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Unpicking the toxicity in activewear
Get PDFNonylphenol (NPs) and Nonylphenol-Ethoxylates (NPEs) are man-made chemicals used in domestic cleaners (until being phased out in the 1990’s) and in the textile processing industry. Research shows that if NPs and NPEs reach open water they enter the food of aquatic life and cause damage through disrupting hormones.
This research seeks to examine whether one of the possible causes of NPs and NPEs entering wastewater streams at Pukete Treatment Plant in Hamilton, New Zealand could be from the initial home laundering, by consumers, of activewear garments. Reports from 2013 and 2015 from water samples at Pukete Treatment Plant, Hamilton show the presence of phenols.
The small pilot study that we have run indicates that phenols are present in some textiles; this is consistent with studies undertaken by Greenpeace in 2011. Further testing is currently being conducted to confirm these results
Sneaky Feelings: The Mercury Moment (Flying Nun/digital outlets)
No full textReview of Sneaky Feelings album The Mercury Moment by Graham Rei
“I'm a little black boy and I don't know my place”: Phil Lynott and the Black Atlantic
No full textThis presentation uses Paul Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic to examine the music and career of Phil Lynott, of 70s Irish hard rock band Thin Lizzy. Lynott’s “mixed” ethnic and national lineage (half Caribbean black, half Irish white, born in the UK, raised in Ireland) relate directly to Gilroy’s black diaspora both in terms of parentage and popular music, the latter being central to Gilroy’s argument about the articulation of black experience of trauma and dislocation in creative and other forms. Discussion of gender in popular music, particularly the association of rock music with masculinity, intersects with discourses about ethnicity that highlight “excessive” masculinity in non-white subjects. The essay considers alternative approaches to masculinity that focus on intra-ethnic conflict, gender performativity, homosocial interaction and punk, while also employing Black Atlantic concepts of antiphony and rhythmic complexity to investigate the band’s music
Sonic Experiments
No full textMusical collaboration with Riki Gooch.
A musical exploration of internet based collaboration in realtime through long-form musical textures and structured improvisation from Hamilton to Wellington.
Informed by traditions of free music making and utilised as an improvisational musical tool, this is a technologically mediated, compositional realisation of slow music. A meditative type of musical structure that is predicated by the limitations of technology, and informed by traditions of ambient music, soundscape, minimalism and free noise
Engineering gone wild. Cutting edge techniques for polo.
Get PDFWe’ve all heard about animals as engineers – beavers and their mud-and branch lodges, the ovenbird’s ingenious nest, and, of course, bees and their perfectly wrought hexagonal hives. But human engineers working on behalf of animals? That story’s less familiar. From perfecting zoo habitats to improving veterinary surgery, here are some instances of New Zealand engineers bringing their skills to the animal kingdom
State-Wide genomic and epidemiological analyses of Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus faecium in Tasmania’s Public Hospitals
No full textFrom 2015 onwards, the number of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VREfm) isolates increased in Tasmania. Previously, we examined the transmission of VREfm at the Royal Hobart Hospital (RHH). In this study, we performed a state-wide analysis of VREfm from Tasmania’s four public acute hospitals. Whole-genome analysis was performed on 331 isolates collected from screening and clinical specimens of VREfm. In silico multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) was used to determine the relative abundance of broad sequence types (ST) across the state. Core genome MLST (cgMLST) was then applied to identify potential clades within the ST groupings followed by single-nucleotide polymorphic (SNP) analysis. This work revealed that differences in VREfm profiles are evident between the state’s two largest hospitals with the dominant vanA types being ST80 at the RHH and ST1421 at Launceston General Hospital (LGH). A higher number of VREfm cases were recorded at LGH (n = 54 clinical, n = 122 colonization) compared to the RHH (n = 14 clinical, n = 67 colonization) during the same time period, 2014–2016. Eleven of the clinical isolates from LGH were vanA and belonged to ST1421 (n = 8), ST1489 (n = 1), ST233 (n = 1), and ST80 (n = 1) whereas none of the clinical isolates from the RHH were vanA. For the recently described ST1421, cgMLST established the presence of individual clusters within this sequence type that were common to more than one hospital and that included isolates with a low amount of SNP variance (≤16 SNPs). A spatio-temporal analysis revealed that VREfm vanA ST1421 was first detected at the RHH in 2014 and an isolate belonging to the same cgMLST cluster was later collected at LGH in 2016. Inclusion of isolates from two smaller hospitals, the North West Regional Hospital (NRH) and the Mersey Community Hospital (MCH) found that ST1421 was present in both of these institutions in 2017. These findings illustrate the spread of a recently described sequence type of VREfm, ST1421, to multiple hospitals in an Australian state within a relatively short time span
Tuateawa: A study in soundscape ecology
Get PDFRamp Gallery
7-11 Dec 2020
A multimedia work
by
Kent Macpherson
Rhys Jones &
Paul Nelson
The Tuateawa project seeks to inform Ecological Understanding using Analyses of Soundscapes. Sound recordings are made in specific locations near Tuateawa in the Coromandel peninsula. This area is being monitored for the eradication of pests such as possums, stoats and rats. The work looks at how the soundscapes change over time. In particular, How is bird life affected by the presence of introduced noxious pests? How does human activity influence natural behaviours. The project is a form of documentary capturing detailed sound recordings every season for three or more years. The sound data is analysed for any noticeable shifts in frequency and loudness, then output as various visual abstractions, the first of which is an audio visual work for LCD screens and speakers at Ramp Gallery 7-11 December 2020. The intended audience is intermediate age children to get them thinking about how these soundscapes might be understood and focused on through a less ‘scientific’ mediu
Lockdown cure
No full textExploring cross-cultural research collaboration through internet-based collaborative technology.
A musical exploration of internet based collaboration in realtime through long-form musical textures and structured improvisation.
A compositional realisation of slow music. A meditative type of musical structure that is predicated by the limitations of technology, and informed by traditions of ambient music, soundscape, minimalism and contemporary classical music, alongside the traditions of taonga puor
Textures and Particles
No full textVisual and musical collaborative art making with Paul Bradley, Craig McClure, Kirke Godfrey and Jeremy Mayall.
Part of the Drawing and Sounds concert series.
Utilising performance ideas to inspire a period of combined art making. Sharing an art experience through technology
A musical exploration of internet based collaboration in realtime through long-form musical textures and structured improvisation.
A compositional realisation of slow music. A meditative type of musical structure that is predicated by the limitations of technology, and informed by traditions of ambient music, soundscape, minimalism and contemporary classical music
Titanium coatings plasma-sprayed with/without a shroud
Get PDFTitanium coatings were deposited by plasma spraying with and without a shroud. The as-sprayed titanium coatings were then microstructurally examined. A comparison in microstructure between titanium coatings with and without the shroud was carried out. Based on the analytical results, it showed that the shroud played a critical role in protecting the titanium particles from oxidation. The presence of the shroud in the plasma spraying brought about better heating of the particles in the plasma jet due to mitigation of air entrainment with the shroud, thus a reduction in coating porosity was obtained. An enhanced microstructure in the shrouded titanium coatings was observed compared to the air plasma sprayed counterpart