Forgers, connoisseurs, and the Nazi past

The authentication and accurate attribution of art can be a complex issue. Connoisseurship and ethics, politics and the media can get mixed in among the "active ingredients" that can obstruct efforts to correct scholarly misattribution in the sense of having mistaken the work for that of a master. The expertise of forgers Han van Meegeren and Wolfgang Beltracchi went way beyond artistic skill, technical skill, extensive knowledge of art history and the methods employed by the true masters. The connoisseurs who supplied the authentications were giving and receiving something in return, and this caused the ethical lines to blur. Political opportunism enabled van Meegeren to hide his sympathy for the Volkgeist conventions of Nazi art with a clever plot device by which he could demonstrate that he had conned a member of the Nazi elite. The Beltracchis concocted the history of production of a hitherto unknown number of modern art works by linking the fake provenances to pre-packaged narratives that invoked the most sordid elements of the cultural policy of the Third Reich. At their trials, the forgers assumed the role of "masters of ceremonies" who entertained the court staff and spectators. Unsurprisingly, the media conferred folk hero status on them. This article highlights the uncanny parallels and patterns in the art forgery careers of these two forgers, and specifically also in the misattribution of their forged works. Considering how intricate the interdependencies between evidence and beliefs can be, the ethical responsibility of the art trade when forgeries are sold comes into question. More scientific testing continues to expose some of the secrets of master forgers, but no forgery trial, law report, or media report can completely de-contaminate art history. The relevance of information ethics to the study of art history and material culture deserves to be highlighted more frequently

Treatment of chalazia: a comparison between incision and curettage and intralesional methylprednisolone injection

ABSTRACT Purpose The study was conducted to compare intralesional methylprednisolone acetate 40 mg/ml (Depo-Medrol) injection with incision and curettage in the treatment of chalazia. Method A prospective, interventional clinical study was conducted. Seventy-seven patients that met the inclusion criteria and gave informed consent were randomized to receive either intralesional methylprednisolone injection or incision and curettage. Patients were followed up at two weeks and at one month, and the treatment was repeated when indicated. Results Seventy-three patients completed the study. At two weeks, after one treatment, there was a significant difference in outcome (p = 0.002) between the two groups: 10 (27%) chalazia resolved after intralesional methylprednisolone injection and 23 (64%) after incision and curettage. At one month however, there was no statistical difference (p = 0.223) in outcome between the two groups: resolution occurred in 24 patients (65%) after intralesional methylprednisolone injection, and in 28 patients (78%) after incision and curettage. In cases that were successfully treated at one month, 58% required a second treatment with intralesional injection, which was significantly more (p = 0.020) than the 18% with incision and curettage. In both groups, the initial chalazion size and duration did not significantly influence the outcome of treatment. The average time to perform intralesional injection (39 seconds) was significantly quicker (p = 0.000) than the average time for incision and curettage (2 minutes 46 seconds). In 3 out of 37 injected patients, a slight subcutaneous methylprednisolone deposit was visible at one month. Conclusion Incision and curettage remains the gold standard in the treatment of chalazia, but intralesional methylprednisolone (Depo-Medrol) injection is an useful alternative treatment modality

The Recursively Generative Nature of Complex Agri- Eco-Socio-Technical Systems

Farming procedures have intensified to the point where they significantly impact on the environment, the social fabric of the communities involved and the political and financial stability of regions. Traditional design procedures do not take the recursive and adaptive nature of these systems fully into account. The author starts from the premise that the feedback loop and recursive causal nature inherent to agri-eco-socio- technical systems make them inherently wicked1. The design of a low carbon footprint farm takes this into account and uses a transdisciplinary approach to consider the solutions from a broad stakeholder group. An initial solution design is presented that shows how the problem was structured and what factors were considered for a model based approach

Project report: Closed loop farm concept design

Farming procedures have intensified to the point where they significantly impact on the environment, the social fabric of the communities involved and the political and financial stability of regions. Traditional design procedures do not take the recursive and adaptive nature of these systems fully into account. The study starts from the premise that the feedback loop and recursive causal nature inherent to agri-eco-socio-technical systems make them inherently wicked. The design of a low carbon footprint farm takes this into account and uses a transdisciplinary approach to consider the solutions from a broad stakeholder group, using model based design approaches for the co-creation of solutions. The reason for this is that models can capture and clarify common understanding; they can be used to effectively document and explain the recursive nature of the process being followed (as each model must stand alone as an artifact during each structure-analyze-synthesize effort). As the models increase in complexity and domain reach, it is possible to start with what-if analysis to support investment and technical decision making. An initial solution design is presented that shows how the problem was structured and what factors were considered for a model based approach

Race and the Democratic Alliance: an analysis of the party’s performance in elections with specific reference to the 2011 local government elections

Research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Political Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017This thesis aims to determine the impact that race has on voting patterns in South Africa, and whether race is still the most salient factor in determining how South Africans vote. The focus is on local government elections and the performance of the Democratic Alliance (DA), and examines voting patterns and demographic indicators (such as race and income and education levels) in selected wards to ascertain what trends and exist, specifically looking at how important race still is in determining how South Africans vote. Through a thorough review of the existing literature, as well as an examination of selected wards (both those in metropolitan municipalities and those in rural areas) this thesis aims to find an answer to the question of whether South African elections are still little more than racial censuses. This thesis also examines to what degree other social indicators affect how people vote. Although the findings broadly show that the ‘racial census’ theory of voting patterns in South Africa still broadly holds true, there are indications that this is changing and that South African voters are increasingly becoming ‘floating’ voters.GR201

On public happiness

Theories of happiness usually consider happiness as something that matters to us from a first-person perspective. In this paper, I defend a conception of public happiness that is distinct from private or first-person happiness. Public happiness is presented as a feature of the system of right that defines the political relationship between citizens, as opposed to their personal mental states, desires or well-being. I begin by outlining the main features of public happiness as an Enlightenment ideal. Next, I relate the distinction between the political and the personal to the distinction between having normative reasons for a particular political arrangement and merely having a ‘pro-attitude’ towards a state of affairs that accords with one's preferred definition of happiness. Following this, I demonstrate why well-being, understood as a normative rather than a purely descriptive conception of personal happiness, nevertheless cannot serve as a normative reason in the political domain. In the final section, I show why normative reason-giving matters for the relationship between citizens, and how such reason-giving relates to public happiness

The impact of regional integration initiatives and investment in a southern African crossborder region: The Maputo Development Corridor

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Estimating the compression quality of an image by analysing blocking artefacts

Abstract: Determining the compression quality of an image is important for photo forensics and image enhancement algorithms. Unfortunately, there are a number of issues involved in determining the compression quality of an image from its metadata or quantization tables. A compression quality estimation algorithm based on visual inspection of detected compression artefacts is presented. This method detects and extracts feature samples around compression block corners. These feature samples are then pre-filtered to enhance the discontinuities produced by compression artefacts. The feature samples are then classified using a constricted Neural Network. The local quality estimations are then combined using robust statistics to estimate the maximum likelihood compression quality. This method was shown to accurately estimate the compression quality of an image without prior knowledge of the original uncompressed image