130,895 research outputs found
Tree of Knowledge (1997): die ontketening van kennissamehange by Willem Boshoff
No full textEnglish: Since the beginning of the twentieth century there has been a growing interest in archival projects and practises as well as artists’ collections. Various artists and cultural theorists are propelled/driven by “archive fever” (Derrida 1995) and the “archival impulse” (Foster 2004). In contemporary art historical discourses there still exists a variety of discussions centred on archives, collections, archival practises and the combination thereof with artistic practises. It is within this field that the following study can be contextualised because I investigate the archival projects of Willem Boshoff. In this study I am interested in the ways in which Boshoff’s archival projects organise knowledge and how they undermine historical disciplinary divisions by combining scientific and non-scientific knowledge and portraying this in aesthetic ways (sometimes in artworks) and thereby unlocking or opening up knowledge as wisdom. The study thus serves as the first study of Boshoff’s Archive and its coherence with or relation to his artworks. The selected artworks for this study, Tree of Knowledge (1997), which consists of three artworks: Broken Garden, Druid’s Keyboard and Letters to God, have also not been interpreted before and this study serves as a first exploration. In order to enrich my interpretation of Letters to God I refer to a relatively unfamiliar religious and philosophical text written by Boshoff, Genesis (1974-1976). The study therefore also serves as the first interpretation of this text.
Through my interpretation of the artworks I attempt to answer the following: In which aesthetic ways do the artworks from Boshoff’s Archive act as instruments or imaginary projections that identify, collect, exhibit, organise, connect, question or disseminate knowledge? And how do these artistic agents, instruments or fictions unravel existing orders of knowledge, thereby unleashing new clusters of knowledge? In this study the figure or image of the tree is central because all three artworks refer to the tree as a metaphor of knowledge. I approach the tree as an organisational metaphor and as a poetic fiction or device which contains various religious connotations. Thus I attempt to discover the figurative role the tree plays in these artworks. In this study I investigate the relationship between Tree of Knowledge (1997) and Boshoff’s Archive and I attempt to answer the following: how do the artworks and Boshoff’s Archive reflect aspects of each other? What are the similarities and differences in the ways in which they collect, organise, exhibit and undermine existing categories of knowledge? I approach these artworks and his Archive as explorative instruments which discover new knowledge clusters, as a result of their ability to compare, recombine, rearrange, restructure and deconstruct items from various fields of knowledge and to discover and create links between various fields. This entails a re-evaluation of and enrichment of the organisation of knowledge.
I make, with caution, specific comparisons between Boshoff and artists and cultural theorists like Aby Warburg, Joseph Beuys, Walter Benjamin and Damien Hirst in order to highlight the playful, innovative and alternative ways in which they ruminate on, revisit and unfold categories of knowledge. Through these comparisons I discover a variety of associations which provide a vocabulary with which I can better define Boshoff’s project and differentiate its special niche. I also employ this vocabulary in order to highlight the coherences among various fields of knowledge, and the work of artists and cultural theorists. The comparisons also serve to situate and contextualise Boshoff and his project within art history where fictionalisation mediates knowledge. It illuminates how Boshoff’s project unravels knowledge, how it complicates the boundaries between disciplines, how his work and Archive encourage debates on interdisciplinary research and open up various interdisciplinary research possibilities.Afrikaans: Sedert die begin van die twintigste eeu het ‘n groeiende belangstelling in argivale projekte en kunstenaarsversamelings sy opwagting gemaak. Talle kunstenaars en vooraanstaande kultuurfigure word deur “argiefkoors” (Derrida 1995) en die “argivale impuls” (Foster 2004) gedryf. In hedendaagse kunshistoriese diskoerse bestaan daar nog steeds gesprekke rondom argiewe, versamelings, argivale praktyke en die (her-)kombinasie daarvan met kunstenaarspraktyke. Dit is in hierdie veld waarin hierdie studie geplaas kan word omdat ek Willem Boshoff se argivale projekte ondersoek. In hierdie studie is ek geïnteresseerd in die wyses waarvolgens Boshoff se argivale projekte kennis organiseer en historiese dissiplinêre vertakkings ondermyn deur wetenskaplike kennis en nie-wetenskaplike kennis te kombineer en dit op estetiese wyses (soms in kunswerke) voor te stel waardeur Boshoff wetenskaplike kennis op 'n relativerende wyse as wysheid ontsluit. Die studie dien dus as die eerste volwaardige studie van Boshoff se Argief en van hoe dit saamhang met sy kunswerke. Die gekose kunswerke vir hierdie studie, Tree of ‘n Knowledge (1997) wat bestaan uit drie werke: Broken Garden, Druid’s Keyboard en Letters to God, is ook tot dusver ongeïnterpreteer gelaat en hierdie studie dien as die eerste verkenning daarvan. Om my interpretasie van Letters to God te verryk, betrek ek ‘n relatief onbekende religieuse en filosofiese teks van Boshoff, Genesis (1974-1976). Die studie dien dus ook as die eerste interpretasie van hierdie teks.
Deur my interpretasie van die werke probeer ek die volgende te beantwoord: op welke estetiese wyses ageer hierdie kunswerke uit Boshoff se Argief as instrumente of imaginêre projeksies wat kennis identifiseer, versamel, vertoon, orden, verbind, bevraagteken en dissemineer? En hoe ontrafel hierdie artistieke agente, instrumente of fiksies, bestaande kennisordes en ontketen dit daardeur nuwe kennissamehange? In hierdie studie staan die figuur of beeld van die boom sentraal omdat al drie kunswerke na die boom as kennismetafoor verwys. Ek benader soos Boshoff die boom as ‘n organiseringsmetafoor en as ‘n poëtiese versinsel wat religieuse konnotasies het en probeer daardeur die figuurlike rol wat die boom in hierdie kunswerke speel, te peil. Ek ondersoek in hierdie studie die verband tussen Tree of knowledge (1997) en Boshoff se Argief en poog om die volgende vrae te beantwoord: hoe bevrug die kunswerke en Argief aspekte van mekaar? Hoe verskil die wyses waarvolgens hulle kennis versamel, orden, vertoon en bestaande kategorieë ondermyn, of hoe kom dit ooreen? Ek benader hierdie kunswerke en sy Argief as eksploratiewe instrumente of katalisators vir die ontdekking van kennissamehange na aanleiding van hulle vermoëns om items uit verskeie velde van kennis konjektureel te vergelyk, herkombineer, herrangskik, herstruktureer, dekonstrueer en om skakels tussen verskeie velde van kennis te ontdek en daardeur die organisasie van kennis te herevalueer en te verryk.
Ek tref met groot omsigtigheid produktiewe vergelykings tussen Boshoff en kunstenaars en kulturele denkers soos Aby Warburg, Joseph Beuys, Walter Benjamin en Damien Hirst na aanleiding van die speelse, innoverende en alternatiewe wyses waarmee hulle werk kennisordes herkou, hersien en ontvou. Deur hierdie vergelykings ontdek ek ‘n verskeidenheid assosiasies wat ‘n woordeskat bied om Boshoff se projek te formuleer en te onderskei van ander, en wat ek ontplooi om te dui op die samehange tussen verskeie velde van kennis, kunstenaars en kulturele denkers. Die vergelykings dien ook as die situering en kontekstualisering van Boshoff en sy projek binne die kuns- en kultuurgeskiedenis waarin fiksionalisering kennis bemiddel. Dit werp lig op Boshoff se projek, hoe hy kennis ontrafel, hoe sy projek die grense tussen dissiplines verbrokkel en kompliseer, hoe sy werk en Argief debatte rondom interdissiplinêre navorsing oopmaak en dui op verskeie verbredende interdissplinêre navorsingsmoontlikhede
FIGURE 1 in New isolate of Mononchoides composticola Steel, Moens, Scholaert, Boshoff, Houthoofd & Bert, 2011 (Nematoda: Neodiplogasteridae) from Iran
No full textFIGURE 1. Mononchoides composticola Steel, Moens, Scholaert, Boshoff, Houthoofd & Bert, 2011. A: Entire male. B: Entire female. C, D, F: Anterior end at stoma level. E: Neck. G: Female posterior end. H: Longitudinal line at cuticle. I: Female reproductive system. J: Male posterior end. K: Spicules and genital papillae (lateral view).Published as part of Shokoohi, Ebrahim, Seddiqi, Elahe, Panahi, Hadi & Abolafia, Joaquín, 2015, New isolate of Mononchoides composticola Steel, Moens, Scholaert, Boshoff, Houthoofd & Bert, 2011 (Nematoda: Neodiplogasteridae) from Iran, pp. 141-150 in Zootaxa 4044 (1) on page 144, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4044.1.8, http://zenodo.org/record/23412
Internationally linked authors in Uganda, East Africa : an example of author-level bibliometrics for a developing country
No full textCITATION: Boshoff, N., Basaza-Ejiri, H. A. D. & Tise, E. R. 2018. Internationally linked authors in Uganda, East Africa : an example of author-level bibliometrics for a developing country. In STI 2018 Conference Proceedings, 23rd International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators, 12-14 September 2018, Leiden, Netherlands.The original publication is available at http://sti2018.cwts.nl/proceedingsIn developing countries, researchers with strong international links potentially act as a double-edge sword. On the one hand, local researchers with international links could strengthen the research base of an institution or country while, on the other hand, they could leave the research base vulnerable should they migrate. The study identified internationally linked authors in Uganda, East Africa, by applying individual-level bibliometrics to a dataset of 3,948 Ugandan authors from the Web of Science, for the period 2011–2015. The focus was on four overlapping groups of internationally linked authors: (1) Ugandan authors with an international co-author, (2) Uganda authors with a joint international affiliation, (3) Ugandan authors affiliated with an international organisation that has a local address, and (4) Ugandan authors affiliated with an international research partnership. The study showed that without the identified forms of international linkages, the Ugandan scholarly workforce would reduce to 14% of its current size. Moreover, 74% of Ugandan authors without any international links had co-authored articles with Ugandan authors who are linked internationally. Although the extent of both international and national mobility associated with internationally linked authors seem low, benchmarking against comparative figures for other countries in sub-Saharan Africa is required.http://sti2018.cwts.nl/proceedingsPublisher's versio
Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus infection and multiple myeloma
No full textNo abstract availabl
MeSH term explosion and author rank improve expert recommendations
No full textInformation overload is an often-cited phenomenon that reduces the productivity, efficiency and efficacy of scientists. One challenge for scientists is to find appropriate collaborators in their research. The literature describes various solutions to the problem of expertise location, but most current approaches do not appear to be very suitable for expert recommendations in biomedical research. In this study, we present the development and initial evaluation of a vector space model-based algorithm to calculate researcher similarity using four inputs: 1) MeSH terms of publications; 2) MeSH terms and author rank; 3) exploded MeSH terms; and 4) exploded MeSH terms and author rank. We developed and evaluated the algorithm using a data set of 17,525 authors and their 22,542 papers. On average, our algorithms correctly predicted 2.5 of the top 5/10 coauthors of individual scientists. Exploded MeSH and author rank outperformed all other algorithms in accuracy, followed closely by MeSH and author rank. Our results show that the accuracy of MeSH term-based matching can be enhanced with other metadata such as author rank
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
"Closing the R&D Gap, Evaluating the Sources of R&D Spending"
No full textBoth spending and tax policies have been implemented in the United States with the goal of stimulating private sector research and development (R&D). Karier questions whether current R&D policy, especially the research and experimentation tax credit, can contribute to closing the gap between nondefense expenditures on R&D in the United States and such expenditures in other countries, such as Japan and Germany. He also explores possible changes to our current R&D policy to make it more effective.
Risk factors for high anti-HHV-8 antibody titers (≥1:51,200) in black, HIV-1 negative South African cancer patients: a case control study
No full textBackground: Infection with human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) is the necessary causal agent in the
development of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS). Infection with HIV-1, male gender and older age all increase
risk for KS. However, the geographic distribution of HHV-8 and KS both prior to the HIV/AIDS
epidemic and with HIV/AIDS suggest the presence of an additional co-factor in the development of
KS.
Methods: Between January 1994 and October 1997, we interviewed 2576 black in-patients with
cancer in Johannesburg and Soweto, South Africa. Blood was tested for antibodies against HIV-1
and HHV-8 and the study was restricted to 2191 HIV-1 negative patients. Antibodies against the
latent nuclear antigen of HHV-8 encoded by orf73 were detected with an indirect
immunofluorescence assay. We examined the relationship between high anti-HHV-8 antibody
titers (≥1:51,200) and sociodemographic and behavioral factors using unconditional logistic
regression models. Variables that were significant at p = 0.10 were included in multivariate analysis.
Results: Of the 2191 HIV-1 negative patients who did not have Kaposi's sarcoma, 854 (39.0%)
were positive for antibodies against HHV-8 according to the immunofluorescent assay. Among
those seropositive for HHV-8, 530 (62.1%) had low titers (1:200), 227 (26.6%) had medium titers
(1:51,200) and 97 (11.4%) had highest titers (1:204,800). Among the 2191 HIV-1 negative patients,
the prevalence of high anti-HHV-8 antibody titers (≥1:51,200) was independently associated with
increasing age (ptrend = 0.04), having a marital status of separated or divorced (p = 0.003), using
wood, coal or charcoal as fuel for cooking 20 years ago instead of electricity (p = 0.02) and
consuming traditional maize beer more than one time a week (p = 0.02; p-trend for increasing
consumption = 0.05) although this may be due to chance given the large number of predictors
considered in this analysis.
Conclusions: Among HIV-negative subjects, patients with high anti-HHV-8 antibody titers are
characterized by older age. Other associations that may be factors in the development of high anti-
HHV-8 titers include exposure to poverty or a low socioeconomic status environment and
consumption of traditional maize beer. The relationship between these variables and high anti-
HHV-8 titers requires further, prospective study
Selective anticancer activity of a hexapeptide with sequence homology to a non-kinase domain of Cyclin Dependent Kinase 4
No full textBackground: cyclin-dependent kinases 2, 4 and 6 (Cdk2, Cdk4, Cdk6) are closely structurally homologous proteins which are classically understood to control the transition from the G1 to the S-phases of the cell cycle by combining with their appropriate cyclin D or cyclin E partners to form kinase-active holoenzymes. Deregulation of Cdk4 is widespread in human cancer, CDK4 gene knockout is highly protective against chemical and oncogene-mediated epithelial carcinogenesis, despite the continued presence of CDK2 and CDK6; and overexpresssion of Cdk4 promotes skin carcinogenesis. Surprisingly, however, Cdk4 kinase inhibitors have not yet fulfilled their expectation as 'blockbuster' anticancer agents. Resistance to inhibition of Cdk4 kinase in some cases could potentially be due to a non-kinase activity, as recently reported with epidermal growth factor receptor. Results: a search for a potential functional site of non-kinase activity present in Cdk4 but not Cdk2 or Cdk6 revealed a previously-unidentified loop on the outside of the C'-terminal non-kinase domain of Cdk4, containing a central amino-acid sequence, Pro-Arg-Gly-Pro-Arg-Pro (PRGPRP). An isolated hexapeptide with this sequence and its cyclic amphiphilic congeners are selectively lethal at high doses to a wide range of human cancer cell lines whilst sparing normal diploid keratinocytes and fibroblasts. Treated cancer cells do not exhibit the wide variability of dose response typically seen with other anticancer agents. Cancer cell killing by PRGPRP, in a cyclic amphiphilic cassette, requires cells to be in cycle but does not perturb cell cycle distribution and is accompanied by altered relative Cdk4/Cdk1 expression and selective decrease in ATP levels. Morphological features of apoptosis are absent and cancer cell death does not appear to involve autophagy. Conclusion: these findings suggest a potential new paradigm for the development of broad-spectrum cancer specific therapeutics with a companion diagnostic biomarker and a putative functional site for kinase-unrelated activities of Cdk4
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