Condensations

Magazine Article reflecting on practice-based research project 'condensations': Writer in Residence at the Armitt Museum, Ambleside, cumbrian in June-July 2016. The article explores the position of the writer in residence and forthcoming book of texts for performance entitled 'condensations' - to be published by Uniform Books in 2016-17. With images from performances and visual text work

An Analysis of Federal and State Law Governing Public Schoolteachers’ Religious Garb in Pennsylvania and Nebraska Under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment

This study is based on a narrow legal examination of the two contemporary state bans on public schoolteachers’ religious garb in Pennsylvania and Nebraska. Legal research and legal analysis are the primary methods used to investigate whether these two statutory bans meet the judicial and legislative tests under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Pennsylvania Religious Freedom Protection Act. The study applies the Sherbert standard as articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court—a three-part judicial test that courts use to apply the strict scrutiny standard to Free Exercise cases. The study also applies the U.S. Supreme Court’s Smith standard, also known as the general applicability test, which requires that government regulations involving religion must be “neutral and generally applicable,” and cannot “target religious conduct for distinctive treatment.” The study identifies that religious garb is legally defined as “any dress, mark, emblem or insignia indicating the fact that such teacher is a member or adherent of any religious order, sect or denomination.” This study examines the 123-year history of legal bans on public schoolteachers’ religious garb, with special attention to Pennsylvania’s current anti-religious garb statute was the first of its kind in the United States. It was enacted in 1895 in response to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that held Catholic nuns were permitted to wear religious garb (habits) while teaching in public schools. Nebraska’s anti-religious garb law, a replica of Pennsylvania’s ban, was first enacted in 1919 and repealed in 2017. Although at the time this study was published (May 2018), the study notes that earlier attempts to repeal it failed. The study concludes the following: Pennsylvania’s and Nebraska’s statutory bans on teachers wearing religious garb in public schools (1) failed the general applicability test under Smith and (2) substantially burdened religions, as defined under the provisions in Sherbert and the Religious Freedom Protection Act (RFPA). The statutes (3) partially met the rational basis test, but when faced with strict scrutiny, the statutes (4) failed to meet the compelling interest and (5) narrowly tailored tests

ACAP advice for reducing the impact of pelagic longline fishing operations on seabirds

The incidental mortality of seabirds, mostly albatrosses and petrels, in longline fisheries continues to be aserious global concern and was the major reason for the establishment of the Agreement on theConservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP). In longline fisheries seabirds are killed when theybecome hooked and drowned while foraging for baits on longline hooks as the gear is deployed. Theyalso can become hooked as the gear is hauled, although many of these seabirds can be released alive withcareful handling. ACAP routinely reviews the scientific literature regarding seabird bycatch mitigation infisheries, and on the basis of these reviews updates its best practice advice. The most recent review wasconducted in May 2016 at ACAP´s Seabird Bycatch Working Group and Advisory Committee meetings(ACAP 2016), and this document presents a distillation of that review for the consideration of theWCPFC Scientific Committee. A combination of weighted branch lines, bird scaring lines and nightsetting remains the best practice approach to mitigate seabird bycatch in pelagic longline fisheries.Changes in this regard only applied to the recommended minimum standards for line weighting regimes,now updated to the following configurations: (a) 40 g or greater attached within 0.5 m of the hook; or (b)60 g or greater attached within 1 m of the hook; or (c) 80 g or greater attached within 2 m of the hook. Inaddition, ACAP endorsed the inclusion in the list of best practice measures of two hook-shielding devicesas stand-alone mitigation measures. Such hook-shielding devices encase the point and barb of baitedhooks until a prescribed depth or time immersed to prevent seabird becoming hooked during line setting.The following performance requirements were used by ACAP to assess the efficacy of hook-shieldingdevices in reducing seabird bycatch: (a) the device shields the hook until a prescribed depth of 10 m orimmersion time of 10 minutes is reached; (b) the device meets current recommended minimum standardsfor branch line weighting; and (c) experimental research has been undertaken to allow assessment of theeffectiveness, efficiency and practicality of the technology against the ACAP best practice seabird bycatchmitigation criteria. ACAP recognizes that factors such as safety, practicality and the characteristics of thefishery should also be taken into account when considering the efficacy of seabird bycatch mitigationmeasures and consequently in the development of advice and guidelines on best practice.Fil: Favero, Marco. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: Wolfaardt, Anton. No especifíca;Fil: Walker, Nathan. No especifíca;12th Regular Session of the Scientific CommitteePohnpeiMicronesiaWestern and Central Pacific Fisheries Commissio

Representations of the Multicast Network Problem

We approach the problem of linear network coding for multicast networks from different perspectives. We introduce the notion of the coding points of a network, which are edges of the network where messages combine and coding occurs. We give an integer linear program that leads to choices of paths through the network that minimize the number of coding points. We introduce the code graph of a network, a simplified directed graph that maintains the information essential to understanding the coding properties of the network. One of the main problems in network coding is to understand when the capacity of a multicast network is achieved with linear network coding over a finite field of size q. We explain how this problem can be interpreted in terms of rational points on certain algebraic varieties.Comment: 24 pages, 19 figure

Brooch Score: Drawing with the Mouth by Hand

'Brooch Score...' is a page-based score for vocal performance that contains visual, hand-drawn marks, written text, and collage. This work presents a non-linguistic score as an object to be interpreted, translated and performed by the voice. 'Brooch Score' is one of a series of works by Nathan Walker that explore the relationships between the voice, writing and performance scores

Skirting

Skirting arranges poems in columns that provide multiple reading routes, giving the reader opportunities to make and create a series of ways to engage with and understand the text. This system of arranging and rearranging the poem is explored within the texts too, these poems circle around their subject without naming the events explored. The poems skirt around a figure, event and thoughts, trying to get close to a difficult subject without being able to fully articulate or fix it to the page. Skirting is many attempts at using language to describe and locate

The role of mesenchymal stem cells from adult human bone marrow in in vitro wound models

Chronic wounds present a major unmet clinical problem. They arise from wounds that fail to progress through the normal phases of healing due to factors that compound healing such as vascular complications, or diabetes. Despite improvements in treatments for difficult wounds, the incidence of limb amputation remains high. Therefore there is a need for more active therapies. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have the capacity to differentiate into multiple cell-types, however they have also been shown to release a plethora of growth factors and cytokines which are beneficial to wound healing, consequently MSCs have shown to improve wound healing outcomes in a predominantly paracrine fashion. MSCs, for example, can increase angiogenesis/ neovascularisation, modulate inflammatory responses, accelerate re-epithelialisation, and increase collagen deposition. The first objective of the work was to develop a synthetic material based delivery method for MSCs that could be used in the clinic. Plasma polymerisation was used to surface-functionalise medical grade silicone with acrylic acid. The acid surface chemistry enhanced cell attachment to the silicone, and cells could effectively be transferred from the silicone to model wound beds comprised of decellularised dermis (DED). Once the cells were delivered they remained viable, and the acrylic acid surface chemistry was found not to affect the MSC phenotype or their functional capacity prior to cell delivery. The second part of the project involved developing a 3-D wound model using tissue-engineered (TE) skin, in which to assess the benefit of MSCs, and applying non-invasive imaging to monitor wound healing using optical coherence tomography (OCT). TE skin is reconstructed from DED by the addition of laboratory expanded fibroblasts and keratinocytes, and it possesses a functional epithelium. Full-thickness incisional wounds were created in TE skin, and fibrin clots containing cells could be inserted into the wound cavity; wounds healed after 14 days. OCT could clearly identity structural features of skin (including the dermis, epidermis and fibrin clot) with good correspondence to histology. Appropriate sampling of the wounds by OCT was determined, and consistency in identifying corresponding wound regions within a sample over time was addressed, so that wound volumes could be calculated and compared. Finally MSCs were introduced to the wound model. MSCs were found not to reduce the rate of wound closure in the dermal portion of the wound, however they did accelerate re-epithelialisation and this was detectable by OCT. Additionally, cytokine analysis was performed on the surrounding medium under wound conditions. In the presence of MSCs, wound medium contained more hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF). Elevated levels of these beneficial factors to wound healing were associated with an early onset of epithelialisation