On the Blank

My visual practice is concerned with an articulation of the 'left-out-thing', remnant or blank, produced by and embedded within technologies of representation, which themselves echo the mechanisms through which an identity is formed. As automatic, 'empty apparatus', technological devices threaten as well as construct this self image. This thesis proposes a new theoretical interpretation for art practices that engage with this empty space, or 'shifter'; understood as a form of punctuation around which meaning revolves. Indexing an object both absent and 'has been', the kind of mark making that falls into this category can be identified - like an hysterical symptom - as the reproduction of an unrepresentable sign. It is through my practical work, which explores the link between the photograph, the body, and the written sentence, that my contribution to the field of fine art practice is primarily offered. The way in which an image is put together or a sentence is organised can be considered as an exemplary definition of subjectivity in operation. Yet, as Ann Banfield (1987) has argued, after the invention of the lens, novelistic writing began to index a 'world without a self'. My visual work, which frequently looks like writing, attempts to construct a similar 'grammatical' form: one in which the 'I' is absent. The aim of my work is to stage or record this empty place, understood as a disturbance, impediment or failure within speech; as the text's undertow; and equated with a photographic - or optical -'unconscious'. This failure, this fault in language, detected in the lapses, gaps and silences within a body of writing or in an image - a gap upon which such language systems are nevertheless hinged - is, I suggest, both the place where technology and the non-self are linked and, paradoxically, the site where the I is constituted

Museums and New Media Art

Investigates the relationship between new media art and museums

International Differences in Lean Production, Productivity and Employee Attitudes

The study examines US-European productivity and worker attitude differences, focusing on changes in incentive structures. We analyze productivity and worker attitudes in five plants in the UK and US belonging to the same multinational producer of automotive sensors and actuators. We examine the firm's efforts to make complementary changes in product strategy and human-resource policies. In particular, we look at the impact of a Value-Added Gainsharing plan (VAG) that was introduced at different times among the four plants. Our analysis draws on multiple plant visits, surveys of almost all of the workforce, and confidential financial data. Our study offers a rare look inside a low-wage, non-union firm. We find that the VAG had an impact on productivity and profitability. We find that the UK plant's productivity and worker satisfaction was well below that of the US plants. However, neither our analysis nor interviews with managers suggest that differences in national institutions play a key role in explaining these results.

Adenovirus serotype 5 L4-22K and L4-33K proteins have distinct functions in regulating late gene expression

Adenoviruses express up to 20 distinct mRNAs from five major late transcription unit (MLTU) regions, L1 to L5, by differential splicing and polyadenylation of the primary transcript. MLTU expression is regulated at transcriptional and posttranscriptional levels. The L4-33K protein acts as a splicing factor to upregulate several MLTU splice acceptor sites as the late phase progresses. The L4 region also expresses a 22K protein whose sequence is related to the sequence of L4-33K. L4-22K is shown here also to have an important role in regulating the pattern of MLTU gene expression. An adenovirus genome containing a stop codon in the L4-22K open reading frame expressed low levels of both structural and nonstructural late proteins compared to the wild-type (wt) adenovirus genome; a decrease in intermediate proteins, IVa2 and IX, was also observed. However, early protein synthesis and replication were unaffected by the absence of L4-22K. Intermediate and late protein expression was restored to wt levels by L4-22K expressed in trans but not by L4-33K. Increased MLTU promoter activity, resulting from stabilization of the transcriptional activator IVa2 by L4-22K, made a small contribution to this restoration of late gene expression. However, the principal effect of L4-22K was on the processing of MLTU RNA into specific cytoplasmic mRNA. L4-22K selectively increased expression of penton mRNA and protein, whereas splicing to create penton mRNA is known not to be increased by L4-33K. These results indicate that L4-22K plays a key role in the early-late switch in MLTU expression, additional to and distinct from the role of L4-33K

Maximising the impact of careers services on career management skills: a review of the literature

The review identified an international body of work on the development and implementation of competency frameworks in reaction to CMS, including the ‘Blueprint’ frameworks, which are a series of inter-related national approaches to career management skills (originating in the USA and taken up subsequently, and with different emphases, by Canada, Australia, England and Scotland). There is, as yet, little empirical evidence to support the overall efficacy of CMS frameworks, but they have the advantage of setting out what needs to be learned (usually as a clear and identifiable list of skills, attributes and attitudes) and, often, how this learning is intended to happen. The international literature emphasised the iterative nature and mixture of formal and informal learning and life experiences that people needed to develop CMS. It suggested that, though there was no single intervention or group of interventions that appeared most effective in increasing CMS, there were five underpinning components of career guidance interventions that substantially increased effectiveness, particularly when combined. These included the use of narrative/writing approaches; the importance of providing a ‘safe’ environment; the quality of the adviser-client relationship; the need for flexibility in approach; the provision of specialist information and support; and clarity on the purpose and aims of action planning. The review also identified a possible emergent hierarchy around the efficacy of different modes of delivery of career guidance interventions on CMS development. Interventions involving practitioner contact and structured groups appeared more effective than self-directed interventions or unstructured groups. Computer-based interventions were found to work better when practitioner input was provided during the intervention or when they were followed up by a structured workshop session to discuss and review the results.Skills Funding Agenc

Maximising the impact of careers services on career management skills: a review of the literature

The review identified an international body of work on the development and implementation of competency frameworks in reaction to CMS, including the ‘Blueprint’ frameworks, which are a series of inter-related national approaches to career management skills (originating in the USA and taken up subsequently, and with different emphases, by Canada, Australia, England and Scotland). There is, as yet, little empirical evidence to support the overall efficacy of CMS frameworks, but they have the advantage of setting out what needs to be learned (usually as a clear and identifiable list of skills, attributes and attitudes) and, often, how this learning is intended to happen. The international literature emphasised the iterative nature and mixture of formal and informal learning and life experiences that people needed to develop CMS. It suggested that, though there was no single intervention or group of interventions that appeared most effective in increasing CMS, there were five underpinning components of career guidance interventions that substantially increased effectiveness, particularly when combined. These included the use of narrative/writing approaches; the importance of providing a ‘safe’ environment; the quality of the adviser-client relationship; the need for flexibility in approach; the provision of specialist information and support; and clarity on the purpose and aims of action planning. The review also identified a possible emergent hierarchy around the efficacy of different modes of delivery of career guidance interventions on CMS development. Interventions involving practitioner contact and structured groups appeared more effective than self-directed interventions or unstructured groups. Computer-based interventions were found to work better when practitioner input was provided during the intervention or when they were followed up by a structured workshop session to discuss and review the results.Skills Funding Agenc

Generation of cell lines to complement Adenovirus vectors using recombination-mediated cassette exchange

Background Adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad5) has many favourable characteristics for development as a gene therapy vector. However, the utility of current Ad5 vectors is limited by transient transgene expression, toxicity and immunogenicity. The most promising form of vector is the high capacity type, which is deleted for all viral genes. However, these vectors can only be produced to relatively low titres and with the aid of helper virus. Therefore a continuing challenge is the generation of more effective Ad5 vectors that can still be grown to high titres. Our approach is to generate complementing cell lines to support the growth of Ad5 vectors with novel late gene deficiencies. Results We have used LoxP/Cre recombination mediated cassette exchange (RMCE) to generate cell lines expressing Ad5 proteins encoded by the L4 region of the genome, the products of which play a pivotal role in the expression of Ad5 structural proteins. A panel of LoxP parent 293 cell lines was generated, each containing a GFP expression cassette under the control of a tetracycline-regulated promoter inserted at a random genome location; the cassette also contained a LoxP site between the promoter and GFP sequence. Clones displayed a variety of patterns of regulation, stability and level of GFP expression. Clone A1 was identified as a suitable parent for creation of inducible cell lines because of the tight inducibility and stability of its GFP expression. Using LoxP-targeted, Cre recombinase-mediated insertion of an L4 cassette to displace GFP from the regulated promoter in this parent clone, cell line A1-L4 was generated. This cell line expressed L4 100K, 22K and 33K proteins at levels sufficient to complement L4-33K mutant and L4-deleted viruses. Conclusions RMCE provides a method for rapid generation of Ad5 complementing cell lines from a pre-selected parental cell line, chosen for its desirable transgene expression characteristics. Parent cell lines can be selected for high or low gene expression, and for tight regulation, allowing viral protein expression to mirror that found during infection. Cell lines derived from a single parent will allow the growth of different vectors to be assessed without the complication of varying complementing protein expression

From Ritual to Resurrection: The Exploratory Poetic of Seamus Heaney

Heaney\u27s poetry has grown and changed since the publication of his first collection of poetry, Death of a Naturalist. This paper is an attempt to present the development of Heaney\u27s exploratory poetic which was created through his use of language and image, allowing him metaphorical vehicles for the examination of oppositions. Heaney began his poetic exploration, or dig, with the collections Death of a Naturalist and Door Into the Dark. The poetry presents nature images which represent Heaney\u27s search into the unknown, the dark places. These images symbolize a searching for the imagination and for the purpose of art and beauty. In Wintering Out Heaney continues his search into the sounds and meanings of words. North is a similar exploration with the emphasis on cultural images. In both North and Field Work, Heaney is working within an established poetic which ritualizes the writing activity in such a way as to culminate in a renewing of cultural views. The views are connected to the traditional Irish culture, naming it lifeless. Also included in the exploration of Heaney is an examination of his biographical background and as well as a brief reminder of the political realities of Ireland. By the time Field Work is written, Heaney is able to express his politcal views directly. However, He never displays a poetic of gruesome violence and detail when working with the Irish troubles. Instead, he is able to integrate the political tensions into the language and image environments he has already established, allowing a more universal, more human approach to a specific political situation. The resolution to the many oppositions raised by Heaney is a creation or recreation of views, or what Heaney calls mind geographies, which suggest the support of that which is life-giving and life-supporting over that which is life-denying. Most of the paper is dedicated to the analysis of Heaney\u27s poetry, although much information has been included which was derived from book reviews, articles, essays written by Heaney, and interviews with the poet