Nabokov\u27s Amphiphorical Gestures

In addition to using two primary kinds of metaphors (those that clarify descriptions, and those that develop into leitmotifs), Nabokov\u27s fiction demonstrates a third kind that is characterized by extended analogies, baroque, seemingly uncontrolled imagery and rhetoric, and, most importantly, fundamental ambiguity. Although this inherent ambiguity is developed throughout the comparison, it is never resolved. Because of this distinguishing characteristic, I have named such metaphors amphiphors, after one of Nabokov\u27s own neologisms. Nabokov\u27s comments in Nikolai Gogol and Lectures on Russian Literature, as well as direct allusions to Gogol embedded in a few amphiphors, suggest that this device evolved directly from Gogol\u27s absurd, overgrown images and Protean minor characterizations. Yet, whereas Gogol\u27s spontaneous generation is careless, uncontrolled, and comical, Nabokov uses his amphiphors deliberately for ironic effect. More precisely, he exploits the gap between the initial and final points of the comparison to create a sustained and irreconcilable ambiguity—what William Empson called the seventh type, at once an indecision and a structure. Moreover, close textual analysis of the mechanics of several amphiphors, from Speak, Memory and Bend Sinister, shows marked similarities in content and authorial intention. In each instance, Nabokov uses the amphiphor\u27s inherent stylistic ambiguity to delineate a similar phenomenological one: his own ambivalence towards death (whether his own, his father\u27s, or his hero\u27s) and the insolubility of its monstrous riddle

Studies in predictor display technique Final report

Predictor display technique for manual altitude control, and automatic pitch axis performanc

Intra-assessor consistency in question answering

In this paper we investigate the consistency of answer assessment in a complex question answering task examining features of assessor consistency, types of answers and question type

Contextual information and assessor characteristics in complex question answering

The ciqa track investigates the role of interaction in answering complex questions: questions that relate two or more entities by some specified relationship. In our submission to the first ciqa track we were interested in the interplay between groups of variables: variables describing the question creators, the questions asked and the presentation of answers to the questions. We used two interaction forms - html questionnaires completed before answer assessment - to gain contextual information from the answer assessors to better understand what factors influence assessors when judging retrieved answers to complex questions. Our results indicate the importance of understanding the assessor's personal relationship to the question - their existing topical knowledge for example - and also the presentation of the answers - contextual information about the answer to aid in the assessment of the answer

University of Strathclyde at TREC HARD

The motivation behind the University of Strathclyde's approach to this years HARD track was inspired from previous experiences by other participants, in particular research by [1], [3] and [4]. A running theme throughout these papers was the underlying hypothesis that a user's familiarity in a topic (i.e. their previous experience searching a subject), will form the basis for what type or style of document they will perceive as relevant. In other words, the user's context with regards to their previous search experience will determine what type of document(s) they wish to retrieve

Evidence for direct-acting oxidative genotoxicity by reduction products of azo dyes.

The intestinal flora forms a complex ecosystem that metabolizes dietary and endogenous nutrients under primarily anaerobic conditions. The ingestion of azo dyes has been proposed as one source of potential genotoxic agents. Many intestinal bacteria are able to reduce the azo bond (termed azofission), which liberates the substituted naphthol compounds. The standard Ames test has not demonstrated mutagenicity either by various common food colorings or by their reduced end products in Salmonella typhimurium strains TA98 and TA100. In contrast, genetic toxicity was demonstrated in the Escherichia coli differential kill assay and in S. typhimurium TA102 for the reduced dyes. The superoxide free radical was produced by the azo dyes only after reduction by the intestinal bacteria Enterococcus faecalis and Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron

Relating multi-sequence longitudinal intensity profiles and clinical covariates in new multiple sclerosis lesions

Structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used to detect lesions in the brains of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. The formation of these lesions is a complex process involving inflammation, tissue damage, and tissue repair, all of which are visible on MRI. Here we characterize the lesion formation process on longitudinal, multi-sequence structural MRI from 34 MS patients and relate the longitudinal changes we observe within lesions to therapeutic interventions. In this article, we first outline a pipeline to extract voxel level, multi-sequence longitudinal profiles from four MRI sequences within lesion tissue. We then propose two models to relate clinical covariates to the longitudinal profiles. The first model is a principal component analysis (PCA) regression model, which collapses the information from all four profiles into a scalar value. We find that the score on the first PC identifies areas of slow, long-term intensity changes within the lesion at a voxel level, as validated by two experienced clinicians, a neuroradiologist and a neurologist. On a quality scale of 1 to 4 (4 being the highest) the neuroradiologist gave the score on the first PC a median rating of 4 (95% CI: [4,4]), and the neurologist gave it a median rating of 3 (95% CI: [3,3]). In the PCA regression model, we find that treatment with disease modifying therapies (p-value < 0.01), steroids (p-value < 0.01), and being closer to the boundary of abnormal signal intensity (p-value < 0.01) are associated with a return of a voxel to intensity values closer to that of normal-appearing tissue. The second model is a function-on-scalar regression, which allows for assessment of the individual time points at which the covariates are associated with the profiles. In the function-on-scalar regression both age and distance to the boundary were found to have a statistically significant association with the profiles

Simple Vortex States in Films of Type-I Ginzburg-Landau Superconductor

Sufficiently thin films of type-I superconductor in a perpendicular magnetic field exhibit a triangular vortex lattice, while thick films develop an intermediate state. To elucidate what happens between these two regimes, precise numerical calculations have been made within Ginzburg-Landau theory at $\kappa=0.5$ and 0.25 for a variety of vortex lattice structures with one flux quantum per unit cell. The phase diagram in the space of mean induction and film thickness includes a narrow wedge in which a square lattice is stable, surrounded by the domain of stability of the triangular lattice at thinner films/lower fields and, on the other side, rectangular lattices with continuously varying aspect ratio. The vortex lattice has an anomalously small shear modulus within and close to the square lattice phase.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figure