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Telling stories that cannot be told : remembering mothers and daughters in Métis narratives from Rwanda
Get PDFOn the eve of independence in Ruanda-Urundi, hundreds of Métis children were taken from Catholic missions and flown to Belgium where they would be fostered, adopted, or sent to local boarding schools. These illegitimate children of white European fathers and Black African mothers were viewed by the colonial authorities as ‘children of sin’. Most of the Métis never saw their birth mothers again and remained illegitimate, unacknowledged by their white European fathers. In 2019, the Belgian government issued a formal apology for the abduction of these children but, for almost sixty years, the stories of the Métis and their mothers had been conveniently forgotten. This article discusses creative attempts to tell the missing stories of the Métis and their mothers by two mixed-‘race’ authors born in Rwanda: Georges Kamanayo, also a filmmaker, was removed from his mother in the late 1950s and taken to Belgium for adoption; Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse imagines the story of an ageing Métis woman with dementia in her novel, Consolée. Drawing on Saidiya Hartman’s concept of ‘critical fabulation’, we consider the role of creative works in repositioning Métis mothers and daughters at the centre of their own history and telling stories that cannot be told.Peer reviewe
Waste to energy direct carbon fuel cell development with lanthanum strontium calcium titanate based anode
Get PDFPerovskite-based material La₀.₂Sr₀.₂₅Ca₀.₄₅MₓTi₁₋ₓO₃₋δ (M=Fe, Co, Ni) was synthesised successfully using optimised Pechini method. SOFC system was fabricated using the synthesised material as the anode, YSZ as the electrolyte, and LSM as the cathode. Initial evaluations were conducted with hydrogen as the fuel. Electrochemical switching in humidified hydrogen is found to significantly improve the performance of the cells. Hydrogen SOFC with La₀.₂Sr₀.₂₅Ca₀.₄₅Co₀.₀₂₅Fe₀.₀₂₅Ti₀.₉₅O₃₋δ anode is found to show low polarisation resistance (3.23 Ω/cm²) and high maximum power density (227 mW/cm²).
HDCFCs were setup with the fuel mixture containing eutectic K₂CO₃/Li₂CO₃ and activated charcoal. When purged with N₂, performance of HDCFCs was found inferior to that of hydrogen SOFCs. Better performance was observed with CO₂ as the purging gas. For example, in CO₂, HDCFC with La₀.₂Sr₀.₂₅Ca₀.₄₅Co₀.₀₂₅Fe₀.₀₂₅Ti₀.₉₅O₃₋δ anode showed a polarization resistance of 2.31 Ω/cm² and power density of 99.6 mW/cm².
To explore the waste-to-energy applications of HDCFCs, medium density fibreboard was pyrolysed, forming a biochar with high oxygen content. Using this biochar as the fuel in the HDCFCs, unexpected OCV loss was observed for high operation temperatures when purged with N₂. With the limitation in testing temperature, worse performance was observed. CO₂ purging maintained OCV at higher temperatures, with the La₀.₂Sr₀.₂₅Ca₀.₄₅Co₀.₀₂₅Fe₀.₀₂₅Ti₀.₉₅O₃₋δ anode showing a polarisation resistance of 9.79 Ω/cm² and power density of 11.6 mW/cm².
Abnormal shape in the I-V curve was observed for HDCFCs and some of the SOFCs tested. In attempt to understand this observation, EIS at different applied voltages were obtained, various conditions were applied for the I-V scans, carbonate concentrations in the fuel mixture were tested and different voltages were applied to the HDCFCs while the off-gases were analysed using gas chromatography. Redox behaviour of anode materials under different applied voltages and the change in CO and carbonate concentrations are suggested to be related to the abnormal curve."I gratefully acknowledge China Scholarship Council and the University of St Andrews for funding my PhD studies (CSC2020) and funding from the EPSRC through grant EP/L017008/1, EP/R023751/1 and EP/T019298/1 for electronic microscopes."--Fundin
Digital exclusion and people experiencing homelessness : implications for opioid use disorder care
Get PDFFunding: Support for this research was provided by the Commonwealth Fund.Purpose of review People experiencing homelessness (PEH) are at increased risk of adverse consequences from opioid use disorder and other health conditions yet face multiple structural and personal barriers to accessing care. The expansion of digitized health and social care services may have improved access and efficiency of services to many in the general population but at the cost of further marginalizing PEH. Current digital exclusion mitigation strategies may not be sufficiently nuanced to address the deeply complex and challenging circumstances of PEH lives. Recent findings Providing devices, data and skills to PEH is no guarantee of increased use and benefit from digitally enabled services. Precarious and constantly mobile lives mean that maintaining sustained digital access is problematic and not always desirable. Even where digital access is secured, PEH are constrained in the range of activities they can engage with online due to privacy and other structural constraints. Justifiable distrust of institutions including healthcare colors the acceptability of digitized services for PEH. This distrust is magnified due to new inequities and vulnerabilities introduced by digitized services including the need for a digital persona, adverse outcomes from adverse digital inclusion and a widening of power imbalances. These more nuanced understandings of digital exclusion are increasingly incorporated into mitigation strategies, premised on co-production and engagement with PEH. Summary Improved engagement with digitally enabled OUD care for PEH must be prefaced by improved access to technology, optimized physical environments to maintain and use technology, and collaborative cross-sectoral efforts to build trust and engage this group through co-production and rebalanced power dynamics.Peer reviewe
Minogue and the end of conservatism
Get PDFThe heyday of conservative intellectual activity in Britain lay between the appearance in 1978 of Conservative Essays edited by Maurice Cowling and the publication in 1996 of Conservative Realism: New Essays in Conservatism edited by Kenneth Minogue. For the most part, these collections represent two understandings of conservatism: the first more oriented towards cultural and social traditionalism, the second directed to the critique of leftist ideologies and the advancement of individualism and freedom. These differences touch on deep issues about the nature, credentials, range, and aims of conservatism and its relation to political theory and practice. This essay explores some of these via an examination of the thought of Kenneth Minogue, a student and then colleague of Michael Oakshott at the London School of Economics, a supporter and friend of Margaret Thatcher, and a dedicated opponent of what he termed “ideology.” The roots of his thought about politics lie in the work of Oakeshott who argues that the role of theory is to interpret various spheres or “modes” of experience, and not to apply itself to action within those spheres. In line with this, Minogue treats political philosophies in the ordinary sense as forms of ideology. For Minogue, however, ideology has a narrower sense relating to theories that claim to reveal forms of social oppression and argue for action to overthrow these. His attack on ideologies (which he sees as including certain forms of conservatism) is connected with his advocacy of individualism and liberty. This paper explores these various issues claiming that this way of thinking rests on misconceptions of the nature of philosophy, and that far from eschewing philosophical support, conservatism should be seeking it out.Peer reviewe
Vitamin S : Why is social contact, even with strangers, so important to well-being?
Get PDFEven before COVID-19, it was well known in psychological science that people’s well-being is strongly served by the quality of their close relationships. But is well-being also served by social contact with people who are known less well? In this article, we discuss three propositions that support the conclusion that the benefits of social contact also derive from interactions with acquaintances and even strangers. The propositions state that most interaction situations with strangers are benign (Proposition 1), that most strangers are benign (Proposition 2), and that most interactions with strangers enhance well-being (Proposition 3). These propositions are supported, first, by recent research designed to illuminate the primary features of interaction situations. This research shows that situations with strangers often represent low conflict of interest. Also, in interactions with strangers, most people exhibit high levels of low-cost cooperation (social mindfulness) and, if the need is urgent, high levels of high-cost helping. We close by sharing research examples showing that even very subtle interactions with strangers yield short-term happiness. Broader implications for COVID-19 and urbanization are discussed.Peer reviewe
Alternative treponemal serology assays for diagnosis and confirmation of syphilis in a diagnostic laboratory : a retrospective evaluation of four agglutination assays and one ELISA
Get PDFFunding: E.W. is supported by a Postgraduate Scholarship from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) (GNT2005380). M.Y.C. is supported by an NHMRC Investigator Grant (GNT2025840). J.M.T. and M.Y.C. is supported by an NHMRC Partnership Project Grant (GNT2003399).The Treponema pallidum particle agglutination (TPPA) assay is no longer available in some settings. Here, we report the results of a clinical laboratory evaluation of alternative treponemal assays, including three T. pallidum hemagglutination assays (TPHAs), a T. pallidum IgG enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and a detailed laboratory evaluation of the only TPHA with Australian regulatory approval. The clinical laboratory evaluation comprised 300 sera (120 TPPA reactive and 180 TPPA non-reactive) collected from individuals ≥18 years between 1 June 2021 and 1 June 2023. Median age was 33, 92% were from a sexually transmitted infection clinic, 71% were male, 15.3% were living with HIV and 5% were pregnant. Twenty-four percent had active untreated syphilis, 25% had prior treated syphilis, and 50.7% had no syphilis. Compared to TPPA, positive percent agreement (PPA) was 99.2% (95% confidence interval [CI], 95.4-99.9%), 100% (95% CI, 96.9-100%), 99.2% (95% CI, 95.4-99.9%), and 93.3% (95% CI, 87.4-96.6%), respectively, for the Arlington, Fortress, and Randox TPHAs, and Euroimmun IgG ELISA. Negative percent agreement (NPA) was 97.8% (95% CI, 94.4-99.1%) for each TPHA and 98.9% (95% CI, 96.0-99.8%) for the Euroimmun IgG ELISA. Clinical sensitivity of the Arlington and Fortress TPHAs for active untreated syphilis infection was equivalent to TPPA at 97.2% (95% CI, 90.4-99.5%) and clinical specificity of these assays was 99.3% (95% CI, 96.3-100%). In the evaluation of the NewBio TPHA, comprising 322 clinical serum and plasma samples and 22 quality assurance panel samples; overall PPA compared to TPPA was 100% (95% CI, 97.5-100%) and NPA 98.9% (95% CI, 94.1-98.9%). TPHAs are an acceptable alternative for confirmatory treponemal serology.Peer reviewe
Personality correlates of out-group harm
Get PDFMotivated by theoretical accounts positing that participation in intergroup conflict is driven by a desire to promote the in-group, past studies have explored the link between prosocial personality dimensions and out-group harm. However, while dimensions such as Honesty-Humility predict in-group cooperation, they do not explain out-group harm. Across two incentivized experimental studies (one preregistered; overall N = 1,584), we show that out-group harm is uniquely associated with higher levels of the Dark Factor of Personality (D), a personality dimension capturing the core of all aversive personality characteristics. Conversely, high levels of D, alongside low levels of Honesty-Humility, are associated with less in-group cooperation. Our results show that in-group cooperation and out-group harm are associated with distinct personality dimensions.Peer reviewe
Trouble on the historical frontier : Will Rogers’ Two Wagons—Both Covered (1924)
Get PDFWhen Paramount’s The Covered Wagon was released in 1923, it inaugurated Hollywood’s first significant cycle of epic Westerns. Moreover, for many observers, it heralded arguably the most decisive intervention yet in what was already a long-running debate about the film capital and its social influence. Against a backdrop of mainstream nativism and concerns about the perceived moral slippage of the Jazz Age, these prestige treatments of the nation’s “defining” frontier history were not only credited with helping to revitalise a stagnant national genre but widely cited as singular evidence of cinema’s exceptional Americanising potential. Yet, the inflated vision of national-historical process that brought middlebrow legitimacy to the Western also proved ripe for deflation. This paper examines how the era’s dominant ideas about history and its direction were interrogated through cinema using the example of Two Wagons—Both Covered (1924), an epic Western parody by one of the most influential Native Americans of the day, Will Rogers, whose Cherokee identity is often overshadowed by his “All-American” screen persona. Made by a popular authority on all things “Western” and set within a recognisable screen West, this two-reel comedy appropriated Hollywood conventions to critique the genre and its worldview from within. At once an insider and an outsider, a cowboy and an Indian, Rogers uses humour to construct a counter-history that invites critical reflection on the basic racial and temporal assumptions of American nationalism.Peer reviewe
Sodium ion conductivities in Na2O–Sm2O3–SiO2 ceramics
Get PDFFunding: This work was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Collaborative Research and Development (CRD) Grants and Geometric Energy Corporation.Ceramic solid electrolytes are promising candidates for advanced solid-state batteries (SSBs) owing to their good ionic conductivity, wide electrochemical stability window, excellent thermal stability and enhanced safety compared to organic liquid electrolytes. In this study, we developed a series of sodium samarium silicates via a conventional solid-state approach using NaNO3, Sm2O3, and SiO2 precursor powders. By incorporating varying amounts of NaNO3, we optimized the ionic conductivity influenced by sodium, and a higher Na content increased the ionic conductivity of silicates to an extent. Among the compositions prepared, N5Sm exhibited the lowest grain boundary resistance and achieved the highest total ionic conductivity of 1.33 × 10−3 S cm−1 at 25 °C after being sintered at 975 °C. The best ion conducting composition demonstrated an electronic conductivity of 9.47 × 10−10 S cm−1, seven orders of magnitude lower than the ionic conductivity. These silicates also showed exceptional electrochemical stability up to 9 V, making them highly suitable for advanced high-voltage sodium battery applications. These findings underscore the potential of silicate electrolytes in developing next-generation batteries.Peer reviewe
The unsettled frontier : historical imagination and asynchronous belonging on the Amur River
Get PDFFunding: The research for this article was made possible by funding from The British Academy’s Newton International Fellowship.This article explores the peculiarity of struggles over memory in Soviet-era planned cities in the Russian Far East. It focuses on the contested history of Permskoe, a village founded by peasant settlers from European Russia in 1860, which was later subsumed by Komsomolsk-na-Amure, an urban industrial center constructed in the Stalinist period in the 1930s. Built with the participation of Young Communist League volunteers recruited from across the Soviet Union, the city was held up as a symbol of the triumph of socialist modernization throughout the twentieth century. But following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, the city suffered a dramatic reversal of fortunes, with a massive outflow of residents and resources leading to an economic crisis that also occasioned a crisis of identity. One manifestation of this crisis is an initiative seeking to recalculate the city’s age based on the date of Permskoe’s founding. This proposal has been denounced by many residents as an attempt to erase the city’s Soviet history and to downplay the role of communist volunteers in the city’s construction. Drawing on the debates which erupted around this periodization controversy, I argue that the collapse of the Soviet imaginary of linear progress and inability to articulate a new frontier myth resulted in “asynchronous belonging,” characterized by radical polarization around memory and irreconcilable allegiances to different moments in local history.Peer reviewe
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