Journal articles on the topic 'Marital horizons'

The Role of the Kalianget BP4 Institute Sumenep functions as an official institution that supports the duties of the religious department in improving the quality of marriage and to enhance marital quality and realize a healthy household, this can be seen from the composition of the management and work programs in each field. In addition, the thing that supports BP4 is the development of exemplary sakinah and mother family movements with the establishment of West Kalianget Village as the Village of the Sakinah Family (DBKS), then reinforced by the sending of sakinah family motivators held by the East Java Regional Office. This shows that Sumenep's Kalianget BP4 has positioned its role well. In addition, BP4 serves as a forum that provides guidance and fostering towards the realization of marital conservation. The advice is given with the intention to broaden the horizons and maintain integrity and realize a family that is sure to be blessed and blessed. All of that is supported by the condition of the community that has a high level of public awareness as happened in Kalianget Sumenep.

Information technologies are now a vital element of social life. Their task is to introduce people to a better tomorrow, catch up with the most developed countries, broaden horizons, and increase the standard of living. However, the rapid development of technology, access to data, and the possibility of managing it are still dependent on the human being, who determines whose data, when, and for what purpose it will be obtained and utilized. Nonetheless, indeed, all the data once found on the Internet remains there forever. Huge data banks are built based on personal data and account profiling. Besides, these banks are strongly guarded and secured with the most modern alarm systems, and only a small group of trained IT specialists has access to them. By information provided on own preferences, purchases made, applications downloaded, shared information, photos, and likes on social networks, one can specify the sexual preferences, education, political and religious views, evaluate assets, or determine the marital status of the user. Even small amounts of information shared reveal the deeply hidden interests of online account users, and the benefits of information technology are designed to share personal information while forgetting about the risks automatically.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand if and how saving motives can predict bank customers’ use of financial advisory services. In addition, it analyzes possible gender differences regarding this relationship. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a large and unique sample of Swedish bank customers, combining objective bank register data with subjective data from a questionnaire. A probit regression is used. Since decisions regarding the use of financial advisory services can be influenced by, e.g., age, wealth, gender and marital status, the author analyzes results at both the overall level and the group level. Findings All three saving motives are found to be predictors, i.e., motives to save for wealth, retirement, and a rainy day (with opposite sign). Only the motive to save for retirement is significant for both women and men. Wealth differences seem more important than gender differences, except for the rainy day motive where gender differences are observed also among the wealthy. Practical implications The study is important since there is a need for financial advisors to understand their customers’ context, including motives to save. Saving motives involving longer time horizons and more uncertainty are likely to predict the use of financial advisory services. Originality/value This paper is original because it deepens the understanding of the relationship between saving motives and customers’ use of financial advisory services, focusing also on the aspect of gender differences, while controlling for demographics and socioeconomics, and customers’ interest and confidence in financial matters, risk tolerance, and financial literacy.

The gradual and then ecstatic acceleration and diversification of Marina Abramović's choices in life and art are the result of her commitment to install and introduce into her performance-machine the power of perpetual mobility. That final line of end/ ings of the horizon disappearing into Nothingness, the line of Death which she touched and invoked in her life and work on many occasions, is neither to be melancholically accepted, nor desperately tamed or fiercely denied. Abramović activates this line of the last horizon, turning it around so that it becomes vital rather than fatal, cyclic rather than liminal, (re)turning - aspace that gives birth to (hyper)productivity. There is a relentless striving to disturb, slow down, curb, disable the work of Time, to change the path of Time's arrow. She endeavours to reconstruct, revitalise, rejuvenate, to extend the duration of the body of her art, the body of performance art and, consequently, of her biological body. A number of methods and mechanisms are used for this purpose - starting from documentation, technical multiplication, substitution, extension and virtualisation and even spectacularisation of her body and the body of her art.

Marieta e Josefa tiveram suas vidas entrelaçadas e confinadas no Hospital de Neuro-psiquiatria Infantil (Belo Horizonte – MG), e é a partir de certos elementos que encontrei ao longo da pesquisa, que assumo elas terem sido pacientes de tal instituição. Suas histórias, aqui (re)construídas por mim de forma livre, tendo por base fontes documentais e materiais, nos guiarão pelo hospital criado em 1947, o qual recebeu desde crianças com sofrimento mental até órfãs ou portadoras das mais diversas doenças. Com discursos de poder e controle materializados na espacialidade do prédio, espero discutir, através da Arqueologia da Arquitetura, como essa instituição funcionou como um mantenedor da ordem urbana ao tirar de circulação uma gama de pequenos indesejáveis rechaçados pela sociedade.

This study investigated the perceptions of undergraduate students of the University of Ilorin on the causes of domestic violence against women. A total of 200 students comprised of 114 males and 86 females from two faculties (Humanities and Sciences) of the University of Ilorin were sampled. The t-test and analysis of variance statistics were adopted to compare the perception of the undergraduate students by faculty, sex, religion and marital status @ 0.05 level of significance. Questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. The findings of the results indicates there was no significance differences in the causes of domestic violence against women as perceived by male and female undergraduate students; different religious affiliations; humanity and Science faculty as well as married and single undergraduate students of university of Ilorin. Also, the findings indicated that domestic violence against women is being caused by disobedience on the part of the wife, jealousy, drug usage, poor home background, lack of proper guidance, uncontrolled sexual desire, consumption of alcoholic drinks, marital incompatibility, forced marriage and so on. The following recommendations were made: that there should be researches on this widen topic to enable have horizon knowledge of domestic violence against women, it should involve all parts of the country to make generalizations possible for the Nigerians. Awareness should be raised to prevent domestic violence against women by all and sundry. Parents should create time to show love to their wards to make home less burdensome and violent among others.

The aim of the study is to estimate the impact of the so-called family social capital (family ties capital) on economic growth. We hypothesise that marital dissolution expresses decrease in the capacity for cooperation, collaboration and sharing responsibility not only within the family but also on a professional level. Thus, an increase in the divorce to marriage rate is accompanied by a slowdown in economic growth. The divorce rate is regarded here as an indirect cause of the slowdown. The reasons stem from the breakdown of cooperation and collaboration, as well as increased risk, trust reduction, and the shortening of the decision-making time horizon accompanying divorces and resulting from divorces. These phenomena directly affect the working members of the family in which a divorce takes place. According to the main hypothesis, their impact is transferred to professional life and concerns employee teams. For the study, we employ econometric models, the first one for Poland and the second for 15 European Union countries, for the period 1993–2017.

A plethora of studies on family demands that have been investigated in the Western countries are reflective of such cultural contexts limiting its applicability toanother cultural context. The factors determining family demand whereconflict originatesarecountry-culture specific and consequently, anchored in the conservation of resource theory, the present study aims to discoverthe factors making a significant variance in family demand. Strongly based on the ontological and epistemological assumptions, the study adopted a survey strategy with a deductive approach in a cross-sectional time horizon. Data were garnered from 487banking employees with a self–reported questionnaire. The present study reveals that hours spent on household chores, hours spent on childcare, hours spent on dependents, and gender have significantly impacted family demand, nonetheless, formal and informal organisational supportshave alleviated the level of family demand.Remarkably, the study affirms the prevalence dogma of traditional gender role ideology and women’sposition in a collectivist cultural context. Surprisingly, the number of children, number of dependents, marital status and age were not found as predictors of family demand. The findings of the study have proffered many useful practical implications for HRM practices.

Objective: In order to identify intraurban differentials, the prevalence of major protection and risk factors for non communicable chronic diseases were analyzed in nine health districts of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Methods: Analysis of data from a telephone survey conducted with 2,000 adults in Belo Horizonte, in 2010, using the average linkage method for cluster analysis among the health districts, using sociodemographic variables (education, race and marital status). The study compared the prevalence of risk factors for non communicable diseases among the health districts. Results: Four clusters were identified. The best socio-demographic indicators were found in cluster 4 (South Central health district), which also showed a higher prevalence of protective factors such as higher consumption of fruits and vegetables, higher frequency of physical activity practice in the free time, use of ultraviolet protection, higher proportion of ex-smokers, and lower prevalence of whole milk and high-fat meat consumption. As a risk factor, cluster 4 showed a higher proportion of alcohol abuse. Cluster 1, with the worst socio-demographic indicators, concentrated more risk factors such as consumption of whole milk, low regular consumption of fruit and vegetables, and lower practice of physical activity in the free time. The most frequent protective indicators in cluster 1 were the regular consumption of beans, having breakfast at home, and lower alcohol abuse. Conclusion: Intra-urban differences were found in the distribution of risk and protection factors or non transmissible diseases, these differences can support planning aimed at actions for greater equity in health.

This study was undertaken to assess the constraints of community participation on domestic solid waste management activities in sodo city, Ethiopia. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from primary and secondary sources. The primary data were collected from 204 households who were randomly selected from four kebeles (Fana, Gebeya, Gido and Selame) of wolayita-sodo city. The primary data were gathered through survey questionnaire, key informant interview, focus group discussion, and field observation. The secondary data were collected from central statistics authority, city municipality, published and unpublished sources. The collected data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression model. The result shows that participation of communities on domestic solid waste management was low. The result from binary logistic regression model revealed that the probability of household participation on domestic solid waste management was positively and significantly constrained by educational level of households, household income, and household access to main road, small-scale enterprise service coverage and supply of waste facility. On the other hand, sex of household head and marital statuses were negatively and significantly constrained the probability of household participations on domestic solid waste management. As a result, widening the horizon of education and training, expanding small-scale enterprise service coverage, supply of waste facility and provision of road infrastructure within the community was suggested to reduce constraints of community participation on domestic solid waste management.

The sacrament of marriage is the foundation of Christian family from which it receives special strength to become a place of grace for society and the world. Understanding marriage exclusively as the freedom of married partners corrodes the seriousness of marital love from within, which becomes weak against even the slightest challenges. In the background of such an understanding lies the glorification of individual’s ego, which entails a negative attitude towards the traditional understanding of Christian marriage. The article shows that the celebration of the sacrament of marriage, which includes all the good and noble that a culture has introduced as a sign of the social and legal importance of marriage, places the nature of marriage in a completely new sacramental and sacred context. This horizon reveals an essential internal connection of marriage with all sacraments of the Church, especially the Eucharist. Continually strengthened by the Eucharist, the sacramental grace of marriage becomes active and fruitful not only in the form of eros, but mostly as an agape, as love that invites a person to die to themselves in order to truly realize oneself in marriage and family communion. The article seeks to help Christian spouses in modern temptations, to cooperate more seriously with the grace of the sacrament of marriage, with full awareness of the theological identity of a Christian family, thus becoming a unique and indispensable sign of Christ’s mystical love for the Church.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate patients with mental disorders, with or without risk situations, treated at primary health care (PHC) units. METHOD: A cross-sectional study was performed in samples of 240 patients living in a region of high social vulnerability in Belo Horizonte. The response variable was mental disorders with risk situations (MD-WR). The explanatory variables were gender, age, marital status, literacy, education, employment, social benefits and per capita income. Instruments from Berkman and Syme (social network), Sherbourne and Stewart (social support), adapted for Brazil, were applied. Pearson's χ2 test and binary logistic regression were used for the adjusted analyzes. RESULTS: The factors associated with MD-WR were being male (OR = 3.62; 95%CI 1.84 - 7.09); having "up to one confident relative" only (OR = 2.53; 95%CI 1.18 - 5.42); being "not able to return home" when away from their living area (OR = 3.49; 95%CI 1.40 - 8.71). The reduction in the affective dimension of the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) scale increases the chance of MD-WR. Conclusion: The availability and access to social and support networks are lower for patients with MD-WR and need to be strengthened to promote autonomy and citizenship among its users. We conclude that there is the need of public policies to increase the availability of social networking equipment and social support projects, encouraging the participation of families.

ObjectivesWHO recommends that low burden countries consider systematic screening and treatment of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in migrants from high incidence countries. We aimed to determine LTBI prevalence and risk factors and evaluate cost-effectiveness of screening and treating LTBI in migrants to Singapore from a government payer perspective.DesignCross-sectional study and cost-effectiveness analysis.SettingMigrants in Singapore.Participants3618 migrants who were between 20 and 50 years old, have not worked in Singapore previously and stayed in Singapore for less than a year were recruited.Primary and secondary outcome measuresCosts, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), threshold length of stay, incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs), cost per active TB case averted.ResultsOf 3584 migrants surveyed, 20.4% had positive interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) results, with the highest positivity in Filipinos (33.2%). Higher LTBI prevalence was significantly associated with age, marital status and past TB exposure. The cost-effectiveness model projected an ICER of S$57 116 per QALY and S$12 422 per active TB case averted for screening and treating LTBI with 3 months once weekly isoniazid and rifapentine combination regimen treatment compared with no screening over a 50-year time horizon. ICER was most sensitive to the cohort’s length of stay in Singapore, yearly disease progression rates from LTBI to active TB, followed by the cost of IGRA testing.ConclusionsFor LTBI screening and treatment of migrants to be cost-effective, migrants from high burden countries would have to stay in Singapore for ~50 years. Risk-stratified approaches based on projected length of stay and country of origin and/or age group can be considered.

Abstract Objectives This study aims to verify if the quality of diet and the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) of migraine patients differ from that consumed by healthy individuals, and whether the severity of migraine is associated with these parameters. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted at the Neurology Outpatient Clinic, Hospital das Clinicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais – UFMG (Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil). Patients with episodic migraine of both sexes, aged between 18–65 years were enrolled. Healthy volunteers without a history of primary headaches were recruited through advertisements and invitation to participate. Disability and impact caused by migraine were evaluated, respectively, by the Migraine Disability Test (MIDAS) and the Headache Impact Test, version 6 (HIT-6) questionnaires. Dietary intake was assessed using a 24-hour dietary recall and/or a three-day non-consecutive dietary record. The quality of diet was calculated using the Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2015, adapted to the Brazilian population and DII was calculated based on the method developed by Shivappa et al. (2014). Results Ninety patients with migraine and 62 individuals without migraine were included in the study. The groups did not differ regarding age, sex, marital status, years of schooling and anthropometric characteristics. Patients with migraine had lower HEI total score than controls [50.9 (23.9 – 83.2) vs. 44.6 (27.1 – 67.7); P < 0.01], indicating that these patients have poorer quality of diet. The scores of total fruits, whole fruits, total vegetables, added sugars, refined grains, and seafood and plant proteins were lower in the migraine group (P < 0.05). In agreement with that, patients with migraine had higher DII than controls [1.0 (–1.80 – 3.17) vs. 1.7 (–1.52 – 3.67); P = 0.02] indicating that the intake of pro-inflammatory type foods and nutrients was higher in the migraine group. The HEI and DII scores did not correlate with migraine impact or severity (P > 0.05). Conclusions The quality and the inflammatory index of the diet may contribute to the physiopathology of migraine, but not necessarily to its severity. Funding Sources Brazilian government funding agencies (CNPq and CAPES) and UTHealth Houston Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

Em 1669 surgia em Paris Lettres Portugaises, coletânea de cartas de amor de Mariana Alcoforado ao Chevalier de Chamilly. Parte do fascínio e do sucesso editorial resultou do mistério que envolvia a sua autoria e da capacidade de inscrever o desejo no tecido textual, fazendo avultar contradições, obsessões e dilemas da experiência amorosa. Desde então, vem despertando profundo interesse, suscitando leituras na fronteira entre realidade e ficção, pelo que o nosso propósito consiste em rastrear no discurso televisivo, cinematográfico e teatral derivas e (re)figurações desse protótipo feminino. Numa certa fase, ganhou relevo o lastro ideológico da transgressão das convenções morais e das normas sociais, pela assunção da sexualidade e pela contestação do regime de clausura. É essa dimensão de resistência que Maricla Boggio aproveitará em La monaca portoghese (1980). Em termos de transposição audiovisual, é de considerar Mariana Alcoforado (1979), de Eduardo Geada, pela relevância dos procedimentos de figuração da personagem e por participar de uma série de produtos televisivos baseados em obras literárias. Em La religieuse portugaise (2009), Eugène Green propõe um diálogo insinuante com a tradição cultural ao apresentar Julie de Hauranne, que vem até Lisboa para participar na rodagem de um filme sobre Mariana, mas que acaba por partir à descoberta de si própria. Já a longa-metragem de B. François-Boucher Les lettres de la religieuse portugaise, apresenta-se como «comédie dramatique historique», numa deambulação entre o horizonte temporal de origem e o limiar do nosso tempo, explorando os meandros da paixão amorosa e o campo da sentimentalidade a partir do feminino, numa linha estética similar à de Ingmar Bergman.

Desde un sentido plenamente integrador, con madurez y excelencia académica, la universidad venezolana a pesar de los momento de inquietud que transita el país, sigue altamente comprometida con el conocimiento científico, humanístico y tecnológico, garante del bienestar social, cívico y cultural, promotora en la formación humana basada en valores y principios universales para así enriquecer el tejido de la sociedad.En este aspecto, Corrales (2007) sostiene que el origen y destino de la universidad se entreteje en el complejo trama del tejido social, porque la educación superior es producto de fuerzas vitales que empujan al desarrollo, a la vez que es el impulso intelectual y volitivo en la transformación social. Contrariamente a la idea que se tiene de las universidades como asientos y reservorios de la tradición, las instituciones universitarias surgen a la vida con el signo del cambio, lo cual nos compromete a asumir una nueva misión de la universidad congruente con las grandes innovaciones de nuestro tiempo.El sistema de educación superior venezolano representado por las universidades, tiene sin duda una responsabilidad ante la sociedad, en su conjunto actúa con firmeza para producir entre otras cosas conocimiento científico socialmente válido, capaz de generar soluciones creativas en las múltiples áreas del quehacer social. En atención a lo señalado la Universidad Pedagógica Experimental Libertador (UPEL), como universidad formadora del docente venezolano apegada a los preceptos constitucionales, concibe a la educación como un servicio público, fundamentado en el respeto a todas las corrientes del pensamiento, motor de la promoción humana, de la transformación y dimensión dinamizadora de condiciones, necesarias para el desarrollo de la persona, de allí la obligación de repensarla como derecho humano y deber social fundamental para garantizar vida de calidad. (Base del curricular UPEL. 2011)Este principio conducen a pensar en el valor intrínseco de la universidad como un bien y patrimonio social, en virtud a lo que ella representa, por su significado para la humanidad entera, la cual transciende al desarrollo económico, cultural, político y social de país, con base en el conocimiento generado desde la docencia, la investigación y la extensión, siendo la investigación el eje vertebral sobre el cual descansa su razón de ser, puesto que desde allí se fortalece la calidad y la excelencia educativa.La esencia de la Universidad está la investigación y claramente así está estipulado en el espíritu de la Ley de Universidades tal como reza en el artículo 3 “Las Universidades deben realizar una función rectora en la educación, la cultura y la ciencia. Para cumplir esta misión, sus actividades se dirigirán a crear, asimilar y difundir el saber mediante la investigación y la enseñanza; a completar la formación integral iniciada en los ciclos educacionales anteriores; y a formar los equipos profesionales y técnicos que necesita la Nación para su desarrollo y progreso”.Es por ello que desde la Coordinación del Programa de Investigación e Innovación Educativa de la UPEL –IPB, institución universitaria formadora de formadores se contribuye al fortalecimiento de las funciones investigativas, interactuando así con la comunidad con alto nivel de pertinencia social. Bajo esta premisa la revista EDUCARE se constituye en un vehículo de excelencia para dar a conocer los resultados de las producciones investigativas generadas en esta y otras universidades, tanto nacionales como internacionales, y con ello servir como órgano divulgativo de los saberes relativos a las teorías y prácticas pedagógicas innovadoras, para así contribuir al mejoramiento de la calidad educativa y por ende al desarrollo del país.En esta nueva edición y para cerrar el año 2018 se promocionan 8 nuevas producciones intelectuales entre ellas tenemos en la modalidad de Informe de Investigación, el trabajo presentado por Mariela Lilibeth Herrera y Celsa Álvarez de la Universidad de Carabobo, titulada Catálogo de errores en el aprendizaje de la teoría de conjunto; esta investigación se centra en la caracterización del aprendizaje del álgebra, específicamente está dirigido a establecer los errores cometidos por los estudiantes del 3º semestre de la Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación de la mención Matemática, de la Universidad de Carabobo en el aprendizaje de la teoría de conjunto. En la misma modalidad Teresa Marchán Hernández del Instituto Pedagógico de Barquisimeto (UPEL-IPB) presente su estudio orientado al Aprendizaje de la informática aplicada mediante recurso tecnológico educativo, realizado en estudiantes del programa de educación comercial, acoplado a los procedimientos metodológicos propios del enfoque cuantitativo, guiado por las etapas diagnóstico, diseño y validación bajo el modelo propuesto por Galvis (2000).Por su parte, Myriam Murillo Naranjo de la Universidad Nacional de Chimborazo Riobamba, y María Giuseppina Vanga Arvelo de la Universidad Técnica de Manabí ambas de Ecuador, nos presentan el trabajo titulado Desempeño laboral de los comunicadores sociales desde una perspectiva de formación profesional, en este artículo de investigación, se aborda la evaluación de la formación profesional de los titulados de la carrera de Comunicación Social, en su desempeño laboral, con el propósito de analizar la relación existente entre ambas aristas, y para explicar esta relación se parte de los aportes de la teoría sobre las variables de estudio.Con el título Rousseau: aportes en educación matemática, Ronnys Jesús Vicent Millán de la Universidad Pedagógica Experimental Libertador. Instituto Pedagógico de Maturín, presenta un ensayo el cual lleva como impronta reflexionar sobre el pensamiento de Rousseau en el Emilio o de la educación, y sus aportes a la educación matemática. Tiene como pretensión, acercar al lector a la propuesta fundamentada en una educación naturalista, que en la primera edad está supeditada a la sensibilidad del niño.De igual manera se publica el artículo, Los entornos virtuales de aprendizaje: un nuevo camino hacia el conocimiento, presentado por Maiby Camacho y Marcos Flores del Instituto Pedagógico de Barquisimeto (UPEL-IPB). A través del mismo se hace una reflexión acerca de cómo los entornos virtuales de aprendizaje representan un horizonte a transitar en la construcción del conocimiento del estudiante, para ello se utilizó la hermenéutica como método para comprender e interpretar los aportes de los autores referenciados.Del mismo modo, Laine Intriago, Verónica Chávez y María Álava de la Universidad Laica Eloy Alfaro de Manabí Facultad de Hotelería y Turismo en Ecuador, nos traen su artículo: Estudio argumental de las construcciones resultativas en la gramática española y su equivalente al inglés, este trabajo parte de las definiciones generales, demostrando su existencia en la lengua española y en la lengua inglesa, y se explica por qué hay más productividad en la lengua inglesa que en la española, analizando los rasgos sintácticos, semánticos y pragmáticos, el significado global de la construcción y las clases semánticas de los verbos más recurrentes en las mismas.Asimismo, Jessica Sáenz, Mercy Rojas y Sonia Saltos de la Universidad Laica Eloy Alfaro de Manabí, Facultad de Hotelería y Turismo Ecuador, presentan su artículo titulado, Educación y medios de comunicación: incidencias en las formas de conocer y enseñar, el cual tiene como propósito hacer una reflexión en torno a los medios de comunicación y su impacto educativo como herramienta que consiente una conectividad entre el docente, el estudiante, el mundo circundante y la educación como evento comunicativo en la formación del hombre.Finalmente, Alirio José Abreu Suarez perteneciente al Ministerio del Poder Popular Para la Educación (MPPE) Venezuela, presenta una reflexión sobre la vida y obra del maestro Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa, con relación a tres tópicos, la escuela activa, escuelas rurales y estado docente, el mismo lo ha titulado Una mirada al pensamiento educativo de Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa. Los trabajos contenidos en este número, representan una prueba fehaciente del aporte sustantivo de las universidades por parte del hacer docente e investigativo de quienes nos dedicamos a esta importante labor de educar. Por esta razón, el Consejo Editorial sigue brindado este espacio para la divulgación de aquellos trabajos que realmente describen y diagnostican situaciones y aportan soluciones desde las distintas áreas del saber.No podemos cerrar este editorial sin reiterar que nuestras universidades e investigadores venezolanos, hoy más que nunca, siguen comprometidos con el país y hacen frente a las necesidades socio-educativas con la esperanza de obtener un mejor presente y visualizar un futuro de prosperidad que permita recuperar la calidad de vida que todos los académicos por mandato constitucional nos merecemos. Prof. Elba AvilaCoordinadora de Promoción y Difusión de la InvestigaciónUPEL-IPB

Geopolitical challenges, complexities, and future uncertainties have greatly and adversely affected all aspects of life, as well as the well-being of the Palestinian citizens living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), comprised of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. The OPT were militarily occupied by the Israeli forces in June 1967 and, since then, the Israeli military rules have been applied to the OPT. The demographic issues in the OPT have gained a great importance at the political, geopolitical, social, economic, environmental, educational, health-wise, and housing, as well as at other aspects of life. This is due to the fact that demographic issues, along with the land, are the main determinants of the Palestinian choices towards sustainable development in a future, sovereign, independent, stable, and secure state of Palestine to be established in the OPT, with East Jerusalem as its capital. So, because of the limited areas of land which Palestinians have access to; because of the limited natural resources that are available to them; and because of the narrowing of the political horizons and choices available to the Palestinians, the real Palestinian wealth in the OPT is the human being. This article investigates and analyses several geopolitical challenges, complexities, and future uncertainties in the OPT, with a focus on key demographic issues, including human trends and socioeconomic trends, which include marital status, housing, education, and health. Additionally, the article examines the historical background of the present situation. It also provides important recommendations and supporting elements towards developing Palestinian national policies related to the well-being of the Palestinian citizens and institutions within the OPT.

Geopolitical challenges, complexities, and future uncertainties have greatly and adversely affected all aspects of life, as well as the well-being of the Palestinian citizens living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), comprised of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. The OPT were militarily occupied by the Israeli forces in June 1967 and, since then, the Israeli military rules have been applied to the OPT. The demographic issues in the OPT have gained a great importance at the political, geopolitical, social, economic, environmental, educational, health-wise, and housing, as well as at other aspects of life. This is due to the fact that demographic issues, along with the land, are the main determinants of the Palestinian choices towards sustainable development in a future, sovereign, independent, stable, and secure state of Palestine to be established in the OPT, with East Jerusalem as its capital. So, because of the limited areas of land which Palestinians have access to; because of the limited natural resources that are available to them; and because of the narrowing of the political horizons and choices available to the Palestinians, the real Palestinian wealth in the OPT is the human being. This article investigates and analyses several geopolitical challenges, complexities, and future uncertainties in the OPT, with a focus on key demographic issues, including human trends and socioeconomic trends, which include marital status, housing, education, and health. Additionally, the article examines the historical background of the present situation. It also provides important recommendations and supporting elements towards developing Palestinian national policies related to the well-being of the Palestinian citizens and institutions within the OPT.

Geopolitical challenges, complexities, and future uncertainties have greatly and adversely affected all aspects of life, as well as the well-being of the Palestinian citizens living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), comprised of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. The OPT were militarily occupied by the Israeli forces in June 1967 and, since then, the Israeli military rules have been applied to the OPT. The demographic issues in the OPT have gained a great importance at the political, geopolitical, social, economic, environmental, educational, health-wise, and housing, as well as at other aspects of life. This is due to the fact that demographic issues, along with the land, are the main determinants of the Palestinian choices towards sustainable development in a future, sovereign, independent, stable, and secure state of Palestine to be established in the OPT, with East Jerusalem as its capital. So, because of the limited areas of land which Palestinians have access to; because of the limited natural resources that are available to them; and because of the narrowing of the political horizons and choices available to the Palestinians, the real Palestinian wealth in the OPT is the human being. This article investigates and analyses several geopolitical challenges, complexities, and future uncertainties in the OPT, with a focus on key demographic issues, including human trends and socioeconomic trends, which include marital status, housing, education, and health. Additionally, the article examines the historical background of the present situation. It also provides important recommendations and supporting elements towards developing Palestinian national policies related to the well-being of the Palestinian citizens and institutions within the OPT.

From a South African perspective, pastoral care is typically concerned with the solving or resolving of critical issues such as marital crises or depression. It represents an approach that is based on a medical or disease model, addressing deficits rather than strengths in the lives of counselees. Therapeutic developments in the fields of the narrative approach and positive psychology have shifted the attention to the therapeutic nurturing of liberating stories and the strengthening of virtues. Thus, the quality of the human experience by capitalising on what is healthy and intact is enhanced. This article will explore the notion that the pastoral process should aim at understanding and nurturing emotional and spiritual strengths with wisdom as the outcome, rather than trying to unravel spiritual deficits as strategy for healing. Such a positive approach relies on wisdom as a foundational virtue. By cultivating wisdom, counselees become fit for a well-lived life. In light of this, the necessity for widening our traditional pastoral horizons is discussed. Scripture and positive psychology are considered as sources to inform the pastoral process on wisdom and the narrative is discussed as a means to uncover and cultivate wisdom in the lives of counselees. Markers for a positive pastoral narrative approach, aimed at the cultivation of wisdom, are suggested. This article endeavours to contribute to the enrichment of pastoral practitioners’ frame of reference by drawing on the insights of neighbouring helping-disciplines, like the narrative and positive psychology employed within a practical theological paradigm, hence contributing to the ongoing call (semper reformanda) to always renew our theological endeavours.Wysheid as uitkoms van die pastorale proses: Nadenke oor ’n positiewe pastoraal-narratiewe benadering. Vanuit ’n Suid Afrikaanse perspektief is pastorale sorg tipies op die oplossing van probleme soos huwelikskonflik of depressie gerig. As sodanig verteenwoordig dit ’n benadering wat op ’n mediese of siektemodel gegrond is en op gebreke eerder as deugde van persone gerig is. Terapeutiese ontwikkelings op die terreine van die narratief en positiewe sielkunde het egter die aandag op die gebruik van bevrydende verhale en die versterking van deugde gevestig. Sodoende word die kwaliteit van die menslike bestaan verbeter deur voort te bou op dít wat gesond en ongeskonde in mense se lewens is. In hierdie artikel word die opvatting ondersoek dat die pastorale proses op die verstaan en kweek van geestelike en emosionele deugde gerig moet wees eerder as op die verstaan en ontknoping van probleme as strategie vir genesing – spesifiek met die deug van wysheid in gedagte. Só ’n benadering berus op die aanname dat wysheid ’n deug is wat persone vir die lewe bemagtig. Die versterking van wysheid rus mense vir ’n vervulde lewe toe. In die lig hiervan word die noodsaaklikheid om bestaande pastorale verwysingsraamwerke te verbreed, bespreek. Die Skrif en die positiewe sielkunde word as bronne van kennis oor wysheid oorweeg en die narratief as ’n metode om wysheid in die lewens van die beradenes bloot te lê en verder te ontwikkel. Aanwysings vir ’n positiewe pastoraal-narratiewe benadering wat op die ontwikkeling van wysheid gemik is, word gegee. Die artikel poog om die verwysingsraamwerk van pastorale versorgers te verbreed deur binne ’n prakties-teologiese raamwerk uit die insigte van die positiewe sielkunde en die narratief te put. Op dié wyse word daarna gestreef om erns te maak van die oproep om voortdurend in die teologiese arbeid te vernuwe (semper reformanda).

Marital life has usually been almost unbearable for women in African fiction. During the last decades, their status has been changing very fast. In Beyond the Horizon by AmmaDarko, Mara, after having undergone maltreatment, carelessness and domination from her husband Akobi in Africa as well as in Europe, has ended up sending him to prison. This article attempts to explore how somefemale characters are endowed with the necessary courage to report the ill-treatment they have undergone to the right person or authority in order to take a revenge and have things changed for themselves. As pointed out by the study, Marahas proved that change must originate from her not from anybody else. In order to be able to closely explore how Mara, as the embodiment of empowered women in the contemporary African fiction has improved (herself), it has been thoroughly evidenced such aspects as naivety, illiteracy and most importantly economic dependence of the female characters as the main factors working in an adverse way against them both in fiction and society.

This article aims to demonstrate how the researcher can utilize the principle of temporality in phenomenology as a method to explore and to reveal the human experience through its application in sex research. Although phenomenological studies have been increasingly adopted for qualitative inquiry in the field of social science, the idea of the horizon of temporality and its practical utilization is rarely demonstrated explicitly. In this study, the researcher has investigated the interpretation of marital experience of Chinese spouses in Hong Kong who have been assessed with sexual dysfunctions with attention to the couples’ perspectives. Having adopted a synthetic qualitative research orientation in line with an interpretive research paradigm and with an emphasis on phenomenological principles, this article elicits the research paradigm, its philosophical orientation and the related research principles for a framework of utilizing temporality and its application for research.

Abstract Study question What are the stress scale and coping strategies of patients who were unable to start/continue an IVF cycle due to COVID–19 interruption on ART treatments? Summary answer Stress scale was associated to specific coping strategies and was higher for women, patients in first IVF treatment, had compromised income and younger than 38yo. What is known already In March 2020, due to the COVID–19 outbreak caused by the SARS-CoV–2 virus, human reproduction societies, have recommended discontinuation of reproductive care, except for the most urgent cases. After few months, the treatments were resumed following proper safety guidelines. Infertility diagnostic and treatments are severe stressors, causing anxiety, depression and general emotional distress. The disruption of treatments and the pandemic uncertain scenario in all life aspects, certainly have a great impact on mental health of ART patients. There is an urge need to assess the level of stress and coping strategies in this population to offer suitable support and care. Study design, size, duration Prospective, Brazilian multicentric study (6 clinics of ART located in São Paulo, Campinas, Belo Horizonte and Brasilia), with the application of an anonymous online survey of stress scale and 14 coping strategies to 1500 patients (male and female) that had their treatments interrupted or unable to start during the months of March, April and May 2020. The online survey was sent during the months of August/September and responses were collected until early October/2020. Participants/materials, setting, methods The stress scale level was assessed using the Perceived Stress Scale protocol (PSS), and coping strategies using the Brief COPE scale protocol. Social-demographic variables (gender, age, city of residence, marital status, time of infertility, previous IVF treatments and financial impact) were included in the survey. Marginal statistical analyses were performed accordingly (t test, Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, chi-square test) and a linear regression model was carried out to calculate the effect of COPE strategies on stress scale. Main results and the role of chance Survey’s response rate was 44.4% (n = 666). The majority were women (83.3%), married (93.2%, mean of 9,41±4,76 years), deal with infertility for 2–5 years (51.5%), had done a previous IVF treatment (61.4%, mean of 2,33 treatments) and had a work activity (83.9%). Almost 40% had their income compromised by the pandemic. Mean age was 38.47±4.99 years (≥38 yo = 59%). Stress scale was higher for women (p < 0.0001), patients that were in their first IVF treatment (p = 0.011), had their income compromised (p = 0.001) and were younger than 38yo (p < 0.0001). The most frequent coping strategies (score 5–8) were planning (87.7%), active coping (83%), positive reframing (72.1%) and religion (71.7%). Women used more emotional support, religion, venting (all p < 0.0001) and self-distraction (p = 0.002) as coping strategies than men. Younger patients (<38yo) reported more use of substances (p = 0.002) and self-distraction (p = 0.001) than older patients. Lower income was associated with denial (p = 0.002) and less use of religion (p < 0.0001) and patients that were about to start their 1st treatment used more venting (p < 0.0001) and denial (p = 0.003) than recurrent patients. The linear regression analysis showed that higher stress was associated to planning, religion, self-blame, venting, self-distraction and behavioral disengagement and lower stress scale to active coping, emotional support, positive reframing and acceptance. Limitations, reasons for caution This study was performed in Brazil, one of the most affected countries by the COVID–19 outbreak, which may limit the generalizability of the findings. Another limitation was the impossibility to compare the stress scale and coping strategies findings in this population prior to the pandemic. Wider implications of the findings: Being a woman and have a compromised income were expected stressor factors. Surprisingly, first IVF attempt and younger patients showed higher stress scale and the use of psychological defense mechanisms, such as the use of substances, denial and self-distraction. Continuous emotional support should be offer for all ART patients. Trial registration number Not applicable

In a media saturated world, doodles have recently received the kind of attention usually reserved for coverage of racy extra marital affairs, corrupt governance, and product malfunction. Former British Prime Minister Blair’s private doodling at a World Economic Forum meeting in 2005 raised suspicions that he, according to one keen graphologist, struggled “to maintain control in a confusing world," which infers he was attempting to cohere a scattershot, fragmentary series of events (Spiegel). However, placid-faced Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, who sat nearby, actually scrawled the doodles. In this case, perhaps the scrawls mimicked the ambience in the room: Gates might have been ‘tuning’–registering the ‘white noise’ of the participants, letting his unconscious dictate doodles as a way to cope with the dissonance trekking in with the officialspeak. The doodles may have documented and registered the space between words, acting like deposits from his gestalt.Sometimes the most intriguing doodles co-exist with printed texts. This includes common vernacular graffiti that lines public and private books and magazines. Such graffiti exposes tensions in the role of readers as well as horror vacui: a fear of unused, empty space. Yet, school children fingering fresh pages and stiff book spines for the first few times often consider their book pages as sanctioned, discreet, and inviolable. The book is an object of financial and cultural investment, or imbued both with mystique and ideologies. Yet, in the e-book era, the old-fashioned, physical page is a relic of sorts, a holdover from coarse papyrus culled from wetland sage, linking us to the First Dynasty in Egypt. Some might consider the page as a vessel for typography, a mere framing device for text. The margins may reflect a perimeter of nothingness, an invisible borderland that doodles render visible by inhabiting them. Perhaps the margins are a bare landscape, like unmarred flat sand in a black and white panchromatic photo with unique tonal signature and distinct grain. Perhaps the margins are a mute locality, a space where words have evaporated, or a yet-to-be-explored environment, or an ambient field. Then comes the doodle, an icon of vernacular art.As a modern folklorist, I have studied and explored vernacular art at length, especially forms that may challenge and fissure aesthetic, cultural, and social mores, even within my own field. For instance, I contend that Grandma Prisbrey’s “Bottle Village,” featuring millions of artfully arranged pencils, bottles, and dolls culled from dumps in Southern California, is a syncretic culturescape with underlying feminist symbolism, not merely the product of trauma and hoarding (Ensminger). Recently, I flew to Oregon to deliver a paper on Mexican-American gravesite traditions. In a quest for increased multicultural tolerance, I argued that inexpensive dimestore objects left on Catholic immigrant graves do not represent a messy landscape of trinkets but unique spiritual environments with links to customs 3,000 years old. For me, doodles represent a variation on graffiti-style art with cultural antecedents stretching back throughout history, ranging from ancient scrawls on Greek ruins to contemporary park benches (with chiseled names, dates, and symbols), public bathroom latrinalia, and spray can aerosol art, including ‘bombing’ and ‘tagging’ hailed as “Spectacular Vernaculars” by Russell Potter (1995). Noted folklorist Alan Dundes mused on the meaning of latrinalia in Here I Sit – A Study of American Latrinalia (1966), which has inspired pop culture books and web pages for the preservation and discussion of such art (see for instance, www.itsallinthehead.com/gallery1.html). Older texts such as Classic American Graffiti by Allen Walker Read (1935), originally intended for “students of linguistics, folk-lore, abnormal psychology,” reveal the field’s longstanding interest in marginal, crude, and profane graffiti.Yet, to my knowledge, a monograph on doodles has yet to be published by a folklorist, perhaps because the art form is reconsidered too idiosyncratic, too private, the difference between jots and doodles too blurry for a taxonomy and not the domain of identifiable folk groups. In addition, the doodles in texts often remain hidden until single readers encounter them. No broad public interaction is likely, unless a library text circulates freely, which may not occur after doodles are discovered. In essence, the books become tainted, infected goods. Whereas latrinalia speaks openly and irreverently, doodles feature a different scale and audience.Doodles in texts may represent a kind of speaking from the ‘margin’s margins,’ revealing the reader-cum-writer’s idiosyncratic, self-meaningful, and stylised hieroglyphics from the ambient margins of one’s consciousness set forth in the ambient margins of the page. The original page itself is an ambient territory that allows the meaning of the text to take effect. When those liminal spaces (both between and betwixt, in which the rules of page format, design, style, and typography are abandoned) are altered by the presence of doodles, the formerly blank, surplus, and soft spaces of the page offer messages coterminous with the text, often allowing readers to speak, however haphazardly and unconsciously, with and against the triggering text. The bleached whiteness can become a crowded milieu in the hands of a reader re-scripting the ambient territory. If the book is borrowed, then the margins are also an intimate negotiation with shared or public space. The cryptic residue of the doodler now resides, waiting, for the city of eyes.Throughout history, both admired artists and Presidents regularly doodled. Famed Italian Renaissance painter Filippo Lippi avoided strenuous studying by doodling in his books (Van Cleave 44). Both sides of the American political spectrum have produced plentiful inky depictions as well: roughshod Democratic President Johnson drew flags and pagodas; former Hollywood fantasy fulfiller turned politician Republican President Reagan’s specialty was western themes, recalling tropes both from his actor period and his duration acting as President; meanwhile, former law student turned current President, Barack Obama, has sketched members of Congress and the Senate for charity auctions. These doodles are rich fodder for both psychologists and cross-discipline analysts that propose theories regarding the automatic writing and self-styled miniature pictures of civic leaders. Doodles allow graphologists to navigate and determine the internal, cognitive fabric of the maker. To critics, they exist as mere trifles and offer nothing more than an iota of insight; doodles are not uncanny offerings from the recesses of memory, like bite-sized Rorschach tests, but simply sloppy scrawls of the bored.Ambient music theory may shed some light. Timothy Morton argues that Brian Eno designed to make music that evoked “space whose quality had become minimally significant” and “deconstruct the opposition … between figure and ground.” In fact, doodles may yield the same attributes as well. After a doodle is inserted into texts, the typography loses its primacy. There is a merging of the horizons. The text of the author can conflate with the text of the reader in an uneasy dance of meaning: the page becomes an interface revealing a landscape of signs and symbols with multiple intelligences–one manufactured and condoned, the other vernacular and unsanctioned. A fixed end or beginning between the two no longer exists. The ambient space allows potential energies to hover at the edge, ready to illustrate a tension zone and occupy the page. The blank spaces keep inviting responses. An emergent discourse is always in waiting, always threatening to overspill the text’s intended meaning. In fact, the doodles may carry more weight than the intended text: the hierarchy between authorship and readership may topple.Resistant reading may take shape during these bouts. The doodle is an invasion and signals the geography of disruption, even when innocuous. It is a leveling tool. As doodlers place it alongside official discourse, they move away from positions of passivity, being mere consumers, and claim their own autonomy and agency. The space becomes co-determinant as boundaries are blurred. The destiny of the original text’s meaning is deferred. The habitus of the reader becomes embodied in the scrawl, and the next reader must negotiate and navigate the cultural capital of this new author. As such, the doodle constitutes an alternative authority and economy of meaning within the text.Recent studies indicate doodling, often regarded as behavior that announces a person’s boredom and withdrawal, is actually a very special tool to prevent memory loss. Jackie Andrade, an expert from the School of Psychology at the University of Plymouth, maintains that doodling actually “offsets the effects of selective memory blockade,” which yields a surprising result (quoted in “Doodling Gets”). Doodlers exhibit 29% more memory recall than those who passively listen, frozen in an unequal bond with the speaker/lecturer. Students that doodle actually retain more information and are likely more productive due to their active listening. They adeptly absorb information while students who stare patiently or daydream falter.Furthermore, in a 2006 paper, Andrew Kear argues that “doodling is a way in which students, consciously or not, stake a claim of personal agency and challenge some the values inherent in the education system” (2). As a teacher concerned with the engagement of students, he asked for three classes to submit their doodles. Letting them submit any two-dimensional graphic or text made during a class (even if made from body fluid), he soon discovered examples of “acts of resistance” in “student-initiated effort[s] to carve out a sense of place within the educational institution” (6). Not simply an ennui-prone teenager or a proto-surrealist trying to render some automatic writing from the fringes of cognition, a student doodling may represent contested space both in terms of the page itself and the ambience of the environment. The doodle indicates tension, and according to Kear, reflects students reclaiming “their own self-recognized voice” (6).In a widely referenced 1966 article (known as the “doodle” article) intended to describe the paragraph organisational styles of different cultures, Robert Kaplan used five doodles to investigate a writer’s thought patterns, which are rooted in cultural values. Now considered rather problematic by some critics after being adopted by educators for teacher-training materials, Kaplan’s doodles-as-models suggest, “English speakers develop their ideas in a linear, hierarchal fashion and ‘Orientals’ in a non-liner, spiral fashion…” (Severino 45). In turn, when used as pedagogical tools, these graphics, intentionally or not, may lead an “ethnocentric, assimilationist stance” (45). In this case, doodles likely shape the discourse of English as Second Language instruction. Doodles also represent a unique kind of “finger trace,” not unlike prints from the tips of a person’s fingers and snowflakes. Such symbol systems might be used for “a means of lightweight authentication,” according to Christopher Varenhorst of MIT (1). Doodles, he posits, can be used as “passdoodles"–a means by which a program can “quickly identify users.” They are singular expressions that are quirky and hard to duplicate; thus, doodles could serve as substitute methods of verifying people who desire devices that can safeguard their privacy without users having to rely on an ever-increasing number of passwords. Doodles may represent one such key. For many years, psychologists and psychiatrists have used doodles as therapeutic tools in their treatment of children that have endured hardship, ailments, and assault. They may indicate conditions, explain various symptoms and pathologies, and reveal patterns that otherwise may go unnoticed. For instance, doodles may “reflect a specific physical illness and point to family stress, accidents, difficult sibling relationships, and trauma” (Lowe 307). Lowe reports that children who create a doodle featuring their own caricature on the far side of the page, distant from an image of parent figures on the same page, may be experiencing detachment, while the portrayal of a father figure with “jagged teeth” may indicate a menace. What may be difficult to investigate in a doctor’s office conversation or clinical overview may, in fact, be gleaned from “the evaluation of a child’s spontaneous doodle” (307). So, if children are suffering physically or psychologically and unable to express themselves in a fully conscious and articulate way, doodles may reveal their “self-concept” and how they feel about their bodies; therefore, such creative and descriptive inroads are important diagnostic tools (307). Austrian born researcher Erich Guttman and his cohort Walter MacLay both pioneered art therapy in England during the mid-twentieth century. They posited doodles might offer some insight into the condition of schizophrenics. Guttman was intrigued by both the paintings associated with the Surrealist movement and the pioneering, much-debated work of Sigmund Freud too. Although Guttman mostly studied professionally trained artists who suffered from delusions and other conditions, he also collected a variety of art from patients, including those undergoing mescaline therapy, which alters a person’s consciousness. In a stroke of luck, they were able to convince a newspaper editor at the Evening Standard to provide them over 9,000 doodles that were provided by readers for a contest, each coded with the person’s name, age, and occupation. This invaluable data let the academicians compare the work of those hospitalised with the larger population. Their results, released in 1938, contain several key declarations and remain significant contributions to the field. Subsequently, Francis Reitman recounted them in his own book Psychotic Art: Doodles “release the censor of the conscious mind,” allowing a person to “relax, which to creative people was indispensable to production.”No appropriate descriptive terminology could be agreed upon.“Doodles are not communications,” for the meaning is only apparent when analysed individually.Doodles are “self-meaningful.” (37) Doodles, the authors also established, could be divided into this taxonomy: “stereotypy, ornamental details, movements, figures, faces and animals” or those “depicting scenes, medley, and mixtures” (37). The authors also noted that practitioners from the Jungian school of psychology often used “spontaneously produced drawings” that were quite “doodle-like in nature” in their own discussions (37). As a modern folklorist, I venture that doodles offer rich potential for our discipline as well. At this stage, I am offering a series of dictums, especially in regards to doodles that are commonly found adjacent to text in books and magazines, notebooks and journals, that may be expanded upon and investigated further. Doodles allow the reader to repopulate the text with ideogram-like expressions that are highly personalised, even inscrutable, like ambient sounds.Doodles re-purpose the text. The text no longer is unidirectional. The text becomes a point of convergence between writer and reader. The doodling allows for such a conversation, bilateral flow, or “talking back” to the text.Doodles reveal a secret language–informal codes that hearken back to the “lively, spontaneous, and charged with feeling” works of child art or naïve art that Victor Sanua discusses as being replaced in a child’s later years by art that is “stilted, formal, and conforming” (62).Doodling animates blank margins, the dead space of the text adjacent to the script, making such places ripe for spontaneous, fertile, and exploratory markings.Doodling reveals a democratic, participatory ethos. No text is too sacred, no narrative too inviolable. Anything can be reworked by the intimate graffiti of the reader. The authority of the book is not fixed; readers negotiate and form a second intelligence imprinted over the top of the original text, blurring modes of power.Doodles reveal liminal moments. Since the reader in unmonitored, he or she can express thoughts that may be considered marginal or taboo by the next reader. The original subject of the book itself does not restrict the reader. Thus, within the margins of the page, a brief suspension of boundaries and borders, authority and power, occurs. The reader hides in anonymity, free to reroute the meaning of the book. Doodling may convey a reader’s infantalism. Every book can become a picture book. This art can be the route returning a reader to the ambience of childhood.Doodling may constitute Illuminated/Painted Texts in reverse, commemorating the significance of the object in hitherto unexpected forms and revealing the reader’s codex. William Blake adorned his own poems by illuminating the skin/page that held his living verse; common readers may do so too, in naïve, nomadic, and primitive forms. Doodling demarcates tension zones, yielding social-historical insights into eras while offering psychological glimpses and displaying aesthetic values of readers-cum-writers.Doodling reveals margins as inter-zones, replete with psychogeography. While the typography is sanctioned, legitimate, normalised, and official discourse (“chartered” and “manacled,” to hijack lines from William Blake), the margins are a vernacular depository, a terminus, allowing readers a sense of agency and autonomy. The doodled page becomes a visible reminder and signifier: all pages are potentially “contested” spaces. Whereas graffiti often allows a writer to hide anonymously in the light in a city besieged by multiple conflicting texts, doodles allow a reader-cum-writer’s imprint to live in the cocoon of a formerly fossilised text, waiting for the light. Upon being opened, the book, now a chimera, truly breathes. Further exploration and analysis should likely consider several issues. What truly constitutes and shapes the role of agent and reader? Is the reader an agent all the time, or only when offering resistant readings through doodles? How is a doodler’s agency mediated by the author or the format of texts in forms that I have to map? Lastly, if, as I have argued, the ambient space allows potential energies to hover at the edge, ready to illustrate a tension zone and occupy the page, what occurs in the age of digital or e-books? Will these platforms signal an age of acquiescence to manufactured products or signal era of vernacular responses, somehow hitched to html code and PDF file infiltration? Will bytes totally replace type soon in the future, shaping unforeseen actions by doodlers? Attached Figures Figure One presents the intimate graffiti of my grandfather, found in the 1907 edition of his McGuffey’s Eclectic Spelling Book. The depiction is simple, even crude, revealing a figure found on the adjacent page to Lesson 248, “Of Characters Used in Punctuation,” which lists the perfunctory functions of commas, semicolons, periods, and so forth. This doodle may offset the routine, rote, and rather humdrum memorisation of such grammatical tools. The smiling figure may embody and signify joy on an otherwise machine-made bare page, a space where my grandfather illustrated his desires (to lighten a mood, to ease dissatisfaction?). Historians Joe Austin and Michael Willard examine how youth have been historically left without legitimate spaces in which to live out their autonomy outside of adult surveillance. For instance, graffiti often found on walls and trains may reflect a sad reality: young people are pushed to appropriate “nomadic, temporary, abandoned, illegal, or otherwise unwatched spaces within the landscape” (14). Indeed, book graffiti, like the graffiti found on surfaces throughout cities, may offer youth a sense of appropriation, authorship, agency, and autonomy: they take the page of the book, commit their writing or illustration to the page, discover some freedom, and feel temporarily independent even while they are young and disempowered. Figure Two depicts the doodles of experimental filmmaker Jim Fetterley (Animal Charm productions) during his tenure as a student at the Art Institute of Chicago in the early 1990s. His two doodles flank the text of “Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath, regarded by most readers as an autobiographical poem that addresses her own suicide attempts. The story of Lazarus is grounded in the Biblical story of John Lazarus of Bethany, who was resurrected from the dead. The poem also alludes to the Holocaust (“Nazi Lampshades”), the folklore surrounding cats (“And like the cat I have nine times to die”), and impending omens of death (“eye pits “ … “sour breath”). The lower doodle seems to signify a motorised tank-like machine, replete with a furnace or engine compartment on top that bellows smoke. Such ominous images, saturated with potential cartoon-like violence, may link to the World War II references in the poem. Meanwhile, the upper doodle seems to be curiously insect-like, and Fetterley’s name can be found within the illustration, just like Plath’s poem is self-reflexive and addresses her own plight. Most viewers might find the image a bit more lighthearted than the poem, a caricature of something biomorphic and surreal, but not very lethal. Again, perhaps this is a counter-message to the weight of the poem, a way to balance the mood and tone, or it may well represent the larval-like apparition that haunts the very thoughts of Plath in the poem: the impending disease of her mind, as understood by the wary reader. References Austin, Joe, and Michael Willard. “Introduction: Angels of History, Demons of Culture.” Eds. Joe Austion and Michael Willard. Generations of Youth: Youth Cultures and History in Twentieth-Century America. New York: NYU Press, 1998. “Doodling Gets Its Due: Those Tiny Artworks May Aid Memory.” World Science 2 March 2009. 15 Jan. 2009 ‹http://www.world-science.net/othernews/090302_doodle›. Dundes, Alan. “Here I Sit – A Study of American Latrinalia.” Papers of the Kroeber Anthropological Society 34: 91-105. Ensminger, David. “All Bottle Up: Reinterpreting the Culturescape of Grandma Prisbey.” Adironack Review 9.3 (Fall 2008). ‹http://adirondackreview.homestead.com/ensminger2.html›. Kear, Andrew. “Drawings in the Margins: Doodling in Class an Act of Reclamation.” Graduate Student Conference. University of Toronto, 2006. ‹http://gradstudentconference.oise.utoronto.ca/documents/185/Drawing%20in%20the%20Margins.doc›. Lowe, Sheila R. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Handwriting Analysis. New York: Alpha Books, 1999. 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