Search results for: visual go/no go discrimination

Authors: C. Flynn, Q. Yuan, C. Reinhardt

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Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder affecting broad areas of the cerebral cortex and hippocampus. More than 95% of AD cases are representative of sporadic AD, where both genetic and environmental risk factors play a role. The main pathological features of AD include the widespread deposition of amyloid-beta and neurofibrillary tau tangles in the brain. The earliest brain pathology related to AD has been defined as hyperphosphorylated soluble tau in the noradrenergic locus coeruleus (LC) neurons, characterized by Braak. However, the cause of this pathology and the ultimate progression of AD is not understood. Increasing research points to a connection between the gut microbiota and the brain, and mounting evidence has shown that there is a bidirectional interaction between the two, known as the gut-brain axis. This axis can allow for bidirectional movement of neuroinflammatory cytokines and pathogenic misfolded proteins, as seen in AD. Prebiotics and probiotics have been shown to have a beneficial effect on gut health and can strengthen the gut-barrier as well as the blood-brain barrier, preventing the spread of these pathogens across the gut-brain axis. Our laboratory has recently established a pretangle tau rat model, in which we selectively express pseudo-phosphorylated human tau (htauE14) in the LC neurons of TH-Cre rats. LC htauE14 produced pathological changes in rats resembling those of the preclinical AD pathology (reduced olfactory discrimination and LC degeneration). In this work, we will investigate the effects of pre/probiotic ingestion on AD behavioral deficits, blood inflammation/cytokines, and various brain markers in our experimental rat model of AD. Rats will be infused with an adeno-associated viral vector containing a human tau gene pseudophosphorylated at 14 sites (common in LC pretangles) into 2-3 month TH-Cre rats. Fecal and blood samples will be taken at pre-surgery, and various post-surgery time points. A collection of behavioral tests will be performed, and immunohistochemistry/western blotting techniques will be used to observe various biomarkers. This work aims to elucidate the relationship between gut health and AD progression by strengthening gut-brain relationship and aims to observe the overall effect on tau formation and tau pathology in AD brains.

Keywords: alzheimer’s disease, aging, gut microbiome, neurodegeneration

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Authors: Kaitlyn Deierlein, Janet Lydecker

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Stereotypes surrounding anorexia nervosa are that the illness is commonly perceived as a self-inflicted disorder influenced by controlling parents, vanity, and cultural pressures. According to the authors' best knowledge minimal research has examined interactions with other factors, including gender and racial stereotypes involving this disorder. A common stereotype of this disease is that it mainly only affects Caucasian women and is very rarely seen in any other ethnicity. Previous literature has failed to investigate how visual body image and ethnic stereotypes affect the mental health of different ethnic groups, how various cultures impact the type of anorexia nervosa in the patient, and the different stereotypes associated with their eating disorder. Participants completed a pre-test questionnaire with vignettes, an image exposure portion, and a post-test questionnaire, which will all be evaluated and analyzed by ANOVA t-test and SPSS. Results showed that participants picked Caucasian females as more likely to have anorexia nervosa than those of Asian, Latin American, or African American descent subjects in both picture identification and vignettes. Future research should be conducted to further the results of this study by examining differences between gender stereotypes with anorexia nervosa as well as how sexuality has a role in perception.

Keywords: anorexia nervosa, ethnicity, stereotypes, eating disorders, perception

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Authors: B. C. Biermann

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This in-depth exploration investigates the transformative integration of urban vibrancy into contemporary interior design through the strategic incorporation of vivid wall pieces. Bridging the gap between public dynamism and private tranquility, this study delves into the nuanced methodologies, creative processes, and profound impacts of this innovative approach. Drawing inspiration from street art's dynamic language and the timeless allure of natural beauty, these artworks serve as conduits, orchestrating a dialogue that challenges traditional boundaries and redefines the relationship between external chaos and internal sanctuaries. The fusion of urban vibrancy with contemporary interior design represents a paradigm shift, where the inherent dynamism of public spaces harmoniously converges with the curated tranquility of private environments. This paper aims to explore the underlying principles, creative processes, and transformative impacts of integrating vivid wall pieces as instruments for bringing the "outside in." Employing an innovative and meticulous methodology, street art elements are synthesized with the refined aesthetics of contemporary design. This delicate balance necessitates a nuanced understanding of both artistic realms, ensuring a synthesis that captures the essence of urban energy while seamlessly blending with the sophistication of modern interior design. The creative process involves a strategic selection of street art motifs, colors, and textures that resonate with the organic beauty found in natural landscapes, creating a symbiotic relationship between the grittiness of the streets and the elegance of interior spaces. This groundbreaking approach defies traditional boundaries by integrating dynamic street art into interior spaces, blurring the demarcation between external chaos and internal tranquility. Vivid wall pieces serve as dynamic focal points, transforming physical spaces and challenging conventional perceptions of where art belongs. This redefinition asserts that boundaries are fluid and meant to be transcended. Case studies illustrate the profound impact of integrating vivid wall pieces on the aesthetic appeal of interior spaces. Urban vibrancy revitalizes the atmosphere, infusing it with palpable energy that resonates with the vivacity of public spaces. The curated tranquility of private interiors coexists harmoniously with the dynamic visual language of street art, fostering a unique and evolving relationship between inhabitants and their living spaces. Emphasizing harmonious coexistence, the paper underscores the potential for a seamless dialogue between public urban spaces and private interiors. The integration of vivid wall pieces acts as a bridge rather than a dichotomy, merging the dynamism of street art with the curated elegance of contemporary design. This unique visual tapestry transcends traditional categorizations, fostering a symbiotic relationship between contrasting worlds. In conclusion, this paper posits that the integration of vivid wall pieces represents a transformative tool for contemporary interior design, challenging and redefining conventional boundaries. By strategically bringing the "outside in," this approach transforms interior spaces and heralds a paradigm shift in the relationship between urban aesthetics and contemporary living. The ongoing narrative between urban vibrancy and interior design creates spaces that reflect the dynamic and ever-evolving nature of the surrounding environment.

Keywords: Art Integration, Contemporary Interior Design, Interior Space Transformation, Vivid Wall Pieces

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Authors: Emiko Suzuki

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Although fitness is defined as the body’s ability to respond to the demand of physical activity without undue fatigue in health science, in media oftentimes physical activity is presented as means to an attractive body rather than a fit and healthy one. Of all types of media, Instagram is becoming an increasingly persuasive source of information and advice on health and fitness, where individuals conceptualize what health and fitness mean for them. However, this user-generated and unregulated platform can be problematic, as it can communicate misleading information about health and fitness and possibly leading individuals to psychological problems such as eating disorders. In fact, previous research has shown that some messages that were posted with a tag that related to inspire others to do fitness, in fact, encouraged distancing the self from the internal needs of the body. For this reason, this present study aims to explore how health and fitness are communicated on Instagram by analyzing images and texts. A content analysis of images that were labeled with particular hashtags was performed, followed by a thematic analysis of texts from the same set of images. The result shows an interesting insight about messages about how health and fitness are communicated from companies through media, then digested and further shared among communities on Instagram. The study explores how the use of visual focused way of communicating health and fitness can lead to the dehumanization of human bodies.

Keywords: Instagram, fitness, dehumanization, body image, embodiment

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Authors: Tamara Roma, Emma Capulli

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Pregnancy and fertility, in other words, reproduction, has become, in the last half of the century, increasingly and globally controlled, medicalized, and regulated. The reflection proposed starts from the consequences of the inscription of reproduction into the neoliberal economic paradigm. The new biotechnologies developments have raised a new patriarchal justification for State’s control of uterus bodies and a new construction of knowledge about reproductive health. Moral discussion and juridification remove reproduction and non-reproduction from their personal and intimate context and frame them under words like “duties”, “rights”, “family planning”, “demography”, and “population policy”, reinvent them as “States business” and ultimately help to re/confirm a specific construct of fertility, motherhood, and family. Moreover, the interaction between the neoliberal economy and medical biotechnologies brought about a new formulation of the connection between feminine generative potential and value production. The widespread and contemporary debates on Medically Assisted Reproduction (MAR), surrogacy and abortion suggest the need for a “feminist/queer global bioethical discourse” capable of inserting itself into the official bioethical debate characterized by the traditional dichotomy of laic bioethics/Catholic bioethics. The contribution moves from a feminist bioethics perspective on reproductive technologies to introduce a feminist/queer global bioethics point of view on reproductive health. The comparison between reproduction and non-reproduction debates is useful to analyze and demonstrate how restrictive legislations, dichotomic bioethical discussion and medical control confirm and strengthens gender injustice in reproductive life. In fact, MAR, surrogacy, and abortion restrictions stem from a shared social and legal paradigm that depends on traditional gender roles revealing how the stratification of reproduction is based on multiple discrimination along the lines of gender, race, and class. In conclusion, the perspective of feminist/queer global bioethics tries to read the concept of universal reproductive justice, introducing an original point of view on reproductive health access.

Keywords: queer bioethics, reproductive health, reproductive justice, reproductive technologies

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Authors: Fernanda Miranda da Cruz

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This paper aims to systematize, descriptively and analytically, the relations between language, body and material world explored in a specific empirical context: everyday co-presence interactions between children diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disease ASD and various interlocutors. We will work based on 20 hours of an audiovisual corpus in Brazilian Portuguese language. This analysis focuses on 1) the analysis of daily interactions that have the presence/participation of subjects with a diagnosis of ASD based on an embodied interaction perspective; 2) the study of the status and role of gestures, body and material world in the construction and constitution of human interaction and its relation with linguistic-cognitive processes and Autistic Spectrum Disorders; 3) to highlight questions related to the field of videoanalysis, such as: procedures for recording interactions in complex environments (involving many participants, use of objects and body movement); the construction of audiovisual corpora for linguistic-interaction research; the invitation to a visual analytical mentality of human social interactions involving not only the verbal aspects that constitute it, but also the physical space, the body and the material world.

Keywords: autism spectrum disease, multimodality, social interaction, non-verbal interactions

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Authors: Ahreum Choi, Otgontuya Tsogbadrakh, Kwang-Hwan Jung

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Microbial rhodopsins are well-known seven-transmembrane proteins that have been extensively studied. These retinal-binding proteins have divided into two types. The type I is microbial rhodopsin, and type II (visual pigment) is expressed mostly in mammalian eyes. For type I rhodopsin, there are two main functions that are ion pumping activity and sensory transduction. Anabaena sensory rhodopsin (ASR) is one of the microbial rhodopsin with main function as photo-sensory transduction. Although ASR is expressed fairly well in Escherichia coli, the expression level is relatively less compare to Proteorhodopsin. In this study, full length of ASR was used to test for the expression influence by codon usage in E. coli. Eight amino acids of codon at N-terminal part of ASR were changed randomly with designed primers, which allow 8,192 nucleotide different cases. The codon changes were screened for the preferable codons of each residue, which have given higher expression yield. Among those 57 selected mutations, there are 24 color-enhanced E. coli colonies that contain ASR proteins, and it showed better expression level than the wild type ASR codon usage. This strongly suggests that high codon usage of only partial N-terminal of protein can increase the expression level of whole protein.

Keywords: 7-transmembrane, all-trans retinal, rhodopsin, codon-usage, protein expression

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Authors: Nida Amin, Fahad Tanveer, Hina Shabbir, Ayesha Saeed, Attiqa Riaz

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The gradual progression of corneal disorder keratoconus significantly impairs eyesight and quality of life, increasing the likelihood of depression. Using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) at the AL-Ibrahim Eye Hospital in Karachi, this study aimed to evaluate the occurrence of depression and anxiety symptoms in patients with keratoconus and to suggest better treatment. A descriptive-analytical study was conducted at Al-Ibrahim Eye Hospital Karachi from March to April 2022, and patients diagnosed with symptomatic keratoconus were recruited using a non-probability convenient sampling technique. After obtaining written informed consent from patients, keratoconus severity was assessed using visual acuity and corneal topography. Symptoms of anxiety and depression were assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HADS) Scale. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Spearman correlation coefficient. Of the 108 participants, 60 (56%) were female and 48 (44%) were male. Using the HADS scale, 44 (40.7%) patients were classified as normal with a HADS score of (0-7), 23 (21.3%) as borderline with a HADS score of (8-10) and 41 (38%) patients were diagnosed with anxiety and depression with a HADS score of (11-21). Depression and anxiety are highly prevalent among patients in advanced stages of the disease.

Keywords: cornea, keratoconus, anxiety, depression, corneal topography, mental health

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Authors: Teodora Vukovic, Christoph Hottiger, Noah Bubenhofer

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The development of VIAN-DH aims at bridging two linguistic approaches: conversation analysis/interactional linguistics (IL), so far a dominantly qualitative field, and computational/corpus linguistics and its quantitative and automated methods. Contemporary IL investigates the systematic organization of conversations and interactions composed of speech, gaze, gestures, and body positioning, among others. These highly integrated multimodal behaviour is analysed based on video data aimed at uncovering so called “multimodal gestalts”, patterns of linguistic and embodied conduct that reoccur in specific sequential positions employed for specific purposes. Multimodal analyses (and other disciplines using videos) are so far dependent on time and resource intensive processes of manual transcription of each component from video materials. Automating these tasks requires advanced programming skills, which is often not in the scope of IL. Moreover, the use of different tools makes the integration and analysis of different formats challenging. Consequently, IL research often deals with relatively small samples of annotated data which are suitable for qualitative analysis but not enough for making generalized empirical claims derived quantitatively. VIAN-DH aims to create a workspace where many annotation layers required for the multimodal analysis of videos can be created, processed, and correlated in one platform. VIAN-DH will provide a graphical interface that operates state-of-the-art tools for automating parts of the data processing. The integration of tools that already exist in computational linguistics and computer vision, facilitates data processing for researchers lacking programming skills, speeds up the overall research process, and enables the processing of large amounts of data. The main features to be introduced are automatic speech recognition for the transcription of language, automatic image recognition for extraction of gestures and other visual cues, as well as grammatical annotation for adding morphological and syntactic information to the verbal content. In the ongoing instance of VIAN-DH, we focus on gesture extraction (pointing gestures, in particular), making use of existing models created for sign language and adapting them for this specific purpose. In order to view and search the data, VIAN-DH will provide a unified format and enable the import of the main existing formats of annotated video data and the export to other formats used in the field, while integrating different data source formats in a way that they can be combined in research. VIAN-DH will adapt querying methods from corpus linguistics to enable parallel search of many annotation levels, combining token-level and chronological search for various types of data. VIAN-DH strives to bring crucial and potentially revolutionary innovation to the field of IL, (that can also extend to other fields using video materials). It will allow the processing of large amounts of data automatically and, the implementation of quantitative analyses, combining it with the qualitative approach. It will facilitate the investigation of correlations between linguistic patterns (lexical or grammatical) with conversational aspects (turn-taking or gestures). Users will be able to automatically transcribe and annotate visual, spoken and grammatical information from videos, and to correlate those different levels and perform queries and analyses.

Keywords: multimodal analysis, corpus linguistics, computational linguistics, image recognition, speech recognition

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Authors: Syong-Yang Chung, Xin-An Chen

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This study aims to explore the less well-known animation “Final Flight of the Osiris”, consisting of an initial exploration of the film color, storyline, and the simulacrum meanings of the roles, which leads to a further exploration of the light-shadow contrast and the psychological images presented by the screen colors and the characters. The research is based on literature review, and all data was compiled for the analysis of the visual vocabulary evolution of the characters. In terms of the structure, the relational study of the animation and the historical background of that time came first, including The Wachowskis’ and Andy Jones’ impact towards the cinematographic version and the animation version of “The Matrix”. Through literature review, the film color, the meaning and the relevant points were clarified. It was found in this research that “Final Flight of the Osiris” separates the realistic and virtual spaces by the changing the color tones; the "self" of the audience gradually dissolves into the "virtual" in the simulacra world, and the "Animatrix" has become a virtual field for the audience to understand itself about "existence" and "self".

Keywords: the matrix, the final flight of Osiris, Wachowski brothers, simulacres

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Authors: Paolo Pilloni, Fabrizio Mulas, Salvatore Carta

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Nowadays, several research studies point up that an active lifestyle is essential for physical and mental health benefits. Mobile phones have greatly influenced people’s habits and attitudes also in the way they exercise. Our research work is mainly focused on investigating how to exploit mobile technologies to favour people’s exertion experience. To this end, we developed an exertion framework users can exploit through a real world mobile application, called BLINDED, designed to act as a virtual personal trainer to support runners during their trainings. In this work, inspired by both previous findings in the field of interaction design for people with visual impairments, feedback gathered from real users of our framework, and positive results obtained from two experimentations, we present some new interaction facilities we designed to enhance the interaction experience during a training. The positive obtained results helped us to derive some interaction design recommendations we believe will be a valid support for designers of future mobile systems conceived to be used in circumstances where there are limited possibilities of interaction.

Keywords: human computer interaction, interaction design guidelines, persuasive mobile technologies for sport and health

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Authors: Karen Butler

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The LGBTQ youth of color face stigma related to both race and gender identity. Effectively dealing with racial/ethnic discrimination requires strong connections to family and one’s racial/ethnic group. However, LGBTQ youth of color seldom receive support from family, peer groups or church groups. Moreover, ethnic communities often perceive LGBTQ identities as a rejection of ethnic heritage. Thus, stigma places these young people at greater risk for substance use, violence, risky sexual behaviors, suicide, and homelessness. Offering a Queer Studies (QS) class is one way to facilitate a safer and more inclusive environment for LGBTQ students, faculty and staff. The discipline of Queer Studies encompasses theories and thinkers from numerous fields: cultural studies, gay and lesbian studies, race studies, women's studies, media, postmodernism, post-colonialism, psychoanalysis and more. We began our course development by researching existing programs and classes. Several course syllabi were examined and course materials such as readings, videos, and guest speakers were assessed for possible inclusion. We also employed informal survey methods with students and faculty in order to gauge interest in the course. We then developed a sample course syllabus and began the process of new course approval. Feedback thus far indicates that students of various sexual orientations and gender identities are interested in the course and understand the need to offer it; faculty in Psychology, Social Work, and Interdisciplinary Studies are interested in cross-listing the course; library staff is willing to assist with course material acquisition, and the administration is supportive. The purpose of this session is to 1) explore the various health and wellness issues facing LGBTQ students of color and 2) share our experience of developing a QS course in health education in order to address these needs. This process, from initial recognition of the need to a course offering, will be described and discussed in the hopes that participants will increase their awareness of the issues. A QS course would be an appropriate requirement for any number of majors as well as an elective for any major.

Keywords: black colleges, health education, LGBTQ, queer studies

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Authors: Babak Masoomian, Masoud Khorrami Nejad, Hamid Riazi Esfahani

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Purpose: To report the result of strabismus surgery in eye-salvaged retinoblastoma (Rb) patients. Methods: A retrospective case series including 18 patients with Rb and strabismus who underwent strabismus surgery after completing tumor treatment by a single pediatric ophthalmologist. Results: A total of 18 patients (10 females and 8 males) were included with a mean age of 13.3 ± 3.0 (range, 2-39) months at the time tumor presentation and 6.0 ± 1.5 (range, 4-9) years at the time of strabismus surgery. Ten (56%) patients had unilateral, and 8(44%) had bilateral involvement, and the most common worse eye tumor’s group was D (n=11), C (n=4), B (n=2) and E (n=1). Macula was involved by the tumors in 12 (67%) patients. The tumors were managed by intravenous chemotherapy (n=8, 47%), intra-arterial chemotherapy (n=7, 41%) and both (n=3, 17%). After complete treatment, the average time to strabismus surgery was 29.9 ± 20.5 (range, 12-84) months. Except for one, visual acuity was equal or less than 1.0 logMAR (≤ 20/200) in the affected eye. Seven (39%) patients had exotropia, 11(61%) had esotropia (P=0.346) and vertical deviation was found in 8 (48%) cases. The angle of deviation was 42.0 ± 10.4 (range, 30-60) prism diopter (PD) for esotropic and 35.7± 7.9 (range, 25-50) PD for exotropic patients (P=0.32) that after surgery significantly decreased to 8.5 ± 5.3 PD in esotropic cases and 5.9±6.7 PD in exotropic cases (P<0.001). The mean follow-up after surgery was 15.2 ± 2.0 (range, 10-24) months, in which 3 (17%) patients needed a second surgery. Conclusion: Strabismus surgery in treated Rb is safe, and results of the surgeries are acceptable and close to the general population. There was not associated with tumor recurrence or metastasis.

Keywords: retinoblastoma, strabismus, chemotherapy, surgery

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Authors: A. Morina, S. Ö. Muti, M. Öztürk

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Celiac disease is a chronic intestinal disease observed in individuals with gluten intolerance. In this study, our aim was to create a protein matrix to mimic the functional properties of gluten. For this purpose, rennet casein and four emulsifying salts (disodium phosphate (DSP), tetrasodium pyrophosphate (TSPP), sodium acid pyrophosphate (SAPP), and sodium hexametaphosphate (SHMP)) were investigated in gluten-free bread manufacture. Compositional, textural, and visual properties of the gluten-free bread dough and gluten-free breads were investigated by a two–level factorial experimental design with two-star points (α = 1.414) and two replicates of the center point. Manufacturing gluten-free bread with rennet casein and SHMP significantly increased the bread volume (P < 0.0001, R² = 97.8). In general, utilization of rennet casein with DSP and SAPP increased bread hardness while no difference was observed in samples manufactured with TSPP and SHMP. Except for TSPP, bread color was improved by the utilization of rennet casein and DSP, SAPP, and SHMP combinations. In conclusion, it is possible to manufacture gluten-free bread with acceptable texture and color by rennet casein and SHMP.

Keywords: celiac disease, gluten-free bread, emulsified salts, rennet casein, rice flour

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Authors: Chiedu C. Ifekandu, Olusegun Sangowawa, Jean E. Njab

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Background: Health care providers (HCPs) in Nigeria receive little or no training of the healthcare needs of men who have sex with men (MSM) limiting the quality and effectiveness of comprehensive HIV prevention and treatment services. Consequently, most MSM disguise themselves to access services which limit the quality of care provided partly due to challenges related to stigma and discrimination, and breach of confidentiality. Objective: To assess the knowledge of healthcare providers on effective intervention for MSM. Methods: We trained 122 HIV focal persons drawn from 60 health facilities from twelve Nigerian states. , the participants were requested to complete a pre-training questionnaire to assess their level of working experience with key populations as a baseline. Participants included male and female doctors, nurses and counselors/testers. A test was administered to measure their knowledge on MSM sexual risk practices, HIV prevention and healthcare needs and also to assess their attitudes (including homophobia) and beliefs and how it affects service uptake by key populations particularly MSM prior and immediately after the training to ascertain the impact of the training. Results: The mean age of the HCP was 38 years +/- SD Of the 122 HCPs (45 % female, 55 % male; 85 % counsellor/testers; 15 % doctors and nurses; 92 % working in government facilities) from 42 health facilities were trained, of which 105 attempted the test questions. At the baseline, few HCPs reported any prior sensitivity training on MSM. Most of the HCPs had limited knowledge of MSM sexual health needs. Over 90% of the HCPs believed that homosexuality is a mental illness. 8 % do not consider MSM, FSW and PWID as key populations for HIV infection. 45 % lacked knowledge on MSM anal sexual practices. The post-test showed that homophobic attitudes had decreased significantly by the end of the training; the health care providers have acquired basic knowledge compared to the pre-test. Conclusions: Scaling up MSM sensitivity training for Nigerian HCPs is likely to be a timely and effective means to improve their understanding of MSM-related health issues, reduce homophobic sentiments and enhance their capacity to provide responsive HIV prevention, treatment and care services in a supportive and non-stigmatizing environment.

Keywords: healthcare providers, key population, men who have sex with men, HCT

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Authors: V. B. Bastos, M. P. Lima, P. R. G. Kurka

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This paper applies to the creation of virtual 3D environments for the study and development of mobile robot image based navigation algorithms and techniques, which need to operate robustly and efficiently. The test of these algorithms can be performed in a physical way, from conducting experiments on a prototype, or by numerical simulations. Current simulation platforms for robotic applications do not have flexible and updated models for image rendering, being unable to reproduce complex light effects and materials. Thus, it is necessary to create a test platform that integrates sophisticated simulated applications of real environments for navigation, with data and image processing. This work proposes the development of a high-level platform for building 3D model’s environments and the test of image-based navigation algorithms for mobile robots. Techniques were used for applying texture and lighting effects in order to accurately represent the generation of rendered images regarding the real world version. The application will integrate image processing scripts, trajectory control, dynamic modeling and simulation techniques for physics representation and picture rendering with the open source 3D creation suite - Blender.

Keywords: simulation, visual navigation, mobile robot, data visualization

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Authors: Mpho Mokoatle, Darlington Mapiye, James Mashiyane, Stephanie Muller, Gciniwe Dlamini

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Great advances in high-throughput sequencing technologies have resulted in availability of huge amounts of sequencing data in public and private repositories, enabling a holistic understanding of complex biological phenomena. Sequence data are used for a wide range of applications such as gene annotations, expression studies, personalized treatment and precision medicine. However, this rapid growth in sequence data poses a great challenge which calls for novel data processing and analytic methods, as well as huge computing resources. In this work, a machine and statistical learning approach for DNA sequence classification based on $k$-mer representation of sequence data is proposed. The approach is tested using whole genome sequences of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) isolates to (i) reduce the size of genomic sequence data, (ii) identify an optimum size of k-mers and utilize it to build classification models, (iii) predict the phenotype from whole genome sequence data of a given bacterial isolate, and (iv) demonstrate computing challenges associated with the analysis of whole genome sequence data in producing interpretable and explainable insights. The classification models were trained on 104 whole genome sequences of MTB isoloates. Cluster analysis showed that k-mers maybe used to discriminate phenotypes and the discrimination becomes more concise as the size of k-mers increase. The best performing classification model had a k-mer size of 10 (longest k-mer) an accuracy, recall, precision, specificity, and Matthews Correlation coeffient of 72.0%, 80.5%, 80.5%, 63.6%, and 0.4 respectively. This study provides a comprehensive approach for resampling whole genome sequencing data, objectively selecting a k-mer size, and performing classification for phenotype prediction. The analysis also highlights the importance of increasing the k-mer size to produce more biological explainable results, which brings to the fore the interplay that exists amongst accuracy, computing resources and explainability of classification results. However, the analysis provides a new way to elucidate genetic information from genomic data, and identify phenotype relationships which are important especially in explaining complex biological mechanisms.

Keywords: AWD-LSTM, bootstrapping, k-mers, next generation sequencing

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Authors: Darlington Mapiye, Mpho Mokoatle, James Mashiyane, Stephanie Muller, Gciniwe Dlamini

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Great advances in high-throughput sequencing technologies have resulted in availability of huge amounts of sequencing data in public and private repositories, enabling a holistic understanding of complex biological phenomena. Sequence data are used for a wide range of applications such as gene annotations, expression studies, personalized treatment and precision medicine. However, this rapid growth in sequence data poses a great challenge which calls for novel data processing and analytic methods, as well as huge computing resources. In this work, a machine and statistical learning approach for DNA sequence classification based on k-mer representation of sequence data is proposed. The approach is tested using whole genome sequences of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) isolates to (i) reduce the size of genomic sequence data, (ii) identify an optimum size of k-mers and utilize it to build classification models, (iii) predict the phenotype from whole genome sequence data of a given bacterial isolate, and (iv) demonstrate computing challenges associated with the analysis of whole genome sequence data in producing interpretable and explainable insights. The classification models were trained on 104 whole genome sequences of MTB isoloates. Cluster analysis showed that k-mers maybe used to discriminate phenotypes and the discrimination becomes more concise as the size of k-mers increase. The best performing classification model had a k-mer size of 10 (longest k-mer) an accuracy, recall, precision, specificity, and Matthews Correlation coeffient of 72.0 %, 80.5 %, 80.5 %, 63.6 %, and 0.4 respectively. This study provides a comprehensive approach for resampling whole genome sequencing data, objectively selecting a k-mer size, and performing classification for phenotype prediction. The analysis also highlights the importance of increasing the k-mer size to produce more biological explainable results, which brings to the fore the interplay that exists amongst accuracy, computing resources and explainability of classification results. However, the analysis provides a new way to elucidate genetic information from genomic data, and identify phenotype relationships which are important especially in explaining complex biological mechanisms

Keywords: AWD-LSTM, bootstrapping, k-mers, next generation sequencing

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Authors: Agastya Pratap Singh

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Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have emerged as powerful tools in the fields of image recognition and anomaly detection due to their ability to model complex data distributions and generate realistic images. This systematic review explores recent advancements and applications of GANs in both image recognition and anomaly detection tasks. We discuss various GAN architectures, such as DCGAN, CycleGAN, and StyleGAN, which have been tailored to improve accuracy, robustness, and efficiency in visual data analysis. In image recognition, GANs have been used to enhance data augmentation, improve classification models, and generate high-quality synthetic images. In anomaly detection, GANs have proven effective in identifying rare and subtle abnormalities across various domains, including medical imaging, cybersecurity, and industrial inspection. The review also highlights the challenges and limitations associated with GAN-based methods, such as instability during training and mode collapse, and suggests future research directions to overcome these issues. Through this review, we aim to provide researchers with a comprehensive understanding of the capabilities and potential of GANs in transforming image recognition and anomaly detection practices.

Keywords: generative adversarial networks, image recognition, anomaly detection, DCGAN, CycleGAN, StyleGAN, data augmentation

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Authors: Derya Sarı, Banu Karasah

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In the recent years, urban green areas decrease dramatically as a result of increasing industrialization and population growth. At the same time, green spaces provide many ecosystem services such as controls of air pollution, noise reduction, prevents flooding and reduces the stress in the urban areas. Therefore, the plants help to these areas to get more livable and active, and also plants are one of the most significant identity elements in these open spaces. Roof gardens comes significant design comprehension as a result of global warming and also they contribute to cities with regard to ecological, economic, visual and recreational aspects. This study is mainly based on evaluation potential of green roofs and xeriscape planting design approach of Artvin (Turkey) known that generally has a remarkable floristic richness. Artvin is located on a sloping terrain, and the amount of green spaces that can be used is very limited in this city. Therefore, green roofs approach should be evaluated to supply urban green space sustainability. This study shows that it is appropriate about 20 perennial plants for green roofs and xeriscape planting design in Artvin city center. Usage of native plant species would be support to sustainable urban green spaces.

Keywords: Artvin, green roofs, urban green spaces, xeriscape planting

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Authors: Katherine van Kampen, Reva Qiu, Patricia Farrugia

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Orthopedic surgery has fallen behind when it comes to gender diversity despite medical school classes reaching gender parity. Studies have shown that orthopedic surgery would require 117 years to reach gender parity with the trainee population, the longest time than any other specialty, including neurosurgery, urology, and otolaryngology. The barriers that face women in orthopedic surgery have been well researched, with contributing factors being on-going stereotypes of the field, lack of women mentors, and gender roles outside of the hospital. Furthermore, women in orthopedic surgery face barriers to achieve promotion, publications, and leadership roles leading to a “leaky pipeline,” resulting in less and less women in key academic roles in the field. It is a complex topic with barriers and challenges faced in medical school, residency, and throughout employment. Our scoping review seeks to understand these challenges across a temporal timeline and to further characterize such barriers and the driving factors behind them. To this date, authors did not find a scoping review that seeks to look broadly at factors impacting the decreased amount of women entering orthopedics and the factors that cause women to hit a “glass ceiling”, the idea that women will not achieve the same success as men despite the same qualifications, upon entering the field. This scoping review is the first of its kind to attempt to summarize the large body of research focusing on women in orthopedic surgery from the preconceptions in medical school impacting their desire to pursue orthopedics all the way to employment, including challenges to academic success and financial success. Literature databases will be searched with the following key terms: women, gender inequity, workforce, orthopedics, and citations will be hand searched and collected. Articles included will discuss gender inequality within orthopedics with non-english, patient related articles excluded. Full-text review will seek to characterize the specific barriers faced by women across medical school, residency, and employment. Themes that are expected to be highlighted are workforce data, women in orthopedic leadership, medical student perspectives on the specialty, and gender bias and discrimination in the field.

Keywords: orthopedics, gender equity, workforce, women in surgery

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Authors: Park Eri, Sklad Marcin, Tsirogianni Stavroula

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In a world where there is increasing exchange and movement of populations groups, and interconnectedness, there are plenty of opportunities for mutual cultural enrichment. However, in everyday life, relations among different cultural groups do not go that smoothly often resulting in discrimination, inequalities and violence. The increasing differentiation of roles, values and worldviews raise a lot of tensions and dilemmas for the state and people -especially in western liberal societies- about issues of acceptance, fairness, justice, autonomy, plurality, freedom, equality and cohesion. Cultural diversity requires a deeper understanding of the roots, meaning and consequences of group differences. We argue, that a psychology from the standpoint of the subject needs to be developed further according to new societal needs. This means within a globalised society, issues regarding the construction of the other as another have become of utmost importance. In constructing the other human beings construct their ideal and possible worlds and meanings about their lives and their significance by drawing on a set of cultural norms, beliefs and values embedded in the different contexts whereby they find themselves in. In this article, we are describing a series of exercises developed in collaboration with University students in the Netherlands that have been piloted with undergraduate 2nd year University Psychology students. These exercises aimed at making tangible and obvious how students apply different moral principles and norms to regulate relationships, which are linked to hegemonic ideological forces. The exercises were in the form of thought experiments that included 8 moral dilemmas, inspired by the moral foundations theory, that touched on different moral principles. The moral dilemmas were built onto each other in incremental steps: from a very tangible/hands-on level to more challenging and demanding ones which require to step into pre-existing networks on knowledge and discourses. After the execution of every dilemma, a discussion followed, which is focused on building links between the ‘theme of the exercise’ and participants’ own lives experiences. In this paper, we provide an evaluation of the methodology used through a discursive analysis of the discussion between the students and the teacher.

Keywords: citizenship, moral dilemmas, social justice, education

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Authors: P. S. Jagadeesh Kumar, Mingmin Pan, Yang Yung, Tracy Lin Huan

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Glaucoma is a group of visual maladies represented by the scheduled optic nerve neuropathy; means to the increasing dwindling in vision ground, resulting in loss of sight. In this paper, a novel support vector machine based retinal therapeutic for glaucoma using machine learning algorithm is conservative. The algorithm has fitting pragmatism; subsequently sustained on correlation clustering mode, it visualizes perfect computations in the multi-dimensional space. Support vector clustering turns out to be comparable to the scale-space advance that investigates the cluster organization by means of a kernel density estimation of the likelihood distribution, where cluster midpoints are idiosyncratic by the neighborhood maxima of the concreteness. The predicted planning has 91% attainment rate on data set deterrent on a consolidation of 500 realistic images of resolute and glaucoma retina; therefore, the computational benefit of depending on the cluster overlapping system pedestal on machine learning algorithm has complete performance in glaucoma therapeutic.

Keywords: machine learning algorithm, correlation clustering mode, cluster overlapping system, glaucoma, kernel density estimation, retinal therapeutic

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Authors: Kwizera Mireille, Kharesh Ahmed Al-Khadher

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This paper explores the critical issue of girls' and women's right to education, exploring the challenges they face in accessing and benefiting from quality education. Gender disparities in education have persisted globally, hindering social progress and sustainable development. The fundamental importance of education in empowering individuals and promoting gender equality is acknowledged, making it imperative to address the disparities that hinder girls' and women's educational opportunities. The paper discusses various factors contributing to these disparities, including cultural norms(common in third-world countries), socio-economic constraints, and systemic biases. Drawing on a wide range of scholarly sources, empirical studies, and reports from international organizations, this paper highlights the broader societal benefits of educating girls and women, ranging from improved health outcomes to enhanced economic development and greater social and political participation. The paper further outlines strategies and initiatives aimed at overcoming these challenges. These include policy interventions, community-based programs, and international collaborations that work towards eliminating gender-based discrimination in educational settings. The paper emphasizes the significance of not only ensuring access but also fostering an inclusive and safe learning environment that encourages girls and women to thrive academically and personally. By analyzing successful case studies and best practices from around the world, the paper offers insights into effective approaches that can be adopted to enhance girls' and women's right to education globally. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of raising awareness of girl's and women's education. In conclusion, this paper underscores the urgency of prioritizing and protecting the educational rights of girls and women's right to education as a fundamental human right and catalyst for gender equality. It calls for a concerted effort from governments, NGOs, educational institutions, and society as a whole to create an equitable and empowering educational landscape that contributes to gender equality and sustainable development.

Keywords: empowerment, gender equality, inclusive education, right to education

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Authors: Shatarupa Thakurta Roy

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Along the limelight of mainstream academic practices in Indian art, exist a significant lot of habitual art practices that are mutually susceptible in their contemporary forms. Narrative folk paintings of regional India has successfully dispersed to its audience social messages through pulsating pictures and orations. The paper consists of images from narrative scroll paintings on ‘Ramayana’ theme from various neighboring states as well as districts in India, describing their subtle differences in style of execution, method, and use of material. Despite sharing commonness in the choice of subject matter, habitual and ceremonial Indian folk art in its formative phase thrived within isolated locations to yield in remarkable variety in the art styles. The differences in style took place district wise, cast wise and even gender wise. An open flow is only evident in the contemporary expressions as a result of substantial changes in social structures, mode of communicative devices, cross-cultural exposures and multimedia interactivities. To decipher the complex nature of popular cultural taste of contemporary India it is important to categorically identify its root in vernacular symbolism. The realization of modernity through European primitivism was rather elevated as a perplexed identity in Indian cultural margin in the light of nationalist and postcolonial ideology. To trace the guiding factor that has still managed to obtain ‘Indianness’ in today’s Indian art, researchers need evidences from the past that are yet to be listed in most instances. They are commonly created on ephemeral foundations. The artworks are also found in endangered state and hence, not counted much friendly for frequent handling. The museums are in dearth of proper technological guidelines to preserve them. Even though restoration activities are emerging in the country, the existing withered and damaged artworks are in threat to perish. An immediacy of digital achieving is therefore envisioned as an alternative to save this cultural legacy. The method of this study is, two folded. It primarily justifies the richness of the evidences by conducting categorical aesthetic analysis. The study is supported by comments on the stylistic variants, thematic aspects, and iconographic identities alongside its anthropological and anthropomorphic significance. Further, it explores the possible ways of cultural preservation to ensure cultural sustainability that includes technological intervention in the form of digital transformation as an altered paradigm for better accessibility to the available recourses. The study duly emphasizes on visual description in order to culturally interpret and judge the rare visual evidences following Feldman’s four-stepped method of formal analysis combined with thematic explanation. A habitual design that emerges and thrives within complex social circumstances may experience change placing its principle philosophy at risk by shuffling and altering with time. A tradition that respires in the modern setup struggles to maintain timeless values that operate its creative flow. Thus, the paper hypothesizes the survival and further growth of this practice within the dynamics of time and concludes in realization of the urgency to transform the implicitness of its knowledge into explicit records.

Keywords: aesthetic, identity, implicitness, paradigm

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Authors: Rosdyana Mangir Irawan Kusuma, Wei-Chun Kao, Ho-Thi Trang, Yu-Yen Ou, Kai-Lung Hua

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Stock market prediction is still a challenging problem because there are many factors that affect the stock market price such as company news and performance, industry performance, investor sentiment, social media sentiment, and economic factors. This work explores the predictability in the stock market using deep convolutional network and candlestick charts. The outcome is utilized to design a decision support framework that can be used by traders to provide suggested indications of future stock price direction. We perform this work using various types of neural networks like convolutional neural network, residual network and visual geometry group network. From stock market historical data, we converted it to candlestick charts. Finally, these candlestick charts will be feed as input for training a convolutional neural network model. This convolutional neural network model will help us to analyze the patterns inside the candlestick chart and predict the future movements of the stock market. The effectiveness of our method is evaluated in stock market prediction with promising results; 92.2% and 92.1 % accuracy for Taiwan and Indonesian stock market dataset respectively.

Keywords: candlestick chart, deep learning, neural network, stock market prediction

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Authors: Zeinab Farhat, Nicolas Errien, Romuald Wernert, Véronique Verriele, Frédéric Amiard, Philippe Daniel

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Ovarian cancer, also known as the silent killer, is the fifth most common cancer among women worldwide, and its death rate is higher than that of other gynecological cancers. The low survival rate of women with high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma highlights the critical need for the development of new methods for early detection and diagnosis of the disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate if Raman spectroscopy combined with chemometric methods such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) could differentiate between cancerous and normal tissues from different types of samples, such as paraffin embedding, chemical deparaffinized, formalin-fixed and fresh samples of the same normal and malignant ovarian tissue. The method was applied specifically to two critical spectral regions: the signature region (860-1000 〖cm〗^(-1)) and the high-frequency region (2800-3100 〖cm〗^(-1) ). The mean spectra of paraffin-embedded in normal and malignant tissues showed almost similar intensity. On the other hand, the mean spectra of normal and cancer tissues from chemical deparaffinized, formalin-fixed, and fresh samples show significant intensity differences. These spectral differences reflect variations in the molecular composition of the tissues, particularly lipids and proteins. PCA, which was applied to distinguish between cancer and normal tissues, was performed on whole spectra and on selected regions—the PCA score plot of paraffin-embedded shows considerable overlap between the two groups. However, the PCA score of chemicals deparaffinized, formalin-fixed, and fresh samples showed a good discrimination of tissue types. Our findings were validated by analyses of a set of samples whose status (normal and cancerous) was not previously known. The results of this study suggest that Raman Spectroscopy associated with PCA methods has the capacity to provide clinically significant differentiation between normal and cancerous ovarian tissues.

Keywords: Raman spectroscopy, ovarian cancer, signal processing, Principal Component Analysis, classification

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Authors: Jiabei Zhang, Ying Qi

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The purpose of this study was to develop a descriptive profile of the adapted physical activity research using single subject experimental designs. All research articles using single subject experimental designs published in the journal of Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly from 1984 to 2013 were employed as the data source. Each of the articles was coded in a subcategory of seven categories: (a) the size of sample; (b) the age of participants; (c) the type of disabilities; (d) the type of data analysis; (e) the type of designs, (f) the independent variable, and (g) the dependent variable. Frequencies, percentages, and trend inspection were used to analyze the data and develop a profile. The profile developed characterizes a small portion of research articles used single subject designs, in which most researchers used a small sample size, recruited children as subjects, emphasized learning and behavior impairments, selected visual inspection with descriptive statistics, preferred a multiple baseline design, focused on effects of therapy, inclusion, and strategy, and measured desired behaviors more often, with a decreasing trend over years.

Keywords: adapted physical activity research, single subject experimental designs, physical education, sport science

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Authors: S. Matour, M. Mahdavinejad, R. Fayaz

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Daylight utilization is a key factor in achieving visual and thermal comfort, and energy savings in integrated building design. However, lack of measured data related to this topic has become a major challenge with the increasing need for integrating lighting concepts and simulations in the early stages of design procedures. The current paper deals with the values of daylight illuminance on horizontal and south facing vertical surfaces; the data are estimated using IESNA model and measured values of the horizontal and vertical illuminance, and a regression model with an acceptable linear correlation is obtained. The resultant illuminance frequency curves are useful for estimating daylight availability on south facing surfaces in Tehran. In addition, the relationship between indirect vertical illuminance and the corresponding global horizontal illuminance is analyzed. A simple parametric equation is proposed in order to predict the vertical illumination on a shaded south facing surface. The equation correlates the ratio between the vertical and horizontal illuminance to the solar altitude and is used with another relationship for prediction of the vertical illuminance. Both equations show good agreement, which allows for calculation of indirect vertical illuminance on a south facing surface at any time throughout the year.

Keywords: Tehran daylight availability, horizontal illuminance, vertical illuminance, diffuse illuminance

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Authors: Claudia Pisano

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The Italian shockumentary Mondo cane (1962), directed by Gualtiero Jacopetti, Paolo Cavara, and Franco Prosperi, has often been criticized for its supposed racist and colonialist stances. Several critics consider it a film that proclaims, without explicitly mentioning it, the superiority of the white Euro-American individual over the people who do not belong to white-western societies. This paper proposes a different interpretation of the way in which Mondo cane engages with the discourse of race. Through an analysis of crucial scenes and of the relationship between images and voice-over, and through a comparison between the representation of non-white societies in Mondo cane and in some popular Italian newsreels of the 50s-60s, such as 'La Settimana Incom' and 'Mondo Libero,' the paper argues that Mondo cane debunks the western-white superiority that, according to some critics, the film would promote. The continuous and rapid alternance of scenes set in the western world, for example in Europe or in the United States, and scenes set in exotic countries inhabited by non-white peoples highlights the commonalities between these far-away realities, rather than pointing out the superiority of the white-western one. In addition, the subtle irony employed by the voice-over distances Mondo cane from the newsreels that it much resembles for its documentary style. Mondo cane’s treatment and representation of race is analyzed in the light of the work of Australian Aboriginal anthropologist Aileen Moreton-Robinson, which is based on key concepts such as whiteness and whiteness invisibility. Whiteness is defined as the invisible and omnipresent norm based on which everything that does not belong to the white world is labeled as an odd and inferior 'other.' To overcome racial discrimination, it is necessary to make whiteness visible; that is to say, to deprive it of that aura of normalcy and unquestionable righteousness that surrounds it. This essay argues that Mondo cane participates in the process of making whiteness visible through the confrontation of the white people with the visible 'other'. Because the film shows that the common features on which this confrontation is based are violence and bestiality, the paper suggests that the film does not support the idea of the white world being superior to the non-white; on the contrary, it underlines that the entire world is characterized by the same shocking savagery.

Keywords: irony, race, shockumentary, whiteness, whiteness invisibility

Procedia PDF Downloads 121