The Eagle and the Serpent on the Screen, the State as Spectacle in Mexican Cinema

Recent studies of the history of Mexican cinema continue to speak of the complex relations between the state and the film industry, and the most frequently analyzed aspects tend to be the same: the reach and forms of censorship, as well as the financial dependence on the state. To broaden this perspective, I propose a classification of cinematic discourses that represent the relations between film characters and state powers. I discuss four basic modes of representation that, determined by historical and economic circumstances, reflect and mediate the attitudes and dispositions of viewers toward the political regime. For each mode, I discuss a sequence in a paradigmatic film, analyzing visual and ideological aspects in relation to the political moment at the time of the film\u27s release. Finally, I argue that, despite the resurgence of the Mexican cinema and a more critical tone in its approach to state institutions, fictional films still rest on indirect and allegorical representations of recent events. This is due to the uncertainty of the prolonged and still-incomplete transition to institutional democracy in Mexico

Film Adaption and Transnational Cultures or Production: The Case of Guillermo Arriaga

The circulation of Latin American cinema in a transnational context has widened the options that actors and directors from the region have regarding their involvement in the different aspects of film production. In order to analyze Guillermo Arriaga’s transnational career as a writer of novels and screenplays I contrast his work with that of other writers and filmmakers who have participated in both the cinematic and literary fields. The fact that Arriaga has crossed the lines between writing, adapting, and directing his own works in Spanish and English leads me to review the current relations of film and literature in general. Finally, by comparing Arriaga’s novels and films, I propose that the contemporary practice of film adaptation contributes to the “flexibilization” in the roles writers, actors, and directors play in filmmaking and in the circulation of cultural capital between film and literature in the current media markets

Journal Staff

An area of Artificial Intelligence, used for instance in optimization, is evolutionary algorithms. By using mechanisms similar to those that cause evolution, evolutionary algorithms can improve e.g. problem solving algorithms by artificial evolution.The purpose of this study was to show that it’s possible to simulate evolution by modelling it as an evolutionary algorithm. This was achieved by simulating the evolution of silverfish’ genes in two environments with the only difference of the presence of a threat. The results were considered to be successful as the majorityof the genes which were presumed to be important for survival changed in such away. The results could be repeated between simulations indicating that random change of the genes and deterministic factors in the environment shaped the genes of the silverfish and that after simulation the silverfish were optimally fit for the environment.Ett område inom Artificiell Intelligens som bl a används för optimering är evolutionära algoritmer. Genom att använda mekanismer liknande de som orsakar evolution så kan t ex algoritmer förbättras genom artificiell evolution. Syftet med den här studien var att visa att det är möjligt att simulera evolutionen genom att modellera den som en evolutionär algoritm. Detta gjordes genom att simulera evolutionen av silverfiskars gener i två miljöer vars enda skillnad var en förekomst av ett hot. Resultaten ansågs vara lyckade då merparten av de gener som förmodades vara viktiga för överlevnad förändrades på ett sådant sätt. Resultaten kunde upprepas mellan simuleringar vilket indikerar att genom stokastisk förändring av gener och deterministiska faktorer i miljön så optimerades silverfiskarnas gener för att göra det möjligt att överleva i respektive miljö

Oral History and Performance as Research (PAR): “Undocumented” Narratives Documenting Lived Experience

The following article contends with what began as a Master’s Thesis project and performance that used an experimental and bi-methodological approach of “critical oral history performance” and “performance as research” in order to produce and analyze the oral histories of two Latina women who migrated via México during pregnancy as “undocumented” subjects. This method was then again used for another oral history performance project that centered on the narrative of an undocumented queer (lesbian) woman from Guatemala. Here, however, I explicate, in-depth, the experience of performing oral history work, focusing on my initial performance in 2011. By taking the time to explain the “why” of this work in its methodological and ethical force, I gesture towards the methodological possibility of oral history performance through performance art

Curvature estimates for spacelike hypersurfaces in de Sitter space

Local estimates of the maximal curvatures of admissible spacelike hypersurfaces in de Sitter space for k-symmetric curvature functions are obtained. They depend on interior and boundary data. The curvature function is also assumed to depend on the tilt/slope of the hypersurface and an additional growth condition holds

When Should Sales Managers Get Involved in Their Salesteams\u27 Transactions

The existing literature on sales teams explores various aspects of team members and their effects on sales performance. The literature on sales management has described how managers can promote better results from salespeople. The question at the intersection of these two streams of literature – if managers should be part of sales teams -- has not been addressed and is what we explore. Using data from a Fortune 1,000 firm that operates automotive service stores across the US we test these effects. The data presents a natural experiment as sales teams with different compositions are assigned randomly to the customers. We identify different configurations where either the team is comprised only of salespeople or managers and salespeople. Based on insights from game theory and agency theory, given there are more opportunities to free-ride in salespeople-only teams, more shirking is expected in these teams, yielding less effort by all team members, an outcome that would, in turn, result in lower sales. Our results show that the presence of managers would reduce the shirking and increase sales

Weyl Estimates for spacelike hypersurfaces in de Sitter space

We study the isometric spacelike embedding problem in scaled de Sitter space, and obtain Weyl-type estimates and the corresponding closedness in the space of embeddings

Weyl Estimates for spacelike hypersurfaces in de Sitter space

We study the isometric spacelike embedding problem in scaled de Sitter space, and obtain Weyl-type estimates and the corresponding closedness in the space of embeddings