Adapting history: applying adaptation theory to historical film and television

This thesis argues that historical films and television programmes help generate new interpretations of the past, even when they depart from a common interpretation of how history is generally understood. In order to do this a variety of films and television programmes are analysed through the lens of adaptations studies. This thesis presents an analysis of current research in adaptation studies, alongside contemporary research into historical film. Four questions concerning historical adaptation are identified through which an original contribution to existing knowledge is made. These questions are: a)To what extent is an adaptation’s presentation of the past aware of the context of the depicted historical events? b) How can the addition of elements which were not present within the surviving sources, for example anachronisms, function within a historical adaptation? c) How can an adaptation promote a new interpretation of the events which are the focus of the adaptation, as well as how those events relate to the present? d) How can an adaptation be used to inform, critique, or aid in an audience’s understanding of history? The ideas that emerge from a literature review are explored over the course of four separate, but interrelated, case studies. These case studies each focusing on a different aspect of historical adaptation. The results are then combined in the conclusion in order to create a cohesive, central argument about the potential benefits of historical adaptation in film and television

The dark side of social media (Review)

Review of the Special Issue "The Dark Side of Social Media"

Fan phenomena: Harry Potter (Review)

Review of the book "Fan Phenomena: Harry Potter"

Barelas Rail Yard Redevelopment: A Stakeholder Assessment

Community-based redevelopment of Albuquerque, New Mexicos twenty-seven acre Barelas Rail Yard site represents one possible outcome of the ongoing redevelopment process. This thesis uses semistructured interviews with neighborhood residents and community activists to reveal visions and concerns about the future of the site from beyond the profit-driven approach of typical contemporary projects. Through interviews and the case studies, I provide recommendations for discussion and capacity-building that allows neighborhood residents to better navigate a complex political landscape and influence the redevelopment of the site through a community-based process that brings together multiple visions of renewed activity on the site that respects the cultural and historical relationship to the space while doing no harm to the surrounding neighborhoods

The visceral screen: Between the cinemas of John Cassavetes and David Cronenberg, a Barthesian perspective

The thesis discusses two directors who are never considered together in academic discourse. Cassavetes’ perceived focus on events led by the dynamics of performance and his looseness of technique opposes the calculated compositions of the Cronenberg film, with its aesthetic of horrific images and its gallery of emotionally detached protagonists. Yet it is between such opposing methods of cinematic expression that the ineffable qualities of film aesthetics can be discovered. Cassavetes’ cinema achieves this by revelling in a surplus of activity that exceeds narrative, while the indescribable characteristics of the Cronenberg oeuvre is achieved through a systematic emptying of the image’s meaning through a simultaneous commitment to paring back emotion and portraying of images that are controversial and inconceivable. Taken together, the thesis identifies these aspects of film as ‘the visceral,’ a facet of the moving image that most certainly exists, but is resolutely, and disturbingly resistant to interpretation. Roland Barthes’ writings are integral to a theory of the visceral. His re-evaluation of Saussurean semiology as a method of analyzing and undoing ideologically-imposed meanings informs readings of sequences from Cassavetes and Cronenberg’s films. Following Barthes, the thesis suggests that the existence of the visceral is realized as a resistance to ideological interpretations of the image, and so cannot be described. Ultimately, the inability of semiology to fully grasp certain aspects of the filmed image is put forward as a rejoinder to theories of the fiction film as principally a narrative medium

Understanding Mother’s Perceptions on Assessment And Educational Programming for Their Children With Cerebral Visual Impairment

Brain-based visual impairment is the leading cause of visual impairment in early childhood populations in the developed world and its contribution to childhood visual impairment is increasing (Bosch et al., 2014; Dutton & Bax, 2010; Hoyt, 2007; Kong et al., 2012; Kran et al., 2019). In order to meet the needs of this population, comprehensive assessment that includes information from families and caregivers, pediatric ophthalmologists, neurodevelopmental specialists, vision professionals, and education teams is crucial for academic and functional success (Lueck & Dutton, 2015). Family input during the special education process and the transfer of knowledge from the clinical to the educational setting that the parent provides is also vital for this population. While parent participation is a mandated feature of special education programming development, parents of children with special needs (including those with visual disability) do not always participate to the extent the law presumes. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to examine the experiences of 3 participants who are mothers of children with this visual impairment, bounded together by their shared experiences at a large children’s hospital in a city in the United States and participation in their children’s special education programming. The researcher explored the experiences of participants in both the clinical and educational environments and ultimately their feelings on the adequacy and effectiveness of their children’s educational programming relative to their visual disability. The results from this study revealed valuable information on the multitude of roles that mothers play across the physical, social, and emotional spaces in the lives of their children. Since comprehensive assessment and specific programming is crucial for the success of students with CVI, the results of this study helped to construct a more comprehensive picture of the outcomes of clinical and educational assessment and opportunities for collaboration with parents and families of children with CVI. It also provided a better understanding of the challenges families face, lack of resources on CVI, and a lack of qualified personnel in the field

The application of classical conditioning to the machine learning of a commonsense knowledge of visual events

In the field of artificial intelligence, possession of commonsense knowledge has long been considered to be a requirementto construct a machine that possesses artificial general intelligence. The conventional approach to providing this commonsense knowledge is to manually encode the required knowledge, a process that is both tedious and costly. After an analysis of classical conditioning, it was deemed that constructing a system based upon the stimulusstimulus interpretation of classical conditioning could allow for commonsense knowledge to be learned through a machine directly and passively observing its environment. Based upon these principles, a system was constructed that uses a stream of events, that have been observed within the environment, to learn rules regarding what event is likely to follow after the observation of another event. The system makes use of a feedback loop between three sub-systems: one that associates events that occur together, a second that accumulates evidence that a given association is significant and a third that recognises the significant associations. The recognition of past associations allows for both the creation of evidence for and against the existence of a particular association, and also allows for more complex associations to be created by treating instances of strongly associated event pairs to be themselves events. Testing the abilities of the system involved simulating the three different learning environments. The results found that measures of significance based on classical conditioning generally outperformed a probability-based measure. This thesis contributes a theory of how a stimulus-stimulus interpretation classical conditioning can be used to create commonsense knowledge and an observation that a significant sub-set of classical conditioning phenomena likely exist to aid in the elimination of noise. This thesis also represents a significant departure from existing reinforcement learning systems as the system presented in this thesis does not perform any form of action selection

Global plant characterisation and distribution with evolution and climate

Since Arrhenius published seminal work in 1921, research interest in the description of plant traits and grouped characteristics of plant species has grown, underpinning diversity in trophic levels. Geographic exploration and diversity studies prior to and after 1921 culminated in biological, chemical and computer-simulated approaches describing rudiments of growth patterns within dynamic conditions of Earth. This thesis has two parts:- classical theory and multidisciplinary fusion to give mathematical strength to characterising plant species in space and time.Individual plant species occurrences are used to obtain a Species-Area Relationship. The use of both Boolean and logic-based mathematics is then integrated to describe classical methods and propose fuzzy logic control to predict species ordination. Having demonstrated a lack of significance between species and area for data modelled in this thesis a logic based approach is taken. Mamdani and T-S-K fuzzy system stability is verified by application to individual plant occurrences, validated by a multiple interfaced data portal. Quantitative mathematical models are differentiated with a genetic programming approach, enabling visualisation of multi-objective dispersal of plant strategies, plant metabolism and life-forms within the water-energy dynamic of a fixed time-scale scenario. The distributions of plant characteristics are functionally enriched through the use of Gaussian process models. A generic framework of a Geographic Information System is used to visualise distributions and it is noted that such systems can be used to assist in design and implementation of policies. The study has made use of field based data and the application of mathematic methods is shown to be appropriate and generative in the description of characteristics of plant species, with the aim of application of plant strategies, life-forms and photosynthetic types to a global framework. Novel application of fuzzy logic and related mathematic method to plant distribution and characteristics has been shown on a global scale. Quantification of the uncertainty gives novel insight through consequent trophic levels of biological systems, with great relevance to mathematic and geographic subject development. Informative value of Z matrices of plant distribution is increased substantiating sustainability and conservation policy value to ecosystems and human populations dependent upon them for their needs.Key words: sustainability, conservation policy, Boolean and logic-based, fuzzy logic, genetic programming, multi-objective dispersal, strategies, metabolism, life-forms

Asymmetric trehalose analogues to probe disaccharide processing pathways in mycobacteria

The uptake and metabolism of the disaccharide trehalose by Mycobacterium tuberculosis is essential for the virulence of this pathogen. Here we describe the chemoenzymatic synthesis of new azido-functionalised asymmetric trehalose probes that resist degradation by mycobacterial enzymes and are used to probe trehalose processing pathways in mycobacteria