Totality of experience: sound, music and mythology in Gus Van Sant’s “Death Quartet”

Reflecting on Gus Van Sant’s films Gerry (2003) Elephant (2004) and Last Days (2005), the director’s long-term sound-designer Leslie Shatz observed that “You have to get into the totality of the experience and not just the dialogue”. Shatz’s comment expresses something fundamental about the experimental approach to cinema and to soundscapes undertaken by Van Sant in these three films, unofficially known as the “Death Trilogy”. This thesis contends that Van Sant makes deliberate aesthetic choices which do indicate a distinctly “auteurist” leaning. However, I also argue that intertextual elements, prior knowledge, and audience participation in meaningmaking enhance the experience of, and reveal the nuances in, the soundtracks themselves. This thesis aims to contribute to a growing body of work within filmmusic scholarship concerned with resisting a traditional bias in the field: that film music should be understood as a means of characterisation and as emotional signifier. The films of the “Death Quartet”, which includes Paranoid Park (2007), I believe, offer fertile ground on which to explore these new approaches. It is my contention that these films deconstruct the traditional approach to soundtracking and the relationship between soundtrack and character, and that only an approach sensitive to the aesthetic and philosophical functions of music and sound can adequately acknowledge their unique cinematic qualities.

Intracellular Cytokine Staining and Flow Cytometry: Considerations for Application in Clinical Trials of Novel Tuberculosis Vaccines.

Intracellular cytokine staining combined with flow cytometry is one of a number of assays designed to assess T-cell immune responses. It has the specific advantage of enabling the simultaneous assessment of multiple phenotypic, differentiation and functional parameters pertaining to responding T-cells, most notably, the expression of multiple effector cytokines. These attributes make the technique particularly suitable for the assessment of T-cell immune responses induced by novel tuberculosis vaccines in clinical trials. However, depending upon the particular nature of a given vaccine and trial setting, there are approaches that may be taken at different stages of the assay that are more suitable than other alternatives. In this paper, the Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI) TB Biomarker Working group reports on efforts to assess the conditions that will determine when particular assay approaches should be employed. We have found that choices relating to the use of fresh whole blood or peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and frozen PBMC; use of serum-containing or serum-free medium; length of stimulation period and use of co-stimulatory antibodies can all affect the sensitivity of intracellular cytokine assays. In the case of sample material, frozen PBMC, despite some loss of sensitivity, may be more advantageous for batch analysis. We also recommend that for multi-site studies, common antibody panels, gating strategies and analysis approaches should be employed for better comparability.

Identification of senescence and death in Emiliania huxleyi and Thalassiosira pseudonana: Cell staining chlorophyll alterations and dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) metabolism

We measured membrane permeability, hydrolytic enzyme, and caspase-like activities using fluorescent cell stains to document changes caused by nutrient exhaustion in the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi and the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana, during batch-culture nutrient limitation. We related these changes to cell death, pigment alteration, and concentrations of dimethylsulfide (DMS) and dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) to assess the transformation of these compounds as cell physiological condition changes. E. huxleyi persisted for 1 month in stationary phase; in contrast, T. pseudonana cells rapidly declined within 10 d of nutrient depletion. T. pseudonana progressively lost membrane integrity and the ability to metabolize 5-chloromethylfluorescein diacetate (CMFDA; hydrolytic activity), whereas E. huxleyi developed two distinct CMFDA populations and retained membrane integrity (SYTOX Green). Caspase-like activity appeared higher in E. huxleyi than in T. pseudonana during the post-growth phase, despite a lack of apparent mortality and cell lysis. Photosynthetic pigment degradation and transformation occurred in both species after growth; chlorophyll a (Chl a) degradation was characterized by an increase in the ratio of methoxy Chl a : Chl a in T. pseudonana but not in E. huxleyi, and the increase in this ratio preceded loss of membrane integrity. Total DMSP declined in T. pseudonana during cell death and DMS increased. In contrast, and in the absence of cell death, total DMSP and DMS increased in E. huxleyi. Our data show a novel chlorophyll alteration product associated with T. pseudonana death, suggesting a promising approach to discriminate nonviable cells in nature.

NUCLEAR STAINING IN ALGAL HERBARIUM MATERIAL - A REAPPRAISAL OF THE HOLOTYPE OF CALLITHAMNION-DECOMPOSITUM AGARDH,J. (RHODOPHYTA)

The taxonomic importance of uninucleate vs. multinucleate vegetative cells in the Ceramiaceae is emphasized. It has been possible to make visible nuclei in old material, including type specimens, using aceto-carmine and aceto-iron-haematoxylin stains. The holotypes of Ceramium roseum and Callithamnion fasciculatum (currently known as Callithamnion roseum and Pleonosporium borreri var. fasciculatum) have uninucleate cells and belong to Aglaothamnion. In contrast, the holotype of Callithamnion decompositum, a name that has been applied to collections of at least two uninucleate taxa, has multinucleate cells; its morphological and cytological details agree with those of specimens collected in France and Ireland that were previously thought to represent an undescribed species. Female reproductive morphology (described from a thallus with gametangia in addition to tetrasporangia), in conjunction with habit and vegetative features, indicates that this species belongs to Compsothamnion (Compsothamnieae), as a third species, being distinguished from C. thuyoides and C. gracillimum by its sessile, lateral tetrasporangia. The required new combinations under Aglaothamnion and Compsothamnion are made.