bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Reading Human Sex
Authors: Thoms Victoria
Published: October 2006

This article charts the feminist perspectives that have come out of the author’s thinking on the dance performance text Human Sex and how this has informed her own feminism. In doing so, the author argues that a feminist agenda is shifting and dynamic but also reliant upon prior readings and interpretations that provide the point of reference for a departure to other readings and perspectives. Using autobiographical material, the author highlights the importance of considering the personal histories of subject-hood that influence a feminist consciousness and how these are the condition of possibility for making other readings. To demonstrate the shifting character of identity over time, she engages in different readings of Human Sex through the work of feminist theorists Sara Ahmed, Judith Butler and Peggy Phelan.
Stereoscopy and Pre-Raphaelitism
Authors: Kanemitsu Yoko
Published: October 2006

My argument attempts to rethink discourse on John Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelite paintings in terms of media and technological concerns. In particular, I discuss their discourse in relation to the Victorian optical practice of the stereoscope. The visual space of the stereoscope is radically different from the mimetic capacities of photography, film and television in that stereoscopy depends on the absence of any mediation between the viewing subject and the object. In this respect, it is possible to argue that stereoscopic images have echoes of dematerialised computer-generated imagery. According to technological determinists, digital image production technologies are entirely 'new' practices which will completely change cultural forms. However, the emergence of new media specifically and technology generally does not occur outside the most dominant and pervasive media, but occurs within existing social relations, cultural forms and their histories. The emergence of image production technologies in nineteenth-century visual culture is not simply the product of the so-called 'age of mechanical reproduction'. In this paper, this is discussed by drawing on discourses on Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites.
Impact Aesthetics: Back to the Future in Digital Cinema?
Authors: McQuire Scott
Published: October 2006

This article engages recent debates about the future of cinema in the digital age. Firstly, it seeks to broaden the rather narrow terms in which the transition to digital cinema is often understood in film theory. Secondly, it tries to assess claims about the 'demise of narrative' frequently associated with the digital threshold. On one level, it is argued that a dialectical understanding of the relation between terms such as 'narrative' and 'spectacle' is needed to advance current debates. On another level, it is suggested that digital technology should not be wholly defined by the current dominance of 'blockbuster' films. In place of technological determinism, an understanding based on the politics of spectacle and distracted spectatorship is advanced.
Medium Specificity Re-visited
Authors: Maras Steven , Sutton David
Published: October 2006

Medium specificity arguments have had a long history in film theory. Forged primarily in studies seeking to locate the differences between cinema and theatre,1 or cinema and literature,2 such arguments have a much earlier history in the idea that art forms can be differentiated from one another on the basis of their means of imitation. Medium specificity theories generally concern themselves with the idea that different media have 'essential' and unique characteristics that form the basis of how they can and should be used. Within Film Studies, interest in both the idea of a 'cinematic apparatus' and the formative period of early cinema can be viewed as reactions emerging from a long period of engagement with medium specificity theories. Curiously, while it is common practice to use cinema as an analogy for multimedia, 3 there is little direct discussion of the relevance, or irrelevance, of medium specificity arguments in the broader space of 'new media' theory. 4 Our intent in this article is not to revive medium specificity arguments as these have already been problematised, but rather to establish them as a concern for new media theory, and also to extract from them a concept of specificity that can account for the different characteristics of established and emergent media.
Approaches to Analysing the Web Text
Authors: Rivett Miriam
Published: October 2006

This paper challenges the dominance of concepts of hypertextuality as the foundation for the analysis of web texts. Instead it argues that web texts cannot be understood without reference to their specific contexts of production and consumption. As part of the construction of an alternative to existing analytical approaches to the web text contemporary practice in web design is surveyed, as are its relations with the culture of particular groups of producers. Drawing on an interdisciplinary framework allied to the field of British media and cultural studies, this paper suggests how the analysis of the web site might be approached in terms of its status as an emergent media/cultural form. It discusses how such forms might be understood in terms of the shared social conventions which inflect their production. It argues that web sites can neither be analysed in terms of generic hypertext or as a homogeneous genre and that rather the formation of groupings of sites in line with the ideologies, values and preoccupations of their producers require concrete analysis together with further research into specific practices of 'reading' web texts.
Beyond the ABC's Backyard
Authors: Martin Fiona , Wilson Helen
Published: October 2006

Over its 70 year history the ABC has attempted to map the spatiality of the Australian nation with TV and radio networks- networks designed in part to service regional and remote Australia with information and entertainment. However, until recently the ABC's ability to reflect the diverse experiences, ideas and perspectives of regional Australians in broadcast media was largely restricted by geography, a federalist heritage, limited resources and the concentration of ABC resources in urban centres.
The Mobile Phone
Authors: Gordon Janey
Published: October 2006

[C]ontrol over media production is diverging and new, sometimes less traditional, content providers are entering the media industries. However, research on media convergence has mostly addressed stationary settings. But with the growing phenomenon of mobile information technology, it is becoming increasingly important to consider mobility as a dimension of media convergence and mobile media as a new research field. (Andreas Nilsson, Urban Nuldén and Daniel Olsson)2
Newspaper Readership v. News Emails
Authors: Carroll Brian
Published: October 2006

Migrating from print to online media has been a difficult, financially unsuccessful endeavour thus far for most media organisations. The lack of a consistently reliable revenue stream and failure to satisfy information needs are two major reasons why. Of concern is displacing existing revenue streams with a new medium. This study, the first to look at industry trade publishing on the internet, is an attempt to find out whether recipients of daily email news updates from furniture industry trade publication Furniture/Today spend less time with the weekly print edition. To find the answer, 678 recipients via email of FurniturelToday's eDaily news update each morning were surveyed in March 2001. The study puts to an empirical test the principle of relative constancy, which theorises that consumers spend a relatively fixed amount of money on and time with media.
The Cinema as a Model for the Genealogy of Media
Authors: Gaudreault André , Marion Philippe
Published: October 2006

This article outlines a dynamic model whose goal is to make a contribution to the understanding of the genealogy of media. We will suggest a few avenues of investigation which may be able to account for the identity processes followed by different media. In this respect we think it is important to understand how a new medium gradually finds its 'identity' while at the same time expressing, in a more-or-less unique manner, a quality of intermediality, whose presence is constant and irrepressible. When a medium appears, an intelligible media culture already exists. When a medium comes into the world, it must also get to grips with pre-established codes (genres, institutions, other media, etc). What we hope to demonstrate here is the extent to which the very concept of the birth of a medium is problematic and paradoxical, at least if we consider birth as a unique and circumscribed event that punctuates the unfolding of history. Our task here is thus to propose a dynamic model that can contribute to our understanding of the genealogy of media.
Multiple Pleasures
Authors: Taylor T.L.
Published: October 2006

This article explores the issue of gender and computer games by looking at the growing population of women in massive multiplayer online role-playing environments (MMORPGs). It explores what are traditionally seen as masculine spaces and seeks to understand the variety of reasons women might participate. Through ethnographic and interview data, the themes of social interaction, mastery and status, team participation, and exploration are considered as compelling activities female gamers are engaging in online. Given that these online games often include a component of fighting, the issue of violence is discussed. Rather than seeing this group of players as an anomaly, this article explores how focusing on the pleasures women derive from gaming might lend a more complex understanding of both gender and computer games. Finally, a consideration of how design is affecting this emerging genre is explored.
Readers in Reading Groups
Authors: Sedo DeNel Rehberg
Published: October 2006

Using the findings of an online survey that yielded 252 responses from readers in Canada, the USA, Australia, the UK, Israel, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Japan, this article shows who readers are, what they read, and that reading is an integral part of people's lives. Equally as vibrant is the book club movement in which the readers meet either in a face-to-face (f2f) or a virtual environment, bringing with them to each reading and meeting their own specific, influential socio-cultural resources, which also influence what they get from their clubs and how they operate within those cultural sites. Through club discussions, whether online or in person, members interpret books, forming social bonds that allow them to fulfil their desires to learn about the world and themselves. The article also attempts to explain why book club members are mainly women and how the mass media might influence this. It concludes with an argument that both f2f and virtual book club research must be conducted using both quantitative and qualitative methods.
Kaleidostories
Authors: Bers Marina Umaschi
Published: October 2006

We live in a society where concepts of self, community and 'what is right and wrong' are constantly changing. Consequently, there is a need for learning environments that encourage young people to actively explore their identity as well as the personal and social values they live by. Computational tools have the potential to foster learning about these issues. However, there has been little research in this area. This paper shows how online collaborative environments can serve as tools to facilitate young people's thinking about moral and identity issues. The paper describes two pilot experiences in which bilingual middle and high school students and their teachers, in five different sites around the world, used Kaleidostories, a web-based narrative tool to support the formation of a virtual community to exchange stories about shared values and role models. The goal of this research project is to explore how new technologies can assist young people to discover their own selves as well as the underlying patterns of thought and behaviour that connect the worldviews proposed by different cultures. The project shows how teachers were able to use the online community to complement and augment their face to face activities and interactions by integrating Kaleidostories into different curricular content areas.
Designing Interesting Learning Environments When the Medium isn't enough
Authors: Joseph Diana , Nacu Denise C.
Published: October 2006

Educators broadly agree that interest plays an important role in learning. In our work, we develop learning environments that align learner interest and important adult-defined learning objectives. Through this work we have come to recognise the complexity of the enterprise of this kind of learning environment design.1 At this stage, we have a relatively stable design model in the passion curriculum design approach.2 Missing, however, is a basis for analysing the interests and engagement of individual learners as they interact with a learning environment over time. This paper describes the theoretical and design frameworks we use, and recounts our most recent curriculum implementation, Multimedia Studio, and how it exposed this critical gap in the design model. We found that designing for learner interest is an even more complex undertaking than we originally understood. The lessons learned demonstrate the challenges of interest-centred approaches to curriculum design and can inform the work of other learning environment designers and researchers working in similar contexts.
Shaping Convergence Media
Authors: Kilker Julian Albert
Published: October 2006

A key feature of convergence of media and information technologies is their ability to provide enhanced user control features that potentially provide a wider range of domestication possibilities. Although popular representations of personalised media (such as 'The Daily Me' electronic newspaper) typically portray user control in basic terms, such as filtering based on user-defined media topics, recent experience with convergence media indicates that users have additional expectations. For example, users expect to control their media consumption through not only filtering, but also time-shifting, archiving, and reformulating content, as well as resisting control limitations such as those imposed by digital rights management systems and aggressive advertising. There is a considerable tension between user domestication and producer design imperatives in terms of user control in convergence media.
A New Colour Consciousness
Authors: Higgins Scott
Published: October 2006

A film's visual design is increasingly determined digitally, after principal cinematography. This essay charts the nature of the digital revolution in relation to digital colour grading. Faced with the new digital devices, filmmakers are casting about for appropriate, respectable functions. The paper examines how the first two mainstream Hollywood releases to feature digital colour designs, Gary Ross's Pleasantville (1998), and Joel and Ethan Coen's O Brother Where Art Thou (2000), work as aesthetic prototypes. It argues that digital colour may not so much entail a revolution as careful and considered integration, and one role of the early digitally graded film has been to set out concrete methods for reining the technology to craft norms. Close formal analysis of colour design in these films also illustrates how the aesthetic problems of the digital age replay the dynamics of stylistic development from the classical era.
The Future of Digital Cinema in Europe
Authors: Herold Anna
Published: October 2006

Abstracr Digital cinema offers a high-quality image in feature film production. Moreover, it is expected to make film distribution and exhibition more efficient. Policy-makers are becoming increasingly aware of the potential of digital cinema. Among them, the European Union (EU) has an important role to play: digital cinema may be seen as providing a solution to some of the structural difficulties surrounding European cinema. Indeed, efforts have been made at the EU level to take advantage of digital technology in the cinema sector. However, there remains some uncertainty as to copyright, securing delivery, standards development and in competition matters. To unlock the potential of digital cinema, these issues must be tackled.
Flirting On and Offline
Authors: Ben-Ze'ev Aaron
Published: October 2006

One of the most romantic sites to visit nowadays is cyberspace. At any moment, millions of people are surfing that space and having romantic affairs. Why do people feel compelled to leave the comfortable surroundings of their actual world and immerse themselves in this seductive space? Why are emotions so intense in this seemingly imaginary world? This paper tries to explore some of these issues by discussing the type of activity involved in offline and online affairs. A central contention of this paper is that most online affairs are more similar to flirting than to actual sexual affairs. The paper analyses the type of activities underlying flirting and their implications for online romantic affairs.1
Technological Evolution or Revolution? Sport Online Live Internet Commentary as Postmodern Cultural Form
Authors: Sandvoss Cornel
Published: October 2006

The coverage of sports has formed a key component of media content throughout the different stages of the development of communication technology. This article investigates to what extent the rise of online live text commentary of sporting events extends or departs from existing forms of representation in media sports, and thus whether it constitutes a form of technological evolution or revolution. The article argues that online sports commentary further advances the transnational distribution of sporting content and the rise of global sporting cultures, and thereby contributes to the globalisation tendencies of other electronic media such as television. At the same time online live text commentary in its minimal representation of the game event through facts and figures moves beyond the visual spectacle that has coined the televisual representation of sports, and thus requires modes of readership based on fan identification. Online live text commentary thus extends and alters the symbolic basis of sports coverage.
Remote News Delivery Down Under
Authors: Cokley John , Capel Chris
Published: October 2006

Newspapers represent 'communities talking to themselves'.1 We report on the resuscitation in October 2003 of a long-dead nineteenth and twentieth century community newspaper in the drought-stricken rural outback of Queensland, Australia, using simple digital publishing systems with reporting and production staff based near the Great Barrier Reef, on the coast more than 735 kilometres away to the north-east. The successful project illustrated the importance of local editorial control within the community newspaper model, as well as the potential of journalism to build positive community processes and structures during such projects. A survey of people who bought or read the first new edition also revealed an unexpectedly high capacity, given current received wisdom of 'the digital divide', within the financially-depressed town's residents to use emerging digital technologies to receive news and informational content. When coupled with data gathered from other recent surveys of news technology use, the authors identify key areas for future research into news distribution.
Converged Journalism and Quality: A Case Study of The Tampa Tribune News Stories
Authors: Huang Edgar , Rademakers Lisa , Fayemiwo Moshood A. , Dunlap Lillian
Published: October 2006

A content analysis, coupled with an in-depth interview, was done in this case study on The Tampa Tribune, a component of The News Center in Tampa, in an attempt to answer the question whether converged journalism has jeopardised journalistic quality. After comparing the quality factors shown in the Tribune stories before, at the beginning of, and three years into convergence, this study has found that media convergence has, overall, sustained the quality of news reporting.
KJLH-FM, South Central's Hub to the World: Black Radio's Emergence on the Internet
Authors: Johnson Phylis
Published: October 2006

KJLH-FM's Peabody Award winning Front Page programme was transformed in 1992 during the Los Angeles civil unrest. Ten years later, the internet provided the impetus for KJLH to present its community issues to a national audience, while continuing its commitment to local listeners. This case study examines how one small community commercial radio station extended its audience through streaming its popular and controversial public affairs programme across the internet. KJLH-FM, with only 5,600 watts of transmitting power, has embraced new technologies in its efforts to extend its audience across the USA and beyond, and to remain competitively and civically engaged in a highly deregulated and consolidated marketplace.
Virtual Environments and the Varieties of Interactive Experience in Information and Communication Technologies
Authors: Schroeder Ralph
Published: October 2006

The development of virtual reality (VR) has seen a proliferation of technologies and applications This paper argues that the types of experience which VR systems currently provide are closely linked to the kinds of expectations which users bring to them and to the context in which they are used This can be shown by examining the experience of one particular virtual environment in detail (in this case, the multi-user Virtuality game Legend Quest) in order to highlight the fact that there are a number of factors which shape the experience of virtual worlds Much can be gained in this case by identifyng how the user, from a subjective viewpoint, experiences the sense of 'presence', the awareness of another user, and the mode of navigation Although research in these areas is still at an early stage, a comparison with research into the uses of other information and communication technologies suggests that valuable clues about interaction with virtual environments can be gained from systematic investigation and comparison of the context, both social and technical, in which the experience of VR systems is embedded - with important implications for future VR development
Hypertext Systems
Authors: Dyer Alan
Published: October 2006

This paper is based on a research programme carried out at Coventry University's School of Art and Design in the UK Hypertext-based authoring methodologies have been examined for their potential use by undergraduate and postgraduate art and design students in the context of historical and theoretical studies Normally, students studying art and design present text-based theoretical material in the form of linearly structured essays and theses which do not exploit the two- and three-dimensional visualisation skills associated with studio and workshop based practice The paper explores the feasibility of employing hypertext document design as a means of linking art and design skills with the manipulation of text and image for theoretical research presentation The aim of the Coventry work is to determine the extent to which methodologies employed for the design and presentation of theoretical research in the field of art and design education can draw upon those visualisation and authoring skills which lie at the heart of studio and workshop practice The paper describes the wider historical and educational framework in which the research is set, introduces examples of software and prototype documents, and presents guidelines for introducing students to hypertext authoring methodologies
That's Interaction!
Authors: Harley Ross
Published: October 2006

This paper provides a broad overview of how notions of interaction and participation relate to the economic interests of industry and to the cultural forms that commerce subsequently generates to protect those interests. In particular, it concentrates on the 'synergies' that entertainment monopolies of the 1990s utilise to 'synchronise' a variety of entertainment products across divergent sites. It is argued that such 'commodified intertextuality' is greatly assisted by the popularisation of new technologies. The convergence of commercial interests in new media technologies also coincides with the expansion of the so-called 'entertainment economy' into new cultural spaces, including those properly considered the province of architecture and design. The origins of such developments in an earlier phase of modernity can tell us much about the types of products and discourses of interaction presently being developed and promoted by the media- entertainment complex.
Towards an Aesthetics of Heterogenesis
Authors: Broeckmann Andreas
Published: October 2006

We are currently witnessing the beginnings of a critical debate about digital media art and its aesthetic and practical specificities. It is becoming evident that art theory will have to develop a new instrumentarium for tackling the particular conditions of production and reception of digital media art, based on the particularities of digital technologies. The present essay will first discuss some examples of contemporary digital media art practices and will then suggest elements of an aesthetics of digital media art. It will focus on the notion of 'heterogenesis', of making different, and will point to forms of subjectification which are specific to the dispositive of digital media. In the conclusion, the concept of the 'war machine' (Deleuze/Guattari 1) is brought into play as a possible model for describing the specific form of machinic agency that is made possible by the use of digital media. The suggestions of this essay are prescriptive insofar as I feel there is a need to work towards a more critical understanding of the way in which media art intervenes in existing cultural and social processes.
The Sounds of Microsoft
Authors: Neuenfeldt Karl
Published: October 2006

This article sets out to explore the social and cultural roles of personnel engaged in compiling music for Microsoft's CD-ROMs entitled Encarta 97 Encyclopedia and Encarta 97 World Atlas. These CD-ROMs are significant artefacts insofar as they include a considerable number of pre-recorded music excerpts and strive to represent the world in terms of musical sounds.
Resonating Sound Art and the Aesthetics of Room Resonance
Authors: Cabrera Densil
Published: October 2006

Sustained acoustic resonance has been explored by many sound artists and, in some works, it is the central or sole mechanism of sound production. Instances are identified among the work of Ros Bandt, Garlo, Alan Lamb, Alvin Lucier, Gordon Monahan, Roger Winfield and others. In addition to shared formal elements, such works tend to share auditory phenomenological characteristics. It is hypothesised that sustained resonance in general exhibits a type of sound with particular aesthetic connotations, which are largely derived from psychoacoustic factors. This article outlines the terms of and discusses the findings from my experimental investigations into acoustic and psychoacoustic aspects of room resonance. The range of room resonance sounds available from one particular room was explored using a procedure adapted from one of Lucier's works. Listening tests were conducted on the resulting sounds, eliciting descriptive, evaluative and emotional responses from 13 subjects. There are some correspondences between the listening test results and apparent characteristics of resonating sound art.
Cyberspace and the Public Sphere
Authors: Dahlberg Lincoln
Published: October 2006

The developing 'global' network of computers, popularly referred to as the net, has sparked enthusiastic claims that this new medium holds the potential to revolutionise democracy. Central to this rhetoric is the concept of cyberspace. This virtual meeting place, created by computer networks, enables public interaction and information sharing. It is seen as providing the basis for the revitalisation of the public sphere and democracy. This article explores this prospect in relation to the political economy of the medium's ownership and control. I argue that the net's democratic potential is being limited by the rapid colonisation of cyberspace by capital. As a result, more than universal access to the net will be required to fulfil its democratic promise. Spaces for deliberative interaction in cyberspace also need to be protected and enhanced. Yet, democratisation beyond cyberspace may not automatically follow. Researchers and policy makers must pay greater attention to the systemic impediments involved. This, I conclude, is prerequisite to realising the democratic potential of the net.
Cybrids
Authors: Anders Peter
Published: October 2006

People regularly use perceived and cognitive spaces to navigate and think. These include zones of privacy, territory, the space of memory and visual thought. They let us map our environment, model or plan projects, even imagine places like Heaven or Hell.
Access to the Internet in East Central and South-Eastern Europe
Authors: Lengel Laura
Published: October 2006

Researchers are beginning to examine the impact of the internet in regions experiencing economic change and struggle. However, broad assumptions about opportunity and access to the internet in these regions still exist. An unproblematised 'global village', where equal opportunity to engage in an open dialogue, is yet to be achieved. This article examines these issues in East Central Europe and the electronic discourses emergent in and about this region.

The article questions the empowering capabilities of the internet in East Central Europe. The article will present the voices from this region who assert that only with widespread access, can the internet fulfil its democratic promise. Women's access to the internet will also be discussed. Finally, the article highlights women's organisations in Hungary, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic which are creating spaces for collaboration and connectivity, and providing a forum for new voices which have previously been silent.
The East, the West and the Rest
Authors: Marchart Oliver
Published: October 2006

The article seeks to explore Central Europe's role and location within the imaginary cartography of techno-colonialist discourses on electronic networks. Ideologists of the European Union and of 'Mitteleuropa' (not to mention Eastern Europe) did not yet fully succeed in establishing a genuinely European high-tech identity. 'Networked Europe', as a fantasmatic technological space, rather seems to be caught between what has been called Techno-Orientalism on the one hand and the American New Frontier myth on the other. The article tries to map out the European imaginary in its differential relation towards both the 'Oriental' and the American myth of electronic space.
Computer-Mediated Interactivity
Authors: Mayer Paul A.
Published: October 2006

The present article proposes a social semiotic conception of interactivity. Subjectivity is a central element in this analysis, which responds to the social and contextual nature of meaning as engendered in reception. The present analysis discusses both topoi and temporality of interaction in the production, use and revision of computer media applications, and differentiates experienced interaction in terms of the immediate application as well as that application as a representation of its designer. This analysis further supports the differentiation of degrees of apparent intersubjectivity as an index of the comprehensiveness of interactivity displayed by an application. As such, interactivity is discussed as a possible quality of communication. This approach extends and develops historically significant conceptions of mediated interactivity. In the discussion three such conceptions are reviewed and correlated with historical developments in models of computation.
High-Tech Politics
Authors: Wheeler Mark
Published: October 2006

The free flow of political communication is considered vital in promoting democratic behaviour. To this end, technophiles contend, Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) can horizontally link new political actors. Yet it is the traditional mass parties that have made the most effective use of ICTs, whose impact has been on the vertical communication flow from political elites to the mass media to the public. This study analyses how the British Labour Party integrated new multimedia technologies, including telecommunications and computer databases, into its 1997 election campaign. It considers whether political journalists could critically approach material distributed by the parties or found themselves constrained by this use of ICTs. Finally, it addresses the democratic implications of these changes by discussing whether ICTs have led to an expansion or erosion of political communication.
News on the Web
Authors: Aikat Debashis 'Deb'
Published: October 2006

The internet provides worldwide access to more than 3,000 on-line newspapers serving an estimated daily audience of 80 million readers. This study, one of the first of its kind, uses World Wide Web traffic access logs and other audience measurement tools to analyse usage trends of an on-line newspaper. Analysis of Knight Ridder's Philadelphia Online , the web site of the Philadelphia (PA) Inquirer and Daily News, from November 1995 to May 1997 indicates that most readers accessed the site from their offices: the highest traffic occurred on weekdays, with the steepest spike around noon, dropping by half during evenings and weekends. The study also found that web traffic increased 874 per cent over 18 months; users spent an average of fewer than 14 minutes per visit, viewing an average of seven pages each time; and most users accessed the site from commercial (38 per cent), network (29.9 per cent) or educational (24.1 per cent) domains.
Inter-Planetary Soundclash
Authors: Hayward Philip
Published: October 2006

This article concentrates on one particular textual and thematic cluster within the Hollywood feature film Mars Attacks! (1996), Tim Burton's big-budget homage to Cold-War era Science Fiction cinema — the affectivity and significance of musical sounds (and sound technologies). In particular, with reference to the work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari (1987) 1 and the application of aspects of their work to uses of music in contemporary cinema in Murphie (1996);2 it considers the role of sound passages (and their associations) as territorialising refrains which eventually clash to produce the film's narrative denouement.3
The Negative Reinvention of Cinema
Authors: Young Paul
Published: October 2006

Hollywood has recently produced a cycle of films that take an extremely critical view of digital media. This essay tries to unpack the logic of cinematic cyberphobia in an era in which the film industry has consistently appropriated digital technologies for both production and promotional purposes. Cyberphobic films rehearse cultural myths that interactive media are intrusive and disruptive, thus providing an outlet for dissent (not to mention paranoia) regarding the institutionalisation of new media. However, cyberphobia can also be understood as a defence mechanism against the challenge to cinema's individuating spectator address that interactive media represent. The article reads films from The Lawnmower Man (1992) to The Truman Show (1998) as allegories of contemporary Hollywood's dialectical struggle to define itself: cyberphobia denies cinema's contamination by interactive technologies, while its engagement with digital myths displays interactive media's fading chance to engender alternative media publics, and recalls cinema's own early history as a distracted, emphatically public experience.
Histological evaluation of buccal penetration enhancement properties of chitosan and trimethyl chitosan
Authors: Sandri G , Poggi P , Bonferoni M C , Rossi S , Ferrari F , Caramella C
Published: October 2006

The aim of the present work was to compare the penetration enhancement properties of chitosan hydrochloride (HCS) both as a polymeric solution and as a nanoparticulate system with that of trimethyl chitosan hydrochloride (TMC) on buccal mucosa. The hydrophilic high molecular weight fluorescein isothiocyanate dextran (FD4; 4400 Da) was used as a macromolecule model. The mechanism involved in the HCS (solution and nanoparticles) and TMC solution penetration enhancement was investigated on pig buccal mucosa, characterized by having stratified epithelium and lacking in tight junctions. The permeation/penetration of FD4 and the change in morphology and histology of the mucosa after contact with the polymers were assessed: the experiments were performed ex-vivo by applying the formulations on excised porcine buccal tissue. For the morphology and the histology studies, the epithelial cell layers from freshly excised pig buccal mucosa were analysed with light microscopy by means of routine histopathology analysis (haematoxylin and eosin staining and Toluidine blue staining) and immunohistochemistry reactions. The organization of desmosomal junctions was assessed by means of an immunochemical reaction on desmosomes and transmission electron microscopy. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) was used to find evidence of the location of FD4 in the tissue. Furthermore, the increase of the FD4 apparent permeability coefficient was quantified by means of Franz diffusion cells using isolated buccal epithelium to demonstrate the penetration enhancement properties of the polymer systems. Morphological analysis, performed by light microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and CLSM, suggests a similar mechanism of penetration enhancement for both HCS and TMC solutions and for HCS nanoparticles. Such a mechanism probably involves a repackaging of the epithelial cells up to the basal membrane and a partial disarrangement of desmosomes. The cell viability and the nuclear integrity indicated on the semi-thin section stained with Toluidine blue and by CLSM analysis, respectively, suggest that HCS as a polymer solution and a nanoparticulate system, and TMC polymer solution, do not cause cell damage. Trimethyl chitosan and chitosan nanoparticulate systems were able to increase FD4 permeation across buccal epithelium to a greater extent than the chitosan solution.
Receptor dependent cellular uptake of synthetic low density lipoprotein by mammalian cells in serum-free tissue culture
Authors: Hayavi Sima , Baillie George , Owens Moira D , Halbert Gavin W
Published: October 2006

Low density lipoprotein (LDL) is a normal plasma component, which is of interest in a number of research areas such as hypercholesterolaemia, drug targeting in cancer chemotherapy and as a lipid supplement in tissue culture systems. Currently, however, it can only be obtained by extraction from fresh plasma samples, which yields only small quantities. Synthetic LDL (sLDL) has been prepared using readily available lipid components coupled with a synthetic amphiphatic peptide molecule containing the apoprotein B receptor sequence. sLDL was capable of supporting the growth of Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) and fibroblast cells in serum-free culture media in a cholesterol-dependent manner that was related to the presence of the receptor peptide molecule. sLDL could be fluorescently labelled with 3,3′-dioctadecyloxalocarbocyanine perchlorate (DiO), and once labelled was assimilated by CHO and fibroblast cells in a time- and temperature-dependent manner that was dependent upon the presence of the receptor peptide. In addition, assimilation was reduced by an excess of unlabelled native LDL. The results indicated that the interaction of sLDL with CHO and fibroblast cells occurred via a receptor dependent system, most likely the LDL cellular receptor. sLDL is therefore a useful, easily obtained substitute for native LDL with potential applications in the areas of drug targeting to cells and serum-free tissue culture systems.
Relaxant effect of Crocus sativus (saffron) on guinea-pig tracheal chains and its possible mechanisms
Authors: Boskabady M H , Aslani M R
Published: October 2006

As indicated in ancient Iranian medical books, Crocus sativus has therapeutic effects on respiratory diseases. The relaxant effect of this plant has been observed also on smooth muscles in previous studies. Therefore, in this study the relaxant effects of aqueous-ethanolic extracts of C. sativus and one of its main constituents, safranal, were examined on guinea-pig tracheal chains. The relaxant effects of four cumulative concentrations of aqueous-ethanolic extract (0.15, 0.3, 0.45, and 0.60 g %) and safranal (0.15, 0.30, 0.45, and 0.60 mL 0.2 mg mL−1 solution) in comparison with saline, as negative control, and four cumulative concentrations of theophylline (0.15, 0.30, 0.45, and 0.60 mM), as positive control, were examined using guinea-pig precontracted tracheal chains. The tracheal chains had been precontracted by three different methods. Group 1 had been precontracted using 10 μM methacholine. The other two groups had been precontracted using 60 mM KCl at two different conditions: non-incubated tissues (group 2) and tissues incubated with 1 μM propranolol, 1 μM chlorpheniramine and 1 μM atropine (group 3) (for each group, n = 6). In group 1 all concentrations of theophylline, extract and safranal showed significant relaxant effects compared with saline (P < 0.05 to P < 0.001). In group 2 theophylline, extract and safranal showed concentration-dependent relaxant effects also compared with saline (P < 0.05 to P < 0.001 for different concentrations except two low concentrations of safranal). However, in group 3 the extracts of C. sativus showed a weak relaxant effect (P < 0.05 only for the highest concentration). The effects of the last concentration of safranal (0.60 mL 0.2 mg mL−1 solution) in group 1, and all its concentrations in group 2 were significantly lower than those of theophylline (P < 0.05 to P < 0.001). In addition, the effects of safranal 0.45 and 0.60 mL 0.2 mg mL−1 solution in groups 1 and 2 were significantly lower than that of C. sativus extract. There were significant correlations between the relaxant effects and concentrations for extract, safranal and theophylline in all experimental groups (P < 0.001 for all cases). These results showed a potent relaxant effect of C. sativus on tracheal chains of guinea-pigs that was comparable to or even higher than that of theophylline at the concentrations used. The results indicated that safranal was, at least in part, responsible for the relaxant effect of C. sativus.
Third-octave-mode chatter in rolling. Part 3: Stability of a multi-stand mill
Authors: Hu Pei-Hua , Zhao Huyue , Ehmann K F
Published: October 2006

The stability of a tandem mill is analysed by considering interstand interactions. In this part of the paper the stability of the multistand multimodal chatter model, developed in Part 1 [1], is ascertained. The general model is represented in a simplified form, which highlights only phenomena caused by strip velocity, or equivalently, strip tension variations between stands. This mechanism constitutes one of the most critical sources of self-excitation in the operation of tandem mills and leads to the most detrimental effects associated with third-octave mode chatter. As before, the theoretical analysis of the stability conditions is followed by a simulation study that shows the major dynamic trends in the mill's behaviour.
Effect of surface roughness on the fretting fatigue behaviour of EN45A spring steel
Authors: Aggarwal M L , Khan R A , Agrawal V P
Published: October 2006

Much research has been carried out to improve the fatigue strength of materials in general and leaf springs in particular by creating a compressive residual stress field of their surface layers through shot peening. The phenomenon of surface roughness is important when considering contact between metallic bodies. The effect of shot flowrate on surface roughness was identified. Full-scale laboratory testing of EN45A spring steel leaf springs was carried out using an electrohydraulic testing system to show the extent of improvement in fatigue life due to shot peening. Double shot peening was performed on leaf springs and its effects on surface roughness, compressive residual stress field, and fretting fatigue were noted. The surface roughness model is in accordance with the experimental results.
The modelling of roundness in cylindrical plunge grinding to incorporate wave shift and external vibration effects
Authors: Fricker D C , Speight A , Pearce T R A
Published: October 2006

An elastic model has been developed which predicts the roundness profiles generated in cylindrical plunge grinding. The model considers two sources of error, which are run-out of the grinding wheel and an external vibration. Comparisons are made with experimental measurements, in which wheel run-out and an external vibration are imposed. Explanations are given for the differences. In particular, the model shows that roundness profiles are sensitive to small changes in conditions, such as wheel and workpiece speeds. In addition, the model clearly illustrates the difficulty in trying to assess the sources of errors from the shape of the roundness profile when more than one source of error is present.
Force characteristics of self-piercing riveting
Authors: Kim Dae-Wook , Xu Jun , Li Wei , Blake D
Published: October 2006

Self-piercing riveting (SPR) is a high-speed mechanical fastening technique for point joining of sheet-material components. SPR is becoming important in automotive applications for aluminium vehicle body assembly. However, compared with current sheet-metal joining processes in the automotive industry, SPR requires a substantially higher operating force. Reduction of the operating force is one of the key objectives for enhancing the mobility and applicability of the SPR system. In this research, the force characteristics of the SPR process were studied with the aim of reducing the operating force. The effects of various workpiece temperatures and thicknesses and the mechanical properties of the SPR joints were examined. It was found that the operating force of SPR was determined by the rivet deformation force. Under certain process conditions, an increase in temperature in workpiece material could help decrease the operating force as it permits the use of softer rivets.
Three-dimensional simulation of the self-oscillating flow and side-loads in an over-expanded subscale rocket nozzle
Authors: Moríñigo J A , Salvá J J
Published: October 2006

Time-accurate three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes simulations have been performed to explore the flow unsteadiness of the subscale J-2S thrust optimized contour rocket nozzle in over-expansion at prescribed air supply conditions in the chamber. The results show the development of periodic low-frequency, high-amplitude, self-sustained oscillations at the simulated nozzle pressure ratios (NPRs). The cap-shock pattern is responsible for the two-coaxial jet topology that appears. The complex three-dimensional evolution of the flowfield is characterized by a periodical jet flapping, axial oscillations, and azimuthal fluctuations with or without swirl, depending on the NPR. According to the simulations, jet flapping quasi-restricted to a preferred plane may occur during the firings, being supported by the reported thrust and side-load measurements. The computed dominant frequencies corresponding to the longitudinal and transverse oscillation modes show an excellent agreement with the experimental counterpart. The analysis of the forces spectra and flowfields has identified that synchronization between side-load (transverse) and thrust (longitudinal) oscillations develops in consonance with the observations. Besides, their strong coupling is favoured by the response of the shocks to the pulsating pressure near the large recirculation bubble that arises behind the cap-shock. A discussion on the self-oscillating, high-coherent flow phenomenon is addressed. The present three-dimensional study has captured for the first time the phenomenon of cyclic transition between reattached flow separation mode and non-reattached mode, where the alternating bursting and formation of a separation bubble is accompanied by the large amplitude axial displacement of the shock pattern. Furthermore, the role of the separation bubble dynamics on triggering high side-load peaks at fixed NPRs is numerically confirmed.