Hamming distance kernelisation via topological quantum computation

We present a novel approach to computing Hamming distance and its kernelisation within Topological Quantum Computation. This approach is based on an encoding of two binary strings into a topological Hilbert space, whose inner product yields a natural Hamming distance kernel on the two strings. Kernelisation forges a link with the field of Machine Learning, particularly in relation to binary classifiers such as the Support Vector Machine (SVM). This makes our approach of potential interest to the quantum machine learning community

THRESHOLD EXPONENTS IN ANOMALOUS ABSORPTION SPECTRA OF HEAVY ALKALI METALS

Threshold exponents of soft X-ray absorption and emission spectra of heavy alkali metals(K, Rb and Cs), in the theory of Nozières and De Dominicis are calculated. The phase shifts are obtained in the Born approximation by taking account of : (1) the effect of characteristic features of the Bloch electrons in the effective mass, (2) structures of the hole in the hole potential and (3) the effect of the screening on the hole potential. For Cs, pulling-in of the localized 4f-orbital which results in the screening of the 5p-hole potential in the final state is proposed

Victims and bystanders: Women in the Japanese war-retro film

While war narratives on film generally focus on male characterisation, this article suggests that analysis of female images in the war film can reveal processes of commemoration and memorialisation at work within the war film genre. Taking examples from the ‘war-retro’ genre popular in 1950s–1970s Japan, the author argues that the female image functions as an emotional screen in the war-retro film, anchoring the sympathies and emotions of the viewer to the leading characters and their inherent political affiliations. The female victims and onlookers of the war-retro film draw the sympathies of the viewer and heighten emotional investment in the stakes of the narrative, emotions which are then transferred to the impassive heroes. This article demonstrates the powerful techniques at work within the imagistic structure of the war-retro film which effect a virtual re-writing of history by creating a new collective national memory of war

The Interstitial Feminine and Male Dominance in Rashōmon

Kurosawa Akira’s 1950 film Rashōmon is frequently understood as an exploration of truth in the face of four irreconcilably conflicting testimonies. Frequently missing from the critical conversation is the originary crime of rape committed against the wife which is an absent presence in the film: despite its suppression, we are keenly aware of its essential role in driving the narrative and its simultaneous effacement from what we see on the screen. The trace it leaves exists in, and because of, the historical context of Article 14 in the Japanese constitution, yet this promise of gender equity in Japan was not achieved in Rashōmon. This unrealized promise provides one avenue for apprehending the rape’s implications. Linguistic intimations and visual hints, subtle yet omnipresent in the male narratives that seek to occlude the wife’s tale of rape, ask the audience to consider the role of the wife and the crime against her in the face of a stifling phallocractic order that seeks not liberation but the status quo in which the male narratives are dominant. In this way, the visual and linguistic confront the sexual power dynamics at play in Rashōmon and offer both a record of the difficult struggle gender equality will face, and an intimation that the struggle might succeed