Towards an Interoperable Digital Scholarly Edition

Recent proposals for creating digital scholarly editions (DSEs) through the crowdsourcing of transcriptions and collaborative scholarship, for the establishment of national repositories of digital humanities data, and for the referencing, sharing, and storage of DSEs, have underlined the need for greater data interoperability. The TEI Guidelines have tried to establish standards for encoding transcriptions since 1988. However, because the choice of tags is guided by human interpretation, TEI-XML encoded files are in general not interoperable. One way to fix this problem may be to break down the current all-in-one approach to encoding so that DSEs can be specified instead by a bundle of separate resources that together offer greater interoperability: plain text versions, markup, annotations, and metadata. This would facilitate not only the development of more general software for handling DSEs, but also enable existing programs that already handle these kinds of data to function more efficiently

SPEEDy. A Practical Editor for Texts Annotated with Standoff Properties

Standoff properties can be used to record textual properties or annotations that may freely overlap and need not conform to a context-free grammar. In this way they avoid the ‘overlapping hierarchies’ problem inherent in markup languages like XML. Instead of embedding markup tags directly into the text stream, standoff properties are stored separately, and refer to positions in the text where each property starts and ends. However, this has the effect of tightly binding the properties to the text, and hence any change in the underlying text invalidates them. This limitation usually makes this method impractical in cases where the text is mutable, and is mostly used when the text is already fixed or proofread to a high standard. However, if it did become feasible to use standoff properties on mutable texts, this method could also be used in the process of text production, on dynamically evolving texts, such as emails, forum messages, personal notes and even drafts of academic papers. Digitised transcriptions of historical documents, whether produced manually or through OCR, could then be easily corrected at an earlier stage of typographic correctness. By overcoming the overlapping hierarchies problem this technique thus offers the prospect of significant productivity gains for producing digital editions, as well as a new mode of engagement for annotation. This paper describes the SPEEDy editor, a practical realisation of this technique. It outlines the editor’s foundational concepts, its standoff properties model, and its main interface features

Romantic Poetry, Technical Breakthrough and the Changing Editorial Role

This report provides (1) a short history of the Charles Harpur Critical Archive (CHCA), which has been in preparation since 2009. Harpur was a predominantly newspaper poet in colonial New South Wales. Writing from the 1830s to the 1860s, he was unable to publish in book form because of the undeveloped state of the local literary publishing scene. Approximately 2700 versions of his 700 poems in newspaper and in manuscript form have been recovered. (2) A summary of the technical approach, a new one for special-purpose digital archives, is provided. The principal innovation is the use of a Multi-Version Document (MVD) file format. Because it is not dependent on conventional XML encoding, overlap is no longer a problem and automatic collation of versions, and of layers of revision in individual manuscripts, has become possible. Synchronous scrolling of facsimile image and transcription has also been achieved, lessening the need for detailed encoding of document elements and physical features. (3) The report then reflects on the theoretical implications of the concepts and methods used for the CHCA and on the changing role of the editor

The Charles Harpur Critical Archive: A History and Technical Report

This is a history of and a technical report on the Charles Harpur Critical Archive (CHCA), in preparation since 2009. Harpur was a predominantly newspaper poet in colonial New South Wales from the 1830s to the 1860s. Approximately 2700 versions of his 700 poems in newspaper and manuscript form have been recovered. In order to manage the complexity of his often heavily revised manuscripts traditional encoding in XML–TEI, with its known difficulties in handling overlapping structures and complex revisions, was rejected. Instead, the transcriptions were split into simplified versions and layers of revision. Markup describing textual formats was stored externally using properties that may freely overlap. Both markup and the versions and layers were merged into multi-version documents (MVDs) to facilitate later comparison, editing and searching. This reorganisation is generic in design and should be reusable in other editorial projects

A Discrete Hardy-Laptev-Weidl-Type Inequality and Associated Schrödinger-Type Operators

Although the classical Hardy inequality is valid only in the three- and higher dimensional case, Laptev and Weidl established a two-dimensional Hardy-type inequality for the magnetic gradient with an Aharonov-Bohm magnetic potential. Here we consider a discrete analogue, replacing the punctured plane with a radially exponential lattice. In addition to discrete Hardy and Sobolev inequalities, we study the spectral properties of two associated self-adjoint operators. In particular, it is shown that, for suitable potentials, the discrete Schrödingertype operator in the Aharonov-Bohm field has essential spectrum concentrated at 0, and the multiplicity of its lower spectrum satisfies a CLR-type inequality.Although the classical Hardy inequality is valid only in the three- and higher dimensional case, Laptev and Weidl established a two-dimensional Hardy-type inequality for the magnetic gradient with an Aharonov-Bohm magnetic potential. Here we consider a discrete analogue, replacing the punctured plane with a radially exponential lattice. In addition to discrete Hardy and Sobolev inequalities, we study the spectral properties of two associated self-adjoint operators. In particular, it is shown that, for suitable potentials, the discrete Schrödingertype operator in the Aharonov-Bohm field has essential spectrum concentrated at 0, and the multiplicity of its lower spectrum satisfies a CLR-type inequality

Book Reviews

Book Reviews by Charles S. Desmond, Godfrey P. Schmidt, Robert E. Sullivan, Louis C. Kaplan, and Paul C. Bartholomew

the politics of code how digital representations and languages shape culture

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The Novel Probes Project -- Tests of Gravity on Astrophysical Scales

The Novel Probes Project, an initiative to advance the field of astrophysical tests of the dark sector by creating a forum that connects observers and theorists, is introduced. This review focuses on tests of gravity and is intended to be of use primarily to observers, as well as theorists with an interest in the development of experimental tests. It is twinned with a separate upcoming review on dark matter self-interactions. The review focuses on astrophysical tests of gravity in the weak-field regime, ranging from stars to quasilinear cosmological scales. This regime is complementary to both strong-field tests of gravity and background and linear probes in cosmology. In particular, the nonlinear screening mechanisms that are an integral part of viable modified-gravity models lead to characteristic signatures, specifically on astrophysical scales. The potential of these probes is not limited by cosmic variance but comes with the challenge of building robust theoretical models of the nonlinear dynamics of stars, galaxies, and large-scale structure. The groundwork is laid for a thorough exploration of the weak-field, nonlinear regime, with an eye to using the current and next generation of observations for tests of gravity. The scene is set by showing how gravitational theories beyond general relativity are expected to behave, focusing primarily on screening mechanisms. Analytic and numerical techniques for exploring the relevant astrophysical regime are described, as are the pertinent observational signals. With these in hand a range of astrophysical tests of gravity are presented, and prospects for future measurements and theoretical developments are discussed

Novel Probes Project: Tests of Gravity on Astrophysical Scales

The Novel Probes Project, an initiative to advance the field of astrophysical tests of the dark sector by creating a forum that connects observers and theorists, is introduced. This review focuses on tests of gravity and is intended to be of use primarily to observers, as well as theorists with an interest in the development of experimental tests. It is twinned with a separate upcoming review on dark matter self-interactions. The review focuses on astrophysical tests of gravity in the weak-field regime, ranging from stars to quasilinear cosmological scales. This regime is complementary to both strong-field tests of gravity and background and linear probes in cosmology. In particular, the nonlinear screening mechanisms that are an integral part of viable modified-gravity models lead to characteristic signatures, specifically on astrophysical scales. The potential of these probes is not limited by cosmic variance but comes with the challenge of building robust theoretical models of the nonlinear dynamics of stars, galaxies, and large-scale structure. The groundwork is laid for a thorough exploration of the weak-field, nonlinear regime, with an eye to using the current and next generation of observations for tests of gravity. The scene is set by showing how gravitational theories beyond general relativity are expected to behave, focusing primarily on screening mechanisms. Analytic and numerical techniques for exploring the relevant astrophysical regime are described, as are the pertinent observational signals. With these in hand a range of astrophysical tests of gravity are presented, and prospects for future measurements and theoretical developments are discussed

Genetic variants of the NOTCH3 gene in the elderly and magnetic resonance imaging correlates of age-related cerebral small vessel disease

Cerebral small vessel disease-related brain lesions such as white matter lesions and lacunes are common findings of magnetic resonance imaging in the elderly. These lesions are thought to be major contributors to disability in old age, and risk factors that include age and hypertension have been established. The radiological, histopathologic and clinical phenotypes of age-related cerebral small vessel disease remarkably resemble autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leucoencephalopathy, which is caused by mutations in NOTCH3. We hypothesized that genetic variations in NOTCH3 also play a role in age-related cerebral small vessel disease. We directly sequenced all 33 exons, the promoter and 3′-untranslated region of NOTCH3 in 195 participants with either coalescent white matter lesions or lacunes and compared the results to 82 randomly selected participants with no focal changes on magnetic resonance images in the Austrian Stroke Prevention Study. We detected nine common and 33 rare single nucleotide polymorphisms, of which 20 were novel. All common single nucleotide polymorphisms were genotyped in the entire cohort (n = 888), and four of them, rs1043994, rs10404382, rs10423702 and rs1043997, were associated significantly with both the presence and progression of white matter lesions. The association was confined to hypertensives, a result which we replicated in the Cohorts for Heart and Ageing Research in Genomic Epidemiology Consortium on an independent sample of 4773 stroke-free hypertensive elderly individuals of European descent (P = 0.04). The 33 rare single nucleotide polymorphisms were scattered over the NOTCH3 gene with three being located in the promoter region, 24 in exons (18 non-synonymous), three in introns and three in the 3′-untranslated region. None of the single nucleotide polymorphisms affected a cysteine residue. Sorting Intolerant From Tolerant, PolyPhen2 analyses and protein structure simulation consistently predicted six of the non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (H170R, P496L, V1183M, L1518M, D1823N and V1952M) to be functional, with four being exclusively or mainly detected in subjects with severe white matter lesions. In four individuals with rare non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms, we noted anterior temporal lobe hyperintensity, hyperintensity in the external capsule, lacunar infarcts or subcortical lacunar lesions. None of the observed abnormalities were specific to cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leucoencephalopathy. This is the first comprehensive study investigating (i) the frequency of NOTCH3 variations in community-dwelling elderly and (ii) their effect on cerebral small vessel disease related magnetic resonance imaging phenotypes. We show that the NOTCH3 gene is highly variable with both common and rare single nucleotide polymorphisms spreading across the gene, and that common variants at the NOTCH3 gene increase the risk of age-related white matter lesions in hypertensives. Additional investigations are required to explore the biological mechanisms underlying the observed association