Narcissus revisited: Norman Mailer and the twentieth century avant-garde

This thesis examines the American novelist Norman Mailer’s relationship to the 20th century avant-garde. Mailer is often remembered as a pioneer in the new documentary modes of subjective non-fiction of the sixties. Looking beyond the decade’s themes of fact and fiction, this thesis opens up Mailer’s aesthetics in general to other areas of historical and theoretical enquiry, primarily art history and psychoanalysis. In doing so, it argues that Mailer’s work represents a thoroughgoing aesthetic and political response to modernism in the arts, a response that in turn fuels a critical opposition to postmodern aesthetics. Two key ideas are explored here. The first is narcissism. In the sixties, Mailer was an avatar of what Christopher Lasch called the “culture of narcissism”. The self-advertising non-fiction was related to an emerging postmodern self-consciousness in the novel. Yet the myth of Narcissus has a longer history in the story of modernist aesthetics. Starting with the concept’s early articulation by Freudian psychoanalysis, this thesis argues that narcissism was for Mailer central to human subjectivity in the 20th century. It was also a defining trait of technological modernity in the wake of the atom bomb and the Holocaust. Mailer, then, wasn’t just concerned with the aesthetics of narcissism: he was also deeply concerned with its ethics. Its logic is key to almost every major theme of his work: technology, war, fascist charisma, sexuality, masculinity, criminality, politics, art, media and fame. This thesis will also examine how narcissism was related for Mailer to themes of trauma, violence, facing and recognition. The second idea that informs this thesis is the theoretical question of “the real”. A later generation of postmodernists thought that Mailer’s initially radical work was excessively grounded in documentary and traditional literary realism. Yet while the question of realism was central for Mailer, he approached this question from a modernist standpoint. He identified with the modernist perspectivism of Picasso and his eclectic “attacks on reality”, and brought this modernist humanism to a critical analysis of postmodernism. The postwar (and ongoing) debates about postmodern and realism in the novel connect in Mailer, I argue, to what Hal Foster calls the “return of the real” in the 20th century avant-garde. This thesis also links Mailer to psychoanalytical views on trauma and violence; anti-idealist philosophy in Bataille and Adorno; and later postmodern art historical engagements with realism and simulation. Mailer’s view was that a hunger for the real was an effect of a desensitising (post)modernity. While the key decade is the sixties, the study begins in 1948 with Mailer’s first novel The Naked and the Dead, and ends at the height of the postmodern eighties. Drawing on a range of postmodern theory, this thesis argues that Mailer’s fiction sought to confront postmodern reality without ceding to the absurdity of the postmodern novel. The thesis also traces Mailer’s relationship to a range of contemporary art and visual culture, including Pop Art (and Warhol in particular), and avant-garde and postmodern cinema. This study also draws on a broad range of psychoanalytical, feminist and cultural theory to explore Mailer’s often troubled relationship to narcissism, masculinity and sexuality. The thesis engages a complex history of feminist perspectives on Mailer, and argues that while feminist critique remains necessary for a reading of his work, it is not sufficient to account for his restless exploration of masculinity as a subject. In chapter 7, the thesis also discusses Mailer’s much-criticised romantic fascination with black culture in the context of postcolonial politics

Association mapping of seed quality traits using the Canadian flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) core collection

KEY MESSAGE: The identification of stable QTL for seed quality traits by association mapping of a diverse panel of linseed accessions establishes the foundation for assisted breeding and future fine mapping in linseed. ABSTRACT: Linseed oil is valued for its food and non-food applications. Modifying its oil content and fatty acid (FA) profiles to meet market needs in a timely manner requires clear understanding of their quantitative trait loci (QTL) architectures, which have received little attention to date. Association mapping is an efficient approach to identify QTL in germplasm collections. In this study, we explored the quantitative nature of seed quality traits including oil content (OIL), palmitic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid (LIO) linolenic acid (LIN) and iodine value in a flax core collection of 390 accessions assayed with 460 microsatellite markers. The core collection was grown in a modified augmented design at two locations over 3 years and phenotypic data for all seven traits were obtained from all six environments. Significant phenotypic diversity and moderate to high heritability for each trait (0.73–0.99) were observed. Most of the candidate QTL were stable as revealed by multivariate analyses. Nine candidate QTL were identified, varying from one for OIL to three for LIO and LIN. Candidate QTL for LIO and LIN co-localized with QTL previously identified in bi-parental populations and some mapped nearby genes known to be involved in the FA biosynthesis pathway. Fifty-eight percent of the QTL alleles were absent (private) in the Canadian cultivars suggesting that the core collection possesses QTL alleles potentially useful to improve seed quality traits. The candidate QTL identified herein will establish the foundation for future marker-assisted breeding in linseed. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00122-014-2264-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

APRIL is a novel clinical chemo-resistance biomarker in colorectal adenocarcinoma identified by gene expression profiling

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>5-Fluorouracil(5FU) and oral analogues, such as capecitabine, remain one of the most useful agents for the treatment of colorectal adenocarcinoma. Low toxicity and convenience of administration facilitate use, however clinical resistance is a major limitation. Investigation has failed to fully explain the molecular mechanisms of resistance and no clinically useful predictive biomarkers for 5FU resistance have been identified. We investigated the molecular mechanisms of clinical 5FU resistance in colorectal adenocarcinoma patients in a prospective biomarker discovery project utilising gene expression profiling. The aim was to identify novel 5FU resistance mechanisms and qualify these as candidate biomarkers and therapeutic targets.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Putative treatment specific gene expression changes were identified in a transcriptomics study of rectal adenocarcinomas, biopsied and profiled before and after pre-operative short-course radiotherapy or 5FU based chemo-radiotherapy, using microarrays. Tumour from untreated controls at diagnosis and resection identified treatment-independent gene expression changes. Candidate 5FU chemo-resistant genes were identified by comparison of gene expression data sets from these clinical specimens with gene expression signatures from our previous studies of colorectal cancer cell lines, where parental and daughter lines resistant to 5FU were compared. A colorectal adenocarcinoma tissue microarray (n = 234, resected tumours) was used as an independent set to qualify candidates thus identified.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>APRIL/TNFSF13 mRNA was significantly upregulated following 5FU based concurrent chemo-radiotherapy and in 5FU resistant colorectal adenocarcinoma cell lines but not in radiotherapy alone treated colorectal adenocarcinomas. Consistent withAPRIL's known function as an autocrine or paracrine secreted molecule, stromal but not tumour cell protein expression by immunohistochemistry was correlated with poor prognosis (p = 0.019) in the independent set. Stratified analysis revealed that protein expression of APRIL in the tumour stroma is associated with survival in adjuvant 5FU treated patients only (n = 103, p < 0.001), and is independently predictive of lack of clinical benefit from adjuvant 5FU [HR 6.25 (95%CI 1.48-26.32), p = 0.013].</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A combined investigative model, analysing the transcriptional response in clinical tumour specimens and cancers cell lines, has identified APRIL, a novel chemo-resistance biomarker with independent predictive impact in 5FU-treated CRC patients, that may represent a target for novel therapeutics.</p

"Time can be rewritten": The Doctor, the book, and the database

This article considers the relationship between printed books and electronic databases in the television series Doctor Who. It argues that the program uses books to signal strangeness, and suggests that that strangeness is at its height when books behave like databases, and vice versa. Drawing upon work by Marsha Kinder, Jacques Derrida, and Andrew Piper, and with reference to episodes dating from 1963 to 2017, this article examines the complex interrelation of the book and the database in Doctor Who, thus showing how the continuing movement from analogue to digital culture has been reflected in a key popular text

Estimating geological CO2 storage security to deliver on climate mitigation

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) can help nations meet their Paris CO2 reduction commitments cost-effectively. However, lack of confidence in geologic CO2 storage security remains a barrier to CCS implementation. Here we present a numerical program that calculates CO2 storage security and leakage to the atmosphere over 10,000 years. This combines quantitative estimates of geological subsurface CO2 retention, and of surface CO2 leakage. We calculate that realistically well-regulated storage in regions with moderate well densities has a 50% probability that leakage remains below 0.0008% per year, with over 98% of the injected CO2 retained in the subsurface over 10,000 years. An unrealistic scenario, where CO2 storage is inadequately regulated, estimates that more than 78% will be retained over 10,000 years. Our modelling results suggest that geological storage of CO2 can be a secure climate change mitigation option, but we note that long-term behaviour of CO2 in the subsurface remains a key uncertainty

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Observation of associated near-side and away-side long-range correlations in √sNN=5.02 TeV proton-lead collisions with the ATLAS detector

Two-particle correlations in relative azimuthal angle (Δϕ) and pseudorapidity (Δη) are measured in √sNN=5.02  TeV p+Pb collisions using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements are performed using approximately 1  μb-1 of data as a function of transverse momentum (pT) and the transverse energy (ΣETPb) summed over 3.1<η<4.9 in the direction of the Pb beam. The correlation function, constructed from charged particles, exhibits a long-range (2<|Δη|<5) “near-side” (Δϕ∼0) correlation that grows rapidly with increasing ΣETPb. A long-range “away-side” (Δϕ∼π) correlation, obtained by subtracting the expected contributions from recoiling dijets and other sources estimated using events with small ΣETPb, is found to match the near-side correlation in magnitude, shape (in Δη and Δϕ) and ΣETPb dependence. The resultant Δϕ correlation is approximately symmetric about π/2, and is consistent with a dominant cos⁡2Δϕ modulation for all ΣETPb ranges and particle pT

Measurement of the production of a W boson in association with a charm quark in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The production of a W boson in association with a single charm quark is studied using 4.6 fb−1 of pp collision data at s√ = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. In events in which a W boson decays to an electron or muon, the charm quark is tagged either by its semileptonic decay to a muon or by the presence of a charmed meson. The integrated and differential cross sections as a function of the pseudorapidity of the lepton from the W-boson decay are measured. Results are compared to the predictions of next-to-leading-order QCD calculations obtained from various parton distribution function parameterisations. The ratio of the strange-to-down sea-quark distributions is determined to be 0.96+0.26−0.30 at Q 2 = 1.9 GeV2, which supports the hypothesis of an SU(3)-symmetric composition of the light-quark sea. Additionally, the cross-section ratio σ(W + +c¯¯)/σ(W − + c) is compared to the predictions obtained using parton distribution function parameterisations with different assumptions about the s−s¯¯¯ quark asymmetry

Measurements of fiducial and differential cross sections for Higgs boson production in the diphoton decay channel at s√=8 TeV with ATLAS

Measurements of fiducial and differential cross sections are presented for Higgs boson production in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of s√=8 TeV. The analysis is performed in the H → γγ decay channel using 20.3 fb−1 of data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The signal is extracted using a fit to the diphoton invariant mass spectrum assuming that the width of the resonance is much smaller than the experimental resolution. The signal yields are corrected for the effects of detector inefficiency and resolution. The pp → H → γγ fiducial cross section is measured to be 43.2 ±9.4(stat.) − 2.9 + 3.2 (syst.) ±1.2(lumi)fb for a Higgs boson of mass 125.4GeV decaying to two isolated photons that have transverse momentum greater than 35% and 25% of the diphoton invariant mass and each with absolute pseudorapidity less than 2.37. Four additional fiducial cross sections and two cross-section limits are presented in phase space regions that test the theoretical modelling of different Higgs boson production mechanisms, or are sensitive to physics beyond the Standard Model. Differential cross sections are also presented, as a function of variables related to the diphoton kinematics and the jet activity produced in the Higgs boson events. The observed spectra are statistically limited but broadly in line with the theoretical expectations

Measurement of χ c1 and χ c2 production with s√ = 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

The prompt and non-prompt production cross-sections for the χ c1 and χ c2 charmonium states are measured in pp collisions at s√ = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using 4.5 fb−1 of integrated luminosity. The χ c states are reconstructed through the radiative decay χ c → J/ψγ (with J/ψ → μ + μ −) where photons are reconstructed from γ → e + e − conversions. The production rate of the χ c2 state relative to the χ c1 state is measured for prompt and non-prompt χ c as a function of J/ψ transverse momentum. The prompt χ c cross-sections are combined with existing measurements of prompt J/ψ production to derive the fraction of prompt J/ψ produced in feed-down from χ c decays. The fractions of χ c1 and χ c2 produced in b-hadron decays are also measured