This thesis examines the representation of sexuality and identity in six novels written by Edmund White. Issues specifically related to gay male sexuality and homosexual/gay identity politics are discussed in Chapter One. These issues are developed in Chapter Two's exploration of sexuality, coming out, outing, and narrative. However, the first two chapters also facilitate the introduction and critical expansion of key contextual and theoretical concerns. On the one hand, White's output is shaped and informed by the cultural, historical and political circumstances which have conditioned how gay male sexuality has been discursively figured and represented over the last forty years. On the other hand, his work has been inflected by theorisations of sexuality which have called into question the very specificity of a homosexual and/or gay identity. Drawing principally on theorisations of sexuality and identity in the work of ludith Butler, Lee Edelman, and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, the first two chapters propose that the relations between sexuality and identity are unstable and discontinuous. Chapter Three's examination of narrative strategies contends that White's Forgetting /;;lena (1973), and Nocturnes for the King (if Naples (1978), excite readings of same-sex desire which are unable to specify an essential or natural difference between heterosexual and homosexual identities. Alert, nevertheless, to the political contexts which compel all sexual identity claims, Chapter Four observes how White's deployment of fantasy enables his novel Caracole (1985) to consider why identities and communities are labelled gay or straight in the first instance. Critical essays on White's work rightly note his novels' apparent preoccupation with gay male self-representation. However, discussing A Boy's Own Story (1982), and The Beautiful Room is Empty (1988), Chapter Five aims to expose the limitations of homosexual and gender definition. Indeed, if the relations between sex, gender and identity are neither clear nor continuous, then perhaps White's novels bring out such gender trouble. The examination of gay sex, sexuality and AIDS in Ihe Farewell Symphony (1997) observes why acts of gay self-nomination are politically necessary in homophobic cultures. However, this final chapter discusses why White's work appears reluctant to determine the meaning of sexuality and identity in any resolute way. Such queer irresolution, this thesis contends, enables the fiction to critique the past. Nevertheless, simply to say farewell to this past is to ignore the conditions of a future.

Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s largest exporters of oil and is known as the hub of Islam. It has been argued that the production of oil has a harmful effect on the economic and political status of women. Therefore, these tribal states are left with atypically strong patriarchal institutions where women are assigned to the domestic sphere. However, the international political pressure on Saudi Arabia to improve the position of women post the events of September the 11th 2001 has led the government to mobilise initiatives encouraging women into the public sphere. In addition, the depletion of oil resources has drawn the government’s attention to lessen its dependency on oil production and concentrate on private sector investment. Part of the government’s strategy has specifically focused on women, who hold much of the wealth in the country, to invest in the entrepreneurial sector in order to diversify the Saudi economy and provide employment to the rapidly increasing population. However, the laws continue to maintain women’s secondary position in society, as they are built on tribal customs and ideologies which treat women as ‘legal minors’ under the guardianship of her closest male relative. Furthermore, women are confined to jobs in the labour market which are deemed ‘suitable to their nature’, and thus, their entrepreneurial investment is constrained by gender-­‐discriminating laws and placed within certain industries. Research on Saudi women’s experiences of participating in the labour force are scarce, as is the literature on Saudi female entrepreneurs .This thesis adopts a relational multilevel framework with the lens of ‘patriarchal connectivity’ in investigating the salient micro-­‐ domestic, meso-­‐societal and macro-­‐ state opportunities and boundaries of 13 Saudi female entrepreneurs embedded in the patriarchal context. The research adopts a relational methodological approach, capitalising on qualitative in-­‐depth interviews with the female entrepreneurs to explore their entrepreneurial experiences, motivations, and the boundaries and opportunities they face. Furthermore, the study investigates women’s negotiation strategies in overcoming the patriarchal boundaries. The findings highlight the women’s ‘emancipatory’ motivations behind entrepreneurship. They also illustrate the nature of the ‘permeable boundaries’ within and across the patriarchal domestic, societal and state domains, which meant the women were paradoxically confronted by ‘enabling’ opportunities and ‘constraining’ boundaries in each of the domains. However, whilst the women did exercise agency at some permeable boundaries, this agency remained within the confines of a prevailing patriarchal structure.

Amicitia – Roman friendship – is delineated as an ideal reciprocal relationship between elite Roman males of fairly equal social standing. When individuals of unequal rank share this ideal reciprocal relationship, amicitia is labeled as “patronage” or “clientship”. This report seeks to test these ideals by examining the language of amicitia between individuals of equal and unequal rank in the plays of Terence. The results of this study show that Terence’s plays broaden the definition of amicitia to encompass a wide range of various friendships, including clientships. The language of amicitia supports the evidence available from late Republican and Imperial Rome that the measurement of reciprocity is indeterminate, amicitia and clientship share the same terminology of friendship, and that it can illuminate character development throughout the plays of Terence. / text

The phenomena of men and depression is poorly understood. Men continue to be under diagnosed with depression but commit suicide four times the rate of women. This grounded theory study explored the psychosocial processes that occurred in men who suffered from depression. There were a total of nine men who participated in this study who ranged in age, educational level, and marital status. Eleven interviews were conducted with nine men.The theory that emerged from this study was Navigating Inward and Outward Through Depression. The process of navigating was the core concept and defined as a process of moving through depression and having to steer one's life in different directions in order to move in and out of the stages of depression. The first stage was: Being Different. In this stage the men attempted to share their feelings, but were constantly rejected by society came to believe that nobody cared or nobody would understand their feelings. The second stage, Concealing Feelings, refers to how the men learned to navigate out of stage one and into stage two of learning to hide their internal feelings and thoughts. The third stage, Disconnecting, was defined as the way the men would numb their emotional pain. As their emotional pain became more intense, the concealing no longer worked. The men used external behaviors to physically numb their pain. The fourth stage, Hitting Bottom, refers to the men losing hope for their future and wanting to give up on life. The men had thoughts of suicide or thoughts that death would be an option to relieve the emotional pain. The fifth stage, Acknowledging and Confronting, refers to the ability to acknowledge they were depressed and understand how depression was affecting their lives.

Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) is a maternally inherited trait of higher plants that can be suppressed by nuclear restorers of fertility ( Rf) genes that normally down-regulate the expression of a CMS-associated mitochondrial gene. In Brassica napus, nap CMS is associated with the expression of the orf222/nad5c/orf2101 mitochondrial gene region and is suppressed by the restorer gene Rfn. I present here an extensive analysis of the expression of the orf222/nad5c/orf2101 region in nap CMS and fertility-restored plants. Using RT-PCR methodology, I mapped transcript initiation sites, processing sites, and 3' termini. I identified two processing events, one within and one immediately downstream of orf222, that are specific to fertility restored plants and I suggest possible mechanisms by which the Rfn protein may recognize cognate RNA substrates. Unexpectedly, I also found that levels of atp8 transcripts are much lower in CMS than in restored plants. / nad5c, one of the components of the nap CMS-associated region, is the small central exon of the nad5 gene. In higher plants, nad5c transcripts must be joined to exons b and d through two group II intron trans-splicing events. I found that in the dicot Brassica and the monocot wheat, proper splicing requires exon c and d joining occur prior to the splicing of c with b. Joining of c to a/b transcripts prior to c/d splicing results exclusively in mis-spliced products in which the 5' end of c is joined to cryptic sites within exon b. It is suggested that intron sequences downstream of c base-pair with exon a, leading to mis-folding of the b/c intron and mis-splicing. In Oenothera, where the c/d intron is further fragmented into a tri-partite intron, mis-splicing does not occur. I suggest that avoidance of mis-splicing may be a factor that drives fragmentation of trans -splicing group II introns and may have contributed to the eventual evolution of spliceosomal RNAs from a group II intron precursor.

No description available.

The aim of the study was to discover, describe and analyze factors related to the perceived acceptance of male nurses in the practice of midwifery in the Seychelles as perceived by nurses, pregnant women and their partners. A descriptive study using the qualitative approach was used. Theoretical sampling was employed and thirty-four participants comprising nurses, pregnant women and their partners were interviewed using an interview guide. Probing was done throughout. The nurses, the pregnant women and their partners were interviewed both in focus groups and individually. Participants taking part in individual interview were different from those taking part in focus group interview. The focus groups were homogeneous comprising professional nurses and consumers of service (pregnant women and their husbands) respectively. The findings revealed multitude of factors associated with the perceived acceptance of males in the practice of midwifery. These were classified as positive, negative and ambivalent. The major positive themes were unconditional acceptance, conditional acceptance, and equitable treatment, by all three groups of informants while traditional belief was the major negative theme. Other positive themes by the nurses were change of attitudes over time, and males as caring professionals, while for pregnant women; it was viewed as prior acceptance of male obstetrician. Both the nurses and partners saw the intimate nature of midwifery as a negative factor while only the nurses identified fear of competition and religious belief. Lack of trust was another negative factor identified by the partners/husbands. Professionals and the husbands identified societal versus individual readiness as an ambivalent factor while the pregnant women and professionals saw conditional acceptance as an ambivalent factor. Recommendations made from this study have implications for nursing research, nursing practice, and nursing education. The study could also be helpful for decision makers at different levels in the health care system. / Thesis (M.Cur.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

Objective: To determine whether serum phthalate concentrations differ in men and women with infertility compared to those without infertility in Saskatchewan Hypothesis: Serum phthalate concentrations will be greater in men and women with infertility compared to fertile men and women Setting: Patients undergoing assisted reproduction for the treatment of infertility; healthy volunteers recruited from the community Recruitment and sample collection: Infertile couples were recruited prior to in vitro fertilization (IVF) therapy for treatment of unexplained infertility (n=15), polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS, n=13), and male factor infertility (n=12); fertile men (n=15) and women (n=15) were recruited using poster advertisements. Blood samples were collected by venipuncture for phthalate analysis. Main outcome measures: Serum phthalates concentrations (ng/mL) Design: Prospective cohort pilot study Methods: In infertile couples, blood samples were collected on the following 3 days of the IVF cycle: early during ovarian stimulation, day of oocyte retrieval and day of embryo transfer. In healthy volunteers, 3 blood samples were collected over a 2 week period. Liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was conducted to quantify concentrations of four phthalates: di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), diethyl phthalate (DEP), di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and diisodecyl phthalate (DIDP). Phthalate concentrations were compared among the four study groups using non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U post hoc tests. Results: Serum DEHP and DEP concentrations did not differ among control, unexplained, PCOS, and male factor infertility groups in both men and women (p>0.05). DBP in women did not differ among study groups (p=0.205). In contrast, DBP was lesser in men with unexplained, PCOS, and male factor infertility compared to controls (p < 0.05). Similarly, DIDP was lesser in women of couples with unexplained, PCOS and male factor infertility groups compared to fertile women (p < 0.05). Less DIDP was detected in men with unexplained and male factor infertility compared to the control group (p < 0.05) Conclusion: Serum phthalate concentrations in serum were lesser or not different in infertility patients undergoing IVF compared to fertile volunteers. These findings do not support the notion that serum phthalate concentrations are associated with human infertility. Further research is needed to determine whether phthalate concentration in blood cells and adipose tissue differ in infertile versus fertile men and women.

No description available.

No description available.