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Gandhi's Prescription: health and hygiene in the struggle for swaraj
No full textAs David Arnold, and many another of his biographers, observes, Gandhi presents us with an enigma for which countless analytical interpretations have been advanced. However in the literature, one aspect of the Mahatma's life and work has received comparatively little theoretical attention: his obsessions with health and hygiene. Thwarted in his youthful ambition to take a degree in medicine by caste prejudice and by the need to support his family, Gandhi nonetheless pursued his experiments in amateur medicine, subjecting both himself and his followers in the Ashrams to his sometimes bizarre practices and prescriptions, and to his hygiene regime. Arguably, in his political struggles for nationalist freedom, having failed to qualify as a doctor he tried to cure India of its ills. In this paper, drawing upon my own research and upon the emerging theory of 'parasite stress', I will examine Gandhi's health and hygiene obsessions and too his campaign against untouchability. I will suggest that his understanding of health and hygiene were grounded in a Hinduisitic paradigm, that this religio-cultural bedrock was itself a health strategy, and that by comparing Gandhi's campaign against untouchability with the progress of Britain's night-soil workers, we can appreciate the limits to Gandhi's political campaign for swaraj and limitations upon Gandhism as a global political resource
An iPad app as a low-visual aid for people with macular disease
No full textAge-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the single most common cause of vision loss in people over the age of 501. Individuals with low vision caused by macular disease, experience severe difficulty with everyday tasks such as reading2, which has profound detrimental consequences for their quality of life3. We have developed an app for the iPad (the MD evReader) that aims to improve reading (of electronic books) by enhancing the effectiveness of the eccentric viewing technique (EV) using dynamic text presentation. Eccentric viewing is a simple strategy adopted by individuals with AMD that involves using the relatively preserved peripheral region of their retina in order to see. A limiting factor of the EV technique is that it relies on the individual holding their gaze away from the focus of interest and suppressing the natural and strong, tendency to make eye-movements (saccades). During normal reading, for example, a stereotypical pattern of horizontal saccades are made, from left-to-right, enabling fixations to be made on each word4 – Figure 1a). The natural inclination to make saccades is, however, difficult to suppress and limits the effectiveness of eccentric viewing in people with macular disease
Computational selection of transcriptomics experiments improves Guilt-by-Association analyses
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Repopulating the Emptiness: A Spatial Critique of Ruination in Israel/Palestine
No full textThis article critically examines the notions of spatial emptiness and ruination through their unsettled appearance in the archive of colonization. Focusing on the history of Zionist colonization of Palestine/Eretz Israel, it illustrates how the encounter with the land fractures the ideological construct of emptiness and foregrounds the ambiguities found at the heart of the self-assured discourse of Zionism. Though there is an established corpus of scholarship that deconstructs the colonial fallacy of ‘the empty land’, the actuality and materiality of emptying processes and acts of ruination remains on the margins of this critical effort. Through a re-reading of key Zionist texts from different historical moments, the analysis sheds light on the contradictions and ambiguities that lie at the heart of the Zionist territorial project and the inherent weaknesses of the hegemonic production of space
An iPad app as a low-visual aid for people with macular disease
No full textAge-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the single most common cause of vision loss in people over the age of 501. Individuals with low vision caused by macular disease, experience severe difficulty with everyday tasks such as reading2, which has profound detrimental consequences for their quality of life3. We have developed an app for the iPad (the MD evReader) that aims to improve reading (of electronic books) by enhancing the effectiveness of the eccentric viewing technique (EV) using dynamic text presentation. Eccentric viewing is a simple strategy adopted by individuals with AMD that involves using the relatively preserved peripheral region of their retina in order to see. A limiting factor of the EV technique is that it relies on the individual holding their gaze away from the focus of interest and suppressing the natural and strong, tendency to make eye-movements (saccades). During normal reading, for example, a stereotypical pattern of horizontal saccades are made, from left-to-right, enabling fixations to be made on each word4 – Figure 1a). The natural inclination to make saccades is, however, difficult to suppress and limits the effectiveness of eccentric viewing in people with macular disease
The Artistic and Architectural Patronage of Angela Burdett Coutts
Get PDFThis thesis focuses on the life and artistic patronage of the Victorian philanthropist, Angela Burdett Coutts. The daughter of both an aristocrat and a member of the nouveau riche, Burdett Coutts was the product of both the new and old world of Victorian society and this thesis explores the ways in which Burdett Coutts fashioned an identity as a member of the aristocratic elite through her patronage of art and architecure. It explores the ways in which taste, gender and class are reflected in her collecting practice and examines her role as a patron through three case studies, as art collector, philanthropist and patron of architecture
From Hidden Technology to Exhibition Showpiece: The Journey of 2LO, the BBC’s First Radio Transmitter, 1922-2012
No full textOn the 14th of November 1922, those with radios in the south of England tuned into the first broadcast of the newly formed British Broadcasting Company (BBC). Hidden away from public view in Marconi House, on The Strand in London, was the technology that converted the sound waves of the studio into radio waves, amplifying them so that they could reach across the ether into thousands of homes across the country. This technology was the 2LO transmitter, and this thesis traces its journey from this remote place to the national platform of the Science Museum nearly ninety years later. Engaging with a range of theories relating to object theory and material culture, this thesis initially considers 2LO as a representative of the BBC: rarely seen apart from by a privileged few yet facilitating a connection which eventually stretched across the UK. It then follows 2LO’s removal from London to Brookman’s Park in Hertfordshire and its transformation into a display piece that played a key role in the corporate image making of the BBC. It also explores the personal affection that this object inspired in many of those who worked with it, often saving it from near disaster until it came safely to the Science Museum in 2002. This thesis then goes on to look more closely at the physical object, tracing the marks of time on the materials that make up 2LO. Through this exercise, 2LO is literally rather than socially deconstructed, with issues of authenticity and the aesthetics of age being discussed. Through the use of ethnography and interview this thesis goes on to look at the role of 2LO within the Science Museum, and the conscious way in which cultural institutions shape narratives for the public. Across a range of institutional spaces 2LO’s image has been shaped into that of an ‘icon of broadcasting history’, and at present is destined for a multi-million pound gallery based on the history of communications. In closely following the life of a unique object, this thesis seeks to unpick our complex relationship with the ‘things’ in our world, and the multiple narratives that can be weaved around even one piece of material heritage
Inductive conformal predictors in the batch mode
No full textConformal predictors are set predictors that are automatically valid in the sense of having coverage probability equal to or exceeding a given confidence level. Inductive conformal predictors are a computationally efficient version of conformal predictors satisfying the same property of validity. However, inductive conformal predictors have been only known to control unconditional coverage probability. This paper explores various versions of conditional validity and various ways to achieve them using inductive conformal predictors and their modifications
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