bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of the National Minimum Data Set for Neurological Conditions in Older Adults
Authors: Narayan Sujita W. , Jamieson Hamish A. , Nishtala Prasad S.
Published: September 2017

Aim:

To evaluate the National Minimum Data Set (NMDS) against the International Resident Assessment Instrument–Home Care (interRAI-HC) in diagnosing dementia or Parkinson disease (PD).

Method:

The NMDS data were matched with interRAI-HC for all older individuals in New Zealand. Dementia or PD was compared within 90 and 180 days and 1 to 4 years preceding and subsequent to the date of diagnosis in interRAI-HC. Consistency was measured through sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), weighted kappa (κ), and McNemar test.

Results:

For a diagnosis within 90 days, dementia showed 60.77% sensitivity, 95.33% specificity, 68.46% PPV, and 93.58% NPV. The PD showed 65.74% sensitivity, 99.52% specificity, 80.43% PPV, and 98.98% NPV. κ for dementia (κ = 0.59), PD (κ = 0.720), and McNemar test was significant ( P < .001) for all lengths of follow-up.

Conclusion:

Substantial agreement between multiple sources of health data can be a valuable resource for decision-making in older people with neurological conditions.
Design Heuristics for Effective Smartphone Questionnaires
Authors: Antoun Christopher , Katz Jonathan , Argueta Josef , Wang Lin
Published: September 2017

Design principles for survey questionnaires viewed on desktop and laptop computers are increasingly being seen as inadequate for the design of questionnaires viewed on smartphones. Insights gained from empirical research can help those conducting mobile surveys to improve their questionnaires. This article reports on a systematic literature review of research presented or published between 2007 and 2016 that evaluated the effect of smartphone questionnaire design features on indicators of response quality. The evidence suggests that survey designers should make efforts to “optimize” their questionnaires to make them easier to complete on smartphones, fit question content to the width of smartphone screens to prevent horizontal scrolling, and choose simpler types of questions (single-choice questions, multiple-choice questions, text-entry boxes) over more complicated types of questions (large grids, drop boxes, slider questions). Based on these results, we identify design heuristics, or general principles, for creating effective smartphone questionnaires. We distinguish between five of them: readability, ease of selection, visibility across the page, simplicity of design elements, and predictability across devices. They provide an initial framework by which to evaluate smartphone questionnaires, though empirical testing and further refinement of the heuristics is necessary.
Free Media and Twitter in the 2016 Presidential Election
Authors: Francia Peter L.
Published: September 2017

This article examines the surprising outcome of the 2016 presidential election, which saw Donald Trump defy nearly all of the conventional wisdom to become the 45th president of the United States. Political commentators and experts offered several immediate postelection explanations for Trump’s victory, one of which focused on how Trump was able to generate considerable unpaid or free media for himself, often directly through Twitter. This article explains the theory and rationale underlying the free media thesis (FMT) and then examines whether there is any preliminary empirical support for it. Using media tracking data and public opinion surveys, the results reveal that Trump indeed dominated the unpaid media market. Although the findings in this article cannot make causal claims about whether Trump’s advantages in free media are the primary reason for his upset victory, the results, nonetheless, suggest that some of the basic conditions necessary for the FMT were present in the 2016 election and that the FMT offers a plausible avenue for further analysis and future research.
Deliberative public opinion
Authors: O’Doherty Kieran C.
Published: September 2017

Generally, public opinion is measured via polls or survey instruments, with a majority of responses in a particular direction taken to indicate the presence of a given ‘public opinion’. However, discursive psychological and related scholarship has shown that the ontological status of both individual opinion and public opinion is highly suspect. In the first part of this article I draw on this body of work to demonstrate that there is currently no meaningful theoretical foundation for the construct of public opinion as it is typically measured in surveys, polls, or focus groups. I then argue that there is a particular sense in which the construct of public opinion does make sense. In deliberative democratic forums participants engage in dialogue with the aim of coming to collective positions on particular issues. Here I draw on examples of deliberative democratic forums conducted on the social and ethical implications of science and technology. Conversation between participants in deliberative democratic forums is ideally characterized by individuals becoming informed about the issues being discussed, respectful interactions between participants, individuals being open to changing their positions, and a convergence towards collective positions in the interest of formulating civic solutions. The end-product of deliberation on a given issue might thus be termed a deliberative public opinion. ‘Deliberative public opinion’ is neither a cognitive nor an aggregate construct, but rather a socio-historical product. Criteria for its legitimacy rely on the inclusiveness of diversity of perspectives and the degree to which collective positions are defensible to a larger society.
Comparative study of the internal flow in diesel injection nozzles at cavitating conditions at different needle lifts with steady and transient simulations approaches
Authors: Salvador FJ , De la Morena J , Crialesi-Esposito M , Martínez-López J
Published: September 2017

The motion of the needle during the injection process of a diesel injector has a marked influence on the internal flow, the fuel characteristics at the nozzle exit, the spray pattern and the fuel–air mixing process. The current paper is focused on the computational study of the internal flow and cavitation phenomena during the injection process, with inclusion of the opening where the needle is working at partial lifts. This study has been performed with a homogeneous equilibrium model (OpenFOAM) customized by the authors to simulate the real motion of the needle. The first part of the study covers the analysis of the whole injection process with a moving mesh using the boundary conditions provided by a one-dimensional (1D) model of the injector created in AMESim. This 1D model has offered the possibility of reproducing the movement of the needle with real lift law and real injection pressure evolution during the injection. Thus, it has been possible to compare the injection rate profiles provided by OpenFOAM against those obtained both in AMESim and experimentally. The second part compares the differences in mass flow, momentum flux, effective velocity and cavitation appearance between steady (fixed lifts) and transient (moving mesh) simulations. The aim of this comparison is to establish the differences between these two approaches. On the one hand is a more realistic approach in its use of transient simulations of the injection process and where the needle movement is taken into account. On the other hand, is the use of steady simulations at partial needle lifts. This analysis could be of interest to researchers devoted to the study of the diesel injection process since it could help to delimit the uncertainties involved in using the second approach which is more easily carried out, versus the first which is supposed to provide more realistic results.
A sequential feature extraction method based on discrete wavelet transform, phase space reconstruction, and singular value decomposition and an improved extreme learning machine for rolling bearing fault diagnosis
Authors: Li DZ , Zheng X , Xie QW , Jin QB
Published: September 2017

A novel fault diagnosis approach based on a combination of discrete wavelet transform, phase space reconstruction, singular value decomposition, and improved extreme learning machine is presented in rolling bearing fault identification and classification. The proposed method provides proper solutions for improving the accuracy of faults classification. To achieve this goal, initial signals are divided into sub-band wavelet coefficients using discrete wavelet transform. Then, each of sub-band is mapped into three-dimensional space using the phase space reconstruction method to completely describe characteristics in the high dimension. Thereafter, singular values are calculated by singular value decomposition method, which demonstrate crucial variances in original vibration signal. Lastly, an improved extreme learning machine is adopted as a classifier for fault classification. The proposed method is applied to the rolling bearing fault diagnosis with non-linear and non-stationary characteristics. Based on outputs of the improved extreme learning machine, the working condition and fault location could be determined accurately and quickly. Achieved results, compared with other schemes, show that the proposed scheme in this article can be regarded as an effective and reliable method for rolling bearing fault diagnosis.
Flash flooding as a threat to settlements even in remote areas
Authors: Gohar Amir , Kondolf G Mathias
Published: September 2017

Desert environments are subject to flash floods in wadi floors, which may occur only once every decade or two in a given wadi (dry channels or valleys, except during rains). In areas of rapid growth, flood-prone areas can become urbanized in the time between floods. Being flat and constituted of sandy sediments, unlike the surrounding terrain, wadi floors are often used for construction, exposing the new settlements to flood risks. We present a case study of the town of El-Sheikh El-Shazli, in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, which has undergone increasingly rapid development over the past two decades. The town is named for an important 13th-century Sufi leader whose shrine receives thousands of visitors annually. We document the extent and effects of the last flash flood (1996) from interviews, field measurement of flood debris, and patterns in satellite imagery; these show the extent of new development in flood-prone wadi floors and the potential risks to residents and visitors in the absence of proper planning. We then recommend measures to reduce the future loss of life and damage from flooding.
Hunger as a Context: Food Seeking That Is Inhibited During Hunger Can Renew in the Context of Satiety
Authors: Schepers Scott T. , Bouton Mark E.
Published: September 2017

At the end of a diet, even a successful one, people often return to overeating. One potential reason is that the behavioral inhibition that people learn while dieting might not readily transfer outside the context in which it is learned: Basic research indicates that after a behavior is inhibited, a return to the conditioning context or simple removal from the treatment context can cause the behavior to return (i.e., to renew). Can states of hunger and satiety play the role of context? In two experiments, rats learned a food-seeking response that earned sucrose or sweet, fatty food pellets while they were satiated. Responding was then inhibited (i.e., extinguished) while the rats were hungry. On the rats’ return to the satiated state, their food seeking was renewed. Additional results suggest that associations with hunger or satiety stimuli were learned more readily than associations with other potentially useful exteroceptive stimuli. The findings have implications for understanding the role of interoceptive contexts in controlling the inhibition of motivated behavior.
Tubular basement membrane immune complex deposition is associated with activity and progression of lupus nephritis: a large multicenter Chinese study
Authors: Wang H , Xu J , Zhang X , Ren Y L , Cheng M , Guo Z L , Zhang J C , Cheng H , Xing G L , Wang S X , Yu F , Zhao M H
Published: September 2017

Tubulointerstitial injury is found frequently in lupus nephritis. Immune complex deposits can occur in the tubular basement membranes (TBMs), although its significance in lupus nephritis patients remains unclear. This study assessed the clinical and prognostic features of lupus nephritis patients with TBM deposits in a large Chinese multicenter cohort. Complete data were collected from 195 patients with renal biopsy-proven lupus nephritis diagnosed in the Peking University First Hospital as the discovery cohort. A total of 102 lupus nephritis patients were enrolled from another four centers as the validation cohort. The status of TBM deposits was retrospectively assessed using electron microscopy, and the associations of the deposits with clinical data, pathological characteristics and renal outcomes were further analyzed. The percentage of positive TBM deposits was nearly 30% in the lupus nephritis patients. Using immuno-gold labeling, we found that 10/10 patients were positive for IgG, 7/10 were C3d positive, 6/10 were C1q positive, and 1/10 were C4d positive. Patients with TBM deposits presented with more active features, including a higher SLEDAI score (SLE Disease Activity Index) ( p < 0.001), higher serum creatinine level ( p = 0.001) and lower serum C3 level ( p < 0.001). These patients also presented with higher scores for most renal pathological indices, including the total activity indices score ( p < 0.001) and total chronicity indices score ( p = 0.001). TBM deposits affected renal outcomes in the univariate Cox hazards regression analysis (HR = 4.2, 95% CI = 1.3–14.3, p = 0.02). In conclusion, TBM deposits were common in lupus nephritis patients and correlated closely with the clinical disease activity and renal outcome.
Meaning of Happy Life for the Kharwars in India in Their Journey Towards Development
Authors: Mishra R. C.
Published: September 2017

The study examines the notion of happy life and its ingredients in a rural adivasi (first nation people) community experiencing the influences of acculturation and development taking place in the rapidly globalising world. The study was carried out on 200 males of the Kharwar adivasi group residing in 11 villages of the Naugarh Block of Chanduali district in Uttar Pradesh. The participants, aged 30–60 years, were given the happy life test (Sinha, 1969, Indian villages in transition: A motivational analysis. Delhi: Associated Publishing House) with slight modification in the questions. Content analysis of responses brought out five major elements of happy life, namely economy, relationships, health, meaningful engagements and money. Cluster analysis revealed that only economy, relationships and health were reliable elements of happy life, while the other two elements were outliers. As compared to the happy Kharwars, the less happy Kharwars suggested more number of items as ingredients of happy life. The findings suggest that the ingredients of happy life are culture specific and not universal. It is suggested that, even in the face of a development model, which underscores material possessions, the life of people in traditional societies, such as of the Kharwar, is driven largely by need rather than by greed.
Determinants of FPI in Developed and Developing Countries
Authors: Singhania Monica , Saini Neha
Published: September 2017

The pattern of capital inflows in developed and developing economies are different because of dissimilar economic and political structures. From the point of view of host country, especially the developing countries, portfolio flows are considered to play a pivotal role in bridging the saving investment gap and providing foreign exchange to finance current account deficit. While the investors of developed country invest in portfolios of different countries to diversify the risk and earn more returns, foreign portfolio investors generally go for short-term investment to reap the benefits of good economic conditions and they tend to withdraw their investments during the period of recession. This article identifies the determinants of foreign portfolio investment (FPI) in developed and developing economies. Though the movement of capital among different countries is researched in depth by existing literature, the present study adds to literature by identifying the institutional factor involving freedom index. The institutional factors aid in identifying the determinants of FPI among select developed and developing countries. This study seeks to answer, where the funds of foreign portfolio investors are headed. And also the reasons of attractiveness for FPI among different sets of countries. The sample of the study is limited to a set of 19 developed and developing counties for the period of 10 years (2004–2013). We study the determinants of FPI for a group of developed and developing countries using fixed and random effects. Additionally, we use panel generalized method of moments (GMM) suggested by Arellano and Bond (1991, The Review of Economic Studies, 58(2), 277–297). This methodology is suitable to remove the problem of endogeneity which static model is not able to capture. The results of model also incorporates persistence effect considering lagged value of dependent variable. The study empirically tests the various factors that determine the inflows of FPI and analyses their performance during different stages of the economic cycle in the last 10 years. Implicitly, in case of developed countries, it was observed that interest rate differential, trade openness, host country stock market performance and US stock market returns are significant trendsetter, while in developing countries, freedom index, interest rate differential, host country stock market performance, trade openness, US stock market returns and crisis period (2006–2008) significantly influence the inflow of FPIs. Dynamic model supports that as a group of 19 countries, portfolio investments are significantly influenced by interest rate differentials, freedom index, US stock market and host country stock market returns.
Signalling Roles of Prestigious Auditors and Underwriters in an Emerging IPO Market
Authors: Sundarasen Sheela Devi , Khan Afzal , Rajangam Nakiran
Published: September 2017

This study examines the signalling roles of auditors’ and underwriters’ reputation and its interacted effects on the initial public offering (IPO) initial returns before, during and after the Global Financial Crisis in an emerging market. Cross-sectional data comprising of 228 IPOs from the Malaysian Stock Exchange (Bursa Malaysia) is used for the period 2005–2012. The ordinary least square method using multiple linear regressions is used to test the hypotheses. The findings indicate that both auditors’ and underwriters’ reputation plays a significant role in reducing asymmetric information and signals firm value to the potential investors. Auditors’ reputation documents a positive relationship, whilst the underwriters’ reputation indicates a negative relationship. The interacted signalling variables indicate that underwriters’ reputation plays a dominant role in assisting potential investors in their investment decision-making.
Book Review: George Perkovich and Toby Dalton, Not War, Not Peace: Motivating Pakistan to Prevent Cross-border Terrorism
Authors: Sareen Sushant
Published: September 2017

George Perkovich and Toby Dalton, Not War, Not Peace: Motivating Pakistan to Prevent Cross-border Terrorism. Oxford University Press, pp. 297, ₹695. Hardback. ISBN: 978-0-19-946749-5.
Book Review: Sasanka Perera, Warzone Tourism in Sri Lanka: Tales from Darker Places in Paradise
Authors: Manoharan N. , Bawa Riya
Published: September 2017

Sasanka Perera, Warzone Tourism in Sri Lanka: Tales from Darker Places in Paradise. New Delhi: SAGE Publications, 2016, pp. 256, INR 750. ISBN: 9351509222
Exploring experiences and emotions sport event volunteers associate with ‘role exit’
Authors: Gellweiler Susanne , Fletcher Tom , Wise Nicholas
Published: September 2017

Much research in the past decade has assessed what motivates people to volunteer at sport events. Given that volunteering has become integral to the delivery and staging of sporting events, it is important that research not only considers reasons and motivations for volunteering, but how participants cope and manage once their volunteer journey ends. The paper considers the notion of ‘role exit’ and contributes insight based on interviews with participants after an event to understand their feelings and emotions. The significance of this research is understanding exiting emotions and experiences, but because a lot of emphasis is placed on preparing volunteers ahead of an event, the end of the volunteer journey is often abrupt and therefore left underexplored. To ensure that the needs of contemporary volunteers are adequately managed, it is important to consider how individuals are impacted by volunteering and also how they reflect on experiences afterwards. Three themes that emerge from this study include: (1) sadness and loss; (2) transitioning emotions; and (3) coping and coming to terms. A discussion framing the post-event volunteer as ‘the bereaved’ addresses the need to better manage the final stages of the volunteer journey, which represents a challenge given the liminality of sport event volunteering.
Dr Digby Moynagh (1911–1963) and the Graylands Day Hospital, 1959–1965
Authors: Martyr Philippa
Published: September 2017

Objective:

To describe the establishment of Australia’s first psychiatric day hospital in Western Australia in April 1959 by Dr Digby Moynagh (1911–1963).

Methods:

A range of primary and secondary sources were consulted.

Results:

Moynagh was able to establish the Graylands Day Hospital because he had an outsider’s perspective, and was familiar with the day hospital model from UK psychiatric literature. However, he was opposed by local medical and political interests, which eventually led to his departure from the State.

Conclusions:

The Graylands Day Hospital and Digby Moynagh both contributed towards the process of psychiatric deinstitutionalisation in Australia.
Ballistic impact performance of spaced multilayered and monolithic composite targets: Analytical and experimental studies
Authors: Patil PS , Naik NK
Published: September 2017

Ballistic impact performance of spaced multilayered and monolithic composite targets is presented based on propagation of stress wave and energy balance within the target and the impacting projectile. The energy dissipated by the impacting projectile gets absorbed by the composite target through several energy absorbing mechanisms. Specifically, studies are performed on spaced bilayered target separated by air gap and monolithic target having the same total thickness. Energy absorption due to several mechanisms, contact force, projectile velocity, projectile tip displacement, and kinetic energy of the projectile with respect to time are presented. Also, ballistic limit velocity (VBL) and total energy absorption of the target with respect to target thickness have been evaluated. Spaced bilayered composite targets have higher ballistic limit velocity compared to monolithic composite targets from total target thickness of 16–28 mm. Monolithic composite targets have higher ballistic limit velocity compared to spaced bilayered composite targets up to total target thickness of 16 mm and beyond target thickness of 28 mm. Experimental studies were performed for the validation of analytical results. The analytically predicted value of ballistic limit velocity matches well with the experimental value.
A coordination method for concurrent design and a collaboration tool for parametric system models
Authors: Knoll Dominik , Golkar Alessandro
Published: September 2017

This work presents a method and a tool for conducting conceptual design studies for projects such as a space exploration mission and a satellite constellation in a concurrent manner in both time and space, while taking into account the structure of the system to design and the dependencies between the system’s constituting elements. Design work is parallelized to reduce the time required to converge to a solution for a preliminary design, which includes the system architecture, its detailed requirements, and its costs. The multidisciplinary team of designers works in colocation to leverage effective direct human interaction for discussing design trade-offs quickly. While this is practice in space agencies for mission feasibility studies, a common methodology was not described so far. Our work proposes a method for the coordination of discipline experts and the sequence of activities performed during conceptual design studies, which use integrated parametric system models. Our method reduces the number of design iterations by applying a design structure matrix clustering algorithm to the system model and deriving a schedule for the design session. We also describe the tool Concurrent Engineering Data Exchange Skoltech we developed for collaborative work on the parametric system models and serve as an instrument for research on complex system design methodologies. The tool features a fast synchronization mechanism for the concurrent work of multiple design experts, and it supports our coordination method for concurrent design studies. The tool was published as open-source software, so other researchers can use it and build upon it. We used our tool and applied the method to two case studies of preliminary satellite designs and tested them with groups of students of a satellite engineering class and researchers from our institute. Throughout the experiments, we recorded information about user interactions and collected user feedback for the evaluation of the coordination method and the collaboration tool. Both method and tool demonstrated their validity in our experimental setting.
Endometrial Serous Carcinoma With Clear-Cell Change: Frequency and Immunohistochemical Analysis
Authors: Hariri Nosaibah , Qarmali Morad , Fadare Oluwole
Published: September 2017

The diagnostic distinction between endometrial serous carcinoma (ESC) and endometrial clear-cell carcinoma (CCC) may occasionally be problematic, and one potentially contributing factor is the finding of clear cells in otherwise classic cases of ESC. This study aimed to define the frequency of this finding and comparatively assessed the immunophenotype of the clear cells. A review of 56 cases of ESC identified 8 (14.28%) with clear cells, representing 1% to 20% (median 7.5) of tumoral volume in these cases. In only 3 cases were clear cells discernible at low (×20) magnification. There was no significant difference in stage distribution or age between ESC patients with and without clear cells. The immunophenotypes of ESC-associated clear cells (group 1) were compared with foci of conventional ESC on another tissue block within the same case (group 2; n = 8) as well as a randomly selected cohort of CCC cases (group 3; n = 8). Groups 1 and 2 showed no significant differences regarding p53, ER, PR, Napsin-A, p504S, and hepatocyte nuclear factor 1β (HNF1β) expression, or regarding mitotic indices or Ki67 proliferation rate. In contrast, group 1 cases showed an immunophenotypic profile that was notably different from that of group 3 cases, with the former showing statistically significantly higher/more frequent expression of ER, PR, Ki67, and p53 and lower/less frequent expression of Napsin-A, p504S, and HNF1β. We conclude that clear-cell change is seen in 14% of ESCs and is discernible at low magnification in only 5%; these areas show an immunophenotype that is essentially identical to the associated background conventional ESC and are phenotypically dissimilar to CCC.
Interneuron Cooperativity in Cortical Circuits
Authors: Karnani Mahesh M. , Jackson Jesse
Published: September 2017

Neocortical neurons tend to be coactive in groups called ensembles. However, sometimes, individual neurons also spike alone, independent of the ensemble. What processes regulate the transition between individual and cooperative action? Inspired by classical work in biochemistry, we apply the concept of neuronal cooperativity to explore this question. With a focus on neocortical inhibitory interneurons, we offer a working definition of neuronal cooperativity, review its recorded incidences and proposed mechanisms, and describe experimental approaches that will demonstrate and further describe this action. We suggest that cooperativity of “neuron teams” is manifested in vivo through their coactivity, as well as via the action of individual “soloist neurons” in the low end of the sigmoidal cooperativity curve. Finally, we explore the evidence for and implications of individual and team action of neurons.
On the mechanical behavior of rubber springs for high speed rail vehicles
Authors: Pintado P. , Ramiro C. , Berg M. , Morales A.L. , Nieto A.J. , Chicharro J.M. , Miguel de Priego J.C. , García E.
Published: September 2017

There are many engineering design problems that call for rubber components as the best solution. Vulcanized rubber has found its way into all sorts of devices, from the universal automobile pneumatic tire to the ubiquitous compliant bushing. Some high-speed rail vehicle suspensions make use of rubber, not only in the air spring itself, but also in the auxiliary spring. The mechanical characteristics of this component influence vehicle dynamics and, therefore, accurate spring models with which to conduct dynamic analysis would make for powerful design tools. Nevertheless, the mechanical behavior of rubber defies simple modeling on account of stress relaxation, creep, set, viscosity, internal friction, and nonlinear stress–strain relations. Despite the advances in the micromechanical understanding of these phenomena, as well as in the macroscopic modeling of rubber spring behavior, there is ample room for refinement, and this is precisely the goal of this paper. The mechanical behavior of a particular rubber spring for high speed rail vehicles has been characterized. The results reveal the necessary components of the model, and suggest the appropriate procedure for parameter extraction. Our model proposal consists of three elements in parallel: a nonlinear elastic spring; a “soft friction” element; and a Maxwell viscous component. The characterization procedure takes into account both stress relaxation and nonlinear elasticity. The proposed model accurately reproduces experimental results and may then be used with confidence in any type of numerical simulation. Nevertheless, for this statement to be true, the problem of “numerical softening” potentially induced by soft friction models should be resolved. The paper will show that a trailing moving average filter, seamlessly tied to the model, wipes out the softening effect.
Exchanging Social Support Online: A Longitudinal Social Network Analysis of Irritable Bowel Syndrome Patients’ Interactions on a Health Forum
Authors: Yang Fan , Zhong Bu , Kumar Akhil , Chow Sy-Miin , Ouyang Ann
Published: September 2017

Longitudinal social network analyses were conducted to examine social support exchange among patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) on an online health forum. The analyses of 90,965 messages posted by 9,369 patients from 2008 to 2012 suggest that both receiving and offering support significantly encourage continuous social support exchange. Patients, however, were less likely to offer further social support when they kept reciprocating support only with certain individuals on the forum. Sentiment analysis indicates that self-disclosing one’s emotions during support seeking serves as a significant predictor for the amount of social support the support-seeker could obtain. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Anonymous Social Media and Qualitative Inquiry: Methodological Considerations and Implications for Using Yik Yak as a Qualitative Data Source
Authors: Byrne Caitlin
Published: September 2017

Twenty-first century researchers face new challenges as they include digital tools and contexts in their research processes. One digital context that can be difficult for researchers to navigate is social media. This article considers the ethical and methodological issues that arise for researchers who situate their work in these digital spaces. I draw from existing research to discuss how scholars might use the social media app Yik Yak as a data source. I consider how ethical practices such as privacy, disclosure, and consent might function in this new context. I also discuss the methodological implications of working in these spaces, looking specifically at data collection and analysis practices. Finally, I advocate for continued qualitative work within these spaces, using these suggestions as starting points.
Successful use of uridine triacetate (Vistogard) three weeks after capecitabine in a patient with homozygous dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase mutation: A case report and review of the literature
Authors: Zurayk Mira , Keung Yi-Kong , Yu David , Hu Eddie HL
Published: September 2017

5-fluorouracil and capecitabine are chemotherapeutic agents commonly used to treat solid malignancies. Increased susceptibility to 5-fluorouracil or capecitabine, caused by impaired clearance, dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase deficiency, or other genetic mutations in the enzymes that metabolize 5-fluorouracil can lead to severe life-threatening toxicities and are typically manifested by an early onset of symptoms. We report and discuss the management and outcome of capecitabine toxicity with the recently FDA approved antidote, uridine triacetate (Vistogard), in a 57-year-old female breast cancer patient with homozygous dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase deficiency who received treatment beyond the recommended 96 h window from the last dose of capecitabine.
Millionaires or Job Creators: What Really Happens to Employment Growth When You Stick It to the Rich?
Authors: Houndonougbo Ahiteme N. , Murray Matthew N.
Published: September 2017

We provide empirical evidence on the consequences of relatively higher tax burdens on the rich for aggregate employment growth using a newly constructed time series for 1947 through 2011 derived from the US Statistics of Income. In response to shifts in the relative federal tax burden toward the rich, we find statistically significant positive effects on employment growth in the short run and some evidence of negative effects on employment growth in the long run. Among our robustness checks, we use the Romer and Romer narrative record analysis to restrict our sample to a period of exclusively exogenous tax changes. The results hold in the restricted sample and are also consistent across alternative specifications and estimation methods, including unrestricted and Bayesian vector autoregressive.
Women as Sectarian Agents: Looking Beyond the Football Cliché in Scotland
Authors: Lindores Sara , Emejulu Akwugo
Published: September 2017

In this article the authors challenge the hegemonic masculinity of the dominant football discourses on intra-Christian sectarianism in Scotland through a pilot study on women’s everyday experiences of sectarianism. The authors argue that dominant constructions of sectarianism often erase the standpoints of different kinds of women by minimising their roles both as agents for change and/or subjects who also reproduce sectarianism in their own right. The findings offer alternative narratives which problematise sectarianism as a white, male-only, working-class issue. This highlights the need to legitimise different gendered manifestations of sectarian bigotry at the micro-social level of family and kinship networks particularly in relation to the seemingly feminised role of policing ethno-religious identities in marriage and the socialisation and upbringing of children.
The mediating effect of neighbor relationship between community social support and elderly’s subjective well-being in China
Authors: Jiang Shan , Li Chunkai , Wang Zhiyou , Fang Xiaotong
Published: September 2017

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between community social support, neighbor relationship, and the subjective well-being of the elderly in China. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized model based on a sample of 2732 senior adults from 2010 Chinese General Social Survey. Results showed that community social support could indirectly affect the subjective well-being of the elderly through the complete mediating effect of neighbor relationship, although there was no significant correlation between community social support and the elderly’s subjective well-being. Implications for theory, social work, and social policy were discussed.
Experimenting in Somalia: The new security empire
Authors: Besteman Catherine
Published: September 2017

The past several decades of US intervention in Somalia produced violent destabilization, dysfunction, and uncertainty, creating refugee outflows and terrorist networks against which the US is currently tightening its security cordons. This paper argues that Somalia’s recent history as a stateless region offers a cautionary and tragic case study of the long-term damages that ensue when wealthy states that intervene in poorer states in the name of their own security instead cause insecurity and inequities that enable violence, and then in response to that violence enact further securitization to protect themselves against the consequences of that damage. But rather than focusing on the state as a site of securitization, I focus on those whose lives are made insecure by the retreat of their state government and the imposition in its place of security regimes that are not created by their own state government. Such security regimes overlap and compete, are instituted by different state and nonstate actors for different purposes, and by their incoherence and multiplicity raise questions about the definition, location, and relevance of the state in such regions. The paper explores the emergence of new, interlinked security regimes that are partially or wholly constituted through the logics of a new security empire designed to respond to US security concerns. By turning attention to the situations faced by those who live within the insecurities of stateless regions, the paper asks, what happens to the concept of securitization when the national-territorial state is not the entity that operates as a ‘state’ in the lives of people, even though their lives are overlain with multiple and overlapping regimes of securitization?
Security Urbanism and the Counterterror State in Kenya
Authors: Glück Zoltán
Published: September 2017

This article offers a theoretical and ethnographic analysis of what I am calling ‘security urbanism’, examining the spatial practices of the Kenyan security state and the urban impacts of the War on Terror in Nairobi. From counterterror policing to forced disappearances, demolitions, military operations and the proliferation of checkpoints and security searches, the War on Terror has left its indelible material and affective impacts in Kenya. Counterterrorist policing operations such Operation Usalama Watch have left many marginalized Nairobi residents fearful and traumatized. Meanwhile, in rich suburbs, the twin specters of terrorism and crime fuse in the imaginations and gated compounds of the affluent. This article analyzes the urban, state and spatial transformations produced by the War on Terror across several geographical scales (from the highly local to the neighborhood and the national). In a first section, I focus on the ‘state spatial strategies’ of counterterrorism and analyze the emergence of a ‘counterterror state’ in Kenya. In a second section, I draw on several ethnographic vignettes to demonstrate how urban residents internalize and perform fears, fantasies and politics thoroughly saturated by the imaginaries of the War on Terror. Ultimately, I argue that Nairobi's security urbanism is the material articulation of War on Terror at the scale of the city, produced through the confluence of state strategies and everyday practices of securitized urban subjects. But how stable is the new hegemony of security in the country?
Black Lives Matter, gentrification and the security state in the San Francisco Bay Area
Authors: Maharawal Manissa M
Published: September 2017

In the Fall of 2014, Black Lives Matter protests erupted across the United States and the San Francisco Bay Area became the site of nightly demonstrations that deployed a range of disruptive practices and direct actions. The content and style of these protests reflected both the national political issues raised by the Black Lives Matter movement, and highly local and regional struggles over gentrification and displacement. In this article, I analyze these protests in relation to the regional political economy of the tech-industry, the real estate booms, and the attendant ‘eviction epidemic’ in the region. In doing so, I lay out an analysis of the relationship between policing and gentrification in the Black Lives Matter protests in the Bay Area. In the first section, I analyze the regional political economy as the context in which these protests must be understood. In a second section, I argue that the protests created a regional protest geography that, in turn, was met by a regionalized repressive security state. Finally, I read the disruptive practices deployed by these protests as a series of complex and sophisticated contestations which embodied connections among policing, gentrification, and the regional political economy. As such, the Black Lives Matter protests produced an intersectional analysis and can be read as a regional uprising aimed to disrupt the security state.
Measuring intangible outcomes can be problematic: The challenge of assessing learning during international short-term study experiences
Authors: Cushing Debra Flanders , Pennings Mark , Willox Dino , Gomez Rafael , Dyson Clare , Coombs Courtney
Published: September 2017

Short-term international study experiences, or study tours, aim to increase students’ global awareness, educate and empower them to be productive global citizens, and contribute to their future employability. Learning outcomes from study tours often include intangible personal characteristics or soft skills, as opposed to specific disciplinary skills and knowledge, and yet, these are not easily identified. Using an iterative Delphi process, this study aimed to understand the pedagogical experience of tour leaders (experts) and assist in future development of effective assessment. Findings include four key areas of agreement among the experts: (1) both discipline-based knowledge and the acquisition of intangible personal characteristics are important learning outcomes and are considered to be almost equally important, (2) assessment almost always occurs on tour, (3) formative assessment for learning is predominantly used (rather than learning for summative assessment to test the learning), and (4) facilitated reflection is an important way to encourage learning during a study tour. Yet, the findings also reveal uncertainty about assessing outcomes that include intangible personal characteristics and soft skills. The article concludes with pedagogical implications and recommendations for future research.
Experiments with time: the technical image in video art, new media and the digital humanities
Authors: Barker Tim
Published: September 2017

In this article, the author begins to identify a new way to understand the experiment in arts and humanities research. Focusing on the production of what Vilém Flusser calls ‘technical images’ in video art and new media projects, he suggests that the experiment in experimental art may be rethought as a method for testing concepts and observations through the application of media technology as an apparatus. The technical image is a time-critical way to understand automatic image making devices and using this method of analysis he identifies examples where artists and humanities scholars have programmed devices to experiment with the time of contemporary media culture. Beginning with an analysis of Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin’s two works Listening Post and Moveable Type, the author uses a number of examples, from contemporary experiments with digital media to the experiments with video in the 1970s and 1980s, to show how artists and humanities scholars have used technical images to engage in experimental research outside the controlled laboratory of scientific experiments. If experimental scientists test scientific problems by developing, programming and applying an apparatus, the experimental artists identified in this article can likewise be seen to test aesthetic and cultural problems by similarly redesigning, scaling-up and experimentally applying media technology.
From self-control to self-improvement: evolving messages and persuasion techniques in weight loss advertising (1930–1990)
Authors: Mishra Suman
Published: September 2017

This study examines six decades (1930 to 1990) of weight loss advertising in the New York Times, using a combination of qualitative content analysis and textual analysis methods to understand how the discourse of weight loss has evolved over the years in the United States. The findings of the study show that the discourse of weight loss evolved from self-control to self-improvement. It also notes greater representations of white women in weight loss advertising. Women’s portrayals evolve from glamorous and thin to curvaceous, feminine and sexually appealing, to youthful, bold and confident and finally to strong and muscular. The study concludes that weight loss advertising reflects the changing roles for woman in society, while simultaneously influencing attitudes about beauty and body though the creation of new cultural images. Collectively, the advertisements cultivate the belief among women that by controlling their bodies through diet and exercise, women can achieve success in all aspects of their lives, from relationships to careers.
Narrating and explaining urban stories through inherited visual urban vocabulary
Authors: Juvancic Matevz , Verovsek Spela
Published: September 2017

This article proposes and formulates the visual urban vocabulary for tacit, intuitive, experiential, but none-the-less fast, plausible, generative, informative, sketch-like composition and visualization of urban stories. Through visual and socially ‘inherited’ clues, the authors explain the complexities of urban spaces, their elements, interrelations and cause–effect phenomena to expert and non-expert public alike. The rules, syntax and overall advantages of such a vocabulary are grounded in the existing linguistic, cognitive, psychological theories, visual sociology and theories of urban design, combined and supported by the authors’ own research into visualizations and tools for evaluating, understanding and presenting urban spaces. With many illustrations, the article demonstrates the use for – and the use of – generic urban stories in discussions about urbanity, urban environments, livable places, etc. and positions them into educational, research and participatory planning and commercial contexts.