bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Enhanced radiation hardness and signal recovery in thin diamond detectors
Authors: Skukan N. , Sudić I. , Pomorski M. , Kada W. , Jakšić M.
Published: February 2019

Using the advantage of the high spatial resolution of the Ruđer Bošković Institute (RBI) ion microprobe, small areas of a thin membrane single crystal chemical vapor deposition (scCVD) diamond detector were intentionally damaged with a high-intensity 26-MeV oxygen ion beam at various fluences, producing up to ∼1018 vacancies/cm3. The response of the detector was tested with the ion beam-induced charge technique (IBIC) using a 2-MeV proton beam as a probe. The signal amplitudes decreased down to approximately 50% of the original value at low electric fields (<10 V/μm) inside the detector. However, the increase of electric field to values of ∼100 V/μm completely recovers the signal amplitude. The results presented herein can facilitate the development of true radiation hard particle detectors.
Density control of GaN quantum dots on AlN single crystal
Authors: Tamariz Sebastian , Callsen Gordon , Grandjean Nicolas
Published: February 2019

Full control over the density and emission properties of GaN quantum dots (QDs) should be feasible, provided that the growth proceeds in the Stranski-Krastanov (SK) growth mode. In this work, we derive the phase diagram for GaN QD formation on AlN by NH3-molecular beam epitaxy and analyze the corresponding optical signature by micro-photoluminescence (μ-PL). Interestingly, the growth window for SK-GaN QDs is very narrow due to the relatively small lattice mismatch of the GaN/AlN system (2.5%), constituting a fundamental challenge for QD growth control. By relying on bulk AlN single crystal substrates, we demonstrate QD density control over three orders of magnitude, from 108 to 1011 cm−2 by changing the growth rate. In contrast, the QD density is pinned to 2 × 1010 cm−2 when growing on AlN/sapphire templates, which exhibit dislocation densities on the order of 1010 cm−2. Thanks to QD densities as low as 108 cm−2 on bulk AlN, we can probe the emission of spatially isolated single GaN QDs by μ-PL on unprocessed samples.
Structure and bandgap nonlinearity in BaSn1−xTixO3 epitaxial films
Authors: Gao Qiang , Li Kaifeng , Zhang Kaiyin , Zhang Jinfeng , Liu Qinzhuang
Published: February 2019

BaSn1−xTixO3 (BSTO, x = 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0) epitaxial films were deposited on LaAlO3(001) substrates by employing a pulsed laser deposition system. Their composition dependent structure and optical properties were systematically investigated using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. High resolution x-ray diffraction characterization showed that the film lattice parameters decrease linearly with the increase in Ti concentrations, following Vegard's law. Optical property measurements revealed that all films have the optical transmittance of more than 70% in the visible and infrared wavelength range. Interestingly, the bandgap nonlinearity of BSTO films was observed, and the film at Ti doped x = 0.25 has the largest bandgap value of 4.04 eV. The calculated electronic structure and the density of states of BSTO films determined by DFT suggested that the strong hybridization between Sn 5s and Ti 3d orbitals caused the initial expansion of the bandgap, whereas upon further increasing the doping content, Ti 3d orbitals dominated the conduction band, leading to the bandgap reduction.
An automated microfluidic system for selection of aptamer probes against ovarian cancer tissues
Authors: Liu Wei-Ting , Lee Wen-Bin , Tsai Yi-Cheng , Chuang Yuan-Jhe , Hsu Keng-Fu , Lee Gwo-Bin
Published: February 2019

Because of the difficulty of treatment in its latest stages, cancer is among the leading causes of death worldwide. Therefore, high-affinity and specificity biomarkers are still in demand for many cancer types, and the utility of aptamers to serve in this regard has been explored recently. Although a process known as “systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment” (SELEX) has been used to generate aptamer-based cancer biomarkers, this approach is complicated, time-consuming, and labor-intensive. An automated microfluidic system was consequently developed herein to screen ovarian cancer-specific aptamers via on-chip SELEX with clinical cancer tissue samples. The integrated microfluidic system consisted of an integrated microfluidic chip, a temperature control module equipped with 12 thermoelectric coolers, and a flow control module for controlling 36 electromagnetic valves such that the entire, tissue-based SELEX process could be fully automated and carried out within 15 h. Highly specific ovarian cancer aptamers with high affinity (dissociation constant of 129 nM) to their cellular targets were screened with this system. Given the comparable specificity to their much more expensive antibody counterparts, these aptamers, when used in conjunction with the developed microfluidic system, may be used to diagnose ovarian cancer in its earliest stages.
Analytical results for the equilibrium configurations of a three-phase elastic material
Authors: Khan Muhammad Sabeel
Published: February 2019

This paper describes some analytical results for the equilibrium configurations of a three (one austenitic and two martensitic) phase elastic isotropic material. Constitutive relations in each of the material phase are provided explicitly. Direct methods in the calculus of variations are employed to compute the relaxed energy. An analytical expression of the relaxed energy envelope is derived for a particular case where both the martensitic and austenitic phase share the same value of the shear modulus and the chemical energy of the austenitic phase becomes negative. The computed relaxed energy afterward is used in the energy minimization method for finding the equilibrium-state solution of the three phase elastic material. Deformations when computed using exact relaxed constitutive relations exhibit mesh independence and this property is also illustrated in a specific case by computing the deformation of a single crystal in tension and compression by using Finite Element Method.
Lubrication solution of the flow of a Herschel-Bulkley fluid with pressure-dependent rheological parameters in an asymmetric channel
Authors: Panaseti Pandelitsa , Georgiou Georgios C. , Ioannou Iasonas
Published: February 2019

The lubrication flow of a Herschel-Bulkley fluid in a long asymmetric channel, the walls of which are described by two arbitrary functions h1(x) and h2(x) such that h1(x) < h2(x) and h1(x) + h2(x) are linear, is solved extending a recently proposed method, which avoids the lubrication paradox approximating satisfactorily the correct shape of the yield surface at zero order [P. Panaseti et al., “Pressure-driven flow of a Herschel-Bulkley fluid with pressure-dependent rheological parameters,” Phys. Fluids 30, 030701 (2018)]. Both the consistency index and the yield stress are assumed to be pressure-dependent. Under the lubrication approximation, the pressure at zero order is a function of x only, is decoupled from the velocity components, and obeys a first-order integro-differential equation. An interesting feature of the asymmetric flow is that the unyielded core moves not only in the main flow direction but also in the transverse direction. Explicit expressions for the two yield surfaces defining the asymmetric unyielded core are obtained, and the two velocity components in both the yielded and unyielded regions are calculated by means of closed-form expressions in terms of the calculated pressure and the two yield surfaces. The method is applicable in a range of Bingham numbers where the unyielded core extends from the inlet to the outlet plane of the channel. Semi-analytical solutions are derived in the case of an asymmetric channel with h1 = 0 and linearly varying h2. Representative results demonstrating the effects of the Bingham number and the consistency-index and yield-stress growth numbers are discussed.
Rapid onset of strain relief by massive generation of misfit dislocations in Bi(111)/Si(001) heteroepitaxy
Authors: Meyer D. , Jnawali G. , Hattab H. , Horn-von Hoegen M.
Published: February 2019

Strain and its relaxation in lattice mismatched heterostructures are crucial for the functionality of modern electronic devices, which are often challenging to determine experimentally. Here, we demonstrate a technique for measuring the strain state during epitaxial growth of Bi(111) films on Si(001) by using the spot profile analysis low-energy electron diffraction. Exploiting two non-equivalent integer-order diffraction spots originated from two Bi sub-lattices, the lattice parameter of the film is determined with high precision, which allows tracing the strain state as the film grows. The sudden and massive generation of misfit dislocations is found at a critical thickness of 4 nm which is explained through the inhomogeneous strain state of films with a thickness below one quarter of the mean distance of the dislocations.
Potential of exclosure on aboveground biomass carbon stock and ecological fitness of woody species in Jabi Tehnane district, northwestern Ethiopia
Authors: Asmare Melkamu Terefe , Gure Abdella
Published: February 2019

Assessment of ecological fitness of woody species across land use is critical issues in degraded land restoration. However, little is known about AGBC stored capacity, important value and distribution index of woody species grows in exclosure and adjacent open lands. Therefore, this research is aimed to (i) analyse impact of exclosure on AGBC (ii) ecological fit species. A random sampling method was employed. Forty sample plots (50m*50m) were used. AGBC stocks (mean± SE) of woody species in adjacent open grazing and exclosure land use of GW site was 0.11±0.07 and 1.24±0.27Mg ha
-1
respectively. While in adjacent open grazing and exclosure land use of WG site, the value was 0.27±0.03 and 2.79±0.27Mgha
-1
respectively. In both site exclosure land uses, the proportion of rare, occasional and common woody species were better than their adjacent open grazing land. Cupressus lustanica from open grazing and Vernonia auriculifera from exclosure land use of WG as well as Croton macrostachyus from open grazing and Leucaena leucocephala from exclosure land use of GW site were recorded as top ecologically fit species. It is recommended to protect degraded lands via integrating ecologically adapted native species and fully used their diversity to achieve the potential benefits of land restoration.
Discovery of Salmonella trehalose phospholipids reveals functional convergence with mycobacteria
Authors: Reinink Peter , Buter Jeffrey , Mishra Vivek K. , Ishikawa Eri , Cheng Tan-Yun , Willemsen Peter T.J. , Porwollik Steffen , Brennan Patrick J. , Heinz Eva , Mayfield Jacob A. , Dougan Gordon , van Els Cécile A. , Cerundolo Vincenzo , Napolitani Giorgio , Yamasaki Sho , Minnaard Adriaan J. , McClelland Michael , Moody D. Branch , Van Rhijn Ildiko
Published: February 2019

Salmonella species are among the world’s most prevalent pathogens. Because the cell wall interfaces with the host, we designed a lipidomics approach to reveal pathogen-specific cell wall compounds. Among the molecules differentially expressed between Salmonella Paratyphi and S. Typhi, we focused on lipids that are enriched in S. Typhi, because it causes typhoid fever. We discovered a previously unknown family of trehalose phospholipids, 6,6′-diphosphatidyltrehalose (diPT) and 6-phosphatidyltrehalose (PT). Cardiolipin synthase B (ClsB) is essential for PT and diPT but not for cardiolipin biosynthesis. Chemotyping outperformed clsB homology analysis in evaluating synthesis of diPT. DiPT is restricted to a subset of Gram-negative bacteria: large amounts are produced by S. Typhi, lower amounts by other pathogens, and variable amounts by Escherichia coli strains. DiPT activates Mincle, a macrophage activating receptor that also recognizes mycobacterial cord factor (6,6′-trehalose dimycolate). Thus, Gram-negative bacteria show convergent function with mycobacteria. Overall, we discovered a previously unknown immunostimulant that is selectively expressed among medically important bacterial species.
The Belle II experiment: status and prospects
Authors: Martini Alberto
Published: February 2019

In this article the Belle II experiment will be described and its status and physics prospects will be presented. Belle II is situated in Japan, at the KEK laboratory and it is the upgraded version of the Belle experiment. It uses a new collider named SuperKEKB, a new generation of B-factory based on the innovative Nano-Beam scheme technique, which is expected to collect an integrated luminosity of 50 ab
−1. Using this amount of data, together with improved detector performances, it will be possible to provide important contributions about several flavour physics topics (i.e. UT angles, CKM matrix elements, FCNC processes, LFV studies, etc.) through high precision measurements. The main aim is to investigate new physics scenarios and validate highly suppressed SM predictions. The experiment is almost completely assembled; it already took the first data without the vertex detector installed while the data taking will start in February 2019.
Vindicating Dominican latinidad through Pedro Henríquez Ureña’s First New York Stay
Authors: Maillo-Pozo Sharina
Published: February 2019

Pedro Henríquez Ureña is arguably the most influential Dominican thinker of the 20th century and one of the most esteemed Latin American and Caribbean intellectuals. He spent almost ten years in the United States where he engaged in literary and intellectual activities and has been deemed by many critics as one of the precursors of the Caribbean intellectual diaspora. Yet, since his legacy predates the consolidation of Latina/o studies in the late 1960s, his vast body of work has been regarded as valuable contribution exclusive to the Latin American and Caribbean intellectual archive rather than as testimony of the long-standing presence of Latina/o writings in the United States. The seminal works of scholars such as Alfredo Roggiano, Silvio Torres-Saillant, Victoria Nuñez, and Danny Méndez have shifted the dialogues on Pedro Henríquez Ureña’s trajectory considering his life in the United States and his experience in the New York metropolis. Situating him in a “Latino continuum,” to borrow Carmen Lamas’s term, within United States latinidad, engages with early 21st century scholarship on Latina/o studies that challenge the limitations of nationalist US literary and intellectual history and regionalist Latin American studies. The case of Pedro Henríquez Ureña sheds light on the important contributions of Spanish-speaking Caribbean-Latina/o writings in the early 20th century and highlights the intellectual activity of Dominicans, an ethnic group within the Latina/o umbrella that has remained obliterated in general discussions on latinidad. Thus, Pedro Henríquez Ureña’s trajectory in the United States, and most specifically New York, underscores the cultural dynamism of Latinas/os in early-20th-century New York with a special focus on pre-diasporic Dominican latinidad.
Nationalism and Globalization in Contemporary Anglophone Fiction
Authors: Ho Janice
Published: February 2019

Since the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the nation-state has risen to be the dominant form of political organization in the world through its embodiment of the principle of nationalism—that nations should be sovereign unto themselves. The post-1945 era, however, has seen an intensification in the processes of globalization, characterized by the rise of international telecommunications networks; the increasing and accelerated movement of finance capital, labor, and cultural commodities; and the consolidation of supranational and transnational organizations that operate beyond national borders. Although it is commonplace to see the era of globalization inaugurating the decline, if not altogether the obsolescence, of the nation-state, it is more accurate and useful to analyze the particular ways in which globalization has transformed the nature and functions of the nation-state, especially its cultural identities, its existence as a unified economic unit, and the scope of its political sovereignty. Indeed, reading different developments in the cultural, economic, and political realms suggests that the impact of globalization on the nation-state is uneven and partial, rather than teleological in its advancement.

Contemporary anglophone fiction has turned to addressing the complex entanglements between the nation and globalization in multiple and heterogeneous ways. Some fiction melancholically looks back to the political legacies of Third World nationalisms that promised universal emancipation to their citizens, only to chart their subsequent disappointments as the ruling elite of postcolonial nation-states continued to perpetuate legacies of imperialism. Other novels celebrate the syncretic and diasporic transnational identities—and the hybridization of national identities—that emerge through sustained contact with other cultural milieus via the processes of globalization. Still others depict the depredations that economic globalization visits on developed and developing nations alike, albeit in different ways and in different degrees. And many contemporary novels engage with the continuing political sovereignty of the nation-state in the face of human rights violations and planetary catastrophes, reflecting on the role of literature in circumventing the authority of the state and bringing distant suffering to a global audience.
Radio and the (Re) Construction of Maya Identity in the Diaspora
Authors: Estrada Alicia Ivonne
Published: February 2019

Founded in 2003 by Maya immigrants in Los Angeles, California, the radio program Contacto Ancestral, which airs weekly on the community station KPFK and online, creates a sense of community through the reaffirmation of indigenous cultural practices as well as the construction of a historical memory in the diaspora. This sense of community is particularly highlighted through the articulation of a Maya identity that is linked to indigenous hemispheric struggles and their resistance movements. Through the varied interviews with indigenous elders, activists, and community members on issues that range from the Guatemalan genocide, land, and environmental struggles to the multiple forms of violence faced by indigenous immigrants in the United States Contacto Ancestral creates, to use Ann Cvetkovich’s term, a “community-based archive.” This archive highlights a shared history between indigenous peoples as well as their differences and heterogeneity. In doing so, Contacto Ancestral produces an essential space to link and empower multiple generations of particularly Maya communities living in Mesoamerica, the diaspora, and elsewhere.
Yellowface Performance: Historical and Contemporary Contexts
Authors: Lee Josephine
Published: February 2019

In European and North American theater and film, the centuries-old practice of “yellowface”—white actors playing Asian-identified characters—has dominated the ways that Asians and Asian Americans have been presented. Since the 19th century, yellowface representations in American theater portrayed these characters as villainous despots, exotic curiosities, or comic fools. These roles in turn greatly reduced the opportunities for the employment and recognition of Asian and Asian American actors. Yellowface performance does not only misrepresent Asians and Asian Americans by limiting the kinds of visibility and opportunities that they might have, but it also supports the imagined distinctions between those values presumably embodied by white Americans and those associated with oriental others. Late-19th and early-20th-century plays such as George Ade’s The Sultan of Sulu (1902), Joseph Jarrow’s The Queen of Chinatown (1899), and David Belasco’s Madame Butterfly (1900) not only used yellowface acting but also expressed anxieties about interracial interactions and the potential for racial contamination produced by U.S. imperialism and Chinese immigration. Both yellowface and “whitewashing” (the erasure of Asian and Asian American characterizations from film and theater in order to benefit white actors) continue to be used in U.S. theater and film. In addition to protesting, Asian American performing artists have responded by creating alternative venues for Asian American performers and writers to make their talents known, such as Los Angeles’s East West Players (established in 1965). Asian Americans have also fully engaged with these issues through writing a host of plays that feature characterizations of actors who suffer the effects of discriminatory casting practices. Two plays in particular, David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face (2007) and Lloyd Suh’s Charles Francis Chan Jr.’s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery (2015) not only critique the legacies of yellowface representation but also prompt broader reflection on how contemporary Asian American identities are shaped by both political radicalism and “model minority” conformity. These plays re-appropriate yellowface to comment on the changing and contested nature of racial categories such as “Asian American” as well as the continuing problems of racial typecasting.
Illness, Disability, and Wounded Embodiment in Asian American Literature and Culture
Authors: Lee James Kyung-Jin
Published: February 2019

Alongside readings of Asian American literature that foreground the racial, gender, class, and transnational constitution of the community and the writers that produced literary work, one may consider how ill, disabled, and wounded embodiment work their way into the literature as well. Indeed, one might go as far to say that these differential modes of embodiment are constitutive of the corpus of Asian American literature itself, for illness and disability are often, though not always, the somatic expression of the kinds of racial and other forms of violence that Asian American authors take up as central themes. To explore the world of illness and disability and to pay attention to the ways that wounded embodiment figures in the literary provide a critical index of how Asian Americans have been and are valued. Moreover, to take the Asian American ill and disabled body in literature seriously as producing specific narratives themselves, rather than merely more deficient versions of those produced by their able-bodied counterparts, is to read Asian American literature as a site through which new ideas of sociality, intersubjectivity, and care might be possible, which then may trigger new political imaginations. Whether reading in Asian American literature’s most historical and canonical works traces of illness, disability, and wounded embodiment’s marks or the early-21st-century “boom” in nonfiction that attends to questions of illness and disability, death and dying, a generative, even capacious, understanding of Asian America emerges from the shadows of what was previously known and knowable as a social identity.
Vietnamese Canadian Refugee Aesthetics
Authors: Nguyen Vinh
Published: February 2019

Vietnamese Canadian refugee aesthetics are the diverse expressions of how hundreds of thousands of refugees and their descendants experienced the Vietnam War and its aftermath. They are shaped on the one hand by a history of war in, and forced migration from, Vietnam and on the other by resettlement in multicultural Canada. Significantly, Vietnamese Canadian refugee aesthetics are produced within a distinct context of Canadian “forgetting of complicity” in the Vietnam War. A major shaping force of this aesthetics is the idea that Canada was an innocent bystander or facilitator of peace during the war years, instead of a complicit participant providing arms and supporting a Western bloc victory. This allows, then, for a discourse of Canadian humanitarianism to emerge as Canada resettled refugees in the war’s wake. Vietnamese Canadian refugee aesthetics are produced and received in relation to the enduring narrative of Canadian benevolence. In this way, they celebrate the nation-state and its peoples through gratitude for the gift of refuge. More importantly, however, they illuminate life during and in the wake of war; the personal, political, and historical reasons for migration; the struggles and triumphs of resettlement; and the complexities of diasporic existence. Refugee aesthetics are driven by memory and the desire to commemorate, communicate, and make sense of difficult pasts and the embodied present. They often take the form of literary works such as memoirs, novels, and poetry, but they are also found in community politics and activism, such as commemoration events and protests, and other popular media like public service videos. Produced by refugees as well as the state, these aesthetic “texts” index themes and problematics such as the formation of voice; the interplay between memory, history, and identity; the role of autobiography; and the modes of representing war, violence, and refuge-seeking.
Law and Asian American Literary and Cultural Studies
Authors: Chang Stewart
Published: February 2019

The place of Asian Americans in the American national narrative has always been mediated through the laws, particularly relating to citizenship and immigration. In the 19th century, Asian Americans were marginalized and omitted from the national narrative through discriminatory laws that excluded them from naturalized citizenship, civic participation, and eventually immigration. During this era, Asians were stereotyped in literature and popular culture as threatening menaces that required restriction and surveillance, which was later exacerbated by the hostilities between the United States and Japan during World War II. Asian American writers during this era sought to challenge the stereotypical representations of Asians and provided voice to the silences produced by the discriminatory laws. Following World War II, as the United States redefined itself as the leader of the free world during the Cold War, the discriminatory laws were reformed, and Asian Americans were reconstructed into a model minority that now served the dominant narrative of America as a nation of equality and opportunity. Asian American authors in this era resisted such co-opting of Asian American experiences by writing counter-histories that challenge the grand narrative of American exceptionalism produced by seemingly progressive laws that these authors critique as reifying and perpetuating racist and xenophobic biases that continue to be applied to not only Asian Americans but also other minority groups.
Disability Studies and Asian American Literature
Authors: Chew Kristina
Published: February 2019

Twenty-first-century understandings of how disability figures in Asian American literature and the representation of Asian American individuals have greatly evolved. Earlier, highly pejorative characterizations associated with the 19th-century “Oriental” or “yellow peril” as a carrier of disease whose body needed to be quarantined and excluded. Later, the model minority myth typecast Asian Americans as having extreme intellectual abilities to the point of freakishness. Disability studies asserts that having an “imperfect” disabled body is nothing to hide and questions beliefs in norms of behavior and experience. Focusing on disability in Asian American literature opens a new path to reflect on Asian American identity and experience in ways that break away from the racial types and narrative trajectories of immigrant success that have often been seen as defining what it is to be Asian American. Integrating a disability studies perspective into Asian American studies provides a compelling and necessary means of critiquing stereotypes such as the model minority myth, as well as to reread many classic texts of Asian American literature with attentiveness to difference, impairment, and loss.
The Posthuman Subject in/of Asian American Literature
Authors: Huang Michelle N.
Published: February 2019

Is the posthuman postracial? Posthumanism, an interpretive paradigm that unseats the human individual as the de facto unit of literary analysis, can be a powerful tool for Asian American literary studies when deployed with attention to critical race theory and literary form. Throughout American literature, Asian Americans have frequently been figured as inhuman—alien, inscrutable, and inassimilable. Representations of Asian Americans as either sub- or superhuman populate many genres, including adventure literature, domestic realism, comics, and science fiction. This trope, which combines yellow peril and model minority stereotypes, forms a through line that runs from depictions of Asian Americans as nerveless 19th-century coolies to 21st-century robotic office workers. Manifesting both threat and promise for America, posthuman representations of Asian Americans refract national and racial anxieties about the fading of the United States’ global influence as Asian nations, especially China, become political and economic superpowers. Rather than directly refuting these characterizations, Asian American writers have creatively engaged these same thematics to contemplate how developments in science and technology produce different ways of understanding the human and, concomitantly, engender changes in racial formation. Novelists, dramatists, poets, and artists have all deployed posthumanism in order to conduct imaginative experiments that challenge expectations regarding the typical purview of Asian American literature. Several nodes of inquiry that demonstrate the importance of posthumanist critique for Asian American literary studies include race as an index of humanity, the mutability of race through biotechnology, the amplification of racial inequality through infrastructure, and the reproduction of race through algorithmic culture. In the wake of early 21st-century ecological disaster and biotechnological fragmentation, examining the evolving relationship between Asian American racialization and posthumanism continues to provide important insights into how race is structured by the changing boundaries of the human and, in turn, demonstrates that the posthuman subject is never “beyond” race. In addition to offering an overview, this article provides a case study regarding the stereotyping of Asian Americans as robotic.
Labor Movements and Chicana/o Literature
Authors: González Marcial
Published: February 2019

Chicano/a literature may not excel in representing labor movements, but the literature itself has been influenced by, and is often a response to, various labor struggles. Of the labor movements that have had an impact on Chicano/a literature, the farmworkers movement has been the most significant. Even though Mexican American farmworkers throughout the 20th century played a significant role in building an agricultural empire in the United States, they have not been properly credited with this accomplishment, nor have they prospered equitably from the economic gains of agribusiness. Historically, Chicano/a farmworkers have been physically visible in the workplace but not socially recognized—needed for their labor, but not always wanted as participatory citizens. The farmworkers movement led by Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers Union (UFW) during the 1960s and early 1970s contributed to the emergence of the Chicano movement during those same years. The movement in turn served as a catalyst for the emergence of Chicano/a literature. The farmworker has been a central figure in Chicano/a literature since its inception, but representations of farmworkers in the literature have changed over time—from Tomás Rivera’s groundbreaking novel . . . y no se lo tragó la tierra in 1971 to Salvador Plascencia’s fantasy novel The People of Paper in 2005. One of the reasons for these changes has been the rise of neoliberalism, a politico-economic system that has debilitated, and in some cases destroyed, labor unions. Neoliberalism has also contributed to the deterioration of living and working conditions for the working class, especially for those at the bottom of the economic chain, such as farmworkers. Thus, contemporary Chicano/a farmworker literature tends to oscillate between nostalgia for a time when the farmworkers movement was powerful and cautious optimism that a strong movement can once again be built.
Spanish Incunabula
Authors: Rial Costas Benito
Published: February 2019

At the end of the 15th century, printed books were known and read throughout Europe, and the modern structure of this new product was defined. However, in many Spanish cities, printing and selling books depended on the work of itinerant printers with scarce economic and technical possibilities and professional skills. The limited industrial, technical, and economic development and the lack of good communications produced a map of Spain with small and dispersed printing offices spread over many different places. Spanish printing quality could not compete with that of other countries. These limitations determined the character of the works that the Spanish printing offices produced. On the one hand, many Spanish printed books were made by and for the local clergy and royal officials, and, in many senses, they followed objectives and productive patterns that were not distant from the purposes of handwritten books. On the other hand, Spanish literature and translations into Spanish and Catalan of important Latin and Italian texts were the other main feature of Spanish 15th-century printing history. The Spanish printing offices could not offer anything to the European book market, and they could not even offer certain books to the Spanish market that booksellers brought from abroad.
Emotional Intelligence and Its Measurement
Authors: Boyatzis Richard E.
Published: February 2019

Emotional intelligence (EI) is used in organizational training, coaching, and graduate schools. Despite its acceptance in practical applications, researchers continue to argue about its validity. EI can be defined “as a constellation of components from within a person that enable self-awareness of and management of his/her emotions, and to be aware of and manage the emotions of others.” EI seems to exist at the performance trait or ability, self-schema and trait, and behavioral levels. Based on this multilevel view, all the conceptualizations of EI and the different measures that result are EI. Research on the behavioral level of EI—its assessment, strengths, psychometric validity, and challenges—complements that on other approaches, which have already been the subject of many academic papers.
Global Journalism
Authors: Obijiofor Levi , Hanusch Folker
Published: February 2019

Two dominant approaches underline the theory, practice, and methodology of global journalism. The first approach captures the various ways that journalism is practiced in different countries. This is reflected in the burgeoning field of comparative journalism studies. The second approach examines the underlying notion of globalization of the interconnected nature of the world and of global journalistic practices that not only relativize the significance of the nation state but also highlight the forces that shape the global village. Each of these perspectives has implications for journalism practice and how the world is understood. Each is influenced by complexities of the existing environment in which journalism is practiced, such as sociocultural practices and barriers, as well as economic, institutional, structural, legal, and political forces that inform journalism at national and international levels. Regardless of the differences, the two approaches are interrelated in various ways. They examine the interlocking relationship between journalism and globalization; factors that influence global news flows and foreign reporting; diverse journalistic practices and modes of education; and global journalism ethics. Altogether these perspectives provide rich analytical insights and background into the past, current, and emerging issues that inform global journalism.
Long-Term Trends in News Content
Authors: Humprecht Edda , Udris Linards
Published: February 2019

The way news is produced and consumed has changed dramatically during the first two decades of the 21st century due to digitalization and economic pressures. In a globalized world, current events are reported in almost real time in various countries and are diffused rapidly via social media. Thus much scholarly attention is devoted to determining whether these developments have changed news content. Comparative research in the area of journalism focuses on whether news content across countries converges over time and to what degree national differences persist across countries.

When studying the research on long-term trends in news content, four main observations can be made. First, theoretical assumptions are often rooted in different models of democracies, but they are rarely explicitly discussed. Second, many studies focus on the organizational level of news media, using theoretical concepts related to increased market orientation of news outlets, such as personalization, emotionalization, or scandalization. Furthermore, commercialization is associated with the effects of digitalization and globalization, namely, decreased advertising revenues and increased competition. A commonly expressed fear is that these changes have consequences for democracy and informed citizenship. Third, in recent years, there has been a steady increase of studies employing international comparisons as well as a growing standardization for measurements. These developments lead to more multicountry studies based on large samples but come at the expense of more fine-grained analysis of the way news content changes over time. Fourth, while computational methods have recently been on the rise in the overall news content research field, these methods have yet to be used for longitudinal designs.Finally, the vast majority of cross-national and single-country studies focus on Western democracies. Thus our knowledge about recent changes in news content is limited to a small set of countries.

Overall, many studies provide evidence for constant changes of news content driven by social, political, and economic developments. However, different media systems exhibit a sustained resilience toward transnational pressures reflected in a persistence of national differences in news content over time.
NGOs as News Organizations
Authors: Wright Kate
Published: February 2019

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are not-for-profit groups, which are independent of commercial businesses and government agencies. They claim to serve various notions of the public good, including advocacy and service delivery. So the definition of an “NGO” is broad, including many different kinds of organizations, such as aid agencies, human rights, indigenous, feminist and environmental lobby groups.

Throughout the 19th and early 20th century, the predecessors of NGOs—pressure groups—tried to advance their cause by cultivating close relations with the mainstream press, and/or publishing their own periodicals. But from the late 20th century onward, many NGOs started routinely producing their own news content, including written text but also photojournalism, video, and sophisticated interactive projects. Some of this material is disseminated through “alternative” outlets, social media and activist hubs. But it is difficult for NGOs to gain a mass audience in these ways, so most major NGOs recruit or commission experienced journalists to carry out this work for them.

Much of the research in this area has focused on either journalists’ increased dependence on NGOs, or on the restructuring of NGOs’ resources, priorities and working cultures in accordance with news norms. Most scholars have also focused on the work of international aid agencies and/or human rights organizations, as well as particular kinds of crises, such as famines, hurricanes and conflicts. The extant literature is heavily weighted toward organizations which are based in North America or Europe. However, a small but growing number of scholars are challenging this, exploring the news work of other NGOs and/or news outlets, in other countries, and during other kinds of news-making periods, including conferences, summits and “quiet” news weeks.

These more diverse approaches to studying NGOs as news organizations have led to the theorization of NGO journalism becoming more nuanced. Researchers have shifted away from polarized, and somewhat over-generalized, assessments of the effects of NGO news-making, toward a greater awareness of complexity and heterogeneity. This has involved them using theory about organizations, institutions, fields and moral economies. However, the kinds of power which NGO workers are able to acquire by becoming news reporters is still under-theorized, and scholars still tend to avoid examining the frameworks they use as a basis for normative evaluation. Finally, changing media practices (including social media practices) and NGOs’ adoption of new communication technology (including satellite and drone imagery) means that this area of news work is still evolving very rapidly.
Routines in Journalism
Authors: Tandoc, Jr. Edson C. , Duffy Andrew
Published: February 2019

News routines refer to patterns of outcome-oriented behavior, structured by ideological and organizational contexts, regularly enacted or invoked by newsworkers engaged in constructing the news, acting individually but thinking collectively. They are enacted by journalists to make their daily work more efficient and invoked to preserve their autonomy. They help make newswork more predictable and journalism more stable. Studies have documented various routines at different stages of news construction. In the access and observation stage, studies have focused on the beat system and journalists’ sourcing patterns, which determine the range of information and events they get to know about. In the selection and filtering stage, studies have examined how news values shape news selection and even deselection of articles. In the editing and processing stage, studies have examined practices associated with writing, such as the use of the inverted pyramid format and the use of direct quotes, as well as with editing and verification. Scholars have also focused on the impact of automation on news writing and editing. In the distribution stage, studies have explored live coverage as well as the use of social media to disseminate news. Finally, in the interpretation stage, studies have explored the tracking and monitoring of audience feedback via web analytics and social media, which also affect editorial decisions. But aside from making work more manageable, news routines also have two main consequences on news work: They drive newsworkers into the arms of authorities who are set up to give them information, and they increase the risk of compromising journalists’ autonomy. While they structure how journalists do their work, news routines are also structured by larger forces. The need for efficiency stems from the motivation for profitability in market-oriented news organizations. News routines also prescribe how news processes ought to be done, distinguishing news construction from other forms of work but also functioning as a form of control. Since they arise out of the practical needs of the organization and the field, news routines will adapt and emerge as journalists are confronted by a changing set of practical needs. Such adaptation opens the way to new information structures and new ideologies.
Religion and Journalism
Authors: Perreault Gregory
Published: February 2019

The analysis of journalism and religion emerges from two different research paradigms: a post-positivist and a culturalist. The primary debate in the field stems from the two paradigmatic orientations. Post-positivist journalism and religion research argues that religious topics are already complex and so by simplifying, researchers can help explain the topic for broader consumption. Yet culturalist journalism and religion research argues that there is little to be gained from attempting to simplify religion in this way—it is better to represent religion as it is, rather than to make it palatable. The topic developed in the 1980s largely as a result of contributions from Edward Said, Judith Buddenbaum, Stewart Hoover, Mark Silk, and David Nord. Three primary approaches have become dominant. In effects-oriented research, religion serves as a variable in helping explain a phenomenon. In the culturalist approach, the journalism and religion phenomenon is examined through the lens of structure and agency—the power relations integral to the phenomenon. Finally, in the literary criticism approach, religion is examined as the phenomenon being represented in journalism. As paradigms would indicate, the post-positivist paradigm is most interested in predicting the religious representations and the culturalist paradigm is most interested in understanding the representations. Broadly, this subfield is situated within the larger umbrella of journalism and minority concerns. Implicit in this research is Said’s orientalism, a theoretical tradition that emphasizes the “othering” of minority groups, making them appear as if they are in need of being “oriented” to fit ideas of what is normal and acceptable within a society. It similarly builds on Gramsci’s hegemony, which conversely examines how a society proliferates ideas of that which is normal and acceptable practice.
News as Narratives
Authors: Ørmen Jacob , Gregersen Andreas
Published: February 2019

In recent years, academics and pundits have taken great interest in the role of storytelling in journalism. The spread of rumors, misinformation, and disinformation in public discourse has intensified, as has the need to decipher the ways in which stories—fake or factual—work. Narratives play a key role in this process. Since time immemorial, stories have been structured in similar styles and around common themes to captivate audiences around the world. Scholars of the arts have for millennia debated what characterizes prototypical and universal stories. They have emphasized narrative elements, such as the organization of events into causal accounts, the choice of narrative perspective, the description of events as intentional actions, the casting of actors into character roles, and the fitting of those roles to types of story plots involving heroes and villains in conflict. News as a form of storytelling also follows conventional structures and organizing principles. As a result, narratives have also played a role in how journalism scholars and practitioners alike understand the particular genre of public communication that is news. The discussion of news as narratives can be approached from at least three perspectives: one emphasizes narratives as a set of conventions for telling any story; another approaches narratives as a particular genre of news reporting—that is, narrative journalism; and a third sees narratives as the core myths that circulate in our society through news, among other forms of communication. Increasingly, scholars also take an interest in how narrative elements affect the ways in which audiences perceive and engage with news.