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Hi all,
I had some discussion with a guy from one of the places I work,
about his thesis. (To be exact he is from the department of
medical physiology of the university of Utrecht in the
Netherlands). He knew I had made some covers before and liked them.
We had some preliminary discussion a couple of months before
but he has got a date for his defence now, so it all is somewhat
more real. I told him I already had decided that I wanted to
pass it on to the POV community (see my mail of april 16th) if
1) I had not much time and
2) if the subject of the thesis was a bit outside my normal work
and there was therefore no reason to assume I could do it
better than anyone of you.
Both apply in this case (I would not have written this mail
otherwise).
I discussed what I intended to offer and he agreed, so here
is my first job assignment and if it works more will come, I
hope.
This is what I propose:
- I make a short description for the layman of what his thesis
is about and what ideas we already discussed.
This could serve as a source of inspiration. There is no need
to create an image that covers the whole thesis, but a clear
link to the work involved is necessary of course.
- everybody here is invited to submit a concept of an image.
at this stage no real image is yet required, but it could
help us making a selection. previous made images could
also be helpful.
- from this concepts we choose (maximum) 3 to be turned into
'semi-finalists' for the time spent in creating this
image.
- from these images we select the 'winner'. He or she
gets the assignment to make the cover of this thesis.
of the final image (plus, say, 5 copies of the final
thesis if desired).
Additional notes
- suggested timetable for this cover: June 10, selection
of semifinalists, July 1st selection of winner.
by August 1st the cover must be finished and the thesis
goes to the printer.
- In my experience the money will not cover the time
it takes to make a good image. My experience is that
it often takes more than 40 hours to get it right.
I do not think I can get a more realistic price,
because PhD students generally do not have much money.
In other words it is more the fun of seeing some of
your work in print that that you can make a living
out of it.
- This is work with a definite deadline. The thesis must
go to the printer by about August 1st (my estimate).
If it is not finished by then, we are in deep trouble.
- interaction of designer and author is often required to
get something both are really happy with.
- the dimensions are generally 24 by 17 cm (more or less B5)
Nearly invariably in paperback, hard covers exist but only
in the rare case that the PhD student has a lot of money.
- A thesis normally contains 150-250 pages.
- in general 400-500 copies are made, not just a few, like
in e.g. the US.
- theses are printed at commercial printers, they often have
even ISBN numbers.
- Apart from the thesis itself there is often an invitation
to the party. I like to do that in the same style as the
cover, but with a twist. For one thesis I replaced the
cup of coffee in the table with some glasses of wine for
the invitation to the party. I made a proposal for another
cover (that I finally did not make) where I had planned to
replace the cows by pink elephants. Such additional images
are included in the price.
- He was to sent me some abstracts tonight and he is leaving
tomorrow morning for a conference. If I don't get them today
I will make some preliminary abstract from what I remember
from our previous encounters. I do not want to wait untill
he comes back, because the schedule is already rather tight.
Comments and questions about the proposed procedure are
very welcome.
Andrel
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As promised some description of the subject of the thesis.
(I got the abstract of his thesis, plus all abstracts of the
chapters etc. 23 pages in all. I haven't had time to read
them all yet, if I find anything additional and useful I will
report later)
title of the thesis: Connexin40 gene variations and human
cardiovascular pathophysiology
subject:
( I hope he does not kill me for missing the important
points)
Various variants of genes are present in the population.
As long as they do not cause a (known) disease these are
called polymorphisms. They might modify the susceptibility
for certain diseases however. In the thesis various polymorphisms
are studied of the connexin40 gap junctions.
Gap junctions are hexagonal pores between (in this case)
cardiac cells. They play an important role in spreading the
electrical activation over the heart. Connexins come in
different variations which one is present depends on the
type of tissue. The Cx40 is present in a.o. the atria of
the heart whereas in the ventricles we mainly have Cx43.
Six Cx40 molecules combine to one hemichannel and match
to another hemichannel of the adjacent cell to form a functional
channel.
In the gene for Cx40 various polymorphisms are known.
Some are in the coding parts and some are in non coding
parts close to the gene.
the influence of these polymorphisms on various heart
diseases in investigated. Even some polymorphisms
in the non coding part can have some influence.
One of the mechanisms proposed is that these polymorphisms
make it possible that proteins or other molecules attach
to these regions and prevent physically the correct
transcription of the Cx40 gene.
(for other mechanisms I will have to read the abstracts)
Possible subjects for an image:
- the heart
- the gene (DNA) and its polymorphisms
- the cell and connexin molecules
- a possible mechanism. One of the thing we discussed
was the idea of two chairs where a fat person makes
it impossible for another to sit on its legitimate
chair.
- something in Lego. Lego is an ideal material
for abstractions of polymorphisms. It may even be
possible to model some lego man on existing
persons like the professor and the PhD student
himself.
Note: some relation between the image and the subject of
the thesis is required, but if you find a interesting
way of visualizing polymorphisms using a couple of
solar systems and Julia fractals, that's fine.
I have opened for this 'contest' an e-mail address at
mehran*mccl.nl
It is not necessary to say in advance that you want to
enter, but if you do I would appreciate you telling me.
We have a deadline and if I fear we will not succeed
because of lack of entries I may have to cancel the
contest and find another way to do the cover.
Also I can keep you updated on new developments if
necessary.
Good luck to everybody
Andrel
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