bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
GATA3 Exerts Distinct Transcriptional Functions to Regulate Radiation Resistance in A549 and H1299 Cells
Authors: Wang Rui , Yi Junxuan , Gao Hui , Wei Xinfeng , Shao Lihong , Wang Mingwei , Xu Weiqiang , Yin Xiaoshu , Shen Yannan , Wang Zhicheng , Wei Wei , Jin Shunzi
Published: August 2022

Background. Radiation resistance of lung cancer cells is a vital factor affecting the curative effect of lung cancer. Transcription factor GATA3 is involved in cell proliferation, invasion, and migration and is significantly expressed in a variety of malignancies. However, the molecular mechanism governing GATA3 regulation in lung cancer cells’ radiation resistance is unknown. Methods. Radiation-resistant cell models (A549-RR and H1299-RR) were made using fractionated high-dose irradiation. Use clone formation, CCK-8, F-actin staining, cell cycle detection, and other experiments to verify whether the model is successfully constructed. Cells were transiently transfected with knockdown or overexpression plasmid. To explore the relationship between GATA3/H3K4me3 and target genes, we used ChIP-qPCR, ChIP-seq, and dual luciferase reporter gene experiments. Xenograft tumor models were used to evaluate the effect of GATA3 depletion on the tumorigenic behavior of lung cancer cells. Results. We report that transcription factors GATA3 and H3K4me3 coactivate NRP1 gene transcription when A549 cells develop radiation resistance. However, the mechanism of radiation resistance in H1299 cells is that GATA3 acts as a transcription inhibitor. The decrease of GATA3 will promote the increase of NRP1 transcription, in which H3K4me3 does not play a leading role. Conclusions. GATA3, an upstream transcriptional regulator of NRP1 gene, regulates the radioresistance of A549 and H1299 cells by opposite mechanisms, which provides a new target for radiotherapy of lung cancer.
[Retracted] Influence of Sports Biomechanics on Martial Arts Sports and Comprehensive Neuromuscular Control under the Background of Artificial Intelligence
Authors: Zhang Jinqian , Qu Qingling , An Meiling , Li Ming , Li Kai , Kim Sukwon
Published: August 2022

Neuromuscular control refers to the reflexes of nerves that affect muscle balance and function. In addition, there are interactions between joint structure, muscle function, and the central nervous system. In the integration with other intelligent control methods and optimization algorithms, such as fuzzy control/expert verification and genetic algorithm, it provides nonparametric object models, optimization parameters, reasoning models, and fault diagnosis. The central nervous system is the main research object of neuromuscular control. Martial arts often cause injuries or affect the progress of martial arts because of some irregular movements. Chinese traditional martial arts is another name for “martial arts” in the late Qing Dynasty in China. It is mainly reflected in the individual’s application and attainments in martial arts traditional teaching methods and personal cultivation. Therefore, this paper proposes an analysis of the influence of sports biomechanics on martial arts sports and comprehensive neuromuscular control in the context of artificial intelligence. In this paper, the specific research of Wushu sports is carried out mainly in two aspects: sports biomechanics and neuromuscular control. It uses a variety of algorithms, successively using particle swarm algorithm, neural network structure, fitness function, and so on. This paper compares and analyzes their accuracy and then selects the optimal algorithm. It then conducts experimental research on the martial arts movements of professional martial arts Sanda players. The final experimental conclusion shows that, regarding lower limb selective response time and the middle left lower limb prereaction time (L‐PMT) of the elite athlete group and the ordinary athlete group, the average movement value of the elite group of 2.336 is significantly greater than that of the ordinary group of 1.938. This shows that, within a certain range, the larger the knee angle and the smaller the hip angle, the stronger the ability to buffer the impact of the ground, without causing greater damage to the muscles and joints.
[Retracted] Vacuum Sealing Drainage for Primary Thoracolumbar Spondylodiscitis: A Technical Note
Authors: Xing Hao , Yang Yang , Xing Wenqiang , Chang Zhengqi
Published: August 2022

Primary spinal infection is a challenge for neurosurgeons. Here, for the first time, we introduced the vacuum sealing drainage (VSD) sponge into the intervertebral space for the primary thoracolumbar infection treatment. This study included 6 bedridden patients with thoracolumbar spondylodiscitis without deformity formation. All 6 patients were treated with the VSD in our hospital from June 30, 2018, to August 31, 2019. All 6 cases of thoracolumbar infection achieved clinical cure at 3‐month follow‐up, and no surgical‐related mortalities occurred in our series. One patient died of acute cerebral infarction 5 months after surgery, and the remaining 5 patients completed a 12‐month follow‐up without recurrence. The JOA score of all 6 cases improved significantly after VSD treatment. VSD is feasible for safe and effective treatment for primary thoracolumbar infection. The short‐term follow‐up effect is definite.
Virtual Design Method of Customized Clothing Based on Three-Dimensional Image
Authors: Hou Fengxian , Ji Xiaofen
Published: August 2022

Because the traditional virtual design \method of customized clothing has the problems of poor matching between the designed clothing and the user’s body shape and long design time, a virtual design method of customized clothing based on a three-dimensional image is proposed. Through the way of camera imaging, the three-dimensional human model is established by the linear regression method, and the three-dimensional point cloud image of the human body is obtained. The three-dimensional human key points are extracted by shoulder point extraction, neck point extraction, elbow point extraction, and crotch bottom point extraction. According to the key point extraction results, the customized clothing is registered with the three-dimensional human model. The simulation results show that the proposed method has good matching with the user’s body shape and short design time.
Mirizzi Syndrome: Is There a Place for Minimally Invasive Surgery?
Authors: Gulla Aistė , Jasaitė Marta , Bilotaitė Laura , Strupas Kestutis
Published: August 2022

Objectives: Mirizzi syndrome (MS) is a condition when an impacted stone in the cystic duct or the Hartmann’s pouch due to its extrinsic compression and concomitant inflammation causes an obstruction of the common bile duct. Laparotomy was the preferred surgical technique to treat this syndrome. However, with advances in technologies, an increasing number of surgeons are starting to choose minimally invasive surgery. The objective of this study is to review existing literature relating to minimally invasive surgery treatment of MS. Methods: PubMed and ClinicalKey were used to search and identify relevant articles since January 2000 to December 2020. The following keywords were applied: Mirizzi syndrome, laparoscopy, minimally invasive. The criteria for exclusion were applied: case reports with less than 2 patients, nonsurgical treatments, and reviews were excluded from this study. Results: Thirty-two articles were identified for analysis, 17 (540 patients in total) of these articles fulfilled the inclusion criteria: 8 retrospective studies, 4 case series, and 5 prospective studies. In the analyzed cohort, 295 patients were treated laparoscopically. Out of 17 articles included in the manuscript, 14 articles provided the information on minimally invasive surgery approach. There were 221 minimally invasive surgeries, out of which 143 (64.7%) were successful, thus according to the type of MS: MS I-175 (79.2%), successful 105 (60%); MS II-40 (18%), successful 32 (80%); MS III-6 (2.7%), successful 6 (100%). The mean conversion rate from laparoscopic to open surgery was 26.2% (range 0–67%), and the median complication rate in seventeen studies was 18.1% (range 0–40%), respectively. The female/male ratio was 1.2:1, and the median age in fifteen studies providing overall data on age was 57.4 years (range 40.1–70.1 years). Conclusions: Current evidence presents that open surgery remains the main treatment for MS. Minimally invasive approaches are feasible, safe, and are associated with short-term recovery, significant differences in the operation time and blood loss during operation. However, minimally invasive approaches are mainly restricted to selected patients with type I MS.
La politización de lo étnico: las culturas indígenas del Abya Yala como base de la superación del capitalismo
Authors: Friggeri Félix Pablo
Published: August 2022

Retomando el concepto de politización de lo étnico propongo en este trabajo a las culturas formadas en la praxis de la lucha por la vida, principalmente a las indígenas del Abya Yala, como base de búsqueda de una propuesta propia de nuestra región de la superación del capitalismo colonial y como inspiradora de una integración contrahegemónica en América Latina y el Caribe. Para esto analizo el proceso de politización de lo étnico en su construcción y contenido desde las praxis y reflexiones de los movimientos indígenas de la región. Relaciono esto con la reflexión de Mariátegui sobre los “elementos de socialismo práctico” presentes en estos pueblos y con el concepto de exterioridad de Dussel. Analizo el carácter de “subtopía” de la propuesta del Buen Vivir como fruto de estos procesos y replanteo la problemática de la integración latinoamericana desde el concepto de Plurinacionalidad y desde una reconceptualización de la Soberanía Popular. Concluyo destacando la relevancia de la propuesta político y epistémica, como aspectos indisolublemente unidos en este proceso, para reformular tanto la praxis política como la creación de conocimiento en nuestra región.
Conferencia de David Choquehuanca Céspedes en el Primer Conversatorio del Curso de Posgrado y Extensión Universitaria Migración, Territorio y Derechos Humanos en tiempos de incertidumbre: una mirada desde los sistemas complejos, 1 de julio de 2020
Authors: Ávila Huidobro Rodrigo
Published: August 2022

Transcripción de la Conferencia de David Choquehuanca Céspedes, dictada el 1 de Julio de 2020 en la Universidad Nacional de Avellaneda, con comentarios y análisis introductorio. El texto brinda elementos sustanciales para pensar el devenir de los estados-nación, la plurinacionalidad, la crisis civilizatoria como signo de la época, la cosmovisión de los pueblos indígenas del continente y sus aportes en la construcción de una forma de vida superadora, la relación de la humanidad con el mundo que nos cobija. Asimismo, pone de relevancia la importancia de tensionar críticamente los saberes académicos con los de los pueblos indígenas, fuertemente comprometidos con los procesos emancipatorios de América Latina, con sus luchas y resistencias. El pensamiento del actual Vicepresidente del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia, su teoría y propuesta política, es la síntesis de distintas trayectorias tanto personales como colectivas, con temporalidades complejas. Por una parte se expresa la experiencia de un dirigente político, que antes de ser funcionario y diplomático ha sido sindicalista, con la particularidad del sindicalismo campesino de Bolivia, que sabe mixturar, entrelazar, las resistencias y las formas de lucha tanto de su fuerte predominancia indígena como de las herramientas político gremiales occidentales. Una conjugación particular, pero que también -y tan bien- expresa esa complejidad de nuestras sociedades latinoamericanas. Finalmente, la exposición recupera con claridad algunos conceptos centrales del pensamiento andino, como categorías de ser y estar en el mundo.
O lugar da cultura na integração regional sul-americana: uma análise do MERCOSUL cultural no contexto do regionalismo pós-liberal
Authors: Graziano Valéria Teixeira , Guariglio Mónica
Published: August 2022

Considerando a conformação, neste início de século XXI, do ciclo progressista latino-americano e do denominado regionalismo pós-liberal, bem como a evolução da política cultural internacional, o artigo aborda os impactos de tais transformações para a integração cultural sul-americana, discutindo os avanços, limites e contradições que marcaram o Mercosul Cultural entre 2003 e 2015. A partir de análise documental e de discussões teóricas relacionadas ao regionalismo, às políticas culturais e ao pensamento descolonial latino-americano, o trabalho discute questões como o discurso sobre a cultura nos âmbitos político-diplomáticos do bloco; o fortalecimento institucional e o financiamento da cultura; o desenvolvimento de projetos culturais regionais; a construção de uma diplomacia cultural regional; e os desafios relacionados à transversalidade da cultura. Embora o Mercosul Cultural tenha avançado, no período analisado, na consolidação de um espaço privilegiado de cooperação cultural regional e de diplomacia cultural, suas conquistas foram limitadas pela baixa institucionalidade da cultura nos âmbitos nacionais e sua não priorização nas agendas políticas dos governos desse período. Desse modo, o trabalho visa contribuir para o debate sobre o lugar da cultura no desenvolvimento regional e sua centralidade para a construção de um projeto de integração latino-americano contra-hegemônico, autônomo e emancipador.
La memoria utópica del Inca Garcilaso
Authors: Rodríguez Edwin Cruz
Published: August 2022

“La memoria utópica del Inca Garcilaso. Comunalismo andino y buen gobierno” é um livro do filósofo colombiano-francês Alfredo Gómez-Muller, publicado em Buenos Aires (Argentina) pela editora Tinta Limón e LOM ediciones, como parte da sua colecção Nociones comunes, em 2021. O trabalho estuda a memória utópica do Inca Garcilaso de la Vega expressa nos Comentarios Reales (1609) e as suas ressonâncias no pensamento dos séculos seguintes na América e na Europa. Esta revisão reconstitui os principais argumentos e contribuições do trabalho
Theorizing the Demise of Greek and Roman Religions
Authors: Brodd Jeffrey
Published: August 2022

Analyzing the demise of religions is rendered considerably more difficult when lack of sufficient evidence causes gaps in historical understanding of the progressions of religions from being clearly alive to apparently no longer existing – an acute problem with regard to most Greek and Roman religions. Drawing on the Ghost Dance religion as a parallel case and presenting by way of example considerations regarding emperor Julian’s attempt to rebuild the Jerusalem temple, this article explores the common challenges of dearth of evidence, the need to argue from silence, and a ‘religion’ as category prone to (at least) the complication of transmutation.
Vestal Virgins Revived
Authors: Undheim Sissel
Published: August 2022

Looking at three examples from 2021 of ‘Vestal rituals’ transmitted on social media, this article revisits some discussions about the reception, afterlife, and ongoing presence of so-called ‘dead religions.’ Focusing on the terms ‘reception’ and ‘afterlife’ as they are presented in two recent works on contemporary Greek polytheism on the one hand and indigenous religion(s) in Sápmi on the other, the overarching aim of the case study is to initiate new reflections on reception and afterlives, and on how these terms tie into notions of death and demise of religion(s).
Ismaili Taʾwīl of Religious Rites: Interpretation of Obligatory Prayer in Jaʿfar b. Manṣūr al-Yaman’s Riḍāʿ fī l-Bāṭin
Authors: Gillon Fârès
Published: August 2022

In what was labelled “exaggerating” Shiʿism (ghuluww) by various Islamic orthodoxies (Twelver Shiʿism, Sunnism, and Fatimid Ismailism), it was commonly held that the Islamic prescriptions had to be interpreted as referring to specific persons (ashkhāṣ)—which sometimes led to antinomianism. Stemming from this tradition, Jaʿfar b. Manṣūr al-Yaman, a tenth-century Fatimid Ismaili author, proposes in his Riḍāʿ fī l-bāṭin an exegesis of the ritual ablutions and the five daily prayers that identifies them with specific individuals and sacred ranks of the daʿwa. This work illustrates how Ismailism developed its distinctiveness by reinterpreting and reshaping classical Shiʿi themes. Jaʿfar’s esoteric interpretation of prayer suggests that the core of early Ismaili doctrine resides in the acknowledgement of the esoteric hierarchy of the daʿwa, as well as in the expectation of the coming Mahdī, while insisting on the necessity of both the esoteric and exoteric aspects of religion.
The Beginnings of Yemeni and Zaydi Studies in Europe: The Eugenio Griffini Archive, Milan
Authors: Sagaria Rossi Valentina , Schmidtke Sabine
Published: August 2022

The arrival of large numbers of Yemeni manuscripts in European libraries towards the end of the nineteenth century and in the early twentieth century was a sensation that was enthusiastically received by the scholarly world. One of the principal reasons for this enthusiastic reception was the upsurge of South Arabian studies in Europe since the first half of the nineteenth century, together with the hope that the new material would fill some of the gaps in the literary sources on the history and geography of southern Arabia, especially during the pre-Islamic period. The most significant such lacuna was the missing volumes 1 through 7 and 9 of al-Hamdānī’s Iklīl. The two most important collections of Yemeni manuscripts that arrived in Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had been gathered by Eduard Glaser and Giuseppe Caprotti, respectively, and their collections were sold to Berlin, London, and Vienna (Glaser) and to Munich, Milan, and the Vatican (Caprotti). The collections included some new material on South Arabian history (including volumes 1, 2, and 6 of the Iklīl), but they also opened up entirely new vistas and laid the foundation for the new discipline of Zaydi studies. Unlike South Arabian studies, the study of Zaydism had a slow start, with initially only a few scholars being interested in this entirely new field. Moreover, the scholarly exploration of the respective subcollections depended on the availability of catalogues. The early history of the Caprotti collection is intimately linked to Eugenio Griffini. Caprotti had dispatched nearly his entire manuscript collection of some 1,600 codices to Griffini, who kept it in his apartment in Milan until 1909, when the collection was donated to the Ambrosiana Library. Griffini was also the first and, for a long time, the only scholar to study the collection and prepare studies as well as catalogues of it. The process of his engagement with the material can be reconstructed on the basis of the Griffini archive, the whereabouts of which were for decades uncertain. This study outlines the discovery of the Griffini archive in the Biblioteca Comunale Centrale Palazzo Sormani in Milan and provides an initial overview of its contents, including Griffini’s epistolary exchanges with some ninety-nine correspondents, his descriptions of some of the Ethiopic manuscripts of the Ambrosiana, and, most importantly, his schedario, containing his extensive notes on all manuscripts of series A of the Caprotti collection. The large corpus of so far unexplored material promises to provide new insights into the network of Islamicists and Arabists at the turn of the twentieth century and the nascent phase of Zaydi studies in Europe.
The Fifth/Eleventh-Century Zaydi Jurist and Theologian al-Muwaffaq bi-llāh al-Jurjānī on the Consensus of the Family of the Prophet: An Editio Princeps of His Masʾala fī anna ijmāʿ ahl al-bayt ḥujja (MS Milan, Ambrosiana, ar. F 29/5, Fols 295v–309v)
Authors: Ansari Hassan , Falahieh Zadeh Ammar Jomah , Schmidtke Sabine
Published: August 2022

The article presents an editio princeps of Masʾala fī anna ijmāʿ ahl al-bayt ḥujja by the fifth/eleventh-century Zaydī al-Muwaffaq bi-llāh al-Jurjānī, author of the K. al-Iḥāṭa fī ʿilm al-kalām and the K. al-Iʿtibār wa-salwat al-ʿārifīn, one of the earliest extant substantial discussions on the consensis of the family of the Prophet among the Zaydis.
Jamāl al-Dīn ʿAlī b. Sulaymān’s Miʿrāj al-salāma and Miṣbāḥ al-ʿirfān: Edition (with Introduction) of Two Early Witnesses to the Incorporation of Avicennian Metaphysics into Imāmī Shiite Kalām
Authors: Ansari Hassan , Wisnovsky Robert
Published: August 2022

This article provides an editio princeps of two short philosophical treatises, Miʿrāj al-salāma wa-minhāj al-karāma and Miṣbāḥ al-ʿirfān wa-miftāḥ al-bayān, by the Imāmī Shiite thinker Jamāl al-Dīn ʿAlī b. Sulaymān al-Baḥrānī (d. ca. 670/1271). ʿAlī b. Sulaymān served to link Ibn Saʿāda and Ibn Maytham, who were fellow scholars from Bahrain and ʿAlī’s teacher and student, respectively. Like them, ʿAlī played an important role in introducing Avicenna’s philosophy to Imāmī Shiite theology.
‘Keywording Taiwan’: Report of the 26th North American Taiwan Studies Association (natsa) Annual Conference, Online, 20–21 May 2021
Authors: Jhang JhuCin Rita , Wu Chee-Hann
Published: August 2022

This report details the origination, organisation, and reflections of the 26th North American Taiwan Studies Association (natsa) 2020/2021 (2020 + 1) conference. The theme—‘Keywording Taiwan’—aims to identify core issues, historical turning points, critical populations, and fundamental theoretical arguments on Taiwan among transregional and interdisciplinary scholarship. We challenged scholars to synthesise decades of literature and, from there, offer cutting-edge and timely research to answer fundamental questions as well as effectively respond to the various injustices during this uncertain time. In this report, we discuss how a ‘keyword’ is not a fixed concept but a restless confrontation from within, as practices of deconstruction and recontextualisation that frame the recurring issues for Taiwan studies. We also discuss how we intentionally structured our conference to be more accessible, inclusive, and interactive. Lastly, we walk through our major reflections, concluding with unfinished conversations that foreshadow the theme of the next natsa conference—‘Taiwan Studies in Application’.
Radio Pictures, Blank Transmissions
Authors: Armand Louis
Published: August 2022

A key aspect of avant-garde practice is the critique of the relation between medium and genre. Following Cage’s chance-procedural experiments, Nam June Paik and Wolf Vostell explored a radical repurposing of medium as technology, transforming TV and radio from sites of broadcast performance to sources of indeterminate electronic sound and image. This in turn fed into a reconception of the verbo-visuo dichotomy as text-effect, or cinemato/graphy, and a parallel conceptualisation of text as sites of transmission. While new media tends towards instantaneous full-immersion virtual reality, mimetic technologies remain haunted by what does not transmit—between sound/image, speech/writing, and in the work of erasure, silence, blankness and noise (all of which acquire the status of aesthetic information). In this relation I propose to examine a piece nominally cast as “cinema”: Derek Jarman’s Blue (1993), a 79-minute poetic meditation in the voices of Jarman, John Quentin, Nigel Terry and Tilda Swinton over a monochrome blue screen (inspired by Yves Klein’s Symphonie Monotone and the tonal quality of IKB). The production of Blue, in the form ostensibly of both a “transmission error” and a “radio picture,” speaks to the idea of invisible cinema. In doing so, Blue harks back to Guy Debord’s anti-cinematic pronouncement ‘there’s no more cinema, cinema’s dead’: a blank cinema broadcasting from beyond the grave.
Taxonomy and phylogeny of the Japanese species of the genus Dasycerus Brongniart (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Dasycerinae) with description of a new species and notes on D. poseidon Hu & Liang
Authors: HASHIZUME TAKUTO , MARUYAMA MUNETOSHI
Published: August 2022

Dasycerus occultus Hashizume & Maruyama, sp. nov. is described and illustrated based on specimens from Japan (Honshu and Kyushu). The holotype of D. japonicus Nakane, 1963 was revisited. The “D. japonicus” illustrated by Löbl & Calame (1996) was found not to be D. japonicus but rather to be D. occultus sp. nov. The discussion also includes D. poseidon Hu & Liang, 2021 from Taiwan. The phylogenetic relationships of this genus from Japan based on mitochondrial DNA sequences are discussed.
New taxonomic and faunistic data on the genus Zodarion Walckenaer, 1826 (Araneae: Zodariidae) in the Balkans, with the descriptions of two new species
Authors: DELTSHEV CHRISTO , NAUMOVA MARIA , MATEVSKI DRAGAN , INDZHOV SIMEON
Published: August 2022

Two new species, Zodarion emilijae sp. n. (♂♀) from North Macedonia and Z. weissi sp. n. (♂♀) from Bulgaria are described and illustrated, and new taxonomic and faunistic data for six species, namely Z. blagoevi Bosmans, 2009, Z. epirense Brignoli, 1984, Z. konradi Bosmans, 2009, Z. rubidum Simon, 1914, Z. scutatum Wunderlich, 1980 and Z. zorba Bosmans, 2009 are presented. Five species are removed from the Bulgarian, the Greek or the North Macedonian checklists as doubtful, erroneous or definitely incorrectly identified records: Zodarion epirense Brignoli, 1984, Z. evvoia Bosmans, 2009, Z. germanicum (C. L. Koch, 1837), Z. graecum (C. L. Koch, 1843) and Z. italicum (Canestrini, 1868).
Review of the genus Schizoturanius Verhoeff, 1931, with the description of a new species from the Altais, Asian Russia (Diplopoda: Polydesmida: Polydesmidae)
Authors: NEFEDIEV PAVEL S.
Published: August 2022

Schizoturanius krugovae sp. nov. is described from the Tigirek State Nature Reserve and its immediate adjacent areas in the Altai Krai, southwestern Siberia, Russia. The new species is diagnosed and described using scanning electron microscopy, compound microscopy, and genetic data. The list of all accepted species of the genus Schizoturanius, notes on their distribution and other short remarks are given. A brief phylogenetic analysis for three Schizoturanius species is provided, and barcoding information (a fragment of the mitochondrial COI nucleotide sequence) of the new species has been deposited in GenBank. A key is presented to all nine species of the genus, and their distribution is mapped.
Scarlet Letters: Rehabilitation Through Transgression Transparency and Personal Narrative Control
Authors: Frey Erin , Bernstein Ethan , Rekenthaler Nick
Published: August 2022

When employees commit transgressions, organizations often use tools of organizational control to prevent them from transgressing again. We investigate whether organizations can use transgression transparency to rehabilitate transgressors. Although making transgressions transparent—which may result in stigmatization or public shaming—is generally assumed to be purely punitive, we show when and how it can foster rehabilitation. We draw on a longitudinal, qualitative dataset of 23 similarly situated transgressors at a military academy that added transparency to traditional punishment by requiring transgressors to wear a pin that signaled their transgression. Data from transgressors and from other organizational members revealed that instead of prompting persistent stigmatization, social awareness of the transgression prompted others’ inquiry, gradually engaging transgressors in a coactive process to develop a mutually acceptable narrative of their transgression through a mechanism we call personal narrative control. For that personal narrative to endure, transgressors needed to exercise self-control and avoid further transgressions, as they did in our study even after the pin was removed, signaling rehabilitation. We induce four contextual conditions for transgression transparency to trigger personal narrative control and theorize how they might generalize to other organizations seeking to rehabilitate transgressors.
Re-conceptualizing triangular coercion in International Relations
Authors: Sobelman Daniel
Published: August 2022

Although coercion literature has traditionally focused on two-actor dyads, coercion in three-actor settings is a prevalent yet understudied strategy in International Relations. Such cases of “triangular coercion” represent a phenomenon whereby a coercer who lacks direct leverage over a resilient target coerces a third party who does possess leverage over the target, and to whom the target is vulnerable, and manipulates it into a clash of interests with the target. By forcing an otherwise uninvolved intermediary to align with the coercer, a coercer can alter the balance of vulnerability vis-à-vis its otherwise resilient target and enhance its susceptibility to coercion, albeit by extension. Existing scholarship tackles triangular coercion from different angles and mostly focuses on actor typology. This article seeks to promote our understanding of this strategy by proposing a conceptual model that distills its logic into the abstract components of vulnerability, resilience, and leverage. To demonstrate the dynamics of triangular coercion, the article draws on three empirical cases: Israel’s failed attempts to force Lebanon to rein in Hezbollah in the 1990s, Nazi Germany’s successful manipulation of Britain and France into coercing Czechoslovakia in 1938, and the Soviet Union’s success at forcing the United States to coerce Israel in 1973.
Analysis of the Financial Costs of a Health Promotion Program for Sexually Exploited Adolescents and Youngsters: The Case of the Vira Vida Program in Brazil
Authors: Crivelaro Rodrigo Campos , da Silva Everton Nunes , Fontes Miguel Barbosa , Rocha Dais Gonçalves
Published: August 2022

The Vira Vida program promotes the health of adolescents and young adults, ages 16 to 24, who have been sexually exploited. It has served more than 3000 individuals in 18 Brazilian states. The objective of this research was to estimate the costs of Vira Vida and compare them with the costs of detention policies for juveniles under 18. This program cost study considers two periods: 2008 to 2012 (Cycle 1) and 2013 to 2014 (Cycle 2). The System S perspective and time horizon for one year were adopted. Direct costs incurred by the National Council of Industry Social Services, which coordinates Vira Vida, and by the Regional Departments (RD), responsible for the direct execution of Vira Vida, were analyzed. The cost of detention measures for adolescents and youngsters under the age of 18 was obtained from the literature. The annual cost per student enrolled in Vira Vida varied between US$ 3754.93 and US$27,244.48, depending on the cycle and the state. Most of the costs of the program were lower than those reported for detention measures for adolescents in Brazilian states. Evidence indicates that health promotion interventions targeting sexually exploited children and adolescents can help their recovery; on the other hand, studies indicate that detention measures do not help adolescents recover.
The classification accuracy and consistency of comparative judgement of writing compared to rubric-based teacher assessment
Authors: Pinot de Moira Anne , Wheadon Christopher , Christodoulou Daisy
Published: August 2022

Writing is generally assessed internationally using rubric-based approaches, but there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that the reliability of such approaches is poor. In contrast, comparative judgement studies suggest that it is possible to assess open ended tasks such as writing with greater reliability. Many previous studies, however, have failed to provide direct comparisons between these approaches as the reliability measures for rubric- and marking-based studies are not comparable with the internal measures of reliability cited by comparative judgement studies. We investigated the classification accuracy and consistency of a rubric-based approach to the grading of writing with a comparative judgement approach. The writing was gathered from 11-year-olds in low stakes settings in England. We present evidence that the comparative judgement approach has twice the classification accuracy of the rubric-based approach and is perfectly viable in terms of its efficiency. We discuss the limitations of the comparisons and consider what a national system for assessing writing based on a comparative judgement approach could look like.
NATO’s Struggle for Intelligence in Afghanistan
Authors: Rietjens Sebastiaan
Published: August 2022

What role did North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the coalition (International Security Assistance Force—ISAF) it led play in the failure of the West in Afghanistan? This essay argues that the ISAF intelligence community’s inability to come to grips with the complex operational environment in Afghanistan contributed to the problem. Using three concepts from the complexity literature, requisite variety, learning, and enactment, I analyze critical flaws in NATO’s approach. ISAF’s weak cross-cultural competence, its inconsistent relationships with international civilian organizations, and its absence of double- and triple-loop learning are identified as key drivers of NATO’s weak intelligence performance.
Bond graph modeling with linear quadratic integral control synthesis of a robotic digit in a human impaired hand for anthropomorphic coordination
Authors: Iqbal Maryam , Imtiaz Junaid , Mahmood Asif
Published: August 2022

The movement coordination of the robotic digit(s) with the central nervous system (CNS) and the natural digit(s) is a complex task that needs to be executed successfully in an anthropomorphic hand. The task is challenging to resolve because of the CNS. We developed a theoretical framework for the biomechanical model of a partially impaired human hand utilizing the bond graph modeling technique by incorporating inertia, muscle, and visco-elastic dynamics. The research presents a partially impaired human hand model with a robotic digit and four natural digits having 21 degrees of freedom. We formulated a linear quadratic Gaussian (LQG) integral control technique for the 21st-order model to regulate the flexion and extension movement of the robotic digit while considering the disturbances. We have simulated the modeling scheme in MATLAB/Simulink. The flexion and extension movement and the angular velocity of the robotic finger are shown to be following all the physiological constraints of a natural finger. The settling time is achieved at 1.6 seconds, with a maximum flexion angle of 0.135 rad. The sensitivity analysis shows that the model is robust against disturbances. The simulation results exhibit the application of this scheme toward upper limb rehabilitation and improvement in prosthetic and exoskeleton designs.
Deploying to Develop Unit Human Capital Resources
Authors: Gallagher Peter T. , Mathieu John E. , Reilly Greg
Published: August 2022

Unit human capital resources (HCRs) are positively associated with unit performance and developing them is vital to sustaining unit performance. Yet, extant research has focused primarily on formal human resource methods of developing individual and group capacities (e.g., training) and given lesser attention to on-the-job mechanisms and processes impacting unit HCRs. We advance a theoretical framework featuring unit deployments, which reflect the formal or informal configuration of existing unit members’ assignments to unit-relevant tasks at a point in time, as a powerful tool for unit HCR development. We first articulate how deployments can enhance unit HCR by increasing members’ HCRs, cultivating members’ social capital resources, and influencing unit emergence enabling states. We then introduce four types of unit HCR portfolios that differ in resource and coordination flexibility and highlight how units can use distinct deployment strategies to cultivate each type of portfolio. We conclude by detailing when each unit HCR portfolio will likely generate the greatest return for units under varying task dynamism and complexity conditions.
Science Estranged: Power and Inequity in Laboratory Life during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Authors: Jeske Melanie
Published: August 2022

In March 2020, academic research laboratories across the world shut down in response to the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic. As labs began to resume work in the weeks and months following the shutdown, the realities of daily life in the lab changed. This article offers an empirical investigation of how COVID-19 disrupted laboratory life and impacted laboratory workers in the United States, drawing on in-depth interviews with biomedical research trainees (postdoctoral researchers and advanced doctoral students) conducted between September 2020 and March 2021. This article demonstrates how laboratory life during the pandemic was marked by emergent stratifications and inequities in access to sufficient lab time, increased stress around productivity, and frustrations with the culture of academic science. I show how the loss of social interaction, and the ensuing lonely scientific struggles, made visible the importance of sociality in science for workers. Finally, I contend that pandemic disruptions not only amplified and exacerbated existing social inequities in lab settings but also resulted in workers’ estrangement from science itself.
Alone with my phone? Examining beliefs about solitude and technology use in adolescence
Authors: Coplan Robert J. , McVarnock Alicia , Hipson Will E. , Bowker Julie C.
Published: August 2022

In this study, we examined how technology impacts adolescents’ perceptions of, and affective responses to solitude, as well as how adolescents’ own motivations for solitude (shyness, affinity for aloneness) were related to these reactions. Participants were N = 437 adolescents (297 girls; Mage = 16.15 years, standard deviation ( SD) = .50) who were presented with a series of hypothetical vignettes asking them to imagine themselves in the context of pure solitude (alone in their room with the door closed), as well as being physically alone but engaged in increasing levels of virtual social engagement, including passive (e.g., watching videos, scrolling, but no direct social engagement), active (e.g., texting), and audio-visual (e.g., Facetime) technology use. Following each vignette, participants reported their perceptions of being alone and positive/negative affective responses. We also measured general motivations for solitude (shyness, affinity for aloneness). Among the results, adolescents perceived themselves as less alone in vignettes depicting increasing virtual social engagement. Affective benefits of increased virtual engagement were also found (e.g., less loneliness/boredom/sadness, greater social connection/contentment). However, these effects were moderated by solitude motivations, with different patterns evident as a function of participant shyness and affinity for aloneness. Findings highlight the importance of considering the nature of adolescents’ technology use when alone, as well as motivations for solitude, when considering links between solitude and well-being.
Investigating distortions in perceptual stability during different self-movements using virtual reality
Authors: Warren Paul A. , Bell Graham , Li Yu
Published: August 2022

Using immersive virtual reality (the HTC Vive Head Mounted Display), we measured both bias and sensitivity when making judgements about the scene stability of a target object during both active (self-propelled) and passive (experimenter-propelled) observer movements. This was repeated in the same group of 16 participants for three different observer-target movement conditions in which the instability of a target was yoked to the movement of the observer. We found that in all movement conditions that the target needed to move with (in the same direction) as the participant to be perceived as scene-stable. Consistent with the presence of additional available information (efference copy) about self-movement during active conditions, biases were smaller and sensitivities to instability were higher in these relative to passive conditions. However, the presence of efference copy was clearly not sufficient to completely eliminate the bias and we suggest that the presence of additional visual information about self-movement is also critical. We found some (albeit limited) evidence for correlation between appropriate metrics across different movement conditions. These results extend previous findings, providing evidence for consistency of biases across different movement types, suggestive of common processing underpinning perceptual stability judgements.
Adequate trials: How the search for a cure shaped leukemia diagnosis
Authors: Levy Moran
Published: August 2022

This article examines the relationship between diagnosis and therapy, focusing on the case of leukemia and cancer chemotherapy in the 1960s. This case, I argue, reinforces the need to study diagnoses from a social-science perspective, because the persistent controversy around leukemia classification was resolved by institutional restructuring introduced through clinical experimentation, rather than by techno-scientific advances. In an attempt to prove that chemical cancer therapy was possible, oncologists replaced the question ‘Is this drug working?’ with the question ‘How can we make this drug work?’ To create the conditions and criteria under which drugs could work, oncologists undertook the reclassification of cancers and patients, producing a new diagnostic style that reversed the roles of diagnosis and therapy. Experts gained and secured the power to classify not by solving existing problems, but by redefining what counts as a problem and what qualifies as a solution. Similarly, therapies can become transformative not only when they ‘work’, but when they work just well enough to mobilize resources and support. Theorizing these displacements, I develop the concept of ‘adequate trials’ in order to capture modes of innovation in which a deep commitment to give new technologies a ‘fair chance’ to succeed (i.e. an ‘adequate trial’) leads experts to redefine the tasks and goals of their field. To further our theoretical understanding of how rigid drug testing becomes malleable and conducive to normative change, I analyze the organizational, scientific, and jurisdictional conditions that gave rise to oncologists’ practical orientations.
Potmarks as a Rationing System on Egyptian Food Producing Sites: Defining Egypt’s Proto-Bureaucracy
Authors: Rampersad Sabrina R.
Published: August 2022

In this multidisciplinary discussion, the author advances the hypothesis that pre-firing potmarks placed externally onto bread moulds constituted a locally regulated rationing or wage payment system throughout Egypt in Late Predynastic and Early Dynastic times. In the absence of both formal writing and a centralized government, the invention of potmarks is seen as an administrative ‘first response’, an adaptive mechanism in the truest Darwinian sense, to meet an urgent need for order and control in a climate of increasing economic complexity as people transitioned from private to public spheres of food production. Furthermore, the distribution of geographically discrete but similar potmark corpora across Egypt suggests the presence of a ‘proto-bureaucracy’ before state formation, with this genre of mark situated at its core. This proto-bureaucracy is seen as inherently different from the bureaucracy of the impending state, dominated instead by elements of an adhocracy, a form of administration based on non-centralized management. The term adhocracy and its tenets, although developed in the modern era for present-day and future restructuring of bureaucracies, permit for the first time a cogent modelling of potmark administration.
The economic returns of decentralisation: Government quality and the role of space
Authors: Rodríguez-Pose Andrés , Muštra Vinko
Published: August 2022

Research on the impact of decentralisation has generally overlooked the fact that the economic returns of transferring powers and resources to subnational tiers of government greatly depend on the quality of the devolved government. Scholarly literature has also neglected that these returns may be similarly affected by the autonomy of neighbouring areas and their government quality. In this paper, we use panel data fixed effects analyses and spatial Durbin econometric models to assess the extent to which the economic returns of political and fiscal decentralisation in the European Union between 2000 and 2015 are mediated by local government quality and that of neighbouring regions. The results suggest that the economic benefits of regional autonomy are greater in regions with a better government quality, while regions with a low quality of government grow less, regardless of their level of decentralisation. The gains of decentralisation mainly accrue through indirect effects, as regions grow more if surrounded by other, more decentralised regions than through their own level of decentralisation. In all cases, local government quality is a powerful driver of growth, irrespective of whether a region is considered individually or in relationship to its neighbours.
Identity Matters: A Social Psychology of Everyday Citizenship
Authors: Hopkins Nick
Published: August 2022

This paper takes as its focus the need for psychologists to take issues of culture seriously. In doing so, it is important that psychologists adopt a critical approach to many widely held and taken-for-granted assumptions about culture and cultural processes. In particular, there is a pressing need to explore the ways in which constructions of culture routinely feature in the marginalisation of minority group members. Using examples drawn from the UK, I explore how cultural diversity can be represented by majority group members to question others’ belonging within the national community. In turn, I consider the implications of this for minority group members’ everyday (informal) experiences of citizenship (e.g. their ability to be heard in discussions about the nation and the challenges it faces). I also consider minority group members’ experiences of such marginalisation and the various ways in which exclusionary constructions of culture and belonging may be contested.
Misreporting in financial statements in a centrally planned economy: The case of Czechoslovak state-owned enterprises in late socialism
Authors: Coufalová Lucie , Mikula Štěpán , Žídek Libor
Published: August 2022

Communist economies of the former Eastern Bloc were driven by systems of central planning. The central plan set detailed goals to be achieved by the state-owned enterprises, which often struggled to meet them and obtain bonuses or avoid the related sanctions. In line with the principal-agent theory, we study the behaviour of managers of the Czechoslovak state-owned enterprises in this specific environment and investigate the possibility of using creative accounting methods and other methods to cover failures in meeting those plans. Statistical analysis based on accounting records from the 1970s and 1980s recovered from state archives indicates that meeting the central plans targets was often achieved through false reporting. This conclusion is further supported by two series of 75 and 80 interviews with former managers of socialist state-owned enterprises. We expect our findings to hold for other centrally planned economies, as managers’ original motivations were distorted by features which were inherent to the centrally planned system itself.
Alcohol Use Before Sexual Violence and Cognitive Appraisals: Differential Associations With Barriers to Help-Seeking
Authors: Brockdorf Alexandra N. , Holland Kathryn J. , Kumar Shaina A. , Jaffe Anna E. , DiLillo David
Published: August 2022

The current study examined two cognitive appraisals—labeling (identifying an unwanted sexual experience as sexual violence) and self-blame—as potential mechanisms between survivor alcohol use before sexual violence and three help-seeking barriers (minimization, negative treatment, and social-emotional barriers) among non-service-seeking sexual violence survivors. Participants were 141 undergraduate women who completed self-report measures. Three parallel mediation models were tested. Survivors who were drinking were more likely to label their victimization as sexual violence and, in turn, perceived fewer minimization and greater social-emotional barriers. Further, survivors who were drinking blamed themselves more and, in turn, perceived greater negative treatment and social-emotional barriers.