UiS Open Journals (Univ. of Stavanger)
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Self-care and Productive Ageing Practices among Rural Pensioned Retired Primary School Teachers in Tanzania
Get PDFProductive ageing as a global agenda and initiative aims to improve the productivity of the older population, evidenced to be gradually increasing and living longer. Older people are a significant resource in most African communities. Understanding their productive ageing practices and experiences in their localities informs social work practitioners on how they can promote and support productivity for other older people in their respective communities. This study conducted in Iringa, Tanzania explored two questions: (i) What practices do retired primary school teachers engage in to achieve productive ageing in their local communities? (ii) In what ways can social work practitioners integrate the practices of productive ageing towards enhancing the well-being of older people in their communities? We applied a case study design that involved 14 purposively selected participants, with data gathered through interviews and thematically analysed. The findings reveal that older people actively engage in several practices and activities that nurture their productive ageing, while empowering them to be relevant and providing support within their local communities. Self-care practices revealed include proper hygiene, diet and exercise engagement. Furthermore, the types of socio-economic activities and participation that include farming, livestock keeping, self-help groups and community shared events are shaped and influenced by cultural factors, community values, individual preferences, the abilities of older people and the availability of resources at their disposal. The productive ageing practices and engagements are practical and relevant to rural contexts. Despite commonalities in some aspects of productive ageing informed by international literature, this study reveals distinct variations in activities and other dimensions of productive ageing, such as self-care. Consequently, this study highlights the necessity for upholding and encouraging local and context-based productive ageing practices that have proven to be beneficial, practical, relevant and responsive to local realities
Engaged Scholarship through Community Social Labs: Advancing Indigenisation of Social Work Education in Uganda
Get PDFThe indigenisation of social work education in Africa is a response to the limitations of Western-centric approaches to addressing complex local social issues. This paper explores the role of engaged scholarship and community social labs in indigenising social work education in Uganda. The study analyses data from four focus group discussions, and student WhatsApp conversations, to examine how these approaches facilitate meaningful community engagement and the integration of local knowledge into the social work curriculum. The results show that community social labs can help with cultural sensitivity and problem-solving that is relevant to the situation. They also demonstrate that institutional constraints and power dynamics may hinder this transition.
Despite these issues, the study suggests that engaged scholarship through community social labs has significant potential to make social work education and practice in Uganda more culturally sensitive and responsive to local realities. Even with these challenges, the study suggests that engaging scholars in community social labs has a lot of potential to make social work education and practice in Uganda more sensitive to local cultures and needs
Rheological Behavior of Aqueous Suspensions of Highly-Refine Pulp Fibres
Get PDFThis study focuses on the rheological properties of highly-refined pulp fibres (HRF) as a potential alternative to energy-intensive microfibrillated and nanofibrillated celluloses (MFC/NFC). HRF, produced via conventional refining, has a broad size distribution but may offer similar functional benefits. We performed a detailed rheological analysis of HRF suspensions at four refining levels and five solids contents (1.2–3.0 wt%), using amplitude and frequency sweep measurements to assess viscoelastic properties, and steady-state viscosity measurements to examine flow behaviour
“Always a Delight for the Audience”: The Songs of Josephine Lang in Munich’s Musical Life, 1827–1842
Get PDFThis paper examines the life and work of Josephine Lang (1815–1880) within the context of Munich’s musical culture between 1827 and 1842. Drawing on a variety of sources, including historical newspapers, city maps, travel guides, and archival materials, the study explores Lang’s activities as a composer and performer, emphasizing the interplay between the spaces where her music was performed and the networks of musicians, patrons, and institutions that shaped her career. Special attention is given to her reception in the Munich press, which portrayed her as a “tone poetess” and celebrated her originality, emotional depth, and technical skill. By analyzing press reports and reconstructing performances of her songs, this paper highlights how Lang’s figurative voice as a composer resonated alongside her literal voice as a performer. This dual perspective not only sheds light on Lang’s significance but also offers insights into the dynamics of Munich’s musical culture, revealing the interdependence of spaces, actors, and cultural practices in shaping artistic life
Disturbing Jazz Compositional Canons through a Transdisciplinary Improvisational Approach
Get PDFIn October of 2024, Oded Ben-Horin (of Western Norway University of Applied Science) and myself experimented with a transdisciplinary and improvisatory approach towards research and education within jazz at the VOW Erasmus+ international training conference. We set out to interrogate modes of valorisation within the jazz sphere, especially given the lack of women composers represented in canonical jazz works. Our format challenged pervasive mechanisms by which particular artists come to occupy spaces of agency and prestige within the jazz world. Given the renewed interest in music’s immediate and material impact upon the body and its perseverance, and especially upon the performatively gendered bodies of jazz’s performance spaces, our presentation adopted a transdisciplinary (TD) approach and redirected this materiality to challenge notions of ownership through creative musical improvisation across musical genres and disciplines. This framework provided space for experimentation with our conscious, in-the-moment understanding of intra-action of disciplines within the Voices of Women project, enabling us to approach the material and discursive in an integral way. Specifically, we aimed to intervene in the existing barriers to canonical status, by drawing attention to under-recognized female jazz agents, especially Lil Hardin Armstrong, and the materials that evidence her many innovations, while also engaging dynamically with the material traces of her career. In our presentation, we gained new insights through musicological and historical analysis of new materials, which we then integrated into our improvisations, sometimes with each other and sometimes in dialogue with Hardin Armstrong’s media. Our TD, improvisatory approach aimed to integrate study and practice of little referenced materials of jazz women to allow various forms of knowledge to collide; through this, we simultaneously argued that, and practiced how, knowledge and insight do not pre-exist those collisions across disciplines. Thus, we exemplify a real-time performative approach to scientific practices which acknowledge that knowing necessarily occurs through the body and by means of direct material engagement with the world, past and present. 
New Insights into Stringiness from Extensional Rheology
No full textThe final arbiter of consumer acceptance of a food product are sensory studies, which can be roughly categorized into liking studies and quantitative sensory analysis. In the latter sensory qualities of a food product are evaluated by panelists on a defined scale. These are invaluable instruments in setting targets for product development, but also as the final quality arbiters for a new product. Instrumental analysis, be it texture analysis or shear rheology, have served as valuable tools to accelerate food and food ingredient R&D where correlations between instrumental analysis and sensory science can be established. However, there are sensory attributes which are not easily described by shear rheology and other techniques are needed. This is especially true if the kinematic of the deformation at the root of the perception is not matched by shear rheology. This is for example the case with texture length (also called ropiness or stringiness). Despite the relevance of this perception aspect to the quality of the food item, formulation is guided by shear rheology. This bears the risk that formulation recommendations are off target and can lead to costly iterations. We will present a small study which connects careful extensional rheology to a sensory study on a condensed milk model. While the number of samples is small, this study demonstrates the general approach one can take. It points to which attributes are uniquely captured by extensional rheology and therefore where this technique adds distinct value and where conventional shear rheology suffices
pH- and Temperature-Dependent Strain Hardening of Sodium Caseinate Gels
No full textSodium caseinate, a protein ingredient produced from the major protein fraction in bovine milk, can form acid-induced gels that show interesting strain hardening behaviour in large oscillation amplitude shear. For the first time it was investigated whether the strain hardening of sodium caseinate gels depends on the time point at which the strain sweep is conducted. For this purpose, strain sweeps were started at various time points during the acidification, and the G’ values were related to those obtained in small amplitude oscillatory shear (SAOS) experiments at the same time. The results showed that the strain hardening behaviour is in fact not constant during the gelation process. Interestingly, the smallest overshoot factor was observed around the maximum G’ in SAOS experiments, whereas it increased again with the pH further decreasing
Hydrogel-Based Artificial Blood as a Lubricant in Bio-Tribological Model System Testing
No full textUnderstanding the tribological behavior of blood-lubricated interfaces is considered relevant for the design of heart pumps, heart valves or for the understanding of the blood flow in very narrow blood vessels. Tribological studies with real biological materials are challenging, e.g., due to their limited stability or potential risk of infections. To overcome these challenges, artificial materials are used in this study to mimic real blood and the biological interfaces. As for the lubricant, a hydrogel-based artificial blood with a glycerol-water solution, as a continuous phase, is used. Various compositions of artificial blood are investigated and compared with real plasma as well as platelet-rich plasma as lubricants. Soft biological interfaces are represented by a glass-ball-on-three-elastomeric pins setup. Results from tribological model system measurements on the different lubricants are shown in the form of Stribeck curves and possible lubricating mechanisms are discussed. Results from complementary shear rheological measurements of the blood fluids are shown and discussed