“The wonder is, he hath endured so long”: King Lear and the Erosion of the Brutan Histories

Using the plays Leir and Shakespeare’s King Lear as case studies, this article argues that the early modern performance of pre-Roman Britain should be understood as emerging from a 500-year tradition in which the British, or more properly the English and Welsh, believed themselves descended from the Trojan exile Brute. Although originating in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae (c. 1135), the traditional term for this account, “Galfridian”, neglects the centuries of cultural transmission through which these narratives became embedded as the authoritative version of British origins. Therefore, I propose the term “Brutan histories” in order to de-centre Geoffrey’s authorship. Brutan pageants and plays can be dated to the fifteenth century. However, by the late Elizabethan era many playgoers may have experienced a sense of dissonance as historiographers’ discovery of the histories’ fictional origins worked outwards into popular consciousness. The Jacobean moment saw renewed focus on Brutan tropes due to their rhetorical value for James VI and I’s project to unite England and Scotland. However, Leir and King Lear’s dissonant approaches to temporality, anachronism and negation may have triggered a disturbing sense of the Brutan histories’ collapse as lived history even as they were utilised in the name of British unity

Mucedorus: the last ludic playbook, the first stage Arcadia

This article argues that two seemingly contradictory factors contributed to and sustained the success of the anonymous Elizabethan play Mucedorus (c. 1590; pub. 1598). First, that both the initial composition of Mucedorus and its Jacobean revival were driven in part by the popularity of its source, Philip Sidney's Arcadia. Second, the playbook's invitation to amateur playing allowed its romance narrative to be adopted and repurposed by diverse social groups. These two factors combined to create something of a paradox, suggesting that Mucedorus was both open to all yet iconographically connected to an elite author's popular text. This study will argue that Mucedorus pioneered the fashion for “continuations” or adaptations of the famously unfinished Arcadia, and one element of its success in print was its presentation as an affordable and performable version of Sidney's elite work. The Jacobean revival of Mucedorus by the King's Men is thus evidence of a strategy of engagement with the Arcadia designed to please the new Stuart monarchs. This association with the monarchy in part determined the cultural functions of the Arcadia and Mucedorus through the Interregnum to the close of the seventeenth century

Further Validation of an Individualized Migraine Treatment Satisfaction Measure

AbstractObjectiveTo assess individualized satisfaction with migraine treatment, patient expectations, importance rankings, treatment outcomes, and overall satisfaction were combined using a four-part conceptual model. This article describes the measurement properties of the Migraine Treatment Satisfaction Measure (MTSM) using participants from a randomized controlled trial evaluating a Headache Management Program (HMP).MethodsParticipants completed the first two parts of the MTSM upon enrollment and the final two parts at 6 months. Internal consistency reliability was computed within each of the four modules. Discriminant validity was ascertained using Migraine Disability Assessment Survey (MIDAS), Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and MSFB scores. Convergent validity was established by hypothesized positive correlations between MTSM scores, Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form (SF-36), MIDAS, and Migraine Symptom Frequency Bother (MSFB).ResultsIn total, 124 participants (mean age 45.4 years, 75% women, 59.7% Caucasian) enrolled. Internal consistency for expectations, importance rankings, outcomes, and satisfaction measures was 0.83, 0.95, 0.86, and 0.95, respectively. As the severity of depression increased, MTSM scores decreased significantly. ANOVA between MTSM scores and symptom bothersomeness and symptom frequency tertiles showed a significant decrease in satisfaction in the moderate-to-severe groups. MTSM scores showed expected associations with MSFB scores (−0.301; P < 0.01), MIDAS (−0.267; P < 0.01), general health (0.253; P < 0.05), mental health (0.217; P < 0.05), and vitality subscales of SF-36 (0.214; P < 0.05). Patients in the HMP reported significantly higher MTSM scores (43.2 vs. 31.4; P < 0.001). Patients on triptans reported a significantly higher satisfaction compared to patients on analgesics (39.5 vs. 32.9; P < 0.05).ConclusionThe MTSM is a valid and reliable patient-reported outcome that can be used to evaluate differences in treatment satisfaction associated with migraine therapies

Cerebral Infarction Producing Sudden Isolated Foot Drop

Foot drop usually results from lesions affecting the peripheral neural pathway related to dorsiflexor muscles, especially the peroneal nerve. Although a central nervous system lesion is suspected when there is a lack of clinical evidence for a lower motor neuron lesion, such cases are extremely rare. We describe a patient with sudden isolated foot drop caused by a small acute cortical infarction in the high convexity of the precentral gyrus. This report indicates that a cortical infarction may have to be considered as a potential cause of foot drop

Conditional displacement operator for traveling fields

We show that the conditional displacement operator $\hat{U}_{CD}=\exp [\hat{b}^{\dagger}\hat{b}(\beta \hat{a}^{\dagger}-\beta ^{\ast}\hat{a})]$ acting upon an arbitrary state of traveling waves can be well approximated by the action of a Kerr medium placed between two beam splitters whose respective second ports are fed by highly excited coherent states. Applications to the generation of nonclassical states and measurement of Wigner function of arbitrary states are also considered

Dynamics of Nonlocality for A Two-Mode Squeezed State in Thermal Environment

We investigate the time evolution of nonlocality for a two-mode squeezed state in the thermal environment. The initial two-mode pure squeezed state is nonlocal with a stronger nonlocality for a larger degree of squeezing. It is found that the larger the degree of initial squeezing is, the more rapidly the squeezed state loses its nonlocality. We explain this by the rapid destruction of quantum coherence for the strongly squeezed state.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted to PR

Photon number resolution using a time-multiplexed single-photon detector

Photon number resolving detectors are needed for a variety of applications including linear-optics quantum computing. Here we describe the use of time-multiplexing techniques that allows ordinary single photon detectors, such as silicon avalanche photodiodes, to be used as photon number-resolving detectors. The ability of such a detector to correctly measure the number of photons for an incident number state is analyzed. The predicted results for an incident coherent state are found to be in good agreement with the results of a proof-of-principle experimental demonstration.Comment: REVTeX4, 6 pages, 8 eps figures, v2: minor changes, v3: changes in response to referee report, appendix added, 1 reference adde