bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Influence of thermo-mechanical joining process on the microstructure of a hypoeutectic aluminium cast alloy
Authors: Borgert T.
Published: February 2023

Abstract. Requirements of multi-material construction involve adjustments to standard joining techniques. Especially the growing importance of integral cast components poses additional engineering challenges for the industry. One approach to achieve these goals are adaptable joining elements formed by friction spinning. This approach uses friction-induced heat to form customisable joining elements to join sheets for different boundary conditions, even for brittle cast materials. It is possible to react immediately to adapt to the joining process inline and reduce the amount of different joining elements. As the joining partner serve casting plates of the aluminium casting alloy EN AC–AlSi9, which is processed in the sand casting. Joining hypoeutectic AlSi alloys constitutes a challenge because the brittle character of these cause cracks in the joint during conventional mechanical joining. Furthermore, the friction-induced heat of the novel joining process causes a finer microstructure in the hypoeutectic AlSi9 casting alloy. In particular, the eutectic Si is more fine-grained, resulting in higher joint ductility. This study indicates the joining suitability of a hypoeutectic aluminium casting alloy in combination with adaptive manufactured additional joining elements. Here, various mechanical and microstructural investigations validate the influence of the thermomechanical joining technique. In conclusion, the potential of this joining process is presented regarding the joinability of cast aluminium components.
Gestión sostenible del recurso suelo, desde los modelos de seguimiento y recuperación en las Fuerzas Militares
Authors: Leguizamón-Zárate Cristian Alexander
Published: February 2023

Esta obra permite entender algunos enfoques sistemáticos, sólidos y validados que puedan mejorar nuestra comprensión y respaldar el desarrollo y la adopción de prácticas adecuadas de la gestión sostenible del recurso suelo en Colombia. De esta forma, los resultados que presenta constituyen un gran potencial para avanzar en la investigación de los suelos en Colombia, entendiendo que existen múltiples desafíos asociados con la evaluación de la gestión sostenible del suelo y sus impactos, los cuales se deben a la atención insuficiente que se presta al monitoreo a nivel de campo y la falta de participación de la comunidad científica en algunos sectores del territorio. Con estos trabajos de investigación se espera aportar los insumos que permitan crear estrategias apropiadas de difusión basadas en evidencia científica para lograr múltiples beneficios de la gestión sostenible de este recurso no renovable.
Transporte y almacenamiento de guayaba
Authors:   Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural, Bogotá (Colombia),   Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria, (Colombia)
Published: February 2023

La postcosecha, es el conjunto de actividades que ocurren desde el momento en que se cosecha la fruta, hasta que es usada por el consumidor. En este clip se presenta en procedimiento de transporte y almacenamiento de guayaba.
Sigatoka negra en bananito
Authors:   Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural, Bogotá (Colombia),   Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria, (Colombia)
Published: February 2023

En este clip se presentan las recomendaciones para identificar, prevenir y atender la sigatoka negra en bananito, enfermedad que aparece como un hongo que afecta el cultivo.
Control del gusano barrenador en lulo
Authors:   Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural, Bogotá (Colombia),   Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria, (Colombia)
Published: February 2023

En este clip se muestran las recomendaciones para controlar el gusano barrenador en los cultivos de lulo, quien destruye los frutos.
Health Monitoring Using Smart Home Technologies: Scoping Review
Authors: Morita Plinio P , Sahu Kirti Sundar , Oetomo Arlene
Published: February 2023

Background

The Internet of Things (IoT) has become integrated into everyday life, with devices becoming permanent fixtures in many homes. As countries face increasing pressure on their health care systems, smart home technologies have the potential to support population health through continuous behavioral monitoring.

Objective

This scoping review aims to provide insight into this evolving field of research by surveying the current technologies and applications for in-home health monitoring.

Methods

Peer-reviewed papers from 2008 to 2021 related to smart home technologies for health care were extracted from 4 databases (PubMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and CINAHL); 49 papers met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed.

Results

Most of the studies were from Europe and North America. The largest proportion of the studies were proof of concept or pilot studies. Approximately 78% (38/49) of the studies used real human participants, most of whom were older females. Demographic data were often missing. Nearly 60% (29/49) of the studies reported on the health status of the participants. Results were primarily reported in engineering and technology journals. Almost 62% (30/49) of the studies used passive infrared sensors to report on motion detection where data were primarily binary. There were numerous data analysis, management, and machine learning techniques employed. The primary challenges reported by authors were differentiating between multiple participants in a single space, technology interoperability, and data security and privacy.

Conclusions

This scoping review synthesizes the current state of research on smart home technologies for health care. We were able to identify multiple trends and knowledge gaps—in particular, the lack of collaboration across disciplines. Technological development dominates over the human-centric part of the equation. During the preparation of this scoping review, we noted that the health care research papers lacked a concrete definition of a smart home, and based on the available evidence and the identified gaps, we propose a new definition for a smart home for health care. Smart home technology is growing rapidly, and interdisciplinary approaches will be needed to ensure integration into the health sector.
Trend and Co-occurrence Network of COVID-19 Symptoms From Large-Scale Social Media Data: Infoveillance Study
Authors: Wu Jiageng , Wang Lumin , Hua Yining , Li Minghui , Zhou Li , Bates David W , Yang Jie
Published: February 2023

Background

For an emergent pandemic, such as COVID-19, the statistics of symptoms based on hospital data may be biased or delayed due to the high proportion of asymptomatic or mild-symptom infections that are not recorded in hospitals. Meanwhile, the difficulty in accessing large-scale clinical data also limits many researchers from conducting timely research.

Objective

Given the wide coverage and promptness of social media, this study aimed to present an efficient workflow to track and visualize the dynamic characteristics and co-occurrence of symptoms for the COVID-19 pandemic from large-scale and long-term social media data.

Methods

This retrospective study included 471,553,966 COVID-19–related tweets from February 1, 2020, to April 30, 2022. We curated a hierarchical symptom lexicon for social media containing 10 affected organs/systems, 257 symptoms, and 1808 synonyms. The dynamic characteristics of COVID-19 symptoms over time were analyzed from the perspectives of weekly new cases, overall distribution, and temporal prevalence of reported symptoms. The symptom evolutions between virus strains (Delta and Omicron) were investigated by comparing the symptom prevalence during their dominant periods. A co-occurrence symptom network was developed and visualized to investigate inner relationships among symptoms and affected body systems.

Results

This study identified 201 COVID-19 symptoms and grouped them into 10 affected body systems. There was a significant correlation between the weekly quantity of self-reported symptoms and new COVID-19 infections (Pearson correlation coefficient=0.8528; P<.001). We also observed a 1-week leading trend (Pearson correlation coefficient=0.8802; P<.001) between them. The frequency of symptoms showed dynamic changes as the pandemic progressed, from typical respiratory symptoms in the early stage to more musculoskeletal and nervous symptoms in the later stages. We identified the difference in symptoms between the Delta and Omicron periods. There were fewer severe symptoms (coma and dyspnea), more flu-like symptoms (throat pain and nasal congestion), and fewer typical COVID symptoms (anosmia and taste altered) in the Omicron period than in the Delta period (all P<.001). Network analysis revealed co-occurrences among symptoms and systems corresponding to specific disease progressions, including palpitations (cardiovascular) and dyspnea (respiratory), and alopecia (musculoskeletal) and impotence (reproductive).

Conclusions

This study identified more and milder COVID-19 symptoms than clinical research and characterized the dynamic symptom evolution based on 400 million tweets over 27 months. The symptom network revealed potential comorbidity risk and prognostic disease progression. These findings demonstrate that the cooperation of social media and a well-designed workflow can depict a holistic picture of pandemic symptoms to complement clinical studies.
Design Principles in mHealth Interventions for Sustainable Health Behavior Changes: Protocol for a Systematic Review (Preprint)
Authors: Yang Lin , Kuang Angela , Xu Claire , Shewchuk Brittany , Singh Shaminder , Quan Hude , Zeng Yong
Published: February 2023

BACKGROUND

In recent years, mHealth has increasingly been used to deliver behavioral interventions for disease prevention and self-management. Computing power in mHealth tools can provide unique functions beyond conventional interventions in provisioning personalized behavior change recommendations and delivering them in real time, supported by dialogue systems. However, design principles to incorporate these features in mHealth interventions have not been systematically evaluated.

OBJECTIVE

The goal of this review is to identify best practices for the design of mHealth interventions targeting diet, physical activity, and sedentary behavior. We aim to identify and summarize the design characteristics of current mHealth tools with a focus on the following features: (1) personalization, (2) real-time functions, and (3) deliverable resources.

METHODS

We will conduct a systematic search of electronic databases, including MEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase, PsycINFO, and Web of Science for studies published since 2010. First, we will use keywords that combine mHealth, interventions, chronic disease prevention, and self-management. Second, we will use keywords that cover diet, physical activity, and sedentary behavior. Literature found in the first and second steps will be combined. Finally, we will use keywords for personalization and real-time functions to limit the results to interventions that have reported these design features. We expect to perform narrative syntheses for each of the 3 target design features. Study quality will be evaluated using the Risk of Bias 2 assessment tool.

RESULTS

We have conducted a preliminary search of existing systematic reviews and review protocols on mHealth-supported behavior change interventions. We have identified several reviews that aimed to evaluate the efficacy of mHealth behavior change interventions in a range of populations, evaluate methodologies for assessing mHealth behavior change randomized trials, and assess the diversity of behavior change techniques and theories in mHealth interventions. However, syntheses on the unique features of mHealth intervention design are absent in the literature.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings will provide a basis for developing best practices for designing mHealth tools for sustainable behavior change.

CLINICALTRIAL

PROSPERO CRD42021261078; https://tinyurl.com/m454r65t

INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT

PRR1-10.2196/39093
Quality of Life and Mental Health of Chinese Sexual and Gender Minority Women and Cisgender Heterosexual Women: Cross-sectional Survey and Mediation Analysis (Preprint)
Authors: Wu Chanchan , Chau Pui Hing , Choi Edmond Pui Hang
Published: February 2023

BACKGROUND

Health-related research on sexual minority populations in China is lacking, and research on sexual and gender minority women (SGMW, including transgender women and persons of other gender identities assigned female at birth of all sexual orientations, and cisgender women with nonheterosexual orientations) is even less. Currently, there are limited surveys related to mental health in Chinese SGMW, but there are no studies on their quality of life (QOL), no studies comparing the QOL of SGMW with that of cisgender heterosexual women (CHW), and no studies on the relationship between sexual identity and the QOL as well as associated mental health variables.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to evaluate the QOL and mental health in a diverse sample of Chinese women and make comparisons between SGMW and CHW and then investigate the relationship between sexual identity and the QOL through the role of mental health.

METHODS

A cross-sectional online survey was conducted from July to September 2021. All participants completed a structured questionnaire containing the World Health Organization Quality of Life–abbreviated short version (WHOQOL-BREF), the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7), and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES).

RESULTS

In total, 509 women aged 18-56 years were recruited, including 250 (49.1%) CHW and 259 (50.9%) SGMW. Independent t tests showed that the SGMW reported significantly lower levels of QOL, higher levels of depression and anxiety symptoms, and lower self-esteem than the CHW. Pearson correlations showed that every domain and the overall QOL were positively associated with mental health variables, with moderate-to-strong correlations (r range 0.42-0.75, P<.001). Multiple linear regressions found that participants belonging to the SGMW group, current smokers, and women with no steady partner were associated with a worse overall QOL. The mediation analysis found that depression, anxiety, and self-esteem significantly completely mediated the relationship between sexual identity and physical, social, and environment domains of the QOL, while the relationship between sexual identity and the overall QOL and psychological QOL was partially mediated by depression and self-esteem.

CONCLUSIONS

The SGMW had poorer levels of QOL and a worse mental health status than the CHW. The study ﬁndings afﬁrm the importance of assessing mental health and highlight the need to design targeted health improvement programs for the SGMW population, who may be at higher risk of a poor QOL and mental health.
Pemantauan status gizi balita di Kota Yogyakarta: metode pelaksanaan, tantangan, dan persepsi ibu balita tentang posyandu selama pandemi COVID-19
Authors: Widyaningrum Rachmawati , Parisudha Annisa , Setiawan Yuni Wahyuningsih , Jawardi Nurfaizah , Faras Nur Hurriah Nabila
Published: February 2023

Background: COVID-19 pandemic brings a higher risk of malnutrition because of the economic crisis that emphasizes the importance of child nutritional status monitoring during the pandemic. However, nutrition-related care in health care faces several challenges to the social limitation policy for preventing virus spreading. Challenges include delivery, coordination, and follow-up methods. In addition, the mothers' perception concerning the importance of nutritional status monitoring also becomes the determinant of their participation.Objectives: This research aimed to explore the implementation method, challenges, and mothers' perception of the children's nutritional status monitoring process during a pandemic through “posyandu” by applying health protocols.Methods: This research is a descriptive qualitative study in which the data were collected using in-depth interviews. The respondents in this study were mothers of a child aged 0-5 years who lived in Yogyakarta and participated actively in Posyandu. Data triangulation was applied by interviewing the cadres of posyandu and nutritionists in Health Care or Office in Yogyakarta. Results: The posyandu delivered the measurements by adjusting the method with an invitation divided into several measurement sessions or a door-to-door system to minimize crowd. The obstacles faced were the need to procure medical devices and ensure the validity of the data obtained. Conclusions: Child nutritional status monitoring during the COVID-19 pandemic was conducted by applying COVID-19 safety protocols according to the recommendations of the Indonesian Ministry of Health. There should be sufficient support from stakeholders to help posyandu overcome the obstacles: the procurement of medical equipment to meet the health protocol requirements. In addition, there is a need to improve parents' skills in measuring child anthropometric measurements through education and guidelines.
ACTIVITY OF RED GINGER EXTRACT (ZINGIBER OFFICINALE VAR. RUBRUM) AGAINST INTERLEUKIN-6
Authors: HEFNI DIRA , HERDALINA YULMA , SUHARTI NETTY
Published: February 2023

Objective: Knowing that it contains gingerol chemicals, red ginger (Zingiber officinale var. Rubrum) has the potential as a natural immunomodulator. Immunomodulating substances can affect how the human immune system responds by helping to keep the body in a homeostatic state and rebalancing immune system imbalances. The goal of this study was to find out of the extract of red ginger inoculated by Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (FMA) in different concentrations affected the reduction of IL-6 levels in test animals' serum in vivo. Methods: Twenty-four white male mice were used in this study. Additionally, they were split into six groups, with the negative control group received 0.5% Na CMC. The experimental group received red ginger extract at doses of 100 mg/kgBW, 200 mg/kgBW, 400 mg/kgBW, and "Stimuno" 50 mg/kgBW, whereas the positive control received the Pfizer vaccine. The Pfizer vaccination was administered intramuscularly on day 0 to experimental animals in the positive control and experimental groups. Following that, they underwent a 14-day oral red ginger extract test. Using the Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique, the test was carried out to measure the concentration of IL-6 in the serum. Results: The findings illustrated that the dose variations of 100, 200, and 400 mg/kgBW had a significant impact on the drop in IL-6 levels (p<0.05). Conclusion: The findings indicate that red ginger ethanol extract, in a variety of dosages, may lower IL-6 levels. The largest reduction in IL-6 levels was seen in the extract test group at a dose of 100 mg/kgBW.
OPTIMIZATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF QUERCETIN VITAMIN C NANO-PHYTOSOME FORMULATION
Authors: NANDAYASA WIRA WAHYUDI , FEBRIYENTI  , LUCIDA HENNY
Published: February 2023

Objective: To design an optimal formulation for quercetin and vitamin C nano-phytosome.

Methods: Nano-phytosomes are prepared by the thin layer hydration technique using a 2-level-5-factor design experimental. A total of 32 experimental formulas were used for data analysis. The ratio of quercetin: soy lecithin (X1), the ratio of quercetin: cholesterol (X2), stirring speed (X3), stirring temperature (X4), and stirring time (X5) were used as independent factors, while globule size as a dependent factor. Data analysis was carried out by Design Expert12® application. Characterization of the optimal formula included physicochemical evaluation, globule size analysis, zeta potential, polydispersity index, entrapment efficiency, Transition Electron Microscopy (TEM) analysis, and FTIR analysis.

Results: The optimal formula consisted of quercetin: vitamin C: lecithin: cholesterol ratio of 1: 1: 1.046: 0.105 mol; stirring speed 763.986 rpm; stirring time of 59 min, at temperature 51.73 °C which produced 59.26 nm average globule size, PDI value 0.66; zeta potential value-35.93±0.95 mV and average SPAN value 0.61. This formulation showed entrapment efficiency of quercetin 91.69±0.18 % and vitamin C 90.82±0.13 %. The TEM and FITR analysis showed the morphological of the globules and interactions between the drugs, soy lecithin, and cholesterol to form nano-phytosomes.

Conclusion: The conditions to obtain the optimal formula for quercetin vitamin C nano-phytosome consisted of quercetin: vitamin C: lecithin: cholesterol ratio of 1: 1: 1.046: 0.105 mol; stirring speed 763.986 rpm; stirring time of 59 min, and at temperature 51.73 °C
Franco-Algerian memory and questions of gender in Ahmed Kalouaz’s Point Kilométrique 190 (1986)
Authors: Ivey Beatrice
Published: February 2023

This article suggests that gender and cultural memory are both performative acts and that memories of the colonial re-enact certain gender codes associated with the act of colonisation. Colonialism can be understood in terms of a gendered hierarchy: that the colonisers were imagined as virile and male, violating the virgin, ‘feminine’ territory of the colonised land. In this way, colonised peoples were gendered as feminine in order justify European rhetoric of racial superiority. However, the narratives of anti-colonial writers and thinkers who condemn colonialism, such as Frantz Fanon, are ‘haunted’ by gendered tropes of the colonialism – that colonisation is a rape, and that the colonised people are feminised victims. This article uses Ahmed Kalouaz’s 1986 novel Point Kilométrique 190 as an example of trans-national memory which successfully transcends these gendered stereotypes. The short novel functions as a mnemonic device (a commemoration to Habib Grimzi, a victim of anti- Algerian violence) which makes connections between racist violence in France during the 1980s with the history of the Algerian war. However, simultaneously, the narrative avoids gendered stereotypes associated with French and Algerian men and women. Using a French woman to posthumously voice a murdered Algerian man, Kalouaz creates a pluralistic narrative which shatters Algerian/French, Feminine/Masculine binaries and allows for the transfer of traumatic memory across boundaries assigned to gender identities, as well as national groups.
Homer takes the Streetcar – The Modernist Appropriation of the Epic and Alfred Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz
Authors: Sieg Christian
Published: February 2023

In this article, I will show how Alfred Döblin is, on the one hand, captivated by the extensiveness of the traditional epic - a quality which Hegel in his Lectures on Fine Arts highlights and which is often terminologically expressed as 'epic breadth' - whilst on the other hand, Döblin is fascinated by the oral character of the antique genre. I will also explore how both these qualities are fundamentally altered in Döblin's modernist appropriation of the epic. Since the heroic deeds, which the antique epic extensively addresses, are at odds with modern sensibilities, Döblin transforms the epic into a modernist encyclopaedia of ordinary practices.
Politics of Play: Situationism, Détournement, and Anti-Art
Authors: Ko Christie
Published: February 2023

In addition to contributing crucially to the philosophy that fuelled the student revolts of France in 1968, the Situationist International (SI) sought to undermine the use of spectacle as a commercialised tool of capitalism. Blending their interpretations of Marxism with that of the historical avant-garde, the situationists went to war with the institutions of art and academia. In 1956, Guy Debord proclaimed that “every reasonably aware person of our time is aware of the obvious fact that art can no longer be justified as a superior activity” (Debord, A User’s Guide to Détournement 1). What was their method of attack on this world of bastardized, commercialized spectacle? Quite simply, it was play. Although subversion through theatre and play is hardly a novel idea, the situationists employed play in ways that had never been taken to such extremes. They propagated play without spectacle, or even play as anti-spectacle and anti-art. The term itself, ‘situationism’ refers to the anti-art they created; or, in other words, the un-commodified, anti-spectacular human situations, through which, as Sartre claimed, one could gain freedom (Plant 20). Through these situations, the SI was determined to subvert the institutional uses of language and art using what they termed détournement, or “the use of old material for new ends,” (Puchner 224). What this amounts to is play in a unique form: play is used to undermine the very institution of language, and therefore both social order and authoritative control. As a result, the SI’s influences extended beyond their specific time and place by instigating a re-evaluation of the very relationship between art and politics; a re-evaluation still in process today.
The Mad Man in the Attic: Playing with Gendered Literary Identity as Object and Muse in Iris Murdoch's The Good Apprentice and The Message to the Planet.
Authors: Miller Emma
Published: February 2023

Within The Good Apprentice and The Message to the Planet, Iris Murdoch appears to be consciously manipulating both Harold Bloom’s Anxiety of Influence, and Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s feminist response to Bloom, The Madwoman in the Attic, in order to challenge both her readership’s presuppositions on madness in general, and more specifically how the depiction of madness in literature can be seen to relate to sexuality, religion and gender. Bloom writes that modern authors (specifically male authors) are concerned about their ability to resist the influences of their literary forefathers in order to achieve an original work of their own, with no mention of how a female author might be challenged to create in response to such a male dominated literary past. Bloom relates his theory to Freud’s Oedipus complex and the male child’s desire to overthrow his father in order to establish his own supremacy. The Madwoman in the Attic looks at Bloom’s argument from a female viewpoint, with readings of a number of female authors in the nineteenth century examining how it was impossible for them to follow Bloom’s theory and identify with the authors who have superseded them in order to respond with their own creations.
Playful Culture and the Glamorization of Everyday (Virtual) Life: Elements of Play in Facebook Applications
Authors: Rao Valentina
Published: February 2023

In the general frame of a “ludification of culture” (Raessens 1) we are witnessing the rise of hybrid entertainment products such as Facebook Applications, media phenomena difficult to define as “games” or “play”, that carry a large share in the responsibility for social interaction within social networks. Are Facebook Applications and its clones in other networks like Bebo or MySpace a form of casual games, are they “just for fun”, how do they participate in the general cultural trend that incorporates play elements in non-play environments?This paper, in order to answer these questions, relates to the two separated fields of game studies and media sociology, with the aim of gaining a better understanding of the role of play in media culture, as well as enter the recent discussion on casual games from a lateral perspective, introducing elements from media psychology and anthropology. This presentation is preliminary to a qualitative research on the use of Facebook Applications among Facebook users, whose results are still not complete.
Realising (re)vision, manipulating manoeuvres: editing the English Middle Ages
Authors: Olsen Kenna L.
Published: February 2023

This article discusses the importance and relevance of textual editing for students and scholars of historical literatures, especially Middle English texts. By surveying the different types of editions necessary for studying Middle English literature, the author argues that in the "digital age," an understanding of The Edition is necessary, not only for the preservation of cultural texts, but also for the contribution and understanding of interpretations fundamental to literary disciplines.
Music in Film and Literature through Shen Congwen’s Editing of the Script of The Border Town
Authors: He Qianwei
Published: February 2023

When editing the film script of his novella The Border Town, Shen Congwen gave special instructions not just on the storyline, but also on how sounds should be used in the film. This paper analyses the effect of the differentiated use of music and sound by the author and director.
Jean-Luc Godard and Roy Lichtenstein: Originality, Reflexivity, and the Re-Presented Image
Authors: Yacavone Daniel
Published: February 2023

Jean-Luc Godard's incorporation of paintings, comic strip images, and print advertisements in two of his seminal 1960's 'collage' films, Pierrot le fou (1965) and 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle (Two or Three Things I Know About Her, 1967), prompts a number of intriguing questions concerning the re-presentation and re-contextualization of pre-existing (in this case, mechanically reproduced) images in film and the plastic arts.
Filmic Eco-warnings and Television: Rolf de Heer’s Epsilon (1995) and Dr. Plonk (2007)
Authors: Starrs D. Bruno
Published: February 2023

The possibility is considered that Australian film-maker Rolf de Heer has followed Epsilon (1995) with another filmic eco-warning, Dr. Plonk (2007), in which, as Mark J. Lacy despairs, heroic "dynamic individuals" unhelpfully "reinforce a (neo)liberal imaginary" (2001: 636), thus obliging Judith Hess Wright's allegation that genre films maintain the social status quo by offering "absurd solutions to economic and social conflicts" (2003: 42). But rather than 'shouting' the message that a messianic hero-figure can save the world as in his first eco-politically correct film, it is argued that de Heer has subsequently made a silent film in which the saviour fails: the eponymous Dr. Plonk is imprisoned and makes a subtle, unspoken plea to the audience to get out from in front of their television sets and save the world from ecological apocalypse themselves. De Heer has expressed considerable disdain towards television but this paper suggests that to maximise reception of their eco-warnings the eco-conscious film-maker needs to recognise the potential of interactive television and other new media technologies to increase voter turnout and to effect the aversion of global apocalypse through audiences taking individual responsibility.
The Shanghai Gesture
Authors: King Homay
Published: February 2023

Many classical films noirs rely upon Orientalist elements of mise-en-scène to convey a sense of enigma or unintelligibility. This article gives a name to this visual trope, “the Shanghai gesture,” and describes how Asian objects in Hollywood cinema have come to be associated with the irrational. In The Maltese Falcon (Huston, 1941) and The Big Sleep (Hawks, 1946), elements of Orientalist décor function to evoke a sense of mystery or exoticism. In many cases, these elements are little more than exoticist set-dressing. However, in some cases they come to bear the burden of explanation for unresolved aspects of the plot, or even to suggest a limit-point of western rationality. This article concludes with a discussion of The Shanghai Gesture (Sternberg, 1941), addressing both mise-en-scène and the unique circumstances that surrounded its production. Based on a play by John Colton, the property was greatly sought after by all the major Hollywood studios, and rejected numerous times by the Hays Office for its “sordid” depictions of Shanghai bawdy-houses and casinos. Archival correspondence reveals that Hays and others linked the script’s sordidness to its Asian setting. Both a hot commodity and an object in need of censorship, The Shanghai Gesture itself became an over-determined Orientalist object, at once coveted and taboo, desirable and incomprehensible.
“Desiderio in Search of a Master”: Desire and the Quest for Recognition in Angela Carter’s The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman
Authors: Butcher Helen
Published: February 2023

This essay examines the manner in which desire and Hegelian recognition intersect in Angela Carter’s 1972 novel, The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman. After providing a brief description of Hegel’s famous account of the interaction between the lord and the bondsman, the essay goes on to discuss the manner in which the novel invests the figure of the love-object with the potential to become an ideal master. The image of the reflecting eye, which recurs throughout Carter’s text, is then analyzed as an enactment of, and a commentary upon, the desiring gaze.
Hopkins’s Confessional Notes and Desire: A Reconsideration
Authors: Dubois Martin
Published: February 2023

Since their publication in 1989, the confessional notes Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) kept as an undergraduate have been a major influence in shaping criticism of his work. The sexual indiscretions and longings the confessional notes record have been central to recent studies of eroticism in Hopkins’s poetry, corroborating the suggestion that his poems allowed for the homoerotic expression his religious vocation denied him. While not questioning the seriousness of Hopkins’s attraction to other men, this article seeks to establish the broader moral scrupulousness the confessional notes evidence. As well as recording lapses in sexual propriety, the notes reveal the startling range of what Hopkins considered to be failings in need of repentance. They are the product of a curious moral fastidiousness, which recorded the killing of insects or indulgence in eating biscuits with apparently the same concern as when registering sexual excitement at the crucifixion scene. One prominent aspect of the confessional notes is the frequency with which sinful behaviour is initiated by reading or writing. In this the notes provide early indications of Hopkins’s doubts over the legitimacy of writing poetry, which grew more explicit once he had joined the Jesuits. Any interpretations of his work which see Hopkins as displacing sexual desire into his writing should also recognise the very real qualms the confessional notes show him entertaining about poetry itself.
Ge-stell and the Specters of the Spectrum
Authors: Eppel Erik
Published: February 2023

No more than a few hundred meters separate the site where Gugliemo Marconi first witnessed the extraordinary effects of Hertzian waves in 1895, and the site where armored vehicles crashed through barricades in order to put down a riot allegedly incited by local radio station, Radio Alice, in 1977. When considering that the former represents the point of departure for one of the most important inventions of the 20th century and the latter represents one of its most paradigmatic instantiations, we might question whether their proximity is something other than coincidental. Affirming that this is more than a coincidence, however, carries with it the necessity and responsibility to demonstrate some causal relationship between Marconi's invention and its appropriation, circa 80 years later, by a group of students and activists in search of means to communicate, organize, experiment and play.
The Shoah Simulacrum: postmemory and spectral homecoming in Maxim Biller’s novella “Harlem Holocaust”
Authors: Köver Veronika
Published: February 2023

In the context of the current German memory discourse, the age-old question of the interplay of remembrance and effacement has been revived. This article proposes to shed light on some of its ramifications through the prism of Maxim Biller’s novella Harlem Holocaust. Biller, born 1960 in Prague, is a German-Jewish short-story writer, novelist and newspaper columnist. Initially known for his incisive articles in the quasi legendary Tempo magazine and now for his satirical column “Moralische Geschichten” in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Biller writes on socio-political, cultural and personal issues, touching on German reunification, American literature, latent anti-semitism and convoluted love relationships. His novels and short stories are highly. A close reading of his novella Harlem Holocaust in the light of Marianne Hirsch’s notion of postmemory and Jean Baudrillard’s concept of the simulacrum facilitates the comprehension of how the German discourse on memory has slowly been hollowed out, persisting nowadays as pure form engaged in a spectral homecoming. Indeed, old memories – distorted through the manipulation as much as through the natural erosion of the past – are returning to haunt the present, oblivious that they are only spectres.
Technology and Perception in Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire: A Reflection on Time, Space and Memory in the Postmodern Metropolis
Authors: Kaplan Silia
Published: February 2023

Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire is a work that cinematically explores discourses of history and memory in postwar Germany and, since its 1987 inception, most examinations of the film have centered on these aspects. However, little attention has been given to the significant role of technology in Wenders’ film. Emphasized not only in the opening scenes but also throughout the rest of the film, transportation technologies such as airplanes, cars, and trains link the spaces of the city and therefore lie at the heart of Wenders’ Berlin portrait. Furthermore, the self-reflexive nature of Wenders’ work posits film as the quintessential technological medium of storytelling and history, and my paper will thus link theories of technology and perception with those of memory and history. I will begin my paper by elucidating Paul Virilio’s and Jean Baudrillard’s theories of speed and spatiality in postmodern society and will link these theories with the portrayal of transportation technologies in Wings of Desire. The next part turns to Walter Benjamin’s model of space and memory as a more optimistic approach to spatiality in Wenders’ Berlin portrait, and this latter model will prove to be highly significant in my final analysis of Wenders’ film. In particular, I will explore the film’s emphasis on spaces of absence and the way in which this emphasis reveals a model for a new kind of perception and a model for narrating the past. The last section of my paper will stress the way in which Wenders mediates between the communication technologies of transportation and film, and further, between modernity and postmodernity. Ultimately, the technological perception created by transportation technologies (and theorized extensively by postmodernist theorists Baudrillard and Virilio) is redeemed by the medium of film because of its ability to overcome what film theorist Siegfried Kracauer calls the “blind spots of the mind” (53).
“a void rubbing out its own inscription”: Electronic Technology, Hypertext and the Paradox of Self-Erasure
Authors: Martin Luke Korzun
Published: February 2023

The advent of electronic technologies like the computer and the internet necessitated new ways of writing and thinking about writing. Where the age of mechanical and industrial technologies led to Blake’s visionary engravings and Swift imagining a random text generator in Gulliver's Travels, “for improving speculative Knowledge by practical and mechanical Operations” (171), the electronic age might be said to have given rise to the work of composers like John Cage and Brian Eno, hypertextual writers such as Michael Joyce and Mark Amerika and the work of the Oulipo. Perhaps the predominant linguistic theory associated with, though not limited to, electronic technologies is that of “hypertext”. Hypertext is defined by Ted Nelson, who coined the term, as “non-sequential writing with reader-controlled links” (qtd. in Bolter 105), and George Landow as a technology that matches Barthes's ideal textuality of a “text composed of blocks of words (or images) linked electronically by multiple paths, chains, or trails in an open-ended, perpetually unfinished textuality described by the terms link, node, network, web, and path” (Landow 2). Nelson and Landow’s succinct definitions are both accurate, but fail to encompass the extent to which the hypertextual model destabilizes conventional notions of the text. This essay will examine the ways in which hypertexts erase themselves, and the implications this paradox of self-erasure has for the whole field of signification, the material status of the text and hypertextual conceptions of identity.
‘Whatever people say I am…’: Multiple voices on screen and page in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.
Authors: Forrest David
Published: February 2023

The British New Wave in cinema, which ran from 1958 to 1962, was built around the adaptation of a number of literary texts that derived their ‘newness’ by vocalising working-class protagonists, hitherto largely suppressed in popular visions of British society. As a knock-on-effect, British screen culture refreshed, suffering as it did from the same level of under-representation that blighted literature. In a wider context, the films’ freshness and vigour can also be seen to be identified in a new approach to film style and aesthetics which had more in common with the European art cinema than the staid traditions of British filmmaking.
Nabokov and Wenders: Lost Landscapes and Found Meaning in the Age of the Sign Economy
Authors: Griffiths Rhys
Published: February 2023

Protest as David Andrews might against the 'misperception' of Vladimir Nabokov as 'the postmodern author par excellence', claiming Nabokov as 'premodernist in outlook' (63), there is one sense in which Nabokov cannot escape the 'postmodern' label identified by Fredric Jameson. Jameson defines postmodernism, in part, as:A periodizing concept whose function is to correlate the emergence of new formal features in culture with the emergence of a new type of social life and a new economic order - what is often euphemistically called modernization, postindustrial or consumer society, the society of the media or the spectacle, or multinational capitalism ('Postmodernism and Consumer Society' 1962).Adopting Jameson's dating of this 'new moment of capitalism' to 'the postwar boom in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s' (1962), this essay opens with an assertion of Nabokov as an author subject to, what Andrews terms, certain 'postmodern realities' (63).The aim of this essay is a study of these postmodern realities as a product of the consumer society and the emergence and maturation of what Pamela Odih calls the 'sign economy' (126) in two texts from 'high epochs' of late capitalism, Nabokov's Lolita (1955) and Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas (1984). Paramount to the argument herein is Jameson's assertion that the 'formal features' of postmodernism (defined by the era of late capitalism) will 'express the deeper logic of that particular system' (1974). However, the first requirement of this introduction is a situating of the chosen texts within what has been termed 'high epochs' of late capitalism.
Fictional, Factual, and Flying Space: Throwing at the Theatre in The Author on the Wheel
Authors: Bernard Hope
Published: February 2023

The anonymously-written one-act play The Author on the Wheel, or, a Piece Cut in the Green Room premiered at Theatre Royal Drury Lane on April 18, 1785 (The Daily Universal Register April 18, 1785). It follows a theatre manager with an awful, yet necessary task on his hands: to substantially revise and cut down a play in between the play’s first and second performances. The opening night performance of the play was such a failure that it provoked the audience to throw fruit at the actors to show their disdain; therefore the cast refuses to perform until the script is substantially changed. The revision session in the green room does not go according to plan, and after much insult and humiliation from the manager, cast, and crew, the arrogant author storms out with his manuscript, ready to inflict his awful dialogue on another unsuspecting theatre company.Spaces in the theatre, due to their dynamic and potent properties, offer a way to examine meanings created by spectators and performers in terms of physical space, fictional space, and even textual space. Through my study of The Author on the Wheel, I consider a part of performance that complicates the idea of physical stage space to an extreme (and sometimes even dangerous) degree while somehow managing to avoid much historical and theoretical scrutiny: the thrown object. I investigate the movement between and amongst spaces made by the thrown object. The thrown objects to which I am referring are the apples, pears and oranges hurled toward the stage by the fictional audience in The Author on the Wheel. The incident of the thrown object occurs only as a memory in the play, recounted in the after-performance discussion in the green room. Through this dialogue, the characters tell tales of acting on the stage whilst enduring a barrage of fruit.
Ecocriticism and Terraforming: Building Critical Spaces
Authors: Pak CHris
Published: February 2023

Science fiction employs a distinctive language to engage speculatively yet critically with our contemporary world. Space, with its discrete planetary bodies and other cosmic objects, functions both as an emblem of science fiction and operates in a more general sense as a space in which to map social, ideological and ontological boundaries between cultures and between humanity and the universe. This is especially evident in narratives of terraforming. They engage with climate change and environmental philosophy and bring these discourses into contact with a postcolonial geopolitics that is reflected upon through the colonisation of other worlds. Science fiction makes use of plausible representations of science to build spaces on separate worlds where these issues can be confronted and alternative socio-political configurations entertained. This dynamic can be seen at the intersections between ecocritical and postcolonial theory in Kim Stanley Robinson's acclaimed Mars trilogy, comprising Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars. In order to highlight the critical spaces put into play and the distinctive contribution science fiction makes to these issues, my point of entry will be the language of science fiction. I examine the megatextual trope of terraforming and the significance of Robinson's development of this motif before analysing specific chronotopes and the values connected to them. I then consider Edward Said's discussion of space and the Other to ask how Robinson's Mars trilogy operates as an exploration of dialogised spaces concerned with imagining socio-economic issues from ecocritical and postcolonial perspectives. First, however, I begin by considering M.M. Bakhtin's concepts of the chronotope and dialogism alongside Damien Broderick's notion of the science fiction megatext.