Reminiszenzen der Erinnerung

Coutts made Reminiscences of Memory during a six-month International Fellowship at Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral at Bad Ems, Germany. Famous for its healing waters, Bad Ems was frequented by Caspar David Friedrich and Fyodor Dostoevsky, and was a magnet for artists and musicians seeking cures. With her accumulative, layered method to writing and filmic narrative, Coutts explored the visualisation of memory through film, drawing upon literary texts and artworks from the time of the town’s heyday to the present. The film re-maps and overlays fragments of re-appropriated works that examine the mechanisms of memory and decay. Focusing on the historical relationship between the environment and mental health at this location, Coutts produced a work wherein the visual is overlaid with a text – as with subtitles – telling the story of a woman’s uncertain memory of a man losing his mind. Reminiszenzen der Erinnerung contains re-fashioned excerpts from Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain (1924), re-enactments of scenes from Hollis Frampton’s film (nostalgia) (1971) and Fellini’s Amarcord (1973), the latter filmed twice to involve non-professional actors and musicians sited in Germany and the UK. Reminiszenzen der Erinnerung was first shown at Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral (2010) as part of a group show of the eight selected Fellows and was featured and reviewed on the German TV channel Mittelrhein (2010). It was screened in the group show ‘Doris’ at StedeFreund, Berlin (2010), and included in Coutts’s solo exhibition, ‘Millions Like Us’ at Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art, London (2011). The work was selected for the Salon Video Prize at Matt Roberts, London (2011). Accompanying the show at Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral, Coutts’s bookwork Thought Sequence (Argo Books, Berlin, 2011) introduced an additional narrative layer to her research, retelling Walter Benjamin’s story ‘The handkerchief’ (1932)

Drop out from Wanganui Regional Community Polytechnic, 1992-1993 : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Educational Administration, Massey University

In New Zealand recent changes in legislation have increased both the autonomy and accountability of the tertiary education sector. As a consequence, polytechnics have become painfully aware of the cost of student drop out from programmes both to their credibility as quality education providers and to their coffers. The case study of student drop out from Wanganui Regional Community Polytechnic (WRCP) was undertaken in response to administrators' concerns that, as a small, recently established polytechnic, costs associated with the loss of students might threaten its economic viability. WRCP administrators feared an increase in the rate of drop out as changes to the funding of tertiary study created increased financial pressures for students. The case Study employed a range of techniques, including a survey of archived information and student questionnaires, augmented by the perceptions gained from informal discussions with staff to ascertain the extent and nature of drop out. Analysis of data collected over a two year period (1992-1993) at WRCP revealed a pattern of drop out in terms of student characteristics, style and timing of withdrawal. Overall it showed that there was little to discriminate between the characteristics of leavers and those who persisted on a course. The two main theoretical conceptualisations of drop out, the 'integration' and 'investment' theories, were found to share the assumption that drop out is the consequence of 'cost/benefit' analysis. However, despite increased fees and reduced allowances for many students, few cited financial reasons for withdrawal. An analysis of students' self-reported reasons for leaving indicated that finances are but one of many factors which affect a students determination of the costs and benefits of continued attendance. Many reasons given were outside the control of the Polytechnic. However, three Polytechnic academic schools were consistent in their reporting of high drop out numbers, suggesting the need for further research into programme related reasons for withdrawal in these areas. These findings were consistent with recent models, which portray drop out as a complex process influenced by a multitude of factors, including student background and characteristics on entry, environmental changes and institutional factors. From those findings some strategies to enhance the 'fit' of students and hence improve their retention are suggested. Continued monitoring and further research of a more phenomenological nature are recommended in order to gain a greater understanding of student drop out

Seasonal demand for emergency department services : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Information Systems in Information Systems at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

There may be various explanations for what appears to be temporary breakdowns in the operations of Emergency Departments. One obviously can not anticipate natural disasters - what is also referred to as acts of God, but what of other situations which may develop ever so often? This begs several questions, including: • Are there "seasonal" factors at play which influence the influx of ED attendances? • And if that is the case - are there "seasonality"-related problems with the management of such surges in demand for ED services? In fact, when questions to this effect were first raised with some in ED Management in the "District" (managed by the District Health Board) the existence of "seasonality" was acknowledged, as was its potential for causing operational difficulties. In other words, there is an acknowledgement that there are "ebbs and flows" in demand for Emergency Services, and that while such can not always be anticipated absolutely, an attempt must none the less be made to pre-empt its fluctuations more accurately, and thus the following rephrased problem description "derived" from the foregoing questions: There seems to be some seasonality in the demand for ED services and it is causing operational difficulties. · For the purpose of brevity the following succinct Problem Description will be used liberally throughout the remainder of this Research Project / Thesis, namely that this is an attempt at determining Seasonal Demand for ED Services. This compacted rework of the original questions and discussion therefore represent mentioned questions and discussion. Whenever used in the remainder of this Research Project it implies that which precedes it in Chapter 1.1. For the time being that will suffice, but the author will define "season" and "seasonality" more specifically later in the Thesis, in view of some of the earlier "weather" / "season"-related studies mentioned in the Literature Review / References (Section 2.4.2 of Chapter 2). [FROM INTRODUCTION

Great Works: 50 Paintings Explored

Great Works: 50 Paintings Explored is a fully illustrated collection of essays on individual paintings drawn from his Great Works column in The Independent that ran from 2005 - 2010. As literary executor for the estate of Tom Lubbock I facilitated the production of Great Works together with Andrew Dunn from Frances Lincoln: proofing, editing, image calibration, working from the essay schedule set by the author

Introduction

Introduction to the memoir Until Further Notice, I am Alive, by Tom Lubbock, art critic of the Independent. The work is a record of two years following diagnosis of a brain tumour. It is a meditation on language and mortality and was published by Granta in 2012 to great acclaim. I wrote the 2200 word introduction, giving the text the contextual framework of an experience both of us lived through

ITO/InP solar cells: A comparison of devices fabricated by ion beam and RF sputtering of the ITO

This work was performed with the view of elucidating the behavior of indium tin oxide/indium phosphide (ITO/InP) solar cells prepared by RF and ion beam sputtering. It was found that using RF sputter deposition of the ITO always leads to more efficient devices than ion beam sputter deposition. An important aspect of the former technique is the exposure of the single crystal p-InP substrates to a very low plasma power prior to deposition. Substrates treated in this manner have also been used for ion beam deposition of ITO. In this case the cells behave very similarly to the RF deposited cells, thus suggesting that the lower power plasma exposure (LPPE) is the crucial process step

InP materials/cell fabrication

The main points of discussion, conclusions and recommendations of a workshop on InP materials and cell fabrication are given. The importance of assessing the quality of p-Inp crystals supplied by different vendors, back contacts to solar cells, junction formation, energy conversion efficiency, testing for radiation resistance, and future develpments were among the topics discussed

Global influences on UK manufacturing prices: 1970-2000

This paper presents substantial new evidence on the competitive process that links together industrial economic and international economics. Our time-series data base concerns manufactured product prices and their domestic and international determinants. We identity cointegrating relationships, using single equation and multivariate methods. We find that both market imperfections, largely ignored in international economics, and international factors, mostly neglected in industrial economics, should be jointly incorporated into pricing analysis. The significance of global factors varies markedly: differentiated-product sectors respond little to foreign price signals. Our findings are relevant to many fields within economics, including the transmission of inflation