Determining motion components using the point distribution model

The Point Distribution Model (PDM) has proven effective in modelling variations in shape in sets of images, including those in which motion is involved such as body and hand tracking. This paper proposes an extension to the PDM through a re-parameterisation of the model which uses factors such as the angular velocity and distance travelled for sets of points on a moving shape. This then enables non-linear quantities such as acceleration and the average velocity of the body to be expressed in a linear model by the PDM. Results are shown for objects with known acceleration and deceleration components, these being a simulated pendulum modelled using simple harmonic motion and video sequences of a real pendulum in motion.

Clostridial spores for cancer therapy : targeting solid tumour microenvironment

Solid tumour accounts for 90% of all cancers. The current treatment approach for most solid tumours is surgery, however it is limited to early stage tumours. Other treatment options such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy are non-selective, thus causing damage to both healthy and cancerous tissue. Past research has focused on understanding tumour cells themselves, and conventional wisdom has aimed at targeting these cells directly. Recent research has shifted towards understanding the tumour microenvironment and it’s differences from that of healthy cells/tissues in the body and then to exploit these differences for treatmeat of the tumour. One such approach is utilizing anaerobic bacteria. Several strains of bacteria have been shown to selectively colonize in solid tumours, making them valuable tools for selective tumour targeting and destruction. Amongst them, the anaerobic Clostridium has shown great potential in penetration and colonization of the hypoxic and necrotic areas of the tumour microenvironment, causing significant oncolysis as well as enabling the delivery of therapeutics directly to the tumour in situ. Various strategies utilizing Clostridium are currently being investigated, and represent a novel area of emerging cancer therapy. This review provides an update review of tumour microenvironment as well as summary of the progresses and current status of Clostridial spore-based cancer therapies.

Evolution of moisture management behavior of high-wicking 3D warp knitted spacer fabrics

Moisture management behavior is a vital factor in evaluating thermal and physiological comfort of functional textiles. This research work studies functional 3 dimensional (3D) warp knitted spacer fabrics containing high-wicking materials characterized by their profiled cross section. These spacer fabrics can be used for protective vest to absorb a user’s sweat, to reduce the humidity and improve user’s thermal comfort. For this reason, different 3D warp knitted spacer fabrics were produced with functional fiber yarns in the back layer of the fabric (close to the body) and polyester in the front and middle layers (outer surface). Comfort properties such as air and water vapor permeability and wicking and other moisture management properties (MMP) of different fabric samples were measured. It is demonstrated that by using profiled fibers such as Coolmax fiber, moisture management properties of spacer fabrics can be improved, enabling them to be use as a snug-fitting shirt worn under protective vests with improved comfort.

That grave pleasure

This paper argues that gravity is often opposed to lightness in a conceptual manoeuvre reminiscent of the binaries of a metaphysics of presence (the latter as interrogated by Derrida; see generally 1997). In this paradigm, lightness operates akin to the ‘origin’ or presence, and is deemed to have been contaminated by the arrival of weight, the latter framed as threat to this (presence)/lightness. The paper challenges this conceptualisation, one that arguably dominates quotidian attitudes to the body and its movement capacities. It proposes instead that gravity can be read ‘deconstructively’—in other words, that lightness and weight emerge from and produce one another, and that weight always already operates, and therefore includes lightness. In order to inhabit this desiring-body (a body affected by gravity), particular framings of the body’s internal structures can permit a harnessing of gravity’s vectors of attraction, enabling what the author terms ‘a rigorous laziness’. The latter would involve both an initial attitude and a practice that eschews vocabularies of ‘force’ and ‘effort’, in favour of a ‘close reading’ of structural veracities, engaging strategically with, rather than against, them, in an approach akin to deconstruction’s reading along with a text. Drawing ekphrastically on the structural suggestiveness of Deleuze and Guattari’s rhizomatic and arborescent lenses, the paper finally contends that both these models are at work in human bodies, and that they operate in mutually generative ways. Taken up, this thinking may extend what the human body can do, and, most importantly, its pleasure in such doings.

Something like an emergency

‘Something like an emergency’ is a collaborative project between Josephine Scicluna (words) and Tom Kazas (music). It was performed at ‘The Hunger Artist: Food and the Arts’, 2010 Double Dialogues conference in Toronto. This entry presents the performance text and exegetical responses from the writer and musician, providing both a theoretical context, in the philosophies of Gilles Deleuze and Gaston Bachelard, and a discussion of the improvisational basis of the project.

The poem investigates the hunger of writing as a desire to break through impasses of language: in love and in the writer’s translation of vision. The difficulties of ordering food in different languages and countries become a metaphor for breaking communication and the writer’s (often frustrated) desire to deliver the right words onto her plate. From countless bowls of lentil soup (which were never vegetarian) on overnight bus trips in Turkey to Venice and Vegas Live on Birrarung Mar, this work forms a series of meditations on hunger - presenting the troubled body of the writer, troubled images of the body and conversations and places which have gone awry.

Building movements: directed improvisation performances : conversing with buildings; assisted falling

For these performances, the new Design Hub building will play the role of architectural surrounds used as spatial research devices, architectural agent and collaborator – by giving the building our attention we aim to bring it and its affordances explicitly into the collective body. In exploring the set of interlinked spaces in the Hub (with an emphasis, we propose, on the stairs) as “elaborately structured pretexts for action” , we anticipate that the beginnings of an approach may emerge and allow us to understand that when a person “flexes her muscles, a person [also] flexes her surroundings”. Arakawa and Gins offer ways to assist us in approaching architecture as a tentative constructing toward a holding in place – in which all modes of sensing and scales of action are exercised – through their notions of ‘architectural surround’ and ‘architectural body’ garnered from chapters ‘Notes for an Architectural Body’ and ‘Architectural Surround’ (Gins and Arakawa, 2002).

How to have a conversation about backpacks

In a Reykjavík hostel dorm room, a conversation about backpacks occurred. There is no accompanying audio record of this conversation. Instead, the conversation (re)emerges through the movements of the body and the backpack. The dimensions of the backpack are estimated, traced. The motions of the hands, more-than gestures, attempt to pinpoint these delicate moments when backpacks and bodies come together in action. This conversation is performative, yet is an actual lived event. It employs aesthetics, but not in an artistic manner. In four steps, this video outlines instructions for how to have a conversation about backpacks.

Merleau-Ponty: Key Concepts

Having initially not had the attention of Sartre or Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty’s work is arguably now more widely influential than either of his two contemporaries. Merleau-Ponty: Key Concepts presents an accessible guide to the core ideas which structure Merleau-Ponty’s thinking as well as to his influences and the value of his ideas to a wide range of disciplines. The first section of the book presents the context of Merleau-Ponty’s thinking, the major debates of his time, particularly existentialism, phenomenology, the history of philosophy and the philosophy of history and society. The second section outlines his major contributions and conceptual innovations. The final section focuses upon how his work has been taken up in other fields besides philosophy, notably in sociology, cognitive science, health studies and feminism.

We need to talk

'We need to talk' examines the discursive framework of LEVEL as a feminist art collective and engages with conversation as a strategy for bringing diverse individual voices to the forefront of the feminist discussion. The words in the audio works, were recontextualised from a series of dinner party conversations, which focused on the role of women and feminism in the 21st century. The thoughts and ideas of sixty women have been transcribed, edited and re-recorded through the artists’ individual voices. Placed in a specially constructed ‘lazy susan’, this audio installation speaks of the experience of sharing information, ideas and experiences ‘around the table’. The fabric patterns on the floor cushions have been designed from banners created in collective workshops with women in Brisbane and Melbourne, Australia, as a way of translating personal statements and political ideas into the everyday.

Modulating exercise-induced hormesis: does less equal more?

Hormesis encompasses the notion that low levels of stress stimulate or upregulate existing cellular and molecular pathways that improve the capacity of cells and organisms to withstand greater stress. This notion underlies much of what we know about how exercise conditions the body and induces long-term adaptations. During exercise, the body is exposed to various forms of stress, including thermal, metabolic, hypoxic, oxidative, and mechanical stress. These stressors activate biochemical messengers, which in turn activate various signaling pathways that regulate gene expression and adaptive responses. Historically, antioxidant supplements, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and cryotherapy have been favored to attenuate or counteract exercise-induced oxidative stress and inflammation. However, reactive oxygen species and inflammatory mediators are key signaling molecules in muscle, and such strategies may mitigate adaptations to exercise. Conversely, withholding dietary carbohydrate and restricting muscle blood flow during exercise may augment adaptations to exercise. In this review article, we combine, integrate, and apply knowledge about the fundamental mechanisms of exercise adaptation. We also critically evaluate the rationale for using interventions that target these mechanisms under the overarching concept of hormesis. There is currently insufficient evidence to establish whether these treatments exert dose-dependent effects on muscle adaptation. However, there appears to be some dissociation between the biochemical/molecular effects and functional/performance outcomes of some of these treatments. Although several of these treatments influence common kinases, transcription factors, and proteins, it remains to be determined if these interventions complement or negate each other, and whether such effects are strong enough to influence adaptations to exercise.

A systematic review of the psychosocial correlates of intuitive eating among adult women

Intuitive eating has been proposed as an eating style that fosters a positive attitude towards food, the body, and physical activity. A systematic review of the literature was undertaken to examine intuitive eating in relation to disordered eating, body image, emotional functioning, and other psychosocial correlates in adult women. Articles were identified through Academic Search Complete, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Health Source (Nursing and Academic Edition), Medline Complete, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, PubMed and Scopus. Eligible studies were those that examined women aged 18 years and older, measured intuitive eating, and assessed a psychosocial correlate of intuitive eating. Twenty-four cross-sectional studies, published between 2006 and September 2015, met eligibility criteria. Intuitive eating was associated with less disordered eating, a more positive body image, greater emotional functioning, and a number of other psychosocial correlates that have been examined less extensively. However, given that all studies used cross-sectional designs, no conclusions regarding the direction of the relationship between intuitive eating and psychosocial correlates can be drawn. Participants in the majority of studies were university students in the United States so findings cannot be generalised to the wider population of female adults. Prospective studies are now needed to verify these cross-sectional findings, and show if intuitive eating may reduce disordered eating and body image concerns, and promote women's psychological health and well-being.

Technology as collaborator in somatic photographic practice

This article will address several areas of research. Firstly it will propose that a dance experience can translate into another discipline such as visual art. In my visual art practice I combine both photography, which is traditionally seen as a still medium, and performance in order to create a new form of embodiment. By acknowledging the inter-relationship between the body and the camera my project seeks to challenge a perceived separation between the disciplines. Fly Rhythm, an exhibition of 13 photographs and one video projection was conceived through a performative somatic process. I have developed the term ‘somatic photography’ to articulate subjective experiences in the context of my process of imaging movement in stillness. My thinking has been informed by visual art practice exploring movement and meaning using video and an older history of performance as a dancer and choreographer. I am primarily interested in movement initiated by a bodily response to light through still rather than moving imagery although artists such as Maya Deren whose films explore themes of time and space have influenced me. In my practice the term ‘somatic photography’ helps articulate the act of taking photographs, which is how meaning is being created rather than purely in the finished art works. The term somatic photography puts emphasis on the action of taking the image. Through using a custom made camera I was able to negotiate time and space as a dancer and create a visual drawing that talked to both choreography and fine art practice. This article engages with the following ideas: somatic photography, photography as choreography, body memory, ageing body, technology as collaborator, gallery interface, screen interface and movement.

There will be no more night

Exploring how the body and light are connected in interdisciplinary practice, in this work I make sound design and moving image re inscribing physical yet out of body experiences of light in near death – recorded from youtube. The image of fading light is in real time and constitutes a symbolic interpretation of eternity mirroring the audio. This work has been curated into a group exhibition at ‘Strange Neighbour’ alongside internationally recognised artists such as Peter Booth and Sam Shmith. The work has also been curated in my solo exhibition by Conny Dietzschold and is the subject of the essay in the catalogue by Sean Redmond and was presented in my paper ‘Motion and stillness: a bodily approach to photography.’ and is mentioned in the journal article to be published titled ‘Technology as Collaborator in Somatic Photographic Practice.’ Intellect Books

David Cross in conversation with Cameron Bishop

We live in denial of the foreigner within due to the (often feigned) dexterous self-regard we bring to our social and spatial encounters. You, as the literal foreign body in your own work, inviting the participant to pump, breath, hold, slide or catch, deny that self-assurance, not only to the viewer but also to yourself. Framed at a psychosocial level the denial of the foreigner within plays out in all kinds of ways in our treatment of those others who are seen to breach our borders, at a personal, political and national level. The work you create, in this context, may be seen as an interrogation of the western subject’s conventional experience of territories, from the body, to the museum and to the nation. As you suggest, the physical and cognitive thresholds you give to the participant invite the unguarded moment, the other side of which prompts the viewer to ponder their physical relations to others, as fragmented, fragile beings. But key to this is you, the artist, who presents as partial and foreign inside these objects. How are these objects extensions of your own body, and your own athleticism?

The essential role of social theory in qualitative public health research

OBJECTIVE: To define the role of social theory and examine how research studies using qualitative methods can use social theory to generalize their results beyond the setting of the study or to other social groups. APPROACH: The assumptions underlying public health research using qualitative methods derive from a range of social theories that include conflict theory, structural functionalism, symbolic interactionism, the sociology of knowledge and feminism. Depending on the research problem, these and other social theories provide conceptual tools and models for constructing a suitable research framework, and for collecting and analysing data. In combination with the substantive health literature, the theoretical literature provides the conceptual bridge that links the conclusions of the study to other social groups and settings. CONCLUSION: While descriptive studies using qualitative research methods can generate important insights into social experience, the use of social theory in the construction and conduct of research enables researchers to extrapolate their findings to settings and groups broader than the ones in which the research was conducted.