"Are you giving yourself to me to make a self?": Sacrifice, Pronoun Shifts, and the Creation of Self in H. D.'s Prose Works

Experimental shifts between first-, second-, and third-person narration continuously create and destroy the narrative self in H. D.’s prose. These shifts signify movement between various levels of self-consciousness or various levels of experiencing the self by dissolving the borders of the narrator. H. D.’s novels describe the intricacies of searching for the self and the apparent paradox of finding it precisely when it has been given up or sacrificed. Paradoxically, the self needs to be destroyed in order to be recreated. Moreover, her narrative pronoun shifts show that the self needs to be immersed in a larger, shared experience of intersubjectivity to grow and develop, even though this means that the borders of the self lose definition. In this way, H. D. not only navigates the winding road of self-development, but also explores what it means to share universal experiences, primarily those of sacrifice and destruction. H. D.’s works in general are often read as autobiographical and primarily relevant as a key to understanding the lives of herself and her contemporaries. This article shows how H. D.’s use of pronoun shifts indicates a concern with her own subjective experiences, but also with intersubjectivity and shared experiences across time and space. Using experiments with pronoun shifts, H. D. shows how personal narratives become universal and how universal narratives become personal, thereby creating autobiographical works that are relevant in a broader context

Semi-classical Green kernel asymptotics for the Dirac operator

We consider a semi-classical Dirac operator in arbitrary spatial dimensions with a smooth potential whose partial derivatives of any order are bounded by suitable constants. We prove that the distribution kernel of the inverse operator evaluated at two distinct points fulfilling a certain hypothesis can be represented as the product of an exponentially decaying factor involving an associated Agmon distance and some amplitude admitting a complete asymptotic expansion in powers of the semi-classical parameter. Moreover, we find an explicit formula for the leading term in that expansion.Comment: 46 page

Physical Study by Surface Characterizations of Sarin Sensor on the Basis of Chemically Functionalized Silicon Nanoribbon Field Effect Transistor

Surface characterizations of an organophosphorus (OP) gas detector based on chemically functionalized silicon nanoribbon field-effect transistor (SiNR-FET) were performed by Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (KPFM) and ToF-SIMS, and correlated with changes in the current-voltage characteristics of the devices. KPFM measurements on FETs allow (i) to investigate the contact potential difference (CPD) distribution of the polarized device as function of the gate voltage and the exposure to OP traces and, (ii) to analyze the CPD hysteresis associated to the presence of mobile ions on the surface. The CPD measured by KPFM on the silicon nanoribbon was corrected due to side capacitance effects in order to determine the real quantitative surface potential. Comparison with macroscopic Kelvin probe (KP) experiments on larger surfaces was carried out. These two approaches were quantitatively consistent. An important increase of the CPD values (between + 399 mV and + 302 mV) was observed after the OP sensor grafting, corresponding to a decrease of the work function, and a weaker variation after exposure to OP (between - 14 mV and - 61 mV) was measured. Molecular imaging by ToF-SIMS revealed OP presence after SiNR-FET exposure. The OP molecules were essentially localized on the Si-NR confirming effectiveness and selectivity of the OP sensor. A prototype was exposed to Sarin vapors and succeeded in the detection of low vapor concentrations (40 ppm).Comment: Paper and supporting information, J. Phys. Chem. C, 201

Experimental Verification of 3D Plasmonic Cloaking in Free-Space

We report the experimental verification of metamaterial cloaking for a 3D object in free space. We apply the plasmonic cloaking technique, based on scattering cancellation, to suppress microwave scattering from a finite-length dielectric cylinder. We verify that scattering suppression is obtained all around the object in the near- and far-field and for different incidence angles, validating our measurements with analytical results and full-wave simulations. Our near-field and far-field measurements confirm that realistic and robust plasmonic metamaterial cloaks may be realized for elongated 3D objects with moderate transverse cross-section at microwave frequencies.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, published in NJ

The Origin of the Designability of Protein Structures

We examined what determines the designability of 2-letter codes (H and P) lattice proteins from three points of view. First, whether the native structure is searched within all possible structures or within maximally compact structures. Second, whether the structure of the used lattice is bipartite or not. Third, the effect of the length of the chain, namely, the number of monomers on the chain. We found that the bipartiteness of the lattice structure is not a main factor which determines the designability. Our results suggest that highly designable structures will be found when the length of the chain is sufficiently long to make the hydrophobic core consisting of enough number of monomers.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure

Exploring cosmic origins with CORE : Cluster science

We examine the cosmological constraints that can be achieved with a galaxy cluster survey with the future CORE space mission. Using realistic simulations of the millimeter sky, produced with the latest version of the Planck Sky Model, we characterize the CORE cluster catalogues as a function of the main mission performance parameters. We pay particular attention to telescope size, key to improved angular resolution, and discuss the comparison and the complementarity of CORE with ambitious future ground-based CMB experiments that could be deployed in the next decade. A possible CORE mission concept with a 150 cm diameter primary mirror can detect of the order of 50,000 clusters through the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect (SZE). The total yield increases (decreases) by 25% when increasing (decreasing) the mirror diameter by 30 cm. The 150 cm telescope configuration will detect the most massive clusters (> 10(14) M-circle dot) at redshift z > 1.5 over the whole sky, although the exact number above this redshift is tied to the uncertain evolution of the cluster SZE flux-mass relation; assuming self-similar evolution, CORE will detect similar to 500 clusters at redshift z > 1.5. This changes to 800 (200) when increasing (decreasing) the mirror size by 30 cm. CORE will be able to measure individual cluster halo masses through lensing of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies with a 1-sigma sensitivity of 4 x 10(14)M(circle dot), for a 120 cm aperture telescope, and 10(14)M(circle dot) for a 180 cm one. From the ground, we estimate that, for example, a survey with about 150,000 detectors at the focus of 350 cm telescopes observing 65% of the sky would be shallower than CORE and detect about 11,000 clusters, while a survey with the same number of detectors observing 25% of sky with a 10 m telescope is expected to be deeper and to detect about 70,000 clusters. When combined with the latter, CORE would reach a limiting mass of M-500 similar to 2-3 x 10(13)M(circle dot) and detect 220,000 clusters (5 sigma detection limit). Cosmological constraints from CORE cluster counts alone are competitive with other scheduled large scale structure surveys in the 2020's for measuring the dark energy equation of-state parameters w(0) and w(a) (sigma(w0) = 0.28, sigma(wa) = 0.31). In combination with primary CMB constraints, CORE cluster counts can further reduce these error bars on w(0) and w(a) to 0.05 and 0.13 respectively, and constrain the sum of the neutrino masses, Sigma m(nu), to 39 meV (1 sigma). The wide frequency coverage of CORE, 60-600 GHz, will enable measurement of the relativistic thermal SZE by stacking clusters. Contamination by dust emission from the clusters, however, makes constraining the temperature of the intracluster medium difficult. The kinetic SZE pairwise momentum will be extracted with S/N = 70 in the foreground cleaned CMB map. Measurements of T-CMB (z) using CORE clusters will establish competitive constraints on the evolution of the CMB temperature: (1 + z)(1-beta), with an uncertainty of sigma(beta) less than or similar to 2.7 x 10(-3) at low redshift (z less than or similar to 1). The wide frequency coverage also enables clean extraction of a map of the diffuse SZE signal over the sky, substantially reducing contamination by foregrounds compared to the Planck SZE map extraction. Our analysis of the one-dimensional distribution of Compton-y values in the simulated map finds an order of magnitude improvement in constraints on sigma(8) over the Planck result, demonstrating the potential of this cosmological probe with CORE.Peer reviewe

Effect of colour vision status on insect prey capture efficiency of captive and wild tamarins (Saguinus spp.)

The colour vision polymorphism of most New World primates is a model system to study the function of colour vision. Theories for the evolution of primate trichromacy focus on the efficient detection and selection of ripe fruits and young leaves amongst mature leaves, when trichromats are likely to be better than dichromats. We provide data on whether colour vision status affects insect capture in primates. Trichromatic tamarins (Saguinus spp.) catch more prey than dichromats, but dichromats catch a greater proportion of camouflaged prey than trichromats. The prey caught does not differ in size between the two visual phenotypes. Thus two factors may contribute to the maintenance of genetic polymorphism of middle- to long-wavelength photopigments in Platyrrhines: the advantage in finding fruit and leaves, which supports the maintenance of the polymorphism through a heterozygote advantage, and the dichromats’ exploitation of different (e.g., camouflaged) food, which results in frequency-dependent selection on the different colour vision phenotypes

Cassini observations of ion and electron beams at Saturn and their relationship to infrared auroral arcs

We present Cassini Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer observations of infrared auroral emissions from the noon sector of Saturn's ionosphere revealing multiple intense auroral arcs separated by dark regions poleward of the main oval. The arcs are interpreted as the ionospheric signatures of bursts of reconnection occurring at the dayside magnetopause. The auroral arcs were associated with upward field-aligned currents, the magnetic signatures of which were detected by Cassini at high planetary latitudes. Magnetic field and particle observations in the adjacent downward current regions showed upward bursts of 100–360 keV light ions in addition to energetic (hundreds of keV) electrons, which may have been scattered from upward accelerated beams carrying the downward currents. Broadband, upward propagating whistler waves were detected simultaneously with the ion beams. The acceleration of the light ions from low altitudes is attributed to wave-particle interactions in the downward current regions. Energetic (600 keV) oxygen ions were also detected, suggesting the presence of ambient oxygen at altitudes within the acceleration region. These simultaneous in situ and remote observations reveal the highly energetic magnetospheric dynamics driving some of Saturn's unusual auroral features. This is the first in situ identification of transient reconnection events at regions magnetically conjugate to Saturn's magnetopause