26,902 research outputs found
Where Does Music End and Nonmusic Begin? Fine-tuning the “Naturalist Response” Problem for Nontonal Music’s Naturalistic Critics
As to what distinguishes music from other sound, some investigators in both
philosophy and cognitive scientists have answered “tonality.” It seems subservient even
to rhythm. Tonality is considered to be the central factor around which the piece is
oriented; it gives a sense of home, expectation, and completeness. Most important, much
of this inquiry builds on naturalistic, evolutionary explanation to account for human nature
and behavior. The conclusion of such line of thought is that sounds missing tonality or
tonal focus cannot be music. This article challenges such sort of naturalistic criteria
distinguishing music from nonmusic. Permitting certain sets of sounds to be considered
music does not necessitate denial or approval of naturalistic explanations but does allow
nontonal music to serve a part of human and musical evolution
Unraveling the effect of sex on human genetic architecture
Sex is arguably the most important differentiating characteristic in most mammalian
species, separating populations into different groups, with varying behaviors, morphologies,
and physiologies based on their complement of sex chromosomes, amongst other factors. In
humans, despite males and females sharing nearly identical genomes, there are differences
between the sexes in complex traits and in the risk of a wide array of diseases. Sex provides
the genome with a distinct hormonal milieu, differential gene expression, and environmental
pressures arising from gender societal roles. This thus poses the possibility of observing
gene by sex (GxS) interactions between the sexes that may contribute to some of the
phenotypic differences observed. In recent years, there has been growing evidence of GxS,
with common genetic variation presenting different effects on males and females. These
studies have however been limited in regards to the number of traits studied and/or
statistical power. Understanding sex differences in genetic architecture is of great
importance as this could lead to improved understanding of potential differences in
underlying biological pathways and disease etiology between the sexes and in turn help
inform personalised treatments and precision medicine.
In this thesis we provide insights into both the scope and mechanism of GxS across the
genome of circa 450,000 individuals of European ancestry and 530 complex traits in the UK
Biobank. We found small yet widespread differences in genetic architecture across traits
through the calculation of sex-specific heritability, genetic correlations, and sex-stratified
genome-wide association studies (GWAS). We further investigated whether sex-agnostic
(non-stratified) efforts could potentially be missing information of interest, including sex-specific trait-relevant loci and increased phenotype prediction accuracies. Finally, we
studied the potential functional role of sex differences in genetic architecture through sex
biased expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) and gene-level analyses.
Overall, this study marks a broad examination of the genetics of sex differences. Our findings
parallel previous reports, suggesting the presence of sexual genetic heterogeneity across
complex traits of generally modest magnitude. Furthermore, our results suggest the need to
consider sex-stratified analyses in future studies in order to shed light into possible sex-specific molecular mechanisms
Structure and adsorption properties of gas-ionic liquid interfaces
Supported ionic liquids are a diverse class of materials that have been considered
as a promising approach to design new surface properties within solids for gas
adsorption and separation applications. In these materials, the surface morphology and
composition of a porous solid are modified by depositing ionic liquid. The resulting
materials exhibit a unique combination of structural and gas adsorption properties
arising from both components, the support, and the liquid. Naturally, theoretical and
experimental studies devoted to understanding the underlying principles of exhibited
interfacial properties have been an intense area of research. However, a complete
understanding of the interplay between interfacial gas-liquid and liquid-solid
interactions as well as molecular details of these processes remains elusive.
The proposed problem is challenging and in this thesis, it is approached from
two different perspectives applying computational and experimental techniques. In
particular, molecular dynamics simulations are used to model gas adsorption in films
of ionic liquids on a molecular level. A detailed description of the modeled systems is
possible if the interfacial and bulk properties of ionic liquid films are separated. In this
study, we use a unique method that recognizes the interfacial and bulk structures of
ionic liquids and distinguishes gas adsorption from gas solubility. By combining
classical nitrogen sorption experiments with a mean-field theory, we study how liquid-solid interactions influence the adsorption of ionic liquids on the surface of the porous
support.
The developed approach was applied to a range of ionic liquids that feature
different interaction behavior with gas and porous support. Using molecular
simulations with interfacial analysis, it was discovered that gas adsorption capacity
can be directly related to gas solubility data, allowing the development of a predictive
model for the gas adsorption performance of ionic liquid films. Furthermore, it was
found that this CO2 adsorption on the surface of ionic liquid films is determined by the
specific arrangement of cations and anions on the surface. A particularly important
result is that, for the first time, a quantitative relation between these structural and
adsorption properties of different ionic liquid films has been established. This link
between two types of properties determines design principles for supported ionic
liquids.
However, the proposed predictive model and design principles rely on the
assumption that the ionic liquid is uniformly distributed on the surface of the porous
support. To test how ionic liquids behave under confinement, nitrogen physisorption
experiments were conducted for micro‐ and mesopore analysis of supported ionic
liquid materials. In conjunction with mean-field density functional theory applied to
the lattice gas and pore models, we revealed different scenarios for the pore-filling
mechanism depending on the strength of the liquid-solid interactions.
In this thesis, a combination of computational and experimental studies provides
a framework for the characterization of complex interfacial gas-liquid and liquid-solid
processes. It is shown that interfacial analysis is a powerful tool for studying
molecular-level interactions between different phases. Finally, nitrogen sorption
experiments were effectively used to obtain information on the structure of supported
ionic liquids
Why do we need another book about unbounded dependencies? A review article on Chaves & Putnam’s Unbounded Dependency Constructions
Unbounded dependencies (UDs), in wh-interrogatives, relative clauses and other constructions, have been a major focus of syntactic research for more than half a century. The most widely assumed approach analyzes them in terms of movement and views island phenomena as largely a matter of syntax. Both these positions are problematic. Moreover, they stem from assumptions that have been at the heart of syntactic theorizing for many decades. Chaves and Putnam present evidence that both the dominant approach to UDs and the general approach to syntax from which it derives are flawed. They argue for a non-movement approach to UDs and a largely non-syntactic approach to island phenomena, and for an approach to syntax which has the relation between linguistic knowledge and language use and the complexity of acceptability judgements as central concerns. Their book is an important one that could have a major impact both on research on UDs and on syntactic research more generally
BECOMEBECOME - A TRANSDISCIPLINARY METHODOLOGY BASED ON INFORMATION ABOUT THE OBSERVER
ABSTRACT
Andrea T. R. Traldi
BECOMEBECOME
A Transdisciplinary Methodology Based on Information about the Observer
The present research dissertation has been developed with the intention to provide practical strategies and discover new intellectual operations which can be used to generate Transdisciplinary insight. For this reason, this thesis creates access to new knowledge at different scales.
Firstly, as it pertains to the scale of new knowledge generated by those who attend Becomebecome events. The open-source nature of the Becomebecome methodology makes it possible for participants in Becomebecome workshops, training programmes and residencies to generate new insight about the specific project they are working on, which then reinforce and expand the foundational principles of the theoretical background.
Secondly, as it pertains to the scale of the Becomebecome framework, which remains independent of location and moment in time. The method proposed to access Transdisciplinary knowledge constitutes new knowledge in itself because the sequence of activities, described as physical and mental procedures and listed as essential criteria, have never been found organised
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in such a specific order before. It is indeed the order in time, i.e. the sequence of the ideas and activities proposed, which allows one to transform Disciplinary knowledge via a new Transdisciplinary frame of reference.
Lastly, new knowledge about Transdisciplinarity as a field of study is created as a consequence of the heretofore listed two processes.
The first part of the thesis is designated ‘Becomebecome Theory’ and focuses on the theoretical background and the intellectual operations necessary to support the creation of new Transdisciplinary knowledge. The second part of the thesis is designated ‘Becomebecome Practice’ and provides practical examples of the application of such operations. Crucially, the theoretical model described as the foundation for the Becomebecome methodology (Becomebecome Theory) is process-based and constantly checked against the insight generated through Becomebecome Practice.
To this effect, ‘information about the observer’ is proposed as a key notion which binds together Transdisciplinary resources from several studies in the hard sciences and humanities. It is a concept that enables understanding about why and how information that is generated through Becomebecome Practice is considered of paramount importance for establishing the reference parameters necessary to access Transdisciplinary insight which is meaningful to a specific project, a specific person, or a specific moment in time
The labour supply and retirement of older workers: an empirical analysis
This thesis examines the labour supply of older workers, their movement into retirement, and any movement out of retirement and back into work. In particular the labour force participation, labour supply and wage elasticity and other income elasticity of work hours are estimated for older workers and compared to younger workers. The thesis goes on to look at the movement into retirement for older workers as a whole by examining cohorts by gender, wave and age. The thesis also presents a descriptive and quantitative • examination of the changes in income and happiness that occur as an individual retires. Finally the thesis examines the reasons why an individual may return to work from v . retirement. The results of the findings suggest: that younger workers are significantly more responsive to wage and household income changes than older worker
Recent Hong Kong cinema and the generic role of film noir in relation to the politics of identity and difference
This thesis identifies a connection in Hong Kong cinema with classical Hollywood film noir and examines what it will call a 'reinvestment' in film noir in recent films. It will show that this reinvestment is a discursive strategy that both engages the spectator-subject in the cinematic practice and disengages him or her from the hegemony of the discourse by decentring the narrative. The thesis argues that a cinematic practice has occurred in the recent reinvestment of film noir in Hong Kong, which restages the intertextual relay of the historical genre that gives rise to an expectation of ideas about social instability. The noir vision that is seen as related to the fixed categories of film narratives, characterizations and visual styles is reassessed in the course of the thesis using Derridian theory. The focus of analysis is the way in which the constitution of meanings is dependent on generic characteristics that are different. Key to the phenomenon is a film strategy that destabilizes, differs and defers the interpretation of crises-personal, social, political and/or cultural-by soliciting self-conscious re-reading of suffering, evil, fate, chance and fortune. It will be argued that such a strategy evokes the genre expectation as the film invokes a network of ideas regarding a world perceived by the audience in association with the noirish moods of claustrophobia, paranoia, despair and nihilism. The noir vision is thus mutated and transformed when the film device differs and defers the conception of the crises as tragic in nature by exposing the workings of the genre amalgamation and the ideological function of the cinematic discourse. Thus, noirishness becomes both an affect and an agent that contrives a self-reflexive re-reading of the tragic vision and of the conventional comprehension of reality within the discursive practice. The film strategy, as an agent that problematizes the film form and narrative, gives rise to what I call a politics of difference, which may also be understood as the Lyotardian 'language game' or a practice of 'pastiche' in Jameson's terminology. Under the influence of the film strategy, the spectator is enabled to negotiate his or her understanding of recent Hong Kong cinema diegetically and extra-diegetically by traversing different positions of cinematic identification. When the practice of genre amalgamation adopts the visual impact of the noirish film form, the film turns itself into a playing field of 'fatal' misrecognition or a site of question. Through cinematic identification and alienation from the identification, the spectator-subject is enabled to experience the misrecognition as the film slowly foregrounds the way in which the viewer's presence is implicated in the narrative. This thesis demonstrates that certain contemporary Hong Kong films introduce this selfconscious mode of explication and interpretation, which solicits the spectator to negotiate his or her subject-position in the course of viewing. The notions of identity and subjectivity under scrutiny will thus be reread. With reference to The Private Eye Blue, Swordsman II, City a/Glass and Happy Together, the thesis shall explore the ways in which the Hong Kong films enable and facilitate a negotiation of cultural identity
Anytime algorithms for ROBDD symmetry detection and approximation
Reduced Ordered Binary Decision Diagrams (ROBDDs) provide a dense and memory efficient representation of Boolean functions. When ROBDDs are applied in logic synthesis, the problem arises of detecting both classical and generalised symmetries. State-of-the-art in symmetry detection is represented by Mishchenko's algorithm. Mishchenko showed how to detect symmetries in ROBDDs without the need for checking equivalence of all co-factor pairs. This work resulted in a practical algorithm for detecting all classical symmetries in an ROBDD in O(|G|³) set operations where |G| is the number of nodes in the ROBDD. Mishchenko and his colleagues subsequently extended the algorithm to find generalised symmetries. The extended algorithm retains the same asymptotic complexity for each type of generalised symmetry. Both the classical and generalised symmetry detection algorithms are monolithic in the sense that they only return a meaningful answer when they are left to run to completion. In this thesis we present efficient anytime algorithms for detecting both classical and generalised symmetries, that output pairs of symmetric variables until a prescribed time bound is exceeded. These anytime algorithms are complete in that given sufficient time they are guaranteed to find all symmetric pairs. Theoretically these algorithms reside in O(n³+n|G|+|G|³) and O(n³+n²|G|+|G|³) respectively, where n is the number of variables, so that in practice the advantage of anytime generality is not gained at the expense of efficiency. In fact, the anytime approach requires only very modest data structure support and offers unique opportunities for optimisation so the resulting algorithms are very efficient. The thesis continues by considering another class of anytime algorithms for ROBDDs that is motivated by the dearth of work on approximating ROBDDs. The need for approximation arises because many ROBDD operations result in an ROBDD whose size is quadratic in the size of the inputs. Furthermore, if ROBDDs are used in abstract interpretation, the running time of the analysis is related not only to the complexity of the individual ROBDD operations but also the number of operations applied. The number of operations is, in turn, constrained by the number of times a Boolean function can be weakened before stability is achieved. This thesis proposes a widening that can be used to both constrain the size of an ROBDD and also ensure that the number of times that it is weakened is bounded by some given constant. The widening can be used to either systematically approximate an ROBDD from above (i.e. derive a weaker function) or below (i.e. infer a stronger function). The thesis also considers how randomised techniques may be deployed to improve the speed of computing an approximation by avoiding potentially expensive ROBDD manipulation
Patterns of subspecies diversity in the giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis (L. 1758): comparison of systematic methods and their implications for conservation policy
This thesis examines the subspecific taxonomic status of the giraffe and considers the role of formal taxonomy in the formulation of conservation policy. Where species show consistent. geographically structured phenotypic variation such geographic patterns may indicate selective forces (or other population-level effects) acting. upon local populations. These consistent geographic patterns may be recognised formally as subspecies and may be of interest in single or multi-species biodiversity or biogeography studies for delimiting areas of conservation priority. Subspecies may also be used in the formulation of management policies and legislation. Subspecies are, by definition, allopatric. This thesis explicitly uses methodology of systematic biology and phylogenetic reconstruction to investigate patterns of variation between geographic groups. The taxonomic status of the giraffe is apposite for review. The species provides three independent data sets that may be analysed quantitatively for geographic structure; pelage patterns, morphology and genetics. Museum specimens. grouped according to geographic origin, were favoured for study as more than one type of data was often available for an individual. Population aggregation analysis of forty pelage pattern characters maintained six separate subspecies, while agglomerating some neighbouring populations into a subspecies. A 'traditional' morphometric approach, using multivariate statistical analysis of adult skull measurements, was complemented by a geometric morphometric approach; landmarkrestricted eigenshape analysis. Four morphologically distinct groups were recognised by both morphological analyses. Phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA control region sequences indicates five major cIades. Nested cIade analysis identifies population fragmentation, range expansion and genetic isolation by distance as contributing to the genetic structure of the giraffe. The results of the analyses show remarkable congruence. These results are discussed in terms of the formulation of conservation policy and the differing requirements of'blological and legal classification systems. The value of a formal taxonomic framework to the recognition, and subsequent conservation, of biodiversity is emphasised
Iran-U.S. military-security relations in the 1970s
The subject of this dissertation is "Iran-U.S. Military-Security Relations in the 1970s". The dissertation consists of seven chapters and a conclusion. In the first chapter an attempt is made to layout the main factors which contribute to arms transfers in the international system, from the perspectives of both the donor and recipient states. Moreover, the impact of arms sales on third world societies are described in this same chapter. The second chapter deals with the historical evolution of Iran-U.S. military security ties, inception during the Second World War up to 1969. genesis and since their Discussion in the third chapter focuses on the main factors which determined the shape and pace of Iran-U.S. military-security ties in the 1970s, including that in the area of arms supply relationship. The exposition of capability in the chapter. the 1970s increase in is the main Iran's purpose order-of-combat of the fourth The main purpose of chapter five is the delineation of various debates within and between the various branches of U.S. government for or against Iran's arms purchases. Chapter six discusses Iran's regional security policy in the 1970s. The final chapter deals with the various contacts between members of the U.S. government and Iran's new revolutionary regime, from revolution's success in February 1979 up to the seizure of American embassy in November 1979, with the emphasis being on military-security dealings between the two countries. In the conclusion an attempt is made to draw from the past some broad lessons for Iran's security and, bearing in mind the material in chapter one, to highlight a few insights into arms transfer as a phenomena in the international system
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