1,236 research outputs found
Distribution and evolution of starspots on the RS CVn binary II Pegasi in 2004
No full textThis work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China through grants Nos. 10373023, 10773027 and 11333006, Chinese Academy of Sciences through project KJCX2-YW-T24.We present Doppler images of RS CVn-type binary II Peg based on two data sets obtained in 2004 February and November. In order to improve signal-to-noise ratio and reliability,we apply least-squares deconvolution technique to calculate average profiles from 2032 photospheric absorption lines. Both of the resulting surface images show a wide latitude distribution of starspots. Most spots are concentrated at a high-latitude belt above 60° and a low-latitude belt near equator. The starspots evolved dramatically between two observing runs, which may indicate shorter time-scale evolution in this epoch, especially for low-latitude belt. There is no stable preferred active longitude that can be found in our images. We also find out a possible phenomenon that the intermediate-latitude spot migrated poleward and merged with the high-latitude spot to make it stronger, which may reveal a more complex behaviour of starspots on II Peg. A potential change of orbital ephemeris zero-point was detected. This may imply an orbital period change of II Peg like other active close binaries.Peer reviewe
The Still Lifes of Edwaert Collier (1642-1708)
No full textDoctoral dissertation Author: Minna Tuominen Title: The Still Lifes of Edwaert Collier (1642 1708)
Among seventeenth-century Dutch still life painters Edwaert Collier is best known for his vanitas paintings. He also painted a considerable number of trompe l oeils. These paintings constitute the primary material for my thesis, along with the biographical records from Breda, Haarlem, Leiden, Amsterdam and London, all places where Collier lived. This research is an examination of the variety of and changes in Collier s production in his sub-genres and of the intriguing questions that his paintings raise. It explores how Collier succeeded in widespread art markets with his speciality in still life painting. This study offers new information on Edwaert Collier s oeuvre, his biography, the value of his still lifes among buyers and his position as an artist.
I have grouped Collier s works into four different themes: the vanitas motif of the overturned crown, the world of knowledge referred to by multiple texts, different modes of self-portraiture and the medium and subjects of trompe l oeil. The complementary approaches this study applies include iconology, studies in representing artist self-awareness, research into the material culture of the seventeenth century, and research into the seventeenth-century art market and art collecting. Contextualizing the depiction of the exchange and growth of wealth in a particular socio-historical situation has been considered as well.
A large number of Collier s preserved paintings (ca 180 registered) suggest continuous production and his willingness to seek out new pictorial solutions for his customers. Collier called upon a wide repertoire of themes derived from the tradition of the vanitas genre in his paintings, but he also managed to create an identifiable style of his own by using a few recognizable compositions and, over time, by including items with new connotations into his still lifes. Changes in his style reflect the trends of his time, which is best seen in his trompe l oeils and their connection to the impact of the English art market. His paintings gained fame among buyers because he merged traditional elements with contemporary sources from the society of his day in his works. In his paintings Collier included various sorts of texts, such as books, newspapers and parliamentary speeches, which together built up a system of citations and commentaries on the arts, religion and politics. Collier elevated his artistic status by representing himself as a learned man and he also signed his paintings in multiple ways. He incorporated his signature in the elements depicted, such as letters and almanacs, and he included his own portrait in his still lifes in such a way that it advertised his talents as a still life painter. Besides himself, Collier portrayed an impressive group of people, who were depicted in drawings, miniatures or prints which were placed conspicuously among the other still life objects or set illusionistically within the trompe l oeil representations. It was a conscious way of drawing attention to a certain ideology or fate which the depicted people represented, and it also positioned the painter himself as an erudite artist in an artistic continuum stretching from antiquity to the time in which he lived. This study presents Edwaert Collier as an active painter who captured various phenomena from his times in his still lifes.Tekijä: Minna Tuominen Väitöskirjatutkimus The Still Lifes of Edwaert Collier (c. 1640 1708) käsittelee hollantilaisen asetelmamaalari Edwaert Collierin taiteellista tuotantoa, jonka laajuudeksi voidaan tänä päivänä arvioida n. 180 teosta. Hänet tunnetaan parhaiten vanitas (lat. turhuus) ja trompe l oeil (ransk. silmän harhautus) -asetelmista. Tarkastelen taiteilijan valitsemien esittämistapojen kautta Collierin taiteilijakuvaa, sen syntymistä ja ylläpitoa, vertailemalla sitä kuvallisen esittämisen keinoihin, joilla taiteilijan asemaa ajan taidemarkkinoilla tuotettiin. Arvioin mitkä olivat Collierin menestymisen taustatekijät ja kuvastrategiset keinot kussakin historiallisessa tilanteessa, jossa hän eli ja johon hän teoksillaan otti kantaa. Lisäksi tutkin, millaisia kannanottoja yhteiskunnasta Collierin taiteessa välittyi. Edwaert Collierin teosten tutkimus tuo uutta tietoa Collierin tuotannosta ja elämänvaiheista, asetelmataiteen arvostuksesta ostajien keskuudessa sekä taiteilijan asemasta.
Collier syntyi Bredassa, siirtyi nuorena Haarlemin kautta Leideniin, ja 1690-luvulla Amsterdamin kautta Lontooseen. Arkistotutkimus näissä kaupungeissa on selvittänyt Collierin elämänkertatietoja, joihin Collier on viitannut myös teoksissaan. Tutkimukseni nojaa teosten analysointiin, jotka olen ryhmitellyt neljään eri teemaan: vanitas -motiivi ylösalaisen kruunun kuvauksena, maalatut tekstit oppineisuuteen viittauksina, omakuvauksen tavat ja trompe l oeil -aiheet ilmaisukeinoina. Käytän tutkimuksessa toisiaan täydentäviä lähestymistapoja, joita ovat ikonologia, taiteilija omakuvien tutkimus, materiaalisen kulttuurin tutkimus sekä 1600-luvun taiteen kaupan ja keräilyn tutkimus. Lisäksi kontekstualisoin teosanalyysejä kuhunkin sosiaalihistorialliseen tilanteeseen.
Tutkimusaineiston valossa Collier näyttäytyy aktiivisena taiteilijana, joka haki vaihtelevaa ostajakuntaansa miellyttäviä maalausratkaisuja kilpailussa porvarillisen taiteen markkinoilla. Collierin vanitas -asetelmien yksityiskohdat, kuten pääkallot, kirjat ja musiikki-instrumentit olivat hänen teostensa lähtökohtina, mutta hänen onnistui luoda itselleen tunnistettava tyyli, riittävästi toistamalla samankaltaisia kompositioita ja toisaalta, sekoittamalla jo tunnettuihin, traditionaalisiin kompositioihin uusilla merkityksillä varustettuja elementtejä, kuten tunnettujen henkilöiden muotokuvia ja uutislehtiä. Muutokset Collierin tyylissä heijastuvat ajan trendeistä, josta parhaimpana esimerkkinä ovat hänen 1690-luvun alun trompe l oeil -teokset. Teosten aiheissa näkyy hänen muuttonsa Lontooseen, sillä teoksiin ilmestyi runsaasti viittauksia englantilaiseen yhteiskuntaan. Collier sisällytti maalauksiinsa runsaasti erilaisia tekstejä, osia kirjoista, sanomalehdistä ja parlamentin puheista, jotka yhdessä muodostavat lainauksien ja kommenttien verkoston milloin taiteesta, uskonnosta tai politiikasta. Collier kohotti omaa taiteellista statustaan sekä esittämällä itsensä oppineena taiteilijana että signeeraamalla teoksensa monin erikoisin tavoin, muun muassa upottamalla nimensä kuvattuihin objekteihin, kuten kirjeisiin vastaanottajaksi tai almanakkoihin omistajaksi. Omakuvissa hän esittää itsensä mainosluontoisesti asetelmamaalarina. Collier maalasi myös muita merkkihenkilöitä kuva-kuvassa tekniikalla, esittämällä heidät illusionistisesti piirroksina, etsauksina, tai miniatyyreinä, esineinä muiden asetelmassa esitettyjen objektien joukossa. Kuvatuista tunnetuimpia ovat Kaarle I ja Erasmus Rotterdamilainen. Tällä tavoin Collier painotti kuvattujen henkilöiden ideologiaa tai yhteiskunnallista asemaa ja kohtaloa, joka samalla osoitti hänen itsensä olevan tietoisesti maalaava, sivistynyt taiteilija. Näin hän myös asetti itsensä kuvataiteiden kaanoniin, jonka paremmuudesta sisartaiteiden joukossa käytiin keskustelua edelleen 1600-luvulla.
Tämä tutkimus todistaa Collierin olleen aikaansa seuraava ja muuntumiskykyinen taiteilija, joka vangitsi useita oman aikansa ilmiöitä asetelmiinsa. Hänen maalauksensa olivat suosittuja ostajien parissa, koska hän yhdisti traditionaalisiin teoksiin helposti tunnistettavia historiallisia tai oman aikansa yhteiskunnallisia merkityksiä kekseliäissä yksityiskohdissa.ei saavutettav
The Multisensory Environment (MSE) in dementia care: examining its role and quality from a user perspective
No full text© 2016, © The Author(s) 2016. Background: Multisensory environments (MSEs) for people with dementia have been available over 20 years but are used in an ad hoc manner using an eclectic range of equipment. Care homes have endeavored to utilize this approach but have struggled to find a design and approach that works for this setting. Aims: Study aims were to appraise the evolving concept of MSEs from a user perspective, to study the aesthetic and functional qualities, to identify barriers to staff engagement with a sensory environment approach, and to identify design criteria to improve the potential of MSE for people with dementia. Methods: Data were collected from 16 care homes with experience of MSE using ethnographic methods, incorporating semi-structured interviews, and observations of MSE design. Analysis was undertaken using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. Results: Observations revealed equipment that predominantly stimulated vision and touch. Thematic analysis of the semi-structured interviews revealed six themes: not knowing what to do in the room, good for people in the later stages of the disease, reduces anxiety, it’s a good activity, design and setting up of the space, and including relatives and care staff. Conclusion: Few MSEs in care homes are designed to meet needs of people with dementia, and staff receive little training in how to facilitate sessions. As such, MSEs are often underused despite perceived benefits. Results of this study have been used to identify the design principles that have been reviewed by relevant stakeholders
Primate dietary ecology in the context of food mechanical properties
No full textSubstantial variation exists in the mechanical properties of foods consumed by primate species. This variation is known to influence food selection and ingestion among non-human primates, yet no large-scale comparative study has examined the relationships between food mechanical properties and feeding strategies. Here we present comparative data on the Young’s modulus and fracture toughness of natural foods in the diets of 31 primate species. We use these data to examine the relationships between food mechanical properties and dietary quality, body mass, and feeding time. We also examine the relationship between food mechanical properties and categorical concepts of diet that are often used to infer food mechanical properties.
Traditional dietary categories, such as folivory and frugivory, did not faithfully track food mechanical properties. Additionally, our estimate of dietary quality was not significantly correlated with either toughness or Young’s modulus. We found a complex relationship among food mechanical properties, body mass, and feeding time, with a potential interaction between median toughness and body mass. The relationship between mean toughness and feeding time is straightforward: feeding time increases as toughness increases. However, when considering median toughness, the relationship with feeding time may depend upon body mass such that smaller primates increase their feeding time in response to an increase in median dietary toughness, whereas larger primates may even feed for shorter periods of time as toughness increases. Our results emphasize the need for additional studies quantifying the mechanical and chemical properties of primate diets so that they may be meaningfully compared to research on feeding behavior and jaw morphology.Peer reviewed
Modernism on Fleet Street /
No full text"British modernism came of age at a time of great cultural anxiety about the state of journalism. The new newspapers, with their brief, flashy articles, striking visuals, hyperbolic headlines, and sensational news, stood at the center of debates about reading in the period, seeming to threaten the viability of representative democracy, the health and vitality of the language, and the very future of literature itself. Patrick Collier's study brings an impressive array of archival research to his exploration of modernism's relationship to the newspaper press. People who sought to make their way as writers could neither remain neutral on this issue nor abandon journalism, which offered an irreplaceable source of income and self-advertisement.Collier discusses five modern writers - T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Rebecca West, and Rose Macaulay - showing how their work takes part in contemporary debates about journalism and examining the role journalism played in establishing their careers. In doing so, he uncovers tensions and contradictions inherent in the identity of the 'serious artist' who relied on the ephemeral forms of journalism for money and reputation."--Book jacket.Includes bibliographical references and index."Illiterate with periodicals" : the threat of journalism -- T.S. Eliot, the journalistic struggle, and the "dialect of the tribe" -- Virginia Woolf and the conditions of reviewing -- "Tell a graphic lie" : Ulysses, reform, and repression -- "What the public wants" : Rose Macaulay and her publics -- Strange necessities : Rebecca West on art, journalism, and the public sphere -- Postscript: Modernism, newspapers, and the public sphere."British modernism came of age at a time of great cultural anxiety about the state of journalism. The new newspapers, with their brief, flashy articles, striking visuals, hyperbolic headlines, and sensational news, stood at the center of debates about reading in the period, seeming to threaten the viability of representative democracy, the health and vitality of the language, and the very future of literature itself. Patrick Collier's study brings an impressive array of archival research to his exploration of modernism's relationship to the newspaper press. People who sought to make their way as writers could neither remain neutral on this issue nor abandon journalism, which offered an irreplaceable source of income and self-advertisement.Collier discusses five modern writers - T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Rebecca West, and Rose Macaulay - showing how their work takes part in contemporary debates about journalism and examining the role journalism played in establishing their careers. In doing so, he uncovers tensions and contradictions inherent in the identity of the 'serious artist' who relied on the ephemeral forms of journalism for money and reputation."--Book jacket
Impact of the International Coffee Agreement's export quota system on the World's coffee market
No full textEx-post simulations of the global coffee model over the recent period of operation of the International Coffee Agreement's export quota system, (1981-86) show the following. The quota system had a stabilizing effect on world coffee prices in the 1981-85 period. In 1986, when coffee prices increased sharply due to the drought in Brazil and the export quotas were suspended, prices would have been 24 percent higher in the absence of quotas over the 1981-85 period. However, the quotas have reduced export revenues (in real terms), except for such large producers as Brazil and Colombia. These countries gained form the scheme because they face very small or even zero marginal export revenues from increased exports, due to their large market shares. In projections of the coffee market, with and without the export quota system, prices would be substantially lower during the first half of the 1990s if the quota system were suspended in 1990. But prices would recover in the second half of the decade as production and exports declined in lagged response to the very low prices of the first half.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Markets and Market Access,Access to Markets,Crops&Crop Management Systems
Evaluating the Ecological Impacts of Cultivating Genetically Modified Herbicide Tolerant (GMHT) Oilseed Rape and Maize: (2007-B-DS-1-S1) STRIVE Report
No full textThis report is published as part of the Science, Technology, Research and Innovation for the
Environment (STRIVE) Programme 2007–2013.Author has checked copyrigh
Reducing Poverty By Aid Reallocation: Uncertainties And Alternative Assumptions
No full textTwo recent World Bank documents argue that the effects of aid on growth depend on the recipient country policy (Burnside and Dollar) and that it is possible to allocate aid in order to maximize poverty reduction (Collier and Dollar). This study presents a critical examination of the assumption on which the two documents rely and suggest new assumption and orientations for research. It successively focuses on the aid-growth relationship, supposing that aid effectiveness depends on vulnerability as well as on policy, and on the poverty minimisation exercise, proposing to test directly the impact of aid on poverty reduction.
Objectivity and advocacy: probability theory and capital costing at the Bell System, 1913-1941
No full textThis dissertation, an historical case study, investigates how the Bell Telephone System blended knowledge of depreciation and probability theory both to develop a managerial accounting policy and to serve as a means for controlling debate before government regulators in the early twentieth century. This research shows that by combining statistics and accounting, the Bell System created a system for estimating capital cost expiration that was firmly grounded in mathematical science. The firm developed methodologies that used averaging techniques as a way to determine trends in asset life that were obscured by random fluctuations in actual retirements. The resultant smoothing of annual expenses also helped reduce the perception of risk, thus providing an economic benefit to the firm. At the same time, complexity derived from the application of probability theory gave the telephone company significant advantages in regulatory debates with adversaries trained primarily in accounting and law. In addition, the advanced mathematics also functioned as a knowledge barrier which inhibited potential encroachments by regulators on corporate prerogatives.
This study extends the body of literature on managerial accounting by documenting an early use of statistical tools to understand firm resources. This study also expands our understanding of the acquisition and use of knowledge within the firm. Some of the most interesting findings look at the contextual nature of knowledge. Thus, in the pro-business atmosphere of the 1920’s, the firm was left alone to develop its knowledge base and design applications that were in its own best interests. With the crisis of the Depression, the relationship between the firm and business changed, and regulators demanded examination of the equity issues related to AT&T’s depreciation practices. This resulted in changes to the rate base calculations, but the basic depreciation policies of the Bell System remained unchanged.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical references (p. 138-147)by Deirdre M. Collie
The savings collapse during the transition in Eastern Europe
No full textThe authors assess the presence and extent of involuntary savings by comparing the predicted savings rates of market economies with those of the pre-transition economies. On balance, predicted savings rates fell short of actual savings rates, especially for the former Soviet Union and the Baltics -- providing some support for the notion of excessive pre-transition savings. Comparing the savings behavior of market economies and transition economies, they found substantial similarities, except for a negative link between savings and GDP growth. As the fastest-growing transition economies are at the bottom of the adjustment J-curve, the finding is consistent with consumption smoothing. Finally, they explored whether differences in the extent of economic liberalization affected savings rates in the cross-section of transition economies. They found that liberalization is associated with lower savings, with a one-year lag. To the extent that liberalization is perceived as an indicator of likely future growth, this behavior is consistent with smoothing in the face of a J-curve change in output.Insurance Law,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Insurance&Risk Mitigation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Insurance&Risk Mitigation,Rural Poverty Reduction
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