1,232 research outputs found
Jere Nash Interview with Thomas H. Walman
No full textInterview conducted by author Jere Nash with former Mississippi legislator Thomas H. Walman in the process of writing Mississippi Politics: The Struggle for Power, 1976-2006. Walman was vice-chair of the Education Committee during the passage of the 1982 education reform legislation. Topics covered include educational reform; Walman\u27s elections to the state legislature; Walman\u27s family and background; Buddie Newman; network created by University of Mississippi law school alumnus; William Winter; rules changes in the House; Tim Ford; House Ways and Means Committee; John Hampton Stennis; reapportionment; Sonny Meredith; gambling legislation for casinos; Ray Mabus; and Walman as mayor of McComb, Mississippi
The modernist angel: Art at the Limits of the Human in D. H. Lawrence, H. D. and Mina Loy
No full textPhDThe subject of this thesis is a figure that might provisionally be called the *modemist
angel'. Focusing on modernist literature, and more particularly on the work of D. H.
Lawrence, H. D. and Mina Loy, it aims to isolate from the many angels found in all periods
and all types of art a historically specific and intellectually coherent paradigm: an angel of
and for its modernist times. A figure of precisely this type could be said to exist in the
form of Walter Benjamin's 'angel of history'. Critics who address the question of the
modern angel in texts by Franz Kafka and Rainer Maria Rilke often do so in conjunction
with the problem posed by the angel of history. Beginning with a chapter on Benjamin,
this thesis nevertheless follows a different trajectory. Over five chapters, it explores a
modernist landscape formed not only by Lawrence, H. D. and Loy, but also by European
and American writers such as A. R. Orage, Allen Upward, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens,
Havelock Ellis, Edward Carpenter, Sigmund Freud and Friedrich Nietzsche. Although the
angel that emerges from this investigation might, in some respects, be said to anticipate
Benjamin's later version, this figure is also very different, standing for a project that is
distinctively, and recognisably, modernist in nature. He/she (the sex of the modernist
angel is often open to question) represents an attempt to reconcile the divine
responsibilities of the artist with the material and gendered conditions of being,
specifically of being human, in the modem world. This thesis looks again at the clash of
intellectual paradigms in the early-twentieth century - notably, the confrontation of the
Romantic view of art as a superhuman or sacred undertaking with the psychoanalytical or
evolutionary idea that all human endeavour is underpinned by sub-human motives - and
suggests the angel as a new and instructive figure through which to think the perilous
limits between the human and the divine in modernist literature
Stable isotopes show Homo sapiens dispersed into cold steppes ~45,000 years ago at Ilsenhöhle in Ranis, Germany
No full textThe spread of Homo sapiens into new habitats across Eurasia ~45,000 years ago and the concurrent disappearance of Neanderthals represents a critical evolutionary turnover in our species' history. 'Transitional' technocomplexes, such as the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician (LRJ), characterize the European record during this period but their makers and evolutionary significance have long remained unclear. New evidence from Ilsenhöhle in Ranis, Germany, now provides a secure connection of the LRJ to H. sapiens remains dated to ~45,000 years ago, making it one of the earliest forays of our species to central Europe. Using many stable isotope records of climate produced from 16 serially sampled equid teeth spanning ~12,500 years of LRJ and Upper Palaeolithic human occupation at Ranis, we review the ability of early humans to adapt to different climate and habitat conditions. Results show that cold climates prevailed across LRJ occupations, with a temperature decrease culminating in a pronounced cold excursion at ~45,000-43,000 cal BP. Directly dated H. sapiens remains confirm that humans used the site even during this very cold phase. Together with recent evidence from the Initial Upper Palaeolithic, this demonstrates that humans operated in severe cold conditions during many distinct early dispersals into Europe and suggests pronounced adaptability. [Abstract copyright: © 2024. The Author(s).
The ecology, subsistence and diet of ~45,000-year-old Homo sapiens at Ilsenhöhle in Ranis, Germany
No full textRecent excavations at Ranis (Germany) identified an early dispersal of Homo sapiens into the higher latitudes of Europe by 45,000 years ago. Here we integrate results from zooarchaeology, palaeoproteomics, sediment DNA and stable isotopes to characterize the ecology, subsistence and diet of these early H. sapiens. We assessed all bone remains (n = 1,754) from the 2016-2022 excavations through morphology (n = 1,218) or palaeoproteomics (zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (n = 536) and species by proteome investigation (n = 212)). Dominant taxa include reindeer, cave bear, woolly rhinoceros and horse, indicating cold climatic conditions. Numerous carnivore modifications, alongside sparse cut-marked and burnt bones, illustrate a predominant use of the site by hibernating cave bears and denning hyaenas, coupled with a fluctuating human presence. Faunal diversity and high carnivore input were further supported by ancient mammalian DNA recovered from 26 sediment samples. Bulk collagen carbon and nitrogen stable isotope data from 52 animal and 10 human remains confirm a cold steppe/tundra setting and indicate a homogenous human diet based on large terrestrial mammals. This lower-density archaeological signature matches other Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician sites and is best explained by expedient visits of short duration by small, mobile groups of pioneer H. sapiens. [Abstract copyright: © 2024. The Author(s).
Evaluating Citebase, an open access Web-based citation-ranked search and impact discovery service
No full textCitebase is a new citation-ranked search and impact discovery service that measures citations of scholarly research papers which are openly accessible on the Web, i.e. papers that are assessable continuously online. Other services, such as ResearchIndex, have emerged in recent years to offer citation indexing of Web research papers. In the first detailed user evaluation of an open access Web citation indexing service, Citebase has been evaluated by nearly 200 users from different backgrounds. The paper details the procedures used in the evaluation, and analyses the results of this study, which took place between June and October 2002. It was found that within the scope of its primary components, the search interface and services available from its rich bibliographic records, Citebase can be used simply and reliably for the purpose intended, and that it compares favourably with other bibliographic services. It is shown tasks can be accomplished efficiently with Citebase regardless of the background of the user. More data need to be collected and the process refined before it is as reliable for measuring citation impact of indexed papers. Better explanations and guidance are required for first-time users. Coverage is seen as a limiting factor, even though Citebase indexes over 200,000 papers from arXiv. Non-physicists were frustrated at the lack of papers from other sciences. The principle of citation searching of open access archives has thus been demonstrated and need not be restricted to current users. Since the evaluation, Citebase has become a featured service of the ArXiv physics eprint archives
Phase contrast tomography of the mouse cochlea at microfocus x-ray sources
No full textWe present phase contrast x-ray tomography of functional soft tissue within the bony cochlear capsule of mice, carried out at laboratory microfocus sources with well-matched source, detector, geometry, and reconstruction algorithms at spatial resolutions down to 2 mu m. Contrast, data quality and resolution enable the visualization of thin membranes and nerve fibers as well as automated segmentation of surrounding bone. By complementing synchrotron radiation imaging techniques, a broad range of biomedical applications becomes possible as demonstrated for optogenetic cochlear implant research. (C) 2013 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License
H. P. Blavatsky's Theosophy in Context: The Construction of Meaning in Modern Western Esotericism
No full textTo contact the author for further details go to www.h-e-r-m-e-s.orgAbstract of PhD Thesis by Tim Rudbøg, 15 December 2012
H. P. Blavatsky’s Theosophy in Context: The Construction of Meaning in Modern Western Esotericism
H. P. Blavatsky’s (1831-1891) Theosophy has been defined as central to the history of modern Western spirituality and esotericism, yet to this date no major study has mapped and analysed the major themes of Blavatsky’s writings, how Blavatsky used the concept ‘Theosophy’ or to what extent she was engaged with the intellectual contexts of her time. Thus the purpose of this thesis is to fill this gap.
The proposed theoretical framework is based on the centrality of language in the production of intellectual products, such as texts—but contrary to the dominant focus on strategies, rhetoric and power this thesis will focus on the construction of meaning coupled with a set of methodological tools based on contextual analysis, intellectual history and intertextuality.
In addition to an overview of Blavatsky research this thesis will map and analyse Blavatsky’s use of the concept ‘Theosophy’ as well as Blavatsky’s primary discourses, identified as: (1) discourse for ancient knowledge, (2) discourse against Christian dogmatism, (3) discourse against the modern natural sciences and materialism, (4) discourse against modern spiritualism, (5) discourse for system and (7) discourse for universal brotherhood. In mapping and analysing Blavatsky’s discourses, it was found that her construction of meaning was significantly interconnected with broader intellectual contexts, such as ‘modern historical consciousness’, ‘critical enlightenment ideas’, studies in religion, studies in mythology, the modern sciences, spiritualism, systemic philosophy, reform movements and practical ethics. It, for example, becomes clear that Blavatsky’s search for an ancient ‘Wisdom Religion’ was actually a part of a common intellectual occupation during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and that her critique of the Christian dogmas was equally a common intellectual trend. To read Blavatsky’s discourses as the idiosyncratic strategies of an esotericist, isolated from their larger contexts or only engaged with them in order to legitimise minority views would therefore largely fail to account for the result of this thesis: that in historical actuality, they were a part of the larger cultural web of meaning
Accepting Optimally in Automated Negotiation with Incomplete Information (abstract)
No full textIntelligent SystemsElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc
Measurements of the Total and Differential Higgs Boson Production Cross Sections Combining the H→γγ and H→ZZ∗→4ℓ Decay Channels at s√=8 TeV with the ATLAS Detector
No full text6 pages plus author list + cover page + supplemental material (26 pages total), 7 figures, 23 tables, submitted to Physical Review Letters. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at this http URL - See paper for full list of authorsInternational audienceMeasurements of the total and differential cross sections of Higgs boson production are performed using 20.3 fb−1 of pp collisions produced by the Large Hadron Collider at a center-of-mass energy of s√=8 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Cross sections are obtained from measured H→γγ and H→ZZ∗→4ℓ event yields, which are combined accounting for detector efficiencies, fiducial acceptances and branching fractions. Differential cross sections are reported as a function of Higgs boson transverse momentum, Higgs boson rapidity, number of jets in the event, and transverse momentum of the leading jet. The total production cross section is determined to be σpp→H=33.0±5.3(stat)±1.6(sys)pb. The measurements are compared to state-of-the-art predictions
Player agency in interactive narrative: audience, actor & author
No full textThe question motivating this review paper is, how can
computer-based interactive narrative be used as a constructivist learn-
ing activity? The paper proposes that player agency can be used to
link interactive narrative to learner agency in constructivist theory,
and to classify approaches to interactive narrative. The traditional
question driving research in interactive narrative is, ‘how can an in-
teractive narrative deal with a high degree of player agency, while
maintaining a coherent and well-formed narrative?’ This question
derives from an Aristotelian approach to interactive narrative that,
as the question shows, is inherently antagonistic to player agency.
Within this approach, player agency must be restricted and manip-
ulated to maintain the narrative. Two alternative approaches based
on Brecht’s Epic Theatre and Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed are
reviewed. If a Boalian approach to interactive narrative is taken the
conflict between narrative and player agency dissolves. The question
that emerges from this approach is quite different from the traditional
question above, and presents a more useful approach to applying in-
teractive narrative as a constructivist learning activity
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