Direct Descent Research Articles

VARIABILITY, LANGUAGE CHANGE, AND THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH

In historical language scholarship, it has been usual to assume that The transmission of language from generation to generation is itself a linguistic, rather than a social, process, and that the focus should be on uniform language states. Here it is argued that transmission is necessarily social and that the history of a language is necessarily a history of variation. Firts, it is shown that the history of British Received Pronunciation is not one of direct descent from a single uniform ancestral variety. It is then demonstrated that pre-vocalic [h] and [hw] in English have a long history as variables and that loss of [h] in these combinations is not a recent event. Finally, it is suggested that closely similar variants of certain variables, such as [w] for (wh), have most probably recurred independently at various points in history and that we therefore need to review the methods used for dating sound changes.

A Maximum Likelihood Approach to Least Absolute Deviation Regression

Least absolute deviation (LAD) regression is an important tool used in numerous applications throughout science and engineering, mainly due to the intrinsic robust characteristics of LAD. In this paper, we show that the optimization needed to solve the LAD regression problem can be viewed as a sequence of maximum likelihood estimates (MLE) of location. The derived algorithm reduces to an iterative procedure where a simple coordinate transformation is applied during each iteration to direct the optimization procedure along edge lines of the cost surface, followed by an MLE of location which is executed by a weighted median operation. Requiring weighted medians only, the new algorithm can be easily modularized for hardware implementation, as opposed to most of the other existing LAD methods which require complicated operations such as matrix entry manipulations. One exception is Wesolowsky's direct descent algorithm, which among the top algorithms is also based on weighted median operations. Simulation shows that the new algorithm is superior in speed to Wesolowsky's algorithm, which is simple in structure as well. The new algorithm provides a better tradeoff solution between convergence speed and implementation complexity.

The Frauds of Humanism: Cicero, Machiavelli, and the Rhetoric of Imposture

Abstract Machiavelli's advocacy of force and fraud in the conduct of politics is the key teaching that has secured his reputation as “Machiavellian” and that has led to the conception of The Prince as the first document in the Western tradition to lay bare the dark, demonic underside of civic humanism. But this interpretation overlooks the degree to which a politics of intense competition and personal rivalry inhabits the humanist vision from antiquity, producing an ethics of expediency and a rhetoric of imposture that seeks to mask its alertness to advantage behind the guise of integrity and service. This vision is nowhere more apparent than in Cicero's De Oratore, which exerted a powerful influence on the Italian humanists of the quattrocentro in whose direct descent Machiavelli stands. Deception, to put it simply, is an acknowledged and vital element in civic humanism long before The Prince. The difference is that Cicero typically couches it in a sacrificial rhetoric that is euphemistically inflected while Machiavelli opts for a hard-edged rhetoric of administrative efficiency to make his case. But the stylistic differences, important as they are, should not mask the essential affinity between the Machiavellian doctrine of princely fraud and the Ciceronian ethics of gentlemanly dissimulation

Loveless on wasp venom allergy and immunity- part 1

Loveless on wasp venom allergy and immunity- part 1

Regimes of Classification and the Paradox of Kamchadal Heritage

This paper examines the historical formation of the “creole” ethnic group known as Kamchadals through an examination of the changing criteria for ethnic, social, and class taxonomies. Over the course of 300 years of Russian settlement in Kamchatka, the population has been subject to three distinctly different regimes of classification, with each prioritizing different qualities. Thus, at various times, the ethnically mixed population in central Kamchatka has been measured, and officially recorded, on the basis of religion, profession, social standing, wealth, and ethnicity. Today, as Kamchadals seek to establish themselves as an officially recognized indigenous population, the historical record presents particularly difficult questions that tend to undermine their claim. For example, according to current procedures, to become officially recognized as Kamchadal, a person must demonstrate direct descent from a person classified in the 19th century as Kamchadal. The 19th century records however, are not records of “ethnicity” as it is understood today, and thus official classification is as dependent on luck as it is on any commonly accepted measure of “ethnicity” or “race.” Thus, this paper charts the shifting measures by which a local, frontier population was measured, and contemporary efforts to translate those modes of classification into contemporary understandings of “ethnicity.” Its broader relevance concerns a tension inherent to the concept of indigenousness itself, that is, the tendency of outsiders as well as native peoples themselves to apply a measure of authenticity and thus to discriminate between varying shades of “more” and “less” indigenous individuals.

Evolutionary relationships among photosynthetic bacteria.

To understand the evolution of photosynthetic bacteria it is necessary to understand how the main groups within Bacteria have evolved from a common ancestor, a critical issue that has not been resolved in the past. Recent analysis of shared conserved inserts or deletions (indels) in protein sequences has provided a powerful means to resolve this long-standing problem in microbiology. Based on a set of 25 indels in highly conserved and widely distributed proteins, all main groups within bacteria can now be defined in clear molecular terms and their relative branching orders logically deduced. For the 82 presently completed bacterial genomes, the presence or absence of these signatures in various proteins was found to be almost exactly as predicted by the indel model, with only 11 exceptions observed in 1842 observations. The branching order of different bacterial groups as deduced using this approach is as follows: low G+C Gram-positive (Heliobacterium chlorum) <--> high G+C Gram-positive <--> Clostridium-Fusobacterium-Thermotoga <--> Deinococcus-Thermus <--> green nonsulfur bacteria (Chloroflexus aurantiacus) <--> Cyanobacteria <--> Spirochetes <--> Chlamydia-Cytophaga-Flavobacteria-green sulfur bacteria (Chlorobium tepidum) <--> Aquifex <--> Proteobacteria (delta and in) <--> Proteobacteria (alpha) <--> Proteobacteria (beta) and <--> Proteobacteria (gamma). The Heliobacterium species, which contain an Fe-S type of reaction center (RC 1) and represent the sole photosynthetic phylum from the Gram-positive or monoderm bacteria (i.e., bounded by only a single membrane), is indicated to be the most ancestral of the photosynthetic lineages. Among the Gram-negative or diderm bacteria (containing both inner and outer cell membranes) the green nonsulfur bacteria, which contain a pheophytin-quinone type of reaction center (RC 2), are indicated to have evolved first. The later emerging photosynthetic groups which contain either one or both of these reaction centers could have acquired such genes from the earlier branching lineages by either direct descent or by means of lateral gene transfer.

La «preistoria» della tradizione recenziore del De Clementia (A proposito di Paris, Bibl. nat., lat. 15085 e Leipzig, Stadtbibl., Rep. I, 4, 47)

The complete collation of the De dementia in Leipzig, Stadtbibl., Rep. I, 4, 47, Paris, Bibl. Nat., lat. 15085, and in three other manuscripts of the φ-class gives two main results : it shows that the recentior tradition of Senecan treatise does not begin in the eleventh century, but had in France a silent prehistory of copying and emendation (p-class), which perhaps goes back directly to Citta del Vaticano, Reg. lat. 1529 (first half of the IX cent.) and to the school of Lupus of Ferrieres. Secondly, Leipzig, Stadtbibl., Rep. I, 4, 47 (before 1150) bears witness to an early presence of p-class outside France : although not belonging to μ (as G. Mazzoli maintained), the manuscript contains nevertheless a handful of exclusive readings of Citta del Vaticano, Pal. lat. 1547, which confirms Mazzoli's supposition of a small but direct descent from Pal. lat. 1547 in Southern Germany, from the X to the XII century (μ-class).

KING ARTHUR AT OXBRIDGE: NICHOLAS CANTELUPE, GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH, AND CAMBRIDGE'S ARTHURIAN FOUNDATION MYTH

The marvelous logic of the mad ... seems to mock that of the logicians because it resembles it so exactly, or rather because it is exactly the same, and because at the secret heart of madness, at the core of so many of its errors, so many words and gestures without consequence, we discover, finally, the hidden perfection of a language. (Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization)Nicholas Cantelupe and his 'Historiola'Anyone consulting the official archives of Cambridge University in 1510 or indeed a century later would have encountered, as Cambridge's oldest surviving charter, one granted by that most illustrious of British monarchs, King Arthur.1 The charter, needless to say, is a hoax; and the man responsible for inflicting it on the world was Nicholas Cantelupe, who early in the fifteenth century produced a prodigiously fantastical history of the University of Cambridge, the Historiola de antiquitate et origine almae et immaculatae Universitatis Cantebrigiae.2 The Historiola contains a remarkable Arthurian episode and offers excellent amusement and curiosity value. It deserves to be rescued from the obscurity into which it has sunk.This obscurity is now so great that one would look in vain for Nicholas Cantelupe's name in a number of standard reference works - the Arthurian Encyclopedia and Bibliography, the DNB, Antonia Gransden's Historical Writing in England - and so might suspect that, in the spirit of my subject, 1 have made him up.3 But Nicholas really did exist, which is more than can be said of Arthur's charter. Our main authority for his life and works is the sixteenth-century antiquarian John Bale, who tells us that Nicholas gained a doctorate in theology at Cambridge before becoming a Carmelite prior in Cambridge, Bristol, Gloucester, and finally Northampton, where he died in 1441.4 According to Bale, he was a good friend of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (patron of Lydgate, Capgrave, et al.);5 Bale also ascribes to Nicholas, in addition to the Historiola, five further works, fragments of two of which are extant in Bale's own transcripts:6 both deal with the 'history' (equally fantastical) of the Carmelite order, which boasted direct descent from the prophet Elijah. And while Bale is not exactly known for his accuracy, on Nicholas Cantelupe he can be trusted - for two reasons: firstly, Bale had himself been a Carmelite prior and was well informed about the order, the history of which interested him greatly;7 secondly, Bale's information is partly confirmed by a surviving record from the borough of Northampton, in which Nicholas is mentioned as prior of the local Carmelite house in 1423.8 This date gives us a terminus ad quem for the Historiola, which Nicholas presumably wrote in his earlier Cambridge days.The last serious attempt to improve Nicholas's public profile was in 1719, when the only printed text of the Historiola appeared in an appendix to Thomas Hearne's edition of Thomas Sprott's Chronicle. Of course, this edition is not scholarly by today's standards: the Latin has been classicized, perhaps in part because Hearne used a late text for his edition.9 There are, however, at least five fifteenth-century manuscripts,10 which I hope will one day form the basis of a critical edition. That there must once have been more copies is apparent from a letter to Thomas Hearne by a Cambridge scholar:As to your next design, I have nothing material to offer concerning the Historiola, which I have always lookt upon as one entire fable, and the fruitful Invention of a teeming Monkish brain. We have several copies, one at Clare Hall [now Clare College] which by its hand seems to be as old as the Author. Another at Caius College, copied out an[no] 1464 by John Heryson, Doctor in Sacris Medicinis [probably Gonville and Caius, MS 249/277]. Another upon the Black Book entred by Dr Buckingham Vice Chancellor an[no] 1509 or ten.11In his Handlist of Latin Writers, Richard Sharpe lists, in addition to the five medieval codices, four later manuscripts;12 I am able to add yet another. …

Origin of the annual symposium on the biology of skin.

Origin of the annual symposium on the biology of skin.

An L1 estimation algorithm with degeneracy and linear constraints

An implementation of the reduced gradient algorithm is proposed to solve the linear L 1 estimation problem (least absolute deviations regression) with linear equality or inequality constraints, including rank deficient and degenerate cases. Degenerate points are treated by solving a derived L 1 problem to give a descent direction. The algorithm is a direct descent, active set method that is shown to be finite. It is geometrically motivated and simpler than the projected gradient algorithm (PGA) of Bartels, Conn and Sinclair, which uses a penalty function approach for the constrained case. Computational experiments indicate that the proposed algorithm compares favourably, both in reliability and efficiency, to the PGA, to the algorithms ACM551 and AFK (which use an LP formulation of the L 1 problem) and to LPASL1 (which is based on the Huber approximation method of Madsen, Nielsen and Pinar). Although it is not as efficient as ACM552 (Barrodale–Roberts algorithm) on large scale unconstrained problems, it performs better on large scale problems with bounded variable constraints.

The influence of geographic variations on the muscular activity in selected sports movements

Surface EMG (SEMG) has been used frequently to study motion techniques or skills, body positions, material or equipment used, training-methodology and learning processes in sports and ergonomics. Little if any information is available on the effect of the geographical environment on the neuromuscular control of an athlete or workman during his/her performance or effort. Motions were chosen in Alpine skiing and cycling. Thirty-one certified ski instructors and twelve professional road cyclists participated in the study of geographical variance and its impact on muscle activity. SEMG was measured from the agonists and antagonists of the upper- and lower limb. Skiers were measured on downhill slopes ranging from 19 to 51% while the cyclists performed with different saddle positions on 2, 7 and 12% slope inclinations, respectively. Verification of the variation of muscular intensity (IEMG) over the slope inclination during a simulated giant slalom indicated that the muscular activity increased with increasing slope angle and decreased with decreasing slope angle, while heart rate measured with short-range radio telemetry increased at a constant rate between start and finish independent of the geographical variations. In a direct descent on different slopes % levels the integrated EMG is well related to the inclination ( r=0.82) confirming the findings of the giant slalom. In cycling we found that, regardless of the pelvis position, the muscular intensity of lower limb muscles increased with increasing slope inclination, while the muscular intensity of the arms decreased with the same increasing slope inclination. In addition the decreased intensity of the arm muscles remained significantly higher with the pelvis (saddle) fully forward. The geography of the terrain did influence the neuromuscular work and therewith probably the performance also. The influence however, varies with specific circumstances and is coupled with items of variability of the equipment used and the body regions involved.

Derivation and Tuning of PID Controller via Output Tracking Direct Gradient Descent Control

Abstract This paper is concerned with derivation and tuning of PID control law. In the first half, output tracking for general nonlinear system is investigated by means of direct gradient descent control (DGDC). In the second half, PID control law for linear systems is derived by using the output tracking DGDC, and at the same time best tuning of PID controller parameters is established. Simulation studies for various plants showed remarkably good performance.

直接勾配降下制御法によるPID制御則の導出と調整

直接勾配降下制御法によるPID制御則の導出と調整

Mechanical versus physiological determinants of swimming speeds in diving Brünnich's guillemots.

For fast flapping flight of birds in air, the maximum power and efficiency of the muscles occur over a limited range of contraction speeds and loads. Thus, contraction frequency and work per stroke tend to stay constant for a given species. In birds such as auks (Alcidae) that fly both in air and under water, wingbeat frequencies in water are far lower than in air, and it is unclear to what extent contraction frequency and work per stroke are conserved. During descent, compression of air spaces dramatically lowers buoyant resistance, so that maintaining a constant contraction frequency and work per stroke should result in an increased swimming speed. However, increasing speed causes exponential increases in drag, thereby reducing mechanical versus muscle efficiency. To investigate these competing factors, we have developed a biomechanical model of diving by guillemots (Uria spp.). The model predicted swimming speeds if stroke rate and work per stroke stay constant despite changing buoyancy. We compared predicted speeds with those of a free-ranging Brünnich's guillemot (U. lomvia) fitted with a time/depth recorder. For descent, the model predicted that speed should gradually increase to an asymptote of 1.5-1.6 m s-1 at approximately 40 m depth. In contrast, the instrumented guillemot typically reached 1.5 m s-1 within 10 m of the water surface and maintained that speed throughout descent to 80 m. During ascent, the model predicted that guillemots should stroke steadily at 1.8 m s-1 below their depth of neutral buoyancy (62 m), should alternate stroking and gliding at low buoyancies from 62 to 15 m, and should ascend passively by buoyancy alone above 15 m depth. However, the instrumented guillemot typically ascended at 1.25 m s-1 when negatively buoyant, at approximately 1.5 m s-1 from 62 m to 25 m, and supplemented buoyancy with stroking above 25 m. Throughout direct descent, and during ascent at negative and low positive buoyancies (82-25 m), the guillemot maintained its speed within a narrow range that minimized the drag coefficient. In films, guillemots descending against high buoyancy at shallow depths increased their stroke frequency over that of horizontal swimming, which had a substantial glide phase. Model simulations also indicated that stroke duration, relative thrust on the downstroke versus the upstroke, and the duration of gliding can be varied to regulate swimming speed with little change in contraction speed or work per stroke. These results, and the potential use of heat from inefficient muscles for thermoregulation, suggest that diving guillemots can optimize their mechanical efficiency (drag) with little change in net physiological efficiency.

Molecular phylogenetics of Fouquieriaceae: evidence from nuclear rDNA ITS studies

Molecular sequence data from the 18S-26S rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region support the monophyly of Fouquieria sensu lato (Fouquieriaceae) and the three subgenera (subg. Fouquieria, subg. Bronnia, subg. Idria) previously recognized within it. Resolution within subg. Fouquieria differs somewhat between parsimony and maximum likelihood (ML) trees. Section Fouquieria and sect. Ocotilla within subg. Fouquieria are not well supported as monophyletic groups. Uncertainty regarding placement of the root within Fouquieriaceae makes discussion of character evolution within the family difficult. Three root positions are consistent with rate-constant evolution of ITS sequences: (1) along the branch to subg. Idria, (2) along the branch to subg. Bronnia, and (3) along the branch to subg. Fouquieria. The first root position listed is equivalent to an outgroup rooting. The third root position listed is equivalent to a midpoint rooting. Of the three root positions above, only the third is along a branch that may be sufficiently long to act as a long-branch attractor. The first two root positions would result in character reconstruction suggesting that succulent growth forms and white floral pigmentation are ancestral within the family, with shifts to woody growth forms and to red floral pigmentation. The third root position results in equivocal reconstruction of the ancestral growth form, equivocal reconstruction of ancestral floral pigmentation in parsimony trees, and a suggestion of white floral pigmentation as ancestral in ML trees. Two previous hypotheses of polyploid origins are compatible with the molecular data presented here: (1) origin of the tetraploid F. diguetii from F. macdougalii, and (2) allopolyploid origin of the hexaploid F. burragei from the tetraploid F. diguetii and a diploid species similar to F. splendens. Direct descent of the hexaploid F. columnaris from the subg. Bronnia lineage is not supported by our data. An amphiploid origin of F. columnaris involving a member of the subg. Bronnia lineage and an extinct taxon outside subg. Bronnia, however, cannot be ruled out.

Breastfeeding – a human rights issue?

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Lack of feminization of the cremaster nucleus by prenatal flutamide administration in the rat and pig.

The sexually dimorphic cremaster nucleus contains motoneurons that project via the genitofemoral nerve and theoretically direct androgen dependent testicular descent. The effects of flutamide on descent and masculinization of the cremaster nucleus were studied in the rat and pig. Flutamide was given to pregnant rats and pigs on days 16 to 22 and 65 to 113 of gestation, respectively. Tissues were perfused and examined at birth (pigs) or at age 30 days (rats). Spinal cords were removed, sectioned and immunohistochemically stained for serotonin (rats) or substance P (pigs) to demarcate the position of the cremaster nucleus and allow the determination of cremaster motoneuron number. After exposure to flutamide testes were undescended in 6 of 9 rats and 7 of 10 pigs. Cremaster motoneuron number per nucleus were 288 +/- 22 in control versus 250 +/- 27 in flutamide treated rats, and 165 +/- 28 in control versus 148 +/- 24 in flutamide treated pigs. The decrease in motoneuron number by flutamide was significant in both species (p < 0.02) but it did not approach the levels in female rats (93 +/- 11) and pigs (57 +/- 12). Cremaster motoneuron number did not correlate with testicular position. Porcine undescended testes were associated with a significant increase in mean gubernacular volume. Unlike other sexually dimorphic spinal cord nuclei masculinization of the cremaster nucleus appears to be largely androgen independent and it does not correlate with ipsilateral testicular descent. These data suggest that androgens do not mediate descent of the testes via the efferent limb of the genitofemoral nerve.

Estimation and Reliability of Molecular Sequence Alignments

The problem of estimating the relatedness of a pair of biological sequences is addressed. A stochastic model of sequence evolution is described that allows insertion and deletion as well as replacement of amino acid residues (or substitution of nucleotides) over time. An expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm that obtains maximum likelihood estimates of the model parameters is introduced. The method assumes that the sequences are related by descent from a common ancestor but the alignment (i.e., the precise evolutionary correspondence between residues in each sequence) is unknown. Results from the E-step of the EM algorithm are used to assess the likelihood that any two residues are related by direct descent from a common ancestor.

Venus Genetrix outside Rome

W HEN CAESAR ESTABLISHED in Rome a cult in honor of Venus Genetrix, he added a new dimension to Roman public religion. New cults had often been established in the past, but none had the personal associations that this one did. Although the epithet Genetrix had been used of Venus in poetry for over a century, it was as an ancestral goddess of the Roman people in general. Caesar's family, the Iulii, however, claimed direct descent from Venus through Iulus, the son of Aeneas, and apparently honored her as their particular ancestral deity. In establishing his cult of Venus Genetrix, Caesar was for all practical purposes giving a public form to this family cult, and thereby expressing in religious terms his unique standing in the state.1 This aspect of the cult has long been recognized and has rightly been the subject of much discussion, for it was in these personal associations that the cult was an innovation. In institution and organization, on the other hand, it was traditional enough: Caesar vowed a temple as a general during a battle, dedicated it as a Roman magistrate, and presumably entered an annual sacrifice into the civic calendar as pontifex maximus.2

The Shu Zhuang School

Among all the post-Zhuang Zi schools of Zhuang Zi philosophy, the Shu Zhuang school was the school of most direct descent. Its works included the twelve "chapters": "Qiushui" (Autumnal floods), "Zhi le" (Utter happiness), "Da sheng" (Arriving at life), "Shan mu" (The forest in the mountain), "Tian Zifang," "Zhi beiyou," "Geng Sang Chu," "Xu wugui," "Ze yang," "Wai wu" (External things), "Yuyan" (Fable), and "Lie Yukou." From the intellectual content and linguistic style of these essays, the works of the Shu Zhuang school appear to belong to a chronologically earlier category of the outer and miscellaneous chapters. The chief characteristic of this category of writings is that they inherited and basically developed the meaning of the ideas of the "inner chapters." They provided a more careful and detailed explanation of Zhuang Zi's theories of original source (bengen), true knowledge (zhenzhi), and the equality of things (qi wu), and they also developed other key ideas of Zhuang Zi, including his idea of human life. The Shu Zhuang school did, to a certain extent, reform and develop Zhuang Zi's ideas, but there is no major breakthrough (or breaking away) from his ideas, and, basically, the work of this school was to elaborate but not to innovate. The works of the Shu Zhuang school served as the major corpus of reference material for the study of Zhuang Zi's ideas. In Part 2 of this book, where we developed an interpretaion of Zhuang Zi's ideas, we have already touched on some of these essays written by the people of the Shu Zhuang school. Let us now analyze and critique the ideas of this school in a more concentrated fashion.