Child’s Play? Colonial commodities, ephemera, and the construction of the greater French family

This article examines ephemera produced for French children in the interwar and early World War II period. Through a study of four different pieces related to chocolate, the article explores how imperially-themed objects like games, sticker books, and dioramas helped educate metropolitan children about the French nation and empire. The article argues that material objects like ephemera provide new opportunities to delve into the imaginaries of metropolitan boys and girls as they practiced, adopted, and interpreted their future roles as men and women of la plus grande France. This source-base therefore offers a novel way to examine the role that empire played in shaping gender in interwar France.Cet article traite des objets éphémères fabriqués à l’intention des petits Français dans l’entre-deux-guerres et à l’aube de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. L’examen de quatre de ces objets tous liés au chocolat, permet d’explorer la manière dont les jeux, albums de vignettes ou dioramas, contribuent à éduquer les enfants métropolitains sur la nation française et son empire. L’hypothèse est que de tels objets éphémères permettent de plonger dans l’imaginaire des filles et des garçons de la métropole occupés à pratiquer, adopter et interpréter leurs futurs rôles d’hommes et de femmes de la “plus grande France”. Ces sources permettent donc d’étudier sous un angle nouveau le rôle joué par l’empire dans la formation du genre en France dans l’entre-deux-guerres

Sir George Scharf and the early National Portrait Gallery: reconstructing an intellectual and professional artistic world, 1857–1895

This thesis investigates the professional practice of the National Portrait Gallery’s first Director Sir George Scharf (1820–95). It is the first focused analysis of his career and influence, within the nineteenth-century art and museum worlds. It attempts to position Scharf in relation to developments in art historical scholarship and the professionalization of museum practice, in the second half of the 1800s. Chapter 1 outlines Scharf’s methodology for portraiture research and considers his scientific approach alongside the establishment of art history as a discipline during his lifetime. Whilst exploring Scharf’s development of research standards to be carried forward by successors, it argues for his active role amongst a growing contingent of museum professionals. Chapter 2 reconstructs Scharf’s social and professional networks, collating the names of individuals with whom he interacted and mapping the physical sites of engagement. It proposes that access to contacts proved vitally important to his official work and that Scharf himself functioned as an influential figure in this sphere. The third chapter concerns the nature of Scharf’s relationships with members of the NPG’s Board of Trustees. It investigates his early collaboration with two expert Trustees and charts his interactions with consecutive Chairmen of the Board, demonstrating Scharf’s increasing authority with regards to Gallery procedures. Chapters 4 and 5 explore Scharf’s interventions relative to the organization and interpretation of the collection across the NPG’s early exhibition spaces. Chapter 4 argues that an increased capacity for display enabled Scharf to implement a rational hanging scheme, in line with the Gallery’s instructive purpose and inspired by contemporary debates over the efficient presentation of public art. The final chapter documents Scharf’s efforts to contextualize the national portraits, ranging from manipulating the exhibition environment, to expanding the NPG’s catalogue according to a scholarly model. In its examination of George Scharf’s career spanning five decades, particularly his engagement with discourse surrounding public art museums in the Victorian period, this thesis aims to make a significant contribution to the fields of museum studies and studies in the history of collecting and display

'A man of ‘unflagging zeal and industry’: Sir George Scharf as an emerging professional within the nineteenth-century museum world

Between his appointment as first secretary (and later director) of the National Portrait Gallery in 1857 and his retirement, just a few weeks before his death in 1895, George Scharf worked tirelessly to build a collection of authentic portraits with which to articulate a narrative of British history. He was also responsible for maintaining, displaying, interpreting and researching the early collection. This article focuses in particular upon Scharf’s distinctly professional approach to portraiture research and considers his contribution to wider developments in art historical scholarship and its methodology over the course of his career. It also seeks to situate Scharf within a network of likeminded individuals – arguably a first wave of emerging museum professionals – and contends that these figures were collectively engaged in carving out a model for proficient art museum practice in Britain, during the second half of the nineteenth century

Apprendre l’Empire, un jeu d’enfants ?

Cet article traite des objets éphémères fabriqués à l’intention des petits Français dans l’entre-deux-guerres et à l’aube de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. L’examen de quatre de ces objets tous liés au chocolat, permet d’explorer la manière dont les jeux, albums de vignettes ou dioramas, contribuent à éduquer les enfants métropolitains sur la nation française et son empire. L’hypothèse est que de tels objets éphémères permettent de plonger dans l’imaginaire des filles et des garçons de la métropole occupés à pratiquer, adopter et interpréter leurs futurs rôles d’hommes et de femmes de la “plus grande France”. Ces sources permettent donc d’étudier sous un angle nouveau le rôle joué par l’empire dans la formation du genre en France dans l’entre-deux-guerres.This article examines ephemera produced for French children in the interwar and early World War II period. Through a study of four different pieces related to chocolate, the article explores how imperially-themed objects like games, sticker books, and dioramas helped educate metropolitan children about the French nation and empire. The article argues that material objects like ephemera provide new opportunities to delve into the imaginaries of metropolitan boys and girls as they practiced, adopted, and interpreted their future roles as men and women of la plus grande France. This source-base therefore offers a novel way to examine the role that empire played in shaping gender in interwar France

The Bestiary in Canterbury Monastic Culture 1093-1360

This thesis presents a new way of thinking about medieval bestiaries. It adopts a locational lens to examine the context and monastic re-fashionings of the medieval Latin prose bestiary in Canterbury from 1093-1360. It has examined the catalogue and codicological evidence concerning the monks’ patronage, ownership, reading and interpretation of these books. It has sought to discover how the bestiary articulated the Canterbury monks’ affective and self-reflective thought modes and interacted with their other beast literature and animal art. This thesis forms a significant contribution to knowledge on the monastic perception and reception of the bestiary by reshaping our understanding through two original approaches. Firstly, it widens the definition of bestiaries to match medieval viewpoints and therefore includes extant copies and catalogue records of extracts and collations as well as whole and fragmentary bestiary books and contemporary Canterbury Cathedral Priory decorative inhabited and zoomorphic initials. Secondly, it pays close attention to the place, space, and context of the bestiary in terms of associated texts, Benedictine spiritual exegesis, and how, where, when, and why it was studied and for what purposes. This attention has led, among other findings, to the redating of the earliest Latin prose bestiary from England to the time of St Anselm’s archiepiscopate and confirmed M. R. James’s view that it was a Canterbury production. This new timeframe has allowed an analysis of the bestiary as part of the Anselmian cultural and intellectual revival and permitted the link between the bestiary and Benedictine preaching to the laity to be examined. It finds strong political reasons for the advancement of the bestiary by Canterbury monks in the twelfth century and for their continued study of the bestiary in the thirteenth century and into the fourteenth century. This thesis provides a methodogical approach regarding how Canterbury monks read their bestiaries and associated texts that is applicable to historians studying such materials elsewhere, thereby enhancing our understanding of Benedictine monastic culture

Effects of Diet Composition and Insulin Resistance Status on Plasma Lipid Levels in a Weight Loss Intervention in Women.

BackgroundOptimal macronutrient distribution of weight loss diets has not been established. The distribution of energy from carbohydrate and fat has been observed to promote differential plasma lipid responses in previous weight loss studies, and insulin resistance status may interact with diet composition and affect weight loss and lipid responses.Methods and resultsOverweight and obese women (n=245) were enrolled in a 1-year behavioral weight loss intervention and randomly assigned to 1 of 3 study groups: a lower fat (20% energy), higher carbohydrate (65% energy) diet; a lower carbohydrate (45% energy), higher fat (35% energy) diet; or a walnut-rich, higher fat (35% energy), lower carbohydrate (45% energy) diet. Blood samples and data available from 213 women at baseline and at 6 months were the focus of this analysis. Triglycerides, total cholesterol, and high- and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol were quantified and compared between and within groups. Triglycerides decreased in all study arms at 6 months (P<0.05). The walnut-rich diet increased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol more than either the lower fat or lower carbohydrate diet (P<0.05). The walnut-rich diet also reduced low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in insulin-sensitive women, whereas the lower fat diet reduced both total cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol in insulin-sensitive women (P<0.05). Insulin sensitivity and C-reactive protein levels also improved.ConclusionsWeight loss was similar across the diet groups, although insulin-sensitive women lost more weight with a lower fat, higher carbohydrate diet versus a higher fat, lower carbohydrate diet. The walnut-rich, higher fat diet resulted in the most favorable changes in lipid levels.Clinical trial registrationURL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01424007

Immersive imaginative hedonism: Daydreaming as experiential ‘consumption’

Imaginative pleasure through daydreaming has been theorised to be important in understanding the experience of desire and as a factor in escalating consumption. However, there is a risk this underplays the range of potentially immersive and intense experiences of daydreaming, prior to and independent of the purchase or use of marketplace commodities. Drawing on in-depth interviews, participant diaries and projective techniques, this study brings empirical data to extant conceptual work on the consumer imagination to examine the variety of consequences of elaborate daydreaming for commodity acquisition. We suggest that it need not necessarily perpetuate or expand 'actual' consumption, but may instead engender a longer, more reflective, pleasurable and meaningful experience from which purchase or acquisition may never materialise. Our study challenges accepted theories that associate daydreaming with consumerism or see it as an inevitable precursor to consumer disappointment, while shining a more positive light on the role of fantasising in shaping consumers' decisions

CTCF: Comprehending The Complex Functions of an 11 zinc finger transcription factor

In a multi-cellular organism, every somatic cell nucleus broadly contains the same sequence of DNA, yet clearly most cells are very different to each other. Specific sets of genes encoding proteins become activated whereas others are repressed. Within the genome, independently regulated genes are often found in close proximity to other genes that have different patterns of expression. How specific gene loci are organised in nuclear space is only recently emerging. CTCF is a protein that has been strongly implicated in mediating many distinct processes of gene regulation, including transcription, chromatin structure, and the structural organisation of gene loci. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the function of the CTCF protein in vivo, in particular the role of CTCF in regulating cellular proliferation, differentiation and the organisation of gene loci within the nucleus. The introduction aims to give an overview of the information required to understand the foundations of studies presented and discussed in this thesis. The transcription or activation of genes occurs in the cell nucleus and requires specific modifications of chromatin. Chapter 1 describes the formation of chromatin and key factors that modify this structure. How transcription is initiated, and influenced by cis-regulatory elements is also discussed. Since the initial characterisation as a transcription factor, many structural and regulatory functions have been attributed to CTCF, as detailed in chapter 2, which imply CTCF is a key regulator of development and cell viability. The haematopoietic system is used in this thesis as a model for investigating the function of CTCF in two distinct lineages. In chapter 3 the development of erythrocytes and T-lymphocytes is introduced. Chapters 4 and 5 describe the experiments used to address questions regarding CTCF function at the b-globin locus and during T-cell differentiation respectively. Published data strongly demonstrate the clustering of cis-regulat

Weight loss, glycemic control, and cardiovascular disease risk factors in response to differential diet composition in a weight loss program in type 2 diabetes: a randomized controlled trial.

ObjectiveTo test whether a weight loss program promotes greater weight loss, glycemic control, and improved cardiovascular disease risk factors compared with control conditions and whether there is a differential response to higher versus lower carbohydrate intake.Research design and methodsThis randomized controlled trial at two university medical centers enrolled 227 overweight or obese adults with type 2 diabetes and assigned them to parallel in-person diet and exercise counseling, with prepackaged foods in a planned menu during the initial phase, or to usual care (UC; two weight loss counseling sessions and monthly contacts).ResultsRelative weight loss was 7.4% (95% CI 5.7-9.2%), 9.0% (7.1-10.9%), and 2.5% (1.3-3.8%) for the lower fat, lower carbohydrate, and UC groups (P < 0.001 intervention effect). Glycemic control markers and triglyceride levels were lower in the intervention groups compared with UC group at 1 year (fasting glucose 141 [95% CI 133-149] vs. 159 [144-174] mg/dL, P = 0.023; hemoglobin A1c 6.9% [6.6-7.1%] vs. 7.5% [7.1-7.9%] or 52 [49-54] vs. 58 [54-63] mmol/mol, P = 0.001; triglycerides 148 [134-163] vs. 204 [173-234] mg/dL, P < 0.001). The lower versus higher carbohydrate groups maintained lower hemoglobin A1c (6.6% [95% CI 6.3-6.8%] vs. 7.2% [6.8-7.5%] or 49 [45-51] vs. 55 [51-58] mmol/mol) at 1 year (P = 0.008).ConclusionsThe weight loss program resulted in greater weight loss and improved glycemic control in type 2 diabetes