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Proxies #2
No full textProxies is a collaborative project by artists Susanne Clausen and Pavlo Kerestey, exploring how displacement, memory, and representation are negotiated through performance, drawing, and painting. Developed through international residencies and rooted in personal and political experience, the project brings together distinct visual elements to stage a fragmented but resonant inquiry into how we witness and process war from different positions.
At the center of the exhibition is a two-screen video installation that re-enacts a recorded radio conversation between a Ukrainian writer and a German interviewer captured during the early stages of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Rather than dramatizing the exchange, the artists restage it using hand-crafted puppets, fragmented doubles that resemble the artists but also stand in for others caught in unequal or difficult dialogues. These figures perform to the original audio, inhabiting a space between self-portrait and symbolic surrogate. One screen plays the subtitled dialogue, while the other presents the filmed puppet performance in a sparse, studio-like setting. The result is a layered encounter between voice, image, and gesture that explores misalignment, fatigue, and the ethics of mediated discourse.
The puppets act as “proxies” - stand-ins for personal and political positions that may be difficult to inhabit directly. This idea extends into Clausen’s series of drawings, which are made using a range of materials including ink, pencil, and wash. These works draw from a variety of sources, archival photographs, personal and family images, and digital fragments circulating on social media since 2022. Some images are drawn directly from moments of visibility during the war, others are more ambiguous, imagined, or mediated. Rather than reproducing their sources, the drawings intervene through layering, omission, or distortion, creating visual proxies that register both presence and absence. They hover between fact and fiction, acting as sites of memory, dislocation, and reflective resistance.
Kerestey’s paintings contribute a spatial and emotional framework for the installation. Drawing on imagined memories of his hometown in Ukraine, the works blend recollection with the visual language of broadcast interiors. These painted environments are not literal depictions, but composite spaces that suggest both domestic familiarity and public stagecraft. Their flat perspectives and constructed viewpoints invite viewers into a psychological terrain shaped by displacement, performance, and political tension.
Proxies invites reflection on how we speak about war and crisis, and from where. It avoids definitive statements in favor of subtle, unsettling exchanges between bodies, voices, and representations. The installation suggests that witnessing is always partial, always shaped by position, translation, and form
Cognitive rehabilitation in posterior cortical atrophy
No full textPosterior cortical atrophy is an uncommon type of dementia often caused by Alzheimer’s disease and characterised by progressive loss of visuospatial and perceptual abilities. Although there is no curative treatment, patients may benefit from a range of symptom-based techniques and strategies to address visuospatial deficits and apraxia, and to reduce disability. Specific techniques based on visual and tactile cues, adapted and assistive equipment, environmental modifications and skill training may help people with posterior cortical atrophy continue to carry on activities that are important to them. We share vignettes from patients treated in our clinics to illustrate the practical delivery and potential impact of these therapies
The impact of the 2016 EU audit reforms, oversight, and corruption on earnings management: evidence from European banks using a dynamic panel approach
Get PDFThis study investigates earnings management in European banks in the context of the 2016 EU audit directive. Using a dynamic panel of 134 banks over 2012–2023, we apply two‐step System‐GMM estimators with three profitability measures—Earnings Before Provisions and Taxes (EBPT), Return on Assets (ROA), and Return on Equity (ROE). The results show that earnings management was persistent before the directive but declined markedly thereafter. Profitability constrained manipulation in the pre‐directive period, but its influence largely disappeared as regulation emerged as the dominant disciplining force—except for EBPT, which gained importance after 2016. Capitalization reduced manipulation before the directive but lost significance afterward, while economic growth, which previously fuelled manipulation, was fully neutralised. Governance effects also shifted: institutional quality alone did not reduce manipulation, but the directive enhanced its effectiveness, whereas governance divergence showed weaker and less stable effects. These findings advance scholarly understanding of how regulation and governance interact to shape earnings management and highlight practical implications for policymakers, regulators, auditors and bank managers
A Hydrologist’s guide to the CRPS
Get PDFThe Continuous Ranked Probability Score (CRPS) is a vital metric in earth system forecasting, how-ever it is still unintuitive for many users. In hydrology, we are increasingly transitioning to proba-bilistic and ensemble decisions making, and so informed use of metrics such as the CRPS is crucial. In this technical memorandum, we provide an overview of the CRPS. We highlight its growing im-portance, particularly in the context of machine learning, and then explain its relationship to various other metrics and scores commonly used in earth system forecasting, such as the Brier score and Mean Absolute Error. We then go on to apply the CRPS in the context of hydrological forecasting
Managing Solar PV adoption in rural Sub-Saharan Africa: insights from Zambia’s energy transition
Get PDFThis thesis investigates the governance, adoption, and livelihood implications of solar
photovoltaic technology in rural Zambia. Although decentralised solar PV deployment
has expanded rapidly, there remains a clearly defined research and policy gap in
understanding how rural communities adopt, use, manage, and sustain these systems
over time. Existing policy frameworks largely prioritise technical rollout while
overlooking weak community engagement, informal governance arrangements, and
the paradoxical use of ecologically damaging income sources, such as charcoal
production, to finance solar technologies. This gap constrains effective and equitable
energy transitions in rural contexts and limits the long-term sustainability of
decentralised solar investments. Against this background, the principal aim of this
study is to examine how solar PV adoption and management are shaped by
community needs, environmental trade-offs, and the role of informal and non-state
actors within the broader energy transition. This aim is important because without such
understanding, decentralised energy policies risk reinforcing environmental
degradation, social inequality, and system abandonment rather than delivering durable
development benefits. The research was conducted over 30 months from October
2022 to May 2025 in Central Province (Kapiri and Mkushi Rural), Lusaka Province
(Chongwe Rural) and Copperbelt Province (Chingola Rural, Luano). These sites were
selected due to their high levels of off-grid solar penetration, active informal charcoal
economies, limited formal waste management infrastructure for end-of-life solar
products, and marked socio-ecological diversity. The study applies the Rural
Development Stakeholder Hybrid Adoption Model, a theoretical framework developed
in this thesis. This framework systematically examines behavioural, social,
institutional, and environmental dimensions influencing rural energy transitions. Using
108 in depth interviews, 12 focus group discussions, and extensive participant
observation, the study identifies several novel findings. First, the Clean Energy -
Deforestation Paradox, whereby charcoal production and non-timber forest product
harvesting are used to finance the acquisition of solar PV systems. Second, the critical
role of peer learning and local ownership in sustaining solar use, defined in this study
as the continued functional operation, maintenance, and long-term reliance on solar
technologies for everyday energy needs. Third, the emergence of unregulated solar
e-waste in off-grid regions, understood as the informal disposal, burial, burning, or
unsafe storage of damaged or obsolete solar components outside formal waste
management systems. Fourth, the previously underexplored influence of White
commercial farmers in community solar PV adoption, electrification and infrastructure
investment.
The thesis concludes with policy recommendations that emphasise community
participation, gender equity, integrated energy and environmental governance,
financial innovation, and inclusive regulation, advancing a vision for just, locally
grounded, and ecologically resilient solar energy transitions in Sub-Saharan Africa
An investigation into the uncertainty revision process of professional forecasters
No full textFollowing Manzan (2021), this paper examines how professional forecasters revise their fixed-event uncertainty (variance) forecasts and tests the Bayesian learning prediction that variance forecasts should decrease as the horizon shortens. We show that Manzan’s (2021) use of first moment “efficiency” tests are not applicable to studying revisions of variance forecasts. Instead, we
employ monotonicity tests developed by Patton and Timmermann (2012) in our first known application of these tests to second moments of survey expectations. We find strong evidence that the variance forecasts are consistent with the Bayesian learning prediction of declining monotonicity
Who's afraid of Reverse Mereological Essentialism?
Get PDFWhereas Mereological Essentialism is the thesis that the parts of an object are essential to it, Reverse Mereological Essentialism is the thesis that the whole is essential to its parts. Specifically – since RME is an Aristotelian doctrine – it is a claim not about objects in general but about substances. Here I set out and explain RME as it should be understood from the perspective of the Aristotelian-Scholastic tradition, as well as proposing a kind of master argument for believing it. A number of objections (many of which have been raised by Kathrin Koslicki or Robert Koons) are then considered, the replies to which help further to clarify and motivate RME. The final section considers some important questions concerning parts and matter in light of Ross Inman’s recent defence of RME under the guise of what he calls Substantial Priority. Considering these questions further illustrates right and wrong ways of understanding RME. Overall, the case for RME is strong albeit with a number of difficulties that need to be resolved through further investigation
Mitigating pandemics through the adaptation of digital technologies – towards a digital resilience framework
Get PDFThis paper reports a qualitative analysis of the literature search output of studies on digital technology interventions deployed specifically in the G7 countries in response to the recent pandemic. This is followed by interviews with eighteen participants from the G7 countries about their experiences in adapting digital technologies to mitigate the effect of the pandemic. Using a thematic analysis approach, the study uncovers two streams of digital technology resilience: digital resilience in public and private spheres; and healthcare and well-being in the digital age. Together with a set of identified technology-driven and individual-driven resistance and enabling factors, a model of a proposed digital resilience (DigiRES) framework is developed for validation and in-country contextualization. The implications of the study for preparedness for future pandemics or crises are highlighted
Connecting physical and socio-economic spaces for multi-scale urban modelling: a dataset for London
Get PDFVersatile approaches for urban modelling need to simultaneously consider the physical characteristics of a city (urban form) and urban function as a manifestation of economically, socially and culturally motivated human activities. Exposure and risk assessment studies concerning urban heat or air pollution can greatly benefit from modelling that dynamically connects physical and socio-economic urban spaces and represents humans as active
components of the urban system (e.g., agent-based modelling). The spatio-temporal complexity and variability of urban form, function, human behaviour and micro-climate puts high demands on input data of such models. We present a general methodology for creating a suite of data connecting and harmonising available information for high-resolution modelling. This is demonstrated for London, UK. The multi-scale database covers urban neighbourhoods (at 500 m grid-cell resolution), localised microenvironments of activity, buildings and extends down to the scale of individuals. Data include neighbourhood land-cover fractions that provide boundary conditions for urban land-surface models and building typologies generated by assessing building function, form
and materials (via building age) that are suitable for building-energy modelling. Urban populations (residential, workplace) and demographic composition of households in building typologies are derived. Temporal profiles (10 min resolution) of human activities by age cohort, household size, day type, work patterns and season derived from time-use survey data are mapped to various socio-economic microenvironments, alongside assessments of activity-dependent electrical energy consumption and human metabolic output. A transport database provides available travel options (1 min resolution) between London neighbourhoods by mode, making use of public transport schedules, road network and traffic speeds
Deciphering the intermodel spread in projections of the impacts of Indian summer monsoon on ENSO under global warming
Get PDFThe Indian summer monsoon (ISM) is intricately linked to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on interannual timescale. Although previous studies have explored ENSO's effects on the ISM, the reverse influence, particularly under global warming, remains unclear. This study examines the projected changes in the ISM's impacts on ENSO under the SSP5-8.5 emission scenario using 34 climate models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) that reasonably simulate the monsoon's effects on ENSO. A significant spread is found in the projections across the models, with approximately half of the models projecting an enhancing influence of ISM on ENSO, whereas the other half indicates a weakening effect. The intermodel spread is primarily associated with the projected changes in the strength of the feedback between precipitation and low-level circulation over the tropical northwest Pacific, which is crucial for generating ISM-induced anomalous circulation over the region. Models projecting an enhanced precipitation-circulation feedback simulate larger ISM-driven rainfall and circulation anomalies over the tropical northwest Pacific in a warmer climate, leading to more pronounced zonal wind anomalies near the equator along the southern side of the anomalous circulation and vice versa. As a result, the larger zonal wind anomalies caused by abnormal monsoons exert intensified effects on the subsequent ENSO evolution by significantly suppressing or amplifying the atmosphere-ocean coupling processes related to ENSO development