bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Synergistic lubrication effects and tribological properties of graphene/oil-based lubricant systems
Authors: Pan Ling , Han Yuqing , Chen Yunhui , Guo Liming
Published: November 2022

Graphene exhibits great potential as an additive to enhance the anti-wear and friction reduction capacity of moving mechanical components in a synergistic mechanism with the base oil. This paper considers the effect of different factors such as the number of base oil molecules, graphene content, normal load, sliding velocity and the presence of graphene. The synergistic mechanism of graphene and base oil is investigated by experiments and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The results show that the friction and wear reduction is due to the formation of the load-supporting graphene layers and sufficient base oil molecules between Fe slabs. Graphene can stably adsorb on the rubbing surfaces lubricated by the base oil, confirming that graphene can form a physical deposition film on rubbing surfaces. Low friction and wear can be achieved with higher sliding velocity and lower load. Furthermore, compared to the sliding velocity, the load significantly affects the mean square displacement of base oil and oleic acid molecules. These outcomes provide a better understanding of the tribological properties of graphene as a lubricant additive.
Numerical analysis for inchworm Monte Carlo method: Sign problem and error growth
Authors: Cai Zhenning , Lu Jianfeng , Yang Siyao
Published: November 2022

We consider the numerical analysis of the inchworm Monte Carlo method, which is proposed recently to tackle the numerical sign problem for open quantum systems. We focus on the growth of the numerical error with respect to the simulation time, for which the inchworm Monte Carlo method shows a flatter curve than the direct application of Monte Carlo method to the classical Dyson series. To better understand the underlying mechanism of the inchworm Monte Carlo method, we distinguish two types of exponential error growth, which are known as the numerical sign problem and the error amplification. The former is due to the fast growth of variance in the stochastic method, which can be observed from the Dyson series, and the latter comes from the evolution of the numerical solution. Our analysis demonstrates that the technique of partial resummation can be considered as a tool to balance these two types of error, and the inchworm Monte Carlo method is a successful case where the numerical sign problem is effectively suppressed by such means. We first demonstrate our idea in the context of ordinary differential equations, and then provide complete analysis for the inchworm Monte Carlo method. Several numerical experiments are carried out to verify our theoretical results.
Digital Posthuman Autobiography
Authors: McNeill Laurie
Published: November 2022

Since the 2010s, auto/biography studies have engaged in productive explorations of its intersections with theories of posthumanism. In unsettling concepts of the human, the agential speaking subject seen as central to autobiographical acts, posthumanism challenges core concerns of auto/biography (and humanism), including identity, agency, ethics, and relationality, and traditional expectations of auto/biographical narrative as focused on a (human) life, often singular and exceptional, chronicling a narrative of progress over time—the figure and product of the liberal humanist subject that posthumanism and autobiography studies have both critiqued. In its place, the posthuman autobiographical subject holds distributed, relativized agency as a member of a network through which it is co-constituted, a network that includes humans and non-humans in unhierarchized relations. Posthuman theories of autobiography examine how such webs of relation might shift understanding of the production and reception of an autobiographer and text.

In digital posthuman autobiography, the auto/biographer is working in multimodal ways, across platforms, shaping and shaped by the affordances of these sites, continually in the process of becoming through dynamic engagement and interaction with the rest of the network. The human-machinic interface of such digital texts and spaces illustrates the rethinking required to account for the relational, networked subjectivity and texts that are evolving within digital platforms and practices. The role of algorithms and datafication—the process through which experiences, knowledge, and lives are turned into data—as corporate, non-consensual co-authors of online auto/biographical texts particularly raises questions about the limits and agency of the human and the auto/biographical, with software not only coaxing, coercing, and coaching certain kinds of self-representation, but also, through the aggregating process of big data, creating its own versions of subjects for its own purposes. Data portraits, data mining, and data doubles are representations based on auto/biographical source texts, but not ones the original subject or their communities have imagined for themselves. However, the affordances and collaborations created by participation in the digital web also foster a networked agency through which individuals-in-relation can testify to and document experience in collective ways, working within and beyond the norms imagined by the corporate and machinic. The potential for posthuman testimony and the proliferation of autobiographical moments or “small data” suggest the potential of digital autobiographical practices to articulate what it means to be a human-in-relation, to be alive in a network.
Maya Literature
Authors: Palacios Rita M.
Published: November 2022

To talk about Maya literature is to talk about a literature that transcends borders though is not unmarked by them. Generally speaking, the Maya region encompasses Southern Mexico, including the Yucatan Peninsula, and Guatemala, extending as far as Honduras and including El Salvador and Belize. The majority of the Maya population resides in Mexico and Guatemala, as well as considerable diasporas in the United States. As a result, the literary production of Maya peoples occurs largely in the two neighboring countries, although the circumstances of the production and dissemination of each literature are quite different given that they respond to the development and continued reinforcement of the modern nation state. It is important to mention the role that the state has played in how Maya literatures have come to be, particularly because state policies directly affect the lives of Maya peoples and, in the case of Mexico specifically, some of these policies are invested in shaping the literature written by Indigenous peoples.

Maya literature is indeed political. While this qualification may not necessarily apply to the themes that authors explore in their work, it certainly does to the promotion, production, and publication of Maya literatures. The reason for this is complex from the perspective of each country’s history, but quite clear-cut from the prism of nationalism and literary history. That is to say, while the notion of a national literature helps uphold a national identity and cement nationalism, Maya literatures for their part challenge more than promote such notions. In general, nationalisms set out to define and coalesce identity around ethnolinguistic markers, and literature is a key in shaping and promoting a sense of nationhood and unity. This results in a drive to homogenize and systemically exclued identities that do not fit the mold. In Mexico and Guatemala, this is further complicated by use of iconography and a reliance on myths from Maya culture to bolster national unity.
Transnational and Queer Diasporic Sexualities
Authors: Alaoui Fatima Zahrae Chrifi
Published: November 2022

Research on transnational and queer diasporic sexualities is still in its infancy but continues to evolve rapidly as understandings of sexuality and queer identity become further complicated. The nuanced and contextual intersections of queer identity as paired with cultural specificity amplify and redefine queerness across space. Pushing back against long-standing notions of what queer looks like in the West, transnational and diasporic queer sexual identities transcend normative definitions of what sexualities can look like outside of rigid binary thinking. Considering three core themes—Western hegemony, transnational and queer diasporic families, and blurring the First/Third World binary—offers the ability to highlight lived experiences to better understand the complexities of the past, present, and future of transnational and queer diasporic sexualities.
Liking and Loving
Authors: Clark Margaret S. , Adkins Chance , Bink Brian
Published: November 2022

There is no single, correct, conceptual definition of liking or of loving, nor is there any one correct way of differentiating them. These terms have been used in a wide variety of ways by lay persons and scholars alike to refer to some type of attraction toward another person—a positive evaluation toward another, positive feelings when around another, and a pull toward being and interacting with another. Both liking and loving can be defined as attitudes, emotions, and motivations. Increasingly and very importantly, scholars also have studied people’s ongoing interactions with close partners and have identified intra- and interpersonal processes that occur within these interactions and which, in turn, influence people’s ongoing attraction to each other (and, sometimes, in the case of romantic partners, their attraction or lack thereof to alternative partners outside the relationship). Determinants of attraction may differ at different stages of relationships.
Ethics in Work and Organizational Psychology
Authors: Lefkowitz Joel
Published: November 2022

Adequately appreciating any area of applied ethics necessarily begins with indispensable foundations from moral philosophy and moral psychology, which are the bases for understanding normative ethical principles. (Otherwise, one could be reduced to the rote memorization of a near-infinite list of “dos and don’ts.”) Personal and social values also are critical as they shape people’s conceptions of ethics and morality. (For example, what constitutes a harm or a wrong? What is the right thing to do?) Traditionally in moral philosophy there have been three ways of answering those normative questions: from deontology (determining what is permissible based on absolutist ethical principles of right and wrong); consequentialism (assessing which alternative is best because it produces the greatest good [or least harm] for all those affected); and virtue theory (being virtuous). Yet, they have all been shown to have weaknesses. For example, what happens when principles are contradictory? What counts as a good? Who determines what is a virtue? And situations sometimes lend themselves more readily to one or another approach, so prudence suggests understanding and being prepared to use all.

A person experiences an ethical problem when faced with a choice that challenges one or more of their ethical principles, with potential significant impact on the well-being of others. Professionals often experience ethical dilemmas, which entail having to make uncomfortable choices—choices one would rather not have to make at all. It helps to be able to recognize the form or structure of the dilemma (e.g., contemplating a self-serving act that will harm others). What makes the situation painful is that the person is motivated to some appreciable degree to “do the right thing” (otherwise they wouldn’t be experiencing a “dilemma”). Professionals such as work and organizational psychologists (WOPs) encounter a variety of ethical challenges in the different venues in which they work—as educators, researchers, practitioners, and administrators. Recent empirical survey data concerning ethical situations experienced and reported by WOPs have become available, illustrating that variety. The process of ethics education and training ought to entail becoming familiar with one or more of the several decision-making models for facilitating ethical reasoning that are available in the professional literature.
Higher Education in Law Enforcement and Racial Disparity in Arrests
Authors: Johnson Thaddeus L. , Johnson Natasha N. , Sepanik Sarah , Lee Maria H.
Published: November 2022

Raising the educational standards for police officers represents a perennial police reform theme in the United States. Among other benefits, proponents herald college degree requirements as key to improving the quality and fairness of policing outcomes, including the chief formal response to crime: arresting suspected lawbreakers. However, the evidence base regarding college education requirements’ consequences for agency arrest behaviors is formative for various reasons, namely, the absence of studies examining whether these policies contribute to racially equitable arrest outcomes.

The presented data show steeper decreases in the racial gap in Black and White people arrested for degree-requiring agencies compared to nondegree-requiring agencies between 2000 and 2016. Albeit encouraging news, the disparity rate for agencies with a college standard remains relatively higher. While what is implied is that college degree requirements alone will not resolve racial disparities in police arrests, it is premature to draw concrete conclusions about this often taken-for-granted association until more rigorous research is conducted.
Crime Control, Community Relations, and Barriers to Community-Based Reforms in Policing
Authors: Petersen Kevin , Rudes Danielle S.
Published: November 2022

Efforts to prevent crime often involve high concentrations of police presence in disadvantaged minority communities. When combined with aggressive enforcement and proactivity, these efforts may negatively affect police–community relations. There is often a tendency to view community relations and crime reduction as discrete goals; however, citizen cooperation is an important component of efficient crime control. Policing strategies that incorporate problem-solving and community involvement show promise in their ability to simultaneously reduce crime and improve community relations. Despite the growing number of police agencies that report implementing these strategies, however, police–community relations have not shown widespread improvement. Organizational frameworks help to identify factors that might lead police agencies to prioritize enforcement and crime control over community relations, as well as the organizational barriers to effective community-based reform. A reliance on efficiency and centralized authority, resource dependency, and symbolic legitimacy all may help to explain police agencies’ lack of effective community-based reform efforts.
Vision and Art
Authors: Conway Bevil R.
Published: November 2022

The premise of the field of vision and art is that studies of visual processing can inform an understanding of visual art and artistic practice, and a close reading of art, art history, and art practice can help generate hypotheses about how vision works. Paraphrasing David Hubel, visual neurobiology can enhance art just as knowledge of bones and muscles has for centuries informed artistic representations of the body. The umbrella of visual art encompasses a bewildering diversity of works. A focus on 2-dimensional artworks provides an introduction to the field. For each of the steps taken by the visual brain to turn retinal images into perception, one can ask how the biology informs one’s understanding of visual art, how visual artists have exploited aspects of how the brain processes visual information, and what the strategies deployed by visual artists reveal about neural mechanisms of vision.
The Neural Basis of Behavioral Sequences in Cortical and Subcortical Circuits
Authors: Conen Katherine E. , Desrochers Theresa M.
Published: November 2022

Sequences of actions and experiences are a central part of daily life in many species. Sequences consist of a set of ordered steps with a distinct beginning and end. They are defined by the serial order and relationships between items, though not necessarily by precise timing intervals. Sequences can be composed from a wide range of elements, including motor actions, perceptual experiences, memories, complex behaviors, or abstract goals. However, despite this variation, different types of sequences may share common features in neural coding. Examining the neural responses that support sequences is important not only for understanding the sequential behavior in daily life but also for investigating the array of diseases and disorders that impact sequential processes and the impact of therapeutics used to treat them. Research into the neural coding of sequences can be organized into the following broad categories: responses to ordinal position, coding of adjacency and inter-item relationships, boundary responses, and gestalt coding (representation of the sequence as a whole). These features of sequence coding have been linked to changes in firing rate patterns and neuronal oscillations across a range of cortical and subcortical brain areas and may be integrated in the lateral prefrontal cortex. Identification of these coding schemes has laid out an outline for understanding how sequences are represented at a neural level. Expanding from this work, future research faces fundamental questions about how these coding schemes are linked together to generate the complex range of sequential processes that influence cognition and behavior across animal species.
A History of African American Teachers in the United States
Authors: Jeffries Rhonda , Williams Toni
Published: November 2022

The trajectory of African American teachers is traced from the establishment of Africans as educators in the United States to their current work as community agents of change. The historical access of education for African Americans is explored, leading to the creation of the role of Black educator for Black people. Significant trailblazers in the profession are highlighted as trendsetters who disrupted concerted efforts to withhold education from Black people, and descendants of this work continued the fight throughout the desegregation era to the present are also discussed. Gendered constructs of African American educators are examined in relationship to cultural norms that have shaped the profession, concluding with a review of the implications of this professional role for Black people and the Black community.
Women and Education in the Middle East and North Africa
Authors: Mojab Shahrzad
Published: November 2022

Education as a right has been integral to a more than a century-long struggle by women for liberation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The region is vast and diverse in its history, culture, politics, language, and religion. Therefore, in the study of women and education in the MENA region, it is imperative to consider particularities of each nation’s different historical and political formation in tandem with universal forces, conditions, and structures that shape the success or failure of women’s access to and participation in education. Historically, the greatest leap forward in women’s education began from the mid-20th century onward. The political, social, and economic ebb and flow of the first two decades of the 21st century is reflected on women’s education. Thus, the analysis of the current conditions should be situated in the context of the past and the provision for the future. It is crucial to make references to earlier periods, especially where relevant, to anticolonial and national liberation struggles as well as modern nation-building and the women’s rights movements.

The empirical evidence aptly demonstrates that in most of the countries in the region, women’s participation in secondary and higher education is surpassing that of men. However, neither their status nor their social mobility have been positively affected. Women’s demand for “bread, work, democracy, and justice” is tied to education in several ways. First, education is a site of social and political struggle. Second, it is an institution integral to the formation and expansion of capitalist imperialism in the MENA region. Last, education is constituted through, not separated from, economic and political relations. The absence of some themes in the study of women and education reflects this structural predicament. Topics less studied are women as teachers and educators; women and teachers’ union; women and religious education and seminaries; women and the missionary schools; women in vocational education; women and the study abroad programs; girls in early childhood education; women and mother tongue education; women and the education of minorities; women and continuing education; women and academic freedom; and women and securitization of education. To study these themes also requires a range of critical methodological approaches. Some examples are ethnographical studies of classrooms, institutional ethnographies of teachers’ unions, analysis of memoirs of teachers and students, and critical ethnography of students’ movements. The proposed theoretical and methodological renewal is to contest the tendency in the study of education in the MENA region that renders patriarchal state and capitalism invisible.
Dialogic Education and Jacques Rancière
Authors: Carter Don , Martin Gregory
Published: November 2022

Collectively, terms such as dialogic education and dialogic teaching are used both interchangeably and pervasively in education contexts. No single agreed-upon definition exists for dialogic or combinations of terms such as dialogic instruction and dialogic pedagogy. However, such terms are inclusive of a desire to promote meaningful classroom dialogue where students learn to reason, discuss, argue, and explain; to develop higher order thinking skills; and to transform the world around them. Importantly, dialogue as a type of exchange between individuals or groups draws upon and is expressed through the rich legacies of numerous cultures. For example, literature points to diverse texts and traditions in India and China, continuing cultural practices of “yarning” and “talking circles” in First Nations contexts, the dialogues of Plato and Socrates, as well as more contemporary models in the Western tradition. Unfortunately, Western models of dialogue enjoy a dominance that has marginalized and eroded the value of “other” cultural traditions as well as the diverse ontologies and epistemologies that give rise to them. Under this set of circumstances, Western models of dialogue have been complicit with Eurocentrism, which may also present itself in the form of paternalism within the context of teacher and student relationships. As a counterpoint, the work of the French philosopher Jacques Rancière has been drawn upon to disrupt the logic of Western models of education, including those that claim to be critical or “emancipatory.” Rancière’s approach represents a departure from normative conceptions of dialogue because it promotes the presupposition of equality between the student and teacher. In Rancière’s conception of education, the elevation of student to co-learner is reinforced by both the teacher’s and the student’s focus on an external artifact—a book or text, for example—which provides the intellectual stimulus for student investigation and dilutes the teacher’s traditional authority as the “master.” In this way, Rancière is able to complement the aims and features of dialogic education and extend it by casting the student as the intellectual equal of the teacher.
Language Planning and Education in Asia
Authors: Hamid M. Obaidul , Ali Md Maksud
Published: November 2022

The relationship between language planning and education is described by terms such as language in education planning (LEP), which is a subtype of language policy and planning (LPP). Although LEP is limited in scope because of its association with education only, it has attained special significance because the broader societal language policies are usually enacted through the mechanism of LEP. A survey of LEP in theoretical and empirical terms is reported. Theoretically, the examination of the nature, context, purpose, and process of LEP with reference to a framework for policy translation is followed by a discussion of various directions of research in LPP and LEP to provide an understanding of what questions have driven the field, and what theoretical and methodological resources have been deployed for research. The empirical examination focuses on language in education policy in Asia to provide an understanding of what languages have been prioritized, what types of language programs have been implemented, what linguistic perspectives have underpinned those languages and programs, and what linguistic and social outcomes have been reported for this linguistically and culturally diverse region in the world. The review of selective studies shows that LEP in Asia has prioritized national language and English, giving limited attention to local minority languages. Although there is a growing recognition of linguistic diversity and multilingualism across the world, Asia seems to be still dominated by monolingual ideologies as reflected in the language programs. The continued dominance of English, which is brought to schools and higher education institutions as a language subject and/or a medium of instruction, is another observation. Language testing, which works as de facto language policy, also endorses the hegemony of English given its perceived instrumental value as a global lingua franca in a neoliberal world. An overview of where LEP with reference to Asia currently stands and how it may evolve in the future marks the conclusion.
Commercial Structures of Ancient Central Asia
Authors: Liu Xinru
Published: November 2022

Transactions between ancient communities across the varied ecological zones of Central Asia produced a complex commercial structure. Pastoral nomads on the steppe and farmers in the oases traded to supplement their livelihoods. Domestication of horses on the Eurasian steppe around four thousand years ago was a driving force stimulating interactions between the horse riders and settled farmers. Conflicts between horse-riding nomadic powers on the steppe and Chinese empires initiated the silk-horse treaty trade, which lasted until the end of the Tang Dynasty. Domestication of camels around 3000 bce enabled transportation across deserts and thus linked the oases to one another and to the outside world. Especially after the invention of a new saddle for the Bactrian (two-humped) camel, the caravan trade flourished as the major means of commercial interchange in the Central Asian deserts during the 1st millennium ce. Sogdian city states around the Syr and Amu Rivers prospered through farming, and the Sogdians became the agents of trade among Chinese empires, Persian empires, South Asian states, and various Turkic empires on the steppe. After the Islamic conquest of Central Asia, the Sogdians gradually submitted to Islamic rule, transforming themselves into Muslim traders and continuing to play an essential role in linking Central Asia to the wider Eurasian commercial world. Means of transportation and means of communication provided the infrastructure for trade. Governments and major trading communities such as the Sogdians were active in building trading networks, and religious movements such as the spread of Buddhism facilitated the formation of commercial networks.
Youth in South Africa’s Bantustans
Authors: Heffernan Anne
Published: November 2022

During the second half of the 20th century, South Africa was both literally and figuratively divided by the apartheid state’s “homeland” policy, which created ten ethnic reserves scattered across the country. These reserves, termed “homelands” by the state but renamed “Bantustans” by those critical of the racial balkanization of South Africa, were designed to segregate the country’s black population in rural areas. Reserves were founded on the basis of ethnonationalist ideals and in some cases were granted a form of quasi-independence, as a way to displace black South Africans’ claims to citizenship of the Republic of South Africa onto the Bantustans. Between the 1960s and 1990s these spaces played an integral role in South Africa’s own history; they were particularly influential for young people who came of age and were educated in Bantustan institutions. Circulation between cities and the Bantustans was a common feature of life in late-20th-century South Africa, and it was a key component of political mobilization. After the end of political apartheid and into the 21st century, Bantustans have continued to shape the lives of some young South Africans, even though they no longer formally exist.
Jewish Experience in American Cities
Authors: Brinkmann Tobias
Published: November 2022

The history of Jewish settlement and mobility in colonial America and the United States is inextricably tied to the rise of cities. Since the earliest days of European settlement Jews have embraced American cities and profoundly shaped their economic fortunes, cultural life, and politics. During the late 19th century several expanding urban centers, above all New York City, attracted huge Jewish settlement concentrations. Concerns that Jewish life would quickly fade in the industrial city were misplaced. After World War II most American Jews left densely settled neighborhoods for the suburbs and Sun Belt cities. In the early 21st century most metropolitan areas in the United States are home to a wide range of loosely linked Jewish religious congregations and secular associations. Greater New York remains the preeminent center of American Jewish life.
Credit Reporting and the History of Commercial Surveillance in America
Authors: Lauer Josh
Published: November 2022

The first credit reporting organizations emerged in the United States during the 19th century to address problems of risk and uncertainty in an expanding market economy. Early credit reporting agencies assisted merchant lenders by collecting and centralizing information about the business activities and reputations of unknown borrowers throughout the country. These agencies quickly evolved into commercial surveillance networks, amassing huge archives of personal information about American citizens and developing credit rating systems to rank them. Shortly after the Civil War, separate credit reporting organizations devoted to monitoring consumers, rather than businesspeople, also began to emerge to assist credit-granting retailers. By the early 20th century, hundreds of local credit bureaus dissected the personal affairs of American consumers, forming the genesis of a national consumer credit surveillance infrastructure.

The history of American credit reporting reveals fundamental links between the development of modern capitalism and contemporary surveillance society. These connections became increasingly apparent during the late 20th century as technological advances in computing and networked communication fueled the growth of new information industries, raising concerns about privacy and discrimination. These connections and concerns, however, are not new. They can be traced to 19th-century credit reporting organizations, which turned personal information into a commodity and converted individual biographies into impersonal financial profiles and risk metrics. As these disembodied identities and metrics became authoritative representations of one’s reputation and worth, they exerted real effects on one’s economic life chances and social legitimacy. While drawing attention to capitalism’s historical twin, surveillance, the history of credit reporting illuminates the origins of surveillance-based business models that became ascendant during the 21st century.
Visual Arts: Christian Visual Art
Authors: Joynes Christine E.
Published: November 2022

Defining Christian visual art from the Renaissance to the present is a task fraught with difficulty.

The diversity among Christian groups to emerge makes generalizations impossible, but common themes can be compared and contrasted to shed light on differing beliefs and practices. Widely acclaimed examples of Christian visual art highlight its role in contemplating the divine and offering pedagogical insights. It also functions to critique cultural attitudes and shape identity formation. Despite the decline in religious belief, Christianity continues to inform contemporary works of art in both ecclesial and non-ecclesial settings.
Communist Parties of Central America
Authors: Molina Iván
Published: November 2022

Throughout the 20th century, Central America experienced two key waves of communist-party formation. The first wave lasted from 1923 to 1931 and the second from 1949 to 1954. The first-wave parties actively participated in four fundamental historical processes: in El Salvador, in the rebellion of 1932; and in Costa Rica, in the banana strike of 1934, in the reforms of 1940 to 1943, and in the civil war of 1948. The second-wave parties participated decisively in the radicalization of the Guatemalan social reforms (1951–1954) and in the 1954 Honduran banana strike. These parties had a differentiated impact on Central American societies. In Costa Rica and Panama, the communists promoted social changes whose success worked against the communists themselves. In Belize, an active Labor party prevented a communist party from developing there. In Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, repression neutralized the role that communist parties could play as institutional modernizers. In the mid-1940s, the military assumed this modernizing role: in Guatemala, with the collaboration of the communists; and in El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, against the communists. The most radical of these reformist experiences was the Guatemalan, which ended in 1954 due to a US-backed coup. In the other countries, the military endorsed socially limited reforms without political democratization. In this context, the communist parties began to be displaced by guerrilla movements from 1959 to 1963. In Honduras, the military managed to stop this displacement in the early 1960s through broader reformist policies, but the guerrillas in the other countries led a successful revolution in Nicaragua (1979), fought lengthy civil wars in El Salvador and Guatemala, and turned Central America into one of the main battlefields of the Cold War in the 1980s. Beginning in the 1990s, these guerrilla movements became political parties, electorally strong in El Salvador and Nicaragua, and marginal in Guatemala, but different from the communist parties that preceded them. At the beginning of the 21st century, the communist parties that still exist in Central America barely maintain a presence on Facebook.
History of the Sciences in Argentina: From Paleontologists to Psychiatrists, 1850s to 1910s
Authors: Dimas Carlos S.
Published: November 2022

Following independence in the early 19th century Argentina went through decades of internal political and social turmoil. During this time the sciences traversed a dormant period and operated at the amateur level, such as through collectors and hobbyists. Beginning in the 1850s and continuing through the 1860s, many of Argentina’s internal problems eroded. The newly consolidated state undertook a process of extending its influence throughout the nation and fostering a closer and collaborative association with the nation’s interior to foster national unity. Under the banner of ‘civilization, order, and progress’, ruling liberal elites looked for ways to herald social and economic development. The sciences, through practice and institutionalized places, played a critical role for the state. By the beginning of the 20th century, the state had invested in scientific ventures into Patagonia and other areas of the nation to collect and catalogue materials, such as fossils and plants, and had supported the construction of museums to display scientific collections to the public as a means to develop a national identity. Beyond museums and naturalists, the state financed the maturation of the medical sciences to respond to the waves of epidemic diseases that assaulted the nation and the numerous regional endemic diseases that elites presented as evidence of underdevelopment, such as malaria in the northwest and recurrent cholera and smallpox outbreaks throughout the nation. Fields such as meteorology and engineering provided the physical infrastructure to further integrate the nation, through railroads, the standardization of national time, and a space for local Argentine scientific actors to establish national and international careers. With the increased professionalization of numerous scientific fields, the bond between the state and scientists matured. Many used this as a platform to enter into politics, such as Eduardo Wilde, hygienist and Minister of the Interior. Others provided their services to the state to form public policy, as happened for example with the work of psychiatrists, criminologists, engineers, and hygienists. Collectively, these fields demonstrated that the sciences witnessed significant growth into the first quarter of the 20th century.
Evolution of the International Climate Change Policy and Processes: UNFCCC to Paris Agreement
Authors: Naser Mostafa Mahmud , Pearce Prafula
Published: November 2022

Evolution of international climate change policy and processes commenced in 1990 with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which made the first global attempt to provide an intergovernmental platform for addressing the effects of climate change. Since then, major advances in the international dialog occurred from 1995 to 2004 during the Kyoto Protocol. However, the Kyoto Protocol outcome was not considered a major success in terms of reducing global emissions, although it succeeded in advancing global market-based flexible mitigation mechanisms, such as emissions trading, joint implementation, and the clean development mechanism. A turnaround in the global approach occurred with the Paris Agreement in 2015, which represented a major turning point in the climate debate, with a bottom-up approach allowing states to set their own emission targets. In addition, the Paris Agreement was the catalyst for formation of bodies and institutions that promote negotiated climate change themes and has permitted countries to work together to share direct practical approaches for tackling climate change. The success of the Paris Agreement can be seen as more countries commit to nationally determined contribution targets. In addition, the practical implication of the bottom-up approach for institutional investors and corporate engagement is evident from the increase in the number of global climate change litigation cases brought against corporations and financial institutions that breach climate change obligations. Going forward, some of the climate change negotiation issues of concern that have yet to be resolved include the differences in contributions required by developed nations as opposed to developing nations, sometimes referred to as the North–South divide in climate change negotiations, the issue of loss and damage associated with climate change events, such as tropical cyclones and storms, and how to account for non-economic loss and damage caused by climate change events.
Stateless Regionalism and Corporate Power: Willa Cather’s Public Relations Novel
Authors: Siraganian Lisa
Published: November 2022

This article explores American novelists’ focus on towns or counties (such as Sweet Water, Eatonville, Winesburg, Yoknapatawpha) whether real or imagined, rather than states, and what that might teach us about the novel’s understanding of political totality and democratic action. Novels about towns or counties have been typically conceptualized with the discourse of regionalism, yet that has not led to a literary critical discussion of the federalist system of individual states joined in and as one nation, and how capitalist and corporate power impacts that totality. Focusing on Willa Cather’s novel A Lost Lady (1923), this article develops the notion of “stateless regionalism.” Cather’s novel portrays a political jurisdiction’s complete subsumption by the railroad corporation. Expanding on the town’s fate, the novel portrays the danger of the corporate form—with its attendant incentives, values, and limitations—as it dominates other social, democratic, and political institutions, including municipal town life and, eventually, characters’ sense of self.Cather thus offers us stateless regionalism: the realistic feeling of a political world that does not really function like a political totality at all.
Science from the heart
Authors: Mandhai Soheb
Published: November 2022

Soheb Mandhai shares some exemplars from an NAM session that explored the potential of an art-based outreach for astronomy.
Reach out, touch space
Authors: Mehta Tishtrya , McDonald Catriona , Nealon Bec
Published: November 2022

A quick look at the stellar week of outreach activitites that formed part of NAM2022
RAS Specialist Discussion Meeting Report
Authors: Elsden Tom , James Matthew K , Sandhu Jasmine K , Watt Clare
Published: November 2022

Report on ‘Planetary Ultra-Low Frequency Waves – Theory, Modelling and Observations’
Heidi Thiemann: Space Skills Alliance
Authors: Thiemann Heidi
Published: November 2022

As Spaceport Cornwall takes off, Heidi Thiemann talks to Sue Bowler about her work in the space industry in Cornwall and across Europe
Which plumage patches provide information about condition and success in a female fairy-wren?
Authors: Nolazco Sergio , Delhey Kaspar , Fan Marie , Hall Michelle L , Kingma Sjouke A , Roast Michael J , Teunissen Niki , Peters Anne
Published: November 2022

Recent evidence suggests that female ornaments can commonly act as signals. However, how signaling functions might be affected by the tendency for reduced ornament elaboration in relation to males is less well-understood. We address this in mutually ornamented purple-crowned fairy-wrens. We investigated putatively ornamental (tail, ear coverts, crown) and non-ornamental (throat, back) plumage patches in females and compared our findings to previous studies in males. Both sexes have brown backs, buff-white throats, and turquoise-blue tails (bluer in males), while ear coverts are rufous in females and black in males. Both sexes also have a seasonal crown (slate-gray in females, black-and-purple in males). Dominant (breeder) females expressed more complete and grayer (more ornamented) crowns, although variation in coloration should not be discriminable by individuals. Unexpectedly, subordinates showed more colorful (saturated) rufous ear coverts, which should be discriminable. Condition-dependence was only evident for crown completeness (% slate-gray cover). Females with more reddish-brown backs were more reproductively successful. Variation in plumage characteristics did not explain differential allocation by mates or chances of gaining dominance. Our outcomes were not entirely consistent with findings in males. The most notable disparity was for the crown, a signal used in male-male competition that in females seems to be expressed as an incomplete version of the male crown that is not associated with fitness benefits. Our study shows that in a species, multiple traits can vary in their information content and that female ornaments can sometimes be less informative than in males, even those that are produced seasonally.
IMMerge: merging imputation data at scale
Authors: Zhu Wanying , Chen Hung-Hsin , Petty Alexander S , Petty Lauren E , Polikowsky Hannah G , Gamazon Eric R , Below Jennifer E , Highland Heather M
Published: November 2022

Genomic data are often processed in batches and analyzed together to save time. However, it is challenging to combine multiple large VCFs and properly handle imputation quality and missing variants due to the limitations of available tools. To address these concerns, we developed IMMerge, a Python-based tool that takes advantage of multiprocessing to reduce running time. For the first time in a publicly available tool, imputation quality scores are correctly combined with Fisher’s z transformation.

Availability and implementation

IMMerge is an open-source project under MIT license. Source code and user manual are available at https://github.com/belowlab/IMMerge.
MPC2variants disrupt mitochondrial pyruvate metabolism and cause an early-onset mitochondriopathy
Authors: Pujol Claire , Lebigot Elise , Gaignard Pauline , Galai Said , Kraoua Ichraf , Bault Jean-Philippe , Dard Rodolphe , Youssef-Turki Ilhem Ben , Omar Souheil , Boutron Audrey , Wai Timothy , Slama Abdelhamid
Published: November 2022

Pyruvate is an essential metabolite produced by glycolysis in the cytosol and must be transported across the inner mitochondrial membrane into the mitochondrial matrix, where it is oxidized to fuel mitochondrial respiration. Pyruvate import is performed by the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier (MPC), a hetero-oligomeric complex composed by interdependent subunits MPC1 and MPC2. Pathogenic variants in the MPC1 gene disrupt mitochondrial pyruvate uptake and oxidation and cause autosomal-recessive early-onset neurological dysfunction in humans. The present work describes the first pathogenic variants in MPC2 associated with human disease in four patients from two unrelated families. In the first family, patients presented with antenatal developmental abnormalities and harboured a homozygous c.148T>C (p.Trp50Arg) variant. In the second family, patients that presented with infantile encephalopathy carried a missense c.2T>G (p.Met1?) variant disrupting the initiation codon. Patient-derived skin fibroblasts exhibit decreased pyruvate-driven oxygen consumption rates with normal activities of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex and mitochondrial respiratory chain and no defects in mitochondrial content or morphology. Re-expression of wild-type MPC2 restored pyruvate-dependent respiration rates in patient-derived fibroblasts.

The discovery of pathogenic variants in MPC2 therefore broadens the clinical and genetic landscape associated with inborn errors in pyruvate metabolism.
Considerations for the Use of Long-Acting and Extended-Release Agents During Pregnancy and Lactation
Authors: Olagunju Adeniyi , Mathad Jyoti , Eke Ahizechukwu , Delaney-Moretlwe Sinead , Lockman Shahin
Published: November 2022

Long-acting agents hold significant promise for treating and preventing common illnesses, including infections. Pharmacokinetic and safety data during pregnancy and lactation are often unavailable for new drugs; these data are vital to facilitate optimal drug use by pregnant and lactating women and women who may conceive. In this commentary, we summarize the circumstances in which pregnant and lactating women are likely to use and benefit from long-acting agents. We focus on long-acting formulations of small molecules (rather than biologics such as monoclonal antibodies) and on several infections of global importance (human immunodeficiency virus, tuberculosis, malaria, and hepatitis C). We discuss pregnancy pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic and potential safety and efficacy considerations pertaining to the use of long-acting agents in pregnancy and lactation. Finally, we summarize existing preclinical and pregnancy pharmacokinetic data that are available (or expected in the near future) for several agents that are under development or approved, and how key research gaps may be addressed.
An Internet of Internets
Authors: Runciman Brian
Published: November 2022

From its libertarian idealistic roots in the 1960s the internet has evolved in unexpected ways. Author Kieron O’Hara, an Emeritus Fellow at Southampton University, speaks to Brian Runciman MBCS about how it may yet develop.
Changing How We Define Membership
Authors: Porter Holly
Published: November 2022

It’s time for a philosophical shift, says Holly Porter, BCS Membership Director, as she explores how and why BCS membership grades are evolving.
Leadership
Authors: Hall Jon
Published: November 2022

Jon G Hall CITP FBCS explores his relationship with leadership.
Turning Up the Heat: 2022’s Biggest Hacks
Authors: O'Connor Patrick
Published: November 2022

Patrick O’Connor CISSP MBSC CEH takes a look at significant security incidents in 2022 so far: some new enemies, some new weaknesses but mostly the usual suspects.