1,144 research outputs found
Developing the formal structures of artistic practice-as-research
No full textIn this article I discuss a topic that is emerging as a valuable paradigm for creative practitioners - practice-as-research. There is some controversy over this term that, I believe, goes to the heart of our understanding of the nature of knowledge. The controversy relates to the idea that practice and research are two inherently different types of activity and therefore that it impossible to engage in one ‘as’ the other. Tim Ingold’s (2011) work on the anthropology of knowledge and skill alongside a broader stream of work on cognition and perception (see for example Lakoff & Johnson 2003 and Gibson 1979) suggests that both artistic practice and academic research involve ‘puzzle-solving… carried on within the context of involvement in a real world of persons, objects and relations.’ (Ingold 2011, p.419). The argument revolves around the notion that there is no such thing as disembodied or abstract knowledge and that all knowledge is both embodied and personally related to the world one inhabits. As such, the written word provides a schematic system for representing the much richer communication processes of speech and bodily experience. The written word, however, can only be understood through reference to our lived experience. Lave (1990, p.310) has termed this ‘understanding in practice’ as a knowledge ‘based on rich expectations generated over time about its shape’ (Lave 1990, p.323). Scholarly research outputs and their modes of publication are still firmly entrenched in the printed word. I will explore strategies for communicating the non-verbal knowledge that forms the basis of much practice-as-research
A prospective study of neurofibromatosis type 1 cancer incidence in the UK
No full textNeurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is an autosomal dominant condition affecting around one in 3000 live births. The manifestations of this condition are extremely variable, even within families, and genetic counselling is consequently difficult with regard to prognosis. Individuals with NF1 are acknowledged to be at increased risk of malignancy. Several studies have previously attempted to quantify this risk, but have involved relatively small study populations. We present prospective data from 448 individuals with NF1 with a total of 5705 years of patient follow-up. These data have been collected via the UK NF1 association for patients. Demographic information on the affected individuals was cross-referenced with UK cancer registry data by the UK Office of National Statistics. The overall risk of cancer was 2.7 times higher in this cohort of NF1 patients than in the general population (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.9-3.7). The cumulative risk of a malignancy by age 50 years was 20% (95% CI 14-29%); beyond this age, the risk of cancer was not significantly elevated (P=0.27). The most frequent types of cancer were connective tissue (14% risk by age 70, 95% CI 7.8-24%) and brain tumours (7.9, 95% CI 3.9-16%). There was no statistically significant excess of cancers at other sites (P=0.22
Pequeñas inflexiones: construir un discurso artístico sobre violencia de género en educación secundaria
No full textThis project addressed gender-based violence and developed a critical education in adolescent students through an artistic action. The entire project was based in the concept of adiaphoron, coined by Bauman and Donskis (2013). This concept refers to the passivity of the subject in front of the suffering of other persons. The results of the project are conceptualised through research in art paradigm (Frayling, 1993) and according to the sociology of the gender-based violence. The analysis reveals that despite the youth of the students they developed an informed vision of gender-based violence, enabling consciousness about this reality both in them and in the public of the performance.El proyecto que se describe trata sobre violencia de género y desarrolló una educación crítica en alumnos adolescentes a través de la acción artística. El proyecto tomó como base el concepto de adiaphoron de Bauman y Donskis (2013), entendido este como la pasividad del sujeto frente al sufrimiento de los demás. Los resultados del proyecto son conceptualizados empleando un modelo de investigación “dentro del arte” (Frayling, 1993) y teniendo en cuenta la sociología de la violencia de género. En este análisis se comprueba que los alumnos, a pesar de su juventud, desarrollaron una visión madura de la problemática, posibilitando una toma de conciencia –tanto en ellos como en el público– de la realidad tratada
Microsatellite instability
No full textGenetic perturbation has been implicated in the development of tumours since the turn of the century. Indeed, genetic instability of one sort or another may be considered to be a hallmark of cancer itself, and the discovery of microsatellite instability (MSI) made it evident that there was more than one mechanism underlying this process. 1 2 As with most new discoveries, there was an initial flurry of excitement with raised hopes and exaggerated claims, followed by the realisation that MSI was not as simple, easy, or likely to give results as had first been thought. The understanding of MSI and its potential clinical utility has continued to develop, but it is only now that its real usefulness is becoming apparent
Research in Art and Design (Royal College of Art Research Papers, Vol 1, No 1, 1993/4)
No full textAn exploration of the nature of research in art and design. What constitutes research in these fields and how does it differ from practice-led art and design? The author also considers the prevailing and misleading stereotypes of the researcher which distract us from the true nature of the task
A genome-wide association study identifies protein quantitative trait loci (pQTLs)
No full textThere is considerable evidence that human genetic variation influences gene expression. Genome-wide studies have revealed that mRNA levels are associated with genetic variation in or close to the gene coding for those mRNA transcripts - cis effects, and elsewhere in the genome - trans effects. The role of genetic variation in determining protein levels has not been systematically assessed. Using a genome-wide association approach we show that common genetic variation influences levels of clinically relevant proteins in human serum and plasma. We evaluated the role of 496,032 polymorphisms on levels of 42 proteins measured in 1200 fasting individuals from the population based InCHIANTI study. Proteins included insulin, several interleukins, adipokines, chemokines, and liver function markers that are implicated in many common diseases including metabolic, inflammatory, and infectious conditions. We identified eight Cis effects, including variants in or near the IL6R (p = 1.8×10 -57), CCL4L1 (p = 3.9×10-21), IL18 (p = 6.8×10-13), LPA (p = 4.4×10-10), GGT1 (p = 1.5×10-7), SHBG (p = 3.1×10-7), CRP (p = 6.4×10-6) and IL1RN (p = 7.3×10-6) genes, all associated with their respective protein products with effect sizes ranging from 0.19 to 0.69 standard deviations per allele. Mechanisms implicated include altered rates of cleavage of bound to unbound soluble receptor (IL6R), altered secretion rates of different sized proteins (LPA), variation in gene copy number (CCL4L1) and altered transcription (GGT1). We identified one novel trans effect that was an association between ABO blood group and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) levels (p = 6.8×10-40), but this finding was not present when TNF-alpha was measured using a different assay , or in a second study, suggesting an assay-specific association. Our results show that protein levels share some of the features of the genetics of gene expression. These include the presence of strong genetic effects in cis locations. The identification of protein quantitative trait loci (pQTLs) may be a powerful complementary method of improving our understanding of disease pathways. © 2008 Melzer et al
Unraveling the directional link between adiposity and inflammation: a bidirectional mendelian randomization approach
No full text<b>Context</b>: Associations between adiposity and circulating inflammation markers are assumed to be causal, although the direction of the relationship has not been proven.
<b>Objective</b>: The aim of the study was to explore the causal direction of the relationship between adiposity and inflammation using a bidirectional Mendelian randomization approach.
<b>Methods</b>: In the PROSPER study of 5804 elderly patients, we related C-reactive protein (CRP) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs1800947 and rs1205) and adiposity SNPs (FTO and MC4R) to body mass index (BMI) as well as circulating levels of CRP and leptin. We gave each individual two allele scores ranging from zero to 4, counting each pair of alleles related to CRP levels or BMI.
<b>Results</b>: With increasing CRP allele score, there was a stepwise decrease in CRP levels (P for trend < 0.0001) and a 1.98 mg/liter difference between extremes of the allele score distribution, but there was no associated change in BMI or leptin levels (P ≥ 0.89). By contrast, adiposity allele score was associated with 1) an increase in BMI (1.2 kg/m2 difference between extremes; P for trend 0.002); 2) an increase in circulating leptin (5.77 ng/ml difference between extremes; P for trend 0.0027); and 3) increased CRP levels (1.24 mg/liter difference between extremes; P for trend 0.002).
<b>Conclusions</b>: Greater adiposity conferred by FTO and MC4R SNPs led to higher CRP levels, with no evidence for any reverse pathway. Future studies should extend our findings to other circulating inflammatory parameters. This study illustrates the potential power of Mendelian randomization to dissect directions of causality between intercorrelated metabolic factors
Hammer's Dracula
No full textSeveral years ago, I received a strange request from England’s Heritage Lottery Fund, the body which distributes ‘good cause’ lottery money to national heritage projects.1 Would I comment on an application for funding to house in a museum a large collection of artefacts associated with Hammer horror films — mainly ‘special effects makeup’, the Phil Leakey and Roy Ashton collections — from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s? There was a detailed inventory in the package that included some ‘dental appliances with a reservoir of blood, operated by the actor’s tongue’ from Dracula (1958), eye inserts, a ‘box of rubber noses and oriental eye pieces’, moulds for scars, plaster-cast heads of Christopher Lee and Peter Gushing, prostheses and make-up boxes including the ingredients of Kensington Gore (fake blood), plus assorted pen-and-pencil sketches, pilot-drawings, character designs, production photos, scrap-books, press cuttings and documents. The main focus of the collection was on films from The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) to The Reptile (1965). Did they, or did they not, deserve to be considered part of the national heritage? Were they ‘national’ or an offshore product of Hollywood? What was their ‘historical importance’? What was their cultural impact? And their effect on the post-war British film industry
The invention of facts: Bentham’s ethics and the education of public taste
No full textThis article uses Jeremy Bentham’s comments on taste and ethics to analyse the efforts of ‘Philosophical Radical’ members of the Select Committee on Arts and Manufactures of 1835/6, including Bentham’s executor and editor John Bowring, to apply utilitarianism to questions of public taste. The application of utilitarian thinking to questions of public taste by Members of Parliament was an unlikely occurrence, but it raised problems of ethics, governance and public pedagogy that persist to this day. Bentham had sketched out a utilitarian approach to public taste in his writing on ‘Rules Respecting the Method of Transplanting Laws’, where the correspondence between individuals and tastes is presented as a set of contingent statements within a signifying system. However, the problem of describing taste as a set of contingent statements is that it challenges the ‘interest begotten prejudice’ that may be expressed in judgments of sympathy or antipathy. My analysis of the problems attending Bentham’s wish to set ‘prejudice apart’ in discussions of taste, is undertaken with specific reference to the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan’s emphasis on the importance of what he termed ‘the utilitarian conversion’ in ethics. Lacan’s praise for Bentham and the ‘Theory of Fictions’ demonstrates a limited insight into the importance of Bentham’s ethics, while misunderstanding some of its most important features. I argue that Bentham’s treatment of fact, rather than fiction, gives us a more precise route to the place of the unconscious in Bentham’s thought, as well as a better understanding of a utilitarian consciousness of taste
Information Disorder och COVID-19 Pandemin: En komparativ fallstudie över datorspel som utbildningsverktyg mot mis-/desinformation i samhället.
No full textDenna studie bygger på Research through Design (Frayling, 1993), d.v.s att undersökningen syftar till att generera ny kunskap genom analys av datorspel och design av en gestaltning. För att uppnå detta används ett annoterat portfolio och dess underliggande principer (Gaver, 2012; Bowers, 2012). Det annoterade portfoliot består av fyra utvalda datorspel och en egenutvecklad gestaltning. Detta portfolio analyseras för att definiera vilka gemensamma och icke-gemensamma designegenskaper som kan observeras. Efter detta presenteras argument för varför utvalda egenskaper kan göra pedagogiskt inriktade datorspel mer effektiva i syftet att utbilda kring-eller minska påverkan av mis-/desinformation i det specifika inlärningssammanhanget. Faran med mis-/desinformation i samhället illustreras genom kontexten av arbetet med den utvecklade gestaltningen, som bygger på COVID-19 mis-/desinformation och dess konsekvenser. Resultat uppnås efter analysering av samtliga designexempel har genomförts och data har genererats för att utveckla vår egna gestaltning baserat på denna information. This case study is based on Research through Design (Frayling, 1993), i.e. the purpose of the study is to generate new knowledge through analysis and design of computer games. To achieve this an annotated portfolio and its underlying principles are used (Gaver, 2012; Bowers, 2012). The annotated portfolio consists of four selected computer games and one designed by the authors. This portfolio is analysed to define what design features are shared or not shared between the games. After this, arguments are presented as to why the specified features can make educational computer games more effective in the purpose of educating about or to reduce susceptibility to mis-/disinformation in the specific learning context. The danger of mis-/disinformation is illustrated through the context of the work with the designed computer game, which is based on COVID-19 mis-/disinformation and its consequences. Results are achieved after analysis of the four selected computer games has been carried out and data has been generated to enable the development of the authors own game
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