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What Is Eighteenth-Century Xiaoshuo?
Full text linkThis article responds to the question, “What is eighteenth-century fiction?” with a focus on Chinese fiction. It begins with an overview of eighteenth-century Chinese fiction and a deeper reading of the explicit metafictionality of China’s most famous eighteenth-century novel, Story of the Stone (also known as Dream of the Red Chamber). Then it critically interrogates the assumed equivalency between the English term fiction and the Chinese term xiaoshuo through a historical overview of the unequal literary and linguistic engagements between Europe and China. The article concludes that “we can neither reduce Stone to fiction nor deny it the status of fiction” and calls for a way of reading Chinese literary works in translation without essentializing either sameness or difference, one that acknowledges the dangers and distinctions involved yet insists on communicability across differences—one based first in the pleasure of reading for its own sake
Identifying Cognitive, Affective, and Developmental Mechanisms Linking Threat and Deprivation With Adolescent Psychopathology
Full text linkBackground: The mechanisms linking early-life adversity with psychopathology over the life-course are complex. In this prospective study, we collectively examined cognitive, affective, and developmental mediators previously found to individually link childhood threat and deprivation experiences to adolescent psychopathology to identify the most potent mechanisms. Methods: Data came from a community sample of 227 children (mean child age 11.5 ± 0.5 years, 48.5% female) from the Seattle metro area with recruitment designed to reflect diversity in family income. Candidate mechanisms included self-rated pubertal development and task-measured attention bias to threat, emotion regulation, theory of mind, fear learning, inhibitory control, language ability, reasoning, and reward sensitivity. Using a high-dimensional mediation approach, we determined which mediating pathways linking threat and deprivation to psychopathology persisted after controlling for all candidate mechanisms associated with psychopathology. Models additionally controlled for the child\u27s age, sex, early-childhood emotional and behavioral symptoms, poverty, and maternal depression. Results: Blunted reward sensitivity mediated the prospective relationship between threat and internalizing psychopathology, explaining 17.25% (95% CI 1.08%, 69.96%) of this association. Advanced pubertal development was associated with increases in internalizing and externalizing symptoms (standardized associations of 0.16 (95% CI 0.03, 0.29) and 0.17 (95% CI 0.05, 0.29), respectively), but not with adversity. Although deprivation was strongly related to psychopathology, no mechanisms were empirically identified. Conclusions: In a well-characterized community sample, we isolated reward sensitivity as a robust mediator of the prospective association between early-life threat and adolescent internalizing psychopathology. Interventions aimed at bolstering reward sensitivity may mitigate the impact of early-life threat experiences on internalizing problems
The JWST Early Release Science Program for Direct Observations of Exoplanetary Systems. III. Aperture Masking Interferometric Observations of the Star HIP 65426 at 3.8 μm
Full text linkWe present aperture masking interferometry (AMI) observations of the star HIP 65426 at 3.8 μm, as part of the JWST Direct Imaging Early Release Science program, obtained using the Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph instrument. This mode provides access to very small inner working angles (even separations slightly below the Michelson limit of 0.5λ/D for an interferometer), which are inaccessible with the classical inner working angles of the JWST coronagraphs. When combined with JWST’s unprecedented infrared sensitivity, this mode has the potential to probe a new portion of parameter space across a wide array of astronomical observations. Using this mode, we are able to achieve a 5σ contrast of ΔmF380M ∼ 7.62 ± 0.13 mag relative to the host star at separations ≳0 . ″ 07, and the contrast deteriorates steeply at separations ≲0 . ″ 07. However, we detect no additional companions interior to the known companion HIP 65426b (at separation ∼0 . ″ 82 or 8 7 − 31 + 108 au ). Our observations thus rule out companions more massive than 10-12 MJup at separations ∼10-20 au from HIP 65426, a region out of reach of ground- or space-based coronagraphic imaging. These observations confirm that the AMI mode on JWST is sensitive to planetary mass companions at close-in separations (≳0 . ″ 07), even for thousands of more distant stars at ∼100 pc, in addition to the stars in the nearby young moving groups and associations, as stated in previous works. This result will allow the planning and successful execution of future observations to probe the inner regions of nearby stellar systems, opening an essentially unexplored parameter space
Oxygen Depletion in Lake Waters May Skew brGDGT‐ Inferred Temperatures by More Than 10°C
Full text linkAbstract Branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether (brGDGT) paleothermometry is an important tool for paleoclimate research. Oxygen availability has been suggested to skew brGDGT‐inferred temperatures, but the effect is poorly constrained. Here, we examine the influence of dissolved oxygen (DO) on brGDGTs in lacustrine water filtrates. By examini10.1029/2024GL113562ng three subgroups of samples collected within narrow temperature ranges, we more effectively isolate the influence of DO. We find significant correlations between DO and the MBT′5Me temperature index in all three constant‐temperature subgroups. Underlying shifts in key brGDGT abundances indicate the problem is likely to manifest in virtually all existing calibrations. The effects appear at even modest DO depletion, where existing anoxia biomarkers are unlikely to appear. Though creating a quantitative correction is not straightforward, we estimate maximum DO‐driven temperature offsets. These observations highlight a large and hitherto unquantified source of uncertainty in brGDGT‐based paleotemperature reconstructions and underscore the need for further research.
Plain Language Summary Branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether (brGDGT) lipids record the temperature of their environment through their chemical structures. Thus, by measuring their distributions in sedimentary archives, it is possible to reconstruct Earth\u27s temperature back in time. However, these inferred temperatures can be skewed by other environmental parameters, including dissolved oxygen (DO) availability. DO has been shown to affect brGDGT temperatures before, but the effect is not well constrained. Here, we looked at brGDGTs in lake waters from three different locations. To better isolate the influence of DO on brGDGTs, we artificially held temperature constant by grouping samples into three subgroups collected within narrow temperature ranges. We found that, even with temperature held roughly constant in this way, the brGDGT temperature index (MBT′5Me) varied greatly. We also found that this happens even at modest levels of oxygen depletion. We show how this could bias brGDGT reconstructions and highlight the need for more research
Cooling Climate Across Last Interglacial High Stands on San Salvador and Great Inagua, The Bahamas
Full text linkThe last interglacial (LIG) is the last time global climate was about as warm as today, with global sea-levels several metres higher. The LIG probably had a re- duced latitudinal temperature gradient, with warmer poles and cooler tropics than today. Well-constrained records from low latitudes can test this overall model. We used bivalve shells sampled from six localities thought to expose the LIG age Cockburn Town Member of the Grotto Beach Formation on both San Salvador and Great Inagua Islands, The Bahamas. Previous work described two LIG depositional intervals: older ‘Reef I’ and younger ‘Reef II’, separated by a disconformity. New amino acid racemisation (AAR) data were used to date each locality in this context and clumped isotope palaeothermometry was used to re- construct LIG temperatures and the isotopic composition of sea water. AAR data are described from six sites: four with similar AAR values to the well-dated Reef II Cockburn Town site, one Reef I age site on Great Inagua and one distinctly younger outcrop on San Salvador previously thought to be LIG age that may be MIS 5a. All LIG shells record cooler than modern conditions. The Δ47 thermom- etry shows that the Reef I-age shell population preserves the warmest mean tem- perature (25 ± 2°C) and most positive water δ18 O values (+0.7 ± 0.4‰) across all sites. This contrasts with cool mean temperatures (~21–23°C) and fresher water δ18 O values (−0.5 to +0.6‰) found from Reef II populations. Regional glacial isostatic adjustment through the LIG would have resulted in peak sea levels that post- dated peak LIG temperatures. It is suggested that apparent cooler tempera- tures of Reef II do not reflect peak LIG temperatures but instead document the beginning of cooling into MIS 5d. Comparison with Δ47 data from Bermuda sup- ports a reduced latitudinal gradient throughout the LIG
Fragments and Contradictions: The Life of Margaret Storrs Grierson and the Sophia Smith Collection
No full textFlowing, Carrying, Seeding, and Holding with Radical Care: A Transgenerational Confluence of Hope and Dreams Amid Wars
No full textIn this chapter, we embody the energy of our transnational and transgenerational co-authorship: a co-travelling where we commit to a lifelong process of unlearning and relearning for justice. Wording such a co-authorship is only possible in the form of a hungry translation, an endless poetry of striving, failing, and all the while being in relation to one another—music that is often better communicated in poetry and embodied expressions rather than academic arguments. Such co-authorship necessitates a collectively embraced radical vulnerability that transforms itself into a continuous and tumultuous journey of learning to surrender our authority, and becoming with the relationships and communities, the mistakes and lessons, and the joys and sorrows, which accompany that journey. We braid a tale of our own co-learning journey, embedded in lives lived in inherently collective spaces and dreams, rooted within diverse movements that strive to speak to one another, even as they find their meanings and possibilities in very different geographies.https://scholarworks.smith.edu/swg_books/1019/thumbnail.jp
Exploring the Robustness of the Effect of EVO on Intention Valuation through Replication: Supplemental Material
Full text linkSupplemental material for the paper: Exploring the Robustness of the Effect of EVO on Intention Valuation through Replicatio
Probing the Reasoning Abilities of LLMs in Blocks World
No full textThe capabilities of large language models (LLMs) have rarely been assessed against those of classical, symbolic AI systems for natural language generation and natural language understanding. This paper assesses the understanding and reasoning capabilities of a large language model by probing it with SHRDLU, a rule-based, symbolic natural language understanding system that features a human user issuing commands to a robot which grasps and moves objects in a virtual “blocks world” environment. We perform a study in which we prompt an LLM with SHRDLU human-robot interaction dialogs and simple questions about the locations of objects at the conclusion of the dialog. In these tests of GPT-4’s understanding of spatial and containment relationships and its ability to reason about complex scenarios involving object manipulation, we find that GPT-4 performs well with basic tasks but struggles with complex spatial relationships and object tracking, with an accuracy as low as 16 % in certain conditions with longer dialogs. Although GPT-4, a state of the art LLM, appears to be no match for SHRDLU, one of the earliest natural language understanding systems, this study is an important initial step towards future systems which may achieve the best of both neural and symbolic worlds