Creating typecasts: exhibiting eugenic ideas from the past today

This paper reflects on the experience of curating the exhibition and events programme around Typecast: Flinders Petrie and Francis Galton at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, University College London during 2011. Typecast explored ideas around race and archaeology, heredity and eugenics in the early twentieth century. After independent consultation, I decided to write about the exhibition from my own perspective and publicly identify myself as curator. As part of my own response, I drew parallels with contemporary events and issues today. This paper incorporates a discussion of: •the implications of using my personal identity; how situations could have been handled differently, •the myth of neutrality, especially around contentious issues, within museum and media institutions, •anonymous responses from visitors and identified critical voices; ethical responsibility in dealing with provocative issues, •how wider discussion in a public realm was facilitated

Client self-assessment in community aged care: A comparative study involving older Australians and their case managers

Self-assessment of support needs is a relatively new and under-researched phenomenon in domiciliary aged care. This article outlines the results of a comparative study focusing on whether a self-assessment approach assists clients to identify support needs and the degree to which self-assessed needs differ from an assessment conducted by community care professionals. A total of 48 older people and their case managers completed a needs assessment tool. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were used to ascertain older people’s views and preferences regarding the self-assessment process. The study suggests that while a co-assessment approach as outlined in this article has the potential to assist older people to gain a better understanding of their care needs as well as the assessment process and its ramifications, client self-assessment should be seen as part of a co-assessment process involving care professionals. Such a co-assessment process allows older people to gain a better understanding of their support needs and the wider community aged care context. The article suggests that a co-assessment process involving both clients and care professionals contains features that have the capacity to enhance domiciliary aged care

The Plunder of Maqdala: Ethical Concerns Around Belongings and Ancestral Remains in Museums

During the colonial period, museums did not just passively benefit from the plunder of human remains and culturally sacred items. When Britain sent a punitive military expedition to Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) in 1863, it was accompanied by Richard Holmes, a staff member of the British Museum, whose purchase of loot from the expeditionary force institutionalised the plunder of cultural heritage. His inclusion in the expeditionary force was carefully planned, though the belongings he took — mainly manuscripts, religious items and emblems of power belonging to the Ethiopian royal family — were not the intended focus of his participation. Whilst the UK’s 2004 Human Tissue Act had a beneficial impact on the treatment of human remains in museums, objects belonging to colonised people are often still positioned as artworks or artefacts, evidencing ignorance of the deep personal and spiritual links that connect them back to their communities of origin. This article draws on our professional experience of curation and research in museums and libraries, as well as the impact of ICOM’s new Museum Definition on our practice. Joint research on the Maqdala expedition led us to question assumptions about the legacy of empire in museums and to scrutinise unexpected connections in the history of museum collections. This article addresses the problematic relationship between collecting and imperial power, the false dichotomy between ‘artefacts’ (belongings) and ‘human remains’ (ancestors) and the need to decolonise collections through further research and the recognition of ongoing cultural and physical violence

An ultraviolet excess in the superluminous supernova Gaia16apd reveals a powerful central engine

Since the discovery of superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) in the last decade, it has been known that these events exhibit bluer spectral energy distributions than other supernova subtypes, with significant output in the ultraviolet. However, the event Gaia16apd seems to outshine even the other SLSNe at rest-frame wavelengths below $\sim 3000$ \AA. Yan et al (2016) have recently presented HST UV spectra and attributed the UV flux to low metallicity and hence reduced line blanketing. Here we present UV and optical light curves over a longer baseline in time, revealing a rapid decline at UV wavelengths despite a typical optical evolution. Combining the published UV spectra with our own optical data, we demonstrate that Gaia16apd has a much hotter continuum than virtually any SLSN at maximum light, but it cools rapidly thereafter and is indistinguishable from the others by $\sim 10$-15 days after peak. Comparing the equivalent widths of UV absorption lines with those of other events, we show that the excess UV continuum is a result of a more powerful central power source, rather than a lack of UV absorption relative to other SLSNe or an additional component from interaction with the surrounding medium. These findings strongly support the central-engine hypothesis for hydrogen-poor SLSNe. An explosion ejecting $M_{\rm ej} = 4 (0.2/\kappa)$ M$_\odot$, where $\kappa$ is the opacity in cm$^2$g$^{-1}$, and forming a magnetar with spin period $P=2$ ms, and $B=2\times10^{14}$ G (lower than other SLSNe with comparable rise-times) can consistently explain the light curve evolution and high temperature at peak. The host metallicity, $Z=0.18$ Z$_\odot$, is comparable to other SLSNe.Comment: Updated to match accepted version (ApJL

Solitary-wave description of condensate micro-motion in a time-averaged orbiting potential trap

We present a detailed theoretical analysis of micro-motion in a time-averaged orbiting potential trap. Our treatment is based on the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, with the full time dependent behaviour of the trap systematically approximated to reduce the trapping potential to its dominant terms. We show that within some well specified approximations, the dynamic trap has solitary-wave solutions, and we identify a moving frame of reference which provides the most natural description of the system. In that frame eigenstates of the time-averaged orbiting potential trap can be found, all of which must be solitary-wave solutions with identical, circular centre of mass motion in the lab frame. The validity regime for our treatment is carefully defined, and is shown to be satisfied by existing experimental systems.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure

Theory of preparation and relaxation of a p-orbital atomic Mott insulator

We develop a theoretical framework to understand the preparation and relaxation of a metastable Mott insulator state within the first excited band of a 1D optical lattice. The state is loaded by "lifting" atoms from the ground to the first excited band by means of a stimulated Raman transition. We determine the effect of pulse duration on the accuracy of the state preparation for the case of a Gaussian pulse shape. Relaxation of the prepared state occurs in two major stages: double-occupied sites occurring due to quantum fluctuations initially lead to interband transitions followed by a spreading of particles in the trap and thermalization. We find the characteristic relaxation times at the earliest stage and at asymptotically long times approaching equilibrium. Our theory is applicable to recent experiments performed with 1D optical lattices [T. M\"uller, S. F\"olling, A. Widera, and I. Bloch, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{99}, 200405 (2007)].Comment: 27 pages, 23 figures: Edited figures, added reference

Developing the evidence base for adult social care practice: The NIHR School for Social Care Research

In a foreword to 'Shaping the Future of Care Together', Prime Minister Gordon Brown says that a care and support system reflecting the needs of our times and meeting our rising aspirations is achievable, but 'only if we are prepared to rise to the challenge of radical reform'. A number of initiatives will be needed to meet the challenge of improving social care for the growing older population. Before the unveiling of the green paper, The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) announced that it has provided 15m pounds over a five-year period to establish the NIHR School for Social Care Research. The School's primary aim is to conduct or commission research that will help to improve adult social care practice in England. The School is seeking ideas for research topics, outline proposals for new studies and expert advice in developing research methods