bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Assessing Bleeding Risk in Atrial Fibrillation Patients: Comparing a Bleeding Risk Score Based Only on Modifiable Bleeding Risk Factors against the HAS-BLED Score. The AMADEUS Trial
Authors: Esteve-Pastor María , Rivera-Caravaca José , Shantsila Alena , Roldán Vanessa , Lip Gregory , Marín Francisco
Published: December 2017

Background The HAS-BLED (hypertension, abnormal renal/liver function, previous stroke, bleeding history or predisposition, labile international normalized ratio [INR], elderly and drugs/alcohol consumption) score has been validated in several scenarios but the recent European guidelines does not recommend any clinical score to assess bleeding risk in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients and only focus on modifiable clinical factors.

Purpose The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that the HAS-BLED score would perform at least similarly to an approach only based on modifiable bleeding risk factors (i.e. a ‘modifiable bleeding risk factors score’) for predicting bleeding events.

Methods We performed a comparison between the HAS-BLED score and the new ‘modifiable bleeding risk factors score’ in a post hoc analysis in 4,576 patients included in the AMADEUS trial.

Results After 347 (interquartile range, 186–457) days of follow-up, 597 patients (13.0%) experienced any clinically relevant bleeding event and 113 (2.5%) had a major bleeding. Only the HAS-BLED score was significantly associated with the risk of any clinically relevant bleeding (Cox's analysis for HAS-BLED ≥ 3: hazard ratio 1.38; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.10–1.72; p = 0.005). The ‘modifiable bleeding risk factors score’ ≥ 2 were non-significantly associated with any clinical relevant bleeding. The two scores had modest ability in predicting bleeding events. The HAS-BLED score performed best in predicting any clinically relevant bleeding (c-indexes for HAS-BLED, 0.545 [95% CI, 0.530–0.559] vs. the ‘modifiable bleeding risk factors score’, 0.530 [95% CI, 0.515–0.544]; c-index difference 0.015, z-score = 2.063, p = 0.04). The HAS-BLED score with one, two and three modifiable factors performed significantly better than the ‘modifiable bleeding risk factors scores’ with one, two and three modifiable risk factors.

Conclusion When compared with an approach only based on modifiable bleeding risk factors proposed by European Society of Cardiology (ESC) AF guidelines, the HAS-BLED score performed significantly better in predicting any clinically relevant bleeding in this clinical trial cohort. While modifiable bleeding risk factors should be addressed in all AF patients, the use of a formal bleeding risk score (HAS-BLED) has better predictive value for bleeding risks, and would help decision-making in identifying ‘high risk’ patients for scheduling reviews and follow-up.
Childhood and Adolescent Adversity and Cardiometabolic Outcomes: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association
Authors: Suglia Shakira F. , Koenen Karestan C. , Boynton-Jarrett Renée , Chan Paul S. , Clark Cari J. , Danese Andrea , Faith Myles S. , Goldstein Benjamin I. , Hayman Laura L. , Isasi Carmen R. , Pratt Charlotte A. , Slopen Natalie , Sumner Jennifer A. , Turer Aslan , Turer Christy B. , Zachariah Justin P.
Published: December 2017

Adverse experiences in childhood and adolescence, defined as subjectively perceived threats to the safety or security of the child’s bodily integrity, family, or social structures, are known to be associated with cardiometabolic outcomes over the life course into adulthood. This American Heart Association scientific statement reviews the scientific literature on the influence of childhood adversity on cardiometabolic outcomes that constitute the greatest public health burden in the United States, including obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular disease. This statement also conceptually outlines pathways linking adversity to cardiometabolic health, identifies evidence gaps, and provides suggestions for future research to inform practice and policy. We note that, despite a lack of objective agreement on what subjectively qualifies as exposure to childhood adversity and a dearth of prospective studies, substantial evidence documents an association between childhood adversity and cardiometabolic outcomes across the life course. Future studies that focus on mechanisms, resiliency, and vulnerability factors would further strengthen the evidence and provide much-needed information on targets for effective interventions. Given that childhood adversities affect cardiometabolic health and multiple health domains across the life course, interventions that ameliorate these initial upstream exposures may be more appropriate than interventions remediating downstream cardiovascular disease risk factor effects later in life.
Ventricular Tachycardia Ablation in the Elderly
Authors: Vakil Kairav , Garcia Santiago , Tung Roderick , Vaseghi Marmar , Tedrow Usha , Della Bella Paolo , Frankel David S. , Vergara Pasquale , Di Biase Luigi , Nagashima Koichi , Nakahara Shiro , Tzou Wendy S. , Burkhardt J. David , Dickfeld Timm , Weiss J. Peter , Bunch Jared , Callans David , Lakkireddy Dhanunjaya , Natale Andrea , Sauer William H. , Stevenson William G. , Marchlinski Francis , Shivkumar Kalyanam , Tholakanahalli Venkatakrishna N.
Published: December 2017

Background

Successful ventricular tachycardia (VT) ablation is associated with improved survival in patients with heart failure. However, the safety and efficacy of VT ablation in the elderly, a population with higher competing nonsudden death risk and comorbidities, have not been well defined.

Methods and Results

The International Ventricular Tachycardia Center Collaborative Study Group registry of 2061 patients who underwent VT ablation at 12 international centers was analyzed. Kaplan–Meier analysis was used to estimate survival of patients ≥70 years with and without VT recurrence. Of the 2049 patients who met inclusion criteria, 681 (33%) patients were ≥70 years of age (mean age, 75±4 years). Among these, 92% were men, 71% had ischemic VT, and 42% had VT storm at presentation. Mean (±SD) left ventricular ejection fraction was 30±11%. Compared with patients <70 years, patients ≥70 years had higher in-hospital (4.4% versus 2.3%;
P
=0.01) and 1-year mortality (15% versus 11%;
P
=0.002) but a similar incidence of VT recurrence at 1 year (26% versus 25%;
P
=0.74) and time to VT recurrence (280 versus 289 days;
P
=0.20). Absence of VT recurrence during follow-up was strongly associated with improved survival in patients ≥70 years.

Conclusion

VT ablation in the elderly is feasible and reasonably safe with a modestly higher in-hospital and 1-year mortality, with similar rates of VT recurrence at 1 year compared with younger patients. Successful VT ablation, that is, lack of VT recurrence, is strongly associated with improved survival even in this elderly subgroup.
Ablation of Rotor Domains Effectively Modulates Dynamics of Human
Authors: Calvo David , Rubín José , Pérez Diego , Morís César
Published: December 2017

Background:

In human long-standing persistent atrial fibrillation, rotors potentially explain atrial fibrillation maintenance, but their ablation remains controversial. We aimed to explore original phase/frequency mapping methods to locate rotors and track changes induced by their ablation.

Methods and Results:

Thirteen patients with long-standing persistent atrial fibrillation (duration, 12–72 months) underwent phase/frequency mapping (Hilbert/Fourier transforms; CARTO-Finder) of the left and right atria (PentaRay catheter). A rotor domain was defined as an area displaying at least 3 consecutive rotations. Ablation was performed by circumferential pulmonary vein isolation plus linear ablation of extrapulmonary rotor domains. We identified 19 rotor domains in 10 patients (1.8±1.1 per patient; 7 in the right atrium versus 12 in the left atrium; 15 extrapulmonary). Overall, rotor domains (9.2±2.2 rotations) displayed higher frequency of activation (6.41 Hz; 95% confidence interval, 6.24–6.57) than nonrotor domains (6.17 Hz; 95% confidence interval, 6.1–6.23;
P
=0.021), with interatrial frequency gradients established by the spatial location of the rotor domain (
P
=0.016). Fibrillatory conduction was suggested as a decrease in the frequency of the slower atria after ablation close to main interatrial conduction fascicles (
P
=0.035). Ablation of rotor domains (ablation line, 3.5±0.9 cm) effectively decreased the frequency of activation in both ipsilateral and contralateral atria (
P
<0.05 for both), whereas ablation of nonrotor domains did not. Acute conversion to sinus rhythm was observed in 2 patients after ablation of rotor domains. At 1-year follow-up, 70% remained in sinus rhythm (85% out-of-antiarrhythmic drugs).

Conclusions:

Rotor domains appropriately explain long-standing persistent atrial fibrillation physiology at its frequency content. Their ablation effectively modifies dynamics on restricted ablation.
Gerhardtia sinensis (Agaricales, Lyophyllaceae), a new species and a newly recorded genus for China
Authors: LI TING , LI TAIHUI , WANG CHAOQUN , DENG WANGQIU , SONG BIN
Published: December 2017

Gerhardtia sinensis, as a new species discovered from southern China, is described, illustrated and compared with morphologically similar and phylogenetically related species. Morphologically, it is characterized by its white to yellowish or partially pale yellow pileus with faint striae, subdistant to fairly distant lamellae with intervenose veins, and slightly verruculose basidiospores (4.7–)5.2–6.2(–6.6) × (2.5–)3.0–3.4(–3.8) μm in size. Molecular phylogenetic analyses of the new species and related taxa are performed based on the sequences of nuclear ribosomal large subunit (nrLSU) and nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS).
A new species of Plestiodon (Squamata: Scincidae) from the Balsas Basin, Mexico
Authors: PAVÓN-VÁZQUEZ CARLOS J. , DE OCA ADRIÁN NIETO-MONTES , MENDOZA-HERNÁNDEZ ANDRÉS A. , CENTENERO-ALCALÁ ERIC , CRUZ-PADILLA SAMUEL A. SANTA , JIMÉNEZ-ARCOS VÍCTOR H.
Published: December 2017

We describe a new species of Plestiodon in the P. brevirostris group from the Balsas Basin in central Mexico. It is distinguished from the other species in the group by the following combination of traits: supraoculars four; interparietal enclosed posteriorly by parietals; primary temporal present; seventh supralabial usually contacting upper secondary temporal; longitudinal dorsal scale rows around midbody 23–26; Toe-IV lamellae 13–15; limbs not overlapping when adpressed against body; dorsolateral light line extending posteriorly to level of posterior end of anterior fourth of body or beyond; light median line absent in all growth stages; primary lateral dark lines separated medially by six dorsal scale rows and upper half of adjacent row on each side at level of midbody; lower secondary dark line faint at level of neck; and light coloration of supralabials extending ventrally to lip border. Analyses based on DNA sequences of three loci support the distinctiveness of the new species, as well as its sister species relationship with P. ochoterenae. The Environmental Vulnerability Score of the new species places it in the high vulnerability category.
Position of the South Atlantic Anticyclone and Its Impact on Surface Conditions across Brazil
Authors: Gilliland Joshua M. , Keim Barry D.
Published: December 2017

This study examines the surface wind characteristics of Brazil on the basis of the location of the maximum high pressure center in the South Atlantic basin (SAB), known as the South Atlantic anticyclone (SAA), from three reanalysis datasets for the period of 1980–2014. Linear wind speed trends determined for Brazil are geographically related to surface and macroscale atmospheric conditions found in the SAB. The daily mean position of the SAA exhibited a latitudinal poleward shift for all seasons, and a longitudinal trend was dependent upon extratropical activity found in the SAB. Results also show that wind speed and sea level pressure for northern Brazil are dependent upon the latitudinal position of the SAA. Consequently, surface wind correlations for southern Brazil tend to be related to changes in the longitudinal position of the SAA, which result from transient anticyclones migrating over the SAB. An examination of positive and negative wind anomalies shows that shifts in the position of the SAA are coupled with changes in sea level pressure for northern Brazil and air temperature for southern Brazil. From these findings, a surface wind analysis was performed to demonstrate how the geographical location of the SAA affects wind speed anomalies across Brazil and the SAB. Results from this study can assist in understanding how atmospheric systems change within the SAB so that forthcoming socioeconomic and climate-related causes of wind for the country of Brazil can be known.
Bimodality of Directional Distributions in Ocean Wave Spectra: A Comparison of Data-Adaptive Estimation Techniques
Authors: Simanesew Abushet W. , Krogstad Harald E. , Trulsen Karsten , Nieto Borge José Carlos
Published: December 2017

The properties of directional distributions in ocean wave spectra are studied, with an emphasis on sea states with bimodal directional distributions in the high-frequency tails of single-peaked wave systems. A peak-splitting tendency has been a challenge in the interpretation of results from some data-adaptive estimation methods. After a survey of the theory, mathematical and numerical explanations are presented regarding domains of uni- and bimodality for symmetric Burg and Shannon maximum entropy methods. The study finds that both the Burg and Shannon maximum entropy methods have a tendency to split peaks, and that the domains of uni- and bimodality for these two methods depend on the Fourier coefficients input into the algorithms. Comparisons of data-adaptive methods based on data collected near the Ekofisk oil field in the North Sea and from nonlinear wave simulations are presented. The maximum likelihood (ML) method, the iterative maximum likelihood (IML) method, and the Burg and Shannon maximum entropy methods are applied. A large fraction of the directional wave spectra from Ekofisk shows bimodal features for distributions above the spectral peak for all of the abovementioned methods. In particular, strong similarity in bimodal features between the iterative maximum likelihood and the Burg maximum entropy methods are found. In general, the bimodality is consistent with previous observations, and it seems to be associated with wave and spectral development owing to nonlinear wave–wave interactions rather than being associated with the peak-splitting tendency in the estimates from any of the algorithms. The bimodal directional distributions were sometimes persistent and sometimes formed or decayed within the order of hours.
Pathways to functional outcomes following a first episode of psychosis: The roles of premorbid adjustment, verbal memory and symptom remission
Authors: Jordan Gerald , Veru Franz , Lepage Martin , Joober Ridha , Malla Ashok , Iyer Srividya N
Published: December 2017

Objective:

Most studies have investigated either the singular or relative contributions of premorbid adjustment, verbal memory and symptom remission to functional outcomes in first-episode psychosis. Fewer studies have examined the pathways of these factors in impacting functioning. Our study addresses this gap. The objective was to determine whether the relationship between premorbid adjustment and functional outcomes was mediated by verbal memory and symptom remission.

Method:

A total of 334 first-episode psychosis participants (aged 14–35 years) were assessed on premorbid adjustment, verbal memory upon entry, and positive and negative symptom remission and functioning at multiple time points over a 2-year follow-up.

Results:

Mediation analyses showed that over the first year, the relationship between premorbid adjustment and functioning was mediated by verbal memory and positive symptom remission (β = –0.18; 95% confidence interval = [–0.51, –0.04]), as well as by verbal memory and negative symptom remission (β = –0.41; 95% confidence interval = [–1.11, –1.03]). Over 2 years, the relationship between premorbid adjustment and functioning was mediated by verbal memory and only negative symptom remission (β = –0.38; 95% confidence interval = [–1.46, –0.02]).

Conclusion:

Comparatively less malleable factors (premorbid adjustment and verbal memory) may contribute to functional outcomes through more malleable factors (symptoms). Promoting remission may be an important parsimonious means to achieving better functional outcomes.
Why School Resilience Should Be Critical for the Post-Earthquake Recovery of Communities in Divided Societies
Authors: Baytiyeh Hoda
Published: December 2017

From pre-disaster to recovery, education is a fundamental key in reducing the impacts of disasters on children, people, and communities. This article aims to highlight the key components that are necessary for building school resilience to earthquakes and to demonstrate that promotion of the seismic resilience of schools is not only critical for children’s safety and the continuity of their education but also for the effective post-earthquake recovery of communities. It is shown that promoting social cohesion through the improvement of the seismic structural safety of school buildings and the capabilities of school administrators with regard to shifting to an online teaching and learning mode during school dysfunctions or closures are key to the post-earthquake recovery of vulnerable communities in divided societies. This article can be of practical significance to educational administrators interested in school protection and in the continuity of educational services in the aftermath of disasters.
Comparing Communities: The Cultural Characteristics of Ethnic Social Capital
Authors: Pearrow Melissa , Sander Janay , Jones Janine
Published: December 2017

Social capital includes access to resources based on social networks, similar to how economic capital is access to fiscal resources. We explore ethnic social capital as a variant of social capital that includes the social resources that are available to a person as a result of being a member of an ethnic and cultural network. This study identifies the way that ethnic social capital is important for understanding the resilience of ethnic minority youth in the context of inequality including living in impoverished and high-crime neighborhoods. This study examines social capital in 239 males and females aged 14 to 22 years from a racially and ethnically diverse urban community with neighborhoods impacted by high levels of crime in the northeast United States. Compared with results from a racially homogeneous (non-Hispanic White) population living in an urban area of the Midwest, the diverse sample demonstrated different aspects of social capital that are highly correlated with the cultural value of collectivism. Specifically, the diverse sample showed significantly higher participation in their community and reaching out to support others. The sample in the Midwest, demonstrated greater feelings of safety in the community, greater satisfaction with their position in life, and greater ability to ask others for help. Both samples showed an equal level of tolerance for diversity. Results are discussed in terms of examining the cultural manifestations of ethnic social capital and resilience with ethnic minority populations.
The Determinants for Best Employability Skills and Job Opportunities for Undergraduate Students Majoring in Chinese in Thailand
Authors: Jiracheewewong Eknarin , Yongxia MA , Han XUE
Published: December 2017

Currently, those Thai universities offering Chinese majors do not include any specific provisions for employability training. This research was thus conducted using an employer survey ( N = 418) to determine employer needs and direct interviews with academics, students, and employers to identify the most effective training methods and how to integrate them into the curriculum. The survey identified the desirable skills and traits in graduates and their importance for successful fieldwork. The academic interviews determined which identified skills and traits can be enhanced using in-class and outside-class training. The proposed matrix model for three training approaches (internship, work experience, and outside activities) and their focuses was further refined via participant input. It is recommended that Thai university-level Chinese programs should implement more specific requirements for internships and external professional experience, including volunteer and student organization involvement.
When does superficial intergroup contact reduce anti-foreigner sentiment? Negative contact as an essential condition
Authors: Thomsen Jens Peter Frølund , Rafiqi Arzoo
Published: December 2017

This article expands intergroup contact research by examining how negative and positive contact experiences outside the private sphere condition the impact of superficial intergroup contact. Analyses show that (1) superficial intergroup contact spurs anti-foreigner sentiment among in-group members with very negative contact experiences, whereas (2) superficial intergroup contact reduces anti-foreigner sentiment among in-group members with positive contact experiences. Thus, the impact of superficial contact is highly conditioned by the characteristics of subjective contact experiences. These results were generated in a fixed-effects regression analysis of 21 countries and 27,404 individuals from the most recent 2014–European Social Survey (ESS) (round 7). In terms of theoretical implications, the findings suggest that the characteristics of contact experiences are essential for the ability of superficial intergroup contact to produce positive outcomes.
Social work as a recognised profession in the Pacific region
Authors: Ravulo Jioji
Published: December 2017

This article explores how social work is understood as a profession in the Pacific region, alongside forces of globalisation and the consequent neo-colonialism that can emerge where Western models are perceived as superior to indigenous models of social work. Eight Western Sydney University social work students who completed their final 500-hour field practicums in Fiji and Samoa between 2013 and 2015 provided feedback on their experience. Issues include the lack of recognition of social work as a profession, as it is often perceived to occur naturally within Pacific cultures, and the role of social work education in preparing qualified practitioners.
Homicide concealed strangulation after bobbing reins in sexually sadistic homicide
Authors: Chauhan M , Pradhan M , Behera C , Aggrawal A , Naagar S , Dogra TD
Published: December 2017

This case of sexually motivated homicide combined the perpetrator's obliteration of his victim's identity along with his attempt at concealment of the corpse and sexual gratification following ligature strangulation of a young unidentified female from a minority Indian state. Sexual bondage was evident with characteristic body tying in a typical posture to fuel the killer's sexual arousal and gratification before, during and then after strangling his victim with a scarf. The victim’s body was left in a sack packed with vegetables and transported from the crime site and found abandoned in a park.
The Promotion Exams
Authors: Devlin J. Daniel
Published: December 2017

The eleventh of a series of articles of interest to examination candidates and all concerned with training.
Motoring
Authors: Gott John
Published: December 2017

Our Motoring Correspondent gives his impressions of the Hillman Imp, Messrs. Rootes' new “baby” family saloon.
The Promotion Exams
Authors: Devlin J. Daniel
Published: December 2017

The twelfth of a series of articles of interest to examination candidates and all concerned with training
Structure and performance of color blended rotor spun yarn produced by a novel frame with asynchronous feed rollers
Authors: Yang Rui-Hua , Xue Yuan , Gao Wei-Dong
Published: December 2017

This paper introduces a new and flexible spinning method that is modified on a rotor spinning machine. The modification is implemented by a novel mechanical system specially designed to incorporate three separate feed rollers side by side and controlled by servo motors with programmable logic controller (PLC). Using this new method, yarn structure parameters including linear density and blend ratio can be controlled and realized by asynchronous drafted slivers. Sixty-six types of color blended yarns were produced by controlling blending percentages of three basic colored slivers (magenta, yellow, and cyan) by changing the feeding speeds of the slivers respectively with constant yarn linear density and color. Surface morphologies, blending effects, and performances of the yarns were tested and analyzed. In addition, fancy yarns including slub yarn, period melange yarn, gradient melange yarn, and color pointed melange yarn were produced and their longitudinal morphologies were taken. The results demonstrated spinning feasibility and product variety of the three channeled rotor spun process.
Exploring Tourist Dining Preferences Based on Restaurant Reviews
Authors: Vu Huy Quan , Li Gang , Law Rob , Zhang Yanchun
Published: December 2017

Dining is an essential tourism component that attracts significant expenditure from tourists. Tourism practitioners need insights into the dining behaviors of tourists to support their strategic planning and decision making. Traditional surveys and questionnaires are time consuming and inefficient in capturing the complex dining behaviors of tourists at a large scale. Thus far, the understanding about the dining preferences and opinions of different tourist groups is limited. This article aims to fill the void by presenting a method that utilizes online restaurant reviews and text processing techniques in analyzing the dining behaviors of tourists. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated in a case study on international tourists visiting Australia using a large-scale data set of more than 40,000 restaurant reviews made by tourists on 2,265 restaurants. The proposed method can help researchers gain comprehensive insights into the dining preferences of tourists.
The Effect of Film Nostalgia on Involvement, Familiarity, and Behavioral Intentions
Authors: Kim Seongseop (Sam) , Kim Sangkyun (Sean) , Petrick James F.
Published: December 2017

A film contains an amalgamation of diverse features and provides audiences with a variety of reminiscent elements. Thus, this study aimed to identify the role of nostalgia in the involvement, familiarity, and behavioral intentions of potential film tourists. Thus, 610 respondents were selected to test a conceptual model explaining the role of nostalgia. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and structural equation modeling (SEM) were employed. Results indicated that, to some extent, nostalgia is an influential concept in explaining film tourism. The efficacy to explain the effects of nostalgia on involvement, familiarity, and behavioral intention showed relatively different. In particular, reminiscence of mimicking and desire to buy brand products were the most significant predictors in explaining other constructs, whereas the influence of the contents of the story on behavioral involvement was not significant.
Broken Legs, Clinical Overrides, and Recidivism Risk: An Analysis of Decisions to Adjust Risk Levels With the LS/CMI
Authors: Guay Jean-Pierre , Parent Geneviève
Published: December 2017

Risk assessment practices have evolved considerably over the past three decades. Structured assessments of recidivism risk allow for the proper identification of criminogenic needs, which in turn, allow decision makers to make informed recommendations regarding criminal justice interventions and measures. Although actuarial assessments are common practice, situations exist where evaluators may call into doubt the risk assessment’s conclusions, and may exercise their discretionary professional judgment to adjust the risk rating. Despite being common practice, clinical overrides have been the subject of very little empirical work. The aim of the current study is to examine the impact of clinical overrides on a large sample of individuals ( N = 3,646) who were assessed using the Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (LS/CMI). Findings demonstrate that upward overrides produce different results than downward overrides. The practical and theoretical implications of these results are discussed.
Guadalupe, Spain: The Organic Growth of a Monastery and the Morphology of a Medieval Village
Authors: Salcedo José-Carlos
Published: December 2017

The Royal Monastery of Guadalupe is the most important medieval monument in Extremadura, Spain. It is important for its architectural and artistic heritage, its history, and its impact on Spanish America. In 1993, the monastery achieved the highest symbol of respect: inclusion in the World Heritage List. However, at that time, there were no plans that illustrated the different stages of the growth of the monastery and the village. In this article, we present a number of previously unpublished plans, which depict the urban networks and the morphology of Guadalupe. These plans reveal the construction of an integrated historical landscape following seven centuries of history and interactions between humans and their environment. In addition, they portray the destruction of an important part of this heritage in recent years under the Regional Government of Extremadura because of a lack of urban planning.
The Political Economy of Debris Dumping in Post-Mao Beijing
Authors: Kao Shih-yang , Lin George C. S.
Published: December 2017

This article examines recent changes in the functioning of the state and in state-society relations in Chinese cities as market reforms have deepened. The pursuit of “Olympic urbanism” as a developmental strategy by the municipal government of Beijing—that is, hosting the mega-event as a means of capital mobilization for public investment conducive to the pursuit of economic and political ambitions—has involved a concentration of resources in certain sectors of the local government with a concomitant and significant weakening of the governing capacity in other sectors. The result has been an uneven capacity to govern. This in turn has opened up an important space for certain disadvantaged societal actors to maneuver for survival. It has sparked protest by the weakened sectors of the local government through, for example, the promotion of the work of a leading photographer campaigning for urban modernity. Based on field work in Beijing, this article demonstrates how the municipal leadership’s long-standing neglect of waste management has created leeway for a strategy of self-protection at the grassroots level of the society, and how the sectors of the municipal government in charge of urban sanitation have reasserted their position by publicizing the chaos of debris dumping through the work of an influential photographer. This case study shows the active role that rural villages have played in the transformation of the urban environment and their interaction with a reformed state that has become not just inconsistent and segmented but also self-conflictual and self-contradictory.
Floor failure depth of upper coal seam during close coal seams mining and its novel detection method
Authors: Zhang Wei , Zhang Dongsheng , Qi Dahong , Hu Wenmin , He Ziming , Zhang Weisheng
Published: December 2017

The primary problem needed to be solved in mining close coal seams is to understand quantitatively the floor failure depth of the upper coal seam. In this study, according to the mining and geological conditions of close coal seams (#10 and #11 coal seams) in the Second Mining Zone of Caocun Coal Mine, the mechanical model of floor failure of the upper coal seam was built. Calculation results show that the advanced abutment pressure caused by the mining of the upper coal seam, resulted in the floor failure depth with a maximum of 26.1 m, which is 2.8 times of the distance between two coal seams. On this basis, the mechanical model of the remaining protective coal pillar was established and the stress distribution status under the remaining protective coal pillar in the 10# coal seam was then theoretically analysed. Analysis results show that stress distribution under the remaining protective coal pillar was significantly heterogeneous. It was also determined that the interior staggering distance should be at least 4.6 m to arrange the gateways of the #209 island coalface in the lower coal seam. Taken into account a certain safety coefficient (1.6–1.7), as well as reducing the loss of coal resources, the reasonable interior staggering distance was finally determined as 7.5 m. Finally, a novel method using radon was initially proposed to detect the floor failure depth of the upper coal seam in mining close coal seams, which could overcome deficiencies of current research methods.
Interventions Highlighting Hypocrisy Reduce Collective Blame of Muslims for Individual Acts of Violence and Assuage Anti-Muslim Hostility
Authors: Bruneau Emile , Kteily Nour , Falk Emily
Published: December 2017

Collectively blaming groups for the actions of individuals can license vicarious retribution. Acts of terrorism by Muslim extremists against innocents, and the spikes in anti-Muslim hate crimes against innocent Muslims that follow, suggest that reciprocal bouts of collective blame can spark cycles of violence. How can this cycle be short-circuited? After establishing a link between collective blame of Muslims and anti-Muslim attitudes and behavior, we used an “interventions tournament” to identify a successful intervention (among many that failed). The “winning” intervention reduced collective blame of Muslims by highlighting hypocrisy in the ways individuals collectively blame Muslims—but not other groups (White Americans, Christians)—for individual group members’ actions. After replicating the effect in an independent sample, we demonstrate that a novel interactive activity that isolates the psychological mechanism amplifies the effectiveness of the collective blame hypocrisy intervention and results in downstream reductions in anti-Muslim attitudes and anti-Muslim behavior.
Why Might a Videogame Developer Join a Union?
Authors: Weststar Johanna , Legault Marie-Josée
Published: December 2017

This paper contributes to the union renewal literature by examining the union voting propensity of workers in the high-tech tertiary sector of videogame development toward different forms of unionization. We used exclusive data from a survey of videogame developers (VGD) working primarily in Anglo-Saxon countries. When looking at the factors related to voting propensity, our data indicated that the type of unionism matters and that industry/sectoral unionism is an increasingly salient model for project-based knowledge workers. This is an important policy dimension given that the legal structures and norms in Anglo-Saxon countries still tend to support decentralized enterprise-based unionism. It is also important for unions insofar as their organizing tactics remain geared toward a shop-by-shop approach or, at least, a localized geographical approach. Although additional work is required, our analyses lends support to the argument that high-commitment and high-involvement workplaces can engender a desire for collective representation and voice such as is offered through unionization. Whether this is because such workplaces step over a breaking-point line where the requirement for full alignment with employer goals becomes untenable and a source of discontent, whether this represents the existence of dual commitment where a representative agent like a union is seen as necessary to protect the work that people love, or whether there is a combination of these forces is not yet clear, but it is a critical area of future study for project-based knowledge workers.
Educating for Change: How Labor Education Centers and AFL-CIO Bodies Can Grow and Transform Together
Authors: Reynolds David , Byrd Barbara , Grabelsky Jeff , Iversen Paul , Kozlowski Jason , Laslett Sarah , Sciacchitano Katherine
Published: December 2017

In order to survive and prosper today, both labor councils and labor education centers need to rethink their mission, goals, and strategies. In this report, we examine how partnerships between these two types of organizations have fostered creative transformation for both. We examine the innovative relationships between labor education programs and their respective labor councils and state federations in five states (Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, Iowa, and West Virginia). These cases include those with long-standing strong relationships and those that have been recently rebuilt or rethought. In several cases, the labor education centers owe their very existence to the work of state labor leaders to who helped found them and, more recently, to maintain and expand their resources. In addition, we document the role played by the UCLA labor education program in revitalizing the Orange County AFL-CIO, as well as two key partnership programs of Cornell and the AFL-CIO in New York: the Union Leadership Institute and the New York City Capacity Building Initiative.
Legitimacy Under Institutional Change: How incumbents appropriate clean rhetoric for dirty technologies
Authors: Patala Samuli , Korpivaara Ida , Jalkala Anne , Kuitunen Aino , Soppe Birthe
Published: December 2017

How organizations legitimate their actions under conditions of institutional change is a central yet little understood question. To address this gap, this paper investigates how incumbent firms legitimate investments in both novel and conventional technologies during periods of institutional and technological transition. We examine the rhetorical strategies that energy incumbents employ to gain legitimacy for their investments in renewable (legitimacy-gaining or novel) and non-renewable (legitimacy-losing or conventional) technologies. Employing a mixed-method content analysis of 483 press releases on strategic energy investments, published by the world’s largest energy firms during the time period 2010 to 2015, we find that incumbents utilize two different types of hybrid rhetoric to justify their investments. For investments in non-renewables, incumbents use pragmatic blending, appropriating the clean rhetoric traditionally associated with challenger technologies and combining it with justifications highlighting performance-oriented outcomes. The rhetoric used for investments in renewables involves visionary blending, combining rhetoric related to corporate strategy with sustainability rhetoric. We furthermore argue that these hybrid rhetorical strategies are observed when the legitimacy trajectories of two technologies intersect. Our study contributes to the research on rhetorical institutionalism, incumbents’ role during institutional change, and technology legitimacy.
Help or hindrance? The role of humanitarian military interventions in human security NGO operations
Authors: Bell Sam R. , Blocksome Patricia , Brown Kevin P. , Murdie Amanda
Published: December 2017

Existing research shows that the combined presence of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and military interventions can serve as ‘force multipliers’, leading to improvements in some human security outcomes. In this paper, we examine a couple possible mechanisms that can help to explain why we see these improvements. More specifically, we ask whether this is a result of military intervention aiding in the coordination among NGOs or whether humanitarian interventions, that likely share similar goals with human rights NGOs, provide the security necessary for them to carry out their missions. Using data on military interventions and human rights NGOs, we find that NGOs present in states with humanitarian interventions have more network ties than organizations not in states with interventions. Using the same NGO data and data on terror attacks targeting NGOs, we find less support for the security enhancing effects of humanitarian interventions.
The Bidding Paradox: Why Politicians Favor Hosting Mega Sports Events Despite the Bleak Economic Prospects
Authors: de Nooij Michiel , van den Berg Marcel
Published: December 2017

Politicians generally favor hosting mega sports events despite the discouraging evidence of financial benefits or direct economic gain. This paradox is surveyed from two different perspectives. First, we weighed the merits of the most prominent methods of economic analysis of mega sports events. Then, we discuss the ways in which politicians still manage to infer positive gains from hosting this type of event from the literature. Next, we look at a range of frequently intangible effects that could be used in the public debate before submitting a bid but that, paradoxically, rarely are. The most promising of these is making the people proud and happy. However, economists have so far been incapable of adequately valuing the effect of hosting a mega sport event based on happiness. Second, we analyzed the political process parallel to preparing a bid to understand why politicians are persistently keen to host, despite the bleak economic prospects.
In-secure identities: On the securitization of abnormality
Authors: Amir Merav , Kotef Hagar
Published: December 2017

Highly securitized sites, such as airports, are increasingly using screening methods designed to purge racial profiling from their practices. In these contexts, not only are profiling methods seen as unlawful, but are also perceived as ineffective from a security perspective. Instead of basing security screenings on a perceived ‘dangerousness’ of social categories, these new screening methods aim to rely on automatic and objective criteria. This paper examines the shaping and effects of these security procedures, claiming that this redesigning of security technologies in accordance with practices which are presumably scientific, measurable and objective, has resulted in the creation of new categories of ‘threatening’ persons. Specifically, we show how the category of ‘normal’ has become central to security sorting and how, therefore – unintentionally yet necessarily – these procedures and technologies have become apparatuses of social normalization. People who deviate from given norms are thus singled out as potential security threats and are subjected to extended security probing, if not to outright violence. Tracing the effects of the increasing centrality of normalization processes to the management of securitized sites, this paper examines this reconfiguration of (ab)normality and explores the consequences of the securitization of social deviance.
Rats, assorted shit and ‘racist groundwater’: Towards extra-sectional understandings of childhoods and social-material processes
Authors: Horton John , Kraftl Peter
Published: December 2017

Reflecting on a study of children’s outdoor play in a ‘white, working class estate’ in east London, this paper argues that social-material processes that are characteristically massy, indivisible, unseen, fluid and noxious have, problematically, remained hidden-in-plain-sight within multidisciplinary research with children and young people. For example, juxtaposing qualitative and autoethnographic data, we highlight children’s vivid, troubling narratives of swarming rats, smearing excrement, and percolating subsurface flows of water, toxins and racialised affects. In so doing, we develop a wider argument that key theorisations of matter, nature and nonhuman co-presences have often struggled to articulate the indivisibility of social-material processes from contemporary social-political-economic geographies. Over the course of the paper, as children’s raced, classed, exclusionary, disenfranchised narratives accumulate, we recognise the urgency of reconciling microgeographical accounts of play and materiality with readings of geographies of social-economic inequalities, exclusions, ethnicities, religions, memorialisations and mortalities. To this end, we initiate an argument for a move from intersectional to extra-sectional analyses that might retain intersectionality’s critical and political purchase, whilst simultaneously folding social-material complexities and vitalities into its theorisation.
Heterotopia and the urban politics of climate change experimentation
Authors: Edwards Gareth A S , Bulkeley Harriet
Published: December 2017

Seeking to govern the city in relation to climate change is a political project that at once imagines the present in terms of the future and the future in terms of the present. The urban politics of climate change has brought multiple visions of the possibilities (and limits) of urban futures. In this context, we find urban responses taking experimental form – creating sites through which to explore and experience different futures. They provide spaces in which utopian visions can be imagined, enacted and contested. Conceptualizing urban climate change experiments as heterotopic sites seems fruitful in at least two regards. Firstly, it captures their provisional and ambivalent relationship with the broader urban milieu. Secondly, and even more critically, it opens up the dialogues between the future and present which are at the heart of the climate governance project, and highlights the spatial form of these politics. We examine both with reference to two examples of climate experimentation in Berlin and Philadelphia.
Languages of sensing: Bringing neurodiversity into more-than-human geography
Authors: Judge Sara M
Published: December 2017

As geography increasingly engages with multiple ways of knowing, opportunities to contribute to research have also expanded. This paper contributes a perspective on academic inclusion as a neuro-diverse geographer working in a more-than-human context. In doing so, it seeks to open dialogue around the potential for neuro-diverse contributions to research by engaging reflexively with sensory ways of knowing and doing, and differences in how autistic and non-human social engagements are considered. To do this, I draw on a range of autobiographic literature, including reflexive exercises in relation to my own research work.
Biomimetic timber shells made of bending-active segments
Authors: Sonntag Daniel , Bechert Simon , Knippers Jan
Published: December 2017

In the research field of segmented timber shells, two construction systems have lately received much attention, which both expose interesting structural and constructional characteristics: planar plate structures made of thin plywood and actively bent plywood structures. The research presented in this article combines elements of both approaches, resulting in a construction system for segmented shell structures with elastically bent elements. The increasing complexity of this approach requires a sophisticated design process, which integrates fabrication constraints as well as structural feedback. As a consequence, form-finding strategies of bending-active timber shells are discussed, with a special focus on the programming of the stiffness distribution in order to fulfil geometrical requirements. The authors also reflect on the specific structural challenges of joining thin sheets of plywood by transferring traditional textile connection methods to timber construction. Investigations of biological role models such as the sand dollar led to transfers of constructional principles on different levels. The resulting construction system was validated through the design and construction of a full-scale architectural prototype.