House Of Cards Research Articles

On the existence of accessible paths in various models of fitness landscapes

We present rigorous mathematical analyses of a number of well-known mathematical models for genetic mutations. In these models, the genome is represented by a vertex of the $n$-dimensional binary hypercube, for some $n$, a mutation involves the flipping of a single bit, and each vertex is assigned a real number, called its fitness, according to some rules. Our main concern is with the issue of existence of (selectively) accessible paths; that is, monotonic paths in the hypercube along which fitness is always increasing. Our main results resolve open questions about three such models, which in the biophysics literature are known as house of cards (HoC), constrained house of cards (CHoC) and rough Mount Fuji (RMF). We prove that the probability of there being at least one accessible path from the all-zeroes node $\mathbf{v}^{0}$ to the all-ones node $\mathbf{v}^{1}$ tends respectively to $0$, $1$ and $1$, as $n$ tends to infinity. A crucial idea is the introduction of a generalization of the CHoC model, in which the fitness of $\mathbf{v} ^{0}$ is set to some $\alpha=\alpha_{n}\in[0,1]$. We prove that there is a very sharp threshold at $\alpha_{n}=\frac{\ln n}{n}$ for the existence of accessible paths from $\mathbf{v}^{0}$ to $\mathbf{v}^{1}$. As a corollary we prove significant concentration, for $\alpha$ below the threshold, of the number of accessible paths about the expected value (the precise statement is technical; see Corollary 1.4). In the case of RMF, we prove that the probability of accessible paths from $\mathbf{v}^{0}$ to $\mathbf{v}^{1}$ existing tends to $1$ provided the drift parameter $\theta=\theta_{n}$ satisfies $n\theta_{n}\rightarrow\infty$, and for any fitness distribution which is continuous on its support and whose support is connected.

Democrats against Democracy

In late 2011, the Wall Street Journal published a curiously titled editorial, “Democrats against Democracy.” Written by James Taranto, one of the Journal ’s conservative columnists, the piece documented a disturbing trend besetting democracy in America. Taranto claimed that American Democrats, or those who identified themselves as liberal and progressive, were increasingly turning their backs on democracy. Taranto was apprehensive that still more democrats would begin turning against democracy, spurred on by those on the American political left and by popular political movements like Occupy. In this essay, I take up and extend Taranto’s claim by exploring how democrats against democracy is manifesting in America beyond the relative minority who took to the streets as part of movements like Occupy. Basing my analysis on the Netflix series House of Cards, and the recent works of Sheldon Wolin and Henry Giroux, I demonstrate how standard it has become for democrats, broadly conceived, to use democracy as a means of producing antidemocratic and inequitable outcomes. I argue that Taranto’s analysis, though important, is tainted by his conservative outlook and, as such, misses the most pernicious and dystopic aspects of America’s democratic system, which not only permits but requires democrats to use democracy for their own ends. Here, it is not just left-leaning progressives and Democratic Party faithfuls we need to concern ourselves with. Private citizens, elected political representatives of all stripes, and the corporate and media elite are all engaged in the deceit, which has as its end point the decapitation of democracy.

Return of the Ridiculous, or Caricature as Political Cliché

Political caricature today is, in general, much less a comic form of cultural critique than a cliche. This essay examines the principles of and logics behind popular television shows like Scandal (2012–), House of Cards (2013–), and Alpha House (2013–), along with some commentary around them, and their presumed uncanny resemblance of “real” life. I take this combination of caricature and uncanniness seriously, arguing that the exaggerated portrayals in these programs do little to challenge preconceived notions of contemporary political culture in the United States. In a final analysis, I approach the problematic of using caricature to cater to conventional wisdom and propose that we reconsider the import of a comic uncanny as we (re)turn to the ridiculous.

Seriality and Persona

Persona is a public presentation of identity. One of the key values of a persona is its consistency in its presentation of the self. This article is designed to be the first exploratory steps and overview in charting the idea of seriality in relation to persona and its utility as a concept to describe the constancy and transformation of identity that is now elemental to understanding contemporary persona or the public presentation of the self and its online manifestations. Seriality in terms of persona is first investigated from its entertainment culture origins – with its use in the constitution of characters in fiction in novels, films, games and most prevalently in television. Several examples of serial persona will be analysed with an emphasis on how television has constructed often the most powerful personas: Kevin Spacey’s persona as Frank Underwood in House of Cards is discussed in greater detail in terms of the economic, cultural and affective value of serial persona and its associated formations of risk. It then explores the blending of the fictional and the real in seriality through how popular music performers – in particular Eminem - construct an authentic register of persona to allow for the exploration of the self through emotion and connection. The article concludes with thinking how seriality is connected to the constitutions of online identity and links the concept with aspects of virality and meme culture and their constructions of value, patterns and constancy as it relate to the presentation of the public self.

Balancing a House of Cards: Throughput legitimacy in Canadian Governance Networks

AbstractThis article examines the interaction of different modes and levels of legitimacy within network governance institutions over time. Drawing on new theoretical directions in European governance studies and empirical findings from Canada, we contend that whereas input legitimacy can be exchanged, or traded-off, with output legitimacy to reinforce the overall legitimacy of a network governance institution, “throughput legitimacy” functions as a necessary condition that sustains legitimacy over time. Through a comparison of homelessness governance networks in Toronto and Calgary, we find that throughput legitimacy carries an amplification effect that results in either virtuous or vicious cycles. That is, we argue and demonstrate that low throughput legitimacy in network governance institutions can effectively bring down the whole house of cards.

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A MULTI STOREY CAR PARKING STRUCTURE UNDER STRENGTH IRREGULARITIES BY PUSH OVER ANALYSIS

Buildings, which appeared to be strong enough, may crumble like houses of cards during earthquake and deficiencies may be exposed. In last decade, four devastating earthquakes of world have been occurred in India, and low to mild intensities earthquakes are shaking our land frequently. It has raised the questions about the adequacy of framed structures to resist strong motions, since many buildings suffered great damage or collapsed. A number of multi-storey car parking structures in urban India are constructed at airports, railway stations, etc. in regular and irregular shape for architectural, aesthetic or economic reasons to reduce the problem of parking. The materials being used for the structures may be having same properties and in some times it may vary in strength, mass etc. To evaluate the performance of framed buildings under future expected earthquakes, a non-linear static pushover analysis has been conducted on a typical multi-storey car parking structure. To achieve this objective, a 3D framed multi storey car parking structure (G+3) is modeled in SAP 2000 in which the structure is open in all stories with rigid floors. Such features are highly undesirable in buildings built in seismically active areas because of lesser mass of the structures, this has been verified in numerous experiences of strong shaking during the past earthquakes. We are investigating the effect of strength irregularities in the present multi-storey car parking structure of R/C frames on the seismic performance using nonlinear static push-over analysis based on computational models. From output non-linear analysis, we compare the Base shear and Displacement occurs in different strength irregularities for the different load combinations in seismic zone IV.

House of cards? India's rationales for contributing to UN peacekeeping

India has always been a major troop contributor to UN peacekeeping missions. In recent years, however, the benefits of these efforts have been increasingly questioned by some of the country's strategic elites, as are some of the guiding norms of contemporary peace operations. This article scrutinizes the contemporary and historical plausibility of both ideational and materialistic explanations of India's comprehensive peacekeeping engagement. Against this backdrop, it provides an estimation of the likelihood of a future Indian retreat from these efforts. Our conclusions are neither reassuring nor alarmist. Status and economic considerations, normative disagreements, and growing frustration with the stalemate of UN reforms all complicate India's peacekeeping policies. Neither of them, however, unambiguously hints at a complete withdrawal.

Laboratory measurements of compressional and shear wave speed and attenuation in muddy sediments

As demonstrated by William M. Carey's field measurements in Dodge Pond, muddy sediments are characterized by a slow compressional wave speed and a low compressional wave attenuation [Carey and Pierce, POMA (5), 7001, 2009]. To gain insight into the measured data, a theoretical treatment of muddy sediments, named the Card House theory [Pierce and Carey, POMA (5), 7002, 2009], was developed. According the theory, isomorphous substitution causes each mud platelet to carry a net negative charge, and the resulting electrical interaction between platelets is responsible for creating a card-house structure. In this work, we examine laboratory measurements of compressional and shear wave properties in mud. Compared to the Dodge Pond measurements, which were affected by the size and distribution of gas bubbles present in the mud, the volume of gas in the laboratory samples was reduced by applying a vacuum. The estimated compressional wave speed is consistent with predicted values for a relatively gas-free mud. The estimated shear wave speed compares favorably with predicted values from the Card House theory. The electrochemical basis of the Card House model and its acoustical implications are also investigated. [Work supported by ARL:UT IR&D.]

Putting television ‘aside’: novel narration in House of Cards

Television serial formats over the past decade have evolved considerably under the influence of new media technologies. Hand in hand with the advent of new distribution channels, new viewing habits and consequently new narrative features have developed in serial filmic narration. Netflix's 2013 release of House of Cards – with episodes directed by David Fincher and starring Kevin Spacey in the lead role – adds to this development. While implicitly drawing attention to the new format's structural and narrative logic, the series borrows strongly from literary genres, including the novel and drama. One of the most distinct features of the series is the theatrical aside, in which the protagonist seemingly addresses an extradiegetic audience. Making the aside, together with the rhetorical figure of metalepsis its starting point, this inquiry will provoke larger questions of filmic serial storytelling in general, and the role of an embodied filmic narrator figure in particular.

Media Programming in an Era of Big Data

While scholars are producing a growing body of work that speculates on the theoretical significance of “algorithmic culture,” where the role of human agents in recommending and sharing cultural objects are replaced by machines, very little of this work examines the algorithms themselves and how the different kinds of knowledge they produce affect existing cultural practices, including production practices. In this essay, I use the original Netflix series House of Cards to think through some of the ways that Big Data is influencing the television industry and some of the questions that it raises for both the study and operation of the media industries. Ultimately, I argue that media industry scholarship, which is rooted in methods of observation, interview, and ethnography, could add a great deal to ongoing scholarly discussions of algorithmic culture.

A Clash of Civilizations? U.S. Army, Italian Women and the Gender Shock of 1943–1945

In July 1943, following their victory in North Africa, the combined AngloAmerican forces led by General Dwight Eisenhower undertook an invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky). A few German divisions present on the island are usually thought to have offered much more of a fierce resistance than entire Italian armies. The obviously low morale of their surrendering troops compelled some high ranking fascists (among them Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini’s minister of foreign affairs, son-in-law and heir apparent) to remove the Duce from his position as Italy’s totalitarian dictator on July 25, 1943. Paradoxically, a regime praising the Italians’ manhood – by some even accused of “an obsession of virility”3 – was crumbling like a house of cards as a result of a lack of fighting spirit among its troops on the one hand and the betrayal of its leaders, including the incarnation of fascist virilities – the popular and charming husband of the Duce’s beloved daughter, on the other. However, that was hardly the last paradox of the Italian transition from the Axis to the Allied camp. King Victor Emmanuel III’s newly appointed Prime

Fifteen Aphorisms

May–August 2014 • 19 illustration by michel devrient My senses allow my brain to know precisely where it’s lost. Studio windows, in all likelihood, face north so painters won’t have to bear the sun’s irony. An airplane seat’s soft upholstery conceals a steel rib-cage the way a piece of cheese does a rat trap. Thought—expression’s well broughtup daughter who carries on as though she’s the mother. The altruist—only an adulterous egoist. Earth has no history. The geologist is its ventriloquist. Were I God, I’d regret not consecrating my Sunday to the creation of the bicycle. Not easy to fathom how a stream can speak as it flows. Travel’s excitement pales beside the look of my dog left at home. My head decides where, my feet whether. The cerebral hemispheres: a leftwing invention inspired by the right. I’m a bit like the watch that, with Swiss precision, discloses the jitters of the maker who built it. I listen to the night the way others eavesdrop at a door. I catch the rain like I overhear a conversation. As I age I’m gradually acquiring the stability of a collapsed house of cards. A few seconds are enough for my dog to understand that the reflection is not himself. A whole lifetime probably won’t get me there. Translations from the French By Robin Magowan Michel Devrient is a Swiss painter-draughtsman-cartoonist domiciled in rural Burgundy. Among his books are The Monday Painter, Doubles (dialogues in drawing with Virgil Burnett), and a collection of aphorisms, Martini with a Splash of Dawn. There are several books of drawings, including Chausse-Trapes, Nous et les autres, Devrient dessine, and Phénix & Co. Robin Magowan has recently adapted The Garden of Amazement: Selected Gems from Saeb (1590–1676). He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Fifteen Aphorisms Michel Devrient Michel Devrient’s Art of Drawing Find a large piece of paper. It should not be standard format, not classical raisin or jesus, but a big sprawling surface, two meters at least from edge to edge. Don’t worry if it is bent or creased, or even torn. Such concern has nothing to do with drawing. Open the window so that the landscape and everything it contains may flow in about the paper. Then begin to draw. The infinitive “to draw” should be interpreted very loosely. It means, if it can be defined at all in this context, to let things happen to the paper. For example, marks might be made on it with a variety of instruments including pens, pencils, brushes, crayons, teacups, jam spoons, fingernails, trouser seats, dog noses, cat whiskers, mouse feet, and so on. A friend comes into the room and flicks cigarette ash on the paper, so much the better. If another friend comes into the room and spills wine on the paper, better yet. If a child comes into the room, invite the child to play with the paper by drawing or writing on it. If a sparrow flies through the room and leaves a small dropping on the paper, rejoice in this event. If a crow flies through the room and leaves a large dropping on the paper, rejoice more vigorously. If an owl or a hawk or an eagle visits, sing “Hallelujah!” In fact, anything that comes in from outside must be encouraged to settle on the paper: dust pollen, seedlings, insects—any wind freight at all. Let the sun shine on the paper by day; the moon by night. If there is a storm, accept its raindrops as willingly as the plowed ground does in August. Don’t worry about finishing the drawing; it will finish itself. I learned this method for making drawings from my neighbor Michel, who was using it when I first met him back in the sixties . . . – Virgil Burnett, from The Monday Painter, by Michel Devrient, tr. Robin Magowan (Pasdeloup Press, 2009) ...

Portfolio: Material Specificity and the Index of the Feminine

My practice has often been understood to act, in part, through its materiality, which I refer to as a translation. In a work like Sarah, which placed four slabs of lipstick in reference to the hard, cold steel of Richard Serra's One Ton Prop (House of Cards), the materials signify and act in gendered ways. The positions of masculine or feminine are not fixed, and I build away from initial art-historical references and offer the potential for ever-changing canons and trajectories of art. Significantly, scholarship in transgender studies explores the biological and cultural along with the use/absence of make-up as a transmogrifier. The materials are not essentially feminine, but we experience them through a culture that desires bodies to be gendered and sexualized. Although these bodies are absent in much of my work, their sexualized presence is referenced through the cosmetics I employ.

Isotropic/nematic and sol/gel transitions in aqueous suspensions of size selected nontronite NAu1

AbstractThe phase behaviour of aqueous suspensions of NAu1 nontronite was studied on size-selected particles by combining osmotic pressure measurements, visual observations under polarized light, rheological experiments and Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS). NAu1 suspensions display a liquid crystalline behaviour as they exhibit a Isotropic/Nematic (I/N) transition that occurs before the sol/gel transition for ionic strengths below 10–3M/L. This I/N transition shifts towards lower volume fractions for increasing particle anisotropy and its position in the phase diagram agrees well with the theoretical predictions for platelets. SAXS measurements reveal the presence of characteristic interparticular distances in the isotropic, nematic and gel phases. In the gel phase a local lamellar order is observed which shows that the “house of cards” model is not appropriate for describing the gel structure in swelling clay materials at low ionic strength. Furthermore, by combining results from osmotic pressure measurements and X-ray scattering, it appears that the pressure of the system can be well described using a simple Poisson-Boltzmann treatment based on the repulsion between charged infinite parallel planes. In terms of rheological properties, even if the thermodynamical status of the sol/gel transition remains partially unclear, the yield stress and elasticity of the gels can be easily renormalized for all particle sizes on the basis of the volume of the particles. Furthermore, rheological modelling of the flow curves shows that for all the particles an approach based on excluded volume effects captures most features of nontronite suspensions.

A discussion of possible measurement techniques for muddy sediments and of the related modeling challenges

Present paper draws on recent work of the late William Carey at Dodge Pond, CT, and on related modeling efforts at RPI. Carey affirmed that muddly sediments can have a substantial air bubble content. The water, solid particles (clay), and bubbles lead to a low sound speed that for low frequencies is explained by a modification of the Mallock-Wood formula. Independent measurements of mass density and sound speed should enable estimates of the fractional composition. The attenuation of sound in muddy sediments without bubbles is small, much smaller than of sandy sediments, and this is explained in terms of the card house model because of the very small size of the clay particles. The larger bubbles are randomly dispersed and have flattened shapes (also explained by the card-house model), and lead to scattering and reflection phenomena. Speculations are made as to whether inversion techniques can be devised to determine bubble shapes and size distributions. The small shear modulus of muddy segments has been tentatively explained in terms of electrostatic effects inherent to the card-house model, and this can possibly be measured by interface waves. Paper also suggests that penetrometer measurements, guided by theoretical modeling, may lead to useful inferences.

A Cacophony of Dissonance

A Cacophony of Dissonance

House of Cards: The Relevance of Legitimate Expectations under Fair and Equitable Treatment Provisions in Investment Treaty Law

This article examines the common practice of considering the relevance of an investor's 'legitimate expectations' in determining whether they have been afforded fair and equitable in investment treaty law disputes. The legitimate expectations doctrine has been divined from fair and equitable treatment provisions commonly found in international investment treaties. This article examines the different types and sources of fair and equitable provisions from which the legitimate expectations doctrine has been derived, and examines the development of both the customary international law minimum standard and the development of the law in arbitral practice. On examination, it is considered that neither customary international law nor the standard fair and equitable treatment provisions found in international investment treaties provide a sufficient basis for the consideration given to an investor's legitimate expectations in investment treaty law; this has been rather an invention of arbitrators. Furthermore, many arbitral tribunals have been severely lacking in grounding their decisions in law, generally citing other tribunal decisions which do not create law, or no law at all. Finally, it is considered that in addition to being a doctrine that has made its way into the canon of investment treaty law without any legal basis, the expectations of investors should be disavowed as an inappropriate standard by which to judge state conduct.

The 2011 Proposal for a Regulation on a Common European Sales Law: A House of Cards? – The Chapeau Rules as Foundations and the Necessary Extensions of the Personal and Territorial Scopes of Application

The EU has come a long way of various European Contract Law initiatives, consultation rounds with stakeholders and academic and political debates7 to arrive at the 2011 Proposal of the European Parliament and the Council for a Regulation on a Common European Sales Law (the Proposal).8 It is a Proposal for a second regime on the sale of goods which would be optional to opt-into by parties and would exist next to national contract laws of Member States for cross-border sale of goods transactions.9 However, in spite of all of these efforts to achieve a possible future Common European Sales Law, it is striking that most of the work and discussions were solely focused on the substantive rules which are to make up the future European tool.10 Thereby, the equally important chapeau rules, which set out the scopes of application of an instrument, remained largely neglected. The ratione personae (personal scope application) and ratione loci (territorial scope application) of the envisaged instrument constitute an intrinsic part of trying to create an instrument which tackles the barrier to trade consisting of different national contract law regimes. Setting the scopes too narrow (as it is the case in the current Proposal), making limitations on who can make use of the future instrument and in what specific situations, leads to undesirable practical results and ultimately makes the efforts of over two decades being in vain, for the attractiveness of such a Common European Sales Law (CESL) is greatly depreciated. The personal and territorial scopes of application of the Proposal are to be analysed carefully and thoroughly to facilitate the success of the envisaged instrument and achieve the Commission’s aim of enhancing the functioning the Internal Market of the EU. This paper shows that the current Proposal for a CESL is build on such weak ‘foundations’, consisting out of the scopes of application, that there is a very high probability of it collapsing like a house of cards. It will argue that there is a pressing need for an elaborative consideration and revision of the personal and territorial scopes of application by the European legislator in order to guarantee success.

Mineralogical and microstructural characteristics of historic Roman cement renders from Budapest, Hungary

Abstract Roman cements, one of the most extensively produced types of hydraulic binders of the second half of the 19th century, played an important role in the architecture of many European countries. This paper deals with the chemical-mineralogical and microstructural characterisation of historic Roman cement renders from Budapest, Hungary. Different microscopic techniques were used on polished thin sections and fracture surfaces in order to understand the method of producing these renders and the effect of urban pollution on them. The renders exhibited characteristics typical to a Roman cement mortar, such as high binder to aggregate ratios (b/a), mostly fine-grained aggregates and high capillary porosity, but without the shrinkage cracks that are also normally present. This research suggests that coarse residual cement grains may have acted in a manner similar to aggregates by absorbing stress and thereby reducing the formation of shrinkage cracks. Based on the mineral characteristics of residual cement grains, the samples could be divided into two groups, which correspond to either a higher or lower temperature of calcination of the original source material of the cement. Chemical characteristics of the binders suggest the presence of intermixed CaCO 3 originating from the carbonation of hydration products and partly from residual calcium carbonate of the raw material. Despite dense and often impermeable coats applied in later renovations and exposure to a polluted urban environment, which resulted in formation of gypsum on the surface of the renders, the samples show good to excellent state of preservation after more than a century. The strong “house of cards”-like arrangement of the complex C-(A)-S-H-type phases is responsible for both the high capillary porosity and the good resistance of Roman cement renders to atmospheric pollution and potentially damaging salts such as Na- and K-chlorides which are found near the base of the building due to sidewalk de-icing. These results help to better understand the behaviour of historic Roman cement renders, which in turn assists in making good decisions in choosing a repair material to future restorations of 19th century facades built with this material.

Lessons of the HealthSouth Fraud: An Insider's View

T he night was December 6, 2005. I could not go to sleep. As I tossed and turned, my entire life replayed in my mind. How did I get to where I was? I went all the way back to my childhood. I was raised in a middle-income home with an older brother and sister and two loving parents. We were far from rich, but had what we needed. I was a normal kid. I loved riding my bike and being with friends. I never got into any real trouble. My thoughts on December 6 moved forward to college. I made good grades and was extremely involved in extracurricular activities. Lying in bed, my thoughts drifted forward. When I graduated from college, I had a job waiting at Ernst & Young. I passed the CPA exam, and for the next five years served as an auditor and specialized in the healthcare industry. I was surrounded by a lot of smart, hardworking people. As is so common with staff within CPA firms, with five years’ experience, my phone began ringing with various job offers. Then one day, a former colleague called and wanted to have lunch. An opportunity had opened at a small startup company named HealthSouth Rehabilitation Corporation. The next day, I interviewed with HealthSouth’s CEO and Founder, Richard Scrushy. He was extremely engaging and had a strong vision for the growth of the company. He also talked a lot about making money. I believed it was a great opportunity and accepted the position. The years rolled by and the company became enormously successful. During those years, HealthSouth grew from a dozen locations to over two thousand, located in all 50 states and five countries. I had risen from a middle-management position to become the company’s CFO. With a large salary, bonuses, and stock options, I had become financially successful. From the outside looking in, it was a dream come true. But why was I thinking about all of this on December 6? Let me tell you where I was. I was not at home in my comfortable bed that night. I was on the top rack of a bunk bed in a federal prison camp, looking at spending the next two years of my life there. All because I had become involved in a $3 billion accounting fraud at HealthSouth. Never in a million years would I have imagined being in prison. After all, I had always done all the ‘‘right things.’’ How on earth had I become a convicted felon? Simple. I crossed the line. In business and in our personal lives, we are constantly faced with situations of crossing the line. I am not writing about $3 billion frauds, I am talking about everyday life—the small temptations to cross the line are always there. Therein lies the danger. Facing a new line will create trepidation, but may be answered with the simple rationalizations, ‘‘It’s not that big of a deal,’’ ‘‘Everyone does it,’’ ‘‘It is