Through an examination of examples from performance, museum displays and popular culture that stage the body as a specimen, Performing Specimens maps the relations between these performative acts and the medical practices of collecting, storing and showing specimens in a variety of modes and contexts. Moving from an examination of the medical and historical contexts of specimen display in the museum and the anatomy theatre to contemporary performance, Gianna Bouchard engages with examples from live art, bio-art, popular culture and theatre that stage the performer's body as a specimen. It examines the ethical relationships involved in these particular moments of display – both in the staging and in how we look at the specimen body. This is a landmark study for those working in the fields of theatre, performance and the medical humanities, with a specific focus on the ethics of display and the ethics of spectatorship, emerging at the intersection of performance and medicine. Among the works and examples considered are 18th-century anatomical waxes from the Museo di Storia Naturale la Specola in Florence, Italy, and their contemporary version in the Bodyworlds exhibition of 'plastinated' corpses; organ retention scandals; current legislation, such as the Human Tissue Act 2004; the work of performance company Clod Ensemble and Stein|Holum Projects, the performer and disability activist, Mat Fraser and live artist, Martin O'Brien, alongside visual artists Helen Pynor and Peta Clancy , artists Peggy Shaw and ORLAN.

This report provides a brief summary of the processes that led to the selection of performance-related tests to define asphalt-aggregate interactions that result in fatigue, permanent deformation, thermal cracking, aging, and water sensitivity. Inherent in this test selection process was the emphasis on the ability of the tests to measure fundamental material properties that, when incorporated into prediction models, will depend less on empirical correlations than has been traditionally the case. Also included are the results of validation studies for each of the tests and frameworks for the use of the tests in mix design and analysis. Several levels of design are provided for each distress, some of which incorporate reliability concepts.

The Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) was a highly focused, ambitious research effort that targeted four specific areas for intense study over the time frame from 1987 to 1993. Asphalt was one of the four study areas. This report describes the Superpave system, the final product of the asphalt research program; and the various parts that comprise its operational characteristics. In all, the final report of the SHRP Asphalt Research Program consists of five parts, the contents of which are briefly described in this report. Reference is made within this report to specific details within the other four parts for readers who want a more detailed description of the methodology, test methods, and theory behind Superpave.

Flexible pavement performance, as expressed by the present serviceability index (PSI) is related to local factors, such as surface course thickness, base course thickness, subbase course thickness, axle load and number of load applications. On the premise that functional pavement design should recognize the relationship between these factors and performance, data from 134 AASHO road test flexible pavement sections were examined for behavioral trends. This resulted in a mathematical expression on which it is theorized that performance, expressed in terms of PSI, can be incorporated into design procedures.