Locating Pinocchio Before 1940: The Italian Allegory Gone Awry in English Translation

If we consider that the very basic element of a children’s story is its appeal to world literature, then a text like Pinocchio exists for and in translation. However, how the extra linguistic material functions and how it is dealt with in translation is the concern of this paper. Because Pinocchio has become an item of world literature by way of its translations, the allegory created by Carlo Collodi about the reality of the Italian situation post-Unification has been lost in English translation and replaced in the target culture by a pedagogical set of moral codes in order to replenish the story’s meaning. Consequently, the value of reading texts comparatively manifests in reconciling what is lost with what is gained. Reading the English translations in light of the original Italian story reveals respective intricacies of both cultures and validates the process of translation as a privileged mediator

An Inverse Dynamics Approach to Control Lyapunov Functions

With the goal of moving towards implementation of increasingly dynamic behaviors on underactuated systems, this paper presents an optimization-based approach for solving full-body dynamics based controllers on underactuated bipedal robots. The primary focus of this paper is on the development of an alternative approach to the implementation of controllers utilizing control Lyapunov function based quadratic programs. This approach utilizes many of the desirable aspects from successful inverse dynamics based controllers in the literature, while also incorporating a variant of control Lyapunov functions that renders better convergence in the context of tracking outputs. The principal benefits of this formulation include a greater ability to add costs which regulate the resulting behavior of the robot. In addition, the model error-prone inertia matrix is used only once, in a non-inverted form. The result is a successful demonstration of the controller for walking in simulation, and applied on hardware in real-time for dynamic crouching

Perspektiven zur Kombination von automatischem Animationsdesign und planbasierter Hilfe

Aktuelle Themen auf dem Gebiet der intelligenten Benutzerschnittstellen behandeln derzeit die automatische Planung multimodaler Präsentationen. Hierbei stand bisher im wesentlichen die koordinierte Generierung von Text und Graphik im Vordergrund. In Zukunft wird hier aufgrund der Komplexität der zu präsentierenden Information zunehmend auch die Einbeziehung realistischer animierter 3D-Graphiken gefordert sein. Einen anderen wichtigen Forschungsschwerpunkt bildet der Einsatz graphischer Ausgabekomponenten für planbasierte Hilfesysteme. Die vorliegende Arbeit hat zum Ziel zunächst einen Überblick über den derzeitigen Stand der Forschung in diesen beiden Bereichen zu geben, als auch neue Anforderungen an die automatische Animationsgenerierung und an Systeme zur planbasierten graphischen Hilfe zu formulieren. Anschließend wollen wir, basierend auf Ergebnissen und Erfahrungen aus WIP und PLUS, Perspektiven für eine mögliche Weiterentwicklung und Integration von Techniken der Animationsplanung und graphischen Hilfe präsentieren

Stable Constrained Dynamics

International audienceWe present a unification of the two main approaches to simulate deformable solids, namely elasticity and constraints. Elasticity accurately handles soft to moderately stiff objects, but becomes numerically hard as stiffness increases. Constraints efficiently handle high stiffness, but when integrated in time they can suffer from instabilities in the nullspace directions, generating spurious transverse vibrations when pulling hard on thin inextensible objects or articulated rigid bodies. We show that geometric stiffness, the tensor encoding the change of force directions (as opposed to intensities) in response to a change of positions, is the missing piece between the two approaches. This previously neglected stiffness term is easy to implement and dramatically improves the stability of inextensible objects and articulated chains, without adding artificial bending forces. This allows time step increases up to several orders of magnitude using standard linear solvers

Master stability functions reveal diffusion-driven pattern formation in networks

We study diffusion-driven pattern-formation in networks of networks, a class of multilayer systems, where different layers have the same topology, but different internal dynamics. Agents are assumed to disperse within a layer by undergoing random walks, while they can be created or destroyed by reactions between or within a layer. We show that the stability of homogeneous steady states can be analyzed with a master stability function approach that reveals a deep analogy between pattern formation in networks and pattern formation in continuous space.For illustration we consider a generalized model of ecological meta-foodwebs. This fairly complex model describes the dispersal of many different species across a region consisting of a network of individual habitats while subject to realistic, nonlinear predator-prey interactions. In this example the method reveals the intricate dependence of the dynamics on the spatial structure. The ability of the proposed approach to deal with this fairly complex system highlights it as a promising tool for ecology and other applications.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. E (2018

CHAPTER 3 - MUSEOLOGY AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN THE XXI CENTURY

 Since the late 60’s, many authors have worked to bring clarifications on the concepts of development applied to the museological field. Until the 90’s, professionals related to the new museology school of thought and MINOM’s philosophy virtually monopolized the efforts to conceptualize and explain community development. With the opening in the field to development issues, today it is possible to find references to community development theory and practice in other publications besides those originating from authors associated to the new museology. The same way as it happens with the broader field of development, it is not easy to define community development, once a number of variables come to shape ideas that only take concrete form in practice. That is to say, development is a truly ideological concept, being intimately related to the aspirations of each particular community. In this way, in order to understand the meaning of community development within the discourse of museology, one must take into account the assessment of theoretical variables (categorized here as key concepts, approaches and principles) under specific contexts and demands (described as development objectives). Before proceeding with their analysis, it seems necessary to present some connotations that accompany to the term “development”, not only within the museological field, but the field of development as a whole