Sublime dissension: A working-class Anti-Pygmalion aesthetics of the female grotesque

This thesis reclaims and refigures negative stereotypical images of working-class femininity, proposing an “Anti-Pygmalion” aesthetics (referencing Shaw’s Pygmalion)in which pressure to conform to bourgeois notions of respectability is refused in favour of holding onto aspects of working-class female identity which have been treated as faulty and shameful. It examines a previously under-theorised dimension of the “female grotesque”: its formation under a process of classed construction. Contesting the disavowal of class identity in much art writing, I explore how it shapes art reception, showing how images of the Anti-Pygmalion female grotesque can provoke sublime experiences in viewers who share an empathetic connection with the work’s presentation of class difference. Against Enlightenment aesthetic theories which associate the sublime with the lofty, this thesis conceptualises it from the perspective of working-class women, connecting it with an excitement and awe that comes from below and bursts up and out. My approach is auto-ethnographic, drawing on my experiences as a woman from a working-class background to deepen my readings and address gaps in the field. To counter the erasure of working-class artists, I focus on work by working-class British artists and filmmakers from the 1980s –2000s. Exploring the problematic experiences of working-class artists and writers in the institutional spaces of education and the art world, I highlight the resulting internalisation of stigmatised subjectivities. This frames my analysis of three case studies, each addressing aspects of working-class femininity: Jo Spence’s Class-Shame series, the photographs collected in Richard Billingham’s Ray’s a Laugh, and Carol Morley’s film The Alcohol Years. My analysis builds up a dialogue around Anti-Pygmalion aesthetics which forces a reconsideration of the categories of the sublime and the grotesque in the light of working-class identities and creativities, dispelling stereotypes which have hampered existing criticism, and reframing working-class stories and lives as significant and valuable

An Eldorado for the Working Class? The import of Constructivism and the Lubetkin Legacy

This paper focuses on the work of a particular architect whose work between the 1920s and 1960s traverses of the Cold War divides between ’east’ and ’west’: Berthold Lubetkin. Beginning as a student at the Soviet institutions of the postrevolutionary period and then practicing in France and Britain as a paradoxically pro-Soviet emigre, Lubetkin introduced avant-garde ideas to apparently sleepy and anti-modernist Britain. Following his career over this long period, this paper tracks the manner in which his work responds to the development of Soviet architecture from Constructivism to Stalinism, in the apparently different economic and political context of post-war Britain, then embarking on an experiment in social democracy. It then discusses the way in which the buildings have been either conserved or not conserved in the context of neoliberalism in Britain, and the ways in which this does – or doesn’t – contrast with contemporary Russian practice.   Keywords: Constructivism, Communism, Cold War, Welfare State, Architectur

Bounded Rationality and Consumer Research: Lessons From a Study of Choices of Mobile Phone Service Contracts

This paper draws lessons about the allocation of resources to research aimed at studying the efficiency of consumer decision making in complex, fast-moving markets. These lessons emerged during research involving a large-sample survey of choices of mobile phone service plans by Australian consumers. In this kind of market, researchers will run into difficulties in collecting and evaluating data, and market conditions will not stand still while they address these problems. It is even possible that what seems suboptimal to researchers will sometimes actually be highly appropriate choice for consumers. The paper concludes by advocating the use of simpler methods to approximate the prevalence of decision-making inefficiency—such as collaborative work with owners of websites that try to assist consumers—as knowledge of optimal choices is not essential for understanding the sources of inefficiency or devising methods by which better choices might be made.

What we can learn from magnetic Compton scattering : application to the determination of spin polarization

Studies of spin-resolved electron momentum densities involve the measurement of the so-called magnetic Compton profile. This is a one-dimensional projection of the electron momentum distribution of only those electrons that contribute to the spin moment of a sample. The technique is applicable to ferri- and ferromagnetic materials. The profile is obtained via the inelastic 'Compton' scattering of high energy X-rays. Since electrons originating from different atomic orbitals have specific momentum densities, it is often possible to determine the origin of the magnetism present. Typically, interpretation requires the use of electronic structure calculations using molecular orbital and band structure approaches. Here, we highlight the application of the technique to the determination of the Fermi level spin polarization, the knowledge of which is important to the development of novel spintronic materials

Naši spomenici slavnom porazu: Socijalistički spomenici u Velikoj Britaniji

Britain is the one major European country never to have had a numerically significant Communist movement, with Marxism generally limited either to far-left enclaves in Wales and Scotland, Labour Party entryism or, most commonly, academia. However, the Labour movement at its more radical edges has produced numerous monuments, memorials and spaces, littered around urban and even rural Britain. Typically, they are monuments to defeat, given the lack of any hegemonic socialism in Britain. They are also unusually figurative for 20th century public sculpture, suggesting a perhaps unexpected traditionalism, not usually considered to be the case for the ‘west’, in the Cold War polarities often used to analyse monumental artworks. This paper will discuss these narratives of heroic failure as expressed in mosaics, murals, sculptures and plaques in South Wales, the north of England and London as attempts to answer the question of what socialist memorials are like in a country without even historical socialism.Velika Britanija jedna je od istaknutih europskih zemalja koja nikada nije imala brojčano značajniji komunistički pokret, dok je marksizam uglavnom bio ograničen na krajnje lijevo orijentirane enklave u Walesu i Škotskoj, infiltracije u Laburističku stranku ili najčešće na akademsku zajednicu. Međutim, radnički pokret u svojim radikalnijim oblicima proizveo je brojne spomenike, memorijalne komplekse i prostore razbacane po urbanim pa čak i ruralnim sredinama Velike Britanije. Najčešće su to spomenici porazu, uzme li se u obzir odsutnost bilo kakvoga hegemonijskog socijalizma u državi. Jednako tako, neobično su figurativni u odnosu na javne skulpture karakteristične za 20. stoljeće te upućuju na donekle neočekivani tradicionalizam kakav se obično ne povezuje sa Zapadom u okviru polariteta Hladnog rata, na kojima se često temelji analiza spomeničkog stvaralaštva. Ovaj rad razmatra naracije o herojskim neuspjesima izražene u obliku mozaika, murala, skulptura i spomen-ploča u južnom Walesu, na sjeveru Engleske te u Londonu, u nastojanju da odgovori na pitanje kako izgledaju socijalistički spomenici u zemlji u kojoj socijalizam u povijesnom smislu nikad nije zaživio

Attentional Preference After a Brief Mindfulness Meditation Intervention

It has been suggested that as a cognitive exercise, mindfulness meditation has the ability to significantly affect attention in its practitioners. This may help explain why mindfulness meditation has found success in clinical practices. This thesis sought to extend this line of research by investigating the influence of mindfulness meditation on attentional preference. In the context of this paper, attentional preference was seen to be the ability of the viewer to be biased to either detecting local components or the global whole. Study 1 investigated how a 10- minute breathing-oriented mindfulness intervention affects attentional preference on the Navon, Flanker and Simon tasks when compared to a similar relaxation exercise. Study 2 replicated and expanded on these results; adapting the design of Study 1 into a week-long study, and modifying the control group into a true control. Results indicate that on measures of attentional preference on global/local images, mindfulness meditation offers no significant improvement when compared to similar relaxation techniques or to an untreated control sample. This work suggests that mindfulness meditation does not impact attentional preference. Further research is needed in order to investigate whether different methods of mindfulness-based practices have greater effects

In silico characterisation of the four canonical plasmodium falciparum 70 kDa heat shock proteins

The 70 kDa heat shock proteins expressed by Plasmodium falciparum (PfHsp70s) are believed to be essential to both the survival and virulence of the malaria parasite. A total of six Hsp70 genes have been identified in the genome of P. falciparum. However, only four of these encode canonical Hsp70s, which are believed to localise predominantly in the cytosol (PfHsp70-1 and PfHsp70-x), the endoplasmic reticulum (PfHsp70-2) and mitochondria (PfHsp70-3) of the parasite. These proteins bind and release peptide substrates in an ATP-dependent manner, with the aid of a J-domain protein cochaperone and a nucleotide exchange factor (NEF). The aim of this study was to identify the residues involved in the interaction of these PfHsp70s with their peptide substrates, their J-domain cochaperones and potential NEFs. These residues were then mapped to three-dimensional (3D) structures of the proteins, modelled in three different conformations; each representing a different stage in the ATPase cycle. Additionally, these proteins were compared to different types of Hsp70s from a variety of different organisms and sequence features found to be specific to each PfHsp70 were mapped to their 3D structures. Finally, a novel modelling method was suggested, in which the structures of templates were remodelled to improve their quality before they were used in the homology modelling process. Based on the analysis of residues involved in interactions with other proteins, it was revealed that each PfHsp70 displayed features that were specific to its cellular localisation and each type of Hsp70 was predicted to interact with a different set of NEFs. The study of conserved features in each PfHsp70 revealed that PfHsp70-x displayed various sequence features atypical of both Plasmodium cytosolic Hsp70s and cytosolic Hsp70s in general. Additionally, residues conserved specifically in Hsp70s of Apicomplexa, Plasmodium and P. falciparum were identified and mapped to the each PfHsp70 model. Although these residues were too numerous to reveal any information of specific value, these models may be useful for the purposes of aiding the design of drug compounds against each PfHsp70. Finally, the novel modelling approach did show some promise. Half of the models produced using the modified templates were of a higher quality than their counterparts modelled using the original templates. This approach does still require a lot of validation work and statistical evaluation. It is hoped that it could prove to be a useful approach to homology modelling when the only templates available are poor quality structures

Structural bioinformatics studies and tool development related to drug discovery

This thesis is divided into two distinct sections which can be combined under the broad umbrella of structural bioinformatics studies related to drug discovery. The first section involves the establishment of an online South African natural products database. Natural products (NPs) are chemical entities synthesised in nature and are unrivalled in their structural complexity, chemical diversity, and biological specificity, which has long made them crucial to the drug discovery process. South Africa is rich in both plant and marine biodiversity and a great deal of research has gone into isolating compounds from organisms found in this country. However, there is no official database containing this information, making it difficult to access for research purposes. This information was extracted manually from literature to create a database of South African natural products. In order to make the information accessible to the general research community, a website, named “SANCDB”, was built to enable compounds to be quickly and easily searched for and downloaded in a number of different chemical formats. The content of the database was assessed and compared to other established natural product databases. Currently, SANCDB is the only database of natural products in Africa with an online interface. The second section of the thesis was aimed at performing structural characterisation of proteins with the potential to be targeted for antimalarial drug therapy. This looked specifically at 1) The interactions between an exported heat shock protein (Hsp) from Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum), PfHsp70-x and various host and exported parasite J proteins, as well as 2) The interface between PfHsp90 and the heat shock organising protein (PfHop). The PfHsp70-x:J protein study provided additional insight into how these two proteins potentially interact. Analysis of the PfHsp90:PfHop also provided a structural insight into the interaction interface between these two proteins and identified residues that could be targeted due to their contribution to the stability of the Hsp90:Hop binding complex and differences between parasite and human proteins. These studies inspired the development of a homology modelling tool, which can be used to assist researchers with homology modelling, while providing them with step-by-step control over the entire process. This thesis presents the establishment of a South African NP database and the development of a homology modelling tool, inspired by protein structural studies. When combined, these two applications have the potential to contribute greatly towards in silico drug discovery research