Blackbody Research Articles

From Black Theology to Black Lives Matter and Back Again

This article is written by a descendant of enslaved Africans and explores the theological significance of Black bodies. Black bodies have been commodified, controlled and coerced by White hegemony, often lacking agency and self-determination. Using personal experience and contextual analysis, this article, drawing on Black theology inspired reflections, argues that we need to rethink how we conceive of Black bodies ethically, if Black lives are to really matter. The rehabilitation of Black bodies is achieved through a theological reappraisal of holiness and sacraments, underpinned by an embodied pneumatology, in which Black bodies are shown to be sacramental and worthy of mattering in a world underpinned by White supremacy.

Exploring the potential of GeTe for the application in Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cell

Germanium telluride (GeTe) having a direct bandgap of 0.6 eV has mainly been used in phase change memory and thermoelectric power generation. In this article, we study the electronic structure of the GeTe by first-principles calculations. The theoretical direct bandgap of GeTe was found to be 0.69 eV which is very close to the experimental value. Then, we demonstrated a single-junction GeTe thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cell based on device transport model with np structure at the black body and cell temperature of 1775 and 300 K, respectively. The device was optimized for the higher performance of the TPV cell. The GeTe TPV cell exhibited an efficiency of 7.9% with JSC = 16.16 A cm−2, VOC = 0.360 V and FF = 75.51%, respectively. These results indicate that GeTe could be a promising material for the fabrication of efficient TPV cell.

Precision black body model at a temperature of 200–450 K:metrological ensurance for optical-electronic equipment for remote sensing of the Earth in the infrared range of the spectrum

The issues of radiometric calibration of optical-electronic equipment for remote sensing of the Earth in a wide range of spectral radiance have been studied. An alternative method for transmitting a spectral radiance unit from a reference source at the phase transition temperature of pure metals to optical-electronic equipment for remote sensing of the Earth in the infrared wavelength range above 2.5 μm is presented. The method is based on the stepwise transfer of a spectral radiance unit from a reference source through a precision model of a black body with a high level of emissivity and a wide temperature range identical to the temperature range of a wide-aperture black body model with a range of spectral radiance required for calibrating optical-electronic equipment for remote sensing of the Earth. A precision black body model PMBB-60m with an output aperture with a diameter of 30 mm was developed, studied and calibrated in the temperature range of 200–450 K. The calculated value of the effective emissivity of PMBB-60m with coating of the cavity by Aeroglaze Z306 paint is 0.9997. The composition and design of PMBB-60m are described. PMBB-60m can operate both in vacuum conditions and in conditions of inert gas or atmospheric pressure. The metrological characteristics of PMBB-60m , obtained by transferring a temperature unit from the State Standard of the zero digit of a temperature unit in the range from 0 to 3000 °C using a comparator, based on a precision pyrometer TRT II (Heitronics Infrarot Messtechnik GmbH, Germany) are presented. The correction to the PMBB-60m temperature readings in the temperature range of 223.15–450.15 K did not exceed 39 mK according to the results of calibration in the temperature range of 223.15–450.15 K. The results of calculating the expanded uncertainty in the temperature range of 223.15–450.15 K did not exceed 1 K. The values of instability of temperature maintenance PMBB-60m, measured in steps of 10 s for 15 minutes, did not exceed 15 mK in the considered temperature range. The results of calculation of the spectral effective emissivity of PMBB-60m, carried out using the STEEP3 program, are presented.

Coupling the measures of pollution source control and water replenishment to improve water quality in the catchment scale of Qianshan River Basin

With the development of the economy, the problem of urban black odorous water bodies has become increasingly significant, having a serious impact on the environment. As important means of remediating aquatic environments, pollution source control and water replenishment are of great significance in improving water quality. This study takes the Qianshan River Basin in Zhuhai City as its study area to simulate their effects on the improvement of water quality. A coupled model of water quantity and quality in Qianshan River Basin was constructed using MIKE11to analyze the water quality compliance rate, with sewage interception rates of 85%, 90%, and 95%, and to investigate the effect of pollution source control on the improvement of the aquatic environment. Using different sewage interception rates, the amount of water replenishment was calculated in order to meet water quality standards, the water replenishment scheme was determined via river-specific and time-specific methods, and the model was used to analyze the replenishment effect of the scheme. The results show that increasing the sewage interception rate can significantly improve the COD compliance rate, and improve the NH3–N and TP compliance rate; however, the enhancement effect is not sufficiently significant. When a sewage interception rate of 95% is implemented, there are still five rivers with a low NH3–N compliance rate, and six rivers with low a TP compliance rate. Comparing the water replenishment effect under different sewage interception rates of 85% and 95%, the water replenishment program alongside a sewage interception rate of 95% can effectively improve the aquatic environment and the water quality essentially meets the standard under different rainfall conditions; this demonstrates that the program presented herein can be used as the aquatic environment remediation program of choice for the Qianshan River Basin.

Effects of leucism on organ development and molecular mechanisms in Northern snakehead (Channa argus) beyond pigmentation alterations

Leucism, a widespread occurrence observed in Northern snakehead (Channa argus), bestows a striking white jade-like body coloration upon affected individuals and has gained substantial popularity in commercial breeding. While the visible manifestation of leucism in snakeheads is primarily limited to body coloration, it is crucial to explore the potential influence of leucism on organ development and elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms. Through a comparative analysis of growth differences, our study revealed that at 150 days post-fertilization, the white variety exhibited an 8.5% higher liver index and intestinal index, but experienced a 20% and 38% decreased in spleen index and renal interstitial index, respectively, suggesting an enlarged digestive area but relatively smaller immune tissues. Nonetheless, no significant differences were observed in the intestinal flora between the two varieties, suggesting the exclusion of any exogenous impacts from symbiotic flora on the growth and development of the white variety. Importantly, transcriptome analysis demonstrated that the white variety exhibited higher expression levels of innate immune genes. Furthermore, annotation of the gene sets expressed in the liver and spleen revealed 76 and 35 genes respectively, with the white variety displaying lower expression in genes associated with “Viral protein interaction with cytokine and cytokine receptor”, “Protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum”, and “TNF signaling pathway”, while exhibiting higher expression in “Estrogen signaling pathway”. Notably, three genes, namely pcdhf 4, nlrc3 card 15-like, and a pol-like were identified in both the liver and spleen, indicating their potential involvement in altering the development and innate immunity of the white variety. This study reveals the systemic impact of leucism that extends beyond mere pigmentation alterations, highlighting the prominent characteristics of this phenotype and providing a foundation for future molecular breeding programs aimed at enhancing this variety.

Application of FY Satellite Data in Precipitation of Eastward-Moving Southwest China Vortex: A Case Study of Precipitation in Zhejiang Province

Based on the high-resolution data from April to October (the warm season) during the 2010 to 2020 timeframe provided by the FY-2F geostationary meteorological satellite, the classification and application evaluation of the eastward-moving southwest vortex cloud system affecting Zhejiang Province was conducted using cloud classification (CLC) and black body temperature (TBB) products. The results show that: (1) when the intensity of the eastward-moving southwest vortex is strong, the formed precipitation is predominantly regional convective precipitation. The cloud system in the center and southeast quadrant of the southwest vortex is dominated by cumulonimbus and dense cirrus clouds with convective precipitation, while the other quadrants are mainly composed of stratiform clouds, resulting in stable precipitation; (2) The original text is modified as follows: By using the TBB threshold method to identify stratiform and mixed cloud rainfall, we observed a deviation of one order of magnitude. This deviation is advantageous for moderate rain. However, the precipitation results from mixed clouds identified by the TBB threshold method are being overestimated; By means of the application of stratiform and mixed cloud rainfall identified by the TBB threshold method, an order of magnitude deviation was identified (3) The TBB can be consulted to estimate the precipitation, above which there is a large error. Moreover, the dispersion of precipitation produced by deep convective clouds is the largest, while the dispersion of precipitation produced by stratiform clouds is the smallest and has better predictability. Compared to CLC products, cloud type results based on TBB identification are better for convective cloud precipitation application.

Characteristics of Bacterial Community Structure in the Sediment of Rural Black and Odorous Water Bodies

Sediment microorganisms are the main drivers of the material circulation and organic matter degradation processes in rural black and odorous water bodies(RBOWB), and the community structure of sediment microorganisms follows the changes in the external environment. Here, the pollutant indicators, including nitrogen, phosphorus, and heavy metals in the overlying water and sediment of 29 RBOWB in Dongming County of Heze City were measured, respectively. Combined with Illumina sequencing results, the composition and diversity characteristics of sediment bacterial communities in RBOWB and their correlation with environmental factors were further analyzed. The experimental results showed a wide distribution of pollutants in both of the overlying water and sediment in the RBOWB of this region. Compared with agricultural non-point source pollution, the concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus pollutants in the overlying water with domestic sewage as the main source of pollution were 3.1 and 1.5 times higher than those of agricultural non-point source pollution, respectively. In addition, the contents of heavy metals in the sediments of RBOWB were generally lower than the soil element background value in Heze City. The dominant bacteria phyla in the sediments of the RBOWB were Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, Firmicutes, and Acidobacteria, and the total abundance of these five dominant phyla accounted for 70.3%-83.6% of all sequences. The dominant classes were γ-Proteobacteria, α-Proteobacteria, Anaerolineae, and Actinobacteria. The dominant genera were Thiobacillus and Pseudarthrobacter. Moreover, Spearman correlation analysis showed that the environmental factors of DO, COD, TN, TP, and organic matter exerted significant effects(P<0.05) on sediment bacterial genera in RBOWB, and sediment bacterial community richness was significantly influenced by TN(P<0.05). The above results provided the microbiological knowledge for treating RBOWB.

Performance, Art, and Politics in the African Diaspora: Necropolitics and the Black Body , by Myron M. Beasley

Performance, Art, and Politics in the African Diaspora: Necropolitics and the Black Body , by Myron M. Beasley

Get In and Get Out: White Racial Transformation and the US Gothic Imagination

This article examines the Gothic trope of White racial transformation in Robert Montgomery Bird’s Sheppard Lee (1836) and Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2017). These seemingly disparate texts both feature White men who turn Black via supernatural body hopping or experimental surgery. In these texts, Blackness acts as an emotional and material resource for White characters that perversely bolsters Whiteness by escaping it. Little-known outside of antebellum specialisms, Sheppard Lee enhances our understanding of race in the Gothic by considering why Whiteness may be rejected in the early nation. Written in the context of blackface minstrelsy, the novel transforms downwardly mobile Sheppard into an enslaved man as a respite from the pressures of economic success. Get Out builds on its nineteenth-century precursors by showing the Black body as a desired and necessary vessel for the “post-racial” White American self, who swaps their physical Whiteness for Blackness to extend or enhance their own life, turning Black men into extensions and enforcers of White middle-class culture. In uniting these texts through the lens of critical Whiteness studies, this article argues that White racial transformation is a long-held tradition in the US Gothic that not only expresses White desires and anxieties, but itself transforms in each specific historical racial context.

To be salved, to be slave(d): reading ‘healing’ with and against the specter of Black suffering

ABSTRACT If the World ordering mandate of antiblackness is thought neither as a set of abhorrent acts, nor as a ‘system of beliefs and practices that attack, erode, and limit the humanity of Black people’ (Carruthers, 2018, p. 26) but, more terrifyingly, as the prophylactic therapy that constitutes a knowledge for everyone else to know that they are alive, then one may be able to diagnose a matrix of violence that is not performatively contingent, but paradigmatically organic and necessary. The destruction of Black bodies is a necessary symbiosis used to develop the social, legal, political, and anthropological accouterments of what it means to be Human; Blackness is the interminable ‘beyond’ of absolute abjection as the frontier of social life – ‘afflicted, mutilated, a fatal way of being alive’ (Marriott, 2000, p. 15): the quintessential foil to the question of ‘who’s in?’ Upon a critical (re)turn to David Marriott’s (2000) meditation upon the ontological necessity of lynching to fashion and fasten selfhood along with Saidiya Hartman’s (1997) comprehensive provocation that the violation of Black bodies is unrecognizable as such, this paper examines the Humanist assumptions underwriting the concept of ‘healing’, a concept announced by theorists, practitioners, and the general population to have universal applicability. Through a lens of analysis that understands that the ‘castigated particularity’ (Hartman, 1997, p. 123) – the Slave – shores up the universal as its frontier, one may be obliged to ask, what does ‘healing’ as a concept have to say about the (socially) dead or fatally alive?

Species of the Genus Bibio Geoffroy, 1762 (Diptera, Bibionidae) of the Russian Fauna with a Black Body and Darkened Wings

Species of the Genus Bibio Geoffroy, 1762 (Diptera, Bibionidae) of the Russian Fauna with a Black Body and Darkened Wings

White Supremacist Submission

Scholars tend to envision the sexual politics of settler colonialism and slavery through masculinist conceptions in which penetration designates mastery and receptiveness subjugation. This article asks instead how white desires for sexual submission to nonwhite men operate within white supremacy. It augments white trans and queer studies' conceptualizations of bottoming with theories of white submission found in Black thought, particularly Frantz Fanon and James Baldwin. And it argues that both sets of ideas find themselves anticipated in the mid-nineteenth-century writings of the white, gender-variant author Theodore Winthrop—particularly their most popular novel, Cecil Dreeme (1861). For Winthrop, bottoming desires occasion two modes of self-expression. First, they facilitate transfeminine embodiment, staging an experience of womanliness predicated on the racist contrast between their own white body and that of nonwhite men they see as exceptionally virile. Second, they allow Winthrop to imagine ways of being other than the self-possession and corporeal autonomy of white subjectivity. In both instances, Winthrop's fantasies rely on the plasticity of the white body under the influence of nonwhite men, even as they underscore the biopolitical unidirectionality of plasticity, tracing patterns in which Black, brown, and Indigenous men exert influence on whites while remaining fundamentally incapable of transformation. This history of racialized access to malleability provides a cautionary tale about the incorporative nature of whiteness and how contemporary politics of self-determination might unwittingly replicate white supremacist logics.

Vacuum large-aperture black body model in the temperature range of 223.15–423.15 K for radiometric calibration of optoelectronic equipment for earth observations

Vacuum large-aperture black body model in the temperature range of 223.15–423.15 K for radiometric calibration of optoelectronic equipment for earth observations

Particles creation from JNW quantum perturbed black holesby minimally coupled Klein Gordon scalar free fields

In this work, we choose a minimal coupling interaction between massive Klein Gordon (KG) quantum scalar free fields and Janis-Newman-Winicour (JNW) spherically symmetric static black hole, to produce its Hawking temperature and luminosity. This is done by calculating asymptotic wave solutions at near and far from the black hole horizon. They are orthogonal mode solutions of local Hilbert spaces. By using these mode solutions, we calculated Bogolubov coefficients and then, we investigated number density matrix of created particles. Mathematical calculations show that this is not exactly similar to the Planck`s black body radiation energy density distribution but, it is “gray” body radiation distribution depended to the emitted Hawking particles frequency. Their difference is a non-vanishing absorptivity factor of backscattered particles after to form horizon of a collapsing body. Our motivation is determination of position of Hawking created pairs in which, two different proposals are proposed, so called as “fairwall” and “quantum atmosphere”.

A Universal Digital Lock-in Amplifier Design for Calibrating the Photo-Detector Responses with Standard Black-Bodies.

The lock-in amplifier (LIA) is widely utilized to detect ultra-weak optical periodic signals based on the phase-sensitive and enhanced detecting theory. In this paper, we present an all-digital and universal embedded LIA platform that accurately and conveniently describes the spectrum generated by standard black bodies at various temperatures with different optical detectors. The proposed design significantly reduces the complexity and cost of traditional analog LIAs while maintaining accuracy. The LIA components are implemented using a single field programmable gate array (FPGA), offering flexibility to modify parameters for different situations. The normalized mean-square error (NMSE) of the captured spectra in the experiments is within 0.9% compared the theoretical values.

Dietary Ferulic Acid-Mediated Suppression of Fat Deposits Is Associated with Induction of Beige Adipocyte Formation and Thermogenesis in Inguinal White Adipose Tissue in Mice.

Ferulic acid (FA) is the most abundant phenolic acid in wheat grains. Recent studies have reported that FA intake significantly suppresses body weight gain and accumulation of fat deposits in mice. However, the mechanism by which FA intake affects body fat accumulation remains unclear. We hypothesized that dietary FA induces the formation of beige adipocytes and contributes to the suppression of body fat accumulation. In this study, we investigated whether dietary FA significantly induces beige adipocyte formation and thermogenesis in mice. We found that intake of dietary FA (control diet supplemented with 10 g of FA/kg diet) for 4 wk significantly decreased white adipose tissue (WAT) deposits and body weight gain and significantly induced beige adipocyte formation in inguinal WAT (iWAT) in mice. Furthermore, dietary FA specifically induced thermogenesis in iWAT, dependent upon the significant induction of uncoupling protein 1 expression. These findings suggest that the dietary FA-mediated reduction of WAT accumulation and body weight gain is associated with the induction of beige adipocyte formation and thermogenesis in iWAT, which increases energy expenditure. Our study presents a novel example of dietary FA intake-mediated bioactivity as a functional food-derived factor.

Graphene nanosheets from the controlled explosion of aromatic hydrocarbons

Explosions of benzene, toluene and xylenes were carried out in a 16.7 L chamber in the presence of O2 at different fuel-rich molar ratios such that an aerosol of elemental carbon was produced. The product was a powder at higher precursor oxygen content and an aerosol gel at lower oxygen where the carbon yield was larger. The explosion temperature was measured by a spectrometer that detected black body, Planck radiation from the incandescent carbon, the analysis of which indicated temperatures in the range 2000–2500 K. The product collected was characterized by Raman, X-ray diffraction, Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) specific surface area, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), etc. HRTEM and Raman showed two product types: amorphous soot at a lower explosion temperature and few-layer graphene at a higher explosion temperature. BET showed that the graphene sample is highly porous and has a specific surface area of 388 m2/g. We conclude that chamber explosion of aromatic hydrocarbons can produce graphene, and the high explosion temperature during the reaction is the primary reason graphene is formed rather than soot.

Redescription of two species and a new distribution record for China of the genus MelanogryllusChopard, 1961 and a report of one new species of the genus Velarifictorus Randell, 1964 (Orthoptera: Gryllidae; Gryllinae).

Dark body color is very common among crickets, and this article discusses four species of black field crickets with distinct distributions. There are three species of the genus Melanogryllus Chopard, 1961 and one species of the genus Velarifictorus Randell, 1964. Of them, Melanogryllus chopardi Bey-Bienko, 1968 was discovered in Southwest Xizang, on the border between China and Nepal; Melanogryllus desertus (Pallas, 1771) was primarily found in arid regions of northwestern China; Melanogryllus bilineatus Yang & Yang, 1994 was often collected from the Southeast China coastal region; and the last species, Velarifictorus yuanilandrevus sp. nov., is a new species that was collected in Yunnan, a province in Southwest China. In addition, the new species could be distinguished from the others by its black body coloration and the absence of yellow stripes on the head. Here, we describe these species in detail, with photographs of the genitalia, and provide a distribution map for them and keys for Chinese Melanogryllus species.

Dripping in molasses: Black feminist nostalgia and Kara Walker’s A Subtlety

ABSTRACT Kara Walker is best known for her depictions of sexualized violence and gendered racism during slavery in the form of black paper silhouettes. Scholars such as Salamishah Tillet argue that Walker's art, along with art by some of her post-civil rights contemporaries, offers ‘aesthetic interventions’ to problematic racial histories as part of a larger project of memory reclamation and justice. Walker's A Subtlety, Or the Marvelous Sugar Baby, an Homage to the unpaid and overworked Artisans who have refined our Sweet tastes from the cane fields to the Kitchens of the New World on the Occasion of the demolition of the Domino Sugar Refining Plant is another such interventionist project. Debuting in the Williamsburg neighbourhood of Brooklyn, New York in May of 2014, A Subtlety explores how a figure like mammy ‘survives as a cultural force that influences and reflects a national conscience’ (Wallace Sanders [2008]. Mammy: a century of race, gender, and southern memory. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 12). And yet, to say that the historical rootedness of the title, sugar sphinx sculpture, and molasses-covered walls and cherub-faced small figures throughout the installation were ambiguous to some spectators, is an understatement. Hundreds of photographs and videos were uploaded to social media sites with people making gestures towards the figure that some critics deemed highly inappropriate. This paper explores how A Subtlety both understands and undermines representations of Black women's bodies and how Black artists in the African diaspora contend with complex cultural signs of the past in the present. Utilizing studies of Black feminist theory and visual culture, I argue that Walker’s A Subtlety – and her art more broadly – offers theoretical and geographic space to ponder where Black pleasure and collective memory can exist in systems of misogynoir, as well as in the Black nostalgic imagination.

Analysis of the Possibility of Using Selected Tools and Algorithms in the Classification and Recognition of Type of Microstructure.

The aim of this research was to develop a solution based on existing methods and tools that would allow the automatic classification of selected images of cast iron microstructures. As part of the work, solutions based on artificial intelligence were tested and modified. Their task is to assign a specific class in the analyzed microstructure images. In the analyzed set, the examined samples appear in various zoom levels, photo sizes and colors. As is known, the components of the microstructure are different. In the examined photo, there does not have to be only one type of precipitate in each photo that indicates the correct microstructure of the same type of alloy, different shapes may appear in different amounts. This article also addresses the issue of data preparation. In order to isolate one type of structure element, the possibilities of using methods such as HOG (histogram of oriented gradients) and thresholding (the image was transformed into black objects on a white background) were checked. In order to avoid the slow preparation of training data, our solution was proposed to facilitate the labeling of data for training. The HOG algorithm combined with SVM and random forest were used for the classification process. In order to compare the effectiveness of the operation, the Faster R-CNN and Mask R-CNN algorithms were also used. The results obtained from the classifiers were compared to the microstructure assessment performed by experts.