Between Uncertainty and Hope: Disaster, Displacement, and Livelihoods on Onishchit Char in Bangladesh

There has been growing literature in disaster studies, which has argued that natural disasters exacerbate people’s current socio-economic vulnerabilities. However, a question remains: what are the specific stories that can be told about people’s different perceptions of disasters and the dynamics of their creative actions to face the uncertain consequences of the disasters? This study applied the multi-sited ethnographic method to understand people’s perceptions and everyday experiences regarding disaster-induced displacement and livelihood strategies. For this study, the sites include a temporary river island (char), an embankment populated with islanders in Gaibandha district, and a shantytown and two rickshaw garages in Dhaka. An important aspect of this study has been to examine how disaster-induced vulnerabilities are linked with social structures. For example, land disputes, land grabbing, and corruption in regard to these issues are lived through the practices of multiple actors, such as peasants, landlords, and functionaries in the land administration. People exercise their agency in making their living in multiple ways including growing crops, raising cattle, participating in development projects, and moving to different places in search of a “better” life. They practise their agency without losing sight of the consequences of the extreme events and the social constraints in which they have been living over the generations. They make some practical choices in order to survive. For the poorer households, the choices they make are narrow, and to a certain extent the choices are humiliating, whereas the richer households calculate the hazard risks and stay on the islands in order to raise cattle and cultivate corn. Living with precariousness, both poor and rich still hope to see new land. This study argues that portraying the islanders simply as “vulnerable” disregards the differences among them and disregards their everyday adaptive capacities in the context of the hazards they face. Although this study shows that disasters create precarious livelihoods and habitation for the islanders, it does not mean that the catastrophes are solely responsible for their vulnerability, which was already created by the socio-economic structure. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of the island villages are not just suffering subjects, vulnerable victims and passive aid receivers. They practise their agency, albeit limited, to utilise their limited resources (land, livestock, and social capital) in order to survive in such a fragile but fertile environment

Algebraic minimal surfaces in R4

There exists a natural correspondence between null curves in C4 and "free" curves on O(1)⊕O(1); it underlies the existence of "Weierstrass type formulae" for minimal surfaces in R4. The construction determines correspondences for minimal surfaces in R3, and constant mean curvature 1 surfaces in H3; moreover it facilitates the study of symmetric minimal surfaces in R4

Building Bridges: A Restorative Journey at Green Bay Prison Wisconsin.

This article describes the pillars, values and principles of Restorative Justice and the essential components of restorative circles. A specific, circle based, restorative programme that has been running in Green Bay Prison, Wisconsin for over 14 years is described and evaluated in the context of restorative processes. The programme demonstrates that when certain conditions are met, even in a prison context where access to wider community is severely limited, that restorative processes can be highly effective and have long term consequences. An increased use of circle work and surrogate victim and offender restorative processes is recommended with certain provisos

Large-Scale Events as Catalysts for Creating Mutual Dependence Between Social Ventures and Resource Providers

We examine the resource mobilization efforts undertaken by a social venture to organize the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games and bring about a change in social attitudes towards the cause of learning and intellectual disabilities. In contrast to previously advanced views of social ventures as powerless actors, we find instead that they are able to leverage the visibility afforded by large-scale events to create positions of mutual dependence, which allow them to access broad support bases and assert themselves in relationships with external parties. Specifically, we find that resource mobilization involves six distinct tactics rooted in the softer forms of power, namely, attraction and inducement. The use of these soft-power tactics depends upon the social venture’s goal at different moments of the relationship with its partners and the level of support available from each external party. Our elaborated theory highlights both the role and limitations of soft power in mobilizing resources and managing relationships

The effect of NMDA-R antagonism on simultaneously acquired local field potentials and tissue oxygen levels in the brains of freely-moving rats

Non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonists are known to induce psychosis-like symptoms in rodents. Administration of such compounds cause behavioural effects such as memory impairment and hyperlocomotion. Additionally, drugs such as phencyclidine (PCP), ketamine and MK-801 all cause distinctive increases in striatal local field potential (LFP) in the high frequency oscillation (HFO) band in the power spectrum (140–180 Hz). Amperometric sensors provide a means to measure tissue oxygen (tO2; a BOLD-like signal) in the brains of freely-moving rats while simultaneously acquiring LFP using the same electrode. Carbon paste electrodes were implanted into the striatum and hippocampus of male Wistar rats. Rats were administered with saline, ketamine (10 mg/kg), MK-801 (0.1 mg/kg) and PCP (2.5 mg/kg) and recordings were made at 1 kHz using three different potentials (−650 mV to measure tO2; 0 mV and +700 mV as control conditions). NMDA receptor antagonism caused significant increases in tO2 in both the striatum and the hippocampus. Power spectrum analysis showed significant increases in HFO power in the striatum but not in the hippocampus. Conversely, there were significant decreases in delta and alpha power along with increases in theta and gamma power in the hippocampus that were absent in the striatum. This supports findings that LFP can be obtained from an amperometric sensor signal; allowing simultaneous acquisition of two translational biomarkers of neuronal activity (LFP and tO2)

Beyond the image: the intersection of education for development with media literacy.

This paper is based primarily on reflections from my own experiences as a second-level teacher and, more recently, my experiences as a teacher educator listening to feedback from my students, particularly in the area of civic, social and political education (CSPE). A starting belief is that when teachers build up their own individual ‘image-folders’, they have at their fingertips a valuable and versatile resource for learning and teaching. Photographs culled from newspapers, magazines, calendars and other sources add an immediacy and an urgency that, by their very nature, textbooks cannot capture. Such image folders are especially relevant in the area of development education where immediacy and urgency are important values

Improved Control of Otiorhynchus sulcatus at 9°C by Cold-stored Heterorhabditis megidis UK211

The effect of storage temperature (9 and 20°C) on North West European Heterorhabditis megidis isolate UK211 for control of Otiorhynchus sulcatus larvae at 9°C is assessed. O. sulcatus mortality increased from -5.3% (corrected mortality) using freshly produced nematodes, to 27.1% using nematodes that had been cold-stored for 12 weeks. The number of nematodes invading the insect larvae increased almost 27-fold. Nematode storage at 9°C for 11 to 12 weeks weeks resulted in significantly higher O. sulcatus mortality (41%) than storage at 20°C for 2 to 3 weeks (12%). Thus, cold storage does enhance nematode infectivity for O. sulcatus larvae

Student response systems and learner engagement in large classes

The use of student response systems is becoming more prevalent in higher level education. Evidence on the effectiveness of this technology can be an important resource for tutors seeking to engage with learners and raise the quality of learning experiences. Student response systems have been found to increase student engagement and participation in the classroom, yet few studies examine why this is so. This research seeks to explore the effects of student response systems on student participation in large classes. The methods used included both quantitative and qualitative data. A pre-test/mid-test/post-test design (quantitative approach) was deployed to examine the effects of a classroom response system on interactivity. Students involved in a final year undergraduate business course took part in investigating the use of student response systems from the student perspective. Qualitative data were collected to identify the strengths and weaknesses of using a classroom response system to enhance classroom interaction through semi-structured interviews. This research builds on previous studies by investigating why students become more participatory, interactive and engaged during learning sessions which utilise student response systems. Implications for teaching practice are discussed, and avenues for future research on student response systems and student engagement in large class scenarios are outlined

Towards an organisational suicidology

Suicide is often presented in contemporary popular discourse as an individualistic act of self-destruction, but when academic sociology emerged as a discipline in the nineteenth century, it was initially studied as a cultural phenomenon. Contemporary studies of suicide in the context of organised work, however, have taken a psychologistic turn and increasingly disregard the tradition of studying suicide from cultural perspectives. A culturally informed organisational suicidology has the potential to provide new understandings of how people relate to organisations and work in contemporary societies, as well as providing resources to assist individuals affected by this issue. This article utilises a bibliometric analysis to inform how the research literature has treated suicide as an organisational phenomenon. A definition of organisational suicidology is proposed and future research is suggested with a view to assisting the development of the field

Tracing back multidrug-resistant bacteria in fresh herb production: from chive to source through the irrigation water chain

Environmental antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) can be transferred to humans through foods. Fresh produce in particular is an ideal vector due to frequent raw consumption. A major contamination source of fresh produce is irrigation water. We hypothesized that water quality significantly affects loads of ARB and their diversity on fresh produce despite various other contamination sources present under agricultural practice conditions. Chive irrigated from an open-top reservoir or sterile-filtered water (control) was examined. Heterotrophic plate counts (HPC) and ARB were determined for water and chive with emphasis on Escherichia coli and Enterococcus spp. High HPC of freshly planted chive decreased over time and were significantly lower on control- vs. reservoir-irrigated chive at harvest (1.3 log (CFU/g) lower). Ciprofloxacin- and ceftazidime-resistant bacteria were significantly lower on control-irrigated chive at harvest and end of shelf life (up to 1.8 log (CFU/g) lower). Escherichia coli and Enterococcus spp. repeatedly isolated from water and chive proved resistant to up to six or four antibiotic classes (80% or 49% multidrug-resistant, respectively). Microbial source tracking identified E. coli-ST1056 along the irrigation chain and on chive. Whole-genome sequencing revealed that E. coli-ST1056 from both environments were clonal and carried the same transmissible multidrug-resistance plasmid, proving water as source of chive contamination. These findings emphasize the urgent need for guidelines concerning ARB in irrigation water and development of affordable water disinfection technologies to diminish ARB on irrigated produce