101 research outputs found
Performativities, Virtualities, Abstractions, and Cunningham's BIPED
No full textThis thesis explores the complex relations between subjective perception and dance movements, mainly exemplified by drawing on two short extracts from Merce Cunningham's choreography BIPED (1999). The central aim of the study is to formulate a performative phenomenological inquiry, which moves beyond an identification of essences, and towards an understanding of the lived experience of a dance performance as being grounded on iterations of the "abstract". The concept of the abstract primarily signifies an alternative mode of understanding Henry Bergson's notion of duration. Considering Gilles Deleuze's reading of Bergson's intuition as a method to divide the experience of a lived present into a temporal difference in kind between the virtual and the actual, this thesis suggests a complementary division of duration into virtual and actual kinds of abstraction.
In addition to Bergson's method of intuition, the discussion is phenomenologically rooted in Maurice Merleau-Ponty's concept of the body image and Gaston Bachelards idea of non-causal reverberation. As with the case of intuition, those phenomenological concepts are applied unconventionally. Rather than serving as a pre-objective ontological basis for an analytical and scientific understanding of subjective embodiment, the notion of a reverberating body image is here treated as a form of mimesis, performatively constituted through symbolic and representational practices. Hence, in phenomenological terms, the rationale of the thesis is predominantly sustained by the philosophy of Ernst Cassirer, arguing that reality cannot be approached directly, but only through the concept of the symbol.
The viewpoint from where I speak has performative cybernetic characteristics, continuously and dynamically transgressing boundaries and reconstituting itself through iterative and citational practices. Additionally, as I move between the analytical and the intuitive, as well as between the virtual and the actual, the formal structure of the thesis corresponds to a liminal transformation of the speaking subjectivity
What Is Worth Knowing in Interventional Practices about Medical Staff Radiation Exposure Monitoring: A Review of Recent Outcomes of EURADOS Working Group 12
No full textEURADOS (European Radiation Dosimetry Group) Working Group 12 (WG12) SG1 activities are aimed at occupational radiation protection and individual monitoring in X-ray and nuclear medicine practices. In recent years, many studies have been carried out in these fields, especially for interventional radiology and cardiology workplaces (IC/IR). The complexity of the exposure conditions of the medical staff during interventional practices makes the radiation protection and monitoring of the exposed workers a challenging task. The scope of the present work is to review some of the main results obtained within WG12 activities about scattered field characterization and personal dosimetry that could be very useful in increasing the quality of radiation protection of the personnel, safety, and awareness of radiation risk. Two papers on Monte Carlo modelling of inter-ventional theater and three papers on active personal dosimeters (APDs) for personnel monitoring were considered in the review. More specifically, Monte Carlo simulation was used as the main tool to characterize the levels of exposure of the medical staff, allowing to determine how beam energy and direction can have an impact on the doses received by the operators. Indeed, the simulations provided information about the exposure of the operator’s head, and the study concluded with the determination of an eye-lens protection factor when protection goggles and a ceiling shielding are used. Moreover, the review included the results of studies on active personal dosimeters, their use in IC/IR workplaces, and how they respond to calibration fields, with X-ray standard and pulsed beams. It was shown that APDs are insensitive to backscatter radiation, but some of them could not respond correctly to the very intense pulsed fields (as those next to the patient in interventional practices). The measurements during interventional procedures showed the potential capability of the employment of APDs in hospitals
Shape Persistence in Elicited Subjective Crop Yield Probability Density Functions
No full textThe shape persistence of a crop yield probability density function (PDF) was studied by using two variants of the Visual Impact Method (VIM) to elicit subjective estimations by farmers. In one variant ten weights were used to describe the PDF and in the other variant the farmer chose the number of weights. Results were compared directly and by means of Weibull distributions fitting, with evidence being obtained in favor of methodological persistence and the equivalence of the two estimation methods.Subjective crop yield PDF elicitation, Visual impact method, Methodological persistence, Crop Production/Industries,
Comparative organ dose levels for dentomaxillofacial examinations performed with computed tomography, cone beam CT and panoramic radiographs
No full textThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the radiation dose delivered to radiosensitive organs (thyroid, parotid glands and eye lens) during dentomaxillofacial imaging with multislice computed tomography (CT), cone beam CT (CBCT) and panoramic radiographs (orthopantomography, OPT). The dose was estimated individually for each modality and each clinical protocol by measuring the absorbed dose at the surface of a head phantom with thermoluminescence dosimeters. The measured radiation dose was between 0.01–1.22 mGy for the thyroid gland (systematically outside the primary beam), 1.34–29.11 mGy for the parotid glands (systematically exposed to the primary beam) and 0.02–26.22 mGy for the eye lens (in the primary beam depending on imaging protocol). For all organs, CT was found to be the most irradiating modality followed by CBCT and OPT. However, CBCT with a “limited dental” protocol and OPT deliver similar doses to the parotid glands
Comparative organ dose levels for dentomaxillofacial examinations performed with computed tomography, cone beam CT and panoramic radiographs
No full textDoses et qualité d’images : retours d’expériences dans le cadre d’appels d’offres des équipements à rayonnements ionisants
No full textPost 1990s Dance Theatre and (the idea of) the Neutral
No full textPhDThe thesis focuses on the concept of neutrality in the works of contemporary
European (post 1990s) choreographers. While broad ideas around neutrality are
considered, the thesis primarily engages with Roland Barthes’ definition of
neutrality as a structural term: 'every inflection that, dodging or baffling the
paradigmatic, oppositional structure of meaning, aims at the suspension of the
conflictual basis of discourse'. I argue that the minimalist work of Judson
Church, New York City, is anticipating the interest in the neutral that will more
strongly formulate itself in dance theatre after the 1990s. In the first chapter on
Jérôme Bel, the concept of neutrality is introduced as a general idea, together with
its inherent problem. The 'problem' is not that this or that element that Bel
chooses cannot be perceived as neutral, but that neutral or stage zero can never be
neutral enough. The second chapter, dedicated to the work of Thomas Lehmen,
explores the idea of 'neutralization' in relation to the notion of the self in
Lehmen's performance, where 'It is not I or you who lives: 'one' (une vie) lives in
us' (P. Hallward). In the third chapter I argue that in Raimund Hoghe’s
performances, love is conceived essentially as a balance between narcissism and
pure object-love – as a neutral state. The fourth chapter, on Croatia’s BADco.,
gravitates around the ways in which group processes function, arguing that the
idea of the neutral is located in the ‘invisible hand’ of emergence. The thesis shifts
academic performance analysis towards a more concept-based approach,
unpicking and/or constructing timeless, abstract and broad concepts and ideas that
the work of these choreographers resonates with
Eye lens monitoring programme for medical staff involved in fluoroscopy guided interventional procedures in Switzerland
No full textEpidemiological studies indicate that radiation damages to the eye lens occurs at lower dose values than previously considered (Worgul et al., 2007; Chodick et al., 2008; Ciraj-Bjelac et al., 2010; Rehani et al., 2011; Vano et al., 2010) [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]. The International Commission on Radiological Protection lowered the equivalent dose limit value for the eye lens to 20 mSv/year (ICRP, n.d.) [6]. This new limit has been incorporated into the revised Swiss legislation [7]. Prior this change, it was agreed that if the effective dose limit was respected it would implicitly imply the respect of the limit to the eye lens, for penetrating radiation. The concept had to be reviewed in the light of necessary application of the new eye lens dose limit. The new Swiss legislation proposes to use the value of Hp(0.07) measured over the protective apron to estimate the eye lens dose.
This study aims to investigate the validity of this approach for medical staff during fluoroscopy guided procedures. The results show that the ratio between thorax and eye lens doses varies greatly from one medical speciality to another, but also between surgeons within the same speciality. Moreover, for a given physician, the ratio varied over the periods of surveillance. Those variations confirmed the crucial influence of external parameters related to experience, practice and workload. The surveillance method is appropriate for most of the procedures performed in the department included in this study. Nevertheless, for the particular configuration in urology, the respect of the effective dose limit measured by the routine dosimetry does not allow direct compliance with the dose limit to the eye lens, unless appropriate protective eye wear gear are worn
The Prepared Piano Music of John Cage: Towards an Understanding of Sounds and Preparations
No full textThe subject for this thesis is the prepared piano music of John Cage with particular attention focussed on the preparations that create the varying sonic pallets in this music. The thesis is divided into six chapters, each chapter fulfilling one of two tasks. Firstly they will provide for pianists an examination of ways in which Cage‟s instructions in the scores for preparing the piano can be interpreted, and it will highlight the difficulties that become apparent (and should be considered) when performing Cage‟s prepared piano music. The second function to be fulfilled will be to musicologists who wish to trace the development of Cage‟s prepared piano music with relation to his later chance determined music.
Chapter one traces the historical and aesthetic influences that were relevant to Cage in the creation of the prepared piano, and places it in an historical context.
Chapter two looks at John Cage‟s compositions for prepared piano and provide a thorough inventory of John Cage‟s prepared piano pieces. Chapter two also examines the possibilities for making suggestions for the recreation of Cage‟s preparations.
Chapter three examines the physical relationships between piano, strings and preparations.
Chapter four analyses the solo prepared piano pieces and highlights the compositional techniques that Cage used in the composition of the prepared piano pieces.
Chapter five looks at the reasoning for performer choice in relation to ambiguity discussed in chapter three
Chapter six explores the six movement work The Perilous Night, and uses it as a case study to identify and explain all of the issues discussed within this thesis
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