bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Sixth-year follow-up of the effects of recreational activities found to eliminate the symptoms of social phobia and shyness
Authors: Karagün Elif , Yildiz Mustafa , Çağlayan Çiğdem , Başaran Zekiye
Published: June 2020

Background:

The lack of 6-year follow-up studies that test the effect of recreational activities in the recovery of social phobia and shyness symptoms is the reason to conduct this study.

Aim:

The purpose is to follow the effect of the 12-week recreational activity program found to eliminate social phobia and shyness symptoms after the completion of university studies in its sixth year.

Methods:

At the end of the 12-week recreational activity program that treats the symptoms of social phobia and shyness in university prep school students, 83 students who participated in the posttest both from intervention and control groups were invited to the study. In the sixth-year follow-up study, a total of 51 voluntary students – 32 from the intervention group and 19 from the control group – were administered the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, the Shyness Scale and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory.

Results:

When the pretests and the sixth-year scores are compared, it is seen that it still has an improving effect on social phobia and shyness; when the posttests and the sixth-year tests are compared, no difference is seen regarding social phobia whereas it is seen that recovery still continues regarding the symptoms of shyness, and a decrease is seen in self-esteem.

Discussion:

While the improving effect of recreational activities on shyness and social phobia symptoms still continues, their effect on self-esteem decreases.

Conclusion:

It is suggested that recreational activities should be included in the programs at universities regarding personal and professional development, and the reasons for the decrease in self-esteem scores should be determined through more detailed studies.
Implications of Individualist Bias in Social Identity Theory for Cross-Cultural Organizational Psychology
Authors: Peterson Mark F. , Stewart Steven A.
Published: June 2020

Social Identity Theory ( SIT) as used in cross-cultural organizational psychology (CCOP) shows individualistic biases by envisioning an autonomous person whose culture supports temporary, largely independent, and readily interchangeable relationships with multiple categorical groups, organizations, and other collectives. We seek to reduce these biases in CCOP by drawing from recent social psychological analyses, notably Motivated Identity Construction Theory, that have refined identity theory’s original principles. To make a broad range of organizational applications, we rely heavily on our cross-cultural psychology audience’s familiarity with basic SIT topics and controversies by discussing them quite briefly. We apply such refinements to theories about correlates of organizational identification (OI) measures, interpretive OI theorizing, and an intrapersonal network approach to OI. We conclude by extending these refinements to other constructs linking individuals to organizations: organizational commitment, attachments to organization groups and components, and roles and norms.
Oral Mucositis: An Update on Innate Immunity and New Interventional Targets
Authors: Chen C. , Zhang Q. , Yu W. , Chang B. , Le A.D.
Published: June 2020

Oral mucositis (OM), a common debilitating toxicity associated with chemo- and radiation therapies, is a significant unmet clinical need for head and neck cancer patients. The biological complexities of chemoradiotherapy-induced OM involve interactions among disrupted tissue structures, inflammatory infiltrations, and oral microbiome, whereby several master inflammatory pathways constitute the complicated regulatory networks. Oral mucosal damages triggered by chemoradiotherapy-induced cell apoptosis were further exacerbated by the amplified inflammatory cascades dominantly governed by the innate immune responses. The coexistence of microbiome and innate immune components in oral mucosal barriers indicates that a signaling hub coordinates the interaction between environmental cues and host cells during tissue and immune homeostasis. Dysbiotic shifts in oral microbiota caused by cytotoxic cancer therapies may also contribute to the progression and severity of chemoradiotherapy-induced OM. In this review, we have updated the mechanisms involving innate immunity-governed inflammatory cascades in the pathobiology of chemoradiotherapy-induced OM and the development of new interventional targets for the management of this severe morbidity in head and neck cancer patients.
Effects of oxyhydrogen gas induction on the performance of a small-capacity diesel engine
Authors: Kazim Ali Hussain , Khan Muhammad Bilal , Nazir Rabia , Shabbir Aqsa , Abbasi Muhammad Salman , Abdul Rab Hamza , Shahid Qureishi Nabeel
Published: June 2020

Compression ignition engines are one of the world’s largest consumers of fossil oil but have energy extraction efficiency limited to 35%. Addition of hydrogen alongside diesel fuel has been found to improve engine performance and efficiency; however, after a certain limit, hydrogen begins to show adverse effects, mainly because the ratio of oxygen to fuel decreases. This can be overcome by using oxyhydrogen, which is a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen gas.

In this study, effects of addition of oxyhydrogen generated by electrolysis, with varying flows at the intake manifold, on a 315 cc compression ignition engine alongside diesel were analyzed.

The engine was mounted on a Thepra test bed and torque measurements were taken at predetermined test points for diesel and 6 and 10 standard cubic feet per hour flowrates of oxyhydrogen.

H10 showed the maximum improvement in engine performance equating to a 22.4% increase in both torque and power at 3000 r/min, and a 19.4% increase in efficiency at 2600 r/min was recorded. The large increase in engine performance as compared to previous results is because of high oxyhydrogen flowrate to displacement volume ratio.

The oxyhydrogen flowrate to displacement ratio is the most important factor as it is directly impacts engine performance. The difference in engine performance because of oxyhydrogen becomes prominent at higher engine speed due to high suction pressure. No experimental flowrates of oxyhydrogen showed any adverse effect on the engine performance.
Digitizing Sociology: Continuity and Change in the Internet Era
Authors: Fussey Pete , Roth Silke
Published: June 2020

This article outlines and contextualizes the development of digital sociology as an introduction to this e-special issue, charting the development of the field through the pages of the journal, Sociology. In doing so, the article sketches key contours of this rich and varied terrain, accenting how technological innovation has permeated the domains of politics, culture and society. Of central concern has been the intellectual origins of ‘digital sociology’. While first coined in 2009, the article highlights a longer history, noting the continued resonance of modernity’s currents of categorization, ordering and rationality while recognizing the crucial shifts brought by digitally mediated life. The article then discusses landmark articles contributing to the development of digital sociology, beginning with interventions seeking to theorize digital society. We then turn to articles focusing on methodological questions before addressing the digital turn in selected areas of enduring sociological concern including: work and organizations; inequality; migration; activism; communities; emotions; and everyday life. The article concludes with a series of observations regarding potential futures of digital sociological analyses.
Bad Apples or Bad Orchards? An Organizational Analysis of Educator Cheating on Standardized Accountability Tests
Authors: Hibel Jacob , Penn Daphne M.
Published: June 2020

Using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, we analyze quantitative administrative and survey data and qualitative archival data to examine the organizational character of standardized test cheating among educators in Georgia elementary schools. Applying a theoretical typology that identifies distinct forms of rule breaking in bureaucratic organizations, we find that teacher-focused, individual-level explanations for cheating are inadequate, particularly in the context of large-scale cheating outbreaks. Our findings suggest cheating scandals tend to arise when rule-breaking decisions shift toward higher levels of the educational bureaucracy, and school and district leaders enact multiple strategies to motivate coordinated cheating efforts among lower-level educators. In these scenarios, a “bad apples” explanation focused on rogue teachers fails to account for the systematic organizational underpinnings of standardized test cheating. We describe the institutional and organizational predictors of organized adult cheating on standardized tests, and we conclude with a discussion of our findings’ implications for education policy and research.
Multiplicity of Ontologies: Lakes and Humans in Siberia
Authors: Mészáros Csaba
Published: June 2020

Global climate change and modernization efforts in the Soviet era have affected the relationship between humans and lakes in Northeast Siberia and have compelled local Sakhas to perceive and renegotiate the status of lakes. These changes have distanced Sakhas from their lakes, and, thus, fishermen and trappers have entered a new epoch, when they not longer fully understand the way lakes respond to human agency. By describing contemporary incoherent local practices at lakes (trapping and fishing), I intend to reflect on new, emergent and multiple ontologies among Sakhas.
Allegiance, Foreign Citizenship and the Constitutional Right to Stand for Parliament
Authors: Thwaites Rayner , Irving Helen
Published: June 2020

In 2017, in Re Canavan, the High Court of Australia found five sitting Members of the Commonwealth Parliament to be citizens of a ‘foreign power’ and thus ineligible, under s 44(i) of the Constitution, to hold their seats. In 2018, in Re Gallagher, the High Court found that a Senator who had attempted unsuccessfully to renounce her British citizenship prior to her Senate candidature was similarly ineligible. In this article, we argue that the conclusion in Re Canavan was incorrect: that both the Court’s reasoning about the purpose of s 44(i)—to avoid ‘split allegiance’—and its methodology for determining foreign citizenship were inconsistent in their own right and also against its reasoning in Re Gallagher. We challenge the Court’s conflation of citizenship and allegiance with obedience to a state. We examine the rules of international law for identifying a person’s citizenship, as well as exceptions to these rules, including what came to be known as the ‘constitutional imperative’, which the Court held will exempt a foreign citizen from s 44(i) disqualification under certain circumstances. We conclude that the Court, in seeking to avoid ‘uncertainty and instability’ in its interpretation of s 44(i), did the opposite. Had it looked, instead, to the relevant foreign state for an authoritative determination of a person’s citizenship, confusion and uncertainty surrounding s 44(i) could have been avoided, and a democratic understanding of Australian citizenship could have been prioritised.
“The State was Patiently Waiting for Me to Die”: Life without the Possibility of Parole as Punishment
Authors: Bennett Nolan
Published: June 2020

Despite its growing use over past decades, there has been relatively little public or scholarly discussion of life sentences that deny the possibility of parole. This essay outlines the labyrinthine legal and political developments that have rendered life imprisonment difficult to address—including the intertwined histories of the death penalty and civil death—and draws upon the life writing of those serving life to theorize a more distinct understanding of this punishment. Witnesses reveal how the possibility of life despite the impossibility of parole punishes by subverting the goals of human growth and development. The potentiality of what can be done in the present grinds up against the futility of what could have been done and what could be done were release an option. Considered alongside the laws and court opinions and claims that characterize its convoluted development, these testimonies reveal this punishment’s role in the American imagination. Life without the possibility of parole reinforces and relies upon a vision that not simply some people are unable to change, but that anyone in a democracy—no matter their position—is some steps away from irretrievable exclusion. Permanent confinement denies a restorative vision of democracy: any effort to abolish or amend it must include the voices of those imprisoned.
Experiences of Discrimination and Skin Color Among Women in Urban Brazil: A Latent Class Analysis
Authors: Fattore Gisel Lorena , Amorim Leila D. , Marques dos Santos Letícia , dos Santos Darci Neves , Barreto Mauricio Lima
Published: June 2020

Experiences of discrimination are an important aspect of women’s life in Brazil, especially Black women. The Experiences of Discrimination scale (EOD) is often used for assessing discrimination in epidemiological studies, although divergent cutoff points have been used to characterize the exposure. We used latent class analysis (LCA) and logistic regression to identify and characterize subgroups of women exposed to discrimination and compared with a cutoff-based assignment of subgroups. One thousand two-hundred and four women living in Salvador, Brazil, responded to the EOD. We selected models with two latent classes, highly and lowly exposed. The classes differed in self-reported skin color and education level, revealing that darker skinned (odds ratio [ OR] = 11.3, 95% confidence interval [CI: 1.54, 82.7]) and more educated ( OR = 2.09, 95% CI [1.17, 3.72]) women were more likely to be classified into the highly exposed class. Comparing with LCA, the use of cutoff points overestimated the reporting of discrimination. Researchers should consider the use of more accurate measures of discrimination in order to identify the most vulnerable individuals so that prevention efforts could be better targeted.
Disturbance observer-based control for a class of strict-feedback nonlinear systems with derivative-bounded disturbances
Authors: Zhang Huifeng , Wei Xinjiang , Zhang Lingyan , Han Jian
Published: June 2020

An anti-disturbance control problem is investigated in this paper. The disturbance observer plus back-stepping (DOPBS) control scheme is proposed for a class of strict-feedback nonlinear systems with derivative-bounded disturbances. A nonlinear disturbance observer is designed to estimate the derivative-bounded disturbances. By combining the disturbance observer with back-stepping method, the DOPBS controller is designed to reject and attenuate the disturbances. Stability analysis proves that all the signals in the the closed-loop system are uniformly ultimately bounded (UUB). Finally, simulation examples demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach compared with existing methods.
Characteristics and Outputs of University Spin-offs in the United Kingdom
Authors: Bagchi-Sen Sharmistha , Baines Ning , Smith Helen Lawton
Published: June 2020

Research on the formal role of universities in stimulating regional economic development is relatively recent. However, the role of universities in contributing to regional technological and service variety is underresearched. In this study, we use a data set that has wide geographic coverage. The analysis provides a comprehensive understanding of the UK-wide contribution of university spin-offs (USOs) to the innovation capacity of their host regional economies. We argue that the survival and growth of USOs imply embeddedness in innovation ecosystems in a region. The findings show that the majority of firms in the sample are relatively young, small in size, and are still at the early stages of their life cycle. Hence, the products and services that are offered are fairly small in number. Nevertheless, their products/services based on university research have the potential for value capture by other firms thus implying contributions to a range of related and unrelated industry sectors within a region or beyond the local.
Tasting the Difference: A Relational-Epistemic Approach to Aesthetic Collaboration in Haute Cuisine
Authors: Louisgrand Nathalie , Islam Gazi
Published: June 2020

Collaboration during aesthetic production is inherently complex, involving difficult-to-articulate aspects of aesthetic judgement as well as relational questions that are inherently power-laden. Particularly in situations where actors do not share background conditions or judgement criteria, aesthetic collaboration poses conceptual and practical challenges. Through an in-depth case study of a French haute cuisine programme in Shanghai, China, we propose a relational-epistemic approach to aesthetic collaboration, in which aesthetic judgement and relational positioning mutually shape how chef trainees come to understand their creative products. Specifically, aesthetic collaboration was shaped by whether participants understood their mutual relationships as antagonistic or integrative, and whether they considered aesthetics as a matter of objective knowledge, cultural tradition or co-construction. Based on our results, we explore the implications of the relationalepistemic approach in understanding organizational aesthetics, especially in the context of the culture industries and haute cuisine specifically.
Economic development: How does it influence the survival of different types of autocracy?
Authors: Stockemer Daniel , Kailitz Steffen
Published: June 2020

Modernization theory is one of the most influential theories in political science. However, to date, studies testing the impact of modernization on political regimes have almost completely focused on democracies. We aim at broadening the discussion to autocracies and ask the following research question: What impact has economic development on the survival of different types of autocracy? Using data covering 1946 to 2016, we ascertain – mainly through logistic regression analysis – that the level of economic development affects not only the endurance of democracies but also that of various types of autocracy. In more detail, we find that economic development prolongs the survival of ideocracies and personalist autocracies. The effect of economic modernization on military dictatorships, monarchies and electoral autocracies is very limited. In contrast, one party autocracies are the only regime type whose survival chances (moderately) decrease with modernization.
Economy or austerity? Drivers of retrospective voting before and during the Great Recession
Authors: Giuliani Marco
Published: June 2020

During the Great Recession, exceptionally harsh economic conditions were often countered by austerity policies that, according to many, further worsened and protracted the negative conjuncture. Both elements, the poor state of the economy and the contractionary manoeuvers, are supposed to reduce the electoral prospects for incumbents. In this article, we compare the relative explanatory powers of these two theories before and during the economic crisis. We demonstrate that in normal times citizens are fiscally responsible, whereas during the Great Recession, and under certain conditions, austerity policies systematically reduced the support for incumbents on top of the state of the economy. This happened when the burdens of the manoeuvers were shared by many, in more equal societies, when the country was constrained by external conditionalities and when readjustments were mostly based on tax increases.
The politics of voter presence
Authors: Malkopoulou Anthoula , Hill Lisa
Published: June 2020

By focusing only on the composition of representative bodies, the traditional ‘politics of presence’ approach has inadvertently diminished the value of participation for representation. It overlooks that there exist ‘elite voters’ who reinforce discrimination against abstainers at the policy level and create obstacles for improving the lives of the marginalized. We offer a remedy to persisting patterns of political exclusion by arguing in favour of a ‘politics of presence’ at the polls. This requires high and socially diverse turnout that will make representation more inclusive, broader and qualitatively different; it will be more descriptive, not of group characteristics, but of the interests, opinions and ideas of voters. Our alternative is a fusion of descriptive and substantive representation ‘descriptive responsiveness’.
Agenda dynamics and policy priorities in military regimes
Authors: Yildirim T Murat , Bulut Alper T , Ilter Emel
Published: June 2020

Despite the policy-relevant aspirations of military regimes, scholars have shown surprisingly little interest in exploring the agenda dynamics and policy processes in these regimes. We sought to close this gap by analysing the original datasets of over 13,000 legislative speeches, public budgets, and the background characteristics of 160 representatives who served in the Consultative Assembly of the military regime of Kenan Evren in Turkey (1980–1983). Empirical analyses indicate that the regime’s policy priorities did not differ significantly from those of democratic governments, and that while representatives with military backgrounds showed far more interest in the core functions of the government, the process through which they were selected (whether or not directly appointed by the National Security Council) appeared to have no explanatory power. Perhaps more importantly, there were more similarities than differences between the military regime of Kenan Evren and the coalition, minority and majority governments of the 1970s and 1980s. Our findings imply that the effect of institutions on policy agendas is overstated.
The politics of climate change in a neo-developmental state: The case of South Korea
Authors: Kalinowski Thomas
Published: June 2020

South Korea is the seventh largest emitter of CO2 and its climate-change mitigation policies are clearly insufficient. At the same time, the country has been very ambitious in implementing industrial policies promoting green technologies and international initiatives to support greenhouse gas mitigation in developing countries. What explains this discrepancy between weak emission goals and strong investments in green technology as well as ambitions to become a green ‘global leader’? This article argues that the specific character of Korean climate policies can be understood in the context of Korea’s legacy as a developmental state characterized by strong corporatist links between state and business as well as a weak civil society.
Development and Psychometric Testing of the Implementation Self-efficacy for EBP (ISE4EBP) Scale
Authors: Tucker Sharon , Zadvinskis Inga M. , Connor Linda
Published: June 2020

There is inadequate research about nurses’ confidence in implementation strategies that foster the application and sustainability of evidence-based practice (EBP). Guided by Bandura’s self-efficacy theory, we propose that self-efficacy (confidence) in EBP implementation strategies can accelerate the uptake of evidence into practice to improve health care quality. The purpose of this study was to develop and test the psychometric properties of the Implementation Self-efficacy for EBP (ISE4EBP) scale as a measure for evaluating self-efficacy in using EBP implementation strategies. In a sample of 65 registered nurses, the 29-item ISE4EBP scale demonstrated adequate content validity (via content validity index), internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.987), and construct validity indicated by associations with organizational readiness for EBP. Clinicians may use the ISE4EBP scale to identify areas for building implementation confidence to accelerate the uptake of evidence to improve quality care.
Performance-based policy in offender rehabilitation: Limitation or innovation for front-line workers in Liaison and Diversion services?
Authors: Rocha Paulo , Holmen Ann-Karin
Published: June 2020

In recent years, the English government has been using competitive elements in the process of allocating public funds through policy. Front-line workers struggle with the limitations imposed by such a model. A qualitative case study was conducted to investigate the impact of a new performance-based policy on front-line workers of a public service called Liaison and Diversion. The findings demonstrated that professionals have been adapting the policy to local circumstances found at the street level. We argued that adaptation is a form of employee-based innovation that optimises the use of scarce resources and customises services to the clients.
Development of Participation in and Identification With School: Associations With Truancy
Authors: Virtanen Tuomo E. , Räikkönen Eija , Lerkkanen Marja-Kristiina , Määttä Sami , Vasalampi Kati
Published: June 2020

This longitudinal study covering two educational transitions examined 1,821 Finnish students’ participation in and identification with school and their associations with students’ academic achievement and truancy. The students were surveyed (a) at the end of primary school, (b) at the beginning of lower secondary school, (c) at the end of lower secondary school, and (d) in the first year of upper secondary education. In alignment with the participation-identification model, higher levels of participation in school activities at the end of primary school predicted higher levels of identification (i.e., feelings of belonging and valuing school) at the end of lower secondary school. This association was mediated by academic achievement. High levels of both participation and identification at the end of lower secondary school predicted lower levels of truancy in upper secondary education. The study indicates that promoting students’ participation and identification during comprehensive school prevents student disengagement from upper secondary education.
Distributed multi-robot collision avoidance via deep reinforcement learning for navigation in complex scenarios
Authors: Fan Tingxiang , Long Pinxin , Liu Wenxi , Pan Jia
Published: June 2020

Developing a safe and efficient collision-avoidance policy for multiple robots is challenging in the decentralized scenarios where each robot generates its paths with limited observation of other robots’ states and intentions. Prior distributed multi-robot collision-avoidance systems often require frequent inter-robot communication or agent-level features to plan a local collision-free action, which is not robust and computationally prohibitive. In addition, the performance of these methods is not comparable with their centralized counterparts in practice. In this article, we present a decentralized sensor-level collision-avoidance policy for multi-robot systems, which shows promising results in practical applications. In particular, our policy directly maps raw sensor measurements to an agent’s steering commands in terms of the movement velocity. As a first step toward reducing the performance gap between decentralized and centralized methods, we present a multi-scenario multi-stage training framework to learn an optimal policy. The policy is trained over a large number of robots in rich, complex environments simultaneously using a policy-gradient-based reinforcement-learning algorithm. The learning algorithm is also integrated into a hybrid control framework to further improve the policy’s robustness and effectiveness. We validate the learned sensor-level collision-3avoidance policy in a variety of simulated and real-world scenarios with thorough performance evaluations for large-scale multi-robot systems. The generalization of the learned policy is verified in a set of unseen scenarios including the navigation of a group of heterogeneous robots and a large-scale scenario with 100 robots. Although the policy is trained using simulation data only, we have successfully deployed it on physical robots with shapes and dynamics characteristics that are different from the simulated agents, in order to demonstrate the controller’s robustness against the simulation-to-real modeling error. Finally, we show that the collision-avoidance policy learned from multi-robot navigation tasks provides an excellent solution for safe and effective autonomous navigation for a single robot working in a dense real human crowd. Our learned policy enables a robot to make effective progress in a crowd without getting stuck. More importantly, the policy has been successfully deployed on different types of physical robot platforms without tedious parameter tuning. Videos are available at https://sites.google.com/view/hybridmrca .
Design and characterization of a hybrid soft gripper with active palm pose control
Authors: Subramaniam Vignesh , Jain Snehal , Agarwal Jai , Valdivia y Alvarado Pablo
Published: June 2020

The design and characterization of a soft gripper with an active palm to control grasp postures is presented herein. The gripper structure is a hybrid of soft and stiff components to facilitate integration with traditional arm manipulators. Three fingers and a palm constitute the gripper, all of which are vacuum actuated. Internal wedges are used to tailor the deformation of a soft outer reinforced skin as vacuum collapses the composite structure. A computational finite-element model is proposed to predict finger kinematics. Thanks to its active palm, the gripper is capable of grasping a wide range of part geometries and compliances while achieving a maximum payload of 30 N. The gripper natural softness enables robust open-loop grasping even when components are not properly aligned. Furthermore, the grasp pose of objects with various aspect ratios and compliances can be robustly maintained during manipulation at linear accelerations of up to 15 m/s2 and angular accelerations of up to 5.23 rad/s2.
Dynamic Origin–Destination Matrix Prediction with Line Graph Neural Networks and Kalman Filter
Authors: Xiong Xi , Ozbay Kaan , Jin Li , Feng Chen
Published: June 2020

Modern intelligent transportation systems provide data that allow real-time dynamic demand prediction, which is essential for planning and operations. The main challenge of prediction of dynamic origin–destination (O-D) demand matrices is that demand cannot be directly measured by traffic sensors; instead, it has to be inferred from aggregate traffic flow data on traffic links. Specifically, spatial correlation, congestion and time dependent factors need to be considered in general transportation networks. This paper proposes a novel O-D prediction framework combining heterogeneous prediction in graph neural networks and Kalman filter to recognize spatial and temporal patterns simultaneously. The underlying road network topology is converted into a corresponding line graph in the newly designed fusion line graph convolutional networks (FL-GCNs), which provide a general framework of predicting spatial-temporal O-D flows from link information. Data from the New Jersey Turnpike network are used to evaluate the proposed model. The results show that the proposed approach yields the best performance under various prediction scenarios. In addition, the advantage of combining deep neural networks and Kalman filter is demonstrated.
Perception and Tolerance of Sexual Harassment: An Examination of Feminist Identity, Sexism, and Gender Roles in a Sample of Chinese Working Women
Authors: Shi Xin , Zheng Yong
Published: June 2020

In East Asian culture, where sex is a sensitive subject, many women still have a high recognition threshold when it comes to sexual harassment, as well as a high tolerance for it. Previous research has shown that feminist identity is effective in promoting women’s physical and mental health and buffering against the negative effects of sexual harassment, thus, it is important to clarify the role that feminist identity plays in the perception of sexual harassment. In this study, we examined whether feminist identity is related to the perception and tolerance of sexual harassment and whether feminist identity mediates the relations between sexism, gender roles, and sexual harassment perception and tolerance among Chinese working women. In a survey of 507 participants, we found that active commitment to feminism was positively correlated with women’s perception of sexual harassment, while passive acceptance of traditional gender roles was positively correlated with tolerance of sexual harassment. Mediation analysis showed that active commitment to feminism mediated the relations between sexism, gender roles, and sexual harassment perception, while passive acceptance of traditional gender roles mediated the relations between sexism and femininity with sexual harassment tolerance. We assert that feminist identity has the potential to enable women to be more perceptive and less tolerant of sexual harassment behaviors, and as such, feminist ideology should be incorporated into education for Chinese women.
The Historical Background of the Popularity of Genealogies in Korea
Authors: Han Sangwoo
Published: June 2020

The widespread trend for compiling genealogies in Korea is known to have emerged around the seventeenth century. To explain this, scholars have pointed to the influence of neo-Confucianism and similarities with Chinese genealogical traditions. However, this study focuses on the inclusionary and exclusionary forces within Korean genealogy with the former drawing more members into the genealogy and the latter resulting in fewer family members being included. In particular, this study draws attention to the selective recording of patrilineal family members and to the frequent inclusion of relatives-in-law in Korean genealogies. The social hierarchy system of premodern Korea appears to have been the most crucial factor in determining the particular features and popularity of Korean genealogies, and in this article, I draw attention to how this accounts for the differences between Korean genealogy and the genealogical traditions of other East Asian societies.
Impact of Primary Care Worksite Health and Wellness Clinics on HbA1c Level Among Prediabetic or Diabetic Employees
Authors: Cohen Catherine C. , Hollands Simon , Liu Harry H.
Published: June 2020

Purpose:

To determine whether the use of worksite health and wellness clinics reduced hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) for prediabetic and diabetic employees.

Design:

Hemoglobin A1c values were compared between clinic users and matched non-users.

Setting:

The Wonderful Company’s (TWC’s) agricultural and packaging sites in Central California.

Sample:

TWC’s 2016 to 2017 employees who used clinics (n = 445, defined below) and clinic non-users (n = 217) who had HbA1c screening and worked at TWC for 3 or more months each year.

Intervention:

A unique worksite health and wellness clinic that offers multidisciplinary primary medical care in synergy with TWC’s overall wellness programs.

Measures:

Exposure was clinic use, defined by frequency and patterns of visits. Hemoglobin A1c was the outcome of interest.

Analysis:

Users and non-users were propensity score matched using the 2016 employee data including HbA1c, and then 2017 HbA1c values were compared between the 2 groups.

Results:

The 2017 HbA1c of diabetic employees was lower among clinic users compared to non-users (7.42 vs 8.53, P < .001). Differences in HbA1c among prediabetics or diabetics and prediabetics aggregated were not statistically significant, despite TWC’s population-level data showing a reduction in prediabetes prevalence. The clinic impact results were robust to multivariate analyses and an alternative definition of utilization.

Conclusion:

The implementation of TWC’s Health and Wellness clinics was associated with reductions in HbA1c among diabetics, but further research is needed on prediabetics.
Se Acabaron Las Palabras: A Post-Mortem Flores v. Arizona Disproportional Funding Analysis of Targeted English Learner Expenditures
Authors: Martínez Davíd G. , Spikes Daniel D.
Published: June 2020

Arizona has played a large part in the development and implementation of policy that directly inhibits equity of opportunity for the English learner (EL) population, the largest and most damaging of which came out of legislation passed due to the Flores v. Arizona case which concluded in 2015. This research article seeks to critically challenge how Arizona-reified barriers to learning ELs continue to experience. This article serves as a post-mortem to Flores v. Arizona and measures the relationship between targeted EL expenditures as a function of the percentage of ELs within districts. The findings suggest that the scale of ELs within districts is inversely related to targeted EL expenditures. Furthermore, Arizona has reified laws that inhibit EL educational opportunities across the state.
Three-dimensional coupled thermo-mechanical analysis for fatigue failure of a heavy vehicle brake disk: Simulation of braking and cooling phases
Authors: Rouhi Moghanlou Mohammad , Saeidi Googarchin Hamed
Published: June 2020

In this paper, transient coupled thermo-mechanical finite element analysis of a three-dimensional model of braking pairs (brake disk and brake pads) is accomplished in order to estimate temperatures and stresses in brake disk during a braking cycle, including braking and cooling phases, and calculate fatigue life. A nonuniform distribution of temperatures is revealed on the surface of the brake disk, gradually generating surface hot spots and hot bands with temperatures up to 800 °C that lead to an uneven distribution of thermal stresses on the frictional surfaces. According to the simulations, variations in the circumferential stress, which is mainly responsible for the cracking of the brake disk, can reach up to 400 MPa in the hot spot areas, depending on the braking configurations. The numerical results are also used to estimate the fatigue life of brake disk using the Smith–Watson–Topper model. The numerical model demonstrates a high accuracy of fatigue life estimation when evaluated by prior experimental studies, signifying the effects of hot spots in reducing the service life of brake disk. Results of the fatigue life estimation show superiority to the analytical method both in the accuracy of calculation and detection of the failure location.
The compound bowing design in a highly loaded linear cascade with large turning angle
Authors: Xue Xingxu , Wang Songtao , Luo Lei , Zhou Xun
Published: June 2020

Numerical simulation was carried out to study the influences of blade-bowing designs based on a highly loaded cascade with large turning angle, while the compound bowing design showed much lower endwall loss than the conventional design in this study. Generally, it showed that the increased turning angle would strengthen the adverse pressure gradient on the suction surface, so the side effect of negative blade bowing angle would be enhanced because of the reduced flow filed stability near suction–endwall corner. However, the positive corner bowing angle that applied in the compound bowing design would enhance the flow field stability near the suction–endwall corner by adjusting spanwise pressure gradient and velocity triangle, so the side effect of negative blade bowing angle would be suppressed and lead to weaker secondary flow. In detail, the blade bowing angle (as well as the corner bowing angle in the conventional bowed cascades) was varied from −5° to −30° in this study, while the reductions of the loss coefficient in the compound bowed cascades were about 0.662.16 times higher (the absolute differences were about 0.0067 0.0097) than the corresponding conventional bowed cascades. Moreover, the Reynolds number and Mach number at the outlet plane were kept at 2.4 × 105 and 0.6, respectively, during the bowing design to ensure the comparability.
Numerical multidisciplinary optimization of aircraft with flight dynamic stability constraints
Authors: Mieloszyk Jacek
Published: June 2020

Classical approach to conceptual and preliminary design in aerospace sciences reaches limits. To go further and achieve better, competitive results’ use of optimization methods becomes mandatory. The trend is clearly visible in professional software for simulations equipped with optimization tools, which was not standard just decade ago. Many examples of multidisciplinary optimization were shown, especially with coupled aerodynamics and structure analyses, but only few of them consider dynamic stability effects in the conceptual and preliminary design. The article shows successful example of multidisciplinary design and optimization of Vertical Takeoff and Landing aircraft, which includes coupling of aerodynamics, mass analyses and innovative approach of constraints from flight dynamic stability. Presented optimization framework revealed potential for more efficient conceptual and preliminary design with the result of known dynamic stability characteristics of the aircraft. Obtaining the dynamic stability characteristics is not common on the early stages of the design yet crucial for the aircraft flight performance.
Distributing resources in a construction project: Conflictual co-operation about a common cause and its theoretical implications
Authors: Axel Erik
Published: June 2020

An investigation of a design project is presented with concepts and theory developed within critical psychology in order to understand the process. Investigating the co-operation of the design of a building allows us to see that the building, its design, and its use constitute common contradictory causes. In their co-ordinated activities, professionals participate from each of their perspectives with different functions and priorities, and in their acts they must take the contradictions into account. Contradictions as incompatible aspects in things and activities make it difficult to keep the common cause stable. This means that the participants’ co-operation is a continuous attempt to produce stability. They are constantly confronted with the possibility of reorganization, development, and conflict in their activities. Therefore, co-operation is conflictual. The theoretical position is based on the fact that our understanding is reciprocally formed with our local, common activities. The theoretical consequences of the position are explored.
Parenting in exile: Narratives of evolving parenting practices in transnational contact zones
Authors: Bergset Kari
Published: June 2020

A sociocultural framework illustrating Bakhtin’s theory of dialogicality informed this article’s interpretation of interviews with refugees discussing their parenting in exile. Multivoicedness is used as a tool for analysing how refugee parents talk about their evolving parenting practices; interview sequences from the parents of two families are presented. The culturally complex context of refugee parenting is understood in terms of transnational contact zones. Bakhtin’s concept of ideological becoming is used to understand how parenting evolves, making visible the parents’ critical assessment of unfamiliar practices, selective appropriation of certain practices, and agentic innovation of their own practices. The analysis adds relevant perspectives on professionals’ contact with refugee parents and may contribute to more culturally sensitive and less repressive treatment of parents while challenging facile conceptions of acculturation.
Proprotein convertase subtilisin kexin 9 is associated with disease activity and is implicated in immune activation in systemic lupus erythematosus
Authors: Liu Anquan , Rahman Mizanur , Hafström Ingiäld , Ajeganova Sofia , Frostegård Johan
Published: June 2020

Background

Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels are increased by proprotein convertase subtilisin kexin 9 (PCSK9) which targets the LDL receptor. We recently reported that PCSK9 ameliorates dendritic cell (DC) activation by oxidized LDL (OxLDL), which is abundant in atherosclerotic plaques and is also associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Here, we investigated the role of PCSK9 in SLE.

Methods

PCSK9 levels were determined by ELISA among SLE patients ( N = 109) and age- and sex-matched population-based controls ( N = 91). Common carotid intima–media thickness (IMT) and plaque occurrence were determined by B-mode ultrasound. Plaques were graded by echogenicity. Human peripheral blood monocytes from SLE patients or controls were differentiated into DCs. The effects of PCSK9 and its inhibition by silencing were studied.

Results

PCSK9 levels were non-significantly higher among SLE-patients compared to controls but significantly associated with SLE disease activity, as determined by the Systemic Lupus Activity Measure ( p = 0.020) or the SLE Disease Activity Index ( p = 0.0178). There was no association between PCSK9 levels and atherosclerosis as determined by IMT, prevalence of plaques or echolucent (potentially vulnerable) plaques. PCSK9 levels were significantly associated with CVD among SLE patients but not after adjusting for age. OxLDL induced PCSK9 in DCs and DC maturation with increased expression of CD86 and HLA-DR. The effects were significantly stronger in DCs from SLE patients than from controls. Silencing of PCSK9 abolished OxLDL-induced DC maturation.

Conclusions

PCSK9 is associated with disease activity in SLE. One underlying cause could be OxLDL promoting DC activation which depends on PCSK9. OxLDL induces PCSK9 – an effect which is higher among SLE patients. PCSK9 could play an unexpected immunological role in SLE.
Effects of web-based education and counselling for patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: self-efficacy, fatigue and assessment of care
Authors: Kankaya Hülya , Karadakovan Ayfer
Published: June 2020

Objective

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of web-based education and counselling for patients with systemic lupus erythematosus on self-efficacy, fatigue and assessment of care.

Methods

The study was conducted as a randomized controlled trial. The study sample consisted of 80 patients divided into two groups: the experimental group ( n = 40) and a control group ( n = 40). Randomization was performed by simple random sampling. At the beginning of the study (month 0), data-collection forms were administered to both groups. Web-based education was carried out for the first three months, and counselling and information updates were given for the next three months for the experimental group. In the intervention process, the control group just received standard care. After six months, data-collection forms were administered to both groups again.

Results

The mean age of the participants in the experimental and control groups was 35.58 ± 8.40 years and 39.00 ± 12.71 years, respectively. In both groups, 95% of patients were women. Wilcoxon’s test was used for within-group comparisons before and after the study. The Mann–Whitney U-test was used to evaluate the difference between the two groups before the intervention and between the two groups after the intervention. We found that there was a significant improvement in fatigue, self-efficacy and assessment of chronic illness care in the experimental group at the end of the study ( p < 0.05).

Conclusions

The intervention had a positive effect on self-efficacy, fatigue and satisfaction with chronic illness. In accordance with the results, similar studies should be conducted for different patient groups in order to strengthen the results.
Community Coalition Kick-Off Events: Lessons Learned on the Launchpad
Authors: McMillin Stephen Edward
Published: June 2020

Research has found that collaboration is important for family service agencies, and community coalition building is a common form of collaboration. Guided by Community Coalition Action Theory, this article analyzes a community coalition convening around health and housing in a resource-challenged, large Midwestern metropolitan area. Implications for practice are discussed, describing initial lessons learned from the coalition kick-off event for community coalition convening. Using theory to anticipate coalition challenges and barriers, looking beyond simple meeting agenda objectives to identify specific coalition tactics, and asking hard questions about coalition capacity at kick-off are ways to strengthen health and housing interventions within family-based services.