Regularity of Kobayashi metric

We review some recent results on existence and regularity of Monge-Amp\`ere exhaustions on the smoothly bounded strongly pseudoconvex domains, which admit at least one such exhaustion of sufficiently high regularity. A main consequence of our results is the fact that the Kobayashi pseudo-metric k on an appropriare open subset of each of the above domains is actually a smooth Finsler metric. The class of domains to which our result apply is very large. It includes for instance all smoothly bounded strongly pseudoconvex complete circular domains and all their sufficiently small deformations.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures - The previously announced main result had a gap. In this new version the corrected statement is given. To appear on the volume "Geometric Complex Analysis - Proceedings of KSCV 12 Symposium

A note on non-homogeneous deformations with homogeneous Cauchy stress for a strictly rank-one convex energy in isotropic hyperelasticity

It has recently been shown that for a Cauchy stress response induced by a strictly rank-one convex hyperelastic energy potential, a homogeneous Cauchy stress tensor field cannot correspond to a non-homogeneous deformation if the deformation gradient has discrete values, i.e. if the deformation is piecewise affine linear and satisfies the Hadamard jump condition. In this note, we expand upon these results and show that they do not hold for arbitrary deformations by explicitly giving an example of a strictly rank-one convex energy and a non-homogeneous deformation such that the induced Cauchy stress tensor is constant. In the planar case, our example is related to another previous result concerning criteria for generalized convexity properties of conformally invariant energy functions, which we extend to the case of strict rank-one convexity

Citizenship and Rights, a Reflection on the Consequences of Brexit

During the 2016 referendum on EU membership, Brexit was sold as the ultimate example of democracy, "taking back control #of borders, laws and money. Britain could "have its cake and eat it#: enjoy all the benefits already acquired without having to pay for membership or respect the "rules of the club#. EU nationals resident in the UK and their "ex-pat #British counterparts in Europe were denied participation in this critical vote on their future. Hostile environment immigration policies normalised xenophobic sentiment and set the backdrop to the Brexit vote. European Citizenship came with significant benefits and rights which were lost on 31 December 2020 at the conclusion of the transition period, but a lack of information means that most people in Britain have yet to fully understand the implications of their vote or the rights that they have forfeited

Collecting practices in the Ottoman Empire

Collecting Practices in the Ottoman Empire 1800-1912 ​​ ​​In order to engage with an ever emerging amount of restitution requests and understand their future in an increasingly globalised world, it is important for museums to understand the precise history of their collections.The British Museum is keen to understand the policies that guided its collecting activity in the 19th and early 20th century, to understand that history and to actively engage in conversation regarding the public value of the collections. These histories are complex, there is no one fits all approach, but often methodologies of collecting changed according to the different historical moments. A pilot in collaboration with the British Museum Archives seeks to understand the precise use of diplomacy in the procurement of antiquities in the territory of the former Ottoman Empire across those different historical moments. It seeks to assess how the methodology of collecting pieces evolved and modified according to the different political circumstances, international trends and the multiple personalities in charge at the Museum. ​​This research has the potential to enable the Museum to address increasing demands of restitution and activism from indigenous communities, pairing with academics and other European institutions to discuss and find the most durable and effective way to open up its history and set the standard for institutional transparency in relation to the provenance of its collections.​​ The paper will present the result of the pilot and the history of a selection of pieces across 4 different historical times to explain concretely how generalisation is impossible and provenance history is critical when trying to understand the past to reassess the future

Satala Aphrodite. Case Study

The Satala Aphrodite is a Hellenistic bronze head displayed in a wall mounted glass case over a ventilation grille near the south entrance to room 22 on the ground floor of the British Museum. Its current location and curatorial display reveal little of the complex route by which the head came to be a part of the Museum or of the importance ascribed to it at the time of its acquisition. The case study gathers material from the Museum archives to tell the story of the Satala head’s acquisition and shed light on the context of its original provenance. This study could be expanded at a later date to explain how the archive material could be linked back to the online collection

Cultural Diplomacy in the Acquisition of the Head of Satala for the British Museum

The current location and curatorial display at the British Museum of a Hellenistic bronze head of the goddess Anahita in the guise of Aphrodite, found at Satala (Asia Minor), reveal little of the importance ascribed to it at the time of its acquisition, or of the complex route by which the head came to form part of the museum’s collection. Detailed examination of archival documentation relating to this acquisition shows how, despite nineteenth-century Ottoman and Italian legislation in relation to antiquities, this head and its accompanying bronze hand were found in the province of Armenia, sold by an Ottoman diplomat to a private collector in Rome and used to secure the sale of a collection of jewellery to the British Museum. The journey of the head illustrates the importance of diplomatic channels, the workings of the nineteenth-century European trade in art and antiquities and how museums, diplomats and collectors were able to assemble collections

Hyperelastic bodies under homogeneous Cauchy stress induced by non-homogeneous finite deformations

We discuss whether homogeneous Cauchy stress implies homogeneous strain in isotropic nonlinear elasticity. While for linear elasticity the positive answer is clear, we exhibit, through detailed calculations, an example with inhomogeneous continuous deformation but constant Cauchy stress. The example is derived from a non rank-one convex elastic energy

The Plunder of Maqdala: Ethical Concerns Around Belongings and Ancestral Remains in Museums

During the colonial period, museums did not just passively benefit from the plunder of human remains and culturally sacred items. When Britain sent a punitive military expedition to Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) in 1863, it was accompanied by Richard Holmes, a staff member of the British Museum, whose purchase of loot from the expeditionary force institutionalised the plunder of cultural heritage. His inclusion in the expeditionary force was carefully planned, though the belongings he took — mainly manuscripts, religious items and emblems of power belonging to the Ethiopian royal family — were not the intended focus of his participation. Whilst the UK’s 2004 Human Tissue Act had a beneficial impact on the treatment of human remains in museums, objects belonging to colonised people are often still positioned as artworks or artefacts, evidencing ignorance of the deep personal and spiritual links that connect them back to their communities of origin. This article draws on our professional experience of curation and research in museums and libraries, as well as the impact of ICOM’s new Museum Definition on our practice. Joint research on the Maqdala expedition led us to question assumptions about the legacy of empire in museums and to scrutinise unexpected connections in the history of museum collections. This article addresses the problematic relationship between collecting and imperial power, the false dichotomy between ‘artefacts’ (belongings) and ‘human remains’ (ancestors) and the need to decolonise collections through further research and the recognition of ongoing cultural and physical violence

Risk of cancer after assisted reproduction: a review of the available evidences and guidance to fertility counselors

Infertile women requiring ovarian stimulation and assisted reproduction techniques (ART) are faced with difficult issues. The fear that using hormones could increase their risk of cancer is the most significant. One of the main challenges for assessing cancer risk after ART is the difficulty to separate it from the underlying condition of infertility per se. The delay or the inability to achieve a pregnancy is an important risk factor for breast, endometrial and ovarian cancer. We analyzed the current literature on the topic