Статті в журналах з теми "Fixed term appointments"

In September 1984, the UN Secretary-General (Respondent) offered five-year fixed-term contracts as interpreters to Rong Qiu, Kefu Zhou, and Jiping Yao (Applicants), who had just completed the UN training course for interpreters at the Beijing Institute of Foreign Languages. The letters of appointment accepted by the Applicants stated that they were “on secondment from the Government of China.” They received very good performance ratings, and in the spring of 1989 their department recommended that they be offered probationary, career-track appointments when their contracts expired.

A fixed-term employment contract is an example of atypical or non-standard employment. Fixed-term appointments can have many benefits when utilised for proper and lawful reasons. These contracts are frequently abused, however, by unscrupulous employers and are generally regarded as providing less security to employees than permanent employment. The article considers the general use of fixed-term contracts and addresses selected issues pertaining to the 2014 amendments to the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 in as far as these contracts are concerned. The article also considers the potential effect these amendments might have on common historic problems associated with fixed-term contracts and highlights certain unresolved problem areas and uncertainties.

This paper examines two broad dimensions of change in the American academic profession: (1) demographic and generational change, including increasing feminization, changing attitudes toward the career-family balance, migration of faculty positions to the professions (versus the liberal arts) and away from the research university sector; and (2) changes in types of appointments, work and career tracks, including the decline of tenure and the rise of fixed term appointments, which involve more ‘specialized’ and less ‘place-bound’ work roles and alternative career tracks. It considers these changes more broadly in the context of the changing nature of work in a globalized economy and the changing nature of the knowledge industry and in the context of similar developments in Europe and Asia. It concludes with an extrapolation of how these trends are likely to play out in the US context and in a new ‘globalized’ academic marketplace over the next 10–20 years.

Summary Objectives This non-randomized prospective cohort study aimed to compare the periodontal effects and success rates of mandibular canine-to-canine fixed retainers having different bonding techniques and wire thicknesses. Materials and methods Hundred patients requiring retention after orthodontic treatment were assigned to five study groups (n = 20 in each group, 61 females/39 males, median age range 16.5–18.0 years). Retention was provided by 0.0215”/direct, 0.0215”/indirect, 0.0175”/direct, 0.0175”/indirect bonded multistranded wires and removable Essix appliances. The primary and secondary outcomes were periodontal effects and success rates. The patients were examined in 1 week, 1 month, 3 months and 6 months follow-up appointments. Plaque index, gingival index, probing depth, marginal recession, bleeding on probing, failure rate per retainer wire and survival of retainer wires were analysed by Kruskal–Wallis H, Mann–Whitney U and chi-square tests. Results Significant differences were observed between the fixed retainer (FR) and Essix (E) groups in gingival index scores at 1 month [mean FR: 1.13 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.81–1.44), mean E: 0.40 (95% CI: 0.14–0.69), mean difference: 0.73, P < 0.01], 3 months [mean FR: 0.97/1.01 (95% CI: 0.65–1.30/0.72–1.30), mean E: 0.52 (95% CI: 0.25–0.82), mean differences: 0.45/0.49, P < 0.05], 6 months [mean FR: 0.94 (95% CI: 0.62–1.27), mean E: 0.35 (95% CI: 0.15–0.58), mean difference: 0.59, P < 0.05] and in bleeding on probing scores at 1 month [mean FR: 3.05 (95% CI: 2.12–3.98), mean E: 1.15 (95% CI: 0.42–1.88), mean difference: 1.90, P < 0.01]. The survival rates of retainer wires were 85 per cent for the 0.0215” direct/indirect and 90 per cent for the 0.0175” direct/indirect groups for the 6 months follow-up. Limitations Six months follow-up period, which demonstrates only short-term outcomes. Conclusions The periodontal outcomes or survival rates of mandibular fixed retainers were not affected by bonding technique or wire thickness, whereas gingival health improved with Essix retainers but not with fixed retainers.

AbstractIntroduction and purposeAccurate and reproducible patient positioning is a critical step in radiotherapy for breast cancer. This has seen the use of permanent skin markings becoming standard practice in many centres. Permanent skin markings may have a negative impact on long-term cosmetic outcome, which may in turn, have psychological implications in terms of body image. The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of using a semi-permanent tattooing device for the administration of skin marks for breast radiotherapy set-up.Materials and methodsThis was designed as a phase II double-blinded randomised-controlled study comparing our standard permanent tattoos with the Precision Plus Micropigmentation (PPMS) device method. Patients referred for radical breast radiotherapy were eligible for the study. Each study participant had three marks applied using a randomised combination of the standard permanent and PPMS methods and was blinded to the type of each mark. Follow up was at routine appointments until 24 months post radiotherapy. Participants and a blind assessor were invited to score the visibility of each tattoo at each follow-up using a Visual Analogue Scale. Tattoo scores at each time point and change in tattoo scores at 24 months were analysed by a general linear model using the patient as a fixed effect and the type of tattoo (standard or research) as covariate. A simple questionnaire was used to assess radiographer feedback on using the PPMS.ResultsIn total, 60 patients were recruited to the study, of which 55 were available for follow-up at 24 months. Semi-permanent tattoos were more visible at 24 months than the permanent tattoos. Semi-permanent tattoos demonstrated a greater degree of fade than the permanent tattoos at 24 months (final time point) post completion of radiotherapy. This was not statistically significant, although it was more apparent for the patient scores (p=0·071) than the blind assessor scores (p=0·27). No semi-permanent tattoos required re-marking before the end of radiotherapy and no adverse skin reactions were observed.ConclusionThe PPMS presents a safe and feasible alternative to our permanent tattooing method. An extended period of follow-up is required to fully assess the extent of semi-permanent tattoo fade.

BACKGROUND: Orthodontic treatment is a long-term and responsible therapy that affects the quality of life of a patient at any age. Adolescence is the most suitable for eliminating dentition and jaw anomalies and one of the most difficult from the point of view of psychology. To achieve quick and successful treatment results, the orthodontist should establish a trusting contact with the patient, consider age-related behavioral characteristics, and know and apply modern methods of orthodontic treatment and psychological methods. AIM: This study aimed to evaluate the role of motivation in successful orthodontic treatment in teenagers. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Fifty-one patients participated in the experiment (28 girls and 23 boys; age, 1216 years), who were undergoing orthodontic treatment with removable and non-removable equipment. The first group was composed of patients with a positive dynamic, fixed type of treatment, and good hygiene, and was responsible for wearing extra equipment. Patients with positive treatment results were those who understood their orthodontic problems, were willing to receive treatment, and were able to choose their equipment for the treatment. The second group consisted of patients who were receiving the prescribed treatment, and the equipment was chosen either by the parents or their orthodontist. In these cases, patients dental hygiene worsened because of missing appointments and non-adherence to the recommendations of the orthodontist for the use of the extra equipment. These patients also felt uncomfortable communicating socially because of their orthodontics. RESULTS: The success of orthodontic treatment for adolescents depends on their voluntariness in making decisions to start treatment, emotional readiness for it, and trusting relationships between the parents, patient, and doctor. Thus, considering the preferences of teenagers when choosing medical equipment is necessary so that they could receive a more detailed explanation of the need for timely orthodontic treatment, which will increase their motivation. CONCLUSIONS: The patients progress was followed throughout their treatment. To reach optimal results and cooperation with the patient, the orthodontist has to consider the patients willingness to begin treatment, understand the different procedures, and allow them to choose their equipment while taking into account their age and psychological maturity. These procedures do not only increase the success of orthodontic treatment but also prevent unwanted results and positively influence the psychoemotional status of the teenager.

BackgroundPrescribing errors have the potential to adversely affect the safe pharmacological treatment of patients of all ages. The multi-centre General Medical Council commissioned ‘EQUIP’ study assessed the prevalence and nature of prescribing errors and found a mean rate of errors in 8.9% of medication orders.1 Paediatric data was not however analysed separately. Errors have been estimated to cause harm in paediatric patients three times more often than in adults.2 Clinical pharmacists play a role in identifying prescribing errors and minimising harm but this role has not been explored in detail in children in the UK.ObjectivesTo evaluate the prevalence and nature of prescribing errors and the role of hospital pharmacists in identifying and reducing risk in neonatal and paediatric patients.MethodsData collection sites were identified through the Neonatal and Paediatric Pharmacists Group by an email asking for volunteer centres. Clinical pharmacists working in these hospitals were asked to document prescribing errors in inpatient medication orders identified as part of their routine practice using a data collection form adapted from the EQUIP study1. A variety of hospital settings were aimed for.Data was collected monthly on six separate weekdays in most of the participating hospitals in 2013. Data was entered on to a SPSS database for collation and analysis.Classification of error type and potential severity was done using the EQUIP study categories1. Drugs were categorised according to the British National Formulary for Children3 and patient's ages were grouped according to the International Conference of Harmonisation guidelines.4 ResultsThirteen hospitals (eight specialist children's and five general teaching hospitals) from across the UK agreed to participate. Pharmacists checked 11,941 prescriptions written for 3,330 patients and identified 1,039 errors: an overall rate of 8.7% of medication orders with 20.6% of all patients having a prescribing error.Overdose was found to be the most common error followed by incorrect or missing administration times and underdose. This was in contrast to the EQUIP study where omission errors were most common. Specialist trainees/trust grade fixed term specialty training appointments (FTSTAs) made the majority of errors; however this was in proportion with the number of prescriptions which they wrote. Antibacterial and analgesic drugs were the most common classes associated with errors and the oral route was the most common route involved.70% errors were classified as minor, though 25% were considered significant, 5.4% serious and 0.22% (two errors) potentially lethal. Five patients were stated to have experienced harm.39.6% of errors occurred during the patient's hospital stay followed by 35% errors occurring on admission.ConclusionPrescribing errors occurred at a similar rate as in adult patients 1 but the most common type of errors was different with dosing errors most common in children. Clinical pharmacists' interventions play an important role in identifying and minimising harm from prescribing errors.

Laburpena: Laburpena: Aldi baterako kontratazioan gehiegikeriari aurre egiteko Europar Batasuneko eta barneko neurriek ez dute sistema bateratu bat osatu, logika estratifikatu bati erantzun diote. Arkitektura horri esker, barne-zuzenbideak Europako gidalerroetatik eta horiei eusteko tresnetatik aldendu da. Horren ondorioz (beste arrazoi batzuekin batera), behin-behinekotasun tasa onartezinak sortu dira eta fenomeno patologiko eta kroniko bihurtu da. Azterlan honek Europar Batasuneko Justizia Auzitegiaren (EBJA) doktrina aztertzen du, «Sánchez Ruiz/Fernández Álvarez» gai garrantzitsuraino, bai eta horrek sektore publikoko bitarteko langileen izendapenetan (ondoz ondokoak izan edo ez) gehiegizko behin-behinekotasunaren aurkako arauetan duen eragin sakona ere. Europar Batasuneko doktrinak azken urteetan izan duen bilakaerak agerian uzten du barne-arau-esparruarekin eta haren interpretazio judizialarekin bat ez datorrela, eta atzeraezina dela neurri eraginkorrak sartzea kolektibo horren egoera larria zuzentzeko. Azterlanak, halaber, une honetatik aurrera jarraitu beharreko araugintza- eta interpretazio-jarraibide nagusien deskribapena egiten du, eremu horretako behin-behinekotasunaren izaera erabat atipikoa zuzentzen lagundu beharko luketenak. Resumen: Las medidas comunitarias e internas para combatir el abuso en la contratación temporal no han conformado un sistema unitario sino que han respondido a una lógica estratificada. Esta arquitectura ha permitido al derecho interno operar alejándose de las directrices comunitarias y de sus resortes de contención. Lo que ha desembocando (en conjunción con otras causas) en unas tasas de temporalidad intolerables y convirtiéndose en un fenómeno patológico y crónico. Este estudio lleva a cabo un análisis de la doctrina del Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea (TJUE) hasta el importante asunto «Sánchez Ruiz/Fernández Álvarez» y de su profundo impacto en las normas contra la temporalidad abusiva en los nombramientos (sucesivos o no) del pesonal interino del sector público. El recorrido en la evolución de la doctrina comunitaria de los últimos años que se lleva a cabo evidencia el desajuste con el marco normativo interno y su interpretación judicial y la inaplazable necesidad de introducir medidas efectivas que corrijan la grave situación de este colectivo. El estudio también hace una descripción de las principales directrices normativas e interpretativas a seguir a partir de este momento y que deberían contribuir a corregir el carácter absolutamente atípico de la temporalidad en este ámbito. Abstract: Both national and the European Union (EU) measures to combat abuse in temporary contracts haven’t conformed a unitary system but have responded to a stratified logic. This architecture has allowed domestic law to operate away from EU guidelines and its containment elements. These factors have led (in conjunction with other causes) into intolerable temporality rates which have become a pathological and chronic phenomenon.This essay analyses the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) doctrine up to the «Sánchez Ruiz/Fernández Álvarez» case and its deep impact on the national regulations to prevent abusive use of fixed-term appointments (successive or not) of public sector interim staff. The study of the evolution of recent CJEU doctrine that is carried out shows the mismatch with the internal regulatory framework and its judicial interpretation and the urgent need to introduce effective measures to correct the serious situation of this collective. The study provides as well a description of the policy and interpretation guidelines to follow from now on. These measures should contribute to mitigate theatypic temporality rates in this sector.

We study the fixed term nature of the German supervisory board appointment hypothesizing that the timing of the upcoming election has an impact on the credibility of effort by activist investors. More credible approaches should consequently be associated with higher wealth effects. An average abnormal return that is up to 6.9 percent higher can be observed when potential activists consider the timing of the next supervisory board election. Capital markets apparently perceive an activist effort within one to two years prior to the election as being most credible. Quite contrary to intuition it seems that high cash positions on targets’ balance sheets have a negative impact on the post-announcement wealth effects.

Administrative punishment is the most important legal “lever” to reduce the level of administrative tort. Hence, it is important to study the issue of increasing the effectiveness of administrative punishment and the formation of a special scientific directionadministrative Penology, the Central element of the subject of which is administrative punishment and those phenomena, events, facts, States and processes that form the legally fixed type and limits of administrativetort sanctions. The need for a comprehensive study of administrative punishment is associated with obtaining the most effective result, designed for the long term, by analyzing the effectiveness of the existing exclusively legal mechanism for the appointment and execution of administrative punishments and searching for reserves of administrative punishment, using the achievements of legal, sociological and psychological Sciences.

ABSTRACT Lower incisor extraction is an effective option for treating lower anterior crowding in patients with a good facial profile, Class I molar occlusion, and narrow upper incisors. This report describes the successful treatment of an adolescent patient with lower anterior crowding and a transposed maxillary canine and premolar treated by extracting a lower incisor and keeping the transposed positions of the teeth. With the use of retainers, treatment results were stable up to the 2-year postretention visit. However, upon a 15-year postretention appointment, the fixed retainer had been removed and the removable retainer was no longer in use, which resulted in relapse of lower anterior alignment. Moreover, the transposed canine had extruded during this period, causing occlusal interference and gingival recession, as well as loss of tooth vitality, which indicates the importance of maintaining orthodontic retainers for long-term stable occlusion.

This retrospective study described the clinical and radiographic long-term outcomes of combined periodontal and orthodontic treatment (OT) with fixed appliances in patients with Stage IV periodontitis and pathologic tooth migration (PTM) in the anterior sextants. OT was performed in either one or both arches, using tooth-supported or skeletal anchorage, following completion of active periodontal treatment and accurate planning of tooth movement biomechanics. Twenty-nine patients were identified and retrospectively examined when presenting for a supportive periodontal care (SPC) appointment. The mean SPC duration was 8.9 years (range 5 to 12 years). All anterior-migrated teeth showed statistically significant periodontal improvement compared to baseline values and stable radiographic bone levels at the final follow-up. Residual probing depths were 2.9 ± 0.5 mm at the end of active periodontal treatment, and they remained stable at the completion of OT (2.9 ± 0.6 mm) and at the last follow-up visit (2.8 ± 0.5 mm). These findings suggest that OT is a safe and effective treatment in improving the long-term prognosis of teeth with PTM in Stage IV periodontitis provided that periodontal health has been re-established and maintained with individualized SPC sessions.

131 Background: Colorectal cancer is a common and lethal disease. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has seen an increase in patients who want colorectal cancer treatment. This increase has had a negative result on the referral to appointment cycle time for new patients. Responding to this, Colorectal split from GI in 2010 and separate processes were developed. A performance improvement team was identified in September 2011 with the goal to decrease the referral to appointment cycle time for colorectal patients. Methods: The PI team Aim Statement was to facilitate patient access to the Colorectal Center by decreasing the days of referral to appointment by 10% within the first year. A retrospective study was conducted of the access data for the previous two years. A comprehensive 3-week audit of access center staff and processes was completed. A key component of project success was process standardization and staff education for the new patient communication. A physician designed and presented colorectal practice guidelines and education to the access staff to helped staff identify the correct first appointment type. Scripting was developed to establish clear patient expectations of their responsibilities obtaining medical records; the structure of the first visit; and to provide consistent answers to FAQ to improve access and the patient experience. Access teams were formed and new processes created for receiving and responding to first patient communication. Scheduling templates were revised to accommodate the increased patient volume. Staff work schedules were adjusted to accommodate the workload. There were also many “quick fixes” identified such as implementing separate fax/phone numbers for Colorectal and GI. Results: Within two years, new patient access time decreased from 19.48 days in fiscal year 2011 to 15.76 days in fiscal year 2012 through May 2012, a 19% decrease. The highest access month in fiscal year 2011 was 29 days and the lowest access month in fiscal year 2012 was 12.71 days, while realizing a 15% increase in referrals. Conclusions: The team realized success with the decrease in access time which provided a better quality patient experience. The next step is to further reduce access time by focusing on a different access process for local patients.

The Legal Practitioners Act of 2000 authorises the Sierra Leone Bar Association to elect six legal practitioners for membership of the General Legal Council (Council), which is the regulatory body of the legal profession in Sierra Leone. In April 2019, Ibrahim Sorie was among the legal practitioners elected to the Council. Subsequently, I—another legal practitioner—objected to and petitioned in the High Court of Sierra Leone Sorie’s election to the Council on the basis of ineligibility. The thrust of my objection was that Sorie, a two-term ex-president of the Sierra Leone Bar Association had not yet attained the necessary fifteen-year standing qualification at the date of his appointment to the Council, based on his year of enrolment into the Permanent Register or Roll of Court in 2011. Sorie filed an action in the Supreme Court against the Council invoking the exclusive original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to interpret certain portions of the Constitution of Sierra Leone vis-à-vis the eligibility provision for membership to the Council in the Legal Practitioners Act.2 The Supreme Court delivered a controversial 97-paged judgment on 27 October 2020.

A South African insurance company is considering how to automate the process of handling home insurance repair claims in order to make the process more efficient and improve the customer experience. Should they stick with the status quo, develop their own system, purchase existing technology or employ a hybrid solution? ABC Insurance was a leading short-term insurer in South Africa. The FSB (Financial Services Board) of South Africa defined short term insurance cover as indemnification secured by the insurance purchaser over their fixed and movable assets (FSB, n.d.). Such insurable assets could be one’s home (the actual building) or motor vehicle (https://www.fsb.co.za). The purchased insurance cover protected the policyholder (customer) against total loss or accidental damage, as a result of insurable events like fires or floods. In exchange, payment for insurance cover (referred to as the “premium”), was collected by the insurance company from its customers. Andrew Cohen, commodity manager for the Non-Automobile Property and Casualty procurement division at ABC Insurance, was faced with the choice of either digitizing the day to day claims fulfillment procedures within his portfolio, or to continue his business unit’s activities “as is.” The main function of Cohen’s business unit was to ensure that home owners (policyholders) who purchased insurance cover over their fixed assets (i.e., buildings insurance) could access and receive the required repair services as per the provisions set out in their insurance policies. In delivering these services to the policyholders, Cohen’s immediate challenges were that he had to increase efficiency within the claims environment, meet customer demand and enhance operational processes while concurrently accelerating daily business operations. In opposition to maintaining the status quo, his options were to either build an in-house solution, or purchase an existing tool and customize it to his organization’s requirements. His preliminary cost benefit analysis showed that choosing to remain “as is” would cost the firm nothing in terms of immediate cash outflows, but in the long term would expose management to the risk of not capitalizing on opportunities to service their customers quickly and efficiently, infuse transparency into the appointment procedure of suppliers on repair claims, and gain line of sight of interactions between the firm, its service providers, and its customers. He furthermore surmised that whatever the solution was it might require the firm to make initial investments of time for the re-organization of internal processes and new information technology competencies to acquire. To select an ideal solution, he would need to weigh the risks of remaining “as is” against the benefits of infusing mobile technology such as a mobile app into his portfolio, and ultimately, into the core day-to-day operations of the firm as well.

В статье рассматриваются различные подходы к сущности происхождения пахнущих следов человека. Обоснован тезис о том, что запах не материален, это не вещество, а ощущение, возникающее у живых существ, обладающих рецепторами обонятельных анализаторов, вследствие чего производство экспертизы пахнущих следов человека невозможно при помощи инструментальных методов исследования - бесчувственными приборами. Критическому анализу подвергаются подходы к устоявшемуся направлению в криминалистике - одорологии. По результатам исследования авторы приходят к выводу о несостоятельности и нецелесообразности использования данного термина и рекомендаций криминалистической одорологии. Отдельно рассматривается вопрос о механизме образования пахнущих следов человека. Авторы классифицируют пахнущие следы человека с криминалистической точки зрения на фиксированные и нефиксированные следы. Обоснован тезис о том, что состоятельность экспертизы пахнущих следов человека на сегодня не вызывает сомнений, что подтверждается апробированными и внедренными в экспертную практику методическими материалами по ее производству. На основании анализа теоретической и эмпирической базы исследования авторами предлагаются тактические рекомендации по фиксации, изъятию и упаковке пахнущих следов человека, а также по назначению судебной экспертизы пахнущих следов человека. The article discusses various approaches to the essence of the origin of smelling human traces. The thesis is substantiated that the smell is not material, it is not a substance, but a sensation that occurs in living beings with olfactory analyzer receptors, as a result of which the examination of smelling traces of a person is impossible using instrumental research methods - insensitive devices. The article critically analyzes the approaches to the well-established direction in forensic science - odorology. Based on the results of the study, the authors conclude that the use of this term and recommendations of forensic odorology are invalid and inappropriate. Separately, the article deals with the question of the mechanism of formation of smelling traces of a person. The authors classify smelling traces of a person from a forensic point of view into fixed and non-fixed traces. The article substantiates the thesis that the examination of smelling traces of a person is valid today, which is confirmed by methodological materials for its production that have been tested and introduced into expert practice. Based on the analysis of the theoretical and empirical basis of the study, the authors propose tactical recommendations for the fixation, removal and packaging of smelling traces of a person, as well as for the appointment of a forensic examination of smelling traces of a person.

Objective: To measure patient-reported impact of orthodontic treatment in terms of pre-treatment concerns, treatment experience and treatment outcome. Setting: Four sites in Yorkshire, including two secondary care settings (Leeds Dental Institute and St Luke’s Hospital, Bradford) and two specialist orthodontic practices. Design: Cross-sectional survey. Participants: NHS orthodontic patients (aged 12+ years) who have completed comprehensive orthodontic treatment, excluding orthognathic surgery and craniofacial anomalies. Methods: Participants were opportunistically identified by the direct clinical care team during scheduled appointments and those eligible were invited to participate. Data were collected using the Orthodontic Patient Treatment Impact Questionnaire (OPTIQ), a validated 12-item measure with questions relating to pre-treatment experience, impact of treatment and outcome from treatment. Results: Completed questionnaires for analysis included 120 from primary care and 83 from secondary care. The most common pre-treatment concerns were alignment (89%) and being embarrassed to smile (63%). The most common expectations from orthodontic treatment were improved confidence to eat (87%) and smile (72%) in front of others, improved appearance of teeth (85%) and reduced teasing/bullying (63%). Only 67% respondents recalled receiving written information and the lowest recall related to retainer type and length of retention. The most commonly reported complications were sore mouth (68%), fixed appliance breakage (61%) and gingivitis (39%). Treatment caused greatest impact in relation to pain, limitations in eating and effect on speech. Overall satisfaction with orthodontic treatment was reported by 96% of respondents, 87% would have orthodontic treatment again (if needed) and 91% would recommend treatment to a friend. Conclusions: The OPTIQ is a useful patient-reported tool to identify pre-treatment concerns and expectations, treatment experience and outcome. Orthodontic treatment leads to high levels of satisfaction.

ABSTRACT Patients frequently report sensitivity of prepared abutment teeth during the temporization period and after the final cementation of full coverage restoration. Purpose of this clinical investigation was to evaluate the effectiveness of desensitizing agents in reducing the pre- and postcementation sensitivity for full coverage restorations and to compare the relative efficacy of three in office applied desensitizing agents in relieving the postcementation sensitivity with the use of glass ionomer luting cement. Materials and methods This study consisted of 30 patients requiring either full coverage restoration or 3 unit fixed partial denture. Total of 40 restorations (n = 40) were made and were randomly assigned into four groups comprising 10 restoration (n = 10) in each group. Group C control where no desensitizer application was done, group BB applied with BisBlock dentin desensitizer (Bisco Inc.), group ST applied with Systemp desensitizer (Ivoclar Vivadent), group GC applied with GC Tooth Mousse desensitizer (GC Asia). Desensitizer application was done immediately after the tooth preparation. Sensitivity of the tested abutment was determined by the patient response to cold, hot and bite stimuli and were recorded on visual analog scale (VAS). Sensitivity level scores was evaluated at 4 time intervals, i.e. 1 week after desensitizer application at baseline precementation appointment and others at 5 minutes, 1 day and 1 week postcementation appointment. VAS score data was statistically analyzed using one-way ANOVA followed by post hoc Tukey's test. Results BisBlock and GC Tooth Mousse desensitizer resulted in statistically significant (p < 0.01) reduction in postcementation sensitivity of glass ionomer cement in comparison to Systemp desensitizer at 5 minutes, 1 week postcementation time interval with no statistical difference was seen between all desensitizer groups at 1 day postcementation. Application of BisBlock and GC Tooth Mousse desensitizer resulted in highly significant (p < 0.01) reduction in sensitivity level at the end of 1 week. Clinical significance Desensitizer's application on the prepared abutment teeth is considerably effective in relieving both pre- and postcementation sensitivity for full coverage restoration over the short duration of time. Immediate reduction in postoperative sensitivity relatively in a short time period may be beneficial in terms of patient's comfort. Nonetheless, multicenter long-term clinical trials should be conducted to confirm the results. Conclusion Efficacy of BisBlock and GC Tooth Mousse desensitizer was more in relieving the postcementation sensitivity of glass ionomer cement at various time intervals in comparison to Systemp desensitizer. In conclusion, application of desensitizers was beneficial to reduce the pre- and postcementation abutment sensitivity. How to cite this article Gupta N, Reddy UN, Vasundhar PL, Ramarao KS, Varma KVVP, Vinod V. Effectiveness of Desensitizing Agents in relieving the Pre- and Postcementation Sensitivity for Full Coverage Restorations: A Clinical Evaluation. J Contemp Dent Pract 2013;14(5):858-865.

When South Africa’s first democratically elected president was inaugurated on 10 May 1994, South Africans were anxious to see who would be leading the police service. Nelson Mandela followed his heart without bowing to political pressure and appointed seasoned police official Commissioner George Fivaz. Although the Interim Constitution Act 200 of 1993 was silent on the powers of the President to appoint the national commissioners, this appointment was made in terms of section 214(1) of that Act. At the time George Fivaz’s term expired, Mandela was also bowing out of the political limelight. When Thabo Mbeki assumed the presidency in 1999, he appointed Jackie Selebi, a former Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) cadre, who came from the Department of Foreign Affairs without any policing experience. This appointment was made in terms of section 207 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, read with section 7(1)(a) of the South African Police Service Act 68 of 1995. Section 8(1) of the South African Police Service Act stipulates that ‘if the National Commissioner has lost the confidence of the Cabinet, the President may establish a board of inquiry to inquire into the circumstances that led to the loss of confidence, compile a report and make recommendations.’ After serving his first term, reports of Selebi’s involvement in the criminal underworld began to emerge. As a result of these reports, the then Directorate of Special Operations (the Scorpions) investigated Selebi’s involvement in corrupt activities. In 2007, Selebi was charged inter alia with two counts of corruption; in 2010, he was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment. Surprisingly, on 2 August 2009, President Jacob Zuma appointed General Bheki Cele, who also came from an MK background without any policing experience, as the third National Police Commissioner. Within a year, reports of Cele’s involvement in illegal lease deals began to emerge and the office of the Public Protector was called in to investigate the allegations. As a result of its findings of improper conduct and maladministration, he was suspended in 2011 and a commission of inquiry was established in terms of section 8(1) of the South African Police Service Act 68 of 1995 to find out whether the Commissioner was fit to hold office. General Cele was fired for maladministration and corruption and was replaced by General Riah Phiyega, who also did not have any policingexperience. A few months after her taking office, the Marikana incident occurred and all the blame for it has been directed at the National Commissioner, although the commission has not yet finalised its mandate. In view of the above-mentioned incidents, it is clear that there is a problem with the way in which the National Commissioner is appointed. This article seeks to unravel the powers of the president in appointing the National Police Commissioner and discuss the cases of the two former incumbents who bowed out of office in disgrace without completing their terms of office. It also includes a comparative study with countries such as Kenya, Northern Ireland, Uganda, Canada and selected countries from the Caribbean islands. As a way forward, a new model for appointing and dismissing the National Commissioner for South Africa is proposed.

The article presents the issues on ensuring effective defense in criminal proceedings. Analysis of international legal documents, generalization of the practice of the European Court of Human Rights give grounds to divide international legal standards, that have been formed to facilitate the enforcement of the right to defense, into the following groups: 1) standards designed to facilitate the effectiveness of the defense by the accused him- or herself; 2) standards facilitating effective defense by the defense counsel; 3) standards, the adoption of which contributes to the effective defense maintained by the defense (when the defense is conducted jointly by the accused and the defense counsel) 4) standards that contain requirements for the state or its bodies and compel them to ensure the possibility of effective defense. The latter group of standards is important among others because the conduct of defense seems impossible without imposing certain requirements on the state and its bodies, and fixed guarantees of effective defense will turn into a declaration. The study of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights on maintaining effective defense in criminal proceedings allows us to state the lack of unity in its legal positions, since the issue of the effectiveness of ensuring the human right to defense in criminal proceedings depends on the specific circumstances of the case. The court notes that, on the one hand, the state can only intervene in the activities of defense counsel within the limits of public interests, given the independent nature of the legal profession. On the other hand, it cannot stand aside in the event of the discovery of violations of the standards for the conduct of defense in criminal proceedings, which assigns it a special role in maintaining effective defense for the suspect, the accused in criminal proceedings. Based on the analysis of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, standards are identified that contain requirements for the state or its bodies and compel them to ensure the possibility of effective defense: 1) the obligation of the state to conduct real (not illusionary or formal) defense for the suspect, the accused, since the appointment of a defense counsel does not ensure maintaining effective legal services; 2) the obligation to provide the defense team with the time and opportunity to conduct effective defense.

Managerialism – the notion that the primary skills required to manage any specific organisation are a generic set of managerial skills – is now widespread in the New Zealand public service. Managerialism was enabled by the 1988 State Sector Act, especially that part establishing the fixed-term contracts and appointments of chief executives. The consequences have been a decline in departmental expertise and a public service which acts as a secretariat for the government of the day. Thus, New Zealand has shifted from a mandarin to a valet public service. Managerialism is identified by top appointees who lack specialist skills and sector experience, short employment durations, and the manner in which the State Services Commission has managed the reform process thus far.

Abstract Background AAV is a relapsing remitting condition and patients are at risk of organ damage from active AAV and therapy especially glucocorticoids (GC). The maintenance phase of AAV is critical for good long-term outcomes. This retrospective study examined maintenance definition, therapy and outcomes in patients in routine clinical practice. Methods 300 AAV patients managed by 100 UK physicians (40% rheumatologists) who completed induction therapy for organ or life threatening AAV and initiated maintenance between 2014-16 were studied. Data were collected at time maintenance was determined to begin by the physician and at 6, 12, 18 and 36 months. Results 56% had granulomatosis with polyangiitis; mean age 55.4 years 54% male. 61% had incident AAV and 39% relapsed. Physicians defined time of start of maintenance from treatment start with mean of 4.5 months, on basis of fixed time point 47%, starting new maintenance drug 27%, reaching full remission 16% and no specific criteria 9%. At this time 45% were in full remission vs 49% in partial and 6% refractory. Various maintenance regimes were used, 11% received rituximab (84% 6 monthly and 16% 12 monthly) at varying planned doses 61% 1g, 19% 500 mg and 16% 375 mg/m2, 4% not recorded. Remission rates varied and many patients experienced adverse events (AE) and infections, prolonged GC use was common. At most recent review patients had been followed for a mean of 49.2 months - 6% had died, 30% relapsed at least once, and 10% required renal replacement therapy. 62% had no vasculitis activity and were ANCA negative with 14% still experiencing active disease. 35% still received GCs - 19% &gt; 5mg/ day. There was negative impact on functional status with 13% reducing working hours, 13% restricted social life, 4% leaving employment, 3% registered as disabled and 2% leaving full time education. Conclusion Maintenance therapy is variably defined at 4-5 months from start of remission induction therapy. Achieving full remission and preventing relapse are still problems and many patients require GC therapy to maintain remission. Infectious complications are a problem and there is significant negative impact on patient functional status. Disclosures D. Worthington Corporate appointments; Employee of Vifor Pharma. P. Rutherford Corporate appointments; Employee of Vifor Pharma. Shareholder/stock ownership; Vifor Pharma.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the organizational and environmental antecedents to the appointment of a woman to a non-CEO top management team (TMT) position.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a conditional fixed effects logistic regression model to analyze non-CEO TMT appointment data collected from the S&P 500 between 2008 and 2016.FindingsWomen were more likely to be appointed to non-CEO TMT positions when a firm was undergoing strategic change, had slack resources, and was in a less munificent environment.Originality/valueThis article contributes to the literature concerning the antecedents of the selection of women to executive leadership (e.g. the glass cliff) roles by examining organizational and environmental contexts at the non-CEO TMT unit of analysis.

ABC Insurance was a leading short-term insurer in South Africa. The FSB (Financial Services Board) of South Africa defined short term insurance cover as indemnification secured by the insurance purchaser over their fixed and movable assets (FSB, n.d.). Such insurable assets could be one’s home (the actual building) or motor vehicle (https://www.fsb.co.za). The purchased insurance cover protected the policyholder (customer) against total loss or accidental damage, as a result of insurable events like fires or floods. In exchange, payment for insurance cover (referred to as the “premium”), was collected by the insurance company from its customers. Andrew Cohen, commodity manager for the Non-Automobile Property and Casualty procurement division at ABC Insurance, was faced with the choice of either digitizing the day to day claims fulfillment procedures within his portfolio, or to continue his business unit’s activities “as is.” The main function of Cohen’s business unit was to ensure that home owners (policyholders) who purchased insurance cover over their fixed assets (i.e., buildings insurance) could access and receive the required repair services as per the provisions set out in their insurance policies. In delivering these services to the policyholders, Cohen’s immediate challenges were that he had to increase efficiency within the claims environment, meet customer demand and enhance operational processes while concurrently accelerating daily business operations. In opposition to maintaining the status quo, his options were to either build an in-house solution, or purchase an existing tool and customize it to his organization’s requirements. His preliminary cost benefit analysis showed that choosing to remain “as is” would cost the firm nothing in terms of immediate cash outflows, but in the long term would expose management to the risk of not capitalizing on opportunities to service their customers quickly and efficiently, infuse transparency into the appointment procedure of suppliers on repair claims, and gain line of sight of interactions between the firm, its service providers, and its customers. He furthermore surmised that whatever the solution was it might require the firm to make initial investments of time for the re-organization of internal processes and new information technology competencies to acquire. To select an ideal solution, he would need to weigh the risks of remaining “as is” against the benefits of infusing mobile technology such as a mobile app into his portfolio, and ultimately, into the core day-to-day operations of the firm as well.

Abstract Objective This study aims to audit the process of patient management with aerosol-generating procedure (ultrasonic scaling) while adherence to the guidelines for health care workers (HCWs) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Materials and Methods Audits records at the Department of Periodontology at University College of Medicine and Dentistry Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan were collected (prospectively) over the period of October 1 to November 30, 2020 (1st cycle) and December 14, 2020 to February 12, 2021 (2nd cycle). The audit was divided into three components based on the guidelines: (1) physical environment, (2) patients/appointments, and (3) COVID standard operating procedures related to HCWs. Results The recommended physical layout and procedural factors, as suggested by the guidelines for dental clinics, were observed during the first cycle of audit, and discrepancy of ventilation system was fixed after the first cycle. Audit team reported the observance of fallow time three times daily, which revealed 83.3% observance of fallow time.Later in the second cycle when the extraoral high-volume air evacuator was installed, the fallow time was reduced to 15 minutes and not only five procedural slots per day were created but fallow time was also observed 100% of the time. Conclusion Following the standard guidelines resulted in more efficient working environment and lesser risk for HCWs while performing aerosol-generating procedures.

IntroductionBallarat’s Theatre Royal was the first permanent theatre built in inland Australia. Upon opening in 1858, it was acclaimed as having “the handsomest theatrical exterior in the colony” (Star, “Editorial” 7 Dec. 1889) and later acknowledged as “the grandest playhouse in all Australia” (Spielvogel, Papers Vol. 1 160). Born of Gold Rush optimism, the Royal was loved by many, yet the over-arching story of its ill-fated existence has failed to surface, in any coherent fashion, in official history. This article takes some first steps toward retrieving lost knowledge from fragmented archival records, and piecing together the story of why this purpose-built theatre ceased operation within a twenty-year period. A short history of the venue will be provided, to develop context. It will be argued that while a combination of factors, most of which were symptomatic of unfortunate timing, destroyed the longevity of the Royal, the principal problem was one of stigmatisation. This was an era in which the societal pressure to visibly conform to conservative values was intense and competition in the pursuit of profits was fierce.The cultural silence that befell the story of the Royal, after its demise, is explicable in relation to history being written by the victors and a loss of spokespeople since that time. As theatre arts historiographer McConachie (131) highlights, “Theatres, like places for worship and spectator sports, hold memories of the past in addition to providing a practical and cognitive framework for performance events in the present.” When that place, “a bounded area denoted by human agency and memory” (131), is lost in time, so too may be the socio-cultural lessons from the period, if not actively recalled and reconsidered. The purpose of this article is to present the beginning of an investigation into the disjointed narrative of Ballarat’s Theatre Royal. Its ultimate failure demonstrates how dominant community based entertainment became in Ballarat from the 1860s onwards, effectively crushing prospects for mid-range professional theatre. There is value in considering the evolution of the theatre’s lifespan and its possible legacy effects. The connection between historical consciousness and the performing arts culture of by-gone days offers potential to reveal specks of cross-relevance for regional Australian theatrical offerings today.In the BeginningThe proliferation of entertainment venues in Ballarat East during the 1850s was a consequence of the initial discovery of surface alluvial gold and the ongoing success of deep-lead mining activities in the immediate area. This attracted extraordinary numbers of people from all over the world who hoped to strike it rich. Given the tough nature of life on the early gold diggings, most disposable income was spent on evening entertainment. As a result, numerous venues sprang into operation to cater for demand. All were either canvas tents or makeshift wooden structures: vibrant in socio-cultural activity, however humble the presentation values. It is widely agreed (Withers, Bate and Brereton) that noteworthy improvements occurred from 1856 onwards in the artistry of the performers, audience tastes, the quality of theatrical structures and living standards in general. Residents began to make their exit from flood and fire prone Ballarat East, moving to Ballarat West. The Royal was the first substantial entertainment venture to be established in this new, affluent, government surveyed township area. Although the initial idea was to draw in some of the patronage which had flourished in Ballarat East, Brereton (14) believed “There can be no doubt that it was [primarily] intended to attract those with good taste and culture”. This article will contend that how society defined ‘good taste’ turned out to be problematic for the Royal.The tumultuous mid-1850s have attracted extensive academic and popular attention, primarily because they were colourful and politically significant times. The period thereafter has attracted little scholarly interest, unless tied to the history of surviving organisations. Four significant structures designed to incorporate theatrical entertainment were erected and opened in Ballarat from 1858 onwards: The Royal was swiftly followed by the Mechanics Institute 1859, Alfred Hall 1867 and Academy of Music 1874-75. As philosopher Albert Borgmann (41) highlighted, the erection of “magnificent settings in which the public could gather and enjoy itself” was the dominant urban aspiration for cultural consumption in the nineteenth century. Men of influence in Victorian cities believed strongly in progress and grand investments as a conscious demonstration of power, combined with Puritan vales, teetotalism and aggressive self-assertiveness (Briggs 287-88). At the ceremonial laying of the foundation stone for the Royal on 20 January 1858, eminent tragedian, Gustavos Brooke, announced “… may there be raised a superstructure perfect in all its parts, and honourable to the builder.” He proclaimed the memorial bottle to be “a lasting memento of the greatness of Ballarat in erecting such a theatre” and philosophised that “the stage not only refines the manners, but it is the best teacher of morals, for it is the truest and most intelligible picture of life. It stamps the image of virtue on the mind …” (Star, “Laying” 21 Jan. 1858). These initial aspirations seem somewhat ambitious when viewed with the benefit of hindsight. Ballarat’s Theatre Royal opened in December 1858, ironically with Jerrold’s comedy ‘Time Works Wonders’. The large auditorium holding around 1500 people “was crowded to overflowing and was considered altogether brilliant in its newness and beauty” by all in attendance (Star, “Local and General” 30 Dec. 1858). Generous descriptions abound of how splendid it was, in architectural terms, but also in relation to scenery, decorations and all appointments. Underneath the theatre were two shops, four bars, elegant dining rooms, a kitchen and 24 bedrooms. A large saloon was planned to be attached soon-after. The overall cost of the build was estimated at a substantial 10,000 pounds.The First Act: 1858-1864In the early years, the Royal was deemed a success. The pleasure-seeking public of Ballarat came en masse and the glory days seemed like they might continue unabated. By the early 1860s, Ballarat was known as a great theatrical centre for performing arts, its population was famous both nationally and internationally for an appreciation of good acting, and the Royal was considered the home of the best dramatic art in Ballarat (Withers 260). Like other theatres of the 1850s diggings, it had its own resident company of actors, musicians, scenic artists and backstage crew. Numerous acclaimed performers came to visit and these were prosperous and happy times for the Royal’s lively theatrical community. As early as 1859, however, there was evident rivalry between the Royal and the Mechanics Institute, as suggested on numerous occasions in the Ballarat Star. As a multi-purpose venue for education and the betterment of the working classes, the latter venue had the distinct advantage of holding the moral high ground. Over time this competition increased as audiences decreased. As people shifted to family-focussed entertainments, these absorbed their time and attention. The transformation of a transient population into a township of families ultimately suffocated prospects for professional entertainment in Ballarat. Consumer interest turned to the growth of strong amateur societies with the establishment of the Welsh Eisteddfod 1863; Harmonic Society 1864; Bell Ringers’ Club 1866 and Glee and Madrigal Union 1867 (Brereton 38). By 1863, the Royal was reported to have “scanty patronage” and Proprietor Symonds was in financial trouble (Star, “News and Notes” 15 Sep. 1864). It was announced that the theatre would open for the last time on Saturday, 29 October 1864 (Australasian). On that same date, the Royal was purchased by Rowlands & Lewis, the cordial makers. They promptly on-sold it to the Ballarat Temperance League, who soon discovered that there was a contract in place with Bouchier, the previous owner, who still held the hotel next door, stating that “all proprietors … were bound to keep it open as a theatre” (Withers 260-61). Having invested immense energy into the quest to purchase it, the Temperance League backed out of the deal. Prominent Hotelier Walter Craig bought it for less than 3,000 pounds. It is possible that this stymied effort to quell the distribution of liquor in the heart of the city evoked the ire of the Protestant community, who were on a dedicated mission “to attack widespread drunkenness, profligacy, licentiousness and agnosticism,” and forming an interdenominational Bible and Tract Society in 1866 (Bate 176). This caused a segment of the population to consider the Royal a ‘lost cause’ and steer clear of it, advising ‘respectable’ families to do the same, and so the stigma grew. Social solidarity of this type had significant impact in an era in which people openly demonstrated their morality by way of unified public actions.The Second Act: 1865-1868The Royal closed for renovations until May 1865. Of the various alterations made to the interior and its fittings, the most telling was the effort to separate the ladies from the ‘town women’, presumably to reassure ‘respectable’ female patrons. To this end, a ladies’ retiring room was added, in a position convenient to the dress circle. The architectural rejuvenation of the Royal was cited as an illustration of great progress in Sturt Street (Ballarat Star, “News and Notes” 27 May 1865). Soon after, the Royal hosted the Italian Opera Company.However, by 1866 there was speculation that the Royal may be converted into a dry goods store. References to what sort of impression the failing of theatre would convey to the “old folks at home” in relation to “progress in civilisation'' and "social habits" indicated the distress of loyal theatre-goers. Impassioned pleas were written to the press to help preserve the “Temple of Thespus” for the legitimate use for which it was intended (Ballarat Star, “Messenger” and “Letters to the Editor” 30 Aug. 1866). By late 1867, a third venue materialised. The Alfred Hall was built for the reception of Ballarat’s first Royal visitor, the Duke of Edinburgh. On the night prior to the grand day at the Alfred, following a private dinner at Craig’s Hotel, Prince Alfred was led by an escorted torchlight procession to a gala performance at Craig’s very own Theatre Royal. The Prince’s arrival caused a sensation that completely disrupted the show (Spielvogel, Papers Vol. 1 165). While visiting Ballarat, the Prince laid the stone for the new Temperance Hall (Bate 159). This would not have been required had the League secured the Royal for their use three years earlier.Thereafter, the Royal was unable to reach the heights of what Brereton (15) calls the “Golden Age of Ballarat Theatre” from 1855 to 1865. Notably, the Mechanics Institute also experienced financial constraints during the 1860s and these challenges were magnified during the 1870s (Hazelwood 89). The late sixties saw the Royal reduced to the ‘ordinary’ in terms of the calibre of productions (Brereton 15). Having done his best to improve the physical attributes and prestige of the venue, Craig may have realised he was up against a growing stigma and considerable competition. He sold the Royal to R.S. Mitchell for 5,500 pounds in 1868.Another New Owner: 1869-1873For the Saturday performance of Richard III in 1869, under the new Proprietor, it was reported that “From pit to gallery every seat was full” and for many it was standing room only (Ballarat Star, “Theatre Royal” 1 Feb. 1869). Later that year, Othello attracted people with “a critical appreciation of histrionic matters” (Ballarat Star, “News and Notes” 19 July 1869). The situation appeared briefly promising. Unfortunately, larger economic factors were soon at play. During 1869, Ballarat went ‘mad’ with mine share gambling. In 1870 the economic bubble burst, and hundreds of people in Ballarat were financially ruined. Over the next ten years the population fell from 60,000 to less than 40,000 (Spielvogel, Papers Vol. 3 39). The last surviving theatre in Ballarat East, the much-loved Charles Napier, put on its final show in September 1869 (Brereton 15). By 1870 the Royal was referred to as a “second-class theatre” and was said to be such bad repute that “it would be most difficult to draw respectable classes” (Ballarat Star, “News and Notes” 17 Jan. 1870). It seems the remaining theatre patrons from the East swung over to support the Royal, which wasn’t necessarily in the best interests of its reputation. During this same period, family-oriented crowds of “the pleasure-seeking public of Ballarat” were attending events at the newly fashionable Alfred Hall (Ballarat Courier, “Theatre Royal” June 1870). There were occasional high points still to come for the Royal. In 1872, opera drew a crowded house “even to the last night of the season” which according to the press, “gave proof, if proof were wanting, that the people of Ballarat not only appreciate, but are willing to patronise to the full any high-class entertainment” (Ballarat Courier, “Theatre Royal” 26 Aug. 1872). The difficulty, however, lay in the deterioration of the Royal’s reputation. It had developed negative connotations among local temperance and morality movements, along with their extensive family, friendship and business networks. Regarding collective consumption, sociologist John Urry wrote “for those engaged in the collective tourist gaze … congregation is paramount” (140). Applying this socio-cultural principle to the behaviour of Victorian theatre-going audiences of the 1870s, it was compelling for audiences to move with the masses and support popular events at the fresh Alfred Hall rather than the fading Royal. Large crowds jostling for elbow room was perceived as the hallmark of a successful event back then, as is most often the case now.The Third Act: 1874-1878An additional complication faced by the Royal was the long-term effect of the application of straw across the ceiling. Acoustics were initially poor, and straw was intended to rectify the problem. This caused the venue to develop a reputation for being stuffy and led to the further indignity of the Royal suffering an infestation of fleas (Jenkins 22); a misfortune which caused some to label it “The Royal Bug House” (Reid 117). Considering how much food was thrown at the stage in this era, it is not surprising that rotten debris attracted insects. In 1873, the Royal closed for another round of renovations. The interior was redesigned, and the front demolished and rebuilt. This was primarily to create retail store frontage to supplement income (Reid 117). It was reported that the best theatrical frontage in Australasia was lost, and in its place was “a modestly handsome elevation” for which all play-goers of Ballarat should be thankful, as the miracle required of the rebuild was that of “exorcising the foul smells from the old theatre and making it bright and pretty and sweet” (Ballarat Star, “News and Notes” 26 Jan. 1874). The effort at rejuvenation seemed effective for a period. A “large and respectable audience” turned out to see the Fakir of Oolu, master of the weird, mystical, and strange. The magician’s show “was received with cheers from all parts of the house, and is certainly a very attractive novelty” (Ballarat Courier, “Theatre Royal” 29 Mar. 1875). That same day, the Combination Star Company gave a concert at the Mechanics Institute. Indicating the competitive tussle, the press stated: “The attendance, however, doubtless owing to attractions elsewhere, was only moderately large” (Courier, “Concert at the Mechanics’” 29 Mar. 1875). In the early 1870s, there had been calls from sectors of society for a new venue to be built in Ballarat, consistent with its status. The developer and proprietor, Sir William Clarke, intended to offer a “higher class” of entertainment for up to 1700 people, superior to the “broad farces” at the Royal (Freund n.p.) In 1875, the Academy of Music opened, at a cost of twelve thousand pounds, just one block away from the Royal.As the decade of decreasing population wore on, it is intriguing to consider an unprecedented “riotous” incident in 1877. Levity's Original Royal Marionettes opened at the Royal with ‘Beauty and the Beast’ to calamitous response. The Company Managers, Wittington & Lovell made clear that the performance had scarcely commenced when the “storm” arose and they believed “the assault to be premeditated” (Wittington and Lovell in Argus, “The Riot” 6 Apr. 1877). Paid thuggery, with the intent of spooking regular patrons, was the implication. They pointed out that “It is evident that the ringleaders of the riot came into the theatre ready armed with every variety of missiles calculated to get a good hit at the figures and scenery, and thereby create a disturbance.” The mob assaulted the stage with “head-breaking” lemonade bottles, causing costly damage, then chased the frightened puppeteers down Sturt Street (Mount Alexander Mail, “Items of News” 4 Apr. 1877). The following night’s performance, by contrast, was perfectly calm (Ballarat Star, “News and Notes” 7 Apr. 1877). Just three months later, Webb’s Royal Marionette pantomimes appeared at the Mechanics’ Institute. The press wrote “this is not to be confounded, with the exhibition which created something like a riot at the Theatre Royal last Easter” (Ballarat Star, “News and Notes” 5 July 1877).The final performance at the Royal was the American Rockerfellers’ Minstrel Company. The last newspaper references to the Royal were placed in the context of other “treats in store” at The Academy of Music, and forthcoming offerings at the Mechanics Institute (Star, “Advertising” 3 July 1878). The Royal had experienced three re-openings and a series of short-term managements, often ending in loss or even bankruptcy. When it wound up, investors were left to cover the losses, while the owner was forced to find more profitable uses for the building (Freund n.p.). At face value, it seemed that four performing arts venues was one too many for Ballarat audiences to support. By August 1878 the Royal’s two shop fronts were up for lease. Thereafter, the building was given over entirely to retail drapery sales (Withers 260). ReflectionsThe Royal was erected, at enormous expense, in a moment of unbridled optimism, after several popular theatres in Ballarat East had burned to the ground. Ultimately the timing for such a lavish investment was poor. It suffered an inflexible old-fashioned structure, high overheads, ongoing staffing costs, changing demographics, economic crisis, increased competition, decreased population, the growth of local community-based theatre, temperance agitation and the impact of negative rumour and hear-say.The struggles endured by the various owners and managers of, and investors in, the Royal reflected broader changes within the larger community. The tension between the fixed nature of the place and the fluid needs of the public was problematic. Shifting demographics meant the Royal was negatively affected by conservative values, altered tastes and competing entertainment options. Built in the 1850s, it was sound, but structurally rigid, dated and polluted with the bacterial irritations of the times. “Resident professional companies could not compete with those touring from Melbourne” by whom it was considered “… hard to use and did not satisfy the needs of touring companies who required facilities equivalent to those in the metropolitan theatres” (Freund n.p.). Meanwhile, the prevalence of fund-raising concerts, created by charitable groups and member based community organisations, detracted from people’s interest in supporting professional performances. After-all, amateur concerts enabled families to “embrace the values of British middle class morality” (Doggett 295) at a safe distance from grog shops and saloons. Children aged 5-14 constituted only ten percent of the Ballarat population in 1857, but by 1871 settler families had created a population in which school aged children comprised twenty-five of the whole (Bate 146). This had significant ramifications for the type of theatrical entertainments required. By the late sixties, as many as 2000 children would perform at a time, and therefore entrance fees were able to be kept at affordable levels for extended family members. Just one year after the demise of the Royal, a new secular improvement society became active, holding amateur events and expanding over time to become what we now know as the Royal South Street Society. This showed that the appetite for home-grown entertainment was indeed sizeable. It was a function that the Royal was unable to service, despite several ardent attempts. Conclusion The greatest misfortune of the Royal was that it became stigmatised, from the mid 1860s onwards. In an era when people were either attempting to be pure of manners or were considered socially undesirable, it was hard for a cultural venue to survive which occupied the commercial middle ground, as the Royal did. It is also conceivable that the Royal was ‘framed’, by one or two of its competitor venues, or their allies, just one year before its closure. The Theatre Royal’s negative stigma as a venue for rough and intemperate human remnants of early Ballarat East had proven insurmountable. The Royal’s awkward position between high-class entrepreneurial culture and wholesome family-based community values, both of which were considered tasteful, left it out-of-step with the times and vulnerable to the judgement of those with either vested interests or social commitments elsewhere. This had long-term resonance for the subsequent development of entertainment options within Ballarat, placing the pendulum of favour either on elite theatre or accessible community based entertainments. The cultural middle-ground was sparse. The eventual loss of the building, the physical place of so much dramatic energy and emotion, as fondly recalled by Withers (260), inevitably contributed to the Royal fading from intergenerational memory. The telling of the ‘real story’ behind the rise and fall of the Ballarat Theatre Royal requires further exploration. If contemporary cultural industries are genuinely concerned “with the re-presentation of the supposed history and culture of a place”, as Urry believed (154), then untold stories such as that of Ballarat’s Theatre Royal require scholarly attention. This article represents the first attempt to examine its troubled history in a holistic fashion and locate it within a context ripe for cultural analysis.ReferencesBate, Weston. Lucky City: The First Generation at Ballarat 1851–1901. Carlton South: Melbourne UP, 1978.Brereton, Roslyn. Entertainment and Recreation on the Victorian Goldfields in the 1850s. BA (Honours) Thesis. Melbourne: University of Melbourne, 1967.Borgmann, Albert. Crossing the Postmodern Divide. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. Briggs, Asa. Victorian Cities: Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Middlesbrough, Melbourne. London: Penguin, 1968.Doggett, Anne. “And for Harmony Most Ardently We Long”: Musical Life in Ballarat, 1851-187. PhD Thesis. Ballarat: Ballarat University, 2006.Freund, Peter. Her Maj: A History of Her Majesty's Theatre. Ballarat: Currency Press, 2007.Hazelwood, Jennifer. A Public Want and a Public Duty: The Role of the Mechanics Institute in the Cultural, Social and Educational Development of Ballarat from 1851 to 1880. PhD Thesis. Ballarat: University of Ballarat 2007.Jenkins, Lloyd. Another Five Ballarat Cameos. Ballarat: Lloyd Jenkins, 1989.McConachie, Bruce. Engaging Audiences: A Cognitive Approach to Spectating in the Theatre. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2008.Reide, John, and John Chisholm. Ballarat Golden City: A Pictorial History. Bacchus Marsh: Joval Publications, 1989.Spielvogel, Nathan. Spielvogel Papers, Volume 1. 4th ed. Bakery Hill: Ballarat Historical Society, 2016.Spielvogel, Nathan. Spielvogel Papers, Volume 3. 4th ed. Bakery Hill: Ballarat Historical Society, 2016.Urry, John. Consuming Places. London: Routledge, 1995.Withers, William. History of Ballarat (1870) and some Ballarat Reminiscences (1895/96). Ballarat: Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.NewspapersThe Age.The Argus (Melbourne).The Australasian.The Ballarat Courier.The Ballarat Star.Coolgardie Miner.The Malcolm Chronicle and Leonora Advertiser.Mount Alexander Mail.The Star (Ballarat).

The concept of transmedia storyworlds unfolding across complex serial narrative structures has become increasingly important to the study of modern media industries and audience communities. Yet, the precise connections between transmedia networks, serial structures, and narrative processes often remain underdeveloped. The dispersion of potential story elements across a diverse collection of media platforms and technologies prompts questions concerning the function of seriality in the absence of fixed instalments, the meaning of narrative when plot is largely a personal construction of each audience member, and the nature of storytelling in the absence of a unifying author, or when authorship itself takes on a serial character. This special issue opens a conversation on the intersection of these three concepts and their implications for a variety of disciplines, artistic practices, and philosophies. By re-thinking these concepts from fresh perspectives, the collection challenges scholars to consider how a wide range of academic, aesthetic, and social phenomena might be productively thought through using the overlapping lenses of transmedia, seriality, and narrativity. Thus, the collection gathers scholars from life-writing, sport, film studies, cultural anthropology, fine arts, media studies, and literature, all of whom find common ground at this fruitful crossroads. This breadth also challenges the narrow use of transmedia as a specialized term to describe current developments in corporate mass media products that seek to exploit the affordances of hybrid digital media environments. Many prominent scholars, including Marie-Laure Ryan and Henry Jenkins, acknowledge that a basic definition of transmedia as stories with extensions and reinterpretations in numerous media forms includes the oldest kinds of human expression, such as the ancient storyworlds of Arthurian legend and The Odyssey. Yet, what Jenkins terms “top-down” transmedia—that is, pre-planned and often corporate transmedia—has received a disproportionate share of scholarly attention, with modern franchises like The Matrix, the Marvel universe, and Lost serving as common exemplars (Flanagan, Livingstone, and McKenny; Hadas; Mittell; Scolari). Thus, many of the contributions to this issue push the boundaries of what has commonly been studied as transmedia as well as the limits of what may be considered a serial structure or even a story. For example, these papers imagine how an autobiography may also be a digital concept album unfolding in reverse, how participatory artistic performances may unfold in unpredictable instalments across physical and digital space, and how studying sports fandom as a long series of transmedia narrative elements encourages scholars to grapple with the unique structures assembled by audiences of non-fictional story worlds. Setting these experimental offerings into dialogue with entries that approach the study of transmedia in a more established manner provides the basis for building bridges between such recognized conversations in new media studies and potential collaborations with other disciplines and subfields of media studies.This issue builds upon papers collected from four years of the International Transmedia Serial Narration Seminar, which I co-organized with Dr. Claire Cornillon, Assistant Professor (Maîtresse de Conférences) of comparative literature at Université de Nîmes. The seminar held sessions in Paris, Le Havre, Rouen, Amsterdam, and Utrecht, with interdisciplinary speakers from the USA, Australia, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. As a transnational, interdisciplinary project intended to cross both theoretical and physical boundaries, the seminar aimed to foster exchange between academic conversations that can become isolated not only within disciplines, but also within national and linguistic borders. The seminar thus sought to enhance academic mobility between both people and ideas, and the digital, open-access publication of the collected papers alongside additional scholarly interlocutors serves to broaden the seminar’s goals of creating a border-crossing conversation. After two special issues primarily collecting the French language papers in TV/Series (2014) and Revue Française des Sciences de l’Information et de la Communication (2017), this issue seeks to share the Transmedia Serial Narration project with a wider audience by publishing the remaining English-language papers, accompanied by several other contributions in dialogue with the seminar’s themes. It is our hope that this collection will invite a broad international audience to creatively question the meaning of transmedia, seriality, and narrativity both historically and in the modern, rapidly changing, global and digital media environment.Several articles in the issue illuminate existing debates and common case studies in transmedia scholarship by comparing theoretical models to the much more slippery reality of a media form in flux. Thus, Mélanie Bourdaa’s feature article, “From One Medium to the Next: How Comic Books Create Richer Storylines,” examines theories of narrative complexity and transmedia by scholars including Henry Jenkins, Derek Johnson, and Jason Mittell to then propose a new typology of extensions to accommodate the lived reality expressed by producers of transmedia. Because her interviews with artists and writers emphasize the co-constitutive nature of economic and narrative considerations in professionals’ decisions, Bourdaa’s typology can offer researchers a tool to clarify the marketing and narrative layers of transmedia extensions. As such, her classification system further illuminates what is particular about forms of corporate transmedia with a profit orientation, which may not be shared by non-profit, collective, and independently produced transmedia projects.Likewise, Radha O’Meara and Alex Bevan map existing scholarship on transmedia to point out the limitations of deriving theory only from certain forms of storytelling. In their article “Transmedia Theory’s Author Discourse and Its Limitations,” O’Meara and Bevan argue that scholars have preferred to focus on examples of transmedia with a strong central author-figure or that they may indeed help to rhetorically shore up the coherency of transmedia authorship through writing about transmedia creators as auteurs. Tying their critique to the established weaknesses of auteur theory associated with classic commentaries like Roland Barthes’ “Death of the Author” and Foucault’s “What is an Author?”, O’Meara and Bevan explain that this focus on transmedia creators as authority figures reinforces hierarchical, patriarchal understandings of the creative process and excludes from consideration all those unauthorized transmedia extensions through which audiences frequently engage and make meaning from transmedia networks. They also emphasize the importance of constructing academic theories of transmedia authorship that can accommodate collaborative forms of hybrid amateur and professional authorship, as well as tolerate the ambiguities of “authorless” storyworlds that lack clear narrative boundaries. O’Meara and Bevan argue that such theories will help to break down gendered power hierarchies in Hollywood, which have long allowed individual men to “claim credit for the stories and for all the work that many people do across various sectors and industries.”Dan Hassler-Forest likewise considers existing theory and a corporate case study in his examination of analogue echoes within a modern transmedia serial structure by mapping the storyworld of Twin Peaks (1990). His article, “‘Two Birds with One Stone’: Transmedia Serialisation in Twin Peaks,” demonstrates the push-and-pull between two contemporary TV production strategies: first, the use of transmedia elements that draw viewers away from the TV screen toward other platforms, and second, the deployment of strategies that draw viewers back to the TV by incentivizing broadcast-era appointment viewing. Twin Peaks offers a particularly interesting example of the manner in which these strategies intertwine partly because it already offered viewers an analogue transmedia experience in the 1990s by splitting story elements between TV episodes and books. Unlike O’Meara and Bevan, who elucidate the growing prominence of transmedia auteurs who lend rhetorical coherence to dispersed narrative elements, Hassler-Forest argues that this older analogue transmedia network capitalized upon the dilution of authorial authority, due to the distance between TV and book versions, to negotiate tensions between the producers’ competing visions. Hassler-Forest also notes that the addition of digital soundtrack albums further complicates the serial nature of the story by using the iTunes and TV distribution schedules to incentivize repeated sequential consumption of each element, thus drawing modern viewers to the TV screen, then the computer screen, and then back again.Two articles offer a concrete test of these theoretical perspectives by utilizing ethnographic participant-observation and interviewing to examine how audiences actually navigate diffuse, dispersed storyworlds. For example, Céline Masoni’s article, “From Seriality to Transmediality: A Socio-narrative Approach of a Skilful and Literate Audience,” documents fans’ highly strategic participatory practices. From her observations of and interviews with fans, Masoni theorizes the types of media literacy and social as well as technological competencies cultivated through transmedia fan practices. Olivier Servais and Sarah Sepulchre’s article similarly describes a long-term ethnography of fan transmedia activity, including interviews with fans and participant-observation of the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) Game of Thrones Ascent (2013). Servais and Sepulchre find that most people in their interviews are not “committed” fans, but rather casual readers and viewers who follow transmedia extensions sporadically. By focusing on this group, they widen the existing research which often focuses on or assumes a committed audience like the skilful and literate fans discussed by Masoni.Servais and Sepulchre’s results suggest that these viewers may be less likely to seek out all transmedia extensions but readily accept and adapt unexpected elements, such as the media appearances of actors, to add to their serial experiences of the storyworld. In a parallel research protocol observing the Game of Thrones Ascent MMORPG, Servais and Sepulchre report that the most highly-skilled players exhibit few behaviours associated with immersion in the storyworld, but the majority of less-skilled players use their gameplay choices to increase immersion by, for example, choosing a player name that evokes the narrative. As a result, Servais and Sepulchre shed light upon the activities of transmedia audiences who are not necessarily deeply committed to the entire transmedia network, and yet who nonetheless make deliberate choices to collect their preferred narrative elements and increase their own immersion.Two contributors elucidate forms of transmedia that upset the common emphasis on storyworlds with film or TV as the core property or “mothership” (Scott). In her article “Transmedia Storyworlds, Literary Theory, Games,” Joyce Goggin maps the history of intersections between experimental literature and ludology. As a result, she questions the continuing dichotomy between narratology and ludology in game studies to argue for a more broadly transmedia strategy, in which the same storyworld may be simultaneously narrative and ludic. Such a theory can incorporate a great deal of what might otherwise be unproblematically treated as literature, opening up the book to interrogation as an inherently transmedial medium.L.J. Maher similarly examines the serial narrative structures that may take shape in a transmedia storyworld centred on music rather than film or TV. In her article “You Got Spirit, Kid: Transmedial Life-Writing Across Time and Space,” Maher charts the music, graphic novels, and fan interactions that comprise the Coheed and Cambria band storyworld. In particular, Maher emphasizes the importance of autobiography for Coheed and Cambria, which bridges between fictional and non-fictional narrative elements. This interplay remains undertheorized within transmedia scholarship, although a few have begun to explicate the use of transmedia life-writing in an activist context (Cati and Piredda; Van Luyn and Klaebe; Riggs). As a result, Maher widens the scope of existing transmedia theory by more thoroughly connecting fictional and autobiographical elements in the same storyworld and considering how serial transmedia storytelling structures may differ when the core component is music.The final three articles take a more experimental approach that actively challenges the existing boundaries of transmedia scholarship. Catherine Lord’s article, “Serial Nuns: Michelle Williams Gamaker’s The Fruit Is There to Be Eaten as Serial and Trans-serial,” explores the unique storytelling structures of a cluster of independent films that traverse time, space, medium, and gender. Although not a traditional transmedia project, since the network includes a novel and film adaptations and extensions by different directors as well as real-world locations and histories, Lord challenges transmedia theorists to imagine storyworlds that include popular history, independent production, and spatial performances and practices. Lord argues that the main character’s trans identity provides an embodied and theoretical pivot within the storyworld, which invites audiences to accept a position of radical mobility where all fixed expectations about the separation between categories of flora and fauna, centre and periphery, the present and the past, as well as authorized and unauthorized extensions, dissolve.In his article “Non-Fiction Transmedia: Seriality and Forensics in Media Sport,” Markus Stauff extends the concept of serial transmedia storyworlds to sport, focusing on an audience-centred perspective. For the most part, transmedia has been theorized with fictional storyworlds as the prototypical examples. A growing number of scholars, including Arnau Gifreu-Castells and Siobhan O'Flynn, enrich our understanding of transmedia storytelling by exploring non-fiction examples, but these are commonly restricted to the documentary genre (Freeman; Gifreu-Castells, Misek, and Verbruggen; Karlsen; Kerrigan and Velikovsky). Very few scholars comment on the transmedia nature of sport coverage and fandom, and when they do so it is often within the framework of transmedia news coverage (Gambarato, Alzamora, and Tárcia; McClearen; Waysdorf). Stauff’s article thus provides a welcome addition to the existing scholarship in this field by theorizing how sport fans construct a user-centred serial transmedia storyworld by piecing together narrative elements across media sources, embodied experiences, and the serialized ritual of sport seasons. In doing so, he points toward ways in which non-fiction transmedia may significantly differ from fictional storyworlds, but he also enriches our understanding of an audience-centred perspective on the construction of transmedia serial narratives.In his artistic practice, Robert Lawrence may most profoundly stretch the existing parameters of transmedia theory. Lawrence’s article, “Locate, Combine, Contradict, Iterate: Serial Strategies for PostInternet Art,” details his decades-long interrogation of transmedia seriality through performative and participatory forms of art that bridge digital space, studio space, and public space. While theatre and fine arts have often been considered through the theoretical lens of intermediality (Bennett, Boenisch, Kattenbelt, Vandsoe), the nexus of transmedia, seriality, and narrative enables Lawrence to describe the complex, interconnected web of planned and unplanned extensions of his hybrid digital and physical installations, which often last for decades and incorporate a global scope. Lawrence thus takes the strategies of engagement that are perhaps more familiar to transmedia theorists from corporate viral marketing campaigns and turns them toward civic ends (Anyiwo, Bourdaa, Hardy, Hassler-Forest, Scolari, Sokolova, Stork). As such, Lawrence’s artistic practice challenges theorists of transmedia and intermedia to consider the kinds of social and political “interventions” that artists and citizens can stage through the networked possibilities of transmedia expression and how the impact of such projects can be amplified through serial repetition.Together, the whole collection opens new pathways for transmedia scholarship, more deeply explores how transmedia narration complicates understandings of seriality, and constructs an international, interdisciplinary dialogue that brings often isolated conversations into contact. In particular, this issue enriches the existing scholarship on independent, artistic, and non-fiction transmedia, while also proposing some important limitations, exceptions, and critiques to existing scholarship featuring corporate transmedia projects with a commercial, top-down structure and a strong auteur-like creator. These diverse case studies and perspectives enable us to understand more inclusively the structures and social functions of transmedia in the pre-digital age, to theorize more robustly how audiences experience transmedia in the current era of experimentation, and to imagine more broadly a complex future for transmedia seriality wherein professionals, artists, and amateurs all engage in an iterative, inclusive process of creative and civic storytelling, transcending artificial borders imposed by discipline, nationalism, capitalism, and medium.ReferencesAnyiwo, U. Melissa. "It’s Not Television, It’s Transmedia Storytelling: Marketing the ‘Real’World of True Blood." True Blood: Investigating Vampires and Southern Gothic. Ed. Brigid Cherry. New York: IB Tauris, 2012. 157-71.Barthes, Roland. "The Death of the Author." Image, Music, Text. Trans. Stephen Heath. Basingstoke: Macmillian, 1988. 142-48.Bennett, Jill. "Aesthetics of Intermediality." Art History 30.3 (2007): 432-450.Boenisch, Peter M. "Aesthetic Art to Aisthetic Act: Theatre, Media, Intermedial Performance." (2006): 103-116.Bourdaa, Melanie. "This Is Not Marketing. This Is HBO: Branding HBO with Transmedia Storytelling." Networking Knowledge: Journal of the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network 7.1 (2014).Cati, Alice, and Maria Francesca Piredda. "Among Drowned Lives: Digital Archives and Migrant Memories in the Age of Transmediality." a/b: Auto/Biography Studies 32.3 (2017): 628-637.Flanagan, Martin, Andrew Livingstone, and Mike McKenny. The Marvel Studios Phenomenon: Inside a Transmedia Universe. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.Foucault, Michel. "Authorship: What Is an Author?" Screen 20.1 (1979): 13-34.Freeman, Matthew. "Small Change – Big Difference: Tracking the Transmediality of Red Nose Day." VIEW Journal of European Television History and Culture 5.10 (2016): 87-96.Gambarato, Renira Rampazzo, Geane C. Alzamora, and Lorena Peret Teixeira Tárcia. "2016 Rio Summer Olympics and the Transmedia Journalism of Planned Events." Exploring Transmedia Journalism in the Digital Age. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2018. 126-146.Gifreu-Castells, Arnau. "Mapping Trends in Interactive Non-fiction through the Lenses of Interactive Documentary." International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling. Berlin: Springer, 2014.Gifreu-Castells, Arnau, Richard Misek, and Erwin Verbruggen. "Transgressing the Non-fiction Transmedia Narrative." VIEW Journal of European Television History and Culture 5.10 (2016): 1-3.Hadas, Leora. "Authorship and Authenticity in the Transmedia Brand: The Case of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD." Networking Knowledge: Journal of the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network 7.1 (2014).Hardy, Jonathan. "Mapping Commercial Intertextuality: HBO’s True Blood." Convergence 17.1 (2011): 7-17.Hassler-Forest, Dan. "Skimmers, Dippers, and Divers: Campfire’s Steve Coulson on Transmedia Marketing and Audience Participation." Participations 13.1 (2016): 682-692.Jenkins, Henry. “Transmedia 202: Further Reflections.” Confessions of an Aca-Fan. 31 July 2011. <http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2011/08/defining_transmedia_further_re.html>. ———. “Transmedia Storytelling 101.” Confessions of an Aca-Fan. 21 Mar. 2007. <http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2007/03/transmedia_storytelling_101.html>. ———. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press, 2006.Johnson, Derek. Media Franchising: Creative License and Collaboration in the Culture Industries. New York: New York UP, 2013.Karlsen, Joakim. "Aligning Participation with Authorship: Independent Transmedia Documentary Production in Norway." VIEW Journal of European Television History and Culture 5.10 (2016): 40-51.Kattenbelt, Chiel. "Theatre as the Art of the Performer and the Stage of Intermediality." Intermediality in Theatre and Performance 2 (2006): 29-39.Kerrigan, Susan, and J. T. Velikovsky. "Examining Documentary Transmedia Narratives through The Living History of Fort Scratchley Project." Convergence 22.3 (2016): 250-268.Van Luyn, Ariella, and Helen Klaebe. "Making Stories Matter: Using Participatory New Media Storytelling and Evaluation to Serve Marginalized and Regional Communities." Creative Communities: Regional Inclusion and the Arts. Intellect Press, 2015. 157-173.McClearen, Jennifer. "‘We Are All Fighters’: The Transmedia Marketing of Difference in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)." International Journal of Communication 11 (2017): 18.Mittell, Jason. "Playing for Plot in the Lost and Portal Franchises." Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture 6.1 (2012): 5-13.O'Flynn, Siobhan. "Documentary's Metamorphic Form: Webdoc, Interactive, Transmedia, Participatory and Beyond." Studies in Documentary Film 6.2 (2012): 141-157.Riggs, Nicholas A. "Leaving Cancerland: Following Bud at the End of Life." Storytelling, Self, Society 10.1 (2014): 78-92.Ryan, Marie-Laure. “Transmedial Storytelling and Transfictionality.” Poetics Today, 34.3 (2013): 361-388. <https://doi.org/10.1215/03335372-2325250>.Scolari, Carlos Alberto. "Transmedia Storytelling: Implicit Consumers, Narrative Worlds, and Branding in Contemporary Media Production." International Journal of Communication 3 (2009).Scott, Suzanne. “Who’s Steering the Mothership: The Role of the Fanboy Auteur in Transmedia Storytelling.” The Participatory Cultures Handbook. Eds. Aaron Delwiche and Jennifer Henderson. New York: Routledge, 2013. 43-53.Sokolova, Natalia. "Co-opting Transmedia Consumers: User Content as Entertainment or ‘Free Labour’? The Cases of STALKER. and Metro 2033." Europe-Asia Studies 64.8 (2012): 1565-1583.Stork, Matthias. "The Cultural Economics of Performance Space: Negotiating Fan, Labor, and Marketing Practice in Glee's Transmedia Geography." Transformative Works & Cultures 15 (2014).Waysdorf, Abby. "My Football Fandoms, Performance, and Place." Transformative Works & Cultures 18 (2015).Vandsoe, Anette. "Listening to the World. Sound, Media and Intermediality in Contemporary Sound Art." SoundEffects – An Interdisciplinary Journal of Sound and Sound Experience 1.1 (2011): 67-81.

The copyrighting of digital augmentations (our data-flesh), their privatization and ownership by others from a vast distance that is simultaneously instantly telematically surmountable started simply enough. It was the initially innocuous corporatization of language and semiotics that started the deeper ontological flip, which placed the posthuman bits and parts over the posthuman that thought that it was running things. The posthumans in question, myself included, didn't help things much when, for instance, we all clicked an unthinking or unconcerned "yes" to Facebook® or Gmail®'s "terms and conditions of use" policies that gives them the real ownership and final say over those data based augments of sociality, speech, and memory. Today there is growing popular concern (or at least acknowledgement) over the surveillance of these augmentations by government, especially after the Edward Snowden NSA leaks. The same holds true for the dataveillance of data-flesh (i.e. Gmail® or Facebook® accounts) by private corporations for reasons of profit and/or at the behest of governments for reasons of "national security." While drawing a picture of this (bodily) state, of the intrusion through language of brands into our being and their coterminous policing of intelligible and iterative body boundaries and extensions, I want to address the next step in copyrighted augmentation, one that is current practice in professional sport, and part of the bourgeoning "anti-aging" industry, with rewriting of cellular structure and hormonal levels, for a price, on the open market. What I want to problematize is the contradiction between the rhetorical moralizing against upgrading the analogue-flesh, especially with respect to celebrity sports stars like Lance Armstrong and Alex Rodriquez, all the while the "anti-aging" industry does the same without censor. Indeed, it does so within the context of the contradictory social messaging and norms that our data-flesh and electric augmentations receive to constantly upgrade. I pose the question of the contradiction between the messages given to our analogue-flesh and data-flesh in order to examine the specific site of commentary on professional sports stars and their practices, but also to point to the ethical gap that exists not just for (legal) performance enhancing drugs (PED), but also to show the link to privatized and copyrighted genomic testing, the dataveillance of this information, and subsequent augmentations that may be undertaken because of the results. Copyrighted Language and Semiotics as Gateway Drug The corporatization of language and semiotics came about with an intrusion of exclusively held signs from the capitalist economy into language. This makes sense if one want to make surplus value greater: stamp a name onto something, especially a base commodity like a food product, and build up the name of that stamp, however one will, so that that name has perceived value in and of itself, and then charge as much as one can for it. Such is the story of the lack of real correlation between the price of Starbucks Coffee® and coffee as a commodity, set by Starbucks® on the basis of the cultural worth of the symbols and signs associated with it, rather than by what they pay for the labor and production costs prior to its branding. But what happens to these legally protected stamps once they start acting as more than just a sign and referent to a subsection of a specific commodity or thing? Once the stamp has worth and a life that is socially determined? What happens when these stamps get verbed, adjectived, and nouned? Naomi Klein, in the book that the New York Times referred to as a "movement bible" for the anti-globalization forces of the late 1990s said "logos, by the force of ubiquity, have become the closest thing we have to an international language, recognized and understood in many more places than English" (xxxvi). But there is an inherent built-in tension of copyrighted language and semiotics that illustrates the coterminous problems with data- and analogue-flesh augments. "We have almost two centuries' worth of brand-name history under our collective belt, coalescing to create a sort of global pop-cultural Morse code. But there is just one catch: while we may all have the code implanted in our brains, we're not really allowed to use it" (Klein 176). Companies want their "brands to be the air you breathe in - but don't dare exhale" or otherwise try to engage in a two-way dialogue that alters the intended meaning (Klein 182). Private signs power first-world and BRIC capitalism, language, and bodies. I do not have a coffee in the morning; I have Starbucks®. I do not speak on a cellular phone; I speak iPhone®. I am not using my computer right now; I am writing MacBook Air®. I do not look something up, search it, or research it; I Google® it. Klein was writing before the everyday uptake of sophisticated miniaturized and mobile computing and communication devices. With the digitalization of our senses and electronic limbs this viral invasion of language became material, effecting both our data- and analogue-flesh. The trajectory? First we used it; then we wore it as culturally and socially demarcating clothing; and finally we no longer used copyrighted speech terms: it became an always-present augmentation, an adjective to the lexicon body of language, and thereby out of democratic semiotic control. Today Twitter® is our (140 character limited) medium of speech. Skype® is our sense of sight, the way we have "real" face-to-face communication. Yelp® has extended our sense of taste and smell through restaurant reviews. The iPhone® is our sense of hearing. And OkCupid® and/or Grindr® and other sites and apps have become the skin of our sexual organs (and the site where they first meet). Today, love at first sight happens through .jpeg extensions; our first sexual experience ranked on a scale of risk determined by the type of video feed file format used: was it "protected" enough to stop its "spread"? In this sense the corporatization of language and semiotics acted as the gateway drug to corporatized digital-flesh; from use of something that is external to us to an augmentation that is part of us and indeed may be in excess of us or any notion of a singular liberal subject.Replacement of Analogue-Flesh? Arguably, this could be viewed as the coming to be of the full replacement of the fleshy analogue body by what are, or started as digital augmentations. Is this what Marshall McLuhan meant when he spoke of the "electronic exteriorization of the central nervous system" through the growing complexity of our "electric extensions"? McLuhan's work that spoke of the "global village" enabled by new technologies is usually read as a euphoric celebration of the utopic possibilities of interconnectivity. What these misreadings overlook is the darker side of his thought, where the "cultural probe" picks up the warning signals of the change to come, so that a Christian inspired project, a cultural Noah’s Ark, can be created to save the past from the future to come (Coupland). Jean Baudrillard, Paul Virilio, and Guy Debord have analyzed this replacement of the real and the changes to the relations between people—one I am arguing is branded/restricted—by offering us the terms simulacrum (Baudrillard), substitution (Virilio), and spectacle (Debord). The commonality which links Baudrillard and Virilio, but not Debord, is that the former two do not explicitly situate their critique as being within the loss of the real that they then describe. Baudrillard expresses that he can have a 'cool detachment' from his subject (Forget Foucault/Forget Baudrillard), while Virilio's is a Catholic moralist's cry lamenting the disappearance of the heterogeneous experiential dimensions in transit along the various axes of space and time. What differentiates Debord is that he had no qualms positioning his own person and his text, The Society of the Spectacle (SotS), as within its own subject matter - a critique that is limited, and acknowledged as such, by the blindness of its own inescapable horizon.This Revolt Will Be Copyrighted Yet today the analogue - at the least - performs a revolt in or possibly in excess of the spectacle that seeks its containment. How and at what site is the revolt by the analogue-flesh most viewable? Ironically, in the actions of celebrity professional sports stars and the Celebrity Class in general. Today it revolts against copyrighted data-flesh with copyrighted analogue-flesh. This is even the case when the specific site of contestation is (at least the illusion of) immortality, where the runaway digital always felt it held the trump card. A regimen of Human Growth Hormone (HGH) and other PEDs purports to do the same thing, if not better, at the cellular level, than the endless youth paraded in the unaging photo employed by the Facebook or Grindr Bodies®. But with the everyday use and popularization of drugs and enhancement supplements like HGH and related PEDs there is something more fundamental at play than the economic juggernaut that is the Body Beautiful; more than fleshy jealousy of Photoshopped® electronic skins. This drug use represents the logical extension of the ethics that drive our tech-wired lives. We are told daily to upgrade: our sexual organs (OkCupid® or Grindr®) for a better, more accurate match; our memory (Google® services) for largeness and safe portability; and our hearing and sight (iPhone® or Skype®) for increase connectivity, engaging the "real" (that we have lost). These upgrades are controlled and copyrighted, but that which grows the economy is an especially favored moral act in an age of austerity. Why should it be surprising, then, that with the economic backing of key players of Google®—kingpin of the global for-profit dataveillance racket—that for $99.95 23andMe® will send one a home DNA test kit, which once returned will be analyzed for genetic issues, with a personalized web-interface, including "featured links." Analogue-flesh fights back with willing copyrighted dataveillance of its genetic code. The test and the personalized results allow for augmentations of the Angelina Jolie type: private testing for genetic markers, a double mastectomy provided by private healthcare, followed by copyrighted replacement flesh. This is where we find the biopolitics of data- and analogue-flesh, lead forth, in an ironic turn, by the Celebrity Class, whom depend for their income on the lives of their posthuman bodies. This is a complete reversal of the course Debord charts out for them: The celebrity, the spectacular representation of a living human being, embodies this banality by embodying the image of a possible role. Being a star means specializing in the seemingly lived; the star is the object of identification with the shallow seeming life that has to compensate for the fragmented productive specializations which are actually lived. (SotS) While the electronic global village was to have left the flesh-and-blood as waste, today there is resistance by the analogue from where we would least expect it - attempts to catch up and replant itself as ontologically prior to the digital through legal medical supplementation; to make the posthuman the posthuman. We find the Celebrity Class at the forefront of the resistance, of making our posthuman bodies as controlled augmentations of a posthuman. But there is a definite contradiction as well, specifically in the press coverage of professional sports. The axiomatic ethical and moral sentiment of our age to always upgrade data-flesh and analogue-flesh is contradicted in professional sports by the recent suspensions of Lance Armstrong and Alex Rodriguez and the political and pundit critical commentary on their actions. Nancy Reagan to the Curbside: An Argument for Lance Armstrong and Alex Rodriguez's "Just Say Yes to Drugs" Campaign Probably to the complete shock of most of my family, friends, students, and former lovers who may be reading this, I actually follow sports reporting with great detail and have done so for years. That I never speak of any sports in my everyday interactions, haven't played a team or individual sport since I could speak (and thereby use my voice to inform my parents that I was refusing to participate), and even decline amateur or minor league play, like throwing a ball of any kind at a family BBQ, leaves me to, like Judith Butler, "give an account of oneself." And this accounting for my sports addiction is not incidental or insignificant with respect either to how the posthuman present can move from a state of posthumanism to one of posthumanism, nor my specific interpellation into (and excess) in either of those worlds. Recognizing that I will not overcome my addiction without admitting my problem, this paper is thus a first-step public acknowledgement: I have been seeing "Dr. C" for a period of three years, and together, through weekly appointments, we have been working through this issue of mine. (Now for the sake of avoiding the cycle of lying that often accompanies addiction I should probably add that Dr. C is a chiropractor who I see for back and nerve damage issues, and the talk therapy portion, a safe space to deal with the sports addiction, was an organic outgrowth of the original therapy structure). My data-flesh that had me wired in and sitting all the time had done havoc to the analogue-flesh. My copyrighted augments were demanding that I do something to remedy a situation where I was unable to be sitting and wired in all the time. Part of the treatment involved the insertion of many acupuncture needles in various parts of my body, and then having an electric current run through them for a sustained period of time. Ironically, as it was the wired augmentations that demanded this, due to my immobility at this time - one doesn't move with acupuncture needles deep within the body - I was forced away from my devices and into unmediated conversation with Dr. C about sports, celebrity sports stars, and the recent (argued) infractions by Armstrong and Rodriguez. Now I say "argued" because in the first place are what A-Rod and Armstrong did, or are accused of doing, the use of PEDs, HGH, and all the rest (cf. Lupica; Thompson, and Vinton) really a crime? Are they on their way, or are there real threats of jail and criminal prosecution? And in the most important sense, and despite all the rhetoric, are they really going against prevailing social norms with respect to medical enhancement? No, no, and no. What is peculiar about the "witch-hunt" of A-Rod and Armstrong - their words - is that we are undertaking it in the first place, while high-end boutique medical clinics (and internet pharmacies) offer the same treatment for analogue-flesh. Fixes for the human in posthuman; ways of keeping the human up to speed; arguably the moral equivalent, if done so with free will, of upgrading the software for ones iOS device. If the critiques of Baudrillard and Virilio are right, we seem to find nothing wrong with crippling our physical bodies and social skills by living through computers and telematic technologies, and obsess over the next upgrade that will make us (more) faster and quicker (than the other or others), while we righteously deny the same process to the flesh for those who, in Debord's description, are the most complicit in the spectacle, to the supposedly most posthuman of us - those that have become pure spectacle (Debord), pure simulation (Baudrillard), a total substitution (Virilio). But it seems that celebrities, and sports celebrities in specific haven't gone along for the ride of never-ending play of their own signifiers at the expense of doing away with the real; they were not, in Debord's words, content with "specializing in the seemingly lived"; they wanted, conversely, to specialize in the most maximally lived flesh, right down to cellular regeneration towards genetic youth, which is the strongest claim in favor of taking HGH. It looks like they were prepared to, in the case of Armstrong, engage in the "most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen" in the name of the flesh (BBC). But a doping program that can, for the most part, be legally obtained as treatment, and in the same city as A-Rod plays in and is now suspended for his "crimes" to boot (NY Vitality). This total incongruence between what is desired, sought, and obtained legally by members of their socioeconomic class, and many classes below as well, and is a direct outgrowth of the moral and ethical axiomatic of the day is why A-Rod and Armstrong are so bemused, indignant, and angry, if not in a state of outright denial that they did anything that was wrong, even while they admit, explicitly, that yes, they did what they are accused of doing: taking the drugs. Perhaps another way is needed to look at the unprecedentedly "harsh" and "long" sentences of punishment handed out to A-Rod and Armstrong. The posthuman governing bodies of the sports of the society of the spectacle in question realize that their spectacle machines are being pushed back at. A real threat because it goes with the grain of where the rest of us, or those that can buy in at the moment, are going. And this is where the talk therapy for my sports addiction with Dr. C falls into the story. I realized that the electrified needles were telling me that I too should put the posthuman back in control of my damaged flesh; engage in a (medically copyrighted) piece of performance philosophy and offset some of the areas of possible risk that through restricted techne 23andMe® had (arguably) found. Dr. C and I were peeved with A-Rod and Armstrong not for what they did, but what they didn't tell us. We wanted better details than half-baked admissions of moral culpability. We wanted exact details on what they'd done to keep up to their digital-flesh. Their media bodies were cultural probes, full in view, while their flesh bodies, priceless lab rats, are hidden from view (and likely to remain so due to ongoing litigation). These were, after all, big money cover-ups of (likely) the peak of posthuman science, and the lab results are now hidden behind an army of sports federations lawyers, and agents (and A-Rod's own army since he still plays); posthuman progress covered up by posthuman rules, sages, and agents of manipulation. Massive posthuman economies of spectacle, simulation, or substitution of the real putting as much force as they can bare on resurgent posthuman flesh - a celebrity flesh those economies, posthuman economies, want to see as utterly passive like Debord, but whose actions are showing unexpected posthuman alignment with the flesh. Why are the centers of posthumanist power concerned? Because once one sees that A-Rod and Armstrong did it, once one sees that others are doing the same legally without a fuss being made, then one can see that one can do the same; make flesh-and-blood keep up, or regrow and become more organically youthful, while OkCupid® or Grindr® data-flesh gets stuck with the now lagging Photoshopped® touchups. Which just adds to my desire to get "pumped up"; add a little of A-Rod and Armstrong's concoction to my own routine; and one of a long list of reasons to throw Nancy Reagan under the bus: to "just say yes to drugs." A desire that is tempered by the recognition that the current limits of intelligibility and iteration of subjects, the work of defining the bodies that matter that is now set by copyrighted language and copyrighted electric extensions is only being challenged within this society of the spectacle by an act that may give a feeling of unease for cause. This is because it is copyrighted genetic testing and its dataveillance and manipulation through copyrighted medical technology - the various branded PEDs, HGH treatments, and their providers - that is the tool through which the flesh enacts this biopolitical "rebellion."References Baudrillard, Jean. Forget Foucault/Forget Baudrillard. Trans Nicole Dufresne. Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2007. ————. Simulations. Trans. Paul Foss, Paul Patton and Philip Beitchman. Cambridge: Semiotext(e), 1983. BBC. "Lance Armstong: Usada Report Labels Him 'a Serial Cheat.'" BBC Online 11 Oct. 2012. 1 Dec. 2013 ‹http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/19903716›. Butler, Judith. Giving an Account of Oneself. New York: Fordham University Press, 2005. Clark, Taylor. Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce, and Culture. New York: Back Bay, 2008. Coupland, Douglas. Marshall McLuhan. Toronto: Penguin Books, 2009. Debord, Guy. Society of the Spectacle. Detroit: Black & Red: 1977. Klein, Naomi. 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