This thesis examined an interactive, intergenerational gallery entitled MoMA Art Lab: People, located within the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. It is composed of various stations that visitors can explore, which include activities appropriate for people of all ages. The motivation for this research came after noticing a lack of family programming in art museums that truly engaged both the adults and children in family groups. Often the children would be active but the parents would sit passively nearby. This was not the case in the MoMA lab, where people of varying ages interacted with both the stations and each other as they explored the activities. This study sought to focus on the aspects of the lab that most often led to the engagement of adults who visited the lab as part of an intergenerational group. In order to examine possible reasons why the lab was able to engage adults, I conducted a case study that involved observing nine groups who entered the lab, interviewing seven of them, and also interviewing five educators in the Family Programs department who held significant roles in the development and running of the lab. The findings revealed that the aspects of MoMA Art Lab: People that most engaged adults were stations focused on art-making and were designed in a way conducive to conversation. / text

Optical whispering-gallery mode (WGM) cavities, which exhibit extraordinary spatial and temporal confinement of light, are one of the leading transducers for examining molecular recognition at low particle counts. With the advent of hybrid photonic-plasmonic and increasingly sophisticated forms of these resonators, the importance of supporting numerical methods has correspondingly become evident. In response, we adopt a full-vector finite difference approximation in order to solve for WGM's in terms of their field distributions, resonant wavelengths, and quality factors in the context of naturally discontinuous permittivity structure. A segmented Taylor series and alignment/rotation operator are utilized at such singularities in conjunction with arbitrarily spaced grid points. Simulations for microtoroids, with and without dielectric nanobeads, and plasmonic microdisks are demonstrated for short computation times and shown to be in agreement with data in the literature. Constricted surface plasmon polariton (SPP) WGM's are also featured within this document. The module of this thesis is devised as a keystone for composite WGM models that may guide experiments in the field. / Graduate

The main goal of Ocean & Rusty photography shop is to bring the fine art photography to people’s daily life. It mainly aims at the entry-level and mid market for photography lovers and the people who would like to decorate their living space with photography works. It means Ocean & Rusty photography shop provides a platform for most of the photographers, art enthusiasts, and collectors. The main services for Ocean & Rusty photography shop includes art broker, photography works selling, photography teaching, photo books selling, and photography event organization. Ocean & Rusty photography shop expects to reach 10% market share in fifth year. It means the total sales will over 30 millions, the highest IRR will reach 737%, and the net profit ratio will be around 27%.

This thesis addresses the growing impulse towards establishing a public, national collection of Old Master pictures for Britain, located in London, in the last quarter of the eighteenth-century. It does so by identifying the importance of individual conceptualizations of what such a collection might mean for a nation, and how it might come to be realized for an imprecisely defined public. My thesis examines the shifting dynamics between private and public collections during the period of 1775 to 1800, repositioning notions of what constituted space for viewing and accessing art in a national context, and investigates just who participated in the ensuing dialogues about various uses of art for the nation. To this end, three case studies have been employed. The first examines the collection of pictures assembled by Sir Robert Walpole and their public legacy. The second explores the proposal for a national collection of art put forth by art dealer Noel Desenfans. The third examines the frustrated plans of Sir Joshua Reynolds for his collection of Old Master pictures. Through the respective lenses provided by the case studies, it is demonstrated that the envisioning of a national gallery for Britain pitched competing perspectives against each other, as different kinds of people jockeyed for cultural authority. The process of articulating and shaping these ambitions with an eye towards national benefit was only beginning to be explored, and negotiations of private ambitions and interests surrounding picture collections for the public was further complicated by factors of social class and profession. This thesis demonstrate that the boundaries of participation in matters concerning art for the nation were not fixed regarding Old Master pictures and the value placed on them in late eighteenth-century London. / Thesis (Ph.D, Art History) -- Queen's University, 2009-01-26 09:01:22.591

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Self-published web diaries called blogs are one manifestation of the Internet’s potential to create new discursive and dialogic spaces for citizens. Blogs are described by their authors and others in the news media (as well as some academic commentators) as a medium that potentially fosters political dialogue in the spirit of Habermas’ conceptual “public sphere.” Blogs also serve as potential competitors to mass media outlets in political debates in two distinct ways: first, by acting as agenda-setters and framers of issues, events and figures and second, by challenging journalistic norms such as the principles of fairness, neutrality and non-partisanship. In spite of these claims, however, very little empirical evidence exists to date on whether political blogs perform the roles of agenda-setters, gatekeepers or framers, or whether they are actually seen as a challenge or potential replacement to mass media outlets by themselves, by journalists or by those who could utilize blogs to transmit messages to the public. This thesis examines these questions as they pertain to Canadian politics, focusing on the interaction between journalists, partisan bloggers and political communications practitioners to assess whether blogs written by explicitly partisan authors actually: 1) create unique discursive spaces for discussion of Canadian political issues, 2) set agendas for political discussion and set issues and 3) serve as an occupational threat/potential replacement to media outlets for disseminating political information. Using surveys and content analysis, this thesis contends that partisan blogs largely mimic political discussion already occurring in media-produced content and are perceived as a potential, though not completely credible, replacement for shaping political agendas and disseminating information.

Self-published web diaries called blogs are one manifestation of the Internet’s potential to create new discursive and dialogic spaces for citizens. Blogs are described by their authors and others in the news media (as well as some academic commentators) as a medium that potentially fosters political dialogue in the spirit of Habermas’ conceptual “public sphere.” Blogs also serve as potential competitors to mass media outlets in political debates in two distinct ways: first, by acting as agenda-setters and framers of issues, events and figures and second, by challenging journalistic norms such as the principles of fairness, neutrality and non-partisanship. In spite of these claims, however, very little empirical evidence exists to date on whether political blogs perform the roles of agenda-setters, gatekeepers or framers, or whether they are actually seen as a challenge or potential replacement to mass media outlets by themselves, by journalists or by those who could utilize blogs to transmit messages to the public. This thesis examines these questions as they pertain to Canadian politics, focusing on the interaction between journalists, partisan bloggers and political communications practitioners to assess whether blogs written by explicitly partisan authors actually: 1) create unique discursive spaces for discussion of Canadian political issues, 2) set agendas for political discussion and set issues and 3) serve as an occupational threat/potential replacement to media outlets for disseminating political information. Using surveys and content analysis, this thesis contends that partisan blogs largely mimic political discussion already occurring in media-produced content and are perceived as a potential, though not completely credible, replacement for shaping political agendas and disseminating information.

Near-membrane and trans-membrane proteins and their interactions with the extracellular matrix (ECM) can yield valuable information about cell dynamics. However, advances in the field of nanoscale cellular processes have been hindered, in part, due to limits imposed by current technology. In this work, a novel evanescent field (EF) imaging technique is designed, modeled, created and tested for near-field imaging in the apical surface of cells. This technique and Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) were used to investigate interactions between integrins on the cell surface and the ECM protein, fibronectin. The goal was to monitor changes in the integrin density at the cell surface as a function of clustering after binding to fibronectin on the microsphere surface. For the EF technique, quantum dot (QD)-embedded polystyrene microspheres were used to couple light into whispering gallery modes (WGMs) inside the microspheres; the resulting EF at the surface of the microsphere was used as a near-field excitation source with ~50 nm axial resolution for exciting fluorescently-labeled integrins. For FRET measurements (~10 nm axial resolution), QDs (donors) were coated on the surface of microspheres and energy transfer to red fluorescent protein (RFP)-integrin constructs (acceptors) studied. In both techniques, the QD-modified microspheres were mounted on atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilevers, functionalized with fibronectin, and brought into contact with fluorescently-labeled HeLa or vascular smooth muscle (VSM) cells. The results obtained from both methods show the clustering and activity of the integrins and are in good agreement with each other. Amsterdam discrete dipole approximation (ADDA) was used to study the effects of inhomogeneous surrounding refractive index on the quality factor and position of the WGMs due to the attachment of a microsphere to an AFM cantilever. WGMs of various QD-embedded microspheres mounted on AFM cantilevers were experimentally measured and shown to be consistent with the model.

Thesis (M.A.(St.Art.Hist.))--University of Adelaide, Master of Arts (Studies in Art History), 2004? / "November 2004" Bibliography: leaves 102-108.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 122-135). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.