161 research outputs found
Making strange: Race science and ethnopsychiatric discourse
African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented October 1984Discourse about Europe's Others, about "primitive races", about
"Orientals", about Jews, Africans and so-called Negroes is omni
present even in such momentous intellectual undertakings as psychoanalysis and Marxism. What one encounters are a series of significant tendencies all amounting to the verbal device through which something familiar is made to appear strange - 'making strange' as Volosinov would put it
Making strange: Race science and ethnopsychiatric discourse
The inscription of racial difference – or what I refer to as the discursive practice of making strange - is to be found in many of the most revered texts of Western modernity. The irreducible recognition and constitution of otherness is evident in Hegel, Marx and indeed Freud, whose preoccupation with the primal horde, primitive man, the cannibalistic savage and the unruly child show the extent to which psychoanalysis, and thereby early psychology, has been a crucial link in the chain of colonial discourse. The discursive practice of making strange is evident in ethnopsychiatry – particularly in the colonial discourse on Africa and Africans – and it continues through the history of psychology where the inscription of blackness is perhaps best epitomized in notions of intellectual inferiority or – turning to the Southern African context – in the domain of “African psychological research”
Enhancing visuospatial processing skills in children
Growing evidence highlights the importance of visual-spatial processing skills (VSPS) but teaching and training of these skills at early age in schools remain understudied. To this end, we have developed a computerized application called TangSolver that aim to move one step toward assessment and training of VSPS of school age children. First, we compared the effectiveness of an experimental computerized VSPS-enhancing approach, a conventional face-to-face training regime, and a non-training control group in improving performance in a tangram game among typical children. Second, we investigated how training-resistant possible visuospatial processing differences between children with and without ASD are. We studied the effect of computerized vs. face-to-face visuospatial training in a group of normally intelligent children with ASD and typically developing children as control. Findings show that (a) children with and without ASD do not differ much in visuospatial processing (as assessed by a tangram-like task) and the few differences we observed were all eliminated by training; (b) training can improve visuospatial processing (equally) in both children with ASD and normally developing children; and (c) computer-based and face-to-face training was equally effective.NWOUBL - phd migration 201
Contribution to the Control of Doubly Fed Induction Machine DFIM
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Currently, doubly fed induction generators (DFIGs) are widely used for wind turbines. Compared to other variable-speed generators; the main advantage of the DFIG is that the power electronic devices must deal with only about a third of the generator power, compared to full power converters used in synchronous generators . This difference reduces the costs and losses in the power electronic components, rather than other solutions, such as fully converting systems; finally, the overall efficiency is improved. Furthermore, among all the induction generator configurations for generation systems the use of (DFIG) configuration with back to back pulse width modulated voltage source converters (VSC) is one of the best topologies available and it is suitable for both grid connected systems as well as standalone systems. Here only stand-alone application of DFIG is considered. In this thesis, mathematical modelling of doubly fed induction machine is presented. Two control approaches are proposed to improve the control of the rotor side converter which give the best solution to overcome the drawbacks of the recent control methods and provide a high performance stator- voltage magnitude and frequency regulation for all possible operation scenarios (voltage magnitude, load, and rotor speed variations). Various aspects of standalone DFIG generation system such as stator-voltage magnitude and frequency regulation, computational requirement minimization, sensors number reduction, from rotor side converter control is carried out. All proposed control methods have been verified in both simulation and 3 kW DFIG laboratory experimental bench
Removal of tetracycline by electrocoagulation: Kinetic and isotherm modeling through adsorption
International audienceThe use of antibiotics and growth hormones in human and veterinary medicine has a significant effect on the quality of surface and groundwater. The relevance of an electrocoagulation (EC) process for the removal of an antibiotic selected because of its wide application, high solubility in water, high residual toxicity and an absence of biodegradability, was examined in this study. Metal hydroxides generated during EC were used to remove tetracycline (TC) from aqueous solution. The knowledge regarding the removal mechanism of this substance has not been investigated up to now. Experiments were carried out in a batch electrochemical reactor using aluminum electrodes. The removal of TC was relatively fast and equilibrium was reached within 15 min. The effects of the main operating parameters were examined and showed that irrespective of the initial concentration and for pH ranging from 3 to 10, maximum removal efficiency remained close to 99%; while a sharp decrease was recorded at pH 2 (10% removal). The results of this study also showed that the removal of TC from water was strongly affected by the current intensity. The mechanism of electrocoagulation was modeled using isotherm models and showed that the Sips isotherm matched satisfactorily experimental data, suggesting monolayer coverage of adsorbed molecules and assumed a quasi-Gaussian distribution energy owing to the high correlation also found for the Toth model. In addition, adsorption kinetic studies showed that the EC process followed a pseudo-second-order kinetic model at the various current densities, pH and initial antibiotic concentrations considered
On becoming a psychologist in apartheid South Africa
Clinical Psychology training is an arduous journey wherever in the world one pursues it. However, in apartheid South Africa, the experience of becoming a psychologist held its own unique challenges, especially if you were a person of Colour. This article chronicles some of the barriers and hurdles that I had to overcome in order to train as a psychologist in a country where it was almost not expected that Africans could train as clinical psychologists! The story relates some of these training experiences, as well as aspects of my life in exile in the United States, and finally some of my political and related practice experiences in the latter years of apartheid. While many of the professional training challenges that are described may surprise recent Psychology graduates, it is crucial that younger members of the Psychology fraternity are made aware of the history of their profession.http://www.journals.co.za/ej/ejour_sapsyc.htmlam2013cp201
Study of the effect of silvicultural treatments and exposure on the morphology of the leaf: case of the green oak of the region of Tlemcen (north-west of Algeria)
In the forest area of Tlemcen, green oak on its large expanse is abundantly represented in two forms: simple coppice and trees on stump. This study, try to verify the effect of the silvicultural treatments and exposure on leaf morphology. To this end, we tested this hypothesis on 240 mature leaves of these two populations collected from the four cardinal directions.The results show that the length of midrib is 4.85 cm in the case of high trees, 4.80 cm in the coppices. The surface of leaf-blade is 8.87 cm2 in the high trees and 8.35 cm2 in coppices. Angle of insertion of the secondary rib with the main rib is 122.86° in the case of high trees, 121.22° in the coppices. Variance analysis indicates that there is no effect of the silvicultural treatments and exposure on leaves morphological parameters.DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.81031
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