4254 research outputs found
Sort by
Mourning Balliceaux: towards a biography of a Caribbean island of death, grief and memory
No full textThis contribution frames the biography of a small Caribbean island (Balliceaux, St Vincent and the Grenadines) and illustrates how it holds up a mirror to the experiences of the Garifuna (‘Black Carib’) indigenous peoples who live on the neighbouring island of St Vincent, and in diasporic communities through the Americas. In the late eighteenth century this island was the scene of a genocide orchestrated by the British colonial authorities on the Garifuna, and as such it has become an important place of memory. We start by taking a broadly phenomenological approach to the analysis of island-scape, emphasizing its qualities as an embodied as well as physical entity, and then build upon the notion of embodiment using perspectives drawn from psychological studies of grief and grieving through the lens of grief and death studies. We argue that it is only through deploying such a phenomenological perspective to the study of a single Caribbean island that we can discern the metaphors employed by the Garifuna in making sense of this island of death, grief and memory. By drawing on their own understandings of Balliceaux as a base for our theorizations, we offer a novel approach and decolonized way to think about the character of a Caribbean island. <br/
Replenishing the soil: food, fertiliser and soil science in Occupied Japan (1945-52)
Get PDFEnvironmental scientists and activists in the early twenty-first century have identified productive, healthy soils as a key factor in feeding a rapidly increasing global population and mitigating climate change. This article argues that serious food shortages in Japan following its defeat in 1945 caused the fertility of its soils to become a pressing issue for the Allied Occupation (1945-52) and one seen as central to the success of democratisation. The prospect of famine in the cities in 1946 and 1947 and associated political unrest justified urgent imports of food from the US, causing much resentment among its allies, who questioned the seriousness of the food supply crisis in Japan. The Occupation’s Natural Resources Section worked to reduce Japan’s dependence on food imports by surveying Japan’s soils and recommending their rapid augmentation with chemical fertilisers, the manufacture of which had practically ceased during the war. The US imported nitrogenous fertiliser to supplement inadequate domestic output and provided phosphate ore (for superphosphate fertiliser) from Florida in addition to encouraging Japanese mining operations on Angaur Island, formerly part of the Japanese empire. The latter generated conflicts with the natives of the island, the local US naval command and the Australian government. Such tensions demonstrate the many and varied facets of the ‘fertiliser problem’, which was seen as pivotal to food supply and economic recovery. Major imports of agricultural commodities from the US after 1952 reflected its Cold War alliance with Japan. Likewise, significant transfers of technology contributed to a steep increase in the use of agricultural chemicals, causing the fertiliser problem to become a pressing environmental one by the 1990s.Key words: chemical fertiliser, soil science, food supply, Allied Occupation of Japan, economic recovery, Cold War<br/
Multi-modal Adversarial Training for Crisis-related Data Classification on Social Media
No full textSocial media platforms such as Twitter are increasingly used to collect data of all kinds. During natural disasters, users may post text and image data on social media platforms to report information about infrastructure damage, injured people, cautions and warnings. Timely and effective processing and analysing tweets can help city organisations gain situational awareness of the affected citizens and take timely operations. With the advances in deep learning techniques, recent studies have significantly improved the performance in classifying crisis-related tweets. However, deep learning models are vulnerable to adversarial examples, which may be imperceptible to the human, but can lead to model's misclassification. To process multi-modal data as well as improve the robustness of deep learning models, we propose a multi-modal adversarial training method for crisisrelated tweets classification in this paper. The evaluation results clearly demonstrate the advantages of the proposed model in improving the robustness of tweet classification
The use of extensively hydrolysed and amino acid feeds beyond cow’s milk allergy – a national survey:Specialist feeds beyond cow’s milk allergy
Get PDFBackground: Extensively hydrolysed formulas (EHFs) and amino acid formulas (AAFs) with proven hypoallergenicity are used for children suffering from cow's milk allergy, when breast milk is not available. However, these feeds are often used in other medical conditions where tolerance and absorption of whole protein is affected, frequently without assessment of efficacy. This practice survey assessed the use of these feeds in paediatric conditions other than cow's milk allergy; aiming to describe the population, growth parameters and micronutrient status.Methods: Four National Health Service tertiary paediatric centres participated in this practice survey. Inclusion: children between 0 and 18 years, consuming >25% of their estimated energy requirements of an EHF/AAF for any condition other than allergic disease. Anonymised data were collected: (i) descriptive information; (ii) indications; (iii) type and route of feeding; (iv) growth status and nutritional deficiencies; and (v) medication and vitamin and mineral supplementation.Results: One hundred-and-ninety-one children were included with a median age of 19 months (interquartile range 4-63]. Seventeen percent (33/191) were on AAFs and 83% (158/191) were on EHFs. The feeds were commonly used in cancer for 26% and in critical illness for 31%. The majority (73%) of children had enteral feeds via a nasogastric tube. Nutritional biomarkers were performed in 29% of children and 83% were on a vitamin or mineral supplement.Conclusions: This practice survey found that EHFs and AAFs were used in a variety of medical conditions. Indications for feed choice varied, and evidence-based research supporting the use was scarce. Awaiting further research, children on these types of feeds should have regular nutritional monitoring
The Emerald Guide to Zygmunt Bauman
No full textThe influential sociologist and social theorist Zygmunt Bauman was a prolific commentator on contemporary social life. The extent and range of his published work is so vast that it is easy for the uninitiated reader to feel daunted by the sheer scale of works and where to begin. That is, until now. The Emerald Guide to Zygmunt Bauman is the first introductory guide to the work of Zygmunt Bauman, designed specifically for students and those new to his work. It provides a clear, comprehensive and authoritative overview of the emergence and development of key themes and arguments across the whole body of Bauman s work, from his early publications in Poland in relation to actually existing socialism, to his Marxist revisionism, his influential analysis of the Holocaust, and his contribution to ethics and critiques of modernity and liquid modern neoliberalism. Critically, the book also places Bauman s work in context by discussing the influence of his personal biography on his ideas. This book provides a firm foundation for the independent reading of Bauman himself and for exploring the many discussions and interpretations of his influential ideas. It is essential reading for readers in sociology, politics, history, law, religion and other areas of the social sciences to which Bauman made a contribution
The Future of Institutional Listening:Conversation in the Cracks of the University
Get PDFListening to students is not only often a deficiency in educational theory, but also for educational leaders, policy-makers, teachers, parents, and educational actors in society more broadly. This article outlines this problem while suggesting that educational conversations that occur "within" the context of institutions can afford particular benefits to their participants and the institutions themselves. Topics of interest specific to the institutional experience of individuals, including those that are highly critical of them, can be developed in non-linear and non-efficiency-orientated directions, in a manner that is both individualised and pluralistic
Statistical Finite Element Analysis of the Mechanical Response of the Intact Human Femur Using a Wide Range of Individual Anatomies
Get PDFThis paper attempts to obtain an improved and more physiological distribution of the applied joint and muscle forces on the intact human femur and to gain an understanding of inter-subject variability on the mechanical response. A set of 109 CT-based femur models of individual anatomies were simulated using the Finite Element method during walking. Heterogeneous material properties, physiological boundary and loading conditions were applied to each femur model to form a reference initial load configuration [1]. To correct the imbalance in the force system, an optimisation scheme was adopted that iteratively updated the locations of both muscle and joint attachments across a 5-mm radius circle centred at the initially defined node in the reference load configuration [2, 3]. Across all patients, a 28–48% reduction in the resultant reaction force magnitude measured at the femoral head was achieved. A clear gender bias was present in terms of reaction forces and strains in both the initial and optimised models. The optimisation scheme mostly affected the medial-lateral component of the reaction force. The change in the average strain was found to be highly dependent upon the percentage reduction achieved in the optimisation process. This reduction was higher for males than females and is most likely due to size differences. Body weight and bone density highly influenced reaction forces and strains. Femoral anteversion linarly increased with reaction forces; ther anatomical parameters such as neck length, neck offset, and functional femoral length or CCD angle did not have a clear influence on these forces.Keywords: Inter-subject variability Anatomy Femur Walking Finite Element Reaction force Strain Optimisation Statistical analysi
