bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Revisão integrativa: parasitoses intestinais em pacientes portadores de HIV
Authors: Garcia Isabella Aparecida Abreu , Paiva Bruno Enéas Rolim , Silva Nisandra Pereira da , Lustosa Ana Caroline Borges , Oliveira Hadassa Gomes de , Silva Aldemes Barroso da
Published: February 2025

O HIV e as doenças tropicais, como a esquistossomose, a oncocercose e as infecções parasitárias intestinais, tornaram-se uma preocupação crescente em diversas regiões endêmicas. A complexa relação entre o HIV e estas doenças pode afetar significativamente tanto o controle imunitário como o tratamento eficaz. Este fenótipo representa um desafio significativo para a saúde pública, pois pode agravar as condições de saúde e dificultar o tratamento eficaz. Tal revisão abrangente da literatura teve como objetivo sintetizar o conhecimento e facilitar sua aplicação prática. Estudos demonstraram que os parasitas intestinais estão intimamente relacionados com a infecção pelo HIV, existindo poucos casos em que o sistema imunitário não influencia a infecção. Esses parasitas são mais prevalentes em pacientes com condições socioeconômicas mais baixas, pois estão intimamente relacionados às condições de higiene e ao nível de escolaridade. Parasitas infecciosos em pacientes HIV positivos pioram o estado imunológico do paciente, levando a danos sistêmicos, desnutrição e anemia. Compreender essas interações é crucial para direcionar intervenções clínicas e controlar estratégias que envolvam o manejo de antiparasitários, melhoria das condições de vida e adversidades ao TARV..
Psychic suffering and silencing at the university: keep this "shut up" away from me
Authors: Leão Thiago Marques , Goto Carine Sayuri
Published: February 2025

Our goal is to discuss the institutional silencing of psychic suffering in the university, considering its negative impact on the mental health conditions of students and the search for care. We adopted a qualitative approach to identify and discuss the phenomenon, based on the responses to the electronic questionnaire applied to students of health and social sciences and humanities and health courses. In total, 544 students responded and 192 left written statements, which are the subject of discussion here. The experience of suffering is a socio-historical and complex phenomenon that reflects the contemporary social changes promoted by the process of objective individualization of the material conditions of life and the consequent subjective individualization of consciousness and identity, and, above all, unconscious psychic dynamics. In higher education, the contemporary imperatives of personal responsibility and fulfillment, coupled with the institutional demands for productivity and resilience, radicalize the processes of silencing and consequently intensify the experiences of isolation and inadequacy that characterize the psychic suffering of students. It is necessary to rethink institutional practices, expand the supply of mental health care and broad pedagogical strategies, but it is recommended that listening take into consideration the sociogenesis of suffering and its collective, institutional and conjunctural dimensions. There is, in silencing, a complex dynamic to be weighed up, considering the challenges that contemporary subjectivity brings to higher education and to the impasses faced by students and educators.
História da química na educação superior: uma revisão para melhoria da didática
Authors: Almeida Pricila Santos de , Assunção Égila Maria Santos , Passos Ionara Nayana Gomes
Published: February 2025

O contexto atual exige profissionais da educação que consigam passar um ensino contextualizado, além de estimular o conhecimento a partir de fatos, narrativas históricas e principalmente, do cotidiano, para que possa atrair a atenção de alunos acostumados ao imediatismo e superficialidade fornecido pela mídias sociais que o atual século exige. O ensino de Química nos anos iniciais da graduação enfrenta desafios relacionados à descontextualização dos conteúdos e à adoção de metodologias expositivas que dificultam o engajamento dos alunos. A inserção de elementos históricos na didática pode contribuir significativamente para contextualizar conceitos e torná-los mais significativos para os estudantes. Este artigo discute a relevância de práticas experimentais, metodologias ativas e a formação de professores como pilares fundamentais para aprimorar o ensino de Química nos cursos de graduação. A metodologia se deu por pesquisa bibliográfica através do levantamento de referências teóricas já analisadas. A melhoria da didática nos anos iniciais da graduação em Química requer uma abordagem integrada que combine práticas experimentais, metodologias ativas e o uso de materiais didáticos contextualizados. Ao ter ciência do conteúdo histórico em que as descobertas científicas ocorreram, gera admiração, confiança e meios para um processo de ensino-aprendizagem contextualizado, atrativo e multidisciplinar.
Pathogen-resistant biodegradable SMS materials: a solution for medical applications
Authors: Madej-Kiełbik L. , Bednarowicz A. , Zielińska D. , Gzyra-Jagieła K. , Kęska S. , Czarnecki P. , Tarzyńska N.
Published: February 2025

The study aims to develop and assess a biodegradable spun-bond-melt-blown-spun-bond (SMS) structure composed of polylactic acid (PLA) for medical applications. The innovation addresses the environmental impacts of petroleum-based disposable materials by proposing a sustainable, pathogen-resistant alternative with effective filtration capabilities.The PLA-based SMS structure was fabricated with spun-bonded and melt-blown technologies, incorporating triethyl citrate (TEC) as a plasticiser to enhance the melt-flow rate and facilitate the production of fine fibre filtration. Thermal, mechanical, molecular, and biodegradability properties were evaluated through standard laboratory tests, including GPC/SEC analysis, SEM imaging, FTIR spectroscopy, and composting experiments.The developed SMS structure exhibited excellent filtration efficiency (98.5% for 0.3 m particles) and biodegradation potential, achieving an 84.3% mass reduction after 24 weeks in a composting environment. The material’s spun-bonded layers provided mechanical durability, while the melt-blown layer ensured superior filtration properties. The results demonstrate the structure’s suitability for medical protective equipment while reducing environmental harm.While the study highlights the potential of PLA-based SMS materials, further work should focus on developing industrial-scale production, long-term biodegradability under different environmental conditions and cost-effectiveness compared to commercially available products.Adopting PLA-based SMS materials in protective medical textiles could significantly lower plastic waste and greenhouse gas emissions associated with single-use polypropylene products. The biodegradable solution aligns with global sustainability goals and addresses the demand for disposable protective gear.The study presents a new biodegradable material for medical textiles that combines high performance with environmental responsibility. It brings a possible development path for researchers and identifies solutions for manufacturers and customers looking to create more sustainable healthcare solutions.
Análisis de solvencia financiera de las principales exportadoras del sector bananero ecuatoriano
Authors: Cartagena-Munizaga Mario , Victor
Published: February 2025

Las empresas del sector bananero en el Ecuador contribuyen enormemente a la economía de la nación, sin embargo, en esta última época se ha visto afectada por distintos factores que han imposibilitado cumplir con los altos estándares internacionales, lo que ha representado siempre un reto para las empresas exportadoras de productos agrícolas procesados. A pesar de todos las dificultades que ha tenido el sector como, la crisis post pandemia, los fenómenos climáticos, altos costos logísticos, cargamentos contaminados de sustancias ilícitas y otros conflictos en el sector europeo, el sector ha podido mantenerse y ha logrado posicionarse en este mercado de alta competencia, que lleva consigo mantener un alto control de los riesgos financieros: Solvencia, liquidez, operativos y de mercado, ya que, si no se toma en consideración este control, podría generar conflictos al tratar por alcanzar las metas y objetivos de la organización (Primicias, 2022).Para el presente proyecto de investigación se plantea el objetivo de promover el manejo efectivo del área financiera y administrativa del sector empresarial, con la implementación del modelo z-score en el sector Bananero del Ecuador, para su implementación se utilizó un método deductivo que por medio de la observación se analizaron los estados financieros, y se estimó los ratios para la ejecución del modelo. Los datos han sido obtenidos mediante información documental y bibliográfica, en su mayoría del portal de la Superintendencia de Compañías, que nos permite ejecutar el modelo e interpretar los resultados financieros obtenidos y dar las respectivas recomendaciones del sector.
PROJETO SAÚDE MENTAL DOS ESTUDANTES DE MEDICINA
Authors: Hoyo Vanessa Del , Godoi Priscilla Pereira de , Cunha Monique Rossato da , Teixeira Gabriela , Oliveira Maria Carolina Leal de , Pala Ana Flávia Pivetta , Barbosa Débora Cristina Modesto
Published: February 2025

A população de estudantes de medicina compõe um grupo de risco para doenças mentais e suicídio. O risco de autoextermínio é próximo de 4 a 5 vezes maior do que o risco para a mesma faixa etária compondo outros cursos de graduação. Visto isso, foi realizado um evento dividido em 5 encontros afim de fornecer instrumentos de autoanálise e de gestão de emoções. Ao longo desses encontros os participantes foram expostos à diversas atividades como por exemplo prática de yoga, rodas de conversa com psicólogos e práticas de meditação. Após cada encontro foi fornecido um questionário para preenchimento. Através da análise desses dados foi observado que essas práticas exerceram efeito positivo no bem estar e auto percepção dos integrantes. Por fim foi realizada uma revisão bibliográfica para verificar se havia concordância nos dados coletados com os dados disponíveis publicados. Assim, foi concluído de que os dados coletados estavam em concordância com os dados obtidos após leitura criteriosa dos artigos ciêntíficos avaliados.
The Usefulness of physiological and biochemical stress response of soil collembola (Xenylla welchi Folsom, 1916) as a biomarker in a lead-amended garden soil
Authors: Sarangi Priyanka , Chakravorty Partha Pratim , Das Bhabatosh
Published: February 2025

This study investigates the physiological and biochemical stress responses of the microarthropod Xenylla welchi to different sublethal doses of lead-contaminated garden soil in microcosms, aiming to assess the impact of metallic contamination in tropical ecosystems. 24-hour LC50 for lead acetate was determined to be 2653.23 mg/kg. Chronic exposure to various sublethal concentrations (1/2, 1/4, 1/6, and 1/8 of LC50) revealed significant reductions in exuvia production, fecundity, and lifespan, particularly at higher lead concentrations. Several biochemical parameters were assessed to further understand lead-induced stress responses. A marked decrease in glutathione (GSH) levels indicated oxidative stress, while glutathione-S-transferase (GST) activity displayed temporal variations, initially increasing and then declining with prolonged exposure. Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity was consistently inhibited across the treatment groups, reflecting neurotoxicity. Additionally, metallothionein (MT) levels were significantly elevated after extended lead exposure, suggesting an adaptive response to metal detoxification. The cumulative responses of Xenylla welchi suggest that they could be reliable biomarkers for assessing the ecological impact of lead pollution in soil ecosystems, highlighting their potential usefulness in monitoring heavy metal contamination.
Distribution and human health risk of N-nitrosamines in tap water in the central region of South Korea
Authors: Park Dahae , Jung Sungjin , Kim Dasom , Kim Hekap
Published: February 2025

This study aims to evaluate the concentrations and potential risks associated with seven volatile N-nitrosamines (NAs), a category of disinfection by-products, present in tap water, while considering realistic human exposure. Tap water samples were collected across four seasons from three central regions (Gangwon State, Gyeonggi-do, and Seoul Metropolitan City) in South Korea and analyzed for the NAs using high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection, following solid-phase extraction and derivatization. Among the NAs examined, three compounds, namely N-nitrosomorpholine (NMOR), N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), and N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA), were identified in all samples. NDMA had the highest concentration at 53.4 ± 19.5 ng/L, while NMOR and NDEA had 3.83 ± 10.56 ng/L and 37.5 ± 25.6 ng/L, respectively. These compounds exhibited similar concentrations across the three regions, with higher levels observed during winter than other seasons. The estimated cancer risk of NDEA was above 10-6, which is a concern. However, actual risk might be even lower when considering Korean drinking water intake patterns such as hot soups and stews. Nevertheless, it is imperative to improve regulatory practices to comprehensively address health risks from food intake, air contamination, and other sources.
Content validation of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey in Cuban medical students
Authors: Rodríguez Vázquez José Antonio , Gutiérrez Cordoví Josefa María , González Llanesa Mirian Felicia , Valdés Santiago Damian
Published: February 2025

Introduction: The Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey adapted by Soria and Montero (2020) was used to assess burnout in uni- versity students. In Cuba, as far as is known, the inventory has not been validated in university populations. It is intended to be adapted and validated in the Cuban context to measure academic burnout syndrome, emotional exhaustion, cynicism and academic efficacy.Method: The aim was to validate the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey in Cuban university medical students.Technological development work in stages: linguistic-cultural adaptation and content validation. Experts were consulted and consensus was evaluated by means of the content validity coefficient. In the pilot test, reliability was checked by means of Cronbach's α coefficient. The information was processed with the free software jamovi. Results: Thirteen experts participated. Content validity coefficients (≥ 0.80) were obtained in all categories; clarity 0.81, relevance 0.98, coherence 0.98 and sufficiency 0.92: (dimension 1 = 0.90, dimension 2 = 0.85, dimension 3 = 1.00). Indicates the adequacy of all items. Forty-five medical students participated in the pilot. An overall Cronbach's α (0.771) was re-scored, which evidenced the homogeneity of the test. Adequate values were obtained in the Emotional Exhaustion (α = 0.825) and Cynicism (α = 0.845) dimensions but not so in the Academic Efficacy dimension (α = 0.253).Conclusions: The Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey adapted to the Cuban context meets the metric attributes of content validity and reliability in the piloting in undergraduate medical students.
Gambaran Kepatuhan Kontrol Tekanan Darah dan Kepatuhan Minum Obat pada Pasien Hipertensi di UPT Puskesmas Sungai Malang
Authors: Khairunnisa  , Fayuning Tjomiadi Cynthia Eka
Published: February 2025

Tujuan: Hipertensi merupakan masalah kesehatan global yang utama, yang berkontribusi terhadap peningkatan morbiditas dan mortalitas akibat komplikasi kardiovaskular. Kontrol tekanan darah yang efektif dan kepatuhan terhadap pengobatan antihipertensi sangat penting dalam mencegah komplikasi. Namun, kepatuhan pasien dalam manajemen hipertensi masih belum konsisten, terutama di layanan kesehatan primer. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menilai kepatuhan pasien hipertensi dalam melakukan pemantauan tekanan darah dan pengobatan antihipertensi di UPT Puskesmas Sungai Malang serta menganalisis faktor demografi yang mempengaruhi kepatuhan.
Metode: Penelitian potong lintang ini menggunakan pendekatan deskriptif kuantitatif. Sebanyak 46 pasien hipertensi dipilih dengan menggunakan accidental sampling. Data dikumpulkan melalui kuesioner terstruktur yang menilai demografi, kepatuhan pemantauan tekanan darah, dan kepatuhan minum obat dengan menggunakan Modified Morisky Adherence Scale (MMAS-8). Analisis data dilakukan dengan menggunakan statistik univariat, dan hasilnya disajikan dalam bentuk distribusi frekuensi dan persentase.
Hasil: Temuan menunjukkan bahwa 47,8% pasien menunjukkan kepatuhan sedang terhadap pemantauan tekanan darah, sementara 34,8% sangat patuh dan 17,4% tidak patuh. Mengenai kepatuhan minum obat, 47,8% menunjukkan kepatuhan sedang, 37% menunjukkan kepatuhan tinggi, dan 15,2% memiliki kepatuhan rendah.
Kesimpulan: Meskipun kepatuhan moderat terhadap manajemen hipertensi diamati, sebagian besar pasien menunjukkan kepatuhan yang rendah. Temuan ini menyoroti perlunya peningkatan edukasi pasien dan intervensi perawatan kesehatan untuk meningkatkan tingkat kepatuhan, memastikan kontrol hipertensi yang lebih baik dan mencegah komplikasi jangka panjang.
The Impact of Foreign Direct Investment on Economic Growth: Evidence from Myanmar
Authors: Htun Kyaw Linn , Mar Swe Swe , Kyaw Htet Wai Wai , Dare Richard
Published: February 2025

This study investigates the impact of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on Myanmar's economic growth from 2000 to 2020, focusing on key factors that influence FDI's effectiveness. The results show that FDI has a significant positive impact on economic growth, with human capital and political stability further enhancing its effect. However, high inflation weakens FDI's contribution, and excessive government expenditure reduces its marginal benefits. The study highlights the importance of stable governance, skilled labor development, inflation control, and efficient public spending to optimize FDI's role in fostering economic growth. This is the first study to offer these findings for Myanmar, providing valuable insights for policymakers and investors.
How Does the Material Space of Transit Achieve Bergson’s ‘durée’? : An essay on the media characteristics of cinema and audience perception
Authors:   K-Culture·Story Contents Research Institute, Kim So-Young
Published: February 2025

Time and space are very important elements not only in the physical world of reality, but also in the cinematic world made up of technical images. This study goes beyond the ghost painting aspects and social implications that appear in director Christian Petzold’s works and seeks to interpret the time and space represented by the media nature of cinema based on Henri Bergson’s theory. This is to prove that the way film director Petzold deconstructs cinematic space and time is perceived is not unrelated to reality. In order to discuss this, the subject of analysis is Transit, in which the deconstructive techniques shown in previous works converge in an integrated manner. Specifically, we look at the time represented as a material space in the film, and then explore the series of processes that lead to the perception of the audience who accepts it. As can be seen in Transit, which fictionally recreates the history of the past and the real Marseille, the reason why cinematic creation where virtual time and real space meet is possible is because of the special media nature of cinema. In order to discuss this, this study borrows Bergson’s theory on time and examines how space and time in Transit was reconstructed. Specifically, the spatial image reproduced in Transit is named ‘material space’, and the time represented within it is named ‘continuous time’. Afterwards, we will expand Bergson’s discussion and analyze the characteristics shown in both as ‘empty exteriority’ and ‘reversible immanence.’ As we know, material space exists visibly and continuous time is a invisible linear flow, but Transit can be said to be an artistic creation in which such aspects are paradoxically dismantled.
The study of Korean auxiliary particle ‘tul’ : Focusing on Plural Markers in Spoken Corpus
Authors:   K-Culture·Story Contents Research Institute, Hop Nguyen, Ngoc Bich , Kim Ryang-Jin
Published: February 2025

This study conducted an in-depth analysis of the auxiliary particle tul as a plural marker, examining its combinatory patterns with various parts of speech and its semantic roles. Using the spoken corpus from the National Institute of the Korean Language, the frequency and distribution of tul were investigated.
The results revealed that tul not only combines with diverse parts of speech-such as nouns, adverbials, connective endings, and sentence endings-but also exhibits a preference for specific lexical or grammatical environments within each category. For example, in adverbials, tul frequently appears with degree adverbs (e.g., da, mani, neomu), state adverbs (e.g., jeonjeonhi, yeolsimhi), and time adverbs (e.g., ppalli, meonjeo). Regarding connective endings, tul was observed not only with commonly noted auxiliary connective endings (e.g., -ge, -a/-eo, -go, -ji) but also with subordinate connective endings (e.g., -n/-neundago, -(eu)reo, -(eu)ryeogo, -n/-neunde). In its combinations with sentence endings, tul was primarily found with interrogative, imperative, exhortative, and exclamatory endings. Although less frequent, cases were also observed where tul combined with subject markers, object markers, or adverbial markers.
The findings suggest that tul functions naturally in spoken Korean, extending beyond its role as a plural marker to convey inclusiveness, emphasize the situation, and reflect the speaker’s intentions, fulfilling multilayered pragmatic functions.
This analysis highlights the complex and flexible role of tul in spoken language, offering valuable insights for Korean language learners and researchers to understand the diverse applications of auxiliary particles.
Ethics of Artificial Life and Human : Study Focusing on SF novels “AI Body Robots, Rodin”, “Court of Human”, “If We Can't Go at the Speed of Light.”
Authors:   K-Culture·Story Contents Research Institute, Lim Mi-Suk
Published: February 2025

This study examines the meaning of the death of humans and artificial intelligence robots in the 21st-century technological ecological space through artificial life in SF novels “AI Body Robots, Rodin” and “Court of Human” and explores ethical issues related to this.
The development of artificial intelligence technology requires humans to reflect on themselves from a new perspective, and a paradigm shift for post-humans is also needed. Methodologically, it analyzes the perception of death of human beings Dr. Ubinna and Anna against the perception of death of artificial intelligence Ao, Rodin, and Hannah. This process can be misunderstood as if trying to go back to anthropocentricity from efforts to deviate from the existing anthropocentricity. However, human understanding according to technological advances is acquired at the present time, and humans are given the task of re-emerging an ethical framework that keeps pace with it each time.
SF novels provide future imaginations based on scientific knowledge, enable thinking experiments and ethical reflections on the future, and embody the future of post-humans in detail. SF novels as above allow us to reconsider human identity and values in the technological ecosystem space and provide a good model for establishing the right relationship between humans and artificial intelligence.
Preempting the ethical issues that humans and artificial life face is an opportunity to re-establish human identity as
Some remarks on SF from a cultural anthropology perspective : focusing on cultural similarity, cultural materialism, and utopia
Authors:   K-Culture·Story Contents Research Institute, Chi Seung-Hak
Published: February 2025

This paper analyzes the process and outcome of the scholarly disruption of the anthropological theories of the epoch as an indicator of the characterization of the SF genre. Cultural similarity, cultural materialism, and positivism are the most appropriate theories for this purpose. This attempt is significant in that this article criticizes the limited and fragmented treatment of SF which has not escaped the literary critical approach as well as re-emphasizes the socio-cultural value of the genre. Early SF genres have used almost all unknown places or isolated islands as plausible sites. This tendency occurred in an imaginative space where positivist ideology did not exist. In fact, the byproducts of positivism, cultural materialism and the capitalist system, have brought about a radical epistemological break with the human imagination, so that the places of the human figurative imagination have become dry, grid-like spaces. The positivist ideology born out of the development of anthropology completes the image of time becoming space, a rigid timetable that can be precisely delimited and quantified according to capitalist practices. In other words, Moore's utopia, and its coast, becomes the infinite ocean of capitalist time. Thus, SF makes our historical era and the ideology of the epoch implicit within it into highly empirical futuristic indicators of an alternative reality. The Novum is created through our historical ruptures, epistemological disconnections, and finally qualitative discontinuities in human relationships, sometimes directly, sometimes very complicatedly. This characteristic of the SF genre is always aimed at our reality.
A Study on the Aesthetic Function of Long Takes : Focusing on Estiu 1993
Authors:   K-Culture·Story Contents Research Institute, Jeong Sae-Byeol
Published: February 2025

This paper examines how the film Estiu 1993(2017) simultaneously preserves the objectivity and subjectivity of reality using long takes. Through this process, I confirm the aesthetic achievement of the film that persuades the meaning and psychology of the object through images rather than dialogue or editing that rely on narrative. Furthermore, I demonstrates that the long take is not the element that is opposed to montage, but is dialectical media of mise-en-scene and montage.
Consequently, I was able to verify the following through this study. Firstly, long takes of “Frida's Summer” make the audience constantly think about the uncertain psychology and complex relationship of the characters. In particular, long takes accompanied by handheld and refraiming encourages the discovery of subjective psychology in spatial reality. Secondly, shorts that have self-sustaining power through the long take can further expand their ambiguity and multi-layeredness through montage. Furthermore, they do not disappear after the montage but remain in the audience's mind, securing the possibility of montage with another shot.
Sostenibilidad en la gestión del aceite mineral usado en establecimientos de lubricación vehicular
Authors: Villanueva Conforme Genesis
Published: February 2025

El aceite usado es uno de los desechos peligrosos más comunes debido al crecimiento del parque automotor. Esta investigación se desarrolló con el objetivo de promover una gestión sostenible del aceite mineral usado en lubricadoras del cantón El Empalme. Se realizó un diagnóstico mediante observación para identificar los establecimientos, conocer sus servicios y medir la cantidad de aceite usado generado, que fue de aproximadamente 664,92 galones mensuales. Se entrevistó a los propietarios y se capacitó a 33 personas, incluidos propietarios y empleados, sobre la gestión de desechos peligrosos. Al final, se propuso una gestión adecuada del aceite desde su recolección hasta la disposición final. Los resultados mostraron que solo 10 lubricadoras entregan el aceite a la empresa BIOFACTOR S.A. para su tratamiento. El análisis estadístico con RStudio reveló que los participantes mejoraron considerablemente su conocimiento, alcanzando niveles altos y medios-altos de comprensión.
Applied Business Rhetoric
Authors: Tomlinson Elizabeth C.
Published: February 2025

In this book, Elizabeth C. Tomlinson offers a rich analysis of the ways that rhetorical principles inform the world of work. With in-depth, engaging examples from across business, Tomlinson draws on a broad range of rhetorical scholarship including both ancient and contemporary works, as well as on select materials from management and entrepreneurship. The author shows how principles such as audience, ethos, stasis, kairos, metaphor, topoi, and visual rhetoric inform the development and survival of businesses. With extensive examples from surveys and interviews with business owners, archival trade journal data, business plans, annual reports, corporate social media, pitch competitions, ESG reporting, case studies, and business websites, Applied Business Rhetoric demonstrates how arguments can be successfully constructed across multiple business genres, and illustrates the usefulness of applied rhetoric for both building and analyzing arguments. Scholars of rhetoric, professional writing, and business communication will find this book of particular interest.
Motherhood, Fatherland, and Primo Levi
Authors: Pirro Robert
Published: February 2025

Motherhood, Fatherland and Primo Levi: The Hidden Groundwork of Agency in his Auschwitz Writings offers major new insights into the political dimensions of Levi’s thought by using those texts conventionally thought to be marginal to his oeuvre (i.e., his short works of science fiction and fantasy and his World War Two partisan novel) to deepen our understanding of the lessons he offered in his more well-known and celebrated texts, Survival in Auschwitz and The Drowned and the Saved. Typically cast as one of the most profound theorists of what human beings at their worst can do to one another, Levi appears in this book as (in addition) a theorist who affirms a politics of active and broad participation in republican institutions as an important means of achieving a fulfilled human life. This book reinterprets Levi’s political significance by bringing to bear two literatures that have been previously missing from scholarly considerations of Levi’s legacy: psychologically-informed analyses of how infantile and toddler experience of, and relationship to, a primary caretaker shape later perceptions of self and relationship and studies of Machiavelli’s variant of republican thought in which major emphasis is placed on founding institutions of civic participation that develop responsible political leaders and foster good citizenship. In the aftermath of the so-called Arab Spring, which has given rise to people acting on their worst impulses (ethnic cleansing, genocide) as well as on their best (revolution, democratic constitutionalism), Levi’s legacy, considered more comprehensively, can be a valuable touchstone for understanding the democratic possibilities of a world undergoing rapid political change. Avoiding academic jargon and entanglement in hyper-specialized academic debates, Motherhood, Fatherland and Primo Levi offers that comprehensive understanding to scholars across many fields (Italian studies, political theory, cultural studies, women’s studies, Holocaust studies, history) as well as to general interest readers of a humanistic bent and citizens concerned to make sense of this revolutionary age.
A Dramaturgical Approach to Understanding the Serial Homicides of Ted Bundy
Authors: East Bernard
Published: February 2025

Ted Bundy withheld his darkest secrets from police, journalists, and psychologists. While on death row he shared these hidden insights with his closest friends in the Florida State Prison. Finally, a way to make sense of the mysteries regarding all of Bundy's perversions, his biggest influences, his secret dump sites, and what happened to his victims. Using Erving Goffman's concept of dramaturgy, this book is an insider's guide to the reality of what Bundy shared behind-the-scenes with fellow inmates and how he constructed a different identity backstage to what he revealed at the front stage. This work presents the uncensored, multi-layered, graphic details of this most notorious of murder careers, and in doing so provides readers with a comprehensive and authentic account of Ted Bundy.
Western Rock Artists, Madame Butterfly, and the Allure of Japan
Authors: Keaveney Christopher T.
Published: February 2025

Using the framework of Edward Said’s Orientalism, this work examines how Western rock and pop artists—particularly during the age of album rock from the 1970s through the 1990s—perpetuated long-held stereotypes of Japan in their direct encounters with the country and in songs and music videos with Japanese content.
Displacing Fictions of Orhan Pamuk
Authors: Gürses Hande
Published: February 2025

Displacing Fictions of Orhan Pamuk: Beyond the Bridge questions the prevailing relevance and violence of the bridge metaphor for literature through new readings of Orhan Pamuk. This book argues that despite its association with connection, dialogue, and reconciliation, the bridge is an inherently violent structure that controls movement by regulating it. Drawing on deconstruction and Derrida, the author argues for a rethinking of the intrinsic connection between the bridge and the writings of Orhan Pamuk. Exploring Pamuk’s significance as an author of the world literature canon, this book investigates the history and theory of the discipline as a bridge. Identifying new metaphors in Pamuk’s work, Hande Gürses shows the political potential of moving beyond the bridge. As people, lands, and ideas keep moving, Displacing Fictions of Orhan Pamuk argues for an urgent need for new metaphors to understand and represent the realities of our contemporary world.
Wounded Masculinity and the Search for (Father) Self in American Film
Authors: Mackey-Kallis Susan , Johnston Brian
Published: February 2025

Drawing on texts and theorists of Greek myth, psychoanalysis, and masculinities, Susan Mackey-Kallis and Brian Johnston develop and offer a model of rhetorical and mythic criticism to analyze popular American film. In this book, Mackey-Kallis and Johnston focus their analysis on films that point to the need for father atonement, ego-decentering, and the resurrection of the lost feminine to heal our collective gendered cultural wounds. Many of these “mystic” films, they contend, affirm the role of meaningful suffering, compassion, integration of the feminine, self-sacrifice, and transcendence as antidotes to the inevitable woundedness of the human condition. Ultimately, the authors argue for the importance of digging into the substance of cultural wounds – rather than superficially suturing them over – to change the conversation about woundedness and provide a roadmap for healing gendered relations in contemporary American culture. The book concludes with a discussion of Joseph Campbell’s interpretation of the metaphorical power of myth and its transcendent function to argue for a theory of “us”, rather than a theory of “us versus them.” Scholars of film, gender studies, American studies, cultural studies, gender studies, and psychology will find this book of particular interest.
The Tale of Genji and Its Chinese Precursors
Authors: Ni Jindan
Published: February 2025

In The Tale of Genji and Its Chinese Precursors: Beyond the Boundaries of Nation, Class, and Gender, Jindan Ni departs from a “nativist” tradition which views The Tale of Genji as epitomizing an exclusively Japanese aesthetic distinct from Chinese influence and Buddhist values. Ni contests the traditional focus on Japanese essentialism by detailing the impact of Chinese literary forms and presenting the Japanese Heian Court as a site of dynamic and complex literary interchange. Combining close reading, the archival work of Japanese and Chinese scholars, and comparative literary theory, Ni argues that Murasaki Shikibu avoided the constraint of a single literary tradition by drawing on Chinese intertexts. Ni’s account reveals the heterogeneity that makes The Tale of Genji a masterpiece with enduring appeal.
Origins of the Kurdish Genocide
Authors: Sadiq Ibrahim
Published: February 2025

The author argues that a part of the history of nation building in Iraq through addressing its political characters, different communities, agreements and pan Arab ideology, including the Baath ideology and its attempts to seize power through nondemocratic methods. It is an attempt to approach the essence of the exclusion mentality of the ruling elite in order to understand the process of genocide against the Kurdish people, including all existing religious minorities.

This essence of the process has been approached in the framework of the civilizing and de-civilizing process as a main theory of the German sociologist, Norbert Elias.

Thus, this book may be considered as one of the comprehensive books to present a study of state-building in Iraq, along with identifying some of the political figures that had an essential impact on the construction. On the other hand, it is a comprehensive study of the genocide, in the sense of searching for the causes and roots of the genocide. The Anfal campaigns took place in 1988, but the process started as far back as the end of the sixties and the beginning of the seventies of the last century.
Urban Violence
Authors: Pavoni Andrea , Tulumello Simone
Published: February 2025

Urban violence still has a peculiar standing within social and urban research. This book works to unpack the link between urban, violence, and security with three main arguments.

The first is that urban violence is under-theorized because long-term theoretical problems with both of its elements (‘urban’ and ‘violence’).

The second is to answer these questions: (1) how can violence be conceptualized in a way that opens to an understanding of the specificity of urban violence? (2) What is the urban in urban violence? And (3) How can ‘urban’ and ‘violence’ be articulated in a way that makes urban violence a category with both analytical and strategic power?

The third, and central, argument of this book is that, through a genealogy that articulates political economic and vital materialism, urban violence can ultimately be framed as a precise category shaped by three interlocking trajectories: the process of (capitalist) urbanization, the spatio-political project of the urban, and the concrete urban atmospheres in and through which the process and the project materialize, often violently so, in the urban.
Nuclear Power and Human Rights in Japan
Authors: Akyüz Emrah
Published: February 2025

In Nuclear Power and Human Rights in Japan: The Fallout of Fukushima, Emrah Akyüz advances an environmental human rights approach to environmental protections regarding nuclear power. Using the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster as a case study, Akyüz argues for three main approaches to environmental protection, including the right to environment, the reinterpretation of human rights, and the role of procedural rights.
Fantastic Echoes in Contemporary Italian Literature
Authors: Castagnino Angelo
Published: February 2025

In Fantastic Echoes in Contemporary Italian Literature, Castagnino argues that contemporary Italian fiction often uses fantastic tropes to address realistic concerns. In doing so, he establishes a connection between the tradition of Gothic and fantastic fiction and societal concerns over topics such as ecocriticism, ecofeminism, artificial intelligence, transhumanism, and personal and collective memory. The study of, among others, Nicola Lagioia, Simona Vinci, Alessandro Perissinotto and Michele Mari delivers a powerful rendition of the practical applications that fantastic and Gothic tropes have for an understanding of today's Italian fiction.
Queer Ecofeminism
Authors: Ourkiya Asmae
Published: February 2025

Queer Ecofeminism: From Binary Environmental Endeavours to Postgender Pursuits navigates environmental politics by revisiting ecofeminism through an intersectional lens that enmeshes climate justice with matters revolving around sexuality, gender, race, and far-right politics. Asmae Ourkiya focuses on deconstructing essentialised conceptualisations of femininities, masculinities, and gender identities and reintroduces humanity as a species with much potential that is yet to be unlocked if only “biological sex”, skin color, and indigeneity would not be classist factors shaping humans into hierarchical classes. This work draws from analyzing a diverse and carefully chosen selection of artwork, film productions, and historical events to showcase the potency of ecofeminism.
The Instruction and Acquisition of the BA Construction by Students of Chinese as a Foreign Language
Authors: Xu Hongying
Published: February 2025

The Instruction and Acquisition of the BA Construction by Students of Chinese as a Foreign Language tackles the linguistically unique and notoriously difficult BA construction in Chinese, covering its linguistic properties and acquisition by learners of Chinese as a foreign language, alongside teaching recommendations. Adopting the Interface Hypothesis and the Processing Instruction approach, Hongying Xu argues that not all linguistic properties of the BA construction are equally difficult to acquire and that properties that call for knowledge from interfaces—including semantics, pragmatics, and syntax—are more difficult to master than those that involve pure syntactic knowledge. Xu argues that instructors should provide manipulated input to help learners notice and process these properties before they are required to produce any grammatical and appropriate sentences using the ba construction.
Twentieth-Century Influences on Twenty-First-Century Policing
Authors: Cooper Jonathon A.
Published: February 2025

This newly revised edition includes two new chapters exploring events in policing since the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO in 2014. More than summarizing historical events, Cooper contextualizes the subsequent riots in light of classic sociological theory and political philosophy, and offers a potential and compelling new direction for improving both police use of force and the relationship between police and communities.
Financialization, Austerity, and Inclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean
Authors: Gautam Rana S. , Pinheiro Diogo L. , Wilson Dwight
Published: February 2025

Financialization, Austerity, and Inclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean examines the spread of financialization since 1980, highlighting the ideational origins of financialization outside the region, its effects on government budgeting and social inclusion, and options for increased inclusivity. Rana S. Gautam, Diogo L. Pinheiro, and Dwight Wilson argue that rather than a mechanistic implementation of external pressures, financialization is a complex social process with ideational origins in which national-level actors participate. Ultimately, the authors find that deeper financial integration, the expansion of credit, and reliance on international bond markets drives governments to cut certain areas of social spending and drives inequality but ameliorates absolute poverty. There is, therefore, space for agents to mold financialization and its inclusiveness.
The Monomyth Reboot
Authors: Salem Nadia
Published: February 2025

In this book, Nadia Salem examines and questions the enduring relevance of the monomyth, or the hero’s journey, for storytellers and their audiences. Created by Joseph Campbell and largely popularized by George Lucas, the hero’s journey has come to define mythic quests for all. However, in recent years, this genderless paradigm has lost its appeal as a repetitive Bildungsroman, and as a result, Salem argues for the inclusion of the heroine’s journey as a Künstlerroman and a voice of alterity. Where the hero’s journey reflects a coming of age, the heroine’s journey reflects a coming of middle age, which are arguably equally necessary for the complete fulfillment of character. Taking a fresh look at the monomyth, Salem analyzes the narratives of Eros and Psyche, Jane Eyre, and Titanic to argue for an emphasis on the integration of both the hero’s and the heroine’s journeys. Ultimately, this book demonstrates how the monomyth as rebooted turns monomythic mythopoesis into fertile ground for the kinds of epiphanies demanded by transmodernism. Scholars of film studies, communication, composition, and mythology will find this book of particular interest.
Tourism, Indigeneity, and the Importance of Place
Authors: Wergin Carsten
Published: February 2025

The book presents a long-term ethnographic study of arguably the largest environmental protest action in Australian history: The Walmadany / James Price Point conflict. Carsten Wergin offers a detailed account of how local community members, Indigenous custodians, heritage preservationists, environmentalists, and tourists collaboratively joined forces to successfully oppose the construction of a $45 billion (AUD) liquefied natural gas facility on sacred Indigenous land. Tourism, Indigeneity and the Importance of Place is a close reading of Aboriginal ‘country’ and its living heritage. It follows the Lurujarri Heritage Trail, an Indigenous Tourism experience that would have been destroyed by the LNG project, to offer a timely discussion of the sociocultural and political relevance of heritage and tourism for ecological preservation and the wider decolonial project in Australia and beyond.
The Dissident Politics in Václav Havel's Vanek Plays
Authors: Strong Carol
Published: February 2025

The Dissident Politics in Václav Havel’s Vaněk Plays: Who Is Ferdinand Vaněk Anyway focuses on Ferdinand Vaněk, a semi-autobiographical character created by Václav Havel and featured in a series of nine plays written by Havel himself and three other dissident writers – Pavel Kohout, Pavel Landovský, and Jiří Dienstbier. By exploring the ‘Vaněk experience,’ Carol Strong details a multi-episodic, absurdist journey that provides an ‘insider’s view’ of the challenges facing those daring enough to question the status quo, a view that remains relevant today. Strong’s contention is that the lines found in these plays served as a ‘secret language’ of dissent in Cold War Czechoslovakia, which called the citizenry to contemplate the need for societal reform. As the plays were written at a time when the work of Havel and other dissidents were banned, the plays were never performed publicly, but through clandestine living room performances and the sharing of samizdat scripts the plays found an audience. Select phrases were indeed whispered throughout underground networks and helped forge a sense of oppositional solidarity among potential activists. Strong’s argument is that the ‘Vaněk experience’ metaphorically highlights how official power mechanisms are among the least insidious forms of societal power, as the state must follow predictable patterns of legal jurisprudence. By contrast, non-governmental forms of power – as exercised by one’s fellow citizens through informal social channels – can challenge oppositional actors more because of the personal tone they adopt. Using this approach, Strong presents a timelessly relevant critique of modern society with its consumerist / conformist tendencies.
Democracy and Conflict
Authors: Kellogg Frederic R.
Published: February 2025

The economist Kenneth Arrow proved in 1951 that a society of diverse individual preferences could only by ordered by dictatorship. His impossibility theorem is still an axiom of contemporary welfare economics and has never been seriously challenged. The American philosopher John Dewey, who died in 1952, had claimed that voting and electoral mechanisms do not define democratic self-government. His broad conception of social conflict addresses preference diversity and resolves Arrow’s impossibility.

Since the 1980s, political scientists have focused on decision through democratic “deliberation.” Dewey saw that conversation alone is inadequate for resolution of conflicts in a democracy. Conflict is accompanied by discourse, but preferences are grounded in habits. Social habits resist adjustment in response to discourse alone, but demonstrably adjust in the process of conflict resolution, Preference conflict is distinguished from Marxist and later models, as a discovery and transformation process. It advances an original, updated theory of social conflict in a democracy relevant to today's problematic situations from discrimination to climate change and political polarization.