Hypertext and literature : facts and fictions : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University

PLEASE NOTE: 2 discs in pocket inside back coverThis thesis examines hypertext as a new medium (but not necessarily the new medium) for literature, first setting an empirical base and then exploring more theoretical issues. I begin with a definition, identifying what makes hypertext qualitatively different from print text. Using the tools of semiotics I describe the essential features of hypertext as opposed to print text in order to lay a factual basis for further discussion. The second part of my thesis extends the definition of hypertext by describing and evaluating two examples of hypertext practice. The first example is Intext, my own hypertext system for creating hypertext tutorials for students of literature. The working Intext system is provided on floppy disk as a companion to this thesis. The second example of hypertext practice is Stuart Moulthrop's hyperfiction, Victory Garden. I follow a critical commentary of this hyperfiction as an essentially reflexive work with some consideration of the challenges hyperfiction poses to literary criticism, focussing on the experiences of reading, writing and criticising fiction in the hypertext medium. The third part of my thesis evaluates the claim, made by current hypertext critics and theorists, that hypertext, as a writing space for literature, is the successor to the medium of print. I background this by tracing the history of hypertext in practice, and by questioning the extent to which experimentation in print fiction can be said to prefigure hypertext. I set forth the rhizome as one possible model for the writing space provided by hypertext. I consider and reject the idea that hypertext embodies certain poststructuralist views of literature; and, by comparing hypertext to the writing space of oral literature, I find some political motivations for the claim that hypertext will succeed print as a medium for literature

Investigating an API for resilient exascale computing.

Increased HPC capability comes with increased complexity, part counts, and fault occurrences. In- creasing the resilience of systems and applications to faults is a critical requirement facing the viability of exascale systems, as the overhead of traditional checkpoint/restart is projected to outweigh its bene ts due to fault rates outpacing I/O bandwidths. As faults occur and propagate throughout hardware and software layers, pervasive noti cation and handling mechanisms are necessary. This report describes an initial investigation of fault types and programming interfaces to mitigate them. Proof-of-concept APIs are presented for the frequent and important cases of memory errors and node failures, and a strategy proposed for lesystem failures. These involve changes to the operating system, runtime, I/O library, and application layers. While a single API for fault handling among hardware and OS and application system-wide remains elusive, the e ort increased our understanding of both the mountainous challenges and the promising trailheads.

Promoting Aboriginal economic interests in natural resource management in NSW: Perspectives from Trp[ical North Queensland and some prospects

This paper sets out to do a number of things. First, it reviews and comments on some research on sustainable development on Aboriginalowned land in north Australia, specifi cally in the Northern Territory in the tropical savanna. This review is not undertaken to suggest that the wholesale transportability of institutions and practices is possible, or even desirable, it is merely provided to highlight some overarching economic possibilities. Second, it makes an argument for stronger advocacy of Indigenous economic development issues in NSW—economics has been under-represented in discussions to date. This is partly due to an absence in policy discourse of the actual and/or potential signifi cance of the Indigenous customary (some use the term cultural) economy and its intersections with commercial sectors of the economy. It is also possible that existing levers, in the form of customary property rights, have been under-utilised—although as already noted such opportunities have only arisen recently in the native title era. Third, the paper argues that evidence-based research will be essential to demonstrate to all stakeholders—the public, government, parks authorities and Indigenous people themselves—that existing levers can deliver practical outcomes. The paper ends with an optimistic envisioning of a new economic deal in NRM and use for Indigenous people in NSW

Workgroup Report: Review of Fish Bioaccumulation Databases Used to Identify Persistent, Bioaccumulative, Toxic Substances

Chemical management programs strive to protect human health and the environment by accurately identifying persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic substances and restricting their use in commerce. The advance of these programs is challenged by the reality that few empirical data are available for the tens of thousands of commercial substances that require evaluation. Therefore, most preliminary assessments rely on model predictions and data extrapolation. In November 2005, a workshop was held for experts from governments, industry, and academia to examine the availability and quality of in vivo fish bioconcentration and bioaccumulation data, and to propose steps to improve its prediction. The workshop focused on fish data because regulatory assessments predominantly focus on the bioconcentration of substances from water into fish, as measured using in vivo tests or predicted using computer models. In this article we review of the quantity, features, and public availability of bioconcentration, bioaccumulation, and biota–sediment accumulation data. The workshop revealed that there is significant overlap in the data contained within the various fish bioaccumulation data sources reviewed, and further, that no database contained all of the available fish bioaccumulation data. We believe that a majority of the available bioaccumulation data have been used in the development and testing of quantitative structure–activity relationships and computer models currently in use. Workshop recommendations included the publication of guidance on bioconcentration study quality, the combination of data from various sources to permit better access for modelers and assessors, and the review of chemical domains of existing models to identify areas for expansion

The NASA Space Life Sciences Training Program: Accomplishments Since 2013

The NASA Space Life Sciences Training Program (SLSTP) provides undergraduate students entering their junior or senior years with professional experience in space life science disciplines. This challenging ten-week summer program is held at NASA Ames Research Center. The primary goal of the program is to train the next generation of scientists and engineers, enabling NASA to meet future research and development challenges in the space life sciences. Students work closely with NASA scientists and engineers on cutting-edge research and technology development. In addition to conducting hands-on research and presenting their findings, SLSTP students attend technical lectures given by experts on a wide range of topics, tour NASA research facilities, participate in leadership and team building exercises, and complete a group project. For this presentation, we will highlight program processes, accomplishments, goals, and feedback from alumni and mentors since 2013. To date, 49 students from 41 different academic institutions, 9 staffers, and 21 mentors have participated in the program. The SLSTP is funded by Space Biology, which is part of the Space Life and Physical Sciences Research and Application division of NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. The SLSTP is managed by the Space Biology Project within the Science Directorate at Ames Research Center

“Dogged” Search of Fresh Nakhla Surfaces Reveals New Alteration Textures

Special Issue: 74th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society, August 8-12, 2011, London, U.K.International audienceCarbonaceous chondrites are considered as amongst the most primitive Solar System samples available. One of their primitive characteristics is their enrichment in volatile elements.This includes hydrogen, which is present in hydrated and hydroxylated minerals. More precisely, the mineralogy is expected to be dominated by phyllosilicates in the case of CM chondrites, and by Montmorillonite type clays in the case of CI. Here, in order to characterize and quantify the abundance of lowtemperature minerals in carbonaceous chondrites, we performed thermogravimetric analysis of matrix fragments of Tagish Lake, Murchison and Orgueil

Reduction in Phencyclidine Induced Sensorimotor Gating Deficits in the Rat Following Increased System Xc − Activity in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex

Rationale: Aspects of schizophrenia, including deficits in sensorimotor gating, have been linked to glutamate dysfunction and/or oxidative stress in the prefrontal cortex. System xc −, a cystine–glutamate antiporter, is a poorly understood mechanism that contributes to both cellular antioxidant capacity and glutamate homeostasis. Objectives: Our goal was to determine whether increased system xc − activity within the prefrontal cortex would normalize a rodent measure of sensorimotor gating. Methods: In situ hybridization was used to map messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of xCT, the active subunit of system xc −, in the prefrontal cortex. Prepulse inhibition was used to measure sensorimotor gating; deficits in prepulse inhibition were produced using phencyclidine (0.3–3 mg/kg, sc). N-Acetylcysteine (10–100 μM) and the system xc − inhibitor (S)-4-carboxyphenylglycine (CPG, 0.5 μM) were used to increase and decrease system xc − activity, respectively. The uptake of 14C-cystine into tissue punches obtained from the prefrontal cortex was used to assay system xc − activity. Results: The expression of xCT mRNA in the prefrontal cortex was most prominent in a lateral band spanning primarily the prelimbic cortex. Although phencyclidine did not alter the uptake of 14C-cystine in prefrontal cortical tissue punches, intraprefrontal cortical infusion of N-acetylcysteine (10–100 μM) significantly reduced phencyclidine- (1.5 mg/kg, sc) induced deficits in prepulse inhibition. N-Acetylcysteine was without effect when coinfused with CPG (0.5 μM), indicating an involvement of system xc −. Conclusions: These results indicate that phencyclidine disrupts sensorimotor gating through system xc − independent mechanisms, but that increasing cystine–glutamate exchange in the prefrontal cortex is sufficient to reduce behavioral deficits produced by phencyclidine

Consistency, completeness and external validity of ethnicity recording in NHS primary care records: a cohort study in 25 million patients’ records at source using OpenSAFELY

Background: Ethnicity is known to be an important correlate of health outcomes, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, where some ethnic groups were shown to be at higher risk of infection and adverse outcomes. The recording of patients’ ethnic groups in primary care can support research and efforts to achieve equity in service provision and outcomes; however, the coding of ethnicity is known to present complex challenges. We therefore set out to describe ethnicity coding in detail with a view to supporting the use of this data in a wide range of settings, as part of wider efforts to robustly describe and define methods of using administrative data. Methods: We describe the completeness and consistency of primary care ethnicity recording in the OpenSAFELY-TPP database, containing linked primary care and hospital records in > 25 million patients in England. We also compared the ethnic breakdown in OpenSAFELY-TPP with that of the 2021 UK census. Results: 78.2% of patients registered in OpenSAFELY-TPP on 1 January 2022 had their ethnicity recorded in primary care records, rising to 92.5% when supplemented with hospital data. The completeness of ethnicity recording was higher for women than for men. The rate of primary care ethnicity recording ranged from 77% in the South East of England to 82.2% in the West Midlands. Ethnicity recording rates were higher in patients with chronic or other serious health conditions. For each of the five broad ethnicity groups, primary care recorded ethnicity was within 2.9 percentage points of the population rate as recorded in the 2021 Census for England as a whole. For patients with multiple ethnicity records, 98.7% of the latest recorded ethnicities matched the most frequently coded ethnicity. Patients whose latest recorded ethnicity was categorised as Other were most likely to have a discordant ethnicity recording (32.2%). Conclusions: Primary care ethnicity data in OpenSAFELY is present for over three quarters of all patients, and combined with data from other sources can achieve a high level of completeness. The overall distribution of ethnicities across all English OpenSAFELY-TPP practices was similar to the 2021 Census, with some regional variation. This report identifies the best available codelist for use in OpenSAFELY and similar electronic health record data

The 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey: The Star Formation Histories of Luminous Red Galaxies

We present a detailed investigation into the recent star formation histories of 5,697 Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) based on the Hdelta (4101A) and [OII] (3727A) lines. LRGs are luminous (L>3L*), galaxies which have been selected to have photometric properties consistent with an old, passively evolving stellar population. For this study we utilise LRGs from the recently completed 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO survey (2SLAQ). Equivalent widths of the Hdelta and [OII] lines are measured and used to define three spectral types, those with only strong Hdelta absorption (k+a), those with strong [OII] in emission (em) and those with both (em+a). All other LRGs are considered to have passive star formation histories. The vast majority of LRGs are found to be passive (~80 per cent), however significant numbers of k+a (2.7 per cent), em+a (1.2 per cent) and em LRGs (8.6 per cent) are identified. An investigation into the redshift dependence of the fractions is also performed. A sample of SDSS MAIN galaxies with colours and luminosities consistent with the 2SLAQ LRGs is selected to provide a low redshift comparison. While the em and em+a fractions are consistent with the low redshift SDSS sample, the fraction of k+a LRGs is found to increase significantly with redshift. This result is interpreted as an indication of an increasing amount of recent star formation activity in LRGs with redshift. By considering the expected life time of the k+a phase, the number of LRGs which will undergo a k+a phase can be estimated. A crude comparison of this estimate with the predictions from semi-analytic models of galaxy formation shows that the predicted level of k+a and em+a activity is not sufficient to reconcile the predicted mass growth for massive early-types in a hierarchical merging scenario.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 13 pages, 10 figure

Observing the Evolution of the Universe

How did the universe evolve? The fine angular scale (l>1000) temperature and polarization anisotropies in the CMB are a Rosetta stone for understanding the evolution of the universe. Through detailed measurements one may address everything from the physics of the birth of the universe to the history of star formation and the process by which galaxies formed. One may in addition track the evolution of the dark energy and discover the net neutrino mass. We are at the dawn of a new era in which hundreds of square degrees of sky can be mapped with arcminute resolution and sensitivities measured in microKelvin. Acquiring these data requires the use of special purpose telescopes such as the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), located in Chile, and the South Pole Telescope (SPT). These new telescopes are outfitted with a new generation of custom mm-wave kilo-pixel arrays. Additional instruments are in the planning stages.Comment: Science White Paper submitted to the US Astro2010 Decadal Survey. Full list of 177 author available at http://cmbpol.uchicago.ed