When participants don’t wish to participate in participatory action research, and when others participate on their behalf: the representation of communities by real and faux participants

This article focuses on methodological and epistemological issues arising from a research project with two Gypsy communities (2010–2012) in the South West of England. Although the two communities seem to share cultural roots and values, and live within a few miles of each other, they have contrasting experiences within the education system and very different relationships with the surrounding mainstream communities. The article explores difficulties emerging as a consequence of the contrasting positions of the participant communities, the differing research aspirations and practices across the research team, and also the tensions between ethnographic work and participatory action research. It queries the problematic nature of participation, and proposes the concept of the faux-participant

Biography of Professor Chen zhan-quan

High strength titanium alloys find a significant number of applications throughout the aircraft industry for gas turbine engine and airframe components. Ti-6A1-4V is an alloy that has been around since the 1950’s and has been used extensively for fan blades, disks, and superplastically formed and diffusion bonded structures. This alloy has been studied and tested in virtually every conceivable way and a great deal is known about the material in terms of its capabilities, yet there are still lingering performance issues that evade researchers. A recent initiative by the Air Force to better understand conventional Ti alloys from the standpoint of High Cycle Fatigue (HCF) has brought to light some intriguing research in the nondestructive characterization of polycrystalline titanium alloys. The major goal of this research is to detect and characterize the microscopic defects or fatigue damage precursors associated with HCF and to understand some of the physical characteristics of the nucleation and growth of low-level, mechanically imparted damage. From a nondestructive inspection viewpoint the goal boils down to finding and interpreting signals from smaller and smaller “defects.” With this approach, the identification of smaller defects early in the service life of the component presumably leads to higher reliability of the aircraft through the removal of flawed components for rework, scrap, or further study

Are banana weevil borers a vector in spreading Fusarium oxysporum f. sp cubense tropical race 4 in banana plantations?

Fusarium wilt of banana is a destructive plant disease, caused by the soilborne pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc). Once established, it spreads rapidly, destroys the banana plants and builds up inoculum in the soil. To improve control and containment strategies, this study examined the pattern and possible methods of Foc tropical race 4 (Foc TR4) spread on a plantation. To date, root-to-root dispersal within the soil has been the presumed means of spread, but the fact that the spread of Foc TR4 occurred beyond neighbouring plants on the four fields assessed inferred that this is not the only mechanism. The banana weevil, Cosmopolites sordidus, is widespread in banana plantations and viable spores were found on the exoskeletons of ten per cent of the weevils, which infers that they may be a vector. Controlling vectors such as C. sordidus in banana plantations may therefore help minimise the spread of Foc TR4