Suit Of Armor Research Articles

The Disappearing Technology and Products of Traditional Tibetan Village Blacksmiths

Tibetans have a long history of iron mining, smelting, and forging. For centuries, craftsmen in major cities and large iron production centers made high-quality swords and suits of armor, as well as decorative iron ritual objects for monasteries and the elites, but blacksmithing workshops in small villages have always produced and repaired everyday objects for agricultural and home use. Modern political changes, along with greater availability of industrial objects in local markets, have greatly reduced the rank of the village blacksmith. Ethnographic fieldwork reported here from two Tibetan Bön villages in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, China (once part of traditional Amdo area of Tibet), highlights some of the threats to the continued existence of village blacksmiths. Both a part-time blacksmith in one village and a full-time blacksmith in another make only a marginal living from their work. Their descendants are unlikely to continue the business. Many of the village blacksmiths in the area have already stopped production and closed their workshops. It is likely that the village blacksmith tradition might soon disappear altogether in this region of the world without support. Preservation of this tradition could benefit both cultural and environmental sustainability goals.

Research on the Manufacturing Process and Restoration of a Brigandine of the Ming Dynasty – A Case Study of the Brigandine Exhibited in Hangzhou Arts and Crafts Museum

The Ming brigandine was a suit of armour with riveted plates concealed inside the cloth cover, which is different from the armour of previous dynasties, which strung the plates with one plate overlapping another. With the Ming brigandine in Hangzhou Arts and Crafts Museum as an example, the author explored the manufacturing process of the Ming brigandine and conducted a restoration study of it, from which the superiority of the brigandine’s manufacturing process and the scale production of Ming armour were summarised and discussed.

Performing the Sea: Fortune, Risk, and Audience Engagement inPericles

Performing the Sea: Fortune, Risk, and Audience Engagement in<i>Pericles</i>

Investigating the effect of a passive exoskeleton on the activity of low back muscles during different phases of repetitive dynamic task

In literature, there are multiple lines of work aimed to develop human-centered robotic devices, and among them there is a promising one named robotic exoskeleton. Exoskeletons are biomechatronic devices coupled to the person's body (a “wearable” robot) (Pons, 2008). In general, exoskeletons are composed of a structural mechanism with joints and links, which is worn by the human user. Hence, the whole kinematic structure usually performs several motions similar to those of the human body. Exoskeletons are devices designed to enhance the human strength by the external framework, thus those devices are currently under development for the enhancement of human motor performance in the military (Zoss et al., 2006), in industry (de Looze et al., 2015), and for medical applications (Colombo, 2001; Veneman, 2007; Gijbels et al., 2011).Technological developments on exoskeletons started in the early 1960s. The US Department of Defense became interested in developing the concept of a powered “suit of armor.” In parallel, researchers at Cornell Aeronautical Laboratories started to develop the concept of man amplifiers such as a manipulator to increase the strength of a human operator (Kazerooni, 1990). In 1962, the technological limitations at that time to develop the concept became apparent: there were limitations in terms of actuators, sensors, and energy storage. Currently, most of those technological limitations have been overcome and applications of exoskeletons have been spreading in multiple fields, including teleoperation with force feedback, power amplifier, entertainment as well as the physical rehabilitation. The rehabilitation field is a key application domain for the development of exoskeletons, to help disabled people with difficulties in moving (Kiguchi et al., 2004; Colombo, 2001). For instance, these devices enable people with paralysis of the lower part of the body (paraplegia) to walk (Esquenazi et al., 2012). Their task is the compensation for the lost functions and physical and social rehabilitation of patients. Nowadays, the exoskeleton systems are forging ahead with high integration using other emerging technologies including virtual reality, haptics, videogames, and soft robotics, among others.

The Misadventures of Daring Dave: Leverage and Investment Returns

Daring Dave is a focused niche case used in Darden's second year elective Securities Markets in Action where students need to understand the power and impact of leverage and margin requirements on investor performance. This case would also work well in case-based investments courses and courses on financial trading. This case considers the return and liquidity effects of leverage on investment returns for novice investor, Daring Dave, in a single equity security. Through a play-by-play description of Dave's investment experience over a single week, students are introduced to the mechanics of trading on margin, margin calls, and the value of liquidity for risky, levered positions. Excerpt UVA-F-1686 Rev. Jan. 31, 2014 THE MISADVENTURES OF DARING DAVE: LEVERAGE AND INVESTMENT RETURNS American jousting legend David Malory was preparing to charge Wall Street. Raised on a farm in southern Indiana, crowned midwestern champion on the semiprofessional U.S. tilting (ring jousting) circuit, and undefeated in two score tournaments over five winters, he was known as “Daring Dave,” and many a tale was told of his valor and cunning. At the top of his game, Dave had retired from tilting at rings to seek glory in a more lucrative field—stock investing. With characteristic resolve, Dave sold his horse, suits of armor and regalia, lances, and other gear for just over $ 100,000, upon which he promptly relocated to New York City and threw himself into the study of equity prices. Within two weeks, he believed that he had a firm grasp on the mechanics of security trading. . . .

Zarys historyczny zespołu dworskiego w Łęcznej

Brak streszczenia w języku polskim.

Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in Bio(in)organic Chemistry and in Mechanistic Systems Biology: A Tribute to Ivano Bertini

he term “towering figure” is, as with most clichs, overused.In the case of the late Ivano Bertini (6 December 1940–7 July2012; Figure 1), Italian—Florentine, to be precise—chemist itis, however, fully appropriate. Ivano, as he was known to all,was a physically imposing man with a booming voice. To us,Ivano seemed as someone one could easily imagine represent-ed by a massive marble statue, suitably clad in a toga or suitof armour, in the piazza of a Tuscan town. But to say thatIvano was a towering figure solely for superficial, physical rea-sons is far off the mark. In essence, Ivano was one of the crea-tors of the field of bioinorganic chemistry. As was evident evento non-Italians, his role in Italian science was massive, and hisrole in European science overall was enormous, especially inthe context of the current development of European, as op-posed to nationally based, science within the framework of the

Race and Character in Cien años de soledad

For AndyCien anos de soledad has been viewed through many prisms but in critical readings of the novel there is very little focus on the question of race. The narrative arguably presents the novel's events through a European filter, or Pseudo-European presumed whiteness.1 A reading is sensitive to race shows racial mixture most often intersects with illegitimacy in Cien anos de soledad. White women are instrumental in policing racial hierarchy; black women are relegated to the margins of the socius, most particularly to brothels. Vivir para contarla, Garcia Marquez's 2003 autobiography, provides unsettling insights into how the Nobel laureate transmuted his experience of coastal Caribbean race relations into his novel.White identity is evident throughout the first two chapters of Cien anos de soledad. In the opening chapter Macondo's founder, Jose Arcadio Buendia, expresses contempt for the past and the Spanish Conquest haunts his movements, not as an epoch of terror but as an age of heroism, irretrievably lost. According to Avery Gordon, haunting describes how that which appears not to be there is often a seething (8). Gordon's analysis examines the invisible or uncanny historical presence of ostensibly silenced or marginalized people. Victors and conquerors haunt history as well. This is apparent in Jose Arcadio Buendia's explorations in the first chapter, in which the founder of Macondo discovers the remains of a Spanish galleon and a suit of armor from a previous heroic age. These refer to a golden age of discovery, upheld by ethnic Europeans in Latin America as justification for claims of patrimony. The golden age of discovery and exploration has been lost to the villagers of Macondo. They inhabit an isolated and degraded reality, in which the monumental object of the Spanish Conquest may only be recovered piecemeal, if at all. 2The predominantly Spanish ancestry of Macondo's family of leaders is never in doubt. Ursula Iguaran's great-grandfather was Aragonese and Jose Arcadio Buendia's was criollo cultivador de tabaco (CA 103). In the United States, creole connotes racial mixture whereas its Spanish homophone criollo refers to a native-born person of European ancestry, although the term is misleading. The ancestors of Ursula and Jose Arcadio lived on land nominally shared with the original inhabitants: del mar, en una rancheria de indios pacificos (CA 102). The Buendias' Spanish forebears leave an indelible stamp on a territory which once belonged to indigenous inhabitants: antigua rancheria que los antepasados de ambos transformaron con su trabajo y sus buenas costumbres en uno de los mejores pueblos de la provincia (103). A central myth of whiteness, as Richard Dyer notes, is its claim to aspiration and enterprise (21-23). Enterprising ancestors notwithstanding, the tale of the Buendias illustrates a criollo anxiety regarding whiteness and reproduction. Inter-racial sexuality, as Dyer brilliantly argues, threatens whiteness because bodies. ..can no longer guarantee their own reproduction as (25). In Garcia Marquez's novel, the copulation of white bodies eventually leads to bestial offspring. Due perhaps to the limited availability of socially acceptable (white) partners, the descendants of the Aragonese Spaniard and the criollo tobacco planter are threatened by endogamy, incest, and monstrosity. In warnings to her great-great-grandson, Ursula states the danger clearly: mujeres de la calle, que echaban a perder la sangre; las mujeres de la casa, que parian hijos con cola de puerco (CA 503).In the prehistory of Macondo, Ursula's attempt to avoid bearing children with tails leads to violence: Jose Arcadio Buendia murders the man who mocks his childless marriage. Prudencio Aguilar's return as a ghost precipitates the Buendias' journey across a Latin American wilderness: despues de varios meses de andar perdidos por entre los pantanos, lejos ya de los ultimos indigenas que encontraron en el camino, acamparon a la orilla de un rio pedregoso cuyas aguas parecian un torrente de vidrio helado (108). …

Misericordia, and: Slow Cloud, and: Peelers

148 ALEX LEMON MISERICORDIA Maybe it is wonderful— How slow every life How every slow life Shudders forward Every life a slow Motion Mistake— Of photographs, stills From an ashy film— It’s hard to tell The good things From the bad The masks they share Clothes, they are The same nostalgia Nothing & needlefaced 149 ALEX LEMON SLOW CLOUD A gathering bang Spreads purpleLipped across dawn— So unseam me, Bewonder The black forest sings A wooden bowl spilling Thickly over Steam from Our tricked-out Holes All low down Like nothing sweet Will ever touch you Emberlight in the drooping Shadows of live oaks Dead deer are waking Up all around me 150 PEELERS ALEX LEMON It’s always neon in The skinner Box, amateur hour On this planet of ass-slappers Us doomlusters Pray to be rotten With fish-bellied tricks But we’re dog-skulled. All heartWorm & bleeding Gums. How much for You to crawl Inside & wear me around Like a suit Of armor, a summer dress Splayed In this cataract of darkness Our grins glow The slow back ...

Florence and Beyond: Culture, Society and Politics in Renaissance Italy. Essays in Honour of John M. Najemy ed. by David S. Peterson, Daniel E. Bornstein (review)

REVIEWS 286 point to a possible raid on a large ransom delivery for the captured French king. Giannino, despite having spent a considerable sum to outfit himself with three different suits of armor (one made of turtle shells) was unable to attend. The battle’s outcome was hardly desirable: the routiers had taken Pont-Saint-Esprit, which possessed one of the four bridges that crossed the Rhône, thus making it profoundly important both for military and trade reasons. Pope Innocent VI declared a crusade to recapture the bridge and the town, but response was lukewarm, and once the commander was taken in by a trick and killed, the Pope bribed the rest of the mercenaries to leave. The effect on Giannino was cataclysmic . He was imprisoned first in Provence, then, in Marseille at the Pope’s behest, kept in irons for over four months, tortured, and accused (for want of a clearer crime) of counterfeiting and heresy. After a transfer to Naples in 1362, where he was better treated, Giannino began to write his memoirs. Nothing is known of his death. That’s the story, anyway. As Falconieri clearly states, we have little to go on in terms of sources about the little king: the primary resource is a manuscript mostly likely (in Falconieri’s view) derived from Giannino’s lost memoirs and compiled by a close relative. He makes a compelling case: the final line of the Istoria del re Giannino di Francia ends with Giannino’s imprisonment and the line, “And I am chained here inside,” which is certainly not the usual way to end a late medieval history. But nothing is that easy, especially not in a tale that seems pulled straight from contemporary romances and oral folktales. Giannino himself, befitting his mercantile roots, placed great faith in the written word, and forged documents to help him establish his credibility. It seems a contradiction , but it is nearly impossible to disagree with Falconieri’s portrayal of the hapless would-be king as something of a wily Forrest Gump, mixing innocence and skill with astonishing acumen. The admixture of truth and lies, of documents that must be read as fakes but trusted to impart something real, of a forger who must make truth out of whole parchment, provides a unique glimpse onto the creation of bureaucratic, royal, and civic identity as constructed through seals (and who owns them), documents (and who writes them and why), and receipts (for goods purchased and monies given). The innumerable characters and personages addressed in the text all seem to traffic in lies, halftruths , and deceptions, but what emerges is a vivid portrait of the complex interplay of power relations across Europe. It is difficult to strain the fact from the fiction in terms of the specifics, particularly as far as Giannino’s own convictions are concerned, but The Man Who Believed He Was King of France traces a telling and evocative paper trail across class lines, national boundaries, and shifting allegiances, and makes from it all, a thrilling read. KATHERINE MCLOONE, Comparative Literature, UCLA Florence and Beyond: Culture, Society and Politics in Renaissance Italy. Essays in Honour of John M. Najemy, ed. David S. Peterson with Daniel E. Bornstein (Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies 2008) 518 pp., ill. Peterson and Bornstein’s collection of essays in honor of John Najemy offers an interesting mix of articles focused on Renaissance Florence and its environs. REVIEWS 287 The work begins with an introduction that includes an affectionate overview of Najemy’s career and contributions to the study of Florentine and Renaissance history over the last thirty years, and then goes on to describe the collected texts which aim to pay homage to Najemy through their adherence to the close reading of primary source texts. Though these essays cover a range of interesting topics associated with Renaissance Florence, they do so with such specificity that their utility to a reader generally interested in understanding the period is doubtful. With few exceptions, the articles contained in this collection are less interesting for their content (many of the subjects are extremely narrow) but are useful as guides for how primary sources can, and should...

Darkness and light: Perspectives in palliative medicine

Every year, a new cache of medical students is baptized into this ageless art, and with this distinction comes a ceremonial distribution of the white coat. I was exuberant when I received mine—how beautiful! The thick cords of fabric are so neatly woven, reminiscent of chain mail armor worn by Lancelot and his peers…. Yes, this is a suit of armor, my impervious battle dress against the foes of Disease and Illness. It is replete with knowledge, seething with confidence, keen in choice of diagnosis and treatment—a great garment of ritual and power no different than Merlin's robe or the shield of Constantine. The brilliant white threads reflect purity of heart and clarity of mind, illuminating the nature of human condition. With this armament, we saw ourselves as the natural optimistic extension of our time—purveyors of medical manifest destiny. I was confident a true understanding of humanity hinged on my education. What an astonishing machine, this Man creature! So intricate, so functionally efficient, so synergistic, the ultimate holistic wonder. And how very reasonable for such a pinnacle in the scheme of natural history to have insight regarding his mechanics, that he might tinker and prod, cut a bit here and there, a tincture of chemical now or again, polishing up the imperfections and peccadillos inherent in producing 6,000,000,000 copies of something, anything.

The effort heuristic

The research presented here suggests that effort is used as a heuristic for quality. Participants rating a poem (Experiment 1), a painting (Experiment 2), or a suit of armor (Experiment 3) provided higher ratings of quality, value, and liking for the work the more time and effort they thought it took to produce. Experiment 3 showed that the use of the effort heuristic, as with all heuristics, is moderated by ambiguity: Participants were more influenced by effort when the quality of the object being evaluated was difficult to ascertain. Discussion centers on the implications of the effort heuristic for everyday judgment and decision-making.

ACNM essential documents: a midwife’s suit of armor

As the oldest professional midwifery organization in the United States, The American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM) represents the profession of midwifery in the United States and sets standards for education, certification, and practice. The ACNM has generated and revised several critical documents that provide guidance for the scope of midwifery practice, individually and collectively. This article reviews essential ACNM documents and their role in supporting professional midwifery.

LAMELLAR ARMOR AND HORSE BARDINGS IN YAMATO AND KOGURYO AND THEIR CONNECTIONS WITH CHINA

Influences of Chinese armor manifested themselves twice in the Japanese archipelago, firstly in the fourth century, when the small lamellar plate jackets and helmets of Chinese style were copied, and secondly in the early fifth century, when long lamellar suits of armor were introduced by the Koguryo. This article examines the data, focussing on Koguryo and assessing China's influence on that horse-riding tradition and its successive transmission of horse-rider armor to Yamato in Japan.

The choice of Hercules: Henry IV as hero

ABSTRACTIn February 1610, the English chargé d'affaires reported that Henry IV of France, having decided to go to war in the Spanish Netherlands, had lately been measured for a new suit of armour, and had also displayed in his chamber a table or tableau, ‘wherein is paynted a man fleeing from Venus and the image of gaming, and following Hercules after two other images, of hope and fortune, with these verses: I go to the temple of virtue, hope and fortune precede me; farewell damned pleasure.’ This piece of visual propaganda encoded a variant of the Choice of Hercules, which appealed to the king's lifelong self-construct as heroic warrior. We trace the complex history of his heroic self-fashioning, showing how Henry IV after 1598 compensated for the absence of war through the hunt, gambling, and sexual domination. The dissonance between what Henry IV perceived himself to be and what he feared by 1610 he had become makes it easier to understand what drove him to his appointment in the rue de la Ferronerie.

A State Statutory Privilege for Environmental Audits: Is It a Suit of Armor or Just the Emperor's New Clothes?

A State Statutory Privilege for Environmental Audits: Is It a Suit of Armor or Just the Emperor's New Clothes?

The Armor Metaphor in Marital and Family Therapy

Each of us develops a suit of armor to protect us in dangerous situations. Within our families, we can feel both intimate and vulnerable to attack. Often family members relate to one another from within a protective stance that shields us from extreme harm and also interferes with communications and problem solutions that enhance growth. This article describes the premises and a therapeutic intervention using the armor metaphor to treat couples and families that helps family members to alternate between protected, and defended interactions to patterns that promote openness and directness. Specific techniques and strategies are presented for the therapist's use that flow from the intervention.

Performance-driven facial animation

As computer graphics technique rises to the challenge of rendering lifelike performers, more lifelike performance is required. The techniques used to animate robots, arthropods, and suits of armor, have been extended to flexible surfaces of fur and flesh. Physical models of muscle and skin have been devised. But more complex databases and sophisticated physical modeling do not directly address the performance problem. The gestures and expressions of a human actor are not the solution to a dynamic system. This paper describes a means of acquiring the expressions of real faces, and applying them to computer-generated faces. Such an "electronic mask" offers a means for the traditional talents of actors to be flexibly incorporated in digital animations. Efforts in a similar spirit have resulted in servo-controlled "animatrons," high-technology puppets, and CG puppetry [1]. The manner in which the skills of actors and puppetteers as well as animators are accommodated in such systems may point the way for a more general incorporation of human nuance into our emerging computer media.The ensuing description is divided into two major subjects: the construction of a highly-resoved human head model with photographic texture mapping, and the concept demonstration of a system to animate this model by tracking and applying the expressions of a human performer.

Strangers in the Night: Sexual Encounters in Religious and Secular Texts

Eros is too much with us. Sex and all its temptations display themselves in print and in image, in all the media of communication. It is an endless subject of discussion in every kind of journalism, a phenomenon to be analysed and measured in a number of real and pseudo sciences, while in contemporary works of the imagination lovemaking is a conventional topos which writers must struggle with rather in the manner of would-be epic poets describing a storm or a suit of armour.

The Creation of the Manchu Niru

After Nurhaci [1559-1626], Emperor T'ai-tsu of the Ch'ing, attacked Nikan Wailan [a chieftain of the Suksuhu tribe] in the eleventh year [1583] of the Wan-li era of the Ming dynasty with the thirteen suits of armor left by his father and grandfather, the ensuing military victories resulted in more conquests and rapid expansion of the population. At first [the Manchus] observed the old custom "on campaigns or in hunts, regardless of numbers, all [the participants] followed their own clan hamlet or stockade," to make formations and teach warfare. Later, because of "the ever-increasing population and the multitude of the people who surrendered from various tribes," the internal elements became more and more complex; thus, household registration was established, the companies [niru] were organized, and the banner system was instituted, expanding from four to eight banners.