\u27This Text Deletes Itself’: Traumatic Memory and Space-Time in Zoe Wicomb’s David’s Story

The group of cultural and literary theorists whom I would loosely categorize as practitioners of “trauma theory”–including, most notably, Cathy Caruth, Shoshana Felman, Dori Laub, and Dominick LaCapra–share several assumptions. Their ideas all derive to a large extent from Freudian conceptions of memory and trauma, and they all emphasize the temporal aspects of psychic trauma: Caruth, for instance, describes the traumatic encounter as “a break in the mind’s experience of time” (61). Implicit in this conception of trauma, as well, is the assumption that trauma is an individual and private phenomenon. And they all suggest, moreover, that trauma manifests itself primarily as a loss of language, coupled paradoxically with the compulsion to talk about that loss. The corollary of this point is that the “cure” for traumatic memory disorders is some variant of the talking cure. For some theorists, this is the task of formal psychoanalytic therapy: Dori Laub, for instance, argues that therapy is “a process of constructing a narrative, of reconstructing a history and essentially, of re-externalizing the event” (Felman and Laub 69). For LaCapra, “testimonial witnessing” is a more effective mode of constructing narratives around traumatic occurrences: “witnessing based on memory… provides insight into lived experience and its transmission in language and gesture” (History and Memory 11)

Biodegradation of Rubber Particles in Soil: Using Acclimated Bacteria Isolated from Kansas Soil to Degrade Cryogrinds in Slurry

This study investigated the viability of bioremediating rubber cryogrind using enriched indigenous bacteria. To begin the experiment, soils from three highway roadside locations in Kansas, KS 96 and West, KS 400 and 143rd, and 199th, were collected and transported to the lab to be studied. An initial soil characterization was run on the soil samples using distilled (DI) water mixture and 0.01 M CaCl2 to assess conductivity. The soils were tested to gather a baseline of the relationship between pH and conductivity and the impact of its distance from the roadside. Bacteria were isolated from the soils, mixed with rubber cryogrind, and put into a nutrient mix consisting of 2 g/L of (NH4)2SO4 (Ammonium Sulfate) and 200 mg/L of KH2PO4 (Monopotassium Phosphate) with the cryogrind as the carbon source. Five different cryogrind types were used in the experiment. Cryogrinds tested included TIP cryogrind (donated by the Tire Industry group), truck SBR (styrene-butadiene rubber) cryogrind, truck NR (natural rubber) cryogrind, Passenger tire CB (carbon black filler) cryogrind, and passenger tire Silica (silica filler) cryogrind

Enhancing the effect of quantum many-body scars on dynamics by minimising the effective dimension

Quantum many-body scarring is believed to be the mechanism behind long-lived coherent oscillations in interacting Rydberg atom chains. These persistent oscillations are due to the large overlap of the many-body scars with certain initial states. We show that the "effective dimension" is a useful measure for identifying non-thermalising initial states in many-body scarred systems. By minimising the effective dimension we find physically reasonable initial states of the Rydberg chain that lead to more pronounced and longer lived oscillations, accentuating the effect of the many-body scars on the dynamics.Comment: 6 pages (including references and appendix

Extreme many-body scarring in a quantum spin chain via weak dynamical constraints

It has recently been established that quantum many-body scarring can prevent the thermalisation of some isolated quantum systems, starting from certain initial states. One of the first models to show this was the so-called PXP Hamiltonian, which was used to theoretically model an experiment on a chain of strongly interacting Rydberg atoms. A defining feature of the PXP Hamiltonian is a set of dynamical constraints that make certain states inaccessible to the dynamics. In this paper we construct a class of spin chain models that are parameterised by a discrete variable $\ell$ that controls the "strength" of a dynamical constraint. We show that by increasing $\ell$ the constraint becomes weaker, in the sense that fewer states are excluded from the dynamics. The PXP Hamiltonian is special case for $\ell = 2$. By weakening the constraint to $\ell \geq 4$, however, we find a more extreme version of quantum scarring than in the PXP Hamiltonian, with the number of scar states growing exponentially in the system size.Comment: 6 + 3 page

Small strain behavior and crushability of Ballyconnelly carbonate sand under monotonic and cyclic loading

In various parts of the globe, carbonate sands are found at shallow sea water depth. These types of sands are very susceptible to large scale particle breakage. Offshore structures like wind turbines and sea defences are constructed on these types of soils. From a design perspective, it is essential to assess the extent of particle breakage and the subsequent change in soil properties that occur under working load conditions. This paper presents the data obtained from a number of drained monotonic and cyclic triaxial tests on crushable carbonate sand (“Ballyconnelly sand”) in conjunction with small strain shear stiffness (Gmax¬) measurements using the bender element technique. The soils were allowed to shear under three different loading patterns in order to understand the factors influencing the breakage of particles. The degree of crushing was quantified and analysed based on the total energy input. It was observed that, apart from applied stress, the total strain accumulation governs the amount of particle breakage. It was observed that Gmax increased significantly under high stress ratio. Gmax also increased noticeably during resting periods without any change in loading conditions as a result of creep, and subsequently during cyclic loading although at a reduced rate.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

Report of an inferior rectal nerve variant arising from the S3 ventral ramus.

In surgical approaches to the perineum in general and anal region specifically, considering the possible variations of the inferior rectal nerve is important for the surgeon. Normally, the inferior rectal nerve originates as a branch of the pudendal nerve. However, during routine dissection, a variant of the inferior rectal nerve was found where it arose directly from the third sacral nerve ventral ramus (S3). Many cases have described the inferior rectal nerve arising independently from the sacral plexus, most commonly from the fourth sacral nerve root (S4); however, few cases have reported the inferior rectal nerve arising from S3. Herein, we describe a variant of the inferior rectal nerve in which the nerve arises independently from the sacral plexus

Asymmetric synthesis with an ephedrine based chiral auxilliary.

Abstract available in pdf file