Over the past decade, the AdS/CFT correspondence has proven to be a remarkable tool to study various properties of strongly coupled field theories. In the context of the holography, Ryu and Takayanagi have proposed an elegant method to calculate entanglement entropy for these field theories. In this thesis, we use this holographic entanglement entropy to study a candidate c-theorem and entanglement entropy for singular surfaces. We use holographic entanglement entropy for strip geometry and construct a candidate c-function in arbitrary dimensions. For holographic theories dual to Einstein gravity, this c-function is shown to decrease monotonically along RG flows. A sufficient condition required for this monotonic flow is that the stress tensor of the matter fields driving the holographic RG flow must satisfy the null energy condition over the holographic surface used to calculate the entanglement entropy. In the case where the bulk theory is described by Gauss-Bonnet gravity, the latter condition alone is not sufficient to establish the monotonic flow of the c-function. We also observe that for certain holographic RG flows, the entanglement entropy undergoes a ‘phase transition’ as the size of the system grows and as a result, evolution of the c-function may exhibit a discontinuous drop. Then, we turn towards studying the holographic entanglement entropy for regions with a singular boundary in higher dimensions. Here, we find that various singularities make new universal contributions. When the boundary CFT has an even spacetime dimension, we find that the entanglement entropy of a conical surface contains a term quadratic in the logarithm of the UV cut-off. In four dimensions, the coefficient of this contribution is proportional to the central charge c. A conical singularity in an odd number of spacetime dimensions contributes a term proportional to the logarithm of the UV cut-off. We also study the entanglement entropy for various boundary surfaces with extended singularities. In these cases, extended singularities contribute through new linear or quadratic terms in logarithm only when the locus of the singularity is even dimensional and curved.

Thesis (M Distance Ed) -- University of South Australia, 1995

Like so many others before me, I have been drawn to the study of private letters. Time-bound, often highly stylized, yet they always remain personal writings, uncannily capturing our interest. (For complete abstract open document)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, May, 2001. / Title from title page display. Bibliography: 266-273 (leaves).

Discriminative learning is challenging when examples are setsof local image features, and the sets vary in cardinality and lackany sort of meaningful ordering. Kernel-based classificationmethods can learn complex decision boundaries, but a kernelsimilarity measure for unordered set inputs must somehow solve forcorrespondences -- generally a computationally expensive task thatbecomes impractical for large set sizes. We present a new fastkernel function which maps unordered feature sets tomulti-resolution histograms and computes a weighted histogramintersection in this space. This ``pyramid match" computation islinear in the number of features, and it implicitly findscorrespondences based on the finest resolution histogram cell wherea matched pair first appears. Since the kernel does not penalize thepresence of extra features, it is robust to clutter. We show thekernel function is positive-definite, making it valid for use inlearning algorithms whose optimal solutions are guaranteed only forMercer kernels. We demonstrate our algorithm on object recognitiontasks and show it to be dramatically faster than currentapproaches.

In this paper, I provide an interpretation of Frege's logicist project, drawing a connection between it and his idiosyncratic view of truth.

Les philosophes des Lumières recourent fréquemment à la fiction brève dans leurs textes littéraires. Il s'agit d'un outil qui est employé pour penser "dans" et "par" le récit, autant que pour essayer d'emporter l'adhésion du lecteur. L'anecdote compte au nombre de ces micro-récits. Pourtant, il semblerait qu'on ne puisse pas résoudre ce registre littéraire à ces deux emplois en contexte épistolaire. Notre thèse a donc pour ambition d'étudier les contextes et les enjeux du recours à l'anecdote en fonction des différents destinataires, ainsi que le rôle qu'elles occupent dans la relation épistolaire qu'entretient Diderot avec sa maîtresse, Sophie Volland. / The Enlightenment philosophers use frequently brief fiction in their literary texts. It is a tool that serves to think in and through the narrative or to win the reader's adhesion. The anecdote is part of this register of fictions. Yet, within the framework of a correspondence, one can not solve the anecdotes to these two stakes. Therefore, our thesis has as amibition to study the contexts and the stakes which motivate the use of an anecdote according to the recipient, as well as the role that they have in the epistolary relationship between Diderot and Sophie Volland.

This essay stresses the importance of the visual and material aspects of these manuscripts. By examining her work in relation to collage practices, it highlights Dickinson's role as an avant-garde figure in both American poetry and material culture. Rather than write interlocking theses that connect each reading, I aim to demonstrate the ways in which an art historical consideration of Dickinson's envelope manuscripts complicates the already open-ended nature of her poetry through associating the texts with the cultural phenomena of the scrapbook. Additionally, I will foreground the importance of the materiality of these works through emphasizing the role of correspondence in Dickinson's life.

Observando o crescente interesse pela escrita do eu e levando em conta a afirmação de Jorge de Sena no ensaio Machado de Assis e o seu quinteto carioca, que declara haver como unidade entre as cinco obras finais de Machado de Assis o questionamento dos gêneros que expressam a subjetividade moderna, buscamos investigar, nesta dissertação, a maneira como Machado de Assis lida com alguns desses gêneros da intimidade, dentro e fora do espaço ficcional. Para tanto, selecionamos duas das obras finais que empregam mais diretamente a escrita do eu e que, do mesmo modo, mais transgridem essa escrita: Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas, uma autobiografia escrita por um defunto autor; e Memorial de Aires, um diário que registra mais frequentemente a vida dos outros do que a do próprio diarista Aires. Além das obras ficcionais, trazemos para a análise as missivas machadianas, observando como o escritor constrói a imagem de si na troca de cartas com intelectuais de seu convívio. Refletindo sobre o exercício desses gêneros da intimidade, por parte de Machado de Assis, observamos que este, na sua correspondência, não ultrapassou os limites que, à época, regiam a troca de confidências entre pares e amigos. Comedido e discreto, assume, de modo geral, o papel de mestre e aconselhador, apresentando em suas cartas um projeto literário de cunho pedagógico, conduzindo os mais jovens na direção da literatura. Já na ficção, ao fazer um uso engenhoso e criativo das retóricas da autobiografia e do diário, o escritor utilizou tais gêneros para, ao mesmo tempo, recobrir e agudizar a crítica corrosiva à sociedade de seu tempo / Observing the growing interest in writing the word I and taking into consideration Jorge de Senas quote in the essay Machado de Assis e o seu quinteto carioca, which declares that there are, as a unit among the five final works of Machado de Assis, the questionings of the genres that express the modern subjectivity, its investigated, in this dissertation, the way in which Machado de Assis deals with some of those intimacy genres, inside and outside the fictional space. For this purpose, two of the final projects were selected, which express more directly the writing of I and that, in the same way, transgress this writing: Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas, an autobiography written by a dead author; and Memorial de Aires, a diary that frequently registers the lives of others than Aires own life. Besides the fictional works, its brought to analysis Machados letters, observing how the writer builds up the image of himself when exchanging letters with the scholars of his familiarity. Reflecting on the exercise of those intimacy genres, by Machado de Assis, its possible to observe that the one, in its correspondence, hasnt exceeded the boundaries that, in that epoch, reacted to the exchange of confidence between relatives and friends. Moderate and mild, he assumes, in a general way, the role of a master and an advisor, showing through his letters a literary project of pedagogical nature, leading the Youngers towards literature. In fiction, when making a creative use of autobiography and diary rhetoric, the writer used such genres for, at the same time, recovering and accentuating the corrosive criticism to the society of his time

Observando o crescente interesse pela escrita do eu e levando em conta a afirmação de Jorge de Sena no ensaio Machado de Assis e o seu quinteto carioca, que declara haver como unidade entre as cinco obras finais de Machado de Assis o questionamento dos gêneros que expressam a subjetividade moderna, buscamos investigar, nesta dissertação, a maneira como Machado de Assis lida com alguns desses gêneros da intimidade, dentro e fora do espaço ficcional. Para tanto, selecionamos duas das obras finais que empregam mais diretamente a escrita do eu e que, do mesmo modo, mais transgridem essa escrita: Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas, uma autobiografia escrita por um defunto autor; e Memorial de Aires, um diário que registra mais frequentemente a vida dos outros do que a do próprio diarista Aires. Além das obras ficcionais, trazemos para a análise as missivas machadianas, observando como o escritor constrói a imagem de si na troca de cartas com intelectuais de seu convívio. Refletindo sobre o exercício desses gêneros da intimidade, por parte de Machado de Assis, observamos que este, na sua correspondência, não ultrapassou os limites que, à época, regiam a troca de confidências entre pares e amigos. Comedido e discreto, assume, de modo geral, o papel de mestre e aconselhador, apresentando em suas cartas um projeto literário de cunho pedagógico, conduzindo os mais jovens na direção da literatura. Já na ficção, ao fazer um uso engenhoso e criativo das retóricas da autobiografia e do diário, o escritor utilizou tais gêneros para, ao mesmo tempo, recobrir e agudizar a crítica corrosiva à sociedade de seu tempo / Observing the growing interest in writing the word I and taking into consideration Jorge de Senas quote in the essay Machado de Assis e o seu quinteto carioca, which declares that there are, as a unit among the five final works of Machado de Assis, the questionings of the genres that express the modern subjectivity, its investigated, in this dissertation, the way in which Machado de Assis deals with some of those intimacy genres, inside and outside the fictional space. For this purpose, two of the final projects were selected, which express more directly the writing of I and that, in the same way, transgress this writing: Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas, an autobiography written by a dead author; and Memorial de Aires, a diary that frequently registers the lives of others than Aires own life. Besides the fictional works, its brought to analysis Machados letters, observing how the writer builds up the image of himself when exchanging letters with the scholars of his familiarity. Reflecting on the exercise of those intimacy genres, by Machado de Assis, its possible to observe that the one, in its correspondence, hasnt exceeded the boundaries that, in that epoch, reacted to the exchange of confidence between relatives and friends. Moderate and mild, he assumes, in a general way, the role of a master and an advisor, showing through his letters a literary project of pedagogical nature, leading the Youngers towards literature. In fiction, when making a creative use of autobiography and diary rhetoric, the writer used such genres for, at the same time, recovering and accentuating the corrosive criticism to the society of his time