Art therapy: Perspectives of South African psychologists

Art therapy is a method that has a long global history as a treatment alternative when conventional verbal psychotherapy and even pharmacotherapy have failed to facilitate improvement. It helps access, give form to, and integrate experiences, memories, and emotions that cannot be directly verbalised. Art therapy is the creative expression of the client through the use of art making and the subsequent artefacts within therapy. Art therapy is an opportunity for the therapist to access recesses of the client’s mind that may otherwise be hidden. This enables the therapist to utilise these revelations and the artefacts produced strategically within therapy. In South Africa art therapy as a profession does not have a distinct category of its own under the Health Professions Counsel of South Africa (HPCSA), and is not included in psychology training courses at tertiary level. In spite of this, some South African psychologists do use it as a modality in therapy. These psychologists are the subjects of this study. They provided important information regarding the possible uses of art in therapy from a unique South African perspective. The participants in this study have responded each in uniquely favourable terms to questions surrounding the value and benefit of art as a tool of psychological therapy. This unequivocal professional concurrence, while derived from a limited research sample, suggests that art therapy, though severely neglected, holds enormous potential for positive application within the South African context. The interpretations, definitions and applications of art therapy by each of these therapists are admittedly in no way as profound as those evidenced in the international literature examined in the course of this study, yet a vast resource of innovative perspectives, informative considerations along with fresh indicators towards areas for potential future research have come to the fore. According to the participants in this study, art therapy does not receive enough attention in the South African psychological arena. Areas specifically identified by the interviewees in which art therapy can play a role include: group work; preventative work; the crossing of language barriers; providing therapy to the greater population and previously disadvantaged groups; shortening therapy; and trauma work. Art therapy is not limited to age, nor by the presenting problem. It is engaging, and facilitates effective communication. The artefacts produced can serve as historic records of therapy, allowing the therapist and client to recollect the process. Colour can play an important part in therapy, yet the client’s unequivocal personal interpretation of colour should be the focus. Art therapy is not static and facilitates therapeutic movement, client involvement and responsibility. The art activity and artefact provides a concrete rather than verbal medium through which a person can achieve both conscious and unconscious expression and, as such, can be used as a valuable agent for therapeutic change. The image is tangible and serves as constant reminder and anchor to the clients conflict or problem, yet moves it to a safe distance outside the client. Art therapy is implemented in many different ways within South Africa, as is the case internationally. Although a multicultural South African society seems to be different in many contexts, the implementation and occurrence of art therapy appears to be fairly unchanged, and art may be the universal therapeutic language

The influence of polyaspartate additive on the growth and morphology of calcium carbonate crystals.

The addition of low levels of polyaspartate to a supersaturated calcium carbonate (CaCO\sb3) solution leads to unusual morphologies in the inorganic phase. Spherulitic vaterite aggregates with helical protrusions, and distorted calcite crystals that contain spiral pits, have been produced. The helical particles are coated with an inorganic membrane that appears to be responsible for the helical twist. The polymer also causes deposition of thin CaCO\sb3 tablets and films on the glass substrate. Two distinct types of films are deposited; the first is a mosaic of calcite crystals, and the second is spherulitic vaterite. In situ observations of the crystallization reaction have determined that the thin-film morphology is a result of the phase separation of a hydrated CaCO\sb3/polymer liquid-precursor, whereby accumulation of isotropic droplets creates a coating on the substrate, and subsequent dehydration and crystallization yields birefringent CaCO\sb3 films. During the amorphous to crystalline transition, incremental growth steps lead to transition bars and sectored calcite tablets. This in vitro system was originally modeled after certain aspects of CaCO\sb3 biomineralization, in which the soluble proteins extracted from biominerals tend to have high levels of aspartic acid residues. Based on the similarities between features exhibited by the products of this system and those in biominerals, an argument has been presented to suggest that this polymer-induced liquid-precursor (PILP) process is involved in the morphogenesis of CaCO\sb3 biominerals. These features include the following: thin CaCO\sb3 tablets that grow laterally; tablets that express unstable crystallographic faces; non-faceted single crystals with curved surfaces; spatially-delineated single crystals; sectored calcite tablets; hollow-shell spheres; calcium carbonate cements; and magnesium-bearing calcites. This work has demonstrated that a means of morphological control can be accomplished through non-specific organic/inorganic interactions, whereby the polyelectrolyte transforms the solution crystallization to a solidification process. Not only are such findings of significance to the field of biomineralization, but a better understanding of the interactions between polymers and inorganic materials may be expected to lead to new strategies for crystal and particle engineering

Black and minority ethnic trainees’ experiences of physical education initial teacher training

The official published version can be accessed at the link below.This report draws together the findings of research that aimed to explore black and minority ethnic (BME) trainees’ experiences of Physical Education (PE) initial teacher training (ITT). Although the numbers of BME trainees opting to enter teaching have improved considerably over the last few years, PE remains one of three specific subject areas where they remain significantly under-represented. Current figures suggest that PE attracts approximately 3% of trainees from BME backgrounds, compared with 11% for new entrants into teaching overall. The relative lack of success in attracting BME trainees into PE teaching compared to other subject areas suggests that the subculture of the subject may be a compounding factor. Over the last decade or so, a number of studies have explored the impact of ethnicity on teachers’ professional socialisation and their experiences as teachers in school, but none have focused on experiences within specific subject cultures. The centrality of the body in PE, and the link between this and the perceived low status of the subject, are influencing factors highlighted in the broader literature, including sports studies. For example, research exploring racism and the under-representation of BME participants in sport has highlighted the prevalence of stereotypical attitudes about their physicality and abilities held by coaches, administrators and spectators. Other research has suggested that some minority ethnic groups favour higher status, better paid, careers in areas such as law or medicine rather than teaching. As yet, there has been little attention to ‘race’ and ethnicity within PEITT, although studies have shown the impact of gender on trainees’ developing professional identities, and how teachers’ gendered bodies are important ‘tools’ of their work. In addition, there has been little research that has acknowledged trainees’ multiple identities, or the complex ways in which ‘race’, ethnicity, class and gender and other identity markers intersect to impact on the professional socialisation process. The research on which this report is based sought to fill some of these gaps in our understandings of BME trainees’ experiences of PEITT, and to identify strategies that might help in their recruitment and retention in the longer term. The research was funded through a small Recruitment and Retention Challenge Grant from the Teacher Development Agency (TDA). These grants form part of the TDA’s wider policy agenda to widen the diversity of new intakes opting into teaching. Higher education institutions have been encouraged, through targets and financial support and incentives, to develop specific strategies aimed at widening the diversity of their cohorts. Examples of such strategies include the provision of specialist admission help for BME prospective trainees; opportunities to gain experience in schools; open days and ‘taster’ events; advertising in the ethnic minority media, and the development of good practice guides and staff training to help ITT providers address issues of ‘race’ and ethnicity. 5 The impetus for this research resulted, in part, from presentations and discussions at a one day PEITT Network1 staff seminar on diversity held in October, 2007. The quantitative research conducted by the Association for Physical Education (AfPE) and the Ethnic Minority Foundation (EMF) presented here, showed the extent of the national under-representation of BME students in PEITT. Although the day focused on addressing reasons for BME under representation and strategies that might be used for improving recruitment, we felt it was also important to learn about the qualitative experiences of trainees that have been attracted into PEITT. Understanding the experiences of our current BME trainees might offer useful insights into how we might recruit and retain future such trainees. Our choice of qualitative research was supported by a national study published shortly after the network day, investigating the links between gender, ethnicity and degree attainment (Higher Education Academy, HEA, 2008), which specifically calls for further qualitative studies of students’ experiences of different subject areas.Funding from the Training and Development Agency (TDA

Phytoplankton Chlorophyll Distribution in the Eastern Canadian Arctic

The distribution of phytoplankton chlorophyll concentration in Jones Sound, Lancaster Sound, and Eastern Baffin Bay was studied during the period 16-27 August 1979, using continuous ship-based horizontal and vertical profiling and continuous aerial water colour measurements. These data are discussed in relation to physical data collected from the ship, and to infrared temperature measurements made from the aircraft and the TIROS series satellites. While the satellite and airborne remote sensing techniques are capable only of viewing the near-surface layer, they provided a much more detailed and synoptic coverage of this large area than was possible using a vessel alone. Together the three types of data provide a reasonably detailed picture of phytoplankton distribution which compares well with other physical oceanographic data. On average the chlorophyll standing crop was moderate (69 mg/sq m in the top 35 m, n=24) and comparable to that reported for other open-water arctic regions, but the phytoplankton were not evenly distributed vertically or geographically. In Jones Sound and Lancaster Sound where local ice melt reduced the surface water density, strong subsurface chlorophyll maxima (up to 18 mg/cu m in a 1 m thick layer) were observed in association with the pycnoline. At the mouths of these sounds and along the eastern coast of Devon, Bylot, and Baffin islands the phytoplankton distribution was more vertically homogeneous and closely linked to the physical structure of the Baffin Current. Highest pigment concentrations were associated with eddies or meanders in the current. It is possible that these localized pigment concentrations are one manifestation of "biological hotspots" which help feed the large populations of marine birds and mammals of the eastern Arctic.Key words: phytoplankton, chlorophyll, distribution, eastern Canadian Arctic, remote sensingMots clés: phytoplancton, chlorophylle, distribution, l'est de l'Arctique canadien, télédétectio

Integral Human Pose Regression

State-of-the-art human pose estimation methods are based on heat map representation. In spite of the good performance, the representation has a few issues in nature, such as not differentiable and quantization error. This work shows that a simple integral operation relates and unifies the heat map representation and joint regression, thus avoiding the above issues. It is differentiable, efficient, and compatible with any heat map based methods. Its effectiveness is convincingly validated via comprehensive ablation experiments under various settings, specifically on 3D pose estimation, for the first time

Snake mitochondrial genomes: phylogenetic relationships and implications of extended taxon sampling for interpretations of mitogenomic evolution

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Snake mitochondrial genomes are of great interest in understanding mitogenomic evolution because of gene duplications and rearrangements and the fast evolutionary rate of their genes compared to other vertebrates. Mitochondrial gene sequences have also played an important role in attempts to resolve the contentious phylogenetic relationships of especially the early divergences among alethinophidian snakes. Two recent innovative studies found dramatic gene- and branch-specific relative acceleration in snake protein-coding gene evolution, particularly along internal branches leading to Serpentes and Alethinophidia. It has been hypothesized that some of these rate shifts are temporally (and possibly causally) associated with control region duplication and/or major changes in ecology and anatomy.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The near-complete mitochondrial (mt) genomes of three henophidian snakes were sequenced: <it>Anilius scytale</it>, <it>Rhinophis philippinus</it>, and <it>Charina trivirgata</it>. All three genomes share a duplicated control region and translocated tRNA^LEU, derived features found in all alethinophidian snakes studied to date. The new sequence data were aligned with mt genome data for 21 other species of snakes and used in phylogenetic analyses. Phylogenetic results agreed with many other studies in recovering several robust clades, including Colubroidea, Caenophidia, and Cylindrophiidae+Uropeltidae. Nodes within Henophidia that have been difficult to resolve robustly in previous analyses remained uncompellingly resolved here. Comparisons of relative rates of evolution of rRNA vs. protein-coding genes were conducted by estimating branch lengths across the tree. Our expanded sampling revealed dramatic acceleration along the branch leading to Typhlopidae, particularly long rRNA terminal branches within Scolecophidia, and that most of the dramatic acceleration in protein-coding gene rate along Serpentes and Alethinophidia branches occurred before <it>Anilius </it>diverged from other alethinophidians.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Mitochondrial gene sequence data alone may not be able to robustly resolve basal divergences among alethinophidian snakes. Taxon sampling plays an important role in identifying mitogenomic evolutionary events within snakes, and in testing hypotheses explaining their origin. Dramatic rate shifts in mitogenomic evolution occur within Scolecophidia as well as Alethinophidia, thus falsifying the hypothesis that these shifts in snakes are associated exclusively with evolution of a non-burrowing lifestyle, macrostomatan feeding ecology and/or duplication of the control region, both restricted to alethinophidians among living snakes.</p

From ethical challenges to opportunities: Reflections on participatory and collaborative research with refugees in Australia

© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This reflective article draws upon our recent experiences in researching with refugees, especially women and youth, who have resettled in Australia. It is a practice and research-oriented article that presents our experience as a series of ethical challenges and how these were resolved to form opportunities for ongoing collaboration. We discuss the limitations of existing ethical guidelines relating to research with displaced people especially refugees; the difficulties of gaining consent in a manner that balances university requirements with participant self-determination; the issue of tangible benefits and reciprocity for participants; the challenge of accurate representation of refugee voices, using imagery; and finally our ongoing accountability to participants. In trying to address these issues, our projects have used a participatory, collaborative research method, in keeping with recent calls for greater use of this approach. In doing so, we have attempted to redistribute social power, ownership of results and resources from the researchers to the participants. We posit that giving refugee participants the opportunity to actively participate in sharing their stories is empowering and builds strength and resilience