Abstract The painful history of slavery has profoundly affected the identities and social interactions of Afro-Caribbean migrants, whose descendants continue to contend with prejudice and socio-economic marginalization. Andrea Levy's semi-autobiographical novel, The Long Song (2010), traces the turbulent history of Jamaica in the nineteenth century through the lens of Miss Kitty, a character based on Levy's great-great-great grandmother, who was born a slave on the plantation Amity in Saint Catherine's parish. The narrative blends the historical with the fictional and depicts various environmental contexts, inscribed meanings, and human exchanges, including the prominence of social situations perceived through race and class tensions ironically reconstructed through social interactions. Levy boldly broadens the understanding of freedom and subjectivity contested beyond the abolition of slavery.The novel raises compelling issues concerning the construction and negotiation of identity within the context of colonialism, slavery, and the emergent plantation economy in the Caribbean. Levy deals with the notion of identity, an ambiguous term aggregating entangled layers of representational frameworks, contextual meanings, and social negotiations inscribed within the intricacies of cultural encounters. The analysis draws on broadening horizons on identity theory, offering different constructs of identity inscribed within the narrative strands of The Long Song, taking on the complexity of racial stigma, the misrepresentation and projection of black identity through colonial discourse, and the entangled social interactions and exchanges through which identity is constructed and negotiated within contested socio-racial environments.Levy's notion of identity implies a form of social construction performed through the negotiation of increasingly-engaged modes of representation within a complex fabric of social codes, customs, practices, dialects, and worldviews punctuated through the entanglement of one's self and multiple alterities. The precision and nuance of her observation cause the character to realize the "dangerous" assumptions of the English and an awareness of "contested terrain." The negotiation and representation of racialized identity echo an unsettling realization of race triggered by her isolation in the white institution's womb marked by the religious overtone of the day. Kitty contends with the constant projection of her and her fellow slaves' blackness beyond the negative perception construing unreliability, deceitfulness, and brutishness while evoking exoticism and primitivism. The multifaceted engagements with the surround are conveyed through Kitty's subjective first-person narration complemented by different modes of enunciation, including the shifting narration of the slave owner's white wife and the authoritative voice of Ms. Annie, the largely absent historian.
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To enhance the structural performance of concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) columns, various strengthening techniques have been proposed, including the use of internal steel stiffeners, external wrapping with carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets, and embedded steel elements. However, the behavior of concrete-filled stainless-steel tube (CFSST) columns remains insufficiently explored. This study numerically investigates the axial performance of square CFSST columns internally strengthened with embedded I-section steel profiles under biaxial eccentric loading. Finite element (FE) simulations were conducted using ABAQUS v. 6.2, and the developed models were validated against experimental results from the literature. A comprehen
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Dyes are extensively water-soluble and toxic chemicals. The disposing of wastewater rich with such chemicals has severely impacted surface water quality (rivers and lakes). In the current study, an anionic dye, methyl orange, were extracted from wastewater fluids using bulk liquid membranes supplemented with an anionic carrier (Aliquat 336 (QCI)). Parameters including solvent type (carbon tetrachloride and chloroform), membrane stirring speed (100-250 rpm), mixing speed of both phases (50-100 rpm), The feed pH (2-12) and implemented temperature (35-60 °C) were thoroughly analyzed to determine the effect of such variables on extraction effectiveness. Furthermore, the effect of methyl orange (10-50 ppm) in the feed stage and NaOH (0
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A novel demountable shear connector for precast steel-concrete composite bridges is presented. The connector uses high-strength steel bolts, which are fastened to the top flange of the steel beam with the aid of a special locking nut configuration that prevents bolts from slipping within their holes. Moreover, the connector promotes accelerated construction and overcomes the typical construction tolerance issues of precast structures. Most importantly, the connector allows bridge disassembly. Therefore, it can address different bridge deterioration scenarios with minimum disturbance to traffic flow including the following: (1) precast deck panels can be rapidly uplifted and replaced; (2) connectors can be rapidly removed and replaced; and (
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A new Ni(II) nanostructured chelating system (DHN) was introduced for selective optical heavy-metal ion sensing in an aqueous medium. The cooperative chelating system comprising 8-hydroxyquinoline (8-HQ) and dimethylglyoxime (DMG) has been developed for the first time in association with fibre optic sensing for selective optical heavy-metal ion sensing in an aqueous medium. The Ni(II) nanocompound fluoresces upon 578 nm excitation, showing a highly sensitive optical response with a linear calibration curve in the range 0–100 ng/mL. The regression equation of the calibration curve is y = 0.0035x + 0.9990, which indicates very good linearity, implying R2 = 0.999 with high sensitivity (calibration slope of 0.0035) and low baseline noise (bla
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Automated detection of Dubas palm infestation by image processing techniques has practical significance as it can improve agricultural efficiency, increase crop yield and quality, protect the environment, and provide data-driven insights. It also reduces the human effort required for pest control and enhances sustainability. In this study, we aimed to automate the detection of Dubas bug infestation in palm trees using deep learning with transfer learning residual neural networks. Based on four models: InceptionResNetV2, ResNet18, ResNet50, and ResNet101, the data used in this study were obtained by drone photography, many images were taken, and then the infected area was extracted. Using two types of data, 185 infected images and 185 health
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