Reimagining Transatlantic Iberian Conquests in Postcolonial Narratives and Rewriting Spaces of Resistance

This dissertation analyzes the medieval and colonial imagery in three works which evoke a history of epistemic violence and erasures against indigenous, contemporaneous identities, communities, and traditions of knowledge in Al-Andalus and Latin America after 1492. Darren Aronofsky’s film, The Fountain, Radwa Ashour’s trilogy of Granada, and Laila Lalami’s The Moor’s Account, all show how fiction and film can both reinforce and subvert the mythology of conquest in the representation of transatlantic, sixteenth-century Iberian empire. Fiction offers a space of resistance to remember the voices of the subaltern, to deconstruct the silences of these histories, and to reflect on the perspectives and experiences of the colonized, occupied and displaced Others of colonial enterprise. Fiction can challenge the Orientalist tropes and imperial gaze which still color the contemporary imagination towards Amerindians, Muslims and Arabs. Reimagining the past speaks to the present, and redraws the blurred lines of historiography and storytelling

Planet migration in self-gravitating discs : survival of planets

We carry out three-dimensional SPH simulations to study whether planets can survive in self-gravitating protoplanetary discs. The discs modelled here use a cooling prescription that mimics a real disc which is only gravitationally unstable in the outer regions. We do this by modelling the cooling using a simplified method such that the cooling time in the outer parts of the disc is shorter than in the inner regions, as expected in real discs. We find that both giant (>MSat) and low mass (<MNep) planets initially migrate inwards very rapidly, but are able to slow down in the inner gravitationally stable regions of the disc without needing to open up a gap. This is in contrast to previous studies where the cooling was modelled in a more simplified manner where regardless of mass, the planets were unable to slow down their inward migration. This shows the important effect the thermodynamics has on planet migration. In a broader context, these results show that planets that form in the early stages of the discs’ evolution, when they are still quite massive and self-gravitating, can survive

Power, Gender, and Trust in Experiences of Pediatric Emergency Physician Teleconsultation and Maternal Antenatal Anxiety in Pakistan

Background: In Pakistan, innovative strategies for improving access to health care, such as telemedicine (TM) and task shifting, are growing rapidly to address critical gaps in maternal and child health (MCH). Qualitative studies of social and contextual factors can help improve the development or implementation of such interventions. Objectives: This dissertation closely examines constructs of power, gender, and trust in the contexts of two populations: (1) pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) providers in a novel TM program applying synchronous expert teleconsultation to improve quality of care, and (2) pregnant women with experiences of anxiety informing the content of a psychological intervention by non-specialists. Methods: Manuscript one uses the TM Theory of Use framework to thematically analyze 20 in-depth interviews covering experiences or perspectives of doctors, nurses, and TM program administrators, while Manuscript two draws on conversation analysis methods to examine transcripts of 88 PEM teleconsultations. Manuscript three is a secondary analysis applying a women’s empowerment framework to formative research interviews on sources and mitigators of antenatal anxiety in 19 symptomatic women. Data for the qualitative TM program evaluation were collected from October 2019 to January 2020 at Sindh government hospitals, while formative research interviews on antenatal anxiety were conducted between September 2017 and August 2018 at Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi. Results: Perceived levels of asymmetric power and mutual trust in TM produced widely divergent and conflicting theories of use among PEM providers, while some gender-based opportunities in TM contributed to emergent social functions beyond its intended aims. Although teleconsultants accounted for a disproportionate share of asking questions and controlling topic, closer examination revealed strategic ambiguity and reciprocity as means of negotiating power and building trust in TM-mediated clinical discourse, particularly by women teleconsultants. For antenatal anxiety, gender norms and women’s disempowerment were key contextual factors contributing to women’s symptoms and limiting pregnancy-related agency and available coping strategies. Conclusion: Efforts to expand access to high quality care for mothers and children must include studies of context, whether the sociotechnical context of TM innovations or the cultural context of psychosocial interventions, to understand associated opportunities, constraints, successes, and failures in improving MCH

Development of a novel, multifunctional, membrane-interactive pyridinium salt with potent anticancer activity

The synthesis and biological evaluation of a novel pyridinium salt is reported. Initial membrane interaction with isolated phospholipid monolayers was obtained with the pyridinium salt, and two neutral analogues for comparison, and the anticancer effects of the best compound established using a cytotoxicity screening assay against glioma cells using both an established cell line and three short-term cell cultures – one of which has been largely resistant to all chemotherapeutic drugs tested to date. The results indicate that the pyridinium salt exhibits potent anticancer activity (EC50s = 9.8-312.5 μM) on all cell types, including the resistant one, for a continuous treatment of 72 hours. Microscopic examination of the treated cells using a trypan blue exclusion assay showed membrane lysis had occurred. Therefore, this letter highlights the potential for a new class of pyridinium salt to be developed as a much needed alternative treatment for glioma chemotherapy

The evolution of gravitationally unstable protoplanetary discs : from instability to stability

In their youth, protoplanetary discs are expected to be massive and self-gravitating. A characteristic feature of such discs are non-axisymmetric spiral structures. However recent observations of young protoplanetary discs with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have revealed that discs with large-scale spiral structure in the mid-plane are rarely observed. Instead, axisymmetic discs with ring & gap structures are more commonly observed. Using 3D smoothed particle hydrodynamic simulations, the aim of this thesis is to explore how additional physical processes occurring in a gravitationally unstable protoplanetary disc can explain this phenomenon. The first process considered is planet-disc interactions. I first show the importance of modelling the disc thermodynamics for studying the fate of planet migration. In contrast to previous work using a simpler cooling model, I show that planets are able to slow their migration and survive in the gravitationally stable inner regions of the disc. I then show that if the planet is sufficiently massive, the spiral wakes of the planet can heat up the disc causing it to become gravitationally stable, suppressing spiral structures due to gravitational instability. The second process considered is warps. An idealised warp is used to isolate the effect of the warp on the gravitational instabilities present in the disc. As with planet-disc interactions, I show that the warp is able to heat up the disc rendering it gravitational stable. The results of this thesis provide a plausible explanation for why gravitationally unstable discs are rarely seen – physical processes that are likely to occur in these discs will alter its evolution from an unstable to a stable disc

Continuing to hide signatures of gravitational instability in protoplanetary discs with planets

We carry out three dimensional smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations to study the impact of planet-disc interactions on a gravitationally unstable protoplanetary disc. We find that the impact of a planet on the disc’s evolution can be described by three scenarios. If the planet is sufficiently massive, the spiral wakes generated by the planet dominate the evolution of the disc and gravitational instabilities are completely suppressed. If the planet’s mass is too small, then gravitational instabilities are unaffected. If the planet’s mass lies between these extremes, gravitational instabilities are weakened. We present mock Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) continuum observations showing that the observability of large-scale spiral structures is diminished or completely suppressed when the planet is massive enough to influence the disc’s evolution. Our results show that massive discs that would be expected to be gravitationally unstable can appear axisymmetric in the presence of a planet. Thus, the absence of observed large-scale spiral structures alone is not enough to place upper limits on the disc’s mass, which could have implications on observations of young Class I discs with rings & gaps

Warping away gravitational instabilities in protoplanetary discs

We perform three-dimensional smoothed-particle hydrodynamics simulations of warped, non-coplanar gravitationally unstable discs to show that as the warp propagates through the self-gravitating disk, it heats up the disk rendering it gravitationally stable, thus losing their spiral structure and appearing completely axisymmetric. In their youth, protoplanetary discs are expected to be massive and self-gravitating, which results in nonaxisymmetric spiral structures. However recent observations of young protoplanetary discs with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array have revealed that discs with large-scale spiral structure are rarely observed in the midplane. Instead, axisymmetric discs, with some also having ring and gap structures, are more commonly observed. Our work invloving warps, non-coplanar disk structures that are expected to commonly occur in young discs, potentially resolves this discrepancy between observations and theoretical predictions. We demonstrate that they are able to suppress the large-scale spiral structure of self-gravitating protoplanetary discs

Validity of self-reported height and weight and factors associated with errors in self-report

The aim of this investigation is to assess the validity of self-reported height and weight and to examine factors associated with errors in self-report. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, South India, from June 20 to August 20, 2011. The study involved 389 men and 355 women aged 20 years and above. We found that self-reported height and weight were significantly correlated with measured height and weight for men and women [Pearson’s correlation coefficient(r) for men and women: 0.61 and 0.44 in height, 0.91 and 0.85 in weight, 0.76 and 0.64 in body mass index (BMI), respectively]. The prevalence of obesity based on self-reported height and weight were 7.9 and 15.8% for men and women, respectively, which was slightly smaller than that based on measured data 7.7 and 19.7%, respectively. Sensitivity and specificity of obesity based on self-report for both men and women were 97, 62% in men and 89, 64% in women, respectively. Participants with higher measured BMI significantly underestimated their weight compared to those with smaller BMI. It is also observed that among both men and women with measured BMI above 18.5 kg/m2 were likely to underestimate their weight and BMI below 18.5 kg/m2were likely to overestimate their weight. However, the presence of diabetes, hypertension and heart disease was not associated with the difference between measured and self-reported height and weight for both men and women. Our findings indicate that self-reported weight has an acceptable agreement with measured data, but self-reported height has only a moderate agreement with measured data. There were no significant differences by presence of chronic disease and educational level between the self-reported and measured height and weight in both men and women

Sandwiched planet formation : restricting the mass of a middle planet

We conduct gas and dust hydrodynamical simulations of protoplanetary discs with one and two embedded planets to determine the impact that a second planet located further out in the disc has on the potential for subsequent planet formation in the region locally exterior to the inner planet. We show how the presence of a second planet has a strong influence on the collection of solid material near the inner planet, particularly when the outer planet is massive enough to generate a maximum in the disc’s pressure profile. This effect in general acts to reduce the amount of material that can collect in a pressure bump generated by the inner planet. When viewing the inner pressure bump as a location for potential subsequent planet formation of a third planet, we therefore expect that the mass of such a planet will be smaller than it would be in the case without the outer planet, resulting in a small planet being sandwiched between its neighbours – this is in contrast to the expected trend of increasing planet mass with radial distance from the host star. We show that several planetary systems have been observed that do not show this trend but instead have a smaller planet sandwiched in between two more massive planets. We present the idea that such an architecture could be the result of the subsequent formation of a middle planet after its two neighbours formed at some earlier stage