The Clone as Gothic Trope in Contemporary Speculative Fiction

In February 1997, the concept of the clone, previously confined to the pages of fiction, became reality when Dolly the sheep was introduced to the world. The response to this was unprecedented, initiating a discourse on cloning that permeated a range of cultural forms, including literature, film and television. My thesis examines and evaluates this discourse through analysis of contemporary fiction, including Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go (2005), Stefan Brijs's The Angel Maker (2008), Duncan Jones's Moon (2009), and BBC America's current television series Orphan Black, which first aired in 2013. Such texts are placed in their cultural and historical setting, drawing comparisons between pre- and post-Dolly texts. The thesis traces the progression of the clone from an inhuman science fiction monster, to more of a tragic "human" creature. The clone has, however, retained its fictional portrayal as "other," be that double, copy or manufactured being, and the thesis argues that the clone is a Gothic trope for our times. The roots of the cloning discourse often lie in Gothic narratives, particularly Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), which is analysed as a canonical cloning text. Each chapter focuses on a source of fascination and fear within the cloning discourse: the influence of Gothic paternity on the figure of scientist; the notion of the clone as manufactured product, victim and monster; and the ethical and social implications of cloning. There is a dearth of critical analysis on the contemporary literary clone, with the most comprehensive study to date neither acknowledging the alignment of cloning and the Gothic nor demonstrating the impact of Dolly on fictional portrayals. My thesis addresses this, interweaving fiction, science and culture to present a monster which simultaneously embodies difference and sameness: a new monster for the twenty-first century

Multi modal multi-semantic image retrieval

PhDThe rapid growth in the volume of visual information, e.g. image, and video can overwhelm users’ ability to find and access the specific visual information of interest to them. In recent years, ontology knowledge-based (KB) image information retrieval techniques have been adopted into in order to attempt to extract knowledge from these images, enhancing the retrieval performance. A KB framework is presented to promote semi-automatic annotation and semantic image retrieval using multimodal cues (visual features and text captions). In addition, a hierarchical structure for the KB allows metadata to be shared that supports multi-semantics (polysemy) for concepts. The framework builds up an effective knowledge base pertaining to a domain specific image collection, e.g. sports, and is able to disambiguate and assign high level semantics to ‘unannotated’ images. Local feature analysis of visual content, namely using Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) descriptors, have been deployed in the ‘Bag of Visual Words’ model (BVW) as an effective method to represent visual content information and to enhance its classification and retrieval. Local features are more useful than global features, e.g. colour, shape or texture, as they are invariant to image scale, orientation and camera angle. An innovative approach is proposed for the representation, annotation and retrieval of visual content using a hybrid technique based upon the use of an unstructured visual word and upon a (structured) hierarchical ontology KB model. The structural model facilitates the disambiguation of unstructured visual words and a more effective classification of visual content, compared to a vector space model, through exploiting local conceptual structures and their relationships. The key contributions of this framework in using local features for image representation include: first, a method to generate visual words using the semantic local adaptive clustering (SLAC) algorithm which takes term weight and spatial locations of keypoints into account. Consequently, the semantic information is preserved. Second a technique is used to detect the domain specific ‘non-informative visual words’ which are ineffective at representing the content of visual data and degrade its categorisation ability. Third, a method to combine an ontology model with xi a visual word model to resolve synonym (visual heterogeneity) and polysemy problems, is proposed. The experimental results show that this approach can discover semantically meaningful visual content descriptions and recognise specific events, e.g., sports events, depicted in images efficiently. Since discovering the semantics of an image is an extremely challenging problem, one promising approach to enhance visual content interpretation is to use any associated textual information that accompanies an image, as a cue to predict the meaning of an image, by transforming this textual information into a structured annotation for an image e.g. using XML, RDF, OWL or MPEG-7. Although, text and image are distinct types of information representation and modality, there are some strong, invariant, implicit, connections between images and any accompanying text information. Semantic analysis of image captions can be used by image retrieval systems to retrieve selected images more precisely. To do this, a Natural Language Processing (NLP) is exploited firstly in order to extract concepts from image captions. Next, an ontology-based knowledge model is deployed in order to resolve natural language ambiguities. To deal with the accompanying text information, two methods to extract knowledge from textual information have been proposed. First, metadata can be extracted automatically from text captions and restructured with respect to a semantic model. Second, the use of LSI in relation to a domain-specific ontology-based knowledge model enables the combined framework to tolerate ambiguities and variations (incompleteness) of metadata. The use of the ontology-based knowledge model allows the system to find indirectly relevant concepts in image captions and thus leverage these to represent the semantics of images at a higher level. Experimental results show that the proposed framework significantly enhances image retrieval and leads to narrowing of the semantic gap between lower level machinederived and higher level human-understandable conceptualisation

No fotorealismo y minería de imágenes

Durante los últimos años, la proliferación de los medios digitales ha creado la necesidad del desarrollo de herramientas para la eficiente representación, acceso y recuperación de información visual. La minería de imágenes se ha convertido en una importante rama de investigación a causa del potencial que posee en descubrir patrones característicos a partir de un conjunto extenso de imágenes. El reconocimiento de patrones implica la identificación de relaciones invariantes en una colección de imágenes a modo de poder obtener información para una posterior clasificación. Por otro lado, cuando una persona observa imágenes surge una asociación natural como consecuencia de la información visual que estas brindan. El área de No fotorealismo estudia el desarrollo de técnicas y metodológicas que faciliten la transmisión de información mediante imágenes. Es de interés el estudio de las habilidades y posibles relaciones existentes entre estas dos áreas a modo de poder bosquejar técnicas o metodologías que permitan la colaboración entre ellas.Eje: OtrosRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

No fotorealismo y minería de imágenes

Durante los últimos años, la proliferación de los medios digitales ha creado la necesidad del desarrollo de herramientas para la eficiente representación, acceso y recuperación de información visual. La minería de imágenes se ha convertido en una importante rama de investigación a causa del potencial que posee en descubrir patrones característicos a partir de un conjunto extenso de imágenes. El reconocimiento de patrones implica la identificación de relaciones invariantes en una colección de imágenes a modo de poder obtener información para una posterior clasificación. Por otro lado, cuando una persona observa imágenes surge una asociación natural como consecuencia de la información visual que estas brindan. El área de No fotorealismo estudia el desarrollo de técnicas y metodológicas que faciliten la transmisión de información mediante imágenes. Es de interés el estudio de las habilidades y posibles relaciones existentes entre estas dos áreas a modo de poder bosquejar técnicas o metodologías que permitan la colaboración entre ellas.Eje: OtrosRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

A multi-dimensional framework of interactive value formation within complex, prolonged and technology-based self-services

Firms attempt to co-create superior perceived value and/or avoid value co-destruction. There is, however, no guarantee of success especially within the consumption of complex, prolonged and technology-based self-services. In such services, the process of value co-creation and co-destruction may operate simultaneously to generate a multitude of tensions in each direction. As such, a multitude of interacting factors maybe at play during this interactive value formation (IVF) process. Adopting a grounded theory approach and in-depth interviews of users of such services, the author investigates for the first time the IVF process during an indirect service interaction process and introduce the role of operant resources as mediators during the inter-play between value co-creation and co-destruction process, i.e. during the IVF process. This study’s findings also identify factors that reduce and increase IVF intensity (customers’ subjective perception of the extent of effort and time invested in the IVF process), suggesting strategies to mitigate IVF intensity. This is meaningful since high IVF intensity results in value co-destruction and low level of loyalty while low IVF intensity might bring about value co-creation and high level of loyalty. Therefore, managers who offer complex, prolonged and TBSSs, especially wellness apps should, for instance, not only position services with low IVF intensity which can generate self-efficacy, but also encourage users to involve in more resource integration activities to achieve medium/high level of resource integration, hence higher value co-created and consequently increasing level of loyalty. This study represents an initial foray into the complexity between co-creation and co-destructive factors during prolonged and complex services

Psychosocial discourse and the "new" reproductive technologies : a critical analysis

Bibliography: leaves 47-53.The "new" reproductive technologies (NRTs) have gathered substantial momentum in recent years. 'Psychological' discourse on these techniques has tended towards uncritical preoccupation with intra-individual, constitutional factors, and has ignored the sociocultural, political and economic contexts of these practices. Within an inter-disciplinary, social-constructionist framework, this study presents a feminist critique of the NRTs in which they are argued to be biopsychosocially noxious to women. Modern biomedicine's appropriation and ownership of infertility as "disease" is argued to be consistent with the agendas of capitalism and patriarchy. Results of fieldwork within a particular medical setting are presented to develop a hermeneutic of the discursive interface between medical gatekeepers and the applicant 'patients' with whom they negotiate treatment. In a concluding section a dominant theme in gatekeepers' talk, "the well-being of the child", is ideologically analyzed; women-centered strategies are briefly discussed; and implications for the interface between psychology and reproductive technology are drawn

Science, Public Bioethics, and the Problem of Integration

Public bioethics — the governance of science, medicine, and biotechnology in the name of ethical goods — is an emerging area of American law. The field uniquely combines scientific knowledge, moral reasoning, and prudential judgments about democratic decision making. It has captured the attention of officials in every branch of government, as well as the American public itself. Public questions (such as those relating to the law of abortion, the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, and the regulation of end-of-life decision making) continue to roil the public square. This Article examines the question of how scientific methods and principles can and should be integrated into the making and enforcement of laws in this domain without compromising the integrity of science, the democratic legitimacy of government, or both. It identifies, analyzes and critiques one prominent model of integration, namely, the proposal to delegate virtually all public bioethical questions to scientific experts for resolution solely using the tools of their respective disciplines. The Article argues that this model of integration raises serious prudential concerns relating to democratic accountability (and thus legitimacy). More deeply, it argues that the proposal is unsustainable in principle because of the fundamental conceptual incompatibility between the premises and methods of modern science and the ethical principles that comprise the currency of public bioethical deliberation. It concludes by offering a provisional way forward, arguing that integration should be a function of defining and policing the boundaries of scientific methods and ethical reasoning, according to their respective competencies for the particular public bioethical question at issue. The Article provides an analytic tool to facilitate this line drawing, and illustrates its application with reference to several contemporary debates within public bioethics (i.e., the recent FDA approval of Plan B emergency contraception, the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, and the impact of cognitive neuroscience on theories of criminal punishment)

Science, Public Bioethics, and the Problem of Integration

Public bioethics — the governance of science, medicine, and biotechnology in the name of ethical goods — is an emerging area of American law. The field uniquely combines scientific knowledge, moral reasoning, and prudential judgments about democratic decision making. It has captured the attention of officials in every branch of government, as well as the American public itself. Public questions (such as those relating to the law of abortion, the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, and the regulation of end-of-life decision making) continue to roil the public square. This Article examines the question of how scientific methods and principles can and should be integrated into the making and enforcement of laws in this domain without compromising the integrity of science, the democratic legitimacy of government, or both. It identifies, analyzes and critiques one prominent model of integration, namely, the proposal to delegate virtually all public bioethical questions to scientific experts for resolution solely using the tools of their respective disciplines. The Article argues that this model of integration raises serious prudential concerns relating to democratic accountability (and thus legitimacy). More deeply, it argues that the proposal is unsustainable in principle because of the fundamental conceptual incompatibility between the premises and methods of modern science and the ethical principles that comprise the currency of public bioethical deliberation. It concludes by offering a provisional way forward, arguing that integration should be a function of defining and policing the boundaries of scientific methods and ethical reasoning, according to their respective competencies for the particular public bioethical question at issue. The Article provides an analytic tool to facilitate this line drawing, and illustrates its application with reference to several contemporary debates within public bioethics (i.e., the recent FDA approval of Plan B emergency contraception, the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, and the impact of cognitive neuroscience on theories of criminal punishment)