bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
DIVERSIFICAÇÃO DAS RECEITAS E RISCO DE INSOLVÊNCIA DOS BANCOS BRASILEIROS
Authors: Vieira Carlos André Marinho , Girão Luiz Felipe De Araújo Pontes
Published: January 2017

Este estudo teve por objetivo investigar a relação entre a diversificação das receitas dos bancos brasileiros e sua relação com o risco de insolvência. A amostra foi composta por bancos de capital aberto ou não no período de 1996 a 2013. Os resultados indicam que a diversificação das receitas dos bancos, medida pelo Índice Herfindahl-Hirschman e pelo número de setores nos quais cada instituição opera não influenciou o risco de insolvência dos bancos, medido pelo Z-score. Evidências indicam que o crescimento dos ativos aumenta o risco de insolvência, enquanto que o tamanho e a capitalização estão negativamente relacionados. O Z-score também foi considerado sensível a fatores como o crescimento do Produto Interno Bruto e a concorrência, onde o crescimento econômico sinaliza um menor risco, enquanto que a concorrência aumenta o risco individual destas instituições.
RELAÇÃO ENTRE O NÍVEL DE INTANGIBILIDADE DOS ATIVOS E O VALOR DE MERCADO DAS EMPRESAS
Authors: Medrado Franciele , Cella Gilson , Pereira João Vicente , Dantas José Alves
Published: January 2017

Este estudo tem por objetivo avaliar se, no âmbito do mercado de capitais brasileiro, há associação entre o nível de intangibilidade dos ativos e a valor de mercado das ações das empresas. O pressuposto é que modelos de negócio baseados significativamente em conhecimento e tecnologias devem promover vantagens competitivas, o que deve se refletir no valor de mercado das empresas. Para a realização dos testes empíricos foram consideradas as informações trimestrais, de 2008 a 2014, das empresas que compõem o índice IBrX 100 da BM&FBovespa. Os resultados da estimação de modelos de regressão de dados em painel com efeitos fixos seccionais e duplo efeitos fixos confirmaram a associação positiva e estatisticamente relevante entre o nível de intangibilidade dos ativos e o grau de valorização das ações, representado pela relação market-to-book. Isso demonstra que maiores investimentos em ativos intangíveis proporcionam uma valorização do preço de mercado da empresa.
Revision of fossil Bibionidae (Insecta: Diptera) from French Oligocene deposits
Authors: SKARTVEIT JOHN , NEL ANDRÉ
Published: January 2017

All available material of fossil Bibionidae from French Oligocene localities, including the German locality of Kleinkembs right next to the border with France, is revised, and the species redescribed. Several publications (notably Heer 1856, Oustalet 1870 and Théobald 1937) have dealt with this material but there is a large degree of duplication leading to numerous synonyms. In addition, many of the named species have been assigned to the wrong genus. We have found seven species of Penthetria, eleven species of Plecia, seven species of Bibio and a single species of Dilophus in the material of previously named species. Three new species, Penthetria luberonica sp. n., Bibio aquaesextiae sp. n. and Bibiodes provincialis sp. n. are described from French Oligocene localities. The following new combinations are proposed: Penthetria claripennis (Théobald, 1937), Penthetria gigantea (Théobald, 1937), Penthetria graciliventris (Théobald, 1937), Penthetria longiventris (Théobald, 1937), Penthetria nervisinuata (Théobald, 1937), Penthetria subterranea (Théobald, 1937), Plecia morio (Heer, 1849), Bibio major (Oustalet, 1870), Dilophus luteipennis (Théobald, 1937). Many of the species occur from several outcrops, and distinctive faunas can be recognized from Early Oligocene (e.g., Célas and Monteils), Middle Oligocene (e.g., Céreste and Bois d’Asson) and Late Oligocene (e.g. Aix-en-Provence and the German outcrop of Rott). The late Oligocene localities also share some species with the Early Miocene locality of Radoboj, Croatia, but none with the younger locality of Öhningen, Southern Germany. For a number of named species, the type material is poorly preserved and cannot be recognized at the species level, these are commented on and assigned to the lowest taxonomical level to which they can be identified with certainty. The type materials of a number of species appear to be lost; these are placed to genera to the extent that this is possible from the original descriptions and illustrations. Bibio nigripennis Théobald, 1937, nec Brunetti, 1913 is a primary junior homonym and the name must be replaced. The species is moved to the genus Plecia and renamed Plecia theobaldi nom.n.
A New Method for Generating Stochastic Simulations of Daily Air Temperature for Use in Weather Generators
Authors: Smith Kimberly , Strong Courtenay , Rassoul-Agha Firas
Published: January 2017

A stochastic harmonic autoregressive parametric (SHArP) weather generator is presented that simulates trended, nonstationary temperature values directly, circumventing the conventional approach of adding simulated standardized anomalies of temperature to a prescribed cyclostationary mean. The model mean makes autocorrelated transitions between wet- and dry-state values, and its parameters are determined by optimizing harmonic and trend terms. The precipitation-responsive autocorrelated transitions yield more realistic temperature behavior during frontal passage in comparison with prior models that switch abruptly between wet- and dry-state means. If the stochastic (noise) term is assumed to have constant amplitude, analytical results are available via maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) and are equivalent to least squares estimation (LSE). Where observations motivate a seasonally varying noise coefficient, MLE becomes nonlinear, and an analytical solution is formulated via LSE. For illustration, SHArP is shown to produce realistic representations of daily maximum air temperature at a single site, which for the study is the Salt Lake City International Airport (KSLC). SHArP reduces the temperature bias following frontal passages by over 2°C in three seasons. A method for generalizing the model to multiple variables at multiple sites is discussed.
Tropical Precipitation and Cross-Equatorial Ocean Heat Transport during the Mid-Holocene
Authors: Liu Xiaojuan , Battisti David S. , Donohoe Aaron
Published: January 2017

Summertime insolation intensified in the Northern Hemisphere during the mid-Holocene, resulting in enhanced monsoonal precipitation. In this study, the authors examine the changes in the annual-mean tropical precipitation as well as changes in atmospheric circulation and upper-ocean circulation in the mid-Holocene compared to the preindustrial climate, as simulated by 12 coupled climate models from PMIP3. In addition to the predominant zonally asymmetric changes in tropical precipitation, there is a small northward shift in the location of intense zonal-mean precipitation (mean ITCZ) in the mid-Holocene in the majority (9 out of 12) of the coupled climate models. In contrast, the shift is southward in simulations using an atmospheric model coupled to a slab ocean. The northward mean ITCZ shift in the coupled simulations is due to enhanced northward ocean heat transport across the equator [OHT(EQ)], which demands a compensating southward atmospheric energy transport across the equator, accomplished by shifting the Hadley cell and hence the mean ITCZ northward. The increased northward OHT(EQ) is primarily accomplished by changes in the upper-ocean gyre circulation in the tropical Pacific acting on the zonally asymmetric climatological temperature distribution. The gyre intensification results from the intensification of the monsoonal winds in the Northern Hemisphere and the weakening of the winds in the Southern Hemisphere, both of which are forced directly by the insolation changes.
Low-Mode Internal Tide Propagation in a Turbulent Eddy Field
Authors: Dunphy Michael , Ponte Aurélien L. , Klein Patrice , Le Gentil Sylvie
Published: January 2017

Understanding and predicting how internal tides distort and lose coherence as they propagate through the ocean has been identified as a key issue for interpreting data from the upcoming wide-swath altimeter mission Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT). This study addresses the issue through the analysis of numerical experiments where a low-mode internal tide propagates through a quasigeostrophic turbulent jet. Equations of motion linearized around the slower turbulent field are projected onto vertical modes and assumed to describe the dynamics of the low-mode internal tide propagation. Diagnostics of the terms responsible for the interaction between the wave and the slow circulation are computed from the numerical outputs. The large-scale change of stratification, on top of eddies and jet meanders, contributes significantly to these interaction terms, which is shown to be consistent with an independent scaling analysis. The sensitivity of interaction terms to a degradation of the slow field spatial and temporal resolution indicates that present-day observing systems (Argo network, altimetry) may lack the spatial resolution necessary to correctly predict internal tide evolution. The upcoming SWOT satellite mission may improve upon this situation. The number of vertical modes required to properly estimate interaction terms is discussed. These results advocate development of a simplified model based on solving a modest number of the linearized equations subject to a prescribed mesoscale field and internal tide sources.
Effectively Maintained Inequality in U.S. Postsecondary Progress
Authors: Andrew Megan
Published: January 2017

In this analysis, I evaluate how socioeconomic status (SES) directly shapes the probability that students with similar academic achievements complete key transitions in the U.S. postsecondary system. I develop the concept of institutional reach to illuminate the maintenance of socioeconomic differences across successive forward transitions via institutions of varying selectivity in this postsecondary system. Both low- and high-SES students with high academic achievements display a greater probability of moving forward through the system. However, high-SES students are more likely to do so by attending more selective institutions at entry and, consequently, are more likely to complete a bachelor’s degree at such institutions. In other words, high-SES students have greater institutional reach given similar academic achievements. Greater protection from low achievements and greater boosts from high achievements are both important for maintaining high-SES students’ advantage.
Musculoskeletal Injuries Resulting from Use of Hoverboards: Safety Concerns With an Unregulated Consumer Product
Authors: Ho Michelle , Horn B. David , Lin Ines C. , Chang Benjamin , Carrigan Robert B. , Shah Apurva
Published: January 2017

Hoverboards were recently introduced to the US consumer market and experienced rapid popularity. Given the high frequency of musculoskeletal injury with other wheeled recreation devices, we sought to analyze hoverboard injuries in children. A retrospective review of patients with musculoskeletal injury related to hoverboard use was performed at a tertiary care children’s hospital. From November 2015 to January 2016, 2.3% of all fractures were related to hoverboards. Common injury mechanisms were fall (79%) and finger entrapment between wheel and wheel-well (10%). The most frequently fractured sites included the distal radius (43%) and phalanx (17%). Common surgical procedures were nailbed repair and pinning for Seymour fracture and percutaneous pinning for distal radius fracture. There exists high risk for distal radius fractures from falls and phalanx fractures from finger entrapment between the wheel and wheel-well. Hoverboard safety can be improved with regular use of wrist guards and improved wheel-well design.
The welfare state and social capital in Europe: Reassessing a complex relationship
Authors: Ferragina Emanuele
Published: January 2017

The article investigates the relationship between the welfare state and social capital in Europe during the 1990s and the 2000s using structural equation modelling (SEM). By formulating and testing the hypothesis that welfare state generosity and welfare state size have different effects on social capital, we reassess the explanatory power of the main theories in the field and the findings of previous empirical work. We strongly support the contention of institutional theory that there is a positive association between high degrees of welfare state generosity and social capital. Moreover, we partially confirm the concern of neoclassical and communitarian theories for the negative correlation between large-size welfare states and social capital. The positive relationship between welfare state generosity and social capital is much stronger than the negative association observed with welfare state size. Finally, we interpret the considerable cross-country variation using welfare regime theory and several country cases. We illuminate different mechanisms linking welfare state development and social capital creation, discussing the Danish and Dutch third sector experiences and pointing to Sweden as an exceptional case of decline. Furthermore, we highlight the importance of regional variation in Belgium, Germany and Italy and complement the analysis also briefly discussing the Austrian, French, Irish and British cases.
Entering the world of electrical engineering: A gateway course for first-year students at Wuhan University, China
Authors: Tao Jinsong , Han Haihong , Wen Xishan , Tang Ju
Published: January 2017

Chinese students, unlike those in western countries, have little control over their majors or courses. Many students are registered in electrical engineering based on GaoKao test scores, not personal interest in the field. As a consequence, many first-year students know little, or even nothing, about electrical engineering. To increase disciplinary knowledge among these students and improve retention rates, a gateway course, named Entering the World of Electrical Engineering, was established in the school of Electrical Engineering at Wuhan University, P.R. China especially for freshman electrical engineering students. To stimulate and inspire these new entrants to the World of Electrical Engineering, this course underscores the relevance of electrical engineering to everyday life and directs the attention of these newcomers to the dynamic and interesting research areas of the field. This paper describes the contents of this gateway course, the structure of the teaching materials, and analyzes the results of a feedback questionnaire administered at the end of the term. The results show that the gateway course successfully engages students’ interests in electrical engineering.
Low Resilience Polyurethane Slabstock Foam with Microphase Separated Morphology
Authors: Kageoka M. , Inaoka K. , Kumaki T. , Tairaka Y.
Published: January 2017

The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the nature of the low resilience foam with microphase separated morphology. Takeda has developed a unique homogeneous polyol mixture, which provides a low resilience foam with two glass transition temperatures. The existence of two tan 8 peaks, a glass transition and P glass transition around -40°C and room temperature, respectively, indicates the presence of the microphase separation. The chemical structure and the reactivity of the homogeneous polyol is well designed for the simultaneous formation of the heterogeneous morphology during the blowing process. The newly developed foam did not increase its hardness in the range of 0 to -20°C and did not become glassy even at -20°C; the storage modulus curve has a plateau region around -10°C. The a glass transition temperature was sensitive to the formulation factors, polyol ratio, water level, index and plasticizer, whereas the f glass transition temperature is less sensitive to those factors.
Societal Restrictiveness and the Presence of Outlets for the Release of Aggression
Authors: Worchel Stephen
Published: January 2017

It was predicted that societies that were restrictive in not allowing the individual to express hostility would be more likely than nonrestrictive societies to supply formal sanctioned outlets for aggression. Restrictive societies were classified as those having unilineal kin groups and where sorcery is not practiced. These societies tend to practice superordinate justice and are controlling of members' behaviors. Societies where unilineal groups are absent and sorcery is present tend to have coordinate judicial systems and are relatively nonrestrictive. Measures of warfare and games of physical skill were utilized as sanctioned outlets for aggression. The results supported the hypothesis, as restrictive societies were more likely than nonrestrictive ones to have common warfare and games of physical skill.
Human Figure Drawings as Indicators of Value Development among Thai Children
Authors: Gardiner Harry W.
Published: January 2017

Use of children's drawings as an approach to the study of social and cultural values of national groups is described. Support for the “value hypothesis” that children tend to draw the kind of person they admire or one who is favorably viewed by society is provided through a study of 500 drawings by eight- to thirteen-year-old boys and girls in Thailand. Findings indicate general preference for modern dress, oriental facial features, and smiling faces. Oriental features and traditional dress occur most often among drawings of women by boys, while girls stress Caucasian features in their drawings of men. Both sexes ascribe religious content more often to drawings of women and represent more men in diversified social roles. Areas of possible future cross-cultural collaboration are suggested and discussed.
Imaginative Role-Playing as a Medium for Moral Development: Dungeons & Dragons Provides Moral Training
Authors: Wright Jennifer Cole , Weissglass Daniel E. , Casey Vanessa
Published: January 2017

This study investigates the use of imaginative role-play games to sponsor positive development in young adult moral reasoning. Twelve college students participated in six approximately 4-hour gaming sessions using a customized game system based on Dungeons & Dragons™ (D&D, 1974, 4th ed.). The games contained embedded social/moral dilemmas (e.g., whether to torture a prisoner for information) that participants encountered and had to work through as a group. Significant growth in moral development, as measured with the Defining Issues Test and the Self-Understanding Interview was demonstrated in the gaming groups, but was not replicated in two control groups, who did not participate in the gaming sessions. This suggests that imaginative role-play gaming structures can function as an engaging, interactive “moral training ground,” a medium that promotes moral development, and highlights the difference between antisocial and prosocial violence.
Meaning in Life and Substance Use
Authors: Csabonyi Matthew , Phillips Lisa J.
Published: January 2017

Viktor Frankl theorized that an absence of meaning in one’s life can result in boredom and apathy—the “existential vacuum”—and attempts to avoid or “escape” the vacuum can include short-acting distracting behaviors. This study investigated whether the presence of meaning (PM) or the search for meaning are associated with alcohol, drug, and cigarette use by young adults, and whether boredom mediates those relationships. Hundred and seventy-six young adults completed the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, and provided information about cigarette and illicit drug use over the preceding year. The results partly support Frankl’s model: higher PM was associated with lower alcohol/other drug use and boredom mediated those relationships, but PM was not related to cigarette smoking. Contrary to Frankl’s model, no relationship was found between search for meaning and alcohol, drug, or cigarette use. This suggests that psychological interventions that assist individuals who use drugs or alcohol to identify meaning or purpose in their lives might reduce levels of drug and alcohol use. The process of searching for meaning may not have substantial direct impact on levels of substance use, but once some meaning was established there may be decreased impetus to continue using drugs and alcohol.
Wanted
Authors: Hirsch Barton J.
Published: January 2017

Educating high school students for both college and career is difficult. Teaching trade skills seems alien to the academic culture. But new research indicates that soft skills are quite important to judgments of employability and that youth learn many soft skills in traditional academic subjects (e.g., literature). A focus on soft skills allows schools to reframe how they think about the relationship among education, academic curriculum, and employment. Such a reframing will help black youth get jobs and will be valuable whether students go to college or not.
Critical consciousness
Authors: El-Amin Aaliyah , Seider Scott , Graves Daren , Tamerat Jalene , Clark Shelby , Soutter Madora , Johannsen Jamie , Malhotra Saira
Published: January 2017

Research has suggested that critical consciousness — the ability to recognize and analyze systems of inequality and the commitment to take action against these systems — can be a gateway to academic motivation and achievement for marginalized students. To explore this approach, the authors studied six urban schools that include critical consciousness development in their mission. Three strategies emerged as promising practices that schools can use to develop black students’ critical consciousness and harness the connection between critical consciousness and student achievement. They include teaching students the language of inequality, creating space to interrogate racism, and teaching students how to take action.
Charter schools don’t serve black children well
Authors: Richardson Joan
Published: January 2017

The NAACP, nation’s largest civil rights organization, steps up its opposition to charter schools just as a president and new education secretary appear ready to kick the sector into high gear. In 2016, the NAACP passed a resolution calling on a moratorium on the expansion of charter schools, citing concerns about transparency and accountability, diversion of money away from traditional public schools to charter schools, discipline and segregation of racial minorities. Julian Vasquez Heilig, who is a member of the California NAACP and a professor of educational leadership and policy studies at California State University Sacramento, responds to questions about that resolution and the role that charter schools play in the United States.
Getting students to believe in themselves
Authors: Saphier Jon
Published: January 2017

Surrounding students with messages that they have the ability to learn and teaching them how is at the core of closing the achievement gap. Teachers can engage in verbal behaviors that counteract the negative messages that children of color receive outside the classroom. Those verbal behaviors can embed these messages for students: What we’re doing is important; you can do it; and I’m not going to give up on you. The author introduces three classroom patterns that teachers can use to deliver those messages to students: persevere and return, giving help, and positive framing of reteaching. The article also includes a list of 50 ways to get students to believe in themselves and take ownership of their learning.
PLCs on steroids
Authors: Wasta Michael J.
Published: January 2017

Research on educators’ professional learning communities (PLCs) suggest that while they often help teachers to make sense of student performance data, they tend to spend relatively little time studying what teachers actually do in the classroom. Evidence suggests that, given modest amounts of guidance and support, PLCs can collect useful data on teacher practice, and team members can identify specific, actionable ways in which to improve instruction.
Under the Law
Authors: Underwood Julie
Published: January 2017

School boards can enact rules about commenting at their public meetings, but they cannot impede someone’s right to speak, whether employees or the public. A recent federal district court case — Barrett v. Walker County School District (N.D. Ga. 2016) — raised this issue. Jim Barrett, a district employee and president of the local educators’ union, disagreed with the district’s new grading policy and tried to get on the school board agenda to share his concerns. The superintendent, who controlled access to the public comment portion of the meeting, did not approve his requests. The federal district court ruled that this violated Barrett’s First Amendments rights of free speech because it gave the superintendent unfettered discretion to approve, deny, or delay requests to speak before the board and limited the nature of issues that someone could take to the board.
Motoring
Authors: Gott John
Published: January 2017

Our Motoring Correspondent discusses a problem which continues to cause much concern—the alleged bad feeling between the motorist and the police.
Future Trends in Traffic Control
Authors: Thomas Melbourne
Published: January 2017

Mr. Thomas's article is based upon a paper read to the Traffic Engineering Group of the South Wales Institute of Civil Engineers. We are sure our readers will agree that contact of this kind with other professional bodies concerned with the efficiency and safety of our roads can only augur well for policing traffic in the future.
Motoring
Authors: Gott John
Published: January 2017

This month our Motoring Correspondent discusses motor rallies in general and the Eighth International Police Rally in particular.
The mobile Internet underclass: Reality or hyperbole?
Authors: Wang Lian , Liu Chun
Published: January 2017

Scholars have warned that because mobile Internet access offers lower levels of functionality and content availability, operates on less open and flexible platforms and contributes to diminished levels of user engagement, content creation and information seeking compared with traditional fixed solutions, mobile Internet has created a mobile Internet ‘underclass’. As a growing proportion of the online population is now ‘mobile only’, it is imperative to understand the extent to which mobile Internet may represent a meaningful substitute for traditional PC-based Internet access. Based on operational data from a major Chinese telecommunications carrier, this study provides a comparative analysis of the mobile Internet usage patterns associated with different access channels. Our results show that, in terms of mobile Internet usage, there is not enough evidence to support the ‘mobile underclass’ argument. However, our analysis reveals that the primary concern about the mobile ‘underclass’ remains as the first-order digital divide ‘access’ issue.
Intraoperative multi-exposure speckle imaging of cerebral blood flow
Authors: Richards Lisa M , Kazmi SM Shams , Olin Katherine E , Waldron James S , Fox Douglas J , Dunn Andrew K
Published: January 2017

Multiple studies have demonstrated that laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) has high potential to be a valuable cerebral blood flow monitoring technique during neurosurgery. However, the quantitative accuracy and sensitivity of LSCI is limited, and highly dependent on the exposure time. An extension to LSCI called multi-exposure speckle imaging (MESI) overcomes these limitations, and was evaluated intraoperatively in patients undergoing brain tumor resection. This clinical study ( n = 8) recorded multiple exposure times from the same cortical tissue area spanning 0.5–20 ms, and evaluated images individually as single-exposure LSCI and jointly using the MESI model. This study demonstrated that the MESI estimates provided the broadest flow sensitivity for sampling the flow magnitude in the human brain, closely followed by the shorter exposure times. Conservation of flow analysis on vascular bifurcations was used to validate physiological accuracy, with highly conserved flow estimates (<10%) from both MESI and 1 ms LSCI ( n = 14 branches). The MESI model had high goodness-of-fit with proper image calibration and acquisition, and was used to monitor blood flow changes after tissue cautery. Results from this study demonstrate that intraoperative MESI can be performed with high quantitative accuracy and sensitivity for cerebral blood flow monitoring.
Progress Past and Present
Authors: Lowenthal David
Published: January 2017

With this issue we inaugurate a new feature: reprints of famous or forgotten prescriptive statements by past geographers, together with commentaries on how far their aims have been realized. Geographers have repeatedly asserted that theirs was an age, if not the age, of ‘progress’. Modern devotees of progress may find it salutary, if not chastening, to examine past expectations in the light of subsequent achievements.

The first Past and present feature is Sir Francis Younghusband's (1920) presidential address to the Royal Geographical Society, on ‘Natural beauty and geographical science’, to which David Lowenthal appends a retrospective commentary.
The Retreat, York: an Organizational View of an Applied Group Analytic Approach
Authors: Anderson Daniel
Published: January 2017

This article explores the discourse of care at The Retreat, York by examining its birth within moral treatment, Quakerism and the birth of asylums. I develop this further by linking these discourses into subsequent movements, namely group analysis and the therapeutic community movement. Through problematizing this history, I offer a new register for considering care in communities and groups by suggesting the use of the pedagogical concept of ‘figured worlds’. By doing so I aim to offer a contemporary view of moral treatment and suggest this is more important than ever given the nature of austerity in our current socio-economic paradigm at the possible end of British neoliberalist politics.
Bitcoin beyond ambivalence
Authors: Redshaw Tom
Published: January 2017

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Bitcoin emerged as an alternative monetary system that could circumvent political and financial authorities. A practice in libertarian prefigurative politics, Bitcoin demonstrates the capacity for online subgroups to creatively appropriate internet-based technologies to enact alternative futures. Andrew Feenberg’s critical theory of technology clarifies this capacity and outlines the significance of agency in technical action. As technology mediates many social relations, it has a significant role in the reproduction of social power. Technological agency is therefore a crucial site of resistance in which users can form alternative, democratic rationalizations of technology. Yet are such instances of agency intrinsically democratic? In analysing this aspect of Feenberg’s theory, this article argues that Bitcoin represents a ‘popular rationalization’ of technology – a creative appropriation of technology that empowers some groups while lacking the ethical justification necessary to be considered democratic.
Fighting games and Go
Authors: Johnson Mark R , Woodcock Jamie
Published: January 2017

This paper examines the varied cultural meanings of computer game play in competitive and professional computer gaming and live-streaming. To do so it riffs off Andrew Feenberg’s 1994 work exploring the changing meanings of the ancient board game of Go in mid-century Japan. We argue that whereas Go saw a de-aestheticization with the growth of newspaper reporting and a new breed of ‘westernized’ player, the rise of professionalized computer gameplay has upset this trend, causing a re-aestheticization of professional game competition as a result of the many informal elements that contribute to the successes, and public perceptions, of professional players. In doing so we open up the consideration of the aesthetics of broadcasted gameplay, how they reflect back upon the players and the game, and locate this shift historically and culturally within the last two decades of computer games as a creative industry, entertainment industry, a media form, and as an embodied practice.
The Influence of Weight Status Duration on Weight Perception Accuracy
Authors: Coleman Lois , Loprinzi Paul D.
Published: January 2017

Purpose:

To examine the association between weight status duration and weight perception accuracy.

Design:

Retrospective study.

Setting:

National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003 to 2006.

Sample:

A total of 4029 adults aged 20 years or older.

Measures:

To assess weight status duration, participants’ past (10 years ago) and present body mass indexes were used to create 4 groups: normal weight in the past and present (group 1), normal weight in the past but overweight/obese in the present (group 2), overweight/obese in the present but not in the past (group 3), and overweight/obese in the past and present (group 4). We classified individuals as having an accurate/inaccurate weight perception based on present body mass index and whether they considered themselves as overweight, underweight, or about the right weight.

Analysis:

Logistic regression.

Results:

Our findings suggest that participants who were overweight/obese in the past, present, or during both time periods had increased odds of possessing an inaccurate weight perception. Furthermore, being normal weight in the past but obese in the present increased the odds of having an inaccurate weight perception nearly 10-fold and almost 5-fold for those obese in both the past and present.

Conclusion:

Studies such as this can aid clinicians in identifying individuals who may have increased odds of inaccurately identifying their weight status, thereby providing additional opportunities to facilitate weight loss.
The influence of change in slice thickness on the accuracy of reconstruction of cranium geometry
Authors: Budzik Grzegorz , Turek Paweł , Traciak Julian
Published: January 2017

The article presents a comparative study of change in slice thickness on the accuracy of reconstruction of cranium geometry. Research was performed on 10 different patients. Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine data were obtained on the Siemens Somatom Sensation Open 40 scanner. At the stage of reconstruction, the same parameters were utilized, while only slice thickness was changed. Modeling with voxel dimensions of 0.4 mm × 0.4 mm × 2.4 mm was chosen as the gold standard over the modeling approach comprising voxel dimensions of 0.4 mm × 0.4 mm × 4.8 mm. The influence of layer thickness on the accuracy of cranium geometry is very similar for the 10 presented patients. The average results show a distribution with a positive skew and kurtosis. The value of skewness is 0.284 (small asymmetry) and kurtosis is 3.746 (a distribution more peaked). Based on 95% confidence, the changes in layer thickness from 2.4 to 4.8 mm generated errors reconstructing the geometry of the cranium by 0.516 mm ± 1.345 mm. The presented research highlights new opportunities to control deviations at the stage of data processing and modeling geometry of the cranium.
Newspaper Coverage of Energy Issues
Authors: Bascombe M J , Webb J
Published: January 2017

Frequency matrix analysis of reporting of energy topics in the West Australian February – June 1980 reveals profiles of the energy issues presented to the community and of the ‘energy stance’ of different social groups — their reported concerns and objectives in energy matters. The continuing coverage of nuclear energy contrasts sharply with the limited coverage of energy conservation. Similarly, energy policies of state and federal governments receive considerably more extensive reporting than do those of the Opposition parties.
Comparison of tribological performance of roller follower and flat follower under mixed elastohydrodynamic lubrication regime
Authors: Torabi Amir , Akbarzadeh Saleh , Salimpour Mohammadreza
Published: January 2017

In this study, a numerical model is developed to show the performance improvement of a cam–follower mechanism when using a roller type follower compared to the flat-faced follower. Nonconformal geometry besides the thermal effects due to the shearing of the lubricant film results in formation of a thin film in which the asperities contribute in carrying the load. The numerical model is developed in which the geometry, load, speed, lubricant properties, and the surface roughness profile is taken as input and the film thickness and friction coefficient as a function of cam angle are predicted. The asperities are assumed to have elastic, elasto-plastic, and plastic deformation. Simulation results indicated that the thermal effects cannot be neglected. Surface roughness is also a key parameter that affects the pressure distribution, film thickness, and friction coefficient. Finally, asperity and hydrodynamic pressure is reported and the performance of the two mechanisms is compared. Roller follower has a considerable preference in terms of friction coefficient compared to flat-faced follower. The minimum film thickness, however, is slightly larger in the flat follower.
Objecting: Multiplicity and the practice of physiotherapy
Authors: Setchell Jenny , Nicholls David A , Gibson Barbara E
Published: January 2017

Drawing from Annemarie Mol’s conceptulisation of multiplicity, we explore how health care practices enact their object(s), using physiotherapy as our example. Our concern is particularly to mobilise ways of practicing or doing physiotherapy that are largely under-theorised, unexamined or marginalised. This approach explores those actions that reside in the interstitial spaces around, beneath and beyond the limits of established practices. Using Mol’s understanding of multiplicity as a theoretical and methodological driver, we argue that physiotherapy in practice often subverts the ubiquitous reductive discourses of biomedicine. Physiotherapy thus enacts multiple objects that it then works to suppress. We argue that highlighting multiplicities opens up physiotherapy as a space which can broaden the objects of practice and resist the kinds of closure that have become emblematic of contemporary physiotherapy practice. Using an exemplar from a rehabilitation setting, we explore how physiotherapists construct their object(s) and consider how multiplicity informs an otherwise physiotherapy that has broader implications for health care and rehabilitation.
The Tromsø Heart Study: Responders and Non-responders to a Health Questionnaire, Do They Differ?
Authors: Jacobsen Bjarne Koster , Thelle Dag Steinar
Published: January 2017

In 1979–80, 21329 subjects, 20–54 years old, were invited to a screening for coronary heart disease risk factors in Tromsø. 16621 (77%) attended the screening, the response rate was higher in women than in men, lower in single than married and lowest in young (20–29 years) men. At the screening, the men and women were given a second questionnaire which they were asked to fill in and return by mail. 14667 (88.2%) of the subjects did so. Based on information obtained at the screening, the differences between these 14667 subjects and the 1954 men and women who failed to return the questionnaire are presented. 10.9% of the women did not return the questionnaire, the corresponding figure for men was 12.6%. The differences in age, body mass index (kg/m2), blood lipids and blood pressure were minor or non-existent. The subjects who returned the questionnaire tended to be married, non-smokers and report respiratory symptoms less often than non-responders.
Artifacts of workers' knowledge: Finding worker skill in the closing and restructuring of a furniture manufacturer
Authors: Juravich Tom
Published: January 2017

The closing of and restart of a furniture factory provided a unique opportunity to interrogate worker skills. As part of the bankruptcy sale, workers and managers ‘discovered’ a large number of worker-made jigs that had been integral to production. I argue that these are artifacts of workers’ implicit knowledge over generations of workers, troubling the notion of skill as only the explicit static attributes of individuals. Despite being seen as deskilled workers, the creation and use of these jigs are sites of worker agency suggesting that workers were more integrally engaged in production and not simple appendages to machinery. After the firm was bought, start-up proved difficult without either experienced workers or the physical artifacts of knowledge in the jigs. As several workers from the shuttered facility came to train new workers, they brought not only an implicit knowledge but a habitus that had gone unrecognized in the old facility.
The NOTCH1-MYC highway toward T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Authors: Sanchez-Martin Marta , Ferrando Adolfo
Published: January 2017

T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is a highly proliferative hematologic malignancy that results from the transformation of immature T-cell progenitors. Aberrant cell growth and proliferation in T-ALL lymphoblasts are sustained by activation of strong oncogenic drivers promoting cell anabolism and cell cycle progression. Oncogenic NOTCH signaling, which is activated in more than 65% of T-ALL patients by activating mutations in the NOTCH1 gene, has emerged as a major regulator of leukemia cell growth and metabolism. T-ALL NOTCH1 mutations result in ligand-independent and sustained NOTCH1-receptor signaling, which translates into activation of a broad transcriptional program dominated by upregulation of genes involved in anabolic pathways. Among these, the MYC oncogene plays a major role in NOTCH1-induced transformation. As result, the oncogenic activity of NOTCH1 in T-ALL is strictly dependent on MYC upregulation, which makes the NOTCH1-MYC regulatory circuit an attractive therapeutic target for the treatment of T-ALL.
Genome features of moderately halophilic polyhydroxyalkanoate-producing Yangia sp. CCB-MM3
Authors: Lau Nyok-Sean , Sam Ka-Kei , Amirul Abdullah Al-Ashraf
Published: January 2017

Yangia sp. CCB-MM3 was one of several halophilic bacteria isolated from soil sediment in the estuarine Matang Mangrove, Malaysia. So far, no member from the genus Yangia, a member of the Rhodobacteraceae family, has been reported sequenced. In the current study, we present the first complete genome sequence of Yangia sp. strain CCB-MM3. The genome includes two chromosomes and five plasmids with a total length of 5,522,061 bp and an average GC content of 65%. Since a different strain of Yangia sp. (ND199) was reported to produce a polyhydroxyalkanoate copolymer, the ability for this production was tested in vitro and confirmed for strain CCB-MM3. Analysis of its genome sequence confirmed presence of a pathway for production of propionyl-CoA and gene cluster for PHA production in the sequenced strain. The genome sequence described will be a useful resource for understanding the physiology and metabolic potential of Yangia as well as for comparative genomic analysis with other Rhodobacteraceae.
O papel do direito na articulação governamental necessária às políticas públicas: uma avaliação do Programa Bolsa Família (PBF)
Authors: Mesquita Clarissa Ferreira de Melo
Published: January 2017

Este artigo analisa o Programa Bolsa Família (PBF) na condição de política pública de combate à pobreza, explicitando a articulação da ação dos atores envolvidos e os contornos jurídicos que lhe dão suporte. O programa será examinado com base no quadro de referência de políticas públicas proposto por Bucci (“Quadro de referência de uma política pública: Primeiras linhas de uma visão jurídico-institucional”, 2015), com ênfase ao estudo de sua dimensão econômico-financeira. Objetiva-se propiciar a leitura do orçamento do programa e examinar a avaliação dos resultados pelo Tribunal de Contas da União (TCU), especialmente em relação aos indicadores do programa e à sua sustentabilidade fiscal. Parte-se da hipótese segundo a qual os mecanismos jurídicos de articulação adotados no programa são eficazes para viabilizar parte das finalidades almejadas, mas a articulação com o Tribunal de Contas da União precisa ser aprimorada para solucionar aspectos críticos do programa quanto à dimensão orçamentária
Indicadores de desenvolvimento social impactos na taxa de analfabetismo nos municípios do estado de Santa Catarina
Authors: Nascimento Sabrina do , Machado Débora Gomes , Scarpin Jorge Eduardo , Dal Vesco Delci Grapégia
Published: January 2017

O objetivo deste estudo foi verificar o impacto dos indicadores de desenvolvimento social − índices de matrículas, de discentes e docentes e de gastos municipais com educação − na taxa de analfabetismo dos municípios do estado de Santa Catarina. Foram analisados 293 municípios. Com base em referencial teórico, foram elaboradas hipóteses de pesquisa com o propósito de validar o estudo. A pesquisa é de cunho descritivo e correlacional, e foi realizada por meio de análise documental, com abordagem quantitativa, e uso da técnica de Regressão Logística. Os resultados permitiram evidenciar que, no ensino pré-escolar, um número alto de alunos por professor prejudica a taxa de alfabetismo, e maior gasto no ensino infantil pode produzir melhores indicadores de analfabetismo. Infere-se que há confirmação da teoria de que os gastos públicos e a forma de gerenciamento influenciam os indicadores da qualidade do ensino, principalmente no ensino pré-escolar, o que pode revelar que, quanto mais cedo a criança entra na escola e quanto mais o município investe nela, melhor será o aproveitamento nos indicadores totais de analfabetismo da população.
Public action and the construction of new urban territoriality in Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Authors: Borges de Souza Zilma , Nabuco Ana Luisa , Silva Filho João Soares , Ferreira Rodrigo Nunes , Almeida Maria Cristina Mattos
Published: January 2017

The article discusses innovative mechanisms of democratic participation arising from Brazilian public policy that articulate relations between government, the private sector, and civil society on questions of territorial development. It focuses on the possibilities and limitations for democratic rearrangements of public spaces and the creation of new participatory tools and languages of public action for the promotion of public policy. The discussion is based on the experience of the city of Belo Horizonte’s regionalization led by the municipal government in 2011, in which, the city was divided into 40 areas called “Shared Management Territories.” The process, guidelines, and methods are described, and the different cases of dispute, conflict, and cooperation are analyzed to understand the languages of social action and the effects of territorial logic; these work in the construction of spaces and tools, enabling actors to enlarge their political participation, demand, and propose adjustments to public policy.
The public action languages approach to public affairs
Authors: Spink Peter Kevin
Published: January 2017

The paper starts from the observation made by authors involved with different aspects of public action, that the State is not synonymous with public affairs. Given a more polycentric approach in which the public, or publics, are themselves key and independent social actors, amongst others, it questions the central role that public policy is assumed to take in articulating the discussion and provision of public goods and services. The paper takes a historical perspective on the emergence of policy at different moments in the English language and looks in more detail at three periods which are widely recognized as moments when English speaking democracies made significant steps forward in broadening the agenda of public affairs: Roosevelt’s New Deal, 1933; the 1945 British Labour Government; and the Johnson administrations (1963-1968). In all of these cases, there were very practical breakthroughs, with new approaches to some very difficult issues but with very little, if at all, discussion of policy. Given that action and talk go together, what other social languages (to use Bakhtin’s term, 1986) were available? In pointing out that these were many and most continue to be present and highly active today, the paper questions the centrality and inevitability of public policy and concludes by arguing for a public action languages approach to the study of public affairs.