bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Bacterial communication mediated by T4SS effectors
Authors: Xu Lei , Shen Xihui
Published: December 2023

Bacteria have the ability to inhibit the growth of competitors by using contact-dependent killing devices, such as the bacterial-killing type IV secretion system (T4SS). A recent publication in The ISME Journal by Wang et al. (ISME J, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-023-01533-7) uncovered that T4SS could deliver a unique “non-toxic” effector protein, LtaE, into interspecies bacterial cells. The delivery of LtaE by the bacteria Lysobacter enzymogenes induces the antifungal antibiotic 2,4-DAPG production by binding to the transcriptional repressor PhlF in another bacterial species, Pseudomonas protegens. As a result, P. protegens regains the capacity to protect plants from nearby fungal infections. This finding uncovered a novel role of T4SS in mediating interactions of interkingdom cooperation to kill microbial competitors in soil microbiomes.
Osthole ameliorates myonecrosis caused by Clostridium perfringens type A infection in mice
Authors: Zhang Xueyong , Liu Yue , Shen Zhangqi , Wang Shaolin , Wu Congming , Liu Dejun , Tang Shusheng , Dai Chongshan
Published: December 2023

This study aimed to investigate the protective effect of the nature product osthole (OST) against Clostridium perfringens type A infection-caused myonecrosis in a mouse model. Male mice were divided into (1) control, (2) infected, (3) OST50 and (4) OST100 treatment groups. In the infected groups, mice were intramuscularly injected with 1 × 108 CFU of C. perfringens per day for 6 days. Mice in the OST50 and OST100 groups were administrated intraperitoneally with OST at the doses of 50 or 100 mg/kg per day post C. perfringens infection. Our results showed that C. perfringens infection caused marked necrosis and inflammatory cell infiltration in the muscle tissues of mice. Mice in the OST50 and OST100 treatment groups displayed significantly attenuated C. perfringens infection-induced lipid peroxidation, oxidative stress, and apoptosis in their muscle tissue. Furthermore, OST treatment significantly downregulated the expressions of NF-κB, IL-1β, and TNF-α mRNA and protein levels, while concomitantly upregulating the expressions of Nrf2 and HO-1 mRNA and protein. OST treatments also inhibited the expression of phosphorylation (p)-p38, p-mTOR, and p-Erk1/2 proteins, and upregulated LC3II and Beclin1 proteins. In summary, our results reveal that OST therapy confers a protective effect against C. perfringens infection-induced oxidative stress and inflammation in muscle tissue, via activation of Nrf2/HO-1 and autophagy pathways and inhibition of p38, Erk1/2 and NF-κB pathways.
Toward a Literature of Landed Resistance: Land’s Agency in American Literature, Law, and History
Authors: Keeler Kyle
Published: December 2023

This article draws on Native American theory and archival sources, and colonial archival sources, to reframe land as an agent, partner in cultural production, and ally in resistance to colonialism. The article explains how land structures Haudenosaunee and Mohegan society in narrative and law. It examines how land’s agency appears in the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Mason Land Case. It does so first from a colonial perspective, where land is inert property and Native peoples are unable to comprehend land as such, then from a Mohegan perspective, where land is a societal member and partner in resisting colonialism. Mohegan recognition of land’s agency and land’s influence on Native resistance is representative of what this essay calls literature of landed resistance. This framework elucidates how Native authors situate their relationships to land in order to move across colonial boundaries, continue active relationships with land in spite of colonialism, and resist colonialism alongside land. Through literature of landed resistance, this article shows how Mohegan leaders Uncas, Appageese, and Samson Occom detail responsibility to land that allows them to represent land’s agency in a manner not seen in settler texts and legislation, and to partner with land in acts of resistance. Understanding land as an active member of society and legislator shows land’s role as an agent and influence in community- and nation-building. (Re)animating land across history opens up new avenues in environmental justice studies to think about history, cultural production, and rights beyond the human and strengthens Native sovereignty through evidence of historic Native relations to land beyond property law.
FORMATION OF A READING CULTURE IN THE MIDDLE CLASSES OF A MULTILINGUAL SCHOOL
Authors:   Elabuga Institute (branch) of Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, GABIDULLINA F.I.
Published: December 2023

The article examines the problem of the formation of reading culture among middle school students. Special attention is paid to the factors of the development of the reading culture of adolescents, the methodology of the extracurricular reading lesson taking into account the age and individual characteristics of students. The possibilities of using the project method in an extracurricular reading lesson in a multilingual school are shown.
TED (Trazodone Effectiveness in Depression): effectiveness of trazodone extended-release in subjects with unsatisfactory response to SSRIs
Authors: Siwek Marcin , Chrobak Adrian Andrzej , Krupa Anna Julia , Gorostowicz Aleksandra , Gerlich Adrian , Juryk Andrzej , Dudek Dominika
Published: December 2023

Cel pracy

Inhibitory wychwytu serotoniny (SSRI) są najczęściej stosowanymi lekami w leczeniu epizodów dużej depresji (major depressive disorder- MDD). Niemniej jednak, około 50% pacjentów z MDD nie osiąga odpowiedzi terapeutycznej w wyniku leczenia SSRI i istnieje niewiele danych dotyczących tego, które leki są skuteczne jako leczenie drugiego rzutu u pacjentów, którzy nie odpowiadają na leczenie SSRI. W niniejszej pracy przeanalizowano dane 79 pacjentów z MDD, aby ocenić efektywność trazodonu XR w grupach pacjentów leczonych de novo oraz tych, u których zmieniono lek na trazodon XR po nieudanej próbie leczenia SSRI.

Metoda

Pomiary przeprowadzono na początkowym etapie oraz w 2., 4., 8. i 12. tygodniu za pomocą narzędzi do oceny nasilenia: depresji (Skala Depresji Montgomery-Åsberg, Krótki Inwentarz Symptomatologii Depresji wypełniany przez pacjenta i klinicystę - główne punkty końcowe badania), efektywności terapeutycznej (Skala Ogólnego Wrażenia Klinicznego), anhedonii (Skala Przyjemności Snaith-Hamilton), lęku (Skala Lęku Hamiltona), bezsenności (Ateńska Skala Bezsenności), funkcjonowania psychospołecznego (Skala Niepełnosprawności Sheehana) i funkcjonowania seksualnego (Kwestionariusz Funkcji Seksualnych u Kobiet / Międzynarodowy Indeks Funkcji Erekcji u mężczyzn). Poziomy odpowiedzi na leczenie i remisji były w dużej mierze podobne w obu badanych grupach.

Wyniki

Wyniki wskazały, że efektywność trazodonu XR w leczeniu pacjentów z MDD, którzy nie reagowali na SSRI podawane jako leczenie pierwszego rzutu w danym epizodzie depresyjnym, była porównywalna do tej obserwowanej u pacjentów leczonych de novo. Ponadto, trazodon XR efektywnie redukował nasilenie depresji, lęku, bezsenności, anhedonię i poprawiał funkcjonowanie psychospołeczne (w obu grupach).

Wnioski

Dodatkowo, trazodon XR jako leczenie drugiego rzutu poprawiał funkcje seksualne u mężczyzn, którzy wcześniej byli leczeni SSRI.
Queering Afrofuturism: Freedom Dreaming and Co-Constructing Black Queer Spaces in Teacher Preparation Programs
Authors:   , Adeniji Danelle Althea
Published: December 2023

Using queer and Afrofuturist frameworks, this Black feminist qualitative study explored queer Black pre-and in-service teachers' cultural and intersectional practices as they navigated traditional heteronormative educational spaces. This research study relied on counternarratives and storytelling and drew from Afrofuturism to understand the use of their lived experiences to counter monolithic queer narratives. The queer Black teachers in this study examined and negotiated how their Blackness and queerness showed up in teacher preparation programs (TPP) and K-12 classrooms. Moreover, they eventually refused to hide or censure their authentic selves. An analysis of the narratives and counternarratives showed that queer Black teachers drew from ancestral traditions to create queer Afrofuturist spaces in TPPs and educational places. Furthermore, due to their queer Black intersectional approaches, their classrooms, assignments, curriculum, and pedagogy disrupted normative teaching practices. Implications, recommendations, and future research are discussed.
Forbidden Pleasures: Queerness and Cannibalism in Film and Television
Authors:   , Hadley Kristen M.
Published: December 2023

The trope of the queer cannibal recurs throughout fiction as well as film and television. While literature scholars such as David Bergman and Caleb Crain have written about this figure in American literature, the queer cannibal remains unstudied in the realm of media studies. This thesis analyzes six media texts that feature queer cannibals: Hannibal (2013-2015), Ravenous (1999), The Terror (2018), Yellowjackets (2021-), Raw (2016), and Bones and All (2022). Through these analyses, this thesis establishes a genre termed "queer cannibal texts." These texts function on two different levels: they include a cannibal character who is or can be read as queer, and they in some way cannibalize and queer an existing story or societal script. The presence of a queer cannibal character often signals that the work itself is a queer cannibal text. These texts are built on an awareness of existing power structures and narratives. By cannibalizing these narratives—whether they be a fictional narrative that is being adapted, or societal narratives of white supremacy, heteronormativity, and so on—and interrogating them from a queer perspective, queer cannibal texts create reparative narratives that speak from the margins. Queer cannibal characters act as a textual manifestation of this framework, providing a window through which the viewer is invited to examine and engage with these power structures in a new way.
"Utterances": Approaching a New Acousmatic Praxis
Authors:   , Smith Jonathan Andrew
Published: December 2023

This dissertation is a thorough examination of the problems modern composers of electronic music face when writing or discussing acousmatic music as derived from Pierre Schaeffer. By taking a close examination of Schaeffer's own writings on the subjects of reduced listening and acousmatic sounds, I illustrate the difficulties and inconsistencies in Schaeffer's philosophy and the problems that his reliance on Husserl's phenomenology creates. Further examination of criticisms of Husserl from Derrida and Heidegger highlight the ways that Schaeffer's phenomenology needs to be updated for the modern acousmatic composer. Articles by modern acousmatic composers such as Adrian Moore, Denis Smalley, Simon Emmerson, and others illustrate how artists have dealt with the problems in Schaeffer's ideas and the inconsistent ways they have applied his principles of sound and the sound object. I argue that a new method of musical meaning as a method of composition and analysis is necessary to resolve these conflicts and inconsistencies. This method is found in the writings of J.L. Austin, and Ludwig Wittgenstein through Andrew Chung, who places significant emphasis on the actions and effects that music takes. By reframing the acousmatic problem through meaning-as-use, I attempt to modernize Schaeffer's conceptions of sound and emphasize the significance of the ways that sound is used by composers as the crux of a modern acousmatic praxis.
An Unfortunate Unfitness: The Organismic Faults Detracting from the Probability of Sustainable Future Thriving in the Human Species
Authors:   , Webb Jae
Published: December 2023

This dissertation is an investigation and analysis of the contributions of the human organism to climate change, specifically concerned with its adverse effect on the biosphere. The focus of the analysis rests on three phenomena distinctive to humans participating in globalized economies and modernized societies; the distortions of anthrosupremacy, an uncritical development of technology, and an unhealthy cathexis with economic growth. These are analyzed and identified as stark contributors to the creation, proliferation, and pervasiveness of systems contributing to the decline of the biosphere. These phenomena serve to dissociate humans from the consequences of their actions in systemic ways; thereby thriving by preying on the faults of human agency. Using a biogenic framework to analyze human agency, these faults are identified as problematic to the teleological pursuits of the human organism (i.e., extantcy). An analysis of these phenomena in relationship to the faults in human agency is done to create an awareness of how certain mythologies, technologies, and socioeconomic practices have created enabling constraints that deter a more efficacious and sustainable exercise of human agency. Existing strategies and philosophies that have been promoted to address the issue have failed to account for these enabling constraints and, have therefore, fallen short of creating their desired effect in practical ways. This dissertation concludes that, without altering these enabling constraints to allow for a more efficacious and sustainable exercise of agency, the human species is less likely to persist into the indefinite future.
Guillaume Connesson's "Le Rire de Saraï" (2001): Stylistic Analysis Focusing on His Eclecticism
Authors:   , Lee Hyunjee
Published: December 2023

Le Rire de Saraï for flute and piano was written in 2001 by Guillaume Connesson. Although the composer's works have been commissioned and performed by numerous leading orchestras and musicians in Europe and the United States, his music is largely neglected by scholars. Despite the increasing popularity of Le Rire de Saraï, the piece also has never received scholarly attention. Therefore, an analytical study of the piece, its influences, and its context in Connesson's output will provide for a deeper understanding and informed performance of this significant element of the flutist's repertoire. Le Rire de Saraï, like much of the composer's music, is notable for the eclecticism of its language and its inspiration from an extramusical source. This study first discusses his biography, inspirational sources, and various musical influences, which provide essential background information to understand his musical world. This document then explores the story of Hagar and Sarah, which serves as the inspiration for the piece and how Connesson draws on the story without crossing into the domain of program music. Finally, the study examines the interactive elements of his eclecticism in the piece, such as French sensibility, American minimalism, Baroque toccata, and popular music.
"Shanai Awaz": A Performance Guide and Piano Reduction of John Mayer's Oboe Concerto
Authors:   , Merchant Natasha K.
Published: December 2023

John Mayer (1929-2004) was a British Indian composer and violinist. Despite his contributions to bringing Indian music to the West and his large output of works, the majority of his compositions remain largely unknown. This document focuses on Mayer's only oboe concerto, Shanai Awaz, which translates to "Sound of the Shanai" in Hindi. It is representative of his fusion of Indian and Western techniques. The performance guide helps the oboist navigate the fusion elements of the piece. Because no piano reduction of the score was made by the composer, the piece has likely not been performed since 1983. A piano reduction of the score was created as part of this dissertation to make it more accessible to oboists.
Housing and Jobs: Investigating the Geographic Variance of Housing Vouchers in Metropolitan Regions
Authors:   , Britton Honore Emanuel
Published: December 2023

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is the primary public agency responsible for providing housing subsidies to low-income households. The Home Choice Voucher Program (HCVP) is currently the most significant housing subsidy. The voucher can be transferred to any location where the landlord is registered with the local housing agency to participate in the program. The mobility of the voucher is designed to decrease concentrations of low-income households in areas that lack economic, educational, and social opportunities. The results of the study found that race and income have a strong negative impact on the percentage of subsidized households and rental units. The findings also show that median area rents have a negative impact on subsidized households, while home values have a negative impact on subsidized rental units. There are more subsidized households and rental units in highly populated with many households living in areas with more transit stops. finally, the data showed that jobs paying under $3,333 per month had a negative impact on the percentage of subsidized housing units. These outcomes can provide insight for HUD and public housing agencies to assist in the utilization of subsidies and encourage more landlord participation to add units to the current housing supply. The geographical selection of subsidized households and units can help promote better housing options for voucher recipients.
A Pedagogical Guide to the Twenty-Four Preludes for Piano, Op.67 (1814), by Johann Nepomuk Hummel
Authors:   , Liang Haoyue
Published: December 2023

Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778–1837) was a leading composer, virtuoso pianist, and well-known pedagogue during the late Classical and early Romantic periods. His music was important and frequently performed during his lifetime, but his piano preludes, Op. 67, seem to have been completely forgotten. These preludes reflect the traditional use of the prelude, with many traditional piano techniques. The influence of Hummel's Op. 67 on the next generations is clearly shown in the similarities in their compositions, especially the works of Chopin. This dissertation includes a formal analysis of the preludes and a discussion of each specific type of piano techniques with practicing suggestions, providing a pedagogical guide for students on how to use Hummel's works to prepare for other composers.
Shakespeare and Early Modern Trauma
Authors:   , Buenning Anthony Emerson
Published: December 2023

Shakespeare references humoral medical theory and social definitions of gender throughout much of his work. His references to medical practices like purging, the siphoning of excessive emotional fluids to bring the body into balance, are more than allusions to medical theories. Shakespeare's works unveil and challenge early modern approaches to emotional experience, most particularly when it comes to traumatic experiences that overwhelm comprehension. In Titus Andronicus (1592), The Rape of Lucrece (1593), Hamlet (1603), King Lear (1608), and Macbeth (1606), Shakespeare invokes humoral theory to articulate the early modern traumatic experience and to criticize the efficacy of purging in representations of trauma. For Shakespeare, the siphoning of destabilized emotions, through metaphorical and rhetorical practices, has dangerous consequences for bodies coded as feminine.
Examining the Relationship of Critical Thinking Educational Efforts on Student Grade Point Average and Program Retention
Authors:   , Schellen Michael Christopher
Published: December 2023

Demand for the skill of critical thinking is extensive in both higher education and in the workforce. The purpose of the current research is to examine the relationship between critical thinking educational efforts (e.g., programs incorporating high impact practices) and higher education student outcomes. For this study, student outcomes were defined as cumulative grade point average and student program retention. The study used existing data which were obtained from a large public research university in the southwest United States. The study found that higher critical thinking was significantly associated with higher overall GPA, and this relationship was stronger in males as compared to females. However, students' critical thinking was not significantly related to program retention. Findings from this study appear to confirm previous studies indicating a positive relationship between students' ability to think critically and GPA. The study also suggests that elements promoting critical thinking can be successfully embedded into undergraduate curricula through various means, including the use of high impact practices.
Countering hate speech: modeling user-generated web content using natural language processing
Authors:   , Yu Xinchen
Published: December 2023

Social media is considered a particularly conducive arena for hate speech. Counter speech, which is a "direct response that counters hate speech" is a remedy to address hate speech. Unlike content moderation, counter speech does not interfere with the principle of free and open public spaces for debate. This dissertation focuses on the (a) automatic detection and (b) analyses of the effectiveness of counter speech and its fine-grained strategies in user-generated web content. The first goal is to identify counter speech. We create a corpus with 6,846 instances through crowdsourcing. We specifically investigate the role of conversational context in the annotation and detection of counter speech. The second goal is to assess and predict conversational outcomes of counter speech. We propose a new metric to measure conversation incivility based on the number of uncivil and civil comments as well as the unique authors involved in the discourse. We then use the metric to evaluate the outcomes of replies to hate speech. The third goal is to establish a fine-grained taxonomy of counter speech. We present a theoretically grounded taxonomy that differentiates counter speech addressing the author of hate speech from addressing the content. We further compare the conversational outcomes of different types of counter speech and build models to identify each type. We conclude by discussing our contributions and future research directions on using user-generated counter speech to combat online hatred.
Tribocatalytically-Active Coatings for Enhanced Tribological Performance and Carbon-Based Tribofilm Formation
Authors:   , Al Sulaimi Rawan
Published: December 2023

In this study, we investigate the fundamental mechanisms defining the approach for addressing tribological challenges in mechanical systems via the use of the tribocatalytically active coating. The coating is designed using an electrodeposition process and consists of a hard amorphous cobalt-phosphorous matrix with the incorporation of tribocatalytically-active nickel and copper. Our focus is on understanding the effect of the tribocatalytic elements, Cu vs Ni, on the coating's performance in high-contact stress conditions, generating local heating, shear, and compression. By optimizing the relative composition and mechanical characteristics of the coating, we aim to enhance its tribological performance in the presence of a hydrocarbon environment. Through extensive characterization of the wear tracks using SEM/EDS and Raman analyses, we identify the formation of a protective carbon-based tribofilm on the coating's surface during sliding as the key factor behind its excellent performance. Our findings not only contribute to the understanding of material transformations in the contact but also offer a robust and versatile approach to addressing tribological challenges in mechanical systems. The development of this innovative coating opens up new possibilities for promoting the formation of protective tribofilms and improving the performance of mechanical components operating in low-viscosity fuels and synthetic oils.
Mother Dearest: Understanding Attachment Styles of Juvenile Offenders across Crime Types
Authors:   , White Lindsey Nicole
Published: December 2023

This exploratory study investigated the relationship between attachment style and offense types of juvenile offenders to determine whether there were commonalities among the cohort and their attachment style. Much of the peer-reviewed literature focuses on adult sex offenders and attachment style but neglects the juvenile population. The present study utilized secondary data from the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) which included adjudicated juveniles with Positive Achievement Change Tool (PACT) data (n = 4,521) from 2009 to 2013. Juveniles were grouped into three attachment groups (secure, anxious-avoidant, or other) based on attachment correlates found in their PACT data. Logistic regression analyses were then used to investigate the relationship between attachment styles and offense types among the adjudicated juveniles. Results indicated that attachment style does not have an overwhelming influence on offense type of juvenile offenders. However, juveniles with an attachment style other than secure or anxious-avoidant were more likely to be adjudicated for assault/aggravated assault, sexual assault/aggravated assault, aggravated robbery, and other offenses not captured. Whereas juveniles with an anxious-avoidant attachment are at increased odds of being adjudicated for drug offenses. However, it should be noted that juveniles adjudicated for sexual assault/aggravated sexual assault with an anxious-avoidant attachment style reflected a marginal difference in the data which is of importance due to the small group size. Future research could benefit from refining the methodology in order to get a clearer picture of the relationship between attachment styles and offense type in this niche population of juvenile offenders.
Organizational Blockchain Assimilation towards Supply Chain Pain Management and Collaboration
Authors:   , Patil Kiran Sopandeo
Published: December 2023

Extant research on technology adoption provides limited insights into the extent of technology penetration into an organization's work routines, especially in collaborative efforts across supply chains. Further research is required to delve into the broader scope of permanent technology-based solutions that effectively tackle specific issues within the supply chain. This dissertation examines blockchain through three essays to fill these research gaps and contributes to blockchain-based supply chain collaboration and performance literature. Essay 1 examines supply chain behavioral drivers of blockchain assimilation by grounding the hypotheses on social network theory. Findings indicate that supply chain learning, collaboration, and network prominence will affect blockchain assimilation through a cross-sectional survey of supply chain professionals familiar with blockchain. It provides psychometrically validated scales for blockchain assimilation and network prominence, adding to the blockchain literature. Essay 2 builds on institutional theory to argue that peripheral organizations in the blockchain-based network will succumb to institutional pressures and that blockchain principles will require them to play crucial roles in supply chain collaboration efforts to gain legitimacy. By adopting a multi-method approach of a vignette-based experiment and a survey, the findings help supply chain collaboration practitioners manage institutional pressures across emerging blockchain-based systems, particularly for organizations in the early stages of blockchain implementation. Furthermore, the second essay focuses on the structural positions within a blockchain-based business-to-business network. It proposes a novel scale based on network theory to assess the organizational blockchain network periphery. Essay 3 argues that supply chain organizations that adopt blockchain as a set of ordinary capabilities and develop the dynamic capability of integrated supply chain flow will benefit from blockchain potential in managing its archetypal supply chain pain points. Grounding hypotheses in supply chain practice view and dynamic capability theories, the findings indicate that blockchain capabilities partially mediate supply chain pain management through supply chain flow integration based on a cross-sectional survey of supply chain managers familiar with blockchain. Essay three has two crucial practitioner implications. First, the newly developed and validated scales can help develop standardized and comprehensive blockchain performance metrics that cover technical capabilities and supply chain practices for empowered supply chain performance. Second, the one-on-one mapping of blockchain capabilities with supply chain pain points can help blockchain developers provide customer-centric supply chain solutions.
Scalable Next Generation Blockchains for Large Scale Complex Cyber-Physical Systems and Their Embedded Systems in Smart Cities
Authors:   , Alkhodair Ahmad Jamal M
Published: December 2023

The original FlexiChain and its descendants are a revolutionary distributed ledger technology (DLT) for cyber-physical systems (CPS) and their embedded systems (ES). FlexiChain, a DLT implementation, uses cryptography, distributed ledgers, peer-to-peer communications, scalable networks, and consensus. FlexiChain facilitates data structure agreements. This thesis offers a Block Directed Acyclic Graph (BDAG) architecture to link blocks to their forerunners to speed up validation. These data blocks are securely linked. This dissertation introduces Proof of Rapid Authentication, a novel consensus algorithm. This innovative method uses a distributed file to safely store a unique identifier (UID) based on node attributes to verify two blocks faster. This study also addresses CPS hardware security. A system of interconnected, user-unique identifiers allows each block's history to be monitored. This maintains each transaction and the validators who checked the block to ensure trustworthiness and honesty. We constructed a digital version that stays in sync with the distributed ledger as all nodes are linked by a NodeChain. The ledger is distributed without compromising node autonomy. Moreover, FlexiChain Layer 0 distributed ledger is also introduced and can connect and validate Layer 1 blockchains. This project produced a DAG-based blockchain integration platform with hardware security. The results illustrate a practical technique for creating a system depending on diverse applications' needs. This research's design and execution showed faster authentication, less cost, less complexity, greater scalability, higher interoperability, and reduced power consumption.
Global Techno-Capitalism and the Production of Hate: Understanding Political-Economic and Ideological Utility on YouTube and Gab
Authors:   , Esmonde Jonathan Spencer
Published: December 2023

The production of Hate, albeit a historical, long-existing, and relentless process, has been reinvigorated by the simultaneously globalizing and localizing power of cyberspace. Techno-capitalism, often perceived as the actuating force of neoliberal globalization, has emanated novel formations of social interaction, community formation, the dissemination of ideology, and political mobilization. Far-right ideology is being globalized throughout popular social cyberspaces like YouTube by thought leaders or ideological entrepreneurs, while users then localize within alternative social cyberspaces like Gab, wherein their beliefs are reaffirmed, identities are consolidated, and communities are formed. This process is integral to the materialization of far-right extremism, manifested as political action in real, physical space, and thus, illuminates new expressions of real virtuality, various politics of scale, and contemporary consequences of neoliberal globalization.
An Assessment and Intervention Model for Establishing Observational Learning During Tact Trials
Authors:   , Sansing Elizabeth McKay
Published: December 2023

Observational learning (OL) allows an individual to acquire novel responses by observing others' behavior and the corresponding consequences. The complexity of skills involved with OL may vary with the learning context. A learner may observe modeled responses to both trained (known) and untrained (unknown) stimuli or they may observe both reinforced (correct) and nonreinforced (incorrect) responses. The purpose of this study was to develop assessment and training procedures for OL component skills when the learner observes a combination of learning contexts: reinforced and nonreinforced responses to both trained and untrained stimuli. Two children with autism, Tom and David, participated. We assessed the following component skills in the context of tact trials: (1) Discriminating trained and untrained stimuli, (2) attending to the modeled performance, (3) discriminating consequences, and (4) conditionally responding based upon a name call. Next, we trained the component skill(s) for which the learner's performance did not meet criterion and then reassessed for OL. For both participants, immediate increases in OL were observed; however, modifications to the post-assessment (differential observing response for consequences and/or differential reinforcement) were required to produce (Tom) or maintain (David) criterion levels of responding. Interpretations of these outcomes, as well as limitations and directions for future research, are discussed.
Advertising and Content Creation on Digital Content Platforms
Authors: Ren Qitian
Published: December 2023

This paper investigates the interplay between advertising and decentralized content creation on digital content platforms.
Weak Signal Asymptotics for Sequentially Randomized Experiments
Authors: Kuang Xu , Wager Stefan
Published: December 2023

We use the lens of weak signal asymptotics to study a class of sequentially randomized experiments, including those that arise in solving multiarmed bandit problems. In an experiment with n time steps, we let the mean reward gaps between actions scale to the order [Formula: see text] to preserve the difficulty of the learning task as n grows. In this regime, we show that the sample paths of a class of sequentially randomized experiments—adapted to this scaling regime and with arm selection probabilities that vary continuously with state—converge weakly to a diffusion limit, given as the solution to a stochastic differential equation. The diffusion limit enables us to derive refined, instance-specific characterization of stochastic dynamics and to obtain several insights on the regret and belief evolution of a number of sequential experiments including Thompson sampling (but not upper-confidence bound, which does not satisfy our continuity assumption). We show that all sequential experiments whose randomization probabilities have a Lipschitz-continuous dependence on the observed data suffer from suboptimal regret performance when the reward gaps are relatively large. Conversely, we find that a version of Thompson sampling with an asymptotically uninformative prior variance achieves near-optimal instance-specific regret scaling, including with large reward gaps, but these good regret properties come at the cost of highly unstable posterior beliefs.

This paper was accepted by Baris Ata, stochastic models and simulation.

Supplemental Material: The data and online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4964 .
Quantitative Convergence for Displacement Monotone Mean Field Games with Controlled Volatility
Authors: Jackson Joe , Tangpi Ludovic
Published: December 2023

We study the convergence problem for mean field games with common noise and controlled volatility. We adopt the strategy recently put forth by Laurière and the second author, using the maximum principle to recast the convergence problem as a question of “forward-backward propagation of chaos” (i.e., (conditional) propagation of chaos for systems of particles evolving forward and backward in time). Our main results show that displacement monotonicity can be used to obtain this propagation of chaos, which leads to quantitative convergence results for open-loop Nash equilibria for a class of mean field games. Our results seem to be the first (quantitative or qualitative) that apply to games in which the common noise is controlled. The proofs are relatively simple and rely on a well-known technique for proving wellposedness of forward-backward stochastic differential equations, which is combined with displacement monotonicity in a novel way. To demonstrate the flexibility of the approach, we also use the same arguments to obtain convergence results for a class of infinite horizon discounted mean field games.

Funding: J. Jackson is supported by the National Science Foundation [Grant DGE1610403]. L. Tangpi is partially supported by the National Science Foundation [Grants DMS-2005832 and DMS-2143861].
Engaging knowledge users in Canadian knowledge mobilisation research: a scoping review of research in education
Authors: Sengalrayan Bernadine , Harvey Blane
Published: December 2023

Background:

This study examines the engagement of knowledge users in knowledge mobilisation (KMb) research on Canadian K-12 teaching and education policy. Research on and around KMb has grown in the decade since this field was first assessed comprehensively. Thus, it is timely to re-evaluate if current knowledge producer-user relationships in KMb research feature the mediating variables or recursive elements promulgated as best practices in KMb research.

Methods:

A scoping review was conducted to identify the profile of knowledge users, map the engagement of knowledge users, and account for any changes to their roles in the research process since 2008. Twenty-eight relevant studies were identified. Contextual data and frequency of engagement with knowledge users were collected and analysed.

Findings:

Findings indicate that a diverse group of knowledge users are engaged in KMb research and draws on knowledge from various disciplines. A majority of the studies reported that knowledge users were engaged in at least two stages of their research process, with them most frequently engaged during the search and data collection phase of the research process.

Discussion and conclusion:

There has been an encouraging effort in building iterative producer-user connections with knowledge users being engaged, often repeatedly, across different phases of the research process. This indicates an increasingly collaborative model of soliciting user insights on the development and diffusion of research evidence. The review sets the foundation for potential future research on producer-user engagement and provides insights applicable beyond the Canadian K-12 education system.
Potential of carers to meet care needs among older adults with disabilities in Trinidad
Authors: Parey Bephyer
Published: December 2023

This article examines carers’ potential to care for older adults with disabilities in Trinidad. Quantitative data on willingness, availability and skills, together with qualitative data on factors affecting care potential, were collected from a large, nationally representative sample of Trinidadians. About 68 per cent of Trinidadians were willing to care for older relatives with disabilities, 42 per cent were available and 31 per cent perceived having the required skills. Factors affecting care potential include personal views, potential of social network, competency and constraints. Integrated results indicate the importance of evaluating existing governmental programmes, targeted support for various ethnic groups and to older carers, and skills training.
From Prison Cell to Slave Ship: Social Death in “The Premature Burial”
Authors: Forbes Erin E.
Published: December 2023

This essay argues that Poe’s tale “The Premature Burial” (1844) offers insight into the radical potential of social death as a basis for cultural expression by satirizing the reliance of liberal, Enlightenment ideals of humanity, progress, and perfectibility on a gothic imaginary. Recently, scholars have suggested that the concept of social death reinforces a predominantly white, elitist historiography by ensuring that the “dead” remain silent. Yet the fact that gothic imaginative modes and liberal historical realities emerged in tandem with one another indicates that social death, while metaphorical, is not a concept artificially mapped onto the nineteenth century. It was woven into the warp and woof of lived experience in the early US. By linking incarceration to slavery, “The Premature Burial”—Poe’s final treatment of the theme of live burial—suggests that the threat of social death may have produced not silent slaves and malleable prisoners but a multitude of voluble, raucous ghosts. This was a hidden potential on which African American writers such as Henry “Box” Brown capitalized, in accounts of escape from the “living tomb” of slavery, shortly after the popular vogue for more literal live burial stories came to an end.
A Double Life: Personifying the Corporation from Dartmouth College to Poe
Authors: Jaros Peter
Published: December 2023

This essay pursues the prehistory of contemporary debates over corporate personality by investigating the early nineteenth-century American corporate imaginary In 1819, Dartmouth College v. Woodward enshrined the common-law definition of the corporation—an artificial person, immortal and invisible—in American jurisprudence. In contrast, contemporaneous satirical poems on failing banks personified corporations as strikingly visible and mortal. In subsequent decades, Poe drew on the legal doctrine of artificial personhood in a number of works—the sonnet “Silence” and the tales “William Wilson” and “Peter Pendulum, the Business Man”— and juxtaposed it unsettlingly with the so-called natural personhood of human beings. Whereas literary scholarship on antebellum legal personhood has principally explored the contested status of African Americans, this essay argues that the early corporation confronted both jurists and lay writers with an idea of personhood irreducible to the human being. It shows how Poe’s work, in particular, articulates the challenges posed by the complex ontology and ghostly genealogy of the corporation to the logic of human identity.
Prosthetic Colonialism: Indian Removal, European Imperialism, and International Trade in Poe’s “The Man That Was Used Up”
Authors: Chacón Heather
Published: December 2023

ABSTRACT:
Critics have often read Poe’s “The Man That Was Used Up” as a response to domestic pressures within the United States that arose due to its rapid industrial and geographic growth. Such scholarship tends to emphasize the new nation’s independence from European powers, rather than attend to the ways global markets, international conflict, and the cultural memory of life “under” European colonialism continued to influence domestic decisions and politics in the opening decades of the nineteenth century. In contrast, this article argues that for Poe’s original readers, General Smith’s prosthetics did not signify an artificial attempt to form a cohesive, new national body but instead symbolically indicated the encroachment of European colonial practices into the new and allegedly democratic nation. Contextualizing the story via the writings of Indian removal opponents, medical journals, and advertisements relating to early medical prostheses, as well as recent criticism on prosthetics, Chacón demonstrates that in “The Man That Was Used Up,” it is not anxiety over the new but fear of the old that Poe portrays in his first “specifically American” tale.
Global optimization radiometric calibration method for an infrared system with a wide dynamic range
Authors: Li Ting , Lai Xuefeng , Li Sujun , Xia Yucheng , Zhou Jinmei , Liao Sheng
Published: December 2023

Considering the conventional calibration restriction of the complicated calibration procedures, narrow dynamic range, and less correlation in the calibration data, a global optimization radiometric calibration method is proposed in this paper. First, a unified database is generated by integrating different gray-level images, neutral density attenuators, integration times, and target radiations under the deduced infrared physical model. Then, the calibration coefficients are automatically learned through the relative error backward propagation network. Finally, experiments are conducted on a large-aperture ground-based infrared system to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results indicate the proposed method can solve the problem of learning imbalance with large fluctuations of infrared radiation, ensure global measurement precision with a simpler calibration procedure, and accurately measure the internal stray radiation of the optical system.
CAD-ASTRA: a versatile and efficient mesh projector for X-ray tomography with the ASTRA-toolbox
Authors: Paramonov P. , Francken N. , Renders J. , Iuso D. , Elberfeld T. , De Beenhouwer J. , Sijbers J.
Published: December 2023

Accurate and fast simulation of X-ray projection data from mesh models has many applications in academia and industry, ranging from 3D X-ray computed tomography (XCT) reconstruction algorithms to radiograph-based object inspection and quality control. While software tools for the simulation of X-ray projection data from mesh models are available, they lack either performance, public availability, flexibility to implement non-standard scanning geometries, or easy integration with existing 3D XCT software. In this paper, we propose CAD-ASTRA, a highly versatile toolbox for fast simulation of X-ray projection data from mesh models. While fully functional as standalone software, it is also compatible with the ASTRA toolbox, an open-source toolbox for flexible tomographic reconstruction. CAD-ASTRA provides three specialized GPU projectors based on state-of-the-art algorithms for 3D rendering, implemented using the NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit and the OptiX engine. First, it enables X-ray phase contrast simulations by modeling refraction through ray tracing. Second, it allows the back-propagation of projective errors to mesh vertices, enabling immediate application in mesh reconstruction, deep learning, and other optimization routines. Finally, CAD-ASTRA allows simulation of polychromatic X-ray projections from heterogeneous objects with a source of finite focal spot size. Use cases on a CAD-based inspection task, a phase contrast experiment, a combined mesh-volumetric data projection, and a mesh reconstruction demonstrate the wide applicability of CAD-ASTRA.
Laser micro-machining and damage testing of rounded shadow cone blockers on silica glass for arresting laser damage growth by redirection of light
Authors: Browar Allison E. M. , Bass Isaac , Guss Gabe , Vickers Jim , Norton Mary , Carr Christopher Wren , Feigenbaum Eyal
Published: December 2023

Structured conical blockers manufactured on optical input surfaces are being used to shadow, and thereby, arrest growth of exit surface damage on large optics for applications in high-energy laser systems to extend their lifetime usage. However, as the size of the Shadow Cone Blocker (SCB) is increased, the deflected light must be carefully managed to prevent consequential damage from downstream intensification. Here, we design and fabricate a distinct input SCB geometry to alleviate this problem, enabling larger damage site mitigation. The demonstrated ∼1 mm diameter SCB was manufactured with a convergent approach using a CO2 pulsed laser ablative scanning sequence on a fused silica window. The SCB design was refined to maximize resistance to both input and exit surface damage initiations on 1 cm thick fused silica windows when exposed to 351 nm irradiation and validated with laser damage testing. The design showed to prevent damage onset to the exit surface for incident fluences on the SCB of 10.7 ± 1.3  J·cm-2 and is resistant to damage on the input surface exceeding 30 J·cm-2 input fluence.