Physical and psychophysical analysis of progressive addition lens embodiments

The extent to which the surface parameters of Progressive Addition Lenses (PALs) affect successful patient tolerance was investigated. Several optico-physical evaluation techniques were employed, including a newly constructed surface reflection device which was shown to be of value for assessing semi-finished PAL blanks. Detailed physical analysis was undertaken using a computer-controlled focimeter and from these data, iso-cylindrical and mean spherical plots were produced for each PAL studied. Base curve power was shown to have little impact upon the distribution of PAL astigmatism. A power increase in reading addition primarily caused a lengthening and narrowing of the lens progression channel. Empirical measurements also indicated a marginal steepening of the progression power gradient with an increase in reading addition power. A sample of the PAL wearing population were studied using patient records and questionnaire analysis (90% were returned). This subjective analysis revealed the reading portion to be the most troublesome lens zone and showed that patients with high astigmatism (> 2.00D) adapt more readily to PALs than those with spherical or low cylindrical (2.00D) corrections. The psychophysical features of PALs were then investigated. Both grafting visual acuity (VA) and contrast sensitivity (CS) were shown to be reduced with an increase in eccentricity from the central umbilical line. Two sample populations (N= 20) of successful and unsuccessful PAL wearers were assessed for differences in their visual performance and their adaptation to optically induced distortion. The possibility of dispensing errors being the cause of poor patient tolerance amongst the unsuccessful wearer group was investigated and discounted. The contrast sensitivity of the successful group was significantly greater than that of the unsuccessful group. No differences in adaptation to or detection of curvature distortion were evinced between these presbyopic groups.

Trans Terrains: Gendered Embodiments and Religious Landscapes in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Transgendered Indonesians live in the fourth most populated nation in the world with more Muslims than any other country. This thesis summarizes an ethnography conducted on one religiously oriented male-to-female transgender community known in the city of Yogyakarta as the waria. This study analyzes the waria’s gender and religious identities from an emic and etic perspective, focusing on how individuals comport themselves inside the world’s first transgender mosque-like institution called a pesantren waria. The waria take their name from the Indonesian words wanita (woman) and pria (man). I will chart how this male-to-female population create spaces of spiritual belonging and physical security within a territory that has experienced geo-religio-political insecurity: natural disasters, fundamentalist movements, and toppling dictatorships. This work illuminates how the waria see themselves as biologically male, not men. Anatomy is not what gives the waria their gender, their feminine expression and sexual attraction does. Although the waria self-identity as women/waria, in a religious context they perform as men, not women.

Corpos e subjetividades : análise dos processos de embodiment dos ursos no Espírito Santo

Este trabalho vem analisar processos de subjetivação de sujeitos homossexuais que se assumem como ursos. Trazemos o debate de corpos para explicitarmos seus agenciamentos, tanto na produção imagética do que socialmente seriam aqueles sujeitos, dos locais de onde falam, dos grupos que apresentam afinidades, quanto nos processos em que constroem a si mesmos. Os processos de subjetivação não pressupõem um sujeito autônomo, pois sofrem interferências de organizações de forças e saberes que operam na sociedade (FOUCAULT, 2003). Diante disso, recorremos à analíticas de poder propostas por Michel Foucault (1995), Judith Butler (2010) e Laclau e Mouffe (1987), tanto para nos afastarmos de noções de corpos passivos, universais e objetivos, recorrentes em enfoques em hegemonia na Administração, quanto para analisarmos sua construção somente em relação à construção de um sujeito, ou seja, em processos sociais, históricos e políticos de embodiments. Foi realizada uma pesquisa qualitativa, cujos dados foram coletados por meio de entrevistas individuais semiestruturadas com 19 participantes capixabas. Os dados foram analisados sob a ótica pós-estruturalista do discurso tendo em vista as abordagens laclauniana e foucaultiana. O trabalho conclui que o discurso ursino sobredetermina práticas dispersas no campo de homoafetividades ao articular um esquema corpóreo “masculino”. Este esquema se assume como uma das práticas hegemônicas LGBT e, consequentemente, é o primeiro a ser acionado nas subjetivações dos participantes. Porém, este processo não se concretiza de forma plena, nem elimina particularidades e contingências que parodiam as demandas comportamentais emergentes das construções identitárias.

Multi-agent system for distributed manufacturing scheduling with genetic algorithms and tabu search

Computerized scheduling methods and computerized scheduling systems according to exemplary embodiments. A computerized scheduling method may be stored in a memory and executed on one or more processors. The method may include defining a main multi-machine scheduling problem as a plurality of single machine scheduling problems; independently solving the plurality of single machine scheduling problems thereby calculating a plurality of near optimal single machine scheduling problem solutions; integrating the plurality of near optimal single machine scheduling problem solutions into a main multi-machine scheduling problem solution; and outputting the main multi-machine scheduling problem solution.

Acting Rehearsal in Collaborative Multimodal Mixed Reality Environments

This paper presents the use of our multimodal mixed reality telecommunication system to support remote acting rehearsal. The rehearsals involved two actors, located in London and Barcelona, and a director in another location in London. This triadic audiovisual telecommunication was performed in a spatial and multimodal collaborative mixed reality environment based on the 'destination-visitor' paradigm, which we define and put into use. We detail our heterogeneous system architecture, which spans the three distributed and technologically asymmetric sites, and features a range of capture, display, and transmission technologies. The actors' and director's experience of rehearsing a scene via the system are then discussed, exploring successes and failures of this heterogeneous form of telecollaboration. Overall, the common spatial frame of reference presented by the system to all parties was highly conducive to theatrical acting and directing, allowing blocking, gross gesture, and unambiguous instruction to be issued. The relative inexpressivity of the actors' embodiments was identified as the central limitation of the telecommunication, meaning that moments relying on performing and reacting to consequential facial expression and subtle gesture were less successful.

Acting rehearsal in collaborative multimodal mixed reality environments

This paper presents the use of our multimodal mixed reality telecommunication system to support remote acting rehearsal. The rehearsals involved two actors, located in London and Barcelona, and a director in another location in London. This triadic audiovisual telecommunication was performed in a spatial and multimodal collaborative mixed reality environment based on the 'destination-visitor' paradigm, which we define and put into use. We detail our heterogeneous system architecture, which spans the three distributed and technologically asymmetric sites, and features a range of capture, display, and transmission technologies. The actors' and director's experience of rehearsing a scene via the system are then discussed, exploring successes and failures of this heterogeneous form of telecollaboration. Overall, the common spatial frame of reference presented by the system to all parties was highly conducive to theatrical acting and directing, allowing blocking, gross gesture, and unambiguous instruction to be issued. The relative inexpressivity of the actors' embodiments was identified as the central limitation of the telecommunication, meaning that moments relying on performing and reacting to consequential facial expression and subtle gesture were less successful.

Sarah Kane: Cool Britannia's reluctant feminist

Aleks Sierz in his important survey of mid 1990s drama has identified the plays of Sarah Kane as exemplars of what he terms ‘In-Yer Face’ theatre. Sierz argues that Kane and her contemporaries such as Mark Ravenhill and Judy Upton represent a break with the ideological concerns of the previous generation of playwrights such as Doug Lucie and Stephen Lowe, whose work was shaped through recognizable political concerns, often in direct opposition to Thatcherism. In contrast Sarah Kane and her generation have frequently been seen as literary embodiments of ‘Thatcher’s Children’, whereby following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the inertia of the Major years, their drama eschews a recognizable political position, and seems more preoccupied with the plight of individuals cut adrift from society. In the case of Sarah Kane her frequently quoted statement, ‘I have no responsibility as a woman writer because I don’t believe there’s such a thing’, has compounded this perception. Moreover, its dogmatism also echoes the infamous comments attributed to Mrs Thatcher regarding the role of the individual to society. However, this article seeks to reassess Kane’s position as a woman writer and will argue that her drama is positioned somewhere between the female playwrights who emerged after 1979 such as Sarah Daniels, Timberlake Wertenbaker and Clare McIntyre, whose drama was distinguished by overtly feminist concerns, and its subsequent breakdown, best exemplified by the brief cultural moment associated with the newly elected Blair government known as ‘Cool Britannia’. Drawing on a variety of sources, including Kane’s unpublished monologues, written while she was a student just after Mrs Thatcher left office, this paper will argue that far from being an exponent of post-feminism, Kane’s drama frequently revisits and is influenced by the generation of dramatists whose work was forged out the sharp ideological positions that characterized the 1980s and a direct consequence of Thatcherism.

Risk management and the corporate real estate portfolio

In a global business economy, firms have a broad range of corporate real estate needs. During the past decade, multiple strategies and tactics have emerged in the corporate real estate community for meeting those needs. We propose here a framework for analysing and prioritising the various types of risk inherent in corporate real estate decisions. From a business strategy perspective, corporate real estate must serve needs beyond the simple one of shelter for the workforce and production process. Certain uses are strategic in that they allow access to externalities, embody the business strategy, or provide entrée to new markets. Other uses may be tactical, in that they arise from business activities of relatively short duration or provide an opportunity to pre-empt competitors. Still other corporate real estate uses can be considered “core” to the existence of the business enterprise. These might be special use properties or may be generic buildings that have become embodiments of the organisation’s culture. We argue that a multi-dimensional matrix approach organised around three broad themes and nine sub-categories allow the decision-maker to organise and evaluate choices with an acceptable degree of rigor and thoroughness. The three broad themes are Use (divided into Core, Cyclical or Casual) – Asset Type (which can be Strategic, Specialty or Generic) and Market Environment (which ranges from Mature Domestic to Emerging Economy). Proper understanding of each of these groupings brings critical variables to the fore and allows for efficient resource allocation and enhanced risk management.

Sarah Kane: Cool Britannia’s reluctant feminist

Aleks Sierz in his important survey of mid 1990s drama has identified the plays of Sarah Kane as exemplars of what he terms ‘In-Yer Face’ theatre. Sierz argues that Kane and her contemporaries such as Mark Ravenhill and Judy Upton represent a break with the ideological concerns of the previous generation of playwrights such as Doug Lucie and Stephen Lowe, whose work was shaped through recognizable political concerns, often in direct opposition to Thatcherism. In contrast Sarah Kane and her generation have frequently been seen as literary embodiments of ‘Thatcher’s Children’, whereby following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the inertia of the Major years, their drama eschews a recognizable political position, and seems more preoccupied with the plight of individuals cut adrift from society. In the case of Sarah Kane her frequently quoted statement, ‘I have no responsibility as a woman writer because I don’t believe there’s such a thing’, has compounded this perception. Moreover, its dogmatism also echoes the infamous comments attributed to Mrs Thatcher regarding the role of the individual to society. However, this article seeks to reassess Kane’s position as a woman writer and will argue that her drama is positioned somewhere between the female playwrights who emerged after 1979 such as Sarah Daniels, Timberlake Wertenbaker and Clare McIntyre, whose drama was distinguished by overtly feminist concerns, and its subsequent breakdown, best exemplified by the brief cultural moment associated with the newly elected Blair government known as ‘Cool Britannia’. Drawing on a variety of sources, including Kane’s unpublished monologues, written while she was a student just after Mrs Thatcher left office, this paper will argue that far from being an exponent of post-feminism, Kane’s drama frequently revisits and is influenced by the generation of dramatists whose work was forged out the sharp ideological positions that characterized the 1980s and a direct consequence of Thatcherism.

Rapamycin carbonate esters

Certain embodiments include carbonate esters of rapamycin at position 42 that are synthesized by a lipase catalyzed regio-specific process. These compounds or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof are useful in the treatment of organ and tissue transplant rejection, autoimmune disease, proliferative disorder, restenosis, cancer, or microbial infection.

The mirror of consumption: celebritization, developmental consumption and the shifting cultural politics of fair trade

This paper explores the shifting cultural politics of development as expressed in the changing narratives and discursive transparencies of fair trade marketing tactics in the UK. Pursued through what I call ‘developmental consumption’ and the increasing celebritization of development, it is now through the global media mega-star that the subaltern speaks. After a more general discussion of the implications of the celebritization of development, specific analysis focuses on two parallel processes complicit in the ‘mainstreaming’ of fair trade markets and the desire to develop fair trade as a product of ‘quality’. The first involves improving the taste of fair trade commodities through alterations in their material supply chains while the second involves novel marketing narratives designed to invoke these conventions of quality through highly meaningful discursive and visual means. The later process is conceptualized through the theoretical device of the shifting ‘embodiments’ of fair trade which have moved from small farmers’ livelihoods, to landscapes of ‘quality’, to increasing congeries of celebrities such as Chris Martin from the UK band Coldplay. These shifts encapsulate what is referred to here as fair trade’s Faustian Bargain and its ambiguous results: the creation of increasing economic returns and, thus, more development through the movement of fair trade goods into mainstream retail markets at the same time there is a de-centering of the historical discursive transparency at the core of fair trade’s moral economy. Here, then, the celebritization of fair trade has the potential to create ‘the mirror of consumption’, whereby, our gaze is reflected back upon ourselves in the form of ‘the rich and famous’ Northern celebrity muddling the ethics of care developed by connecting consumers to fair trade farmers and their livelihoods. The paper concludes with a consideration of development and fair trade politics in the context of their growing aestheticization and celebritization.

Teodora e Porcina: faces simbólicas da natureza em narrativas de mulheres sábias

This research looks at the collective imagination in which it keeps alive the issue of heroin wise. Two wise women appear in the narratives of popular history and the History of Donzela Theodora and History Imperatriz Porcina, collated by Luís da Câmara Cascudo in his Five Books of the People. The universality, mobility and circularity of these narratives are discussed by authors such as Bakhtin and Guinzburg. The research is developed from three key categories: Knowledge Magic as the knowledge of tradition (Almeida), sensitive knowledge (Levi-Strauss), thought mythical / magical / symbolic (Morin); Wise Women as carriers of this knowledge, which merge and overlap with the imagery of witches and healers; and Mythical Elements which corresponds to the archetypal images (Jung and Silveira), symbols and other images that relate to the magic universe, the magical beliefs and practices considered, ie belonging to the imaginary magic (Bethencourt). Porcina and Theodora are understood as bearers of knowledge of Métis (Detienne and Vernant), or the cunning intelligence, the manipulation of phármakon (Derrida), the healing potion, which may be the word or ointment of the herb. The route takes us to meet the great archetype of the Wise Woman as psychic power of the feminine, the anima. Narratives are medicinal balms (Estes) and is the clash between the anima and its embodiments by wise women, and animus, his opponents, which gives the transmutation of the psyche, a work comparable to that of alchemyThe Knowledge Magic, operating through the female, myth and nature can recover from its essential value to the emerging paradigm that suggests a more complete human science and a more plural

Ver, lembrar e narrar: a conformação das memórias sobre a ditadura militar na recepção assistida do audiovisual

Subjective and socially constructed instance, the memory is not a natural phenomenon, but an area of contention between various social organizations for control and legitimation of a past. With the development of writing and the advent of new technical devices, it creates new ways to store and transport information. The memory is no longer restricted to the limits of the here and now of the subject and undergoes transformations. In this scenario, the media start to play an important role in publicizing and construction of embodiments of memory. This study aims to analyze the conformation of the memory of political groups during the process of receiving audiovisual fiction. For this purpose, a corpus of four chapters of the soap opera Love and Revolution was used as a cognitive device for remembering. The television series, broadcast by SBT between April 2011 and January 2012, went back to the beginning and development of the military dictatorship in Brazil, in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Three militants of various affiliations Communists who acted against the regime in Rio Grande do Norte and neighboring states, were participants in this study. Using the method of oral history, the research was divided into two stages: in-depth interviews, which dealt with the history of life of employees with the militancy in the Communist parties and other social movements, and the assistance of a drive dramatic soap opera Love and Revolution. Comparing these two phases of the study, we analyze the flow of mediations that crossed memories of militancy and media framework; shifts the narrative of remembrance during reception, and the opposition between memory and represented the experiences of the receivers

Implicações da teoria histórico-cultural no processo de formação de professores da educação infantil

Pós-graduação em Educação - FFC

O Sistema ideológico do agronegócio: o poder do discurso e o discurso pelo poder

Pós-graduação em Geografia - FCT