The study critically explored the language of reportage of the Zimbabwe Land Reform programme as presented in selected Shona and English newspapers in Zimbabwe. The study focused on Kwayedza, The Herald, The Daily News and The Daily Mirror. The objective was to find out whether or not the verbal and visual languages used in reporting the Land Reform programme left readers more knowledgeable about the programme, and then adopt a critical attitude towards the Land Reform exercise. The study used qualitative textual analysis to unpack the language frames used in representing Land Reform in the selected newspapers. Some relevant critical voices from readers were also enlisted in order to support or complicate interpretations of how Land Reform was portrayed in the selected stories. Kwayedza and The Herald unequivocally supported the Land Reform. This official stance was contested in Chapter Four in which The Daily News adopted an ideological position opposed to both the idea of the Land Reform and the confiscatory way the land was repossessed. The Daily News’ extremely negative criticism of the Land Reform was challenged and then modified in The Daily Mirror. The Daily Mirror criticised both the government’s extremely supportive view of the Land Reform. The Daily Mirror also openly criticised The Daily News for refusing to acknowledge the historical inevitability and necessity of the Land Reform. The Daily Mirror advanced a perspective that suggested that Land Reform programme should benefit the masses more than the elites. It was argued that in contexts of political change such as that of Zimbabwe, newspapers take a stance and support particular ideological interests. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

Previous studies have established that when a subject’s attention is directed to a specific body part, the subject is able to move that body part faster than a body part their attention was not drawn to. This is known as the body compatibility effect, and it has been shown that this effect only occurs when viewing upright images of the human body. In this study, we presented control subjects and expert acrobats with inverted and upright stimuli. We hypothesized that the amount of time the acrobats spent inverted would result in the acrobats exhibiting body compatibility effects for both upright and inverted stimuli. Compatibility effects were observed in the upright condition for both groups, but neither group exhibited any compatibility effects in the inverted position. Unexpectedly the acrobats responded significantly faster to incongruent trials compared to the control subjects, leading to the conclusion that there must be some form of priming occurring concurrently with the body compatibility task allowing the acrobats to respond faster than the control participants.

The tool, the practice and the spatial experience.     Painting to see the room Drill a small, almost invisible hole in the center of the canvas and see the room through it.   Grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings by Yoko Ono      I det här projektet har jag formgett och byggt en uppsättning analoga verktyg som kan användas för att utforska rum.  Jag är har tittat på hur verktygen får oss att se nya kvalitéer i arkitekturen och ger oss förståelse för vår egen relation till rummet.     I verktygen har jag använt ramar, speglar och rör som på olika sätt beskär, förskjuter, skapar en distans eller access i rummet .   Upptäckterna delar jag sedan med mig av genom illustrationer, som hämtar inspiration både från serier och arkitektoniska representationer.   Med illustrationerna vill jag skapa en diskussion och en medvetenhet om hur vi upplever rum och arkitekturen. / Painting to see the room Drill a small, almost invisible hole in the center of the canvas and see the room through it.   Grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings by Yoko Ono     In this project I have designed and built a set of analog tools that can be used to explore a space.  I have been looking into how the objects make us see new qualities in the architecture and give us understandings about our relationship to the space.    The elements  I have worked with are frames, mirrors and tubes that in different ways cut, shift, create distances or access in the space.     I am sharing my findings through illustrations, inspired by both comics and architecture representation. With the drawings I want to stimulate the debate and create an awareness on how we experience spaces and architecture.

The evolution and development of eyespot and non-eyespot colour pattern elements was studied in Vanessa butterflies using a phylogenetic approach. A Bayesian phylogeny of the genus Vanessa was reconstructed from 7750 DNA base pairs from 10 genes. Twenty-four non-eyespot and forty-four eyespot color pattern elements from the Nymphalid ground plan were defined and studied and their evolutionary history was traced on the Vanessa phylogeny. Ancestral character states were predicted and the direction of evolutionary changes was inferred for all characters. Five serially arranged eyespots were predicted for the ancestral Vanessa on all wing surfaces. Homologous eyespot and non-eyespot characters on the surfaces of the forewing were more similar than those on the surfaces of the hindwing. Homologous eyespot characters on the dorsal surfaces of fore and hindwings show more similarities than the ventral surfaces, in contrast to what was found for non-eyespot characters. Independent Contrast analysis was also used to study correlations between eyespot characters. Independent Contrast analysis revealed significant correlations between eyespots 2 and 5 and eyespots 3 and 4 on all wing surfaces. This consistency among highly variable eyespot characters suggested a structural hypothesis: the existence of a Far-Posterior (F-P) compartment boundary and organizer could be responsible for the observed correlations. This hypothesis was tested in several ways. First, examination of wing patterns across species from all families of butterflies revealed correspondence between wing cells 1 and 4 and between cells 2 and 3. Second, evaluation of spontaneous mitotic clones in butterflies and moths reveals a peak abundance of clonal boundaries along the vein dividing wing cells 2 and 3. Finally, experimentally generated FLP/FRT mitotic wing clones produced in Drosophila, reveal a clonal boundary posterior to the L5 wing vein, which is homologous to the vein dividing wing cells 3 and 4 in butterflies. Collectively, this suggests the existence of an additional compartment boundary associated with an organizer in wing cell 3 responsible for patterning the posterior portion of insect wings. A model is proposed that predicts that the wing developmental compartment boundaries produce unique combinations of gene expression for each wing sector, permitting eyespot individuation. / February 2016

La perception de mouvements est associée à une augmentation de l’excitabilité du cortex moteur humain. Ce système appelé « miroir » sous-tendrait notre habileté à comprendre les gestes posés par une tierce personne puisqu’il est impliqué dans la reconnaissance, la compréhension et l’imitation de ces gestes. Dans cette étude, nous examinons de quelle façon ce système miroir s’implique et se latéralise dans la perception du chant et de la parole. Une stimulation magnétique transcrânienne (TMS) à impulsion unique a été appliquée sur la représentation de la bouche du cortex moteur de 11 participants. La réponse motrice engendrée a été mesurée sous la forme de potentiels évoqués moteurs (PÉMs), enregistrés à partir du muscle de la bouche. Ceux-ci ont été comparés lors de la perception de chant et de parole, dans chaque hémisphère cérébral. Afin d’examiner l’activation de ce système moteur dans le temps, les impulsions de la TMS ont été envoyées aléatoirement à l’intérieur de 7 fenêtres temporelles (500-3500 ms). Les stimuli pour la tâche de perception du chant correspondaient à des vidéos de 4 secondes dans lesquelles une chanteuse produisait un intervalle ascendant de deux notes que les participants devaient juger comme correspondant ou non à un intervalle écrit. Pour la tâche de perception de la parole, les participants regardaient des vidéos de 4 secondes montrant une personne expliquant un proverbe et devaient juger si cette explication correspondait bien à un proverbe écrit. Les résultats de cette étude montrent que les amplitudes des PÉMs recueillis dans la tâche de perception de chant étaient plus grandes après stimulation de l’hémisphère droit que de l’hémisphère gauche, surtout lorsque l’impulsion était envoyée entre 1000 et 1500 ms. Aucun effet significatif n’est ressorti de la condition de perception de la parole. Ces résultats suggèrent que le système miroir de l’hémisphère droit s’active davantage après une présentation motrice audio-visuelle, en comparaison de l’hémisphère gauche. / The perception of movements is associated with increased activity in the human motor cortex. This system underlies our ability to understand one’s actions, as it is implicated in the recognition, understanding and imitation of actions. In this study, we investigated the involvement and lateralization of this “mirror neuron” system (MNS) in the perception of singing and speech. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied over the mouth representation of the motor cortex in 11 participants. The generated motor response was measured in the form of motor evoked potentials (MEPs), recorded from the mouth muscle. The MEPs were compared for the singing and speech conditions in each cerebral hemisphere. Furthermore, to investigate the time course of the MNS activation, TMS pulses were randomly emitted in 7 time windows (ranging from 500 to 3500 milliseconds after stimulus onset). The stimuli for the singing condition consisted in 4-second videos of singers producing a 2-note ascending interval. Participants had to judge whether the sung interval matched a written interval, previously presented on the screen. For the speech condition, 4-second videos of a person explaining a proverb were shown. Participants had to decide whether this explanation matched a written proverb previously displayed on the screen. Results show that the MEP amplitudes were higher after stimulation of the right hemisphere in the singing condition. More specifically, sending TMS pulses between 1000 and 1500 milliseconds over the right hemisphere yielded higher MEPs as compared to the left hemisphere. No effect was found in the speech condition. These results suggest that the right MNS is more activated after an audiovisual motor presentation compared to the left hemisphere.

The aim of the diploma thesis was to observe the capability of imitation in orofacial area of three days old infants and analyze if the capability relates to quality of psychomotor development, thus whether it relates with a global motor model. This paper is a pilot study comprising seventeen infants. Each of them was supposed to attend four visits during the first six months of their life. It included visits in the first few days, between the fourth and the sixth week, the third month and the sixth month of their life. The psychomotor development was examined and within the first visit there was established communication with the child by means of eye contact and imitation. Each child's attempt at imitation and response was recorded. This thesis can serve as a basis for further research dealing with this topic that includes the imitation skill of mirror neurons related to psychomotor development.

Bibliographic identification CHASÁKOVÁ, Ludmila. Utility of the "mirror therapy" in the treatment complex regional pain syndrome (type I). Prague: Charles University, 2nd Faculty of Medicine, Department of Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine, 2014. 105 s. Supervisor Mgr. Stanislav Machač. Annotation Objectives: Introduction of "mirror therapy" (MT) principles in patients with Type 1 complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). Verification of the effectiveness of the MT in terms of sensory, functional and morphological changes. Participants: Sixteen patients (14 women and 2 men, age 55.3±10.5 years) and 10 controls (7 women and 3 men, age 54.9±7.6 years) were included in this study. All of them were diagnosed as patients with Type I CRPS. Methods and measure: The intervention group underwent 6 weeks of MT. Both groups recorded numerical scale pain for 6 weeks. At the beginning and end of the period, all probands underwent examination including: range of motion of wrist flexion and extension, thenar temperature side-to-side difference, volume of the hand and forearm, dynamometry, PegBoard, ability to close the fist, Wind-Up, referred sensations and EQ-5D-3L questionnaire. Results: A statistically significant reduction in pain at rest and during movement was found in the intervention group, not in the control group....

Le besoin tant en haute qualité d'imagerie qu'en structures légères est l'un des principaux moteurs pour la conception des télescopes spatiaux. Un contrôle efficace du front d'onde va donc devenir indispensable dans les futurs grands observatoires spatiaux, assurant une bonne performance optique tout en relâchant les contraintes sur la stabilité globale du système. L'optique active consiste à contrôler la déformation des miroirs, cette technique peut être utilisée afin de compenser la déformation des grands miroirs primaires, afin de permettre l'utilisation d'instrument reconfigurable ou afin de fabriquer des miroirs asphériques avec le polissage sous contraintes. Dans ce manuscrit, la conception de miroirs actifs dédiés à l'instrumentation spatiale est présentée. Premièrement, un système compensant la déformation d'un grand miroir allégé dans l'espace est conçu et ses performances sont démontrées expérimentalement. Avec 24 actionneurs, le miroir MADRAS (Miroir Actif Déformable et Régulé pour Applications Spatiales) effectuera une correction efficace du front d'onde dans un relais de pupille du télescope. Deuxièmement, un harnais de déformation pour le polissage sous contraintes des segments du télescope géant européen de 39 m (E-ELT) est présenté. La performance du procédé est prédite et optimisée avec des analyses éléments finis et la production en masse des segments est considérée. Troisièmement, deux concepts originaux de miroirs déformables avec un nombre minimal d'actionneurs ont été développés. VOALA (Variable Off-Axis parabola) est un système à trois actionneurs et COMSA (Correcting Optimized Mirror with a Single Actuator) est un système à un actionneur. / The need for both high quality images and light structures is one of the main driver in the conception of space telescopes. An efficient wave-front control will then become mandatory in the future large observatories, ensuring the optical performance while relaxing the specifications on the global system stability. Consisting in controlling the mirror deformation, active optics techniques can be used to compensate for primary mirror deformation, to allow the use of reconfigurable instruments or to manufacture aspherical mirror with stress polishing. In this manuscript, the conception of active mirrors dedicated to space instrumentation is presented. Firstly, a system compensating for large lightweight mirror deformation in space, is designed and its performance are experimentally demonstrated. With 24 actuators, the MADRAS mirror (Mirror Actively Deformed and Regulated for Applications in Space) will perform an efficient wave-front correction in the telescope's pupil relay. Secondly, a warping harness for the stress polishing of the 39 m European Extremely Large Telescope segments is presented. The performance of the process is predicted and optimized with Finite Element Analysis and the segments mass production is considered. Thirdly, two original concepts of deformable mirrors with a minimum number of actuators have been developed. The Variable Off-Axis parabola (VOALA) is a 3-actuators system and the Correcting Optimized Mirror with a Single Actuator (COMSA) is a 1-actuator system.

This final work is focused on the space and light and its screening by the medium of the venetian blinds which are used to separate inner and outer space. This instalation made with 5 Venetian blinds is a parallel to the book. The object is in a form of the hexagon space. It mirrors surrounding story and closes it in the pages by the mirror film. The text is called Chronicle of the melancholy and indicates the intimite of the space of book. Between lines there is a penetration of the space and light behind the pages.

Ce travail de recherche a été mené afin d'introduire une nouvelle classe de résonateurs Fabry-Pérot (FP) : les cavités FP incurvées basées sur des miroirs de Bragg sans revêtement, de forme cylindrique sont obtenues par micro-usinage du silicium. Une autre spécificité est la longueur de la cavité relativement grande (L> 200 µm) combinée à un haut facteur de qualité Q (jusqu'à 10^4 ), pour répondre aux applications de type spectroscopie d'absorption améliorée par résonance optique, dans lesquelles le produit Q.L est une figure de mérite. Dans ce contexte, l'architecture de base a été modélisée analytiquement pour déterminer les modes transverses d'ordre élevé supportés par de telles cavités. Par conséquent, les conditions expérimentales qui conduisent à une excitation préférentielle (ou rejet) de ces modes ont été testées menant à la validation de notre modèle théorique et à une meilleure compréhension du comportement de la cavité. Une seconde architecture,basée sur la cavité FP incurvée avec une lentille cylindrique a été développée dans le but de fournir une architecture plus stable. Cette dernière a été également modélisée, fabriquée et caractérisée, menant à l'amélioration attendue en termes de performances. D'un autre côté, un point surlignant l'une des applications potentielles que nous avons identifiées pour les cavités incurvées est présentée en insérant la cavité dans un système électromécanique. Ceci consiste à exciter et mesurer les vibrations d'amplitude nanométrique par couplage opto-mécanique dans un résonateur mécanique MEMS intégrant une cavité optique FP. Enfin, comme complément à notre étude sur les résonateurs, nous avons commencé à explorer les applications des interféromètres optiques à base de miroirs de Bragg en silicium. À cette fin, un microsystème de mesure optique a été conçu, fabriqué et caractérisé, il consiste en une sonde optique pour la profilométrie de surface dans des milieux confinés, basé sur un interféromètre de Michelson monolithique en silicium / This research work has been conducted to introduce a novel class of Fabry-Perot (FP) resonators : curved FP cavity based on coating-free Bragg mirrors of cylindrical shape, obtained by silicon micromachining. Another specificity is the rather large cavity lengths (L>200 µm) combined with high quality factor Q (up to 104), for the purpose of applications requiring cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy, in which the product Q.L is a figure of merit. In this contest, the basic architecture has been modeled analytically to know the high order transverse modes supported by such cavities. Hence, the experimental conditions which lead to preferential excitation (or rejection) of these modes have been tested experimentally leading to the validation of our theoretical model and to a better understanding of the cavity behaviour. A second architecture, based on the curved FP together with a fiber rod lens has been developed for the purpose of providing stable designs. It was also modeled, fabricated and characterized leading to the expected performance improvements. On another side, a highlight on one of the potential applications that we identified for the curved cavities is presented by inserting the cavity into an electro-mechanical system. It consists of exciting and measuring tiny vibration through opto-mechanical coupling in a MEMS mechanical resonator embedding an FP cavity.Finally, as a complement to our study on resonators, we started exploring applications of optical interferometers based on similar micromachined silicon Bragg mirrors. For this purpose, an optical measurement microsystem was designed, fabricated and characterized ; it consists of an optical probe for surface profilometry in confined environments, based on an all-silicon Michelson interferometer