26 research outputs found
Autobiography as a mirror to Afro-American culture and experience, 1985
No full textThe study sees autobiography as a "gateway" to understanding a people's culture and is premised on the assumption that Afro-American life and experience is different from that of Whites or any other group living in the United States of America. It utilizes the autobiographies of six Black Americans, who in their own right can be considered men of letters, in an attempt to understand what life has been like for Blacks in America. It discusses Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Written by Himself, W. E. B. Du Bois's Dusk of Dawn, An Essay Toward An Autobiography of Race Concept, James Weldon Johnson's Along This Way, The Autobiograpy of James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes's The Big Sea, Zora Neale Hurston's Dust Tracks on a Road and Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. As a group, these authors share certain special concerns that are a result of their collective racial history. First, they all exemplify the ability of Blacks to overcome hardship: they prove the fact that Blacks, like other races, are multi-talented and can successfully do more than one thing, even in a time of under-education. All of these autobiographers share a belief that acquiring an education and that the teaching profession in particular are an important means of uplifting the race. They believe in being actively involved in the affairs of their communities and make a serious attempt to define Black American. life and experiences in the context of all Blacks, in the West Indies as well as Africa. Finally, they all express a Black consciousness which has been an example from which Blacks have continued to draw. At the center of their struggles is the need for freedom. For Frederick Douglass, freedom is conceived as the result of one's determined fight to help end slavery, believing that once this is achieved Black men and women will enter into a full and equal partnership with White America. When complete victory is not forthcoming, Douglass sees freedom as lying in one's' migration to the North. Du Bois and Johnson conceive freedom as a result of Blacks attempting to understand one another within the Black communities and of organizing to force the White world to see that Blacks are not base animals but a people with a rich cultural heritage and, indeed, capable of producing a variety of creative art forms. For Hughes, Hurston and Angelou freedom is seen as the desire to be simply themselves. To this effect the latter three autobiographers are not so concerned with race uplift as they are concerned with the need to reveal the race to itself~ they reveal some devices by which Blacks are able to pick up their lives in spite of the overwhelming odds they must confront daily. The institutions of school, church, and family are emphasized as central to the life of Blacks. Education is often seen as the key by which both the race and the individual can advance the church. The church on the other hand, holds a special place in the Black communities because it feeds on the Black people's optimism that nothing is really forever and ifretrievably lost, and the promise of a life after death is in accordance with the general tendency among Blacks to reject hopelessness. The sense of family, especially the network of relationships known as the extended family, is upheld and emphasized despite having suffered severely during the slave period. The study concludes that freedom, identity or personhood for Blacks is a product of a great deal of struggle, and is attained only when Blacks are able to confront life on their own terms and avoid escaping into a world of fantasy, and for the women especially, this demands that they reject or ignore the White standards of beauty
Laser‐induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) als diagnostisches Werkzeug für die biologische Gewebeanalyse
No full textIn this thesis, the emerging analytical technique laser‐induced breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS) is investigated as a diagnostic tool for biological tissues analysis. The two main objectives of the work are using LIBS to provide tissue type feedback information during laser surgery and to use LIBS as an imaging modality by mapping the distribution of elements in tissues. The viability of LIBS for the direct measurement of elements in biological tissue and indirect measurement of molecules has been presented. The applicability of LIBS for real‐time tissue classification to use it as a feedback control mechanism of clinical laser surgery systems has been demonstrated. High classification accuracy of different tissues has been achieved. The results of measuring the distribution of elements in tissues shows that LIBS can be a powerful imaging modality for medical applications that seek to understand the chemical microenvironment of tissues. This has been demonstrated by mapping the different distribution of certain elements between cancerous and healthy tissues.In dieser Arbeit wird die aufkommende Analysetechnik der Laser‐induced Breakdown‐Spectroscopy (LIBS) als Diagnoseinstrument für die Analyse biologischer Gewebe untersucht. Die beiden Hauptziele der Arbeit sind die Verwendung von LIBS zur Bereitstellung von Informationen über den Gewebetyp während laserchirurgischer Eingriffe und die Verwendung von LIBS als bildgebendes Verfahren durch Kartierung der Verteilung von Elementen in Geweben. Die Machbarkeit von LIBS für die direkte Messung von Elementen in biologischem Gewebe und die indirekte Messung von Molekülen wurde vorgestellt. Die Anwendbarkeit von LIBS für die Echtzeit‐Gewebeklassifizierung zur Verwendung als Feedback‐Kontrollmechanismus für klinische Laserchirurgiesysteme wurde nachgewiesen. Es wurde eine hohe Klassifizierungsgenauigkeit für verschiedene Gewebe erreicht. Die Ergebnisse der Messung der Verteilung von Elementen in Geweben zeigen, dass LIBS ein leistungsfähiges bildgebendes Verfahren für medizinische Anwendungen sein kann, die die Zielsetzung haben, die chemische Mikroumgebung von Geweben verstehen zu wollen. Dies wurde durch die Kartierung der unterschiedlichen Verteilung bestimmter Elemente zwischen krebsartigem und gesundem Gewebe nachgewiesen
O corpo-corpus que cala e fala: interseccionalidade em Maya Angelou
Get PDFThis article analyzes Maya Angelou’s autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings from an intersectional perspective, highlighting how the author develops a poetics of the Black female body-corpus. The analysis focuses on the interplay of race, gender, class, and disability, demonstrating how Angelou transforms subaltern experiences into literary and political material. Through scenes of humiliation, silence, and spirituality, the text reveals how Angelou inscribes Black subjectivities into an ethical and aesthetic narrative, in which the body both silences and speaks, challenging erasure and reconfiguring modes of existence.O artigo analisa, sob uma perspectiva interseccional, a autobiografia I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, de Maya Angelou, destacando como a autora elabora uma poética do corpo-corpus negro feminino. A análise concentra-se na articulação entre experiências de raça, gênero, classe e deficiência, evidenciando como a obra transforma vivências subalternizadas em matéria literária e política. Através de cenas de humilhação, silêncio e espiritualidade, o texto revela como Angelou inscreve subjetividades negras em uma narrativa ética e estética, em que o corpo cala e fala, desafiando formas de apagamento e reconfigurando modos de existência
Cluster-based identification algorithm for in-line recycled concrete aggregates characterization using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)
No full textTo upcycle End-of-Life (EoL) concrete from demolished buildings, it is essential to efficiently identify the different materials that may contaminate it. The precise identification and classification of materials and contaminants are vital processes for in-line quality inspection of recycled concrete aggregates transported on a conveyor belt. In this study, a total of eight potential contaminants are considered as target contaminant materials in the streams made of coarse and fine aggregates resulting from the upcycling of EoL concrete. These contaminants degrade the quality of the aggregates even at low concentrations, so it is essential to identify the presence of such contaminants along with the main products of recycling which are recycled coarse aggregates (RCA) and recycled fine aggregates (RFA). An efficient method is proposed to identify and classify EoL concrete waste along with RCA and RFA in motion on conveyor belts via laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) coupled with a cluster-based identification algorithm. The model is verified with an accuracy of 0.97, a precision (weighted average) of 0.98, a recall (weighted average) of 0.97, and an F1-score (weighted average) of 0.98 for the validation set, under the optimal conditions. This study suggests that LIBS may be well suited for fast and in-line analysis of recycled concrete aggregates in industrial applications. This approach presents an innovative approach for the quality characterization of secondary materials produced from EoL concrete being transported on conveyor belts, and therefore can be of great value for the processing and high-end utilization of EoL concrete.Resources & Recyclin
Robust Classification of Graph-Based data
No full text© 2018, The Author(s). A graph-based classification method is proposed for both semi-supervised learning in the case of Euclidean data and classification in the case of graph data. Our manifold learning technique is based on a convex optimization problem involving a convex quadratic regularization term and a concave quadratic loss function with a trade-off parameter carefully chosen so that the objective function remains convex. As shown empirically, the advantage of considering a concave loss function is that the learning problem becomes more robust in the presence of noisy labels. Furthermore, the loss function considered here is then more similar to a classification loss while several other methods treat graph-based classification problems as regression problems.sponsorship: The authors would like to thank the following organizations. EU: The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC AdG A-DATADRIVE-B (290923). This paper reflects only the authors' views, the Union is not liable for any use that may be made of the contained information. Research Council KUL: GOA/10/09 MaNet, CoE PFV/10/002 (OPTEC), BIL12/11T; Ph.D./Postdoc Grants. Flemish Government: FWO: G.0377.12 (Structured systems), G.088114N (Tensor based data similarity); Ph.D./Postdoc Grants. IWT: SBO POM (100031); Ph.D./Postdoc Grants. iMinds Medical Information Technologies SBO 2014. Belgian Federal Science Policy Office: IUAPP7/19 (DYSCO, Dynamical systems, control and optimization, 2012-2017). Fundacion BBVA: project FACIL-Ayudas Fundacion-BBVA a Equipos de Investigacion Cientifica 2016. UAM-ADIC Chair for Data Science and Machine Learning. Concerted Research Action (ARC) programme supported by the Federation Wallonia-Brussels (contract ARC 14/19-060 on Mining and Optimization of Big Data Models). (European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC AdG A-DATADRIVE-B|290923, Research Council KUL|GOA/10/09 MaNet, Research Council KUL|CoE PFV/10/002, Research Council KUL|BIL12/11T, Flemish Government|FWO: G.0377.12, Flemish Government|G.088114N, IWT: SBO POM|100031, Belgian Federal Science Policy Office|IUAPP7/19, Federation Wallonia-Brussels|ARC 14/19-060)status: Publishe
La política desde los circuitos de comunicación en la Provincia de Cartagena, 1830-1839
No full text El autor estudia cómo estaban constituidos los circuitos o redes de comunicación en la Provincia de Cartagena en la década de los treinta del siglo diecinueve; periodo durante el cual la política aparecía mediada por un conjunto de prácticas y vivencias propias del entorno provincial y vecinal. Más que una opinión pública, en sentido moderno, las redes componían sistemas de comunicación oral, escrita e impresa que terminaban siendo determinantes en la legitimación de las instituciones y el poder local. Unos sitios y entornos específicos (una fiesta, una parranda, una gallera, la tropa, el aula de clases) y unos medios (el chisme, la conversación, el libelo, el pasquín, el periódico) servían a la recepción y reelaboración de la política en la provincia. La “bulla”, los “ruidos públicos” y el “desorden” son entendidos como formas prácticas de participación en la vida política. La articulación de los diferentes espacios y formas de comunicación fue un hecho fundamental para una sociedad en la que la impresión y la escritura eran determinantes en el acceso a la representación política.Palabras clave: Circuitos de comunicación, correspondencia, impresos, “ruidos públicos”, participación política. Politics from the communication network in Cartagena Province, 1830-1839 AbstractThe author studies how the communication networks in Cartagena Provice were composed during the 30s years in the 19th century, a period in which politics was influenced by the local milieu experiences. More than a public opinion, in modern terms, networks used to establish oral, written and printed communication systems which had an important influence on institutions and local power establishing. Some specific places and environments (a party, to be out on the town, a gallera[1],thw gang, the classroom) and some media (the gossip, the conversation, the libelous article, the rag, the newspaper) used to be for receiving and re-elaborating the politics within Cartagena Province. The “noise”, the “public noises” and the “disorder” are understood as practical ways for participating in politics. The connection of the different moments with the communication ways was a vital fact for a society in which printing and writing were deciding for accessing to politics representation.Keywords: Communication Networks, Mail, Printed, “Public Noises”, Politics Participation.[1] A “Gallera” is a round arena, usually carpeted, with tribunes and chairs overlooking, where cockfights take place
ERM Ideas & Innovations: Electronic Resources Management in the Time of COVID-19: Challenges and Opportunities Experienced by Six Academic Libraries
No full textLibrarians from six diverse public and private higher education institutions describe the challenges their libraries have experienced, as well as the operational opportunities that have arisen, in managing electronic resources during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the environment that precipitated these challenges is temporary, some of the solutions implemented to address them will represent permanent changes to library operations.https://doi.org/10.1080/1941126X.2021.194916
Remote photoacoustic sensing using speckle-analysis
Get PDFLaser surgery is a rising surgical technique, which offers several advantages compared to the traditional scalpel. However, laser surgery lacks a contact-free feedback system which offers high imaging contrast to identify the tissue type ablated and also a high penetration depth. Photoacoustic imaging has the potential to fill this gap. Since photoacoustic detection is commonly contact based, a new non-interferometric detection technique based on speckle-analysis for remote detection is presented in this work. Phantom and ex-vivo experiments are carried out in transmission and reflection-mode for proof of concept. In summary, the potential of the remote speckle sensing technique for photoacoustic detection is demonstrated. In future, this technique might be applied for usage as a remote feedback system for laser surgery, which could help to broaden the applications of lasers as smart surgical tools
Contact‐free endoscopic photoacoustic sensing using speckle analysis
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Photoacoustic endoscopy (PAE) is an emerging imaging modality, which offers a high imaging penetration and a high optical contrast in soft tissue. Most of the developed endoscopic photoacoustic sensing systems use miniaturized contact ultrasound transducers or complex optical approaches. In this work, a new fiber‐based detection technique using speckle analysis for contact‐free signal detection is presented. Phantom and ex vivo experiments are performed in transmission and reflection mode for proof of concept. In summary, the potential of the technique for endoscopic photoacoustic signal detection is demonstrated. The new technique might help in future to broaden the applications of PAE in imaging or guiding minimally invasive laser procedures
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