Heritage and Hermeneutics: Towards a Broader Interpretation of Interpretation

This article re-examines the theoretical basis for environmental and heritage interpretation in tourist settings in the light of hermeneutic philosophy. It notes that the pioneering vision of heritage interpretation formulated by Freeman Tilden envisaged a broadly educational, ethically informed and transformative art. By contrast, current cognitive psychological attempts to reduce interpretation to the monological transmission of information, targeting universal but individuated cognitive structures, are found to be wanting. Despite growing signs of diversity, this information processing approach to interpretation remains dominant. The article then presents the alternative paradigm of hermeneutics through the works of Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Heidegger and Gadamer, to provide a broader interpretation of interpretation. This not only captures the essence of Tilden’s definition but construes heritage interpretation as a more inclusive, culturally situated, critically reflexive and dialogical practice

Good Things Come in Small Packages: Getting the Most From Shared Print Retention and Cooperative Collection Development With a Small Group of Libraries

In June 2013, the Central Iowa Collaborative Collections Initiative (CI‐CCI), inspired by a Charleston preconference on data‐driven shared print collections, was established. CI‐CCI went from being just an idea to a formal, MOU‐governed organization in just six months. It is consists of a group of five mid and small central Iowa private academic libraries. Members are Central College, Drake University, Grand View University, Grinnell College, and Simpson College

Pmp27 Promotes Peroxisomal Proliferation

Peroxisomes perform many essential functions in eukaryotic cells. The weight of evidence indicates that these organelles divide by budding from preexisting peroxisomes. This process is not understood at the molecular level. Peroxisomal proliferation can be induced in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by oleate. This growth substrate is metabolized by peroxisomal enzymes. We have identified a protein, Pmp27, that promotes peroxisomal proliferation. This protein, previously termed Pmp24, was purified from peroxisomal membranes, and the corresponding gene, PMP27, was isolated and sequenced. Prop27 shares sequence similarity with the Pmp30 family in Candida boidinii. Pmp27 is a hydrophobic peroxisomal membrane protein but it can be extracted by high pH, suggesting that it does not fully span the bilayer. Its expression is regulated by oleate. The function of Pmp27 was probed by observing the phenotype of strains in which the protein was eliminated by gene disruption or overproduced by expression from a multicopy plasmid. The strain containing the disruption (3B) was able to grow on all carbon sources tested, including oleate, although growth on oleate, glycerol, and acetate was slower than wild type. Strain 3B contained peroxisomes with all of the enzymes of β-oxidation. However, in addition to the presence of a few modestly sized peroxisomes seen in a typical thin section of a cell growing on oleate-containing medium, cells of strain 3B also contained one or two very large peroxisomes. In contrast, cells in a strain in which Pmp27 was overexpressed contained an increased number of normal-sized peroxisomes. We suggest that Pmp27 promotes peroxisomal proliferation by participating in peroxisomal elongation or fission.

Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 searches DNA via a 'monkey bar' mechanism.

Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1) is both a first responder to DNA damage and a chromatin architectural protein. How PARP1 rapidly finds DNA damage sites in the context of a nucleus filled with undamaged DNA, to which it also binds, is an unresolved question. Here, we show that PARP1 association with DNA is diffusion-limited, and release of PARP1 from DNA is promoted by binding of an additional DNA molecule that facilitates a 'monkey bar' mechanism, also known as intersegment transfer. The WGR-domain of PARP1 is essential to this mechanism, and a point mutation (W589A) recapitulates the altered kinetics of the domain deletion. Demonstrating the physiological importance of the monkey bar mechanism for PARP1 function, the W589A mutant accumulates at sites of DNA damage more slowly following laser micro-irradiation than wild-type PARP1. Clinically relevant inhibitors of PARP1 did not alter the rate or mechanism of the release of PARP1 from DNA

Mobilizing User-Generated Content For Canada’s Digital Advantage

Executive Summary: The goal of the Mobilizing User-Generated Content for Canada’s Digital Content Advantage project is to define User-Generated Content (UGC) in its current state, identify successful models built for UGC, and anticipate barriers and policy infrastructure needed to sustain a model to leverage the further development of UGC to Canada\u27s advantage. At the outset, we divided our research into three domains: creative content, small scale tools and collaborative user-generated content. User-generated creative content is becoming increasingly evident throughout the technological ecology through online platforms and online social networks where individuals develop, create and capture information and choose to distribute content through an online platform in a transformative manner. The Internet offers many tools and resources that simplify the various UGC processes and models. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr and others provide functionality to upload content directly into the site itself, eliminating the need for formatting and conversion, and allowing almost instantaneous access to the content by the user’s social network. The successful sites have been able to integrate content creation, aggregation, distribution, and consumption into a single tool, further eroding some of the traditional dichotomies between content creators and end-users. Along with these larger scale resources, this study also treats small scale tools, which are tools, modifications, and applications that have been created by a user or group of users. There are three main categories of small scale tools. The first is game modifications, or add-ons, which are created by users/players in order to modify the game or assist in its play. The second is modifications, objects, or tools created for virtual worlds such as Second Life. Third, users create applications and tools for mobile devices, such as the iPhone or the Android system. The third domain considers UGC which is generated collaboratively. This category is comprised of wikis, open source software and creative content authored by a group rather than a sole individual. Several highly successful examples of collaborative UGC include Wikipedia, and open source projects such as the Linux operating system, Mozilla Firefox and the Apache platform. Major barriers to the production, distribution and aggregation of collaborative UGC are unduly restrictive intellectual property rights (including copyrights, licensing requirements and technological protection mechanisms). There are several crucial infrastructure and policies required to facilitate collaborative UGC. For example, in the area of copyright policy, a careful balance is needed to provide appropriate protection while still allowing downstream UGC creation. Other policy considerations include issues pertaining to technological protection mechanisms, privacy rights, consumer protection and competition. In terms of infrastructure, broadband internet access is the primary technological infrastructure required to promote collaborative UGC creation. There has recently been a proliferation of literature pertaining to all three of these domains, which are reviewed. Assessments are made about the most effective models and practices for each domain, as well as the barriers which impede further developments. This initial research is used as a basis for generating some tentative conclusions and recommendations for further research about the policy and technological infrastructures required to best mobilize and leverage user-generated content to create additional value in the digital economy internal and external to Canada. Policy recommendations based on this research focus on two principles: balancing the interest of both content owners and users, and creating an enabling environment in which UGC production, distribution, aggregation, and re-use can flourish

Mobilizing User-Generated Content for Canada’s Digital Content Advantage

The goal of the Mobilizing User-Generated Content for Canada’s Digital Content Advantage project is to define User-Generated Content (UGC) in its current state, identify successful models built for UGC, and anticipate barriers and policy infrastructure needed to sustain a model to leverage the further development of UGC to Canada\u27s advantage.This poster session is based on the report, Mobilizing User-Generated Content For Canada’s Digital Advantage (http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/fimspub/21/) and is related to the Brown Bag presentation also presented on March 23, 2011 (http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/fimspres/11/)

BMPER Promotes Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition in the Developing Cardiac Cushions

Formation of the cardiac valves is an essential component of cardiovascular development. Consistent with the role of the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling pathway in cardiac valve formation, embryos that are deficient for the BMP regulator BMPER (BMP-binding endothelial regulator) display the cardiac valve anomaly mitral valve prolapse. However, how BMPER deficiency leads to this defect is unknown. Based on its expression pattern in the developing cardiac cushions, we hypothesized that BMPER regulates BMP2-mediated signaling, leading to fine-tuned epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and extracellular matrix deposition. In the BMPER-/- embryo, EMT is dysregulated in the atrioventricular and outflow tract cushions compared with their wild-type counterparts, as indicated by a significant increase of Sox9-positive cells during cushion formation. However, proliferation is not impaired in the developing BMPER-/- valves. In vitro data show that BMPER directly binds BMP2. In cultured endothelial cells, BMPER blocks BMP2-induced Smad activation in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, BMP2 increases the Sox9 protein level, and this increase is inhibited by co-treatment with BMPER. Consistently, in the BMPER-/- embryos, semi-quantitative analysis of Smad activation shows that the canonical BMP pathway is significantly more active in the atrioventricular cushions during EMT. These results indicate that BMPER negatively regulates BMP-induced Smad and Sox9 activity during valve development. Together, these results identify BMPER as a regulator of BMP2-induced cardiac valve development and will contribute to our understanding of valvular defects

BMPER regulates cardiomyocyte size and vessel density in vivo

BMPER, an orthologue of Drosophila melanogaster Crossveinless-2, is a secreted factor that regulates bone morphogenetic protein activity in endothelial cell precursors and during early cardiomyocyte differentiation. Although previously described in the heart, the role of BMPER in cardiac development and function remain unknown

LRP1-Dependent Endocytic Mechanism Governs the Signaling Output of the Bmp System in Endothelial Cells and in Angiogenesis

Among the extracellular modulators of Bmp (bone morphogenetic protein) signaling, Bmper (Bmp endothelial cell precursor-derived regulator) both enhances and inhibits Bmp signaling. Recently we found that Bmper modulates Bmp4 activity via a concentration-dependent, endocytic trap-and-sink mechanism

Renouncing the Single Image: Photography and the Realism of Abstraction

This essay addresses the issue of the relationship between abstraction and realism that it argues is at stake in the rejection of any primacy accorded to the single image, in favour of a sequencing of photographs according to certain, often novelistic and epic ideas of narrative form. Setting out from the opening text of Allan Sekula’s Fish Story, the article explores the competing tendencies towards what Georg Lukács termed ‘narration’ and ‘description’ as these are traced throughout Sekula's project (in part through a comparison with the contrasting works of Andreas Gursky). The essay concludes by suggesting the ways in which it is the irreducible actuality of abstraction within the concrete everydayness of capitalism's social world that means that all photographic ‘realism’ is intrinsically ‘haunted’ by a certain spectre of that ‘self-moving substance in the ‘shape of money’, as Marx calls it, or of the abstract form of capital itself