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In the studies of Michael Ondaatje’s In the Skin of a Lion, few critics have addressed the issue of personal trauma. The thesis suggests that the protagonist’s trauma must be seen, and proposes that with the help of the concept of skin, the novel presents the protagonist’s trauma and his possible recovery. I take Didier Anzieu’s theory of the Skin-ego as a point of departure to discuss the protagonist’s trauma, which can be divided into three dimensions of the body, the psyche, and the narrative. The novel shows traumatization of the skin, breach of the psychical skin, and holes in the Skin-ego, and these traumatic representations can be discussed correspondingly with Anzieu’s concepts of wrapping of suffering, film of dreams, and skin of words. In Anzieu’s theory, the three concepts all have therapeutic potential. On the bodily dimension, the protagonist demonstrates his trauma through self-inflicted wounds and wraps himself in suffering. Through feeling the suffering and being touched, he can affirm his bodily feelings and feel alive. On the psychical dimension, trauma causes the breach of the protagonist’s psychical skin and his post-traumatic dreams. The novel is full of dreams and images, which constitute a film of dreams that helps to repair his breached psychical skin. On the narrative dimension, the protagonist’s traumatic childhood creates the holes in his Skin-ego and his habit of keeping silent. However, he gradually develops the ability to articulate himself. By telling his traumatic experience, the protagonist creates a skin of words and repairs the traumatic hole. By discussing different dimensions of trauma and the Skin-ego theory, this thesis argues that In the Skin of a Lion demonstrates the protagonist’s trauma and his possible recovery.

The conflicting passions and exhausted feelings of Waverley had resigned him to late but sound repose. He was dreaming of Glennaquoich, and had transferred to the halls of Ian nan Chaistel the festal train which so lately graced those of Holy-Rood. The pibroch too...

Nightmares are a well-known phenomenon. The content of aversive dreams seems to be ubiquitous in dreams. Nevertheless, a dream containing aversive contents does not necessarily have to be a nightmare. We hypothesize that nightmares are rather caused by a more negative appraisal of the contents of aversive dreams than by the dream content itself. To investigate this question, N = 99 participants kept dream diaries over 28 consecutive days. An experimental group included persons with frequent nightmares and a control group of persons without nightmares. Violent dream content and emotions during the dream were analyzed by the dreamers themselves and as well as by four external raters. Regarding violent dream content in non-nightmare dream reports, the external raters usually agreed with the dreamers’ ratings. However, there was significant disagreement regarding the nightmare reports. Furthermore, external raters significantly rated the dreams as less positive than the dreamers did, and external raters rated the nightmare reports as more negative than the dreamers themselves did. Taken together, the results support the hypothesis that the classification of a dream as a nightmare does not only depend on its content but also on other factors. This suggests that the dreamers’ ratings of a dream as a nightmare are based on more factors than dream content.

Among the most pressing challenges for dream science is the difficulty of establishing theoretical unification between the various theories, ideas, and findings that have been presented in the literature to answer the question of how it is possible to construct a solid scientific theory with predictive and explanatory power in dream science. We suggest that the concept of “world-simulation” serves as the core concept for a theoretically unified paradigm to describe and explain dreaming. From this general concept, more specific theories of the function of dreaming can be derived, such as the Threat Simulation Theory (TST) and the Social Simulation Theory (SST), as we argued in our target article. We agree with Dresler that these two functions may not be the only functions of dreaming, but we still have grounds to believe that they are the strongest contenders. In our reply we first clarify why the functions of sleep should be considered separately from the functions of dreaming. Second, we outline what a good scientific theory of dreaming should be like and what it should be capable of. Furthermore, we evaluate the current state of simulation theories within this context. To conclude, we propose that instead of a general multifunctional theory of sleep and dreaming, where no hypothesis is excluded, the future progress of dream science will benefit more from opposing, competing and mutually exclusive theories about the specific functions of dreaming. This, however, demands that the opposing theories and their predictions must be risky, clearly formulated, and empirically testable.

The Effects of Transcendental Meditation on Dream Content Keith A. Busby University of Ottawa Previous research has indicated that within a relatively short period of time (4 weeks), meditation (TM) can influence a number of psychological variables by augmenting positive factors and reducing those that are negatively-toned. In the present study, it was hypothesized that TM would lead to psychological change and be more efficient in this respect, than a common relaxation technique. Following the continuity notion, whereby dreams reflect current waking behavior, it was further postulated that the meditation-induced psychological change would,by extension, induce corresponding alterations in dream content. A number of dream content (Hall & Van de Castle scales), mood, and psychological (STAI, 16 PF) measures evaluated this notion using a pretestposttest experimental design. Seven subjects were exposed to TM while six subjects learned progressive relaxation. The relaxation group served to control for the relaxation component of meditation. The design consisted of initial pre-treatment laboratory dream collection (two nights), followed by a five week exposure period to their respective techniques during which home dreams were collected. Following the five week practice interval, subjects returned for two more nights of laboratory dream collection, after which, subjects terminated their respective techniques and collected home dreams for another five week period.

Lucid nightmares are defined as dreams with strong negative emotions in which the dreamer is aware that he or she is dreaming but is unable to change the terrifying plot of the dream and/or is unable to deliberately wake up from it. So far, very little is known about lucid nightmare content. A subsample of a representative survey consisting of 408 participants (248 women, 160 men) with a mean age of 43.54 ± 16.04 yrs. provided a most recent lucid dream experience. Of the 160 nightmarish dreams, 67 could be classified as lucid nightmares with two thirds of the dreams including the inability to wake up. “Including nightmarish elements in the most recent lucid dream report” and “Being able to change the distressing content vs. having a lucid nightmare” was not related to age, gender, education, and ethnicity in this exploratory study. Future studies should focus on the variety of lucid nightmare topics – possibly expand the definition as this is currently focused on the inability to wake up or not being able to change the plot – and intervention strategies, i.e., the most effective ways to deal with lucid nightmares.

__________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: In rural India many women spending several hours a day cooking over an indoor open stove is a normal practice. What these women fail to realize is that there is an invisible killer in their kitchen of burning biomass fuels causes almost 500,000 deaths every year in India alone. A design initiative can use its design expertise to help these women continue with their traditional culture, while empowering them to select a way of cooking that does not endanger their lives. It describes the brief and the open-innovation process used in creating the ‘Chulha’ (Stove) – a low-smoke stove that prevents sickness and death from indoor air pollution due to cooking activities with biomass fuels in rural low-income communities. Evaluation included a certification of stove’s thermal performance, fuel consumption and carbon monoxide emissions. Stoves under testing used bio-organic waste. The firewood used as fuel was free from any potential pollutants. The design brief challenged team has to come up with a low-smoke solution for healthy and safe cooking able to fit the local socio-cultural and infrastructural conditions of rural and semi-urban areas. More specifically, objectives were to design, develop and test a solution, which able to reduce indoor pollution and therefore health-related diseases with respect to local culinary habits and cooking behaviors. With the advancement of the combustion technology and innovative approach towards applying the known principle of cook stove designing. The cook stove technology has gain the boost and now fourfold improvement in the overall thermal efficiency as compare to the traditional tri-stone cook stove. Apart from the type and quality of the fuel used, design of the cook stove chamber is the deciding factor for the associated emission causing by the fuel combustion. . TIDE has put up an effort to train more entrepreneurs. But finding the right candidate for training is a limiting factor to overcome.

Fil: Duran, Rodrigo Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Centro Cientifico Tecnologico Conicet - Salta. Instituto de Investigaciones en Energia no Convencional. Universidad Nacional de Salta. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Departamento de Fisica. Instituto de Investigaciones en Energia no Convencional; Argentina

This paper distinguish two types of urbanization and argues that urbanization without sufficient employment creation in the urban sector might have no economic benefit as it only involves surplus labour in the rural areas becoming urban surplus labour. It argues that China’s Hukou system that has restricted rural-urban migration did not necessarily reduce economic efficiency rather it might have raised urban welfare at the expense of rural welfare. An under-discussed feature of the Hukou system is that it ties people not to just either rural or urban areas but to particular geographical locations. This paper argues that many of the recent “rural land for urban Hukou” programs, in the name of reducing the rural-urban income gap, do little to address the geographic specificity of the Hukou restrictions but may in effect amount to a land appropriation by local governments. This paper suggests that to improve economic efficiency and welfare, a “real” reform of the Hukou system should reduce barriers for cross regional migration.

This article is an outcome of field research about prostitution in Uganda ,using Kampala city as a case study. During the past fifty years, Uganda has undergone rapid changes in the social, political and economic spheres. After independence in 1962, vast development has taken place in both rural and urban areas. Most counties have grown into big towns and municipality status. Most towns have features of urban centers. The most significant is the increased number of immigrants from rural areas and small trading centers. Among the migrants are a big number of young girls and middle aged women who have no permanent employment. These are commonly seen in towns of Uganda; mostly in places like bars, night clubs and lodge other social places. There is evidence that the incidence of prostitution and sexually transmitted diseases is on increase. Many people, religious leaders inclusive, have a feeling that prostitution is evil and will eventually become a danger to many family lives. Religious leaders condemn prostitution in sermons and gatherings but have not taken any legal step against it.Preachers, civil leaders, and the general public are openly condemning the increased prostitution in the country. There is no practical action that has been taken to eradicate it completely. In order to legalize the above, prostitutes in Uganda went to the extent of proposing to be represented in parliament. They also requested for working permits. The populace must understand the contribution, practice, causes, problems and effects associated with prostitution. It was in this endeavor that the researcher found it necessary to investigate into above all, people involved in it. Finally the researcher has given solutions and suggestions on what the government and public should do to eradicate prostitution.

Practitioners of dreamwork have long understood that exploring dreams has the potential to be a source of insight, but empirical research evidencing this has generally been lacking, especially in non-clinical settings. Additionally, many of the factors that influence dreamwork efficacy remain to be discovered. The present study aimed to provide evidence for the insight-generating potential of dreamwork, and to investigate a potential factor that may influence how effective a dreamwork session is: the level of experience of the dreamer. Participants (29 (15 experienced and 14 inexperienced in dreamwork)) took part in two discussions: a dream discussion and a waking-life event discussion, using the Schredl “Listening to the Dreamer” method of dreamwork and an adapted version of this for discussing waking-life events. Results indicated that dreamwork led to significantly higher levels of Exploration-Insight and Continuity Insight in comparison to a waking-life event discussion. Levels of Personal Insight did not differ between the two conditions, but did not significantly differ from previous experiments’ Personal Insight levels following dream discussion. Experienced and inexperienced participants’ levels of insight were not significantly different. High variability in insight scores indicated that there were large differences between participants in terms of how effective the discussions were for generating insight, but this difference could not be accounted for by experience levels. Insights about changing one’s life correlated with metaphor perception within the dream. These results illustrate the insight-generating potential of dreamwork for some individuals, irrespective of the dreamer’s level of experience, and perhaps suggest that insight for change may come about following perception of metaphors for waking life in the dream.

Adolescence is a time of experiencing widespread and particularly intense feelings of loneliness. This study investigated how the quantity and quality of evolving interpersonal relationships affect adolescent feelings of belongingness to family, friends, and romantic partners, and moreover, how such relationships influence their feelings of loneliness. A total of 479 adolescents aged between 12 and 22 from a middle school, a senior high school, and a university participated in the study. A quantitative approach using structural equation modeling was employed to address the appropriateness of the hypothetical adolescent loneliness model from the perspective of belongingness. The results indicated that the hypothetical model was reliable for assessing loneliness during the three stages (early, middle, and late) of adolescence. The study found that the interaction between the quality and quantity of adolescents' interpersonal relationships with family members contributed to their feelings of belongingness to family. Similarly, interaction between relationship quality and quantity with a best friend contributed to adolescents' feelings of belongingness to their friends. Moreover, feelings of belongingness to family and friends were associated with decreased adolescents' level of loneliness. However, the results from multiple group modeling failed to demonstrate predicted differences between Adolescents' feelings of loneliness and belongingness to family and friends for the three stages of adolescence. As regards adolescents' feelings of belongingness to family, the interaction between relationship quantity and quality with one's father was more important for middle and late adolescents than for early adolescents. The findings of this study also had relevance for the individuation process of adolescence. The pursuit of friendships and romantic partners, including their increased appreciation of these relationships, was achieved without loss of connection with family members.

The word “feeling” denotes a reactive, subjective experience with a distinctive embodied phenomenal quality. Several types of feelings are usually distinguished, such as bodily, agentive, affective, and metacognitive feelings. The hypothesis developed in this article is that all feelings are represented in a specialized, non-conceptual “expressive” mode, whose function is evaluative and action-guiding. Feelings, it is claimed, are conceptually impenetrable. Against a two-factor theory of feelings, it is argued, in the cases of affective and metacognitive feelings, that background beliefs can circumvent feelings in gaining the control of action, but cannot fully suppress them or their motivational potential.

Onshore international students in universities, are often ascribed a deficit identity. This is associated, in the literature, with stereotyping and discrimination in the host countries. However, alternative perspectives are emerging that challenge such views and focus instead on the central role of students’ agency in shaping their own educational identities. Although valuable, this latter body of research is limited because it generally does not address the identities of offshore international students; those who pursue an overseas programme in their home country. How agential are they? This study explores the manner in which international students’ identities are formed in the transnational education (TNE) market. It focuses specifically Australian courses and programs in Vietnam. It examines this transnational education market, the principles upon which it operates and the manner in which it seeks to shape students’ identities via processes of commodification and colonisation through the promotion of what I call Western dreams. It also shows how offshore international Vietnamese students engage this market, and how they respond to such process of commodification and colonisation. It identifies the mismatches between the ways offshore international students position themselves and how ATNE institutions position them. Two main research methods are employed; in-depth interview and semiotic analysis. The former are used to draw out students’ experiences of consuming ATNE products and the structures of feelings involved. The latter is employed to discover how Western dreams and ideologies are embedded in the ATNE promotional materials. In bringing these two methods together, I offer a picture of the ATNE market from both sides: production and consumption. My interviewees are undertaking their studies in transnational educational programs in Vietnam. Understanding these programs required me to identify the manner in which they intersect with various economic, cultural, political dimensions of globalisation and colonialism. I show that these intersections help to shape students’ identities by offering a new set of alluring attributes while also putting traditional Vietnamese identities under pressure to change. Specifically I illustrate how these global education market forces and their associated ideologies morph with local forces (culture, traditions and the Vietnamese nation-state) to displace students’ identities and evoke in them highly contradictory feelings. They are excited and disappointed, they feel exploited but at the same time they feel creative and fulfilled. Ultimately, their education leaves them feeling very ambivalent. My research contributes to the body of knowledge known as ‘international education studies’. It offers insights into the identity formation of offshore international students in Vietnam and confirms that they are strong self-forming agents. While challenging the consumer and production fetishism of the transnational education market, it also indicates that students are, what I call, agonised consumers who identify the exploitation they are subject to in this market while also experiencing some exhilaration. This study offers a fresh approach to interpreting offshore international student identities, thereby enriching understandings of not only of student identities but also of the practices of the ATNE institutions.

Sustainable development represents the future for Romanian rural areas and a viable solution to solve the environmental problems. This concept can be put into practice through the interaction between economic, sociocultural, environmental and political-institutional dimension. In this interaction an important role has the ecological education of citizens from rural areas and their involvement in environmental policy decisions. So, a low level of ecological education in rural areas leads to a permanent degradation of environmental factors. In this research we showed some negative environmental practices related to the inhabitants of rural areas. Citizen’s education in environmental spirit should promote the principles of prevention, conservation and recycling.