Hawa

The graduate thesis film Hawa is a 29-minute drama about an immigrant African couple in the grip of their American-dream and mutual disillusion. When Hawa realizes having a baby is no longer a priority for her husband, she starts questioning the meaning of their ten years of marriage and, most importantly, what is in it for her. She eventually finds herself caught between the old Hawa, the typical African woman swearing by her husband\u27s name, and a new Hawa, westernized and independent. The film was shot on the Red One MX camera in 4K with Zeiss lenses, and edited entirely on Premiere Pro CS6. Color grading was done on DaVinci Resolve 9, and the mix was done on Protools 9. This paper discusses the thought processes, goals, and legwork of making the film from its conception until its first screening at the Rochester Institute of Technology

Basis for the gain and subsequent dilution of epidermal pigmentation during human evolution: The barrier and metabolic conservation hypotheses revisited

The evolution of human skin pigmentation must address both the initial evolution of intense epidermal pigmentation in hominins, and its subsequent dilution in modern humans. While many authorities believe that epidermal pigmentation evolved to protect against either ultraviolet B (UV-B) irradiation-induced mutagenesis or folic acid photolysis, we hypothesize that pigmentation augmented the epidermal barriers by shifting the UV-B dose-response curve from toxic to beneficial. Whereas erythemogenic UV-B doses produce apoptosis and cell death, suberythemogenic doses benefit permeability and antimicrobial function. Heavily melanized melanocytes acidify the outer epidermis and emit paracrine signals that augment barrier competence. Modern humans, residing in the cooler, wetter climes of south-central Europe and Asia, initially retained substantial pigmentation. While their outdoor lifestyles still permitted sufficient cutaneous vitamin D3 (VD3) synthesis, their marginal nutritional status, coupled with cold-induced caloric needs, selected for moderate pigment reductions that diverted limited nutritional resources towards more urgent priorities (=metabolic conservation). The further pigment-dilution that evolved as humans reached north-central Europe (i.e., northern France, Germany), likely facilitated cutaneous VD3 synthesis, while also supporting ongoing, nutritional requirements. But at still higher European latitudes where little UV-B breaches the atmosphere (i.e., present-day UK, Scandinavia, Baltic States), pigment dilution alone could not suffice. There, other nonpigment-related mutations evolved to facilitate VD3 production; for example, in the epidermal protein, filaggrin, resulting in reduced levels of its distal metabolite, trans-urocanic acid, a potent UV-B chromophore. Thus, changes in human pigmentation reflect a complex interplay between latitude, climate, diet, lifestyle, and shifting metabolic priorities

Fusion de systèmes et analyse des caractéristiques linguistiques des requêtes (vers un processus de RI adaptatif)

TOULOUSE3-BU Sciences (315552104) / SudocSudocFranceF