Poetic Resistance: Karen Long-Distance Nationalism, Rap Music, and YouTube

This article investigates a concern among encamped elder Karen refugees (an ethnic minority from Myanmar) living along the Thai-Myanmar border that the youth are disconnected politically and culturally. I argue that Karen youth are creative, active participants reimagining and revitalising Karen politics and culture in their image. I explore how displaced youths have found a voice in Karen rap and how they express this voice in the digitally mediated lived space of YouTube. I consider YouTube as a lived space where citizenship is re-imagined and long-distance nationalism is articulated. Finally, I contend that YouTube is transforming Karen youths’ political experiences and mobility and that they are actively political - just not in the way the elders expect

The role of the tiger and the elephant in the ascent of Africa: partners or neocolonialists?

This paper focuses on the relationships between Africa and China and Africa and India. The goal of this paper is to analyze these relationships and determine if they are exploitative or mutually beneficial through the two case study countries of Angola and Ethiopia. I analyze the relationships through the theoretical frameworks of the dependency theory and neocolonialism. Through my research I found that the investment by China and India in Africa is not merely exploitative, but that it is different from Western countries investment in Africa. This difference could be incredibly beneficial to Africa if African countries are able to make use of it

Mediating Encamped Identities and Belongings: An Ethnography of Everyday Karen Life in Mae La Refugee Camp

The image of a refugee camp is often portrayed as a suspended space of exception, an inhospitable environment where refugees live in limbo-like states disconnected from the rest of the world. Acknowledging the exceptionality of camps, I argue that a top-down institutional approach only illuminates half the story and neglects the multi-faceted spatial dynamics of everyday refugee life. Through an ethnographic lens that draws from two years of fieldwork and includes the voices of 40 participants, I explore the everyday identities and belongings of encamped Karen living in protracted displacement along the Thai-Myanmar border. By examining refugee presence in the ‘lived’ material space and the ‘lived’ mediated space, I attempt to unpack themes of stuckness, transcendence, bare life, and ordinariness. To explore how offline life intertwines with online life, I take a socio-technical approach and ask: how, if at all, encamped Karen articulate their everyday lives, identities, and sense of belonging within the material space of Mae La? To what extent are media technologies used by inhabitants and their role in expressing everyday identities and belongings? To what extent, if at all, do new media technologies, mediated communication practices, and mediated environments interweave into everyday encamped life? In the context of Mae La, I found that refugees live in many different spaces where multiple identities coexist and circulate simultaneously. Although I recognise Mae La’s exceptionality, I observe that life is not only lived in a state of suspension but is rich with an abundance of stories, memories, contradictions, and ambiguity. Participants demonstrated resistance to their prolonged encampment through practices such as music, rituals, and selfies. Mae La is evolving, and contrary to the past, inhabitants with access to new media technologies and mediated spaces take control of their representation and offer an account of their lives

Student staff partnership to create an interdisciplinary science skills course in a research intensive university

This paper reflects upon the development of a multidisciplinary lesson plan aimed at developing science skills for Physics and Astronomy, Geographical and Earth Sciences, and Chemistry students at a research intensive Scottish university. The lesson plan was co-developed with a small group of staff and undergraduate students from these disciplinary areas. The authors discuss the rationale and process for developing the course, drawing upon literature relating to students and staff co-creating curricula in higher education. The authors conclude by offering suggestions for the academic development community about ways in which this kind of collaboration can be supported at local and institutional levels

Open plains are not a level playing field for hominid consonant‑like versus vowel‑like calls

Africa’s paleo-climate change represents an “ecological black-box” along the evolutionary timeline of spoken language; a vocal hominid went in and, millions of years later, out came a verbal human. It is unknown whether or how a shift from forested, dense habitats towards drier, open ones affected hominid vocal communication, potentially setting stage for speech evolution. To recreate how arboreal proto-vowels and proto-consonants would have interacted with a new ecology at ground level, we assessed how a series of orangutan voiceless consonant-like and voiced vowel-like calls travelled across the savannah. Vowel-like calls performed poorly in comparison to their counterparts. Only consonant-like calls afforded effective perceptibility beyond 100 m distance without requiring repetition, as is characteristic of loud calling behaviour in nonhuman primates, typically composed by vowel-like calls. Results show that proto-consonants in human ancestors may have enhanced reliability of distance vocal communication across a canopy-to-ground ecotone. The ecological settings and soundscapes experienced by human ancestors may have had a more profound impact on the emergence and shape of spoken language than previously recognized

Programming Environments for Children: Creating a Language that Grows with you

Recent efforts have increased the number of elementary and middle schools teaching computer science — but do they have the right tools for the job? Elementary school teachers are usually responsible for teaching all subjects, and often do not have a background or training in computer science. Fourth through sixth grade students are still developing their math and reading skills as well as learning how to type and use computers. Fortunately, computer science is one of the only domains that can adapt to meet the needs of the user. Unlike math or physics, computer science has few constants; computers, languages, and development environments have changed over the last decades and will continue to evolve. How can programming languages and environments better meet the needs of upper elementary classes learning computer science? This paper looks at designing block-based programming environments for upper elementary school students as a part of a larger research study on early computer science education. Block-based programming environments let children create complex, visual programs without worrying about compiling or syntax errors. This paper describes the research studies completed in the design and implementation of block-based programming environments created alongside the development of KELP-CS, a computational thinking curriculum for 4th — 6th grade. Both the programming environment and curriculum were piloted in schools across California as part of a design-based research project

Supported accommodation evaluation framework (SAEF) guide

High hopes for the NDIS are that people with disability will be able to live as independently as they choose, with the housing of their choice, and with the paid support that suits their preferences and life goals. Research conducted by the Social Policy Research Centre for the NSW government about disability housing support that is like the NDIS found that most people did achieve some positive outcomes. Least change was evident in people’s interpersonal relationships and employment, and some people did not live in housing that met their needs.&nbsp

Dietary intake, nutritional status and mental wellbeing of homeless adults in Reading, UK

Malnutrition has been reported in the homeless, yet the specific nutritional issues faced by each homeless community are unclear. This is in part due to nutrient intake often being compared with dietary reference values as opposed to a comparative housed population. In addition, the complex interplay between nutrient intake, reward mediated behaviour and mental illness is frequently overlooked. This study aimed to compare the dietary intake, nutritional status and mental wellbeing of homeless and housed adults. Homeless (n 75) and matched housed (n 75) adults were recruited from Reading (UK). Nutrient intake was determined using the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition Norfolk FFQ. The Patient Health Questionnaire: Somatic Anxiety Depressive Symptoms (PHQ-SADS) assessed for signs of mental illness. Demographic, behavioural and physiological information was collected using closed-ended questions and anthropometric measurements. Overall, dietary intake was poorer in homeless adults who reported higher intakes of salt (8·0 v. 6·4 g, P=0·017), SFA (14·6 v. 13·0 %, P=0·002) and alcohol (5·3 v. 1·9 %, P<0·001) and lower intakes of fibre (13·4 v. 16·3 g, P<0·001), vitamin C (79 v. 109 mg, P<0·001) and fruit (96 v. 260 g, P<0·001) than housed. Smoking, substance misuse and PHQ-SADS scores were also higher in the homeless (P<0·001). Within the homeless population, street homeless (n 24) had lower SFA (13·7 v.15·0 %, P=0·010), Ca (858 v. 1032 mg, P=0·027) and milk intakes (295 v. 449 g, P=0·001) than hostel residents (n 51), which may reflect the issues with food storage. This study highlights the disparity between nutritional status in homeless and housed populations and the need for dietary intervention in the homeless community

Implicaciones socioculturales del turismo y balance de la Antropología del turismo sobre Andalucía

Knee replacement is a common preference sensitive quality-of-life procedure that can reduce pain and improve function for people with advanced knee arthritis. While most patients improve, knee replacement surgery has the potential for serious complications. Prosthetic knee infection is an uncommon but serious complication. This study explored the impact of cases of prosthetic knee infection on surgeons' personal and professional wellbeing. Qualitative telephone interviews were conducted with consultant orthopaedic surgeons who treated patients for prosthetic knee infection in one of six high-volume NHS orthopaedic departments. Data was audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed thematically. Eleven surgeons took part. Analysis identified three overarching themes: (i) At some point infection is inevitable but surgeons still feel accountable; (ii) A profound emotional impact and (iii) Supporting each other. The occurrence of prosthetic joint infection has a significant emotional impact on surgeons who report a collective sense of devastation and personal ownership, even though prosthetic joint infection cannot be fully controlled for. Surgeons stressed the importance of openly discussing the management of prosthetic joint infection with a supportive multidisciplinary team and this has implications for the ways in which orthopaedic surgeons may be best supported to manage this complication. This article also acknowledges that surgeons are not alone in experiencing personal impact when patients have infection