The art of personification in Late Antique silver: Third to Sixth Century AD

This thesis examines the extent to which, in an artistic context, personifications, and allegorical figures and scenes, were embedded in the culture of Late Antiquity from AD 300 to 600. ‘Personification’ can be read both as a noun and a verb, and I explore it in both senses. My examination is carried out through a series of case studies of figurative imagery on contemporary silver plate. I make an empirical study of the primary objects within my thesis in relation to texts and other objects never considered in conjunction before. The representations on the silver plate discussed in my thesis are broadly divided into three categories: secular, imperial and cultic. In the secular grouping, I discuss their links to literature, the theatre, and their place in the dining room. Imperial imagery often featured personifications and in addition was circulated throughout the known world, and so I examine the power held by these particular, and predominantly female, figures. Although pagan cults were by this time dying out, a few surviving cultic objects such as the Parabiago Plate allow an examination of this form of personification. During this period there were huge changes as the Roman Empire divided into Eastern and Western Empires and adopted the Christian faith. The former became the Byzantine Empire and the latter went into a perceived decline, particularly after the sack of Rome in AD 410. I look at how pagan personifications and allegorical groups survived this transition, and assess the significance of this form of continuity. This thesis demonstrates that in Late Antiquity the art of personification functioned in all aspects of life. It was a subliminal language, accessible in varying degrees to contemporary viewers depending on their education and status. It was a potent propaganda tool, and in what was then a patriarchal society it provided images of strong, powerful females

The Web as an Adaptive Network: Coevolution of Web Behavior and Web Structure

Much is known about the complex network structure of the Web, and about behavioral dynamics on the Web. A number of studies address how behaviors on the Web are affected by different network topologies, whilst others address how the behavior of users on the Web alters network topology. These represent complementary directions of influence, but they are generally not combined within any one study. In network science, the study of the coupled interaction between topology and behavior, or state-topology coevolution, is known as 'adaptive networks', and is a rapidly developing area of research. In this paper, we review the case for considering the Web as an adaptive network and several examples of state-topology coevolution on the Web. We also review some abstract results from recent literature in adaptive networks and discuss their implications for Web Science. We conclude that adaptive networks provide a formal framework for characterizing processes acting 'on' and 'of' the Web, and offers potential for identifying general organizing principles that seem otherwise illusive in Web Scienc

A more equitable distribution of the positive fiscal benefits of immigration

Immigration is good for the US economy and for the fiscal picture at the federal level, but some local areasexperience adverse fiscal impacts when new immigrants arrive. Edelberg and Watson propose a transparentsystem for redistributing resources from the federal government to these localities. Local areas wouldreceive $2,500 annually for each adult immigrant who arrived to the US within the past five years withouta college degree—those more likely to generate negative fiscal flows at the subnational level. The fundswould take the form of unrestricted transfers to local educational agencies through the existing Impact Aidprogram and to Federally Qualified Health Centers. This support would help to offset educational, health,and other costs to local areas associated with immigrant inflows, and more equitably share the overall fiscaland economic benefits of immigration.

Facilitation : The Secret to Successful Meetings

Successful meetings are the result of careful planning and facilitation, not luck. Watson and Moore share proven techniques practiced at the University of Georgia School of Law Library to enhance meeting effectiveness

Using Pecha Kucha to Enhance Your Presentations

Pecha Kucha is a simple presentation format where you show twenty images each for twenty seconds. The short time keeps the information flowing and engages the audience more effectively than a text-laden typical PowerPoint presentation

Development of a Holistic Environmental Brief For Use as a Design-phase Building Environmental Assessment Tool

The architectural brief is seen by architects as the most crucial part of the entire design process in terms of achieving high quality buildings. Environmental design strategies are considered as being of lesser importance[1]. It is proposed in this paper, that the use of an environmental brief to drive building design could be extremely effective in producing high environmental performance. Using the briefing stage to set out environmental criteria will allow the assessment of the building's performance throughout the various stages of the design process. This will be effective in ensuring that environmental design strategies are not compromised. The implementation of the environmental brief could be seen as more important in achieving a high level of environmental performance that the environmental design strategies themselves. Some case studies of house projects have been undertaken in which environmental briefs were developed. The paper examines the brief development process using these projects as examples. This brief development fits into a wider research framework of the development of design-phase environmental assessment tools

The Four F’s of Facilitation: the Secret to Successful Meetings

Facilitating is about successfully guiding a group of people through the process of acting on the tasks that need to be addressed by the group. While facilitating a meeting is easier when you are leading it, even if you are just an attendee, you can still use these secrets of facilitation to improve the meetings you attend

Bringing a University Library’s Juvenile Collection Into the 21st Century

To revitalize their aging and often overlooked juvenile collection, a team of librarians at East Tennessee State University\u27s Charles C. Sherrod Library sought ways to modernize, diversify, and promote the collection to better serve their campus community

Altered biomechanical properties of large arteries in muscular dystrophy

Muscular dystrophy is a disease characterized by skeletal muscle weakness and wasting, but little is known of alterations in the vascular system that occur with this disease. The culprit in many muscular dystrophies is a defective dystrophin-glycoprotein complex (DGC). The DGC is a group of transmembrane proteins that connects the cytoskeleton of muscle cells to the extracellular matrix; it plays a role in mechanotransduction and the maintenance of structural integrity of these cells, and includes the proteins dystrophin and sarcoglycan-delta. The absence of these proteins results in severe muscular dystrophies in humans, and thus knockout mice lacking the genes encoding for dystrophin (mdx mice) and sarcoglycan-delta (sgcd-/- mice) were studied to detect any vascular alterations that occur as a result of a defective DGC. Acute biaxial biomechanical data were obtained through pressure-diameter and axial force-length tests on common carotid arteries of mdx, sgcd-/-, and wild-type mice in the active and passive smooth muscle state. Functional response to the vasoreactive compounds phenylephrine, carbamylcholine chloride, and sodium nitroprusside was also tested. We found significant biomechanical differences between the knockout and wild-type mouse arteries: the mdx and sgcd-/- arteries had decreased distensibilities in pressure-diameter tests, with mdx arteries also having increased circumferential stresses, and the knockout arteries generated increased axial loads and stresses in the axial force-length tests. The mdx and sgcd-/- arteries also differed from the wild-type in that their âÂÂhomeostaticâ axial stretch, at which the axial force remains constant upon pressurization, was significantly decreased. We conclude that the loss of DGC proteins does trigger changes in vascular smooth muscle cells or their interactions with the extracellular matrix, yet that the altered vascular system was able to adapt and function without the DGC. Knowledge of alterations to the vascular system (and adaptations to these changes) of patients with muscular dystrophy could help physicians customize their treatment to extend and enhance their lives, especially as medical advances extend the lifespan of these patients and they begin to suffer from diseases such as hypertension and atherosclerosis that affect the normal aging population

Relationship Between Student Characteristics and Attrition Among Associate Degree Nursing Students

High nursing student attrition has been a pervasive problem in the nursing program at the research site of this study. The purpose of this project study was to investigate the relationship between attrition and nursing student characteristics, including age, gender, ethnicity, English as Second Language (ESL) background, licensed practical nurse (LPN) licensure, grade point average (GPA), the number of preadmission college credits, and the Test of Essential Academic Skills (TEAS) scores. This correlational study of archival data was guided by Jeffreys\u27s nursing undergraduate retention and success model and included a convenience sample of 240 students admitted to the program between the Spring 2011 and Fall 2013 semesters. Point biserial and phi coefficient statistical analyses indicated that significant relationships existed between attrition and ethnicity, GPA, TEAS scores, college credits, and LPN status. There were no significant relationships between attrition and age, gender, and ESL background. Student characteristics correlated with higher attrition included ethnic minority background, more college credits, lower TEAS composite and math scores, lower GPA scores, and not having LPN licensure. These research results were the basis for policy recommendations for changes to the admission process within the nursing program and for early identification of students at risk for attrition, with the goal of providing early supportive measures. The overall goal of the policy recommendations was to decrease attrition at the local research site, which may help foster positive social change by promoting the educational and professional progress of nursing students. Nursing student attrition can negatively affect a nursing program\u27s finances and reputation. For students, attrition represents lost time, lost finances, and a limited possibility for achieving socioeconomic progress