How End-of-Life Blogs Re-Affirm the “Power to be Oneself”

Powerlessness generally denotes loss of control and may be experienced among those with a terminal diagnosis and, as such, empowerment is a dominant discourse in end-of-life policy in the western Anglo-Saxon world. This paper analyzes thematically blogs authored by three people with a terminal diagnosis to examine the “power to be oneself,” a concept which was identified in the “Ethics of Powerlessness” project conducted in the UK. The analysis demonstrates that the bloggers assert the “power to be themselves” which is expressed in three principal ways. Firstly, through assertion of agency to promote self-affirmation and control. Secondly, through claiming a “moral authority” expressed by providing advice not just on illness and death but also on how life should be lived. Thirdly, through discussing ideas about the future and creating a legacy. The blogs are a mechanism used to express and reinforce self-identity and to carve out a “sacred space” between life and death to nurture personal change and to project this onto a public arena. This analysis demonstrates the key role patient empowerment plays in constructing an identity with a terminal diagnosis, an element that is often overlooked in end-of-life policy.

Employees’ Relational Work on Social Media

Given how social media are commonly used in contemporary Nordic countries, social media platforms are emerging as crucial for relational work between employers, employees, and potential employees. By means of a discursive psychology approach, this study investigates employers’ constructs of relational work on social media through the use of two interpretative repertoires: the repertoire of loss of control and the repertoire of ever-presence. The consequences of these interpretative repertoires are a masking of power relations, especially between employers and young employees in precarious labor market positions and those with limited digital knowledge or financial means. Further, the positioning of social media as part of a private sphere of life means the invasion of not only employees’, but also managers’ private time and persona. The result of this study hence calls for the need to understand relational work on social media as part of normative managerial work.

The Anti-Value Concept of Cowardice in Humorous Discourse of Anglo-Saxon Linguistic Culture

The article introduced the anti-value concept of cowardice in the humorous discourse of Anglo-Saxon linguistic culture. This concept is one of the main anti-values of modern Anglo-Saxon linguistic culture; however, it received very little scientific attention. Based on cognitive and axiological analyses, the author identified and analyzed the main characteristics of cowardice in humorous discourse. The analysis involved 50 episodes of stand-up specials and 500 episodes of various sitcoms. The key features of the anti-value concept of cowardice included fear, the level of danger, and the importance of overcoming danger. Other important characteristics of cowardice included immoral actions, avoiding danger, inaction, loss of control over one’s bodily functions, and unreasonable behavior. The fear of death / injury / social disapproval proved to be the main reasons for cowardice. The author also analyzed the gender aspect of the concept. Cowardice appeared to be a typical male feature because humor is often derived from breaking the gender stereotype "a man is stronger / braver than a woman".

Playing out the unspeakable: the rhetorics of trauma in The Day the Laughter Stopped digital game

The article undertakes a detailed analysis of The Day the Laughter Stopped – a simple text-based browser game about rape, told from the perspective of a young teenage girl. While seemingly straightforward, the game uses choice poetics to build expectations of agency on the side of the player, only to subvert them at the most climactic moment, provoking emotional responses and serving as a commentary on the experience of loss of control and loss of words in the face of a traumatic event. Following existing approaches to rhetorical, emotion-evoking qualities and capabilities of digital games, the article explores the potential of the digital medium to communicate the unspeakable, overwhelming dimension of trauma, as illustrated by the game. The analysis not only explores the medium-specific means of expression which the game utilizes to encourage the audience to explore the perspective of a rape victim in an engaging way, but also leads to the conclusion that in doing so, the game aims to make persuasive statements about the social and cultural discourse around rape trauma and its representations, and therefore contributes to the larger socio-cultural discourse. As such, the article aspires to add to pre-existing studies on the specific rhetorical means of digital fiction, as well as on the approaches to cultural renditions of trauma.

A Cognitive Stylistic Analysis of Catharsis Used by Husseini Preachers

This study deals with catharsis as a cognitive stylistic device used to expel fear and anxiety for the sake of changing the audience toward better by preachers in Husseini discourse – Hussein is a grand Shiite Muslim leader. It aims to explicate the exploitation of catharsis by Husseini preachers and the conceptualization of such phenomenon by the audience. The study adapts the emotion model developed by Kovecses (2000); five stages are utilized: cause of the emotion, emotion, control, loss of control, and behavioral response. Twenty Husseini sermons are analyzed according to the stages of the model. Consequently, the study has come up with considerable conclusions. Chief among them are: Husseini preachers pragmatically use prosodic features to convey catharsis. A further conclusion is that catharsis is utilized by Husseini preachers as a strategy to teach the audience all the objectives of the Husseini revolution and to connect the objectives to this age for the sake of reform, using the fear that can modulate the human behavior.

The third-century ‘crisis’ (c. AD 250–70)

London’s port was abandoned in the mid-third century and its waterfront quays dismantled in changes that cast important new light on the problems of the third century. This chapter sets out the detail of the redundancy of London’s port and reviews arguments that might explain it. It does so by establishing a chronology that suggests that the port ceased to function effectively c. AD 255, and that the waterfront was crudely refashioned into a bank at some point in the 260s. This redundancy followed a rapid decline in the volume of goods being traded over longer-distances, and is argued to have been the consequence of a revised policy with regard to annona. The Thames may also have ceased to be tidal at this time, contributing to the redundancy of the port but not explaining the speed of its dereliction and destruction. Further light obtains from a study of the failure and abandonment of sites associated with Wealden iron production. An explanation is proposed: involving a loss of military manpower and naval capacity, possibly provoked by the epidemic of the 250s known as the plague of Cyprian and compounded by military failure and barbarian threat. Rome’s loss of control over its coastal waters and rising Frankish piracy at the time of the Gallic Empire might explain why ships ceased to dock at London’s quays, which were dismantled to defend the riverside.

ANALYSIS OF GENERAL AVIATION FIXED-WING AIRCRAFT ACCIDENTS INVOLVING INFLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL USING A STATE-BASED APPROACH

Inflight loss of control (LOC-I) is a significant cause of General Aviation (GA) fixed-wing aircraft accidents. The United States National Transportation Safety Board’s database provides a rich source of accident data, but conventional analyses of the database yield limited insights to LOC-I. We investigate the causes of 5,726 LOC-I fixed‑wing GA aircraft accidents in the United States in 1999–2008 and 2009–2017 using a state-based modeling approach. The multi-year analysis helps discern changes in causation trends over the last two decades. Our analysis highlights LOC-I causes such as pilot actions and mechanical issues that were not discernible in previous research efforts. The logic rules in the state-based approach help infer missing information from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident reports. We inferred that 4.84% (1999–2008) and 7.46% (2009–2017) of LOC-I accidents involved a preflight hazardous aircraft condition. We also inferred that 20.11% (1999–2008) and 19.59% (2009–2017) of LOC-I accidents happened because the aircraft hit an object or terrain. By removing redundant coding and identifying when codes are missing, the state-based approach potentially provides a more consistent way of coding accidents compared to the current coding system.

Попытка смены поколений партийно-советской номенклатуры… как инструмент преодоления кризиса Коммунистической Партии Украины (1985–1991 гг.)

The article aims at an in-depth analysis of the Communist Party of Ukraine crisis at the time of Perestroika (1985-1991). The consequences of the crisis are mass resignations, formation of fractions and platforms, regionalization and decentralization of party structures. Furthermore, the crisis contributes to continuing fall in authority of CPSU in general and of CPU in particular limiting its access to real levers of influence upon the transformational processes; the loss of control over the course of reforms; the growth of spontaneity, chaos and uncontrollability in the development of society. In order to overcome the crisis, the Communist Party makes an attempt at a generational change in the Soviet party nomenclature, which is supposed to significantly rejuvenate the political elite of the USSR and the Ukrainian SSR. However, the authors of the article, having analyzed archival documents, prove that in the Ukrainian SSR, a generational change does not take place, and the young cadres who come to power have no real influence. An attempt to change generations in the country's political elite fails and becomes the cause of internal political conflict.