From \u27Means to Ends\u27: Labour As Art Practice

My thesis discusses labour from three different historical and theoretical viewpoints, namely Karl Marx’s perspectives on labour, Hannah Arendt’s Theory of Action and Jacques Rancière\u27s radical view of workers as an aspirational class, including how their respective philosophies influenced discourse on labour in contemporary art. To examine the aesthetic consequences of these labour theories, my discussion of each writer is accompanied by a case study of a contemporary artist whose work operates in dialogue with the philosophical ideas presented. In conclusion, I bring these theories together by focusing on how they implicate art making as labour, and I point to my own art practice, which aims to collapse ‘means’ into ‘ends’ as a possible strategy to address some of the issues raised by the theorists I examine

F690-F740 is more suitable than F690/F740 for mapping the regeneration of Cd-induced chlorosis in poplar leaves by fluorescence imaging

The effect of cold treatment on concentration of biogenic amines was compared in the moderately frost-sensitive Triticum aestivum cv. Chinese Spring wheat genotype and in the frost-tolerant Chinese Spring (Cheyenne 5A) and the frost-sensitive Chinese Spring (T. spelta 5A) chromosome 5A substitution lines. To see the dynamics of changes, the plant material was collected after 0d, 1d, 3d, 7d and 21d of treatment at 2°C. Quantitative determination of biogenic amines was accomplished by chromatographic method. The cold treatment caused especially great increase in putrescine and spermidine levels. Chromosome 5A affected the cold induced increase in putrescine content, being larger after 21d of cold treatment in the frost-tolerant Chinese Spring (Cheyenne 5A) compared to the sensitive genotypes, which may indicate the role of putrescine accumulation in frost tolerance

Significance of antioxidative defence under long-term Cd stress

Cadmium is a highly toxic heavy metal which causes strong oxidative stress thereby inactivating PSII and the photosynthetic electron transport. However, plants acclimate to moderate Cd stress under longer treatment. Here, the role of antioxidative defence was studied during this acclimation. Micropropagated poplar plants were treated with 10 μM Cd(NO3)2 from their four-leaf-stage for four weeks. Increase in the malondialdehyde content and in the ratio of inactive, quenching PSII reaction centres (ΦNF) was observed in the first two weeks of the treatment. Starting from the third week both parameters decreased in parallel to the rise in the ascorbate peroxidase activity and B-carotene content, both are important in the antioxidative defence in chloroplasts. Therefore, an acute and an acclimation phase were identified as a consequence of the delay in activation of antioxidative defence mechanisms, the protective role of which is important in the acclimation to moderate Cd stress

Detection of the vitalization effect of Tuber mycorrhiza on sessile oak by the recently-innovated FMM chlorophyll fluorometer

Mycorrhizae enhance the viability of forest trees by the protection against drought and nutrient deficiencies. Here a FluoroMeter Modul (FMM) Chl a fluorometer developed on the Department of Atomic Physics of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, was used to typify symbiotic relationship between Quercus and Tuber which has economic impact due to its fruiting body. The actual quantum efficiency photosystem II showed strong correlation with low mycorrhizations up to the level of average mycorrhiztion in sessile oak seedling population, which refers to strict host control on mycorrhization. F690/F735 ratio of peak fluorescence, which is known to correlate negatively to leaf chlorophyll content, implicated that the higher mycorrhization caused probably stronger leaf area expansion. Therefore, the presence of Tuber mycorrhiza on Quercus roots enhanced the vitality of oak trees. The portable and relatively low-price FMM fluorometer proved to be an adequate tool for serial in situ vitality measurements

Modeling of Progressive Damage in Fiber-Reinforced Ceramic Matrix Composites

An analytic methodology is developed to model the response of fiber-reinforced ceramic matrix composites (CMOs) when subjected to monotonic and fatigue loadings. The analysis requires the formulation of (1) a micromechanics model which defines the laminate\u27s geometry and constitutive relationship; (2) failure criteria which estimate the extent of microstructural damage, and, finally, (3) a means of analyzing frictional slip, fiber pull-out, interfacial wear and laminate failure. For the present study, the behavior of unidirectional and crossply CMOs is investigated using modified shear-lag theory in conjunction with a set of failure criteria with a minimum reliance on empirical data. The damage mechanisms considered are matrix cracking, fiber/matrix interfacial debonding and fiber fracture. The stress-strain response under monotonic tensile loading, and the fatigue life (S-N relationship) and stress-strain hysteresis under cyclic loading obtained from the present solution are compared with their experimental counterparts. They are in good agreement with one another. As expected, the assumed degradation in the frictional resistance along the constituent interface plays a dominant role in determining the material response