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Twenty-first century Ecuadorian cinematransnationalism, living well and the law of cinema
No full textFunding: This work was sponsored by the National Secretariat of Higher Education, Science and Technology of Ecuador (Senescyt), Open Call 2017La Ley de Fomento al Cine Nacional de 2006 constituye la primera política cinematográfica en Ecuador luego de décadas de fallidos intentos. Esta ley se creó el Consejo Nacional de Cinematografía (CNCine), para canalizar el apoyo estatal a proyectos, entre otras disposiciones. Este artículo analiza el contexto legal de los 10 años de vigencia del CNCine. Al igual que la ideología del Socialismo del siglo XXI, estos textos presentan una retórica antineoliberal que no necesariamente se cristaliza en reformas estructurales hacia el cine nacional. Se propone la terminología ‘Cine ecuatoriano del siglo XXI’ para encapsular este periodo.Peer reviewe
On the role of Volterra integral equations in self-consistent, product-limit, inverse probability of censoring weighted, and redistribution-to-the-right estimators for the survival function
Get PDFThis paper reconsiders several results of historical and current importance to nonparametric estimation of the survival distribution for failure in the presence of right-censored observation times, demonstrating in particular how Volterra integral equations help inter-connect the resulting estimators. The paper begins by considering Efron’s self-consistency equation, introduced in a seminal 1967 Berkeley symposium paper. Novel insights provided in the current work include the observations that (i) the self-consistency equation leads directly to an anticipating Volterra integral equation whose solution is given by a product-limit estimator for the censoring survival function; (ii) a definition used in this argument immediately establishes the familiar product-limit estimator for the failure survival function; (iii) the usual Volterra integral equation for the product-limit estimator of the failure survival function leads to an immediate and simple proof that it can be represented as an inverse probability of censoring weighted estimator; (iv) a simple identity characterizes the relationship between natural inverse probability of censoring weighted estimators for the survival and distribution functions of failure; (v) the resulting inverse probability of censoring weighted estimators, attributed to a highly influential 1992 paper of Robins and Rotnitzky, were implicitly introduced in Efron’s 1967 paper in its development of the redistribution-to-the-right algorithm. All results developed herein allow for ties between failure and/or censored observations.Peer reviewe
Voicing Afro-Cubaneity : Afro-Cuban citizenship, poetics and history-making in Havana today
Get PDFWhat is Afro-Cubaneity? What is it like to be Afro-Cuban today in Havana? This thesis has an autoethnographic character and departs from the intersection or the link between Afro-Cuban Lucumí Òrìṣà/Ifá and Afro-Cuban rap practices to make an intervention in Afro- Cuban, Afro-Caribbean, Afro-diasporic, and global hiphop studies. It does so by proposing that we consider the possibility of Afro-Cuban anthropology to answer those initial questions as an experiment. Throughout its chapters, the thesis follows Afro-Cuban philosophical logic and various Afro-Cuban Ifá divination figures as conceptual frameworks to operationalise the topics and arguments of the chapters
Theoretical analyses of strongly entangled low-temperature quantum spin systems in one and two dimensions
Get PDFIn this thesis, I provide a record of my work on two projects. The first project focuses on the magnetic physics of the spin-liquid candidate material Ca₁₀Cr₇O₂₈. Using methods including exact diagonalization, Thermal Pure Quantum States, and high-temperature expansions, I provide evidence that the model proposed by Balz et al. [Phys. Rev. B 95, 174414 (2017)] is significantly incomplete as a description of the magnetism of this material, with reference to the zero-field specific heat capacity. I then provide an account of my work to date on constructing an improved model --- in particular, I motivate the addition of anisotropic terms. The second project in this thesis seeks to extend the utility of a method called the path integral over tensor networks. Studying the staggered XX spin chain, I present my progress in deriving an effective field theory, identifying zero-energy edge modes, and calculating fluctuation corrections to saddle-point energies. The aim of these calculations is to explore how the path integral over tensor networks method makes the topological physics of this model accessible. As it stands, my work is inconclusive in this regard, and I discuss some possible issues with my analysis
How can discussions and recommendations from the Blue Earth Project influence politicians and voters in democracies?
Get PDFThe Blue Earth Project (BEP), an initiative led by the Network of Researchers on the Chemical Emergence of Life (NoRCEL) convenes global public forums to explore the guiding question: How can discussions and recommendations from the Blue Earth Project influence politicians and voters in democracies? As climate change, biodiversity loss, and ecological degradation intensify, the need for inclusive, ethically grounded scientific discourse has never been greater. This paper outlines the theoretical basis, public value, and democratic relevance of BEP, making the case for its role in supporting evidence-based, citizen-informed policymaking. By integrating perspectives from science, ethics, and public participation, BEP serves as a model for engaging democratic societies in shaping planetary futures.Peer reviewe
Mysticism and sovereignty : from katechontic to mystical political theology
Get PDFThis paper juxtaposes the katechontic political theology of modern sovereignty that sacrifices life in the name of its protection with a paradigm of mystical sovereignty whose purpose is to serve the power of life. Reclaiming the power and politicality not only of theology but also of an overlooked and denigrated discourse, such as mysticism, serves two purposes: it restores the true content of mystery and elucidates the political dimension of theology. Mysticism has been either unduly dismissed in secular modernity as obscurantist, or its meaning has been abused by modern sovereignty for the purpose of investing power with an air of transcendent legitimacy. The proper restoration of the meaning of mysticism may eventually help us reconstruct an alternative conception of sovereignty, one that inverses the attributes Schmitt associates with sovereign power: mastery, supreme potency, legitimate exercise of arbitrary violence. Such an alternative conception of sovereignty, as vulnerability, sacrifice, service, and potent powerlessness may then enable us to appreciate the resources mystical theology can contribute to rethinking the nature of the political and the political nature of theology.Peer reviewe
(dis)Orientating horror : feeling queerly
Get PDFSara Ahmed begins her book Queer Phenomenology with a discussion of orientation, drawing a parallel between considerations of sexual and spatial orientations and questions of how we reside, inhabit and move through them. This audiovisual essay will take up this spatial understanding of queerness in which Ahmed ‘re-animate[s] the very concept of space’ (2006: 12) to explore the experience of disorientation in horror cinema. Horror films frequently use camera movement to disrupt and disturb our embodied connections with characters and places, shifting us away or upending safe or straightforward relationships with space. If, as Ahmed suggests, straightness is an investment in following established lines, and queerness involves turning away and deviating from the lines and objects provided by straight culture, then we might understand such disorientations as an expression of queerness existing as a fundamental and embodied element of the genre. This audiovisual essay will explore camera movement as an aspect of (dis)orientation through a selection of examples, including Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019), La Casa Muda (Gustavo Hernández, 2010) and Evil Dead (Fede Álvarez, 2013). In so doing, I will combine Ahmed’s queer phenomenology with the work of Jennifer Barker, specifically her conceptualisation of the film itself as embodied, possessing skin, musculature, and viscera. Barker, like Ahmed, is engaged with the question of orientations, and the ways we might share embodied spatial understandings with those of the film, through the camera’s movement and negotiation of space. The video will engage with this work through audiovisual comparisons achieved by multiscreen compositions, slow-motion and layering – techniques which allow scrutiny and exaggeration of movement. Through films that are ostensibly concerned with heterosexual characters and worlds, this audiovisual essay will seek to address the horror film body’s own rejection of straightness. References Sara Ahmed (2006) Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others. Durham: Duke University Press. Jennifer Barker (2009) The Tactile Eye: Touch and the Cinematic Experience. Durham: Duke University Press.Peer reviewe
Self-poled halide perovskite Ruddlesden-Popper ferroelectric-photovoltaic semiconductor thin films and their energy harvesting properties
Get PDFFunding: L.K.J. acknowledges funding from UKRI-FLF through MR/T022094/1. This work used the Cirrus UK National Tier-2 HPC Service at EPCC (http://www.cirrus.ac.uk) funded by the University of Edinburgh and EPSRC (EP/P020267/1). C.R.B. and Q.W. acknowledge support of UKRI Frontier Research Guarantee on the “Processing of Smart Porous Electro-Ceramic Transducers – ProSPECT”, project. No. EP/X023265/1. Q.W. acknowledges the support of the UKRI Postdoctoral Fellowship Guarantee (Project No. EP/Y017412/1), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 51902094).Ambient energy harvesters with multi-source energy harvesting capabilities are highly desirable for developing compact and sustainable power solutions for emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things. In this study, thin films of low-dimensional halide perovskites, (BA)2(MA)n-1PbnBr3n+1 (n = 1, 2), are demonstrated to be both semiconducting and ferroelectric, enabling the harvesting of mechanical and ambient light energy. By incorporating Cr/Cr2O3 or phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) as a barrier/passivation layer, reproducible ferroelectric properties are consistently achieved in (BA)2(MA)n-1PbnBr3n+1 +1 thin films. The corresponding flexible piezoelectric energy harvesters delivered a peak-to-peak open-circuit voltage of 8 V under a 10 N force, while the photovoltaic devices exhibited an open-circuit voltage of ≈1.2 V under 1 Sun illumination. This study unveils the potential of low-dimensional halide perovskite thin films for lightweight, multi-source energy harvesting and provides key insights into the crucial role of barrier layers in achieving reliable thin-film halide perovskite ferroelectric devices.Peer reviewe
Evaluation of Arclight frugal smartphone video otoscopy
Get PDFFunding: Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.Background: Frugal innovations are essential in low-resource settings to provide cost-effective medical solutions without compromising functionality. The Arclight is a robust, solar-powered device that functions as both an ophthalmoscope and an otoscope, priced at approximately 12€ in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Objectives: This study evaluates the Arclight's potential as a video otoscope when attached to smartphones, aiming to enhance telemedicine capabilities in ear examinations. Methods: Twenty otorhinolaryngology (ORL) specialists rated the standalone Arclight as well as its attachment to an iPhone 12 and a Samsung Galaxy A14 for ear examinations at the University Medical Centre in Mainz, Germany. Results: The standalone Arclight received the highest ratings overall, followed by the Arclight attached to a Samsung Galaxy A14. Attached to the Samsung Galaxy A14, the Arclight demonstrated significantly higher performance regarding ease of focus (p < 0.01), quality of view (p < 0.05), and zoom capabilities (p < 0.05) compared to the iPhone12 attachment. The iPhone12 setup performed lowest in all categories. Conclusion: The Arclight is an effective, low-cost tool for ear examinations in low-resource settings. While smartphone integration enhances its potential for telemedicine, performance varies depending on the smartphone used. The Samsung Galaxy A14 proved to be a more reliable option for tele-otoscopy than the iPhone 12. Further optimization is needed to improve smartphone integration and address identified limitations, enhancing the Arclight's utility in telemedicine applications. Level of Evidence: NA.Peer reviewe
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