Marketing modernism to the maitresse de maison : art nouveau and the female consumer

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on March 29, 2011).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Thesis advisor: Dr. Michael E. Yonan.M.A. University of Missouri--Columbia 2010.The design reform movement known as Art Nouveau developed in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. Its popularity peaked in 1900 at the Paris Exposition Universelle and waned around 1910 with the advent of true abstractionist Modernism in both the fine and applied arts. Art Nouveau appeared simultaneously in multiple European nations and the United States with iterations found mainly in architecture and the decorative arts including domestic goods, personal items like jewelry and graphic design. The disparate strains of the movement developed individual formal styles, but shared a common theoretical foundation based on the desire to create objects which reflected the characteristics of modern society. These artists and designers reacted against the historicist revivalism of Victorian-age design, advanced the dissolution of the hierarchical structure among the arts and protested the poor quality of manufactured goods generated by mass production. My socio-historical argument centers on the Parisian version of the movement and its relationship to the practice of mass consumption among bourgeois women. Artists and art dealers promoted the movement as a means of modernizing the domestic interior that for them would accomplish the goal of modernizing the society that inhabited those interiors. In France, the domestic sphere was the purview of bourgeois women who created the ideal interior through their practice of consumer capitalism. A woman's home reflected the bourgeois social status of her family but could also express her individual artistic sensibility. The Art Nouveau movement was primarily aimed at the bourgeois class. Discretionary income allowed the bourgeois the economic freedom to express their modernity through consumption. Consumerism and expression of one's individual identity were long-established components of the bourgeois identity.Includes bibliographical reference

The postmaster's porcelain : collecting European decorative art in middle America

Field of study: Art history and archaeology.Dr. Michael Yonan, Dissertation Supervisor.Includes vita."July 2018.""This dissertation provides a case study of a type of art collecting that has not received significant scholarly attention, one based on the collecting activity of middleclass Americans living in the Midwestern United States, but who nonetheless are interested in the appeal of European "high" art. I intend to show that collecting and the appreciation of art are not limited to those with the financial acumen of a Rockefeller, Guggenheim, or Saatchi. The following analysis centers on Philip and Mildred Strain, a postmaster and schoolteacher, and the obstacles they overcame to amass a collection that reflected their interest in eighteenth-century European aesthetics. Typically, collectors attract the attention of scholars when they have access to art and artists that become revered enough to be placed in the art historical canon. Access to the work of those artists necessitates the ability to connect with dealers, as well as the artists themselves, in global cultural centers like Paris, New York City, or London. In 1958, Aline B. Saarinen published a book titled The Proud Possessors, which is composed of fifteen biographical sketches of American art collectors. It established a canon of American collectors on which the scholarship of collecting is based. Saarinen, an art critic for The New York Times, narrates the lives of men who built the physical, economic, and political infrastructure of the United States, women whose names now adorn major American museums, and the world travelers who brought the work of modern artists like Picasso and Matisse to America. Saarinen writes that “the overpowering common denominator” that unites these collectors is that "collecting art was a primary means of expression" and that their "involvement with art collecting was passionate and urgent." Saarinen's comments about the motives of the socially prominent collectors, whose financial resources and connections allowed them access to the international art market, can also be applied to Mr. and Mrs. Strain. The Strains also used their collection to express an identity of their own making. However, the Strains could be categorized as "outsider collectors," a term that echoes the concept of the outsider artist, a recognized genre in the art-historical canon. Outsider artists operate separately from mainstream art establishments; they are often self-trained and labor for years in obscurity before being discovered by a dealer, curator, or scholar. The Strains built their store of connoisseurial knowledge through secondary sources such as auction catalogs and collecting guides. Their close relationship with Jack Drew, an art and antiques dealer in Omaha, mimicked the relationships between the canonical collectors and dealers, galleries, and auction houses with Drew serving as a consultant facilitating access to the art and antiques markets of metropolitan cultural centers. The Strains lacked the financial and social resources of Saarinen's canon of collectors, but they shared a passion that motivated their appreciation of the art to which they were most attracted. I approach the Strains' collecting activities as Saarinen approached wealthy collectors. This dissertation will examine the Strains' biography to locate the origin of their interest in the art they collected. It includes a detailed documentation of the methods they used to display their collection in their home, since that environment no longer exists. Their collection has been dispersed and their residence remodeled for future inhabitants. My discussion relies on interviews with individuals who knew the Strains in order to understand how they lived with their collection. My analysis provides another chapter to the story of art collectors in America, expanding our understanding of the human impulse to express ourselves through the objects we possess."--PrefaceIncludes bibliographical references

The alternate GNB3 splice variant, Gβ3s, exhibits an altered signalling response to EGF stimulation, which leads to enhanced cell migration

It has recently been reported that the duplication of the GNB3 gene has been shown to be directly linked to an obesity phenotype, both in humans and also in a humanised mouse model. Moreover, the common human GNB3 c.825C>T polymorphism (rs5443) causes this ubiquitously expressed gene to be aberrantly spliced approximately 50% of the time leading to the production of both a normal Gβ3 protein and a truncated, possibly less stable subunit, known as Gβ3s. The presence of the GNB3 825T allele has previously been shown to be associated with predisposition to hypertension, obesity, various cancers, Alzheimers, age related cognitive function, erectile dysfunction as well as a marker for pharmacogenetic drug action. Great controversy, however, currently exists as to whether these phenotypes associated with the 825T allele are a) mainly due to the presence of the smaller, possibly more active, Gβ3s subunit or b) merely down to the haploinsufficiency of the normal GNB3 transcript, due to its frequent aberrant splicing. In order to try and address these two conflicting hypothesis, we report on the identification and characterisation of signalling alterations unique to the presence of Gβ3s protein subunit. Moreover we also show the physiological consequences associated with altered signalling, directly induced by the Gβ3s subunit. For this, we used both an EBV transformed lymphoblast cell line homozygote for GNB3 825T/825T (TT) and a stable Gβ3s expressing recombinant COS-7 clone. In both of these cell lines that express the Gβ3s subunit, we found enhanced cytosolic calcium influx upon stimulation with EGF, TGFα and VEGF ligands, as compared to “normal” GNB3 controls with the 825C/825C (CC) genotype. This aberrant calcium influx also led to an increase in ERK, but not AKT1, phosphorylation. Despite the lack of AKT1 activation, we paradoxically observed a significant increase in phosphorylation of its downstream substrates, namely mTOR and p70S6k (KS6B2). Moreover we observed a decrease in phospho FoxO3a only in Gβ3s expressing cells, but not in the “normal” GNB3 (CC) control cell line. The presence of the Gβ3s subunit also appeared to alter the distinct localisation patterns of both Foxo3a and AKT1, while also increasing the colocalisation of mTOR and p70S6K. Subsequent growth factor stimulation studies revealed that EGF treatment, of Gβ3s expressing cells, appeared to cause a significant decrease in cAMP levels, which, in turn resulted in both enhanced caveolin-1a phosphorylation, and an increase in actin stress fibre formation. The identification of these distinct Gβ3s specific signalling alterations were indicative of a more aggressive migratory phenotype. This led us to further investigate and confirm that the presence of the Gβ3s subunit also appears to cause significantly enhanced migration and robust scratch wound healing kinetics, as compared to cells harbouring only the normal copy of the gene. These data therefore present convincing evidence that the Gβ3s subunit is stable, functional and its presence can significantly alter signalling pathways, in different cell types

Electron transport properties of sub-3-nm diameter copper nanowires

Density functional theory and density functional tight-binding are applied to model electron transport in copper nanowires of approximately 1 nm and 3 nm diameters with varying crystal orientation and surface termination. The copper nanowires studied are found to be metallic irrespective of diameter, crystal orientation and/or surface termination. Electron transmission is highly dependent on crystal orientation and surface termination. Nanowires oriented along the [110] crystallographic axis consistently exhibit the highest electron transmission while surface oxidized nanowires show significantly reduced electron transmission compared to unterminated nanowires. Transmission per unit area is calculated in each case, for a given crystal orientation we find that this value decreases with diameter for unterminated nanowires but is largely unaffected by diameter in surface oxidized nanowires for the size regime considered. Transmission pathway plots show that transmission is larger at the surface of unterminated nanowires than inside the nanowire and that transmission at the nanowire surface is significantly reduced by surface oxidation. Finally, we present a simple model which explains the transport per unit area dependence on diameter based on transmission pathways results

Accuracy of methods for detecting an irregular pulse and suspected atrial fibrillation: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Pulse palpation has been recommended as the first step of screening to detect atrial fibrillation. We aimed to determine and compare the accuracy of different methods for detecting pulse irregularities caused by atrial fibrillation. Methods: We systematically searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and LILACS until 16 March 2015. Two reviewers identified eligible studies, extracted data and appraised quality using the QUADAS-2 instrument. Meta-analysis, using the bivariate hierarchical random effects method, determined average operating points for sensitivities, specificities, positive and negative likelihood ratios (PLR, NLR); we constructed summary receiver operating characteristic plots. Results: Twenty-one studies investigated 39 interventions (n = 15,129 pulse assessments) for detecting atrial fibrillation. Compared to 12-lead electrocardiography (ECG) diagnosed atrial fibrillation, blood pressure monitors (BPMs; seven interventions) and non-12-lead ECGs (20 interventions) had the greatest accuracy for detecting pulse irregularities attributable to atrial fibrillation (BPM: sensitivity 0.98 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.92–1.00), specificity 0.92 (95% CI 0.88–0.95), PLR 12.1 (95% CI 8.2–17.8) and NLR 0.02 (95% CI 0.00–0.09); non-12-lead ECG: sensitivity 0.91 (95% CI 0.86–0.94), specificity 0.95 (95% CI 0.92–0.97), PLR 20.1 (95% CI 12–33.7), NLR 0.09 (95% CI 0.06–0.14)). There were similar findings for smartphone applications (six interventions) although these studies were small in size. The sensitivity and specificity of pulse palpation (six interventions) were 0.92 (95% CI 0.85–0.96) and 0.82 (95% CI 0.76–0.88), respectively (PLR 5.2 (95% CI 3.8–7.2), NLR 0.1 (95% CI 0.05–0.18)). Conclusions: BPMs and non-12-lead ECG were most accurate for detecting pulse irregularities caused by atrial fibrillation; other technologies may therefore be pragmatic alternatives to pulse palpation for the first step of atrial fibrillation screening

A participatory approach to variety trials for organic systems

A participatory research methodology was used to compare the performance of UK wheat varieties under organic conditions. Plots of three breadmaking winter wheat varieties (Hereward, Solstice and Xi19) and a mixture (1:1:1) of the varieties were grown at 19 UK farms in two seasons (2003/04 and 2004/05). Meas-urements were taken of growth habit, yield and grain quality. Grain yields in both seasons showed significant site by variety interactions, although the variation among sites was greater than among varieties in both instances. Wheat grown at Western sites was significantly shorter and higher-yielding than that grown at Eastern sites in 2003/04 but significantly taller in 2004/05. As with grain yield, greater variation among site than variety was found in the Hagberg Falling Number and protein concentra-tion results in both seasons. The results from the two years of trials illustrate the variability of organic systems and the difficulty in selecting a single variety suitable for organic farms

Redefining the performing arts archive

This paper investigates representations of performance and the role of the archive. Notions of record and archive are critically investigated, raising questions about applying traditional archival definitions to the performing arts. Defining the nature of performances is at the root of all difficulties regarding their representation. Performances are live events, so for many people the idea of recording them for posterity is inappropriate. The challenge of creating and curating representations of an ephemeral art form are explored and performance-specific concepts of record and archive are posited. An open model of archives, encouraging multiple representations and allowing for creative reuse and reinterpretation to keep the spirit of the performance alive, is envisaged as the future of the performing arts archive

Generalization of perceptual learning of degraded speech across talkers

Purpose: We investigated whether perceptual learning of noise-vocoded (NV) speech is specific to a particular talker or accent. Method: Four groups of listeners (n = 18 per group) were first trained by listening to 20 NV sentences that had been recorded by a talker with either the same native accent as the listeners or a different regional accent. They then heard 20 novel NV sentences from either the native- or nonnative-accented talker (test), in a 2 × 2 (Training Talker per Accent × Test Talker per Accent) design. Results: Word-report scores at test for participants trained and tested with the same (native- or nonnative-accented) talker did not differ from those for participants trained with 1 talker per accent and tested on another. Conclusions: Learning of NV speech generalized completely between talkers. Two additional experiments confirmed this result. Thus, when listeners are trained to understand NV speech, they are not learning talker- or accent-specific features but instead are learning how to use the information available in the degraded signal. The results suggest that people with cochlear implants, who experience spectrally degraded speech, may not be too disadvantaged if they learn to understand speech through their implant by listening primarily to just 1 other talker, such as a spouse

Late Holocene climate reorganisation and the North American Monsoon

The North America Monsoon (NAM) provides the majority of rainfall for central and northern Mexico as well as parts of the south west USA. The controls over the strength of the NAM in a given year are complex, and include both Pacific and Atlantic systems. We present here an annually resolved proxy reconstruction of NAM rainfall variability over the last ~6ka, from an inwash record from the Laguna de Juanacatlán, Mexico. This high resolution, exceptionally well dated record allows changes in the NAM through the latter half of the Holocene to be investigated in both time and space domains, improving our understanding of the controls on the system. Our analysis shows a shift in conditions between c. 4 and 3 ka BP, after which clear ENSO/PDO type forcing patterns are evident