51 research outputs found
Interview: Anne-Marie Fortier
No full textThis paper is an edited version of an email interview conducted by Debra Ferreday and Adi Kuntsman with Anne-Marie Fortier, the author of Multicultural Horizons: Diversity and the Limits of the Civil Nation (Routledge, 2008). Fortier’s work has been informative in the development of some of the arguments explored in this special issue; in their conversation Ferreday and Kuntsman asked her to comment on the ideas of haunting, racial imaginaries, nostalgia, national anxieties, political feelings and hopes for the future
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Statius' Silvan Poetics: A Synoptic Reading of the Silvae
No full textThe overwhelming majority of scholarly publications on Statius’ Silvae, a collection of relatively short poems from the first century AD, selectively approach specific themes or individual poems. As a consequence, the overall design of the collection has received at best marginal attention. This thesis proposes the long overdue coherent reading of the five books of Silvae. Close readings of the poems and epistolary prefaces not only reveal connections between the poems but also intertextual relationships with authors from the Augustan age, that function as models for Statius’ poetic project. Concepts from 20th-century anthropology and philosophy further the understanding of the poems’ specifically silvan nature. This study reveals the relevance of the book publication for Statius’ Silvae which no longer appear a fortuitous collection but as a carefully crafted series of poetry books.
Of the five chapters, the first two have a conceptual and terminological focus, whereas the latter three approach the collection in terms of structuring elements. Chapter 1 proposes to read the title, Silvae, as a development of the term silva used in the rhetorical treatises of Cicero and, most notably, Quintilian, who appears to have been an important model for Statius’ poetic undertaking. It also traces the use of this title in the wake of Statius. Chapter 2 questions the validity of the label ‘occasional poetry’ and investigates how the silvan occasionality differs from the use of time made by other poets of the classical canon. Chapter 3 continues the line of inquiry on temporality by analysing the character of Statius’ “occasions”: I argue that the Silvae all describe a rite of passage and that they form, as a collection, a new Flavian calendar. This reading is supported by a close analysis of Silv. 1.1 and the entirety of book 1, in which Statius inscribes the Roman festival calendar and extensively echoes Ovid’s Fasti. Chapter 4 shifts the focus from the theme of religion to the author and shows how a unified narrative is constructed around his persona, a narrative which culminates in a closural book 5 as a firm and integral part of the collection. The final chapter 5 considers the place of the Silvae in the framework of Statius’ oeuvre through the concept of liminality. It will emerge that the little poems are considered a delay, mora, of the composition of the epic poems Thebaid and Achilleid.
The entirety of this study looks to illustrate the coherence of the Silvae, a poetic work that not only has a clear internal poetic agenda, but also firmly defends its place in the framework of Statius’ oeuvre and the literary canon alike
Tunable Magnets: Modeling and Validation for Dynamic and Precision Applications
No full textActuator self-heating limits achievable force and can cause unwanted structural deformations that adversely affect the accuracy in precision actuation systems. This is especially apparent in quasi-static applications that require the actuator to maintain a stable position over an extended period. As a solution, we propose the use of Tunable Magnets (TMs). TMs rely on in-situ magnetization state tuning of AlNico to create an infinitely adjustable magnetic flux. They consist of an AlNiCo low coercivity permanent magnet together with a magnetizing coil. After tuning, the AlNiCo retains its magnetic field without further energy input, thus eliminating static heat dissipation. To enable implementation in actuation systems, the AlNiCo needs to be robustly tunable in the presence of a dynamically varying system air-gap. We achieve this by developing a magnetization state tuning method, based on a magnetic circuit model of the actuator, measured AlNiCo BH data and air-gap flux feedback control. A measurement setup is built to test the proposed tuning method. For an AlNiCo 5 TM, we have accomplished magnetization tuning with an accuracy in the mT range and a sub mT precision. With this obtained performance, actuator heating is already almost eliminated during static periods.The second part of the thesis consists of investigating TM actuator applications. By comparing a TM actuator to a conventional actuator of similar geometry, we have derived a metric called the Break-Even Tuning Time. This can be used to evaluate what actuation applications can be made more energy efficient using a TM actuator. The results are very sensitive to assumptions made, but they do provide some useful qualitative conclusions. Actuation systems where these actuators can improve energy efficiency can be characterized by a low actuation bandwidth or only incidentally required actuation, together with large air-gaps and/or large required constant bias forces. Also, scaling analysis shows that TM actuators are more energy efficient compared to conventional reluctance actuators at small length scales
Improving Strength of 3D Printed Parts through Stress-aligned Print Paths: Using highly anisotropic Liquid Crystal Polymers
No full textAdditive Manufacturing (AM) has made it possible to manufacture parts whose shape complexity was unfeasible with other traditional methods by depositing material layer-wise. However, this planar layer-wise deposition strategy can be restrictive for the part's properties. However, the anisotropic behaviour can also be embraced and used as an advantage. Therefore, in this thesis a different method is implemented: the Stress-Aligned Printing method (SA), in which print-paths are oriented along the principal stress directions of a part's load case. To implement this method, a new 5-axis 3D printer was developed. An algorithm that converts results from a Topology- and Anistropy- optimization (TAO) to G-code was created. In a case study for a jet engine bracket, an improvement of 156% in ultimate tensile strength was found, while the weight was reduced from 41 g to 20 g.Aerospace Engineerin
Cholera ante portas - The re-emergence of cholera in Kinshasa after a ten-year hiatus.
No full textInternational audienceBackground: Cholera is an endemic disease in certain well-defined areas in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The west of the country, including the mega-city Kinshasa, has been free of cases since mid 2001 when the last outbreak ended. Methods and Findings: We used routinely collected passive surveillance data to construct epidemic curves of the cholera cases and map the spatio-temporal progress of the disease during the first 47 weeks of 2011. We compared the spatial distribution of disease spread to that which occurred in the last cholera epidemic in Kinshasa between 1996 and 2001. To better understand previous determinants of cholera spread in this region, we conducted a correlation analysis to assess the impact of rainfall on weekly health zone cholera case counts between December 1998 and March 2001 and a Generalized Linear Model (GLM) regression analysis to identify factors that have been associated with the most vulnerable health zones within Kinshasa between October 1998 and June 1999. In February 2011, cholera reemerged in a region surrounding Kisangani and gradually spread westwards following the course of the Congo River to Kinshasa, home to 10 million people. Ten sampled isolates were confirmed to be Vibrio cholerae O1, biotype El Tor, serotype Inaba, resistant to trimethoprim-sulfa, furazolidone, nalidixic acid, sulfisoxaole, and streptomycin, and intermediate resistant to Chloramphenicol. An analysis of a previous outbreak in Kinshasa shows that rainfall was correlated with case counts and that health zone population densities as well as fishing and trade activities were predictors of case counts. CONCLUSION: Cholera is particularly difficult to tackle in the DRC. Given the duration of the rainy season and increased riverine traffic from the eastern provinces in late 2011, we expect further increases in cholera in the coming months and especially within the mega-city Kinshasa. We urge all partners involved in the response to remain alert.Didier Bompangue and Silvan Vesenbeckh contributed equally to this work. *corresponding author: Silvan Vesenbeckh, Harvard School of Public Health ([email protected])Didier Bompangue is Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology (University of Kinshasa) andEpidemiologist in the DRC Ministry of Health. He was involved in the investigations of the described outbreak since February 2011
Flycon
No full textWe propose a real-time method for the infrastructure-free estimation of articulated human motion. The approach leverages a swarm of camer aequipped flying robots and jointly optimizes the swarm's and skeletal states, which include the 3D joint positions and a set of bones. Our method allows to track the motion of human subjects, for example an athlete, over long time horizons and long distances, in challenging settings and at large scale, where fixed infrastructure approaches are not applicable. The proposed algorithm uses active infra-red markers, runs in real-time and accurately estimates robot and human pose parameters online without the need for accurately calibrated or stationary mounted cameras. Our method i) estimates a global coordinate frame for the MAV swarm, ii) jointly optimizes the human pose and relative camera positions, and iii) estimates the length of the human bones. The entire swarm is then controlled via a model predictive controller to maximize visibility of the subject from multiple viewpoints even under fast motion such as jumping or jogging. We demonstrate our method in a number of difficult scenarios including capture of long locomotion sequences at the scale of a triplex gym, in non-planar terrain, while climbing and in outdoor scenarios. CCS Concepts: • Computing methodologies → Motion capture; Reconstruction; Robotic planning; Motion path planning;.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Learning & Autonomous Contro
Preterm readiness for oral feeding: a proposal for an evaluation instrument
No full textNa atuação multiprofissional em unidade neonatal, tem-se observado a dificuldade em sistematizar uma avaliação objetiva do comportamento de sucção do bebê e seu desempenho na transição da alimentação láctea, por sonda, para a via oral. Assim, o presente estudo tem por objetivo elaborar e validar o conteúdo e a aparência de um instrumento de avaliação da prontidão do bebê prematuro em iniciar a transição da alimentação gástrica para via oral. Trata-se de estudo metodológico, para o qual elaborou-se o referido instrumento e respectivo guia instrucional, tendo por base a revisão de literatura e a experiência profissional da pesquisadora, que atribuiu escores de 0 a 2 para cada sinal clínico e desempenho do prematuro a ser avaliado. Para validação do instrumento e guia instrucional, estabeleceu-se grau de concordância mínimo de 85%, participando como juízes, fonoaudiólogos com ampla experiência na área de Neonatologia Atuaram 15 fonoaudiólogos na primeira etapa e 14 na segunda, ocasião em que se atingiu a concordância aceitável nos itens do instrumento de avaliação e respectivas definições operacionais contidas no guia instrucional (idade corrigida, estado de consciência, postura global, tônus global, postura dos lábios, postura da língua, reflexo de procura, reflexo de sucção, reflexo de mordida, reflexo de vômito, movimentação da língua, canolamento de língua, movimentação da mandíbula, força de sucção, sucções por pausa, manutenção do ritmo de sucção por pausa, manutenção do estado alerta e sinais de estresse).Considering the multiprofessional performance in a neonatal unit, we found difficulties in systematizing an objective evaluation of infant sucking and performance in the transition from gavage to oral feeding. Therefore, this study aimed at elaborating and validating the content and appearance of an instrument for the evaluation of preterm infant promptness to begin the transition from gastric to oral feeding. In this methodological study, the author elaborated an instrument and its respective instructional guide based on a literature review and her professional experience, assigning scores from 0 to 2 to each clinical sign and performance of the premature infant. In order to validate the instrument and instructional guide, a 85% minimum level of agreement was established. Oral therapist participated as peers in the validation of the instrument and instructional guide. 15 of them participated in the first phase and 14 in the second one, when the acceptable level of agreement was achieved regarding the items of the evaluation instrument and the operational definitions specified in the instructional guide (corrected age, state of awareness, global posture, global tonus, lips posture, tongue posture, rooting reflex, sucking reflex, biting reflex, gag reflex, tongue movement, jaw movement, sucking power, sucking and pause, maintenance of the rhythm of sucking and pause, maintenance of alert state and stress signs)
Rosenplüt as the author of the Nuremberg Wine Greetings: Philological and computer-philological analyses
No full textDie sogenannten »Weingrüße« sind im Nürnberger Raum ab Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts vergleichsweise breit überliefert. Seit dem 19. Jahrhundert wurden sie immer wieder Hans Rosenplüt zugeschrieben, wobei die Autorfrage bislang ungeklärt bleiben musste. Im Zuge der neuen Hybridedition der Weingrüße diskutiert der Beitrag die Autorfrage, wobei der philologische Vergleich der Weingrüße mit der Kleinepik Rosenplüts um eine digitale Studie ergänzt wird. Da sich die Ergebnisse der digitalen Studie und die Analysen zu stilistischen Parallelen und zur Überlieferungssituation gegenseitig bestätigen, erscheint eine Autorschaft Rosenplüts als ausgesprochen plausibel.The so-called ›Weingrüße‹ (wine greetings) have been handed down comparatively widely in the Nuremberg area since the middle of the 15th century. Since the 19th century, they have been repeatedly attributed to Hans Rosenplüt, although the question of authorship has so far remained unresolved. In the course of the new hybrid edition of the Weingrüße, the article discusses the question of authorship, whereby the philological comparison of the Weingrüße with Rosenplüt\u27s minor epic is supplemented by a digital study. As the results of the digital study and the analyses of stylistic parallels and the transmission situation confirm each other, Rosenplüt\u27s authorship seems highly plausible
Preterm readiness for oral feeding: a proposal for an evaluation instrument
No full textNa atuação multiprofissional em unidade neonatal, tem-se observado a dificuldade em sistematizar uma avaliação objetiva do comportamento de sucção do bebê e seu desempenho na transição da alimentação láctea, por sonda, para a via oral. Assim, o presente estudo tem por objetivo elaborar e validar o conteúdo e a aparência de um instrumento de avaliação da prontidão do bebê prematuro em iniciar a transição da alimentação gástrica para via oral. Trata-se de estudo metodológico, para o qual elaborou-se o referido instrumento e respectivo guia instrucional, tendo por base a revisão de literatura e a experiência profissional da pesquisadora, que atribuiu escores de 0 a 2 para cada sinal clínico e desempenho do prematuro a ser avaliado. Para validação do instrumento e guia instrucional, estabeleceu-se grau de concordância mínimo de 85%, participando como juízes, fonoaudiólogos com ampla experiência na área de Neonatologia Atuaram 15 fonoaudiólogos na primeira etapa e 14 na segunda, ocasião em que se atingiu a concordância aceitável nos itens do instrumento de avaliação e respectivas definições operacionais contidas no guia instrucional (idade corrigida, estado de consciência, postura global, tônus global, postura dos lábios, postura da língua, reflexo de procura, reflexo de sucção, reflexo de mordida, reflexo de vômito, movimentação da língua, canolamento de língua, movimentação da mandíbula, força de sucção, sucções por pausa, manutenção do ritmo de sucção por pausa, manutenção do estado alerta e sinais de estresse).Considering the multiprofessional performance in a neonatal unit, we found difficulties in systematizing an objective evaluation of infant sucking and performance in the transition from gavage to oral feeding. Therefore, this study aimed at elaborating and validating the content and appearance of an instrument for the evaluation of preterm infant promptness to begin the transition from gastric to oral feeding. In this methodological study, the author elaborated an instrument and its respective instructional guide based on a literature review and her professional experience, assigning scores from 0 to 2 to each clinical sign and performance of the premature infant. In order to validate the instrument and instructional guide, a 85% minimum level of agreement was established. Oral therapist participated as peers in the validation of the instrument and instructional guide. 15 of them participated in the first phase and 14 in the second one, when the acceptable level of agreement was achieved regarding the items of the evaluation instrument and the operational definitions specified in the instructional guide (corrected age, state of awareness, global posture, global tonus, lips posture, tongue posture, rooting reflex, sucking reflex, biting reflex, gag reflex, tongue movement, jaw movement, sucking power, sucking and pause, maintenance of the rhythm of sucking and pause, maintenance of alert state and stress signs)
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