Mirror Theory Research Articles

The Mirror Theory: Parallels between Open Angle and Angle Closure Glaucoma.

Glaucoma is a widespread ophthalmological disease, with a high impact and frequent visual morbidity. While the physiopathology of the two types of primary glaucoma (open angle and angle closure) has been studied, there seems to be little relationship between the two. In this study, we gather clinical and preclinical data to support the idea that the two primary glaucomas are "mirrored" in terms of morphological parameters and disease physiopathology. In short, primary angle closure glaucoma (PACG) is associated with hyperopia and low axial length, and primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) is associated with myopia and high axial length. Moreover, in PACG and in primary angle closure or primary angle closure suspect cases, while there is extensive iridotrabecular contact, the intraocular pressure (IOP) is still maintained in the lower half of the normal range throughout the evolution of the disease, which suggests a baseline trabecular hyperfiltration in PACG. In the opposite case, myopic eyes with open angles and a higher risk of developing POAG often have a baseline IOP in the upper half of the normal range, suggesting a baseline trabecular hypofiltration. As we explore clinical, genetic and animal model data regarding these opposing aspects, we hypothesize the existence of a mirroring relationship between PACG and POAG. Defining the relationship between the two potentially blinding diseases, with a high prevalence worldwide, may aid in understanding the mechanisms better and refining diagnosis and treatment. Thus, our theory has been named the Mirror Theory of Primary Glaucomas.

The Eve Made from the Rib of Female Spectators: The Construction of Rudolph Valentino’s Effeminate Screen Characters Under the Female Gaze—Case Studies of Three Films Starring Rudolph Valentino in 1921

The objective of this essay is to analyze the construction of Rudolph Valentino’s effeminate cinematic characters in the early 1920s Hollywood cinema, specifically case studying three films, namely, Camille (1921), The Sheik (1921), and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921). Through textual analysis, it would illustrate how these characters were crafted in terms of three pivotal aspects: melancholic romanticism, ethnic exoticism, and meticulously designed aesthetics, which together foster the sense of otherness and objectification that imitate the common situation of womanhood, and thus evoked profound resonance among female spectators. Through referring to the gaze theory of Laura Mulvey and the mirror theory of Jacques Lacan, this essay would further distinguish the male and female gaze, arguing that Valentino’s on-screen presence facilitated a reversal of the conventional looking pleasure and created a unique form of female gaze that mirrored their subjective projection and the experience of being gazed upon. This positioning of Valentino’s characters as both the object and the embodiment of feminine sensuality and suffering also symbolizes the self-awareness and empowerment in female spectatorship.

Deformation analysis of ground and existing tunnel induced by overlapped curved shield tunneling

The deformation caused by tunnel excavation is quite important for safety, especially when it is adjacent to the existing tunnel. Nevertheless, the investigation of deformation characteristics in overlapped curved shield tunneling remains inadequate. The analytical solution for calculating the deformation of the ground and existing tunnel induced by overlapped curved shield tunneling is derived by the Mirror theory, Mindlin solution and Euler-Bernoulli-Pasternak model, subsequently validated through both finite element simulation and field monitoring. It is determined that the overcutting plays a crucial role in the ground settlement resulting from curved shield tunneling compared to straight shield tunneling. The longitudinal settlement distribution can be categorized into five areas, with the area near the tunnel surface experiencing the most dramatic settlement changes. The deformation of the existing tunnel varies most significantly with turning radius compared to tunnel clearance and grouting pressure, especially when the turning radius is less than 30 times the tunnel diameter. The tunnel crown exhibits larger displacement than the tunnel bottom, resulting in a distinctive 'vertical egg' shape. Furthermore, an optimized overcutting mode is proposed, involving precise control of the extension speed and angular velocity of the overcutting cutter, which effectively mitigates ground deformation, ensuring the protection of the existing tunnel during the construction.

Personalized Daily Hand Movement Training Methods and Effects: A Case Study

This study proposes a method for personalized daily hand exercise training to address the lack of personalization in rehabilitation training and its disconnect from daily life. This research aims to evaluate the impact of Happiness Memory Therapy on patients’ hand function through gamified daily life training. The methodology integrates Happiness Memory Therapy and Positive Mirror Theory to assist in life game design. Patient interviews and empathy are used to gather life experiences, interests, hobbies, and challenges, which are then incorporated into personalized rehabilitation training. The experimental process includes pre- and post-intervention tests to assess changes in subjective well-being (SWLS), happiness (SHS), positive and negative emotions (PANAS), psychological well-being (PWB), and hand function impairment (DASH). The results show that the intervention significantly enhances patients’ subjective well-being, happiness, positive emotions, and reduces negative emotions and hand function impairments. In conclusion, Happiness Memory Therapy and Positive Mirror Theory are effective in developing personalized daily hand exercise training methods and have a significant impact on improving the psychological health and quality of life of stroke patients, offering new ideas and methods for personalized rehabilitation training.

Discrete global symmetries: gauging and twisted compactification

Discrete global symmetries of 4d N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 2 SCFTs are studied via two operations: gauging and twisted compactification. We consider gauging of discrete symmetries in several well-known 4d N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 2 SCFTs, including SU(n) SQCD with 2n flavors, theories of class S\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{S} $$\\end{document} of type A2n−1, and Argyres-Douglas theories of type (AN, AN), as well as propose new 4d SCFTs as a result. The wreathing technique, which involves gauging a subgroup of the automorphism group of the quiver diagram of the corresponding 3d mirror theory, is exploited. This allows us to understand several properties of discretely gauged theories, including moduli spaces and how discrete gauging affects the mixed ’t Hooft anomaly between the 1-form symmetry and the 0-form flavor symmetry. Many examples are viewed through the lens of the Argyres-Seiberg duality and its generalization. We also examine discrete gauging of SU(2) SQCD with 4 flavors by various ℤ2 and ℤ2 × ℤ2 subgroups of the permutation group S4 using the superconformal index. Regarding compactification, we propose a magnetic quiver for 4d N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 2 SU(n) SQCD with 2n flavors compactified on a circle with a ℤ2 twist. The twisted compactification by non-invertible symmetries of the 4d N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 4 SYM theory with gauge group SU(N) is revisited. The non-invertible symmetry naturally gives rise to a ℤk action on the scalar fields parametrizing the moduli space. Upon examining the ℤk invariant chiral ring of the Higgs branch, we find that, in addition to the largest branch of the moduli space that is expected to be captured by the ABJ(M) theory, there exist in general nilpotent operators that lead to a branch of the moduli space which is a radical ideal.

Building PRFs from TPRPs: Beyond the Block and the Tweak Length Bounds

A secure n-bit tweakable block cipher (TBC) using t-bit tweaks can be modeled as a tweakable uniform random permutation, where each tweak defines an independent random n-bit permutation. When an input to this tweakable permutation is fixed, it can be viewed as a perfectly secure t-bit random function. On the other hand, when a tweak is fixed, it can be viewed as a perfectly secure n-bit random permutation, and it is well known that the sum of two random permutations is pseudorandom up to 2n queries.A natural question is whether one can construct a pseudorandom function (PRF) beyond the block and the tweak length bounds using a small number of calls to the underlying tweakable permutations. A straightforward way of constructing a PRF from tweakable permutations is to xor the outputs from two tweakable permutations with c bits of the input to each permutation fixed. Using the multi-user security of the sum of two permutations, one can prove that the (t + n − c)-to-n bit PRF is secure up to 2n+c queries.In this paper, we propose a family of PRF constructions based on tweakable permutations, dubbed XoTPc, achieving stronger security than the straightforward construction. XoTPc is parameterized by c, giving a (t + n − c)-to-n bit PRF. When t < 3n and c = t/3 , XoTPt/3 becomes an (n + 2t/3 )-to-n bit pseudorandom function, which is secure up to 2n+2t/3 queries. It provides security beyond the block and the tweak length bounds, making two calls to the underlying tweakable permutations. In order to prove the security of XoTPc, we extend Mirror theory to q ≫ 2n, where q is the number of equations. From a practical point of view, our construction can be used to construct TBC-based MAC finalization functions and CTR-type encryption modes with stronger provable security compared to existing schemes.

Cascading Four Round LRW1 is Beyond Birthday Bound Secure

In CRYPTO’02, Liskov et al. introduced the concept of a tweakable block cipher, a novel symmetric key primitive with promising applications. They put forth two constructions for designing such tweakable block ciphers from conventional block ciphers: LRW1 and LRW2. While subsequent efforts extended LRW2 to achieve security beyond the birthday bound (e.g., cascaded LRW2 in CRYPTO’12 by Landecker et al.), the extension of LRW1 remained unexplored until Bao et al.’s work in EUROCRYPT’20 that considered cascaded LRW1, a one-round extension of LRW1 - entailing masking the LRW1 output with the given tweak and re-encrypting it with the same block cipher. They showed that CLRW1 offers security up to 22n/3 queries. However, this result was challenged by Khairallah’s recent birthday bound distinguishing attack on cascaded LRW1, effectively refuting the security claim of Bao et al. Consequently, a pertinent research question emerges: How many rounds of cascaded LRW1 are required to obtain security beyond the birthday bound? This paper addresses this question by establishing that cascading LRW1 for four rounds suffices to ensure security beyond the birthday bound. Specifically, we demonstrate that 4 rounds of CLRW1 guarantees security for up to 23n/4 queries. Our security analysis is based from recent advancements in the mirror theory technique for tweakable random permutations, operating within the framework of the Expectation Method.

Italian Immigrants Culture in New York: A Comparative Study on The Godfather II and Mean Streets Through the Lens of Audiovisual Language

This study explores the dynamics of cultural integration, assimilation, and identity formation of Italian immigrants in American films in the 20th century. It makes a comparative analysis of two iconic films, The Godfather II and Mean Streets, through the lens of audiovisual language. Drawing upon the semiotics theory, mirror theory, and root theory, this research aims to analyze the dynamic changes in culture, economy, and emotions experienced by Italian immigrants. The study is anchored in three key aspects. First, it focuses on the identity politics of Italian immigrants in the United States, with a spotlight on second-generation immigrants. Unlike the first generation, they retain a strong sense of separation from their Italian roots, exhibiting few traces of a transitional identity arc. The second aspect revolves around the directors reconstruction of national history in a global context and its connection to the Mafias influence on economic predicament. Lastly, by looking into the narrative symbols in these films, this research continuously explores the emotional dynamics in the process of cultural integration.

Representation in Children’s Book Council of Australia Early Childhood and Picture Book Awarded Books (2018-2020)

The call for more diversity in children’s literature has increased over the past decade. Many researchers draw on Rudine Sims Bishop’s theory of Windows, Mirrors, and Sliding Glass Doors (1990) to argue that children need to be able to see their lives reflected in the media they consume, not just as caricatures or tokenistic characters, but as protagonists and everyday people. The prizing of children’s literature acts as a stamp of approval for what is considered quality literature, and often results in an undiscerning market that purchases texts simply because of their awarded prize. The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year award is one of the most prestigious literary awards available in the country, particularly for younger readers. This critical content analysis examines the winners, honoured, and short-listed texts for the Book of the Year awards in the Picture Book and Early Childhood categories for the years 2018-2020. The analysis found that the majority of the texts reinforce the current social and cultural discourse of the straight, white, cis-gendered, able-bodied male. Given the social and cultural impact of the CBCA awards, it is essential that the discourses and ways of being that are represented in the awarded texts are critically investigated to ensure they are representative of their readership and do not perpetuate a damaging message to readers about their or others’ identity.

Children’s Pictures and Mirror Theory

Children’s Pictures and Mirror Theory

Interpretation of Two Female Cyborg Body Forms based on the Films Her and Titanium

With the assistance of psychoanalytic theory (the Oedipal complex developed by Freud), Neo-Freudian theory regarding abnormal behavior, female mirror theory given by Luce Irigaray, female movie theory by De Lauretis, and female sexuality theory, this paper combines them with the lens language of these two movies to explore the potential implication of two types of cyborg female images in the body aspect of Titanium and Her, which is based on the two paths of reading cyborg female simages brought by Anne Balsamo.

A tale of 2-groups: Dp(USp(2N)) theories

A 1-form symmetry and a 0-form symmetry may combine to form an extension known as the 2-group symmetry. We find the presence of the latter in a class of Argyres-Douglas theories, called Dp(USp(2N)), which can be realized by ℤ2-twisted compactification of the 6d mathcal{N} = (2, 0) of the D-type on a sphere with an irregular twisted puncture and a regular twisted full puncture. We propose the 3d mirror theories of general Dp(USp(2N)) theories that serve as an important tool to study their flavor symmetry and Higgs branch. Yet another important result is presented: we elucidate a technique, dubbed “bootstrap”, which generates an infinite family of {D}_p^b(G) theories, where for a given arbitrary group G and a parameter b, each theory in the same family has the same number of mass parameters, same number of marginal deformations, same 1-form symmetry, and same 2-group structure. This technique is utilized to establish the presence or absence of the 2-group symmetries in several classes of {D}_p^b(G) theories. In this regard, we find that the Dp(USp(2N)) theories constitute a special class of Argyres-Douglas theories that have a 2-group symmetry.

Transdiagnostic investigation into the relationship between mirror neuron system activity, echo-phenomena, and theory of mind in major psychoses.

The association between social cognition and putative mirror neuron system (MNS)-activity in major psychoses might be contingent upon frontal dysregulation. We used a transdiagnostic ecological approach to enrich a specific behavioral phenotype (echophenomena or hyper-imitative states) across clinical diagnoses (mania and schizophrenia) to compare behavioral and physiological markers of social cognition and frontal disinhibition. We examined 114 participants with schizophrenia (N=53) and mania (N=61) for the presence and severity of echo-phenomena (echopraxia, incidental, and induced echolalia) using an ecological paradigm to simulate real-life social communication. Symptom severity, frontal release reflexes, and theory of mind performance were also assessed. In a proportion of these participants with (N=20) and without (N=20) echo-phenomena, we compared motor resonance (motor evoked potential facilitation during action observation compared to static image viewing) and cortical silent period (CSP) as putative markers of MNS-activity and frontal disinhibition, respectively, using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. While the prevalence of echo-phenomena was similar between mania and schizophrenia, incidental echolalia was more severe in mania. Participants with echo-phenomena (compared to those without) had significantly greater motor resonance with singlepulse (not with paired-pulse) stimuli, poorer theory of mind scores, higher frontal release reflexes but similar CSP, and greater symptom severity. None of these parameters significantly differed between participants with mania and schizophrenia. We observed relatively better phenotypic and neurophysiological characterization of major psychoses by categorizing participants based on the presence of echophenomena than clinical diagnoses. Higher putative MNS-activity was associated with poorer theory of mind in a hyper-imitative behavioral state.

The Research on the Gaze Theory and Feminist Film

Feminism is a social theory and political movement created and initiated to end sexism, sexual exploitation, discrimination, oppression and to promote equality for the sexual class, focusing on the analysis of gender inequality and the promotion of the rights, interests, and issues of the sexual underclass in addition to the critique of social relations. Feminist film theory grew out of the feminist movement, critiquing the stereotypical images of women portrayed in the classic cinema while also exploring how to reproduce female subjectivity and desire in film. Taking two films, Malèna and Portrait of a Lady on Fire as research subjects, this paper explicates Laura Mulvey's opinions on Freudian psychoanalytic theory as well as Lacanian mirror theory through the ideas presented in Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, contrasts the equality of the male gaze and the gaze under her lens, summarises the recent characteristics of women's film production today: the female figure becomes the subject of the film narrative through the story of women's growth; the narrative of the relationship between female figures breaks the patriarchal order, and explores the role of female consciousness in feminist cinematography.

Line defects in three dimensional mirror symmetry beyond ADE quivers

Understanding the map of line defects in a Quantum Field Theory under a given duality is generically a difficult problem. This paper is the second in a series which aims to address this question in the context of 3d mathcal{N} = 4 mirror symmetry. A general prescription for constructing vortex defects and their mirror maps in quiver gauge theories beyond the A-type was presented by the author in an earlier paper [1], where specific examples involving D-type and affine D-type quivers were discussed. In this paper, we apply the aforementioned prescription to construct a family of vortex defects as coupled 3d-1d systems in quiver gauge theories beyond the ADE-type, and study their mirror maps. Specifically, we focus on a class of quiver gauge theories involving unitary gauge nodes with edge multiplicity greater than 1, i.e. two gauge nodes in these theories may be connected by multiple bifundamental hypermultiplets. Quiver gauge theories of this type arise as 3d mirrors of certain Argyres-Douglas theories compactified on a circle. Some of these quiver gauge theories are known to have a pair of 3d mirrors, which are themselves related by an IR duality, discussed recently in [2]. For a concrete example where a pair of 3d mirrors do exist, we study how the vortex defects constructed using our prescription map to Wilson defects in each mirror theory.

GCM-SIV1.5: Optimal Tradeoff between GCM-SIV1 and GCM-SIV2.

GCM-SIV2 is a nonce-based beyond-birthday-bound (BBB)-secure authenticated encryption (AE) mode introduced by Iwata and Minematsu at FSE 2017. However, it is built by combining two instances of GCM-SIV1 and needs eight keys, which increases the costs of hardware and software implementation. This paper aims to reduce these costs by optimizing components (such as key materials, hash calls, and block cipher calls) and proposes an optimal tradeoff between GCM-SIV1 and GCM-SIV2 called GCM-SIV1.5. Moreover, we introduce the faulty nonce setting to AE and prove the BBB security of GCM-SIV1.5 with graceful security degradation in the faulty nonce setting by mirror theory. Finally, we discuss advantages of GCM-SIV1.5.

픽사 애니메이션이 표현한 미국 현대 사회 이념 구성에 관한 연구

The phenomenon origin, process and resolution of the psychological contradiction of the character Joe in the Soul by Pixar was analyzed by Lacanian mirror theory in the study, to express the psychological contradiction of the group of black people who depend on a specific social class. (1) Based on Lacanian theory of the real world (Real), the primitive desires origin of the character Joe was analyzed.(2) Psychological contradictions of the group represented by Joe was studied in accordance with imaginary, which reflects the social malpractice. (3)Result of resolving the psychological contradiction of Joe in Symbolic was studied; Joe became an ideal subject in the 'Ideal American dream' as expressed by Pixar. Therefore, the value and significance of Soul in the portrayal character's psychological field obtained can regurgitation-feed the social reality issues.

Conceptual Overview (Portrayals of Sexuality in Pornography)

Conceptual Overview (Portrayals of Sexuality in Pornography)

Performer Bodily Appearance (Portrayals of Sexuality in Pornography)

Performer Bodily Appearance (Portrayals of Sexuality in Pornography)

Sex Acts (Portrayals of Sexuality in Pornography)

Sex Acts (Portrayals of Sexuality in Pornography)