This study argues that the sensory order employed during everyday activities deepens our understanding of local people’s relations with the environment. This study was conducted in Larabanga, Ghana, employing anthropology of the senses and phenomenology. The study reveals that people acquire ways of doing things and organizing their lives through their sensory engagement with their environment. Their engagement is further highlighted by the way they make themselves a home in their environment which informs about these sensory orders.

The thesis is concerned with ways in which tourists’ experiences of learning to dive are mediated by technology, equipment and cultural constructions that are projected through visual media. The empirical chapters take a different theoretical body of literature to demonstrate the extent to which mediation alters human perception. The thesis is informed by research participants who took part in an experimental visual methodology that sought to open up new ways of studying the senses. The empirical chapters cover a consideration of the phasing in and out of attention of equipmental prosthetics for learner divers, a phenomenological study of the reorganisation of the senses underwater, a Bergsonian take on the intersubjective nature of recollection upon encountering material relics at a wreck site. The construction of docile diving bodies are considered, in relation to appropriate ways of moving and thinking about the ocean’s inhabitants, before the final empirical chapter outlines the mediative role of videographic souvenirs, as they polish memories of previous experience and alter relations to place. The thesis concludes by drawing attention to the way in which understandings of underwater space are constructed before, during and after real-time perception of the ocean and its various inhabitants. Consequently, it is noted that underwater experience is both highly subjective and intertextual, being furnished by the associations and atmospheres that each learner diver brings to the encounter and being re-presented to others by means of what each diver takes away.

A presente pesquisa buscou compreender e analisar a constituição da Sociologia como disciplina escolar em face de sua entrada no currículo durante a vigência da Lei nº 11.684/08. Analisou as diferentes representações sociais e as disputas curriculares criadas em torno do seu significado na educação básica. A hipótese levantada foi a de que, entre os professores de Sociologia, ainda não havia se formado um conjunto de argumentos mais coesos sobre o valor formativo da disciplina e de sua finalidade na formação escolar. O estudo se inseriu no campo da história das disciplinas escolares e buscou conciliar as abordagens sócio histórica de Goodson e cultural de Chervel, articuladas com as categorias de análise propostas por Viñao Frago. A constituição da disciplina escolar foi concebida como uma construção social em que se buscou compreender as representações que os professores constroem sobre o seu ensino, constituindo, assim, o currículo real. Este estudo teve como base empírica a análise documental do currículo, bem como as entrevistas semiestruturadas realizadas com professores de Sociologia concursados na rede pública estadual que trabalham em escolas da região metropolitana da Grande São Paulo. O texto encontra-se estruturado em três partes, quais sejam: a primeira, apoiada na revisão bibliográfica de pesquisas sobre o ensino de Sociologia, buscou compreender e analisar os impasses da construção da sociologia como disciplina escolar a partir da análise dos dilemas dos processos de formação de professores, as representações criadas sobre o significado do seu ensino, como também as representações criadas sobre o trabalho docente; a segunda, que visou compreender a constituição do código disciplinar da Sociologia a partir de suas singularidades. Para isso partiu da análise de aspectos epistemológicos do conhecimento sociológico para discutir as relações entre o conhecimento acadêmico e a disciplina escolar. Também foi analisado as representações que os professores constroem em torno do conhecimento sociológico e seu ensino na educação básica. Ademais, examinou a condição peculiar da disciplina Sociologia no currículo do Estado de São Paulo, elaborado em torno de uma perspectiva de compreensão cognitivo-científica da realidade social e inserido em uma estrutura pautada no desenvolvimento de competências e de habilidades; e a terceira e última parte, na qual foram examinadas as relações entre o campo disciplinar da Sociologia a partir de seus docentes, a fim de compreender a forma como o ensino é construído. Analisou as trajetórias sociais dos professores entrevistados e suas formas de inserção na cultura escolar. Além disso, perscrutou as maneiras como os professores se apropriam e transcendem as prescrições curriculares, como também investigou suas formas de resistência coletiva. Assim, a pesquisa concluiu que, na construção social do ensino, os professores ressignificam a disciplina tomando como referência suas trajetórias de formação e a cultura escolar. Em que pese a existência de um currículo prescrito, o ensino da Sociologia se constituiu de maneira heterogênea, incorporando múltiplas leituras da realidade social. / The present research aimed to comprehend and analyze the constitution of Sociology as a school course due to their entrance in the curriculum from the Law 11.684/08. It has analyzed the different representations that have been created about its meaning on the basic education as well as the disputes around its teaching purposes. The raised hypothesis is that among Sociology teachers there still has not been formed a range of more cohesive arguments about the formative value of the course and about its purpose on the school formation. The study is inserted in the domain of the history of school courses and it aimed to conciliate the approaches of Goodson and Chervel, both of them articulated with the analysis categories proposed by Viñao Frago. The constitution of the school course has been conceived as a social construction in which it has aimed to identify the meanings that the teachers have assigned to their teaching, which represent, therefore, the real curriculum. This study had as its empirical basis the documental analysis of the curriculum as well as the semi structured interviews realized with full Sociology teachers of the public state system who work on schools in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo. The text has been structured in three parts. The first one, which has been underpinned in the literature review of researches about Sociology teaching, aimed to comprehend and analyze the impasses of the construction of Sociology as a school course from the analysis of the dilemmas of the teachers formation processes, the representations which have been built about the meaning of their teaching, as well as the representations built about the faculty work. The second one aimed to comprehend the constitution of the Sociology disciplinary code from its singularities. For that, it has come from the analysis of epistemological aspects of the sociological knowledge to discuss the relations between the school course and the academic knowledge. It has also been analyzed the representations that the teachers build around the sociological knowledge and its teaching on the basic education. Furthermore, it has analyzed the peculiar condition of Sociology in the São Paulo States curriculum, elaborated around a perspective of a scientific cognitive comprehension of social reality and inserted in a structure based on the development of competencies and abilities. In the third and last part it has been analyzed the relations between the course domain of Sociology from its teachers, aiming to comprehend the way in which the teaching is built. It has analyzed the social trajectories of the interviewed teachers and the way they insert theirselves on the school culture. Moreover, it has peered the ways which the teachers appropriate theirselves and transcend the curriculum prescriptions, as well as investigated their forms of collective resistance. Therefore, the research has stated that, in the social construction of the act of teaching, the teachers give a new meaning to the school course, taking as reference their formation trajectories and the school culture. Although the existence of a prescript curriculum, the teaching of Sociology has been constituted in a heterogeneous manner, incorporating many readings of the social reality.

Este trabalho trata de uma interface entre arquitetura e filosofia. O instrumental teórico utilizado nesta pesquisa é a fenomenologia da linguagem de Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Propomos uma leitura dos desenhos do arquiteto Joan Villà, por meio de uma linguagem expressiva, conquistadora, estabelecida como sistema complexo, aberto, onde os signos articulam-se pela diferença que estabelecem entre si e dessa forma, constituem a unidade da linguagem do arquiteto. Nosso objetivo é situarmos o fenômeno criativo nos desenhos do arquiteto e tratar questões da gênese do sentido, Para a leitura dos aspectos latentes dos desenhos, elegemos a teoria da intersubjetividade de Merleau-Ponty, presente na fenomenologia da linguagem para situarmos o trabalho participativo de Villà junto a comunidades carentes de habitação, na exposição de um desenho arquitetônico aberto, democrático. Para os aspectos dos desenhos em si, escolhemos a questão do vazio positivo e a dialética entre espaço público e espaço privado.Dessa forma, pretendemos desenvolver uma linguagem expressiva não meramente comunicativa, indireta, alusiva, capaz de conferir sentidos para a arquitetura, pois nossa hipótese é que na contemporaneidade, no âmbito da arquitetura e do urbanismo, vive-se uma crise de sentidos. / This work is an interface between architecture and philosophy. The theoretical tool used in this research is the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty language therefore propose here a reading of the drawings of the architect Joan Villa via an expressive language, conquering, established as a complex system, open, in which the signs articulate by the difference established between them and thus constitute the unity of the language of the architect. Our goal is to situate the phenomenon in creative designs of the architect and dealing with issues of the genesis of sense. To read the latent aspects of the designs we have chosen the theory of intersubjectivity in Merleau-Ponty, this phenomenology of language to situate participatory work villa next to needy communities in housing, exposing an open, democratic architectural design. For the visible aspects of the drawings, chose the issue of positive void and the dialectic between public space and private space. Thus, we intend to develop a merely communicative, indirect, allusive, expressive language is able to give directions to architecture because our hypothesis is that in contemporary times, in architecture and urbanism, one lives a crisis of meaning.

Ka Keung Caramon Lee. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-105). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Contents --- p.iii / List of Figures --- p.vi / List of Tables --- p.ix / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Motivation --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Related Work --- p.3 / Chapter 1.2.1 --- Empirical Psychophysical Equations --- p.3 / Chapter 1.2.2 --- Industry Standards --- p.4 / Chapter 1.2.3 --- Fuzzy Logic --- p.4 / Chapter 1.2.4 --- Neural Networks --- p.5 / Chapter 1.3 --- Organization of Thesis --- p.7 / Chapter 2 --- Experimental Design --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1 --- Human Motion Sense --- p.9 / Chapter 2.2 --- Full-Body Motion Virtual Reality System --- p.12 / Chapter 2.3 --- Human Sensation Measure --- p.15 / Chapter 2.4 --- Trajectory Segmentation --- p.16 / Chapter 3 --- Learning and Validation of Human Sensation Models --- p.22 / Chapter 3.1 --- Cascade Neural Networks --- p.23 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Dynamic Mapping --- p.26 / Chapter 3.2 --- Experimental Trajectory Data --- p.26 / Chapter 3.3 --- Effect of Trajectory Segmentation --- p.31 / Chapter 3.4 --- Model Validation --- p.32 / Chapter 3.5 --- Similarity Measure --- p.33 / Chapter 3.6 --- Similarity Measure Results --- p.38 / Chapter 4 --- Input Reduction for Human Sensation Modeling --- p.40 / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.40 / Chapter 4.2 --- Input Reduction --- p.41 / Chapter 4.3 --- Feature Extraction and Input Selection --- p.42 / Chapter 4.4 --- Feature Extraction Using Principal Component Analysis --- p.44 / Chapter 4.5 --- Independent Component Analysis --- p.48 / Chapter 4.5.1 --- Measure of Gaussianity --- p.50 / Chapter 4.5.2 --- The Fixed Point ICA Algorithm --- p.51 / Chapter 4.6 --- Input Reduction Using Independent Component Analysis --- p.52 / Chapter 4.6.1 --- ICA Without Dimension Reduction --- p.52 / Chapter 4.6.2 --- Feature Extraction Using ICA --- p.55 / Chapter 4.6.3 --- Input Selection Using ICA --- p.57 / Chapter 4.6.4 --- Applying Input Selection by ICA on the Furnace Data --- p.58 / Chapter 4.6.5 --- Applying Input Selection by ICA to Sensation Modeling --- p.65 / Chapter 4.6.6 --- Cross Verification of Selected Inputs --- p.70 / Chapter 4.7 --- Summary on Input Reduction for Human Sensation Modeling --- p.72 / Chapter 5 --- Stimulus Modification Based on Human Sensation --- p.74 / Chapter 5.1 --- Need for Stimulus Modification --- p.74 / Chapter 5.2 --- Sensation Grades --- p.75 / Chapter 5.3 --- Trajectory Modification Scheme --- p.77 / Chapter 5.4 --- Experiments --- p.80 / Chapter 6 --- Conclusion --- p.86 / Chapter 6.1 --- Contributions --- p.86 / Chapter 6.2 --- Future Work --- p.87 / Chapter A --- Platform Model --- p.88 / Chapter A.1 --- Inverse Kinematics --- p.90 / Chapter A.2 --- Forward Kinematics --- p.93 / Chapter A.3 --- Platform Dynamics --- p.99 / Bibliography --- p.100

A vital ability for an animal is to filter the constant flow of sensory input from the environment to focus on the most important information. Attention is used to prioritize sensory input for adaptive responses. The role of attention in visual search has been studied extensively in human and non-human primates, but is much less studied in other animals. We looked at attentional mechanisms, especially selective and divided attention where animals focus on multiple cues at the same time, using a visual search paradigm. We targeted bumblebee and zebrafish as model species because they are widely used as tractable models of information processing in comparatively small brains. Bees were required to forage from target and distractor flowers in the presence of predators. We found that bees could selectively attend to certain dimension of the stimuli, and divide their attention to both visual foraging search and predator avoidance tasks simultaneously. Furthermore, bees showed consistent individual differences in foraging strategy; ‘careful’ and ‘impulsive’ strategies exist in individuals of the same colony. From the calculation of foraging rate, it is shown that the best strategy may depend on environmental conditions. We applied a similar behavioural paradigm to zebrafish and found speed-accuracy tradeoffs and consistent individual behavioural differences. We therefore continued to test how individuality influences group choices. In pairs of careful and impulsive fish, the consensus decision is close to the strategy of the careful individual. The present thesis provides implications for the study of animal attention, individuality differences based on attentional strategies, the influence of individuality on animal group choices and an exploration of the evolutionary pressures that favour stable individual differences.

The lineage that gave rise to mammals split from other basal amniotes, approximately 300 million years ago. Since then, mammals have evolved many sensory novelties, including high-frequency hearing and echolocation. Sensitivity to high frequencies is particularly well developed in many echolocating mammals; for example, the upper hearing limit of several laryngeal echolocating bat species are estimated to be approximately ten times that of humans. In order to process the high frequency sounds produced during echolocation, the inner ears of laryngeal echolocating bats have undergone substantial modifications. Despite the evolutionary significance of laryngeal echolocation, it is unknown how many times it evolved within bats. Its occurrence on most, but not all, bat lineages suggests it either evolved once with secondary loss, or independently on multiple lineages. Distinguishing between these possibilities is complicated by morphological diversity and convergence. Furthermore, the genetic basis underpinning echolocation remains largely unknown. To elucidate the evolutionary history of this key trait in bats, a combined molecular and morphological approach was taken. Firstly, for two mammalian ‘hearing genes’ sequence convergence, phylogenetic signal and selection pressures were examined across echolocating and non-echolocating mammal species. Secondly, substitution rates of Conserved Non-coding Elements associated with genes regulating ear development were compared across mammals. Finally, as mammalian inner ear development is controlled by many genes, the gross structure of the bony labyrinth was studied in order to examine the combined genetic effect. Structural variation of bat cochleae and vestibular systems was examined using micro-computed tomography reconstructions, and related to ecological data. Subsequent analyses found evidence of convergence at the molecular level, in terms of amino acid substitutions, and also the morphological level, in terms of inner ear morphology. No evidence of degeneration, supporting loss-of-function in Old World fruit bats was found. Conversely, evidence of differential evolution pressures acting on the two echolocating bat lineages was found, which supports multiple origins of laryngeal echolocation in bats.

Humans in the modern world can survive without the Aristotelian senses of vision, hearing, smell or taste, but no one is completely without the ability to sense touch. This sense is essential for everything from basic tasks like tool manipulation to the complex interactions that underlie social bonding, sexual reproduction and pleasure. Touch receptors are embedded in the skin, at the interface of our bodies and the world. A remarkable array of varied receptor types tile our skin to signal different features of the objects we touch and alert us to their shape and texture. An early investigator of the neurological basis of touch, Maximillian von Frey, proposed in 1895 that the morphological diversity of neural endings in the skin could represent functional specificity. It is indeed the evolution of diverse receptor structures that has endowed the sensory organ of our skin with remarkable somatosensory functions. Here I explore the evolution of mechanosensing, and discuss how diversity in form and organization of touch receptors, from the cellular to organismal level, can shape the function of touch reception.

O objetivo da pesquisa é compreender os significados e os sentidos do trabalho e da carreira de trabalhadores de seis países das Américas (Argentina, Brasil, Colômbia, Chile, México e Peru) e sua relação com discursos e práticas discursivas presentes nas narrativas de sujeitos trabalhadores. Através de uma pesquisa qualitativa e descritiva, se obteve informações de duas fontes: textos e notícias de jornais e blogs dos países pesquisados durante um período de três semanas e entrevistas a 5 pessoas de cada país analisado, com idade limite de até 28 anos. As narrativas e práticas discursivas dos textos e das entrevistas mostram uma presença significativa de valores liberais como a autonomia, independência e a individualidade tanto na sugestão de modelos privilegiados de sujeito (nos textos de jornais e páginas de internet encontrados) como de constituição da carreira das pessoas entrevistadas. A primeira definição de trabalho dos participantes regularmente refere a condições concretas da atividade, elemento que também aparece na imagem que os textos de jornais passam sobre o que é considerado trabalho. No caso de alguns participantes, a exploração da trajetória permite ampliar a referência sobre trabalho e a consideração das implicações dessa atividade na própria vida. O trabalho é considerado importante para os participantes, mas ao mesmo tempo são narradas outras dimensões da vida do sujeito que ajudam na configuração do sentido e o significado do trabalho e carreira. Na configuração de carreiras, os referentes de família e pessoas consideradas importantes pelos participantes, constituem referentes importantes nas escolhas de carreira e nas aproximações ao mundo do trabalho. Discursos de empreendimento ligados a valores liberais aparecem como desejo de realização de carreira e imagem do trabalhador modelo a seguir. São discutidas a presença destes discursos nas narrativas como elementos que participam no desenvolvimento de subjetividades de trabalhadores na contemporaneidade / The research aim is to understand the meanings and senses of the work and career of workers from six countries in the Americas (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Peru) and their relation with discursive and discursive practices in the narratives of working subjects. Through a qualitative and descriptive research, information for the analysis was used from two sources: texts and news from newspapers and blogs of the countries analyzed, during a period of three weeks, and interviews with five people from each analyzed country, with age limit of up to 28 years. The narratives and discursive practices of texts and interviews show a significant presence of liberal values such as autonomy, independence and individuality both in the suggestion of privileged models of subject (in the texts of newspapers and Internet pages found) and in the constitution of the career of people interviewed. The first definition of work of the participants commonly refers to concrete conditions of the activity; this also appears in the image that the texts of newspapers show on what work is considered. In the case of some participants, the exploration of the careers allows to increase the reference on work and the consideration of the implications of this activity in the own life. Work is considered important to the participants, but at the same time other dimensions of the subject\'s life are narrated which help in shaping the meaning and senses of work and career. In the career construction, the family and people considered important by the participants are important references in career choices and approaches to the world of work. Entrepreneurial discourses linked to liberal values appear as a desire to realize a career and image of the model of worker to follow. The presence of these discourses in the narratives are discussed as elements that participate in the development of the subjectivities of workers in contemporary times

A adolescência é freqüentemente compreendida particularmente na Psicologia do Desenvolvimento como uma fase da vida marcada por características mais ou menos universais. Partindo da perspectiva sócio-histórica, propõe-se aqui considerar a existência de múltiplas adolescências, vivenciadas por sujeitos singulares. Buscando compreender estas múltiplas adolescências, o presente estudo buscou investigar uma adolescência bastante esquecida pela literatura científica ? a adolescência vivenciada no momento da saída do abrigo. Compreendendo que estes adolescentes são significados pelos protagonistas envolvidos (o próprio adolescente, família, equipe técnica, educadoras, leis, etc.) de forma bastante diferente de um adolescente ?padrão? da classe média /alta, o presente estudo teve como objetivo dar visibilidade aos sentidos produzidos pelo adolescente no momento de saída do abrigo, entendendo que este momento traz para o adolescente uma série de mudanças com as quais ele tem negociar. Partindo do referencial sócio-histórico e da perspectiva teóricometodológica da Rede de Significações, foram realizadas entrevistas abertas com dois adolescentes, antes e após a saída do abrigo, totalizando quatro entrevistas, bem como a produção de material narrativo feita por um dos adolescentes. Além disso, foram realizadas visitas ao abrigo, registradas em notas de campo e uma entrevista com a assistente social. Como metodologia de análise foram delimitados, no contato com o material, cinco temas de maior recorrência: 1) Abrigo; 2) Saída do abrigo; 3) Família biológica; 4) Adoção; 5) Perspectivas de futuro. A partir desta delimitação, buscou-se investigar quais as zonas de sentidos que os adolescentes produziam sobre cada um destes temas. Como apontamento final observou-se que cada um dos adolescentes se descrevia e era descrito pelo abrigo de formas bastante distintas (adolescente modelo e adolescente deprimido). Estas diferentes descrições, mais que valorizar a subjetividade de cada um, implicavam em práticas discriminatórias e promotoras de desigualdades, inclusive no momento da saída do abrigo, facilitando a saída para um e dificultando para outro ? algo que fere o entendimento do adolescente como sujeito de direitos (Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente). Além disso, observou-se uma ausência de políticas voltadas para o momento da saída do abrigo, o que transforma esta transição em uma vivência bastante solitária para os adolescentes. Na falta de uma rede de apoio extensa que auxilie o adolescente nesta transição, cada um acaba por utilizar seus próprios recursos, ficando bastante dependente do abrigo. A partir destas considerações, acredita-se que este estudo possa contribuir não só para compreender a adolescência como múltipla e dotada de possibilidades (e não só de limitações), mas também para enriquecer as discussões sobre as ações e discursos que têm regido os abrigos bem como suas prática e quotidiano na atenção a estes jovens que lá permaneceram durante tantos anos. / The adolescence is regularly influenced in the Psychology of Development as a period of life noted by features that is in some way universal. From a starting sociological point of view, it is recommended to take into consideration the existence of multiple adolescences, living by a singular subject. In a search to understand these multiples adolescences, this research is in order to investigate a kind of adolescence very absent-minded in the scientific literature-the experience of life took placed when you leave the shelter-. Taking into consideration that these adolescences are known by the subjects involved ? the adolescence her/himself- the family, the technical team, the educator, the rules, etc- in a very different way of a regular A/B class adolescence, this research has been motivated to show all the fillings living by the adolescence at the moment of leaving the shelter, taking into consideration that at this moment the adolescence realizes the chain of changes that he/she has to deal with. From a social-historic and theoretical-methodologist point of view from the Net of Symbols, there were made interviews with two adolescences before/after living the shelter- four in total- as well as a narrative material made by one of them. Further more there were inspections to the shelter noted in camp register and an interview with a social assistance. As the methodology of research has been set with the material, five points have been highlighted: 1) The shelter, 2) The leaving of the shelter, 3) The biological family, 4) The adoption, 5) Future perspectives. From these motives has been a rescue about what sensor zone the adolescences made known. Finally has been observed that each one of them have been described the shelter and her/himself on a very different manner. ? a regular adolescent, and a depressed one- This differences beyond prizing the one?s individuality, promoted prejudiced practices, inclusively at the moment of living the shelter- for the benefit of ones, and against others- not in resolution with the Constitution of the Adolescences. Has been noted as well lacks of initiatives focused at the moment of the leaving of the shelter, what became a very loneliness adjust to the individual. Because of a weak supporting team in this transition, each one finds its own way to help oneself, and became very linked to the shelter. From these statements it is believed that this research can not only facilitate to comprehend the adolescence as a multiple and full of possibilities being -and not only of limitations- but also to enrich the debate about the actions and the wrangle that have been mastered the shelters the practices and the day-by-day living of these youths, who have been living there for so many years.