Deletions and other pleasures : Episode 1: The pleasures of science fiction

"Christy Dena’s online-remix-narrative takes iconic images of popular culture and builds with them a strange world where the human fallibility is programmatically deleted. Both dystopic and playful, Dena’s work is an ironic reimagining of pleasure as a state of robotic flatlining, using tropes of science fiction to critique processes of social normalisation and increasing alienation from emotionality." This creative response began as a completely different story and form. What excited me in the end was the concept of deletion and how it could be an interesting mechanic: where the only thing you can do in the world is delete. I thought about deleting parts of robots to make them better. Healing comes from taking away, from removing things. Memories of Joseph Weizenbaum’s chatbot ELIZA came flooding back: where the (human) player is a patient talking to a Rogerian psychotherapist. But in this work I’m switching the roles and making the player the doctor, a doctor to robots…a doctor that can only prescribe deletions. I conceived of the work as a branching narrative, and started writing it in Twine. With every robot patient, the player chose one of many deletions. But when I realised I wouldn’t be able to arrange an artist and sound designer I looked for another option. I played with Zeega and felt that I could get the mood I was after with that platform. So the piece transformed into a work where the player/viewer is imprisoned in the decisions of the deleting protagonist…which has its own effect on the experience and meaning.

O desenho à maneira dos mestres como metalinguagem

Relatório da Prática de Ensino Supervisionada, Mestrado em Ensino de Artes Visuais, Universidade de Lisboa, 2011

Pleiotropy in microdeletion syndromes: neurologic and spermatogenic abnormalities in mice homozygous for the p6H deletion are likely due to dysfunction of a single gene.

Variability and complexity of phenotypes observed in microdeletion syndromes can be due to deletion of a single gene whose product participates in several aspects of development or can be due to the deletion of a number of tightly linked genes, each adding its own effect to the syndrome. The p6H deletion in mouse chromosome 7 presents a good model with which to address this question of multigene vs. single-gene pleiotropy. Mice homozygous for the p6H deletion are diluted in pigmentation, are smaller than their littermates, and manifest a nervous jerky-gait phenotype. Male homozygotes are sterile and exhibit profound abnormalities in spermiogenesis. By using N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (EtNU) mutagenesis and a breeding protocol designed to recover recessive mutations expressed hemizygously opposite a large p-locus deletion, we have generated three noncomplementing mutations that map to the p6H deletion. Each of these EtNU-induced mutations has adverse effects on the size, nervous behavior, and progression of spermiogenesis that characterize p6H deletion homozygotes. Because EtNU is thought to induce primarily intragenic (point) mutations in mouse stem-cell spermatogonia, we propose that the trio of phenotypes (runtiness, nervous jerky gait, and male sterility) expressed in p6H deletion homozygotes is the result of deletion of a single highly pleiotropic gene. We also predict that a homologous single locus, quite possibly tightly linked and distal to the D15S12 (P) locus in human chromosome 15q11-q13, may be associated with similar developmental abnormalities in humans.

Price promotions effects of virtue and vice products

Purpose: This paper aims to propose models that capture the own effect of price promotions of virtue and vice products on sales and cross effects within the subcategory, between subcategories and between periods. The hypotheses assume that, due to reverse consumption self-control, the demand for vice products is more price-sensitive than demand for virtue products, but the demand for vice products is less price-sensitive between periods than demand for virtue products; furthermore, due to the degree of impulse-buying and to licensing, the demand sensitivity of the products of a subcategory and of those of other subcategories varies according to the type of promoted product (vice or virtue). Design/methodology/approach: The methodology is based on different econometrical models that estimate the total net effect of price promotions of virtue and vice products on sales. Findings: The results show a greater own effect for price promotions of vice products than for virtue products. However, the complementary sales effect between subcategories for virtue products facilitates greater expansion of the subcategory in virtue products than in vice products. Originality/value: Although price promotions of virtue products (light) and vice products (regular) have proliferated in recent years, researchers have only estimated their own sales effect. Alternatively, the paper contributes by considering own and cross effects.

Decomposing the sales promotion bump accounting for cross-category effects

Extant research on the decomposition of unit sales bumps due to price promotions considers these effects only within a single product category. This article introduces a framework that accommodates specific cross-category effects. Empirical results based on daily data measured at the item/SKU level show that the effects of promotions on sales in other categories are modest. Between-category complementary effects (20%) are, on average, substantially larger than between-category substitution effects (11%). Hence, a promotion of an item has an average net spin-off effect of (20 - 11 =) 9% of its own effect. The number of significant cross-category effects is low, which means that we expect that, most of the time, it is sufficient to look at within-category effects only. We also find within-category complementary effects, which implies that competitive items within the category may benefit from a promotion. We find small stockpiling effects (6%), modest cross-item effects (22%), and substantial category-expansion effects (72%). The cross-item effects are the result of cross-item substitution effects within the category (26%) and within-category complementary effects (4%). Approximately 15% (= 11% / 72%) of the category-expansion effect is due to between-category substitution effects of dependent categories.

Awards before and after the Nobel Prize : a Matthew effect and/or a ticket to one's own funeral?

The primary aim of this descriptive exploration of scientists’ life cycle award patterns is to evaluate whether awards breed further awards and identify researcher experiences after reception of the Nobel Prize. To achieve this goal, we collected data on the number of awards received each year for 50 years before and after Nobel Prize reception by all 1901–2000 Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry, and medicine or physiology. Our results indicate an increasing rate of awards before Nobel reception, reaching the summit precisely in the year of the Nobel Prize. After this pinnacle year, awards drop sharply. This result is confirmed by separate analyses of three different disciplines and by a random-effects negative binomial regression model. Such an effect, however, does not emerge for more recent Nobel laureates (1971–2000). In addition, Nobelists in medicine or physiology generate more awards shortly before and after prize reception, whereas laureates in chemistry attract more awards as time progresses.

An attempt to explain from facts the effect of the issues of the Bank of England upon its own interests, public credit, and country banks.

Mode of access: Internet.

The central role of communication in developing trust and its effect on employee involvement

Communication plays an important role in the development of trust within an organization. While a number of researchers have studied the relationship of trust and communication, little is known about the specific linkages among quality of information, quantity of information, openness, trust, and outcomes such as employee involvement. This study tests these relationships using communication audit data from 218 employees in the oil industry. Using mediation analysis and structural equation modeling, we found that quality of information predicted trust of one's coworkers and supervisors while adequacy of information predicted one's trust of top management. Trust of coworkers, supervisors, and top management influenced perceptions of organizational openness, which in turn influenced employees' ratings of their own level of involvement in the organization's goals. This study suggests that the relationship between communication and trust is complex, and that simple strategies focusing on either quality or quantity of information may be ineffective for dealing with all members in an organization.

A 'deleterious' effect? : Australian legal education and the production of the legal identity

A body of critical legal scholarship argues that, by the time they have completed their studies, students who enter legal education holding social ideals and intending to use their legal education to achieve social change, have become cynical about the ability of the law to do so and no longer possess such ideals. This is explained by critical scholars to be the result of a process of ideological indoctrination, aimed at ensuring that graduates uphold the narrow and conservative interests of the legal profession and capitalist society, being exercised by law schools acting as adjuncts of the legal profession, and exercised upon the passive body of the law student. By using Foucault’s work on knowledge, power, and the subject to interrogate the assumptions upon which this narrative is based, this thesis intends to suggest a way of thinking differently to the approach taken by many critical legal scholars. It then uses an analytics of government (based on Foucault’s notion of ‘governmentality’) to consider the construction of the legal identity differently. It examines the ways in which the governance of the legal identity is rationalised, programmed, and implemented, in three Queensland law schools. It also looks at the way that five prescriptive texts to ‘surviving’ law school suggest students establish and practise a relation to themselves in order to construct their own legal identities. Overall, this analysis shows that governance is not simply conducted in the profession’s interests, but occurs due to a complex arrangement of different practices, which can lead to the construction of skilled legal professional identities as well as ethical lawyer-citizens that hold an interest in justice. The implications of such an analytics provide the basis for original ways of understanding legal education, and legal education scholarship.

A comparative study of the effect of calibration conditions on the water equivalence of a range of gel dosimeters

Gel dosimeters are of increasing interest in the field of radiation oncology as the only truly three-dimensional integrating radiation dosimeter. There are a range of ferrous-sulphate and polymer gel dosimeters. To be of use, they must be water-equivalent. On their own, this relates to their radiological properties as determined by their composition. In the context of calibration of gel dosimeters, there is the added complexity of the calibration geometry; the presence of containment vessels may influence the dose absorbed. Five such methods of calibration are modelled here using the Monte Carlo method. It is found that the Fricke gel best matches water for most of the calibration methods, and that the best calibration method involves the use of a large tub into which multiple fields of different dose are directed. The least accurate calibration method involves the use of a long test tube along which a depth dose curve yields multiple calibration points.

A comparative study of the effect of calibration conditions on the water equivalence of a range of gel dosimeters

Gel dosimeters are of increasing interest in the field of radiation oncology as the only truly three-dimensional integrating radiation dosimeter. There are a range of ferrous-sulphate and polymer gel dosimeters. To be of use, they must be water-equivalent. On their own, this relates to their radiological properties as determined by their composition. In the context of calibration of gel dosimeters, there is the added complexity of the calibration geometry; the presence of containment vessels may influence the dose absorbed. Five such methods of calibration are modelled here using the Monte Carlo method. It is found that the Fricke gel best matches water for most of the calibration methods, and that the best calibration method involves the use of a large tub into which multiple fields of different dose are directed. The least accurate calibration method involves the use of a long test tube along which a depth dose curve yields multiple calibration points.

Social identification dimensions as mediators of the effect of prototypicality on intergroup behaviours

Cameron (2004) proposed a three-dimensional model and measure of social identification consisting of cognitive centrality, in-group affect, and in-group ties. This approach has received growing theoretical and empirical support; however, little research has examined how these dimensions of social identification may relate differentially to intergroup outcome behaviors. The current research sought to address this question by examining the possible mediating role the dimensions of social identification on the relationship between prototypicality of group members and the intergroup outcome behaviors of in-group favoritism, out-group derogation, and collective self-esteem. The current study examined university students’ (N = 235) feelings towards students from their own and another local university. Structural equation modeling was used to identify the most appropriate and parsimonious models of these pathways. The results showed support for the utility of measuring social identification using a multidimensional approach with unique meditational pathways emerging for the distinct intergroup behaviors.

The effect of poser race on the happy categorization advantage depends on stimulus type, set size, and presentation duration

The question as to whether poser race affects the happy categorization advantage, the faster categorization of happy than of negative emotional expressions, has been answered inconsistently. Hugenberg (2005) found the happy categorization advantage only for own race faces whereas faster categorization of angry expressions was evident for other race faces. Kubota and Ito (2007) found a happy categorization advantage for both own race and other race faces. These results have vastly different implications for understanding the influence of race cues on the processing of emotional expressions. The current study replicates the results of both prior studies and indicates that face type (computer-generated vs. photographic), presentation duration, and especially stimulus set size influence the happy categorization advantage as well as the moderating effect of poser race.

The effect of retail store managers on aboriginal diet in remote communities

Key nutrient densities of the diet of two remote northern coastal Aboriginal communities were measured using the store-turnover method during the periods that three store managers were responsible for each store respectively. Individual store managers were a greater determinant of nutrient density than the community itself. Furthermore, nutrient densities tended to be highest in both communities when their stores were administered by one particular store manager. The results support the notion that store managers wield considerable power over the food supply of remote Aboriginal communities, and raise questions concerning the ability of Aboriginal community members to influence their own food supplies in retail stores. However, the study also confirms that store managers can be important allies in efforts to improve Aboriginal dietary intake.

The effect of three different (-135°C) whole body cryotherapy exposure durations on elite rugby league players

Background: Whole body cryotherapy (WBC) is the therapeutic application of extreme cold air for a short duration. Minimal evidence is available for determining optimal exposure time. Purpose: To explore whether the length of WBC exposure induces differential changes in inflammatory markers, tissue oxygenation, skin and core temperature, thermal sensation and comfort. Method: This study was a randomised cross over design with participants acting as their own control. Fourteen male professional first team super league rugby players were exposed to 1, 2, and 3 minutes of WBC at -135°C. Testing took place the day after a competitive league fixture, each exposure separated by seven days. Results: No significant changes were found in the inflammatory cytokine interleukin six. Significant reductions (p<0.05) in deoxyhaemoglobin for gastrocnemius and vastus lateralis were found. In vastus lateralis significant reductions (p<0.05) in oxyhaemoglobin and tissue oxygenation index (p<0.05) were demonstrated. Significant reductions (p<0.05) in skin temperature were recorded. No significant changes were recorded in core temperature. Significant reductions (p<0.05) in thermal sensation and comfort were recorded. Conclusion: Three brief exposures to WBC separated by 1 week are not sufficient to induce physiological changes in IL-6 or core temperature. There are however significant changes in tissue oxyhaemoglobin, deoxyhaemoglobin, tissue oxygenation index, skin temperature and thermal sensation. We conclude that a 2 minute WBC exposure was the optimum exposure length at temperatures of -135°C and could be applied as the basis for future studies.