Politics of the Project: Radical Art in Britain (1972-79)

The 1970s saw collaboration and local, grass-roots activism become common in radical art in Britain. Concomitant with anti-racist, anti-sexist and anti-nuclear efforts, a group of Leftist artists challenged social and financial elitism, patriarchy and inequality in both the art world and British society by producing praxis-led artist projects in lieu of art objects. However, the reception and analysis of 1970s artist projects in general (and in Britain in particular) is still very limited. As a result the post-1989 period is widely cited as the dawn of artist projects in contemporary accounts. This thesis challenges such oversights by arguing that the ‘artist project’ emerged in the 1970s. It illuminates the 1970s artistic practice of project-making through a detailed historiography of projects created in Britain during that decade. The socially-driven art practice of the 1970s is contextualized by providing an historical account of the socio-political situation in Britain in the 1970s and the major social shifts that it entailed (such as the 1970 Equal Pay Act, Industrial Relations Act of 1971, the implementation of a three-day week, rising unemployment, strikes and riots). By recovering projects that have been marginalised within the art historical canon this thesis defines the character of the ‘artist project’ and demonstrates its significance within socially-orientated art practice. This definition is derived empirically through an analysis of three major artist projects as well as an examination of the Artist’s Union (1972-83) which initially brought these left-leaning artists together and thereby set the stage for the artist projects which followed. The three focal projects are: The West London Social Resource Project (1972) by Stephen Willats (which sought to expand the remit and reach of art and the social territory in which it physically operates by inviting the residents of four different neighbourhoods in West London to respond to questions about their immediate as well as wider physical and social environments); Women and Work: A Document on the Division of Labour in Industry 1973-75 [1973-75] by Margaret Harrison, Kay Fido Hunt and Mary Kelly (a collaborative in-depth study that the artists conducted at the Metal Box Co. in Bermondsey to document the past history and the present working conditions of women in the tin box industry); and The Peterlee Project (1976-77) by Stuart Brisley (who worked with local miners in an effort to empower them in building their own community in the new town of Peterlee). Characterised by a new type of artistic thinking, these projects were also informed by academic and commercial disciplines such as sociology, anthropology and communications. The thesis explores the collaborative thrust and shared radically reformist socio- political agenda operative within artist projects in Britain during the 1970s and demonstrates the way that they employed direct action to change the parameters of art, incorporating instigation, discussion and generative processes directly into its production. These projects expanded the reach and breadth of artistic practice as a means not only to challenge but also to seek to remedy the disillusionment caused by the shortcomings of the modernist agenda in art and society, including the promises of the welfare state in Britain

Exoskeleton Leg Brace

This report details the design process of a lower limb exoskeleton leg brace for elderly people with walking disabilities or others with disabilities that limit mobility. While there are other similar products on the market, the general design can be improved and these improvements have been implemented into the design presented within. Among these improvements are progress in efficiency, weight, user comfort, and cost. The results of the study are the design of a novel leg brace that improves on existing designs in each of these areas. Our design solution incorporates the use of a single leg brace with no additional hip supports that utilizes an electric motor mounted to the side of the brace on the upper leg. The power is transmitted to the joint with a worm gear which will exert force when the user climbs stairs. The frame of the leg skeleton will be made of aluminum and the components which rest against the body will be 3D printed with ABS plastic. This choice of materials will allow our brace to have enough strength to support an adult male climbing stairs while still being comfortable to wear. The design of the brace presents significant advantages over other similar products as it will be worn only on one leg and will be easier to take on and off when desired. This means easier mobility and greater quality of life for the users of such products

Shared Governance Practices in Turkish Private (Foundation) Universities

As Turkish Higher Education has been facing rapid and significant growth in recent decades, the creation of Foundation Universities (private but not-for-profit) has both supported this growth and presented new challenges. One of these challenges has been the visible absence of effective governance models and practices, specifically the involvement of internal and external stakeholders in decision-making processes. The aim of this research is to identify the factors affecting the emergence of established shared governance practices in Turkish private (Foundation) universities, in order to contribute to effective policy making and application by administrators and managers in higher education. Primarily based on qualitative data gathering methods through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with leading educators in Turkey, the thesis also utilizes publicly available data from official reports. The thesis identified several factors, such as Turkish Higher Education Culture, Politics, Regulations and Higher Education Law, Founding Principles and Trust, Loyalty and Ownership as being significantly influential in shaping an institution’s participatory governance practices; the level of institutionalization, or kurumsallaşma, however, has been found to be a mediating filter that determines the impact of these factors on the school. Claiming that Culture remains the dominating factor in preventing the establishment of shared governance mechanisms, this thesis concludes by making a variety of policy and practice recommendations ranging from regulatory changes to the entire system, to obtaining specific external audits and to establishing certain committee structures to increase internal stakeholder participation, as well as creating a culture that balances collegiality and corporate practices by placing individuals with skills in both modes of thinking to key nodes of governance. (261 Words

Magnetic resonance imaging study of corpus callosum abnormalities in patients with different subtypes of schizophrenia

Background. Reductions in the size of the corpus callosum (CC) have been described for schizophrenia patients, but little is known about the possible regional differences in schizophrenia subtypes (paranoid, disorganised, undifferentiated, residual).  Methods. We recruited 58 chronically schizophrenic patients with different subtypes, and 31 age-and-gender matched healthy controls. The callosum was extracted from a midsagittal slice from T1 weighted magnetic resonance images, and areas of the total CC, its five subregions, CC length and total brain volume were compared between schizophrenia subtypes and controls. Five subregions were approximately matched to fibre pathways from cortical regions.  Results. Schizophrenia patients had reduced CC total area and length when compared with controls. Disorganised and undifferentiated schizophrenics had a smaller prefrontal area, while there was no significant difference for the paranoid and residual groups. The premotor/supplementary motor area was smaller in all schizophrenia subtypes. The motor area was smaller only in the disorganised group. A smaller sensory area was found in all subtypes except the residual group. Parietal, temporal and occipital areas were smaller in the paranoid and undifferentiated groups. Total brain volume was smaller in all schizophrenia subtypes compared with controls, but did not reach statistical significance.  Conclusion. These findings suggest that the heterogeneity of symptoms may lead to the different CC morphological characteristics in schizophrenia subtypes

Vibrational microspectroscopy enables chemical characterization of single pollen grains as well as comparative analysis of plant species based on pollen ultrastructure

Main conclusion Chemical imaging of pollen by vibrational microspectroscopy enables characterization of pollen ultrastructure, in particular phenylpropanoid components in grain wall for comparative study of extant and extinct plant species. A detailed characterization of conifer (Pinales) pollen by vibrational microspectroscopy is presented. The main problems that arise during vibrational measurements were scatter and saturation issues in Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and fluorescence and penetration depth issues in Raman. Single pollen grains larger than approx. 15 µm can be measured by FTIR microspectroscopy using conventional light sources, while smaller grains may be measured by employing synchrotron light sources. Pollen grains that were larger than 50 µm were too thick for FTIR imaging since the grain constituents absorbed almost all infrared light. Chemical images of pollen were obtained on sectioned samples, unveiling the distribution and concentration of proteins, carbohydrates, sporopollenins and lipids within pollen substructures. The comparative analysis of pollen species revealed that, compared with other Pinales pollens, Cedrus atlantica has a higher relative amount of lipid nutrients, as well as different chemical composition of grain wall sporopollenin. The pre-processing and data analysis, namely extended multiplicative signal correction and principal component analysis, offer simple estimate of imaging spectral data and indirect estimation of physical properties of pollen. The vibrational microspectroscopy study demonstrates that detailed chemical characterization of pollen can be obtained by measurement of an individual grain and pollen ultrastructure. Measurement of phenylpropanoid components in pollen grain wall could be used, not only for the reconstruction of past environments, but for assessment of diversity of plant species as well. Therefore, analysis of extant and extinct pollen species by vibrational spectroscopies is suggested as a valuable tool in biology, ecology and palaeosciences.acceptedVersio

Recovery of absorbance spectra of micrometer-sized biological and inanimate particles

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Monitoring of plant–environment interactions by high-throughput FTIR spectroscopy of pollen

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