Session 10A-10C 16:30-18:00 // day one
10A - Responses in Attitudes and Behaviours University of Warwick and University of North Carolina, Greensboro
The Rhodococcus species are bacteria commonly used thus far in bioconversion processes. These processes are important in the desulfurization of fossil fuels meaning they reduce the amount of sulphur dioxide being released during the combustion of fossil fuels that power our daily lives. Solely allowing Rhodococcus to have this role may be a mistake as it’s large genome and ability to uptake many plasmids means it potentially holds antibiotic properties. So far research has been primarily targeted to exploiting the Streptomyces species which has rewarded us with antibiotics such as Tetracyclin, Neomycin and many more. With the antibiotic potential of Streptomyces being exhausted and resistance to these antibiotics increasing, we must turn to other bacteria.
Exploring the RHA1 genome of Rhodococcus jostii may lead us to novel antibiotics. One way to study its potential is to mutate its genome. New technology allows us to specifically target this mutation in a desired gene. The aim is to be able to make an important repressor gene non-functional and thereby its protein product useless. This opens up new genes for manufacturing new proteins. And it is these proteins that are assumed to contain antibiotic potential. This concept of repression and activation could be thought of as a train that has 2 tracks where the tracks represent genes. The signal that diverts the train from one track to another can be thought of as a repressor molecule. If this signal is inactivated or changed the track can be accessed and the train is available to journey on it.
10B - Popular Opinion and Changing Cultures University of Warwick and Baruch College, CUNY
A locus of social interaction, clubbing as a postmodern construct is not an area widely approached academically when considering material evidence for postmodernist theory in subcultural circles today. However, this study of clubbing scenes reveals the extent to which neoliberal economic structures consistently operate subconsciously in areas of culture that claim to reject capitalist homogenizations of desire. Film as a medium constructed around the creation of atmospheres through the interaction between visual, aural and textual elements serves as a valuable angle through which to observe how clubbing similarly fabricates overwhelming and attractive environments of interaction where neoliberal politics are at play.
Within my dissertation, I argue that the increased socioeconomic pressures and consequent sentiments of individual political impotence wrought by the 2008 financial crisis work to establish the club as a space of escape therefrom, alternatively offering the illusion of absolute freedom and agency. My research therefore focusses on recent films released after the financial crisis, including Berlin Calling (Stöhr, 2008), documentary Bar 25 (Mischer and Yuriko, 2012), and Victoria (Schipper, 2015). These films narratively and stylistically disclose the desire for clubbing’s imitation of human agency to be a product of our current politico-economic situation.
Drawing on works such as Fredric Jameson’s Postmodernism, Or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism and Edward Soja’s Postmodern Geographies, my research demonstrates how the relationship between postmodernism, neoliberalism and late capitalism is concretely spatialized through the Berlin clubbing scenes refracted in recent film depictions. I hereby determine the packaging of the ‘club’ as a postmodern construct to offer a contradictory cultural experience of difference and agency whilst simultaneously reinforcing the dominance of late capitalism through the social homogenization of these very desires and forces of attraction.
10C - Models, Tools and Technology University of Warwick and University of Leeds
Topological solitons appear in many aspects of theoretical physics, and are a powerful technique for obtaining results from very difficult equations. They are stable solutions to non-linear field theories which are topologically distinct from the vacuum; for example, a vortex such as that found in a sink is a soliton, since it is stable and distinct from the surrounding fluid. The Skyrme model of nuclear physics describes the interactions between solitons which can interpreted as atomic nuclei, because they conserve a baryon number B. However, predictions of binding energy values are 10 times too large.
The lightly-bound Skyrme model introduced by Gillard, Harland and Speight [1] rectifies this by modifying the original theory to give binding energy values matching experimental data. The model is also different in that the Skyrmions are composed of distinct particles. Currently for this model solutions have only been found numerically for B ≤ 8 due to simulation performance issues, however they appear to exhibit a distinctive lattice structure. We propose to find solitons for higher values of B and study their structure, by optimising the code to drastically reduce its run-time. We will study results’ spatial and energy distributions, to examine the importance of the apparent lattice structure and the model’s validity. Finally, we will develop a new mathematical model to calculate interaction energies between Skyrmions. These results will greatly extend the scope of the lightly-bound Skyrme model, allowing for a deeper comparison with experimental nuclear physics and potential insights into nuclear structure.