(Re)Assembling Anti-Oppressive Practice Teachings in Youth and Community Work through Collective Biography (2)

This article draws on research undertaken as part of a Collective Biography project generated by a group of activists and lecturers teaching and researching in youth and community work (YCW). Collective Biography (CB) is an approach to research in which participants work productively with memory and writing to generate collective action orientated analysis. The emphasis on collectivized approaches to CB work acts as a potential strategy to disrupt and resist the reproduction of power in academic knowledge-making practices and the impact of powerful policy discourses in practice. The article explores the current context and contemporary challenges for teaching anti-oppressive practice in UK based universities before briefly scoping out the methodology of CB. Extracts from a memory story are used as an example of the process of collective analysis generated through the process of CB in relation to racism, the role of anti-oppressive practice, and as the basis for YCW educators to think collectively about implications for teaching going forward. The article goes on to explore the role of concepts that were worked with as part of the CB process and considers the potential significance for teaching anti-oppressive practice in YCW. The article concludes by starting to scope out key considerations relating to the potential role of CB as a grass roots strategy to open spaces of possibility alongside young people and communities in reassembling the teaching of anti-oppressive practice in YC

Application of a damped Locally Optimized Combination of Images method to the spectral characterization of faint companions using an Integral Field Spectrograph

High-contrast imaging instruments are now being equipped with integral field spectrographs (IFS) to facilitate the detection and characterization of faint substellar companions. Algorithms currently envisioned to handle IFS data, such as the Locally Optimized Combination of Images (LOCI) algorithm, rely upon aggressive point-spread-function (PSF) subtraction, which is ideal for initially identifying companions but results in significantly biased photometry and spectroscopy due to unwanted mixing with residual starlight. This spectro-photometric issue is further complicated by the fact that algorithmic color response is a function of the companion's spectrum, making it difficult to calibrate the effects of the reduction without using iterations involving a series of injected synthetic companions. In this paper, we introduce a new PSF calibration method, which we call "damped LOCI", that seeks to alleviate these concerns. By modifying the cost function that determines the weighting coefficients used to construct PSF reference images, and also forcing those coefficients to be positive, it is possible to extract companion spectra with a precision that is set by calibration of the instrument response and transmission of the atmosphere, and not by post-processing. We demonstrate the utility of this approach using on-sky data obtained with the Project 1640 IFS at Palomar. Damped-LOCI does not require any iterations on the underlying spectral type of the companion, nor does it rely upon priors involving the chromatic and statistical properties of speckles. It is a general technique that can readily be applied to other current and planned instruments that employ IFS's.Comment: Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal Supplement

Speckle Suppression with the Project 1640 Integral Field Spectrograph

Project 1640 is a high-contrast imaging instrument recently commissioned at Palomar observatory. A combination of a coronagraph with an integral field spectrograph (IFS), Project 1640 is designed to detect and characterize extrasolar planets, brown dwarfs, and circumstellar material orbiting nearby stars. In this paper, we present our data processing techniques for improving upon instrument raw sensitivity via the removal of quasi-static speckles. Our approach utilizes the chromatic image diversity provided by the IFS in combination with the locally-optimized combination of images (LOCI) algorithm to suppress the intensity of residual contaminating light in close angular proximity to target stars. We describe the Project 1640 speckle suppression pipeline (PSSP) and demonstrate the ability to detect companions with brightness comparable to and below that of initial speckle intensities using on-sky commissioning data. Our preliminary results indicate that suppression factors of at least one order of magnitude are consistently possible, reaching $5\sigma$ contrast levels of $2.1\times10^{-5}$ at 1\arcsec in the H-band in 20 minutes of on-source integration time when non-common-path errors are reasonably well-calibrated. These results suggest that near-infrared contrast levels of order $\approx10^{-7}$ at subarcsecond separations will soon be possible for Project 1640 and similarly designed instruments that receive a diffraction-limited beam corrected by adaptive optics (AO) systems employing deformable mirrors with high actuator-density.Comment: accepted to Ap

Brain-behaviour modes of covariation in healthy and clinically depressed young people

Abstract: Understanding how variations in dimensions of psychometrics, IQ and demographics relate to changes in brain connectivity during the critical developmental period of adolescence and early adulthood is a major challenge. This has particular relevance for mental health disorders where a failure to understand these links might hinder the development of better diagnostic approaches and therapeutics. Here, we investigated this question in 306 adolescents and young adults (14–24 y, 25 clinically depressed) using a multivariate statistical framework, based on canonical correlation analysis (CCA). By linking individual functional brain connectivity profiles to self-report questionnaires, IQ and demographic data we identified two distinct modes of covariation. The first mode mapped onto an externalization/internalization axis and showed a strong association with sex. The second mode mapped onto a well-being/distress axis independent of sex. Interestingly, both modes showed an association with age. Crucially, the changes in functional brain connectivity associated with changes in these phenotypes showed marked developmental effects. The findings point to a role for the default mode, frontoparietal and limbic networks in psychopathology and depression

Heritability and Artificial Selection on Ambulatory Dispersal Distance in Tetranychus urticae: Effects of Density and Maternal Effects

Dispersal distance is understudied although the evolution of dispersal distance affects the distribution of genetic diversity through space. Using the two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae, we tested the conditions under which dispersal distance could evolve. To this aim, we performed artificial selection based on dispersal distance by choosing 40 individuals (out of 150) that settled furthest from the home patch (high dispersal, HDIS) and 40 individuals that remained close to the home patch (low dispersal, LDIS) with three replicates per treatment. We did not observe a response to selection nor a difference between treatments in life-history traits (fecundity, survival, longevity, and sex-ratio) after ten generations of selection. However, we show that heritability for dispersal distance depends on density. Heritability for dispersal distance was low and non-significant when using the same density as the artificial selection experiments while heritability becomes significant at a lower density. Furthermore, we show that maternal effects may have influenced the dispersal behaviour of the mites. Our results suggest primarily that selection did not work because high density and maternal effects induced phenotypic plasticity for dispersal distance. Density and maternal effects may affect the evolution of dispersal distance and should be incorporated into future theoretical and empirical studies

Whiteness, Britishness and the Racist Reality of Brexit

This paper explores the ongoing reality of British Racism as exemplified in the ‘theory of numbers’ (Mullard, 1973). This theory racially marks the immigrant body and has been a reoccurring fiction woven into national debates since its justification for the 1962 Commonwealth Immigration Act (Dummett and Dummett, 1982; Miles and Phizaklea, 1984). The Brexit debate is identified as the latest example of how the absence of public education about Britain’s colonial legacy leaves institutionalised racism and the whitewashing of English /British identity outside of an explanatory frame (Paul, 1997). This absence alongside the political choice to perpetuate the theory of numbers leaves, in the public imagination, false explanations that retain an ongoing belief in fictions about ‘race’ and immigration. These stories about race and immigration told by the primarily white middle class men leading the Brexit debate obfuscates the reality about the lack of political planning for social and economic infrastructure to meet demographic change. This paper challenges the racial fictions woven into the Brexit debate and argues that Critical Race Theory (CRT) offers an important viewpoint from which to trouble the privileging social system of whiteness (Feagin, 2013) and its white nation fantasies (Hage,1998) about class, nationhood and identity

Voicing the Needs of YAV’s Young People Sunderland

This research maps the needs of young BME people living in Sunderland who are all members of the Young Asian Voices (YAV) youth project. The research was funded by the University of Sunderland, Centre for Applied Social Sciences. The research project aimed to identify the racial realities impacting upon young people in the City of Sunderland which remain hidden from public view. It also aimed to develop a relationship with YAV in order to build an empirical research base to ‘capture the perspectives of young people and youth workers’ (Nolas, 2014: 28). In a recent critical review of the literature focused on youth work the perspectives of young people and youth workers was found to be an identifiable gap (Edinburgh Youth Work Consortium, 2015). The researcher’s aimed to understand: What are the key issues impacting on young BME people’s lives in Sunderland? What are the key risks for BME young people in Sunderland? Who is particularly at risk? What youth services are currently being provided? What needs are unmet? The research was carried out over a period of 12 months in 2016 and 2017 in Sunderland with the support of YAV. This research report is structured into 8 sections. The first section places our report in the context of current debates on the subject. Section Two explains our methodology. Section Three gives an insight into those who took part in the research. Section Four discusses youth provision and delivery and the challenges of youth work. Section Five explores partnership working. Section Six discusses the findings around racism and Islamophobia. Section Seven discusses gendered cultural awareness and some safeguarding concerns. Section Eight concludes the report

(Re)Assembling Anti-Oppressive Practice Teachings in Youth and Community Work through Collective Biography (2)

This article draws on research undertaken as part of a Collective Biography project generated by a group of activists and lecturers teaching and researching in youth and community work (YCW). Collective Biography (CB) is an approach to research in which participants work productively with memory and writing to generate collective action orientated analysis. The emphasis on collectivized approaches to CB work acts as a potential strategy to disrupt and resist the reproduction of power in academic knowledge-making practices and the impact of powerful policy discourses in practice. The article explores the current context and contemporary challenges for teaching anti-oppressive practice in UK based universities before briefly scoping out the methodology of CB. Extracts from a memory story are used as an example of the process of collective analysis generated through the process of CB in relation to racism, the role of anti-oppressive practice, and as the basis for YCW educators to think collectively about implications for teaching going forward. The article goes on to explore the role of concepts that were worked with as part of the CB process and considers the potential significance for teaching anti-oppressive practice in YCW. The article concludes by starting to scope out key considerations relating to the potential role of CB as a grass roots strategy to open spaces of possibility alongside young people and communities in reassembling the teaching of anti-oppressive practice in YCW