Author Archives: L Ackermann

Volcanoes without borders

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Neill Marshall, undergraduate Geology student, discusses a recent event on diplomacy in scientific research, as part of Birkbeck’s 2018 Science Week.

Studying Earth Sciences offers unique opportunities to travel to remote and exciting places around the world, and this has certainly been the case for geophysicist Dr James Hammond. As part of the #BBKScienceWeek 2018 talks, Dr Hammond presented his work on Mount Paektu, a remote volcano straddling the North Korean and Chinese border. He spoke of the unique experience of studying a poorly understood active volcano capable of catastrophic eruptions that has a significant cultural importance to all Koreans.

The cultural significance of Mount Paektu

Mount Paektu is the highest point on the Korean peninsula with importance to all Koreans as a strong-hold against the Japanese invasion. Dr Hammond described how it is the symbolic birthplace of the communist revolution and Kim Jong-il was thought to have been born there. Now many North Koreans go on a pilgrimage to Mount Paektu to rejoice in their leader’s birthplace. Dr Hammond showed videos of performances of the mass gymnastics at the Arirang Festival depicting Mount Paektu and of school children singing songs about the volcano.

Geopolitics and science diplomacy

Studying a volcano in a politically volatile region rarely visited presented Dr Hammond and his colleagues with logistical and diplomatic challenges. Following the increased activity at Mount Paektu, North Korea called out for collaboration with world scientists. It took two years of negotiation between the UK, US and North Korean governments with involvement from the Royal Society and the AAAS before a joint North Korean-UK scientific expedition could be mounted.

Dr Hammond and his colleagues became the first western scientists to visit the Mount Paektu volcano observatory. Dr Hammond described how the project ultimately enabled scientific communication with North Korean scientists allowing knowledge to be shared between this politically isolated nation and the wider scientific community outside North Korea.

Scientific interest in Mount Paektu

Dr Hammond gave a brief background on the eruptive power of Mount Paektu describing the last large eruption in 946AD as one of the biggest eruptions in human history. He described colossal eruption, bigger than Krakatoa in 1883 and on a similar scale to the Tambora eruption in 1815, with deadly lahar and pyroclastic flow deposits in the region.

Despite the scale of the 946AD eruption little is known about the volcano. It does not lie on a tectonic plate boundary unlike the vast amount of volcanoes on Earth.

Recent activity has been observed at the volcano in the form of earthquakes, increased gas emissions and deformation of the volcano. These are key indicators that the magmatic plumbing system is recharging.

The deployment of seismometers in a linear array was an attempt to use seismic waves to image the Earth’s crust near to Mt Paektu. He explained the processes involved in deployment; meeting local farmers, dignitaries and North Korean scientists; dealing with mountain weather; and travelling in this remote region.

Dr Hammond explained how seismic waves can be utilised to image the Earth in a similar way to a CT scan of a human body. From this method of imaging, a low seismic velocity zone was found 7km beneath the surface was found. Combined with other analysis of seismic velocities the results suggest the presence of fluid (likely magma) in the crust beneath the volcano.

However, more research needs to be done to fully understand the volcano with the key question of why this volcano is present in this region is still yet to be answered. Dr Hammond is planning an additional wider deployment of seismometers (potentially in 2019) to try and answer this question.

Documenting refugees in the 21st century

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Eva Menger, freelance copywriter and MA Contemporary Literature & Culture student, reports on Birkbeck’s recent Documenting Refugees event, which combined Kate Stanworth’s photography exhibition Where We Are Now with a screening of Orban Wallace’s documentary Another News Story.

Kate Stanworth’s photo of Salma, who travelled from Syria to Germany.

Wednesday 20 June marked World Refugee Day, an event through which the UN seeks to show governments the importance of collaboration as a means to accommodate forced migrants all over the world. With the global number of refugees being at an all-time high, this year stood for commemorating their strength, courage and perseverance. In light of this message, Birkbeck lecturer Agnes Woolley hosted ‘Documenting Refugees’, a thoughtful evening discussing the way in which refugees are represented both in the arts and media.

The event combined Kate Stanworth’s photography exhibition Where We Are Now with a screening of Orban Wallace’s documentary Another News Story, both of which reveal an intimate portrayal of refugees and their stories. For Stanworth, the focus lies on personal narratives and the psychological survival techniques used by refugees during the most difficult times. In addition, her portraits reveal how reaching the final destination (typically Germany or the UK) is still very much the beginning of the long journey forced immigrants have got ahead of them.

A similar idea is conveyed in Another News Story, where Wallace and his team follow both the refugees and journalists portraying them on their challenging journey across Europe. While the documentary offers an excellent balance of mixed narratives, the character that stands out most is Syrian mother Mahasen Nassif. Not only is her excellent English, positivity and strength while travelling alone completely overwhelming; her story also shows how getting to Germany is not where the refugee experience ends. When, in the panel discussion afterwards, director Wallace is asked about her he admits that she is finding it challenging to be living a slow-moving life in a remote town in Germany, endlessly waiting for documentation. A side of the story we hear a lot less often.

What is also special about the documentary is that it was shot without any kind of plan, with the main characters being simply those they kept running into. Finding a repertoire of narratives was therefore an entirely natural process, Wallace explains. And ultimately this has led to a uniquely nuanced documentation of a phenomenon that is predominantly being told through the biased and sensation seeking media. The documentary title already hints at this, but insights given by Bruno, a Belgian journalist and recurring character in the film, make it all the more evident: the news is wherever the media is – be that refugee camps at the Hungarian border or the Venice film festival.

https://vimeo.com/180955343

 

‘Another News Story’ teaser

Both during the screening and discussion afterwards, the main issue with documenting refugees seems to be the fact that it is ongoing. As Ahmad al-Rahsid, a forced migration researcher at SOAS who fled from Aleppo in late 2012 comments, the Syrian conflict is considered by critics to be one of the most documented conflicts of humanitarian history, yet it took the picture of one little boy to finally cause a shift in political and public responses. People don’t typically respond to just another news story, and with crises without a beginning or end that is a very big problem. The refugee crisis didn’t start nor end in 2015; it is a long-term humanitarian issue that needs as much attention now as it did three years ago. Events like this are needed to help us realise that.

How can cognitive neuroscience build resilience in breast cancer patients?

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This post was contributed by Bethany Chapman, PhD candidate at Birkbeck. From October she will be working with the Building Resilience in Breast Cancer Centre (BRiC) to investigate ‘The efficacy of neurocognitive training on improving the processing efficiency and long-term quality of life of breast cancer survivors returning to work.’ Bethany attended Professor Derakshan’s Birkbeck Science Week talk on Thursday 21 June.

Breast cancer and its impact on emotional and cognitive health

Breast cancer is the most prevalently diagnosed form of malignancy amongst women, with recent figures revealing that a new case is diagnosed every 10 minutes in the UK. Given, its exceptionally high prevalence (75% increase since 1970s) breast cancer is currently considered across the world to be one of the most leading causes of health concern. Interestingly, evidence has denoted a significant increase in the number of younger pre-menopausal women being given a diagnosis. In particular, younger women appear to be diagnosed with more aggressive forms of breast cancer reflective of a higher grade (higher rate of cell multiplying) and stage tumour.

At present, breast cancer is targeted by a diverse range of interventions and treatments including, surgery (mastectomy), chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy as well as endocrine therapy. Whilst these interventions have greatly decreased the mortality rate most women that enter breast cancer survivorship following the completion of active treatment experience both emotional and cognitive vulnerability.

Professor Nazanin Derakshan revealed that women frequently report experiencing a range of emotional symptomologies (vulnerabilities) including:

  • Chronic anxiety and depression
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
  • Intrusive thoughts regarding breast cancer recurrence
  • Poor quality of life (provoked by social isolation)

and cognitive dysfunctions (commonly known as ‘chemo-brain’) including:

  • Difficulty with concentration
  • Everyday memory loss
  • Difficulty retaining information
  • Poor Processing efficiency (i.e. slower responses)

So, is there a relationship between cognitive vulnerability and emotional vulnerability?

Crucially, Professor Derakshan divulged during her fascinating Science week talk that her team at Birkbeck have identified a directional causal relationship, in which cognitive dysfunction highly exaggerates the severity of psychological (or emotional) vulnerabilities (i.e. anxiety) experienced by breast cancer survivors. Furthermore, she stated the team extended their research to discover that this relationship is moderated by the grade of breast cancer diagnosed. For instance, women diagnosed with a higher grade (grade 3) of breast cancer exhibit a stronger relationship between cognitive vulnerability and emotional vulnerability.

Taking, all this novel research into consideration Derakshan raised an interesting point promulgating that it is imperative for future research to examine the cognitive health and emotional health of breast cancer survivors in unison, a previously problematic issue within the field of psycho-oncology.

How are researchers at Birkbeck aiming to build resilience to cognitive dysfunction and emotional vulnerability?

Neuroimaging research has shown structural and function changes in the brain related to the cognitive dysfunction(s) experienced following the completion of anti-cancer treatment, such cognitive dysfunction(s) is described by researchers as a ‘hidden cost’ of treatment as there are no significant behavioural differences observed when performance is compared with a control population. Interestingly, cognitive neuroscientists have evinced that breast cancer survivors recruit additional cognitive resources in order to compensate for the inefficiency (dysfunction) of their chemo-brain, this process is known as ‘compensatory effort’.

Furthermore, clinical research has reported that psycho-therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) are ineffective in adequately reducing the severity of emotional symptomologies encountered by the breast cancer population. Taken all this research into consideration, Derakshan and her Birkbeck laboratory in partnership with the BRiC centre are experimentally analysing the effect of exercising cognitive function through the use of neurocognitive interventions including, the Adaptive Dual N-back Training on emotional vulnerability—with promising results already being discovered.

One captivating study highlighting these incredible that was discussed by Derakshan during the talk, revealed that women that received 12-days of Adaptive Dual N-back training presented with significantly reduced levels of anxiety and distress, with these effects being sustained at the 14-18-month follow-up. Additionally, the study also showed a decrease in women’s rumination at the final follow-up, 14-18-months post-training. Derakshan disclosed that one possible explanation for these highly promising findings is that exercising cognitive function through adaptive training increased the fronto-parietal connectivity by enhancing the process of myelination and/or strengthened the synaptic connectivity.

In sum, Professor Derakhshan presented a highly insightful talk, outlining the incredible role that cognitive neuroscience has in promoting sustained cognitive and emotional resilience in women diagnosed with one of the most prevalent malignancies in the world.

Arts Week 2018: The Corners

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Lynsey Ford, an alumna of Birkbeck, discusses an Arts Week event looking at architecture and pedestrians with photographer Chris Dorley Brown. 

Documentary photographer and filmmaker Chris Dorley-Brown visited Birkbeck Arts Week at The School of Arts on Friday 18 May to discuss his 30-year career as a freelancer. The talk coincided with the release of his new publication entitled The Corners by Hoxton Mini Press, which examines his photography between 2009-2017 across East London street corners, industrial buildings, landscapes and architecture.

Initially trained as a silkscreen printer and print finisher, Chris branched out as a freelancer in 1984. Living and working in the East End for over 20 years, Chris began his media career working as a camera assistant for Red Saunders studio. His comprehensive slide show of his street photography at Birkbeck discussed his initial work building a photographic archive with the London Borough of Hackney.

Chris quickly started to develop his own digital techniques to create narratives; working with multiple exposures taken over an hour, Chris’s images have used around 100 shots taken at different times. These shots have been constructed to resemble one definitive image creating a surreal, dreamlike narrative of the urban landscape. The stillness, composition and colour of all his images adopt the look and feel of an oil painting. Notable shots include a police evacuation where the police sealed off the streets after the discovery of a bomb from World War 2. A boy is seen in disbelief holding an apple near the sealed off area, whilst a faceless young lady, oblivious to potential danger, cannot help but investigate, walking towards the tape. Other images perfectly capture the cynicism of city life, from the street voyeur, a homeless man, who emerges from the hidden corner of a local high street, facing off at an unseen Chris behind the lens. Old pedestrians ‘collide’ with the younger generation of cyclists across the traffic junction emphasising at the inevitable ‘changing face’ of the landscape. Chris also revisited his photography capturing ‘Drivers in the 1980s’. The slideshow perfectly expressed the conflicting emotions of Londoners, from a spaced-out businessman alone in his thoughts inside a red double-decker bus, to the visibly frustrated faces of motorists, caught between shots and the intermittent traffic lights during rush hour.

The talk provided a nostalgic look at London life and Dorley-Brown’s work is a great testimony to a skilled media professional who perfectly captures the history and architecture of the East End.

Further material from Chris’s career can be obtained through the public collections of The Museum of London and The George Eastman Museums.