Detecting Arguments: The Rhetoric of Evidence in Nineteenth--Century British Detective Fiction

My dissertation argues that within the mid- to late-nineteenth-century British detective novel, the abductive arguments used to build circumstantial evidence (indirect evidence), or clues, form the method of the detective, but those arguments are not logically certain. In order to resolve the mystery of the detective novel, to discover how the crime was committed and who committed it, circumstantial evidence proves insufficiently conclusive, so confessions, a more logically conclusive (direct) form of evidence, begins to appear frequently in detective novels. Confessions conclusively confirm the events of the crime, the guilt of the criminal, and reveal the inner workings of the criminal mind. Yet by also investigating the larger category of testimony as both direct and indirect evidence, I also show how receiving evidence from people instead of things complicates the detection process. I look to the legal philosophy of Jeremy Bentham for much of the schema of evidence that I use. In my first chapter, I argue that lawyers in detective fiction should receive more critical attention than they currently receive. Both lawyers and legal language frequently appear in detective novels of the 1850s-1870s, and the rational, evidentiary methodology of the lawyer is also that of the detective. Both use abductive arguments, namely those arguments based on inferences that explain a set of circumstances, to create narratives about the events of a crime. I investigate the literary and historical circumstances that account for the prevalence of legal matters and lawyers in detective fiction of the 1850s-1870s. In the second, third, and fourth chapters I lay out the argument concerning circumstantial evidence, testimony, and confession that I stated above. The second chapter examines the logical underpinnings of circumstantial evidence, drawing on C. S. Peirce\u27s observations on logic. I demonstrate that the production of circumstantial evidence via abductive reasoning is the detection method not only of Edgar Allan Poe\u27s legendary Auguste Dupin, but of nearly all mid- to late- British detectives as well. By analyzing ,The Notting Hill Mystery, a novel in which the only form of evidence offered to the reader is circumstantial evidence, I explore how insufficient such evidence and the abductive reasoning out of which it is built ultimately turn out to be, failing to be logically conclusive enough to satisfy the reader concerning the resolution of the criminal investigation. In the third chapter, I examine two categories of testimony, indirect and direct, in Wilkie Collins\u27s novelsThe Law and the LadyandThe Moonstone, arguing that though it might seem that direct -- or eyewitness -- testimony is more reliable than indirect testimony, or circumstantial evidence,The Moonstonesuggests that even eyewitness testimony might be unreliable, because there is the possibility that a person cannot accurately interpret his or her own experiences. The final chapter considers a special form of direct testimony, the confession. Largely by analyzingLady Audley\u27s Secret, I argue that confession alone is the type of evidence that confirms lingering uncertainty that is the necessary result of abductive arguments made from circumstantial evidence. It is the resolution of this uncertainty that accounts for the prevalence of confessions in detective fiction where detectives use abductive reasoning to solve crimes. Additionally, confession allows the reader insight into the criminal mind and confirms the guilt of the criminal

Sexual Arousal and Desire: Interrelations and Responses to Three Modalities of Sexual Stimuli

Introduction.  Traditionally, sexual desire is understood to occur spontaneously, but more recent models propose that desire responds to sexual stimuli. Aims.  To experimentally assess whether sexual stimuli increased sexual desire; to compare how sexual arousal and desire responded to three modalities of sexual stimuli: erotic story, unstructured fantasy, and the Imagined Social Situation Exercise (ISSE). Methods.  In an online study, participants (128 women, 98 men) were randomly assigned to one of four arousal conditions (ISSE, story, fantasy, or neutral), and then completed desire measures. In the ISSE, participants imagined and wrote about a positive sexual encounter with a self‐defined attractive person. Main Outcome Measures.  Sexual arousal (perceived genital, psychological, and perceived autonomic), anxiety, positive and negative affect, and state sexual desire via self‐report measures pre‐ and post‐condition; “trait” desire via the Sexual Desire Inventory post‐condition. Results.  All three sexual conditions significantly increased sexual arousal and positive affect compared with the neutral condition, with trends for higher arousal to unstructured fantasy than the ISSE or story conditions. Sexual conditions significantly increased scores on state measures of sexual desire. In addition, sexual context influenced measurement of “trait” solitary sexual desire in women, such that women reported significantly higher trait desire after the neutral and ISSE conditions vs. fantasy. Conclusion.  Results highlight the responsiveness of sexual desire, problems with measurement of desire as a long‐term trait, trade‐offs of using the ISSE and other stimuli in sexuality research, and the need to address context in discussions of women's and men's desire. Goldey KL and van Anders SM. Sexual arousal and desire: Interrelations and responses to three modalities of sexual stimuli. J Sex Med 2012;9:2315–2329.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/93670/1/j.1743-6109.2012.02845.x.pd

Properties of digital representations

Let $\mathcal{A}$ be a finite subset of $\mathbb{N}$ including $0$ and $f_\mathcal{A}(n)$ be the number of ways to write $n=\sum_{i=0}^{\infty}\epsilon_i2^i$, where $\epsilon_i\in\mathcal{A}$. The sequence $\left(f_\mathcal{A}(n)\right) \bmod 2$ is always periodic, and $f_\mathcal{A}(n)$ is typically more often even than odd. We give four families of sets $\left(\mathcal{A}_m\right)$ with $\left|\mathcal{A}_m\right|=4$ such that the proportion of odd $f_{\mathcal{A}_m}(n)$'s goes to $1$ as $m\to\infty$. We also consider asymptotics of the summatory function $s_\mathcal{A}(r,m)=\displaystyle\sum_{n=m2^r}^{m2^{r+1}-1}f_{\mathcal{A}}(n)$ and show that $s_{\mathcal{A}}(r,m)\approx c(\mathcal{A},m)\left|\mathcal{A}\right|^r$ for some $c(\mathcal{A},m)\in\mathbb{Q}$

The Steroid/Peptide Theory of Social Bonds: Integrating Testosterone and Peptide Responses for Classifying Social Behavioral Contexts

Hormones, and hormone responses to social contexts, are the proximate mechanisms of evolutionary pathways to pair bonds and other social bonds. Testosterone (T) is implicated in trade-offs relevant to pair bonding, and oxytocin (OT) and arginine vasopressin (AVP) are positively tied to social bonding in a variety of species. Here, we present the Steroid/Peptide Theory of Social Bonds (S/P Theory), which integrates T and peptides to provide a model, set of predictions, and classification system for social behavioral contexts related to social bonds. The S/P Theory also resolves several paradoxes apparent in the literature on social bonds and hormones: the Offspring Defense Paradox, Aggression Paradox, and Intimacy Paradox. In the S/P Theory, we partition aggression into antagonistic and protective aggression, which both increase T but exert distinct effects on AVP and thus social bonds. Similarly, we partition intimacy into sexual and nurturant intimacy, both of which increase OT and facilitate social bonds, but exert distinct effects on T. We describe the utility of the S/P Theory for classifying “tricky” behavioral contexts on the basis of their hormonal responses using partner cuddling, a behavior which is assumed to be nurturant but increases T, as a test case of the S/P Theory. The S/P Theory provides a comparative basis for conceptualizing and testing evolved hormonal pathways to pair bonds with attention to species, context, and gender/sex specificities and convergences

Mathematical Modeling of Biofilm Structures Using COMSTAT Data

Mathematical modeling holds great potential for quantitatively describing biofilm growth in presence or absence of chemical agents used to limit or promote biofilm growth. In this paper, we describe a general mathematical/statistical framework that allows for the characterization of complex data in terms of few parameters and the capability to (i) compare different experiments and exposures to different agents, (ii) test different hypotheses regarding biofilm growth and interaction with different agents, and (iii) simulate arbitrary administrations of agents. The mathematical framework is divided to submodels characterizing biofilm, including new models characterizing live biofilm growth and dead cell accumulation; the interaction with agents inhibiting or stimulating growth; the kinetics of the agents. The statistical framework can take into account measurement and interexperiment variation. We demonstrate the application of (some of) the models using confocal microscopy data obtained using the computer program COMSTAT

Questioning Development Orthodoxy

This paper traces the history and current state of international economic development through its institutions and attempts to reassess these institutions and their processes in a heterodox manner. There are many stereotypes and clichés to the foreign assistance industry: that it takes from the poor in rich countries and gives to the rich in poor countries; that it provides laboratories for economists and other social scientists to apply theories abroad that they would never attempt at home (the most obvious examples of these are population control programs and the privatization of pension funds); and that development creates “brain drain” from indigenous 2 institutions to the very institutions of development itself. Although a brief summary of the major research programs in development is given, the paper does not attempt to falsify or confirm any of these or other research programs and their corresponding policy recommendations. The purpose of the paper is to question the very nature of international economic development itself through an historical and philosophical re-examination of its institutional constructs. The Hegelian dialectical method of analysis is applied to the institutions of economic development and is used to ask, “what next and why

Development of an oligosaccharide library to characterise the structural variation in glucuronoarabinoxylan in the cell walls of vegetative tissues in grasses.

BACKGROUND: Grass glucuronoarabinoxylan (GAX) substitutions can inhibit enzymatic degradation and are involved in the interaction of xylan with cell wall cellulose and lignin, factors which contribute to the recalcitrance of biomass to saccharification. Therefore, identification of xylan characteristics central to biomass biorefining improvement is essential. However, the task of assessing biomass quality is complicated and is often hindered by the lack of a reference for a given crop. RESULTS: In this study, we created a reference library, expressed in glucose units, of Miscanthus sinensis GAX stem and leaf oligosaccharides, using DNA sequencer-Assisted Saccharide analysis in high throughput (DASH), supported by liquid chromatography (LC), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and mass spectrometry (MS). Our analysis of a number of grass species highlighted variations in substitution type and frequency of stem and leaf GAX. In miscanthus, for example, the β-Xylp-(1 → 2)-α-Araf-(1 → 3) side chain is more abundant in leaf than stem. CONCLUSIONS: The reference library allows fast identification and comparison of GAX structures from different plants and tissues. Ultimately, this reference library can be used in directing biomass selection and improving biorefining