Neutron imaging study of ‘pattern-welded’ swords from the Viking Age

We present novel imaging results from a non-invasive examination of three ‘pattern-welded’ swords from the Viking Age belonging to the National Museum of Denmark, using white beam and energy resolved tomographies with neutrons. Pattern-welded blades are made by forge welding together thin strips of iron and steel that were twisted and joined in various ways, producing a decorative pattern on the surface. The study shed light on the inner structure of the composite material and manufacturing techniques of these admired examples of past technology, revealing some otherwise invisible details of their assembly methods, phase distribution and extent of the corrosion.     

‘The final decision is with the patient’: reproductive modernity and preferences for non-hormonal and non-biomedical contraceptives among postpartum middle class women in Yogyakarta,Indonesia

In Indonesia fertility has plateaued for more than a decade. Over the same period Indonesian women have increasingly accessed contraception via the private sector. Our qualitative inquiry into the contraceptive preferences of middle class women in urban Yogyakarta revealed limited interest in and intent to use biomedical and hormonal contraceptive methods. Women’s justifications for their contraceptive choices were complex and manifold: most had concerns about safety and the side effects associated with hormonal and biomedical contraceptives; others were ideologically opposed to fertility control. We conclude that contraceptive choices were an embodiment of women’s reproductive modernity, which in turn underpinned their reproductive agency. We also problematise the extent to which women’s contraceptive choices were comprehensively informed. Women’s reproductive modernity was shaped by their socioeconomic status; access to modern communication technologies; understandings of their right to health and contraceptive choice; pious yet pragmatic religious identities; and negotiations within their marital relationships.     

Aranda,Arrernte or Arrarnta? The Politics of Orthography and Identity on the Upper Finke River

The Aboriginal people of the Upper Finke River in central Australia have followed a literacy tradition for over 130 years. When the first Lutheran missionaries arrived, they immediately started to study the local Arandic language and were teaching reading and writing by 1879. Despite this long exposure to literacy and the Lutheran influence on it, the issue of the right orthography for this Arandic language variety is emotionally charged and politically very contested. In this post‐colonial context, orthography has become a sociocultural and symbolic, rather than a phonemic, matter.     

Literature’s place in the global public health arena: Graham Greene’s fictional translation of leprosy in A Burnt-Out Case

ABSTRACT

This paper traces the engagement of Graham Greene's novel A Burnt-Out Case with traditional discourses of leprosy (the biblical ‘leper’ as a sinner, missionary care, tropical medicine, Albert Schweitzer's hospital in Lambaréné, germ theory), and shows how it suggests an ethics of care which highlights the psychosocial aspects of disease and healing. The paper argues that the reception of the novel opened a discursive space for the re-negotiation of images of leprosy after empire, making visible the structures and agents of global public health communication and their diverging conceptions of explanatory authority, scientific accuracy and the relation of science and literature. The article incorporates archival sources from press reviews to draft versions of the novel and the author's correspondence with prominent leprosy experts. It draws on media and science communication studies, disability studies and on contributions to the sociology of knowledge by Ludwik Fleck, Thomas Kuhn and Bruno Latour.     

A new Miocene carnivorous marsupial,Barinya kutjamarpensis (Dasyuromorphia), from central Australia

Binfield, P., Archer, M., Hand, S.J., Black, K.H., Myers, T.J., Gillespie, A.K. & Arena, D.A., June 2016. A new Miocene carnivorous marsupial, Barinya kutjamarpensis (Dasyuromorphia), from central Australia. Alcheringa 41, xx–xx. ISSN 0311-5518.

A new dasyuromorphian, Barinya kutjamarpensis sp. nov., is described on the basis of a partial dentary recovered from the Miocene Wipajiri Formation of northern South Australia. Although about the same size as the only other species of this genus, B. wangala from the Miocene faunal assemblages of the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, northwestern Queensland, it has significant differences in morphology including a very reduced talonid on M₄ and proportionately wider molars. Based on the structural differences and the more extensive wear on its teeth, the central Australian species might have consumed harder or more abrasive prey in a more silt-rich environment than its congener, which hunted in the wet early to middle Miocene forests of Riversleigh.

Pippa Binfield [pippa.binfield@outlook.com], Michael Archer [m.archer@unsw.edu.au], Suzanne J. Hand [s.hand@unsw.edu.au], Karen H. Black [k.black@unsw.edu.au], Troy J. Myers [t.myers@unsw.edu.au] Anna K. Gillespie [a.gillespie@unsw.edu.au] and Derrick A. Arena [rick@sitc.net.au], PANGEA Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales 2052, Sydney, Australia.     

The European Union Structural Funds and Regional Development. The Perspective of Small and Medium Enterprises in Eastern Poland

Abstract

The article concentrates on the role of European Union (EU) structural funds in the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The analysis presented in this paper is based on the results of computer-assisted telephone interviews conducted with 394 representatives of enterprises localized in three Polish Voivodships: the Podkarpackie, the Lubelskie and the Podlaskie. The entire EU structural funds are based on the assumption that by additionally financing the development of SMEs, they influence regional development indirectly. Even though EU structural funds are not the only factor influencing economic growth and the creation of Gross Domestic Product, they affect the development potential of enterprises indirectly. However, from the perspective of the representatives of researched SMEs, EU structural funds are not so significant for commitment to investment. Actually, for SMEs in Eastern Poland, they have no effect on future investment plans. This bottom-up perspective researched in one of the poorest areas of the EU puts the assumption of the positive relation between the EU structural funds and regional development into doubt.