Memories of Home: Reading the Bedouin In Arab American Literature

In an urban neighborhood with a large Jewish population near my home, there is an Arabic restaurant. Name, menu and ownership mark its ethnic identification, yet its politics are otherwise obscured. An American flag, permanently placed in the restaurant\u27s window since 9/11, greets American customers with a message of reconciliation. I am one of you, it says: come; eat; you are welcome here. In a climate where Arabs, Arab-Americans and people with Middle Eastern features, everywhere are struggling to merely survive the United States\u27 aggressive drive to \u27bring democracy to the Middle East\u27 (Elia 160) and where the hostility toward Arab Americans is manifest in covert othering and aggressive acts of surveillance, detainment and bodily harm, the steady bustle of my neighborhood eatery is of consequence

In Passing: Arab American Poetry and the Politics of Race

Racial passing has a long history in America. In fact, there are manifold reasons for passing, not the least of which is to reap benefits-social, economic and legal-routinely denied to people of color. Passing is conventionally understood to be a volitional act that either situationally or permanently allows members of marginalized groups to assimilate into a privileged culture. While it could be argued that those who choose to pass are, in a sense, race traitors, betraying familial, historical and cultural ties to personhood,1 Wald provides another way of reading passing, or crossing the line, as a practice that emerges from subjects\u27 desires to control the terms of their racial definition, rather than be subject to the definitions of white supremacy (6). She further contends that racial distinction, itself, is a basis of racial oppression and exploitation (6)

Algorithm for Optimal Mode Scheduling in Switched Systems

This paper considers the problem of computing the schedule of modes in a switched dynamical system, that minimizes a cost functional defined on the trajectory of the system's continuous state variable. A recent approach to such optimal control problems consists of algorithms that alternate between computing the optimal switching times between modes in a given sequence, and updating the mode-sequence by inserting to it a finite number of new modes. These algorithms have an inherent inefficiency due to their sparse update of the mode-sequences, while spending most of the computing times on optimizing with respect to the switching times for a given mode-sequence. This paper proposes an algorithm that operates directly in the schedule space without resorting to the timing optimization problem. It is based on the Armijo step size along certain Gateaux derivatives of the performance functional, thereby avoiding some of the computational difficulties associated with discrete scheduling parameters. Its convergence to local minima as well as its rate of convergence are proved, and a simulation example on a nonlinear system exhibits quite a fast convergence

Congestion management in traffic-light intersections via Infinitesimal Perturbation Analysis

We present a flow-control technique in traffic-light intersections, aiming at regulating queue lengths to given reference setpoints. The technique is based on multivariable integrators with adaptive gains, computed at each control cycle by assessing the IPA gradients of the plant functions. Moreover, the IPA gradients are computable on-line despite the absence of detailed models of the traffic flows. The technique is applied to a two-intersection system where it exhibits robustness with respect to modeling uncertainties and computing errors, thereby permitting us to simplify the on-line computations perhaps at the expense of accuracy while achieving the desired tracking. We compare, by simulation, the performance of a centralized, joint two-intersection control with distributed control of each intersection separately, and show similar performance of the two control schemes for a range of parameters

TRADISI TER-ATER DAN DAMPAK EKONOMI BAGI MASYARAKAT MADURA

Abstrak:Ter-ater merupakan bagian dari budaya lokal yang membuat banyak orang menyimpulkan bahwa masyarakat Madura adalah masyarakat yang ramah, dermawan, komunikatif, baik hati, dan memiliki solidaritas yang tinggi pada sesama. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui dan menjelaskan tradisi ter-ater dalam tinjauan agama, budaya, dan ekonomi. Pendekatan yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah kualitatif dengan jenis penelitian fenomenologis. Data diperoleh dari hasil observasi berperan serta, wawancara mendalam, dan studi dokumentasi. Analisis data dilakukan dengan reduksi data, penyajian data, dan tahap kesimpulan. Informan dalam penelitian ini terdiri dari masyarakat, pedagang dan tokoh masyarakat di Desa Bakiong, Guluk-Guluk, Sumenep. Hasil penelitian menunjukan bahwa ter-ater merupakan salah satu upaya mempererat hubungan kekeluargaan dan sarana ukhuwwah Islâmiyyah sebagaimana anjuran dalam agama Islam. Secara budaya, orang dianggap kurang lengkap tradisi keberagamaannya jika tidak pernah mengeluarkan sebagian hartanya dalam hal ini adalah ter-ater. Secara ekonomi, pelaksanaan tradisi ter-ater memberikan dampak ekonomi yang cukup berarti. Pertama, dalam setiap perayaan keagamaan yang kemudian diikuti dengan praktik ter-ater, kebutuhan ekonomi masyarakat sangat meningkat, ini dapat dilihat dari neraca transaksi perdagangan yang meningkat pula. Bisa di pastikan pada kondisi seperti ini menjadi momentum kesejahteraan para pedagang. Kedua, bahwa ter-ater merupakan bagian dari kegiatan ekonomi dan motif dalam ekonomi, motif memenuhi kebutuhan, motif memperoleh keuntungan, motif mendapatkan kekuasaan ekonomi, motif sosial, dan motif memperoleh penghargaan.Abstract:Ter-ater is part of the local culture that leads many people to conclude that the Madurese are the people who are friendly, generous, communicative, kind, and has a high solidarity to others. The purpose of this study is to investigate and explain the tradition of ter-ater in the review of religion, culture, and economics. The method used in this study is qualitative with a phenomenological study. Data collected by participating observation, in-depth interviews, and documen-tation. Data analysis was performed with data reduction, data display, and conclusion stage. Informants in this study consist of community, merchants, and community leaders in the village Bakiong Guluk-Guluk Sumenep. The results showed that, ter-ater is one way to strengthen family ties and the means of Muslim brotherhood as recommended in Islam. In culture, the tradition religion considered incomplete if it does not ever issue a part of his property in this case is ter-ater. Economically, the implementation of ter-ater tradition of providing a significant economic impact. First, in any religious celebration, followed byTradisi Ter-Ater dan Dampak Ekonomi bagi Masyarakat MaduraKARSA, Vol. 21 No. 1, Juni 2013| 41practice ter-ater, the economic needs of the community is greatly increased, it can be seen from the trade balance increased as well. Can be sure in these conditions to be momentum traders welfare. Second, that ter-ater is part of the economic activity and the economic motive, motive needs, profit motive, motive power gain economic, social motive, and the motive awarded.Kata Kunci:Ter-ater, tradisi, ukhuwwah Islâmiyyah, ekonomi, kesejahteraan

Approximate IPA: Trading Unbiasedness for Simplicity

When Perturbation Analysis (PA) yields unbiased sensitivity estimators for expected-value performance functions in discrete event dynamic systems, it can be used for performance optimization of those functions. However, when PA is known to be unbiased, the complexity of its estimators often does not scale with the system's size. The purpose of this paper is to suggest an alternative approach to optimization which balances precision with computing efforts by trading off complicated, unbiased PA estimators for simple, biased approximate estimators. Furthermore, we provide guidelines for developing such estimators, that are largely based on the Stochastic Flow Modeling framework. We suggest that if the relative error (or bias) is not too large, then optimization algorithms such as stochastic approximation converge to a (local) minimum just like in the case where no approximation is used. We apply this approach to an example of balancing loss with buffer-cost in a finite-buffer queue, and prove a crucial upper bound on the relative error. This paper presents the initial study of the proposed approach, and we believe that if the idea gains traction then it may lead to a significant expansion of the scope of PA in optimization of discrete event systems.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure

Got Women? Hiring and Retaining Female Information Technology Professionals Through Effective Human Resource Marketing

The current pipeline for information technology (IT) professionals is dismal, with increasing jobs and decreasing applicants. We propose that one solution to this problem is encouraging women to pursue careers in IT. Today, women are underrepresented, and as a result, they comprise an untapped market segment. After discussing the current state of the industry, we propose that HR professionals should take a proactive, marketing approach to the recruitment and retention of women in the IT field. Lastly, we provide specific recommendations and discuss approaches taken by several companies to address this dilemma

Maternal Mental Health and Mindfulness

Mental health problems result in disease and disability (Afifi 385). When looking at the data across cultures, women are more likely to report mental health symptoms, access available supports, and receive treatment for mental health disorders (Lesesne and Kennedy 755). Research on maternal health has suggested that “the burden of mental health disorders peak in the child bearing and midlife periods” (Lesesne and Kennedy 756). Biology is often implicated in this presumed psychological vulnerability, given that throughout a woman’s life, she experiences pronounced hormone-driven cycles, including menstruation, pregnancy, a postpartum period, and menopause. However, even after exhaustive studies exploring a number of sex-related variables, there is a lack of consensus regarding the significance hormones have in influencing women’s mental health challenges (Hendrick et al. 93; Schiller et al. 49). Some scholars contend that the focus on biology and hormones are an easy way to discount the negative experiences that disproportionately affect girls and women. Discrimination, poverty, sexism, abuse, exploitation, and caregiving burdens work to undermine women’s mental health. Women’s mental health should, therefore, be understood by evaluating all aspects of women’s lived experiences—physical, sociocultural, economic, and interpersonal. Informed by the diathesis-stress model, this article reconsiders the social, political, and economic stress that adversely affects women’s wellbeing. Specifically, this article posits that Buddhist-derived interventions, such as mindfulness, can fortify and empower women. Evidence from neurobiology provides a meaningful framework supporting this approach to health and wellness