Témoignange dans la Traversée des Theories Critiques OR Testimony at the Crossroads of Critical Theory

This project comprises an academic dissertation on the difficult subject of testimonial literature, a genre of literature of testimonial accounts by survivors of events of war and genocide through which they became witnesses, as well as on the critical theory of bio-politics. The first part of this study concentrates on three different objects: non-fictional texts, those by survivors of the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide for example, and, fictional texts produced by witnesses; the novel Blood from the Sky by Auschwitz survivor Piotr Rawicz is one such fictional text often ignored by the academy. The third object is testimony as a historical concept considered from the Christian era by the concept of a martyr-witness, through its place in juridical thought, realist literature to its appearance as a phenomenon of literary production of soldiers in the First World War studied by the scholar Jean-Norton Cru. Aspects of cultural and literary theory on different styles of representing the social reality are compared, and brought into a new light by the presentation of testimonial literature. The second part of this study enlarges this discussion of testimonial literature to critical theory, in particular to the theory of power developed by philosopher Michel Foucault called bio-political theory. His theory is often considered as a critical engagement with the same historical events which the witnesses of testimonial literature lived through, and his decentered methodology is compared with the project of testimony. His thesis on the expansion of governmental power to the regulation of the potentialities of populations comports significance to the texts of witnesses of power. We also examine the theses advanced by Kiarina Kordela, that bio-politics consists of a worldliness of the religious, and , that aesthetics organize differently the bio-political symptom of an impossible omniscience, and, that bio-politics inaugurates new social divisions which can be conceived of as the organization of mortality and immortality. In conclusion, I try to question the place of literature in this domain of bio-politics to see how testimonial literature both interacts with and subverts this new form of power

Propulsion Study for Small Transport Aircraft Technology (STAT)

Propulsion requirements were determined for 0.5 and 0.7 Mach aircraft. Sensitivity studies were conducted on both these aircraft to determine parametrically the influence of propulsion characteristics on aircraft size and direct operating cost (DOC). Candidate technology elements and design features were identified and parametric studies conducted to select the STAT advanced engine cycle. Trade off studies were conducted to determine those advanced technologies and design features that would offer a reduction in DOC for operation of the STAT engines. These features were incorporated in the two STAT engines. A benefit assessment was conducted comparing the STAT engines to current technology engines of the same power and to 1985 derivatives of the current technology engines. Research and development programs were recommended as part of an overall technology development plan to ensure that full commercial development of the STAT engines could be initiated in 1988

Family Engagement Compliance and Practices at Saint Paul Public Schools

Capstone paper for the fulfillment of the Master of Public Affairs degree.The study outlined in this report examined the Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS) district to review implementation of federal and state laws related to family engagement and identify gaps between mandates and practice. Guidance provided by SPPS to its schools and the schools’ family engagement plans (FEPs) were reviewed critically. Qualitative research further explored how FEPs are developed and used by schools and parents. The study examined only part of the logic model connecting intentions of policymakers all the way to parents’ ability to support their child's learning. However, the research is unique in its effort to examine not only policy and law, but the layers of roles assigned to overseeing implementation. Rather than study how one box performed or how two boxes fit together, this study examined illustrations of several stakeholders’ responses to mandated practices of family engagement. Results of multiple layers of research and analysis were summarized, which led to various considerations for SPPS. Some tools were proposed. Strategic planning was found to be lacking from mandated family engagement planning, and support for those fulfilling compliance, often the liaisons, was emphasized. The report also discusses ways SPPS is already succeeding in its family engagement efforts to address student outcomes

PAHs, PCBs, PBDEs and Pesticides in Cold-Pressed Vegetable Oils

The aim of this study was to investigate levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (marker and dioxin-like congeners), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (EPA 15 + 1), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (14 predominant congeners) and pesticides (74 compounds) in various cold-pressed vegetable oils. Poppy seed oil, rapeseed oil, sesame seed oil, pumpkinseed oil, hempseed oil, linaire oil, borage oil and evening star oil were investigated. Results of this study revealed that concentrations of PCBs, PBDEs and PAHs were low in majority of the investigated samples. However, high concentrations of organophosphorus insecticides were found. Chlorpyrifos methyl and pirimiphos methyl were the pesticide residues most commonly found in the studied oils. Concentration of 15 + 1 EPA PAHs was within the 17.85–37.16 μg kg−1 range, concentration of (marker) PCBs varied from 127 to 24,882 pg g−1, dioxin-like TEQ values were below 0.1 pg TEQ g−1. Concentration of PBDEs was below LOQ in most cases

Comparison of Isotope-Based Biomass Pathways with Groundfish Community Structure in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico

This study compared traditional community analysis with stable-isotope trophic analysis to define process-based trophic elements of community structure in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and developed a predictive capability regarding changes to fish community structure that would be expected from increasing eutrophication. Specifically, it used an existing trawl survey program (SEAMAP) to compare invertebrate herbivore (sponge and sea urchin) isotopes with groundfish isotopes, and then compared the resulting spatial patterns with spatial variation in community structure, as identified by cluster analysis. The comparison was applied to seven NMFS survey zones that extended offshore from the Caloosahatchee River, FL northwest to Mobile Bay, AL. Isotopic patterns were consistent with the presence of an oligotrophic-eutrophic spatial gradient in this region. δ15N values increased in the northwestward direction in herbivores and in each of the 17 fish species examined. In the southern NMFS survey zones, δ13C was elevated in shallow depths for individual fish species, but not in herbivores, indicating a higher proportion of benthically derived biomass contributed to the biomass of fish in the shallow parts of the southern NMFS zones. Fish community analysis using SIMPROF created a similar pattern, with distinct nearshore and offshore communities and also a northwesterly community transition. Among the 17 fish species, five appeared to have obligate dependence on either benthic or planktonic basal resources, while twelve species appeared to be have facultative relationships. Impairment of current water-quality (nutrients, turbidity, light transmission, chlorophyll a) is expected to lead to reductions in the abundance of both obligate and facultative benthic-dependent fishes

Skeptical Poiesis: Montaigne, Rimbaud

217 pagesThis dissertation proposes that the oeuvre of Rimbaud is the next major link in the line of radical Pyrrhonian writing launched by Montaigne’s Les essais. Although some have noted that Rimbaud read Les essais and was excited by a passage concerning poetic inspiration, this dissertation proposes a different model of intertextuality showing that both writers created a Pyrrhonian structure of poetics and poiesis (concerning the inspiration for and creation of texts) as a response to a crisis. This model contends that Montaigne helps uncover an ongoing Pyrrhonian crisis through his popularization of ancient skepticism in his “Apologie de Raymond Sebond.” This crisis, which includes the paradox of radical doubt (that we can doubt our very act of doubting too), entails the suspension of judgment, but it also requires trying out different ideas and beliefs. Montaigne thus created a new form of writing about a mutable and multiple way of thinking and being in response to the crisis. Rather than taking a philosophical approach, this dissertation argues that Montaigne also turned to the power of poetry (and its need for ambiguity, vanity, and imagination) to find new and truer ways of reading and writing the world and the self. Rimbaud also wrote about a similar crisis, such as in his short story “Un cœur sous une soutane” which shows a young seminarian poet in his own personal and poetic crises. His Une saison en enfer expresses a metaphysical crisis, where the narrator-poet searches for a new way of believing and being, and a poetic crisis, where he both turns against his former poetic program, and presents the poems of his past, a dual structure of (non-)palinody recalling the (non-)apology structure of Montaigne’s “Apologie.” His texts continue to oscillate between new ideas and ways out of the crises and moments of despair and doubt, and through this oscillation, Rimbaud creates a new form of Pyrrhonian writing. This unique take on Montaigne and Rimbaud has implications for the radical practice of poiesis and poetics as responses to an unresolvable but generative Pyrrhonian crisis.2024-06-0

Soil-plant transfer of polychlorinated Dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans to vegetables of the cucumber family (Cucurbitaceae)

In a preliminary study in fruits of zucchini (Cucurbita pepo L. convar. giromontiina) polychlorinated dibenzopdioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/PCDF) concentrations were found which were approximately 2 orders of magnitude higher than in other fruits and vegetables examined. These results formed the basis for field experiments on the uptake of PCDD/PCDF from contaminated soils by zucchini and related plant species (pumpkin and cucumber). The experimental design allowed the discrimination of several uptake pathways and an evaluation of their contribution to the total PCDD/PCDF contamination of the plants. Using two soils with different organic matter content, additional information was obtained on the influence of soil parameters on the soil-plant transfer of PCDD/PCDF. For zucchini and pumpkin (both belonging to the genus Cucurbita), root uptake of PCDD/PCDF and subsequent translocation to the shoots and into the fruits is the main contamination pathway. Cucumber plants (Cucumis sativus L.), by contrast, are mainly contaminated by deposition of airborne PCDD/PCDF and, consequently, show much lower PCDD/PCDF concentrations. The nature of the mechanism responsible for the unexpectedly high soil-plant transfer into plants of the species Cucurbita pepo L. remains to be clarified