Circus & nation : a critical inquiry into circus in its Australian setting, 1847-2006, from the perspectives of society, enterprise and culture

In Australia, like most countries, circus has been an element, at times a very important element, in the mosaic that constitutes its popular culture. An outgrowth of the circus as recast in a modern form in London in the 18th century, an Australian circus profession has existed almost continuously since 1847. Australia’s circus entrepreneurs took the principal features of English, and later American, circus arts and management and reworked these features to suit their new antipodean context. The athletic, intellectually undemanding nature of its equestrian-based entertainments harmonised with the emerging patterns of modern Australia’s way of life. In time, Australia produced renowned circus artists of its own, even artists capable of reinvigorating the concept of circus in the very countries from which their art had been derived. Since their transience and labours, indeed their very existence, were somehow tangential and inconsequential to mainstream Australian society, Australia’s circus people did not attract tokens of recognition in story and verse as did shearers, drovers, diggers and other identities of the Australian outback. Their contribution to Australia’s social, economic and cultural development has been largely overlooked. Despite its pervasive role in Australia’s cultural life over more than 150 years, examples of academically grounded research into Australian circus are few. The primary aim of this study is to demonstrate the major themes evident in Australia’s circus history, in terms of society, enterprise and culture, between 1847 and 2006. None of these areas, of course, is exclusive of the others, especially the first and last named. These deliberations are framed within the broader influences and events apparent in Australian society and history. Implicit within this demonstration is the notion that circus, whatever its characteristics and merits as an artform, has been, and continues to be, a ‘barometer’ of social, economic and cultural change in Australia

Circus & nation : a critical inquiry into circus in its Australian setting, 1847-2006, from the perspectives of society, enterprise and culture

In Australia, like most countries, circus has been an element, at times a very important element, in the mosaic that constitutes its popular culture. An outgrowth of the circus as recast in a modern form in London in the 18th century, an Australian circus profession has existed almost continuously since 1847. Australia’s circus entrepreneurs took the principal features of English, and later American, circus arts and management and reworked these features to suit their new antipodean context. The athletic, intellectually undemanding nature of its equestrian-based entertainments harmonised with the emerging patterns of modern Australia’s way of life. In time, Australia produced renowned circus artists of its own, even artists capable of reinvigorating the concept of circus in the very countries from which their art had been derived. Since their transience and labours, indeed their very existence, were somehow tangential and inconsequential to mainstream Australian society, Australia’s circus people did not attract tokens of recognition in story and verse as did shearers, drovers, diggers and other identities of the Australian outback. Their contribution to Australia’s social, economic and cultural development has been largely overlooked. Despite its pervasive role in Australia’s cultural life over more than 150 years, examples of academically grounded research into Australian circus are few. The primary aim of this study is to demonstrate the major themes evident in Australia’s circus history, in terms of society, enterprise and culture, between 1847 and 2006. None of these areas, of course, is exclusive of the others, especially the first and last named. These deliberations are framed within the broader influences and events apparent in Australian society and history. Implicit within this demonstration is the notion that circus, whatever its characteristics and merits as an artform, has been, and continues to be, a ‘barometer’ of social, economic and cultural change in Australia

Circus

From 1833 when two ropewalkers performed in Sydney, circus skills have provided popular entertainment. By the 1850s thousands watched circus performances outdoors and in purpose-built theatres. The travelling circus was prompted by goldrush crowds far from the cities, and became the default when circus men found it was easier to change audiences than to change repertoires. Sydney seasons were regular annual engagements for many of Australia's circuses well into the twentieth century. Strong links were formed with international performers, and exchanges between the American and Australian circus worlds were frequent

Intellectual capital: Managerial perceptions of organisational knowledge resources

This study addresses the question \u27To what extent does organisational type and managerial role define managers\u27 perception of Intellectual Capital?\u27 Our understanding of the phenomenon of Intellectual Capital is an emerging one. The most recent attempts to describe and define Intellectual Capital identify a dynamic \u27action\u27 perspective as well as a static \u27perception\u27 perspective. Intellectual Capital broadly describes the resources of knowledge available to an organisation, whether embodied in human or non-human forms, and which are capable of being transformed into and codified as productive organisational assets. The emergence, development and application of concepts of Intellectual Capital herald the arrival of the Knowledge Era. The perception of Intellectual Capital as a major organisational resource and the active management of Knowledge Resources of which it is comprised may be strategically important to the continuous generation of organisational growth and comparative advantage. Organisational type as well as managerial function may be crucial to the recognition and management of Intellectual Capital. Two hypotheses were tested using a cross-sectional design. Specifically, the research was directed at five types of senior managers (general manager, finance, human resources, information technology and marketing) in three broad types of Australian organisations: business, government and non-profit organisations. A large sample of executives drawn from a range of organisations were surveyed on their reactions to a range of concepts that, the literature suggests, are associated with the management of Knowledge Resources. To address the \u27perceptual\u27 perspective on Intellectual Capital, it was first speculated that the type of organisation in which a manager is employed (business, government, government business enterprise or non-profit) and/or a managerial role (general manager, finance, human resource, information technology or marketing manager) and/or the interaction between organisational type and managerial role will significantly explain their perception of the financial value of the Knowledge Resources that could comprise the elements of Intellectual Capital. It was established that the effect of managerial role, but not organisational type, on managers\u27 perception of the financial value of Intellectual Capital was significant. To address the \u27action\u27 perspective on Intellectual Capital, it was hypothesised that the type of organisation in which a manager is employed (business, government, government business enterprise or non-profit) and /or managerial role (general manager, finance, human resource, information technology or marketing) and/or the interaction between organisational type and managerial role will significantly explain their active management of the Knowledge Resources identified with the emerging concept of Intellectual Capital. It was found that organisational type, but not managerial role, significantly explains managers\u27 tendency to actively manage Knowledge Resources. Since the commencement of research of this study, in 1996, discussion about Intellectual Capital and the closely associated issue of Knowledge Management has continued unabated. The most recent literature consulted (2000) suggests that these issues continue to mount in their importance and confirm the ascendancy of knowledge as a basic productive resource. However, in the absence of an established, cohesive body of theory and documented experience, widespread \u27real world\u27 experimentation will be required if these issues are to be satisfactorily addressed. If organisations are to more effectively identify, measure and manage their Intellectual Capital, the responsibilities for initiating and executing these tasks will fall upon the managers of organisations. This study has tentatively demonstrated that the perceptions that different types of Australian managers hold of Intellectual Capital lack uniformity and that different types of Australian organisations have yet to develop suitable policies and strategies that would facilitate its management. Unless these factors are addressed, the benefits Australian organisations could obtain from the Knowledge Era may be prejudiced or retarded

The Early Growth Genetics (EGG) and EArly Genetics and Lifecourse Epidemiology (EAGLE) consortia : design, results and future prospects

The impact of many unfavorable childhood traits or diseases, such as low birth weight and mental disorders, is not limited to childhood and adolescence, as they are also associated with poor outcomes in adulthood, such as cardiovascular disease. Insight into the genetic etiology of childhood and adolescent traits and disorders may therefore provide new perspectives, not only on how to improve wellbeing during childhood, but also how to prevent later adverse outcomes. To achieve the sample sizes required for genetic research, the Early Growth Genetics (EGG) and EArly Genetics and Lifecourse Epidemiology (EAGLE) consortia were established. The majority of the participating cohorts are longitudinal population-based samples, but other cohorts with data on early childhood phenotypes are also involved. Cohorts often have a broad focus and collect(ed) data on various somatic and psychiatric traits as well as environmental factors. Genetic variants have been successfully identified for multiple traits, for example, birth weight, atopic dermatitis, childhood BMI, allergic sensitization, and pubertal growth. Furthermore, the results have shown that genetic factors also partly underlie the association with adult traits. As sample sizes are still increasing, it is expected that future analyses will identify additional variants. This, in combination with the development of innovative statistical methods, will provide detailed insight on the mechanisms underlying the transition from childhood to adult disorders. Both consortia welcome new collaborations. Policies and contact details are available from the corresponding authors of this manuscript and/or the consortium websites.Peer reviewe

AI is a viable alternative to high throughput screening: a 318-target study

: High throughput screening (HTS) is routinely used to identify bioactive small molecules. This requires physical compounds, which limits coverage of accessible chemical space. Computational approaches combined with vast on-demand chemical libraries can access far greater chemical space, provided that the predictive accuracy is sufficient to identify useful molecules. Through the largest and most diverse virtual HTS campaign reported to date, comprising 318 individual projects, we demonstrate that our AtomNet® convolutional neural network successfully finds novel hits across every major therapeutic area and protein class. We address historical limitations of computational screening by demonstrating success for target proteins without known binders, high-quality X-ray crystal structures, or manual cherry-picking of compounds. We show that the molecules selected by the AtomNet® model are novel drug-like scaffolds rather than minor modifications to known bioactive compounds. Our empirical results suggest that computational methods can substantially replace HTS as the first step of small-molecule drug discovery

Analysis of shared heritability in common disorders of the brain

ience, this issue p. eaap8757 Structured Abstract INTRODUCTION Brain disorders may exhibit shared symptoms and substantial epidemiological comorbidity, inciting debate about their etiologic overlap. However, detailed study of phenotypes with different ages of onset, severity, and presentation poses a considerable challenge. Recently developed heritability methods allow us to accurately measure correlation of genome-wide common variant risk between two phenotypes from pools of different individuals and assess how connected they, or at least their genetic risks, are on the genomic level. We used genome-wide association data for 265,218 patients and 784,643 control participants, as well as 17 phenotypes from a total of 1,191,588 individuals, to quantify the degree of overlap for genetic risk factors of 25 common brain disorders. RATIONALE Over the past century, the classification of brain disorders has evolved to reflect the medical and scientific communities' assessments of the presumed root causes of clinical phenomena such as behavioral change, loss of motor function, or alterations of consciousness. Directly observable phenomena (such as the presence of emboli, protein tangles, or unusual electrical activity patterns) generally define and separate neurological disorders from psychiatric disorders. Understanding the genetic underpinnings and categorical distinctions for brain disorders and related phenotypes may inform the search for their biological mechanisms. RESULTS Common variant risk for psychiatric disorders was shown to correlate significantly, especially among attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder (MDD), and schizophrenia. By contrast, neurological disorders appear more distinct from one another and from the psychiatric disorders, except for migraine, which was significantly correlated to ADHD, MDD, and Tourette syndrome. We demonstrate that, in the general population, the personality trait neuroticism is significantly correlated with almost every psychiatric disorder and migraine. We also identify significant genetic sharing between disorders and early life cognitive measures (e.g., years of education and college attainment) in the general population, demonstrating positive correlation with several psychiatric disorders (e.g., anorexia nervosa and bipolar disorder) and negative correlation with several neurological phenotypes (e.g., Alzheimer's disease and ischemic stroke), even though the latter are considered to result from specific processes that occur later in life. Extensive simulations were also performed to inform how statistical power, diagnostic misclassification, and phenotypic heterogeneity influence genetic correlations. CONCLUSION The high degree of genetic correlation among many of the psychiatric disorders adds further evidence that their current clinical boundaries do not reflect distinct underlying pathogenic processes, at least on the genetic level. This suggests a deeply interconnected nature for psychiatric disorders, in contrast to neurological disorders, and underscores the need to refine psychiatric diagnostics. Genetically informed analyses may provide important "scaffolding" to support such restructuring of psychiatric nosology, which likely requires incorporating many levels of information. By contrast, we find limited evidence for widespread common genetic risk sharing among neurological disorders or across neurological and psychiatric disorders. We show that both psychiatric and neurological disorders have robust correlations with cognitive and personality measures. Further study is needed to evaluate whether overlapping genetic contributions to psychiatric pathology may influence treatment choices. Ultimately, such developments may pave the way toward reduced heterogeneity and improved diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements