Persuasive Quality Research Articles

Die Beredsamkeit bereden

Abstract Rhetorical features in a text are integral to its aesthetic and persuasive quality. They prefigure its oral, or indeed oratory, character. However, with their inevitable exaggeration of a discursive point they often run contrary to any claim of truthfulness. This very fact has given ‚rhetoric‘ a negative flair. Around 1800, in the aftermath of the French Revolution and in the course of Napoleon’s occupation of most of Europe, discourses on rhetoric as a liberating, or at least emancipatory force regained a politically charged prominence. Adam Müller, for one, argued that in Germany in particular, a proper culture of the rhetorical would be crucial whilst Heinrich von Kleist examined the emergence of thought from rhetorical situations. This contribution discusses the far-reaching implications of these discourses in terms of their aesthetic and political implications.

Working With AI to Persuade: Examining a Large Language Model's Ability to Generate Pro-Vaccination Messages

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a transformative force in communication and messaging strategy, with potential to disrupt traditional approaches. Large language models (LLMs), a form of AI, are capable of generating high-quality, humanlike text. We investigate the persuasive quality of AI-generated messages to understand how AI could impact public health messaging. Specifically, through a series of studies designed to characterize and evaluate generative AI in developing public health messages, we analyze COVID-19 pro-vaccination messages generated by GPT-3, a state-of-the-art instantiation of a large language model. Study 1 is a systematic evaluation of GPT-3's ability to generate pro-vaccination messages. Study 2 then observed peoples' perceptions of curated GPT-3-generated messages compared to human-authored messages released by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), finding that GPT-3 messages were perceived as more effective, stronger arguments, and evoked more positive attitudes than CDC messages. Finally, Study 3 assessed the role of source labels on perceived quality, finding that while participants preferred AI-generated messages, they expressed dispreference for messages that were labeled as AI-generated. The results suggest that, with human supervision, AI can be used to create effective public health messages, but that individuals prefer their public health messages to come from human institutions rather than AI sources. We propose best practices for assessing generative outputs of large language models in future social science research and ways health professionals can use AI systems to augment public health messaging.

Status of Patient-Doctor Communication in a Nepali Hospital

Introduction: The dialog of thoughts and information verbally or nonverbally between doctors and patients is patient-doctor communication. This study explores the persuasive quality of patient-doctor communication in a Nepali hospital. With the help of the data collected, the study evaluates mainly ethical appeals, logical appeals and emotional appeals.
 Objective: The objective of this research is to evaluate the persuasive elements specifically ethos, logos and pathos of patient-doctor communication in a Nepali hospital.
 Methodology: This is a hospital based descriptive study. This research has used Aristotle’s rhetoric: Ethos, logos and pathos. Because of the lack of big data in this area, secondary data is scanty, so an empirical tool (survey) is adopted for generating data. First a survey is done on 50 doctors working in the hospital, and 300 outpatients suffering from chronic diseases. The data is collected and entered on an Excel file. Later it is analyzed and interpreted thematically with the help of pie charts and tables.
 Results: Ethical appeals, logical appeals and emotional appeals are found good in patient-doctor communication in this hospital under study. 
 Conclusion: In terms of ethos, logos and pathos separately, patient-doctor communication in Nepali hospital appears to be good. However, there is a lack of combination of all these three elements in most of the respondents.

The persuasive potential of metaphor when framing Mexican migrants and migration

AbstractResearch into the persuasive quality of metaphor has a long standing tradition, with the topic of migration embodying one of its pet discourse genres. Yet, only few studies have recognized the existence of identical metaphors occurring across the ideological divide. The present paper explores the way in which three US-based news outlets with broadly different group alignments and overall attitudes in relation to the issue of migration wield metaphor to frame the Mexican migration debate in the US. The data suggests that, contrary to what one might expect, the mayor point of variation between these news instances does not consist in a predilection for idiosyncratic source domains. Rather, the three news sources appear to diverge most significantly in their situational use of similar metaphors. On a methodological plane, this case study illustrates the necessity of inspecting metaphor frames more closely, attending to their semantic roles and broader context, if we want to make assertions about the ideological implications and potential social impact of metaphor on public opinion formation. On a social and theoretical level, it sheds light on the ways in which these three news outlets employ metaphors to construct the social identity of ‘Mexican migrants’ living in the US in line with their stance on the matter, and to a possibly persuasive effect.

Domestic Disputes: Examining Discourses of Home and Property in the Former East Germany by Necia Chronister

Reviewed by: Domestic Disputes: Examining Discourses of Home and Property in the Former East Germany by Necia Chronister Nicole G. Burgoyne Domestic Disputes: Examining Discourses of Home and Property in the Former East Germany. By Necia Chronister. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021. Pp. x + 223. Cloth $99.99. ISBN 978-3-11-067335-7. In a new monograph entitled Domestic Disputes, Necia Chronister offers a diverse but deep study of property relations in the former East Germany of the 1990s and early 2000s. Her primary sources range from made-for-television and theatrical films to a short story and novels. The overarching theoretical constellations of the monograph are issues of Heimat and materiality; however, her exploration of the legal basis of property conflicts in the early years of reunification, as well as her precision in defining terms such as "neoliberalism" (3), "deterritorialization" (103), and "crises of masculinity" (150) in the context of her primary sources are equally helpful. The intricacies of legal disputes regarding property in East Germany, which Chronister details in her first chapter, introduced competing claims of those expropriated by the Nazis and those whom post-Socialist privatization of East German property put at a disadvantage. The history of Nazi appropriations of property mentioned above does not impact every story discussed in this monograph, yet its centrality to the texts [End Page 197] in chapter 6 of Chronister's work demonstrates that it is not a topic that has faded by the 1990s. Chronister also introduces newspaper narratives depicting the sheer number of competing claims on individual homes in the former East, in addition to the complications of establishing property ownership, such as poor records from the period of Soviet occupation and the GDR, as well as historical idiosyncrasies like changing street names. In this context, she emphasizes the informative aim of the made-for-television films she introduces in chapters 2 and 3. Chronister examines two of six made-for-television films produced by the East German DEFA studio, commissioned by a West German television channel in a gesture towards promoting reunification. In addition to portraying both sides of property disputes between Westerners and Easterners, Chronister writes that the films, which debuted in 1991 and 1992, "imparted key policy information to the German viewing audience of the time" (39). One trope that unites films made by DEFA and those made by others such as Uta Stöckl's The Same Old Song is the narrative argument that working to maintain a property lends its inhabitants credibility. Chronister analyzes this topos with the theory of intra-activity (13). In her analysis of two further films in chapter 3, Chronister makes the most direct argument in the monograph concerning neoliberalism: "Whereas The Brocken concludes with the spread of the market into every facet of life on the island of Rügen while simultaneously positing that personal relationships and a peaceful home life can thrive there, Buck's road comedy [No More Mr. Nice Guy] imagines a rather utopian space at its conclusion that lies outside of capitalism's reach" (97). Chronister emphasizes the uncertainty regarding the scope of neoliberalism that is visible in theoretical discussion of the term and the primary source material she has surveyed. A decisive strength of Chronister's monograph is the persuasive quality of her focus on property relations and the space of a home in all eleven of the fictional stories under consideration. As elaborated above, the films specifically addressed competing claims between Easterners and Westerners on properties with homes. In most of the prose texts covered, similar situations of taking possession of property and the dynamics of home life make contemporary gender roles of central importance. For example, in a chapter contrasting Judith Hermann's short story "Summer House, Later" (1999) with her novel Where Love Begins (2014), Chronister offers important nuance to topoi of the intervening time: "The dissolving binaries of place as thematized in 'Summerhouse, Later' have thus resulted in an unsettling sense of dislocation in Where Love Begins, and the sexual and gender fluidity at stake in 'Summerhouse, Later' has given way in Where Love Begins to heteronormative gender relations and reproductive sex" (101). Chronister utilizes the normativity of the later...

Designing Persuasive Application to Promote Public Transportation Use

The poor air quality of Jakarta, caused among others by fossil fuel combustion for transportation, harmfully affects the health of its people. Carbon emissions resulting from transportation activities can be reduced by getting people to use public transportation more frequently. This research aims at designing a persuasive application to encourage people to use public transportation more often. The steps of interaction design were employed. Firstly, user needs were identified using interviews, resulting in 48 interpreted needs which were then grouped into nine primary needs. Secondly, a design workshop involving users and designers was conducted to produce three concept alternatives. In the next stage, the best concept was selected using the concept scoring method and was subsequently refined through the SCAMPER method. A high-fidelity prototype was developed based on the final concept. Lastly, the evaluation process of the application prototype named ecoGlide consisted of two major parts, i.e. the evaluation of performance and persuasive qualities. The performance evaluation was conducted through Usability Testing using five criteria. The effectiveness and efficiency criteria consecutively score 91% and 71.43%, exceeding the minimum acceptable value of 70%. Furthermore, the satisfaction, usefulness, and learnability criteria respectively score 3.83, 3.88, and 3.88, which surpass the threshold value of 3.4. The persuasive quality was evaluated using the qualitative method through a coding scheme. The result shows that the Emotion and Persuasion categories were most closely related to the application use. The most influential sub-category of the persuasion aspect is Reward Driven, which ranks 4th out of 14 sub-categories. Overall, the ecoGlide application was considered to have good usability and persuasive ability.

How to Make Your Child Sleep: Designing Rhetorical Experiences

I might give a variety of logical reasons to help my daughter sleep: being tired from swimming, that a sore leg will feel better, or that she will need lots of energy to play with friends. Consequences can be an argument too, like the loss of a stuffed animal if there are any more non-emergency calls for parents before morning. I might even pull out some sort of shameless (and ineffective) ethos-based plea about being the parent and knowing what is best for her. Rhetorical persuasion is a concatenation of moments and forces that are experienced as a unit – a unit with a persuasive quality to it or that creates new directions for speech and action. Similarly, rhetoric can also be understood as the production or design of those experiences. The design is always partial, as no one can control an experience, but the addition, removal, arrangement, and use of elements for the purpose of creating a particular quality of experience is an important rhetorical act. This design-oriented production of rhetorical experiences is a way of focusing on the human agents within a material rhetoric context that avoids relegating the non-human and the non-linguistic to the background. This paper brings design further into the discussion of rhetoric, adds a design-based angle to new materialism, theorizes rhetoric as an experience, considers John Dewey’s notion of experience and Brian Massumi’s work on affect in light of design and material rhetoric, and (of course) to help parents set up their children for a wonderful night’s rest. Article received: April 20, 2020; Article accepted: July 1, 2020; Published online: April 15, 2021; Original scholarly paper

Visual Humor through Internet Memes (II) From harmless humour to the discriminatory potential of (anti)memes. Case Study: “The Transgender Bathroom Debate”

After pointing out - in the first part of this study - the persuasive quality of memes, once they are created, re-mixed and shared publicly, we attempt to further analyze and discuss the social and ethical implications of this type of humour, meant for mainstream entertainment and specific to the digital era, while insisting on the relevance of its reception; when the derision hides, in fact, hostility, the use of humour can affect the image of vulnerable groups and can contribute to the exclusion of their members. The attached case study presents and analyses anti-trans memes created and shared during a notorious legislative episode in the United States, referring to the use of gender-inclusive public restrooms. This episode has provoked controversies in the American public space and has served as a new reason for discriminatory manifestations online, using internet memes.

Nigerian Undergraduates’ Awareness of Metadiscourse and its Relationship with their Persuasive Writing Quality

Persuasive writing in second (L2) or Foreign Language (FL) is found to be a very challenging task for many undergraduates. Metadiscourse are devices used to help writers to make a connection with the audience and express ideas clearly. However, many Nigerian undergraduates are not fully aware of or do not appropriately utilise these devices in their writing. Also, little attention has been paid to the devices by researchers in the Nigerian context. Therefore, this study investigates undergraduates’ awareness of metadiscourse and its relationship with their persuasive writing performance using a correlational research design. An intact class of 56 third-year undergraduates in a local university in Nigeria was selected for the study. Data for the study were collected through a writing task in English, and a questionnaire. The essays were graded using a validated scale. The questionnaire was analysed using SPSS software. Findings of the study show that the participants have a low awareness of metadiscourse. The findings also reveal that there is a positive relationship between the participants’ awareness of metadiscourse and their persuasive writing quality. The study gives insight to researchers and lecturers, not only in the language field but in other areas, on how to improve the students’ awareness and use of metadiscourse which would eventually develop writing performance. Finally, the study makes some recommendations for further studies.

Improving the Historical Knowledge and Writing of Students With or At Risk for LD

In this study, we explored the potential of two forms of discussion (disciplinary vs. traditional) for 39 sixth- and seventh-grade students with or at risk for learning disabilities (LD), before writing historical arguments. Nine teachers who led small group discussions in six heterogeneous social studies classrooms implemented the intervention. Students who were involved in disciplinary discussions (n = 19) scored statistically higher than their peers who engaged in traditional discussions (n = 20) on a measure of historical knowledge (partial η2 = .23); they also wrote essays with better persuasive quality (partial η2 = .43) and greater evidence of historical thinking (partial η2 = .40). A delayed posttest delivered 8 weeks after instruction ended revealed that students in the experimental condition continued to write in more historically sophisticated ways than did students in the comparison condition (partial η2 = .19). Challenges, however, remain for struggling learners who must now meet basic and advanced disciplinary literacy goals.

Exploring the persuasive writing skills of students with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder

Previous studies of students with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HFASD) have shown great variability in their writing abilities. Most previous studies of students with HFASD have combined individuals with linguistic impairments (HF-ALI) and individuals without linguistic impairments (HF-ALN) into a single group. The current study was the first to compare the persuasive writing of students with HF-ALN with controls, without confounding the effects of language ability and autism on writing achievement, and while considering possible cognitive underpinnings of their writing skills. Twenty-five students with HF-ALN and 22 typically developing controls completed measures of oral language, nonverbal IQ, social responsiveness, theory of mind, integrative processing and persuasive writing. The persuasive texts were coded on 19 variables across six categories: productivity, grammatical complexity, lexical diversity, cohesiveness, writing conventions, and overall quality. The texts were reliably different between groups across measures of productivity, syntactic complexity, lexical complexity and persuasive quality. Specifically, the texts of students with HF-ALN scored lower on overall quality (d=−0.6 SD), contained shorter and simpler sentences (d=−1.0), and had less repetition of content words (d=−0.8 SD). For the HF-ALN group, integrative processing, language ability and age predicted 77% of the variance in persuasive quality.

Improving quick writing performance of middle-school struggling learners

Writing performanceperformance of 279 seventh- and eighth-grade students in four urban charter schools was evaluated in comparison group pretest/posttest quasi-experimental study. Thirty-three students, identified by cut scores on a standardized fluency measure, received supplemental one-to-one Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) instruction for persuasive quick writing. Fifty-one students with scores below the cut participated as an eligible non-treatment comparison; 195 students with scores above the cut participated as a non-eligible comparison group. All students’ written responses were evaluated before and after the intervention. Results of repeated measures analysis indicated that students in treatment (additional instruction time+SRSD+planned practice-testing) significantly improved quick writing performance after instruction when compared to pretest performance, and when compared to eligible comparison, with large effect sizes for number of persuasive elements and organizational quality and medium effects for persuasive quality. When compared to non-eligible comparison, students in treatment had significantly higher scores for organizational quality (large effects) and persuasive quality (small effects).

A cross-cultural comparison of Kuwaiti and British citizens' views of e-government interface quality

It is difficult to conceive how Web users from different cultures can be encouraged to reap the benefits of an e-government initiative when its portal is suffering from culture-indifferent interface quality. Thus far, the e-government literature not only has paid scanty attention to web evaluation issues but also has been slow to embarking on cross-cultural research. As an attempt to address this concern, this investigation introduces an augmented approach to analyze cross-cultural website quality. The proposed approach consists of three parts: 1) a qualitative study of the website using content analysis, 2) an empirical evaluation using traditional statistical methods of perceptions of website users, and 3) a “persuasive quality gap” analysis that examines the gap between the composite scores of perceived importance and performance of quality attributes across the studied two cultures. These analyses were used to identify cross-cultural differences between Kuwaiti and British users' perceptions of e-government quality attributes. While the findings showed no significant differences between Kuwaiti and British users in terms of important quality features, the results revealed significant variations between the two groups in terms of perceived performance of quality attributes. Moreover, although the findings showed marginal support for the existence of differences between the two samples in terms of persuasive quality features, a post-hoc analysis of the persuasive quality gap revealed a need to consider not only important and/or high performing characteristics but also persuasive features to fully understand cross-cultural e-government quality variations. The author discusses the implications of these results for e-government design practices and future research.

Miłosz o ciele, starości i umieraniu. Nowy język czy dramat (nie)wyrażania?

The article discusses Milosz’s poetic strategies of expression in problems of the body, illness, getting old, and the impending death. Those problems are closely related to Milosz’s personal experience. The autobiographical plane adds dramatism to Milosz’s experiments in developing a new poetic language in his old age. Especially in Farther Surroundings seems to develop a new poetical diction in the epistemological sense. The dark tone of the poet is still present, but it gradually weakens and is replaced by words that unambiguously praise (perhaps overpraise) existence, and so reveal their (self)persuasive quality. In this perspective the profusion of texts, which Milosz wrote in his last years, is evidence of not only of an impressive intellectual power, but also of a drama that was covered by an overload of words.

"Use alone": Usefulness and Revision in George Herbert's The Temple

"Use alone":Usefulness and Revision in George Herbert's The Temple Amanda Taylor Izaak Walton's The Life of George Herbert (1670) includes the story of Herbert's deathbed instructions concerning the handling of his poetic works. Herbert tells Mr. Duncon: Sir, I pray deliver this little book to my dear brother Ferrar, and tell him he shall find in it a picture of the many spiritual conflicts that have passed betwixt God and my soul, before I could subject mine to the will of Jesus my Master; in whose service I have now found perfect freedom; desire him to read it; and then, if he can think it may turn to the advantage of any dejected poor soul, let it be made public; if not, let him burn it; for I and it are less than the least of God's mercies.1 This incident identifies a tension between public and private work that informs Herbert's intense interest in the use of his poetry for the aid of others. In "The Church-porch," he begins by justifying his role as "Verser" because "A verse may find him, who a sermon flies" (l. 4).2 Given this uniquely persuasive quality of verse and Herbert's ongoing desire to help others, I will argue that the need to be useful drives Herbert's poetic endeavors and process of revision. For Herbert, the desire to be useful, to write a book that could "turn to the advantage of any dejected poor soul," is doubly heard; it is a plea to be actively useful - to others, to God, to himself - and it is also an utterance describing a passive state of being use-full,3 a state in which there is no space for anything but use. While it is possible to be a poet, preacher, publican, and so on, while also being useful, it is also possible to inhabit one of those roles without being useful. To be use-full reverses the identificatory labels, placing one's position secondary to one's condition as used, a paradoxical state similar to the sacrificed Christ who at the moment of the [End Page 78] crucifixion when most passively used was also the most actively useful to humanity. While this distinction seems insignificant at first, Herbert's concerns regarding usefulness and productivity seep into every aspect of critical discussion concerning his poetry because his ideas about usefulness instantiate a type of self that is inextricably bound to Protestant theology's view of grace and works.4 Martin Luther's "Preface to the Romans" unites works and faith even while asserting that works can in no way merit salvation: "Hence, the man of faith, without being driven, willingly and gladly seeks to do good for everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of hardships, for the sake of the love and glory of the God who has shown him such grace. It is impossible, indeed, to separate works from faith."5 For Luther, then, works naturally arise as a result of receiving God's grace, but these works in no way merit that grace. However, "the search for visible proofs of election" often leads to "a doctrine of works"6 because proof or evidence can be read as both resulting from grace or as working in the same manner as the fallacy post hoc ergo propter hoc. In other words, good works occurred and (presumably) salvation occurred; therefore, good works caused salvation. While this subtle reversal appears consistent with Luther's point that good works follow from faith (since good works happen either way), in fact, it threatens to undermine the entire notion of salvation by grace. Hence, good works - which are measured by their usefulness and come from a productive person - may be a site of both assurance and anxiety for the believer who may ask him or herself if the works are genuine products of grace or subconsciously motivated efforts to win salvation.7 For Herbert, his works of preaching and poetry occupy a similarly vexed position because of his belief in salvation by grace. Critics have focused on this vexed position in discussing the self and its agency in Herbert's poetry. Richard...

Community-Based Agencies as the Entrepreneur's Instruments of Control in Post-Soeharto's Indonesia

The shift of power in Indonesia, marked by the fall of the Soeharto regime in 1998, has brought changes to state industrial relations policies. One of these changes has been at the level of military involvement in dispute settlement, which has considerably declined since 1998. Eight years on, the liberty of factory owners to employ military personnel to contain labour activism has been considerably constrained. As a result, entrepreneurs have turned to civilian, community-based institutions and local personalities as an alternative avenue of labour control. Examination is made of evolving structures of extra-firm labour control in Tangerang, an industrial centre in the greater Jakarta area, where many local power-holders also own the lodgings rented by migrant manufacturing workers. It describes how their father–child relationship (a special extension of the patron–client relation in the Indonesian context) with their tenants gives them the persuasive capacity to appease discontented workers. This persuasive quality has proven to be even more effective than the coercive approach exercised by the military in the past. Examination is also made of the implications of these developments for industrial relations in the manufacturing sector.

Rebirth: Mexican Los Angeles from the Great Migration to the Great Depression (review)

Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 287 World War II, the advent ofthe maquiladoras, the impact of migration both on the United States and on the Mexican communities from which the immigrants came. Finally, he discusses current issues such as water, the environment and the problems of drug trafficking and illegal immigration from Mexico. The immigration problem, he maintains , was created by the 20th cenrury and is caused perhaps more by the need for workers here in the U.S. than by unemployment in Mexico. The book finishes with a discussion of the impact of the NAFTA Treaty on the border. There is a black and white map ofthe region as well as a series of black and white photographs throughout the text. Numerous charts are used to illustfate and clarify such information as irrigation on the border, production figures for both sides ofthe border, employment figures by economic sector as well as a chart of border population of Mexican origin by state from 1900-1990. There are copious footnotes and references at the end of each chapter and a list of suggested readings (which has been divided into various categories ) for further research or reading. At times the book is somewhat dry reading. Perhaps more information about the cross-border society ofthe area along with more information about the 'special' language spoken by some inhabitants ofthe region and specific examples of how their daily lives intermingle so frequently would make this a more interesting book for all to read. All in all, however, this book is a good begining for serious study and investigation of the ever-fascinating, mysterious region usually known as the U.S.-Mexico border. D. H.'Jon BeU Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro Rebirth: Mexican Los Angeks from the Great Migration to the Great Depression University of California Press, 1999 By Douglas Monroy Criticized for the gross inaccuracies in Glenn G. Boyer's I Married Wyatt Earp (University of Arizona Press, 1976), U of A President Peter Likins was said to have remarked that blending fact and fiction was just the sort ofthing historians do these days. Driven to invention at times by au courant intellectual trends, Monroy's history retains at its core an objective and useful argument. The book is founded on an impressive command over the rich evidentiary base for the Mexican-origin population in Southern California (available in part because of fears about this ethnic group). While other historians, who reach similar conclusions, have tapped portions of the mine, Rebirth adds both content and nuance to die story. Social workers ' surveys of Mexican "pathology," intimate accounts of labor organizing, fascinating insights into the culture of boxing and equally intriguing preferences of Mexican filmgoers are brought to bear on several critical themes. The author explores the essential nature of México de afuera in Los Angeles and why people left Mexico to create it. External tensions between Mexicans and native elites in the labor market, schools, and welfare systems had their countetpart in internal tensions between immigfants and their acculturating children, and less than harmonious political activity among Mexican Americans. Monroy concludes by presenting two "trajectories" for die post-1940 era: in one, Mexicans assimilate; in the other, they continue being victims and outsiders. The postmodernist nonsense seeping out of departments of literature occasionally mars a well-crafted history, and that movement's wooden prose at times cortupts an otherwise well-written text. When the author "positions us in richly assorted ways" (51) and wains that he writes a "partisan " (2) history, why should the intelligent reader pay any attention? Because Monroy has in fact produced an argument that, while not unassailable , has strong objective merits: pulled out of impoverished Mexico by ruthless capitalist employers , Mexicans confronted a racist and culturaUy arrogant Yankee regime in Los Angeles. Their response was to create a new Mexican-American society, one offended and yet seduced by American cultural norms. Bitter experiences with dis- 288 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies crimination, repatriation, and physical assaults were countered by continued pride in their origins and in their achievements in a hostile setting. This argument has a persuasive quality. Clear evidence of prejudice in the labor...

Study of Mechanical Behaviour in Shape Memory Alloys Through Adiabatic Thermal Emission and Acoustic Emission Technique

Tensile tests were carried out on commercially available NiTi alloys in order to study their mechanical characteristics up to the onset of the superelasticity effect. Two real-time supporting techniques, adiabatic thermal emission and acoustic emission, were employed. Thermal emission allowed to follow local temperature variations in the material due to loading, while acoustic emission was able to detect the propagation of related stress wave. When the material is subjected to repeated loading and provided that test conditions remain the same, compared results from these two techniques could enhance the knowledge of material behaviour. A difficulty lies however in the choice of experimental conditions apt to a succussful application of both techniques. Thermal emission in fact has to be performed during a quasi-adiabatic test, while acoustic emission has different requirements, needing in particular a sufficient loading time to allow stresses distribution. Results are promising as a preliminary assessment and could prospectively provide a persuasive quality discrimination.

Reading Locke and Newton as Literature

What does one expect from a title like 'Reading Locke and Newton as Literature'? Maybe some account of their prose style, or, more broadly, of their rhetoric, as it contributes to the persuasive quality of what they are arguing for. Well, it would certainly be possible to include my particular concerns, plus plenty of other matters, under the broad umbrella of rhetoric. But what I really want to do is discuss Locke and Newton in terms which would not seem out of place in a course on poetry or drama or, more especially, fiction. I am thinking of such long-standing critical topics as narration, point of view, characteristic diction, patterns of images or exempla, quality of mimetic detail, even creative myth-making or imaginative range. And I am interested not so much in how these things contribute to the arguments of Locke and Newton as in how they don't: that is to say, in how the excesses and unpredictabilities of these authors' literary invention go beyond the philosophy (or natural philosophy in Newton's case) in ways that, while not always subversive of the philosophic purpose, manage to seem somehow self-sustaining. Obviously my two authors are not among those philosophical changelings whom poets are fond of claiming as their brethren, like Plato or Nietzsche. No librarian has ever had second thoughts about shelving Locke's Essay concerning Human Understanding or Newton's Opticks. What follows is, I suppose, an attempt to provide grounds for such an idiosyncratic librarian. I should add that, although this paper contains few specific debts to them, I nevertheless feel hovering over its pages the presence of three former teachers in Toronto's English department: I am thinking of Kenneth MacLean and Rosalie Colie on Locke and F.E.L. Priestley on Newton.