bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Diagnostic tool for radical improvement in business processes
Authors: Sanchez-Comas A , Vasquez Osorio L E , Pérez-Vargas M , Caicedo-García M , Neira-Rodado D , Troncoso-Palacio A
Published: June 2020

The present work presents a diagnostic tool applicable in any business sector; it works as a support to managers for decision-making towards the need for a radical improvement of processes. A literary review was conducted to collect case studies in order to identify the problems it addresses and the impacts generated by the process of reengineering application in organizations. Through conceptual modeling and synthesization, some diagnostic questions were formulated related to the problems that reengineering has addressed in the literature, and an evaluation model was built that allows organizations to identify what type of problem the organization has, its processes or departments, which should be approached from a radical improvement approach. Finally a diagnostic tool with an evaluation method was formulated, to recommend initiate process improvement either organization, departments o process, formulated fully integrable with PDCA cycle and evaluation or monitoring phases for systems like business activity monitoring based on IT systems, relevant in today’s contexts when most of the nowadays organization are technology-based, and progressive improvements do not become a pragmatic and agile alternative in the business context.
Incidence of corrosion in low voltage electrical conductor
Authors: Ascanio-Villabona J G , Rincón-Quintero A D , Cardenas-Arias C G , Sandoval-Rodriguez C L
Published: June 2020

This research used a salt spray booth to generate accelerated corrosion in a copper conductor, AWG 12-gauge purity of 95.95%, this caliber used in residential electrical installations according RETIE Chapter 3 Article 20 and NTC 2050 338. Additionally, to provide an enabling stage of corrosion, type mouse tail splices were made. The amount of corrosion is measured by weight loss, and incidence of corrosion in transport was evaluated from two perspectives: difference active at the beginning and end of the test power, and the change in resistance of the specimen measured at different times of the experiment. The test piece was subjected to a flow of alternating current into a low voltage system, while corrosion occurred. Using two single-phase two-wire electronic meters, the rate of power supply circuit test was recorded, to check for changes in the energy carried from exposure to the corrosive environment wire. The data collected showed that exposure times of the samples in the salt spray chamber involvement was not very noticeable in the copper wire, highlighting small corrosion spots. Similarly, the energy no changes were observed to induce corrosion, however, the resistance of the wire showed a total change of up to 2.4 [milliohms]. The data collected showed that exposure times of the samples in the salt spray chamber involvement was not very noticeable copper wire, highlighting small corrosion spots. Similarly, the energy no changes were observed to induce corrosion, however, the resistance of the wire showed a total change of up to 2.4 [milliohms].
A Novel Full Boundary Element Formulation for Harmonic Analysis of Elastic Membranes Coupled to Acoustics Fluids
Authors: Narváez-Cruz A J , Useche-Vivero J F , Martínez-Trespalacios J A , Castro-Suarez J R
Published: June 2020

A novel full Boundary Element Formulation for the harmonic analysis of elastic membranes coupled to acoustics fluid is presented. The elastic membranes is modeled using the classical linear elastic pre-stretched membrane theory. The acoustic fluid is modeled using the acoustic-wave equation for homogeneous, isotropic, inviscid and irrotational fluids. Elastostatic fundamental solution is used in the boundary element formulation for the elastic membrane. The boundary element formulation for the acoustic fluid is based on the fundamental solution of three dimensional Poisson equation. Domain integrals related to inertial terms and those related with distributed pressure on membrane, were treated using the Dual Reciprocity Boundary Element Method. Fluid-structure coupling equations were established considering the continuity of the normal acceleration of the particles and dynamic pressure at fluid-structure interfaces. Results obtained shows the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed boundary element formulation.
The Reading Plan: A Strategy to support the Academic Performance of students of Systems Technology at Antonio de Arévalo University Foundation
Authors: Sánchez-Castro N
Published: June 2020

This article is the result of the research: The reading plan at the Antonio de Arévalo University Foundation: a strategy to support the academic performance of students entering the first semester of higher education. This research is part of the linguistic, psycholinguistic and sociocultural approach of Daniel Cassany achieving results from a diagnostic test of reading levels and is based on three moments; the preparation, execution and evaluation of the project to the group under study. The conclusions indicate that the course oriented from this approach manages to develop reading and writing levels that allowed them to better understand the other subjects.
Development of a web system for the management of PQRS in higher education institutions
Authors: Blanco-Jimenez Y , Ahumada-Torres L K , Castro-Suarez J R , Chico-Ruiz M A
Published: June 2020

The acquisition or development of a software in a company must always obey to meet a specific need, either to carry out a process in a better way or as an added value to a process that is currently managed efficiently. Such is the case of the web system for the management of requests, complaints, claims and suggestions (PQRS) of the Antonio de Arévalo University Foundation - Unitecnar, which emerges as a technological tool to systematize and optimize the current process of registration, consultation, management and monitoring PQRS. The article below details the development methodology implemented that for this case was the agile XP methodology, which allows iterative development, teamwork, and delivery in the shortest possible time. On the other hand, the technological tools used are described, which were: the CodeIgniter framework for application development in PHP, the Bootstrap framework for the creation of responsive web pages and PostgreSQL as a database management system. Finally, the results obtained that consist of two web applications will be explained. One to register, consult and evaluate PQRS. And the other is the tool through which the administration, configuration and monitoring of the PQRS is carried out.
A Novel Full Boundary Element Formulation for Transient Analysis of Elastic Membranes Coupled to Acoustics Fluids
Authors: Narváez-Cruz A J , Useche-Vivero J F , Martínez-Trespalacios J A , Castro-Suarez J R
Published: June 2020

A full time-direct Boundary Element Formulation for the dynamic analysis of elastic membranes coupled to acoustics fluid is presented. The elastic membranes is modeled using the classical linear elastic pre-stretched membrane theory. The acoustic fluid is modeled using the acoustic-wave equation for homogeneous, isotropic, inviscid and irrotational fluids. Elastostatic fundamental solution is used in the boundary element formulation for the elastic membrane. The boundary element formulation for the acoustic fluid is based on the fundamental solution of three dimensional Poisson equation. Domain integrals related to inertial terms and those related with distributed pressure on membrane, were treated using the Dual Reciprocity Boundary Element Method. Fluid-structure coupling equations were established considering the continuity of the normal acceleration of the particles and dynamic pressure at fluid-structure interfaces. The time integration is carried out using the Newmark method. Results obtained shows the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed boundary element formulation.
Improving the stability of Fe0.8Mn1.54Ni0.66O4 NTC thermistor with nano-powders and N2 annealing
Authors: Yu Nam Chol , Pak Il Man , Pak Son Guk , Kim Jin Sim
Published: June 2020

Fe0.8Mn1.54Ni0.66O4 nano-ceramics have been successfully prepared by sol-gel auto combustion. The microstructure and phase of these samples were observed by using SEM and XRD. The diameters of Fe0.8Mn1.54Ni0.66O4 ceramic particles pre-fired at 800 °C range from 52 to 83 nm. The powder sintered at above 1050 °C has the compact and uniform spinel structure. We have investigated the electrical characteristics of these thermistors at different sintering temperatures and concluded that the sample sintered at 1200 °C is sufficient to form the appropriate spinel phase. Moreover, the thermistor annealed for 72 h at 450 ∼ 550 °C in N2 atmosphere has the drift rate of <0.7%.
Clinical potential of pupillary light reflex and heart rate variability parameters as biomarkers for assessing pain relief effects on autonomic function: a prospective longitudinal study
Authors: Ishikawa Masaaki
Published: June 2020

Objective: To investigate the association between subjective pain intensity and objective parameters obtained from two autonomic function tests in a longitudinal study targeting acute pain model in otolaryngology-head and neck region: pupillary light reflex (PLR) and heart rate variability (HRV). Approach: We enrolled 35 patients with acute otolaryngology—head and neck region inflammatory disorders at pre-treatment stage. The acute inflammatory disorders were defined as acute tonsillitis, peritonsillar abscess, acute epiglottitis, acute sinusitis, and deep neck space abscess. Patients underwent a numeric rating scale (NRS) to monitor subjective pain intensity, PLR, and HRV as objective tests at 4 time-points during the follow-up term. As main outcome variables, we used 15 analyzable PLR/HRV parameters. To improve robustness of conclusions about the association between NRS and PLR/HRV parameters, we prepared four linear mixed-effects models (LMMs) including predictor variables such as NRS, sociodemographic factors, and individual variability. And then, we selected the better-fit model based on the lowest Akaike’s information criterion. Main results: NRS significantly decreased due to treatments. In 14 out of 15 parameters, better-fit models were models including not only sociodemographic factors but also individual variability. We observed significant parameter alterations to one unit change of NRS in five PLR and four HRV parameters. Significance: The current study revealed that PLR/HRV parameters can be used as biomarkers reflecting pain relief effects. In addition, the findings suggest the importance of adjusting predictor variables, especially individual variability defined as random effects in LMMs, for obtaining more accurate parameter estimation in the longitudinal study.
Integrated photonic devices in single crystal diamond
Authors: Mi Sichen , Kiss Marcell , Graziosi Teodoro , Quack Niels
Published: June 2020

The field of diamond photonics is reviewed, with a focus on recent experimental demonstrations of photonic integrated devices in a single crystal diamond. This field leverages the outstanding material properties of diamond with the aim to establish large-scale integrated photonics for applications in sensing, information and communication technologies, and optomechanics. Accordingly, this review introduces recent progress in scalable micro- and nano-fabrication techniques for single crystal diamond photonic integrated devices, and provides quantitative comparative evaluation of the performance of the state of the art devices. The review concludes with an outlook of the potential of photonic integrated circuits in single crystal diamond.
Thermal behavior of materials in laser-assisted extreme manufacturing: Raman-based novel characterization
Authors: Wang Ridong , Xu Shen , Yue Yanan , Wang Xinwei
Published: June 2020

Laser-assisted manufacturing (LAM) is a technique that performs machining of materials using a laser heating process. During the process, temperatures can rise above over 2000 °C. As a result, it is crucial to explore the thermal behavior of materials under such high temperatures to understand the physics behind LAM and provide feedback for manufacturing optimization. Raman spectroscopy, which is widely used for structure characterization, can provide a novel way to measure temperature during LAM. In this review, we discuss the mechanism of Raman-based temperature probing, its calibration, and sources of uncertainty/error, and how to control them. We critically review the Raman-based temperature measurement considering the spatial resolution under near-field optical heating and surface structure-induced asymmetries. As another critical aspect of Raman-based temperature measurement, temporal resolution is also reviewed to cover various ways of realizing ultrafast thermal probing. We conclude with a detailed outlook on Raman-based temperature probing in LAM and issues that need special attention.
Aversive Racism: Foundations, Impact, and Future Directions
Authors: Murrell Audrey
Published: June 2020

The concept of aversive racism has had a significant impact on theory, research, and practice devoted to better understanding bias, discrimination, and persistent disparities based on social identity group such as race, gender, social class, and so on. Originally developed to better explain subtle forms of bias toward racial and minoritized groups, this concept has been extended to understand the impact of disparities in a range of diverse settings, such as intergroup relations, health outcomes, fairness in employment setting, intergroup conflict, educational outcomes, racial bias in policing, experiences of stress and mental health issues, and persistent economic disparities. A core facet of the aversive framework paradigm is that because of human biases that are deeply rooted within a historical context and reinforced by ongoing societal ideologies, unintentional and subtle forms of discrimination emerge and persist. Given that these subtle forms of bias and discrimination exist within otherwise well-intentioned individuals, strategies to eliminate them require understanding the complexity of the aversive racism phenomenon in order to develop effective social interventions.

This article reviews the foundation, research, and impact of this important body of work. In addition, the concept of aversive racism is discussed in connection to emerging research on microaggressions and unconscious (implicit) bias in order to create a more integrated framework that can shape future research and applications. Lastly, practical implications for organizations and future directions are explored, such as using social identity as a theoretical lens, including global perspectives on intergroup bias and leveraging emerging work on intersectionality, as useful perspectives to extend the aversive racism framework. Setting a future agenda for research and practice related to aversive racism is key to greater understanding of how to reduce intergroup bias and discrimination through interventions that cut across traditional academic and discipline boundaries as one approach to create meaningful and long-lasting social impact.
A Stakeholder Perspective: Origins and Core Concepts
Authors: Eskerod Pernille
Published: June 2020

Organizations (whether they are permanent or temporary) have stakeholders, that is, individuals and groups that can affect or be affected by the organization’s activities and achievements. Assuming that the fundamental driver of value creation is stakeholder relationships, managing those relationships well is a prerequisite for obtaining and sustaining success in all businesses, regardless of the success measures applied. Therefore, applying a stakeholder perspective is of significant importance for any manager or entrepreneur. However, the essentials as well as the implications of applying such a perspective are not clear. Researchers and practitioners have offered many contributions, however, the existing literature is inconclusive. To provide clarity, stakeholder concepts (e.g. stakeholder definition, systems perspective, separation thesis, stakeholder analysis, stakeholder engagement, perception of fairness, stakeholder utility function, stakeholder salience, stakeholder disaggregation, stakeholder multiplicity, managing for stakeholders, Value Creation Stakeholder Theory, value destruction, shadows of the context) are defined and 15 propositions for further inquiry are offered. The Scandinavian and American origins of stakeholder thinking are presented. The propositions are intended to invite discussion—and could form the basis for future research questions as well as provide guidance for managers. By drawing on (a) Professor Eric Rhenman, who in the 1960s first proposed an explicit theoretical framework on stakeholder thinking; (b) Professor R. Edward Freeman, who has been the most influential contributor to the field; and (c) additional, selected contributions, the aim is to providevalue for both new and seasoned researchers as well as for managers, consultants, and educators. In order to give the reader the opportunity to self-assess and interpret the “raw data,” the text is rich on citations.
Polar Lows
Authors: Terpstra Annick , Watanabe Shun-ichi
Published: June 2020

Polar lows are intense maritime mesoscale cyclones developing in both hemispheres poleward of the main polar front. These rapidly developing severe storms are accompanied by strong winds, heavy precipitation (hail and snow), and rough sea states. Polar lows can have significant socio-economic impact by disrupting human activities in the maritime polar regions, such as tourism, fisheries, transportation, research activities, and exploration of natural resources. Upon landfall, they quickly decay, but their blustery winds and substantial snowfall affect the local communities in coastal regions, resulting in airport-closure, transportation breakdown and increased avalanche risk.

Polar lows are primarily a winter phenomenon and tend to develop during excursions of polar air masses, originating from ice-covered areas, over the adjacent open ocean. These so-called cold-air outbreaks are driven by the synoptic scale atmospheric configuration, and polar lows usually develop along air-mass boundaries associated with these cold-air outbreaks. Local orographic features and the sea-ice configuration also play prominent roles in pre-conditioning the environment for polar low development. Proposed dynamical pathways for polar low development include moist baroclinic instability, symmetric convective instability, and frontal instability, but verification of these mechanisms is limited due to sparse observations and insufficient resolution of reanalysis data.

Maritime areas with a frequent polar low presence are climatologically important regions for the global ocean circulation, hence local changes in energy exchange between the atmosphere and ocean in these regions potentially impacts the global climate system. Recent research indicates that the enhanced heat and momentum exchange by mesoscale cyclones likely has a pronounced impact on ocean heat transport by triggering deep water formation in the ocean and by modifying horizontal mixing in the atmosphere. Since the beginning of the satellite-era a steady decline of sea-ice cover in the Northern Hemisphere has expanded the ice-free polar regions, and thus the areas for polar low development, yet the number of polar lows is projected to decline under future climate scenarios.
India and the European Union
Authors: Jain Rajendra K.
Published: June 2020

India took a keen interest in the nascent European Economic Community (EEC) and was acutely concerned about the adverse implications of the British application for membership. New Delhi was one of the first developing countries to establish diplomatic relations with the EEC and the first non-associate member developing country to sign a commercial cooperation agreement. During the Cold War, relations with India were of marginal interest for Brussels, especially as South Asia was traditionally considered a British domain and a complex region beset with intractable problems. In the early 1990s, India sought an upgraded political dialogue with the EU as the West moved up in its foreign policy calculus as a market, source of technology, and foreign direct investment. Brussels no longer had to look at India through the prism of Cold War equations. India had in fact become more interesting because of its economic reforms and liberalization policies.

Recognition of India’s growing stature and influence regionally and globally, growing economic interest in a rapidly and consistently growing economy, acquisition of nuclear weapons, steadily improving relations with the United States, and acceptance of India as a potential global player led the European Union to launch in 2005 a strategic partnership with India. India and the European Union have a multilayered institutional architecture with annual summits (since 2000), a Joint Commission, and over 30 sectoral dialogues encompassing political, security, economic, cultural dimensions, some of which still need to acquire a more operational character.

Even in 2020 the India–EU relationship continues to be basically driven by trade and economic relations though it now encompasses diverse areas including climate change, energy, science and technology, migration and mobility. The European Union is India’s biggest trade partner and a major source of technology, foreign direct investments, and a major destination for Indian investment overseas. In the 2010s, the European Union and Member States are becoming active developmental partners in the realization of key flagship programs like Clean India, Smart Cities, renewable energy, skills and technology. Growing convergence at the fourteenth India–EU summit (October 2017) reflected convergence on important global issues like a rule-based international order as well as on the Iran nuclear deal, the Paris climate change treaty, Myanmar and the North Korean imbroglio. The India Strategy Paper 3.0—“Elements for an EU Strategy on India” (2018)—outlines an ambitious roadmap for the 2020s to more meaningfully engage India in building a multifaceted strategic partnership with India.
Attitudes Toward LGBT+ People and Policies: Political Tolerance and Egalitarianism
Authors: Elliott-Dorans Lauren
Published: June 2020

Political tolerance and commitment to egalitarianism have long been examined as possible contributors to attitudes toward LGBT+ people and policies. Since the 1970s, American attitudes toward LGBT+ issues have changed drastically. During this period, public policy and measures of public opinion toward LGBT+ rights have focused on a variety of areas, such as nondiscrimination laws, gay military service, and family matters such as adoption and marriage. Interestingly, although support for equality has remained the same in the United States, individuals have become rapidly more supportive of LGBT+ people securing equal rights in a variety of domains. There are three primary reasons for this shift: elite messaging, attributions of homosexuality, and contact with members of the LGBT+ community, both direct and indirect. These factors have led to an environment in which the value of equality is more readily applied to LGBT+ issues, therefore increasing support for these rights over time.

Elite messaging has played a key role in this shift. Across LGBT+ issues, equality frames are often countered with moral traditionalism, thus leading to an increased propensity for individuals to associate LGBT+ issues with these values. The effectiveness of equality frames has been bolstered by the growing belief that homosexuality is a fixed rather than chosen trait, which yields a greater reliance upon egalitarianism when evaluating LGBT+-related issues. At the same time, both direct and indirect contact with the LGBT+ community increased following the Stonewall Riots of 1969. Americans were first introduced to gay characters on television in the 1970s. LG characters gained more prominent roles throughout the 1990s on shows such as The Real World and Will and Grace. Following Stonewall, LGBT+ activist organizations also advocated that members of the community “come out of the closet” and reveal their sexual orientation to the people in their lives. Thus, the chances of Americans knowing—or at least feeling like they knew—an LGBT+ person increased. Consistent with Allport’s Contact Theory (1954) and Zajonc’s work on “mere exposure effects” (1968), affect toward LGBT+ individuals has generally grown more positive with greater interaction and familiarity. These various factors interacted with underlying predispositions to drastically move public opinion in favor of greater equality for LGBT+ people.
Multi-Level Governance and Public Administration
Authors: Ongaro Edoardo
Published: June 2020

The literature on multi-level governance (MLG) and the field of the administrative sciences and public administration (PA) can be fruitfully integrated in order to generate knowledge about “the administrative dimension of MLG.” MLG may be defined by Piattoni as “the simultaneous activation of governmental and non-governmental actors at various jurisdictional levels” and perspectives derived from MLG may be applied to a wide set of issues spanning from political mobilization (politics), to policymaking (policy), to state restructuring (polity). It is along each of these sets of issues that it is possible to delineate the contribution that the field of PA can provide to the development of MLG. To MLG as political mobilization, the PA literature brings insights about participatory approaches and collaborative governance. To MLG as policy in multi-level settings, the PA literature brings insights about the functioning of multi-level administration and the role of a multi-level bureaucracy in policymaking processes occurring in compound political systems; the PA literature also contributes insights on public accountability in systems where decision responsibility is blurred, and issues of legitimacy arise. To MLG as polity restructuring, the PA literature offers insights on the administrative dimension of polity restructuring processes, as well as on the dynamics of systemic change and the change management of public governance arrangements. The study of MLG may benefit from drawing from a range of conceptual tools and models developed in the field of PA. Complementarily, PA as an interdisciplinary field of scholarship may benefit from the perspective of MLG, which provides it with a platform to expand the application of concepts like those of collaborative governance; bureaucratic influence on policymaking; public accountability in multi-actor, multi-level settings; or systemic-level change management. In this sense, the generation of knowledge about the administrative dimension of MLG is an addition to both MLG studies and to the field of PA.
Pharmaceutical Patents in Latin America: Global Change, National Responses
Authors: Shadlen Kenneth C.
Published: June 2020

Since the late 1980s, developing countries have come under considerable pressure to revise their policies and practices with regard to intellectual property. One area where pressures have been exceptionally strong, and also controversial, is in pharmaceuticals: historically, fearing the costs of providing private property rights over knowledge in this area, developing countries did not grant patents to drugs. Now they must do so. This global change has yielded multiple, different national responses. In Latin America, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico have demonstrated persistent diversity, both in terms of how they initially introduced drug patents in the 1990s, and then how they reformed their patent systems subsequently in the 2000s. What explains this variation? Many political scientists focus on factors such as external pressures, domestic institutions, and the ideological orientation of political leaders. But none of these are sufficient in this instance. Instead, cross-national and longitudinal variation in patent policy is best understood as being driven by social structure. Specifically, changing social structures affect political leaders’ abilities to construct and sustain supportive coalitions for different patent policies. Social structures can change in two ways. First, exporters fearing the loss of preferential market access may be converted into advocates of strong and extensive patent protection. Second, differential patterns of adjustment among state and societal actors that are inspired by the introduction of new policies change the set of actors that push for or against different policies. It is within the changing structural conditions produced by these two processes that political leaders build coalitions in support of different responses to the new global imperative of pharmaceutical patents.
Business in Peace Negotiations in Latin America
Authors: Rettberg Angelika
Published: June 2020

Business—or the sum of privately run enterprises in all sectors of the economy, their owners, and managers—can have an important impact on the holding of peace talks, on agreement substance, and on the speed and depth of implementation. In fact, business has been part of peacebuilding processes in many conflict-affected societies in Latin America, both by spoiling ongoing efforts and by supporting negotiations, social dialogue, and transformative projects. The examples of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Colombia show that there is not a uniform model whereby private sector actors define their interests and strategies in relation to peace talks and peacebuilding processes. Rather, factors related to the nature and intensity of conflict, the economic and international context, company traits and private sector organizational forms, as well as access to the policymaking process play an important role. Whether peace is achieved or not ultimately depends on a variety of factors. However, whether as spoiler, supporter, or simple bystander, the private sector is a crucial actor in societies seeking to build lasting peace.
Voter Behavior in Latin America
Authors: Singer Matthew M. , Ramalho Tafoya Gabriela
Published: June 2020

Voter choices in Latin America have structural roots that are similar to what is observed in other regions, but these structures are weaker and more fluid than in more established democracies. In particular, while cleavages emerge in the average Latin American country and voters’ choices vary across demographic traits, issues, ideologies, and partisanship, these cleavages are weaker than in Western Europe and the United States. These cleavages are particularly weak in countries where parties do not take ideologically distinct positions from each other and instead emphasize clientelism, which suggests that the overall weakness of these cleavages in the hemisphere reflects the weak commitment of political parties to programmatic competition. Elections in Latin America are strongly shaped by government performance, especially economic trends, but these forms of accountability are weakened in countries where the party system makes it hard to identify the degree to which any specific party is able to dominate the policy process or where identifying a credible alternative to the incumbent is difficult. Thus, while voters are trying to use elections to hold politicians accountable and to ensure that their policy preferences are represented, the weaknesses of Latin America’s party systems often make this difficult.
Gender, Race, and Political Representation in Latin America
Authors: Piscopo Jennifer M. , Wylie Kristin N.
Published: June 2020

Women, indigenous peoples, and Afro-descendant populations remain underrepresented in the national legislatures of Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking Latin America. The descriptive (or numeric) representation of marginalized groups in national legislatures matters because legislatures make policy, check the president’s authority, and communicate who has full membership in the body politic. The inclusion of women, indigenous peoples, and Afro-descendants in legislatures sends information about the overall depth and quality of the democratic regime. Most legislatures have become more representative of women, primarily due to affirmative action measures designed to raise descriptive representation. As of October 15, 2019, every Latin American country except Guatemala and Venezuela had a statutory quota law for women candidates, resulting in women holding nearly 30% of seats in the region’s legislatures. However, such gains have not come without costs, including rising violence against women candidates and elected officials. Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela also use affirmative action to incorporate indigenous peoples into the national legislature, using reserved seats. However, reserved seats typically elect lower proportions of indigenous peoples relative to their population percentage. Afro-descendants face more barriers, as they must largely win legislative elections without the benefit of affirmative action. Afro-descendants remain excluded from formal politics even in Brazil, where the majority of the population self-identifies as black or brown. Indigenous and Afro-descendant women face barriers that emerge from both their gender and their race/ethnicity.
Lebanon: A Military in Politics in a Divided Society
Authors: Barak Oren
Published: June 2020

Since Lebanon’s independence in the mid-1940s, its military—the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF)—has played a pivotal role in the country’s politics. The political role of the LAF in Lebanon might seem surprising since the Lebanese state did not militarize, and its political leaders have continuously managed to keep their military relatively weak and small. Indeed, in this respect Lebanon has been markedly different from its close neighbors (Syria and Israel), but also from several other Middle Eastern states (especially Egypt and Iraq), where the military, which was large and powerful, was continuously involved in politics. Additionally, both Lebanon and the LAF have persistently striven to distance themselves from regional conflicts since 1949, particularly in relation to the Palestinian issue, albeit not always successfully. Still, and despite these ostensibly unfavorable factors for the military’s involvement in politics in Lebanon, the LAF has played an important political role in the state since its independence. This role, which has been marked by elements of continuity and change over the years, included mediation and arbitration between rival political factions (in 1945–1958, 2008, 2011, and 2019); attempts to dominate the political system (in 1958–1970 and 1988–1990); intervention in the Lebanese civil war (in 1975–1976 and 1982–1984); attempts to regain its balancing role in politics (in 1979–1982 and 1984–1988); and facilitating the state’s postwar reconstruction (since 1991). The political role of the military in Lebanon can be explained by several factors. First, the weakness of Lebanon’s political system and its inability to resolve crises between its members. Second, Lebanon’s divided society and its members’ general distrust towards its civilian politicians. Third, the basic characteristics of Lebanon’s military, which, in most periods, enjoyed broad public support that cuts across the lines of community, region, and family, and found appeal among domestic and external audiences, which, in their turn, acquiesced to its political role in the state.
Forced Resilience: Conceptualizing Resilience in Life-Threatening Adversity
Authors: Harnisch Helle , Montgomery Edith , Knoop Hans Henrik
Published: June 2020

The field of resilience research lacks conceptualizations of resilience that better reflect the coercive conditions, contexts and experiences of human beings who face life-threatening adversity. The article provides historic context to definitions of resilience and underlines how resilience, when defined as an absence of psychopathology, is too narrow a perspective given the life-threatening adversity many human beings face; but nevertheless, continue with life despite of. The article introduces “Forced Resilience” as a helpful concept in drawing attention to experiences of life-threatening adversity, and how resilient responses should not be deduced to whether psychopathology appears – or not, since such understandings do not embrace the complexity of life-threatening adversity and what human beings do to cope with it. Based on a qualitative empirical cultural case study comprising 10 months of ethnographic fieldwork over 4 years among former forcibly recruited children, youth, and adults in the Acholi region of Northern Uganda, the article analyzes resilience as it appears among the children and youth in our study who experienced numerous kill-or-get-killed situations, and who today, as adults, live in continuous adverse circumstances. The article analyzes whether and how the emic, first-person perspectives of the former forcibly recruited children, youth, and adults resonate with state-of-the-art resilience and psychotraumatology studies. The results underline how this is rarely the case. We argue that more careful and emic consideration is needed, regarding how we define and evaluate what are pathological and resilient responses to what types of adversity in the fast-growing field of resilience research. It is our hope that “Forced resilience” will serve as a helpful concept, which through an experience-near approach can draw attention to resilience as it occurs amidst life-threatening adversity and that this will contribute to a needed re-conceptualizing and contextualizing of resilience.
Neuropsychological Rehabilitation for People with Non-Progressive Brain Damage
Authors: Wilson Barbara A.
Published: June 2020

Neuropsychological rehabilitation (NR) is concerned with the amelioration of deficits caused by insult to the brain. It adopts a goal-planning approach and addresses real-life difficulties. Neuropsychology studies how the brain affects behavior, emotion, and cognition. Rehabilitation is a process whereby people who are disabled work together with professional staff, relatives, and others to achieve optimum physical, psychological, and vocational well-being. Rehabilitation is not synonymous with recovery, nor is it treatment. It is a two-way interactive process with professional staff and others who aim to remediate or alleviate difficulties, adopting a holistic approach in which cognition, emotion, and psychosocial problems are treated together, aided by an increasing use of technological aids.

NR enables people with disabilities to achieve their optimum level of well-being, reduce problems in everyday life, and help them return to the most appropriate environments. There may also be some partial or limited recovery of function and certainly some substitution of function. Accepting that return of normal functioning is highly unlikely, rehabilitation finds ways to help people learn more efficiently, compensate for their difficulties, and, when necessary, modify the environment.

While theoretical models have proved helpful, indeed essential, in identifying cognitive strengths and weaknesses, in explaining phenomena, and in making predictions about behavior, they are insufficient, on their own, to seriously influence rehabilitation aimed at making lives more adaptable to problems encountered in everyday living. NR should focus on goals relevant to a person’s individual everyday life, it should be implemented in the environment where the person lives, and have personally meaningful themes, activities, settings, and interactions.

We know from numerous studies that NR can be clinically effective. Although rehabilitation can be expensive in the short term, there is evidence that it is cost-effective in the long term.
The History of Personnel and Vocational Testing
Authors: Zickar Michael J.
Published: June 2020

Personnel and vocational testing has made a huge impact in public and private organizations by helping organizations choose the best employees for a particular job (personnel testing) and helping individuals choose occupations for which they are best suited (vocational testing). The history of personnel and vocational testing is one in which scientific advances were influenced by historical and technological developments.

The first systematic efforts at personnel and vocational testing began during World War I when the US military needed techniques to sort through a large number of applicants in a short amount of time. Techniques of psychological testing had just begun to be developed at around the turn of the 20th century and those techniques were quickly applied to the US military effort. After the war, intelligence and personality tests were used by business organizations to help choose applicants most likely to succeed in their organizations. In addition, when the Great Depression occurred, vocational interest tests were used by government organizations to help the unemployed choose occupations that they might best succeed in.

The development of personnel and vocational tests was greatly influenced by the developing techniques of psychometric theory as well as general statistical theory. From the 1930s onward, significant advances in reliability and validity theory provided a framework for test developers to be able to develop tests and validate them. In addition, the civil rights movement within the United States, and particularly the Civil Rights Act of 1964, forced test developers to develop standards and procedures to justify test usage. This legislation and subsequent court cases ensured that psychologists would need to be involved deeply in personnel testing. Finally, testing in the 1990s onward was greatly influenced by technological advances. Computerization helped standardize administration and scoring of tests as well as opening up the possibility for multimedia item formats. The introduction of the internet and web-based testing also provided additional challenges and opportunities.
Human Movement, Kinesthesia, and Dance
Authors: Smith Roger
Published: June 2020

There is intense contemporary public as well as professional psychological interest in bodily movement, gesture, and the subjective experience of movement. This has a background in knowledge that movements and the sensing of movements alike express the life of the whole person, whether in the arts, sports, and the pursuit of well-being or in physiotherapies and psychotherapies of many kinds. The background of the numerous and varied areas of scientific research that contribute to this field of interests has a long history in philosophy and cultural practices as well as in relations between different psychological and physiological topics. The significance of the sense of self-movement, kinesthesia, as opposed to the perception of moving objects, has not until recently been a central focus for research. To explain rising contemporary interest, it is necessary to elucidate the usage of current terms—kinesthesia, proprioception, and haptic sense. This in turn leads to discussion of the historical background to modern research on kinesthesia and motor imagery, on phenomenology and sensed movement, on practice centered on kinesthetic appreciation, and on agency. All this is part of the field of inquiry into the experiential psychology of performing and of appreciating dance.
LGBT People in Prison: Management Strategies, Human Rights Violations, and Political Mobilization
Authors: Brown Jason A. , Jenness Valerie
Published: June 2020

In the 21st century, an unprecedented rise in the visibility of and social acceptance for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people has been accompanied by exponential growth in scholarship on LGBT people generally and their experiences in diverse communities and institutional contexts in the United States and around the globe. A growing body of literature draws on first-person accounts, qualitative analyses, and statistical assessments to understand how and why LGBT people end up in prisons and other types of lock-up facilities, as well as how they experience being imprisoned and the collateral consequences of those experiences.

Scholarship in this body of work focuses on (a) the range of abuses inflicted on LGBT prisoners by other prisoners and state officials alike, including mistreatment now widely recognized as human rights violations; (b) the variety of ways LGBT people are managed by prison officials, in the first instance whether their housing arrangements in prison are integrationist, segregationist, and/or some combination of both, including the temporary and permanent isolation of LGBT prisoners; and (c) the range of types of political mobilization that expose the status quo as unacceptable, define, and document the treatment of LGBT people behind bars as human rights violations, demand change, and advocate new policies and practices related to the carceral state’s treatment of LGBT people in the United States and across the globe.

The study of LGBT people in prisons and other detention facilities is compatible with larger calls for the inclusion of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression in criminology and criminal justice research by advancing theoretical and empirical understandings of LGBT populations as they interact with the criminal justice system, and by incorporating this knowledge into broader criminological conversations.
Educating for Democracy in the Digital Age
Authors: Sefton-Green Julian
Published: June 2020

Digital technologies pose a threat to the post-Deweyian visions of how schools educate for democracy and civic participation at a number of levels. The datafication of interpersonal interactions (as the private individual self is surveilled and commodified by supra-national global technology companies) has enormous consequences for what we want young people to learn and how they ought to behave as citizens in the reconfigured power relations between the individual, the state, and the market. Indeed, questions surrounding what it means to be a citizen and what comprises the new polis in a digitalized global economy have created a distinct new challenge for the purposes of education.

The digital reconfigures the nature of agency, understood as being an intrinsic right of the liberal individual person. In addition there are political dangers for democracy, for these technologies can be mobilized and exploited as the neoliberal state fragments and loses regulatory authority (exemplified by the Cambridge Analytica and “fake news” fiasco). At the same time, the accepted paradigms of the civic, juridical, and identitarian self that traditionally comprised the democratic “citizen” are being rewritten as changing privacy practices reconfigure these models of identity.

What vision of educating for democracy is necessary in the early 21st century? One answer has been to focus on “critical pedagogy,” but that model of educating for full participation in democracy needs to be reworked for the digital age—especially in terms of how schools themselves need to develop an institutional and communal form of digital-social life.