bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Influence of selective solvents on self-assembly behaviors of amphiphilic hyperbranched poly(aryl ether ketone)-graft-poly(ethylene glycol) rod–coil copolymer
Authors: Luan Jiashuang , Lu Chunhua , Guo Yunliang , Li Feng , Wang Guibin
Published: April 2016

An amphiphilic hyperbranched poly(aryl ether ketone)- graft-poly(ethylene glycol) (HPAEK- graft-PEG) rod–coil copolymer was synthesized by grafting linear PEG onto hydroxyl-terminated HPAEK (OH-HPAEK). The molecular structure, the number-average molecular weight and the thermal properties of HPAEK- graft-PEG were characterized by proton nuclear magnetic resonance and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopies, gel permeation chromatography, differential scanning calorimetry, and thermogravimetric analysis, respectively. The self-assembly behaviors of HPAEK- graft-PEG in the mixed solvents were investigated by transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The results demonstrated that the selective solvent in the used mixed solvents exerted remarkable influence on the morphology of the resulting micelles. When the mixed solvents were water/tetrahydrofuran (THF), trichloromethane/THF, and toluene/THF, that is, with the decrease of the selective solvents in polarity, HPAEK- graft-PEG could self-assemble into the regular microspheres with obvious core–shell structure, the similar quadrilateral-shaped micelles with the dimension of about 20 nm and the large complicated clew-shaped micelles, as well as the irregular large compound micelles, respectively. It is worth mentioning that the similar quadrilateral-shaped micelles were different from the toroidal micelles reported already, which had relatively obvious “angle”. The phenomenon may be ascribed that the rigid characteristic of rod HAPEK segment was conducive to the maintenance of the metastable state.
Thermal error compensation based on genetic algorithm and artificial neural network of the shaft in the high-speed spindle system
Authors: Ma Chi , Zhao Liang , Mei Xuesong , Shi Hu , Yang Jun
Published: April 2016

To improve the accuracy, generality and convergence of thermal error compensation model based on traditional neural networks, a genetic algorithm was proposed to optimize the number of the nodes in the hidden layer, the weights and the thresholds of the traditional neural network by considering the shortcomings of the traditional neural networks which converged slowly and was easy to fall into local minima. Subsequently, the grey cluster grouping and statistical correlation analysis were proposed to group temperature variables and select thermal sensitive points. Then, the thermal error models of the high-speed spindle system were proposed based on the back propagation and genetic algorithm–back propagation neural networks with practical thermal error sample data. Moreover, thermal error compensation equations of three directions and compensation strategy were presented, considering thermal elongation and radial tilt angles. Finally, the real-time thermal error compensation was implemented on the jig borer’s high-speed spindle system. The results showed that genetic algorithm–back propagation models showed its effectiveness in quickly solving the global minimum searching problem with perfect convergence and robustness under different working conditions. In addition, the spindle thermal error compensation method based on the genetic algorithm–back propagation neural network can improve the jig borer’s machining accuracy effectively. The results of thermal error compensation showed that the axial accuracy was improved by 85% after error compensation, and the axial maximum error decreased from 39 to 3.6 µm. Moreover, the X/ Y-direction accuracy can reach up to 82% and 85%, respectively, which demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed methodology of measuring, modeling and compensating.
Cerebral oxygenation and sympathetic responses to smoking in young and middle-aged smokers
Authors: Kastelein TE , Duffield R , Crowcroft S , Marino FE
Published: April 2016

This study examined the effects of acute tobacco smoking on cerebral oxygenation and autonomic function in 28 male, habitual smokers of shorter young smokers (YSM) or longer middle-aged smokers (MSM) smoking history. Following baseline testing, participants undertook a smoking protocol involving the consumption of two cigarettes within 15 min. Measures of cerebral oxygenation and autonomic function were collected before, during, and 0 min, 30 min, 1 h, and 4 h post-smoking. Tissue saturation index (TSI) for MSM was greater than YSM during cigarette consumption ( p < 0.05). Moreover, MSM observed significant within-group changes for TSI during and post-cigarette consumption ( p < 0.05). Further, MSM observed an increase in low frequency (LF) band from 30 min to 1 h post-consumption, followed by a decline, whereas elevations above MSM were observed in YSM at 4 h ( p < 0.05). Both MSM and YSM showed a decrease in high-frequency (HF) band post-cigarette, while increased LF/HF ratio post-consumption was observed in YSM. A decline in the standard deviation of RR intervals, post-cigarette consumption was evident in MSM ( p < 0.05). Moreover, the root mean square of RR interval in both groups similarly decreased following cigarette consumption ( p < 0.05). Acute smoking affects heart rate variability, suggestive of vagal withdrawal, and maybe indicate an effect of smoking history. Additionally, prolonged smoking history alters cerebral microcirculatory responses to acute tobacco exposure in MSM.
Investing in Inclusive Human Development
Authors: Riboud Michelle
Published: April 2016

This article addresses issues relevant to building an effective human capital base in the five countries of Central Asia and proposes ways to enhance prospects not only for each country but also for the region as a whole. It will deal with the two main components of human capital: education and training, and health. For each of these, the analysis will start by examining recent trends, identifying similarities and differences between countries, and reviewing policy directions and recent reforms. Common issues, as well as those specific to a particular country, will be discussed before proposing a possible program of actions that could help the countries achieve their vision. The analysis is constrained by the limited availability of reliable statistical data. Detailed information on all aspects of human development is not always available for all countries. There is, in particular, very scarce information about human development outcomes and policies in Turkmenistan, which limits the capacity to make policy recommendations for this particular country. For other countries, when data are available, comparability is sometimes made difficult by differences in reference period, definitions, coverage, and sources. Some caution is therefore advised in the interpretation of data.
Lean as ideology and practice: A comparative study of the impact of lean production on working life in automotive manufacturing in the United Kingdom and Poland
Authors: Stewart Paul , Mrozowicki Adam , Danford Andy , Murphy Ken
Published: April 2016

This article reports on research conducted at General Motors UK and Poland, BMW-UK and VW-Motor Poland. The development of a range of managerial practices at the workplace, often described as lean production techniques, is discussed. The focus is on the impact of the latter on employees’ quality of work-life. While advocates of lean, so-called leanistas, argue that the ‘right’ management cadre will allow the positive effects of lean to prevail, evidence confirming this assumption remains limited. In contrast to ‘lean ideology’, findings here highlight the deleterious effects of systems so defined on the quality of life at work and to workers’ health beyond employment.
Proximal Gastrocnemius Release in the Treatment of Mechanical Metatarsalgia
Authors: Morales-Muñoz Patricia , De Los Santos Real Raúl , Barrio Sanz Patricia , Pérez Jose Luis , Varas Navas Jesús , Escalera Alonso Javier
Published: April 2016

Background:

Gastrocnemius shortening causes an equinus deformity that may clinically manifest in foot disorders, including metatarsalgia. We use this term to describe pain localized to the metatarsal heads. The purposes of this prospective study were to review the effect of medial gastrocnemius proximal release on ankle dorsiflexion and assess the outcome of this technique on pain and functional limitations in patients who have mechanical metatarsalgia and isolated gastrocnemius shortening.

Methods:

We prospectively followed a consecutive series of 78 feet in 52 patients with metatarsalgia who had an isolated gastrocnemius contracture assessed with the Silfverskiöld test. Surgical release was evaluated with visual analog scale (VAS) and American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society (AOFAS) scales. Ankle dorsiflexion was measured at 1, 3, and 6 months postoperatively.

Results:

Preoperative values of VAS and AOFAS were 7.4 and 46.8, respectively. After 3 months postoperatively, the values were 3.0 and 81.7, and 6 months after surgery these values were 3.5 and 83.6. No patient worsened clinically. There were no major complications. Thirty-six patients (69.2%) were completely satisfied with the results of the surgery. Preoperatively, ankle dorsiflexion with the knee straight was −17.5 degrees, which improved to 2.5 degrees at 6 months postoperatively.

Conclusion:

We believe proximal medial gastrocnemius recession is an alternate procedure to treat selected patients with mechanical metatarsalgia and gastrocnemius shortening. It had acceptable morbidity and cosmetic results.

Level of Evidence:

Level IV, case series.
The Politics of Access in Fieldwork
Authors: Cunliffe Ann L. , Alcadipani Rafael
Published: April 2016

Gaining access in fieldwork is crucial to the success of research, and may often be problematic because it involves working in complex social situations. This article examines the intricacies of access, conceptualizing it as a fluid, temporal, and political process that requires sensitivity to social issues and to potential ethical choices faced by both researchers and organization members. Our contribution lies in offering ways in which researchers can reflexively negotiate the challenges of access by (a) underscoring the complex and relational nature of access by conceptualizing three relational perspectives—instrumental, transactional, and relational—proposing the latter as a strategy for developing a diplomatic sensitivity to the politics of access; (b) explicating the political, ethical, and emergent nature of access by framing it as an ongoing process of immersion, backstage dramas, and deception; and (c) offering a number of relational micropractices to help researchers negotiate the complexities of access. We illustrate the challenges of gaining and maintaining access through examples from the literature and from Rafael’s attempts to gain access to carry out fieldwork in a police force.
Genocidal carcerality and Indian residential schools in Canada
Authors: Woolford Andrew , Gacek James
Published: April 2016

This paper contributes to the criminology of genocide through examination of settler colonial destruction within the broader context of what we term ‘genocidal carcerality’. We employ this term to examine the ways in which space is implicated in the physical, biological, and cultural destruction of group life. In this paper, our purpose is not to create a typology of genocidal carcerality, but rather to demonstrate the multiplicity of spatial strategies at work within any genocidal context, with specific focus on Indian Residential Schools. In so doing, we critique attempts to reduce genocidal carcerality to a single spatial form, such as the camp. We illustrate our main points through a case study of the Fort Alexander Indian Residential School in Manitoba, Canada.
Featured Article: Accelerated decline of physical strength in peroxiredoxin-3 knockout mice
Authors: Zhang Yong-Gang , Wang Li , Kaifu Tomonori , Li Jingmin , Li Xiaoyan , Li Lianqin
Published: April 2016

As a member of peroxiredoxin family, peroxiredoxin-3 plays a major role in the control of mitochondrial level of reactive oxygen species. During the breeding of experimental mice, we noticed that the peroxiredoxin-3 knockout mice were listless with aging. In the present study, we compared the swimming exercise performance and oxidative status between peroxiredoxin-3 knockout mice ( n = 15) and wild-type littermates ( n = 15). At the age of 10 months, the physical strength of peroxiredoxin-3 knockout mice was much lower than the wild-type littermates. Increased oxidative damage and decreased mitochondrial DNA copy number of the animal skeletal muscles were observed in peroxiredoxin-3 knockout mice as compared to that in the wild-type littermates. In addition, we found increased apoptotic cells in the brains of peroxiredoxin-3 knockout mice. Our results suggest that the deficiency of peroxiredoxin-3 induces accelerated oxidative stress and mitochondrial impairment, resulting in the decrease of energy supply and cellular activities. Peroxiredoxin-3 might be involved in the inhibition of aging process.
Cardioprotective effects of sitagliptin against doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity in rats
Authors: El-Agamy Dina S , Abo-Haded Hany M , Elkablawy Mohamed A
Published: April 2016

There is a large body of evidence suggesting that inhibitors of dipeptidyl peptidase-4, such as sitagliptin, may exhibit beneficial effects against different inflammatory disorders. This investigation was conducted to elucidate the potential ability of sitagliptin to counteract the injurious effects of doxorubicin in cardiac tissue. Male Wistar rats were pretreated with sitagliptin for 10 days then treated with a single dose of doxorubicin (20 mg/kg, i.p). Electrocardiography, biochemical estimation of serum and tissue markers, and histo- and immunopathological examinations were done. Results have shown that supplementation with sitagliptin resulted in significant improvement of cardiac function with contaminant decrease in serum markers of doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity. These results were supported by the histopathological results. Furthermore, a marked protection against oxidative stress was evident through reduction of lipid peroxidation and prevention of reduced glutathione content depletion and superoxide dismutase activity reduction in cardiac tissue of rats pretreated with sitagliptin in combination with doxorubicin. Moreover, sitagliptin ameliorated the activation of nuclear factor kappa-B and the release of inflammatory cytokines, tumour necrosis factor-alpha and nitric oxide. Finally, sitagliptin attenuated doxorubicin-induced increase in the expression of pro-apoptotic protein Bax and in the apoptotic marker, caspase-3. Collectively, these data indicate that sitagliptin pretreatment could alleviate doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity via reducing oxidative damage and its subsequent inflammation and apoptosis.
Superior Vena Cava Obstruction Complicated by Upper Extremity Deep Vein Thrombosis
Authors: Khalifa Mohamed , Patel Neeral , Moser Steven
Published: April 2016

Superior vena cava obstruction (SVCO) and associated thrombus formation can occur in patients with upper mediastinal or right apical masses. While stenting is useful in relieving obstruction, it can facilitate the passage of upper extremity deep vein thrombus to the pulmonary arterial tree, resulting in a potentially fatal pulmonary embolism (PE). We present a case that illustrates a novel technique, which protects the patient from PE while also relieving the SVCO. This involves placing an inferior vena cava filter in an inverted position within a superior vena cava (SVC) stent to capture emboli. This procedure offers a potentially lifesaving endovascular therapeutic option to patients who would otherwise be deemed unsuitable for SVC stenting.
Contrast Therapy and Heat Therapy in Subacute Stage of Grade I and II Lateral Ankle Sprains
Authors: Weerasekara R. M. I. M. , Tennakoon S. U. B. , Suraweera H. J.
Published: April 2016

Objective. This study was conducted to determine the most effective thermal modality; heat or contrast therapy—in reducing pain, reducing swelling, and increasing range of movement (ROM) of the grade I and II lateral ankle sprain in the prechronic stage of the subacute phase. Design. Randomized control trail. Methods. One hundred and fifteen participants of both genders who were diagnosed as having grade I or II lateral ankle sprain were randomly assigned to the study on the fifth day of injury. Pain, volume, and ROM were recorded before and after treatment continuously for 3 days. Results. Effects were evaluated as “Immediately after application” and “3 days after continuous application.” Immediately after application, there was no difference between the 2 modalities on ankle ROM; heat reduced pain over contrast therapy, and both modalities increased swelling. When considering the effects after continuous application for 3 days, no difference was found between the 2 modalities on ROM and the reduction of pain. Contrast therapy reduced swelling while heat caused increased swelling even after 3 days. Conclusion. The use of different thermal modalities during the transition from the acute to chronic phase of injury can be suggested as effective treatment options according to the objectives of injury management: pain reduction, improve ROM, and swelling management.

Levels of Evidence: Therapeutic, Level II: Randomized clinical trial
Sense of Purpose and Parent–Child Relationships in Emerging Adulthood
Authors: Hill Patrick L. , Burrow Anthony L. , Sumner Rachel
Published: April 2016

Individuals can find a purpose or direction for life prior to reaching adulthood, with parental figures often functioning as scaffolds. However, research is lacking with respect to understanding whether purposeful emerging adults have more positive relationships with their parents. The current studies provide initial insights into this possibility using two university samples ( N = 553). Study 1 demonstrated that emerging adults who report a higher sense of purpose tend to have more positive attachments to parental figures. Study 2 found that emerging adults with a higher sense of purpose also reported fewer difficulties with the separation–individuation process, which in turn partially explained why purposeful emerging adults report a greater sense of personal mastery. Results are discussed with respect to setting a foundation for future research.
Big Data Comes to School
Authors: Cope Bill , Kalantzis Mary
Published: April 2016

The prospect of “big data” at once evokes optimistic views of an information-rich future and concerns about surveillance that adversely impacts our personal and private lives. This overview article explores the implications of big data in education, focusing by way of example on data generated by student writing. We have chosen writing because it presents particular complexities, highlighting the range of processes for collecting and interpreting evidence of learning in the era of computer-mediated instruction and assessment as well as the challenges. Writing is significant not only because it is central to the core subject area of literacy; it is also an ideal medium for the representation of deep disciplinary knowledge across a number of subject areas. After defining what big data entails in education, we map emerging sources of evidence of learning that separately and together have the potential to generate unprecedented amounts of data: machine assessments, structured data embedded in learning, and unstructured data collected incidental to learning activity. Our case is that these emerging sources of evidence of learning have significant implications for the traditional relationships between assessment and instruction. Moreover, for educational researchers, these data are in some senses quite different from traditional evidentiary sources, and this raises a number of methodological questions. The final part of the article discusses implications for practice in an emerging field of education data science, including publication of data, data standards, and research ethics.
Legal security in Russia: General characteristics and ways of optimization
Authors: Братановский Сергей , Bratanovsky Sergey , Галицкая Наталья , Galitskaya Natalya
Published: April 2016

In article the characteristic of system of standard legal

support of safety in Russia is given. Scientific classification of the

specified acts is offered and analyzed. Ways of improvement of the

legislation in the sphere of safety are investigated. The contents of

the Federal law "About civil defense" are exposed to the critical

analysis. The reasoned offer on need of its cancellation becomes.
HUMAN RIGHTS: INTERNATIONAL LEGAL IDEOLOGY
Authors: Поздняков Виктор , Pozdnyakov Viktor
Published: April 2016

The article examines the historical and methodological

issues of human rights in the context of the impact of the international legal ideology of Russia´s development in the context of globalization.
Wounded Futures: Pain and the Possibilities of Solidarity
Authors: Hankins Joseph
Published: April 2016

In 2006, a small group of Japanese sanitation workers traveled from Tokyo to Chennai, India to meet with a group they saw as potential comrades—the Dalit. Over the course of several days, these groups shared stories of pain and discrimination—the rigors of marginalization told alongside triumphs of resistance. This article focuses on the politics and aesthetics of this solidarity project between the Japanese Buraku people and the Dalit of South Asia. I develop solidarity as a project of rendering groups—here, the Buraku and the Dalit—commensurate through the operation of extending sympathy. I argue that the viability of political solidarity hangs on the cultivation of a “fellow feeling,” a formative process of learning to feel oneself through the imagined mediating gaze of another: i.e., the development of a disciplined internal judge of experience. I examine the rules that permit and constrain that sympathetic traffic, as well as the moments that lead to its blockage. This talk complicates notions of circulation and commensuration from linguistic and economic anthropology, and it critically engages work on recognition and vulnerability. The conclusion advances an argument for socio-historical connectedness beyond liberal sympathy.
“Womb with a View”: The Introduction of Western Obstetrics in Nineteenth-Century Siam
Authors: Pearson Quentin (Trais)
Published: April 2016

summary: This article focuses on the historical confrontation between Western obstetrical medicine and indigenous midwifery in nineteenth-century Siam (Thailand). Beginning with the campaign of medical missionaries to reform Siamese obstetrical care, it explores the types of arguments that were employed in the contest between these two forms of expert knowledge. Missionary–physicians used their anatomical knowledge to contest both particular indigenous obstetrical practices and more generalized notions concerning its moral and metaphysical foundations. At the same time, by appealing to the health and well-being of the consorts and children of the Siamese elite, they gained access to the intimate spaces of Siamese political life. The article contends that the medical missionary campaign intersected with imperial desires to make the sequestered spaces of Siamese political life more visible and accessible to Western scrutiny. It therefore reveals the imbrication of contests over obstetrical medicine and trade diplomacy in the imperial world.
Violence, Moral Imperialism and Colonial Borderlands, 1770s–1820s: Some contradictions of humanitarianism
Authors: Elbourne Elizabeth
Published: April 2016

This article argues that the genealogy of a politics of non-violence might usefully consider the promotion of moral imperialism as a precursor that in turn highlights the structural difficulties of a truly non-violent humanitarianism. In the imperial case studies examined from colonial borderlands in the British empire from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, humanitarian intervention tended to be about working out how to manage violence, or the threat of violence, most appropriately. This in turn helps explain tight linkages between early nineteenth century philanthropy and colonialism, not least the transition from abolition to interventionist arguments. On colonial frontiers states were themselves violent, or at least always potentially violent. Therefore those who saw themselves as philanthropists or as humanitarian were often forced, sometimes reluctantly but more usually with conviction, into the position that empire should be made sufficiently moral to deserve a monopoly of violence. For Indigenous groups (and individuals) this often meant that they ultimately had to choose sides and thus a particular form of violence, rather than to escape from violence altogether. At the same time, international humanitarians, notably missionaries and abolitionists, often struggled with how overtly they should work within colonial structures and were often under pressure to serve as unofficial colonial bureaucracies. It is thus helpful to trouble somewhat the implicit paradigm of triangular relationships between individual agents of violence, individual victims of violence, and humanitarians who sought to protect the victims in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, even though there are important ways in which this was also true. Such “moral imperialism” not infrequently placed pressure on colonized men, in particular, to choose one form of violence over another, rather than to have the luxury of eschewing violence that was more readily available to the white humanitarian.
Gandhi and the Humanitarians of Empire: Influence, resistance and the invention of nonviolent politics
Authors: Scalmer Sean
Published: April 2016

Mohandas K. Gandhi is conventionally described as an anti-colonial rebel, a prophet of nonviolence and a political saint. But though seldom described as a “humanitarian,” Gandhi himself sometimes deployed the term to describe his aspirations and activities; likewise, he criticized colonists for their failure to honour “humanitarian” principles. In examining Gandhi’s politics from the relatively unfamiliar vantage of humanitarianism, his political inspirations and his relationship to empire emerge in new ways. Equally, the form and the meaning of Gandhi’s actions also raise important questions regarding the limits and assumptions of the humanitarian project. This paper considers the changing connections between Gandhi, humanitarians and empire over more than half a century. It aims, more ambitiously, to consider how these relationships contributed to a significant moment in the global history of nonviolence.
Portrait of a Work-Study Program Assessment
Authors: Ghant Walter A. , Horst S. Jeanne , Whetstone Devon H.
Published: April 2016

Institutions of higher education invest time and money directing cocurricular programs that allow students to formally engage in the local community. Community-service learning is one type of program recently dubbed “high impact” (Kuh, 2008). However, it is not enough to simply refer to a program as “high impact”: it is essential to demonstrate actual impact on student learning. This report provides a portrait of one community service-learning program’s assessment of student learning.
Student Writing for Self-Authorship and Democracy: Engaging Students Critically
Authors: Letizia Angelo J.
Published: April 2016

In order to sustain a thriving democracy, civic action must be infused into the day-to-day practice and methods of teachers and professors (Giroux, 2011). Unfortunately, many public education institutions are sorely lacking when it comes to fostering civic action in their curriculum and practice (Giroux, 2011; Reason, 2013). If higher education institutions in particular are to strengthen democracy they must promote civic awareness in their students (Giroux, 2011; Reason, 2013). One method to achieve democratic pedagogy may be through student scholarly writing.
Hacia una nueva visión de la planificación en Cuba
Authors: Estrada Oscar Fernández
Published: April 2016

The process of social change that has been installed in the Cuban public agenda since 2011 has been focusing on modification of game rules prevailing in the economy and society. The new rules lead to a reconfiguration of the system of actors and their interactions, and content an implicit view that differs from previous ossified model: in the near term we may witness a market economy in Cuba operating in relative fullness, with the broad participation of domestic and foreign private sector, but with the predominance of state property. Hence if economic planning is to continue to play a leading role under the new conditions, then the need to reconfigure its epistemological basis is clear. The urgent release of a certain dose of laissez-faire for all agents combined with the apprehension of new methods of intervention and indirect driving are presented as two major challenges for planners in Cuba.
Los cambios en la empresa estatal cubana en el contexto de la actualización del modelo
Authors: Fernández Ileana Díaz
Published: April 2016

This article studies the current measures adopted by the Cuban government for the functioning of state-owned companies within the context of the actualization of Cuba’s economic model. It shows how the measures are afflicted by incoherence and lack of incentive, which prevents the improvement of efficiency and effectiveness of the said state-owned companies. The article focuses on the current restructuration of business organizations as a continuation of a process of change that began in 1959.
Reformas en Cuba: ¿Actualización del socialismo o reconfiguración social?
Authors: Bobes Velia Cecilia
Published: April 2016

This article discusses the social impact of the process of updating socialism. The accumulated social changes that are a consequence of the Special Period created a deconfiguration of the model of the new socialist man. Therefore, reforms radicalize and strengthen adjustment policies, make changes more permanent, and reinforce new social relationships. Their stabilization leads to the configuration of a new social model whose characteristics depart from the revolutionary model of “the new socialist man” which prevailed in Cuba until the late-1980s. The process is presented as a sequence, deconfiguration-reconfiguration , and analyzes the changes in the social structure, the expansion of the nongovernment sector, the disparities of consumption and income generated not only by an increase in inequality and poverty but also by the appearance of differentiated social groups and new principles in the relation between the state and society. The study concludes that one of the most important challenges the government must face in the foreseeable future is the disconnection between the continuity of the political model and its legitimizing foundations, and the new reality of a diverse society, restratified and symbolically reinstated.
La economía cubana: Evolución y perspectivas
Authors: Villanueva Omar Everleny Pérez
Published: April 2016

This study on the Cuban economy and its results examines classic variables of economic analysis, especially the evolution of macroeconomic indicators. It also offers a number of recommendations regarding the necessary measures that Cuba’s authorities should enact in the immediate future. The analysis of selected macroeconomic indicators shows how the results achieved so far by Cuba are encouraging but not good enough. The first stage of the ongoing economic reform process has faced resistance from some government officials and part of the population, which highlights the need for a true change of mentality. And even if this change remains difficult to accomplish, it is beyond question that new ways to conceive the economy and make it work must be considered. It should be recognized that the Cuban government has carried out a significant transformation of the island’s economy. But change has come rather slowly through a gradual process whose terms and sequence remain largely unknown to the general public. It is therefore imperative to accelerate the implementation of reforms, as many Cubans have not seen tangible improvements in the quality of their life since 2011, when Cuba’s policy makers, following grassroots consultations, vowed to change all that is slowing down the economic progress of the country.
A Cowman’s-Eye View of the Information Ecology of the Texas Cattle Industry from the Civil War to World War I
Authors: Gracy David B.
Published: April 2016

During the half-century between the American Civil War and World War I, the cattle industry, for which Texas is well known, grew from the disparate activity of hardy individuals into an industry on a business footing comparable to that of industries of similar magnitude. In the process, the management of information became as central to the rise of the industry as the breeding of meatier stock. Information literacy rested as much on the ability of cowboys to read brands and “sign” as on office workers to control documentation. The industry developed a language of brands and vocabulary for managing cattle and created the new information-worker position of brand inspector. The information-driven transformation was accomplished within the working lives of cowmen who both led and were profoundly affected by it.
On ergativity in Bumthang
Authors: Donohue Cathryn , Donohue Mark
Published: April 2016

This report investigates the uses of the ergative case marker in transitive clauses in Bumthang, a language of Central Bhutan. We discuss the conditions under which the ergative is required and show that a simple analysis involving multiple influences models the data. Previous studies have shown that variable case marking may be determined by syntactic, semantic, or pragmatic factors, but in Bumthang we see that all of these factors play a role in determining the use of the ergative case marker. We hope that our analysis will prove useful for understanding the variable uses of the ergative case marker in Himalayan and other languages as well as providing interesting challenges for formal models of case marking.
Cumulativity and ganging in the tonology of Awa suffixes: Supplementary materials
Authors: McPherson Laura
Published: April 2016

This article revives old descriptive data on Awa, a Papuan language of the Kainantu group. The tonal system was described in detail in a paper by Loving (1973), where he reports a series of toneless noun suffixes, falling into six classes depending on their tonal alternations when combined with a noun root. This article demonstrates that the suffixes are best understood as carrying lexical tone; the alternations in form arise from the interaction of typologically natural tonotactic constraints. While the system can be described in autosegmental terms without much difficulty, a formal constraint-based analysis is less straightforward. I show that strict ranking, as in optimality theory (Prince & Smolensky 2004 [1993]), fails to capture the data patterns due to cumulativity effects, some of which cannot be naturally captured even with local constraint conjunction (Smolensky 2006). The data are successfully modeled in harmonic grammar (Legendre et al. 1990).
Sounding Ecologies in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things
Authors: Lobnik Mirja
Published: April 2016

This essay engages with the social, cultural, and environmental legacies of colonialism and globalization by investigating acoustic ecologies in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things . It draws on sound studies, postcolonial ecocriticism, and new materialist perspectives to reveal an aesthetic that combines the act of listening with an environmental awareness in ways that transform matter into both the receptacle and the bearer of silenced indigenous voices. Countering ocularcentric paradigms, it shows that modernity is characterized as much by particular ideas about sound as it is by regimes of visuality and induces a more viscerally engaged, ecologically sensitive humanism.
“One Jew More or Less—What Does It Matter?”: Nietzsche on the Jewish Question
Authors: Eisenberg David A.
Published: April 2016

This paper examines Friedrich Nietzsche’s treatment of the Jews in the context of his overall project: the revaluation of values. Contrary to common (mis)perceptions, the Jews do not occupy some marginal place in Nietzsche’s philosophy nor are they decried outright by the German philosopher; instead, they constitute a central component of Nietzsche’s thought and determine constructively the directionality of his thinking. While the feasibility of Nietzsche’s ambitions may be open to question, his reverence of the Jews, I argue, is not.
Abortion Stigma: A Systematic Review
Authors: Hanschmidt Franz , Linde Katja , Hilbert Anja , Riedel‐ Heller Steffi G. , Kersting Anette
Published: April 2016

Context

Although stigma has been identified as a potential risk factor for the well‐being of women who have had abortions, little attention has been paid to the study of abortion‐related stigma.

Methods

A systematic search of the databases Medline, PsycArticles, PsycInfo, PubMed and Web of Science was conducted; the search terms were “(abortion OR pregnancy termination) AND stigma*.” Articles were eligible for inclusion if the main research question addressed experiences of individuals subjected to abortion stigma, public attitudes that stigmatize women who have had abortions or interventions aimed at managing abortion stigma. To provide a comprehensive overview of this issue, any study published by February 2015 was considered. The search was restricted to English‐ and German‐language studies.

Results

Seven quantitative and seven qualitative studies were eligible for inclusion. All but two dated from 2009 or later; the earliest was from 1984. Studies were based mainly on U.S. samples; some included participants from Ghana, Great Britain, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru and Zambia. The majority of studies showed that women who have had abortions experience fear of social judgment, self‐judgment and a need for secrecy. Secrecy was associated with increased psychological distress and social isolation. Some studies found stigmatizing attitudes in the public. Stigma appeared to be salient in abortion providers’ lives. Evidence of interventions to reduce abortion stigma was scarce. Most studies had limitations regarding generalizability and validity.

Conclusion

More research, using validated measures, is needed to enhance understanding of abortion stigma and thereby reduce its impact on affected individuals.
Audience measurement of digital TV
Authors: Carey John
Published: April 2016

This article assesses the current state of digital TV audience measurement and considers the case for government regulation of TV audience measurement systems and companies. It relies on existing scholarship and the author’s ethnographic research in TV households. The analysis is placed in the context of how people actually watch TV and the evolution of TV audience measurement systems. Current patterns of digital TV consumption create many challenges for accurate measurement, including device shifting, place shifting and time shifting. Social media analytics and cross platform measurement are new components in comprehensive digital TV audience measurement, but both are works in progress. Government regulation of TV audience measurement systems and companies does not appear justified. Industry self regulation, accreditation by a private ratings agency and advanced research by university and industry groups appear more suited to meeting the many challenges and opportunities in digital TV audience measurement.
BBC News – creating audience in the digital era
Authors: Fox Andy , Mitu Bianca
Published: April 2016

This article will examine how a public service broadcaster, specifically the BBC, delivers news content to its audience across multiple media platforms. Rather than looking at how the audience responds to media texts, this article will take the opposite standpoint by addressing the following question: How does the BBC build its audience on a platform-by-platform basis? To answer this key question we compared news outputs on the three platforms offered by the BBC: web, television and radio. A sample was compiled based on the top stories that appeared at a specific time of day over a month in early 2015. The results suggest that there is no significant difference in establishing news agendas through a digitally converged media landscape. In fact the three platforms analysed do not take media convergence into account when delivering news content.
Fissures in the image of thought: Difference, photography and the networked image
Authors: Srbic Dario
Published: April 2016

Copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of … Trent Reznor’s formula sounds so much more exciting and seductive than two millennia-old formula of representation and identity also known as A=A. Oversubscribed to central perspective, concerned with clarity and distinctness too content with the content of the image and strongly bonded with its apparatus, photography of the past century repeatedly failed to see the invisible, still acting as a copy of some ideal original, assuming this role from painting. If the painting managed to free itself from representation, what can photography do? With new technologies of image production and dissemination, the pillars of the image of thought begin to crack, with identity and recognition losing the centre stage to difference and repetition. Through the emergence of the ability to photograph everywhere, automated camera and ubiquitous digital dissemination of images, photography is suddenly revealed as the medium of a copy, of uncountable recurrences of the same, and with all of its subjects and objects becoming simulacra, rendering only difference as real and originary.
The political economy of the image
Authors: Roberts John
Published: April 2016

This article analyses the political economy of the image today, a historical conjuncture in which art contributes its meanings (even its critiques and negations) to a process of socialization through consumption. This analysis is pursued in light of the reception of an idea of the image drawn from a world before capitalism – or certainly on the edge of capitalism and modernity – as found in Novalis’s unfinished and posthumous novel Henry von Ofterdingen of 1802.
Towards thinking in photography
Authors: Paz Anita
Published: April 2016

This article suggests itself as a movement towards a theory of thinking in photography – that is to say, of thinking photographs. The notion of art as related to thinking is by no means a contemporary one. Within this tradition that has its roots in the advent of modernity, artworks – and particularly paintings – have long been viewed as a form of both thought and thinking. Photography’s place within this tradition, however, is not an easy one. Many of the philosophical accounts surrounding thinking in painting focus on the devices through which painting is said to be thinking. Hubert Damisch and Gilles Deleuze offer the two most comprehensive accounts on this topic, but are the thinking devices proposed by them applicable to photography? Through the discussion of these theories, this article maps the existing philosophical landscape vis-à-vis the thinking image: locating photographic thought within that landscape is the first step towards understanding the peculiarities of photographic thinking.
Peripherisierung und Stadt
Authors: Kühn Manfred
Published: April 2016

Nicht nur ländliche Räume, sondern auch Städte sind von Peripherisierung betroffen: Einwohner_innen wandern ab, innovationsschwache Unternehmen streichen Arbeitsplätze, Schulen und Bahnhöfe schließen, Kommunen geraten in Finanznot und die Presse ist von Negativschlagzeilen dominiert. Eine Abwärtsspirale aus Abwanderung, Abkopplung, Abhängigkeit und Stigmatisierung droht. Wie gehen lokale Planungspolitiken damit um und welche Auswege finden die Akteure? Mittels Raumtheorien zur Peripherisierung geht Manfred Kühn solchen Abstiegsprozessen von Städten nach und zeigt anhand von Fallstudien, dass Städte nicht durch eine geographische Abseitslage, sondern durch den Verlust von Macht an den Rand gedrängt werden.
Efficient generation of 3D surfel maps using RGB–D sensors
Authors: Wilkowski Artur , Kornuta Tomasz , Stefańczyk Maciej , Kasprzak Włodzimierz
Published: April 2016

The article focuses on the problem of building dense 3D occupancy maps using commercial RGB-D sensors and the SLAM approach. In particular, it addresses the problem of 3D map representations, which must be able both to store millions of points and to offer efficient update mechanisms. The proposed solution consists of two such key elements, visual odometry and surfel-based mapping, but it contains substantial improvements: storing the surfel maps in octree form and utilizing a frustum culling-based method to accelerate the map update step. The performed experiments verify the usefulness and efficiency of the developed system.
A mathematical model for file fragment diffusion and a neural predictor to manage priority queues over BitTorrent
Authors: Napoli Christian , Pappalardo Giuseppe , Tramontana Emiliano
Published: April 2016

BitTorrent splits the files that are shared on a P2P network into fragments and then spreads these by giving the highest priority to the rarest fragment. We propose a mathematical model that takes into account several factors such as the peer distance, communication delays, and file fragment availability in a future period also by using a neural network module designed to model the behaviour of the peers. The ensemble comprising the proposed mathematical model and a neural network provides a solution for choosing the file fragments that have to be spread first, in order to ensure their continuous availability, taking into account that some peers will disconnect.
The yield of eggplant depending on climate conditions and mulching
Authors: Adamczewska-Sowińska Katarzyna , Krygier Magdalena , Turczuk Joanna
Published: April 2016

The field production of eggplant in moderate climates is difficult as it depends heavily on thermal conditions. Eggplant is a species that is sensitive to low temperatures, and temperatures below 16°C constrain the growth of young plants. Other disadvantageous factors include: temperatures that are too high, water shortage and excessive soil humidity. The growth conditions for eggplant can be improved by using mulches. The purpose of the experiment was the assessment of eggplant cropping while using synthetic mulches of polyethylene foil and polypropylene textile. The research took five years (2008-2012) and on the basis of the obtained results it was possible to determine the influence of weather conditions on the yielding of this species. It was proven that eggplant cropping significantly depended on the air temperature and the amount of rainfall during the vegetation period. The highest yield was observed when the average air temperature was high and at the same time rainfall was evenly distributed throughout the vegetation season. It also turned out that the agro-technical procedure which significantly increased eggplant fruit cropping was mulching the soil with polyethylene black foil, or transparent foil, previously having applied a herbicide.