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âMy printer must, haue somwhat to his shareâ: Isabella Whitney, Richard Jones, and crafting books
Given Isabella Whitneyâs reputation as the first English professional woman writer, her books are fertile ground for the recent material turn in the study of early modern womenâs writing. Womenâs engagement in book production meant that their texts were mediated through the work of booksellers, printers, and other agents in the print trade. We need to remember that writers make texts, but books are made by publishers and printers. Whitneyâs own working relationship with her printer-publisher, Richard Jones, is well-known. Yet, the precise nature of Jonesâs role in the production of Whitneyâs books and her fashioning as an âAuctorâ remains shadowy, largely because questions of agency have not been explored through the technologies of book production. To understand the ways in which Whitneyâs texts were mediated through print, and her participation in this process, this essay will focus on how her books of poetry were made, starting with the role of her printer-publisher, Richard Jones
Synesthesia vs. crossmodal illusions
We can discern two opposing viewpoints regarding synesthesia. According to the first, it is an oddity, an outlier, or a disordered condition. According to the second, synesthesia is pervasive, driving creativity, metaphor, or language itself. Which is it? Ultimately, I favor the first perspective, according to which cross-sensory synesthesia is an outlying condition. But the second perspective is not wholly misguided. My discussion has three lessons. First, synesthesia is just one of a variety of effects in which one sense modality causally impacts and reshapes experience associated with another. These effects are utterly common. However, due to their unfamiliarity, and to their conflict with a widespread conception of the role of the senses in perception and perceptual experience, until recently they have been surprising. Second, synesthesia nevertheless must be distinguished from other inter-modal effects that lead to misperception, such as crossmodal illusions. Third, synesthesia also may be distinguished from the potentially much broader class of synesthetic effects, which could be common across the population and within individuals
Dispersion-induced dynamics of coupled modes in a semiconductor laser with saturable absorption
We present an experimental and theoretical study of modal nonlinear dynamics
in a specially designed dual-mode semiconductor Fabry-Perot laser with a
saturable absorber. At zero bias applied to the absorber section, we have found
that with increasing device current, single mode self-pulsations evolve into a
complex dynamical state where the total intensity experiences regular bursts of
pulsations on a constant background. Spectrally resolved measurements reveal
that in this state the individual modes of the device can follow highly
symmetric but oppositely directed spiralling orbits. Using a generalization of
the rate equation description of a semiconductor laser with saturable
absorption to the multimode case, we show that these orbits appear as a
consequence of the interplay between the material dispersion in the gain and
absorber sections of the laser. Our results provide insights into the factors
that determine the stability of multimode states in these systems, and they can
inform the development of semiconductor mode-locked lasers with tailored
spectra.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure
In two minds: executive functioning versus theory of mind in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia
Background: The relationship of executive function (EF) and theory of mind (ToM) deficits in neurodegeneration is still debated. There is contradicting evidence as to whether these cognitive processes are overlapping or distinct, which has clear clinical relevance for the evaluation of their associated clinical symptoms. Aim: To investigate the relationship of EF and ToM deficits via a data-driven approach in a large sample of patients with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). Methods: Data of 46 patients with bvFTD were employed in a hierarchical cluster analysis to determine the similarity of variance between different EF measures (verbal abstraction, verbal initiation, motor programming, sensitivity to interference, inhibitory control, visual abstraction, flexibility, working memory/attention) and ToM (faux pas). Results: Overall results showed that EF measures were clustered separately from the ToM measure. A post hoc analysis revealed a more complex picture where selected ToM subcomponents (empathy; intention) showed a relationship to specific EF measures (verbal abstraction; working memory/attention), whereas the remaining EF and ToM subcomponents were separate. Conclusions: Taken together, these findings suggest that EF and ToM are distinct components; however, ToM empathy and intention subcomponents might share some functions with specific EF processes. This has important implications for guiding diagnostic assessment of these deficits in clinical conditions
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