Address: Critical irony, neo-authenticity and humour in the art we call public

This text is a critical analysis of the term ‘public art’ and the often unquestioned assumptions that underpin the term’s still-extant currency, this in spite of the mani-fold shifts that have taken place in recent decades that, for me at least, render mori-bund any reductive oppositions between the ‘public’ and the ostensibly ‘private’. Attempting to go beyond the binary of ‘autonomous’, privatized domain of white-cube, ‘gallery art’ versus a putatively ‘socially engaged’ art within the broader domain of the public sphere, I will attempt to argue that the all-too-often elided dimension of the time of art, or art’s durationalty conceived of as spatio-temporal ‘scene-event’ might offer a productive means of exceeding the ossified public-private dialectic

Charles Dickens in Love

When Charles Dickens died in 1870 he was the best-known man in the English-speaking world—the pre-eminent Victorian celebrity. Yet when the first person named in his will turned out to be an unknown woman named Ellen Ternan, only a handful of people had any idea who she was, and her conspicuous presence in his will was a mystery. She was not the first woman who had fired his imagination. As a young man he had fallen deeply in love with Maria Beadnell. A few years later he was stunned by the sudden death of his young sister-in-law, Mary Scott Hogarth, and worshiped her memory for the rest of his life. Using hundreds of primary sources, Charles Dickens in Love narrates the story of the most intense romances of Dickens’s life, and shows how his novels both testify to his own strongest affections and serve as memorials to the young women he loved all too well, if not always wisely. [From the Publisher]https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/books/1016/thumbnail.jp

Starbursts and Star Clusters in the Ultraviolet

Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet (UV) images of nine starburst galaxies reveal them to be highly irregular, even after excluding compact sources (clusters and resolved stars). Most (7/9) are found to have a similar intrinsic effective surface brightnesses, suggesting that a negative feedback mechanism is setting an upper limit to the star formation rate per unit area. All starbursts in our sample contain UV bright star clusters indicating that cluster formation is an important mode of star formation in starbursts. On average about 20% of the UV luminosity comes from these clusters. The brightest clusters, or super star clusters (SSC), are preferentially found at the very heart of starbursts. The size of the nearest SSCs are consistent with those of Galactic globular clusters. The luminosity function of SSCs is well represented by a power law with a slope alpha ~ -2. There is a strong correlation between the far infrared excess and the UV spectral slope. The correlation is well modeled by a geometry where much of their dust is in a foreground screen near to the starburst, but not by a geometry of well mixed stars and dust.Comment: 47 pages, text only, LaTeX with aaspp.sty (version 3.0), compressed postscript figures available at ftp://eta.pha.jhu.edu/RecentPublications/meurer

Measuring values with the Schwartz Values Survey at a university in the Western Cape, South Africa

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 45-47).The aim of this study is to determine whether the Schwartz universal value types are the same for South African students compared to other international studies. A total of 136 students completed the Schwartz Values Survey across three academic study years. The survey reports respondent values and the extent of their religiosity on a Likert-scale. The measure for internal consistency reliability for eight of the ten motivational value types is good, with poor reliability scores for Stimulation and Security. No statistically significant difference presents across the student academic years. The motivational value type Tradition is consistent with a high degree of religiosity. Hedonism is consistent with a low degree of religiosity

Leakage of old carbon dioxide from a major river system in the Canadian Arctic

The Canadian Arctic is warming at an unprecedented rate. Warming-induced permafrost thaw can lead to mobilization of aged carbon from stores in soils and rocks. Tracking the carbon pools supplied to surrounding river networks provides insight on pathways and processes of greenhouse gas release. Here, we investigated the dual-carbon isotopic characteristics of the dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) pool in the main stem and tributaries of the Mackenzie River system. The radiocarbon (14C) activity of DIC shows export of “old” carbon (2,380 ± 1,040 14C years BP on average) occurred during summer in sampling years. The stable isotope composition of river DIC implicates degassing of aged carbon as CO2 from riverine tributaries during transport to the delta; however, information on potential drivers and fluxes are still lacking. Accounting for stable isotope fractionation during CO2 loss, we show that a large proportion of this aged carbon (60 ± 10%) may have been sourced from biospheric organic carbon oxidation, with other inputs from carbonate weathering pathways and atmospheric exchange. The findings highlight hydrologically connected waters as viable pathways for mobilization of aged carbon pools from Arctic permafrost soils

Elevated Paracellular Glucose Flux across Cystic Fibrosis Airway Epithelial Monolayers Is an Important Factor for Pseudomonas aeruginosa Growth.

People with cystic fibrosis (CF) who develop related diabetes (CFRD) have accelerated pulmonary decline, increased infection with antibiotic-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa and increased pulmonary exacerbations. We have previously shown that glucose concentrations are elevated in airway surface liquid (ASL) of people with CF, particularly in those with CFRD. We therefore explored the hypotheses that glucose homeostasis is altered in CF airway epithelia and that elevation of glucose flux into ASL drives increased bacterial growth, with an effect over and above other cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR)-related ASL abnormalities. The aim of this study was to compare the mechanisms governing airway glucose homeostasis in CF and non-CF primary human bronchial epithelial (HBE) monolayers, under normal conditions and in the presence of Ps. aeruginosa filtrate. HBE-bacterial co-cultures were performed in the presence of 5 mM or 15 mM basolateral glucose to investigate how changes in blood glucose, such as those seen in CFRD, affects luminal Ps. aeruginosa growth. Calu-3 cell monolayers were used to evaluate the potential importance of glucose on Ps. aeruginosa growth, in comparison to other hallmarks of the CF ASL, namely mucus hyperviscosity and impaired CFTR-dependent fluid secretions. We show that elevation of basolateral glucose promotes the apical growth of Ps. aeruginosa on CF airway epithelial monolayers more than non-CF monolayers. Ps. aeruginosa secretions elicited more glucose flux across CF airway epithelial monolayers compared to non-CF monolayers which we propose increases glucose availability in ASL for bacterial growth. In addition, elevating basolateral glucose increased Ps. aeruginosa growth over and above any CFTR-dependent effects and the presence or absence of mucus in Calu-3 airway epithelia-bacteria co-cultures. Together these studies highlight the importance of glucose as an additional factor in promoting Ps. aeruginosa growth and respiratory infection in CF disease

Associations between self-esteem and smoking and excessive alcohol consumption in the UK: a cross-sectional study using the BBC UK Lab database

Introduction There is mixed evidence regarding the associations between self-esteem and smoking and excessive alcohol consumption. This study aimed to investigate whether self-esteem is associated with smoking status and alcohol consumption in a large sample of adults in the United Kingdom after adjusting for age, sex, socio-economic status and depressed mood. Methods Design: Cross-sectional correlational study conducted under the aegis of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) between 2009 and 2013. Participants: 187,398 respondents (67.9% female) with a mean age of 32.82 years (SD=12.41) providing complete data. Setting: UK. Measures Online self-report questionnaire. The outcomes were smoking status (current smoker, ever smoker) and alcohol consumption (current drinker, excessive drinker); the input variable was self-esteem measured using a Single Item Self-Esteem Scale; covariates were age, sex, SES, and depressed mood measured using a single item question. Results The odds of being an ever smoker and a current smoker were greater in people with lower self-esteem (AdjOR 0.97; 95% CI 0.95-0.99, Cohen’s d=-0.02; and AdjOR 0.96; 95% CI 0.94-0.99, Cohen’s d=-0.02 respectively). The odds of being a current drinker were lower in people with lower self-esteem (AdjOR 1.20, 95% CI 1.17-1.24, Cohen’s d=0.10) while being an excessive drinker was associated with lower self-esteem (β=-0.13, p<0.001, F(5,187392)=997.14, p<0.001, Cohen’s d=0.3). Conclusions Lower self-esteem appears to be positively associated with ever- and current smoking and excessive alcohol consumption and negatively associated with current alcohol consumption

Multiscale modelling of drug-polymer nanoparticle assembly identifies parameters influencing drug encapsulation efficiency

Using a multiscale (dual resolution) approach combining an atomistic (GROMOS96) and coarse-grain (MARTINI) force field, we have been able to simulate the process of drug-polymer nanoparticle assembly by nanoprecipitation from mixed solvents. Here we present the development and application of this method to the interaction of three poly(glycerol adipate) polymer variants with the anti-cancer drug dexamethasone phosphate. Differences in encapsulation efficiency and drug loading between the polymers are in agreement with the experimental trend. Reference atomistic simulations at key points along the predicted aggregation pathway support the accuracy of the much more compute-efficient multiscale methodology