19,615 research outputs found
Akram Khan re-writes âRadhaâ: The âhypervisibleâ cultural identity in Kylie Minogueâs âShowgirlâ
This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory, 19(1), 23 - 34, 2009 [copyright Taylor & Francis], available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/07407700802655265.This paper attempts to analyze the British Asian dancer/choreographer Akram Khan's choreography of Samsara for Kylie Minogue's âhomecomingâ version of the 2006 Showgirl tour as an intellectual commentary on the 1906 American modern dance piece Radha by Ruth St Denis. On the surface Khan's choreography can be seen to reiterate some of the same Orientalist tropes that St Denis was accused of, within a popular âlowâ-culture context. Acknowledging this trope I scrutinize Khan's key choreographic strategies that challenge the potentially feminist reading of St Denisâ Radha by successfully reinstating the marriage plot within his choreography. More significantly, he makes âhypervisible,â the source culture of Kathak and the body of authority (himself) in the cultural exchange that shapes this choreographic project. Through an analysis of Khan's choreographic endeavor and a reevaluation of the power play between male and female bodies in the space, I wish to extrapolate Khan's intellectual vision within Samsara as an expression and assertion of the place of diasporic identity and cultural exchange within Western popular culture. I frame my paper within the preexistent frameworks from scholars like Sally Banes, Priya Srinivasan, Edward Said, Kobena Mercer, Rustom Bharucha and Philip Auslander
Quantum Information Paradox: Real or Fictitious?
One of the outstanding puzzles of theoretical physics is whether quantum
information indeed gets lost in the case of Black Hole (BH) evaporation or
accretion. Let us recall that Quantum Mechanics (QM) demands an upper limit on
the acceleration of a test particle. On the other hand, it is pointed out here
that, if a Schwarzschild BH would exist, the acceleration of the test particle
would blow up at the event horizon in violation of QM. Thus the concept of an
exact BH is in contradiction of QM and quantum gravity (QG). It is also
reminded that the mass of a BH actually appears as an INTEGRATION CONSTANT of
Einstein equations. And it has been shown that the value of this integration
constant is actually zero. Thus even classically, there cannot be finite mass
BHs though zero mass BH is allowed. It has been further shown that during
continued gravitational collapse, radiation emanating from the contracting
object gets trapped within it by the runaway gravitational field. As a
consequence, the contracting body attains a quasi-static state where outward
trapped radiation pressure gets balanced by inward gravitational pull and the
ideal classical BH state is never formed in a finite proper time. In other
words, continued gravitational collapse results in an "Eternally Collapsing
Object" which is a ball of hot plasma and which is asymptotically approaching
the true BH state with M=0 after radiating away its entire mass energy. And if
we include QM, this contraction must halt at a radius suggested by highest QM
acceleration. In any case no EH is ever formed and in reality, there is no
quantum information paradox.Comment: 8 pages in Pramana Style, 6 in Revtex styl
Ordinary atom-mirror atom bound states: A new window on the mirror world
Mirror symmetry is a plausible candidate for a fundamental symmetry of
particle interactions which can be exactly conserved if a set of mirror
particles exist. The properties of the mirror particles seem to provide an
excellent candidate to explain the inferred dark matter of the Universe and
might also be responsible for a variety of other puzzles in particle physics,
astrophysics, meteoritics and planetary science. One such puzzle -- the
orthopositronium lifetime problem -- can be explained if there is a small
kinetic mixing of ordinary and mirror photons. We show that this kinetic mixing
implies the existence of ordinary atom - mirror atom bound states with
interesting terrestrial and astrophysical implications. We suggest that
sensitive mass spectroscopic studies of ordinary samples containing heavy
elements such as lead might reveal the presence of these bound states, as they
would appear as anomalously heavy elements. In addition to the effects of
single mirror atoms, collective effects from embedded fragments of mirror
matter (such as mirror iron microparticles) are also possible. We speculate
that such mirror matter fragments might explain a mysterious UV photon burst
observed coming from a laser irradiated lead target in a recent experiment.Comment: about 8 pages, couple of change
A comparison of two methods of estimating propensity scores after multiple imputation
In many observational studies, analysts estimate treatment effects using propensity scores, e.g. by matching or sub-classifying on the scores. When some values of the covariates are missing, analysts can use multiple imputation to fill in the missing data, estimate propensity scores based on the m completed datasets, and use the propensity scores to estimate treatment effects. We compare two approaches to implement this process. In the first, the analyst estimates the treatment effect using propensity score matching within each completed data set, and averages the m treatment effect estimates. In the second approach, the analyst averages the m propensity scores for each record across the completed datasets, and performs propensity score matching with these averaged scores to estimate the treatment effect. We compare properties of both methods via simulation studies using artificial and real data. The simulations suggest that the second method has greater potential to produce substantial bias reductions than the first, particularly when the missing values are predictive of treatment assignment
Experimental investigations in combining primal dual interior point method and simplex based LP solvers
The use of a primal dual interior point method (PD) based optimizer as a robust linear programming (LP) solver is now well established. Instead of replacing the sparse simplex algorithm (SSX), the PD is increasingly seen as complementing it. The progress of PD iterations is not hindered by the degeneracy or the stalling problem of the SSX, indeed it reaches the 'near optimum' solution very quickly. The SSX algorithm, in contrast, is not affected by the boundary conditions which slow down the convergence of the PD. If the solution to the LP problem is non unique, the PD algorithm converges to an interior point of the solution set while the SSX algorithm finds an extreme point solution. To take advantage of the attractive properties of both the PD and the SSX, we have designed a hybrid framework whereby cross over from PD to SSX can take place at any stage of the PD optimization run. The cross over to SSX involves the partition of the PD solution set to active and dormant variables. In this paper we examine the practical difficulties in partitioning the solution set, we discuss the reliability of predicting the solution set partition before optimality is reached and report the results of combining exact and inexact prediction with SSX basis recovery
The Expected Duration of Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Impulsive Hydrodynamic Models
Depending upon the various models and assumptions, the existing literature on
Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) mentions that the gross theoretical value of the
duration of the burst in the hydrodynamical models is tau~r^2/(eta^2 c), where
r is the radius at which the blastwave associated with the fireball (FB)
becomes radiative and sufficiently strong. Here eta = E/Mc^2, c is the speed of
light, E is initial lab frame energy of the FB, and M is the baryonic mass of
the same (Rees and Meszaros 1992). However, within the same basic framework,
some authors (like Katz and Piran) have given tau ~ r^2 /(eta c). We intend to
remove this confusion by considering this problem at a level deeper than what
has been considered so far. Our analysis shows that none of the previously
quoted expressions are exactly correct and in case the FB is produced
impulsively and the radiative processes responsible for the generation of the
GRB are sufficiently fast, its expected duration would be tau ~ar^2/(eta^2 c),
where a~O(10^1). We further discuss the probable change, if any, of this
expression, in case the FB propagates in an anisotropic fashion. We also
discuss some associated points in the context of the Meszaros and Rees
scenario.Comment: 21 pages, LATEX (AAMS4.STY -enclosed), 1 ps. Fig. Accepted in
Astrophysical Journa
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Solving large scale linear programming
The interior point method (IPM) is now well established as a competitive technique for solving very large scale linear programming problems. The leading variant of the interior point method is the primal dual - predictor corrector algorithm due to Mehrotra. The main computational steps of this algorithm are the repeated calculation and solution of a large sparse positive definite system of equations.
We describe an implementation of the predictor corrector IPM algorithm on MasPar, a massively parallel SIMD computer. At the heart of the implemen-tation is a parallel Cholesky factorization algorithm for sparse matrices. Our implementation uses a new scheme of mapping the matrix onto the processor grid of the MasPar, that results in a more efficient Cholesky factorization than previously suggested schemes.
The IPM implementation uses the parallel unit of MasPar to speed up the factorization and other computationally intensive parts of the IPM. An impor-tant part of this implementation is the judicious division of data and computation between the front-end computer, that runs the main IPM algorithm, and the par-allel unit. Performanc
Sampling Properties of the Spectrum and Coherency of Sequences of Action Potentials
The spectrum and coherency are useful quantities for characterizing the
temporal correlations and functional relations within and between point
processes. This paper begins with a review of these quantities, their
interpretation and how they may be estimated. A discussion of how to assess the
statistical significance of features in these measures is included. In
addition, new work is presented which builds on the framework established in
the review section. This work investigates how the estimates and their error
bars are modified by finite sample sizes. Finite sample corrections are derived
based on a doubly stochastic inhomogeneous Poisson process model in which the
rate functions are drawn from a low variance Gaussian process. It is found
that, in contrast to continuous processes, the variance of the estimators
cannot be reduced by smoothing beyond a scale which is set by the number of
point events in the interval. Alternatively, the degrees of freedom of the
estimators can be thought of as bounded from above by the expected number of
point events in the interval. Further new work describing and illustrating a
method for detecting the presence of a line in a point process spectrum is also
presented, corresponding to the detection of a periodic modulation of the
underlying rate. This work demonstrates that a known statistical test,
applicable to continuous processes, applies, with little modification, to point
process spectra, and is of utility in studying a point process driven by a
continuous stimulus. While the material discussed is of general applicability
to point processes attention will be confined to sequences of neuronal action
potentials (spike trains) which were the motivation for this work.Comment: 33 pages, 9 figure
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