176,920 research outputs found
An existential reading of Camus and Dostoevsky focusing on Camus's notion of the absurd and Sartrean authencity
No full textAlbert Camus (1913-1960) describes morally corrupted society in his later fiction, The Fall (1956), yet, seeks to find authenticity to share the suffering of others to establish communal bonds and responsibility, specifically revealed in "The Growing Stone" (1957). Camus frequently denies his alignment with existentialism; yet, in his major novels, he frequent portrays a dark side of human existence: a sense of weariness with the habitual aspects of daily life and a keen awareness of the absurd lead Camusian heroes to complete nihilism and utter despair, which shows Camus's strong affinity with existentialist ideas. Further investigation of Dostoevsky's anti-hero, the underground man, and the demigod Kirilov reveals that Dostoevsky's vision of kingdom is not so optimistic in spite of dominant thematic concern of Christian resurrection and eternal life in Dostoevsky's major works. Only moral anarchy and spiritual sterility coexist in his kingdom. I, thus, investigate Dostoevksy's unique approach to existence without God, in which he eventually declares himself to be a forerunner of existentialism. Camus does, in fact, recognize Dostoevsky as an important predecessor. In particular, Camus examins Dostoevsky's depiction of alienated characters rebelling against the world as they understand it. Thus, in Chapter I, my focus lies in a discussion of the theory of the absurd, with Camus's The Myth of Sisyphus as a valuable supplement that opens the way for an existential approach to Camus's literary production. Having identified our condition of absurdity as a dilemma requiring a response, Camus (and our study) turns to Dostoevsky's reflections on modern antiheroes. In Chapter II, keeping my attention on The Myth of Sisyphus, I explore Dostoevsky's fictional character, Kirilov, of The Demons. Along the same lines, in Chapter III, I investigate Jean-Baptiste Clamence of The Fall (1956), with respect to the underground man in Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground (1864). Dostoevsky's two pre-existential works, however, fail to provide protagonists who possess authentic selfhood. Their rebellions are ultimately failures. Thus, I analyze D'Arrast of "The Growing Stone," in Exile and Kingdom (1958), who ultimately glimpses a potential for human solidarity and freedom in the fundamental structure of the human personality and social existence. This marks Camus's fullest expression of a response to a fundamental human dilemma which Dostoevsky's fiction helped him to grasp more fully
Olfactory images and creation of meaning in Gogol's "The Nose" and Rushdie's Midnight's Children
No full textIn my thesis I argue that Gogol's "The Nose" and Rushdie's Midnight's Children are texts in which both authors are acutely aware of the fact that they write within a larger discursive framework, supported and developed by the privileged and ruling class of both societies. These grand narratives are in fact selected interpretations of reality, which circulate in the public sphere, designating the desired 'readings' of various sociocultural phenomena. By means of reiteration and enforcement through governmental powers, the privileged narratives produce and inscribe meaning onto objects and events, turning them into icons with very specific and restricted signification. In this way, truth and meaning are under control of select individuals and interest groups. I propose that Gogol in "The Nose" and Rushdie in Midnight's Children use nasal discourse to discern the manipulative process of ideological intervention, which selectively labels specific discourse and interpretation as the truth, and imposes it upon the life and history of the governed community. To utilize the olfactory in a manner challenging the dominant narratives, the authors construct nasal images as essentially ambiguous. In this way they point out to the fluid and unstable nature of reality. In the world of their fiction, reality does not have a singular meaning; every sign is open to interpretation, producing a new meaning, depending on the circumstances of the interpretative act. The nose itself is chosen for this symbolic function for two reasons: the physiognomic tradition of reading faces nests moral ambiguity in the nose, and scent is the most ambiguous of sensory stimuli. Chapter I focuses on the structural role of the olfactory, in Chapters III and IV I discuss how Rushdie and Gogol employ and adapt physiognomic theory to constitute the olfactory as ambiguous images. In Chapters V and VI show that both authors install the olfactory-introduced ambiguity into the very foundations of their texts
Genome assembly forensics: Finding the elusive mis-assembly
No full textWe present the first collection of tools aimed at automated genome assembly validation. This work formalizes several mechanisms for detecting mis-assemblies, and describes their implementation in our automated validation pipeline, called amosvalidate. We demonstrate the application of our pipeline in both bacterial and eukaryotic genome assemblies, and highlight several assembly errors in both draft and finished genomes. The software described is compatible with common assembly formats and is released, open-source, at http://amos.sourceforge.net. © 2008 Phillippy et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd
Simulation of thermal plant optimization and hydraulic aspects of thermal distribution loops for large campuses
No full textFollowing an introduction, the author describes Texas A&M University and its utilities system. After that, the author presents how to construct simulation models for chilled water and heating hot water distribution systems. The simulation model was used in a $2.3 million Ross Street chilled water pipe replacement project at Texas A&M University. A second project conducted at the University of Texas at San Antonio was used as an example to demonstrate how to identify and design an optimal distribution system by using a simulation model. The author found that the minor losses of these closed loop thermal distribution systems are significantly higher than potable water distribution systems. In the second part of the report, the author presents the latest development of software called the Plant Optimization Program, which can simulate cogeneration plant operation, estimate its operation cost and provide optimized operation suggestions. The author also developed detailed simulation models for a gas turbine and heat recovery steam generator and identified significant potential savings. Finally, the author also used a steam turbine as an example to present a multi-regression method on constructing simulation models by using basic statistics and optimization algorithms. This report presents a survey of the author??s working experience at the Energy Systems Laboratory (ESL) at Texas A&M University during the period of January 2002 through March 2004. The purpose of the above work was to allow the author to become familiar with the practice of engineering. The result is that the author knows how to complete a project from start to finish and understands how both technical and nontechnical aspects of a project need to be considered in order to ensure a quality deliverable and bring a project to successful completion. This report concludes that the objectives of the internship were successfully accomplished and that the requirements for the degree of Degree of Engineering have been satisfied
Intern experience at CH���M Hill, Inc.: an internship report
No full textIncludes author's vita"Submitted to the College of Engineering of Texas A&M University in partial
fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Engineering."Includes bibliographical referencesA review of the author's internship experience with CH���M HILL, Inc.
during the period September 1975 through May 1976 is presented. During this nine month
internship the author worked as an Engineer II in the Industrial Processes discipline of this
large consulting engineering firm... The author's prime responsibility was as one of three
lead design engineers on the design of a large wastewater treatment facility for a pulp mill
in Hoquiam, Washington owned by ITT Rayonier Inc. The work generally consisted of the design
of individual treatment units and associated piping and pumping. The purpose of the project
was to provide wastewater treatment capabilities that would satisfy the effluent limitations
(standards) imposed upon the mill by the State of Washington Department of Ecology and the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The author's assignment also entailed necessary
interaction with the project manager and other CH���M HILL design engineers and support staff
members, the client's representatives, and representatives of two other consulting engineering
firms working on the project. Thus, the internship position at CH���M HILL provided considerable
experience coordinating the author's work with the work of other engineers, guiding the design
and administrative efforts of a support staff, and interacting regularly with the client and
other consulting firms. This broad exposure to a variety of engineering and organizational
problems provided a valuable educational experience
Intern experience at the Texas Transportation Institute: an internship report
No full text"Submitted to the College of Engineering of Texas A&M University in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Engineering."Includes vita (leaf 91)Includes bibliographical references (leaf 57)This report discusses the author's engineering experience at the Texas
Transportation Institute (TTI), Texas A&M University from March 1974 through July 1977. A
report of this experience plus twelve additional hours of academic course work were
substituted for an internship according to requirements established by the College of
Engineering. Although the author could not retroactively establish objectives of the type
associated with a typical internship, the work experience gained could be related to the two
general objectives of an intership: 1. To demonstrate an identifiable contribution to the
organization in which the intern served, and 2. To enable the intern to become aware of the
non-technical aspects of working as an engineer in a non-academic environment. While a member
of the Texas Transportation Institute staff, the author worked on a number of projects in the
areas of highway traffic engineering research and the preparation of continuing education
courses for transportation engineering officials. These assignments were contained within the
Urban Transportation Systems Division of TTI. This report delineates the author's contribution
to four particular projects and discusses the technical as well as non-technical experience
gained from each. Having been exposed to more engineering situations than many of the other
Doctor of Engineering students, the author has already formulated some rather specific
milestones for the future. The Doctor of Engineering program is discussed in conjunction with
its potential for helping the author attain these career goals and objectives. Also, some
thoughts are presented regarding the Doctor of Engineering as a viable alternative to the
Ph.D. in preparing for a career in engineering higher education
The long-wavelength view of GG Tau A: rocks in the ring world
No full textWe present the first detection of GG Tau A at centimetre wavelengths, made with the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager Large Array at a frequency of 16 GHz (λ = 1.8 cm). The source is detected at >6 σrms with an integrated flux density of S16GHz = 249 ± 45 µJy. We use these new centimetre-wave data, in conjunction with additional measurements compiled from the literature, to investigate the long-wavelength tail of the dust emission from this unusual protoplanetary system. We use an MCMC-based method to determine maximum likelihood parameters for a simple parametric spectral model and consider the opacity and mass of the dust contributing to the microwave emission. We derive a dust mass of Md ~ 0.1 Msun, constrain the dimensions of the emitting region and find that the opacity index at λ > 7 mm is less than unity, implying a contribution to the dust population from grains exceeding ~4 cm in size. We suggest that this indicates coagulation within the GG Tau A system has proceeded to the point where dust grains have grown to the size of small rocks with dimensions of a few centimetres. Considering the relatively young age of the GG Tau association in combination with the low derived disc mass, we suggest that this system may provide a useful test case for rapid core accretion planet formation models
A review of "The Writings of an English Sappho" edited by Patricia Phillippy, translated by Jaime Goodrich
No full textThe Weapons of the "True Warfaring Christian": Right Reason and Free Will in Seventeenth-Century Literature
No full textMilton writes in Areopagitica of the "true warfaring Christian" who can "apprehend and consider vice with all her baits and seeming pleasures, and yet abstain, and yet distinguish, and yet prefer that which is truly better." Though many reformers saw both human nature and the faculty of reason as depraved after the fall, Milton and other radical writers in the period emphasized the role that reason can and should play in the experience of spiritual warfare. The dissertation therefore begins by considering the theological contexts within which writers of the English Reformation understood evil and human encounters with evil, especially in the form of temptations, but also in the form of disturbing dreams and satanic presences. It then considers some epistemological problems as related to the experience of such conflicts: reason, especially right reason; knowledge, conscience and memory; and free will.
Focusing on the texts of John Milton, Aemilia Lanyer, Richard Norwood, and John Bunyan, this study shows that these radical religious writers refuse to conform to the general tendency in Reformation theology to discount the use of reason. Eve's dream in Milton's Paradise Lost reveals the proper use of right reason in spiritual warfare, while the actual temptation scenes in Paradise Lost and Lanyer's Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum point to a fundamental failure of reason in the fall. Norwood's Confessions, Milton's Comus, and Milton's Samson Agonistes portray the triumphs of human reason over evil and temptation, though there remains an awareness of the constraints placed upon reason by their fallen nature such that reason needs the aid of divine grace to function as right reason. Milton's Paradise Regained and Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress point to the extraordinary victories gained by Christ and Christian through the use of right reason and memory to direct the will toward the highest goods. These texts offer a counter-voice to those who would dismiss the possibilities of the powers of right reason. Despite the awareness of the inherent limits of fallen reason, these radical reformists generally find reason an indispensable tool in spiritual battles that helps direct their wills to the highest good
Intern experience at Honeywell, Inc., Large Information Systems Division: an internship report
No full textIncludes author's vita"Submitted to the College of Engineering of Texas A&M University in partial
fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Engineering."Includes bibliographical references (leaves 169-173)This report describes the author's internship assignment at Honeywell
Inc. - Large Information Systems Division from January, 1982 through August, 1982. The purpose
of the assignment was to fulfill the internship requirements of the Doctor of Engineering
Program. During the internship, the author held the position of VLSI design engineer, where he
worked on a predefined project. The project's objective was to evaluate how circuit designs
based on an advanced CMOS process, can be applied to hardware products at LISD. The internship
allowed the author to successfully apply the MOS circuit design training, which ws developed
at Texas A&M, to an industrial project. In addition, involvement in different activities
and exposure to the various problems not encountered in academia, made this internship an
invaluable experience
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