Interview with director Jayan K. Cherian

In this interview with Judith Misrahi-Barak and Nicole Thiara, Jayan K. Cherian discusses his work as an independent filmmaker in India and the USA, his artistic and political commitment, and the challenges he has faced with the Central Board of Film Certification in India after the release of his first feature film Papilio Buddha (2013), which focuses on Dalit land struggles in Kerala, and again with his second feature film KaBodyscapes (2016). The interview explores how holding a dual status as an American citizen and an Overseas Citizen of India makes his situation more complex because it offers him both the freedom and constraints of being a permanent outsider. The discussion of Papilio Buddha and its representation of the Dalit land struggle is the focus of the interview. He also speaks about his intended audience(s) and the way he works on location with his crews. Since Cherian is a poet and a writer as well as a filmmaker, he explains his choices for specific media, in the particular contexts in which he positions himself

Nonlinear interactions with an ultrahigh flux of broadband entangled photons

We experimentally demonstrate sum-frequency generation (SFG) with entangled photon-pairs, generating as many as 40,000 SFG photons per second, visible even to the naked eye. The nonclassical nature of the interaction is exhibited by a linear intensity-dependence of the nonlinear process. The key element in our scheme is the generation of an ultrahigh flux of entangled photons while maintaining their nonclassical properties. This is made possible by generating the down-converted photons as broadband as possible, orders of magnitude wider than the pump. This approach is readily applicable for other nonlinear interactions, and may be applicable for various quantum-measurement tasks.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Accepted to Phys. Rev. Let

Quality of internal representation shapes learning performance in feedback neural networks

A fundamental feature of complex biological systems is the ability to form feedback interactions with their environment. A prominent model for studying such interactions is reservoir computing, where learning acts on low-dimensional bottlenecks. Despite the simplicity of this learning scheme, the factors contributing to or hindering the success of training in reservoir networks are in general not well understood. In this work, we study non-linear feedback networks trained to generate a sinusoidal signal, and analyze how learning performance is shaped by the interplay between internal network dynamics and target properties. By performing exact mathematical analysis of linearized networks, we predict that learning performance is maximized when the target is characterized by an optimal, intermediate frequency which monotonically decreases with the strength of the internal reservoir connectivity. At the optimal frequency, the reservoir representation of the target signal is high-dimensional, de-synchronized, and thus maximally robust to noise. We show that our predictions successfully capture the qualitative behaviour of performance in non-linear networks. Moreover, we find that the relationship between internal representations and performance can be further exploited in trained non-linear networks to explain behaviours which do not have a linear counterpart. Our results indicate that a major determinant of learning success is the quality of the internal representation of the target, which in turn is shaped by an interplay between parameters controlling the internal network and those defining the task

Analytic Evidence for Continuous Self Similarity of the Critical Merger Solution

The double cone, a cone over a product of a pair of spheres, is known to play a role in the black-hole black-string phase diagram, and like all cones it is continuously self similar (CSS). Its zero modes spectrum (in a certain sector) is determined in detail, and it implies that the double cone is a co-dimension 1 attractor in the space of those perturbations which are smooth at the tip. This is interpreted as strong evidence for the double cone being the critical merger solution. For the non-symmetry-breaking perturbations we proceed to perform a fully non-linear analysis of the dynamical system. The scaling symmetry is used to reduce the dynamical system from a 3d phase space to 2d, and obtain the qualitative form of the phase space, including a non-perturbative confirmation of the existence of the "smoothed cone".Comment: 25 pages, 4 figure

Media representation of regulated incivilities: Relevant actors, problems, solutions and the role played by experts in the Flemish press

This article analyses the representations of regulated nuisance in a section of Flemish newspapers over time. It identifies the groups of people who have been successful in conveying messages in and through Flemish press news, and explores the way they have represented problems of, and suggested solutions to, regulated incivilities over the years. Furthermore, against the backdrop of newsmaking criminology, it considers whether and how crime and justice experts have contributed to shaping the Flemish media discourse on regulated incivilities over time. Overall the analysis of press news has found that the press, by giving coverage to the voices of local institutional actors, has promoted the criminalization of nuisance and, especially, of physical incivilities. The views of criminological experts, by contrast, have remained marginal. The article concludes by suggesting how such findings present a new set of empirical and conceptual challenges for newsmaking criminology, and more generally, for public criminology

The prognostic value of the tumour marker Cyfra 21-1 in carcinoma of head and neck and its role in early detection of recurrent disease

This study examines a new tumour marker, Cyfra 21-1, as a prognostic marker in predicting the survival of H&N cancer patients, and its correlation with clinical outcome during prolonged follow up of these patients. The study included 67 patients with primary detection of carcinoma of H&N. The survival of these patients was evaluated in correlation with the disease stage and Cyfra 21-1 levels at initial diagnosis. 38 patients were followed clinically and with serial assays for at least 12 months, or until recurrence was diagnosed. Cyfra 21-1 levels were determined periodically, using an Elisa kit. Patients with Cyfra 21-1 < 1.5 ng ml–1had a higher survival rate compared to patients with Cyfra 21-1 ≥ 1.5 ng ml–1(63% vs. 20%, respectively). The risk ratio of Ln(Cyfra 21-1) is 1.62 (P = 0.028). In a Cox regression model that included the disease stage and Ln(Cyfra 21-1), Ln(Cyfra 21-1) was preferred as the main parameter for predicting patients survival. In 83% of the 12 patients with recurrent or residual disease, Cyfra 21-1 was elevated before or during clinical detection of the recurrence. Cyfra 21-1 was found to be a prognostic marker for carcinoma of H&N, unrelated to the stage of the disease. Elevated levels of Cyfra 21-1 without clinical evidence of disease can be attributed to the marker's mean lead-time as compared to the clinical appearance of the disease. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.co

Dynamical vs. Auxiliary Fields in Gravitational Waves around a Black Hole

The auxiliary/dynamic decoupling method of hep-th/0609001 applies to perturbations of any co-homogeneity 1 background (such as a spherically symmetric space-time or a homogeneous cosmology). Here it is applied to compute the perturbations around a Schwarzschild black hole in an arbitrary dimension. The method provides a clear insight for the existence of master equations. The computation is straightforward, coincides with previous results of Regge-Wheeler, Zerilli and Kodama-Ishibashi but does not require any ingenuity in either the definition of variables or in fixing the gauge. We note that the method's emergent master fields are canonically conjugate to the standard ones. In addition, our action approach yields the auxiliary sectors.Comment: 26 page