Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Fidelity to nature'

As taxidermy increased in prominence in American natural history museums in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the idea of trying to replicate nature through mounts and displays became increasingly central. Crude practices of overstuffing skins gave way to a focus on the artistic modelling of animal skins over a sculpted plaster and papier-mâché form to create scientifically accurate and aesthetically pleasing mounts, a technique largely developed at Ward's Natural Science Establishment in Rochester, New York. Many of Ward's taxidermists utilized their authority in taxidermy practices as they formally organized into the short-lived Society of American Taxidermists (1880-1883) before moving into positions in natural history museums across the United States. Through examinations of published and archival museum materials, as well as historic mounts, I argue that taxidermists at these museums reached an unspoken consensus concerning how their mounts would balance pleasing aesthetics with scientific accuracy, while adjusting their practices as they considered the priorities of numerous stakeholders. Taxidermists negotiated through administrative priorities, legacies of prominent craftsmen, and a battery of instructive materials, all claiming some authority as to what proper taxidermy could—and should—be. The shifts in taxidermy authority revealed truths about what taxidermy could mean, questions of how taxidermists identified themselves within the profession and to outsiders, practices for presenting taxidermy to museum visitors, and techniques for representing nature. This project traces the paths of consensus for developing techniques to construct museum taxidermy from the 1883 end of the S.A.T until the founding of the Technical Section of the American Association of Museums (AAM) in 1929. Two critics who book-end this project—Robert Wilson Shufeldt, an army doctor, naturalist, and museum critic, and Lawrence Vail Coleman, director of preparation and exhibition, American Museum of Natural History, and director of the American Association of Museums—identified similar characteristics that suggest a like-minded approach as to what constituted proper museum taxidermy among museum taxidermists. Museum taxidermy carried with it a set of characteristics: accuracy and a pleasing aesthetic for Shufeldt; feeling, unity, action, balance, reality, and size for Coleman. These two sets of criteria complemented each other as they reified consensus. What complicated this finding was that taxidermists themselves did not acknowledge them specifically, only relating to them in passing, if at all. Regardless, taxidermic practice seemed to be consistent across these decades. This study complicates the nature of scientific representation, in that it focuses a great deal on its artistry. Museum taxidermy is supposed to be an instructional tool, guiding museum visitors in the way they approach nature, and especially how they see animals, and focusing on teaching the science of animal behavior, biodiversity, and habitat, to name a few. It is a scientific object, representing the most up-to-date research in the field, but consensus surrounding it is not scientifically measurable. Instead, taxidermy consensus happened in hallways and back rooms (both literal and metaphorical), with little written down, and the mounts as the most substantial evidence that is had been achieved. Nevertheless, taxidermists negotiated the array of stakeholders present—museum administrators, naturalists, collectors, and the public—as they fashioned mounts that were both accurate and aesthetically pleasing representations of animal lives.
Doctor of Philosophy
In this project I look at museum taxidermy in United States natural history museums, from the 1880s to 1930s. In that 50-year span, taxidermy practices coalesced around a primary technique for mounting animal skins, using a wooden form and papier-mâché as the structure for stretching the skin over it. But there was more to this consensus than using the same techniques, as two critics who book-end this project—Robert Wilson Shufeldt, an army doctor, naturalist, museum critic, etc., and Lawrence Vail Coleman, director of preparation and exhibition, American Museum of Natural History, and director of the American Association of Museums—identified similar characteristics that suggest a like-minded approach as to what constituted proper museum taxidermy among museum taxidermists. I argue in this project that taxidermists reached an unspoken consensus around their craft that balanced scientific accuracy with a pleasing aesthetic, to achieve mounts that would be both scientifically meaningful and not off-putting to museum visitors. Museum taxidermy carried with it a set of characteristics: accuracy and a pleasing aesthetic for Shufeldt; feeling, unity, action, balance, reality, and size for Coleman. And these two complement each other as they reify consensus. What complicated this finding was that taxidermists themselves did not acknowledge them specifically, only relating to them in passing, if at all. Regardless, taxidermy seemed to be consistent across these decades. This study complicates the nature of scientific representation, in that it focuses a great deal on its artistic nature. Museum taxidermy is supposed to be an instructional tool, guiding museum visitors in the way they approach nature, and especially how they see animals. Museum taxidermy generally shies away from terrifying visitors with animal size and ferocity, focusing instead on teaching the science of animal behavior, biodiversity, and habitat, to name a few. In this sense, it is a scientific object, representing the most up-to-date research in the field. Consensus in the realm of taxidermy, and in scientific representation more broadly, is not scientific consensus, but more consistent with an artistic approach, like a posteriori recognitions of characteristics unique to artists or artistic movements. Taxidermy consensus happened in hallways and back rooms, with little written down, and the mounts as the most substantial evidence. Nevertheless, taxidermists negotiated the array of stakeholders present—museum administrators, naturalists, collectors, and the public—as they consistently made these mounts both accurate and aesthetically pleasing. And they still make sense when we see them, as they can be repurposed to tell new stories consistent with current understandings of animal lives.

When the leading mid-nineteenth-century landscape artist in Victoria, Eugene von Guérard, was criticised for failing to illustrate nature sublimely, he replied that his “greatest desire” was to “imitate nature” as far as it was “compatible with the effect of the picture.” Later, he asserted that his aim was “to be true to nature as far as possible” in his art. This empirical, science-informed thesis explores what being “true to nature” meant in Guérard’s practice by examining natural features typically illustrated with fidelity, scrutinising features freely transformed for artistic effect, and assessing whether such transformations compromise his aesthetic ideal. The fieldwork-based study addresses a knowledge gap in Australian art history and environmental history by adopting a multi-disciplinary approach. The findings make a significant contribution to understanding what being “true to nature” meant for Guérard, and to determining whether his landscapes are reliable environmental history records. The investigation uses a mixed-method approach, combining qualitative and quantitative techniques. Early in-depth case studies identified faithfully rendered and freely modified features, which informed the development of an innovative survey instrument used to evaluate the fidelity of over a hundred of Guérard’s Antipodean landscapes. The extent to which natural features are faithful or transformed is subjectively assessed by comparing them with his accurate field drawings and modern site photographs taken from his vantage points. The novel reverse use of digital elevation models enabled many of his vantage points at sites to be precisely determined. Statistical analysis of survey data and further case studies leads to the conclusion that Guérard practised selective fidelity to nature. Although no natural feature was totally immune to being modified for artistic effect, many features are typically reproduced with great fidelity to the natural scenery visible at the site. Features significantly altered to create visually engaging or dramatic landscapes are usually found to be true to the natural history of the location, if not necessarily to the view. Exceptions are largely restricted to the composite landscapes that field research uncovered. Finally, the thesis examines whether Guérard’s fidelity practice resonates with particular purported influences, or parallels the practices of international contemporaries who were also renowned for their wilderness paintings.
Doctor of Philosophy

Les etudes des inversions et de la paleovariation seculaire du champ geomagnetique representent de formidables contraintes pour notre comprehension de la geodynamo. Cependant l'acquisition d'enregistrements fiables de ces phenomenes est difficile en raison de leur caractere quasi-instantane a l'echelle des temps geologiques. Les processus d'acquisition de l'aimantation dans les sediments en presence d'un champ d'intensite tres faible (identique a celui qui regne lors des inversions) ont ete etudies, a la fois sur des sequences naturelles et grace a des experiences de redeposition artificielle. Les resultats ainsi que les compilations des donnees sur les inversions et la paleovariation seculaire montrent que de nombreux artefacts (lissage, reorientations,) peuvent etre introduits dans l'aimantation des sediments et suggerent surtout que l'alignement des grains magnetiques n'obeit plus a la direction du champ lors d'une inversion. L'existence d'un comportement systematique du champ lors des renversements deduit des caracteristiques des enregistrements sedimentaires est fortement remis en cause par ces resultats et resulterait egalement de la mauvaise distribution des sites d'echantillonnage. L'etude de la derniere inversion enregistree dans des coulees volcaniques de la palma, associee a une determination detaillee de la paleointensite est compatible avec le modele d'un champ transitionnel faible, non dipolaire et sensiblement analogue au champ non dipole actuel, revele a la faveur de la forte decroissance du champ dipolaire dominant

Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2013.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (page 59).
People are spending ever increasing amounts of time online. As a result, companies are investing greater amounts of money into online advertising in an effort to influence their behavior. The impact and effectiveness of these ads is still an open question. One possible method of analyzing the effectiveness is through the analysis of clickstream data. However, this data may be difficult to obtain and does not measure behavioral change. Behavioral change is a change in consideration or preference. Surrogate sites can be used to study behavioral change but are difficult and time-consuming to create and do a poor job of mimicking certain classes of sites. This is particularly true of social media sites where the amount of content is impossible to fully reproduce and yet this content is the defining component of the web site. In this thesis, I present a Chrome extension that can be used for conducting high fidelity web site market research. The framework provides the opportunity to measure behavioral change and provide a natural environment almost identical to the actual sites. I detail the implementation of the extension and its use in a web-based media experiment with a sample size of 13,000. Preliminary results and learnings are discussed. Results suggest that use of the extension is feasible and is capable of producing significant changes in consumer consideration.
by Brandon H. Baker.
M. Eng.

Submitted by isabela.moljf@hotmail.com (isabela.moljf@hotmail.com) on 2017-05-05T13:45:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 marcoaurelioalvespereira.pdf: 7599008 bytes, checksum: 48e04292d562d8084f38167b184afde1 (MD5)
Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2017-05-17T13:39:25Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 marcoaurelioalvespereira.pdf: 7599008 bytes, checksum: 48e04292d562d8084f38167b184afde1 (MD5)
Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-17T13:39:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 marcoaurelioalvespereira.pdf: 7599008 bytes, checksum: 48e04292d562d8084f38167b184afde1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-03-26
O cervo-do-pantanal (Blastocerus dichotomus) é um mamífero de grande porte, sendo considerado o maior cervídeo nativo da America do Sul. Esta espécie encontra-se extinta em 60% da sua área de distribuição histórica que compreendia as várzeas naturais dos grandes rios entre o sul do Amazonas e o norte da Argentina. Apesar de se encontrar ameaçado de extinção, pouco se sabe acerca dos aspectos ecológicos do cervo-do-pantanal. Nesse contexto, o presente estudo, busca investigar a sazonalidade no comportamento espacial desta espécie, como também analisar informações relacionadas à fidelidade de habitat e relações intra-específicas através da sobreposição de áreas núcleo. Para tanto o mesmo contém uma revisão introdutória e dois capítulos abordando os seguintes temas: 1- estudo comparativo para o efeito da sazonalidade entre animais reintroduzidos e ou nascidos na Estação Ecológica de Jataí (EEJ) e animais de população natural, localizados na bacia do rio Paraná; 2- relações espaciais através da sobreposição de áreas núcleo para animais reintroduzidos e ou nascidos na EEJ. Ao todo 39 cervos-do-pantanal marcados sendo 9 da área de reintrodução e 30 da área de população natural, contribuíram para as análises do presente trabalho. Os resultados revelam que ambas as populações estudadas tiveram áreas de vida maiores para machos do que para fêmeas, o que pode ser reflexo das diferenças nas estratégias de utilização do ambiente por indivíduos de ambos os sexos. Para os animais da EEJ as áreas estimadas para a estação chuvosa geralmente foram menores do que as estabelecidas na seca, já para os animais da bacia do rio Paraná observou-se uma inversão na ordem desses valores, ou seja, a média na estação chuvosa foi maior do que a média no período de seca. Tal inversão pode estar relacionada com a dinâmica das características ambientais promovida pela sazonalidade para cada região. A análise de fidelidade de habitat na área de reintrodução revelou uma sobreposição de suas áreas núcleos estimada para as duas estações seca e chuvosa, com fêmeas apresentando porcentagem de fidelidade maior do que machos. A análise envolvendo a sobreposição de áreas núcleo entre os animais desta região revelaram que dois animais, sendo um macho e uma fêmea, sobrepuseram seus núcleos de atividade mesmo quando estimados com concentração média harmônica (30%) de distribuição de utilização das localizações espaciais. Os dados utilizados neste trabalho fazem parte dos resultados obtidos pelo Projeto Cervo-do-Pantanal de Porto Primavera, coordenado pelo NUPECCE (Núcleo de Pesquisa e Conservação de Cervídeos), localizado na Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias FCAV/UNESP de Jaboticabal, como parte das ações compensatórias referente ao reservatório formado pela usina hidrelétrica Sérgio Motta ou “Porto Primavera”.
Marsh deer (Blastocerus dichotomus) is a large mammal and is considered the largest deer native to South America, this species is extinct in 60% of its historic range that included the natural flood plain of the great rivers between the southern Amazon and northern Argentina. Despite being threatened with extinction, little is known about the ecological aspects of deer marsh. In this context, this study aims to investigate the seasonality in the spatial behavior of this species, but also analyze information related to habitat use and intraspecific relations using overlapping core areas. To this end it contains a review and two introductory chapters covering the following topics: 1 - comparative study for the seasonality effect of reintroduced animals and / or born in the Ecological Station (EEJ) and animals natural population located in the River Paraná; 2 - spatial relations using overlapping core areas to reintroduced animals and / or born in the EEJ. A total of 39 deer-billed and 9 marked the reintroduction area and 30 in the area of natural population, contributed to the analysis of this work. The results show that both populations studied areas of life were higher for males than for females, which may reflect differences in strategies for using the environment of individuals of both sexes. For animals of the EEJ areas estimated for the rainy season were generally lower than those established in the dry season, as for animals of the Paraná River basin showed a reversal in the order of these values, ie, the average during the rainy season was higher than the average during the dry season. This reversal can be related to the dynamics of environmental characteristics promoted by the seasonal pattern for each region. The analysis of habitat use of reintroduction area revealed an overlap in their core areas estimated for both dry and wet seasons, with females showing higher percentage of fidelity than males. The analysis involving the overlap of core areas among the animals of this region revealed that two animals are one male and one female overlapped its core activity even when estimated harmonic mean concentration (30%) of distribution of use of spatial locations. The data used in this work are part of the results obtained by the Project Cervo-do-Pantanal de Porto Primavera, coordinated by NUPECCE (Núcleo de Pesquisa e Conservação de Cervídeos), located at the Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias FCAV/UNESP de Jaboticabal, as part stock compensation related to the reservoir formed by the Sergio Motta or "Porto Primavera Dam.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:19:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2008 - Jucimara Martins dos Santos.pdf: 4936328 bytes, checksum: c3a6df22694e5aabbd58ccabaa3be80e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-09-04
Not only eat quantities of nutrients and calories to keep the body functioning at an appropriate level: the act of eating understands, too, forms of expression and affirmation of social identities. It involves the selection, the choices, the occasions and rituals that may be organized and classified in order to understand the social dynamics that takes place in the human experience of living day to day. Culture and consumption, thus, processes are interconnected and inseparable and only makes sense to discuss them within a specific cultural scheme. The objective of this case study was to understand the processes that occur in the restaurant that Nutrinatural stimulated, either formally or informally, retention and hence the loyalty of customers . The locus of the research was the natural food restaurant in the self-service kilo, Nutrinatural. To develop the work, we need to contextualize the locus of the study and the city where he falls; describe the structure and ways of operating the restaurant, identifying the situations that lead customers to return to the restaurant; understand the levels of sociability established between customers and employees, customers and the owners of the restaurant. We chose to develop a study with the basic qualitative ethnographic perspective through coday visit to the restaurant. This co-trip took one to two times per week on different days and times. The report was prepared from the participatory observation and informal conversations with customers in time for lunch, for 11 months (May 2007 to March 2008), and through semi-structured interviews with 12 clients who attend the restaurant so continuous, and also with the owners. The results were classified according to the principle of saturation in 05 categories. It has been proved that the keynote to the process of loyalty in the study, is related to the feeling of being in the family is doing Nutrinatural meals in the restaurant. The sociability proved to be as important as the health and flavor.
N?o comemos apenas quantidades de nutrientes e calorias para manter o funcionamento corporal em n?vel adequado: o ato de comer compreende, tamb?m, formas de express?o e afirma??o de identidades sociais. Envolve a sele??o, as escolhas, as ocasi?es e os rituais que podem ser organizados e classificados com vistas a compreender a din?mica social que se desenrola na experi?ncia humana do viver o dia-a-dia. Cultura e consumo, assim, s?o processos interligados e indissoci?veis e s? faz sentido discuti-las dentro de um esquema cultural espec?fico. O objetivo deste estudo de caso foi compreender os processos que ocorrem no Restaurante Nutrinatural que estimularam, formal ou informalmente, a reten??o e, logo, a fideliza??o dos clientes. O l?cus da pesquisa foi o restaurante de comida natural self service a quilo, Nutrinatural. Para desenvolver o trabalho, precisamos contextualizar o l?cus do estudo e o munic?pio em que ele se insere; descrever a estrutura e as formas de funcionamento do restaurante; identificar as situa??es que levam os clientes a retornarem ao restaurante; compreender os n?veis de sociabilidade estabelecidos entre os clientes e os funcion?rios, os clientes e as propriet?rias do restaurante. Optou-se por desenvolver um estudo de base qualitativa com perspectiva etnogr?fica atrav?s da co-visita di?ria ao restaurante. Esta co-visita se deu de uma a duas vezes por semana em dias e hor?rios diferentes. O relato foi elaborado a partir da observa??o participativa e das conversas informais com os clientes nos hor?rios de almo?o, durante 11 meses (maio de 2007 a mar?o de 2008), e atrav?s de entrevistas semi-estruturadas com 12 clientes que freq?entam o restaurante de forma cont?nua, e tamb?m com as propriet?rias. Os resultados foram classificados segundo o princ?pio de satura??o em 05 categorias. Comprovou-se que a t?nica para o processo de fideliza??o, no estudo, est? relacionada ? sensa??o de estar em fam?lia ao se fazer as refei??es no Restaurante Nutrinatural. A sociabilidade mostrou-se t?o importante quanto a saudabilidade e o sabor.

Quantification of uncertainty in computational models of nuclear systems is required for assessing margins of safety for both design and operation of those systems. The largest source of uncertainty in computational models of nuclear systems derives from the nuclear cross section data used for modeling. There are two parts to cross section uncertainty data: the relative uncertainty in the cross section at a particular energy, and how that uncertainty is correlated with the uncertainty at all other energies. This cross section uncertainty and uncertainty correlation is compiled as covariance data. High fidelity covariance data exists for a few key isotopes, however the covariance data available for many structural materials is considered low fidelity, and is derived primarily from integral measurements with little meaningful correlation between energy regions. Low fidelity covariance data is acceptable for materials to which the operating characteristics of the modeled nuclear system are insensitive. However, in some cases, nuclear systems can be sensitive to isotopes with only low fidelity covariance data. Such is the case for the new U(19.5%)-10Moly foil fuel form to be produced at the Y-12 National Security Complex for use in research and test reactors. This fuel is ten weight percent molybdenum, the isotopes of which have only low fidelity covariance data. Improvements to the molybdenum isotope covariance data would benefit the modeling of systems using the new fuel form. This dissertation provides a framework for deriving high fidelity molybdenum isotope covariance data from a set of elemental molybdenum experimental cross section results. Additionally, a series of critical experiments featuring the new Y-12 fuel form was designed to address deficiencies in the critical experiment library with respect to molybdenum isotopes. Along with existing molybdenum sensitive critical experiments, these proposed experiments were used as a basis to compare the performance of the new high fidelity molybdenum covariance data set with the existing low fidelity covariance data set using the nuclear modeling code SCALE. The use of the high fidelity covariance data was found to result in reduced overall bias, reduced bias due to the molybdenum isotopes, and improved goodness-of-fit of computational results to experimental results.
text