bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Changes in serum creatine kinase and C-reactive protein after posterior and direct anterior approaches in total hip arthroplasty
Authors: Maezawa Katsuhiko , Nozawa Masahiko , Gomi Motoshi , Sugimoto Munehiko , Maruyama Yuichiro
Published: December 2020

Purpose:

Some studies reported that measuring serum creatine kinase (CK) level is an objective method with which to determine the relative invasiveness of surgery. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the change in postoperative serum CK levels as a measure of whether the direct anterior approach (DAA) is less invasive than the posterior approach (PA) regarding postoperative rehabilitation.

Materials and methods:

We prospectively recruited 71 women who were undergoing total hip arthroplasty, 47 were treated by the PA and 24 by the DAA. Serum CK and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were measured preoperatively and 3 hours and 1, 4, 7, 10, and 14 days after the operation.

Results:

The serum CK levels were significantly higher in the DAA group than in the PA group on postoperative days 1, 4, 7, 10, and 14. On postoperative day 4 and 7, the percentage of patients whose serum CK levels were above the normal range was 46.8% and 8.5% in the PA group and 95.2% and 45.5% in the DAA group.

Conclusions:

CK levels were significantly higher in the 2 weeks after THA by a DAA than after the same procedure by a PA indicating that DAA causes prolonged muscle damage. Although the DAA is considered to be a muscle-sparing approach this may not be the case and DAA may not actually be a minimally-invasive approach.
Biomarkers: Opportunities and Challenges for Drug Development in the Current Regulatory Landscape
Authors: Gromova Mariya , Vaggelas Annegret , Dallmann Gabriele , Seimetz Diane
Published: December 2020

Biomarkers are widely used at every stage of drug discovery and development. Utilisation of biomarkers has a potential to make drug discovery, development and approval processes more efficient. An overview of the current global regulatory landscape is presented in this article with particular emphasis on the validation and qualification of biomarkers, as well as legal framework for companion diagnostics. Furthermore, this article shows how the number of approved drugs with at least 1 biomarker used during development (biomarker acceptance) is affected by the recent advances in the biomarker regulations. More than half of analysed approvals were supported by biomarker data and there has been a slight increase in acceptance of biomarkers in recent years, even though the growth is not continuous. For certain pharmacotherapeutic groups, approvals with biomarkers are more common than without. Examples include immunosuppressants, immunostimulants, drugs used in diabetes, antithrombotic drugs, antineoplastic agents and antivirals. As a conclusion, potential benefits, challenges and opportunities of using biomarkers in drug discovery and development in the current regulatory landscape are summarised and discussed.
Alteration in Gene Pair Correlations in Tryptophan Metabolism as a Hallmark in Cancer Diagnosis
Authors: Sakharkar Meena Kishore , Dhillon Sarinder Kaur , Rajamanickam Karthic , Heng Benjamin , Braidy Nady , Guillemin Gilles J. , Yang Jian
Published: December 2020

Tryptophan metabolism plays essential roles in both immunomodulation and cancer development. Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase, a rate-limiting enzyme in the metabolic pathway, is overexpressed in different types of cancer. To get a better understanding of the involvement of tryptophan metabolism in cancer development, we evaluated the expression and pairwise correlation of 62 genes in the metabolic pathway across 12 types of cancer. Only gene AOX1, encoding aldehyde oxidase 1, was ubiquitously downregulated, Furthermore, we observed that the 62 genes were widely and strongly correlated in normal controls, however, the gene pair correlations were significantly lost in tumor patients for all 12 types of cancer. This implicated that gene pair correlation coefficients of the tryptophan metabolic pathway could be applied as a prognostic and/or diagnostic biomarker for cancer.
Altered Indoleamine 2,3-Dioxygenase Production and Its Association to Inflammatory Cytokines in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells Culture of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
Authors: Kartika Rona , Wibowo Heri , Purnamasari Dyah , Pradipta Saraswati , Larasati Rahma A
Published: December 2020

Aim:

To analyze indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) production in the cell culture supernatant of phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from type 2 DM (T2DM) patients and investigate IDO’s association to pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines.

Subjects and methods:

PBMC samples were collected from 21 T2DM patients and 17 normoglycemic participants, then stimulated with PHA for 3 days. Cytokine and IDO concentrations were measured in the PBMC culture supernatants. In vitro production of TNF-α, IL-6, interferon-γ, and IL-10 were measured using multiplex immunoassay. IDO concentration was assessed using ELISA. To assess how PHA stimulation altered IDO production and to minimize the unstimulated baseline effect of T2DM, we subtracted the PHA-stimulated IDO concentration from the unstimulated one. IBM SPSS version 23 was used for statistical analysis.

Results:

The IDO concentrations in the PBMC culture supernatants were significantly higher in T2DM patients regardless of whether they were unstimulated ( P < .001) or PHA-stimulated ( P = .012). Reduced IDO production was observed in 52.8% of T2DM patients and was associated with older age and lower interferon-γ levels. Conversely, 42.8% of T2DM patients showed increased IDO concentrations, which were correlated with the IL-6/IL-10 ratio ( r = 0.683, P = .021) and interferon-γ/IL-10 ratio ( r = 0.517, P = .077).

Conclusion:

The interferon-γ level was reduced in the PBMC culture supernatant of T2DM patients with reduced IDO production. Reduced IDO production in T2DM patients following PHA stimulation was associated with older age and, notably, higher baseline IDO concentrations. Since IDO is primarily produced by dendritic cells, reduced IDO production after PHA stimulation may indicate dendritic cell dysfunction.
Racial neoliberal philanthropy and the arts for social change
Authors: Saifer Adam
Published: December 2020

Major philanthropic organizations are increasingly turning to the arts for social change [AFSC] to address racial injustices ranging from racialized poverty and mass incarceration, to health and educational disparities. This article problematizes the emergence, and increased celebration, of AFSC philanthropy by situating it within successive articulations of racial neoliberalism. Focusing on the Canadian context, I argue that this ‘progressive turn’ in arts philanthropy is the product of a series of neoliberal political-economic and ideological shifts that uniquely punish(ed) the racialized poor on a material level, while simultaneously producing these same communities and their artistic practices as attractive sites of investment for a primarily white and increasingly empowered philanthropic base. Drawing on a series of examples, I show how contemporary approaches to AFSC philanthropy – particularly those that mobilize ‘business-like’ strategies, priorities, and tools in pursuit of social change – function to extend and legitimize the ‘post-racial’ ideological foundations of the racial neoliberal project, resulting in a paradoxical phenomenon that I term ‘racial neoliberal philanthropy’. In addition to making the case for centering race in extant critical work on the political economy of philanthropy, this article – as well as the concept of racial neoliberal philanthropy – highlights how well-intentioned organizational responses to racial injustice can, in fact, reify racial inequities through policies and programming that are seemingly ‘beyond race’.
Expanding spectrum of opportunistic infections associated with dimethyl fumarate
Authors: Kim Tiffany , Croteau David , Brinker Allen , Jones David E , Lee Paul R , Kortepeter Cindy M
Published: December 2020

Background:

Only progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) is currently described in the dimethyl fumarate (DMF) prescribing information.

Objectives:

To describe opportunistic infections (OIs), other than PML, reported in association with DMF.

Methods:

The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) and medical literature were searched.

Results:

We retrieved 34 cases of serious OIs with a causal association with DMF, including 11 central nervous system (CNS) infections and 23 extra-CNS infections. Six OIs occurred with normal circulating absolute lymphocyte counts. The median latency from DMF initiation was 13 months and was variable.

Conclusion:

DMF is associated with the development of OIs that require invasive diagnostic and/or therapeutic procedures. Patients should be monitored for OIs when treated with DMF regardless of circulating absolute lymphocyte counts.
Modelling cultural embeddedness for colonised indigenous minorities: The implicit and explicit pathways to culturally valued behaviours
Authors: Fox Ririwai , Ward Colleen , Neha Tia , Jose Paul E
Published: December 2020

Colonised indigenous minorities around the world are constantly navigating the complex space between their heritage culture and mainstream society. In this paper, we explore how embeddedness in heritage cultural values, beliefs, and practises influence the behaviours of indigenous minorities, particularly during intercultural contact with the post-colonial majority where values, beliefs, and practises often clash. To support our theorising, we introduce the concept of cultural embeddedness, relating to enculturation in one’s heritage cultural values, beliefs, and practises. We then introduce the Dual-Pathways Model of Embeddedness to Culturally Valued Behaviours for Indigenous Minorities (DPM), which seeks to outline the two separate but interrelated pathways through which cultural embeddedness leads to culturally valued behaviours. The dual pathways include an implicit pathway, which begins with cultural values, and an explicit pathway, which begins with cultural practises. We use an indigenous approach, drawing on the first author’s experiences as an indigenous Māori in New Zealand to illustrate the concepts of the DPM. The model attempts to integrate the various ways in which cultural identity has been defined by indigenous authors into a single theory. We invite future qualitative and quantitative research, especially by indigenous scholars, to challenge and/or validate the DPM.
Socioemotional interactions in collaborative learning: An analysis from the perspective of semiotic cultural psychology
Authors: García Angélica , Olivares Himmbler , Simão Lívia Mathias , Dominguez Ana Lorena
Published: December 2020

Research into socioemotional interactions in collaborative learning situations has focused on their positive or negative effects. Emphasis has also been placed on how affective aspects contribute to cognitive ones. The present work shows this type of interactions from the perspective of intersubjectivity in the framework of cultural semiotic psychology. Using naturalistic observation in a collaborative learning situation, the results show moments of intersubjectivity based on negotiation and transformation of meanings. Finally, five interrelated dimensions in collaborative learning according to the perspective of semiotic cultural psychology are discussed, these being affectivity-cognition, interactions, disquieting experience and tensión, transformation of meanings and new interactions.
Parity or patriarchy? The nomination of female candidates in British politics
Authors: Wäckerle Jens
Published: December 2020

In recent years, parties in the United Kingdom have increasingly pushed for higher descriptive representation of women. To achieve this goal, Labour has introduced All-Women Shortlists, while the Conservatives have used the A-List and similar tools to promote women in their party. This article shows how All-Women Shortlists were effective at levelling the playing field between women and men, while the measures of the Conservatives did not fully achieve that effect. In fact, women are consistently nominated in less promising constituencies for the Conservatives. Nominating female candidates leads to more women being nominated in neighbouring constituencies in subsequent elections, while there is no evidence of cross-party contagion effects. Overall, these findings present strong evidence that the introduction of All-Women Shortlists started a dynamic process that consistently increased the number of female candidates and MPs for Labour, while the measures introduced by the Conservatives failed to achieve a similar effect.
Rethinking criticism about lossy compression: Sound fidelity, large-scale production and audio capital in pop music
Authors: O’Grady Pat
Published: December 2020

Although digital music streaming and downloading practices highlight a preference for portability over fidelity among pop music consumers, for some ‘high fidelity’ continues to be a crucial component of their pop music engagement. This article examines the political dimensions of audio preferences. It considers comments by Neil Young and those within The Distortion of Sound who claim that the lossy compression encoding process – used in digital downloading and streaming – significantly degrades the quality of recorded sound and compromises valuable pop music characteristics. In 2015, these claims were followed by the development of the ‘hi-res’ music player device and digital download store ‘Pono’. This article argues that some criticism of lossy compression can be understood as ‘audio capital’. Rather than merely exchanging aesthetic preferences, or a reliable metric of the audibility of high fidelity, audio capital describes the reconversion of celebrity status and economic capital into a class divide structured by an appreciation for large-scale music production.
Amplification of regional discrimination on Chinese news portals: An affective critical discourse analysis
Authors: Peng Altman Yuzhu
Published: December 2020

Regional discrimination is a significant social issue that leads to divided societies. In China, people from Henan Province, who are verbally abused by non-Henan users on the Internet, are often victims of regional discrimination. This article presents a case study of Chinese Internet users’ discriminatory practice against Henan people in the commentary sections of two major Chinese news portals – Tencent and NetEase. By advancing an affective critical discourse analysis approach with the assistance of content analysis, I analysed user comments on news reports that covered a news event relating to regional discrimination against Henan people. The analysis showed that Internet users’ discriminatory practice was notably amplified by the locative IP-address function in NetEase’s commentary section. The research findings shed light on the interplay between Internet users’ discursive practice and the technological architecture of interactive digital platforms in the context of regional discrimination.
The constitutive effects of social investment evaluation
Authors: Nordesjö Kettil
Published: December 2020

Evaluation has different uses and impacts. This article aims to describe and analyse the constitutive effects – how evaluation forms and shapes different domains in an evaluation context – of evaluation related to an evidence-based policy and practice, by investigating how the evaluation of social investment fund initiatives in three Swedish municipalities is organized and implemented. Through interviews and evaluation reports, the findings show how this way of evaluating may contribute to constitutive effects by defining worldviews, content, timeframes and evaluation roles. The article discusses how social investment fund evaluation contributes to a linear knowledge transfer model, promotes a relation between costs and evidence and concentrates the power over evaluation at the top of organizations.
Assessing health-related quality of life among patients with peripheral artery disease: A review of the literature and focus on patient-reported outcome measures
Authors: Raja Aishwarya , Spertus John , Yeh Robert W , Secemsky Eric A
Published: December 2020

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a progressive atherosclerotic disease associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality. Symptomatic PAD typically presents with claudication, and symptom severity strongly associates with reduced health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Existing treatment strategies for PAD are aimed at reducing symptom severity and improving functional outcomes. However, there is a need to incorporate patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) into PAD treatment and research in order to provide more patient-centered care. This review will discuss the impact of PAD on HRQoL, existing PROMs available to assess PAD-related HRQoL, utilization of PROMs in research studies and registries, and challenges and solutions related to the integration of PROMs into research and clinical settings.
School absenteeism as a potential proxy of functionality in pediatric patients with somatic symptom and related disorders
Authors: Vassilopoulos Areti , L Poulopoulos Natasha , Ibeziako Patricia
Published: December 2020

Little is known about the school functioning of youth who are medically admitted with somatic symptom and related disorders (SSRD). The current study examines school absenteeism and associated factors in medically hospitalized children and adolescents with SSRDs. Retrospective data were reviewed of 243 patients aged 5 to 18 years admitted at a pediatric hospital from 2012 to 2014, referred to the Psychiatry Consultation Service and diagnosed with an SSRD. Only 10% of patients had normal school attendance in the past year and approximately 40% had severe school absenteeism (i.e. missed > 1 month of school). No association was found between school absenteeism and caregiver report of learning difficulties/disabilities. Patients with severe school absenteeism were more likely to be between the ages of 15 and 17, with higher somatization and functional disability scores, higher rates of suicidal ideation and/or attempts, greater psychotropic medication use and psychiatry sessions during admission, and greater rates of discharge to a higher level of psychiatric care. Findings from this study suggest that screening for school absenteeism during clinical visits by use of a single question “how many school days have you (or has your child) missed this past school year,” may serve as a proxy for functional disability and an indicator of psychiatric, and somatic symptom severity concerns.
Peer loss: Posttraumatic stress, depression, and grief symptoms in a traumatized adolescent community
Authors: Giannopoulou Ioanna , Richardson Clive , Papadatou Danai
Published: December 2020

In our prospective study, 168 adolescents exposed directly or indirectly to the same traumatic event—a fatal school bus accident—in which seven students were killed instantly, were assessed for post-traumatic stress, depression and grief symptoms at 2- and 18-months post-accident. Prevalence rates of likely PTSD and depression were noted across all types of physical proximity exposure: 77.6% and 48.1% respectively in the indirectly exposed group, 79.4% and 47.1% respectively in the directly in-the-area exposed group, and 77.8% and 42.1% respectively in the directly in-bus exposed group. One-fifth experienced high and unremitting levels of grief symptoms over time (“persistent grief”); 17% with initially high levels of grief symptoms showed a decrease at 18 months but were still within the low medium range (“towards recovery”); 39% with initially medium/high grief symptoms reported low levels of grief at the follow-up (“recovery”); and 23% of the participants experienced grief symptoms that remained persistently low (“resilient”). The absence of both PTSD and depression at 18 months predicted adjustment to loss, whereas the absence of depression at 18 months predicted a recovering course of grief. The findings highlight the impact of high levels of post-traumatic stress and depression symptoms on the long-term persistent grief outcome.
The patient as a policy problem: Ambiguous perceptions of a critical interface in healthcare
Authors: Garpenby Peter , Nedlund Ann-Charlotte
Published: December 2020

The interface between the patient and the health service has changed, which constitutes a potential problem for various policy-makers. Using a critical policy perspective and drawing on the theory of problem framing, this paper explores how actor groups with different responsibilities perceive the patient as a constructed policy problem. This is a qualitative study where data consists of single episode interviews with healthcare politicians, senior administrators, service strategists, and unit mangers from one regional health authority in Sweden. A thematic content analysis of the interviews was carried out in accordance with “the framework approach”. The study illustrates how the actors interpret their reality using diverse problem frames. This becomes more visible when the framing is disentangled with regard to what perspective they employ in relation to different accounts: society or the individual, or the (healthcare) system or the (healthcare) professional. The actor groups are part of the same institutional context, which explains certain tendencies of similarities in terms of the accounts being used, but still they approach the constructed problem differently which is visible as shifts—scaling up and down—between different accounts. By analyzing and structuring the various problem frames (including its policy styles) we can enhance our knowledge about how those responsible for the governance of healthcare approach the patient as a policy problem, as something that concerns only the patient and/or the provider, or as something that needs to be addressed in broader strategic terms.
Development of the Chinese, Malay and Tamil translations of the Positive Mental Health Instrument: Cross-cultural adaptation, validity and internal consistency
Authors: Vaingankar Janhavi Ajit , Abdin Edimansyah , Chong Siow Ann , Sambasivam Rajeswari , Shafie Saleha , Ong Hui Lin , Jeyagurunathan Anitha , Wen Lau Ying , Samari Ellaisha , Chua Yi Chian , Pang Shirlene , Subramaniam Mythily
Published: December 2020

This study describes the development and validation of Chinese, Malay and Tamil translations of the Positive Mental Health Instrument (PMHI) in a general population sample in Singapore. Translations were performed using two independent forward translations followed by expert panel discussions and tested for content, construct and language appropriateness using focus group discussions. The final translated tools were field-tested among 220 residents per language using self-administered questionnaires comprising the translated PMHI and other validity measures. Missing data, floor and ceiling effects, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), internal consistency, item response theory differential item functioning (IRT-DIF) and criterion validity were assessed. A total of 10 PMHI-Chinese items, 26 PMHI-Malay items and six response categories and six PMHI-Tamil items were modified based on expert panel and focus group discussions. PMHI had low missing data and showed negative but acceptable skewness (<2) and kurtosis (<7) for all translations, except for the PMHI-Malay “spirituality” subscale (skewness: -2.8; kurtosis: 12.5). CFA showed that all three PMHI translations fulfilled the original six-factor-higher-order structure (RMSEA = 0.05, CFI = 0.962, TLI = 0.96). Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for total PMHI were 0.958, 0.954, 0.945 and 0.949 in the overall sample and the Chinese, Malay and Tamil translations, respectively. The three translations of the PMHI showed expected and significant positive ( r = 0.116 to 0.663) and negative correlations ( r = −0.137 to −0.574) with established measures. The findings show that the Chinese, Malay and Tamil translations of the PMHI have high internal consistency and validity in this multi-ethnic population.
The material culture of music festival fandoms
Authors: Barrière Louise , Finkel Rebecca
Published: December 2020

This article aims to explore an under-researched area of the entanglements between festivals and individual/collective identities by focusing on the material culture of festival fandoms. We start by conceptualizing festival fandoms as communities of people who attend the same festival or a similar festival type on a repeated basis. Our research focuses on how these recurrent festival attendees materially express their belonging to such communities, and how they claim being a fan as part of their identity. The core of the article starts with three conceptual sections. There, we discuss the existing literature in different related areas of research, which we link together utilizing Bourdieu’s forms of capital. First, we look through the theoretical lens of social capital at how various types of festivals foster identity communities and contribute to their visibility. Second, we explore the function of festival merchandising from the perspective of both event managers and festival attendees within economic capital frameworks. And third, we explain that fans use derived products to mark their status and belonging to a community of taste as related to cultural capital conceptualizations. The following sections of the article are based on auto-ethnographic approaches. Through reminiscence and in-depth interviews with each other, we recount personal narratives of reflective practice and situate our lived experiences within the aforementioned conceptual contexts. As a conclusion, we state that investigating the material cultures of festival fandoms has the potential to contribute to future evolutions of event management.
Cultural intelligence and social distance among undergraduate students in clinical professions
Authors: Segev Ronen , Mor Shira , Even-Zahav Ronit , Neter Efrat
Published: December 2020

Cultural competence, also known as cultural intelligence (CQ), is considered a necessary skill in the clinical professions and for resolving intergroup conflict, yet it has not been examined within the framework of the contact hypothesis. The aim of the present research is to extend CQ theory from management to the clinical professions and examine it in a context of intergroup conflict. The present study examined CQ and social distance among entering undergraduate majority (Jewish) and minority (Arab) students in clinical study domains, hypothesizing that CQ will be negatively associated with social distance towards outgroup members and that minority students will report higher CQ than majority students. First-year students ( N = 180) from diverse demographic and study domains (social work, nursing, behavioral sciences) were surveyed. The results reveal a novel negative association between CQ and outgroup social distance, and higher CQ among minority-group students. The finding that students from minority backgrounds were more receptive to intercultural exchange at the outset of their training suggests that CQ theory could be used in training and evaluation criteria of students entering clinical professional training.
Development of strength and elastic modulus of concrete sealed in steel tube under sustained load at early age
Authors: Jiao Yuying , Han Bing , Xie Huibing , Zhu Li , Fernando Dilum , He Zhenwei
Published: December 2020

Concrete-Filled Steel Tubular Structures (CFSTSs) have become popular among the structural engineering community due to significantly higher load carrying capacity compared to conventional reinforced-concrete structures. Much research has been conducted on understanding the behavior of CFSTSs under various loading conditions and design theories have been established to predict the load carrying capacities of such structures. However, existing models do not consider the effects of sustained early loads on concrete strength and elastic modulus development of CFSTSs. With the need for rapid construction, CFSTSs may be subjected to loading at an early stage before concrete is fully cured. Such early loading may incur negative effects on strength and elastic modulus development of concrete within the confined environment. This paper propose theoretical models based on the compressive packing model (CPM) to simulate strength and elastic modulus development of early-age concrete under sustained stress. Development of concrete properties at early age is described using Hydration kinetics, and maximum paste thickness in the CPM model is modified using energy conservation to simulate sustained loads. Early concrete strength and the elastic modulus development rules were investigated experimentally for sustained loads. Predictions from the proposed models are compared with conventional models from CEB-FIP Model Code. Results showed that when loaded at a very early stage, a relatively high stress to strength ratio will result in causing damage in concrete. Such damage significantly affects the strength and elastic modulus development. Compared with concrete loaded at 28 days, concrete loaded at early stages showed significant reduction in concrete strength and elastic modulus.
Welcoming gender diversity in the early years: Interpreting professional guiding documents for gender-expansive practice
Authors: Timmons Kristy , Airton Lee
Published: December 2020

This research takes up the challenge of interpreting the two newest grounds of human rights protection across Canada – gender identity and gender expression – for professional practice in early childhood education. To date, no human rights tribunal ruling on these grounds has engaged early childhood education, and while the legal duty remains for early childhood educators to provide an environment free of gender-identity and gender-expression discrimination, the Ontario profession’s governing bodies have provided no explicit guidance as to how. This research bridges early years educators’ new and likely unfamiliar legal responsibilities in relation to both grounds and everyday life in early years contexts. The findings demonstrate that ample support exists within the profession’s key guiding documents for ‘gender-expansive’ practice, or an approach to teaching children and supporting their development that both expects and sustains gender diversity. A similar analysis of guiding documents is needed internationally.
Managing driving disturbances in lateral vehicle dynamics via adaptive integrated chassis control
Authors: Ahmadian Narjes , Khosravi Alireza , Sarhadi Pouria
Published: December 2020

This paper presents a vehicle stability control method based on a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) model reference adaptive control (MRAC) strategy as an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) to enhance the handling and yaw stability of the vehicle lateral dynamics. The corrective yaw moment and additive steering angle are generated using direct yaw moment control (DYC) and active front steering (AFS) at the upper control level in the hierarchical control algorithm. A nonlinear term is added to the conventional adaptive control laws to handle parametric uncertainties and disturbances. The desired yaw moment generated by the upper-level controller is converted to the brake forces and is distributed to the rear wheels by an optimal procedure at the lower-level. The major contribution of this study is the introduction of a nonlinear integrated adaptive control method based on a constraint optimization algorithm. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy, the nonlinear integrated adaptive controller, and linear time-varying MRAC are designed and used for comparison. Simulation results are performed for the J-turn and double lane change (DLC) manoeuvres at high speeds and low tyre-road friction coefficients. The desired performance of the proposed controller exhibited significant improvement compared to the conventional MRAC in terms of yaw rate tracking and handling of sideslip limitation.
Audience expectations of journalism: What’s politics got to do with it?
Authors: Riedl Andreas , Eberl Jakob-Moritz
Published: December 2020

Audience expectations of journalism are a crucial dimension not only to understand journalism’s public legitimacy and institutional character but also its economic foundations in terms of consumers’ prospects. Although we see a critically growing disconnect between the audience and journalism, we know little about what the audience actually expects from journalism and what explains audience expectations. Using data from an online survey among the audience ( n = 2775) as well as professional journalists ( n = 818), this study compares audience expectations of journalism with journalists’ role orientations in Austria. Furthermore, multivariate analyses particularly aim to explore the role of political parameters for the understanding of audience expectations of journalism. Results show both congruencies and discrepancies between citizens’ and journalists’ perception of specific functions of journalism and that – besides media use – political attitudes may very well play an important role.
The far-right and asylum outcomes: Assessing the impact of far-right politics on asylum decisions in Europe
Authors: Winn Meredith
Published: December 2020

Despite decades of efforts to harmonize asylum procedures, large unexplained differences in asylum outcomes persist across European Union member states. Unfortunately, relatively little empirical literature has examined the causes of disparities in asylum recognition rates. In this paper, I suggest that domestic politics impact how asylum claims are adjudicated. I analyze origin-specific asylum recognition rates in 27 European Union member states from 2000-2018. The findings show that right-wing parties in government are associated with lower asylum recognition rates. This effect is strongest for far-right parties. When far-right parties gain legislative seats and cabinet positions, there is a substantive reduction in recognized asylum claims.
Analysis of experimental results with an active pre-chamber ultra-lean burn SI engine
Authors: Müller Christoph , Pischinger Stefan , Tews Sascha , Müller Andreas , Habermann Knut
Published: December 2020

To ensure that private cars can continue to be used in the future, they must become significantly more efficient and at the same time emit considerably less pollutants. In addition to pure electric drives, further optimized gasoline engines in hybrid powertrain configurations still offer major potentials in this respect. A major step toward increasing efficiency can be achieved by extremely lean burn combustion. If, in addition to low fuel consumption, this operation should also simultaneously reduce NOx raw emissions, lean-burn operation with relative air/fuel ratios of λ≥ 2 must be enabled in wide ranges of the engine operation map.

Within the scope of this publication, results of experimental investigations with a lean burn pre-chamber ignition system applied to a small gasoline engine with 75 mm bore and 90.5 mm stroke are presented. In this context, the effects of the pre-chamber design on emissions and fuel consumption are examined. By comparing different pre-chamber enrichments with natural gas and conventional RON98 gasoline, it can be shown that with the direct liquid injection of gasoline into the pre-chamber similar good thermodynamic results as with natural gas can be achieved with the advantage of easier integration of a single fuel system.

Due to its significantly improved lean burn capability with relative air/fuel rations of up to λ = 3, combined with low specific indicated NOx raw emissions of less than 0.1 g/kWh, the presented lean-burn combustion system offers excellent conditions for further efficiency improvements of electrified powertrains. WLTP cycle simulations based on measured engine maps for the developed combustion process resulted in a fuel consumption reduction of up to 10%. At the same time, NOx raw emissions below the Euro 6d limit of 60 mg/km can be achieved.
Cufflinks, photos and YouTube: the benefits of third object prompts when researching race and discrimination in elite higher education
Authors: Dumangane Constantino
Published: December 2020

Research suggests that interviews, unaided by additional methods, may be an ineffective way to explore young people’s experiences with sensitive issues. Researching minority youth’s experiences on personal or emotionally charged issues requires research techniques that enable young people to reflect on issues in a way that reduces the potential discomfort involved in such discourse. This article discusses the methodological approach of incorporating interviews with ‘third objects’ via photos, cufflinks and video in a study aimed at facilitating conversations with black British university men about the significance of their parents guidance during their formative and adolescent years, and their experiences with racism during their higher education studies. The overarching message of this article is that when exploring personal and sometimes emotional topics, the implementation of third object visual and physical prompts with semi-structured interviews can contribute to the depth of findings by unearthing the seldom heard counter-narratives of marginalised ‘others’.
Doing things with description: practices, politics, and the art of attentiveness
Authors: Vitellone Nicole , Mair Michael , Kierans Ciara
Published: December 2020

In a number of linked articles and monographs over the last decade (e.g. Love, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017), literary scholar and critic Heather Love has called for a descriptive (re)turn in the humanities, repeatedly taking up examples of descriptive methods in the social sciences as exemplifying what that (re)turn might look like and achieve. Those of us working as sociologists, anthropologists, science and technology studies scholars and researchers in allied social science fields thus find ourselves reflected back in Love’s work, encountering our own research practices in an unfamiliar light through it. In a period where our established methods and analytical priorities are subject to challenges on many fronts from within our own disciplines, it is hard not be struck by Love’s provocative invocation of the social sciences as interlocutors and see in it an invitation to contribute to the debate she has sought to initiate by revisiting our own approaches to the problem of description. Inspired by Love’s intervention, the eight papers that form this Special Issue demonstrate that by re-engaging with description we stand to learn a great deal. While the articles themselves are topically distinct and geographically varied, they are all based on empirical research and written to facilitate a reorientation to the role of description in our research practices. What exactly is going on when we describe an ancient papyrus as present or missing, a machine as intelligent, noise as music, a disease as undiagnosable, a death as good or bad, deserved or undeserved, care as appropriate or inappropriate, policies as failing or effective? As the papers show, these are important questions to ask. By asking them, we find ourselves in positions to better understand what goes into ‘indexing and making visible forms of material and social reality’ (Love, 2013: 412) as well as what is involved, more troublingly, in erasing, making invisible and dematerialising those realities or even, indeed, in uncovering those erasures and the means by which they were effected. As this special issue underlines, thinking with Love by thinking with descriptions is a rewarding exercise precisely because it opens these matters up to view. We hope others take up Love’s invitation to re-engage with description for that very reason.
Describing failures of healthcare: a study in the sociology of knowledge
Authors: Goodwin Dawn
Published: December 2020

In 2008, five ‘serious untoward incidents’ occurred on a small maternity unit in a hospital in the UK. The prevailing view, held by clinical staff, hospital managers, and executives, was that these events were unconnected and did not signal systemic failures in care. This view was maintained by the testimony of staff and governance procedures which prevented the incidents from being considered together. Drawing on the inquiry report of the Morecambe Bay Investigation (2015), I examine how the prevailing view was built and dismantled, eventually being replaced with a very different description of events. Overturning this view required affected parents to engage with governing bodies and legal processes, challenge clinical staff, lobby for inquests, and mobilise social media and the national press. Tracing how different descriptions of events weaken or gather force as they travel through different forums, processes, and are presented to different audiences, I explore the sociology of knowledge around establishing failures of care.
Reflexive practice in live sociology: lessons from researching Brexit in the lives of British citizens living in the EU-27
Authors: Benson Michaela , O’Reilly Karen
Published: December 2020

This paper brings reflexivity into conversation with debates about positionality and live sociology to argue for reflexivity to be reimagined as an enduring practice that is collaborative, responsible, iterative, engaged, agile and creative. We elaborate our argument with reference to examples and contemplations drawn from our experiences researching what Brexit means for Britons living in the EU-27 for the BrExpats research project, which was informed from the outset by reflexive practice. We outline three (of a number of) potential strategies for engaging in reflexive practice: reflexive positioning, reflexive navigating and reflexive interpreting or sense-making. We acknowledge that these are not separate actions in practice but are conceptually distinguishable aspects of an ongoing reflexive practice, informed by our understanding of the cognitive relationship between reflexivity and practice theory.
Excavating fashion film: a media archaeological perspective
Authors: Uhlirova Marketa
Published: December 2020

In the emerging ‘video-first world’ of the last decade, global fashion brands have made the moving image an integral component of their digital marketing strategies. As a result, both the industry and popular perceptions of fashion film have been increasingly colonized by the notions of branding and promotion. Recent scholarship on fashion film too has put the fashion brand at the centre of analysis. This article argues against any such premature fixing of fashion film’s identity. Instead, it proposes shifting the existing perspective by reframing fashion film as not only a product of the fashion industry and associated media but also one of the cinema industry and culture. Drawing on media archaeological models of ‘excavation’ and ‘parallax historiography’, the article examines contemporary digital fashion film in parallel with fashion film of the early 20th century – a juxtaposition that helps to recapture the phenomenon’s remarkable diversity and open possibility in both periods.
Colour, movement and modernity in Sonia Delaunay’s (1926) fashion film
Authors: Moyse Ferreira Lucy
Published: December 2020

Sonia Delaunay is best known for her abstract and colourful style which is manifested across her artwork, fashion, textile and interior designs alike. In 1926, this culminated in a fashion film, titled ‘L’Elégance’. Shot using the Keller-Dorian colour process, the film features a succession of Delaunay’s simultaneous fashion and textile designs. This article explores the implications and origins of the film, considering technological, cultural and social factors. It focuses on the themes of colour and movement that were essential both to the film and Delaunay’s philosophy at large and were strongly related by Delaunay and her contemporaries to modernity and women’s liberation. The author positions Delaunay’s earlier work as a form of proto-cinema and demonstrates how her film uniquely transfers aesthetic and cultural themes. She explains why fashion film was a necessary step for Delaunay and how she employed notions of temporality to further fashion film as an avant-garde form.
Who are these emerging markets anyway? A taxonomic approach integrating institutional and culturalist perspectives
Authors: Assouad Alexander A , Parboteeah K Praveen , Guidice Rebecca
Published: December 2020

To date there has been little to no widespread, universally accepted and theoretically driven examination of what an emerging market is and how best to capture its principle characteristics. Major international organizations, institutions, and scholars, all classify these countries utilizing a multitude of different perspectives. Applying institutional theory as a framework yet bowing to the unique pervasiveness of culture research, this study develops a more nuanced reclassification of emerging markets. Utilizing cluster analysis and dendogram interpretation, the application of this multidimensional and multidisciplinary framework results in eight categories of emerging markets and shows how social, political, economic, and spatial can contribute to the emergent status of a country. This study also serves as a vehicle to show how both the institutional and culturalists perspectives on international business management and strategy can be combined. These theoretically grounded findings from the study provide new boundary conditions for national contexts to be applied in future international business research and further inform international management and strategy stakeholders of a means to reduce the clouds of uncertainty surrounding these countries.
Cognac and the comportment of the quality Chinese consumer
Authors: Simpson Tim
Published: December 2020

The French cognac producer Hennessy recently staged a pop-up promotional event called Hennessy Declassified at the Galaxy Resort in Macau. The event coincided with the annual Golden Week holiday that in October 2019 commemorated the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, and aimed to educate Chinese tourists in Macau about the formative role of geography in the process of creating fine cognac. In this article, I provide a first-hand account of the immersive event and its efforts to cultivate consumer taste among a select group of post-Mao Chinese tourists. I demonstrate the ways in which China’s central government and the producers of Hennessy cognac both share a concern with the generative function of terroir and the relationship among topography and taste, and cooperate in a pedagogical program to produce discerning Chinese consumer-citizens.
Long-term extreme response analysis for semi-submersible platform mooring systems
Authors: Zhao Yuliang , Dong Sheng
Published: December 2020

The accurate assessment of long-term extreme responses of floating-structure mooring system designs is important because of small failure probabilities caused by long-term and complex ocean conditions. The most accurate assessment would involve considering all conceivable sea states in which each sea state is regarded as a stochastic process and performing nonlinear time-domain numerical simulations of mooring systems to estimate the extreme response from a long-term analysis. This procedure would be computationally intensive because of the numerous short-term sea states involved. Here, a more feasible approach to evaluate the long-term extreme response is presented through immediate integration combined with Monte Carlo simulations. A parameter fitting procedure of the short-term extreme response distribution under irregular wave conditions is employed to solve the long-term response integration. Case studies were conducted on a semi-submersible platform using environmental data measurements of the Gulf of Mexico and a joint distribution model of the environmental parameters was considered. This approach was observed to be effective and the results were compared with those of traditional methodologies (univariate extreme value design and environmental contour methods). The differences were reflected using a reliability analysis of mooring lines, which indicated that the design standards must be stricter when using long-term analysis.