Materials Education and Research in Art and Design: A New Role for Libraries - Session 3. RISD Faculty

Faculty from Rhode Island School of Design representing Interior Architecture, Industrial Design, and Textiles detail their thoughtful interactions with materials.

Materials Education and Research in Art and Design: A New Role for Libraries - Session 4. Designers

Designers respond to issues and synthesize ideas from throughout the day as voices from the field who directly encounter the need for recently graduated students to possess the ability to investigate and interrogate materials.

Materials Education and Research in Art and Design: A New Role for Libraries - Session 2. Educators

Educators representing interactions with materials speak to critical approaches, life-cycle concerns, critical thinking of composition/process/properties.

A narratological analysis of D. M. Thoma`s: the white hotel (1981)

“A Narratological Analysis of D. M. Thomas’s The White Hotel (1981)” originated within a seminar on British Postmodernist Literature during the first Master’s Degree in “British and North-American Culture and Literature” (2001-04) at the Universidade da Madeira set up by the Department of English and German Studies. This dissertation seeks to present a narratological analysis of Thomas’s novel. The White Hotel stands as a paradigmatic example of the kind of literature that has dominated the British literary scene in the past three decades, commonly referred to as postmodernist fiction, owing to its formal craftsmanship (multiplicity of narrative voices and perspectives, mixing of differing genres and text types, inclusion of embedded narratives) alongside the handling of what are deemed as postmodernist topoi (the distinction between truth and lies, history and fantasy, fact and fiction, the questioning of the nature of aesthetic representation, the role the author and the reader hold in the narrative process, the instability of the linguistic sign, the notion of originality and the moral responsibility the author has towards his/her work), The narratological approach carried out in this research reveals that Thomas’s text constitutes an aesthetic endeavour to challenge the teleological drive that is inherent in any narrative, i. e., the inevitable progression towards a reassuring end. Hence, the subversion of narrative telling, which is a recurrent feature in Thomas’s remaining literary output, mirrors the contemporary distrust in totalising, hierarchised and allencompassing narratives. In its handling of historical events, namely of the Holocaust, The White Hotel invites us to reassess the most profound beliefs we were taught to take for granted: progress, reality and truth. In their place the novel proposes a more flexible conception of both the world and art, especially of literary fiction. In other terms, the world appears as a brutal chaotic place the subject is forced to adjust to. Accordingly, the literary work is deemed hybrid, fragmented and open. So as to put forth the above-mentioned issues, this research work is structured in three main chapters. The initial chapter – “What is Postmodernism?” – advances a scrutiny not only of the seminal but also of more recent studies on postmodernist literary criticism. Following this, in Chapter II – “Postmodernist British Fiction” – a brief overview of postmodernist British fiction is carried out, focusing on the fictional works that, in my opinion, are fundamental for the periodising of British postmodernism. In addition, I felt the need to include a section – “D. M. Thomas as a Postmodernist Novelist” – in which the author’s remaining literary output is briefly examined. Finally, Chapter III – “A Narratological Analysis of The White Hotel” – proposes a narratological analysis of the novel according to the particular Genettian analytical model. To conclude, my dissertation constitutes an approach to D. M. Thomas’s The White Hotel as a text whose very existence is substantiated in the foregrounding of the contingency of all discourses, meeting the postmodernist precepts of openness and subversion of any narrative that claims to be true, globalising and all-inclusive.

Optimized architecture for Tyrosinase-containing Langmuir-Blodgett films to detect pyrogallol

The control of molecular architectures has been a key factor for the use of Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films in biosensors, especially because biomolecules can be immobilized with preserved activity. In this paper we investigated the incorporation of tyrosinase (Tyr) in mixed Langmuir films of arachidic acid (AA) and a lutetium bisphthalocyanine (LuPc2), which is confirmed by a large expansion in the surface pressure isotherm. These mixed films of AA-LuPc2 + Tyr could be transferred onto ITO and Pt electrodes as indicated by FTIR and electrochemical measurements, and there was no need for crosslinking of the enzyme molecules to preserve their activity. Significantly, the activity of the immobilised Tyr was considerably higher than in previous work in the literature, which allowed Tyr-containing LB films to be used as highly sensitive voltammetric sensors to detect pyrogallol. Linear responses have been found up to 400 mu M, with a detection limit of 4.87 x 10(-2) mu M (n = 4) and a sensitivity of 1.54 mu A mu M-1 cm(-2). In addition, the Hill coefficient (h = 1.27) indicates cooperation with LuPc2 that also acts as a catalyst. The enhanced performance of the LB-based biosensor resulted therefore from a preserved activity of Tyr combined with the catalytic activity of LuPc2, in a strategy that can be extended to other enzymes and analytes upon varying the LB film architecture.

Transient stability analysis of electric energy systems via a fuzzy ART-ARTMAP neural network

This work presents a methodology to analyze transient stability (first oscillation) of electric energy systems, using a neural network based on ART architecture (adaptive resonance theory), named fuzzy ART-ARTMAP neural network for real time applications. The security margin is used as a stability analysis criterion, considering three-phase short circuit faults with a transmission line outage. The neural network operation consists of two fundamental phases: the training and the analysis. The training phase needs a great quantity of processing for the realization, while the analysis phase is effectuated almost without computation effort. This is, therefore the principal purpose to use neural networks for solving complex problems that need fast solutions, as the applications in real time. The ART neural networks have as primordial characteristics the plasticity and the stability, which are essential qualities to the training execution and to an efficient analysis. The fuzzy ART-ARTMAP neural network is proposed seeking a superior performance, in terms of precision and speed, when compared to conventional ARTMAP, and much more when compared to the neural networks that use the training by backpropagation algorithm, which is a benchmark in neural network area. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Electric load forecasting using a fuzzy ART&ARTMAP neural network

This work presents a neural network based on the ART architecture ( adaptive resonance theory), named fuzzy ART& ARTMAP neural network, applied to the electric load-forecasting problem. The neural networks based on the ARTarchitecture have two fundamental characteristics that are extremely important for the network performance ( stability and plasticity), which allow the implementation of continuous training. The fuzzy ART& ARTMAP neural network aims to reduce the imprecision of the forecasting results by a mechanism that separate the analog and binary data, processing them separately. Therefore, this represents a reduction on the processing time and improved quality of the results, when compared to the Back-Propagation neural network, and better to the classical forecasting techniques (ARIMA of Box and Jenkins methods). Finished the training, the fuzzy ART& ARTMAP neural network is capable to forecast electrical loads 24 h in advance. To validate the methodology, data from a Brazilian electric company is used. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

São Bernardo: apologia e arte arquitetural

Este artigo busca expor as críticas de Bernardo de Claraval às superfluidades humanas no texto da Apologia, especialmente aquelas referentes à arte arquitetural. em segundo lugar, procura analisar as implicações estéticas do ascetismo cisterciense e bernardiano. As críticas de Bernardo exercem uma influência decisiva na ornamentação e fazem nascer uma nova arquitetura.

Transient stability analysis of electrical power systems using a neural network based on fuzzy ARTMAP

This work presents a methodology to analyze transient stability for electric energy systems using artificial neural networks based on fuzzy ARTMAP architecture. This architecture seeks exploring similarity with computational concepts on fuzzy set theory and ART (Adaptive Resonance Theory) neural network. The ART architectures show plasticity and stability characteristics, which are essential qualities to provide the training and to execute the analysis. Therefore, it is used a very fast training, when compared to the conventional backpropagation algorithm formulation. Consequently, the analysis becomes more competitive, compared to the principal methods found in the specialized literature. Results considering a system composed of 45 buses, 72 transmission lines and 10 synchronous machines are presented. © 2003 IEEE.

The gender dimension of globalization: a survey of the literature with a focus on Latin America and the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

Environmental training in organisations: From a literature review to a framework for future research

Although the research on the relationship between human factors and environmental sustainability is slowly progressing, environmental training has attracted the most attention from researchers and practitioners. However, there remains a lack of research that integrates and systematises the available knowledge on organisational environmental training. Environmental training is fundamental to any successful activity of environmental management, conservation and recycling of resources. Thus, the aim of this paper was to present the results of a systematic literature review on environmental training in organisations. The main studies in this area were classified and coded, and a research agenda with 9 recommendations that may advance the field was presented. As a result of the gaps in the current literature, a framework was proposed aiming guide and strengthens the state-of-the-art research on environmental training. Additionally, results show that more research is needed on environmental training, combining training and green human resource management and defining/measuring the objectives of the environmental training actions. Future studies should also consider mixed methodologies and comparative perspectives. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Titanium in Dentistry: Historical development, state of the art and future perspectives

Titanium is a metallic element known by several attractive characteristics, such as biocompatibility, excellent corrosion resistance and high mechanical resistance. It is widely used in Dentistry, with high success rates, providing a favorable biological response when in contact with live tissues. Therefore, the objective of this study was to describe the different uses of titanium in Dentistry, reviewing its historical development and discoursing about its state of art and future perspective of its utilization. A search in the MEDLINE/PubMed database was performed using the terms 'titanium', 'dentistry' and 'implants'. The title and abstract of articles were read, and after this first screening 20 articles were selected and their full-texts were downloaded. Additional text books and manual search of reference lists within selected articles were included. Correlated literature showed that titanium is the most used metal in Implantology for manufacturing osseointegrated implants and their systems, with a totally consolidated utilization. Moreover, titanium can be also employed in prosthodontics to obtain frameworks. However, problems related to its machining, casting, welding and ceramic application for dental prosthesis are still limiting its use. In Endodontics, titanium has been used in association to nickel for manufacturing rotatory instruments, providing a higher resistance to deformation. However, although the different possibilities of using titanium in modern Dentistry, its use for prostheses frameworks still needs technological improvements in order to surpass its limitations. © 2012 Indian Prosthodontic Society.