Twin Peaks Research Articles

Avant-garde encounters with the Anthropocene

David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return (2017) departs from the series’s origins as a detective thriller/primetime soap pastiche to reveal the sf creature feature lurking in its DNA. In The Return’s most celebrated hour, Lynch ventures deeper into experimental filmmaking by soaring into a recreation of the first atomic test at Alamogordo, now commonly cited as the Anthropocene’s origin date. Following the blast, Lynch introduces a creature feature backstory for the entire series via three indelible creatures: the blackened human-hybrid Woodsmen; the winged frogs that enter the mouths of their sleeping prey; and BOB, the series’s original villain. My essay examines how Twin Peaks has transitioned from being, in part, a show about a forest that needs protecting to an art film about a universe reeling in the aftermath of human-made ecological imbalance - a permanent rift that even the most determined authority figures (local law enforcement, the military, the FBI and other government agencies) can’t hope to remedy or comprehend. I also analyse how Lynch’s disruptive avant-garde filmmaking in The Return resists didacticism in favour of providing visceral and ambiguous ways to engage environmental crises.

Twin Peaks 2.0: Avoiding Influence Over an Australian Financial Regulator Assessment Authority

Globally, financial system regulators are susceptible to deliberate and inadvertent influence by the industry that they oversee and, hence, are also susceptible to acting to benefit the industry rather than the public interest – a phenomenon known as ‘regulatory capture’. Australia, arguably, has an optimal model of financial system regulation (a ‘Twin Peaks’ model) comprising separate regulators for prudential soundness on the one hand, and market conduct and consumer protection on the other. However, the current design of the Twin Peaks model has not been sufficient to prevent and address prolonged and systemic misconduct that culminated in a public Royal Commission of Inquiry into misconduct in the industry. Subsequent to the Royal Commission and other inquiries, the Department of Treasury has proposed legislation to establish an Assessment Authority to assess the effectiveness of the Twin Peaks regulators. The proposal includes enquiries by an Assessment Authority into the regulators’ independence, so as to identify instances of, and thereby mitigate, their capture. As with all financial system regulators, the Assessment Authority itself may be susceptible to regulatory capture, either by the Twin Peaks regulators, or by the financial industry. Thus, this paper poses the question: how can the new Assessment Authority be optimally constituted by legislation, and operated, to effectively oversee the effectiveness of the regulators, but itself remain insulated from the influence of the regulators and industry? We analyse the primary sources of influence over financial system regulators that the Assessment Authority will likely face and recommend ways in which a robust design of the Assessment Authority can mitigate those sources of influence. In doing so, we adopt an inter-disciplinary approach, drawing upon not only regulatory theory but also for the first time in relation to this question, organisational psychology. Our findings address gaps in the proposed legislation currently before Federal Parliament and propose methods by which those gaps may be filled, in order to ensure that this important reform to Australia’s financial regulatory regime has the greatest chance of success.

“It’s Not a Natural Thing”: SituatingTwin Peaks: The Returnwithin the Anthropocene

The Journal of Popular CultureVolume 54, Issue 5 p. 966-986 Original Article “It’s Not a Natural Thing”: Situating Twin Peaks: The Return within the Anthropocene Brydie Kosmina, Corresponding Author Brydie Kosmina kosminabrydie@gmail.com orcid.org/0000-0001-9410-1790 Search for more papers by this author Brydie Kosmina, Corresponding Author Brydie Kosmina kosminabrydie@gmail.com orcid.org/0000-0001-9410-1790 Search for more papers by this author First published: 08 September 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.13058Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume54, Issue5October 2021Pages 966-986 RelatedInformation

Book Review: Twin Peaks

Book Review: Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks: Covid-19 and the labor market

This paper develops a choice-theoretic equilibrium model of the labor market in the presence of a pandemic. It includes heterogeneity in productivity, age and the ability to work from home. Worker and firm behavior changes in the presence of the virus, which itself has equilibrium consequences for the infection rate. The model is calibrated to the UK and counterfactual lockdown measures are evaluated. We find a different response in both the evolution of the virus and the labor market with different lockdown policies. A laissez-faire approach results in lives lost and acts as negative shock to the economy. A lockdown policy, absent any other intervention, will reduce the lives lost but increase the economic burden. Consistent with recent evidence, we find that the economic costs from lockdown are most felt by those earning the least. Finally, we introduce a job retention scheme as implemented by the UK Government and find that it spreads the economic hardship more equitably.

Shylocks or Legitimate Lenders? An Inquiry into the Regulation of Digital Lending in Kenya

The lending market in Kenya has seen a proliferation of digital lenders that are largely unregulated. The lenders provide seemingly cheap loans whose interest is huge when the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) is calculated. The lenders operate through apps that are uploaded to App Stores and pulled down at will. They require their customers to ‘accept’ terms and conditions before accessing the loans, and these terms sometimes allow the lenders unfettered access to customer data which they use and abuse in equal measure. The lenders use such customer data to threaten, to contact those on the contact lists of the customers’ phonebook, and to report them on Credit Reference Bureaus (CRBs). This paper seeks to examine the law on regulation of the digital lending environment in Kenya and to recommend the enactment of the Financial Markets Conduct Bill of 2018 which introduces elements of the Twin Peaks model of financial regulation. Key Words: Shylocks; digital lenders; data privacy; Annual Pricing Rate (APR); digital regulation; Twin-Peaks Model

Siamese ghost(s), the Doppelgänger in Twin Peaks

ABSTRACT Ghosts shape organization. The problem with this is that ghosts have a tendency to hide from our perception. This means that it is difficult to perceive the way organization is shaped. A different way to get some idea of the way they behave is through the use of film as art. An example is Twin Peaks and the way in which it reveals ghosts and the way these shape organization. In this, a special position is taken by the Doppelgänger, that is the one and the other and especially what is in-between. In this paper, the concept of the Doppelgänger and the way it is displayed in Twin Peaks is investigated. This will inform us on the unveiling of the way ghosts behave in organization.

Performance evaluation and spectrum-based analysis of a wall-mounted photovoltaic system for zero-energy building

The concept of zero-energy building (ZEB) has attracted global attention in recent years as it involves offsetting the primary energy usage of a building on an annual base by the energy generated from renewable resources. The performance of wall-mounted photovoltaics (PV) for building applications has great potential for ZEB. In this study, we compared wall-mounted and common roof-mounted PV systems using a combination of experimental and theoretical studies. The wall-mounted PV system exhibited an unusual performance behavior depending on the season. Winter is a suitable season for energy production from the wall-mounted PV system because of the low solar altitude and resulting lower incident angle of the sun. However, the performance ratio (PR) had twin peaks throughout the day that could not be explained by the classical model that uses irradiance and temperature variation. In summer, there was less irradiance on the vertical wall and the PR had triple peaks that were also hard to explain using the conventional model. We established a detailed output power model of the wall-mounted PV using spectrum variation on a vertical plane. Our approach is the development of spectrum model that can be applied to all-climate and computed the performance variation according to the sun’s orientation and incident angle. Our model quantitatively explains unique seasonal and daily efficiency variations for the wall-mounted PV system (twin peaks in winter and triple peaks in summer). Our validated model can be utilized to map a suitable location for a wall-mounted PV system.

Intracellular trafficking of Notch orchestrates temporal dynamics of Notch activity in the fly brain

While Delta non-autonomously activates Notch in neighboring cells, it autonomously inactivates Notch through cis-inhibition, the molecular mechanism and biological roles of which remain elusive. The wave of differentiation in the Drosophila brain, the ‘proneural wave’, is an excellent model for studying Notch signaling in vivo. Here, we show that strong nonlinearity in cis-inhibition reproduces the second peak of Notch activity behind the proneural wave in silico. Based on this, we demonstrate that Delta expression induces a quick degradation of Notch in late endosomes and the formation of the twin peaks of Notch activity in vivo. Indeed, the amount of Notch is upregulated and the twin peaks are fused forming a single peak when the function of Delta or late endosomes is compromised. Additionally, we show that the second Notch peak behind the wavefront controls neurogenesis. Thus, intracellular trafficking of Notch orchestrates the temporal dynamics of Notch activity and the temporal patterning of neurogenesis.

China’s long march towards the twin peaks model of financial regulation

ABSTRACT This article traces the evolution of China’s financial regulatory system, and its trend towards what could be referred to as a ‘quasi-Twin Peaks’ model. It then outlines the ongoing challenges with the current sector-based framework, including regulatory competition, regulatory arbitrage and inconsistent regulatory mandates. It then proposes a pathway by which China could adopt a true Twin Peaks model. Finally, the article outlines recent developments in consumer protection, and draws parallel with developments in two Twin Peaks jurisdictions: the UK and South Africa. The article concludes by arguing that the adoption of an overarching framework for consumer protection in banking products and payment services underscores the need for a unified framework that applies to all products and services in the financial sector, including those administered by the CSRC in the securities sector. It also highlights the benefits of separating market conduct and consumer protection regulation, from macro-prudential and micro-prudential regulation, and provides additional support for the argument that the ultimate destination to which China should march, is the Twin Peaks model of financial regulation. This would be in line with the emerging direction of China’s regulatory agency reform, and would better accommodate ongoing financial innovation and cross-sector cooperation and integration.

Twin Peaks: more twinning in humans than ever before.

STUDY QUESTIONHow many twins are born in human populations and how has this changed over recent decades?SUMMARY ANSWERSince the 1980s, the global twinning rate has increased by a third, from 9.1 to 12.0 twin deliveries per 1000 deliveries, to about 1.6 million twin pairs each year.WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADYIt was already known that in the 1980s natural twinning rates were low in (East) Asia and South America, at an intermediate level in Europe and North America, and high in many African countries. It was also known that in recent decades, twinning rates have been increasing in the wealthier parts of our world as a result of the rise in medically assisted reproduction (MAR) and delayed childbearing.STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATIONWe have brought together all information on national twinning rates available from statistical offices, demographic research institutes, individual survey data and the medical literature for the 1980–1985 and the 2010–2015 periods.PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODSFor 165 countries, covering over 99% of the global population, we were able to collect or estimate twinning rates for the 2010–2015 period. For 112 countries, we were also able to obtain twinning rates for 1980–1985.MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCESubstantial increases in twinning rates were observed in many countries in Europe, North America and Asia. For 74 out of 112 countries the increase was more than 10%. Africa is still the continent with highest twinning rates, but Europe, North America and Oceania are catching up rapidly. Asia and Africa are currently home to 80% of all twin deliveries in the world.LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTIONFor some countries, data were derived from reports and papers based on hospital registrations which are less representative for the country as a whole than data based on public administrations and national surveys.WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGSThe absolute and relative number of twins for the world as a whole is peaking at an unprecedented level. An important reason for this is the tremendous increase in medically assisted reproduction in recent decades. This is highly relevant, as twin deliveries are associated with higher infant and child mortality rates and increased complications for mother and child during pregnancy and during and after delivery.STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S)The contribution of CM was partially supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant No 681546, FAMSIZEMATTERS), Nuffield College, and the Leverhulme Trust. The contribution of GP was partially supported by the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (grant No ANR-18-CE36-0007-07). The authors declare no conflict of interest.TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBERN/A.

A New Species of Butterfly of the Genus Protopedaliodes from the Isolated Tramen Tepui in the Guyana Shield (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, Satyrinae).

A new species of Protopedaliodes Viloria & Pyrcz, a satyrine butterfly genus endemic to the highest part of the Guyana Shield, P. arekuna Pyrcz & Stachowicz n. sp., is described from the summit area, ca. 2400m, of Tramen Tepui, an isolated mountain situated on the Venezuela-Guyana border. It is a remarkable finding as it is probably a narrow endemic, and only the fourth known member of the genus. Morphologically it most closely resembles P. kukenani Viloria & Pyrcz from the Roraima-Kukenán twin peaks. COI barcode analysis shows, however, high genetic distances between these two species, 9-10%. Protopedaliodes taxonomy is briefly revised, from the perspective of the monophyly of the genus based on preliminary molecular and morphological comparative data, including the female genitalia described for the first time for P. kukenani and P. ridouti Viloria & Pyrcz.

The (Anti-)Hero with a Thousand Faces: Reconstructing Villainy in The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Better Call Saul

The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Better Call Saul exemplify what Martin Shuster calls “new television.” Following 9/11, the playful irony that had defined shows such as Seinfeld, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The Simpsons was gradually replaced with more morally ambiguous characters. Questions about one’s moral standing operated at the forefront of such television, where previous idols of goodness on the right side of the law, such as Agent Dale Cooper ( Twin Peaks), Agents Mulder and Scully ( The X-Files), and Buffy Summers, gave way to characters whose moral dubiousness and criminal behaviour utterly destabilized long-standing characteristics of television, asking viewers to sympathize with imperfect, often unscrupulous individuals. In this article, I discuss the moral trajectories of a number of key characters, including Tony Soprano, Walter White, and Jimmy McGill. White’s and McGill’s alter egos (Heisenberg and Saul Goodman, respectively) represent two very different moral compromises in a world defined by white-collar corruption, self-sabotage, and a questionable judicial system that simultaneously protects criminals as it reprimands them. These two characters in particular exemplify a radical break with traditionally morally upstanding characters and have taken audiences into a new frontier of morally ambiguous television that celebrates the complex world of the anti-hero.

Alignment and granularity of requirements and architecture in agile development: A functional perspective

Abstract Context: Requirements engineering and software architecture are tightly linked disciplines. The Twin Peaks model suggests that requirements and architectural components should stay aligned while the system is designed and as the level of detail increases. Unfortunately, this is hardly the case in practical settings. Objective: We surmise that a reason for the absence of conjoint evolution is that existing models, such as the Twin Peaks, do not provide concrete guidance for practitioners. We propose the Requirements Engineering for Software Architecture (RE4SA) model to assist in analyzing the alignment and the granularity of functional requirements and architectural components. Methods: After detailing the RE4SA model in notation-independent terms, we propose a concrete instance, called RE4SA-Agile, that connects common artifacts in agile development, such as user stories and features. We introduce metrics that measure the alignment between the requirements and architecture, and we define granularity smells to pinpoint situation in which the granularity of one high-level requirement or high-level component is not uniform with the norm. We show two applications of RE4SA-Agile, including the use of the metrics, to real-world case studies. Results: Our applications of RE4SA-Agile, which were discussed with representatives from the development teams, prove to be able to pinpoint problematic situations regarding the relationship between functional requirements and architecture. Conclusion: RE4SA and its metrics can be seen as a first attempt to provide a concrete approach for supporting the application of the Twin Peaks model. We expect future research to apply our metrics to additional cases and to provide variants for RE4SA that support different concrete notations, and extend the perspective beyond the functional perspective of this research, similar to what we did with RE4SA-Agile in this paper.

DE NARCISO A ORFEO. ALTERIDAD NARRATIVA Y ESPECTATORIAL EN TWIN PEAKS. THE RETURN DE DAVID LYNCH

Resumen: Este artículo propone un estudio de la alteridad y la ficción en la serie Twin Peaks. The Return. Realizaremos un estudio de las decisiones formales y narrativas como procesos de significación, con el análisis fílmico y narratológico como herramienta. El trabajo se centra en la construcción del punto de vista y la identificación del espectador. El motivo de los mundos y figuras duplicadas desarrollado por David Lynch en su cine alcanza su acmé en la ficción televisiva. Además, estas ideas se materializan en la revisión de dos de los mitos clásicos sobre la relación con el Otro: Orfeo y Narciso.Abstract: This paper consists on a study of alterity and fiction in Twin Peaks. The Return. It will discuss the formal and narrative decisions as forms of signification, using film and narratological analysis. This research will pay attention to the construction of the point of view and to the identification of the spectator towards these images. The classical themes on lynchean films, such as alternative and duplicate worlds and figures, sublimate in TV fiction. Moreover, these ideas are represented by reinterpreting two myths related to the Other: Orpheus and Narcissus.

Australia’s Licensing Regimes for Financial Services, Credit and Superannuation: Three Tracks Toward the Twin Peaks

Licensing regimes form an integral part of Australia’s Twin Peaks system of financial regulation. This article surveys three of the different licensing regimes that were particularly relevant to the Financial Services Royal Commission: the Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL); the Australian Credit Licence (ACL); and the Registrable Superannuation Entity (RSE). Taking into account the recent changes to regulation of superannuation in the Financial Sector Reform (Hayne Royal Commission Response) Act 2020 (Cth), the article analyses the structure and content of these three regimes, and their broader regulatory context, to determine whether there is scope to consolidate, rationalise, and harmonise these licensing regimes. From that survey, the article concludes that there is scope for rationalisation of the AFSL and ACL regimes, but that the RSE licensing regime should continue to be separate.

Twin Peaks: The Emergence of Bimodal Fertility Profiles in Latin America

Twin Peaks: The Emergence of Bimodal Fertility Profiles in Latin America

Who is the dreamer? Textual and methodological semiotic trajectories in Twin Peaks: The Return

Who is the dreamer? Textual and methodological semiotic trajectories in Twin Peaks: The Return

Victim-naming in the murder mystery TV series Twin Peaks: a corpus-stylistic study

Corpus linguistics is advancing rapidly in the study of a wide variety of genres, but is still at its infancy in the study of TV series, a genre daily consumed by millions of viewers. Murder mystery series are one of the most popular and proliferous, but no studies, to date, have used corpus-stylistics methodologies in the analysis of the pivotal character of the victim in the whole narrative. This paper applied this methodology hoping to shed some light on the quantitative and qualitative relationship between the participation roles of the characters, and the frequency and distribution of victim-naming choices in the dialogue of the two first seasons of the acclaimed TV series Twin Peaks. The analysis proved that textual reference to the victim in the dialogues is a central genre-cohesive device which may serve as a waymark to guide the audience throughout the many subplots of the series.

Twin peaks diversity with sacubitril/valsartan treatment responses in cardiomyopathic heart failure patients of non-ischemic compared to ischemic etiologies

Abstract Background Ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICM) has been associated with increased mortality when compared with non-ischemic cardiomyopathy (NICM) from several heart failure (HF) cohorts. Instead, PARADIGM study demonstrated similar event rates of cardiovascular (CV) death, all-cause mortality and HF readmissions between ICM and NICM patients. Although the beneficiary effect of sacubitril/valsartan (SAC/VAL) compared to enalapril on these endpoints was consistent across etiologic categories, PARADIGM study did not analyze the effect of ventricular remodeling of SAC/VAL on patients with different HF etiologies, which may significantly affect treatment outcomes. Purpose We aim to compare alterations of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) following SAC/VAL treatment and its association with clinical outcomes in patients with different HF etiologies. Methods Treatment with angiotensin receptor neprilysin inhibitor for Taiwan heart failure patients (TAROT-HF) study is a multicenter study which enrolled 1552 patients with LVEF <40%, whom had been on SAC/VAL treatment from 9 hospitals between 2017 and 2018. After excluding patients without having follow-up echocardiographic studies, patients were grouped by HF etiologies and by LVEF changes following treatment for 8-month period. LVEF improvement ≥15% was defined as “significant improvement”, 5–15% as “marginal improvement”, and <5% or worse as “lack of improvement”. The primary endpoint was a composite of CV death or a first hospitalization for HF. Mean follow-up period was 726 days. Results A total of 1230 patients were analyzed. Patients with ICM were significantly older, more male, and prone to have associated hypertension and diabetes. On the other hand, patients with NICM had lower LVEF and higher likelihood of atrial fibrillation. LVEF increase was significantly greater in patients with NICM compared to those with ICM (11.2±12.4% vs. 6.9±9.8, p<0.001). The effect of ventricular remodeling of SAC/VAL on patients with NICM showed twin peaks diversity (Significant improvement 37.1%, lack of improvement 42.3%), whereas in patients with ICM the proportions of significant, marginal and lack of improvement groups were 19.4%, 28.2% and 52.4%, respectively. The primary endpoint showed twin peaks diversity also in patients with NICM in line with LVEF changes: adjusted HR for patients with NICM and significant improvement was 0.41 (95% CI 0.29–0.57, p<0.001), for patients with NICM and lack of improvement was 1.54 (95% CI 1.22–1.94, p<0.001). Analyses for CV death, all-cause mortality, and HF readmission demonstrated consistent results. Conclusion Patients with NICM had higher degree of LVEF improvement than those with ICM following SAC/VAL treatment, and significant improvement of LVEF in NICM patients may indicate favorable outcome. NICM patients without response to SAC/VAL treatment should serve as an indicator for poor clinical outcome and warranted meticulous HF management. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding source: Private hospital(s). Main funding source(s): Cheng Hsin General Hospital