No início do século XXI, as políticas culturais mundiais começaram a tomar novos rumos após conferências promovidas em anos anteriores pela UNESCO, a fim de desenvolver um olhar mais diverso para a cultura. A partir de 2003, a gestão do ministro Gilberto Gil no Ministério da Cultura, acompanhando esta tendência mundial, mostrou que pretendia lançar, na esfera das políticas culturais, novas diretrizes para a gestão de cultura ao propor a criação de uma nova legislação capaz de oferecer alternativas às políticas públicas de cultura que deveriam privilegiar a diversidade cultural e a cultura produzida a partir de um olhar antropológico. Entre as medidas tomadas pela nova gestão, selecionamos como objeto desta pesquisa os processos de criação do Sistema Nacional de Cultura (SNC) a partir da Emenda Constitucional N. 71 de 2012 e os documentos anteriores e posteriores relacionados a ele. A questão principal desta pesquisa é: de que forma o Sistema Nacional de Cultura contribui para a constituição de uma nova arquitetônica da esfera político-cultural brasileira no início do século XXI? Os enunciados relativos ao Sistema Nacional de Cultura serão analisados a partir da abordagem teórica do chamado Círculo de Bakhtin. Nossa tese compreende que este novo \"olhar\" proposto para a cultura, com um enfoque antropológico, busca alterar a arquitetônica da esfera político-cultural brasileira no início do século XXI, por meio de uma nova legislação e de novos gêneros discursivos, como os Planos de Cultura, enunciados concretos que compõem a arquitetônica da proposta da Política Nacional de Cultura. / At the beginning of the 21st century, world cultural policies began to take a new course after conferences promoted in previous years by UNESCO in order to develop a more diverse view of culture. From 2003, the administration of the Minister Gilberto Gil in the Ministry of Culture, following this world tendency, showed that he intended to launch, in the sphere of cultural policies, new guidelines for the management of culture by proposing a new legislation capable of offering alternatives to the public policies of culture that should privilege the cultural diversity and the culture produced from an anthropological perspective. Among the measures taken by the new management, we selected as object of this research the processes of creation of the National System of Culture (SNC) from Constitutional Amendment N. 71 of 2012 and the previous and subsequent documents related to it. The main question of this research is: in what way does the National System of Culture contribute to the constitution of a new architectonic of the Brazilian political-cultural sphere at the beginning of the 21st century? The statements related to the National Culture System will be analyzed from the theoretical approach of the so-called Bakhtin Circle. Our thesis understands that this new \"look\" proposed for culture, with an anthropological focus, seeks to change the architectonic of the Brazilian political-cultural sphere at the beginning of the 21st century, through new legislation and new discursive genres, such as Plans of Culture, concrete statements that compose the architectonic proposal of the National Culture Policy.

The synthesis of high value acrylic monomers is currently done industrially via cyanohydrin hydration using concentrated acids, resulting in large quantities of useless byproducts. This current process is energy intensive and lacks atom economy; therefore, alternative cyanohydrin hydration strategies are under investigation. Ideally, cyanohydrin hydration would be done using organometallic nitrile hydration catalysts. Cyanohydrin hydration with these catalysts is challenging, because it needs to be done at low temperatures and under acidic conditions to reduce cyanohydrin degradation and catalyst poisoning with cyanide. This dissertation describes the reactivity of [Ru(#951; / 10000-01-01

The virtual public space tends to be articulated as an extension of the contemporary public sphere. However, this is a process that is not being developed horizontally at a global level, there are countries that, like Peru, are identified by the predominant mediation of traditional media, as a consequence of the digital divide, according to which approximately half of the population is still not connected. This study presents the results of a survey of 720 university students in Peru, and our interest lies in describing aspects such as the relationship between trust and consumption of digital media in this country; the main characteristics required of an informative website; the most used interaction mechanisms; and, ultimately, how a group so relevant to Peruvian democracy, such as young university students, tends to channel their participation and experience online. / El espacio público virtual tiende a articularse como una extensión de la esfera pública contemporánea. Sin embargo, este es un proceso que no se está desarrollando horizontalmente a nivel global, hay países que, como Perú, se identifican por la mediación predominante de los medios de comunicación tradicionales, como consecuencia de la brecha digital, según la cual aproximadamente la mitad de la población todavía no está conectada. Este estudio presenta los resultados de una encuesta a 720 estudiantes universitarios en Perú, y nuestro interés radica en describir aspectos como la relación entre la confianza y el consumo de medios digitales en este país; las principales características exigidas de un sitio web informativo; los mecanismos de interacción más utilizados; y, en última instancia, cómo un grupo tan relevante para la democracia peruana, como los jóvenes universitarios, tiende a canalizar su participación y experiencia en línea. / Revisión por pares

Thermal radiation is ubiquitous to all matter at finite temperature and controlling the radiative nature of that matter has been a key enabling factor in the development of several recent technologies, such as thermal diodes, thermal antennae, thermophotovoltaics, heat-assisted magnetic recording, and contactless cooling in microelectromechanical systems. At the micro/nano-scale, thermal radiation does not reliably behave in the way Planck's blackbody law predicts, due to near-field effects such as the diffraction, interference, and tunneling of light. In fact, the so-called blackbody limit can routinely be broken by several orders of magnitude when objects of dimensions or separation distances much smaller than the peak thermal wavelength (approximately 10 \si{\micro\meter} at room temperature) exchange thermal radiation. A deeper theory is required to understand near-field thermal radiation: Maxwell's equations. Maxwell's equations allow for a direct connection between the thermally induced current fluctuations and radiative transfer. In this dissertation, I investigate radiative transfer among spherical bodies aligned in a linear chain. The chain may be composed of any number of spheres, and the spheres themselves may be composed of any linear isotropic material, may be of any size and separation distance, and may each have any number of spherically symmetric layers. Using a dyadic Green's function formalism, I derive numerically exact formulas for heat transfer between pairs of spheres in the chain and between any sphere in the chain and its environment. My work clearly demonstrates that adding coatings to spherical objects can drastically impact the spectrum of radiative transfer, enhancing or diminishing it in various cases. This degree of tailoring makes coated spheres a flexible, yet unexplored, platform for future experiments in near-field radiative heat transfer. My work also demonstrates that, in an experiment measuring the distance dependent heat transfer between two spheres, heat transfer from the spheres to their environment can also have a strong distance dependence, which must be considered carefully when designing an experiment and analyzing its results. This demonstrates a cautious but optimistic outlook for the near-field radiative heat transfer community moving beyond traditional plane-plane and sphere-plane experimental configurations.

Cette thèse contribue aux discussions sur la notion "d'engagement du public en amont", qui a été défendue par des chercheurs pour traiter des nanotechnologies au début du XXIème siècle. Cette notion a été critiquée pour l'absence de lien avec les décisions fonctionnelles. En utilisant l'outil théorique envisagé par Habermas, cette thèse tente d'étudier ce lien, avec une attention particulière portée sur la capacité des Organisations de la Société Civile à accueillir, condenser et répercuter sur la sphère publique les préoccupations sociétales tout en les amplifiant. Alors que la littérature antérieure est plus axée sur la réflexion théorique ou l'étude de cas isolés, la recherche soutenue par des observations sur le long terme est en grande partie absente. Sur la base de l'analyse du contenu et des entretiens, cette thèse mène un travail sur deux questions: si et dans quelle mesure "l'engagement public en amont" envers les nanos pourrait contribuer à un espace public plus vivace; et comment l'influence que les OSC ont acquis dans l'espace public pourrait se transformer en pouvoir communicationnel. La réponse à ces questions est double: d'une part, "l'engagement du public en amont" permet à la société civile d'être mieux informée et de lui permettre plus tôt de prendre part au débat. Si l'implication de la plupart des OSC prend la forme d'une coopération ou d'une argumentation parfois basée sur des rapports d'expertise. D'autre part, quelques OSC se sont retirées de ce domaine compte tenu de la faible portée de leurs propres actions sur les décisions fonctionnelles. / This dissertation contributes to the discussions of the notion 'upstream public engagement', which has been actively advocated by STS scholars in addressing nanotechnologies since the beginning of the twenty-first century. One of the major criticisms of 'upstream public engagement'is its lack of a link with the political system. Drawing on theoretical tools provided by Habermas, this dissertation seeks to examine such a 'link'with a specific focus on the capacity of civil society organizations (CSOs) to distill, raise and transmit societal concerns in an amplified form to the public spheres. Previous literature has mostly included theoretical reflection or one-off case studies, and research based on long-term observations is scant. Based on content analysis and semi-structured interviews with relevant actors, this dissertation investigates whether and how upstream public engagement could contribute to more vibrant public spheres and facilitate the formation of communicative power. The answer to these questions is twofold: on the one hand, moving public engagement 'upstream' enables CSOs to be better informed and to become part of the debates more quickly. Most CSOs employ cooperative, argumentative, and expertise-based forms of involvement. On the other hand,'upstream pubic engagement'has turned out to be unsuccessful in generating substantial and sustained interest, as some CSOs have quit this field in frustration at the tokenistic engagement.

A closed, orientable, splitting surface in an oriented 3-manifold is a topologically minimal surface of index n if its associated disk complex is (n-2)-connected but not (n-1)-connected. A critical surface is a topologically minimal surface of index 2. In this thesis, we use an equivalent combinatorial definition of critical surfaces to construct the first known critical bridge spheres for nontrivial links.

While many studies of U.S. immigration highlight the diversity within other racial and ethnic groups, scholarly attention to the significance of ethnicity among black people in this country is still sorely underdeveloped. This dissertation project explores how black identities are constructed not only through the prism of race in the U.S. context, but also through other social dynamics that operate "in the shadow of race," such as differences in class, color, country of origin, and circumstances of migration. Instead of a singular black identity fueled by our political discourses and popular culture, my project treats "blackness" as a floating signifier that is constructed both within the racial organization of the U.S. nation-state and among the peoples of the black diaspora within its borders. In short, blackness is a matter that has become national, international, and transnational in scope. Ethnicity and its implications for how we think about black identity and group representation in U.S. society is the other "layer of blackness" this dissertation addresses. The formation and reshaping of American identity among various immigrant groups have historically involved complicated relationships between race and ethnicity, two concepts scholars have used to articulate group identities in the U.S. The history of U.S. racial and ethnic relations reveals the complicated processes through which some social groups have been able to establish their place in the American mainstream by adapting to the cultural and institutional norms established by mainstream white society. Non-white immigrant groups have been forced to find their American identities on the margins of U.S. society because of their purported inability or unwillingness to assimilate to established cultural and institutional norms. Sometimes this alienation from the American mainstream takes on a purely racial dimension. At other times, the prejudices of U.S. society are directed at particular ethnic groups. But in spite of the status ascribed to them, these immigrants have also proven to be empowered agents in their implicit and explicit critiques of the U.S.'s social order. Historically, non-white immigrants in the U.S. have demonstrated the power to question, disrupt, and resist cultural and institutional forms of discrimination even as they are incorporated into them. My interrogation of black ethnic identity and what it brings to bear on how we define blackness in the U.S. begins by asking what cultural capital black immigrants bring with them in their sojourn to America rather than assuming what is lost in the process of their incorporation into U.S. race relations. Patterns of immigration, return migration and circular migration that have come to characterize the experience of many foreign-born blacks in the U.S., as well as the circulation of ideas, culture, and history between sending and receiving countries are all issues germane to the process of black immigrant incorporation and black ethnic identity in the U.S. As such, the argument I proffer in my dissertation project is this: because of the myriad processes at play in formulating black racial and ethnic identities in America (i.e., historically established structures of race as well as an unprecedented surge in foreign-born black migration this country)-how we define blackness in the U.S. context is more fruitfully theorized as a matter that is at once national, international, and transnational in scope. It is at the nexus of these fronts that the historical and cultural constructions of blackness are currently defined among the diversity of black people in the U.S.

Can private bodily pain be transformed into a communication medium fit for the public sphere? Can the body in pain be utilized as a means for political participation? If so, how? Under what circumstances? By whom? And to what effect? To begin answering these questions, this dissertation concentrates on extralinguistic confrontational practices such as self-immolation suicide protests that are exercised by those who have been marginalized and excluded from political participation. By focusing on hitherto neglected forms of communication that are visual, spectacular, violent, unruly, and physical, the study expands and complicates the current discussions about the public sphere that are usually yoked to speculation on the boundaries of reason and words. Arguing that the body in pain is a theoretically considerable and practically available mode of public participation, the dissertation examines the rhetorical potency as well as fragility of body rhetoric. Each chapter analyzes different cases of self-immolation, addressing such issues as embodiment in publicity, the gap between private sensation and public discourse, the role of emotion in constituting the public sphere, and the judgments of the audience. The cases offer an opportunity not only to theorize how subaltern people appear out of the darkness of sheltered existence and enter the space of appearance by utilizing their body, but also to rethink the civic art of looking upon suffering. Through the exploration of the place of embodied performance, visual spectacle, and moral stuntsmanship within the larger discussion of democracy, the dissertation endeavors to rehabilitate publicity as a nondialogical political value.

This dissertation poses that the digital transition is best understood as simultaneously a technological and cultural phenomena. As a physical change in the means of distribution, transmission, and reception of media content, the digital transition is an important factor in changing technological, aesthetic, and legal norms. As a cultural form, the digital is positioned as a moderator between continuity and discontinuity. Through a reading strategy inspired by Walter Benjamin this dissertation reads the physical and cultural implications of the digital transition in television in the United States through political categories. The chapters are case studies in the adoption of digital televisions for home use, digital television production technologies, digital transmission technologies, and digital distribution systems. Each case study examines the tenuous production of publics in the context of the dialectical pressures of the digital. By taking this approach I intend to contribute to the rhetorical dimension of television studies, the digital turn in rhetorical and public sphere studies, and the legal and aesthetic dimensions of production studies. The dialectical approach to the digital allows the study of television to theorize the trajectory of emerging media and the political implications of that movement.

Graduation date: 1998