bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effect of right ventricular dysfunction on mortality in patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis: a retrospective cohort study
Authors: Nobayashi Hiroki , Bamba Harui , Iida Tomomichi , Aoyagi Ryuji , Maruyama Yukio , Yokoo Takashi
Published: January 2025

Background

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major complication in patients on maintenance hemodialysis (MHD). While the effect of left ventricular dysfunction on patients on MHD is well known, the association between right ventricular (RV) dysfunction and their prognosis remains poorly understood.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 149 patients on MHD (median age, 72 years; male, 67%) between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2024. All subjects underwent transthoracic two-dimensional and Doppler echocardiographic examination. RV dysfunction was determined when the tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) was under 16 mm. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis was used to compare survival between patients with and without RV dysfunction. Multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to estimate the effects of RV dysfunction on all-cause mortality, including the effect of confounding factors such as age, sex, previous CVD events, and left ventricular (LV) dysfunction.

Results

In total, 20 out of 149 patients on MHD (13%) had RV dysfunction. Indexes of their LV function (such as the LV ejection fraction and E/e' ratio) were similar to those of patients without RV dysfunction. During the follow-up period, 23 patients died (7 with RV dysfunction [without LV dysfunction], 3 with LV dysfunction [without RV dysfunction], 2 with biventricular dysfunction, and 11 without any ventricular dysfunction). Kaplan–Meier analyses showed significantly lower survival among patients with RV dysfunction (p < 0.01). The multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that RV dysfunction (without LV dysfunction) was independently associated with all-cause mortality (hazard ratio: 3.44; 95% confidence interval: 1.28–9.23) after adjusting for confounders.

Conclusions

RV dysfunction is a significant risk factor for all-cause mortality among patients on MHD.
The role of HRM-service quality in the relationship between electronic human resource management and perceived performance
Authors: El Saeed Mariah , Maarouf Heba Mohamed , Younis Raghda Abulsaoud Ahmed
Published: January 2025

Purpose

This research aims to examine how electronic human resource management (E-HRM) impacts perceived organizational performance (OP) and job performance (JP) in telecommunications organizations, with a particular emphasis on the mediating effect of HR service quality (HRSQ).

Research methodology

A questionnaire was developed based on a validated process. Data were collected from 430 employees among the telecommunication companies. However, only 400 questionnaires were valid for the statistical analysis. We use smart PLS and structural equation modeling using Smart PLS v3.2.2 to examine the direct and indirect relationships.

Results and findings

The results of this research revealed that E-HRM has a direct, significant, and positive impact on perceived job performance, as well as organizational performance. Moreover, HRSQ significantly mediates the relationships between E-HRM and job and organizational performance.

Empirical implications

The research introduces empirical several consequences that are discussed later in this paper. The results highlight the importance of designing and implementing E-HRM systems that support organizational workflow and allow employees to do a variety of tasks more efficiently.

Originality

Existing research has shown a link between e-HRM and HR service quality; nonetheless, these studies highlight e-HRM’s potential impact on perceived performance, at both the job and organizational performance levels. The study contributes to the HRM literature by identifying how E-HRM might boost perceived performance by improving HR service quality. As a result, the study serves as a foundation for future theoretical developments in this field.
Tailoring Exercise Prescription for Effective Diabetes Glucose Management
Authors: Lewis Claudia , Rafi Ebne , Dobbs Brandi , Barton Tanner , Hatipoglu Betul , Malin Steven K
Published: January 2025

Context

Physical activity, exercise, or both are a staple of lifestyle management approaches both for type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and type 2 diabetes (T2DM). While the current literature supports both physical activity and exercise for improving glycemic control, reducing cardiovascular risk, maintaining proper weight, and enhancing overall well-being, the optimal prescription regimen remains debated.

Evidence Acquisition

We searched PubMed and Google Scholar databases for relevant studies on exercise, insulin sensitivity, and glycemic control in people with T1DM and T2DM.

Evidence Synthesis

In patients with T1DM, exercise generally improves cardiovascular fitness, muscle strength, and glucose levels. However, limited work has evaluated the effect of aerobic plus resistance exercise compared to either exercise type alone on glycemic outcomes. Moreover, less research has evaluated breaks in sedentary behavior with physical activity. When considering the factors that may cause hypoglycemic effects during exercise in T1DM, we found that insulin therapy, meal timing, and neuroendocrine regulation of glucose homeostasis are all important. In T2DM, physical activity is a recommended therapy independent of weight loss. Contemporary consideration of timing of exercise relative to meals and time of day, potential medication interactions, and breaks in sedentary behavior have gained recognition as potentially novel approaches that enhance glucose management.

Conclusion

Physical activity or exercise is, overall, an effective treatment for glycemia in people with diabetes independent of weight loss. However, additional research surrounding exercise is needed to maximize the health benefit, particularly in “free-living” settings.
Design an Internet of Things-Based LPG Gas Leak Detection System
Authors: Mustofa Mustofa , Fadlil Abdul
Published: January 2025

LPG currently plays a big role in human life, both in industry and households. However, since the existence of LPG, there have been many cases of fires caused by LPG gas leaks. Undetected LPG gas leaks can cause sparks and can trigger fires. Therefore, currently an LPG gas detection device is needed. The system designed in this study uses an MQ-6 sensor to detect LPG gas, and NodeMCU as a microcontroller. This system not only detects leaking gas, but can also provide alerts and information to the Blynk application on smartphones by utilizing the Internet of Things (IoT). System testing resulted in an error value in detecting gas of 9.52% and the distance between the system and the smartphone was 500 meters. The sensor can detect gas well when the distance between the gas and the sensor is no more than 10 cm. The system can provide information to the smartphone if a gas leak is detected and can provide alerts by turning on the buzzer and LEDs.
Motion-Making Messenger Robot 1 at the ABU Indonesia Robot Contest 2019 Using the Odometry Method
Authors: Kurniawan Dody , Aji Wahyu Sapto
Published: January 2025

This research discusses the development of robot messenger 1 movement at the ABU Indonesia 2019 robot contest using odometry. To navigate at the time of the group, the Messenger Robot 1 robot is still operated manually. The disadvantage of manual operation of the robot is that the navigation of the robot is very dependent on the operation of the operator so that the robot is not accurate. Then a system is needed for navigation so that the robot can move accurately. Using the odometry method, it can estimate the change in position relative to the starting position. The positioning of the robot uses a rotary encoder to adjust the speed of the DC motor, according to the specified setpoint and determine the direction of motion of the robot. The test results of the odometry method using rotary encoder sesnor on simple motion, namely forward motion obtained an average error at the X coordinate point of -0.58 cm and at the Y coordinate of -3.02 cm, while in reverse motion obtained an average error, namely at the X coordinate point of 0.39 cm and at the Y coordinate of 3.03 cm. Based on these results it can be concluded that the robot can move literally with a fairly good level of accuracy.
Design of One-Phase Inverter Using EGS002 with SPWM
Authors: Kaliky Nisfa Sri Ayu , Akbar Son Ali , Baswara Ahmad Raditya Cahya
Published: January 2025

The more advanced the development of the technological world in Indonesia, the needs of the community in the use of electrical energy are also higher so that an alternative tool is needed that can produce a voltage source such as PLN. In this thesis, a 1-phase inverter will be designed that can produce output in the form of an AC voltage of 220 volts with a frequency of 50 Hz and has a good feedback voltage so that the inverter output voltage can be stable at an AC voltage value of 220 volts. The 1-phase inverter is made using a full bridge inverter circuit, the SPWM (sinusoidal pulse width modulation) signal is generated using EGS002 by ASIC (Application Specific Integreted Circuit), and the voltage correction transformer used has a maximum working power of 600 watts. According to the results of the no-load test the 1-phase inverter can produce an AC voltage on the output side of 220 to 230 volts with 50 Hz frequencys and the results of the load test show that the inverter has a good feedback voltage so that even when the input voltage drops, the inverter output voltage value is still above 220 volts.
Guava Fruit Detection and Classification Using Mask Region-Based Convolutional Neural Network
Authors: Farisqi Bayu Alif , Prahara Adhi
Published: January 2025

Guava has various types and each type has different nutritional content, shapes, and colors. It is often difficult for some people to recognize guava correctly with so many varieties of guava on the market. In industry, the classification and segmentation of guava fruit is the first important step in measuring the guava fruit quality. The quality inspection of guava fruit is usually still done manually by observing the size, shape, and color which is prone to mistakes due to human error. Therefore, a method was proposed to detect and classify guava fruit automatically using computer vision technology. This research implements a Mask Region-Based Convolutional Neural Network (Mask R-CNN) which is an extension of Faster R-CNN by adding a branch that is used to predict the segmentation mask in each region of interest in parallel with classification and bounding box regression. The system classifies guava fruit into each category, determines the position of each fruit, and marks the region of each fruit. These outputs can be used for further analysis such as quality inspection. The performance evaluation of guava detection and classification using the Mask R-CNN method achieves an mAR score of 88%, an mAP score of 90%, and an F1-Score of 89%. It can be concluded that the proposed method performs well in detecting and classifying guava fruit.
Implementation of Tsukamoto Fuzzy Logic for Watering Interval Control in Mini Greenhouse Temperature and Humidity Monitoring System with Aeroponic Method
Authors: Pramana Revata Dendi Aurix , Baswara Ahmad Raditya Cahya
Published: January 2025

Agriculture in Indonesia faces challenges in the use of modern technology, resulting in a lack of optimisation in land management and crop yields. Greenhouses, also known as 'hothouses', have been developed using environmental sensor technology and microcontrollers to increase the efficiency of crop management. The use of Tsukamoto fuzzy logic is one of the solutions to improve this system. However, the increasingly popular microgreens have the disadvantage of losing nutrients when stored for long periods. Nevertheless, microgreens remain an attractive alternative for urban agriculture with limited land because of their fast growth and high nutrient content, offering more value than buying them from the store. The mini-greenhouse's temperature and humidity monitoring system uses the aeroponic cultivation method and adopts Tsukamoto fuzzy logic control with nine fuzzy rules to manage the watering interval. The temperature and humidity measurement results are sent online to the Internet for real-time monitoring. This research successfully designed an aeroponic system for growing caisim mustard greens, conducted IoT monitoring using ThingSpeak, and implemented watering control using Tsukamoto fuzzy logic. The results showed that the plants reached a height of 25 cm with 9 leaves and a leaf width of 8 cm. The watering interval method effectively reduced the power consumption to 3.6 times lower than 24-hour continuous watering, showing a significant contribution to energy management in aeroponic systems.
Implementation of Kalman Filter on Pid Control System for DC Motor Under Noisy Condition
Authors: Setiawan Nurman , Caesarendra Wahyu , Majdoubi Rania
Published: January 2025

DC motors are actuators that are widely used in various fields. The reason is that DC motors are easy to control, high torque at low speed, and fast response. Angular velocity of DC motor is regulated automatically by using certain controls method, the most commonly used of which is PID control. The performance of the control system decreases in the presence of disturbance or noise. The presence of noise give has negative impacts such as instability in control response, decreased accuracy, and difficulty in tuning PID gain. The most common disturbance comes from the inaccuracy data due to measurement noise and process noise. In this study, the Kalman filter is proposed as a state estimator to reduce the influence of noise, both process noise and measurement noise. The Kalman filter provides an optimal estimate of the angular velocity of DC motor by minimizing the mean squared error. The estimated angular velocity from Kalman Filter is utilized as input for PID control. Simulation results show that the Kalman filter is capable to reduces the influence of measurement noise. In nominal condition, PID control give an Integral Absolute Error (IAE) of 344.56. Under noisy condition, PID control (without Kalman filter) has an IAE of 517.27, while Kalman filter-based PID control has an IAE of 345.25. The IAE reduction of 99.6% indicates that the proposed control system effectively minimizes errors, resulting in better performance and stability.
Battery Usage Monitoring System Internet of Things-Based Electric Cars (IoT) and Radio Telemetry
Authors: Hasibuan Ahmad Firdaus , Ma’arif Alfian
Published: January 2025

Making electric cars at Ahmad Dahlan University has started since 2019. The implementers in making this electric car are students from the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Automotive Technology Vocational Education Study Program and Faculty of Industrial Technology, Electrical Engineering Study Program which started by taking part in a Comparative Study at a Contest Indonesian Electric Car 2019. 2019 at Bandung State Polytechnic. The IoT and Radio Telemetry Based Electric Car Energy Usage Monitoring System created by researchers uses voltage sensor components and current sensors to detect voltage and current in electric cars, NodeMCU ESP32 as a microcontroller, voltage sensors to detect voltage, current sensors to detect current in car electricity and LCD as a reading output from the sensor. Also using IoT ThingSpeak as a display of sent sensor readings requires an internet connection to the microcontroller and radio telemetry as a display of sensor data on a serial monitor without requiring an internet connection. As a result, the tool created can monitor voltage and current accurately from a distance as long as it is connected to the internet and not connected to the internet. The best parameters obtained are the voltage and current sensors because the difference in reading error values from the sensor to the device does not reach 2, therefore they are the best parameters for this monitoring system.
Automatic Plant Disease Classification with Unknown Class Rejection using Siamese Networks
Authors: Putra Rizal Kusuma , Alfarisy Gusti Ahmad Fanshuri , Nugraha Faizal Widya , Nuryono Aninditya Anggari
Published: January 2025

Potatoes are one of the horticultural commodities with significant trade value both domestically and internationally. To produce high-quality potatoes, healthy and disease-free potato plants are essential. The most common diseases affecting potato plants are late blight and early blight. These diseases appear randomly in different positions and sizes on potato leaves, resulting in numerous combinations of infected leaves. This study proposes an architecture focused on a similarity-based approach, namely the Siamese Neural Network (SNN). SNN can recognize images by comparing two or more images and categorizing the test image accordingly. Thus, SNN has an advantage over classification-based approaches as it can identify various combinations of disease spots on potato plants using a similarity-based approach. This study is divided into two main scenarios: testing with data categories which were previously seen during the training process (traditional testing) and testing with the addition of new data categories that were not seen during training. In the first scenario, SNN showed better accuracy with an accuracy rate of 98.4%, while in the second scenario, SNN achieved an accuracy of 97.1%. That result suggests that SNN can categorize data very well, even recognizing data which never seen during training. These results offer hope that SNN can recognize more disease spots/patterns on potato plants or even identify new diseases by adding these new diseases to the SNN support set without retraining.
Exploring undergraduate student perception of international student mobility program
Authors: Susanti Ani , Pratolo Bambang Widi , Khusnawati Khusnawati
Published: January 2025

In recent years, the international student mobility program has been popular among university students. In 2017, there were over 5.3 million international students spread globally. The aim of this study is to determine the perception of undergraduate students about the advantages and challenges of International Student Mobility Programs that they have participated in. The subject of this research is students of the English Education Study Program at Universitas Ahmad Dahlan who have joined International Student Mobility Programs. This study used a qualitative research method and the data will be obtained from interviews with the research subjects. The findings in this research are divided into the advantages and the challenges of international student mobility. The advantages of participating in the international student mobility program are language learning, expand the networks, learn new culture, and self-development. There are several challenges that students feel while participating in the international student mobility program, namely language difference, difference habit, study materials and heavier assignments, and time difference. The results of this research will be useful for students who will take part in the international student mobility program in order to better understand the benefits and challenges that are usually experienced by international student mobility participants.
Masculinity in Late Medieval German Literature: Toxicity or Virtue? The Case of Konrad von Würzburg’s Heinrich von Kempten and Partonopier und Meliur
Authors: Classen Albrecht
Published: January 2025

Recent theoretical studies on masculinity have sensitized us to deeply layered problems hidden in many literary texts, both in the modern world and in the Middle Ages. We do not always simply face ‘toxic masculinity,’ but many conflicts addressed by the various poets can now be analyzed more closely by means of the theoretical model developed by Masculinity Studies. Numerous times, masculine identity emerges as surprisingly weak, troubled, or uncertain, and when the various male protagonists endeavor to compensate for their shortcomings, new challenges emerge affecting all society. Masculinity is displayed in many different manners, reflecting on a variety of social, psychological, and physical features. In male-dominated medieval society, the ideal of masculinity was probably much more pronounced than in later centuries because feudalism, intimately tied in with patriarchy, clearly favored men and promoted a specific model, the knight. Nevertheless, medieval poets often indicated considerable concerns with this aspect and revealed noteworthy cracks in the idealistic image of the glorified male, if they did not even present the collapse of that concept. To explore this issue further, this study takes a stab at one of the most popular short verse narratives by the Middle High German poet Konrad von Würzburg, Heinrich von Kempten (ca. 1261) and examines the various roles assumed by the male protagonists.
Representing Religion and Resisting Secularism in English Language Textbooks: A Qualitative Study of Iranian Locally-produced Textbooks
Authors: Torshizi Mehdi Davari- , Eller Jack David
Published: January 2025

English language textbooks are sources of instruction but also of religious or secular enculturation. Research shows that global English language textbooks have focused on the neoliberalization of the target society and culture, especially majority-Muslim societies. Neoliberalization is also considered to be an attempt to un-Islamize or, as some scholars conceptualize it, secularize such societies in that it (supposedly) promotes Western values (e.g., celebrity culture, consumerism, etc.) In order to combat this so-called un-Islamization, Islamic countries began to produce local language textbooks for preserving Islamic thought. Exploring the how of Islamizing English language textbooks is still a significant area of research. This study aims to contribute to the related literature by qualitatively analyzing the content of Iranian locally-produced textbooks. “Strong Islamization” and “resisting un-Islamization” emerged as the main themes in the textbooks. The pros and cons of this strategy are discussed and a path for future research is also highlighted.
Methodological issues of Poverty Measurement
Authors: Chakrabartty Satyendra Nath
Published: January 2025

Issues relating to defining poverty as lack of resources like income and wealth to a household or individual to meet the basic needs to maintain a reasonable standard of living in a given society have been addressed along with various approaches to measure poverty. Limitations of Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) including aggregation of the chosen indicators have been discussed. The paper suggests multiplicative aggregation of ratios of chosen indicators at current period and the base period to find an index of overall poverty status of a country at the C-th time period over the based period (OPIc0). The index OPIc0 involves no selection of weights, satisfies desirable properties with significantly reduced substitutability among the indicators and producing no bias for advantaged groups. Replacing the base period data by the national targets to remove all forms of poverty, the modified index will indicate how far the country is at the C-th time period from the goals set at national level. The plot of growth/decline of multidimensional poverty in terms of changes in OPIct for a country reflects effectiveness of policy measures adopted and can be used in projection of poverty for the country. The index OPIc0 facilitates to form two sub-indices: (i) New Multidimensional poverty index (INMPI) based on suitable indicators, in line with MPI without any cut-off marks leading to rejection of households/individuals and (ii) Transient poverty index for a period (ITPt ) based on chosen indicators like poverty spell, chronic and transient poverty and associated factors. Using longitudinal data, probability of movement into poverty and out of poverty can be estimated over time (pNP-P and pP-NP) and temporal poverty of a country during the period (t,t_p) can be better understand by P - Escape(t,t_p) and P - Stic.(t,t_p). Estimation of such probabilities along with economic trajectory of a country will help the planners to achieve the national goals.
Woman, migrant or worker? Human trafficking, violence against women and women’s safety in ASEAN
Authors: Segrave Marie , Tan Shih Joo
Published: January 2025

As part of the global agenda to eliminate all forms of violence against women (VAW), there has been significant investments in areas of family and intimate partner violence. Simultaneously, human trafficking has been predominant on the international stage with a focus on labour and migration-related abuse and exploitation of women and girls. Within public policy, law and welfare infrastructures, VAW and migrant labour exploitation have been approached and responded to as distinct and separate issues. Drawing on empirical research across eight Southeast Asian countries, we highlight how women migrant workers experience both VAW and labour exploitation as interconnected. Yet, system responses largely silo VAW and trafficking, particularly in terms of responding to victim survivors. We consider the implications of this for developing meaningful national and transnational strategies to address gendered violence. While we focus on ASEAN countries many national responses to VAW and human trafficking are not founded on the recognition of the significant interconnections between gendered violence in the labour and personal sphere. We argue that in the midst of national and international efforts to respond to gendered exploitation and abuse, there is an opportunity to shift away from the ‘type’ of victimisation towards prioritising the protection and restoration of women’s safety in all aspects of their lives.
Curse Magic in Tranio’s Ghost Story (Plautus, Mostellaria 431–531)
Authors: Gellar-Goad T. H. M.
Published: January 2025

Abstract: This article argues for an additional interpretive layer in the pivotal scene of Plautus’s Mostellaria , during which the seruus callidus Tranio keeps the homecoming paterfamilias Theopropides out of his own house by inventing a haunting by a ghost named “Diapontius.” Plautus, I argue, characterizes Tranio as convincing Theopropides that he could subject him to curse magic: binding his spirit and conveying it to the gods of the Underworld. Comparison to the texts and sociological mechanisms of Greek and Latin curse tablets reveals undercurrents of binding magic in this already religiously and ritually freighted scene. Tranio presents himself as an expert magus ; Tranio’s “Diapontius” has all the hallmarks of one of the restless dead, violently killed before his time and deprived of proper burial rites; and the effect on Theopropides matches both how Roman literature depicts victims of magic and what Greek and Roman binding spells themselves envision for their targets. This subtextual suggestion of curse magic is one more way in which Tranio displays his standing as a liminal character, and implies that we might read the ghost “Diapontius” as a cipher for Tranio’s perception of his own enslaved social status and bleak life situation.
Introduction: Non-Hermeneutic Reading
Authors: Billings Joshua , Budelmann Felix
Published: January 2025

Abstract: The introduction discusses the genesis of this special issue. It describes the sense of discontent that led to an interest in 'non-hermeneutic reading,' understood as entailing a focus on the encounter between reader and text. It then lays out three contexts that shaped the papers in the issue: most formative are a group of tendencies, centered in English and modern language departments, toward 'postcritical' and other reader-centered methods of literary scholarship, associated with scholars such as Rita Felski and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick; second are discussions of exclusion and disciplinary history within Classics, which have brought questions of readerly identity and identification to the fore; third is research into ancient practices of reading and criticism, which demonstrates a range of possibilities for literary writing that are relatively unexplored in modern scholarship. Finally, the introduction explains that 'non-hermeneutic reading' does not entail a complete rejection of meaning or interpretation as a goal of scholarship, but seeks rather to explore kinds of meanings that are not captured in hermeneutics as traditionally understood. It also observes that with the search for different kinds of meaning in reading comes experimentation with different forms of scholarly expression, including the use of a personal voice.
Know Your Place: Field Notes on Disciplining the Georgics
Authors: Earnshaw Katharine M.
Published: January 2025

Abstract: This piece combines autoethnography with discussion of ancient didactic texts (especially Virgil's Georgics , but also Hesiod's Works and Days and Cato's On Agriculture ) and reflections on theôria , walking, memory, subjectivity, moral habitats, and ethics to pose the questions: What kind of knowledge is possible and desirable within academic scholarship? How do texts and experience come together to form ethical, personal, and critical understanding?
Sunt mihi curae multae : Self-Writing and the Emotional Reader
Authors: Conybeare Catherine
Published: January 2025

Abstract: This paper explores the limits and the revelations afforded by non-hermeneutic readings of texts from late antiquity and the middle ages. It contrasts the author's response to two examples of self-writing: the well-known Confessions of the fifth-century bishop Augustine of Hippo, and the Liber Manualis of the ninth-century Carolingian noblewoman Dhuoda. The paper seeks to demonstrate the power of affective identification across the centuries, and to examine what we lose when we neglect that power.
Dialoguing about Danae: Epilogue
Authors: Budelmann Felix , Earnshaw Katharine M.
Published: January 2025

Abstract: "Dialoguing about Danae" is a 20-minute film of three conversations between Katharine Earnshaw and Felix Budelmann about Simonides' Danae fragment, which were edited by Martin Hampton and published online. The accompanying epilogue in Helios sets out the intentions and context, including our interest in a form of literary criticism that makes space for a personal, subjective encounter with the text. We discuss dialogue as a mode in which it is easy for two individuals to interact in their full subjectivity, and film as a medium that preserves spontaneity as well as individuality.
Notes on Archive Works
Authors: Arden Roy
Published: January 2025

Abstract: Canadian artist Roy Arden reflects on his photography.
Light Writing : Portraiture in a Post-Traumatic Age
Authors: Bal Mieke
Published: January 2025

Abstract: This essay explores the portrait, not as memory of the disappeared, but as both a record and an appeal, both recognition and validation, of subjects who are themselves traumatized. It confronts figurative portraits with works that retain the trace as basis of meaningfulness.
Showings Forth: Dubliners , Photography, and the Rejection of Realism
Authors: Knowlton Eloise
Published: January 2025

Abstract: This essay asks what Dubliners may owe to a realism derived not from literary realism's models, but from a photographic realism newly emergent as photography moved, during Joyce's youth, out of the studio and into the street. Employing a distinction from Lyotard's early work, it claims for late nineteenth-century photography a disruptive figural force that erodes a prior, painterly, discursive order of the photographic, and traces this figurality in Dubliners .
The Deepening of Apperception: On Walter Benjamin's Theory of Film
Authors: Gasché Rodolphe
Published: January 2025

Abstract: According to Walter Benjamin, the history of photography is a process of progressive emancipation of reproductive technology from magic and the aura. This process culminates in the art of cinema as a public art in which total transparency is achieved. The essay is an attempt to investigate the changes in perception that come with the new technologies and the progressive evacuation of the sacred and the auratic from art.
Flicker 1: Reflections on Photography and Literature in the Works of Hélène Cixous
Authors: Naas Michael
Published: January 2025

Abstract: Reflections on photography and literature in the works of Hélène Cixous.
"Someday She Would Tell Him What She Knew": The Nature of Belief in Marilynne Robinson's Lila
Authors: Steiner Makayla C.
Published: January 2025

Abstract: When analyzing the religious elements of Marilynne Robinson's fiction, critics have often focused on her Calvinist impulses, the impact of doctrinal belief on her characters' behavior, and various Christian rituals and typologies that permeate her writing. Few, however, have been attentive to Robinson's fascination with the nature of belief itself. This essay reads the religious development of Lila, the title character of Robinson's fourth novel, Lila (2014), both as a fictional demonstration of Robinson's perspective regarding the singularity of human consciousness and as an example of her commitment to a worldview Paul Ricoeur called "the hermeneutics of affirmation"—an alternative to the "hermeneutics of suspicion" epitomized in the writings of Freud, Marx, and Nietzche. After placing Robinson's critique of the hermeneutics of suspicion in conversation with Julia Kristeva's reservations regarding the basic assumptions of that critical approach, I engage Kristeva's arguments regarding the necessity of belief and the usefulness of Christianity to explore the process by which Lila transitions from a belief system rooted in a secular materiality to a "natural theology" that allows her to make space in her belief system for a transcendent reality. The essay traces Lila's journey from the phase Kristeva calls "the need to believe" through her desire to know, and concludes with an examination of two different experiences with baptism that present Lila with not only the opportunity to choose belief in a specific Christian tradition, but with reasons to do so that are intricately connected to her relationships in a secular, material world.
Desecularizing the Novel: Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier and the Good Confession
Authors: Siemers Ryan
Published: January 2025

Abstract: Contrary to the view held by many literary historians that the novel is a fundamentally secular form, this essay argues that the novel is the product of the secularization of the sacrament of penance, or ritual confession, and that the consequences of this secularization continue to unfold. "Secularization" here refers to the transposition of a component part of ritual confession into the secular domain: the confessant's expectation that painful emotions associated with certain memories may be alleviated through the narration of those memories to a listener or reader. This expectation motivates narrators of confessional novels—even largely secular narrators such as Fyodor Dostoevsky's underground man—to write. However, because readers cannot intervene to absolve such narrators and because they cannot absolve themselves, secular confessions threaten to be endless. They produce a psychologically precarious secularity. This essay elaborates on the latter point with the example of Ford Madox Ford's novel The Good Soldier (1915). Its narrator, John Dowell, faces the prospect of endless confession as he compulsively reinterprets the events that he narrates. He escapes this prospect by projecting his sin onto the cosmos and encompassing the cosmos in his confession. He constructs a mythology of a permanently fallen world in order to generalize, and thereby depersonalize, his own guilty condition. To arrive at his new mythology, Dowell employs conventions borrowed from spiritual autobiography, such as conversion. As The Good Soldier exemplifies, the novel, far from a fundamentally secular form, periodically reinvents religion to satisfy the psychology of confession.
"Loyalty to Myself at the Very Least": Historical, Religious, and Narrative Commitments in Marilynne Robinson's Gilead
Authors: Ivry Jonathan
Published: January 2025

Abstract: This essay examines the figural role and historical context of John Brown in Marilynne Robinson's novel Gilead . Brown's participation in the events known as Bleeding Kansas are referenced in the novel both as a founding trauma for generational conflict among the narrator, his father, and grandfather (all named John Ames), and as a symbolic representation of an activist Christian theology that justifies violence on moral grounds. Contrary to the dominant view of Brown today as a heroic extremist, Robinson references this specific history in the novel to construct a theological argument that rejects all violence, regardless of apparent moral righteousness, as a fundamental misreading of the Christian message. By reading some of Robinson's essays against key passages in the novel, I show how Robinson develops a strong and consistent theological position counter to John Brown, one that is rooted in her understanding of the Puritan and Calvinist origins of American Congregationalism and abolitionism and that is linked in the novel to an understanding of narrative as anchored in deferred resolution alongside faith in eventual redemptive outcomes.
"On Fairy-Stories" as a Theory of Literature: Tolkien Meets Ricœur and Girard on the Field of Myth
Authors: Gruenler Curtis
Published: January 2025

Abstract: Tolkien's essay "On Fairy-stories" implies a general theory of literature that goes beyond the fantasy genre exemplified by his own stories. The more fully developed literary and cultural theories of Paul Ricoeur and René Girard help unfold its implications. What Tolkien terms the "subcreation" of a "secondary world" heightens what, according to Ricoeur, all written works do in projecting a world. The uses Tolkien finds in fantasy, under the headings Recovery, Escape, and Consolation, extend the capacities for knowledge and love of the other valued in many kinds of literature. These uses enrich Girard's emphasis on a conversion of desire mediated by great literature, away from the violent structures served by traditional mythology, so that fantasy clarifies the potential for literature to work as a sort of counter-myth. Tolkien's literary theory, then, supplies what is latent in Ricoeur's projection of a new self in front of the text and of myth as "bearer of possible worlds." The effects Tolkien treasures in the idea of an encounter with Faërie turn out to apply to what all kinds of literature can do.
"That Dreadful Heaven": Secularism Post Postsecularism
Authors: Buchmeier Sarah
Published: January 2025

Abstract: What it means to be religious and to value this life is the question at the center of one of the best-known theological novels in American literature: Elizabeth Stuart Phelps's 1868 novel The Gates Ajar . While scholars have typically understood The Gates Ajar in terms of its place in the tradition of sentimental literature, I argue that The Gates Ajar sharply departs from the sentimental genre as a novel that reframes religiosity in an emerging secularist era. The journal form that shapes the narrative serves to eliminate the two perspectives which sentimental novels typically imagined in opposition to each other—the narrator inside the text and the unconverted reader outside of the text—a kind of formal enclosure that also functions to remove the opposition between a secular perspective and a religious one. Phelps's incorporation of the materialism of the secular into a vision of heaven, which appears to challenge orthodox religious doctrine, becomes a variation of that doctrine—the secular enclosed in the religious perspective. With Phelps as context, I turn to Martin Hägglund's 2019 book, This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom . I argue that although Hägglund is writing to defend secularism, his project reproduces Phelps's in the inverse, by arguing for an elimination of world which upholds the opposition between religion and secularism. Reading Hägglund through Phelps ultimately forces us to reframe our understanding of what it means to be postsecular, not to escape or overcome the predominance of secularism but to intensify its grip.
"My God Tells Me" and "My Bible Says": Nigerian Pentecostalism in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah
Authors: Amaefule Adolphus
Published: January 2025

Abstract: Adichie's Americanah has been studied by many. This paper looks at the portrait she paints in the novel of the Christian religion, especially Pentecostal Christianity in Nigeria. This is an area that has remained understudied. Adichie is a Catholic, not a Pentecostal, and as a novelist she takes a degree of creative license in the composition of her work. The author's religious background, therefore, complicates the correspondence between what she says thereof and the real-world praxis of the thousands of neo-Pentecostal churches in Nigeria. At the same time, however, this article maintains that her portrait of Nigerian neo-Pentecostalism is largely informed by the real-world practices of these churches. And because these practices have sometimes been taken to ridiculous and, indeed, fanatical heights by some Nigerian Pentecostals, they become, in the novel, the objects of her satire and criticism. Hence, hers is, in fictional form, a commentary on the Pentecostal phenomenon in Nigeria, amidst many others in the form of nonfiction. The paper adds not only to the existing body of scholarship on Americanah but also to the study of Pentecostal Christianity in African literature.
Prophesying War: Djuna Barnes's Nightwood and The Book of Isaiah
Authors: Petrolle Jeanne
Published: January 2025

Abstract: This article re-reads Djuna Barnes's 1936 novel Nightwood in light of the novel's numerous references to the Book of Isaiah. While a preponderance of Nightwood scholarship focuses on the novel's investigations of gender and sexuality, this article focuses on the novel's interest in early twentieth-century European history and the effects of historical trauma on religious experience. By exploring how Nightwood borrows its language and tropes from Hebrew prophecy, the author argues that Nightwood , like the major Hebrew prophetic texts, can best be understood as war literature. As a work of war literature, the novel, like the Books of Isaiah and Jeremiah, constitutes a public expression of grief over wartime trauma and a warning to the nations about another oncoming war. Read in this way, Barnes's novel belongs in the literary historical category termed "Catholic decadence," rather than in the category of atheistic modernism with Virginia Woolf.
A fogyasztói tudatosság felmérése a virslik vásárlása során
Authors: Erdei Bálint , Kulcsár Tamás , Zsótér Brigitta , Mihalkó József
Published: January 2025

Az egészség- és környezetvédelemmel párhuzamosan
fokozatosan előtérbe került a fogyasztói tudatosság a táplálkozás
terén is, mely a húskészítmények piacára is hatást gyakorol. Ennek
kapcsán jelenleg is terítéken szerepelnek a húsfogyasztást érintő
moralitással és egészségvédelemmel kapcsolatos kérdések. A témában
a sertéshús és a belőle készült termékek érintettek főként,
melyeket időről időre illetnek egészségtelen jelzővel. Így
kutatási témánkként a virsli fogyasztási és vásárlási szokásainak
kérdőíves felmérésére vállalkoztunk. A témához kapcsolódó
válaszok, valamint a megkérdezettek demográfiai adatainak
összehasonlítása alapján próbáltuk a megfelelő következtetéseket
levonni a fogyasztói tudatosságra vonatkozóan.
Peroral Endoscopic Myotomy in a Patient With Gastric Bypass, a Therapeutic Challenge in the Management of Postoperative Achalasia
Authors: Córdoba Guzmán Andrea Carolina , Fuentes Carlos Fernando , Sabbagh Luis Carlos
Published: January 2025

Achalasia is a rare esophageal motor disorder characterized by incomplete relaxation of the lower esophageal sphincter and ineffective contraction of the esophageal body. This condition is not often associated with obesity; however, in recent years, cases of achalasia after bariatric surgery have been described. We describe the case of a 30-year-old female patient with a history of gastric sleeve surgery in 2018, which, 4 years after the intervention, presented with dysphagia, regurgitation, and weight loss. A diagnosis of achalasia was made, and peroral endoscopic myotomy was performed.
A Boundary among Reference, Sense and Meaning: An Essence for Translating Rhetorical Statements
Authors: Fattah Bikhtiyar O.
Published: January 2025

This study, which examines the contributions of the translators’ awareness of the boundary among the notions reference, sense and meaning in translating rhetorical statements, aims at identifying the notions of reference, sense and meaning and how the translators’ familiarity with a boundary among these concepts would be helpful in the process of translating rhetorical statements. This process is a very challenging one because the translation of such types of statements could not be fulfilled without translators’ familiarity with the three essential levels of meaning which are: referential meaning (reference), conceptual meaning (sense), and contextual meaning (meaning). This study employs a qualitative approach to determine the influence of translators’ familiarity with the boundary among these notions and their contributions in the process of translating rhetorical statements. It is qualitative for having an experimental group and a controlling group of translators to investigate the influences of being familiar with the notions of reference, sense and meaning on their translation.  One of the significant findings of this study is that Kurdish translators who are not familiar with the boundary among these notions usually resort to referential meaning (reference) and conceptual meaning (sense) in translating rhetorical statements; however, after being familiarized with these notions and their distinctive features, they effectively employ contextual meaning (meaning) in translating rhetorical statements and arrive at the precise and understandable translation of them.
Murine Homodimeric Adhesion/Growth-Regulatory Galectins-1, -2 and -7: Comparative Profiling of Gene/ Promoter Sequences by Database Mining, of Expression by RT-PCR/Immunohistochemistry and of Contact Sites for Carbohydrate Ligands by Computational Chemistry
Authors: Lohr M. , Lensch M. , André S. , Kaltner Herbert , Siebert H.-C. , Smetana K. , Sinowatz F. , Gabius H.-J.
Published: January 2025

Following the detection of individual members of the family of galectins it is an obvious challenge to define the extent of functional overlap/divergence among these proteins. As a step to address this issue a comparative profiling has been started in the mouse as a model organism, combining sequence analysis, expression patterns and structural features in the cases of the homodimeric galectins-1, -2 and -7. Close relationship was apparent at the level of global gene organization. Scrutiny of the proximal promoter regions for putative transcription-factor-binding sites by two search algorithms uncovered qualitative and quantitative differences with potential to influence the combinatorial functionality of regulatory sequences. RT-PCR mapping with samples from an array of 17 organs revealed significant differences, separating rather ubiquitous gene expression of galectin-1 from the more restricted individual patterns of galectins-2 and -7. Using specific antisera obtained by affinity depletion including stringent controls to ascertain lack of cross-reactivity these results were corroborated at the level of galectin localization in fixed tissue sections. Nuclear presence was seen in the case of galectin-1. In addition to nonidentical expression profiles the mapping of the carbohydrate recognition domains of galectins-1 and -7 by homology modelling and docking of naturally occurring complex tetraand pentasaccharides disclosed a series of sequence deviations which may underlie disparate affinities for cell surface glycans/glycomimetic peptides. In view of applicability the presented data can serve as useful reference to delineate changes with respect to disease and in genetically engineered models. To enable more general conclusions on the galectin network it is warranted to further pursue this combined approach within this lectin family.