Her Majesty moves: Sarah Bernhardt, Queen Elizabeth and the development of motion pictures

Sarah Bernhardt, the greatest theatrical star of the late nineteenth century, enabled and even promoted the association of early film with the British monarchy. She did this literally, by playing the role of Queen Elizabeth in Queen Elizabeth (Les Amours de la Reine Elisabeth, Henri Desfontaines and Louis Mercanton, 1912). Bernhardt also promoted the association of the cinema with monarchy symbolically, making the medium a new empathetic vehicle for the development of celebrity mystique and global power.

Isn't sport taxing? The taxation of sports professionals post-Agassi

In Agassi v Robinson (Her Majestyʹs Inspector of Taxes), a majority of the House of Lords found that payments under two sponsorship contracts between a company owned and controlled by Mr Andre Agassi, (Agassi Enterprises Inc) and Nike Inc and Head Sport AG were assessable under UK tax law. This was so despite (i) none of the parties to the contracts was resident, nor domiciled, in the United Kingdom and (ii) none of the payer companies conducted business, directly or indirectly, through branches/agencies in the United Kingdom. The article considers whether the Australian Taxation Office could similarly assess non‐resident sports‐persons, like Mr Agassi, personally, and/or entities they control, on payments made under sponsorship agreements with a company such as Nike Inc. While the preferable view is that such payments are not sourced in Australia, Australian source rules are so ill defined that there is some basis for asserting such payments are sourced in Australia.

Presbyterian ethos and environment in the novels of John Buchan : a religious and historical study

The aim of this thesis is to establish, from a historical and religious perspective, that the Presbyterian ethos and environment in which John Buchan was reared was the predominating influence in the writing of his novels. Presbyterianism was not the only influence on Buchan that determined the character of his stories. Buchan was by temperament a romantic, and this had considerable influence on his literature. His novels are romances, peopled by romantic figures who pursue romantic adventures. There are the signs of Buchan's romantic nature in the contents of the novels: creative imagination, sensitivity to nature, and expectations of the intrusion of other worlds, with destiny-determining events to follow. But Buchan had also an acquired classicism. His studies at Glasgow and Oxford Universities brought him in touch with a whole range of the master-pieces of classical literature, especially the works of Plato and Virgil. This discipline gave him clarity and conciseness in style, and balanced the romantic element in him, keeping his work within the bounds of reason. At the heart of Buchan's life and work, however, was his deeply religious nature and this, while influenced by romanticism and classicism, was the dominant force behind his work. Buchan did not accept in its entirety the Presbyterian doctrine conveyed to him by his father and his Church. He was moderate by temperament and shrank from excesses in religious matters, and, being a romantic, he shied away from any fixed creeds. He did embrace the fundamentals of Christianity, however, which he learned from his father and his Church, even if he did put aside the Rev. John's orthodox Calvinism. The basic Christianity which underlies all Buchan's novels has the stamp of Presbyterianism upon it, and that stamp is evident in his characters and their adventures. The expression of Christianity which Buchan embraced was the Christian Platonism of seventeenth century theologians, who taught and preached at Cambridge University, They gave prominence to the place of reason and conscience in man's search for God, They believed that reason and conscience were the ‘candle of the Lord’ which was existed every one. It was their conviction that, if that light was followed, it would lead men and women to God. They were against superstition and fanaticism in religion, against all forms of persecution for religious beliefs, and insisted that God could only be known by renouncing evil and setting oneself to live according to God’s will. This teaching Buchan received, but the stamp of his Presbyterianism was not obliterated. The basic doctrines which arose from his father's Presbyterianism and are to be found in Buchan's novels are as follows: a. the fear (or awe) of God, as life's basic religious attitude; b. the Providence of God as the ultimate determinative force in the outcome of events; c. the reality, malignity and universality of evil which must be forcefully and constantly resisted; d. the dignity of human beings in bearing God's image; e. the conviction that life has meaning and that its ultimate goal, therefore, is a spiritual one - as opposed to the accumulation of wealth, the achieving of recognition from society, and the gaining access to power; f. the necessity of challenge in life for growth and fulfilment, and the importance of fortitude in successfully meeting such challenge; g. the belief that, in the purpose of God, the weak confound the strong. These emphases of Presbyterianism are to be found in all Buchan's novels, to a greater or lesser degree. All his characters are serious people, with a moral purpose in life. Like the pilgrims of the Bible, they seek a country: true fulfilment. This quest becomes more spiritual and more dearly defined as Buchan grows in age and maturity. The progress is to be traced from his early novels, where fulfilment is sought in honour and self-approving competence, as advocated by classicism; to the novels of his middle years, where fulfilment is sought in adventures suggested by romanticism. In his final novel Sick Heart River. Buchan appears to have moved somewhat from his earlier classicism and his romanticism as the road to fulfilment. In this novel, Buchan expresses what, for him, is ultimate fulfilment: a conversion to God that produces self-sacrificing love for others. The terminally-ill Edward Leithen sets out on a romantic adventure that will enable him to die with dignity, and so, in classic style, justify his existence. He has a belief in God, but in a God who is almighty, distant and largely irrelevant to Leithen's life. In the frozen North of Canada, where he expects to find his meagre beliefs in God's absolute power confirmed by the icy majesty of mountain and plain, he finds instead God's mercy and it melts his heart. In a Christ-like way, he brings life to others through his death, believing that, through death, he will find life. There is sufficient evidence to give plausibility to the view that Buchan is describing in Leithen his own pilgrimage. If so, it means that Buchan found his way back to the fundamental experience of the Christian life, conversion, so strongly emphasised in his orthodox Presbyterianism home and Church. However, Buchan reaches this conclusion in a Christian Platonist way, through the natural world, rather than through the more orthodox pathway of Scripture.

An inclusion complex of β-Cyclodextrin-L-Phenylalanine : 1H NMR and molecular docking studies

An inclusion host-guest complex between β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) and L-phenylalanine (LPhe) was investigated using ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and molecular docking techniques. ¹H chemical shift changes of β-CD were used to calculate the stability constant (K_stb) of the complex. On the basis of the Hildebrand-Benesi method, the K_stb of the 1:1 complex in D₂O solution at 300 K, pD 7.6 was of 25.5 M^-1, implying a fast intermolecular exchange rate process. Interestingly, docking simulation indicates the toroidal space can be occupied by L-Phe with two favorable arrangements. For the predicted model with the higher probability score, the L-Phe aromatic ring is facing to the secondary hydroxyl groups of β-CD. Results from NMR and docking simulation are in good agreement with the x-ray structures of β-CD/L-phenylalanine derivatives.

Surface-Enhanced Infrared Spectra of Manganese (III) Tetraphenylporphine Chloride Physisorbed on Gold Island Films

Surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) spectra of manganese (III) tetraphenylporphine chloride (Mn(TPP)Cl) on metal island films were measured in transmission mode. Dependences of the enhancement factor of SEIRA on both the sample quantity and the type of evaporated metal were investigated by subsequently increasing the amount of Mn(TPP)Cl on gold and silver substrates. The enhancement increases nonlinearly with the amount of sample and varies slightly with the thickness of metal islands. In particular, the SEIRA transmission method presents an anomalous spectral enhancement by a factor of 579, with substantial spectral shifts, observed only for the physisorbed Mn(TPP)Cl that remained on a 3-nm-thick gold film after immersion of the substrates into acetone. A charge-transfer (CT) interaction between the porphyrinic Mn and gold islands is therefore proposed as an additional factor in the SEIRA mechanism of the porphyrin system. The number of remaining porphyrin molecules was estimated by calibration-based fluorescence spectroscopy to be 2.36×1013 molecules (i.e., ~2.910-11 mol/cm2) for a 3-nm-thick gold film, suggesting that the physisorbed molecules distributed very loosely on the metal island surface as a result of the weak van der Waals interactions. Fluorescence microscopy revealed the formation of microcrystalline porphyrin aggregates during the consecutive increase in sample solution. However, the immersion likely redistributed the porphyrin to be directly attached on the gold surface, as evidenced by an absence of porphyrinic microcrystals and the observed SEIRA enhancement. The distinctive red shift in the UV-visible spectra and the SEIRA-enhanced peaks indicate the presence of a preferred orientation in the form of the porphyrin ring inclined with respect to the gold surface.

In-situ confocal Raman monitoring of evaporation process during protein crystallization

We have introduced an in-situ Raman monitoring technique to investigate the crystallization process inside protein drops. In addition to a conventional vapour-diffusion process, a novel procedure which actively stimulates the evaporation from a protein drop during crystallization was also evaluated, with lysozyme as a model protein. In contrast to the conventional vapour-diffusion condition, the evaporation-stimulated growth of crystals was initiated in a simple dehydration scheme and completed within a significantly shorter time. To gain an understanding of crystallization behaviours under the conditions with and without such evaporation stimulation, confocal Raman spectroscopy combined with linear regression analysis was used to monitor both lysozyme and HEPES buffer concentrations in real time. The confocal measurements having a high spatial resolution and good linear response revealed areas of local inhomogeneity in protein concentration when the crystallization started. The acquired concentration profiles indicated that (1)ÿthe evaporation-stimulated crystallization proceeded with protein concentrations lower than those under conventional vapour diffusion, and (2)ÿcrystals under the evaporation-stimulated condition were noticeable within an early stage of crystallization before the protein concentration approached its maximum value. The HEPES concentration profiles, on the other hand, increased steadily towards the end of the process regardless of the conditions used for crystallization. In particular, the observed local inhomogeneities specific to protein distribution suggested an accumulation mechanism of protein molecules that initiates the nucleation of crystals.

That's doctor Ginibi to you : hard lessons in the history and publication of Ruby Langford Ginibi

On May Day this year at La Trobe University, a woman who hasblazed the trail of die hard Australian political writing for the past decade finally got some of her due. Ruby Langford - Ginibi in her Bundjalung language - took on the mantle of Honorary Doctor of Letters with all the grace and majesty of her namesake, the black swan. Doctor Ginibi seems a far cry from the Koori woman who built fences in the scrub, fought on the streets for Aboriginal justice, and can show you some pretty angry scars to prove it. Yet the Koori writer, educator, grandmother, auntie and activist reckons it is all part of the same history, all another step in the struggle to realise the justice for her mob that is not only slow coming but, even as she dons the robes of those she is asked to re-educate Koori way, draws further and further into the neocolonial distance.

Physical activity participation and barriers for people with multiple myeloma

Purpose

This study aims to examine, for people treated for multiple myeloma, (1) differences between prediagnosis and postdiagnosis levels of physical activity, (2) perceived barriers and likelihood of attending a physical activity program, and (3) factors that influence whether or not respondents are meeting physical activity guidelines.
Methods

This was a quantitative cross-sectional study; data were gathered from a larger Australian population-wide survey. Respondents completed the survey in hard copy, online, or over the telephone. Demographic and clinical variables included age, gender, locality, time since diagnosis, and marital status. The Godin Leisure-Time Questionnaire measured physical activity; barriers and likelihood of participating in a physical activity program were assessed using a five-point Likert scale. Data were analyzed using descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analyses.
Results

Of the 229 respondents, 53.1 % were male, 42 % aged 60–69 years, and 75.7 % were married or in a de facto relationship. Participation in physical activity declined significantly from prediagnosis levels. Fatigue, injuries, and pain were the strongest perceived barriers to participation; 41 % reported they were likely to attend an exercise program if offered. Respondents who were sufficiently active before diagnosis were 4.79 times more likely to be sufficiently active posttreatment.
Conclusions

People with multiple myeloma reported very low levels of physical activity across all levels of intensity; however, they were interested in attending a physical activity program. To increase physical activity among people with multiple myeloma, interventions should target perceived barriers with a particular focus on those who were not physically active prior to diagnosis.

A bit of a yawn for the cast and audience

Review of Sleeping Beauty by the Imperial Russian Ballet Company at Her Majesty's Theatre, 2012

The Black Side of the Sun: Camus, Theology, and the Problem of Evil

Albert Camus is typically categorized as an atheistic thinker, in the same breath as Sartre. Yet there is a sizable, often sympathetic, theological response to his works, which deal at great length with Christian themes, wrestle with the problem of evil, and are animated by his own avowed desire — in strong contrast with Sartre and other existentialists — to preserve a sense of the sacred without belief in human immortality. This essay reconstructs three components of Camus’s rapport and disagreement with Christian theology, which he approached pre-eminently through the figure of Augustine, central to his early Diplome thesis. First, we recount the young Camus’s neopagan ‘‘religiosity’’ — a sense of the inhuman majesty and beauty of the natural world at the heart of what he termed (and later regretted terming) the ‘‘absurd,’’ and rooted in Camus’s own unitive experiences growing up amidst the sea, sand, and blazing sun of North Africa. Second, we look at Camus’s engagement with the problem of evil, which for Camus — as for many early modern thinkers such as Bayle or Voltaire — represented the decisive immanent tension in later medieval theology, vindicating — in ethical terms — the modern rebellions against altar, pulpit, and throne. The essay closes by rebutting the charge, strongly argued recently by Ronald Srigley, that Camus was (both) anti-modern because anti-Christian. Camus’s aim, we propose, was instead to bring together a neopagan sense of the wonder of the natural world and our participation in it, with the egalitarian components of Christian ethics, severed from secularized eschatological content.