Humanoid Robots

For many years, the human being has been trying, in all ways, to recreate the complex mechanisms that form the human body. Such task is extremely complicated and the results are not totally satisfactory. However, with increasing technological advances based on theoretical and experimental researches, man gets, in a way, to copy or to imitate some systems of the human body. These researches not only intended to create humanoid robots, great part of them constituting autonomous systems, but also, in some way, to offer a higher knowledge of the systems that form the human body, objectifying possible applications in the technology of rehabilitation of human beings, gathering in a whole studies related not only to Robotics, but also to Biomechanics, Biomimmetics, Cybernetics, among other areas. This book presents a series of researches inspired by this ideal, carried through by various researchers worldwide, looking for to analyze and to discuss diverse subjects related to humanoid robots. The presented contributions explore aspects about robotic hands, learning, language, vision and locomotion

Intersections of sexuality and Greek national belonging: A conversation analytic approach.

PhD Theses.Normative ideas about gender and sexuality are central to Modern Greek national narratives, which place special importance on family and Orthodox Christian morality. Taking a perceived normative incompatibility between non-heterosexuality and Greek national belonging as my starting point, I explore the ways in which normativity is reproduced, negotiated and/or resisted in focus groups with Greek LGB people. Data are drawn from eight recorded focus groups and are complemented by ethnographic knowledge obtained from fieldwork I conducted in Athens. Adopting intersectionality theory as a broad framework for theorising identity, I use Conversation Analysis and Membership Categorisation Analysis to investigate identity constructions in talk-in-interaction. In particular, I propose an interactional approach to intersectional belonging, which has been elsewhere theorised as a cluster of social locations, identifications and moral/political values (Yuval-Davis, 2011). I do so by looking at three discursive practices through which Greek LGB individuals communicate (and make sense of) their intersectional lived experience. First, I investigate social locations that are relevant to them by looking at category accounts, i.e., actions that mobilise gender/sexual/national membership categories to provide an explanation/justification. Second, I address identifications by analysing instances of individual, collective, or generic self-reference through which individuals establish boundaries between the self and the Other(s), locally claiming or resisting categorical membership. Finally, I explore interlocutors’ orientation to moral and political values by looking at assessment sequences in which they take evaluative stances vis-a-vis locally emergent gender/sexual/national categories as well as their own categorical membership(s). Overall, analysis shows that Greek LGB individuals manage a perceived normative conflict by locally blocking or negotiating the nature of the intersection between gender/sexuality and Greek national belonging. Moreover, findings reveal the role of the interactional context in discursive constructions of intersectional belonging, thus complementing interdisciplinary work on intersectionality from a conversation analytic perspective

Health Sciences undergraduate handbook

2003 undergraduate handbook for the faculty of Health Science

Health Sciences handbook

2004 handbook for the faculty of Health Science

Adam und Eva in der byzantinischen und abendländischen Kunst des Mittelalters

The pictorial art of the Church, as a spiritual product of the Christian civilisation, has continually received great influences from its ecclesiastical tradition and it was defined by its formal aesthetical standards and its iconographic preferences. A more nuanced reading of the parallels can be attained by placing the images in their visual context, which would allow a better appreciation of the meanings within. The biblical story of Adam and Eve, which is the theme of the following thesis, reflects the differentiation between the Eastern and the Western understanding of the events of the history of the holy Oikonomia, a point, which is the major ground for the development of the relative pictorial motifs. The protoplasts are the protagonists from their creation and life in paradise, the fall and expulsion until their resurrection through Christ. Their story is visualised in a number of scenes and episodes, having thus their original sin and resurrection for specific reasons centralised. This doctoral thesis attempts to collect as many parallels of the scenes is possible, trying to collate the Eastern with the Western visual approach in a deductive way, in order to reach our constructive conclusions and make available the combination of the art, theology and liturgy in the scenes of Adam and Eve in Genesis and in Resurrection (Anastasis). The reading we tried to perform was based upon the specific iconographical elements, which were worth to be commented. Our aim was to detect the direct bond between the production of art and the relevant patristic and apocryphal writings or even the theological theories, by quoting texts from the ecclesiastical literature, as well as the liturgical praxis.Die kirchliche Kunst hat als geistiges Produkt der christlichen Kultur stets unter dem Einfluss der kirchlichen Tradition gestanden und wurde durch ihre formalen ästhetischen Standards und ihre ikonographische Auswahl bestimmt. Eine genauere Bestimmung der Parallelen kann erreicht werden, indem man die Bilder in ihren visuellen Kontext stellt, was zu einem besserem Verständnis ihrer Inhalte führt. Die biblische Geschichte von Adam und Eva, welche das Thema unserer Arbeit ist, reflektiert das differenzierte Verständnis der Heilsgeschichte (Oikonomia) in Ost und West, welche die Hauptursache für die Entwicklung der entsprechenden Bildmotive ist. Die Stammeltern sind die Protagonisten dieser Geschichte seit der Schöpfung und dem Leben im Paradies, sowie Sündenfall und Vertreibung, bis zu ihrer Auferweckung durch Christus. Ihre Geschichte wird in einer Reihe von Szenen und Episoden visualisiert, wobei die Ursünde und die Auferstehung aus besonderen Gründen im Mittelpunkt stehen. Diese Dissertation versucht, so viele wie mögliche Gemeinsamkeiten der Darstellung herauszuarbeiten, um so in deduktiver Weise den visuellen Zugang des Ostens und des Westens in Beziehung zu setzen, um zu konstruktiven Ergebnissen zu kommen und eine Verbindung von Kunst, Theologie und Liturgie in den Darstellungen von Adam und Eva in der Genesis und der Anastasis, am Anfang und am Ende also, herzustellen. Unsere Untersuchung basiert auf den spezifischen ikonographischen Elementen, die wir kommentieren. Unser Ziel war es, die unmittelbare Verbindung zwischen der künstlerischen Darstellung und den entsprechenden patristischen oder apokryphen Schriften oder sogar den theologischen Theorien zu ermitteln, indem wir Texte aus der kirchlichen Literatur, aber auch aus der liturgischen Praxis heranzogen. Wir versuchten die Beteiligung der Stammeltern Adam und Eva im Genesis-Zyklus und der Anastasis-Szene in Beziehung zu setzen, deren Darstellungsnormen zur Gänze auf der Heilsverheissung Gottes basieren. So besteht unsere Dissertation aus zwei Teilen: Genesis und Anastasis (Abstieg in den Hades), sowie einem Anhang, welcher die Überschrift „Die Bildsprache der Geschichte der Stammeltern“ trägt, der Bibliographie und einer Liste der verwendeten Abbildungen