In the wake of a disturbing decades-long trend in both print and visual media—the appropriation of Black history and culture—another trend is observed in works of African American fiction: the reclamation of the appropriated imagery, in both neo-slave narratives and works of Afrofuturism. The image focused on specifically in this paper is that of the ship, which I argue serves at least two identifiable functions in Black fiction: first, to address the historical treatment of Africans and their American descendants, and secondly, to demonstrate Black progress and potential. Through an exploration of three works of African American fiction, works that take their Black protagonists beyond the ship's dreadful hold, the reader can see the important themes being channeled: Charles Johnson's Middle Passage sets a course on how to arrive at true freedom, enacting a process of Black liberation that begins with learning how to survive "in the wake," a concept derived Christina Sharpe's work In the Wake: On Blackness and Being. Rivers Solomon's An Unkindness of Ghosts demonstrates not only the effects of "the hold," but how the hold itself has evolved from its origins on the slave ship; as new holds are constructed and demanded by society, rebellion is often necessary to dismantle them. Lastly, Octavia Butler's Dawn exposes the threat of neocolonialism, as well as the methodology under which subjection and enslavement is often justified. In each text, the protagonists exercise their empowerment to demonstrate that Black individuals possess the ability to change not only our nation, not only our world, but our entire universe. By tracking the evolution of ship in African American literature, a transformation is witnessed as the ship shifts from being an image of despair to an image of progress.

This thesis presents the results of a study on diamonds from the Artemisia kimberlite, Nunavut, Canada. This study integrates the isotopic, chemical and physical characteristics of the diamonds in an attempt to provide insight into the nature of the micro-/macro-diamond genetic relationship, and its possible implication pertaining to the use of size frequency distributions in modern kimberlite exploration programs. Despite geochemical commonalities of the Artemisia micro- and macro-diamonds, distinct signatures are observed, particularly in regards to enriched and depleted carbon isotopic compositions, the abundance of nitrogen and hydrogen impurities and different resorption histories. This implies that, despite an observed lognormal size frequency distribution for Artemisia diamonds, micro- and macro-diamonds do not represent a single population at this locality.

<p>Responding to African American literary criticism's recent engagements with contemporary U.S. imprisonment, <italic>From Slave Ship to Supermax</italic> traces the development of a heretofore un-theorized tradition in African American literature in which fiction writers bring to light the voice, critical thinking, and literary production of actual prisoner abuse survivors. This dissertation treats novelists James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Charles Johnson, and Ernest Gaines as the contemporary prison's literary intermediaries, as writers whose fictional narratives of jailhouse beatings, rape and wounding on slave ships, and state-sponsored execution are inspired and haunted by the critically-unexamined abuse stories of late-twentieth century prisoners. Drawing from the field of African American literary theory, political prisoners' writings, as well as prisoners' low-circulating zines, journals, and pamphlets, I argue that the production and distribution of abuse narratives by African American fiction's captive characters illuminate the clandestine and insurgent literary practices of actual abused prisoners. This revelatory work accomplished by Baldwin, Morrison, Johnson, and Gaines demonstrates the radical utility of African American fiction at a moment in which prisoner abuse is widespread, underrepresented, and rarely documented in a way that affords the abused prisoner any measure of authorial control. In contradistinction to the victimization narratives that typify mainstream prisoner abuse stories, stories which appear in the human rights literature of advocacy organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, this dissertation concludes that contemporary African American novelists emphasize the authorial control of abused captives and thus make apparent the rich complexities of their interior lives and the way in which the repressive spaces to which</p><p>they are confined are also generative sites for reimagining the self and community.</p> / Dissertation

Le présent travail s'intéresse aux processus de redéfinition identitaire et de reconfiguration des rapports interétatiques se manifestant au sein du groupe d'États-nations slavo-oriental depuis le démantèlement de l'URSS. Fondamentalement, son objectif est double. Il s'agit d'abord de vérifier l'hypothèse d'un groupe d'États-nations slavo-oriental distinct, ayant des propriétés particulières dont les effets s'observent sur les processus de redéfinition identitaire et de reconfiguration des rapports interétatiques entre la Russie, l'Ukraine et le Belarus. Il s'agit ensuite de trouver la clef interprétative permettant de comprendre la dynamique ou la logique interne des interactions qui s'observent au sein d'un tel groupe, à la fois frontalier de l'Europe et de l'Asie. Bien qu'il s'agisse, en réalité, d'une sorte d'anthropologie de la diplomatie postsoviétique, ce travail s'inscrit entièrement dans le champ disciplinaire des Relations internationales. Les discours des hommes politiques influents, les documents juridiques qu'ils ont fait adopter ainsi que les commentaires et les réactions qu'ils ont suscités auprès des experts et des masses forment le terrain empirique à l'étude. Reformulée dans le langage théorique de l'approche constructiviste cette thèse aspire, dans un premier temps, à mettre en relief la macrostructure (à la fois matérielle et idéelle) constitutive d'un sous-système commun aux trois (et seulement aux trois) États-nations successeurs de l'URSS à majorité slavo-orientale et orthodoxe. À cet égard, la présente étude vient confirmer que l'histoire militaire, économique, juridique, religieuse et linguistique génère une structure intersubjective commune et particulière aux Slaves de l'Est. Celle-ci se manifeste par cette croyance, constamment débattue, d'appartenir à une seule et même famille, dont le fondement est à la fois ethnolinguistique et historique. Son existence génère une tension dialectique permanente et unique entre, d'une part, le sentiment de fraternité ethnolinguistique et religieuse et, d'autre part, les rivalités liées au partage de l'héritage d'un passé commun, lequel s'étend de la Rous à l'URSS. En second lieu, ce travail propose d'identifier les microstructures (matérielles et idéelles) explicatives des particularités de chacune des unités étatiques-nationales du sous-système. Ce travail démontre, par le biais d'une analyse des facteurs militaire, économique, juridique, religieux et linguistique susceptibles d'affecter la politique étrangère de chacun des États-nations à l'étude, que les comparaisons jouent un rôle constitutif des personnalités postsoviétiques de la Russie, de l'Ukraine et du Belarus. Cette thèse fait ainsi valoir que les dirigeants tentent de définir leur État-nation d'une façon qui soit tant gratifiante que viable, mais que ce processus n'est pas linéaire et prévisible. Le développement de la personnalité simultanément étatique et nationale constitue plutôt un mécanisme d'apprentissage par essais-erreurs dans lequel chacun, à sa manière, se compare aux autres unités du sous-système. Puisqu'elle oscille entre l'optimisme d'une confédération pacifique et le pessimisme d'une prédation vorace entre ses unités, il appert que la macrostructure sous-systémique à l'étude ne saurait être classée dans l'un des idéaux-types « hobbesien », « lockéen » ou « kantien », tels que décrits par Alexander Wendt. Afin d'expliquer et de mieux comprendre ces passages rapides entre les épisodes de collaboration et les épisodes de confrontation, la présente thèse explore un autre idéal-type de structure intersubjective dont la forme, particulièrement instable, serait de type « familiale ». En dernière analyse, afin d'évaluer la valeur heuristique du prisme interprétatif que serait la métaphore de la famille, ce travail examine les séquences d'interaction triangulaire entre les États-nations slavo-orientaux au cours des années 1990-2010. Sans prétendre pouvoir surmonter la difficulté consistant à identifier des critères stricts et précis de falsifiabilité (caractéristique de tout modèle théorique parcimonieux), cette thèse fait valoir les mérites d'un cadre analytique comparatif et longitudinal fondé sur la métaphore de la famille et permettant à la fois d'expliquer et de comprendre les rapports politiques postsoviétiques chez les Slaves de l'Est. Par cette analyse sous-systémique, l'étude permet d'approfondir le débat sur les mérites et les limites de l'approche constructiviste en Relations internationales. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : relations internationales, constructivisme, analyse comparative, Russie, Ukraine, Belarus

Olaudah Equiano or Gustavas Vassa may have had abolitionist motivations when writing The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavas Vassa, the African, Written by Himself, but the function of the text is much different and self-serving. Specifically, in looking closely at the wording of the text, with its language of we versus they, in group versus out group, ours versus theirs, Equiano clearly feels he at no time belongs fully to any specific group or place; rather, he only partially belongs anywhere, and thus, creates this work of autobiography and appropriation of fiction and oral tradition to negotiate and cultivate his own liminal, or even heterotopic, space. In other words, I suggest he may have used the writing of this text to define his sense of self, creating a space in which he was both in control and fully belonged.

During the last decade, the Internet usage has been growing at an enormous rate which has beenaccompanied by the developments of network applications (e.g., video conference, audio/videostreaming, E-learning, E-Commerce and real-time applications) and allows several types ofinformation including data, voice, picture and media streaming. While end-users are demandingvery high quality of service (QoS) from their service providers, network undergoes a complex trafficwhich leads the transmission bottlenecks. Considerable effort has been made to study thecharacteristics and the behavior of the Internet. Simulation modeling of computer networkcongestion is a profitable and effective technique which fulfills the requirements to evaluate theperformance and QoS of networks. To simulate a single congested link, simulation is run with asingle load generator while for a larger simulation with complex traffic, where the nodes are spreadacross different geographical locations generating distributed artificial loads is indispensable. Onesolution is to elaborate a load generation system based on master/slave architecture.

Water isotope tracers and multi-proxy paleolimnological approaches are used to characterize the present and past hydrology of the Slave River Delta (SRD), NWT. This research addresses crucial gaps in knowledge about the role of major hydrological processes on the water balances of northern freshwater lakes, and responds to concerns expressed by local land users about declining flood frequency in the delta following upstream river regulation. Contemporary hydrological studies were conducted using multiple lakewater sampling campaigns from a suite of 41 delta lakes situated in three previously recognized biogeographical zones - outer delta, mid-delta and apex – that were initially sampled in fall 2002, and again immediately following the spring melt, during summer, and in the fall of 2003-2005. Paleolimnological studies aimed at reconstructing flood frequency in the Slave River focus on a sediment core obtained from a flood-susceptible lake in the active delta. Together, contemporary and past studies of SRD hydrology provide a detailed picture of environmental change and variability in an important northern freshwater ecosystem.

Lake surface temperature (LSTlake) can be obtained and studied in different ways: using in situ measurements, satellite imagery and modeling. Collecting spatially representative in situ data over lakes, especially for large and deep ones, is a real challenge. Satellite data products provide the opportunity to collect continuous data over very large geographic areas even in remote regions. Numerical modeling is also an approach to study the response and the role of lakes in the climate system. Satellite instruments provide spatial information unlike in situ measurements and one-dimensional (1-D) lake models that give vertical information at a single point or a few points in lakes. The advantage of remote sensing also applies to land where temperature measurements are usually taken at meteorological stations whose network is extremely sparse in northern regions. This thesis therefore examined the value of land/lake surface (skin) temperature (LSTland/lake) measurements from satellites as a complement to in situ point measurements and numerical modeling. The thesis is organized into two parts. The first part tested, two 1-D numerical models against in situ and satellite-derived LST measurements. LSTlake and ice phenology were simulated for various points at different depths on Great Slave Lake (GSL) and Great Bear Lake (GBL), two large lakes located in the Mackenzie River Basin in Canada’s Northwest Territories, using the 1-D Freshwater Lake model (FLake) and the Canadian Lake Ice Model (CLIMo) over the 2002-2010 period. Input data from three weather stations (Yellowknife, Hay River and Deline) were used for model simulations. LSTlake model results are compared to those derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Earth Observing System Terra and Aqua satellite platforms. The main goal was to examine the performance of the FLake and CLIMo models in simulating LSTlake and ice-cover under different conditions against satellite data products. Both models reveal a good agreement with daily average MODIS LSTlake from GSL and GBL on an annual basis. CLIMo showed a generally better performance than FLake for both lakes, particularly during the ice-cover season. Secondly, MODIS-derived lake and land surface temperature (LSTland/lake) products are used to analyze land and lake surface temperature patterns during the open-water and snow/ice growth seasons for the same period of time in the regions of both GBL and GSL. Land and lake temperatures from MODIS were compared with near-surface air temperature measurements obtained from nearby weather stations and with in situ temperature moorings in GBL. Results show a good agreement between satellite and in situ observations. MODIS data were found to be very useful for investigating both the spatial and temporal (seasonal) evolution of LSTland/lake over lakes and land, and for improving our understanding of thermodynamic processes (heat gains and heat loses) of the lake/land systems. Among other findings, the MODIS satellite imagery showed that the surface temperature of lakes is colder in comparison to the surrounding land from April-August and warmer from September until spring thaw.

In today&rsquo / s complex technological systems, there is a need of multi tasking several units running in accordance. Each unit is composed of several intelligent microcontroller cards. Each intelligent card performs a different task that the unit is responsible of. For this reason, there is a need of common communication bus between these cards in order to accomplish the task duties. VME (Versa Module Euro-Card) bus is a well known, the most reliable and the commonly used communication bus, even if it was standardized three decades ago. In this thesis work, the world wide accepted VME parallel bus protocol is implemented on FPGA (Field programmable Gate Array). The implementation covers the VME standard slave protocols. The VME Slave Module has been developed by VHDL (Very high level Hardware Description Language). The simulations have been carried over a computer based environment. After the verification of the VHDL code, an Intellectual Property (IP) core is synthesized and loaded into the FPGA. The FPGA based printed circuit board has been designed and the IP core&rsquo / s function has been tested by bus protocol checkers for all of its functionality. The designed hardware has several standard serial communication ports, such as / USB, UART and I2C. Through the developed card and the add-on units, it is also possible to communicate with these serial ports over the VME bus.

Developed in the early 1800's, Bulow Plantation is a prime example of the thriving sugar industry of East Florida prior to the Second Seminole War. Additionally, the layout of the slave cabins at Bulow Plantation in an arc centered on the main house is unique in Florida except for Kingsley Plantation near Jacksonville, FL. Despite its importance and the paucity of information available about even basic questions regarding life at Bulow Plantation, relatively little in the way of archaeological work has been done at the site. Using historical research and non-destructive archaeological techniques such as pedestrian survey, aerial LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), and remote sensing completed as part of recent work by the Alliance for Integrated Spatial Technologies (AIST) (Collins and Doering 2009a; Collins et al 2010) this work examines not only the material landscape of Bulow Plantation but also the social and cognitive landscapes that might have shaped life for both enslaver and enslaved. Using data collected as part of AIST's larger project (Collins et al 2010) an analysis of the pedestrian survey data, as well as a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) created from aerial LiDAR data, revealed the locations of several previously unrecorded slave cabins as well as some large scale landscape features. Although there are three competing theories as to why the Bulow slave cabins were arranged in an arc, without subsurface archaeology it is impossible to endorse one interpretation over another. While the analysis of landscapes generally privileges the view of those in power, suggestions for future archaeological work are made so that the voices of those who were enslaved at Bulow Plantation can begin to be heard.