This research focuses on biologically inspired audio signal processing using programmable analog circuitry. This research is inspired by the biology of the human cochlea since biology far outperforms any engineered system at converting audio signals into meaningful electrical signals. The human cochlea efficiently decomposes any sound into the respective frequency components by harnessing the resonance nature of the basilar membrane, essentially forming a bank of bandpass filters. In a similar fashion, this work revolves around developing a filter bank composed of continuous-time, low-power, analog bandpass filters that serve as the core front end to this silicon audio-processing system. Like biology, the individual bandpass filters are tuned to have narrow bandwidths, moderate amounts of resonance, and exponentially spaced center frequencies. This audio front end serves to efficiently convert incoming sounds into information useful to subsequent signal-processing elements, and it does so by performing a frequency decomposition of the waveform with extremely low-power consumption and real-time operation. To overcome mismatch and offsets inherent in CMOS processes, floating-gate transistors are used to precisely tune the time constants in the filters and to allow programmability of analog components.

Morbidity and mortality attributable to asthma arise mainly from contraction of airway smooth muscle (ASM) and resulting bronchospasm. Bronchospasm that is induced in the laboratory is easily reversed by a spontaneous deep inspiration (DI) whereas bronchospasm that occurs spontaneously in asthma is not. In response to a spontaneous DI, contracted ASM fluidizes rapidly and then resolidifies slowly, but molecular mechanisms accounting for these salutary bronchodilatory responses -and their dramatic breakdown in asthma- are unknown. Using a multi-scale approach, I show here that both the baseline contractile force and the fluidization response of ASM are independent of the cytoskeletal protein zyxin, whereas the resolidification response is zyxin-dependent. At the levels of the stress fiber, the isolated cell, and the integrated airway, zyxin acts to stabilize the contractile apparatus and promote the resolidification response. More than just the motor of contraction, ASM is thus viewed in the broader context of a self-healing active material wherein resolidification and its molecular determinants contribute to the biology of bronchospasm.

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Networks, such as the Internet, are comprised of dense information flows with expansive, multi-directional reach that continuously change—and this changeability is what keeps the network active, relative, and vital. I call the form of network exhibiting those dynamic features the vital network. This form of network is not simply the outcome of connectivity and communication between affiliative objects and actors such as cell phones and humans that together convey a sense or feeling of ‘aliveness,’ it is the outcome of software programming goals for communication systems inspired by nonhuman, self-organizing biological life. The biological turn in computation produces an organizing logic for the vital network that self-propagates connections and disconnections, services, collectives, and structures proximal to forms that feel vital and dynamic. The vital network can do things, it has capacities to act, and different material consequences emerge out of the organization and coordination of communication with particular implications for human privacy, autonomy, and network transparency. I examine the biological turn in computing as a feature within a development program for the design of digital network control systems that rely on self-regulation and autonomous communication processes intentionally constructed to be non-transparent. I explore nonhuman models of control as a response to this requirement considered through three objects: microbe, simulation, and control, each understood in process terms that disclose what these things do and how they act. It is appropriate to the concerns of this dissertation to think of these as object-processes occurring within three moments or transverse becomings: first, in terms of Gilles Deleuze’s notion of differentiation from the one to the many; secondly, from organism to simulation through the use of models to describe microbial processes in informatic terms; and finally, from description to control through the progression in computing from an emphasis on structure and descriptive procedures, to processes of control. Given that so much of contemporary life is structured by communication technology, my study points to the need for an ethics of control to imagine how much and how deep control should go when considering the organization appropriate to our shared, technically enabled, sphere of communication. / Thesis (Ph.D, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2014-01-27 14:57:29.139

Der Aufsatz rekonstruiert Daniel Heinsius’ Verachtung der Philologie, wie sie in seinen „Orationes” zum Ausdruck kommt. Die These lautet, dass diese Verachtung in Heinsius’ neuplatonischer Poetik mit ihrer Sakralisierung der Dichtung begründet ist. In seinem Kommentar zur aristotelischen „Poetik“, der „Constitutio tragoediae“, ordnet Heinsius das technische Wissen der aristotelischen „Poetik“ der neuplatonischen Inspirationstheorie unter. Dadurch transformiert er den traditionellen, historisch-philologischen Kommentar in eine neue Form des technischen Handbuchs, wie es die „Constitutio tragoediae“ darstellt. / The paper sketches out Daniel Heinsius' disdain for philology as expressed in his Orationes. It argues that this disdain was founded in Heinsius' neoplatonic poetics with its sacralisation of poetry. In his commentary on the Aristotelian Poetics, the Constitutio tragoediae, Heinsius subordinates the technical knowledge as expressed in the Aristotelian Poetics to the Neoplatonic doctrine of inspiration. By that, he transformed the traditional historical-philological commentary into the new type of technical handbook exemplified by the Constitutio tragoediae.

This thesis explores the historiography of the images of Antinoös, drawing the most evidence from the Delphi Antinoös, which shows the youth in the guise of Apollo. Building upon the discourse of Hadrian’s “Greekness” and sexuality in connection to the amount of images of Antinoös he had commissioned, this paper instead argues that the images of Antinoös were created in order to further a public and religious programme by Hadrian. I found support in both Mary Boatwright and Paul Zanker as they proposed those images for a public, civic, and religious audience as opposed to private patrons more inclined to luxury. The Delphi Antinoös is a well-documented example of numerous portraits of the youth, and it is this paper’s intention to depict the Pheidian inspiration sought after in the second century CE, at the time of Hadrian’s reign and Antinoös’s death, which illustrate the purpose of the images of Antinoös as religious and not as sexy. Hadrian’s public and religious policies, his tours across the empire, and the far-reaching distribution of images of Antinoös also contribute to the conclusion of the religious audience for the images of Antinoös.

L'objectif de cette thèse est de s'inspirer de la neurobiologie pour modéliser les mécanismes émotionnels de bas niveau sur un robot évoluant en environnement réel. Ce travail présente un modèle des émotions cohérent avec les données expérimentales décrivant le fonctionnement des structures cérébrales principales impliquées dans les mécanismes émotionnels. Les émotions jouent un rôle capital aussi bien pour la régulation du comportement des êtres humains que des animaux. En accord avec la vision darwinienne, les émotions sont vues comme des mécanismes adaptatifs favorisant la survie. Cependant, leur organisation autours de signaux essentiellement positifs et négatifs leur donne un caractère dimensionnel. Notre modèle considère les émotions comme le résultat de la dynamique d'interactions entre deux systèmes permettant l'évaluation des interactions avec l'environnement physique d'une part et l'environnement social d'autre part. Cette approche bioinspirée des émotions permet de donner aux robots une mécanique de base pour construire leur autonomie comportementale et leurs capacités de communication. Dans cette thèse, nous montrons qu'elles permettent autant de s'adapter aux caractéristiques de l'environnement que de servir de support à une communication non verbale. L'approche biomimétique de notre travail se traduit en termes méthodologiques par l'utilisation de réseaux de neurones formels pour les architectures de contrôle du robot mais aussi en termes fonctionnels par l'organisation de ces réseaux comme modèles de différentes structures du cerveau et de leurs interactions (amygdale, accumbens, hippocampe et cortex préfrontal). Suivant le courant animat, le robot est vu comme un animal aux besoins vitaux satisfaits par les ressources de son environnement. Les expérimentations seront illustrées sur des comportements de navigation reposant sur les apprentissages de conditionnements visuo-moteurs (stratégie visuelle) et sur l'intégration de chemin (stratégie propioceptive). Les conditionnements associant les signaux nocicepteurs et hédoniques aux autres informations sensorielles ou aux actions du robot sont à la base des régulations émotionnelles. Les prédictions que forme le robot lui permettent d'apprendre des comportements aversifs ou appétitifs en réponse à ses anticipations de "douleur" ou de "plaisir". Il peut aussi monitorer ses prédictions afin d'évaluer l'efficacité de ses comportements. C'est ce qui lui permet de réguler ses motivations et de sélectionner ses stratégies (navigation visuelle ou proprioceptive) et ses buts (ressources de l'environnement) de façon à satisfaire au mieux son équilibre interne en fonction de son environnement. Cette utilisation de signaux bas niveau positifs et négatifs permet de construire un modèle émotionnel minimal assurant au robot une autonomie comportementale. Dans un deuxième temps, nous utilisons l'expressivité émotionnelle comme base à une communication avec le robot. Une tête mécanique permet au robot d'exprimer ses émotions grâce à ses expressions faciales. Cette communication consiste à donner au robot des signaux de récompense et de punition. Nous avons développé un modèle permettant de construire de manière autonome ces signaux d'interaction en leur donnant leur valeur émotionnelle. Cet échange d'informations avec le robot lui permet d'apprendre à valuer son environnement ou son comportement et ainsi d'apprendre interactivement à résoudre ses problèmes de navigation. La modélisation des mécanismes émotionnels présentées dans cette thèse permet d'aborder aussi bien les questions de robotique autonome que d'interactions Homme-Machine. Plus largement, cette approche illustre l'intérêt de placer la robotique au coeur des sciences cognitives grâce à l'éclairage que permet l'analyse des comportements rendus possibles par des architectures neuronales relativement simples.

iv It is widely known that Turkey has a great amount of data of traditions and cultures on its broad land. By the effects of different dynamics in the 20th century, many craftsmanship and mastery as parts of traditional culture have been transforming day by day. Throughout that transformation period, some traditional craft products could find alternative methods to survive although some others did not. Craft products have been searched by social anthropology since they are members of material culture of humankind for a long time. It can be said that most contemporary objects are transformed versions of older ones in the history. However, all the products today are continuously transforming by the effects of different factors. There still are craft objects and craftsmanship in the market. Traditional craft products, in Turkey, have been transforming by the effects of technology, change in social conditions and marketing issues and designer&rsquo / s initiative as well. Industrialization directly has effected craft production to weaken but some alternative methods are found to provide revival of these professions and objects. This study examined transformation in craft objects focusing on the existing scene of traditional products in Turkish market. Data about craft culture is collected through observations and interviews with craftsmen considering existing craft products in the market. Examples of craft objects and objects designed by getting inspired from craft culture are classified in the chart constituting a schema for the methods for transformation of craft objects. Dynamic factors affecting the transformation process of craft objects are discussed. The need for the revival of traditional culture via design and reasons to do so are explained. In the thesis, it is claimed that one of the agents of traditional product&rsquo / s transformation is the designer&rsquo / s attitude. Designer can determine the method for the transformation of traditional products. So, for the revival of craft culture in the next generations, the essence of traditional culture behind the traditional products can be re-used in industrial design. While searching for the convenient methods of transformation of traditional products, designers&rsquo / opinions about craft culture and reusing information of culture and tradition in design are searched through a questionnaire. Possible methods for the revival of craft culture through design are examined.

Diss.--Munich. / Bibliography: p. 181-188.

Thesis (M.Ed. )--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 2006. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2704. Typescript. Abstract precedes thesis as 1 leaf (iii). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 42-46).