Vocificando-se, performando coletivos: testemunho no teatro argentino contemporâneo

This article looks at the relationship between theater and the literary genre of testimonio, particularly the ways the I and the we take on corporeal and vocal existence onstage to enact new ways of being, together. To exemplify its observations, the essay turns to the work of Lola Arias and Compañía de Funciones Patrióticas and Corda-Doberti and argues that by audibly replaying the past in the present (through recording technology or verbatim reenactment), testimonial performances direct audiences toward more ethical futures.El artículo indaga la relación entre el teatro y el género literario del testimonio, en particular las formas en que el yo y un nosotrxs se hacen corpóreos en el escenario a través de la voz y devienen en nuevas formas de convivio. Para ejemplificar sus observaciones, el ensayo toma el trabajo escénico de Lola Arias y el de Compañía de Funciones Patrióticas y Corda-Doberti, y argumenta que al repetir el pasado de manera audible en el presente (a través de dispositivos de grabación o reconstrucción oral), el teatro testimonial remite sus públicos a futuros más éticos.O artigo investiga a relação entre o teatro e o gênero literário do testemunho, em particular as maneiras pelas quais o eu e um nós se fazem corpóreos na performance por meio da voz e alcançam novas formas de convivência. Para exemplificar suas observações, o ensaio toma a obra cênica de Lola Arias e da Compañía de Funciones Patrióticas e Corda-Doberti, e argumenta que, ao repetir audivelmente o pasado no presente (por meio de dispositivos de gravação ou reconstrução oral), o teatro testemunhal remete a sua audiências a futuros mais éticos

Fabrication and redesign of a meso-scale six-axis nano-positioner system

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (leaf 38).The industry's need for low-cost nano-positioners led MIT's Precision Compliant Systems lab to design a system of 10 six-axis meso-scale nano-positioners. They devised a system that could revolutionize the nano-scale industry, by making massive parallel positioning at the nanometer/micro-radian possible at a low cost. In order to test the design, the alpha prototype was built and tested. The fabrication and the assembly processes provided insight into possible redesign changes that would facilitate future manufacturing, as well as improve the performance of the nano-positioner. The fabrication of the prototype also allowed for the exploration of the accuracy of conventional machining methods and their effect on the device performance. Traditional manufacturing was necessary in order to achieve the lowest cost possible. The design was also analyzed from a business perspective and modified to begin the transformation from prototype to profitable product. The construction of the prototype and the proposed changes to the design are important to the development of the project.by Maria J. Telleria.S.B

Power relations? What power relations? The de-politicising conceptualisation of development of the UNDP

The UN′s Sustainable Development Goals agenda points far into 2030, which shows that its post-war development endeavour is not functioning effectively. This article implements a discourse analysis of the UN Development Programme′s (UNDP) Human Development Reports (HDR) and exposes their internal contradictions. This analysis enables a critical reflection on the UNDP′s political position: its reports conceal the political causes of underdevelopment. By concealing the antagonistic/conflictual dimension of social issues – poverty, inequality, and exclusion – the UNDP naturalises the actual neoliberal order. The HDR turns political problems into technical issues; according to this approach, no power relations have to be changed in order to overcome underdevelopment

Evaluation of presentation attack detection under the context of common criteria

Mención Internacional en el título de doctorTHE USE OF Biometrics keeps growing. Every day, we use biometric recognition to unlock our phones or to have access to places such as the gym or the office, so we rely on what security manufacturers offer when protecting our privileges and private life. Moreover, an error in a biometric system can mean that a person can have access to an unintended property, critical infrastructure or cross a border. Thus, there is a growing interest on ensuring that biometric systems work correctly on two fronts: our personal information (smartphones, personal computers) and national security (borders, critical infrastructures). Given that nowadays we store increasing sensitive data on our mobile devices (documents, photos, bank accounts, etc.), it is crucial to know how secure the protection of the phone really is. Most new smartphones include an embedded fingerprint sensor due to its improved comfort, speed and, as manufacturers claim, security. In the last decades, many studies and tests have shown that it is possible to steal a person’s fingerprint and reproduce it, with the intention of impersonating them. This has become a bigger problem as the adoption of fingerprint sensor cell phones have become mainstream. For the case of border control and critical infrastructures, biometric recognition eases the task of person identification and black-list checking. Although the performance rates for verification and identification have dropped in the last decades, protection against vulnerabilities is still under heavy development. There have been cases in the past where fake fingers have been used to surpass the security of such entities. The first necessary step for overcoming these issues is to have a common ground for performing security evaluations. This way, different systems’ abilities to detect and reject fake fingerprints can be measured and compared against each other. This is achieved by standardization and the corresponding certification of biometric systems. The new software and hardware presentation attack detection techniques shall undergo tests that follow such standards. The aim of this Thesis is two-fold: evaluating commercial fingerprint biometric systems against presentation attacks (fake fingers) and developing a new presentation attack detection method for overcoming these attacks. Moreover, through this process, several contributions were proposed and accepted in international ISO standards. On the first matter, a few questions are meant to be answered: it is well known that it is possible to hack a smartphone using fake fingers made of Play-Doh and other easy-to-obtain materials but, to what extent? Is this true for all users or only for specialists with deep knowledge on Biometrics? Does it matter who the person doing the attack is, or are all attackers the same when they have the same base knowledge? Are smartphone fingerprint sensors as reliable as desktop sensors? What is the easiest way of stealing a fingerprint from someone? To answer these, five experiments were performed on several desktop and smartphone fingerprint readers, including many different attackers and fingerprint readers. As a general result, all smartphone capture devices could be successfully hacked by inexperienced people with no background in Biometrics. All of the evaluations followed the pertinent standards, ISO/IEC 30107 Parts 3 and 4 and Common Criteria and an analysis of the attack potential was carried out. Moreover, the knowledge gathered during this process served to make methodological contributions to the above-mentioned standards. Once some expertise had been gathered on attacking fingerprint sensors, it was decided to develop a new method to detect fake fingerprints. The aim was to find a low-cost and efficient system to solve this issue. As a result, a new optical system was used to capture fingerprints and classify them into real or fake samples. The system was tested by performing an evaluation using 5 different fake finger materials, obtaining much lower error rates than those reported in the state of the art at the moment this Thesis was written. The contributions of this Thesis include: • • Improvements on the presentation attack detection evaluation methodology. • • Contributions to ISO/IEC 30107 - Biometric presentation attack detection - Part 3: Testing and reporting and Part 4: Profile for evaluation of mobile devices. • • Presentation attack detection evaluations on commercial desktop and smartphone fingerprint sensors following ISO/IEC 30107-3 and 4. • • A new low-cost and efficient optical presentation attack detection mechanism and an evaluation on the said system.EL USO DE la Biometría está en constante crecimiento. Cada día, utilizamos reconocimiento biométrico para desbloquear nuestros teléfonos o para tener acceso a lugares como el gimnasio o la oficina, por lo que confiamos en lo que los fabricantes ofrecen para proteger nuestros privilegios y nuestra vida privada. Además, un error en un sistema biométrico puede significar que una persona pueda tener acceso a una propiedad no debida, a una infraestructura crítica o a cruzar una frontera. Por lo tanto, existe un interés creciente en asegurar que los sistemas biométricos funcionen correctamente en dos frentes: nuestra información personal (teléfonos inteligentes, ordenadores personales) y la seguridad nacional (fronteras, infraestructuras críticas). Dado que hoy en día almacenamos cada vez más datos sensibles en nuestros dispositivos móviles (documentos, fotos, cuentas bancarias, etc.), es crucial saber cómo de segura es realmente la protección del teléfono. La mayoría de los nuevos teléfonos inteligentes incluyen un sensor de huellas dactilares integrado debido a su mayor comodidad, velocidad y, como afirman los fabricantes, seguridad. En las últimas décadas, muchos estudios y pruebas han demostrado que es posible robar la huella dactilar de una persona y reproducirla, con la intención de hacerse pasar por ella. Esto se ha convertido en un problema mayor a medida que la adopción de los teléfonos celulares con sensor de huellas dactilares se ha ido generalizando. En el caso del control fronterizo y de las infraestructuras críticas, el reconocimiento biométrico facilita la tarea de identificación de las personas y la comprobación de listas negras. Aunque las tasas de rendimiento en materia de verificación e identificación han disminuido en las últimas décadas, la protección antifraude todavía está bajo intenso desarrollo. Existen casos en los que se han utilizado dedos falsos para vulnerar la seguridad de dichas entidades. El primer paso necesario para superar estos problemas es contar con una base común desde la que realizar evaluaciones de seguridad. De esta manera, se pueden medir y comparar las capacidades de los diferentes sistemas para detectar y rechazar huellas dactilares falsas. Esto se consigue mediante la estandarización y la correspondiente certificación de los sistemas biométricos. Las nuevas técnicas de detección de ataques de presentación de software y hardware deben someterse a pruebas que se ajusten a dichas normas. Esta Tesis tiene dos objetivos: evaluar los sistemas biométricos de huellas dactilares comerciales contra ataques de presentación (dedos falsos) y desarrollar un nuevo método de detección de ataques de presentación para disminuir la eficacia de estos ataques. Además, a través de este proceso, se propusieron y aceptaron varias contribuciones en las normas internacionales ISO. Sobre el primer asunto, hay que responder algunas preguntas: es bien sabido que es posible hackear un teléfono inteligente con dedos falsos hechos de Play-Doh y otros materiales fáciles de obtener, pero ¿hasta qué punto? ¿Es esto cierto para todos los usuarios o sólo para los especialistas con un profundo conocimiento de la Biometría? ¿Importa quién es la persona que realiza el ataque, o todos los atacantes son iguales cuando parte de la misma base de conocimiento? ¿Son los sensores de huellas dactilares de los teléfonos inteligentes tan fiables como los de sobremesa? ¿Cuál es la manera más fácil de robar una huella digital a alguien? Para responder estas preguntas, se realizaron cinco experimentos en varios lectores de huellas dactilares de escritorio y de teléfonos inteligentes, incluyendo muchos atacantes y lectores de huellas dactilares diferentes. Como resultado general, todos los dispositivos de captura pudieron ser hackeados con éxito por personas sin experiencia en Biometría. Todas las evaluaciones siguieron las normas pertinentes, ISO/IEC 30107 Partes 3 y 4 y Common Criteria y se llevó a cabo un análisis del potencial de ataque. Además, los conocimientos adquiridos durante este proceso sirvieron para aportar una contribución metodológica a las normas mencionadas. Una vez adquiridos algunos conocimientos sobre ataques a sensores de huellas dactilares, se decidió desarrollar un nuevo método para detectar huellas falsas. El objetivo era encontrar un sistema de bajo coste y eficiente para resolver este problema. Como resultado, se utilizó un nuevo sistema óptico para capturar las huellas dactilares y clasificarlas en muestras reales o falsas. El sistema se probó mediante la realización de una evaluación utilizando 5 materiales de dedos falsos diferentes, obteniendo tasas de error mucho más bajas que las reportadas en el estado del arte en el momento de redactar esta Tesis. Las contribuciones de esta Tesis incluyen: • • Mejoras en la metodología de evaluación de detección de ataques de presentación. • • Contribuciones a “ISO/IEC 30107 - Biometric presentation attack detection - Part 3: Testing and reporting” y “Part 4: Profile for evaluation of mobile devices”. • • Evaluaciones de detección de ataques de presentación en sensores de huellas dactilares comerciales de escritorio y de teléfonos inteligentes siguiendo la norma ISO/IEC 30107-3 y 4. • • Un nuevo y eficiente mecanismo óptico de detección de ataques de presentación, de bajo coste, y una evaluación de dicho sistema.Programa de Doctorado en Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y Automática por la Universidad Carlos III de MadridPresidente: Enrique Cabello Pardos.- Secretario: Almudena Lindoso Muñoz.- Vocal: Patrizio Campis

What does Culture mean for the UNDP? The implicit cultural logic within the human development framework

‘Culture’ is one of those concepts so widely used that it tends to fall into ambiguity and vagueness. Institutions dealing with power use them quite often in order to produce profuse, but somehow vacuous, discourses. That would be the case of the influential Human Development Reports of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). After evidencing there is not a clear, plain, unitary idea of what ‘culture’ means in these yearly published reports, this research makes explicit – through a hermeneutical approach – the cultural logic underlying the ‘human development’ framework. UNDP turns qualitative culture into a quantitative matter. Thus development discourse becomes one of identity. While explicitly speaking about cultural diversity, implicitly it splits the world in a binary, dichotomic way: the West and the Rest, Developed and Developing and us and them. Hence, instead of a supposedly universal discourse promoting change, we find a culturally and historically defined one that reinforces – in a subtle way – the hegemonic epistemological and political patterns that sustain the present status quo.This work was supported by Eusko Jaurlaritza (Hezkuntza Saila) [PRE_2013_2_385]

In vivo antisense targeting on vasopressin mRNA in rats

Die tatsächlichen molekularen und zellulären Abläufe, die der Technik des Antisense Targetings zugrunde liegen sind bis heute noch weitgehend unbekannt. In der vorliegenden Arbeit injizierten wir in Ratten intracerebroventrikulär eine synthetische Oligonukleotid-Sonde, die komplementär zur Startcodon Region des Arginin-Vasopressin Precursors war. Bei zwei aufeinanderfolgenden Injektionen von geringen Dosen der Oligonukleotid-Sonde wurden die Plasma-Vasopressin-Spiegel aber nicht verändert, die Wasseraufnahme dieser Tiere war sogar leicht reduziert. Mit Immunzytochemie beobachteten wir in den magnozellulären hypothalamischen Kerngebieten und im Hypophysen-Hinterlappen eine Koexistenz von Vasopressin und Oxytocin

Radiological Protection of the Environment and its Implementation into IAEA Safety Standards

Radiological protection of the environment has been intensively discussed in recent years. Much progress has been made recently with regard to the development of models: (i) to estimate the uptake of radionuclides by flora and fauna in different habitats and ecosystems; (ii) to calculate internal and external exposures for a wide range of terrestrial and aquatic organisms; and (iii) in investigating and analyzing the effects of radiation exposures to biota. This paper gives an overview of the current status of this work. Furthermore, the current status of the integration of environmental protection into the radiation protection system is also summarized.Received: 8 November 2013; Revised: 23 December 2013; Accepted: 30 December 201

Resistance to cisplatin and paclitaxel does not affect the sensitivity of human ovarian cancer cells to antiprogestin- induced cytotoxicity

BACKGROUND: Antiprogestin compounds have been shown to be effective in blocking the growth of ovarian cancer cells of different genetic backgrounds. Herein we studied the anti-ovarian cancer effect of a series of antiprogestins sharing the chemical backbone of the most characterized antiprogestin, mifepristone, but with unique modifications in position C-17 of the steroid ring. We assessed the effect of mifepristone-like antiprogestins on the growth of ovarian cancer cells sensitive to the standard combination therapy cisplatin-paclitaxel or made double-resistant upon six cycles of pulse-selection with the drugs used at clinically relevant concentrations and exposure times. METHODS: IGROV-1 and SKOV-3 cells were pulsed with 20 μM cisplatin for 1 h followed by 100 nM paclitaxel for 3 h once a week for six weeks. The cells that did not die and repopulate the culture after the chemotherapies were termed Platinum-Taxane-EScape cells (PTES). Parental cells were compared against their PTES derivatives in their responses to further platinum-taxane treatments. Moreover, both ovarian cancer cells and their PTES siblings were exposed to escalating doses of the various antiprogestin derivatives. We assessed cell growth, viability and sub-G1 DNA content using microcapillary cytometry. Cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors p21(cip1) and p27(kip1) and cleavage of downstream caspase-3 substrate PARP were used to assess whether cell fate, as a consequence of treatment, was limited to cytostasis or progressed to lethality. RESULTS: Cells subjected to six pulse-selection cycles of cisplatin-paclitaxel gave rise to sibling derivatives that displayed ~2-7 fold reduction in their sensitivities to further chemotherapy. However, regardless of the sensitivity the cells developed to the combination cisplatin-paclitaxel, they displayed similar sensitivity to the antiprogestins, which blocked their growth in a dose-related manner, with lower concentrations causing cytostasis, and higher concentrations causing lethality. CONCLUSIONS: Antiprogestins carrying a backbone similar to mifepristone are cytotoxic to ovarian cancer cells in a manner that does not depend on the sensitivity the cells have to the standard ovarian cancer chemotherapeutics, cisplatin and paclitaxel. Thus, antiprogestin therapy could be used to treat ovarian cancer cells showing resistance to both platinum and taxanes.Fil: Gamarra Luques, Carlos Diego. University of South Dakota. Sanford School of Medicine. Division of Basic Biomedical Sciences; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Medicina y Biología Experimental de Cuyo; ArgentinaFil: Hapon, María Belén. University of South Dakota. Sanford School of Medicine. Division of Basic Biomedical Sciences; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Medicina y Biología Experimental de Cuyo; ArgentinaFil: Goyeneche, Alicia. University of South Dakota. Sanford School of Medicine. Division of Basic Biomedical Sciences; Estados UnidosFil: Telleria, Carlos Marcelo. University of South Dakota. Sanford School of Medicine. Division of Basic Biomedical Sciences; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Medicina y Biología Experimental de Cuyo; Argentin

La lectura como estrategia de enseñanza de las ciencias naturales y matematica

Se presentan los resultados de un estudio sobre el uso de la lectura como estrategia de enseñanza de las ciencias naturales y matemática; en un grupo de 50 estudiantes de Secundaria y 03 docentes. Los datos se recolectaron con dos cuestionarios de respuestas abiertas; uno dirigido a los estudiantes y otro a los docentes. El análisis de los datos implicó un proceso de reflexión, interpretación, teorización y descripción de la información recabada. Los propósitos del estudio fueron: Determinar las estrategias utilizadas por los docentes del área de las ciencias naturales y matemática para fomentar la lectura y Precisar el material de lectura utilizado por los docentes. Los resultados muestran que los docentes usan raramente la lectura en las asignaturas de las ciencias naturales y matemática y las escasas lecturas utilizadas se sustentan en los textos escolares