Spencer, Julia - Covid-19 Journal

EIU student Julia Spencer describes the challenges adjusting to the new normal of the pandemic as it sets in. In particular she writes about struggles staying motivated to keep up with her studies, and the oddity of having classes on zoom. Her experience is compounded by health scares involving her mother and a friend

Impact of Secondary Acceleration in Gamma-Ray Bursts

We discuss the acceleration of secondary muons, pions, and kaons in gamma-ray bursts within the internal shock scenario, and their impact on the neutrino fluxes. We introduce a two-zone model consisting of an acceleration zone (the shocks) and a radiation zone (the plasma downstream the shocks). The acceleration in the shocks, which is an unavoidable consequence of the efficient proton acceleration, requires efficient transport from the radiation back to the acceleration zone. On the other hand, stochastic acceleration in the radiation zone can enhance the secondary spectra of muons and kaons significantly if there is a sufficiently large turbulent region. Overall, it is plausible that neutrino spectra can be enhanced by up to a factor of two at the peak by stochastic acceleration, that an additional spectral peaks appears from shock acceleration of the secondary muons and pions, and that the neutrino production from kaon decays is enhanced. Depending on the GRB parameters, the general conclusions concerning the limits to the internal shock scenario obtained by recent IceCube and ANTARES analyses may be affected by up to a factor of two by secondary acceleration. Most of the changes occur at energies above 10^7 GeV, so the effects for next-generation radio-detection experiments will be more pronounced. In the future, however, if GRBs are detected as high-energy neutrino sources, the detection of one or several pronounced peaks around 10^6 GeV or higher energies could help to derive the basic properties of the magnetic field strength in the GRB.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl

Philosophical Approaches to Qualitative Research

This chapter reviews some of the major overarching philosophical approaches to qualitative inquiry and includes some historical background for each. Taking a “big picture” view, the chapter discusses post-positivism, constructivism, critical theory, feminism, and queer theory and offers a brief history of these approaches; considers the ontological, epistemological, and axiological assumptions on which they rest; and details some of their distinguishing features. In the last section, attention is turned to the future, identifying three overarching, interrelated, and contested issues with which the field is being confronted and will be compelled to address as it moves forward:retaining the rich diversity that has defined the field, the articulation of recognizable standards for qualitative research, and the commensurability of differing approaches

Narratives of departure : a body of art and literary work accompanied by a theoretical enquiry into the process and methodology of their production.

Doctor of Philosophy in Fine Art. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 2017.This research undertaking comprises the dual submission of closely related practical and theoretical research. The thesis represents the theoretical component of a practice-based PhD research project. The practical component of the project is made up of original creative work drawn from three bodies of practice across the creative spheres of painting, creative writing and printmaking. My Office Politics Series, comprises an extended immersion in paintings and drawings that utilise dogs and canine behaviour as metaphors for the workplace specifically, and the present social climate more broadly. The second project, The Indian Yellow Project began in creative writing, and consists of both printmaking and creative writing. The story unfolding within the writing is one of familial loss and efforts at recovery. Through writing I was enabled to create visual imbrications on this theme in printmaking. The prints themselves and the images contained therein reference the story outlined in the novella but also serve to act independently of it. The third project, the Wish List Project began as a series of paintings by a single creator (myself) but over time transformed into a multiple participant print-based collaboration for a public space. A significant part of my research comprises a detailed enquiry into the manner in which each of the three projects engages with notions of departure and dislocation in various forms. In my thesis I consider the dialogue that each project establishes internally in relation to the theme of departure as well as the form that this dialogue assumed across all three projects, including the novella. I reflect on how this exploration of departure relates to the humanising functions that I believe art fulfils: catharsis, cohesion and community. In my thesis I refer to writing from a wide range of contemporary theorists. These include ideas on signification, visuality and narrative proposed by Mikhail Bakhtin, Roland Barthes, Hélène Cixous and Julia Kristeva, insofar as these relate to my philosophy and experience regarding the function and potential of creative practice. Also contributing to this research are Bakhtin’s notion of dialogism (1981, 1984) and what he terms the “eternal” (1984:202) mobility of signs. In my Indian Yellow Project specifically I consider numerous ways in which the text and images can be read. The cathartic function and the ‘call to’ or motive for writing (and other creative acts) form a central question in the thesis, and ideas proposed by Cixous on the relationship of writing to death and to catharsis are of particular relevance to this research enquiry. The reading and creative investigation for the project span philosophical, narrative, thematic and material (medium-related) concerns. I also reflect on the important role metaphor and story-telling play in each project; and I consider their use as mechanisms for dialogue. Through my practice I discover, as Hannah Arendt (1995:105) suggests, that in story-telling we make sense of experiences, we uncover meaning without cancelling out or defining it in a narrow ambit. Through my enquiry into each of the three projects I consider ways in which creative practice offers the creators, and those who view, read or interact with the works, opportunities to, as Cixous suggests, say the unsayable (1993:53). My thesis and my practice are driven by the conviction that art is a valuable site for healing and for dialogue which “avows the unavowable” (53). While the first of my projects analysed in this thesis specifically references ideas about power relations and feelings of disempowerment, on the whole the traumas I reflect on in these three bodies of practice are personal in nature. Nevertheless, I believe that their implications for creative practices as tools for catharsis and communication of the “unsayable” are particularly relevant to a society such as South Africa where there remains so much scope for repair. As a person involved in arts education I believe it is important to draw attention to my conviction that creative practice offers opportunities for dialogue and repair, and my engagement with this thesis is an effort to emphasise this conviction

Revealing ensemble state transition patterns in multi-electrode neuronal recordings using hidden Markov models

In order to harness the computational capacity of dissociated cultured neuronal networks, it is necessary to understand neuronal dynamics and connectivity on a mesoscopic scale. To this end, this paper uncovers dynamic spatiotemporal patterns emerging from electrically stimulated neuronal cultures using hidden Markov models (HMMs) to characterize multi-channel spike trains as a progression of patterns of underlying states of neuronal activity. However, experimentation aimed at optimal choice of parameters for such models is essential and results are reported in detail. Results derived from ensemble neuronal data revealed highly repeatable patterns of state transitions in the order of milliseconds in response to probing stimuli

Past and future potential range changes in one of the last large vertebrates of the Australian continent, the emu Dromaius novaehollandiae

In Australia, significant shifts in species distribution have occurred with the loss of megafauna, changes in indigenous Australian fire regime and land-use changes with European settlement. The emu, one of the last megafaunal species in Australia, has likely undergone substantial distribution changes, particularly near the east coast of Australia where urbanisation is extensive and some populations have declined. We modelled emu distribution across the continental mainland and across the Great Dividing Range region (GDR) of eastern Australia, under historical, present and future climates. We predicted shifts in emu distribution using ensemble modelling, hindcasting and forecasting distribution from current emu occurrence data. Emus have expanded their range northward into central Australia over the 6000 years modelled here. Areas west of the GDR have become more suitable since the mid-Holocene, which was unsuitable then due to high precipitation seasonality. However, the east coast of Australia has become climatically sub-optimal and will remain so for at least 50 years. The north east of NSW encompasses the range of the only listed endangered population, which now occurs at the margins of optimal climatic conditions for emus. Being at the fringe of suitable climatic conditions may put this population at higher risk of further decline from non-climatic anthropogenic disturbances e.g. depredation by introduced foxes and pigs. The limited scientific knowledge about wild emu ecology and biology currently available limits our ability to quantify these risks

From 1976 to 2018: reflections on early investigations into the Ebola virus.

In the late 1970s, early investigations into the Ebola virus informed the world's understanding of what was then an unknown disease. One such study, published by Bowen and colleagues in 1978, laid the foundations for future research into its prevention and treatment. However, nearly four decades later, scientific progress had not translated into action on the ground with no approved drugs, no vaccines, and no diagnostic tests available when the 2014-15 outbreak began in West Africa. Encouragingly, it appears that we have learned important lessons from the 2014-2015 outbreak, with a swift and rigorous response to the most recent outbreaks in Équateur Province, Democratic Republic of Congo, including the deployment of a vaccine. Ebola will certainly remain a challenge in the years to come and we as the global health community must ensure that innovative research translates into policy and action on the ground, with the full participation of affected communities