The Modern Weaver Lad: Melodrama and Dialect Literature

Nineteenth-century Lancastrians feared the death of regional dialects due to increased migration to manufacturing areas, the expansion of the railways, and compulsory state education. This fear fuelled the proliferation of dialect glossaries as well as dialect writing in the form of poems, songs, stories, and sketches. While scholars have written about these forms, the role of Lancashire dialect in theatrical contexts has been understudied. This article draws on recent studies in melodrama and performance sociolinguistics to examine Lancashire dialect writer Ben Brierley's domestic melodrama The Lancashire Weaver Lad. I argue that through its complex representation of ‘Lancashireness’ the play provided new ways for mid-Victorian Lancastrians to understand, construct, and perform modern Lancashire identities.

Intelligence without Representation: A Historical Perspective

This paper reflects on a seminal work in the history of AI and representation: Rodney Brooks’ 1991 paper Intelligence without representation. Brooks advocated the removal of explicit representations and engineered environments from the domain of his robotic intelligence experimentation, in favour of an evolutionary-inspired approach using layers of reactive behaviour that operated independently of each other. Brooks criticised the current progress in AI research and believed that removing complex representation from AI would help address problematic areas in modelling the mind. His belief was that we should develop artificial intelligence by being guided by the evolutionary development of our own intelligence and that his approach mirrored how our own intelligence functions. Thus, the field of behaviour-based robotics emerged. This paper offers a historical analysis of Brooks’ behaviour-based robotics approach and its impact on artificial intelligence and cognitive theory at the time, as well as on modern-day approaches to AI.

Quaternionic equiangular lines

Let 𝔽 = ℝ, ℂ or ℍ. A p-set of equi-isoclinic n-planes with parameter λ in 𝔽r is a set of pn-planes spanning 𝔽r each pair of which has the same non-zero angle arccos $\begin{array}{} \sqrt{\lambda} \end{array}$. It is known that via a complex matrix representation, a pair of isoclinic n-planes in ℍr with angle arccos $\begin{array}{} \sqrt{\lambda} \end{array}$ yields a pair of isoclinic 2n-planes in ℂ2r with angle arccos $\begin{array}{} \sqrt{\lambda} \end{array}$. In this article we characterize all the p-tuples of equi-isoclinic planes in ℂ2r which come via our complex representation from p-tuples of equiangular lines in ℍr. We then construct all the p-tuples of equi-isoclinic planes in ℂ4 and derive all the p-tuples of equiangular lines in ℍ2. Among other things it turns out that the quadruples of equiangular lines in ℍ2 are all regular, i.e. their symmetry groups are isomorphic to the symmetric group S4.

Uncertainty: two probabilities for the three states of neutrosophy

Uncertainty is inherent to the real world: everything is only probable, precision like in measurements is finite, noise is everywhere... Also, science is based on a modeling of reality that can only be approximate. Therefore we postulate that uncertainty should be considered in our models, and for making this more easy we propose a simple operational conceptualization of uncertainty. Starting from the simple model of associating a probability p to a statement supposed to be true our proposed modeling bridges the gap towards the most complex representation proposed by neutrosophy as a triplet of probabilities. The neutrosophic representation consists in using a triplet of probabilities (t,i,f) instead of just a single probability. In this triplet, t represents the probability of the statement to be true, and f it's the probability to be false. The specific point of neutrosophy it that the probability i represents the probability of the statement to be uncertain, imprecise, or neutral among other significations according to the application. Our proposed representation uses only 2 probabilities instead of 3, and it can be easily translated into the neutrosophic representation. By being simpler we renounce to some power of representing the uncertain but we encourage the modeling of uncertainty (instead of ignoring it) by making this simpler. Briefly said, the prepare the path towards using neutrosophy. Our proposed representation of uncertainty consist, for a statement, not only to add its probability to be true p, but also a second probability pp to model the confidence we have in the first probability p. This second parameter pp represents the plausibility of p, therefore the opposite of its uncertainty. This is the confidence given to the value of p, in short pp is the probability of p (hence the name pp), This is simple to understand, and that allows calculations of combined events using classical probability such as based on the concepts of mean and variance. The stringent advantage of our modeling by the couple (p,pp) is that experts can be easily interrogated to provide their expertise by asking them simply the chance they give to an event a occur (this is p) and the confidence they have in that prediction (which is pp). We give also a formula to transform from our model to the neutrosophic representation. Finally, a short discussion on the entropy as a measure of uncertainty is done.

From Secluded Paradise to Hell on Earth

This paper focuses on the writings of Hino Ashihei (1907-1960) about Okinawa, a corpus of twelve works composed over a period of sixteen years that were inspired by three visits to the Ryūkyū Islands. Hino is best known as a writer of war novels, but these twelve works have received almost no attention, partly because they are not considered Okinawan literature since Hino was a native of Kyūshū. The aim of this article is to show that Okinawa is not merely a setting for these neglected writings but rather a complex representation that incorporates the author’s gaze, his stance toward the region, and a topography of power. Moreover, this representation evolved over time to produce an array of at times contrasting images of Okinawa, whether as a tropical paradise, the shield of the nation, or a symbol of its occupation. On the other hand, the narrator’s stance, which is characterised at first by the strength and assertiveness of a first-person narrator, underwent a progressive disengagement that was intended, by this article’s interpretation, to introduce greater objectivity into Hino’s prose.

Regularized Integral Representations of the Reciprocal Gamma Function

This paper establishes a real integral representation of the reciprocal Gamma function in terms of a regularized hypersingular integral along the real line. A regularized complex representation along the Hankel path is derived. The equivalence with the Heine’s complex representation is demonstrated. For both real and complex integrals, the regularized representation can be expressed in terms of the two-parameter Mittag-Leffler function. Reference numerical implementations in the Computer Algebra System Maxima are provided.