Border identities

Dance Artist Dr Adesola Akinleye reports on how a pilot project, Movement, Narratives and Meanings, used dance and film to voice the stories of people living next to the Northern Ireland / north of Ireland border, following the vote for ‘Brexit’

Orientation for communication: embodiment, and the language of dance

In this article I explore the place of movement, particularly dance, in understanding and communication of the lived experience. I look at the gap between corporeal sensation and the communication of that knowledge into wider social contexts. Drawing on narratives gathered from four case studies in British schools, I look at dance as a mode of language that can offer a methodological approach to understanding the lived experience. I take the pragmatist starting point of embodiment to argue that the immediacy of empirical experience is limited by the use of verbal languages alone to organize meaning-making. I suggest that ideas are three-dimensional, having aspects that are revealed by the attributes of different languages but are not limited to the language through which they are communicated. Therefore a network of languages, including movement languages, can create a web of understanding that addresses the deficits of each single language within that web. I suggest that a focus on just one mode of language to communicate ideas could result in a loss of engagement with the full potential of an idea. I suggest that different languages have a rhizomatic relationship each having equal potential to add to the quality and ‘thickness’ of communication of the multi-layered experience of embodiment

Professional artefacts: embodying ideas in work-based learning

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present and examine the addition of a “professional artefact” to the course requirements for the BA Honours Professional Practice (BAPP) (Arts) programme at Middlesex University. Design/methodology/approach – This paper takes a case study approach using reflection, indicative theories and consideration of student work to evaluate the introduction of the “professional artefact” into the BAPP (Arts) curriculum. Following pragmatist and phenomenological descriptions of the lived experience as embodied (Dewey et al., 1989; Merleau-Ponty, 2002) and using learning models based on experience in the workplace (Boud and Garrick, 1999), the paper's methodology takes the work-based principle of “experience as knowledge” to examine the impact of the professional artefact on students learning. Findings – The professional artefact has proven to be a useful way for the learners on the course to reflect on the purpose of their own study and the ways in which work-based learning can be incorporated into their practice through embodied “ideas”. Practical implications – The paper suggests that the inclusion of a professional artefact to the curriculum provides a flexible means for bridging academic and workplace learning. The inclusion of the professional artefact could be recommended as a strategy for other work-based learning programmes. Originality/value – The added value for professional practice is that the professional artefact provides a flexible and creative means of communication for emerging and establishing workplace professionals

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL OF TREAP AND HEAP SORT ALGORITHMS

The task of storing items to allow for fast access to an item given its key is an ubiquitous problem in many organizations. Treap as a method uses key and priority for searching in databases. When the keys are drawn from a large totally ordered set, the choice of storing the items is usually some sort of search tree. The simplest form of such tree is a binary search tree. In this tree, a set X of n items is stored at the nodes of a rooted binary tree in which some item y ϵ X is chosen to be stored at the root of the tree. Heap as data structure is an array object that can be viewed as a nearly complete binary tree in which each node of the tree corresponds to an element of the array that stores the value in the node. Both algorithms were subjected to sorting under the same experimental environment and conditions. This was implemented by means of threads which call each of the two methods simultaneously. The server keeps records of individual search time which was the basis of the comparison. It was discovered that treap was faster than heap sort in sorting and searching for elements using systems with homogenous properties.   &nbsp

Reduction of Uranium by Bacterial Products

The Old Rifle Mill Processing site at Rifle, CO, contains uranium contaminated groundwater. The presence of uranium is one of the major problems at Department of Energy legacy sites. There is an initiative for attenuation of uranium by the Department of Energy. Uranium undergoes oxidation/reduction reactions with the substances at the site. Uranium’s oxidation state determines its solubility and mobility in the aquifer. The oxidation reduction pathways at this site have mineralogical, microbial and geochemical components. Understanding the oxidation/reduction pathways of these components will allow for better predictions of the changes and movement of uranium. Sulfide [S2- ] and Ferrous [Fe2] ions are products of microbial activity. These ions can reduce uranium [U(VI)], but bicarbonate ions [HCO3-] in the aquifers slows down the reaction. However, we believe that organic matter in the environment enhances U(VI) reduction by Fe2+and S2- in the absence of microbes. To address this, U(VI) was mixed with Fe2+ or S2- in autoclaved biomass from Rifle and artificial groundwater for seven to eleven days. Aqueous samples from the vials will be analyzed for Uranium presence using ICP-MS [Inductively Coupled Plasma- Mass Spectrometry]. The biomass from each of the samples will be analyzed using XAS [X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy] to determine the ionization state of Uranium. Based on the data, we can conclude that there is a significant decrease of the concentration of uranium from the reaction when the biomass was not sterilized. There were no differences within in the vials that had Fe2+ or S2-. The XAS data shows a mixture of U(IV) and U(VI) in the biomasss and more U(IV) in the biomass that was not sterilized. This suggests that the bacterial products alone is not completely responsible for the reduction of uranium