Gender and Transformative Justice in Sri Lanka

The idea of ‘transformative justice’ has emerged from criticisms that conventional transitional justice mechanisms have led to static institutions and the prioritisation of elite interests instead of tangible remedies for the people who are most in need – including women.1 This working paper focuses on Sri Lanka’s reconciliation and reform processes, and the crucial task of bringing genuine transformation to the women affected by the country’s near three decade war and recurring conflicts. The authors urge decision-makers to ensure full inclusion of women and include gendered experiences in planned reform processes, aiming at genuine transformation of societal circumstances so that conflict-affected women can achieve empowerment, dignity and equality

Diakonische Bildung – aber wie? Aufgaben diakonischen Lernens in einer sich verändernden Gesellschaft

Der Beitrag diskutiert die Frage nach den Besonderheiten und Herausforderungen diakonischer Bildungsprozesse.Im Anschluss an einen Überblick über historische und aktuelle Bildungsdiskurse imBereich der Diakoniewissenschaft fokussieren die Autorinnen diakonische Bildungsprozesse von Studierendenund Lehrenden an der Hochschule. Am Beispiel zweier Projekte forschenden Lernens – indenen Studierende mit Hilfe von Sozialraumanalysen diakonische Handlungsprofile entwarfen – analysierensie die spezifischen Anforderungen: Zu entwickeln ist zugleich eine theologische Deutung deskonkreten sozialen Handelns, eine angemessene persönliche Haltung und eine der gesellschaftlichenSituation angemessene Sprachfähigkeit im Handlungsfeld. In dieser Entwicklungsaufgabe lässt sichnicht immer unmittelbar an bisherige Erfahrungen anknüpfen. Auf diese Weise ist die Kirche als Organisationselbst diakonischen Lernprozessen ausgesetzt.This article discusses the specifics and the challenges of the educational process in the field ofdiaconia. After giving an overview over historical and present discourses in regard to education in thefield of Diaconic Science (= Diakoniewissenschaften), the authors focus on education processes ofstudents and teaching staff at a university of applied sciences. Their analysis is based on two researchprojects, in which students developed diaconal courses of action by using social space analysis. Thestudents focused on the specific requirements as well as on the need to develop a theological constructionof the concrete social action. They work demanded an appropriate personal mindset and theability to express oneself according to the social context of the sphere of action. This developmentalprocess cannot always be tied to previous experiences. Therefore, the church itself becomes subjectto diaconal learning processes

Virtualizing the Stampede2 Supercomputer with Applications to HPC in the Cloud

Methods developed at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) are described and demonstrated for automating the construction of an elastic, virtual cluster emulating the Stampede2 high performance computing (HPC) system. The cluster can be built and/or scaled in a matter of minutes on the Jetstream self-service cloud system and shares many properties of the original Stampede2, including: i) common identity management, ii) access to the same file systems, iii) equivalent software application stack and module system, iv) similar job scheduling interface via Slurm. We measure time-to-solution for a number of common scientific applications on our virtual cluster against equivalent runs on Stampede2 and develop an application profile where performance is similar or otherwise acceptable. For such applications, the virtual cluster provides an effective form of "cloud bursting" with the potential to significantly improve overall turnaround time, particularly when Stampede2 is experiencing long queue wait times. In addition, the virtual cluster can be used for test and debug without directly impacting Stampede2. We conclude with a discussion of how science gateways can leverage the TACC Jobs API web service to incorporate this cloud bursting technique transparently to the end user.Comment: 6 pages, 0 figures, PEARC '18: Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing, July 22--26, 2018, Pittsburgh, PA, US

Comparative Demography and Dietary Resource Partitioning of Two Wild Ranging Asiatic Equid Populations

Tooth wear signatures allow inference on the dietary traits of herbivorous ungulates. Comparing dietary regimes of taxonomically closely related populations further allows inference on habitat structure and food availability. The mesowear method of tooth wear evaluation has opened up a pathway to reconstruct subtle differences in dietary behavior and resource partitioning based on skeletal material as the only source of information. Eighty cheek dentitions of Asian wild asses (Equus hemionus) from the Southern Gobi (Mongolia) and 61 dentitions of African free ranging donkeys (Equus asinus) from the Emirate Sharjah (United Arab Emirates) were investigated for their mesowear signatures. It is tested if sexes and age classes of individuals are different in their mesowear signatures. Cluster analyses and principal components analyses are applied in order to test hypotheses using 27 ungulate species with known diets as a reference. The wild asses from the Gobi are found to classify as typical grazers within this spectrum and have a more abrasion-dominated signature then the donkey population from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The diet available to the latter population is thus considered to be more heterogeneous. This indicates that the donkey habitat in the UAE is a more diverse mosaic of feeding resources compared to the wild ass habitat of the Mongolian desert. In both populations there are more intraspecific differences in the diet between sexes then there are interspecific differences between the two African zebra species E. burchelii and E. grevyi. The dietary signal is further interpreted as to reflect the social structure of the animals as associated with specific environmental conditions. Between the two sexes of Asian wild asses and UAE donkeys, one would expect a more pronounced segregation in the diet when male territories are small and poor in resources at the same time. This condition would best characterise the habitat inhabited by the UAE donkey population. The data suggest that the male territories of this population are comparatively small and thus provide highly abrasive forage only

Comparative Demography and Dietary Resource Partitioning of Two Wild Ranging Asiatic Equid Populations

Tooth wear signatures allow inference on the dietary traits of herbivorous ungulates. Comparing dietary regimes of taxonomically closely related populations further allows inference on habitat structure and food availability. The mesowear method of tooth wear evaluation has opened up a pathway to reconstruct subtle differences in dietary behavior and resource partitioning based on skeletal material as the only source of information. Eighty cheek dentitions of Asian wild asses (Equus hemionus) from the Southern Gobi (Mongolia) and 61 dentitions of African free ranging donkeys (Equus asinus) from the Emirate Sharjah (United Arab Emirates) were investigated for their mesowear signatures. It is tested if sexes and age classes of individuals are different in their mesowear signatures. Cluster analyses and principal components analyses are applied in order to test hypotheses using 27 ungulate species with known diets as a reference. The wild asses from the Gobi are found to classify as typical grazers within this spectrum and have a more abrasion-dominated signature then the donkey population from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The diet available to the latter population is thus considered to be more heterogeneous. This indicates that the donkey habitat in the UAE is a more diverse mosaic of feeding resources compared to the wild ass habitat of the Mongolian desert. In both populations there are more intraspecific differences in the diet between sexes then there are interspecific differences between the two African zebra species E. burchelii and E. grevyi. The dietary signal is further interpreted as to reflect the social structure of the animals as associated with specific environmental conditions. Between the two sexes of Asian wild asses and UAE donkeys, one would expect a more pronounced segregation in the diet when male territories are small and poor in resources at the same time. This condition would best characterise the habitat inhabited by the UAE donkey population. The data suggest that the male territories of this population are comparatively small and thus provide highly abrasive forage only

Forage silica and water content control dental surface texture in guinea pigs and provide implications for dietary reconstruction

Recent studies have shown that phytoliths are softer than dental enamel but still act as abrasive agents. Thus, phytolith content should be reflected in dental wear. Because native phytoliths show lower indentation hardness than phytoliths extracted by dry ashing, we propose that the hydration state of plant tissue will also affect dental abrasion. To assess this, we performed a controlled feeding experiment with 36 adult guinea pigs, fed exclusively with three different natural forages: lucerne, timothy grass, and bamboo with distinct phytolith/silica contents (lucerne < grass < bamboo). Each forage was fed in fresh or dried state for 3 weeks. We then performed 3D surface texture analysis (3DST) on the upper fourth premolar. Generally, enamel surface roughness increased with higher forage phytolith/silica content. Additionally, fresh and dry grass feeders displayed differences in wear patterns, with those of fresh grass feeders being similar to fresh and dry lucerne (phytolith-poor) feeders, supporting previous reports that "fresh grass grazers" show less abrasion than unspecialized grazers. Our results demonstrate that not only phytolith content but also properties such as water content can significantly affect plant abrasiveness, even to such an extent that wear patterns characteristic for dietary traits (browser-grazer differences) become indistinguishable

Anthropological Engagement in the International Sphere

As anthropologists increasingly embark upon the study of the international sphere, this often builds on different forms of engagement within and around organizations, processes, and institutional corridors. The co-authors, building upon a round table exchange, address the advantages and dilemmas of anthropological engagement in the field of international governance, including humanitarian work, diplomacy, international organizations, the Swiss federal government, NGOs, and multinationals