An Opposing Self

People have always been both frightened and fascinated by the unknown, and themes touching on the existence of things beyond human understanding have longevity in the literary arena as well as in popular culture. One such theme is that of the doppelgänger, or double, which has been around for centuries but was first made popular by Jean-Paul’s (Johann Paul Friedrich Richter) work Hesperus in 1795. Due to a resurgence in the nineteenth century in the popularity of Gothic literature, doppelgängers, or variations of this double motif, found their way into some of the most famous works of literature by the most notable writers of the century, including Edgar Allan Poe’s “William Wilson” (1839), Feodor Dostoevsky’s “The Double” (1846), Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Shadow” (1847), and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891). The theme has persisted through the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, recent examples being the popular films Secret Window (2004) starring Johnny Depp, Shutter Island (2010) starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and Black Swan (2010) starring Natalie Portman. Although the popularity of the double has remained constant over the past few centuries, the presentation and interpretation of doubles have not. Prior to the Romantic period, the appearance of a doppelgänger was almost always seen as an evil portent, often foretelling disaster and the death of the protagonist. The character of the double, in manifest form, was represented as something outside of the person plagued by it, part of the realm of the supernatural, and certainly something to be feared. But with the growing interest in the human mind, and especially the unconscious, in the Romantic Period, people started viewing the double as something that could possibly come from within an individual. This new way of looking at the theme of the double fit the interests and feelings of the times, especially the idea that there were parts of ourselves over which we had no conscious control. The evolution of the double as a literary motif thus reflected the changing attitudes of the times, its horror lying now not outside of the human psyche but secretly locked within it. As Rosemary Jackson observes, there was “an explicit shift from a presentation of a demonic ‘other’ as supernaturally evil, the devil in a conventional iconography, toward something much more disturbing because equivocal, ambiguous in its nature and origins. . . . The double then comes to be seen as an aspect of the psyche, externalized in the shape of another in the world” (44)

Novice Interpreters, American Sign Language Proficiency, and the National Interpreter Certification Performance Exam

More than 40 years after American Sign Language (ASL) and interpreter education were first offered as programs of study in higher education, little is known about the level of ASL proficiency of graduates from baccalaureate degree programs in interpreting and what level of ASL proficiency may be associated with passing the performance portion of the National Interpreter Certification (NIC) examination. With this in mind, we posed three questions: 1) What is the distribution of ASL Proficiency Interview (ASLPI) ratings of a national sample of novice interpreters relatively near the time of graduation from baccalaureate degree programs in interpreting? 2) What is the distribution of ASLPI ratings of a national sample of novice interpreters relatively near the time of taking the NIC Performance Exam? 3) What is the relationship between ASLPI ratings and passing/not passing the NIC Performance Exam? Results showed that relatively closer to IEP graduation (N = 134), about 56% of ASLPI proficiency levels were at or below Level 2+ and 44% were at or above Level 3. For ASLPI proficiency levels obtained relatively closer to taking the NIC Performance Exam (N = 154), about 30% were at or below Level 2+ and 70% of ratings were at or above Level 3. Results showed that all those who passed the NIC Performance Exam, and who had a rating for the ASLPI taken relatively closer to taking the NIC Performance Exam (N = 27), obtained an ASLPI proficiency level of 3 or higher. However, it is important to note that approximately 75% of participants who obtained a proficiency level of 3 or higher did not pass the NIC Performance Exam the first time they took it. Additionally, the higher the ASLPI level, the higher the proportion of people passing the NIC Performance Exam. This study has implications for further research regarding ASL proficiency for students entering and exiting IEPs and preparing for national credentialing

Statistical distributions of consonant variants in infant-directed speech: evidence that /t/ may be exceptional

Statistical distributions of phonetic variants in spoken language influence speech perception for both language learners and mature users. We theorized that patterns of phonetic variant processing of consonants demonstrated by adults might stem in part from patterns of early exposure to statistics of phonetic variants in infant-directed (ID) speech. In particular, we hypothesized that ID speech might involve greater proportions of canonical /t/ pronunciations compared to adult-directed (AD) speech in at least some phonological contexts. This possibility was tested using a corpus of spontaneous speech of mothers speaking to other adults, or to their typically-developing infant. Tokens of word-final alveolar stops – including /t/, /d/, and the nasal stop /n/ – were examined in assimilable contexts (i.e., those followed by a word-initial labial and/or velar); these were classified as canonical, assimilated, deleted, or glottalized. Results confirmed that there were significantly more canonical pronunciations in assimilable contexts in ID compared with AD speech, an effect which was driven by the phoneme /t/. These findings suggest that at least in phonological contexts involving possible assimilation, children are exposed to more canonical /t/ variant pronunciations than adults are. This raises the possibility that perceptual processing of canonical /t/ may be partly attributable to exposure to canonical /t/ variants in ID speech. Results support the need for further research into how statistics of variant pronunciations in early language input may shape speech processing across the lifespan

An experimental analysis of an impedance pump as a model for segmentation in the intestine

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 34-36).The intestine is a fluid-filled compliant tube that twists, turns, and folds back on itself, potentially causing changes in impedance of the tube. By asymmetrically compressing a compliant tube of physiological geometries with impedance changes, a net pressure head was induced. With Reynolds numbers ranging from 13-1350, the viscous and inertial effects of the fluid response created interesting pressure responses. The system was found to have a natural frequency near 1.69 Hz and exhibited frequency doubling. The dimensionless pressure and time responses showed a complicated pressure response that decreased in overall magnitude with increasing compression frequencies. The response is influenced by more parameters than just the compression frequency and further work is recommended to understand those parameters. Additional observations were made that suggested segmentation is not a mode of mixing. Segmentation modeled as an impedance pump can induce cyclical pressure heads that may contribute to flow in the intestine.by Doria M. Holbrook.S.B

The Kindred Bonds of Mentally Ill Homeless Persons

While the unraveling of the kinship bond has long been suspected to play a role in the epidemiology of homelessness, the connection between kinship and homelessness has been little studied. Based on a normative analysis of the role of family structure in response to adversity, this article explores the impact of the amount and quality of kinship ties on episodes of homelessness experienced by discharged psychiatric patients in Ohio. Survey data derived from personal interviews with both former patients and their kin indicate more strain in relations with kin of the homeless than the nonhomeless. The strain in the kinship bond appears to emanate from a greater prevalence of chronic disabilities that undermine independent functioning and tax the resources of relatives who choose to remain involved. Consistent with this interpretation, patients with histories of homelessness reported more psychiatric symptoms, more deficits in daily living skills, and more contact with the criminal justice system. In general, patient variables were better able than family variables to differentiate the homeless from the nonhomeless. Nonetheless, the formulation of public policies for reducing the incidence and prevalence of homelessness will surely need to take account of the kinship bond and how it can be strengthened

A stochastic optimization method with in-pit waste and tailings disposal for open pit life-of-mine production planning

Environmental responsibility and the sustainable development of mineral resources are a topic of critical importance to the mining industry and at the same time relate to operational and rehabilitation costs to be considered in technical studies. Open pit mining operations impact their local environment in terms of their modification of the landscape and local ecosystems. Many of these impacts are the result of the transportation of large volumes of materials mined and shifted from and to different locations. External stockpiles and waste dumps occupy considerable space as well as involve substantial transportation costs to move materials from open pits to stockpiles and then move them back to the pit for rehabilitation after the end of exploitation. Depending on the shape of the deposit and the intended design of the pit, a desirable option may be to place it directly in the free spaces within the pit, instead of storing all waste and tailings materials in stockpiles and/or waste/tailings dumps. This paper presents a new mathematical formulation integrating to life-of-mine planning and the maximization of net present value, with the related waste and tailings disposal kept within the mined-out parts of a pit, using a stochastic integer program that manages geological uncertainty including metal grades, material types and related chemical compositions. In addition to the traditional variables related to the materials being extracted from the ground in the form of mining blocks, strips of ground following the dip of a pit are considered within the pit as decision variables, and the optimization process aims to optimally define both the sequence of extraction of mining blocks and the reservation of strips needed to store waste materials. An application at an iron ore mine demonstrates the feasibility, applied aspects and advantages of the proposed method

Therapeutic end points for the treatment of atrioventricular node reentrant tachycardia by catheter-guided radiofrequency current

AbstractObjectives. The purpose off this prospective study was to test the hypothesis that the elimination of inducible repetitive atrioventricular (AV) node reentry the persistence of slow AV pathway conduction is a valid end point for radiofrequency catheter ablation procedures in patients with supraventricular tachycardia due to AV node reentry.Background. Although modification of AV node physiology by radiofrequency current can eliminate AV node reentrant tachycardia, therapeutic end points that are definitive of a satisfactory result in patients undergoing modification of the slow AV pathway have not been established. Applications of radiofrequency current at selected sites may eliminate all evidence of slow pathway conduction or sufficiently modify the refractory properties of the slow pathway to preclude sustained arrhythmias. Accordingly, total abolition of dual AV node physiology may not be necessary to prevent arrhythmia recurrence.Methods. Radiofrequency catheter ablation of the slow AV pathway was attempted in 59 patients with typical AV node reentry. Tissue ablation was performed with a continuous wave of 500-kHz radiofrequency current. Twenty-five to 35 W was applied for 60 s at the site selected for destruction.Results. Dual AV node physiology was eliminated completely in 35 patients (59%), persisted without inducible AV node reentry in 13 patients (22%) and persisted with inducible single AV reentrant beats in 11 patients (19%). In patients with persistent dual AV node physiology, the maximal difference between the effective refractory period of the fast and slow pathways was reduced from 104 ± 62 ms before the procedure to 37 ± 37 ms after AV conduction had been modified (p < 0.001). During a mean follow-up interval of 15 months (range 4 to 28), only one patient (2%) had a recurrence of the tachycardia.Conclusions. Resulte demonstrate that when complete elimination of dial AV node physiology is difficult, modification of slow pathway conduction to the extent that repetitive AV node reentry cannot be induced is a definitive end point that portends a good prognosis

Associations between the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 trait facets and aggression among outpatients with personality disorder: A multimethod study

Background Most research on the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5) was conducted with self-reports. One of the specific areas for which a multimethod design has yet to be implemented is for the PID-5's associations with aggression. The main objectives of this study were to (a) compare the PID-5 associations with self-reported and file-rated aggression, (b) compare these associations between women and men, and (c) identify the relative importance of PID-5 facet predictors. Methods A sample of outpatients with personality disorder (N = 285) was recruited in a specialized public clinic to complete questionnaires, and a subsample was assessed for file-rated aggression (n = 227). Multiple regression analyses were performed with PID-5 facets as statistical predictors but using distinct operationalizations of aggression (self-reported vs. file-rated). Moderation analyses were performed to identify the moderating effect of biological sex. Dominance analyses were computed to identify the relative importance of predictors. Results PID-5 facet predictors of self-reported and file-rated aggression were very consistent in both conditions. However, the amount of explained variance was reduced in the latter case (from 39% to 14%), especially for women (from 40% to 2%). The most important predictors were Hostility, Risk Taking, and Callousness. Conclusion Pertaining to the statistically significant facets associated with aggression, strong evidence of multimethod replication was found. The women-men discrepancies were not most obvious in their specific associations with aggression, but rather in their amount of explained variance, maybe reflecting examiners' or patients' implicit biases, and/or different manifestations of aggression between women and men