Selling Western Australian wool to the world

Western Australia supplies 14 per cent of the worls\u27s apparel wool and Agriculture WA\u27s Wool Program has been working to raise the State\u27s profile as a consistent supplier of high quality fibre to the world markets. It\u27s a slow process in a very traditional industry, but modern measurement and computers are useful tools as Georgina Wilson explains

Cotton rising from the ashes

Two hundred thousand dollars worth of quality cotton was deliberately destroyed by burning in the Kimberley last December. The same thing will probably happen again this year, but there will ne no cries of arson and police will not be seeking the perpetrators. Georgina Wilson reports on the emerging cotton industry on the Ord

Bridging Past, Present and Future Through Art: El Mal Querer and Le Roman de Flamenca

This on-going project examines how a best-selling Latin pop album resulted in a sudden and significant increase in the obscure medieval Occitan novel which inspired it. The widespread success of El Mal Querer (2018) by Spanish musician Rosalia has generated popular interest in the 13th century novel Le Roman de Flamenca which had previously been confined almost exclusively to the realm of academic interest. El Mal Querer presents the thematic framework of Le Roman de Flamenca – a vindication of the role of woman in love and in society – with a combination of folkloric flamenco stylization and urban musical influences. Rapid increase in consumer demand for the novel since the release of the album has resulted in the production of significantly more copies of Le roman de Flamenca, the publication of a new user-friendly edition by the University of Murcia and an increased demand in interviews with the medieval literature experts who worked to translate the novel. This phenomenon is an example of how contemporary art and popular culture are capable of presenting a piece of cultural patrimony in a socially-relevant way thus allowing for cultural representation in an increasingly homogenized global society. Despite it’s age, one finds that the encyclopedic medieval novel presents themes and concepts still relevant to today’s world such as multiculturalism, gender disparity, domestic abuse and social constructs surrounding romantic love

Surface Reading Paper as Feminist Bibliography

This article models a mode of feminist bibliography by “surface reading” paper. Taking Ben Jonson’s Sejanus His Fall (1605) as a case study, this article reads watermarks as reminders of paper’s three-dimensional materiality, whose surfaces and depths model the more and less legible forms of labor which contribute to paper’s making. Watermarks here become a creative and critical prompt to recover the interventions of John Spilman (the papermaker whose output was used for Sejanus), Spilman’s workers, and especially his female ragpickers. This article fuses close reading of literary texts and archival sources with bibliography and theory to demonstrate fresh affordances of watermarks—both as they alter our reading of Sejanus and as they intervene more broadly in the affective and political models with which we read. (In the issue section Uncovering Labor

'I just want to feel like I'm part of everyone else': How schools unintentionally contribute to the isolation of students who identify as LGBT+

This study explores the experiences of students who identify as LGBT+ in six secondary schools in the south of England. Drawing mainly on data from five student focus groups, one student interview and nine teacher interviews, supplemented by a survey of staff and a review of school policy documents, this study examines how schools unwittingly increase LGBT+ students' sense of isolation. Using a framework that identifies different forms of isolation, this study found that use of gendered spaces, the creation of 'safe' spaces such as support groups and the school curriculum can exacerbate students' feelings of isolation, despite the good intentions of schools. Understanding how schools (unwittingly) contribute to LGBT+ students' sense of isolation potentially provides a means to identify more specific ways schools could address this issue

Reading the rangeland: a guide to the arid shrublands of Western Australia

Managing the rangelands is complex. Soils and vegetation can vary considerably over short distances in distinct or subtle ways. Separating climatic from management influences on the condition of the land has always been difficult. Whether we live on a sheep station, in a country town, in an Aboriginal community, a mining camp, or even if we only visit the Australian outback, it is vital that we understand and appreciate the unique character and management requirements of the rangelands. Learning to ‘read the rangeland’ has been a slow process, involving the knowledge and skills of pastoralists, Aboriginal people and scientists. This book, \u27Reading the rangeland\u27, has been prepared by an experienced team involving technical experts in rangeland management and publication. It was also ‘road tested’ by a diverse group of leading pastoralists and others with love for and interest in the country

The pleasure imperative? Reflecting on sexual pleasure’s inclusion in sex education and sexual health

This article offers an empirically grounded contribution to scholarship exploring the ways in which pleasure is ‘put to work’ in sex and sexuality education. Such research has cautioned against framing pleasure as a normative requirement of sexual activity and hence reproducing a ‘pleasure imperative’. This paper draws on interviews with sexual health and education practitioners who engaged with Pleasure Project resources and training between 2007 and 2016. Findings suggest that practitioners tend to understand pleasure within critical frameworks that allow them to avoid normalising and (re)enforcing a pleasure imperative. Accounts also show negotiations with, and strategic deployments of, values surrounding sexual pleasure in society and culture. While some accounts suggest that a pleasure imperative does run the risk of being reproduced by practitioners, notably this is when discussing more ‘contentious’ sexual practices. Interviews also demonstrate that practitioners attempting to implement a pleasure agenda are faced with a range of challenges. While some positive, holistic, and inclusive practice has been afforded by a pleasure approach, we argue that the importance of a critical framework needs to be (re)emphasised. The paper concludes by highlighting areas for further empirical research

The effects of food processing on plant cell walls with special reference to extensin

Changes in plant cell wall composition caused by a variety of cooking and manufacturing processes have been investigated. These chemical changes have been compared with corresponding structural modifications which were assessed by light and electron microscopy. The different processing treatments have been applied to a single plant tissue, namely mung been seedlings, thus enabling comparisons to be made between the processes. Amino acid analysis was employed to assess changes in cell wall composition. The predominant amino acids in extensin, and isodityrosine, the critical cross-linking unit in this glycoprotein, were measured. Changes resulting from separate chemical extraction of pectin and glycoprotein wall components were also examined. An automated amino acid analysis method for isodityrosine has been established and a novel system for synthesising this dimer developed. The latter involves simple incubation of isolated cell walls with tyrosine, an arrangement which has achieved a six-fold increase in isodityrosine concentration. A reduction in the wall content of hydroxyproline and isodityrosine was observed in samples which had been stored in sulphite solution. It is suggested that this process may degrade pectin and glycoprotein. This idea is discussed with reference to the wall structure seen by microscopical examinations. The soluble extract resulting from boiling cell walls in dilute bicarbonate solution and the water-soluble pectin fraction were both found to contain significant quantities of isodityrosine. It is proposed that these two treatments may extract extensin glycopeptides or even cross-linked extensin oligomers from the wall. It is concluded that most of the processes damaged cell wall pectin to some extent while some also affected extensin. Results from the chemical fractionation experiments demonstrated that these two wall components tend to be co-extracted. This observation is discussed in relation to current models of cell wall structure.<p