225 research outputs found
Demeter goes skydiving
No full textA part of the "cuRRents" Canadian literature series.What if Demeter, the timeless fertility goddess of ancient Greek myth, slipped through a crack into the twenty-first century, shook off her ankle bracelets, corn tassels, and garlands, and began a tour of our improbable culture? Award-winning poet Susan McCaslin exercises the profound mother-daughter trauma forged in the Demeter-Persephone myth with unapologetic modernity. This sequence takes on a novel life all its own: Hades steals away the maiden into a cult/culture of distorted body image, addiction, high anxiety, and rampant consumerism. Mother Demeter must negotiate this alien world of health clubs, paparazzi, and so-called reality shows locked in spiritual winter. McCaslin's lyrics are by turns profound, hilarious, and devastating as she journeys to the heart of a mother's love for her daughter. Here is poetry that seeks ties to the past inside the present, poetry that speaks to us all. --From publisher description.poetryCanadian literatur
Validation of electron density and temperature observed by DEMETER
No full textMeasuring electron density (Ne) and temperature (Te) using a DC Langmuir probe in the ionosphere is very often degraded by the electrode contamination. In order to examine the accuracy of DEMETER observations, we compared DEMETER Ne and Te with several other satellites observations and IRI2012 as reference data. DEMETER Ne and Te show well-known dependencies on the solar irradiance except for the range of F10.7 > 100. However, DEMETER Ne are about 70% lower than those of IRI in day time data and its solar irradiance dependency is consistent with the reference data in night time data. It was confirmed that the negative slope appears in deep solar minimum solar cycle 23/24. DEMETER Te are higher than IRI data by 500-1500 K in day time and by 800 K in night time. The relation between Ne and Te is well defined by a negative slope both in DEMETER and IRI during day time, while such a similarity is not recognized in night time data. DEMETER Te is 700 K higher than IRI Te for the same value of Ne. When Ne is less than 10(4) cm(-3) in night time, significant reductions in DEMETER Te are observed, which is close to expected values. Such discrepancies from the reference data and some peculiar behaviors of DEMETER Te and Ne data necessitate a careful attention in using them in consideration of their data alterations. However, their relative variations and averaged behavior in time contain useful information for scientific studies such as dependencies on solar irradiance and wave-4 longitudinal structure under certain conditions (Ne > 10(4) cm(-3) and F10.7 < 100). (C) 2013 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Demeter: A Fast and Energy-Efficient Food Profiler Using Hyperdimensional Computing in Memory
No full textFood profiling is an essential step in any food monitoring system needed to prevent health risks and potential frauds in the food industry. Significant improvements in sequencing technologies are pushing food profiling to become the main computational bottleneck. State-of-the-art profilers are unfortunately too costly for food profiling. Our goal is to design a food profiler that solves the main limitations of existing profilers, namely (1) working on massive data structures and (2) incurring considerable data movement, for a real-time monitoring system. To this end, we propose Demeter, the first platform-independent framework for food profiling. Demeter overcomes the first limitation through the use of hyperdimensional computing (HDC) and efficiently performs the accurate few-species classification required in food profiling. We overcome the second limitation by the use of an in-memory hardware accelerator for Demeter (named Acc-Demeter) based on memristor devices. Acc-Demeter actualizes several domain-specific optimizations and exploits the inherent characteristics of memristors to improve the overall performance and energy consumption of Acc-Demeter. We compare Demeter’s accuracy with other industrial food profilers using detailed software modeling. We synthesize Acc-Demeter’s required hardware using UMC’s 65nm library by considering an accurate PCM model based on silicon-based prototypes. Our evaluations demonstrate that Acc-Demeter achieves a (1) throughput improvement of 192× and 724× and (2) memory reduction of 36× and 33× compared to Kraken2 and MetaCache (2 state-of-the-art profilers), respectively, on typical food-related databases. Demeter maintains an acceptable profiling accuracy (within 2% of existing tools) and incurs a very low area overhead.Computer EngineeringQuantum & Computer Engineerin
Orchestrating proactive and reactive mechanisms for filtering distracting information: brain-behavior relationships revealed by a mixed-design fMRI study
No full textGiven the information overload often imparted to human cognitive-processing systems, suppression of irrelevant and distracting information is essential for successful behavior. Using a hybrid block/event-related fMRI design, we characterized proactive and reactive brain mechanisms for filtering distracting stimuli. Participants performed a flanker task, discriminating the direction of a target arrow in the presence versus absence of congruent or incongruent flanking distracting arrows during either Pure blocks (distracters always absent) or Mixed blocks (distracters on 80% of trials). Each Mixed block had either 20% or 60% incongruent trials. Activations in the dorsal frontoparietal attention network during Mixed versus Pure blocks evidenced proactive (blockwise) recruitment of a distraction-filtering mechanism. Sustained activations in right middle frontal gyrus during 60% Incongruent blocks correlated positively with behavioral indices of distraction-filtering (slowing when distracters might occur) and negatively with distraction-related behavioral costs (incongruent vs congruent trials), suggesting a role in coordinating proactive filtering of potential distracters. Event-related analyses showed that incongruent trials elicited greater reactive activations in 20% (vs 60%) Incongruent blocks for counteracting distraction and conflict, including in the insula and anterior cingulate. Context-related effects in occipitoparietal cortex consisted of greater target-evoked activations for distracter-absent trials (central-target-only) in Mixed versus Pure blocks, suggesting enhanced attentional engagement. Functional-localizer analyses in V1/V2/V3 revealed less distracter-processing activity in 60% (vs 20%) Incongruent blocks, presumably reflecting tonic suppression by proactive filtering mechanisms. These results delineate brain mechanisms underlying proactive and reactive filtering of distraction and conflict, and how they are orchestrated depending on distraction probability, thereby aiding task performance. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Irrelevant stimuli distract people and impair their attentional performance. Here, we studied how the brain deals with distracting stimuli using a hybrid block/event-related fMRI design and a task that varied the probability of the occurrence of such distracting stimuli. The results suggest that when distraction is likely, a region in right frontal cortex proactively implements attentional control mechanisms to help filter out any distracting stimuli that might occur. In contrast, when distracting input occurs infrequently, this region is more reactively engaged to help limit the negative consequences of the distracters on behavioral performance. Our results thus help illuminate how the brain flexibly responds under differing attentional demands to engender effective behavior
Elision and Augment in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter
No full textEl objetivo de este artículo es estudiar los motivos que llevan a elegir entre la forma con aumento y la forma sin aumento en el Himno homérico a Deméter. El autor intenta reconstruir las formas que el poeta usó basándose no en la información del manuscrito M, sino en la métrica y el vocabulario de la poesía épica.The aim of this article is to analyse the reasons that lead us to choose between the rising form and the form without rise in the Homeric Hymns to Demeter. The author tries to reconstruct the forms that the poet used; he bases on the metre and the vocabulary of the epic poetry, and not on the information of the manuscript M
Homeric Hymn to Demeter: the allegory of the myth and the tradition of the genre
No full textStraipsnyje publikuojamas A. Kudulytės-Kairienės verstas „Himnas Demetrai“. Šis himnas žemdirbystės ir derlingumo deivei – antras pagal dydį kūrinys, įtrauktas į homerinių himnų rinkinį. Himnas buvo surastas 1777 metais Maskvoje XV amžiaus rankraštyje. Tai vienas iš seniausių homerinių himnų. Kadangi jame visai neužsimenama apie Atėnus ir šio miesto mitologinius herojus, manoma, kad kūrinys sukurtas VII amžiaus prieš Kristų pabaigoje. Šią datą patvirtina ir lingvistinė himno analizė. Kūrinį sudaro dvi dalys – mitologinis pasakojimas apie Persefonės pagrobimą ir etimologinis mitas apie Eleusino misterijų įkūrimą. Daugiausia dėmesio kūrinyje skiriama Demetrai. Apie ją sukasi pasakojimo veiksmas. Tai daug žmogiškų bruožų turinti deivė. Himno emocinės dominantės nuolat keičiasi: iš pradžių vyrauja niūrūs jausmai – Persefonės išgąstis, Demetros širdgėla ir pyktis, Dzeuso nerimas. Kūrinio pabaigoje liūdnas emocijas išstumia džiaugsminga nuotaika: motina ir duktė pagaliau susitinka, Demetra pasimato ir su savo motina Rėja, liaujasi širdusi, ima rūpintis derliumi, laukuose vėl pradeda augti javai, žemėje baigiasi badas. „Himno Demetrai“ negalėtume priskirti jokiai kitai, išskyrus Homero ir Hesiodo, epinei tradicijai, tai patvirtina kūrinyje juntama šių epų įtaka. „Himnas Demetrai“ pasižymi ne tik epiniams kūriniams būdingomis leksikos ar gramatinėmis ypatybėmis, bet ir tipiškomis scenomis bei charakteriais. Savo veiksmais ir išgyvenimais himno veikėjos panašios į Homero epų herojes. Integruodamas tradicines scenas į naują epinį kūrinį, epo autorius sukūrė originalią giesmę. Reikšminiai žodžiai: Alegorija; Demetra; Himnas; Homeras; Mitas; Tradicija; Žanras; Allegory; Demeter; Genre; Homer; Hymn; Myth; TraditionThe article publishes the Homeric hymn to Demeter translated by A. Kudulytė-Kairienė. This hymn dedicated to the Goddess of agriculture and fertility is the second big work included into the collection of Homeric hymns. The hymn was found in 1777 in Moscow in a manuscript of the 15th c. It is one of the oldest Homeric hymns. Whereas it contains no hints about Athens and its mythological heroes, it is presumed that the work was composed at the end of the 7th c. B.C. This date is also confirmed by the linguistic analysis of the hymn. The hymn consists of two parts: a mythological narrative about the abduction of the goddess Persephone and the etymological myth about the establishment of Eleusinian Mysteries. The major attention is focused on Demeter. The plot of the narrative develops around her. This is a goddess with many human features. The emotional dominants of the hymn change constantly: at first, gloomy feelings prevails – Persephone’s fear, Demeter’s grief and anger, Zeus’s unease. At the end of the work, gloomy emotions are replaced with more joyful moods: the mother and the daughter finally meet, Demeter meets her mother Rhea, starts taking care of the harvest filling the fields with corn and thus bringing an end to the famine. The Homeric hymn to Demeter could not be attributed to any other epic tradition except for that of Homer and Hesiod, which is manifested through the influence of these epics felt in the hymn. The Homeric hymn to Demeter has not only lexical and grammatical characteristics of epic hymns, but also typical scenes and characters. The characters of the Homeric hymn resemble characters of Homeric hymns in their actions and experiences. By integrating traditional scenes into a new epic work, the author of the epic created an original hymn
Myths of the Greek and Roman Gods
No full textL1 Hypothesis-Philemon & BaucisL2 Hypothesis-The Song of Ares and Aphrodite HomerL2-The Hieros Gamos of Zeus and HeraL3 Hypothesis-Hesiod's Theogony (1-152): the Muses & CreationL3-Archilochus & the Muses (the Mnesiepes Inscription)L4 Hypothesis-Hesiod's Theogony (the Succession Myth)L5 Hypothesis-Prometheus & Pandora (Hesiod's Theogony and Works & Days)L6 Hypothesis-Prometheus & Io (Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound)L7 Hypothesis-Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, Part 1L8 Hypothesis-Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, Part 2L9 Hypothesis-Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Part 1L10 Hypothesis-Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Part 2Selected Greek myth
Ascending Systems – Top Down Control: Noradrenergic and Cholinergic Control of Attention and Learning ☆
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