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The work of class: Cash transfers and community development in Tanzania
Get PDFFrom Wiley via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: pub-electronic 2021-05-29Article version: VoRPublication status: PublishedThis article uses the concept of convenience as an analytical prompt to investigate how ideas about work organize a cash‐based social assistance program financed through foreign aid. Productive Social Safety Nets (PSSN) is a nationwide program providing small regular payments to very poor households in Tanzania. Cash transfers as components of social assistance not predicated on working confront assumptions many Tanzanians share about the importance of work as foundational to self‐reliance as the bedrock of personal and national development. The program uses existing architectures of community development to creatively combine Tanzanian values around poor people's responsibility for their own development with World Bank conceptualizations of social assistance as a productive investment. Ethnographic research at the interface between program implementors and beneficiaries provides insights into the attitudes many Tanzanians hold about development and their place in it and sheds light on the ambivalent feelings of insecure middle classes about changing forms of state‐managed social assistance. Implementation involves an intricate orchestration of prescriptive ideals about labor, entitlement, and value organized around labor‐intensive bureaucratic procedures, public works, and community sensitization sessions. Labor making and making visible different kinds of work characterize program implementation. Prevailing attitudes toward social assistance, and the class relations through which they are realized, are perpetuated through ostensibly novel programs
Climate Change Adaptation on Small Island States: An Assessment of Limits and Constraints
Get PDFSmall Island States (SIDS) are among the nations most exposed to climate change (CC) and are characterised by a high degree of vulnerability. Their unique nature means there is a need for more studies focused on the limits to CC adaptation on such fragile nations, particularly regarding their problems and constraints. This paper addressed a perceived need for research into the limitations of adaptation on SIDS, focusing on the many unique restrictions. To this end, the study identified and described the adaptation limits they have by using a review of the literature and an analysis of case studies from a sample of five SIDS in the Caribbean and Pacific regions (Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Cook Islands, Fiji, Solomon Islands and Tonga). This research’s findings showed that an adaptable SIDS is characterised by awareness of various values, appreciation and understanding of a diversity of impacts and vulnerabilities, and acceptance of certain losses through change. The implications of this paper are two-fold. It explains why island nations continue to suffer from the impacts of CC and suggest some of the means via which adequate policies may support SIDS in their efforts to cope with the threats associated with a changing climate. This study concluded that, despite the technological and ecological limits (hard limits) affecting natural systems, adaptation to CC is limited by such complex forces and societal factors (soft limits) that more adequate adaptation strategies could overcome
A massively multi-scale approach to characterizing tissue architecture by synchrotron micro-CT applied to the human placenta
Get PDFFrom The Royal Society via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: received 2021-02-16, accepted 2021-05-06, collection 2021-06, pub-electronic 2021-06-02Article version: VoRPublication status: PublishedFunder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000266; Grant(s): EP/M023877/1, EP/T008725/1Funder: Medical Research Council; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000265; Grant(s): MR/N011538/1Funder: Wellcome Trust; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100004440; Grant(s): 212980/Z/18/ZFunder: Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000625Multi-scale structural assessment of biological soft tissue is challenging but essential to gain insight into structure–function relationships of tissue/organ. Using the human placenta as an example, this study brings together sophisticated sample preparation protocols, advanced imaging and robust, validated machine-learning segmentation techniques to provide the first massively multi-scale and multi-domain information that enables detailed morphological and functional analyses of both maternal and fetal placental domains. Finally, we quantify the scale-dependent error in morphological metrics of heterogeneous placental tissue, estimating the minimal tissue scale needed in extracting meaningful biological data. The developed protocol is beneficial for high-throughput investigation of structure–function relationships in both normal and diseased placentas, allowing us to optimize therapeutic approaches for pathological pregnancies. In addition, the methodology presented is applicable in the characterization of tissue architecture and physiological behaviours of other complex organs with similarity to the placenta, where an exchange barrier possesses circulating vascular and avascular fluid spaces
Who’s responsible for food waste? Consumers, retailers and the food waste discourse coalition in the United Kingdom
Get PDFFrom SAGE Publishing via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: epub 2018-05-17Publication status: PublishedFunder: Economic and Social Research Council; FundRef: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000269; Grant(s): ES/L00514X/1Drawing on empirical research, including interviews with 38 key informants, this article examines how the challenge of food waste reduction has come to be framed, interpreted and responded to in the United Kingdom, focusing on household food waste and the interface between supermarkets and households. We identify a ‘discourse coalition’ arising from collective actors central to the issue that has achieved discursive hegemony over the framing of food waste as a problem. We analyse this discourse coalition – its core storylines, actors and practices – and the conditions that have enabled its emergence. Critical accounts of sustainable consumption commonly note the ‘responsibilisation of the consumer’: or the reduction of systemic issues to the individualised, behavioural choices of the ‘sovereign consumer’. We find, by contrast, that the ‘responsibilised consumer’ is by no means the discourse coalition’s dominant framing of the problem of household food waste. Instead, its dominant framing is that of distributed responsibility: responsibility distributed throughout the production–consumption system. The article also contributes towards understanding why retailers have embraced household food waste reduction as an object of intervention without framing the issue as one of, primarily, consumer responsibility
Le roman sans aventure... Vraiment ? Quelques réflexions sur la mondialité du roman québécois
Get PDFThe present article challenges one of the major claims of Isabelle Daunais’
essay Le roman sans aventure (The novel without adventure) which states that literature from Quebec is hardly ever read beyond the boundaries of the province as its underpinning narrative pattern is what Milan Kundera in The Art of the Novel calls an idyll, a hermetic, protective environment. My contribution firstly seeks to show that the lack of reception of the Quebecois novel can be explained by the particular dichotomy separating the French-speaking literary field into “Parisian” and “Francophone” texts. Moreover, I would like to explore two Quebecois novels (Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner and La fiancée américaine by Eric Dupont) which engage with the world and with globalisation in numerous ways, thus contradicting the argumentation of the “idyll”
The lexicon of antimicrobial peptides: a complete set of arginine and tryptophan sequences
Get PDFFrom Springer Nature via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: received 2020-08-09, accepted 2021-03-29, registration 2021-04-24, pub-electronic 2021-05-21, online 2021-05-21, collection 2021-12Publication status: PublishedFunder: RCUK | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000268; Grant(s): BB/M011208/1Abstract: Our understanding of the activity of cationic antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) has focused on well-characterized natural sequences, or limited sets of synthetic peptides designed de novo. We have undertaken a comprehensive investigation of the underlying primary structural features that give rise to the development of activity in AMPs. We consider a complete set of all possible peptides, up to 7 residues long, composed of positively charged arginine (R) and / or hydrophobic tryptophan (W), two features most commonly associated with activity. We found the shortest active peptides were 4 or 5 residues in length, and the overall landscapes of activity against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria and a yeast were positively correlated. For all three organisms we found a single activity peak corresponding to sequences with around 40% R; the presence of adjacent W duplets and triplets also conferred greater activity. The mechanistic basis of these activities comprises a combination of lipid binding, particularly to negatively charged membranes, and additionally peptide aggregation, a mode of action previously uninvestigated for such peptides. The maximum specific antimicrobial activity appeared to occur in peptides of around 10 residues, suggesting ‘diminishing returns’ for developing larger peptides, when activity is considered per residue of peptide
Adaptations: Moby Dick Performance Research Project
Get PDFAdaptations: Moby Dick is a performance research project, consisting of a script, stage production, and site-sensitive performance. The adaptation was commissioned for the International Cornerstone Arts Festival (2017). In-kind funding was provided by the Tall Ship Zebu for a site- sensitive performance for the River Festival, Liverpool (2019).
There were two interconnected stages to the project, underpinned by three research questions:
1. How do we re-imagine character within ensemble-led practice?
2. How does dramatic time differ from narrative time?
3. What is the relationship between the source text and adapted iterations?
The first stage of the project led to a fully realised stage production, shown in Liverpool and Chester (2017). A further iteration of the adaptation was performed on the Tall Ship Zebu, Liverpool (2019). Following this performance, the project considered the impact of site as cultural memory, disseminated through conference papers
Water friction in nanofluidic channels made from two-dimensional crystals
Get PDFFrom Springer Nature via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: received 2020-11-13, accepted 2021-04-20, registration 2021-04-26, pub-electronic 2021-05-25, online 2021-05-25, collection 2021-12Publication status: PublishedFunder: RCUK | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000266; Grant(s): EP/S017593/1Funder: Royal Society; doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000288; Grant(s): URF\R1\180127, RGS\R2\202036Funder: EC | EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation H2020 | H2020 Priority Excellent Science | H2020 European Research Council (H2020 Excellent Science - European Research Council); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100010663; Grant(s): 852674 - AngstroCAPFunder: Ramsay Memorial FellowshipAbstract: Membrane-based applications such as osmotic power generation, desalination and molecular separation would benefit from decreasing water friction in nanoscale channels. However, mechanisms that allow fast water flows are not fully understood yet. Here we report angstrom-scale capillaries made from atomically flat crystals and study the effect of confining walls’ material on water friction. A massive difference is observed between channels made from isostructural graphite and hexagonal boron nitride, which is attributed to different electrostatic and chemical interactions at the solid-liquid interface. Using precision microgravimetry and ion streaming measurements, we evaluate the slip length, a measure of water friction, and investigate its possible links with electrical conductivity, wettability, surface charge and polarity of the confining walls. We also show that water friction can be controlled using hybrid capillaries with different slip lengths at opposing walls. The reported advances extend nanofluidics’ toolkit for designing smart membranes and mimicking manifold machinery of biological channels
Interpreting Wat’s Dyke in the 21st Century
Get PDFLinear monuments offer special challenges in the context of the public archaeology of frontiers and borderlands. This chapter tackles the interpretive neglect of Britain’s second-longest early medieval earthwork, Wat’s Dyke, showing how its sparse and sporadic archaeological attention is reflected in poor and out-dated public archaeology and heritage interpretation. I evaluate the current media and mechanisms by which various publics – including global digital audiences, visitors to the Anglo-Welsh borderlands through which the monument runs, and local communities living in the Dyke’s environs in Flintshire, Wrexham and Shropshire – can access, experience and learn about Wat’s Dyke. Having identified how Wat’s Dyke is fragmented and obscure in the landscape despite its monumental presence, and how its digital resources are inadequate, I then propose new avenues for developing innovative interpretations of Wat’s Dyke for both existing and new audiences which aim to provide up-to-date and engaging resources and connect the monument to the rich cultural landscapes, past and present, through which it runs. I argue these recommendations provide the basis for both enhancing awareness and knowledge. I also argue they provide a more robust resources for current and future generations of research and public engagement. I also suggest they serve to combat the risk of pseudo-archaeological narratives and extremist political appropriations of Wat’s Dyke
Public Archaeologies from the Edge
Get PDFThe chapter serves to introduce the first-ever book dedicated to public archaeologies of frontiers and borderlands. We identify the hitherto neglect of this critical field which seeks to explore the heritage, public engagements, popular cultures and politics of frontiers and borderlands past and present. We review the 2019 conference organised by Uiversity of Chester Archaeology students at the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, which inspired this book, and then survey the structure and contents of the collection. We advocate that public archaeologies should seek to incorporate and foreground perspectives ‘from the edge’. By this we mean public archaeology should make frontiers and borderlands – including the people living with them and seeking to traverse them – paramount to future work
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