Acts of estrangement: reading the psoriatic-skin

I am continually surprised by the acts of estrangement in which my body engages. All bodies do this to some extent – lungs breathe, hearts beat and so on, but with psoriasis, which my article is concerned with, these processes are highly visible. As a condition of the skin, it is a pathology which is enacted both within and without, visible to the social world as well emerging from some little understood inflammatory source within the body. This article will undertake a phenomenological exploration of my own skin and how my experience of my body is affected by its lack of compliance with medicine, cosmetics etc. By some unknown causation it flakes, breaks, itches constantly drawing attention to bodily limits and the limits of medical knowledge. I want to think through the meanings we ascribe to such inflammatory conditions in Western society, how my skin materialises at the nexus of industrialisation, medicine, class and capital. This investigation will emerge at the limit point, the thin skin between the subjective and objective, observing and theorising my skin in ways which dissolve disciplinary boundaries, to comprehend the cultural, biological and environmental forces that work upon my body, estranging it from me.

Foreign credit: travel writing and authenticity in the dutch translation of The memoirs and travels of Mauritius Augustus, Count de Benyowsky (1790)

This article explores the translation and reception of the Memoirs and Travels (1790) of Count Mauritius Augustus Benyowsky (1746-86) in the Netherlands, and examines the complications, tensions and problems that transfer between a major and a more minor European language involves. I analyse how the Dutch translator Petrus Loosjes Adriaanszoon positioned himself as a mediator between these very different source and target cultures and ask how he dealt with the problems of plausibility and ‘credit’ which had beleaguered the reception of the Memoirs and Travels from the outset. In this article I am concerned to restore minority languages to the discussion of how travel literature circulated in Western Europe at the close of the eighteenth century and to demonstrate how major/minor language translation was central to the construction of Dutch-language culture in the Low Countries in this period.

Autobiographical memory distributions for negative self-images: memories are organised around negative as well as positive aspects of identity

The relationship between developmental experiences, and an individual’s emerging beliefs about themselves and the world, is central to many forms of psychotherapy. People suffering from a variety of mental health problems have been shown to use negative memories when defining the self, however little is known about how these negative memories might be organised and relate to negative self-images. In two online studies with middle-aged (N = 18; Study 1) and young (N = 56; Study 2) adults, we found that participants’ negative self-images (e.g., I am a failure) were associated with sets of autobiographical memories that formed clustered distributions around times of self-formation, in much the same pattern as for positive self-images (e.g., I am talented). This novel result shows that highly organised sets of salient memories may be responsible for perpetuating negative beliefs about the self. Implications for therapy are discussed.

The reception of T. S. Bayer’s 'Historia Regni Graecorum Bactriani' (1738)

Theophilus (Gottlieb) Siegfried Bayer (1694-1738) is usually credited as the first person in modern times to address the history of the Greeks in Bactria in a serious way. Bayer’s Historia Regni Graecorum Bactriani, brings together numismatic and historical research. He describes two Graeco-Bactrian coins which he was able to examine first hand, and collects and comments upon the Classical historical sources on the Greek kingdoms of Bactria and India. It was published in St. Petersburg in 1738, where Bayer, a German, held an academic position. In this short article, I am interested in two questions surrounding the Historia Regni Graecorum Bactriani. First (and relatively briefly), how Bayer conducted his research without first hand access to source material and without himself travelling in Bactria – or indeed further east than St. Petersburg. Secondly, the way in which Bayer’s scholarship was received by some of his contemporaries and by later writers, outside the field of Bactrian studies.

Digital visualisation in Classics teaching and beyond

For the last few years, I have been working on an extensive digital model of ancient Rome as it appeared in the early 4th Century AD. This sort of visualisation lends itself to many applications in diverse fields: I am currently using it for research work into illumination and sightlines in the ancient city, have licensed it for broadcast in TV documentaries and publication in magazines, and am working with a computer games studio to turn it into an online game where players will be able to walk round the streets and buildings of the entire city (when not engaged in trading with or assassinating one another). Later this year I will be making a free online course, or MOOC, about the architecture of ancient Rome, which will largely be illustrated by this model.

"Where am I?" Impact of display and content variables on spatial presence and comprehension in virtual environments

Forgetting immediate physical reality and having awareness of one�s location in the simulated world is critical to enjoyment and performance in virtual environments be it an interactive 3D game such as Quake or an online virtual 3d community space such as Second Life. Answer to the question "where am I?" at two levels, whether the locus is in the immediate real world as opposed to the virtual world and whether one is aware of the spatial co-ordinates of that locus, hold the key to any virtual 3D experience. While 3D environments, especially virtual environments and their impact on spatial comprehension has been studied in disciplines such as architecture, it is difficult to determine the relative contributions of specific attributes such as screen size or stereoscopy towards spatial comprehension since most of them treat the technology as monolith (box-centered). Using a variable-centered approach put forth by Nass and Mason (1990) which breaks down the technology into its component variables and their corresponding values as its theoretical basis, this paper looks at the contributions of five variables (Stereoscopy, screen size, field of view, level of realism and level of detail) common to most virtual environments on spatial comprehension and presence. The variable centered approach can be daunting as the increase in the number of variables can exponentially increase the number of conditions and resources required. We overcome this drawback posed by adoption of such a theoretical approach by the use of a fractional factorial design for the experiment. This study has completed the first wave of data collection and starting the next phase in January 2007 and expected to complete by February 2007. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.

Extraction and coordination studies of the unexplored bifunctional ligand carbamoyl methyl sulfoxide (CMSO) with uranium(VI) and cerium(III) nitrates. Synthesis and structures of [UO2(NO3)(2)((PhSOCH2CONBu2)-Bu-i)] and [Ce(NO3)(3)(PhSOCH2CONBu2)(2)]

The bifunctional carbamoyl methyl sulfoxide ligands, PhCH2SOCH2CONHPh (L-1), PhCH2SOCH2CONHCH2Ph (L-2), (PhSOCH2CONPr2)-Pr-i (L-3), PhSOCH2CONBu2 (L-4), (PhSOCH2CONBu2)-Bu-i (L-5) and PhSOCH2CON(C8H17)(2) (L-6) have been synthesized and characterized by spectroscopic methods. The selected coordination chemistry of L-1, L-3, L-4 and L-5 with [UO2(NO3)(2)] and [Ce(NO3)(3)] has been evaluated. The structures of the compounds [UO2(NO3)(2)((PhSOCH2CONBu2)-Bu-i)] (10) and [Ce(NO3)(3)(PhSOCH2CONBu2)(2)] (12) have been determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction methods. Preliminary extraction studies of ligand L-6 with U(VI), Pu(IV) and Am(III) in tracer level showed an appreciable extraction for U(VI) and Pu(IV) in up to 10 M HNO3 but not for Am(III). Thermal studies on compounds 8 and 10 in air revealed that the ligands can be destroyed completely on incineration. The electron spray mass spectra of compounds 8 and 10 in acetone show that extensive ligand distribution reactions occur in solution to give a mixture of products with ligand to metal ratios of 1 : 1 and 2 : 1. However, 10 retains its solid state structure in CH2Cl2.

Influence of diluent alkyl substitution on the extraction of Am(III) and Eu(III) by a 6,6'-bis(1,2,4-triazinyl)-2,2'-bipyridine ligand dissolved in alkylated cyclohexanone diluents

Several alkylated cyclohexanones were investigated as potential diluents for the selective extraction of Am(III) and Eu(III) from nitric acid solutions by the CyMe4-BTBP ligand. No significant extraction of either of the metal ions was observed for these diluents themselves. In the extractions from 1 M HNO3, 3-methylcyclohexanone and 4-methylcyclohexanone gave comparable results to cyclohexanone whereas in the extractions from 4 M HNO3, 2-methylcyclohexanone, 3-methylcyclohexanone and 4-methylcyclohexanone all gave superior results. For the monomethylated diluents, DAm and SFAm/Eu decreased in the order of alkyl substitution 2 > 4 ~ 3. However, alkyl substitution of cyclohexanone significantly slows down the extraction kinetics compared to cyclohexanone, and the position of alkyl substitution was found to play an important role in the solvents properties. 3-Methylcyclohexanone was identified as the most promising of the diluents.