bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Introduction: Urban friendship networks: Affective negotiations and potentialities of care
Authors: Kathiravelu Laavanya , Bunnell Tim
Published: November 2017

Issues of integration, assimilation and the place of ‘strangers’ within metropolitan contexts have been overwhelmingly conceptualised within the larger structural frames of ethnicity, nationality, immigration status and socio-economic class. This raises and reflects important issues around strategies of differentiation, urban exclusion and the hierarchies inherent in everyday life within contemporary cities. However, in privileging such modes of analysis, other more dynamic, elastic, latent and surreptitious forms of affinity, relatedness and connection within the urban environment are often left unexamined. Friendship is one of these. The articles in this special issue initiate a deeper and more sustained focus on friendship as a relational modality that characterises many urban interactions, and that also takes on particular forms within demographically diverse city spaces. The particular contribution of this special issue is in bringing together the literature from urban studies, research on diversity, understandings of social capital and networks and contemporary discussions of friendship. This introduction to the special issue argues that adopting alternative frameworks of enquiry such as friendship can serve to unsettle a priori assumptions about co-ethnic solidarity, and provide alternative epistemological starting points in understanding social networks. In doing so, this research not only contributes to contemporary readings of diverse cities but extends understandings of the routine affective and material labour that urban dwellers regularly undertake. Calling for a focus on informal bonds like friendship, this article suggests that it is within such unexplored spheres that possibilities of care and convivial city living exist.
Lucky, Competent, or Just a Cheat? Interactive Effects of Honesty-Humility and Moral Cues on Cheating Behavior
Authors: Kleinlogel Emmanuelle P. , Dietz Joerg , Antonakis John
Published: November 2017

Despite substantial research on cheating, how and when individual predispositions figure into cheating behavior remains unclear. In Study 1, we investigated to what extent Honesty-Humility predicted cheating behavior. As expected, individuals high on Honesty-Humility were less likely to cheat than were individuals low on this trait. In Study 2, integrating arguments from personality research about traits with arguments from behavioral ethics about moral primes, we examined how Honesty-Humility and situational primes interacted to affect cheating. We found an interaction indicating that individuals high on Honesty-Humility consistently did not cheat much across situational primes, whereas individuals low on Honesty-Humility cheated more when exposed to immoral primes than when exposed to moral primes. Our research invites reflection about the interplay of individual differences in Honesty-Humility and situational cues in predicting cheating, including the design of anti-cheating systems and the context in which these person and situation factors interact.
Mental Illness in the Workplace: An Interdisciplinary Review and Organizational Research Agenda
Authors: Follmer Kayla B. , Jones Kisha S.
Published: November 2017

Given the prevalence of and consequences associated with mental illness in the workplace, we believe this review is both critical and timely for researchers and practitioners. This systematic review broadens the extant literature in both theoretical and practical ways in an effort to help lay a foundation for the organizational scholarship of employees with mental illness, a group that has traditionally been underrepresented in the management and industrial-organizational psychology literatures. After defining and conceptualizing mental illness as a social identity, we systematically review the existing empirical research on employees with mental illness across multiple fields of study. Using research that accounts for individual, other, and organizational perspectives, we present a model that outlines the performance, employment, career, and discriminatory outcomes that characterize the experiences of individuals with mental illness as well as individual and organizational strategies that moderate the relationship between having a mental illness and experiencing those outcomes. Together, this article provides a synthesis of what is known about employees with mental illness while also highlighting avenues for future scholarly attention.
The understanding of emotion among young Chinese children
Authors: Tang Yulong , Harris Paul L. , Pons Francisco , Zou Hong , Zhang Wenjuan , Xu Qunxia
Published: November 2017

The development of emotion understanding in young Chinese preschoolers was examined. The overall developmental trend, as measured by the Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC), proved similar to that found among preschoolers in Western Europe. However, Chinese children performed better at understanding the distinction between real and apparent emotion and worse at understanding the connection between reminders and emotion. Children’s theory of mind and verbal ability were significant predictors of their ability to understand emotion.
The Influence of Personality Traits on Households’ Financial Risk Tolerance and Financial Behaviour
Authors: Pinjisakikool Teerapong
Published: November 2017

Using a large sample that can represent the Dutch population, this article mainly studies the determinants of financial risk tolerance. I propose that the big five personality traits are the potential factors that can explain differences in financial risk tolerance among individuals. Furthermore, this article examines the effect of personality traits on the actual financial behaviour of households through financial risk tolerance. I find that all the big five personality traits including extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and intellect significantly predict financial risk tolerance. Additionally, these personality traits as instrumental variables can also indirectly predict the financial behaviour of households.

JEL: D10, D14, D19
An Interview with Arlie Russell Hochschild: Critique and the Sociology of Emotions: Fear, Neoliberalism and the Acid Rainproof Fish
Authors: du Plessis Erik Mygind , Sørensen Pelle Korsbæk
Published: November 2017

Arlie Russell Hochschild is Professor Emerita of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. Her books include: The Managed Heart (1983), The Second Shift (1989), The Time Bind (1997) and The Commercialization of Intimate Life (2003). In her work, Hochschild explores the many ways we manage our emotions in personal life and perform emotional labor in the workplace. Her most recent work explores the growing political divide in America, and the need for each side to climb an ‘empathy wall’ to begin dialogue with those on the other side. She reports on five years of field-work among Tea Party enthusiasts in Louisiana in her latest book, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right (2016). In this interview, she reflects on the phenomenon of critique within the framework of emotional labor, which leads to discussions on neoliberalism and the ideal worker in contemporary working life.
Infrastructural disorder: The politics of disruption, contingency, and normalcy in waste infrastructures in Athens
Authors: Kallianos Yannis
Published: November 2017

This paper considers infrastructure from the point of view of disorder. During the last few years, waste management controversies have proliferated in Greece, reflecting a generalized feeling of mistrust towards the authorities. In this context, and in relation to the socio-economic crisis that erupted there in 2010, a set of diverse and even antithetic practices, imaginations, and circulations of flows have (re)emerged around waste treatment processes. By looking at the intermingling of formal and informal practices around waste flows and landfill processes in Athens, the paper asks how uncertainty, contingency and instability shape the governance and everyday experience of waste infrastructures. Examining the ways in which the normalization of regular disruption and instability plays out in waste treatment in Athens, it makes the case for understanding disorder as inherent to infrastructure.
Narrative Construction of Morality in Adolescence Among Typically Developing and Violence-Exposed Youth
Authors: Pasupathi Monisha , Wainryb Cecilia , Bourne Stacia , Posada Roberto
Published: November 2017

In this article, we explore two different perspectives on what narratives reveal about differences in moral agency construction across contexts. We focus on contexts that vary in violence exposure because such exposure has implications for the way youth develop a sense of moral agency. We elicited narratives about harm-doing from three samples of youth: a North American typical sample, a North American juvenile delinquent sample, and a sample of Colombian displaced youth. The latter two samples have in common a history of significant exposure to violence. Our results show reductions in psychological content (e.g., references to emotions, thoughts, and desires) and increases in reciprocity and vengeful themes among violence-exposed youth, particularly in the context of narrating their own harmful actions. We consider the meaning of these differences from two different perspectives about the meaning of narratives.
Susceptibility of iodine concentration map of dual-energy contrast-enhanced digital mammography for quantitative and tumor enhancement assessment
Authors: Hwang Yi-Shuan , Cheung Yun-Chung , Lin Yu-Ying , Hsu Hsiao-Lan , Tsai Hui-Yu
Published: November 2017

Background

Dual-energy (DE) contrast-enhanced digital mammography (DE-CEDM) provides additional information on tumor angiogenesis.

Purpose

To investigate the susceptibility of reconstructing color-coded iodine concentration maps on the basis of quantitative calibrations of the iodine concentration and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) in DE-CEDM applications.

Material and Methods

A custom-made phantom filled with iodine concentrations in the range of 0.1–10 mg/cm2 was used in calibrations. All DE images were acquired using the GE Senographe Essential system. From DE subtraction images, the image contrast and CNR were obtained, and the quantitative relationship between these two metrics and the iodine concentration at each phantom thickness was investigated. The quantitative CNR calibration curves were applied to reconstruct color-coded iodine maps on a pixel-by-pixel basis.

Results

Both the mean contrast and mean CNR increased linearly with the iodine concentration. The iodine concentration estimated from the iodine map reconstructed from quantitative CNR calibrations was highly consistent with the desired iodine concentration (R2 = 0.989), and smaller relative errors (in the range of 3.0–19.5%) were observed with iodine concentrations not less than 1 mg/cm2.

Conclusion

An iodine concentration map could be reconstructed based on the linear relationship between the CNR and iodine concentration. From the color-coded iodine concentration map, the contrast medium enhancement phenomenon could be further estimated quantitatively, and tumor enhancement patterns could be easily observed.
Factors contributing to salivary human immunodeficiency virus type-1 levels measured by a Poisson distribution-based PCR method
Authors: Ikeno Ryo , Yamada Eiko , Yamazaki Sayaka , Ueda Tomoyuki , Nagata Masaki , Takagi Ritsuo , Kato Shingo
Published: November 2017

Objective

To elucidate the mechanism underlying secretion of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) into the oral cavity, by examining the relationships between various oral and systemic factors and the viral load in saliva.

Methods

Plasma and saliva samples from HIV-1 infected patients were assayed using the COBAS® AmpliPrep/COBAS® TaqMan® HIV-1 Test, version 1.0 and a Poisson distribution-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method for quantifying HIV-1 RNA and DNA.

Results

Forty-four pairs of samples were obtained from 18 patients. Salivary viral load was approximately 10% of the plasma viral load, but higher than the plasma load in two patients. The salivary viral DNA load was < 1% of the total HIV-1 nucleic acid load except in one patient who had more viral DNA than RNA. Multiple regression analysis showed that salivary viral load was significantly correlated with plasma viral load (partial correlation coefficient, 0.90) and the community periodontal index (–0.63).

Conclusions

The present results suggest that excretion through salivary glands, but not occult bleeding, may be a major pathway of HIV-1 into the oral cavity.
Stereoscopic Slant Contrast and the Perception of Inducer Slant at Brief Stimulus Presentations
Authors: Harada Shinya , Mitsudo Hiroyuki
Published: November 2017

Slant contrast refers to a stereoscopic phenomenon in which the perceived slant of a test object is affected by the disparity of a surrounding inducer object. Slant contrast has been proposed to involve cue conflict, but it is unclear whether this idea is useful in explaining slant contrast at short stimulus presentations (<1 s). We measured both slant contrast and perceived inducer slant while varying the presentation duration (100–800 ms) of stereograms with several spatial configurations. In three psychophysical experiments, we found that (a) both slant contrast and perceived inducer slant increased as a function of stimulus duration, and (b) slant contrast was relatively stable across different test and inducer shapes at each short stimulus duration, whereas perceived inducer slant increased when cue conflict was reduced. These results suggest that at brief, not long stimulus presentations, the cue conflict between disparity and perspective plays a smaller role in slant contrast than other depth cues.
Lammy Review: without racial justice, can there be trust?
Authors: Fekete Liz
Published: November 2017

The author takes issue with the fact that a UK government review, under David Lammy MP (the Lammy Review), into the experiences of people of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds of the criminal justice system, though finding clear disproportionality, avoids all mention of institutional racism – a key finding in the 1999 Macpherson Report – preferring instead to concentrate on ‘bias’. Its recommendations for changes within the system will not bring about the necessary Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic trust, unless the larger structures and processes which cause inequity are addressed. See also Lee Bridges, ‘Lammy Review: will it change outcomes in the criminal justice system?’ ( Race & Class, doi. 10.1177/0306396817742075).
Lammy Review: will it change outcomes in the criminal justice system?
Authors: Bridges Lee
Published: November 2017

A forensic analysis from a criminal justice expert on the weaknesses in the findings and recommendations of the Lammy Review into Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic disproportionality in the UK’s criminal justice system. It comments on the remit (which excludes policing), the lack of real action over police gang databases and the joint enterprise ‘charge’, the inadequate understanding of plea bargaining and influence of charging, the need for a deeper understanding of outcomes particularly at the Crown Court, and the weaknesses in merely asking for more Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic representation in the system. The statistical review, the author concludes, produces snapshots of marginal disproportionality at selected stages in the process and hence an episodic analysis of criminal justice, rather than looking at the overall system’s effect in producing differential outcomes for the various ethnic groups. See also Liz Fekete, ‘Lammy Review: Without racial justice, can there be trust?’ ( Race & Class, doi: 10.1177/0306396817742074).
A Comparative Analysis of Domestic Violence Shelter Staff Perceptions Regarding Barriers to Services in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the United States
Authors: Grubb Jonathan A. , Muftić Lisa R.
Published: November 2017

Service provision for domestic violence (DV) survivors has been a long-standing staple of shelters in the United States. Although shelter services provide numerous benefits for survivors, barriers tied to acquisition remain a pressing concern when combatting DV. Nevertheless, there has been minimal research exploring barriers to service acquisition on a cross-national level. As such, the current research cross-nationally examines perceptions of shelter staff regarding acquisition barriers as well as the effectiveness of local agencies to meet survivor needs and differences in populations served in the United States (specifically Texas) as well as in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Data collection stemmed from self-report surveys originally constructed in English and translated into Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian. Results underscored differences between populations served, perceptions of local agencies assisting survivors of DV, and barriers tied to cultural and financial concerns. Implications, limitations, and future directions are also discussed.
Psychophysiological Reactivity Profiles of Partner-Violent Men With Borderline or Psychopathic Personality Features: The Role of Empathy
Authors: Armenti Nicholas A. , Babcock Julia C.
Published: November 2017

Borderline and psychopathic features have been linked to unique psychophysiological reactivity profiles. Studies have suggested that levels of psychophysiological reactivity for partner-violent men cannot be attributed to personality features alone. This study tested cognitive and affective empathy as moderators of relations between borderline personality, Factor 1 psychopathy, and psychophysiological reactivity using a community sample of 135 male participants and their female partners. Cognitive empathy moderated the relation between borderline personality features and heart rate reactivity. Affective empathy moderated the relation between Factor 1 psychopathy features and heart rate reactivity. However, directions of these interactions were contrary to original predictions. Understanding unique empathy deficits may be beneficial for identifying ways to minimize relationship conflict, manage arousal, and decrease violence.
Circular visualization of China’s internal migration flows 2010–2015
Authors: Qi Wei , Abel Guy J , Muttarak Raya , Liu Shenghe
Published: November 2017

We adapted the chord diagram plot to visualize China’s recent inter-provincial migration during 2010–2015. The arrowheads were added to present the direction of the flows. This method allows us to show the complete migration flows between 31 provinces in China including the direction and volume of the flows. The spatial component was also clearly depicted in the plot using four color palates representing four regions in China (i.e. East, Center, West, Northeast) and arranging the 31 provinces in an approximate geographic order. Besides that, we extend the chord diagram plot to describe China’s bilateral net migration during 2010–2015.
Iodine Status of Taiwanese Population in 2013: 10 Years After Changing From Mandatory to Voluntary Salt Iodization
Authors: Wang Fan-Fen , Tang Kam-Tsun , Pan Wen-Harn , Won Justin Ging-Shing , Hsieh Yao-Te , Huang Chun-Jui
Published: November 2017

Background:

In 2003, Taiwan’s iodine policy changed from mandatory to voluntary. The Nutrition and Health Survey in Taiwan (NAHSIT) 2001-2002 for schoolchildren showed adequate iodine nutrition, while NAHSIT 2005-2008 for adults showed the iodine status was at borderline adequacy.

Objective:

To investigate the iodine status of the Taiwanese population from schoolchildren to adulthood 10 years after the change of the salt iodization policy.

Method:

Urinary iodine was measured in samples from subjects in NAHSIT 2013.

Results:

The median urinary iodine concentration (UIC) of the Taiwanese population aged 6 years and above in 2013 was 96 μg/L, indicating mild iodine deficiency. The median UIC of 6- to 12-year-old schoolchildren was 124 μg/L (interquartile range [IQR]: 92-213 μg/L), and 115 μg/L (IQR: 80-166 μg/L), 125 μg/L (IQR: 74-161 μg/L), 73 μg/L (IQR: 52-131 μg/L), and 78 μg/L (IQR: 52-132 μg/L) in populations aged 13 to 18 years, 19 to 44 years, 45 to 64 years, and ≥65 years, respectively. Declining iodine nutrition in age groups ≥45 years old was noted that the median UIC of populations aged 45 to 64 years and ≥65 years was 99 and 88 μg/L, respectively, in NAHSIT 2005-2008. The median UIC of schoolchildren was not lower than that during the mandatory salt fortification period, but the distribution of urinary iodine levels signified a dietary pattern change.

Conclusion:

Wide-ranging variation in iodine nutrition levels was observed in different age groups. Universal salt iodization, as suggested by the World Health Organization, should be the best strategy to achieve adequate iodine nutrition.
“Distribution According to Work”: An Historical Analysis of the Incentive System in China’s State-Owned Sector
Authors: Qi Hao
Published: November 2017

This article analyzes the role of the incentive system in driving China’s economic transition. The reform of the incentive system during the late 1970s and early 1980s led to the abuse of material incentives. Changes in the incentive system led to recurrent inflation and squeezed profits. The state thus launched a series of reforms that commoditized labor power and divided cadres from workers, substantially weakening workers’ power and promoting China’s economic transition.
Yours, Mine, and the Truth: Using a Structured Minimum Wage Debate in the Economics Classroom
Authors: Wolla Scott A.
Published: November 2017

This article describes a strategy for using the minimum wage as a classroom debate topic. Classroom debate is an active-learning strategy that encourages students to develop skills that are often lacking in the college curriculum. Specifically, classroom debate promotes critical thinking and encourages students to see topics from various perspectives. Economics topics are well suited for classroom debate because most of the policy arguments have at least two well-reasoned positions. The minimum wage is an economics topic that students tend to care deeply about because it speaks to issues of poverty, income inequality, discrimination, and the economic value of education, and many students in the college demographic earn minimum, or near-minimum, wage. Instructors who use the minimum wage debate in their classrooms will find that students will apply an “economic way of thinking” to issues at the core of the curriculum.

JEL Classifications: A21, A22, J3
In-plane compression properties of a novel foam core sandwich structure reinforced by stiffeners
Authors: Tao Jie , Li Feng , Zhao Qilin , Zhang Dongdong , Zhao Zhibo
Published: November 2017

A novel foam core sandwich structure was proposed to prevent skin wrinkling by inserting glass fibre-reinforced plastic stiffeners attached to the sandwich skins. A modified vacuum-assisted resin infusion method was used to manufacture the sandwich panels. To investigate the in-plane compression strengths and failure modes of the new foam core sandwich panels, experimental tests were performed on a series of specimens with different cross-sectional configurations, including thin skin, thick skin, and stiffened ones. In addition, analytical modelling was conducted, the results of which agreed well with the experimental results. Results indicate that upon the insertion of stiffeners, the failure mode of the foam core sandwich composite structures changed from skin wrinkling to compressive microbuckling or global buckling. Compared to thin-skin and thick-skin specimens, the average ultimate load and specific strength of the stiffened specimen were markedly improved. Thus, the concept of inserting glass fibre-reinforced plastic stiffeners might be desirable to prevent skin wrinkling in foam core sandwich structures for engineering applications.
Preparation and in vivo evaluation of a novel gel-based wound dressing using arginine–alginate surface-modified chitosan nanofibers
Authors: Hoseinpour Najar Mahsa , Minaiyan Mohsen , Taheri Azade
Published: November 2017

The development of an effective wound dressing with the ability to induce skin wound healing is a great challenge in medicine. Nanofibers are highly attractive for wound dressing preparation due to their properties such as hemostasis induction, good absorption of wound exudates, and facilitation of cell growth. Chitosan nanofibers have attracted great attention for application in wound dressings due to their accelerating effects on wound healing. In this study, arginine surface-modified chitosan nanofibers were successfully prepared by attachment of arginine molecules on the surface of chitosan nanofibers using sodium alginate through electrostatic interaction. The effect of pH on the amount of attached arginine was evaluated at three different pH values; 5, 6, and 7. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and zeta potential of chitosan nanofibers before and after surface modification suggested the occurrence of the attachment of arginine to chitosan nanofibers. Scanning electron microscope images showed the nanofibrous structure of arginine surface-modified chitosan nanofibers with an average diameter ranging from 100 nm to 150 nm. The release of arginine from arginine surface-modified chitosan nanofibers gel showed a sustained release manner. The suitable viscosity and spreadability of arginine surface-modified chitosan nanofibers gel verified its easy application at the wound site. Arginine surface-modified chitosan nanofibers gel significantly improved the wound healing process including wound closure when tested in vivo using rat model. Additionally, histological examination and immunohistochemical studies showed the significant enhancement of the re-epithelialization, collagen deposition, and angiogenesis in the skin of the animal group treated with arginine surface-modified chitosan nanofibers gel compared with the other control groups. These results suggested that arginine surface-modified chitosan nanofibers gel could be introduced as an effective wound dressing.
The Bureaucratic Harassment of U.S. Servicewomen
Authors: Bonnes Stephanie
Published: November 2017

Focusing on the U.S. military as a gendered and raced institution and using 33 in-depth interviews with U.S. servicewomen, this study identifies tactics and consequences of workplace harassment that occur through administrative channels, a phenomenon I label bureaucratic harassment. I identify bureaucratic harassment as a force by which some servicemen harass, intimidate, and control individual, as well as groups of, servicewomen through bureaucratic channels. Examples include issuing minor infractions with the intention of delaying or stopping promotions, threatening to withhold military benefits for reporting sexual abuse/harassment, and revoking servicewomen’s qualifications in order to remove them from positions or units. The manipulation of administrative rules and regulations is made possible by the interplay between a gendered and raced organizational climate and bureaucratic features such as discretion, hierarchy, and the blending of work and personal life. I show that bureaucratic harassment has both raced and gendered implications. Ultimately, harassment that is enacted through bureaucratic means is often overlooked but carries distinct consequences for the professional careers and workplace experiences of the victims.
Barriers to Women’s Progress After Atrocity: Evidence from Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina
Authors: Berry Marie E.
Published: November 2017

Researchers have recently documented the unexpected opportunities war can present for women. While acknowledging the devastating effects of mass violence, this burgeoning field highlights war’s potential to catalyze grassroots mobilization and build more gender sensitive institutions and legal frameworks. Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina serve as important examples of this phenomenon, yet a closer examination of both cases reveals the limits on women’s capacity to take part in and benefit from these postwar shifts. This article makes two key contributions. First, it demonstrates how the postwar political settlement created hierarchies of victimhood that facilitated new social divisions and fractured women’s collective organizing. Second, it argues that while war creates certain opportunities for women, a revitalization of patriarchy in the aftermath can undermine these gains. Drawing on more than 250 interviews with women in both countries, this article ultimately questions the extent to which postwar mobilization can be maintained or harnessed for genuine gender emancipation.
SWS 2016 Feminist Lecture: Reducing Gender Biases In Modern Workplaces: A Small Wins Approach to Organizational Change
Authors: Correll Shelley J.
Published: November 2017

The accumulation and advancement of gender scholarship over past decades has led us to the point where gender scholars today can leverage our deep understanding of the reproduction of gender inequality to develop and test models of change. In this lecture, I present one such model designed to reduce the negative effects of stereotypic biases on women’s workplace outcomes. After synthesizing the literature on stereotyping and bias and showing the limits of past change efforts, I develop a “small wins” model of change. Key to this model is that researchers work with teams of managers to produce concrete, implementable actions that produce visible results. I argue that small wins motivate further action and are the building blocks to larger organizational transformation. Preliminary results from several case studies show that this approach can produce important changes in the short run, such as reducing gender biases in workplace evaluations, and that these small wins can inspire longer run change, such as increases in the rate of hiring women.
Disasters in Chinese history
Authors: Fuller Pierre
Published: November 2017

Scholars in various disciplines have recognized that ‘natural’ disasters – and the extent to which natural hazards develop into humanitarian catastrophe – can reveal fundamental aspects of any particular government or society. What does history offer observers of disasters in contemporary China? What was the Chinese experience of environmental or natural disasters in pre-revolutionary or even premodern times? As recently as the early 2000s, the field of Chinese history offered little to answer such questions. Meanwhile, web searches remain the predominant avenue for non-academic researchers seeking historical contextualization, yet online searches on the vast majority of disasters in Chinese history continue to produce negligible results. With this in mind, a group of historians launched the website DisasterHistory.org in autumn 2015. Emerging now from its pilot stages, the site’s goals are to serve as an online introductory portal for academic studies and sources on Chinese disasters, to provide an accessible and reliable ‘go-to’ resource for academic researchers generally, and to create a forum for data-sharing and collaborative research for scholars across disciplines with shared interests in disasters, broadly defined.
Researching disasters and disaster management in China: Persistent questions and emerging trends
Authors: Paltemaa Lauri
Published: November 2017

This article offers an introduction to China Information’s special issue on disasters and disaster management. It is argued here that studying disasters and disaster management should not only improve our understanding of them as social phenomena and thereby increase our ability to manage disasters better, but also that disasters offer unique windows for researchers to study Chinese society and explain social and political changes therein. The article further argues that although research in natural disasters in China has developed rapidly both in terms of disciplinary approaches and topics, such research has still to overcome its narrow event-based nature and embrace more cross-disciplinary and comparative approaches geographically and historically, and disaster studies should investigate different types of disasters.
Crisis crowdsourcing and China’s civic participation in disaster response: Evidence from earthquake relief
Authors: Peng Lin
Published: November 2017

The devastating 2008 Wenchuan earthquake unfolded the co-evolution of a proactive civic engagement and extensive application of web-based information and communication technologies (ICTs) in China’s disaster response. However, existing literature has not yet sufficiently examined how ad hoc web-based voluntary participation has led to long-term development of digital disaster management in China in the wake of the Wenchuan earthquake of 2008. The present article addresses this gap by focusing on one specific type of ICT-mediated civic effort, crisis crowdsourcing, and presenting newly collected empirical evidence from relief work in the 2008 Wenchuan, 2010 Yushu, and 2013 Lushan earthquakes. This article examines the emergence of a broad-based digitally enabled civic participation in disaster response and its more general political implications. The main findings of this study suggest that web-based ICTs have not only enabled the relatively weak and episodic social actors to overcome constraints on information, fundraising, organizational development and to achieve collective development in a field historically dominated by the state, but also facilitated the evolution of a parallel disaster management system with agenda, skills and expertise independent of the state.
Heritagization of disaster ruins and ethnic culture in China: Recovery plans after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake
Authors: Le Mentec Katiana , Zhang Qiaoyun
Published: November 2017

This article discusses state-led heritagization processes in Beichuan and Wenchuan Counties, two Qiang ethnic minority areas severely affected by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake (China). Certain destroyed landscapes were preserved and turned into earthquake relic sites. In particular, the former Beichuan County seat was entirely heritagized for memorial, economic, and patriotic education purposes, causing an emotional conflict with locals still affected by loss and trauma. At the same time, Qiang cultural practices were hastily registered as national and international intangible cultural heritage, while reconstructed Qiang villages were transformed into heritage tourism destinations. These initiatives tend to reshape Qiang culture elements into fetishized commodities. Allocating massive funds to historically marginalized regions, these post-disaster heritagization programmes aimed at boosting economic recovery, as well as demonstrating state power, national unity and solidarity. Implemented using a top–down method, they appear insensitive to the affected population’s trauma and the sociohistorical context from which the newly heritagized elements originate. The disaster and Qiang culture heritage tourism not only failed to bring about sustainable economic development to the earthquake-stricken areas, but also ignored to a large extent the initial goal of ‘post-disaster cultural recovery’ and the virtues of cultural heritage in recovery processes.
Vulnerability and resilience during disasters: Structural constraints and survivors’ agency in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake
Authors: Hsu Da-Wei
Published: November 2017

The tendency of previous research on vulnerability and resilience is to measure these two factors as quantifiable variables that vary between social strata and social groups. Past findings often emphasize structural factors, such as inequality and power relations. My fieldwork on survivors of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake complements this paradigm in two steps. First, I display the ‘inter-’ and ‘intra-categorical’ variations of five social categories, each with its own advantages, limits, goals, and difficulties. The resilience of the survivors varies qualitatively and cannot be reduced to a unidimensional scale. Second, I develop a framework of resilience based on the degrees of structure and agency. I identify five modes of resilience: well-integrated, renouncing, activist, defeated, and treading water. This framework can be used to assess the resource distribution of a community, locate people in need and people who can contribute and design proper interventions.
A dynamic ocean wave simulator based on six-degrees of freedom parallel platform
Authors: Chuan Wu , Huafeng Ding , Lei Han
Published: November 2017

The development of marine equipment is an international trend. It is also a strategic choice for coastal countries, as the basis to construct a strong marine power. For this purpose, the Chinese government has strengthened the support for marine equipment research and development in recent years. For most researchers, however, they cannot test their marine equipment at an actual ocean site due to limited fund as well as because the devices are not easy to move. Hence, devices for simulating ocean waves are emerging on this basis. But these existing devices are not able to completely recreate the motion of an ocean wave. For this reason, this paper introduces a dynamic ocean wave simulator that is based on six-degrees of freedom parallel platform. The simulator consists of two components: a boat model placed on the sea and a six-degrees of freedom platform kept in a room. The boat is used to collect data of the ocean wave motion, and the data are simultaneously transferred, via a general packet radio service wireless network to a controller equipped on the platform. The controller will make calculation of the data and then control the platform to perform motions accordingly, whereby the ocean wave motion can be recreated. After being designed, the simulator is tested in the lab. The results show that the simulator can simulate simple ocean waves and satisfies the requirements of ordinary marine projects.
Multidisciplinary design optimization of stiffened panels using collaborative optimization and artificial neural network
Authors: Chagraoui Hamda , Soula Mohamed
Published: November 2017

A new method for solving the multidisciplinary design optimization problems with a minimal computational effort is presented. The proposed methodology is based on the combination of artificial neural network model and Improved Multi-Objective Collaborative Optimization. In the artificial neural network–Improved Multi-Objective Collaborative Optimization scheme, the back-propagation algorithm is used for training the artificial neural network metamodel and the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II is used to search a Pareto optimality set for the objective functions of stiffened panels. The artificial neural network–Improved Multi-Objective Collaborative Optimization algorithm aims firstly to decompose the global optimization problem hierarchically into optimization design problem at system level and several sub-problems at sub-system level and secondly to replace each optimization problem at the system and subsystem levels by artificial neural network model to limit the computational cost. To highlight the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed artificial neural network–Improved Multi-Objective Collaborative Optimization method, mathematical and engineering examples are presented. Results obtained from the application of the artificial neural network–Improved Multi-Objective Collaborative Optimization approach to an optimization problem of a stiffened panel are compared with those obtained by traditional optimization without using prediction tools. The new method (artificial neural network–Improved Multi-Objective Collaborative Optimization) was proven to be superior to traditional optimization. These results have confirmed the efficiency and effectiveness of the artificial neural network–Improved Multi-Objective Collaborative Optimization method. In addition, it converges at faster rate than traditional optimization. The traditional optimization method converges within 7918 s, while artificial neural network–Improved Multi-Objective Collaborative Optimization requires only 42 s, clearly, the artificial neural network–Improved Multi-Objective Collaborative Optimization method is much more efficient.
Modeling of railway turnout geometry in the frog area with the vehicle wheel trajectory
Authors: Chiou Ship-Bin , Yen Jia-Yush
Published: November 2017

In this study, three functions including the ‘V’, ‘U’, and ‘S’ shapes are considered for the analysis of alignment around the turnout in the frog area. The gap between the wing and nose rails is presented as an irregularity function that could be illustrated as a rectangular, single-slope, or double-slope trough model, and the dimension of the wheel of the vehicle is taken into account for the trajectory analysis. The wear and grinding of the nose rail are also demonstrated in detail. The vertical vibrations of the vehicle are simulated as passing through the functional model of the turnout. The results showed that the combination of an S-shaped alignment and a double-slope trough model could be suitable for the analysis of the turnout geometry in the frog area.
‘Riots engulfed the city’: An experimental study investigating the legitimating effects of fire metaphors in discourses of disorder
Authors: Hart Christopher
Published: November 2017

In Cognitive Linguistic Critical Discourse Studies (CL-CDS), metaphor is identified as a key index of ideology and an important device in the legitimation of social action. From this perspective metaphor is a cognitive-semiotic operation, invoked by metaphorical expressions in discourse, in which a source frame is mobilised to provide a template for sense-making inside a target frame, leading to particular framing effects. However, the extent to which metaphors in discourse genuinely activate an alternative frame and thereby achieve framing effects has recently been subject to question. Amid calls for more empirical forms of analysis in CDS, the article reports two experiments testing the legitimating framing effects of fire metaphors in discourses of disorder. Results show that images of fire and fire metaphors in the absence of competing images facilitate support for police use of water cannon in response to social unrest. The study not only justifies attention to metaphor in CL-CDS, but similar effects observed across semiotic modalities are interpreted as evidence in support of simulation-based theories of metaphor.
Significance and timing of the mid-17th-century eruption of Long Island, Papua New Guinea
Authors: Blong Russell , Fallon Stewart , Wood Rachel , McKee Chris , Chen Keping , Magill Christina , Barter Peter
Published: November 2017

Tibito Tephra was first recorded in the central highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG) in 1971. By the late 1970s, the tephra had been mapped across tens of thousands of square kilometres, traced to its source on Long Island in the Bismarck Sea, and linked to pyroclastic density currents in the Matapun Beds on the island. With a tephra fall volume >10 km3, this eruption was clearly one of the 10 largest globally in the past 600 years. Although almost certainly in the AD 17th or 18th centuries, determining just when this VEI 6 eruption occurred has proved difficult. Whether this eruption occurred before or after William Dampier sailed past, named, described and drew a profile of Long Island has been debated also. Dating the Long Island eruption has implications for assessing the rate of revegetation of the island, recolonisation of the island and caldera lake, Jared Diamond’s theory of ‘supertramp’ birds, correlations between major eruptions and ice core chronologies, the constant rate of supply model of 210Pb concentration in lake sediments, reservoir effects in Lake Kutubu in the southern highlands of PNG, the timing of a prehistoric phase of agriculture in the Western Highlands and the longevity of oral histories recording a taim tudak (time of darkness) when sand fell from the sky, houses collapsed, crops were ruined and people died. This paper reviews early dates based on radiocarbon, 210Pb and paleosecular magnetic variation, historical reports and genealogical dates from oral histories, and speculation based on tree ring and ice core evidence. Analyses of 10 new radiocarbon dates from the Matapun Beds on Long Island are reported. Our best estimate places the eruption between 1651 and 1671 AD with a 95.4% probability and between 1655 and 1665 AD with a 68.2% probability.
Estimating individual benefits of medical or behavioral treatments in severely ill patients
Authors: Diaz Francisco J
Published: November 2017

There is a need for statistical methods appropriate for the analysis of clinical trials from a personalized-medicine viewpoint as opposed to the common statistical practice that simply examines average treatment effects. This article proposes an approach to quantifying, reporting and analyzing individual benefits of medical or behavioral treatments to severely ill patients with chronic conditions, using data from clinical trials. The approach is a new development of a published framework for measuring the severity of a chronic disease and the benefits treatments provide to individuals, which utilizes regression models with random coefficients. Here, a patient is considered to be severely ill if the patient’s basal severity is close to one. This allows the derivation of a very flexible family of probability distributions of individual benefits that depend on treatment duration and the covariates included in the regression model. Our approach may enrich the statistical analysis of clinical trials of severely ill patients because it allows investigating the probability distribution of individual benefits in the patient population and the variables that influence it, and we can also measure the benefits achieved in specific patients including new patients. We illustrate our approach using data from a clinical trial of the anti-depressant imipramine.
The Absent Present Law
Authors: Yonucu Deniz
Published: November 2017

This article, which draws on the case of 10 young socialists from the urban margins of Istanbul, who were arrested as the result of an anti-terror operation in 2007, provides an ethnographically grounded analysis of Turkey’s anti-terror law by examining the threat it poses for the population. Contrary to widespread complaints about a supposed state of lawlessness in Turkey, the article suggests that law, indeed, exists as an overwhelming and ever-present force in the lives of country’s alleged internal enemies (i.e. Kurds, socialists, Alevis, non-Muslims), hanging over their lives like the sword of Damocles. Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s debate on the similarities between law and myth, the article demonstrates that the ambiguity, illegibility and unpredictability of Turkey’s anti-terror law bestows upon the law a mythical and/or sovereign force that controls one’s present and future, and hence one’s fate. The article also argues that the anti-terror operations that started to take place in the urban margins against Kurdish activists and socialist Alevi youth as early as 2007 were harbingers of a growing lawfare in Turkey, which gradually shifted to the center over the course of years.
Living Propaganda and Self-Serving Recruitment: The Nazi Rationale for the German-Arab Training Unit, May 1941 to May 1943
Authors: Kehoe Thomas J. , Greenhalgh Elizabeth M.
Published: November 2017

In 1941 Hitler set aside racial purity restrictions for the Wehrmacht to form the German-Arab Training Unit. New sources reveal Arab recruitment was self-serving, meant to bolster Nazi propaganda and foment anti-Allied Arab violence. Racism towards Arabs was pervasive throughout the Nazi regime and the Wehrmacht, stemming from Nazi ideology and older colonial attitudes. Consequently, the unit’s two-year history from May 1941 to May 1943 was defined by tension between retaining racial segregation and feigning collaboration. The results were command indecision, neglect, reticence to deploy into combat, and reluctant expansion, which together created dysfunction and disorder in the unit.