BUILT FORM AND MEANING IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY ROME: POPE SIXTUS V AND THE LATERAN PALACE

This thesis focuses on the pontificate of Sixtus V (1585-1590) in an effort to better understand the austere style of architecture utilized at the Lateran Palace, as well as to uncover the sources for the topographical views featured in the Lateran fresco program. To reassert the sanctity of the Catholic Church and Rome as caput mundi (capital of the world), Pope Sixtus V instituted a stylistic break from the visual aesthetics of the cinquecento—a move which recent scholarship has judged negatively, specifically in regard to the Lateran Palace. Looking toward other European Renaissance centers, I suggest that the ideological tenets of Philip II’s Escorial (1563-1584), a metaphor for the Spanish imperial state and Counter-Reformation agenda, was a source of influence for the Lateran project. Reduced classical vocabulary and the cleansing of ornament present in the exterior design and the topographical views made for the interior of the Lateran created a uniquely Italian understanding of the built forms and views Sixtus witnessed in Spain, thus serving as an example of the reversing of the standard, privileging model of Italy as the artistic center of sixteenth-century Europe

Analyzing The Success Of Social Movements: Social Movement Theories Applied To Occupy Wall Street And The Tea Party

Two significant social movements, Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party have entered onto the political scene within the last decade, both having significantly different impacts upon the political discourse and political establishment within the United States. The question remains, however, which elements of each movement is ascribed to its corresponding success or failure? Three social movement theories: Resource Mobilization Theory, Political Process Theory, and Collective Identity Theory, better help explain the results of these movements. While none of the individual theories fully explores all the necessary elements required to explain the results of these movements, and each aids the other in exploring both movements more fully, Resource Mobilization Theory best explains each movement’s progress, with a proper focus being placed upon the resources at the disposable of Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party. Each theory’s effectiveness in explaining both social movements will be measured, on a 3 scale basis, in regards to both group formation and political efficacy

Synthesis and catalytic application of Pt and Pt-Bi nanoparticles in graphite oxide

The mono- and bi-metallic catalysts based on noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) are the most used for the selective oxidation of organic molecules. The activity of catalysts based on Pt NPs is strongly improved by the Pt/Bi coupled systems, where the presence of Bi prevents the poisoning of Pt by O2 in strong oxidative environment. Using bi-metallic catalysts based, one of the challenges is the synthesis of bi-metallic coupled systems enhancing an uniform distribution of NPs on the support and reducing the metals loading as much as possible without influencing the activity

The Body Action and Posture Coding System (BAP): Development and Reliability

Several methods are available for coding body movement in nonverbal behavior research, but there is no consensus on a reliable coding system that can be used for the study of emotion expression. Adopting an integrative approach, we developed a new method, the body action and posture coding system, for the time-aligned micro description of body movement on an anatomical level (different articulations of body parts), a form level (direction and orientation of movement), and a functional level (communicative and self-regulatory functions). We applied the system to a new corpus of acted emotion portrayals, examined its comprehensiveness and demonstrated intercoder reliability at three levels: (a) occurrence, (b) temporal precision, and (c) segmentation. We discuss issues for further validation and propose some research application