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2. 'Walls of Words': Paperscape in Charles Dickens’s Novels
- Author
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Céline PREST
- Subjects
paper ,public inscriptions ,city ,architecture ,map ,networks ,English language ,PE1-3729 ,Social sciences (General) ,H1-99 - Abstract
The walls of Dickens’s city are covered in posters, bills, signs and inscriptions, resulting in the disappearance of those very walls behind the accumulation of messages. Simultaneously, these words go beyond the space allotted to them, erecting walls of words in the public space, constantly modifying the cityscape. This new urban landscape became possible with the lifting of paper taxes and the technological evolutions of the nineteenth century. This change initiates a new urban experience: walls now directly address the city dweller who is perpetually asked to decipher disparate messages. The reader follows David Copperfield, Pip and Oliver Twist as they read the writing on the wall, sometimes their only guide in the city. This writing transforms London into a gigantic map on which the characters move. This textual world is reproduced in the pages of the novels and influences the reader’s act of reading, in that he is now asked to adopt a non-linear, non-sequential—and urban—mode of reading. Over this Dickensian paperscape looms the threat of illegibility. This overabundance of words and paper has developed into its own demise: if walls are covered in words, words can in turn acquire the solidity and opacity of walls. Paper appears less the medium for words than the shroud of meaning.Following the lead of Asa Briggs and his book Victorian Things which analyses the commodity culture of Victorian England, this article aims at showing the ambivalence of the Dickensian text towards the material presence of the written sign: while paper in its multiple forms is invested with a negative—even evil—power, it also proves to be the very organising principle of the narrative and the cityscape. Our corpus will consist of a selection of novels—Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Little Dorrit and Our Mutual Friend—and five essays with “Bill-Sticking,” “Our Watering Place,” “Out of Town,” “Travelling Abroad” and “Some Recollections of Mortality,” in an effort to show the author’s concern for the materiality of the written sign from the very beginning of his career until the very end.
- Published
- 2016
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3. A meta-analytic review of measurement equivalence study findings of the SF-36® and SF-12® Health Surveys across electronic modes compared to paper administration
- Author
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Avery A. Rizio, Michelle K. White, Stephen Maher, and Jakob B. Bjorner
- Subjects
PRO ,Male ,Paper ,SF-36 ,English language ,Equivalence ,Article ,ePRO ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,Statistics ,Electronic ,Humans ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Patient Reported Outcome Measures ,Equivalence (measure theory) ,Language ,Measurement ,Patient-reported outcomes ,030503 health policy & services ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,Moderation ,Health Surveys ,Meta-analysis ,Search terms ,Research studies ,Quality of Life ,Health survey ,Female ,0305 other medical science ,Psychology ,Software - Abstract
Purpose Patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures originally developed for paper administration are increasingly being administered electronically in clinical trials and other health research studies. Three published meta-analyses of measurement equivalence among paper and electronic modes aggregated findings across hundreds of PROs, but there has not been a similar meta-analysis that addresses a single PRO, partly because there are not enough published measurement equivalence studies using the same PRO. Because the SF-36(R) Health Survey (SF-36) is a widely used PRO, the aim of this study was to conduct a meta-analysis of measurement equivalence studies of this survey. Methods A literature search of several medical databases used search terms for variations of “SF-36” or “SF-12” and “equivalence” in the title or abstract of English language publications. The eight scale scores and two summary measures of the SF-36 and SF-12 were transformed to norm-based scores (NBS) using developer guidelines. A threshold of within ± 2 NBS points was set as the margin of equivalence. Comprehensive meta-analysis software was used. Results Twenty-five studies were included in the meta-analysis. Results indicated that mean differences across domains and summary scores ranged from 0.01 to 0.39 while estimates of agreement ranged from 0.76 to 0.91, all well within the equivalence threshold. Moderator analyses showed that time between administration, survey language, and type of electronic device did not influence equivalence. Conclusions The results of the meta-analysis support equivalence of paper-based and electronic versions of the SF-36 and SF-12 across a variety of disease populations, countries, and electronic modes.
- Published
- 2018
4. Word and object.
- Author
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J. C.
- Subjects
- *
ENGLISH language , *BOOK reviewing , *LITERATURE , *CULTURE , *PAPER - Abstract
The article reports that English is a language with a mechanics of clarity refined over centuries. Topics include examines the Guardian Review and the Saturday supplement devoted to literature (primarily) and culture generally existed as an inset in the main paper before being launched as a freestanding weekly with its own identity in July 2002.
- Published
- 2020
5. The Bandwagon.
- Subjects
HOUSING ,CONFERENCES & conventions ,ASSOCIATIONS, institutions, etc. ,ENGLISH language ,LABOR ,PAPER - Abstract
Presents information on several socio-political issues in the U.S. Failure to find the solution of housing problems after the World War II at a conference. Information on the renewal notice from the Curtis Publishing Co.; Objectives of the Fourth Filipino Inter-Community convention that took place in New City Hall; Existence of English-speaking, adaptable and intelligent workers in the small towns of Georgia; Concern shown by the Philadelphia Orchestra Association on the shortage of paper during wartime.
- Published
- 1944
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