Combination Adjuvant Platform for Human and Animal Vaccines

Combination Adjuvant Platform for Human and Animal Vaccines A novel combination adjuvant platform for human and animal vaccines   Ravendra Garg, Sylvia van Drunen Littel-van den Hurk Volker and Gerdts Abstract Adjuvants are critical component of vaccines. They are being used to enhance and extend the overall immune response, to drive the response towards a specific type of immunity, and to reduce the need for multiple booster immunizations. Here we report the development of a combination adjuvant platform consisting of three immune stimulators, namely host defence peptides, polyphosphazenes and PolyI:C/CpG ODN. The adjuvant platform was co-formulated with a variety of human and animal vaccines and tested in mice, pigs, sheep, koalas, and fish. When co-formulated with a wide range of viral and bacterial antigens including Bordetella pertussis, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), Chlamydia trachomatis and influenza antigens, a single immunization induced 100-1,000 fold stronger humoral immune responses (IgG, IgG1, IgG2a), a much earlier onset of immunity, a clear shift towards a more balanced or Th-1 type of response and extended duration of immunity of up to two years in some cases. The vacc ines were highly effective in neonates of less than 7 days of age and provided complete protection against a lethal challenge with B. pertussis or RSV. Furthermore, the polyphosphazenes in this combination allow the assembly of microparticles that when lyophilized were stable for several months. Intranasal immunization with these microparticles induced strong mucosal immune response in the upper respiratory tract. Moreover, the adjuvant platform was highly effective in the presence of maternal antibodies. In summary, we developed a novel vaccine platform for neonates, which provided more balanced, long lasting and fully protective immune responses in neonates after a single vaccination only. Introduction Vaccine provides huge public health benefits for reducing the burden of infectious diseases. Live vaccines generate effective immune responses but have been associated with a number of safety concerns, including improper attenuation and reverting back to virulence.   Nonliving vaccine antigens i.e. whole, inactivated viruses and specifically recombinant or highly purified subunit vaccines are often weakly immunogenic and need adjuvants to enhance the immunogenicity of vaccine based on antibodies and effector T cell functions to prevent infection. Adjuvants are critical components of vaccines, usually used to stimulate faster, stronger, and long-lasting immune responses to vaccines. It has various roles in vaccine formulations i.e. enhance immune responses to vaccine antigens, provide faster onset of immunity, improving immune responses to immunization in infant or elderly populations, whose immune system are immature or waning, dose sparing, either reducing the quantity of antigen required in the vaccine preparation or reducing the immunization schedule (Coffman, Sher et al. 2010). Adjuvants are absolutely required in subunit vaccines due to the poor immunogenicity of such antigens. There is no single universal adjuvant which can cover all the vaccine requirements. Using single adjuvant has a number of limitations, including induction of weak, improper, and short lived immune responses. For example, alum and MF59 (Kenney and Edelman 2003) are the universally approved adjuvant for human vaccines. Both normally induce a Th2 biased immune responses but not cellular immune responses which required for immunity against intracellular infections. In many novel adjuvant technologies, using multiple adjuvants in combination often act synergistically by stimulating and activating a various type of immune cells. Combination of adjuvants platform is promising and beneficial for suboptimal vaccines and particularly advantageous for vaccines against specific and more susceptible populations, such as neonates and the older adults. In some aspects, the neonate immune system is similar to that of the elderly, both having diminished anti-microbial activity by immune cells, reduce d antigen uptake and presentation by antigen presenting cells and compromised adaptive immune responses (Simon, Hollander et al. 2015). Strong adjuvants may provide an approach to boost immune responses in the both neonates and elderly populations. Most of the studies have combined a delivery system with an immunostimulatory adjuvant, especially combinations with the TLR agonists and MPL. Combination adjuvants have only recently been vigorously explored. Some combinations have been tested in humans and large animals and have yielded promising results. Recently, we developed a novel combination adjuvant platform (TriAdj) which is highly effective with wide range of animal and human vaccine. Novel Combination adjuvant platform for animal vaccines: Veterinary vaccines have been used for several of years, and have an important role in protecting animal health, animal welfare, food production, and public health. They are a cost-effective method to prevent animal disease, improve the food production, greatly reducing the need for antibiotics to treat food and companion animals and reduce or prevent transmission of zoonotic disease to human. Interestingly, the challenges related with vaccinating animals are stability, low cost, ease of administration etc., require new solutions in vaccine development. Freund introduced a combination of mineral oils and bacterial cell components (Freunds complete adjuvant) for the improvement of vaccine immune responses (Freund et al., 1937). However, many nations are not using the Freunds adjuvant in animals due to its reactivity and side effects. Alum and emulsions based formulations have been successfully used since long time in a wide variety of animal vaccines. However, with an advanced underst anding of the immune system, many new adjuvants (Saponins, Liposomes, virosomes, particle based and TRL ligand) have recently been developed for veterinary applications. A wide range of adjuvants has been successfully used in commercial vaccines for animals and several new technologies are currently in preclinical development. Over the past decade, we have seen several new combination adjuvants, typically contain two and three individual adjuvant components, including MF59â„ ¢ (Novartis Inc.), ASâ„ ¢ (Glaxo Smith Kline Inc.), IC31â„ ¢ (Valneva Inc.) etc. We recently developed a novel combination adjuvant platform (TriAdj) that is contained of three components, namely toll-like receptor (TLR) agonist either PolyI:C or CpG ODN and an immunostimulatory host defense peptide (HDPs) in polyphosphazene carrier system (Kindrachuk, Jenssen et al. 2009; Garg, Latimer et al. 2013). Synthetic PolyI:C and CpG ODNs are well known potent adjuvant with various vaccine antigens and have been shown to enhance immune responses by activating monocytes/macrophages, dendritic cells, natural killer cells and B cells, and induce the production of proinflammatory cytokines   (Krieg 2002; Trumpfheller, Longhi et al. 2012). The second component, HDPs are derivatives of natural host defense peptides, which are cationic amp hipathic peptides with microbicidal, chemotactic and/or immunomodulatory properties (Yeung, Gellatly et al. 2011). HDPs are involved in a range of immune functions including immune cell recruitment (neutrophils, monocytes, macrophages, T cells and mast cells), innate immune activation, and wound healing (Jenssen, Hamill et al. 2006). The third component, polyphosphazenes are synthetic water-soluble biodegradable polymer with immunostimulatory properties, and forms non-covalent complexes with variety of viral and bacterial antigens and/or other adjuvants to enhance their stability, immunogenicity and allow multimeric presentation (Mutwiri, Benjamin et al. 2007; Andrianov, DeCollibus et al. 2009; Kovacs-Nolan, Latimer et al. 2009; Awate, Wilson et al. 2012). When vaccine antigens were co-formulated with this combination, we found much faster onset of immunity, highly effective even after a single immunization and significantly long lasting, robust, protective immune responses against variety of animal pathogens including bovine viral diarrhea virus, bovine respiratory syncytial virus and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus. The combination adjuvant is stable, cost effective and highly effective in a variety of animals including pigs, sheep, cattle, koalas, cotton rats and mice (Polewicz, Gracia et al. 2011; Khan, Waugh et al. 2014; Snider, Garg et al. 2014; Garg, Latimer et al. 2015). For example, formulation of E2 protein of bovine viral diarrhea virus with TriAdj resulted in strong humoral and cell mediated immune responses, leading to significant protection following pathogen challenge of calves (Snider, Garg et al. 2014). Fusion protein of bovine respiratory syncytial virus co-formulated with TriAdj developed significantly higher antibod ies and interferon gamma secretion (Kovacs-Nolan, Mapletoft et al. 2009). Similarly, formulation of S1 domain of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, and outer membrane protein of chlamydial major   with TriAdj enhanced humoral and cell mediated immune response in pig and koalas respectively (Khan, Waugh et al. 2014; Makadiya, Brownlie et al. 2016). Novel Combination adjuvant platform for human vaccines: Several combination adjuvants consisting of a variety of immunomodulators such as Immune stimulating complexes (ISCOMs), montanides, nanoemulsions, and Adjuvant Systems have been developed in recent years and are currently being tested with human vaccines in preclinical and clinical trials. The novel adjuvant platform, TriAdj was co-formulated with various human vaccines and tested in mice, pigs, sheep, koalas, and fish. This adjuvant platform is highly effective against a variety of infectious diseases. TriAdj was shown to promote the induction of strong immune responses to various viral and bacterial antigens in multiple animals. For instance, TriAdj in combination with fusion protein of human respiratory syncytial virus (hRSV), mediated the induction of robust, balanced and long-term protective immunity by stimulating long-lived neutralizing antibodies, memory B and CD8+ T cells against hRSV (Garg, Latimer et al. 2013; Garg, Latimer et al. 2014). In addition, mucosal vaccination with TriAdj formulated antigen induced both systemic and local immunity in neonates, even in the face of maternal antibodies (Garg, Latimer et al. 2015). Similarly, when TriAdj was used with pertussis toxoid of Bordetella pertussis, strong and protective immune responses were found in both mice and pigs against lethal infection with B. pertussis (Gracia, Polewicz et al. 2011; Polewicz, Gracia et al. 2011). Furthermore, the vaccine formulated with TriAdj induced a prompt onset, longer duration than existing commercial vaccines and effective after a single vaccination even in the presence of maternal antibodies. (Polewicz, Gracia et al. 2013). TriAdj platform was also formulated with influenza virus antigens or chlamydia antigens, which induces strong immune responses in vaccinated animals (Kindrachuk, Jenssen et al. 2009; Shim, Ko et al. 2010). The combination of adjuvants was also shown to be suitable for maternal immunization. Vaccination of pregnant animals with TriAdj formulated human vaccines resulted in efficient transfer of maternal antibodies and protection from subsequent challenge of the offspring (Elahi, Buchanan et al. 2006; Garg, Latimer et al. 2016). These results indicate that maternal immunization with TriAdj formulated antigens might be an alternative, safe and effective approach to provide protection against pathogens in newborn and young infants. Furthermore, the adjuvant platform can be formulated into microspheres (100 nm to 2 ÃŽ ¼m) to enhance the mucosal and syt emic immune response following intranasal vaccination (Garlapati, Garg et al. 2012). The TriAdj is expected to have multiple applications for the development of vaccines against multiple respiratory pathogens and possibly other infectious agents. Mechanisms of action of novel Combination adjuvant platform: A number of mechanisms of action were identified for this novel combination adjuvant. For example, TriAdj as a mucosal adjuvant increased antigen uptake by dendritic cells, improved dendritic cell maturation, and more efficient transported to local draining lymph nodes to present the antigen to T cells   (Garg, Latimer et al. 2013). TriAdj with antigens promoted the production of chemokines, cytokines and inflammatory cytokines, followed by recruitment and activation of several immune cell populations including dendritic cells, macrophages and neutrophils to the upper and lower respiratory tract, that leads to strong and long-term   protective immune responses of this novel adjuvant formulation (Sarkar, Garg et al. 2016). This was further correlated to the induction of local humoral and cell-mediated immune responses, including production of large numbers of IgA secreting memory B cells as well as effective memory CD8+ T cells. TriAdj also promoted increased germinal centre react ions and effective B cell activation and development in the lungs following mucosal immunization (Garg, Theaker et al. 2016). References   Andrianov, A. K., D. P. DeCollibus, et al. (2009). Poly[di(carboxylatophenoxy)phosphazene] is a potent adjuvant for intradermal immunization. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106(45): 18936-18941. Awate, S., H. L. Wilson, et al. (2012). Activation of adjuvant core response genes by the novel adjuvant PCEP. Molecular immunology 51(3-4): 292-303. Coffman, R. L., A. Sher, et al. (2010). Vaccine adjuvants: putting innate immunity to work. Immunity 33(4): 492-503. Elahi, S., R. M. Buchanan, et al. (2006). Maternal immunity provides protection against pertussis in newborn piglets. Infect Immun 74(5): 2619-2627. Garg, R., L. Latimer, et al. (2014). Vaccination with the RSV fusion protein formulated with a combination adjuvant induces long-lasting protective immunity. J Gen Virol 95(Pt 5): 1043-1054. Garg, R., L. Latimer, et al. (2015). The respiratory syncytial virus fusion protein formulated with a novel combination adjuvant induces balanced immune responses in lambs with maternal antibodies. Vaccine. Garg, R., L. Latimer, et al. (2013). Induction of mucosal immunity and protection by intranasal immunisation with a novel respiratory syncytial virus vaccine formulation. The Journal of general virology. Garg, R., L. Latimer, et al. (2016). Maternal immunization with respiratory syncytial virus fusion protein formulated with a novel combination adjuvant provides protection from RSV in newborn lambs. Vaccine 34(2): 261-269. Garg, R., M. Theaker, et al. (2016). A single intranasal immunization with a subunit vaccine formulation induces higher mucosal IgA production than live respiratory syncytial virus. Virology 499: 288-297. Garlapati, S., R. Garg, et al. (2012). Enhanced immune responses and protection by vaccination with respiratory syncytial virus fusion protein formulated with CpG oligodeoxynucleotide and innate defense regulator peptide in polyphosphazene microparticles. Vaccine 30(35): 5206-5214. Gracia, A., M. Polewicz, et al. (2011). Antibody responses in adult and neonatal BALB/c mice to immunization with novel Bordetella pertussis vaccine formulations. Vaccine 29(8): 1595-1604. Jenssen, H., P. Hamill, et al. (2006). Peptide antimicrobial agents. Clinical microbiology reviews 19(3): 491-511. Kenney, R. T. and R. Edelman (2003). Survey of human-use adjuvants. Expert review of vaccines 2(2): 167-188. Khan, S. A., C. Waugh, et al. (2014). Vaccination of koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) with a recombinant chlamydial major outer membrane protein adjuvanted with poly I:C, a host defense peptide and polyphosphazine, elicits strong and long lasting cellular and humoral immune responses. Vaccine 32(44): 5781-5786. Kindrachuk, J., H. Jenssen, et al. (2009). A novel vaccine adjuvant comprised of a synthetic innate defence regulator peptide and CpG oligonucleotide links innate and adaptive immunity. Vaccine 27(34): 4662-4671. Kovacs-Nolan, J., L. Latimer, et al. (2009). The novel adjuvant combination of CpG ODN, indolicidin and polyphosphazene induces potent antibody- and cell-mediated immune responses in mice. Vaccine 27(14): 2055-2064. Kovacs-Nolan, J., J. W. Mapletoft, et al. (2009). Formulation of bovine respiratory syncytial virus fusion protein with CpG oligodeoxynucleotide, cationic host defence peptide and polyphosphazene enhances humoral and cellular responses and induces a protective type 1 immune response in mice. The Journal of general virology 90(Pt 8): 1892-1905. Krieg, A. M. (2002). CpG motifs in bacterial DNA and their immune effects. Annu Rev Immunol 20: 709-760. Makadiya, N., R. Brownlie, et al. (2016). S1 domain of the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus spike protein as a vaccine antigen. Virol J 13: 57. Mutwiri, G., P. Benjamin, et al. (2007). Poly[di(sodium carboxylatoethylphenoxy)phosphazene] (PCEP) is a potent enhancer of mixed Th1/Th2 immune responses in mice immunized with influenza virus antigens. Vaccine 25(7): 1204-1213. Polewicz, M., A. Gracia, et al. (2011). Influence of maternal antibodies on active pertussis toxoid immunization of neonatal mice and piglets. Vaccine 29(44): 7718-7726. Polewicz, M., A. Gracia, et al. (2013). Novel vaccine formulations against pertussis offer earlier onset of immunity and provide protection in the presence of maternal antibodies. Vaccine 31(31): 3148-3155. Sarkar, I., R. Garg, et al. (2016). Formulation of the respiratory syncytial virus fusion protein with a polymer-based combination adjuvant promotes transient and local innate immune responses and leads to improved adaptive immunity. Vaccine 34(42): 5114-5124. Shim, D. H., H. J. Ko, et al. (2010). Efficacy of poly[di(sodium carboxylatophenoxy)phosphazene] (PCPP) as mucosal adjuvant to induce protective immunity against respiratory pathogens. Vaccine 28(11): 2311-2317. Simon, A. K., G. A. Hollander, et al. (2015). Evolution of the immune system in humans from infancy to old age. Proc Biol Sci 282(1821): 20143085. Snider, M., R. Garg, et al. (2014). The bovine viral diarrhea virus E2 protein formulated with a novel adjuvant induces strong, balanced immune responses and provides protection from viral challenge in cattle. 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The Child Protection Process

The Child Protection Process The following are the skills needed in order to work with parents and with the family as a whole: ability to work in partnership with parents; ability to be honest and open even when the information you have to share is unpleasant or painful; ability to communicate with adults; ability to negotiate; ability to provide counselling, warmth, empathy, understanding; ability to tolerate peoples pain and anger; ability to work effectively with groups. Two skills will be explained further. Starting with the ability to provide empathic understanding, this relies on the ability of the worker to imagine what the service user may be experiencing, relating it to his/hers experience. Empathy also draws on the ability of the worker to be an active listener. As for the ability to be honest, it is known that some parents are not always honest with social workers, particularly when there are issues of abuse (Department of Health, 1991a; Reder et al; 1993), but it is important for social workers to honest in all dealings with parents. Sometimes this is difficult particularly when sharing difficult decisions with the parents, such as the decision to hold a child protection conference. The process of child protection work is set out in the Working Together guidance (HM Government, 2006a), which is to be followed in conjunction with the Assessment Framework and any local procedures and protocols. Under s47 of the Children Act 1989, local authorities have a duty to make enquiries when there is reason to believe that a child is suffering or is likely to suffer, significant harm In the case of Bethany where a section 47 enquiry is being considered, a strategy meeting should be held immediately, involving social workers, police, and any other relevant personnel such as referring professionals or when necessary those with medical or legal expertise. Apart from sharing information, the principle focus of the strategy meeting is on planning. This might include coordinating with the enquiry with any criminal investigation, dealing with any immediate issues of safety, deciding what information may be shared with parents and whether any medical examination are required. When a childs name is placed on the child protection register, the conference will appoint a lead professional (usually a local authority social worker) and a core group, comprising family members and relevant professionals who have the responsibility for developing and implementing the child protection plan. This plan will be reviewed at further conferences, initially within three months and six months thereafter. Depending on the degree of risk reduction, these subsequent meetings may decide to remove the childs name from the register. Research on core groups has identified challenges very similar to those facing conferences, especially in ensuring meaningful participation (Harlow and Shardlow, 2006.) From their study of a hundred and twenty conferences, Farmer and Owen (1995) argued that the dominant focus was on assessing risk, with minimal time devoted to planning and little subsequent reappraisal. They expressed concern that plans often failed to offer therapeutic help to children or to address the needs of parents (including women subjected to domestic violence). More recent research has suggested that, although practical and therapeutic services are generally appreciated by parents, they are often not forthcoming (CSCI, 2006). In this respect, Scourfield and Welsh (2003) argue that child protection work is dominated by a neo-liberal emphasis on monitoring and exhorting parents to change or face losing their children. Despite these difficulties, and re-abuse rates of 25-30%, studies in 1990s found that in roughly two thirds of cases, childrens wellbeing improved while on the child protection register (DH, 1995). Failures of communication and co-ordination between professionals have been a recurring theme in child maltreatment scandals, but eliminating them has proved a daunting challenge. One major concern has been to strike a balance between spreading responsibility for child protection as widely as possible while ensuring there are clear lines of accountability. For example, there have been moves to make child protection everyones business (Scottish Executive,2002; HM Government,2006b). In England and Wales, s11 of theChildren Act 2004 and s175 of the Education Act 2002 created a general duty for a range of public bodies to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Working Together (HM Government, 2006a: 39-73) sets out various requirements for organisations to nominate key professionals to co-ordinate child protection work at their particular level (Murphy,2004), while the Children Act 2004, s12, creates a duty on professionals to notify any cause for concern to the information-sharing index. Training, especially on an inter-professional basis, has also been recognised as crucial to facilitating communication and co-ordination (Glennie,2007). Yet, despite the many positive developments in relation to co-ordination, the challenges remain significant (Murphy,2004). Different professional roles and training generate particular ways of seeing in respect of assessment and these are likely to be reinforced by agency cultures (Birchall and Hallett,1995). In practice, this often means different thresholds for assessing significant harm and consequent tensions when these views are not shared by others (Stanley et al;2003). Duties to co-operate have co-existed with increasing pressures on individual professionals and agencies and unsurprisingly, it has often proved difficult to engage those for whom child protection is not regarded as part of their core business (Francis et al; 2006). Responsibilities have thus tended to remain with social workers, with some evidence that other professionals may seek to avoid involvement in child protection work (Harlow and Shardlow, 2006). Inter-professional relationships are also affected by issu es of power and status and may be based on generalised or even stereotypical views of others. In relation to communication, there are two related challenges to be faced. The first is that confidentiality, which has both interpersonal and professional dimensions. Thus, individual practitioners must address issues of confidentiality in light of their relationship with service users, but professional cultures and agency rules will also shape what information must (not) be kept confidential. A second, broader challenge is to decide from the massive volume of information gleaned which items are to be exchanged, with whom, and in what form, something that ultimately relies on professional judgement but is also influenced by inter personal processes (Reder and Duncan, 2003). Finally, it should be recognised that all the above challenges can be exacerbated by staff turnover and by agency reorganisations. Reflecting the growing concern not only that resources were directed more to child protection services than to preventive and support services but also that there were weaknesses at strategic and operational levels about how professionals jointly supported children and their families, the government established requirements for inter-agency collaboration in the 2004 Children Act. Under sections 10 and 11 of this Act, the Director of Childrens Services is accountable for collaborative partnerships across agencies involved with the wellbeing of children to assist professionals to coordinate services focused on prevention and early intervention and, where appropriate, to plan and develop joint services. In March 2007, the government published a review of family policy resulting from an extensive consultation with providers of services, young people and parents to lay the foundation for government spending over a three-year cycle from 2008 (HM Treasury and DFES, 2007). As part of the Every Child Matters agenda, the government is aiming to address the imbalance in the allocation of resources between prevention services and protection services and also to develop a more effective multidisciplinary framework of professional skills to enhance the effectiveness of prevention services. Two broad aims are to develop the resilience of children to adverse factors in their family and social circumstances and also to address the needs of families caught in a cycle of low attainment. The goal is to increase the provision of preventive services but where necessary to require resistant families to use the services by setting consequences for parents through forms of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders and Parenting Orders. The intention is to enable local authorities to use additional funding flexibly to develop services provided either directly by the local authority or through multidisciplinary settings such as extended school services or childrens centres for younger children. The policy review commissioned four areas of sub-review: developing preventive approaches, children and families at risk through low attainment; needs of disabled children; needs of young people. These policy aims will inform not only funding streams to local authorities, child health and education but also expectations about workforce skills developments (www.hm-treasury.gov.uk) Families say that they value the social worker who helps them find their solutions to family problems. This approach takes into account service users anxieties about sharing family information with professionals and harnesses the familys strengths to build self-confidence and more sustained solutions. The whole family approach, family focused and child centred is central to working with children and their families in a multi-agency setting. Social workers bring a broad knowledge and skills base and are able to move beyond functions into solutions. They need to influence those other agencies surrounding the child to adopt a more collaborative strength-based approach. An approach that respects the family but does not condone the behaviour towards the child or the childs behaviour is likely to enable the family to respond to early intervention and to take up services offered rather than being driven to use the services by compulsion. However, social workers cannot at times avoid compulsion, through either a child protection plan or court proceedings. Families need to know what sanctions may follow if there are serious concerns about a child that they do not address. Communication about options and consequences from the outset of intervention is central to good practice. Such clear communication is also needed for other agencies that may be involved. Families and children should not need to repeatedly share with professionals from different settings the difficulties they are experiencing. A key skill social workers bring to their practice is the capacity to understand the issues from the familys standpoint. Social workers need to take into account the impact of poverty, social marginalisation, discrimination and poor health on parenting capacity and childrens development. Social workers are the bridge to enabling other professionals to acknowledge the need for services and their responsibility to provide suitable services. Clear communication is a prerequisite to establishing good partnerships with children, the family and the professionals involved. Work needs to be planned around time to listen, time to reflect and time to establish relationships with the child and the parents at a pace that works for them. Communication means not only using language that families understand, so that terms familiar to professionals are properly explained and examples given, it also means establishing in what way they wish to share information. This principle needs to be embedded in the practice of all the professionals delivering services to the families. Some families may wish to use an appropriately skilled interpreter. Some may want to share with the social worker the task of making written records or completing assessment forms. Other families may feel unable to say that written records disenfranchise them because of limited literacy skills. Services plans should be transparent and should clearly set out which agencies are involved, what is being provided, for how long and what are the consequences of not using the services. Plans need to be reviewed regularly and families need to know who has responsibility in multi-agency plans to deal with disagreement, to account for lapses in service provision and to ensure that reviews are held. For families the governments proposals under the Every Child Matters agenda create the possibility of improvements in accessing services across agencies. However, joint planning and commissioning will only be effective if parents, families and children are consulted about what services are useful to them. Services delivered through extended schools and childrens centres need to be innovative and harness the skills of the third sector to deliver not only universal services but also services for children with additional and specialist needs. Social workers and their managers are well placed to drive forward more effective ways of working directly with families: the risk is that processes designed to ensure accountability will create unnecessary barriers for skilled professionals who want to work alongside families to support them to find solutions. in 2000, the New Labour government published the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and Their Families (DH et al; 2000). The Framework was to be applied to all assessments under the Children Act 1989, whether for children in need (s17) or where significant harm was suspected (s47). The Assessment Framework (DH et al; 2000:10-16) sets out the following key principles: Assessments should be child centred, rooted in child development; ecological in their approach; ensure equality of opportunity; involve working with children and families; build on strengths as well as identify difficulties; are inter-agency in their approach to assessment and the provision of services; are a continuing process, not a single event; are carried out in parallel with other action and providing services; are grounded in evidence-based knowledge. Any assessment of a child and his family which aims to understand what is happening to a child has to take account of a childs developmental needs, the parenting capacity to respond to those needs, and the wider family and environmental factors. Together these form three systems whose interactions have direct impact on the current and long term wellbeing of a child. The Assessment Framework represents a way of trying to capture the complexity of a childs world and beginning to construct a coherent approach to collecting and analysing information about each child. The Framework should be rooted in understandings of child development. Contemporary thinking about childrens needs has evolved over several decades and reflects a mixture of theoretical influences and evidence derived from research studies.Taylor (2004) identifies the following needs: basic physical care, affection, security, stimulation, guidance, control and discipline, responsibility, independence. As assessment has become increasingly rationalised, it has become more common to adopt a balance sheet approach, often couched in terms of risk factors i.e. the increased probability of a particular (negative) outcome and protective factors that decrease its likelihood. An important factor behind the increasing interest in parenting has been a focus on the impact of mental health problems, substance misuse and domestic violence on parents and, in turn, children. Research in the 1990s suggested that these played an important role in many child welfare cases, especially when present in combination, but that they were neither well understood nor addressed in practice (Cleaver et al; 1999). They are relevant in two main ways. First, background knowledge of the impact is an important factor in decision making and second, there may be particular implications for the process of assessment and how it is managed. While each of these areas has distinctive characteristics, there are also common treads. One is that assessment demands a careful balancing act to avoid over or under reaction.Thus, despite heightened risk to childrens welfare, it is important to recognise that those suffering from mental health and other problems do not necessarily make poor parent s, and that the majority of their children grow up without major ill-effects (Cleaver, 2002). An adult who violently assaults another adult in the home is, in fact, also abusing children who may see, hear or be aware of that violence. Hughes, 1992, found that in 90 per cent of cases of domestic violence, children were in the same or the next room. This indirect abuse, is a form of emotional abuse, and actually one of the more severe forms. (Bearing in mind that emotional abuse and neglect are closely related, we might also see it as neglect of the childs needs.) Children are exposed to feelings of terror, grief, impotence, and to the realisation that adults on whom they may rely for safety, security and protection are either, incapable of protecting even themselves, or, capable of dangerous violence towards those they are supposed to protect (Kelly, 1994:44). Since the implementation of the Adoption and Children Act in December 2005, the Children Act 1989 definition of significant harm has expressly included impairment suffered from seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of anot her. A crucial element of the Framework was to emphasise the interconnectedness of the three domains, drawing on the ecological theory of Bronfenbrenner (1979). In essence, Bronfenbrenner construes the factors influencing the childs development as a series of four concentric circles, which he refers to as systems ranging from the childs immediate environment to the broadest social context. The microsystem describes any setting where the child is an active participant, typically the family, school, peer group or immediate neighbourhood. The mesosystem comprises relationships between microsystems, for example between home and school. Finally, the macrosystem comprises the broader social environment in which children and families live, including cultural values, customs, economy and laws. Arguably the most influential theoretical framework within assessment and child social care more broadly is that based on attachment. Originally derived from the work of Bowlby (1953), attachment theory emphasises the importance of relationships between children and parental figures, especially mothers. Bowlby was particularly concerned with the negative consequences of lost or poor attachment which led to maternal deprivation. Subsequently, his work attracted criticism for its gendered assumptions and ethnocentricity, but having fallen out of fashion, attachment theory was rediscovered during the 1990s (Thoburn, 1999) and its importance was made explicit in the Assessment Framework. Fahlberg (1994) has defined attachment as an affectionate bond between two individuals that endures through space and time and serves to join them emotionally. She argues that the development of attachment occurs through a cycle of arousal and relaxation, wherein the child becomes aroused through needs such as food or comfort, but relaxes once these needs are met by the attachment figure. Repetition of the cycle develops trust and a sense of security for the child. Fahlberg also points to a positive interaction cycle, where play and humour make interaction enjoyable and mutually rewarding and attachment is strengthened. The longer-term importance of attachment is that it should provide children with a secure base from which to explore the social world and give them an internal working model for relationships based on trust. Although open to change through later experiences, these models exert a strong and often enduring influence over the lives of children and adults (Howe,2001). Needless to say, such processes do not always follow this path and, while a complete absence of attachment is rare, insecure attachment may affect up to half of the population (Howe,2001). Building on Ainsworth et als (1978) work, insecure attachments are customarily divided into three categories: anxious avoidant (detached), anxious resistant (ambivalent) and disorganised/controlling. Each is associated with specific attachment behaviours, such as the reaction to separation, and wider patterns of behaviour. Howe (2003) argues that attachment behaviours reflect how children make sense of adults both emotionally and cognitively and are typically adaptive responses to their care environment. Within assessment, therefore, attachment behaviours can give important insights into childrens well-being and development, while the theory may help to explain the factors that lie behind them and to gauge the potential for change. Understanding attachment is particularly pertinent when temporary or permanent removal of a child is being considered, both in terms of recognising the effects of removal and the importance of maintaining contact between children and birth family members including siblings (Sanders,2004). Information on attachment can be gleaned from interviews, direct work with children, from other professionals and perhaps most importantly observation, but as Howe (2003) warns, assessing attachments is a complex task that requires experience and cautious handling. Explanatory accounts of child maltreatment have emanated from all the major schools of psychology. Their primary focus rests with individual perpetrators, but to a greater or lesser extent they also address ideas of intergenerational transmission, examining the ways in which the childhood victims of maltreatment may become perpetrators as adults. Although they enjoy little support, there are also pre-psychological theories rooted in biology and ideas of instinct (Corby, 2005:156-158). Psychodynamic perspectives (broadly derived from Freudian psychology) emphasise developmental stages and the formation of personality as these stages are negotiated (Mc Cluskey and Hooper, 2000). In relation to child maltreatment, attention has focused on how a parents own childhood may influence their capacity to recognise and meet childrens needs, whether they have acquired a rigid personality, become easily frustrated or have difficulty in controlling aggression. This is evident in the case of Bethany where behaviour appears at first sight to be neglectful or abusive but seems in fact to be the result of genuine ignorance about the needs of a child or the role of a parent. Some adults may have lacked appropriate role models while growing up; some are very isolated and have little access to sources of advice. When there seems to be a lack of knowledge or of parenting skills, an appropriate form of intervention is education: the provision of advice, information, instruction or role models. Social learning theory focuses on how behaviour is learned through processes of observation, conditioning and reinforcement. In line with the theory, intervention would focus on identifying these patterns and seeking to modify them through behavioural therapy, perhaps by working on avoiding triggers for maltreatment or reinforcing appropriate parental responses. Throughout her childhood, Bethany witnessed violence hence repeating the same behaviour as an adult. A basic feature of anti discriminatory practice is the ability to see that discrimination and oppression are so often central to the situations social workers encounter. The fact that social work service users are predominantly from disadvantaged groups is unlikely to be seen as a key issue. However, what anti discriminatory practice teaches us is that discrimination and oppression are vitally important matters and, if we are not attuned to recognising and challenging discrimination, we run the risk of, at best condoning it and, at worst exacerbating and amplifying it through our own action. Overarching both the 1989 and the 2004 Children Act is the 1998 Human Rights Act which requires agencies with responsibilities for child health, education and welfare services to comply with the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights. Of particular relevance is Article 8, respect for private and family life. This Article does not give an absolute guarantee to family life and therefore to services to support a family to bring up their children. It is a qualified right, and the State and its agencies have to balance the childs entitlement to grow up cared for by their family, who may need support services to do so, against the duty to protect the child and, where necessary following a fair and transparent process, to remove the child from the family. The duty on the Director of the Childrens Services to plan with other agencies to commission and provide support services to promote childrens wellbeing must comply with both international obligation and domestic law to ensure that service provision is non-discriminatory

Society’s Attitude Towards Under Privileged Children in the Novel Olive

Society’s Attitude Towards Under Privileged Children in the Novel Oliver Twist ‘Oliver Twist’ is one of Charles Dickens most enduringly popular novels. Best known for his host of distinctively cruel, comic and repugnant characters, Charles Dickens remains the most widely read of the Victorian novelists. ‘Oliver Twist’, a meek, mild young boy, is born in the workhouse and spends his early years there until, finding the audacity to ask for more food, â€Å"Please, sir, I want some more.† he is made to leave. Oliver represents the underprivileged children in this novel. Dickens shows us society’s attitude towards Oliver and the under privileged children, they were abused, beaten and â€Å"brought up by hand.† ‘Oliver Twist’ is a criticism of the workhouses, the judicial system and the criminal world of London society of the time. Dickens use of satire and descriptive style conveys the pain of the unfortunate to the reader. His narrative skills are loaded with biting sarcasm and irony making the novel a chilling revelation of the life of the orphans. Dickens was a lifelong champion of the poor. He himself suffered the harsh abuse visited upon the poor by the English legal system, as he himself was an orphan. In England in the 1830s, the poor had no voice, political or economically. In Oliver Twist, he presents the everyday existence of the lowest characters of English society. He goes far beyond the experiences of the workhouse, extending his depiction of poverty to London’s squalid streets, dark alehouses, and thieves’ dens, he gives voice to those who had no voice, showing us a link between politics and literature with his language techniques and social commentary. The novel is that of a young individual boy but t... ...y to make us visualize the19th century London. Characters such as Mr.Brownlow, Nancy, Ms. Rose, all give comfort to Oliver’s life but filthy characters such Fagin and Sikes never allow Oliver to be in peace. Dickens shows us how society can change the life of a person. The different classes of society all have good and bad. But in the end we know that good prevails over evil. The novel has made me realize that I can survive under any circumstances if I keep hope and keep praying like Oliver did, have more faith. The novel also inspires me as good prevails over evil and always will. The novel is also an eye opener for me as it teaches me to appreciate the comforts of my life as I have a home to live in, love from my parents, food to eat everyday and it teaches me to be more understanding and gentle towards younger people who are less fortunate than me.

History of Percussion Instruments Essay -- Music

History of Percussion Instruments There are few certainties about the percussion family. No one can say how many instruments it contains; few have agreed on playing techniques; and few could name one orchestral piece specifically written with percussion in mind. However, one thing is certain, percussion has been shown over time that it is not merely a matter of beating out rhythm (â€Å" History of Percussion† 1). The family of percussion instruments is the first musical instrumentation introduced to the world. To this date there are countless percussion instruments. Each group of instruments has a different ethnic origin and history in different societies. From the shallow drums of fourth century B. C. to the giant cot rattles of the fifteenth century, percussion instruments have had a unique history. Percussion instruments have had an extensive background on many factors of their sound, and playing style. All percussion instruments fall into two main categories, idiophones and membranophones. Idiophones produce their sound from vibrations without the use of a stretched membrane. This could include castanets, rattles, and mallet instruments. Membranophones are those that produce a sound from the vibrations of a stretched membrane. These include any type of drum hit with a stick. Both of these instruments are tunable in many different ways and forms; therefore, these instruments can be used as melodic instruments (â€Å" Percussion† 653). Basic idiophones (also refereed to as concussion instruments) are struck together. This includes clappers, cymbals, stones, and castanets. Percussive idiophones are hit by nonsonorous strikers. These types of instruments include gongs, triangles, and xylophones. Shaken idiophones were usually cups or shells that contained rattles or pellets, the shaking of the shells and cups produced a sound. There are many other idiophones including scraped, split, and plucked kinds. (â€Å"Percussion† 653). These certain instruments are very important in the percussive arts field. Membranophones are commonly referred to as just drums. They fall into many categories such as kettledrums, bowl shaped drums, tubular drums, friction drums, and mirlitons. Kettledrums and tubular drums are sometimes tunable drums that can be played with hands or beaters. Friction drums are rubbed togethe... ...drum became a major advantage. It was believed that the Muslims invented the kettledrums (â€Å"Percussion† 659). Around the dawn of the seventh century, the use of drumsticks became a vital role in playing drums in Asia (â€Å"Percussion† 658). China and Japan invented a thunder drum, which is a drum that resembles the sounds of rolling thunder. These drums were used during large ceremonies and were played by many men at once. Drums played a vital role in Chinese and Korean orchestras. Some orchestras were just percussion orchestras. Around the twelfth century the first friction drums were used in Spain and Western Europe. The history of percussion is very unique and impressive. The origins of different percussion instruments are interesting to the mind. Many other musical instruments have a long history but the history of percussion is very unparagoned and compelling. Today, percussion instruments are widely used in orchestras and symphonies around the world, these instruments of the past have taken many different forms. The future of percussion instruments holds new innovative musical ideas, and an increase for the music appreciation endeavor.

Gene Therapy Research :: Science Genetics Health Essays

Gene Therapy Research The National Institute of Health and the Food and Drug Administration are the government bodies responsible for the regulation of gene therapy experimentation. The NIH oversees gene therapy clinical trials through the NIH Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant DNA Molecules and the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC). The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also oversees the trials through such regulatory measures as scientific review, testing, and inspection.10 Following the death of Jesse Gelsinger, the Advisory Committee to the Working Group on NIH Oversight of Clinical Gene Therapy Research was established to examine the purpose and role of the NIH in gene therapy regulation. It made several recommendations, many of which were adopted by the NIH as amendments to its research guidelines.12 In March of 2000, two initiatives by the FDA and the NIH were announced by the Department of Health and Human Services to increase protection for individuals involved in gene therapy experiments. The first initiative, the Gene Therapy Clinical Trial Monitoring Plan, requires that the sponsors of gene therapy studies regularly submit their monitoring plans to the FDA for review. The FDA will also inspect clinical trials to insure that the plans are being followed, and any problems are managed. In addition, scientists experienced in gene therapy will be gathered to discuss monitoring practices at conferences of the inspectors. The second initiative, the Gene Transfer Safety Symposia, includes a series of symposia that take place four times a year to discuss gene therapy data, inviting some of the most experienced authorities in their respective fields. The NIH and FDA are also providing support for other organizations interested in holding safety conferences on the topic of g ene therapy.12 Proposed Review Process3 The guidelines of the NIH for gene therapy research have also changed since 2000. In one amendment to the guidelines governing gene transfer research, the NIH altered the way research subjects are enrolled for gene therapy experiments. Under the amendment, clinical trial protocols must be submitted to the NIH Office of Biotechnological Activities (OBA) for RAC review, and the RAC must finish its review before the local Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) gives its approval to the trial. Subjects for research can only be accepted once the IBC and the International Review Board, IRB, approve the trial.

The Vampire Diaries: The Struggle Chapter Fourteen

Bonnie shivered as she waited outside the tall Victorian house. The air was frosty this morning, and although it was almost eight o'clock the sun had never really come up. The sky was just one dense massed bank of gray and white clouds, creating an eerie twilight below. She had begun to stamp her feet and rub her hands together when the Forbes' door opened. Bonnie moved back a little behind the shrubbery that was her hiding place and watched the family walk to their car. Mr. Forbes was carrying nothing but a camera. Mrs. Forbes had a purse and a folding seat. Daniel Forbes, Caroline's younger brother, had another seat. And Caroline†¦ Bonnie leaned forward, her breath hissing out in satisfaction. Caroline was dressed in jeans and a heavy sweater, and she was carrying some sort of white drawstring purse. Not big but big enough to hold a small diary. â€Å"There she is, Aunt Judith. On the corner.† The car slowed to a halt, and Bonnie slid into the back seat with Elena. â€Å"She's got a white drawstring purse,† she murmured into Elena's ear as Aunt Judith pulled out again. Tingling excitement swept over Elena, and she squeezed Bonnie's hand. â€Å"Good,† she breathed. â€Å"Now we'll see if she brings it into Mrs. Grimesby's. If not, you tell Meredith it's in the car.† Bonnie nodded agreement and squeezed Elena's hand back. They arrived at Mrs. Grimesby's just in time to see Caroline going inside with a white bag hanging from her arm. Bonnie and Elena exchanged a look. Now it was up to Elena to see where Caroline left it in the house. â€Å"I'll get out here too, Miss Gilbert,† said Bonnie as Elena jumped out of the car. She would wait outside with Meredith until Elena could tell them where the bag was. The important thing was not to let Caroline suspect anything unusual. Mrs. Grimesby, who answered Elena's knock, was the Fell's Church librarian. Her house looked almost like a library itself; there were bookcases everywhere and books stacked on the floor. She was also the keeper of Fell's Church's historical artifacts, including clothing that had been preserved from the town's earliest days. Just now the house was ringing with young voices, and the bedrooms were full of students in various stages of undress. Mrs. Grimesby always supervised the costumes for the pageant. Elena was ready to ask to be put in the same room with Caroline, but it wasn't necessary. Mrs. Grimesby was already ushering her in. Caroline, stripped down to her fashionable underwear, gave Elena what was undoubtedly meant to be a nonchalant look, but Elena detected the vicious gloating beneath. She kept her own eyes on the bundle of clothing Mrs. Grimesby was picking up off the bed. â€Å"Here you are, Elena. One of our most nicely preserved pieces – and all authentic, too, even the ribbons. We believe this dress belonged to Honoria Fell.† â€Å"It's beautiful,† said Elena, as Mrs. Grimesby shook out the folds of thin white material. â€Å"What's it made of?† â€Å"Moravian muslin and silk gauze. Since it's quite cold today you can wear that velvet jacket over it.† The librarian indicated a dusty rose garment lying over a chair back. Elena cast a surreptitious glance at Caroline as she began to change. Yes, there was the bag, at Caroline's feet. She debated making a grab for it, but Mrs. Grimesby was still in the room. The muslin dress was very simple, its flowing material belted high under the bosom with a pale rose. â€Å"Did it really belong to Honoria Fell?† she asked, thinking of the marble image of that lady lying on her tomb in the ruined church. â€Å"That's the story, anyway,† said Mrs. Grimesby. â€Å"She mentions a dress like it in her journal, so we're pretty sure.† â€Å"She kept a journal?† Elena was startled. â€Å"Oh, yes. I have it in a case in the living room; I'll show it to you on the way out. Now for the jacket – oh, what's that?† Something violet fluttered to the ground as Elena picked the jacket up. She could feel her expression freeze. She caught up the note before Mrs. Grimesby could bend over, and glanced at it. One line. She remembered writing it in her diary on September 4, the first day of school. Except that after she had written it she had crossed it out. These words were not crossed out; they were bold and clear. Something awful is going to happen today. Elena could barely restrain herself from rounding on Caroline and shaking the note in her face. But that would ruin everything. She forced herself to stay calm as she crumpled up the little slip of paper and threw it into a wastebasket. â€Å"It's just a piece of trash,† she said, and turned back to Mrs. Grimesby, her shoulders stiff. Caroline said nothing, but Elena could feel those triumphant green eyes on her. Just you wait, she thought. Wait until I get that diary back. I'm going to burn it, and then you and I are going to have a talk. To Mrs. Grimesby she said, â€Å"I'm ready.† â€Å"So am I,† said Caroline in a demure voice. Elena put on a look of cool indifference as she eyed the other girl. Caroline's pale green gown with long green and white sashes was not nearly as pretty as hers. â€Å"Wonderful. You girls go ahead and wait for your rides. Oh, and Caroline, don't forget your reticule.† â€Å"I won't,† Caroline said, smiling, and she reached for the drawstring bag at her feet. It was fortunate that from that position she couldn't see Elena's face, for in that instant the cool indifference shattered completely. Elena stared, dumbfounded, as Caroline began to tie the bag at her waist. Her astonishment didn't escape Mrs. Grimesby. â€Å"That's a reticule, the ancestor of our modern handbag,† the older woman explained kindly. â€Å"Ladies used to keep their gloves and fans in them. Caroline came by. â€Å"I'm sure it was,† Elena managed in a strangled voice. She had to get out of here or something awful was going to happen right now. She was going to start screaming – or knock Caroline down – or explode. â€Å"I need some fresh air,† she said. She bolted from the room and from the house, bursting outside. Bonnie and Meredith were waiting in Meredith's car. Elena's heart thumped strangely as she walked to it and leaned in the window. â€Å"She's outsmarted us,† she said quietly. â€Å"That bag is part of her costume, and she's going to wear it all day.† Bonnie and Meredith stared, first at her and then at each other. â€Å"But†¦ then, what are we going to do?† Bonnie asked. â€Å"I don't know.† With sick dismay this realization finally came home to Elena. â€Å"I don't know!† â€Å"We can still watch her. Maybe she'll take the bag off at lunch or something†¦Ã¢â‚¬  But Meredith's voice rang hollow. They all knew the truth, Elena thought, and the truth was that it was hopeless. They'd lost. Bonnie glanced in the rearview mirror, then twisted in her seat. â€Å"It's your ride.† Elena looked. Two white horses were drawing a smartly renovated buggy down the street. Crepe paper was threaded through the buggy's wheels, ferns decorated its seats, and a large banner on the side proclaimed,The Spirit of Fell's Church. Elena had time for only one desperate message. â€Å"Watch her,† she said. â€Å"And if there's ever a moment when she's alone†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Then she had to go. But all through that long, terrible morning, there was never a moment when Caroline was alone. She was surrounded by a crowd of spectators. For Elena, the parade was pure torture. She sat in the buggy beside the mayor and his wife, trying to smile, trying to look normal. But the sick dread was like a crushing weight on her chest. Somewhere in front of her, among the marching bands and drill teams and open convertibles, was Caroline. Elena had forgotten to find out which float she was on. The first schoolhouse float, perhaps; a lot of the younger children in costume would be on that. It didn't matter. Wherever Caroline was, she was in full view of half the town. The luncheon that followed the parade was held in the high school cafeteria. Elena was trapped at a table with Mayor Dawley and his wife. Caroline was at a nearby table; Elena could see the shining back of her auburn head. And sitting beside her, often leaning possessively over her, was Tyler Smallwood. Elena was in a perfect position to view the little drama that occurred about halfway through lunch. Her heart leaped into her throat when she saw Stefan, looking casual, stroll by Caroline's table. He spoke to Caroline. Elena watched, forgetting even to play with the untouched food on her plate. But what she saw next made her heart plummet. Caroline tossed her head and replied to him briefly, and then Stefan looked toward Elena as he left, and for a moment their eyes met in wordless communion. There was nothing he could do, then. Even if his Powers had returned, Tyler was going to keep him away from Caroline. The crushing weight squeezed Elena's lungs so that she could scarcely breathe. After that she simply sat in a daze of misery and despair until someone nudged her and told her it was time to go backstage. She listened almost indifferently to Mayor Dawley's speech of welcome. He spoke about the â€Å"trying time† Fell's Church had faced recently, and about the community spirit that had sustained them these past months. Then awards were given out, for scholarship, for athletics, for community service. Matt came up to receive Outstanding Male Athlete of the Year, and Elena saw him look at her curiously. Then came the pageant. The elementary school children giggled and tripped and forgot their lines as they portrayed scenes from the founding of Fell's Church through the Civil War. Elena watched them without taking any of it in. Ever since last night she'd been slightly dizzy and shaky, and now she felt as if she were coming down with the flu. Her brain, usually so full of schemes and calculations, was empty. She couldn't think anymore. She almost couldn't care. The pageant ended to popping flashbulbs and tumultuous applause. When the last little Confederate soldier was off the stage, Mayor Dawley called for silence. â€Å"And now,† he said, â€Å"for the students who will perform the closing ceremonies. Please show your appreciation for the Spirit of Independence, the Spirit of Fidelity, and the Spirit of Fell's Church!† The applause was even more thunderous. Elena stood beside John Clifford, the brainy senior who'd been chosen to represent the Spirit of Independence. On the other side of John was Caroline. In a detached, nearly apathetic way Elena noticed that Caroline looked magnificent: her head tilted back, her eyes blazing, her cheeks flushed with color. John went first, adjusting his glasses and the microphone before he read from the heavy brown book on the lectern. Officially, the seniors were free to choose their own selections; in practice they almost always read from the works of M. C. Marsh, the only poet Fell's Church had ever produced. All during John's reading, Caroline was upstaging him. She smiled at the audience; she shook out her hair; she weighed the reticule hanging from her waist. Her fingers stroked the drawstring bag lovingly, and Elena found herself staring at it, hypnotized, memorizing every bead. John took a bow and resumed his place by Elena. Caroline threw her shoulders back and did a model's walk to the lectern. This time the applause was mixed with whistles. But Caroline didn't smile; she had assumed an air of tragic responsibility. With exquisite timing she waited until the cafetorium was perfectly quiet to speak. â€Å"I was planning to read a poem by M. C. Marsh today,† she said, then, into the attentive stillness, â€Å"but I'm not going to. Why read fromthis – † She held up the nineteenth century volume of poetry. † – when there is something much more†¦ relevant†¦ in a book I happened to find?† Very slightly, almost imperceptibly, Stefan shook his head. Caroline's fingers were dipping into the bag as if she just couldn't wait. â€Å"What I'm going to read is about Fell's Churchtoday , not a hundred or two hundred years ago,† she was saying, working herself up into a sort of exultant fever. â€Å"It's importantnow , because it's about somebody who's living in town with us. In fact he's right here in this room.† Tyler must have written the speech for her, Elena decided. Last month, in the gym, he'd shown quite a gift for that kind of thing. Oh, Stefan, oh, Stefan, I'm scared†¦ Her thoughts jumbled into incoherence as Caroline plunged her hand into the bag. â€Å"I think you'll understand what I mean when you hear it,† Caroline said, and with a quick motion she pulled a velvet-covered book from the reticule and held it up dramatically. â€Å"I think it will explain a lot of what's been going on in Fell's Church recently.† Breathing quickly and lightly, she looked from the spellbound audience to the book in her hand. Elena had almost lost consciousness when Caroline jerked the diary out. Bright sparkles ran along the edges of her vision. The dizziness roared up, ready to overwhelm Elena, and then she noticed something. It must be her eyes. The stage lights and flashbulbs must have dazzled them. She certainly felt ready to faint any minute; it was hardly surprising that she couldn't see properly. The book in Caroline's hands lookedgreen , not blue. I must be going crazy†¦ or this is a dream†¦ or maybe it's a trick of the lighting. But look at Caroline's face! Caroline, mouth working, was staring at the velvet book. She seemed to have forgotten the audience altogether. She turned the diary over and over in her hands, looking at all sides of it. Her movements became frantic. She thrust a hand into the reticule as if she somehow hoped to find something else in it. Then she cast a wild glance around the stage as if what she was looking for might have fallen to the ground. The audience was murmuring, getting impatient. Mayor Dawley and the high school principal were exchanging tight-lipped frowns. Having found nothing on the floor, Caroline was staring at the small book again. But now she was gazing at it as if it were a scorpion. With a sudden gesture, she wrenched it open and looked inside, as if her last hope was that only the cover had changed and the words inside might be Elena's. Then she slowly looked up from the book at the packed cafetorium. Silence had descended again, and the moment drew out, while every eye remained fixed on the girl in the pale green gown. Then, with an inarticulate sound, Caroline whirled and clattered off the stage. She exploded into comment, argument, discussion. Elena found Stefan. He looked as if jubilation was sneaking up on him. But he also looked as bewildered as Elena felt. Bonnie and Meredith were the same. As Stefan's gaze crossed hers, Elena felt a rush of gratitude and joy, but her predominant emotion was awe. It was a miracle. Beyond all hope, they had been rescued. They'd been saved. And then her eyes picked out another dark head among the crowd. Damon was leaning†¦ no, lounging†¦ against the north wall. His lips were curved into a half smile, and his eyes met Elena's boldly. Mayor Dawley was beside her, urging her forward, quieting the crowd, trying to restore order. It was no use. Elena read her selection in a dreamy voice to a babbling group of people who weren't paying attention in the slightest. She wasn't paying attention, either; she had no idea what words she was saying. Every so often she looked at Damon. There was applause, scattered and distracted, when she finished, and the mayor announced the rest of the events for that afternoon. And then it was all over, and Elena was free to go. She floated offstage without any conscious idea ofwhere she was going, but her legs carried her to the north wall. Damon's dark head moved out the side door and she followed it. The air in the courtyard seemed deliciously cool after the crowded room, and the clouds above were silvery and swirling. Damon was waiting for her. Her steps slowed but did not stop. She moved until she was only a foot or so away from him, her eyes searching his face. There was a long moment of silence and then she spoke. â€Å"Why?† â€Å"I thought you'd be more interested inhow. † He patted his jacket significantly. â€Å"I got invited in for coffee this morning after scraping up an acquaintance last week.† â€Å"But why?† He shrugged, and for just an instant something like consternation flickered across his finely drawn features. It seemed to Elena that he himself didn't know why – or didn't want to admit it. â€Å"For my own purposes,† he said. â€Å"I don't think so.† Something was building between them, something that frightened Elena with its power. â€Å"I don't think that's the reason at all.† She moved closer, so that she was almost touching him, and looked at him. â€Å"I think,† she said, â€Å"that maybe you need to be pushed.† His face was only inches away from hers, and Elena never knew what might have happened if at that moment a voice hadn't broken in on them. â€Å"Youdid manage to make it after all! I'm so glad!† It was Aunt Judith. Elena felt as if she were being whisked from one world to another. She blinked dizzily, stepping back, letting out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. â€Å"And so you got to hear Elena read,† Aunt Judith continued happily. â€Å"You did a beautiful job, Elena, but I don't know what was going on with Caroline. The girls in this town are all acting bewitched lately.† â€Å"Nerves,† suggested Damon, his face carefully solemn. Elena felt an urge to giggle and then a wave of irritation. It was all very well to be grateful to Damon for saving them, but if not for Damon there wouldn't have been a problem in the first place. Damon had committed the crimes Caroline wanted to pin on Stefan. â€Å"And whereis Stefan?† she said, voicing her next thought aloud. She could see Bonnie and Meredith in the courtyard alone. Aunt Judith's face showed her disapproval. â€Å"I haven't seen him,† she said briefly. Then she smiled fondly. â€Å"But I have an idea; why don't you come to dinner with us, Damon? Then afterwards perhaps you and Elena could – â€Å" â€Å"Stop it!† said Elena to Damon. He looked politely inquiring. â€Å"What?† said Aunt Judith. â€Å"Stop it!† Elena said to Damon again. â€Å"You know what. Just stop it right now!†

Analysis of “Not Waving but Drowning” by Stevie Smith

Josh Robinson Dr. Joyce Huff ENG 206 Feb 5, 2013 Not Waving but Drowning People may not always be exactly what they seem on the outside just as a poem may have a deeper meaning than the story that is just on the surface. The poem Not Waving but Drowning by Stevie Smith is a great example of this. The author does a very good job at relating the death of a man by drowning and the reaction it causes in others to the deeper story of how the man is symbolically calling out to others who never come to help him get his life together.In the beginning of the poem, the first two lines are somewhat confusing. It refers to the main character as â€Å"the dead man† but then in the next line it mentions how he is moaning. This is confusing of course because as we all know, a dead man can’t make sounds. The next sentence though, seems more straightforward at first glance but as you move farther in the poem it’s meaning might not be so obvious. In the second stanza there is a ch ange from what seems to be the dead man speaking to others talking about what he was like when he was alive.It shows how, to other people, the man seemed happy, but it also seems as though the author means to give the impression that other people think that it was this one event that caused the man to finally break down. He says in the next stanza however that â€Å"†¦it was too cold always† which I think shows that he is saying that it was not merely one event that caused him to â€Å"drown†. His entire life consisted of reaching out to others for help but he never received it. In the beginning of the second stanza I would also like to point out how the author added â€Å"Poor chap† separated with a comma.I think the commas are likely used to emphasize that label that the author puts on the man from the viewpoint of others. It, in a way, shows how others may pity this man because of how great he had it until this single event. This is ironic because if you read the poem more than once, you’ll see that in the last stanza he is essentially saying in the third line, â€Å"I was much too far out all my life†, that he was suffering not only in the his last moments but throughout his entire life.If you look at the ways that the poem is written out, it kind of helps to separate the different clues that the author gives to you. In the very first line, it uses commas to separate â€Å"the dead man†. Even though it didn’t separate any of the other instances of the author referring to the man as â€Å"dead†, I think that it is written in this way so that you will realize that it might not mean dead in the literal sense of the word but in a more symbolic sense. As though to help that idea be emphasized each time that you come across that phrase.Also, if you noticed, â€Å"And not waving but drowning† was used both at the end of the first stanza as well as the end of the last stanza. In the first stanza i t is used merely as a way to get you to recognize the importance of it when it comes around again. It is placed here with the understanding that its true meaning may not be as clear until the next time that you see it. When you see it again though, you have enough information to where you can start coming to conclusions about what the author really meant to symbolize when he said that the man was drowning.In the second stanza, â€Å"They said† is placed in a line on its own which is unusual compared to the rest of the poem. It seems as if it was put there separately to draw attention to the contrast between what others thought of this man and how he knew his life to be as well as showing the importance of both it and the line before it, which is also abnormal in the fact that it is quite a bit longer than the rest of the lines in the poem. There are many poems that say one thing but completely mean another.Not everything is black and white in poetry just as in other art forms . Some may be more difficult than others to see a different meaning behind the text but through clever uses of words, imagery, and symbols just about any poem can be examined more closely for different meanings, thoughts, or ideas that the author is trying to convey. Poems should be broken down and examined in sections. Each section may have different clues as to what the author’s underlying meaning could be. This makes understanding the poem as a whole a lot easier.I found it very helpful in this poem (and other poems), as we learned in class, to read into things more and question everything. There could be a simple object that creates a completely different meaning to the poem once you find out it’s significance. Also, finding multiple definitions or even definitions you might not know such as the word larking was very helpful. I didn’t quite know the meaning of that word, but in looking it up, I basically came up with my entire argument for what I thought the meaning of the poem was.Figuring out a poem is almost like figuring out a puzzle. The only real difference is, the pieces aren’t cut out for you. You have to look at the bigger picture and find the logical pieces to cut out and then examine them individually. When you are done looking at them and figure out how to put them back together they could very well become a completely different picture from the one that you had originally broken down into pieces.