The prints of David Hockney : their cultural, autobiographical and artistic contexts

David Hockney is a leading figure in contemporary printmaking. Since 1954 making prints has been an integral part of Hockney's art practice. It is a field of art in which he is truly gifted and, over five decades, he has created a significant body of prints. He has constantly pushed the boundaries of printmaking in terms of style, subject matter and technique. This is almost without parallel in recent art history. Printmaking has also provided Hockney with a diversion when other forms of his art, notably painting, were in a stylistic and iconographic cul de sac. The history of Hockney's involvement in making prints has formed a critical path in his overall artistic development in all its variety of forms. For much of his life as an artist, David Hockney has been freer, more experimental and less inhibited in his approach to creating art, when making prints than when painting. A successful career in painting often eluded him during much of his early career particularly after he adopted the use of acrylic paint and Hockney would often find himself in an artistic dead end in his painting style. In contrast, making prints often provided a way forward for Hockney. This modus operandi continued for much of his artistic life until his more recent embrace of digital processes in art using an iPhone or iPad. Hockney's development from an emerging artist to a mature and successful one lay in his constant searching for new ways of depiction, other than those belonging to new modernist canons. He was constantly posing pictorial problems and then trying to solve them. To this end, Hockney developed a hybrid art in his printmaking, one of wide ranging eclecticism. He then turned to naturalism, only to find he needed to explore further choices. As a mature artist Hockney achieved a fusion of the abstract and formal elements in his work and to tackle age-old issues - how to portray someone, how to depict a landscape and a season, a time of day and under certain weather conditions and how to indicate space and time in two-dimensional art form. For Hockney, printmaking has been an integral part of this search and discovery. Now entering the second decade of the 21st century, Hockney has finally achieved his ambition to become a landscape painter of consequence and now the focus for Hockney lies there. The significant purpose and role that prints played in his artistic career in the twentieth century have ceased to exist - at least for the present. -- provided by Candidate

Envisioning global LGBT human rights : (neo)colonialism, neoliberalism, resistance and hope

Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights: (Neo)colonialism, Neoliberalism, Resistance and Hope is an outcome of a five-year international collaboration among partners that share a common legacy of British colonial laws that criminalise same-sex intimacy and gender identity/expression. The project sought to facilitate learning from each other and to create outcomes that would advance knowledge and social justice. The project was unique, combining research and writing with participatory documentary filmmaking. This visionary politics infuses the pages of the anthology. The chapters are bursting with invaluable first hand insights from leading activists at the forefront of some of the most fiercely fought battlegrounds of contemporary sexual politics in India, the Caribbean and Africa. As well, authors from Canada, Botswana and Kenya examine key turning points in the advancement of SOGI issues at the United Nations, and provide critical insights on LGBT asylum in Canada. Authors also speak to a need to reorient and decolonise queer studies, and turn a critical gaze northwards from the Global South. It is a book for activists and academics in a range of disciplines from postcolonial and sexualities studies to filmmaking, as well as for policy-makers and practitioners committed to envisioning, and working for, a better future

The TYK2-P1104A Autoimmune Protective Variant Limits Coordinate Signals Required to Generate Specialized T Cell Subsets

TYK2 is a JAK family member that functions downstream of multiple cytokine receptors. Genome wide association studies have linked a SNP (rs34536443) within TYK2 encoding a Proline to Alanine substitution at amino acid 1104, to protection from multiple autoimmune diseases including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and multiple sclerosis (MS). The protective role of this SNP in autoimmune pathogenesis, however, remains incompletely understood. Here we found that T follicular helper (Tfh) cells, switched memory B cells, and IFNAR signaling were decreased in healthy individuals that expressed the protective variant TYK2A1104 (TYK2P). To study this variant in vivo, we developed a knock-in murine model of this allele. Murine Tyk2P expressing T cells homozygous for the protective allele, but not cells heterozygous for this change, manifest decreased IL-12 receptor signaling, important for Tfh lineage commitment. Further, homozygous Tyk2P T cells exhibited diminished in vitro Th1 skewing. Surprisingly, despite these signaling changes, in vivo formation of Tfh and GC B cells was unaffected in two models of T cell dependent immune responses and in two alternative SLE models. TYK2 is also activated downstream of IL-23 receptor engagement. Here, we found that Tyk2P expressing T cells had reduced IL-23 dependent signaling as well as a diminished ability to skew toward Th17 in vitro. Consistent with these findings, homozygous, but not heterozygous, Tyk2P mice were fully protected in a murine model of MS. Homozygous Tyk2P mice had fewer infiltrating CD4+ T cells within the CNS. Most strikingly, homozygous mice had a decreased proportion of IL-17+/IFNγ+, double positive, pathogenic CD4+ T cells in both the draining lymph nodes (LN) and CNS. Thus, in an autoimmune model, such as EAE, impacted by both altered Th1 and Th17 signaling, the Tyk2P allele can effectively shield animals from disease. Taken together, our findings suggest that TYK2P diminishes IL-12, IL-23, and IFN I signaling and that its protective effect is most likely manifest in the setting of autoimmune triggers that concurrently dysregulate at least two of these important signaling cascades

'The Nightwatchers' a novel and 'Breaking English' an exegesis on 'The Nightwatchers'

The creative work ‘The Nightwatchers’ is a novel with gothic undertones, written for a young adult audience. Twelve-year-old Mattie Russo and her best friend Harry are the ‘nightwatchers’, who entertain themselves by watching the comings and goings of the residents of their apartment block. When five-year-old Sammy goes missing, they play detective, discovering his corpse by the local river. Mattie and Harry realise the murderer is someone from the apartments who’s been watching where the local children play; this puts them in danger. Mattie cannot turn to her illiterate Italian grandmother (Nonna), or her depressed father for help; nor can Harry turn to his drunken, violent parents. When another boy disappears, Mattie and Harry return to the river in search of him, terrified that their silence has cost the boy his life. The plot of the novel is a device to engage the young adult reader; the novel is most importantly a ‘multicultural’ work, drawing attention to the need for cross-cultural communication in Australia. The relationship between Mattie and her Italian migrant grandmother is crucial to the novel. Their struggles to communicate (Nonna’s broken English and Mattie’s inability to speak Italian) mean they must each ‘culturally negotiate’ two cultures. Although the contemporary relevance of the concept of multiculturalism has been contested, I use the arguments of Wenche Ommundsen to support my claim that recognition of cultural difference and representation of minority groups is still important to Australian society and literature. My exegesis, ‘Breaking English’, analyses contemporary sites of ‘cultural negotiation’, including my own experiences of negotiation, both as a ‘writer’ and a supporter of ‘multiculturalism’. I examine multiculturalism in a social and political context, in relation to contemporary literature and to my own novel. I compare my novel to Melina Marchetta’s Looking for Alibrandi and other multicultural young adult narratives. Finally, I consider the process of writing a novel with my illiterate grandmother Esterina as a muse.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, 201

Owner-Reported Pica in Domestic Cats Enrolled onto a Birth Cohort Study

The prevalence and cooccurrence of pica towards different target materials were investigated using prospective data from three questionnaires completed by owners participating in a longitudinal study of UK pet cats. Pica towards one or more material types was reported in 42.9% (229/534), 32.0% (171/534), and 30.9% (165/534) of cats aged approximately 6, 12, and 18 months, respectively. At all timepoints, it was most common for only one material type to be targeted. Associations between potential explanatory variables and “chronic pica” (pica exhibited at all three timepoints) were also explored. Multivariable logistic regression revealed moving to a new house when the cat was aged approximately 6–12 months, renting rather than owning a home, and living in a household without a dog(s) when the cat was aged 2–4 months increased the odds of chronic pica occurrence. This study provides novel data from a cohort of UK pet cats and it is hoped this will increase the understanding of pica and provide direction for areas for future research

The role of community acceptance over time for costs of HIV and STI prevention interventions: analysis of the Masaka Intervention Trial, Uganda, 1996-1999.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to estimate the annual costs of information, education, and communication (IEC), both community- and school-based; strengthened public and private sexually transmitted infections treatment; condom social marketing (CSM); and voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) implemented in Masaka, Uganda, over 4 years, and to explore how unit costs change with varying population use/uptake. STUDY: Total economic provider's costs and intervention outputs were collected annually to estimate annual unit costs between 1996 and 1999. RESULTS: In early intervention years, uptake of all activities grew dramatically and continued to grow for public STI treatment, CSM, and VCT. Attendance at IEC performances started to drop in year 4. Unit costs dropped rapidly with increasing uptake of and participation in interventions. CONCLUSIONS: When implementing long-term community-based interventions, it is important to take into account that it takes time for communities to scale up their participation, since this can lead to large variations in unit costs