Place-Labeled Petri Net Controlled Grammars

A place-labeled Petri net (pPN) controlled grammar is a context-free grammar equipped with a Petri net and a function which maps places of the net to the productions of the grammar. The language consists of all terminal strings that can be obtained by simultaneously applying of the rules of multisets which are the images of the sets of the input places of transitions in a successful occurrence sequence of the Petri net. In this paper, we study the generative power and structural properties of pPN controlled grammars. We show that pPN controlled grammars have the same generative power as matrix grammars. Moreover, we prove that for each pPN controlled grammar, we can construct an equivalent place-labeled ordinary net controlled grammar

Matrix Graph Grammars

This book objective is to develop an algebraization of graph grammars. Equivalently, we study graph dynamics. From the point of view of a computer scientist, graph grammars are a natural generalization of Chomsky grammars for which a purely algebraic approach does not exist up to now. A Chomsky (or string) grammar is, roughly speaking, a precise description of a formal language (which in essence is a set of strings). On a more discrete mathematical style, it can be said that graph grammars -- Matrix Graph Grammars in particular -- study dynamics of graphs. Ideally, this algebraization would enforce our understanding of grammars in general, providing new analysis techniques and generalizations of concepts, problems and results known so far.Comment: 321 pages, 75 figures. This book has is publisehd by VDM verlag, ISBN 978-363921255

Under pressure : Women's Health and the social constructions of aging / Brittany Thompson

v, 125 leaves ; 29 cmThis thesis project explores social constructions of aging women within Women’s Health magazine. There is limited scholarly literature on representations of aging women within popular health/fitness media, such as magazines. The limited current research which does exist suggests that aging women are subjected to negative stereotypes and gendered myths within our societal and cultural values with respect to aging (Vertinsky, 1994). Media representations are strong and pervasive reflections of societal norms and expectations and may impact the way women view themselves. I therefore undertook a Foucaultian discourse analysis of Women’s Health magazine to examine if/how gendered constructions of aging are functioning within representations of health directed to women of all ages. I found that Women’s Health reproduces aging women as useless, failures, problems to be managed, and other to normative femininity. Women’s Health reinforces that aging can and should be managed through the consumption of anti-aging products, procedures, and surgeries endorsed within the magazine

Fit for the Stage: Regency Actors and the Inspiration Behind Romantic Drama

In this dissertation, I argue that British verse tragedies of the Romantic era must be looked at not as closet dramas divorced from the stage, but as performance texts written with specific actors in mind. Because individual actors inspired and helped to shape dramatic works by early-nineteenth-century canonical poets, these works cannot be fully understood without an appreciation of the performers who helped make them what they are. By examining those performers, their public personas, their personal strengths, and the cultural ideals they embodied, we can better appreciate what the plays were trying to achieve. Also, knowing who was meant to perform a role can prevent us from going astray with misinterpretations that fail to account for how dramatists intended their main characters to be perceived. By properly understanding the plays of this era within the contexts in which they were meant to be performed, we begin to get a better understanding of the course of British drama in general. In the first chapter, I outline the key characteristics of Romantic drama that separated it from the rising melodrama of the period. Romantic drama was character-based, utilized ambitious poetic language, and seriously considered moral questions. These qualities, I argue, all required skilled actors. Thus, Romantic drama is inherently linked to the star actors of the Regency period who dominated the stage at the time. The chapter includes an in-depth analysis of William Wordsworth\u27s The Borderers as the Ur-text that embodies all of the elements of Romantic drama, as well as a survey of the development and decline of verse tragedy in the nineteenth century. The following three chapters offer case studies of individual performers who influenced dramas by canonical authors. Chapter 2 examines Sarah Siddons\u27s role in Joanna Baillie\u27s tragedy De Monfort. Chapter 3 looks at Samuel Taylor Coleridge\u27s rewriting process in turning his unperformed manuscript Osorio into the stage hit Remorse with the aid of Julia Glover. Chapter 4 relates to Eliza O\u27Neill, the actress who converted Percy Shelley to write for the stage and inspired the heroine of The Cenci

Imperfections

This open access book synthesizes the swiftly growing critical scholarship on mistakes, glitches, and other aesthetics and logics of imperfection into the first transdisciplinary, transnational framework of imperfection studies. In recent years, the trend to present the notion of imperfection as a plus rather than a problem has resonated across a range of social and creative disciplines and a wealth of world localities. As digital tools allow media users to share ever more suave selfies and success stories, psychologists promote 'the gifts of imperfections' and point to perfectionism as a catalyst for rising depression and burnout complaints and suicide rates among millennials. As sound technologies increasingly permit musicians to 'smoothen' their work, composers increasingly praise glitches, noise, and cracks. As genetic engineering upgrades with swift speed, philosophers, marketeers, and physicians plea 'against perfection' and supermarkets successfully advertise 'perfectly imperfect' vegetables. Meanwhile, cultural analysts point at skewed perspectives, blurry images, and other 'deliberate imperfections' in new and historical cinema, painting, photography, music, and literature. While these and other experts applaud imperfection, scholars in fields ranging from disability studies to tourism critically interrogate a trend to fetishize imperfection and poverty. They rightfully warn against projecting privileged (and, often, emphatically western-biased) feel-good stories onto the less privileged, the distorted, and the frail. The editors unite the different strands in imperfection thinking across various disciplines tools. In fourteen chapters by experts from different world localities, they offer scholars and students more historically grounded and more critically informed conceptualizations of the imperfect. This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com

Imperfections:Studies in Mistakes, Flaws, and Failures

In recent years, the trend to present the notion of imperfection in a positive rather than negative light has resonated across a range of social and creative disciplines and a wealth of world regions. This open access book synthesizes the swiftly growing critical scholarship on mistakes, glitches, and other aesthetics and logics of imperfection into the first transdisciplinary, transnational framework of imperfection studies. With this framework, the editors offer scholars and students across various disciplines tools to craft more historically grounded and critically informed conceptualizations of the imperfect

Imperfections

This open access book synthesizes the swiftly growing critical scholarship on mistakes, glitches, and other aesthetics and logics of imperfection into the first transdisciplinary, transnational framework of imperfection studies. In recent years, the trend to present the notion of imperfection as a plus rather than a problem has resonated across a range of social and creative disciplines and a wealth of world localities. As digital tools allow media users to share ever more suave selfies and success stories, psychologists promote 'the gifts of imperfections' and point to perfectionism as a catalyst for rising depression and burnout complaints and suicide rates among millennials. As sound technologies increasingly permit musicians to 'smoothen' their work, composers increasingly praise glitches, noise, and cracks. As genetic engineering upgrades with swift speed, philosophers, marketeers, and physicians plea 'against perfection' and supermarkets successfully advertise 'perfectly imperfect' vegetables. Meanwhile, cultural analysts point at skewed perspectives, blurry images, and other 'deliberate imperfections' in new and historical cinema, painting, photography, music, and literature. While these and other experts applaud imperfection, scholars in fields ranging from disability studies to tourism critically interrogate a trend to fetishize imperfection and poverty. They rightfully warn against projecting privileged (and, often, emphatically western-biased) feel-good stories onto the less privileged, the distorted, and the frail. The editors unite the different strands in imperfection thinking across various disciplines tools. In fourteen chapters by experts from different world localities, they offer scholars and students more historically grounded and more critically informed conceptualizations of the imperfect. This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com

Militarism, Security, and War: The Politics of Contemporary Hollywood Superheroes

In the fields of political science and international relations, engagement with popular culture has been deemed predominantly un-important and irrelevant as an area of study. This dissertation interrogates one of the most popular cultural icons of the early 21st century, the fictional Hollywood superhero, and asks what it does for us to take seriously that which is often deemed frivolous entertainment. Understanding the superhero as a political entity in and of itself, this project reveals the mutually constitutive relationship between its production, consumption and reproduction and particular ideologies around militarism, security and war. Acknowledging the complexities of superhero characters, narratives, and aesthetics such as subversive and contested elements, this project reveals superheroes as potential sites of political and ideological reflection, articulation, constitution, and transgression. This project demonstrates that a pop cultural/aesthetic approach to IR can enable critical practices that contribute to complicating and enhancing our understandings of war and politics