Deconstructing Assumptions in A Jury of Her Peers

A Jury of Her Peers is truly a small masterpiece. Set in limited rural community, it reaches far back to eons of lost history. From the vivid dramatic scenes and from the heart of a feminine reticence embedded in them, it seems that a desperate cry against injustice toward women echoes. The Minnie Foster who we never meet has an imposing spiritual presence from start to end. Her pitiful silence seems to lament the dark shadow of cruelty and suffering which has overwhelmed of the life of despondent women throughout history. Following her final, desperate attempt to defend herself from being wholly crushed she is subdued by a burden heavier than that from which she had tried to escape. From the rough unsympathetic hands of a husband she is put under the glaring stare of cold uncaring law. What becomes of her remains unknown, just as the lament of her pitiful cry for justice remains unfulfilled

Efficiency of test for independence after Box–Cox transformation

AbstractWe consider the efficiency and the power of the normal theory test for independence after a Box–Cox transformation. We obtain an expression for the correlation between the variates after a Box–Cox transformation in terms of the correlation on the normal scale. We discuss the efficiency of test of independence after a Box–Cox transformation and show that for the family considered it is always more efficient to conduct the test of independence based on Pearson correlation coefficient after transformation to normality. Power of test of independence before and after a Box–Cox transformation is studied for a finite sample size using Monte Carlo simulation. Our results show that we can increase the power of the normal-theory test for independence after estimating the transformation parameter from the data. The procedure has application for generating non-negative random variables with prescribed correlation

A Reading of Flannery O’Connors “Everything that Rises Must Converge”

Everything that rises must converge is a short story which, without the aid of suspense that is often provoked in fiction by actions hanging on a bare thread in a whirling plot of intertwining – and perhaps incredible – events, catches the reader‟s attention until the very last word. The plot of the story could not be any simpler; a young bachelor takes his overweight mother by bus to a „reducing class‟ but before they reach the place the mother changes her mind, heads back home, has a stroke and is left by her helpless son dying or maybe dead as he goes to seek help. But parallel to the plot of events is a “plot" of revelation; as the insignificantly banal happenings take place, an unfolding of character slowly emerges before the reader‟s eyes

A Reading of Joseph Conrad's The Tale

The Tale is a short story by Joseph Conrad. Typical of a Conrad story it is set at sea. The sea is symbolic of the unconscious and this story may be read as a story of the unconscious. On the outside, it seems simple; a man tells a woman a tale of the commanding officer of a patrol ship who gives false directions to another ship and sends it to its doom. In between the lines of the seemingly simple plot, however, can be read another tale; one which speaks of a human sea deeper than the sea of water; deeper, darker, and infinitely more mysterious. Man has navigated the sea of water but the unfathomed sea of his own being remains, for the most part, undiscovered. This is a sea different from the sea of this world and Conrad sets sail on it by telling a tale from another world. Sailing with Conrad, the reader can look out on the infinite vastness and try to form a picture of the infinite depth of a sea which is not visible to the human eye

Images of the Female Countenance in Renaissance Literature

In her article "The politics of gender" Elaine Hobby gives a clear image of the confusion evoked in modern mentality by the juxtaposition of Renaissance literature and history. The romantic scenes portrayed in the wonderland of Renaissance poetry seem uncompromisable with the bare facts of historical record. As we contemplate the shadows obscuring the male permeated poetic language of the age however, we do discern spots of light illuminating the overall picture. The age has its own logic and its own language and although neither may be wholly appealing to the modern palate, both are, within their own historical framework, unequivocal and self-consciously assertive

Low-Storage Quantile Estimation

The abstract is included in the text

PROVIDING A COMPREHENSIVE MODEL TO MEASURE THE PERFORMANCE DIMENSIONS OF INDUSTRIAL CLUSTERS USING THE HYBRID APPROACH OF Q-FACTOR ANALYSIS AND CLUSTER ANALYSIS

One of the most important development strategies with the emphasis on small and medium industries is the geographical concentration of production units and the formation of cluster. The industrial cluster is a globally economic phenomenon that has been proposed as a modern model for economic development. Theoretically, an industrial cluster can strengthen specialized sectors and facilitate industrial cooperation. The aim of this study was to provide a comprehensive model for measuring the performance dimensions of industrial clusters in Markazi province using a hybrid approach of Q-factor analysis and cluster analysis. For this purpose, at first and in the first phase of the research, 41 effective factors in the clustering of the performance dimensions of the statistical population were identified with the study of previous research and the use of Q-factor analysis, and in the second phase, a model for comprehensive performance measurement of industrial clusters was presented using cluster analysis in R software. The results of the study indicated that industrial clusters in Markazi province have four financial, competitive, economic and environmental performance dimensions

Water Quality Zonation of Beshar River in Yasuj City

AbstractThis study was conducted to monitor the current water quality of Beshar River by the Iranian Surface Water Quality Index (IRWQIsc). Monitoring of the river water quality was done based on sampling 12 stations along the river in October of 2021 as the period of water shortage and January of 2022 as the period of high water flow simultaneously with sampling two other stations (fish farm effluent and Yasuj wastewater treatment plant effluent) as the point source pollution entries. The results of zoning Beshar River based on IRWQIsc in the period of water scarcity showed a decrease in river water quality from the upstream to the downstream part. 41.66% of the upstream part of the river (Tang-e Tizab to Dehno) was in a relatively good condition, 8.34% of the river (entrance of Yasuj City) was in a good condition, 8.33% (middle part of the river in Shah Mokhtar Area) was in a relatively bad condition and 41.66% (downstream of the river) was in a moderate condition. Despite the increase in discharge and rainfall, no significant increase in water quality was observed in the high water flow period. In this period, 25% of the river (Tang-e Tizab, Tang-e Sorkh, and downstream of Qalat) was in a moderate condition and 75% of the river was in a relatively good condition based on IRWQIsc. Comparison of the flow rates and IRWQIsc indices showed that only during the high water flow period in the lower reaches of the river, the increased river discharge enhanced the river water quality , but no relationship between the river flow and the IRWQIsc was found at the upstream part of the river and in the period of water scarcity.Keywords: Beshar River, IRWQIsc index, biological oxygen demand  IntroductionWater quantity and quality are of the most vital parts of each ecosystem that affect other parts. Therefore, evaluation of the quantity and quality of river water can indicate the status of water resources management in a watershed. Beshar River is one of the most important and water-rich rivers in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province. It provides most of the water needed for drinking, industry, and agriculture, while being exposed to various pollutions. This study was conducted to monitor the current water quality of Beshar River by the Iranian Surface Water Quality Index (IRWQIsc).  MethodologyMonitoring of river water quality was done based on sampling 12 stations along the river from the upstream (Tang-e Tizab) to the downstream (Pataveh) parts in October of 2021 as the period of water shortage and January of 2022 as the period of high water flow simultaneously with sampling two other stations (fish farm effluent and Yasuj wastewater treatment plant effluent) as the point source pollution entries.  DiscussionThe results of zoning Beshar River based on IRWQIsc in the period of water scarcity showed a decrease in the river water quality from the upstream to the downstream part. 41.66% of the river (upstream part of the river, Tang-e Tizab to Dehno) was in a relatively good condition, 8.34% of the river (entrance of Yasuj City) was in a good condition, 8.33% (middle part of the river in Shah Mokhtar Area) was in a relatively bad condition, and 41.66% (downstream of the river, Tange-Seriz to Pataveh) was in a moderate condition. Despite the increase in discharge and rainfall, no significant increase in water quality was observed in the high water flow period. In this period, 25% of the river (Tang-e Tizab, Tang-e Sorkh, and downstream part of Qalat) was in a moderate condition and 75% of it (Qalat, Dehno, entrance of Yasuj City, Shah Mokhtar to Pataveh) was in a relatively good condition based on IRWQIsc. ConclusionComparison of the flow rates and IRWQIsc indices showed that the increased river discharge in the lower reaches of the river increased the river water quality only during the high water flow period, but at the upstream part of the river and in the period of water scarcity, no relationship was seen between the river flow and IRWQIsc. Proper exploitation of Tang-e Sorkh Dam upstream of Bashar River in the near future and determining and supplying the environmental flows of the river with regard to water quality, especially at its upstream part should be taken into consideration to keep the self-purification ability of the river. References- Abdullah, N. and Jain, S. (2020). Multi-index summer flow regime characterization to inform environmental flow contexts, A New England case study. Ecological Indicators (111):15-1.- Kareem, S., Jaber, W., Al-Maliki, L., Al-Husseiny, R., Al-Mamoori, S. and Alansari, N. (2021). Water quality assessment and phosphorus effect using water quality indices: Euphrates River- Iraq as a case study. Groundwater for Sustainable Development (14): 1-10.- Marselina, M.; Wibowo, F. and Mushfiroh, A. 2022. Water quality index assessment methods for surface water: A case study of the Citarum River in Indonesia. Heliyon (8): 1-10.- Matta, G.; Nayak, A.; and Kumar, A. (2020). Water quality assessment using NSFWQI, OIP and multivariate techniques of Ganga River system, Uttarakhand, India. Applied Water Science 10: 1-12.- Murali, K.; Meenakshi, M. and Uma, R. N. (2020). Surface water (wetlands) quality assessment in Coimbatore (India) based on national sanitation foundation water quality index (NSF WQI). 1st International Conference on Science, Engineering and Technology: 1-7.- Nemati Varnosfaderany, M., Mirghaffary, N., Ebrahimi, E., and Sofyanian, A.R. (2009). Water quality assessment in an arid region using a water quality index. Journal of Water Science & Technology (60.9): 2319-2327. Figures and Tables- Fig. 1: Study area of Beshar River with locations of the point sources of pollution- Fig. 2: Study area and locations of the sample stations along Beshar River- Table 2: IRWQIsc indices and their weights (Water Resources Quality Index, 2013)- Table 4: Classification of surface water qualities of Iran based on IRWQIsc (Water Resources Quality)- Table 5: The measured variables of water quality for the sample stations along Beshar River during the low water flow period- Table 6: The measured variables of water quality in the sample stations along Beshar River during the high water flow period- Fig. 3: IRWQIsc index of the sample stations along Beshar River and effluents of the major sources of pollutants- Fig. 4: Changes of IRWQIsc indices along Beshar River during the high and low water flow periods- Fig. 5: The relationship between discharge and IRWQIsc index in the studied stations (numbers of the stations from the upstream to the downstream part of Beshar River from 1 to 12, respectively)- Supplementary Table 1: Locations of the sample stations along Beshar River and their water qualities- Supplementary Table 2: Water quality variables and their measuring methods (Rezvanipour and Razavi Dinani, 2014

Detecting discordance enrichment among a series of two-sample genome-wide expression data sets

Background With the current microarray and RNA-seq technologies, two-sample genome-wide expression data have been widely collected in biological and medical studies. The related differential expression analysis and gene set enrichment analysis have been frequently conducted. Integrative analysis can be conducted when multiple data sets are available. In practice, discordant molecular behaviors among a series of data sets can be of biological and clinical interest. Methods In this study, a statistical method is proposed for detecting discordance gene set enrichment. Our method is based on a two-level multivariate normal mixture model. It is statistically efficient with linearly increased parameter space when the number of data sets is increased. The model-based probability of discordance enrichment can be calculated for gene set detection. Results We apply our method to a microarray expression data set collected from forty-five matched tumor/non-tumor pairs of tissues for studying pancreatic cancer. We divided the data set into a series of non-overlapping subsets according to the tumor/non-tumor paired expression ratio of gene PNLIP (pancreatic lipase, recently shown it association with pancreatic cancer). The log-ratio ranges from a negative value (e.g. more expressed in non-tumor tissue) to a positive value (e.g. more expressed in tumor tissue). Our purpose is to understand whether any gene sets are enriched in discordant behaviors among these subsets (when the log-ratio is increased from negative to positive). We focus on KEGG pathways. The detected pathways will be useful for our further understanding of the role of gene PNLIP in pancreatic cancer research. Among the top list of detected pathways, the neuroactive ligand receptor interaction and olfactory transduction pathways are the most significant two. Then, we consider gene TP53 that is well-known for its role as tumor suppressor in cancer research. The log-ratio also ranges from a negative value (e.g. more expressed in non-tumor tissue) to a positive value (e.g. more expressed in tumor tissue). We divided the microarray data set again according to the expression ratio of gene TP53. After the discordance enrichment analysis, we observed overall similar results and the above two pathways are still the most significant detections. More interestingly, only these two pathways have been identified for their association with pancreatic cancer in a pathway analysis of genome-wide association study (GWAS) data. Conclusions This study illustrates that some disease-related pathways can be enriched in discordant molecular behaviors when an important disease-related gene changes its expression. Our proposed statistical method is useful in the detection of these pathways. Furthermore, our method can also be applied to genome-wide expression data collected by the recent RNA-seq technology