Identity politics: a study of diasporic identity mediated through family photography

Drawing from a well-established interdisciplinary history that focuses on the affective power of photography when animated through oral narration, this chapter looks at how diasporic identity is mediated through family photographs. One case study that uses photo-elicitation as research method is referenced in order to consider the mnemonic value of photographs or what can be described as the ‘affect' of the image in evoking critical memories. In doing this, a sense of diasporic belonging to a new homeland, grief, trauma, and loss is investigated. This chapter concludes by highlighting that critical traumatic memories can be inter-generationally transferred into post-memories as the past is brought into the present through discussion and reflection

Photography, memory, belonging: a study of transcultural identity mediated through studio photography

This thesis examines contemporary high-street studio photography in North-London which is my geographic locale. The research seeks to find new possibilities of thinking through the construction of localised transcultural identities through the examination of contemporary studio photography. All the studios studied are owned by first- and second- generation ‘Turkish’ migrants. I am interested in how cultural traditions are visualised, localised and formulated through studio photography. I employ multi-disciplinary inductive research methods, such as participant observation, semi-structured interviews, photo elicitation, photographic ethnographies and making photographs to find new ways of examining photographic studio practices. In order to contextualise the empirical research, I draw from Western art and photographic histories of representational portraiture within a socio-cultural context. I introduce a post-colonial critique of Orientalism as a visual framework, through which I look at the continuities between early Ottoman-Turkish photography and my contemporary case study. Using visual practice as research, I weave my own responses through the written text, in four chapters that also work as stand-alone visual works: ‘The Lure of the Local’, ‘The Book of Backgrounds’, ‘The Sampler’, ‘The Unnamed Sitter’, ‘The Emotional life of Transcultural Photographs’. With the potential to also be realised as material objects such as photobooks or digital displays, these respond to the theoretical research and examined photographs. These multi-disciplinary methods in their straddling of boundaries between textual and visual research, and textual and visual ‘arguments’, proved crucial to enabling a close analysis of my case studies, and were key to forming the aesthetic and material investigations of the research. This is a timely thesis that catalogues and captures the quintessence of the photography studios in North-London at a time when their presence on the high street is rapidly changing. The thesis concludes by moving the research into the family home in order to examine the mnemonic value of family photographs. In doing this, I investigate the critical relationship between photography, memory and migration. Thereby, I ask questions about the politics of representation and the right to be seen

Hierarchical decline of the initiative and performance of complex activities of daily living in dementia

Objectives: While basic activities of daily living hierarchically decline in dementia, little is known about the decline of individual instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). The objective of this study was to assess initiative and performance deficits in IADLs in dementia. Methods: A total of 581 carers completed the revised Interview for Deterioration in Daily Living Activities in Dementia 2 to rate their relative’s everyday functioning. Results: Initiating and performing IADLs deteriorated hierarchically, while people with dementia were consistently most impaired in initiating using the computer and managing finances. Initiating preparing a cold or hot meal and managing finances were more impaired than their performance, whereas performing maintaining an active social life for example were more impaired than their initiative. Conclusion: Findings can help identify the severity of dementia by understanding deficits in initiative and performance. This study has implications for the development of targeted interventions depending on the stage of dementia

Resistant Starches Protect against Colonic DNA Damage and Alter Microbiota and Gene Expression in Rats Fed a Western Diet123

Resistant starch (RS), fed as high amylose maize starch (HAMS) or butyrylated HAMS (HAMSB), opposes dietary protein-induced colonocyte DNA damage in rats. In this study, rats were fed Western-type diets moderate in fat (19%) and protein (20%) containing digestible starches [low amylose maize starch (LAMS) or low amylose whole wheat (LAW)] or RS [HAMS, HAMSB, or a whole high amylose wheat (HAW) generated by RNA interference] for 11 wk (n = 10/group). A control diet included 7% fat, 13% protein, and LAMS. Colonocyte DNA single-strand breaks (SSB) were significantly higher (by 70%) in rats fed the Western diet containing LAMS relative to controls. Dietary HAW, HAMS, and HAMSB opposed this effect while raising digesta levels of SCFA and lowering ammonia and phenol levels. SSB correlated inversely with total large bowel SCFA, including colonic butyrate concentration (R2 = 0.40; P = 0.009), and positively with colonic ammonia concentration (R2 = 0.40; P = 0.014). Analysis of gut microbiota populations using a phylogenetic microarray revealed profiles that fell into 3 distinct groups: control and LAMS; HAMS and HAMSB; and LAW and HAW. The expression of colonic genes associated with the maintenance of genomic integrity (notably Mdm2, Top1, Msh3, Ung, Rere, Cebpa, Gmnn, and Parg) was altered and varied with RS source. HAW is as effective as HAMS and HAMSB in opposing diet-induced colonic DNA damage in rats, but their effects on the large bowel microbiota and colonocyte gene expression differ, possibly due to the presence of other fiber components in HAW

University of Oregon Department of Art MFA Thesis Exhibition Catalog

28 pagesEvery spring our graduating MFA candidates’ work emerges and activates the Art Department and the College of Design with an ethos of possibility and insight. Their creative research of new knowledge, or the rearrangement of old knowledge, brings with it the sense that a new day is rising. The 2021 MFA Thesis Exhibition culminates three years of independent research and experimentation by a cohort of eight artists whose various practices engage a broad range of inquiry, from expressions of the personal and diaristic to the examination and fictionalization of language, politics, and technology. While the world teetered this last year—fraught over the COVID-19 pandemic, racial injustice, and political chaos these candidates focused on their practices as the world blurred. They’ve shaped new strategies to teach on-line, built new curriculum to communicate remotely, and cloistered in their studios articulating their practices all the while navigating crisis shared with the nation. As the pandemic ebbs I hope the MFA Graduates of 2021 move forward with a sense of not only a new day rising but a new world emerging

Biased M1-muscarinic-receptor-mutant mice inform the design of next-generation drugs

Cholinesterase inhibitors, the current frontline symptomatic treatment for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), are associated with low efficacy and adverse effects. M1 muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (M1 mAChRs) represent a potential alternate therapeutic target; however, drug discovery programs focused on this G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) have failed, largely due to cholinergic adverse responses. Employing novel chemogenetic and phosphorylation-deficient, G protein-biased, mouse models, paired with a toolbox of probe molecules, we establish previously unappreciated pharmacologically targetable M1 mAChR neurological processes, including anxiety-like behaviors and hyper-locomotion. By mapping the upstream signaling pathways regulating these responses, we determine the importance of receptor phosphorylation-dependent signaling in driving clinically relevant outcomes and in controlling adverse effects including ‘epileptic-like’ seizures. We conclude that M1 mAChR ligands that promote receptor phosphorylation-dependent signaling would protect against cholinergic adverse effects in addition to driving beneficial responses such as learning and memory and anxiolytic behavior relevant for the treatment of AD