The World of Michael Fried's Antiquity

Antiquity occupies a surprisingly central role in Michael Fried's account of contemporary art photography. More specifically, on Fried's account, photographs of antiquity by Thomas Struth and Patrick Faigenbaum stand at the vanguard of contemporary photographic practice. This essay examines the place of these photographs in Fried's work. The essay suggests that close attention to them can illuminate not only unclear turns in Fried's otherwise stunning argument, but also our understanding of the phenomenology of ‘beholding’ in antiquity, a problem that recent work in ancient aesthetics has made considerably more philosophically fraught.     

'Unfinished Business': Neoliberal Planning Reform in Australia

This paper reviews the recent and contemporary neoliberal reform agendas that have sought a reduced role for planning in Australia. Our aim is to describe these reform paths and to theorise their broader implications for urban governance in Australia. Our analysis focuses on two initiatives: first, the broad reform framework embodied in National Competition Policy that is now affecting planning regulation at the state level; and second, the new vision for a standardised development control system that has been put forward by the Property Council of Australia. As we will show, neoliberal reforms have the potential both to reduce the possibility for spatial regulation and also to undermine the other recent reform agendas that have sought a positive transformation of planning; namely, community democratic movements and environmentalism.     

Realization of Epitaxial Thin Films of the Topological Crystalline Insulator Sr3SnO

Topological materials are derived from the interplay between symmetry and topology. Advances in topological band theories have led to the prediction that the antiperovskite oxide Sr₃SnO is a topological crystalline insulator, a new electronic phase of matter where the conductivity in its (001) crystallographic planes is protected by crystallographic point group symmetries. Realization of this material, however, is challenging. Guided by thermodynamic calculations, a deposition approach is designed and implemented to achieve the adsorption-controlled growth of epitaxial Sr₃SnO single-crystal films by molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE). In situ transport and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements reveal the metallic and electronic structure of the as-grown samples. Compared with conventional MBE, the used synthesis route results in superior sample quality and is readily adapted to other topological systems with antiperovskite structures. The successful realization of thin films of Sr₃SnO opens opportunities to manipulate topological states by tuning symmetries via strain engineering and heterostructuring.     

Port Moresby

Port Moresby is the capital of Papua New Guinea. With a population of nearly 200 000 it is by far the largest city in the country. Officially called the National Capital District (NCD), it straddles a low range of coastal hills in the south-east corner of the New Guinea mainland. It is a city facing serious problems today. A narrow economic base, a lack of land suitable for development and a deteriorating law and order situation are compounded by very rapid growth. The proposed construction of a transisland highway this decade, connecting Port Moresby to the populous interior, would have a profound impact on the future of the city.     

Impact of dissolved organic matter on colloid transport in the vadose zone: deterministic approximation of transport deposition coefficients from polymeric coating characteristics

Although numerous studies have been conducted to discern colloid transport and stability processes, the mechanistic understanding of how dissolved organic matter (DOM) affects colloid fate in unsaturated soils (i.e., the vadose zone) remains unclear. This study aims to bridge the gap between the physicochemical responses of colloid complexes and porous media interfaces to solution chemistry, and the effect these changes have on colloid transport and fate. Measurements of adsorbed layer thickness, density, and charge of DOM-colloid complexes and transport experiments with tandem internal process visualization were conducted for key constituents of DOM, humic (HA) and fulvic acids (FA), at acidic, neutral and basic pH and two CaCl₂ concentrations. Polymeric characteristics reveal that, of the two tested DOM constituents, only HA electrosterically stabilizes colloids. This stabilization is highly dependent on solution pH which controls DOM polymer adsorption affinity, and on the presence of Ca⁺² which promotes charge neutralization and inter-particle bridging. Transport experiments indicate that HA improved colloid transport significantly, while FA only marginally affected transport despite having a large effect on particle charge. A transport model with deposition and pore-exclusion parameters fit experimental breakthrough curves well. Trends in deposition coefficients are correlated to the changes in colloid surface potential for bare colloids, but must include adsorbed layer thickness and density for sterically stabilized colloids. Additionally, internal process observations with bright field microscopy reveal that, under optimal conditions for retention, experiments with FA or no DOM promoted colloid retention at solid-water interfaces, while experiments with HA enhanced colloid retention at air-water interfaces, presumably due to partitioning of HA at the air-water interface and/or increased hydrophobic characteristics of HA-colloid complexes.     

Further evidence for a deficit in switching attention in schizophrenia.

In this study, sustained, selective, divided, and switching attention, and reloading of working memory were investigated in schizophrenia by using a newly developed Visual Attention Battery (VAB). Twenty-four outpatients with schizophrenia and 24 control participants were studied using the VAB. Performance on VAB components was correlated with performance of standard tests. Patients with schizophrenia were significantly impaired on VAB tasks that required switching of attention and reloading of working memory but had normal performance on tasks involving sustained attention or attention to multiple stimulus features. Switching attention and reloading of working memory were highly correlated with Trails (B–A) score for patients. The decline in performance on the switching-attention task in patients with schizophrenia met criteria for a differential deficit in switching attention. Future research should examine the neurophysiological basis of the switching deficit and its sensitivity and specificity to schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Deep Semantic Links of TCSP and Object-Z: TCOZ Approach

Formal methods can be used in effective combination only if the semantic links between individual methods are clearly established. This paper discusses the semantic design of TCOZ, a language blended from Object-Z and TCSP. The semantic model adopted is the infinite timed failures model of TCSP, extended to include initial state and update events for modelling operations on internal state. An infinite trace model has been used so as to ensure proper account is taken of the potentially unbounded non-determinism allowed by Z schemas. Received September 2000 / Accepted in revised form June 2001     

Misattribution of dissonance and behaviour-consistent attitude change.

Examined the prediction that people who have misattributed dissonance arousal to an external source may come to question the appropriateness of this attribution and may then be motivated to alter their attitudes. This was tested by having an experimenter discredit the plausibility of an external source after misattribution had presumably occurred. 80 female undergraduates participated in the study, with 16 of these Ss serving as controls. 64 Ss were given a pill described as having either unpleasant side effects or no side effects and then were committed to write counterattitudinal essays under high-choice conditions. Some Ss were then told that a mistake had been made and that they had actually been given the other form of the pill. As predicted, Ss who had initially been led to believe that the pill had aversive side effects but were later told that it did not manifested behavior-consistent attitude change. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)