The Power to Overcome: The Resistance and Resiliency of Black Motherhood

Motherhood is not a monolithic experience. The intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and class are integral facets that influence and control how one practices maternity, especially in a white hegemonic state. Further, control and choice serve as contributing factors, influencing the level of control women have over entering maternity and how a mother claims ties to her offspring. With these intersectional factors and control measures combined, motherhood is a complicated matter, one that influences how women practice maternity. The practice of motherhood is influenced by race, with black women experiencing a historical struggle in their relationships with motherhood. These difficulties include how one enters maternity, specifically how it assists or detracts from their social standing in societies that disempower women, the ways in which black mothers lay claim to both their bodies and their offspring, and the ways the white hegemony and some black scholars have differently constructed black matriarchies. It is the purpose of this thesis to not only uncover new analyses of four novels depicting black motherhood but also introduce theoretical terms to further uncover the multiplicities of black motherhood. To discuss the different facets of black motherhood and how black women, specifically in texts that occur in different time periods—the future, the colonial era, and both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the United States—practice maternity under circumstances influenced by dominating power structures, my thesis incorporates Octavia E. Butler’s Patternmaster (1976), Butler’s Wild Seed (1980), Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987), and Crystal Wilkinson’s The Birds of Opulence (2015). These texts work together to uncover the central elements of this thesis—choice, ownership of kin, and the shared history of black matriarchies

Cover

Cover and Article

Finite Volume Cumulant Expansion in QCD-Colorless Plasma

Due to the finite size effects, the localisation of the phase transition in finite systems and the determination of its order, become an extremely difficult task, even in the simplest known cases. In order to identify and locate the finite volume transition point $T_{0}(V)$ of the QCD deconfinement phase transition to a Colorless QGP, we have developed a new approach using the finite size cumulant expansion of the order parameter and the $L_{mn}$-method. The first six cumulants $C_{1,2,3,4,5,6}$ with the corresponding under-normalized ratios(skewness $\Sigma$, kurtosis $\kappa$ ,pentosis $\Pi_{\pm}$ and hexosis $\mathcal{H}_{1,2,3}$) and three unnormalized combinations of them ($\mathcal{O}={\mathcal{\sigma }^{2} \mathcal{\kappa } }{\mathbf{\Sigma }^{-1} }$, $\mathcal{U} ={\mathcal{\sigma }^{-2} \mathbf{\Sigma }^{-1} }$, $\mathcal{N} = \mathcal{\sigma }^{2} \mathcal{\kappa }$) are calculated and studied as functions of $(T,V)$. A new approach, unifying in a clear and consistent way the definitions of cumulant ratios, is proposed. A numerical FSS analysis of the obtained results has allowed us to locate accurately the finite volume transition point. The extracted transition temperature value $T_{0}(V)$ agrees with that expected $T_{0}^{N}(V)$ from the order parameter and the thermal susceptibility $\chi _{T}\left( T,V\right)$, according to the standard procedure of localization to within about $2\%$. In addition to this, a very good correlation factor is obtained proving the validity of our cumulants method. The agreement of our results with those obtained by means of other models is remarkable.Comment: 19 pages,14 figues, figures 4,5,6 figures are oversized, therefore, can be obtained directly from [email protected],Accepted for publication in EPJ

EVALUATION PRACTICE OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING SKILLS PROGRAM CLASS XI USE ELECTRICITY SMK COKROAMINOTO PANDAK ACADEMIC YEAR 2011/2012

This study aimed to evaluate the implementation of the Industrial Employment Practices SMK Cokroaminoto Pandak. Industrial Work Practice Evaluation (Prakerin) is viewed from the component inputs, processes, outcomes and obstacles encountered in the implementation of Prakerin. Evaluation results are used as inputs in the implementation of the next Industrial Employment Practices. The study was conducted in vocational Cokroaminoto Pandak. The respondents of this study were students of class XI program expertise Electricity Engineering academic year 2011/2012, amounting to 32 students and 8 teachers supervising Prakerin. This study uses a model evaluation Stake. Data collection using questionnaires, interviews and documentation. The data analysis technique used is descriptive analysis. The results showed that the implementation of the Industrial Employment Practices in vocational programs Cokroaminoto Pandak Electricity Technical Expertise overall include: (1) Evaluation of Input: a) the readiness of students in the category of 87.5% is very good, b) Performance of subject teachers in productive 84.375% is very good category, c) infrastructure readiness in the category of 50% is good. (2) Evaluation Process: a) the performance of learners in the category 75% very well, b) Performance tutor in category 56.25% is very good. (3) Evaluation of the product: work readiness learners 90.63% in the excellent category. Industry Employment Practices Evaluation overall program Electricity Engineering expertise in the category very well. The research instrument used tend to be subjective so the results obtained are likely to be positive

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and Same-Sex Sexual Orientation: An Empirical Investigation

Background. Historically, psychodynamic psychotherapy has pathologised same-sex sexual orientation and excluded lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) individuals from training as psychodynamic therapists. A mixed-method study aimed to clarify: (1) how UK psychodynamic therapists working today understood and thought about same-sex sexual orientation both theoretically and clinically; and (2) how the role of institutional psychodynamic training shaped the views and practice of UK psychodynamic psychotherapists working with LGB clients. / Methods. A self-completion clinical attitudes questionnaire was distributed to registrants of the British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC). Questionnaires were sent to 1403 registrants, 287 registrants returned valid responses — a 20% response rate. Descriptive statistics and chi-squared (2) tests were used to examine the quantitative data; open-ended responses were thematically analysed. Using a purposive sampling technique, 36 psychodynamic therapists were interviewed. A Framework Analysis identified ten overarching themes. / Results. The data suggests that, on the whole, psychodynamic therapists are now better informed about the ways in which societal stigma, family rejection, internalised homophobia, anti-LGB discrimination and the ‘coming out’ process contribute to the anxiety, depression and relationship conflicts reported by LGB clients in therapy. However, the research also indicates that therapists may not be as fully informed about specific aspects of LGB lives and norms as perhaps they could be, particularly in relation to sexual practices and relationship diversity. Many therapists continue to work within a predominantly heteronormative and monosexual understanding of love, relationships and sex. Therapists also showed less understanding of their bisexual clients compared to gay men and lesbians, and transgender emerged as an unexpected area of theoretical and clinical interest to therapists. Therapists continue to overvalue Oedipal, developmental and environmental theories for explaining the ‘origins’ of same-sex sexual orientation, despite empirical evidence showing that these types of explanations hold very little scientific weight, and that developmental and environmental factors play a negligible role in the development of same-sex sexual orientation. However, psychodynamic concepts about sexuality, such as the Oedipus complex, may still be useful therapeutic ideas for thinking about aspects of sexuality and relating (e.g., thirdness, identification, rivalry/exclusion) so long as they are understood more abstractly and metaphorically and are not assumed by practitioners to be ‘scientific’ theories of causation or aetiology of non-heterosexuality. The results further show that psychodynamic therapists’ clinical work with LGB clients oscillates between good practice in line with existing psychotherapy guidelines for this client group (APA 2012; BACP 2017; and BPS 2019) and practice that is biased, out-dated and potentially harmful. While the majority of therapists participating in the research no longer accept same-sex desire as an indicator of pathology or perversion, such thinking does not appear to be fully reflected in broader professional attitudes or psychodynamic trainings. Many clinical trainings do not appear to adequately cover LGB-specific issues or fully engage with other relevant disciplines (e.g., biogenetic studies, biopsychosocial studies, queer theory and social constructionism to name a few). While a few psychodynamic training organisations appear inclusive and are actively addressing issues of diversity and difference, anti-LGB discrimination persists at other training organisations and across the profession more generally. Quantitative analyses revealed some associations between therapists’ personal (e.g., gender, sexual orientation and age) and professional (e.g., therapeutic modality, theoretical affiliation) attributes and their theoretical thinking and clinical attitudes towards same-sex sexual orientation (e.g., Jungians were significantly more likely to acknowledge that their theories of same-sex desire needed updating than therapists with a purely psychoanalytic perspective). / Conclusions. In addition to their psychodynamic theories about same-sex sexual orientation, psychodynamic therapists may benefit from being better acquainted with the wider cultural and scientific evidence about sexual orientation that more fully accounts for and reflects LGB sexualities, including the evidence base demonstrating that: (1) sexuality has some biological and genetic basis; and (2) its meaning is inextricably shaped by cultural, social and historical factors. UK psychodynamic training organisations must continue their efforts to create a learning and professional environment that is non-discriminatory to LGB individuals. This may involve a broadening of the psychodynamic curriculum on sexuality and further institutional reform consistent with the BPC equality and non-discrimination polices in this area. The study contributes to knowledge by providing an up-to-date, descriptive analysis of UK psychodynamic therapists’ theoretical and clinical thinking about same-sex sexual orientation, consolidating findings from previous empirical attitudes research in this area

Improving Surgical Training Phantoms by Hyperrealism: Deep Unpaired Image-to-Image Translation from Real Surgeries

Current `dry lab' surgical phantom simulators are a valuable tool for surgeons which allows them to improve their dexterity and skill with surgical instruments. These phantoms mimic the haptic and shape of organs of interest, but lack a realistic visual appearance. In this work, we present an innovative application in which representations learned from real intraoperative endoscopic sequences are transferred to a surgical phantom scenario. The term hyperrealism is introduced in this field, which we regard as a novel subform of surgical augmented reality for approaches that involve real-time object transfigurations. For related tasks in the computer vision community, unpaired cycle-consistent Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have shown excellent results on still RGB images. Though, application of this approach to continuous video frames can result in flickering, which turned out to be especially prominent for this application. Therefore, we propose an extension of cycle-consistent GANs, named tempCycleGAN, to improve temporal consistency.The novel method is evaluated on captures of a silicone phantom for training endoscopic reconstructive mitral valve procedures. Synthesized videos show highly realistic results with regard to 1) replacement of the silicone appearance of the phantom valve by intraoperative tissue texture, while 2) explicitly keeping crucial features in the scene, such as instruments, sutures and prostheses. Compared to the original CycleGAN approach, tempCycleGAN efficiently removes flickering between frames. The overall approach is expected to change the future design of surgical training simulators since the generated sequences clearly demonstrate the feasibility to enable a considerably more realistic training experience for minimally-invasive procedures.Comment: 8 pages, accepted at MICCAI 2018, supplemental material at https://youtu.be/qugAYpK-Z4

The Death and Life of Main Street: Small Towns in American Memory, Space, and Community

Review of: "The Death and Life of Main Street: Small Towns in American Memory, Space, and Community," by Miles Orvell