Initial ideals, Veronese subrings, and rates of algebras

We show that high Veronese subrings of any commutative graded ring have a Grobner basis with all relations of degree 2. (The d-th Veronese subring of a ring A_0 + A_1 + A_2 + ... is the ring A_0 + A_d + A_{2d} + ...; ``high'' means we take d sufficiently large, say at least half the regularity of the ideal defining the original ring.) This gives another proof of Backelin's theorem that such Veronese subrings are Koszul algebras (= wonderful rings), i.e., that the minimal resolution of the residue field of such a ring is linear.Comment: 24 pages, latex fil

Proton damage comparison of an e2v technologies n-channel and p-channel CCD204

Comparisons have been made of the relative degradation of charge transfer efficiency in n-channel and p-channel CCDs subjected to proton irradiation. The comparison described in this paper was made using e2v technologies plc. CCD204 devices fabricated using the same mask set. The device performance was compared over a range of temperatures using the same experimental arrangement and technique to provide a like-for-like comparison. The parallel transfer using the p-channel CCD was then optimized using a trap pumping technique to identify the optimal operating conditions at 153 K

Recommendations to the Social Security Administration on the Design of the Mental Health Treatment Study

Many beneficiaries with mental illness who have a strong desire to work nevertheless continue to seek the protection and security of disability benefits, not only because of the income such benefits provide but also for the health care coverage that comes with it. Further complicating matters is that few jobs available to people with mental illnesses have mental health care coverage, forcing individuals to choose between employment and access to care. These barriers, coupled with the limited treatment options and negative employer attitudes and even discrimination when it comes to employing people with serious metal illness, help "explain" the very rates of low labor force participation among people with psychiatric disabilities

The cattle genome reveals its secrets

The domesticated cow is the latest farm animal to have its genome sequenced and deciphered. The members of the Bovine Genome Consortium have published a series of papers on the assembly and what the sequence reveals so far about the biology of this ruminant and the consequences of its domestication

Cities of Dreams and Despair: Utopia and Dystopia in Contemporary Brazilian Film and Literature

This dissertation employs a theoretical framework rooted in utopian studies to examine the role of utopia, dystopia, and related concepts in literary and cinematic depictions of Bras�lia and S�o Paulo since 1980. By centering the concept of utopianism, understood broadly as “social dreaming,” this project departs from idealized or mythologized representations of Brazil and focuses instead on hopeful imagination. Though national cultural production long reflected optimistic myths about Brazil and its territory, the military dictatorship of 1964-1985 heralded a turn towards pessimism and dystopian aesthetics. Brazilian artists of the current, democratic period negotiate these dual legacies in a predominantly urban society during an era of global skepticism about utopia. While references to Brazil and its cities as utopian or dystopian abound in recent criticism, this dissertation is among the first projects to analyze contemporary cultural production through the lens of utopian studies. Consequently, the primary objectives of this study include surveying the role of utopianism and correlated concepts in recent film and literature, identifying trends among the included works, and considering techniques used to evoke these concepts.My choice of focal cities facilitates comparative analysis of the influence of local history, culture, geography, and urbanism on utopian thought. Whereas Bras�lia remains closely tied to both utopian yearning and dystopia, critics rarely associate S�o Paulo explicitly with either concept despite the megacity’s simultaneous embodiment of wealth, dynamism, chaos, and division. The selected texts representing both cities most often respond to a shared baseline of disillusionment with cautious hopefulness. Allegorical and realist dystopian aesthetics remain influential, as does the limited, critical desire outlined in Haroldo de Campos’s theory of post-utopian poetry. Few texts embrace a fatalistic, anti-utopian outlook, while hopeful perspectives breaking meaningfully with the status quo are likewise uncommon. The Federal District is a more frequent site of radical utopianism as authors and filmmakers draw from Bras�lia’s history of revolutionary aspiration, whereas such ambition is almost entirely absent from the included works centered on S�o Paulo. Despite this divergence, however, texts using dystopia or post-utopia to critique specific social or ideological phenomena predominate among the included representations of both cities