147 research outputs found
Development of a telepresence robot for medical consultation
No full text© 2017 Author(s). There are numerous efforts to add value for telehealth applications in the country. In this study, the design of a telepresence doctor to facilitate remote medical consultations in the wards of Philippine General Hospital is proposed. This includes the design of a robot capable of performing a medical consultation with clear audio and video information for both ends. It also provides the operating doctor full control of the telepresence robot and gives a user-friendly interface for the controlling doctor. The results have shown that it provides a stable and reliable mobile medical service through the use of the telepresence robot
Astonishing comics: a disability studies perspective on x-men comics
No full textDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras/Inglês e Literatura Correspondente, Florianópolis, 2013Stan Lee co-created in 1963 the X-Men; comics characters who in consequence of developing super-powers at puberty due to natural genetic evolution suffer society?s prejudice. In their analysis of the X-Men Trilogy X-Men (Bryan Singer 2000); X2: X-Men United (Bryan Singer 2003); and X-Men: the Last Stand (Brett Ratner 2006); through a Disability Studies perspective Michael M. Chemers (2004), Ramona Ilea (2009), Martin Mantle (2007), and Jennifer Rinaldi (2008) argue that mutants can be understood as social characterizations of disability. This investigation studies whether this affirmation also holds true for mutants depicted in X-Men comics. I will analyze the comics storylines God Loves, Man Kills (Marvel Graphic Novel # 05) and Gifted (Astonishing X-Men # 01 - 06) ? on which X2: X-Men United and X-Men: the Last Stand were based respectively. Stan Lee foi o co-criador, em 1964, dos X-Men, personagens de histórias em quadrinhos os quais, em conseqüência de desenvolverem super-poderes na puberdade, são alvos do preconceito da sociedade. Ao analisar a Trilogia dos filmes dos X-Men - X-Men (Bryan Singer 2000); X2: X-Men United (Bryan Singer 2003); e X-Men: The Last Stand (Brett Ratner 2006); a partir de uma perspective de Estudos sobre Deficiência. Michael M. Chemers (2004), Ramona Ilea (2009), Martin Mantle (2007), e Jennifer Rinaldi (2008) argumentam que os mutantes podem ser compreendidos como caracterizações sociais de deficiência. Este estudo investiga se esta afirmação também é válida para os mutantes presentes nas histórias em quadrinhos dos X-Men. As linhas narrativas a serem analisadas são: God Loves, Man Kills (Marvel Graphic Novel 05) e Gifted (Astonishing X-Men # 01 - 06); nas quais foram baseados X2: X-Men United e X-Men: the Last Stand respectivamente
Identity and consumption practices of Northamptonshire Caribbeans c.1955-1989
No full textThe objective of this thesis is to delineate and analyse Northamptonshire Caribbeans' consumption c.1955-1989. Author-collected and other oral histories alongside complementary primary and secondary references dovetail to unearth and analyse aspects of Post-War Caribbean consumption in a British provincial location that have been significantly unexplored previously. Central to the argument is the contention that identity is fundamentally significant in comprehending and analysing Northamptonshire Caribbeans' consumption. Various conceptualisations of identity facilitated development of consumer materialisations and aspirations. This thesis explores how multiple forms of identity as Caribbean, Black and British people were significant in shaping local Caribbeans' consumption. The succeeding pages address and analyse how these multiple identities influenced consumption and how provincial consumer behaviour was shaped by Caribbeans' relative co-ethnic isolation in Northamptonshire. Chapter 3 delineates and analyses consumer practices and practicalities of Northamptonshire Caribbeans. Integral within these consumer practices and practicalities are changes in consumption over time, intergenerational differences in consumption, as well as aspects of consumption that could be considered 'typical' and/or 'atypical' Northamptonshire Caribbean consumption; all of which are incorporated within this chapter. Chapter 4 connects identity and consumption through enhancing understanding of Northamptonshire Caribbeans' consumer networks. These networks interacted with the combination of identities local Caribbeans psychologically felt part of within various Caribbean, Black and British permutations. Furthermore, such identities varied more widely amongst the younger generation than their co-ethnic elders, a concept which is also addressed. Education and cultural currency are two novel strands through which to analyse connections between consumption and identity. The final two chapters deploy these concepts in an innovative manner creating and developing greater understanding of Northamptonshire Caribbeans' consumption. Chapter 5 expounds on the concept that education can be used as consumption whilst shaping future consumer behaviour, both ideas significantly under-explored previously. Chapter 6 introduces the theory of cultural currency, the idea that aspects of culture have finite, but changing, values and must be shared to have value similar to monetary currencies having exchange values for other monetary currencies. This chapter demonstrates how Northamptonshire Caribbeans shared aspects of Caribbean culture as cultural currency, fostering co-ethnic strength whilst gaining inter-ethnic respect for Caribbeans. Through comprehending Caribbean identity, correlations between empirical and social history, local consumption, as well as educational and cultural circumstances that stimulated and inspired Northamptonshire Caribbeans, this thesis distinctively illuminates how local Caribbeans' consumption interacted with various permutations of Afro-Caribbean, Black and/or British identities whilst representing idiosyncratic local nodes within these larger amalgamations
A Review of the Evidence for Sensory Interventions in the Treatment of ASD
No full textIt is estimated that Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) affects 1 in 88 children (CDC, 2012). Given this rapid and little understood increase in prevalence, the study of ASD and the search for effective treatments has become an area of intense interest. While there are many treatments available, controversy abounds as to which approach is most effective. Occupational therapists have long endorsed Sensory Integration Therapy (SIT) as the vehicle for helping children with ASD regulate sensory experiences and thus alleviate the symptoms of ASD. While SIT is a commonly used intervention and evidence exists to suggest that SIT is effective, it has not reached a level of consensus in the scientific community. The goal of this paper is to review the evidence for and against using SIT for the treatment of ASD and to discuss the role of the occupational therapist in the future research of this methodology
The 'true use of reading' : Sarah Fielding and mid eighteenth-century literary strategies.
No full textPhDThe aim of this thesis is to explore, by examining her life and
works, how Sarah Fielding (1710-68) established her identity as an author.
The definition of her role involves her notions of the functions of
writing and reading.
Sarah Fielding attempts to invite readers to form a sense of ties
by tacit understanding of her messages. As she believes that a work
of literature is produced through collaboration between the writer and
the reader, it is an important task in her view to show her attentiveness
toward reading practice. In her consideration of reading, she has two
distinct, even opposite views of her audience: on the one hand a familiar
and limited circle of readers with shared moral and cultural values and
on the other potential readers among the unknown mass of people. The
dual targets direct her to devise various strategies. She tries to
appeal to those who can endorse and appreciate her moral values as well
as her learning. Her writings and letters testify that she is sensitive
to the demands of the literary market, trying to lead the taste of readers
by inventing new forms.
The thesis opens with an overview of Sarah Fielding's career,
followed by a consideration of her critical attention to the roles of
reading. I go on to examine the narrative structures and strategies
she deploys, with a particular emphasis on her use of the epistolary
method. The following chapter deals with her attention to the reading
of the moral message tangibly embodied in her educational writing. It
is followed by an analysis of the activity which earned her a reputation
as a learned woman. Various as the forms of her works are, they invariably
reflect her attempt to balance herself between the two demands of
inventiveness and familiarity
Identity and dislocation in Caribbean women's literature: a study of the writings of Velma Pollard
No full textJamaican-born Velma Pollard has been publishing poetry and short stories for nearly
thirty years. Her first poems appeared in the 1970s, her first volume of short stories in
1989, and her first novel in 1994. Despite this considerable literary output, in the evergrowing
critical literature on Caribbean women's writing Pollard's work has not attracted
any of the scholarly treatment accorded to other writers. Given this lack of critical
attention to Pollard's considerable body of work, this thesis aims to provide the first
detailed and contextualised study of her writings (excluding the majority of her poetry
and of her writings on linguistics), and to accord Pollard the recognition her work
deserves.
Chapter 1 of this thesis situates Pollard's writings in the context of Caribbean
(women's) literature, and writings on identity, dislocations and (Caribbean) migration. I
argue that Pollard's principal contribution to Caribbean literature is found in her
engagement with two main subjects, return migration and relationships (male-female and
female-female), within a wider context of debates on identity and dislocation.
Chapter 2 introduces Pollard's work by way of a general discussion of her novella
Karl, which won the Casa de las Americas literary award in 1992. I consider Karl to be
central to Pollard's work, not least because it features many of the themes explored by
her later writings, including her novel, Homestretch, which is the subject of Chapter 3.
Pollard's first novel, Homestretch, which was published in 1994, explores the themes
of identity and dislocation through the experiences of 'return migrants' and 'repeat
migrants' and their comparison of life in England, the United States and Jamaica. The
novel chronicles how these migrants come to reconnect with and accept their cultural
heritage.
In chapters 4 and 5 I discuss selected stories taken from Pollard's two collections
of short stories, Considering Woman ('Cages', 'My Sisters', 'My Mother', and 'Gran') and
from Karl and Other Stories ('A Night's Tale', 'Miss Chandra', 'Betsy Hyde', and 'Altamont
Jones'). In these stories Pollard explores male-female relationships and the lives of
several generations and a wide range of Caribbean women and men. Pollard utilises the
West Indian setting, speech, situations and conflicts in these stories to graphically
describe familiar Caribbean role models and to provide a narrative and literary
examination of the frustrations and conflicting desires of women in the region.
In my conclusion, I address the ethnographic quality and significance of her work,
and its contribution to an understanding of the Caribbean
Rare Macroeconomic Disasters
No full textThe potential for rare macroeconomic disasters may explain an array of asset-pricing puzzles. Our empirical studies of these extreme events rely on long-term data now covering 28 countries for consumption and 40 for GDP. A baseline model calibrated with observed peak-to-trough disaster sizes accords with the average equity premium with a reasonable coefficient of relative risk aversion. High stock-price volatility can be explained by incorporating time-varying long-run growth rates and disaster probabilities. Business-cycle models with shocks to disaster probability have implications for the cyclical behavior of asset returns and corporate leverage, and international versions may explain the uncovered-interest-parity puzzle. Richer models of disaster dynamics allow for transitions between normalcy and disaster, bring in post-crisis recoveries, and use the full time series on consumption. Potential future research includes applications to long-term economic growth and environmental economics and the use of stock-price options and other variables to gauge time-varying disaster probabilities.
Investigating Performer Uniqueness: The Case of Jascha Heifetz
No full textThis thesis is based on the conviction that the greatest musical performers of history can and should be granted the same level of academic scrutiny and study as is so often received by the greatest composers. Composers had the early advantage of producing durable manuscripts, while performers prior to the age of recording were unable to leave more than impressions in the minds of those who heard them. With the recent successes of numerous investigations into performance and recordings, including the CHARM and CMPCP projects, such studies are becoming ever more viable and significant.
The thesis focuses on the violinist Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987) and primarily his performances of the Bach solo violin works (BWV 1001-1006). While there have been studies of individual pieces, of particular performers, and of multiple recordings of the same piece, a study focussing on specific repertoire played by a specific performer is something that has been somewhat overlooked in the literature. The thesis draws on numerous methods to distil what is distinctive and unique about Heifetz. This includes an examination of what and how the performer played, why the performer played that way, and how that way of playing compares to other performers. The study concludes with a discussion of Heifetz’s unique performer profile in the context of violin performance history.
Focussing on one of the most famous and successful performing musicians of the twentieth century along with some of the most frequently played pieces, this case study will suggest research methods and approaches transferable to related studies. The thesis draws on original interviews with former Heifetz students, friends, and colleagues, and on over thirteen months of archival research in the Jascha Heifetz Collection held by the Library of Congress. This array of previously untapped material aided the analytical and empirical investigations into Heifetz’s uniqueness
Poets on place: tales and interviews from the road
No full textIncludes index.Out to see America and satisfy his travel bug, W.T. Pfefferle resigned from his position as director of the writing program at Johns Hopkins University and hit the road to interview sixty-two poets about the significance of place in their work. The lively conversations that resulted may surprise with the potential meanings of a seemingly simple concept. This gathering of voices and ideas is illustrated with photo and word portraits from the road and represented with suitable poems. The poets are James Harms, David Citino, Martha Collins, Linda Gregerson, Richard Tillinghast, Orlando Ricardo Menes, Mark Strand, Karen Volkman, Lisa Samuels, Marvin Bell, Michael Dennis Browne, David Allan Evans, David Romtvedt, Sandra Alcosser, Robert Wrigley, Nance Van Winckel, Christopher Howell, Mark Halperin, Jana Harris, Sam Hamill, Barbara Drake, Floyd Skloot, Ralph Angel, Carol Muske-Dukes, David St. John, Sharon Bryan, Donald Revell, Claudia Keelan, Alberto Rios, Richard Shelton, Jane Miller, William Wenthe, Naomi Shihab Nye, Peter Cooley, Miller Williams, Beth Ann Fennelly, Natasha Trethewey, Denise Duhamel, Campbell McGrath, Terrance Hayes, Alan Shapiro, Nikki Giovanni, Charles Wright, Rita Dove, Henry Taylor, Dave Smith, Nicole Cooley, David Lehman, Lucie Brock-Broido, Michael S. Harper, C.D. Wright, Mark Wunderlich, James Cummins, Frederick Smock, Mark Jarman, Carl Phillips, Scott Cairns, Elizabeth Dodd, Jonathan Holden, Bin Ramke, Kenneth Brewer, and Paisley Rekdal.Wherein We Begin Life on the Road -- James Harms - Morgantown, West Virginia -- Landscape as the Latest Diet (Southern California) / James Harms -- David Citino - Columbus, Ohio -- Through a Glass, Darkly / David Citino -- Martha Collins - Oberlin, Ohio -- Linda Gregerson - Ann Arbor, Michigan -- Richard Tillinghast: Ann Arbor, Michigan -- Wake Me in South Galway / Richard Tillinghast -- Winnie Cooper -- Orlando Ricardo Menes - South Bend, Indiana -- Mark Strand - Chicago, Illinois -- A Morning / Mark Strand -- Karen Volkman - Chicago, Illinois -- Lisa Samuels - Milwaukee, Wisconsin -- Marvin Bell - Iowa City, Iowa -- Port Townsend, Washington, Waterside -- Dust, Corn, and Popcorn People -- Michael Dennis Browne - Minneapolis, Minnesota -- from At the Cabin / Michael Dennis Browne -- David Allan Evans - Brookings, South Dakota -- David Romtvedt - Buffalo, Wyoming -- With Caitlin, Age 8, Building a Qhuinzee for a Winter Night / David Romtvedt -- The West -- Sandra Alcosser - Lolo, Montana -- Mare Frigoris / Sandra Alcosser -- Robert Wrigley - Moscow, Idaho -- Ordinary Magic / Robert Wrigley -- Nance Van Winckel - Liberty Lake, Washington -- Awaiting the Return Ferry / Nance Van Winckel -- Christopher Howell - Spokane, Washington -- Wherein the Author Ruminates on RV Life -- Mark Halperin - Ellensburg, Washington -- Accident / Mark Halperin -- Jana Harris - Sultan, Washington -- Mr. Elija Welch, First Planting / Jana Harris -- Sam Hamill - Port Townsend, Washington -- The Day I Did Winnie Cooper Wrong -- Barbara Drake - Yamhill, Oregon -- from The Man from the Past Visits the Present / Barbara Drake -- Floyd Skloot - Amity, Oregon -- A Warming Trend / Floyd Skloot -- Suddenly in California -- Ralph Angel - South Pasadena, California -- Carol Muske-Dukes - Los Angeles, California -- Twin Cities / Carol Muske-Dukes -- David St. John - Venice, California -- Dijon / David St. John -- Sharon Bryan - San Diego, California -- Death Valley -- Donald Revell & Claudia Keelan - Las Vegas, Nevada -- A Parish in the Bronx / Donald Revell -- Alberto Rios - Chandler, Arizona -- Richard Shelton - Tucson, Arizona -- Local Knowledge / Richard Shelton -- Jane Miller - Tucson, Arizona -- #15 from A Palace of Pearls / Jane Miller -- New Year -- William Wenthe - Lubbock, Texas -- Alien / William Wenthe -- Naomi Shihab Nye - San Antonio, Texas -- Pause / Naomi Shihab Nye -- Peter Cooley - Jefferson, Louisiana -- Miller Williams - Fayetteville, Arkansas -- RV Life 2 -- Beth Ann Fennelly - Oxford, Mississippi -- from The Kudzu Chronicles / Beth Ann Fennelly -- Natasha Trethewey - Decatur, Georgia -- South / Natasha Trethewey -- Denise Duhamel - Hollywood, Florida -- Valentines, Hollywood Beach / Denise Duhamel -- Campbell McGrath - Miami Beach, Florida -- Terrance Hayes - Columbia, South Carolina -- Threshold / Terrance Hayes -- Alan Shapiro - Chapel Hill, North Carolina -- Bower / Alan Shapiro -- Nikki Giovanni - Blacksburg, Virginia -- Charles Wright - Charlottesville, Virginia -- High Country Spring / Charles Wright -- Choosing -- Rita Dove - Charlottesville, Virginia -- The House on Bishop Street / Rita Dove -- Henry Taylor - Bethesda, Maryland -- Harvest / Henry Taylor -- Dave Smith - Baltimore, Maryland -- Gaines Mill Battlefield / Dave Smith -- Nicole Cooley - Glen Ridge, New Jersey -- Unfinished Sketch: Green Sandbox Winter Sky / Nicole Cooley -- David Lehman - New York, New York -- April 9 / David Lehman -- The City So Nice They Named It Twice -- Lucie Brock-Broido - New York, New York -- Michael S. Harper - Providence, Rhode Island -- C. D. Wright - Barrington, Rhode Island -- from The Ozark Odes / C. D. Wright -- Mark Wunderlich - Provincetown, Massachusetts -- Elevation -- James Cummins - Cincinnati, Ohio -- Spring Comes to Hamilton Avenue / James Cummins -- Frederick Smock - Louisville, Kentucky -- Heron / Frederick Smock -- Mark Jarman - Nashville, Tennessee -- Nashville Moon / Mark Jarman -- Carl Phillips - St. Louis, Missouri -- Driveway -- Scott Cairns - Columbia, Missouri -- Mud Trail / Scott Cairns -- Elizabeth Dodd - Manhattan, Kansas -- Sonnet, Almost / Elizabeth Dodd -- Jonathan Holden - Manhattan, Kansas -- Pigs -- Bin Ramke - Denver, Colorado -- Kenneth Brewer - Logan, Utah -- Paisley Rekdal - Salt Lake City, Utah -- Ode / Paisley Rekdal -- Wherein the Author Considers the End -- Gas Gian
Red, white and blue highways: British travel writing and the American road trip in the late twentieth century
No full textThis study locates late-twentieth-century roadlogues (nonfiction, prose accounts of American road trips) by British writers within the tradition of the postwar American highway narrative in travel writing, novels, and film. It exposes the discursive structures and textual constraints underlying seven case studies published in the 1990s by comparing them to texts from various genres in diachronic and synchronic contexts. It contributes to scholarship on the American highway narrative, which largely overlooks British texts. It complements research on British travel writing, which tends to be biased towards pre-twentieth-century texts by travellers whose culture is in a dominant relation to that of travellees. It adds to postcolonial studies through analysis of representations of the other where otherness is reduced and complicated by a history of cultural exchange.
The methodology combines several approaches including discourse theory, discourse analysis, narrative theory, feminist criticism, and theories of tourism. Three main areas are considered: identity, in relation to nationality and gender; the road writer's gaze, with regard to vehicles and roads; and intertextuality, on the margins (in maps) and inside roadlogues (in direct and indirect allusions).
The study concludes that contemporary British roadlogues are in what is almost a subordinate relation to American highway narratives, evidenced by extensive influence of American texts. However, this subordination is qualified by joint ownership of western and New World myths, vestiges of imperial superiority, and selective deference by British writers. The latter is demonstrated through a consumer approach to American culture afforded by the episodic structure of the road trip and encouraged by the niche-oriented nature of the current market for travel writing. While American writers regard roadscapes with imperial eyes and experience the road trip as a rite of passage, contemporary Britons generally engage in superficial role play and remain untransformed by American highways
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