Processual constructions: towards a non-representational poetics of choreography

The thesis advances the notion of non-representational poetics positioning this as a genealogical extension in the field of conceptual dance. Concerned with “the genesis of the act of thinking in thought itself” (Deleuze, 2004: 176) the thesis focuses on modes of thinking by choreographers and performers in developing and performing the works addressed. Acknowledging Dance4’s as yet under articulated support of challenging and experimental choreographic practices in the UK, a non-representational poetics is elaborated through an analysis of works programmed in Dance4’s Nottdance Festival 1999-2003, and through practical and written articulation of works by the author developed while Research Artist at Dance4. Chapter one introduces the multi-modal methods and positions the three text-based elements of works examined - the score for Schreibstück by Thomas Lehmen, The General Rules Score for Project by Xavier Le Roy and Fiona Templeton’s text for Invisible Dances by Bock & Vincenzi - as more-than archival remains. Chapter two presents the contextual and theoretical premise taking Jerome Bel’s critique of representation (Lepecki, 2007: 45) in the work Jérôme Bel as departure point. Chapter three argues that Thomas Lehmen’s Schreibstück expands Bel’s critique by exposing the structural and agential processes of a system that is not representational. The following four chapters are dedicated to four works that operate through the activation of agential relational processes: Xavier Le Roy’s Project, Bock & Vincenzi’s Invisible Dances and the author’s two works what remains and is to come (in collaboration with Katrina Brown) and Perception Frames. Chapters four to seven respectively argue that: what remains and is to come operates through intra-relational material processes, Project through social processes that generate collective decision-making, Invisible Dances through an ongoing embedding of perceptual sensing processes and Perception Frames, through processual instructions for giving attention in perceptual sensing. The research contributes new knowledge through its articulation of a non-representational poetics that operates in the conjoined and processual operations of agency and relations to produce the choreographic work

Estimating commitment in a digital market place environment

The future generation of mobile communication shall be a convergence of mobile telephony and information systems which promises to change people's lives by enabling them to access information when, where and how they want. It presents opportunities to offer multimedia applications and services that meet end-toend service requirements. The Digital Marketplace framework will enable users to have separate contracts for different services on a per call basis. In order for such a framework to function appropriately, there has to be some means for the network operator to know in advance if its network will be able to support the user requirements. This paper discusses the methods by which the network operator will be able to determine if the system will be able to support another user of a certain service class and therefore negotiate parameters like commitment, QoS and the associated cost for providing the service, thus making the Digital Marketplace wor

The Euclid-Mullin graph

We introduce the Euclid-Mullin graph, which encodes all instances of Euclid's proof of the infinitude of primes. We investigate structural properties of the graph both theoretically and numerically; in particular, we prove that it is not a tree.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Journal of Number Theor

People's perceptions and classifications of sounds heard in urban parks : semantics, affect and restoration

Sounds have been broadly categorized by researchers into ‘human’, ‘nature’ and ‘mechanical’. It is less clear if the general public define and classify sounds in the same way and which factors influence their classification process. Establishing people’s classification and impression of urban park sounds helps identify their perception and experience of urban parks. This in turn aides the process of defining parks with reference to soundscapes, to produce an appreciated and potentially restorative place. This study involved urban park sounds, identified by park users, being presented in card sorts and survey items. Participants sorted the sounds into similar groups, in reference to a visited park. The terminology, factors involved and classification of the sounds was assessed using multidimensional scaling. Triangulation of the results suggests affect is a key factor in people’s classification process. Participants’ grouped sounds were labelled by affective terms more often than their perceived physical properties. Affective evaluations of each sound produced a similar classification structure as the card sort results. People’s classification structure also varied depending on how restorative they found their urban park. Furthermore schematic recollections played a part with many sounds being ‘expected’. Overall similarities and differences with ‘human’, ‘nature’ and ‘mechanical’ classifications were observed

Isolating Triggered Star Formation

Galaxy pairs provide a potentially powerful means of studying triggered star formation from galaxy interactions. We use a large cosmological N-body simulation coupled with a well-tested semi-analytic substructure model to demonstrate that the majority of galaxies in close pairs reside within cluster or group-size halos and therefore represent a biased population, poorly suited for direct comparison to ``field'' galaxies. Thus, the frequent observation that some types of galaxies in pairs have redder colors than ``field'' galaxies is primarily a selection effect. We select galaxy pairs that are isolated in their dark matter halos with respect to other massive subhalos (N=2 halos) and a control sample of isolated galaxies (N=1 halos) for comparison. We then apply these selection criteria to a volume-limited subset of the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey with M_Bj <= -19 and obtain the first clean measure of the typical fraction of galaxies affected by triggered star formation and the average elevation in the star formation rate. We find that 24% (30.5%) of these L^\star and sub-L^{\star} galaxies in isolated 50 (30) kpc/h pairs exhibit star formation that is boosted by a factor of >~ 5 above their average past value, while only 10% of isolated galaxies in the control sample show this level of enhancement. Thus, 14% (20 %) of the galaxies in these close pairs show clear triggered star formation. The isolation criteria we develop provide a means to constrain star formation and feedback prescriptions in hydrodynamic simulations and a very general method of understanding the importance of triggered star formation in a cosmological context. (Abridged.)Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, emulateapj format, accepted by Ap

The vulnerability of peripheral tourism: the rapid disenchantment of peripheral attraction.

This chapter explores the impact of foot and mouth disease on peripheral tourist destinations. It is argued that such destinations are extremely vulnerable to changes in visitor perception and that the effects of national disasters impact disproportionately. The twinned conceptions of the local and the global are employed to show how the time-space compression of globalisation is a double-edged sword. The paper first offers a theoretical explanation based on the symbolic otherness of peripheral places. In the first instance, this otherness attracts, but symbolic constructions are brittle things, and the advent of national disaster turns this otherness into a repelling force. We then offer some data on the uneven effects of foot and mouth disease. This demonstrates how the local of peripherality is vulnerable to the sensationalism of the global. We find that the lenses of perceptions of place magnify the good and the bad. But significantly, peripheral tourist places suffer most

Restrictive antibiotic stewardship associated with reduced hospital mortality in gram-negative infection

Introduction: Antimicrobial stewardship has an important role in the control of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) and antibiotic resistance. An important component of UK stewardship interventions is the restriction of broad-spectrum beta-lactam antibiotics and promotion of agents associated with a lower risk of CDI such as gentamicin. Whilst the introduction of restrictive antibiotic guidance has been associated with improvements in CDI and antimicrobial resistance evidence of the effect on outcome following severe infection is lacking. Methods: In 2008, Glasgow hospitals introduced a restrictive antibiotic guideline. A retrospective before/after study assessed outcome following gram-negative bacteraemia in the 2-year period around implementation. Results: Introduction of restrictive antibiotic guidelines was associated with a reduction in utilisation of ceftriaxone and co-amoxiclav and an increase in amoxicillin and gentamicin. 1593 episodes of bacteraemia were included in the study. The mortality over 1 year following gram-negative bacteraemia was lower in the period following guideline implementation (RR 0.852, P = 0.045). There was no evidence of a difference in secondary outcomes including ITU admission, length of stay, readmission, recurrence of bacteraemia and need for renal replacement therapy. There was a fall in CDI (RR 0.571, P = 0.014) and a reduction in bacterial resistance to ceftriaxone and co-amoxiclav but no evidence of an increase in gentamicin resistance after guideline implementation. Conclusion: Restrictive antibiotic guidelines were associated with a reduction in CDI and bacterial resistance but no evidence of adverse outcomes following gram-negative bacteraemia. There was a small reduction in one year mortality