bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Driving an electrolyte through a corrugated nanopore
Authors: Malgaretti Paolo , Janssen Mathijs , Pagonabarraga Ignacio , Rubi J. Miguel
Published: August 2019

We characterize the dynamics of a z − z electrolyte embedded in a varying-section channel. In the linear response regime, by means of suitable approximations, we derive the Onsager matrix associated with externally enforced gradients in electrostatic potential, chemical potential, and pressure, for both dielectric and conducting channel walls. We show here that the linear transport coefficients are particularly sensitive to the geometry and the conductive properties of the channel walls when the Debye length is comparable to the channel width. In this regime, we found that one pair of off-diagonal Onsager matrix elements increases with the corrugation of the channel transport, in contrast to all other elements which are either unaffected by or decrease with increasing corrugation. Our results have a possible impact on the design of blue-energy devices as well as on the understanding of biological ion channels through membranes.
Toward the evaluation of intersystem crossing rates with variational relativistic methods
Authors: Valentine Andrew J. S. , Li Xiaosong
Published: August 2019

The change in electronic state from one spin multiplicity to another, known as intersystem crossing, occurs in molecules via the relativistic phenomenon of spin-orbit coupling. Current means of estimating intersystem crossing rates rely on the perturbative evaluation of spin-orbit coupling effects. This perturbative approach, valid in lighter atoms where spin-orbit coupling is weaker, is expected to break down for heavier elements where relativistic effects become dominant. Methods which incorporate spin-orbit effects variationally, such as the exact-two-component (X2C) method, will be necessary to treat this strong-coupling regime. We present a novel procedure which produces a diabatic basis of spin-pure electronic states coupled by spin-orbit terms, generated from fully variational relativistic calculations. This method is implemented within X2C using time-dependent density-functional theory and is compared to results from a perturbative relativistic study in the weak spin-orbit coupling regime. Additional calculations on a more strongly spin-orbit-coupled [UO2Cl4]2− complex further illustrate the strengths of this method. This procedure will be valuable in the estimation of intersystem crossing rates within strongly spin-coupled species.
Prediction of amyloid aggregation rates by machine learning and feature selection
Authors: Yang Wuyue , Tan Pengzhen , Fu Xianjun , Hong Liu
Published: August 2019

A novel data-based machine learning algorithm for predicting amyloid aggregation rates is reported in this paper. Based on a highly nonlinear projection from 16 intrinsic features of a protein and 4 extrinsic features of the environment to the protein aggregation rate, a feedforward fully connected neural network (FCN) with one hidden layer is trained on a dataset composed of 21 different kinds of amyloid proteins and tested on 4 rest proteins. FCN shows a much better performance than traditional algorithms, such as multivariable linear regression and support vector regression, with an average accuracy higher than 90%. Furthermore, by the correlation analysis and the principal component analysis, seven key features, folding energy, HP patterns for helix, sheet and helices cross membrane, pH, ionic strength, and protein concentration, are shown to constitute a minimum feature set for characterizing the amyloid aggregation kinetics.
Radial current and rotation profile tailoring in highly ionized linear plasma devices
Authors: Kolmes E. J. , Ochs I. E. , Mlodik M. E. , Rax J.-M. , Gueroult R. , Fisch N. J.
Published: August 2019

In a rotating magnetized plasma cylinder with shear, cross field current can arise from inertial mechanisms and from the cross field viscosity. Considering these mechanisms, it is possible to calculate the irreducible radial current draw in a cylindrical geometry as a function of the rotation frequency. The resulting expressions raise novel possibilities for tailoring the electric field profile by controlling the density and temperature profiles of a plasma.
Multiscale investigation of Kolmogorov flow: From microscopic molecular motions to macroscopic coherent structures
Authors: Zhang Jun , Tian Peng , Yao Siqi , Fei Fei
Published: August 2019

It is extremely expensive to study turbulence using conventional molecular simulation methods such as direct simulation Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics methods, as the molecular scales and the turbulent characteristic scales are significantly separated. To bridge this gap, we employ a particle Fokker-Planck method, namely, the Langevin dynamics simulation method, to study two-dimensional Kolmogorov flow, which is induced by a spatially periodic external force in an unbounded domain. Our simulation results predict that when the Reynolds number (Re) exceeds the critical value, a sequence of bifurcations takes place in the flow as the Reynolds number increases, forming a variety of flow patterns. Correspondingly, the effective diffusion coefficient is enhanced due to convection. Two main regimes of the flow have been observed: the small-scale cellular structure regime (Rec < Re < 8Rec), and the large-scale coherent structure regime (Re > 8Rec). We demonstrate that Langevin dynamics can capture the double kinetic-energy cascade when the large-scale structure is formed in two-dimensional turbulence: the inverse energy cascade has a scaling law of k−4 due to energy condensation in the large-scale structures, while the direct energy cascade has an exponential decay corresponding to the dissipation mechanism. This work provides strong evidence that Langevin dynamics is a promising multiscale tool to study turbulence from molecular motions to large-scale coherent structures.
Making waves: Radiation damping in metallic nanostructures
Authors: Devkota Tuphan , Brown Brendan S. , Beane Gary , Yu Kuai , Hartland Gregory V.
Published: August 2019

Metal nanostructures display several types of resonances. In the visible and near-IR spectral regions, there are localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) that involve the coherent oscillation of the conduction electrons. Extended metal nanostructures, such as nanowires or nanoplates, also exhibit propagating surface plasmon polaritons (PSPPs), which are motions of the electrons at the surface of the structure that have a well-defined momentum. In addition, the vibrational normal modes of metal nanostructures give rise to low frequency resonances in the gigahertz to terahertz range. These different types of motions/resonances suffer energy losses from internal effects and from interactions with the environment. The goal of this perspective is to describe the part of the energy relaxation process due to the environment. Even though the plasmon resonances and acoustic vibrational modes arise from very different physics, it turns out that environmental damping is dominated by radiation of waves. The way the rates for radiation damping depend on the size of the nanostructure and the properties of the environment will be discussed for the different processes. For example, it is well known that for LSPRs, the rate of radiation damping increases with particle size. However, the radiation damping rate decreases with increasing dimensions for PSPPs and for the acoustic vibrational modes.
Multiplexed protein force spectroscopy reveals equilibrium protein folding dynamics and the low-force response of von Willebrand factor
Authors: Löf Achim , Walker Philipp U. , Sedlak Steffen M. , Gruber Sophia , Obser Tobias , Brehm Maria A. , Benoit Martin , Lipfert Jan
Published: August 2019

Significance

The physiological function of proteins is often critically regulated by mechanical forces acting on them. Single-molecule manipulation techniques such as atomic force microscopy or optical tweezers have enabled unprecedented insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying such force regulation. Current limitations include the resolution at low forces and low throughput. We here introduce a versatile, modular approach for force measurements on proteins in magnetic tweezers that allows for probing dozens of single molecules in parallel, in a wide force range including very low forces <1 pN. We demonstrate the utility of this assay by elucidating regulatory low-force transitions within von Willebrand factor, a vascular protein that is activated for its critical role in hemostasis by hydrodynamic forces in the bloodstream.
Bioluminescence chemistry of fireworm
Odontosyllis
Authors: Kotlobay Alexey A. , Dubinnyi Maxim A. , Purtov Konstantin V. , Guglya Elena B. , Rodionova Natalja S. , Petushkov Valentin N. , Bolt Yaroslav V. , Kublitski Vadim S. , Kaskova Zinaida M. , Ziganshin Rustam H. , Nelyubina Yulia V. , Dorovatovskii Pavel V. , Eliseev Igor E. , Branchini Bruce R. , Bourenkov Gleb , Ivanov Igor A. , Oba Yuichi , Yampolsky Ilia V. , Tsarkova Aleksandra S.
Published: August 2019

Marine polychaetes
Odontosyllis undecimdonta
, commonly known as fireworms, emit bright blue-green bioluminescence. Until the recent identification of the
Odontosyllis
luciferase enzyme, little progress had been made toward characterizing the key components of this bioluminescence system. Here we present the biomolecular mechanisms of enzymatic (leading to light emission) and nonenzymatic (dark) oxidation pathways of newly described
O. undecimdonta
luciferin. Spectral studies, including 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and X-ray diffraction, of isolated substances allowed us to characterize the luciferin as an unusual tricyclic sulfur-containing heterocycle.
Odontosyllis
luciferin does not share structural similarity with any other known luciferins. The structures of the
Odontosyllis
bioluminescent system’s low molecular weight components have enabled us to propose chemical transformation pathways for the enzymatic and nonspecific oxidation of luciferin.
Spatial and temporal regulation of the endoproteolytic activity of the SPS-sensor–controlled Ssy5 signaling protease
Authors: Martins António , Ring Andreas , Omnus Deike J. , Heessen Stijn , Pfirrmann Thorsten , Ljungdahl Per O.
Published: August 2019

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae Ssy5 signaling protease is a core component of the plasma membrane (PM)–localized SPS (Ssy1-Ptr3-Ssy5) sensor . In response to extracellular amino acids, the SPS-sensor orchestrates the proteasomal degradation of the inhibitory Ssy5 prodomain. The unfettered catalytic (Cat)-domain cleaves latent transcription factors Stp1 and Stp2, freeing them from negative N-terminal regulatory domains. By studying the spatial and temporal constraints affecting the unfettered Cat-domain, we found that it can cleave substrates not associated with the PM; the Cat-domain efficiently cleaves Stp1 even when fused to the carboxy terminus of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane protein Shr3. The amino acid–induced cleavage of this synthetic membrane–anchored substrate occurs in a Δtether strain lacking ER–PM junctions. We report that the bulk of the Cat-domain is soluble, exhibits a disperse intracellular distribution, and is subject to ubiquitylation. Cat-domain ubiquitylation is dependent on Ptr3 and the integral PM casein kinase I (Yck1/2). Time-course experiments reveal that the non- and ubiquitylated forms of the Cat-domain are stable in cells grown in the absence of inducing amino acids. By contrast, amino acid induction significantly accelerates Cat-domain degradation. These findings provide novel insights into the SPS-sensing pathway and suggest that Cat-domain degradation is a requisite for resetting SPS-sensor signaling.
Rodriguez, Richard
Authors: Velasco Juan
Published: August 2019

The overwhelming critical attention received by Richard Rodriguez’s Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez (1982) has eclipsed the complexity and diversity of his work as well as the discussion on his impact on Latina/o studies and autobiography studies. A great deal of bibliography dedicated to Rodriguez is the result of the ideological battles the book was engaged in during the 1980s. The political context in which the book was used (mostly to oppose affirmative action and bilingual education) defined the rest of Rodriguez’s work, as some critics considered his positions on education almost treasonous. Lee Bebout summarizes those reactions in “Postracial Mestizaje: Richard Rodriguez’s Racial Imagination in an America Where Everyone Is Beginning to Melt,” as he mentions how most critics saw Rodriguez’s work as the result of a colonized mind, a mannequin for white America. “Tomas Rivera, Ramon Saldívar, William Nericcio, and others critiqued Rodriguez’s thinking, and sometimes Rodriguez himself, as the result of a colonized mind, blind to history and structural inequalities, and playing the role of a “Mexican” mannequin in the mind of white America.”

In an interview with scholar José Antonio Gurpegui in Camino Real, Rodriguez admitted “I do see myself—in some more complicated way—as truly being a traitor to memory, if not exactly a traitor to Mexico or to Latin America. I do think I betrayed my family, betrayed my mother and father by becoming someone new—a ‘gringo.’” If we place his work in this context, Rodriguez’s work brings urgency and new significance to Latina/o studies in the 21st century by highlighting the unresolved contradictions that memory, culture, and identity posit as vehicles of agency. His approach to autobiography redefines traditional notions of identity, race, and language, and offers critical notions of subject formation beyond cultural nationalism, proposing queer paradigms that complicate and challenge writing as a clear vehicle for self-empowerment. His writing, queer to cultural nationalism, is deeply committed to the exploration of autobiography as discontinuous space—a space of disruptive transgression where words are barely a ghostly shell; a floating dream in search of an identity.
Asian American Ecocriticism
Authors: Mannur Anita , Kuhajda Casey
Published: August 2019

Asian American ecocriticism focuses on providing theoretical frameworks for understanding race and ethnicity in environmental contexts. Attention to Asian American literary criticism can fill crucial critical lacunae in the study of the environment in American studies. Since the early 2000s, ecocritical and environmental studies have conceptualized place, the physical and built environment, not only as an object of study but also as a site from which to launch a critique of how ecocritical studies has centered issues such as climate change and environmental degradation by understanding the intersectional contexts of environmental studies. Asian American ecocriticism in this sense can be understood as a rejoinder to the extant body of work in ecocritical studies in that it demands a vigorous engagement with race, class, and ethnicity in understanding what we think of as the environment.
The Progress and Promise of Management Education Research
Authors: Hrivnak George
Published: August 2019

Management education (ME) is a research field in which scholars employ a plurality of theoretical and methodological approaches to critically examine the people, practices, processes and institutions engaged in facilitating and improving learning and development of current and aspiring managers in a variety of contexts. Although research in the field has grown considerably in terms of both quantity and quality, ME scholars have yet to establish consensus regarding a strong theoretical foundation for their work. This foundation is important to both enable progress through cumulative scholarship and to provide directions for future research.

This future research should focus on how students learn, as well as effective approaches to facilitating and assessing student learning. Strengthening the theoretical basis and research methods used in this research will enable evidence-based practice and enhance the legitimacy of this important field.
Denmark and the European Union
Authors: Wivel Anders
Published: August 2019

Denmark’s relationship with the European Union (EU) takes its point of departure in the Danish self-perception of being a minor power with a superior societal model. This calls for both adaptation to the power realities of the European political space and resistance against infringements of the Danish societal model, occasionally supplemented by attempts at actively influencing EU policy-making. Denmark’s general EU posture is reactive and defensive with a stronger focus on defending autonomy than influencing the future of the EU. It is pragmatic and functionalist, seeking primarily to utilize EU membership to secure the economic sustainability of the welfare state. Danish EU policy is increasingly characterized by dualism, navigating the integration dilemma in a way that allows for simultaneous protection against political integration and uploading of Danish interests to the EU level.
Transport Policy and European Union Policy
Authors: Alias Cyril , Kleinheyer Bernd , Fieber-Alias Carla
Published: August 2019

In an integrated European Union, transport would be expected to be a major enabler of economic development and consumer services. This role, however, was not acknowledged, though laid down in initial treaties, until 30 years into the EU’s existence. A verdict of the European Court of Justice condemning the longstanding inactivity of the European Council and subsequent efforts toward a dedicated policymaking have changed the significance. The regular definition and monitoring of goals and objectives in European transport policy by means of White Papers and trans-European transport networks guide public attention to the policy area. From an initial stage, when transport was considered as a functional enabler for cooperation after World War II, transport has evolved toward a Community task, featuring a long phase of stagnation and a sudden change to actionism after the court verdict. From the 1990s onward, goals like liberalization, cohesion, environmental protection, modal shift, competitiveness, globalization, and resource efficiency characterize European transport policy. Despite the output failure in European transport policy over many years, the Single European Market propelled transport onto the center stage of European policies and later made it a key object of sustainability policies. This change in focus has also attracted citizens’ attention with the effect that the EU needs and manages to portray itself as an interactive and accountable legislator dialoguing with its population. This new openness is a mere necessity if the EU wants to pursue its goal of a Single European Transport Area that is both supported by its business and citizens. At the same time, European transport policy is subject to numerous external influences—both by other European and national policies and different stakeholder interest groups. The ordinary legislative procedure is preceded by the initial agenda setting over the proposal planning and issuing and ranges from the proposal to three readings before being passed by European Parliament and Council of Ministers. The stakeholders accompany the whole process and influence it at different stages. Several examples from the history of European transport policymaking are proof of this.
Clientelism in Latin American Politics
Authors: Gonzalez-Ocantos Ezequiel , Oliveros Virginia
Published: August 2019

Clientelism is a type of nonprogrammatic linkage strategy that political parties deploy to win elections. Specifically, the concept refers to the personalized and discretionary exchange of goods or favors for political support. Scholars of comparative politics investigate variation in the prevalence of clientelism across countries, as well as the organizations that parties create to distribute personalized gifts and favors. A large body of work also studies the types of voters more commonly targeted by machines. The debates about the determinants of clientelism and specific targeting patterns are important because they inform broader discussions about democratic quality in Latin America and other developing regions, where nonprogrammatic linkages such as clientelism are common. In particular, the literature on clientelism has implications for discussions about the use and misuse of public and private funds to support electoral efforts. It also raises questions about the ability of citizens to vote their conscience and hold politicians accountable in the privacy of the voting booth.
The Inclusion-Moderation Thesis: The U.S. Republican Party and the Christian Right
Authors: Lewis Andrew R.
Published: August 2019

Conservative Christianity’s alignment with the Republican Party at the end of the 20th century is one of the most consequential political developments, both for American religion and American party politics. In the proceeding four decades, what has been the nature of this relationship? The inclusion-moderation thesis suggests that once religious movements are integrated into political parties, their interests are often co-opted by broader party interests and their positions moderate. For the Christian right in the U.S. there is mixed evidence for the inclusion-moderation process. Considering all the evidence, the most apt description is that conservative Christianity has transformed the Republican Party, and the Republican Party has transformed conservative Christianity. With its inclusion in the Republican Party, the Christian right has moderated on some aspects. The movement has become more professional, more attuned to the more widely accepted, secular styles of democratic politics, and more engaged in the broader goals and positions of the party. Conservative Christianity has also failed to fully achieve some of its most important goals and has lost some of its distinctiveness. In these ways, the party has changed the Christian right. At the same time, the Christian right has altered Republican politics. National candidates have changed their positions on important social issues, including abortion, gay rights, and religious freedom. The party’s platforms and judicially strategies have been strongly affected by movement’s interests, and conservative Christian activists have come to be central to the Republican Party. It’s stability and strength within the party have given the movement power. In these areas, the Christian right has evangelized the Republican Party rather than moderated. A fair assessment is that for the Christian right there has been partial but quite incomplete adherence to the inclusion-moderation process.
The Influence of Psychological Security Maintenance on Political Decision Making
Authors: Hart Joshua
Published: August 2019

People are strongly motivated to maintain psychological security, or equanimity, which causes them to process and act on information in ways that are favorable to protecting against anxiety (i.e., psychological “defense”). People rely on at least three interlocking mechanisms to maintain security—investment in social relationships, self-esteem, and meaningful worldviews—and these mechanisms perfuse nearly every aspect of life. By consequence, people’s political beliefs, attitudes, and leadership preferences reflect motivated efforts to maintain security. Research derived from terror management theory and related theories of security maintenance shows that security needs influence political decision making in three major ways. First, they amplify people’s affinity for political stances that affirm their preexisting worldviews and bolster their sense of belongingness, affiliation, and esteem. Second, security needs tend to draw people toward conservative viewpoints; however, a more potent consequence might be to harden or polarize existing political stances. Finally, security needs cause attraction to charismatic and powerful political personalities (i.e., politicians). Although the theoretical basis for these conclusions is strong, and there is research to support them, it remains challenging to apply this analysis to specific persons, situations, and political issues because it is not always clear which security-relevant facets within complex circumstances will be most salient or influential. Nevertheless, a security-based analysis of political decision making has impressive explanatory potential and helps observers to understand polarization and “tribal” tendencies in politics, among other things.
Life Without Parole Sentencing
Authors: Seeds Christopher
Published: August 2019

Life without parole sentencing refers to laws, policies, and practices concerning lifetime prison sentences that also preclude release by parole. While sentences to imprisonment for life without the possibility of parole have existed for more than a century in the United States, over the past four decades the penalty has emerged as a prominent element of U.S. punishment, routinely put to use by penal professionals and featured regularly in public discourse. As use of the death penalty diminishes in the United States, life without parole serves as the ultimate punishment in more and more U.S. jurisdictions. The scope with which states apply life without parole varies, however, and some states have authorized the punishment even for nonviolent offenses. More than a punishment serving purposes of retribution, crime control, and public safety, and beyond the symbolic functions of life without parole sentencing in U.S. culture and politics, life without parole is a lived experience for more than 50,000 prisoners in the United States. Life without parole’s increasing significance in the United States points to the need for further research on the subject—including studies that directly focus on how race and racial prejudice factor in life without parole sentencing, studies that investigate the proximate causes of life without parole sentences at the state and local level, and studies that examine the similarities and differences between life without parole, the death penalty, and de facto forms of imprisonment until death.
Feminist Theory and Its Use in Qualitative Research in Education
Authors: Freeman Emily
Published: August 2019

Feminist theory rose in prominence in educational research during the 1980s and experienced a resurgence in popularity during the late 1990s−2010s. Standpoint epistemologies, intersectionality, and feminist poststructuralism are the most prevalent theories, but feminist researchers often work across feminist theoretical thought. Feminist qualitative research in education encompasses a myriad of methods and methodologies, but projects share a commitment to feminist ethics and theories. Among the commitments are the understanding that knowledge is situated in the subjectivities and lived experiences of both researcher and participants and research is deeply reflexive. Feminist theory informs both research questions and the methodology of a project in addition to serving as a foundation for analysis. The goals of feminist educational research include dismantling systems of oppression, highlighting gender-based disparities, and seeking new ways of constructing knowledge.
Qualitative Research in Indigenous Education in Mexico
Authors: Czarny Gabriela , Paradise Ruth
Published: August 2019

In Mexico, qualitative research in the field of indigenous education finds its roots in a strong national tradition of social anthropological research. This background provides a fundamental context for understanding current emphases in qualitative educational research being carried out in indigenous communities, and for recognizing the underlying nature of indigenist policies and schooling projects (known as “indigenism”) imposed by the state during the 20th century. Indigenous organizations and communities have both challenged and appropriated this research tradition and indigenist educational projects, bringing into play a discussion of the continuous state of inequality and injustice in postcolonial states.

Among the central aspects that have contributed to the shift in native research processes are the professionalization of the field of study at the level of higher education and within different programs and institutions, although the majority of these programs are still oriented toward indigenous peoples by nonindigenous professionals.

Within the qualitative research agenda proposed by native researchers at the end of the 20th century, indigenous peoples began to assume a central position in the suggested themes, needs, and methods of inquiry. In Mexico, this development was closely related to the ethnographic study of education through perspectives of research action, collaborative research, narratives, and testimonials, providing fertile ground for envisioning other ways to name, produce knowledge, describe problems, and propose solutions with respect to the lives of these communities and peoples.
Biographical Approaches in Education in Germany
Authors: Dausien Bettina , Alheit Peter
Published: August 2019

The concept of biography plays multiple roles in educational sciences: as a theoretical perspective, as a methodological approach to empirical research, and as a point of reference for pedagogical practice. In the social and educational sciences, biography is theoretically conceptualized as a highly complex social construction that is closely related to the rise of modern societies. As a social institution, biography (or the “life-course”) organizes the social integration and socialization of individuals throughout the social changes in their life span. Biography also provides a cultural “schema” for the presentation and reflection of the self and the other; telling one’s life story is seen from this perspective as a mode of constructing one’s identity. Biography and education are closely reated.

The theme of biography has been addressed by German pedagogy ever since its historical beginnings in the late 18th century. The discovery of the autonomous, educated, middle-class subject is rooted in that interest in biography, which also shaped the process of “biographization” of the lower social strata a century later. At the beginning of the 20th century, emergent concepts of biographical research were elaborated in various social scientific fields to investigate the dynamics and upheavals of modern societies on the basis of life histories. The postmodern criticism of the “subject,” and its instrumentalization by “governmentality” toward the end of the 20th century, has had a lasting influence on educational science as well as on biographical research, resulting in a self-reflecting turn in which basic assumptions and concepts are analyzed and “deconstructed.”

There are several key problems and research perspectives in various subdisciplines of educational science in German-speaking countries, such as general educational theory, historical educational research, adult education, social pedagogy, and methodological debates on research strategies.
Qualitative Methodological Considerations for Studying Undocumented Students in the United States
Authors: Chang Aurora , Mendes Júlia , Salazar Cinthya
Published: August 2019

The study of undocumented students in the United States is critical and growing. As scholars increasingly employ qualitative methodologies and methods in studying undocumented students, it is important to consider the specific challenges, nuances, and benefits of doing so. Undocumented students have a right to a public elementary and secondary education regardless of immigration status, per the 1982 court case Plyler v. Doe. While the stress that undocumented students face during their K-12 years are real and consequential, this stress becomes particularly acute in their postsecondary lives when education is neither guaranteed nor readily accessible. Qualitative research gives insight into the complex obstacles undocumented students face and advocates for the institutional and social change necessary to best support them. Existing qualitative research on undocumented students employs various methodologies and methods including but not limited to narrative inquiry, testimonio, phenomenology, case studies, ethnography, discourse analysis, and grounded theory. Among the salient issues that scholars must take into account when engaging in such research are the ethical, logistical, and relational problems that arise when working with undocumented people; the politicization of researching undocumented students; and the power and privilege that researchers possess in the researcher–participant relationship. Within every stage of the research process, researchers need to take special care when working with undocumented students to ensure their anonymity, respect their lived experiences, and advocate for their human rights. Undocumented research participants are in need of extra protection due to their undocumented status, and this need should not be conflated with weakness. Often, undocumented participants are framed as illegal, powerless, vulnerable, fearful, and in the shadows. While it is true that undocumented people face intense, life-altering, and consequential struggles relative to their undocumented status, it is also true that their intelligence, resilience, and persistence are equally intense. Researchers have an obligation to bring undocumented students’ authentic experiences to the fore in ways that acknowledge their undocumented status and the related struggles while affirming their agency and resistance. How they employ methodological practices is central to this goal.
Disease and Epidemiology of Humans and Animals: Methods
Authors: Webb, Jr. James L.A.
Published: August 2019

Research in the field of historical epidemiology involves a multidisciplinary approach that integrates evidence from the biomedical and public health sciences with other sources for historical analysis. Its principal goal is the understanding of the distribution of disease over time and space and the ways in which disease control efforts have had an impact on disease transmission. Based in part on microbiological data and analysis, the historical burdens of infectious disease for human beings and domesticated livestock in early tropical Africa appear to have been high relative to other world regions. Although Africans developed indigenous treatments that provided relief for many human diseases (and, in the case of smallpox, used variolation with smallpox matter to induce immunity), it was only in the 20th century that major scientific advances in disease control and treatment through the use of antibiotics and vaccines began to substantially reduce the overall burden of human and animal infectious disease. The advances in Western biomedicine did not displace African systems of indigenous medicine, and in most African contexts, different systems of medicine coexist.
Sex Work/Prostitution in Africa
Authors: Mgbako Chi Adanna
Published: August 2019

Sex work, the exchange of sexual services for financial or other reward between consenting adults, has existed in Africa in varying forms from precolonial to modern times (with a distinction between sex work/prostitution and child sexual exploitation, trafficking, and transactional sex). Sex work during colonialism was often linked to migration. As the colonial economy grew and as 20th-century war efforts developed, African male migrants were drawn to urban towns, military settlements, and mining camps, which increased opportunities for African women to engage in prostitution as a form of individual and family labor. Sex workers in the colonial period often achieved increased economic and social autonomy by becoming independent heads of households, sending remittances back to their rural families, and accumulating wealth. Colonial regulation of prostitution was often lax until the outbreak of World War II, when colonial administrators became concerned about the spread of sexually transmitted infections among European troops stationed in Africa.

The modern African sex work industry, composed of diverse street-based and venue-based economies, is shaped by labor, migration, and globalization. The widespread criminalization of sex work and the failure of African states to protect sex workers’ rights embolden state and nonstate actors to commit human rights abuses against sex workers. These violations take the form of police and client abuse, lack of access to justice, labor exploitation, and healthcare discrimination, all of which increase sex workers’ vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. In response to these systemic abuses, an African sex worker rights movement emerged in the 1990s and has spread throughout the continent. Sex worker rights activists at the national and pan-African level engage in direct services, legal reform advocacy, and intersectional and global movement-building that reject the stigmatization of sex work and demand the realization and protection of African sex workers’ dignity, human rights, and labor rights.
Design of Discrete Choice Experiments
Authors: Street Deborah J. , Viney Rosalie
Published: August 2019

Discrete choice experiments are a popular stated preference tool in health economics and have been used to address policy questions, establish consumer preferences for health and healthcare, and value health states, among other applications. They are particularly useful when revealed preference data are not available. Most commonly in choice experiments respondents are presented with a situation in which a choice must be made and with a a set of possible options. The options are described by a number of attributes, each of which takes a particular level for each option. The set of possible options is called a “choice set,” and a set of choice sets comprises the choice experiment. The attributes and levels are chosen by the analyst to allow modeling of the underlying preferences of respondents. Respondents are assumed to make utility-maximizing decisions, and the goal of the choice experiment is to estimate how the attribute levels affect the utility of the individual. Utility is assumed to have a systematic component (related to the attributes and levels) and a random component (which may relate to unobserved determinants of utility, individual characteristics or random variation in choices), and an assumption must be made about the distribution of the random component. The structure of the set of choice sets, from the universe of possible choice sets represented by the attributes and levels, that is shown to respondents determines which models can be fitted to the observed choice data and how accurately the effect of the attribute levels can be estimated. Important structural issues include the number of options in each choice set and whether or not options in the same choice set have common attribute levels. Two broad approaches to constructing the set of choice sets that make up a DCE exist—theoretical and algorithmic—and no consensus exists about which approach consistently delivers better designs, although simulation studies and in-field comparisons of designs constructed by both approaches exist.
The Republican Party and US Foreign Relations
Authors: Prentice David L.
Published: August 2019

The history of the Republican Party’s foreign policy reminds historians that national politics often entails efforts to hold together a diverse coalition. The party’s regional alignments, ideas, and positions were seldom static. Rarely has it enjoyed unity on foreign relations. Intra-party differences mattered as wings, factions, and insurgents feuded over both domestic policy and America’s aims, interests, and engagement with the world. Mugwumps, jingoes, insurgents, Irreconcilables, the Republican Right, and neoconservatives, among others, interpreted events differently. These differences modulated the party’s swings from isolationism to interventionism, pulling it closer to the center of American politics.

Regarding foreign relations, Republicans have generally united around five themes. First, there existed a common understanding that US interests were paramount in defining foreign policy. A shared “America first” ethos made Republicans wary of liberal internationalism and reluctant to concede any autonomy on foreign or economic affairs. While different wings of the Republican Party may have backed divergent policies, each agreed the United States should preserve its flexibility and engage in unilateral action when necessary. Second, Republicans have supported preparedness for national defense and military superiority even when members may oppose US intervention in a foreign conflict. As for diplomacy, they maintained sound negotiations would come from victory or positions of strength. In a world of dangers, the strong survive. Third, the nature of the foreign foe mattered. Republicans opposed revolutionary regimes abroad whereas anti-fascist or anti-authoritarian causes drew weak or belated interest. The common Republican perception that the Soviet Union posed a greater threat to the international order than Nazi Germany accounted for much of the party’s isolationism before World War II. And during the Cold War, Republicans frequently turned a blind eye to the human rights and political abuses of America’s allies while condemning communist nations for the same. Fourth, the Republican preference for limited government influenced how they approached armed conflict. They resisted large peacetime armies and land wars while, in recent eras, placing inordinate faith in modern firepower to deter enemies and accomplish swift victory when used properly. They feared long wars encouraged the growth of the federal government. Finally, opposition to Democratic alternatives, especially in an election year, could bridge some of the party’s greatest chasms.
Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars
Authors: White Stuart
Published: August 2019

The Spanish-American War is best understood as a series of linked conflicts. Those conflicts punctuated Madrid’s decline to a third-rank European state and marked the United States’ transition from a regional to an imperial power. The central conflict was a brief conventional war fought in the Caribbean and the Pacific between Madrid and Washington. Those hostilities were preceded and followed by protracted and costly guerrilla wars in Cuba and the Philippines. The Spanish-American War was the consequence of the protracted stalemate in the Spanish-Cuban War. The economic and humanitarian distress which accompanied the fighting made it increasingly difficult for the United States to remain neutral until a series of Spanish missteps and bad fortune in early 1898 hastened the American entry to the war. The US Navy quickly moved to eliminate or blockade the strongest Spanish squadrons in the Philippines and Cuba; Spain’s inability to contest American control of the sea in either theater was decisive and permitted successful American attacks on outnumbered Spanish garrisons in Santiago de Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Manila. The transfer of the Philippines, along with Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam, to the United States in the Treaty of Paris confirmed American imperialist appetites for the Filipino nationalists, led by Emilio Aguinaldo, and contributed to tensions between the Filipino and American armies around and in Manila. Fighting broke out in February 1899, but the Filipino conventional forces were soon driven back from Manila and were utterly defeated by the end of the year. The Filipino forces that evaded capture re-emerged as guerrillas in early 1900, and for the next two and a half years the United States waged an increasingly severe anti-guerrilla war against Filipino irregulars. Despite Aguinaldo’s capture in early 1901, fighting continued in a handful of provinces until the spring of 1902, when the last organized resistance to American governance ended in Samar and Batangas provinces.
Sugar and the Formation of Colonial Brazil
Authors: Ferlini Vera Lucia Amaral
Published: August 2019

Sugar, besides its economic importance, created the foundations of political power in Brazil, based on the monopoly of land and the enslavement of indigenous and African people. Colonization, structured by the hegemony of the external market, created, over three centuries, a free rural population of whites, free blacks, and mestizos who survived on small plots and subsistence farms dependent on the power of the great landowners. From the centrality of the mills in the sugar world, the patriarchal character of this society, the basis and support of its political power, was forged. Sugar production was responsible for the “geography” of sugar, with territorial occupation by subsidiary activities such as subsistence farming and tobacco in the northeast, and with the expansion of sugar production towards the south in the 18th century.
Sleep quality and cognitive impairment in older Chinese: Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study
Authors: MA Xiao Qing , Jiang Chao Qiang , Xu Lin , Zhang Wei Sen , Zhu Feng , Jin Ya Li , Thomas G Neil , Lam Tai Hing
Published: August 2019

Background

evidence concerning the relationship between sleep quality and cognitive impairment is limited and inconsistent.

Objective

to examine the association of sleep quality with memory impairment and poor cognitive function in a large sample of older Chinese.

Methods

15,246 participants aged 50+ years of the Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study who attended the second physical examination from 2008 to 2012 were included. Sleep quality was assessed using Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and cognitive performance was assessed using both Delayed Word Recall Test (DWRT) and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Memory impairment was defined by DWRT score < 4 and poor cognitive function by MMSE score < 25.

Results

after adjusting for potential confounders, lower habitual sleep efficiency was associated with a higher risk of memory impairment and poor cognitive function with a dose-response pattern (both P for trend <0.001). The adjusted odds ratio (OR, 95% confidence interval (CI)) for poor cognitive function in those with the sleep efficiency of 75–85%, 65–75% and <65%, versus ≥85%, was 1.31 (1.12–1.53), 1.41 (1.16–1.73) and 1.33 (1.09–1.63), respectively. No association of the global PSQI score with memory impairment or poor cognitive function was found.

Conclusions

in older Chinese people, lower habitual sleep efficiency was associated with a higher risk of memory impairment and poorer cognitive function.
Detoured flight direction responses along the southwest coast of Lake Erie by night-migrating birds
Authors: Gesicki David V , Cech Erica L , Bingman Verner P
Published: August 2019

Migratory birds encounter the Great Lakes while moving through eastern North America toward breeding grounds to the North, which offers a good opportunity to study variation in migratory behavior as birds face a potentially influencing topographical feature. Using passive infrared technology, we documented the direction of relatively low-flying, nocturnal, mostly passerine migration in spring along the southern coast of Lake Erie’s western basin. We examined the extent to which spring migrants flew across Lake Erie as a continuation of the inland, northeasterly broad front migratory direction, as determined by weather radar and infrared observations, or displayed a tendency to deviate to more closely follow the direction of the coastline. We found that an estimated 62% of all low-flying migrants deviated their flight directions toward the coast of Lake Erie at 2 coastal sites, Cedar Point and Ottawa, which were characterized by northwest–southeast oriented coastlines. Migrants at a third coastal location, Maumee Bay, which has a more east–west oriented coastline, did not display similarly deviated flight directions. We found that even when winds were energetically favorable for a lake crossing, many migrants still routinely displayed deviated flight directions that approached paralleling the coastline. Further, the mean flight direction at one site, Ottawa, shifted more in the direction of the coastline as the night progressed, suggesting that time of night could influence the shift to a more coastal flight direction. The data indicate that the western basin of Lake Erie acts as a salient topographical feature influencing the flight directions of nocturnal migrants. The data further suggest that birds are making active decisions while in flight, based on current environmental and physiological conditions, about whether to continue to cross Lake Erie or take a coastal detour.