Solar: Chris Meigh-Andrews' Sunbeam.

An essay about the ideas and concepts behind Sunbeam, a site-specific projection event by Chris Meigh-Andrew

Use of Preference Analysis to Identify Early Adopter Mind-Sets of Insect-Based Food Products

Insects may potentially provide an alternative protein source. However, consumers may not easily accept insects due to feelings of disgust. Therefore, identifying early adopters of insect-based food products may determine their future acceptance. This study was conducted to (1) identify early adopter Mind-Sets of insect-based food products, (2) determine product features early adopters would prefer in an insect-based food product, and (3) determine differences in Mind-Sets in different countries. Two studies were distributed online in the US and the Philippines. The first study included information about insects, while the second study had no information on insects. The experimental design included elements, or product features, regarding insect-based products that participants evaluated. Preference Analysis was used to segment the participants into Mind-Sets. Based on the results, participants neither liked nor disliked the elements used. Participants in the studies without insect information were found to have higher liking when comparing liking. Participants who were aware of the study being about insects may have had less interest when evaluating the elements, as the response times between the US studies were significantly different (p < 0.05). The role of information and segmentation of the participants demonstrates the importance of experimental design when using Preference Analysis

A phase I study of intraperitoneal nanoparticulate paclitaxel (Nanotax®) in patients with peritoneal malignancies

PURPOSE: This multicenter, open-label, dose-escalating, phase I study evaluated the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and preliminary tumor response of a nanoparticulate formulation of paclitaxel (Nanotax®) administered intraperitoneally for multiple treatment cycles in patients with solid tumors predominantly confined to the peritoneal cavity for whom no other curative systemic therapy treatment options were available. METHODS: Twenty-one patients with peritoneal malignancies received Nanotax® in a modified dose-escalation approach utilizing an accelerated titration method. All patients enrolled had previously received chemotherapeutics and undergone surgical procedures, including 33 % with optimal debulking. Six doses (50–275 mg/m2) of Cremophor-free Nanotax® were administered intraperitoneally for one to six cycles (every 28 days). RESULTS: Intraperitoneal (IP) administration of Nanotax® did not lead to increases in toxicity over that typically associated with intravenous (IV) paclitaxel. No patient reported ≥Grade 2 neutropenia and/or ≥Grade 3 neurologic toxicities. Grade 3 thrombocytopenia unlikely related to study medication occurred in one patient. The peritoneal concentration–time profile of paclitaxel rose during the 2 days after dosing to peritoneal fluid concentrations 450–2900 times greater than peak plasma drug concentrations and remained elevated through the entire dose cycle. Best response assessments were made in 16/21 patients: Four patients were assessed as stable or had no response and twelve patients had increasing disease. Five of 21 patients with advanced cancers survived longer than 400 days after initiation of Nanotax® IP treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to IV paclitaxel administration, Cremophor-free IP administration of Nanotax® provides higher and prolonged peritoneal paclitaxel levels with minimal systemic exposure and reduced toxicity

William Morris, cultural leadership, and the dynamics of taste

This examination of the social processes that inform cultural production asks how tastes are formed, transmitted, embedded, and reproduced across generations. These questions are explored through a study of William Morris, his working methods and products, and their impact on the decorative arts in Victorian Britain and beyond. Through the exercise of cultural leadership, Morris gave physical expression to the ideals and sentiments of Romanticism, and this in turn gave rise to a community of taste reaching across class boundaries and generations. Morrisian products and designs, through the agency of his disciples, became institutionally embedded, emblematic of refinement and good taste. A process model of taste formation is deployed to explore the economic and social dynamics at work in the Morris case and more generally

Admission of Nebraska into the Union

To discuss the events of 1866 and 1867 at this time has seemed to me presumptuous. Barely a dozen years have elapsed since Nebraska turned the sharp corner from territorial dependency to state sovereignty, and, as in all sharp historical turns, there was a blaze of excitement, a bitter political contest, accompanied by more than the usual amount of bumptiousness and belligerency, of heart-burnings and jealousy, over which fourteen years may have deposited a thin layer of forgetfulness, through which a foolhardy explorer might break, to the discomfiture of himself and the revival of volcanic memories. But, pressed by your esteemed President for a paper upon the admission of Nebraska to the Union, and unable, from present experience and observation, to go back farther than that period, I have consented to take up this subject, and trust that I may handle it with sufficient discretion to obtain your pardon for the presumption in choosing a topic so nearly connected with the stage and actors of to-day. In 1860 the Nebraska legislature submitted to the people a proposition for holding a convention to adopt a constitution and knock at the doors of congress for admission to the Union. But the movement was premature. The people were too poor, the country was not being rapidly settled and improved, and the taxes were high enough without taking upon the handful of settlers then scattered up and down the Missouri valley the responsibility and expense of statehood, and the proposition for a convention was defeated