Method of mounting stone tools on Koondi. Tribes east and north-east of Lake Eyre

The gum used for mounting constituted a very important article of barter. However, although the natives had collected the gum in their own country, they would barter it to neighbouring tribes, and were not willing to divulge the secrets of its location. The best source of gum was from the mindry bush, and it was mostly the women who usually collected the mindry roots. The roots would be broken into lenghts of about two feet, then sliced, and placed on hot ashes. Next it was rolled into a ball nad mixed with kangaroo dung to increase its toughness. Includes plates and figures

Loom: Query-aware Partitioning of Online Graphs

As with general graph processing systems, partitioning data over a cluster of machines improves the scalability of graph database management systems. However, these systems will incur additional network cost during the execution of a query workload, due to inter-partition traversals. Workload-agnostic partitioning algorithms typically minimise the likelihood of any edge crossing partition boundaries. However, these partitioners are sub-optimal with respect to many workloads, especially queries, which may require more frequent traversal of specific subsets of inter-partition edges. Furthermore, they largely unsuited to operating incrementally on dynamic, growing graphs. We present a new graph partitioning algorithm, Loom, that operates on a stream of graph updates and continuously allocates the new vertices and edges to partitions, taking into account a query workload of graph pattern expressions along with their relative frequencies. First we capture the most common patterns of edge traversals which occur when executing queries. We then compare sub-graphs, which present themselves incrementally in the graph update stream, against these common patterns. Finally we attempt to allocate each match to single partitions, reducing the number of inter-partition edges within frequently traversed sub-graphs and improving average query performance. Loom is extensively evaluated over several large test graphs with realistic query workloads and various orderings of the graph updates. We demonstrate that, given a workload, our prototype produces partitionings of significantly better quality than existing streaming graph partitioning algorithms Fennel and LDG

Supporting leadership development: Women academics in the Hong Kong academy

This quantitative and qualitative study explores the leadership challenges for women academics in the Hong Kong academy. It is informed by the theoretical lens of intersectionality and Mohanty’s feminism, which seeks to give a voice to women in different nations and regions. Findings show that the majority of women did not feel supported to enter a leadership role and that the perceived barriers to doing so differed between women academics and senior male leaders. Academic women are negotiating several identities, the most pertinent of which relates to being Chinese or non-Chinese, in addition to age, length of time in the profession, and rank. Power and patriarchy were identified as the most influential factors limiting women’s potential. Practice-based interventions that developmentally start with what women want are discussed. Key messages from the research are the need for a level of consciousness-raising, and the education of men, in relation to the barriers academic women face, along with widespread support for the development of a sector-wide women academics’ leadership programme

String theory and the Kauffman polynomial

We propose a new, precise integrality conjecture for the colored Kauffman polynomial of knots and links inspired by large N dualities and the structure of topological string theory on orientifolds. According to this conjecture, the natural knot invariant in an unoriented theory involves both the colored Kauffman polynomial and the colored HOMFLY polynomial for composite representations, i.e. it involves the full HOMFLY skein of the annulus. The conjecture sheds new light on the relationship between the Kauffman and the HOMFLY polynomials, and it implies for example Rudolph's theorem. We provide various non-trivial tests of the conjecture and we sketch the string theory arguments that lead to it.Comment: 36 pages, many figures; references and examples added, typos corrected, final version to appear in CM

Discourse-based approaches to autistic focussed interests:Understanding shared focus, mutual accommodation, and multimodal expression.

Interactions between autistic and non-autistic people are often characterized by misunderstanding and a ‘double empathy problem’ (Milton, Gurbuz, and López 2022). Thus, there is a need for applied linguistics research that seeks to concretely address and improve these communication barriers and lead to more positive and equitable interactions. In this position paper, we critically review existing discourse approaches to autistic communication and argue that future research must be participatory, affirmative of neurodiversity, and applied in service of addressing this double empathy problem. In particular, we argue that applied linguists should pay more attention to the role of focussed interests and show how discourse analysis can shed light on the valuable role of interest-driven interactions, both among autistic people and between autistic and non-autistic people. Following this, we propose several directions for future directions for applied linguistics research into autistic communication. Specifically, we suggest that linguistics could explore the potential for focussed interests for fostering shared focus, mutual accommodation, and multimodal expression, and consider how these findings can be translated into positive impact for autistic communities

Chipped stone tools of the Aboriginal tribes east and north-east of Lake Eyre, South Australia

Many of the stones used for weaponry or as tools, were easy to source and therefore, any that were worn out were discarded as the supply for new ones was plentiful. Rough flakes which were chipped from the original stone were discarded and the pieces which were suitable to be made into tools, were taken back to the camp where further sorting was done, into various categories. Some were useful as tuhlas (chisels), others as kalara, (scrapers), and others were made into pirries. Sometimes, one man would specialise on one tool only. Pirries were used for fine graving work, or as a drill to drill holes into mussell shells