Everyday experience and community development practice

This article explores the potential to apply what is generally known as ‘theories of everyday life’ and psychogeography to understanding how the experience of place affects individuals concept of self and their position within the world. We suggest that community development practice can become over focused on the practicalities of organizing, at the expense of understanding the daily life experience of individuals and communities. If community development practitioners applied an analysis based on the theories and experiences of everyday life they could better facilitate individuals to work collectively for personal and social change. The article explores the basic ideas of everyday life and psychogeography. We then identify a methodology for using these ideas in community development practice and provide an experimental example of such an analysis set in Las Vegas. Finally we discuss the potential for community development workers of linking such an analysis to the work of Freire and the ideas of Gramsci to increase the effectiveness of their practice

“Bribed with our own money!” Federal Misuse of Tribal Funds

Thanks to the University Small Grant that I received I was able to conduct a significant amount of research for my next book project. I received $5,000 from the University Small Grant Program to support travel for archival research trips in the 2018-19 school year. I was able to leverage this funding with funding from UM’s Humanities Institute, the Native American Studies department, and money from my pocket, to make five archival research trips and one writing trip during 2018-19. I used UGP funding specifically to help support three research trips, to the National Archives and Library of Congress in Washington DC; the Harry S. Truman Library in Independence, Missouri; and the Special Collections at the University of Washington Library in Seattle

Development of A Continuous Process for Displacement Dewatering

The subject of this contract was to investigate the viability of a new process for dewatering paper called displacement pressing. The term “displacement pressing” was coined in the 1980s by researchers to describe a paper dewatering process where air is blown through a sheet of paper while it is being pressed. It was shown at that time that the combination of air and low pressing force could dramatically increase both sheet bulk and sheet solids which in theory would translate into huge savings in energy and fiber consumption. But there was a catch. Although the research results were dramatic, no one could figure out a commercially viable process to carry out displacement pressing. All research work had been done with batch processes, and there was no obvious way to convert these processes into a continuous process. By the end of the early1990’s no one was researching in this area because no continuous process existed. Recently we proposed a new method to carry out displacement pressing. Our process uses special pressing fabrics and a special 4 roll press that we call a “Beck Cluster Press” or BCP. The BCP provides a pressurized atmosphere that acts on a moving web of paper and fabrics. The special fabrics designed for this process use this atmosphere to press the sheet and at the same time, these special fabrics force air through the sheet to carry out displacement pressing. 1 Because of the complexity and cost of building the first functioning BCP, a simple simulator was built to confirm and study the process. Although results from this simulator were extremely favorable, financial times were hard in the paper industry. We are grateful for the DOE contract that allowed us to continue research that showed the tremendous benefits of displacement pressing. Specifically, accomplishments from the DOE contract are as follows: 1. A narrow (5” wide sheet) lab Beck Cluster Press (BCP) was started up, and made operational. This press accepts hand sheets and displacement presses them at conditions that duplicate commercial conditions for dwell time, and pressure. 2. The lab BCP machine was used to verify simulator results. Results showed the lab BCP gave paper dryness that exceeded simulator results for dryness. 3. Sheet samples were obtained for several paper grades. These samples were pressed conventionally (shoe and roll presses) and with the lab BCP. Results showed significant gains in bulk (5-48%) compared to commercially pressed sheets while producing similar or higher dryness. These results verified the predictions of the earlier research papers. 4. Sheet bulk exceeded the Agenda 2020 goal a 7% increase. This increase in bulk was reported by Agenda 2020 as being worth about 3 billion dollars per year in fiber savings. Potential energy savings due to dryness savings could be worth $1 billion per year. However energy savings and fiber savings are inter-related so while savings are likely in both energy and fiber at the same time, increasing one will cause the other to decrease. 5. Based on the significant results of small-scale BCP trials, a 1m pilot BCP press stand was built to determine scalability of the process. 6. 1m pilot press stand was started up. This machine was shown to hold design pressure. Drive issues however prevented operation at operating speed and pressure during the contact period. Improvements to the drive system since the end of the DOE contract have allowed us to reach operating pressure and speed. 7. The last DOE objective of passing paper through the 1m BCP was not reached due to drive issues and the desire to study and qualify sealing systems. All other original objectives and the added objective (by contract revision) of this ambitious project have been met. 8. Several paper companies have showed interest in helping us commercialize this process. Interest is so high that these companies appear willing to invest in further development

Processing Images from the Zwicky Transient Facility

The Zwicky Transient Facility is a new robotic-observing program, in which a newly engineered 600-MP digital camera with a pioneeringly large field of view, 47~square degrees, will be installed into the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope at the Palomar Observatory. The camera will generate $\sim 1$~petabyte of raw image data over three years of operations. In parallel related work, new hardware and software systems are being developed to process these data in real time and build a long-term archive for the processed products. The first public release of archived products is planned for early 2019, which will include processed images and astronomical-source catalogs of the northern sky in the $g$ and $r$ bands. Source catalogs based on two different methods will be generated for the archive: aperture photometry and point-spread-function fitting.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, submitted to RTSRE Proceedings (www.rtsre.org

Uniparental disomy of chromosome 16 unmasks recessive mutations of FA2H/SPG35 in 4 families

Objective: Identifying an intriguing mechanism for unmasking recessive hereditary spastic paraplegias. Method: Herein, we describe 4 novel homozygous FA2H mutations in 4 nonconsanguineous families detected by whole-exome sequencing or a targeted gene panel analysis providing high coverage of all known hereditary spastic paraplegia genes. Results: Segregation analysis revealed in all cases only one parent as a heterozygous mutation carrier whereas the other parent did not carry FA2H mutations. A macro deletion within FA2H, which could have caused a hemizygous genotype, was excluded by multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification in all cases. Finally, a microsatellite array revealed uniparental disomy (UPD) in all 4 families leading to homozygous FA2H mutations. UPD was confirmed by microarray analyses and methylation profiling. Conclusion: UPD has rarely been described as causative mechanism in neurodegenerative diseases. Of note, we identified this mode of inheritance in 4 families with the rare diagnosis of spastic paraplegia type 35 (SPG35). Since UPD seems to be a relevant factor in SPG35 and probably additional autosomal recessive diseases, we recommend segregation analysis especially in nonconsanguineous homozygous index cases to unravel UPD as mutational mechanism. This finding may bear major repercussion for genetic counseling, given the markedly reduced risk of recurrence for affected families

Maternal psychological distress in primary care and association with child behavioural outcomes at age three

Observational studies indicate children whose mothers have poor mental health are at increased risk of socio-emotional behavioural difficulties, but it is unknown whether these outcomes vary by the mothers’ mental health recognition and treatment status. To examine this question, we analysed linked longitudinal primary care and research data from 1078 women enrolled in the Born in Bradford cohort. A latent class analysis of treatment status and self-reported distress broadly categorised women as (a) not having a common mental disorder (CMD) that persisted through pregnancy and the first 2 years after delivery (N = 756, 70.1 %), (b) treated for CMD (N = 67, 6.2 %), or (c) untreated (N = 255, 23.7 %). Compared to children of mothers without CMD, 3-year-old children with mothers classified as having untreated CMD had higher standardised factor scores on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (d = 0.32), as did children with mothers classified as having treated CMD (d = 0.27). Results were only slightly attenuated in adjusted analyses. Children of mothers with CMD may be at risk for socio-emotional and behavioural difficulties. The development of effective treatments for CMD needs to be balanced by greater attempts to identify and treat women. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00787-015-0777-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users