Circumventing the logic and limits of representation: Otherness in East-West approaches to paradox

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from OUP via the DOI in this record.This chapter argues that paradox arises, not from our phenomenal experience, but from our efforts at conceptualizing it through the logic of comprehension dominating Western thought. It identifies an Aristotelian-inspired “Being” ontology and a corresponding representationalist epistemology as the primary underlying cause of paradox in truth claims made on empirical observations. Drawing on a Heraclitean-inspired tradition in the West, this chapter shows how paradox may be circumnavigated through an alternative logic of Otherness. Underlying this metaphysical outlook is an ontology of Becoming, which takes flux and change as pervasive and inexorable. Language and logic are thus seen as futile attempts to fix the unfixable. Embracing a Becoming world view of reality enables us to recognize the limits of logic and representation and hence develop more nuanced and oblique modes of communication and responses. A Becoming world view sensitizes us to a necessary Otherness always already immanent in representational truth claims

Theoretical study of nuclear spin polarization and depolarization in self-assembled quantum dots

We investigate how the strain-induced nuclear quadrupole interaction influences the degree of nuclear spin polarization in self-assembled quantum dots. Our calculation shows that the achievable nuclear spin polarization in In_{x}Ga_{1-x}As quantum dots is related to the concentration of indium and the resulting strain distribution in the dots. The interplay between the nuclear quadrupole interaction and Zeeman splitting leads to interesting features in the magnetic field dependence of the nuclear spin polarization. Our results are in qualitative agreement with measured nuclear spin polarization by various experimental groups.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures, submitted to Physical Review

Modelling the Extreme X-ray Spectrum of IRAS 13224-3809

The extreme NLS1 galaxy IRAS 13224-3809 shows significant variability, frequency depended time lags, and strong Fe K line and Fe L features in the long 2011 XMM-Newton observation. In this work we study the spectral properties of IRAS 13224-3809 in detail, and carry out a series of analyses to probe the nature of the source, focusing in particular on the spectral variability exhibited. The RGS spectrum shows no obvious signatures of absorption by partially ionised material (warm absorbers). We fit the 0.3-10.0 keV spectra with a model that includes relativistic reflection from the inner accretion disc, a standard powerlaw AGN continuum, and a low-temperature (~0.1 keV) blackbody, which may originate in the accretion disc, either as direct or reprocessed thermal emission. We find that the reflection model explains the time-averaged spectrum well, and we also undertake flux-resolved and time-resolved spectral analyses, which provide evidence of gravitational light-bending effects. Additionally, the temperature and flux of the blackbody component are found to follow the $L\propto T^{4}$ relation expected for simple thermal blackbody emission from a constant emitting area, indicating a physical origin for this component.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Unsupervised Diverse Colorization via Generative Adversarial Networks

Colorization of grayscale images has been a hot topic in computer vision. Previous research mainly focuses on producing a colored image to match the original one. However, since many colors share the same gray value, an input grayscale image could be diversely colored while maintaining its reality. In this paper, we design a novel solution for unsupervised diverse colorization. Specifically, we leverage conditional generative adversarial networks to model the distribution of real-world item colors, in which we develop a fully convolutional generator with multi-layer noise to enhance diversity, with multi-layer condition concatenation to maintain reality, and with stride 1 to keep spatial information. With such a novel network architecture, the model yields highly competitive performance on the open LSUN bedroom dataset. The Turing test of 80 humans further indicates our generated color schemes are highly convincible

Analysis of Abstracts Presented at the Prosthodontic Research Section of IADR General Sessions 2004–2005: Demographics, Publication Rates, and Factors Contributing to Publication

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to describe the demographics of abstracts presented at the prosthodontics section of IADR General Sessions from 2004 to 2005, evaluate the publication rate of abstracts, and analyze the relationship between variables in abstracts and publication. Materials and Methods: Prosthodontics research section abstracts from the IADR General Session in 2004 and 2005 were evaluated for: number of authors, presentation type, origin, affiliation, topic, study design, statistics, study outcome, and funding. The publication rate was calculated following a PubMed search. The journal of publication, year of publication, and the length of time before publication were analyzed. Descriptive statistics were used for the data analysis; the relationships between presentation type, study design, study outcome, statistics, funding, and publication were analyzed using logistic regression (α= 0.05). Results: From 346 abstracts, 37.0% were published. For oral presentations, 40.7% were published; 35.8% of poster presentations were published. The mean duration before publication was 26.4 months. North America had the most abstracts, and Europe had the most publications. Fixed prosthodontic research had the highest number and proportion for publication. A significant association with publication was noted for neutral study outcomes (p= 0.018), studies with funding (p= 0.035), and abstracts from Europe (p= 0.001). Conclusions: The majority of abstracts from the prosthodontics research section of IADR General Sessions from 2004 and 2005 remain unpublished. A significant association for publication was noted with neutral outcomes, funding, and abstracts from Europe

Role of Bell Singlet State in the Suppression of Disentanglement

The stability of entanglement of two atoms in a cavity is analyzed in this work. By studying the general Werner states we clarify the role of Bell-singlet state in the problem of suppression of disentanglement due to spontaneous emission. It is also shown explicitly that the final amount of entanglement depends on the initial ingredients of the Bell-singlet state.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, accepted by Phys. Rev.

Coupling Between An Optical Phonon and the Kondo Effect

We explore the ultra-fast optical response of Yb_{14}MnSb_{11}, providing further evidence that this Zintl compound is the first ferromagnetic, under-screened Kondo lattice. These experiments also provide the first demonstration of coupling between an optical phonon mode and the Kondo effect.Comment: 4 Pages, 3 Figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Microbial and biogeochemical responses to projected future nitrate enrichment in the California upwelling system

Coastal California is a dynamic upwelling region where nitrogen (N) and iron (Fe) can both limit productivity and influence biogeochemistry over different spatial and temporal scales. With global change, the flux of nitrate from upwelling is expected to increase over the next century, potentially driving additional oceanic regions toward Fe limitation. In this study we explored the effect of changes in Fe/N ratio on native phytoplankton from five currently Fe-replete sites near the major California upwelling centers at Bodega Bay and Monterey Bay using nutrient addition incubation experiments. Despite the high nitrate levels (13–30 μ M) in the upwelled water, phytoplankton at three of the five sites showed increased growth when 10 μ M nitrate was added. None of the sites showed enhanced growth following addition of 10 nM Fe. Nitrate additions favored slow sinking single-celled diatoms over faster sinking chain-forming diatoms, suggesting that future increases in nitrate flux could affect carbon and silicate export and alter grazer populations. In particular, solitary cells of Cylindrotheca were more abundant than the toxin-producing genus Pseudonitzschia following nitrate addition. These responses suggest the biogeochemistry of coastal California could change in response to future increases in nitrate, and multiple stressors like ocean acidification and hypoxia may further result in ecosystem shifts