Llibres d'artista i publicacions per tot arreu

Un recorregut per la historia de les edicions d'artista a Catalunya a través de la cultura visual i l'art contemporani. Amb l'edició independent i la xarxa digital com dues eines fonamentals tan pels artistes -pels beneficis que l'edició pot proporcionar a la seva visibilitat i l'evolució professional- com pels diferents agents -veuen en ella l'oportunitat de generar nous formats de relació amb el públic- que tenen la voluntat de treballar amb i per aquest subsector de l'últim art contemporani. Un àmbit que avui gaudeix d'una situació creativa i productiva molt interessant i fructífera.

Tolerance and Relative Utility: Two Proposed Indices for Comparing Change in Clinical Measurement Noise Between Different Populations (Repeatability) or Measurement Methods (Agreement).

Reaching a consensus in terms of interchangeability and utility (i.e., disease detection/monitoring) of a medical device is the eventual aim of repeatability and agreement studies. The aim of the tolerance and relative utility indices described in this report is to provide a methodology to compare change in clinical measurement noise between different populations (repeatability) or measurement methods (agreement), so as to highlight problematic areas. No longitudinal data are required to calculate these indices. Both indices establish a metric of least to most effected across all parameters to facilitate comparison. If validated, these indices may prove useful tools when combining reports and forming the consensus required in the validation process for software updates and new medical devices.

Abrogation of HMX1 function causes rare oculoauricular syndrome associated with congenital cataract, anterior segment dysgenesis, and retinal dystrophy.

PURPOSE: To define the phenotypic manifestation, confirm the genetic basis, and delineate the pathogenic mechanisms underlying an oculoauricular syndrome (OAS). METHODS: Two individuals from a consanguineous family underwent comprehensive clinical phenotyping and electrodiagnostic testing (EDT). Genome-wide microarray analysis and Sanger sequencing of the candidate gene were used to identify the likely causal variant. Protein modelling, Western blotting, and dual luciferase assays were used to assess the pathogenic effect of the variant in vitro. RESULTS: Complex developmental ocular abnormalities of congenital cataract, anterior segment dysgenesis, iris coloboma, early-onset retinal dystrophy, and abnormal external ear cartilage presented in the affected family members. Genetic analyses identified a homozygous c.650A>C; p.(Gln217Pro) missense mutation within the highly conserved homeodomain of the H6 family homeobox 1 (HMX1) gene. Protein modelling predicts that the variant may have a detrimental effect on protein folding and/or stability. In vitro analyses were able to demonstrate that the mutation has no effect on protein expression but adversely alters function. CONCLUSIONS: Oculoauricular syndrome is an autosomal recessive condition that has a profound effect on the development of the external ear, anterior segment, and retina, leading to significant visual loss at an early age. This study has delineated the phenotype and confirmed HMX1 as the gene causative of OAS, enabling the description of only the second family with the condition. HMX1 is a key player in ocular development, possibly in both the pathway responsible for lens and retina development, and via the gene network integral to optic fissure closure.

The relationships of organizational cultures, trust and innovativeness

Sekä organisaatiokulttuuria, luottamusta että innovatiivisuutta on tutkittu paljon, mutta toistaiseksi nämä käsitteet yhdistävää kokonaisvaltaista tutkimusta ei juuri ole tehty tai ainakaan raportoitu tieteellisissä julkaisuissa. Tätä tutkimus käsitteli organisaatiokulttuurin, luottamuksen ja innovatiivisuuden suhteita erilaisissa organisaatiokulttuureissa. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli tutkia organisaatiokulttuurin vaikutusta luottamukseen (sekä kompetenssiin, hyväntahtoisuuteen että rehellisyyteen perustuvaan lateraaliin, vertikaaliin ja institutionaaliseen luottamukseen), innovaatioilmastoon ja innovaatiotoiminnan tuloksellisuuteen. Organisaatiokulttuurin, luottamuksen ja innovatiivisuuden yhteyttä tarkasteltiin neljässä erityyppisessä organisaatiokulttuurissa (klaani-, adhokratia-, hierarkia- ja markkinakulttuurit), jotka pohjautuvat kilpailevien arvojen malliin. Tutkimuksen empiirinen osa toteutettiin posti ja Internet -pohjaisena kyselytutkimuksena 40 organisaatioyksikössä tilastollisen analyysin menetelmin. Yleisellä tasolla työssä saatiin selville, että luottamuksen ja innovatiivisuuden tasot vaihtelevat erityyppisissä organisaatio-kulttuureissa. Tarkemmin sanottuna klaani- ja adhokratiakulttuureissa luottamus ja innovatiivisuus olivat korkeita, ja näillä kulttuureilla oli myös positiivinen vaikutus innovaatiotoiminnan tuloksellisuuteen. Erityisesti institutionaalisen luottamuksen ja innovaatiotuen merkitykset olivat tärkeitä, sillä ne toimivat mediaattoreina organisaatiokulttuurin ja innovatiivisuuden välisessä suhteessa. Luottamuksella ja innovatiivisuudelle ei sitä vastoin ollut vaikutusta hierarkia- ja markkinakulttuureissa, tai vaikutus oli negatiivinen. Tässä työssä osoitettiin myös aiemmin hyvin vähän tutkitun institutionaalisen organisatorisen luottamuksen merkitys organisaatioiden innovatiivisuudessa.

Nonverbal social sensing in action: Unobtrusive recording and extracting of nonverbal behavior in social interactions illustrated with a research example

Nonverbal behavior coding is typically conducted by "hand". To remedy this time and resource intensive undertaking, we illustrate how nonverbal social sensing, defined as the automated recording and extracting of nonverbal behavior via ubiquitous social sensing platforms, can be achieved. More precisely, we show how and what kind of nonverbal cues can be extracted and to what extent automated extracted nonverbal cues can be validly obtained with an illustrative research example. In a job interview, the applicant's vocal and visual nonverbal immediacy behavior was automatically sensed and extracted. Results show that the applicant's nonverbal behavior can be validly extracted. Moreover, both visual and vocal applicant nonverbal behavior predict recruiter hiring decision, which is in line with previous findings on manually coded applicant nonverbal behavior. Finally, applicant average turn duration, tempo variation, and gazing best predict recruiter hiring decision. Results and implications of such a nonverbal social sensing for future research are discussed.

Courts and Courtly Cultures in Early Modern Italy and Europe: Models and Languages

This volume deals with the forms of propaganda and self-representation, through words and images, during the rise of the 'civiltà delle corti' and through processes typical of the time, such as confrontation, adaptation, competition and rivalry. This period, which marked the passage of Italian and European culture from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, is fundamental in the development of Modern Europe, and it lasted up to the XVIII century and beyond. At the heart of many matters debated here lies the relationship between culture and politics. The formation of a 'Lombard identity', central to the Sinergia project which was the frame of the whole research and its conferences, is closely linked to this broad general context. It places the so called 'questione milanese' - above the traditional hierarchies 'Toscana oriented' - at the centre of many questions regarding Northern Italy as a whole, starting from the dissolution of the Medieval communes, through to the rise of the signorie, from the end of the XIII century and the beginning of the XIV century up to the early XVI century.

Determination of Rod and Cone Influence to the Early and Late Dynamic of the Pupillary Light Response.

PURPOSE: This study aims to identify which aspects of the pupil light reflex are most influenced by rods and cones independently by analyzing pupil recordings from different mouse models of photoreceptor deficiency. METHODS: One-month-old wild type (WT), rodless (Rho-/-), coneless (Cnga3-/-), or photoreceptor less (Cnga3-/-; Rho-/- or Gnat1-/-) mice were subjected to brief red and blue light stimuli of increasing intensity. To describe the initial dynamic response to light, the maximal pupillary constriction amplitudes and the derivative curve of the first 3 seconds were determined. To estimate the postillumination phase, the constriction amplitude at 9.5 seconds after light termination was related to the maximal constriction amplitude. RESULTS: Rho-/- mice showed decreased constriction amplitude but more prolonged pupilloconstriction to all blue and red light stimuli compared to wild type mice. Cnga3-/- mice had constriction amplitudes similar to WT however following maximal constriction, the early and rapid dilation to low intensity blue light was decreased. To high intensity blue light, the Cnga3-/- mice demonstrated marked prolongation of the pupillary constriction. Cnga3-/-; Rho-/- mice had no pupil response to red light of low and medium intensity. CONCLUSIONS: From specific gene defective mouse models which selectively voided the rod or cone function, we determined that mouse rod photoreceptors are highly contributing to the pupil response to blue light stimuli but also to low and medium red stimuli. We also observed that cone cells mainly drive the partial rapid dilation of the initial response to low blue light stimuli. Thus photoreceptor dysfunction can be derived from chromatic pupillometry in mouse models.

Sensor Fusion of Proprioception, Force and Vision in Estimation and Robot

Sensor-based robot control allows manipulation in dynamic environments with uncertainties. Vision is a versatile low-cost sensory modality, but low sample rate, high sensor delay and uncertain measurements limit its usability, especially in strongly dynamic environments. Force is a complementary sensory modality allowing accurate measurements of local object shape when a tooltip is in contact with the object. In multimodal sensor fusion, several sensors measuring different modalities are combined to give a more accurate estimate of the environment. As force and vision are fundamentally different sensory modalities not sharing a common representation, combining the information from these sensors is not straightforward. In this thesis, methods for fusing proprioception, force and vision together are proposed. Making assumptions of object shape and modeling the uncertainties of the sensors, the measurements can be fused together in an extended Kalman filter. The fusion of force and visual measurements makes it possible to estimate the pose of a moving target with an end-effector mounted moving camera at high rate and accuracy. The proposed approach takes the latency of the vision system into account explicitly, to provide high sample rate estimates. The estimates also allow a smooth transition from vision-based motion control to force control. The velocity of the end-effector can be controlled by estimating the distance to the target by vision and determining the velocity profile giving rapid approach and minimal force overshoot. Experiments with a 5-degree-of-freedom parallel hydraulic manipulator and a 6-degree-of-freedom serial manipulator show that integration of several sensor modalities can increase the accuracy of the measurements significantly.

Demonstration Platform for Visual Quality Metrics

This thesis presents two graphical user interfaces for the project DigiQ - Fusion of Digital and Visual Print Quality, a project for computationally modeling the subjective human experience of print quality by measuring the image with certain metrics. After presenting the user interfaces, methods for reducing the computation time of several of the metrics and the image registration process required to compute the metrics, and details of their performance are given. The weighted sample method for the image registration process was able to signifigantly decrease the calculation times while resulting in some error. The random sampling method for the metrics greatly reduced calculation time while maintaining excellent accuracy, but worked with only two of the metrics.

Intercultural bridges in teenagers' theatrical events : performing self and constructing cultural identity through a creative drama process

The overriding aim of this drama educational case study is to deepen the understanding of meaning making in a creative intercultural youth theatre process and to examine it in the context of the 10th European Children's TheatreEncounter. The research task is to give a theoretical description of some key features of a creative drama process as the basis for theory about meaning makingin physical theatre. The first task is to illuminate the culture-historical connections of the multilayered practice of the EDERED-association. The second taskis to analyse and interpret theatrical meaning making. The ethnographical research site is regarded as a theatrical event. The analysis of the theatrical eventis divided into four segments: cultural contexts, contextual theatricality, theatrical playing and playing culture. These segments are connected with four research questions: What are the cultural contexts of a creative drama process? How can the organisation of the Encounter, genres, aesthetic codes and perception ofcodes be seen to influence the lived experiences of the participants? What are some of the key phases and characteristics in a creative practice? What kind of cultural learning can be interpreted from the performance texts? The interpretative question concerns identity and community (re)construction. How are the categories, `community´ and `child´ constructed in the Encounter culture? In this drama educational case study the research material (transcribed interviews, coded questionnaire answers, participant drawings, videotaped process text and performance texts) are examined in a multi-method analysis in the meta-theoretical framework of Dewey's naturalistic pragmatism. A three-dimensional research interest through a combination of lived experiences, social contexts and cultural-aesthetical practices compared with drama-educational practices required the methodological project of cultural studies. Furthermore, the critical interpretation of cultural texts is divided into three levels of analyses which are called description, structural analysis and theoretical interpretation. Dialogic validity (truthfulness, self-reflexivity and polyvocality) is combined with contextual validity (sensitivity to social context and awareness of historicity) and with deconstructive validity (awareness of the social discourses). My research suggests that itis possible, by means of physical theatre, to construct symbolic worlds where questions about intercultural identity and multilingual community are examined and where provisional answers are constructed in social interaction.

Unca Don and Unca Scrooge’s Guide to History. Representations of the Past in the Disney Comics of Don Rosa

This thesis studies the various forms and layers of representations of the past that can be found in the Disney comics of Don Rosa. To stay true to the legacy of renowned comic book artist Carl Barks, Rosa has stopped time in the duck universe to the 1950’s: the decade when Barks created his most noted stories. There is a special feel of historicalness in Rosa’s duck stories, as his characters recall events that occurred in both Rosa’s own stories as well as Barks’. Rosa has shed new light to the past of the characters by writing and illustrating the history of Scrooge McDuck, one of the most beloved Disney characters. Rosa is also adamant that the historical facts used in his stories are always correct and based on thorough research. The methodological tools used in the analysis of the comics come from the fields of comic book studies, film theory, and history culture. Film and comics are recognized by many scholars as very similar media, which share elements that make them comparable in many ways. This thesis utilizes studies on historical film, narrative and genre, which provide valuable insight and comparisons for analysis. The thesis consists of three main chapters, the first of which deconstructs the duck universe in the stories in order to understand how the historicalness in them is created,and which outside elements might affect them, including the genre of Disney comics, publishers, and the legacy of Barks. The next chapter focuses on The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck series, i.e. the stories which are located in the past. Such stories feature similar representations of history as for example Westerns. They also compress and alter history to meet the restrictions of the medium of comics. The last part focuses on the adventure stories which draw inspiration from for example mythology, and take the characters to strange and mystical, but yet historical worlds. Such treasure-hunting stories show similarity to the action-adventure genre in film and for example their stereotypical representations of foreign cultures. Finally, the chapter addresses the problematic of historical fiction and its capability to write history.

Bag-of-Features Approach to Unsupervised Visual Object Categorisation

The large and growing number of digital images is making manual image search laborious. Only a fraction of the images contain metadata that can be used to search for a particular type of image. Thus, the main research question of this thesis is whether it is possible to learn visual object categories directly from images. Computers process images as long lists of pixels that do not have a clear connection to high-level semantics which could be used in the image search. There are various methods introduced in the literature to extract low-level image features and also approaches to connect these low-level features with high-level semantics. One of these approaches is called Bag-of-Features which is studied in the thesis. In the Bag-of-Features approach, the images are described using a visual codebook. The codebook is built from the descriptions of the image patches using clustering. The images are described by matching descriptions of image patches with the visual codebook and computing the number of matches for each code. In this thesis, unsupervised visual object categorisation using the Bag-of-Features approach is studied. The goal is to find groups of similar images, e.g., images that contain an object from the same category. The standard Bag-of-Features approach is improved by using spatial information and visual saliency. It was found that the performance of the visual object categorisation can be improved by using spatial information of local features to verify the matches. However, this process is computationally heavy, and thus, the number of images must be limited in the spatial matching, for example, by using the Bag-of-Features method as in this study. Different approaches for saliency detection are studied and a new method based on the Hessian-Affine local feature detector is proposed. The new method achieves comparable results with current state-of-the-art. The visual object categorisation performance was improved by using foreground segmentation based on saliency information, especially when the background could be considered as clutter.

MICROPROPAGATION AND ACCLIMATIZATION OF Aegiphila verticillata Vell.: AN ENDANGERED WOODY SPECIES

The objective of this work was to establish an efficient protocol for in vitro multiplication and rooting, as well as ex vitroacclimatization of Aegiphila verticillata, a woody species found in Brazilian rocky fields. Aseptic cultures were established by seeds and two multiplication analyses were performed. In the first, we employed 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP – 0, 2.5, 5 and 7.5 μM) + α-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA – 0, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 μM) and, in the second, were studied adenine sulfate, kinetin and thidiazuron (0, 5, 7.5, 10 and 12.5 μM). After 90 days, we assessed the quantitative and qualitative shoot propagation. There were more than 90% seed germination and low contamination (2%). In multiplication phase, the culture medium that promoted the best quantitative and qualitative culture development was supplemented with 7.5 μM BAP + 0.4 μM NAA. In the rooting assay, were used NAA, indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) (0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 or 0.4 μM). After 90 days, the root number and rooting quality were evaluated. In this analysis, differences were not found between the control and the other treatments. Rooted plantlets were acclimatized in styrofoam trays for 30 days, after which they were transferred to pots in the greenhouse. Only 3% of the plants subjected to initial acclimatization died and 70% of the plants transferred to the field conditions survived and showed normal development. The results founded in this work are the first involving in vitro propagation and ex vitroacclimatization of Aegiphila verticillata and provide a continuous supply of this medicinal native species, endangered due anthropogenic activities.

Environmental adaptation of the source of the subbasin of Rico Stream, Monte Alto - SP, Brazil

The aim of this study was to define the photographic patterns that represent the use and occupation of the landcover of the "spring" of the Rico Stream subbasin, located at Monte Alto, state of São Paulo (SP), Brazil, for environmental adaptation regarding the Brazilian Forest Law. The mapping was performed using remote sensing techniques and visual interpretation of the World View image, followed by the digitalization of the net of drainage and vegetation (natural and agricultural) at the AutoCad software with documents and field work. The study area has 2141.53 ha and the results demonstrated that the main crop is sugarcane with 546.34 ha, followed by 251.22 ha of pastures, 191.71 ha of perennial crops, 57.31 ha of Eucalyptus and 49.52 ha of onion, confirming the advance of sugarcane culture in the region. The region has 375.04 ha of areas of permanent preservation (APPs), and of this area it was found that only 72.17 ha (19.24%) has arboreal vegetation or natural forest, and 302.87 ha of these areas need to be enriched and reforested with native vegetation from the region, according to the current legislation. The data of the area enable future proposals of models for environmental adaptation to the microbasin according to the current environmental legislation.

Mellom tradisjon og spel : didaktikk for tekstil folkekunst

Denne avhandlinga er resultatet av eit behov for å forske på og utvikle ein didaktikk for tekstilfaget ved Folkekunststudiet, Institutt for folkekultur, Høgskolen i Telemark, Noreg. Studiet med folkekunst som fagfelt er eit relativt ungt studium på høgskolen, som vart etablert i 1984. Problemstillinga i denne avhandlinga er korleis ein kan utvikle ein forskingsbasert didaktikk der dei grunnleggjande prinsippa som særmerkjer den tradisjonelle folkekunsten, vert tekne vare på. I arbeidet med avhandlinga har eg prøvd på å klårgjere problemstillinga ut frå ulike perspektiv. Forskingsarbeidet har fokus på kommunikasjon og arbeidsmåtar i ljos av ulike teoriar. Det er ei hermeneutisk tilnærming som er vald for den didaktiske forståinga. Det fyrste drøftingstemaet har søkjeljos på kommunikasjon og dialog ved vidareføring av tekstil folkekunst. Både estetiske, teoretiske, praktiske og sosiale aspekt er nedfelte i læreplanen for studiet og skal utgjere grunnlaget for kommunikasjon og arbeidsmåtar. I den skapande og kopierande prosessen er det utvikla språklege reiskapar for både den sosiale og den estetiske sida der den teoretiske og praktiske faktoren er integrert. Møte med døme på tekstile tradisjonar så vel som praktisk forming av tekstilar har ført til refleksjon og dialog som involverer kontemplasjon, korrespondens og imaginasjon. Det andre temaet som er drøfta, er vidareføring av tradisjonelt visuelt formspråk. Her er merksemda retta mot kva som har skjedd formalt med ei gruppe tradisjonelle formelement i tekstilar i den institusjonelle vidareføringa over eit lengre tidsperspektiv. Resultatet syner at mange tradisjonelle formelement er borte frå den institusjonelle produksjonen. Formelementa kan ha fått ei meir naturalistisk utforming, eller dei er overførte til andre tradisjonelle tekstilteknikkar enn dei som var utgangspunktet. Rombeforma i den institusjonelle produksjonen er utført i færre variasjonar og kombinasjonar enn i den tradisjonelle produksjonen. Konklusjonen på drøftingstemaet er at spelereglar og spatialitet i høve til den formale komponenten i utvalet med tradisjonelle tekstilar ikkje er vidareført i alle gruppene av institusjonelle produkt. Resultatet kan få innverknad og fylgjer for utforming av ein framtidig didaktikk for faget. Arbeidsmåte og erfaring frå vidareføring av tekstile tradisjonar er det tredje temaet som er drøfta i avhandlinga. Kopiering og skapande prosessar er arbeidsmåtar som er brukte ved studiet i dag, og dei utgjer grunnlag for drøftingar i relasjon til vidareføring og erfaring. Konklusjonen er at i den skapande prosessen korrigerer tradisjonen utforminga, medan i kopiprosessen er eigen stilvilje og improvisering resultat av prosessane. Personar som deltek i prosessane, har sett seg sjølve og si historiske forankring inn i spelet, der visuelt og verbalt språk er resultat av integrasjon av tradisjonar. Dei tre drøftingstemaa utgjer grunnlaget for at didaktikk for folkekunst og tekstil kan bli intersubjektiv forståing av kva ein didaktikk for vidareføring av folkekunst med vekt på tekstil kan vere i utdanninga i dag. Indre og ytre dialog i skapande og kopierande prosessar femner om estetiske, materielle og tekniske faktorar sett i høve til spelereglar, spelerom, spatialitet og samspel i møte med tekstile tradisjonar. Samla utgjer det ein forskingsbasert didaktikk for faget der den overordna intensjonen er samtykke mellom tradisjon og spel.