The Passions and Disinterest: From Kantian Free Play to Creative Determination by Power, via Schiller and Nietzsche

I argue that Nietzsche’s criticism of the Kantian theory of disinterested pleasure in beauty reflects his own commitment to claims that closely resemble certain Kantian aesthetic principles, specifically as reinterpreted by Schiller. I show that Schiller takes the experience of beauty to be disinterested both (1) insofar as it involves impassioned ‘play’ rather than desire-driven ‘work’, and (2) insofar as it involves rational-sensuous (‘aesthetic’) play rather than mere physical play. In figures like Nietzsche, Schiller’s generic notion of play—which is itself influenced by Kant’s claim that aesthetic pleasure is orthogonal to desire-satisfaction—becomes decoupled from his (further) Kantian view that aesthetic play essentially involves a harmony of sensuous receptivity and rational spontaneity. The result, I suggest, is a self-standing opposition between desires and passions. This motivates a recognizably Romantic vision of aesthetic disinterestedness, as freedom from desire realized in a state of creative determination by passion

Paradoxes of Subdiffusive Infiltration in Disordered Systems

Infiltration of diffusing particles from one material to another where the diffusion mechanism is either normal or anomalous is a widely observed phenomena. When the diffusion is anomalous we find interesting behaviors: diffusion may lead to an averaged net drift from one material to another even if all particles eventually flow in the opposite direction, or may lead to a flow without drift. Starting with an underlying continuous time random walk model we solve diffusion equations describing this problem. Similar drift against flow is found in the quenched trap model. We argue that such a behavior is a general feature of diffusion in disordered systems.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Stability of an Ultra-Relativistic Blast Wave in an External Medium with a Steep Power-Law Density Profile

We examine the stability of self-similar solutions for an accelerating relativistic blast wave which is generated by a point explosion in an external medium with a steep radial density profile of a power-law index > 4.134. These accelerating solutions apply, for example, to the breakout of a gamma-ray burst outflow from the boundary of a massive star, as assumed in the popular collapsar model. We show that short wavelength perturbations may grow but only by a modest factor <~ 10.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Physical Review

Nietzsche contra Sublimation

Many commentators have claimed that Nietzsche views the “sublimation” (Sublimierung) of drives as a positive achievement. Against this tradition, I argue that, on the dominant if not universal Nietzschean use of Sublimierung and its cognates, sublimation is just a broad psychological analogue of the traditional (al)chemical process: the “vaporization” of drives into a finer or lighter state, figuratively if not literally. This can yield ennobling elevation, or purity in a positive sense—the intensified “sublimate” of an unrefined original sample. But it can also yield drives that are attenuated or otherworldly, in a pejorative sense. One (but only one) kind of Nietzschean sublimation is the “translation” of drives to “imaginative and spiritual” (Imaginative und Seelische) modes of expression. I con­clude that, despite certain appearances to the contrary, Nietzsche ultimately values basic drives’ powerful expression, without preferring either that this occur specifically as “higher culture” or as “savage” natural impulse

Polarization of interacting bosons with spin

We demonstrate rigorously that in the absence of explicit spin-dependent forces one of the ground states of interacting bosons with spin is always fully polarized -- however complicated the many-body interaction potential might be. Depending on the particle spin, the polarized ground state will generally be degenerate with other states, but one can specify the exact degeneracy. For T>0 the magnetization and susceptibility necessarily exceed that of a pure paramagnet. These results are relevant to recent experiments exploring the relation between triplet superconductivity and ferromagnetism, and the Bose-Einstein condensation of atoms with spin. They eliminate the possibility, raised in some theoretical speculations, that the ground state or positive temperature state might be antiferromagnetic.Comment: v4: as published in PR

From non-Brownian Functionals to a Fractional Schr\"odinger Equation

We derive backward and forward fractional Schr\"odinger type of equations for the distribution of functionals of the path of a particle undergoing anomalous diffusion. Fractional substantial derivatives introduced by Friedrich and co-workers [PRL {\bf 96}, 230601 (2006)] provide the correct fractional framework for the problem at hand. In the limit of normal diffusion we recover the Feynman-Kac treatment of Brownian functionals. For applications, we calculate the distribution of occupation times in half space and show how statistics of anomalous functionals is related to weak ergodicity breaking.Comment: 5 page

Lahirnya Nilai-nilai, Keterampilan Hidup, Dan Karakter Anak Melalui Proses Menyusui

Salah satu program pemerintah dalam tumbuh kembang anak berhubungan dengan pendidikan dan pengembangan anak usia dini. Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk mendeteksi nilai-nilai, keterampilan hidup,dan karakter yang lahir pada awal kehidupan anak melalui proses menyusui. Metode penelitian adalah metode kualitatif, yang dilakukan melalui wawancara semi terstruktur terhadap sepuluh ibu menyusui. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan adanya lima nilai-nilai (budi baik, dekat, bersama, stimulasi, dan respek), empat keterampilan hidup (mandiri, adaptasi, komunikasi, dan efikasi-diri), dan enam karakter (bijaksana, berani, kasih sayang, percaya diri, syukur, dan gembira) yang lahir melalui proses tersebut. Hasil ini dapat digunakan pada program-program Promosi Kesehatan dan Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini dalam USAha membentuk anak bangsa yang sehat dan berkarakter kuat sejak awal kehidupan

Exploiting programmable architectures for WiFi/ZigBee inter-technology cooperation

The increasing complexity of wireless standards has shown that protocols cannot be designed once for all possible deployments, especially when unpredictable and mutating interference situations are present due to the coexistence of heterogeneous technologies. As such, flexibility and (re)programmability of wireless devices is crucial in the emerging scenarios of technology proliferation and unpredictable interference conditions. In this paper, we focus on the possibility to improve coexistence performance of WiFi and ZigBee networks by exploiting novel programmable architectures of wireless devices able to support run-time modifications of medium access operations. Differently from software-defined radio (SDR) platforms, in which every function is programmed from scratch, our programmable architectures are based on a clear decoupling between elementary commands (hard-coded into the devices) and programmable protocol logic (injected into the devices) according to which the commands execution is scheduled. Our contribution is two-fold: first, we designed and implemented a cross-technology time division multiple access (TDMA) scheme devised to provide a global synchronization signal and allocate alternating channel intervals to WiFi and ZigBee programmable nodes; second, we used the OMF control framework to define an interference detection and adaptation strategy that in principle could work in independent and autonomous networks. Experimental results prove the benefits of the envisioned solution

Personhood Seeking New Life with Republican Control

Just three days prior to the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States, Representative Jody B. Hice (R-GA) introduced the Sanctity of Human Life Act (H R. 586), which, if enacted, would provide that the rights associated with legal personhood begin at fertilization. Then, in October 2017, the Department of Health and Human Services released its draft strategic plan, which identifies a core policy of protecting Americans at every stage of life, beginning at conception. While often touted as a means to outlaw abortion, protecting the lives of single-celled zygotes may also have implications for the practice of reproductive medicine and research. Indeed, such personhood efforts stand apart and distinct from more incremental attempts to restrict abortion that target the abortion procedure and those who would perform it. While personhood efforts have not been successful to date at either the state or federal levels, abortion opponents may find a friend in President Trump and his Supreme Court nominees. What is more, because the recent decision by the Court in Whole Woman\u27s Health v. Hellerstedt makes it more difficult for states to impose incremental restrictions on the abortion procedure, restrictions focused on the status of the unborn may assume increasing importance. Personhood rhetoric is often seen in proceedings involving the disposition of unused embryos and in laws that restrict access to abortion on the basis of gender, race, or disability. Laws outlawing abortion on the basis of fetal pain are also on the rise. With so much uncertainty surrounding the political landscape, this Article places the personhood movement in historical context with other antiabortion strategies. This Article further explores the theoretical underpinnings of the personhood movement and considers its future prospects with regard to abortion and other reproductive services