Mainstream cinema is to an ever-increasing degree deploying digital imaging technologies to work with the human form; expanding on it, morphing its features, or providing new ways of presenting it. This has prompted theories of simulation and virtualisation to explore the cultural and aesthetic implications, anxieties, and possibilities of a loss of the ‘real’ – in turn often defined in terms of the photographic trace. This thesis wants to provide another perspective. Following instead some recent imperatives in art-theory, this study looks to introduce and expand on the notion of the human figure, as pertaining to processes of figuration rather than (only) representation. The notion of the figure and figuration have an extended history in the fields of hermeneutics, aesthetics, and philosophy, through which they have come to stand for particular theories and methodologies with regards to images and their communication of meaning. This objective of this study is to appropriate these for film-theory, culminating in two case-studies to demonstrate how formal parameters present and organise ideas of the body and the human. The aim is to develop a material approach to contemporary digital practices, where bodies have not ceased to matter but are framed in new ways by new technologies.

We present a new analysis of multi-epoch, H-band, scattered light images of the AB Aur system. We use a Monte Carlo radiative transfer code to simultaneously model the system's spectral energy distribution (SED) and H-band polarized intensity (PI) imagery. We find that a disk-dominated model, as opposed to one that is envelope-dominated, can plausibly reproduce AB Aur's SED and near-IR imagery. This is consistent with previous modeling attempts presented in the literature and supports the idea that at least a subset of AB Aur's spirals originate within the disk. In light of this, we also analyzed the movement of spiral structures in multi-epoch H-band total light and PI imagery of the disk. We detect no significant rotation or change in spatial location of the spiral structures in these data, which span a 5.8-year baseline. If such structures are caused by disk-planet interactions, the lack of observed rotation constrains the location of the orbit of planetary perturbers to be >47 au.

Some close-in gaseous exoplanets are nearly in Roche lobe contact, and previous studies show that tidal decay can drive hot Jupiters into contact during the main sequence of their host stars. Improving on a previous model, we present a revised model for mass transfer in a semidetached binary system that incorporates an extended atmosphere around the donor and allows for an arbitrary mass ratio. We apply this new formalism to hypothetical, confirmed, and candidate planetary systems to estimate mass-loss rates and compare with models of evaporative mass loss. Overflow may be significant for hot Neptunes out to periods of similar to 2 days, while for hot Jupiters, it may only be important inward of 0.5 days. We find that CoRoT-24 b may be losing mass at a rate of more than an Earth mass in a gigayear. The hot Jupiter WASP-12 b may lose an Earth mass in a megayear, while the putative planet PTFO8-8695 orbiting a T Tauri star might shed its atmosphere in a few megayears. We point out that the orbital expansion that can accompany mass transfer may be less effective than previously considered because the gas accreted by the host star removes some of the angular momentum from the orbit, but simple scaling arguments suggest that the Roche lobe overflow might remain stable. Consequently, the recently discovered small planets in ultrashort periods (< 1 day) may not be the remnants of hot Jupiters/Neptunes. The new model presented here has been incorporated into Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA).

Global paleogeography exerts a first order control on both the deep and surficial components of the Earth system. Temporal and spatial constraints on the Mozambique Belt of Eastern Africa are needed to understand its crustal evolution and its role in assembly of Gondwana. This thesis provides detailed data on the timing, sources and nature of tectono-thermal events responsible for magmatism in the Mozambique Belt in southern Malawi. An integrated approach of petrography, geochemistry, radiogenic isotopes, and single zircon geochronology has been used to determine spatial and temporal constraints and to better constrain models of the assembly of East and West Gondwana, which occurred along the Mozambique Belt. In particular the thesis attempts to address key unresolved questions about the number and timing of accretionary pulses within the orogen. LA-ICP-MS single zircon U-Pb results show tectono-thermal events in four periods: Mesoproterozoic from 1128 ± 30 Ma to 1033 ± 20 Ma; Neoproterozoic (956 ± 12 Ma – 594 ± 65 Ma); Cambrian (530 ± 3 Ma – 515 ± 12 Ma); and Cretaceous (118 ± 2 Ma). Metamorphism is dated from a charnockitic gneiss that yielded a lower intercept age of 515 ± 18 Ma. The granitoids are intermediate to acidic with relative enrichment in LILEs and depletion in HFSEs with moderately negative anomalies in Th, Nb, P, Zr and Ti. REE spider plots show enrichment in LREEs and depleted HREEs with negative Eu anomalies. The meta-granites are largely metaluminous with a few peraluminous, I-type granites belonging to the calc-alkaline series. Radiogenic isotope data reveals slight differences with older, Mesoproterozoic rocks showing positive ɛNd and ɛHf values signifying derivation from depleted mantle material, whilst the younger rocks display negative epsilon values suggestive of crustal material recycling and mixing for their source and origins. Granitoids of southern Malawi display characteristics consistent with derivation in a continental Andean type arc with some aspects of the chemistry resembling tonalite-trondhjemite-granite (TTG) suites mapped in the Mozambique Belt in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Antarctica although the data are not sufficiently compelling to assign the Malawi rocks to classic TTGs.

A pesquisa sobre as percepções de residentes da região de Piracicaba em relação às questões ambientais e ao futuro da humanidade no planeta foi desenvolvida com base em um questionário semi-estruturado. As questões buscaram levantar dados autoavaliativos sobre perfil, comportamentos, estado de humor, qualidade de vida, condição econômica e hábitos de consumo, práticas para destinação de resíduos, iniciativas de exercício de cidadania em prol da sustentabilidade socioambiental, para enfim, indagar sobre percepções de futuro e avaliações sobre o contexto socioambiental dos participantes da pesquisa. A aplicação dos questionários foi feita de forma aleatória estratificada nos bairros das cinco regiões da cidade de Piracicaba: Norte, Sul, Leste, Oeste e Centro. Por meio dessas aplicações, foram obtidos 655 questionários, que foram sistematizados, tabulados e analisados estatisticamente, utilizando-se gráficos de frequência, o Teste de Kruskal Wallis, os Testes de Correlação de Spearman e Kendall, o Teste de Qui-Quadrado e o Teste Exato de Fisher. Foram também criadas nuvens de palavras, desenvolvidas no software online \"Wordle\" (FEINBERG, 2014). Os resultados obtidos com essa pesquisa e as análises desenvolvidas indicam que 227 pessoas, isto é, aproximadamente 35% dos respondentes, possui uma percepção pessimista sobre o futuro da humanidade no planeta. Porém, 493 pessoas, o equivalente a aproximadamente 75% do total de respondentes, considerou que, dentre as alternativas apresentadas no questionário (Desenvolvimento de tecnologias; Controle de natalidade; Educação e mudanças culturais; Cobrança de impostos com base nos impactos ambientais; Intervenção do Estado), a educação e mudanças culturais são fundamentais no processo de transformação social e de superação das problemáticas ambientais. Observou-se também que a crise hídrica vivenciada na época em que os questionários foram aplicados também influenciou na percepção social dos respondentes, uma vez que a palavra \"água\" foi citada 380 vezes. Por meio do trabalho, foi também possível analisar o comportamento ambiental dos pesquisados, notando-se que ainda há a necessidade de promoção de atividades educacionais e comunicacionais que possam estimular a adoção de hábitos e comportamentos mais comprometidos com ideias de sustentabilidade e que levem a mudanças mais efetivas nos padrões de relacionamento entre sociedade e meio ambiente. / The research about the perceptions of residents in Piracicaba on environmental issues and the future of humanity on the planet has been developed based on a semi-structured questionnaire. Its questions sought to raise self-evaluative data on the profile, mood, quality of life, economic condition and consumer habits, waste handling practices, citizenship exercise initiatives for environmental sustainability, to finally inquire about future perceptions and assessments about the socio-environmental context of the research participants. The questionnaires were applied in a stratified random way in neighborhoods in the five regions of Piracicaba: North, South, East, West and Central. Through these applications, we obtained 655 questionnaires, which were then systematized and statistically analyzed, using frequency graphs, the Kruskal Wallis test, the Spearman correlation test and Kendall test, the Chi-Square test and the Fisher\'s exact test. Word clouds were also created, developed on the online software \"Wordle\" (FEINBERG, 2014). The results obtained from this research and developed analyzes indicate that 227 people, that is, approximately 35% of respondents have a pessimistic perception of the future of humanity on the planet. However, 493 people, equivalent to approximately 75% of all respondents considered that, among the presented alternatives of the questionnaire (Technology development; Birth control; Education and cultural changes; Tax collection based on the environmental impacts; State intervention), education and cultural changes are fundamental in the process of social transformation and overcoming environmental problems. It was also observed that the water crisis experienced at the time the questionnaires were applied also influenced the social perception of respondents, since the word \"water\" was cited 380 times. Through the research, it was also possible to analyze the environmental performance of those surveyed, noting that there is still the need to promote communicational and educational activities that can stimulate the adoption of habits and behavior that are more compromised to sustainability ideas and that can lead to more effective changes in the relationship patterns between society and environment.

On December 30th 2000, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft reached the perijove milestone in its continuing journey to the Saturnian system. During an extended six-month encounter, the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) returned spectra of the Jovian atmosphere, rings and satellites from 10 to 1400 cm^-1 (1000 to 7 µm) at a programmable spectral resolution of 0.5 to 15 cm^-1. The improved spectral resolution of CIRS over previous infrared instrument-missions to Jupiter, the extended spectral range and higher signal-to-noise performance provide significant advantages over previous data-sets. Both optimal-estimation retrieval and radiance-differencing are used to investigate the global variation of upper-tropospheric temperature, ammonia, phosphine and cloud opacity between ± 60˚ latitude. The analysis methods are shown to successfully reproduce Jovian conditions with results consistent with previous investigations. The composition results in particular are well characterised and suggest an important role played by mixing and transport within the upper-troposphere. Interpretation and validation of the retrieved results is conducted via the construction of a simple dynamic model incorporating transport, diffusion and (photo)chemistry.

The object of this research program has been to provide a baseline for microwave remote sensing of ammonia and water vapor in the atmosphere of Jupiter through laboratory measurements of their microwave absorption properties. Jupiter is not only the largest planet in our solar system, but one of the most interesting and complex. Despite a handful of spacecraft missions and many astronomical measurements, much of Jupiter s atmospheric dynamics and composition remain a mystery. Although constraints have been formed on the amount of certain gases present, the global abundances and distributions of water vapor (H2O) and ammonia (NH3) are relatively unknown. Measurements of H2O and NH3 in the Jovian atmosphere to hundreds of bars of pressure are best accomplished via passive microwave emission measurements. For these measurements to be accurately interpreted, however, the hydrogen and helium pressure-broadened microwave opacities of H2O and NH3 must be well characterized, a task that is very difficult if based solely on theory and limited laboratory measurements. Therefore, accurate laboratory measurements have been taken under a broad range of conditions that mimic those of the Jovian atmosphere. These measurements, performed using a newly redesigned high-accuracy system, and the corresponding models of microwave opacity that have been developed from them comprise the majority of this work. The models allow more accurate retrievals of H2O and NH3 abundances from previous as well as future missions to Jupiter and the outer planets, such as the NASA New Frontiers class Juno mission scheduled for launch in 2011. This information will enable a greater understanding of the concentration and distribution of H2O and NH3 in the Jovian atmosphere, which will reveal much about how Jupiter and our solar system formed and how similar planets could form in other solar systems, even planets that may be hospitable to life.

Industrial operations have been attributed to causing social and environmental problems such as: acid rain; greenhouse gas emissions, air, water and soil pollution; plus health problems to neighbourhood communities. With the 3P (people, planet, profit) approach for sustainability as the background, there have been movements to establish the concept of eco-industrial development in existing or new industrial areas from the planning stage onwards. Industrial ecology (IE) is the operation of an industrial ecosystem which is based on the principles of operation of a natural ecosystem. Industrial symbiosis (IS), one of the principal applications of IE, is defined as inter-firm collaboration, where a network of industries collaborates in exchange of products, by-products, information, resources and wastes to reduce their collective environmental footprint to achieve mutual benefits. / Industrial symbiosis is a collaborative process of industries geographically located in an industrial park, which facilitates and enables an exchange of products, by-products and wastes to reduce the collective adverse impacts of the emission during the operation of these industries. However, IS faces a number of barriers. Importantly, it has been identified that there is a critical impediment to implementing future IS practices in the area. This is because of the number of barriers such as technical, regulatory, commercial as well as informational. In addition, there is an absence of a proven and well established evaluation methodology to identify the benefits of such practice. The true implications of IS might therefore remain underestimated, thereby failing to convince industry, government and the community to realize the opportunities IS can bring in attaining goals of sustainability in their operations. / The aim of this PhD research was to develop and trial a method for capturing the life cycle environmental, social and economic implications of industrial symbiosis in heavy industrial areas. This research was based on multi-disciplinary approach of examining environmental, social and financial aspects to develop an integrated method. In the Kwinana industrial Area (KIA), the primary research area in Western Australia, the opportunities were significant for such industrial symbiosis to happen because of the co-location of diverse industries. The research hypothesis that informs this thesis is that the assessment of implications of present IS might bring further opportunities for enhancing symbiosis between industries. Though the primary emphasis of the research was in the Kwinana Industrial Area, this approach could be applied to other heavy industrial areas. This site could be significant both nationally and internationally in providing a platform for business responses to regional sustainable development challenges, by documenting best practice and improving approaches for implementing industrial symbiosis. / This research addressed the objectives by using the developed Six Capitals Model (SCM) for identifying environmental, social and economic benefits. The values under these dimensions were analysed with regard to natural, ecosystem, human, social, financial and manufactured capitals for a project of wastewater reclamation for industrial use. Under the environmental dimension, the model revealed that resource conservation and resource security were achieved as a result of the operation of this project. These results are in line with the argument that industrial symbiosis secures and conserves resources due to the possibility of reclaiming the resources that were once discarded. Water contamination has been reduced as a result of the operation of this project. This indicator shows that there is an improvement in maintaining the ecosystem capital. / In terms of human capital, sharing information between industries and opportunities of sharing infrastructure and technology has been improved. Regarding community capital, sharing of information between industries and communities, has increased as a result of this project. Collaboration of government bodies, level of understanding about IS projects due to increasing communication between various stakeholders, and increase of employment opportunities are notable, as value has been generated for community capital since the project started. In terms of financial capital of the project, the majority of the participants did not gain any financial savings in terms of direct costs but rather accrued short term costs. This was due to the infrastructure cost involved as part of installation of pipes and pumps. It was also due to the high cost of the reclaimed water than the scheme water. In addition, the analysis showed that most of the participants of the project did not gain any savings in the indirect costs such as hidden and legal costs, such as permit costs, compliance costs, future fines and penalties. However, as part of manufactured capital, there were savings due to improved business opportunities as well as infrastructure, for business and community collectively. / The results of this thesis show that broader benefits of symbiosis can be achieved, not only from operation of the project, but also from the influence of processes of symbiosis. Among them are connection, communication and collaboration between the project partners. There has been a substantial increase in the networking of industries and formation of multi groups for addressing various issues faced by industry and community in the Kwinana. There has also been a further increase in the transparency of information dissemination and communication through industries council’s website. In addition, there has been an improvement in the rate of participation of community members and groups in the Communities and Industries Forum (CIF) which resulted in the formation of further stakeholder groups by industries council as a platform for addressing the issues of industries and communities. / IS practices strengthen the EIP concept and increase the chances of sustainable industrial development regionally due to collaboration of community of businesses and local and regional community. IS also increases the reputation and license to operate in the community. There are many advantages for using the Model developed in the thesis to assess the benefits of IS. First, the values of ecosystem values maintained are able to be accounted for in addition to natural capital values. The Six Capital Model can also account human capital values in addition to community capital. The Model also accounted the manufactured capital in addition to financial capital and it gives an opportunity to identify the value generated towards community and companies. / Finally, the Model enables a calculation of the internal costs and external costs and benefits so that industries are able to understand the real cost of the projects. One of the main advantages of this method is that with, right indicators, the intangible values of the IS process can also be assessed and reported.

Thesis (Doctor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering)--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. / Remote sensing provides a way of frequently observing broad land surfaces. The availability of various earth observation data and their potential exploitation in a wide range of socioeconomic applications stimulated the rapid development of remote sensing technology. Much of the research and most of the publications dealing with remote sensing in the solar spectral domain focus on analysing and interpreting the spectral, spatial and temporal signatures of the observed areas. However, the angular signatures of the reflectance field, known as surface anisotropy, also merit attention. The current research took an exploratory approach to the land surface anisotropy described by the RPV model parameters derived from the MISR-HR processing system (denoted as MISR-HR anisotropy data or MISR-HR RPV data), over a period of 14+ years, for three typical terrestrial surfaces in the Western Cape Province of South Africa: a semi-desert area, a wheat field and a vineyard area. The objectives of this study were to explore (1) to what extent spectral and directional signatures of the MISR-HR RPV data may vary in time and space over the different targets (landscapes), and (2) whether the observed variations in anisotropy might be useful in classifying different land surfaces or as a supplementary method to the traditional land cover classification method. The objectives were achieved by exploring the statistics of the MISR-HR RPV data in each spectral band over the different land surfaces, as well as seasonality and trend in these data. The MISR-HR RPV products were affected by outliers and missing values, both of which influenced the statistics, seasonality and trend of the examined time series. This research proposes a new outlier detection method, based on the cost function derived from the RPV model inversion process. Removed outliers and missing values leave gaps in a MISR-HR RPV time series; to avoid introducing extra biases in the statistics of the anisotropy data, this research kept the gaps and relied on gap-resilient trend and seasonality detection methods, such as the Mann-Kendal trend detection and Lomb-Scargle periodogram methods. The exploration of the statistics of the anisotropy data showed that RPV parameter rho exhibited distinctive over the different study sites; NIR band parameter k exhibits prominent high values for the vineyard area; red band parameter Theta data are not that distinctive over different study sites; variance is important in describing all three RPV parameters. The explorations on trends also demonstrated interesting findings: the downward trend in green band parameter rho data for the semi-desert and vineyard areas; and the upward trend in blue band parameters k and Theta data for all the three study sites. The investigation on seasonality showed that all the RPV parameters had seasonal variations which differed over spectral bands and land covers; the results confirmed expectations in previous literature that parameter varies regularly along the observation time, and also revealed seasonal variations in the parameter rho and Theta data. The explorations on the statistics and seasonality of the MISR-HR anisotropy data show that these data are potentially useful for classifying different landscapes. Finally, the classification results demonstrated that both red band parameter rho data and NIR band parameter k data could successfully separate the three different land surfaces in this research, which fulfilled the second primary objective of this study. This research also demonstrated a classification method using multiple RPV parameters as the classification signatures to discriminate different terrestrial surfaces; significant separation results were obtained by this method.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:15:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JulianaCS_DISSERT.pdf: 3176095 bytes, checksum: 698fc04621ae821b481850e332892a95 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-11-29 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / Since Michel Mayor and his student Didier Queloz s pioneer announcement, in 1995, of the existence of a planet orbiting the star 51 Peg, up to present date, 695 extrasolar planets orbiting stars of spectral type F, G, K and M have been discovered. A study on the behavior of the total angular momentum of the planetary systems known up to present date becomes relevant when we know that about 98% of the angular momentum of the solar system is associated with the planets, although they represent only 0.15 percent of the mass of the whole system. In this dissertation we study the behavior of stellar angular momentum, orbital angular momentum and total angular momentum in a sample of 282 stars harboring planets, including 40 multiple systems. We observed that planetary systems containing more than one known planet have both higher orbital angular momentum and total angular momentum compared to those who have only one planet. This analysis shows that multiplanet systems tend to have higher momenta, suggesting that the planets in such systems that contribute to the greater portion momenta have been found. Thus, planetary systems with lower values for the momenta represent the best candidates to the discovery of new planets / Desde o anuncio pioneiro de Michel Mayor e seu ent?o estudante Didier Queloz, em 1995, da exist?ncia de um planeta orbitando a estrela 51 Peg, at? a presente data, 695 planetas extrasolares foram descobertos, orbitando estrelas do tipo espectral F, G, K e M. Um estudo sobre o comportamento do momentum angular total dos sistemas planet?rios, conhecidos at? o momento, torna-se relevante quando conhecemos que cerca de 98% do momentum angular do Sistema Solar est? associado aos planetas, embora esses representem apenas 0,15% da massa de todo o Sistema. Na presente disserta??o de mestrado estudamos o comportamento do momentum angular estelar, do momentum angular orbital e do momentum angular total numa amostra de 282 estrelas, abrigando planetas, incluindo 40 sistemas multiplos. Observamos que os sistemas planet?rios contendo mais de 1 planeta conhecido possuem tanto momentum angular orbital quanto momentum angular total mais elevado, comparado ?queles sistemas que possuem apenas 1 planeta. Esta an?lise mostra que sistemas planet?rios m?ltiplos tendem a ter momenta mais elevado, sugerindo que em tais sistemas os planetas que contribuem com maior parcela para o momenta j? foram descobertos. Sendo assim, sistemas planet?rios com menores valores para o momenta representam melhores candidatos para a descoberta de novos planetas