bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effects of Bring Your Own Device Initiatives Related to Instructional Planning and the Classroom Environment in Two Texas High Schools
Authors:   , Miller Shawn J.
Published: February 2025

This study was an examination of 20 North Texas high school teachers' perceptions about the effects of bring your own device (BYOD) initiatives on instructional planning and classroom environment. The BYOD initiative at two high school campuses was studied through a qualitative approach, i.e. a collective case study. Data were collected through interviews, classroom observations, and reviews of participants' lesson planning documents. The findings indicated teachers had to plan for inequitable technology access, technology support, effective classroom management, and relevant content to support student learning effectively. Teachers participated in professional development focused on planning for student devices, effective use of instructional technology, and classroom management during this type of instruction. Results revealed that, during instruction that included students' devices, teachers believed student engagement and content retention were greater. Observation data also indicated that students were more engaged in the instruction. The interviews and classroom observations indicated that students assumed a more active role in their learning during these lessons, and teachers facilitated and provided more support as needed. Effective planning and classroom management were identified as key components in the success of this type of initiative. Overall, the study supports the necessity for relevant professional development for teachers and campus administrators to ensure the success of BYOD initiatives. Similarly, these two groups should work together to develop the campus framework to support BYOD technology in the classroom.
Design Principle on Carbon Nanomaterials Electrocatalysts for Energy Storage and Conversion
Authors:   , Zhao Zhenghang
Published: February 2025

We are facing an energy crisis because of the limitation of the fossil fuel and the pollution caused by burning it. Clean energy technologies, such as fuel cells and metal-air batteries, are studied extensively because of this high efficiency and less pollution. Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are essential in the process of energy storage and conversion, and noble metals (e.g. Pt) are needed to catalyze the critical chemical reactions in these devices. Functionalized carbon nanomaterials such as heteroatom-doped and molecule-adsorbed graphene can be used as metal-free catalysts to replace the expensive and scarce platinum-based catalysts for the energy storage and conversion. Traditionally, experimental studies on the catalytic performance of carbon nanomaterials have been conducted extensively, however, there is a lack of computational studies to guide the experiments for rapid search for the best catalysts. In addition, theoretical mechanism and the rational design principle towards ORR and OER also need to be fully understood. In this dissertation, density functional theory calculations are performed to calculate the thermodynamic and electrochemical properties of heteroatom-doped graphene and molecule-adsorbed graphene for ORR and OER. Gibb's free energy, overpotential, charge transfer and edge effect are evaluated. The charge transfer analysis show the positive charges on the graphene surface caused by the heteroatom, hetero-edges and the adsorbed organic molecules play an essential role in improving the electrochemical properties of the carbon nanomaterials. Based on the calculations, design principles are introduced to rationally design and predict the electrochemical properties of doped graphene and molecule-adsorbed graphene as metal-free catalysts for ORR and OER. An intrinsic descriptor is discovered for the first time, which can be used as a materials parameter for rational design of the metal-free catalysts with carbon nanomaterials for energy storage and conversion. The success of the design principle provides a better understanding of the mechanism behind ORR and OER and a screening approach for the best catalyst for energy storage and conversion.
A Guide to Franz Liszt's Piano Transcriptions of Franz Schubert's Songs
Authors:   , Kim Ah Young
Published: February 2025

Franz Liszt (1811-1886) made fifty-six transcriptions of Schubert's songs over a period of eight years (1838-46) to introduce the name of the composer, who was little known both in and outside Vienna during his lifetime. Because Liszt intentionally preserved all the details of the original songs, these transcriptions present challenges for a pianist, such as how to produce a vocal line on the piano, as well as interpretive issues such as ornamentation, style, and conveying the meaning of the lyrics on the piano. The purpose of this study is to introduce pianists to study practices employed by singers, with the goal of interpreting the vocal aspects of Liszt's Schubert song transcriptions. The composer Robert Schumann once remarked that Liszt's transcriptions were perhaps the most difficult pieces written for the piano up to that time, and only an intelligent artist could satisfy Liszt's high level of virtuosity without destroying the identity of the original work. This could be considered a warning to pianists not to focus on the technical aspects only. The pedagogical guide presented in the study, based on singers' approaches to the actual songs, should help pianists to "see beyond the notes" and achieve a performance closer to the heart of the songs.
Profiles of Learning-Related Motivational Beliefs and Perceived Effectiveness of Learning Strategies Related to Academic Achievement and Psychological Well-Being
Authors: Härma Eliis , Pulver Aleksander , Kikas Eve
Published: February 2025

This study applied a person-oriented approach to differentiate middle school students’ academic achievement and psychological well-being. The profiles were identified according to their learning-related motivational beliefs (indicating how motivated they are to learn effectively) and the perceived effectiveness of learning strategies (about how students evaluate deep and surface learning strategies). Participants (N = 1356, Grade 8) completed three questionnaires assessing the motivational beliefs, perceived effectiveness of learning strategies, and psychological well-being. Reading comprehension score was used as an academic achievement measure. Four profiles were identified: high, average, low, and very low learning competence. Profiles differed most in valuing effective learning. Students who belonged to profiles with higher motivational beliefs and better knowledge of learning strategies were also more academically successful and rated their psychological well-being higher compared to students who belonged to profiles with lower motivation and firmer knowledge of learning strategies. To improve students' academic success and well-being, education systems should focus on teaching effective learning strategies as well as supporting motivational beliefs.
A Proposed Framework For E-portfolio Use to Enhance Teaching and Learning: Process E-portfolio
Authors: Majola Moffat Xolani
Published: February 2025

The process e-portfolio is a type of e-portfolio that helps students construct knowledge and familiarise themselves with their learning process through self-and peer assessment. Lecturers and students experienced difficulties when using the e-portfolio because Mahara 2019 was not updated. This qualitative research study proposes how lecturers should design e-portfolios for learning through formative assessment activities. Interpretivism was the researcher's standpoint, aiming to interpret how the study participants used e-portfolios for teaching and learning through formative assessment activities. This exploratory case study used semi-structured interviews and an e-portfolio checklist for data collection. It explored the use of the e-portfolio for formative assessment through the experiences of ten purposefully sampled lecturers. The findings suggest that an e-portfolio facilitates teaching and learning in open distance e-learning because it enables online delivery of the content and administering of assessments that afford students' learning of the module content through completing formative assessment activities. The e-portfolio facilitates co-teaching and co-learning because students become knowledge creators and active users instead of passive learners. This study recommends the use of process e-portfolios to facilitate assessment and learning in open-distance e-learning institutions.
University Faculty Research Competence: A Systematic Literature Review of Core Components, Distinctions, and Measures
Authors: Salahuddin Muhammad , Stupnisky Robert H.
Published: February 2025

Recent studies identified that faculty research productivity increased when they felt competent in conducting research. Faculty level of research competency varies due to academic training, context, country, discipline, and experiences; however, what is faculty research competency? The core competencies of faculty research are unclear; thus, the current study systematically reviewed the literature. Researchers used Boolean searches of four popular databases to identify 553 articles for first-level screening. These yielded 46 peer-reviewed journal articles for full-text analysis, six of which focused on faculty populations (40 on non-faculty). Six core components of faculty research proficiency were identified: finding and reviewing literature, planning a study, collecting and analyzing data, writing research, disseminating research findings, and managing research projects. Compared to non-faculty populations, faculty are uniquely more engaged in research project management. Researchers also identified 18 sub-competencies that will help to measure faculty research competency more reliably in the future. Finally, as the identified studies relied on self-reported measurements that may carry self-representation bias, an aspirational implication is to develop a competency-based diagnostic test for measuring faculty research competence.
The harms of violence are unevenly distributed: how does the harm caused to victims of violence vary by victim–perpetrator relationship?
Authors: Davies Elouise
Published: February 2025

It is not disputed that crime harms victims. Violence specifically can cause physical and emotional harms to victims’ health (McManus et al, 2022; Chandan et al, 2020). The outcomes of violent victimisation can be attributed to multiple factors such as sex, repetition, and victim–perpetrator relationship. For example, acts by men against women are reported as having greater potential for harm than the same act perpetrated by a woman against a man (Walby and Towers, 2017). However, studies that compare the harms of violence by sex, victim–perpetrator relationship, and the interaction between them are rare. Studies which discuss the impacts of violence against women often look at this in isolation from other violence (Koss, 1990; Stark, 2007). This article uses data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales to analyse violence against women in the context of all violence. By investigating the outcomes of violent crime, this article suggests: the odds of experiencing harm increases as the distance to the perpetrator decreases; the gendered aspects of violence are important for understanding the harms inflicted by perpetrators; and including emotional harms shows how violence without injury is still harmful.
What motivates men to not consume pornography? Moving beyond themes of addiction and abstinence
Authors: Tyler Meagan , Jovanovski Natalie
Published: February 2025

This article presents a thematic analysis of responses from an international qualitative survey of men who do not consume pornography. We find the two most common reasons given by respondents relate to sexism, misogyny and violence against women, and varied conceptualisations of harm to the self. A significant minority of responses contained interrelated or overlapping themes, attesting to the complex thinking and multiple factors that many men detailed around their decision to stop using pornography. This empirical contribution builds on limited, extant work considering particular cohorts of men who wish to ‘quit’ pornography (for example, Burke and Haltom, 2020; Fernandez et al, 2021; Jovanovski and Tyler, 2023) and seeks to expand discussions about men’s motivations to end their ‘commitment’ to pornography (Garner, 2016) beyond notions of addiction and abstinence. While not all respondents gave feminist or pro-feminist reasoning for their non-consumption of pornography, that some men clearly did consider issues of violence against women in their decision-making should be of particular interest to researchers and practitioners focused on gender-based violence. In an era of ubiquitous pornography consumption, these men’s experiences show an alternative path which might help to open further discussions around gender equality and sexuality.
The cost of sympathy: coworkers’ attempts to include hard-of-hearing employees in the workplace
Authors: Thing Ida Friis
Published: February 2025

Research demonstrates that disabled people, across different functional impairments, face social exclusion within the workplace. However, there remains a lack of understanding regarding the mechanisms and reasons behind these exclusionary processes. Drawing insights from the sociology of emotions and microsociology, I examine interactional attempts to include hard-of-hearing employees in conversations through the lens of sympathy. Through ethnographic fieldwork conducted in two workplaces and 29 interviews with hard-of-hearing employees from 19 different workplaces, as well as with colleagues and managers without hearing loss, I find that demonstrating sympathy carries costs such as restrained emotional buildup, emotional exhaustion and efforts to manage emotions. The analysis suggests that the lack of social inclusiveness cannot be attributed solely to stigmatisation and a lack of knowledge about disabilities among workplace colleagues. It also stems from the unwillingness of colleagues to actively engage in the interactional challenges associated with displaying sympathy due to failed interaction rituals. These results underscore the significance of companies fostering environments that facilitate strong interaction rituals for employees with diverse functional impairments and suggest structural changes at the company level to avoid reliance on individual employees to achieve workplace inclusion.
Are health professionals ‘equipped’ to support vegan mothers in the UK?
Authors: Francis Bethany , Miele Mara
Published: February 2025

This article investigates the extent to which health professionals are equipped to support vegan mothers in the UK and how stigma plays a part in this issue. Veganism has grown in popularity in the UK in recent years (as well as in many other countries worldwide) with the environmental, health and animal welfare benefits of the lifestyle becoming more widely researched and publicised. However, research into the topic of veganism has highlighted that, up until recently, many vegans experienced stigma for their beliefs, with the UK being no exception. Similarly, a growing body of research has highlighted the long-accepted and gendered issue of mum-shaming, whereby mothers, as opposed to fathers, are disproportionately criticised and blamed for their parenting skills. In this article we want to examine the experience of women who fit into both categories of veganism and motherhood in their encounters with health professionals during pregnancy and while raising their babies on a vegan diet.

Adopting semi-structured interviews, this study gauged the opinions of a sample of vegan mothers, non-vegan mothers, midwives and paediatricians. Our findings indicate that in the UK, healthcare professionals are not equipped to provide vegan mothers with nutritional advice. This was found to be due to a lack of understanding of veganism, which, in some cases, fuelled negative ideas on veganism and led to stigma towards vegan pregnant women and vegan mothers. All healthcare professionals interviewed stressed the severe lack of training on vegan nutrition, as well as nutrition more generally.
Immediacy and Exchange: The Market Theory of Performance
Authors: Eacho Douglas
Published: February 2025

Abstract: This article examines theories of media and mediation proposed by Erika Fischer-Lichte, José Esteban Muñoz, and Rebecca Schneider. It argues that these otherwise distinct theorists share a model of performance as an exceptional site that abolishes media and preserves exchanges of equivalents. In so doing they take part in what Anna Kornbluh has theorized as a general cultural logic of "immediacy." Performance's purported immediacy is then discussed as imagining a utopian market. Such a utopia merely reflects the concepts emergent from commodity exchange. This article thus advances an ideology critique of a significant tendency within performance theory.
On Performance, Liminality, and Normativity
Authors: Zien Katherine
Published: February 2025

Abstract: Despite the status of "performance" as a potentially infinite set (even containing contradictory elements) rather than a conceptual category as such, in performance research selected attributes of performance, such as liminality and efficacy, are still frequently foregrounded in service of disciplinarity. This article seeks to expand upon Jon McKenzie's critique of the "liminal-norm" in performance studies by investigating two pivotal moments for the field: first, the elucidation of liminality by Victor Turner and Richard Schechner, followed by the intersection of queer theory and performance studies. In these conjunctures, liminality and normativity were mobilized oppositionally. Yet if we disengage performance from an understanding of liminality as anti-normative, we can open up definitions of norms through intersectional engagements with Black thought and Indigenous studies to move performance scholarship into an engagement with performance as, first and foremost, a set of methods or techniques that will allow for normativities and counter-normativities to emerge through repetition. The outcome may well be a less deterministic theory of performance's relationship to both disciplinarity and social change.
Subject island and discontinuous spellout in Russian: An experimental approach
Authors: Belova Daria
Published: February 2025

abstract: This paper deals with asymmetries in split DPs and PPs in monoand bi-predicative clauses in Russian. The properties of splitting XPs were experimentally investigated in three steps of comparing acceptability: full PP movement vs . PP wh split, PP split vs . DP split, and full DP movement vs . DP wh -split. The results show that in simple clauses split DPs are compatible with the left branch extraction transformation while PPs are not and that in dependent clauses the discontinuous spellout transformation is the only way both types of XPs can undergo splitting. These conclusions help to explain the differences in subject and object DPs' opacity in simple and dependent clauses found in Polinsky et al. (2013) and Belova (2021a).
Subjunctive Questions in Serbian
Authors: Oikonomou Despina , Ilić Ivona
Published: February 2025

abstract: We discuss Subjunctive Questions in matrix and embedded environments focusing on Serbian. Subjunctive Questions, which are common in Balkan languages, ask regarding the addressee's prioritizing state whereas Indicative Questions ask regarding the addressee's epistemic state. We argue that the source of prioritizing modality is subjunctive mood which is analysed as a prioritizing modal operator anchored to the matrix event (Hacquard 2006). Unlike non-interrogative subjunctives, we argue that subjunctive mood in questions is licensed due to the interrogative operator and not due to the embedding predicate (Bhatt 1999). In this way, we are able to account for the wider distribution of Subjunctive Questions compared to non-questions. Finally, we discuss the special pragmatic properties of Subjunctive Questions which are associated with the directive character of the possible answers.
Serbo-Croatian secondary imperfectivisers consist of theme vowels
Authors: Simonović Marko , Milosavljević Stefan , Arsenijević Boban
Published: February 2025

abstract: Building on the proposal in Marković (2018: p.77) that Serbo-Croatian secondary imperfectivisers, such as iVa and aVa, are in fact bimorphemic, we develop an autosegmental analysis of these morphemes and their allomorphs, showing that they consist of two theme vowels, i-a and a-a , respectively. We show that both [υ] and [j] in these affixes behave as glides and that [υ] in iυa and aυa is the exponent of floating features affiliated with the theme vowel a , whose underlying representation is /υa/. The theme vowel i is shown to consist solely of the feature [+high]. These autosegmental representations allow us to explain the allomorphy of the two productive secondary imperfectivisers in Serbo-Croatian, but also the less productive apophony patterns. In addition, the autosegmental analysis of the theme vowels allows us to reduce the number of the theme vowel classes in Serbo-Croatian from 13 to 10.
The structure and meaning of label numerals
Authors: Wągiel Marcin
Published: February 2025

abstract: This paper investigates the so-far neglected label use of numerals, as in player number five , and its relationship with the quantifying and the arithmetical function. The paper examines the conceptual nature of labeling and explores label constructions from a cross-linguistic perspective. In particular, the paper investigates marking patterns concerning derived label numerals in Slavic and classifier constructions in Japanese as well as data from Maltese and Wymysorys (Germanic). The paper argues that the arithmetical meaning is basic whereas the quantifying and the label meanings are derived by unrelated mechanisms. In order to account for the data, the paper proposes a morphosemantic analysis combining compositional semantics with Nanosyntax.
Morphosyntactic variation in numerically-quantified noun phrases in Bulgarian
Authors: Pancheva Roumyana
Published: February 2025

abstract: Bulgarian masculine nouns have a special form – a 'count' form – different from singular and plural, which is used in numerically-quantified nominal phrases. The count form is analyzed here as accusative singular. Several empirical arguments are offered in support of this unusual account, and potential challenges are addressed. The account places Bulgarian among an understudied group of languages, where singular vs. plural marking on nouns in numerically-quantified nominal phrases varies by noun class.
Phi-feature resolution under coordination outside of the grammar: A view from Polish
Authors: Lyskawa Paulina
Published: February 2025

abstract: It is commonly assumed that the person/number/gender (phi) features of a coordinate structure are computed grammar-internally from the phi-features of its conjuncts. For example, traditional instructions for grammatical gender resolution in Polish state that a conjunction that contains [masculine human] formal features controls virile agreement on the verb, and non-virile elsewhere. Given the existence of multiple exceptions, the instructions represent a robust empirical tendency, rather than a categorical rule. Based on this behavior, as well as conceptual considerations, the paper argues that resolution is a grammar-external mechanism: it is the architecture of the grammar that conspires to not provide a possible locus of resolution internally. Instead, the external systems need to handle the under-determined output of the grammatical derivation.
Russian èto in wh-questions
Authors: Yerbalanov Aldan , Philippova Tatiana
Published: February 2025

abstract: This paper deals with the semantic and syntactic analysis of the particlelike element èto in wh-questions, which occurs either preceding the fronted wh-pronoun or following it, the two options being available under slightly different pragmatic conditions, although resulting in similar interpretations. We compare these instances of èto to those occurring in cleft-like sentences, which have received most of the attention in the generative literature, and conclude that they are essentially the same creature, namely, an adverb adjoining to a clausal projection above the TP. Our analysis is informed by the interpretation of the relevant sentences in Russian and by parallels existing between èto and other focus-sensitive particles in Russian, Czech, and Polish.
The Romance Hero in Translation: Beauty, Reputation, and Identity in Partonopeu de Blois and Partonope of Blois
Authors: Kaempfer Lucie
Published: February 2025

Abstract: This article offers a comparative study of the Old French romance Partonopeu de Blois and its fifteenth-century Middle English translation, focused on their different approaches to beauty and visual description in the construction of the romance hero. While beauty is a key feature of the protagonist’s characterization, scholarship on the Middle English romance has not approached the significant changes and omissions it operates in this regard. The omission of lavish description has traditionally been regarded as a common, and often deprecated, trend in Middle English romance, in line with a tendency to simplify plot. I argue, instead, that the translation’s omission of visual descriptions, associated with an accrued interest in reputation, is highly significant and makes space for the construction of a different and more subjective form of literary identity. My study suggests that this shift is the result of cultural and textual processes of literary transmission in the genre of the romance.
The Body and Soul of the Queen: Neoplatonic Rhetoric in Elizabeth I’s Marriage Speeches
Authors: Shachar Yafit
Published: February 2025

Abstract: This essay focuses on Queen Elizabeth I’s parliamentary “marriage speeches,” written as responses to petitions dispatched in the first decade of Elizabeth’s reign urging her to marry and bear an heir. It illustrates how Elizabeth employs metaphysical reasoning and rhetorical tropes in order to deflect discussion on the gendered expectations from her as an embodied woman and queen. Within the context of marriage specifically, with all its contemporary patriarchal assumptions, Elizabeth engages with hierarchical metaphors that differentiate between the mortal, gendered body and the immortal, ungendered soul, thus framing herself as a monarch anointed by God whose soul is in a constant state of desire to transcend this earthly world but who nevertheless remains on earth and sacrifices herself to the kingdom’s service. As part of this strategy, Elizabeth also draws on rhetorical and theological notions of accommodated language in order to establish her near-divine position at the top of a Neoplatonic metaphysical hierarchy. In this way, she reinserts her transcendental image back into the prevailing political discourse of the day, rendering her gender and female body irrelevant to any discussion about her royal position as a monarch.
“Black Lord Herbert” and the Construction of Race
Authors: Graham Jean E.
Published: February 2025

Abstract: In the early modern poetics of “dark lady” poems, “Sonnet of Black Beauty” and “Another Sonnet to Black it self,” by Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury, seem more abstract. While these sonnets may indeed be read as philosophical poems concerning “blackness per se” or blackness personified, they may also be seen as part of a sequence of Herbert’s poems that participate in the conversation that includes the “dark lady” poems of William Shakespeare and Philip Sidney. More conjecturally, the poems may refer to the “swarthiness” of Welsh men, men like “Black Lord Herbert” himself, thus participating in early modern discourse about gender, race, and ethnicity.
”To be at once well-bred and sincere, is no less than a Contradiction”: Mandeville as Fabulist in The Fable of the Bees
Authors: Loveridge Mark
Published: February 2025

Abstract: Bernard Mandeville’s The Fable of the Bees (1714–1724) is widely acknowledged to be an important contribution to the history of the social sciences, though it is also seen to incorporate some literary qualities such as satire, irony, and playfulness. This essay reverses the emphasis and argues that, as the Fable is largely based on rhetorical, fabular, and fictional techniques, it is more a work of imaginative literature than a treatise. Remark P is found to contain a reflexive version of one of the central fables of the politics of representation, The Man and the Lion, with the victory of Mandeville’s loquacious Lion demonstrating that the art in question, rather than the more usual painting or sculpture, is Mandevillean rhetoric and fable at large, as embodied in both Remark P and the wider Fable . The introductory documents and the Remarks are discussed, to show that their main function is to tease the English by answering their curious beliefs and ideologies in rhetorical voices. Some later parts, from 1723, are in transit toward a kind of fabulation in which fictiveness is stressed, but these are followed by the extraordinary deceit of the “Abusive Letter to Lord C ,” added in 1724.
The Roots of the Real Christmas Tree: Conservation and Public Space in the Twentieth Century United States
Authors: Prendergast Neil
Published: February 2025

Abstract: Before "real" and "artificial" became the two most prominent classifications of Christmas trees, an entirely different type captured the minds of those Americans who celebrated the holiday—the community Christmas tree. Created in the Progressive Era, it was both a conservation effort and a project to further public culture. Its supporters hoped that by having this one tree only, instead of a tree for every household, communities could help reduce the harvest pressure on the nation's dwindling forests. Advocates also thought that by planting a community tree in a public place, it would help establish a more inclusive culture in an age of immigration. While many were planted in town squares, they ultimately did not replace the household tree. Midcentury tree farms made Christmas trees readily available to household consumers and, consequently, conservationist worries about overlogging faded. So, too, did the interest in public space as the middle class increasingly embraced suburbia. By the 1970s, however, the farmed tree was being challenged by the plastic tree, setting up a consumer decision between "real" and "artificial" trees that still exists today. This current framing, however, ignores the possibility of a tree set in public space—and of addressing environmental and social concerns together.
Mediation in Architectural Environments
Authors: Ulber Marie , Mahall Mona , Serbest Asli
Published: February 2025

Abstract: Architectural adaptation, as an integral concept, involves all the actors, buildings and elements (technical, organic, material, social) of an inhabited site and allows for adaptive actions within a common development process in the face of the current crisis. In order to explore this, we re-actualize an integral notion of "Environments" introduced by artists and architects in the 1960s as open settings that challenge the boundaries and relationships between designers and visitors, art and life. Adaptation processes in architectural "Environments" evolve on social, spatial and design levels and are based on reciprocity, inclusive communication and continuous negotiation between all actors. In this way, they can be understood as a medium between different needs and conditions, or as agents of mediation and negotiation for situational adaptation states. The development of an adaptive high-rise in Stuttgart shows that adaptive structures, due to their ability to react dynamically, have special media qualities that are important for negotiation processes with all actors in architectural 'Environments.' Each new form or state reflects and informs changing situations and relationships between actors and enables communication and interaction processes within Environments. Using pre-modern examples, we discuss how earlier 'Environments' formed a medium for and with (non-human and human) inhabitants, their practices, knowledge and history, and their surroundings over long periods of time. Historical research on communication processes in and with architecture shows how an exchange between all actors of 'Environments' can function in the future, for collaborative adaptation processes, for design interaction with human, plant and animal actors, and of natural processes and social practices. Based on concepts from media theory as well as design and empirical findings, we have developed designs with multiple media qualities in which different actors can be involved in a joint development process, e.g. with materials that allow for further processing and spatial structures that allow for remodeling. Architecture is a medium that allows for the creation of new forms, and adaptive buildings allow for multiple spatial states in dynamic adaptation processes.
Stranger in a Strange Land: Local Pilgrimage in a Time of Pandemic
Authors: Soumakis Christianna
Published: February 2025

Abstract: Beginning in March of 2020, I embarked on a project of self-directed local pilgrimage around my community, a loose transposition of the 500 mile French Route of the Camino de Santiago. This project was both complicated and facilitated by the global pandemic, which had the effect of radically "unhoming" the familiar landscapes of my neighborhood and nearby towns. This "uncannyization" of otherwise known territory allowed me to have a liminal, pilgrimage-like experience. Focusing on the time period comprised of 2020–2022, I argue that the very un-homeness of the pandemic—empty streets, isolation, barren metropolitan landscapes, widespread fear and misinformation—facilitated a deeper entrance into pilgrimage by creating a novel space in which to re-experience previously mundane, "normal" life as one might hope for in a foreign country or purportedly transformative space. The dark inversion of quotidian life in a time of pandemic simultaneously created a space receptive to renewed, transformative travel through the local, known, and taken-for-granted. This space allowed the consideration of themes of home and faith—in self and the world; and faith as the active pursuit of God as the ultimate fulfilling Source—which together composed the bulk of my pilgrimage mediations and spiritual pursuits. Finally, my sustained engagement of local pilgrimage during this time period and my methodical consideration of these themes facilitated a much more vivid, informed, and integrated experience of later pilgrimages in the years that followed.
“Rolled round in earth’s Diurnal course”: Mary Shelley, Romantic Science, and Suicide as Natural Death
Authors: Faubert Michelle
Published: February 2025

Abstract: In Mathilda (1959; written in 1819), the eponymous protagonist desires a so-called “natural death,” a double entendre I use to indicate human death in natural surroundings and especially through the use of nature to effectuate it, particularly in the context of suicide. With reference to the work of Hume and Goethe, as well as geology and vitalism, which advance the notion that auto-destruction is natural and observable all around us, I will show that Shelley develops the idea that humans who kill themselves may be viewed as succumbing to an innate process, rather than aberrantly acting à rebours , against nature.
“Humanity knows not of Sex”: William Blake’s Trans Futurity
Authors: Kim Joey S.
Published: February 2025

Abstract: This essay proposes the trans potential of William Blake’s composite art, focusing on his visuality of text and bodies in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion . Blake’s bodies do not fit into human-made systems of classification. He disorients life/death, human/animal, human/spirit, and male/female divisions through fluid representations of gender and corporeality. In the Marriage , Blake shifts between roman and cursive handwriting to signify transition. In Jerusalem , he imagines a non-exclusionary future where everyone is assured freedom and toleration, regardless of class, sex, gender, race, ethnicity, or species.
Creolizing Archipelagic Intimacies: Remembering India and Vietnam via Pondicherry
Authors: Kabir Ananya Jahanara
Published: February 2025

Abstract: A connection between Vietnam and Pondicherry flourished from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, whereby people from French India lived in Vietnam as bureaucrats, merchants, soldiers, and service providers. With twentieth-century decolonization processes in Vietnam and in French and British India, and dispersal of these Indo-French residents of Vietnam to France as well as Pondicherry, these links faded from postcolonial public memory even while circulating semiprivately through memoirs, cookbooks, and entrepreneurial attempts to incorporate that history into gastronomy, fashion, and heritage tourism. I explain the gaps and overlaps between these textual and material turns to the Pondicherry–Vietnam connection by using theories of creolization, archipelagicity, and intimacy to distinguish recalling from recollecting . In this nuanced memorializing of Global Asias, I argue, lie decolonial alternatives to terracentric cultural nationalisms.
Transpacific Tarzan: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Japanese Internment, and America's Pacific War
Authors: Hurley Brian
Published: February 2025

Abstract: This article examines the American novelist Edgar Rice Burroughs's writings on Japan, Japanese Americans, and Japanese internment during World War II. Best known as the creator of Tarzan, Burroughs was one of the most widely read novelists in early twentieth-century America. While living in Hawai'i in the 1940s, he witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and later wrote about Japan and Japanese Americans in essays, correspondence, and a surprising Tarzan sequel in which Burroughs's iconic hero battles the Japanese Empire. This article explores how the transpacific turn in Burroughs's late career brought the questions of race and empire that famously figured in the original Tarzan novel, Tarzan of the Apes (1912), into dialogue with the rise of American power in the Pacific.
Moving Islands: Hong Kong's Archipelogics
Authors: Ho Elizabeth
Published: February 2025

Abstract: In 2018, plans for the Lantau Tomorrow Vision (LTV), a major reclamation project involving the creation of several artificial islands, were announced. Hong Kong's archipelagic identity will change dramatically as the LTV rewrites interrelations among islands and the mainland by smoothing out difference using artificial means. Art practitioners in Hong Kong have challenged themselves to invent an alternative perspective of the city to the LTV. This essay explores how artists negotiate the city's peripelagic relations while keeping the island form always in sight to counterbalance the networked intricacy and spatial reach that are the archipelago. At stake are new geographies and cartographies pledged to economic equality, social justice, and difference.
Developing a Politically Conscious Photographic Practice in Apartheid South Africa: Rafique Mayet's Images of Natal
Authors: Jayawardane M. Neelika
Published: February 2025

Abstract: This article follows Rafique Mayet, a photographer from Durban, Natal Province, and a member of Afrapix, a photographers' collective in South Africa. Mayet was classified as "Cape Malay"—an in-between category often pitted against "African" and "white" racial groups. Staunchly antiapartheid, he was spurred on by the collective spirit undergirding the political philosophy of activists, artists, and "cultural workers" in the 1980s. These generative ruptures in the social and political landscape of Natal's "plantation" helped him propagate an identity based on his opposition to injustice and his commitment to mutuality, rather than race. His photographic projects evidence marginalized communities' exercises of self-assertion, agency, and care, as well as their overt and more subversive methodologies for resisting apartheid—essential to the political practices of the oppressed in Natal.
Toward an Archipelagic Reimagining of a Networked Architecture: Isozaki Arata's Collaborative Praxis of the Lost Decade
Authors: Stott Anthony
Published: February 2025

Abstract: This essay explores how the eminent Japanese architect Isozaki Arata (1931–2022) turns to the archipelagic to address a constellation of problems concerning architecture's place within the emergent urban and media ecologies of the 1990s. Putting Isozaki's transdisciplinary theoretical writings and built works into dialogue with his collaborations with the philosopher-critic Asada Akira (1957–‍), I show how the archipelagic acts as a resource for imagining an always already networked architecture in terms of a heterogeneous and interpenetrating multiplicity. In such an archipelagically imagined multiplicity, architectural nodes (islands) maintain their distinctness against homogenizing flows by cultivating "extra-contexts" that resist transparent communication. In this way, I gesture toward the implications of Isozaki's archipelagic architectural praxis for ecocriticism, media theory, and other related discourses at their intersection.
A Five-Year Single-Surgeon Experience: Continuous Series of Microvascular Free Flap and Factors Influencing Its Viability
Authors: Atmodiwirjo Parintosa , Mochtar Rezania , Ramadan Mohamad Rachadian , Triatmoko Sara Ester , Ralena Nadhira Anindita
Published: February 2025

Background: Over the past years, microvascular free tissue transfer has become increasingly popular in the field of plastic surgery. Our center has also been actively performing these complex surgeries for extensive defect closure. In this study spanning five years, our objective is to examine the challenges commonly encountered in free flap reconstruction and identify factors that contribute to the failure of such flaps, with the ultimate goal of enhancing our learning curve.Methods: This article presents a retrospective analysis of all patients who underwent microvascular free tissue transfer procedures performed by a single surgeon (PA) and teams of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery residents from 2014 to 2018. Multivariate analysis was conducted to identify the factors associated with free flap failure.Results: Between 2014 and 2018, a total of 203 microvascular free tissue transfers were performed to reconstruct defects at various anatomical sites. The overall viable flap rate for microvascular free flap reconstructions, irrespective of the indication or anatomical location, was found to be 90.6%. The type of flap, whether it was a perforator or non-perforator flap, emerged as the main significant factor influencing free flap viability.Conclusion: Microvascular free tissue transfer represents an excellent reconstructive option for addressing large defects requiring extensive or composite flaps. By acknowledging the factors contributing to free flap failure, we can optimize outcomes and provide the best possible results for our patients.
Exploring The Role and Safety of Autologous Fat Grafting for Breast Augmentation: A Literature Review
Authors: Nataatmadja Beta Subakti , Lumintang Loelita M , Asmaradianti Aryunidya , Fabian Pascalis
Published: February 2025

Breast augmentation, a commonly sought cosmetic procedure, has shifted towards autologous fat grafting (AFG) as an alternative to implants, primarily due to long-term complications associated with implants. This review aims to provide a comprehensive summary of the autologous fat grafting (AFG) application in breast augmentation surgery. A systematic search strategy was developed for the MEDLINE database and additional articles were identified by reviewing the references. AFG involves harvesting, processing, and injecting the patient's fat into the breast, providing natural results and fewer complications compared to implants. The procedure's success depends on the surgeon's skill. There are challenges and considerations associated with AFG, including volume limitations, variable retention rates, and potential complications such as infections and cyst formation. Uncertainties in fat retention rates influenced by various factors like fat content, processing methods, injection techniques, and patient characteristics, emphasizing the need for further research and careful patient selection.
Predicting Free Flap Viability: Integrating Lactate and Glucose Measurements with Artificial Intelligence
Authors: Muzakkie Mufida , Murti Krisna , Nurmaini Siti , Soedjana Hardi Siswo
Published: February 2025

Introduction: In reconstructive surgery, free flaps are a superior method for resurfacing defects. While free flap viability is typically monitored by subjective clinical examination, lactate and glucose levels in free flaps, which can affect tissue metabolism during ischaemia and reperfusion, can help predict viability. This study aims to review previous research and provide a theoretical basis for using artificial intelligence in lactate and glucose measurement as a means of assessing flap viability.Method: The primary databases used to retrieve the key medical literature presented in this study were book references and Google Scholar, PubMed and Science Direct, using search terms related to the topic. Only articles written in English and published less than ten years ago were included.Results:  Lactate levels detect perfusion impairment earlier than clinical signs or other biochemical markers while glucose monitoring can indicate underlying metabolic dysregulation or physiological stress, helps early detection of complications. Combining lactate and glucose measurements enhances diagnostic accuracy and allows for timely interventions for flap viability. Studies confirm this dual monitoring is a practical, unbiased, and has the potential to be developed into an artificial intelligence tool to improve patient outcomes.Conclusion: Lactate and glucose measurements in free flap monitoring have distinct benefits. Lactate detects ischaemia and reflects tissue metabolism, while glucose monitors energy metabolism and systemic health. Combining these leading to improved flap survival rates. With accessible tools, this approach improves patient care and outcomes in reconstructive surgery.
Rapid Resolution of Perianal Crohn's Disease with Upadacitinib
Authors: Brennan Kristen , Beniwal-Patel Poonam
Published: February 2025

A 20-year-old woman with ileocolonic, stricturing, and penetrating Crohn's disease (CD) presented with new onset perianal and vulvar CD despite having a diverting ileostomy and medical therapy with ustekinumab. She had previous secondary nonresponse to infliximab, vedolizumab, and adalimumab. There is a paucity of data supporting the use of medical therapies for perianal CD. Upadacitinib is approved for treatment of moderate to severely active ulcerative colitis and CD. This case demonstrates successful and rapid resolution of perianal CD within weeks of initiating upadacitinib.