Challenges Surrounding the Conservation and Replication of Eva Hesse’s Sculpture

The sculpture of German-born American artist, Eva Hesse (1936-1970), presents many conservation challenges. Hesse’s experimentations with latex and fiberglass created stunningly innovative works of art in the late 1960s bringing these unorthodox materials into the world of fine art; but now these materials are creating major conservation problems. Her artwork is an extreme example of the conservation challenges of contemporary art. This thesis examines the challenges surrounding the conservation and replication of Eva Hesse’s large-scale latex and fiberglass sculptures. The latex and fiberglass materials that captivated Hesse are compromising the structural integrity of her large-scale sculptures today. Hesse’s art forces conservators to establish conservation practices specific to modern and contemporary art. Although replication pushes conservators to re-examine their usual practices and violates the standard notion of minimal intervention, the replication of Hesse’s sculptural works is necessary to represent her artistic vision

A fast 2D image reconstruction algorithm from 1D data for the Gaia mission

A fast 2-dimensional image reconstruction method is presented, which takes as input 1-dimensional data acquired from scans across a central source in different orientations. The resultant reconstructed images do not show artefacts due to non-uniform coverage in the orientations of the scans across the central source, and are successful in avoiding a high background due to contamination of the flux from the central source across the reconstructed image. Due to the weighting scheme employed this method is also naturally robust to hot pixels. This method was developed specifically with Gaia data in mind, but should be useful in combining data with mismatched resolutions in different directions.Comment: accepted (18 pages, 13 figures) will appear in Experimental Astronom

Partial duplication of the APBA2 gene in chromosome 15q13 corresponds to duplicon structures.

BackgroundChromosomal abnormalities affecting human chromosome 15q11-q13 underlie multiple genomic disorders caused by deletion, duplication and triplication of intervals in this region. These events are mediated by highly homologous segments of DNA, or duplicons, that facilitate mispairing and unequal cross-over in meiosis. The gene encoding an amyloid precursor protein-binding protein (APBA2) was previously mapped to the distal portion of the interval commonly deleted in Prader-Willi and Angelman syndromes and duplicated in cases of autism.ResultsWe show that this gene actually maps to a more telomeric location and is partially duplicated within the broader region. Two highly homologous copies of an interval containing a large 5' exon and downstream sequence are located approximately 5 Mb distal to the intact locus. The duplicated copies, containing the first coding exon of APBA2, can be distinguished by single nucleotide sequence differences and are transcriptionally inactive. Adjacent to APBA2 maps a gene termed KIAA0574. The protein encoded by this gene is weakly homologous to a protein termed X123 that in turn maps adjacent to APBA1 on 9q21.12; APBA1 is highly homologous to APBA2 in the C-terminal region and is distinguished from APBA2 by the N-terminal region encoded by this duplicated exon.ConclusionThe duplication of APBA2 sequences in this region adds to a complex picture of different low copy repeats present across this region and elsewhere on the chromosome

Shell-like structures in our cosmic neighbourhood

Signatures of the processes in the early Universe are imprinted in the cosmic web. Some of them may define shell-like structures characterised by typical scales. We search for shell-like structures in the distribution of nearby rich clusters of galaxies drawn from the SDSS DR8. We calculate the distance distributions between rich clusters of galaxies, and groups and clusters of various richness, look for the maxima in the distance distributions, and select candidates of shell-like structures. We analyse the space distribution of groups and clusters forming shell walls. We find six possible candidates of shell-like structures, in which galaxy clusters have maxima in the distance distribution to other galaxy groups and clusters at the distance of about 120 Mpc/h. The rich galaxy cluster A1795, the central cluster of the Bootes supercluster, has the highest maximum in the distance distribution of other groups and clusters around them at the distance of about 120 Mpc/h among our rich cluster sample, and another maximum at the distance of about 240 Mpc/h. The structures of galaxy systems causing the maxima at 120 Mpc/h form an almost complete shell of galaxy groups, clusters and superclusters. The richest systems in the nearby universe, the Sloan Great Wall, the Corona Borealis supercluster and the Ursa Major supercluster are among them. The probability that we obtain maxima like this from random distributions is lower than 0.001. Our results confirm that shell-like structures can be found in the distribution of nearby galaxies and their systems. The radii of the possible shells are larger than expected for a BAO shell (approximately 109 Mpc/h versus approximately 120 Mpc/h), and they are determined by very rich galaxy clusters and superclusters with high density contrast while BAO shells are barely seen in the galaxy distribution. We discuss possible consequences of these differences.Comment: Comments: 9 pages, 10 figures, Astronomy and Astrophysics, in pres

Kahler potentials for the MSSM inflation and the spectral index

Recently it has been argued that some of the fine-tuning problems of the MSSM inflation associated with the existence of a saddle point along a flat direction may be solved naturally in a class of supergravity models. Here we extend the analysis and show that the constraints on the Kahler potentials in these models are considerably relaxed when the location of the saddle point is treated as a free variable. We also examine the effect of supergravity corrections on inflationary predictions and find that they can slightly alter the value of the spectral index. As an example, for flat direction field values $|\bar{\phi}_0|=1\times10^{-4}M_P$ we find $n\sim0.92 ... 0.94$ while the prediction of the MSSM inflation without any corrections is $n\sim0.92$.Comment: 13 pages, one figure. Typos corrected and a reference adde

Positive effects of methylphenidate on hyperactivity are moderated by monoaminergic gene variants in children with autism spectrum disorders.

Methylphenidate (MPH) reduces hyperactive-impulsive symptoms common in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), however, response and tolerability varies widely. We hypothesized monoaminergic gene variants may moderate MPH effects in ASD, as in typically developing children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Genotype data were available for 64 children with ASD and hyperactivity who were exposed to MPH during a 1-week safety/tolerability lead-in phase and 58 who went on to be randomized to placebo and three doses of MPH during a 4-week blinded, crossover study. Outcome measures included the Clinical Global Impression-Improvement (CGI-I) scale and the Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC-hyperactivity index). A total of 14 subjects discontinued the study because of MPH side effects. Subjects were genotyped for variants in DRD1-DRD5, ADRA2A, SLC6A3, SLC6A4, MAOA and MAOB, and COMT. Forty-nine percent of the sample met positive responder criteria. In this modest but relatively homogeneous sample, significant differences by DRD1 (P=0.006), ADRA2A (P<0.02), COMT (P<0.04), DRD3 (P<0.05), DRD4 (P<0.05), SLC6A3 (P<0.05) and SLC6A4 (P<0.05) genotypes were found for responders versus non-responders. Variants in DRD2 (P<0.001) and DRD3 (P<0.04) were associated with tolerability in the 14 subjects who discontinued the trial. For this first MPH pharmacogenetic study in children with ASD, multiple monoaminergic gene variants may help explain individual differences in MPH's efficacy and tolerability

Moderation of antipsychotic-induced weight gain by energy balance gene variants in the RUPP autism network risperidone studies.

Second-generation antipsychotic exposure, in both children and adults, carries significant risk for excessive weight gain that varies widely across individuals. We queried common variation in key energy balance genes (FTO, MC4R, LEP, CNR1, FAAH) for their association with weight gain during the initial 8 weeks in the two NIMH Research Units on Pediatric Psychopharmacology Autism Network trials (N=225) of risperidone for treatment of irritability in children/adolescents aged 4-17 years with autism spectrum disorders. Variants in the cannabinoid receptor (CNR)-1 promoter (P=1.0 × 10(-6)), CNR1 (P=9.6 × 10(-5)) and the leptin (LEP) promoter (P=1.4 × 10(-4)) conferred robust-independent risks for weight gain. A model combining these three variants was highly significant (P=1.3 × 10(-9)) with a 0.85 effect size between lowest and highest risk groups. All results survived correction for multiple testing and were not dependent on dose, plasma level or ethnicity. We found no evidence for association with a reported functional variant in the endocannabinoid metabolic enzyme, fatty acid amide hydrolase, whereas body mass index-associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms in FTO and MC4R showed only trend associations. These data suggest a substantial genetic contribution of common variants in energy balance regulatory genes to individual antipsychotic-associated weight gain in children and adolescents, which supersedes findings from prior adult studies. The effects are robust enough to be detected after only 8 weeks and are more prominent in this largely treatment naive population. This study highlights compelling directions for further exploration of the pharmacogenetic basis of this concerning multifactorial adverse event