Individual Impulse Research Articles

Infanticide as Self-de-facement: Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point"

Based on Elizabeth Barrett Browning's The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point (1847), and trusting, at the same time, existential phenomenology and deconstruction, this paper aims at investigating a guilty individual's impulse for self-authorization (and self-narration). It discusses infant mortality, motherhood, and suffering, in which Elizabeth Barrett Browning's oeuvre abounds. Despite the unceasing critical interest in the poet's abolitionist leanings, the ontological uniqueness of The Runaway Slave is yet to be explored, having been dominated so far by militantly politicized researches on women's rights, the religious incongruities of Victorian culture, and the wavering solidarity that nineteenth-century England demonstrated for nations struggling under foreign despotism and illiterate self-government. Infanticide could be perceived as an act of self-de-facement, rather than of self-declaration. Considering muteness against the voicedness of the Face, this paper reveals the travail of a Self's inevitable sacrificial exposure to an Other, and by extension, the foundational role of alterity in authorial intentionality.

Infanticide as Self-de-facement: Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point"

Based on Elizabeth Barrett Browning's The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point (1847), and trusting, at the same time, existential phenomenology and deconstruction, this paper aims at investigating a guilty individual's impulse for self-authorization (and self-narration). It discusses infant mortality, motherhood, and suffering, in which Elizabeth Barrett Browning's oeuvre abounds. Despite the unceasing critical interest in the poet's abolitionist leanings, the ontological uniqueness of The Runaway Slave is yet to be explored, having been dominated so far by militantly politicized researches on women's rights, the religious incongruities of Victorian culture, and the wavering solidarity that nineteenth-century England demonstrated for nations struggling under foreign despotism and illiterate self-government. Infanticide could be perceived as an act of self-de-facement, rather than of self-declaration. Considering muteness against the voicedness of the Face, this paper reveals the travail of a Self's inevitable sacrificial exposure to an Other, and by extension, the foundational role of alterity in authorial intentionality.

Heidegger, Death and 'Originary-Ethics'

Outside the claim that Antigone’s blood relationship is a primal incentive towards her transgressive act, Heidegger’s readings of Antigone couch an overarching insight, which dovetails with the terrible (deinon) in Introduction to Metaphysics. For Heidegger, the deinon as the ‘terrible’ reconciles the historical role of Antigone with the utmost of risk of death. Antigone is able to preserve the essence of dik? through death’s radical negativity. In a remarkable passage, Heidegger says that the deinon is ‘the terrible in the sense of the overwhelming sway’. Instead of claiming that the deinon is transgression or kinship, and thereby reduce the terrible to an objective experience. I argue that the deinon resides precisely in the relationship between death and dik?. Death’s insurmountable risk is what preserves the deinon between fittingness and unfittingness; between homeliness and unhomeliness. I concur that this confrontation can only occur if Antigone’s impulse is neither her brother nor the gods. Both of these affirmations attenuate the risk of dik? since their essence reifies the inarticulate character of Antigone’s impulse. Antigone’s impulse carries that which cannot be named, or more acutely, that which elopes articulation. Antigone’s act is a consequence of a ‘risk’ that keeps itself more risky, more transgressive, and more terrible. As we ponder Heidegger’s understanding of death, it becomes clear that the ‘more terrible and distant’ is the limit beyond all limits. Death fulfills Antigone’s heroic venture in that her act is a concretion of the inarticulate nature of the deinon. The aim of this essay is to ascertain that neither familiar kinship nor transgression cohere with Heidegger’s claim on Antigone’s individual act. It suggests that dik? is the non-metaphysical risk that allows Antigone to envisage death’s radical negativity as the utmost limit that cannot be extinguished. The conclusion of this study ascertains that death’s radical negativity allows Antigone to perceive the finitude of her historical role as a citizen without naming her individual impulse, chiefly because she realizes that transgression is not a final resolve.

Influence of Sales Promotion on Impulse Buying: A Dual Process Approach

This study investigates how sales promotions influence the psychological processing that precedes impulse buying. Applying a dual process theory, we distinguish between Reflective and Impulsive processing pathways. Through a survey study on 470 consumers, we tested four sales promotions characterized by different rewards (monetary versus nonmonetary) and gratification typologies (immediate-reward versus delayed-reward). The study further analyses the effects of promotion-induced affect, in terms of arousal and valence, as well as the influence of individual impulse buying tendency and sales proneness. Results show that impulsive responses are influenced by promotion-induced affect and individual differences, while reflective responses differ depending on the reward typology. The results contribute to the extant literature by discriminating the effects of sales promotions on the Reflective and Impulsive systems. Implications for retailers and promotion managers concerning the formulation of effective promotion strategies are discussed.

Spatial Response Identification Enables Robust Experimental Ultrasound Computed Tomography.

Ultrasound computed tomography techniques have the potential to provide clinicians with 3-D, quantitative and high-resolution information of both soft and hard tissues such as the breast or the adult human brain. Their practical application requires accurate modeling of the acquisition setup: the spatial location, orientation, and impulse response (IR) of each ultrasound transducer. However, the existing calibration methods fail to accurately characterize these transducers unless their size can be considered negligible when compared with the dominant wavelength, which reduces signal-to-noise ratios below usable levels in the presence of high-contrast tissues such as the skull. In this article, we introduce a methodology that can simultaneously estimate the location, orientation, and IR of the ultrasound transducers in a single calibration. We do this by extending spatial response identification (SRI), an algorithm that we have recently proposed to estimate transducer IRs. Our proposed methodology replaces the transducers in the acquisition device with a surrogate model whose effective response matches the experimental data by fitting a numerical model of wave propagation. This results in a flexible and robust calibration procedure that can accurately predict the behavior of the ultrasound acquisition device without ever having to know where the real transducers are or their individual IR. Experimental results using a ring acquisition system show that SRI produces calibrations of significantly higher quality than standard methodologies across all transducers, both in transmission and in reception. Experimental full-waveform inversion (FWI) reconstructions of a tissue-mimicking phantom demonstrate that SRI generates more accurate reconstructions than those produced with standard calibration techniques.

Dynamic Binaural Rendering: The Advantage of Virtual Artificial Heads over Conventional Ones for Localization with Speech Signals

As an alternative to conventional artificial heads, a virtual artificial head (VAH), i.e., a microphone array-based filter-and-sum beamformer, can be used to create binaural renderings of spatial sound fields. In contrast to conventional artificial heads, a VAH enables one to individualize the binaural renderings and to incorporate head tracking. This can be achieved by applying complex-valued spectral weights—calculated using individual head related transfer functions (HRTFs) for each listener and for different head orientations—to the microphone signals of the VAH. In this study, these spectral weights were applied to measured room impulse responses in an anechoic room to synthesize individual binaural room impulse responses (BRIRs). In the first part of the paper, the results of localizing virtual sources generated with individually synthesized BRIRs and measured BRIRs using a conventional artificial head, for different head orientations, were assessed in comparison with real sources. Convincing localization performances could be achieved for virtual sources generated with both individually synthesized and measured non-individual BRIRs with respect to azimuth and externalization. In the second part of the paper, the results of localizing virtual sources were compared in two listening tests, with and without head tracking. The positive effect of head tracking on the virtual source localization performance confirmed a major advantage of the VAH over conventional artificial heads.

Impulse Bit Measurements from Metal Plasma Thruster

A torsional thrust stand, calibrated for impulse bits in the range of , was used to measure impulse bits from a metal plasma thruster. Impulse data were obtained on roughly 1400 shots, with metal plasma thruster targets of molybdenum, niobium, palladium, aluminum, and carbon. Model predictions (based on a simple circuit model and published plasma parameters) were validated by data from the calibrated torsional thrust stand. Over a typical 50-shot firing sequence, the impulse bits measured showed a coefficient of variation of approximately 5%. This implies that individual impulse bits of about can be imparted to a satellite with variation about the mean in a total impulse burst of . For a 20 kg satellite, this would result in a velocity increment of just , enabling very precise attitude control and fine positioning control of nano- and microsatellites. The metal plasma thruster uses solid metal propellant and hence requires no liquids, gases, flow valves, or flow controls and has no moving parts. Total impulse approximately provides orbit raising and drag compensation capability.

Direct Spatial-Fourier Regression of HRIRs from Multi-Elevation Continuous-Azimuth Recordings

Individual head-related impulse responses (HRIRs) have been recognized as a key to creating high-fidelity virtual auditory spaces. Thus, fast and comprehensive acquisition of individual HRIRs has been a subject of continued research. Traditional stop-and-go measurement at discrete angles is time consuming and additionally requires spatial interpolation that has been tackled by mapping discrete HRIR tables to a spatial Fourier format. Uniformly continuous-azimuth recording with a moving apparatus, on the other hand, reduces acquisition time, but is noise-limited due to a very short observation time per angle. In the interest of both fast acquisition and high accuracy, in this paper, we propose direct retrieval of a spatial Fourier format from continuous-azimuth recordings at multiple simultaneous discrete elevations. Specifically, we fit a generative continuous-azimuth model of the recorded signal, based on the spatial Fourier representation, to the continuous recordings of individuals by least-squares. In this approach, the model is meant to entirely capture the spatial variation of the HRIR in azimuth, while the duration of the recording then systematically controls the noise rejection. The proposed time-domain treatment is free of block artifacts, but is numerically demanding. We outline how to take the special structure of the involved covariance matrices into account. Experimental results with simulated data and real recordings demonstrate that the HRIR performance in terms of binaural cues and reproducibility benefits from the proposed algorithm. Our method is hence practical in terms of low measurement time and high performance, while benefiting from increased computational power of current computers.

The uniform validity of impulse response inference in autoregressions

Existing proofs of the asymptotic validity of conventional methods of impulse response inference based on higher-order autoregressions are pointwise only. In this paper, we establish the uniform asymptotic validity of conventional asymptotic and bootstrap inference about individual impulse responses and vectors of impulse responses when the horizon is fixed with respect to the sample size. For inference about vectors of impulse responses based on Wald test statistics to be uniformly valid, lag-augmented autoregressions are required, whereas inference about individual impulse responses is uniformly valid under weak conditions even without lag augmentation. We introduce a new rank condition that ensures the uniform validity of inference on impulse responses and show that this condition holds under weak conditions. Simulations show that the highest finite-sample accuracy is achieved when bootstrapping the lag-augmented autoregression using the bias adjustments of Kilian (1999). The conventional bootstrap percentile interval for impulse responses based on this approach remains accurate even at long horizons. We provide a formal asymptotic justification for this result.

Comparison of the safety and efficacy of the new method of en-bloc and conventional monopolar transurethral resection in the management of primary non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer

Objective: to comparе the safety and efficacy of the new method of en-bloc transurethral resection (TUR) and conventional TUR in management of primary non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer, and investigate long-term effects on tumour recurrence and progression.Materials and methods. A total of 914 patients with primary non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer were treated using TUR of bladder at the Minsk City Clinical Oncologic Dispensary in 2005 to 2016. For final analysis the data was underwent many-stage random sampling. Randomization was stratified according to sex and age, category T, tumour grade, EORTC risk groups. In total, 273 patients were selected: 136 in the new method of en-bloc TUR group (a study group) and 137 in the conventional TUR group (a control group). The new method of en-bloc TUR is based on using impulses of high-frequency current applied to the active electrode of the resectoscope. The impulse sequence and individual impulse duration within the interval from 0.1 to 1 second are controlled in the course of the operation. Five-year follow-up data of operative management were analyzed.Results. In event of the new method of en-bloc TUR there were no perioperative complications and no cases of conversion to conventional TUR. Postoperative complications were less frequently observed in the new method group compared with conventional TUR group. There were significant differences with major priority to the new method of en-bloc TUR in median time to recurrence (р = 0.032) and progression (р = 0.001), 5-year survival to recurrence (р = 0.0001) and progression (р = 0.001), 5-year cancer-specific survival (р = 0.033) and overall survival (р = 0.045) of patients.Conclusion. The new method of en-bloc TUR of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer was more effective than conventional TUR in reducing rates of intraand postoperative complications, and at the same time was applicable in all clinical cases, regardless of the tumor location in the bladder lumen, its size, vascularization, and growth pattern. The new method of en-bloc TUR also significantly improved the long-term cancer treatment results in patients with primary non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer.

The Uniform Validity of Impulse Response Inference in Autoregressions

Existing proofs of the asymptotic validity of conventional methods of impulse response inference based on higher-order autoregressions are pointwise only. In this paper, we establish the uniform asymptotic validity of conventional asymptotic and bootstrap inference about individual impulse responses and vectors of impulse responses at fixed horizons. For inference about vectors of impulse responses based on Wald test statistics to be uniformly valid, lag-augmented autoregressions are required, whereas inference about individual impulse responses is uniformly valid under weak conditions even without lag augmentation. We introduce a new rank condition that ensures the uniform validity of inference on impulse responses and show that this condition holds under weak conditions. Simulations show that the highest finite-sample accuracy is achieved when bootstrapping the lag-augmented autoregression using the bias adjustments of Kilian (1999). The resulting confidence intervals remain accurate even at long horizons. We provide a formal asymptotic justification for this result.

The Uniform Validity of Impulse Response Inference in Autoregressions

Existing proofs of the asymptotic validity of conventional methods of impulse response inference based on higher-order autoregressions are pointwise only. In this paper, we establish the uniform asymptotic validity of conventional asymptotic and bootstrap inference about individual impulse responses and vectors of impulse responses when the horizon is fixed with respect to the sample size. For inference about vectors of impulse responses based on Wald test statistics to be uniformly valid, lag-augmented autoregressions are required, whereas inference about individual impulse responses is uniformly valid under weak conditions even without lag augmentation. We introduce a new rank condition that ensures the uniform validity of inference on impulse responses and show that this condition holds under weak conditions. Simulations show that the highest finite-sample accuracy is achieved when bootstrapping the lag-augmented autoregression using the bias adjustments of Kilian (1999). The conventional bootstrap percentile interval for impulse responses based on this approach remains accurate even at long horizons. We provide a formal asymptotic justification for this result.

A raytracing method to create inhomogeneous wave fields for collaborative virtual reality systems

A new rapid, raytracing method was developed and implemented for collaborative virtual reality systems. The goal of the method was to auralize historic acoustic venues in Rensselaer’s Collaborative-Research Augmented Immersive Virtual Environment Laboratory (CRAIVE-Lab). The CRAIVE-Lab provides a physical/digital environment for collaborative tasks using seamless video from multiple projectors and a 128-channel wave-field system with 6 additional ceiling loudspeakers. For the raytracing method, scanned floor plans are marked up by the user to create a two-dimensional geometric room model to calculate the temporal and spatial early-reflection pattern for the horizontal array of 128 loudspeakers resulting in an individual impulse response for each of the 128 loudspeakers. For this purpose, the loudspeaker array is virtually placed within the floor plan to calculate the impulse responses at each loudspeaker position considering the angles of incidence. The user can define wall materials and a directivity pattern for each sound source. The late reverberation tail is generated using a stochastic model based on the volume and surface characteristics of the space. An individual exponentially decaying reverberation tail is computed for each of the 134 loudspeakers with frequency-specific decay times. [Work supported by NSF Grant Nos. #1229391 and CISL.]

Understanding nature of store ambiance and individual impulse buying tendency on impulsive purchasing behaviour: an emerging market perspective

The paper investigates the influence of store ambiance factors like music and light, sales personnel, display and colours, and instore crowd, impulse buying tendency and urge to buy on impulse buying. In the process, this study also validates the scales of these select variables in Indian context. The work has been divided into three parts—the study scales were developed and tested in the Indian context, followed by undertaking of test–retest and establishment of predictive validities in the second and third parts, respectively. The results reveal a positive relationship of shoppers’ impulse buying tendency and urge to buy with impulse buying. Also, two of the store-related environment factors—sales personnel and display and colour schema—have influence on impulsive buying among shoppers. However, contrary to the finding of earlier studies, the present paper noted no role of instore crowd and music and light in triggering and encouraging such behaviour. This contradiction in the findings of this paper is major contribution to the existing literature on antecedents influencing impulsive buying.

Room impulse response synthesis with device diffraction via image source method and finite element analysis

A method to create an accurate reproduction of the soundfield on the surface of a device was developed through the combination of the image source method and anechoic finite element analysis simulations. Typically, the image source method is unable to model diffraction of sound pressure around a device, and it would be impractical to model the wave equation in an entire room with finite element analysis due to computational constraints. By combining the two techniques, however, individual impulse responses from a precomputed finite element dataset can be assembled like image sources to derive transfer functions from sources in space to receivers on the surface of a device. The finite element dataset is comprised of anechoic simulations of plane waves incident on the device, where the number and direction of plane waves are chosen to maximize angular resolution. The direction of arrival from a given image source is matched with a simulated plane wave, and the corresponding anechoic impulse response is delayed and attenuated according to the image source’s time of travel and reflection path. Each reflection is constructed in this manner, and all are summed to create a synthesized reverberant impulse response that accurately portrays diffraction around the device.

The Joint Moment Distribution of the Lower Extremity During Tai Chi Gait

Background: As an alternative and complementary practice, Tai Chi is becoming increasingly popular in the United States, especially among the elderly. Although several interventional and qualitative biomechanical studies have been performed, a quantitative approach, such as multi-joints kinetics synergy of ankle, knee and hip, has yet to be performed. To better understand the biomechanics of Tai Chi, the characteristics of the total support moment synergy were studied during Tai Chi gait and compared to normal gait. Methods: Ten healthy, experienced (two years) Tai Chi Chuan practitioners performed normal walking and Tai Chi gait while data was collected using high-speed infrared motion analysis cameras. The joint distributions of the ankle, knee, and hip were calculated by ratio between individual joint moment impulse and total support moment impulse. Using a paired t-test, the joint moment distributions of the lower limb were compared between Tai Chi gait and normal walking. Results: The total support moment of Tai Chi walking was predominated by the contribution of the knee (ankle: 32.78 ± 1.25%; knee: 58.68 ± 1.84%; hip: 8.54 ± 1.91%) whereas the ankle was the primary contributor to support in normal walking (ankle: 67.86 ± 2.76%; knee: 26.18 ± 2.69%; hip: 5.96 ± 1.83%). The contributions of all three joints studied differed significantly (p<0.05) between Tai Chi gait and normal gait. Conclusion: This study demonstrates different kinetics synergy patterns between Tai Chi gait and normal gait. Importantly, Tai Chi gait places a high mechanical demand on the knee joint. Our results provide biomechanical basis of Tai Chi’s benefits on increasing knee joint range of motion and muscle strength, also suggest that prescribing Tai Chi as a potential therapy for people with joint disease, it needs a careful consideration of evaluating mechanical response of people with joint disease during Tai Chi exercise due to higher mechanical demand on the knee joint.

Pulse-frequency modulated guidance laws for a mortar missile with a pulse jet control mechanism

AbstractThe impact point dispersion of mortar missiles can be drastically reduced with a control ring of lateral pulse jets located around the centre of gravity and a homing head to measure or to derive estimates of appropriate missile-target states, e.g. the line-of-sight rates. A simulation model including a missile as a six-degree-of-freedom vehicle, a jet pulse flight control system, and a relative missile-to-target motion was used for the comparison of four guidance laws i.e. proportional navigation guidance, augmented proportional navigation, augmented proportional navigation with rendezvous, and adaptive sliding-mode guidance. This paper focuses on the efficiency of pulse jet control on miss distance, and thus makes the assumption that sensor measurements and the guidance states required to apply each of the guidance laws are perfectly known. Proportional navigation and the adaptive sliding mode guidance exhibit a large miss distance due to limited control authority. Augmented proportional navigation is slightly better than augmented proportional navigation with rendezvous for the same design parameters and they both give small miss distances with limited control authority, but they both require a free gyro. A proper selection of the design parameters — the number of pulse jets and the magnitude of the individual pulse jet thrust for a particular dispersion of flight parameters and the instant of the guidance start — is required to achieve optimum dispersion reduction. The minimum intensity of the individual pulse jet impulse required for the ‘pin point’ accuracy (the circular error probable smaller than 1m) of the mortar missile was determined for all presented guidance laws considering dispersion from the nominal trajectory.

Design optimisation of powers-of-two FIR filter using self-organising random immigrants GA

In this communication, we propose a novel design strategy of multiplier-less low-pass finite impulse response (FIR) filter with the aid of a recent evolutionary optimisation technique, known as the self-organising random immigrants genetic algorithm. Individual impulse response coefficients of the proposed filter have been encoded as sum of signed powers-of-two. During the formulation of the cost function for the optimisation algorithm, both the frequency response characteristic and the hardware cost of the discrete coefficient FIR filter have been considered. The role of crossover probability of the optimisation technique has been evaluated on the overall performance of the proposed strategy. For this purpose, the convergence characteristic of the optimisation technique has been included in the simulation results. In our analysis, two design examples of different specifications have been taken into account. In order to substantiate the efficiency of our proposed structure, a number of state-of-the-art design strategies of multiplier-less FIR filter have also been included in this article for the purpose of comparison. Critical analysis of the result unambiguously establishes the usefulness of our proposed approach for the hardware efficient design of digital filter.

Estimation of damping coefficient based on the impulse response of echogenic liposomes

Echogenic liposomes (ELIP) are under development as theragnostic ultrasound contrast agents for the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease. ELIP formulations have a phospholipid bilayer shell and are echogenic due to the presence of air; however, the exact location of the entrapped air has not been fully ascertained. Air pockets could either be stabilized by lipid monolayers within the liposome, or by the lipid bilayer shell. Our goal is to develop a more complete understanding of the encapsulation and shell properties of ELIP. This study demonstrates a method to estimate the damping coefficient using experimentally measured radius-time curves of the impulse response of individual ELIP using optical methods. The non-dimensional damping coefficient and the natural frequency of oscillation were estimated based on 140 individual impulse responses as measured with the Brandaris 128 fast-framing camera (15 Mfps) at 37°C. The damping coefficient was in agreement with the damping coefficient as measured previously using a broadband acoustic technique [Raymond et al., Ultrasound Med Biol. 40(2), 410–421 (2014)]. However, the natural frequency of oscillation was lower than previously reported.

Comparison of methods for constructing joint confidence bands for impulse response functions

In vector autoregressive analyses, confidence intervals for individual impulse responses are typically reported in order to indicate the sampling uncertainty in the estimation results. Various methods are reviewed, and a new method for the construction of joint confidence bands, given a prespecified coverage level, for the impulse responses at all horizons considered simultaneously, is proposed. The methods are compared in a simulation experiment, and recommendations for empirical work are provided.