Animação Viral, Vanguarda Trash e o Capital Simbólico dos nossos Piores Defeitos: a Ideologia de Bruno Aleixo

"Bruno Aleixo" is a viral animation character, created by the Portuguese collective GANA, that surfaced online in 2008. Their animation works have meanwhile crossed onto the most diverse media, and have been branching out in multiple webs of narratives, constantly referring to each other, as well as constantly quoting disparate references such as film classics, chatrooms and TV ads for detergents. This paper attempts a triple analysis of this object of study: the ways in which technology has been fostering non-linear narratives while widening the available aesthetic spectrum, the ways in which processes of cultural consumerism are being reinvented in light of the web 2.0, and the use of "pseudo-nonsense" as a process of oblique cultural psychoanalysis. We will further attempt to demonstrate how new media and web networks have been contributing to a fragmentation of audiences, as well as a blurring between dominant cultures and sub-cultural phenomena; and we will end by positing that the structural principles behind the "Bruno Aleixo" series can be applied in social and cultural contexts situated at the opposite end of the spectrum of traditional expectations regarding Animation.

Automatic modeling of an orthotic bracing for nonoperative correction of PectusCarinatum

Pectus Carinatum is a deformity of the chest wall, characterized by an anterior protrusion of the sternum, often corrected surgically due to cosmetic motivation. This work presents an alternative approach to the current open surgery option, proposing a novel technique based on a personalized orthosis. Two different processes for the orthosis’ personalization are presented. One based on a 3D laser scan of the patient chest, followed by the reconstruction of the thoracic wall mesh using a radial basis function, and a second one, based on a computer tomography scan followed by a neighbouring cells algorithm. The axial position where the orthosis is to be located is automatically calculated using a Ray-Triangle intersection method, whose outcome is input to a pseudo Kochenek interpolating spline method to define the orthosis curvature. Results show that no significant differences exist between the patient chest physiognomy and the curvature angle and size of the orthosis, allowing a better cosmetic outcome and less initial discomfort

Automatic modeling of an orthotic bracing for nonoperative correction of pectus carinatum

Pectus Carinatum is a deformity of the chest wall, characterized by an anterior protrusion of the sternum, often corrected surgically due to cosmetic motivation. This work presents an alternative approach to the current open surgery option, proposing a novel technique based on a personalized orthosis. Two different processes for the orthosis’ personalization are presented. One based on a 3D laser scan of the patient chest, followed by the reconstruction of the thoracic wall mesh using a radial basis function, and a second one, based on a computer tomography scan followed by a neighbouring cells algorithm. The axial position where the orthosis is to be located is automatically calculated using a Ray-Triangle intersection method, whose outcome is input to a pseudo Kochenek interpolating spline method to define the orthosis curvature. Results show that no significant differences exist between the patient chest physiognomy and the curvature angle and size of the orthosis, allowing a better cosmetic outcome and less initial discomfort.