Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Vagina in art'

This thesis includes seven short stories and a critical afterword. The afterword places the stories in their literary historical context in regards to creative nonfiction. It goes on to discuss the craft of fictionalizing autobiographical stories. Each of the stories should stand alone, though they follow the narrator's life for a number of years. Harlin Anderson is the narrator of all the stories.

Historically, women have been given significantly less space than men on the TV screen andtheir roles have often been secondary to men's. The woman's role has often been a passive supporting role alongside the man's main role that drives the action forward (Greene, 2010, ss.1066–1071). This distribution of gender representation aroused the interest to study a television series from the 2010s with three female lead roles. The choice fell on the American series Suits, which takes place in New York's legal profession, an industry that, according tostatistics, is dominated by the male gender (American Bar Association, 2019). In this essay, a qualitative film analysis is performed, focusing on the three female maincharacters in Suits. The study is based on theories of representation, gender and stereotypes and takes a feminist perspective. The study also delves into Laura Mulvey's psychoanalytic perspective which is used to analyze the female representation. The purpose is to create anawareness of how fiction produces gender and how it affects masculinity and femininity. The study examines how women in a male-dominated profession are portrayed on television and how their roles are consistent with, what according to the study's theories, are considered to be female coded. The material has been analyzed focusing on mise-en-scene, cinematography and editing. The analysis is presented in four different themes based on how the women are portrayed and each theme is exemplified by a number of scenes. The analysis shows that there is an imbalance between the male and female representation. The male characters are dominant and the female usually plays a passive and submissive role.
Historiskt sett har kvinnor fått betydligt mindre plats än män i tv-rutan och deras roller har ofta varit sekundära till männens. Kvinnans roll har ofta varit en passiv biroll bredvid mannens huvudroll som driver handlingen framåt (Greene, 2010, ss. 1066–1071). Denna fördelning av könens representation väckte intresset att studera en tv-serie från 2010-talet med tre kvinnliga huvudroller. Valet föll på den amerikanska serien Suits som utspelar sig i New Yorks advokatbransch, en bransch som enligt statistik domineras av det manliga könet (American Bar Association, 2019). I denna uppsats genomförs en kvalitativ filmanalys av Suits med fokus på de tre kvinnliga huvudkaraktärerna. Studien bygger på teorier om representation, genus, stereotyper och intar ett feministiskt perspektiv. Undersökningen fördjupar sig även i Laura Mulveys psykoanalytiska perspektiv som den kvinnliga framställningen analyserats utifrån. Syftet är att skapa en medvetenhet om hur fiktion framställer genus och hur det påverkar vår syn påmanlighet och kvinnlighet. I studien undersöks hur kvinnor i ett mansdominerat yrkeframställs på tv och hur deras roller stämmer överens med vad som enligt studiens teorier anses vara kvinnligt kodat. Materialet har analyserats med fokus på mise-en-scene, cinematografi och redigering. Analysen presenteras i fyra olika teman baserade på hur kvinnorna framställs och varje tema exemplifieras med ett antal scener. Analysen visar att det råder obalans mellan den manliga och kvinnliga representationen. De manliga karaktärerna är dominerande och de kvinnliga intar oftast en passiv och undergiven roll.

[Truncated abstract] Approximately 35% of women worldwide have stress incontinence, which is defined as involuntary leakage of urine on effort, exertion, or on sneezing and coughing. There are various surgical techniques for stress incontinence; however, minimally invasive operations are increasingly being chosen by surgeons and their patients. Of these procedures, tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) has a cure rate of approximately 90% and is now perceived as the standard technique for stress incontinence. Reported complications of TVT include arterial laceration, bladder perforation, bowel perforation, de novo urgency, dyspareunia, excessive blood loss, haematoma, nerve injuries, urethral erosion, urge incontinence, urinary tract infection, vascular injury, vaginal mesh erosion, voiding dysfunction and death. Suprapubic urethral support sling (SPARC) is a very similar minimally invasive operation and early indications suggested that the success rate for treating stress incontinence was expected to be identical or better than those obtained with the earlier TVT approach, with possibly fewer adverse perioperative events. Our trial sought to establish equivalence between TVT and SPARC in relation to short-term complications and efficacy. OBJECTIVES The primary outcome was bladder perforation. Secondary outcomes were blood loss, voiding difficulty, urgency, and cure of stress incontinence symptoms. METHOD A randomised controlled one-sided equivalence trial (RCT) was conducted in Perth, Western Australia during 2003 and 2004 by researchers in the School of Population Health, University of Western Australia (UWA) and King Edward Memorial Hospital (KEMH). Patients were recruited from the public Urology/Urogynaecology Clinic at the primary women's hospital and the consultant surgeons' private practices. ... However, acute urinary retention requiring a return to theatre to loosen the tape (TVT 0%, SPARC 6.5%; OR: [infinity], 95% CL: 2.2, [infinity]; p=0.002) and subjective short-term cure (TVT 87.1%, SPARC 76.5%; OR: 2.07, 95% CL: 1.13, 3.81; p=0.03) were statistically significantly different. CONCLUSIONS The results are consistent with clinical equivalence between TVT and SPARC in relation to the incidence of bladder perforation. No statistically significant difference was found between TVT and SPARC in blood loss, urgency or short-term objective cure of stress incontinence at the six week post-discharge visit to the surgeon. However, the tapes were more difficult to adjust correctly in SPARC procedures and a statistically significant number of patients required a return to theatre for loosening of the tape (TVT 0/147, 0% and SPARC 10/154, 6.5%, p=0.002). Compared with SPARC, TVT was statistically significantly higher for subjective short-term cure. In ii relation to vaginal mesh erosion, TVT was lower than SPARC, though not statistically significantly. Overall, voiding difficulty (loosening of the tape), urgency and vaginal mesh erosion were the most important clinical problems. This randomised controlled trial demonstrates the importance of testing new devices which appear to be similar, but which may have clinically relevant differences. A follow up study to assess the long-term efficacy of tension-free vaginal tape and suprapubic urethral support sling and associated complications is planned.

This thesis describes an investigation of the permeability of three antiretroviral (ARV) drugs (that are under development as vaginal microbicides) using the human endometrial epithelial cell line, HEC-1A, as an in vitro model. Barrier properties of HEC-1A cells in transwell cultures were determined by measurement of transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER), immunofluorescent staining of tight junctions and determination of the bi-directional permeability of, the paracellular marker, mannitol. Expression of specific uptake and efflux transporters were demonstrated by western blotting and compared with human tissue. Findings indicate that HEC-1A cells provide a physiologically relevant model to investigate permeability of candidate vaginal microbicides. In contrast, the commercially available EpiVagina™ model showed sub-optimal barrier properties. Permeabilities of three ARV drugs Tenofovir (TFV), Darunavir (DRV) and Dapivirine (DPV) were investigated in the HEC-1A model. Efflux ratios of all drugs were approximately 1 indicating transporter-independent permeability across the epithelium. Apparent permeability (Papp) values for TFV were consistent with paracellular diffusion while those for DRV and DPV were indicative of transcellular diffusion. No drug-drug interactions were observed when drugs were coadministered in double combinations. To model the effects of inflammation on drug uptake, HEC-1A cultures were stimulated with a variety of toll-like receptor (TLR) ligands. The TLR-3 ligand Poly I:C stimulated pro-inflammatory cytokine production by HEC-1A cells but did not affect permeability of the drugs and no effect on TEER values was evident. Permeability of DRV was also assessed using ex vivo rat and macaque cervicovaginal epithelial tissue. Consistent with findings from the HEC-1A model, DRV transfer across rat epithelium was transporter-independent although the Papp values were significantly lower. Preliminary data from macaque tissue indicate DRV may be effluxed. Development of a robust and physiologically-relevant in vitro model will contribute to development of vaginal microbicides by allowing rapid measurement of drug transporter dependency, drug-drug interactions and testing of formulations aimed at optimising tissue distribution. In this study, all of the ARVs showed transporterindependent transfer across the epithelium with no drug-drug interactions.

This study, investigating 263 women undergoing trans-vaginal oocyte retrieval for in vitro fertilisation (IVF) found that microorganisms colonising follicular fluid contributed to adverse IVF (pre-implantation) and pregnancy (post-implantation) outcomes including poor quality embryos, failed pregnancy and early pregnancy loss (< 37 weeks gestation). Some microorganisms also showed in vitro growth patterns in liquid media that appeared to be enhanced by the hormonal stimulation protocol used for oocyte retrieval. Elaborated cytokines within follicular fluid were also associated with adverse IVF outcomes. This study is imperative because infertility affects 16% of the human population and the numbers of couples needing assistance continues to increase. Despite significant improvements in the technical aspects of assisted reproductive technologies (ART), the live birth rate has not increased proportionally. Overt genital tract infection has been associated with both infertility and adverse pregnancy outcomes (including miscarriage and preterm birth) as a direct result of the infection or the host response to it. Importantly, once inflammation had become established, medical treatment often failed to prevent these significant adverse outcomes. Current evaluations of fertility focus on the ovary as a site of steroid hormone production and ovulation. However, infertility as a result of subclinical colonisation of the ovary has not been reported. Furthermore, identification of the microorganisms present in follicular fluid and the local cytokine profile may provide clinicians with an early indication of the prognosis for IVF treatment in infertile couples, thus allowing antimicrobial treatment and/or counselling about possible IVF failure. During an IVF cycle, multiple oocytes undergo maturation in vivo in response to hormonal hyperstimulation. Oocytes for in vitro insemination are collected trans-vaginally. The follicular fluid that bathes the maturing oocyte in vivo, usually is discarded as part of the IVF procedure, but provides a unique opportunity to investigate microbial causes of adverse IVF outcomes. Some previous studies have identified follicular fluid markers that predict IVF pregnancy outcomes. However, there have not been any detailed microbiological studies of follicular fluid. For this current study, paired follicular fluid and vaginal secretion samples were collected from women undergoing IVF cycles to determine whether microorganisms in follicular fluid were associated with adverse IVF outcomes. Microorganisms in follicular fluid were regarded as either "colonisers" or "contaminants"; colonisers, if they were unique to the follicular fluid sample, and contaminants if the same microorganisms were detected in the vaginal and follicular fluid samples indicating that the follicular fluid was merely contaminated during the oocyte retrieval process. Quite unexpectedly, by these criteria, we found that follicular fluid from approximately 30% of all subjects was colonised with bacteria. Fertile and infertile women with colonised follicular fluid had decreased embryo transfer rates and decreased pregnancy rates compared to women with contaminated follicular fluids. The observation that follicular fluid was not always sterile, but contained a diverse range of microorganisms, is novel. Many of the microorganisms we detected in follicular fluid are known opportunistic pathogens that have been detected in upper genital tract infections and are associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. Bacteria were able to survive for at least 28 weeks in vitro, in cultures of follicular fluid. Within 10 days of establishing these in vitro cultures, several species (Lactobacillus spp., Bifidobacterium spp., Propionibacterium spp., Streptococcus spp. and Salmonella entericus) had formed biofilms. Biofilms play a major role in microbial pathogenicity and persistence. The propensity of microbial species to form biofilms in follicular fluid suggests that successful treatment of these infections with antimicrobials may be difficult. Bifidobacterium spp. grew, in liquid media, only if concentrations of oestradiol and progesterone were similar to those achieved in vivo during an IVF cycle. In contrast, the growth of Streptococcus agalactiae and Escherichia coli was inhibited or abolished by the addition of these hormones to culture medium. These data suggest that the likelihood of microorganisms colonising follicular fluid and the species of bacteria involved is influenced by the stage of the menstrual cycle and, in the case of IVF, the nature and dose of steroid hormones administered for the maturation of multiple oocytes in vivo. Our findings indicate that the elevated levels of steroid hormones during an IVF cycle may influence the microbial growth within follicular fluid, suggesting that the treatment itself will impact on the microflora present in the female upper genital tract during pre-conception and early post-conception phases of the cycle. The effect of the host immune response on colonising bacteria and on the outcomes of IVF also was investigated. White blood cells reportedly compose between 5% and 15% of the cell population in follicular fluid. The follicular membrane is semi-permeable and cells are actively recruited as part of the normal menstrual cycle and in response to microorganisms. A previous study investigated follicular fluid cytokines from infertile women and fertile oocyte donors undergoing IVF, and concluded that there were no significant differences in the cytokine concentrations between the two groups. However, other studies have reported differences in the follicular fluid cytokine levels associated with infertile women with endometriosis or polycystic ovary syndrome. In this study, elevated levels of interleukin (IL)-1 á, IL-1 â and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in vaginal fluid were associated with successful fertilisation, which may be useful marker for successful fertilisation outcomes for women trying to conceive naturally or prior to oocyte retrieval for IVF. Elevated levels of IL-6, IL-12p40, granulocyte colony stimulating factor (GCSF) and interferon-gamma (IFN ã) in follicular fluid were associated with successful embryo transfer. Elevated levels of pro-inflammatory IL-18 and decreased levels of anti-inflammatory IL-10 were identified in follicular fluid from women with idiopathic infertility. Successful fertilisation and implantation is dependent on a controlled pro-inflammatory environment, involving active recruitment of pro-inflammatory mediators to the genital tract as part of the menstrual cycle and early pregnancy. However, ongoing pregnancy requires an enhanced anti-inflammatory environment to ensure that the maternal immune system does not reject the semi-allergenic foetus. The pro-inflammatory skew in the follicular fluid of women with idiopathic infertility, correlates with normal rates of fertilisation, embryo discard and embryo transfer, observed for this cohort, which were similar to the outcomes observed for fertile women. However, their pregnancy rate was reduced compared to fertile women. An altered local immune response in follicular fluid may provide a means of explaining infertility in this cohort, previously defined as 'idiopathic'. This study has found that microorganisms colonising follicular fluid may have contributed to adverse IVF and pregnancy outcomes. Follicular fluid bathes the cumulus oocyte complex during the in vivo maturation process, and microorganisms in the fluid, their metabolic products or the local immune response to these microorganisms may result in damage to the oocytes, degradation of the cumulus or contamination of the IVF culture system. Previous studies that have discounted bacterial contamination of follicular fluid as a cause of adverse IVF outcomes failed to distinguish between bacteria that were introduced into the follicular fluid at the time of trans-vaginal oocyte retrieval and those that colonised the follicular fluid. Those bacteria that had colonised the fluid may have had time to form biofilms and to elicit a local immune response. Failure to draw this distinction has previously prevented consideration of bacterial colonisation of follicular fluid as a cause of adverse IVF outcomes. Several observations arising from this study are of significance to IVF programs. Follicular fluid is not always sterile and colonisation of follicular fluid is a cause of adverse IVF and pregnancy outcomes. Hormonal stimulation associated with IVF may influence whether follicular fluid is colonised and enhance the growth of specific species of bacteria within follicular fluid. Bacteria in follicular fluid may form biofilms and literature has reported that this may influence their susceptibility to antibiotics. Monitoring the levels of selected cytokines within vaginal secretions may inform fertilisation outcomes. This study has identified novel factors contributing to adverse IVF outcomes and that are most likely to affect also natural conception outcomes. Early intervention, possibly using antimicrobial or immunological therapies may reduce the need for ART and improve reproductive health outcomes for all women.

Fundada no dia 15 de Novembro de 1961, a Art Theatre Guild (ATG) japonesa começou por ser apenas uma distribuidora de filmes estrangeiros. O primeiro objectivo da companhia, composta por críticos influentes e pessoas ligadas ao cinema, era apresentar, pela primeira vez, um conjunto de cinematografias mundiais, comummente apelidadas de art-house, ao público japonês. Numa indústria ainda dominada pelos grandes estúdios de cinema e onde a distribuição das produções nacionais excedia mais do dobro das estrangeiras, a vinda desses filmes para salas selectas e a propagação dessa(s) refrescante(s) “estética(s) cinematográfica(s)” foi decisiva para o público e os cineastas japoneses conhecerem as obras contemporâneas de Jean Luc-Godard, Ingmar Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, Alain Resnais, Luis Buñuel mas também redescobrir Orson Welles ou até mesmo Sergei Eisenstein. A Nûberu Bâgu ou “A Nova Vaga do Cinema Japonês”, tendo sido cimentada pelos estúdios japoneses durante os primeiros anos da década de 60, via-se impossibilitada em continuar a filmar nesse contexto de produção, avesso ao arrojo estético e político, cada vez mais assinalável, das suas propostas. Por outro lado, uma nova geração de cineastas, vinda da cena emergente do documentário, sentia a necessidade de se exprimir fora dos formatos e condições que outro tipo de indústria, a dos filmes promocionais, lhe oferecia. Esta tensão entre criadores e produtores, assim como o subsequente ansejo de uma liberdade criativa sem barreiras e mediadores, foi o pano de fundo essencial para o ATG abrir a sua actividade enquanto produtora independente em 1967. Quer pelas inovadoras técnicas de produção, quer pela inventividade formal, carga política e o contexto social em que as obras foram produzidas, qualquer coisa de revolucionário tinha chegado ao cinema japonês. De 1967 a 1972, o catálogo das obras produzidas pelo ATG não era somente um amontoado de propostas sem ligação, realizadas por cineastas não alinhados (por exemplo, Ôshima Nagisa, Yoshida Kijû, Shinoda Masahiro, Matsumoto Toshio, Hani Susumu, Terayama Shûji, etc.), mas um conjunto complexo de obras que preconizava uma certa unidade estética, que, ainda v assim, não encontrava quaisquer ecos com a padronização dos grandes estúdios. A este estado de coisas tão sui-generis, porém nunca conceptualizado como tal pelos seus intervenientes mais directos, chamaremos de movimento. Esta dissertação concentrar-se-á em capturar a consistência e a pertinência deste baptismo, ao mesmo tempo que trará a terreiro um par de conceitos capaz de homogeneizar aquilo que, à primeira vista, parece heterogéneo. A partir da metáfora do músculo cardíaco que necessita de se contrair (sístole) e relaxar (diástole) para manter a circulação sanguínea de um organismo, também o movimento livre dos cineastas da ATG necessitou de explorar duas opções estéticas para construir um novo tipo de cinema: a primeira (sístole) caracteriza-se pelo enclausuramento da câmara no estúdio, a segunda (diástole) pela sua libertação nas ruas. Definirei as implicações espaciais e temporais do filme sistólico e diastólico, pondo igualmente em evidência o papel cimeiro da ATG na História do Cinema Japonês, como sendo, mais do que uma produtora, um modo de fazer cinema
Founded on the 15th of November 1961, the Art Theatre Guild (ATG) of Japan was originally a distributor of foreign films. The initial objective of the company, composed of influential critics and people with connections to the film world, was to introduce a group of international art-house films to the Japanese public for the first time. In an industry still dominated by the major studios and where the distribution of national productions was more than double that of foreign films, these screenings were significant for Japanese audiences and filmmakers alike, who were exposed to contemporary works from directors such as Jean Luc-Godard, Ingmar Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, Alain Resnais, and Luis Buñuel, and also provided an opportunity to discover the works of Orson Welles and Sergei Eisenstein. The "New Wave" of Japanese cinema was established by the main Japanese studios during the early sixties, but was unable to continue in that context due to the growing aesthetic and political radicalism of its participants. At the same time, a new generation of filmmakers from the emerging documentary scene felt the need to express themselves outside the conditions that the promotional film industry demanded. This tension between creators and producers, as well as the subsequent desire for creative freedom without barriers or mediators, was the catalyst for the ATG to begin activity as an independent production company in 1967. ATG's innovative production techniques and formal inventiveness paired with the social and political context of the films themselves was proof that something truly revolutionary had arrived in Japanese cinema. From 1967 to 1972, their catalogue was not simply a jumble of unrelated works made by unaffiliated filmmakers (eg Ôshima Nagisa, Yoshida Kijû, Shinoda Masahiro, Matsumoto Toshio, Hani Susumu, and Terayama Shûji), but a complex set of films with a certain aesthetic cohesion, a cohesion that was unlike the standardized style of the studios' "program pictures". We will refer to this unique scenario as a movement, though none of the filmmakers explicitly claimed to belong to one. This dissertation will focus on capturing the consistency and relevance of this movement, while introducing concepts that unify seemingly dissimilar elements. Like a heart muscle which must contract (systole) and relax (diastole) in order to maintain the circulation of blood in an organism, the free movement of the ATG filmmakers used two methods to construct a new form of cinema. The first (systole) is characterized by the enclosure of the camera in the studio space, while the second (diastole) is defined by the release of the camera into the streets. By defining the spatial and temporal implications of the systolic and diastolic style in ATG films, I will highlight the important role of the company and how it changed Japanese cinema. I will also argue that, more than a production company, the japanese ATG encompassed a mode of filmmaking.

碩士
國立臺北藝術大學
劇場設計學系碩士班
100
The creative report starts from the role of “Myself. ” Through “body conscious,” people get their sensory organs fully active, which helps themselves to perceive with the space. The stage designer of “myself” is the medium among the directors, the actors, and the audiences. The audience will encode and decode signals from the space through themselves to grasp the information. The mutuality between the audience themselves and the space comes from the mutual call of the sensory between these two subjects. Meanwhile, the space will form as physical area cross over with mental area, becoming the medium of people themselves and their emotion. And I am going to take use of 《The Vaginal Locus》 and 《The Prometheus Plan》 to review the construction process of this performance, “Myself”.

The pictorial elements of the first six books of the Aeneid can be evidenced through an examination of its structural components. With commentaries on such literary devices as parallels and antipodes, interwoven themes, cyclic patterns, and strategic placement of words in the text, three genres of painting are treated individually in Chapter 1 to illustrate the poet's consistency of design and to prove him a craftsman of the visual arts. In the first division, "Cinematic progression," attention is directed to the language which conveys movement and frequentative action, with special emphasis placed on specific passages whose verbal components possess sculptural or third-dimensional traits and contribute to the "spiral" and "circle" motifs, the appropriate visual agents for animation. Depiction of mythological subjects comprises the second division entitled "Cameos and snapshots." Three selections, dubbed monstra, are explicated with such cross references as to illustrate the poet's use of epithets which he distributes passim to elicit verbal echoes of other passages. The final division, "The Vergilian landscape," addresses two major themes, antithetical in nature, the martial and the pastoral. Their sequential juxtaposition in the text renders a marked contrast in mood which is manifested pictorially in the transition from darkness to light. A panoramic chiaroscuro emerges which is the tapestry against which Aeneas makes his sojourn through the Underworld. It is the perfect backdrop to accompany the overriding theme of "things hidden," res latentes, which encompasses a greater part of the epic and becomes the culminant motif of the paintings which comprise the visual presentation. Chapter 2 functions as a catalogue raisonne for art inspired by the Aeneid from early antiquity up to the present day. Such examples of artistic expression provide a continuum with which to appropriate Horace's maxim, ut pictura poesis, in their evaluation. The verbal exegeses in Chapter 1 have been programmed to comport with the thematic content of the visual presentation in Chapter 3, a critique exemplifying the transposition of the verbal to the pictorial. With these canvases I have attempted to render a new perspective of Vergil's epic in the genre of abstract expressionism.
Art
D. Litt. et Phil.