Armed with an Easel: Understanding Artistic Political Praxis Through the Works of Theodor Adorno and Chantal Mouffe

This Independent Study is divided into four chapters. The first chapter examines the role of capitalism in the formation of our culture. The argument presented here is that culture plays an important role in reinforcing modern neoliberal capitalism and that neoliberal capitalism has massive control over the dissemination of culture and the arts. The chapter concludes that it is necessary to utilize socio-cultural means in combating the influence of capitalism, and there does indeed exist emancipatory potential in artistic political praxis. The second chapter focuses on Theodor Adorno’s aesthetic theory in articulating his conception of the emancipatory potential of art. This chapter explicates on Adorno’s idea of a sovereign and autonomous artistic praxis and looks at his objections to the politicization of art. Finally, the chapter looks at what Adorno considers legitimate artistic political praxis and attempts at an understanding of Adorno’s concept of aesthetic negativity in relation to artistic political praxis. The third chapter focuses on the political theory of Chantal Mouffe; specifically, it is an explication of her theory of agonistics as a democratic political praxis. The chapter will explore Mouffe’s concept of hegemony in relation to how she conceives of agonistics. It will also explain how Mouffe understands public spaces as battlegrounds for agonistic struggle. The fourth chapter focuses on how Mouffe conceives of the role of art in agonistic political praxis. The fourth and final chapter of this study evaluates the two different conceptions of artistic political praxis presented by Adorno and Mouffe on their respective merits and deficiencies. It will attempt to adjudicate the differences between the respective theories and try to formulate some kind of practical frame for how artistic political praxis ought to be conducted

Improving Performance of Ad Hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) Routing Protocol in Wireless Sensor Network

Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV) is a routing protocol for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) and other wireless ad hoc networks. This paper attempts to modify AODV to enhance network performances on wireless sensor network (WSN). The main idea of modified AODV is using multi metrics in route decision instead of single hop count metric. The modified AODV considers energy factor and node lifetime in route decision in order to maintain the connectivity of the network as long as possible. Simulation results conducted in network simulator (NS-2) prove that the effectiveness of modified AODV in terms of throughput, average end-to-end delay, routing overhead, dropped packet ratio and energy consumption and so on. There is significant decrease in average end to end delay, control overhead and dropped packet ratio by using modified AODV protocol under the varying traffic load.

Sol-Gel Glass Holographic Light-Shaping Diffusers

Holographic glass light-shaping diffusers (GLSDs) are optical components for use in special-purpose illumination systems (see figure). When properly positioned with respect to lamps and areas to be illuminated, holographic GLSDs efficiently channel light from the lamps onto specified areas with specified distributions of illumination for example, uniform or nearly uniform irradiance can be concentrated with intensity confined to a peak a few degrees wide about normal incidence, over a circular or elliptical area. Holographic light diffusers were developed during the 1990s. The development of the present holographic GLSDs extends the prior development to incorporate sol-gel optical glass. To fabricate a holographic GLSD, one records a hologram on a sol-gel silica film formulated specially for this purpose. The hologram is a quasi-random, micro-sculpted pattern of smoothly varying changes in the index of refraction of the glass. The structures in this pattern act as an array of numerous miniature lenses that refract light passing through the GLSD, such that the transmitted light beam exhibits a precisely tailored energy distribution. In comparison with other light diffusers, holographic GLSDs function with remarkably high efficiency: they typically transmit 90 percent or more of the incident lamp light onto the designated areas. In addition, they can withstand temperatures in excess of 1,000 C. These characteristics make holographic GLSDs attractive for use in diverse lighting applications that involve high temperatures and/or requirements for high transmission efficiency for ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared light. Examples include projectors, automobile headlights, aircraft landing lights, high-power laser illuminators, and industrial and scientific illuminators

First somatic mutation of E2F1 in a critical DNA binding residue discovered in well-differentiated papillary mesothelioma of the peritoneum

10.1186/gb-2011-12-9-r96Genome biology129R9

Contribution of home-based enterprises to women’s empowerment in Mandalay region, Myanmar

This study of women entrepreneurs shows that property inheritance rights do not translate into access to financial capital, greater social networks in formal spaces, or empowerment of women. Although there are more educated females than males, there is ongoing lesser female labor force participation (63.1% compared to 85.1% for men). Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) especially home-based and cottage industries represent the backbone of local economies and can potentially generate women’s empowerment by participation in the equity and employment of a business enterprise. The research examines the role of women in the family after participation in home-based industries in terms of women’s empowerment

Phylogenetic relationships among Callosciurus squirrels in the Indochina Peninsula: phylogenetic position of C. pygerythrus from Myanmar

The phylogenetic relationships among seven Callosciurus species from the Indochina Peninsula, including the C. honkhoaiensis which is endemic to Hon Khoai Island, were studied using complete mitochondrial cytochrome b gene sequences (1140 bases). We primarily focused on the phylogenetic position of C. pygerythrus, which is distributed in the western part of the peninsula. We identified two main lineages: 1) C. caniceps, C. honkhoaiensis, C. inornatus, C. phayrei and C. pygerythrus, and 2) C. erythraeus and C. finlaysonii. Estimated divergence time between the two lineages was at the junction of the Zanclean and Piacenzian in the Pliocene. Within the first linage, the divergence time of sub-lineages corresponded to the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary, although phylogenetic relationships were unclear. These two divergence times estimated in the present study correspond to episodes of global cooling, suggesting that climate may have contributed to the divergence of these Callosciurus squirrels

Mutation signatures implicate aristolochic acid in bladder cancer development

10.1186/s13073-015-0161-3Genome Medicine71Article number 3