Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Illegal Wildlife Trade: Through The Eyes Of A One-Year-Old Pangolin (Manis Javanica), Lelia Bridgeland-Stephens

Animal Studies Journal

This paper explores the literature on the illegal wildlife trade (IWT) by following the journey of a single imagined Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) through the entire trading process. Literature on IWT frequently refers to non-human animals in terms of collectives, species, or body parts, for example ‘tons of pangolin scales’, rather than as subjective individuals. In contrast, this paper centralizes the experiences of an individual pangolin by using a cross- disciplinary methodology, combining fact with a fictional narrative of subjective pangolin experience, in an empathetic and egomorphic process. The paper draws together known legislation, trade practices, and pangolin biology, structured …

‘It's The Outline Of A Pig And Then It Has The Words Underneath, “Vegan For Life”‘: Vegans And Their Tattoos, Peter John Chen

Animal Studies Journal

This paper examines the relationships between vegans living in Australia and their tattoos. While tattooing has become an increasingly popular part of mainstream consumer culture, vegans often identify their tattoos in terms of major life events (of which catalysts to become vegan and vegan transition are but one), marks of remembrance or aides-mémoire, and tools to signal to other vegans and begin conversations with non-vegans. Defying simple classification, many of the tattoos sported by vegans are overlaid with multiple meanings. While some aspects of tattoo culture are found within this subset of tattooed people, practice behaviours such as ingredient checking …

On The Origins Of The Anthropological Machine: Sacrificial Dispositif And Equality, Chiara Stefanoni

Animal Studies Journal

This article takes a genealogical approach to the material origin of what Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben has called the ‘anthropological machine’, analyzing the dispositif by which the ontological and axiological dualism between the ‘human’ and the ‘animal’ first took place in archaic societies. Using some key concepts of René Girard’s anthropology, it is possible to argue that this dualism is rooted in the violent practice of victimage sacrifice. In other words, I claim that the anthropological machine is originally performed by a sacrificial dispositif. Though in modern society the human/animal dichotomy is performed by other dispositifs, the trace of …

[Review] Hope Ferdowsian, Phoenix Zones: Where Strength Is Born And Resilience Lives, Chicago University Press, 2018. 212 Pp., Teya Brooks Pribac

Animal Studies Journal

[Review] Hope Ferdowsian, Phoenix Zones: Where Strength is Born and Resilience Lives, Chicago University Press, 2018. 212 pp. It was a Sunday morning in mid-September. I was woken up by the sound of rain. Thick, steady, there to stay, at least for the day. For a moment I wondered whether I should skip my morning run but decided against it. I wanted to honour the rain at a time when parts of the world were so desperate for it. The streets were empty of humans, the rest of nature relishing the much- needed soak. I thought of resilience.

[Review] Kristen Guest And Monica Mattfield, Editors. Equestrian Cultures: Horse, Humans, Human Society, And The Discourse Of Modernity. Animal Lives Series, University Of Chicago Press, 2019. 276 Pp., Wendy Woodward

Animal Studies Journal

[Review] Kristen Guest and Monica Mattfield, editors. Equestrian Cultures: Horse, Humans, Human Society, and the Discourse of Modernity. Animal Lives Series, University of Chicago Press, 2019. 276 pp. Differences in equestrian cultures have recently been brought home to me. My horse moved to a newly established yard which soon developed into one catering only for endurance racing horses. The horses were kept in small pens, only permitted into the stony field every second day. Human attitudes to the horses were functionalist with the horses always for sale to the highest bidder from the UAE. Galahad is back now at a …

[Review] Paula Acari. Making Sense Of ‘Food’ Animals: A Critical Exploration Of The Persistence Of Meat. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. 356 Pp., Alex Lockwood

Animal Studies Journal

[Review] Paula Acari. Making Sense of ‘Food’ Animals: A Critical Exploration of the Persistence of Meat. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. 356 pp. There are many audiences for Paula Acari’s new book on the persistence of meat as edible matter, Making Sense of Food Animals, and not all of them academic. One of the striking facets of this well-researched, clearly argued and empirical analysis, drawing on 41 interviews with Australian meat eaters and meat producers, is the lessons for animal advocacy organisations for rethinking their messaging strategies. Central to the book’s argument is Acari’s challenge to narratives of transparency and visibility, …

[Review] Laura Jean Mckay, The Animals In That Country. Scribe 2020. 288 Pp., Philip Armstrong

Animal Studies Journal

[Review] Laura Jean McKay, The Animals in That Country. Scribe 2020. 288 pp. How do animals experience their lives and their worlds? How can we know? How can we represent their interests if we can’t know? Should we be trying to speak on their behalf at all?

Should New Zealand Do More To Uphold Animal Welfare?, Andrew Knight

Animal Studies Journal

Governmental and industry representatives have repeatedly claimed that Aotearoa New Zealand leads the world on animal welfare, largely based on an assessment by global animal protection charity World Animal Protection (WAP). New Zealand’s leading ranking rested primarily on favourable comparisons of its animal welfare legislation with that of 50 other nations, within WAP’s 2014 Animal Protection Index. Unfortunately, however, review of welfare problems extant within the farming of meat chickens and laying hens, pigs, cows and sheep, reveals the persistence of systemic welfare compromises within most New Zealand animal farming systems. These are contrary to good ethics, to our duty …

How To Help When It Hurts: Act Individually (And In Groups), Cheryl E. Abbate

Animal Studies Journal

In a recent article, Corey Wrenn argues that in order to adequately address injustices done to animals, we ought to think systemically. Her argument stems from a critique of the individualist approach I employ to resolve a moral dilemma faced by animal sanctuaries, who sometimes must harm some animals to help others. But must systemic critiques of injustice be at odds with individualist approaches? In this paper, I respond to Wrenn by showing how individualist approaches that take seriously the notion of group responsibility can be deployed to solve complicated dilemmas that are products of injustice. Contra Wrenn, I argue …

[Review] After Coetzee: An Anthology Of Animal Fictions. Edited By A. Marie Houser, Faunary Press, 2017. 189 Pp, Wendy Woodward

Animal Studies Journal

[Review] After Coetzee: An Anthology of Animal Fictions. Edited by A. Marie Houser, Faunary Press, 2017. 189 pp.

Efficacy Of The Feline Temperament Profile In Evaluating Sheltered Cats For Adoption Into Families Of A Child With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Angélique Lamontagne, Rebecca A. Johnson, Gretchen K. Carlisle, Leslie A. Lyons, Jessica L. Bibbo, Colleen Koch, Steven J. Osterlind

Animal Studies Journal

This project was part of the Feline Friends Study, which matches shelter cats with families of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to study children’s social behaviour and cats’ stress. Cats were screened for calm temperament using the Feline Temperament Profile (FTP). The FTP consists of ten phases, with a list of ‘acceptable’ and ‘questionable’ behaviours under each phase. Our aim was to answer the following research questions: What items of the FTP best predict temperament in shelter cats? What are similarities and differences in temperament between cats who qualified or did not qualify for placement? Forty-four shelter cats were …

[Review] Natalie Porter And Ilana Gershon, Editors. Living With Animals: Bonds Across Species. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2018. 266 Pp., Wendy Woodward

Animal Studies Journal

[Review] Natalie Porter and Ilana Gershon, editors. Living with Animals: Bonds across Species. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2018. 266 pp. Living with Animals, as the dust jacket avers, ‘is a collection of imagined animal guides – a playful look at different human-animal relationships’. The collection has an international range from dogs in Australia, to sacrificial cattle in Madagascar, chimpanzees in West Africa, tamed hyenas in Harar, and returning birds in Buenos Aires. At the same time the reader learns more about animals in processes and places we might take for granted – training service dogs, marketing rescue dogs, introducing …

Animal Studies Journal 2020 9(1): Cover Page, Table Of Contents, Editorial And Contributor Biographies, Melissa Boyde

Animal Studies Journal

Animal Studies Journal 2020 9(1): Cover Page, Table of Contents, Editorial and Contributor Biographies.

Provocation From The Field: A Multispecies Doula Approach To Death And Dying, Kathryn Gillespie

Animal Studies Journal

Death doulas can help to make meaning in the dying process, to be present for what arises at the end of life, and to move alongside those who are dying and their loved ones. At the end of life, doulas can offer help reflecting on what this life has meant, planning for the coming death, holding space during the active dying process, and grieving the loss of the one who has died. This paper extends a doula approach – typically work done with humans – to death and dying in multispecies contexts. Many other species are routinely rendered killable, disposable, …

'From Here To Everywhere': Foucault, Fonterra And Richie Mccaw (A Cow’S Tale), Chevy Rendell

Animal Studies Journal

This research paper attempts to provide a Foucauldian analysis of Fonterra’s television commercial ‘From Here to Everywhere’. With the cooperation of former All Black captain, Richie McCaw, ‘From Here to Everywhere’ is a play of power to construct a certain truth, that the dairy industry is the beating heart (and deliberately not the bountiful udder) of Aotearoa New Zealand’s economic and physical wellbeing. However, the Fonterra-McCaw narrative mystifies the often-violent realities of dairy farming while masquerading as natural certain ideologies, such as carnism, that perpetuate species and gender inequality. The recent Mycoplasma bovis outbreak in New Zealand inserts a measure …

The Grieving Kangaroo Photograph Revisited, David Brooks

Animal Studies Journal

Early in 2016 a photograph circulated widely of a male kangaroo holding up a dying female in the presence of a joey. Although initially taken as a moving and powerful photograph of grief, ‘experts’ quickly determined that this male may have killed the female in the process of coition. The male was in effect accused and convicted of rape and murder. Was this judgement correct? Was the male innocent or guilty? What are the nature, strength and politics of the assumptions involved in this judgement? Might he be exonerated, and why should this matter? The photograph is read and contextualised. …

[Review] John Simons. Obaysch: A Hippopotamus In Victorian London. Animal Publics Series, Edited By Fiona Probyn-Rapsey And Melissa Boyde, Sydney University Press, 2019. 226 Pp, Wendy Woodward

Animal Studies Journal

[Review] John Simons. Obaysch: A Hippopotamus in Victorian London. Animal Publics Series, edited by Fiona Probyn-Rapsey and Melissa Boyde, Sydney University Press, 2019. 226 pp. John Simons’ riveting biography of a hippo invites the reader into the experience of Obaysch who was captured on the Nile in 1849 then became a ‘star’ animal in the Regent’s Park Zoological Gardens in London. Obaysch is not just figured symbolically, politically and culturally, as so many historical animals are; Simons entices him from the archives to inhabit his own embodied narrative – a process which springs him from entrapment as a spectacle behind …

[Review] The Routledge Companion To Animal-Human History. Edited By Hilda Kean And Philip Howell, Routledge, 2019. 560 Pp, Wendy Woodward

Animal Studies Journal

[Review] The Routledge Companion to Animal-Human History. Edited by Hilda Kean and Philip Howell, Routledge, 2019. 560 pp.

[Review] Susan Mchugh. Love In A Time Of Slaughters: Human-Animal Stories Against Genocide And Extinction. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2019. 228 Pp, Fiona Probyn-Rapsey

Animal Studies Journal

[Review] Susan McHugh. Love in a Time of Slaughters: Human-Animal Stories Against Genocide and Extinction. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2019. 228 pp.

Down But Not Out: Tara And George And The Boundaries Of Subjectivity., Hamish Sewell

RadioDoc Review

Set on the streets of London, amidst the snarl of traffic and the clip of passers by, this work is a biographical sound portrait of two homeless people, Tara and George. It is a testament to the parlous state of homelessness in the UK today and is masterful in its execution.

To this work, producer and host Audrey Gillan brings a quality of frank disclosure and decency. Relationships between producers and their subjects are contentious, due to an inherent power differential. Gillan neither portrays Tara and George as archetypes nor as helpless and needy. She knows she is the one …

Improved Performance Of Ballasted Tracks Under Impact Loading By Recycled Rubber Mats, Ngoc Trung Ngo, Buddhima Indraratna, Cholachat Rujikiatkamjorn

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Ballasted tracks at transition locations such as approaches to bridges and road crossings experience increasing degradation and deformation due to dynamic and high impact forces, a key factor that decreases the stability and longevity of railroads. One solution to minimise ballast degradation at the transition zones is using rubber energy absorbing drainage sheets (READS) manufactured from recycled tyres. When placed beneath the ballast layer, READS distributes the load over wider area and attenuate of the load over a longer duration thus decreasing maximum stress, apart from reducing the energy transferred to the ballast and other substructure components. Subsequently, the track …

Assessment Of Radio-Induced Damage In Endothelial Cells Irradiated With 40 Kvp, 220 Kvp, And 4 Mv X-Rays By Means Of Micro And Nanodosimetric Calculations, Nicolas Tang, Marta Bueno, Sylvain Meylan, Yann Perrot, Hoang Tran, Amelie Freneau, Morgane Dos Santos, Aurelie Vaurijoux, Gaetan Gruel, Mario Bernal, Marie Bordage, Dimitris Emfietzoglou, Ziad Francis, Susanna Guatelli, Vladimir Ivanchenko, Mathieu Karamitros, Ioanna Kyriakou, Wook Shin, Sebastien Incerti, Carmen Villagrasa

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. The objective of this work was to study the differences in terms of early biological effects that might exist between different X-rays energies by using a mechanistic approach. To this end, radiobiological experiments exposing cell monolayers to three X-ray energies were performed in order to assess the yields of early DNA damage, in particular of double-strand breaks (DSBs). The simulation of these irradiations was set in order to understand the differences in the obtained experimental results. Hence, simulated results in terms of microdosimetric spectra and early DSB induction were analyzed and compared …

An In-Situ Synchrotron Study Of The B2→B19′ Phase Transformation In A Ni-Ti Alloy Subjected To Uniaxial Monotonic Tension, Xiaohui Bian, Ahmed A. Saleh, Peter Lynch, Christopher H. J Davies, Elena V. Pereloma, Azdiar Adil Gazder

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

A cold-drawn and annealed 56Ni-44Ti wt% alloy was subjected to in-situ uniaxial monotonic tension in a synchrotron. Spatially resolved diffraction data was acquired along the gauge length by pausing the loading at five select macroscopic strains within the stress plateau region. This enables tracking localised transformation phenomena by sub-dividing the gauge length into transformation band, untransformed and apparently transformed regions. Within the macroscopic stress plateau region: (i) the highly strained B2 phase within the propagating transformation band and apparently transformed regions produces a relaxation of the B2 phase within the untransformed region. (ii) The newly formed B19′ grain families exhibit …

Implementation Of An Iot Based Radar Sensor Network For Wastewater Management, Adam Drenoyanis, Raad Raad, Ivan Wady, Carmel Krogh

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Critical wastewater events such as sewer main blockages or overflows are often not detected until after the fact. These events can be costly, from both an environmental impact and monetary standpoint. A standalone, portable radar device allowing non-invasive benchmarking of sewer pumping station (SPS) pumps is presented. Further, by configuring and deploying a complete Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN), Shoalhaven Water (SW) now has the opportunity to create "Internet of Things" (IoT)-capable devices that offer freedom from the reliance on mobile network providers, whilst avoiding congestion on the existing Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) telemetry backbone. This network …

Simulation Of Cosmic Radiation Spectra For Personal Microdosimetry At The International Space Station's Altitude, Stefania Peracchi, Susanna Guatelli, Linh T. Tran, Anatoly B. Rosenfeld

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Latest researches predict the cosmic rays exposure during long space missions outside the Earth's geomagnetic sphere, as to the Moon and Mars, can double the cancer risk. The minimization of risk associated with radiation exposure in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is of great interest for astronauts of the International Space Station (ISS). This risk is due to radiation hazard and can be predicted by measurement of the dose equivalent produced by the radiation environment inside of the spacecraft. Since more than 15 years ago, the Centre For Medical Radiation Physics (CMRP), University of Wollongong, is developing silicon based microdosimeters …

Fibre Optic Dosimetry In Synchrotron Microbeam Radiation Therapy, James Archer, Enbang Li, Anatoly B. Rosenfeld, Michael L. F Lerch

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Synchrotron microbeam radiation therapy is a novel pre-clinical therapy method that uses high brilliance, spatially fractionated, low energy x-rays to deliver a very high dose rate. A conventional spatial fractionation for these beams is 50 μm microbeam width at 400 μm peak-to-peak separation. To perform dosimetry on these beams, a dosimeter with a high spatial resolution is required. We present a plastic scintillator fibre optic dosimeter that has been demonstrated to be able to resolve the microbeam structure. The advantages of such a dosimeter is the water equivalence, passive components exposed to the radiation field, relatively inexpensive components and simple …

Evaluation Of Organ Doses Following High Dose Rate (Hdr) Brachytherapy Of Breast Cancer: A Geant4 Monte Carlo Simulation Study, M Aidil, Nurul Hashikin, Chai-Hong Yeong, Susanna Guatelli, K H. Ng, Alessandra Malaroda, Anatoly B. Rosenfeld, Alan C. Perkins

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

This study aimed to evaluate the absorbed doses received by the organs at risk (OARs) following Iridium-192 (192Ir) high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy of the left breast. The MIRD5 adult female anthropomorphic phantom, readily available in the Geant4 Monte Carlo package was used. However, the left breast was modified from 195 to 145 cm3, to represent a breast following lumpectomy. Left breast was chosen due to its higher cancer occurrence than the right breast. The HDR sources were constructed with an outer cylindrical dimension of 4.5 mm (length) x 0.9 mm (diameter). Various influencing parameters were studied, i.e. catheter arrangement …

Behaviour Of Foam Concrete Under Impact Loading Based On Shpb Experiments, Yongliang He, Mingshi Gao, Hongchao Zhao, Yichao Zhao

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

This paper presents an innovative method for using foam concrete as a typical building material for soft structures in underground coal mines subjected to dynamic loading. To understand the behaviour of foam concrete under impact loading, a total of 30 specimens with a diameter of 50 mm and a height of 50 mm were experimentally tested using a 75 mm diameter split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) device. The key parameters investigated in the present study included the type of foam concrete (fly ash and sand), the density of foam concrete (1000, 1200 and 1400 kg/m3), and the impact velocity (3.0, …

A New Generation Of Magnetorheological Vehicle Suspension System With Tunable Stiffness And Damping Characteristics, Shuaishuai Sun, Xin Tang, Jian Yang, Donghong Ning, Haiping Du, Shiwu Zhang, Weihua Li

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

As the concept of variable stiffness (VS) and variable damping (VD) has increasingly drawn attention because of its superiority on reducing unwanted vibrations, dampers with property of varying stiffness and damping have been an attractive method to further improve vehicle performance and driver comfort. This paper presents the design, prototyping, modeling, and experimental evaluation of a VS and VD magnetorheological (MR) vehicle suspension system. It was first characterized by an INSTRON machine. Then, a phenomenological model was proposed to capture the characteristics of the damper and TS fuzzy approach was used to model the quarter car system where the proposed …

Leveraging Smote In A Two-Layer Model For Prediction Of Protein-Protein Interactions, Huaming Chen, Lei Wang, Chi-Hung Chi, Jun Shen

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

The research of the mechanisms of infectious diseases between host and pathogens remains a hot topic. It takes stock of the interactions data between host and pathogens, including proteins and genomes, to facilitate the discoveries and prediction of underlying mechanisms. However, the incomplete protein-protein interactions data impediment the advances in this exploration and solicit the wet-lab experiments to examine and verify the latent interactions. Although there have been numerous studies trying to leverage the computational models, especially machine learning models, the performances of these models were not good enough to produce high-fidelity candidates of interactions data due to the nature …