Veils and velocities

The bonds of fashion and the constructed environment are deep, tectonically and culturally. In medieval spiritual meditation, the mind was built in the image of awalled city whose buildings were “clothed” by moral understanding; in Renaissance Florence, the philosopher-doctor Marsilio Ficino recommended that planetary colors be wornand applied as architectural ornament to assist in contemplation and judgment. Linkedetymologically, our habits (abitudine), clothing (abito), and buildings (abitazione) are therevealing ornaments of our minds, preparing us for everyday life. The array of artifacts andaccessories that extend from clothing to shelter furnishes the imagination with ingredientsfor personal and shared memory and identity. This article will consider several historicaland contemporary examples.Los lazos de la moda y el entorno son profundos, tectónica y culturalmente.En la meditación espiritual medieval, la mente era construida en la imagen de una ciudadamurallada, cuyos edificios estaban “vestidos” de comprensión moral; en la Florenciadel Renacimiento, el filósofo Marsilio Ficino recomendaba que los colores planetarios seaplicaran a la vestimenta y como adorno arquitectónico para ayudar a la contemplacióny al buen juicio. Enlazado etimológicamente, nuestros hábitos (abitudine), ropa (abito) yedificios (abitazione) son los adornos reveladores de nuestra mente y nos preparan parala vida cotidiana. El conjunto de artefactos y accesorios que van desde la indumentariahasta la vivienda nutren la imaginación con los ingredientes para la memoria personal ycompartida y la identidad. En este artículo se tendrá en cuenta varios ejemplos históricosy contemporáneos.Os laços da moda e o entorno são profundas, tectônica e culturalmente. Nameditação espiritual medieval, a mente era construída na imagem de uma cidade fortificada,e seus edifícios estavam vestidos de compreensão moral; na Florência do Renascimento, o filósofo Marsílio Ficino recomendava que as cores planetárias se aplicassem à vestimentae como adorno arquitetônico para ajudar à contemplação e ao bom juízo. Ligado etimologicamente, nossos hábitos (abitudine), roupa (abito) e edifícios (abitazione) são osadornos reveladores da nossa mente e nos preparam para a vida cotidiana. O conjunto deartefatos e acessórios que vão desde a indumentária até a morada nutrem a imaginaçãocom os ingredientes para a memória pessoal e compartilhada e a identidade. Neste artigose mostrarão exemplos históricos e contemporâneos.&nbsp

Utopian religions in America: The Shakers, the Oneida Perfectionists and the Mormons, an issue of survival

The Mormon Church has attracted many new members to its religion since its inception and has grown into a world religion. However, the Shakers only have a few remaining members, and the Oneida Perfectionists have none. By examining the founding figures’ personality traits, each community’s sexual attitudes and key rituals, and especially their recruitment methods, I will demonstrate why the Mormons have attracted so many more followers than the other two utopian communities, and why people have found the attitudes and rituals of the Mormon Church to be more attractive. In other words, I will show why the Mormons were much more successful at recruiting new members

A Stroke Therapy Brace Design

Victims of stroke often have difficulty with rehabilitation. With limited movement on their affected arm, patients often do not want to move much for physical therapy. In this project, we design a robotic brace that helps stroke patients move their arm more effectively in a reaching or pulling motion. By giving patients more movement in their affected arm than they would have otherwise, patients gain more from rehabilitation. The brace also adapts to the patient’s needs, providing more inclination or resistance as needed for their physical therapy. This kind of therapy engages patients rather than relying on their likely dwindled motivation. This project includes both software coding and hardware implementation. A video of the project demonstration is available upon request

Routing in multi-class queueing networks

PhD ThesisWe consider the problem of routing (incorporating local scheduling) in a distributed network. Dedicated jobs arrive directly at their specified station for processing. The choice of station for generic jobs is open. Each job class has an associated holding cost rate. We aim to develop routing policies to minimise the long-run average holding cost rate. We first consider the class of static policies. Dacre, Glazebrook and Nifio-Mora (1999) developed an approach to the formulation of static routing policies, in which the work at each station is scheduled optimally, using the achievable region approach. The achievable region approach attempts to solve stochastic optimisation problems by characterising the space of all possible performances and optimising the performance objective over this space. Optimal local scheduling takes the form of a priority policy. Such static routing policies distribute the generic traffic to the stations via a simple Bernoulli routing mechanism. We provide an overview of the achievements made in following this approach to static routing. In the course of this discussion we expand upon the study of Becker et al. (2000) in which they considered routing to a collection of stations specialised in processing certain job classes and we consider how the composition of the available stations affects the system performance for this particular problem. We conclude our examination of static routing policies with an investigation into a network design problem in which the number of stations available for processing remains to be determined. The second class of policies of interest is the class of dynamic policies. General DP theory asserts the existence of a deterministic, stationary and Markov optimal dynamic policy. However, a full DP solution may be unobtainable and theoretical difficulties posed by simple routing problems suggest that a closed form optimal policy may not be available. This motivates a requirement for good heuristic policies. We consider two approaches to the development of dynamic routing heuristics. We develop an idea proposed, in the context of simple single class systems, by Krishnan (1987) by applying a single policy improvement step to some given static policy. The resulting dynamic policy is shown to be of simple structure and easily computable. We include an investigation into the comparative performance of the dynamic policy with a number of competitor policies and of the performance of the heuristic as the number of stations in the network changes. In our second approach the generic traffic may only access processing when the station has been cleared of all (higher priority) jobs and can be considered as background work. We deploy a prescription of Whittle (1988) developed for RBPs to develop a suitable approach to station indexation. Taking an approximative approach to Whittle's proposal results in a very simple form of index policy for routing the generic traffic. We investigate the closeness to optimality of the index policy and compare the performance of both of the dynamic routing policies developed here

Upstream / Downstream

En mi artículo para el Cuaderno 48, Velos y veladuras, exploramos las relacionesentre decoración e identidad, su relación con la condición humana de “poner unpie afuera” y “encajar”, y la capacidad del ornamento de transmitir historias a través deltiempo y alimentar la imaginación. Abundante o escaso, el ornamento permite a la menteinterpretar la narrativa, cultural y personal, y la lectura atenta de nuestros entornos ayudaa sintonizar las nuevas obras construidas con las preocupaciones contemporáneas yfuturas. Para este artículo, focalizo en un argumento secundario introducido en Velos yveladuras, donde explico que: “mientras que las mejoras sostenibles a menudo se centranen productos intermedios derivados de la producción, las lecturas cercanas se pueden realizaren sentido ascendente en la secuencia de fabricación, mejorando el bienestar de losfabricantes y la poética de un producto” (Kirkbride, 2013, p. 185). Este trabajo consideravarias escalas y modos de actividades previas, a partir de la tectónica de las cuencas hidrográficasy la gestión del sitio, a la conciencia de la historia y de la posición propia de unoen ella, y la reconceptualización de un producto por los flujos de su cadena de suministroy el ciclo de vida. Voy a recorrer los orígenes de esta idea –un paseo río arriba a través deuna cuenca con problemas durante una lluvia torrencial– y sigo sus influencias en variaslecciones prácticas y ejercicios basados en proyectos desarrollados en Parsons The NewSchool for Design.In my article for Cuaderno 48, “Veils and Velocities,” I explored relationshipsbetween decorum and identity, their relation to the human predicament of “standing out”and “fitting in,” and the capacity for ornament to convey stories across time and fuel theimagination. Plentiful or spare, ornament equips the mind to interpret narratives, culturaland personal, and close readings of our constructed environments help tune new worksto contemporary and future concerns. For the current issue, I sharpen focus on a subplotintroduced in “Veils and Velocities,” where I note: “while sustainable improvements oftenfocus on downstream byproducts of production, close readings can be performed upstreamin the manufacturing sequence, enhancing the wellbeing of fabricators and the poetics ofa product” (Kirkbride, 2013, p. 185). This paper considers several scales and modes ofupstreaming, from the tectonics of a watershed and site management, to the awareness ofhistory and one’s own position in it, and the reconceptualization of a product by the flowsof its supply chain and lifecycle. I’ll retrace the origins of this notion –a walk upstreamthrough a troubled watershed during a torrential rainstorm– and follow its influences onseveral object lessons and project-based exercises at Parsons The New School for Design.No meu artigo para o Caderno 48, Velos y veladuras se exploraram as relaçõesentre decoração e identidade, sua relação com a condição humana de “por um pé fora”e “encaixar”, e a capacidade do ornamento de transmitir histórias através do tempo ealimentar a imaginação. Abundante ou escasso, o ornamento permite à mente interpretara narrativa, cultural e pessoal, e a leitura atenta de nossos ambientes ajuda a sintonizar asnovas obras construídas com as preocupações contemporâneas e futuras. Para este artigo,se focaliza num argumento secundário introduzido em Velos y veladuras, onde se explicaque “enquanto melhorias sustentáveis muitas vezes se concentram produtos intermédiosderivados da produção, leituras pertas podem ser feitas em sentido ascendente na seqüênciade fabricação, melhorando o bem-estar dos fabricantes e a poética de um produto”(Kirkbride, 2013, p. 185). Este trabalho considera várias escalas e modos de atividadesprévias, a partir da tectônica das bacias hidrográficas e a gestão do sítio, à consciência dahistória e da posição própria de um nela, e a re-conceitualizacão de um produto por osfluxos de sua correia de abastecimentos e o ciclo de vida. Percorrer-se-á as origens destaidéia –um passeio rio acima através de uma bacia com problemas durante uma chuvatorrencial– seguindo suas influencias em várias aulas práticas e exercícios baseados emprojetos desenvolvidos em Parsons The New School for Design

Tephrochronological dating of Holocene moraines at Icelandic glaciers, and climatic interpretations

Fluctuations of Icelandic glaciers reveal the impact of regional climate change on the cryosphere, filtered by the different response characteristics of individual glaciers. Frequent tephra deposition upon steadily aggrading aeolian soils provides a useful dating environment, in which basal tephras often provide close minimum ages on underlying tills and outwash deposits in areas where the local tephrostratigraphy is well constrained. We have dated moraines at glaciers across Iceland to improve the Holocene glacial chronology in terms of its temporal extent and resolution. Tephrochronology also provides a test of lichenometric dating, an area for further research. At least five groups of regionally-synchronous advances occurred between c. AD 1700 and 1930 during the “Little Ice Age”. The maximum extent of “Little Ice Age” glaciers varies by up to 200 years across Iceland, due more to the response chraracteristics of individual glaciers than to regional climatic variation. At Gígjökull, two glacier advances occurred before the 3rd century AD, with others in the 9th and 12th centuries AD bracketing the Medieval Warm Period. In central and northern Iceland, earlier glacier advances are dated to c. 4.5-5.0, c.3.0-3.5 ka BP, c. 2.0-2.5 ka BP. This classic “Neoglacial” sequence is comparable to other parts of Europe and Scandinavia, but is discernible only at smaller mountain glaciers. In contrast, the 19th-Century advance of large ice caps censored evidence of earlier fluctuations from the moraine record, and preservation potential is preconditioned by glacier type. In general, the forefields of steep, fast-responding glaciers contain more complete archives of Holocene climatic changes than do the margins of the large icefields. Glacier advances appear to be favoured by a weakening of zonal circulation (the negative mode of the North Atlantic Oscillation) associated with cooler, drier winters and cooler, wetter summers

Enhancing non-academic classroom skills for young students with disabilities through social stories

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between a social story intervention and non-academic social behavior in young students in a special day class. In this study, three participants with a variety of disabilities were selected from a special day class. When individual undesired behaviors are taken into account along with functional equivalents, identified through a functional behavior assessment, it is hypothesized that undesired behaviors will decrease with a corresponding increase in appropriate behavior. Non-academic skills were identified with the attempt of increasing these proficiencies and decreasing challenging behavior through social story interventions. Participants for this study were recruited from the researcher\u27s classroom in Palm Springs Unified School District