In this article, I argue that the vampires in Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse novels illustrate clearly the posthuman self in its connection beyond itself to other vampires, humans, and non-humans. Learning to co-exist becomes problematic in Harris’ series, where we encounter a “new” representation of vampire. These vampires have come out of the coffin, and their revelation allows us to explore how they can be viewed in connection to the human world and how their transcendence can be seen as a move toward posthumanism, as its particular blend of body and community help demonstrate what the self expanded could be. As a species that differs from us “typical” humans and yet must co-exist with us and other non-humans, the posthuman provides a theoretical framework for how we can approach this new representation as a disembodied non-unitary subject. Through their transcendence from the world of the living to the life of the undead, these vampires let us see humanity as a distinct moment in evolution that is a continuous process, not a resolution. There are six areas where we see these common characteristics between posthumanism and Harris’ vampires. The first is the vampire being represented as an other. Like the posthuman, Harris’ vampires are juxtaposed against the human population and because vampires are marked as other this creates tension where they must co-exist with humans and yet still be examined from an anthropocentric perspective. Another way the posthuman allows us to interpret this fear of vampires is from the position of the de-centered human. Because humans prior to the “great revelation” in Harris’ fictional world, believed themselves to be what defined humanism versus their non-human others; they must shift in where they are located on the species podium due to vampires and that creates a fear. Another correlation is that of immortality; which is what vampires inherit when they become a member of the undead, but for the posthuman it is encoding and dematerialization that allows us to transcend these mortal bodies. This notion of disembodiment demonstrates the body being a rhetorical strategy to create an effect, such as manipulation. Since the body for the posthuman is seen as materiality and therefore they are not embedded to only exist within it, the vampire likewise is able to exploit the body in order to accomplish its purpose. Next for the posthuman, transcendence is the way they not only become immortal, but also how they move from identifying as individuals to identifying as part of a larger community. For the vampires in the Stackhouse series, their consciousness lies in their information and not in their material bodies, thus they are able to situate themselves within the larger network with other vampires, humans, and non-humans. And lastly the connection through the exchange of blood, which for the vampire is a literal connection, but for the posthuman is instead an ideal network which removes individuality.

No description available.

<p>an Internal Navigational System and a Global Navigational Satellite System (GNSS). In navigational warfare the GNSS can be jammed, therefore are a third navigational system is needed. The system that has been tried in this thesis is camera based navigation. Through a video camera and a sensor reference the position is determined. This thesis will process the matching between the sensor reference and the video image.</p><p>Two methods have been implemented: normalized cross correlation and position determination through a homography. Normalized cross correlation creates a correlation matrix. The other method uses point correspondences between the images to determine a homography between the images. And through the homography obtain a position. The more point correspondences the better the position determination will be.</p><p>The results have been quite good. The methods have got the right position when the Euler angles of the UAV have been known. Normalized cross correlation has been the best method of the tested methods.</p>

<p>In this thesis, a computer program that in a simple way can calculate the performance of control loops at the refinery Preemraff Lysekil has been created. The computer program has been adapted to the environment at Preemraff Lysekil. Theories for evaluation has been studied in aspect of reliability and of automatic implementation. The evaluation has been carried out from data collected directly from control loops at the refinery and from simulated control loops with implemented errors. </p><p>Among the studied methods are Harris index and Stattin´s oscillation index. According to the literature the Harris index is the most used for measure of control performance, but the results show that it does not work as a single measure at Preemraff Lysekil. However Stattin´s oscillation index works well and can be used for detection of oscillations. Statistic measures like variance, IAE, ISE and a method based on histogram are also studied. All the statistical measures are simple to implement and are rather accurate. Several tests on control loops has been carried out and it has been shown that it ís enough to use the method based on histograms and Stattins oscillation index to get a good picture of the performace of the control loops at Preemraff Lysekil. </p><p>The work has resulted in a MATLAB tool that evaluates the control loops and can be run at any time. The tool first calculates Stattin´s oscillation index. The loops that are oscillating are marked. In the next step, the method based on histograms is used and a list with the worst performing loops at the top is created.</p>

The media have extensive power in that they represent the primary, and often the only, source of information about many important events and topics. Media can define which events are important, as well as how media consumers should understand these events. The current trend towards tabloidization, or sensationalism, in today’s American media, has caused an uproar among media traditionalists, primarily in the fields of news and print media. This study seeks to examine the actual influence of tabloidization in newspaper media. My primary research question is as follows: Do tabloid newspapers in the United States set the agenda for more mainstream newspapers? An ethnographic textual analysis will be done of tabloid and newspaper coverage of a recent nationwide story about an Atlanta-area woman running away from town days before her wedding, the “Runaway Bride” saga, in order to compare how the story was covered in tabloid and mainstream newspapers.

In this thesis, a computer program that in a simple way can calculate the performance of control loops at the refinery Preemraff Lysekil has been created. The computer program has been adapted to the environment at Preemraff Lysekil. Theories for evaluation has been studied in aspect of reliability and of automatic implementation. The evaluation has been carried out from data collected directly from control loops at the refinery and from simulated control loops with implemented errors. Among the studied methods are Harris index and Stattin´s oscillation index. According to the literature the Harris index is the most used for measure of control performance, but the results show that it does not work as a single measure at Preemraff Lysekil. However Stattin´s oscillation index works well and can be used for detection of oscillations. Statistic measures like variance, IAE, ISE and a method based on histogram are also studied. All the statistical measures are simple to implement and are rather accurate. Several tests on control loops has been carried out and it has been shown that it ís enough to use the method based on histograms and Stattins oscillation index to get a good picture of the performace of the control loops at Preemraff Lysekil. The work has resulted in a MATLAB tool that evaluates the control loops and can be run at any time. The tool first calculates Stattin´s oscillation index. The loops that are oscillating are marked. In the next step, the method based on histograms is used and a list with the worst performing loops at the top is created.

In this thesis, we present an algorithm for vision based detection of moving objects observed by IR sensors on a moving platform. In addition we analyze the performance of different approaches in each step of the algorithm. The proposed algorithm is composed of preprocessing, feature detection, feature matching, homography estimation and difference image analysis steps. First, a global motion estimation based on planar homography model is performed in order to compensate the motion of the sensor and moving platform where the sensors are located. Then, moving objects are identified on difference images of consecutive video frames with global motion suppression. Performance of the proposed algorithm is shown on different IR image sequences.

The essential procedure of constructing 3-D building models in urban areas is to extract the building boundary footprint. In the past researches, the common procedures used in extracting the building footprint are applying edge detection, vectorization, and generalization. However, the derived boundary lines occasionally occur zigzag patterns, thus, it still needs further building footprint regularization. This study proposed a new approach in the point of view that the points, lines and polygons are the essential elements in reconstructing 3-D building models. The proposed new method is based on ¡§corner detection approach (CDA)¡¨ and ¡§Adjustment of building footprints and corner points (ABFCO)¡¨ algorithm on Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) or binary classification resultant imagery. This study implements Harris and Local Binary Pattern (LBP) corner detection, afterward, connects all detected points by using convex hull algorithm. However, ortho-non-rectangle buildings would compose poor outlines after convex hull. This study combines open and dilation morphology with the find ignored point algorithm to improve any incorrect connections. Finally, performs the ABFCO algorithm to those points which belong to the same boundary to generalize a line segment, and to figure out the intersections and boundary lines of the buildings. The experiment results have proved that the overall accuracy of LBP corner detection is about 3.5% higher than Harris corner detection, its overall accuracy is about 92% in rectangular buildings and about 91% in non-rectangular buildings, its standard deviation of boundary length is 0.29m and better than Harris¡¦s 0.55m. We also compared LBP corner detection with edge detection. The overall accuracy of corner detection is about 3% higher than edge detection, standard deviation of boundary length 0.37m is also better than edge detection 0.75m. This study not only proved the corner detection is better than edge detection from data, but also developed ABFCO algorithm is helpful for extracting more accurate building footprint lines.

In addition to the lonely battles fought by Bomber Command crews in the night skies over Germany from February 1942 to May 1945 there was an equally intense if much less bloody struggle in the halls of power between the Air Staff and the AOC Bomber Command, concerning the best employment of the strategic bomber forces. The argument of this study is that the Royal Air Force s contribution to the strategic air offensive was badly mismanaged: that Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Bomber Command, from 22 February 1942 to the end of the war, by ignoring, or often over-riding the Air Staff, affected not only the course but also the duration of the Second World War. Most histories of the bomber war provide the result of the disagreements between the Chief of the Air Staff, Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Charles Portal and Harris, but rarely are the problems discussed in detail. This thesis examines the arguments that were raised by the various authorities, together with the refutations presented not only by the major participants, but also by the advisers to those authorities. The significant feature of the disagreements was that while Harris acted unilaterally, the Air Staff reached consensus decisions. Unfortunately, the decisions reached by the Air Staff on major issues were all too frequently either ignored or subverted by the AOC Bomber Command. One significant feature of the refutations presented to Harris was their dependence on the operational experience gained earlier in the bomber war by junior members of the Air Staff. For too long the direction of the war had been left in the hands of senior officers whose previous service had become irrelevant to war requirements in the 1940s. By 1942, comparatively junior officers were thus tendering advice to senior officers who, in the case of AOC Bomber Command, resented the authority which, Harris argued, had apparently been accorded these juniors. Harris was unable to accept that they were advisers and were never in a position to issue orders: orders could only come from Portal. Finally, this thesis provides an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the major participants and argues that, had the war been conducted as the Air Staff required, victory would have been achieved earlier than May 1945.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1976. / Microfiche. / 294 leaves