Davide Quayola: Digital Art Need Not Bore

Ten in the morning is not the most usual time for a press view to open, nor is the requirement to show ID and Vaccination Pass, but at the Palazzo Cipolla (lit. “Onion Palace”) on the Corso del Rinascimento in the centre of Rome, this was the  the routine to see an intriguing show of work by David Quayola, an Italian digital artist, long resident in London, but here displaying a variety of pieces made over the last fourteen years. Suffice to say there was not an ice filled dustbin of Peroni bottles in sight.Ten in the morning is not the most usual time for a press view to open, nor is the requirement to show ID and Vaccination Pass, but at the Palazzo Cipolla (lit. “Onion Palace”) on the Corso del Rinascimento in the centre of Rome, this was the  the routine to see an intriguing show of work by David Quayola, an Italian digital artist, long resident in London, but here displaying a variety of pieces made over the last fourteen years. Suffice to say there was not an ice filled dustbin of Peroni bottles in sight

Navigating the complexities of Acquired Brain Injury: Theorising everyday activities in identity (re)construction

This thesis explores the (re )construction of identity after acquired brain injury (ABI). Within this thesis I draw meaning from the everyday experiences of six male ABI survivors and critically investigate their identity (re)construction after their ABI. As well as demonstrating identity (re)construction after ABI, the experiences of the participants have allowed me to investigate neurological rehabilitation after ABI from the perspective of ABI survivors. I seek to achieve a greater understanding of the identities of the participants through enlisting the explanatory qualities of contemporary social theory emphasising the fluidity of identity. As I am a brain injury survivor as well as the researcher in the study, this thesis also explores my experiences of rehabilitation following ABI, as well as my impact on the study. This thesis suggests that rehabilitation after ABI is often a continual process that extends beyond the formal, medically prescribed period. It is suggested further that identity after ABI is often (re )constructed in an unpredictable way; a way that emphasises the importance of reciprocal support and the uncertainty of future life

Mikhail Tukhachevsky in the Russian Civil War

Much has been written about Mikhail Nikolaevich Tukhachevsky. His development of the “Deep Battle” military theory in the late 1920s and 1930s, the attendant mechanisation of the Red Army and his role in the development of the Soviet military/industrial complex have been well-researched. The “Tukhachevsky Affair”, the discussion surrounding his execution in the military purge of 1937, continues to attract interest. However, a detailed analysis of his early life and Civil War command career has never been completed. This gap is filled by this thesis. Tukhachevsky’s early life is explored to provide background, but also to provide a biographical account and to illustrate who he was when he joined the Red Army and Bolshevik Party in 1918. The thesis demonstrates that he was not a communist at this stage. However, his command experiences during the Civil War, combining military tactics of continuous manoeuvre warfare with constant frontline mobilisations, political agitation and repression, allowed him to develop a theory of class warfare and saw his conversion to a belief in the efficacy of Marxist principles when applied to military methods. Tukhachevsky’s success in the Civil War is compared to his failure in the Polish-Soviet War and the basis for the latter is that his continuation of class warfare methods were unsuitable for the conflict in Poland. The success of Tukhachevsky’s class warfare methods is explained by their relevance to the situation and social fabric of Russia at the time. The retention of these principles to form the basis of the operational side of “Deep Battle” is argued, as is Tukhachevsky’s openness to innovation in weaponry and tactics gleaned during his Civil War command. Tukhachevsky’s role in the early Red Army formulation is detailed, as is his development of the concept of “unified command” involving the creation of Red Commanders. The Communist Party leadership’s use of Tukhachevsky as a “troubleshooter” to deal with prioritised areas during the Civil War, leading to his service on every major Front at crucial stages is highlighted, as are the connections he made on the Civil War battlefields, friendly and hostile. It is shown that during his Civil War commands he met with those with whom he would later work and that their collaboration and experimentation began almost immediately

Synergies between processing and memory in children's reading span.

Previous research has established the relevance of working memory for cognitive development. Yet the factors responsible for shaping performance in the complex span tasks used to assess working memory capacity are not fully understood. We report a study of reading span in 7- to 11-year old children that addresses several contemporary theoretical issues. We demonstrate that both the timing and the accuracy of recall are affected by the presence or absence of a semantic connection between the processing requirement and the memoranda. Evidence that there can be synergies between processing and memory argues against the view that complex span simply measures the competition between these activities. We also demonstrate a consistent relationship between the rate of completing processing operations (sentence reading) and recall accuracy. At the same time, the shape and strength of this function varies with the task configuration. Taken together, these results demonstrate the potential for reconstructive influences to shape working memory performance among children

Understand, reduce, respond: project complexity management theory and practice

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of complexity and its management from an OM perspective, building on and extending the systematic literature review published in this journal in 2011, and provide a foundation for exploring the interactions between complexities and responses. Design/methodology/approach The paper takes a subjective view of complexity, focusing on the “lived experience” of managers. It takes an updated systematic literature review, and demonstrates the comprehensiveness of a framework to classify complexities of projects. It reports the findings from 43 workshops with over 1,100 managers. Findings First, the complexity framework is effective in aiding understanding. Second, and somewhat unexpectedly, managers were able to identify strategies to reduce the majority of complexities that they faced. Third, the workshops identified a typology of responses to residual complexities. Research limitations/implications The framework has demonstrated its utility, and a gap in understanding emergent complexities is identified. The framework further presents the opportunity to explore the recursive nature of complexity and response. Practical implications This paper provides a framework that is both comprehensive and comprehensible. The authors demonstrate that complexities can be reduced and provide a means to assess responses to residual complexities, including potentially matching managers to projects. Originality/value This work extends the previous systematic review combined with extensive empirical data to generate findings that are having impact in practice, and have the potential to strengthen a relatively neglected area within OM. A research agenda is suggested to support this

Pipage Rounding, Pessimistic Estimators and Matrix Concentration

Pipage rounding is a dependent random sampling technique that has several interesting properties and diverse applications. One property that has been particularly useful is negative correlation of the resulting vector. Unfortunately negative correlation has its limitations, and there are some further desirable properties that do not seem to follow from existing techniques. In particular, recent concentration results for sums of independent random matrices are not known to extend to a negatively dependent setting. We introduce a simple but useful technique called concavity of pessimistic estimators. This technique allows us to show concentration of submodular functions and conc