bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Dynamics of Oil and Social Movements in the Niger Delta of Nigeria
Authors: Ojakorotu Victor
Published: September 2014

The discovery of oil in Nigeria since 1956 has inflicted a heavy burden on the local people of the Niger River Delta who have had to contend with the consequences of oil production. The grievances of these local people have persisted for more than three decades without concrete efforts on the part of the government or oil multinationals to address them. The global triumph of capitalism and the fall of communism gave the local people an opportunity to organize social movements with similar interests to international civil society to challenge the policies of successive governments and the activities of oil multinationals in the Niger Delta. This paper addresses the factors that led to a sudden upsurge in the number of social movements in the Niger Delta and how foreign NGOs have played an important role in addressing the plight of the local people of the region.
"What if No One Had Spoken out Against this Policy?" The Rise of Asylum Seeker and Refugeee Advocacy in Australia
Authors: Gosden Diane
Published: September 2014

This paper examines the rise of an asylum seeker and refugee advocacy movement in Australia in recent years. It situates this phenomenon within Alberto Melucci's understanding of social movements as variable and diffuse forms of social action involved in challenging the logic of a system. Following this theoretical framework, it explores the empirical features of this particular collective action, as well as the struggle to redefine the nature of the relationship between citizens of a sovereign state and 'the other' in the personage of asylum seekers and refugees.
Special Issue: Guest Editors' Introduction
Authors: Goodman James , Ho Christina
Published: September 2014

PORTAL opens 2006 with a special selection of papers focusing on the transformative power of social movements. In an age of globalisation and of ideologies of globalism, we debate sources and potential for alternative scenarios, for ‘other worlds.’ Many commentators have proclaimed this the global age, where humanity lives under one world power, one world market, and one world order. Yet many other worlds find new and fertile ground in this age, flourishing against the norm. Social movements set new agendas, inspire participation and crystalise solidarity. At the centre of contestation, they can create emancipatory knowledges—knowledges for change. In this issue of PORTAL we ask how social movements generate new ways of being, new subjectivities, or new modes of existence. We debate the role of affective meaning, of symbolic action and collective conscience, and discuss the place of reflective action. Contributors debate the dialectics between power and counter-power, and the role of strategic conflict and dialogue. They analyse sources of revolutionary and transformative change, discussing the praxis of counter-globalism.
Women in South Korean Politics: A Long Road to Equality
Authors: Hermanns Heike
Published: September 2014

This paper examines the reasons for the increase in female representation in South Korean politics in the early 21st century. It is not a direct outcome of Korea’s democratisation process but a result of attitudinal change as well as the efforts of women’s organisations. The Korean experience shows that female representation in parliaments is not the only way to influence politics and policies on women’s issues. This paper starts with a general discussion of democratic procedures that influence female representation before looking at their application in South Korea. Coinciding with procedural changes, societal transformation paved the way for the advancement of women in the public sphere. Women’s organisations play an important role in promoting gender equality and women’s policies, especially since the late 1990s after they started to engage with the state. Their efforts included the introduction of quotas that allowed more women to enter formal elective politics, more than doubling the number of successful women in the 2004 parliamentary elections. Further steps are needed, however, to ensure sustainable and irreversible progress.
Merlinda Bobis’s Poem-plays: Reading Ethics and Identity across Cultures
Authors: Herrero Dolores
Published: September 2014

Merlinda Bobis is a bilingual writer who was born in the Philippines but now lives in Australia, which turns her into an in-between, a woman who has been carried across different cultures and cannot therefore be defined by making exclusive reference to any of them. The aim of this paper will be to show her two poem-plays Promenade and Cantata of the Warrior Woman, not as isolated phenomena, but as part of a rich tradition of (diasporic) Filipino poets and activist playwrights. Moreover, this paper will study these works from the perspective of a postmodern post-foundational ethics, since they are mainly concerned with writing as a means, not only to do away with fixed and rigid national/ cultural/ social/ gender/ ethnic categories, but also of liberation and celebration of a shared experience among the oppressed, especially women who have been suppressed by the combined oppression of nationalism, patriarchy and colonialism. By putting forward a quest for national, collective and individual identity through reconstructing the lost voices of women both in the pre-and post-contact periods, these poem-plays emphasize the importance of communication between self and other as the only way to give tolerance and peace a chance.
重建帝國﹕歷史正劇與中國當代民族主義在大眾文化中的新的表現形式 (Rebuilding the Empire: Historical TV Drama and the New Expressive Form of Cultural Nationalism)
Authors: Kong Shuyu
Published: September 2014

This paper explores the discourse of cultural nationalism and its recent articulation in historical TV dramas (Lishi ju): TV serials set in the Chinese imperial past and depicting court politics and the private lives of imperial families. First, I briefly survey the recent resurgence of historical drama on the TV screen, especially comparing two different ways of representing history: “history light” (xishuo) and “history orthodox” (zhengju). While history light, a new genre strongly influenced by the costume dramas imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan, emphasizes the entertainment values of popular culture and adopts a postmodern attitude towards history, history orthodox renews the pedagogical tradition and the moralistic narrative of historical drama in modern China since the May Fourth enlightenment movement. I then focus on TV dramas in the history orthodox mode and their ideological messages, examining two representative works by Hu Mei: Yongzheng Dynasty (Yongzheng wangchao, 1999) and The Great Emperor Wu of Han (Hanwu dadi, 2005). While drawing attention to the various narrative strategies, intertextualities and audio-visual styles employed in these dramas to represent the glorious national history and portray a strong leader (the emperor) as national hero, I also provide a contextual analysis of the production and circulation of these two dramas as well as the critical and media response to them, to reveal the social agencies and social formation of these dramas behind the screen. I suggest that the revisionist reframing of the past in historical TV drama reflects a new nationalist historical consciousness and cultural identity borne out of China’s rapid rise and aspirations to become an economic and political superpower.
民族主义与当代中国的自由主义者 (Liberalism and Nationalism in Contemporary China)
Authors: Feng Chongyi
Published: September 2014

The upsurge of nationalism in China since the 1990s has attracted considerable interest in academic circles. It has come about against the background of the frustration of political modernization (democratization) in China as a result of the June Fourth incident. These historical circumstances have prompted further debate over the relationship between democratization and nationalism. An interesting question for Chinese liberals committed to constitutional democracy is how to respond to nationalism. Generally speaking, contemporary Chinese liberals believe that nationalism is detrimental to democratization, jeopardizes national interest, and allows national sovereignty to override human rights.
The Revival of Chinese Cultural Nationalism
Authors: Guo Yingjie
Published: September 2014

The debate on Chinse cultural nationalism, as on nationalism in general, is often polarised by a number of theoretical positions, value judgements, practical concerns and methodological choices. While there is no consensus that cultural nationalism has developed into a formidable force in China, few would deny that it has been on the rise since June 4, 1989, and that it is a cultural-political movement with no parallel in the People’s Republic, except perhaps for the period following May 4, 1919. Of central concern in this special issue of PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies are the manifestations of cultural nationalism, the causation of its resurgence in post-Tiananmen China, and the ways in which it is likely to impact on China’s future development.
Different Trajectories: Europe and Scotland in Recent Film and Television
Authors: Goode Ian
Published: September 2014

Since approval was given via a referendum in 1997 for the advent of the Scottish Parliament, the benefits and constraints of Scotland’s devolved role within and against the UK has, understandably, formed the primary axis of political debate, despite increasing evidence that Scotland, like other nations, is part of a globalised world. It is also argued that nationalist Scotland exercises a preference for closer ties with a less imperialist Europe rather than with the colonially tainted state of the United Kingdom (Hechter 1975, 310). However, the precise meaning of Scotland’s role within a changing Europe receives little attention in mainstream debate (Imrie 2006). Meanwhile, the European Union is engaged in the ongoing process of enlarging and renegotiating its boundaries. Despite the paucity of texts that address ostensibly Scottish-European concerns, I want to consider the meaning of Europe through a focus on how these have been written into critical accounts of Scottish, British and European cinema while also examining how this relationship is given meaning in recent films produced in Scotland, in order to map the different manifestations of the relationship between Europe and Scotland.
Doris Salcedo’s Melancholy Objects
Authors: Mackie Vera
Published: September 2014

This article takes Doris Salcedo's work 'Atrabiliarios' (held in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) as the starting point for a discussion of the mechanisms of melancholy and fetishism. This is linked to a discussion of the politics of looking, museum displays and memory.
La nueva guarida del tango (Tango's New Lair)
Authors: Anad Guillermo
Published: September 2014

Con conceptos tales como Guardia Vieja (1895-1924) y Guardia Nueva (1925-1954), Vanguardia (1955-1969) y Período Contemporáneo (1970-1988), los estudiosos Horacio Ferrer y Oscar del Priore (1999) han periodizado la evolución histórica del Tango. Dejando intactos los tres primeros períodos, se propone una denominación alternativa a ese ‘Período Contemporáneo’. Este artículo propone el concepto de Nueva Guarida, donde se aglutinarían las nuevas subjetividades, identidades y mediaciones que asume el fenómeno cultural emblemático de lo argentino – el Tango-, al entrelazarse con la poética del rock nacional. También se estudia el impacto en la resemiotización del Tango en medios de comunicación masivos como las radios FM y la televisión actual.With concepts such as the Old Guard (1895-1924) and New Guard (1925-1954), the Vanguard (1955-1969) and the Contemporary Period (1970-1988), the attentive Horacio Ferrer and Oscar del Priore (1999) have periodized the historical evolution of the Tango. Leaving aside the first three periods, I propose the need for an alternative denomination to the 'Contemporary Period.' Accordingly this article contributes the concept of the 'Nueva Guarida' (literally the new lair), which refers to that place in which meet new subjectivities, identities and mediations that themselves emblemitize the cultural phenomenon of 'Argentina-ness' – the Tango- as it becomes enmeshed with the poetics of the nation's 'rock' music. This study also examines the impact on the resemioticization of the Tango in such mass communication media as FM radio and contemporary television.
Memory and a Hard Place: Revisiting Central Havana
Authors: Wyndham Marivic , Read Peter
Published: September 2014

Raul and Manolo are two Cuban men in their late sixties. Manolo left soon after Castro’s triumph to become a television celebrity in Miami. He returned in 1991 to make a clandestine film about the city which once was his. Raul never left his decaying city. He applauded the revolution, but little by little his enthusiasm soured.

The paper examines the relationship of the two men to what was once the ultra modern Central Havana of the mid-1950s. Manolo’s froze on the day he left: his filmed city is silent, immobile, full of ghosts, almost empty, ugly, ruined. Manolo’s Central Havana processes and changes, it is noisy, busy, - but also it is ugly and ruined. Both lament the city as it once was. Only Raul sees hope of reconciliation.
Serpica Naro and the Others. The Media Sociali Experience in Italian Struggles Against Precarity
Authors: Mattoni Alice
Published: September 2014

Social movements are also producers of symbolic resources, since they construct new collective identities and provide alternative system of meanings to societies. This was particularly significant with regard to recent struggles against work insecurity in Italy. There, in a discursive context dominated by the so-called ‘flexibility political mantra’, activists raised their voice in order to identify a novel social problem, precarity, and a novel social subject, precarious workers. The paper starts from these premises in order to investigate the so-called media sociali, a particular kind of media practice that had been developed by Italian activists involved in the long protest campaign against precarity, namely the Euro Mayday Parade (EMP). Probably, the media sociali are the most evident attempt to construct a fresh imagery based on precarious workers living and working conditions and to provide an alternative cultural grammar able to speak about precarity. The paper gives back the most important mechanism on which the media sociali rests through the living voices of activists involved in their elaboration: the mechanism of political socialization and social networking as well as the mechanism of diffusion and mutual recognition. Moreover, the paper proposes further reflections about the way in which those activists involved in the EMP perceived the media sociali. In doing so, the paper presents different ways of interpreting political conflict in contemporary Italian social movements and argues that the media sociali are an interesting attempt to overcome both mainstream and independent media in the construction of precarious workers’ imagery and political socialization. Interviews with activists and social movement generated documents are the main data source, investigated according to a qualitative analysis approach.
Translational Japanese: A Transformative Strangeness Within
Authors: Wakabayashi Judy
Published: September 2014

In 1813 Friedrich Schleiermacher proposed a ‘special domain just for translations’, where things not permitted elsewhere are allowed. Quite independently, Japanese society has reserved for translations a separate but not marginalized area that has even affected original writing. With its recognizably translational origin or influence, this language (hon’yakuch?) blurs the lines and hierarchy between translating and original writing, and also the source-target dichotomy. It traces back to encounters with Japan’s cultural ‘superiors’, China and the West, but today it stems from Japanese expectations toward translations as a genre, rather than the prestige of the source cultures. There is a belief that hon’yakuch? reflects the source text more transparently, allowing experience of the foreign, whereas rendering foreign texts into natural Japanese might give a sense of dislocation.

Tymoczko (2003: 201) argues that translators are not positioned in a ‘space between’—which would imply a lack of ideological engagement—but are inevitably committed to a particular cultural framework. Likewise, hon’yakuch? is not a neutral space between, but a site of engagement within the language proper. It would be inappropriate to describe translational Japanese as ‘foreignizing’ in the sense used by Venuti (1995), since it is not primarily motivated by a desire to disrupt readers’ complacency. Rather than constituting a locus of difference and respect for Otherness, hon’yakuch? represents a certain homogeneity in and of itself that does, nevertheless, help mediate between the foreign and the domestic.

Recently Japan’s growing cultural confidence has coincided with a shift toward domestication in translation, resulting in fewer opportunities to reorient the language through hon’yakuch?. Although it has become the target of some criticism and no longer strikes readers as fresh, it still has supporters and practitioners and continues to challenge the common Western conception of translationese as undesirable.
Natural Conversation Reconstruction Tasks: The Language Classroom as a Meeting Place
Authors: Ohashi Jun
Published: September 2014

This paper, drawing on Pratt’s notion of ‘transculturation’ and Bhabha’s ‘third space’, presents an example of language learning tasks that empower learners’ agency and promote their cross-cultural awareness and sensitivities to a different set of cultural expectations, using a naturally occurred Japanese thanking episodes. The paper discusses the merits of Natural Conversation Reconstruction Tasks (NCRTs) as a practical method for helping L2 learners develop this ‘intercultural competence’. It is based on a qualitative study of the results of one NCRT created for use in the context of teaching Japanese as a L2 in a multicultural society. It suggests the NCRT encourages the learners to explore the intersection where language use, speaker intention and L1 and L2 cultural norms meet. Such a process helps the learners become aware of socially expected patterns of communication in L1 and L2 in terms of the choices of speech act, formulaic expressions, sequential organization and politeness orientation. The learners’ comments suggest that the NCRT helps learners transcend their cultural boundaries by overcoming their narrow understanding of ‘thanking’ as ‘expressions of gratitude and appreciation’ and by cross-culturally widening their views of what counts as thanking. The NCRT with rich contextual information promotes the learners’ intercultural awareness, sensitivity to context and intercultural exploration in the space between L1 and L2, where they have authority and freedom of making sense of conversations, and pragmatics is fully integrated into language pedagogy.
Editors' welcome, PORTAL, Vol 6, No 2, July 2009
Authors: Allatson Paul
Published: September 2014

‘Post-Mao, Post-Bourdieu: Class and Taste in Contemporary China,’ is a special issue of PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies guest-edited by Yi Zheng (University of Sydney) and Stephanie Hemelryk Donald (RMIT University). The special issue explores the relationship between taste, choice and social stratification in contemporary China, and includes a new section, ‘New Perspectives Reports,’ which is intended to showcase opinion and ideas—in this case from the People’s Republic of China, in Mandarin—that complement the main articles. We hope to include this section in future issues of the journal.

The guest editors and the PORTAL editorial committee would like to acknowledge that this special issue of is a result of a funding grant from the Australian Research Council, 2003-2005: ‘The Making of Middle-Class Taste: Reading, Tourism, and Educational Choices in Urban China.’

I am also delighted to announce that the PORTAL Editorial Committee has three new members, all from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology, Sydney: Dr Malcolm Angelucci, Dr Beatriz Carrillo, and Dr Fredericka van der Lubbe.

Paul Allatson, Editor, PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies.
Writing Through: Practising Translation
Authors: Scott Joel
Published: September 2014

This essay exists as a segment in a line of study and writing practice that moves between a critical theory analysis of translation studies conceptions of language, and the practical questions of what those ideas might mean for contemporary translation and writing practice. Although the underlying preoccupation of this essay, and my more general line of inquiry, is translation studies and practice, in many ways translation is merely a way into a discussion on language. For this essay, translation is the threshold of language. But the two trails of the discussion never manage to elude each other, and these concatenations have informed two experimental translation methods, referred to here as Live Translations and Series Translations. Following the essay are a number of poems in translation, all of which come from Blanco Nuclear by the contemporary Spanish poet, Esteban Pujals Gesalí. The first group, the Live Translations consist of transcriptions I made from audio recordings read in a public setting, in which the texts were translated in situ, either off the page of original Spanish-language poems, or through a process very much like that carried out by simultaneous translators, for which readings of the poems were played back to me through headphones at varying speeds to be translated before the audience. The translations collected are imperfect renderings, attesting to a moment in language practice rather than language objects. The second method involves an iterative translation process, by which three versions of any one poem are rendered, with varying levels of fluency, fidelity and servility. All three translations are presented one after the other as a series, with no version asserting itself as the primary translation. These examples, as well as the translation methods themselves, are intended as preliminary experiments within an endlessly divergent continuum of potential methods and translations, and not as a complete representation of a methodology.
Memory and Forgetting on the National Periphery: Marseilles and the Regicide of 1934
Authors: Graves Matthew
Published: September 2014

The assassination of the King of Yugoslavia, Alexander Ist by Croatian terrorists during a state visit to Marseilles on 9 October 1934 is commemorated by a modest plaque on the Canebière and a little known monument outside the Préfecture. Although the histories of the period cite the event in passing, it is treated as a footnote in the political history of France and has been all but erased from the memory of the city. While there are good reasons for forgetting the episode – regicide does no favours for the reputation of a host nation or city and the French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou was accidentally shot by the French police – the double killing had multiple ramifications for France's interior and foreign affairs during the rise of fascism in Europe. It advanced the career of future Vichy Prime Minister Pierre Laval, who replaced Barthou as Foreign Minister, while French efforts to contain the threat of German expansionism by forging alliances with the Central European powers died with Barthou; King Alexander Ist's successor moved Yugoslavia into the camp of the Axis powers. Geopolitically, the system of collective security forged at Versailles collapsed in the wake the assassination. The incident in Marseilles highlights political tensions in France in the troubled inter-war years leading up to the emergence of the Front Populaire. It reveals the memorial agencies of core and periphery engaged in a struggle over the rights to remembrance. Above all, it poses the problem of the preservation of peripheral and traumatic episodes in collective memory and suggests that political violence constitutes a social periphery of its own, contributing to Marseille's "mauvaise réputation" as the French capital's negative, meridional 'other'.
Cinema and Prosthetic Memory: The Case of the Korean War
Authors: Keene Judith
Published: September 2014

This paper assesses the explanatory possibilities of the concept of prosthetic memory, with cinema as the enabler of popular understanding, when applied to the Korean War. The essay examines why it was that the conflict in Korea for many decades occupied a memory void and whether the explanations that have been offered for other similar “forgotten “wars are useful in relation to Korea. The analysis sugggests that cinema may be important in the formation of popular understanding but that there are serious analytical drawbacks in assuming that cinema can provide a window into popular mentalities.
The Cemetery, the State and the Exiles: A Study of Cementerio Colón, Havana, and Woodlawn Cemetery, Miami
Authors: Wyndham Marivic , Read Peter
Published: September 2014

One of the unsuspected costs of exile is the inability to care for the family tombs for which, especially in Latin American countries, one may feel a sharp personal responsibility. The desecration of such tombs renders the pain of exile sharper still. We examine the ways in which the Cuban State has abandoned responsibility for the care of the tombs of the exiles in the island’s largest cemetery, Cementerio Cristóbal Colón in Havana.

Many exiles hope and plan to return to resume life in their former birthland. Perhaps to show their intentions, their cemeteries in the new countries are piecemeal and temporary. Little by little it becomes apparent that their state of exile has passed from medium term to long term to permanence. In Woodlawn Cemetery, Miami, some of the exiles’ dead remain in unworthy graves while the inscriptions on their tombs remind their descendants of the promise of permanent return which they never now will keep.
Musical Structure as Narrative in Rock
Authors: Encarnacao John Fernando
Published: September 2014

In an attempt to take a fresh look at the analysis of form in rock music, this paper uses Susan McClary’s (2000) idea of ‘quest narrative’ in Western art music as a starting point. While much pop and rock adheres to the basic structure of the establishment of a home territory, episodes or adventures away, and then a return, my study suggests three categories of rock music form that provide alternatives to common combinations of verses, choruses and bridges through which the quest narrative is delivered. Labyrinth forms present more than the usual number of sections to confound our sense of ‘home’, and consequently of ‘quest’. Single-cell forms use repetition to suggest either a kind of stasis or to disrupt our expectations of beginning, middle and end. Immersive forms blur sectional divisions and invite more sensual and participatory responses to the recorded text. With regard to all of these alternative approaches to structure, Judy Lochhead’s (1992) concept of ‘forming’ is called upon to underline rock music forms that unfold as process, rather than map received formal constructs.

Central to the argument are a couple of crucial definitions. Following Theodore Gracyk (1996), it is not songs, as such, but particular recordings that constitute rock music texts. Additionally, narrative is understood not in (direct) relation to the lyrics of a song, nor in terms of artists’ biographies or the trajectories of musical styles, but considered in terms of musical structure. It is hoped that this outline of non-narrative musical structures in rock may have applications not only to other types of music, but to other time-based art forms.
The Long Road from the Kidney Bazaar: A Commentary on Pakistan’s Progress Towards Self-sufficiency in Organ Transplantation
Authors: Martin Dominique E.
Published: September 2014

The dark history of transplant tourism in Pakistan demonstrates the hazards of unregulated cross-border markets in human organs. Trading on existing national and international social inequities, ‘transplant tourism’ offers dubious benefits for transplant recipients and attractive profits to those facilitating the industry at the expense of the world’s poor. The impact of Pakistan’s 2007 Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissue Ordinance and the sustained efforts of transplant professionals and societal groups led by the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation, show that organ trading can be effectively discouraged and equitable programs of organ procurement and transplantation pursued despite multiple challenges. In this paper, the factors that have contributed to Pakistan’s progress towards self-sufficiency in organ transplantation are identified and discussed. The case of Pakistan highlights the need for countries to protect their own organ and tissue providers who may be vulnerable in the global healthcare market. Pakistan provides an excellent example for other countries in the region and throughout the world to consider when regulating their own transplantation programs and considering the pursuit of national self-sufficiency.
Synthesis of Climate Change Policy in Judicial, Executive, and Legislative Branches of U.S. Government
Authors: Brinkmann Robert , Garren Sandra Jo
Published: September 2014

In recent years, the United States has struggled to develop a comprehensive policy for climate change and concomitant greenhouse gas emissions that addresses the current scientific thinking on the topic. The absence of any clear legislative or executive approach dominated national discussions and the court system was used to litigate a variety of issues associated with global warming. This paper synthesizes actions taken in the three branches of government prior to and immediately following the Obama election. In the Judicial branch, several branches of law have been used to force government and private parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Based on the historic greenhouse gas lawsuit, Massachusetts et al. v. the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), and under the direction of the Obama administration, the U.S. EPA has taken significant action to regulate greenhouse gases. In the legislative branch, a comprehensive energy and climate bill passed the House of Representatives and comparable and alternate energy and climate bills were debated in the Senate indicating hope for legislation in the 111th Congress. However, these bills proved to be unsuccessful, therefore leaving the U.S. EPA and the courts the only options for national climate policy in the near future.
Climate Governance is Failing Us: We All Need to Respond
Authors: Riedy Chris , McGregor Ian
Published: September 2014

Peer reviewed introduction to the Special Issue on Global Climate Change Policy: Post-Copenhagen Discord, guest edited by Chris Riedy and Ian M. McGregor, University of Technology, Sydney.
Special Issue Dedication to Stephen H. Schneider
Authors: Baer Paul
Published: September 2014

It is with both pleasure and sadness that we dedicate this special climate change issue of Portal to the late Dr. Stephen H. Schneider.

Steve, as he was known to his friends and colleagues, was as rare a bird as any he sought out in his passion as a birdwatcher. A brilliant climate scientist, author of countless books and papers, path breaking inter-disciplinarian, eminent public communicator, mentor to dozens of young scholars; the list of roles and adulatory adjectives could fill an IPCC special report.

Steve would have appreciated this special issue, with its multidisciplinary approach, and its quest for solutions based on analytical scholarship. He understood better than most the inseparability of normative and descriptive concerns, the need for academics and scientists of all kinds to be involved with public processes of communication, policy design and deliberation. While his last book was called “Science as a Contact Sport,” the unspoken title of his career might have been “Science as a Public Service.” He was endlessly testifying, consulting and giving interviews, and encouraged others to learn to do the same.

Notwithstanding a battle with lymphoma in the last decade (chronicled in the wonderful book The Patient from Hell), Steve maintained a frenetic level of activity and was still going strong when he was felled by a pulmonary embolism in July of 2010 at age 65. He leaves behind a legacy embodied in his publications, institutions like the IPCC and the journal Climatic Change, and in the hearts and minds of the countless persons he interacted with, mentored, and loved. Exuberant, passionate, full of warmth and good humor, Steve was a mensch among mensches. He will be sorely missed.

Paul Baer, with the assistance of Terry Root and Ian McGregor.
Word-Images: Politics and Visual Cultures in China
Authors: Marinelli Maurizio
Published: September 2014

Introduction to the special issue of PORTAL, Politics and Aesthetics in China.
A relative humidity profile retrieval from Megha-Tropiques observations without explicit thermodynamical constraints
Authors: Sivira R. G. , Brogniez H. , Mallet C. , Oussar Y.
Published: September 2014

Abstract. A statistical method trained and optimized to retrieve relative humidity (RH) profiles is presented and evaluated with measurements from radiosoundings. The method makes use of the microwave payload of the Megha-Tropiques plateform, namely the SAPHIR sounder and the MADRAS imager. The approach, based on a Generalized Additive Model (GAM), embeds both the physical and statistical characteritics of the inverse problem in the training phase and no explicit thermodynamical constraint, such as a temperature profile or an integrated water vapor content, is provided to the model at the stage of retrieval. The model is built for cloud-free conditions in order to avoid the cases of scattering of the microwave radiation in the 18.7–183.31 GHz range covered by the payload. Two instrumental configurations are tested: a SAPHIR-MADRAS scheme and a SAPHIR-only scheme, to deal with the stop of data acquisition of MADRAS in January 2013 for technical reasons. A comparison to retrievals based on the Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) technique and on the Least Square-Support Vector Machines (LS-SVM) shows equivalent performance over a large realistic set, promising low errors (bias < 2.2%) and scatters (correlation > 0.8) throughout the troposphere (150–900 hPa). A comparison to radiosounding measurements performed during the international field experiment CINDY/DYNAMO/AMIE of winter 2011–2012 confirms these results for the mid-tropospheric layers (correlation between 0.6 and 0.92), with an expected degradation of the quality of the estimates at the surface and top layers. Finally a rapid insight of the large-scale RH field from Megha-Tropiques is discussed and compared to ERA-Interim.
Estimating the carbon dynamics of South Korean forests from 1954 to 2012
Authors: Lee J. , Yoon T. K. , Han S. , Kim S. , Yi M. J. , Park G. S. , Kim C. , Son Y. M. , Kim R. , Son Y.
Published: September 2014

Abstract. Forests play an important role in the global carbon (C) cycle, and the South Korean forests also contribute to this global C cycle. While the South Korean forest ecosystem was almost completely destroyed by exploitation and the Korean War, it has successfully recovered because of national-scale reforestation programs since 1973. There have been several studies on the estimation of C stocks and balances over the past decades in the South Korean forests. However, a retrospective long-term study that includes biomass and dead organic matter C and validates dead organic matter C is still lacking. Accordingly, we estimated the C stocks and their changes of both biomass and dead organic matter C during the 1954–2012 period using a process-based model, the Korean Forest Soil Carbon model, and the 5th South Korean national forest inventory (NFI) report. Validation processes were also conducted based on the 5th NFI and statistical data. Simulation results showed that the biomass C stocks increased from 36.4 to 440.4 Tg C at a rate of 7.0 Tg C yr−1 during the period 1954–2012. The dead organic matter C stocks increased from 386.0 to 463.1 Tg C at a rate of 1.3 Tg C yr−1 during the same period. The estimates of biomass and dead organic matter C stocks agreed well with observed C stock data. The annual net biome production (NBP) during the period 1954–2012 was 141.3 g C m−2 yr−1, which increased from −8.8 g C m−2 yr−1 in 1955 to 436.6 g C m−2 yr−1 in 2012. Because of the small forested area, the South Korean forests had a comparatively lower contribution to the annual C sequestration by global forests. In contrast, because of the extensive reforestation programs, the NBP of South Korean forests was much higher than those of other countries. Our results could provide the forest C dynamics in South Korean forests before and after the onset of reforestation programs.
ModelE2-TOMAS development and evaluation using aerosol optical depths, mass and number concentrations
Authors: Lee Y. H. , Adams P. J. , Shindell D. T.
Published: September 2014

Abstract. The TwO-Moment Aerosol Sectional microphysics model (TOMAS) has been integrated into the state-of-the-art general circulation model, GISS ModelE2. TOMAS has the flexibility to select a size resolution as well as the lower size cutoff. A computationally efficient version of TOMAS is used here, which has 15 size bins covering 3 nm to 10 μm aerosol dry diameter. For each bin, it simulates the total aerosol number concentration and mass concentrations of sulphate, pure elementary carbon (hydrophobic), mixed elemental carbon (hydrophilic), hydrophobic organic matter, hydrophilic organic matter, sea salt, mineral dust, ammonium, and aerosol-associated water. This paper provides a detailed description of the ModelE2-TOMAS model and evaluates the model against various observations including aerosol precursor gas concentrations, aerosol mass and number concentrations, and aerosol optical depths. Additionally, global budgets in ModelE2-TOMAS are compared with those of other global aerosol models, and the TOMAS model is compared to the default aerosol model in ModelE2, which is a bulk aerosol model. Overall, the ModelE2-TOMAS predictions are within the range of other global aerosol model predictions, and the model has a reasonable agreement with observations of sulphur species and other aerosol components as well as aerosol optical depth. However, ModelE2-TOMAS (as well as the bulk aerosol model) cannot capture the observed vertical distribution of sulphur dioxide over the Pacific Ocean possibly due to overly strong convective transport. The TOMAS model successfully captures observed aerosol number concentrations and cloud condensation nuclei concentrations. Anthropogenic aerosol burdens in the bulk aerosol model running in the same host model as TOMAS (ModelE2) differ by a few percent to a factor of 2 regionally, mainly due to differences in aerosol processes including deposition, cloud processing, and emission parameterizations. Larger differences are found for naturally emitted aerosols such as sea salt and mineral dust. With TOMAS, ModelE2 has three different aerosol models (the bulk aerosol model and modal-based aerosol microphysics model, MATRIX) and allows exploration of the uncertainties associated with aerosol modelling within the same host model, NASA GISS ModelE2.
PM1 measurements at a site close to an oil/gas pre-treatment plant (Agri Valley – southern Italy): a preliminary study
Authors: Trippetta S. , Caggiano R. , Sabia S.
Published: September 2014

Abstract. A PM1 (i.e. particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than 1.0 μm) short-term monitoring campaign was carried out in the Agri Valley (southern Italy) in September 2012. This area is of international concern, since it houses one of the largest European on-shore reservoirs and the largest oil/gas pre-treatment plant (i.e. the Centro Olio Val d'Agri – COVA) within an anthropised context. PM1 measurements were performed in Viggiano, the nearest town to the COVA plant and one of the most populated towns of the Agri Valley. During the study period, the PM1 daily concentrations ranged from 1.2 to 8.4 μg m−3, with a mean value of 4.6 μg m−3. Regarding the PM1 chemical composition, it can be observed that S and typical crustal elements were the most abundant constituents of the PM1 collected. By applying principal component analysis (PCA), it was pointed out that crustal soil, biomass and wood burning, secondary atmospheric reactions involving COVA plant emissions and local soil particles, and traffic were the main sources contributing to the PM1 measured in the area under study. Moreover, a possible contribution of the long-range transport of African dust was observed.
Global distribution of soil organic carbon, based on the Harmonized World Soil Database – Part 2: Certainty of changes related to land-use and climate
Authors: Köchy M. , Don A. , van der Molen M. K. , Freibauer A.
Published: September 2014

Abstract. Global biosphere models vary greatly in their projections of future changes of global soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and aggregated global SOC masses in response to climate change. We estimated the certainty (likelihood) and quantity of increases and decreases on a half-degree grid. We assessed the effect of changes in controlling factors, including net primary productivity (NPP), litter quality, soil acidity, water-saturation, depth of permafrost, land use, temperature, and aridity, in a temporally implicit model that uses categorized driver variables associated by probabilities (Bayesian Network). The probability-weighted results show that, globally, climate effects on NPP had the strongest impact on SOC stocks and the certainty of change after 75 years. Actual land use had the greatest effect locally because the assumed certainty of land use change per unit area was small. The probability-weighted contribution of climate to decomposition was greatest in the humid tropics because of greater absolute effects on decomposition fractions at higher temperatures. In contrast, climate effects on decomposition fractions were small in cold regions. Differences in decomposition rates between contemporary and future climate were greatest in arid subtropical regions because of projected strong increases in precipitation. Warming in boreal and arctic regions increased NPP, balancing or outweighing potential losses from thawing of permafrost. Across contrasting NPP scenarios tropical mountain forests were identified as hotspots of future highly certain C losses. Global soil C mass will increase by 1% with a certainty of 75% if NPP increases due to carbon-dioxide fertilization. At a certainty level of 75%, soil C mass will not change if CO2-induced increase of NPP is limited by nutrients.
Editors' Note
Authors: Cason Jana , Cohn Ellen R.
Published: September 2014

The spring 2014 issue of the International Journal of Telerehabilitation (IJT) contains four informative and timely policy articles: (1) an invited commentary describing the exploratory process underway within physical therapy to create licensure portability for physical therapists, (2) an analysis of state telehealth laws and regulations for occupational therapy and physical therapy, (3) an overview of telehealth evidence and key telehealth policy issues in occupational therapy, and (4) the World Federation of Occupational Therapists’ (WFOT) Position Statement on Telehealth. This issue also contains original research evaluating the feasibility of providing pediatric dysphagia treatment via telepractice, a clinical report of student learning outcomes associated with an innovative experiential learning assignment involving (international) teleconsultation in a Master of Science in Occupational Therapy (MSOT) curriculum, a book review, and announcements from the American Telemedicine Association.
Erratum
Authors: Cohn Ellen R.
Published: September 2014

Correction to: Odole, A.C., & Ojo, O.D. (2013). A Telephone-based Physiotherapy Intervention for Patients with Osteoarthritis of the Knee. International Journal of Telerehabilitation, 5(2), 11-20. doi: 10.5195/ijt.2013.6125
AS ORIGENS DO NÚCLEO DE PRÁTICA JURÍDICA DA UNB
Authors: Costa Alexandre Bernardino
Published: September 2014

Neste texto busca-se colocar em evidência a trajetória de criação do Núcleo de Prática Jurídica da Faculdadede Direito da Universidade de Brasília. Para tanto, foram trabalhados conceitos e experiências que permearama implementação das novas diretrizes curriculares e o papel da integração entre ensino, pesquisa e extensão.Entre eles o Direito Achado na Rua, o Núcleo para Paz e Direitos Humanos e a luta por direitos desenvolvidana Vila Telebrasília. Por meio do estudo deste caso, demonstrou-se a indissociabilidade entre teoria e práticae como o direito pode ser compreendido como a legítima organização social da liberdade. O direito seconstrói e reconstrói no seio da sociedade, nas lutas dos movimentos sociais, nos espaços públicos ondecidadãos dotados de autonomia pública e privada vivem sua autolegislação: na rua. Assim, o conhecimentojurídico deve abrir-se de forma transdisciplinar a outras áreas, compreendendo a complexidade social erompendo com a compartimentarização dos saberes. São necessários conhecimentos cada vez mais amplos para lidar com os novos problemas sociais.
ÉTICA E MEIOS DE COMUNICAÇÃO DE MASSA: UM ESTUDO SOBRE A CONCEPÇÃO DE INFÂNCIA NO JORNAL GAZETA DO POVO
Authors: Silva Paulo Vinícius B. da
Published: September 2014

A pesquisa tratou do conceito de infância difundido pelo jornal paranaense Gazeta do Povo e da “qualidadeética” das reportagens analisadas. Foram catalogadas as peças jornalísticas publicadas no mês de novembrode 2000 que grafavam a palavra infância ou similares no título ou nos três primeiros parágrafos, ou ainda asque não se enquadravam neste critério, mas foram consideradas como tratando diretamente da infância. Sobestes critérios, foram analisadas 119 peças. A metodologia de análise foi a proposta por Thompson, constandode três níveis: descrição do contexto de produção, análise de conteúdo, e interpretação e reinterpretação.As questões éticas formuladas por Sánchez Vidal foram utilizadas para interpretação das pautas éticas dasmensagens publicadas sobre infância. Sobre a liberdade, o contexto de produção revela uma influênciaacentuada do poder público local na produção do jornal, e da análise das mensagens não se pode percebero aumento do grau de liberdade das pessoas, pelo contrário, dão mostra de serem restritivas. A análiseda intencionalidade revela que os benefícios econômicos são colocados em primeiro plano, tanto pelaprioridade à publicidade, quanto pela exploração massiva de peças com propostas sensacionalistas. Intençõeslatentes ficaram explícitas pela presença de formas de operação da ideologia nas peças. Os destinatáriosforam tratados de forma homogeneizada, com referências praticamente ausentes a questões de raça,gênero e idade, e sem fomentar a participação. Os valores promovidos pela comunicação forammuito mais instrumentos de passividade e dependência que de bem-estar. A postura sociopolítica doscomunicadores, além de não apresentar a neutralidade, foi alinhada com o pólo de poder, e não com seuoposto. Sobre a metodologia utilizada, as formas de persuasão e difusão ideológica estiveram presentesnos textos. A respeito da consciência moral dos comunicadores, pode-se afirmar que o código de éticados jornalistas não foi seguido. Os dados levantados permitem somente uma aproximação às pautas éticasdos produtores das peças, e à sua responsabilidade. A este propósito, a concepção da linguagem comoprodutora de fatos sociais parece não ser objeto de reflexão.