Hand Drawing Research Articles

Children's evaluation of a computer-based technology used as a tool to communicate their ideas for the redevelopment of their schoolyard

Abstract A surge of interest in empowering children's participation in shaping their environment has led to the development of many participation methodologies. There is, however, little evidence of research data utilizing ICT as a tool for generating children's ideas through a decision making process which results in changes to their schoolyards. This paper presents an evaluation of an adapted drawing program (Tux Paint) that is used as a research tool in a complex participatory method by gathering primary school children's perspectives on development of their schoolyard environment. These changes were to be implemented through a collaborative project with the Department of Landscape Architecture of TEIEMT and the authority of Drama city, Greece. The participating children, ages 10–12, were asked to develop a vision for their schoolyard combining hand drawing plans and sketches utilizing the adapted Tux Paint software. They were the target focus group for the evaluation of the computer program and were asked to answer questionnaires regarding software efficacy, ease, and creative potential. Moreover, they were asked whether they simply enjoyed the experience of using the software and participated in interactive group sessions to discuss the degree of their satisfaction with their computer sketches. Chi-square or Fischer's exact tests were used to analyze the data. Gender and age were defined as variables influencing the evaluation. All the participating pupils valued the Tux Paint program as easy, quick, funny and an overall creative experience.

Nuevas formas de llevar una ópera al teatro. Un caso de estudio. La flauta mágica de la compañía 1927 y de Kosky: animación 2d, nuevas tecnologías digitales y estilo vintage

La ópera, un género que a menudo se asocia al pasado, está más viva que nunca. Gracias a la aportación de directores y experimentadores provenientes del teatro, la ópera se ha convertido en uno de los campos por excelencia para la experimentación contemporánea, sobre todo en relación con el uso de nuevas tecnologías. Una verdadera paradoja. Un ejemplo es la puesta en escena de La flauta mágica de Mozart de la Komische Oper de Berlín, concebida y realizada por la compañía británica 1927 y por el director australiano Barrie Kosky en 2012. Es una representación atípica y extraña que utiliza las nuevas tecnologías del “video project mapping” y, al mismo tiempo, las técnicas de animación 2D —dibujos hechos a mano— con la intención de fusionar estéticas del pasado, sobre todo la del cine mudo y la de los orígenes de la animación, con la contemporaneidad. La intención de este trabajo es analizar la puesta en escena de esta obra en relación con los problemas actuales de la representación de óperas de repertorio.

“I’m Very Happy to Be in the Reality-Based Community”: Alison Bechdel’sFun Home, Digital Photography, and George W. Bush

AbstractThis essay historicizes Alison Bechdel’s 2006 graphic memoir Fun Home in the context of the presidency of George W. Bush. Bechdel created Fun Home from 1999 through 2005—dates that corresponded with Bush’s campaign, election, and presidency. As Bechdel frequently laments in her serialized comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, the Bush presidency posited truth as unknowable, facts as infinitely flexible, and faith as constitutive of reality. Fun Home never mentions the president (nor any historical figure or event after the mid-1980s), but the memoir uses newly available digital technology to resist Bush-era “truthiness.” In Fun Home, Bechdel combines digital photography, her body in performance, and hand drawing to create a new form of graphic narrative. This essay draws out Fun Home’s political engagement with the Bush administration and simultaneously claims the proliferation of digital photography as a watershed event in the history of graphic narratives.

What Are “Common Goods” (beni comuni)? Pictures from the Italian Debate

AbstractThis paper is composed of two parts and a conclusion. The first part offers an overview of the Italian debate on common goods (beni comuni), highlighting the different authors and main schools of thought, illustrating the most significant definitions on a legal and case-law level, while homing in on the core of the underlying methodological approaches and the rela-tions between the most common interpretations and a number of well-known economic theo-ries. The second part aims to highlight the deep roots of the interpretative differences, on the one hand drawing connections with theories on the form of State and citizenship, on the other showing its relationship to the debate on public goods and to the evolution of the relevant leg-islation. The review ends with a description of a few fundamental and cross-functional charac-teristics of “common goods doctrines,” present in all the available literature, but valued and promoted in different ways according to the objectives of the different interpretations. The examination of these traits allows us to evaluate briefly the degree of compatibility between these different views and the current legislation, and the concrete possibility that the relative needs are actually met.

A development plan for the south-eastern part of Pag island with an emphasis on olive-growing

Regardless of the fact that the traditional usage of rural landscapes was agricultural, a degradation of landscape values, as well as an onset of natural succession, occur due to contemporary lifestyle. This can lead to negative effects regarding land-use change. This paper focuses on the south-eastern part of Pag island and explores the possibilities for the revitalisation of its neglected areas by envisioning its future development as an olive-growing region. The final goal was to define a planning procedure framework which would enable the creation of a strategic vision to be transformed into a comprehensive spatial development strategy for the research area. This area encompasses the territory between Kaštela in the north-west and the Pag’s bridge in the south-east which administratively belongs to the Zadar County and includes the Town of Pag, and the Kolan and Povljana municipalities. Olive-growing has been recognized as the strategic choice for development because of its tradition in the area and the potential integration with other relatable activities. Based on the SWOT analysis, an appropriate mission, a vision and strategic goals were defined for developing Pag as an olive-growing region. Further landscape planning methods included (1) the Lynch mapping analysis, (2) the Forman and Godron landscape ecology analysis and (3) the landscape pattern analysis. The results were then used together with digital orthophoto imagery to overlay and analyse relevant information. Hand drawings as well as AutoCAD, ArcGIS and image editing computer programmes were used in the process. This analytical phase was then followed by the development of several alternative spatial zonings, diagrams and concepts based on a preferable neighbourhood matrix and the activity sizing table. The planning process resulted in a concept for spatial development of the research area which would enable the implementation of the strategic vision. The main goal of this planning procedure was to preserve and improve the rural landscape of Pag island.

Visual Narrativity in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis

This research addresses visual narrativity in the case of Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel, Persepolis. This novel is an autobiographical memoir about the Iranian-born author’s childhood and early 20s and a new form of literature ‘depicting’ a story with both image and text together, ‘visual narrativity’. In narrative studies visual narrativity refers to written images in traditional text-based novels and narrativity of visual images in paintings. Significantly, graphic novels combine these two aspects of visuality and narrativity. What matters in Satrapi’s artistic world is not its genre style but the storytelling medium as she ‘writes’ images and ‘draws’ a text. Moreover, this unconventional novel offers the pleasure of ‘reading’ the story as it ‘depicts’ Marji’s outcry for freedom and independence. In other words, the novel’s artistic and functional, visual narrativity is conducive for reader identification: Satrapi’s signature hand drawings in black & white and episodic structure as well as her compelling storytelling sprinkled with a good sense of humor. In summary, graphic novels help readers and scholars to transcend the boundary of novels, paintings, comics and revisit their natural process of appreciating narratives, “painting a picture,” literally and figuratively.

View selection for sketch-based 3D model retrieval using visual part shape description

Hand drawings are imprints of shapes in human's mind. How a human expresses a shape is a consequence of how he or she visualizes it. A query-by-sketch 3D object retrieval application is closely tied to this concept from two aspects. First, describing sketches must involve elements in a figure that matter most to a human. Second, representative 2D projection of target 3D objects should be limited to the canonical from a human cognition perspective. We advocate for these two rules by presenting a new approach for sketch-based 3D object retrieval that describes a 2D shape by visual protruding parts of its silhouette. Furthermore, we present a list of candidate 2D projections that represent canonical views of a 3D object. The general rule is that humans would visually avoid part occlusion and symmetry. We quantify extent of part occlusion of projected silhouettes of 3D objects by skeletal length computations. Sorting projected views in decreasing order of skeletal lengths gives access to a subset of best representative views. We experimentally show how views that cause misinterpretation and mismatching can be detected according to part occlusion criteria. We also propose criteria for locating side, off axis, or asymmetric views.

Mapping patterns of nodal metastases in esophageal carcinoma: rethinking the clinical target volume for supraclavicular nodal irradiation.

To map detail distribution of metastatic supraclavicular (SCV) lymph nodes (LN) in esophageal cancer (EC) patients and determine the precise radiation therapy clinical target volume (CTV). A total of 101 thoracic esophageal carcinoma patients after surgery experienced SCV LN metastasis were retrospectively examined. The SCV region is further divided into four subgroups. Using hand drawings registration, nodes were mapped to a template computed tomogram to provide a visual impression of nodal frequencies and anatomic distribution. In all, 158 nodes were considered to be clinical metastatic in the SCV region in the 101 patients, 74 on the left and 84 on the right. Seven of 158 (4.4%) positive LN were located in group I, 78 of 158 (49.37%) were located in group II, 72 of 158 nodes (45.6%) were located in group III, 1 of 158 (0.63%) located in group IV. According to our results, the SCV group II and group III are considered to be the high risk regions of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) LN metastasis, which were defined as elective nodal irradiation (ENI) areas.

Using design elements to meet Back Irregularities fashion challenge via biofinished fabrics

Back Irregularities can impose a number of serious challenges side effects such as protruding abdomen, curved back and uneven shoulders. Nevertheless, finding clothes that fit and are reasonably flattering for those with hunched backs still remains an issue of comfort and an overall sense of well-being. The present study aims to hide and fix the appearance of the physical changes that may be caused by back deformity in order to create the appearance of a straight line from head to toe and direct the eye away from any deformity. By using design elements and accessories which are two important fashion components that can help to achieve this goal. In this study, natural cellulosic fabrics (linen, gabardine and poplin) were biopolished using cellulase enzyme to improve their surface properties and quality (fuzzing and pilling) such as physico-mechanical properties were measured and determined. Additionally, dyeing of finished fabrics was carried out using different classes of reactive dyes. Then, create six designs with alterations in pattern and used biopolished fabrics which dye and tie, hand drawing, patch work, stencil and embroidery to meet Back Irregularities fashion challenge.

Morphology of Traditional City Center in Semarang: Towards Adaptive re- use in urban heritage

This study is a continuation of dissertation and studies after that. The concept of most of the traditional city in Java are waterfront city. Old Semarang traditional city center used to have to move four times. All of them laid along the river. Jurnatan (1695), The Gabahan (1659), Sekayu (1666) and Kanjengan (1670). But there is no explanation about the formerly of the city form to support the Program Planning and Preservation of Heritage Cities. How were the traditional city patterns at the time? How to conduct adaptive reuse to promoting the heritage cities in Indonesia to be recognized as World Heritage Cities by UNESCO? The serial maps from KITLV. NL, Tropenmuseum and Atlas Mutual Heritage will superimpose on an aerial view from google earth. Analysing using a sketch and computer aided design will peel the layering of the development of the city along the river. The result will compare with the Johannes R hand drawing of Semarang in 16s centuries.The formerly city form of Semarang in 16s-18s centuries had a history as international port based on the maritime power at the time similar with Malaka. Malaka since 1984 become world Heritage site could become a best practice for next research to attract tourism.© 2016. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.

A Novel Polymeric Precursor for Boron Nitride Ceramics: Synthesis, Characterization, and Ceramic Conversion

A new polymeric boron nitride (BN) precursor poly[(phenylamino)borazine] (PPAB) with good melt‐processing performance was successfully synthesized by reaction of B‐trichloroborazine (TCB), aniline, and N‐methylaniline under mild conditions. The as‐synthesized PPAB as well as its structural evolution during the ceramic conversion was studied by means of various complementary techniques. The effect of process parameters including monomer ratio, reaction time, and reaction temperature on the properties of polymers was investigated, and the optimized parameters were obtained. Gel permeation chromatography (GPC) analysis of typical PPAB revealed that the number‐average molecular weight (Mn) was 30,520 Da and the polymerization degree was 319. The polymer could be converted to BN ceramics under ammonia atmosphere at 1200°C with carbon content as low as 0.9wt%. The PPAB polymer could be melt‐spun into continuous polymer fibers by hand drawing, which could be further transformed into BN ceramic fibers with good quality. The PPAB polymer is promising for applications that require BN precursor with stable melt processability.

‘Posing for all the characters in the book’: the multimodal processes of production in Alison Bechdel’s relational autobiography Are You My Mother?

During the production process of her graphic novels, Alison Bechdel poses for all the characters (including her own former self), then makes a photo via a self-timer, and finally reproduces this photography via her hand drawing. As a consequence, her comics not only combine words and (drawn) pictures, but they also materialise various modes of experience: first, Bechdel performs a scene from the past with her own body, then she takes a photograph of that performance, then she reproduces the photograph in the mode of a handmade drawing, then that drawing is put into print via technical reproduction. Especially in the context of graphic auto/biography, this production process triggers certain questions concerning authenticity and self-staging. However, Bechdel not only performs her former self, but also re-embodies other people’s past experiences, which becomes particularly clear when she starts to learn her late father’s handwriting to be able to reproduce his letters to her mother. Against this background, the current article argues that Bechdel uses her own body as a medium of experience and interconnection that allows her to transgress the limited focalisation that the autobiographer is usually bound to, thereby working towards an intersubjective representation of the past.

Noclip World: Drawing the disruptions of virtual video game environments

Abstract Modern video games give the player ever more realistic worlds to experience; yet they typically remain carefully cultivated virtual spaces. Cheaters and players who operate against the prevailing logic of the system often expose strange digital phenomena that come with attempts to replicate realistic spaces in game engine environments. Noclip World is an ongoing research project in which I seek to expose the underlying logics of video game spaces using hand drawing as a critical tool. The project explores games based on Valve Corporation’s Source Engine that made games from 2004 to 2016. Through a roving ‘counterplay’ using cheats to suspend in-game physics, I produce a taxonomy of behaviours that manifest in the virtual camera when navigated to the fringes of game worlds. The project references Flusser’s notion of the camera as a ‘black box’ and frames the inner coded workings of a virtual camera as equivocal in its opacity. I subsequently propose transcriptive drawing as a tool to unpick the logics of glitched virtual worlds. Protocols of architectural drawing are used to expose and reassemble the fragmentary spaces detailed in-game through the use of screenshots as preliminary ‘photographic’ recordings. Noclip World questions whether the architect producing drawings of these virtual spaces can become surrogates for the opaque zone of Flusser’s camera, becoming a ‘black box’ themselves. By using drawing to expose the disruption of virtual video game environments, the project ultimately seeks to uncover the contingency of even the most realistic digital depictions of space.

Abnormal Sense of Agency in Patients with Schizophrenia: Evidence from Bimanual Coupling Paradigm.

A fruitful approach to the understanding the human awareness of action is the study of those pathologies in which some aspects of it are altered. Previous evidences showed that patients with schizophrenia tend to attribute someone else’ actions to their own, as internally, rather than externally, generated. Here, we asked whether schizophrenics have an “excessive” sense of agency, while observing others’ movements. We took advantage from the circles-lines task, known to show bimanual interferences. Twenty schizophrenics and 20 age-matched healthy controls were administered: (a) the bimanual version of the task: drawing lines with one hand and circles with the other; and (b) a modified version: drawing lines while observing the examiner drawing circles. In the bimanual version, patients and controls showed a comparable interference effect. In the observation version, schizophrenics, compared to controls, showed a significantly greater interference effect of the examiners’ hand drawing circles on the own hand drawing lines. This effect was significantly correlated to the strength of the positive symptoms (hallucinations and delusions) and to the alteration of the sense of agency, reported during the task. These findings suggest that an altered sense of agency, as shown by schizophrenics, can induce objective consequences on the motor system.

Cell Adhesion: Stem‐Cell Clinging by a Thread: AFM Measure of Polymer‐Brush Lateral Deformation (Adv. Mater. Interfaces 3/2016)

In article number 1500456, E. M. Benetti and co-workers measure the lateral deformability of polymer brushes. The behavior of surface-interacting stem cells responds to the tendency of the brush to be laterally deformed. The formation of focal contacts is monitored, illustrated by hand drawings and imaged through an immunofluorescence micrograph. The density and morphology of these cell-anchoring complexes are dependent on the brush frictional parameters, suggesting that the strength of cell attachment can be tuned.

Исследование полей остаточных напряжений в особотонкостенных трубах из нержавеющей стали после волочения

The article discusses investigations of the fields of residual stresses in thin-walled tubes made of stainless steel after drawing. The results of simulation of the finish short mandrel drawing and hand drawing on the conical mandrel of cold-rolled EI847 steel pipes for fuel cladding of nuclear reactors are presented. A comparative analysis of the dimensional accuracy of pipe obtained in the production and during simulation was made. Differences in sizes of diameters and wall thicknesses are obtained within the TU 14-159-293-2005 standard and show the correctness of the mathematical model. Distributions of residual stresses on pipe walls in case of drawing on short mandrel and in case of hand drawing were obtained. The importance of using hand drawing on the final stage of production of pipes from corrosion-resistant stainless steel is shown. One of the technological features of hand drawing is considered: in the process of pulling the mandrel through the tube the stresses in the deformation area together with the dragging increase providing small plastic stretching of the tube after leaving the mandrel. This fact guarantees the straightness of the pipe manufactured by this method. It is shown that hand drawing on the conical mandrel in the last passage provides favorable distribution of residual stresses on the pipe wall and can be recommended for the improvement of the corrosion resistance of pipes used in the nuclear industry. The technology prospects are shown which can avoid the final cold straightening of tubes leading to the low surface quality as well as to the distortion of fields of residual stresses in the pipe wall.

The Cultivation of Outstanding Chemistry Teachers: Teaching Strategy Design and the Characterization of Such Design

The importance of teaching strategy is self-evident among the teaching goals and the teaching activity process in the whole course teaching design elements. On the basis of the "Concept Map and Mind Map", once the teaching strategy design is visualized by the computer software or the hand drawing system, the teaching goal design intention can be converted into a more detailed teaching activities process design in order to achieve the effective integration of teaching goals, teaching process, measurement and evaluation.

Correlation between clinical characteristics, spirometric indices and high resolution computed tomography findings in patients of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Introduction:Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting the airways, leading to significant morbidity and mortality throughout the world. There is a need to have a holistic evaluation of COPD patients, other than just measuring the level of obstruction as performed by spirometry. High resolution computed tomography (HRCT) scan of thorax partly fulfills this requirement.Materials and Methods:Fifty patients of COPD (confirmed on spirometry as per the GOLD guidelines 2014 guidelines) were enrolled, out of which 35 patients got a HRCT done. Complete clinical evaluation was done. The Philips computer program for lung densitometry was used with these limits (−800/−1, 024 Hounsfield unit [HU]) to calculate densities, after validating densitometry values with phantoms. We established the area with a free hand drawing of the region of interest, then we established limits (in HUs) and the computer program calculated the attenuation as mean lung density (MLD) of the lower and upper lobes.Results:There was a significant correlation between smoking index and anteroposterior tracheal diameter (P = 0.036). Tracheal index was found to be decreasing with increasing disease severity which was statistically significant (P = 0.037). Mean upper lobe MLD was −839.27 HU, mean lower lobe MLD was −834.91 HU and the mean MLD was −837.08 HU. The lower lobes MLD were found to be decreasing with increasing disease severity. A mild linear correlation of pre forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1) was observed with lower lobe and total average MLD while a mild linear correlation of Post-FEV1 was observed with both coronal (P = 0.042) and sagittal (P = 0.001) lower lobes MLD. In addition, there was a linear correlation between both pre (P = 0.050) and post (P = 0.024) FEV1/forced vital capacity with sagittal lower lobe MLD. A predictive model can be derived to quantify obstruction severity (FEV1).Conclusion:HRCT may be an important additional tool in the holistic evaluation of COPD. HRCT can well be correlated with the spirometric and clinical features and the level of obstruction can be indirectly derived from it by measuring the MLD.

Fast Approximation for Toeplitz, Tridiagonal, Symmetric and Positive Definite Linear Systems that Grow Over Time

Linear systems with tridiagonal structures are very common in problems related not only to engineering, but chemistry, biomedical or finance, for example, real time cubic B-Spline interpolation of ND-images, real time processing of Electrocardiography (ECG) and hand drawing recognition. In those problems which the matrix is positive definite, it is possible to optimize the solution in O(n) time. This paper describes such systems whose size grows over time and proposes an approximation in O(1) time of such systems based on a series of previous approximations. In addition, it is described the development of the method and is proved that the proposed solution converges linearly to the optimal. A real-time cubic B-Spline interpolation of an ECG is computed with this proposal, for this application the proposed method shows a global relative error near to 10-6 and its computation is faster than traditional methods, as shown in the experiments.

CASTLE3D - A Computer Aided System for Labelling Archaeological Excavations in 3D

Abstract. Documentation of archaeological excavation sites with conventional methods and tools such as hand drawings, measuring tape and archaeological notes is time consuming. This process is prone to human errors and the quality of the documentation depends on the qualification of the archaeologist on site. Use of modern technology and methods in 3D surveying and 3D robotics facilitate and improve this process. Computer-aided systems and databases improve the documentation quality and increase the speed of data acquisition. 3D laser scanning is the state of the art in modelling archaeological excavation sites, historical sites and even entire cities or landscapes. Modern laser scanners are capable of data acquisition of up to 1 million points per second. This provides a very detailed 3D point cloud of the environment. 3D point clouds and 3D models of an excavation site provide a better representation of the environment for the archaeologist and for documentation. The point cloud can be used both for further studies on the excavation and for the presentation of results. This paper introduces a Computer aided system for labelling archaeological excavations in 3D (CASTLE3D). Consisting of a set of tools for recording and georeferencing the 3D data from an excavation site, CASTLE3D is a novel documentation approach in industrial archaeology. It provides a 2D and 3D visualisation of the data and an easy-to-use interface that enables the archaeologist to select regions of interest and to interact with the data in both representations. The 2D visualisation and a 3D orthogonal view of the data provide cuts of the environment that resemble the traditional hand drawings. The 3D perspective view gives a realistic view of the environment. CASTLE3D is designed as an easy-to-use on-site semantic mapping tool for archaeologists. Each project contains a predefined set of semantic information that can be used to label findings in the data. Multiple regions of interest can be joined under one label. Further information such as color, orientation and archaeological notes are added to the label to improve the documentation. The available 3D information allows for easy measurements in the data. The full 3D information of a region of interest can be segmented from the entire data. By joining this data from different georeferenced views the full 3D shape of findings is stored. All the generated documentation in CASTLE3D is exported to an XML format and serves as input for other systems and databases. Apart from presenting the functionalities of CASTLE3D we evaluate its documentation process in a sample project. For this purpose we export the data to the Adiuvabit database (http://adiuvabit.de) where more information is added for further analysis. The documentation process is compared to traditional documentation methods and it is shown how the automated system helps in accelerating the documentation process and decreases errors to a minimum.