Digital media in modern art (theater perfomances).

Mastergradsoppgave i digital kommunikasjon og kultur, Avdeling for lærerutdanning og naturvitenskap, Høgskolen i Hedmark, 2016.This thesis seeks to explore how digital media / digital artefacts are being used and implemented in theater performance art, based on analysis of one modern play. The aim of this thesis is also to see how digital performances affects and changes the traditional notion of theater as an art form. This thesis aims to answer the following research question: What impact do new digital devices have on such art as theater

Flexible metasurface for improving brain imaging at 7T

Ultra-high field MRI offers unprecedented detail for non-invasive visualization of the human brain. However, brain imaging is challenging at 7T due to the B$_1^+$ field inhomogeneity, which results in signal intensity drops in temporal lobes and a bright region in the brain center. This study aims to evaluate using a metasurface to improve brain imaging at 7T and simplify the investigative workflow. Two flexible metasurfaces, each comprising a periodic structure of copper strips and parallel-plate capacitive elements printed on an ultra-thin substrate, were optimized for brain imaging and implemented via PCB. We considered two setups: (1) two metasurfaces located near the temporal lobes; and (2) one metasurface placed near the occipital lobe The effect of metasurface placement on the transmit efficiency and specific absorption rate was evaluated via electromagnetic simulation studies with voxelized models. In addition, their impact on SNR and diagnostic image quality was evaluated in vivo for male and female volunteers. Placement of metasurfaces near the regions of interest led to an increase in homogeneity of the transmit field by 5$\%$ and 10.5$\%$ in the right temporal lobe and occipital lobe for a male subject, respectively. SAR values changed insignificantly and were under recommended limits. In vivo studies also confirmed the numerically predicted improvement in field distribution and receive sensitivity in the desired ROI. Optimized metasurfaces enable homogenizing transmit field distribution in the brain at 7T. The proposed lightweight and flexible structure has the potential to provide MR examination with higher diagnostic value images

Virtual remote youth employment: social value and forecast

The article from the sociological point reveals the features of virtual remote youth employment in the context of contemporary socio–cultural transformations. We consider the societal function of the virtual remote employment, its purpose, the conceptual field conditions and factors of development. Identified positive and negative aspects of freelancing for the young, promising, new measures of state youth policy in support of a virtual remote youth employment, taking into account the predicted values ​​of socio–economic development of Russia

Individual insurance products: is there a real choice for Russians?

The article analyzes the level of competition of insurance product offerings in the following four markets using the Russian market as an example: (1) life insurance, (2) accident and disease insurance, (3) voluntary health insurance and (4) pension insurance. The purpose of the study is to assess competitive dynamics in the insurance product markets during the period under review. Relevant data of the Expert Rating Agency for 2018-2021 were used as the study basis. The study methodology is based on the assessment of the competitive situation using the SV matrix, which is based on HTSV (level of differentiation within the dominant group) and CRSV (cumulative market share of the dominant group). The study shows that the Russian insurance market in 2018-2021 was quite diverse in terms of dominance. Most individual insurance products belong to the B4 quadrant of the SV matrix (a natural oligopoly), yet, the situation with the dominant group regarding types of insurance under study is significantly different, since the number of dominant players varies from 2 to 10, considerably affecting a real consumer choice, however, among the markets under study, there is none with low concentration or without a dominant group or dominant leader. In the VHI market, the choice is quite large, while the presence of a big dominant group of eight companies suggests formation of the two-tier companies. The top echelon sets quality standards and dominates by price, while other companies can compete with the leaders due to niche offerings and price factors. The pension insurance market is an example of a significantly reduced consumer choice: in 2018, it is in the RO quadrant with a relatively “weak” dominant group, while by 2021, a hardly differentiated oligopoly of 5 companies has been formed, controlling 95% of the market. Emerging players with the market and institutional opportunities similar to SOGAZ make significant changes in the market structure, as in the case of personal insurance market, wherein SOGAZ has absorbed the largest player, transferring the market from an oligopoly of seven companies to the actual dominance of the one

Some Features of Verbal-Logical Thinking in the Norm and in Schizotypic Disorder (Using the Example of the Fourth Extra Technique)

Тhis article is devoted to the study of the features of thinking in modern subjects in the group of practical norms. Two interrelated problems were posed: using the modified classical pathopsychological technique " Fourth Extra" to analyze the features of thinking in a modern sample of healthy men and women in a wide age range from 17 to 70 years; The second task is to analyze the same features in a narrowly aged sample of patients with schizotypic disorder of adolescence (17-28 years). The results of the research showed that, in the modern sample, the character of the actualized features has changed, on the basis of which a generalization is made. An essential example: as the study showed, at the present time the criteria "edible-inedible", "animate-inanimate" became either less frequent, or lost the same significance as in the 1960s-1970s, when classical studies were conducted by T.K. Meleshko. Now the other functional signs of objects come to the fore: motion, size, texture, etc. Comparison of the data of healthy subjects and their peers with schizotypic disorder did not reveal significant differences in the standard score (based on new normative data) in the Fourth Extra technique. Apparently, this reflects a shift, primarily in the normative sample, in connection with the new social development situation. The obtained data require consideration when conducting diagnostic clinical and psychological research

Improving B1 homogeneity in abdominal imaging at 3 T with light and compact metasurface

Radiofrequency field inhomogeneity is a significant issue in imaging large fields of view in high- and ultrahigh-field MRI. Passive shimming with coupled coils or dielectric pads is the most common approach at 3 T. We introduce and test light and compact metasurface, providing the same homogeneity improvement in clinical abdominal imaging at 3 T as a conventional dielectric pad. The metasurface comprising a periodic structure of copper strips and parallel-plate capacitive elements printed on a flexible polyimide substrate supports propagation of slow electromagnetic waves similar to a high-permittivity slab. We compare the metasurface operating inside a transmit body birdcage coil to the state-of-the-art pad by numerical simulations and in vivo study on healthy volunteers. Numerical simulations with different body models show that the local minimum of B1+ causing a dark void in the abdominal domain is removed by the metasurface with comparable resulting homogeneity as for the pad without noticeable SAR change. In vivo results confirm similar homogeneity improvement and demonstrate the stability to body mass index. The light, flexible, and cheap metasurface can replace a relatively heavy and expensive pad based on the aqueous suspension of barium titanate in abdominal imaging at 3 T.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, 4 supplementary figure

Near-field imaging of spin-locked edge states in all-dielectric topological metasurfaces

A new class of phenomena stemming from topological states of quantum matter has recently found a variety of analogies in classical systems. Spin-locking and one-way propagation have been shown to drastically alter scattering of electromagnetic waves, thus offering an unprecedented robustness to defects and disorder. Despite these successes, bringing these new ideas to practical grounds meets a number of serious limitations. In photonics, when it is crucial to implement topological photonic devices on a chip, two major challenges are associated with electromagnetic dissipation into heat and out-of-plane radiation into free space. Both these mechanisms may destroy the topological state and seriously affect the device performance. Here, we demonstrate experimentally that the topological order for light can be implemented in all-dielectric on-chip prototype metasurfaces, which mitigate the effect of Ohmic losses by using exclusively structured dielectric materials, and we reveal that coupling of the system to the radiative continuum does not affect topological properties. We demonstrate the spin-Hall effect of light for spin-polarized topological edge states through near-field spectroscopy measurements.The work was supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant Nos. CMMI-1537294 and EFRI1641069). The experimental part of the work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (Grant No. 16-19-10538) and numerical calculations were partially supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Grant No. 18-32- 20065). The work of AS, DAS, and YSK was partially supported by the Australian Research Council. Research was partly carried out at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, which is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract No. DE-SC0012704