TRACING AFRICA TO JAMAICA: Ethnicity,Gender and Postcolonial Identity in Abeng

O colonialismo no Caribe tem produzido padrões generalizados de hierarquização étnica e cultural. Este sistema de dominação imperialista também tem criado formas de marginalização cultural e social que tem persistido por tempo prolongado após alcançar seu fim a escravidão. Como o Caribe foi formado por contatos entre povos de África, Sul da Asia e Europa, a raça e a cultura como predicados binários da colonização e da escravidão se transformaram na estrutura primária para a diferenciação social nas colônias. Exemplo disto foi a Jamaica, o orgulho do colonialismo Britânico no Caribe desde seu controle no ano de 1655 até sua independência pouco mais de trezentos anos mais tarde, em 1962. No seu romance, Abeng, Michelle Cliff tece uma narrativa diferente de pertencimento, inclusão e parentesco fora da questão da identidade cultural e de gênero por sua jovem protagonista, Clare Savage, numa pré-independente Jamaica. Clare é de procedência biracial de parentes brancos e negros cujas opostas perspectivas sobre a importância do componente africano da sociedade jamaicana leva Clare à busca de uma identidade independente de raça e de gênero, a qual tem um paralelo com o caminho espinhoso da Jamaica até o nacionalismo e a independência. Em um nível mais literal o romance reconta o descobrimento de Clare da mordacidade, dos atos ocultos de violência da história de sua família paterna como brancos proprietários de escravos. Porém num nível simbólico, o arco da trajetória de auto descobrimento traça uma ativa apropriação de uma sugestiva rede da interação de influências multiculturais que impacta seu potencial pessoal como agente político. Oprimida entre África e Europa, entre a repressão de sua mãe de sua própria negritude e a repressão indesejável, às vezes com detalhes brutais da história da família branca, valorizada por seu padre, Clare apropria-se seletivamente das histórias raciais e de gênero de outros; de Nanny, a mulher liderança quilombola rebelde, a da jovem heroína judia Anne Frank. Para desenvolver essas intersecções de gênero, etnicidade, história e duplicidade, Clare e sua nova amiga Zoe, penetram na argamassa de seu mutuo auto-descobrimento através de seu próprio ato de violência, para obter a prova de sua igualdade com o gênero outro, mas, paradoxalmente, esse ato revela a ambas a crítica diferença desenhada sobre a violência racial da história colonial e o desafio para forjar uma crítica alternativa para suas pressões legais. Palabras-chaves: Colonialismo. Gênero. Etnicidade. IdentidadeResumenMientras el colonialismo en el Caribe ha producido patrones generalizados de jerarquización étnica y cultural este sistema de dominación imperialista también ha creado formas de marginalización cultural y social que han persistido por tiempo prolongado después de alcanzar su fin la esclavitud. Como el Caribe se formó por contactos entre pueblos de África, Sur de Asia y Europa, la raza y la cultura como predicados binarios de la colonización y la esclavitud se convirtieron en la estructura primaria para la diferenciación social en las colonias. Ejemplo de esto fue Jamaica, el orgullo del colonialismo Británico en el Caribe desde su control en 1655 a su independencia, poco más de trescientos años más tarde, en 1962.En su novela Abeng, Michelle Cliff teje una narrativa diferente de pertenecimiento, inclusión y parentesco fuera de la cuestión de la identidad cultural y de género, por su joven protagonista, Clare Savage, en una pre-independiente Jamaica. Clare es de procedencia biracial de parientes blancos y negros cuyas opuestas perpectivas sobre La importancia del componente africano de la sociedad de Jamaica, lleva a Clare a buscar una identidad independiente racial y de género la cual tiene un paralelo en el camino espinoso de Jamaica hacia el nacionalismo y la independencia..Sobre un nivel más literal la novela recuenta el descubrimiento de Clare de la mordacidad, de los actos ocultos de violencia de la historia de su familia paterna como blancos propietarios de esclavos. Pero en un nivel simbólico, el arco de la trayectoria de auto descubrimiento traza una activa apropiación de una sugestiva red de interacción de influencias multiculturales que impactan su potencial personal como agente político. Oprimida entre África y Europa, entre la represión de su madre de su propia negritud y la represión indeseable, a veces con detalles brutales de historia de la familia blanca, valorizada por su padre, Clare se apropia selectivamente de las historias raciales y de género de otros; de Nanny, la mujer líder cimarrón rebelde, la de la joven heroina judía Anne Frank. Para desarrollar estas intersecciones de género, etnicidad, historia y duplicidad, Clare y su nueva amiga, Zoe penetran el cemento de su mutuo autodescubrimiento a través de su propio acto de violencia, para alcanzar la prueba de su igualdad con el género otro pero, paradójicamente, ese acto revela a ambas la crítica diferencia diseñada sobre la violencia racial de la historia colonial y el desafío para forjar una crítica alternativa para sus presiones legales.Palabras claves: Colonialismo. Género. Etnicidad. IdentidadAbstractWhile colonialism in the Caribbean produced pervasive patterns of ethnic and cultural hierarchization, this system of imperialist domination also gave rise to forms of social and cultural marginalization that persisted long after slavery itself came to an end. As the Caribbean increasingly became the stage for contacts between peoples from Africa, South Asia, and Europe, the racial and cultural binaries predicated on colonization and slavery became the primary framework for social differentiation in the colonies. Chief among these was Jamaica, the pride of Britain’s Caribbean colonial holdings from its capture in 1655 to its independence a little more than three hundred years later, in 1962. In her novel Abeng, Michelle Cliff weaves a differential narrative of belonging, inclusion and kinship out of the quest for a gender and cultural identity by her young protagonist, Clare Savage, in a pre-independence Jamaica. Clare is the biracial offspring of white and black parents whose oppositional perspectives on the importance to be accorded to the African component of Jamaican society makes Clare’s search for an independent gender and racial identity the symbolic parallel of Jamaica’s thorny path toward nationalism and independence. On a more literal level, the novel recounts Clare’s discovery of and coming to terms with the searing, hidden acts of violence that haunt her paternal family’s history as white colonial slaveholders. But on the symbolic level, the arc of Clare’s trajectory of self-discovery traces an active appropriation of a suggestive web of multicultural influences intersecting with and impacting her potential for personal and political agency. Caught between the opposed claims of Africa and Europe, between her mother’s repression of her own blackness, and the repression of the unsavory, even brutal details of the white family history so valorized by her father, Clare must selectively appropriate the histories of her gendered and racialized others; from Nanny, the female rebel maroon leader, to the young Jewish heroine Anne Frank. By developing these intersections of gender, ethnicity, history and doubleness, Clare and her newfound friend Zoe seek to cement their mutual self-discovery through their own act of violence, one meant to prove their equality with the gendered other but which paradoxically reveals both a critical difference drawn on the racial violence of colonial history and a challenge to forge a critical alternative to its pressing legacies.Keywords: Colonialism. Gender. Ethnicity. Identity  

How can marketing theory be applied to policy design to deliver on sustainable agriculture in England?

Marketing theory was applied to develop a qualitative tool to predict levels of compliance based on involvement with the issue (policy objective) and involvement with the intervention (regulation). Based on an understanding farmer decision-making, the I3 Response Framework can help identify strategies that can strongly influence compliance, providing more efficient targeting of resources for policy. We report on further testing by application to the issue of water quality and the regulations around slurry storage as part of the Nitrate Pollution Prevention Regulations 2008 as applicable to dairy farmers in the Derwent catchment of North Yorkshire, EnglandPolicy, I3 Response Framework, involvement, water quality, slurry storage, Nitrogen Vulnerable Zone, regulation, Nitrate Pollution Prevention Regulations 2008, NPPR2008, Agricultural and Food Policy,

Hubble's law and faster than light expansion speeds

Naively applying Hubble's law to a sufficiently distant object gives a receding velocity larger than the speed of light. By discussing a very similar situation in special relativity, we argue that Hubble's law is meaningful only for nearby objects with non-relativistic receding speeds. To support this claim, we note that in a curved spacetime manifold it is not possible to directly compare tangent vectors at different points, and thus there is no natural definition of relative velocity between two spatially separated objects in cosmology. We clarify the geometrical meaning of the Hubble's receding speed v by showing that in a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker spacetime if the four-velocity vector of a comoving object is parallel-transported along the straight line in flat comoving coordinates to the position of a second comoving object, then v/c actually becomes the rapidity of the local Lorentz transformation, which maps the fixed four-velocity vector to the transported one.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Am. J. Phy

Adoption of an infection prevention and control programme (IPCP) in the Republic of Kiribati: a case study in diffusion of innovations theory

Abstract presented at the International Conference on Prevention & Infection Control (ICPIC 2011) Geneva, Switzerland. 29 June - 2 July 201

Fourier transform pure nuclear quadrupole resonance by pulsed field cycling

We report the observation of Fourier transform pure NQR by pulsed field cycling. For deuterium, well resolved spectra are obtained with high sensitivity showing the low frequency nu0 lines and allowing assignments of quadrupole couplings and asymmetry parameters to inequivalent deuterons. The technique is ideally applicable to nuclei with low quadrupolar frequencies (e.g., 2D, 7Li, 11B, 27Al, 23Na, 14N) and makes possible high resolution structure determination in polycrystalline or disordered materials

Isoform-selective susceptibility of DISC1/phosphodiesterase-4 complexes to dissociation by elevated intracellular cAMP levels

Disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) is a genetic susceptibility factor for schizophrenia and related severe psychiatric conditions. DISC1 is a multifunctional scaffold protein that is able to interact with several proteins, including the independently identified schizophrenia risk factor phosphodiesterase-4B (PDE4B). Here we report that the 100 kDa full-length DISC1 isoform (fl-DISC1) can bind members of each of the four gene, cAMP-specific PDE4 family. Elevation of intracellular cAMP levels, so as to activate protein kinase A, caused the release of PDE4D3 and PDE4C2 isoforms from fl-DISC1 while not affecting binding of PDE4B1 and PDE4A5 isoforms. Using a peptide array strategy, we show that PDE4D3 binds fl-DISC1 through two regions found in common with PDE4B isoforms, the interaction of which is supplemented because of the presence of additional PDE4B-specific binding sites. We propose that the additional binding sites found in PDE4B1 underpin its resistance to release during cAMP elevation. We identify, for the first time, a functional distinction between the 100 kDa long DISC1 isoform and the short 71 kDa isoform. Thus, changes in the expression pattern of DISC1 and PDE4 isoforms offers a means to reprogram their interaction and to determine whether the PDE4 sequestered by DISC1 is released after cAMP elevation. The PDE4B-specific binding sites encompass point mutations in mouse Disc1 that confer phenotypes related to schizophrenia and depression and that affect binding to PDE4B. Thus, genetic variation in DISC1 and PDE4 that influence either isoform expression or docking site functioning may directly affect psychopathology

Economic Damage and Host Preference of Lepidopterous Pests of Major Warm Season Turfgrasses of Hawaii

The four major lepidopterous pests of turfgrasses of Hawaii are the grass webworm, Herpetogramma licarisalis (Walker), (GWW); lawn armyworm, Spodoptera mauritia (Boisduval), (LAW); black cutworm, Agrostis ipsilon (Hufnagle), (BCW); and fiery skipper, Hylephila phylaeus (Drury), (FS). The effects of different densities of larvae of these four insects on development of feeding injury to 'Sunturf’ bermudagrass, Cynodon magennisii (Hurcombe), were determined in 12.7 cm diameter pots in a glasshouse. Effects of diets of different turfgrasses on larval development and survival of the GWW and FS were determined in the laboratory. Complete consumption of ‘Sunturf’ bermudagrass occurred in 6-7 days with populations of greater than 3 LAW, 4 BCW, 10 FS. and 12 GWW. All population levels of LAW and BCW caused serious injury (greater than 20% of turf consumed) 4-5 days after adding third instar larvae to pots. One FS and one or two GWW larvae per pot caused only slight feeding injury. Developmental rate and survival of the GWW were poorest on 'Tifgreen’ and common bermudagrass. FS larvae developed more slowly when fed Zoysia matrella (L.) and centipedegrass, Eremochloa ophiuroides ((Munro.) Hack). All FS larvae fed St. Augustinegrass, Stenotaphrum secundatum ((Walt.) Kuntz.), died after 7-8 days

Development of a Survey Technique for Larvae of the Grass Webworm and Other Lepidopterous Species in Turfgrass

Sampling techniques for larvae of the grass webworm, Herpetogramma licarsisalis (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) in turfgrass were studied. Sprinkling 1 liter of a 0.0015% aqueous solution of pyrethrins or 0.25% detergent into a 1,860-cm2 frame forced 61 and 55% of the larvae to the surface, respectively, compared with 4 liters of each irritant. The need for a greater volume of water than the commonly used technique of applying 4 liters/0.84 m2 was apparent. Continuous observation was required during the 10 min after application of either irritant to assure an accurate count, since 29% of the surfaced larvae reentered the thatch within 5 min and 38 to 39% reentered within 10 min. The detergent forced >50% of the larve to surface within 2 min. compared with 4 min with pyrethrins. Liquid irritants surfaced ca. 3 times more larvae in 5 to 10 min than plywood set out overnight. Similar responses to the presence of minor populations of the lawn armyworm, the black cutworm, and the fiery skipper indicate that other turf-infesting lepidopterous larvae may be sampled with the same technique

A Framework for the Game-theoretic Analysis of Censorship Resistance

We present a game-theoretic analysis of optimal solutions for interactions between censors and censorship resistance systems (CRSs) by focusing on the data channel used by the CRS to smuggle clients’ data past the censors. This analysis leverages the inherent errors (false positives and negatives) made by the censor when trying to classify traffic as either non-circumvention traffic or as CRS traffic, as well as the underlying rate of CRS traffic. We identify Nash equilibrium solutions for several simple censorship scenarios and then extend those findings to more complex scenarios where we find that the deployment of a censorship apparatus does not qualitatively change the equilibrium solutions, but rather only affects the amount of traffic a CRS can support before being blocked. By leveraging these findings, we describe a general framework for exploring and identifying optimal strategies for the censorship circumventor, in order to maximize the amount of CRS traffic not blocked by the censor. We use this framework to analyze several scenarios with multiple data-channel protocols used as cover for the CRS. We show that it is possible to gain insights through this framework even without perfect knowledge of the censor’s (secret) values for the parameters in their utility function

Appendix to "Approximating perpetuities"

An algorithm for perfect simulation from the unique solution of the distributional fixed point equation $Y=_d UY + U(1-U)$ is constructed, where $Y$ and $U$ are independent and $U$ is uniformly distributed on $[0,1]$. This distribution comes up as a limit distribution in the probabilistic analysis of the Quickselect algorithm. Our simulation algorithm is based on coupling from the past with a multigamma coupler. It has four lines of code