Elitism and populism in Spanish Auteur cinema of the nineties

Alfredo Martnez Expstio 한국스페인어문학회 2007 스페인어문학 Vol.0 No.45

In this paper I intend to discuss the position of Spanish auteurs of the nineties in relation to the popular/elite divide, with particular attention to the works of Pedro Almodóvar, Julio Medem and Álex de la Iglesia. It is my contention that, following Almodóvar’s successful fusion of traditional auteur poetics and popular genres, Spanish film auteurs are no longer constrained to those strategies devised by directors such as Buñuel, Erice or Saura, which were unambiguously packaged as art-house cinema and addressed to an educated and discerning audience. Those strategies, including self-reference, avoidance of classical genres and a Barthesian writerly textuality, are still used by some of the new auteurs such as Julio Medem, Isabel Coixet or Álex de la Iglesia; but others do rehearse modes of auteurism that are accessible to both educated and popular audiences, to spectators who love cinema as an art form and also to spectators who pay to be entertained. Auteurism, as other forms of high art, can no longer be reduced to a form of class elitism. Spanish auteurism still is operative in at least three different contexts: as a European (that is, non Hollywood) elitism, as an emblem of high art, and as a commodified label that sustains a director-based star system. The construction of auteurism in contemporary Spanish film is based on different combinations of all three perspectives, and it is predicated on the assumption that Spanish audiences place a strong demand on auteurism in national films.

Body on Narrative : Figurativisation and Ethical Assessment in the Effects of the “Narcotrafico” in Television

Alfredo Tenoch Cid Jurado 고려대학교 응용문화연구소 2011 에피스테메 Vol.0 No.6

The process of constructing an image such as in the action of collective memory allows the formation of images, linguistic expression, and processes of identity that leave their mark over the time. The narrative organization of a story adapts the corporeal visual unit to the distinct expressive substances and to the structural possibilities of the stories in their adaptation from literature to film and to telenovelas (soap opera). In each adaptation, changes are made where the intertextuality and the intersemiotics act as strategies in the interpretive cooperation of the receptor, using complex visual processes. The body emerges as a part of a semiotic material available to narrate the events and it becomes the principal organizer of the meaning. The body is the instrument and the means at the same time. The meanings of the concept of bodyness and the semantics matrixes are manifested in television fiction and are identifiable due to a semiotic analysis of the story. In this way we observe that it refers to a condition present in the body that permits the identification as part of a process of perception.

On the Economic and Fiscal Effects of Investments in Road Infrastructures in Portugal

Alfredo M. Pereira,Jorge M. Andraz 한국국제경제학회 2011 International Economic Journal Vol.25 No.3

The objective of this paper is to investigate the economic and fiscal impact of road infrastructure investment in Portugal, focusing on the effects for each administrative region of both local investments and investments in other regions. We estimate VAR models for the national economy as well as for each of the five regions, and using the associated impulse-response functions we find that investment in road infrastructures has been a powerful instrument to increase private investment, to create new permanent jobs and to promote long-term growth in all regions. More importantly, investment in road infrastructure, both at the aggregate level and for each one of the five regions, generates fiscal effects that largely exceed the initial investment itself. Accordingly, there is no trade-off in the long-term between the potentially positive economic effects and the potentially negative budgetary effects of such investments, i.e., both economic and budgetary effects are positive. As a corollary, policies that would reduce current road investment as a response to the current budgetary concerns will result in lower long-term growth as well as worse budgetary conditions in the future.

Seismic response and energy dissipation in partially restrained and fully restrained steel frames: An analytical study

Alfredo Reyes-Salazar,Achintya Haldar 국제구조공학회 2001 Steel and Composite Structures, An International J Vol.1 No.4

The damage suffered by steel structures during the Northridge (1994) and Kobe (1995) earthquakes indicates that the fully restrained (FR) connections in steel frames did not behave as expected. Consequently, researchers began studying other possibilities, including making the connections more flexible, to reduce the risk of damage from seismic loading. Recent experimental and analytical investigations pointed out that the seismic response of steel frames with partially restrained (PR) connections might be superior to that of similar frames with FR connections since the energy dissipation at PR connections could be significant. This beneficial effect has not yet been fully quantified analytically. Thus, the dissipation of energy at PR connections needs to be considered in analytical evaluations, in addition to the dissipation of energy due to viscous damping and at plastic hinges (if they form). An algorithm is developed and verified by the authors to estimate the nonlinear time-domain dynamic response of steel frames with PR connections. The verified algorithm is then used to quantify the major sources of energy dissipation and their effect on the overall structural response in terms of the maximum base shear and the maximum top displacement. The results indicate that the dissipation of energy at PR connections is comparable to that dissipated by viscous damping and at plastic hinges. In general, the maximum total base shear significantly increases with an increase in the connection stiffness. On the other hand, the maximum top lateral displacement Umax does not always increase as the connection stiffness decreases. Energy dissipation is considerably influenced by the stiffness of a connection, defined in terms of the T ratio, i.e., the ratio of the moment the connection would have to carry according to beam line theory (Disque 1964) and the fixed end moment of the girder. A connection with a T ratio of at least 0.9 is considered to be fully restrained. The energy dissipation behavior may be quite different for a frame with FR connections with a T ratio of 1.0 compared to when the T ratio is 0.9. Thus, for nonlinear seismic analysis, a T ratio of at least 0.9 should not be considered to be an FR connection. The study quantitatively confirms the general observations made in experimental results for frames with PR connections. Proper consideration of the PR connection stiffness and other dynamic properties are essential to predict dynamic behavior, no matter how difficult the analysis procedure becomes. Any simplified approach may need to be calibrated using this type of detailed analytical study.

PUBLIC INVESTMENT, ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE AND BUDGETARY CONSOLIDATION: VAR EVIDENCE FOR THE FIRST 12 EURO COUNTRIES

ALFREDO MARVÃO PEREIRA,MARIA DE FÁTIMA PINHO 중앙대학교 경제연구소 2011 Journal of Economic Development Vol.36 No.1

In a period of heightened concern about fiscal consolidation in the euro area, a politically expedient way of controlling the public budget is to cut public investment. A critical question, however, is whether or not political expediency comes at a cost, in terms of both long-term economic performance and future budgetary contention efforts. First, common wisdom suggests that public investments have positive effects on economic performance although the empirical evidence is less clear. Second, it is conceivable that public investment has such strong effects on output that over time it generates enough additional tax revenues to pay for itself. Obviously, it is equally plausible that the effects on output although positive are not strong enough for the public investment to pay for itself. In this paper, we investigate these issues empirically for the first twelve countries in the euro area using a vector auto-regressive approach. We conclude that the euro countries can be gathered in four groups according to the nature of the economic and budgetary impact of public investment. The first group includes Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Netherlands, where the economic effects are either negative or positive but very small and, therefore, cuts will be harmless for the economy and effective from a budgetary perspective. The second group includes Finland, Portugal, and Spain, where public investment does not pay for itself and, therefore, cuts are an effective tool of budgetary consolidation although they are harmful for the economy. The third group includes France, Greece, and Ireland where public investment just pays for itself and therefore cuts are not an effective way of achieving long-term budgetary consolidation and are harmful for the economy. Finally, the fourth group includes Germany and Italy, where public investment more than pays for itself and, therefore, cuts are not only harmful for the economy but also counterproductive from a budgetary perspective.

Security and Privacy in Ubiquitous Sensor Networks

( Alfredo J Perez ),( Sherali Zeadally ),( Nafaa Jabeur ) 한국정보처리학회 2018 Journal of information processing systems Vol.14 No.2

The availability of powerful and sensor-enabled mobile and Internet-connected devices have enabled the advent of the ubiquitous sensor network (USN) paradigm. USN provides various types of solutions to the general public in multiple sectors, including environmental monitoring, entertainment, transportation, security, and healthcare. Here, we explore and compare the features of wireless sensor networks and USN. Based on our extensive study, we classify the security- and privacy-related challenges of USNs. We identify and discuss solutions available to address these challenges. Finally, we briefly discuss open challenges for designing more secure and privacy-preserving approaches in next-generation USNs.

On the Economic Effects of Investment in Railroad Infrastructures in Portugal

ALFREDO M. PEREIRA;JORGE M. ANDRAZ 경제연구소 2012 Journal of Economic Development Vol.37 No.2

The objective of this paper is to identify the effects of railroad infrastructure investment on aggregate and regional economic performance in Portugal. At the aggregate level, we show that railroad investment crowds in private investment and employment and have strong effects on output. At the regional level, we show that railroad investment affects private investment positively in all regions, employment in only Lisbon and the North, and output in all regions with the exception of Alentejo. The effects are regionally distributed in a rather uneven manner with Lisbon and the North capturing the bulk of the effects. Our results also highlight the relevance of regional spillovers. In terms of the relative effects of comparable railroad investment in the region and elsewhere in the country, we find that the North and the Center benefit more from investment elsewhere while the remaining regions benefit more from local investment. Finally, from a country-wide perspective, railroad investment located in Lisbon generates the largest marginal benefits, which reflect, mostly, the large effects in the Lisbon region itself. By contrast, railroad investment in the remaining regions has a much lower marginal benefit to the country, but these benefits reflect mostly spillovers. This highlights the difficulty in implementing policies that simultaneously maximize aggregate growth and reduce regional disparities.

Field-theory Two-point Functions via Negative Dimension Integration

Alfredo Takashi Suzuki 한국물리학회 2012 THE JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY Vol.60 No.5

One-loop two-point functions play an important role in quantum field theories, being one of the primary divergent Feynman graphs that calls for regularization and renormalization procedures. These well-known functions are here revisited as illustrative for the power and the simplicity of the negative dimensional integration method (NDIM) approach to tackle Feynman integrals with off-shell external fields and massless and massive virtual fields.

Seismic response of 3D steel buildings with hybrid connections: PRC and FRC

Alfredo Reyes-Salazar,Jesús Alberto Cervantes-Lugo,Arturo López-Barraza,Edén Bojórquez,Juan Bojorquez 국제구조공학회 2016 Steel and Composite Structures, An International J Vol.22 No.1

The nonlinear seismic responses of steel buildings with perimeter moment resisting frames (PMRF) and interior gravity frames (IGF) are estimated, modeling the interior connections first as perfectly pinned (PPC), and then as partially restrained (PRC). Two 3D steel building models, twenty strong motions and three levels of the PRC rigidity, which are represented by the Richard Model and the Beam Line Theory, are considered. The RUAUMOKO Computer Program is used for the required time history nonlinear dynamic analysis. The responses can be significantly reduced when interior connections are considered as PRC, confirming what observed in experimental investigations. The reduction significantly varies with the strong motion, story, model, structural deformation, response parameter, and location of the structural element. The reduction is larger for global than for local response parameters; average reductions larger than 30% are observed for shears and displacements while they are about 20% for bending moments. The reduction is much larger for medium- than for low-rise buildings indicating a considerable influence of the structural complexity. It can be concluded that, the effect of the dissipated energy at PRC should not be neglected. Even for connections with relative small stiffness, which are usually idealized as PPC, the reduction can be significant. Thus, PRC can be used at IGF of steel buildings with PMRF to get more economical construction, to reduce the seismic response and to make steel building more seismic load tolerant. Much more research is needed to consider other aspects of the problem to reach more general conclusions.

Public Investment, Economic Performance and Budgetary Consolidation : VAR Evidence for the First 12 Euro Countries

ALFREDO MARVAO PEREIRA;MARIA DE FATIMA PINHO 경제연구소 2011 Journal of Economic Development Vol.36 No.1

In a period of heightened concern about fiscal consolidation in the euro area, a politically expedient way of controlling the public budget is to cut public investment. A critical question, however, is whether or not political expediency comes at a cost, in terms of both long-term economic performance and future budgetary contention efforts. First, common wisdom suggests that public investments have positive effects on economic performance although the empirical evidence is less clear. Second, it is conceivable that public investment has such strong effects on output that over time it generates enough additional tax revenues to pay for itself. Obviously, it is equally plausible that the effects on output although positive are not strong enough for the public investment to pay for itself. In this paper, we investigate these issues empirically for the first twelve countries in the euro area using a vector auto-regressive approach. We conclude that the euro countries can be gathered in four groups according to the nature of the economic and budgetary impact of public investment. The first group includes Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Netherlands, where the economic effects are either negative or positive but very small and, therefore, cuts will be harmless for the economy and effective from a budgetary perspective. The second group includes Finland, Portugal, and Spain, where public investment does not pay for itself and, therefore, cuts are an effective tool of budgetary consolidation although they are harmful for the economy. The third group includes France, Greece, and Ireland where public investment just pays for itself and therefore cuts are not an effective way of achieving long-term budgetary consolidation and are harmful for the economy. Finally, the fourth group includes Germany and Italy, where public investment more than pays for itself and, therefore, cuts are not only harmful for the economy but also counterproductive from a budgetary perspective.