Création littéraire sous contexte médiatisé: l'œuvre de Michel Houellebecq, Amélie Nothomb et Jacques Chessex

Partindo da análise dos processos de legitimação e de consagração que regem, a partir da segunda metade do século XX, a mediatização do campo literário, propomo-nos estudar os peri-fenómenos consequentes, tal como a correlação possível entre essa circunstância e a própria criação. O objeto deste estudo focaliza-se na produção de três escritores paradigmáticos das letras de expressão francesa europeias contemporâneas, cuja mediatização acompanha a popularidade: o francês Michel Houellebecq, a belga Amélie Nothomb e o suíço romando Jacques Chessex. Interrogamo-nos sobre as relações possíveis entre os instrumentos dessa mediatização e os seus efeitos nas opções de escrita destes três escritores. Atenta à projeção transfronteiriça de autores e de obras, resultado de uma convergência de alguns fatores de mediatização, mas também às particularidades da memória cultural e literária onde se inscrevem as literaturas respectivas (num percurso de legitimação progressiva das literaturas de periferia face à centralidade franco-francesa), a nossa reflexão visa também contribuir para uma recontextualização do cânone da literatura francesa no contexto globalizado da sociedade mediática contemporânea na qual os autores visados estão comprometidos.

Perception and software architecture for mobile robotics

When developing software for autonomous mobile robots, one has to inevitably tackle some kind of perception. Moreover, when dealing with agents that possess some level of reasoning for executing their actions, there is the need to model the environment and the robot internal state in a way that it represents the scenario in which the robot operates. Inserted in the ATRI group, part of the IEETA research unit at Aveiro University, this work uses two of the projects of the group as test bed, particularly in the scenario of robotic soccer with real robots. With the main objective of developing algorithms for sensor and information fusion that could be used e ectively on these teams, several state of the art approaches were studied, implemented and adapted to each of the robot types. Within the MSL RoboCup team CAMBADA, the main focus was the perception of ball and obstacles, with the creation of models capable of providing extended information so that the reasoning of the robot can be ever more e ective. To achieve it, several methodologies were analyzed, implemented, compared and improved. Concerning the ball, an analysis of ltering methodologies for stabilization of its position and estimation of its velocity was performed. Also, with the goal keeper in mind, work has been done to provide it with information of aerial balls. As for obstacles, a new de nition of the way they are perceived by the vision and the type of information provided was created, as well as a methodology for identifying which of the obstacles are team mates. Also, a tracking algorithm was developed, which ultimately assigned each of the obstacles a unique identi er. Associated with the improvement of the obstacles perception, a new algorithm of estimating reactive obstacle avoidance was created. In the context of the SPL RoboCup team Portuguese Team, besides the inevitable adaptation of many of the algorithms already developed for sensor and information fusion and considering that it was recently created, the objective was to create a sustainable software architecture that could be the base for future modular development. The software architecture created is based on a series of di erent processes and the means of communication among them. All processes were created or adapted for the new architecture and a base set of roles and behaviors was de ned during this work to achieve a base functional framework. In terms of perception, the main focus was to de ne a projection model and camera pose extraction that could provide information in metric coordinates. The second main objective was to adapt the CAMBADA localization algorithm to work on the NAO robots, considering all the limitations it presents when comparing to the MSL team, especially in terms of computational resources. A set of support tools were developed or improved in order to support the test and development in both teams. In general, the work developed during this thesis improved the performance of the teams during play and also the e ectiveness of the developers team when in development and test phases.

Functional analysis of String/CDC25 phosphatase in post-mitotic neurons

Cell cycle and differentiation are two highly coordinated processes during organ development. Recent studies have demonstrated that core cell cycle regulators also play cell cycle-independent functions in post-mitotic neurons, and are essential for the maintenance of neuronal homeostasis. CDC25 phosphatases are well-established CDK activators and their activity is mainly associated to proliferating tissues. The expression and activity of mammalian CDC25s has been reported in adult brains. However, their physiological relevance and the potential substrates in a non-proliferative context have never been addressed. string (stg) encodes the Drosophila CDC25 homolog. Previous studies from our group showed that stg is expressed in photoreceptors (PRs) and in lamina neurons, which are two differentiated cell types that compose the fly visual system. The aims of this work are to uncover the function of stg and to identify its potential neuronal substrates, using the Drosophila visual system as a model. To gain insight into the function of stg in a non-dividing context we used the GAL4/UAS system to promote downregulation of stg in PR-neurons, through the use of an RNAi transgene. The defects caused by stg loss-of-function were evaluated in the developing eye imaginal disc by immunofluorescence, and during adult stages by scanning electron microscopy. This genetic approach was combined with a specific proteomic method, two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE), to identify the potential substrates in PR-cells. Our results showed that stg downregulation in PRs affects the well-patterned retina organization, inducing the loss of apical maintenance of PR-nuclei on the eye disc, and ommatidia disorganization. We also detected an abnormal accumulation of cytoskeletal proteins and a disruption of the axon structure. As a consequence, the projection of PR-axons into the lamina and medulla neuropils of the optic lobe was impaired. Upon stg downregulation, we also detected that PR-cells accumulate Cyclin B. Although the rough eye phenotype observed upon stg downregulation suggests neurodegeneration, we did not detect neuronal death during larval stages, suggesting that it likely occurs during pupal stages or during adulthood. By 2D-DIGE, we identified seven proteins which were differentially expressed upon stg downregulation, and are potential neuronal substrates of Stg. Altogether, our observations suggest that Stg phosphatase plays an essential role in the Drosophila visual system neurons, regulating several cell components and processes in order to ensure their homeostasis.

A gestão da formação na sucursal da Mundiserviços em Cabo Verde

Relatório de estágio de mestrado, Ciências da Educação (Formação de Adultos), Universidade de Lisboa, Instituto de Educação, 2011

Quando todos os caminhos levavam a Portugal:impacto da guerra dos cem anos na vida económica e política de Portugal (séculos XIV-XV)

Tese de doutoramento, História (História Medieval), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Letras, 2014

Between light and darkness: Earthsea and the name of utopia

In Le Guin's Earthsea Quartet, knowledge of the name of a thing or person guarantees control over their destiny. In a world where light and darkness co-exist and where dragons are an extension of humans, a name is the means with which one can achieve one's vision of the world. If utopia is the individual projection of a supposedly collective ideal, then knowledge of names is the vehicle for the realization of one's own utopia, which may well come into conflict with the utopias of others. However, Earthsea is not simply a series of battles between individual utopists. Earthsea itself constitutes a precarious and non-traditional utopia, where antithetical sides co-exist and neither prevails forever. As its name denotes, “earth” and “sea,” darkness and light, tombs and open seas, tiny islands and eternal journeys operate together to produce the setting for the novels and enable the chase of an ever-elusive knowledge. For as the utopists in Earthsea find out, knowledge can only be complete if it also comprises its Jungian opposite, namely ignorance. In an attempt to explore the relation between utopia, knowledge, and ignorance, this article employs psychology and linguistics, and constructs a description of a “just” world which remains necessarily utopian.

An algebra and conceptual model for semantic tagging of collaborative digital libraries

Cost-effective semantic description and annotation of shared knowledge resources has always been of great importance for digital libraries and large scale information systems in general. With the emergence of the Social Web and Web 2.0 technologies, a more effective semantic description and annotation, e.g., folksonomies, of digital library contents is envisioned to take place in collaborative and personalised environments. However, there is a lack of foundation and mathematical rigour for coping with contextualised management and retrieval of semantic annotations throughout their evolution as well as diversity in users and user communities. In this paper, we propose an ontological foundation for semantic annotations of digital libraries in terms of flexonomies. The proposed theoretical model relies on a high dimensional space with algebraic operators for contextualised access of semantic tags and annotations. The set of the proposed algebraic operators, however, is an adaptation of the set theoretic operators selection, projection, difference, intersection, union in database theory. To this extent, the proposed model is meant to lay the ontological foundation for a Digital Library 2.0 project in terms of geometric spaces rather than logic (description) based formalisms as a more efficient and scalable solution to the semantic annotation problem in large scale.

Aphomoioo : existir entre o processo e a obra

Coming from the need to express an image – aphomoioo – is more than a dissertation trying to prove its argument. It is the result of an experimentation born from within an anguish felt through an image. An uncontrollable desire that transforms my need into an answer to my craft. Through a discursive organization of speech enmeshed by psychoanalytic, biological, philosophical and linguistic concepts, we are allowed to discover that existing is more than agreeing on a target with an end but, as the relationship that it is, it does not define us as beings, but as an active/interactive limit. And this identity which puts us face to face with the reality - constructed and constructive - seeking to describe the similarity of the existence of things, the images. These beings from the reality that sends us to the symbolic place of our existence, the mundanity. A restlessness that is embedded into every action of knowing that, through language, establishes as true everything which silences the symbolic through a rule of conduct - the principle of reason - a formal rule of all knowledge that establishes the contemplative way for all knowledge originally set up as one signification event. The nature of our organization as living beings, our structural coupling, is what enables us to conclude that all formalities established as knowledge are born into a delirium that is expressed in the conformity of an answer. That being the end of an aphomoioo. The purpose of a "doing" that expresses itself into an image that is projected into a representation. A "doing" made after an image through an ergo genesis – the "artwork" – an answer to my making that expresses the image of my separation from myself as an image of ego established in a represented projection of my hallucinatory image

Decorative news feeds

This is the latest semi-permanent outdoor version of, 'Decorative Newsfeeds' and is located at The Junction Theatre in Cambridge, UK. Rather than a projection, the work is displayed here on three bespoke colour LED screens intergrated into the architecture of the building and visible in direct sunlight.

Thomson-Craighead at Studion

Moderna Museet invited Mejan Labs to curate two installations by the British artists Thomson & Craighead. This solo exhibition was in Studion at Moderna Museet, Stockholm. Works included: BEACON when it is shown as a data projection in a gallery. As with the online version and railway flap sign, live web searches are continuously relayed as they are being made around the world -in this case onto a gallery wall in series and at regular intervals as an endless concrete poetry. Decorative Newsfeeds use a live feed from the web to present up to the minute headline news from around the world as a series of pleasant animations, allowing viewers to keep informed while contemplating a kind of readymade sculpture or perhaps an automatic drawing.

Applications of Statistical Modeling in Iterative CT Image Reconstruction

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2015

Automatic recognition of seafloor features in sub-bottom profiles using eigenimages

Senior thesis written for Oceanography 445

Conversions of Relief: on the perception of depth in drawings

Of the many ways in which depth can be intimated in drawings, perspective has undoubtedly been one of the most frequently examined. But there is also an equally rich history associated with other forms of pictorial representation. Alternatives to perspective became particularly significant in the early twentieth century as artists and architects, intent on throwing off the conventions of their predecessors, looked to new ways of depicting depth. In architecture, this tendency was exemplified by Modernism’s preference for parallel projection – most notably axonometric and oblique. The use of these techniques gave architects the opportunity to convey a new and uniquely modern form of spatial expression. At once shallow and yet expansive, a key feature of these drawings was their ability to support perceptual ambiguity. This paper will consider the philosophy and science of vision, out of which these preoccupations emerged. In this context, the nineteenth-century discovery of stereopsis and the invention of the stereoscope will be used to illustrate the way in which attempts to test the limits of spatial perception led to an opening up of visual experience; and provided a definition of visual experience that could encompass the representational ambiguities later exploited by the early twentieth-century avant-garde.

Argonauta Video Database. Data Agregation

This Database was generated during the development of a computer vision-based system for safety purposes in nuclear plants. The system aims at detecting and tracking people within a nuclear plant. Further details may be found in the related thesis. The research was developed through a cooperation between the Graduate Electrical Engineering Program of Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (PEE/COPPE, UFRJ) and the Nuclear Engineering Institute of National Commission of Nuclear Energy (IEN, CNEN). The experimental part of this research was carried out in Argonauta, a nuclear research reactor belonging to IEN. The Database is made available in the sequel. All the videos are already rectified. The Projection and Homography matrices are given in the end, for both cameras. Please, acknowledge the use of this Database in any publication.

O uso de corpora na análise da representação do discurso em tradução

Este artigo apresenta uma pesquisa sobre a representação do discurso ficcional embasado na gramática sistêmico - funcional proposta por Halliday e na Lingüística de Corpus, utilizando-se o software WordSmith Tools. A análise focaliza a metafunção ideacional, realizada pelo sistema de transitividade, focalizando os processos mentais e a relação lógico - semântica da projeção. O objetivo da pesquisa foi observar como os pensamentos das personagens de um corpus ficcional são representados através dos verbos de elocução THINK e PENSAR, buscando descrever padrões textuais nos três romances que compõem o corpus.