Pictures of the past : Benjamin and Barthes on photography.

This paper explores the key moments in Benjamin’s and Barthes’s analyses of the cultural significance of the photograph. For Benjamin these are; the optical unconscious, the transmission of aura, the representation of cultural and political decay and proto-surrealist political commentary. For Barthes they are; the techniques of the photographer, the studium, the punctum and the ecstasy of the image. These rather different approaches to photography reveal a common concern with history. Both authors have written about the nature of historical understanding and photography has provided both with a powerful metaphor. What emerges from their analyses of photographs is that each evokes a double moment of historical awareness; of being both in the present and in the past. For Benjamin this is the ‘spark of contingency’ with which the aura of past existence shines in the present. For Barthes it is the ‘ça-a-été’, the emotional stab of awareness that what is present and visible in the photograph is irretrievably lost in the past

Early changes in diaphragmatic function evaluated using ultrasound in cardiac surgery patients: a cohort study.

Little is known about the evolution of diaphragmatic function in the early post-cardiac surgery period. The main purpose of this work is to describe its evolution using ultrasound measurements of muscular excursion and thickening fraction (TF). Single-center prospective study of 79 consecutive uncomplicated elective cardiac surgery patients, using motion-mode during quiet unassisted breathing. Excursion and TF were measured sequentially for each patient [pre-operative (D1), 1 day (D2) and 5 days (D3) after surgery]. Pre-operative median for right and left hemidiaphragmatic excursions were 1.8 (IQR 1.6 to 2.1) cm and 1.7 (1.4 to 2.0) cm, respectively. Pre-operative median right and left thickening fractions were 28 (19 to 36) % and 33 (22 to 51) %, respectively. At D2, there was a reduction in both excursion (right: 1.5 (1.1 to 1.8) cm, p < 0.001, left: 1.5 (1.1 to 1.8), p = 0.003) and thickening fractions (right: 20 (15 to 34) %, p = 0.021, left: 24 (17 to 39) %, p = 0.002), followed by a return to pre-operative values at D3. A positive moderate correlation was found between excursion and thickening fraction (Spearman's rho 0.518 for right and 0.548 for left hemidiaphragm, p < 0.001). Interobserver reliability yielded a bias below 0.1 cm with limits of agreement (LOA) of ± 0.3 cm for excursion and - 2% with LOA of ± 21% for thickening fractions. After cardiac surgery, the evolution of diaphragmatic function is characterized by a transient impairment followed by a quick recovery. Although ultrasound diaphragmatic excursion and thickening fraction are correlated, excursion seems to be a more feasible and reproducible method in this population

Modeling and exploitation of the traces of interactions in the collaborative working environment

Les sciences humaines et le progrès social ne peuvent pas se poursuivre sans collaboration. Avec le développement rapide des technologies de l'information et la popularité des appareils intelligents, le travail collaboratif est beaucoup plus simple et plus fréquents que jamais. Les gens peuvent travailler ensemble sans tenir compte de leur emplacement/ location géographique ou de la limitation de temps. Les environnements de travail de collaboration basés sur le Web sont conçus et consacrés à supporter/soutenir le travail individuel et le travail en groupe dans divers domaines: la recherche, les affaires, l'éducation, etc. N'importe quelle activité dans un système d'information produit un ensemble de traces. Dans un contexte de travail collaboratif, de telles traces peuvent être très volumineuses et hétérogènes. Pour un Environnement de Travail Collaboratif (ETC) typique Basé sur le Web, les traces sont principalement produites par des activités collaboratives ou des interactions collaboratives et peuvent être enregistrées. Les traces modélisées ne représentent pas seulement la connaissance, mais aussi l'expérience acquise par les acteurs via leurs interactions mutuelles ou les interactions qu'ils ont avec le système. Avec la complexité croissante de la structure de groupe et les besoins fréquents de collaboration, les interactions existantes deviennent de plus en plus difficiles à saisir et à analyser. Or, pour leurs travaux futurs, les gens ont souvent besoin de récupérer des informations issues de leurs activités de collaboration précédentes. Cette thèse se concentre sur la définition, la modélisation et l'exploitation des différentes traces dans le contexte d'Environnement de Travail Collaboratif et en particulier aux Traces Collaboratives dans l'espace de travail partagé de groupe (ou l'espace de travail collaboratif). Un modèle de traces de collaboration qui peuvent efficacement enrichir l'expérience du groupe et aider à la collaboration de groupe est proposé et détaillé. Nous présentons ensuite et définissons un type de filtre complexe comme un moyen possible d'exploiter ces traces. Plusieurs scénarios de base d'exploitation des traces collaboratives sont présentés. Pour chacun d'entre eux, nous présentons leurs effets et les avantages procurés par ces effets dans l'environnement de travail collaboratif. En effet, un cadre de l'exploitation des traces général est introduit et nous expliquons mis en œuvre dans un ETC. Trois approches collaboratives générant des traces sont discutées à l'aide d'exemples: l'Analyse SWOT, l'intégration de modèle de maturité de la capacité (CMMI) et le Système de Recommandation de Groupe. Une expérimentation de ce modèle a été réalisée dans le cadre de la plate-forme collaborative E-MEMORAe2.0. Cette expérience montre que notre modèle de trace collaborative et le cadre d'exploitation proposé pour l'environnement de travail collaboratif peuvent faciliter à la fois le travail personnel et de groupe. Notre approche peut être appliquée comme un moyen générique pour traiter différents sujets et problèmes, qu'il s'agisse de collaboration ou de l'exploitation des traces laissées dans un ECT.Human science and social progress cannot continue without collaboration. With the rapid development of information technologies and the popularity of smart devices, collaborative work is much simpler and more common than ever. People can work together irrespective of their geographical location or time limitation. In recently years, Web-based Collaborative Working Environments (CWE) are designed and devoted to support both individual and group work to a greater extent in various areas: research, business, learning and etc. Any activity in an information system produces a set of traces. In a collaborative working context, such traces may be very voluminous and heterogeneous. For a typical Webbased Collaborative Working Environment, traces are mainly produced by collaborative activities or interactions and can be recorded. The modeled traces not only represent knowledge but also experience concerning the interactive actions among the actors or between actors and the system. With the increasing complexity of group structure and frequent collaboration needs, the existing interactions become more difficult to grasp and to analyze. And for the future work, people often need to retrieve more information from their previous collaborative activities. This thesis focuses on defining, modeling and exploiting the various traces in the context of CWE, in particular, Collaborative Traces (CTs) in the group shared/collaborativeworkspace. A model of collaborative traces that can efficiently enrich group experience and assist group collaboration is proposed and detailed. In addition, we introduce and define a type of complex filter as a possible means to exploit the traces. Several basic scenarios of collaborative traces exploitation are presented describing their effects and advantages in CWE. Furthermore, a general traces exploitation framework is introduced and implemented in CWE. Three possible traces based collaborative approaches are discussed with comprehensive examples: SWOT Analysis, Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) and Group Recommendation System. As a practical experience we tested our model in the context of the E-MEMORAe2.0 collaborative platform. Practical cases show that our proposed CT model and the exploitation framework for CWE can facilitate both personal and group work. This approach can be applied as a generic way for addressing different types of collaboration and trace issues/problems in CWE.COMPIEGNE-BU (601592101) / SudocSudocFranceF

Rhetorical Transformations in Multimodal Advertising Texts: From General to Local Degree Zero

The use of rhetoric in advertising research has been steadily gaining momentum since the 1980’s. Coupled with an increased interest in multimodality and the multiple interactions among verbal, pictorial and auditory registers, as structural components of an ad filmic text, the hermeneutic tools furnished by traditional rhetoric have been expanded and elaborated. This paper addresses the fundamental question of how ad filmic texts assume signification from a multimodal rhetorical point of view, by engaging in a fruitful dialogue with various research streams within the wider semiotic discipline and consumer research. By critically addressing the context of analysis of a multimodal ad text in the course of the argumentation deployed by different approaches, such as Social Semiotics (Kress/Leeuwen 2001), Film Semiotics (i.e. Metz 1982, Carroll 1980, Branigan 1982), Visual Semiotics (i.e. Sonesson 2008; 2010, Eco 1972;1976;1986, Groupe " 1992), Consumer Research (i.e. Mick/McQuarrie 1999; 2004, Philips 2003, Scott 1994), the relative merits of a structuralist approach that prioritizes the distinction between local and general degree zero, as put forward by Groupe " (1992), are highlighted. Furthermore, the modes whereby rhetorical transformations are enacted are outlined, with view to deepening the conceptual tackling of degree zero of signification, while addressing its applicability to branding discourse and multimodal ad texts

A future for Hashima: pornography, representation and time

This article sets out to investigate the relationship between ruins, futurity, and ‘ruin porn’ - a visual mode of representation that all too often seeks to fix post-industrial ruins as mere aesthetic objects, devoid of history and/or temporality. It does so by focusing on performance, which, in this context, is understood as a processual mode of art-making that provides spectators with an experience of time. In this expanded definition of performance, as one may perhaps expect, the performativity of the object is not limited to the theatrical event alone; rather, it now inheres in sometimes uncanny durational aspects of both still and moving images. The essay proceeds in three stages. Part one provides a historical and theoretical overview of the type of performance inherent in ‘ruin porn’; part two critiques two images from Yves Marchand's and Romain Meffre's Gunkanjima (2013), a photo album that attempted to document the ruins of Hashima, an island situated 15 kilometres from Nagasaki City in the East China Sea; and part three investigates the very different aesthetic at work in Lee Hassall's film Return to Battleship Island (2013) which was made in response to AHRC- funded project, ‘The Future of Ruins: Reclaiming Abandonment and Toxicity on Hashima Island’ (2013). In this reading of Return to Battleship Island , the onus is on showing how Hassall's film, in its representation of Hashima's crumbling apartment blocks and industrial buildings, intentionally sought to contest the atemporal logic of ‘ruin porn’ by attempting to endow the viewing experience with a sense of futurity. Crucially, this does not mean that film represented the future as an object, but, on the contrary, tried to make it palpable, as something one undergoes physically in the very act of reception