This thesis examines the visual images of Vimalakirti, an ancient Indian lay Buddhist, painted on the walls of the Buddhist cave complex at Dunhuang, Gansu province, between 581 and 1036. The sixty-nine Vimalakirti, paintings preserved at Dunhuang are a valuable source for the exploration of historical, religious, and artistic dimensions of wall paintings and sutras. These visual images, together with other textual sources such as sutras, commentaries, and inscriptions, suggest a variety of interesting questions: Why was this theme repeatedly represented? Do the images all have the same prototype? Is there a spiritual function contained in the layout of the caves and composition of the wall paintings? Did the meaning of these images change according to historical context? Did the patrons have a political scheme in mind when commissioning these devotional artworks? While it is difficult to provide definitive answers to all these questions, this thesis will attempt to clarify them and offer preliminary answers on the basis of available visual and textual sources. / The introduction of this thesis includes an overview of basic concepts related to wall paintings, a short history of the transmission of the Vimalakirti,-nirdesa Sutra, and a review of past scholarship on Vimalakirti, paintings and related subjects. The body of the thesis is divided into three main chapters. The first chapter describes the important visual representations of Vimalakirti, before the Sui dynasty. The second chapter of the thesis will provide an introduction to representations of Vimalakirti, at Dunhuang from the late sixth to the early eleventh centuries. The third chapter examines the social functions and symbolic meanings of the Vimalakirti, paintings at Dunhuang.

This master thesis contextualise, and discuss the contemporary art as a catalyst for change, and raises social issues through art production in the urban district Nima. Perspectives of "community", and "community of practice" affiliates with examples of placed based art, mainly mural paintings performed in the urban landscape of the community, in the stigmatised community Nima, an area in Ghana’s capital Accra. The study has identified an artistic climate that is emerging from within the community, where artists have created a system for various forms of arts education. The artistic climate is a process of social practice, and this study further discuss the interaction of people in the process of art production, which provides both local, and global perspectives of art. Issues of representation, especially who is in the position to represent others, and how others are in fact represented are discussed and analysed as well as the terminology of “African art”.

The purpose of this creative project was to research, build, and replicate portions of the history of the town of Bradford, Ohio in order to create a permanent community monument. Glazed tiles were mounted together to form an artpiece four feet by sixteen feet, preserved for future generations to appreciate and enjoy.Upon completion of research on the community, drawings of area business establishmentswere diligently developed for the clay bas relief tiles, which were sculptured by the artist and his Art I-IV students. Individual clay tiles, composed of terra-cotta stoneware, were bisque fired, underglazed, and refired. To mount the tiles, concrete was applied to sections of plywood (which had been covered with chicken wire). The stoneware tiles were then organized, arranged, and embedded in concrete to create a mosaic mural.The process of the mural forged an unmistakable bond between teacher, students, school, and community. The completed mosaic mural was framed and permanently mounted on location at the Bradford Public Library, 138 E. Main Street, Bradford, Ohio, involving the remodelling of the facility to accommodate the sculpture's size. / Department of Art

Access to abstract permanently restricted to Ball State community only / Access to thesis permanently restricted to Ball State community only / Department of Anthropology

Female gametes, or oocytes grow and mature in a niche environment maintained by the somatic cells of the ovarian follicle. At ovulation ovarian follicle cells respond to the luteinising hormone (LH) surge coordinating the final maturation, meiotic resumption and release of oocytes. Simultaneously, production of a unique “mucified” extracellular matrix surrounding the oocyte through synthesis of Hyaluronan (HA) and HA cross-linking proteins produces an “expanded” and stabilised cumulus oocyte matrix with a specific composition, structure and function. In vitro maturation (IVM) of oocytes is a procedure by which cumulus oocyte complexes (COCs) are stimulated to produce cumulus matrix and undergo oocyte maturation ex vivo. In vitro maturation is a useful procedure for studying oocyte competence as well as offering health benefits for patients undergoing assisted reproduction. Oocytes derived from IVM have much lower developmental competence than in vivo matured oocytes, likely as a result of altered environmental conditions and gene expression leading to suboptimal maturation and/or inappropriate metabolic control in oocytes. Cumulus matrix expansion is widely used as an indicator of good oocyte developmental potential, however, the mechanism(s) that endow oocyte quality and how these may be influenced by the cumulus matrix are poorly understood. To better understand the process by which cumulus matrix is linked to the final stages of oocyte maturation, I undertook investigation of mouse COC matrix composition and function after in vivo maturation in comparison to IVM. The gene responsible for Hyaluronan synthesis, Has2, was not impaired under IVM conditions. In contrast, two key extracellular matrix proteins; Versican and Adamts1, which are normally selectively incorporated into periovulatory COCs in vivo, were greater than 10-fold reduced in IVM whether stimulated with Egf and/or FSH. This work is the first to show that commonly used IVM conditions result in altered gene expression in cumulus cells. Furthermore, the absence of Adamts1 and Versican suggest that COC matrix may be functionally insufficient. Although associated with good developmental potential, the function of the COC matrix in oocyte maturation is unknown. I assessed the properties of COC matrix that control metabolite supply to oocytes by examining transport of fluorescently labelled glucose and cholesterol across mouse COCs. Profound differences in the control of metabolite supply to oocytes in IVM were observed. In vivo matured complexes were capable of excluding glucose from the entire COC and cholesterol was excluded from oocytes. Conversely IVM COCs were more permissive to rapid equilibration of glucose and cholesterol concentrations across the complex and in oocytes. In fact both metabolites accumulated rapidly in IVM oocytes resulting in inverse gradient patterns of glucose and cholesterol abundance with highest concentrations accumulating in the oocyte after IVM vs highest concentrations surrounding the COC after in vivo maturation conditions. As oocytes are highly sensitive to high glucose my results indicate that metabolic balance in IVM may be disrupted due to impaired molecular filtration properties of the mucified COC matrix that controls supply of hydrophilic and lipophylic substrates. Importantly these novel findings can explain the glucose sensitivity of IVM oocytes and identifies a mechanism by which IVM may lead to poorer oocyte developmental competence. To translate these findings into the improvement of IVM I generated recombinant expression plasmid constructs for several Adamts1 and Versican functional domains. The efficacy of Versican as an IVM supplement that activates cumulus cell signal transduction was proved in principle, by showing enhanced COC matrix expansion when added to mouse IVM cultures. Similar mechanisms are likely to be functional in human COCs since I demonstrated VERSICAN and ADAMTS1 expression in human in vivo matured cumulus and granulosa cells. This work has advanced our understanding of oocyte maturation and will lead to improvements in IVM and healthier outcomes from reproductive therapies. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1342419 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Paediatrics and Reproductive Health, 2008

"Thesis presented June 1998, amended February 2000." / Includes bibliography. / 3 v. : ill., plans ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / This thesis demonstrates the falsity of the assumptions that ancient architects followed innate spatial cues or responses in their designs, that ancient people experienced the resulting buildings through the same responses, and that modern scholars can thus reconstruct both the intentions of the ancient architects and the architectural effects experienced by ancient visitors to ancient buildings throught the medium of their own spatial reactions. This underlying belief is contestable given its basis in unproven and untested late nineteenth century theories of perception. The thesis also demonstrates that the assumption made by modern scholars that the architects of the Forum of Pompeii were primarily concerned with uniformly enclosed space, axial symmetry, and orthogonality, is wrong, and is contradicted by the actual form of the buildings around the Forum. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of European Studies, 2000

Female gametes, or oocytes grow and mature in a niche environment maintained by the somatic cells of the ovarian follicle. At ovulation ovarian follicle cells respond to the luteinising hormone (LH) surge coordinating the final maturation, meiotic resumption and release of oocytes. Simultaneously, production of a unique “mucified” extracellular matrix surrounding the oocyte through synthesis of Hyaluronan (HA) and HA cross-linking proteins produces an “expanded” and stabilised cumulus oocyte matrix with a specific composition, structure and function. In vitro maturation (IVM) of oocytes is a procedure by which cumulus oocyte complexes (COCs) are stimulated to produce cumulus matrix and undergo oocyte maturation ex vivo. In vitro maturation is a useful procedure for studying oocyte competence as well as offering health benefits for patients undergoing assisted reproduction. Oocytes derived from IVM have much lower developmental competence than in vivo matured oocytes, likely as a result of altered environmental conditions and gene expression leading to suboptimal maturation and/or inappropriate metabolic control in oocytes. Cumulus matrix expansion is widely used as an indicator of good oocyte developmental potential, however, the mechanism(s) that endow oocyte quality and how these may be influenced by the cumulus matrix are poorly understood. To better understand the process by which cumulus matrix is linked to the final stages of oocyte maturation, I undertook investigation of mouse COC matrix composition and function after in vivo maturation in comparison to IVM. The gene responsible for Hyaluronan synthesis, Has2, was not impaired under IVM conditions. In contrast, two key extracellular matrix proteins; Versican and Adamts1, which are normally selectively incorporated into periovulatory COCs in vivo, were greater than 10-fold reduced in IVM whether stimulated with Egf and/or FSH. This work is the first to show that commonly used IVM conditions result in altered gene expression in cumulus cells. Furthermore, the absence of Adamts1 and Versican suggest that COC matrix may be functionally insufficient. Although associated with good developmental potential, the function of the COC matrix in oocyte maturation is unknown. I assessed the properties of COC matrix that control metabolite supply to oocytes by examining transport of fluorescently labelled glucose and cholesterol across mouse COCs. Profound differences in the control of metabolite supply to oocytes in IVM were observed. In vivo matured complexes were capable of excluding glucose from the entire COC and cholesterol was excluded from oocytes. Conversely IVM COCs were more permissive to rapid equilibration of glucose and cholesterol concentrations across the complex and in oocytes. In fact both metabolites accumulated rapidly in IVM oocytes resulting in inverse gradient patterns of glucose and cholesterol abundance with highest concentrations accumulating in the oocyte after IVM vs highest concentrations surrounding the COC after in vivo maturation conditions. As oocytes are highly sensitive to high glucose my results indicate that metabolic balance in IVM may be disrupted due to impaired molecular filtration properties of the mucified COC matrix that controls supply of hydrophilic and lipophylic substrates. Importantly these novel findings can explain the glucose sensitivity of IVM oocytes and identifies a mechanism by which IVM may lead to poorer oocyte developmental competence. To translate these findings into the improvement of IVM I generated recombinant expression plasmid constructs for several Adamts1 and Versican functional domains. The efficacy of Versican as an IVM supplement that activates cumulus cell signal transduction was proved in principle, by showing enhanced COC matrix expansion when added to mouse IVM cultures. Similar mechanisms are likely to be functional in human COCs since I demonstrated VERSICAN and ADAMTS1 expression in human in vivo matured cumulus and granulosa cells. This work has advanced our understanding of oocyte maturation and will lead to improvements in IVM and healthier outcomes from reproductive therapies. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1342419 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Paediatrics and Reproductive Health, 2008

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on August 22, 2008) Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Master)--İzmir Institute of Technology, İzmir, 2005. / Keywords: Linseed, Wall painting, oil painting, taxiarhis church. Includes bibliographical references (leaves.73-77).

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 1998.