The feminization of the literary voice and the rhetorical tradition in The Lais of Marie de France, The Mirror of Simple Souls, and The Book of the City of Ladies

This study demonstrates how The Lais of Marie de France (12th c.) by Marie de France, The Mirror of Simple Souls (14th c.) by Marguerite Porete, and Christine de Pizan’s The Book of City of Ladies (15th c.) serve as the three progressive steps in the transformation of the rhetorical theory and the feminine literary voice, redefining woman from the idea of inferior entity written by men over centuries into the concept of an intellectual and virtuous female human being. The development of a strong feminine literary voice starts as de France feminizes the masculine language she borrows from masculine oral tradition to write narrative poetry, enriched with a feminine perspective. A century later, Porete assumes solely feminine language—through the voice of a female soul that she makes available to the male soul—in a theological treatise that annuls the role of the Church to attain spiritual purity during this life. Subsequently, Pizan, in the fifteenth century, writes the first directly-stated defense for womankind, applying feminist literary criticism to important paternalistic texts, assuming an exclusively feminine voice, and providing a reinterpretation of history and mythology. The first chapter of this thesis discusses the historical development of the concept of woman written by men, including a brief account of Sappho’s literary merit as the last of a group of women who produced literature before the fifth century B.C.E. The next three chapters are dedicated to each of the three texts, and the final chapter explains the link between the texts, the relevance of knowing and remembering the talent and effort necessary to redefine woman in a literary world still dominated by men, and proposes options for further study in literature, psychology of education, and literary historiography

Nominal Affixation Between English and Batak Toba Language

This study deals with Nominal Affixation in English and Batak Toba language. This article focuses on Nominal Afixation in Batak Toba Language and English particularly derivational noun from Adjectives stems. The data were obtained by conducted descriptive Qualitative design. The data were analyzed into their stems and affixes and formulated the system of the language. Based on the steps was found out {ha} + adjectives stems + {on} in Batak Toba language Nominal Affixation was responded to adjectives stems {-ness}, {-ity}, {-ce}, {-th}, {-cy} in English. It shows that one item in Batak Toba language become two or more in English

The dynamical structure of the MEO region: long-term stability, chaos, and transport

It has long been suspected that the Global Navigation Satellite Systems exist in a background of complex resonances and chaotic motion; yet, the precise dynamical character of these phenomena remains elusive. Recent studies have shown that the occurrence and nature of the resonances driving these dynamics depend chiefly on the frequencies of nodal and apsidal precession and the rate of regression of the Moon's nodes. Woven throughout the inclination and eccentricity phase space is an exceedingly complicated web-like structure of lunisolar secular resonances, which become particularly dense near the inclinations of the navigation satellite orbits. A clear picture of the physical significance of these resonances is of considerable practical interest for the design of disposal strategies for the four constellations. Here we present analytical and semi-analytical models that accurately reflect the true nature of the resonant interactions, and trace the topological organization of the manifolds on which the chaotic motions take place. We present an atlas of FLI stability maps, showing the extent of the chaotic regions of the phase space, computed through a hierarchy of more realistic, and more complicated, models, and compare the chaotic zones in these charts with the analytical estimation of the width of the chaotic layers from the heuristic Chirikov resonance-overlap criterion. As the semi-major axis of the satellite is receding, we observe a transition from stable Nekhoroshev-like structures at three Earth radii, where regular orbits dominate, to a Chirikov regime where resonances overlap at five Earth radii. From a numerical estimation of the Lyapunov times, we find that many of the inclined, nearly circular orbits of the navigation satellites are strongly chaotic and that their dynamics are unpredictable on decadal timescales.Comment: Submitted to Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy. Comments are greatly appreciated. 28 pages, 15 figure

Modeling waste production into two-machine–one-buffer transfer lines

This article focuses on analytical models of two-machine one-buffer Markov lines including waste production. The aim is to compute the probability of producing good parts, referred to as effective efficiency, when waste production is related to stoppages of the first machine. This problem is common in industrial fields where parts are generated by a continuous process; e.g., in high-speed beverage packaging lines. Two innovative models including waste production are presented: the WP-Basic Model extends the model of a basic two-machine-one-buffer transfer line; the WP-RP Model extends the model of a two-machine-one-buffer transfer line with a restart policy operating on the first machine (i.e., when the first machine is blocked because the buffer is filled, it is not allowed to resume production until the buffer becomes empty). The two existing models are improved by distinguishing, at any time step the first machine is operational, whether it is producing a good or a bad part. The probabilities of the system being in any feasible state are analytically derived for both the WP-Basic Model and the WP-RP Model. Then, the obtained probabilities are used to determine the performance measures of interest; i.e., waste probability and effective efficiency. Finally, some numerical results are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the WP-Basic Model and the WP-RP Model

Quasi-realistic heterotic-string models with vanishing one-loop cosmological constant and perturbatively broken supersymmetry?

Quasi-realistic string models in the free fermionic formulation typically contain an anomalous U(1), which gives rise to a Fayet-Iliopoulos D-term that breaks supersymmetry at the one--loop level in string perturbation theory. Supersymmetry is traditionally restored by imposing F- and D-flatness on the vacuum. By employing the standard analysis of flat directions we present a quasi--realistic three generation string model in which stringent F- and D-flat solution do not appear to exist to all orders in the superpotential. We speculate that this result is indicative of the non-existence of supersymmetric flat F- and D-solutions in this model. We provide some arguments in support of this scenario and discuss its potential implications. Bose-Fermi degeneracy of the string spectrum implies that the one--loop partition function and hence the one-loop cosmological constant vanishes in the model. If our assertion is correct, this model may represent the first known example with vanishing cosmological constant and perturbatively broken supersymmetry. We discuss the distinctive properties of the internal free fermion boundary conditions that may correspond to a large set of models that share these properties. The geometrical moduli in this class of models are fixed due to asymmetric boundary conditions, whereas absence of supersymmetric flat directions would imply that the supersymmetric moduli are fixed as well and the dilaton may be fixed by hidden sector nonperturbative effects.Comment: 37 pages, LaTeX. Added discussion on stringent flat directions. PRD published versio

MicroRNA-155—at the critical interface of innate and adaptive immunity in arthritis

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that fine-tune the cell response to a changing environment by modulating the cell transcriptome. MiR-155 is a multifunctional miRNA enriched in cells of the immune system and is indispensable for the immune response. However, when deregulated, miR-155 contributes to the development of chronic inflammation, autoimmunity, cancer and fibrosis. Herein, we review the evidence for the pathogenic role of miR-155 in driving aberrant activation of the immune system in Rheumatoid Arthritis, and its potential as a disease biomarker and therapeutic target

Site‐Selective Electrochemical Oxidation of Carbohydrates

The site-selective transformation of unprotected sugars poses significant challenges to synthetic chemists but comes with a reward of step-economic and energy efficient protocols. By replacing stoichiometric oxidants with electricity, greener processes are anticipated. To date, mostly C3- and C6-selective transformations have been developed urging for further developments. Herein, we call for action to synthetic chemists to tackle the associated challenges of site-selective transformations of unprotected sugars toward challenging C2 and C4 regioisomers fueled by mild electroorganic transformations