Hair braiding : working the boundaries of methodology in globalisation research

This paper engages the constitutive as well as the representative role of metaphor in research. Metaphors are understood to provide possibilities for representations and conceptualisations. The use of metaphorical redescription permits us to 'use familiar words in unfamiliar ways' (Rorty, 1989, p. 18) and provides new language that deters the use of repeated ways of knowing. It invites us to see things differently and to act differently. Lakoff and Johnson (1980) argue that metaphor does more than represent: 'New metaphors have the power to construct a new reality' (p. 145). I have drawn on both these understandings of metaphor. In qualitative research, metaphorical analysis has a well-established history. Researchers analyse metaphors used by research participants and apply metaphors to participant actions and understandings (Koro-Ljungberg, 2001; Gregory & Noblit, 1998). Researchers also use metaphors to reflect or represent their methodological decision-making (Richardson, 2003; Gadamer, 1989). In this article, I have nudged the conceptual boundaries of methodology. I have argued the constructive nature of metaphor in methodological positioning and decision making. I use the writing of a doctoral thesis to argue this role of metaphor. There, the metaphor of hair braiding constructed and communicated my methodological decision-making and my researcher stance as a braider.

A lightwave 3d plug-in for modelling long hair on virtual humans

Multimedia applications today make use of virtual humans. Generating realistic virtual humans is a challenging problem owing to a number of factors, one being the simulation of realistic hair. The difficulty in simulating hair is due to the physical properties of hair. The average human head holds thousands of hairs, with the width of each hair often smaller than the size of a pixel. There are also complex lighting effects that occur within hair. This paper presents a LightWave 3D plug-in for modeling thousands of individual hairs on virtual humans. The plug-in allows the user to specify the length, thickness and distribution of the hair, as well as the number of segments a hair is made up of. The plug-in is able to add hairs to a head model, which the user then modifies to define a hairstyle. The hairs are then multiplied by the plug-in to produce many hairs. By providing a plug-in that does most of the work and produces realistic results, the user is able to produce a hairstyle without modeling each individual strand of hair. This greatly reduces the time spent on hair modeling, and makes the possibility of adding realistic long hair to virtual humans reasonable.

The identification of mammalian species through the classification of hair patterns using image pattern recognition

The identification of mammals through the use of their hair is important in the fields of forensics and ecology. The application of computer pattern recognition techniques to this process provides a means of reducing the subjectivity found in the process, as manual techniques rely on the interpretation of a human expert rather than quantitative measures. The first application of image pattern recognition techniques to the classification of African mammalian species using hair patterns is presented. This application uses a 2D Gabor filter-bank and motivates the use of moments to classify hair scale patterns. Application of a 2D Gabor filter-bank to hair scale processing provides results of 52% accuracy when using a filter bank of size four and 72% accuracy when using a filter-bank of size eight. These initial results indicate that 2D Gabor filters produce information that may be successfully

Fabrication and applications of ultrafine powder from cashmere guard hair

Cashmere guard hair, an industrial animal protein fibre waste material has been very first time converted into ultra-fine powder particles. The work also demonstrates potential of the newly developed particles in high value technical applications such as toxic heavy metal ion separation and surface functionalization of textile fabrics.

Maternal hair selenium levels as a possible long-term nutritional indicator of recurrent pregnancy loss

BackgroundApproximately 1% of all couples trying to conceive will suffer from recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL). Nutritional deficiencies have been postulated as a possible cause of RPL and in particular, selenium deficiency has been associated with reproductive failure in animal studies and more recently, in some human studies. This study was undertaken to assess the maternal hair selenium levels in women with RPL without an identified cause and to compare these results with those of women with successful reproductive histories.MethodsTwenty four patients with RPL and twenty four control subjects with at least one successful pregnancy and no pregnancy failures, who were matched for age and ethnicity, were recruited. A questionnaire was completed, which included demographic and social information and a dietary history. Hair samples were collected and analyzed for selenium content by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.ResultsThe control subjects had a higher mean income and had completed more years of education compared with the RPL patients. There was no significant difference in the intake of selenium rich foods between the 2 groups. The patients, however, consumed significantly more fruit, cheese, potatoes and chocolate than the controls. The median (range) selenium content was 0.80 ppm (0.19-4.15) and 0.68 ppm (0.43-3.76) in patients and controls respectively (Mann Whitney U test 209.5 p = 0.74).ConclusionsWhile there were significant differences in the 2 groups with regard to resources, education and diet our results show that hair selenium concentrations and dietary selenium intake, were similar in the two groups. Both groups had low levels of this important element.

Effects of different nutritional regimens on the productivity of Australian Cashmere goats and the partitioning of nutrients between cashmere and hair growth

The influence of energy or protein supplementation or energy restriction on cashmere growth was studied in 35 highly productive cashmere wether goats. The goats were shorn on 3 December and randomly allocated to 3 levels of energy intake: M, goats fed to maintain liveweight; 0.8M, goats fed to lose 5 kg liveweight from December to April and then fed ad libitum; and >M, goats fed to gain liveweight. Nested within >M were ADLIB (goats offered feed ad libitum), and 1.25M and l.5M (goats fed M plus 25 or 50% of the difference in mean intake between M and ADLIB). The metabolisable energy requirement to maintain liveweight was 250 kJ kg-0.75 day-1 but to maintain body condition (l.25M) it was 3 12 kJ kg-0.75 day-1. Goats fed 0.8M had a mean intake of 0.68M and lost 26 g day-1 liveweight until April, but when fed ad libitum consumed 2.15M in June and grew rapidly in late autumn and winter at 93 g day-1. Goats fed ADLIB consumed 2.30M in February and gained 87 g day-1 from December to February, but intake declined to 1.61 M in June and they gained 20 g day-1 from April to June. Cashmere growth and fibre diameters of fleeces shorn on 17 June of goats fed >M (221g, 17.69 pm) were significantly greater (P< 0.02) than those of goats fed 0.8M (146 g, 16.67 ¦m), with levels of M-fed goats being intermediate. Within >M, there were no significant differences in cashmere growth. Protein supplementation within M (27 or 54 g day -1 formaldehyde- treated casein) resulted in 40% more wool growth in sheep (P<0.001), but no increase in cashmere or hair growth in goats. Goats fed ADLIB had significantly reduced cashmere yields (P < 0.05) and grew more hair (P<0.05) than did goats in other treatments. About 4 weeks after energy supplementation, fibre diameter of previously energy-deprived goats increased (P< 0.01). Midside patches indicated that energy-deprived goats, which lost liveweight, diverted nutrients preferentially to cashmere growth, while goats fed ADLIB partitioned nutrients towards hair growth. To maximise cashmere growth, supplementary energy should be supplied to avoid liveweight loss from December to April. Goats that had small (1-2 kg) liveweight gains and maintained body condition achieved near maximal levels of cashmere growth.