Articulation(s) of Culture(s): Mobilizing knowledge, ecological justice, and media convergence

This paper draws on articulation(s) as a multi-method countermethodology in the design of educational research. We use this form of critical\ud inquiry to examine ecological literacies and digital epistemologies associated with\ud Dow’s 2006 worldwide advertising campaign, “The Human Element”.\ud Articulation(s) draw from research that continues to evolve reflexively and that\ud openly questions deterministic institutional explanations. Our interpretation of\ud articulation(s) include(s) critical processes for gathering, analyzing, and\ud interpreting data. A critique of Dow‘s “The Human Element” ad is provided as an\ud example of how multimodal forms of information have been mobilized,\ud (re)presented, (re)mixed, and (re)mediated using media convergence, how various\ud points of view intersect formations of everyday digital media networks, and how\ud communication practices entail subtle and complex relationships associated with\ud social and political meanings and values. Our focus is on social justice issues of\ud ecology as mobilized through media convergence. We argue that an integrated and\ud negotiated approach to critical inquiry linking ecological justice through education\ud can help researchers, teachers, and students analyze conditions of culture(s) within\ud the contexts of complex political and social conditions that are prevalent in most\ud societies

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Robot Autonomy for Surgery

Autonomous surgery involves having surgical tasks performed by a robot operating under its own will, with partial or no human involvement. There are several important advantages of automation in surgery, which include increasing precision of care due to sub-millimeter robot control, real-time utilization of biosignals for interventional care, improvements to surgical efficiency and execution, and computer-aided guidance under various medical imaging and sensing modalities. While these methods may displace some tasks of surgical teams and individual surgeons, they also present new capabilities in interventions that are too difficult or go beyond the skills of a human. In this chapter, we provide an overview of robot autonomy in commercial use and in research, and present some of the challenges faced in developing autonomous surgical robots

Sculpting Course impact on medical students\u27 anatomy examination grades

Abstract Objectives: The primary hypothesis of this project is that those who take the medical sculpting course will be positively impacted on their anatomy practical examinations when compared to those who have not taken the course. The secondary outcome of this project is that those who take the medical sculpting course will have a difference in their pre- and post- mental rotations test. Methods: Using the Vandenberg and Kuse mental rotation test, the students taking the sculpting session and a control group of students were pre-screened for their visual spatial awareness. The students who opted into the course then completed a medical sculpting course relevant to whatever course they were enrolled in. After the course they took the mental rotation test again. Both groups then took their anatomy practical examination. Results: Comparison of the averages of the anatomy practical examination score control vs course had a p value of 0.8154. Comparison of the pre-test mental rotation scores vs the post-test scores had a p value of 0.0329 Conclusion: The hypothesis that a medical sculpting course would positively affect the anatomy practical grades of those who took it versus those who did not has been disproven using the current data. Secondly, the hypothesis that a medical sculpting course would positively affect the mental rotation test results pre and post course has been proved correct. Both will also be evaluated further with a larger sample size as the course is ongoing

Postnatal development of the somatosensory thalamocortical projection in rat and rabbit - a combined retrograde transport and stereological comparative study

A comparative quantitative study of the somatosensory thalamocortical connections in the rat and rabbit, labeled with the fluorescent retrograde tracer Fluoro-Gold (FG), was conducted by means of unbiased stereology. FG was injected into the primary somatosensory cortex of the rat and rabbit in different age groups from P0 to P180 (P-postnatal day). The numerical density of retrogradely labeled the ventroposterolateral (VPL) projection neurons was analyzed. A significant decrease in this parameter was observed during the first two weeks of postnatal life in both studied species. Changes of the neuropil volume and selective elimination of early cortical connections stemming from the VPL may possibly cause this process. A withdrawal of axon collaterals from the expanded cortical sites as well as apoptosis (existing both in the VPL and parietal cortex) contribute to a decrease in the numerical density. Our observations allow us to conclude that the thalamocortical somatosensory connections established before the birth undergo significant quantitative changes in both studied species during the first two weeks of postnatal life and this period seems to be crucial for maturation of the thalamocortical loop

The Psychedelic Influence on Philosophy

A mildly chronological overview of the philosophers who may have been inspired by the use of psychoactive chemicals, inc. Plato, de Quincey, Davy, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, James, Bergson, Benjamin, Jünger, Paz, Marcuse, Sartre, Foucault; and a mention of the Outsight project. This article was based on a talk given for the University of Exeter Philosophy Society and at the ICPR2016 conference

Explore the Carpathian Garden A Multimodal Nation Branding Campaign Analysis

So far, all Romanian nation branding campaigns have been criticized for not showing the country’s unique attributes and not painting a clear picture of its country image. Explore the Carpathian Garden is the latest Romanian endeavor into nation branding. This paper utilizes a multimodal semiotic analysis in order to provide insight into the way the Romanian country image is constructed in the latest campaign. The paper’s hypothesis is that the problematic aspects of the previous campaigns are still present in Explore the Carpathian Garden. This thesis analyzes the construction of Romania’s country image in the campaign, in order to uncover these problematic aspects, which can lead to confusion on the part of the viewer and perhaps even undermine the campaign’s efforts.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

Visual and written discourses of British commemorative war monuments

This thesis analyses commemorative war monuments using a social semiotic approach to understand how they communicate as three-dimensional objects, considering their design alongside contextual information. Taking a social semiotic approach to the study of commemorative war monuments, it responds to calls by historians for innovative ways to study war commemoration by providing an approach that offers both specific analysis of the objects and attends to matters of design.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo