DNA extraction from formalin-fixed tissue: new light from the Deep-Sea

DNA samples were extracted from ethanol and formalin-fixed decapod crustacean tissue using a new method based on Tetramethylsilane (TMS)-Chelex. It is shown that neither an indigestible matrix of cross-linked protein nor soluble PCR inhibitors impede PCR success when dealing with formalin-fixed material. Instead, amplification success from formalin-fixed tissue appears to depend on the presence of unmodified DNA in the extracted sample. A staining method that facilitates the targeting of samples with a high content of unmodified DNA is provided

Methodology comparison for canopy structure parameters extraction from digital hemispherical photography in boreal forests

The retrieval of canopy architectural parameters using off-the-shelf digital cameras with fish-eye lens is investigated. The technique used takes advantage of the sensor’s linear response to light of these cameras to improve the estimation of gap fraction using: (1) the digital numbers of mixed sky-canopy pixels to estimate the within-pixel gap fraction; and (2) this process is done considering the variation in view zenith angle to take into account the sky radiance distribution and the canopy multiple scattering effects. The foliage element clumping index is retrieved over a wide range of view zenith angles using: (1) the accumulated gap size distribution theory developed for the TRAC by Chen and Cihlar (1995a); (2) the Lang and Xiang (1986) finite-length averaging method; and (3) a method combining the gap size distribution and the Lang and Xiang finite-length methods. Using data from Canadian and Russian boreal forests, comparisons of gap fraction, clumping index and plant area index measured with the tracing radiation and architecture of canopies (TRAC) and digital hemispherical photography are presented. Evaluation of the LAI estimated from digital hemispherical photography with allometric LAI of two boreal forest stands suggest that that the clumping index combined method may be more accurate

Selecting Research Collections for Digitization: Applying the Harvard Model

published or submitted for publicatio

Disciples of a crazy saint: The Buchen of Spiti

The Buchen are specialist religious performers from Spiti, a culturally Tibetan valley in North India. They are widely known for performing an elaborate exorcism ritual that culminates in a slab of stone, marked with images of demons, being smashed on a man’s belly. In winter groups of Buchen perform their religious theatre, a localised form of Ache Lhamo, the Tibetan Opera. This book, published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford is the result of a research project and substantial fieldtrip funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, with project partnership from the Pitt Rivers Museum. Patrick Sutherland has been photographing in Spiti for nearly two decades and working with the Buchen for several years. The book consists of a self-reflexive essay by Patrick Sutherland illustrated with historical photographs and his own photographs, followed by four sections of photographs and captions by Patrick Sutherland. It concludes with a substantial essay, placing the Buchen into a wider cultural and historical context, by Tashi Tsering, founding Director of the Amnye Machen Institute (Tibetan Centre for Advanced Studies) in Dharamsala. This essay is also illustrated with historical photographs

Art, work, and archives: performativity and the techniques of production

Work that takes place inside archives and work that is designated as art are often perceived as conceptually distinct practices, yet it is possible for the two to share common techniques and methodologies. A performative approach can be taken to the production of artworks that is comparable to that of the archive in terms of following a predetermined structure and controlled methodology, and with direct links to archival thinking. I will demonstrate how visual practice can work with, and in consideration of, prescribed standards and open up theoretical debate that is pertinent to archives yet lies outside of conventional archive or art theory. Whilst not wanting to initiate a discourse on specific artworks of my own in this limited space, there will be a detailed discussion as to how the associations between art, work, and archives have become central to my own practice and research. I will discuss how my appropriation of archival techniques of image description results in a “writing and reading” of the image that contests traditional art historical models of image analysis and appears radical when placed alongside them, if one is to understand “radical” as a departure from the norm. Such work does not constitute radical thinking in terms of the archive but becomes radicalized by way of its passage into the milieu of art research, where traditional hermeneutical analysis generally persists. It is a practice that does not oppose but instead utilizes and builds upon archival standards, and aspects of archival thinking permeate the various practices of artists cited in this essay, notably through the application of performative working methods that position their work within an established genre of indexing and categorization. It is also important to note that these works make space for complex and abstract thinking???around images and image sets, and around language itself, whilst still maintaining the structural discourse of the archive at some level. Although archive professionals may not be the expected audience for the practices discussed here, there may be an opportunity for the reverse flow of “work experience”: an unpicking of the methods and thinking of art research could be useful and constructive when taken back into the archive. The examples here, including my own, traverse material culture, cultural theory, performativity, and media archaeology—a thematic that is, after all, as pertinent to archives as it is to art

A psychoanalytic exploration into the memory and aesthetics of everyday life: Photographs, recollections, and encounters with loss

The project at hand explores some of the psychological functions of photography as both an everyday and an artistic cultural practice from a psychoanalytic perspective. It is proposed that, contrary to commonsensical opinion, photographs are not accurate depositories of memory, but rather function as a functional equivalent of screen memories, thus channeling the subject\u27s memory in ways that are objectively distorted and distorting, but psychologically meaningful and important; moreover, they are a special kind of screen memory in that they are often created pre-emptively and are physically instantiated. Additionally, it is suggested that, by dint of their materiality, photographs achieve a degree of autonomy from the purposes of their creators and viewers, with the result that they can also trigger unwanted and potentially traumatic recollections, along the lines of the Freudian notion of `deferred action\u27. Specifically, different ways in which photographs can enter into the experiencing and processing of loss are explored. It is proposed that photographs can either facilitate normal mourning or impede it. They can be used to either disavow loss, to repetitively fixate on it in a sadomasochistic manner, or to facilitate the transition to an acceptance of loss and moving on. Parallels are drawn between these various uses of photographs and three types of physical/emotionally charged objects: fetishes, transitional objects, and what I term `masochistic objects\u27. The paradox of the accrual of aesthetic value on certain photographs and not others is explored next. The attainment of aesthetic value is separated from the conscious intentions of the photographer, and is instead linked to certain underlying psychological parameters, primarily, the acceptance of the depressive position and of the separateness of the libidinal object, as well as the capacity to achieve a controlled surrender to primary-process functioning. These conceptualizations are illustrated by reference to specific photographs (taken by the author, who is also a recognized photographer), as well as through an analysis of several poems of the Greek poet Kiki Dimoula, in whose oeuvre photography is a prominent and recurrent theme

From Analogue to Image Retrieval: Concepts of Archival Art in Daniel Blaufuks

From Analogue to Image Retrieval: Concepts of Archival Art in Daniel Blaufuks, seeks to explore a question first triggered by the viewing of Daniel Blaufuks’s Constellation series in his exhibition-project, All the Memory of the World, part one (2014): might digital databases and image retrieval systems be viewed as developments of archival processes and thinking? Has the touted rupture between analogue and digital occurred, or does archival art live in them both? With a career that spans several decades, Blaufuks has been deeply engaged with questions surrounding the Holocaust, exile, memory and postmemory. Photography, film and archival material have been the tools chosen for his excavations; nonetheless, it is impossible to overlook the influence of literature in the artist’s work. Having begun with the appropriation of physical archival material, such as photographic albums, polaroids or slides, Blaufuks has also employed digital images and image-retrieval systems such as Google Image. In the view to proceed with an analysis on the crucial argument of this thesis, I have divided it into to three sections. The first, Daniel Blaufuks: The ‘Material’ Archive, as the name indicates, focuses on considerations on the so-called material archive, meaning the analogue archive. Daniel Blaufuks: Writing with Images, the second section, is devoted to two thematic components of the artist’s oeuvre: memory and literature. Here I equally offer a comparative analysis between Blaufuks and the works of writers Georges Perec and W. G. Sebald. In Daniel Blaufuks: Traversing the Archive, the final section, I return to the theoretical frameworks surrounding the archive, yet one founded on 0s and 1s rather than paper and ink. In writing From Analogue to Image Retrieval: Concepts of Archival Art in Daniel Blaufuks, I strive to illuminate the continuities from analogue to digital archives, and analogue to digital archival art practices. Blaufuks’s ease and breadth in the incorporation of a variety of media into his projects stands as an ideal case study for the exploration of the questions I put forward in this thesis.From Analogue to Image Retrieval: Concepts of Archival Art in Daniel Blaufuks, explora uma questão desencadeada pela série Constelações de Daniel Blaufuks no seu projeto-exposição, Toda a Memória do Mundo, parte um (2014): poderão bases de dados e sistemas de recuperação de imagens ser vistos como extensões de processos e de concepções do arquivo? Terá a ruptura entre analógico e digital ocorrido, ou será que a arte arquivística é transversal a ambos? Com uma carreira que se estende por várias décadas, Blaufuks tem desenvolvido projectos relacionados com questões em torno do Holocausto, exílio, memória e pós memória. Fotografia, imagem em movimento e material de arquivo são as ferramentas escolhidas pelo artista para as suas escavações; no entanto, é impossível ignorar a influência da literatura na sua obra. Tendo começado com a apropriação de material de arquivo, como álbuns fotográficos, polaroids ou slides, Blaufuks emprega também imagens digitais e motores de busca de imagens como o Google Image nos seus projectos mais recentes. A fim de prosseguir com uma análise da questão central desta tese, a mesma foi dividida em três secções. A primeira, Daniel Blaufuks: The ‘Material’ Archive, tem como foco considerações sobre o arquivo analógico. Já Daniel Blaufuks: Writing with Images, a segunda secção, é dedicada a duas componentes temáticas da obra do artista: memória e literatura. Aqui, procedo igualmente a uma análise comparativa entre Blaufuks e as obras dos escritores Georges Perec e W. G. Sebald. Em Daniel Blaufuks: Traversing the Archive, a secção final, regresso às estruturas teóricas associadas ao arquivo, olhando no entanto para um arquivo construído sobre 0s e 1s ao invés de papel e tinta. Com From Analogue to Image Retrieval: Concepts of Archival Art in Daniel Blaufuks, procuro iluminar continuidades entre arquivos analógicos e digitais, bem como estabelecer paralelos entre o uso de sistemas analógicos e digitais em práticas de arte de arquivo. A facilidade com que Blaufuks integra uma variedade de formatos e média no seu trabalho faz com que o artista seja o estudo de caso ideal para a exploração das questões que apresento nesta tese

Monitoring the defoliation of hardwood forests in Pennsylvania using LANDSAT

An automated system for conducting annual gypsy moth defoliation surveys using LANDSAT MSS data and digital processing techniques is described. A two-step preprocessing procedure was developed that uses multitemporal data sets representing forest canopy conditions before and after defoliation to create a digital image in which all nonforest cover types are eliminated or masked out of a LANDSAT image that exhibits insect defoliation. A temporal window for defoliation assessment was identified and a statewide data base was established. A data management system to interface image analysis software with the statewide data base was developed and a cost benefit analysis of this operational system was conducted