Josef Fares’ Zozo as accented cinema

In 2005, the Lebanese-Swedish filmmaker Josef Fares, who had attained recognition in Sweden through the immigrant comedies Jalla! Jalla! (2000) and Kopps (2003), presented his third feature film and first drama, Zozo, inspired by Fares’s own migration to Sweden. Set in 1987 Beirut, Zozo portrays a ten-year boy who loses his parents during the Lebanese Civil War and who journeys to reunite with his grandparents already settled in Sweden. In Sweden, Zozo is forced to learn the host country’s language quickly and to understand the unwritten rules of his new culture. Like his grandparents, he will probably always have an accent and be recognizably the “other.” The film became Sweden’s national submission to the 78th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film and its nomination not only raised questions on what Sweden and Swedishness mean in a contemporary global world, but it also reexamined the problems of nationality, location, identity, and historical memory in a borderless Europe. In this essay I argue that Zozo is an illustration of accented film, which means the film is neither Swedish nor Lebanese, but a combination of both. Influenced by his deterritorialization from Lebanon and his current life in Sweden, the cinematographic stylistic choices of Josef Fares exhibit a “double consciousness” - multiple cultural identities at once. To further understand the Lebanese and Swedish elements in the film, I analyze how elements such as chronotopes (time-space), border crossing, epistolarity, and double consciousness are inscribed in the film. In addition, I use Laura U. Marks’ concept of fossils, radioactive recollection-objects. By employing Hamid Naficy’s accented cinema theory, I hope to explain how Josef Fares is neither Swedish nor Lebanese, but an individual with multicultural identities, which reflect in the elements of the narrative and cinematographic style.Germanic Studie

Fully Coupled Simulation of the Plasma Liquid Interface and Interfacial Coefficient Effects

There is a growing interest in the study of coupled plasma-liquid systems because of their applications to biomedicine, biological and chemical disinfection, agriculture, and other areas. Without an understanding of the near-surface gas dynamics, modellers are left to make assumptions about the interfacial conditions. For instance it is commonly assumed that the surface loss or sticking coefficient of gas-phase electrons at the interface is equal to 1. In this work we explore the consequences of this assumption and introduce a couple of ways to think about the electron interfacial condition. In one set of simulations we impose a kinetic condition with varying surface loss coefficient on the gas phase interfacial electrons. In a second set of simulations we introduce a Henry's law like condition at the interface in which the gas-phase electron concentration is assumed to be in thermodynamic equilibrium with the liquid-phase electron concentration. It is shown that for a range of electron Henry coefficients spanning a range of known hydrophilic specie Henry coefficients, the gas phase electron density in the anode can vary by orders of magnitude. Varying reflection of electrons by the interface also has consequences for the electron energy profile. This variation in anode electron density and energy as a function of the interface characteristics could also lead to significant variation in near-surface gas chemistries when such reactions are included in the model; this could very well in turn affect the reactive species impinging on the liquid surface. We draw the conclusion that in order to make more confident model predictions about plasma-liquid systems, finer scale simulations and/or new experimental techniques must be used to elucidate the near-surface gas phase electron dynamics

The Gender Gap in Study Abroad

This study investigates the gender imbalance in study abroad programming, focusing on the question of whether there are barriers specific to men in the decision to study abroad and exploring how men overcome these barriers. The research question is viewed through the framework of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1943), arguing that physiological, safety, and relationship needs must be met before a student can feel confident in their decision to study abroad. Data is gathered through an online survey of students expressed interest in study abroad by attending information sessions but ultimately decided not to go on a program and through interview with male study abroad alumni at the University of New Hampshire. Findings for the survey show that both men and women place equal importance on the biggest issues of program cost and a concern for a delay in their graduation, with the only significant difference showing up through men’s inability to study abroad due to judiciary issues on campus. Findings for the interviews show that men’s desire to fulfill Maslow’s esteem and self-actualization needs trumping concerns over the physiological, safety, and relationship needs, and that these students had long held the desire to study abroad. The results reveal that the decision to study abroad is not governed by a clear progression up Maslow’s pyramid, but rather a complex interplay of factors. By using this data, college and universities gain greater insight into what drives men to study abroad and can gain better knowledge on how to appeal to this specific demographic

Aetiolkogy of Refractive Measures

Abstract Not Provided

Momentum, Heat, and Neutral Mass Transport in Convective Atmospheric Pressure Plasma-Liquid Systems and Implications for Aqueous Targets

There is a growing interest in the study of plasma-liquid interactions with application to biomedicine, chemical disinfection, agriculture, and other fields. This work models the momentum, heat, and neutral species mass transfer between gas and aqueous phases in the context of a streamer discharge; the qualitative conclusions are generally applicable to plasma-liquid systems. The problem domain is discretized using the finite element method. The most interesting and relevant model result for application purposes is the steep gradients in reactive species at the interface. At the center of where the reactive gas stream impinges on the water surface, the aqueous concentrations of OH and ONOOH decrease by roughly 9 and 4 orders of magnitude respectively within 50 $\mu$m of the interface. Recognizing the limited penetration of reactive plasma species into the aqueous phase is critical to discussions about the therapeutic mechanisms for direct plasma treatment of biological solutions. Other interesting results from this study include the presence of a 10 K temperature drop in the gas boundary layer adjacent to the interface that arises from convective cooling and water evaporation. Accounting for the resulting difference between gas and liquid bulk temperatures has a significant impact on reaction kinetics; factor of two changes in terminal aqueous species concentrations like H$_2$O$_2$, NO$_2^-$, and NO$_3^-$ are observed if the effect of evaporative cooling is not included

Quantum Feynman-Kac perturbations

We develop fully noncommutative Feynman-Kac formulae by employing quantum stochastic processes. To this end we establish some theory for perturbing quantum stochastic flows on von Neumann algebras by multiplier cocycles. Multiplier cocycles are constructed via quantum stochastic differential equations whose coefficients are driven by the flow. The resulting class of cocycles is characterised under alternative assumptions of separability or Markov regularity. Our results generalise those obtained using classical Brownian motion on the one hand, and results for unitarily implemented flows on the other.Comment: 27 pages. Minor corrections to version 2. To appear in the Journal of the London Mathematical Societ

Benefits of Advanced Traffic Management Solutions: Before and After Crash Analysis for Deployment of a Variable Advisory Speed Limit System

Variable speed limit (VSL) systems are important active traffic management tools that are being deployed across the U.S. and indeed around the world for relieving congestion and improving safety. Oregon’s first variable advisory speed limit signs were activated along Oregon Highway 217 in the summer of 2014. The variable advisory speed system is responsive to both congestion and weather conditions. This seven-mile corridor stretches around Western Portland and has suffered from high crash rates and peak period congestion in the past. VSL systems are often deployed to address safety, mobility and sustainability related performance. This research seeks to determine whether the newly implemented variable advisory speed limit system has had measurable impacts on traffic safety and what the scale of the impact has been. The research utilizes a before-after crash analysis with three years of data prior to implementation and around 16 months after. Statistical analysis using an Empirical Bayes (EB) approach will aim to separate the direct impacts of the variable advisory speed limit signs from the long term trends on the highway. In addition, the analysis corrects for the changes in traffic volumes over the study period. Three data sources will be utilized including Washington County 911 call data, Oregon incident reports, and official Oregon Department of Transportation crash data reports. The analysis results are compared between data sources to determine the reliability of 911 call data as a proxy for crash statistics. The conclusions should be able to provide an indication of whether variable advisory speed limits can provide increased safety along high crash corridors

Digitization of the Australian Parliamentary Debates, 1998-2022

Public knowledge of what is said in parliament is a tenet of democracy, and a critical resource for political science research. In Australia, following the British tradition, the written record of what is said in parliament is known as Hansard. While the Australian Hansard has always been publicly available, it has been difficult to use for the purpose of large-scale macro- and micro-level text analysis because it has only been available as PDFs or XMLs. Following the lead of the Linked Parliamentary Data project which achieved this for Canada, we provide a new, comprehensive, high-quality, rectangular database that captures proceedings of the Australian parliamentary debates from 1998 to 2022. The database is publicly available and can be linked to other datasets such as election results. The creation and accessibility of this database enables the exploration of new questions and serves as a valuable resource for both researchers and policymakers

The Contested White Lady: A Critique of New Zealand Cultural Heritage Politics

This article critiques New Zealand’s cultural heritage politics by positing that vernacular items, like an iconic eatery called the White Lady, does not meet the legislative criteria enabling cultural heritage status. If vernacular artefacts, including ‘kiwiana’, are to be integrated within cultural heritage, then changes within legislation, definitions and participant preconceptions are necessary. This study argues that cultural heritage is dominated by artefacts and historic places; that ‘kiwiana’ and other vernacular items of social history, practice and tradition are relegated. Items of ‘kiwiana’ act as touchstones of identity for New Zealanders. Therefore, their omission distorts the view of New Zealand’s cultural heritage. The application of cultural heritage status to the White Lady is important because of its transcendence of time and social change, its aesthetic, and also because of its present-day hospitality offering