Reflexiones acerca de la crisis de la imagen técnica, la interfaz y el juego

El incremento del volumen de producción de imágenes técnicas a través de medios audiovisuales y de telecomunicación digitales está generando una crisis de la imagen técnica y la emergencia del fenómeno visual, caracterizado por la fragilidad de sus contenidos, la complacencia de su estética, la estrategia de la acción lúdica y la aplicación de la interfaz humano-máquina.The increased volume of the production of images through audio-visual and digital telecommunication media is generating a crisis of the technical image and the emergence of the visual phenomenon, characterised by the fragility of its contents, the complacency of its aesthetics, the strategy of play action, and the application of the human-machine interface

The Typewriter from Azevedo

The Typewriter from Azevedo Claudia Giannetti In: David Link & Nils Roeller (Ed.). Objects of Knowledge, of Art and of Friendship. A small technical encyclopaedia. Leipzig, Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig, 2011 (lingua original: alemão. Publicação em inglês) Resumo Cada autor foi convidado pelos coordenadores da edição deste livro a propor um objeto ténico o tecnológico, e analisar as possíveis relações fenomenológicas con as noções de arqueologia dos media, desenvolvida por Siegfried Zielinski, que é homenageado com esse livro. Claudia Giannetti propõe uma arqueologia da máquina de escrever, resgatando suas origens que, curiosamente, se remontam a um prototipo criado no Brasil. Que o uso de determinadas técnicas ou máquinas influencia o próprio processo de criação, já havia sido advertido por Nietzsche, que ao usar a sua primeira máquina de escrever observou que "das Schreibzeug sich in die Gedanken miteinschreibe" (‘a máquina de escrever co-escreve-se no pensamento’)

Ciclo de Conferências em Arte, Cultura Visual e Novas Tecnologias

Este ciclo de conferencia tem como objectivos - Proporcionar conhecimentos transdisciplinares de grande actualidade sobre questões conceptuais, formais e práticas levantadas a partir do vínculo entre as práticas artísticas, os estudos culturais e as novas tecnologias digitais. - A formação de especialistas nas áreas afins das conferencias. - Favorecer o diálogo entre estudantes e professores, e abrir novos horizontes e contactos profissionais a partir das relações humanas no âmbito das conferências. Conta com a participação de prestigiosos especialistas internacionais: Eduardo Kac, Aurora Fernández Polanco, Norval Baitello Júnior, Siegfried Zielinski

Operators and Link Socialization: reflections on the individual, screens, devices and interfaces

As relações inter-humanas baseadas nas interfaces técnicas e as telecomunicações estão gerando duas tendências acentuadas e só aparentemente antagônicas: um incremento da necessidade de estar telecomunicado; e uma propensão a transformar a "realidade" destas relações em meros enlaces entre códigos e imagens técnicas. A ação se antepõe à relação dialógica. De manipulador de símbolos o sujeito se transforma em operador de dispositivos. Neste processo, dois dispositivos técnicos de comunicação assumem cada vez mais protagonismo: a tela e a interface. Esta tendência se manifesta num tipo de comunicação "link", objeto de análise neste texto.The inter-human relations based on technical interfaces and telecommunication are creating two main tendencies only apparently antagonistic: an increase in the need to be tele-communicated, and a propensity to transform the "reality" of these relations into mere links between codes and technical images. Action prevails over dialogic relationship. From manipulator of symbols, one becomes a devices operator. In this process, two technical communication devices are increasingly becoming protagonists: the screen and the interface. This trend manifests itself in a kind of "link" communication, object of analysis in this text

Thermal boundary resistance from transient nanocalorimetry: a multiscale modeling approach

The Thermal Boundary Resistance at the interface between a nanosized Al film and an Al_{2}O_{3} substrate is investigated at an atomistic level. A room temperature value of 1.4 m^{2}K/GW is found. The thermal dynamics occurring in time-resolved thermo-reflectance experiments is then modelled via macro-physics equations upon insertion of the materials parameters obtained from atomistic simulations. Electrons and phonons non-equilibrium and spatio-temporal temperatures inhomo- geneities are found to persist up to the nanosecond time scale. These results question the validity of the commonly adopted lumped thermal capacitance model in interpreting transient nanocalorimetry experiments. The strategy adopted in the literature to extract the Thermal Boundary Resistance from transient reflectivity traces is revised at the light of the present findings. The results are of relevance beyond the specific system, the physical picture being general and readily extendable to other heterojunctions.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure

Inspection on the mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 inhibition by penciclovir: a molecular dynamic study

In recent years, humanity has had to face a critical pandemic due to SARS-CoV-2. In the rapid search for effective drugs against this RNA-positive virus, the repurposing of already existing nucleotide/nucleoside analogs able to stop RNA replication by inhibiting the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase enzyme has been evaluated. In this process, a valid contribution has been the use of in silico experiments, which allow for a rapid evaluation of the possible effectiveness of the proposed drugs. Here we propose a molecular dynamic study to provide insight into the inhibition mechanism of Penciclovir, a nucleotide analog on the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase enzyme. Besides the presented results, in this article, for the first time, molecular dynamic simulations have been performed considering not only the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase protein, but also its cofactors (fundamental for RNA replication) and double-strand RNA

An insight into the degradation processes of the anti-hypertensive drug furosemide

Furosemide (FUR), an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) belonging to a group of drugs known as loop diuretics, has widespread use, but, is characterized by a strong instability to light, which causes chemical transformations that could give a yellowing phenomenon and have a significant impact from a health and marketing point of view. Many studies have tried to explain this phenomenon under different experimental conditions, but no detailed explanation of the yellowing phenomenon has been provided. This work, unlike the others, provides an overall view and explanation of the behavior of FUR in relation to the yellowing phenomenon, both in the solution and in solid state, considering several aspects, such as light exposure, presence of oxygen, and moisture effects

The Astrocytic S100B Protein with Its Receptor RAGE Is Aberrantly Expressed in SOD1(G93A) Models, and Its Inhibition Decreases the Expression of Proinflammatory Genes

Neuroinflammation is one of the major players in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) pathogenesis, and astrocytes are significantly involved in this process. The astrocytic protein S100B can be released in pathological states activating the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE). Different indications point to an aberrant expression of S100B and RAGE in ALS. In this work, we observed that S100B and RAGE are progressively and selectively upregulated in astrocytes of diseased rats with a tissue-specific timing pattern, correlated to the level of neurodegeneration. The expression of the full-length and soluble RAGE isoforms could also be linked to the degree of tissue damage. The mere presence of mutant SOD1 is able to increase the intracellular levels and release S100B from astrocytes, suggesting the possibility that an increased astrocytic S100B expression might be an early occurring event in the disease. Finally, our findings indicate that the protein may exert a proinflammatory role in ALS, since its inhibition in astrocytes derived from SOD1(G93A) mice limits the expression of reactivity-linked/proinflammatory genes. Thus, our results propose the S100B-RAGE axis as an effective contributor to the pathogenesis of the disease, suggesting its blockade as a rational target for a therapeutic intervention in ALS

Photoacoustic Sensing of Trapped Fluids in Nanoporous Thin Films: Device Engineering and Sensing Scheme

Accessing fluid infiltration in nanogranular coatings is an outstanding challenge, of relevance for applications ranging from nanomedicine to catalysis. A sensing platform, allowing to quantify the amount of fluid infiltrated in a nanogranular ultrathin coating, with thickness in the 10 to 40 nm range, is here proposed and theoretically investigated by multiscale modelling. The scheme relies on impulsive photoacoustic excitation of hypersonic mechanical breathing modes in engineered gas-phase synthesised nanogranular metallic ultathin films and time-resolved acousto-optical read-out of the breathing modes frequency shift upon liquid infiltration. A superior sensitivity, exceeding 26x103 cm^2/g, is predicted upon equivalent areal mass loading of a few ng/mm^2. The capability of the present scheme to discriminate among different infiltration patterns is discussed. The platform is an ideal tool to investigate nano fluidics in granular materials and naturally serves as a distributed nanogetter coating, integrating fluid sensing capabilities. The proposed scheme is readily extendable to other nanoscale and mesoscale porous materials.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure