3,924 research outputs found

    Episode 35: Alexis Castellanos, Author of “Isla to Island”, and Her Panel Presentation during the Operación Pedro Pan Two-Day Event

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    In Part 1 of “Operación Pedro Pan: The Voices and Stories of Cuba’s Child Exodus—A Knights HistoryCast Mini-Series,” the Department of History’s Sebastian Garcia talked with Alexis Castellanos, an author, illustrator, graphic novelist, and a panelist at the esteemed, conspicuous, and powerful “Operación Pedro Pan: Honoring the Cultural, Historical Legacy of Cuba’s Child Exodus” Two-Day Program that Florida Humanities, UCF’s Department of English and Department of Modern Languages and Literatures sponsored (see https://cah.ucf.edu/pedro-pan/ for more details on sponsors and the program in general). Sebastian structured this specific episode on Alexis Castellanos’ Isla to Island, a wordless graphic novel grounded by her personal family history and the history of Operación Pedro Pan (Operation Peter Pan). By analyzing such a historic event through the medium of fiction, Sebastian argued that this is one of the most unique Knights HistoryCast episodes of all time. Naturally, their conversation expanded to what she talked about during her panel presentation in Panel One, Day 1 of the event that featured “internationally renowned scholars that discussed the political, historical, and cultural legacy of Operación Pedro Pan (1960-1962).” (https://cah.ucf.edu/pedro-pan/) To purchase Isla to Island (strongly recommend), check out: https://islatoisland.com/. To find out more about Alexis and her professional work, check out her website at https://alexiscastellanos.com/https://stars.library.ucf.edu/knightshistorycast/1034/thumbnail.jp

    "Cronica der Turckey" Sebastian Franck's Translation of the "Tractatus de Moribus, Condicionibus et Nequitia Turcorum" by Georgius de Hungaria

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    The Tractatus de moribus, condicionibus et nequitia Turcorum is one of the most important first-hand accounts of life in fifteenth-century Turkey known to modern scholarship. It is the work of a Christian former slave of the Turks, writing after his return to the West. Although the author does not name himself, he can be identified as a Dominican priest, Georgius de Hungaria, who died in Rome in 1502. His Tractatus is conceived as a work of anti-Islamic polemic, yet it contains a surprisingly unbiased appraisal of Turkish customs. First printed c.1480 when European apprehension in the face of Ottoman expansion was at its height, the Tractatus was reprinted in numerous editions, and was widely used as a source by other authors. Luther edited the text in 1530, using the positive account of Turkish customs and religious observance as a weapon in his polemic against the Roman Catholic Church: if heathens could perform such exemplary works, who could fail to doubt the efficacy of works as a means of salvation? Sebastian Franck in his German translation of the Tractatus went further: replacing Georgius' commentary with his own, he used the text to attack institutional religion as a whole and to promote his concept of a non-dogmatic, spiritual Church of individuals united with each other only through their union with God -a Church which was not closed to Moslems or members of any other creed. This translation or adaptation, the Cronica der Türckey, marks Franck's decisive break with the Lutheran cause and the beginning of his lonely path as a 'spiritual individualist'. Franck reworked his translation of the Tractatus for his major geographical work, the Weltbuch of 1534. This thesis concerns itself primarily with Franck's Cronica, providing the first modern critical edition of this text, in a near-diplomatic transcription with an extensive glossary. The thesis also includes transcriptions of the Tractatus; of Türckei, an anonymous translation of the Tractatus, and of relevant additional material from Franck's Weltbuch. None of these texts has been published in full in a modern edition. In the Introduction Franck's Cronica is compared in detail with the Tractatus, highlighting the changes that occur in translation; the character and the significance of these changes are then discussed. It is established that Franck, whilst being unwilling to reverse any of Georgius' value judgements on Islam and Turkish culture, is highly selective in his choice of material for translation, and frequently gives the text new nuances and adds his own comment. The question of the Tractatus' influence on Franck's further development as a writer and thinker is also raised. The investigation then turns to Franck's use of the Tractatus material in his Weltbuch. His eclecticism becomes apparent in this text, in which Georgius' account is juxtaposed - but not synthesised - with material from other sources, often of lesser veracity and greater anti-Islamic bias. Franck's distortion of the Tractatus material to suit his own line of argument is clearly discernible: from the unique phenomenon presented in the Tractatus the Turks become one more example of the general human tendency to externalise and dogmatise faith. In addition, the transmission of Cronica and Türckei is examined, and the relationship between these two translations is clarified: Franck certainly used Türckei in writing his Cronica, but is unlikely to be the author of the anonymous work

    2. A Human Being to Be Remembered | The 2024 UCF VLP Podcast Series

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    In Episode Two, Andrew Carroll’s herculean efforts to seek and collect over 210,000 war letters—that span since the American Revolution—demonstrate how others are as seriously committed to preserving the legacies of the men and women who served and fought for their country. Andrew shares several letters from his impressive collection, allowing us to be as close as possible to the Veterans—engaging with their own words, thoughts, and emotions. Indeed, themes central to UCF VLP are often exemplified in the 210,000 war letters Andrew has preserved for over twenty-five years. Andrew Carroll is an award-winning historian and author and is the founder and director of the Center for American War Letters at Chapman University. Andrew was the second keynote speaker invited to share his extraordinary work during the 2024 UCF VLP Institute. This episode was directed, produced, written, edited, and hosted by Sebastian Garcia and featured Andrew Carroll. Executive Producers: Sebastian Garcia and Dr. Amelia Lyons. Music: “Honor and Glory” and “Real Heroes” by SergePavkinMusic (Pixabay) Podcast Cover Artwork: Sebastian Garcia The 2024 UCF VLP Podcast Series is brought to you by the UCF History Department Podcast Network and UCF’s Veterans Legacy Program—a partnership with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Cemetery Administration.https://stars.library.ucf.edu/knightshistorycast/1051/thumbnail.jp

    Wang Tao’s Diary: excerpts Translated by Sebastian Eicher

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    In a little regarded episode from Wang Tao’s diaries, the author tells us about a two-week long journey from Shanghai to Hangzhou and to the West Lake. Wang Tao undertook this journey together with the missionary Griffith John, who at that time was trying to find ways to preach the gospel outside the treaty port of Shanghai. We know the rough outline of this journey from Griffith John’s writings, as it was the second half of a longer journey along the Grand Canal. But Wang Tao’s presence and his notes on it have so far been neglected. This is a loss, as the diary Wang Tao kept offers not only a personal and lively account of the journey, it also gives us some insight in the Chinese perception of the missionaries’ activities and a description of the Hangzhou era before the Taiping would ravage it only a bit more than a year later

    Accelerating 4D flow MRI by exploiting low-rank matrix structure and hadamard sparsity

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    Purpose: To develop accelerated 4D flow MRI by exploiting low-rank matrix structure and Hadamard sparsity. Theory and Methods: 4D flow MRI data can be represented as the sum of a low-rank and a sparse component. To optimize the sparse representation of the data, it is proposed to incorporate a Hadamard transform of the velocity-encoding segments. Retrospectively and prospectively, undersampled data of the aorta of healthy subjects are used to assess the reconstruction accuracy of the proposed method relative to k-t SPARSE-SENSE reconstruction. Image reconstruction from eight-fold prospective undersampling is demonstrated and compared with conventional SENSE imaging. Results: Simulation results revealed consistently lower errors in velocity estimation when compared with k-t SPARSE-SENSE. In vivo data yielded reduced error of peak flow with the proposed method relative to k-t SPARSE-SENSE when compared with two-fold SENSE ( 2.5±4.6% versus 10.2±8.5% in the ascending aorta, 3.6±8.4% versus 9.2±9.0% in the descending aorta). Streamline visualization showed more consistent flow fields with the proposed technique relative to the benchmark methods. Conclusion: Image reconstruction by exploiting low-rank structure and Hadamard sparsity of 4D flow MRI data improves the reconstruction accuracy relative to current state-of-the-art methods and holds promise to reduce the long scan times of 4D flow MRI

    Episode 31: Professor Paul W. Wehr Day at the Pioneer Days Pine Castle Historical Society History Tent Event

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    The Department of History’s Sebastian Garcia talked with Mr. Richard Lee Cronin, author, historian, and event coordinator of the Pine Castle Historical Society HISTORY TENT, at the Annual Pine Castle Pioneer Days Event. This episode is dedicated to and is in honor of Professor Paul W. Wehr. A Professor of History at UCF since the Department’s inception in 1969, Professor Wehr retired in 1995 after 25 years of teaching his passion for history—inspiring countless students and faculty. Professor Wehr devoted much of his time to documenting the history of Orange County, specifically Pine Castle. This naturally led to a close relationship with the Pine Castle Historical Society, which dedicated Day 1 of the 2-day event at Pioneer Days to Professor Wehr for the first time this year. Sebastian decided to pay tribute to one of UCF’s original history professors by going to the Pine Castle Pioneer Days HISTORY TENT event dedicated to him and produced a podcast on location with Mr. Richard Lee Cronin, who knew Professor Wehr personally. Below are links to an Orlando Memory interview featuring Professor Wehr himself that Sebastian mentioned in the introduction of this podcast, the page to know more about his books and association with Pine Castle, and a UCF CAH article written about Professor Wehr shortly after his passing in 2021. https://orlandomemory.info/topics/oral-history-interview-with-dr-paul-w-wehr/ https://www.pinecastlehistory.org/publications-books-pamphlets/ https://news.cah.ucf.edu/news/remembering-paul-w-wehr/https://stars.library.ucf.edu/knightshistorycast/1030/thumbnail.jp

    Three-dimensional balanced steady state free precession myocardial perfusion cardiovascular magnetic resonance at 3T using dual-source parallel RF transmission: initial experience

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    Background: The purpose of this study was to establish the feasibility of three-dimensional (3D) balanced steady-state-free-precession (bSSFP) myocardial perfusion cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) at 3T using local RF shimming with dual-source RF transmission, and to compare it with spoiled gradient echo (TGRE) acquisition. Methods: Dynamic contrast-enhanced 3D bSSFP perfusion imaging was performed on a 3T MRI scanner equipped with dual-source RF transmission technology. Images were reconstructed using k-space and time broad-use linear acquisition speed-up technique (k-t BLAST) and compartment based principle component analysis (k-t PCA). Results: In phantoms and volunteers, local RF shimming with dual source RF transmission significantly improved B1 field homogeneity compared with single source transmission (P = 0.01). 3D bSSFP showed improved signal-to-noise, contrast-to-noise and signal homogeneity compared with 3D TGRE (29.8 vs 26.9, P = 0.045; 23.2 vs 21.6, P = 0.049; 14.9% vs 12.4%, p = 0.002, respectively). Image quality was similar between bSSFP and TGRE but there were more dark rim artefacts with bSSFP. k-t PCA reconstruction reduced artefacts for both sequences compared with k-t BLAST. In a subset of five patients, both methods correctly identified those with coronary artery disease. Conclusion: Three-dimensional bSSFP myocardial perfusion CMR using local RF shimming with dual source parallel RF transmission at 3T is feasible and improves signal characteristics compared with TGRE. Image artefact remains an important limitation of bSSFP imaging at 3T but can be reduced with k-t PCA

    Legalizing recreational marijuana: comparing ballot outcomes in four states

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    Medical marijuana is now available in 23 states, and its growing acceptance has paved the way for the legalization of recreational marijuana. This article examines four recent campaigns to legalize recreational marijuana–two failures and two successes. Using data from newspaper sources, interviews with key players, and other sources, we examine the factors that influence whether a ballot initiative succeeds or fails. We identify similarities and differences between the four measures, the social forces shaping the debate, their claims and counterclaims, and a set of factors that appear to increase the odds that a recreational marijuana ballot measure will be successful.Peer reviewe

    Legitimized fraud and the state-corporate criminology of food - a Spectrum-based theory

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    The role that food corporations have in determining our health and nutrition is concomitant with the power and influence that corporations exercise across all commercial sectors. These large, powerful, and often multinational entities – collectively referred to as Big Food – employ a robust array of strategies to advance the organizational interests associated with a seemingly paradoxical business model: securing the continuous and ever-growing consumption of food products increasingly associated with negative health outcomes. As this model proliferates globally, the implications of this contradiction warrant specific attention to the activities of Big Food corporations through a critical criminological framework. The pervasive and increasingly legitimized activity of Big Food relies on a legal, regulatory, and moral framework that allows for the relegation of all non-market oriented value systems to be secondary to a pro-corporatist ideological and moral superstructure. Whereas previous scholarship has contributed to an understanding of what occurs when profit-maximization values collide with – and then co-opt – public health and nutrition interests, the present study offers a spectrum-based theory to explain how various degrees of food fraud are systematically incentivized by the legal privileges of corporations and the hegemonic moral economy of neoliberal governance.Peer reviewe
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