Meaningful Contact Research Articles

RACIAL DIFFERENCES IN ATTITUDES TOWARD AGING, AGING KNOWLEDGE, AND CONTACT

Ageism is defined as “the systematic stereotyping of and discrimination against older people, because they are old, just as racism and sexism have accomplished this with skin color and gender” (Butler, 1975). Ageism in the twenty-first century may be more compelling than ever because of the sheer number of Baby Boomers turning 65 daily. Current population estimates suggest that the percentage of older adults will grow to about 18% of the population by 2030 (Cohn & Taylor, 2010). It is believed that misconceptions about aging are developed and maintained due to misinformation about aging and lack of meaningful contact with older adults. Butler’s acknowledgment of ageism as a systemic problem has generated research attempting to develop an adequate way to measure ageism, knowledge about aging, and attitudes toward older people. This research examined differences in attitudes toward aging, knowledge of aging and contact frequency between non-Hispanic whites and African-American young adults. Participants were 96 African-American (Mean age 19.27, SD=1.318) and 175 Non-Hispanic Whites (Mean age 19.87, SD=1.685) that were part of a larger study. ANOVA revealed significant group differences on the Aging Semantic Differential-Instrumental factor (F(1, 269)=8.169, p=.005) and on the Fraboni Scale-Anitlocution factor (F(1, 269)=13.117, p<.0001). No significant differences emerged between groups on either the Facts on Aging Quiz-Revised or everyday contact with older adults. Results suggest that while Non-Hispanic Whites held more negative attitudes toward older adults and higher levels of ageism they also showed higher levels of knowledge and a lower frequency of elder contact.

Connected seniors: how older adults in East York exchange social support online and offline

ABSTRACTHow do older adults mobilize social support, with and without digital media? To investigate this, we focus on older adults 65+ residing in the Toronto locality of East York, using 42 interviews lasting about 90 minutes done in 2013–2014. We find that digital media help in mobilizing social support as well as maintaining and strengthening existing relationships with geographically near and distant contacts. This is especially important for those individuals (and their network members) who have limited mobility. Once older adults start using digital media, they become routinely incorporated into their lives, used in conjunction with the telephone to maintain existing relationships but not to develop new ones. Contradicting fears that digital media are inadequate for meaningful relational contact, we found that these older adults considered social support exchanged via digital media to be real support that cannot be dismissed as token. Older adults especially used and valued digital media for companionship. They also used them for coordination, maintaining ties, and casual conversations. Email was used more with friends than relatives; some Skype was used with close family ties. Our research suggests that policy efforts need to emphasize the strengthening of existing networks rather than the establishment of interventions that are outside of older adults’ existing ties. Our findings also show that learning how to master technology is in itself a form of social support that provides opportunities to strengthen the networks of older adults.

Ornamental Aesthetics: The Poetry of Attending in Thoreau, Dickinson, and Whitman by Theo Davis

BOOK REVIEWS 297 cated by one such discipline: political science. The quantification of thick, mutable opinion into big data and polling trends is our own blessed struc­ ture of political reason. But what happens when all the polls are wrong? Where is the accurate formula for deception—for the political lie that is told and the lie that one tells oneself? Who can quantify the partisan bile that rises and falls spasmodically? To live through the disruption of a ma­ chine of understanding is to live, as Michael shows us, through another phase of Romantic modernity. Jamison Kantor Ohio State University Theo Davis. Ornamental Aesthetics: The Poetry of Attending in Thoreau, Dickinson, and Whitman. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. Pp. 264. $65. Somewhere between the material, the philosophical, and the formal, Theo Davis in her most recent work, Ornamental Aesthetics: The Poetry of At­ tending in Thoreau, Dickinson, and Whitman, constructs a masterful and nuanced argument for the need to return the ornamental to a set of three writers who, we thought, had rid themselves ofit long ago. Davis therefore presents the reader with a welcome challenge from page one: to insist on the importance of the ornamental in this group of writers is already to carve out a critical space in which Davis finds herself uniquely alone. And yet, one of the greatest strengths of Davis’s book is her ability to situate herselfboth within and apart from the more well-known approaches to her three authors, designating for her reader the precise location ofher own ar­ gument and contribution to the field. While Davis relies especially upon the work of Martin Heidegger, she also comes into extended meaningful contact with Sharon Cameron, Jane Bennett, and the traditions of (all types of) historicism and materialism, arguing for a new type of formal criticism that is indebted to, though separate from, most current scholarship. For Davis, a theory of ornamentation is centrally concerned with how the mind and objects relate. Though her argument is not exactly an objectoriented ontology, Davis does want to borrow from various strains of new materialism to allow that objects themselves have an affective quality that cannot be entirely contained within the mind—that, to reference Bennett’s book, there is a certain vibrancy to matter that exists regardless of whether there is a mind to make sense ofit or not. However, the mind, the individ­ ual, and experience remain key for Davis, and not only as the stone upon which we always must stumble (as it is for many new materialists). MainSiR , 56 (Summer 2017) 298 BOOK REVIEWS taining the importance of the mind and thinking, Davis argues that Thoreau, Dickinson, and Whitman all offer us access to a more fluid con­ ception of Heideggerian Being, undoubtedly made more fluid by her at­ tentiveness to the object. Ornament is that which, on the one hand, “adorns and draws attention to” that which is immediate perceptual expe­ rience, and, on the other, that which connects with a sense of totality, or, Davis argues, the Heideggerian Open (12). Most important is the move Davis makes to dissolve the divide between the mind and the object while simultaneously maintaining the solidity of each: “what we will see increas­ ingly is how fully thinking ornament entails abandoning the notion that thinking is an internal process always opposed to, and apart from, the world of things, objects, or others” (35). Thinking, therefore, always must take place in the world, and must always refer to objects that attract— ornaments—within that world. In perhaps the most theoretically grounded chapter of the book, Chap­ ter 2, “Dickinson’s Ornamental Form,” Davis contends that there is an openness to Dickinson’s ornamentation that leads us directly to Heideg­ ger’s doorstep, allowing us to peer into the Open. Much of Davis’s project in the Dickinson chapter is to perform the conceptual work needed to adopt Heidegger as her thinker of presence. Davis wants to highlight in Heidegger the importance of groundedness in thinking—that thinking cannot take place in a vacuum. If the three main figures of her book show us anything, it is that there is a necessary relation between...

Statistical Contact Angle Analyses with the High-Precision Drop Shape Analysis (HPDSA) Approach: Basic Principles and Applications

Surface science, which includes the preparation, development and analysis of surfaces and coatings, is essential in both fundamental and applied as well as in engineering and industrial research. Contact angle measurements using sessile drop techniques are commonly used to characterize coated surfaces or surface modifications. Well-defined surfaces structures at both nanoscopic and microscopic level can be achieved but the reliable characterization by means of contact angle measurements and their interpretation often remains an open question. Thus, we focused our research effort on one main problem of surface science community, which is the determination of correct and valid definitions and measurements of contact angles. In this regard, we developed the high-precision drop shape analysis (HPDSA), which involves a complex transformation of images from sessile drop experiments to Cartesian coordinates and opens up the possibility of a physically meaningful contact angle calculation. To fulfill the dire need for a reproducible contact angle determination/definition, we developed three easily adaptable statistical analyses procedures. In the following, the basic principles of HPDSA will be explained and applications of HPDSA will be illustrated. Thereby, the unique potential of this analysis approach will be illustrated by means of selected examples.

Hawthorne's Graveyard Humor: “Chippings with a Chisel”

As both literary critics and social historians have recognized, nineteenth-century American culture was noteworthy for the prominent place of death and bereavement within its prevailing ideologies of sentimentality and domesticity. Manifestations of sentimentality thus appeared in the abundant literature of mourning, including poetry, sermons, essays, manuals, and anthologies; in the prescribed exhibition of sympathy-inducing mourning garments, which a woman wore as formal attire and a man as a crape band for hat or arm; and in the production of a plethora of memorial portraits, photographs, albums, embroidery, quilts, hair weavings, brooches, lockets, rings, gloves, spoons, and other "tokens" and "keepsakes" that commemorated the deceased. So, too, the pervasive domestication of death can be found in such developments as the rural, or garden, cemetery movement that began in the early 1830s and created a picturesque pastoral retreat for communing with the dead; in the rise of the Spiritualist movement in the late 1840s providing consolatory communication with the deceased; and in the common literary and cultural representation of heaven as a place for family reunions in a glorified celestial parlor. Integrally related to all these trends was the emphasis on maintaining a close affective attachment to the deceased and the preservation of meaningful emotional contact through memorial items and a suitably inscribed gravestone, all creating what might be called a "cult of memory" for the dead. (1) In keeping with these widespread cultural trends, a significant portion of Hawthorne's fiction performs a somber negotiation with the varied psychological, religious, and philosophical implications of human mortality. Yet in his early sketch "Chippings with a Chisel," Hawthorne presents a refreshingly humorous treatment of antebellum Americas sentimental preoccupation with death. Previous commentators on Hawthorne's distinctive variety of ironic comedy in his shorter works of fiction and non-fiction have variously characterized it with such terms as "dismal-merrymaking" (Janssen) or Calvinist humor (Dunne); but in the case of "Chippings with a Chisel," the concept of "graveyard humor"--or dark comedy framed within the existential limits of human mortality--would literally seem most appropriate. As such, the sketch merits a careful examination for its distinctive comic and satirical devices, literary allusions and associations, and cultural and biographical resonances. "Chippings with a Chisel" consists of both entertaining character delineation and a comic exercise in the moral picturesque using the versatile and popular medium of the literary sketch pioneered by Washington Irving (Hamilton). Hawthorne's sketch consists of a series of vignettes of the unnamed narrator's multiple visits, over a few weeks of the summer, to the workshop of an itinerant New England stone carver working in Edgartown on the island of Martha's Vineyard. Considering the elderly carver of mortuary art and epitaphs as a fellow artist whose trade accords with his own, the self-effacing narrator enjoys the stimulating company of the carver as well as the varied demands and attitudes of his customers. The topical nature of the sketch, which would have appealed to contemporary readers, arises from the fact that it was written in the midst of the rural cemetery movement during a period of reform in the commemoration and disposal of the dead, when Romantic and evangelical beliefs were displacing older Puritan traditions of mortality (Farrell ch 1). The product of an undocumented summer visit by Hawthorne to Martha's Vineyard in the mid-1830s, "Chippings with a Chisel" was first published in the September 1838 Democratic Review and then appeared in the second, two-volume edition of Twice-Told Tales in 1842. (2) As Arlin Turner first noted, Hawthorne's article on "Martha's Vineyard" in the April 1836 issue of The American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge alludes to the writer's month-long visit to the island, which he manifestly used as the basis for both his article and his later sketch. …

Clinical rhetoric in the high school

Clinical rhetoric is a science concerned with consistent patterns of speech behavior in different situations of interaction with colleagues, patients, and specialists in various disciplines with a view to extending their practical applications for the enhancement of efficiency of meaningful contacts. The history of this science as a means of rational communication with patients and medical profession dates back to the times of Hippocrates. Its importance greatly increased under the present-day conditions of high-technology and therapeutically aggressive medicine. Clinical rhetoric is based on the principles of general rhetoric. A clinician must be prepared for he fruitful and constructive relations with a variety of partners including patients, healthy subjects, administrators, lawyers, businessmen, and colleagues. Four main peculiarities of clinical rhetoric are distinguished: any debate is possible only in the form of discussion, both the form and content of the opponent’s arguments should be treated with respect, the speaker must himself draw attention to the weak points of his theses, all discussions must have the form of a “captain council” in which the shipboy is the first and the captain the last to speak. Traditional forms of clinical discussion include counselling, doctor’s rounds, consilia, and demonstrations. Collective forms of stimulating creative thinking, such as brainstorming and foresight have especially good prospects. These approaches appear to be of special value for the solution of heuristic problems. Teaching clinical rhetoric should be initiated since term IV when students begin to understand the role of a doctor as a key figure in the organization of the diagnostic and therapeutic process. Further development of Hippocrates’ traditions of collective communication may significantly promote the intellectual return from clinical and scientific discussions in medicine.

Commodity Flows, Diaspora Networking, and Contested Agency in the Eastern Indian Ocean c. 1000–1500

AbstractRecent revisionist approaches to early pre-1500 eastern Indian Ocean history draw from and cross-reference epigraphic, archaeological, art historical, literary, cultural, textual, shipwreck, and a variety of other primary and secondary sources as these document the evolution of Southeast Asia from roughly 300 to 1500, before significant European regional presence became a factor. This study's focus is the transitional importance of c. 1000–1500 Indian Ocean international maritime trade and transit from the South Asian shorelines of the Bay of Bengal to the South China and Java Seas, which is conceived to have temporarily produced an inclusive eastern Indian Ocean zone of contact. In this then ‘borderless’ region there were a variety of meaningful contacts and material, cultural, and knowledge transfers that resulted in synthesis of Indian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, and Southeast Asian cultures and populations made possible by enhanced international maritime trade connections before European presence became a factor, a period often dated from the fall of Melaka to the Portuguese in 1511.

Facilitating Meaningful Contact in Adoption and Fostering: A Trauma-Informed Approach to Planning, Assessing and Good Practice, Louis Sydney, Elsie Price and Adoptionplus

Facilitating Meaningful Contact in Adoption and Fostering: A Trauma-Informed Approach to Planning, Assessing and Good Practice, Louis Sydney, Elsie Price and Adoptionplus

'Life is still worth living': a pilot exploration of self-reported resources of palliative care patients.

BackgroundFacing a terminal illness can be highly stressful and palliative care patients frequently suffer from mood symptoms. The focus of health care is often on treating symptoms whereas health-promoting factors receive less attention. The aim of this study was to explore the views of palliative care patients on resources and ways of coping that help them prevent or manage mood symptoms.MethodsA pilot qualitative study was performed through face-to-face semi-structured interviews with fifteen ambulant patients with advanced cancer. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and qualitative analysis was performed independently by two researchers, according to the principle of constant comparative analysis.ResultsPatients reported on attitudes and specific coping strategies that they found helpful, as well as aspects of their life narrative and spirituality. Resources were found in meaningful contacts with family and friends and in personal attention of professional medical caregivers for their wellbeing.ConclusionsWe conclude that palliative care patients could identify resources to cope with mood symptoms in the context of their unique life. In helping patients to identify the personal resources that are accessible and available in their specific context, patient autonomy in enhancing resilience could be increased.

Resisting linguistic and ethnic marginalization: voices of Southeast Asian marriage-migrant women in Korea

ABSTRACTThis study explores linguistic and ethnic marginalization faced by Southeast Asian marriage-migrant women in a rural city of Korea and the ways in which they resist and negotiate the identities imposed on them by others. The findings show that the women were marginalized and had limited meaningful contact and intercultural communication with Koreans in various interethnic contexts. They were stigmatized for their linguistic and cultural backgrounds; the nature of their marriage/migration; and their class, gender, and race. The three-generation households in which they lived were sites of oppression where they were pressured to strictly adhere to traditional Korean linguistic and cultural norms. In the workplace, they were positioned as incompetent second-language (L2) speakers on account of their regional dialects and lack of sociolinguistic competence. Additionally, they experienced racial discrimination in the larger community, based on their language and ethnicity. Despite various types of marginalization, the participants resisted their families’ impositions and stereotypes from mainstream society. They sought to gain legitimacy through enhancing their linguistic capital valued in professional settings. The study suggests that narratives can be a powerful means to reveal processes of marginalization and the impact of marginalization on L2 learning and identity.

Exploring intercultural competence through an intercultural extracurricular activity in Taiwan

Abstract This study used interviews to explore how 10 Taiwanese college students' intercultural competence was developed after participating in an intercultural extracurricular activity designed with a purpose to facilitate foreign students’ study in Taiwan and to promote meaningful home-foreign student contacts. In-depth information and narratives from the interviews were collected as evidence of intercultural competence development. The results showed all the interviewees appreciated the experience and felt it to have been of value to them in terms of building international friendships, heightening their intercultural awareness and the benefits of intercultural competence, and having more appreciation and better understanding of Taiwanese culture. Students also realized that a lack of understanding of Taiwanese culture could exacerbate communication difficulties. Students thus became aware of the importance of describing Taiwanese cultural practices in English and realized that more language practice was necessary for smoother communication. Suggestions for both extracurricular activities and language programs improvement in the future were also provided in the conclusion.

Bereavement Follow-Up After the Death of a Child as a Standard of Care in Pediatric Oncology.

After a child's death to cancer, families commonly want continued connection with the healthcare team that cared for their child, yet bereavement follow-up is often sporadic. A comprehensive literature search found that many bereaved parents experience poor psychological outcomes during bereavement and that parents want follow-up and benefit from continued connection with their child's healthcare providers. Evidence suggests that the standard of care should consist of at least one meaningful contact between the healthcare team and bereaved parents to identify those at risk for negative psychosocial sequelae and to provide resources for bereavement support.

Catatonia in the Setting of Hyponatremia.

To the Editor: Hyponatremia can manifest in a wide array of clinical symptoms, including those of catatonia. The correction of hyponatremia, however, does not necessarily resolve the catatonic symptoms. We present a case of catatonia in the setting of hyponatremia in a middle-aged woman who remained catatonic after her sodium levels were normalized. Her catatonia improved only after she was treated with lorazepam. Case report. Ms A is a 43-year-old woman with schizoaffective disorder who presented to the emergency department with altered mental status and hyponatremia. Her husband noted that for the past 2 days, she was nonverbal and often staring into space and not paying attention to her surroundings. In the emergency department, Ms A stared blankly at the ceiling and did not answer questions. Her husband reported that she also had increased urinary frequency for several weeks. Ms A’s past medical history is significant for psychogenic polydipsia, sleep apnea, diabetes mellitus type II, hypertension, paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, hyperlipidemia, asthma, and seizures. At admission, her sodium level was 127 mmol/L and her urine drug screen was negative. A psychiatry consultation was requested due to her altered mental status and history of psychiatric diagnoses. Prior to the consultation, Ms A was put on nothing by mouth status, and her sodium was replenished to a normal level of 136 mmol/L. During the psychiatric examination, Ms A was awake but noncommunicative with a flat affect; she did not make meaningful eye contact. She laughed spontaneously, randomly raised her left arm in the air, and had rapid flickering of the eyelids occasionally throughout the examination. She also exhibited waxy flexibility of her upper extremity. An electroencephalograph (EEG) was ordered to rule out seizure activity, and the results were negative. A diagnosis of catatonia (ICD-10 criteria) was made, and intramuscular lorazepam 2 mg was administered, as well as a scheduled lorazepam 1-mg dose by mouth twice daily. The catatonia improved after the intramuscular dose of lorazepam 2 mg was administered, and Ms A returned to her regular baseline. She was discharged on lorazepam 1 mg twice daily, aripiprazole 10 mg at bedtime, oxcarbazepine 150 mg twice daily, and fluid restriction. Ms A presented with hyponatremia secondary to psychogenic polydipsia and withdrawn catatonia exhibited by stupor, mutism, posturing, stereotypy, staring, and withdrawal.1 Appropriately, EEG was performed, and the results were normal.2 These symptoms did not improve with correction of the hyponatremia but only improved with administration of intramuscular lorazepam, a mainstay of catatonia treatment.3 One case series4 suggests that psychogenic polydipsia is often seen with catatonia and is an example of stereotypy and therefore may be a sign of catatonia. The same case series4 also suggests that hyponatremia in a psychotic patient may be a physiologic sign of catatonia and may be due to abnormalities in vasopressin transmission and secretion. Other studies5,6 describe catatonic patients in whom hyponatremia was corrected, but the catatonia did not improve until treatment with benzodiazepines or electroconvulsive therapy. Although hyponatremia and catatonia commonly copresent and may have a common origin, the catatonic symptoms appear unaffected by corrected sodium levels.4 Anglin et al7 conducted a literature review looking at neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with Addison’s disease and found catatonia to be a rare but reported complication of the disease. This finding adds to the argument that hyponatremia can cause catatonia in susceptible patients. This case highlights the importance of assessing patients for excessive fluid intake. Also, our patient had no history of catatonia prior to hyponatremia. Further research is required to determine causation and best treatment, but with the available literature, catatonia should be considered in the differential diagnosis when dealing with hyponatremic patients.

Self-consistent nonlocal feedback theory for electrocatalytic swimmers with heterogeneous surface chemical kinetics.

We present a self-consistent nonlocal feedback theory for the phoretic propulsion mechanisms of electrocatalytic micromotors or nanomotors. These swimmers, such as bimetallic platinum and gold rods catalyzing decomposition of hydrogen peroxide in aqueous solution, have received considerable theoretical attention. In contrast, the heterogeneous electrochemical processes with nonlocal feedback that are the actual "engines" of such motors are relatively neglected. We present a flexible approach to these processes using bias potential as a control parameter field and a locally-open-circuit reference state, carried through in detail for a spherical motor. While the phenomenological flavor makes meaningful contact with experiment easier, required inputs can also conceivably come from, e.g., Frumkin-Butler-Volmer kinetics. Previously obtained results are recovered in the weak-heterogeneity limit and improved small-basis approximations tailored to structural heterogeneity are presented. Under the assumption of weak inhomogeneity, a scaling form is deduced for motor speed as a function of fuel concentration and swimmer size. We argue that this form should be robust and demonstrate a good fit to experimental data.

Experimenting with spaces of encounter: Creative interventions to develop meaningful contact

To-date geographical research on encounters has primarily comprised observation of naturalistic settings (both micro publics and everyday public spaces) or narrative accounts of encounters generated by conventional methods, this paper focuses on a contrived spatial experiment to create meaningful contact across difference. Inspired by, and drawing on insights from, Architecture – a discipline relatively neglected by geographers in recent times – we use a creative form of spatial play to stimulate groups of people to explore their differences and to develop shared understandings. Whereas previous studies have identified the importance of material objects in art projects and home spaces in mediating relations between people, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the physical configuration of space in work on encounters, despite the fact that geography is a spatial discipline. Here, we engage directly with the role of the form and function of space. Our spatial experiments demonstrate how paying attention to the materiality of micro-spaces rather than social relations alone, can provide insights into the generation of positive interactions by contributing to a greater understanding of how meaningful encounters happen, and what can be done to facilitate them. Specifically, by exploring the size and configuration of space, issues of ownership and surveillance, the relationship between primary and secondary space, and aural architecture this research identifies how working together to create a shared private or intimate space – might facilitate a sense of empowerment and the production of social relations characterised by democracy and inclusion.

Bridging separate communities: the aspirations and experiences of minority ethnic religious education teachers in England

This article takes as its starting point concerns about community separation that arose in 2001, following outbreaks of violence in English urban centres, and again in 2014, following the so-called ‘Trojan Horse’ case. Despite a series of reports which have highlighted the need to address ‘separation’, promote ‘meaningful contact’ between those who differ in terms of ethnicity and worldview and identify teachers of religious education (RE) as key players, researchers have paid no attention to teachers of RE from minority ethnic and religious backgrounds. The article draws on a qualitative study of teachers from Hindu, Muslim and Sikh backgrounds to explore their concerns about pupils’ perceptions of separation and the ways in which they attempted to address these in white majority and Muslim majority schools. Communication research and studies based on social capital theory are used to suggest that the teachers used ‘bonding’ and ‘bridging’ strategies as means of encouraging pupils to explore their perceptions of separation, engage in a mediated form of meaningful contact with ‘the Other’ and expand their thinking. The conclusion calls for further research in to the strategies reported and for policy makers to support the recruitment, training and career development of minority ethnic teachers of RE.

Contact angle measurements on oxidized polymer surfaces containing water-soluble species

Advancing and receding contact angle measurements on polymer surfaces can be performed using a number of different methods. Ballistic deposition is a new method for both rapidly and accurately measuring the receding contact angle of water. In the ballistic deposition method, a pulsed stream of 0.15-μL water droplets is impinged upon a surface. The water spreads across the surface and then coalesces into a single 1.8-μL drop. High-speed video imaging shows that, on most surfaces, the water retracts from previously wetted material, thereby forming receding contact angles that agree with the receding angles measured by the Wilhelmy plate technique. The ballistic deposition method measures the receding angle within one second after the water first contacts the surface. This rapid measurement enables the investigation of polymer surface properties that are not easily probed by other wettability measurement methods. For example, meaningful contact angles of water can be obtained on the water-soluble low-molecular-weight oxidized materials (LMWOM) formed by the corona and flame treatment of polypropylene (PP) films. Use of the ballistic deposition method allows for a characterization of the wetting properties and an estimation of the surface energy components of LMWOM itself. Both corona- and flame-generated LMWOM have significant contact angle hysteresis, almost all of which is accounted for by the non-dispersive (polar) component of the surface rather than by the dispersive component. Surface heterogeneity is thus associated primarily with the oxidized functionalities added to the PP by the corona and flame treatments.

Contact mechanics of fractal surfaces by spline assisted discretisation

We present a newly developed approach for the calculation of interfacial stiffness and contact area evolution between two rough bodies exhibiting self-affine surface structures. Using spline assisted discretization to define localised contact normals and surface curvatures we interpret the mechanics of simulated non-adhesive elastic surface-profiles subjected to normal loading by examining discrete contact points as projected Hertzian spheres. The analysis of rough-to-rough contact mechanics for surface profiles exhibiting fractal structures, with fractal dimensions in the regime 1–2, reveals the significant effect of surface fractality on contact mechanics and compliance with surfaces having the same mean roughness but higher fractality showing lower contact stiffness in conditions of initial contact for a given load. The predicted linear development of true contact area with load was found to be consistent with diverse existing numerical and experimental studies. Results from this model demonstrate the applicability of the developed method for the meaningful contact analysis of hierarchical structures with implications for modelling tribological interactions between pairs of rough surfaces

In the contact zone: engineering meaningful encounters across difference through an interfaith project

Increasing scholarly attention is being paid to urban encounters with ‘difference’. Much of this work to‐date has focused on incidental encounters in various spatial settings from the market to the café. Here, a number of commentators have observed that fleeting, unintended encounters, where diverse people rub along together as a consequence of accidental proximity, do not necessarily produce ‘meaningful contact’. That is contact which breaks down prejudices and translates beyond the moment to produce a more general respect for others. This paper contributes to these debates by focusing instead on purposeful organised activities (‘The Project’) to bring two different groups together intentionally who would not normally have the opportunity for sustained engagement through a case study of an interfaith (Muslim and Jewish) youth cricket project in a large UK city. Here, we use the concept of the ‘contact zone’ to evaluate the effectiveness of this project. The findings highlight three critical processes which contribute to generating meaningful contact. First, it is important to establish space where participants from different groups can safely explore their differences together. Second, it is necessary to create space to establish shared interests: here through the game of cricket. Both are factors which require significant resourcing, in particular to enable a professional facilitator to manage what can be, or become, conflictual encounters and the expression of potentially negative emotions. Third, banal sociality also matters. It was time spent ‘hanging out’ alongside, instead of in, the purposeful activities when the participants identified their own natural affinities and found particular shared identity positions which contributed to destabilising the significance of differences beyond those The Project sought to address. These findings have clear relevance for future policy initiatives to develop interfaith relations.

Development and programed cell death in the mammalian eye.

Programmed cell death (PCD) is a major mechanism for patterning of a variety of complex structures. Cells are initially organized into fairly loose patterns; then, selective death removes the cells between pattern elements to create the correct structures, as a sculptor removes some material to reveal the hidden image. The life or death of a cell is mostly affected by extracellular signals because the intracellular machinery responsible for PCD is constitutively expressed in most animal cells. The optic vesicle originates during gastrulation when the endoderm and mesoderm interact with the adjacent prospective head ectoderm to create a lens. To be formed correctly, the lens must have a precise spatial relationship with the retina. Ganglion cells are the first neurons to be differentiated in the retina. Vertical networks in the inner and outer retina are later interconnected when bipolar cells are formed and connections with ganglion cells are established. This sequential pattern of retinal circuit development is common across vertebrate species. During development of the retina, far more neurons are generated than are ultimately needed with almost one half of them undergoing PCD shortly before establishing meaningful contacts within their targets. However, apoptosis in other eye tissues is not a key event but rather a refinement. Thus, for the final development of the cornea, the control of keratocyte proliferation is more important than cell death events. The molecular mechanisms underlying apoptotic cell death have been conserved throughout evolution; however further investigations are needed to understand the key mechanisms of PCD in different tissues during development.