“Because It Kind of Falls in Between, Doesn’t It? Like an Acute Thing and a Chronic”: the Psychological Experience of Anaphylaxis in Adulthood

Anaphylaxis is a serious, rare condition increasing in prevalence. This study explored the psychological experience of adult-onset anaphylaxis from patient, family and staff perspectives. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve participants. Two global themes emerged from thematic analysis: ‘controllability’ (‘an unknown and distressing experience’, ‘the importance of control over triggers’ and ‘responsibility but no control: the impact on others’) and ‘conflict’ (‘rejecting illness identity’, ‘minimisation of risk’, ‘accessing specialist care: running in slow motion’ and ‘patient-centred versus service-centred care’). Findings highlight the importance of perceived control and emphasise the presence of conflict in the experience of this complex, episodic condition.

The Role of Art in Computer Game Design

Computer games are significant since they embody our youngsters’ engagement with contemporary culture, including both play and education. These games rely heavily on visuals, systems of sign and expression based on concepts and principles of Art and Architecture. We are researching a new genre of computer games, ‘Educational Immersive Environments’ (EIEs) to provide educational materials suitable for the school classroom. Close collaboration with subject teachers is necessary, but we feel a specific need to engage with the practicing artist, the art theoretician and historian. Our EIEs are loaded with multimedia (but especially visual) signs which act to direct the learner and provide the ‘game-play’ experience forming semiotic systems. We suggest the hypothesis that computer games are a space of deconstruction and reconstruction (DeRe): When players enter the game their physical world and their culture is torn apart; they move in a semiotic system which serves to reconstruct an alternate reality where disbelief is suspended. The semiotic system draws heavily on visuals which direct the players’ interactions and produce motivating gameplay. These can establish a reconstructed culture and emerging game narrative. We have recently tested our hypothesis and have used this in developing design principles for computer game designers. Yet there are outstanding issues concerning the nature of the visuals used in computer games, and so questions for contemporary artists. Currently, the computer game industry employs artists in a ‘classical’ role in production of concept sketches, storyboards and 3D content. But this is based on a specification from the client which restricts the artist in intellectual freedom. Our DeRe hypothesis places the artist at the generative centre, to inform the game designer how art may inform our DeRe semiotic spaces. This must of course begin with the artists’ understanding of DeRe in this time when our ‘identities are becoming increasingly fractured, networked, virtualized and distributed’ We hope to persuade artists to engage with the medium of computer game technology to explore these issues. In particular, we pose several questions to the artist: (i) How can particular ‘periods’ in art history be used to inform the design of computer games? (ii) How can specific artistic elements or devices be used to design ‘signs’ to guide the player through the game? (iii) How can visual material be integrated with other semiotic strata such as text and audio?

Development of a Collaborative Platform for Art Education: From Pedagogy to Technology

We report on the development of a Java-based application devised to support collaborative learning of Art concepts and ideas over the Internet. Starting from an examination of the pedagogy of both Art education and collaborative learning we propose principles which are useful for the design and construction of a “lightweight” software application which supports interactive Art learning in groups. This application makes “dynamics” of an art work explicit, and supports group interaction with simple messaging and “chat” facilities. This application may be used to facilitate learning and teaching of Art, but also as a research tool to investigate the learning of Art and also the development and dynamics of collaborating groups. Evaluation of a pilot study of the use of our system with a group of 20 school children is presented.

Exploring social representations of adapting to climate change using topic modeling and Bayesian networks

When something unfamiliar emerges or when something familiar does something unexpected people need to make sense of what is emerging or going on in order to act. Social representations theory suggests how individuals and society make sense of the unfamiliar and hence how the resultant social representations (SRs) cognitively, emotionally, and actively orient people and enable communication. SRs are social constructions that emerge through individual and collective engagement with media and with everyday conversations among people. Recent developments in text analysis techniques, and in particular topic modeling, provide a potentially powerful analytical method to examine the structure and content of SRs using large samples of narrative or text. In this paper I describe the methods and results of applying topic modeling to 660 micronarratives collected from Australian academics / researchers, government employees, and members of the public in 2010-2011. The narrative fragments focused on adaptation to climate change (CC) and hence provide an example of Australian society making sense of an emerging and conflict ridden phenomena. The results of the topic modeling reflect elements of SRs of adaptation to CC that are consistent with findings in the literature as well as being reasonably robust predictors of classes of action in response to CC. Bayesian Network (BN) modeling was used to identify relationships among the topics (SR elements) and in particular to identify relationships among topics, sentiment, and action. Finally the resulting model and topic modeling results are used to highlight differences in the salience of SR elements among social groups. The approach of linking topic modeling and BN modeling offers a new and encouraging approach to analysis for ongoing research on SRs.

Exploring Forensic Nursing Ethics and Practice: Roles, Loyalties and Photodocumentation Practices

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08

Monsters Take to the Streets! Monstrous Street-Art as Pedagogy of Resistance to Post-Olympic Regeneration in Hackney Wick?

This chapter explores geographies of gentrification and resistance in relation to the monstrous through the lens of street-art in post-Olympic London. It takes as a geographic case study Hackney Wick, which has for a long time been a bastion of alternative and creative living due to cheap rents in large, ex-industrial warehouse spaces. The artistic sociality of the area is imbued within its landscape, as prolific street artists have adorned ex-industrial warehouses and canal-side walls with graffiti and murals. Since the announcement of the 2012 Olympic Games, the area has been a site of intense political and aesthetic contestation. The post-Olympic legacy means that the area has been earmarked for redevelopment, with current residents facing the possibility of joining thousands already displaced by the games. The anxiety of dispossession is reflected by monstrous characters and sinister disembodied teeth, eyes and fingers embedded within the landscape, painted by local artists. Using geographically sensitive mobile and visual methodology to document the landscape and artwork, the chapter analyses and interprets the monstrous themes using a range of theorists including Mikhail Bakhtin, Georges Bataille and Nick Land. I argue that monstrous street-art lays visible claim to public territory for aesthetic purposes at odds with the visions of redevelopers and the needs of capital. Whilst street-art and graffiti do not fit easily within frameworks of organized political resistance or collective social movements, they operate as a kind of epistemological transgression that triggers transformative affects in the viewer. This creates conditions for pedagogies of resistance to gentrification by expressing and mobilizing political affects such as anger and anxiety, raising awareness of geographical politics, and encouraging the viewer to question the status quo of the built environment.

Reproducing violence: Rihanna, Chris Brown and the aestheticisation of the Ciudad Juarez Femicides.

When Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte worked with MAC to create their Autumn/Winter 2010 makeup collection and based their ideas on the murdered women of Ciudad Juarez, there was a public and industry outcry which led to the withdrawal of cosmetics with names such as ‘Factory’ ‘Juarez’ and ‘Ghost Town’. Rodarte tapped into the borderland mythologies of Juarez and crated an illusory fantasy world which sought to simultaneously obliterate and venerate the dead women. One eyeshadow, ‘Bordertown’, appears to look like chunks of rotting flesh streaked with blood. The models for their catwalk show had hollow blackened eyes, green-white pallor and lips that had been bloodlessly ‘lip-erased’ with a product specifically designed for the purpose. In Spanish, maquillar is to make up, to assemble. The women in the factories are asked to repeat simple mechanical operations thousands of times a day to make up the products which will be sold by global corporations. At the same time their images are being assembled, made up and aestheticized to create a cosmetic erasure of the crimes which they are subject to. When two American women and a global company make profit from this dangerous cosmetic erasure in order to sell products, the borders between bodies, countries, art and crime become leaky through the act and the illusion of symbiosis between the women of Ciudad Juarez and the products they inspired is threatened by the haunting of exploitation. Since then, the situation has become more complex. Chris Brown got a neck tattoo, based, he says, on the promotional material produced by MAC for the Rodarte sisters campaign. The image, which is of a skull, bears a striking resemblance to the police photographs of his ex, and now current, girlfriend, superstar Rihanna. The controversy over gendered violence, race and exploitation, begun by Rodarte and MAC, came back, haunting, once again. This paper seeks to address these connections, and ask what happens when domestic violence collides with globalism, fashion and murder.

KEY COMPONENTS OF TEAMWORK AND THE SERVICE (TO) YOU (A) (A) DOMESTIC (A) AND EXTERNAL (A)

The article examines a range of components for the customer service from the point of view of marketing.It start with the explanation of several features that are required for a company to crystallize teamwork that finally, after all, will be provided by the success or failure of that company.These features are named: engagement, cooperation, companionship, communication, motivation and leadership.Subsequently, this article presents a section which explores human relationships and conflict management within organizations, with emphasis on attitudes, skills and personality types that present human beings as part of its essence.Finally, this text includes a section that highlights concepts related to customer service and sales techniques that exist today.

Publics, visibilité et reconnaissance en art contemporain : étude du cas de Ai Weiwei

Pour respecter les droits d’auteur, la version électronique de ce mémoire a été dépouillée de certains documents visuels et audio-visuels. La version intégrale du mémoire a été déposée au Service de la gestion des documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Sorghum Crop Modeling and Its Utility in Agronomy and Breeding

Crop models are simplified mathematical representations of the interacting biological and environmental components of the dynamic soil–plant–environment system. Sorghum crop modeling has evolved in parallel with crop modeling capability in general, since its origins in the 1960s and 1970s. Here we briefly review the trajectory in sorghum crop modeling leading to the development of advanced models. We then (i) overview the structure and function of the sorghum model in the Agricultural Production System sIMulator (APSIM) to exemplify advanced modeling concepts that suit both agronomic and breeding applications, (ii) review an example of use of sorghum modeling in supporting agronomic management decisions, (iii) review an example of the use of sorghum modeling in plant breeding, and (iv) consider implications for future roles of sorghum crop modeling. Modeling and simulation provide an avenue to explore consequences of crop management decision options in situations confronted with risks associated with seasonal climate uncertainties. Here we consider the possibility of manipulating planting configuration and density in sorghum as a means to manipulate the productivity–risk trade-off. A simulation analysis of decision options is presented and avenues for its use with decision-makers discussed. Modeling and simulation also provide opportunities to improve breeding efficiency by either dissecting complex traits to more amenable targets for genetics and breeding, or by trait evaluation via phenotypic prediction in target production regions to help prioritize effort and assess breeding strategies. Here we consider studies on the stay-green trait in sorghum, which confers yield advantage in water-limited situations, to exemplify both aspects. The possible future roles of sorghum modeling in agronomy and breeding are discussed as are opportunities related to their synergistic interaction. The potential to add significant value to the revolution in plant breeding associated with genomic technologies is identified as the new modeling frontier.

Cross-resistance to elvitegravir and dolutegravir in 502 patients failing on raltegravir: a French national study of raltegravir-experienced HIV-1-infected patients

International audience

Efficient Image and Video Representations for Retrieval

Image (Video) retrieval is an interesting problem of retrieving images (videos) similar to the query. Images (Videos) are represented in an input (feature) space and similar images (videos) are obtained by finding nearest neighbors in the input representation space. Numerous input representations both in real valued and binary space have been proposed for conducting faster retrieval. In this thesis, we present techniques that obtain improved input representations for retrieval in both supervised and unsupervised settings for images and videos. Supervised retrieval is a well known problem of retrieving same class images of the query. We address the practical aspects of achieving faster retrieval with binary codes as input representations for the supervised setting in the first part, where binary codes are used as addresses into hash tables. In practice, using binary codes as addresses does not guarantee fast retrieval, as similar images are not mapped to the same binary code (address). We address this problem by presenting an efficient supervised hashing (binary encoding) method that aims to explicitly map all the images of the same class ideally to a unique binary code. We refer to the binary codes of the images as `Semantic Binary Codes' and the unique code for all same class images as `Class Binary Code'. We also propose a new class­ based Hamming metric that dramatically reduces the retrieval times for larger databases, where only hamming distance is computed to the class binary codes. We also propose a Deep semantic binary code model, by replacing the output layer of a popular convolutional Neural Network (AlexNet) with the class binary codes and show that the hashing functions learned in this way outperforms the state­ of ­the art, and at the same time provide fast retrieval times. In the second part, we also address the problem of supervised retrieval by taking into account the relationship between classes. For a given query image, we want to retrieve images that preserve the relative order i.e. we want to retrieve all same class images first and then, the related classes images before different class images. We learn such relationship aware binary codes by minimizing the similarity between inner product of the binary codes and the similarity between the classes. We calculate the similarity between classes using output embedding vectors, which are vector representations of classes. Our method deviates from the other supervised binary encoding schemes as it is the first to use output embeddings for learning hashing functions. We also introduce new performance metrics that take into account the related class retrieval results and show significant gains over the state­ of­ the art. High Dimensional descriptors like Fisher Vectors or Vector of Locally Aggregated Descriptors have shown to improve the performance of many computer vision applications including retrieval. In the third part, we will discuss an unsupervised technique for compressing high dimensional vectors into high dimensional binary codes, to reduce storage complexity. In this approach, we deviate from adopting traditional hyperplane hashing functions and instead learn hyperspherical hashing functions. The proposed method overcomes the computational challenges of directly applying the spherical hashing algorithm that is intractable for compressing high dimensional vectors. A practical hierarchical model that utilizes divide and conquer techniques using the Random Select and Adjust (RSA) procedure to compress such high dimensional vectors is presented. We show that our proposed high dimensional binary codes outperform the binary codes obtained using traditional hyperplane methods for higher compression ratios. In the last part of the thesis, we propose a retrieval based solution to the Zero shot event classification problem - a setting where no training videos are available for the event. To do this, we learn a generic set of concept detectors and represent both videos and query events in the concept space. We then compute similarity between the query event and the video in the concept space and videos similar to the query event are classified as the videos belonging to the event. We show that we significantly boost the performance using concept features from other modalities.

Maintenance or loss of dialect Andalusian features: Internal and external factors

In the last sixty years a steadily maintained process of convergence towards the Castilian national standard has been occurring in Southern Spain affecting urban middle-class speakers’ varieties, particularly phonology and lexis. As a consequence, unmarked features characterising innovative southern pronunciation have become less frequent and, at the same time, certain standard marked features have been adapted to the southern phonemic inventory. Then, urban middle-class varieties have progressively been stretching out the distance separating them from working-class and rural varieties, and bringing them closer to central Castilian varieties. Intermediate, yet incipient koineised varieties have been described including also transitional Murcia and Extremadura dialects (Hernández & Villena 2009, Villena, Vida & von Essen 2015). (1) Some of the standard phonologically marked features have spread out among southern speakers exclusively based on their mainstream social prestige and producing not only changes in obstruent phoneme inventory –i.e. acquisition of /s/ vs. /θ/ contrast, but also standstill and even reversion of old consonant push- or pull-chain shifts –e.g. /h/ or /d/ fortition, affricate /ʧ/, etc. as well as traditional lexis shift (Villena et al. 2016). Internal (grammar and word frequency) and external (stratification, network and style) factors constraining those features follow similar patterns in the Andalusian speech communities analysed so far (Granada, Malaga) but when we zoom in on central varieties, which are closer to the national standard and then more conservative, differences in frequency increase and conflict sites emerge. (2) Unmarked ‘natural’ phonological features characterising southern dialects, particularly deletion of syllable-final consonant, do not keep pace with this trend of convergence towards the standard. Thus a combination of southern innovative syllable-final and standard conservative onset-consonant features coexist. (3). The main idea is that this intermediate variety is formed through changes suggesting that Andalusian speakers look for the best way of accepting marked prestige features without altering coherence within their inventory. Either reorganisation of the innovative phonemic system in such a way that it may include Castilian and standard /s/ vs. /θ/ contrast or re-syllabification of aspirated /s/ before dental stop are excellent examples of how and why linguistic features are able to integrate intermediate varieties between the dialect-standard continuum.

Are Videogames Art?

My dissertation defends a positive answer to the question: “Can a videogame be a work of art? ” To achieve this goal I develop definitions of several concepts, primarily ‘art’, ‘games’, and ‘videogames’, and offer arguments about the compatibility of these notions. In Part One, I defend a definition of art from amongst several contemporary and historical accounts. This definition, the Intentional-Historical account, requires, among other things, that an artwork have the right kind of creative intentions behind it, in short that the work be intended to be regarded in a particular manner. This is a leading account that has faced several recent objections that I address, particular the buck-passing theory, the objection against non-failure theories of art, and the simultaneous creation response to the ur-art problem, while arguing that it is superior to other theories in its ability to answer the question of videogames’ art status. Part Two examines whether games can exhibit the art-making kind of creative intention. Recent literature has suggested that they can. To verify this a definition of games is needed. I review and develop the most promising account of games in the literature, the over-looked account from Bernard Suits. I propose and defend a modified version of this definition against other accounts. Interestingly, this account entails that games cannot be successfully intended to be works of art because games are goal-directed activities that require a voluntary selection of inefficient means and that is incompatible with the proper manner of regarding that is necessary for something to be an artwork. While the conclusions of Part One and Part Two may appear to suggest that videogames cannot be works of art, Part Three proposes and defends a new account of videogames that, contrary to first appearances, implies that not all videogames are games. This Intentional-Historical Formalist account allows for non-game videogames to be created with an art-making intention, though not every non-ludic videogame will have an art-making intention behind it. I then discuss examples of videogames that are good candidates for being works of art. I conclude that a videogame can be a work of art, but that not all videogames are works of art. The thesis is significant in several respects. It is a continuation of academic work that has focused on the definition and art status of videogames. It clarifies the current debate and provides a positive account of the central issues that has so far been lacking. It also defines videogames in a way that corresponds better with the actual practice of videogame making and playing than other definitions in the literature. It offers further evidence in defense of certain theories of art over others, providing a close examination of videogames as a new case study for potential art objects and for aesthetic and artistic theory in general. Finally, it provides a compelling answer to the question of whether videogames can be art. This project also provides the groundwork for new evaluative, critical, and appreciative tools for engagement with videogames as they develop as a medium. As videogames mature, more people, both inside and outside academia, have increasing interest in what they are and how to understand them. One place many have looked is to the practice of art appreciation. My project helps make sense of which appreciative and art-critical tools and methods are applicable to videogames.

Sexual Activity Without Condoms and Risk of HIV Transmission in Serodifferent Couples When the HIV-Positive Partner Is Using Suppressive Antiretroviral Therapy

Importance A key factor in assessing the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy (ART) as a prevention strategy is the absolute risk of HIV transmission through condomless sex with suppressed HIV-1 RNA viral load for both anal and vaginal sex. Objective To evaluate the rate of within-couple HIV transmission (heterosexual and men who have sex with men [MSM]) during periods of sex without condoms and when the HIV-positive partner had HIV-1 RNA load less than 200 copies/mL. Design, Setting, and Participants The prospective, observational PARTNER (Partners of People on ART-A New Evaluation of the Risks) study was conducted at 75 clinical sites in 14 European countries and enrolled 1166 HIV serodifferent couples (HIV-positive partner taking suppressive ART) who reported condomless sex (September 2010 to May 2014). Eligibility criteria for inclusion of couple-years of follow-up were condomless sex and HIV-1 RNA load less than 200 copies/mL. Anonymized phylogenetic analysis compared couples' HIV-1 polymerase and envelope sequences if an HIV-negative partner became infected to determine phylogenetically linked transmissions. Exposures Condomless sexual activity with an HIV-positive partner taking virally suppressive ART. Main Outcomes and Measures Risk of within-couple HIV transmission to the HIV-negative partner. Results Among 1166 enrolled couples, 888 (mean age, 42 years [IQR, 35-48]; 548 heterosexual [61.7%] and 340 MSM [38.3%]) provided 1238 eligible couple-years of follow-up (median follow-up, 1.3 years [IQR, 0.8-2.0]). At baseline, couples reported condomless sex for a median of 2 years (IQR, 0.5-6.3). Condomless sex with other partners was reported by 108 HIV-negative MSM (33%) and 21 heterosexuals (4%). During follow-up, couples reported condomless sex a median of 37 times per year (IQR, 15-71), with MSM couples reporting approximately 22 000 condomless sex acts and heterosexuals approximately 36 000. Although 11 HIV-negative partners became HIV-positive (10 MSM; 1 heterosexual; 8 reported condomless sex with other partners), no phylogenetically linked transmissions occurred over eligible couple-years of follow-up, giving a rate of within-couple HIV transmission of zero, with an upper 95% confidence limit of 0.30/100 couple-years of follow-up. The upper 95% confidence limit for condomless anal sex was 0.71 per 100 couple-years of follow-up. Conclusions and Relevance Among serodifferent heterosexual and MSM couples in which the HIV-positive partner was using suppressive ART and who reported condomless sex, during median follow-up of 1.3 years per couple, there were no documented cases of within-couple HIV transmission (upper 95% confidence limit, 0.30/100 couple-years of follow-up). Additional longer-term follow-up is necessary to provide more precise estimates of risk.