AIDS Art: Activism on Canvas

Protest art is all around us. Whether we realize it or not, we are influenced by the political, social, or cultural messages that are within the artworks. I have always been interested in the effects of disease on a population and disease has had an effect on artists and the artworks that they produce throughout the ages. Today, AIDS has affected almost every single person on this planet and is a topic that enters political debates, affects the social constructs of society and carries many negative cultural connotations. AIDS first stormed through the United States in the early 1980s affecting first the homosexual community and as the years passed hit everyone in all walks of life regardless of sexual orientation, race, gender, or social standing. Artists drew on the havoc that AIDS brought in its wake in the 1980s and brought a human element to the suffering that was occurring across the United States and around the world. Artists also used this opportunity to try to increase awareness among the general population about AIDS and its effects on the human body. But did the artworks that centered on AIDS really have any effect on the general population in bringing about more awareness of AIDS? Did AIDS protest art translate the experience of living with AIDS, define courage and loss, or ignite activism? Through this project I hope to explore how AIDS related art can be defined as a form of protest art and whether the artists, who were working towards showing the world that AIDS was killing their friends, their loved ones and themselves, got their point across. Was there an increase in activism against AIDS? Did artists target health centers in which to display their artworks or were they just shown in galleries? And why today, when there is still no cure for AIDS and the disease is still as deadly as it was twenty years ago do we not acknowledge it with as much fervor as we did then? Medicines have gotten better at prolonging the lives of those living with HIV/AIDS, but people are still dying and artists are still painting, sculpting, creating works which memorialize those who have gone and those that are living on in the shadow of their disease

The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Content Analysis of the Most Prominent Subject Matter Discussed in CBC News Articles

The present study examined the most prominent subject matter in CBC news articles during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The sample was collected through a google web search that read “COVID-19 AND Coronavirus AND CBC news articles AND Alberta.” The 50 most recent news articles that appeared in this search and contained “COVID-19” or “Coronavirus” in relation to Alberta in the article headline were sampled. The article headlines were individually analyzed in a first-phase coding process and then re-examined for common themes. A qualitative content analysis determined that the most prominent subject matter in CBC news articles was statistics (50%) followed by general updates (22%), COVID-19 information (14%), current events (6%), and regulations (4%). An additional category titled ‘other’ (4%) was created for articles with subject matter that was unrelated to these themes. The analysis found that the most prominent news content in CBC news articles was related to fear inducing information which replicates the results from earlier studies on the H1N1 pandemic in 2009. &nbsp

Short Subjects: Self-Indexing Contemporary Photograph Collections

A review of current library and archival literature on the cataloging of photographs illustrates the diverse methods of arranging and describing visual records. Photographic collections range in size from a handful of old pictures to collections housing hundreds of thousands of photographs and negatives. As varied as the size of photograph collections, there also seems to be as many different cataloging and arrangement schemes. While most cataloging methods have unique features, they usually can be categorized in three types of retrieval systems: (l) card catalog, (2) image- bearing cards, and (3) self- indexed collections. This is an explanation of the Auburn University Archives\u27 (Alabama) efforts to cope with the sudden influx of a sizable collection of contemporary photographs

Tangle analysis of difference topology experiments: applications to a Mu protein-DNA complex

We develop topological methods for analyzing difference topology experiments involving 3-string tangles. Difference topology is a novel technique used to unveil the structure of stable protein-DNA complexes involving two or more DNA segments. We analyze such experiments for the Mu protein-DNA complex. We characterize the solutions to the corresponding tangle equations by certain knotted graphs. By investigating planarity conditions on these graphs we show that there is a unique biologically relevant solution. That is, we show there is a unique rational tangle solution, which is also the unique solution with small crossing number.Comment: 60 pages, 74 figure

A study of twenty unmarried mothers admitted by the New England Home for Little Wanderers in 1949.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

Low-power triggered data acquisition system and method

A low-power triggered data acquisition system and method utilizes low-powered circuitry, comparators, and digital logic incorporated into a miniaturized device interfaced with self-generating transducer sensor inputs to detect, identify and assess impact and damage to surfaces and structures wherein, upon the occurrence of a triggering event that produces a signal greater than a set threshold changes the comparator output and causes the system to acquire and store digital data representative of the incoming waveform on at least one triggered channel. The sensors may be disposed in an array to provide triangulation and location of the impact

#NotIowaNice: Guerrilla design tactics and addressing nitrate pollution

Calling attention to the issue of nitrate pollution in Iowa’s waterways as a result of current agricultural practices, my goal was to initiate a dialogue on social media prompted by guerrilla tactics. The issue of nitrate pollution has been steadily increasing over the past decade as a result of Iowa’s lack of environmental mandates to maintain and monitor nitrate leeching from the soil into the watersheds. In 2015, this issue initiated a lawsuit by the Des Moines Water Works against three northern farming counties, citing runoff into ditches that feed into the Raccoon River as source points of the pollution. I wanted to be disruptive in a constructive manner to see if Iowan’s would respond on social media. There are common assumptions that people will post things to the internet that they would not have the courage to say out loud in person. The hashtag #NotIowaNice was utilized as a brand and for social media context. Utilizing a campaign with video imaging, stickers, stenciled graffiti, a branded social media platform on twitter and a website carried this hashtag. Video projections were broadcast in selected areas of the downtown Des Moines metro and in Ames, Iowa. Stickers and spray-chalk graffiti messaging with “Nitrate Pollution #NotIowaNice” was placed along pedestrian walkways near the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers. The goal was to see if the imagery and messaging moved the audience to utilize or mention #NotIowaNice in social media. While several people filmed the video projections, there were ultimately no responses on social media utilizing the assigned hashtag