Critical End Research Articles

STRUGGLING METAL CRAFTS PRACTICE IN DARJEELING AND KALIMPONG DISTRICT OF WEST BENGAL

In the scenario of emerging Indian economy, Crafts-this unorganized sector become very important owing to its large number of employment generation potentiality and significant contribution towards export business. In the scenario of Darjeeling and Kalimpong district, this Sub Himalayan region is the home of many metal crafts artisans who are struggling because of gradual increasing pressure of modern machine-made products which decoy and changing metal crafts ecology are made this exquisite master pieces vulnerable. Metal crafts artisans were the main source to fulfill the demand of rural economy in these two districts but now the product is rarely present in the market. Changing consumer interest, low cost machine made and foreign products, lack of innovation towards new design trends, lack of awareness of market and support this heritage practice standing at its critical end. This study delves into metal crafts artisans called themselves Vishwakarma in Darjeeling and Kalimpong district, their present condition, crafts products, production procedure, scope of survival and farther development through the qualitative study using survey questioner and interview of artisans and other stakeholders. Findings from the data of 114 respondents from artist/producer, Retailers, Important Officials persons are exhibited, the identified issues and development areas toward future growth and survival of this crafts such as, upgradation of tools and technology, intervention initiatives and supports, welfare and marketing support, entrepreneurship and branding have been discussed. Data were collected from Darjeeling Palbazar Block, Jorbanglo Sukhia Block, Kurseong Block, Kalingpong 1.

12‐1: Invited Paper: Narrowing the Emission Linewidth of I‐III‐VI Quantum Dots

In recent years, I‐III‐VI semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) have shown significant improvements that have unlocked new capabilities and end markets. Some typical examples of I‐III‐VI QDs are CuAlS2 (blue), AgInS2 (green), CuInSe2 (red) CuInSe2 (near‐IR), but other compositions and alloys are possible. These materials exhibit tunable photoluminescence (PL) emissions, and can achieve near unity PL quantum yield. They can have efficient broad emission, but also can have narrow emission, large Stokes shifts, and high optical extinction coefficients. These materials are often more stable, safer, and lower cost than alternatives such as CdSe, InP, and PbS or PbSe QDs. In this work, we discuss industrialization and scale‐up of I‐III‐VI QDs, starting with critical end uses related to spectrum optimization for greenhouses and solar energy. We also update on recent progress narrowing the emission linewidth (full‐width at half maximum) of I‐III‐VI QDs to the point that they are becoming competitive with legacy QDs used in displays and lighting.

Mean Field Study of a Cylindrical Ferrimagnetic Nanotube with Different Anisotropies

In this paper, the ferrimagnetic mixed spins (1, 5/2) Blume-Capel model is proposed to investigate the phase diagrams and hysteresis behaviors of a magnetic cylindrical nanotube with a core-shell structure using the mean-field approximation based on the Bogoliubov inequality for the Gibbs free energy. The core sites are occupied by σ= ±1, 0 spins, whereas the shell sites are filled by S= ±5/2, ±3/2, ±1/2 spins. The effects of exchange couplings (Jin, JS) and single-ion anisotropies (DC, DS) on core, shell, and total magnetizations are investigated, as well as hysteresis behaviors. The entropy, free energy, and specific heat are analyzed to establish the stability of the solutions. The presentation and discussion of phase diagrams is detailed. The system shows a first-order and second-order phase transitions, as well as tricritical and critical end- points. In addition, the system shows compensation and reentrant behaviors. Various multiple hysteresis loop behaviors are seen according on the Hamiltonian parameters, such as the presence of triple, quintuple, and septuple hysteresis loops.

Electrocaloric effect at special points in the composition-temperature-electric field phase diagram of barium zirconate-titanate (BZT)

The composition-temperature-electric field diagram and electrocaloric properties of BaTi1−xZrxO3 (BZT) were computed using a self-consistent phenomenological approach. By subtracting contributions from the latent heat, the adiabatic temperature change due solely to the material polarization was quantified on passing through critical end, tricritical and phase convergence points. The largest temperature change occurs at the first-order paraelectric to ferroelectric transitions where the latent heat is triggered, but the material polarization contribution is greatest at the critical temperature. The maximum electrocaloric responsivity occurs at a field 1.25 times greater than the critical field. The temperature change increases at the tricritical point due to a field-induced tetragonal to rhombohedral transformation, but the responsivity diverges due to vanishing of the critical field. The enhanced temperature change observed experimentally near the convergence point is attributed to greater polarization change in the rhombohedral phase, and to a polar glasslike state that contributes to the dipolar configurational entropy.

Less than net zero: Redirecting capitalist fantasies through fetishistic reversal

Inspired by the work of Slavoj Žižek, critical marketing theorists have identified how ideological fantasies support the capitalist status quo by operating as unconscious fetishes that are difficult to dispel. While these studies suggest that fetishisation is a formidable challenge to critical thought and activism, this think piece considers how fetishistic reversal may provide a means to redirect the ideological fantasies of capitalism towards more critical ends. This line of thinking is pieced together by drawing Žižekean theories alongside the topical example of Net Zero. It is argued that Net Zero is not a politically-neutral target but rather an ideological fantasy that can be interrogated for fetishistic disavowals, inversions and ticklishness. However, it is added that renouncing Net Zero as an ideological fantasy is likely to be unproductive, or even counter-productive. Instead, critical marketing scholars should proceed by reversing fetishistic effects. Developing Žižek’s notion of Less Than Nothing, it is suggested that Net Zero should be transposed with the more radical target of Less Than Net Zero. This piece concludes by thinking about the application of fetishistic reversal to other socioecological issues in order to push critical marketing theory further towards a more optimistic horizon.

Investigating the Effects of a Phytobiotics-Based Product on the Fecal Bacterial Microbiome of Weaned Pigs

Simple SummaryMaintaining gut health during the weaning period remains a major challenge for swine producers. Phytobiotics, which are plant-derived bioactive products for use as supplements in food animals, have shown great promise in helping to stabilize the gut environment of weaned pigs, but their mechanisms of action remain unclear. To determine if the positive impact of phytobiotics on gut health may be by influencing the symbiotic bacteria that inhabit the gut of young pigs, this report describes a comparison between fecal bacterial populations of weaned pigs supplemented with a commercial phytobiotic product for seven days to those of untreated pigs. Together, the results indicate that phytobiotic supplementation may provide a favorable environment for both lactate-producing and lactate-utilizing bacteria.The transition to a solid diet, as well as environmental and social stress, have a direct impact on swine gut physiology during weaning, affecting host gastrointestinal functions, as well as resident symbiotic microbial communities. While plant-derived bioactive products, such as phytobiotics, have shown great potential to mitigate these challenges, providing benefits such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory activities, their mechanisms of action remain largely unexplored. To gain more insight, a 21 day trial is conducted to investigate the effects of LiveXtract, a commercial plant-based product, using fecal samples as a proxy for gut bacteria in weaned pigs. High-throughput sequencing of amplicons targeting the V1–V3 region of the 16S rRNA gene is used to determine bacterial composition at days 1 (pre-treatment), 4, 10, and 21 postweaning. Our results show that Lactobacillaceae and Peptostreptococcaceae are both higher in the supplemented group at D4 (p < 0.05), while Streptococcaceae are significantly lower in the treated group at D10 and D21. At D10, Erysipelotrichaceae are lower, and Veillonellaceae are higher in the treated samples than the control group (p < 0.05). Of the thirteen abundant Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) that have different representation between treated and control pigs (p < 0.05), six are predicted to be lactate producers (affiliation to Lactobacillus or Streptococcus), and one is predicted to be a lactate utilizer, based on its high identity to Megasphaera elsdenii. Together, these data suggest that phytobiotics may provide a favorable metabolic equilibrium between lactate production and utilization. Lactate is considered a critical microbial end product in gut environments, as it can inhibit pathogens or be metabolized to propionate for utilization by host cells.

Critically Analyzing the Online Classroom: Blackboard, Moodle, Canvas, and the Pedagogy They Produce

Working from the crossroads of critical pedagogy and software studies, this study analyzes the means by which teaching technologies—in particular the popular learning management systems (LMS) Blackboard, Moodle, and Canvas—support a transmission model of education at the expense of critical learning goals. I assess the effect of LMSs on critical aims via four key critical pedagogy concepts: the banking system, student/teacher contradiction, dialogue, and problem-posing. From software studies, I employ the notion of affordances—what program functions are and are not made available to users—to observe how LMSs naturalize the transmission model. Rather than present a deterministic look at teaching technology, this study calls for closer examination of these tools in order to rework teaching technologies toward critical ends.

1901년 유학자의 위기의식과 기독교 비판-간재 전우의 「自西徂東辨」을 중심으로-

1901년 유학자의 위기의식과 기독교 비판-간재 전우의 「自西徂東辨」을 중심으로-

An experimental test of the impact of corporate social responsibility on consumers' purchasing behavior: The mediation role of trust

AbstractTechnology companies have widely used corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a strategy to attract more consumers. However, little is known about which specific CSR practices work best to shape consumers' purchasing behavior. This study adopts a between‐subject lab experiment to investigate the effects of four different kinds of CSR practices on consumers' purchasing behavior and to understand their underlying mechanisms. The results indicate that CSR in the domain of environmental protection is most influential for a high‐tech company when it comes to attracting consumers and driving purchasing behavior. Additionally, the results indicate a mediating role of consumers' trust in the CSR purchasing relationship. This study suggests that high‐tech companies seeking to maximize sales should consider focusing their CSR practices on the environmental domain and should view consumers' trust as a critical end rather than a means to greater profits.

Access as Pedagogy: A Case for Embracing Feminist Pedagogy in Open and Distance Learning

While the mainstream discourse around Open and Distance Learning (ODL) center around standardization, scalability, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness, I return to a much more contextual and humane understanding of teaching and learning in ODL through feminist pedagogy. I begin my inquiry by discussing women students’ experiences through the notion of access as pedagogy, which challenges disembodied views of online learners and learning, and a view of access to resources as an opportunity for equity. Issues with gender are the focal point in my discussions; however, I view feminist pedagogy as an ethical position as well as a pedagogical position that calls attentive ways of looking into structuring educational services, methods, policies, and legislations that create an inclusive learning space not just for women, but for all students who are disadvantaged in their education. Within this context, student participation can be framed as a means for transformation, contributing to one’s well-being, agency and sense of power. I highlight the need for an intersectional gender analysis in ODL, as well as openness and transparency in pedagogical processes in order to tackle human and non-human bias, misrecognition, misrepresentation and unequal participation. Education with an explicit goal for transformation leads to the use of technology for reflective, imaginative, and critical ends.

The Precocious Period: The Impact of Early Menarche on Schooling in India

This paper studies the impact of early onset of menstruation on school enrollment in India, where the onset of menstruation (menarche) has immense socio-cultural importance, and menarche marks a child's transition into womanhood. Estimates based on a difference-in-differences model show that starting menses before age twelve decreases school enrollment by 13\%. While understanding the role of menarche, a universal biological event for all women, in determining education is a critical end in itself, it also has implications for the effect of early nutrition on girls' well-being. Better-nourished girls typically reach menarche earlier, and if menarche impedes schooling, their gains due to better nutrition may be undercut. The effect of menarche on school enrollment is stronger if girls live in communities where the perceived safety among children is low or if they belong to social groups with restrictive gender norms. Conversely, dropout rates are lower in communities with higher expected wages for female-dominated professions. Jointly, these findings suggest that the interaction between cultural norms and the local economic opportunities shapes female education decisions in response to menses.

Pop-Up Art and the Aesthetics of Assembly

This article considers the phenomenon of pop-up practice as a medium of public art and collective assembly. I argue for the pedagogical potential of the research-creation pop-up to situate aesthetic contributions as relevant and necessary to broader public discourse. Discussing a series of case studies developed through the Mobile Art Studio, a transitory creative lab space that I founded in 2014, I consider how the pop-up becomes the vehicle for brief, carnivalesque transformations of institutional settings toward critical ends. The pop-up’s performative assemblies open up provisional and contingent understandings between audiences, artists, and participants. What remains from them is the memory of a lived, embodied experience of knowledge production and translation outside traditional institutional confines. The article speaks to the pop-up as a pedagogical and research-creation tool; throughout, I explore the possibilities for resistance offered by the pop-up within the spatial and temporal contexts of late capitalism.

Immiscibility of Liquid Phases and Liquid–Liquid Critical Phenomena in Aqueous Solutions of Sodium and Potassium Phosphates

Phase equilibria were studied in aqueous solutions of sodium and potassium phosphates at elevated temperatures (to 425°C) and pressures (to 63 MPa). Experimental data were obtained on the transformation of gas–liquid equilibria into heterogeneous equilibria of two liquid phases with increasing pressure, which ends in the critical phenomena of immiscibility (L1 = L2). Based on the experimental and literature data, it was concluded that the binary water–salt systems containing KH2PO4, K2HPO4, K3PO4, NaH2PO4, and Na2HPO4 are characterized by phase diagrams of the first type [1, 2], which have two critical invariant end points: N (G–L1 = L2) and R (G = L1–L2).

Collaborative Composition of Classical Arabic Poetry

Abstract Evidence of collaborative composition of poetry goes back to the earliest documented phases in the history of Arabic literature. Already during pre-Islamic times, poets like Imruʾ al-Qays used to challenge others to complete their impromptu verse and create poetry collaboratively with them. This practice—commonly called iǧāza or tamlīṭ and essentially different from the better known poetic dueling of the naqāʾiḍ (flytings)—has shown remarkable stability and adherence to its form and dynamics in the pre-modern Arabophone world. In this article, I will discuss evidence of collaborative poetry from pre-Islamic times to the early seventh/thirteenth century, in order to present a picture of the typical situations in which it was practiced, its functions, its composition process, and formal aspects. Although usually not producing poetic masterpieces, this practice has the merit of revealing much about the processes of composing classical Arabic poetry in general. In this respect, its study and critical assessment are highly important, given the fact that medieval Arabic literary criticism does not always reflect praxis or focus on the actual practicalities of composing poetry. This practice and the contextualized way in which it was preserved allow us to see vividly the inextricable link between poetic form and the conditions in which poetry was created. It likewise sheds light on the intricate ways in which poets resisted, influenced, and manipulated others by poetic means. Based on the obvious fact that collaborative composition is imbued with the spirit of play, I offer at the end of the article criticism of Johan Huizinga’s famous play concept and his (much less famous) views of early Arabic culture and poetry in light of the evidence I studied.

Zweig, Freud, and the Ends of Criticism

This article aims to revisit the intricate relationship of Stefan Zweig and Sigmund Freud and his close followers, taking as its entry point the radical elimination of Zweig from psychoanalytic historiography. While many found Zweig’s notorious att empt to group Freud with Franz Mesmer and Mary Baker Eddy in Mental Healers at the heart of the antagonistic att itude toward Zweig in the psychoanalytic movement, I argue that Zweig’s glaring criticisms against the rationalistic shift in psychoanalytic theory that had started to take place in his time is the deep source for that rupture. Detailing the history of Zweig’s absenteeism, the paper offers a new outlook on the ethics of repression and alienation in the psychoanalytic movement in its formative period.

Humor and Politics through the Animal in Cervantes and Leopold

Humor and Politics through the Animal in Cervantes and Leopold

Global Slavery, Old World Bondage, and Aphra Behn's Abdelazer

Criticism on Abdelazer has suffered from the critical assumption that New World plantation slavery was the norm for the early-modern world, and that slaves were, by definition, subjected to extreme forms of physical labor and material degradation. This assumption has hindered Behn scholars from considering other important forms of slavery in the early-modern world, especially those found in the Islamic Mediterranean, in which some bondsmen were invested with substantial power and responsibility. I argue that Behn presents Abdelazer as a similar type of elite military slave, a liminal figure who is given some power, but who is also subject to the authority of his masters and is regularly an object of contempt and ridicule. The fact that modern critics have not generally recognized that Abdelazer is, in fact, a slave means that we have some work to do to recapture a more developed picture of global slave practices in the period and a more nuanced delineation of early-modern English understandings of slavery.

W-Band Superconducting Planar Orthogonal Mode Transducer Characterisation

The next generation of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) instruments is dedicated to the detection of CMB B-modes. Instruments like QUBIC (QU Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology) need components with state of the art properties at high frequency (>90 GHz) to minimise instrumental systematic effects. The Orthogonal Mode Transducer (OMT) is a critical front end component as it allows the discrimination of the polarisation mode of light. Superconducting planar technology seems very promising to improve its properties and miniaturisation. We present a planar superconducting OMT operating in the W band (75–110 GHz). Design and simulations have been performed using CST Studio Suite. Laboratory characterisations were obtained with two different cryogenic setups. We will present these two cryogenic setups, the calibration procedure and preliminary results for two OMT samples.

The spin- [formula omitted] sandwiched trilayer Bethe lattices

The Ising model for the spin- ( 1 , 1 2 , 1 ) sandwiched trilayer Bethe lattices is investigated in terms of the recursion relations with either ferromagnetic (FM) or antiferromagnetic (AFM) type of bilinear interactions between the nearest-neighbor (NN) spins. In addition to the ground-state (GS) phase diagrams, the thermal variations of the order-parameters, spin–spin correlation functions and free energies are studied; therefore, different topological temperature-dependent phase diagrams are obtained. It was found that the system exhibits second- and first-order phase transitions. The bicritical, critical end and multicritical points, and the stable and unstable tricritical points are observed in addition to the reentrant behavior for the coordination numbers q = 3 , 4 and 6.

Crediting errors: Credit, liquidity, performance and The Comedy of Errors

The spectre of the market is a predictable end of teleological economic criticism, which promotes a play like The Comedy of Errors for anticipating and neatly illustrating the bewildering liquidity of the capitalist market. But looking to its pre-classical source and not only to a putative future, the play seems to reject cash liquidity – a striking choice given the much decried scarcity of coinage in England at the end of the sixteenth century. The comedy prefers credit, the credit of a citizen, over payment of the price it has set for happiness. As economic history adjusts its vision to accommodate the key role played by informal lending in commercial growth, economic criticism stands to fundamentally revise its position. Close attention to performance (looking beyond the limiting notion of a commercial theatricality) can reposition readings closer to the ground of actual exchanges, and counter a pervasive tendency to disengage from specific detail. Read in this way, The Comedy of Errors reveals the full extent of credit's significance and limitations.