Council for European Studies Fellowship Report

My project concerns the Dames des Halles during the French Revolution. My research focuses on the political activism and cultural representation of these Parisian merchants. During the Revolution, the Dames struggled to maintain their Old Regime position as ritual representatives of the people by appropriating revolutionary practices and discourse. Although the Dames des Halles proved to be critical political actors in several journées, historians have yet to undertake a comprehensive study of their revolutionary activism. In order to throw into relief the complexity of female political practice during the Revolution, I analyze, on the one hand, the economic, religious, ritual, and gendered elements of their political activism. On the other hand, I study how other revolutionary actors visually and textually deployed the Dames’ image for their own political ends. Working at the intersection of popular politics, popular culture, and economics, I intend to study the Dames des Halles’ political activism and the simultaneous renegotiation of their public identity throughout the course of the Revolution

Technical Report: Cooperative Multi-Target Localization With Noisy Sensors

This technical report is an extended version of the paper 'Cooperative Multi-Target Localization With Noisy Sensors' accepted to the 2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). This paper addresses the task of searching for an unknown number of static targets within a known obstacle map using a team of mobile robots equipped with noisy, limited field-of-view sensors. Such sensors may fail to detect a subset of the visible targets or return false positive detections. These measurement sets are used to localize the targets using the Probability Hypothesis Density, or PHD, filter. Robots communicate with each other on a local peer-to-peer basis and with a server or the cloud via access points, exchanging measurements and poses to update their belief about the targets and plan future actions. The server provides a mechanism to collect and synthesize information from all robots and to share the global, albeit time-delayed, belief state to robots near access points. We design a decentralized control scheme that exploits this communication architecture and the PHD representation of the belief state. Specifically, robots move to maximize mutual information between the target set and measurements, both self-collected and those available by accessing the server, balancing local exploration with sharing knowledge across the team. Furthermore, robots coordinate their actions with other robots exploring the same local region of the environment.Comment: Extended version of paper accepted to 2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA

Enabling quantitative data analysis through e-infrastructures

This paper discusses how quantitative data analysis in the social sciences can engage with and exploit an e-Infrastructure. We highlight how a number of activities which are central to quantitative data analysis, referred to as ‘data management’, can benefit from e-infrastructure support. We conclude by discussing how these issues are relevant to the DAMES (Data Management through e-Social Science) research Node, an ongoing project that aims to develop e-Infrastructural resources for quantitative data analysis in the social sciences

Methods used in cross-culturalcomparisons of vasomotor symptoms and their determinants

Methodological differences among studies of vasomotor symptoms limit rigorous comparison or systematic review. Vasomotor symptoms generally include hot flushes and night sweats although other associated symptoms exist. Prevalence rates vary between and within populations, but different studies collect data on frequency, bothersomeness, and/or severity using different outcome measures and scales, making comparisons difficult. We reviewed only cross-cultural studies of menopausal symptoms that explicitly examined symptoms in general populations of women in different countries or different ethnic groups in the same country. This resulted in the inclusion of nine studies: Australian/Japanese Midlife Women's Health Study (AJMWHS), Decisions At Menopause Study (DAMeS), Four Major Ethnic Groups (FMEG), Hilo Women's Health Survey (HWHS), Mid-Aged Health in Women from the Indian Subcontinent (MAHWIS), Penn Ovarian Aging Study (POAS), Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN), Women's Health in Midlife National Study (WHiMNS), and Women's International Study of Health and Sexuality (WISHeS). These studies highlight the methodological challenges involved in conducting multi-population studies, particularly when languages differ, but also highlight the importance of performing multivariate and factor analyses. Significant cultural differences in one or more vasomotor symptoms were observed in 8 of 9 studies, and symptoms were influenced by the following determinants: menopausal status, hormones (and variance), age (or actually, the square of age, age2), BMI, depression, anxiety, poor physical health, perceived stress, lifestyle factors (hormone therapy use, smoking and exposure to passive smoke), and acculturation (in immigrant populations). Recommendations are made to improve methodological rigor and facilitate comparisons in future cross-cultural menopause studies

Transfer of type specimens of fossil fishes to the Bavarian State Collection for Palaeontology and Geology with some notes on their history of research

Recent acquisitions to the Bavarian State Collection for Palaeontology and Geology comprise part of the palaeontological collections of the former Heimatmuseum Bad Windsheim and the former Institute of Palaeontology and Geology at the University of Würzburg. Among the specimens are the holotypes of three fishes, Aphelolepis delpi Heller, 1953, Crenilepis sandbergeri Dames, 1888 and Coelacanthus giganteus Winkler, 1880. The type specimen of Crenilepis sandbergeri erroneously has been reported as being lost, while Coelacanthus giganteus has been regarded even as a nomen nudum. Crenilepis Dames is shown to be nomenclaturally valid, while „Crenilepis Reis, 1887“ is not available, „Crenolepis Carus 1888“ is a misspelling, and „Crenilepoides Strand, 1929“ is an unjustified replacement name.Neuere Zuwächse der Bayerischen Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie umfassen Teile der paläontologischen Sammlungen des früheren Heimatmuseums Bad Windsheim und des früheren Instituts für Paläontologie und Geologie der Universität Würzburg. Unter den bedeutenderen Stücken sind die Holotypen der Fische Aphelolepis delpi Heller, 1953, Crenilepis sandbergeri Dames, 1888 und Coelacanthus giganteus Winkler, 1880. Das Typusexemplar von Crenilepis sandbergeri wurde irrtümlich als verloren angesehen und Coelacanthus giganteus sogar als nomen nudum bezeichnet. Es wird gezeigt, dass Crenilepis Dames nomenklatorisch valide ist und dass „Crenilepis Reis, 1887“ nicht verfügbar, „Crenolepis Carus, 1888“ lediglich ein Schreibfehler und „Crenolepoides Strand, 1929“ ein überflüssiger Ersatzname ist

Christine de Pizan : ¿una feminista ante litteram?

En diálogo con la bibliografía crítica existente sobre Christine de Pizan y mediante una lectura atenta de La cité des dames, este artículo aboga por la consideración de esta autora como precursora feminista, subrayando el valor político de la querelle des femmes, la incipiente teoría feminista contenida en La cité des dames y la actualidad de muchos de sus elementos, como la conciencia del carácter construido del género o la concepción de lo femenino como proyección masculina

Kosher Seductions: Jewish Women as Employees and Consumers in German Department Stores

Department stores have long been associated with the trope of seducing female consumers, at least since the publication of Emile Zola’s novel Au bonheur des dames in 1883. This fictionalized portrayal of the Parisian department store Bon Marche, which has exerted considerable influence among early chroniclers of department store culture, identifies store owners as men who build ‘temples’ for prospective customers, and who use inebriating tactics to encourage them to enter and spend money. The consumer is gendered female in this and in many other literary works on the department store of the time; she is depicted as reluctant, yet sometimes eager to be tempted by male-driven consumer worlds

Overview of methods used in cross-culturalcomparisons of menopausal symptoms and their determinants: Guidelines for Strengthening the Reporting of Menopause and Aging (STROMA) studies

This paper reviews the methods used in cross-cultural studies of menopausal symptoms with the goal of formulating recommendations to facilitate comparisons of menopausal symptoms across cultures. It provides an overview of existing approaches and serves to introduce four separate reviews of vasomotor, psychological, somatic, and sexual symptoms at midlife. Building on an earlier review of cross-cultural studies of menopause covering time periods until 2004, these reviews are based on searches of Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL and Google Scholar for English-language articles published from 2004 to 2010 using the terms “cross cultural comparison” and “menopause.” Two major criteria were used: a study had to include more than one culture, country, or ethnic group and to have asked about actual menopausal symptom experience. We found considerable variation across studies in age ranges, symptom lists, reference period for symptom recall, variables included in multivariate analyses, and the measurement of factors (e.g., menopausal status and hormonal factors, demographic, anthropometric, mental/physical health, and lifestyle measures) that influence vasomotor, psychological, somatic and sexual symptoms. Based on these reviews, we make recommendations for future research regarding age range, symptom lists, reference/recall periods, and measurement of menopausal status. Recommendations specific to the cross-cultural study of vasomotor, psychological, somatic, and sexual symptoms are found in the four reviews that follow this introduction