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The effect of host population heterogeneity on epidemic outbreaks
No full textIn the first part of this paper, we review old and new results about the influence of host population heterogeneity on (various characteristics of) epidemic outbreaks. In the second part we highlight a modelling issue that so far has received little attention: how do contact patterns, and hence transmission opportunities, depend on the size and the composition of the host population? Without any claim on completeness, we offer a range of potential (quasi-mechanistic) submodels. The overall aim of the paper is to describe the state-of-the-art and to catalyse new work
Short Term Experiences in Global Health (STEGH): An Ethical Enterprise?
No full textShort Term Experiences in Global Health (STEGH) are becoming increasingly prevalent, where students and volunteers predominately from high income countries travel to lower income countries to work with local community organizations. Although the benefits of STEGHs have been touted, they have also been increasingly criticized as representing a new form of colonialism and have been shown to harm host communities in a number of ways. Can the enterprise of STEGHs be ethically justified? We argue that STEGHs must incorporate principles of bi-directionality, continuity, cultural humility and decolonization in order to be equitable and sustainable
Analysing the inconsistent recognition of Indigenous rights in early childhood policy documents from the Australian Government’s "Closing the Gap" strategy between 2008-2018
No full textWe analysed Australian government strategic policy documents related to the "Closing the Gap" (CTG) strategy in early childhood circa 2008-2018 to explore the extent to which Indigenous rights are named and recognised in written policy. Our analysis of the policies was informed by Bacchi’s What’s the Problem approach and showed inconsistency in the recognition of Indigenous rights. These rights are sometimes undermined and ignored, sometimes implied and sometimes named and recognised. Silences within the CTG strategy are discussed and reveal the ongoing nature of colonisation and deficit framing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities. Findings from this research are relevant for the current era of the "Closing the Gap" strategy
Stenger, Gerhardt. Le Triomphe des lumières. Perrin, 2024
No full textRésumé: Published in 2024, this book is one among a series of current reappraisals concerning the Enlightenment (Antoine Lilti or Robert Darnton, for instance) to question the impact of the philosophers and authors of the Encyclopédie, their ideas of universalism and how much their novel ideas contributed to the advent of the 1789 French revolution. Gerhardt Stenger offers an elegant and lively portrait of the encyclopedists, their personal and financial situations, and their motives for their participating in the translation of Chambers. He addresses the questions of universalism (and perhaps tenets of decolonization) from the historical frame of the advent of the Enlightenment, as centered on the epic developments and battles of l’Encyclopédie. As well, through Diderot’s alliances, his mails to his mistress, his strategies, we gain an intimate portrait of the man and his emotions regarding his engagement in the encyclopedic project. Stenger’s book is at once intensely scholarly and eminently accessible, in fact a great teaching tool for graduates and undergraduate students alike. Rousseau’s interferences will be at once more shocking, and yet intelligent and reasonable. Stenger discusses carefully selected encyclopedic articles representative of nodal disputes, such as the respective and conception of “citizen” (Diderot versus Rousseau), leading to a citizenship of rights (human rights eventually) as well as duties. For sure you will also laugh at the depiction of Diderot and d’Alembert occasional disputes. Stenger tells us about this adventure in such a way that we perceive what life possibly entailed in terms of writing and publishing, the compulsory homage to religion and power, and as well, how ministers, playwriters, powerful encyclopedic allies and enemies shaped the volumes or simply protected and championed them or failed one way or the other.Résumé: Published in 2024, this book is one among a series of current reappraisals concerning the Enlightenment (Antoine Lilti or Robert Darnton, for instance) to question the impact of the philosophers and authors of the Encyclopédie, their ideas of universalism and how much their novel ideas contributed to the advent of the 1789 French revolution. Gerhardt Stenger offers an elegant and lively portrait of the encyclopedists, their personal and financial situations, and their motives for their participating in the translation of Chambers. He addresses the questions of universalism (and perhaps tenets of decolonization) from the historical frame of the advent of the Enlightenment, as centered on the epic developments and battles of l’Encyclopédie. As well, through Diderot’s alliances, his mails to his mistress, his strategies, we gain an intimate portrait of the man and his emotions regarding his engagement in the encyclopedic project. Stenger’s book is at once intensely scholarly and eminently accessible, in fact a great teaching tool for graduates and undergraduate students alike. Rousseau’s interferences will be at once more shocking, and yet intelligent and reasonable. Stenger discusses carefully selected encyclopedic articles representative of nodal disputes, such as the respective and conception of “citizen” (Diderot versus Rousseau), leading to a citizenship of rights (human rights eventually) as well as duties. For sure you will also laugh at the depiction of Diderot and d’Alembert occasional disputes. Stenger tells us about this adventure in such a way that we perceive what life possibly entailed in terms of writing and publishing, the compulsory homage to religion and power, and as well, how ministers, playwriters, powerful encyclopedic allies and enemies shaped the volumes or simply protected and championed them or failed one way or the other
From Plastic Surgery to National Identity.
No full textBritish surgical photographer Percy Hennell (1911-1987) worked alongside the ‘world famous … father of modern plastic surgery’[1] Harold Delf Gilles (1882-1960) to capture pioneering reconstruction facial surgery in 1941-42. The two toured America and Canada during this time helping to bolster ‘the status of Britain at war at a time when, initially, America was still teetering between neutrality and entering the conflict.’[2]
The works shown here further dissect Hennell’s photographs by juxtaposing a number of his subjects into new painted images. This piecing together of images in paint hints at the now common use of plastic surgery in modern society. It marks the shift away from reconstruction and reassimilation towards vanity and the meddling in our ‘own physical attributes in a desire to sculpt a vision of perfect beauty.’[3]
Manipulation through image connects painting to surgical operations, these works also draw on ideas of image, beauty, state propaganda and war. A direct reference to Eisenstein’s film “Battleship Potemkin” can be found in the glasses of one particular subject.
[1] Christine Slobogin, “Full Article: ‘Something Useful in a National Sense’: Percy Hennell’s Surgical and Nationalist Colour Photography, 1940-1948,” Taylor and Francis online, November 8, 2022, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14714787.2022.2094458.
[2]Slobogin, 2022.
[3] Madder139 Gallery. “Philip Gurrey.” Madder139 press release, May 15, 2008. www.madder139.com
Relative operator entropy properties related to some weighted metrics
No full textIn recent decades, intensive research has been devoted to the study of various operator entropies. In this work, we investigate the properties of the parameterized relative operator entropy Sp(A | B) acting on positive definite matrices with respect to weighted Hellinger and Alpha Procrustes distances. In particular, we investigate estimation of the distance between the entropy Sp(A | B) and certain standard means
Mettre en récit la circulation des documents savants sur Twitter: Étude de cas exploratoire sur l’article « Climate change impacts on bumblebees converge across continents » (Kerr et al., 2015)
No full textAs studies about the evaluation of societal impact and attention to research on social media shift from metrics to contexts, this study explores the potential of storytelling to investigate how research papers circulate on Twitter. Specifically, we finely examined the dissemination of a paper about the effects of climate change on the population ranges of bumblebees. Combining network analysis, qualitative assessment of tweets and interview, this study provides key insights about the use of storytelling to provide more detailed assessment of the resonance of specific scholarly documents on Twitter.Les récentes études sur l’évaluation de l’impact social et l’attention envers la recherche sur les médias sociaux montrent la nécessité de changer le focus sur la signification des métriques pour s’intéresser aux contextes de circulation de la recherche. Cette étude s’inscrit dans une démarche exploratoire afin de saisir l’apport de la mise en récit pour examiner la circulation de la recherche sur Twitter à travers le cas d’un article sur les effets des changements climatiques sur les limites géographiques de l’habitat des populations de bourdons. En combinant l’analyse qualitative de tweets, l’analyse de réseaux et un entretien avec support visuel, cette étude montre comment la mise en récit de la diffusion d’un article scientifique peut jeter un éclairage spécifique à propos de sa résonance sur Twitter
Plastic Bits: Genitals and Plastigametes
No full textIn Countersexual Manifesto, Paul Preciado claims that we are on the verge of a historic planetary mutation. ‘We will soon stop printing the book’, Preciado tells us, ‘and start printing the flesh, thus entering the new era of digital biowriting.’ The radical juncture of which Preciado speaks is the potential rewriting of sex alongside recent advances in 3D bioprinting, a process of combining cells, nutrients, proteins and biopolymer gels to fabricate biomedical parts which imitate natural tissues or organs of the human body. The commercialization of 3D bioprinting might liberate the productive forces of desire and equip countersexual revolutionaries with the tools to invent new bodies without persecution. Yet bioethical frameworks continue to exclude access to bioprinting technologies for the production of sex organs, citing moral concerns. This article returns to Preciado’s rallying call for access to 3D bioprinting, to examine the importance of sexual plasticity as it appears today and to consider whether sex is always already interfaced with plastic technologies in quotidian life, for better or worse