Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-12-15T11:36:15Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Francisco Beltrame Trento.pdf: 21869422 bytes, checksum: a3f6dcfdd56e97505e57f2865264ec30 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-12-15T11:36:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Francisco Beltrame Trento.pdf: 21869422 bytes, checksum: a3f6dcfdd56e97505e57f2865264ec30 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-12-06 / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / Contemporaneity is characterized by the interweaving of human beings with multiple media forms, through material mediatic objects (our black mirrors). Also by stimuli and incorporeal enunciates that are embodied by them, or in which they momentarily crystallize themselves. These dispositives and networks have been represented in the audiovisual field, scenic arts, performance and literature frequently. The television anthology Black Mirror (Channel Four, 2011-2014; Netflix, 2016-), one of the fictional guides in our analysis, is a set of narratives that, exacerbating this state of things, discusses how those media ecosystems are intrinsically linked with the production of desires in the individuals. We aim to identify and map those modulations through a Spinozist semiotic of affects. Among the affects, we have identified the production of a desire to control, a mode of existence or set of ideas that presupposes that we have the total control of situations and absolute truth through the same media dispositives that involves us. We relate that to the production of subjectivity of the standard ideal neurotypical human being, or of the fine products that emerges from the processes of the antropotecnical eugenic machine, studied by Fabian Ludueña. Starting from this point, we aim to focus the communication processes as agencements or encounters (occursus). Following Black Mirror’s narrative, we seek to produce a mediatic cartography of good and bad encounters, not constructed through moral systems, but following Spinoza’s ethical evaluation, mapping composition and decompositions, increases and decreases of potency observing the semiotical production of desires through affections. Besides the desire to control, which emerged from the anthropocentric and anthropotechnical crusade, other types of desires can be machined in the subjectivities engaged to the omnipresent media dispositives as part of the contemporaneous capitalist system, as the desire of emulation or the desire of imitation, explained in Spinoza's “definition of affects”. The difficult task is to think escapes or lines of flight to these types of media agencements that can emerge performatively/artistically by experimenting with the same media materialities or enunciative apparatuses (we don’t consider them neither good or evil but they can be (re) allocated in agencements that produce good or bad encounters in a field of immanence). It requires to look for the production of good encounters and active agency, or to think new possibilities of world construction. We consider that, in the presence of the exhaustion produced by the control systems, minor and apparently contingent gestures and artistic practices can resist to the total control and normativity. It’s through them that we advocate in favor of an immanent critique of media, incongruent to identitarian bubbles and politics – that usually target moral judgement without observing events’ causality network and the desires agenced in its nodes. Against that, we ally with the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza, Gilles Deleuze, Catherine Malabou and other contemporary rereadings of the Dutch philosopher that can relate with them, as the work of Brian Massumi. To discuss the emergent issues of those complex questions, and try to develop an immanent media critique, Brian Massumi and Erin Manning bring us their particular interpretations of immanent critique, performed through research-creation art practices and minor/disruptive gestures / O cerceamento dos seres humanos por múltiplas formas de mídia, ou por meio dos objetos midiáticos materiais (nossos espelhos negros), ou dos estímulos e enunciados incorporais que deles derivam, ou que neles se cristalizam momentaneamente, tem sido discutido no campo audiovisual (cinema e televisão), nas artes cênicas, em performances e na literatura. A antologia televisiva Black Mirror (Channel Four, 2011-2014; Netflix, 2016-), um dos guias ficcionais de nossas análises, é um dos conjuntos de narrativas que, extremando essa possibilidade, mostra como esses novos ecossistemas e agenciamentos midiáticos modulam de distintas formas a produção de desejo nos indivíduos. Um de nossos objetivos é observar e cartografar tais novas modulações de desejo e afetos. Dentre elas, detectamos a produção de um desejo de controle, um modo de ser ou um conjunto de ideias de que temos o controle das situações por meio dos mesmos dispositivos midiáticos que nos envolvem. Procuramos enfocar a comunicação como agenciamento ou encontro (occursus). Por meio da narrativa de Black Mirror, buscamos produzir e identificar uma cartografia de bons e maus encontros, não mediante uma moral, mas sim, a partir da diferenciação entre os dois conceitos de acordo com a Ética, de Spinoza. Além do desejo de controle, outros tipos de desejos são maquinados nas subjetividades acopladas aos media onipresentes e suas inserções no capitalismo contemporâneo, como o desejo de emulação ou o desejo de imitação. A difícil tarefa é pensar os foras a esses tipos de agenciamentos midiáticos de controle, a partir das próprias ferramentas midiáticas maquínicas ou enunciativas, discutindo novas possibilidades de construção de mundos e possíveis. Diante da exaustão, os gestos disruptores e aparentemente contingentes resistem ao controle e à normatização. É por meio deles que buscamos advogar a favor de uma crítica imanente das mídias, que pretende não se adequar às bolhas e políticas identitárias discursivizadas nas mídias, visando a vigilância e o julgamento moral sem observar sua causalidade a partir de uma avaliação ética. Para pensar a comunicação como agenciamento ou encontro, bem como as particularidades dos desejos que se agenciam nessas redes, nos aliamos à filosofia de Baruch Spinoza, Gilles Deleuze, e a algumas leituras contemporâneas que com ela se relacionam, como as feitas por Brian Massumi e Catherine Malabou. Para discutir essa problemática e pensar uma crítica midiática imanente que não retroalimente o ideário de controle, Brian Massumi e Erin Manning, com suas versões do conceito de crítica imanente, auxiliam-nos nessa questão

The aim of the study was to evaluate the role of steady-state and dynamic visual gestures of vowels in stuttering inhibition. Eight adults who stuttered recited sentences from memory while watching video presentations of the following visual speech gestures: (a) a steady-state /u/, (b) dynamic production of /a-i-u/, (c) steady-state /u/ with an accompanying audible 1kHz pure tone, and (d) dynamic production of /a-i-u/ with an accompanying audible 1kHz pure tone. A 1kHz pure tone and a no-external signal condition served as control conditions. Results revealed a significant main effect of auditory condition on stuttering frequency. Relative to the no-external signal condition, the combined visual plus pure tone conditions resulted in a statistically significant reduction in stuttering frequency. In addition, a significant difference in stuttering frequency was also observed when the visual plus pure tone conditions were compared to the visual only conditions. However, no significant differences were observed between the no-external signal condition and visual only conditions, or the no-external signal condition and pure tone condition. These findings are in contrast to previous findings demonstrated by similar vowel gestures presented via the auditory modality that resulted in high levels of stuttering inhibition. The differential role of sensory modalities in speech perception and production as well as their individual capacities to transfer gestural information for the purposes of stuttering inhibition is discussed.

Cette thèse porte sur diverses applications de la théorie des cordes topologiques basée sur différents types de variétés de Calabi-Yau (CY). Le premier type considéré est la variété torique CY, qui est intimement liée aux problèmes spectraux des différents opérateurs. L'exemple particulier considéré dans la thèse ressemble beaucoup au modèle de Harper-Hofstadter en physique de la matière condensée. Nous étudions d’abord les secteurs non perturbatifs dans ce modèle et proposons une nouvelle façon de les calculer en utilisant la théorie topologique des cordes. Dans la deuxième partie de la thèse, nous considérons les fonctions de partition sur des variétés de CY elliptiquement fibrées. Celles-ci présentent un comportement modulaire intéressant. Nous montrons que pour les géométries qui ne conduisent pas à des symétries de jauge non abéliennes, les fonctions de partition des cordes topologiques peuvent être reconstruites avec seulement les invariants de Gromov-Witten du genre zéro. Finalement, nous discutons des travaux en cours concernant la relation entre les fonctions de partitionnement des cordes topologiques sur les soi-disant arbres de Higgsing dans la théorie de F. / This thesis focuses on various applications of topological string theory based on different types of Calabi-Yau (CY) manifolds. The first type considered is the toric CY manifold, which is intimately related to spectral problems of difference operators. The particular example considered in the thesis closely resembles the Harper-Hofstadter model in condensed matter physics. We first study the non-perturbative sectors in this model, and then propose a new way to compute them using topological string theory. In the second part of the thesis, we consider partition functions on elliptically fibered CY manifolds. These exhibit interesting modular behavior. We show that for geometries which don't lead to non-abelian gauge symmetries, the topological string partition functions can be reconstructed based solely on genus zero Gromov-Witten invariants. Finally, we discuss ongoing work regarding the relation of the topological string partition functions on the so-called Higgsing trees in F-theory.

From object tracking to 3D reconstruction, RGB-Depth (RGB-D) camera networks play an increasingly important role in many vision and graphics applications. With the recent explosive growth of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) platforms, utilizing camera RGB-D camera networks to capture and render dynamic physical space can enhance immersive experiences for users. To maximize coverage and minimize costs, practical applications often use a small number of RGB-D cameras and sparsely place them around the environment for data capturing. While sparse color camera networks have been studied for decades, the problems of extrinsic calibration of and rendering with sparse RGB-D camera networks are less well understood. Extrinsic calibration is difficult because of inappropriate RGB-D camera models and lack of shared scene features. Due to the significant camera noise and sparse coverage of the scene, the quality of rendering 3D point clouds is much lower compared with synthetic models. Adding virtual objects whose rendering depend on the physical environment such as those with reflective surfaces further complicate the rendering pipeline. In this dissertation, I propose novel solutions to tackle these challenges faced by RGB-D camera systems. First, I propose a novel extrinsic calibration algorithm that can accurately and rapidly calibrate the geometric relationships across an arbitrary number of RGB-D cameras on a network. Second, I propose a novel rendering pipeline that can capture and render, in real-time, dynamic scenes in the presence of arbitrary-shaped reflective virtual objects. Third, I have demonstrated a teleportation application that uses the proposed system to merge two geographically separated 3D captured scenes into the same reconstructed environment. To provide a fast and robust calibration for a sparse RGB-D camera network, first, the correspondences between different camera views are established by using a spherical calibration object. We show that this approach outperforms other techniques based on planar calibration objects. Second, instead of modeling camera extrinsic using rigid transformation that is optimal only for pinhole cameras, different view transformation functions including rigid transformation, polynomial transformation, and manifold regression are systematically tested to determine the most robust mapping that generalizes well to unseen data. Third, the celebrated bundle adjustment procedure is reformulated to minimize the global 3D projection error so as to fine-tune the initial estimates. To achieve a realistic mirror rendering, a robust eye detector is used to identify the viewer's 3D location and render the reflective scene accordingly. The limited field of view obtained from a single camera is overcome by our calibrated RGB-D camera network system that is scalable to capture an arbitrarily large environment. The rendering is accomplished by raytracing light rays from the viewpoint to the scene reflected by the virtual curved surface. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed system is the first to render reflective dynamic scenes from real 3D data in large environments. Our scalable client-server architecture is computationally efficient - the calibration of a camera network system, including data capture, can be done in minutes using only commodity PCs.

L’évanescence suppose un état de précarité qui se nourrit de sa propre incomplétude. Le corps qui s’éthérise est en permanente déperdition de matérialité et d’énergie, ce qui amènera le détachement de la conscience. L’acheminement de l’état « tout-corps » à celui de « dé-corps » passe par trois régimes visuels : par l’opacité, associée à la pierre et à la figure de Thanatos, par la translucidité, qui concerne la chair et le feu érotique et, enfin, par la transparence du verre et de l’air, marquant l’entrée sur les territoires de Narcisse. Le thème du corps évanescent est développé autour de ces trois axes selon une logique centrée sur l’existence d’un seuil – décliné comme mur opaque, paroi organique translucide ou écran transparent. Ce seuil signale la transgression d’ordres et d’interdits. Lors du passage, le corps perd graduellement son ancrage dans la réalité concrète, qui s’estompe à vite allure pour faire place à un complexe espace-temps construit graduellement, dans le malheur de la maladie et de la mort ou dans la joie de la projection heureuse. Le corps évanescent tend vers un ailleurs qui s’organise à mesure que le premier s’efface. Ce double conditionnement s’accompagne d’innombrables régressions temporelles qui réverbèrent au niveau de la conscience incorporée sous la forme de la fissure qui entraîne le détachement. Sous le régime de la pierre l’évanescence se cristallise autour de l’image de la statue qui parcourt le trajet symbolique entre figement et vivification. Le marbre, le plâtre et le sable sont les trois motifs qui expriment l’idée de fragilisation de la matière. Le retour à la vie se prolonge dans la tiédeur de la chair réchauffée. Alors qu’elle atteint le seuil de la liquéfaction dans la fugue érotique, l’intensité de la sensation commence à diminuer, ce qui amène à un nouveau refroidissement. Dans le domaine de la transparence le corps subit des formes de détachement selon une logique qui va de la réflexion dans le miroir en tant qu’expression d’un moi naissant à l’extrême affaiblissement du caractère réfléchissant qui altère l’image de soi. Fenêtre, vitrine et écran sous-tendent l’effacement sous le régime de la transparence tout en créant l’illusion d’une intériorité. Comble du processus évanescent, le corps éthérique est mis en rapport avec l’ineffable de l’élément aérien. Cette forme de corporalité ultime exprime le détachement de la conscience, dans la joie comme dans la souffrance. Elle décrit un état de précarité absolue, qui met en avant le fait que tout en se délivrant de ses amarres matérielles la conscience tend à conserver un engramme qui assure la réincorporation, et avec elle, la survie. L’envol, le survol et la descente décrivent trois formes d’évanescence « aérienne » qui marquent le retour symbolique à l’opacité à travers des images d’épaississement : par les motifs de la vapeur, du brouillard ou de la nuit « polie » on est ramené au point de départ de la réflexion. L’histoire du corps évanescent, qui commence et achève par des images de la mort, est également l’histoire d’un continuel retour à la vie, aux forces pulsionnelles, à l’euphorie de se sentir vivant. / The vanishing body depicts a state of extreme precariousness and reveals a progressive loss of substance and vitality which results in the disembodiment of the conscience. The way from being “all body” to being “out-of-body” is hallmarked by three visual categories, each one being assigned a certain classical element: stone, for opacity (the territory of Thanatos), erotic fire for the flesh representing translucency and air and glass for transparency, reminding Narcissus. In this structure water is always the transversal element. The theme is therefore sustained by a network of thresholds such as: the wall, the organic layer and the transparent or invisible screen. With every threshold comes the idea of transgression. Passing into another state or dimension interrupts the contact with reality which fades swiftly away and makes room for another time-space configuration gradually defined by death and illness, by joy and thrilling giddiness. The vanishing body tends to inhabit a no man’s land ever more present as the first one fades away. It is thus submitted to various temporal regressions which concern the embodied consciousness and evolves as a “crack” finally producing the separation body-conscience. Within the realms of Thanatos and the stone the evanescence concerns the representation of the statue which stiffens and then recovers the “flesh-state” progressively. The marble, the plaster and the sand present themselves as three “stages” of dematerialization. Coming back to life means entering a state of tepidness of the revived flesh. As the sexual temperature increases it reaches a threshold of erotic liquefaction which then diminishes to a new form of symbolic coldness represented by physical decay and loss of sexual interest. In the field of transparency the body suffers several forms of detachment stretching from the mirror reflection as expression of a newly-born ego to the extreme weakening of the reflexivity which alters the sense of self. Window, window display and transparent shield underlie the self-effacement and create the (illusion of) inhabitable space.Peak of the vanishing process, the ethereal body is finally connected to the air as classical element. This ultimate form of corporeality express the disembodiment of the conscience in symbolic projections of both joy and suffering. It shows a state of absolute precariousness which points out the fact that by loosening the grip on the immediate reality the consciousness tends to gradually build up an engram of the body which ensures the reincorporation and by that, the survival. The take-off, the overflight and the landing describe three forms of “aerial” vanishing which states a symbolic return to opacity declined through images of densification: the steam, the fog, and the “polished” opacity of the night represent a comeback to the starting point of reflection. The story of the vanishing body, which starts and ends through images of death, is nevertheless the story of the continuous return to life and its possibilities.

《吾兒故事》是葛蒂瑪第一本以非自人的敘事觀點寫成。她一 方面以有色人種的革命家庭為縮影，揭示南非種族隔離社會中，少數族裔的困境。另一方面，她質疑男性觀點下女性形象再現的偏頗，突顯非自人女性再殖民統治及父權宰制下的顛覆力量，並描繪跨種族之認同心理。藉此，葛蒂瑪呈現了多元文化中跨越界線的可能。葛蒂瑪超越了種族及性別觀點的限制，將她慣用的自女性觀點轉為非自人的男性觀點，以突顯非自人革命社群中的內部問題。正如她之前的小說，《吾兒故事》不僅呈現了南非的轉變和她自己寫作策略的改變，更標明了葛蒂瑪處理非自人議題時，跳脫自人觀點的新里程碑。 本論文的研究目的在於處理男性觀點下南非女性的再現，被殖民者的抗拒及顛覆和認同問題。論文主體分為三部份，第一部分旨在探討葛蒂瑪的新敘事策略和目的；第二部分旨在分析殖民與父權宰制下，受壓族群如何打破沉默，發聲抗拒；第三部份則旨在分析其尋求認同的過程及心理。 / My Son s Story is Nadine Gordimer's tenth novel but is her first novel narrated in the nonwhite perspective. Gordimer uses a colored revolutionary family as a microcosm in the apartheid society to unveil the dilemma and predicament of the in-between men and women in South African apartheid. In the colored male's narrative, Gordimer attempts to interrogate the partial and problematic representation of South African women, to highlight the oppression and subversion of the nonwhite women dominated by colonial and patriarchal authority and to scrutinizes the psychic desire of the interracial relationship between a colored man and a white feminist. In this novel, Gordimer presents a possibility of the boundary crossing in the multiracial and multicultural South Africa through the story of the colored family. My thesis aims to tackle the problems of the representation of South African women in masculine narrative, the subversion of the oppressed, and the identities of the in-between people. The main body of the thesis consists of three parts. First, I will explore Gordimer's new narrative strategies and objectives in the novel. Second, I will probe how these marginal and oppressed people break silence to articulate their resistance to the colonial and patriarchal domination in the apartheid society. Third, I will investigate the process of the quest for identities of the in-between people and their transgression. In My Son's Story, Gordimer keeps her concern about anti-apartheid revolution and about the oppression of the in-between groups and women oppression. She breaks through the racial and gender limits of perspectives and shifts her typical white female perspective to a nonwhite male to uncover the inner problems of the nonwhite revolutionary community through a colored family. Like her pervious novels. My Son's Story not only represents the transition of South Africa and her transformation in writing strategy but also marks her new start to look beyond her white perspective while dealing with the issue of the nonwhite in apartheid.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird die erstmalige Erzeugung eines<br />Bose-Einstein-Kondensates in einer Mikrochip-Falle beschrieben; dies ist eine Magnetfalle für Neutralatome, die mithilfe stromführender Leiterbahnen auf einem Chipsubstrat gebildet wird. Die Eigenschaften dieser Chipfallen, speziell die hohen<br />Magnetfeldgradienten und -krümmungen, haben es ermöglicht, die<br />Bose-Einstein-Kondensation in weniger als einer Sekunde Verdampfungskühlzeit zu erreichen, was rund eine Größenordnung schneller als in bisher verwendeten Magnetfallen ist<br />und ein Faktor drei schneller als auf dem bisher schnellsten Weg in einer optischen Dipolfalle. Damit verbunden sind die Ansprüche<br />an den experimentellen Aufbau, insbesondere das Vakuumsystem und<br />den Laseraufbau, deutlich gesunken.<br /><br />Weiterhin wird der zerstörungsfreie Transport des Bose-Einstein-Kondensats entlang der Chipoberfläche über makroskopische Distanzen demonstriert wie auch erstmalig die Aufspaltung eines Kondensates in zwei getrennte Kondensate mit rein magnetischen Mitteln.<br /><br />Diese Resultate, nämlich kohärente Materie in einem integrierten<br />atomoptischen System manipulieren zu können, lassen hoffen, daß in<br />naher Zukunft Anwendungen wie Atominterferometrie, Untersuchungen<br />zu niederdimensionalen Quantengasen und<br />Quanteninformationsverarbeitung 'on-chip' verwirklicht werden<br />können.

<p>In this study the formation of supported membranes onto planar solid supports has been investigated. The stability and activity of reconstituted membrane receptors has been studied. The potential use of such preparations in biosensor applications is discussed.</p><p>The lipid films were made by the Langmuir Blodgett and by the liposome fusion techniques. These supported films were characterised by ellipsometry, atomic force microscopy, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and resonant mirror techniques. The thickness of the films was in agreement with that of a cell membrane. The kinetics of formation of the lipid films was studied and discussed.</p><p>The proteins, bacteriorhodopsin, cytochrome oxidase, acetylcholinesterase and the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor were reconstituted into the supported membrane. The subsequent analysis showed that the proteins were individually distributed and that the activity was retained, in some cases for several weeks after immobilisation.</p><p>The glycolipids, GM1, GM2, GD1b, asialo-GM1, globotriaosylceramide, lactosylceramide and galactosylceramide, were also reconstituted into the supported membranes. Their specific interaction with the toxin ricin or with its B-chain was examined using SPR. The affinity of intact toxin and of its B-chain differed markedly and was pH dependent. The carbohydrate chain length and charge density of the glycolipids also influenced the affinity.</p>

<p>This thesis report is focused on the growth of Pt/Mg multilayers and the studies of the sputter yield amplification effect in these. The main application is to use the multilayers as X-ray mirrors reflecting an X-ray wavelength of 17 Å. This wavelength is important for astronomical applications in general, and solar imaging applications in particular.</p><p>For periodic X-ray multilayer mirrors only a certain specific wavelength of X-rays can be reflected. What wavelength that is reflected depends on the individual layer thicknesses of the materials that are constituting the multilayer. These thicknesses can be determined using modified Bragg’s law and are approximately a quarter of the wavelength.</p><p>In order to obtain the exact desired layer thickness of each individual layer it is necessary to understand the growth processes and the effects that are going on during deposition of such multilayer mirrors. It has been shown that when depositing multilayers consisting of one very light and one very heavy material, like e.g. Pt and Mg, the deposition rate of the light element is non-linear with deposition time for thin layers. This is because of backscattered energetic neutrals from the heavy target material, which affects the growing film. Furthermore, a sputter yield amplification is present for thin layers when a light element is grown on top of a heavy element, i.e. for Mg on top of Pt.</p><p>Dual DC magnetron sputtering has been used to grow the Pt/Mg multilayers, and the influence of the backscattered energetic neutrals and the sputter yield amplification effect has been studied for Ar and Kr sputtering gases at pressures ranging from 3 up to 9 mTorr. The individual layer thicknesses have been obtained from simulations of hard X-ray reflectivity measurements using the IMD program. The number of backscattered energetic neutrals and their energies at the target have been calculated using the TRIM code.</p><p>Using the results obtained it is now possible to predict and compensate for the non-linear deposition rate of Mg.</p>

<p>In this thesis, a parsimoniously parameterized digital predistorter is derived for linearization of the IQ modulation mismatch and the amplifier imperfection in the signal generator [1]. It is shown that the resulting predistorter is linear in its parameters, and thus they may be estimated by the method of least-squares. Spectrally pure signals are an indispensable requirement when the signal generator is to be used as part of a test bed. Due to the non-linear characteristic of the IQ modulator and power amplifier, distortion will be present at the output of the signal generator. The device under test was the IQ modulation mismatch and power amplifier deficiencies in the signal generator.</p><p>In [2], the dynamic range of low-cost signal generators are improved by employing model based digital pre-distortion and the designed predistorter seems to give some improvement of the dynamic range of the signal generator.</p><p>The goal of this project is to implement and verify the theory parts [1] using data program (Matlab) to improve the dynamic range of the signal generator. The design digital pre-distortion that is implemented in software so that the dynamic range of the signal generator output after predistortion is superior to that of the output prior to it. In this project, we have observed numerical<strong> </strong>problems in the proposed theory and we have found other methods to solve the problem.</p><p>The polynomial model is commonly used in power amplifier modeling and predistorter design. However, the conventional polynomial model exhibits numerical instabilities when higher order terms are included, we have used the conventional and orthogonal polynomial models. The result shows that the orthogonal polynomial model generally yield better power amplifier modeling accuracy as well as predistortion linearization performance then the conventional polynomial model.</p>