102 research outputs found
Barbara Dicker Oration 2018 - The phenomenon of hallucinations
No full textThe 2018 Barbara Dicker Oration was presented by Professor Iris Sommer on 13 September 2018. Professor Sommer is a best-selling author and Professor of Cognitive Aspects of Neurological and Psychiatric Disorder at the Department of Neuroscience at the University Medical Center Groningen, Netherlands. Entitled The phenomenon of hallucinations, Professor Sommer offered a holistic view into the research and experiences of hallucinations. It’s actually more common than you might think but what happens in our brains when we hallucinate? And what does this mean for new treatments and interventions
The problem with playing golf in the desert
No full textOn secondment with the Goldfields Land & Sea Council, JEREMY DICKER found a community facing the future with greater hope
The mine
Deep in Western Australia’s desert, on the outskirts of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, is a wire fence. On one side of this fence is one of the world’s largest open-pit gold mines, the SuperPit. Its sheer size is staggering, completely smothering the richest square mile of auriferous country on earth. The CAT trucks hauling the ore out of the ground look like matchbox cars from the mine’s edge, yet you can’t help but gawk at them like a school kid in a zoo. This mine operates 24 hours a day, and digs up around two million dollars of gold each day. The blokes (or, increasingly, women) in the driver seat of one of these CAT trucks can each earn up to 110,000 a year. In short, it’s a wealthy corner of the globe.
On the other side of the fence is a place called “Boulder Camp.” The term “camp” is a bit generous, as it’s really just a red patch of desert littered with old rubber tires and crude shelters made out of corrugated iron. When the wind blows you need to squint to keep the dust out of your eyes, and when it stops, your ears buzz with the sound of heavy machinery over the fence. This is where people live, generally the “desert mob,” the name given to Aboriginals who have moved closer to town in order to find food or, quite often, to attend relatives’ funerals. The body of a 24 year old woman was found there in March of this year.
And, in between, lies that wire fence
***
What is it that separates Aboriginal Australians from the overwhelming wealth of their own country? What is it that keeps them in the shadow of the mines, rather than in the head office? Such questions generally draw a battle-weary sigh from Kalgoorlie’s local lawyers and policy makers.
According to local barrister Philip Vincent, the problem is largely a historical one. “It’s Australia’s tendency to exclude its Aboriginal people from an entire network of relationships.” Vincent, a Kalgoorlie-based barrister, has had decades of experience as a lawyer in Aboriginal affairs, whether working as an Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS) lawyer on the infamous “circuit,” acting for claimants in some of Australia’s largest native title hearings, or working as an advisor to Australia’s first Aboriginal cabinet minister.
Slowly sipping his beer, staring at some unknown point on the wall behind me, his tired eyes betrayed the sense of frustration behind his otherwise soft-spoken demeanour. “It’s a tough situation. But it’s certainly not derived from any sense of unworthiness on their part. I’ve proofed dozens and dozens of witnesses at Native Title trials over the years and what has emerged is a tremendous narrative of Aboriginal employment in the region. They’ve built railroads, mines, roads not to mention those who have emerged as top educators and health professionals. Frankly, it’s quite impressive.”
Much of Vincent’s recent work has been with the Goldfields Land and Sea Council (GLSC), an Aboriginal corporation which represents Aboriginal interests across a huge swath of Western Australia, bigger than Texas, England or the state of Victoria. It stretches from the southern edge of the Great Central Desert all the way to Esperance on Australia’s southern coast, and then seaward to the edge of Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone. Almost 20 per cent of the more than 53 billion in mineral and energy wealth produced in Western Australia each year is extracted from these lands, mostly in nickel and gold mining.
Leo Thomas, a project officer with the GLSC and a respected leader within the local Wongatha Aboriginal community, recalls the many days that he spent trying to find a job for his son. “My boy had been looking for a job for a while, but no one would hire him. No one would give a black fella a chance,” he said. “So eventually, I drove down to a mine where I knew the manager, and I begged him begged him to give my boy a chance, just to be treated like everyone else.” The manager reluctantly agreed and, like many mine managers in the region, has since gone on to become actively involved in Aboriginal affairs in the region. As for Leo’s son, he’s never looked back.
Trevor Donaldson, operations manager for the GLSC and another respected Aboriginal leader, remembers the repeated bouts of rejection that marked his own long and arduous search for a job. “The employment office would tell me about an apprenticeship being offered downtown, so I’d ring up, arrange an interview and head over there in my best clothes. But the man in the front office would just see a black fella approaching, and would shout out, ‘Sorry, no jobs here,’ and I’d go through the same thing over and over again. It wasn’t until I stumbled upon a pastoralist’s house out of town that my chance came. They were an old Christian couple, and they gave me my first job.”
The jail
Unfortunately, not all Aboriginal people in the Goldfields have had the luck or persistence of Trevor Donaldson or Leo Thomas. A visit to Boulder Prison makes this clear. As one Wongatha man put it, “If someone were to visit Australia for the first time and see all the black fellas behind bars, they’d think there was a civil war happening.”
Boulder Prison, like many of Australia’s prisons, is populated predominantly by young Aboriginal males. It sits on the outskirts of town just a short drive from Boulder Camp, and, like everything else in Kalgoorlie, it’s covered in a layer of red dust. Approaching the security booth at the main gates, you can hear the muffled shouts of some untold struggle inside. The old guard doesn’t seem to notice.
Murray Stubbs, a court officer with the ALS and a Wongatha man, has visited this prison countless times. “I’ve done this job for about 16 years all up, and nothing much has changed for the black fella. Jailtime, grog and unemployment are still destroying my people.”
We sat in a small concrete cell to interview some of the inmates awaiting trial, generally for driving offences and minor assaults. The same shouts that we heard from outside were now uncomfortably close, echoing down the halls around us. A young black fella, probably no older than I am (24) walked in. He looked decidedly scared, and confused as to why a “Wongi” (black fella) and “Walypala” (white fella, pronounced wull-buh-luh) had come to see him. Stubbs commenced the interview, in a language I couldn’t understand, before pointing to me:
“This Walypala here to see how the Walypala law treats Wongi different to Walypala. He from Sydney. You know Sydney?”
The young bloke maintained his blank expression, shaking his head slowly. Stubbs continued, pointing eastward out a barred window:
“Sydney is big Walypala place beyond the desert that way.”
The young bloke shrugged his shoulders and the interview continued, as I sat bewildered. It turned out that he was awaiting trial for driving without a license, and should have been at home on bail but had somehow slipped through the system’s cracks. He broke into a smile when we told him he’d be home next week.
One after another, young blokes trudged into our interview room, with similar melancholy stories to tell, always in a language I couldn’t understand. As the afternoon wore on, the sun began to project fluid hues of orange and purple onto the wall beside us. The dark mood was broken only once, when a young bloke laughed at Stubbs’ remark that this was his twentieth arrest for driving without a license. Twentieth.
Walking out of that prison, Stubbs didn’t need to say anything. That afternoon had spoken very clearly for itself.
The golf course
A quick drive from Boulder Prison is Piccadilly Street in Kalgoorlie, and at the bottom of this street is a construction site. There, the finishing touches are being put on a 200 megalitre storm water harvesting dam to help irrigate the nation’s first “world-class desert golf course,” planned to open later this year after falling more than twelve months behind schedule. The dam, costing around 4 million in taxpayers’ money, is designed to collect storm water runoff which usually flows though to Hannan’s Lake. It’s one of the more tangible outcomes flowing from the WA government’s 10 million stake in the golf course, which also includes an adjacent 30 million luxury resort.
It’s hard not to question the priorities of a state government, with a 2 billion budget surplus, that spends $4 million to build a dam for a golf course just a few miles from the kinds of conditions you’d expect to see in a World Vision commercial, and a stone’s throw away from several hundred young men behind bars who speak no English and have no hope.
This is all part of what Philip Vincent calls the “remorselessness” of this country towards its original inhabitants. “It’s a remorselessness that has manifested itself as resistance at the highest level, especially in the native title arena.”
The court room
Although native title law was designed so that Aboriginal land rights could be proven and recognised in a federal court of law, a quick look at any recent native title decision in Western Australia is more likely to bring David and Goliath imagery to mind. In the 2007 Wongatha decision, in which Federal Court Justice Lindgren dismissed the Wongatha claim in the north eastern Goldfields, the list of respondents (or, more accurately, opponents) was several pages long, including both the state and Commonwealth governments with their enormous resources, and more than 30 mining companies each represented by the usual mega-firms that dot our city skylines. Vincent recalls looking across the court on the first day of proceedings and seeing the opposing teams of lawyers, several rows deep.
The list of names representing the Wongatha applicants was decidedly shorter, and considerably humbler. They included blokes like Leo Thomas and Murray Stubbs, represented by the mighty GLSC and its small team of under-funded and over-worked lawyers. It was a small, albeit determined, David. But unlike the Biblical David, this one only scored a draw.
Ultimately, Justice Lindgren called it a nil-all draw by dismissing the Wongatha claim altogether and declining to make a final determination in favour of either side. But if you were sitting in the boardroom of Wongatha House the following morning, you would have seen more than a collection of claimants frustrated by an adverse judicial decision. You would have seen several broken men sitting in silence.
The Wongatha people first lodged a series of claims in the mid-1990s and, on the advice of the National Native Title Tribunal, spent years trying to bridge complex familial-politico gulfs in order to consolidate their multiple overlapping claims into one. They then endured 100 days in a Walypala courtroom and contributed much of the trial’s 17,000 pages of transcript giving evidence of their traditional ownership. The trial finished in 2005 and the Wongatha people waited a further two years for Justice Lindgren to write a 4000 paragraph judgment that effectively walked them back to square one. Out of a deeply held respect for the Wongatha people, His Honour was careful to include a compendium of life stories recalled by some 90 Aboriginal people on the witness stand, several of whom passed away before the judgment was handed down. Ultimately, however, His Honour held that, contrary to the tribunal’s advice a decade earlier, the multiple familial claims should not have been consolidated into one. It was, for the Wongatha people, a kick in the guts.
The stand
In terms of hope, this outcome was pretty desolate. But when it comes to desolate landscapes, the Wongatha people have always been survivors. While waiting for the judgement they decided to take a stand, albeit a largely symbolic one, in the form of “The Wongatha People’s Declaration”:
We, the Wongatha people of the Goldfields region of Western Australia, declare that ownership of our traditional lands is a lasting reality for us.
This is the land of our ancestors. It is our home and the place from which we take our culture and identity, our customs and languages.
Neither we nor our ancestors have ever accepted that governments, their agents, or others could tell us how to run our affairs or how to live our lives.
Throughout the centuries of colonization we have shown a willingness to share our country and to live in peace with the newcomers, and we will continue our struggle to live in unity, prosperity and coexistence.
Settlement has brought many changes to our country and to our way of life, but it has not brought prosperity and opportunity to us.
In this year we are taking control over our own future and are affirming our right as traditional owners of the Wongatha lands to negotiate with those who would use them for their own ends.
These are universal human rights and the sovereign rights of the Wongatha people.
The declaration was signed by ten Wongatha leaders, including Leo Thomas and Murray Stubbs. It served as a reminder to all the world that, regardless of Walypala law, the Wongatha people still know who they are, where they belong, and what is rightfully theirs. As one Wongatha man told me at the time, “We’ve been here for a while. It’s going to take more than a Walypala court decision to get rid of us.”
The Community Court
There’s a determined hope on the Walypala side also. Prominent author and magistrate Dr Kate Auty has, on the invitation of state attorney-general Jim McGinty, recently moved to Kalgoorlie to help establish a Community Court in the region. The court, similar to the one established by Dr Auty in Shepparton, Victoria, invites respected leaders from within the local Aboriginal communities to take part in the judicial process as “panelists.” The result, hopes Auty, will be a judicial process that can more effectively deal with repeat offenders and help young Aboriginal men and boys stay out of jail.
“When I first arrived, I was seeing the same faces over and over again,” recounts Auty. “Young blokes with records a dozen pages long, listing 25 arrests for the same type of offence. I saw a guy whose license had been suspended for 99 years. That’s completely useless. He lives in the bush, he’s got no choice but to drive anyway.”
But changing the system was never going to be easy. Bradley Mitchell, an Aboriginal employee in the Attorney General’s Department and one of Dr Auty’s key allies behind the Community Court, recalls that things were especially difficult on the Wongi side of things. “We had to arrange dozens of meetings with all of the different Aboriginal communities in town, who were initially pretty skeptical. Eventually it came down to several one-on-one meetings with leaders, trying to convince them that this was a good idea that would help Aboriginal people in the area.” Today these people are proud of the Community Court. “It’s the first time that Aboriginal people have been invited into the WA court process to play a role other than defendant.”
A visit to the Community Court today is an eye-opening experience. Aboriginal panelists like Leo Thomas and Trevor Donaldson sit beside the Walypala magistrate and deliver an effective mix of fiery rebuke and warm encouragement to the often startled defendants. Court staff still talk about Donaldson’s angry reaction to a Wongi man who tried to argue that wife-bashing was part of his people’s tradition. “Don’t you dare bring that crap in here, mate.”
On one morning, Leo Thomas was asked by magistrate Denis Temby to comment on the behaviour of a 16 year old defendant. Thomas shook his head in disappointment, “I knew your father mate. And I knew your grandfather too. And they were both great men, and I know that they would both be terribly ashamed to see you here today, in trouble for your stupid behaviour. We all know you’re better than this.” These words seemed to cut deeper than any Walypala legalese. The boy left the courtroom that day promising never to get in trouble again. Dr Auty and her Aboriginal colleagues are confident that he will probably keep his promise.
The cops
Things are changing at the street level also. Dr Auty is optimistic about the new breed of police officers rising through the ranks, citing Neil Gordon in remote Warburton as a particularly good example. She says a lingering skepticism towards white law has made the job of police in remote areas extremely difficult, with victims refusing to report crimes, or testify at trials. But gradually things have begun to change. Auty knew a turning point had come when several senior Aboriginal men offered to spear a man who had assaulted Gordon late one night. He declined their offer.
These days Gordon is a popular member of the community, and one can hear the shrill cry of young kids shouting “Oi Neeeil!” as he walks down the main drag. Local women visit Gordon at the police station for no apparent reason, and members of the community report even the most perfunctory of offences. Dr Auty recalls a recent blue light disco organized by Constable Gordon, with West Australian chief justice Wayne Martin as guest of honour. “There was a huge turnout, and everyone just had a ball,” she said. “The kids were all hanging off Neil as he tried to organize the music. We got the chief justice to announce the winner of a bike and basketball, and it was pandemonium for the bike, not the judge. These kids would never have the chance to own their own bike otherwise.”
As for the chief justice the experience apparently left him “speechless.”
The new way
It’s almost a clich© to observe that the true measure of a nation’s greatness lies not in its armoury or treasury, but in the degree of dignity it affords to the most vulnerable within its borders. Consequently, it’s fair to suggest that we should all hang our heads in shame or beat our chests in anger when confronted with illiterate kids behind bars, or dust-covered women and children sleeping in the shadow of one of the world’s largest gold mines. And as each flock of bureaucrats and consultants flies in and out of these places, we scratch our heads and wonder whether these problems are solvable at all.
But things are changing in parts of Western Australia. Black fellas are declaring to the world what their rights are, rather than having them drip-fed to them in photogenic moments of bureaucratic charity. They’re helping to dish out public justice rather than merely absorbing it. And white fellas are showing long term commitment in communities, rather than merely talking about it. Judges are giving bikes to kids rather than jailing them, and cops are playing DJ rather than bad-guy.
Standing there in the red soils of Boulder Camp, looking through the wire fence at the neighbouring SuperPit, Leo Thomas somehow managed a smile. “Look around here. See these pots and pans neatly laid out? See how someone’s swept around the fireplace? That’s pride. These people don’t have much. But they’ve still got pride.” •
Before taking up a post as a legal officer with the United Nations in Suva, Fiji, Jeremy Dicker was seconded to the Goldfields Land & Sea Council. The secondment was funded by Sydney law firm Gilbert + Tobin, as part of the nation-wide Aurora Project, an initiative aimed at encouraging more lawyers and anthropologists to consider careers in Aboriginal affairs.
Photo: Lake Ballard, an area claimed by the Wongatha people (Jeremy Dicker
THE AMERICAN CENTRISM OF NARRATIVES IN THE NOVELS OF JOEL DICKER
No full textУ статті розглядається феномен американоцентризму у творчості швейцарського письменника Жоеля Діккера, зокрема в його романах «Правда про справу Гаррі Квеберта» і «Зникнення Стефані Мейлер». Американоцентризм у літературі, а саме у творчості франкомовних авторів, можна розглядати як певну тенденцію до фокусування на американських темах, контекстах або образах у їхніх творах. Це явище можна пояснити кількома чинниками: культурною експансією США; літературними традиціями; біографічною зумовленістю оповіді; транснаціональним контекстом. Американізація сюжету, локалізація героїв на теренах США, використання англомовних запозичень є характерними для сучасних французьких і франкомовних авторів. Ж. Діккер, попри своє європейське походження, часто використовує американські реалії, культурні контексти й локації як центральні елементи творів. Проаналізовано, як автор конструює оповідь, інтегруючи елементи американської культури, і те, як це впливає на сприйняття читачами його текстів. Також розглядається питання, використання Ж. Діккером американських декорацій і ментальності є спробою адаптації до глобалізованого книжкового ринку чи ж це справжнє захоплення Америкою та її культурою. Аналіз базується на текстуальних прикладах та інтерв’ю з автором. Додатково розглядаються характерні риси, що відрізняють оповідь Ж. Діккера від інших авторів, які звертаються до американської тематики. Зокрема, увага приділяється його майстерності в побудові сюжетних ліній, створенні напруження й інтриги, а також використанні детективних елементів. Підкреслюється, як американоцентризм сприяє розвитку персонажів і загальній динаміці оповіді. Особливу увагу приділено аналізу персонажів, їхніх мотивацій і внутрішніх конфліктів, що часто відображають типово американські цінності і стереотипи. Таким чином, стаття пропонує всебічне дослідження впливу американської культури на творчість Жоеля Діккера, а також вивчає, як його романи сприяють діалогу між європейською й американською літературними традиціями.The article examines the phenomenon of American centrism in the work of the Swiss writer Joel Dicker, in particular in his novels “The Truth About Harry Quebert” and “The Disappearance of Stephanie Mailer”. American centrism in literature, namely in the work of French-speaking authors, can be seen as a certain tendency to focus on American themes, contexts or images in their works. This phenomenon can be explained by several factors: the cultural expansion of the USA; literary traditions; biographical conditioning of the story; transnational context. Americanization of the plot, localization of heroes on the territory of the United States, use of English borrowings are characteristic features of modern French and Francophone authors. J. Dicker, despite his European origin, often uses American realities, cultural contexts and locations as the central elements of his works. It is analysed how the author constructs the story, integrating elements of American culture, and how this affects the readers' perception of his texts. The question is also considered whether J. Dicker's use of American scenery and mentality is an attempt to adapt to the globalized book market, or whether it is a real admiration for America and its culture. The analysis is based on textual examples and an interview with the author. In addition, the article considers the characteristic features that distinguish J. Dicker's story from other authors who address American themes. In particular, attention is paid to his mastery in constructing storylines, creating tension and intrigue, as well as using detective elements. It is emphasized how American centrism contributes to the development of characters and the overall dynamics of the narrative. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the characters, their motivations and internal conflicts, which often reflect typically American values and stereotypes. Thus, the article offers a comprehensive study of the influence of American culture on the work of Joel Dicker, and also examines how his novels contribute to the dialogue between European and American literary traditions
Emancipation through Art: the Role Friedl Dicker-Brandeis Played at the Theresienstadt Ghetto
No full textArt education commonly takes place in venues such as schools, art studios, cultural centers and art museums. Contexts have a direct bearing on what kind of program is proposed. The actors involved in art teaching also significantly determine objectives and strategies within institutional backdrops housing the artmaking. Of particular interest here are unusual contexts, when artwork is produced in confinement, i.e. psychiatric institutions, special education facilities, prisons, refugee and concentration camps. Several questions ensue: Who are the teachers/artists involved in engaging others in art within highly restricted environments? How does artmaking happen behind-the-scenes? What about materials? What do images say about individual subjectivities, and how do they help process the extreme conditions that imprisonment imposes? How does artmaking contribute to emancipation? This paper is part of a larger study focusing on artwork produced by political prisoners in paulista political prisons (in São Paulo, Brazil) (1969-1979) by bringing to the foreground information on the experience of artmaking at Terezín (Theresienstadt Ghetto) supervised by artist/art teacher Freidl Dicker-Brandeis. Studies of artwork produced in psychiatric facilities in the 1940s and 1950s (Author, year-a; Author, year-b) contribute to the present discussion, along with a current project under my supervision about the collection from the paulista political prisons during the military dictatorship (1964-1985). About the context: Theresienstadt was not a typical concentration camp–rather, it was established in 1941 as a ghetto/transit camp from which prisoners were deported to Auschwitz for extermination (Arendt, 2000; Kasperová, 2013). It was used to showcase to the Red Cross what Nazis purported to be ‘humane’ treatment. Though formal schooling was prohibited, several adult prisoners assumed the task of preparing children for living in freedom at a future time. They taught traditional Jewish values, using modern educational approaches that respected the diversity of backgrounds at the ghetto. Despite the bleak conditions of life at Terezín, children and youth were also involved in cultural activities (music, theater and visual arts), allowing “inmates to forget the horrors of the surrounding world” (Kasperová, 2013, p. 52), while maintaining a semblance of normal life and learning. Dicker-Brandeis, born in Viena in 1898, was an art teacher sent to Terezín in December 1942, with her husband Pavel (Hurwitz, 1988). Before deportation and extermination at Auschwitz in 1944, she managed to hide two suitcases stuffed full of drawings, paintings and collages by boy and girl prisoners. Articles by Leshnoff (2006), Wix (2010), Pariser (2008), Hurwitz (1988) were instrumental in presenting biographical information on Dicker-Brandeis’ life and accomplishments. Other texts focus on the artworks themselves (Golomb, 1992) and on cultural and educational initiatives that took place at Terezín (Peschel, 2012; Leschnoff, 2006). Along with reproductions of the children’s artwork, the literature produced about experiences of artmaking at Terezín enables us to establish connections relating the ghetto experience to artmaking in other contexts of confinement, so as to understand how art teaching can contribute to emancipation of the imagination.
Photogeneration and dynamics of charge carriers in the conjugated polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene)
No full textThe conjugated polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene) is a promising candidate for applications in organic thin-film electronic and optoelectronic devices. This dissertation addresses fundamental issues regarding the photogeneration and recombination dynamics of charge carriers in this polymer. Measurements were carried out using an electrodeless, low-field microwave detection technique. With this technique, the intrinsic charge-carrier photogeneration and charge-transport properties of the material can be studied, in the absence of effects arising from electrode contacts and high electric fields, commonly present in conventional DC conductivity studies. The following issues are investigated: The quantum yield and wavelength dependence of photoelectron emission from the polymer surface. The wavelength dependence and activation energy of the quantum yield of charge carrier photogeneration within thin layers. The role of molecular order in the photogeneration of charge carriers. The effect of exciton annihilation on the photoconductance. The recombination dynamics of photogenerated charge carriers. The GHz charge carrier mobility and its activation energy. A generalized version of the stretched-exponential (Kohlrausch) decay law is derived, which provides an analytical description of the diffusive recombination of charge carriers.Interfaculty Reactor Institut
Principles of epidemiology : an introduction to applied epidemiology and biostatistics
No full text3rd ed."This course covers basic epidemiology principles, concepts, and procedures useful in the surveillance and investigation of health-related states or events. It is designed for federal, state, and local government health professionals and private sector health professionals who are responsible for disease surveillance or investigation. A basic understanding of the practices of public health and biostatistics is recommended. " - p. viiiLesson One: Introduction to Epidemiology -- Lesson Two: Summarizing Data -- Lesson Three: Measures of Risk -- Lesson Four: Displaying Public Health Data -- Lesson Five: Public Health Surveillance -- Lesson Six: Investigating an Outbreak -- Glossary"Technical content: Richard Dicker, lead author; Fa\u301tima Coronado, Denise Koo, Roy Gibson Parrish." - p. v.Second edition published 1992 as Principles of epidemiology : an introduction to applied epidemiology and biostatistics (Self-study course ; 3030-G).Includes bibliographical references
A follow-up feasibility study to an amphibious spray pontoon
No full textBeach nourishments or sand replenishments are applied by the use of pipelines or the rainbow method. Replenished sand is then moved and levelled by bulldozers. This is a passive approach to process the outflow of material. The land based equipment is dependent from tides and water levels, and significant effort is required to install and maintain the onshore discharge pipeline. In remote (off-shore) areas mobilization of site equipment to move the sand may be quite a challenge. The ideal method considers an active approach regarding processing the outflow of material. Instead of distributing the settled material by site equipment, the pipeline out flow point has to be relocated such that the design could be constructed. To increase workability the pipeline must have the ability to be relocated in water as on land.Enabling this approach the pipeline system has to be displaced by some sort of means. The main problem is the rigid behavior of the pipeline. Displacement of the pipeline will result that the entire pipeline length has to be displaced. Assuming that in water relocation of a floating pipeline is not that difficult as floating equipment is able to reach the floating pipeline. When the pipeline is situated on land huge pull or push requirements follows when the pipeline needs displacing. Concepts both for depositing material as for delivering the material have been generated.The most promising method for depositing material is to apply a spray pontoon. By adding amphibious propulsion technique to the spray pontoon the pontoon is able to work on the interface between water and land. The most promising method regarding delivering material to the spray pontoon is by applying a steel pipeline. During depositing the spray pontoon have to be displaced frequently. Also the spray pontoon has to be able to displace the pipeline system. Properties of the pipeline system dictate the required amount of tractive effort that have to be generated by the spray pontoon. Focus is on maximizing the tractive effort to be generated by the spray pontoon. To decrease the amount of resistance the pipeline will be mounted on platforms. Focus is on minimizing the required amount effort to displace the pipeline system and by generating flexibility along the pipeline system. By generating flexibility along the pipeline system the pipeline could swing independently of each other. Production figures will determine the amount of flexibility needed along the pipeline system. It is technical feasible to apply an amphibious spray pontoon but a uniform concept doesn’t exist because there is a large amount of parameters and aspects involved.It depends on the type of project, and site conditions which type of platform have to be applied. On project locations were small variations of the water level is to be expected and the soil surface has high bearing capacities values platforms can be applied that have an interaction with the soil surface. However, on soft soils with low bearing capacity values the soil interaction platforms will experience significant sinkage; the resistance force to displace such platforms may possible not be generated by the spray pontoon. In addition on soft soil the spray pontoon is able to generate a smaller pull force compared to when on sandy soil surface.On (very) soft soils platforms that don’t have an interaction with the soil surface are advantageous compared to soil interaction platforms. Offshore and Dredging Engineerin
Imaging peat using neutron and X-ray CT
No full textPeat is formed by biochemical processes and the accumulation of the soil depends on the aerobic and anaerobic conditions. The soil covers five to eight percent of the land surface of the earth. For this thesis a peat coming from a site called Markermeeer, which is a lake between the provinces Noord-Holland and Flevoland in the Netherlands, is used. The fabric of peat consists of a fine dark peat material and fibres. The peat material is made of water and decomposed plant tissue whereas the fibres consist of fragments of (semi-)degraded wood, stems, branches and grass. Furthermore the cell walls of the fibres consists of a primary and a secondary wall which are mostly made of cellulose and lignin. Knowing the fabric of wet peat is of importance to better understand the role of fibres in the unusual behavior of the soil. Previous studies on imaging wet peat with X-ray micro CT has proven to be difficult due to the indistinguishable linear attenuation coefficient of the peat organic matter and water. This coefficient is a function of the interactions of X-rays with the materials present in peat. Flushing a peat sample with lead(II)nitrate have shown to be the most successful approach to show the stems and branches in a peat sample using X-ray micro CT. However, according to \cite{kettridge2008x} this flushing approach showed that the focus was limited on the larger fibres present in the sample because the different materials in peat have almost the same linear attenuation coefficient and therefore this thesis also focuses on two other techniques to image the fabric of wet peat. Neutron CT was performed on cylindrical peat samples. This technique uses a thermal neutron beam to image a sample and was available at the Reactor Institute Delft. The resolution of this imaging station is 150 m. Since the cell walls and the peat material between the fibres in peat have both a large attenuation coefficient for neutrons, it was not possible to distinguish the fibres from the peat material between the fibres, using this technique. To gain a contrast heavy water was used to replace the water because it has a low attenuation coefficient. Flushing a peat sample with heavy water showed the most effective way to do so. The aim of this procedure was to get a contrast difference between the peat material between the fibres and the fibres itself. A triaxial setup was used to flush the sample with heavy water. Heavy water diffused in the water present in the peat inducing a decrease in attenuation of the peat material between the fibres. The reconstructed tomographic images were filtered using a 3D visualization program Avizo version 9.4. Only the air-filled fibres could be observed on the tomographic images whereas the water-filled fibres could not be observed. Samples of the same peat were scanned in a dry and wet state using a X-ray micro CT scanner present at the geoscience section of TU Delft. On the tomographic images of the wet sample, white halo were observed representing the cell walls of the fibres.X-ray phase CT present at the Ghent University Centre for X-ray CT was performed on a peat sample coming from the same site. This method results in an image contrast using a large fixed distance for low absorbing materials like peat. The aim of this scan was to reveal more fibres than observed with the X-ray micro CT scan at TU Delft. However, edge enhancement did not occur because of the filtering needed during reconstruction of the raw data to visualize different structures in peat. \\ The white halo could be thresholded and filtered in avizo resulting in a 3D image of the rod-like fibres. These fibres were randomly orientated. On the micro CT scan of the sample in a dry state other fibrous structures than the rod-like fibres were observed. These fibres were not shown as white halo on the tomographic images of the wet samples.Master project reportGeo-Engineerin
The Challenge of Shifting Paradigms: Social Workers Exercising the Ecosystems Perspective
No full textThis dissertation demonstrates and illustrates the challenges involved in the construction of new realities when Duhl's (1983) idea of using metaphor to apply the ecosystems concept of wholeness of systems, was exercised in two ways. Firstly, the study was written in the form of an imaginary conversation between the author in the role of researcher and an imaginary peer consultant, about making sense of ways of thinking. Through presenting her observations to other observers, who are actually herself, a new reality was constructed for the author. Secondly, new individual and group realities were constructed by a group of social workers in the SANDF, who encountered their own ways of thinking through metaphorical means such as sculpting. Recommendations, co-constructed by the author, the imaginary peer consultant and two more imaginary colleagues, suggest possible uses of the ecosystems perspective in social work including in settings such as the SANDF
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