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Our clinical practice is contextualized by a co-participant trauma constituted by a confluence of upheavals-pandemic, politics, an epistemological crisis, pervasive distrust of expertise and evidence. Psychoanalytic work, parallel to the external world, has become defamiliarized, if not, at sometimes unrecognizable. The affect on the frame and the boundaries of the therapeutic frame and of the psychoanalytic institution are explored with an awareness of the uncertainty of the future. The experience of the onset of the pandemic is discussed with awareness of an unknown future.

The sense of reality that underlie political beliefs are created through a group process that emerges from the intersection of the psyches of leaders and followers. An alternative reality is constructed by the demagogue's assertions which express or channel unconscious needs. Antecedents of the contemporary American situation are evident in earlier populist and Fascist movements, the hallmark of which were an attack on all "truth" except that which reflects the power of the leader. Faults in the social field and demagogic techniques lead to alternative narratives and "facts" that are maintained with fervor. Reality is characterized by a lack of complexity or ambiguity. Emotional investment is intensified by primitive needs of the self. Cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias guarantee a resistance to reflection. Evidence and logic give way to wish, loyalty and power as the criteria for truth. Ultimately a clash of realities results in complex social trauma.

Cobalt (Co) and copper (Cu) co-exists in the metal contaminated soils and causes the serious toxicity to crops, while their interactive effect on plant growth and development is still poorly understood. In this work, a hydroponic experiment was carried out to reveal the interactive effect of Co and Cu on photosynthesis and metabolite profiles of two barley genotypes differing in metal tolerance. The results showed that both single and combined treatments of Co and Cu caused a significant reduction in chlorophyll content and photosynthetic rate of the two barley (Hordeum vulgare) genotypes, with the effect being greater for the combined treatment and the sensitive genotype (Ea52) being more largely affected than the tolerant genotype (Yan66). Compared to Cu or Co treatment alone, the combined treatment significantly increased the levels of phenolic components, including cinnamic derivatives (caffeic, chlorogenic, ferullic, p-coumaric); benzoic derivatives (p-hydroxybenzoic, vanillic, syringic, sallicilic, protocatechuic acid) as well as free amino acids, with Yan66 having more accumulation than Ea52. Meanwhile, under the combined treatment the phenylalanine ammonialyase-related gene (HvPAL) was highly regulated along with the genes involved in the synthesis of malate (HvMDH) and citrate (HvCSY), with Ya66 showing the higher expression of these genes than Ea52. It can be concluded that higher Cu and Co stress tolerance in Yan66 is attributed to more accumulation of the metabolites including phenolics and amino acids.

Tropical soils are mostly poor in phosphorus and sometimes in nitrogen and potassium. Arbuscular mycorrhizae increase the efficiency of chemical fertilizers applied to crops, and this work is part of this framework. NPK (nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium) was applied at 100 kg per ha and 200 kg per ha alone or in combination with inoculum from sorghum or leek in soil (pH 4.28). The trial was conducted on a 3 × 3 split-plot design with 3 replicates. Plant height, number of leaves and chlorophyll level in the leaves were evaluated. The frequency of root colonization by mycorrhizal fungi was also studied. The number of pods per plant, the number of seeds per pod and the yield were also evaluated. The results showed that vegetative parameters increased with the addition of fertilizers while production parameters varied little with fertilizers but significantly, when these fertilizers were associated with mycorrhizal inoculum. Treatments with 200 kg NPK combined with sorghum inoculum produced 512 kg of beans per ha, while 200 kg NPK alone produced 278 kg of beans per ha.

Academic and quantitative literacies (AQL) are essential to success in higher education. These literacies are largely not explicitly taught, but acquired indirectly, mostly through practices in various school subjects. The National Benchmark Tests (NBT) Project assesses students’ AQL competencies to assist in identifying students who need support, with placement into appropriate programmes and with curriculum development. We analyse the performance on the NBT AQL test of students who took the school-leaving examinations in Mathematics, Mathematical Literacy, English Home Language and English First Additional Language. We use the subject choice as a representation of the level of a candidate’s quantitative competence and language proficiency respectively, and investigate the relative contributions made by these subject choices to a student’s AQL. Students who paired Mathematics with English as Home Language subject had the statistically significant highest mean AQL score and those who took both English First Additional Language and Mathematical Literacy had the lowest. Language competence has a stronger effect than mathematical competence on AQL. Students who took the subject combination Mathematics and English Home Language at school are better prepared for the academic demands of higher education than their counterparts who took the alternate subjects. Treating these subjects as equivalent to English Home Language and Mathematics for admissions purposes ignores the differences in preparedness of these students.

In South Africa many school-leavers are underprepared for higher education, especially in academic literacies, including numeracy. It is important for higher education to identify the students most vulnerable to failure in coping with the numeracy demands of the curriculum, so that resources available for interventions can be most fairly used. To this end, we seek to answer the question: ‘What is the relationship between students’ academic numeracy and their mathematical and language competence.’ We investigate the relationship between students’ academic numeracy scores (on a test reflecting the expectations of higher education) and their writing of four school-leaving examinations that reflect most directly mathematical competence and language ability. In a sample of 7464 students, only 13% had numeracy test scores that were classified as proficient, almost all of whom had studied Mathematics and English Home Language. Almost 90% of those who took Mathematical Literacy and English First Additional Language achieved scores in the lowest category. Comparing the test score distributions of groups of students defined in terms of the mathematics and language school subject combinations, reveals that mathematics competence and language ability are equally related to students’ academic numeracy. The results indicate the need for curriculum reforms in schools and in higher education. Ideally, development of students’ academic numeracy should be infused in the teaching of the disciplinary discourses. The effectiveness of interventions intended to improve academic numeracy will be enhanced if they focus not only on quantitative competence but also on language development.

Cobalt (Co) and copper (Cu) co-exist commonly in the contaminated soils and at excessive levels, they are toxic to plants. However, their joint effect and possible interaction have not been fully addressed. In this work, a hydroponic experiment was performed to investigate the combined effects of Co and Cu on two barley genotypes at transcriptional level by RNA-seq analysis. The results identified 358 genes inclusively expressed in both genotypes under single and combined treatments of Co and Cu, with most of them being related to metal transport, stress response and transcription factor. The combined treatment induced more differently expressed genes (DEGs) than the single treatment, with Yan66, a metal tolerant genotype having more DEGs than Ea52, a sensitive genotype. The pathways associated with anthocyanin biosynthesis, MAPK signaling, glutathione biosynthesis, phenylalanine metabolism, photosynthesis, arginin biosynthesis, fatty acid elongation, and plant hormone signal transduction biosynthesis were induced and inhibited in Yan66 and Ea52, respectively. Furthermore, flavonoid biosynthesis was much more largely enhanced and accordingly more free flavonoid components (naringin, narirutin and neohesperidin) were accumulated in Yan66 than in Ea52. It may be suggested that high tolerance to both Co and Cu in Yan66 is attributed to its high gene regulatory ability.

Adolph Eichmann's deceptions and crimes are emblematic of an attempted disguise of evil and the consequences of the absence of empathy (i.e., Arendt's “thoughtlessness”), for understanding the world and constructing “reality.” Both relativistic and absolutist approaches to evil are rejected in recognition that the themes that define evil are not only ambiguous and contradictory, but also entangled with each other. Eichmann's crimes are viewed in different contexts which, when contrasted, clarify evil as reciprocally located in individual and social processes. “Evil” emerges as a conceptual framework for making the world intelligible and a source of meaning. It involves both a construction of and assault on reality. Evil acts become comprehensible only within the web of beliefs in which they occur. The imbrication of ideology and deception as cause and effects of evil become evident as the “banality of evil” is contrasted with “radical evil.”

Splice strength of deformed steel bars embedded in recycled aggregate concrete was experimentally investigated using 24 bottom-cast scaled splice beam specimens detailed with unconfined contact lap splices and tested under four-point bending. The following variables were investigated: concrete grade (normal- and high-strength), recycled concrete aggregate replacement level (0%, 50% and 100%), rebar diameter (12 mm and 20 mm) and rebar surface characteristics. Bond behaviour and failure modes were noted to be similar in the natural and in the recycled aggregate concrete and a regression analysis of the experimental results in an expanded data base shows that f′ c 1/4 provides a good representation of the influence of recycled aggregate concrete grade on splice strength. A descriptive bond strength equation has been proposed for recycled aggregate concrete and it is noted that the ACI Committee 408R-03 model (for conventional concrete) gave relatively the most accurate and conservative bond strength predictions for the recycled aggregate concretes under investigation.

Splice strength of deformed steel bars embedded in recycled aggregate concrete was experimentally investigated using 24 bottom-cast scaled splice beam specimens detailed with unconfined contact lap splices and tested under four-point bending. The following variables were investigated: concrete grade (normal- and high-strength), recycled concrete aggregate replacement level (0%, 50% and 100%), rebar diameter (12mm and 20mm) and rebar surface characteristics. Bond behaviour and failure modes were noted to be similar in the natural and in the recycled aggregate concrete and a regression analysis of the results shows that f c ′1/4 provides a good representation of the influence of recycled aggregate concrete grade on splice strength. A descriptive bond strength equation has been proposed for recycled aggregate concrete and it is noted that the ACI Committee 408R-03 model (for conventional concrete) gave relatively the most accurate and conservative bond strength predictions for the recycled aggregate concretes under investigation.

Cobalt (Co) commonly co-exists with copper (Cu) in natural soils, but the information about their combined effects on plants is poorly available. In this study, we hydroponically investigated the combined effects of Co and Cu on two barley genotypes differing in Co toxicity tolerance to reveal the interaction pattern of these two metals. The results showed that single treatment of Co or Cu at the dose of 100 μM led to a significant decrease of growth and photosynthetic rate, and a significant increase of lipid peroxidation, ROS radicals as well as anti-oxidative enzyme (SOD, CAT and GR) activities and glutathione content, with the extent of effect being less in Yan66 than Ea52. The combined treatment of Co and Cu alleviated the toxicity of both metals in comparison with each metal treatment alone, as reflected by improved growth and photosynthesis, and much slight oxidative stress. The alleviation of metal toxicity upon combined treatment is mainly attributed to a drastic reduction of Co uptake and its translocation from roots to shoots. It may be suggested that interaction of Co and Cu on their uptake and movement in plants is antagonistic.

An effective application of Model Predictive Control by means of a multi-layer feed forward neural network as the nonlinear model of the process is discussed. The main draw back in the use of Nonlinear programming for optimization is the complexity in the calculation of Hessian matrix and its inverse. There are many derivative free evolutionary algorithms, inspired by biological evolution. In this paper the optimization problem is solved using particle swarm optimization (PSO). Simulation results show convergence to a good solution within fewer numbers of iterations which makes it suitable for real time applications with faster sampling.

The results of 30 pullout tests carried out on 8-mm and 10-mm dia. deformed steel bars concentrically embedded in high-strength recycled aggregate concrete with coarse recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) replacement levels of 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% are reported. The measured bond–slip relationships indicate similar mechanisms of bond resistance in the RCA and the natural coarse aggregate concretes, and relatively accurate bond strength predictions of the RCA concretes are obtained from a model in the literature. For both the bar sizes, normalised bond strengths of the high-strength RCA concrete – besides being higher than those of the comparable natural coarse aggregate concrete – are observed to increase with an increase in the RCA replacement level. This behaviour is explained in terms of fracture toughness evaluated using an analogous parameter from rock mechanics. An empirical bond stress against slip relationship is proposed and it is conservatively suggested that anchorage lengths of the 8-mm and the 10-mm dia. deformed steel bars in the high-strength RCA concretes of this investigation may be taken as the same as that found in comparable natural aggregate concrete.

The combined effects of cobalt (Co) and copper (Cu) in their toxicity to plants is poorly studied although these two metals co-exist commonly in soil. In this study, a hydroponic experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of longer exposure of two barley genotypes differing in Co tolerance to the combined Co and Cu stress. The results confirmed the previous findings that Co accumulation in plant tissues was reduced by Cu presence, while Cu accumulation was stimulated by Co presence. Moreover, both single and combined treatments of Co and Cu reduced the mineral (Mn, Zn and K) uptake. Co and Cu applied alone or in combination at rate of 50 μM resulted in the significant reduction of plant growth and increase of oxidative stress (ROS and MDA), and meanwhile the capacity of scavenging active oxygen species (AOS) was enhanced, reflected by increased phytochelatin (PC) and glutathione (GSH and GSSG) content, as well as expression of the related genes (HvPCS1 and HvGR1). Yan66, a Co tolerant genotype was less affected in oxidative stress, and had higher AOS scavenging capacity in comparison with Ea52, a Co sensitive one. Among three HvSOD isoforms, only HvFeSOD expression was up-regulated in the combined treatment relative to control as well as the treatment of Co or Cu alone, while HvCuZnSOD and HvMnSOD were down-regulated and unaffected, respectively. In addition, the expressions of metal transporter genes (HvHMA2, HvHMA3 and HvHMA5) varied with genotype and metal treatments, with the extent being greater in Yan66 on the whole. The results suggest that upon longer exposure to the combined stress of Co and Cu, the greater phyto-toxicity than each element alone is associated with more Cu accumulation stimulated by Co and that, the higher regulation of transporter genes observed in Yan66 could in part explain for its higher metal tolerance ability.

Quantitative literacy is the ability to solve problems using mathematical and statistical information that is represented in various forms, including visual, written and mathematical forms. It is central to many of the disciplines within higher education. In this paper, we examine a particular quantitative literacy event within an undergraduate applied mechanics module and, in so doing, argue that teaching and learning are cultural performances of individuals’ relations to, in this case, quantitative literacy. Furthermore, we apply a framework for analysing the quantitative literacy demands present within higher education. By applying this framework in a critically reflexive manner, we demonstrate how the researcher similarly engages in a cultural performance in relation to quantitative literacy. We use this anecdotal example to argue that the application of analytical frameworks is inherently performative in nature, and propose the need for a meta-frame for understanding teaching, learning, and the frameworks through which they are viewed, as performance. This has implications for higher education more broadly in that, we argue, the frameworks used promote particular relations to lived teaching and learning experiences, and position teachers, learners, researchers and curriculum developers in particular ways.