Unconventional Lens Research Articles

Unforeseen Connections and New Points of View to Promote Interest and Passion for Earth Sciences

This research is a first result of the initial findings of an ongoing, in-depth inquiry among scientific texts and historical documents, which are revealing surprising discoveries on the fundamental role that Earth sciences have played in shaping historical events, influencing social dynamics, and impacting culture and the arts. This perspective is often overlooked in the conventional understanding of this discipline. This research does not claim to present groundbreaking discoveries or original research but seeks to highlight a totally different aspect of Earth sciences and to present it from a completely original point of view. While it is widely acknowledged that Earth sciences play a crucial role in understanding natural phenomena, global dynamics, and natural risks and hazards; their significant contributions to addressing contemporary challenges such as global warming, extreme weather events, land consumption, and biodiversity loss are less recognized. These issues are vital for environmental protection and sustainable development. Despite this, years of teaching students of all ages, engaging them in practical activities and laboratory experiences across various Earth science fields with the aim to promote knowledge, interest and, when possible, passion for this fascinating discipline, have shown that, if communicated without passion the subject can be perceived as undeniably and inevitably boring-seen merely as a discipline dealing with stones and catastrophes, complex and complicated. This research attempts to offer a new perspective on Earth sciences by providing an effective interpretation of geological phenomena, organizing them according to a logical classification, by typology or by temporal sequence. Natural disasters, such as volcanoes or earthquakes, in some cases well known, instantaneous or longlasting events, are portrayed as unpredictable yet indispensable causes of events that, at first glance, may seem unrelated to Earth sciences but have profoundly influenced human history and culture. This research aims to present a collection of information to educate about 'stones and catastrophes,' demonstrating how Earth sciences, through this unconventional lens, serve as a founding role of various disciplines. They promote the development of skills, both hard and soft, and stimulate curiosity, with the hope of guiding individuals towards a complex yet fascinating discipline."

Contre-utopie et utopie dans Méridien zéro de Mourareau

Mourareau’s novel Méridien zéro (2020) depicts a counter-utopia in coexistence with an emblematic collective utopia: Tahiti and her enchanted islands. In the first part of the novel, the wanderings of the two protagonists, Rose and Bleu, project the reader into the near future of a world falling apart. The « social Eurocraties » have been unable to prevent civilizational collapse and Europe is crumbling. Through a somewhat unconventional lens and line of argument, the author bolsters the indictment first made by the earliest Polynesian writers to prosecute, in the court of capital-H History, the notions of progress advanced by Western societies. It is indeed Western civilization and the failure of its ideologies that are displayed here in a context of general decadence. It is thus toward Tahiti and her islands that the characters turn to change their lives, but the capitalistic logics that reign there since the Centre d’Expérimentation du Pacifique—a nuclear testing center—and the acculturation that has resulted from colonization on political, economic and religious levels render the island an uninteresting space for them. The island of Raroia will perhaps provide them with the new civilizational paradigm to which they aspire.

Performance model of depth from defocus with an unconventional camera.

In this paper, we present a generic performance model able to evaluate the accuracy of depth estimation using depth from defocus (DFD). This model only requires the sensor point spread function at a given depth to evaluate the theoretical accuracy of depth estimation. Hence, it can be used for any (un)conventional system, using either one or several images. This model is validated experimentally on two unconventional DFD cameras, using either a coded aperture or a lens with chromatic aberration. Then, we use the proposed model for the end-to-end design of a 3D camera using an unconventional lens with chromatic aberration, for the specific use-case of small unmanned aerial vehicle navigation.

Intentionality in reducing health disparities: Caring as connection

Inadequate health care quality may contribute to Native American health disparities through racial/ethnic discrimination by health care professionals. Nursing approaches to relationships and caring offer a means to understand health disparities through an unconventional lens. The study objective was to examine health disparities within the context of patient/nurse relationships. A descriptive-qualitative method guided data collection and analysis. Eleven nurses who serve Native Americans were interviewed. They described attitudes, meaningful relationships, and nurse leadership. Nurses discussed their perceptions of and experiences with Native American patients. Four themes emerged: shared patient/nurse values, patient-centered care, external forces, and stereotype-driven care. Are we ready for the challenge to advocate for, build, and sustain organizational structures that support caring relationships? Implications for public health nursing include being intentional about recognizing implicit biases and ethnocentrism; examining nurses' complicit roles in perpetuating racism; and developing mechanisms to collectively advocate for improved Native American health.

Technology and gay identity: the case of the pre-Second World War male flight attendant

This article examines 1930s aviation in the USA through an unconventional lens – the male flight attendant, a figure who served as a cultural touchstone for negotiating gender roles in the emerging business of commercial air transport. As aviation had broad resonance as a symbol of modern and cosmopolitan life, the male flight attendant, too, became bound to this larger context of technological development and the futuristic transformations of society it promised. My aim is to detail these connections between the flight attendant and technological innovation, but also to make a deeper claim: that the occupation of flight attendant, the place of gay men therein, and the cultural acceptance and resistance to this fact were constituent, not ancillary, to the history of the 1930s. In the process, I am arguing not only that gender serves as a fundamental category of historical analysis – via the assumptions and power relations through which historical actors make history – but also that issues of gay identity and homophobia are integral to such analysis

Is Entrepreneur-Politician Alliance Sustainable During Transition? The Case of Management Buyouts in China

This paper explores the dynamic interactions between entrepreneurs and politicians in transition China through an unconventional lens of management buyouts (MBOs). Specifically we identify two contrasting outcomes of entrepreneur-politician alliances: Privatization buyouts by entrepreneurs and failed MBOs implying the collapse of the original alliance. Drawing on the rent appropriation literature, we treat Chinese MBOs as a bargaining, clarification, and redistribution of organizational rent between entrepreneurs and politicians, and further develop a model of entreprepreneur-politician bargaining that identifies the determinants of varying rent bargaining (MBO) outcomes.

Rakim's Performativity

“Rakim's Performativity” considers the influence and relevance of pioneering Rapper Rakim's influential track “Follow the Leader” through the lens of J. L. Austin's theory of performativity presented in his philosophical work How to Do Things with Words. The author reflects on Rakim's writing and performance as an MC by referencing performance studies theoretical frameworks from Erving Goffman, Martin Heidegger, and African American cultural iconography. Morris emphasizes Austin's constructed dichotomy in the first half of How to Do Things and his more expansive framing later in the book, and applies both overarching breakdowns to Rakim's work. This article not only praises one of Hip Hop's most important writers and utterers, it also seeks to affirm Austin's theoretical applicability through an unconventional lens. The twenty-page article is divided into four sections: a preface that outlines the context in which Rakim's work was heard by the author; section 1, “Follow Him into a Flow,” which contrasts Rakim's work with that of other Rappers at the time the track was released; section 2, “Austinian Performativity,” which diagrams Rakim's lyrics in the context of Austin's constative and performative distinctions, among other philosophical references; and section 3, which emphasizes the applicability of Rakim's work to Austin's three locutionary delineations. In addition to analyzing Rakim's iconic lyrics, Morris conveys a poetic and cultural nostalgia for the cultural time frame that epitomized Rakim's work (known as the “Golden Age of Hip Hop”) as well as a deep affection for J. L. Austin's theory as an infinitely applicable and a fundamentally democratic ethos.

Unconventional lens computation

SUMMARYProfessor Tom Mulvey has contributed significantly to the development of computer‐aided design in electron optics. Some of the problems connected with the computation of unconventional lenses and related test examples proposed by Mulvey are summarized. It is shown what boundary condition and position of boundary has to be selected for reliable results, what types and sizes of mesh should be used for required field accuracy, and which problems in the first‐order finite‐element method remain unsolved.

Adaptation of the Schupmann Medial Telescope to a Large Scale Astronomical Optical System

The classical Schupmann medial telescope is free of the secondary-spectrum residual associated with large refractors. The difficulties in obtaining large glass disks of the necessary optical quality and the problem associated with their mounting preclude the use of this unconventional lens in large scale astronomical systems. However, to circumvent these limitations, the Schupmann lens was modified by replacing the refractive objective with a spherical mirror producing a new catadioptric lens configuration adaptable to large-scale astronomy. The design parameters and performance data are given for an f/5.4, 5.5-m focal length design covering a 2 degrees full field.