Camera Creatures: Rhetorics of Light and Emerging Media

Camera Creatures addresses the new media landscape in which cameras, in most situations, outnumber pens. The dissertation argues that despite the accessibility and power of imagemaking devices, there persists in the humanities and social sciences a hesitation to engage the possibilities for composing with optical media. A number of factors contributing to this trend are addressed, including the preference for image analysis over imagemaking practices, persistent assumptions of the camera\u27s mechanical objectivity, and a tendency to teach visual invention as collage. As a counter-measure, a proposal is made for investment in the mediation of light, or \u27photonic rhetorics.\u27 To explore these effects in visual communication and the possibility of bringing them into practice, three emerging camera technologies are examined. The first, the photo app, focuses on the controversy surrounding embedded journalists who use social networks and the Hipstamatic camera phone application to relay stories of U.S. Marines deployed in Afghanistan. The chapter argues that the filters and shooting styles of these mobile apps encourage fluencies in the persuasive effects of light. The second camera technology, the video clip, addresses the long take as the predominant technique of everyday video-making. Film theory, video sharing trends, and circadian science contribute to a discussion of the rhythms of long-take shooting and its capability to expose both visual habits and the contingencies capable of disrupting them. The third site turns to video game \u27shooters\u27 and the virtual camera\u27s construction of \u27surrogate vision,\u27 which the author argues is a critical tool for understanding the future of mediated interactivity in both physical and digital landscapes. The dissertation concludes with a pedagogical section devoted to conscientious cheating. Alongside theories of deliberate practice, \u27cheating\u27 is repurposed for education, offering new ways of testing the \u27rules\u27 of optical composition while discovering opportunities to intervene in light\u27s constant mediation of perception

Effects of Aging on the Reproductive Success of Female Saltmarsh Sparrows (Ammospiza caudacutus) in Maine and New Hampshire

The saltmarsh sparrow (Ammospiza caudacutus) is a ground-nesting specialist in coastal salt marshes of the Northeast. Rising sea-levels increase the loss of offspring due to tidal flooding, reducing nest success and resulting in a sharp population decline. In other avian species, age has been shown to affect nest success through altering fertility, behavior, and the number of young produced, favoring older individuals. I investigated age effects on nest success of female saltmarsh sparrows using nest monitoring data collected at four sites of a long-term demographic monitoring project: Chapman\u27s Landing (Stratham, NH), Eldridge Marsh (Wells, ME), Popham Beach (Phippsburg, ME), and Maquoit Bay (Brunswick, ME). Reproductive success was measured categorically, based on whether a nest failed entirely or fledged at least one chick, and quantitatively, based on the number of chicks fledged per nest. The causes of failure (flooding or predation) were also observed. Female age was reconstructed using historical banding data. I predicted that older females will have greater quantitative and qualitative reproductive success than younger individuals due to their higher experience level. Similarly, I predict that younger females will be more prone to flooding due to their inexperience. Findings showed a correlation between the age and reproductive success of female saltmarsh sparrows with older females losing a higher proportion of nests to flooding while in the egg stage but fledging a higher proportion of nestlings than younger females. With increased understanding of the effects of aging, demographic surveys could better estimate fecundity and prioritize conserving populations with the greatest growth potential

La ragione dialettica come esperienza critica : praxis, storia ed etica nella filosofia di Jean-Paul Sartre

The aim of this research is to delineate, within the Sartrian thought of the Sixties, the mobile perimeter inside which to define ethics as the overcoming possibility for a critical thought. In other words: as the subjective assumption of its political dimension. The shift of Sartre’s historical-political thought follows a development not yet studied enough by scholars. The manuscripts of the Sixties about dialectical ethics appear as the fundamental completion of the dialectical experience of the Critique de la Raison dialectique (1960). Sartre was not able to publish the second part of the book during his life: indeed, the blockage of that work is the result of the structural limit of every attempt to conceptualize historical experience. In the Critique, the possibility to make a single history intelligible depends on a refoundation of dialectics as research method for concrete historical reality. Starting by such refoundation, it becomes possible to define the epistemological basis of a historical structural anthropology, and the conditions for the insurgence of human collective action at the same time. In our interpretation, this approach is out of a future perfect’s logic that means out of the core of the modern sovereignty’s system. Once fixed those points, the research moves around two principal problematic axis. The first evaluates the methodological and epistemological accuracy of Sartre’s attempt to formulate a theory of knowledge for Marxism, considering this one as a theoretical-practical experiment yet to be done. At this point, Sartre’s regressive-progressive method is compared to Marx’s method of critique of political economy, evaluating affinity aspects and overcoming lines. Around the second axis, transverse to the first, the more properly historical-political plexus finds its profile: the dialectical comprehension of events connoting subjectively (that means politically) historical time’s flow isn’t detachable from questioning about the historicity of subjects involved in this flowing. For this reason, in the Sartrian thought of the Sixties the subjectivity’s status is analyzed questioning the normative disposition of social sphere: focusing on normativity allows to understand the mutual implication of subjectification and objectification, in addition to locating basis for a Marxist axiology. Moreover, this perspective allows to improve historical effectiveness of praxis’s ethical dimension. This one is the lens by which Sartre analyzes both Stalinism and colonial liberation struggles, but also the point of clarification of the torsion he imposes to the notion of longing. Materialistically, with the longing Sartre discovers the root of an ethics as the necessary step for every politics.Ce travail de recherche a pour but de circonscrire, dans la pensée sartrienne des années 1960, le périmètre au sein duquel l’éthique se constitue comme possibilité de la pensée critique, c’est-à-dire comme assomption subjective de la politicité de celle-ci. Notre lecture considère les manuscrits sartriens des années 1960 sur l’éthique dialectique comme un complément fondamental de l’expérience critique conduite dans la Critique de la Raison dialectique (avril 1960). Dans cet ouvrage majeur, Sartre lie la possibilité de rendre une histoire intelligible à une refondation de la dialectique en tant que méthode d’analyse du concret historique. A partir d’une telle refondation, il devient possible de déterminer les bases épistémologiques d’une anthropologie historique et structurelle, aussi bien que les conditions de surgissement de l’agir en commun des hommes. Une fois fixés ces points, la recherche tourne autour de deux axes principaux. Le premier évalue, sur un plan à la fois méthodologique et épistémologique, l’effort sartrien visant à fournir une théorie de la connaissance au marxisme, considéré comme une expérimentation théorico-pratique encore à accomplir. A ce niveau, la méthode régressive-progressive de Sartre a été confrontée avec celle utilisée par Marx dans la critique de l’économie politique, afin d’en évaluer les points de proximité et de dépassement. Autour du deuxième axe, transversal au premier, on voit se profiler le noyau éminemment historico-politique : la compréhension dialectique des événements qui marquent subjectivement (et donc politiquement) le cours du temps historique, n’est pas séparable d’une interrogation sur l’historicité des sujets impliqués dans ce même mouvement. Pour cette raison, le statut de la subjectivité chez le Sartre des années 1960 a été interrogé à travers une analyse concernant le caractère normatif du social. Le focus sur la notion de normativité a permis, d’un côté, de comprendre l’intériorité réciproque entre la subjectivation et l’objectivation ; et, de l’autre, de fixer les bases pour une axiologie marxiste. Une telle approche permet de valoriser l’efficacité historique de la dimension éthique de la praxis, en l’assumant comme prisme à travers lequel Sartre analyse les problèmes posés par le stalinisme et les luttes de libération anticoloniale. Cela nous a conduit enfin à questionner la torsion imposée par Sartre à la notion de besoin qui devient, d’un point de vue matérialiste, la racine d’une éthique comme passage obligé pour toute politique.Il lavoro di ricerca si propone di circoscrivere, all’interno del pensiero sartriano de-gli anni ’60, il perimetro mobile entro cui si definice l’etica come possibilità ulteriore del pensiero critico, come assunzione soggettiva della sua politicità. Lo spostamento operato nella riflessione storico-politica di Sartre si compie in una direzione – seguita finora solo parzialmente dagli interpreti ‒ volta ad assumere i manoscritti degli anni ’60 sull’etica dialettica come complemento fondamentale dell’esperienza critica condotta nella Critique de la Raison dialectique (1960) ‒ il cui blocage, esito di un limite struttu-rale ed interno ad ogni concettualizzazione dell’esperienza storica, impedirà la pubbli-cazione del secondo tomo dell’opera. Nella Critique, la possibilità di rendere una storia intelligibile è sospesa alla rifondazione della dialettica come metodo d’indagine del concreto storico. A partire da tale rifondazione è possibile determinare tanto le basi epi-stemologiche di un’antropologia storica e strutturale, quanto le condizioni d’insorgenza dell’agire in comune degli uomini. Nella nostra lettura, tale prospettiva si sottrae alla logica del futuro anteriore, caratterizzante il moderno dispositivo sovranista. Fissati questi punti, la ricerca ruota attorno a due assi problematici principali. Il primo valuta, su un piano al contempo metodologico ed epistemologico, la tenuta del tentativo sar-triano di fornire una teoria della conoscenza al marxismo, reso possibile dalla convin-zione che quest’ultimo sia un esperimento teorico-pratico ancora da compiere. A questa altezza, il metodo regressivo-progressivo di Sartre viene confrontato con quello adottato dal Marx critico dell’economia politica, per valutarne i punti di vicinanza e di supera-mento. Attorno al secondo asse, trasversale al primo, si profila il plesso più propriamen-te storico-politico: la comprensione dialettica degli eventi che connotano in senso sog-gettivo (e quindi politico) il corso del tempo storico, non è separabile da un’interroga-zione sulla storicità dei soggetti che, in tale movimento, sono implicati. Per questo mo-tivo, lo statuto della soggettività nel pensiero sartriano degli anni ‘60 viene analizzato mediante un’interrogazione sul carattere normativo del sociale: il focus sulla nozione di normatività permette infatti da un lato, di comprendere l’interiorità reciproca di sogget-tivazione ed oggettivazione e, dall’altro, d’individuare le basi per un’assiologia marxi-sta. Tale prospettiva consente di valorizzare l’efficacia storica della dimensione etica 4 della praxis, attraverso cui Sartre analizza i problemi posti dallo stalinismo e dalle lotte di liberazione coloniale, ma anche d’illuminare la torsione cui egli sottopone la nozione di bisogno per farne, materialisticamente, la radice di un’etica che diviene passaggio obbligato per ogni politica

Preliminary Report on the Study of Beam-Induced Background Effects at a Muon Collider

Physics at a multi-TeV muon collider needs a change of perspective for the detector design due to the large amount of background induced by muon beam decays. Preliminary studies, based on simulated data, on the composition and the characteristics of the particles originated from the muon decays and reaching the detectors are presented here. The reconstruction performance of the physics processes $H\to b\bar b$ and $Z\to b\bar b$ has been investigated for the time being without the effect of the machine induced background. A preliminary study of the environment hazard due to the radiation induced by neutrino interactions with the matter is presented using the FLUKA simulation program

Low emittance muon accelerator studies with production from positrons on target

A new scheme to produce very low emittance muon beams using a positron beam of about 45~GeV interacting on electrons on target is presented. One of the innovative topics to be investigated is the behaviour of the positron beam stored in a low emittance ring with a thin target, that is directly inserted in the ring chamber to produce muons. Muons can be immediately collected at the exit of the target and transported to two $\mu^+$ and $\mu^-$ accumulator rings and then accelerated and injected in muon collider rings. We focus in this paper on the simulation of the e$^+$ beam interacting with the target, the effect of the target on the 6-D phase space and the optimization of the e$^+$ ring design to maximize the energy acceptance. We will investigate the performance of this scheme, ring plus target system, comparing different multi-turn simulations. The source is considered for use in a multi-TeV collider in ref.[1]Comment: accepted for publication in Physical Review Accelerators and Beam

Intraoperative β-Detecting probe for radio-guided surgery in tumour resection

The development of the β− based radio-guided surgery aims to extend the technique to those tumours where surgery is the only possible treatment and the assessment of the resection would most profit from the low background around the lesion, as for brain tumours. Feasibility studies on meningioma and gliomas already estimated the potentiality of this new treatment. To validate the technique, a prototype of the intraoperative probe detecting β− decays and specific phantoms simulating tumour remnant patterns embedded in healthy tissue have been realized. The response of the probe in this simulated environment is tested with dedicated procedures. This document discusses the innovative aspects of the method, the status of the developed intraoperative β− detecting probe and the results of the preclinical tests

An Intraoperative β−\beta^- Detecting Probe For Radio-Guided Surgery in Tumour Resection

The development of the $\beta^-$ based radio-guided surgery aims to extend the technique to those tumours where surgery is the only possible treatment and the assessment of the resection would most profit from the low background around the lesion, as for brain tumours. Feasibility studies on meningioma, glioma, and neuroendocrine tumors already estimated the potentiality of this new treatment. To validate the technique, prototypes of the intraoperative probe required by the technique to detect $\beta^-$ radiation have been developed. This paper discusses the design details of the device and the tests performed in laboratory. In such tests particular care has to be taken to reproduce the surgical field conditions. The innovative technique to produce specific phantoms and the dedicated testing protocols is described in detail.Comment: 7 pages, 15 figure

Monitoring of hadrontherapy treatments by means of charged particle detection

The interaction of the incoming beam radiation with the patient body in hadrontherapy treatments produces secondary charged and neutral particles, whose detection can be used for monitoring purposes and to perform an on-line check of beam particle range. In the context of ion-therapy with active scanning, charged particles are potentially attractive since they can be easily tracked with a high efficiency, in presence of a relatively low background contamination. In order to verify the possibility of exploiting this approach for in-beam monitoring in ion-therapy, and to guide the design of specific detectors, both simulations and experimental tests are being performed with ion beams impinging on simple homogeneous tissue-like targets (PMMA). From these studies, a resolution of the order of few millimeters on the single track has been proven to be sufficient to exploit charged particle tracking for monitoring purposes, preserving the precision achievable on longitudinal shape. The results obtained so far show that the measurement of charged particles can be successfully implemented in a technology capable of monitoring both the dose profile and the position of the Bragg peak inside the target and finally lead to the design of a novel profile detector. Crucial aspects to be considered are the detector positioning, to be optimized in order to maximize the available statistics, and the capability of accounting for the multiple scattering interactions undergone by the charged fragments along their exit path from the patient body. The experimental results collected up to now are also valuable for the validation of Monte Carlo simulation software tools and their implementation in Treatment Planning Software packages

Proposal of an experimental test at DAΦNE for the low emittance muon beam production from positrons on target

We present in this paper the proposal of an experimental test at DAΦNE of the positronring-plus-target scheme foreseen in the Low EMittance Muon Accelerator. This test would be a validation of the on-going studies for LEMMA and it would be synergic with other proposals at DAΦNE after the SIDDHARTA run. We discuss the beam dynamics studies for different targets inserted in a proper location through the ring, i.e. where the beam is focused and dispersion-free. Optimization of beam parameters, thickness and material of target and optics of the target insertion are shown as well. The development of the existent diagnostic needed to test the behavior of the circulating beam is described together with the turn-by-turn measurement systems of charge, lifetime and transverse size. Measurements on the temperature and thermo-mechanical stress on the target are also under study