Constraints on the complete optimization of human motion

In sport and exercise biomechanics, forward dynamics analyses or simulations have frequently been used in attempts to establish optimal techniques for performance of a wide range of motor activities. However, the accuracy and validity of these simulations is largely dependent on the complexity of the mathematical model used to represent the neuromusculoskeletal system. It could be argued that complex mathematical models are superior to simple mathematical models as they enable basic mechanical insights to be made and individual-specific optimal movement solutions to be identified. Contrary to some claims in the literature, however, we suggest that it is currently not possible to identify the complete optimal solution for a given motor activity. For a complete optimization of human motion, dynamical systems theory implies that mathematical models must incorporate a much wider range of organismic, environmental and task constraints. These ideas encapsulate why sports medicine specialists need to adopt more individualized clinical assessment procedures in interpreting why performers' movement patterns may differ.

On analysing and interpreting variability in motor output

A recent article in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport by Chapman et al.1 reported data from an empirical investigation comparing lower extremity joint motions, joint coordination and muscle recruitment in expert and novice cyclists. 3D kinematic and intramuscular electromyographic (EMG) analyses revealed no differences between expert and novice cyclists for normalised joint angles and velocities of the pelvis, hip, knee and ankle. However, significant differences in the strength of sagittal plane kinematics for hip–ankle and knee–ankle joint couplings were reported, with expert cyclists displaying tighter coupling relationships than novice cyclists. Furthermore, significant differences between expert and novice cyclists for all muscle recruitment parameters, except timing of peak EMG amplitude, were also reported.

The coming

Through an exploration of representations of metamorphosis and the creation of a body of written work, this thesis uses a critical examination of theoretical approaches to metamorphosis in combination with textual analysis of representations of metamorphosis and creative practice as research to arrive at the beginnings of an ethic of writing. The creative work, The Coming, consists of a collection of short fiction, The Coming, and two collections of poetry, Orison and Milagros. The exegesis, Transhuman Change: towards an ethic of writing, explores theories about metamorphosis as a figure for writing, as a trope, and as a motif for exploring identity to contextualise the analysis of representations of metamorphosis from which the ethic is developed. With reference to the psychosexual development theory of Jacques Lacan and Elaine Scarry’s philosophy of the body, pain, language and creativity, the exegesis examines existing approaches to metamorphosis and uses supplementary textual analysis of influential representations of metamorphosis from Ovid to Pygmalion, X-Men and Extreme Makeover to explore assumptions about the body, language, the self, gender in western culture. The limitations of the performance of representations of metamorphosis as a figure for the self’s survival of death are considered in the light of voice as metonym for self to propose an ethic which valorises life. The experience of sex and the construction of gender in representations of metamorphosis are considered in the light of Lacan’s theory of desire and Scarry’s theory of the body and language to propose an ethic of representing gender ironically. The motif of the faithless lover and the Pygmalion myth are considered in the light of the (m)other’s role in language to propose an ethic in which indeterminacy constitutes the condition for being aware of oneself among selves. Each of the three proposals is discussed in relation to the short fiction, memoir and poems produced in the course of this research to test their limits and possibilities as the foundation of an emerging ethic of writing.

Deconstructing neurobiological coordination

Inherent indeterminacy of neurobiological systems has been revealed by research on coordination of multiarticular actions. We consider three important issues that these investigations raise for biomechanical measurement and performance modeling. These issues highlight the role of dynamic systems theory as a platform for integration of motor control and biomechanics in exercise and sports science.

Individual agency as explanation of alliance development and change : a case study

Alliances, with other inter-organisational forms, have become a strategy of choice and necessity for both the private and public sectors. From initial formation, alliances develop and change in different ways, with research suggesting that many alliances will be terminated without their potential value being realised. Alliance process theorists address this phenomenon, seeking explanations as to why alliances unfold the way they do. However, these explanations have generally focussed on economic and structural determinants: empirically, little is known about how and why the agency of alliance actors shapes the alliance path. Theorists have suggested that current alliance process theory has provided valuable, but partial accounts of alliance development, which could be usefully extended by considering social and individual factors. The purpose of this research therefore was to extend alliance process theory by exploring individual agency as an explanation of alliance events and in doing so, reveal the potential of a multi-frame approach for understanding alliance process. Through an historical study of a single, rich case of alliance process, this thesis provided three explanations for the sequence of alliance events, each informed by a different theoretical perspective. The explanatory contribution of the Individual Agency (IA) perspective was distilled through juxtaposition with the perspectives of Environmental Determinism (ED) and Indeterminacy/Chance (I/C). The research produced a number of findings. First, it provided empirical support for the tentative proposition that the choices and practices of alliance actors are partially explanatory of alliance change and that these practices are particular to the alliance context. Secondly, the study found that examining the case through three theoretical frames provided a more complete explanation. Two propositions were put forward as to how individual agency can be theorised within this three-perspective framework. Finally, the case explained which alliance actors were required to shape alliance decision making in this case and why.

Variety matters

Countercyclical markups are a key transmission mechanism in many endogenous business cycle models. Yet, recent findings suggest that aggregate markups in the US are procyclical. The current model addresses this issue. It extends Galí's (1994) composition of aggregate demand model by endogenous entry and exit of firms and by product variety effects. Endogenous business cycles emerge with procyclical markups that are within empirically plausible ranges.

UNIFOLIATA regulates leaf and flower morphogenesis in pea

Background The vegetative phenotype of the pea mutant unifoliata (uni) is a simplification of the wild-type compound leaf to a single leaflet. Mutant uni plants are also self-sterile and the flowers resemble known floral meristem and organ identity mutants. In Antirrhinum and Arabidopsis, mutations in the floral meristem identity gene FLORICAULA/LEAFY (FLO/LFY) affect flower development alone, whereas the tobacco FLO/LFY homologue, NFL, is expressed in vegetative tissues, suggesting that NFL specifies determinacy in the progenitor cells for both flowers and leaves. In this paper, we characterised the pea homologue of FLO/LFY. Results The pea cDNA homologue of FLO/LFY, PEAFLO, mapped to the uni locus in recombinant-inbred mapping populations and markers based on PEAFLO cosegregated with uni in segregating sibling populations. The characterisation of two spontaneous uni mutant alleles, one containing a deletion and the other a point mutation in the PEAFLO coding sequences, predicted that PEAFLO corresponds to UNI and that the mutant vegetative phenotype was conferred by the defective PEAFLO gene. Conclusions The uni mutant demonstrates that there are shared regulatory processes in the morphogenesis of leaves and flowers and that floral meristem identity genes have an extended role in plant development. Pleiotropic regulatory genes such as UNI support the hypothesis that leaves and flowers derive from a common ancestral sporophyll-like structure. The regulation of indeterminacy during leaf and flower morphogenesis by UNI may reflect a primitive function for the gene in the pre-angiosperm era.

A Tradable Permit System in an Intertemporal Economy

It is known that in an intertemporal competitive economy, a tradable permit system may not achieve efficiency without setting appropriate permit interest rates (i.e., rewards for holding permits). To find the rates, however, we need to know in advance the path of efficient permit prices, which is difficult to obtain. This study intends to solve this problem in two ways. First, we analyze a special case in which the permit interest rates are given by a simple rule. For example, if the marginal abatement cost of pollution emission is constant, then the appropriate rate is to equal the monetary interest rate. As is the case for global warming, if the damage is caused in the future far beyond the planning period of the environmental program, the appropriate rate coincides with the marginal self-recovery of environmental stock under certain conditions. As a second approach, we propose a tradable permit system with a permit bank, as a mechanism by which the permit interest rates are generated endogenously without governmental intervention other than the issuance of permits. However, we also show that this approach raises the problem of indeterminacy of the equilibrium. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

Essays on macroeconomic effects of fiscal policy rules

Economic and Monetary Union can be characterised as a complicated set of legislation and institutions governing monetary and fiscal responsibilities. The measures of fiscal responsibility are to be guided by the Stability and Growth Pact, which sets rules for fiscal policy and makes a discretionary fiscal policy virtually impossible. To analyse the effects of the fiscal and monetary policy mix, we modified the New Keynesian framework to allow for supply effects of fiscal policy. We show that defining a supply-side channel for fiscal policy using an endogenous output gap changes the stabilising properties of monetary policy rules. The stability conditions are affected by fiscal policy, so that the dichotomy between active (passive) monetary policy and passive (active) fiscal policy as stabilising regimes does not hold, and it is possible to have an active monetary - active fiscal policy regime consistent with dynamical stability of the economy. We show that, if we take supply-side effects into ac-count, we get more persistent inflation and output reactions. We also show that the dichotomy does not hold for a variety of different fiscal policy rules based on government debt and budget deficit, using the tax smoothing hypothesis and formulating the tax rules as difference equations. The debt rule with active monetary policy results in indeterminacy, while the deficit rule produces a determinate solution with active monetary policy, even with active fiscal policy. The combination of fiscal requirements in a rule results in cyclical responses to shocks. The amplitude of the cycle is larger with more weight on debt than on deficit. Combining optimised monetary policy with fiscal policy rules means that, under a discretionary monetary policy, the fiscal policy regime affects the size of the inflation bias. We also show that commitment to an optimal monetary policy not only corrects the inflation bias but also increases the persistence of output reactions. With fiscal policy rules based on the deficit we can retain the tax smoothing hypothesis also in a sticky price model.

Hyvän hallinnon muunnelmat : Julkisoikeudellinen tutkimus

This doctoral thesis analyses the concepts of good governance and good administration. The hypothesis is that the concepts are radically indeterminate and over-inclusive. In the study the mechanisms of this indeterminacy are examined: why are the concepts indeterminate; how does the indeterminacy work and, indeed, is it by any means plausible to try to define the concepts in a closed way? Therefore, the study focuses on various current perspectives, from which the concepts of good governance and good administration are relevant and what kind of discursive contents they may include. The approach is both legal (a right to good administration) and one of moral philosophy and discourse analysis. It appears that under the meta-discourse of good governance and good administration there are different sub-discourses: at least a legal sub-discourse, a moral/ethical sub-discourse and sub-discourses concerning economic effectiveness and the promotion of societal and economic development. The main claim is that the various sub-discourses do not necessarily identify each other s value premises and conceptual underpinnings: for which value could the attribute good be substituted in different discourses (for example, good as legal, good as ethical and so on)? The underlying presumption is, of course, that values are ultimately subjective and incommensurable. One possible way of trying to resolve the dynamics of possible discourse collisions is to employ the systems theory approach. Can the different discourses be interpreted as autopoietic systems, which create and change themselves according to their own criteria and are formed around a binary code? Can the different discourses be reconciled or are they indifferent or hostile towards each other? Is there a hegemonic super discourse or is the construction of a correct meaning purely contextual? The questions come back to the notions of administration and governance themselves the terms the good in its polymorphic ways is attempting to define. Do they engage different political rationalities? It can be suggested that administration is labelled by instrumental reason, governance by teleological reason. In the final analysis, the most crucial factor is that of power. It is about a Schmittian battle of concepts; how meanings are constructed in the interplay between conceptual ambiguity and social power. Thus, the study deals with administrative law, legal theory and the limits of law from the perspective of revealing critique.

Accelerating multi-core simulators

Simulation is an important means of evaluating new microarchitectures. With the invention of multi-core (CMP) platforms, simulators are becoming larger and more complex. However, with the availability of CMPs with larger caches and higher operating frequency, the wall clock time required for simulating an application has become comparatively shorter. Reducing this simulation time further is a great challenge, especially in the case of multi-threaded workload due to indeterminacy introduced due to simultaneously executing various threads. In this paper, we propose a technique for speeding multi-core simulation. The model of the processor core and cache are replaced with functional models, to achieve speedup. A timed Petri net model is used to estimate the execution time of the processor and the memory access latencies are estimated using hit/miss information obtained from the functional model of the cache. This model can be used to predict performance of data parallel applications or multiprogramming workload on CMP platform with various cache hierarchies and shared bus interconnect. The error in estimation of the execution time of an application is within 6%. The speedup achieved ranges between an average of 2x--4x over the cycle accurate simulator.

The polycomb group gene EMF2B is essential for maintenance of floral meristem determinacy in rice

Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) represses the transcriptional activity of target genes through trimethylation of lysine 27 of histone H3. The functions of plant PRC2 have been chiefly described in Arabidopsis, but specific functions in other plant species, especially cereals, are still largely unknown. Here we characterize mutants in the rice EMF2B gene, an ortholog of the Arabidopsis EMBRYONIC FLOWER2 (EMF2) gene. Loss of EMF2B in rice results in complete sterility, and mutant flowers have severe floral organ defects and indeterminacy that resemble loss-of-function mutants in E-function floral organ specification genes. Transcriptome analysis identified the E-function genes OsMADS1, OsMADS6 and OsMADS34 as differentially expressed in the emf2b mutant compared with wild type. OsMADS1 and OsMADS6, known to be required for meristem determinacy in rice, have reduced expression in the emf2b mutant, whereas OsMADS34 which interacts genetically with OsMADS1 was ectopically expressed. Chromatin immunoprecipitation for H3K27me3 followed by quantitative (q)RT-PCR showed that all three genes are presumptive targets of PRC2 in the meristem. Therefore, in rice, and possibly other cereals, PRC2 appears to play a major role in floral meristem determinacy through modulation of the expression of E-function genes.

Alteridade e diferença sexual: considerações sobre o debate psicanalítico contemporâneo

A partir da interface entre psicanálise e cultura, este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar o debate contemporâneo acerca das noções psicanalíticas de alteridade e diferença sexual, instaurado pelos deslocamentos ocorridos no campo da sexualidade e pelos desafios que estes impõem à psicanálise. Para isso, propõe-se, em um primeiro momento, examinar a teoria freudiana sobre a diferença sexual, o que é realizado principalmente a partir das formulações acerca da sexualidade feminina. Como a construção do complexo de Édipo apresenta-se como uma tentativa de dar conta da constituição da identidade sexual e da diferença no processo de subjetivação, traça-se o trajeto do autor desde as primeiras menções ao Édipo até o encontro com o impasse do feminino, passando pela teoria das identificações como mecanismo privilegiado de assunção sexual. Em seguida, investiga-se o pensamento de Lacan em relação ao tema da diferença sexual, desde o seu retorno ao complexo de Édipo e a sua estruturação em termos de linguagem até as propostas apresentadas em seu último ensino, em que sublinha o aspecto real da sexuação assim como se valoriza a diferença sexual em termos de gozo. Finalmente, tendo como pano de fundo a nova cartografia das sexualidades, e como fio condutor, o diálogo travado entre Judith Butler e Slavoj iek, considera-se em que medida a psicanálise baseia a constituição da alteridade no modelo binário e hierárquico da divisão sexual, contribuindo para a manutenção normativa do sistema sexo-gênero ou em que medida a teoria psicanalítica proporciona um deslocamento da alteridade do modelo de diferença sexual, contribuindo para a sua compreensão enquanto indeterminação e contingência.

Processos de indeterminação lexical em conversas telefônicas interceptadas

O objetivo principal deste trabalho é estudar estratégias de indeterminação de sentido em um corpus de conversas telefônicas interceptadas, considerando que a produção de sentido é um processo cognitivo dependente do contexto. Delimitamos a linguística cognitiva como a área na qual essa pesquisa se encontra inserida, para melhor compreender os fundamentos e os pressupostos norteadores da Teoria dos Modelos Cognitivos Idealizados (TMCI) e da Teoria da Mesclagem Conceptual (blending), tendo como base, principalmente, os estudos de Lakoff (1987), Fauconnier (1997) e Fauconnier e Turner (2002). No decorrer do trabalho propomo-nos responder às seguintes questões de pesquisa: a) que estratégias de indeterminação de sentido são mais frequentemente usadas nestas conversas? b) que elementos do contexto e do cotexto permitem a delimitação do sentido do item lexical em determinada conversa? c) como funcionam, no corpus, as estratégias de indeterminação de sentido e de que forma elas contribuem para sustentar determinado tipo de relação interpessoal? Para responder a estas questões de pesquisa, das 22 gravações de conversas telefônicas de atores sociais envolvidos com tráfico de armas e drogas, sequestro e extorsão, fornecidas pela Coordenadoria de Segurança e Inteligência do Ministério Público do Rio de Janeiro, selecionamos 10 conversas, em função da sua qualidade sonora, para serem transcritas e para proceder à análise qualitativa do uso da polissemia e da vagueza lexical. A partir das discussões teóricas e das análises desenvolvidas, concluímos que a polissemia representa a estratégia de indeterminação de sentido mais frequente no corpus desta pesquisa e que a mesma pode ser entendida como um processo de mesclagem conceptual, que sofre influências sociais e culturais: é a dinamicidade do pensamento e da linguagem que geram a polissemia. Concluímos também que a vagueza lexical é utilizada, no corpus, como um recurso linguístico para referência a assuntos ilícitos. Os itens lexicais analisados instanciam esquemas mentais abstratos que têm seus sentidos realizados a partir de pistas linguísticas e extralinguísticas que apontam para um processo interacional que pode ser entendido como um enquadre de transações comerciais (tráfico de drogas)

Sujeito sintático e referenciação indeterminada

O objeto de estudo deste trabalho são as estruturas em língua portuguesa padrão em que ocorre a chamada indeterminação do sujeito. A partir da análise de textos do gênero entrevista, publicados na Revista Veja (seção 'páginas amarelas'), analisam-se as principais características sintáticas, semânticas, pragmáticas e discursivas do sujeito indeterminado. Admitindo que a linguagem permite ao homem interpretar o mundo em que vive, busca-se apresentar os mecanismos de indeterminação do sujeito como uma forma de referenciação indeterminada. Para tanto, foram investigadas, criticamente, as principais noções de sujeito e de sua indeterminação, em diversos estudiosos da língua portuguesa, desde épocas remotas até os dias atuais, comparando-se os critérios (sintáticos, semânticos, mórficos e discursivos) apresentados nesses estudos. A partir da análise do corpus, verifica-se que os diversos mecanismos de indeterminação possuem graus específicos e que se podem permutar. Além disso, fica patente que há tipos verbais afins a certas estruturas de sujeito indeterminado. Desse modo, a referenciação indeterminada construída a partir do lugar sintático sujeito caracteriza-se como poderosa estratégia discursiva