bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
When Will Immersive Virtual Reality Have Its Day? Challenges to IVR Adoption in the Home as Exposed in Studies with Teenagers, Parents, and Experts
Authors: Hall Lynne , Paracha Samiullah , Mitsche Nicole , Flint Tom , Stewart Fiona , MacFarlane Kate , Hagan-Green Gill , Dixon-Todd Yvonne
Published: November 2021

In response to the pandemic, many countries have had multiple lockdowns punctuated by partial freedoms limiting physically being together. In 2020–2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, parents were stressed and exhausted by the challenges of work, home schooling, and barriers to typical childcare arrangements. Children were missing one another, their social lives, and the variety of experiences that the world beyond the home brings. Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) offers tried and tested ways to enable children to maintain beyond-household family activities and dynamics. However, it is not viewed as a solution. Instead, as demonstrated through a multiple method study involving a Rapid Evidence Assessment, workshops with 91 teenagers, interviews with 15 experts, a Delphi study with 21 experts, 402 parent questionnaires pre-pandemic, 232 parent questionnaires during the pandemic, and longitudinal interviews with 13 parents during the first UK lockdown in 2020, IVR is not viewed as having value in the home beyond gaming. Results highlight limited consideration of IVR as a way to enhance family life or the home, with a lack of evidence and direction from current research, innovation, and policy. The article empirically demonstrates that experts, teenagers, and parents have limited expectations for VR. Further, with parental resistance to adoption and a lack of ideas or innovations in how IVR could be used, the likelihood of VR-headset adoption remains low as does its potential as a means of educating, entertaining, and socially engaging children and teenagers.
Sediment wear prediction model of ZG06Cr13Ni4Mo turbine guide vane in sediment-laden hydropower station
Authors: Yao Bing , Li Jia , Zhao Tianbao , Liu Xiaobing
Published: November 2021

The guide vane of a hydraulic turbine in any sediment-laden hydropower station is one of the components most seriously affected by sediment abrasion. Damage to a guide vane can significantly impact stable operation and energy characteristics of the unit, and it is thus essential to
address and effectively manage this problem. In this study, the k-ε solid–liquid two-phase turbulence model and sample algorithm were used to numerically simulate the sand-water flow through the entire passage of a hydraulic turbine and sand samples were subsequently collected
from the hydropower station to examine the sediment abrasion damage to turbine’s guide vane, which was made of ZG06Cr13Ni4Mo. Thereafter, calculation and test results were used to establish a prediction model for sediment abrasion of hydraulic turbine guide vane. These research findings
could provide guidance for improved hydraulic turbine design and could thus contribute to the optimized operation of sediment-laden hydropower stations.
Across-Shore Propagation of Subthermocline Eddies in the California Current System
Authors: Ren Alice S. , Rudnick Daniel L.
Published: November 2021

Though subthermocline eddies (STEs) have often been observed in the world oceans, characteristics of STEs such as their patterns of generation and propagation are less understood. Here, the across-shore propagation of STEs in the California Current System (CCS) is observed and described using 13 years of sustained coastal glider measurements on three glider transect lines off central and southern California as part of the California Underwater Glider Network (CUGN). The across-shore propagation speed of anticyclonic STEs is estimated as 1.35–1.49 ± 0.33 cm s−1over the three transects, line 66.7, line 80.0, and line 90.0, close to the westward long first baroclinic Rossby wave speed in the region. Anticyclonic STEs are found with high salinity, high temperature, and low dissolved oxygen anomalies in their cores, consistent with transporting California Undercurrent water from the coast to offshore. Comparisons to satellite sea level anomaly indicate that STEs are only weakly correlated to a sea surface height expression. The observations suggest that STEs are important for the salt balance and mixing of water masses across-shore in the CCS.
Radiologic Reporting of Simple Hepatic Cyst Versus Biliary Cystadenoma May Lead to Unnecessary Surgery
Authors: Kumar Aman , Zendel Alex , Batres Michael , Gerber David A. , Desai Chirag S.
Published: November 2021

Background and Aims

Simple liver cyst (SHC) is a benign condition with no malignant potential. They are typically discovered incidentally due to the increased use of abdominal imaging, but some patients may present with abdominal pain. A radiologist’s differential diagnosis in cases of SHC will often include “rule out biliary cystadenoma.” Under these circumstances, patients and surgeons are more likely to pursue surgical options even in asymptomatic cases. The aim of this study is to conduct a retrospective analysis of presentation, radiologic reporting, management plan, and histopathology of patients referred to a tertiary hospital in order to determine the correlation between radiology and histology.

Methods

We retrospectively analyzed the clinical, radiological, and histopathological data of 20 patients operated for a diagnosis of a cystic lesion in the liver.

Result

The CT/MRI of 6 (30%) patients was reported as a biliary cystadenoma, 13 (65%) were reported as a simple hepatic cyst and 1 patient (5%) had hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with the additional diagnosis of multiple hepatic cysts. The lesion reported as HCC on the scan was separate from the cystic lesions. The modality of imaging for these cysts was evenly split, 50% of patients had a CT scan, and 50% had an MRI performed. All imaging studies were interpreted by an attending radiologist and most of them were discussed in multidisciplinary meetings. Nineteen patients (95%) had an intraoperative diagnosis of a simple liver cyst based on its visual appearance and clear fluid within the cyst. These patients underwent cyst wall fenestration and de-roofing with the cyst wall sent for histopathology. One patient (5%) with HCC underwent a non-anatomical liver resection. Histopathology was conclusive for a benign hepatic cystic lesion from the cyst wall biopsy. All 20 patients in this study underwent surgery, either due to symptoms or due to radiologic diagnosis of BCA. Four of the 20 cases (20%) were asymptomatic and out of these four cases, 3 (75%) were diagnosed as cystadenoma on the preoperative imaging studies. All 19 cases were diagnosed as a simple liver cyst on pathology.

Conclusion

In summary, there is a growing trend of “ruling-out the diagnosis of biliary cystadenoma” in patients who present with liver cysts. Patients are appropriately more anxious after this preoperative diagnosis and the treating surgeons have medico-legal concerns regarding conservative management in asymptomatic patients diagnosed as BCA. This single center experience draws attention to the radiology criteria utilized for diagnosing a biliary cystadenoma and suggests that it is time to revisit the imaging interpretation and differential diagnosis.
Outcomes of Trauma Patients with Flail Chest and Surgical Rib Stabilization
Authors: Yahn Colten A. , McNally Alexander P. , Deivert Kyle , Fraga Tyler , Sharaf Alddin Reem A. , Martyak Michael T. , Collins Jay N.
Published: November 2021

The goal of this project was to describe the current practices of this institution and identify which patients benefit from surgical stabilization of rib fractures (SSRF). A total of 1429 trauma patients admitted to our Level 1 center with rib fractures between January 1, 2014 and June 22, 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. Flail chest was observed in 43 (3.01%) patients. Surgical stabilization of rib fractures was pursued in 27 of all patients (1.89%). Twenty-four flail chest patients required intubation (ETT). Nineteen were not intubated (NoET). Of the ETT group, 8 underwent SSRF and 16 did not. Those who had SSRF had a shorter ventilator Length of Stay (7.1 vs 15.7 d) and Intensive Care Unit Length of Stay (9.8 vs 11.9 d). Surgical stabilization of rib fractures has shown success in managing flail chest. In intubated patients with flail chest, fixation seems to decrease Intensive Care Unit stays and the duration of ventilation. We believe we need to perform SSRF on more patients with flail chest.
Student Assignment Policies and Racial and Income Segregation of Schools, School Attendance Zones, and Neighborhoods
Authors: Taylor Kendra , Frankenberg Erica
Published: November 2021

Purpose: This article examines the relationship between educational and residential segregation in three school districts with differing approaches to student assignment. Racial and income segregation within school districts is often only examined at the school level, even as school patterns are often related to residential and attendance zone segregation depending on integration policies aimed at decoupling these relationships. Research Method/Approach: Using an innovative data set, the School Attendance Boundary Survey, along with Census and Common Core of Data data, this analysis examines racial and income segregation at the neighborhood, school zone, and school levels in three districts with varied student assignment policies to explore the relationship between districts’ diversity policies and school, attendance zone, and residential segregation. Findings: We find that, despite high residential segregation, educational segregation varies in these three districts. In the two districts that sought to increase diversity in their student assignment policies, educational segregation was lower than in the third district that did not consider diversity, despite similar levels of residential segregation. The findings suggest that district leaders’ use of diversity-focused student assignment policies may be one way to disrupt the link between residential and school segregation. Conclusions: Understanding the segregation of educational boundaries within school districts, and the relationship between school zone segregation and segregation at other geographic scales, offers insights into how district leaders could utilize student assignment policies to reduce racial and income segregation.
Case series: Psychosocial challenges of female youth within the Irish Travelling community
Authors: O’Neill Eimear , Abdul-Razak Nabihah , Anastasova Zulijana , O’Callaghan Catherine
Published: November 2021

Background:

The Irish Travelling community are an ethnic minority group known for their distinct identity, traditions and language. Although this group has its roots in Ireland, they are marginalised and discriminated against by every part of Irish society. Irish Travellers are a group who are vulnerable to exclusion and experience health, economic and educational inequalities. Young female Irish Travellers in Ireland are highly susceptible to mental illnesses which makes the engagement of this ethnic group by healthcare services important.

Aims:

To review the cases of three female adolescents from the Irish Travelling community living in Ireland with a focus on their psycho-social difficulties. Complete a literature review, to complement and inform the three cases reviewed, on the socio-cultural and mental health challenges which effect adolescent females in the Irish Travelling community.

Methods:

Case series with literature search and review of relevant published articles using a keyword search of databases PubMed, PsycINFO and HSE protocols and reports. Hand searching of relevant references utilised. Informed signed consent obtained from each patient attending child and adolescent services in Ireland. Signed parental consent also obtained. Written consent obtained due to the use of patient history and assessments in the case series.

Results:

Adolescent females within the Irish Travelling community encounter particular difficulties within the moral constraints and expectations of this community. They encounter specific issues including mental illness, sexual stigma, domestic violence and limitations to the role of women. The three cases outlined give representative examples of the challenges faced by adolescent females within the Travelling community.

Conclusions:

Psychiatric services need to be aware of this vulnerable group and focus on the recognition of their needs within the context of their community.
Demolitions of Informal Business Structures in Harare, Zimbabwe Under the Guise of COVID-19 City Clean Up
Authors: Mwonzora Gift
Published: November 2021

Recent research on the informal sector has devoted considerable attention in examining how informal traders have been affected by the coronavirus in different temporal and spatial settings. However, less well understood is the extent to which central and local governments can cunningly use the veil of COVID-19 pandemic to regulate and re-shape the informal sector. Seeking to remedy this shortcoming in the prevailing accounts and utilising a qualitative research methodology including observations, discourse analysis, critical review of policy pronouncements, by-laws, legislation, video evidence from city officials, government, health authorities, vendors associations, newspapers articles and through a case study analysis of Harare City in Zimbabwe. The article contributes to the academic and policy discussions on how law, disease outbreak, policy and governmentality of African urban spaces intersect.
Analysing Association in Environmental Pollution, Tourism and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from the Commonwealth of Independent States
Authors: Khan Saqib , Azam Muhammad , Ozturk Ilhan , Saleem Sardar Fawad
Published: November 2021

Clean and green environment along with sustainable development is the prime objective of every state. We explore empirically the nexus between tourism, environmental pollution measured by carbon (CO2) emissions, population, trade, foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic growth in six countries from the Commonwealth of Independent States over 1995–2018. Traditional panel estimation technique is employed, where the Hausman test suggests fixed-effects over random effect estimator. We also employed the robust least squares (RLS) estimator to confirm the empirical estimates. Results show that a 1% increase in CO2 will attenuate the economic growth by 0.14% and that 1% raise in the tourism activities can boost growth by 0.04%. Both the fixed-effect and RLS estimates reveal that tourism, population growth and trade contribute significantly to economic growth, whereas CO2 adversely affect growth. The Granger causality test shows a two-way causality between economic growth and CO2 and between growth and trade. Empirical results also indicate a one-way causality between growth and FDI, population and FDI, population and CO2 along with population growth and tourism. These findings suggest that adopting effective policies that can expand trade, enhance FDI and promote the tourism sector with minimum environmental damage will ultimately accelerate sustainable economic development.
GMO Labeling Policy and Consumer Choice
Authors: Kim Youngju , Kim SunAh , Arora Neeraj
Published: November 2021

Most scientists claim that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in foods are safe for human consumption and offer societal benefits such as better nutritional content. However, many consumers remain skeptical about their safety. Against this backdrop of diverging views, the authors investigate the impact of different GMO labeling policy regimes on the products consumers choose. Guided by the literature on negativity bias, structural alignment theory, and message presentation, and based on findings from four experiments, the authors show that consumer demand for GM foods depends on the labeling regime policy makers adopt. Both absence-focused (“non-GMO”) and presence-focused (“contains GMO”) labeling regimes reduce the market share of GM foods, with the reduction being greater in the latter case. GMO labels reduce the importance consumers place on price and enhance their willingness to pay for non-GM products. Results indicate that specific label design choices policy makers implement (in the form of color and style) also affect consumer responses to GM labeling. Consumer attitudes toward GMOs moderate this effect—consumers with neutral attitudes toward GMOs are influenced most significantly by the label design.
Preference Reversals Between Digital and Physical Goods
Authors: Catapano Rhia , Shennib Fuad , Levav Jonathan
Published: November 2021

The proliferation of digital goods has led to an increased interest in how the digitization of products and services affects consumer behavior. In this article, the authors show that although consumers are willing to pay more for physical than digital goods, this difference attenuates—and even reverses—when consumers are asked to make a choice between the two product formats. This effect is explained by a contingent weighting principle: In willingness to pay, a quantitative task, consumers anchor on quantitative information (e.g., market beliefs). However, in choice, a qualitative task, consumers anchor on qualitative information (e.g., which good dominates on the most important attribute). These differences in contingent weighting result in physical goods being preferred in willingness to pay, but their digital equivalent being preferred relatively more in choice. The authors draw conclusions from ten preregistered experiments and six supplemental studies using a variety of goods in hypothetical and incentive-compatible contexts, as well as within- and between-subjects designs. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for the marketing of digital goods.
Psychometric Properties of the Health Empowerment Scale Arabic Version for Working Women in Saudi Arabia
Authors: Alquwez Nahed , Cruz Jonas Preposi , Alshammari Farhan , Alotaibi Norah Sharea H.
Published: November 2021

In a country such as Saudi Arabia where gender equality-related challenges continue to be social issues, measuring the health empowerment of Saudi working women is critical in understanding the real picture of women empowerment in the country during this era of great transformation. Therefore, we conducted this research to evaluate psychometric properties of the Health Empowerment Scale Arabic version (HES-A) in measuring the health empowerment of Saudi working women. We surveyed a sample of 322 Saudi working women from June to August 2020 using an online survey constituting questions on demographic and work-related information and the HES-A. The computed values for the item-level content validity index of the 8 scale items were from .80 and 1.00, whereas the computed value of the scale-level content validity index by average method was .91. The principal component and confirmatory factor analyses revealed a unidimentional scale. The computation revealed an alpha of .92. Education, type of employment, years of working experience, and salary were identified as significant factors influencing the health empowerment. The HES-A exhibited adequate validity and internal consistency for use in measuring the health empowerment of Saudi women. The HES-A can expand the research agenda on health empowerment Arab women. Researchers and policymakers could use the HES-A in assessing the status of health empowerment of Arabic-speaking women, which could inform policies and interventions aimed at ensuring health empowered women in this part of the globe.
The Contribution of Animal-Based Cultural Ecosystem Services to Tourist Well-Being at Cultural Heritage Sites
Authors: Zhang Yang , Lee Timothy J. , Xiong Yu
Published: November 2021

This article explores the contribution of animal-based cultural ecosystem services to tourist well-being within the authentic cultural heritage experience. We assess the construction of tourists’ cultural ecosystem services through their cocreation of animal-based experience and its integrative direct links with objective authenticity, existential authenticity, and well-being. The objective is to provide empirical evidence of the cross-category tourist experiences of interactions with animals at cultural heritage sites within the context of those with the cats of the Forbidden City, China. Building on this relationship model, the study further examines and identifies the significant and important parallel mediation effects on the relationship between the cocreation experience and the well-being of the three combinations of (a) attention and objective authenticity, (b) involvement and existential authenticity, and (c) cultural ecosystem service and memorability. Theoretical and managerial implications are provided along with a discussion of research limitations and suggestions for future study.
“Blurring the Line”: Intoxication, Gender, Consent, and Sexual Encounters Among Young Adults
Authors: Hunt Geoffrey , Sanders Emile , Petersen Margit Anne , Bogren Alexandra
Published: November 2021

Social concern about sexual practices and sexual consent among young adults has increased significantly in recent years, and intoxication has often played a key role in such debates. While many studies have long suggested that alcohol plays a role in facilitating (casual) sexual encounters, intoxication has largely either been conceptualized as a risk factor, or researchers have focused on the pharmacological effects of alcohol on behaviors associated with sexual interaction and consent. To date little work has explored how young adults define and negotiate acceptable and unacceptable levels of intoxication during sexual encounters, nor the ways in which different levels of intoxication influence gendered sexual scripts and meanings of consent. This paper explores the latter two research questions using data from 145 in-depth, qualitative interviews with cisgender, heterosexual young adults ages 18–25 in the San Francisco Bay Area. In examining these interview data, by exploring the relationship between intoxication and sexual consent, and the ways in which gender plays out in notions of acceptable and unacceptable intoxicated sexual encounters, we highlight how different levels of intoxication signal different sexual scripts. Narratives about sexual encounters at low levels of intoxication highlighted the role of intoxication in achieving sexual sociability, but they also relied on the notion that intoxicated consent was dependent on the social relationship between the partners outside drinking contexts. Narratives about sexual encounters in heavy drinking situations were more explicitly gendered, often in keeping with traditionally gendered sexual scripts. In general we found that when men discussed their own levels of intoxication, their narratives were more focused on sexual performance and low status sex partners, while women’s and some men’s narratives about women’s levels of intoxication were focused on women’s consent, safety, and respectability. Finally, some participants rely on “consent as a contract” and “intoxication parity”—the idea that potential sexual partners should be equally intoxicated—to handle relations of power in interpersonal sexual scripts. Since these notions are sometimes deployed strategically, we suggest that they may serve to “black-box” gendered inequalities in power between the parties involved.
Experiencing recent missionary evacuations: Traumatic stress and loss as social networks break down
Authors: Walters Susan Gary
Published: November 2021

Although missionary evacuations have occurred since the beginning of missions, little research has explored modern missionary evacuations. In this qualitative study, the author analyzes the experiences of four missionaries who made unplanned departures from their Asian host country in 2018. Although each study participant had different demographic characteristics and their story was unique, common elements of the evacuation experience were shared: growing uneasiness, mounting stress, the decision to evacuate, a sudden exit, and waves of transition. The most traumatic aspect throughout the experience was the severe disruption of their relationships. Factors contributing to the breakdown of social networks included surveillance and scrutiny, searches and interrogations, contact tracing, the compromising of digital communication channels, and the final exit. The traumatic effects of the breakdown of social networks highlight the critical importance of relationships in the life and work of missionaries, particularly during crises. Understanding how evacuations are experienced enables the wider Church—which is preparing, sending out, and receiving missionaries back—to better care for its missionaries and contribute to their restoration and healing from trauma.
Floating offshore wind turbine fault diagnosis using stacked denoising autoencoder with temporal information
Authors: Zhang Xujie , Wu Ping , He Jiajun , Liu Yichao , Wang Lin , Gao Jinfeng
Published: November 2021

Currently, the offshore wind turbine has become a hot research area in the wind energy industry. Among different offshore wind turbines, floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) can harvest abundant wind energy in deepwater areas. However, the harsh working environment will dramatically increase the maintenance cost and downtime of FOWTs. Wind turbine fault diagnosis is being regarded as an indispensable system for maintenance issues. Owing to the complexity of FOWT, it imposes an enormous challenge for effective fault diagnosis. This paper develops a novel FOWT fault diagnosis method based on a stacked denoising autoencoder (SDAE). First, a sliding window technique is adopted for time-series data to preserve temporal information. Then, SDAE is employed to extract the features from high-dimensional data. Based on the extracted features from SDAE, a classifier using multilayer perceptrons (MLP) is developed to determine the health status of the FOWT. To verify the performance of the proposed method, a FOWT simulation benchmark based on the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) FAST simulator is employed. Results show the superior performance of the proposed method by comparison with other relevant methods.
Online music education for sustainable development: Analysis of music learning videos in e-Hakseupteo
Authors: Park Young Joo
Published: November 2021

This study investigates music learning video content at e-Hakseupteo, a government-supported e-learning platform utilized during the COVID-19 pandemic, and provides suggestions for remote music learning in the future. The data from music learning videos in e-Hakseupteo were extracted via each subject to statistically analyze the data in various aspects including provision regions, the content providers, target audiences, video titles, and contents of each music learning video. As a result, this analysis demonstrated that e-Hakseupteo offered students fewer opportunities to learn music than other subjects because of the significant lack of music learning videos. In addition, e-Hakseupteo has provided unequal music educational opportunities and regional discrepancy due to the unintentional access settings. Finally, the music learning videos at e-Hakseupteo were produced by specific agent groups in Seoul with limited experts. Implications and suggestions are provided for the sustainability of remote learning in music education.
Early application of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for myocarditis with shock: a case report
Authors: Meng Heyu , Ruan Jianjun , Wang Xue , Shi Kaiyao , Li Xiangdong , Liu Guohui , Meng Fanbo , Yang Ping
Published: November 2021

The current therapy for myocarditis is immunosuppressive therapy. However, in rare cases in which patients do not respond to intervention, their condition can rapidly deteriorate to myocarditis with shock, which is characterized by extensive and diffuse lymphocyte infiltration in the myocardium. Most cases of myocarditis are caused by virus-mediated damage of cardiomyocytes, and its clinical manifestations are ventricular arrhythmia and hemodynamic disturbances. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation is an effective intervention, which regulates hemodynamic stability and avoids systemic hypoperfusion. This intervention has been used to sustain hemodynamic stability in patients with myocarditis and shock. We report here early application of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for successful treatment of a patient with myocarditis and shock.
Risk factors for primary site necrosis after definitive concurrent chemoradiotherapy in head and neck cancer
Authors: Kim Donghyun , Ki Yongkan , Kim Wontaek , Park Dahl , Joo Jihyeon , Jeon Hosang , Lee Kyeonghyo , Nam Jiho
Published: November 2021

Objective:

To identify risk factors of primary site necrosis (PSN) after definitive concurrent chemoradiation therapy (CCRT) in patients with nonoral cavity head and neck cancer (HNC).

Methods:

We retrospectively reviewed the records of 256 patients treated with CCRT for HNC during 2010–2018. Patient-related (age, sex, history of smoking, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, serum hemoglobin and albumin), tumor-related (tumor site, American Joint Committee on Cancer stage), and treatment-related (induction chemotherapy, maximum point dose and mean dose of planning target volume [PTV] of primary site, absolute volumes of the PTV receiving >50–75 Gy [V50–V75]) variables were analyzed. Critical dosimetric parameters of PSN were identified using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to select the significant variables for PSN development.

Results:

After median follow-up of 44 months (range, 5–127), 7 patients (2.7%) developed PSN with a median time to event of 10 months (range, 3–12). V70 ⩾79.8 mL was the most critical dosimetric parameter for PSN (area under the ROC curve 0.873, sensitivity 0.857, specificity 0.747). In univariate analyses, pretreatment serum hemoglobin <11.0 g/dL and V70 ⩾79.8 mL were significantly associated with higher risk of PSN occurrence. V70 ⩾79.8 mL (hazard ratio 5.960, 95% confidence interval 1.289–27.548; p = 0.022) remained significant predictors of PSN in multivariate analyses.

Conclusions:

V70 ⩾79.8 mL is significantly related to the risk of developing PSN. These findings offer valuable clues for clinicians to minimize PSN incidence in HNC treated with curative CCRT.
“There Is No (Where a) Face Like Home”: Recognition and Appraisal Responses to Masked Facial Dialects of Emotion in Four Different National Cultures
Authors: Tsikandilakis Myron , Yu Zhaoliang , Kausel Leonie , Boncompte Gonzalo , Lanfranco Renzo C. , Oxner Matt , Bali Persefoni , Urale Leong Poutasi , Qing Man , Paterakis George , Caci Salvatore , Milbank Alison , Mevel Pierre-Alexis , Carmel David , Madan Christopher , Derrfuss Jan , Chapman Peter
Published: November 2021

The theory of universal emotions suggests that certain emotions such as fear, anger, disgust, sadness, surprise and happiness can be encountered cross-culturally. These emotions are expressed using specific facial movements that enable human communication. More recently, theoretical and empirical models have been used to propose that universal emotions could be expressed via discretely different facial movements in different cultures due to the non-convergent social evolution that takes place in different geographical areas. This has prompted the consideration that own-culture emotional faces have distinct evolutionary important sociobiological value and can be processed automatically, and without conscious awareness. In this paper, we tested this hypothesis using backward masking. We showed, in two different experiments per country of origin, to participants in Britain, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore, backward masked own and other-culture emotional faces. We assessed detection and recognition performance, and self-reports for emotionality and familiarity. We presented thorough cross-cultural experimental evidence that when using Bayesian assessment of non-parametric receiver operating characteristics and hit-versus-miss detection and recognition response analyses, masked faces showing own cultural dialects of emotion were rated higher for emotionality and familiarity compared to other-culture emotional faces and that this effect involved conscious awareness.
Visual Self-Misperception in Eating Disorders
Authors: Gadsby Stephen
Published: November 2021

Many who suffer from eating disorders claim that they see themselves as “fat”. Despite decades of research into the phenomenon, behavioural evidence has failed to confirm that eating disorders involve visual misperception of own-body size. I illustrate the importance of this phenomenon for our understanding of perceptual processing, outline the challenges involved in experimentally confirming it, and provide solutions to those challenges.
Victim and Victim Support Staff Experiences of a Domestic Violence Electronic Monitoring Program in Australia
Authors: Hwang Ye In (Jane) , Simpson Paul Leslie , Butler Tony Gerard
Published: November 2021

This study investigates the experiences of victims of domestic violence (DV) involved in a bilateral electronic monitoring (EM) program. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six victims whose associated person of interest participated in an EM program post-release, as well as 13 victim support staff. Thematic analysis revealed seven themes: (1) Safety and validation, (2) Initial anxiety, (3) Minimal intrusion on daily life, (4) Psychological relief and feelings of safety, (5) Freedom to engage in daily activities, (6) Post-EM concerns for safety, and (7) An effective deterrent for some, but not for all. Overall, the experiences reported by victims and support staff were positive and evident of victim-centricity. The main defining experience of the DVEM program for victims was improved feelings of safety during the program and increased autonomy and confidence in going about their daily activities. However, there is an urgent need to consider post-EM safety of victims.
The Importance of Positive Social Support During Reentry From Prison: Examining the Role of Volunteer Mentoring
Authors: Kjellstrand Jean , Matulis Jordan , Jackson Arriell , Smith Jo , Eddy J. Mark
Published: November 2021

Social support appears to be important in improving outcomes for incarcerated individuals during the reentry process not only in terms of general wellbeing but also in gaining employment and avoiding recidivism. Mentoring programs have become increasingly popular interventions that are intended to provide such support during reentry. However, research on mentoring programs is limited and tends to focus solely on the programs’ impact on recidivism, a distal outcome. Through the use of semi-structured, in-depth interviews, this qualitative study focuses on more proximal outcomes, exploring how reentering individuals who are receiving volunteer mentoring through a transitional housing program define successful reentry and perceive the value of different types of support they received from their mentors. Participants identified several indicators of successful reentry and discussed the types of support that were helpful, harmful, or absent. Implications for practice and areas for future research are discussed.
Revisiting the valuable locales in our cities? Visualizing social interaction potential around metro station areas in Wuhan, China
Authors: Wu Jiangyue , Zhou Jiangping , Ma Hanxi
Published: November 2021

A complete tour of metro users consists of their journeys inside the carriage and various activities outside the carriage, in particular, those in or around metro station areas (MSAs). To fathom out the spatiality and magnitude of those activities, which involve substantial interactions among people or with urban spaces, we assume that (a) metro users who spent 30 min or more together in or around the same MSA would physically interact with at least another person there; (b) the more an MSA sees metro riders co-presenting there the higher social interaction potential (SIP) there is; (c) SIP of an MSA is positively correlated with the number of distinct riders co-presenting in that MSA. By exploiting two-day metro smartcard data of Wuhan, China, we use the number of distinct riders co-presenting in that MSA to measure and visualize the MSA-level SIP in that city. Our visuals show the SIP varies across MSA and time of the day. Some MSAs have higher SIP in the daytime whereas other MSAs have higher SIP at the nighttime. Few MSAs continuously have high SIP. These results inform us where and when SIP would be the highest and the lowest across MSAs, which can facilitate metro operators’ monitoring and management of MSAs on the one hand and help businessmen and officials decide where and when to provide services and/or sell products across MSAs.
Evaluation of the Curing Time Effect on the Swelling, Unconfined Strength and Resilient Modulus of an Expansive Soil Improved with Hydrated Lime
Authors: Süt Ünver İ. , Lav M. A. , Çokça E. , Baykal G.
Published: November 2021

Soils with high plasticity and high swell potential undergo great volume changes in the presence of unstable water content changes. The resulting expansion leads to damage to pavements and/or lightweight structures with such a subsoil. Expansive soils can be improved by adding chemical stabilizers such as lime, fly ash and micro cement. To construct a highway on an expansive subgrade soil, the subgrade should be stabilized to satisfy the minimum requirements of the highway standards. In this research, expansive clay samples were collected from clay deposits in the Akyurt district of Ankara (Turkey), near Esenboğa Airport. The swelling, strength and resilient modulus properties of the soil samples were determined via laboratory tests. First, reference tests were carried out on natural soil samples. Then, the clay samples were mixed with lime agent at different percentages (1%, 3%, 5%, 7% and 9%) according to the dry weight of the soil. The index, swelling, strength and resilient modulus (Mr) properties of these samples were determined. The soil samples were tested at 7, 28, 56 and 90-day curing times for each percentage of lime agent considered. The changes in the abovementioned properties, especially with regard to the effect of curing time on improvement, were interpreted in this research. Designing for a 7% lime content and a 28-day curing time can be a sound solution for addressing the expansive clay studied in this research, since the criteria of the Turkish Highway Standards are satisfied under these conditions.
Problematizing the Educational Messaging on Sex Trafficking in the US “End-demand” Movement: The (Mis)Representation of Victims and Anti-Sex Work Rhetoric
Authors: Hu Ran
Published: November 2021

This study adopts a critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach to problematize the representation of victims in the online educational messaging on sex trafficking promoted in the US “end-demand” movement. The websites of 20 US anti-trafficking groups are analyzed. While these website-based messages are positioned to educate the public about sex trafficking, they are predominately framed toward problematizing sex work and essentializing women with racialized and marginalized identities in sex work, with no discursive recognition of intersectional structural inequalities (e.g., racism, sexism, poverty, homo/transphobia) that lead to trafficking. These ideologically charged messages, when presented as “facts,” further the anti-sex work sentiment among the public, powerfully (re)produce and sustain the public (mis)perception equating “anti-sex trafficking” with “anti-sex work,” and legitimize the carceral feminist anti-trafficking practice that primarily criminalizes, censors, and oppresses the agency, behaviors, and needs of structurally marginalized communities. This paper calls attention to how injustice may be (re)produced in the way trafficking is represented and how representational injustice may translate into material consequences, further subjecting already marginalized groups to criminalization and surveillance. Through incorporating representational justice into our conceptualization of racial and social justice, we may (re)build an anti-trafficking framework that is structurally competent, rights-inclusive, and centered on humanization.
Interview Marina Rea: A Militant Doctor Active in the Endless Fight for Breastfeeding as a Human Right - A Luta Continua!
Authors: Rea Marina Ferreira , Arendt Maryse
Published: November 2021

Marina Ferreira Rea is a Brazilian medical doctor. She has a masters and a doctorate degree in public health from the University of São Paulo (USP). She specialized in breastfeeding at Wellstart International, and completed post-doctoral research at Columbia University, New York, USA, focusing on working women and breastfeeding. She was a researcher at the Health Institute at Columbia University in New York, the Center for Population and Family Health, and at the postgraduate studies, Nutrition in Public Health, University of São Paulo, where she advised many students and published many articles and books (a few selected below). She was a Coordinator of International Breastfeeding Actions at the World Health Organization (Geneva), in the early 1990s, when actions like the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, breastfeeding counseling, and other courses were started. During this same period, the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) and World Breastfeeding Week were initiated. In 1981 she participated in the launching of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes. Marina Rea is a member of the International Baby Food Action Network and its Latin American policy committee, and is the founder of the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) Brazil group. Since 2017, she has been a member of the IBFAN Global Council. She is now retired but continues to volunteer as an IBFAN member. She has two daughters and four grandchildren. A more detailed curriculum vitae in Portuguese can be found here: http://lattes.cnpq.br/8193850878281835 (MR = Marina Rea; MA = Maryse Arendt)
Airing Egypt’s Dirty Laundry: BuSSy’s Storytelling as Feminist Social Change
Authors: Elmeligy Nehal
Published: November 2021

In this paper, I examine alternative feminist activism and social movements in Egypt by analyzing BuSSy. BuSSy is a performance art group that hosts storytelling workshops and monologues of taboo and “shameful” personal stories that challenge societal and state-sanctioned normative discourses on femininity/womanhood and masculinity/manhood. Drawing on transnational feminist scholarship and queer theory and using collective memory as a lens, I argue that BuSSy’s storytelling is an act of airing Egypt’s dirty laundry, queering normative discourses to enable feminist counter-memorializing. Based on content analysis of secondary data including BuSSy’s published interviews, YouTube videos, website and Facebook images, and testimonies from 2006 to 2020, my analysis reveals BuSSy as curating an “archive of feelings” centralizing gendered narratives of shame. I examine how BuSSy’s affectively contagious storytelling leads to feminist social change by empowering storytellers and listeners. BuSSy’s works create cathartic experiences to shed stigma and shame. Finally, I reconceptualize feminist activism and collective memories outside of the 2011 Egyptian revolution and contribute to the literature on shame by analyzing how BuSSy identifies and counters shame’s silencing power.
Postfeminist Versions of Equality? An Analysis of Relationship and Sex Counseling Practices in Finland
Authors: Kolehmainen Marjo
Published: November 2021

Relationship and sex counseling are pivotal components of the “therapeutization of society,” which has been identified and widely examined as a key transformation of 21st-century modern Western societies. The particular understandings of gender and sexuality that circulate in those practices contribute to the wider everyday conceptions of intimate life and are thus important to investigate from a feminist perspective. Combining insights from studies on therapeutic cultures, research on intimate relationships, scholarship on postfeminism, and affect theory, this article taps into the often ambivalent ways in which gender equality and sexual rights are articulated in relationship and sex counseling practices. My data are derived from an ethnographic investigation of relationship enhancement events in Finland. Equality was widely supported at these events, but there was no consensus regarding what desirable equality actually looked like. My analysis identifies several contradictory patterns in the data. First, there are statements to the effect that equality has “gone too far.” Second, many experts express tokenized critiques yet remain invested in depoliticizing views. Third, there are acts of resistance that embrace diversity and expand everyday understandings of gender and sexuality. I argue that these patterns constitute a postfeminist sensibility, thus complicating the belief that Nordic countries are exceptionally supportive of equality.
Diosgenin inhibits the proliferation of gastric cancer cells via inducing mesoderm posterior 1 down-regulation-mediated alternative reading frame expression
Authors: Gu Lin , Zheng Hailun , Zhao Rui , Zhang Xiaojing , Wang Qizhi
Published: November 2021

Introduction

Whether and how mesoderm posterior 1 (MESP1) plays a role in the proliferation of gastric cancer cells remain unclear.

Methods

The expression of MESP1 was compared in 48 human gastric cancer tissues and adjacent normal tissues. Knockdown of MESP1 was performed to investigate the role of MESP1 in the proliferation and apoptosis of BGC-823 and MGC-803 gastric cancer cells. Knockdown of alternative reading frame (ARF) was performed to study the role of ARF in the inhibitory effect of MESP1 knockdown on cell proliferation in gastric cancer cells. Mouse subcutaneous xenograft tumor model bearing BGC-823 cells was used to investigate the role of MESP1 in the growth of gastric tumor in vivo. The effect of seven active ingredients from T. terrestris on MESP1 expression was tested. The anti-cancer effect of diosgenin was confirmed in gastric cancer cells. MESP1 dependence of the anti-cancer effect of diosgenin was confirmed by MESP1 knockdown.

Results

MESP1 was highly expressed in human gastric cancer tissues ( p < 0.05). MESP1 knockdown induced apoptosis and up-regulated the expression of ARF in gastric cancer cells ( p < 0.05). Knockdown of ARF attenuated the anti-cancer effect of MESP1 knockdown ( p < 0.05). In addition, MESP1 knockdown also suppressed tumor growth in vivo ( p < 0.05). Diosgenin inhibits both mRNA and protein expression of MESP1 ( p < 0.05). MESP1 knockdown attenuated the anti-cancer effect of diosgenin ( p < 0.05).

Conclusions

MESP1 promotes the proliferation of gastric cancer cells via inhibiting ARF expression. Diosgenin exerts anti-cancer effect through inhibiting MESP1 expression in gastric cancer cells.