Exotic animals are conspicuously absent in economic histories and discussions of material culture in eighteenth-century Britain, even though they were highly sought-after luxury goods. As a response, this cultural history is a step towards a fuller understanding of the broad yet related meanings that a range of exotic animals held in Georgian Britain. A study is structured around four themes of meaning. The significance of exotic animals is explored, in turn, through their function as commodities, as objects of sensory encounter, as political symbols and charismatic material for anatomical investigation. The spaces through which animals moved, the contexts of their display and the meanings different audiences produced are considered throughout. Several species of animal were transfer points for cultural configurations, and a selection receives detailed cultural biographies here. Their histories are utilised to understand practices of collecting and spectatorship, national cultures and natural history. The work of naturalists and anatomists is intertwined with other ways of knowing exotic animals in Georgian Britain. Exhibition and the production of knowledge were interrelated, so ideas produced by some practitioners were absorbed, transmuted and modified into different cultural forms and contexts. The reality of exotic animals as commodities is established through a history of animal merchants in London and, from there, their wider place in eighteenth-century Britain is discerned. The development of animal trade from itinerant bird sellers to high-end menageries tell, once collated, a story revealing a usual but significant part of commercial and exhibitionary culture. By historicising the sensory encounters of spectators, readings of broader cultural anxieties about malodour and the bodily proximity of women and children to animals are possible. The senses were managed and ordered around exotic animals, and it is argued that experiencing them in this period was predicated on specific and fluctuating notions of risk and endangerment. Exotic animals acquired political symbolism, especially in matters of monarchy. Associations were generated and circulated by public representations that foregrounded humour, political satire, sexuality, luxury and fashion. Interwoven within these concerns were serious and not so serious discussion about Enlightenment attitudes and the “Improvement” of Nature. It is argued throughout that new spaces emerged for the spectatorship of exotic animals during the long eighteenth century, and, as such, that these animals should be historicised as eighteenth-century British phenomenon.

Early disability research in the social sciences focused on the individual, or the person with the disability. Only recently has disability research accepted that every family member is affected. The disabled does not suffer the disability alone; the entire family— as well as friends and relatives—suffer ramifications. Parental roles are altered, and grief, anger and guilt often blur the parameters of acceptable parental care. By using disabled family dynamic research in dialog with The Glass Menagerie, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, and Time for Ben, I argue that the disabled family dynamic is present, accurately portrayed, and significant to these three plays. Not only is the disabled family dynamic accurately portrayed in the plays, each of these plays precedes disability research in the issues that it presents. By examining the characters and issues presented in the plays through a disability research lens, I argue that these playwrights realistically portray the ramifications of the disabled family dynamic.

Submitted by Automa??o e Estat?stica (sst@bczm.ufrn.br) on 2016-07-22T15:02:53Z No. of bitstreams: 1 RayronVictorMedeirosDeAraujo_DISSERT.pdf: 4039405 bytes, checksum: 1fdfbf6dd2e57fcc334017f7a3ee24ab (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Arlan Eloi Leite Silva (eloihistoriador@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-07-27T00:08:32Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 RayronVictorMedeirosDeAraujo_DISSERT.pdf: 4039405 bytes, checksum: 1fdfbf6dd2e57fcc334017f7a3ee24ab (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T00:08:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 RayronVictorMedeirosDeAraujo_DISSERT.pdf: 4039405 bytes, checksum: 1fdfbf6dd2e57fcc334017f7a3ee24ab (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-18 / At? pouco tempo atr?s o uso de biometria se restringia a ambientes de alta seguran?a e aplica??es de identifica??o criminal por raz?es de natureza econ?mica e tecnol?gica. Contudo, nos ?ltimos anos a autentica??o biom?trica come?ou a fazer parte do dia a dia das pessoas. Desde ent?o, alguns problemas de autentica??o entraram em evid?ncia, como a impossibilidade de votar numa elei??o porque o indiv?duo n?o tinha sua impress?o digital reconhecida. Isso acontece, pois os usu?rios de um sistema biom?trico podem ter diferentes graus de acur?cia, principalmente em sistemas de utiliza??o em larga escala. Alguns desses usu?rios podem ter dificuldade na autentica??o, enquanto outros podem ser, particularmente, vulner?veis ? imita??o. Estudos recentes investigaram e identificaram esses tipos de usu?rios, dando-lhes nomes de animais: Sheep, Goats, Lambs, Wolves, Doves, Chameleons, Worms e Phantoms. O objetivo desse trabalho ? avaliar a exist?ncia desses tipos de usu?rios em uma base de dados de impress?es digitais e propor uma nova forma de investig?-los, baseando-se no desempenho das verifica??es entre amostras. Nossos resultados identificaram a presen?a de goats, lambs, wolves, chameleons e phantoms, al?m de demonstrar a aus?ncia de worms e doves, em um sistema biom?trico proposto. / Until recently the use of biometrics was restricted to high-security environments and criminal identification applications, for economic and technological reasons. However, in recent years, biometric authentication has become part of daily lives of people. The large scale use of biometrics has shown that users within the system may have different degrees of accuracy. Some people may have trouble authenticating, while others may be particularly vulnerable to imitation. Recent studies have investigated and identified these types of users, giving them the names of animals: Sheep, Goats, Lambs, Wolves, Doves, Chameleons, Worms and Phantoms. The aim of this study is to evaluate the existence of these users types in a database of fingerprints and propose a new way of investigating them, based on the performance of verification between subjects samples. Once introduced some basic concepts in biometrics and fingerprint, we present the biometric menagerie and how to evaluate them.

Most books written about American drama concern definitions of masculinity, the American dream, and the family in a society that encourages people to surpass their competences and limits. American playwrights of the twentieth century reveal the anxiety and insecurity of men who do not rise up to the standards of the American dream. In concentrating on these themes, most critics have analyzed the main characters and plots but have left aside hints about other myths. This study aims to analyse the extended use of the cowboy, of salesman, and of pirate in Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. The recurrence of these three myths touches on the core of American drama that playwrights and critics have tried to define endlessly: the definition of the male in the American society.

Most books written about American drama concern definitions of masculinity, the American dream, and the family in a society that encourages people to surpass their competences and limits. American playwrights of the twentieth century reveal the anxiety and insecurity of men who do not rise up to the standards of the American dream. In concentrating on these themes, most critics have analyzed the main characters and plots but have left aside hints about other myths. This study aims to analyse the extended use of the cowboy, of salesman, and of pirate in Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. The recurrence of these three myths touches on the core of American drama that playwrights and critics have tried to define endlessly: the definition of the male in the American society.

Le présent mémoire vise à étudier les pratiques, les enjeux et les modalités du don diplomatique animalier au XIIIe siècle, notamment sous le règne de Frédéric II, Henri III et Louis IX. Pour cela, on présente les concepts et les théories, sociologiques et anthropologiques, du don, particulièrement celles de Marcel Mauss. Ainsi outillé, on appréhende les particularités des cadeaux animaliers diplomatiques au XIIIe siècle. Ensuite, à l’aide d’une recherche sur les descriptions animalières des bestiaires et des encyclopédies médiévales, on montre la puissance symbolique et les particularités physiques et comportementales de la faune offerte. Enfin, à partir de la combinaison des deux premières parties, plusieurs modalités du don sont développées, parmi lesquelles les critères de choix et les préférences fauniques des rois, le contexte et les règles de la réalisation d’un présent et la circulation des animaux offerts. En outre, on souligne combien les bêtes et les oiseaux offerts ont eu une utilité. En effet, on voit que les rois ont mis en scène leurs animaux afin de s’approprier leur symbolique et d’exacerber leur prestige et leur grandeur, lors d’évènements spécifiques ou dans leurs ménageries. / The main purpose of this text is to study the practices, the issues and the modalities of the animal diplomatic gift in the 13th century, especially during the reign of Frederick II, Henry III and Louis IX. The analysis is based on the presentation of the sociological and anthropological conceptualizations of the gift, particularly those of Marcel Mauss. They are used to understand the peculiarities of the animal diplomatic gift in the 13th century. Then, a research on animal descriptions of medieval bestiaries and encyclopedias is conducted to show the symbolic power and the physical and behavioral characteristics of the offered wildlife. Finally, several modalities of the donation are developed, such as the selection criteria and the wildlife preferences of the kings, the context and rules of the elaboration of a present and the movement of given animals. In addition, it is shown how the beasts and birds had a real use for the kings. Indeed, they staged their animals in order to appropriate their symbolism and show off their prestige and their greatness, at events or in the menageries.

田納西‧威廉斯的劇本中經常描述家庭隱涵的不安與緊張關係，以及新興文明對美國南方傳統文化的衝擊，憑藉威廉斯的許多劇本和訪談錄可以看出作者對傳統與現代文化態度的改變。本論文旨在探討作者的早期寫作生涯（約在 1960 年以前，評家稱此時期為田納西‧威廉斯的劇本創作黃金時期）中三部重要劇本裡面對家庭和社會的看法，此論文希望能找出作者人生態度改變的原因和方式。《玻璃動物園》、《慾望街車》、《朱門巧婦》這三部劇本本身不但具備不可磨滅的藝術價值，主題也前後鉤連，劇本內在關係環環相扣，前後緊密一致。本論文將分成五個部分，除了導論和結論其中的三章討論三個劇本的情節。各章皆針對風景、對話風格、角色的個性、象徵意涵、社會地位與扮演的角色細緻探索檢視，藉此暴露社會的現象和文化的激盪；除了文本的詮釋剖析，論文將佐以部分的威廉斯生平資料，藉此探討作者在劇本中如何揭露他對社會的看法和藝術創作的蛻變過程。 / Praised as one of the greatest American dramatists, Tennessee Williams is obsessed with delineating conflicts among family members and cultural clashes in the American South. However, the artist's attitude towards modern society seems to change in his separate plays. The purpose of this thesis is to trace Tennessee Williams's three plays, that is, The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, to find out why and how his attitide or view of life changes. These plays are the most popular and frequently discussed ones that stress impossible relationships among family members. Enormous in their aesthetic values, these three plays are thematically related. This thesis will be divided into five parts: Introduction, three chapters dealing with these three plays respectively, and Conclusion. Each chapter includes a discussion of major characters, probing into separate symbolic meanings and social status and roles in different circumstances, and linguistic styles; setting of the play, the interactions of the environment and characters; male-female interrelationship; shades of difference of the author's ideological concepts and author's attitude toward the wider contextual values. By searching for autobiographical elements and the social background, I hope this thesis can restore historciacl as well as textual meanings as represented in these three plays, thereby reexamining the playwright's views toward the external world and the evolution of man's mental processes.

<p>In this study, any change in fingerprint performance, image quality and minutiae count for infants in three different age groups was evaluated (0-6, 7-12, and >12 months). This was done to determine whether there is a difference in performance between infant age groups for a fingerprint recognition system.</p> <p>The purpose of this research was to determine whether there is a difference in infant fingerprint performance and image quality metrics, between three different age groups (0-6, 7-12, and >12 months old), using the same optical sensor? The data used for this secondary analysis was collected as part of a longitudinal multimodal infant study, using the Digital Persona U.are.U 4500. DET curves, zoo analysis, and image quality metrics were used to evaluate performance and quality factored by infant age group.</p><p>This study found that there was a difference in image quality and minutiae count, genuine and impostor match scores, and performance error rates (EER) between the three age groups. Therefore, quality and performance were dependent on age. While there was a difference in performance between age groups, there was generally stability for subjects who overlapped between multiple age groups. Difference in performance was most likely due to the difference in physical characteristics between subjects in each age group, rather than individual instability. The results showed that it could potentially be feasible to use fingerprint recognition for children over the age of 12 months.</p>