Lost Children, the Moors & Evil Monsters: the photographic story of the Moors murders

The persistent power of the Moors murders as a British cultural narrative is dependent upon the potent photographic images in which it is rendered. These images fall into three categories; the haunting snapshots of children who disappeared and were subsequently discovered to have been abducted and murdered, the desolate Yorkshire Moors on which their bodies were buried, and those of their murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. These images, in Susan Sontag’s words, provide “both a pseudo-presence and a token of absence.” (15-16) It is in this play between presence and absence that their power lies. This article will examine these different images in order to explain their cumulative narrative power. The photographs of the children provide an uncanny archive of that which is irrevocably lost, articulated more starkly through the images of the moors to which they are lost. While the arrest photographs of Brady and Hindley work in the opposite direction, seeming to be a direct representation of an evil responsible for such a loss. The Moors murders narrative provides an extreme example of the dual ways in which photographs work as both absolute evidence of a reality that they capture directly, and as a haunting archive of loss. In examining this, the essay will suggest how, more generally, photographic narratives work strangely between concepts of the real and the spectral. Photographs always testify to things that really happened, while, simultaneously, replacing things that are permanently lost in the past

How Do Bi+ Mothers’ Talk with Their Children about (Their) Bisexuality+?

Whereas a great deal is known about lesbian/gay parent families, much less is known about bi+ mother families, especially relating to the ways bi+ mothers discuss their bisexuality+ with their children. This article explores conversations about bisexuality+ and queer socialization in bi+ mother families. Semi-structured interviews were conducted online with 29 bi+ mothers, with each interview lasting one to two hours. Mothers were asked about whether they had discussed their bisexuality+ with their child(ren), their reasoning for wanting to discuss their sexuality with their child(ren), how they broached the topic, whether they used any resources, and how the child(ren) reacted. Interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis, informed by prior literature on cultural socialization and disclosure. Analysis revealed that bi+ mothers adopted various strategies and approaches to discussing their bisexuality+ with their children, which were often child-focused and based on a consideration of children’s developmental abilities. Bi+ mothers also engaged in queer socialization practices, such as cultural socialization, preparation for bias, and mainstream queer socialization. The theoretical and empirical implications of this research are discussed, as well as the practical implications, such as providing support to bi+ mother families. Directions for future research are also identified

Cyclic quantum engines enhanced by strong bath coupling

While strong system-bath coupling produces rich and interesting phenomena, applications to quantum thermal engines have been so far pointing mainly at detrimental effects. The delicate trade-off between efficiency loss due to strong coupling and power increase due to faster equilibration, while acknowledged, remained largely unexplored owing to the challenge of assessing precisely the equilibration time. Here, we overcome this obstacle by exploiting exact numerical simulations based on the hierarchical equations of motion (HEOM) formalism. We show that a quantum Otto cycle can perform better at strong (but not ultrastrong) coupling in that the product of the efficiency times the output power is maximized in this regime. In particular, we show that strong coupling allows one to obtain engines with larger efficiency than their weakly coupled counterparts, while sharing the same output power. Conversely, one can design strongly coupled engines with larger power than their weakly coupled counterparts, while sharing the same efficiency. Overall, our results provide situations where strong coupling can directly enhance the performance of thermodynamic operations, re-enforcing the importance of studying quantum thermal engines beyond standard configurations.Comment: 10 + 11 pages, 9 + 3 figures. Slight changes in the introduction. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Applie

Non-Markovian effects & decoherence processes in open quantum systems

This thesis investigates two thematic lines of research, both underpinned by non-Markovian system-reservoir interactions in quantum optics. The overarching focus is on modelling the open system dynamics in a non-perturbative fashion, broadly on - though not restricted to - instances when the environment is structured. A theory is developed by means of enlarging the open system over environmental degrees of freedom to include memory effects in its dynamics. This is achieved using an established technique that involves mapping a bosonic environment onto a 1D chain of harmonic oscillators. Within this setting, we apply a Heisenberg equation-of-motion approach to derive an exact set coupled differential equations for the open system and a single auxiliary oscillator of the chain. The combined equations are shown to have their interpretation rooted in a quantum Markov stochastic process. Including the auxiliary chain oscillator as part of the original system then enables us to obtain an exact master equation for the enlarged system, avoiding any need for the Born-Markov approximations. Our method is valid for a dissipative two-state system, with cases of multiple excitations and added driving discussed. Separately, we apply the framework of quantum Darwinism to an atom-cavity system, and, subsequently, to a more general multiple-environment model. In both cases, the time-dependent spread of correlations between the open system and fractions of the environment is analysed during the course of the decoherence process. The degree to which information is redundant across different fractions is checked to infer the emergence of classicality. In the second case, we go further and present a decomposition of information in terms of its quantum and classical correlations. A quantitative measure of redundancy is also studied with regard to its ability to witness non-Markovian behaviour. Besides fundamental interest, our results have application to quantum information processing and quantum technologies, keeping in mind the potential beneficial use of non-Markovian effects in reservoir engineering

Plasma Physics

Contains reports on three research projects.U. S. Atomic Energy Commission (Contract AT(30-1)-1842

Illusio in lesson observation: making policy work by playing the game

Abstract Illusio in lesson observation: making policy work by playing the game by Sasha Pleasance Lesson observation is an established part of teachers’ professional lives within a rational policy discourse which problematises teaching. The problematisation of teaching in official documentation and pronouncements has shaped understanding and experience of teachers’ professional work. By approaching this study from a constructionist perspective, and employing the What’s the Problem Represented to be? (WPR) approach developed by Bacchi (2009) to examine policy-as-discourse, it is possible interrogate the role of policy in making problems, and their solutions, in very specific ways. The innovative combining of the work of Bacchi with Bourdieu’s sociological lens, in particular his concept of illusio, has enabled this research to examine the investment teachers make in the practice of lesson observation and to offer an interpretative rendering of ‘how it is possible for “what is said” to be “sayable”’ (Foucault 1991:59, cited in Bacchi and Goodwin, 2016:36 original emphasis). The contribution to knowledge within this empirical study is in the articulation of a vocabulary of motives used by participants to make meaning of why they play the game of lesson observation and, through this, an analysis of how policy work is done in a further education (FE) context. This research finds that by playing the game, teachers and observers are, in effect, making the policy work, which in turn produces the forms of objects which have been constructed through the representation of teaching as a ‘problem’ in official policy; ‘outstanding teacher’; ‘best practice’; ‘effective teaching’; ‘learning outcomes’. The reification of these objects within teachers’ professional lives has created taken-for- granted realities which enable the binary of professional development and performance management to make sense. Furthermore, the research reveals how, in making the policy work, teachers are in fact doing the work of policy by enacting the objective entities constituted by evidence-based ‘best practice’ in their teaching. Interpretation of the empirical data contributes new knowledge by proposing that teaching has become represented as a ‘problem’ of learning within official policy discourse and that this has created a world where learning is a duty for both teachers and learners. The thesis concludes with the recommendation put forward by participants for a democratic and collaborative system of peer review to replace the current system of lesson observation. However, this recommendation is still within the parameters of rational policy narrative in its presupposition that teachers need to improve. The thesis, therefore, recommends debate about what ‘development’ might mean in the context of FE. Key words:illusio; social capital; misrecognition; symbolic violence; field; habitus; problematisation; policy-as-discourse; What’s The Problem Represented to be? (WPR

Applied Plasma Research

Contains reports on four research projects split into two sections.National Science Foundation (Grant GK-18185

Modeling the evolution space of breakage fusion bridge cycles with a stochastic folding process

Breakage-Fusion-Bridge cycles in cancer arise when a broken segment of DNA is duplicated and an end from each copy joined together. This structure then 'unfolds' into a new piece of palindromic DNA. This is one mechanism responsible for the localised amplicons observed in cancer genome data. The process has parallels with paper folding sequences that arise when a piece of paper is folded several times and then unfolded. Here we adapt such methods to study the breakage-fusion-bridge structures in detail. We firstly consider discrete representations of this space with 2-d trees to demonstrate that there are 2^(n(n-1)/2) qualitatively distinct evolutions involving n breakage-fusion-bridge cycles. Secondly we consider the stochastic nature of the fold positions, to determine evolution likelihoods, and also describe how amplicons become localised. Finally we highlight these methods by inferring the evolution of breakage-fusion-bridge cycles with data from primary tissue cancer samples

Surrealism : prospects and boundaries

In other words, the comparison of two books that are totally unrelated, except for a common denominator of their respective titles, beyond which, thanks to an eloquent alternative, two irreconcilable approaches to Surrealism emerge: on the one hand, an historical fresco (Dorozoi), on the other, the exploration of experimental terrain (Fleig). After thirty years of discussion about the death of Surrealism, Durozoi begins to draw up an assessment of what was done rather than the results. In thi..

« David’s Studio »: desire, creation, history

In his second book, devoted to “David”s studio”, Thomas Crow admits to “having more keenly felt what an intellectual community is”. These words which introduce the traditional “acknowledgements” assume their full import once one has read this fine work. In it, and in a spirit of sound interdisciplinarity, art history marshals a store of information -as is evident from the bibliography and the copious notes-which is at once historical and literary (about Sedaine’s entourage, Sedaine being a mu..