31 research outputs found

    Appalachian Moderns: Poetry and Music, 1936-1947

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    Why has Appalachia been written out of the story of modernism? Current scholarship on American modernism’s geography proposes a bipartite model: proximal modernism in the North, a movement based in New York and Chicago concerning life in an urban zone, and distal modernism in the South, as a dispersed movement concerning life in an agrarian zone. Yet participating in another regional stream of modernism are Appalachians, a third group, whose homeland was defined neither by urbanism nor agrarianism, but was developed along a third developmental path: extractivism. This developmental model restructured state governments and laws to enlarge the region’s capacity to produce wood, minerals, coal, petroleum, and natural gas. Extractivism is thoroughly examined in works by Appalachians. This dissertation focuses on two such works, arguing that they reveal another, as yet overlooked, stream of modernism. Written on frontlines of industrial resource extraction, Gauley Mountain (1939) by West Virginian poet Louise McNeill and Folk Songs of the Hills (1947) by Kentucky musician Merle Travis make modernist interventions in form and content yet have never been classed as modernist, mostly going unnoticed by literary scholars. To better understand why this the case, I compare each of these two critically neglected figures with a historical contemporary who, at one point or another, did become established as a canonical modernist: Travis, with the undisputed “master of modernism” Louis Armstrong (1901-1971), a New Orleans musician sixteen years older than Travis but facing a similar turning point in style with his Town Hall Concert (1947); McNeill, with New York City poet Muriel Rukeyser (1913-1980), writer of The Book of the Dead (1938), who has been venerated in recent decades as a significant twentieth-century American writer. Close readings of these works, and their critical fates, reveal the geographic and regional indexing of cultural value in modernist studies. Specifically, uneven economic development positioned Appalachia within the cultural spheres of thirties poetry and forties music in a certain way, as a source not only of natural resources, but of cultural resources as well. Appalachian Moderns therefore works to widen our appreciation of American modernism’s geographic and historical dynamics

    Automated computed tomography based parasitoid detection in mason bee rearings

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    In recent years, insect husbandry has seen an increased interest in order to supply in the production of raw materials, food, or as biological/environmental control. Unfortunately, large insect rearings are susceptible to pathogens, pests and parasitoids which can spread rapidly due to the confined nature of a rearing system. Thus, it is of interest to monitor the spread of such manifestations and the overall population size quickly and efficiently. Medical imaging techniques could be used for this purpose, as large volumes can be scanned non-invasively. Due to its 3D acquisition nature, computed tomography seems to be the most suitable for this task. This study presents an automated, computed tomography-based, counting method for bee rearings that performs comparable to identifying all Osmia cornuta cocoons manually. The proposed methodology achieves this in an average of 10 seconds per sample, compared to 90 minutes per sample for the manual count over a total of 12 samples collected around lake Zurich in 2020. Such an automated bee population evaluation tool is efficient and valuable in combating environmental influences on bee, and potentially other insect, rearings

    Animating Film Theory

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    Animating Film Theory provides an enriched understanding of the relationship between two of the most unwieldy and unstable organizing concepts in cinema and media studies: animation and film theory. For the most part, animation has been excluded from the purview of film theory. The contributors to this collection consider the reasons for this marginalization while also bringing attention to key historical contributions across a wide range of animation practices, geographic and linguistic terrains, and historical periods. They delve deep into questions of how animation might best be understood, as well as how it relates to concepts such as the still, the moving image, the frame, animism, and utopia. The contributors take on the kinds of theoretical questions that have remained underexplored because, as Karen Beckman argues, scholars of cinema and media studies have allowed themselves to be constrained by too narrow a sense of what cinema is. This collection reanimates and expands film studies by taking the concept of animation seriously. Contributors. Karen Beckman, Suzanne Buchan, Scott Bukatman, Alan Cholodenko, Yuriko Furuhata, Alexander R. Galloway, Oliver Gaycken, Bishnupriya Ghosh, Tom Gunning, Andrew R. Johnston, Hervé Joubert-Laurencin, Gertrud Koch, Thomas LaMarre, Christopher P. Lehman, Esther Leslie, John MacKay, Mihaela Mihailova, Marc Steinberg, Tess Takahash

    An investigation into 3D printing of osteological remains: the metrology and ethics of virtual anthropology

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    Three-dimensional (3D) printed human remains are being utilised in courtroom demonstrations of evidence within the UK criminal justice system. This presents a potential issue given that the use of 3D replicas has not yet been empirically tested or validated for use in crime reconstructions. Further, recent movements to critically evaluate the ethics surrounding the presentation of human remains have failed to address the use of 3D printed replica bones. As such, this research addresses the knowledge gap surrounding the accuracy of 3D printed replicas of skeletal elements and investigates how the public feels about the use of 3D printed replicas. Three experimental studies focussed on metrology and identified 3D printed replicas to be accurate to within ± 2.0 mm using computed tomography (CT) scanning, and to within ± 0.2 mm or to 0-5% difference using micro-CT. The potential loss of micromorphological details was also examined and identified that quality control steps were key in identifying and mitigating loss of detail. A fourth experimental study collected data on the opinion of the public of the use of 3D printed human remains in courtroom demonstrations. Respondents were broadly positive and considered that prints can be produced ethically by maintaining the dignity and respect of the decedent. A framework that helps to assess ethical practices was developed as well as an adaptable pathway that can assist with assessing the quality and accuracy of 3D prints. The findings from this research contribute to an empirical evidence base that can underpin future 3D printed crime reconstructions and provides guidance for creating accurate 3D prints that can inform future practice and research endeavours

    Ultrasound Imaging

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    This book provides an overview of ultrafast ultrasound imaging, 3D high-quality ultrasonic imaging, correction of phase aberrations in medical ultrasound images, etc. Several interesting medical and clinical applications areas are also discussed in the book, like the use of three dimensional ultrasound imaging in evaluation of Asherman's syndrome, the role of 3D ultrasound in assessment of endometrial receptivity and follicular vascularity to predict the quality oocyte, ultrasound imaging in vascular diseases and the fetal palate, clinical application of ultrasound molecular imaging, Doppler abdominal ultrasound in small animals and so on

    Moon Prism Boys: The Magical Boy as Queering Device

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    Through a queer lens, this thesis examines the role that the magical boy character plays in the manga Magical Boy Majorian (2007-2008), and in season 15 of the popular magical girl genre anime franchise Pretty Cure, entitled Hugtto! PreCure (2018-2019). Using queer theory and gender studies research, this thesis argues that the magical boy figure challenges problematic forms of masculinity by performing what I call ‘shƍjoness,’ a particular form of feminine aesthetic mainly found in shƍjo (for girls) manga, and anime. The thesis contends that henshin (transformation) sequences allow a space for gender negotiation, which disrupts a heteronormative structure through the crossing, and blending, of gender expression and form. Acting as what Sedgwick calls a queer survival object (1993), the magical boy becomes a site for queer representation, but also what I call a queering device. In other words, this thesis argues that Majorian and Hugtto serve as escapes from the burden of heteronormativity, while also holding to some extent the power to inspire change in attitudes toward queerness within, and beyond the pages of the manga, or the screen of anime. Analyzing key scenes from both works mentioned above, this thesis explores how medium specificity (manga structure, and animation techniques) renders queerness by contrasting it with more standard ways of drawing, and animating, consequently challenging normative ways of being. Informed by Scott McCloud’s theorizing of the gutter, Thomas Lamarre’s work on the interval, and Sara Ahmed’s discussion on queer orientation, Moon Prism Boys frames particular forms of interstices as spaces that have the potential to positively disturb a monolithic form of masculinity when brought into contact with queerness

    Soulful bodies and superflat temporalities: a nomadology of the otaku database of world history at the ends of history

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    This thesis is a philosophical engagement with the popular, low, and vernacular theories of History performed and expressed within contemporary Japanese manga (‘comics’) and anime (‘limited animation’), and most importantly, in the global production and consumption of otaku (‘manga and anime fan’) cultural and media ecologies. My project is rooted in a reading of the post-structural theoretical inquiries of Gilles Deleuze in parallel with what media theorist McKenzie Wark calls ‘otaku philosophy’ to examine how both high and low theories articulate anxieties and fascinations with the global theoretical discourses on ‘the ends of History’ and the imminent demise of industrial modernity. The first portion of the thesis is dedicated to a reading of the Japanese counter-cultural manga movement called gekiga (‘dramatic pictures’). In traversing gekiga’s post-war lineages to its revival in the medievalism of otaku artists Miura Kentarƍ and Yukimura Makoto, the first part postulates on what an anti-modern, anti-historical approach – or what Deleuze and Guattari call a nomadology – might look and feel like as it is mediated in the manga form. The second portion of the thesis examines the way in which Japanese anime mobilises the philosophies of nomadology in its filmic form and transmedial properties. In a critical assessment of the anime works of the otaku-founded media corporation Type-Moon, this section explores the Fate series alongside Deleuzian film and media philosophies to explore the infinite potentialities and recursive limitations of otaku nomadologies as they materialise beyond the screen. By reassessing the rise of otaku culture as a vernacular, global, and cosmopolitan rise in the critique of modernity and History, this thesis hopes to explore how transcultural and transmedial fan philosophies of historicity, memory, and temporality can be recontextualised within current academic debates about the efficacy of post-national historiographic pedagogies explored in the fields of postcolonial studies, comparative studies, global studies, and media studies

    Virtual anthropology? Reliability of three-dimensional photogrammetry as a forensic anthropology measurement and documentation technique

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    Establishing the identity of unknown remains is a vital role of forensic anthropology. While establishing identity is generally straightforward due to conventional methods of identification like DNA analysis, sometimes these methods are not applicable in the case of remains that are heavily skeletonized, severely decomposed or severely charred. In such instances, a forensic anthropologist will be called upon. The role of the forensic anthropologist is to aid in the identification of remains when conventional methods such as DNA and fingerprinting are not applicable. They may also be required to collaborate with other experts like forensic odontologists in order to attain a positive identification. A number of methods are available to the anthropologist that can aid in achieving identification: comparative radiography, nonimaged records, craniofacial superimposition, dental comparison and craniofacial reconstruction. All the methods except nonimaged records require imaging, either in two dimensions or three dimensions. Three-dimensional imaging is quickly becoming a vital tool for reconstruction, comparison, and analysis in forensic science. It has found applications in road accident reconstruction, facial reconstruction, comparison of patterned injuries to the injury-inflicting instruments, and anthropometry. The main three-dimensional imaging methods utilized in the forensic field are photogrammetry, laser scanning and radiological scanning (computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)), with forensic three-dimensional/computer aided design (3D/CAD)-supported photogrammetry being the method that is primarily used due to its low cost, rapid results, does not need expertise to operate, has no radiation risks and, above all, the record is permanent. Regardless of this, CT and MRI are more established methods and are widely used in a variety of industries. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the three-dimensional imaging methods currently employed in forensic science on the basis of reliability, reproducibility, and accuracy; with an ultimate aim of validating photogrammetry as an analytical and documentation method of forensic science

    Meanwhile/becoming: a postphenomenological position exploring vision and visuality in landscape photography

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    Meanwhile/Becoming is a practice-led research project that includes a written thesis and a final exhibition of work investigating methods of creating photographs that do not conform to the Cartesian perspective prevalent in photographs taken with a standard format camera. The research explores the opportunity of examining a visual space other than that offered by the standard single lens reflex camera through manipulation of the pinhole camera. The photographic series that constitutes Meanwhile/Becoming uses processes that produce what the research describes as a reinterpretation of phenomenology, postphenomenology and posthumanism through photographic practice; where the photographs are expressive of the what and how humans see and the lived experience of the situated perspectives of a specific space. The research question reflects and critiques this position asking, if multiple viewpoints are presented within a single photograph, does the resulting photograph incorporate the human experience of, relation to and presence in, the world? Once expressed within this framework, the research questions if these multiple viewpoints more closely represent the physiology of how humans see. The concept of the meanwhile is taken as the timespace between events, examining the “meanwhile” through the landscape of the domestic garden. “Becoming” refers to “the movement between events”, an interval between events that allows the processes of creativity and change through differentiation and duration, identified by Gilles Deleuze and FĂ©lix Guattari (2004) and Henri Bergson (1911). Together, my practice and thesis interrogate the restricted boundaries of the Cartesian model of constructed visual space through the apparatus of a unique purpose-built multiple pinhole camera. This apparatus mediates between me and the world, enabling me to develop a new method of making photographs that considers space/place and how we respond to it both physically and perceptually
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