Secret Agents

Mapping Intimacies ◽

10.5406/illinois/9780252037900.003.0004 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Veta Smith Tucker

Keyword(s):

Sexual Abuse ◽

Black Women ◽

Black Woman ◽

The Core ◽

Enslaved Women ◽

Insight Into

This chapter explores the gendered schema at the core of enslaved black women's abolitionist resistance and the scholarly neglect it received by examining the multiple and varied forms of resistance to labor and sexual abuse that four enslaved women engaged in: Mary Elizabeth Bowser, Margaret Garner, Harriet Tubman, and Mary Ellen Pleasant. In all cases, black women manipulated the stereotype of the hapless, deficient, enslaved black woman and used it as camouflage for their anti-slavery and anti-patriarchy insurgency. Either momentarily or permanently, Bowser, Garner, Tubman, and Pleasant became agents of their own or others' liberation. They exercised tactical ingenuity and rare insight into the illogic of both slavery and patriarchy. Ultimately, the success of these women's gendered resistance mystified antagonists, supporters, and scholars alike.

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Regimentation or Hybridity? Western Beauty Practices by Black Women in Adichie’s Americanah

Journal of Black Studies ◽

10.1177/0021934717712711 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 48 (7) ◽

pp. 639-650 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dina Yerima

Keyword(s):

Black Women ◽

Black Woman ◽

Skin Color ◽

Psychological Effects ◽

The Core ◽

The Subject ◽

The Individual

The postcolonial subject is one whose life is rife with contradictions. These contradictions result from a torsion of Western and indigenous values and culture in the individual. The woman as a postcolonial subject seems to deal with more of these incongruities in almost every sphere as she negotiates life in the postcolony and other societies that facilitated colonization and still does in some aspects. Several writers have sought to capture the uniqueness of the postcolonial female in contemporary times, bringing to the fore issues that plague her. The phenomenon of “imperial aesthetics” (basically beauty in the Western sense) is the foremost of these issues and the core of this article. It is presented as it applies to the Black woman in aspects such as hair, skin color, and physique. This adoption of imperial notions of beauty is rooted in self-loathing, argued by postcolonial thinkers to arise from the psychological effects of colonization. Hence, the explication of this phenomenon will go a long way in demonstrating the forms of self-expression that the Black woman chooses and which ultimately make up her identity. Consequently, this article will focus on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s presentation of the subject in her novel, Americanah, using the postcolonial approach.

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Will Love Tear Us Apart: Adapting the Lyrical to the Ludic

CounterText ◽

10.3366/count.2016.0053 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 217-235

Author(s):

Gordon Calleja

Keyword(s):

Design Process ◽

Game Design ◽

Digital Games ◽

Design Decisions ◽

The Core ◽

Lyrical Poetry ◽

Insight Into ◽

Made In

This paper gives an insight into the design process of a game adaptation of Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart (1980). It outlines the challenges faced in attempting to reconcile the diverging qualities of lyrical poetry and digital games. In so doing, the paper examines the design decisions made in every segment of the game with a particular focus on the tension between the core concerns of the lyrical work being adapted and established tenets of game design.

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Women and Slavery in the Nineteenth Century

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190222628.013.9 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Daina Ramey Berry ◽

Nakia D. Parker

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Black Women ◽

Gender And Sexuality ◽

Enslaved Women ◽

Chattel Slavery ◽

Wide Range ◽

Slave Traders ◽

The Caribbean ◽

Nineteenth Century United States ◽

Kinship Bonds

This chapter analyzes the lives of enslaved women in the nineteenth-century United States and the Caribbean, an era characterized by the massive expansion of the institution of chattel slavery. Framing the discussion through the themes of labor, commodification, sexuality, and resistance, this chapter highlights the wide range of lived experiences of enslaved women in the Atlantic World. Enslaved women’s productive and reproductive labor fueled the global machinery of capitalism and the market economy. Although enslaved women endured the constant exploitation and commodification of their bodies, many actively resisted their enslavement and carved out supportive and sustaining familial, marital, and kinship bonds. In addition, this essay explains how white, native, and black women could be complicit in the perpetuation of chattel slavery as enslavers and slave traders. Considering women in their roles as the oppressed and the oppressors contributes and expands historical understandings of gender and sexuality in relation to slavery.

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Force in Nature

The Oxford Handbook of Schopenhauer ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190660055.013.10 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 146-160

Author(s):

David Carus

Keyword(s):

Natural Science ◽

The Body ◽

The Core ◽

Thing In Itself ◽

The Will ◽

Insight Into

This chapter explores Schopenhauer’s concept of force, which lies at the root of his philosophy. It is force in nature and thus in natural science that is inexplicable and grabs Schopenhauer’s attention. To answer the question of what this inexplicable term is at the root of all causation, Schopenhauer looks to the will within us. Through will, he maintains that we gain immediate insight into forces in nature and hence into the thing in itself at the core of everything and all things. Will is thus Schopenhauer’s attempt to answer the question of the essence of appearance. Yet will, as it turns out, cannot be known immediately as it is subject to time, and the acts of will, which we experience within us, do not correlate immediately with the actions of the body (as Schopenhauer had originally postulated). Hence, the acts of will do not lead to an explanation of force, which is at the root of causation in nature. Schopenhauer sets out to explain what is at the root of all appearances, derived from the question of an original cause, or as Schopenhauer states “the cause of causation,” but cannot determine this essence other than by stating that it is will; a will, however, that cannot be immediately known.

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The Role of Coping in the Relationship Between Endorsement of the Strong Black Woman Schema and Depressive Symptoms Among Black Women

Journal of Black Psychology ◽

10.1177/00957984211021229 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 009579842110212

Author(s):

Martinque K. Jones ◽

Tanisha G. Hill-Jarrett ◽

Kyjeila Latimer ◽

Akilah Reynolds ◽

Nekya Garrett ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Depressive Symptoms ◽

Black Women ◽

Health Outcomes ◽

Black Woman ◽

Coping Styles ◽

Mental Health Outcomes ◽

Multiple Mediation ◽

Strong Black Woman

The Strong Black Woman (SBW) schema has been consistently linked to negative mental health outcomes among Black women. However, few have begun to explicate the mechanisms by which the endorsement of the SBW schema may influence mental health outcomes. Accordingly, the current study examined coping styles (social support, disengagement, spirituality, and problem-oriented/engagement) as mediators in the association between endorsement of the SBW schema and depressive symptoms in a sample of Black women. Data from 240 Black women ( Mage = 22.0, SD = 4.0 years) were collected assessing SBW schema endorsement, coping styles, and depressive symptoms. Parallel multiple mediation analysis was conducted using PROCESS Macro. Of the four coping styles examined, disengagement coping partially mediated the association between greater endorsement of the SBW schema and greater depressive symptoms. Study findings add depth to our understanding of the association between the SBW schema and mental health outcomes and lend themselves to research and clinical implications.

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Temporal hierarchy of intrinsic neural timescales converges with spatial core-periphery organization

Communications Biology ◽

10.1038/s42003-021-01785-z ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Mehrshad Golesorkhi ◽

Javier Gomez-Pilar ◽

Shankar Tumati ◽

Maia Fraser ◽

Georg Northoff

Keyword(s):

Time Window ◽

Human Cortex ◽

The Core ◽

Novel Variant ◽

Open Issue ◽

Task Differences ◽

Spatial Hierarchy ◽

Fundamental Insight ◽

Insight Into ◽

And Task

AbstractThe human cortex exhibits intrinsic neural timescales that shape a temporal hierarchy. Whether this temporal hierarchy follows the spatial hierarchy of its topography, namely the core-periphery organization, remains an open issue. Using magnetoencephalography data, we investigate intrinsic neural timescales during rest and task states; we measure the autocorrelation window in short (ACW-50) and, introducing a novel variant, long (ACW-0) windows. We demonstrate longer ACW-50 and ACW-0 in networks located at the core compared to those at the periphery with rest and task states showing a high ACW correlation. Calculating rest-task differences, i.e., subtracting the shared core-periphery organization, reveals task-specific ACW changes in distinct networks. Finally, employing kernel density estimation, machine learning, and simulation, we demonstrate that ACW-0 exhibits better prediction in classifying a region’s time window as core or periphery. Overall, our findings provide fundamental insight into how the human cortex’s temporal hierarchy converges with its spatial core-periphery hierarchy.

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Deciphering the Enigma of the Histone H2A.Z-1/H2A.Z-2 Isoforms: Novel Insights and Remaining Questions

Cells ◽

10.3390/cells9051167 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (5) ◽

pp. 1167

Author(s):

Manjinder S. Cheema ◽

Katrina V. Good ◽

Bohyun Kim ◽

Heddy Soufari ◽

Connor O’Sullivan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gene Expression ◽

Amino Acids ◽

Dna Damage ◽

Chromosome Segregation ◽

Multiple Roles ◽

Histone H2a ◽

The Core ◽

Structural Differences ◽

Functional Involvement ◽

Insight Into

The replication independent (RI) histone H2A.Z is one of the more extensively studied variant members of the core histone H2A family, which consists of many replication dependent (RD) members. The protein has been shown to be indispensable for survival, and involved in multiple roles from DNA damage to chromosome segregation, replication, and transcription. However, its functional involvement in gene expression is controversial. Moreover, the variant in several groups of metazoan organisms consists of two main isoforms (H2A.Z-1 and H2A.Z-2) that differ in a few (3–6) amino acids. They comprise the main topic of this review, starting from the events that led to their identification, what is currently known about them, followed by further experimental, structural, and functional insight into their roles. Despite their structural differences, a direct correlation to their functional variability remains enigmatic. As all of this is being elucidated, it appears that a strong functional involvement of isoform variability may be connected to development.

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Audio Mining: The Role of Vocal Tone in Persuasion

Journal of Consumer Research ◽

10.1093/jcr/ucab012 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Xin (Shane) Wang ◽

Shijie Lu ◽

X I Li ◽

Mansur Khamitov ◽

Neil Bendle

Keyword(s):

Empirical Study ◽

Large Scale ◽

Controlled Experiments ◽

The Core ◽

Content Model ◽

Stereotype Content ◽

Key Indicators ◽

The Impact ◽

Insight Into

Abstract Persuasion success is often related to hard-to-measure characteristics, such as the way the persuader speaks. To examine how vocal tones impact persuasion in an online appeal, this research measures persuaders’ vocal tones in Kickstarter video pitches using novel audio mining technology. Connecting vocal tone dimensions with real-world funding outcomes offers insight into the impact of vocal tones on receivers’ actions. The core hypothesis of this paper is that a successful persuasion attempt is associated with vocal tones denoting (1) focus, (2) low stress, and (3) stable emotions. These three vocal tone dimensions—which are in line with the stereotype content model—matter because they allow receivers to make inferences about a persuader’s competence. The hypotheses are tested with a large-scale empirical study using Kickstarter data, which is then replicated in a different category. In addition, two controlled experiments provide evidence that perceptions of competence mediate the impact of the three vocal tones on persuasion attempt success. The results identify key indicators of persuasion attempt success and suggest a greater role for audio mining in academic consumer research.

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Skin and Gut Microbiome in Psoriasis: Gaining Insight Into the Pathophysiology of It and Finding Novel Therapeutic Strategies

Frontiers in Microbiology ◽

10.3389/fmicb.2020.589726 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

Author(s):

Lihui Chen ◽

Jie Li ◽

Wu Zhu ◽

Yehong Kuang ◽

Tao Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Therapeutic Strategy ◽

Therapeutic Strategies ◽

Intestinal Microbiome ◽

Core Microbiome ◽

The Core ◽

The World ◽

Novel Therapeutic Strategies ◽

Insight Into ◽

Gaining Insight

Psoriasis affects the health of myriad populations around the world. The pathogenesis is multifactorial, and the exact driving factor remains unclear. This condition arises from the interaction between hyperproliferative keratinocytes and infiltrating immune cells, with poor prognosis and high recurrence. Better clinical treatments remain to be explored. There is much evidence that alterations in the skin and intestinal microbiome play an important role in the pathogenesis of psoriasis, and restoration of the microbiome is a promising preventive and therapeutic strategy for psoriasis. Herein, we have reviewed recent studies on the psoriasis-related microbiome in an attempt to confidently identify the “core” microbiome of psoriasis patients, understand the role of microbiome in the pathogenesis of psoriasis, and explore new therapeutic strategies for psoriasis through microbial intervention.

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