10,456 research outputs found

    We, the City

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    Given their unchecked neoliberal restructuring, Berlin and Istanbul have been exposed to various forms of political polarisation and social injustice over the last decade. As a result, the struggle for affordable housing, access to public space, fair working conditions, ecological justice and the right to different ways of life has intensified. Various forms of resistance "from below" have challenged the relationship between local governments and social movements, questioning where and how the city's political problems arise. In a mixture of dialogues, essays and critical reflections, this book explores the ways in which residents of Berlin and Istanbul experience, express and resist the physical, political and normative reorganisation of their cities. It poses the question: Who is the We in We, the City

    A Critical Review Of Post-Secondary Education Writing During A 21st Century Education Revolution

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    Educational materials are effective instruments which provide information and report new discoveries uncovered by researchers in specific areas of academia. Higher education, like other education institutions, rely on instructional materials to inform its practice of educating adult learners. In post-secondary education, developmental English programs are tasked with meeting the needs of dynamic populations, thus there is a continuous need for research in this area to support its changing landscape. However, the majority of scholarly thought in this area centers on K-12 reading and writing. This paucity presents a phenomenon to the post-secondary community. This research study uses a qualitative content analysis to examine peer-reviewed journals from 2003-2017, developmental online websites, and a government issued document directed toward reforming post-secondary developmental education programs. These highly relevant sources aid educators in discovering informational support to apply best practices for student success. Developmental education serves the purpose of addressing literacy gaps for students transitioning to college-level work. The findings here illuminate the dearth of material offered to developmental educators. This study suggests the field of literacy research is fragmented and highlights an apparent blind spot in scholarly literature with regard to English writing instruction. This poses a quandary for post-secondary literacy researchers in the 21st century and establishes the necessity for the literacy research community to commit future scholarship toward equipping college educators teaching writing instruction to underprepared adult learners

    Differences in well-being:the biological and environmental causes, related phenotypes, and real-time assessment

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    Well-being is a complex, and multifaceted construct that includes feeling good and functioning well. There is a growing global recognition of well-being as an important research topic and public policy goal. Well-being is related to less behavioral and emotional problems, and is associated with many positive aspects of daily life, including longevity, higher educational achievement, happier marriage, and more productivity at work. People differ in their levels of well-being, i.e., some people are in general happier or more satisfied with their lives than others. These individual differences in well-being can arise from many different factors, including biological (genetic) influences and environmental influences. To enhance the development of future mental health prevention and intervention strategies to increase well-being, more knowledge about these determinants and factors underlying well-being is needed. In this dissertation, I aimed to increase the understanding of the etiology in a series of studies using different methods, including systematic reviews, meta-analyses, twin designs, and molecular genetic designs. In part I, we brought together all published studies on the neural and physiological factors underlying well-being. This overview allowed us to critically investigate the claims made about the biology involved in well-being. The number of studies on the neural and physiological factors underlying well-being is increasing and the results point towards potential correlates of well-being. However, samples are often still small, and studies focus mostly on a single biomarker. Therefore, more well-powered, data-driven, and integrative studies across biological categories are needed to better understand the neural and physiological pathways that play a role in well-being. In part II, we investigated the overlap between well-being and a range of other phenotypes to learn more about the etiology of well-being. We report a large overlap with phenotypes including optimism, resilience, and depressive symptoms. Furthermore, when removing the genetic overlap between well-being and depressive symptoms, we showed that well-being has unique genetic associations with a range of phenotypes, independently from depressive symptoms. These results can be helpful in designing more effective interventions to increase well-being, taking into account the overlap and possible causality with other phenotypes. In part III, we used the extreme environmental change during the COVID-19 pandemic to investigate individual differences in the effects of such environmental changes on well-being. On average, we found a negative effect of the pandemic on different aspects of well-being, especially further into the pandemic. Whereas most previous studies only looked at this average negative effect of the pandemic on well-being, we focused on the individual differences as well. We reported large individual differences in the effects of the pandemic on well-being in both chapters. This indicates that one-size-fits-all preventions or interventions to maintain or increase well-being during the pandemic or lockdowns will not be successful for the whole population. Further research is needed for the identification of protective factors and resilience mechanisms to prevent further inequality during extreme environmental situations. In part IV, we looked at the real-time assessment of well-being, investigating the feasibility and results of previous studies. The real-time assessment of well-being, related variables, and the environment can lead to new insights about well-being, i.e., results that we cannot capture with traditional survey research. The real-time assessment of well-being is therefore a promising area for future research to unravel the dynamic nature of well-being fluctuations and the interaction with the environment in daily life. Integrating all results in this dissertation confirmed that well-being is a complex human trait that is influenced by many interrelated and interacting factors. Future directions to understand individual differences in well-being will be a data-driven approach to investigate the complex interplay of neural, physiological, genetic, and environmental factors in well-being

    Complicated objects: artifacts from the Yuanming Yuan in Victorian Britain

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    The 1860 spoliation of the Summer Palace at the close of the Second Opium War by British and French troops was a watershed event within the development of Britain as an imperialist nation, which guaranteed a market for opium produced in its colony India and demonstrated the power of its armed forces. The distribution of the spoils to officers and diplomatic corps by campaign leaders in Beijing was also a sign of the British Army’s rising power as an instrument of the imperialist state. These conditions would suggest that objects looted from the site would be integrated into an imperialist aesthetic that reflected and promoted the material benefits of military engagement overseas and foregrounded the circumstances of their removal to Britain for campaign members and the British public. This study mines sources dating to the two decades following the war – including British newspapers, auction house records, exhibition catalogs and works of art – to test this hypothesis. Findings show that initial movements of looted objects through the military and diplomatic corps did reinforce notions of imperialist power by enabling campaign members to profit from the spoliation through sales of looted objects and trophy displays. However, material from the Summer Palace arrived at a moment when British manufacturers and cultural leaders were engaged in a national effort to improve the quality of British goods to compete in the international marketplace and looted art was quickly interpolated in this national conversation. Ironically, the same “free trade” imperatives that motivated the invasion energized a new design movement that embraced Chinese ornament. As a consequence, political interpretations of the material outside of military collections were quickly joined by a strong response to Chinese ornament from cultural institutions and design leaders. Art from the Summer Palace held a prominent place at industrial art exhibitions of the postwar period and inspired new designs in a number of mediums. While the availability of Chinese imperial art was the consequence of a military invasion and therefore a product of imperialist expansion, evidence presented here shows that the design response to looted objects was not circumscribed by this political reality. Chinese ornament on imperial wares was ultimately celebrated for its formal qualities and acknowledged links to the Summer Palace were an indicator of good design, not a celebration of victory over a failed Chinese state. Therefore, the looting of the Summer Palace was ultimately an essential factor in the development of modern design, the essence of which is a break with Classical ornament

    „Wild Democracy” – The figurative conceptualization of the Parliament in Hungarian editorial cartoons (1989 – 2019) [vĂ©dĂ©s elƑtt]

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    The expression of the Parliament is often associated with abstract concepts such as politics, democracy, or nationhood (KapitĂĄny & KapitĂĄny, 2002; SzabĂł & Oross, 2018) when instead of the literal meaning of the ‘building’, we refer to its figurative meanings. It has already been confirmed that political cartoons are rich in figurative devices (e.g., conceptual metaphor) (i.a. El Refaie, 2009) and they serve as a suitable corpus for the investigation of the figurative meaning of the Parliament. In the case of a conceptual metaphor, for instance, the Parliament (considered as a target domain) is understood via the source domain conceptually different from the target (e.g., COLOSSEUM). In that way, certain characteristic features of the source domain are mapped onto the target domain, and we are able to interpret politics, specifically the Parliament itself as the site of real, dangerous, life-or-death physical battles. All these figurative meanings can influence how we think about politics, its processes, and actors, how we argue in the case of a political problem and how we would try to solve it. The current research aims to examine how the Hungarian Parliament is visually represented in editorial cartoons and how these visual representations – through figurative conceptual devices such as conceptual metaphors and conceptual metonymies – construct the concept of the parliament. Furthermore, the thesis discusses how these cognitive devices cooperate with ironies and cultural references (such as idioms, allusions, and national symbols) which are determinant in evaluation procedures and the creation of emotional bonds between the viewer and the cartoon. In doing so, the dissertation studies the caricaturistic representations of the Parliament in three various periods (KörösĂ©nyi, 2015); thus, the investigation is longitudinal (describing thirty years since 1989) and comparative. What are the novelties of the research? First, it examines Hungarian editorial cartoons in a cognitive linguistic framework, unlike this, so far Hungarian political cartoons have been discussed by historians (e.g., TamĂĄs, 2014). Second, although the Parliament is an important concept (KapitĂĄny & KapitĂĄny, 2002), its figurative meaning has not been studied so widely yet. Third, it is a multimodal investigation of conceptual processes that fits into the trend of cognitive linguistic research that focuses on the cooperation of different processes. Fourth, this research examines a large data set in context where the contextual factors are limited to three types, namely idioms, allusions, and national symbols (context types are usually not defined in such concrete ways, e.g., Charteris-Black, 2011). Fifth, the dissertation applies Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory (ECMT) (Kövecses, 2020) in practice in a larger corpus. Sixth, it is a diachronic investigation which is rare in the field of cartoon research (e.g., Frantzich, 2013) also in cognitive research, especially in multimodal research. The main results show that 1) the representation of the Parliament is strongly linked to such conceptual procedures as conceptual metonymy and conceptual metaphor. These cognitive devices are likely to cooperate with ironies and cultural references. 2) a limited number of cognitive devices (e.g., the conceptual metonymy THE PARLIAMENT STANDS FOR THE GOVERNMENT, or the conceptual metaphor THE PARLIAMENT IS A PLACE FOR PHYSICAL CONFLICT) are recurring in the corpus during the period between 1989 and 2019. However, regarding the perspectivization, content and function of these cognitive devices, it is said that the compared periods of democracy (KörösĂ©nyi, 2015) show significant differences based on the diverse preferences and distribution of the cognitive devices with specific cultural references in each era. 3) the increase of more aggressive scenes emerges from the metaphoric domain of PHYSICAL CONFLICT, which goes hand in hand with a change in the use of national symbols referring to the perceived extreme nationalist content, and political slogans which are dominated by the direct elements (literal citations, showing violence overtly). An unexpected result is the detection of a shift in communication acting in the opposite direction, according to which in linguistic changes indirect processes took place (e.g., increasing use of causal type ironies), in visual processes direct changes became predominant, so for instance, violence appeared literally. In sum, the Parliament seems a permanent phenomenon throughout the years, however, this research points to its different meanings and nuances of meaning variants. So even the stability of the meaning of such a strong national symbol can be questioned

    Alignment of magnetic sensing and clinical magnetomyography

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    Neuromuscular diseases are a prevalent cause of prolonged and severe suffering for patients, and with the global population aging, it is increasingly becoming a pressing concern. To assess muscle activity in NMDs, clinicians and researchers typically use electromyography (EMG), which can be either non-invasive using surface EMG, or invasive through needle EMG. Surface EMG signals have a low spatial resolution, and while the needle EMG provides a higher resolution, it can be painful for the patients, with an additional risk of infection. The pain associated with the needle EMG can pose a risk for certain patient groups, such as children. For example, children with spinal muscular atrophy (type of NMD) require regular monitoring of treatment efficacy through needle EMG; however, due to the pain caused by the procedure, clinicians often rely on a clinical assessment rather than needle EMG. Magnetomyography (MMG), the magnetic counterpart of the EMG, measures muscle activity non-invasively using magnetic signals. With super-resolution capabilities, MMG has the potential to improve spatial resolution and, in the meantime, address the limitations of EMG. This article discusses the challenges in developing magnetic sensors for MMG, including sensor design and technology advancements that allow for more specific recordings, targeting of individual motor units, and reduction of magnetic noise. In addition, we cover the motor unit behavior and activation pattern, an overview of magnetic sensing technologies, and evaluations of wearable, non-invasive magnetic sensors for MMG

    Learn, Teach, Heal: Articulations of Indigeneity and Spirituality in Indigenous Tourism in British Columbia, Canada

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    ‘Learn, Teach, Heal’ encapsulates what seems to be occurring in Indigenous Tourism on Vancouver Island and the Haida Gwaii in British Columbia, Canada. Operating as a ‘Tourist-researcher’ in 2017 and 2018, I was there at a time when Indigenous Tourism was booming, partly facilitated by the political movement of Truth & Reconciliation. Tourism is often seen as a shallow, commercial and artificial activity, yet such a view risks speaking over the various reasons why hosts choose to engage in the industry. This dissertation offers a case study based on tours, performances and interviews with six people. The research foregrounds the voices and experiences of: Andy Everson, Tana Thomas, Roy Henry Vickers, Tsimka Martin, K’odi Nelson and Alix Goetzinger. In listening to how they present their work, I study how indigeneity and spirituality were being articulated in ways that relate to processes of decolonisation. Whilst they were all engaged in tourism for their own different reasons, a common theme that emerged was the goal to use tourism to learn, teach and heal, both for themselves and for their guests. Learning how to be guides and performers, their languages, traditional practices, histories and politics, they were able to explore with tourists aspects of their indigeneity and spirituality, illustrate diversity of peoples and practices, and teach about their values and hopes for the future. Healing is gained through having a space to learn and to teach, and to restore pride to the communities by taking control of the narratives. It is my contention that Indigenous Tourism is offering these six people sites of ‘becoming’ and ‘reclaiming’ in a way that puts decolonisation into practice

    New Building Blocks for Cancer Phototherapeutics: 5d Metallocorroles

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    Corroles are ring-contracted, triprotic analogues of porphyrins. This PhD study expands earlier knowledge in particular on ReO corroles. Early on, it became apparent that ReO corroles exhibit the highest phosphorescence quantum yields among all metallocorroles. They also sensitize singlet oxygen formation and serve as oxygen sensors and as triplet-triplet annihilation upconverters. I accordingly wanted to synthesize new classes of functionalized 5d corroles as well as to examine ReO corroles as photosensitizers in in vitro photodynamic therapy experiments. I found that amphiphilic meta/para-carboxyl-appended ReO triphenylcorroles exhibit high photocytotoxicity against multiple cancer cell lines. In the synthetic realm, one study examined electrophilic chlorination and bromination of ReO corroles. X-ray structures of ReO octachloro- and octabromocorroles yielded a host of insights into the conformational preferences of sterically hindered corrole derivatives. Another synthetic study afforded an innovative approach to water-soluble iridium corroles, involving the use of water-soluble axial ligands. I also undertook extensive studies of formylation of ReO and Au triarylcorroles, arriving at the rather elegant conclusion that whereas the former largely afford 3-monoformyl products, the latter preferentially yield 3,17-diformylproducts, presumably reflecting the higher nucleophilicity of the Au complexes. The formylcorrole products could be readily postfunctionalized, such as via the Knoevenagel reaction. The 5d formylcorroles should serve as valuable starting materials for bio- and nanoconjugated 5d metallocorroles for advanced, targeted cancer therapies. I feel privileged to have developed a new class of triplet photosensitizers – the ReO corroles – that to this day remain unique to our Tromsþ laboratory. I am confident, however, that we shall soon see exciting applications of these compounds as advanced photodynamic, photothermal and multimodal cancer therapeutics

    Journal of the Institute of Latvian History

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    Atbalsts LU Latvijas vēstures institĆ«ta LU ilgtermiƆa saistÄ«bu izpildei 2020.-2023. gadā ("Latvijas Vēstures InstitĆ«ta Ćœurnāls"

    Information limits of imaging through highly diffusive materials using spatiotemporal measurements of diffuse photons

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    Conventional medical imaging instruments are bulky, expensive, and use harmful ionising radiation. Combining ultrafast single-photon detectors and pulsed laser sources at optical wavelengths has the potential to offer inexpensive, safe, and potentially wearable alternatives. However, photons at optical wavelengths are strongly scattered by biological tissue, which corrupts direct imaging information about regions of absorbing interactions below the tissue surface. The work in this thesis studies the potential of measuring indirect imaging information by resolving diffuse photon measurements in space and time. The practical limits of imaging through highly diffusive material, e.g., biological tissue, is explored and validated with experimental measurements. The ill-posed problem of using the information in diffuse photon measurements to reconstruct images at the limits of the highly diffusive regime is tackled using probabilistic machine learning, demonstrating the potential of migrating diffuse optical imaging techniques beyond the currently accepted limits and underlining the importance of uncertainty quantification in reconstructions. The thesis is concluded with a challenging biomedical optics experiment to transmit photons diametrically through an adult human head. This problem was tackled experimentally and numerically using an anatomically accurate Monte Carlo simulation which uncovered key practical considerations when detecting photons at the extreme limits of the highly diffusive regime. Although the experimental measurements were inconclusive, comparisons with the numerical results were promising. More in-depth numerical simulations indicated that light could be guided in regions of low scattering and absorption to reach deep areas inside the head, and photons can, in principle, be transmitted through the entire diameter of the head. The collective evidence presented in this thesis reveals the potential of diffuse optical imaging to extend beyond the currently accepted limits to non-invasively image deep regions of the human body and brain using optical wavelengths
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