Choreographic sensibility in screen based dance

The principal aim of this research is the critical investigation into the creative processes involved in the making of screen based work in dance and the moving image, with specific reference to the notion of choreographic sensibility. The research process has been located within a climate of evolving production paradigms and the increasingly permeable boundaries of professional roles. A marked increase in educational initiatives and opportunities for showing work within the environment of festival screenings has also coincided with a discernible shift towards smaller scale models of production. The investigation has been undertaken by means of a written submission and also by the creation of a forty two piece cycle of work submitted on DVD. Selected examples of work from screen based dance and moving image practice have been subject to a process of analysis. This analysis has been informed by critical perspectives drawn from the writings of selected classical film theorists, from influential filmmakers Maya Deren and Stan Brakhage, and from the field of practice theory. From this analysis, it can be claimed that examples of screen based dance and moving image work have the potential to be read 'choreographically'. Some of the common practices in theatre dance and screen based dance relate directly to the notion of movement material creation. Others must be regarded as relating to an enhanced and more conceptually oriented range of choreographic practices which are more usually associated with the non dance-specific professional roles of the director, editor and visual artist. A distinctive choreographic sensibility has also been identified in the creation of my own screen based work. This sensibility can be said to be located within a range of improvisationally oriented strategies. These strategies relate to the processes involved in performance; the creation of movement material; directing and editing, all of which are informed by a body of professionally developed intuitive knowledge

Airborne microbial monitoring in an operational cleanroom using an instantaneous detection system and high efficiency microbial samplers

The airborne microbial contamination in a non-unidirectional airflow cleanroom, occupied by personnel wearing either full cleanroom attire or only cleanroom undergarments was simultaneously determined using an instantaneous microbial detection (IMD) system and efficient microbial air samplers that detected both aerobic and anaerobic microbes. Depending on the type of cleanroom clothing, the IMD system recorded between 7 to 94 times more ‘biological’ particles than microbe carrying particles (MCPs) recovered by the air samplers. Change in the airborne concentration of ‘biological’ particles due to the different clothing was not consistent with the change in the concentration of MCPs. The median size of the ‘biological’ particles was smaller than the MCPs and the associated particle size distributions were considerably different. A number of sterile materials in the cleanroom were shown to disperse substantial quantities of ‘biological’ particles and it was concluded that the number of particles of microbiological origin, and the relationship between the counts of ‘biological’ particles to MCPs, were masked by non-microbial fluorescent particles dispersed from these materials. Consequently, adequate monitoring of this type of cleanroom operation to confirm appropriate airborne microbiological contamination control, using only an IMD system of the type used for this programme of work, is considered to be unfeasible. However, if the IMD system could be improved to more accurately differentiate between micro-organisms and non-microbial fluorescent particles, or if the dispersion of fluorescent particles from nonmicrobiological cleanroom materials could be reduced, then this system should provide an effective cleanroom airborne monitoring method

Theory and simulations of a gyrotron backward wave oscillator using a helical interaction waveguide

A gyrotron backward wave oscillator (gyro-BWO) with a helically corrugated interaction waveguide demonstrated its potential as a powerful microwave source with high efficiency and a wide frequency tuning range. This letter presents the theory describing the dispersion properties of such a waveguide and the linear beam-wave interaction. Numerical simulation results using the PIC code MAGIC were found to be in excellent agreement with the output measured from a gyro-BWO experiment

Increasing prevalence of asthma diagnosis and symptoms in children is confined to mild symptoms

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of childhood asthma is increasing but few studies have investigated trends in asthma severity. We investigated trends in asthma diagnosis and symptom morbidity between an eight year time period in a paired prevalence study. METHODS: All children in one single school year aged 8-9 years in the city of Sheffield were given a parent respondent questionnaire in 1991 and 1999 based on questions from the International Survey of Asthma and Allergy in Children (ISAAC). Data were obtained regarding the prevalence of asthma and wheeze and current (12 month) prevalences of wheeze attacks, speech limiting wheeze, nocturnal cough and wheeze, and exertional symptoms. RESULTS: The response rates in 1991 and 1999 were 4580/5321 (85.3%) and 5011/6021 (83.2%), respectively. There were significant increases between the two surveys in the prevalence of asthma ever (19.9% v 29.7%, mean difference 11.9%, 95% confidence interval (CI) 10.16 to 13.57, p<0.001), current asthma (10.3% v 13.0%, mean difference 2.7%, 95% CI 1.44 to 4.03, p<0.001), wheeze ever (30.3% v 35.8%, mean difference 5.7%, 95% CI 3.76 to 7.56, p<0.001), wheeze in the previous 12 months (17.0% v 19.4%, mean difference 2.5, 95% CI 0.95 to 4.07, p<0.01), and reporting of medication use (16.9% v 20%, mean difference 3.0%, 95% CI 1.46 to 4.62, p<0.001). There were also significant increases in reported hayfever and eczema diagnoses. CONCLUSIONS: Diagnostic labelling of asthma and lifetime prevalence of wheeze has increased. The current 12 month point prevalence of wheeze has increased but this is confined to occasional symptoms. The increased medication rate may be responsible for the static prevalence of severe asthma symptoms. The significant proportion of children receiving medication but reporting no asthma symptoms identified from our 1999 survey suggests that some children are being inappropriately treated or overtreated

Targeting Escalation and Harm in Intimate Partner Violence: Evidence from Northern Territory Police, Australia

Research Question: Does analysis of intimate partner violence (IPV) among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal couples in the Northern Territory (NT), Australia reveal any predictable escalation in frequency or severity of harm over a four-year observation period? Data: We examined all 61,796 incidents of IPV recorded by the NT Police for 23,104 unique couples (‘dyads’), over the five year period from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2014. For purposes of analysing changes over time in frequency and harm, we used standardized observation periods (generally four years) from first incident to end of observations. Methods: Each IPV incident was re-classified by crime type using the penal code of England and Wales, in order to measure the severity of harm in NT with the Cambridge Crime Harm Index (CHI). The CHI scores were used to test for patterns of concentration and escalation, based on the total days of recommended imprisonment for each offence type, summed across all offences of that type for the entire sample. Findings: The findings were sharply split between Aboriginal and white dyads. While there was no evidence of escalation in either frequency or severity of IPV 2 incidents in the white dyads, there was substantial evidence of escalation among Aboriginal offenders with three or more incidents in a four year period. Less than 2% of white offenders (2 of 111) had three or more incidents in four years, compared to 32.4% of Aboriginals (N = 105 out of 355 offenders). For those couples of both races known by police to have two or more incidents, there was a strong pattern of escalation in the frequency and seriousness of offending for up to 20 incidents over four years. While 66% of couples had desisted by year 3 with no further reports that year or the next, among the 34% of couples (N= 3,621) persisting into year 3 the probability of a new incident by year 4 was 99.9%. Similarly, the time between incidents for these repeaters declined with each new incident, indicating an increase in frequency. Severity of harm also rose with repeated incidents, from 0.6 of expected Cambridge CHI value per dyad among couples with 1 to 5 incidents over four years to 3.82 times higher than expected value per dyad among those couples observed to have 16-20 incidents over four years—six times more harm among couples (almost entirely Aboriginals) with the highest frequency of incidents than among couples with the lowest frequency. Conclusions: This targeting analysis confirms other research that shows no escalation in frequency or severity of domestic abuse among predominantly white European populations. Yet it also provides the first systematic test of the escalation hypothesis about IPV reported to police among Australian Aboriginal dyads. That evidence provides a strong basis in evidence for developing a two-track policy for policing IPV in Australian areas with substantial Indigenous populations. Track 1 would serve dyads (of either race) presenting for the first or second time, for whom a light touch may generally be sufficient. Yet any couple known to have had two or more prior offences could receive a far more intensive 3 strategic investment, including the testing of new strategies for prevention of escalation in harm or frequency of IPV. Yet because this pattern of escalation is found only in a minority of Aboriginal dyads, it is important to base policy on evidence-based targeting of dyads with prior occurrences rather than race. KEY WORDS: Intimate Partner Violence/Domestic Abuse/ Aboriginal Offenders and Victims/ Police/ Evidence-Based Targetin

Linking urban design to sustainability : formal indicators of social urban sustainability field research in Perth, Western Australia

The making of a livable urban community is a complex endeavor. For much of the 20th Century plannersand engineers believed that modern and rational decision-making would create successful cities. Today, political leaders across the globe are considering ways to promote sustainable development and the concepts of New Urbanism are making their way from the drawing board to the ground. While much has changed in the world, the creation of a successful street is as much of an art today as it was in the 1960s.Our work seeks to investigate 'street life' in cities as a crucial factor towards community success. What arethe components of the neighborhood and street form that contributes to the richness of street life? To answer this question we rely on the literature. The aim of the Formal Indicators of Social Urban Sustainability studyis to measure the formal components of a neighborhood and street that theorists have stated important in promoting sustainability. This paper will describe how this concept helps to bridge urban design and sustainability. It will describe the tool and show how this was applied in a comparative assessment of Joondalup and Fremantle, two urban centers in the Perth metropolitan area

External validation of a colorectal cancer model against screening trial long term follow-up data

Objectives: The ScHARR Bowel Cancer Screening Model has been used to make decisions about screening strategies in England. The objective of this study was to perform external validation of the ScHARR model against long-term follow-up data about colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence and mortality reductions due to screening, from the Nottingham Trial of guaiac Faecal Occult Blood Testing for CRC, and the UK Flexible Sigmoidoscopy Screening Trial. Methods: The ScHARR model was adapted prior to validation to reflect the setting of each trial in terms of population characteristics, details of screening and surveillance programmes, uptake of screening and further investigations and study follow-up. The impact of using current versus historical CRC incidence and mortality data in the validation was also examined by carrying out a series of analyses in which historical data from different years was included in the model. Results: The ScHARR model was able to predict CRC incidence and mortality rate/hazard ratios from both trials to well within the 95% confidence intervals in the observed data. Whilst it was less accurate in predicting absolute incidence and mortality rates, modelling historical incidence and mortality data enabled these predictions to be improved considerably. Conclusions: The ScHARR model is able to replicate the long-term relative benefit from screening observed in two large-scale UK based screening trials and can therefore be considered to be an appropriate tool to facilitate decision making around the English bowel cancer screening programme