3,583 research outputs found
Cupid Returns: An Analysis of Cupidâs Metamorphosis in Apuleiusâ âCupid and Psycheâ
In this paper I focus on Apuleiusâ presentation of Cupid, arguing that Cupid rejects his traditional role and transforms into a more benevolent deity. I first analyze the way that his divine peers describe him in traditional terms: a mischievous figure who manipulates others and scorns marital fidelity. A close reading of the text shows that his actions in this story actually convey the opposite. These descriptions in fact better suit Apuleiusâ Venus. I then examine Cupidâs âreturn to the wine jarâ (6.22.1), a phrase that indicates a return to vice. Cupidâs vice, as we learn from the traditional descriptions, is his manipulation of others. At the end of the tale, Cupid returns to this vice but in the service of a new goal: marriage to Psyche. I argue that Cupidâs return marks the culmination of his transformation and that Apuleius presents Cupid as the personification of Unconditional Love.Master of Art
A Mixed Method Descriptive Study of High School Graduates\u27 Dual Enrollment Experiences and the Influence on College Readiness
The purpose of this descriptive study was to examine the perceptions of graduates regarding the benefits of participating in Dual Enrollment and how their participation influenced their college readiness. Dual enrollment programs have become prominent nationwide. Several studies show positive outcomes including increased high school completion, improved postsecondary persistence, and higher college degree completion. This study will evaluate dual enrollment participants at one high school located in central Georgia. Data is analyzed and presented based on relevance to the effectiveness of the dual enrollment program. The study was important because the success of Dual Enrollment could provide a possible remedy for the challenges of decreased college degrees, training for the workforce, and college preparedness. This study will be relevant because scholars are unclear about the effects and effectiveness of Dual Enrollment on college readiness. This research was designed to close some of the gaps in the literature and help education stakeholders continue developing and promoting effective procedures to the Dual Enrollment program. An online survey instrument and a telephone interview were utilized to gain the perceptions of the high school Dual Enrollment students. Mixed method including quantitative and qualitative measures will be applied to this study
A Regression-based Training Algorithm for Multilayer Neural Networks
Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are powerful tools for machine learning with applications in many areas including speech recognition, image classification, medical diagnosis, and spam filtering. It has been shown that ANNs can approximate any function to any degree of accuracy given enough neurons and training time. However, there is no guarantee on the number of neurons required or the time it will take to train them. These are the main disadvantages of using ANNs. This thesis develops an algorithm which uses regression-based techniques to decrease the number of training epochs. A modification of the Delta Rule, combined with techniques established for regression training of single-layer networks, has resulted in much faster training than standard gradient descent in many cases. The algorithm showed statistically significant improvements over standard backpropagation in the number of iterations, the total training time, the resulting error, and the accuracy of the resulting classifier in most cases. The algorithm was tested on several datasets of varying complexity and the results are presented
Real Ways of Talking and School Talking: One Appalachian Student\u27s Perception of Teacher Discourse During Writing Conferences
A barrier to school literacy is created when teachers fail to build upon the familiar language of students. These research findings indicate that when students perceive that nonstandard ways of talking are not as highly valued by the school as Standard English is valued, they deliberately fail to produce written products that match their teacher\u27s expectations
A preliminary quarantine analysis of a possible Mariner Venus 1972 mission
Spacecraft contamination preliminary quarantine analysis for possible 1972 Mariner Venus prob
Assessing Population Trends of New-Hampshire Forest Birds: Local vs Regional Patterns
We examined the changes in abundance between 1969 and 1986 of 19 forest-dwelling, mostly migratory bird species breeding in New Hampshire at 2 different scales: one local (an intensively studied 10-ha plot in unfragmented forest) and the other regional (Breeding Bird Surveys statewide). Twelve of the 19 species exhibited similar trends at both scales. Eight neither increased nor decreased, and 4 (Least Flycatcher, Winter Wren, Wood Thrush, and Swainsoh\u27s Thrush) declined significantly. Others increased, decreased, or re-mained steady at one or the other scale. Overall, more species declined than increased both locally (8 vs. 1) and regionally (5 vs. 1). Comparisons of these patterns, combined with results of intensive studies at the local level, suggest that changes in food abundance and in vege-tation structure related to forest succession on the breeding grounds, along with other pro-cesses that influence bird reproductive success and survivorship, are the most plausible explanations for most of the observed trends. Winter mortality was also identified as affecting breeding abundances, but only in short-distance migrant and permanently resident species. We have no evidence to indicate that the numbers of long-distance migrants were affected by events in their Neotropical wintering areas, although this possibility is difficult to assess from breeding-ground data. We urge caution in attributing declines of breeding forest migrant birds to tropical deforestation or similar causes until we either can eliminate alternate explanations that involve breeding-season events or have available critically needed demo-graphic information on migrant populations in their wintering areas
The SL2S Galaxy-scale Lens Sample. IV. The dependence of the total mass density profile of early-type galaxies on redshift, stellar mass, and size
We present optical and near infrared spectroscopy obtained at Keck, VLT, and
Gemini for a sample of 36 secure strong gravitational lens systems and 17
candidates identified as part of the SL2S survey. The deflectors are massive
early-type galaxies in the redshift range z_d=0.2-0.8, while the lensed sources
are at z_s=1-3.5. We combine this data with photometric and lensing
measurements presented in the companion paper III and with lenses from the
SLACS and LSD surveys to investigate the cosmic evolution of the internal
structure of massive early-type galaxies over half the age of the universe. We
study the dependence of the slope of the total mass density profile \gamma'
(\rho(r)\propto r^{-\gamma'}) on stellar mass, size, and redshift. We find that
two parameters are sufficent to determine \gamma' with less than 6% residual
scatter. At fixed redshift, \gamma' depends solely on the surface stellar mass
density \partial \gamma'/ \partial \Sigma_*=0.38\pm 0.07, i.e. galaxies with
denser stars also have steeper slopes. At fixed M_* and R_{eff}, \gamma'
depends on redshift, in the sense that galaxies at a lower redshift have
steeper slopes (\partial \gamma' / \partial z = -0.31\pm 0.10). However, the
mean redshift evolution of \gamma' for an individual galaxy is consistent with
zero d\gamma'/dz=-0.10\pm0.12. This result is obtained by combining our
measured dependencies of \gamma' on z,M_*,R_{eff} with the evolution of the
R_{eff}-M_* taken from the literature, and is broadly consistent with current
models of the formation and evolution of massive early-type galaxies. Detailed
quantitative comparisons of our results with theory will provide qualitatively
new information on the detailed physical processes at work.Comment: Submitted to The Astrophysical Journa
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