How can structural film expand the language of experimental ethnography?

This research question 'How can structural film expand the language of experimental ethnography?' considers the potential cross-fertilisation of a structural film practice with experimental ethnography to challenge dominant assumptions about cultural representation in anthropology and to suggest ways in which anthropology can actively interrogate visual systems as a means of renewing the avant-gardism of structural film. Thus this study asks what a structural–materialist project mostly connected with the 1960s and 1970s could contribute to contemporary ethnography if issues of anthropological representation were allowed to penetrate field of vision and what new forms of representation occur where the textual embodiment of authority in fieldwork studies becomes the subject of a structural film. This includes the crossover of these terms with minimal and conceptual art, experimental aesthetic systems and/or artworks that blur fact and fiction. These theoretical parameters are then explored through practice in an installation proposal The Autonomous Object? and a single screen work The Exception and the Rule. The Autonomous Object? takes as its subject the boundary between documentary and performance, the raw realism of the photographic image and the sculptural qualities of the monochrome. The Exception and the Rule proposes that the viewer experience representational issues at stake in anthropology and structural film, a transfer of emphasis from what a film’s subject ‘is’ to how a film’s subject is seen. Both works gather geo/political urgency due to the current civil unrest in Pakistan and India, where they were primarily filmed. The resulting question as to how one makes a political film foregrounds the multi-layered and complex relationship between art, politics and language that has led to The Museum of non Participation, the future body of work that concludes this thesis

Quantifying Undisturbed (Native) Lands in Northwestern South Dakota: 2013

We employed simple GIS methods primarily utilizing the South Dakota Farm Service Agency’s Common Land Unit (CLU) data layers from 2013 and the 2012 United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) county mosaic aerial imagery to evaluate 7,347,812 acres of land in northwestern South Dakota. The analysis area includes: Harding, Perkins, and Butte counties along with portions of Lawrence and Meade counties outside of the Black Hills Core Highlands and Plateau Ecoregions. We utilized the FSA CLU data layer queried to show current and former cropland to identify and remove any areas with cropping history regardless of current land use. We analyzed the remaining land in approximately one mi2 sections to identify and remove additional historic or current land disturbances. The remaining land tracts were categorized as potentially ‘undisturbed grassland’ or ‘undisturbed woodland’ by simple reason of deduction. Finally, we removed all known water bodies larger than 40 acres as defined by the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish, and Parks’ (SDGFP) Statewide Water Bodies layer to gain a more accurate interpretation of the remaining undisturbed grassland/wetland complex. Overall, 5,743,137 acres (78.2%) of the approximately 7.3 million-acre analysis area was designated as potentially undisturbed by our initial analysis (Figure 1). However, a portion of these undisturbed acres have certain indicators suggesting historical disturbance, thus 17,263 locations were flagged as potential ‘go-back’ areas (see updated Methods section). In addition to go-back areas, we also identified over 300 locations with indicators of some type of native rangeland manipulation other than historic cropping. Because of limitations evaluating historic land patterns with NAIP imagery, it was not possible to accurately calculate actual area estimates for these flagged locations. However, we were able to perform an initial area analysis of go-back sites using polygons in portions of Harding and northern Perkins Counties which suggests the combined impact of go-back fields and rangeland manipulations may impact about 10% of the undisturbed land layer. Therefore, we speculate the actual undisturbed (potentially native) land area for this region may be reduced from the current 78.3% down to roughly 68% if we can refine our methodologies to more accurately reflect these disturbances in the future. We anticipate future LiDAR analysis will aid in improving such accuracy. To provide the reader with a better understanding of the distribution of these flagged disturbances, we analyzed the number of legal sections of land (as defined by the 2000 Public Land Survey) that had at least one indicator of disturbance against the total number of legal sections in the analysis area. We found that 7,558 out of 11,580 (65.3%) legal sections had at least one indication of disturbance within the section (either a go-back site or rangeland manipulation site within the undisturbed land layer). Of the approximate 7.2-million-acre total analysis area, 1.4 million acres (19%) were deemed to have a cropping history according to the FSA CLU data. 193,570 acres (2.6%) were found to have some type of land disturbance not indicated by a CLU crop code. Totaling 1.59 million acres (21.7%) of all land with some type of proven disturbance history. Leaving roughly 5.7 million acres deemed undisturbed. Within the approximate 7.2-million-acre total evaluation area, 12,315 acres (0.2%) were found to have some sort of permanent protection from conversion (some of these acres have a disturbance history). Only 10,835 acres of the approximately 5.7 million acres of undisturbed land (0.2%) had some level of permanent conservation protection status. The 10,835 acres of potentially undisturbed land that is officially protected from future conversion represents only 0.1% of the analysis area for the five northwestern South Dakota counties. Within northwestern South Dakota we identified 298 oil wells, drill sites, and associated facilities/developments. These sites are primarily located in the Sagebursh Steppe Ecoregion of Harding County. Of the sites identified, 262 (87.9%) were located adjacent to undisturbed areas (within 250 feet, see Methods section).https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/data_land-northwestsd/1000/thumbnail.jp

High eccentricity planets from the Anglo-Australian Planet Search

We report Doppler measurements of the stars HD187085 and HD20782 which indicate two high eccentricity low-mass companions to the stars. We find HD187085 has a Jupiter-mass companion with a ~1000d orbit. Our formal `best fit' solution suggests an eccentricity of 0.47, however, it does not sample the periastron passage of the companion and we find that orbital solutions with eccentricities between 0.1 and 0.8 give only slightly poorer fits (based on RMS and chi^2) and are thus plausible. Observations made during periastron passage in 2007 June should allow for the reliable determination of the orbital eccentricity for the companion to HD187085. Our dataset for HD20782 does sample periastron and so the orbit for its companion can be more reliably determined. We find the companion to HD20782 has M sin i=1.77+/-0.22M_JUP, an orbital period of 595.86+/-0.03d and an orbit with an eccentricity of 0.92+/-0.03. The detection of such high-eccentricity (and relatively low velocity amplitude) exoplanets appears to be facilitated by the long-term precision of the Anglo-Australian Planet Search. Looking at exoplanet detections as a whole, we find that those with higher eccentricity seem to have relatively higher velocity amplitudes indicating higher mass planets and/or an observational bias against the detection of high eccentricity systems.Comment: to appear in MNRA

ABO Incompatible Liver Transplantation as a Bridge to Treat HELLP Syndrome

The following is a case report of a primiparous woman who developed fulminant liver failure in the setting of HELLP syndrome complicated by hepatic rupture. It is unique in that a timely ABO compatible liver donor was unavailable, necessitating the transplantation of an ABO incompatible organ. Despite aggressive therapy, severe reperfusion injury and humoral rejection dictated retransplantation with an ABO compatible organ on postoperative day 15, resulting in rapid clinical recovery

Utilising co-design to improve outpatient neurological care in a rural setting

It has been identified that the physiotherapy needs of patients with central neurological conditions are specific and that this cohort are generally under-serviced in rural and remote areas in Australia. A quality improvement project was undertaken to improve patient experience in outpatient physiotherapy services in Tasmania, facilitating increased self-efficacy and quality of life, in patients with central chronic neurological conditions.. An experience-based co-design approach was utilised, involving past and current patients as well as physiotherapy staff in the project design, data collection, analysis and evaluation phases. The results suggest that timely access to care and goal achievement are common areas of need across both patient and staff cohorts. Patients also identified that shared-decision making is important for improving patient experience and staff were generally unclear on what services were available. The findings from this study demonstrate the importance of including patients and staff in the health service improvement process. Experience Framework This article is associated with the Innovation & Technology lens of The Beryl Institute Experience Framework. (http://bit.ly/ExperienceFramework) Access other PXJ articles related to this lens. Access other resources related to this len