5,023 research outputs found
Sustainability Survey: Promoting Solutions to Real-World Problems
No full textThe concept of sustainable development, defined by the 1987 Brundtland Report [...
Dynamics of artificial spin ice: a continuous honeycomb network
No full textWe model the dynamics of magnetization in an artificial analogue of spin ice specializing to the case of a honeycomb network of connected magnetic nanowires. The inherently dissipative dynamics is mediated by the emission and absorption of domain walls in the sites of the lattice, and their propagation in its links. These domain walls carry two natural units of magnetic charge, whereas sites of the lattice contain a unit magnetic charge. Magnetostatic Coulomb forces between these charges play a major role in the physics of the system, as does quenched disorder caused by imperfections of the lattice. We identify and describe different regimes of magnetization reversal in an applied magnetic field determined by the orientation of the applied field with respect to the initial magnetization. One of the regimes is characterized by magnetic avalanches with a 1/n distribution of lengths.Johns Hopkins University (Provost Undergraduate Research Award)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (grant DMR-0520491)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (grant DMR-1056974)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (grant DMR-1104753
Implied Author, Overall Consideration, and Subtext of "Desiree's Baby"
No full textThis essay explores how to infer from a text the image of the implied author. It examines Kate Chopin's "Desiree's Baby" (1893), which has been widely regarded as an indictment of racism but which an "overall consideration" of the implied author's choices will lead us to see as a racist text. Through the interaction of various details in the text, the implied author suggests three racist dichotomies: (1) white characters' nondiscrimination versus black characters' discrimination, (2) positive slavery under white masters versus negative slavery under a black master, and (3) superior whites versus inferior blacks. This implied racist stance reflects the historical context of Chopin's personal experiences, but it contrasts with the quite different racial stances of the implied authors of some other Chopin narratives with different thematic designs. The complexity of the narratives under the name "Kate Chopin" offers an opportunity not only to gain a better understanding of the concept of implied author but also to clarify the relations (connections as well as disparities) among textual, intertextual, and extratextual evidence in literary interpretation in general.LiteratureA&HCI4ARTICLE2285-3113
Transverse-electric Brewster effect enabled by nonmagnetic two-dimensional materials
No full textDiscovered in the 19th century, the Brewster effect is known to occur for transverse-magnetic waves in regular optical dielectrics; however, it is believed to arise for transverse-electric (TE) waves only in systems with magnetic responses, i.e., nonunity effective relative permeability. This paper introduces a scheme to realize the TE Brewster effect in a homogeneous dielectric interface without magnetic responses, by adding ultrathin two-dimensional (2D) materials such as graphene. In particular, the effect remains even for waves approaching normal incidence, spanning from terahertz to visible frequencies. In contrast to the conventional Brewster effect, the graphene-assisted TE Brewster effect is asymmetric, and can be achieved only when the incidence is from the higher-refractive-index side. Moreover, graphene layers can tailor a total-internal-reflection dielectric interface into zero reflection, accompanied by perfect absorption. This control over TE waves enabled by ultrathin 2D materials may lead to a variety of applications, such as atomically thin absorbers, polarizers, and antireflection coating.Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (W911NF-13-D-0001)Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center (DESC0001299
“Shen Congwen Literary Thought and the Development of Chinese Modern Literature”
No full textThe study presents a reflection on the Chinese literature at the beginning of the twentieth century prompted by an examination of the non-fiction works written by Shen Congwen. This author wrote between the 1920s and 1940s and was driven by his conviction that literature would have changed China’s future. He concentrated on issues such as originality, creativity and imagination, without which he felt literary works could not be produced, and encouraged young authors to carry out research on style and experimentation in order to create a new body of literature and a new poetical language in a particularly delicate moment of Chinese history influenced by an escalation of Marxist aesthetic theories
Shen Gua (1031-1095) et les sciences
No full textSummary. — Shen Gua (1031-1095) is the author of a famous collection of notes which treat a great variety of subjects. Most modern historians of Chinese science consider him to have been the greatest Chinese « scientist » of the Middle Ages. However, before the twentieth century, Shen Gua was regarded, even in China, as an outstanding literary scholar, not a man of science. What is the significance of such a radical change of viewpoint, and what is the true nature of Shen Gua's works ? We try to outline answers to such questions by examining both the historio graphical background of Chinese science and Shen Gua's works as they appear in their historical context.Résumé. — Shen Gua (1031-1095) est l'auteur d'un célèbre recueil de notes abordant des sujets extrêmement variés. La plupart des historiens actuels des sciences chinoises le considèrent comme le plus grand « homme de science » du Moyen Age. Pourtant^ avant le xxe siècle, en Chine même, on rattachait généralement Shen Gua à la littérature plutôt qu'à la science. Quelle est la signification d'un changement de point de vue aussi radical et quelle est la véritable nature de l'œuvre de Shen Gua ? Nous tentons d'esquisser les réponses à de telles questions en examinant à la fois l'arrière-plan historiographique des sciences chinoises et l'œuvre de Shen Gua telle qu'elle se présente dans son contexte historique.Brenier Joël, Dieny Colette, Martzloff Jean Claude, De Wieclawik Wladislaw. Shen Gua (1031-1095) et les sciences. In: Revue d'histoire des sciences, tome 42, n°4, 1989. Problème d'Histoire des Sciences en Chine (1) pp. 333-351
What Is an Author's Role in the AI Era? Demystifying the Black Box of Human-AI Collaborative Creation Through an "Aesthetic Judgment" Study of the novel Solid Reference Frame Manuscript
No full textThis project repository establishes a permanent timestamp for a study that rethinks Roland Barthes' proclamation of the "death of the author" for the AI era. It engages with Michel Foucault's concept of "author-function" to propose "Aesthetic Judgment" as a new theoretical framework for human-AI collaborative creation. This framework reconceptualizes AI as a "critical partner"—a source of provocation and challenge. The human author, in turn, exercises decisive curatorial power through four key operations: 1) The Right to Question, 2) The Right to Select, 3) The Right to Arbitrate, and 4) The Right to Integrate.
Employing a "Process-Tracing" methodology, the research analyzes the complete manuscript of the novel Solid Reference Frame to demystify the creative "black box." This empirical study aims to demonstrate how the human author's role is transformed from a solitary genius into a systemic architect of meaning, thereby asserting a new, viable author-function for the digital age
∗ Corresponding author.
No full textPseudo-splines constitute a new class of refinable functions with B-splines, interpolatory refinable functions and refinable functions with orthonormal shifts as special examples. Pseudo-splines were first introduced by Daubechies, Han, Ron and Shen in [10] and Selenick in [36], and their properties were extensively studied by Dong and Shen in [11]. It was further shown by Dong and Shen in [12] that the shifts of an arbitrarily given pseudo-spline are linearly independent. This implies the existence of biorthogonal dual refinable functions (of pseudo-splines) with an arbitrarily prescribed regularity. However, except for B-splines, there is no explicit construction of biorthogonal dual refinable functions with any given regularity. This paper focuses on an implementable scheme to derive a dual refinable function with a prescribed regularity. This automatically gives a construction of smooth biorthogonal Riesz wavelets with one of them being a pseudo-spline. As an example, an explicit formula of biorthogonal dual refinable functions of the interpolatory refinable function is given. Key words: B-spline, biorthogonal Riesz wavelets, interpolatory, pseudo-spline, Riesz wavelets
Structural Colors from Fano Resonances
No full textStructural coloration is an interference phenomenon where colors emerge when visible light interacts with nanoscopically structured material and has recently become a most interesting scientific and engineering topic. However, current structural color generation mechanisms either require thick (compared to the wavelength) structures or lack dynamic tunability. This report proposes a new structural color generation mechanism that produces colors by the Fano resonance effect on thin photonic crystal slab. We experimentally realize the proposed idea by fabricating the samples that show resonance-induced colors with weak dependence on the viewing angle. Finally, we show that the resonance-induced colors can be dynamically tuned by stretching the photonic crystal slab fabricated on an elastic substrate.United States. Army Research Office (W911NF-13-D-0001)Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center (DE-SC0001299
A Research on Sun Shen-Xing’s Philosophical Thought
No full text本文以孫慎行（1565-1636）之儒家思想作為研究對象，所使用的文獻主要聚焦在《困思抄》與《慎獨義》上。黃宗羲（1610-1695）於《明儒學案》云：「東林之學，涇陽導其源，景逸始入細，至先生而集其成矣」，顯示孫慎行之思想於晚明東林學派發展中，具有一定的重要性與代表性；然而，學術界歷來鮮少關注孫慎行，其著作亦缺乏考訂與整理。有見及此，本文以《困思抄》與《慎獨義》版本的考證與文獻的整理作為研究之基石，從中觀察孫慎行問題意識之起源以及思想發展脈絡的演變。 因此，本文第二章即分別概述現存《困思抄》與《慎獨義》版本之概況與成書之原由。第三章以《困思抄》的內容，結合孫慎行早期辨性、辨命、辨心、辨氣質的問題意識，重新分析慎行如何在「氣質」與「理義」為一的架構下詮釋「性」、「命」、「心」三個概念，以此代表孫慎行前期思想之概況。第四章則以《慎獨義》為中心，透過「慎獨」義與相關概念前後期的轉變，指出孫慎行之惟學工夫如何從前期不思勉的「誠意慊心」，收攝至可思勉的「學問思辨行」上。慎行前期的工夫思路，是從天道來引導人道，仰賴自身的天然明覺；後期的工夫思路，則轉為由「學問思辨行」之人道確立天道，透過具體的向外實踐，使天道得以凝定，而能真正引導人道。 總結來說，孫慎行思想重視「實」，不使性理落於虛無。然而，他在論述時，所使用的概念意指多與一般認知不同，導致在經典詮釋上往往有創造性的解讀，而易於大眾理解。孫慎行思想雖兼有心學和理學的風格，然從工夫路線的修正，可發現慎行理學的色彩與經世致用的風格更為濃厚，反映明清之際學術轉型的一種面向。The purpose of this thesis is to investigate Sun Shen-Xing(1565-1636)’s Confucian thought, based on the text of Kun Si Chao and Shen Du Yi. Hwang Zong-Xi (1610-1695) said in the Ming Ru Xue An, “Sun Shen-Xing epitomized the thought of Donglin School,” which indicated that Sun Shen-Xing’s philosophical thought was significant and representative in the development of Donglin School in late Ming. However, Sun Shen-Xing’s philosophical thought and his writings haven’t been noted and focused on in academic. In view of this, this thesis probes into the origin of Shen-Xing’s problem consciousness and the development of his Confucian thought via document arrangement and textual research. Therefore, chapter II gives a general overview of the version of Kun Si Chao and Shen Du Yi, and separately introduces Sun Shen-Xing’s writing motions and the process of publication. In chapter III, with the context of Kun Si Chao and Shen-Xing’s former problem consciousness, the author analyzed how Shen-Xing interpreted the conception of “human nature(xing),” “destiny(ming),” and “mind(xin)” under his thinking structure that temperament(qi zhi) and righteousness(li yi) are two sides of a coin. In chapter IV, based on Shen Du Yi, the author focused on the change of Shen-Xing’s explanation of self-discipline(shen du), pointed out that Sun Shen-Xing converged moral Kungfu on “extensive study”, “accurate inquiry”, “careful reflection”, “clear discrimination,” “earnest practice,” making a great effort into the way of human instead of only being guided by the way of heaven. In summary, Sun Shen-Xing’s philosophical thought is practical, turning metaphysics into daily human relationships, placing a high value on practice. However, as he re-interpreted the text of classics, the signified he used usually differed from common sense, resulting in his alternative concepts hard to read and understand. Despite the fact that Sun Shen-Xing’s philosophical thought was full of the characteristic of both Li School and Xin School, with the passing of time, Shen-Xing’s kungfu theory was more obviously inclined to Li School and for practical use in his later years, which reflects one aspect of the academic transformation from ming dynasty to qing dynasty
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