Colonial and Post-colonial History: enhancing knowledge, capacity and networks in the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia

Unequal global structures profoundly influence inequalities in academic knowledge production. This is manifested in the under-representation of Majority World (Global South) publication in international peer-reviewed journals based in the Minority World (Global North). Whilst graduate education is available in the Majority World, the terms of appointment and promotion within institutions may depend upon networks that mirror wider social inequalities. This is partly because in some countries (e.g., India) candidates are required to publish an article before they can submit their PhD, and this can lead to significant confusion about the difference between journals published by university and other academic presses, and by private companies. Early career scholars are especially vulnerable to predatory (pay-to-publish) publishing (Collyer 2018, Raju et al. 2018). There are, of course, distinguished journals based in the Majority World, and a wealth of experience in publishing among mid-career and senior academics. Nonetheless, early career scholars who wish to publish in international journals may have English as an additional language and are far less likely to have access to informal networks of support. There are also significant knowledge gaps that constitute barriers to access (Collyer 2018).The authors of this paper attempted to address this issue by securing funding from the British Academy Writing Workshops 2021 programme to work with 30 Early Career Researchers (ECRs), researching colonial and post-colonial history and associated disciplines, from the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Anderson is editor of the Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, Battell Lowman (now, former) co-editor of Settler Colonial Studies, Doyle editor of the Journal of African History, and Sutton of South Asian Studies. Anderson, Doyle, and Sutton acted as expert editor contributors and mentors, Battell Lowman served as Project Manager including designing and facilitating the workshop sessions. The programme was supported by three senior academics connected to the regions of interest - Mellissa Ifill (University of Guyana), Ali Usman Qasmi (LUMS, Pakistan), and Godfrey B. Asiimwe (Makerere University, Uganda) – and incorporated scholars from Jamaica (Sonjah N. Stanley Niaah), Mauritius (Satyendra Peerthun), Botswana (John Makgala), South Africa (Rebecca Swartz), Kenya (Peter Wafula Wekesa), India (Aparna Balachandran) and Bangladesh (Momin Chowdhury). Together, the group undertook a year-long virtual workshop programme that aimed to build new transnational collaborative networks to create a new skills and knowledge base

Near-infrared electroluminescent devices based on colloidal HgTe quantum dot arrays

Crystalline 4.6 nm HgTe quantum dots, stabilized by 1-thioglycerol ligands, were synthesized by wet chemical methods. Room-temperature photoluminescencespectra of the dots, both in solution and as solid arrays, exhibited near-infrared emission. Light-emitting devices were fabricated by deposition of quantum dot layers onto glass∕indium tin oxide (ITO)∕3,4-polyethylene-dioxythiophene-polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT) substrates followed by top contacting with evaporated aluminum. Room-temperature near-infraredelectroluminescence from 1mm2 ITO∕PEDOT∕HgTe∕Al devices, centered at ∼1600nm, with an external quantum efficiency of 0.02% and brightness of 150nW/mm2 at 50 mA and 2.5 V was achieved

Cascading lake drainage on the Greenland Ice Sheet triggered by tensile shock and fracture

Supraglacial lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet are expanding inland, but the impact on ice flow is equivocal because interior surface conditions may preclude the transfer of surface water to the bed. Here we use a well-constrained 3D model to demonstrate that supraglacial lakes in Greenland drain when tensile-stress perturbations propagate fractures in areas where fractures are normally absent or closed. These melt-induced perturbations escalate when lakes as far as 80?km apart form expansive networks and drain in rapid succession. The result is a tensile shock that establishes new surface-to-bed hydraulic pathways in areas where crevasses transiently open. We show evidence for open crevasses 135?km inland from the ice margin, which is much farther inland than previously considered possible. We hypothesise that inland expansion of lakes will deliver water and heat to isolated regions of the ice sheet?s interior where the impact on ice flow is potentially largepublishersversionPeer reviewe

Home-based Digital Health Technologies for Older Adults to Self-Manage Multiple Chronic Conditions: A Data-Informed Analysis of User Engagement from a Longitudinal Trial

BACKGROUND: Ageing populations are resulting in higher prevalence of people with multiple chronic conditions (multimorbidity). Digital health platforms have great potential to support self-management of multimorbidity, increasing a person's awareness of their health and well-being, supporting a better understanding of diseases and encouraging behaviour change. However, little research has explored the long-term engagement of older adults with such digital interventions. METHODS: The aim of this study is to analyse how 60 older adults with multimorbidity engaged with digital symptom and well-being monitoring through a digital health platform over a period of approximately 12 months. Data analysis focused on user retention, frequency of monitoring, intervals in monitoring and patterns of daily engagement. RESULTS: Our findings show that the overall engagement with the digital health platform was high, with more than 80% of participants using the technology devices for over 200 days. The submission frequency for symptom parameters (e.g. blood glucose (BG), blood pressure (BP), etc.) was between three and four times per week which was higher than that of self-report (2.24) and weight (2.84). Submissions of exercise (6.12) and sleep (5.67) were more frequent. The majority of interactions happened in the morning time. The most common time of submission for symptom parameters was 10 am, whereas 8 am was the most common time for weight measurements. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate the patterns of engagement of older adults with complex chronic diseases with digital home-based self-management systems

Psychological risks experienced by interpreters in the domestic violence cases: a systematic review

Interpreters occupy a complex position in police interviews involving domestic violence cases—neutral but necessary parties to traumatic content. The following systematic review explores the relatively sparse scholarly literature on interpreters' psychological responses to being a party to domestic violence interviews in a policing context. This article aims to explore themes of relevant studies targeting interpreters' mental health in such cases, with nine articles emerging from a comprehensive search of eight databases supplemented with a Google Scholar search. Various themes involving interpreters emerged from the ensuing analysis, including intrinsic difficulties, misguided expectations, role requirements, psychological impacts, posttraumatic growth, coping strategies, and recommendations for future research and practice, with findings holding implications for interpreting in other traumatic domains

The cultural context of training: the case of the interpreter in China and Australia

China and Australia differ markedly in cultural and social context, the demands placed on interpreters, and the training provided to interpreters to prepare them for professional duties. This paper aims to explore China and Australia’s translation and interpreting (T&I) training programs to elaborate on the “goodness of fit” of training and demonstrates how both the pragmatic and cultural context of interpreting (in both nations) explains anomalies in their training approaches

A bottom-up fabrication method for the production of visible light active photonic crystals

A method which combines polymer particle assembly, chemical infiltration and etching with an aerosol assisted deposition process is described for the fabrication of 3D inverse opal (10) structures with sub-micron periodicity and precision. This procedure not only overcomes limitations associated with slow, expensive micro-fabrication methods but also permits the tuning of refractive index contrast via the direct incorporation of photonically-active, preformed, tailored silicon nanostructures. It is demonstrated that this approach can be used to modify the photonic band gap (PBG) by effectively depositing/patterning optically active silicon nanocrystals (ncSi) onto the pore walls of a 3D inverse opal structure. This simple, yet effective method for preparing functional complex 3D structures has the potential to be used generically to fabricate a variety of functional porous 3D structures that could find application not only in new or improved photonic crystal (PC) devices but also in areas such as catalysis, separation, fuel cells technology, microelectronics and optoelectronics

Observations and Numerical Simulations of Subrotor Vortices during T-REX

High-resolution observations from scanning Doppler and aerosol lidars, wind profiler radars, as well as surface and aircraft measurements during the Terrain-induced Rotor Experiment (T-REX) provide the first comprehensive documentation of small-scale intense vortices associated with atmospheric rotors that form in the lee of mountainous terrain. Although rotors are already recognized as potential hazards for aircraft, it is proposed that these small-scale vortices, or subrotors, are the most dangerous features because of strong wind shear and the transient nature of the vortices. A life cycle of a subrotor event is captured by scanning Doppler and aerosol lidars over a 5-min period. The lidars depict an amplifying vortex, with a characteristic length scale of ∼500–1000 m, that overturns and intensifies to a maximum spanwise vorticity greater than 0.2 s−1. Radar wind profiler observations document a series of vortices, characterized by updraft/downdraft couplets and regions of enhanced reversed flow, that are generated in a layer of strong vertical wind shear and subcritical Richardson number. The observations and numerical simulations reveal that turbulent subrotors occur most frequently along the leading edge of an elevated sheet of horizontal vorticity that is a manifestation of boundary layer shear and separation along the lee slopes. As the subrotors break from the vortex sheet, intensification occurs through vortex stretching and in some cases tilting processes related to three-dimensional turbulent mixing. The subrotors and ambient vortex sheet are shown to intensify through a modest increase in the upstream inversion strength, which illustrates the predictability challenges for the turbulent characterization of rotors

Establishing consensus on key public health indicators for the monitoring and evaluating childhood obesity interventions: a Delphi panel study

Background: Childhood obesity is influenced by myriad individual, societal and environmental factors that are not typically reflected in current interventions. Socio-ecological conditions evolve and require ongoing monitoring in terms of assessing their influence on child health. The aim of this study was to identify and prioritise indicators deemed relevant by public health authorities for monitoring and evaluating childhood obesity interventions. Method: A three-round Delphi Panel composed of experts from regions across Europe, with a remit in childhood obesity intervention, were asked to identify indicators that were a priority in their efforts to address childhood obesity in their respective jurisdictions. In Round 1, 16 panellists answered a series of open-ended questions to identify the most relevant indicators concerning the evaluation and subsequent monitoring of interventions addressing childhood obesity, focusing on three main domains: built environments, dietary environments, and health inequalities. In Rounds 2 and 3, panellists rated the importance of each of the identified indicators within these domains, and the responses were then analysed quantitatively. Results: Twenty-seven expert panellists were invited to participate in the study. Of these, 16/27 completed round 1 (5 9% response rate), 14/16 completed round 2 (87.5% response rate), and 8/14 completed the third and final round (57% response rate). Consensus (defined as > 70% agreement) was reached on a total of 45 of the 87 indicators (49%) across three primary domains (built and dietary environments and health inequalities), with 100% consensus reached for 5 of these indicators (6%). Conclusion: Forty-five potential indicators were identified, pertaining primarily to the dietary environment, built environment and health inequalities. These results have important implications more widely for evaluating interventions aimed at childhood obesity reduction and prevention.European Commission Horizon 2020Science Foundation IrelandInsight Research CentreRoyal College of Surgeons in Ireland2021-02-19 JG: broken PDF replace