Defying Borders: Transforming Learning Through Collaborative Feminist Organizing and Interdisciplinary, Transnational Pedagogy

The authors provide a case study of how a group of faculty members was able to initiate a transformation in student learning and institutional structures at a small university in the Midwestern U.S. through the introduction of collaborative feminist organizing and pedagogy. It details faculty-led initiatives that set the stage for innovative teaching and learning, and it describes the authors\u27 experience in the face of resistance when introducing a global women\u27s human rights course into the university\u27s new core curriculum. Because of its divers, interdisciplinary and transnational content, this course challenged deeply ingrained disciplinary and pedagogical borders of both traditional area studies and the field of history. The authors argue that progress toward diverse curricula can be made when colleagues work collaboratively and apply innovative pedagogical models to the classroom. Although specific to one university, these challenges to and strategies for transformation have broader application to all faculty seeking to diversify curricula and institutions

Kinematic Analysis of the 2020 Elliot Creek Landslide, British Columbia, Using Remote Sensing Data

The 2020 Elliot Creek landslide-tsunami-flood cascade originated from an 18.3 Mm3 rock slope failure in quartz diorite bedrock in a valley undergoing rapid glacial retreat. We used airborne LiDAR and optical imagery to characterize the slope and its surroundings. Using the LiDAR, we determined that two rockslides (2020 and an older undated one) occurred on this slope and shared a common basal rupture surface. We mapped two main sets of lineaments that represent structures that controlled the orientation of the lateral and rear release surfaces. Analysis of the topographic profile indicates a wedge-shaped failure block and a stepped rupture surface. Further topographic profile analysis indicates the possibility of a structurally controlled geomorphic step in the valley that corresponds with a change in the orientation of the valley. The rapid retreat of the West Grenville Glacier and the positions of the rupture surfaces suggest glacial retreat played a role in the landslides

The SWADE model for landslide dating in time series of optical satellite imagery

Landslides are destructive natural hazards that cause substantial loss of life and impact on natural and built environments. Landslide frequencies are important inputs for hazard assessments. However, dating landslides in remote areas is often challenging. We propose a novel landslide dating technique based on Segmented WAvelet-DEnoising and stepwise linear fitting (SWADE), using the Landsat archive (1985–2017). SWADE employs the principle that vegetation is often removed by landsliding in vegetated areas, causing a temporal decrease in normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). The applicability of SWADE and two previously published methods for landslide dating, harmonic modelling and LandTrendr, are evaluated using 66 known landslides in the Buckinghorse River area, northeastern British Columbia, Canada. SWADE identifies sudden changes of NDVI values in the time series and this may result in one or more probable landslide occurrence dates. The most-probable date range identified by SWADE detects 52% of the landslides within a maximum error of 1 year, and 62% of the landslides within a maximum error of 2 years. Comparatively, these numbers increase to 68% and 80% when including the two most-probable landslide date ranges, respectively. Harmonic modelling detects 79% of the landslides with a maximum error of 1 year, and 82% of the landslides with a maximum error of 2 years, but requires expert judgement and a well-developed seasonal vegetation cycle in contrast to SWADE. LandTrendr, originally developed for mapping deforestation, only detects 42% of landslides within a maximum error of 2 years. SWADE provides a promising fully automatic method for landslide dating, which can contribute to constructing landslide frequency-magnitude distributions in remote areas

Timing performance of the Timepix4 front-end

A characterisation of the Timepix4 pixel front-end with a strong focus on timing performance is presented. Externally generated test pulses were used to probe the per-pixel time-to-digital converter (TDC) and measure the time-bin sizes by precisely controlling the test-pulse arrival time in steps of 10 ps. The results indicate that the TDC can achieve a time resolution of 60 ps, provided that a calibration is performed to compensate for frequency variation in the voltage controlled oscillators of the pixel TDCs. The internal clock distribution system of Timepix4 was used to control the arrival time of internally generated analog test pulses in steps of about 20 ps. The analog test pulse mechanism injects a controlled amount of charge directly into the analog front-end (AFE) of the pixel, and was used to measure the time resolution as a function of signal charge, independently of the TDC. It was shown that for the default configuration, the AFE time resolution in the hole-collecting mode is limited to 105 ps. However, this can be improved up to about 60 ps by increasing the preamplifier bias-current at the cost of increased power dissipation. For the electron-collecting mode, an AFE time resolution of 47 ps was measured for a bare Timepix4 device at a signal charge of 21 ke. It was observed that additional input capacitance from a bonded sensor reduces this figure to 62 ps

Phagocytosis and macrophage polarisation on bacterially contaminated dental implant materials and effects on tissue integration

Bacterial contamination is hard to avoid during dental implant surgery. Macrophages and their polarisation play a decisive role in bacterial colonisation and tissue integration on bacterially contaminated dental implants. The present study investigated the role of macrophages in stimulating tissue coverage overgrowth of contaminating oral bacteria on polished titanium (Ti-P) and acid-etched zirconium dioxide (ZrO2-MA) dental implant materials. Different co-culture models were employed to determine phagocytosis rates of Streptococcus mitis or Staphylococcus aureus contaminating a dental implant surface and the influence of contaminating bacteria and osteoblasts (U2OS) on macrophage polarisation. S. aureus was phagocytized in higher numbers than S. mitis in bi-cultures on smooth Ti-P surfaces. Contaminating S. mitis stimulated near full polarisation of macrophages from a non-Ym1-expressing- to a Ym1-expressing-phenotype on smooth Ti-P, but on ZrO2-MA both phenotypes occurred. In tri-cultures with U2OS-cells on smooth Ti-P, a larger percentage of macrophages remained in their non-Ym1-expressing, "fighting" M1-like phenotype to clear Ti-P surfaces from contaminating bacteria. On ZrO2-MA surfaces, more macrophages tended towards their "fixand-repair" M2-like phenotype than on Ti-P surfaces. Surface coverage of smooth, bacterially contaminated Ti-P surfaces by U2OS-cells was more effectively stimulated by fighting, M1-like macrophages than on ZrO2-MA surfaces. Comprehensive guidelines are provided for the development of infection-resistant, dental implant materials, including bacteria, tissue and immune cells. These guidelines point to more promising results for clinical application of Ti-P as compared with ZrO2-MA

A retrospective case report on demographic changes of learners at a school for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Gauteng Province

Limited research has been published about the demographic characteristics of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in South Africa. Describing the profiles of learners from a school for children with ASD may contribute to local knowledge in the field. A retrospective comparative design was utilised to compare the demographic characteristics of learners over two time intervals: 1992-2002 (Group 1, n=32) and 2003-2014 (Group 2, n=109). A total of 141 historical admission records in paper-based files were reviewed. Results indicated that there is a large male gender bias (8.4:1) in learners, which increased over the years. The age of the child when parents first became concerned and the age at diagnosis and assessment at school increased over both time periods. There was also an increase in the diversity of home languages after 2002. Parental qualifications decreased, but social class improved in recent years. The low qualification of a mother was associated with an advanced age of the child at school entry. The data serves as a point of reference for future studies about the characteristics of school children with ASD in South Africa.http://www.sajce.co.za/index.php/sajceam2016Speech-Language Pathology and Audiolog