Irus and his jovial crew : representations of beggars in Vincent Bourne and other eighteenth-century writers of Latin verse

Alastair Fowler has written, with reference to the time of Milton, of ‘Latin's special role in a bilingual culture’, and this was still true in the early eighteenth century. The education of the elite placed great emphasis on the art of writing Latin verse and modern, as well as ancient, writers of Latin continued to be widely read. Collections of Latin verse, by individual writers such as Vincent Bourne (c. 1694–1747) or by groups such as Westminster schoolboys or bachelors of Christ Church, Oxford, could run into multiple editions, and included poems on a wide range of contemporary topics, as well as reworkings of classical themes. This paper examines a number of eighteenth-century Latin poems dealing with beggars, several of which are here translated for the first time. Particular attention is paid to the way in which the Latin poems recycled well-worn tropes about beggary which were often at variance with the experience of real-life beggars, and to how the specificities of Latin verse might heighten negative representations of beggars in a genre which, as a manifestation of elite culture, appealed to the very class which was politically and legally responsible for controlling them

Folie a deux in the parents of psychosocial dwarfs: Two cases

Introduction and Purpose Though the term folie Ii deux (Lasegue and Falret, 1877; The purpose of the present report is to present evidence of pathological collusion which constitutes folie Ii deux in the parents of two separate families. Each family contains one psychosocial dwarf, a victim of child abuse. One parent initiates child abuse while the other condones it. The Nature of the Syndrome of Reversible Hyposomatotropic Dwarfism The presenting complaints of the syndrome are: failure of statural growth, which may be so extreme that at age 4~ a child has the size of a 12-month-old baby; failure of mental growth with apparent mental retardation; and various bizarre forms of behavior associated with self-preservation, such as eating garbage and drinking from a toilet bowl. In affected children, growth hormone secretion is deficient, but the deficiency is subject to reversal upon change of domicile as, for example, when the child is admitted to the hospital. This reversibility is the primary pathognomonic feature of the syndrome. It is accompanied by catch-up statural and mental growth, and by improvement in behavioral pathology. The behavioral pathology of the syndrome, in addition to disorders of eating and drinking, includes disorders of sleeping; disorders of elimination; pain agnosia; elective mutism; accomodation to somatic trauma; short-lived though infrequent temper tantrums; roaming; impaired IQ; impaired motor development; social distancing; delayed puberty; and, during the recovery phase, compensatory hyperkinesis. Temper tantrums, if present, coexist with affection-seeking and social compliance, as does the social-distancing behavior. The compensatory hyperkinesis appears as limit testing and coexists, during the recovery phase, with an increase in both intellectual and statural growth. The diagnosis of reversible hyposomatotropic dwarfism is definitively established not by laboratory or clinical findings alone, but by growth acceleration secondary to increased growth hormone secretion, following change of domicile. The syndrome evidences the clearest known example of a correlation between factors in the social and behavioral environment, on the one hand, and impairment of endocrine regulation of somatic growth as well as behavioral maturation, on the other. ·This article is separate and apart from the preceding Symposium. • ·The authors are of th

DigiTac: A DIGIT-TacTip Hybrid Tactile Sensor for Comparing Low-Cost High-Resolution Robot Touch

Deep learning combined with high-resolution tactile sensing could lead to highly capable dexterous robots. However, progress is slow because of the specialist equipment and expertise. The DIGIT tactile sensor offers low-cost entry to high-resolution touch using GelSight-type sensors. Here we customize the DIGIT to have a 3D-printed sensing surface based on the TacTip family of soft biomimetic optical tactile sensors. The DIGIT-TacTip (DigiTac) enables direct comparison between these distinct tactile sensor types. For this comparison, we introduce a tactile robot system comprising a desktop arm, mounts and 3D-printed test objects. We use tactile servo control with a PoseNet deep learning model to compare the DIGIT, DigiTac and TacTip for edge- and surface-following over 3D-shapes. All three sensors performed similarly at pose prediction, but their constructions led to differing performances at servo control, offering guidance for researchers selecting or innovating tactile sensors. All hardware and software for reproducing this study will be openly released. Project website: www.lepora.com/digitac. Project repository: www.github.com/nlepora/digitac-design.Comment: 7 pages. Published in RA-L and accepted in IROS 202

The iconography of Asphyxiophilia: From fantasmatic fetish to forensic fact

This is a post print version of the article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below

Pornography addiction in adults: a systematic review of definitions and reported impact

Self-perceived pornography addiction (SPPA) has increasingly emerged as a concept in research and popular culture, and commentators warn of the reported negative impact that it can have. Despite this, “pornography addiction” is not a formally recognized disorder and there is disagreement among researchers regarding its definition or even its existence. Therefore, how SPPA is operationalized often varies, and this can significantly influence the conclusions made about its impact. This paper aimed to examine how SPPA is commonly operationalised, and its supposed impact, through a systematic review of quantitative and qualitative peer-reviewed literature. We found that SPPA is most frequently operationalized as excessive pornography use, and that reported negative consequences of SPPA included social isolation and relationship breakdowns. However, limitations within the primary studies reviewed (including lack of representative samples and inadequate measurements of SPPA) significantly limit the strength of the conclusions that can be drawn regarding the nature, phenomenology, or impact of self-perceived pornography addiction