bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Transformation of homobimetallic MOFs into nickel–cobalt phosphide/nitrogen-doped carbon polyhedral nanocages for efficient oxygen evolution electrocatalysis
Authors: Zhang Xueping , Huang Liang , Wang Qingqing , Dong Shaojun
Published: August 2017

NiCoP/NC polyhedral nanocages with homogeneous introduction of Ni into the CoP crystal lattice exhibit significantly improved electrocatalytic activity towards the OER.
Correction: Adsorption characteristics of noble metal ions onto modified straw bearing amine and thiol groups
Authors: Wang Jingjing , Li Juan , Wei Jun
Published: August 2017

Correction for ‘Adsorption characteristics of noble metal ions onto modified straw bearing amine and thiol groups’ by Jingjing Wang et al., J. Mater. Chem. A, 2015, 3, 18163–18170.
Compact monopulse sum‐difference comparator based on double‐layer substrateintegrated waveguide
Authors: Liu Yi , Yang Hu , He Yan , Zhu Jiang
Published: August 2017

A monopulse sum‐difference comparator based on double‐layer substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) for X‐band applications is investigated and experimentally validated. A 90° 3‐dB directional coupler with a double‐stepped coupling slot in the common broad side between a pair of folded parallel SIWs and an equal‐length unequal‐width 90° phase shifter are adopted to form a magic tee. The four magic tees are elegantly interconnected to design a highly compact comparator. Experimental results show the bandwidth (reflection coefficient < −10 dB) of the comparator can achieve 10% with an operating frequency range of 9.5–10.5 GHz, in which the output amplitude and phase imbalance are within 0.75 dB and 14° (RMS), respectively. The insertion losses are about 1.5–2.5 dB and the isolations between the three channels are all better than 20 dB. In particular, the double‐layer configuration of the comparator network reduces the occupied area with the potential for high integration and makes it to be a good candidate for miniaturised and compact monopulse antenna systems.
Social aware joint link and power allocation for D2D communication underlaying cellular networks
Authors: Yang Lianxin , Wu Dan , Cai Yueming
Published: August 2017

Joint link and power allocation for device‐to‐device (D2D) communication underlaying cellular networks are necessary to coordinate the mutual interference. Most of the works consider the sum interference from D2D pairs. However, mobile devices are carried by human beings who are connected with social ties. For one cellular user, the strengths of the social ties with D2D pairs are different. Thus, his interference tolerance temperatures (ITTs) are various. In this study, we distinguish D2D pairs through the social ties, and propose a social aware pricing‐based joint link and power allocation scheme. Specifically, the base station (BS) prices the interference on every link and updates the prices according to the ITTs of cellular users. Subsequently, with the prices, the competition of D2D pairs for the links is modelled as a non‐cooperative game. The authors prove the existence and the uniqueness of the Nash equilibrium (NE), and demonstrate that the NE is Pareto optimal. Moreover, an iterative decentralised algorithm is designed to solve the game. Especially, if the number of the price on one link for one D2D pair being updated is up to an upper bound, the power is forced to be 0. Numerical simulations verify the effectiveness of the authors' proposed scheme.
Lyapunov‐based high‐performance controller for modular resonant DC/DC converters for medium‐voltage DC grids
Authors: Aboushady Ahmed A. , Ahmed Khaled Hani , Finney Stephen J. , Williams Barry W.
Published: August 2017

This study presents a high‐performance controller based on the Lyapunov stability criterion that enhances the dynamic performance and disturbance rejection capability of resonant DC/DC converters when compared with classical PI control. The series–parallel resonant converter (SPRC) is used as the candidate converter to which this controller design is applied but the design can be generalised to other types of resonant DC/DC converters. By using a multiple module approach, low‐power modules of this resonant converter are stacked to enable operation at medium‐voltage DC (MVDC). The proposed controller design is applied to modular structure of the SPRC to verify its high‐performance output in conjunction with active sharing control loops that ensure uniform current/voltage distribution across the multiple interconnected modules. Detailed controller design, closed‐loop stability criteria, robustness and parameter sensitivity are investigated and controller performance is compared and verified against the classical PI control in simulation and low‐scaled experimental prototype. Operations in single‐module and two‐module input‐series output‐parallel modes are both studied. The study affirms the selection of the modular DC/DC converter architecture and its associated proposed controls for high‐performance MVDC applications.
Isolated bidirectional converter with minimum active switches for high‐voltage ratio achievement and micro‐grid applications
Authors: Shen Chih‐Lung , Shen You‐Sheng , Chiu Po‐Chieh , Liang Tsair‐Chun
Published: August 2017

This study proposes a novel isolated bidirectional DC/DC converter for micro‐grid system, which can fulfil battery charging and discharging. Even though the proposed converter only employs four active switches and a coupled inductor, it can achieve high‐voltage ratio without excessive duty ratio or high transformer turns ratio. The power stage of the converter is mainly developed by integrating a three‐winding coupled inductor, three‐switched capacitors, and a flyback‐behaviour converter into a novel structure. The energy stored in the leakage inductance can be totally recycled for efficiency improvement. The operation principle, steady‐state analysis, and design considerations of the proposed converter are described in detail. Finally, a laboratory prototype is built to validate the converter. The measured results have verified the correctness and the theoretical analysis.
Sizing of large‐scale battery storage for off‐grid wind power plant considering a flexible wind supply–demand balance
Authors: Masaud Tarek Medalel , Oyebanjo Olufemi , Sen P.K.
Published: August 2017

In off‐grid wind power plants, the uncertainty of net load becomes the main factor that controls the operation and planning of these plants. The term net load refers to system demand minus the generation from variable renewable resources. Energy storage system is a key solution for system operators to provide the required flexibility needed to balance the net load uncertainty. This study proposes a probabilistic approach for sizing a battery storage system (BSS) with the aim of mitigating the net load uncertainty associated with the off‐grid wind power plant. A novel battery‐sizing index that takes into account the probabilistic nature of the wind resources and the electric load is developed. The proposed sizing approach aims to quantify the required BSS capacity for operating the wind plant without incurring excessive battery installation cost as well as for reducing the mismatch between the wind generation and the electric load. An 8.5 MW utility‐scale wind farm is used as a test system to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Neuroimaging in Pediatric Autoimmune Diseases
Authors: Longoni Giulia , Banwell Brenda
Published: August 2017

Magnetic resonance imaging plays an essential role in the diagnosis and management of pediatric central nervous system (CNS) autoimmune disorders. This article reviews the key clinical and conventional neuroimaging characteristics of the most frequent entities of the demyelinating disease spectrum, with a goal to inform and guide decisions in the clinical practice. We focus on acquired demyelinating syndromes and their differential diagnoses including mimics such as systemic inflammatory disorders with secondary CNS involvement. In the vast majority of disorders, no specific biomarker of disease is known and the final diagnosis is based on recognizable syndromic characteristics. Therefore, familiarity with the related neuroimaging patterns can improve a timely diagnosis of pediatric autoimmune diseases and prompt targeted therapeutic approach.
A Biomechanical Comparison of Screw and Plate Fixations for Scaphoid Fractures
Authors: Castañeda Paulo , Drace Patricia , Edwards Scott , Goodwin Jill
Published: August 2017

Background Headless screw fixation is the current gold standard of surgical repair for scaphoid fractures. However, maintaining reduction of certain types of scaphoid fractures is challenging with a compression screw. Plate fixation may offer superior fixation in some scaphoid fractures, particularly those with comminution, nonunion, segmental bony defects, and osteopenic or osteoporotic bone.

Purpose This study questions whether method of fixation is a determinant in load to failure in segmental scaphoid fractures, and whether any fixation provides a greater mechanical advantage in simulated normal versus osteoporotic bone.

Materials and Methods Polyurethane models were fashioned to simulate scaphoids with 3-mm segmental defects. Defects were bridged by one of three constructs: a locking plate, a nonlocking plate, or a headless compression screw. Three models for each fixation construct were tested for both simulated normal and osteoporotic bone density. Load to failure was recorded as the load at which the 3-mm segmental defect was closed.

Results Gap closure occurred in all trials. In simulated normal bone, there were no statistically significant differences in load to failure between fixation methods. In simulated osteoporotic bone, the locking plate had a 28% greater load to failure as compared with screw fixation.

Conclusion While biomechanical testing shows that plate and screw fixations are equivalent in normal density bone for fixation of a segmental scaphoid defect, locking plates are superior to screw fixation in simulated osteoporotic bone models.

Clinical Relevance Plate fixation may provide superior fixation for complex scaphoid fractures, particularly in osteopenic bone.
The Willingness of People who Inject Drugs in Boston to use a Supervised Injection Facility
Authors: León Casey , Cardoso Lena , Mackin Sarah , Bock Barry , Gaeta Jessie M.
Published: August 2017

Background

In Massachusetts, the number of opioid-related deaths has increased 350% since 2000. In the setting of increasing overdose deaths, one potential intervention is supervised injection facilities (SIFs). This study explores willingness of people who inject drugs in Boston to use a SIF and examines factors associated with willingness.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey of a convenience sample of 237 people who inject drugs and utilize Boston's needle exchange program (NEP). The drop-in NEP provides myriad harm reduction services and referrals to addiction treatment. The survey was mostly self-administered (92%).

Results

Results showed positive willingness to use a SIF was independently associated with use of heroin as main substance (odds ratio [OR]: 5.47; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.9–15.4; P = .0004), public injection (OR: 5.09; 95% CI: 1.8–14.3; P = .002), history of seeking substance use disorder (SUD) treatment (OR: 4.99; 95% CI: 1.2–21.1; P = .05), having heard of SIF (OR: 4.80; 95% CI: 1.6–14.8; P = .004), Hispanic ethnicity (OR: 4.22; 95% CI: 0.9–18.8; P = .04), frequent NEP use (OR: 4.18; 95% CI: 1.2–14.7; P = .02), current desire for SUD treatment (OR: 4.15; 95% CI: 1.2–14.7; P = .03), hepatitis C diagnosis (OR: 3.68; 95% CI: 1.2–10.1; P = .02), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis (OR: 3.27; 95% CI: 1.3–8.4; P = .01), report of at least 1 chronic medical diagnosis (hepatitis C, human immunodeficiency virus [HIV], hypertension, or diabetes) (OR: 3.27; 95% CI: 1.2–8.9; P = .02), and comorbid medical and mental health diagnoses (OR: 2.93; 95% CI: 1.2–7.4; P = .02).

Conclusions

Most respondents (91.4%) reported willingness to use a SIF. Respondents with substance use behavior reflecting high risk for overdose were significantly more likely to be willing to use a SIF. Respondents with behaviors that contribute to public health burden of injection drug use were also significantly more likely to be willing to use a SIF. Results indicate that this intervention would be well utilized by individuals who could most benefit from the model. As part of a broader public health approach, SIFs should be considered to reduce opioid overdose mortality, decrease public health burden of the opioid crisis, and promote access to addiction treatment and medical care.
B-Type Natriuretic Peptide and Ventricular Dysfunction in the Prediction of Cardiovascular Events and Death in Hypertension
Authors: Gallagher Joe , Watson Chris , Zhou Shuaiwei , Ryan Fiona , Ledwidge Mark , McDonald Kenneth
Published: August 2017

BACKGROUND

The prevalence and morbidity of hypertension continues to grow globally and improved methods of stratifying risk and identifying organ damage earlier are required. Methods such as echocardiography and population-based risk scores are suggested by guidelines as approaches to aid in risk stratification. However, biomarkers such as natriuretic peptides may help provide such an approach.

METHODS

We analyzed data from the screening to prevent heart failure cohort including participants with hypertension with and without a history of a cardiovascular (CV) event at baseline. We investigated the ability of ventricular dysfunction on echocardiography at baseline and of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels in predicting future major adverse CV events (MACE) and death. We also investigated the use of Systematic COronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE) to predict these events in the uncomplicated cohort.

RESULTS

In total, 572 patients (427 with uncomplicated hypertension) were included. Thirty-three patients had MACE or died during follow up. In a univariate analysis, BNP was predictive of MACE and death in all groups. Ventricular dysfunction was not predictive of MACE and death in any group. Both BNP and SCORE had predictive value in this category. However, the magnitude and strength of the continuous association between BNP and events is higher and BNP adds significantly to the predictive value of SCORE as determined by likelihood ratios. The net reclassification improvement for BNP compared to stage B heart failure was 0.20.

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrates that in patients with hypertension, BNP is superior to ventricular dysfunction on echocardiography in the prediction of risk of MACE and death in a community-based cohort of patients with complicated and uncomplicated hypertension.
Organizing Situation Characteristics by Their Influences on Big Five States
Authors: Hartley Anselma G. , Jayawickreme Eranda , Fleeson William
Published: August 2017

The purpose of this chapter is to argue that the way personality psychologists should study situations is to organize situation characteristics by the influence they have on Big Five states. An examination of situations by their influence on Big Five states builds on personality psychologists’ existing strengths, does not require a comprehensive consideration of all situations, and could inform about the mechanisms of the Big Five. We propose that researchers examine how the manifestation of personality traits varies from moment to moment, based on the situations the person encounters, and then organize successful properties according to the Big Five manifestations they bring out. In this chapter, we explore this logic, identify its assumptions, and compare it to alternative approaches. We are encouraged by the turn toward the study of situations as key to the future of personality psychology.
Social and Political Trust
Authors: Newton Kenneth , Stolle Dietlind , Zmerli Sonja
Published: August 2017

During recent years, empirical trust research has significantly advanced our understanding about the interdependencies of social and political trust. This progress can mostly be attributed to major improvements of measurement instruments in survey research. Research on the causes of both forms of trust have examined the top-down approach of trust building, which places importance on fair and impartial political institutions, such as the police and judiciary, as well as societal accounts of trust building that relate to the role of social networks and parents as well as perceptions of inequality. While there is a modest relationship between social forms of trust and political forms of trust, research has not entirely disentangled the flow of causality between the two. Recent insights into contextual and individual-level covariates of social and political trust may hold answers regarding future developments and political and societal consequences.
Sports and American Tort Law
Authors: Rapp Geoffrey
Published: August 2017

The intersection of American tort law and the sports industry has produced some interesting and distinctive jurisprudence. Tort rules are, at times, applied in peculiar ways to the sports industry (and to recreational sports). Some of these are well known to most law students—for instance, the “baseball rule” which, at least for most of the twentieth century, appeared to immunize stadiums and teams from liability for injuries caused by batted balls. Other applications may be surprising even for those trained in law—for instance, a court’s discussion of whether potato sack racing is a contact sport. This chapter explores the ways in which tort law has been applied to sports cases, and at times, adjusted to suit the distinctive features of injuries connected to sports.
Out of Time and Place
Authors: Frederick Ursula K.
Published: August 2017

This chapter explores the relationship between graffiti and rock art in the context of archaeological and heritage studies. It outlines how archaeologists, and particularly rock art scholars, have approached graffiti and addresses the complexities of terminology and contested values common to this field of study. The author argues against an oversimplified polemic that has hampered the progression of graffiti/rock art research, suggesting that much may be learned about processes of identification, evaluation, and interpretation by considering graffiti and rock art as associated, albeit distinct, practices of inscription. Through an investigation of two specific sites of historical inscription—Alcatraz Island (San Francisco, US) and the North Head Quarantine Station (Sydney, Australia)—the chapter demonstrates the powerful role that inscription practices play in the making and unmaking of places and the meanings they carry.
Marriage-Market Search and Sorting
Authors: Mansour Hani , McKinnish Terra
Published: August 2017

This article reviews theoretical and empirical research related to marital sorting. The choice of marriage partner is a fundamental life decision that directly influences many individual and household outcomes that are central to individual well-being. Marital sorting is assumed to maximize the gains to marriage subject to the costs of marital search. Marital sorting, therefore, depends in part on the source of these gains. Mechanisms generating assortative mating, namely, preferences and search costs, are discussed in the context of sorting based on age, education, and race/ethnicity. The article explores the implication of marital sorting on income inequality and outlines future research avenues.
The Care Penalty and Gender Inequality
Authors: Folbre Nancy
Published: August 2017

This article explains why care work often imposes a financial penalty that contributes to gender inequality. The work of caring for others—whether unpaid or paid—often involves more personal connection, emotional attachment, and moral commitment than other forms of work. It creates both public and private benefits, and its value is difficult to measure. All these factors put care providers at an economic disadvantage. This article argues that specialization in care is costly because it reduces both individual and collective bargaining power—that is, it puts individual caregivers at a disadvantage and makes it more difficult for women, as a group, to challenge gender bias and discrimination.
Marriage Markets in Developing Countries
Authors: Anukriti S , Dasgupta Shatanjaya
Published: August 2017

This chapter reviews the economics literature on marriage in developing countries. Marriage in these countries differ from marriage in high-income countries in several crucial ways, including the prevalence of marriage and cohabitation; the process of mate selection; customs concerning the transfer of resources between families at the time of marriage; the laws governing marital dissolution; and cultural norms about gender roles in spousal interactions. This chapter describes how marital matching occurs, the trends in age at marriage, assortative mating patterns, marriage payments, and spousal decision making after a marriage has occurred. Lastly, it discusses trends and rationales for consanguineous and polygamous marriages—practices that are largely unique to the developing world.
The Collapse of the Romanov Empire
Authors: Miller Alexey
Published: August 2017

This chapter considers the changing approaches adopted after the October Revolution towards Russia’s ethnic minority populations alongside efforts to construct a shared Russian or Soviet national identity within what remained a culturally diffuse land empire. Politicians and historians have produced multiple narratives of the collapse of the Romanov empire. The initial history of the Bolsheviks stressed the role of the national movements against ‘the prison of nations’ alongside the proletarian struggle against ‘the weakest link’ of imperialism. In the 1930s, the Stalin-edited ‘Short Course of the History of the Communist Party’ marginalized national movements’ roles in favour of class struggle, while post-communist national historiographies did the opposite. Recently, the growing literature on the First World War places the conflict itself at the centre of the story of imperial collapse and demonstrates how multiple factors, produced by the conditions of war, undermined empire and strengthened the ethnic and social anti-imperial movements.
The Eclipse of Empire in China
Authors: Ma Tehyun
Published: August 2017

China’s end of empire, as elsewhere, was a protracted process, the ramifications of which are still being felt, and its imperial situation was especially complex. From the middle of the nineteenth-century onwards, more than a dozen foreign powers acquired an imperial foothold in China but none secured (and rarely sought) anything more than small pockets of territorial jurisdiction until the Sino-Japanese War of 1937–1945. This chapter considers the fates of three different Chinese empires: the Manchu Qing dynasty, the Western powers, and the Japanese. It will attempt to explain how the Qing vanquished, held, then lost a vast territory marked by pronounced cultural diversity, and explores how its end was closely bound up with the rise and fall of overseas powers in China.
Gender
Authors: Pearson Lori K.
Published: August 2017

This chapter explores gendered dimensions of theological categories in nineteenth-century Christian thought, primarily in Germany. By defining religion as feeling, symbolized in feminine terms, theologians in this period embraced relationality and dependence as ideals for human life. By viewing the family as a model of religious community and a site for the adjudication and cultivation of political values, intellectuals sought alternatives to modern ‘fragmentation’ and processes of alienation and rationalization. Among feminist thinkers, debates over marriage and women’s emancipation raised new questions about the promises and failures of modernization and secularization. Paying attention to these gendered inflections in nineteenth-century Christian thought helps produce a more complicated story about its central features and concerns—one that highlights the value placed not simply on individualism, autonomy, and relativism (as the dominant scholarly paradigm often suggests), but also on relationality, dependence, and the authority and value of religious tradition for modern life.
Poetry
Authors: Powell Rosalind
Published: August 2017

This chapter focuses on the devotional poetry of John Keble, Christina Rossetti, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Gerard Manley Hopkins. In two broad sections, the chapter considers definitions of poetry and anxieties about its limitations identified by poets and theologians, focusing on Keble’s Lectures on Poetry, Dora Greenwell’s ‘Inquiry’, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s prefatory notes and verses. The second section considers one response to the hopes and concerns raised by these definitions by looking at how analogy is developed by Keble, Rossetti, and Hopkins to answer their requirements for theologically informed verse. In the case of the Tractarian poets, the result is a poetics of reserve that seeks moral and divine guidance in the natural world. For Hopkins, however, analogy is shown to transmute into a lively and active celebration of incarnation. This chapter concludes by suggesting a correlation between form and function in the devotional poetry of the period.
Myth
Authors: Williamson George S.
Published: August 2017

This chapter examines the nineteenth-century discourse on myth and its influence on Christian theological and cultural debate from the 1790s to the eve of the First World War. After preliminary comments on the eighteenth century, it examines five ‘key’ moments in this history: the Romantic idea of a ‘new mythology’ (focusing on Friedrich Schelling); the ‘religious’ turn in myth scholarship c.1810 (Friedrich Creuzer); debates over the role of myth in the gospels (focusing on David Strauss and Christian Weisse); theories of language and race and their impact on myth scholarship; and Arthur Drews’ The Christ Myth and the debate over the historicity of Jesus. This chapter argues that the discourse on myth (in Germany and elsewhere) was closely bound to the categories and assumptions of Christian theology, reproducing them even as it undermined the authority of the Bible, the clergy, and the churches.
Eschatology
Authors: Wolfe Judith
Published: August 2017

This chapter traces trends in nineteenth-century thought concerning eschatology and apocalypticism. Contrary to twentieth-century wisdom, eschatology was of central importance in nineteenth-century Christian consciousness and its philosophical inflections. Radical developments were seen in the doctrines of hell (whose eternal duration was increasingly questioned or rejected in favour of versions of apocatastasis) and the question of an imminent earthly messianic kingdom. Eschatological conceptions of history were secularized in Idealist and Romantic narratives of education and nationalist aspiration. In all these areas, the nineteenth-century eschatological consciousness was overwhelmingly one of continuity between earthly progress and transcendent continuation or fulfilment. This model of continuity began to be questioned in theology and biblical studies in the waning nineteenth century, and collapsed by the dawn of the First World War. Models of rupture now took its place, tendentiously projecting back onto the nineteenth century an ‘eschatological slumber’ from which only the twentieth century roused theology.
The Role of Darkness in Ancient Greek Religion and Religious Practice
Authors: Boutsikas Efrosyni
Published: August 2017

Aiming at a better understanding of ways through which the ancient Greek religious experience was shaped, this chapter investigates the role and use of darkness in religious belief and practice. The orientation and certain architectural features of Greek temples, Dionysiac and Mystery cults, divination, rites of passage, magic, and other nocturnal rituals are examined here in an investigation of the interplay between light, darkness, and shadow and the aims fulfilled by such associations. It transpires that darkness was a decisive element in the religious experience, one that intensified the emotional condition of the participants, whilst shaping the ritual experience and memory of the event.
Darkness and the Imagination
Authors: Moyes Holley , Rigoli Lillian , Huette Stephanie , Montello Daniel R. , Matlock Teenie , Spivey Michael J.
Published: August 2017

Darkness has profound effects on human behaviour and the ability to perform everyday activities. It can influence our ability to function, our moods, emotions, and cognition. Here we examine the relationship between darkness and supernatural beliefs. This work is informed by cross-cultural cave research, which suggests that cave dark zones are used as the settings for rituals from the advent of modern humans to the present. How can this phenomenon be explained? The chapter reviews research on the effects of darkness on the human mind and presents results of our own experimentation. We argue that shared human reactions to darkness, including embodied responses, stimulate the imagination in similar ways, leading to what we refer to as transcendental or imaginary thinking that lies at the heart of supernatural beliefs. Our work suggests that the natural environment is not a passive player but a causative agent in this process.
Algeria
Authors: Cox Debbie
Published: August 2017

This chapter examines the development of the novel in Algeria within the context of the country’s history. Much Algerian literature functions as a means of political expression. The social status of women has been an important theme, addressed either as a critique of patriarchy or through the notion of women’s voice. Since the early 1990s, literary publishing has increased in scope and diversity; while the different trajectories of the French and Arabic novel have come closer together, the range of political perspectives reflected in the novels has widened. This chapter provides an overview of Arabic literature and the French-language novel published in Algeria up to 1962 before turning to a discussion of the period 1962–1992. It then considers the novel since 1993, including the work of authors in exile who have established and gained international recognition for the Algerian Arabic novel.
Morocco
Authors: Parrilla Gonzalo Fernández
Published: August 2017

This chapter traces the origins of the novel genre in Morocco. It first considers the novel as a reflection of the variety and complexity of Moroccan society and continues with an overview of the beginnings of the Moroccan novel in Arabic before discussing the emergence of the Francophone novel in Morocco. It then examines the disappearance of the nationalist ideology in the works of the younger generation of Moroccan novelists, replaced by other trends such as experimentalism and neo-realism. It also describes the rise of autobiographical fiction, including prison narratives as a subgenre of Moroccan literature, along with the works of new authors writing in French and the rise of women writers. Finally, it evaluates new trends in the 1990s and the latest developments in Arabic, along with the Amazigh novel.
The Novel and the Maqāma
Authors: Hämeen-Anttila Jaakko
Published: August 2017

This chapter examines the influence of the maqāma, a short, often comic tale written in rhymed prose, on the modern Arabic novel. The maqāma and the novel share a number of features, including openly fictitious protagonists, the use of a plot, and relative length. This chapter begins with an overview of the maqāma as a literary genre, then discusses the work of Aḥmad Fāris al-Shidyāq and his links to the maqāma tradition, along with Badī‘ al-Zamān al-Hamadhānī’s influence on Muḥammad al-Muwayliḥ
ī. It also explores the influence of maqāmas on modern Arabic literature from the nineteenth century and beyond. Finally, it assesses the role of the maqāma in the development of the modern Arabic novel.
Pondering an End to Technology in Music Education
Authors: Pignato Joseph
Published: August 2017

In their Core Perspective contributions to this part of this book, Samuel Leong and Smaragda Chrysostomou describe international efforts on the part of governments, nongovernmental organizations, and market forces to codify, via policy, the development, distribution, and applications of information technologies in education. In response, I distinguish between techné and poiesis, as those concepts pertain to the ways in which young musicians use technology. I offer Aristotle’s concept of “that for the sake of which” as a framework for critiquing, interrogating, and counterbalancing the implications of such efforts and the underlying assumptions, values, and forces they represent. In the process, I raise questions I hope will be kept at the fore of policy deliberations and that focus such deliberations on the end to which, or that for the sake of which, we integrate, use, and give meaning to technology in music education.
Critical Perspectives from Africa
Authors: Kigozi Benon
Published: August 2017

In Africa technology amounts to audiovisual aids such as books; systems of musical transmission; aural-oral, mental, and mnemonic aids; indigenous African stories, language, and literature; and aspects of science, the arts, and culture. In the West it is different. In many parts of the United States and Europe, technology is guaranteed to be available. In Africa it is not. Many African countries have different perspectives on the application of technology in music education. Zimbabwe is working on consolidating indigenous music in systems of education, but until four years ago there was no music curriculum in primary school. Malawi legitimized music in the National Curriculum to be taught through grades 1 to 8, however, there is no mention of technology being integrated with music in education. The Primary Arts Core program of Namibia’s Ministry of Basic Education and Culture is silent about technology in music education. This chapter illuminates some of these African perspectives.
“Placing” Technology within Music Education Communities
Authors: Kenny Ailbhe
Published: August 2017

This chapter focuses on the themes of context and community in “situating” technology within music education in this part of this book. Here, the centrality of both musical and social interactions within technological developments is explored. Opportunities are discussed in light of the Core Perspectives provided to examine how we might develop further ways to engage learners in technology-mediated musical experiences that espouse collaborative knowledge building and learning through participation. As music educators, learners, researchers and/or policy-makers, we are prompted to challenge our assumptions about what technology within music education actually means to different contexts, places, and peoples. An argument for fostering “communities of musical practice” within technology and music education is thus put forward.
The Promise and Pitfalls of the Digital Studio
Authors: Hein Ethan
Published: August 2017

Whether or not we make the best use of technology in the music classroom, young people will continue to find unexpected uses for it elsewhere. There is no historical precedent for the informal learning possibilities afforded by inexpensive and ubiquitous computers. Are young music learners best left to their own devices, literally and figuratively? Or can we structure a classroom around these devices, combining independent play with guided group activity? Will formal educational settings always compromise or even negate young people’s autonomy and independence? Perhaps if we think of the music room as a maker space rather than a classroom, we can admit some of the imaginative play and authentic expressiveness that students find outside school. Music education will happen wherever people gather together, using whatever materials are at hand. A school is necessarily an ad hoc society; ideally, it can be a genuine artistic community as well.
The Curious Musician
Authors: Kardos Leah
Published: August 2017

Music technologies have lead us to a transformation of perceptions and the reinvention and refinement of our creative music making. They have also transformed our language and are providing access to musical and sonic possibilities that transcend the facilities of traditional music notation and analysis. They can facilitate new ways of collaborating and sharing and have become intertwined with almost all commercial and contemporary arts practices in the twenty-first century. Within this contemporary digital cultural landscape, a fluent and adaptable working knowledge of music technology should be foundational to any taught music curriculum. This chapter looks at examples from contemporary practice to inform a strategy for developing effective curricula for higher music education where fluency in digital literacies is promoted through practice-led enquiry and adopting the mindset of the “curious musician.”
Savoring the Artistic Experience in an Age of Commodification
Authors: Lum Chee-Hoo
Published: August 2017

This chapter brings forth the ideas of savoring, commodification, and learning within a multimedia, multiarts environment as food for thought for music educators working toward engaging learners in the technological space of music. First, the chapter presents the concept of savoring, with attention to the development of aesthetic experiences by critically scaffolding and facilitating musical activities for digital learners and engaging them musically amid their growing hunger for technological music commodities. Second, it recommends paying attention to popular music and glocalized representations and being cognizant of marginalized musical cultural voices because of the proliferation of commodified musics. Third, it discusses the provision for multimedia and multiarts experiences and activities within the music classroom.
Ebola SongsExploring the Role of Music in Public Health Education
Authors: Chirinos Carlos
Published: August 2017

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014 had an immense human, social and cultural impact, and inspired many African and international music celebrities to produce songs to raise public health awareness, and to raise funds to support international emergency relief efforts. In this essay, I examine some of the songs produced during the Ebola outbreak to evaluate the role of music and celebrity culture in health education and promotion during acute public health crises. I also report on my experience as the co-creator of the song Africa Stop Ebola and the advocacy campaign that accompanied the song. Through this analysis I discuss the cultural and social impact of music production and dissemination in West Africa and the potential of music-based health promotion campaigns to improve public health education.
A Sociological Perspective on Technology and Music Education
Authors: Wright Ruth
Published: August 2017

This chapter considers the questions Where is technology within music education? and Who is affected and how? from a perspective drawn from sociology and in particular the sociology of music education. The chapter discusses the emergence of a totally technologized society, akin to the “totally pedagogized society” identified by Basil Bernstein, and consider its implications for music technology and music education. The chapter suggests that many students exist in an educational technotopia that offers great potential within models such as informal music learning for more equitable models of music education.
Playing (in) the Digital Studio
Authors: Hein Ethan
Published: August 2017

When schools address music technology, they tend to focus on the nuts and bolts of the technology itself, rather than its creative applications. But to truly engage new digital tools for creative music making, we must address their most culturally significant context: electronic dance music and hip-hop. This music falls well outside the canon of what is widely considered suitable music for the classroom. Nevertheless, such music should be included, and not (only) because young people enjoy it. Rather than “dumbing down” music education, the inclusion of popular dance music would significantly enrich the curriculum, particularly in areas traditionally neglected: groove, timbre, and space.
Prosumer Learners and Digital Arts Pedagogy
Authors: Leong Samuel
Published: August 2017

Learners are the subject of the educational endeavor, and include the “teachers” and everyone from the very young to seniors. With instant and 24/7 connections to the world via technologies, the transformed educational ecosystem has given rise to prosumer learners who are both producers and consumers. Technology has expanded the diversity and range of possible learning contexts, enabled the provision of lifelong learning opportunities, and assisted in catering for learners with different academic abilities and behavioral needs, while resetting the traditional classroom-based schooling and herd-driven consumer culture to a life-wide participatory culture. Today’s digital arts pedagogy and technology-enhanced curriculum should be more prosumer friendly—liberating teachers and learners from the constraints of school practices (e.g., rigid timetables, fixed rows of desks and chairs) while facilitating learners to become more adaptable and flexible, able to negotiate, navigate, and manipulate the oceans of knowledge that is fluid, multifaceted and open to interpretation.
Meaningful and Relevant Technology Integration
Authors: Medvinsky Michael
Published: August 2017

Music technology is pervasive in today’s music classrooms, but in many settings it is the teacher who designs the integration, often with standardized learning outcomes in mind. As learners and teachers navigate these new experiences, teachers must develop environments in which learner/musicians have voice in the design process and agency in their own learning. New genres and digital instruments have played integral roles in extending the definition of what it is to be a musician. In the context of listening, performing, and creating experiences, providing opportunities for learners to create music using emerging technologies produces a classroom culture where musicians become autonomous in their approach to showing their musical understanding. The technology and the learning become ubiquitous and transparent, and constantly evolve.
The Convergence of Networked Technologies in Music Teaching and Learning
Authors: Waldron Janice L.
Published: August 2017

The convergence of the Internet and mobile phones with social networks—“networked technologies”—has been the subject of much recent debate. This chapter considers what new media researchers have already discerned regarding networked technologies; most important, that more significant than any given technology is how we use it, the effect(s) its use has on us, and the relationships we form through it and with it. Music education researchers and practitioners have tended to focus on technology as a knowable “thing”—that is, hardware and software with their “practical classroom applications”—and not the greater epistemological issues underlying its use. How will we engage musically in a meaningful way with a generation of students—“digital natives”—who have grown up technologically “tethered?” How will these different “ways of knowing” change music learning and teaching now and in the not-so-distant future?
The Role of “Place” and Context
Authors: Waldron Janice L.
Published: August 2017

In our eagerness to embrace the virtues of the “new,” we sometimes fail to critically examine the a prioris of the thing we are extolling—which, in the case of this book, is the use of technology in music learning and teaching. Advocates of technology use in the field usually begin by raising relevant issues based on personal but localized narratives. Although this is a good place to start—people rarely argue for change not grounded in their own experiences—building arguments for technology use requires a nuanced interpretation of what technology in music learning and teaching means to and for practitioners and researchers in specific local contexts. How does technology’s evolution from “thing” to “thing and place” change our perceptions of its use(s) in music learning and teaching? How do the roles of local context, cultural assumptions, and musical genre fit into a discussion of what constitutes technology and technology in music education?
Using Mobile Technologies and Problem-Seeking Pedagogies to Bridge Universities and Workplaces
Authors: Ballantyne Julie
Published: August 2017

The task of providing future music teachers with the capacity to respond effectively in changing teaching environments and the related issues of retention and job satisfaction of early-career teachers present an ongoing challenge to teacher educators. Engagement in a process of systematic problem-solving arguably builds the kind of complex understanding of the real-world workplace that inoculates against praxis shock. This chapter addresses the problem by demonstrating how the utilization of simple technologies as learning tools can enhance the quality of the teacher education process. The Mobile Technologies Project encapsulates a two-way process of having future teachers become comfortable with new technologies, thereby increasing the likelihood that they will use them effectively in their classrooms. The aim of this pedagogical trial was to increase the relevance of tertiary study to the “real world,” linking the reality of teaching with university training.
Learner Engagement and Technology Integration
Authors: Medvinsky Michael
Published: August 2017

If music educators use technology to do old things in new ways, they are still doing old things. Music is constantly evolving with technological advancements. Technology can be used in many different ways in music classes. Technology best serves music educators when they reimagine musicianship and design opportunities to explore nontraditional ways of being a musician. This should begin with the teacher’s preservice experiences. Music educators need a rich understanding of their content area so that technology becomes a support for authentic musical processes, as opposed to being an add-on. The integration of music technology must be contextualized within methods courses in order for music educators to feel comfortable enough with the technology itself that it becomes transparent to the musical experiences. Technology will never replace a great educator, but a great educator who understands the possibilities of supporting learning with technology will replace a great educator who does not.
Educators’ Roles and Professional Development
Authors: Himonides Evangelos
Published: August 2017

This chapter, concerning the ramifications of technology and technological change on teacher training and education programs, offers five points as essential. First, the role of technology in education is central. Second, technology can foster the development of teachers’ critical thinking. Third, teachers cannot be passive recipients of educational reforms and need to be in a position to shape their own and their students’ learning. Fourth, it is the social facet of technology that will play a leading role in teachers’ competence, credentialing, and professional development. Fifth, technology is becoming mature enough to allow us to re-rehearse the notion of evidence-based education in a completely novel way.
Slow Music
Authors: Upitis Rena B.
Published: August 2017

This chapter explores how technologies can be both enabling and crippling. While music technologies—for centuries—have afforded us the means of creating and performing music, sharing our deepest emotions, there are losses associated with the advent of ubiquitous technologies. Technologies can engender a loss of silence, information overload, excessive consumption, and lack of connection to the natural world. Some scholars have suggested that these negative outcomes can be counteracted, by replacing the information overload from screens with the drama presented by nature, by combatting overconsumption by living well with less, by privileging the natural world over the virtual world, by embracing silence and by finding time for music. The chapter explores the slow food metaphor as a way of counteracting the negative aspects of technology. Music educators are challenged to explore what slow music would be like, savored like a fine meal and influenced by local possibilities.