The Blindness Revolution: Jernigan in His Own Words

Review of: The Blindness Revolution: Jernigan in His Own Words, by James H. Omvig

Fortnight

Fortnight is a two-week long, fully immersive, experience based in the interactions and communications of daily life. Up to 200 participants sign up to receive messages that are sent to their mobile phones, email, and home address; these messages contain a series of poetic nudges that encourage those participating to question their sense of place. Participants also receive daily invitations to visit locations throughout their city where they can pause to reflect on what it means to be here now. Fortnight enables the experience of “theatre” to penetrate beneath a seemingly brittle aesthetic surface of performance, deep into the consciousnesses of our participants as they begin to interact with and perceive world around us as the performance itself; the place where we act out our own daily lives. In Fortnight, the spectator becomes participant; the journey becomes narrative. Fortnight therefore subverts the notion of an audience, in which each spectator’s perspective is forced to examine not the situation and setting of performers on a stage, but rather the situation and setting of our own sense of place and the meaning we apportion to our everyday lives. Fortnight uses various forms of ubiquitous technology such as: Radio Frequency Identification (aka, RFID tags of the type contained in key fobs), which are used in badges sent to each participant that allow them to interact with real-world “portals” to trigger certain effects in their surroundings; QR technology (in the form of barcodes on posters that reveal additional hidden messages, should the participant choose to delve further; SMS messages; email; and, Twitter. Alongside this, older modes of communication such as handwritten letters, give Fortnight a decidedly low-fi aesthetic. Throughout Fortnight, participants are encouraged to explore the creative possibilities of pervasive and communicative media without reverting to mere technological fetishism. In Fortnight, each mode of communication is used not only for its functionality but also as symbols that bind the project and the participant together, rooting them to the here and now with the everyday tools of modern society. The mediated messages within Fortnight lead participants down a living, breathing rabbit hole where the familiar becomes unfamiliar and reality distorts. The project becomes an experience for the participant that is as immersive as their own life; creating an alternative reality, that not only co-exists alongside their own everyday realities, but also merges with them.This is a performance with shared responsibilities, reflecting the actions and consequences of our daily lives: what we put in, we get out

A Fortunate Man: work-in-progress

To mark the 70th anniversary of the NHS, New Perspectives presents a devised show by Michael Pinchbeck inspired by A Fortunate Man; the 1967 masterpiece by writer John Berger and photographer Jean Mohr. Offering an in-depth study of a country doctor who after years of caring for people took his own life, the book has been widely hailed as one of the most influential texts ever written on the subject of medicine, treatment and care. This production marks the first ever UK adaptation of the book and comes with the blessing from John Berger’s family. Using archive film footage and contemporary reportage, the production will be part slide show, part documentary, part adaptation, and will explore and explode the themes of the ground-breaking book. The book’s text and images merge with verbatim text from doctors today creating a powerful and poignant portrait of the NHS past and present. Two people take to the stage. They deliver a lecture. One reads an academic paper. The other reads the footnotes. Slowly the talk shifts mode into a performance. They play a writer. A photographer. A doctor. They tell the story of how the book came to be using words and images. They tell us what happened to the doctor after it was published, they ask what has changed in the 50 years since the book and they take the pulse of the NHS today. A cast of two actors will perform an exclusive extract from the play ahead of its opening in London this June followed by a tour of venues and medical centres and eventually a run at the Edinburgh Festival 2018. John Berger (11/11/1926–02/01/2017) wrote widely about art and politics but only rarely about theatre and performance. His few plays are not widely performed, and his collaborations within theatre were relatively infrequent. Yet his insights have arguably informed the artistic practice—and political conscience—of generations of performance-makers. The Hold Everything Dear symposium at the University of Greenwich explored the implications of Berger's thought for performance

Rocks and Hard Places: Exploring Educational Psychologists’ Perspectives on “Off-Rolling” or Illegal Exclusionary Practices in Mainstream Secondary Schools in England

Research being undertaken by the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth is exploring educational psychologists’ knowledge of, and perspectives on, exclusionary practices in schools in England, particularly illegal practices referred to as “off-rolling”. Preliminary findings from the survey element of a mixed methods research project are reported here. The role of business models in the provision of educational psychology services to schools is considered through the conceptual lens of Giroux, Agamben and Ball to highlight ambiguities around the client relationship and to recast individualised ethical dilemmas as systemic features that inhibit direct challenges to school practices relating to inclusion. It is suggested that traded and privatised services risk implicating educational psychologists in schools’ management of the (in)visibility of “off-rolling” and the manufactured legitimacy of varied exclusionary practices

Barium sulfate crystallization dependence on upper rim calix[4]arene functional groups

Although the effects of p-sulfonated and p-phosphonated calix[4]arene on barium sulfate morphology are similar, their ability to form mesocrystals of material are markedly different. The p-phosphonated calix[4]arene results in the formation of fibre bundles similar to those previously observed during barium sulfate crystallization in the presence of di-block copolymers. The isostructural sulfonated calix[4]arene, however, affords material consistent with the initial formation of mesocrystals which subsequently fuse. This material shows significant beam damage when viewed under a transmission electron microscope (TEM) suggesting incorporation of the sulfonated calix[4]arene, although there was no evidence of this from X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies. We hypothesise that this calixarene is incorporated without significant change in structure of the material, and that the interaction of the macrocycle with the barium sulfate lattice is sufficiently weak that surface AFM imaging is effective in removing it from the surface

The Experiences of Adult Education Instructors Adapting to the Online Teaching and Learning Environment

This case study tracks the narrative journey of four faculty women as they discovered ways to handle the transitional experience of moving from face-to-face classroom teaching into an online asynchronous adult learning environment. It is the intention of the study that, by documenting the experiences of these faculty, we will be able to provide recommendations that will assist and support other faculty beginning to teach in an online environment

Investigation of the pathways leading to reversible and irreversible inactivation of horseradish peroxidase.

Verification of the purity of a commercial Horseradish peroxidase (HRP) preparation, kinetic analyses of two chromogenic assays and an investigation of the mechanisms of enzyme inactivation by two of its substrates, hydrogen peroxide (\rm{H\sp2 O\sb2}) and phenol, are described. Isoelectricfocusing of Boehringer Mannheim Grad II HRP preparation revealed that it is composed of neutral isozymes B and C, as reported by the Manufacturer. No other contaminating isoenzymes were detected. Kinetic analysis (T = 25\sp\circC, pH 7.4) of the 4-amino-antipyrine (AAP)/3,5-dichloro-2-hydroxybenzenesulfonic acid (HDCBS) chromogen system yielded K\sb{\rm mapp} values for \rm{H\sb2 O\sb2}, AAP and HDCBS of 41.0$\mu$M, 3.94mM and 1.4mM, respectively. Hydrogen peroxide, in the absence of donor substrates and at concentrations above 100$\mu$M, inactivates HRP in a time-dependent and irreversible mechanism-based suicide inactivation that does not require a pre-association of \rm{H\sb2 O\sb2} with HRP before substrate turnover. Protection against inactivation is afforded in the presence of donor substrates. Phenoxy radicals generated during the oxidation of phenol by HRP/\rm{H\sb2 O\sb2} also inactivate the enzyme in an irreversible, mechanism-based time-dependent inactivation that follows a single-exponential decay. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1992 .B395. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 31-04, page: 1793. Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1992

Small molecules induce mesocrystal formation: nanoparticle aggregation directed by self-assembling calixarenes

Calixarenes have been shown to induce mesocrystal formation of barium sulfate, despite being relatively low molecular weight additives. Scanning probe microscopy has shown that a possible mechanism is the self-assembling properties of the calixarene resulting in steric stabilization of the nanoparticles, comparable to that typically requiring polymeric additives

Changing Behaviour towards Aerobic and Strength Exercise (BASE): Design of a randomised, phase I study determining the safety, feasibility and consumer-evaluation of a remotely-delivered exercise programme in persons with multiple sclerosis

Background Multiple sclerosis is a chronic progressive neurological disease. Evidence attests to the benefits of exercise, guidelines for exercise in multiple sclerosis are available. Remote-delivery of exercise adherence programmes based on the exercise guidelines require urgent testing. Aims The design, and outcomes of Behaviour towards Aerobic and Strength Exercise in MS (BASE-MS), a remotely-delivered exercise training study based principles of behaviour change, will further evaluate the remote-delivery of the current exercise guidelines. Methods BASE is a 4-month clinically relevant randomised controlled trial to explore the delivery of a remotely supervised, guidelines-based exercise programme for persons with multiple sclerosis, underpinned by principles of health behaviour change. Initially, 72 persons with mild to moderate multiple sclerosis will be randomised in a 1:1:1 allocation to receive the BASE programme, or act as controls continuing usual care. On programme completion, exercise participants will be further randomised to an optimised adherence treatment or usual adherence. Our online survey assesses the primary outcome of exercise participation, and secondary outcomes of symptoms, and correlates of behaviour change at baseline, month four, month five and month eleven. Online surveys will capture coach and participant feedback to identify the contexts, mechanisms and outcomes of BASE implementation. Conclusions The research and clinical landscape for MS management must remain in-step with public health and health communication. BASE tests the remote-delivery of the current exercise guidelines for exercise in persons with MS. Safety, feasibility and evaluative outcomes will provide rich data for future remote-delivery of exercise in neurological conditions