Rectangular Card Research Articles

Visual stimulus brightness influences the efficiency of attractant-baited traps for catching Drosophila suzukii Matsumura (Diptera: Drosophilidae).

Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) is an exotic pest of economic importance that affects several soft-skinned fruits in Mexico. Previously, we found that yellow or yellow-green rectangular cards inside a transparent trap baited with attractants improved D. suzukii capture. In this study, we evaluated the influence of rectangular cards with different yellow shades inside a transparent multi-hole trap baited with apple cider vinegar (ACV) on D. suzukii capture in the field. Second, we tested whether ACV-baited traps with cards of other geometric shapes affected D. suzukii catches compared to traps with rectangular cards. Third, we evaluated the effects of commercial lures combined with a more efficient visual stimulus from previous experiments on trapping D. suzukii flies. We found that ACV-baited traps plus a yellow-shaded rectangle card with 67% reflectance at a 549.74 nm dominant wavelength captured more flies than ACV-baited traps with yellow rectangle cards with a higher reflectance. Overall, ACV-baited traps with rectangles and squares caught more flies than did ACV-baited traps without visual stimuli. The traps baited with SuzukiiLURE-Max, ACV and Z-Kinol plus yellow rectangles caught 57, 70 and 101% more flies, respectively, than the traps baited with the lure but without a visual stimulus.

From Tuxedo to Gown: Dietrich's Haunted Dressing Room(s)

From Tuxedo to GownDietrich's Haunted Dressing Room(s) Bridget Sundin (bio) The Haunted Queer Body—An Introduction Although many feminist film scholars have written about Marlene Dietrich's body through the lens of feminist theory, psychoanalysis, and semiotics—particularly in the 1990s1—there is a current gap in performance studies literature regarding ways in which Dietrich's always already femme fatale body is haunted not only by her celebrity, but by her previous roles as a stage cabaret performer, which contain explicitly queer content. My essay joins the ongoing conversation about queer embodiment by braiding together three strands of theory in regard to Marlene Dietrich's theatrical performances on screen: performance phenomenology, haunting/ghosting, and queer futurity. In order to create a fuller understanding of the potential of the queer body to resist, subvert, invent, and become, I position the dressing room as both a metaphorical and literal space of transformation. This article focuses on Marlene Dietrich's queer female embodiment and her theatrical use of tuxedo-and gown-drag, specifically situating this theatrical site of gender transformation to be the dressing room space in Josef von Sternberg's 1930 film Morocco.2 To theorize Dietrich's queer-haunted embodiment in this space, I lean on Marvin Carlson's theory of ghosts and hauntedness as a method for grounding the intertextuality of Dietrich's body as she changes from tuxedo to gown.3 I utilize my own performative queer voice in this essay as a deliberate addition to the academic archive. Embodied experiences, particularly those of marginalized populations, have historically been omitted from the archive.4 By discussing Dietrich's queer embodiment using my own queer embodied voice, [End Page 109] I join scholars who are also creating new forms of theorizing queer embodiment as well as creating new methods of queer historiography. The Dressing Room: A Haunted (Queer) Space for a Haunted (Queer) Body Have you been in a dressing room before? Can you remember how it looks? How it smells? Can you go a little further and feel backward5 affectively through time to an instance when you sat at a mirror putting on stage makeup, glancing over at a bouquet of flowers an admirer sent you, and maybe—if you try hard enough—can you even read the little rectangular card that says, "Break a leg!"? As I begin the body of my essay, I hope you are with me in this dressing room where the power of potential transformation buzzes in the air. Yes, there is a particularly embodied and heightened energy that takes place in a dressing room prior to a performance that involves a performer managing material objects and harnessing an array of converging internal conditions before taking the stage. The dressing room is a space unlike other theatrical spaces, in which bodies can transform into beings that have only existed in the imagination. It is here that audiences and performers alike expect the actor's embodiment to shift from ordinary to extraordinary through the use of costuming and makeup. Depending on the theatre's architecture and/or the context of a performance itself, a dressing room experience can run a wide range. A performer may encounter everything from a no-frills makeshift curtain hung from PVC pipe in an offstage corner next to the prop table to a luxurious private dressing room complete with upscale furniture and warm, cozy lighting. As a performer moves incrementally toward the heart of a performance—from the street outside, through the stage door, into the dressing room, then off to the wings, and finally onto the stage itself—an actor uses these spatial markers to transition from their personal identity into the identity taken on in the performance onstage. The average person does not often (or ever) see this journey toward the stage. However, Marlene Dietrich starred in many films that grant us access to this journey. In these films, audiences are allowed a glimpse at such a theatrical transformation as layers are peeled back from both the on-and off-stage embodiment of a cabaret performer. It seems only fitting at this time to invite the ghost of Marlene Dietrich, dressed as Amy...

A stack of cards rebuilt with calculus

Previous work covers building a tower from a stack of homogeneous rectangular plates, each with a maximum shift in displacement. We suggest using plates shaped as curvilinear triangles bounded by segments of power-law functions. The masses of the plates and the position of their center of mass are calculated and measured experimentally after cutting them out from cardboard and aluminum sheets. A computer simulation of the displacement towers is combined with their live building. Individual maximum shifts of the plates in the stack prove to be much bigger the higher the power coefficient of the boundary curves. The resulting total overhang of such a displacement tower may exceed that of a stack of traditionally used homogeneous rectangular cards.

The “Colour Family Drawing Test”: Assessing Children’s Perception of Family Relationships. Studies on Mental Health and Cross-Cultural Comparisons

We apply the Colour Family Drawing Test, as a development of the traditional black and white test, for cross-cultural comparison. The participants, aged 7 - 10 years, both genders, were examined individually. Each subject sat at a single table with a white rectangular card of standard size, 24 well-sharpened colour pencils, a black pencil, an eraser and other appropriate tools. S/he received this verbal instruction: “Draw your family”. The procedure was firstly applied to 120 participants attending primary schools of Rome (Biasi, Bonaiuto and Levin, 2014). The families were evaluated through a semi-structural interview conducted with the children’s teachers and divided into: Harmonious versus Very Conflictual Families. The drawings made by children of Harmonious Families consistently used “Reassuring and Playful Colours” (Pink, Orange, Sky Blue, Light Green, Light Yellow, other pastel colours); and were larger, tidier and more proportioned to respect the opposite group. Children belonging to Conflictual Families used mostly “Alarming and Serious Colours” (Grey, Black, Dark Bleu, Violet, Olive Green) and their drawings were less extended, more often disordered and had typical deformations such as figures too thin. A second investigation examined 120 participants belonging to Asian immigrant families residing in Italy. A third investigation examined 120 participants belonging to Russian families of Moscow. Both last two investigations obtained very similar results on the use of colours, and gave a confirmation of the relevance of the Colour Family Drawing Test.

Practical Camera Calibration System on Mobile Platforms

We propose a practical camera calibration system on mobile platforms to calibrate the camera’s intrinsic parameters, based on the geometrical property of the vanishing points, which are determined by two perpendicular groups of parallel lines. In this system, first, we detect and cluster the lines of the input images to compute the vanishing points. Then, we establish the intrinsic parameter constraint equations based on the perpendicular property of the vectors that connect the optical center and the vanishing points, and solve them using the least squares method. This system only requires the camera to observe a rectangular card shown in a few (at least four) different orientations. The experimental results of real images show that the proposed calibration system is robust, simple, and practicable.

Unsteady aerodynamic forces and torques on falling parallelograms in coupled tumbling-helical motions

Falling parallelograms exhibit coupled motion of autogyration and tumbling, similar to the motion of falling tulip seeds, unlike maple seeds which autogyrate but do not tumble, or rectangular cards which tumble but do not gyrate. This coupled tumbling and autogyrating motion are robust, when card parameters, such as aspect ratio, internal angle, and mass density, are varied. We measure the three-dimensional (3D) falling kinematics of the parallelograms and quantify their descending speed, azimuthal rotation, tumbling rotation, and cone angle in each falling. The cone angle is insensitive to the variation of the card parameters, and the card tumbling axis does not overlap with but is close to the diagonal axis. In addition to this connection to the dynamics of falling seeds, these trajectories provide an ideal set of data to analyze 3D aerodynamic force and torque at an intermediate range of Reynolds numbers, and the results will be useful for constructing 3D aerodynamic force and torque models. Tracking these free falling trajectories gives us a nonintrusive method for deducing instantaneous aerodynamic forces. We determine the 3D aerodynamic forces and torques based on Newton-Euler equations. The dynamical analysis reveals that, although the angle of attack changes dramatically during tumbling, the aerodynamic forces have a weak dependence on the angle of attack. The aerodynamic lift is dominated by the coupling of translational and rotational velocities. The aerodynamic torque has an unexpectedly large component perpendicular to the card. The analysis of the Euler equation suggests that this large torque is related to the deviation of the tumbling axis from the principle axis of the card.

Trap Evaluations for Thrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) and Hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae)

Various trap types were evaluated for catching western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), and hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae). More western flower thrips were attracted to blue (458-nm peak reflectance) sticky card traps compared with yellow (560 nm) or white sticky card traps. Blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs; 465-nm peak emission) increased the efficacy of blue sticky card traps for catching western flower thrips. Numbers of western flower thrips caught on blue flat rectangular card traps were increased 2.0–2.5 times when cards were equipped with blue LEDs. Hoverflies adults are pollinators, and larvae are natural enemies of aphids and other pest insects. Hoverfly adults were attracted to blue sticky card traps. Nylon screen cages effectively excluded the hoverflies from the blue sticky card traps.

Tumbling cards

When a stiff rectangular card is dropped in still air with its long axis horizontal, it often settles into a regular mode of motion; while revolving around its long axis it descends along a path that is inclined to the vertical at a nearly constant angle. We show experimentally that the tumbling frequency Ω of a card of length l, width w and thickness d (l≫w≫d) scales as Ω∼d1/2w−1, consistent with a simple dimensional argument that balances the drag against gravity.

Perceptual constancy and the system of reference.

1. Different conceptions of the perceptual constancy were discussed, and a new methodology was proposed to deal with the constancy in connection with the system of reference. 2. Methodologically, two types of constancy were distinguished from each other: (a) constancy obtained by the comparative judgment in the two-stimulus-comparison situation (as has been studied traditionally) and (b) constancy obtained by the absolute judgment in the single-stimulus situation (as is the case in everyday experience). Some studies on the constancy of the latter type were reviewed. 3. It was proposed that any change in the condition of stimulus presentation may transform the system of reference in an extent which correponds to the degree of constancy. 4. This proposition was supported by experiments which treated the absolute judgment on the length of pencils, the shape of rectangular cards, or the lightness of paper. 5. The implications of the constancy were discussed in terms of (i) segregation of stimulation, (ii) perceptual constancy vs. thing constancy, (iii) comparative vs. absolute, and (iv) transient standards vs. lasting norms.