The Dance of the Future: Wassily Kandinsky’s Vision, 1908–1928

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.One can best glean painter Wassily Kandinsky’s contribution to ideas about dance by looking at the totality of his writings. Kandinsky conceptualized dance as part of his theories for a new abstract art in his major book Concerning the Spiritual in Art. I consider his 1912 statement on the dance of the future as a modernist statement in its time. Kandinsky’s idea for a new form of theater, Bühnenkomposition, incorporated dance, as his script for The Yellow Sound demonstrates. His later writings in Moscow and at the Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau reveal his concern for what the modern dance might achieve. In 1928, Kandinsky finally realized his ambition to stage a new form of synthetic theater in a production of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition

Modern Dance: A Historical Consideration

HUXLEY, M. (1983) Early European modern dance. In: ADSHEAD, J. & LAYSON J. (eds.) Dance history: A methodology for study. London: Dance Books pp. 147-161. HUXLEY, M. (1988) A history of a dance: An analysis of Dark Elegies from written criticism. In: ADSHEAD, J. (ed.) Dance analysis: Theory and practice. London: Dance Books. pp. 141-160, 196-198. HUXLEY, M. (1994) European early modern dance. In: ADSHEAD-LANSDALE, J. & LAYSON, J. (eds.) Dance history: An introduction. London: Dance Books. pp. 151-168. HUXLEY, M. & PATTERSON, M. (1998) German drama, theatre and dance. In: KOLINSKY, E. & VAN DER WILL, W. (eds.) Cambridge companion to modern German culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 213-232. HUXLEY, M. (2010) Movement concerns the whole man. In: PRESTON-DUNLOP, V. & SAYERS, L.-A. (eds.) The dynamic body in space: Exploring and developing Rudolf Laban's ideas for the 21st Century. Alton: Dance Books. pp. 95-103. HUXLEY, M. (2012 a) ‘It’s a different way of thinking about history, isn’t it?’ Student perspectives on learning dance history. Research in Dance Education, Vol 13, No 3, pp. 279-300. HUXLEY, M. (2012 b) Kurt Jooss in exile in England. Discourses in Dance, Vol 5, No 1, pp. 39-58. HUXLEY, M. (2012 c) F. Matthias Alexander and Mabel Elsworth Todd: Proximities, practices and the psycho-physical. Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices, Vol 3, No 1/2, pp. 25-42. HUXLEY, M. (2015) The dancer's world 1920-1945: Modern dancers and their practices reconsidered. Pivot; Basingstoke: Palgrave.This thesis presents a selection of my published works and an accompanying exposition to demonstrate my sustained, substantial, continuous and coherent research and how it has made an original contribution to the field of dance history. The nine selected published works—Volume 2—written over the course of three decades, consider modern dance between 1900 and 1945 and how its historical study illuminates this significant period. All these writings made contributions to dance history that were original in their time. My first publication helped to define the field of dance history. My most recent one has taken an innovative approach to modern dance, informed by my developed understanding of the idea of dance history. The exposition—volume 1— examines my ideas of dance history. It does so by placing my writings within the context of the development of dance history as a field, especially in the UK. It goes further by considering this development within the broader context of the development of history as a discipline, both philosophically and practically. This contextualisation is then used to reflect further on my writings and their original contributions to dance historiography. I conclude with a reconsideration of the idea of dance history

F. Matthias Alexander and Mabel Elsworth Todd: Proximities, practices and the psycho-physical

The file attached to this record is the authors final peer reviewed version. The final published version can be viewed by following the DOI link.Proximities in the work of F. Matthias Alexander and Mabel Elsworth Todd are examined for the first time. There are close geographical proximities in their location and to those in their respective circles during the period 1914–1937. Both Alexander and Todd drew on ideas prevalent at the turn of the twentieth century. There are historical proximities based around the intellectual hub of New York City, notably to the philosopher John Dewey, the historian James Harvey Robinson and the pioneer dance educationalist Margaret H’Doubler. Alexander’s and Todd’s ideas and practices are considered in their time from a starting point of the idea of the‘psycho-physical’, a term used by these practitioners in their writings. They both used it to try and speak about the self in a new way, and what they proposed had major ramifications. The article concludes by suggesting that we might reconsider how we think of dancers and dance students in the light of this historical reconsideration of Alexander’s and Todd’s ideas

Studying Transition Metal Chemistry inside a Metal-Organic Framework

Metal-organic Frameworks (MOFs) are porous, crystalline materials built from metal ‘nodes’ and interconnecting organic ligands. The combination of crystallinity, porosity and building block design allows MOFs to be tailored at the nanoscale and functionalised to suit specific applications. Reactive metal complexes can be installed inside MOFs, producing well-defined reactive sites with long range order, thereby allowing metal-centred chemical processes to be studied in-situ via X-ray crystallography. Furthermore, the physical isolation of active metal complexes prevents unwanted side-reactions such as cluster formation from occurring, allowing reactive species to be trapped within the crystalline matrix while the surrounding microenvironment can be tuned, via judicious ligand design, to augment their reactivity. The Mn-based MOF [Mn3(L)2(L')] (where L = bis-(4-carboxyphenyl-3,5-dimethylpyrazolyl)methane; 1) is well suited to this application because its pores are decorated with well-defined N,N-chelation sites that bind metal complexes, which allows 1 to be post-synthetically metalated and the resulting metal complexes can be studied using X-ray crystallography. In chapter 2, a series of transition metal nitrate complexes were incorporated within 1 and their structures determined. The structural features of the complexes were compared to those of solution and solid-state analogues to elucidate the effect of the MOF pore-environment on their coordination chemistry. The distribution of metal sites within a MOF framework is important to consider for heterogenous catalysis applications; quantitative metalation can result in the MOF pores becoming ‘burdened’ with metal sites that impede mass transport through the crystal. Work in chapter 3 demonstrates that by using a mixed ligand synthesis approach, the ligand bearing the free N,N-chelating site in 1 could be partially replaced with a modified ligand that is incapable of metalation. The resulting structure possesses the same topology as 1 but is doped, specifically in the non-coordinated donor sites, with a ligand that will not readily bind to metal complexes, allowing the overall degree of metalation to be tuned. Work in chapter 4 utilised the observation that within 1 the metal complexes are site-isolated and separated by 13 Å. By incorporating a Mn(I) azide complex within 1, the site-isolation was harnessed to perform site-selective ‘click’ chemistry on small dialkynes that are shorter than the azide separation. Within 1, this ‘click’ chemistry cycle, using both simple mono- and di-alkynes, was monitored using X-ray crystallography. This work demonstrates that the nanoscale spatial control of reactive sites within MOFs, supported with X-ray crystallographic insights, can affect highly selective chemical transformations. Finally in chapter 5, advancing the concept of site-isolation within MOFs, 1 was functionalised with a Mn(I) carbonyl complex. When exposed to visible light the complex releases a portion of its carbonyl ligands which escape the porous crystalline lattice. It was envisaged that photolysis could generate site-isolated, reactive metal complexes that can activate small molecules. Preliminary experiments demonstrated that CO is successfully liberated under photolysis, while in-situ X-ray crystallography suggests that the CO ligands are replaced by weakly coordinating solvent molecules. In this way, 1 acts as a matrix for isolating and studying the reactive metal complexes formed using photolysis.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Physical Sciences, 201

The nature, characteristics and associations of care home staff stress and wellbeing: a national survey

Abstract Background The majority of residents in care homes in the United Kingdom are living with dementia or significant memory problems. Caring in this setting can be difficult and stressful for care staff who work long hours, have little opportunity for training, are poorly paid and yet subject to high expectation. This may affect their mental and physical wellbeing, cause high rates of staff turnover and absenteeism, and affect the quality of care they provide. The main objective of this survey was to explore the nature, characteristics and associations of stress in care home staff. Methods Staff working in a stratified random sample of care homes within Wales completed measures covering: general health and wellbeing (SF-12); stress (Work Stress Inventory); job content (Karasek Job Content); approach to, and experience of, working with people living with dementia (Approaches to Dementia Questionnaire; and Experience of Working with Dementia Patients); and Productivity and Health Status (SPS-6). Multiple linear regressions explored the effects of home and staff characteristics on carers. Results 212 staff from 72 care homes completed questionnaires. Staff from nursing homes experienced more work stress than those from residential homes (difference 0.30; 95% confidence interval (CI) from 0.10 to 0.51; P < 0.01), and were more likely to report that their health reduced their ability to work (difference -4.77; CI -7.80 to -1.73; P < 0.01). Psychological demands on nurses were higher than on other staff (difference = 1.57; CI 0.03 to 3.10; P < 0.05). A positive approach to dementia was more evident in those trained in dementia care (difference 8.54; CI 2.31 to 14.76; P < 0.01), and in staff working in local authority homes than in the private sector (difference 7.75; CI 2.56 to 12.94; P < 0.01). Conclusions Our study highlights the importance of dementia training in care homes, with a particular need in the private sector. An effective intervention to reduce stress in health and social care staff is required, especially in nursing and larger care homes, and for nursing staff. Trial registration ISRCTN registry: ISRCTN80487202 . Registered 24 July 201

Alleviating staff stress in care homes for people with dementia: protocol for stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial to evaluate a web-based Mindfulness- Stress Reduction course

BACKGROUND: There has been continuing change in the nature of care homes in the UK with 80 % of residents now living with some form of dementia or memory problem. Caring in this environment can be complex, challenging and stressful for staff; this can affect the quality of care provided to residents, lead to staff strain and burnout, and increase sickness, absence and turnover rates. It is therefore important to find interventions to increase the wellbeing of staff that will not only benefit staff themselves but also residents and care providers. Mindfulness training is known to be effective in treating a variety of physical and mental health conditions. METHODS AND DESIGN: The study uses mixed methods centred on a stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial. Thirty care homes in Wales are implementing a brief web-based mindfulness training course, starting in random sequence. Four to ten consenting staff from each facility undertake the course and complete validated questionnaires at baseline and after eight and 20 weeks. We shall also interview a stratified sample of ten trained staff and analyse the transcripts thematically. The primary outcome is stress; secondary outcomes include job satisfaction, attitudes towards residents and sickness absence rates. DISCUSSION: With increasing numbers of people living with dementia in care homes and causing stress in their carers, it is important to evaluate support strategies for staff. Mindfulness-based therapies may be of potential benefit and need detailed examination. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN registry. ISRCTN80487202. Registered 24 July 2013

The effect of lameness before and during the breeding season on fertility in 10 pasture-based Irish dairy herd

Background: The effects of lameness on fertility have been documented frequently but few data are available from seasonally breeding, pasture-based herds (such as those used in Ireland) where cows are housed during the winter months but managed at pasture for the remainder of the year. This study determined the prevalence of lameness in a group of 786 cows in 10 pasture-based Irish dairy herds before, during and after the breeding season and assessed the relationship between lameness and the reproductive performance in these herds through serial locomotion scoring during the grazing period. Results: Lameness prevalences of 11.6 % before, 14.6 % during and 11.6 % after the breeding season were found and these compared favourably to results from housed cattle and are similar to other studies carried out in grazing herds. A Cox proportional hazards model with locomotion score as time varying covariate was used. After controlling for the effect of farm, month of calving, body condition score at calving, body condition score loss after calving and economic breeding index, cows identified as lame during the study were less likely to become pregnant. Cows lame before the earliest serve date but no longer lame during the breeding season, cows becoming lame after the earliest serve date and cows identified lame both before and after this date were respectively 12 %, 35 % and 38 % less likely to become pregnant compared to cows never observed lame during the study. However, these findings were only significant for cows becoming lame after the earliest serve date and cows lame both before and after the start of breeding. Conclusions: This study found that the reproductive efficiency was significantly (p 0.05) lower in these animals compared to cows never diagnosed as lame. In addition to lameness status, nutritional status and genetics were found to influence the reproductive performance in pasture-based Irish dairy herds

Three-dimensional stochastic model of actin–myosin binding in the sarcomere lattice

The effect of molecule tethering in three-dimensional (3-D) space on bimolecular binding kinetics is rarely addressed and only occasionally incorporated into models of cell motility. The simplest system that can quantitatively determine this effect is the 3-D sarcomere lattice of the striated muscle, where tethered myosin in thick filaments can only bind to a relatively small number of available sites on the actin filament, positioned within a limited range of thermal movement of the myosin head. Here we implement spatially explicit actomyosin interactions into the multiscale Monte Carlo platform MUSICO, specifically defining how geometrical constraints on tethered myosins can modulate state transition rates in the actomyosin cycle. The simulations provide the distribution of myosin bound to sites on actin, ensure conservation of the number of interacting myosins and actin monomers, and most importantly, the departure in behavior of tethered myosin molecules from unconstrained myosin interactions with actin. In addition, MUSICO determines the number of cross-bridges in each actomyosin cycle state, the force and number of attached cross-bridges per myosin filament, the range of cross-bridge forces and accounts for energy consumption. At the macroscopic scale, MUSICO simulations show large differences in predicted force-velocity curves and in the response during early force recovery phase after a step change in length comparing to the two simplest mass action kinetic models. The origin of these differences is rooted in the different fluxes of myosin binding and corresponding instantaneous cross-bridge distributions and quantitatively reflects a major flaw of the mathematical description in all mass action kinetic models. Consequently, this new approach shows that accurate recapitulation of experimental data requires significantly different binding rates, number of actomyosin states, and cross-bridge elasticity than typically used in mass action kinetic models to correctly describe the biochemical reactions of tethered molecules and their interaction energetics