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Zora Neale Hurston's 'Their Eyes were Watching God' is a naturalistic story although most of the novel resists the basic forms of naturalism. It is the story of a woman controlled by forces of nature beyond her control and a husband increasingly becoming bestial. It is also a warning to the black community against believing white middle class values. The novel cautions that equality is an immediate need which love alone cannot make up for when it is lacking. Moreover, inequality can lead to spiritual as well as physical death.

Cotton is the most significant natural fibre and has been a preferred choice of the textile industry and consumers since the industrial revolution began. The share of man-made fibres, both regenerated and synthetic fibres, has grown considerably in recent times but cotton production has also been on the rise and accounts for about half of the fibres used for apparel and textile goods. To cotton's advantage, the premium attached to the presence of cotton fibre and the general positive consumer perception is well established, however, compared to commodity man-made fibres and high performance fibres, cotton has limitations in terms of its mechanical properties but can help to overcome moisture management issues that arise with performance apparel during active wear. This issue of Textile Progress aims to: Report on advances in cotton cultivation and processing as well as improvements to conventional cotton cultivation and ginning. The processing of cotton in the textile industry from fibre to finished fabric, cotton and its blends, and their applications in technical textiles are also covered. Explore the economic impact of cotton in different parts of the world including an overview of global cotton trade. Examine the environmental perception of cotton fibre and efforts in organic and genetically-modified (GM) cotton production. The topic of naturally-coloured cotton, post-consumer waste is covered and the environmental impacts of cotton cultivation and processing are discussed. Hazardous effects of cultivation, such as the extensive use of pesticides, insecticides and irrigation with fresh water, and consequences of the use of GM cotton and cotton fibres in general on the climate are summarised and the effects of cotton processing on workers are addressed. The potential hazards during cotton cultivation, processing and use are also included. Examine how the properties of cotton textiles can be enhanced, for example, by improving wrinkle recovery and reducing the flammability of cotton fibre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I construct a Koszul algebra A and a finitely generated graded A-module M that together form a counterexample to a recently published claim. M is generated in degree 0 and has a pure resolution, and the graded Jacobson radical of the Yoneda algebra of A does not annihilate the Ext module of M, but nonetheless M is not a Koszul module. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The aim of this study is to establish useful design strategies for health Information designers when planning and designing healthcare media for new immigrants. Methods: The study is implemented in six stages, namely, a focus group interview, the development of testing media, reliability and validity tests, a questionnaire survey, pre-post knowledge tests, and a usability survey. Results: The results suggest that the key challenges for immigrant mothers when caring for their children's health relate to six factors, namely language, confidence, knowledge, culture, how to take care, and the use of healthcare media. The findings indicate that both leaflet intervention and website intervention are effective and there is no significant difference between them; furthermore, the criteria new immigrants use to evaluate healthcare media can be analysed in terms of the quality of the content, appearance, and process. Conclusions: The study concludes that efforts to assist new immigrants to take care of their children's health by applying healthcare media are still at an early stage of development. Further study is needed to identify which of the characteristics of immigrant users impact their ability to learn about health information in order to incorporate these into an effective health intervention medium that optimises information systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction is provided for Proposition 3.5 in the above-mentioned article. The correction is: if $S$ is a skew polynomial ring on finitely many generators of degree 1 that are normal elements in $S$, and if $I$ is a homogeneous ideal of $S$ that is generated by a normalizing sequence, then $\dim _{\Bbbk } (S/I)$ is finite if and only if $S/I$ has no point modules and no fat point modules. A similar correction is provided for Corollary 3.6 of the same article. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Vatne [13] and Green and Marcos [9] have independently studied the Koszul-like homological properties of graded algebras that have defining relations in degree 2 and exactly one other degree. We contrast these two approaches, answer two questions posed by Green and Marcos, and find conditions that imply the corresponding Yoneda algebras are generated in the lowest possible degrees. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the potential for co-design to link sustainable consumption and production in the fashion industry. We review relevant research and perspectives and propose a co-design platform and an ideation toolkit in which users are encouraged to explore sustainability as a way of thinking at the early stages of the fashion design development process. We explain the rationale behind the ideation toolkit, its structure and demonstrate how to apply the toolkit tofashion design through a case study. Finally, we discuss both opportunities and challenges of co-designing the fashion system and its implementation in sustainable fashion and textile design education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new instrument and a test method are presented in this paper that can evaluate the stiffness of plain weft-knitted fabrics. The WIRA Instrumentation Tester can measure torsion data for various flexible fibre assemblies whilst they are being twisted. The torsional properties of two types of fabrics, namely nonwoven and knitted fabrics, were analyzed. Then, comparisons between bending rigidity and torsional rigidity have been conducted using FAST-2, Shirley, Heart Loop and the new WIRA method for the assessment of fabric stiffness. The results show high correlation between bending rigidity and torsional rigidity in assessment of nonwoven fabric stiffness; they also reveal that the WIRA tester and torsional rigidity are more suitable for characterizing the stiffness of plain weft-knitted fabrics than the other test methods [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces the idea of cultural reinvention for cultural textile products. Fundamentally, the term ‘cultural products’ consists of culture and product. Culture means a symbol of a particular time and society. Cultural products can be thought of as artefacts produced by and for a specific cultural group. However, commercial needs and desires may and often do mean that although the form and style of the artefact may remain, it can be produced by other cultural groupings. This article builds an understanding of the term cultural reinvention through the historical and modern consideration of tartan as a case study. It then provides a taxonomy of traditional and cultural Korean textiles and identifies possible strategies for the cultural and commercial reinvention of bojagi textiles. A website has been developed as a design marketing tool to allow consumers to learn about and create their own bojagi designs. This website has been evaluated by five focus groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article summarises the findings of a study about the angle from which consumers view displays in fashion stores, as they walk past the store windows. Two experiments were carried out, and the results were used to propose a change in the angle at which window displays are arranged, and where the focus or centre piece of a display should be placed. This would enable more consumers to comprehend the contents of the window display with the possible consequence that they will enter the store and make purchases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Associated to any uniform finite layered graph Γ there is a noncommutative graded quadratic algebra A(Γ) given by a construction due to Gelfand, Retakh, Serconek and Wilson. It is natural to ask when these algebras are Koszul. Unfortunately, a mistake in the literature states that all such algebras are Koszul. That is not the case and the theorem was recently retracted. We analyze the Koszul property of these algebras for two large classes of graphs associated to finite regular CW-complexes, X. Our methods are primarily topological. We solve the Koszul problem by introducing new cohomology groups HX( n, k), generalizing the usual cohomology groups Hn( X). Along with several other results, our methods give a new and primarily topological proof of the main result of [Serconek and Wilson, J. Algebra 278: 473–493, 2004] and [Piontkovski, J. Alg. Comput. 15, 643–648, 2005]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, the study of graded Clifford algebras has provided a theory where commutative algebraic geometry has dictated the algebraic and homological behavior of a noncommutative algebra. In particular, it is well known that a graded Clifford algebra, C, is quadratic and regular if and only if a certain quadric system associated to C is base point free. In this article, we introduce a generalization of a graded Clifford algebra, namely a graded skew Clifford algebra, and to such an algebra we associate a notion of quadric system in the spirit of the noncommutative algebraic geometry of Artin, Tate and Van den Bergh. We prove that a graded skew Clifford algebra is quadratic and regular if and only if its associated quadric system is normalizing and base point free. To prove our results, we extend the notions of complete intersection, base point free, quadratic form and symmetric matrix to the noncommutative setting. We use our results to produce several families of quadratic regular skew Clifford algebras of global dimension four that are not twists of graded Clifford algebras. Many of our examples have a 1-dimensional line scheme and a point scheme that consists of exactly twenty distinct points, and thus are candidates for generic regular algebras of global dimension four. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A queuing model of staple fiber yarn is presented that enables the modeling and a better understanding of fiber migration in a yarn. The model provides a fine yarn structure where the migrational behavior of fibers is associated with the behavior of customers traveling across an open network of queuing systems to get services. Based on this analogy, the underlying mathematical foundation of the queuing theory is used for the modeling of yarn structure and properties. The model uses yarn technical specifications including yarn linear density and twist level, fiber linear density and length distribution, together with specific parameters such as fiber packing density distribution and migration probabilities. The model can be used for modeling a wide range of structurally different yarns; examples include marl, mottle and melange yarns, yarns with different levels of hairiness, and yarns produced by various spinning systems. The model can be used for 3D simulation of yarns in computer-aided design systems for textile design and for the prediction of mechanical properties of yarns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although team leadership and its relationship with creative performance has attracted significant attention recently from academia and practicing managers, its implications on the creativity of industrial design teams have not been explored systematically. To avoid unfounded generalisations, this paper is aimed at identifying the main factors which may influence creative enhancement specifically in the context of industrial design leadership in Taiwan, a research tool suitable for this, and for similar investigations under different cultural conditions, is presented. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper studies two homogenizations of the down-up algebras introduced in Benkart and Roby (Benkart, G., Roby, T. (1998). Down-up Algebras. J. Algebra 209:305–344). We show that in all cases the homogenizing variable is not a zero-divisor, and that when the parameter β is non-zero, the homogenized down-up algebra is a Noetherian domain and a maximal order, and also Artin-Schelter regular, Auslander regular, and Cohen-Macaulay. We show that all homogenized down-up algebras have global dimension 4 and Gelfand-Kirillov dimension 4, and with one exception all homogenized down-up algebras are prime rings. We also exhibit a basis for homogenized down-up algebras and provide a necessary condition for a Noetherian homogenized down-up algebra to be a Hopf algebra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper completes the classification of central extensions of three dimensional Artin-Schelter regular algebras to four dimensional Artin-Schelter regular algebras. Let A be an AS regular algebra of global dimension three and let D be an extension of A by a central graded element z, i.e., D/ = A. If A is generated by elements of degree one, those algebras D which are again AS regular have been classified in Le Bruyn et al. (Le Bruyn L., Smith, S. P., Van den Bergh, M. (1996). Central extensions of three dimensional Artin-Schelter regular algebras. Math. Zeitschrift 222:171–212.) and Cassidy (Cassidy, T. (1999). Global dimension 4 extensions of Artin-Schelter regular algebras. J. Algebra 220:225–254.). If A is not generated by elements of degree one, then A falls under a classification due to Stephenson (Stephenson, D. R. (1996). Artin-Schelter regular algebras of global dimension three. J. Algebra 183(1):55–73 and Stephenson, D. R. (1997). Algebras associated to elliptic curves. Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 349(6):2317–2340.). We classify the AS regular central extensions of Stephenson's algebras by proving that the regularity of D and z is equivalent to the regularity of z in low degree and this is equivalent to easily verifiable conditions on the defining relations for D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drug-food interactions are a significant problem in clinical practice. Foods may alter the effects of drugs by interfering with pharmacokinetic processes, such as absorption and elimination. For example, absorption of tetracyclines is decreased when taken with milk or other dairy products. Pharmacologic and pharmacodynamic mechanisms also play an important role in drug-food interactions by altering drug effects. An example is the interaction of warfarin sodium with leafy green vegetables, whereby the hypoprothrombinemic effect of warfarin may be decreased and thromboembolic complications may develop. Similarly, certain drugs may have an effect on food intake, absorption, metabolism, and utilization. Numerous drugs, such as antineoplastic agents, have been shown to suppress appetite, resulting in decreased food intake and nutritional deficiency. It is important that health care providers, such as physicians, pharmacists, and dietitians, recognize and work as a team to prevent significant drug-food interactions. Minimizing adverse drug-food interactions would improve patient care by optimizing therapeutic effects and maintaining proper nutritional status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]