A complexa filosofia de Giorgio Agamben convoca-nos a compreender a crise dos atuais modelos político-governamentais e a hodierna lógica da segurança que, sob a doutrina do medo orquestrado, visa à eliminação dos não-integráveis, como igualmente nos convida a abarcar na defesa de uma nova ontologia política além da tradição da soberania e do direito. Do confronto entre as conceituações semânticas do termo vida e da relação desta com o poder soberano, inclusive numa sociedade biopolítica de normalização, emerge o protagonista da obra agambeniana, a vida nua. Uma vida que não é inauguração moderna, mas atividade originária do poder soberano, quer dizer, uma vida que pode ser detectada tanto na pólis e na civitas - na figura do homo sacer -, assim como no totalitarismo moderno e, rasteiramente, na democracia em que vivemos. Trata-se de uma vida absolutamente matável e exposta à morte que, fundada numa relação de exclusão inclusiva, isto é, de abandono, revela o verdadeiro vínculo social. O que une vida e lei, violência e norma, é o estado de exceção. A norma se aplica à exceção desaplicando-se: a força-de-lei exercida no estado de exceção não põe, nem conserva, o direito, mas o conserva suspendendo-o e o põe excetuando-se. Uma figura em que factum e ius tornam-se indiscerníveis e homines sacri são produzidos a esmo; um espaço onde distinções políticas tradicionais como direita e esquerda, público e privado, perdem sua clareza e inteligibilidade. Uma indiscernibilidade que pode ser materializada no campo, seja de refugiados, seja de concentração, seja o hoje vigente e ainda inominado, de modo que o campo reflete o próprio paradigma da atualidade. Esta é a era da exceção em permanência. O caminho para a desativação dessa relação é a profanação, figura em que se busca uma nova forma-de-vida que não seja inaugurada pela lembrança teológica da política soberana e do direito, mas que reflita uma comunidade que vem capaz de desativar a máquina biopolítica produtora da vida nua e torne inoperante o atual conceito de político-jurídico: uma nova comunidade que pense além da soberania, do bando soberano e do próprio direito. Trata-se de uma comunidade de singularidades, sem identidade, sem propriedades e destinos, mas que seja pura potencialidade, que seja em si como ela é, quer dizer, que não possua qualquer tarefa enquanto fim, mas tão somente meios sem fins. / The complex philosophy of Giorgio Agamben summons us to review the crisis of the existing political-juridical models and the on-going governmental security rationale, which, based on a pre-oriented administration of fear, aims at eliminating those somehow non-adapted, as well as to join a defence towards a new political ontology beyond the tradition of sovereignty and law. Through the confront of semantically distinct definitions of life and its relation with the sovereign power, including under a biopolitical normalizing society, emerges the protagonist of Agamben`s work, the bare life. A life that is not a modern phenomena but the original activity of the sovereign power, that is, a life exposed to death that can be found either in the pólis or the civitas - in the form of homo sacer or in the modern totalitarianism as well as the democracy that we live in. A life that is permanently subject to death and, founded on an inclusive exclusion relation, that is, a relation of abandonment, exposes the real social bound. The state of exception links life and law, violence and norm. The law is applied through its own withdrawal: the force-oflaw exercised in the state of exception does not posit nor conserve the law, but conserves it through its suspension and posits it through the exception. A place where factum and ius are brought into conjunction and homines sacri are freely produced, a space where traditional political categories such as right and left, public and private, loses clearness and intelligibility. A zone of indistinction materialized in the camp, either of refugees or concentration camps or those in full force and effect and yet unnamed. The camp is the contemporary political paradigm and this is the era in which the exception becomes the rule. The way out to deactivate such relation is to profane, a political task in search for a new form-of-life that abolishes any remembrance of theological sovereign politics and law and that reflects a coming community able to turn inoperative the biopolitical machine producer of bare life: a new community that thinks beyond sovereignty, the sovereign band and the law itself. A community composed of singularities, with no identity nor properties or destinies, but pure potentiality. A community free of means in search for an end, but solely a community of pure means without ends.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-29T15:07:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Harley Fernandes Rodrigues.pdf: 5566711 bytes, checksum: 484423a034c8d6a3a3f34650b5036af1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-08-23 / In this work we developed a Dip Coating method that could control the temperature gradient between a substrate and the material that one wants to adsorb at its surface. In particular, the adsorption of biocompatible magnetic nanoparticles at the surface of bare metal Stents, under different experimental conditions, was investigated. The magnetic nanoparticles consisted of magnetite coated with tripoliphosphate (mean diameter 7.68 nm and standard deviation 1.88 nm) dispersed in water at physiological conditions, while the Stent was a CoCr based-one (Cronus stent from Scitech with 16 mm length). Nine series of experiments were performed where it was controlled parameters as: time of adsorption, stent temperature and magnetic fluid temperature. The stents coated with nanoparticles were magnetically characterized using a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), which allowed us to determine the number of nanoparticles at the stent surface. The increase of the magnetic moment of the stent with the increase of the adsorption time was theoretically modeled, with an excellent experimental agreement, as a transient diffusion process of nanoparticles at the interface stent-magnetic fluid, which clearly indicates an important diffusive contribution. Strong evidences of thermal diffusion (Soret effect), i.e. nanoparticle diffusion due to temperature gradient between the stent and the magnetic fluid, were shown, suggesting the possibility of nanostructures vectorization through thermal induced mechanisms. The spatial distribution of nanoparticles at the surface of the stent was investigated by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-ray Spectroscopy by Dispersive Energy (EDS). Measurements of the compositional mapping and images of SEM revealed that the nanoparticles are not homogeneously distributed, being concentrated at the edges of the stents for the experimental conditions investigated in this work. As the VSM data, the EDS of the stents revealed an increase of the quantity of adsorbed magnetic nanoparticles at the surface with the increase of the adsorption time. The same theoretical model, know considering the amount of 26Fe in the chemical composition of the coated stent, was able to explain the experimental data. Finally, a comparison was made, using the compositional mapping study of the coated stents, between the Dip Coating and the Spray technique. The later showed a more homogeneous distribution of nanoparticles at the surface of the stent, suggesting that this technique is more adequate on the development of a biomedical nanoproduct for clinical tests. / Neste trabalho foi desenvolvida uma técnica de Dip Coating (deposição por via líquida) que permite controlar o gradiente de temperatura entre o substrato e o material que se quer depositar em sua superfície. Em particular, foi investigado o efeito de adsorção de nanopartículas magnéticas biocompatíveis na superfície de Stents nus em diversas condições experimentais. As nanopartículas magnéticas consistiam de magnetita recobertas com tripolifosfato (diâmetro médio ) dispersas em água em pH fisiológico, enquanto as endopróteses eram Stents de CoCr (Stent Cronus da empresa Scitech com 16mm). Ao todo foram realizadas 9 séries de experimentos onde controlou-se parâmetros como: tempo de adsorção, temperatura do Stent e temperatura do fluido magnético. Os Stents recobertos com nanopartículas foram então caracterizados magneticamente pela técnica de magnetometria de amostra vibrante (VSM Vibrating Sample Magnetometer ), que permitiu determinar o número de nanopartículas magnéticas adsorvidas na superfície da endoprótese. O aumento do momento magnético do Stent com o aumento do tempo de adsorção foi modelado teoricamente, com grande concordância experimental, como um processo de difusão transiente de nanopartículas na interface Stent-fluido magnético, evidenciando a forte contribuição difusiva. Fortes evidências de efeitos termodifusivos (efeito de Soret), ou seja mecanismos de difusão mássica de nanopartículas devido ao gradiente de temperatura entre Stent e FM, foram apresentados, sugerindo a possibilidade de vetorização de nanoestruturas por meio de fenômenos termoinduzidos. A distribuição das nanopartículas na superfície dos Stents foi investigada por medidas de Microscopia Eletrônica de Varredura (MEV) e espectroscopia de raios-X por energia dispersiva (EDS). As medidas de mapeamento composicional e imagens de MEV revelaram que as nanopartículas estão distribuídas de maneira não homogênea, estando concentradas nas bordas dos Stents para as condições experimentais utilizadas neste trabalho. Assim como os dados de MAV, o EDS dos Stents recobertos revelou um aumento da quantidade de nanopartículas magnéticas adsorvidas em sua superfície com o aumento do tempo de adsorção. O mesmo modelo teórico, agora considerando o percentual de 26Fe na composição química do revestimento, foi capaz de explicar os dados experimentais. Finalmente, foi feita uma comparação, por meio do mapeamento composicional de Stents recobertos, entre as técnicas de Dip Coating e Spray. Esta última apresentou uma distribuição de nanopartículas mais homogênea na superfície da endoprótese, sugerindo que possa ser mais adequada para a confecção de um nanoproduto médico voltado a testes clínicos.

Submitted by JÚLIO HEBER SILVA (julioheber@yahoo.com.br) on 2017-09-06T18:49:27Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - João Lourenço Borges Neto - 2017.pdf: 1209614 bytes, checksum: 050ca1a30d51754d18db382badb8fda8 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2017-09-15T15:39:38Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - João Lourenço Borges Neto - 2017.pdf: 1209614 bytes, checksum: 050ca1a30d51754d18db382badb8fda8 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-15T15:39:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - João Lourenço Borges Neto - 2017.pdf: 1209614 bytes, checksum: 050ca1a30d51754d18db382badb8fda8 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-05-11 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / At the end of the year 2013, in Athens, Giorgio Agamben presented an important reflection on the fate of European democracy. According the philosopher, we no longer live under the aegis of democracy and the governmental paradigm of our time could not even be called political. The concept that replaced any political notions was that of security, and the slogan "for security reasons" has taken on a worldwide scale the new parameter of government of the contemporary political order. In order to understand this diagnosis, Giorgio Agamben proposed, on that occasion, the invitation to carry out a genealogy of the concept of security from an acute research on its origin and history in the paradigm of state of exception. This dissertation aims, together with Agamben, to untangle the concept of a state of exception, too demonstrating its implication and relation with human life. The concept of exception state developed by Agamben during the Homo Sacer project resumes the debate about the law between Carl Schmitt and Walter Benjamin in the 1920s. We reconstitute this debate step-by-step to demonstrate how essential it was for Agamben to contact the works of the German jurist for the development of the theme of exception. It was, however, taking on Benjamin's side in that discussion that the Italian philosopher was instigated to direct his fiercest criticisms of the democratic state of law. It follows from this takeover of the diagnoses of being the state of exception the governance paradigm of contemporaneity and the sign that the state of exception inscribes sovereignty in a paradox. We also develop Agamben's proposal to point to the confluence between the biopolitical model coined by Foucault, but years before also diagnosed by Hannah Arendt, and the juridical-institutional model. That is, the point where life and right touch the figure of the sovereign and the bare life. What this dissertation also worried to point out from the title was how much the contact with the theoretical contribution of Walter Benjamin was decisive for Agamben in the development of his political concepts composed in the political project Homo Sacer. / No fim do ano de 2013, em Atenas, Giorgio Agamben expôs uma importante reflexão sobre o destino da democracia europeia. Segundo o filósofo, não vivemos mais sob a égide da democracia e o paradigma governamental de nosso tempo sequer poderia ser denominado político. O conceito que substituiu quaisquer noções políticas foi o da segurança e o slogan ―por razões de segurança‖ assumiu, em escala mundial, o novo parâmetro de governo da ordem política contemporânea. Para compreendermos esse diagnóstico, Giorgio Agamben propôs, naquela ocasião, o convite de realizar uma genealogia do conceito de segurança a partir de uma pesquisa aguda sobre a sua origem e história no paradigma de estado de exceção. Esta dissertação tem como finalidade, em conjunto com Agamben, destrinçar o conceito de estado de exceção demonstrando, também, qual seria a sua implicação e relação com a vida humana. O conceito de estado de exceção desenvolvido por Agamben no decorrer do projeto Homo Sacer retoma o debate sobre o direito travado entre Carl Schmitt e Walter Benjamin na década de 20 do século XX. Reconstituímos passo-a-passo esse debate para demonstrar o quanto foi essencial para Agamben o contato com as obras do jurista alemão para o desenvolvimento do tema de exceção. Foi, contudo, tomando para si o lado de Benjamin naquela discussão que o filósofo italiano foi instigado a direcionar suas críticas mais ferozes ao estado democrático de direito. Seguem dessa tomada de partido os diagnósticos de ser o estado de exceção o paradigma de governo da contemporaneidade e a indicação de que o estado de exceção inscreve a soberania em um paradoxo. Desenvolvemos ainda a proposta de Agamben em apontar para o ponto de confluência entre o modelo biopolítico, cunhado por Foucault, mas anos antes também diagnosticado por Hannah Arendt, e o modelo jurídico-institucional. Isto é, o ponto onde vida e direito se tocam na figura do soberano e da vida nua. O que esta dissertação também se preocupou em pontuar, desde o título, foi o quanto o contato com o aporte teórico de Walter Benjamin foi determinante para Agamben no desenvolvimento de seus conceitos políticos compostos no projeto político Homo Sacer.

The field of virtual reality (VR) is getting increasing attention from the scientific community and it is being portrayed by advertisements as the user interface (UI) of the future. This is a fair statement since the prior uses of VR that used to exist only in fiction movies and books are now widely available in many forms and settings to the public. One of the most interesting outcomes from this technological evolution is that now VR can be experienced through the use of a mobile phone and the addition of some inexpensive means typically in a form of a headset. The combination of the phone’s screen as attached to the headset creates a form of Head Mounted Display (HMD) which can be utilized in order for the user to be immersed within a virtual environment (VE). The argument here is that even if the means to get access to VR are cheap, this should not be the case with the experience as well. On the contrary, the low entry requirements in combination with a high quality experience are the basis for the medium's success and further adoption by the users. More specifically, the capability of utilizing a three dimensional space (3D) should not limit the medium’s use on just that but instead, this space should be used in order to offer immersive environments which make the user feel as if he is there.    There are many factors that contribute to that result and significant progress has been made to some such as the quality of screen or other hardware parts that allow the user get immersed into the virtual scenery, however, little progress has been made towards the conceptual means that allow the user of better experiencing this VE. Most of the VR applications so far are specifically designed for a single user session. This creates an isolation of the user from any other type of communities which further increases the stigma of VR being a solitary experience. Another issue is the interaction method that is available to users in order to interact with the VE. The use of buttons in most of the available headsets is a counter intuitive method for a person to interact with an environment that wants to be called real. The technological advancements in the field of image processing have resulted in many new methods of interaction and multimodal manipulation within VE and it would be worthy of exploring their effects on the user experience (UX) when used as an interaction method.    For these reasons, this thesis used the case of VR games as a setting to study how UX can be enhanced from its current state by introducing a bare hand gesture interaction method and expanding the VR setting in order to host two users in shared VE. Two individual studies were conducted where user feedback was collected in order to describe the effects of this approach in both a qualitative and quantitative manner. As results indicate, by utilizing gesture analysis on a headset equipped with a smartphone, it is possible to offer a natural and engaging solution for VR interaction capable of rich UXs while maintaining a low entry level for the end users. Finally, the addition of another player significantly affected the experience by influencing the emotional state of the participants in the game and further enforcing their feeling of presence within the VE.

This thesis investigates the function of number marking in Persian, within the framework of principles and parameters (P&P), and its relationship to inflectional and derivational number marking. Following the assumption in Distributed Morphology that inflectional and derivational morphology are not distinct, the distribution and properties of number marking in Persian provide evidence for both inflectional and derivational number marking. Assuming the two parameters of number marking (Wiltschko, 2007, 2008), number marking as a functional head and number marking as a modifier, I propose that number marking in Persian is mainly inflectional while number functions as a functional head; moreover, I propose that number marking in Persian can be derivational while number functions as a modifier. This explains that number morphology in Persian is not split to either inflectional or derivational. Rather, following Booij’s (1993, 1995) claim that inflectional morphology can be used contextually as well as inherently, I propose that number morphology in Persian is inflectional while number is a functional head; however, it has inherent residues as a modifier. Considering the functions of inflectional plural morphology in Persian, I argue that the functional category Number Phrase (NumP) is projected in Persian, and number is generated in the head of this functional category. Besides, Persian is a classifier language in which classifiers are in complementary distribution with plural marking. Following Borer’s (2005) discussion of the complementary distribution of plural marking and classifiers in Armenian, I argue that the head of NumP in Persian is either occupied by the plural maker or by full/empty classifiers. Moreover, I show that the presence of bare singulars/plurals in certain syntactic positions in Persian is related to the projection/non-projection of NumP.

Background: Drug eluting stents (DES) are preferred over bare metal stents (BMS) for native coronary artery revascularization unless contraindicated. However, the preferred stent choice for saphenous venous graft (SVG) percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) is unclear due to conflicting results. Methods: PubMed, Clinical trials registry and the Cochrane Center Register of Controlled Trials were searched through June 2018. Seven studies (n = 1639) comparing DES versus BMS in SVG-PCI were included. Endpoints were major adverse cardiac events (MACE), cardiovascular mortality, all-cause mortality, myocardial infarction (MI), target vessel revascularization (TVR), target lesion revascularization (TLR), in-stent thrombosis, binary in-stent restenosis, and late lumen loss (LLL). Results: Overall, during a mean follow up of 32.1 months, there was no significant difference in the risk of MACE, cardiovascular mortality, all-cause mortality, MI, stent thrombosis, TVR and TLR between DES and BMS. However, short-term follow up (mean 11 months) showed lower rate of MACE (OR 0.66 [0.51, 0.85]; p = 0.002), TVR (OR 0.47 [0.23, 0.97]; p = 0.04) and binary in-stent restenosis (OR 0.14 [0.06, 0.37]; p < 0.0001) in DES as compared with BMS. This benefit was lost on long-term follow up with a mean follow up 35.5 months. Conclusion: In this meta-analysis of SVG-PCI, DES use was associated with similar MACE, cardiovascular mortality, all-cause mortality, MI, in-stent thrombosis, TVR and TLR compared with BMS during long-term follow up. There was high incidence of MACE noted in both DES and BMS suggesting a need for exploring novel strategies to treat SVG disease to improve clinical outcomes.

In recent years, developers have wanted to design more complex and advanced embedded processors. The feasibility of developed processors must be verified before the actual application. However, the process of verification always needs high costs and time. Quick Emulator (QEMU), a virtual platform emulator, can help in this situation. It can emulate different processors and hardware environments and build a unique platform according to the designers wishes. Many people have used QEMU to emulate advanced Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) processors (like ARM) or the X86 architectures. Still, there is little research on RISC-V processors. Therefore, studying the QEMU to emulate the RISC-V processor is important. This thesis aims to evaluate the performance of the RISC-V processor using QEMU. Ten different benchmarks are designed, and their results are compared to reflect the performance of the RISC-V as well as the simulator. These results provide a reference when these benchmarks are run on the RISC-V processor that is on the actual hardware development board. / De senaste åren har utvecklarna alltid velat utveckla mer komplexa och avancerade funktioner på inbyggda utvecklingskort. Men de nya funktionerna måste verifieras innan man gör kretskortet. Å andra sidan så kostar verifieringsprocessen mycket tid och pengar. Quick Emulator (QEMU), en virtuell plattformsemulator, kan hjälpa till för att lösa detta problem. Den kan emulera olika processorer och hårdvarumiljöer och bygga en unik plattform allt enligt designernas önskemål. Många människor har använt QEMU för att emulera avancerade Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC)-processorer (som ARM), eller X86-arkitekturerna, men det finns mycket lite forskning om RISC-V processorer. Därför är det viktigt att studera QEMU för att emulera RISC-V-processorn. Denna avhandling syftar till att utvärdera prestandan för RISC-V processorer genom att använder QEMU. Tio olika benchmarks konstrueras för att användas för att spegla prestandan hos processorn såväl som simulatorn. Dessa resultat kan sedan användas som referens när benchmarken körs på de RISC-V-processorer som finns på det aktuella hårdvaruutvecklingskortet.

The lateral force resisting system (LFRS) of a steel building consist of two parts, i.e., a vertical LFRS such as braced frames or shear walls, and a horizontal LFRS with diaphragms playing a crucial role. There are various types of floor and roof diaphragms in steel buildings, such as concrete-filled steel deck diaphragms for the floor system and bare steel deck diaphragms for the roof system of a typical steel braced frame building, and standing seam roof diaphragms for a typical metal building. Compared to vertical elements of a building's LFRS, our understanding of the horizontal elements, i.e., the diaphragms, is grossly lacking. The motivation for this work comes from the gaps identified in the research, including the lack of generally adopted acceptance criteria and modeling protocols for seismic performance-based design of bare steel deck and concrete-filled steel deck diaphragms through linear and nonlinear analysis, the need to better understand the complex behavior of concrete-filled steel deck diaphragms with irregular configurations such as reentrant corners and openings under lateral loading, the absence of appropriate Rs values for the alternative diaphragm seismic design approach in the current building code that considers diaphragm inelasticity, and the demand for understanding the in-plane behavior of a standing seam roof system and its use in lateral bracing of rafters in metal buildings. A series of computational and experimental studies were conducted to investigate the behavior of diaphragms in buildings systems, including: 1) development of acceptance criteria and modeling protocol for performance-based seismic design of bare and concrete-filled steel deck diaphragms using a database of existing cantilever diaphragm tests; 2) a computational study on the nonlinear behavior of diaphragms with irregular configurations under lateral loading using high-fidelity finite element models validated against experiment test results; 3) investigation of the seismic behavior and performance of steel buildings with buckling restrained braced frames that considers different diaphragm design approaches and diaphragm inelasticity using nonlinear three-dimensional (3D) computational models; and 4) an experimental study that investigated the in-plane behavior of full-scale standing seam roof assemblies and their use in lateral bracing of rafters in metal building systems. The results of these studies contribute to a better understanding of the behavior of diaphragms in steel buildings and lead to several recommendations for diaphragm design. Firstly, a series of m-factors (ductility measures) and nonlinear modeling parameters (multi-linear cyclic backbone curves) were determined for bare steel deck diaphragms and concrete-filled steel deck diaphragms. These new provisions are recommended for adoption in ASCE 41 / AISC 342, which allows the use of ductility in steel deck diaphragms for their design and retrofits. Secondly, results of the finite element analysis on concrete-filled steel deck diaphragms revealed a concentrated distribution of shear transfer through the shear connections on the collectors of the diaphragm near braced frames and a stress concentration in the composite slab near reentrant corners and openings. Thirdly, results of eigenvalue analyses with nonlinear 3D building models showed that the consideration of diaphragm flexibility led to an increase in first mode period between 13% and 48%. A comparison of results from pushover analyses and response history analyses indicated that even though the pushover analyses (based on a first mode load pattern) identified the BRBF as being weaker than the diaphragms and therefore dominating the inelastic pushover behavior, response history analyses demonstrated that the diaphragms can experience substantial inelasticity during a dynamic response. The response history results also suggest that there would be a significant difference in seismic behavior of buildings modeled as two-dimensional (2D) planar frames as compared to the 3D structures modeled herein. Furthermore, the observed final collapse mode involves an interaction between large BRBF story drifts combined with diaphragm deformations that are additive and exacerbate second order effects leading to collapse. The computed adjusted collapse margin ratios for all buildings satisfied the FEMA P695 criteria for acceptance. Therefore, it is concluded that the alternative diaphragm design procedure with the proposed Rs values (Rs = 2 for concrete-filled steel deck diaphragm and Rs = 2.5 for bare steel deck diaphragm) are reasonable for use in design of these types of structures. Lastly, the effects of different standing seam roof configurations (panel type, clip type, thermal insulation, and purlin spacing) on the in-plane stiffness and strength of the standing seam roof system were investigated through an experimental testing program, and a method was described to use these experimental results in the calculations of required bracing for metal building rafters. / Doctor of Philosophy / A diaphragm is a horizontal structural component (e.g. floors and roof) that transfers lateral forces induced by wind or earthquakes to the vertical portions (e.g. frames and walls) of the lateral force resisting system (LFRS) of the building. There are various types of floor and roof diaphragms in steel buildings, such as concrete-filled steel deck diaphragms for the floor system and bare steel deck diaphragms for the roof system of a typical steel braced frame building, and standing seam roof diaphragms for a typical metal building. Compared to vertical elements of a building's LFRS, our understanding of the horizontal elements, i.e., the diaphragms, is grossly lacking. To address the research gaps in understanding the behavior of diaphragms and utilizing them in building design, this work presents a series of computational and experimental studies. In the first study, past experimental test data were analyzed to develop acceptance criteria and modeling protocol for performance-based seismic design of steel deck diaphragms. In the second study, finite element analyses were conducted to understand the nonlinear behavior of concrete-filled steel deck diaphragms subjected to in-plane lateral loading. In the third study, nonlinear three-dimensional computational building models were developed to investigate the seismic behavior and performance of steel buildings with different diaphragm design approaches and diaphragm inelasticity. In the fourth study, experimental testing on full-scale standing seam roof assemblies was conducted to investigate their in-plane behavior and their use in lateral bracing of rafters in metal building systems. The results of these studies contribute to a better understanding of the behavior of diaphragms in steel buildings and lead to several recommendations for diaphragm design.

Digital soil mapping (DSM) provides a cost-effective approach for characterizing the spatial variation in soil properties which contributes to inconsistent productivity. This study utilized Random Forest (RF) models to facilitate DSM of apparent soil electrical conductivity (ECa), estimated cation exchange capacity (CEC), and soil organic matter (SOM) in agricultural fields across the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley. The RF models were trained and tested using in situ collected ECa, CEC, and SOM data, paired with a bare soil composite of Landsat 9 imagery. Field data and imagery were collected during the study period of 2019 through 2023. Models ranged from fair to moderate in accuracy (R2 from 0.27 to 0.68). The contrasting performance between CEC/SOM and ECa models is likely due to the dynamic nature of soil properties. Accordingly, models could have benefitted from covariates such as soil moisture, topography, and climatic factors, or higher spectral resolution imagery, such as hyperspectral.

No / This paper considers the situation of people with dementia who are living in long-term care from two rarely-applied theoretical perspectives. The first, Agamben’s theory of biopolitical life versus bare life, demonstrates that the situation of people with dementia living in care homes or hospitals approximates to that of prisoners, internees and refugees, deprived of full citizenship or biopolitical life. In popular imagery people with dementia are frequently referred to, first in terms of numbers, as a ‘rising tide’, in a way that has historically been used to justify discrimination and social exclusion. In many, care environments it is, moreover, still the case that people with dementia are reduced to a condition of ‘bare life’ only: given little choice, having few rights, lacking freedom of movement, and subjected to almost constant surveillance. In other contexts, such treatment is known to cause or exacerbate many of the problems which – following a biomedical model – are constructed as ‘symptoms of dementia’, such as disorientation in time and space, sleep disturbance, hallucinations and repetitive movement. The second body of theory is Bakhtin’s work on cultural resistance. This demonstrates that many of the so-called ‘challenging behaviours’ manifested by people with dementia, can better be understood as coping, sense-making and self-determining strategies adopted in order to survive within prevailing organisational cultures. Based on a series of studies carried out in intermediate and long-term care since 2009, the paper draws on a range of narrative and film-based examples to demonstrate the ‘courage, humour, fortitude and cunning’ with which, as Walter Benjamin noted, the oppressed have always met the conditions of their oppression. In the process, ‘challenging behaviour’ is given political and ideological meaning, as protest, perpetrated by people who are struggling against extreme odds to be reinstated as full citizens. / Conference website: http://www.aginggraz2017.com/conference-schedule