by Winnie Yeo. / Thesis (M.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 213-256). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

What can cinema as an industry and medium teach us about the roles and parameters that define a “body” within a contemporary and globalised climate of interwoven flows of exchanges and practices? How does cinema make visible and tangible otherwise invisible transsensorial and affective modes of interactions that a body actively engages with other bodies, to create meanings beyond the limitations and capacities of a single body’s subjectivity and materiality? I address these areas of inquiry by examining four case studies of film examples produced from Singapore, Taiwan, People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and America that feature ethnic “Chinese” bodies on screen. This thesis sets out to illustrate how meaning is easily imposed on bodies—whether tied to the ethnic, visual, or tangible—rendering them passive where they are mere products of social construction with no individual agency or autonomy. However, contemporary practices of filmmaking and new ways of thinking about film experiences reveal that the body is in fact an active-affective producer of meanings. As such, the body can no longer be approached as a passive central locus where its meaning is defined solely by transnational, transcultural, or other grand narratives. This thesis posits a “transsensorial” object-oriented, and new-materialist approach within the field of transnational Chinese cinemas studies that regards bodies on-screen beyond audiovisual signs to consider the materiality and immateriality of their production and productivity. Bodies are reframed as “body-without-organs” to consider the affective processes that produce them within specific ecologies—and their productive affective potentials to interrelate and encounter other bodies not-yet-formed. Through which, this thesis makes a case for cinema’s potential to produce thinking active-bodies and how bodies make sense of the worlds they are part of beyond subjective notions of lived experiences whether construed through different various inflections of social constructed identities based on trans-national, or trans-cultural discourses.

This thesis explores the epistemology and theology of a Sufi theorist Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 1240) and one of the most controversial Muslim scholars Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) comparatively. Although scholars have long emphasized the differences between these two influential and significant figures, the purpose of this thesis is to focus on their potential similarities. The present work at the outset shows that both Ibn al-ʿArabī and Ibn Taymiyya regard revelation, the human intellect, and inspiration – unveiling (ilhām – kashf) to be the main epistemological means for acquiring religious knowledge. However, they differ over the relative value of these means or tools. Both Ibn al-ʿArabī and Ibn Taymiyya place revelation at the top of the hierarchy, but after that Ibn al-ʿArabī places inspiration – unveiling ahead of reason while Ibn Taymiyya reverses the order. The other main subject elaborated in this thesis is the theological issue of the divine names and attributes. This subject is connected to many other theological problems, and both Ibn al-ʿArabī and Ibn Taymiyya pay considerable attention to it. Just as many similar approaches, ideas, and interpretations may be seen concerning their epistemological stances, it is possible to see similarities in their theological positions although there are crucial distinctions as well. The unique way of finding out this similarity is to keep in mind the existence of the duality found in the thought and expression of Ibn al-ʿArabī. Briefly, the main finding of the thesis is that Ibn al-ʿArabī and Ibn Taymiyya are more similar in their epistemologies and theologies than many scholars have thought. They are benefitting from the same epistemological means while putting them in different order. Also, they share similar theological points concerning the divine names and attributes, creation, the divine will, and the incomparability of God while expressing them through different conceptions and styles.

A diagnosis of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a World Health Organisation (WHO) grade IV brain tumour, is devastating for patients and their families who bear the impetus of caregiving. GBM caregivers act as de facto health professionals when their loved ones are discharged prematurely from hospitals. Faced with complex healthcare needs, GBM caregivers report the highest psychological burden, and highest unmet needs of all cancer caregivers. Despite this, they rarely accessed rehabilitation services. Researchers hardly engaged with their stories. The current research on GBM caregiving is predominantly from a biomedical perspective, not only offering limited understandings of psychosocial experiences, but also, evidencing the need for caregiver stories in caregiving research. The researcher recruited 7 bereaved caregivers, who had previously narrated stories online about caring for their loved ones diagnosed with GBM and; consented to the use of their stories as research data. These stories covered a period of between 1-3+ years, throughout the illness trajectory and post-bereavement. The researcher further conducted email interviews focussed on the retrospective perspectives of sharing stories online. Participants provided feedback on the preliminary findings of the DNA. The findings consisted of multiple layers of interpretations drawn from social constructionism, narrative and feminist relational theories, beginning with subjective stories, collective story typologies and core narratives, thereby illuminating the relationships between GBM caregivers, the stories they narrated and the event of narrating stories online. An additional layer of interpretation served to shed light on the relational, dialogical, performative and hindsight perspectives of storytelling and the storytelling landscape. This research decentres the dominance of biomedicine in caregiving research to present a perspective from GBM caregivers using their own stories, in their own voices, so as to inform counselling psychology research and practice.

This thesis engages in analysis and interpretation of certain ideas within the critical theory of Theodor W. Adorno (1903-1969). These analyses are placed into a constellational relationship with some filmic works of Andrei Tarkovsky and Michael Haneke. In doing so, I aim to highlight the ongoing relevance and validity of at least some core elements of Adornian theory in a contemporary context. The thesis consists of four substantive chapters. The first chapter functions as an extended introduction to and justification for the thesis as a whole, and it provides the theoretical background to the project before explicating the idea of a constellational method. The second chapter explores the notion of mimesis in Adorno's thought and Tarkovsky's films as a crucial rejoinder to the prevailing ‘communicative' paradigm instituted in large part by Jürgen Habermas' work. The third chapter considers the importance of marginality to the task of social critique by analyzing Adorno's theoretical reflections on the matter and how these can be related to and supported by Haneke's filmic work. The fourth and final chapter examines the relationship between humanity and nature within two preeminent ecological discourses, in contrast to Adorno's critical theory and some of Tarkovsky's films, with the intention of showing how the latter offer a more nuanced and dialectical understanding of this relation. Throughout the analyses herein, I defend and demonstrate the fertility and pertinence of Adornian theory, for both the interpretation of film and robust criticism of extant social and political conditions. The thesis shows that by constellating Adorno's critical theory with film one may bring out important insights that enhance and enable people's capacity to critically respond to the woefully inadequate status quo.

This thesis undertakes a systematic, tripartite analysis of the interactions between the fiction and essays of Thomas Pynchon and the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Michel Foucault and Theodor W. Adorno, resulting in a solid set of original reference-material for those undertaking work on Pynchon and philosophy, or more generally on philosophico-literary intersections. Premised upon the notion that Pynchon's literature harbours a fundamental hostility to much systematizing philosophical thought, this work avoids a dominating imposition of philosophy, or an application of philosophical thought as a validating Other, by examining those aspects of Pynchon's work that seem ill at ease with, or aggressive towards, aspects of each philosopher's thought. This is explored through the concept of an intra-textual polyvocality and relational situation of philosophical intersection; when Wittgenstein is cited, for instance, who is speaking and what are the connotations of that placement? I do not propose, therefore, a Wittgensteinian / Foucauldian / Adornian Pynchon, but rather explicitly highlight excluded aspects of thought to instead develop a complementary reading; a form of intersubjective triangulation. This polyvocality is examined from a univocal perspective. The specific conclusions of this work re-situate Pynchon, in many cases against forty years of critical consensus, as a quasi-materialist or at least anti-idealist, a regulative utopist and a practitioner of an anti-synthetic style akin to Adorno's model of negative dialectics. In a broader sense, it answers the questions regarding hostility towards philosophical thought in Pynchon's work by demonstrating that no single philosophical standpoint has yet to totally resonate with even one of his novels. Simultaneously, it also shows that a profitable approach can be found in the spaces of philosophical overlap and divergence.

The object of this thesis is the examination of the concept of political representation in the corpus of Hobbes, Locke, Hegel and Marx. Through the method of textualreconstruction I foreground the concept's salience in their writings. Political representation constitutes a unitary political society as the basis of representative government by entrusting to a separate part of the political community the exercise of the legislative and executive functions on behalf of the political society. Hobbes's author-actor model grounded the concept of political representation by introducing the act of the transfer of will to a representative by authorisation. Thereby he established the problematic relationship of permanently alienated, absolute, representative power acting in the name of the political community. Locke conceptualised political representation in a way that restored to political society the power to determine the legitimacy of its representative government in case the latter transgressed the norm of acting for the public good of society. Hegel, in turn, assigned to political representation the crucial function of integrating civil society into the power system of the state thus securing the identity of subjective and objective freedom in the rational state, though political representation bestows only formal freedom to civil society's involvement in the affairs of the state. For Marx, the relationship of political representation makes the representative polity appear as a democratically governed political society within which individual freedom and the public good are secured. This is vitiated by the rift between political society/state and civil society. Marx censures liberal and republican theory for ignoring the primacy of civil/bourgeois society over the representative political society. As a consequence,he argues,the representative polity is not a form of self-government but other-determined and neither freedom nor the public good are realised. Instead, under the regime of private property, money assumes the authorial function of organising social exchange and human relations, shaping the representative polity after its own image, and thus it renders democracy as popular sovereignty a lie.

O presente trabalho tem o objetivo de investigar a obtenção de hidrogênio a partir de soluções de etanol em água, por fotocatálise, usando-se catalisadores a base de óxido de zinco (ZnO). Nestes estudos foram empregados cinco catalisadores ZnO, sendo um comercial e os demais preparados através de diferentes metodologias encontradas na literatura. Os catalisadores foram caracterizados por área BET, DRX e FRX, e a investigação preliminar da atividade destes catalisadores foi feita através de ensaios de degradação fotocatalítica de rodamina B em reator slurry em batelada, onde foram avaliadas a taxa de reação e a remoção de corante. Os ensaios para a produção fotocatalítica de hidrogênio foram realizados em um reator de quartzo, operado em batelada com catalisador em suspensão e atmosfera inerte de nitrogênio. A solução foi irradiada por uma série de seis lâmpadas compactas de luz negra. Ao longo dos testes, amostras das fases líquida e gasosa foram coletadas e analisadas para identificação do consumo de etanol e produção de hidrogênio usando-se, respectivamente, Carbono Orgânico Total (TOC) e Cromatografia Gasosa (GC). Resultados preliminares mostraram que os catalisadores ZnO comercial e sintetizado (ZnO Merck e ZnO-B) apresentam atividade fotocatalítica e desempenho similares aos do TiO2 para a degradação da rodamina B. Contudo, estes mesmos catalisadores mostraram-se pouco ativos para a produção fotocatalítica de hidrogênio, com desempenho bastante inferior ao do TiO2 nas mesmas condições. Foi possível observar que o maior rendimento em hidrogênio ocorre para baixas concentrações de catalisador (0,05 gL[elevado a potência menos]1) e elevadas concentrações de etanol, sendo pouco dependente do pH. / This work aims to investigate the hydrogen production from ethanol-water solutions through photocatalysis, using zinc oxide catalysts (ZnO). Five ZnO catalysts were employed in this work; one was a commercial catalyst, while the others were prepared according to different methodologies reported in the literature. The catalysts were characterized by BET, XRD and XRF, and the preliminary investigation of their activity was done by photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B, through the evaluation of the reaction rate and dye removal. Tests for photocatalytic hydrogen production were carried out in a quartz slurry batch reactor under nitrogen, irradiated by a set of six compact UV light bulbs. During the tests, gas and liquid samples were collected and analyzed in order to identify the consumption of ethanol and hydrogen production using, respectively, Total Organic Carbon (TOC) and Gas Chromatograph (GC). Preliminary results showed that the synthesized and commercial ZnO catalysts (ZnO-B and ZnO Merck) present photocatalytic activity and performance similar to TiO2 for the rhodamine B degradation. However, the ZnO catalysts presented lower performance when compared with TiO2 for hydrogen production, under the same conditions. It was observed that the highest hydrogen yield occurs for low concentrations of catalyst (0.05 gL1) and high concentrations of ethanol, being less dependent on pH.

Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-01T23:21:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_9838_019 - Dissertação Mestrado PPGBF Gabriela Pandini Silote.pdf: 2711420 bytes, checksum: 8b1f99cd99fbf2d5e2e1a4b0070122d6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-06 / A cetamina é um antagonista não competitivo dos receptores glutamatérgicos do tipo N-metil-D-aspartato (NMDA). Estudos pré-clínicos e clínicos têm sugerido que ela apresenta efeito antidepressivo de início rápido e relativamente persistente. O mecanismo de ação envolvido nesse efeito parece ser mais complexo do que o simples bloqueio dos receptores NMDA, envolve a ativação dos receptores α-amino-3-hidroxi-5-metil-4-isoazolepropiônico (AMPA) e da via de sinalização do fator neurotrófico derivado do cérebro (BDNF) e do receptor de tirosina cinase B (TrκB). Diversos fármacos antidepressivos são eficazes no tratamento do transtorno de ansiedade generalizada (TAG) e no transtorno do pânico (TP) somente após tratamento crônico, é possível que a cetamina apresente efeito ansiolítico ou panicolítico de forma rápida e persistente. O labirinto em T elevado (LTE) é um modelo que permite avaliar, no mesmo procedimento, dois tipos de ansiedade: a ansiedade aprendida (esquiva inibitória), relacionada com o Transtorno de Ansiedade Generalizada (TAG), e a ansiedade inata (fuga), relacionada com Transtorno de Pânico (TP). O objetivo do estudo foi investigar os efeitos comportamentais induzidos pela cetamina em ratos expostos ao LTE e o possível envolvimento da via BDNF/ TrκB na MCP (matéria cinzenta periaquedutal) nesses efeitos. Os resultados mostraram que a cetamina de 10 e 30 mg/Kg (doses subanestésicas) administrada de forma aguda não alteraram o comportamento dos ratos no LTE. Já a dose anestésica (80 mg/Kg), prejudicou a fuga 1, o que pode sugerir efeito tipo-panicolítico rápido. Quando a cetamina 10 mg/Kg foi administrada 24 horas antes do teste no LTE, houve facilitação da Fuga 1, o que pode sugerir um efeito tipo-panicogênico tardio. Já a dose anestésica da cetamina administrada 24 horas antes do teste facilitou à esquiva, o que sugere um efeito tipo-ansiogênico tardio, e ao mesmo tempo prejudicou a fuga 1, sugerindo um efeito tipo-panicolítico persistente. E o 5-metil-10,11-dihidroxi-5Hdibenzo(a,d)ciclo-heten-5,10-imina ; 0,05mg/Kg (MK-801; 0,05 mg/Kg) 24 horas antes do teste não alterou o comportamento dos animais. Quando a cetamina foi administrada diretamente na MCPD (matéria cinzenta periaquedutal dorsal) observou-se que apenas a dose mais baixa, de 2µg, facilitou a fuga 1, o que caracteriza um efeito tipo-panicogênico rápido. Além disso, nenhum dos esquemas de administração e doses empregados alteraram a atividade locomotora dos animais no campo aberto. Para investigar o envolvimento da via de sinalização de BDNF/TrκB nos efeitos da cetamina e do MK-801 na ansiedade no LTE, foi realizado a quantificação de TrκB total e fosforilado nos resíduos 706/707 e 515 de tirosina (Y-706/707 e Y-515) da MCP de ratos. A cetamina 80mg/Kg e o MK-801 0,05 mg/Kg administrados agudamente antes da coleta da MCP, não induziram alteração estatisticamente significante na quantidade de pTrκB nos resíduos Y-706/707 e Y-515. Adicionalmente, a cetamina 10 e 80 mg/Kg, administrada aproximadamente 24 horas antes da coleta da MCP, não induziu alteração estatisticamente significante na quantidade de pTrκB no resíduo Y-706/707 e Y-515. Em conclusão, os resultados encontrados mostraram que a cetamina pode ter um efeito muito discreto no pânico, sendo que esse efeito depende tanto da dose quanto do esquema de administração. Ainda, pelo menos o efeito panicogênico da cetamina parece envolver a MCPD

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T17:36:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo2097_1.pdf: 4723187 bytes, checksum: bcc3c1be474970fe1a53f1da46de7552 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Nas indústrias de processo, os diversos equipamentos formam uma cadeia contínua, através da qual circulam os fluidos, o meio de ligação entre os mesmo se dá atarvés de tubulações que são consideradas como equipamentos de processo. A falta ou paralisação de um único equipamento, sem que tenha sido programa, pode gerar perdas financeiras em grande escala. Neste ambiente, as tubulações são responsáveis pela condução dos fluidos, as quais operam em muitos casos em severas condições de serviço. Na ocasião da montagem, as tubulações passam por processos de soldagem nos seus diversos métodos de ligação, durante o processo de soldagem são geradas zonas de aquecimento localizadas nas juntas onde o material do tubo fica sujeito a variações na sua microestrutura, o que gera mudanças nas suas propriedades. O processo de soldagem mais utilizado na soldagem de tubulações nas montagens industriais é o da soldagem a arco elétrico com eletrodo revestido. Este trabalho apresenta o resultado do estudo das propriedades mecânicas e estruturais de juntas de tubos soldadas com arame tubular. Para tanto, utilizou-se tubos confeccionados em aço ASTM A106 Gr B, recomendado para o transporte de fluidos em alta temperatura, soldado com o processo de soldagem por arco elétrico com Arame Tubular Protegido. As soldas de raiz foram feitas com dois diferentes processos: TIG e Arame Tubular, quando se utilizou arame tubular na raiz, este foi feito com o mesmo material de enchimento e acabamento. As soldas de enchimento e acabamento foram feitas com dois tipos de arame tubular, um rutílico e outro metal cored . Foram realizados ensaios de microdureza e de tração, e análise microestrutural e macroestrutural das juntas soldadas para verificação das suas possíveis variações. Os resultados evidenciaram variações nas propriedades das juntas soldadas quando se realiza a solda nas diferentes amperagens adotadas neste trabalho, porém mostrou-se possível a utilização do processo estudado em pequenas juntas de peças que possam vir a serem fabricadas em canteiros de obra