bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Strategic Vision: National Security, Defense Policy, and the Geopolitics of Military Pre-Eminence
Authors: Löfflmann Georg
Published: January 2018

This chapter explores how the US Department of Defense has acted as key producer of practical grand strategy discourse, regularly translating geopolitical imaginations, threat assessments and strategic narratives into concrete policy outcomes and security practices, from defense policy planning documents to the stationing of US troops and the conducting of military operations. High-level strategic documents published under the Obama presidency, such as the Quadrennial Defense Review reports or the Defense Strategic Guidance are examined in this chapter as key political outputs in providing the ‘big picture’ of national security. The chapter examines how several practical issues in defense policymaking and military planning were, at the same time, indicating are careful shift in the conceptualization and operation of American hegemony. The chapter details how budget sequestration had a lasting impact on the overall size of the US military while Obama’s ‘pivot to Asia’ shifted its geopolitical and operational focus. This limitation, recalibration and downsizing challenged a status quo of American primacy and global military supremacy that politicians, policy experts and military officials had largely taken for granted since the end of the Cold War.
Introduction
Authors: Athanasiou Athena
Published: January 2018

This introductory chapter pursues the main question of the book: How might we capture the performative power implicit in processes of turning the impossibility of mourning into an incalculable political potentiality that deconstitutes its interpellating terms and contests state-nationalist authoritarianism? It outlines the challenge that the critical methodology of a feminist political movement in post-Yugoslavia presents for the available theoretical and political vocabularies of agonism. Through an anthropological account of the urban feminist and antinationalist movement Women in Black of Belgrade (Žene u Crnom), the Introduction addresses the ways these activists, by engaging in practices of undoing grief as feminine and national language, open onto spaces for challenging conventional divisions between the affective and the political, between the political and the performative, as well as between body and language.
Political Languages of Responsiveness and the Disquiet of Silence
Authors: Athanasiou Athena
Published: January 2018

This chapter elaborates on the political performativity of responsiveness that is articulated or withheld in the context of antinationalist modes of accounting for the past. In acknowledging the dead of the rival side, who have been treated as dispensable during the wars of Yugoslav succession, Women in Black public assemblies intervene in the ways in which violences of dispossession committed in the name of national interests came to be perceived, heard, embodied, and remembered in Serbia, but also in other former republics of Yugoslavia. Both during and after the violence, these political subjects have been seeking to counter the attempts of various agents –i.e., official authorities and media- to trivialize or deny the violence that “their own” national intimates inflicted upon others. Through a performative enactment of silence in their public vigils, they reshape the vocal registers that condition the configurations of the political. The chapter pursues such questions: how reflective responsiveness might unsettle the regimes of audibility and speakability associated with the political discourses of dealing with the enduring aftermath of war atrocities? And how does gendered silence “speak” the languages of the political in such contexts.
Epilogue: Agonistic Re-Membering of the Political
Authors: Athanasiou Athena
Published: January 2018

The concluding chapter provides a summary of the main argument that has been presented throughout the book. It further discusses the theme of how we might understand the politics of im/possible mourning as a means to refigure agonistic political subjectivity beyond sovereign accounts of agency. This theme has been developed in the book by exploring how the feminist and antimilitarist political collectivityWomen in Black (Žene u Crnom) in post-Yugoslavia turns mourning from a proper “feminine language” into a performative modality of aporia critically engaging with the intelligibility of the memorable and its gendered, ethnonational, and militarist configurations. The chapter outlines the thesis that vulnerability has to be rethought in its possibility of reworking the conditions by which it is marked in contexts of bodily duress, grief, and desire. Thinking (through) vulnerability together with performative agonism would prompt us to trouble the calculative, individualistic accounts that posit subjectivity in terms of sovereign will.
The Modern Arabic Literary System
Authors: Snir Reuven
Published: January 2018

This chapter sets out the theoretical framework that underlies the Arabic literary system, outlining the scope of the research subject and the assumptions behind the operative theoretical model. It looks also at the question of how popular literature can be given aesthetic legitimation and refers to the delimiting factors between canonized and non-canonized texts as well as between aesthetic and non-aesthetic objects that are by no means static. The chapter shows how canonicity in Arabic literature generally depends on the language of production: The standard Arabic language (fuṣḥā) is the basic medium of canonized texts, whereas the vernacular language (‘āmmiyya) is that of non-canonized texts.
Literary Dynamics in Generic and Diachronic Cross-section
Authors: Snir Reuven
Published: January 2018

This chapter concentrates on the importance of referring to the historical, diachronic development each genre in Arabic literature has been undergoing underwent and the relationships that exist between genres. As with any scholarly treatment of genre, it refers to the developing innovations and discussions of genre theory and the question, “What is genre?” Crucial in this regard is the concept of periodization, that is, how one is to delimit and define “literary periods.” Since literary genres do not emerge in a vacuum, the issue of generic development cannot be confined to certain time spans, and emphasis is placed on the relationship between modern literature, on the one hand, and classical and medieval literature, on the other. The complete study of the historical, diachronic development of literary dynamics requires an analysis of every genre and sub-genre, of the interrelationships and interactions between the genres, as well as of the interactions and interrelationships between the genres and the sub-genres. For reasons of practicality, the chapter relates to only three main genres: poetry, fiction, and theatre.
The (in)Visibility of Arabic: The Linguistic Landscape
Authors: Suleiman Camelia
Published: January 2018

A Linguistic Landscape (LL) analysis of the symbolic presence of Arabic in public spaces presents a picture of a language in distress. While Arabic appears second to Hebrew on most road signs, and this is generally followed by English, one can note the following: (1) the Arabic script is mostly a transliteration of the Hebrew name of a place, and not the Arabic name, (2) Arabic is generally written carelessly, with mistakes in spelling, grammar and/or lexical choice, (3) many signs in Jerusalem appear with the Arabic crossed out with dark paint, (4) in spite of the municipal regulation of signage in a city like Jerusalem, subtle acts of resistance which escape the regulator, can still be noticed, such as in the Saladin’s sign in East Jerusalem’s main commercial street, (5) in Nazareth there are signs in Arabic letters, but with Hebrew and English structures given Hebrew syntax. Lastly, this chapter follows the narrow streets of the Old City of Jerusalem from Hebron Gate to Jaffa Gate. While the distance is short between these two major gates, the different signs and their organisation, along with the choice and order of languages, tell the story of a city where Arabic and Hebrew are present. The representation of Arabic and Hebrew reveals a divided city where speakers of these languages live separate lives as they share this very sacred sliver of space.
Arabic in Jordan and Palestine
Authors: Suleiman Camelia
Published: January 2018

This chapter discusses the interface between Palestinian and Jordanian nationalism and the effect of globalisation on both. This binary, while encouraged by the Jordanian regime, particularly after the events of 1970, has an echo in the production of knowledge about Jordanian versus Palestinian nationalism and also about Jordanian versus Palestinian Arabic. In addition, another dimension of this scholarship is the ease with which Western scholars can move across borders, which is not the case for the indigenous scholars, even when they are affiliated with European or American universities. This has direct implications on the scope of the research and on the questions that can or cannot be asked. As for research on Palestinian Arabic in the West Bank and Gaza by Palestinian scholars, this seems to be confined to anthologies and dictionaries of Palestinian Arabic. An exception is the research done on Bethlehem in the 1990s. This may be directly related to the increasing difficulty of moving from one location to another for Palestinians.
Virginia Woolf and Being-in-the-world
Authors: Simone Emma
Published: January 2018

Virginia Woolf and Being-in-the-world: A Heideggerian Study explores Woolf’s treatment of the relationship between self and world from a phenomenological-existential perspective. This study presents a timely and compelling interpretation of Virginia Woolf’s textual treatment of the relationship between self and world from the perspective of the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. Drawing on Woolf’s novels, essays, reviews, letters, diary entries, short stories, and memoirs, the book explores the political and the ontological, as the individual’s connection to the world comes to be defined by an involvement and engagement that is always already situated within a particular physical, societal, and historical context. Emma Simone argues that at the heart of what it means to be an individual making his or her way in the world, the perspectives of Woolf and Heidegger are founded upon certain shared concerns, including the sustained critique of Cartesian dualism, particularly the resultant binary oppositions of subject and object, and self and Other; the understanding that the individual is a temporal being; an emphasis upon intersubjective relations insofar as Being-in-the-world is defined by Being-with-Others; and a consistent emphasis upon average everydayness as both determinative and representative of the individual’s relationship to and with the world.
Being-in-the-world
Authors: Simone Emma
Published: January 2018

In Chapter 1 a comprehensive overview of the Heideggerian understanding of Being-in-the-world is presented, placing particular emphasis upon the ways in which this notion relates to Woolf’s writings. Providing a foundation and context for the discussions that are to follow in the remaining chapters, key Heideggerian concepts relating to Being-in-the-world are defined and discussed, including ‘Being-with-Others’; the average everyday mode of ‘theyness’; and ‘authentic’ and ‘inauthentic’ modes of Being. Emphasised throughout this chapter are the ways in which Woolf and Heidegger’s understandings of the relationship between self and world lie in sharp contrast to the Cartesian dualism that separates subject and object, and self and Other.
Moments of Being and the Everyday
Authors: Simone Emma
Published: January 2018

This chapter examines the most convincing affinities in terms of Woolf and Heidegger’s understandings of Being-in-the-world. Drawing attention to Woolf and Heidegger’s respective notions of ‘moments of Being’ and ‘moments of vision’, the ways in which such moments are triggered by particular moods that are experienced by the individual are discussed. Disrupting the individual’s everyday inauthentic immersion in the preoccupations and prescriptions of the present, such moments provide the potential for the disclosure of the typically concealed extraordinary nature of the ordinary. This chapter begins with a discussion of the significance and history of the literary epiphany, and draws attention to the influence of precursors such as Thomas Hardy, Joseph Conrad and William Wordsworth upon Woolf’s writings. In the second section, attention is directed to a number of Heideggerian notions – including ‘anxiety’, ‘nothingness’, ‘boredom’, ‘wonder’ and the ‘numinous’ – in terms of their relations to the Woolfian ‘moment’.
Eclipsed Cinema
Authors: Kim Dong Hoon
Published: January 2018

In this ground-breaking investigation into the seldom-studied film culture of colonial Korea (1910-1945), Dong Hoon Kim brings new perspectives to the associations between colonialism, modernity, film historiography, and national cinema. In its attempt to reconstruct lost intricacies of colonial film history, Eclipsed Cinema explores the under-investigated aspects of colonial film culture such as the representational politics of colonial cinema, the film unit of the colonial government, the social reception of Hollywood cinema in relation to emerging Korean nationalism, Japanese settlers’ film culture, and gendered film spectatorship. By filling a significant void in Asian film history, Eclipsed Cinema greatly expands the critical and historical scopes of early cinema, Korean and Japanese film histories, modern Asian culture, and colonial and post-colonial studies.
Introducing Joseon Cinema: the Question of Film History and the Film Culture of Colonial Korea
Authors: Kim Dong Hoon
Published: January 2018

The introduction presents the main conceptual framework and historiographical methods of the book, detailing the author’s efforts to redefine the concept of the cinema of colonial Korea or “Joseon (colonial Korea) cinema.”
The Beginning: Towards a Mass Entertainment
Authors: Kim Dong Hoon
Published: January 2018

This chapter examines early film culture prior to the 1920s in order to offer a detailed historical background for the book’s exploration of the major advancement of Joseon cinema since the late 1910s. The first half of the chapter critically scrutinizes socio-political and cultural conditions that influenced the formation of early film culture in pre-colonial and colonial Korea. Equal attention is given to the collective efforts of early film entrepreneurs and exhibitors in creating film exhibition sites, including movie theatres, defining social and cultural functions of theatre space for a society devoid of theatrical tradition, and cultivating film audiences. The second half traces the activities of the first film production entity of colonial Korea: the Moving Picture Unit (MPU) of the colonial government. The author’s attempt to uncover the forgotten history of the MUP ultimately reveals the problematic of Japanese and Korean film historiographies that have pushed this crucial film unit of the empire onto the margin of film history.
Hurry Up and Wait: Oppositional Compliance and Networking around the State in Kuwait
Authors: Wheeler Deborah L.
Published: January 2018

In Chapter 4, data collected through ethnographic research and structured interviews are used to argue that new media tools when used, can profoundly alter social and political practices in Kuwait. Internet use removes inhibitions, gives the public a voice, encourages people to demand access to current, transparent news and information, and enables citizens to become more engaged and active in the world. In the words of one 55 year old female Kuwaiti participant, the Internet “opens the eyes of the younger generation and because of this, they find more freedom to exercise and they can compare freedom in their countries to that in other countries” (Interview, July 2009, Kuwait City). Explanations for the increasingly volatile political and social environment in Kuwait are explored in light of new media use. The persistence of patriarchy in spite of enhanced civic engagement reveals the puzzling nature of oppositional compliance in the emirate.
The Micro-demise of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Working around the State in Comparative Perspective
Authors: Wheeler Deborah L.
Published: January 2018

Chapter 5 illustrates the core argument of this book, that ordinary people can create change in small ways by networking around the state. In the service of this argument, the chapter highlights everyday forms of digital resistance in authoritarian political contexts in the Middle East. The three forms of new media empowerment analysed in the chapter include: 1. Digital disclosure to confront bad governance. 2. People to people diplomacy. 3. Social media for social change. These examples of “digital resistance” are based upon public media campaigns against the Egyptian, Turkish, Israeli, Iranian and Saudi states.
Interpassivity and Misdemeanours: The Art of Thinking in Examples and the Žižekian Toolbox
Authors: Pfaller Robert
Published: January 2018

Starting from a passage from Slavoj Žižek`s brilliant book The Sublime Object of Ideology, the very passage on canned laughter that gave such precious support for the development of the theory of interpassivity, this chapter examines a question that has proved indispensable for the study of interpassivity: namely, what does it mean for a theory to proceed by examples? What is the specific role of the example in certain example-friendly theories, for example in Žižek’s philosophy?
Blood, Bodies, and Borders
Authors: Hudson Dale
Published: January 2018

This chapter compares two films that reinterpret Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula and its vampire in different ways. Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) parodies a nostalgic and orientalist perspective on debates about the place of the Middle East in the formation of US transnational identity and history, whereas Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) moves towards this history’s radical revision. Coppola imagines a “vampire ayatollah” during the first US invasion of Iran’s neighbor Iraq; Amirpour, as a feminist hijabi in the sonic space of Tehrangeles. The filmmakers’ familial trajectories underscore Hollywood’s transnational constitution as linked to US policy. The comparison develops a critical approach for how vampires serve as both object and mode of analysis throughout the book. Stoker’s tropes of blood, bodies, and borders map onto US laws concerning race, immigration, and assimilation.
Classical Hollywood Vampires: The Unnatural Whiteness of America
Authors: Hudson Dale
Published: January 2018

This chapter explores how these conventions from segregation comedies, immigration romances, and miscegenation melodramas enter into Hollywood’s first vampire films. It examines ambivalence towards immigration and imperatives to assimilate to an Anglo-American mythical norm in films including Dracula (1931), Drácula (1931), Mark of the Vampire (1935), Dracula’s Daughter (1936), Son of Dracula (1943), House of Frankenstein (1944), and House of Dracula (1945). In early films, southern California masquerades as Transylvania, replete with (non-European) armadillos and scorpions. These films are implicitly set in the United States; others are explicitly set there. The Melting Pot myth of unidirectional assimilation into the unnatural whiteness of America is negotiates policies and programs during the 1920s that regulated immigration from eastern and southern Europe and crossings from Canada and México. The chapter concludes by examining how vampire films rework colonial conventions from Westerns.
Vampires of Color: A Critique of Multicultural Whiteness
Authors: Hudson Dale
Published: January 2018

This chapter explores whiteness’s purported expansion through multiculturalism after Civil Rights and the Immigration Act of 1965. By yoking the inclusivity of multiculturalism and exclusivity of whiteness, multicultural whiteness sustains white privilege without acknowledging it, granting conditional or provisional inclusion to select nonwhite groups. It becomes a performative category (“white-identified-ness”) questioned in films like Blacula (1972), Ganja and Hess (1973), Martin (1976), Fright Night (1985), The Lost Boys (1987), Near Dark (1987), Interview with the Vampire (1994), and The Addiction (1995). Classical Hollywood whiteness is transformed by greater emphasis on so-called national values—individualism, consumerism, patriotism, secularism, and willful amnesia—that sustain foundational myths of a nation of immigrants, land of opportunity, and beacon of democracy. Within the proliferation of representations of a multicultural United States, films question limitations on political representation for anyone not identifying—or being identified—with whiteness, including so-called white trash.
Irish Drama and the Other Revolutions
Authors: Cannon Harris Susan
Published: January 2018

The first modern Irish playwrights emerged in London in the 1890s, at the intersection of a rising international socialist movement and a new campaign for gender equality and sexual freedom. Irish Drama and the Other Revolutions shows how Irish playwrights mediated between the sexual and the socialist revolutions, and traces their impact on left theatre in Europe and America from the 1890s to the 1960s. Tracing the interactions and developments of these two revolutions from decadent London to Cold War New York, this book rereads both canonical and under-studied Irish plays and playwrights in the context of the history and culture of the international left—including utopian socialism, land nationalization, syndicalism, workers’ theatre, and McCarthyism. Drawing on archival research and contemporary queer theory, the study reconstructs the engagement of Yeats, Shaw, Wilde, Synge, O’Casey, and Beckett with socialists and sexual radicals like Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Morris, Edward Carpenter, Florence Farr, Bertolt Brecht, and Lorraine Hansberry. By examining the work of these Irish playwrights in the context of two other revolutions that defined the twentieth century, this book offers a richer understanding of the contributions of Irish playwrights to modern drama, and of the interactions between embodiment and ideology that continue to define the possibilities and limitations of left politics in the twenty-first century.
Desiring Women: Irish Playwrights, New Women and Queer Socialism, 1892–1894
Authors: Cannon Harris Susan
Published: January 2018

The interrelationship between sexual and social revolutions in London in the 1890s shaped both the Irish dramatic revival and twentieth-century English drama. W. B. Yeats and George Bernard Shaw both embraced a socialism rooted in the radical eros of Percy Bysshe Shelley and developed by William Morris, Oscar Wilde, and Edward Carpenter. This “queer socialism” (the chapter acknowledges but departs from from Patrick Mullen’s earlier use of the phrase) was defined by its insistence on pleasure as the means and as the end of social progress. Yeats, Shaw, and John Todhunter—all Shelley enthusiasts, and all fascinated by Florence Farr’s bisexuality—contributed plays to a season that Farr produced at the Avenue Theatre. The opening night audience violently protested the double bill of Yeats’s Land of Heart’s Desire and Todhunter’s A Comedy of Sighs, in part because both plays mythologized the New Woman’s transgressive sexuality through occult representations of lesbian desire. Shaw moved to protect himself from homophobic condemnation by replacing Farr in the lead role of Arms and the Man with a more gender-conforming actress. After Shaw’s brilliant success, Yeats decided to pursue his dramatic career in Dublin, leaving Shaw to found a straightforwardly socialist dramatic revival in London.
The Flaming Sunflower: The Soviet Union and Sean O’casey’s Post-Realism
Authors: Cannon Harris Susan
Published: January 2018

Sean O’Casey came to see the Soviet Union as a market for the kind of ideologically-committed and antirealist drama that neither the Abbey Theatre’s directors nor London’s commercial producers wanted. Many of the plays O’Casey wrote after his move to England in 1928 become legible only in the context of the history charted during this book’s first four chapters, the Stalinised British left organizations with which O’Casey worked, and the genre of socialist realism. Investigating the genesis and performance history of O’Casey’s 1939 Communist play The Star Turns Red, this chapter shows how O’Casey’s post-realist aesthetic derives from the literary tradition of queer socialism, which reached him through Shelley and Larkin. Analyzing O’Casey’s nondramatic writing about and for the Soviet Union as well as his American supporters’ insistence that he remained artistically independent of Soviet ideologies about literature, this chapter shows that O’Casey’s ambivalence about British left culture masks an unbounded admiration of the kind of proletarian literature which O’Casey believed – thanks to his limited and misleading contact with it – was represented by socialist realism. O’Casey was also strongly drawn to the heroic and heterosexual masculinity cultivated by official Soviet culture.
Open Secrets: Literature, Politics and Testimonial Truth
Authors: Barbour Charles
Published: January 2018

This chapter extends the argument of the book by considering literature as a paradigmatic example of the secret. It focuses particularly on Derrida’s consideration of testimony, or the act of speaking one’s own unique truth.
Being Alone: Death, Solitude and the End of the World
Authors: Barbour Charles
Published: January 2018

This chapter focuses primarily on Derrida’s very late seminars on ‘The Beast and the Sovereign’ and ‘The Death Penalty’. It shows how, for Derrida, the problem of the secret is bound up with that of death, which is an issue that concerned Derrida in all of his work.
Conclusion: Secretions
Authors: Barbour Charles
Published: January 2018

The image is Francesca Woodman’s, a New York artist who worked in the 1970s and early 1980s, until she killed herself at the age of twenty-two. It is a photographic self-portrait. She is a woman holding a mirror up to her face – a fairly common trope in our artistic tradition, and one with which Woodman often engaged and manipulated throughout her tragically brief career. But the reflective side of the mirror is not directed at her, as we often see in such pictures. Rather, it is directed at us, or whoever happens to be looking at the image. In the mirror, we should see our face, or us looking back at ourselves, narcissistically, no doubt, or confidently self-aware. But we do not see ourselves. Rather, we see her back and the back of her head. In other words, and paradoxically, she faces us with her back turned towards us. She looks out at us looking at her refusing to look at us. Or is that the best and most felicitous interpretation? I am not sure. For, obviously, with the back of the mirror pressed up against her nose, she cannot see us either. We look at her not looking at us, facing forward, with her back to us. Or, perhaps, we somehow occupy her position, turning her back on herself, even as she, or we, are still able to watch her do so. We watch her ...
Introduction
Authors: Plock Vike Martina
Published: January 2018

The introduction examines how theorists at the turn of the twentieth century conceptualised fashion and began to associate it with such concepts as ‘novelty’, ‘standardization’ and ‘capitalism’. It introduces subsequent chapters and situates the argument of the book in the context of existing scholarship on modernism and fashion.
Conformity and Idiosyncrasy: Jean Rhys
Authors: Plock Vike Martina
Published: January 2018

By looking at Jean Rhys’s ‘Left Bank’ fiction (Quartet, After Leaving Mr Mackenzie, Good Morning, Midnight, ‘Illusion’, ‘Mannequin’), this chapter investigates how new operational procedures such as Fordism and Taylorism, which were introduced into the French couture industry at the beginning of the twentieth century, affected constructions of modern femininity. Increasingly standardized images of feminine types were produced by Paris couturiers while the new look of the Flapper seemingly advertised women’s expanding social, political and professional mobility. Rhys, this chapter argues, noted fashion’s ability to provide resources for creative image construction but she simultaneously expressed criticism of its tendency to standardize female costumes and behaviour. Ultimately, Rhys demonstrates in her fiction that the radically modern couture of the early twentieth century was by no means the maker of social change and women’s political modernity. To offset the increased standardization of female images that she witnessed around her, Rhys created heroines and texts that relied on an overt display on difference.
Mathematical Modeling of Liquid-fed Pulsed Plasma Thruster
Authors: Misra Kaartikey
Published: January 2018

Liquid propellants are fast becoming attractive for pulsed plasma thrusters due to their high efficiency and low contamination issues. However, the complete plasma interaction and acceleration processes are still not very clear. Present paper develops a multi-layer numerical model for liquid propellant PPTs (pulsed plasma thrusters). The model is based on a quasi-steady flow assumption. The model proposes a possible acceleration mechanism for liquid-fed pulsed plasma thrusters and accurately predicts the propellant utilization capabilities and estimations for the fraction of propellant gas that is completely ionized and accelerated to high exit velocities. Validation of the numerical model and the assumptions on which the model is based on is achieved by comparing the experimental results and the simulation results for two different liquid-fed thrusters developed at the University of Tokyo. Simulation results shows that up-to 50 % of liquid propellant injected is completely ionized and accelerated to high exit velocities (>50 Km/s), whereas, neutral gas contribute to only 7 % of the total specific impulse and accelerated to low exit velocity (<4 Km/s). The model shows an accuracy up-to 92 % . Optimization methods are briefly discussed to ensure efficient propellant utilization and performance. The model acts as a tool to understand the background physics and to optimize the performance for liquid-fed PPTs.
Acknowledgement to Reviewers of Agronomy in 2017
Authors:   Agronomy Editorial Office
Published: January 2018

Peer review is an essential part in the publication process, ensuring that Agronomy maintains high quality standards for its published papers.[...]
Computational Modelling of Rectangular Sub-Boundary Layer Vortex Generators
Authors: Fernandez-Gamiz Unai , Errasti Iñigo , Gutierrez-Amo Ruben , Boyano Ana , Barambones Oscar
Published: January 2018

Vortex generators (VGs) are increasingly used in the wind turbine manufacture industry as flow control devices to improve rotor blade aerodynamic performance. Nevertheless, VGs may produce excess residual drag in some applications. The so-called sub-boundary layer VGs can provide an effective flow-separation control with lower drag than the conventional VGs. The main objective of this study is to investigate how well the simulations can reproduce the physics of the flow of the primary vortex generated by rectangular sub-boundary layer VGs mounted on a flat plate with a negligible pressure gradient with an angle of attack of the vane to the oncoming flow of β = 18°. Three devices with aspect ratio values of 2, 2.5 and 3 are qualitatively and quantitatively compared. To that end, computational simulations have been carried out using the RANS (Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes) method and at Reynolds number Re = 2600 based on the boundary layer momentum thickness θ at the VG position. The computational results show good agreement with the experimental data provided by the Advanced Aerodynamic Tools of Large Rotors (AVATAR) European project for the development and validation of aerodynamic models. Finally, the results indicate that the highest VG seems to be more suitable for separation control applications.
Incoherent Digital Holography: A Review
Authors: Liu Jung-Ping , Tahara Tatsuki , Hayasaki Yoshio , Poon Ting-Chung
Published: January 2018

Digital holography (DH) is a promising technique for modern three-dimensional (3D) imaging. Coherent holography records the complex amplitude of a 3D object holographically, giving speckle noise upon reconstruction and presenting a serious drawback inherent in coherent optical systems. On the other hand, incoherent holography records the intensity distribution of the object, allowing a higher signal-to-noise ratio as compared to its coherent counterpart. Currently there are two incoherent digital holographic techniques: optical scanning holography (OSH) and Fresnel incoherent correlation holography (FINCH). In this review, we first explain the principles of OSH and FINCH. We then compare, to some extent, the differences between OSH and FINCH. Finally, some of the recent applications of the two incoherent holographic techniques are reviewed.
Maximum Power Point Tracking Implementation by Dspace Controller Integrated Through Z-Source Inverter Using Particle Swarm Optimization Technique for Photovoltaic Applications
Authors: N. Kalaiarasi , Dash Subranshu , Padmanaban Sanjeevikumar , S. Paramasivam , Morati Pandav
Published: January 2018

Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) technique is used to extract maximum power from the photovoltaic system. This paper involves working on an enhanced Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) based MPPT method for the photovoltaic (PV) system integrated through Z-Source inverter. The main benefit of the proposed method is the diminishing of the steady-state oscillation when the maximum power point (MPP) is located. Additionally, during an extreme environmental condition, such as partial shading and large fluctuations of irradiance and temperature, the proposed method has the capability to track the MPP. This algorithm is implemented in dspace 1104 controller. MATLAB simulations are carried out under varying irradiance and temperature conditions to evaluate its effectiveness. Its performance is compared with a conventional method like Perturb and observe (P&O) method.
Research on Model-Based Fault Diagnosis for a Gas Turbine Based on Transient Performance
Authors: Zeng Detang , Zhou Dengji , Tan Chunqing , Jiang Baoyang
Published: January 2018

It is essential to monitor and to diagnose faults in rotating machinery with a high thrust–weight ratio and complex structure for a variety of industrial applications, for which reliable signal measurements are required. However, the measured values consist of the true values of the parameters, the inertia of measurements, random errors and systematic errors. Such signals cannot reflect the true performance state and the health state of rotating machinery accurately. High-quality, steady-state measurements are necessary for most current diagnostic methods. Unfortunately, it is hard to obtain these kinds of measurements for most rotating machinery. Diagnosis based on transient performance is a useful tool that can potentially solve this problem. A model-based fault diagnosis method for gas turbines based on transient performance is proposed in this paper. The fault diagnosis consists of a dynamic simulation model, a diagnostic scheme, and an optimization algorithm. A high-accuracy, nonlinear, dynamic gas turbine model using a modular modeling method is presented that involves thermophysical properties, a component characteristic chart, and system inertial. The startup process is simulated using this model. The consistency between the simulation results and the field operation data shows the validity of the model and the advantages of transient accumulated deviation. In addition, a diagnostic scheme is designed to fulfill this process. Finally, cuckoo search is selected to solve the optimization problem in fault diagnosis. Comparative diagnostic results for a gas turbine before and after washing indicate the improved effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed method of using data from transient processes, compared with traditional methods using data from the steady state.
Co-Detection of Dopamine and Glucose with High Temporal Resolution
Authors: Bergman Jenny , Mellander Lisa , Wang Yuanmo , Cans Ann-Sofie
Published: January 2018

Neuronal activity and brain glucose metabolism are tightly coupled, where triggered neurotransmission leads to a higher demand for glucose. To better understand the regulation of neuronal activity and its relation to high-speed metabolism, development of analytical tools that can temporally resolve the transients of vesicular neurotransmitter release and fluctuations of metabolites such as glucose in the local vicinity of the activated neurons is needed. Here we present an amperometric biosensor design for rapid co-detection of glucose and the neurotransmitter dopamine. The sensor is based on the immobilization of an ultra-thin layer of glucose oxidase on to a gold-nanoparticle-covered carbon fiber microelectrode. Our electrode, by altering the potential applied at the sensor surface, allows for the high-speed recording of both glucose and dopamine. We demonstrate that, even though glucose is electrochemically detected indirectly through the enzymatic product and the electroactive dopamine is sensed directly, when exposing the sensor surface to a mixture of the two analytes, fluctuations in glucose and dopamine concentrations can be visualized with similar speed and at a millisecond time scale. Hence, by minimizing the enzyme coating thickness at the sensor surface, dual detection of glucose and dopamine can be realized at the same sensor surface and at time scales necessary for monitoring fast metabolic alterations during neurotransmission.
Kinetic Modelling and Experimental Studies for the Effects of Fe2+ Ions on Xylan Hydrolysis with Dilute-Acid Pretreatment and Subsequent Enzymatic Hydrolysis
Authors: Wei Hui , Chen Xiaowen , Shekiro Joseph , Kuhn Erik , Wang Wei , Ji Yun , Kozliak Evguenii , Himmel Michael , Tucker Melvin
Published: January 2018

High-temperature (150–170 °C) pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass with mineral acids is well established for xylan breakdown. Fe2+ is known to be a cocatalyst of this process although kinetics of its action remains unknown. The present work addresses the effect of ferrous ion concentration on sugar yield and degradation product formation from corn stover for the entire two-step treatment, including the subsequent enzymatic cellulose hydrolysis. The feedstock was impregnated with 0.5% acid and 0.75 mM iron cocatalyst, which was found to be optimal in preliminary experiments. The detailed kinetic data of acid pretreatment, with and without iron, was satisfactorily modelled with a four-step linear sequence of first-order irreversible reactions accounting for the formation of xylooligomers, xylose and furfural as intermediates to provide the values of Arrhenius activation energy. Based on this kinetic modelling, Fe2+ turned out to accelerate all four reactions, with a significant alteration of the last two steps, that is, xylose degradation. Consistent with this model, the greatest xylan conversion occurred at the highest severity tested under 170 °C/30 min with 0.75 mM Fe2+, with a total of 8% xylan remaining in the pretreated solids, whereas the operational conditions leading to the highest xylose monomer yield, 63%, were milder, 150 °C with 0.75 mM Fe2+ for 20 min. Furthermore, the subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis with the prior addition of 0.75 mM of iron(II) increased the glucose production to 56.3% from 46.3% in the control (iron-free acid). The detailed analysis indicated that conducting the process at lower temperatures yet long residence times benefits the yield of sugars. The above kinetic modelling results of Fe2+ accelerating all four reactions are in line with our previous mechanistic research showing that the pretreatment likely targets multiple chemistries in plant cell wall polymer networks, including those represented by the C–O–C and C–H bonds in cellulose, resulting in enhanced sugar solubilization and digestibility.
Acknowledgement to Reviewers of ChemEngineering in 2017
Authors:   ChemEngineering Editorial Office
Published: January 2018

Peer review is an essential part in the publication process, ensuring that ChemEngineering maintains high quality standards for its published papers[...]
Raman and Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering for Biofilm Characterization
Authors: Keleştemur Seda , Avci Ertug , Çulha Mustafa
Published: January 2018

Biofilms are a communal way of living for microorganisms in which microorganism cells are surrounded by extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). Most microorganisms can live in biofilm form. Since microorganisms are everywhere, understanding biofilm structure and composition is crucial for making the world a better place to live, not only for humans but also for other living creatures. Raman spectroscopy is a nondestructive technique and provides fingerprint information about an analyte of interest. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy is a form of this technique and provides enhanced scattering of the analyte that is in close vicinity of a nanostructured noble metal surface such as silver or gold. In this review, the applications of both techniques and their combination with other biofilm analysis techniques for characterization of composition and structure of biofilms are discussed.
Nonpolar Surface Modification Using Fatty Acids and Its Effect on Calcite from Mineral Carbonation of Desulfurized Gypsum
Authors: Jeon Chi , Park Sangwon , Bang Jun-Hwan , Chae Soochun , Song Kyungsun , Lee Seung-Woo
Published: January 2018

CaCO3 is often used as an additive in many industries. However, additional functions are required to expand its applicability. This entails modification of its physicochemical properties. Accordingly, in this study, a particle surface modification treatment was performed on CaCO3 produced from desulfurized gypsum for a range of industrial applications. In the experiment, fatty acids were used to modify the CaCO3 surface, and the scale of the modification effect was based on the degree of change associated with a polar surface taking on nonpolar surface properties. In the preliminary modification experiment, stearic acid was dissolved in 2-propanol or chloroform, and the extent of the reaction and the active ratio were measured according to the stearic acid concentration. The results showed that the effective active ratio, considering the activity to unit adsorption, was higher in 2-propanol than in chloroform. Consequently, the modification solvent used in the experiment changed the CaCO3 surface from a hydrophilic, polarized form to a hydrophobic, nonpolarized form. These results will also allow the CaCO3 produced to be used as a filler in a range of chemical industries.
Usefulness of a Telemedicine Program in Refractory Older Congestive Heart Failure Patients
Authors: Burdese Emanuela , Testa Marzia , Raucci Pasquale , Ferreri Cinzia , Giovannini Gabriele , Lombardo Enrico , Avogadri Enrico , Feola Mauro
Published: January 2018

Background: Home telemonitoring is a modern and effective disease management model that is able to improve medical care, quality of life, and prognosis of chronically ill patients, and to reduce expenditure. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy, costs, and patients’ and caregivers’ acceptance of our model of telemedicine in a high-risk chronic heart failure (CHF) older population. Methods: Patients with high risk/refractory CHF were included. In the case of alarm parameters’ modifications, a cardiologist decided to inform the emergency department (ED), the patient’s General Practioner, or to programme a clinical ambulatory control. Results: Forty-eight CHF patients (28 males; 58.3%), with a mean age of 80.4 ± 7.7 years, entered this clinical experience. During the 20-months follow-up, four patients dropped out from counselling (8.3%), ambulatory clinical control within-24 h was planned in 18% of patients, 11% of patients were admitted to an ED, and 18% were hospitalized. Thirteen patients (29.5%) died a cardiac death; hospital admissions for heart failure decreased during the year after the enrolment when compared to the year before (from 35 to 12 acute HF hospitalizations/year; p = 0.0001). Moreover, in these HF patients followed, accesses to an ED for an acute episode of HF decompensation reduced from 21/year to five/year (p = 0.0001). The economic expenditure, calculated for the year before and after the enrolment, reduced from 116.856 Euros to 40.065 Euros/year. Conclusions: A telemedicine surveillance in high-risk older CHF patients determines a continuous and active contact between patients/caregivers, the Heart Failure Clinic, and family physicians, permitting an early evaluation of signs and symptoms of acute decompensation.
Acknowledgement to Reviewers of Dentistry Journal in 2017
Authors:   Dentistry Journal Editorial Office
Published: January 2018

Peer review is an essential part in the publication process, ensuring that Dentistry Journal maintains high quality standards for its published papers [...]
Adaptive Diagnosis for Rotating Machineries Using Information Geometrical Kernel-ELM Based on VMD-SVD
Authors: Wang Zhipeng , Jia Limin , Qin Yong
Published: January 2018

Rotating machineries often work under severe and variable operation conditions, which brings challenges to fault diagnosis. To deal with this challenge, this paper discusses the concept of adaptive diagnosis, which means to diagnose faults under variable operation conditions with self-adaptively and little prior knowledge or human intervention. To this end, a novel algorithm is proposed, information geometrical extreme learning machine with kernel (IG-KELM). From the perspective of information geometry, the structure and Riemannian metric of Kernel-ELM is specified. Based on the geometrical structure, an IG-based conformal transformation is created to improve the generalization ability and self-adaptability of KELM. The proposed IG-KELM, in conjunction with variation mode decomposition (VMD) and singular value decomposition (SVD) is utilized for adaptive diagnosis: (1) VMD, as a new self-adaptive signal processing algorithm is used to decompose the raw signals into several intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). (2) SVD is used to extract the intrinsic characteristics from the matrix constructed with IMFs. (3) IG-KELM is used to diagnose faults under variable conditions self-adaptively with no requirement of prior knowledge or human intervention. Finally, the proposed method was applied on fault diagnosis of a bearing and hydraulic pump. The results show that the proposed method outperforms the conventional method by up to 7.25% and 7.78% respectively, in percentages of accuracy.