Personagens, espaço e níveis narrativos em Os Memoráveis de Lídia Jorge / Characters, space and narrative levels in Os Memoráveis by Lídia Jorge

Resumo: Dentro do universo ficcional do romance Os Memoráveis de Lídia Jorge, as personagens estabelecem ligações dinâmicas entre elas de acordo com o jogo ficcional implicado nas intrigas, as quais se configuram diferentes níveis narrativos. Este estudo tem como objetivo analisar as relações das personagens entre si, o jogo de perspetivas utilizado e a complexidade da estrutura narrativa onde se inserem. Investigar-se-á o modo como as personagens perseguem os seus propósitos, a composição dos níveis narrativos relacionada com o agenciamento das intrigas (de acordo com a investigação de Raphael Baroni) e, ainda, a importância da ambientação, do cenário e dos enquadramentos para a constituição da representatividade simbólica das figuras históricas representadas no romance. Palavras-chave: personagem, espaço, ficção, narrativa, Lídia Jorge.Abstract: Within the fictional universe of the novel Os Memoráveis, by Lídia Jorge, characters establish dynamic connections between them according to the fictional games involved in the plots, which configure different narrative levels. This study aims to analyze the relationships of the characters with each other, the interplay of perspectives employed and the complexity of narrative structure where they are inserted. It will be investigated the way characters try to achieve their purposes, the composition related with agency of narrative levels (according to the research presented by Raphael Baroni) and also the importance of ambience and setting for the drawing up of symbolic representativeness of the fictionalized historical figures of the novel.Keywords: character, space, fiction, narrativa, Lídia Jorge.

The patterns and modes of the evolution of disparity in Mesozoic birds

The origin of birds from non-avian theropod dinosaurs is one of the greatest transitions in evolution. Shortly after diverging from other theropods in the Late Jurassic, Mesozoic birds diversified into two major clades—the Enantiornithes and Ornithuromorpha—acquiring many features previously considered unique to the crown group along the way. Here, we present a comparative phylogenetic study of the patterns and modes of Mesozoic bird skeletal morphology and limb proportions. Our results show that the major Mesozoic avian groups are distinctive in discrete character space, but constrained in a morphospace defined by limb proportions. The Enantiornithines, despite being the most speciose group of Mesozoic birds, are much less morphologically disparate than their sister clade, the Ornithuromorpha—the clade that gave rise to living birds, showing disparity and diversity were decoupled in avian history. This relatively low disparity suggests that diversification of enantiornithines was characterized in exhausting fine morphologies, whereas ornithuromorphs continuously explored a broader array of morphologies and ecological opportunities. We suggest this clade-specific evolutionary versatility contributed to their sole survival of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.

ALOHA: Artificial Learning of Human Attributes for Dialogue Agents

For conversational AI and virtual assistants to communicate with humans in a realistic way, they must exhibit human characteristics such as expression of emotion and personality. Current attempts toward constructing human-like dialogue agents have presented significant difficulties. We propose Human Level Attributes (HLAs) based on tropes as the basis of a method for learning dialogue agents that can imitate the personalities of fictional characters. Tropes are characteristics of fictional personalities that are observed recurrently and determined by viewers' impressions. By combining detailed HLA data with dialogue data for specific characters, we present a dataset, HLA-Chat, that models character profiles and gives dialogue agents the ability to learn characters' language styles through their HLAs. We then introduce a three-component system, ALOHA (which stands for Artificial Learning of Human Attributes), that combines character space mapping, character community detection, and language style retrieval to build a character (or personality) specific language model. Our preliminary experiments demonstrate that two variations of ALOHA, combined with our proposed dataset, can outperform baseline models at identifying the correct dialogue responses of chosen target characters, and are stable regardless of the character's identity, the genre of the show, and the context of the dialogue.

Segmentation of Multiple Touching Hand Written Devnagari Compound Characters

One of the most widely used steps in the process of reducing images to information is segmentation, which divides the image into regions that hopefully correspond to structural units in the scene or distinguish objects of interest. Segmentation is often described by analogy to visual processes as a foreground/background separation, implying that the selection procedure concentrates on a single kind of feature and discards the rest. Machine-printed or hand-drawn scripts can have various font types or writing styles. The writing styles can be roughly categorized into discrete style (handprint or boxed style), continuous style (cursive style), and mixed style. We can see that the ambiguity of character segmentation has three major sources: (1) variability of character size and inter character space; (2) confusion between inter character and within-character space; and (3) touching between characters.

Character Roles and Narrative Design

This chapter makes use of the concept of “character-space” to treat character roles as an underlying feature of narrative structure. The argument begins with a discussion of how Achilles’ presence and absence in the story of the Iliad reflects the narrative design of the poem as a whole, and the contrast between the Iliad and Odyssey in this regard. The range, distribution, and use of character roles also had an intimate connection to the narrative and thematic design of the cyclic epics. The Little Iliad and the Aethiopis used leading characters to bring a kind of unity to the work as a whole. Other poems show different narrative strategies and aims: the Cypria shifted focus from one character to another until finally settling on Achilles in the second half; and the Nostoi uses the two sons of Atreus as defining figureheads for the doublet-structure of the poem as a whole.

Must I, can I? I don’t understand your ambiguous password rules

Purpose The purpose of this research is to investigate user comprehension of ambiguous terminology in password rules. Although stringent password policies are in place to protect information system security, such complexity does not have to mean ambiguity for users. While many aspects of passwords have been studied, no research to date has systematically examined how ambiguous terminology affects user comprehension of password rules. Design/methodology/approach This research used a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods in a usable security study with 60 participants. Study tasks contained password rules based on real-world password requirements. Tasks consisted of character-selection tasks that varied the terms for non-alphanumeric characters to explore users’ interpretations of password rule language, and compliance-checking tasks to investigate how well users can apply their understanding of the allowed character space. Findings Results show that manipulating password rule terminology causes users’ interpretation of the allowed character space to shrink or expand. Users are confused by the terms “non-alphanumeric”, “symbols”, “special characters” and “punctuation marks” in password rules. Additionally, users are confused by partial lists of allowed characters using “e.g.” or “etc.” Practical implications This research provides data-driven usability guidance on constructing clearer language for password policies. Improving language clarity will help usability without sacrificing security, as simplifying password rule language does not change security requirements. Originality/value This is the first usable security study to systematically measure the effects of ambiguous password rules on user comprehension of the allowed character space.

Optative Form in Anthony Trollope’s The Small House at Allington

Matthew Sussman, “Optative Form in Anthony Trollope’s The Small House at Allington” (pp. 485–515) This essay argues that Anthony Trollope is the preeminent novelist of the optative, a term introduced by Andrew Miller that describes how people sharpen their sense of self through counterfactual speculations about themselves and others. The optative shapes Trollope’s novels in two ways: first, as the main determinant of character psychology and behavior; and second, as a structural principle that governs his handling of the multiplot novel. Through an analysis of The Small House at Allington (1864)—the first of Trollope’s novels in which the plot is fully motivated by psychological characterization—I show how Trollope adopts narrative strategies of fragmentation and development to distribute optative motifs across the character-space, in effect replicating at the level of structure what takes place within individual minds. In this way, Trollope finds formal means for staging the contest between freedom and contingency in the construction of the self, significantly advancing the character-plot debate of the 1860s and deepening the moral purpose of his realism.

What’s a Special Character Anyway? Effects of Ambiguous Terminology in Password Rules

Although many aspects of passwords have been studied, no research to date has systematically examined how ambiguous terminology affects the user experience during password rule comprehension, a necessary precursor to password generation. Our research begins to address this gap by focusing on users’ comprehension of password generation rules. Varying terms—special characters, symbols, non-alphanumeric characters, and punctuation—are used in different password rules, but mostly without explicit definition. In this laboratory study, we used character-selection and compliance-checking tasks with 60 participants to investigate effects of varying terms on users’ password rule comprehension. Results show that manipulating terminology caused participants’ interpretation of the allowed character space to shrink or expand. Our quantitative and qualitative data show that participants were extremely confused by the variety of terms for “special character.” Seemingly small changes in language have large, observable impacts on users’ understanding of password rules. Language in password requirements must be carefully constructed to ensure that users fully comprehend the allowable character space. This research is an important first step to providing data-driven guidance on constructing clearer language for password rules.