Re: 2020 ACF Regionals: Specific Questions and Errata
Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2020 1:30 pm
I think that healing tossup was a fine idea - I think it could have been a lot stronger by focusing on fewer areas but otherwise works.
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I was actually wrong about this, because I’m fairly certain the first clue was specific to the Tamil ethnic group. Additionally, I negged on the Periyar clue because I associated him with pro-Dalit/lower caste movements more than Dravidian movements, but I believe the clue said something about “lower class members” which made my “protest” incorrect.
I agree with Stephen, but I would argue further that it is outright unreasonable for a moderator (one unfamiliar with the work) to accept "prologue" in this scenario because there is a distinction between an "introduction" and "prologue" (and similarly "preface" and "foreword") – they are specific terms that the author chooses (or in some instances have specific meanings), and "prologue" arguably doesn't even meet the criteria of a "description" as a result. It is dangerous to require moderators to make such a judgement call because you're asking for inexperienced moderators to make some bad calls (including e.g. accepting foreword). This is not a moderator's fault.t-bar wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2020 12:48 pmCertainly the moderator could make the judgment call that "prologue" should be acceptable, but if the editor wants that to be the case, they bear the greater responsibility to say so. What about an answer of the preface or the foreword to Hopscotch? As far as I know, such terms are close to but not exactly synonymous with introduction, and when presented with a judgment call about a notably atypical book one has never read I think the moderator can expect a little more assistance. The finals sequence of the 2018 ACF Nationals featured a contentious protest concerning the difference between a frontispiece and a cover, so I don't think it's at all unreasonable that people could be uncertain when asked to make this sort of distinction.
Regardless of the differences between prologues and introductions and prefaces and forewords and whatever else, I would like to commend the unusually good insight you demonstrated here - this isn't an aspect of questions usually focused on by editors, much less an editor as early in their career as yourself, so good of you to keep that in mind.Thiccasso's Guernthicca wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2020 12:24 pm As you can see, "prologue" was not explicitly mentioned in the answerline precisely because I did not want to make it longer than it already was (and, quite frankly, it's not that long as it stands), and I instead elected to include the phrase "descriptions such as" and allow the moderator to exercise some common sense
Miranda is a bit soft for a hard part at Regionals (let alone ICT) but I would definitely agree he's too hard for a middle at this level. I managed to bungle the Hongwu bonus part as well for no reason, though that was inordinately hard as well, and the "Hundred Word Eulogy" seems like a brutally hard and questionable choice for a hard part - it's come up a few times as an early clue for the Hongwu emperor at hard tournaments and now it's a bonus hard part at Regionals?gerbilownage wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2020 6:05 pm A few of the history bonus middle parts seemed on the hard side, particularly Francisco de Miranda and the Hongwu Emperor. Miranda was a hard part at 2016 ICT!
I am particularly bad at East Asian and Latin American history so I tend to underestimate difficulty in those categories, apologies if you were on the receiving end of particularly unfair bonuses in those categories.gerbilownage wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2020 6:05 pm A few of the history bonus middle parts seemed on the hard side, particularly Francisco de Miranda and the Hongwu Emperor. Miranda was a hard part at 2016 ICT!
The chemistry TU in that packet was on mass spectrums. Here's the text of the contrast question:Victor Prieto wrote:I wasn't thrilled about the answerline choice of contrast in MRI, especially since it seemed to be categorized as the chemistry tossup for the packet. I'd like to see that tossup, please. In addition, the lead-in to the speciation question was the subject of a protest that wasn't adjudicated, so I'd like to see that as well, please.
The repeat of contrast in the set is completely my fault. This was a late addition to the set and I did not thoroughly check for overlaps before adding it.Central Florida A, Illinois A, Penn State B, and UNC B wrote:2. This property can be improved by adjusting values occupying small regions in the process of adaptive histogram equalization. The main clinical use of microbubbles is to enhance this property by vibrating differently when exposed to sound waves. In one technique, the oral or IV (“eye-vee”) intake of certain chemicals improves this property by reducing T1 or T2 relaxation time in tissues. Frits Zernike (“ZER-nik-uh”) won a 1953 Nobel Prize for a form of microscopy that enhances this property by inducing phase shifts in background light. Paramagnetic elements like gadolinium are used as “agents” to enhance this property in MRI images. For 10 points, what property refers to the difference in appearance between multiple pixels viewed at the same time, and can be adjusted along with brightness on a monitor?
ANSWER: image contrast [or contrast ratio; or contrast agents; or phase-contrast microscopy]
<Other Science (Engineering)>
Cambridge A, JHU A, Northwestern A, and Penn State C wrote:6. The homologous recombination protein PRDM9 is the first known mammalian example of a class of gene that causes this process, which was identified in 2009 by a team led by Jiří Forejt (“YIH-zhee FO-rate”). Richard Goldschmidt used the term “hopeful monster” to describe the “saltation” mechanism of this process. S. paradoxus is used as a model organism for studying whether this process obeys the Dobzhansky–Muller mechanism. Reinforcement can promote this process given the existence of a cline. In plants, this process can occur as a result of polyploidy induced during hybridization. Eldredge and Gould proposed that this process occurs in rapid bursts in the theory of punctuated equilibrium. Geographic separation occurs in this process’s allopatric form. For 10 points, name this process that occurs when two populations can no longer interbreed.
ANSWER: speciation [accept speciation genes; accept specific types of speciation like allopatric speciation; prompt on answers referring to the formation of new species; prompt on reproductive isolation; prompt on cladogenesis; prompt on evolution]
<Biology>
I'm not sure what order the UIUC packets were read in, but the playoffs weren't done on editors' packets. There were two editors' packets and fourteen submitted ones, and only one of the editors' packets was read at the UIUC site (presumably as a final). Interesting to hear your PPB went up throughout the day, which I feel like is usually not the case (as teams get tired, etc).It's Drew wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2020 9:15 pm I don't know anything about opera, but my teammate who does says that the tossup on Parsifal had a misplaced clue about transformation songs. He told me to post this on his behalf.
Also, the consensus among Purdue's players was that the editors' packets were noticeably less difficult than the submitted packets. This is obviously subjective, but our PPBs did experience a general uptick in the playoffs vs. the prelims. Interested to know if this was a common experience, or just an idiosyncracy of our knowledge bases.
I greatly enjoyed playing this TU, particularly because it incorporates clues from multiple imaging modalities and general image processing. I believe it may be worth adding a prompt for "dynamic range," at least for the adaptive histogram equalization clue.Central Florida A, Illinois A, Penn State B, and UNC B wrote:2. This property can be improved by adjusting values occupying small regions in the process of adaptive histogram equalization. The main clinical use of microbubbles is to enhance this property by vibrating differently when exposed to sound waves. In one technique, the oral or IV (“eye-vee”) intake of certain chemicals improves this property by reducing T1 or T2 relaxation time in tissues. Frits Zernike (“ZER-nik-uh”) won a 1953 Nobel Prize for a form of microscopy that enhances this property by inducing phase shifts in background light. Paramagnetic elements like gadolinium are used as “agents” to enhance this property in MRI images. For 10 points, what property refers to the difference in appearance between multiple pixels viewed at the same time, and can be adjusted along with brightness on a monitor?
ANSWER: image contrast [or contrast ratio; or contrast agents; or phase-contrast microscopy]
<Other Science (Engineering)>
With respect to the martyrdom question, I'm sorry if the choice of pronoun confused anyone else. I thought "practice" made the most sense, especially for the early clues, which were about the academic study of martyrdom and the development of a tradition of martyrdom in antiquity. Here is the question for reference.Victor Prieto wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2020 6:25 pm I was also confused by a number of odd pronoun choices or pronoun switching in tossups throughout this set, which I'm surprised that nobody else has commented on because I recall my teammates commenting on it a couple times. For example, martyrdom was described as a "practice" initially, which is kind of odd because martyrdom is not something one person can be expected to do repeatedly. "Genre" for bebop was mentioned already. I think there were others, but I can't recall others without looking through the set to jog my memory.
2. Both Clement of Alexandria and Jose (“YO-see”) ben Kisma were ambivalent about this practice according to Daniel Boyarin. St. Cyprian delineated this practice’s “red” and “white” forms. This practice was described in the Midrash (“MID-rosh”) Eleh Ezkerah (“AY-leh ez-KRAH”). Accounts of this practice were compiled in the Hieronymianum. The Munyonyo shrine exalted this practice occurring in the reign of Mwanga II of Buganda. A letter about Polycarp sparked a genre about attaining this status, which names an apocryphal book recounting the “Acts” of Perpetua and Felicitas. A Greek term for “witness” names this status, which the palm branch and “crown of immortality” symbolize. Art depicts saints with implements used when they met this fate, like stones or arrows. For 10 points, Saints Barbara, Alban, and Stephen fulfilled what practice by dying for their faith?
ANSWER: martyrdom [or martyrion or protomartyrs, etc.; prompt on witnessing or testimony by asking “what lethal mode of witnessing?”; accept dying for your faith or equivalents; prompt on dying or specific deaths by asking “dying for what?”; prompt on sainthood or canonization by asking “what route to sainthood?”; prompt on religious persecution, etc.]
(The first sentence is from Dying for God: Martyrdom and the Making of Christianity and Judaism; some clues come from Acts of the Martyrs and The Martyrdom of Polycarp.)
This is pretty minor, but my understanding is that most Korean historians now don't believe that the Battle of Myeongnyang featured any iron chains. I guess the clue says "was said to have," but it's not mentioned in Admiral Yi's diaries, so it might have been better to say "A mostly disproven theory claims that an admiral..." Anyway, I'm always glad to see Korean history in quiz bowl!1. An admiral of this kingdom was said to have tightened iron ropes between enemy fleet groups during a battle that
he had prepared his soldiers for by saying that “those who seek death shall live; those who seek life shall die.”