bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Studying the Possibility of Adapting Microsoft Excel to the Audit Mechanism by Small and Medium-Sized Companies by Analogy with the Algorithm of the Modern AuditXP Software Product
Authors: Kazaryan Robert , Kuznetsova Nadezhda , Leonov Pavel
Published: August 2023

This article deals with the actual problem of the expediency and possibility of adapting the Microsoft Excel office program to the audit process (including the formation of auditor working documents). By examining the advantages and disadvantages of specialized software and further comparing the identified features with the characteristics of Microsoft Excel, recommendations are formulated for implementing the necessary functions in the most relevant way for the audit organization. Based on a theoretical analysis of the capabilities of modern software products (including AuditXP) in the field of audit, a methodology for fundamental auditor actions is compiled at the stages of planning and collecting audit evidence. It describes the consequences of adapting Microsoft Excel to the audit process (by analogy with the mechanism of specialized software) for audit organizations or an individual auditor.
Mineralizing activity of periodontal bone tissue of rats with experimental diabetes
Authors: Levitsky A. , Selivanskaya I. , Tishchenko T. , Stupak O.
Published: August 2023

Background. To determine the effect of diabetes on the state of periodontal bone tissue.

Methods. In rats, diabetes mellitus of the first type (DM1) was reproduced with the help of alloxan and diabetes mellitus of the second type (DM2) with the help of protamine. The activity of alkaline (ALP) and acid (ACP) phosphatases, calcium content, protein and elastase activity were determined in periodontal bone tissue. The level of biochemical markers of inflammation and protective systems was determined in the blood serum and in the gums. The mineralizing activity of bone tissue was determined by the ALP/ACP ratio.

Results. It was established that the mineralizing activity of periodontal bones is significantly higher in males and increases with age. The reproduction of DM1 and DM2 in rats caused a significant decrease in the mineralizing activity of periodontal bone tissue and insignificant changes in the level of calcium and protein. In rats with diabetes, an inflammatory process develops in the gums (increase in the level of elastase) against the background of a decrease in the level of markers of protective systems (catalase and lysozyme).

Conclusion. A decrease in the level of mineralizing activity of periodontal bone tissue under conditions of diabetes can be the reason for the development of diabetic periodontitis.
Determinants of Profitability : Evidence from Construction Companies Listed on Indonesian Securities Market
Authors: Jati Damar , Setiawan Heri , Purnomo Sodik Dwi , Muntahanah Siti , Zuhaena Fatwa , Arinastuti Arinastuti
Published: August 2023

An asset management role is required to analyze and optimize revenue sources and efficient systems to reduce costs. Construction service companies that tend to have fewer fixed assets than their current assets have constraints in suppressing production prices and must be able to manage them efficiently to maintain their existence in the market. The data shows the growth in the number of construction service companies which continues to increase and the construction price index which continues to decline, requiring efficient asset management to reduce production costs. For this reason, this study aims to determine the effect of Account Receivable Turnover (ARTO) asset management instruments, Fixed Asset Turnover (FATO), Inventory Turnover (IT), and Total Asset Turnover (TATO) on Operating Profit Margin (OPM) in construction service companies in Indonesia. The research sample is 5 large-scale construction companies in Indonesia with vulnerable observation periods from 2017 to 2021. The method used in this research is panel data regression to examine the relationship between research variables. The results of this study indicate that Fixed Asset Turnover (FATO) and Total Assets Turnover (TATO) have an effect on the Operational Profit Margin (OPM) of construction service companies in Indonesia. Meanwhile, Account Receivable Turnover (ARTO) and Inventory Turnover (IT) have no effect on OPM in Indonesian construction service companies. The results of this study have implications for construction service companies that asset management is very important for the company's progress, especially in increasing profits. This research contributes to the ability of construction service companies to manage their assets effectively, because the construction service business actor is the party responsible for implementing infrastructure development in Indonesia.
Attitudes and Beliefs of Parents About HPV Vaccination in Their Daughters During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross Sectional Study
Authors: GÜVEN Ayşe Gül , ABSEYİ Sema Nilay , SEVİM Meliha , TAŞAR Medine
Published: August 2023

Objective: This study aimed to determine parents’ current attitudes and beliefs using a standardised scale towards Human Papilloma Virus and its vaccine during COVID-19 Pandemic.

Material and Methods: This is a descriptive cross sectional study including a total of 303 parents who applied to a training and research hospital pediatric clinic with a daughter aged 9-18 years old. A demographic variable questionnaire and The Turkish version of the Carolina Human Papilloma Virus Immunization Attitudes Scale (CHIAS) were assessed.

Results: The Turkish version of the Carolina Human Papilloma Virus Immunization Attitudes Scale mean± SD scores of harms/barriers/effectiveness/uncertainty factors subgroup were calculated as 2.2±0.6, 2.5±0.7, 2.3±0.7, 2.9±0.8, respectively. 19.8% of parents were aware of Human Papilloma Virus and 22.5% of them declared to be willing to vaccinate their daughters against the infection. Human Papilloma Virus acceptance rate was still modest and lower than for vaccines in general during COVID-19 Pandemic.

Conclusion: According to the result of this study, during COVID-19 Pandemic, the both female and male awareness and intention to vaccinate their daughters against Human Papilloma Virus is low. This is the first study analyzing parents’ current attitudes and beliefs using a standardised scale towards Human Papilloma Virus in Turkey and also is the first analyzing this subject during COVID-19 pandemic in the literature. Health education programs given by family doctors, pediatricians and community health professionals to parents is critically important in accepting this vaccine.
A Survey of Community Nurses' Knowledge and Strategies Used to Relieve Breathlessness in People with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Authors: Curran Julie , Elliott Rosalind , Fry Margaret
Published: August 2023

Background:

Little is known about community nurses’ knowledge of breathlessness and its management in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Aim:

To explore the community registered nurses’ knowledge of COPD and the strategies that they use to manage breathlessness in people with COPD.

Methods:

A cross-sectional survey study of community registered nurses was conducted using the 65-item Bristol COPD Knowledge Questionnaire and an open-ended item to outline breathlessness strategies.

Findings:

A total of 59 nurses participated. The total mean Bristol COPD Knowledge Questionnaire Score was 43. The breathlessness category was the lowest scoring category. There were three themes that synthesised: the community nurse’s role in monitoring self-management of medications to relieve breathlessness; the use of non-pharmacological strategies to relieve breathlessness; the nursing skills used to monitor breathlessness in people with COPD.
In praise of physiotherapists: a personal view
Authors: Johnson Rosemary
Published: August 2023

Rosemary Johnson discusses her personal health journey and the role physiotherapists have played in helping her to overcome her health issues.
A long-term plan for health visiting
Authors: Oldman Crystal
Published: August 2023

Funded policies and sustained support are needed to reduce poverty in the population and specifically during the early years of parenting, says Crystal Oldman
Flexible Power for Wearable Devices
Authors: Nathan Stuart
Published: August 2023

Graphene foam combined with solar cell in bendable supercapacitor
Five-year mortality after traumatic central cord syndrome in Wales
Authors: Stanley Alexandra L. , Jones Tyler J. , Dasic Davor , Kakarla Siva , Kolli Sridhar , Shanbhag Swaroop , McCarthy Michael J. H.
Published: August 2023

Aims

Traumatic central cord syndrome (CCS) typically follows a hyperextension injury and results in motor impairment affecting the upper limbs more than the lower, with occasional sensory impairment and urinary retention. Current evidence on mortality and long-term outcomes is limited. The primary aim of this study was to assess the five-year mortality of CCS, and to determine any difference in mortality between management groups or age.

Methods

Patients aged ≥ 18 years with a traumatic CCS between January 2012 and December 2017 in Wales were identified. Patient demographics and data about injury, management, and outcome were collected. Statistical analysis was performed to assess mortality and between-group differences.

Results

A total of 65 patients were identified (66.2% male (n = 43), mean age 63.9 years (SD 15.9)). At a minimum of five years’ follow-up, 32.3% of CCS patients (n = 21) had died, of whom six (9.2%) had died within 31 days of their injury. Overall, 69.2% of patients (n = 45) had been managed conservatively. There was no significant difference in age between conservatively and surgically managed patients (p = 0.062). Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed no significant difference in mortality between patients managed conservatively and those managed surgically (p = 0.819). However, there was a significant difference in mortality between the different age groups (< 50 years vs 50 to 70 years vs > 70 years; p = 0.001). At five years’ follow-up, 55.6% of the patient group aged > 70 years at time of injury had died (n = 15). Respiratory failure was the most common cause of death (n = 9; 42.9%).

Conclusion

Almost one-third of patients with a traumatic CCS in Wales had died within five years of their injury. The type of management did not significantly affect mortality but their age at the time of injury did. Further work to assess the long-term functional outcomes of surviving patients is needed to generate more reliable prognostic information.

Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2023;105-B(8):920–927.
Long-term implant survival following hemiarthroplasty for fractured neck of femur
Authors: Tyas Ben , Marsh Martin , de Steiger Richard , Lorimer Michelle , Petheram Timothy G. , Inman Dominic S. , Reed Mike R. , Jameson Simon S.
Published: August 2023

Aims

Several different designs of hemiarthroplasty are used to treat intracapsular fractures of the proximal femur, with large variations in costs. No clinical benefit of modular over monoblock designs has been reported in the literature. Long-term data are lacking. The aim of this study was to report the ten-year implant survival of commonly used designs of hemiarthroplasty.

Methods

Patients recorded by the Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry (AOANJRR) between 1 September 1999 and 31 December 2020 who underwent hemiarthroplasty for the treatment of a hip fracture with the following implants were included: a cemented monoblock Exeter Trauma Stem (ETS), cemented Exeter V40 with a bipolar head, a monoblock Thompsons prosthesis (Cobalt/Chromium or Titanium), and an Exeter V40 with a Unitrax head. Overall and age-defined cumulative revision rates were compared over the ten years following surgery.

Results

A total of 41,949 hemiarthroplasties were included. Exeter V40 with a Unitrax head was the most commonly used (n = 20,707, 49.4%). The overall rate of revision was small. A total of 28,201 patients (67.2%) were aged > 80 years. There were no significant differences in revision rates across all designs of hemiarthroplasty in patients of this age at any time. The revision rates for all designs were < 3.5%, three years postoperatively. At subsequent times the ETS and Exeter V40 with a bipolar head performed well in all age groups. The unadjusted ten-year mortality rate for the whole cohort was 82.2%.

Conclusion

There was no difference in implant survival between all the designs of hemiarthroplasty in the first three years following surgery, supporting the selection of a cost-effective design of hemiarthroplasty for most patients with an intracapsular fracture of the hip, as determined by local availability and costs. Beyond this, the ETS and Exeter bipolar designs performed well in all age groups.

Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2023;105-B(8):864–871.
How common are refractures in childhood?
Authors: Amilon Sofia , Bergdahl Carl , Fridh Ebba , Backteman Torsten , Ekelund Jan , Wennergren David
Published: August 2023

Aims

The aim of this study was to describe the incidence of refractures among children, following fractures of all long bones, and to identify when the risk of refracture decreases.

Methods

All patients aged under 16 years with a fracture that had occurred in a bone with ongoing growth (open physis) from 1 May 2015 to 31 December 2020 were retrieved from the Swedish Fracture Register. A new fracture in the same segment within one year of the primary fracture was regarded as a refracture. Fracture localization, sex, lateral distribution, and time from primary fracture to refracture were analyzed for all long bones.

Results

Of 40,090 primary fractures, 348 children (0.88%) sustained a refracture in the same long bone segment. The diaphyseal forearm was the long bone segment most commonly affected by refractures (n = 140; 3.4%). The median time to refracture was 147 days (interquartile range 82 to 253) in all segments of the long bones combined. The majority of the refractures occurred in boys (n = 236; 67%), and the left side was the most common side to refracture (n = 220; 62%). The data in this study suggest that the risk of refracture decreases after 180 days in the diaphyseal forearm, after 90 days in the distal forearm, and after 135 days in the diaphyseal tibia.

Conclusion

Refractures in children are rare. However, different fractured segments run a different threat of refracture, with the highest risk associated with diaphyseal forearm fractures. The data in this study imply that children who have sustained a distal forearm fracture should avoid hazardous activities for three months, while children with a diaphyseal forearm fracture should avoid these activities for six months, and for four and a half months if they have sustained a diaphyseal tibia fracture.

Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2023;105-B(8):928–934.
Pregnancy, parenthood, and fertility in the orthopaedic surgeon
Authors: Morgan Catrin , Li Lily , Kasetti Pragna R. , Varma Ria , Liddle Alexander D.
Published: August 2023

Aims

As an increasing number of female surgeons are choosing orthopaedics, it is important to recognize the impact of pregnancy within this cohort. The aim of this review was to examine common themes and data surrounding pregnancy, parenthood, and fertility within orthopaedics.

Methods

A systematic review was conducted by searching Medline, Emcare, Embase, PsycINFO, OrthoSearch, and the Cochrane Library in November 2022. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analysis were adhered to. Original research papers that focused on pregnancy and/or parenthood within orthopaedic surgery were included for review.

Results

Of 1,205 papers, 19 met the inclusion criteria. Our results found that orthopaedic surgeons have higher reported rates of obstetric complications, congenital abnormalities, and infertility compared to the general population. They were noted to have children at a later age and voluntarily delayed childbearing. Negative perceptions of pregnancy from fellow trainees and programme directors were identified.

Conclusion

Female orthopaedic surgeons have high rates of obstetric complications and infertility. Negative perceptions surrounding pregnancy can lead to orthopaedic surgeons voluntarily delaying childbearing. There is a need for a pregnancy-positive culture shift combined with formalized guidelines and female mentorship to create a more supportive environment for pregnancy within orthopaedic surgery.

Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2023;105-B(8):857–863.
Monoblock tapered stems in management of UCS B2 and B3 periprosthetic fractures in revision total hip arthroplasty
Authors: Thomas Jeremiah , Shichman Ittai , Ohanisian Levonti , Stoops T. K. , Lawrence Kyle W. , Ashkenazi Itay , Watson David T. , Schwarzkopf Ran
Published: August 2023

Aims

United Classification System (UCS) B2 and B3 periprosthetic fractures in total hip arthroplasties (THAs) have been commonly managed with modular tapered stems. No study has evaluated the use of monoblock fluted tapered titanium stems for this indication. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of a monoblock stems on implant survivorship, postoperative outcomes, radiological outcomes, and osseointegration following treatment of THA UCS B2 and B3 periprosthetic fractures.

Methods

A retrospective review was conducted of all patients who underwent revision THA (rTHA) for periprosthetic UCS B2 and B3 periprosthetic fracture who received a single design monoblock fluted tapered titanium stem at two large, tertiary care, academic hospitals. A total of 72 patients met inclusion and exclusion criteria (68 UCS B2, and four UCS B3 fractures). Primary outcomes of interest were radiological stem subsidence (> 5 mm), radiological osseointegration, and fracture union. Sub-analysis was also done for 46 patients with minimum one-year follow-up.

Results

For the total cohort, stem osseointegration, fracture union, and stem subsidence were 98.6%, 98.6%, and 6.9%, respectively, at latest follow-up (mean follow-up 27.0 months (SD 22.4)). For patients with minimum one-year of follow-up, stem osseointegration, fracture union, and stem subsidence were 97.8%, 97.8%, and 6.5%, respectively.

Conclusion

Monoblock fluted stems can be an acceptable modality for the management of UCS B2 periprosthetic fractures in rTHAs due to high rates of stem osseointegration and survival, and the low rates of stem subsidence, and revision. Further research on the use of this stem for UCS B3 periprosthetic fractures is warranted to determine if the same conclusion can be made for this fracture pattern.

Cite this article: Bone Jt Open 2023;4(8):551–558.
On the Description of the Larval Stages of Myrmica inezae Forel, 1902 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Myrmicinae), an Endemic Himalayan Species, with Notes on its Natural History
Authors: Bharti Himender , Bharti Meenakshi , Kaur Pawanpreet , Kaur Jaspreet
Published: August 2023

Of the known species groups in Myrmica, the M. inezae belong to the inezae-group which is restricted between an altitude range of 1900-3000m in Himalayas. The species in question is a relic of old fauna and closely resembles the primitive ritae-group species. Herein, a detailed description of larval instars of Myrmica inezae Forel, 1902 is provided. Three larval instars are reported in this species. The larvae exhibit pheidoloid body profile which otherwise is pogonomyrmecoid in the larval stages of genus Myrmica Latreille, 1804 reported hitherto. M. inezae differs from the earlier described larval stages of M. rugosa and M. rupestris (rugosa-group) based on number of occipital hairs (six in M. inezae while these are eight in M. hecate and M. rupestris); mandibular teeth (two in M. inezae as compared to one in M. hecate and M. rupestris) and shape of maxilla (conoidal in M. inezae whereas paraboloidal in M. hecate and M. rupestris).
Sensuous movements
Authors: Minai Naveen
Published: August 2023

Jordache Ellapen’sQueering the Archive: Brown Bodies in Ecstasy(2018) is a visual art project that explores erotics as an epistemological and methodological frame to think through race, diaspora, memory, history and desire in/of contemporary South Africa. I argue thatQueering the Archiveis invested in beauty as a project of sensuous memory, pleasure, movement and relation that works through and against geohistorical logics and conditions of race, diaspora and coloniality. Through a photo essay based on a close reading of the visual art, and a companion piece of an interview with the artist, I argue thatQueering the Archivechallenges our logics of the legacies of indentureship by centring those bodies who were used as labour and raw matter for global racial sexual capital. Ellapen re-imagines and re-images brown bodies as alive and beautiful in motion and in relation with erotic energy, playful desire and intimate joy. Ellapen crafts relations between colours, textures, forms and genres through mixed media practices, including layering and juxtaposing family photographs with staged photographs. These relations put the photographs in intimate tension and contradiction with one another as much as in beautiful, sensuous motion together, the edges of each highlighted as much as blurred through these relations. I read these relations as evocations and provocations of the histories and memories the photographs are dense with and made fragile by. These histories and memories include indentureship, colonialism and migration as structures and processes of power that shape intimate relations between peoples in South Africa. Ellapen’s focus in this project on different brown bodies in relation to one another through erotic feeling and touching is embedded within these histories and memories, but these erotics are not determined, bound or regulated by the colonial and imperial infrastructures of power. InQueering the Archive, hegemonic colonial and postcolonial aesthetic regimes are disrupted and the brown body becomes a brown body in desiring and joyful movement and relation, re-imagined and re-imaged as elegant, beautiful and sensual towards different futurities.
Tanty feminisms
Authors: Persadie Ryan
Published: August 2023

A geneaology of Caribbean feminism is a geneaology of tanty feminisms. Occupying numerous articulations throughout the history of the Caribbean region and its diasporas, the figure of the ‘tanty’, or ‘aunty’ as they are known in non-Caribbean contexts, and the consequential amital social relations they produce have been indispensable to contemporary discourses and practices of Caribbean feminist thought and praxis. The tanty cannot be read as indebted to a singular person, figure or monolithic legacy but operates as a fluid and transnational force of Caribbean feminist knowing that instructs us through non-normative embodied transgressions, and pedagogies of free up. Yet, despite their presence of vital integrity to Caribbean popular culture, community organizing, history, politics and literature, discussions of the politics and pedagogies of tantyhood remain underrepresented in scholarly Caribbean feminist literatures.

In this article, I reflect upon my creative practice as a drag artist and self-proclaimed tanty in an annual digital photography series I have produced over the last three years entitled ‘Coolieween’. In this work, I reference Indo-/Caribbean folklore and mythologies, and stories of horror, the grotesque and the paranormal as entangled with queer affects, embodiments and aesthetics. Drag artistry, which, like tantyhood, agitates the invisible boundaries of neo-colonial gender, racial and sexual binaries, provides a critical feminist terrain to metaphorize the institutional crossings of pain and pleasure held within historical and contemporary ontologies of Indo-Caribbeanness. Investigating the pedagogy of this crossing is central to understanding, as well as critiquing, long-standing attachments of pain, injury, pathologization and trauma that have been commonly scripted to Indo-Caribbean subjectivities, often in reference to genealogies of kala pani poetics and other diaspora narratives that have sutured ideas of Indo-Caribbeanness as always-already broken, fragmented and dislocated. In this article, I instead centre paradigms of erotics and pleasure as a transformative medium to turn our optics towards transformative reconfigurations of Indo-Caribbean feminist selfhoods. As I argue here, by thinking with and through tanty feminisms, we are provided with intergenerational and transnational languages of unsettling logic that continually instruct us through everyday modalities of Indo-Caribbean feminist living and being.
Brown femininities and the queer erotics of indentureship
Authors: Ellapen Jordache A.
Published: August 2023

This photo essay curates two interrelated bodies of creative work,Queering the Archive: Brown Bodies in Ecstasy(2013-ongoing) andThe Brown Photo Album: An Archive of Feminist Futurities(2020), to explore the queer afterlives of indentureship in South Africa through the aesthetic realm.Queering the Archive and The Brown Photo Albumare influenced by the photo archive of an Afro-Indian family from rural Kwa Zulu Natal. The curation of these two interrelated projects as this photo essay,Brown Femininities and the Queer Erotics of Indentureship, positions the maternal-feminine as central to the making of Afro-Indianness and to my own understanding of sexuality, beauty, pleasure and the erotic as informed by the home-space of the Afro-Indian family. This project maps my mother’s desire to create a visual archive of the Afro-Indian woman in the immediate afterlife of indentureship onto my own desire to create a visual archive of the Afro-Indian queer experience in contemporary South Africa. The images translate the violence associate with the sugarcane plantations and indentureship into an aesthetic of pleasure where the past, present, and future as well as Black, Brown, and white bodies rub against and touch each other as an ongoing practice dedicated to re-imagining Afro-Indian intimacies and South African Blackness.
Queer Coolie-tudes: ‘A living archive, an oblique poetics’
Authors: Mohabeer Michelle , Wahab Amar
Published: August 2023

Scholar Amar Wahab, co-editor of the Journal of Indentureship and its Legacies, interviews queer diasporic filmmaker and lecturer Dr. Michelle Mohabeer about her critical and creative documentary interventions – spanning over 30 years – which seek to queer indentureship and Indo-Caribbean diasporic identity and experience. The dialogue focuses especially on her creative essay documentary Queer Coolie-tudes (2019), which places the slurs – ‘queer’ and ‘coolie’ – into proximity and conversation as a way of critically reclaiming them. In so doing, Mohabeer expands the contours of what it means to queer indentureship’s archive by ‘visualizing an Indo-Caribbean diasporic aesthetic’.
Reclaiming power
Authors: Kumar Preity
Published: August 2023

Intimate partner violence against women and children is a growing concern for feminist scholarship in the Anglophone Caribbean. This scholarship is significant in challenging patriarchal gender ideologies at the intersections of race, class and sexuality. This body of work reveals how violence is embedded in the state and governmental bodies, and highlights the overall disparities in the implementation of laws. Furthermore, this work demonstrates how neoliberal restructuring policies implicate and affect women differently based on their positionality. While this work is critical in addressing intimate partner violence against women and children, the LGBTQ community in the region has remained vulnerable to violence at multiple levels of society. This article contributes to this work by focusing on same-sex intimate partner violence between women in Guyana. The aim of this article is twofold: first, to map out the traditional gendered framing of violence against heterosexual and women loving women; second, to argue that in Guyana’s context of persistent social, political and economic inequalities, women loving women use violence as a resource of resolution to reclaim and secure power.
Krishna kee bansi bhajay
Authors: Stewart Dominique
Published: August 2023

Nachania (नचंनिया), translated as ‘female dancer’, refers to both a traditional Indo-Jamaican folk dance that has local origins in indentureship, and to those who perform it. The dance is characterized by flamboyant flailing hands, counterbalanced by acrobatic feats and yogic moments synchronous with beat drops. Its unbound choreography salvages important religio-cultural and historical narratives through ecstatic paroxysmal dance often with sexual overtones. This performance is important in ritualized and celebratory spaces to entertain crowds. While performing, Nachanias would have money launched at them, and they would sometimes engage men in dance. The performers were, and still are, frequently men who assume a different gendered role garbed in conscious ‘feminizing’ technologies such as make-up, jewellery and a frock. Especially during indentureship and the period immediately after, it was ‘vulgar’ for women to dance publicly or perform at religious ceremonies. Early women Nachanias were read as tainted spectacles, some of whom the archives record as professional ‘entertainers’. Inspired by the author’s curiosity, Indo-Jamaican identity, observations of Nachania and discourses with Ghanesh Maragh (one of the few contemporary performers of this artform), this article casts Indo-Jamaicans into the unbound erotic gendered tradition of Jamaica and indentureship by (a) tracing the (inter)religious, gendered, and historical anatomy of the lauded folk performance from the period of indentureship to the present in Jamaica and the Indo-Jamaican diaspora; (b) exploring themes of bidesia; and (c) examining possible problems with situating Nachania within categories of queer.
Trans-oceanic erotics: sexing indentureship
Authors: Wahab Amar
Published: August 2023

Through creative speculation and intervention, this research project probes the ‘coolie homoerotic’ (Wahab 2019) as a critical reflection on the place of the homoerotic and queerness within the trans-oceanic lifeworld of coolie indentureship. The four artworks presented are informed by a series of questions that might help to build a platform for queering indentureship and trans-oceanic space beyond identity recovery and respectability politics. In this regard, the work in progress is aimed at sexing indenture by (1) focusing on Brown same-sex sexual intimacies and erotic relations on coolie ships, as a way of undoing the historically constructed disconnect between the categories ‘sex’ and ‘indentured labour’, and (2) critically engaging the colonial heteropatriarchal discourse of ‘sex/gender/sexuality’ that continues to condition the unthinkability of same-sex relations in the context of indentureship and its legacies.
“The Black People’s Side of the Story”: The Historical and Transatlantic Roots of the Movement for Black Lives
Authors: Murray Hannah-Rose
Published: August 2023

Abstract: Black freedom fighters have always been at the forefront pushing the United States to accept the ideals it was founded on and were—are—unrelenting in their groundbreaking campaigns for abolition, equality, and social justice. In this article, I argue that to add nuance and a greater understanding to the philosophies developed by such freedom fighters, it is necessary to evaluate the transatlantic connections between the United States and Britain. Complicating and expanding their calls for antiracism and anti-oppression, Black activists have gained an alternative international perspective on British soil. Beginning with a discussion of the Movement for Black Lives in the US and its links with the UK, I analyze the movement’s historical and transatlantic roots.
Ren and Civic Friendship
Authors: Cabural Mark Kevin S.
Published: August 2023

Abstract: The concept of civic friendship, perhaps originating from Aristotle, has re-emerged in recent studies. Scholars argue the relevance of this concept in liberal democratic societies today because it can potentially strengthen or re-establish the sense of community or public-spiritedness. Moreover, there is a need to describe the characteristic virtue/s that will buttress civic friendship. This article proposes the Confucian virtue of ren as a possible foundation for such a relationship. As it is discussed here, ren can contribute to the resolution of problems that emerge in liberal democratic societies today because it can counteract the negative tendency—that is, neglecting the other or the relationship with the other—of an individualist understanding of liberal democratic values.
The Impact of the American Revolutionary War on the Slave Trade to Cuba
Authors: Borucki Alex , Postigo José Luis Belmonte
Published: August 2023

Abstract: Scholars intent on considering the American Revolution's relationship to and influence on systems of slavery must be sure to look outside of the United States. In mid-September 1783, the schooner Eagle , captained by David Miller, landed 104 enslaved Africans in Charleston. This is the first known U.S.-flagged transatlantic slave voyage arriving in the United States after independence. Before bringing these captives from Africa, Miller had conducted a previous voyage on the Eagle , which landed fifty other captives in Havana in May 1783. The latter group of enslaved men, women, and children, whom Miller brought from the Danish colony of Saint Thomas in the eastern Caribbean, were some of the nearly 14,500 captives we have found who were shipped to Havana, mainly from other Caribbean ports, by merchants based in Cuba, the Danish West Indies, and the United States from 1781 to 1785. Examining the actions of U.S. slave traders in Cuba during the American Revolution also opens up the chance to dramatically increase our understanding of the broader traffic in enslaved people to the island during this period, emphasizing the merchant networks connecting Saint Thomas, Saint Domingue, and Charleston with Havana.
"It Has Always Been Customary to Make Slaves of Savages": The Problem of Indian Slavery in Spanish Louisiana Revisited, 1769–1803
Authors: Blackbird Leila K.
Published: August 2023

Abstract: The enslavement of Indigenous peoples by Europeans was not a small and isolated practice in the lands that now comprise the United States. Contests for land and labor were not mutually exclusive, and enslaved Native people labored in mines, domestic households, and plantations across North America. In the vast Louisiana Colony, French records frequently enumerated enslaved Indigenous people, but their presence is conspicuously absent from Spanish period records. Scholars have previously assumed that the practice of Indian slavery had simply been outlawed and any remaining Indian slaves were emancipated under the Leyes y Ordenanzas Nuevamente de las Indias after Don Alejandro O'Reilly raised the Spanish flag over New Orleans in August 1769. However, the very first case brought before the Louisiana State Supreme Court disproves that assumption. During the period of its supposed illegality, Indigenous enslavement persisted through a discursive practice of Indigenous erasure; changing notions of race and legal personhood hid enslaved Native Americans within a socioracial order that negated their existence. These machinations allowed "Indianness" to be controlled and exploited, and Native people continued to be trafficked and enslaved across the Gulf South into the antebellum period. Their stories must become part of the broader history of American slavery.
Reconfigurable AWGR based on LNOI with a tunable central wavelength and bandwidth used in elastic optical networking
Authors: Wu Qian , Ji Wei , Yin Rui , Wang Yuqian , Gao Shiwei , Xue Xuwei
Published: August 2023

Elastic optical networking introduces elasticity and adaptation into the optical domain, which highly depends on reconfigurable optical devices. In this paper, a tunable 4×4 arrayed waveguide grating router based on lithium niobate on insulator is designed. By using the electro-optic effect of lithium niobate, we design electrode regions with specific shapes in the array waveguide region to realize the tuning of the routing wavelength and bandwidth of the third output channel. The designed arrayed waveguide grating router (AWGR) has a dense channel spacing of 0.8 nm, and the minimum insertion loss is 2.3 dB. Experiments show that the tuning range of the central wavelength can reach 3.2 nm, and the 3 dB bandwidth can be expanded from 0.2 to 0.6 nm.
Optimizing the OCTA layer fusion option for deep learning classification of diabetic retinopathy
Authors: Ebrahimi Behrouz , Le David , Abtahi Mansour , Dadzie Albert K. , Lim Jennifer I. , Chan R. V. Paul , Yao Xincheng
Published: August 2023

The purpose of this study is to evaluate layer fusion options for deep learning classification of optical coherence tomography (OCT) angiography (OCTA) images. A convolutional neural network (CNN) end-to-end classifier was utilized to classify OCTA images from healthy control subjects and diabetic patients with no retinopathy (NoDR) and non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR). For each eye, three en-face OCTA images were acquired from the superficial capillary plexus (SCP), deep capillary plexus (DCP), and choriocapillaris (CC) layers. The performances of the CNN classifier with individual layer inputs and multi-layer fusion architectures, including early-fusion, intermediate-fusion, and late-fusion, were quantitatively compared. For individual layer inputs, the superficial OCTA was observed to have the best performance, with 87.25% accuracy, 78.26% sensitivity, and 90.10% specificity, to differentiate control, NoDR, and NPDR. For multi-layer fusion options, the best option is the intermediate-fusion architecture, which achieved 92.65% accuracy, 87.01% sensitivity, and 94.37% specificity. To interpret the deep learning performance, the Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping (Grad-CAM) was utilized to identify spatial characteristics for OCTA classification. Comparative analysis indicates that the layer data fusion options can affect the performance of deep learning classification, and the intermediate-fusion approach is optimal for OCTA classification of DR.
Volumetric segmentation of biological cells and subcellular structures for optical diffraction tomography images
Authors: Mazur Martyna , Krauze Wojciech
Published: August 2023

Three-dimensional, quantitative imaging of biological cells and their
internal structures performed by optical diffraction tomography (ODT)
is an important part of biomedical research. However, conducting
quantitative analysis of ODT images requires performing 3D
segmentation with high accuracy, often unattainable with available
segmentation methods. Therefore, in this work, we present a new
semi-automatic method, called ODT-SAS, which combines several
non-machine-learning techniques to segment cells and 2 types of their
organelles: nucleoli and lipid structures (LS). ODT-SAS has been
compared with Cellpose and slice-by-slice manual segmentation,
respectively, in cell segmentation and organelles segmentation. The
comparison shows superiority of ODT-SAS over Cellpose and reveals the
potential of our technique in detecting cells, nucleoli and LS.
Toward high-speed effective numerical simulation of multiple filamentation of high-power femtosecond laser radiation in a transparent medium
Authors: Bulygin Andrey , Geints Yury
Published: August 2023

High-power femtosecond laser radiation during propagation in air (and other transparent media) experiences multiple filamentation. Filamentation is a unique nonlinear optical phenomenon, accompanied by a wealth of nonlinear optical effects such as formation of extended plasma channels in the beam wake, generation of higher harmonics and supercontinuum, and generation of THz radiation. The manifestations of laser filamentation can be useful for solving atmospheric optics problems related to remote sensing of the environment as well as directed transmission of laser power. Classical numerical methods used for simulating the nonlinear long-range atmospheric propagation of high-power radiation with a sufficiently large laser beam aperture have almost reached their limit regarding the acceleration of calculations. To solve this problem and speed up the numerical simulations of laser filamentation, we propose an improved numerical technique based on a modified method of phase screens constructed on a sparse spatial grid. Within the framework of this technique, we seek an optimal ansatz (substitution function) to the governing equations using machine learning technology, which provides the best correspondence to the numerical solution of the test problem using a denser spatial grid.
High-efficiency entanglement of microwave fields in cavity opto-magnomechanical systems
Authors: Di Ke , Tan Shuai , Wang Liyong , Cheng Anyu , Wang Xi , Liu Yu , Du Jiajia
Published: August 2023

We demonstrate a scheme to realize high-efficiency entanglement of two microwave fields in a dual opto-magnomechanical system. The magnon mode simultaneously couples with the microwave cavity mode and phonon mode via magnetic dipole interaction and magnetostrictive interaction, respectively. Meanwhile, the phonon mode couples with the optical cavity mode via radiation pressure. Each magnon mode and optical cavity mode adopts a strong red detuning driving field to activate the beam splitter interaction. Therefore, the entangled state generated by the injected two-mode squeezed light in optical cavities can be eventually transferred into two microwave cavities. A stationary entanglement E
a
1
a
2
=0.54 is obtained when the input two-mode squeezed optical field has a squeezing parameter r = 1. The entanglement E
a
1
a
2
increases as the squeezing parameter r increases, and it shows the flexible tunability of the system. Meanwhile, the entanglement survives up to an environmental temperature about 385 mK, which shows high robustness of the scheme. The proposed scheme provides a new mechanism to generate entangled microwave fields via magnons, which enables the degree of the prepared microwave entanglement to a more massive scale. Our result is useful for applications which require high entanglement of microwave fields like quantum radar, quantum navigation, quantum teleportation, quantum wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) network, etc.
Design of adjustable multifocal diffractive optical elements with an improved smooth phase profile by continuous variable curve with multi-subperiods method
Authors: Dong Bo , Yang Ying , Liu Yue , Li Chuang , Yang Chao , Xue Changxi
Published: August 2023

Multifocal diffractive optical elements (MDOEs), which produce arbitrary light distribution, are widely used in lightweight and compact optical systems. MDOEs that are combined with multiple functions tend to have complex step structures, limiting their applications. We propose a facile method named continuous variable curve with multi-subperiods (CVCMS) to design adjustable multifocal single-layer diffractive optical elements. Through the analysis, the model achieved arbitrary diffraction efficiency distribution with an improved smooth continuous phase profile in each diffractive ring while retaining the periodicity. To display the high design freedom of the method, we utilized this method to design and discuss a broadband multifocal intraocular lens (MIOL) focused on the optimization of far focal point. Finally, the method was compared with other multifocal design methods. The results show that the CVCMS method achieved adjustable multifocal design with better performance and smoother profile than other MDOE design techniques. The proposed model can be applied to multifocal ophthalmic lens designs.
Ultra-sensitive all-optical phase modulation based on a fiber optic interferometer combined with Ti3C2Tx MXene-incorporated PDMS
Authors: Yi Duo , Huang Zhewen , Fu Wenqiang , Geng Youfu , Liu Fei , Li Xuejin
Published: August 2023

This study proposes an all-optical phase modulator based on a compact fiber optic interferometer combined with Ti3C2Tx MXene-incorporated PDMS. Due to the high photothermal conversion efficiency of MXene and the high thermo-optic coefficient of PDMS, changes in pump power can be effectively converted into refractive index (RI) variations in the PDMS. Then, by employing a fiber optic interferometer with a high RI response, ultra-sensitive all-optical phase modulation can be realized. The experimental results demonstrate that the resonant wavelength shift of the modulator with MXene-incorporated PDMS is 126 times higher than that of a modulator with single MXene deposition. Also, a maximum wavelength sensitivity of 14.57 nm/mW is achieved (equivalent to a phase sensitivity of 0.33π/mW); this excellent modulation performance is a great improvement on that of a previously reported fiber-based all-optical phase modulator. Furthermore, PDMS is also employed as a packaging layer to strengthen the device structure and restrict the heat in an enclosed space, which improves the heat utilization efficiency. The proposed device shows great potential in optical communication, optical filtering, sensing, and modulation applications.
Joint congestion and contention avoidance in a scalable QoS-aware opportunistic routing in wireless ad-hoc networks
Authors: Parsa Ali , Moghim Neda , Haghani Sasan
Published: August 2023

Opportunistic routing (OR) can greatly increase transmission reliability and network throughput in wireless ad-hoc networks by taking advantage of the broadcast nature of the wireless medium. However, network congestion is a barrier in the way of OR’s performance improvement, and network congestion control is a challenge in OR algorithms, because only the pure physical channel conditions of the links are considered in forwarding decisions. This paper proposes a new method to control network congestion in OR, considering three types of parameters, namely, the backlogged traffic, the traffic flows’ Quality of Service (QoS) level, and the channel occupancy rate. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithms in the context of OR congestion control in terms of average throughput, end-to-end delay, and Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR). Due to the higher PDR at different traffic loads and different node densities, it can be concluded that the proposed algorithm also improves network scalability, which is very desirable given the recent changes in wireless networks.