. By so doing, the paper tests two possible explanations for the inconclusiveness of prior research: namely that any relationships between corporate characteristics and disclosure are dependent upon the type of disclosure and that any such relationships are not stable through time. The results provide support for these explanations as sufficient, if not necessary, conditions for explaining the inconsistency in prior results.

Marriage, divorce, and legal change: new evidence from England and Wales

In this article, we explain the evolution of divorce rates in England and Wales over the post‐war period. Following the approach of the predominantly North American literature in this area, we focus on the liberalization of divorce law and socioeconomic factors as determinants of the divorce rate. In line with the development of the literature, we find that the introduction of liberalized, no‐fault divorce law had a significant effect on the divorce rate in England and Wales. The finding that the law affects the divorce rate is consistent with the view that marriage is characterized by indivisibilities that inhibit Coasian bargaining.

The Hispanic Absence in the North American Literary Canon

I recently completed a book of interviews (Latina Self-Portraits: Interviews with Contemporary Women Writers, co-edited with Juanita Heredia, University of New Mexico Press, 2000) with ten of the most prominent Latina writers in the US; Julia Alvarez, Denise Chávez, Sandra Cisneros, Rosario Ferré, Cristina García, Nicholasa Mohr, Cherríe Moraga, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Esmeralda Santiago and Helena María Viramontes. These women, Cuban, Dominican, Mexican and Puerto Rican Americans, raised issues that ranged from the craft of writing to the inherent problems of national identities. The themes generated in our conversations with these women – their doubled ethnic identities, their complicated relationship to their communities, their difficulties in representing their communities and, finally, their work as part of the larger American canon – revealed a powerful discourse about what it means to be Latina American in the United States. After spending two years talking with these women, it is evident to me that Latina literature is a vital part of American literature and should be included in any study of comparative American literatures.

Wernicke's Encephalopathy Following Gastroplasty for Morbid Obesity

The syndrome of Wernicke's encephalopathy consists of two of four features of (1) dietary deficiency; (2) oculomotor abnormality; (3) cerebellar dysfunction; and (4) confusion or mild memory impairment. Predisposing risk factors include alcoholism, hyperemesis gravidarum and prolonged intravenous feeding. A 35-year-old female developed refractory emesis, severe weight loss, and hypokalemia following banded gastroplasty for morbid obesity. Reversal of gastroplasty was performed four months following initial surgery. Following reversal, the patient developed confusion, ataxia, leg weakness and nystagmus. Examination of the patient demonstrated disorientation with confusion, vertical nystagmus worse on downgaze, diffuse weakness of the lower extremities, and bilateral dysmetria. Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain demonstrated symmetrical areas of increased T2 signal present bilaterally in the medial thalamic nuclei. The patient did not demonstrate any initial improvement with intravenous thiamine but improved over two months of follow-up. Wernicke's encephalopathy has been reported in the European literature as a complication of gastroplasty, with rare recognition of this clinical entity in the North American literature. This potential complication of gastroplasty may be preventable by nutritional intervention in subjects experiencing severe weight loss and emesis following surgery.

Stone Tool Research at the End of the Millennium: Classification, Function, and Behavior

This is the second of the two papers that review the literature of archaeological lithic analysis over the last decade. This paper concentrates on aspects of stone tool research that are not directly related to the production or procurement of the tools themselves. It is divided into classification, functional analyses, behavioral processes, and approaches to the subject currently popular among analysts. As with the previous paper, an attempt has been made to be as comprehensive as is reasonable, though availability of sources has resulted in an emphasis on North American literature.

Ecology and Management of Biological Soil Crusts: Recent Developments and Future Challenges

Biological soil crusts, often referred to in the North American literature as microbiotic, cryptogamic, cryptobiotic, or microphytic crusts, are the dominant biological soil surface feature in arid and semi-arid landscapes. Crusts comprise a complex assemblage of organisms such as mosses, liverworts, cyanobacteria, algae, lichens, fungi, and bacteria growing on and within the uppermost layers of the soil. Their close association with the soil

Advertising consumer goods in nineteenth‐centuary Britain: reinterpretations

D y comparison with the growing literature which deals with the history D of American advertising, the history of advertising in Britain remains largely unresearched.2 Most North American literature has concentrated on the period since 1880, and in particular since the second World War. It is true that some of the issues raised by competing interpretations of advertising in the American economy and society during the twentieth century may not be directly applicable to the British context nineteenth century. None the less, a brief preliminary surve, identifies the principal parameters of the debates, both theoretical and empirical, which the North American literature has stimulated should provide a useful starting point from which to begin to fill the serious historical gap which Benson highlighted in his recent monograph surveying the rise of consumer society in Britain.3 By providing a wider perspective, that literature is relevant to any attempt to reinterpret advertising in Britain, particularly because much of the previous literature approached it from the standpoint of culture, literature, or societal concerns, tending to ignore Fine and Leopold's timely reminder that 'advertising is itself concerned with the creation of a product ... and sold to make a profit'.4

Development and definition of the role of the operating department nurse: a review.

In the current cost-conscious National Health Service (NHS), the role of the nurse during anaesthesia and surgery is one that has interested health service managers keen to know what happens behind the closed doors of the operating department. It is clear that if nurses working within this specialized setting are to secure a future in providing care for surgical patients, then it is important to clarify and articulate exactly what it is that their role involves. The aim of this paper is to examine the role of the operating department nurse. First, it will illustrate how the role of the nurse has evolved alongside medical and technical advances in surgery, particularly in the last century. Second, it will highlight that while definition of the role has received attention in the North American literature, references in the British literature as to what it is that operating department nurses do, are scant. Finally, it will address the evolving role of the contemporary perioperative nurse highlighting the changes and challenges that nurses who work within this setting are currently facing. It is suggested here that nurses need to engage in role definition in order to be clear about their direction for the future, particularly within the fast changing, technologically driven environment of the operating department.

The Teaching Roles, Institutional Locations, and Terms and Conditions of Employment of Part-time Teachers in UK Higher Education

This article is devoted to a phenomenon of increasing relevance in contemporary higher education in the UK-the growing resort, especially noticeable since the early 1980s, to using part-time adjunct teachers for the performance of conventional teaching duties. It offers a typology to comprehend the variety of such teachers, including many who are not individually enumerated by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), and it discusses two distinctive employment relationships that differentiate between part-timers. It describes some of the existing studies of part-time teachers in UK higher education, as well as drawing analogies to the better-developed North-American literature on the equivalent topic there. The article also describes a telephone survey conducted in mid-/late-1997 among personnel officers in an achieved sample of 22 'old' and 'new' institutions in order to ascertain information on the approximate numbers of particular types of part-timer at each institution and on the terms and conditions of their employment. It presents information on the relative prevalence of various types of part-time teacher according to type of university (including whether 'old' or 'new' sector) and to further institutional characteristics. It discusses, on the basis of the collected data, sector-specific employment practices concerning part-time teachers and, from information about the terms of their employment, it assesses the degree of their contractual disadvantage in relation to conventional full-time staff.

Measuring satisfaction with social care amongst older service users: issues from the literature.

Issues of quality and accountability in social care for older people are of increasing importance. A key factor in determining quality is the extent to which older people themselves are satisfied with both the assessment of their needs and the services provided. The 1997 White Paper, Modernising Social Services, stated that local authorities will need to establish authority-wide objectives and performance measures to improve the quality and efficiency of services. In measuring quality, the White Paper stipulated that social service departments would need to design and administer satisfaction surveys as one means of capturing user and carer perceptions and experiences of services. This paper attempts to highlight some of the main issues to be considered when designing and conducting such surveys with older users of community care services. Through a review of the British and North American literature on older people's satisfaction with services, current approaches to measuring satisfaction are outlined and the relationship between the characteristics and circumstances of older people and their responses to satisfaction questions is examined. The paper concludes by offering some solutions to overcoming current problems by drawing conclusions about quality from survey findings, so that older people's opinions about the services they receive can begin to be assessed in a more meaningful way.

Evaluation of an Automated Drug Distribution System in an Australian Teaching Hospital: Part 1. Implementation

Evaluation of the role of automated drug distribution systems and other technologies in enhancing pharmacy practice and medication management in the hospital setting have been reported in the North American literature since the early 1990s. The availability of such technology in Australia has been limited and as such its application in local practice settings has not been evaluated.

Teenage Moms Living in Nova Scotia, Canada: An Exploration of Influences on Their Decision to Become a Mother

Currently, there is an extensive North American literature outlining the social, economic, and cultural background of women who become teen moms. However, relatively little is known about the nature of the influences on teen women's decisions to become mothers. This qualitative study sought to add to the literature on teenage motherhood by exploring, from the perspective of the young women, the social, economic, and cultural influences on their decision to become a mom. The research is based on 40 semi-structured interviews with teen moms living in Nova Scotia, Canada. The results underline the fact that there are multiple and complex reasons why some teens decide to become a mother. In addition, the findings point to the importance of examining the neighborhood and societal-level forces influencing teens' decisions to become a mother.

The Immigrant experience in North American literature: carving out a niche

Preface by Toby Rose Introduction: Stories of the Uprooted by Katherine Payant Interdependent Selves: Mary Antin, Elizabeth Stern, and Jewish Women's Immigrant Autobiography by Wendy Zierler Justifying Individualism: Anzia Yezierska's BREAD GIVERS by Martin Japtok Fighting the Trolls on the Dakota Plains: The Ecstasy and the Agony of Norwegian Immigrants' Lives in O.E. Rolvaag's GIANTS IN THE EARTH by Raychel Haugrud Reiff JASMINE or the Americanization of an Asian: Negotiating between Cultural Arrest and Moral Decay in Immigrant Fiction by Gonul Pultar Developing Negatives: Jamaica Kincaid's LUCY by Jacqueline Doyle Speaking and Listening: The Immigrant as Spy Who Comes in from the Cold by June Dwyer Repositioning the Stars: Twentieth Century Narratives of Asian American Immigration by Qun Wang Borderland Themes in Sandra Cisneros's WOMAN HOLLERING CREEK by Katherine Payant Crossroads Are Our Roads: Paule Marshall's Portrayal of Immigrant Identity Themes by Toby Rose Motherland Versus Daughterland in Judith Ortiz Cofer's THE LINE OF THE SUN by Carmen Faymonville OBASAN and Hybridity: Necessary Cultural Strategies by Matthew Beedham Becoming Americans: Gish Jen's TYPICAL AMERICAN by Zhou Xiaojing Epilogue by Toby Rose Selected Bibliography Index

A comparison of Phragmites australisin freshwater and brackish marsh environments in North America

This paper compares the available North Americanliterature and data concerning several ecologicalfactors affecting Phragmites australisin inlandfreshwater, tidal fresh, and tidal brackish marshsystems. We compare aboveground productivity, plantspecies diversity, and sediment biogeochemistry; andwe summarize Phragmiteseffects on faunalpopulations in these habitats. These data suggest thatPhragmitesaboveground biomass is higher thanthat of other plant species occurring in the samemarsh system. Available data do not indicate anysignificant difference in the aboveground Phragmitesbiomass between marsh types, nor doesthere appear to be an effect of salinity on height.However, Phragmitesstem density wassignificantly lower in inland non-tidal freshwatermarshes than in tidal marshes, whether fresh orbrackish. Studies of the effects of Phragmiteson plant species richness suggest that Phragmitesdominated sites have lower diversity.Furthermore, Phragmiteseradication infreshwater sites increased plant diversity in allcases. Phragmitesdominated communities appearto have different patterns of nitrogen cyclingcompared to adjacent plant communities. Abovegroundstanding stocks of nitrogen (N) were found to behigher in Phragmitessites compared to thosewithout Phragmites. Porewater ammonium(NH4+) did not differ among plant covertypes in the freshwater tidal wetlands, but inbrackish marshes NH4+was much higher inSpartinaspp. than in neighboring Phragmitesstands. Faunal uses of Phragmitesdominated sites in North America were found to vary bytaxa and in some cases equaled or exceeded use ofother robust emergent plant communities. In light ofthese findings, we make recommendations for futureresearch.

Commentary

In the sometimes sensational world of illicit drug reportage, there is one unsung villain. While heroin misuse remains the bête noir of tabloid journalism, ecstasy the demon of the dance floors and cocaine caricatured as the choice of the rich and famous, amphetamine misuse has lurked the shadows. Its use defies such simple categorisation and spans several groups in society. Bruce has provided a timely reminder of this neglected area in substance misuse literature and, in the process, has highlighted the relevance of basic information gathering as the most important tool in the armamentorium of drug misuse workers. The lack of prominence given to what they describe as a “hidden epidemic” is striking. Could this be because amphetamine misuse is a less prevalent problem than that of other illicit drugs? Evidence suggests otherwise. Amphetamine is the second most common illicit drug seized in the UK (after cannabis). It is easily produced and used in a variety of modes, and recent research confirms a high prevalence of misuse in this country reflecting that found in North American and Australian literature.

Erbsche Lähmung ohne Schulterdystokie: Neuere Aspekte bei der gutachterlichen Beurteilung.Vorstellungen zur vorgeburtlichen Entstehung kindlicher Plexusläsionen - Erb's Palsy without Shoulder Dystocia: More Recent Aspects for Experts' Appraisement. Concepts concerning prenatal development of plexus lesions in neonates -

Shoulder dystocia with subsequent brachial plexus lesions in neonates is a common reason for obstetric liability litigation. Trauma during delivery is often assumed to be directly responsible for the lesion. We recently gave an expert opinion in a case involving Erb's palsy after an unremarkable delivery with no evidence of shoulder dystocia. We review the recent North American literature on plexus lesions in neonates without shoulder dystocia. The analysis of neonates with Erb's paralysis after delivery without shoulder dystocia, particularly after atraumatic cesarean delivery, have led to a new concept of prenatal (in utero) development of plexus lesions. These cases are inconsistent with the traditional concept of plexus lesions due to trauma sustained at delivery. In this group the traditional risk factors for shoulder dystocia play only a minor role. Overall, at least 50% of neonatal brachial plexus lesions result from unavoidable antepartum or intrapartum events and occur without shoulder dystocia. Antenatal brachial plexus lesions may result from stretching forces or pressure exerted on the plexus in utero by uterine anomalies (e.g., leiomyomas, intrauterine septa, bicornuate uterus) or other factors. Abnormal forces of labor may also play a role. The concept of Erb's paralysis unrelated to trauma at delivery and shoulder dystocia has medicolegal implications.

Winfried Siemerling and Katrin Schwenk (eds.), Cultural Difference and the Literary Text: Pluralism and the Limits of Authenticity in North American Literatures

Winfried Siemerling and Katrin Schwenk (eds.), Cultural Difference and the Literary Text: Pluralism and the Limits of Authenticity in North American Literatures