International terrorism and the american dream: A dialectical fairytale

La construcción que hoy día se hace del terrorismo en el sistema internacional es parte de nuestros mundos de ensueño de consumo masivo confrontado con las imágenes del sueño americano. Estos mundos ideales proporcionan los discursos hegemónicos de una política paneuropea y universalista que asesina a un gran número de civiles inocentes con fines políticos, actos de terrorismo, al mismo tiempo que niega que tales actos constituyan terrorismo. La violencia utilizada se representa como un sacrificio compartido y necesario para el sueño americano, sugiriendo una unidad, de otra manera inexistente, supuestamente en “defensa propia” frente al terrorismo. En realidad, lo que se está consumando no son acciones contra el terrorismo y la guerra de agresión, sino guerra de agresión y terrorismo en sí mismos haciéndose pasar por la defensa de las comunidades imaginadas de la nación y “Occidente”. El artículo hace hincapié especialmente en los medios de comunicación y en las películas de Hollywood, incluyendo las redes sociales. El trabajo se basa en el análisis del sistema-mundo, académicos de Relaciones Internacionales y teóricos de la cultura, los medios y la comunicación para analizar los usos del terrorismo hoy en día. Al mismo tiempo, el artículo se basa en teóricos críticos y en intelectuales públicos, desde Edward Said a Judith Butler o el Papa Francisco, para criticar las oposiciones binarias y orientalistas de los discursos paneuropeos actuales sobre terrorismo internacional, de manera que queden expuestas sus complejidades y realidades, históricamente y en la actualidadToday’s framing of terrorism in the international system is part of our contemporary dreamworlds of mass consumption set against images of the American Dream. These dreamworlds provide the hegemonic discourses of a European universalist foreign policy that kills huge numbers of innocent non-combatants for political purposes, acts of terrorism, while denying that such acts constitute terrorism. The violence used is represented as a necessary and shared sacrifice for the American Dream, suggesting a unity, otherwise lacking, supposedly in “self-defense” against terrorism. In reality, what is being consumed are not actions against terrorism and aggressive war, but aggressive war and terrorism themselves masquerading as a defense of the imagined communities of the nation and “the West”. The focus of this article is especially on media and Hollywood films, including social media. The work draws on both world-systems analysis, international relations scholars, and theorists of culture, media and communication to analyze the uses of terrorism today. Simultaneously the article draws on critical theorists and public intellectuals, from Edward Said to Judith Butler to Pope Francis, to critique the binary Orientalist oppositions of today’s pan-European discourses on international terrorism, in ways that expose their complexities and realities, historically and currentl

Identifying Patients Suitable for Discharge After a Single-Presentation High-Sensitivity Troponin Result: A Comparison of Five Established Risk Scores and Two High-Sensitivity Assays.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: We compare the ability of 5 established risk scores to identify patients with suspected acute coronary syndromes who are suitable for discharge after a modified single-presentation high-sensitivity troponin result. METHODS: This was a prospective observational study conducted in a UK district general hospital emergency department. Consecutive adults recruited with suspected acute coronary syndrome for whom attending physicians determined evaluation with serial troponin testing was required. Index tests were definitions of low risk applied to modified Goldman, Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI), Global Registry of Acute Cardiac Events (GRACE), History, ECG, Age, Risk Factors, Troponin (HEART), and Vancouver Chest Pain Rule risk scores, incorporating either high-sensitivity troponin T or I results. The endpoint was acute myocardial infarction within 30 days. A test sensitivity threshold for acute myocardial infarction of 98% was chosen. Clinical utility was defined as a negative predictive value greater than or equal to 99.5% and identification of greater than 30% suitable for discharge. RESULTS: Nine hundred fifty-nine patients underwent high-sensitivity troponin T analysis and 867 underwent high-sensitivity troponin I analysis. In the high-sensitivity troponin T group, 79 of 959 (8.2%) had an acute myocardial infarction and 66 of 867 (7.6%) in the high-sensitivity troponin I group. Two risk scores (GRACE <80 and HEART ≤3) did not have the potential to achieve a sensitivity of 98% with high-sensitivity troponin T, and 3 scores (Goldman ≤1, TIMI ≤1, and GRACE <80) with high-sensitivity troponin I. A TIMI score of 0 or less than or equal to 1 and modified Goldman score less than or equal to 1 with high-sensitivity troponin T, and TIMI score of 0 and HEART score of less than or equal to 3 with high-sensitivity troponin I had the potential to achieve a negative predictive value greater than or equal to 99.5% while identifying greater than 30% of patients as suitable for immediate discharge. CONCLUSION: With established risk scores, it may be possible to identify greater than 30% of patients suitable for discharge, with a negative predictive value greater than or equal to 99.5% for the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction, using a single high-sensitivity troponin test result at presentation. There is variation in high-sensitivity troponin assays, which may have implications in introducing rapid rule-out protocols

Regional Mapping and Spectral Analysis of Mounds in Acidalia Planitia, Mars

Acidalia Planitia is a approx.3000 km diameter planum located in the northern plains of Mars. It is believed to be a sedimentary basin containing an accumulation of sediments brought by Hesperian outflow channels that drained the Highlands. A large number of high-albedo mounds have been identified across this basin [1-2] and understanding the process that formed them should help us understand the history of this region. Farrand et al. [2] showed that the mounds are dark in THEMIS (Thermal Emission Imaging System) nighttime IR (infrared) image data. This implies that the mounds have a lower thermal inertia than the surrounding plains (Fig. 1), suggesting that the material of the mounds is fine-grained or unconsolidated. Farrand et al. [2] also reviewed potential analogs for the mounds and concluded that a combination of mud volcanoes with evaporites around geysers or springs is most consistent with all the data. We have built on this work by creating regional maps of the features and analyzing CRISM (Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars) data to see if there are mineralogical differences between the mounds and surrounding plains

Optimal classical-communication-assisted local model of n-qubit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger correlations

We present a model, motivated by the criterion of reality put forward by Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen and supplemented by classical communication, which correctly reproduces the quantum-mechanical predictions for measurements of all products of Pauli operators on an n-qubit GHZ state (or ``cat state''). The n-2 bits employed by our model are shown to be optimal for the allowed set of measurements, demonstrating that the required communication overhead scales linearly with n. We formulate a connection between the generation of the local values utilized by our model and the stabilizer formalism, which leads us to conjecture that a generalization of this method will shed light on the content of the Gottesman-Knill theorem.Comment: New version - expanded and revised to address referee comment

The Ursinus Weekly, April 25, 1938

Coeds choose Lees, Poling, Claflin leaders • Harrisburg group hears Ade, Toll at conclave • Dictators main peace threat say conference leaders • Plays Saturday night week-end feature • May sports hop makes lucky Friday 13 • Wimer new YM head; appoints cabinet • Alumnus develops Sweden in Forefathers address • Stoudt, Craigie to play leads in First lady • Girls hear vocation charts by career women • Embryo lawyers discuss organization of club • Mikado again in rehearsal • Temple leads • Charm, attractiveness, especially a mysterious allurement • Musical variety features club\u27s Easter program • Pre-meds to hear Dr. Eger at next week\u27s meeting • Clawson addresses Berks County math club • Sheeder, Old, Ursinus visit Lansdale, Camden schools • Batsmen beat Lehigh, but lose to Lafayette • Stine close victory in intramural tourney • Cindermen place third in meet at Drexel • Ware\u27s racketeers down Bryn Mawr Sat. 3-2 • \u27Sinus second college in U.S. with cricket team • Hill defeats bear J.V.s 9-5; meet Villanova today • Musical organizations hold concert in Bomberger • Witmer addresses faculty club at April meeting • Frosh parade makes College Humor • Women end forensic season • Baird, Martin, DeWire to enter graduate schools • Biology students spend week-end in New York • Ursinus line coach to wed during football seasonhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1897/thumbnail.jp

Characterizing the Oldenburg ‘Butter Shale’ from the Upper Ordovician (Katian) Waynesville Formation along the Cincinnati Arch, USA

The Upper Ordovician (Katian) strata of the Cincinnati Arch contain numerous mudstone units known locally as ‘butter shales’ or ‘trilobite shales’. Most of these deposits are heavily collected for their excellently-preserved trilobites. The Oldenburg Butter Shale, however, is a previously-undescribed mudstone package from the Waynesville Formation, known only from limited exposure near Oldenburg, Indiana. The Oldenburg Shale is a 2 m-thick mudstone package with minor beds of shelly packstones, and calcisiltite-filled gutter casts. It contains abundant articulated trilobites. The mudstone portion contains illite, chlorite, quartz, calcite and traces of dolomite and pyrite. In outcrop, the shale exhibits no obvious bedding and breaks conchoidally. When cut and polished, the mudstone shows a mottled fabric, containing Lingulichnus and Chondrites trace fossils. The shelly units contain brachiopods, gastropods, and bryozoans. The gutter casts are 20 – 30 cm wide, display hummocky stratification, and contain Lingulichnus. Faunally, the Oldenburg is very unlike surrounding Waynesville strata. Instead of being dominated by brachiopods as is typical, the Oldenburg fauna consists of abundant bivalves (Modiolopsis, Ambonychia, and Caritodens), lingulid brachiopods, and the trilobites (Isotelus, and Flexicalymene, and rare Amphilichas in the upper 30 cm). Articulate brachiopods are represented in the shale to a limited extent by the genera Zygospira and Platystrophia. The shale also contains bryozoans, orthoconic cephalopods, rare crinoids and conulariids. Conodonts and scolecodonts are a major component of the microfauna. Taphonomy of the fossils, together with sedimentological features, indicates that this butter shale accumulated rapidly as a series of episodes of distal storm-generated mud and silt flows. Towards the top of the mudstone is a horizon of small concretions, about 7 cm wide. Overlying the butter shale is the pyrite crusted surface of the Mid-Richmondian Unconformity which removes the Oldenburg shale in most other locations. The concretions present at the top of the shale are the likely product of the prolonged sediment starvation accompanying this unconformity

Online Meta-learning by Parallel Algorithm Competition

The efficiency of reinforcement learning algorithms depends critically on a few meta-parameters that modulates the learning updates and the trade-off between exploration and exploitation. The adaptation of the meta-parameters is an open question in reinforcement learning, which arguably has become more of an issue recently with the success of deep reinforcement learning in high-dimensional state spaces. The long learning times in domains such as Atari 2600 video games makes it not feasible to perform comprehensive searches of appropriate meta-parameter values. We propose the Online Meta-learning by Parallel Algorithm Competition (OMPAC) method. In the OMPAC method, several instances of a reinforcement learning algorithm are run in parallel with small differences in the initial values of the meta-parameters. After a fixed number of episodes, the instances are selected based on their performance in the task at hand. Before continuing the learning, Gaussian noise is added to the meta-parameters with a predefined probability. We validate the OMPAC method by improving the state-of-the-art results in stochastic SZ-Tetris and in standard Tetris with a smaller, 10$\times$10, board, by 31% and 84%, respectively, and by improving the results for deep Sarsa($\lambda$) agents in three Atari 2600 games by 62% or more. The experiments also show the ability of the OMPAC method to adapt the meta-parameters according to the learning progress in different tasks.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1702.0311

The Ursinus Weekly, May 16, 1938

College to confer two honorary degrees • Y\u27s invite students, profs to spring doggie roast • Loan fund established by Varsity Club • 110 couples dance Friday at May sports hop • Stoudt, Plunkett star in Mother\u27s Day play; pageant, dinner other Saturday activities • Glatfelter chosen to head men\u27s council • Ursinus gains victory over Penn on radio • McClure, Poling speak at two Sunday vespers • June issue of Lantern to feature commencement • Presenting the \u27sinus senior: a preview of the 1938 Ruby questionnaire • Works of contemporary Philadelphia painters displayed in exhibit • Bears trim Albright, Gettysburg in league tilts • Trackmen poor fifth in Lancaster meet • Records broken as school trackmen meet here • Peg Claflin installed as new WAA head • Power leads batsmen • Todt succeeds Bodley as Varsity Club leader • Curtain clubbers dine and dance in Norristown • Power elected president of pre-legal society • Laucks conducts current events quiz of IRC • Germantown boy awarded sixth open scholarshiphttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1900/thumbnail.jp

Quantum Logic Gates in Optical Lattices

We propose a new system for implementing quantum logic gates: neutral atoms trapped in a very far-off-resonance optical lattice. Pairs of atoms are made to occupy the same well by varying the polarization of the trapping lasers, and then a near-resonant electric dipole is induced by an auxiliary laser. A controlled-NOT can be implemented by conditioning the target atomic resonance on a resolvable level shift induced by the control atom. Atoms interact only during logical operations, thereby suppressing decoherence.Comment: Revised version, To appear in Phys. Rev. Lett. Three separate postscript figure