Code-Switching Between Cultures And Languages : Creative connectivity

[À l'origine dans / Was originally part of : Thèses et mémoires - FAS - Département d'études anglaises]Problème: Ma thèse porte sur l’identité individuelle comme interrogation sur les enjeux personnels et sur ce qui constitue l’identification hybride à l’intérieur des notions concurrentielles en ce qui a trait à l’authenticité. Plus précisément, j’aborde le concept des identifications hybrides en tant que zones intermédiaires pour ce qui est de l’alternance de codes linguistiques et comme négociation des espaces continuels dans leur mouvement entre les cultures et les langues. Une telle négociation engendre des tensions et/ou apporte le lien créatif. Les tensions sont inhérentes à n’importe quelle construction d’identité où les lignes qui définissent des personnes ne sont pas spécifiques à une culture ou à une langue, où des notions de l’identité pure sont contestées et des codes communs de l’appartenance sont compromis. Le lien créatif se produit dans les exemples où l’alternance de code linguistique ou la négociation des espaces produit le mouvement ouvert et fluide entre les codes de concurrence des références et les différences à travers les discriminations raciales, la sexualité, la culture et la langue. Les travaux que j’ai sélectionnés représentent une section transversale de quelques auteurs migrants provenant de la minorité en Amérique du Nord qui alternent les codes linguistiques de cette manière. Les travaux détaillent le temps et l’espace dans leur traitement de l’identité et dans la façon dont ils cernent l’hybridité dans les textes suivants : The Woman Warrior de Maxine Hong Kingston (1975-76), Hunger of Memory de Richard Rodriguez (1982), Comment faire l’amour avec un nègre sans se fatiguer de Dany Laferrière (1985), Borderlands/La Frontera de Gloria Anzalduá (1987), Lost in Translation de Eva Hoffman (1989), Avril ou l’anti-passion de Antonio D’Alfonso (1990) et Chorus of Mushrooms de Hiromi Goto (1994). Enjeux/Questions La notion de l’identification hybride est provocante comme sujet. Elle met en question l’identité pure. C’est un sujet qui a suscité beaucoup de discussions tant en ce qui a trait à la littérature, à la politique, à la société, à la linguistique, aux communications, qu’au sein même des cercles philosophiques. Ce sujet est compliqué parce qu’il secoue la base des espaces fixes et structurés de l’identité dans sa signification culturelle et linguistique. Par exemple, la notion de patrie n’a pas les représentations exclusives du pays d’origine ou du pays d’accueil. De même, les notions de race, d’appartenance ethnique, et d’espaces sexuels sont parfois négativement acceptées si elles proviennent des codes socialement admis et normalisés de l’extérieur. De tels codes de la signification sont souvent définis par l’étiquette d’identification hétérosexuelle et blanche. Dans l’environnement généralisé d’aujourd’hui, plus que jamais, une personne doit négocier qui elle est, au sens de son appartenance à soi, en tant qu’individu et ce, face aux modèles locaux, régionaux, nationaux, voire même globaux de la subjectivité. Nous pouvons interpréter ce mouvement comme une série de couches superposées de la signification. Quand nous rencontrons une personne pour la première fois, nous ne voyons que la couche supérieure. D’ailleurs, son soi intérieur est caché par de nombreuses couches superposées (voir Joseph D. Straubhaar). Toutefois, sous cette couche supérieure, on retrouve beaucoup d’autres couches et tout comme pour un oignon, on doit les enlever une par une pour que l’individualité complète d’une personne soit révélée et comprise. Le noyau d’une personne représente un point de départ crucial pour opposer qui elle était à la façon dont elle se transforme sans cesse. Sa base, ou son noyau, dépend du moment, et comprend, mais ne s’y limite pas, ses origines, son environnement et ses expériences d’enfance, son éducation, sa notion de famille, et ses amitiés. De plus, les notions d’amour-propre et d’amour pour les autres, d’altruisme, sont aussi des points importants. Il y a une relation réciproque entre le soi et l’autre qui établit notre degré d’estime de soi. En raison de la mondialisation, notre façon de comprendre la culture, en fait, comment on consomme et définit la culture, devient rapidement un phénomène de déplacement. À l’intérieur de cette arène de culture généralisée, la façon dont les personnes sont à l’origine chinoises, mexicaines, italiennes, ou autres, et poursuivent leur évolution culturelle, se définit plus aussi facilement qu’avant. Approche Ainsi, ma thèse explore la subjectivité hybride comme position des tensions et/ou des relations créatrices entre les cultures et les langues. Quoique je ne souhaite aucunement simplifier ni le processus, ni les questions de l’auto-identification, il m’apparaît que la subjectivité hybride est aujourd’hui une réalité croissante dans l’arène généralisée de la culture. Ce processus d’échange est particulièrement complexe chez les populations migrantes en conflit avec leur désir de s’intégrer dans les nouveaux espaces adoptés, c’est-à-dire leur pays d’accueil. Ce réel désir d’appartenance peut entrer en conflit avec celui de garder les espaces originels de la culture définie par son pays d’origine. Ainsi, les références antérieures de l’identification d’une personne, les fondements de son individualité, son noyau, peuvent toujours ne pas correspondre à, ou bien fonctionner harmonieusement avec, les références extérieures et les couches d’identification changeantes, celles qu’elle s’approprie du pays d’accueil. Puisque nos politiques, nos religions et nos établissements d’enseignement proviennent des représentations nationales de la culture et de la communauté, le processus d’identification et la création de son individualité extérieure sont formées par le contact avec ces établissements. La façon dont une personne va chercher l’identification entre les espaces personnels et les espaces publics détermine ainsi le degré de conflit et/ou de lien créatif éprouvé entre les modes et les codes des espaces culturels et linguistiques. Par conséquent, l’identification des populations migrantes suggère que la « community and culture will represent both a hybridization of home and host cultures » (Straubhaar 27). Il y a beaucoup d’écrits au sujet de l’hybridité et des questions de l’identité et de la patrie, toutefois cette thèse aborde la valeur créative de l’alternance de codes culturels et linguistiques. Ce que la littérature indiquera Par conséquent, la plate-forme à partir de laquelle j’explore mon sujet de l’hybridité flotte entre l’interprétation postcoloniale de Homi Bhabha concernant le troisième espace hybride; le modèle d’hétéroglossie de Mikhail Bakhtine qui englobent plusieurs de mes exemples; la représentation de Roland Barthes sur l’identité comme espace transgressif qui est un modèle de référence et la contribution de Chantal Zabus sur le palimpseste et l’alternance de codes africains. J’utilise aussi le modèle de Sherry Simon portant sur l’espace urbain hybride de Montréal qui établit un lien important avec la valeur des échanges culturels et linguistiques, et les analyses de Janet Paterson. En effet, la façon dont elle traite la figure de l’Autre dans les modèles littéraires au Québec fournisse un aperçu régional et national de l’identification hybride. Enfin, l’exploration du bilinguisme de Doris Sommer comme espace esthétique et même humoristique d’identification situe l’hybridité dans une espace de rencontre créative. Conséquence Mon approche dans cette thèse ne prétend pas résoudre les problèmes qui peuvent résulter des plates-formes de la subjectivité hybride. Pour cette raison, j’évite d’aborder toute approche politique ou nationaliste de l’identité qui réfute l’identification hybride. De la même façon, je n’amène pas de discussion approfondie sur les questions postcoloniales. Le but de cette thèse est de démontrer à quel point la subjectivité hybride peut être une zone de relation créatrice lorsque l’alternance de codes permet des échanges de communication plus intimes entre les cultures et les langues. C’est un espace qui devient créateur parce qu’il favorise une attitude plus ouverte vis-à-vis les différents champs qui passent par la culture, aussi bien la langue, que la sexualité, la politique ou la religion. Les zones hybrides de l’identification nous permettent de contester les traditions dépassées, les coutumes, les modes de communication et la non-acceptation, toutes choses dépassées qui emprisonnent le désir et empêchent d’explorer et d’adopter des codes en dehors des normes et des modèles de la culture contenus dans le discours blanc, dominant, de l’appartenance culturelle et linguistique mondialisée. Ainsi, il appert que ces zones des relations multi-ethniques exigent plus d’attention des cercles scolaires puisque la population des centres urbains à travers l’Amérique du Nord devient de plus en plus nourrie par d’autres types de populations. Donc, il existe un besoin réel d’établir une communication sincère qui permettrait à la population de bien comprendre les populations adoptées. C’est une invitation à stimuler une relation plus intime de l’un avec l’autre. Toutefois, il est évident qu’une communication efficace à travers les frontières des codes linguistiques, culturels, sexuels, religieux et politiques exige une négociation continuelle. Mais une telle négociation peut stimuler la compréhension plus juste des différences (culturelle ou linguistique) si des institutions académiques offrent des programmes d’études intégrant davantage les littératures migrantes. Ma thèse vise à illustrer (par son choix littéraire) l’identification hybride comme une réalité importante dans les cultures généralisées qui croissent toujours aujourd’hui. Les espaces géographiques nous gardent éloignés les uns des autres, mais notre consommation de produits exotiques, qu’ils soient culturels ou non, et même notre consommation de l’autre, s’est rétrécie sensiblement depuis les deux dernières décennies et les indicateurs suggèrent que ce processus n’est pas une tendance, mais plutôt une nouvelle manière d’éprouver la vie et de connaître les autres. Ainsi les marqueurs qui forment nos frontières externes, aussi bien que ces marqueurs qui nous définissent de l’intérieur, exigent un examen minutieux de ces enjeux inter(trans)culturels, surtout si nous souhaitons nous en tenir avec succès à des langues et des codes culturels présents, tout en favorisant la diversité culturelle et linguistique. MOTS-CLÉS : identification hybride, mouvement ouvert, alternance de code linguistique, négociation des espaces, tensions, connectivité créativeProblem: My thesis addresses individual identity as an interrogation of personal stakes and what constitutes hybrid identification inside competitive notions of authenticity. More specifically, I approach the concept of hybridized identification(s) as in-between zones of code-switching and as a negotiation of spaces continual in their movement between cultures and languages. Such a negotiation results in tensions and/or creative connectivity. Tensions are inherent in any identity construction where the lines that define individuals are not specific to one culture or one language, where notions of pure identity are challenged and communal codes of belonging are jeopardized. Creative connectivity occurs in those instances where code-switching or negotiation of spaces produces open and fluid movement between competing codes of references and differences across color lines, sexuality, culture and language. The following works I have selected represent a cross-section of some minority migrant writers in North America who code-switch in this manner. The works are time and space specific in their treatment of identity and in how the writers I focus on frame hybridity in their writing: Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior (1975-76), Richard Rodriguez’s Hunger of Memory (1982), Dany Laferrière’s Comment faire l’amour avec un nègre sans se fatiguer (1985), Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera (1987), Eva Hoffman’s Lost in Translation (1989), Antonio D’Alfonso’s Avril ou l’anti-passion (1990) and Hiromi Goto’s Chorus of Mushrooms (1994). Issue(s) The notion of hybrid identification is a challenging topic, especially for those who defend the notion of pure cultural identities. It has been a subject of much debate inside literary, political, social, linguistic, communications and even philosophical circles. It is complicated because it shakes the foundation of identity structured inside fixed and inclusive space(s) of cultural and linguistic meaning. For instance, notions of home are not exclusive representations of country of origin or host country. Similarly, notions of race, ethnicity, and sexual spaces are sometimes negatively othered if they fall outside socially accepted and normalized codes. Such codes of meaning are often defined by white heterosexual labels of identification. In today’s globalized environment, more than ever, individuals must negotiate who they are inside a sense of self as a movement between local, regional, national, even global models of subjectivity. We can understand this movement as a series of super-imposed layers of meaning. When we first meet people we are introduced to their top tier, who they are and how they choose to reveal that top exteriorized layer (I borrow the idea of layered selves from Joseph D. Straubhaar). However beneath that top layer there are many other layers, like an onion, they must be unravelled in order for an individual’s complete self to be revealed and/or understood. The core of an individual, their nucleus, represents a crucial starting point between who they were versus how they are perpetually becoming. One’s foundation or core is contingent upon, but not limited to, one’s origins, childhood environment and experiences, education, notion of family, friendships, and perhaps most important, notions of self-love and love for another and how the relation between the two creates/builds self-esteem. Because of globalization, how culture is understood, in fact, how culture is consumed and defined is quickly becoming a traveling phenomenon. Inside this arena of globalized culture how individuals begin and continue as Chinese, Mexican, Italian, etc. is not as easy to define as it once was. Approach Thus my thesis explores hybridized subjectivity as a position of tensions and/or creative connectivity between cultures and languages. While I do not wish to simplify the process or issues of self-identification, I believe that hybrid subjectivity is a growing reality in today’s globalized arena of cultural bartering. This bartering process is particularly complicated for migrant populations whose desire for belonging in new adopted spaces, their host country, is often in conflict with, or challenged by, desire for past spaces or cultural spaces defined by their country of origin. Thus past references of identification, the base of their core self may not always correspond to, or function harmoniously with, their outer, newer and shifting layers of identification, ones they appropriate from the host country. Because our political, religious, and educational institutions stem from national representations of culture and community, the process of identification and the creation of one’s outside self are shaped through an encounter with these institutions. How individuals seek identification between their personal and public spaces thus determines the degree of conflict and or creative connectivity experienced between modes/codes of cultural and linguistic spaces. Therefore identification for migrant populations suggest that “community and culture will represent both a hybridization of home and host cultures” (Straubhaar 27).There is much written on hybridity and issues of identity and nation however this thesis focuses on the creative value of code-switching between cultures and languages. What the Literature Will Say Therefore the platform from which I explore my topic of hybridity fluctuates between Homi Bhabha’s postcolonial interpretation of hybrid third spaces, Mikhail Bakhtin’s model of heteroglossic dialogues, Roland Barthes representation of identity as a transgressive space and Chantal Zabus’ understanding of the African palimpsest and code-switching. Then Sherry Simon’s model of Montréal’s hybrid urban space and Janet Paterson’s perceptions of how the Other has shaped and (re)defined literary models of identity in Québec provide a regional and national glimpse of hybridized identification. Finally, Doris Sommer’s exploration of bilingualism as an aesthetical, even humorous space of identification situates hybridity as a creative space of connection. Consequence My approach in this thesis does not claim to solve problems that may arise from platforms of hybridized subjectivity. For this reason, I avoid political or nationalistic approaches to identity that refute/discredit, in many instances, hybridized identifications. I also steer away from any in-depth discussion of post-colonial issues. The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate how hybridized subjectivity can be a zone of creative connectivity when code-switching offers more intimate exchanges of communication between cultures and languages. It is a creative connectivity because it promotes a more open-minded attitude towards peoples’ cultural, linguistic, sexual, even political and religious differences. Hybridized zones of identification allow us to challenge dated traditions, customs, modes of communication and acceptance that imprison people’s desire to explore and adopt codes outside standards and models of culture contained within a dominant white discourse of cultural and linguistic belonging. Such zones of hybridized connectivity require more attention from academic circles. More specifically, as the population in urban city centers across North America becomes increasingly dotted by Other populations, there is a greater need for the host population as well as adopted populations to explore and foster more intimate understandings of each other. Effective communication across borders of linguistic, cultural, sexual, religious and political codes requires continual negotiation. Such negotiation fosters more intimate understandings of difference (cultural or linguistic). If academic institutions offer a more inclusive curriculum of minority literatures to future generations perhaps tolerance will become outdated because acceptance will be the norm. My thesis aims to illustrate (through its literary focus) hybridized identification as an important reality of today’s ever-increasing globalized culture(s). Geographic spaces may not be shrinking however how we consume products, culture, music, and even each other has shrunk substantially in the last two decades and indicators suggest that this process is not a trend but a new way of experiencing life and knowing people. Thus the markers that form our external layers as well as those markers that define us from the inside require closer scrutiny if we wish to successfully hold onto existing languages and cultural codes while promoting cultural and linguistic diversity. KEY WORDS: hybrid identification, in-between zones, code-switching, negotiation of spaces, tensions, creative connectivit

Nontimber Forest Products in the United States

A quiet revolution is taking place in America\u27s forests. Once seen primarily as stands of timber, our woodlands are now prized as a rich source of a wide range of commodities, from wild mushrooms and maple sugar to hundreds of medicinal plants whose uses have only begun to be fully realized. Now as timber harvesting becomes more mechanized and requires less labor, the image of the lumberjack is being replaced by that of the forager. This book provides the first comprehensive examination of nontimber forest products (NTFPs) in the United States, illustrating their diverse importance, describing the people who harvest them, and outlining the steps that are being taken to ensure access to them. As the first extensive national overview of NTFP policy and management specific to the United States, it brings together research from numerous disciplines and analytical perspectives-such as economics, mycology, history, ecology, law, entomology, forestry, geography, and anthropology—in order to provide a cohesive picture of the current and potential role of NTFPs. The contributors review the state of scientific knowledge of NTFPs by offering a survey of commercial and noncommercial products, an overview of uses and users, and discussions of sustainable management issues associated with ecology, cultural traditions, forest policy, and commerce. They examine some of the major social, economic, and biological benefits of NTFPs, while also addressing the potential negative consequences of NTFP harvesting on forest ecosystems and on NTFP species populations. Within this wealth of information are rich accounts of NTFP use drawn from all parts of the American landscape—from the Pacific Northwest to the Caribbean. From honey production to a review of nontimber forest economies still active in the United States—such as the Ojibway harvest of plants recounted here—the book takes in the whole breadth of recent NTFP issues, including ecological concerns associated with the expansion of NTFP markets and NTFP tenure issues on federally managed lands. No other volume offers such a comprehensive overview of NTFPs in North America. By examining all aspects of these products, it contributes to the development of more sophisticated policy and management frameworks for not only ensuring their ongoing use but also protecting the future of our forests. Description Eric T. Jones is an instructor and research professor in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society at Oregon State University. Rebecca J. McLain is director of research at the National Policy Consensus Center at Portland State University. Susan Charnley is a research social scientist at the Pacific Northwest Research Station of the USDA Forest Service. James Weigand is an ecologist at the US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management. With a New Preface by Eric T. Jones, Rebecca J. McLain, Susan Charnley, and James Weigand. This Kansas Open Books title is funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program.https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/kansas_open_books/1035/thumbnail.jp

Nontimber Forest Products in the United States

Eric T. Jones is an instructor and research professor in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society at Oregon State University. Rebecca J. McLain is director of research at the National Policy Consensus Center at Portland State University. Susan Charnley is a research social scientist at the Pacific Northwest Research Station of the USDA Forest Service. James Weigand is an ecologist at the US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management. With a New Preface by Eric T. Jones, Rebecca J. McLain, Susan Charnley, and James Weigand.This Kansas Open Books title is funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program.A quiet revolution is taking place in America's forests. Once seen primarily as stands of timber, our woodlands are now prized as a rich source of a wide range of commodities, from wild mushrooms and maple sugar to hundreds of medicinal plants whose uses have only begun to be fully realized. Now as timber harvesting becomes more mechanized and requires less labor, the image of the lumberjack is being replaced by that of the forager. This book provides the first comprehensive examination of nontimber forest products (NTFPs) in the United States, illustrating their diverse importance, describing the people who harvest them, and outlining the steps that are being taken to ensure access to them. As the first extensive national overview of NTFP policy and management specific to the United States, it brings together research from numerous disciplines and analytical perspectives-such as economics, mycology, history, ecology, law, entomology, forestry, geography, and anthropology—in order to provide a cohesive picture of the current and potential role of NTFPs. The contributors review the state of scientific knowledge of NTFPs by offering a survey of commercial and noncommercial products, an overview of uses and users, and discussions of sustainable management issues associated with ecology, cultural traditions, forest policy, and commerce. They examine some of the major social, economic, and biological benefits of NTFPs, while also addressing the potential negative consequences of NTFP harvesting on forest ecosystems and on NTFP species populations. Within this wealth of information are rich accounts of NTFP use drawn from all parts of the American landscape—from the Pacific Northwest to the Caribbean. From honey production to a review of nontimber forest economies still active in the United States—such as the Ojibway "harvest of plants" recounted here—the book takes in the whole breadth of recent NTFP issues, including ecological concerns associated with the expansion of NTFP markets and NTFP tenure issues on federally managed lands. No other volume offers such a comprehensive overview of NTFPs in North America. By examining all aspects of these products, it contributes to the development of more sophisticated policy and management frameworks for not only ensuring their ongoing use but also protecting the future of our forests

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Optimization is considered as a decision-making process for getting the most out of available resources for the best attainable results. Many real-world problems are multi-objective or multi-attribute problems that naturally involve several competing objectives that need to be optimized simultaneously, while respecting some constraints or involving selection among feasible discrete alternatives. In this Reprint of the Special Issue, 19 research papers co-authored by 88 researchers from 14 different countries explore aspects of multi-objective or multi-attribute modeling and optimization in crisp or uncertain environments by suggesting multiple-attribute decision-making (MADM) and multi-objective decision-making (MODM) approaches. The papers elaborate upon the approaches of state-of-the-art case studies in selected areas of applications related to sustainable development decision aiding in engineering and management, including construction, transportation, infrastructure development, production, and organization management

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The growing demand for new forms of energy has led to a significant increase in the use of biomass as a primary source of energy. Although in many situations, the use of biomass is clearly well studied, in other cases, it is a new world, where knowledge is absent regarding how to best value and recycle these forms of biomass, many of which are classified as waste as a result of production processes. Thermochemical conversion technologies could provide an alternative for the processing of these materials, allowing for a reuse value through the transformation of their properties. The purpose of this Special Issue is to contribute to the increase in knowledge in this area when new forms of biomass appear that are cheaper and more available, but also are potentially more problematic, namely in terms of the effects that can be associated with the use of these new products.This Special Issue is focused on the recycling and recovery of biomass materials. Several innovative and alternative concepts can be presented, and the topics of energy recovery, circular economy, life cycle assessment, and supply chain could play a major role. Models on various temporal and geographical scales to understand the conditions of technical as well as organizational change are welcome, as are new methods of modeling that can fulfil technical and physical boundary conditions and consider economic, environmental, and social aspects

Exploitation of Super(de)wettability via Scalable Hierarchical Surface Texturing

The field of wettability is an age-old topic that has been revitalized in the last two decades. Historically, the diverse physical phenomena of wetting has influenced the development of inventions that dates back to the paleolithic era (2,600,000 to 10,000 BC) in the form of charcoal and ochre -based cave paintings, or the mesolithic (10,000 to 5,000 BC) and neolithic (5,000 to 2,000 BC) periods as pottery and soaps. Since the end of the Stone Age, human civilizations and scientific discoveries have progressed by leaps and bounds. Despite the advances in metallurgy, optics, chemistry, mechanics, mathematics and electricity, our understanding of fluid-surface interactions remained stagnant until 1804. Between 1804 and 1805, Thomas Young described the concept of a wetting contact angle, which controls the equilibrium shape of a fluid droplet on a surface, thus making wettability a quantified branch of physics. The late entry of this scientific field is astounding, considering the ubiquitousness of water on Earth. Despite Young’s discoveries, the area remained largely unexplored. Work on wettability was intermittent, with Edward Washburn on capillary effects in 1921 and later on, Robert Wenzel and Cassie-Baxter in 1936 and 1944 on the wetting of rough interfaces. In 1997, almost exactly 20 years ago, the field was rejuvenated by the corresponding discoveries of superhydrophilicity (water droplets spread into a sheet) and superhydrophobicity (water droplets ball up), by Wang et al. and Neinhuis et al. respectively. Since their work into these distinct super(de)wetting states, the field has grown exponentially. Today, its revival can be attributed to biomimetics (engineering mimicry / imitation of life) and a revolutionized understanding behind super(de)wetting mechanisms that are found in nature. The precise combination of hierarchical (multi-scale) texturing with select surface chemical composition is vital towards fabricating interfaces with specialized wetting properties. Knowledge behind the careful control of surface texturing holds immense potential for enabling a plethora of user-defined functional interfaces. As of the time of writing, the field of wettability encompasses multiple domains, such as superhydrophilicity (water-loving),[8] slippery superhydrophobicity (water-fearing), adhesive superhydrophobicity (an unintuitive love-fear relationship with water), superoleophobicity (oil-fearing), superamphiphobicity (water- and oil-fearing),[11] superomniphobicity (all-fearing) as well as a range of other important intermediary, cross-environment wetting states. Methods employed for achieving super(de)wettability can be broadly classified under 2 sub-classes. The first relies on intricate top-down photolithography (-drawing with light) or templating-based designs while the other uses the realms of chaotic, but deterministic and scalable bottom-up self-assembly. Both routes are promising for the development of unique super(de)wetting states, albeit with considerable drawbacks on both fronts. For instance, while lithography and templating have demonstrated exemplary surface texturing precision and super(de)wetting performance, these methods remain limited by poor scalability, complexity and costs in instrumentation and operation. Alternatively, scalable and cheap bottom-up self-assembly methods can exist within complex electro-, hydro-, aero-, thermal- or thermo-dynamically varied regimes. Consequently, each system requires intense cross-optimization research efforts in determining niche operating parameters. In this work, we explore a series of highly promising hierarchically structured material interfaces that were enabled by understanding, taming and controlling scalable but chaotic bottom-up methods. To this end, we demonstrate their potential within the entire super(de)wetting spectrum, showcased through a series of coatings and further exemplified by functional micro(fluid)mechanical systems (M-F-MS)

Genre - text - interpretation: Multidisciplinary perspectives on folklore and beyond

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A Cartography of Roots: An Exploration of plant communication, place, and story

This study uses oral history and auto-ethnography to collect thematic data on relationships and communication between plants and people in New Mexico, USA. Western and industrial cultures tend to be plant-blind, which is extremely dangerous in the wake of climate disruption and associated loss of plant biodiversity. This study works to collect and produce a generative landscape of narratives of non-binary relationships between humans and plants. These narratives show a range of hopeful, relational connections between human and more-than-human worlds. Overall results indicated the existence of many positive relationships between plants and people in the Western world, and that these relationships develop through human-human communication, plant-human communication, place-making, and relation-making practices. Furthermore, results showed clearly how relationships between humans and plants are wrapped up in history, sense-of-place, family, and identity, positioning studies about plants and humans as an extremely potent and important subject for ecocultural studies

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The evolution of industrial development since the 18th century is now experiencing the fourth industrial revolution. The effect of the development has propagated into almost every sector of the industry. From inventory to the circular economy, the effectiveness of technology has been fruitful for industry. The recent trends in research, with new ideas and methodologies, are included in this book. Several new ideas and business strategies are developed in the area of the supply chain management, logistics, optimization, and forecasting for the improvement of the economy of the society and the environment. The proposed technologies and ideas are either novel or help modify several other new ideas. Different real life problems with different dimensions are discussed in the book so that readers may connect with the recent issues in society and industry. The collection of the articles provides a glimpse into the new research trends in technology, business, and the environment