O presente trabalho dedica-se ao estudo da leitura praticada pelos leitores missivistas da revista Realidade, editada mensalmente pela Editora Abril, de São Paulo. As cartas de leitores publicadas na seção de correspondência da revista durante os seus três primeiros anos de circulação (1966-1968) serviram de fonte para esta pesquisa cujo principal objetivo foi mostrar que estes leitores não são apenas consumidores, receptores passivos das mensagens veiculadas pela revista. Ao contrário, são também produtores capazes de surpreender editores e autores ao escapar das armadilhas que estes tentam lhes impor. / This study examines the response of readers to the content published in Brazilian magazine Realidade. The magazine, which was published monthly by Editora Abril (Sao Paulo, Brazil) starting in 1966, featured a prolific section of letters to editor during its first three years of publication (until 1968). From those letters, we conclude that Realidade's readers were not mere passive consumers, indifferent to the editorial content reflected in the magazine's messages. Instead, they presented themselves as active producers, often surprising editors and authors by escaping the traps those tried to impose over them.

Esta dissertação debate algumas das contribuições do arquiteto à construção do pensamento sobre a casa-museu, ao considerar o edifício como acervo nesse tipo de instituição museal, operando como mediador entre a coleção num sentido ampliado, que poderia conter ângulos diversos na biografia, mesclados por visões entre público versus privado, dados emulados do ambiente doméstico, usos e adaptações ocorridos na residência, seu entorno e por sua localização na cidade. Assim, a atuação colaboraria para conectar memórias individuais àquelas coletivas de distintas comunidades, operar na tensão entre museu e monumento, ao lado de potencializar a relação entre a casa-museu e a cidade; igualmente, a formação, a prática e a frequentação de museus se direcionariam para qualificar a relação entre o museu e diferentes segmentos de receptores, voltando-se às demandas técnicas e operacionais dessas instituições. / This thesis analyze some of the architect\'s contributions to the house-museum concept construction. It considers the building as an asset in this type of museum institution that operates as a mediator between the collection -- in an amplified sense -- that could hold diversified points of view from the biography, mixed with perspectives of \'public\' versus \'private\', as well as data from the domestic environment, the uses and adaptations done in the house, its surroundings and its location in the city. Thus, the architect\'s activity would serve to connect individual to collective memories of various communities. It would also operate in the tension between museum and monument, intensifying the relationship between the house-museum and the city; it would equally enhance the creation, practice and attendance to museums, acting as means to qualify the relation between the museum and different types of recipients, serving the technical and operational demands of these institutions.

Massinissa est un personnage historique qui régna sur la Numidie entre 201 et 148 avant notre ère. Allié de Rome durant la deuxième guerre punique, il contribua à l’écrasement de Carthage. Ce roi ressort comme le premier « grand homme » de l’histoire de l’Afrique du Nord, dans l’historiographie ancienne que nous avons conservée (nous ne savons rien de l’historiographie punique ni libyque), mais aussi dans l’historiographie contemporaine des pays du Maghreb. Selon les auteurs grecs et romains, il aurait été doté de qualités exceptionnelles, et c’est à lui que reviendrait la gloire d’avoir le premier constitué un État numide unifié. Il est le sujet de nombreux exempla, de l’époque classique jusqu’au Moyen-Âge. À la fin de la période médiévale, on observe, en Europe, un transfert générique : Massinissa, délaissé par les genres savants, devient une source d’inspiration pour les poètes. Pendant la même période, le roi numide disparaît de la tradition savante nord-africaine, et sans doute également de la tradition populaire orale, jusqu’à la colonisation de l’Afrique du Nord par les Français.Mon étude s’inscrit dans le temps long, puisqu’elle retrace le parcours de Massinissa dans l’Antiquité et au fil de sa redécouverte par les historiens de la France coloniale et de sa récupération par les historiens des mouvements nationalistes algériens. Avec la conquête de l’Algérie à partir de 1830, le discours colonial instaure la figure de Massinissa en tant que figure de référence de la région. Les institutions cherchant dans l’histoire de la mainmise progressive de Rome sur l’Afrique du Nord un précédent, c’est-à-dire à la fois une légitimation et une expérience utile pour guider leur action, Massinissa suscite bien entendu un fort intérêt, puisqu’il est présenté par les auteurs classiques, dont les historiens de l’époque sont pétris, comme l’allié très fidèle, voire le client de Rome. Cependant, il serait caricatural de penser que tous les historiens de la période coloniale se sont conformés sans nuance à cette idéologie, et l’étude précise de différents ouvrages montrent au contraire comment cette historiographie coloniale a pu ouvrir la voie à une récupération nationaliste du personnage, en posant un regard critique sur les sources anciennes.Les mouvements nationalistes se sont emparés à leur tour du personnage. Massinissa, premier habitant de l’Algérie dont le nom ait retenti au-delà des mers et par-delà les siècles, était un candidat évident au « panthéon » de héros nationaux que les intellectuels algériens se sont efforcés de mettre en place pour créer un sentiment d’appartenance nationale dans les premières décennies du XXe siècle. Et cela, d’autant plus que les rois numides furent les derniers souverains autochtones avant des siècles de domination étrangère. Il fallait alors affronter certains paradoxes : se réapproprier, ou plutôt s’approprier une histoire modelée par les colonisateurs d’hier et ceux d’aujourd’hui, valoriser un héros encensé par l’ennemi, et enfin ménager une place à un Berbère polythéiste, à rebours de l’arabo-islamisme des discours identitaires majoritaires.Ce travail replace chacune des représentations de Massinissa dans son contexte historique et idéologique ainsi que dans les codes propres à sa nature ou à son genre littéraire, de façon à repérer les filtres qui ont infléchi son élaboration et à mieux comprendre l’orientation qui en résulte. Sources littéraires, archéologiques, épigraphiques et numismatiques seront également analysées en tant que pratiques discursives, et l’on s’attachera à retracer la généalogie de ces représentations. / Massinissa is a historical figure who reigned over Numidia between 201 and 148 BCE. An ally of Rome during the Second Punic War, he contributed to the annihilation of Carthage. This king appears as the first «great man» of the history of North Africa, within the ancient historiography which has been preserved (we know nothing of the ancient Punic or Libyan historiography), but also in contemporary historiography from countries of the Maghreb. According to Greek and Roman authors, he was endowed with exceptional qualities, and to him goes the glory of having first constituted a unified Numidian State. He is the subject of many exempla, from the classical period until Middle Ages. At the end of the medieval period, we observe, in Europe, a generic transfer: Massinissa, neglected by scholars, becomes a source of inspiration for poets. During the same period, the Numidian king disappears from the North African scholarly tradition, and no doubt also from the oral folk tradition, until the colonization of North Africa by the French.My study covers a long time period, since it retraces the path of Massinissa in Antiquity and follows the thread of its rediscovery by historians of colonial France and appropriation by historians of nationalist movements in Algeria. With the conquest of Algeria starting from 1830, the colonial discourse establishes the figure of Massinissa as a reference figure for the region. The institutions seeking a precedent in the history of Rome's gradual stranglehold over North Africa, that is both a legitimacy and a useful experience to guide their action, Massinissa aroused of course a strong interest since classical authors, whom historians of the time were steeped in, present him as a very loyal ally, even the client of Rome. However, it would be caricatural to believe that every single historian of the colonial era complied without nuance with this ideology, and the precise study of various works show on the contrary how this colonial historiography could open the way to a nationalist appropriation of the character, by taking a critical look to ancient sources.In turn, nationalist movements took over the character. Massinissa, the first inhabitant of Algeria whose name has resounded beyond the seas and over the centuries, was an obvious candidate for the «pantheon» of national heroes that Algerian intellectuals strove to set up to create a sense of national belonging in the first decades of the twentieth century. And this, all the more since the Numidian kings were the last indigenous rulers before centuries of foreign domination. It was then necessary to face certain paradoxes: to reclaim, or rather appropriate a history written by the colonizers of yesterday and those of today, to valorize a hero praised by the enemy, and finally to make room for a Berber polytheist, at odds with the Arab-Islamism of the majority identity discourse.This work places each of Massinissa's representations in its historical and ideological context, as well as in the codes specific to its nature or literary genre, so as to identify the filters that have influenced its development and to better understand the resulting orientation. Literary, archeological, epigraphic and numismatic sources will also be analyzed as discursive practices, and I will insist on retracing the genealogy of these representations.

This thesis examines how the sociopolitical contexts of the mid-twentieth century influenced readers’ interpretations of Mark Twain’s novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye,” two controversial novels that were subjected to censorship activity. In particular, this thesis will focus on the reception of both of these novels during the 1950s and 1960s, a period marked by two major events: The Civil Rights Movement and the youth counterculture phenomenon. In this study, the reception of “Huckleberry Finn” will be analyzed in the context of the civil rights movement, using news articles published in the 1950s and 1960s to illustrate how the different interpretations of readers prompted school board directors to ban the book from junior high and high school reading lists.

A literatura de Ficção Científica (FC), conhecida por desafiar os limites entre a ficção e a realidade, enfrentou grandes obstáculos para se estabelecer no polissistema literário brasileiro e ser reconhecida como gênero relevante. Buscando entender melhor as circunstâncias que levaram a esse cenário e o impacto de sua classificação como literatura traduzida, este trabalho analisa, sob a ótica das refrações, algumas publicações que podem ter representado o primeiro contato do público brasileiro com esse gênero. Foram determinadas duas frentes investigação: a primeira se dedicou aos elementos paratextuais presentes nas primeiras coletâneas do gênero publicadas no país, Maravilhas da Ficção Cientifica (1958) e Antologia Brasileira de Ficção Científica (1961); e a segunda se concentrou em identificar, coletar e examinar notas jornalísticas que mencionassem os termos ficção científica e science fiction publicadas nas décadas de 1950 e 1960 período no qual o gênero começava a ser registrado pela grande mídia e explorado como proposta comercial. Os resultados encontrados revelam uma relação direta entre a influência estrangeira na formação do polissistema literário brasileiro e a postura das editoras e jornais do país, incentivadas pela ação marcante dos grupos de autores, editores e entusiastas do gênero. / Science Fiction (SF) literature, known for challenging the boundaries between fiction and reality, faced great obstacles in establishing itself in the Brazilian literary polysystem and earning recognition as a relevant genre. To understand the circumstances that led to this scenario and the impact of its being classified as translated literature, this paper analyzes, from the perspective of refractions, some publications that may have been the first contact of the Brazilian public with SF literature. Two research approaches were defined: the first addressed the paratextual elements present in the first collections of the genre published in Brazil, Maravilhas da Ficção Cientifica (1958) and Antologia Brasileira de Ficção Científica (1961); and the second focused on identifying, collecting, and examining journalistic notes quoting the terms \"ficção científica\" and \"science fiction\" published in the 1950s and 1960s a period in which the genre began to be registered by the mainstream media and explored as a commercial possibility. The results show a direct association between the foreign influence in the formation of the Brazilian literary polysystem and the conduct of the country\'s publishers and newspapers, stimulated by the striking action of the groups formed by authors, editors and enthusiasts of the genre.

Les télécommunications optiques en espace libre pour les applications satellites deviennent unealternative aux communications radiofréquences pour les liens feeder (segment Satellite-Gateway) quicommencent à présenter une saturation en termes de bande passante avec une faible capacité desliaisons. Ces liaisons optiques présentent des avantages majeurs notamment une large bande passantedisponible, l’insensibilité aux interférences ou encore l’absence de régulation (pas de coût lié àl’utilisation de telle ou telle bande de longueur d’onde a contrario de la RF). Elles sont envisagées pourles futurs systèmes satellitaires utilisant des satellites en orbites géostationnaires (GEO : GeostaionaryOrbit) ou des orbites terrestres basses (LEO : Low Earth Orbit) afin d’augmenter la capacité desdonnées transmises. L’architecture des terminaux (OGS et satellites) et la modulation optique utiliséesont déterminantes pour la robustesse d’une telle liaison aux effets induits par les couches del’atmosphère. Bien que des expérimentations aient démontré la faisabilité de ce type de solution pourles télécommunications par satellites à des débits de l’ordre du Gb/s, des travaux de recherche sontencore nécessaires pour identifier les solutions techniques adaptées à ce nouveau médium detransmission et développer des émetteurs et récepteurs pouvant supporter des débits allant jusqu’à1Tb/s. Les travaux menés au cours de cette thèse ont pour objectif de développer des architecturesdes liaisons optiques utilisant différents formats de modulation afin de maitriser le comportement desrécepteurs après propagation atmosphérique (lien montant et lien descendant). Après avoir simulé laliaison avec un logiciel dédié à l’optique, un banc expérimental émulant le lien laser atmosphérique aété développé. Dans les deux cas, l’impact des effets atmosphériques a été pris en compte. Latraversée des couches de l’atmosphère présente des variations brusques d’atténuation dues auxturbulences atmosphériques qui agissent directement sur l’indice de réfraction affectant l’amplitudeet la phase du signal optique (on parle aussi des effets de scintillation). Il en résulte potentiellementdes pertes de paquets d’informations. Différents scénarii de perturbations atmosphériques (Faibleturbulences, Beam Wander, Fortes turbulences) ont été appliqués pour simuler numériquementchaque modèle de canal de communication. Le développement du banc ELLA (Emulateur Lien LaserAtmosphérique) a été réalisé pour émuler la traversée des couches atmosphériques et pour validerexpérimentalement en laboratoire les différents scénarii simulés numériquement. Le taux d’erreurbinaire (BER, Bit Error Rate) a été estimé avec et sans effet de fading induit par l’atmosphère dansdifférentes conditions de turbulences atmosphériques afin de déterminer les caractéristiques desliaisons optiques les plus robustes. / Due to expected capacity bottlenecks of exploited microwave technologies, feeder links for data relayor broadband access systems will require the implementation of high capacity optical communicationlinks between space and the ground. In this context, it is necessary to detail the investigation of theoptical technologies and techniques that could enable the transmission of high data rates at opticalfrequencies through the Earth’s atmosphere, with regard to all kinds of the atmospheric phenomena.In particular, the adverse effects of atmospheric turbulence fading are of special relevance to opticalcommunication systems for ground-to-space uplink applications. Although previous studies andexperiments have demonstrated the feasibility of such optical links at low data rate, research is stillneeded to identify technical solutions and strategies adapted to the specific constraints imposed tothese high-speed links in order to ensure the required level of performance. Against this background,various test benches have been developed to characterize different modulations and detectiontechniques for optical communication systems prior to be incorporated in the conceptual design offuture 1-Tb/s ground-space optical links. The expected performances of such experimentaldemonstration are derived based on simulation models taking into account the atmosphericturbulence effects, in order to prove the feasibility of reliable ground-to-space high date rate opticalcommunication links. The main objective of this thesis is the investigation of the free space opticalcommunication through the atmosphere under different turbulence regimes. Both simulation andexperimental demonstrations of such communications are considered and the associated results aredetailed.

Despite the long history of stand-up comedy as a distinct form of popular entertainment, there has been little sociological attention given to its cultural significance. Comedians have arguably become legitimate and visible voices in many public conversations about social issues and social justice. This dissertation explores the cultural work of women’s comedy in popular culture. Specifically, I examine narrative representation and audience reception of women’s stand-up comedy through multi-method qualitative inquiry. First, I analyze stand-up performances by popular U.S. comedians Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes, and Margaret Cho. Through narrative analysis, I focus on the ironic performativity of Schumer and the charged styles of Sykes and Cho, and I discuss how these women use humor (in different but overlapping ways) to challenge dominant cultural narratives pertaining to gender, race, and sexuality. Second, I conduct an audience reception analysis using focus groups in order to better understand how people consume and interpret stand-up comedy. Due to the polysemic nature of comedy and satire, audiences decode these texts in a myriad of ways. My analysis shows how different audiences perceive the comedian as unpacking social “truths” in comedy. I elaborate these audience decoding positions, discuss the layers of interpretation (i.e., intersectional positionality and interpretive frameworks), and discuss how participants negotiate symbolic boundaries around what is deemed funny or topically appropriate for comics to say. My findings further highlight the importance of identity in critical referential viewing by incorporating standpoint epistemologies. In particular, audience members of marginalized social groups experience a “bifurcated consciousness” (Smith 1974) in their interpretations compared to those from dominant identity groups, and women and minority audience members are more likely to interpret these performances as counterhegemonic texts.

The 1998 television broadcast of The New Zealand Wars documentary series was a significant public event, which had a major impact on a broad range of communities and individuals in Aotearoa New Zealand. This popular television history engaged with issues of historical veracity, race, culture and nationhood and challenged previously dominant discourses associated with these concepts. In doing so, it provoked heated debate, and a re-imagining of 'nation', and also opened up spaces for alternative ways of engaging with historical narrative. Informed by post-colonialism, cultural studies and cultural memory, this thesis explores the discursive and affective role of The New Zealand Wars, as it has operated within the turbulent climate of 1990s New Zealand cultural relations. This catalytic function is described in this thesis as a phenomenon of a television series shaped by, whilst also intervening in, processes of cultural colonisation and decolonisation. While both of these processes involve the transmission of discourse via cultural forms, the act of cultural decolonisation requires, in addition, the convergence of a number of agents (people and communities, discursive and memory resources) and circumstances, within particular contextual conditions. Such a convergence provided the conditions for the discursive synthesis, which shaped the production, construction and reception of this series. The role of audio-visual media (and specifically television documentary) in transmitting cultural memory is significant as it enables the flow of memory through channels or forms (such as visual, oral and aural traditions) that can bring about new perspectives and critical reflections upon colonial discourse and dominant concepts of nation and culture. In addition to these social and intellectual processes of audience engagement, this thesis argues that experiential and affective dimensions of cultural memory can (in these specific circumstances) open up radical spaces, offering the potential for generating awareness and sparking political action. These issues are explored through a tripartite analysis of the production context, construction and reception of The New Zealand Wars series. The integration of these three phases of analysis has generated a number of insights into the potential of audio-visual forms, including their producers and audiences, to participate in the negotiation of, and resistance to, colonial discourse. Such insights serve to challenge taken-for-granted constructions of nation and history, and suggest the increasing relevance of alternative concepts such as community-building and cultural memory. Ultimately, this thesis argues that television documentary can serve as a prime site for the articulation of these concepts. The New Zealand Wars serves as a case study, which demonstrates both the potential of this site, and the significance of the social-historical and cultural context in framing this series.

The Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), which covers 54% of the world's mobile market, evolved into the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). The thesis addresses interference suppression using new radio frequency (RF) and microwave design methods for GSM and GPRS. The overall outcome is interference reduction and enhanced network capacity, leading to superior quality of service (QoS) for wider area coverage. The main results can be summarized as follows * Design, manufacturing and characterisation measurements of new compact filters for GSM and GPRS base stations in order to reduce the out-of-band interference. It is shown that filters with novel microstrip resonators - dual mode filters and cross coupled filters - provide both a high degree of miniaturisation and narrow bandwidth. * Development of a new 3-D Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) design method for new microstrip filters. A non-homogeneous Perfectly Matched Layer (NH-PML) was implemented for Absorbing Boundary Conditions (ABC) to increase the accuracy of the FDTD method. Signal estimation techniques were developed to speed up FDTD computations. A novel design method based on neural networks (NN) and FDTD was implemented to reduce the total design time. * Investigation of High Temperature Superconductors (HTS) thin film resonators and antennas at microwave frequencies. High Q-factor HTS devices considerably enhance both the front-ends sensitivity and selectivity of wireless receivers. * Design, manufacturing and testing of radio frequency (RF) electronics for 16 elements GSM and GPRS Smart Antenna for multipath fading mitigation and for in-band interference including co-channel interference (CCI) suppression.

Aeneas in the Antipodes offers an Australian perspective on the teaching of Virgil�s poetry in the secondary school. The study examines practices in the State of New South Wales from 1900 to the early years of the twenty-first century. The changing role of Latin in the curriculum is traced through a historical account showing the factors which caused a decline in the status and popularity of the subject from the beginning of the century to the 1970s. This decline, not confined to Australia, stimulated the introduction of new teaching methods with different emphases which were, to some extent, successful in preserving Latin from extinction in schools. Against this background of change, Virgil remained the Latin author most frequently studied in the final year of school. Because this poetry was so consistently prescribed for public examinations, a detailed investigation is made of the questions set and of the examiners� comments on candidates� performance, as evidence of changes in expectations and hence, in teaching methods. The influence of trends in Virgilian scholarship is assessed by means of a review of all the officially recommended commentaries and secondary works. The growth of literary criticism from the 1960s is shown to have had a marked effect on syllabuses and examinations, and consequently on the approach taken in the classroom. The role of local professional organizations in supporting the teaching of Virgil has been documented, showing how the disappearance of official support for Latin teaching was to some extent counterbalanced by an increase in voluntary effort. The resources and methods used to introduce Virgil to comparative beginners are classified and reviewed. An assessment is also offered of approaches made to teaching Virgil in English at both junior and senior secondary levels. The final chapter reviews the changes brought about since 2000. Current teaching practices are documented through classroom observations and teacher surveys, substantiating the impression that while most students at the beginning of the twenty-first century are less prepared than their predecessors to translate Virgil independently, they are expected to attempt a far more sophisticated analysis of the literary features Note: For appendix 3-10 please see hardcopy edition.