No description available.

Purpose. To investigate the subjective refraction techniques of UK optometrists and their influence on patient-reported problems with new spectacles. Methods. First, an investigation from optical practices’ perspective, with a study investigating the frequency and causes of patient complaints. Three questionnaires follow; i) quantification of patient-reported symptoms with new spectacles, ii) the methods of refraction used by clinicians and iii) part-refracting as a special case of part-prescribing. Finally, the typical cylinder changes prescribed in patients’ refractive history are examined. Results. 2.3% of eye examinations resulted in rechecks. Cylinders were implicated in 38% of causes, of which 42% were oblique. 83% of rechecks were due to inaccurate measurement of prescription; presenting symptoms, prescription changes and improvements in visual acuity (VA) were often not reconciled and 93% reported not measuring VA to full threshold. The change in ocular astigmatism from with- to against-the-rule with age was more than three times more likely to pass through oblique axes than a spherical prescription. 36% of eyes were found to have an oblique cylinder prescribed at least once and of these, 78% were transitory in nature. Conclusions. Subjective refraction, visual acuity measurement, analysis of refractive change and prescribing techniques were often poor and cylinder changes, particularly oblique, were identified as a cause of increasing rechecks with patient age. These are fundamental aspects of optometry, yet need to be more prominent in continuing professional development.

No / PURPOSE. Epidemiologic studies have indicated that elderly people who wear multifocal spectacles have an increased risk of tripping, particularly on stairs. Yet no studies have experimentally examined how wearing multifocal spectacles affects stair and step negotiation. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of wearing multifocal compared with single-distance vision spectacles on minimum toe clearance and risk of tripping during step negotiation in the elderly. METHODS. Nineteen healthy subjects (mean age, 71.4 years) performed a single step up to a new level (heights, 7.5, 15, and 22 cm) while wearing multifocal (bifocals and progressive addition lenses) or single-distance vision spectacles. Minimum horizontal and vertical toe clearance were assessed by analyzing data collected with a five-camera, three-dimensional motion-analysis system. RESULTS. There was no difference in mean minimum toe clearance in subjects when wearing multifocal compared with single-distance vision spectacles. However, there was greater within-subject variability in vertical toe clearance when wearing multifocal spectacles (variance ratio, 1.53; P = 0.0004). Subjects were also significantly more likely to trip when wearing multifocal compared with single-vision spectacles (one-sided Fisher's exact test P = 0.025). CONCLUSIONS. Because of increased within-subject variability in vertical toe clearance when wearing multifocal spectacles, elderly individuals may be at greater risk of falling when negotiating steps and stairs if they do not also consistently increase margins of safety (mean vertical toe clearance). This suggests that some elderly who are at high risk of falling may benefit from wearing single-distance vision rather than multifocal spectacles when walking.

No / Intervention trials that reduce visual impairment in older adults have not produced the expected improvements in reducing falls rate. We hypothesised that this may be caused by adaptation problems in older adults due to changes in magnification provided by new spectacles and cataract surgery. This study assessed the effects of ocular magnification on adaptive gait in young and older adults. Methods: Adaptive gait was measured in 10 young (mean age 22.3 ± 4.6 years) and 10 older adults (mean age 74.2 ± 4.3 years) with the participants' habitual refractive correction (0%) and with size lenses producing ocular magnification of ±1%, ±2%, ±3%, and ±5%. Adaptive gait parameters were measured when participants approached and stepped up onto a raised surface. Results: Adaptive gait changes in the young and older age groups were similar. Increasing amounts of magnification (+1% to +5%) led to an increased distance of the feet from the raised surface, increased vertical toe clearance and reduced distance of the lead heel position on the raised surface (p < 0.0001). Increasing amounts of minification (¿1% to ¿5%) led to the opposite of these changes (p < 0.0001). Adaptation to ocular magnification did not occur in the short term in young or older adults. Conclusion: The observed adaptive gait changes were driven by the magnification changes provided by the size lenses. The raised surface appeared closer and larger with magnification and further away and smaller with minification and gait was adjusted accordingly. Magnification may explain the mobility problems some older adults have with updated spectacles and after cataract surgery.

Tableau d’honneur de la Faculté des études supérieures et postdoctorales, 2008-2009 / Dans le présent essai dont la réflexion s'articule autour de l'itinéraire génétique du texte dramatique Chroniques de l'Université Laval: pieds nus dans l'histoire, je tente de cerner certains procédés de théâtralisation de la matière historique mis en oeuvre dans mon travail pour ensuite effectuer l'analyse de leur effet structurant à l'intérieur des épisodes dramatiques et des séquences narratives de ma pièce. À la lumière de notions propres au genre du pageant historique, type de théâtre où formes épique et dramatique se chevauchent, je souhaite dégager la particularité des modes de construction du système dramaturgique et la manière dont ont pu être harmonisés éléments historiques et fictifs afin d'atteindre à la vérité dramatique.

Scholarship on late antique cities has largely conceptualized them as singular entities, either decaying or transitioning as Roman imperial power and economic structures shifted. Improved archaeological data from urban sites, accompanied by a number of broad synthetic studies, now allow for fresh exploration of the details of urbanism in this transformative era. This study examines the ways that a select group of public buildings were used and reused in the Mediterranean West between 300 and 600 CE. This examination is primarily carried out through the collection of a broad catalogue of archaeological evidence (supplemented with epigraphic and literary testimony) for the constructions, work projects, abandonments and reuses of key public monuments across the Western Mediterranean region—principally Italy, southern Gaul, Spain, and North Africa west of Cyrenaica. This broad survey is augmented with case studies on select cities. Such an analysis of the late antique histories of baths, aqueducts, and spectacle buildings (theaters, amphitheaters, and circuses) shows that each of the building types had a distinct history and that public monuments were not a unitary group. It also reveals unexpectedly few regional trends, suggesting that these histories were broadly common across the West. Further, this study shows that each building type was reused differently, both in terms of purposes and chronology. Finally, by considering economic, technological, cultural and legal factors affecting patterns of use, abandonment and reuse, this study establishes that the primary cause for the transformations to public building was largely a change in euergetistic practices in late antiquity. Cities with access to imperial or other governmental patronage used and maintained their public monuments longer than those without. Together these observations demonstrate the complexities of urban change in this period and prove that the idea of a single pattern of decline in late antique cities is no longer tenable.

Cette thèse constitue une étude de l'architecture de l'amphithéâtre antique d'Arles et de ses transformations ultérieures. La première partie traite de l'état actuel du monument et de son évolution aux époques médiévale et moderne, ainsi que des différentes campagnes de restauration des XIXe et XXe siècles. Elle comporte ensuite une description architecturale détaillée du bâtiment et plusieurs hypothèses de restitution des parties disparues. Les étapes de construction et des modes de mise en œuvre du bâtiment sont traités dans une dernière partie. / This study is an analisis of the architecture of the roman amphitheatre of Arles (France) and of its evolution in the medieval and modern times.A detailled description of the architecture and various hypothesis of restitution of the missing part of the buiding, is followed by the study of the construction work and especially the tools used.

Les spectacles ethnologiques victoriens mettent en scène des milliers de colonisés dans des zoos, cabarets, appartements privés et institutions scientifiques. Cette thèse se penche sur deux spectacles sud-Africains en particulier : les « Zulu Kafirs » et les « Earthmen », montés à Londres dans les années 1850. Prenant pour point de départ « The Noble Savage » de Charles Dickens, écrit après qu’il a vu les « Zulus », ce travail porte sur le fantasme victorien d’un « muséum humain ». Après une étude des concepts de « race » et de « sauvagerie » aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles, nous abordons l’évolution des pratiques muséologiques et la fascination de Dickens pour un muséum humain monstrueux. Nous passons ensuite aux spectacles ethnologiques victoriens et au « spécimen » Africain comme « métonyme ethnographique » et mythe, évoluant dans un « fantasme hétérotopique ». Ce fantasme est réalisé dans le Département d’Histoire Naturelle du Palais de Cristal de Sydenham, dans lequel des moulages des « spécimens » sont exposés dans des « théâtres écologiques ». La visite y permet l’exploration sociale et pose le problème d’un cannibalisme moral, quand le colonialisme et l’impérialisme victoriens se heurtent à leurs propres contradictions. Ces dernières sont développées dans Bleak House (1853), où Dickens attaque la « philanthropie télescopique », alors que la « préférence ethnologique » semble aller aux esclaves américains, dont les récits sont publiés et mis en scène. A Tale of Two Cities (1859) pourrait ainsi être lu comme la réalisation de la crainte dickensienne de voir les pauvres s’ensauvager, si les philanthropes persistent à les exclure de leur muséum humain. / Nineteenth-Century ethnological shows involved the display of thousands of colonised people in a variety of urban settings, including zoos, cabarets, private apartments, and scientific institutions. This dissertation focuses on two South African shows in particular: the “Zulu Kafirs” and “Earthmen”, both staged in London in the 1850s. Taking its lead from Charles Dickens’s pamphlet “The Noble Savage”, written after he saw the “Zulus”, this thesis looks at the Victorian fantasy of a “human museum”. Following a historical study of the concepts of “race” and “savagery” in the 18th and 19th centuries, we retrace the evolution of museological practices and look at Dickens’s fascination with a (monstrous) human museum. We then move on to consider Victorian ethnological shows and the African “specimen” as “ethnographical metonym” and myth, displayed in a true “heterotopic fantasy”. This fantasy was realized in the Natural History Department of the Crystal Palace in Sydenham, where casts of the “specimens” on show were arranged in “ecological theatres”. There, the museum visit allowed for social exploration among the visitors, and raised the issue of (moral) cannibalism, at the point at which Victorian capitalism and imperialism met their own contradictions. These are further explored in Bleak House (1853), where Dickens attacks “telescopic philanthropy”, as the “ethnological preference” seemed to go to American slaves, whose narratives were published and staged. In this light, we might read A Tale of Two Cities (1859) as the realisation of the writer’s fear that the Poor might revert to a state of “primitive” savagery, if they remain overlooked in the philanthropists’ human museum.

No description available.

The topic of this thesis is the palaestrae of Roman Africa. Although many examples of palaestrae have been found in North Africa, there has never been a study solely focused on these facilities. They have usually been considered only in the context of Roman baths and as features of bath buildings. This thesis examines palaestrae in a new light and analyzes their role as athletic facilities within the sporting culture of Roman Africa. The Roman provinces of North Africa have yielded a particularly rich body of evidence for athletic games and festivals, making this region ideal for studying this topic. The concern of the thesis is twofold. The first issue is the design and construction of palaestrae in Roman Africa. There is discussion of their form, of construction techniques, and of their place in the overall design of baths. The second issue is how their form relates to function. There is a discussion of how palaestrae accommodated athletic activities, such as training and competition. The thesis concludes that palaestrae in Roman Africa were an important part of local athletic culture, used for training and possibly for competition. Greek and Roman models influenced their design, but climate played a significant role. Great effort was made to ensure these buildings were kept cool, not only by placing them in less exposed areas but also by insulating them from the heated rooms of the baths. Local resources and building techniques were important factors in their construction. This thesis includes a gazetteer of palaestra sites in Roman Africa and a catalogue of all inscriptions relevant to the use of palaestrae. / Classical Archaeology