bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Conformational explosion: Understanding the complexity of short chain para-dialkylbenzene potential energy surfaces
Authors: Mishra Piyush , Hewett Daniel M. , Zwier Timothy S.
Published: May 2018

The single-conformation ultraviolet and infrared spectroscopy of three short-chain para-dialkylbenzenes (para-diethylbenzene, para-dipropylbenzene, and para-dibutylbenzene) is reported for the jet-cooled, isolated molecules. The present study builds off previous work on single-chain n-alkylbenzenes, where an anharmonic local mode Hamiltonian method was developed to account for stretch-bend Fermi resonance in the alkyl CH stretch region [D. P. Tabor et al., J. Chem. Phys. 144, 224310 (2016)]. The jet-cooled molecules are interrogated using laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) excitation, fluorescence dip infrared spectroscopy, and dispersed fluorescence. The LIF spectra in the S1 ← S0 origin region show a dramatic increase in the number of resolved transitions with increasing length of the alkyl chains, reflecting an explosion in the number of unique low-energy conformations formed when two independent alkyl chains are present. Since the barriers to isomerization of the alkyl chain are similar in size, this results in an “egg carton” shaped potential energy surface. A combination of electronic frequency shift and alkyl CH stretch infrared spectra is used to generate a consistent set of conformational assignments. Using these experimental techniques in conjunction with computational methods, subsets of origin transitions in the LIF excitation spectrum can be classified into different conformational families. Two conformations are resolved in para-diethylbenzene, seven in para-dipropylbenzene, and about nineteen in para-dibutylbenzene. These chains are largely independent of each other as there are no new single-chain conformations induced by the presence of a second chain. A cursory LIF excitation scan of para-dioctylbenzene shows a broad congested spectrum at frequencies consistent with interactions of alkyl chains with the phenyl π cloud.
Letter: Modeling reactive shock waves in heterogeneous solids at the continuum level with stochastic differential equations
Authors: Kittell D. E. , Yarrington C. D. , Lechman J. B. , Baer M. R.
Published: May 2018

A new paradigm is introduced for modeling reactive shock waves in heterogeneous solids at the continuum level. Inspired by the probability density function methods from turbulent reactive flows, it is hypothesized that the unreacted material microstructures lead to a distribution of heat release rates from chemical reaction. Fluctuations in heat release, rather than velocity, are coupled to the reactive Euler equations which are then solved via the Riemann problem. A numerically efficient, one-dimensional hydrocode is used to demonstrate this new approach, and simulation results of a representative impact calculation (inert flyer into explosive target) are discussed.
Total variation-based neutron computed tomography
Authors: Barnard Richard C. , Bilheux Hassina , Toops Todd , Nafziger Eric , Finney Charles , Splitter Derek , Archibald Rick
Published: May 2018

We perform the neutron computed tomography reconstruction problem via an inverse problem formulation with a total variation penalty. In the case of highly under-resolved angular measurements, the total variation penalty suppresses high-frequency artifacts which appear in filtered back projections. In order to efficiently compute solutions for this problem, we implement a variation of the split Bregman algorithm; due to the error-forgetting nature of the algorithm, the computational cost of updating can be significantly reduced via very inexact approximate linear solvers. We present the effectiveness of the algorithm in the significantly low-angular sampling case using synthetic test problems as well as data obtained from a high flux neutron source. The algorithm removes artifacts and can even roughly capture small features when an extremely low number of angles are used.
Effect of diet synchrony on rumen fermentation, production performance, immunity status and endocrine in Chinese Holstein cows
Authors: Qiao G. H. , Xiao Z. G. , Li Y. , Li G. J. , Zhao L. C. , Xie T. M. , Wang D. W.
Published: May 2018

In order to maximise utilisation of nutrients for ruminants, researchers directed the supply of nitrogen and organic matter synchronously to the rumen. In the current research, two experiments were conducted, one using the in situ nylon bag technique and the other using in vivo study. In Experiment 1, dynamic degradation rates of organic matter (OM) and nitrogen of each feedstuff were determined using the in situ nylon bag technique. Accordingly, three diets were formulated with the same chemical components, but differing in synchrony index (0.74, 0.85 and 0.97). Experiment 2 was subsequently carried out in vivo to evaluate the influence of diet synchrony on rumen fermentation, productive performance, immunity status and endocrine in Chinese Holstein cows. Rumen degradability of OM and neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and total tract digestibility of OM were linearly increased with the increase of synchrony index, respectively (P < 0.05). Total volatile fatty acids concentration of rumen fluid was increased linearly with the increase of synchrony index (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, rumen ammonia nitrogen concentration and blood urea nitrogen concentration were decreased in cows with the increase of synchrony index, (P < 0.05). Microbial crude protein production, the efficiency of microbial protein synthesis, and milk protein percentage, were linearly increased with the increase of synchrony index (P < 0.05). Serum concentrations of prostaglandin E2 and immunoreactive fibronectin-γ were linearly decreased with the increase of diet synchrony index (P < 0.05). The aforementioned results implicate that an increase of diet synchrony index could improve diet’s nitrogen utilisation, apparent digestibility of OM, and NDF. Additionally, it could promote rumen fermentation capacity, productive performance and immunity status in dairy cows.
Importance of internal refuges and the external unburnt area in the recovery of rodent populations after wildfire
Authors: Puig-Gironès Roger , Clavero Miguel , Pons Pere
Published: May 2018

Rodent populations respond quickly to changes in habitat structure and composition resulting from disturbances such as wildfires. Rodents may recolonise burnt areas from individuals that survived the wildfire in ‘internal refuges’ or from the surrounding unburnt area (i.e. external colonisation). With the aim of assessing the relative role of both hypotheses on rodent abundance and foraging behaviour after fire, four Mediterranean burnt areas were studied using sampling stations at increasing distances from the perimeter of the burnt area. In the first 18 months after fire, the abundance of wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) and seed removal activity were highest near the perimeter. This suggests the weight of external sources (i.e. from unburnt areas) in the recolonisation process is higher than that of internal refuges. Algerian mice (Mus spretus) colonised the burnt areas from external sources. Vegetation cover was the most important variable affecting the relative abundance of rodents in recently burnt areas. After some months of vegetation recovery, rodent individuals that had dispersed from the unburnt area were likely to take advantage of sparsely occupied habitat with sufficient resources and, at this time, might use internal refuges. Therefore, understanding recolonisation dynamics is fundamental to anticipate biodiversity patterns and promote adaptive management.
The impact of language on gesture in descriptions of voluntary motion in Czech and French adults and children
Authors: Fibigerova Katerina , Guidetti Michèle
Published: May 2018

The present study compares adults, five- and ten-year-old speakers of Czech (a satellite-framed language) and French (a verb-framed language) during the task of describing short animated videos displaying various voluntary motion events. In this research domain, Czech is a hitherto unexplored language whose specifics make it interestingly different from other typologically similar languages. Our focus is on the semantic level of the multimodal expression of motion. We found that in spite of substantial differences in their typical verbal patterns due to the particularities of their respective languages, French speakers and Czech speakers tend to produce the same gestural patterns. Although this phenomenon was observed in all age groups, a cross-language positive effect of age on semantic density of speech as well as gesture was also found. These results are discussed in light of models of multimodal development in language acquisition.
Prolonged cyclin-dependent kinase inhibition results in septin perturbations during return to growth and mitosis
Authors: Gihana Gabriel M. , Musser Tiffany R. , Thompson Oscar , Lacefield Soni
Published: May 2018

We investigated how Saccharomyces cerevisiae coordinate polarization, budding, and anaphase during a unique developmental program called return to growth (RTG) in which cells in meiosis return to mitosis upon nutrient shift. Cells reentering mitosis from prophase I deviate from the normal cell cycle by budding in G2 instead of G1. We found that cells do not maintain the bipolar budding pattern, a characteristic of diploid cells. Furthermore, strict temporal regulation of M-phase cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK; M-CDK) is important for polarity establishment and morphogenesis. Cells with premature M-CDK activity caused by loss of checkpoint kinase Swe1 failed to polarize and underwent anaphase without budding. Mutants with increased Swe1-dependent M-CDK inhibition showed additional or more penetrant phenotypes in RTG than mitosis, including elongated buds, multiple buds, spindle mispositioning, and septin perturbation. Surprisingly, the enhanced and additional phenotypes were not exclusive to RTG but also occurred with prolonged Swe1-dependent CDK inhibition in mitosis. Our analysis reveals that prolonged activation of the Swe1-dependent checkpoint can be detrimental instead of beneficial.
Cholesterol negatively regulates IL-9–producing CD8+ T cell differentiation and antitumor activity
Authors: Ma Xingzhe , Bi Enguang , Huang Chunjian , Lu Yong , Xue Gang , Guo Xing , Wang Aibo , Yang Maojie , Qian Jianfei , Dong Chen , Yi Qing
Published: May 2018

CD8+ T cells can be polarized into IL-9–secreting (Tc9) cells. We previously showed that adoptive therapy using tumor-specific Tc9 cells generated stronger antitumor responses in mouse melanoma than classical Tc1 cells. To understand why Tc9 cells exert stronger antitumor responses, we used gene profiling to compare Tc9 and Tc1 cells. Tc9 cells expressed different levels of cholesterol synthesis and efflux genes and possessed significantly lower cholesterol content than Tc1 cells. Unique to Tc9, but not other CD8+ or CD4+ T cell subsets, manipulating cholesterol content in polarizing Tc9 cells significantly affected IL-9 expression and Tc9 differentiation and antitumor response in vivo. Mechanistic studies showed that IL-9 was indispensable for Tc9 cell persistence and antitumor effects, and cholesterol or its derivatives inhibited IL-9 expression by activating liver X receptors (LXRs), leading to LXR Sumoylation and reduced p65 binding to Il9 promoter. Our study identifies cholesterol as a critical regulator of Tc9 cell differentiation and function.
The AKAP Cypher/Zasp contributes to β-adrenergic/PKA stimulation of cardiac CaV1.2 calcium channels
Authors: Yu Haijie , Yuan Can , Westenbroek Ruth E. , Catterall William A.
Published: May 2018

Stimulation of the L-type Ca2+ current conducted by CaV1.2 channels in cardiac myocytes by the β-adrenergic/protein kinase A (PKA) signaling pathway requires anchoring of PKA to the CaV1.2 channel by an A-kinase anchoring protein (AKAP). However, the AKAP(s) responsible for regulation in vivo remain unknown. Here, we test the role of the AKAP Cypher/Zasp in β-adrenergic regulation of CaV1.2 channels using physiological studies of cardiac ventricular myocytes from young-adult mice lacking the long form of Cypher/Zasp (LCyphKO mice). These myocytes have increased protein levels of CaV1.2, PKA, and calcineurin. In contrast, the cell surface density of CaV1.2 channels and the basal Ca2+ current conducted by CaV1.2 channels are significantly reduced without substantial changes to kinetics or voltage dependence. β-adrenergic regulation of these L-type Ca2+ currents is also significantly reduced in myocytes from LCyphKO mice, whether calculated as a stimulation ratio or as net-stimulated Ca2+ current. At 100 nM isoproterenol, the net β-adrenergic–Ca2+ current conducted by CaV1.2 channels was reduced to 39 ± 12% of wild type. However, concentration–response curves for β-adrenergic stimulation of myocytes from LCyphKO mice have concentrations that give a half-maximal response similar to those for wild-type mice. These results identify Cypher/Zasp as an important AKAP for β-adrenergic regulation of cardiac CaV1.2 channels. Other AKAPs may work cooperatively with Cypher/Zasp to give the full magnitude of β-adrenergic regulation of CaV1.2 channels observed in vivo.
Exotic properties of a voltage-gated proton channel from the snailHelisoma trivolvis
Authors: Thomas Sarah , Cherny Vladimir V. , Morgan Deri , Artinian Liana R. , Rehder Vincent , Smith Susan M.E. , DeCoursey Thomas E.
Published: May 2018

Voltage-gated proton channels, HV1, were first reported in Helix aspersa snail neurons. These H+ channels open very rapidly, two to three orders of magnitude faster than mammalian HV1. Here we identify an HV1 gene in the snail Helisoma trivolvis and verify protein level expression by Western blotting of H. trivolvis brain lysate. Expressed in mammalian cells, HtHV1 currents in most respects resemble those described in other snails, including rapid activation, 476 times faster than hHV1 (human) at pHo 7, between 50 and 90 mV. In contrast to most HV1, activation of HtHV1 is exponential, suggesting first-order kinetics. However, the large gating charge of ∼5.5 e0 suggests that HtHV1 functions as a dimer, evidently with highly cooperative gating. HtHV1 opening is exquisitely sensitive to pHo, whereas closing is nearly independent of pHo. Zn2+ and Cd2+ inhibit HtHV1 currents in the micromolar range, slowing activation, shifting the proton conductance–voltage (gH-V) relationship to more positive potentials, and lowering the maximum conductance. This is consistent with HtHV1 possessing three of the four amino acids that coordinate Zn2+ in mammalian HV1. All known HV1 exhibit ΔpH-dependent gating that results in a 40-mV shift of the gH-V relationship for a unit change in either pHo or pHi. This property is crucial for all the functions of HV1 in many species and numerous human cells. The HtHV1 channel exhibits normal or supernormal pHo dependence, but weak pHi dependence. Under favorable conditions, this might result in the HtHV1 channel conducting inward currents and perhaps mediating a proton action potential. The anomalous ΔpH-dependent gating of HtHV1 channels suggests a structural basis for this important property, which is further explored in this issue (Cherny et al. 2018. J. Gen. Physiol. https://doi.org/10.1085/jgp.201711968).
Uniqueness of epidemic waves in a host-vector disease model
Authors: Xu Zhaoquan , Xiao Dongmei
Published: May 2018

A diffusive integro-differential equation which serves as a model for the evolution of a host-vector epidemic was extensively studied in literature. The traveling wave solutions of this model describe the spread of the disease from a disease-free state to an infective state, which are epidemic waves. It is a challenging problem if epidemic waves with the minimal propagation speed are unique up to translation. In this paper, we establish the uniqueness of all epidemic waves with any an admissible wave speed by the sliding method and solve this challenging problem completely.
Quotients of mapping class groups from 𝑂𝑢𝑡(𝐹_{𝑛})
Authors: Bou-Rabee Khalid , Leininger Christopher
Published: May 2018

We give a short proof of Masbaum and Reid’s result that mapping class groups involve any finite group, appealing to free quotients of surface groups and a result of Gilman, following Dunfield–Thurston.
Constricted migration increases DNA damage and independently represses cell cycle
Authors: Pfeifer Charlotte R. , Xia Yuntao , Zhu Kuangzheng , Liu Dazhen , Irianto Jerome , García Victor M. Morales , Millán Leeza M. Santiago , Niese Brandon , Harding Shane , Deviri Dan , Greenberg Roger A. , Discher Dennis E.
Published: May 2018

Cell migration through dense tissues or small capillaries can elongate the nucleus and even damage it, and any impact on cell cycle has the potential to affect various processes including carcinogenesis. Here, nuclear rupture and DNA damage increase with constricted migration in different phases of cell cycle—which we show is partially repressed. We study several cancer lines that are contact inhibited or not and that exhibit diverse frequencies of nuclear lamina rupture after migration through small pores. DNA repair factors invariably mislocalize after migration, and an excess of DNA damage is evident as pan-­nucleoplasmic foci of phosphoactivated ATM and γH2AX. Foci counts are suppressed in late cell cycle as expected of mitotic checkpoints, and migration of contact-inhibited cells through large pores into sparse microenvironments leads also as expected to cell-cycle reentry and no effect on a basal level of damage foci. Constricting pores delay such reentry while excess foci occur independent of cell-cycle phase. Knockdown of repair factors increases DNA damage independent of cell cycle, consistent with effects of constricted migration. Because such migration causes DNA damage and impedes proliferation, it illustrates a cancer cell fate choice of “go or grow.”
YAMDA: thousandfold speedup of EM-based motif discovery using deep learning libraries and GPU
Authors: Quang Daniel , Guan Yuanfang , Parker Stephen C J
Published: May 2018

Motivation

Motif discovery in large biopolymer sequence datasets can be computationally demanding, presenting significant challenges for discovery in omics research. MEME, arguably one of the most popular motif discovery software, takes quadratic time with respect to dataset size, leading to excessively long runtimes for large datasets. Therefore, there is a demand for fast programs that can generate results of the same quality as MEME.

Results

Here we describe YAMDA, a highly scalable motif discovery software package. It is built on Pytorch, a tensor computation deep learning library with strong GPU acceleration that is highly optimized for tensor operations that are also useful for motifs. YAMDA takes linear time to find motifs as accurately as MEME, completing in seconds or minutes, which translates to speedups over a thousandfold.

Availability and implementation

YAMDA is freely available on Github (https://github.com/daquang/YAMDA).

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Comparison of Clostridioides difficile Stool Toxin Concentrations in Adults With Symptomatic Infection and Asymptomatic Carriage Using an Ultrasensitive Quantitative Immunoassay
Authors: Pollock Nira R , Banz Alice , Chen Xinhua , Williams David , Xu Hua , Cuddemi Christine A , Cui Alice X , Perrotta Matthew , Alhassan Eaman , Riou Brigitte , Lantz Aude , Miller Mark A , Kelly Ciaran P
Published: May 2018

Background

We used an ultrasensitive, quantitative single molecule array (Simoa) immunoassay to test whether concentrations of Clostridioides (formerly Clostridium) difficile toxins A and/or B in the stool of adult inpatients with C. difficile infection (CDI) were higher than in asymptomatic carriers of toxinogenic C. difficile.

Methods

Patients enrolled as CDI-NAAT had clinically significant diarrhea and a positive nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT), per US guidelines, and received CDI treatment. Potential carriers had recently received antibiotics and did not have diarrhea; positive NAAT confirmed carriage. Baseline stool samples were tested by Simoa for toxin A and B.

Results

Stool toxin concentrations in both CDI-NAAT (n = 122) and carrier-NAAT (n = 44) cohorts spanned 5 logs (0 pg/mL to >100000 pg/mL). Seventy-nine of 122 (65%) CDI-NAAT and 34 of 44 (77%) carrier-NAAT had toxin A + B concentration ≥20 pg/mL (clinical cutoff). Median toxin A, toxin B, toxin A + B, and NAAT cycle threshold (Ct) values in CDI-NAAT and carrier-NAAT cohorts were similar (toxin A, 50.6 vs 60.0 pg/mL, P = .958; toxin B, 89.5 vs 42.3 pg/mL, P = .788; toxin A + B, 197.2 vs 137.3 pg/mL, P = .766; Ct, 28.1 vs 28.6, P = .354). However, when CDI/carrier cohorts were limited to those with detectable toxin, respective medians were significantly different (A: 874.0 vs 129.7, P = .021; B: 1317.0 vs 81.7, P = .003, A + B, 4180.7 vs 349.6, P = .004; Ct, 25.8 vs 27.7, P = .015).

Conclusions

Toxin concentration did not differentiate an individual with CDI from one with asymptomatic carriage. Median stool toxin concentrations in groups with CDI vs carriage differed, but only when groups were defined by detectable stool toxin (vs positive NAAT).
Young Somalis’ social identity in Sweden and Britain: The interplay of group dynamics, socio-political environments, and transnational ties in social identification processes
Authors: Scuzzarello Sarah , Carlson Benny
Published: May 2018

In this article, we aim to contribute to the literature on social identification among migrants and minorities by offering a theoretical framework that accounts for the interplay of socio-psychological factors, local and transnational group dynamics, and the socio-political environment in which migrants live. This approach enables us to analyse not only the political significance of identity, but also the psychology of identity formation. Drawing upon qualitative data, we analyse how young Somalis (N = 43) living in the municipalities of Malmö (Sweden) and Ealing (United Kingdom) construct and negotiate their ethnic social identities in relation to: Somali elders living in the same city; Somalis in Somalia and in the diaspora; and the British/Swedish majority society. We show that, to secure a positive self-identity vis-à-vis these referent groups, young Somalis engage in psychological strategies of separation; social competition; and social creativity. The socio-political environment in which they are embedded influences which strategy they adopt.
Untold stories: Jamaican transnational mothers in New York City
Authors: McCallum Derrace Garfield
Published: May 2018

Globalization and contemporary international labour migration continue to transform women’s lives. Moreover, gender stereotypes, biased cultural norms, biological responsibilities and economic marginalization serve to constrain women disproportionately, particularly mothers. Indeed, globalization and migration increases existing pressures associated with motherhood. They intensify societal expectations of women, and often result in extreme distress. Many transnational mothers suffer in silence with little or no chance to share their stories and be heard. This study explores the experiences of Jamaican transnational mothers in New York City and documents their stories in light of current research which investigates how transnational motherhood transgresses gender stereotypes and pushes the boundaries of gender roles and expectations. The stories shared in this paper vividly capture the women’s narratives of loss, longing, empowerment and shared responsibilities across borders.
Paradoxical infrastructures of asylum: Notes on the rise and fall of tent camps in Denmark
Authors: Whyte Zachary , Campbell Rebecca , Overgaard Heidi
Published: May 2018

Asylum policies in the Global North have increasingly turned towards populist policies of deterrence, as states attempt to make themselves seem as unattractive as possible to would-be asylum seekers. This article examines one such case: the tent camps for asylum seekers that were hastily erected in Denmark in early 2016. However, while the tent camps surely are an instance of symbolic politics, we argue that to understand their daily operation, attention must also be paid to their infrastructural qualities. Drawing on two months of fieldwork at a tent camp in Næstved, this article examines the ways in which asylum policy and infrastructure interact to shape the daily lives and interactions of camp residents and staff. We propose two paradoxical frames for the analysis, which we term ‘spectacular obscurity’ and ‘successful failure’. The tent camps were trumpeted as symbolic politics, while their daily operation remained obscured, only to burst in to scandal as reports emerged of threatening and violent behaviour on the part of the staff. The tent camps’ infrastructure was constantly failing, as both material and social support broke down, but at the same time these failures successfully formed the basis for the everyday interactions that structured life in the camps. We conclude by questioning the effect of the policies of deterrence as mediated through particular infrastructures, suggesting that the materialities of the tent camps played a more significant role than supposed by policy makers, and that paradoxes of infrastructure provide a useful perspective through which to analyse migration management more broadly.
A classic re-examined: Zelinsky’s hypothesis of the mobility transition
Authors: Skeldon Ronald
Published: May 2018

This paper examines the contribution of Zelinsky’s hypothesis of the mobility transition to research in migration studies over the almost 50 years since its publication in 1971. The transition is placed in the changing contexts of thinking in migration studies of the time and argues that after an initial flurry, followed by a period in the wilderness, it has emerged to guide a new interest in comparative studies on migration. The transition provides a flexible framework that can be modified to give context to the evidence emerging from a number of recent studies that are briefly outlined. Rather than an inflexible linear model, the hypothesis provides scope to incorporate multiple pathways of changing patterns of migration through time and across space. As important, however, has been its role in providing inspiration to guide generations of researchers in migration studies. The transition itself and modern empirical evidence suggest that despite the current concerns about migration, the world is becoming less migratory but more mobile, contradictory though this might at first appear.
Globalization, Language Policy, and the Role of English
Authors: Ricento Thomas
Published: May 2018

This chapter explores some of the ways that apparently incompatible claims from the language policy and planning (LPP) literature can be disambiguated and resolved by reference to political economy. In particular, it focuses on competing views regarding the role of English in the world today as either a form of linguistic imperialism or a vehicle for social and economic mobility. In analyzing the nature and effects of neoliberalism, as expressed in its globalized economic and political forms, it shows that the role and utility of English worldwide is a vehicle for mobility for some people, in some economic sectors, mainly the knowledge economy, but is generally not connected to socioeconomic mobility for the vast majority of the global workforce. The discussion of neoliberal globalization and the role of English addresses the following questions: Where does power reside? Who has agency? Who decides which language has value? Who has rights?
Language Policy and Mass Media
Authors: Gao Xuesong (Andy) , Shao Qing
Published: May 2018

This chapter reviews efforts to examine the construction and content of media products, and the role of the mass media in the language policymaking process, with a particular focus on framing in mass media coverage. The authors first elaborate what they mean by the term framing. Then they illustrate how the concept of framing can help researchers to explore the media’s mediation of language policymaking in three specific debates: the dialect crisis in China; high-stakes English examinations in China; and medium of instruction policy, with particular attention to the use of English, Cantonese, and Putonghua in Hong Kong and the use of English and Spanish in the US state of Arizona. The chapter concludes with suggestions for expanding research on the role of mass media in language policymaking.
Critical Community Language Policies in Education
Authors: Watson-Gegeo Karen Ann , Gegeo David W. , Fito'o Billy
Published: May 2018

This chapter first offers an overview of critical community language policy and planning in education (CCLPE). It provides an example of CCLPE, focusing on Malaita in the wake of the Tenson (ethnic conflict) between Guadalcanal and Malaita in Solomon Islands (SI) (1998–2007). The authors contextualize their analysis by tracing the turning points for LPP in SI history, and discuss implications of the SI case for CCLPE and the future of SI education. The analysis focuses on local processes of uncertainty and instability in times of rapid social change that undermine community faith in the nation-state. The chapter shows that indigenous communities have learned that they can exert their agency to shape LPP from the bottom up, and that the shaping must be grounded in indigenous language(s) and culture(s). This argument is consistent with the call for epistemological and ontological diversity in development theory, education, and related studies.
New Speakers and Language Policy
Authors: O’Rourke Bernadette , Soler Josep , Darquennes Jeroen
Published: May 2018

This chapter looks at language policy through the new speaker lens, exploring the many ways in which research on new speakers links to the discursive and ethnographic approaches that have recently come to the fore in the language policy literature. Following a brief discussion of how the new speaker concept facilitates a reconsideration of traditional approaches to language policy and planning (LPP) in minority language settings, the chapter surveys LPP research in new speaker contexts, summarizes the challenges facing research on new speakers, and discusses the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of this research. Noting that new speaker studies are not only situated in minority settings, the chapter concludes with a look at emerging areas of research beyond minority language contexts.
Language Policy and Planning, Institutions, and Neoliberalisation
Authors: Codó Eva
Published: May 2018

This chapter maps out the empirical research conducted on language policy and practice in neoliberalising institutional spaces. The chapter is divided according to three main types of institutional spaces: the workplace, education, and civil society organisations. The analysis examines individual subjectivities, institutional regimes, and political economy in contemporary institutions. The first section reviews studies that have investigated changing language policies and practices in relation to labour processes in the neoliberalised work environments of late modernity. The second section refers to the ways in which the neoliberalisation of education has impacted on and been achieved through language policies in that domain. The third section discusses research that has addressed the study of language policy in nongovernmental organisations providing services outsourced by the state. The chapter concludes with a discussion of possible avenues for further investigation of language policy and planning (LPP), institutions, and neoliberalisation.
The Critical Ethnographic Turn in Research on Language Policy and Planning
Authors: Martin-Jones Marilyn , da Costa Cabral Ildegrada
Published: May 2018

This chapter traces the genealogy of the critical ethnographic turn in research on language policy and planning (LPP). The first part of the chapter shows how different strands of ethnographic research contributed to this intellectual movement, eventually moving us beyond the divide between “micro” and “macro.” Here, we consider the specific contributions of research in the ethnography of communication, interactional sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, critical sociolinguistic ethnography, and the ethnography of language policy. The second part of the chapter focuses on the particular advantages that accrue from adopting critical ethnographic approaches. Here, bringing ontological and epistemological perspectives into the frame and highlighting the need for researcher reflexivity, we consider critical ethnography as a way of seeing, as a way of looking and of building knowledge, and, lastly, as a way of being as a researcher.
Community Languages in Late Modernity
Authors: Wei Li
Published: May 2018

This chapter aims to reconceptualise the notions of community and community languages in late modernity and to recontextualise the discussion of language policy and planning (LPP) with reference to diaspora. The chapter consists of six sections: (1) a critique of the notion of community in late modernity; (2) an analysis of the renewed interest in the notion of diaspora; (3) an examination of the role of language and multilingualism; (4) a discussion of the possibilities and constraints of language policies and planning with regard to mobile and minority communities; (5) consideration of the importance of grassroots language planning actions, especially those that are carried out beyond institutionalised settings; (6) a discussion of the new challenges facing community languages in late modernity, highlighting the dilemmas of post-multilingualism and suggesting translanguaging as a possible solution.
Language Policy and Planning
Authors: Pérez-Milans Miguel , Tollefson James W.
Published: May 2018

The closing chapter explores the consequences that the processes of change taking place under the conditions of late modernity may have for language policy and planning (LPP) research. In particular, it addresses seven key strands of discussion that emerge from the chapters in this Handbook, and which the editors believe will be important in the future of the field, namely (1) the continued importance of critical approaches; (2) the paradox of agency; (3) the need for ethnographic approaches to move from recognition of their value to further engagement with epistemological awareness; (4) the challenge of creating new links between LPP and alternative philosophical traditions, beyond European political theory; (5) the increasing role of media in LPP; (6) the need for expanding collaborations and revisiting long-standing assumptions about community-based research, language rights, and activism; and (7) the imperative of addressing ethical issues in contemporary LPP research through researchers’ reflexivity.
Language Ethics and the Interdisciplinary Challenge
Authors: Peled Yael
Published: May 2018

This chapter offers a normative engagement with language policy and politics, particularly involving the moral evaluation of power structures associated with language, and their possible alternatives. Questions about language rights and linguistic equality, the compatibility between particular language regimes and democratic principles, and the global ethics of English as a lingua franca, as well as emerging debates in political philosophy on linguistic justice, involve language ethics, namely, inquiry on the moral problems, practices, and policies related to language. Language ethics must be fundamentally interdisciplinary, not merely to bridge political philosophy and applied linguistics, but rather to combine their distinct scientific epistemologies in a principled and systematic way. The concluding section of the chapter turns its attention to the intrinsic tension between the aim of language policy to achieve particular moral outcomes and the messy, uncertain, and often unpredictable realities that shape local and global social change.
Metapragmatics in the Ethnography of Language Policy
Authors: Pérez-Milans Miguel
Published: May 2018

This chapter traces briefly the origins and development of the ethnography of language policy. It argues that, although this tradition has put ethnography firmly on the language policy and planning (LPP) research agenda since the turn of the twenty-first century, it has not yet sufficiently addressed some persistent problems. Against this background, metapragmatics is presented as a suitable epistemological framework, one that draws from two contemporary shifts in the study of texts, contexts, and meanings in linguistic anthropology and sociolinguistics: (1) a departure from emphasis on denotational meanings, toward closer description of performative actions; and (2) a shift in the analytical entry point, from communicative events to trajectories of identification. These shifts are examined with reference to existing work and illustrated via ethnographic research that is revisited through the lens being proposed. Some of the implications for the study of LPP processes in conditions of late modernity are also addressed.
Inequality and Class in Language Policy and Planning
Authors: Block David
Published: May 2018

In recent years, critical language policy and planning (LPP) researchers have increasingly turned to political economy as a source discipline, and neoliberalism has come to be a baseline concept. Nevertheless, political economy in LPP research is often underdeveloped; neoliberalism remains ill-defined and under-theorised; and inequality and class are virtually erased from analysis. This chapter elaborates on the value of these concepts for LPP research. It begins with a brief discussion of LPP and then discusses political economy as a field of inquiry, neoliberalism as a master frame for a growing body of LPP research, and finally, inequality and class as key constructs for understanding the effects of neoliberalism on contemporary societies. This theoretical background is followed by a section examining how inequality and class have emerged as constructs in recent LPP research, and the chapter closes with considerations about further research.
The Disability Case Against Assisted Dying
Authors: Scoccia Danny
Published: May 2018

Disability rights (DR) advocates have consistently opposed the legalization of physician-assisted dying (PAD) on the grounds that it wrongly discriminates against the disabled. This chapter distinguishes three variants of this objection. The first and perhaps primary one, based on “soft paternalism,” claims that PAD should not be legalized for the sake of those who might choose it. The second alleges that the laws harm all disabled people by encouraging support for PAD as the cheaper alternative to providing the disabled more social support and protection from discrimination. The third alleges that legalized PAD harms all disabled people by expressing the denigrating message that their lives are less valuable than those of the able. The chapter finds that whatever the merits of the first two objections, DR advocates cannot consistently accept them while maintaining support for a legal right to reject unwanted treatment. It also finds grounds to doubt the cogency of the third objection.
From Moral Concerns to Market Values
Authors: Dubuisson-Quellier Sophie
Published: May 2018

This chapter draws on the economic sociology literature and considers the effects of political consumer activism on market structures and practices. Its main argument is that activists who employ market-based tactics provide markets with alternative valuations of products, corporate reputations, and economic activities that challenge existing market values. These contentious forms of valuation modify the structure of opportunities for market operators, leading some companies to change practices or products, which may in turn influence market competition. Moreover, the new normative framing of market values by civil society may convince states to regulate corporate behaviour. This perspective reveals conditions in which normative concerns emerge about market activities and may be progressively integrated into market practices. This works through a complex mechanism of changes in the valuation of market entities, actors, and activities. Markets could then be locations for the emergence of moral economies that can challenge existing economic practices.
Advice Giving in Psychotherapy
Authors: Duan Changming , Knox Sarah , Hill Clara E.
Published: May 2018

Advice giving in psychotherapy has been an area of interest for theorists and practitioners for a long time. However, clear and distinct answers to questions concerning the role of advice in client outcomes have not been as available as one would expect. This state of art may be related to discrepant theoretical positions and the lack of consistent empirical evidence. This chapter argues that some evidence does support advice giving in psychotherapy, depending on the cultural and social context as well as on client and therapist variables. This chapter reviews the literature, recommends a specific model for advice giving, and outlines future research directions.
Advice in Intimate Relationships
Authors: Branch Sara , Hall Elizabeth Dorrance
Published: May 2018

Friendships and romantic relationships are characterized by enduring concern for each other’s welfare. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that advice, a form of social support, is common, expected, and even desired in intimate relationships. While much of the research on advice samples from friendships and romantic relationships, the influence of the specific relational context is often overlooked. This chapter addresses this limitation with a synthesis of theory and research from relationship science. Specifically, it explores the potential contributions of interdependence theory (Kelley & Thibaut, 1978), relationship turbulence theory (Solomon, Knobloch, Theiss, & McLaren, 2016), attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969), and confirmation theory (Dailey, 2006) to understand how relationship cognitions affect advice outcomes. The chapter also discusses the intersections between these theories as applied to advice and shows how these theories can guide best practices of advising in close relationships.
Creative Practices and Technical Processes in Music for Cinema and Television
Authors: Cooper David
Published: May 2018

Film and television composition has always been mediated by technology of one sort or another. From the earliest days of silent film, musicians necessarily had to interact, at the very least, with the mechanically projected image. The subsequent history of the media has been marked by technological advances that mirror broader scientific and engineering innovation, which have impacted the visual and aural domains to equal degrees. This chapter considers the various technical and aesthetic contexts of film and television music composition, the collaboration inherent in its realization, and the limitations that may be placed on the composer’s creative freedom. The chapter concludes with an examination of the archival resources for research in the area, and it uses materials held in the Trevor Jones and Michael Nyman Archives of the University of Leeds throughout to illustrate the discussion.
Poe’s Landscapes, Picturesque and Ideal
Authors: Ljungquist Kent P.
Published: May 2018

Associated with the urban venues in which he toiled as an editor, Edgar Allan Poe also became a first-hand observer and connoisseur of the natural (and improved) landscapes and landmarks in proximity to these areas. Examples include the Wissahickon Creek (emptying into the Schuylkill River at Philadelphia), the woods near Brennan farm in New York, and the bucolic Fordham Village in the Bronx. Painters, printmakers, and travel writers on the picturesque, notably William Hazlitt and Baron Herman von Pückler-Muskau, provide precedent and context for Poe’s marriage of verbal and visual styles in “The Domain of Arnheim” and “Landor’s Cottage.” Poe’s subtle handling of narrative perspective in his landscapes, following picturesque principles, derives from his impressionistic focus on painterly techniques supporting his developing aesthetics of effect.
An Unrequited Obsession
Authors: Poole W. Scott
Published: May 2018

Poe’s influence on modern horror fiction has been more often asserted than proven. His sway over modern horror largely appears in the need for writers and directors in an allegedly disreputable genre to legitimize their work with a literary legacy. Filmmakers have used Poe’s work beginning with the Universal Studio’s horror films of the 1930s and continuing through Roger Corman’s famous, and famously loose, adaptations of Poe’s work with American International Pictures in the sixties. Horror fiction, and some of the field’s most celebrated writers such as Lovecraft and Bradbury, have claimed Poe’s influence even when their work exhibits little relationship to it. These popular culture forms have extended the anxiety of influence generated by Poe in the horror tradition even when adaptations of his work owe little to the texts from which they borrow.
The Potential Impact of Improved Water Management to Alleviate Water Scarcity and Hunger
Authors: Gerten Dieter , Jägermeyr Jonas
Published: May 2018

In a world characterized by increasing demand for water and food and progressing global climate change, ever more regions are exposed to water shortages and resulting limitations to food production. In the present Anthropocene era, water scarcity is prevalent in many regions, and freshwater ecosystems are anthropogenically perturbed or severely degraded in many places. At the same time, the potential for further increasing the global irrigated area is limited. However, methods to improve agricultural water use—including upgraded irrigation systems, water harvesting, and soil moisture conservation—have tremendous potential to increase crop production and save water in farming systems, especially in regions with variable and aggravating hydroclimatic realities. Model simulations suggest that ambitious combination of such measures could increase global crop production by ~40 percent, thus significantly contributing to the simultaneous achievement of Sustainable Development Goals targeted to ensure water and food security. Successfully addressing this challenge requires ambitious policies supporting implementation of locally adapted solutions.
Food and Water Management in Southern Africa
Authors: Johnston Peter , Chapman Arthur
Published: May 2018

Irrigation is a critical input for raising food production in southern Africa, parts of which are food-insecure, especially as a result of low levels of technology employed, low investments into the sector, small farm sizes, and high levels of exposure to the hazards of climate variability. Most food production (including exports) and irrigation in the region occurs in the arid south—in South Africa by a large margin. Further north, in Angola, Zambia, and the northern parts of Mozambique, water resources are abundant yet irrigation farming is far less developed and inefficient, resulting in water resources being less intensely managed. The region needs to become more tightly integrated economically, with a greater flow of technology, investment, and management capability to the north, allowing the north to produce more food (and other agricultural products) which would flow to the more industrialized south—essentially virtual water flows to that region.