bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Ehlers–Danlos Syndrome: Molecular and Clinical Characterization of TNXA/TNXB Chimeras in Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia
Authors: Marino Roxana , Garrido Natalia Perez , Ramirez Pablo , Notaristéfano Guillermo , Moresco Angélica , Touzon Maria Sol , Vaiani Elisa , Finkielstain Gabriela , Obregón María Gabriela , Balbi Viviana , Soria Ianina , Belgorosky Alicia
Published: January 2021

Context

The syndrome CAH-X is due to a contiguous gene deletion of CYP21A2 and TNXB resulting in TNXA/TNXB chimeras.

Objective

To analyze TNXB gene status and to clinically evaluate the Ehlers–Danlos syndrome phenotype in a large cohort of Argentine congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) patients to assess the prevalence of this condition in our population.

Methods

TNXB gene analysis was performed in 66 nonrelated CAH patients that were carriers of the CYP21A2 gene deletion. A molecular strategy based on multiplex ligation–dependent probe amplification and Sanger sequencing analysis was developed allowing for the detection of different, previously described TNXA/TNXB chimeras, named CH1, CH2, and CH3. The main outcome measures were TNXB status of CAH patients that were carriers of the CYP21A2 deletion in the homozygous or heterozygous state.

Results

TNXA/TNXB CH1 was found in 41%, CH2 in 29%, and CH3 in 1% of nonrelated alleles carrying the CYP21A2 deletion. Thus, overall 71% of alleles were found to carry a contiguous gene deletion. Sixty-seven percent of patients analyzed had a monoallelic form and 6% a biallelic form. All patients with the biallelic form had severe skin hyperextensibility and generalized joint hypermobility.

Conclusion

Based on the high frequency of TNXB alterations found in CYP21A2 deletion carrier alleles, we recommend evaluating TNXB status in these patients, and assessing connective tissue dysplasia, including cardiologic alterations in positive cases. The number of patients undergoing cardiological evaluation should be expanded to determine the incidence of structural and functional abnormalities in this cohort.
Genetic Profiling of Orbital Fibroblasts from Patients with Graves’ Orbitopathy
Authors: Rotondo Dottore Giovanna , Bucci Ilaria , Lanzolla Giulia , Dallan Iacopo , Sframeli Angela , Torregrossa Liborio , Casini Giamberto , Basolo Fulvio , Figus Michele , Nardi Marco , Marcocci Claudio , Marinò Michele
Published: January 2021

Context

Graves’ orbitopathy (GO) is an autoimmune disease that persists when immunosuppression is achieved. Orbital fibroblasts from GO patients display peculiar phenotypes even if not exposed to autoimmunity, possibly reflecting genetic or epigenetic mechanisms, which we investigated here.

Objective

We aimed to explore potential genetic or epigenetic differences using primary cultures of orbital fibroblasts from GO and control patients.

Methods

Cell proliferation, hyaluronic acid (HA) secretion, and HA synthases (HAS) were measured. Next-generation sequencing and gene expression analysis of the whole genome were performed, as well as real-time-PCR of selected genes and global DNA methylation assay on orbital fibroblasts from 6 patients with GO and 6 control patients from a referral center.

Results

Cell proliferation was higher in GO than in control fibroblasts. Likewise, HA in the cell medium was higher in GO fibroblasts. HAS-1 and HAS-2 did not differ between GO and control fibroblasts, whereas HAS-3 was more expressed in GO fibroblasts. No relevant gene variants were detected by whole-genome sequencing. However, 58 genes were found to be differentially expressed in GO compared with control fibroblasts, and RT-PCR confirmed the findings in 10 selected genes. We postulated that the differential gene expression was related to an epigenetic mechanism, reflecting diverse DNA methylation, which we therefore measured. In support of our hypothesis, global DNA methylation was significantly higher in GO fibroblasts.

Conclusions

We propose that, following an autoimmune insult, DNA methylation elicits differential gene expression and sustains the maintenance of GO.
Androgen Misuse and Abuse
Authors: Handelsman David J
Published: January 2021

Androgens are potent drugs requiring prescription for valid medical indications but are misused for invalid, unproven, or off-label reasons as well as being abused without prescription for illicit nonmedical application for performance or image enhancement. Following discovery and first clinical application of testosterone in the 1930s, commercialization of testosterone and synthetic androgens proliferated in the decades after World War II. It remains among the oldest marketed drugs in therapeutic use, yet after 8 decades of clinical use, the sole unequivocal indication for testosterone remains in replacement therapy for pathological hypogonadism, organic disorders of the male reproductive system. Nevertheless, wider claims assert unproven, unsafe, or implausible benefits for testosterone, mostly representing wishful thinking about rejuvenation. Over recent decades, this created an epidemic of testosterone misuse involving prescription as a revitalizing tonic for anti-aging, sexual dysfunction and/or obesity, where efficacy and safety remains unproven and doubtful. Androgen abuse originated during the Cold War as an epidemic of androgen doping among elite athletes for performance enhancement before the 1980s when it crossed over into the general community to become an endemic variant of drug abuse in sufficiently affluent communities that support an illicit drug industry geared to bodybuilding and aiming to create a hypermasculine body physique and image. This review focuses on the misuse of testosterone, defined as prescribing without valid clinical indications, and abuse of testosterone or synthetic androgens (androgen abuse), defined as the illicit use of androgens without prescription or valid indications, typically by athletes, bodybuilders and others for image-oriented, cosmetic, or occupational reasons.
Choosing Plan B Over Plan A: Risk Compensation Theory and Contraceptive Choice in India
Authors: Shukla Pallavi , Pullabhotla Hemant Kumar , Arends-Kuenning Mary
Published: January 2021

Can women's contraceptive method choice be better understood through risk compensation theory? This theory implies that people act with greater care when the perceived risk of an activity is higher and with less care when it is lower. We examine how increased over-the-counter access to emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs) accompanied by marketing campaigns in India affected women's contraceptive method choices and incidence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Although ECPs substantially reduce the risk of pregnancy, they are less effective than other contraceptive methods and do not reduce the risk of STIs. We test whether an exogenous policy change that increased access to ECPs leads people to substitute away from other methods of contraception, such as condoms, thereby increasing the risk of both unintended pregnancy and STIs. We find evidence for risk compensation in terms of reduced use of condoms but not for increases in rates of STIs.
Between Archives
Authors: Gelfand Rachel
Published: January 2021

Drawing on critical aging studies, this article argues that queer relations inform understandings of loss, family, and belonging. What happens when older adults review, rehearse, and reappropriate historical texts? What is possible when archives serve as a space of dialogue? How do aging and death impact queer memory transmission? The article analyzes research methods while examining queer family as a tool for intergenerational collaboration. This work rethinks designations of “generation” and “aging” by applying nonheteronormative frameworks.
Edward the Confessor
Authors: Licence Tom
Published: January 2021

One of the last kings of Anglo-Saxon England, Edward the Confessor regained the throne for the House of Wessex and is the only English monarch to have been canonized. Often cast as a reluctant ruler, easily manipulated by his in-laws, he has been blamed for causing the invasion of 1066—the last successful conquest of England by a foreign power. This book navigates the contemporary webs of political deceit to present a strikingly different Edward. He was a compassionate man and conscientious ruler, whose reign marked an interval of peace and prosperity between periods of strife. More than any monarch before, he exploited the mystique of royalty to capture the hearts of his subjects. This book provides a much-needed reassessment of Edward's reign—calling into doubt the legitimacy of his successors and rewriting the ending of Anglo-Saxon England.
Peppermint Kings
Authors: Allosso Dan
Published: January 2021

This unconventional history relates the engaging and unusual stories of three families in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries whose involvement in the peppermint oil industry provides insights into the perspectives and concerns of rural people of their time. Challenging the standard paradigms, the book focuses on the rural characters who lived by their own rules and did not acquiesce to contemporary religious doctrines, business mores, and political expediencies. The Ranneys, a secular family in a very religious time and place; the Hotchkisses, who ran banks and printed their own money while the Lincoln administration was eliminating state banking; and the Todd family, who incorporated successful business practices with populist socialism, all highlight the untold story of rural America's engagement with the capitalist marketplace. The families' atypical attitudes and activities offer unexpected perspectives on rural business and life.
Henry III
Authors: Carpenter David
Published: January 2021

Nine years of age when he came to the throne in 1216, Henry III had to rule within the limits set by the establishment of Magna Carta and the emergence of parliament. Pacific, conciliatory, and deeply religious, Henry brought many years of peace to England and rebuilt Westminster Abbey in honour of his patron saint, Edward the Confessor. He poured money into embellishing his palaces and creating a magnificent court. Yet this investment in ‘soft power’ did not prevent a great revolution in 1258, led by Simon de Montfort, ending Henry's personal rule. This book brings to life Henry's character and reign as never before. The book stresses the king's achievements as well as his failures while offering an entirely new perspective on the intimate connections between medieval politics and religion.
The Good Glow
Authors: Dean Jon
Published: January 2021

We praise those people who do things for others. But the symbolic power of giving means individuals can take advantage of the glow of ‘goodness’ that charity provides. This book analyses the reality of how charity operates in the social world; how the personal benefits of giving and volunteering are vital for getting charitable acts to happen; how the altruism associated with gifts isn't always what it seems; how charity misbehaviour or bad management gets overlooked; and how charity symbols are weaponised against those who don't participate. Drawing on original data and a novel application of the sociology of Bourdieu, this book examines a wide range of examples from culture, politics and society to provide an entertaining critique of how contemporary charity works.
The Property Lobby
Authors: Colenutt Bob
Published: January 2021

Book Abstract: Despite countless reports and Government policy announcements on the housing crisis over decades, the scale and depth of the crisis continues. Homelessness, shortages of social housing, rents and house prices continue rise year on year. The word affordability has become meaningless. Land landowners and housebuilders and property investors have made huge profits out of this crisis. This book focusing in examples from London and Northamptonshire examines the power of the ‘finance-housebuilding ’ complex arguing that this property lobby is the main blockage for change and reform. It explains why the housing and planning system has become increasingly dysfunctional over the last 40 years accelerating with the impact of the 2008 Crash. The book gives examples of how the property lobby has been highly effective in manipulating Government housing and planning policy for its own benefit, to the detriment of those in housing need. It shows how the housebuilders business model, backed by Government grants and subsidies, has played a central role in perpetuating the crisis. The property lobby has succeeded in diverting attention from themselves onto the town planning system which has been scapegoated for holding back new house building. The result is that the housing crisis and the power behind it is hard baked into the UK economy. It must be addressed by radical reform of the property, planning and finance system. Without these reforms homelessness, poor housing, and lack of affordability will continue indefinitely.
After a decade of austerity, does the UK have an income safety net worth its name?
Authors: Hirsch Donald
Published: January 2021

This chapter explores the evolution of the level of benefits entitlement of different UK families and whether these are enough to meet minimum needs. It uses the Minimum Income Standard, a family-specific budget derived by iterative group discussions between people from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds, supplemented by selective inputs from nutrition, domestic, and transportation experts. Since 2010, safety net benefits have declined but pensioners' entitlements are much closer to what they need (just over 90 per cent). This ties into the widespread perception that pensioners have been protected from the worst effects of austerity. On average, families with children get slightly over half and singles without children only a third. The chapter concludes that although the UK's safety net benefits have never maintained a systematic link with need, they have recently become less adequate and more arbitrary. It provides a strong case for strengthening the link between basic household needs and government safety net benefits.
Poverty as an attack on subjectivity: the case of shame
Authors: Schoneville Holger
Published: January 2021

In his chapter Holger Schoneville argues that a social work perspective on poverty has to be informed by a theory of subjectivity. He sets out to show what such a perspective entails and what role emotions, such as shame, play within it. He illustrates his argument through a research project that he conducted. One of the central questions of the project was, how people who are users of food banks in Germany experience their life and what these experiences mean for them in terms of their self-relationship and self-concept. The interviews with users of food banks reveal, that the emotion of shame is especially virulent when it comes to poverty. The analysis points out, that poverty not only means that people are faced with a lack of resources, but it also means that they are forced into living circumstances in which they face contradictions regarding their (self) expectations and their everyday reality. The chapter therefore highlights how the structure of social inequality, institutional forms of welfare and shame are interlinked.
Shame, mistakes and reflective practice in social work
Authors: Sicora Alessandro
Published: January 2021

Alessandro Sicora, author of the chapter, argues that even for the social workers the shift from ‘I/you made a mistake’ to ‘I am/You are a mistake’, that is ‘I am/you are a failure as a practitioner or even as a person’ is easy and common, and shame may be the resulting feeling. Even if criticism may be feedback useful for giving constructive opportunities to learn from mistakes, is more often felt by people as an attack on, and a sabotage of, their own self-confidence, and this more commonly produces shame and, consequently in many cases, a defensive reaction, rather than listening and reflecting. In these circumstances, learning from mistakes becomes almost impossible. This chapter also presents some examples of short reflective writing by social workers and social work students who made an in-depth structured reflection on some of their most relevant experiences in relation to this issue.
Poverty-aware social work: a paradigmatic proposal1
Authors: Krumer-Nevo Michal
Published: January 2021

This chapter provides a full overview of the theoretical principles of the Poverty-Aware Paradigm (PAP). Following a brief introduction of the concept of the paradigm and a discussion of its contribution, the chapter goes on to describe the PAP and its ontological, epistemological, and axiological premises and their influence on social work practice. The chapter compares the PAP and the two historically dominant social work paradigms—the conservative and the structural. The conservative paradigm, with its distinction between the deserving and undeserving poor, notions of the “culture of poverty”, “underclass”, and the currently popular neuroscience of poverty, is strongly challenged in this chapter. The structural paradigm is presented as offering a fruitful analysis of poverty. However, it has not inspired direct practice on a large scale. The chapter builds upon the structural paradigm and combines it with concepts from critical theories and current psychoanalytic concepts to present the PAP as a useful paradigm for analysis and practice.
How to teach poverty critically
Authors: Krumer-Nevo Michal
Published: January 2021

The third chapter of Part One deals with transformational teaching and describes the challenge of unveiling social workers’ basic conservative conceptual framework and replacing it with a critical one. Drawing upon responses of students in PAP courses, the chapter presents this challenge as containing both cognitive and emotional aspects. It addresses the issues of deconstructing conservative attitudes during teaching without attacking or blaming students, connecting knowledge and attitudes in practice, and the role of an ongoing dialogue in transformational teaching. The chapter concludes with guidelines for handling these issues.
Between Othering and solidarity: crisis intervention with children at risk
Authors: Krumer-Nevo Michal
Published: January 2021

The third chapter of Part Four of the book tells the story of a social worker who came to an apartment following a complaint from the neighbours that young children had been left there on their own only to discover that the apartment was flooded with sewage. The response of the social worker is analysed as an example of a ‘standing against’ position. The possibility of standing by is presented in the chapter as a tentative choice.
The Criminology of Boxing, Violence and Desistance
Authors: Jump Deborah
Published: January 2021

There is an assumption in criminal justice that boxing will immediately work to reduce offending among young men. Many practitioners cite discipline and respect as the desisting elements inherent in a boxing gym. Undoubtedly, these discourses do exist, yet, what if the discipline and the respect garnered in the gym are used for other purposes that are not always conducive to the desistance process? This book will unpick how effective boxing actually is in reducing violent attitudes, and how to ensure that the messages in the gym environment do not support negative attitudes often found outside the ring. Using classic desistance literature (Giordano 2002; Maruna 2001), I make suggestions that are grounded in evidence and theory. Using case studies, and life history interviewing drawn from a psychosocial perspective (Jefferson and Hollway 2000; Gadd 2007; Maruna 2001), this book builds on techniques that uncover the more clandestine reasons for choosing boxing. Working within this psychosocial framework, the desire and the appealing nature of boxing, more often than not, comes from a place of anxiety rather than strength. I will present arguments that suggest boxing’s appeal lies in its capacity to develop ‘physical capital’ (Wacquant 2004), and prevent repeat victimisation. Using case studies, I will reveal stories of men’s victimhood, either via gang violence, domestic violence, or structural disadvantage. I will tell the story of how boxing reshaped their identities and self-concepts, and how the gym came to represent a fraternity and a ‘island of stability and order’ (Wacquant 2004). Additionally, I will present arguments that suggest that boxing is not a panacea for all social ills, and while it has its benefits, it also has a darker side that is coterminous with hyper- masculine discourses of violence, respect, and avoidance of shame.
What Do We Know about the Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children? Implications for Research and Practice
Authors: Brown Sarah
Published: January 2021

This chapter takes a critical view of the prevention and intervention approaches used in children sexual exploitation (CSE) in the UK. The author presents an exploration of the way risk, vulnerability and educative responses to CSE may perpetuate victim blaming of children and misuse ‘prevention’ approaches. The chapter includes an examination of the evidence base, literature and practice knowledge that is available or lacking in CSE. The author will explore myths, misconceptions and biases in CSE that have led to responses and preventative practice which is steeped in rape myths. The final conclusions will move the field towards trauma-focussed, anti-victim-blaming approaches to supporting children affected by CSE.
Behavioural Crime Linkage in Rape and Sexual Assault Cases
Authors: Burrell Amy , Tonkin Matthew
Published: January 2021

Behavioural crime linkage (BCL) analyses offender crime scene behaviour with the aim of identifying groups of crimes that share similar (and distinctive) behaviours. This allows police to infer that the same person/s were responsible for crimes, allowing them to be “linked” as a crime series. Successful BCL can increase the quantity and quality of evidence available to the police, which increase the likelihood of apprehending and successfully prosecuting the offender. This chapter will review the theoretical framework underpinning BCL (behavioural consistency and behavioural distinctiveness) and summarise key literature on rape and sexual assault - including the latest, cutting-edge, collaborative work jointly-led by academics and law enforcement practitioners. The chapter will also outline (using real life case studies) how BCL can be used to support the investigation of sexual offences, and will critically discuss future research directions and how this work might enhance the detection, prosecution, and prevention of serial sexual offending.
Bourdieu and Affect
Authors: Threadgold Steven
Published: January 2021

A Bourdieusian contribution to studies of affect provides a more comprehensive understanding of the everyday moments that make, transform and remake the social contours of inequality, and how those relations are contested and resisted. By teasing out the affective elements already implicit in concepts like habitus, illusio, cultural capital, field and symbolic violence, this book develops a theory of affective affinities to consider how emotions and feelings are central to how class is affectively delineated along with material and symbolic relations. This includes theorising habitus as one’s history rolled up into an affective ball of immanent dispositions, an assemblage of embodied affective charges. Sketching fields as having their own affective atmospheres and structures of feeling, while considering everyday settings that the concept of field cannot capture. Drawing upon illusio, social gravity and social magic to unpack how the embodied nature of the forms of capital mean they operate in affective economies mediating transmissions of affective violence. The book concludes by critically engaging with aspects of social change due to the rise of reflexivity, irony and cynicism and proposing the figure of the accumulated being to challenge the dominance of homo economicus.
Stasis and Change: Innovators, Affective Poles, Reflexivity, Irony
Authors: Threadgold Steven
Published: January 2021

Chapter Six considers aspects of social change through a Bourdieusian lens. It outlines the autonomous and heteronomous poles of fields, emphasising their affective nature. The chapter uses the examples of subversive innovators and how the importing of illusio from different fields can affect an individual’s disposition to illustrate how change occurs. It then examines recent social changes around the rise of reflexivity, irony, cynicism and anxiety. In a precarious global labour market, where even the well-educated experience forms of insecurity about the future, reflexive and ironic ways of being are becoming normalized, while mental health issues effect an ever-greater proportion of the population. This produces a relation of cruel optimism. If the illusio of specific fields increasingly come under scrutiny as being unachievable, unsustainable or violent, this may open a space for emancipatory social change.
The Politics and Ethics of Fieldwork in Post-conflict Environments: The Dilemmas of a Vocational Approach
Authors: Heathershaw John , Mullojonov Parviz
Published: January 2021

This chapter focuses on the field research of John Heathershaw and Parviz Mullojonov. It illustrates the slippery slope that research in violent and closed contexts can be despite complying with the tight institutional ethics and risk assessment procedures of a UK university. It refers to the case of the detention of a Tajik researcher by Tajik security agencies, which discuss the limits of the procedural approach to research ethics and security currently employed by many universities in the Global North. The chapter looks into the dilemmas of researcher and research participant safety and trade-offs between access and impartiality. It argues that conscious vocational engagement with the field can help make better choices and fully overcome the interlinked dilemmas explored.
Challenges of Research in an Active Conflict Environment
Authors: Sangaré Boukary , Bleck Jaimie
Published: January 2021

This chapter highlights context-specific safety protocols and procedures of research in a highly violent context. It mentions the experience of Boukary Sangaré and Jaimie Bleck on conducting research in Central and Northern Mali across the lines of North–South collaboration. It discusses strategies of fieldwork in areas of armed conflict where the state of Mali has almost disappeared. The chapter recommends closed collaborations between foreign and local researchers to show that safety in high-risk contexts is dependent on up-to-date information from local networks that is continuously fed into the security assessment. It also cautions that risk assessments always have to consider the long-term effects of research as violent situations can be highly volatile, making what was safe yesterday potentially dangerous tomorrow.
On Assessing Risk Assessments and Situating Security Advice: The Unsettling Quest for ‘Security Expertise’
Authors: Verweijen Judith
Published: January 2021

This chapter tackles the challenges of security in violent research contexts. It offers in-depth insights into how Judith Verwejien assessed security risks when she researched micro-dynamics of conflict in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It also details practical forms of preparation for potential harm and how to avoid it, such as analyzing patterns of kidnappings or imaging an ambush and practising how to behave in such a situation. The chapter shows that the combination of good security analysis and realistic preparations can help minimize risks even in a highly violent context such as eastern DRC. It also analyzes what counts as knowledge on security dynamics and how does this knowledge translate into guidelines for action.
Being Watched and Being Handled
Authors: Driscoll Jesse
Published: January 2021

This chapter explores how risk assessments at universities in the Global North revolve around the Northern researcher and their associates and participants. It looks into the wider and longer-term consequences of researcher behaviour in the field that are less considered or understood. It also discusses Jesse Driscoll's fieldwork in the context of research in illiberal states. By employing a game-theoretical model that draws on extensive fieldwork experiences in Central Asia and the south Caucasus, the chapter shows the stakes involved in the game for two types of players: a bureaucrat in the security sector of the state where the research is taking place and a researcher who wants to publish critical aspects of the politics of the state in question. It highlights the potential dangers of academic work that interprets the role of the researcher in an oppressive context, as well as that of a social and political activist.
Positioning in an Insecure Field: Reflections on Negotiating Identity
Authors: Clausen Maria-Louise
Published: January 2021

This chapter looks into the negotiations of identity and positionality that take place during fieldwork. It conveys gender, culture, and educational and professional backgrounds as factors that contribute to the closeness and distance between researcher and researched. It also discusses Maria-Louise Clausen's reflections on the question of distance and closeness during fieldwork in Yemen's capital Sana'a. The chapter talks about the balance of security concerns with being a white female researcher in a highly conservative Islamic context. It highlights Clausen's experience that shows how binary categories may be more nuanced at the interplay of gender and nationality, such as the male–female gender bias that is expected to shape conservative society.
Lifting the Burden? The Ethical Implications of Studying Exemplary, Not Pathological, Wartime Sexual Conduct
Authors: Sellström Angela Muvumba
Published: January 2021

This chapter examines Angela Muvumba Sellström's fieldwork and encounters with non-state armed groups in Burundi, South Africa, and Uganda that established sexual discipline among their commanders and foot-soldiers. It reflects on ethical dilemmas of conducting research on “non-cases” of wartime sexual violence among armed groups that have regulated sex in wartime conduct. It focuses on the non-use of sex as a weapon of war that may acquit armed groups from other human rights violations they may have committed. The chapter mentions some sexual-violence survivors who are unwittingly silenced by a certain research focus even after the armed groups have regulated sexual conduct. It analyzes the regulation of sexual conduct that may be based on the male leadership of the armed group rather than female sexual autonomy, which may foster entrenched gender inequalities in society.
South Sudanese Women on the Move: An Account of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda
Authors: Lopidia Rita M. , Hall Lucy
Published: January 2021

This chapter offers a personal reflection of Rita M. Lopidia’s journey into activism on matters related to Women, Peace and Security (WPS) in South Sudan. In this chapter, Rita discusses her first-hand experience of feminist advocacy in relation to WPS in South Sudan and transnationally. Rita is the co-founder of EVE organisation, which under Rita’s leadership has played a critical role in monitoring the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 in South Sudan. This chapter focuses on the work involved in monitoring the implementation of UNSCR 1325, and the opportunities and obstacles activists face. Rita describes her personal experience of advocacy in the region and at the UN Security Council level. To conclude, Rita explains the local context and the future of the women’s movement in South Sudan, with reference to the intersections between WPS with UNSCR 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security. Rita’s tireless advocacy and work addressing gendered violence, justice, peace and security is an awe-inspiring example of the connectedness between the normative gains of WPS and the on the ground realities of ensuring women’s voices are heard at the negotiating table.
Difficult Encounters with the WPS Agenda in South Asia: Re-scripting Globalized Norms and Policy Frameworks for a Feminist Peace
Authors: Manchanda Rita
Published: January 2021

The chapter draws upon scholarship and gender expertise, primarily from South Asia, on the everyday resistance and resilience of local women negotiating multiple militarised patriarchies in the conflict continuum, to critically assess the limits and scope of leveraging the WPS agenda to build a transformative peace. It teases out the plural and contextual meanings of militarisation, peace and justice, emphasising the intersecting structures of disadvantage and discrimination which shape women’s experiences of insecurity. Confronting ‘post conflict’ transitions that likely deliver a violent peace or internal domination, the chapter questions the presumed apolitical engagement of women with peace and calls for attention to their resistance to the crisis of solutions delivered by the hegemonic neo liberal peace and development template. The chapter makes a case for bringing in the concept of ‘resistance’ into the WPS agenda, as it is integral to the collective mobilization of the region’s peace groups as well as women’s alliances with social movements for socio-economic justice and cultural rights. Finally, it outlines how the region’s gender equality and peace advocates have expanded openings for WPS practices in other institutional contexts such as CEDAW.
Best Practice Diplomacy and Feminist Killjoys in the Strategic State: Exploring the Affective Politics of Women, Peace and Security
Authors: Lyytikäinen Minna , Jauhola Marjaana
Published: January 2021

“And then I sNAPped”. How does it feel to snap at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, at a meeting taking stock of the progress of the UNSCR1325 National Action Plan? This paper is a response to the affective sites of Women, Peace and Security politics and the ways in which academic/activist knowledge has become (un)used by the strategic state. We identify moments of feminist killjoyism, which we call sNAPping, in the context of the wider transition from state feminism to the need to engage with the neoliberal governmentalities of the strategic state”. Our contribution is an auto-ethnographic reflection by two researcher-activists who participated in the multi-stage government-led process of drafting and launching the third Finnish UNSCR1325 National Action Plan and were also the authors of three key advocacy texts. We have used our experiences in such encounters as ethnographic research material to interrogate and analyse the feminist affects of sNAPping.
Saving Realist Prudence
Authors: Guzzini Stefano
Published: January 2021

This chapter argues that, rather than seeing realist constructivisms as a combination of two explanatory theories, they should be viewed as combinations of different types of theorising. They combines a political theory informed by realism (based on power politics) that, in turn, informs a realist foreign policy strategy and morality based on a prudential check on power, with an explanatory theory largely informed by constructivism. In this way, combining realism and constructivism can be seen as an attempt to think the different layers of IR theorising in parallel, and yet to explore new combinations not within but across types of theorising.
What Factors Determine Changes in House Prices and Rents?
Authors: Meen Geoffrey , Whitehead Christine
Published: January 2021

Whatever measure of affordability is used house prices and rents play a central role and Chapter 3 is concerned with what causes these two variables to change over time and vary across different parts of the country. Although increases in house prices have been particularly strong in the UK by international standards, other countries are also discussed. In fact, house price trends and volatility can be explained by a fairly small number of variables – and their influence has been remarkably consistent over the last fifty years. The problem has been rather that house prices are very sensitive to changes in incomes, interest rates and credit conditions and these vary greatly over time. Therefore, modest changes in macroeconomic conditions have disproportionate effects on housing. UK empirical work on market rents is less well-developed than for house prices, but the chapter considers the reasons why rents appear to have risen at a slower rate than house prices.
Subsidizing the Supply of Rental Housing
Authors: Meen Geoffrey , Whitehead Christine
Published: January 2021

Chapter 11 discusses subsidies to the supply of rental housing. The traditional approach has been to subsidise first local authorities and then housing associations to produce additional social housing. Later the emphasis shifted to introducing private finance and recycling past subsidy to provide a range of affordable housing products. Additionally, the planning system was modified to make it possible to require the provision of affordable housing on residential development sites. Allocation principles have also changed, moving away from accommodating lower-income working households to emphasising provision for vulnerable households of all types. Here we examine the impact of changing financing mechanisms on the capacity to add to the housing stock; the types of provision; and the rents that are charged across the country. We also consider the impact of Right to Buy and other approaches to transferring accommodation between tenures. Finally, we look to comparable international experience.
Conclusion
Authors: Gessler Anne
Published: January 2021

The conclusion assesses the role and significance of each cooperative within the broader New Orleans cooperative movement. Locally responsive, internationally inspired New Orleanian cooperative-city partnerships continue to provide a scalable model of equitable bioregionalism promoting economic and environmental sustainability. Rooted in specific neighborhoods and organized by longtime community activists, glocalized cooperatives intimately understand resident needs and draw on a common community identity and mutual aid traditions to recruit members. Ultimately, New Orleans’s internationally-inspired cooperatives can be models for other marginalized communities seeking democratic alternatives to both free market globalism and unchecked nationalism.
New and Improved? Disability and Monstrosity in Gail Simone’s Batgirl
Authors: Fabricius Charlotte Johanne
Published: January 2021

This chapter examines how the miraculous recovery of the character Barbara Gordon/Batgirl may erase the powerful subversive potential in Barbara’s previous, disabled manifestation as Oracle and instead, may perpetuate the status quo in superhero comics for compulsory able-bodiedness. The author of this chapter analyzes how disability and gender intersect in Batgirl and asks critical questions about whether Barbara becomes, in some ways, more monstrous by passing as an able-bodied “girl” and how that representation relates to broader cultural ideals of embodiment and femininity.
“Goin’ Native!”: Depictions of the First Peoples from “Down Under”
Authors: Ford Jack , Cass Philip
Published: January 2021

Jack Ford and Philip Cass provide a critical overview of the history of absenting and misrepresenting Indigenous peoples of Australasia. And while they point out that the Australian and New Zealand comics markets were much smaller than those of the US, there was still a tradition of white male comic book storytellers creating both racist stereotypes and also complex Maori and Aboriginal characters and stories.
Text und Data-Mining – juristische Fallstricke und bibliothekarische Handlungsfelder
Authors: Brettschneider Peter
Published: January 2021

2018 wurde im deutschen Urheberrecht mit § 60d UrhG eine gesetzliche Erlaubnis für Text- und Data-Mining eingeführt. Inzwischen konnte praktische Erfahrung mit der Anwendung dieser Norm gesammelt werden. Der Aufsatz geht sowohl aus bibliothekarischer als auch juristischer Sicht auf die dabei aufgetauchten Hürden ein und bietet eine Vorschau auf die bevorstehende Novellierung der Norm im Zuge der EU-Richtlinie 2019/790.
Error simulation modeling to assess the effects of bias and precision on bilirubin measurements used to screen for neonatal hyperbilirubinemia
Authors: Jara Aguirre Jose C. , Norgan Andrew P. , Cook Walter J. , Karon Brad S.
Published: January 2021

Objectives

Error simulation models have been used to understand the relationship between analytical performance and clinical outcomes. We developed an error simulation model to understand the effects of method bias and precision on misclassification rate for neonatal hyperbilirubinemia using an age-adjusted risk assessment tool.

Methods

For each of 176 measured total bilirubin (TSBM) values, 10,000 simulated total bilirubin (TBS) values were generated at each combination of bias and precision conditions for coefficient of variation (CV) between 1 and 15%, and for biases between −51.3 μmol/L and 51.3 μmol/L (−3 and 3 mg/dL) fixed bias. TBS values were analyzed to determine if they were in the same risk zone as the TSBM value. We then calculated sensitivity and specificity for prediction of ≥75th percentile for postnatal age values as a function of assay bias and precision, and determined the rate of critical errors (≥95th percentile for age TSBM with <75th percentile TBS).

Results

A sensitivity >95% for predicting ≥75th percentile bilirubin values was observed when there is a positive fixed bias of greater than 17.1 μmol/L (1.0 mg/dL) and CV is maintained ≤10%. A specificity >70% for predicting <75th percentile bilirubin values was observed when positive systematic bias was 17.1 μmol/L (1 mg/dL) or less at CV ≤ 10%. Critical errors did not occur with a frequency >0.2% until negative bias was −17.1 μmol/L (−1 mg/dL) or lower.

Conclusions

A positive systematic bias of 17.1 μmol/L (1 mg/dL) may be optimal for balancing sensitivity and specificity for predicting ≥75th percentile TSB values. Negative systematic bias should be avoided to allow detection of high risk infants and avoid critical classification errors.
Creating and applying a narrative-semiosis model
Authors: Song Hyosup
Published: January 2021

In this study, I explore a new model of narrative that contains interactions between three levels of story – narrative story, cognitive story, and social story. With this new model, narrative is no longer a static form but rather a whole signifying process among levels. I term this new model narrative-semiosis. The narrative-semiosis model in this study is closely related to the six elements of Jakobson’s communication model. In my new model, cognitive story exists in the minds of both the addresser and addressee, and social story exists in the context where human beings think and perform in the real world. Cognitive story is inferred from the message that is in a narrative story. In this paper, I describe the semiotic interactions among the three levels of stories, not unidirectional but bidirectional, in my narrative-semiosis model. I also validate my model by applying it to a traditional Korean shaman epic Danggumagi and a painting text, Sun and Moon, describing their semiotic narrative signification.
Peirce and learning theory
Authors: Campbell Cary
Published: January 2021

Peirce Section editor, Cary Campbell introduces a series of three commissioned articles. Together, they serve to present and contextualize the broad relevance of Peirce’s philosophy and semiotics for the contemporary study of learning. Some key Peircean ideas and context are touched on, such as: the transdisciplinary nature of Peirce research and its connections to learning theory and education; an account of “Peirce as teacher” and Peirce’s own relationship to pedagogical topics; the broad significance of understanding learning-as-semiosis; and the importance of synechism (Peirce’s doctrine of continuity) for research into learning and education.
A semiotic model of learning
Authors: Strand Torill
Published: January 2021

My ambition with this paper is to throw some light on Charles S. Peirce’s (1839–1914) semiotic model of learning. Peirce developed this model in his later writings, where he integrated his phenomenology, pragmatism, and semiotics while renewing all three. I start by introducing an analogy on pedagogy used by Peirce in one of his 1903 lectures on phenomenology. Next, I sketch out Peirce’s perspective on the ways in which we learn from experience. In the last section, I map out Peirce’s semiotic model, while indicating some prospects and limitations of a Peircean outlook on the paradoxical attributions of knowledge and learning.
3-D printed CDRA for radiation beam reconfigurability and beamforming in C-band
Authors: Apparao Maganti , Karunakar Godi
Published: January 2021

In this article, the design of a radiation beam-reconfigurable antenna using the reflector pins is presented. The reflector pins make a short or open connection with the ground, via switches and Plated Through Hole (PTH), which helps in controlling radiation characteristics of the proposed antenna. This design contains a simple 3D printed Cylindrical Dielectric Resonator Antenna that is located at the center of the substrate. The beam-sweeping of the antenna is attained by operating switches in different combinations of ON and OFF states. The reconfigurable CDRA operates at 4.5 GHz and covers all azimuth angles in four steps with a maximum measured gain of 6.6 dBi. This beam-switching antenna is very advantageous because of its trait of eliminating fade zones and beamforming.
Lithopetrographic and geochemical features of the Saalian tills in the Szczerców outcrop (Poland) in various deformation settings
Authors: Wachecka-Kotkowska Lucyna , Krzyszkowski Dariusz , Wieczorek Dariusz , Boswell Steven , Myśkow Elżbieta
Published: January 2021

This paper presents the results of new studies of Saalian tills, from the Ławki and Rogowiec formations, filling the Kleszczów Graben. The study area is located in the Szczerców outcrop, Bełchatów Lignite Opencast Mine, central Poland. Laboratory studies included macrofossil analysis of the deposits, as well as petrographic and geochemical (neodymium isotope ratio) measurements. The studies were carried out in 2014–2016 and resulted in both establishing the sedimentary Saalian complex and constructing geological cross-sections and a synthetic lithostratigraphic profile. Development of sediments in this part of the Kleszczów Graben in the Pleistocene was largely influenced by tectonic factors (Chabielice fault, Dębina Salt Dome) and glacitectonic processes (Wartanian Glaciation). The Saalian tills (T4 – Ławki and T7 – Rogowiec lithotypes) are between the Holsteinian sand with macroremnants of trees and the Eemian gyttja and peat. Petrographic coefficients for lithotype T4 (Ławki Formation) are 1.33–1.06–1.01 and 0.12 and for lithotype T7 (Rogowiec Formation) are 1.29–1.23–1.04 and 0.12. Investigations of the Nd isotopic compositions of the studied samples reinforce our interpretations of till deformation and tentative lithostratigraphic correlations. Neodymium isotope ratios “P” (−14.4 ± 0.7) and “D” (−12.4 ± 0.3) ε
Nd values (2σ) correspond to mean signatures of Saalian glacigenic moraine sediment. This proves that ε
Nd values less than −12.4 reflect the southern Fennoscandian Ice Sheet sediment provenance, but ε
Nd values greater than −12.4 indicate the western European origin.
The key to the solution of the world crisis we face
Authors: Maxwell Nicholas
Published: January 2021

Humanity faces two fundamental problems of learning: learning about the universe, and learning to become civilized. We have solved the first problem, but not the second one, and that puts us in a situation of great danger. Almost all of our global problems have arisen as a result. It has become a matter of extreme urgency to solve the second problem. The key to this is to learn from our solution to the first problem how to solve the second one. This was the basic idea of the 18th century Enlightenment, but in implementing this idea, the Enlightenment blundered. Their mistakes are still built into academia today. In order to le arn how to create a civilized, enlightened world, the key thing we need to do is to cure academia of the structural blunders we have inherited from the Enlightenment. We need to bring about a revolution in science, and in academia more broadly so that the basic aim becomes wisdom, and not just knowledge.