The Writer [Programme Note]

A programme note/essay commissioned for the first production of Ella Hickson's play, The Writer, staged at the Almeida Theatre, London, in April 2018

Staging difference: queer theory and gender in British performance, 1968-1998

This thesis proposes a relationship between Queer Theory and the development of perfonuance conventions in British theatre in the period 1968 to 1998. The basis of that relationship is a theoretical account of subjectivity, rooted in feminist and psychoanalytic critiques of the relationship between sex, gender and sexuality - primarily in the works of Judith Butler and Elizabeth Grosz. That account challenges the essential construction of gendered identity and seeks to detail the ways in which certain subjectivities are rendered legitimate or illegitimate, marked or unmarked. The notion of conditional subjectivities is first explored through a critical analysis of camp performance as a form of parody which reflexively invokes that which it challenges. Round the Home is discussed as an example of the mainstream acceptance and use of camp, noting in particular the problematic presence of "polari," a form of gay slang. The consequent issues of self-identification raised by camp leads to a discussion of the work of the Gay Sweatshop who sought to control and redefine the representation of gay subjects in mainstream theatre and television. This issue of authentic representation as political necessity is then pursued through the work of Tony Kushner and Ron Athey, considering performative responses to the AIDS crisis and the reality of subjects marked by AIDS or HIV infected bodies. The potential impasse created by Queer Theory's account of the material body is explored through a discussion of unmarked race and desire in Caryl Churchill and Joint Stock's production of the play Cloud Nine, and in the representation of lesbian identity in the work of Jill Posener, Jackie Kay and Michelene Wandor. Finally, issues of representation and legitimacy are explored through the evolution of Pride from protest march to carnival celebration to offer a potential model of queer 3 performance not as a radical alternative operating "outside" of normative cultural discourse, but a process of working the weaknesses within that norm. The relationship between Queer Theory and British performance in this period articulates a challenge to essentialist accounts of subjectivity. This challenge is manifested in a relationship between theatrical performance conventions and methodologies of political activism: it describes a pursuit of forms of performance which might account for marginal subjects, recognising the precarious historical and cultural conditions in which marginal subjects appear at all

The Writer [Programme Note]

A programme note/essay commissioned for the first production of Ella Hickson's play, The Writer, staged at the Almeida Theatre, London, in April 2018

Multidisciplinary and Multi-Objective Optimal Design of a Cascade Control System for a Flexible Wing with Embedded Control Surfaces Having Actuator Dynamics

A multidisciplinary and multi-objective optimization approach that integrates the design of the control surfaces’ sizes, active control systems, and estimator for an aircraft’s wing with three control surfaces is developed. Due to its attractive stability robustness properties, a control system based on the LQR (Linear Quadratic Regulator) is built for each control surface. The geometrical parameters of the control surfaces such as the span wise and chord lengths, the design details of the LQR penalty matrices, and the locations of the estimator poles are tuned by a widely used multi-objective optimization algorithm called NSGA-II (Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm). Four objectives are considered: minimizing impacts of external gust loads, maximizing stability robustness and extending flutter boundaries, reducing control energy consumption, and minimizing the Frobenius norm of the estimator gains. The solution of the multi-objective optimization problem is a set called Pareto set and the set of the corresponding function evaluation is called Pareto front. The solution set contains various geometrical configurations of the control surfaces with different feedback gains, which represent different degrees of optimal compromises among the design objectives. The optimization results demonstrate the competing relationship between the design objectives and necessity of handling the design problem in a multidisciplinary and multi-objective context. Three major results are obtained from inspecting the profiles of the closed-loop eigenvalues at various airspeeds 1) a unique control gain can be designed for the entire flight envelope, 2) the flutter boundaries can be infinitely extended, and 3) a unique observer gain can be designed for the entire flight envelope. The third chapter of this thesis presents a multi-objective and multidisciplinary optimal design of a cascade control system for an aircraft wing with four aerodynamic ailerons actuated by four identical brushless DC motors. The design of the control system is broken into a secondary and primary control algorithm. The primary control algorithm is designed based on the concept of LQR and then applied to mathematical model of the wing and its control surfaces to calculate their required deflections. The output of the primary controller serves as set-point for the secondary control loop which consists of the dynamic of the DC motor and Proportional Velocity (PV) based controller. Then, an optimal design of the control algorithms is carried out in multi-objective and multidisciplinary settings. Three objectives are considered: 1) the speed of response of the secondary controlled system must be faster than that of the primary one, 2) the controlled system must be robust against external disturbances affecting both control layers, and 3) optimal energy consumption. The decision variables of the primary as well as secondary control algorithms and the sizing elements of the control surfaces form the design parameter space of the optimization problem. Both geometrical and dynamic constraints are applied on the setup parameters. The multi-objective optimization problem (MOP) is solved by NSGA-II, which is one of the popular algorithms in solving MOPs. The solution of the MOP is a set of optimal control algorithms that represent the conflicts among the design objectives. Numerical simulations show that the design goals are achieved, the secondary control is always fast enough to prevent the propagation of disturbances to the primary loop, the inner and outer control algorithms are robust against disturbance inputs, and the primary control loop stays stable when the air stream velocity varies from 80 to 1000 (⁄) even at its worst relative stability value. The presented study may become the basis for multi-objective and multidisciplinary optimal design for aeroelastic structure having actuator dynamics

Hodgkin's lymphoma

This issue of eMedRef provides information to clinicians on the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and therapeutics of Hodgkin's lymphoma

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

This issue of eMedRef provides information to clinicians on the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and therapeutics of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

Microbial Induction of Immunity, Inflammation, and Cancer

The human microbiota presents a highly active metabolic that influences the state of health of our gastrointestinal tracts as well as our susceptibility to disease. Although much of our initial microbiota is adopted from our mothers, its final composition and diversity is determined by environmental factors. Westernization has significantly altered our microbial function. Extensive experimental and clinical evidence indicates that the westernized diet, rich in animal products and low in complex carbohydrates, plus the overuse of antibiotics and underuse of breastfeeding, leads to a heightened inflammatory potential of the microbiota. Chronic inflammation leads to the expression of certain diseases in genetically predisposed individuals. Antibiotics and a “clean” environment, termed the “hygiene hypothesis,” has been linked to the rise in allergy and inflammatory bowel disease, due to impaired beneficial bacterial exposure and education of the gut immune system, which comprises the largest immune organ within the body. The elevated risk of colon cancer is associated with the suppression of microbial fermentation and butyrate production, as butyrate provides fuel for the mucosa and is anti-inflammatory and anti-proliferative. This article will summarize the work to date highlighting the complicated and dynamic relationship between the gut microbiota and immunity, inflammation and carcinogenesis

Between care and self-care: dramaturgies of mindfulness in the work of the vacuum cleaner

Since 2009, the performance work of ‘art and activist collective of one’ James Leadbitter—better known as the vacuum cleaner—has repeatedly engaged with issues surrounding mental illness, ‘madness’ and mental health discrimination. This paper explores the relationship of that work to the discourse of ‘mindfulness’, a form of cognitive therapy centred on cultivating a non-judgmental and present-focused attentiveness to one’s own mental state. While an increasing body of evidence suggests the potential health benefits of mindfulness, its broader application has been challenged for invoking forms of self-critique which elide the social factors that undermine well-being. In response, this paper examines how Leadbitter’s staging of the relationships between care and self-care might challenge the imperatives of individuated responsibility that are characteristic of neoliberal discourses. Rather than reproducing existing social relations, Leadbitter’s dramaturgies of mindfulness suggest how an attentiveness to one’s own wellbeing may be extended outwards as a response to others in prefigurative encounters which allow us to imagine and rehearse alternatives.Publisher PD