Huckleberry Finn: conduct Disordered Adolescent, Emerging Sociopath, or American Hero?

In a “Notice” to the first edition of his Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain warned: “Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; Persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; Persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot” (Twain xxv). Critics have generally paid little attention to these cautionary remarks. In the one hundred and three years since its publication, Twain\u27s novel has enjoyed major critical acclaim. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has also been the subject of considerable critical debate. The purpose of this investigation will be t examine this critical controversy and offer an analysis based on that which is observable and verifiable in the text. Modern behavioral psychology will assist in this analysis. Before describing specific methodology, a brief but representative critical review appears to be in order

Bremsstrahlung simulation in K to pi l^pm nu_l (gamma) decays

In physics simulation chains, the PHOTOS Monte Carlo program is often used to simulate QED effects in decays of intermediate particles and resonances. The program is based on an exact multiphoton phase space. In general, the matrix element is obtained from iterations of a universal kernel and approximations are involved. To evaluate the program precision, it is necessary to formulate and implement within the generator the exact matrix element, which depends on the decay channel. Then, all terms necessary for non-leading logarithms are taken into account. In the present letter we focus on the decay K to pi l^pm nu_l and tests of the PHOTOS Monte Carlo program. We conclude a 0.2% relative precision in the implementation of the hard photon matrix element into the emission kernel, including the case where approximations are used.Comment: 1+20 pages, 8 figure

Variscan post-collisional cooling and uplift of the Tatra Mountains crystalline block constrained by integrated zircon, apatite and titanite LA-(MC)-ICP-MS U-Pb dating and rare earth element analyses

LA-ICP-MS U-Pb dating of apatite, titanite and zircon from the metamorphic cover of the Western Tatra granite was undertaken to constrain the timing of metamorphic events related to the final stages of Variscan orogenesis and subsequent post-orogenic exhumation. Zircon was found only in one sample from the northern metamorphic envelope. U-Pb ages from the outermost rims of zircons define a concordia age of 346 ± 6 Ma, while the inner rims yield a concordia age of 385 ± 8 Ma. Apatite from three samples from the northern metamorphic envelope yield U-Pb ages of 351.8 ± 4.4 Ma, 346.7 ± 5.9 Ma and 342.6 ± 7.1 Ma. Titanite from an amphibolite from the southern metamorphic envelope yields a U-Pb age of 345.3 ± 4.5 Ma. The age of c. 345 Ma is interpreted to represent the climax of metamorphism and the onset of simultaneous exhumation of the entire Tatra Mountains massif, and is recorded mainly in the northern part of the metamorphic cover. In the southern metamorphic envelope, distinct populations of apatite can be recognized within individual samples based on their rare earth element (REE) and actinide contents. One population of apatite (Ap1) yields a relatively imprecise U-Pb age of 340 ± 31 Ma. This population comprises apatite grains with very similar trace element compositions to apatite in the northern amphibolite samples, which suggests they crystallized under similar metamorphic conditions to their northern counterparts. A second apatite population (Ap2) yields an age of c. 328 ± 22 Ma, which is interpreted as neocrystalline apatite that formed during a late-Variscan (hydrothermal?) process involving (P, F, Ca, REE)-rich fluid migration. The youngest generation of apatite (Ap3) yields a U-Pb age of 260 ± 8 Ma and may have resulted from thermal resetting associated with the regional emplacement of Permian A-type granites. The proposed tectonic model assumes that rapid uplift (and cooling) of the Tatra block initiated at ca. 345 Ma, contemporaneous with anatexis. Subsequent fluid migration, possibly facilitated by extension related to the opening of Paleo-Tethys, affected only the southern part of the Tatra block

Ecological mechanisms in cognitive science

© The Author(s) 2019. In 2010, Bechtel and Abrahamsen defined and described what it means to be a dynamic causal mechanistic explanatory model. They discussed the development of a mechanistic explanation of circadian rhythms as an exemplar of the process and challenged cognitive science to follow this example. This article takes on that challenge. A mechanistic model is one that accurately represents the real parts and operations of the mechanism being studied. These real components must be identified by an empirical programme that decomposes the system at the correct scale and localises the components in space and time. Psychological behaviour emerges from the nature of our real-time interaction with our environments—here we show that the correct scale to guide decomposition is picked out by the ecological perceptual information that enables that interaction. As proof of concept, we show that a simple model of coordinated rhythmic movement, grounded in information, is a genuine dynamical mechanistic explanation of many key coordination phenomena

The Carnian Humid Episode of the late Triassic: a review

From 1989 to 1994 a series of papers outlined evidence for a brief episode of climate change from arid to humid, and then back to arid, during the Carnian Stage of the late Triassic Epoch. This time of climate change was compared to marine and terrestrial biotic changes, mainly extinction and then radiation of flora and fauna. Subsequently termed, albeit incorrectly, the Carnian Pluvial Event (CPE) by successive authors, interest in this episode of climatic change has increased steadily, with new evidence being published as well as several challenges to the theory. The exact nature of this humid episode, whether reflecting widespread precipitation or more local effects, as well as its ultimate cause, remains equivocal. Bed-by-bed sampling of the Carnian in the Southern Alps (Dolomites) shows the episode began with a negative carbon isotope excursion that lasted for only part of one ammonoid zone (A. austriacum). However, that the Carnian Humid Episode represents a significantly longer period, both environmentally and biotically, is irrefutable. The evidence is strongest in the European, Middle Eastern, Himalayan, North American and Japanese successions, but not always so clear in South America, Antarctica and Australia. The eruption of the Wrangellia Large Igneous Province and global warming (causing increased evaporation in the Tethyan and Panthalassic oceans) are suggested as causes for the humid episode

Neoproterozoic crystalline exotic clasts in the Polish Outer Carpathian flysch: remnants of the Proto‑Carpathian continent?

Crystalline exotic boulders within the sedimentary sequences of the Outer Carpathians likely represent Proto-Carpathian basement, which was exposed and eroded during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic evolution of the Western Carpathian basin. The majority of the boulders were derived from the Silesian Ridge, which separated the Magura Basin and the Silesian Domains, and which became a source region during Late Cretaceous–Early Paleocene tectonism. Felsic crystalline clasts within the Silesian Nappe yield U–Pb zircon magmatic protolith ages of 603.7 ± 3.8 Ma and 617.5 ± 5.2 Ma while felsic crystalline clasts within the Subsilesian Nappe yield an age of 565.9 ± 3.1 Ma and thus represent different magmatic cycles. The U–Pb zircon data also imply that the Silesian Ridge was a fragment of the eastern part of the Brunovistulia microcontinent. The presence of inherited zircon cores, dated at 1.3 and 1.7 Ga, suggests a Baltican source for the clasts, as opposed to Gondwana. We infer that Late Neoproterozoic felsic magmatism within the Proto-Carpathian continent represents a long-living magmatic arc, which formed during prolonged Timmanian/Baikalian rather than Pan-African/Cadomian orogenesis. Mafic exotic blocks, found within the Magura Nappe, yield U–Pb zircon ages of 613.3 ± 2.6 Ma and 614.6 ± 2.5 Ma and likely represent a fragment of an obducted ophiolitic sequence. The protolith of these mafic boulders could represent Paleoasian Ocean floor located to the east of Cadomia, obducted during later orogenic processes and incorporated into the accretionary prism. All analysed exotic clasts show no evidence for younger (Variscan) reworking, which is characteristic of both western Brunovistulia and the Central Western Carpathians and the Cadomian elements of Western Europe. The Silesian and Subsilesian basins thus had a likely source area in the eastern part of Brunovistulia, while the source of the Magura Basin was the Fore-Magura Ridge, whose basement potentially represents an accretionary prism on the margin of the East European Craton

Re-evaluation of the LHC potential for the measurement of Mw

We present a study of the LHC sensitivity to the W boson mass based on simulation studies. We find that both experimental and phenomenological sources of systematic uncertainties can be strongly constrained with Z measurements: the lineshape is robustly predicted, and its analysis provides an accurate measurement of the detector resolution and absolute scale, while the differential cross-section analysis absorbs most of the strong interaction uncertainties. A sensitivity \delta Mw \sim 7 \MeV for each decay channel (W --> e nu, W --> mu nu), and for an integrated luminosity of 10 fb-1, appears as a reasonable goal

Implementation of electroweak corrections in the POWHEG BOX: single W production

We present a fully consistent implementation of electroweak and strong radiative corrections to single W hadroproduction in the POWHEG BOX framework, treating soft and collinear photon emissions on the same ground as coloured parton emissions. This framework can be easily extended to more complex electroweak processes. We describe how next-to-leading order (NLO) electroweak corrections are combined with the NLO QCD calculation, and show how they are interfaced to QCD and QED shower Monte Carlo. The resulting tool fills a gap in the literature and allows to study comprehensively the interplay of QCD and electroweak effects to W production using a single computational framework. Numerical comparisons with the predictions of the electroweak generator HORACE, as well as with existing results on the combination of electroweak and QCD corrections to W production, are shown for the LHC energies, to validate the reliability and accuracy of the approachComment: 31 pages, 7 figures. Minor corrections, references added and updated. Final version to appear in JHE