Female Island: Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea

Two leading articles of feminist hue – “The Laugh of the Medusa” (1976) and “Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness” (1981) – by two seminal figures, Hélène Cixous and Elaine Showalter respectively, grant a new look at Jean Rhys’s novel Wide Sargasso Sea. Two main themes that come to the fore from these two articles with reference to Rhys’s novel are the male-dominated female zone and the importance of female writing for women. Both critics mention the strong hold of patriarchy on women, which is quite obvious in Antoinette’s condition in Rhys’s novel. Next, both Cixous and Showalter claim that while men see the female domain as a dark space, women should stick to their female domain and express themselves through writing. And this is what Rhys does in her novel; she gives a voice to the mad woman in the attic, Antoinette, who has been put there and tagged mad by her husband. By exploring the similarities between feminist criticism in Cixous’s and Showalter’s articles and Rhys’s novel, this study aims to show that although Wide Sargasso Sea is a revolutionary novel with its ability to give the mad woman back her individuality, it is not strong enough to create a world where this woman can experience her individuality.

Food and White Multiculturalism: Racial Aesthetics of Commercial Gentrification in Amsterdam’s Javastraat

In this article, we use Hage’s (2000) critique of White multiculturalism’s orientalizing logic of ethnic enrichment as a lens to analyze the multicultural valorization through ethnic food of the Javastraat, the commercial artery of Amsterdam’s Indische Buurt district. Stemming from a larger ethnographic study of gentrification in the area, the article provides evidence of how racial aesthetics have served as the central guiding principle in the transformation of the neighborhood from a dark space of grime, crime, and decay to the current space of hipness, coolness, and global culture. While being celebrated as a living example of multicultural society in the inner city, we argue that the area embodies a multicultural reality in which White, middle-class residents, and visitors are the prime occupiers of space and aesthetic organizing principle of the neighborhood’s landscape.

Grasp to See—Object Classification Using Flexion Glove with Support Vector Machine

This paper proposes an object classification method using a flexion glove and machine learning. The classification is performed based on the information obtained from a single grasp on a target object. The flexion glove is developed with five flex sensors mounted on five finger sleeves, and is used for measuring the flexion of individual fingers while grasping an object. Flexion signals are divided into three phases, and they are the phases of picking, holding and releasing, respectively. Grasping features are extracted from the phase of holding for training the support vector machine. Two sets of objects are prepared for the classification test. One is printed-object set and the other is daily-life object set. The printed-object set is for investigating the patterns of grasping with specified shape and size, while the daily-life object set includes nine objects randomly chosen from daily life for demonstrating that the proposed method can be used to identify a wide range of objects. According to the results, the accuracy of the classifications are achieved 95.56% and 88.89% for the sets of printed objects and daily-life objects, respectively. A flexion glove which can perform object classification is successfully developed in this work and is aimed at potential grasp-to-see applications, such as visual impairment aid and recognition in dark space.

The Differential Diagnosis of Hypopigmented Mycosis Fungoides and Vitiligo With Reflectance Confocal Microscopy: A Preliminary Study

Objective: To investigate the role of reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) in the differential diagnosis of hypopigmented mycosis fungoides (HMF) and vitiligo.Methods: Cases with persistent hypopigmented patches, suspicious of early stage vitiligo, or HMF were imaged with RCM. The melanin contents and inflammatory conditions of the epidermis and superficial dermis of the lesions were compared with the same layers of the adjacent skin, and then, the imaged lesions were biopsied and analyzed by histology.Results: 15 cases were enrolled in this study, and based on the RCM findings, there was just slight or moderate reduction of melanin but no melanin absence in the basal cell layer of HMF lesions. The finding of monomorphous weakly refractile, oval to round cells on the basis of vesicle-like dark space was clearly elucidated in the epidermis of the lesions by RCM, which indicates the Pautrier's microabscesses on histopathology. Among those 15 cases, 13 cases were identified as HMF, and the other two cases were vitiligo, based on RCM findings, which were confirmed by histology analysis.Conclusions: The RCM findings correlated well with histology results in the screening of HMF, which indicates the RCM is an important tool in the early detection and differential diagnosis of HMF.

Influence of Electron Injection on the Characteristics of a Hollow Cathode Glow Discharge

The article presents the results of experimental studies of a glow discharge with a hollow cathode in helium and argon gases using an auxiliary discharge as an electron emitter. The authors proposed to make the electrode common for both discharges in the form of a cylindrical metal mesh. The advantage of this design is explained as follows. The connection between the discharges is carried out through holes in the grid with a geometric transparency of 0.2, which makes it possible not only to smoothly control the glow discharge current, but also to enhance the discharge current. Plasma is known to be one of the most efficient electron emitters; however, its use as a cathode in devices with a glow discharge at low gas pressures is complicated by the fact that a grid with small holes is required to separate the electron flow from the plasma, and it is impractical to use such a system in view of low mechanical strength of the grid Since the hollow cathode works effectively at low gas pressures, the release of an electron flux from the plasma of some auxiliary discharge is possible with much larger holes in the grid separating the plasma and the hollow cathode cavity. In this case, the grid can be made such that it can withstand sufficiently high thermal loads and can operate in typical discharge modes with a hollow cathode. The injection of electrons into the cathode cavity of the glow discharge changes the radial distribution of the glow intensity, the width of the cathode dark space, and other parameters of the plasma in the cathode cavity. The influence of electrons penetrating from the auxiliary discharge into the cathode cavity of the main discharge becomes significant when the current of these electrons is comparable to or exceeds the current of electrons leaving the grid cathode surface as a result of γ-processes. In parallel with the measurement of the optical and electrical characteristics of the hollow cathode glow discharge plasma, measurements of the electron concentration were carried out by the microwave sounding method. The entire current of the auxiliary discharge penetrates into the cavity of the main discharge; however, after acceleration in the cathode dark space, the electrons penetrating from the auxiliary discharge ionize gas atoms and noticeably increase the current of the main discharge. Additional ions formed due to the ionization of the gas by the injected electrons knock out new electrons from the cathode surface, which makes it possible to increase the discharge current.

A possible route towards dissipation-protected qubits using a multidimensional dark space and its symmetries

Quantum systems are always subject to interactions with an environment, typically resulting in decoherence and distortion of quantum correlations. It has been recently shown that a controlled interaction with the environment may actually help to create a state, dubbed as “dark”, which is immune to decoherence. To encode quantum information in the dark states, they need to span a space with a dimensionality larger than one, so different orthogonal states act as a computational basis. Here, we devise a symmetry-based conceptual framework to engineer such degenerate dark spaces (DDS), protected from decoherence by the environment. We illustrate this construction with a model protocol, inspired by the fractional quantum Hall effect, where the DDS basis is isomorphic to a set of degenerate Laughlin states. The long-time steady state of our driven-dissipative model exhibits thus all the characteristics of degenerate vacua of a unitary topological system.

PENGEMBANGAN FILM PENDEK BERBASIS KARAKTER PADA ANAK USIA DINI DI TK. MAARIF NU. HASANUDIN, SURABAYA

The development of this short film was held at Maarif NU Foundation School. HASANUDIN, SURABAYA. Short film media is expected to make early childhood more interested in following the play activities and motivation triggered doing good karakter in him. The research objectives are: 1. Develop a character-based short film that is played by early childhood, 2. Discusses the constraints that occur during the development of this character-based short film. Conclusions that can be taken during the process of developing a character-based short film: 1. There is difficulty in preparing the child in the direction of style and dialogue in front of the camera. 2. It takes a long time, and the production cost is great. Conclusions can be drawn after the process of developing a karaker-based short film: 1 Early-age children who use Audio-Visual Media (FILM) are more interested and more motivated to follow lessons, especially in moral and religious values (based on the basis of film, character). 3. There are some obstacles encountered when the media is displayed during the course of learning: a. The use of film media is required to use a closed room because it requires a slightly dark space for the film looks clear. b. Using audio requires a long preparation, starting from preparing the media, c. Requires many supporting media, including Film (mainstream media), Projector, laptop, sound. d. The teacher must be an expert in operating this medium. Pengembangan film pendek ini dilaksanakan di Lembaga PAUD Maarif NU. HASANUDIN, SURABAYA. Media film pendek ini diharapkan membuat anak usia dini semakin tertarik dalam mengikuti kegiatan bermain dan terpicu motivasinya melakukan karaker-karekter baik dalam dirinya. Adapun tujuan penelitian yang ingin diperoleh adalah: 1.Mengembangkan sebuah film pendek berbasis karakter yang dimainkan oleh anak usia dini, 2. Membahas kendala-kendala yang terjadi selama pengembangan film pendek berbasis karakter ini. Kesimpulan yang dapat diambil selama proses pengembangan film pendek berbasis karakter : 1. Terdapat kesulitan dalam mempersiapkan anak dalam pengarahan gaya dan dialog di depan kamera. 2. Memakan waktu yang cukup lama, dan biaya produksi yang besar. Kesimpulan yang dapat diambil setelah proses pengembangan film pendek berbasis karaker: 1 Anak usia dini yang menggunakan Media Audio Visual (FILM) lebih tertarik dan lebih termotivasi untuk mengikuti pelajaran, terutama dalam aspek nilai moral dan agama (sesuai dengan basis dari film,karakter). 3. Ada beberapa kendala yang dihadapi ketika media di ditayangkan sewaktu pembelajaran antara lain: a. Penggunaan media film diharuskan menggunakan ruangan yang tertutup rapat karena memerlukan ruang yang sedikit gelap agar film tampak jelas. b. Mengunakan audio membutuhkan persiapan yang lama, mulai dari mempersiapkan media, c. Memerlukan banyak media pendukung, antara lain Film (media utama), Proyektor, laptop, sound. d. Guru harus ahli dalam mengoperasikan media ini.