Say What I Mean: Metaphor and the Exeter Book Riddles

The Exeter Book riddles are a heterogeneous collection, and at first glance it seems they have little III common beyond the riddle format and the final teasing challenge, Say what I mean, or Say what I am. The riddles range in length from a few lines to over a hundred, in tone from the religious to the mundane to the obscene; their subjects can be as specific as a butter churn or as broad as creation itself. One crucial similarity, however, does unify the riddles: all (well, almost all) are built around underlying, unstated metaphors. These metaphors-- such as a sword is a warrior, a ship is a dragon, water is a mother-- shape the riddles, governing their content and structure. (A small minority of the Exeter Book riddles are non-metaphoric. I will return to them later, but the thesis will concentrate on the metaphoric riddles). Recognition of the bond between riddles and metaphor dates back at least to Aristotle. Good riddles do, in general, provide us with satisfactory metaphors, he writes in the Rhetoric, for metaphors imply riddles, and therefore a good riddle can furnish a good metaphor (1405b

Thomas Jefferson, Slavery, and the Language of the Textbook: Addressing Problematic Representations of Race and Power

This paper uses critical discourse analysis to demonstrate how two written texts about Thomas Jefferson and slavery construct very different representations of the past. The paper suggests methods that teachers can use to help students critique representations of marginalized groups in written texts, and develop a more authentic understanding of the experiences of enslaved African American men and women

The experience of couples being given an oxygen concentrator to use at home: A longitudinal interpretative phenomenological analysis

This longitudinal study explores the lived experience of four couples where one person from each couple is prescribed an oxygen concentrator to use at home. Transcripts were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The findings reported here focus on two super-ordinate themes: ‘the journey of acceptance’ and ‘negotiating changing relationships’. Participants described a gradual process of accepting the device into their lives, the impact on couple’s relationships and the role that expectations have in mediating that process. These themes suggest that patient education that considers the psychological and social issues may prove useful in facilitating the acceptance process

Inferring Future Landscapes: Sampling the Local Optima Level

Connection patterns among Local Optima Networks (LONs) can inform heuristic design for optimisation. LON research has predominantly required complete enumeration of a fitness landscape, thereby restricting analysis to problems diminutive in size compared to real-life situations. LON sampling algorithms are therefore important. In this paper, we study LON construction algorithms for the Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP). Using machine learning, we use estimated LON features to predict search performance for competitive heuristics used in the QAP domain. The results show that by using random forest regression, LON construction algorithms produce fitness landscape features which can explain almost all search variance. We find that LON samples better relate to search than enumerated LONs do. The importance of fitness levels of sampled LONs in search predictions is crystallised. Features from LONs produced by different algorithms are combined in predictions for the first time, with promising results for this ‘super-sampling’: a model to predict tabu search success explained 99% of variance. Arguments are made for the use-case of each LON algorithm and for combining the exploitative process of one with the exploratory optimisation of the other

Can practice make perfect (models)? Incorporating social practice theory into quantitative energy demand models

Demand response could be increasingly valuable in coping with the intermittency of a future renewables-dominated electricity grid. There is a growing body of work being done specifically on understanding demand response from a people and practices point of view. This paper will start by introducing some of the recent research in this area and will present social practice theory (SPT) as a useful way of looking at the flexibility and timing of energy-use practices. However, for the insights gained from SPT to have value for the electricity supply industry it is important to be able to represent this flexibility in quantitative energy demand models. This requires an interdisciplinary conversation that allows SPT and modelling concepts to be mapped together. This paper presents an initial step in trying to achieve this. Drawing on empirical data from a recent SPT study into flexible energy-use practices, it will experiment with modelling flexible demand in such a way as to take account of the complexity of practices; not just their ‘stuff’ but also some of the images and skills involved in their competent performance. There are several reasons this is a useful enterprise. It encourages interdisciplinary insights which are valuable both to social practice theory and to energy demand modelling, it highlights new ways of intervening in flexible demand and it establishes a research agenda for social practice theorists and modellers which will eventually result in a set of requirements that can be used to build an energy demand model based on practice theory. This area of research is in its early stages and so the conceptual mapping is necessarily speculative but, hopefully, also stimulating

On the Fractal Nature of Local Optima Networks

A Local Optima Network represents fitness landscape connectivity within the space of local optima as a mathematical graph. In certain other complex networks or graphs there have been recent observations made about inherent self-similarity. An object is said to be self-similar if it shows the same patterns when measured at different scales; another word used to convey self-similarity is fractal. The fractal dimension of an object captures how the detail observed changes with the scale at which it is measured, with a high fractal dimension being associated with complexity. We conduct a detailed study on the fractal nature of the local optima networks of a benchmark combinatorial optimisation problem (NK Landscapes). The results draw connections between fractal characteristics and performance by three prominent metaheuristics: Iterated Local Search, Simulated Annealing, and Tabu Search

A multicomponent diffusion model for prediction of microstructural evolution in coated Ni based superalloy systems

A multicomponent model which can simulate the microstructural evolution of a coated Ni based superalloy system has been developed. The model consists of a one-dimensional finite difference diffusion solver to calculate the component distribution, a power law based model for predicting surface oxidation and a thermodynamic calculation routine for determining the phase evolution. Apart from forecasting concentration and phase profiles after a given thermal history, the model can estimate the losses due to oxidation and the remaining life of a coating based on a concentration and/or phase fraction dependent failure criteria. The phase constitution and concentration profiles predicted by the model have been compared with an experimental NiCoCrAlY coated CMSX-4 system, aged for times up to 10 000 h between 850 and 1050°C, and many experimental features can be predicted successfully by the model. The model is expected to be useful for assessing microstructural evolution of coated turbine blade systems

The Fractal Geometry of Fitness Landscapes at the Local Optima Level

A local optima network (LON) encodes local optima connectivity in the fitness landscape of a combinatorial optimisation problem. Recently, LONs have been studied for their fractal dimension. Fractal dimension is a complexity index where a non-integer dimension can be assigned to a pattern. This paper investigates the fractal nature of LONs and how that nature relates to metaheuristic performance on the underlying problem. We use visual analysis, correlation analysis, and machine learning techniques to demonstrate that relationships exist and that fractal features of LONs can contribute to explaining and predicting algorithm performance. The results show that the extent of multifractality and high fractal dimensions in the LON can contribute in this way when placed in regression models with other predictors. Features are also individually correlated with search performance, and visual analysis of LONs shows insight into this relationship.Output Status: Forthcoming/Available Onlin

You\u27re Suing Me? Best Fair Use & Copyright Practices

Do you teach? Do you publish? Do you know how to exercise your fair use rights? This panel discussion focuses on fair use and copyright practices. Panels include: The Basics – Get a general overview of fair use and methods for making fair use decisions, including the four factors and best practices. Blackboard Behavior! - Learn about best practices when building course content and assignments in Blackboard. Find out about the TEACH Act and how it impacts teaching online. Good Intentions: Fair Use, Images, and ETDs – Learn about the fair use guidelines pertaining to the use of images in research can be used to help determine if the use of the images would be appropriate. Fair Use for Digitized Materials - Learn how to identify how fair use may apply to digitized materials and the way to utilize them in your work

Millennium: big effort has produced statistical results

Millennium: big effort has produced statistical result