Intellectuele toe-eigening en discursief geweld in Focquenbrochs Afrikaense Thalia (1678)

In 1668, the Dutch medic and poet Willem Godschalck van Focquenbroch left Amsterdam for the African Gold Coast to become “fiscaal” (a kind of public prosecutor) on behalf of the Dutch West India Company (WIC) at Elmina Castle in Guinea, which was a bulwark of the Dutch transatlantic slave trade. In his posthumously published Afrikaense Thalia (African Thalia, 1678), a collection of poems and letters containing the well-known Afrikaense Brieven (African Letters), Focquenbroch testifies to his life and work in Elmina Castle through his alter ego “Focq”. In this article, I use Stephen Greenblatt’s notions of “wonder” and “possession” to demonstrate that Focq’s descriptions in the Afrikaense Brieven can be read as an expression of his initial wonder for, and subsequent appropriation of Guinea and its inhabitants. I argue that Focq’s literary-intellectual appropriation of the African Other, which at first sight seems rather innocent compared to the brutal physical appropriation of African people by the Dutch colonists, can nevertheless be considered violent at a discursive level. Focq’s conviction that he is superior to the Guineans because he possesses written language enables him to frame his writing in a discourse which stresses the superiority of the own culture and the culturelessness of the African Other. As such, Focq degrades and instrumentalizes the African Other in order to glorify and preserve the Self

Initiation of hydrogen induced cracks at secondary phase particles

The goal of this work is to propose a general mechanism for hydrogen induced crack initiation in steels based on a microstructural study of multiple steel grades. Four types of steels with strongly varying microstructures are studied for this purpose, i.e. ultra low carbon (ULC) steel, TRIP (transformation induced plasticity) steel, Fe-C-Ti generic alloy, and pressure vessel steel. A strong dependency of the initiation of hydrogen induced cracks on the microstructural features in the materials is observed. By use of SEM-EBSD characterization, initiation is found to always occur at the hard secondary phase particles in the materials

The type and concentration of inoculum and substrate as well as the presence of oxygen impact the water kefir fermentation process

Eleven series of water kefir fermentation processes differing in the presence of oxygen and the type and concentration of inoculum and substrate, were followed as a function of time to quantify the impact of these parameters on the kinetics of this process via a modeling approach. Increasing concentrations of the water kefir grain inoculum increased the water kefir fermentation rate, so that the metabolic activity during water kefir fermentation was mainly associated with the grains. Water kefir liquor could also be used as an alternative means of inoculation, but the resulting fermentation process progressed slower than the one inoculated with water kefir grains, and the production of water kefir grain mass was absent. Substitution of sucrose with glucose and/or fructose reduced the water kefir grain growth, whereby glucose was fermented faster than fructose. Lacticaseibacillus paracasei (formerly known as Lactobacillus paracasei), Lentilactobacillus hilgardii (formerly known as Lactobacillus hilgardii), Liquorilactobacillus nagelii (formerly known as Lactobacillus nagelii), Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Dekkera bruxellensis were the main microorganisms present. Acetic acid bacteria were present in low abundances under anaerobic conditions and only proliferated under aerobic conditions. Visualization of the water kefir grains through scanning electron microscopy revealed that the majority of the microorganisms was attached onto their surface. Lactic acid bacteria and yeasts were predominantly associated with the grains, whereas acetic acid bacteria were predominantly associated with the liquor