How green was my valley? Urban history in Latin America

The history of Latin America has been dominated by ideas of order and progress. Unfortunately those ideas have not always been of regional origin. In the colonial era the conquest and conversion of the native peoples was seen as progress by the Europeans. The imposition of order was aided greatly by urbanization sometimes symbolically on the ruins of Indian cities such as at Cuzco and Mexico City. Cities became the point of cultural and economic articulation between the barbaric hinterland and the civilization of Europe. Freedom from the Spanish yoke gained in the Independence wars was similarly seen as progress, at least by the ultimately victorious creole ‘patriots’. It was here, however, that notions of national identity, modernization and economic success became intertwined to produce the conflicts which still inflame the region today. The paramount question has remained: whose order and concept of progress should be imposed

The power of positivity: Do emotions influence attentional breadth?

Fredrickson's (2001) broaden and build theory describes how experiencing positive emotions, such as happiness, broadens our 'thought-action repertoire' leading us to be more likely to go out and act on our positive emotions. This results in the building of new relationships, resources and skills, which we can draw on in times of need throughout life. In contrast, the experience of negative emotion is thought to narrow our 'thought-action repertoire', leading to specific actions to aid in survival (Fredrickson, 2001). The current experiments aimed to explore the effect of briefly presented schematic faces (happy, sad, and neutral) on attentional scope using the flanker task. Based on the broaden and build theory it was hypothesised that there would be an increase in reaction time in trials primed with a happy face due to a broadening of attention, leading to increased flanker interference. A decrease in reaction time was predicted for trials primed with a sad face, due to a narrowing of attention leading to less flanker interference. Results lend partial support to the broaden and build hypothesis, with reaction times being slower following happy primes in incongruent flanker trials in Experiment 1. Recent research is discussed in regards to potential mediators of the relationship between emotion and attention

Integrating geochemical survey, ethnography and organic residue analysis to identify and understand areas of foodstuff processing

In this paper we explore the integration of science-based and ethnographic approaches that respond to the need to consider ancient economy and subsistence in the Greek world on a landscape level. It is particularly important to be in a position to understand changes and developments in the processes associated with the preparation of food as well as agro-industrial commodities such as wine and olive oil. While ancient economic and subsistence patterns are traditionally and most effectively investigated where animal and plant remains have been recovered from excavation, our strategy is less direct; operating by proxy, it is well suited in the first instance to archaeological field survey. Having first determined the soils’ chemical signatures and the identity of pottery residues, a comparison will then be made with data obtained from ethnographic surveys of abandoned 20th-century farmsteads and workplaces, where particular activities are known to have taken place. Integrating these approaches, our work is applying them to archaeological field survey, specifically the current project on the city of Sikyon and its vicinity in the North Peloponnese

A sub-product construction of Poincare-Einstein metrics

Given any two Einstein (pseudo-)metrics, with scalar curvatures suitably related, we give an explicit construction of a Poincar\'e-Einstein (pseudo-)metric with conformal infinity the conformal class of the product of the initial metrics. We show that these metrics are equivalent to ambient metrics for the given conformal structure. The ambient metrics have holonomy that agrees with the conformal holonomy. In the generic case the ambient metric arises directly as a product of the metric cones over the original Einstein spaces. In general the conformal infinity of the Poincare metrics we construct is not Einstein, and so this describes a class of non-conformally Einstein metrics for which the (Fefferman-Graham) obstruction tensor vanishes.Comment: 23 pages Minor correction to section 5. References update

The art of the brick

To celebrate Australia’s strong tradition of brick architecture, as well as the largely unsung art of bricklaying, Australian architect and curator, Derham Groves, organized two complementary public exhibitions of full-scale brick structures designed by various architects and artists. The results were an intriguing mixture of art and the everyday, as Groves describes in the following article

Bible Studies: Frank Russell and the "Book of Books"

Religion was as much a concern for Frank Russell throughout his life as it was for younger brother Bertrand and their father before them. Each advocated its rational study untainted by Christian dogma. The chance discovery of an amusing film review by Frank Russell of the biblical epic The Dawn of the World (1921) became the catalyst for an exploration of this theme in the paper that follows, as well as providing the opportunity to explore the foundations of Frank’s agnosticism and demonstrate his erudition and wit through the reprinting of his article “The Bible on the Film”

Wire Netting Reduces African Elephant (\u3ci\u3eLOXODONTA AFRICANA\u3c/i\u3e) Impact to Selected Large Trees in South Africa

African elephants (Loxodonta africana) are ecosystem engineers in that they substantially alter the environment through their unique foraging and feeding habits. At high densities, elephants potentially have negative impacts on the environment, specifically to large trees. Because of this, recent increases of elephants in the Associated Private Nature Reserves (APNR) on the Western Boundary of Kruger National Park, South Africa have caused concern regarding the health of several species of tree. My objective was to assess the effectiveness of wrapping protective wire netting around the trunk of the tree in preventing and reducing bark stripping by elephants. 2,668 trees, 1352 marula (Sclerocarya birrea), 857 knobthorn (Acacia Nigrescens), and 459 false marula (Lannea schweinfurti), were assessed for elephant impact in the APNR, 1387 (52%) of which had previously been wrapped in protective wire netting (789, 548, and 50 respectively). For knobthorn and marula, wire netting significantly decreased the number of the trees that were bark stripped. For all trees, wire netting decreased the level of bark stripping especially for the highest impact levels. No trees wrapped with wire were ringbarked, compared to 23 unwired trees. In addition, wire netting had an effect on the distribution of damage for the highest impact class incurred regardless of type. A higher relative frequency of wired trees were found in lower impact categories compared to unwired trees. Wire netting is a low maintenance and ecologically valuable technique that alleviates bark stripping for some species. The judicial use of wire netting on trees could serve to maintain elephant and trees populations in areas of heavy confinement with locally high densities of elephants

Frank Russell’s Diverse Writing and Speaking Career: a Bibliographical Guide

Frank Russell, 2nd Earl Russell (1865–1931), was a man of rational thought and social conscience who, released from his early imbroglios, embarked on a controversial career, throwing his name and political weight behind a range of desperate but often successful causes. This bibliographical guide acknowledges his labours, illustrates his diversity and demonstrates why Frank Russell deserves to be taken seriously

The Impact of Intralesional 5-Fluorouracil in the Treatment of Keloid Scars

Background - The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) defines a keloid scar as a type of raised scar extending past the initial area of injury1 - Approximately 10% of the general population affected - significant risk factors include +family history, darker skin tones, mechanism of injury (burn, surgical)3 - Symptom presentation: pain, pruritus, burning, increased sensitivity3 - Varying existing treatment methods with high resistance and recurrence rates leading to no agreed upon standard approach5 Most widely adopted method currently : intralesional (ILS) steroid injection5https://jdc.jefferson.edu/mspas_capstones/1003/thumbnail.jp