A view on the iconic turn from a semiotic perspective

Media are not only a means of communication. From a cognitive perspective, they may be viewed as components of an external, auxiliary memory system (Schönpflug 1997), and contemporary cognitive science “construes cognition as a complex system in which cognitive processes are ‘embodied, situated’ in environments, and ‘distributed’ across people and artifacts” (Nersessian 2007: 2). In man-machine communication, man-man-communication via digital machinery and especially in the World Wide Web (Heintz 2006, Steels 2006) the “external” components of this system have taken on more and more of the characteristics of our individual, “internal”, living and active memory with its richness of sensual and symbolic formats. The intellectual challenge in the drafts of the “masterminds” of hypertext (Eisenstein) and multimedia (Lintsbakh) was the detection of temporal/spatial, mathematical and linguistic correspondences between such different sensual and symbolic representations (Bulgakova 2007, Tsivian 2007). The so called “iconic” or “pictorial turn” was pulled along by the digital turn, and it may in turn have stimulated and accelerated the digital turn

Are Overriding Royalty Interests Becoming the Clay Pigeons of the Texas Oil and Gas Industry? The Assignor-Assignee Relationship After Sasser v. Dantex Oil & Gas

In reaching its decision, the San Antonio Court of Appeals effectively broadens the reach of Sunac to extend to situations in which the lessee may intentionally terminate a lease, even a commercially productive lease, and, in the process, extinguish an override owner\u27s interest. Arguably, the broadening of Sunac by the Sasser court, which is unsupported by the reasoning of Sunac itself, as well as by post- Sunac decisions, may have far reaching and serious implications for the Texas oil and gas industr

Some parallels between language and music from a cognitive and evolutionary perspective

Abstract Parallels between language and music are considered as a useful basis for examining possible evolutionary pathways of these achievements. Such parallels become apparent if we compare clauses and syllables in language with phrases and notes in music: Clauses as well as musical phrases typically span about 2 sec and about 5 to 10 pulses, i.e., syllables or notes. The n of syllables per clause or intonation unit also can be used as a measure of tempo across languages and thus also as a means for a better understanding of typological co-variations in the rhythm of speech and music. A second type of correspondence was found between the size of the sound-relevant inventories, i.e., vowels and musical intervals. In both inventories we encounter a minimum of roughly 3 and a maximum of roughly 12 elements as well as a frequency peak at 5 elements. These parallels are discussed from an evolutionary perspective that either sees music as a precursor of language or both language and music as descendents of a common, "halfmusical" precurso

A Tensor Formulation of Second-Order Brillouin-Wigner Perturbation Theory with a Size-Consistent Correlation Energy

Second-order Moller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) often breaks down catastrophically in small-gap systems, leaving much to be desired in its performance for myriad chemical applications such as noncovalent interactions, thermochemistry, and dative bonding in transition metal complexes. This divergence problem has reignited interest in Brillouin-Wigner perturbation theory (BWPT), which is regular at all orders but lacks size-consistency and extensivity, severely limiting its application to chemistry. In this work, we propose a generalized tensor formulation of second-order BWPT that recasts the energy denominator as a sum of energy-gap and regularizer tensors, where the regularizer is taken (by ansatz) to be the correlation contribution to the ionization energy of a given occupied orbital. This choice of regularizer leads to a Brillouin-Wigner correlation energy expression that is size-extensive, size-consistent, and invariant to unitary transformations among the occupied or virtual orbitals. Our size-consistent second-order Brillouin-Wigner (scBW2) approach is capable of describing the exact dissociation limit of H2 in a minimal basis set regardless of the spin-polarization of the reference orbitals. More broadly, we find that scBW2 offers improvements relative to MP2 for covalent bond breaking, noncovalent interaction energies, and metal/organic reaction energies, while rivaling coupled-cluster with single and double substitutions (CCSD) for thermochemical properties. Not only does scBW2 offer improvements in transferability relative to empirical energy-gap dependent regularizers, but the ab initio framework that we propose can be used as a guidepost for developments of future Brillouin-Wigner functionals.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure

Fluctuations in conscious perception and neural activity

Binokulare Rivalität beschreibt eine visuelle Illusion, welche durch spontane Wechsel in der bewussten Wahrnehmung zweier unterschiedlicher Bilder gekennzeichnet ist. Da der sensorische Input im Gegensatz zum fluktuierenden Perzept stets unverändert bleibt, erlaubt dieses Phänomen der Wahrnehmung eine Dissoziation der neuronalen Aktivität, welche mit den physikalischen Eigenschaften eines Sinnesreizes assoziiert ist, von der mit der bewussten Wahrnehmung per se korrelierenden. Obwohl eine Rolle neuronaler Prozessen sowohl auf früher (‚augenbasierter’) als auch höherer (‚perzeptbasierter’) Ebene kortikaler Verarbeitung akzeptiert scheint, sind deren spezifische Wirkungen und zeitliche Variation kaum bekannt. Es konnte jedoch kürzlich gezeigt werden dass stabilisierende Einflüsse neuronaler Stimulus- Repräsentationen sowohl auf frühen als auch auf höheren Verarbeitungsebenen parallel zueinander in einer Dominanzphase binokularer Rivalität abnehmen, um letztendlich ein aktuelles Perzept zu destabilisieren. Eine solche Co-Variation lässt die Existenz direkter Interaktionen vermuten, deren Ausmaß von jenem des involvierten neuronalen Substrates bzw. der Komplexität der Stimuli abhängen könnte. Zur Prüfung dieser ersten Hypothese wurden den Probanden identische Photos eines Hauses und eines Gesichtes gezeigt, in gewohnt aufrechter Position oder aber auf den Kopf gestellt. Bei den letzteren fanden wir tatsächlich eine Reduktion in der ‚Koppelung’ augenbasierter und perzeptbasierter Einflüsse, möglicherweise als Effekt einer geringeren Beteiligung höherer Zentren und einer damit einhergehenden Reduktion neuronalen Feedbacks. Zusätzlich gingen wir der Frage nach ob die Phase neuronaler Oszillationen die Dynamik unsere Wahrnehmung im Zuge binokularer Rivalität beeinflusst und vielleicht sogar die ‚Vorhersage’ eines Wahrnehmungswechsels erlaubt. Während die experimentellen Resultate unsere erste Hypothese stützen und einen signifikanten Effekt der Stimulus-Inversion zeigen, bleiben die Ergebnisse der EEG-Analyse uneindeutig.During binocular rivalry visual awareness alternates spontaneously between two different images presented to the two eyes. Because the percept fluctuates between conflicting interpretations of identical sensory input, this perceptual illusion allows a dissociation of neural activity related to physical stimulus properties from that related to conscious perception. Though it seems widely accepted that both high- and low-level neural stimulus representations contribute to perceptual dynamics during rivalry, their relative contributions, and how they vary over time, are barely known. It was recently shown that initially stabilizing contributions of both, eye- and stimulus-based processes, decline in parallel during a dominance phase, eventually favouring a perceptual switch. Such a co-varying change is indicative of direct interactions between image- and eye-of-origin representations that may be dependent on the amount of neural substrate involved. We tested this hypothesis directly, presenting rivalling pictures of a house and a face either upright or upside down, and revealed a reduced coupling of low- and higher-level dynamics for the latter, where high- level involvement and feedback to early processing stages may be reduced. Additionally, taking into account several lines of evidence pointing towards a critical role of ‘‘spontaneous’’ activity in cortical processing, we were curious as to whether the phase of neural oscillations biases perceptual dynamics during binocular rivalry. In particular, we hypothesized that EEG phase allows a ‘prediction’ of perceptual reversals. Demonstrating a significant effect of stimulus inversion on the contributions of eye- and percept-related processes, results of the EEG analysis do not convincingly support our second hypothesis

Optimizing the Regularization in Size-Consistent Second-Order Brillouin-Wigner Perturbation Theory

Despite its simplicity and relatively low computational cost, second-order M{\o}ller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) is well-known to overbind noncovalent interactions between polarizable monomers and some organometallic bonds. In such situations, the pairwise-additive correlation energy expression in MP2 is inadequate. Although energy-gap dependent amplitude regularization can substantially improve the accuracy of conventional MP2 in these regimes, the same regularization parameter worsens the accuracy for small molecule thermochemistry and density-dependent properties. Recently, we proposed a repartitioning of Brillouin-Wigner perturbation theory that is size-consistent to second order (BW-s2), and a free parameter ({\alpha}) was set to recover the exact dissociation limit of H$_2$ in a minimal basis set. Alternatively {\alpha} can be viewed as a regularization parameter, where each value of {\alpha} represents a valid variant of BW-s2, which we denote as BW-s2({\alpha}). In this work, we semi-empirically optimize {\alpha} for noncovalent interactions, thermochemistry, alkane conformational energies, electronic response properties, and transition metal datasets, leading to improvements in accuracy relative to the ab initio parameterization of BW-s2 and MP2. We demonstrate that the optimal {\alpha} parameter ({\alpha} = 4) is more transferable across chemical problems than energy-gap-dependent regularization parameters. This is attributable to the fact that the BW-s2({\alpha}) regularization strength depends on all of the information encoded in the t amplitudes rather than just orbital energy differences. While the computational scaling of BW-s2({\alpha}) is iterative $\mathcal{O}(N^5)$, this effective and transferable approach to amplitude regularization is a promising route to incorporate higher-order correlation effects at second-order cost.Comment: 7 pages main text, 7 pages supporting information, 10 figure

Retrofitting of a historic public building for energy efficiency: exploring measurements and attitudes for heritage conservation professionals

During the last few decades, there has been a trend toward enhancing energy performance and improving indoor comfort conditions of heritage buildings. Architectural heritage and aesthetic values do not allow typical retrofit interventions. Governmental and planning directives mainly focus on saving energy in existing buildings and do not extend to historic buildings. Architectural heritage bodies must act to determine energy retrofit measure types that can be applied to historic buildings to conserve their values. There is a need to enhance the energy efficiency and environmental sustainability of historic buildings. This study aims to reduce a heritage building's energy use through technical interventions and selection of specific retrofit measures. Each of these interventions is then evaluated using sustainable tools. Designing energy retrofits for existing buildings has environmental, economic, social, and health benefits. This study describes a methodology for adopting Integrated Environmental Solutions–Virtual Environment (IES–VE) tools as energy and environmentally conscious decision-making aids. A methodology was developed to monitor buildings for potential improvements and support the retrofit strategy development. We present a case study of a banquet hall renovation project titled “The Banqueting Hall in Jesmond Dene, Newcastle Upon Tyne” that implements IES–VE approaches to energy retrofits to a historic public building. To generate energy savings, several improvements were added to the building. For each alteration, building energy consumption and mean radiant temperature were examined, and the results indicate that with all improvements applied to the building there is a potential to reduce total energy system demand by 45%. Restoration of historic buildings is of paramount interest for preserving a locality's character and history. Environment-friendly retrofitting helps reduce the footprint of old energy-inefficient structures. Simulations of various energy-efficient retrofitting methods are of paramount interest for planners to decide optimal strategies for improving building performance. Although several articles have been published in this area, each new building comes with unique challenges and is therefore unique and highly significant

On the performance of the visual system in the nocturnal hunting spider Cupiennius salei

Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit dem visuellen System von Cupiennius salei, einer nachtaktiven Jagdspinne, die als Modellorganismus für die Neuroethologie etabliert ist. In zwei Studien wurde die Muskelaktivität der Hauptaugen aufgezeichnet und eine signifikante Erhöhung als Indikator für visuelle Perzeption in den Nebenaugen herangezogen. In der ersten Studie wurde die höchste räumliche Frequenz eines Streifenmusters gemessen, für die bei Bewegung der Streifen noch eine signifikante Muskelaktivitätserhöhung nachweisbar war. Für vertikale Streifenmuster lag dieses Limit bei einer Wellenlänge von 2°, für horizontale Streifenmuster bei 2.7°. Der Unterschied in den Reaktionsschwellen war aber kleiner als es die Interrezeptorwinkel in den beiden Orientierungen vermuten ließen. Das führte zu der Annahme, dass die Spinnen auch auf rein zeitliche Intensitätsschwankungen reagieren. Diese Hypothese konnte in einer Folgestudie mit Hilfe von Flimmer-Stimuli bestätigt werden. Die Flimmerfusionsfrequenz der Nebenaugen lag bei wenigen Perioden pro Sekunde. Unsere Verhaltensdaten passen gut zu anatomischen und elektrophysiologischen Arbeiten, welche ein relativ gutes räumliches aber ein relativ schlechtes zeitliches Auflösungsvermögen von Cupiennius salei nahelegen. Cupiennius salei ist dafür bekannt, dass sie ohne jeglichen visuellen Input erfolgreich jagen kann. In einer dritten Studie ließ sich nun erstmals nachweisen, dass es auch mit rein visuellen Stimuli möglich ist, Angriffe der Spinnen auszulösen. Eine vierte Studie untersucht Pigmentringe, die in den Augen von frisch gehäuteten Spinnen auftreten und sich anschließend langsam zurückbilden. Mit Hilfe von Micro-CT-Aufnahmen konnten wir zeigen, dass Pigmentringe jene Teile der Cornea abdecken, welche zunächst noch nicht von der wachsenden Linse ausgefüllt sind. Die Funktion der Pigmentringe könnte es sein, das Auge gegen störende, periphere Lichtstrahlen abzuschirmen, die nicht von der Linse auf die Retina gebündelt würdenThe present thesis deals with the visual system of Cupiennius salei, a nocturnal hunting spider established as model organism in neuroethology. In two studies the temporal and spatial cut-off frequencies were investigated. For that purpose, the activity of the eye muscles that move the retinae of the principal eyes was monitored. An increase in that activity indicates visual perception in the secondary eyes. To determine the spatial cut-off frequency we confronted the spiders with sinusoidally modulated gratings. Vertical gratings elicited a significant increase down to a wavelength of 2 deg, horizontal gratings down to a wavelength of 2.7 deg. The difference in the limiting frequencies for the two orientations was less pronounced than the corresponding interreceptor angles would suggest. Thus we assumed that Cupiennius might also respond to temporal intensity modulations with an increase in eye muscle activity. We could confirm this hypothesis in a follow-up study using flicker stimuli. We subsequently measured the temporal cut-off frequency to be in the range of a few cycles per second. Our data were in line with anatomical and electrophysiological studies suggesting a relatively high spatial and a relatively low temporal resolution in these spiders. Cupiennius salei was known to be able to hunt successfully relying exclusively on its excellent mechanosensory systems. In a third study we were now able to show that it is also possible to elicit attack behaviour with visual stimuli alone, in the absence of any mechanosensory input. In a fourth study we describe the appearance and subsequent decrease of enlarged pigment rings in the eyes of freshly moulted spiders. Using micro CT scans we could confirm our hypothesis that the pigment rings are linked to the maturation of the lens. The pigment rings might maintain vision in postecdysal animals by shielding light rays that could otherwise enter beside the growing lens and degrade the image on the retina

Selecting Optimum Dimensions for a Three-Phase Horizontal Smart Separator for Khor Mor Gas-Condensate Processing Plant

      The Khor Mor gas-condensate processing plant in Iraq is currently facing operational challenges due to foaming issues in the sweetening tower caused by high-soluble hydrocarbon liquids entering the tower. The root cause of the problem could be liquid carry-over as the separation vessels within the plant fail to remove liquid droplets from the gas phase. This study employs Aspen HYSYS v.11 software to investigate the performance of the industrial three-phase horizontal separator, Bravo #2, located upstream of the Khor Mor sweetening tower, under both current and future operational conditions. The simulation results, regarding the size distribution of liquid droplets in the gas product and the efficiency gas/liquid separation, reveal that the separator falls short of eliminating all liquid droplets of specified sizes from the gas phase to meet efficiency requirements, weather with or without a mist extractor. Consequently, an analysis of various structural parameters of the vessel is undertaken to determine their impact on the carried-over liquid mass flow rate and the vessel’s gas/liquid efficiency. The findings recommend a new design concept termed the "smart separator" for Bravo #2, applicable to both current and anticipated operational scenarios. The smart separator demonstrates a remarkable enhancement in gas/liquid separation efficiency, showcasing improvements of 21.31% and 24.02% under existing and future operating conditions, respectively. This innovative design proves effective in controlling liquid carry-over and maintaining high-efficiency levels, even as vessel inlet flow rates increase over time, thus preventing foaming phenomena in downstream processes caused carried-over liquids

Testing the robustness of laws of polysemy and brevity versus frequency

The pioneering research of G.K. Zipf on the relationship between word frequency and other word features led to the formulation of various linguistic laws. Here we focus on a couple of them: the meaning-frequency law, i.e. the tendency of more frequent words to be more polysemous, and the law of abbreviation, i.e. the tendency of more frequent words to be shorter. Here we evaluate the robustness of these laws in contexts where they have not been explored yet to our knowledge. The recovery of the laws again in new conditions provides support for the hypothesis that they originate from abstract mechanisms.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft