bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Assessing the Impact of Indian Irrigation on Precipitation in the Irrigation-Enabled Community Earth System Model
Authors: Fowler Megan D. , Pritchard Michael S. , Kooperman Gabriel J.
Published: February 2018

Global climate models are beginning to include explicit treatments of irrigation to investigate the coupling between human water use and the natural hydrologic cycle. However, differences in the formulation of irrigation schemes have produced inconsistent results, and thus the impact of irrigation on the climate system remains uncertain. To better understand the influence of irrigation on precipitation, the authors analyze simulations from the irrigation-enabled Community Land Model, version 4 (CLM4), where irrigation is applied only over a region centered on India. The addition of irrigation to the land surface has the anticipated consequence of increasing evapotranspiration locally, despite issues revealed in CLM4 of unrealistically high partitioning of irrigation water to surface runoff and unrealistically fast water drainage through the soil column. These limitations highlight a need to observationally constrain and simultaneously optimize irrigation, runoff, drainage, and evapotranspiration. Nonlocal precipitation changes as a result of Indian irrigation during the premonsoon season are examined through a hindcast framework that reveals robust hydrologic teleconnections to parts of the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, and Japan on short lead times, but with strong dependence on initial synoptic conditions. On longer time scales, many of these teleconnections to Indian irrigation are easily shrouded by internal variability, but a potential geographic action center remains over the meiyu-baiu rainband indicative of a nonlocal bridge mechanism. Many of the sensitivities identified here are distinct from other global models, emphasizing the need for carefully designed irrigation-intercomparison studies.
Reply to “Comments on ‘Langmuir Turbulence and Surface Heating in the Ocean Surface Boundary Layer’”
Authors: Pearson Brodie C. , Grant Alan L. M. , Polton Jeff A. , Belcher Stephen E.
Published: February 2018

The differences between the conclusions of Noh and Choi and of Pearson et al., which are largely a result of defining different length scales based on different quantities, are discussed. This study shows that the layer over which Langmuir turbulence mixes (nominally hTKE) under a stabilizing surface buoyancy flux should be scaled by a combination of the Langmuir stability length LL and initial/nocturnal boundary layer depth h0 rather than by the Zilitinkevich length.
Mitigating VHF Lightning Source Retrieval Errors
Authors: Koshak William J. , Mach Douglas M. , Bitzer Phillip M.
Published: February 2018

The problem of inferring the location and time of occurrence of a very high frequency (VHF) lightning source emission from Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) network time-of-arrival (TOA) measurements is closely examined in order to clarify the cause of retrieval errors and to determine how best to mitigate these errors. With regard to this inverse problem, the previous literature lacks a comprehensive discussion of the associated forward problem. Hence, the forward problem is analyzed in this study to better clarify why retrieval errors increase with increasing source horizontal range and/or decreasing source altitude. Further insight is obtained by performing carefully designed Monte Carlo inversion simulations that provide specific retrieval error plots, which in turn lead to clear recommendations for mitigating retrieval errors. Based on all of the numerical results, the following strategies are recommended for mitigating retrieval errors (when possible, and without obstructing the line of sight): expand the horizontal extent of the LMA network, maximize the vertical sensor baseline by using mountainous terrain if available, and improve TOA measurement timing accuracy. Adding sensors to the network is relatively ineffective, unless of course the addition of sensors expands the horizontal extent and/or vertical baseline of the network. It is also shown how the standard retrieval method can be generalized by considering, in addition to the regular (unpolarized) point VHF source, the polarized transient very low frequency/low frequency (VLF/LF) electric point dipole source. Multiple observations (i.e., VHF arrival time and power, and VLF/LF arrival time and electric field amplitude) are simultaneously implemented into the new generalized mathematical framework, and the potential benefits are indicated.
Interbasin Differences in the Relationship between SST and Tropical Cyclone Intensification
Authors: Foltz Gregory R. , Balaguru Karthik , Hagos Samson
Published: February 2018

Sea surface temperature (SST) is one of the most important parameters for tropical cyclone (TC) intensification. Here, it is shown that the relationship between SST and TC intensification varies considerably from basin to basin, with SST explaining less than 4% of the variance in TC intensification rates in the Atlantic, 12% in the western North Pacific, and 23% in the eastern Pacific. Several factors are shown to be responsible for these interbasin differences. First, variability of SST along TCs’ tracks is lower in the Atlantic. This is due to smaller horizontal SST gradients in the Atlantic, compared to the Pacific, and stronger damping of prestorm SST’s contribution to TC intensification by the storm-induced cold SST wake in the Atlantic. The damping occurs because SST tends to vary in phase with TC-induced SST cooling: in the Gulf of Mexico and northwestern Atlantic, where SSTs are highest, TCs tend to be strongest and their translations slowest, resulting in the strongest storm-induced cooling. The tendency for TCs to be more intense over the warmest SST in the Atlantic also limits the usefulness of SST as a predictor since stronger storms are less likely to experience intensification. Finally, SST tends to vary out of phase with vertical wind shear and outflow temperature in the western Pacific. This strengthens the relationship between SST and TC intensification more in the western Pacific than in the eastern Pacific or Atlantic. Combined, these factors explain why prestorm SST is such a poor predictor of TC intensification in the Atlantic, compared to the eastern and western North Pacific.
The impact of perceived discrimination on personality among Chinese migrant children: The moderating role of parental support
Authors: Xiang Xiaoping , Wong Daniel Fu Keung , Hou Ke
Published: February 2018

Background:

Previous research has indicated that perceived discrimination has harmful effects on migrant children’s physical, mental and behavioral health. However, little is known as to whether these harmful effects cumulate to impact on migrant children’s personalities.

Aims:

This study examines the effect of perceived discrimination on personality, as well as the moderating role of parental support in the discrimination–personality linkage.

Methods:

A purposeful convenience sample of 215 migrant children in Beijing, China, completed a standardized questionnaire.

Results:

Migrant children experienced a moderate level of perceived discrimination, with Form 8 students experiencing greater discrimination than lower grades and those with lower family incomes also experiencing greater discrimination than those with higher family incomes. Perceived discrimination significantly predicted neuroticism; parental support significantly predicted extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness, but the moderating effect of parental support was only marginally significant for the relation between discrimination and conscientiousness.

Conclusion:

This study underlines the need for researchers and policy makers to pay more attention to the impact of perceived discrimination on migrant children’s personality development.
Impact of different models of agriculture on greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions: A sectoral approach
Authors: Czyżewski Bazyli , Kryszak Łukasz
Published: February 2018

It is estimated that farm practices are responsible for as much as 25–30% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The scale of such emissions from agriculture depends on the model to which that sector conforms. The aim of this study was to investigate how the attributes of particular models of agriculture (i.e. labour, capital, land productivity, machinery, chemical, energy and water inputs) affect GHG emissions at the sectoral level. We test the hypothesis that the productivity of capital and labour as well as the intensity of inputs affect GHG emissions differently in countries with varying levels of economic development. The results indicate that in the poorest countries, a significant barrier to sustainable development is mechanization. In moderately wealthy countries there is a lack of stimuli to implement energy-saving technologies, while in the richest countries it is desirable that mechanization and chemicalization be reduced in favour of energy-saving technologies.
Effects of different drying methods on physicochemical and sizing properties of granular cold water swelling starch
Authors: Zhu Bo , Cao Xinwei , Liu Jianli , Gao Weidong
Published: February 2018

Granular cold water swelling starch (GCWS) can be converted from native starch by oven-dried and freeze-dried methods, respectively, after the alcoholic-alkaline treatment. The main aim of this research was to investigate and compare the physicochemical properties of the GCWS made through two different drying methods, including morphological properties, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, cold water solubility, thermal analysis and pasting properties. Then cotton yarns were sized by the two types of GCWS. Size pick-up, breaking strength, abrasion resistance and hairiness of sized yarns were respectively tested. Experimental results revealed that the alcoholic-alkaline treatment destroyed the crystalline structure without new groups being generated; the appearances of the GCWSs were significantly affected by the drying methods; the cold water solubility of freeze-dried GCWS was significantly larger than that of oven-dried GCWS, while freeze-dried GCWS showed lower retrogradation. In addition, it also indicated that the method of freeze-dried operation to prepare GCWS can effectively improve the sizing properties of cotton yarns.
Modeling wicking in textiles using the dual porosity approach
Authors: Parada Marcelo , Zhou Xiaohai , Derome Dominique , Rossi Rene Michel , Carmeliet Jan
Published: February 2018

We develop a dual porosity diffusivity model to simulate the complex dynamic wicking behavior in textiles: wicking inside yarns coupled with wicking in the voids in between the yarns. The model expands the Richards equation to account for mass exchange between the two pore systems. This exchange, however, appears to be very small for cotton textiles and the system appears to behave as two parallel pore systems. The water uptake in the yarn pore system is mostly affected by the textile structure (woven versus knit), while the void pore system differs in the maximum moisture content that can be achieved during uptake. Gravity is shown to play an important role, especially for the coarser void pore system.
CONSTRUCTING THE REFUGEE AS VILLAIN: An Analysis of Syrian Refugee Policy Narratives Used to Justify a State of Exception
Authors: Pope Paul James
Published: February 2018

Drawing on the conceptual lens of othering, this article links public policy narratives regarding the relocation of Syrian refugees inside the United States to the establishment of a “state of exception.” Using narrative policy analysis, 36 governor statements issued in response to the 2015 terror attacks in Paris, France are catalogued as either “accepting” or “rejecting” of the Obama Administration's refugee relocation program. This examination suggests the rejecting narratives construct a “sense of siege” in citizens driven by security fears and portrays refugees as villains. The author argues that the fear‐based language in these policies, which is used to justify a state of exception, further marginalizes the status of the stateless noncitizen refugees.
Evaluation of menthol per se on acute perceptions and behavioral choice of cigarettes differing in nicotine content
Authors: Perkins Kenneth A , Karelitz Joshua L , Kunkle Nicole
Published: February 2018

Subjective perceptions and self-administration of cigarettes are each influenced by nicotine. Yet, differences specifically due to menthol in perceptions and choice of cigarettes varying in nicotine, and the association between these responses, have not been directly tested. Using a mixed between- and within-subjects design, acute responses to each of two menthol or non-menthol Spectrum research cigarettes, moderate (16–17 mg/g) versus very low (0.4 mg/g) in nicotine contents, were compared following brief abstinence in adult smokers preferring menthol ( n=44) or non-menthol ( n=29) brands. To ensure reliable perceptions, they experienced five exposures to each cigarette, then chose between them. All perceptions and choices were greater for moderate vs very low nicotine, as expected, and the magnitude of difference in four of six perceptions was associated with subsequently greater choice of the moderate nicotine cigarette. Importantly, virtually no differences were found between menthol and non-menthol, as nearly all perceptions, cigarette choices, and the association between perceptions and choice were not moderated by menthol or the interaction of nicotine by menthol. Our results indicate perceptions and reinforcement from cigarettes do not differ due to menthol when nicotine content and smoking topography are carefully controlled. Thus, regardless of menthol, smoking perceptions directly predict self-administration behavior.
Parental Warmth Moderates the Association Between BMI Trajectories and Academic Achievement
Authors: Hsu Anna S. , Chen Chuansheng , Greenberger Ellen
Published: February 2018

Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten cohort (ECLS-K), this study aimed to identify body mass index (BMI) trajectories from kindergarten to eighth grade using group-based trajectory modeling (GBTM), examine the relationships between BMI trajectories and adolescents’ school achievement (reading and math), determine whether parental warmth had a protective effect on adolescents in the higher BMI groups, and assess whether similar patterns were observed for boys and girls. Three distinct BMI trajectories were identified. Adolescents in the gradually increasing BMI group and consistently higher BMI group were shown to have worse academic achievement compared with adolescents in the consistently low-to-normal BMI group. Parental warmth in eighth grade played a protective role for girls but not for boys, suggesting important gender differences in the role of parental warmth in overweight and obese adolescents’ school achievement. Our results highlighted the importance of intervention programs tailored for specific subgroups of overweight and obese adolescents.
Reality of obesity paradox: Results of percutaneous coronary intervention in Middle Eastern patients
Authors: Jarrah Mohamad , Hammoudeh Ayman J. , Khader Yousef , Tabbalat Ramzi , Al-Mousa Eyas , Okkeh Osama , Alhaddad Imad A. , Tawalbeh Loai Issa , Hweidi Issa M.
Published: February 2018

Objective

The aim of this study was to assess the baseline clinical characteristics, coronary angiographic features, and adverse cardiovascular events during hospitalization and at 1 year of follow-up in obese patients compared with overweight and normal/underweight patients.

Methods

A prospective, multicenter study of consecutive patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention was performed.

Results

Of 2425 enrolled patients, 699 (28.8%) were obese, 1178 (48.6%) were overweight, and 548 (22.6%) were normal/underweight. Obese patients were more likely to be female and to have a higher prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, or previous percutaneous coronary intervention. Acute coronary syndrome was the indication for percutaneous coronary intervention in 77.0% of obese, 76.4% of overweight, and 77.4% of normal/underweight patients. No significant differences in the prevalence of multi-vessel coronary artery disease or multi-vessel percutaneous coronary intervention were found among the three groups. Additionally, no significant differences were found in stent thrombosis, readmission bleeding rates, or cardiac mortality among the three groups during hospitalization, at 1 month, and at 1 year.

Conclusion

The major adverse cardiovascular event rate was the same among the three groups throughout the study period. Accordingly, body mass index is considered a weak risk factor for cardiovascular comorbidities in Arab Jordanian patients.
Skin Conductance Responses to Masked Emotional Faces Are Modulated by Hit Rate but Not Signal Detection Theory Adjustments for Subjective Differences in the Detection Threshold
Authors: Tsikandilakis Myron , Chapman Peter
Published: February 2018

The biological preparedness model suggests that survival-related visual cues elicit physiological changes without awareness to enable us to respond to our environment. Previous studies have reported some evidence for this effect. In the current article, we argue that this evidence is subject to methodological confounds. These include the use of a universal masked presentation threshold, the employment of hit rates (HRs) to measure meta-awareness, and the assertion of overall guess-level target detection using nonsignificance. In the current report, we address these issues and test whether masked emotional faces can elicit changes in physiology. We present participants with subjectively adjusted masked angry, fearful, happy, and neutral faces using HRs and signal detection theory. We assess detection performance using a strict Bayesian criterion for meta-awareness. Our findings reveal that HR adjustments in the detection threshold allow higher skin conductance responses to happy, fearful, and angry faces, but that this effect could not be reported by the same participants when the adjustments were made using signal detection measures. Combined these findings suggest that very brief biologically relevant stimuli can elicit physiological changes but cast doubt to the extent that this effect can occur in response to truly unconscious emotional faces.
Influence of MMP inhibitor GM6001 loading of fibre coated polypropylene meshes on wound healing: Implications for hernia repair
Authors: Böhm Gabriele , Groll Jürgen , Heffels Karl-Heinz , Heussen Nicole , Ink Peter , Alizai Hamid Patrick , Neumann Ulf Peter , Schnabel Reinhild , Mirastschijski Ursula
Published: February 2018

Polypropylene meshes are standard for hernia repair. Matrix metalloproteinases play a central role in inflammation. To reduce the inflammatory response and improve remodelling with an associated reduction of hernia recurrence, we modified polypropylene meshes by nanofibre coating and saturation with the broad-spectrum matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor GM6001. The aim was to modulate the inflammatory reaction, increase collagen deposition and improve mesh biointegration. Polypropylene meshes were surface-modified with star-configured NCO-sP(EO -stat-PO) and covered with electrospun nanofibres (polypropylene-nano) and GM6001 (polypropylene-nano-GM). In a hernia model, defects were reconstructed with one of the meshes. Inflammation, neovascularization, bio-integration, proliferation and apoptosis were assessed histologically, collagen content and gelatinases biochemically. Mesh surface modification resulted in higher inflammatory response compared to polypropylene. Pro-inflammatory matrix metalloproteinase-9 paralleled findings while GM6001 reduced matrix metalloproteinase-9 significantly. Significantly increased matrix metalloproteinase-2 beneficial for remodelling was noted with polypropylene-nano-meshes. Increased vascular endothelial growth factor, neo-vascularization and collagen content were measured in polypropylene-nano-meshes compared to polypropylene. GM6001 significantly reduced myofibroblasts. This effect ended after d14 due to engineering limitations with release of maximal GM6001 loading. Nanofibre-coating of polypropylene-meshes confers better tissue vascularization to the cost of increased inflammation. This phenomenon can be only partially compensated by GM6001. Future research will enable higher GM6001 uptake in nano-coated meshes and may alter mesh biointegration in a more pronounced way.
Physical Function in U.S. Older Adults Compared With Other Populations: A Multinational Study
Authors: Glei Dana A. , Goldman Noreen , Ryff Carol D. , Weinstein Maxine
Published: February 2018

Objective: We compare physical performance from three U.S. national surveys and nationally representative surveys in England, Taiwan, and Costa Rica. Method: For each performance test, we use local mean smoothing to plot the age profiles by sex and survey wave and then fit a linear regression model to the pooled data, separately by sex, to test for significant differences across surveys controlling for age and height. Results: Age profiles of performance vary across U.S. surveys, but levels of lung function (peak expiratory flow) and handgrip strength in the United States are as high as they are in the other three countries. Americans also perform as well on the chair stand test as the English and Costa Ricans, if not better, but exhibit slower gait speed than the English at most ages. Discussion: With the exception of walking speed, we find little evidence that older Americans have worse physical performance than their peers.
“I’ll be more prepared than most people”: Very young Canadian workers talking about their first jobs
Authors: Raby Rebecca , Lehmann Wolfgang , Easterbrook Rachel , Helleiner Jane
Published: February 2018

We report on interviews with very young Canadian workers regarding their first jobs, with a focus on why they started working, the rewards and risks of their work, and their familial supports. Our participants were largely positive about their early work experiences, although they also raised concerns, e.g. about safety. We reflect on three inter-related themes emerging from their accounts: competence and vulnerability, independence and dependence, and protection and under-protection.
Cure of chronic hepatitis C virus infection in an HIV-coinfected patient with multiple comorbidities and drug interaction challenges
Authors: Álvarez Hortensia , Mariño Ana , Valcarce Nieves , Khoo Saye , Bhagani Sanjay , Schapiro Jonathan , Llibre Josep M
Published: February 2018

Curing hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in patients harbouring multiple severe comorbidities is a medical challenge. Evidence-based data are lacking regarding HCV treatment with direct-acting antiviral regimens in particular populations of HCV/HIV-coinfected patients with cirrhosis and chronic kidney disease on haemodialysis. Here, we present the HCV treatment challenges facing a patient with HIV coinfection, prior failure of both HIV-1 and HCV therapy, cirrhosis, end-stage renal failure on haemodialysis, as well as management of drug–drug interactions, especially given the need to receive long-term amiodarone therapy.
The Roma and documentary film: Considerations for collection development
Authors: Schiff Rebecca Adler
Published: February 2018

This paper explores the issues and criteria involved in developing a creditable documentary film collection about the Romani people for an academic library. Throughout their history, the Roma, or Gypsies, have dealt with biased, romanticized versions of their story, perpetuated by stereotypes found in legend, literature, song, and film. The expectation in the present undertaking is that the evidence coming from documentary films provides an effective antidote for misrepresentations. The paper reviews pertinent literature, suggests a selection process, and furnishes commentaries on individual titles as they relate to a framework based on the Romani historical and geographical narrative. A critical lens, namely, an awareness of the misrepresentations that abound in all media, is recommended as the instrument through which the films should be viewed. It is this dual approach – applying a historical framework and a critical lens – that can offer librarians a foundation upon which to build and grow a well-balanced collection.
Foreign Business Activities, Foreignness of the VC Syndicate, and IPO Value
Authors: Chahine Salim , Saade Samer , Goergen Marc
Published: February 2018

This article examines the role played by foreign venture capital (VC) firms in U.S. initial public offerings (IPOs). We find that U.S. VC–backed IPOs benefit from the foreignness of the VC syndicate. Specifically, jointly with domestic VC firms, foreign VC firms certify the quality of their portfolio companies at the time of the IPO, which increases their IPO premium. Foreign VC firms also play an advisory role, enhancing the foreign business activities of their U.S. investees, thereby increasing the IPO premium. Finally, value added by foreign VC firms is greater through their monitoring role if they originate from countries where the investee has foreign business activities.
Founders Matter! Serial Entrepreneurs and Venture Capital Syndicate Formation
Authors: Zhang Lei
Published: February 2018

Although founders are responsible for soliciting venture capital (VC) funding, their influence over VC syndicate formation has largely been neglected in the extant literature. This article fills this gap by comparing serial and novice entrepreneurs. Using the information asymmetry argument as our guiding framework, we argue that when potential investors face diminished information asymmetry, entrepreneurs are more likely to form VC syndicates that are more beneficial to ventures—providing entrepreneurs with greater and more diverse resources and to some extent reducing entrepreneurs’ loss of control. Enriched by qualitative evidence from fieldwork, a quantitative analysis of 351 ventures shows general support for our argument and reveals unexpected nuances.
Melanin Bleaching With Warm Hydrogen Peroxide and Integrated Immunohistochemical Analysis: An Automated Platform
Authors: Liu Chia-Hsing , Lin Chih-Hung , Tsai Min-Jan , Chen Yu-Hsuan , Yang Sheau-Fang , Tsai Kun-Bow
Published: February 2018

Objective. Diagnosing melanocytic lesions is among the most challenging problems in the practice of pathology. The difficulty of physically masking melanin pigment and the similarity of its color to commonly used chromogens often complicate examination of the cytomorphology and immunohistochemical staining results for tumor cells. Melanin bleach can be very helpful for histopathological diagnosis of heavily pigmented melanocytic lesions. Although various depigmentation methods have been reported, no standardized methods have been developed. This study developed a fully automated platform that incorporates hydrogen peroxide–based melanin depigmentation in an automated immunohistochemical analysis. Methods and Materials. The utility of the method was tested in 1 cell block of malignant melanoma cells in pleural effusion, 10 ocular melanoma tissue samples, and 10 cutaneous melanoma tissue samples. Our results demonstrated that the proposed method, which can be performed in only 3 hours, effectively preserves cell cytomorphology and immunoreactivity. Results. The method is particularly effective for removing melanin pigment to facilitate histopathological examination of cytomorphology and for obtaining an unmasked tissue section for immunohistochemical analysis.
Study on preparation, sound absorption, and electromagnetic shielding effectiveness of rigid foam composites
Authors: Peng Haokai , Wang Xiaoxiao , Li Ting-Ting , Huang Shih-Yu , Wu Liwei , Lou Ching-Wen , Lin Jia-Horng
Published: February 2018

This study aims to propose and obtain rigid foam composites that have features of good sound absorption and electromagnetic shielding effectiveness. Polyether polyol, isocyanate, and distilled water are used to form rigid foams. The hot pressed low-melting-point polyester nonwoven fabrics with an area density of 200 g/m2 are combined with polyester aluminum foil, thereby forming the panels. The cell structure, compression stress, tensile properties, thermal conductivity, sound absorption, and electromagnetic shielding effectiveness of the rigid foam composites are evaluated in order to examine the influence of the amount of water content (0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4 wt%). The test results show that using 0.1 wt% of water content provides the rigid foam composites with a maximum foam density of 0.16 g/cm3, an average cell size of 0.36 mm, the maximum tensile stress of 2.84 MPa, a good thermal insulation performance, an optimal sound coefficient of 0.92, and an optimal electromagnetic shielding effectiveness of above 40 dB.
Luhmann, Latour and global petroleum governance
Authors: Richert Jörn
Published: February 2018

Global energy studies have produced a flurry of empirical analyses. However, the amount of theoretical reflection on the topic remains comparatively low. This article takes two specific limitations of the literature as its starting point: First, the often-unclear relationship between states and markets in global energy governance, and, second, the concept of energy as a material and external structure. With the aim of providing more nuanced perspectives on these issues, the article turns to the work of Niklas Luhmann and Bruno Latour. Luhmann’s ideas of functional differentiation and structural coupling provide a new look at the interaction of states and markets. Latour’s symmetric anthropology allows us to rethink energy as a hybrid that is in the midst of instead of outside society. While these thinkers provide interesting ways forward for global energy studies, they also appear to be utterly incompatible. Instead of accepting this incompatibility, however, the article uses the tension between Luhmann and Latour’s work as a productive resource for further reflection on global energy governance. It develops a ‘Luhtourian’ approach, arguing that hybrid, issue-specific governance systems can emerge whenever a resistant hybrid instigates the emergence of symbolically generalized governance objects.
A survivor just like us? Lena Dunham and the politics of transmedia authorship and celebrity feminism
Authors: Murray Rona
Published: February 2018

Lena Dunham is a modern celebrity and television producer-writer who is important in her willingness to self-identify as a feminist, and to engage in feminist activism on social media and in her memoir writing. Her writing in her successful television series, Girls (2012–17), has already raised questions of authenticity. This article develops this analysis further by considering how Dunham’s situation, as a transmedia author, complicates this authenticity, particularly through her construction of ‘affective ordinariness’, a key aspect of her identity as a feminist activist. Her various personas, including that of the celebrity feminist, highlight the ‘contradictions’ which exist within the current complex culture of postfeminism and the perception of new feminisms. Nowhere are these contradictions more apparent than in the dissonance created by Dunham’s transmedia voice in the matter of rape and sexual violence.
‘Only the Bad Gyal could do this’: Rihanna, rape-revenge narratives and the cultural politics of white feminism
Authors: Ferreday Debra
Published: February 2018

In July 2015, Rihanna released a seven-minute long video for her new single, entitled ‘Bitch Better Have My Money’ (more widely known as ‘BBHMM’), the violent imagery in which would divide feminist media commentators for its representation of graphic and sexualised violence against a white couple. The resulting commentary would become the focus of much popular and academic feminist debate over the intersectional gendered and racialised politics of popular culture, in particular coming to define what has been termed ‘white feminism’. ‘BBHMM’ is not the first time Rihanna’s work has been considered in relation to these debates: not only has she herself been very publicly outed as a survivor of male violence, but she has previously dealt with themes of rape and revenge in an earlier video, 2010’s ‘Man Down’, and in her lyrics. In this article I explore the multiple and layered ways in which Rihanna, and by extension other female artists of colour, are produced by white feminism as both responsible for perpetrating gender-based violence, and as victims in need of rescue. The effect of such liberal feminist critique, I argue, is to hold black female artists responsible for a rape culture that continually subjects women of colour to symbolic and actual violence. In this context, the fantasy violence of ‘Man Down’ and to a greater extent ‘BBHMM’ dramatises the impossibility of ‘being paid what one is owed’ in a culture that produces women of colour’s bodies, morality and personal trauma as abjected objects of consumption. I read these two videos through the lens of feminist film theory in order to explore how such representations mobilise affective responses of shame, identification and complicity that are played out in feminist responses to her work, and how their attachment to a simplistic model of representation conceals and reproduces racialised relations of inequality.
Aesthetic objects on display: The objectification of fashion models as a situated practice
Authors: Holla Sylvia M.
Published: February 2018

This article unravels the process of objectification by empirically examining a social context where it occurs almost incessantly: fashion modeling. Drawing on an ethnography of fashion modeling in Amsterdam, Paris and Warsaw, I argue that objectification is neither ubiquitous nor one-dimensional: it takes place in specific social contexts and unfolds itself differently under different social conditions. Moreover, objectification is not unidirectional: it is done by and happens to both men and women. By taking an experiential perspective which involves models’ subjective responses to being objectified, I call into question theoretical arguments of objectification pertaining to disempowered subjects, and the assumption that objectification is inherently negative or immoral. Instead, I argue that objectification is socially rooted in institutions and specific situations and that this matters considerably for its varying forms, levels of intensity and the emotional and practical responses it evokes in people. This does not imply that objectification is less compelling as a process, or easy to avoid. Objectification might be all the more effective exactly because the process is embedded in different social contexts, and adapts itself accordingly.
Aesthetic surgery and the expressive body
Authors: Alsop Rachel , Lennon Kathleen
Published: February 2018

In this article, we explore the relation between bodies and selves evident in the narratives surrounding aesthetic surgery. In much feminist work on aesthetic surgery, such narratives have been discussed in terms of the normalising consequences of the objectifying, homogenising, cosmetic gaze. These discussions stress the ways in which we model our bodies, under the gaze of others, in order to conform to social norms. Such an objectified body is contrasted with the subjective body; the body-for-the-self. In this article, however, we wish to make sense of the narratives surrounding such surgery by invoking the expressive body, which fits on neither side of this binary. We wish to explore how the modification of the body’s anatomical features (physiology) is taken to be a modification of its expressive possibilities, and therefore a modification of possibilities for inter-subjective relations with others. It is such expressive possibilities that, we suggest, underlie decisions to undergo surgical procedures. The possibility of modification of the expressive possibilities of the body, by the modification of its anatomical features, rests on the social imaginaries attached to anatomical features. In the context of such imaginaries, individual decisions to undergo or promote surgery can be both intelligible and potentially empowering. However, the social consequences of such acts are an increasing normalisation of the ‘body under the knife’ and an intolerance of bodily difference. This, we suggest, can only be changed by a re-visioning of bodily imaginaries so that expressive possibilities can be experienced across bodies with a range of physiological features.
Beyond hierarchical oppositions: A feminist critique of Karen Barad’s agential realism
Authors: Braunmühl Caroline
Published: February 2018

The article contributes to the debate on new materialism commenced by Sara Ahmed (2008). Taking up Lena Gunnarsson’s (2013) argument that erasing distinctions is no effective antidote to dualistic theorising, the article argues that Karen Barad’s (2003, 2007) theory is problematic on this count. Whereas Barad dilutes the theoretical distinction between mind and matter as well as that between the animate and the inanimate, the contention here is that it is ethically and politically vital to hold on to a notion of subjectivity understood in terms of the capacity for experience, on account of which sentient being is exposed to suffering. This requires accentuating the passive dimension of subjectivity rather than merely the active dimension of matter. This article contests Barad’s reinscription of a masculinist devaluation of passivity on the grounds that only by moving beyond it can we overcome the hierarchical opposition of subject versus object and, in consequence, of mind versus matter.
Black pussy power: Performing acts of black eroticism in Pam Grier’s Blaxploitation films
Authors: Roach Shoniqua
Published: February 2018

This article contends that black feminist conceptions of ‘pussy power’ have prematurely foreclosed an examination of both pussy and its powers, thereby missing the erotic potential inherent in a ‘pussy power’ that is distinctly black – what I term black pussy power. Taking Pam Grier’s Blaxploitation performances in Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974) as my primary case studies, I use black pussy power as a conceptual framework through which to read Grier’s performances of black eroticism, which enable her to resist racialised gendered sexual subjection and tap into modes of erotic agency otherwise denied to her. Moving away from delimited understandings of pussy as female genitalia or an objectified entity of female sexuality, I mobilise black queer feminist theorisations of the ‘arbitrary relation between black sex and gender’ to theorise the polymorphous potential of black pussy to signify beyond the narrow gender and sexual grammars currently available to us. 1 At the same time, black pussy’s discursive connection to black feminine sexuality animates the insurgent potential of black pussy power to secure nominal black freedoms in the face of state-sanctioned infringements on black erotic life.
Anticipations, afterlives: On the temporal and affective reorientations of sexual difference
Authors: Er Yanbing
Published: February 2018

This article focuses on the affective potential of anticipation, in its ready endorsement of the unknown, as a formative lens for theorising feminist temporalities. I draw from earlier readings of Luce Irigaray’s conceptual paradigm of sexual difference to examine how its articulation of a feminist future that is inherently unknowable might contribute to recent debates on the temporalities of feminist thought. The article presents two broadly intersecting lines of argument. I first emphasise the continued centrality of sexual difference in its anticipatory imperative for thinking feminism but – or perhaps, especially – through a contradictory retrieval of the term that re-narrates its contemporary significance. In other words, it is precisely the retroactive position that sexual difference occupies that exacts a critical reorientation of existing modes of feminist temporalities; it moreover does so as a theoretical construct that altogether circumvents our understanding of feminism as a progress narrative. Secondly, I build upon Drucilla Cornell’s contentions in Beyond Accommodation that the unknown futurity inaugurated by the trajectories of sexual difference demands a dimension of inquiry that is inevitably aesthetic (1991). I identify a possibility of literature’s reinvigoration in emergence narratives of feminist theorising, particularly in a certain ethical capacity precipitated by its affective experience of enchantment, which mirrors the ‘wonder’ that sexual difference incites. If we are to continue to use literature as a conducive space of feminist analysis, then it is the forward-looking perpetuation of feminist narratives that must also be rethought for their investment in the multiple contingencies of anticipation.
The effects of addition of co-solvents on the physicochemical properties of gasoline–methanol blended fuels
Authors: Schifter Isaac , Diaz Luis , Gonzalez Uriel , Gonzalez-Macias Carmen , Mejía-Centeno Isidro
Published: February 2018

The scope of the work carried out is aimed to evaluate the effects of blending methanol in the gasoline pool, particularly octane number and Reid vapor pressure increase when methanol is substituting methyl-tertiary-butyl ether in the formulation of Regular and Premium base gasolines. Isopropyl alcohol and ethanol have been investigated and found to be a promising co-blending alcohol to be mixed in gasoline methanol blends. Isopropyl alcohol is most effective below 3 vol%. Ethanol has been found to be the most promising co-blending alcohol able to reduce the Reid vapor pressure increase by 1.4 psi even with concentrations in the range of 2 vol%. The addition of isopropyl alcohol to the methanol–gasoline blends has shown the ability of a ternary mixture to further reduce the Reid vapor pressure of the finished gasoline and, subject to availability and price of isopropyl alcohol, could be of interest in further formulation studies focused on maximizing the saving on finished gasoline cost by reducing the Reid vapor pressure of base gasoline and/or increasing the methanol content.
‘Sexual misery’ or ‘happy British Muslims’?: Contemporary depictions of Muslim sexuality
Authors: Chambers Claire , Phillips Richard , Ali Nafhesa , Hopkins Peter , Pande Raksha
Published: February 2018

We begin this article with a close look at some contemporary pictures of sexual life in the Muslim world that have been painted in certain sections of the Western media, asking how and why these pictures matter. Across a range of mainstream print media from the New York Times to the Daily Mail, and across reported events from several countries, can be found pictures of ‘sexual misery’. These ‘frame’ Muslim men as tyrannical, Muslim women as downtrodden or exploited, and the wider world of Islam as culpable. Crucially, this is not the whole story. We then consider how these negative representations are being challenged and how they can be challenged further. In doing so, we will not simply set pictures of sexual misery against their binary opposites, namely pictures abounding in the promise of sexual happiness. Instead, we search for a more complex picture, one that unsettles stereotypes about the sexual lives of Muslims without simply idealising its subjects. This takes us to the journalism, life writing and creative non-fiction of Shelina Zahra Janmohamed and the fiction of Ayisha Malik and Amjeed Kabil. We read this long-form work critically, attending to manifest advances in depictions of the relationships of Muslim-identified individuals over the last decade or so, while also remaining alert to lacunae and limitations in the individual representations. More broadly, we hope to signal our intention to avoid both Islamophobia and Islamophilia in scrutinising literary texts.
Managing behavioral and psychological symptoms in Chinese elderly with dementia via group-based music intervention: A cluster randomized controlled trial
Authors: Ho Rainbow TH , Fong Ted CT , Sing CY , Lee Pandora HT , Leung Alice BK , Chung Kitty SM , Kwok Janet KL
Published: February 2018

The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of a group music intervention in managing behavioral and psychological symptoms in Chinese elderly with dementia. This cluster randomized trial recruited 73 elderly participants with moderate dementia from 10 elderly residential homes and assigned them to the intervention ( n = 40) and control ( n = 33) group. The intervention included 16 half-hour sessions of music intervention with multi-sensory components over eight weeks and control group received standard care. Participants’ levels of subjective moods and neuropsychiatric symptoms such as agitation, aberrant motor behaviors, dysphoria, and irritability were assessed at baseline, the 2nd, 4th, 6th, and the end of the intervention. Controlling for baseline outcomes, latent growth modeling revealed significant intervention effects for agitation ( B = −1.03, SE = 0.30, p < 0.01), aberrant motor behavior ( B = −1.80, SE = 0.66, p < 0.01), and dysphoria ( B = −0.79, SE = 0.36, p < 0.05), with the intervention group showing improvements compared to no substantial changes in the control group. There were no significant intervention effects on irritability or subjective mood ( p > 0.05). The music intervention showed significant reduction in the behavioral and psychological symptoms in Chinese elderly patients with dementia. Elderly homes could adopt this practical non-pharmacological intervention as a strategy to improve the well-being of the elderly.
Pupils’ enactments of a policy for equivalence: Stories about different conditions when preparing for national tests
Authors: Löfgren Håkan , Löfgren Ragnhild , Pérez Prieto Héctor
Published: February 2018

This article revolves around the educational policy introduced in Swedish schools that has extended national testing to younger pupils. The policy is intended to support equal assessment and grading. With the exception of short-term preparations for the tests focused on here, the testing routines are regulated by the state. The paper aims to examine how the policy of national testing in grade six is enacted in different school contexts from a pupil’s point of view, and how this affects equivalence in school. A narrative analysis was conducted of pupils’ ( n = 150) stories about preparing for national tests in 11 schools. Three forms of enactments were distinguished according to how responsibility for test preparations was allocated in each school. In some schools, teachers invited the pupils systematically to the translation process. In other schools, pupils were given most of the responsibility for preparation and were left alone as actors vis-a-vis the policy. Finally, in schools that applied ad hoc preparations, the pupils’ position as actors became less secure and more multifaceted. This variety regarding the pupils’ test preparations in school stress that the different enactments of this policy of national testing have implications for the interpretation of equivalence in school.
Changing universities through action research: The dilemma of scope in pluralistic environments
Authors: Larrea Miren
Published: February 2018

The paper departs from the work of Davydd Greenwood and Morten Levin on the transformation of universities through action research to raise the question of how action research can be the engine of change in an organisational setting where conditions are inimical to its practice. It shares some theoretical contributions that frame this challenge and proposes insider action research as a potential method to face it. The paper then presents the case of Orkestra-Basque Institute of Competitiveness and its impact in changing the University of Deusto. The case focuses mainly on how this institute has developed insider action research. The case, connected to the previously presented theoretical framework, is used for discussion purposes and to pose what the author terms the dilemma of scope of action research in pluralistic university environments.