bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Empirical Analysis For Effective Prediction of Crop Price Using Neuro Evolutionary Algorithm based on Machine Learning Approach
Authors: Nalini T. , Rama A. , Shanmuganathan M. , Sam Dahila , Sheeba Dr.Adlin
Published: May 2022

: Based on a neuro evolutionary algorithm, this study proposes a neural network model for efficient crop price prediction. When viewed from the perspective of agricultural business, the market price of corn reflects its current demand. For agricultural management, to improve profits, it is important to track and predict the market price. In this manuscript, a neural network model based on the output prediction of a neuro evolutionary algorithm is used to predict the price of the crop and compared with the existing Naive Bayes algorithm. By recognizing patterns in our training dataset, which serves as one of the inputs to the algorithm, we are able to determine the price of the crop. The parameters (Yield, Rainfall, Minimum Support Price, and Maximum Trade ) are fed to the algorithm by the user. It is compared with existing algorithms to determine the performance of the proposed algorithm. The features considered for the analysis are Climate, historical costs, location, demand indicators, and crop health are the variables used for predicting future corn crop cost. According to the empirical analysis, the proposed model is significantly more accurate in predicting crop prices.
Azerbaijani sign language recognition using machine learning approach
Authors: Aliyev Samir , Almisreb Ali Abd , Turaev Sherzod
Published: May 2022

Sign Language recognition is one of the essential and focal areas for researchers in terms of improving the integration of speech and hearing-impaired people into common society. The main idea is to detect the hand gestures of impaired people and convert them to understandable formats, such as text by leveraging advanced approaches. In this paper, we present our contribution to the improvement of Azerbaijani Sign Language (AzSL). We worked on AzSL Alphabet static signs real-time recognition. The method applied in this work is Object Classification and Recognition by leveraging pre-trained lightweight Convolutional Neural Networks models. At first, a dataset containing near to 1000 images has been collected, then interesting objects on images have been labeled with bounding boxing option. To build, train, evaluate and deploy the relevant model, TensorFlow Object Detection API with Python has been employed. MobileNet v2 pre-trained model has been leveraged for this task. In the trial experiment with four sign classes (A, B, C, E) and 5000 step numbers 15.2% training loss and 83% evaluation mean average precision results have been obtained. In the next step of model deployment experiments with all 24 static signs of AzSL, 49700 and 27700 steps (180 and 100 epochs, respectively) 6.4% and 18.2% training losses, 66.5% and 71.6% mAP outcomes gained, respectively.
Congestion-free routing based on a hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm to provide an effective routing protocol by analyzing the significant impacts of QoS parameters in a dynamic VANET environment
Authors: Marwah Gaganpreet Kour , Jain Anuj
Published: May 2022

A definitive form of Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) is the Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET), which delivers data communication using wireless transmission with the collection of vehicular nodes in a vehicular environment. The main goal of this VANET is to improve the Quality of Service (QoS) which is road safety, environmental kindliness, and logistics in intelligent transport. Moreover, mobility and routing play an important challenge for information interchange to the process in the VANET environment. In developing countries, smart cities are encountering problematic traffic congestion. Furthermore, in cluster communications, stable cluster formation and maintenance with the guarantying QoS has always remained a great challenge. In order to overcome the above-mentioned issue, this article proposes a congestion-free routing process ensuring QOS parameters. The main objective of the proposed scheme is to analyze the impact of QOS parameters while choosing the best routing path in Vehicular communication. The scheme also introduces the Hybrid-Harris Hawks Black Widow optimization-based VANET (H-HHBW-VANET) algorithm to improve QoS for routing between nodes. This algorithm differs from other algorithms in terms of optimal solution generation, which makes it more efficient. The proposed work is implemented in the working platform of NS2 to analyze the parameters such as Drop, Delay, Energy Consumption, Throughput, and Fairness Index. The simulation results provide better QOS service in terms of low energy consumption with higher throughput and low delay.
Harmonic Analysis of Simply Supported Square Plate for Uncertain Parameters
Authors: Khan Imran Ahemad , Zakiuddin Kazi Syed , Fulzele Punit
Published: May 2022

Many Mechanical structures are manufacture by using plates. However Harmonic Analysis of plate is growing research subject in today’s era. In the present research paper vibrational response of simply supported square plate with uncertain parameters are studied. In designing any real life mechanical system uncertainty phenomenon plays vital role. Thus it becomes important to study the effect of uncertainty for different frequency domain in mechanical system. In present research work square plate as structural element is selected. On this plate mass, stiffness and both collectively mass and stiffness uncertainty are taken. The plate boundary condition selected is simply supported. For determining the plate dynamic response FEM tool is used. While doing harmonic analysis the behavior of all uncertain parameters plates are compare with bare plate. In the FRF plot of plate with stiffness uncertainty, it is found that it has drastic changes in dynamic response. Thus this shows that uncertain parameters have adverse effects and it changes the dynamic behavior of the structure.
Low Cost System Based on Infrared Technology for Water Management
Authors: Grados Juan , Auccahuasi Wilver , Herrera Lucas , Rojas Karin , Maguiña Walter , Arteaga Alex , Rubiños Santiago , Gutierrez Ricardo , Diaz Enrique , Grados Herbert , Soria Alejandro Paredes , Gamarra Patricia del Pilar Díaz , Salazar José Luis Herrera
Published: May 2022

Water is an essential element in the life of the human being for which its conservation and good use is necessary, in this work we make a proposal for the development of a low-cost system for water management in order to save on Its consumption, using infrared technology, the results provide a mechanism that can be replicated and at different scales, by the use of commonly used devices.
The role of extended range of interactions in the dynamics of interacting molecular motors
Authors: Spaulding Cade , Teimouri Hamid , Narasimhan S L , Kolomeisky Anatoly B
Published: May 2022

Motor proteins, also known as biological molecular motors, play important roles in various intracellular processes. Experimental investigations suggest that molecular motors interact with each other during the cellular transport, but the nature of such interactions remains not well understood. Stimulated by these observations, we present a theoretical study aimed to understand the effect of the range of interactions on dynamics of interacting molecular motors. For this purpose, we develop a new version of the totally asymmetric simple exclusion processes in which nearest-neighbor as well as the next nearest-neighbor interactions are taken into account in a thermodynamically consistent way. A theoretical framework based on a cluster mean-field approximation, which partially takes correlations into account, is developed to evaluate the stationary properties of the system. It is found that fundamental current–density relations in the system strongly depend on the strength and the sign of interactions, as well as on the range of interactions. For repulsive interactions stronger than some critical value, a mean-field theoretical approach predicts that increasing the range of interactions might lead to a change from unimodal to trimodal dependence in the flux-density fundamental diagram. However, it is not fully supported by extensive Monte Carlo computer simulations that test theoretical predictions. Although in most ranges of parameters a reasonable agreement between theoretical calculations and computer simulations is observed, there are situations when the cluster mean-field approach fails to describe properly the dynamics in the system. Theoretical arguments to explain these observations are presented. Our theoretical analysis clarifies the microscopic picture of how the range of interactions influences the dynamics of interacting molecular motors.
Practical security of continuous-variable quantum key distribution involving saturation attack with finite-size analysis
Authors: Mao Yun , Li Yin , Guo Ying
Published: May 2022

Saturation attack of imperfect detectors compromises the practical security of continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CVQKD) in implementations. In this paper, we demonstrate the practical security of the CVQKD system with finite-size analysis when considering effects of saturation attack on imperfect detectors at the receiver. We suggest an approach to resisting this attack by embedding an adjustable optical filter in the detector, motivated by characteristics of saturation attack. Numerical simulations illustrate the practical security of the system with finite-size analysis in terms of the achieved secret key rate and maximal transmission distance. It indicates that this approach can be elegantly used for defeating the potential saturation attack in practical quantum networks.
The Application of Photogrammetry in Architecture Historical Documentation: The measured drawing of Tanjung Sembrong Mosque and Teratak Selari Bonda
Authors: Sabil A , Mahmud N A A , Utaberta N , Amin N D N , Asif N , Yusof H
Published: May 2022

Architectural measured drawings refer to the process of on-site constructed building documentation in the form of presentable set architectural drawings. The drawings are produced by executing the on-site measurement before converting it into an appropriate architectural drawing scheme. Traditionally, the process begins by obtaining the measurement of the building wholly with the aid of standard measurement tools. With this method, there are issues and challenges identified in obtaining accurate measurement. The process is complicated due to human limitations in getting the measurement on the highest peak of the building. With the assistance of geomatics tools, the photogrammetry method assisting in obtaining such measurements, specifically the roof of the building. This publication explains the integration process of the traditional measurement method and photogrammetry through the measured drawing exercise of Tanjung Sembrong Mosque and Teratak Selari Bonda located at Parit Raja, Johore. The procedure involves the common measurement technique using standard measurement tools integrated with the photogrammetry methods with UAV usage to capture the coordinated aerial image of both buildings.
Comparison of the Main Factors of Drowning/Asphyxiation in Construction Projects Using Multi-Decision Criteria
Authors: Aminu D’u R , Madzlan N , Idris O , Hamzh A
Published: May 2022

Drowning or asphyxiation is one of the top five types of construction accidents on-site in the world. Few studies focus on the causes and sub-factors that contribute to drowning/asphyxiation in Malaysia’s construction industry. This paper developed an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model for the factors and sub-factors for drowning/asphyxiation and determined their relative weights and priorities. Worker’s unsafe actions have a maximum weight of about 80.98% for the significant factors based on the proposed AHP model, followed by hazardous site conditions with 10.89% and management factors with 8.13%. Financial constraint carries the most weight with 20.22% for the management factors, unsafe working and operating procedures in a confined space, and water bodies have the most weight with 26.97% for hazardous site conditions. Rushing to complete the job and failure to comply with standards working procedure in a confined space or water bodies have the most weight with 17.24 % each. This study can help safety practitioners understand the primary factors and sub-factors responsible for drowning and asphyxiation, how they can reduce the risk of fatal accidents on-site, and how they can make prompt safety decisions. The proposed model also provides a tool to determine the appropriate and effective drowning/asphyxiation prevention methods.
Critical Risk Factor Affecting Cost Overrun in Highway Project of West Sumatera
Authors: Kurniawan Deddy , Mairizal  , Masril  , Rahman Mohd Sam Abd , Zaimi Abd Majid Mohd
Published: May 2022

One part of the form of public capital that is collected into investments made by the government is infrastructure. Several types of infrastructure are roads, bridges, irrigation, and others to support economic activities. It can be seen that there is still a slowdown in the implementation of infrastructure development in Indonesia, which is marked by the lack of quality and quantity of infrastructure. Infrastructure work is part of the responsibilities of the construction industry players, which are very dynamic with various threats to be faced. In practice, every construction project contains risks, unless the owner can transfer it to another party. This study aims to identify critical risks that occur in infrastructure development projects, especially roads in West Sumatra which have an impact on cost overruns in their implementation. This research uses literature study, data collection, and questionnaires which are analyzed using quantitative statistical analysis. The findings in this study are the cost overrun factors that occur in the implementation of road projects in West Sumatra which consist of 12 (twelve) critical risk factors. The highest of the twelve delay factors is the lack of experience of contractors who cannot manage a project properly.
Conceptual Framework in Mitigating Construction Dispute
Authors: Yussof S , Ahmad Zaini A
Published: May 2022

Construction disputes are a typical occurrence in the construction industry. Moreover, construction projects are increasingly complex to suit the current requirement and design, resulting in a complicated contract document between stakeholders. Thus, complex construction projects leads to a complex dispute arising from the complexity of the work, multiple prime contracting parties’ involvement, poor execution of contract documents, inadequate planning, financial issues, and communication issue. Hence, this research thoroughly analyses the literature in construction disputes and identifies the relationship between construction disputes and standard forms of contract. It defines the research field and makes a recommendation for additional research. Future research is expected to validate the interrelation of the construction dispute in mitigating the construction dispute in Malaysia through the Malaysian Standard Form of Contract.
A Factor Analysis to Establish a Group of Causes of Deferred Maintenance at Malaysia’s Public University Buildings
Authors: Yasin M N , Mohamad Zin R , Mairizal  , Nagapan S , Zakaria M A , Wahi N , Abdul Tharim A H , Hasmori M F
Published: May 2022

The building has deferred the maintenance activities either planned or scheduled and delayed from the original schedules by some factors and therefore cause dissatisfaction of the building users commonly become a familiar issue. The public university buildings are an important place, everyone gathers to learn and share knowledge. They are producing future leaders, engineers and industry players. Therefore, it is also the heart of the development of a country. Hence, this study is intended to establish a group of causes factors of deferred maintenance of public university buildings in Malaysia. Questionnaires survey were carried out amongst the targeted respondent and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software were used to analyse 220 data collections for factor analysis. The study reveals 42 factors of causes are then classified into three groups. Group 1 is the organization and it displays 20 factors, group 2 is the resources which display 13 factors and group 3 is financial display 9 factors. This study shared useful information and insight knowledge of deferred maintenance of public university buildings in Malaysia.
A review of steel fiber’s potential use in Hot Mix Asphalt
Authors: Shapie S S , Taher M N M
Published: May 2022

The purpose of this paper is to overview the potential use of steel fibre in hot mix asphalt, explore the evolution of steel fibre reinforced asphalt concrete (SFRAC), highlights current trends in research and industry and recommend future areas of research. The study focus on the steel fibre industry and steel fibre generated from waste tyres applied in asphalt pavement. This review focuses on the use and performance of these fibres in altering the performance of asphalt pavements in terms of fibre concentration and fibre length, as well as the influence of steel fibre integration in asphalt pavements. According to the literature, the presence of steel fibre in asphalt pavements contributes significantly to the improvement of the properties studied, most noticeably durability. However, there are still few studies that provide conclusions about the relationship between fibre length and steel mixture concentration fibre in influencing the ability, strength, and durability properties of this asphalt concrete pavement. This review elevates awareness of the need of exploring the relationship between fibre length and morphological features in determining the bridging mechanism in asphalt concrete pavement composition.
Road profile generation based on real road profile for the Whole life pavement performance input data
Authors: Buhari R , Seblan A A
Published: May 2022

Road profile is one of the inputs for the whole life pavement performance (WLPP) model. It used to predict vehicle loading. In this study, few road profiles were generated based on sparse road roughness measurements by road scanner. The Profile Viewing, ProVAL Analysis software and Matlab were used to filter unwanted wavelength, visualize the measured road profile data, and obtain profile International Roughness Index (IRI) and generate road profile base on Power Spectral Density (PSD) approximation equation. Calibrations between generated and measured road profiles were done by computing the correlation coefficient values. As a result, few road profiles of 100 m length have been generated based on the federal and state road profiles. The generated road profiles and measured road profiles are closely in shape.
Drying Shrinkage Properties and Initial Bonding Strength of 3D Printing Mortar
Authors: Heng Boon Koh , Teck Jung Chai , Yi Wei Song
Published: May 2022

3D printing has emerged in the construction industry provide an effective and productive alternative construction methods. Cement-based material is the main choice in 3D printing construction due to its low cost and easy availability. This paper presents the drying shrinkage properties of hardened 3D printing mortar and the bonding strength of fresh mortar under the delayed phenomenon. Eight types of mortar mixtures in two series with varying percentages of sandy clay replacement ranging from 0% to 75% for both 1:1 and 1:2 cement sand ratios were used in the trial mix. Basic physical properties of 3D printing mortar such as workability, extrudability and buildability were conducted on the trial mix. Four mortar mixtures that complies with the basic 3D printing properties were used to conduct the drying shrinkage properties and the initial bonding strength test. The initial bonding strength test was conducted under delayed phenomenon for 0 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes and 30 minutes. The experimental results showed a significant increase in drying shrinkage for mortars containing 75% sandy clay. However, the highest initial bonding strength is also achieved by mortars containing 75% sandy clay. The initial bonding strength of 3D printing mortar was decreased over the delaying time.
Concentrations of Zn, Mn and Al in wood chips from wood-based manufacturing industries
Authors: Ayob S , Othman N , Altowayti W A H
Published: May 2022

The elemental composition of wood chip samples manufactured in the wood industries at Batu Pahat were analyzed for their heavy metals composition. This study was aimed to prove that heavy metals can accumulate in wood and trees themselves without adding any wood treatment additives. ICP-MS analysis was conducted on the wastewater at the same manufacturing industry to evince the occurrence of the leaching process that causes the presence of heavy metals in the wastewater. The results of the experiments showed that Mn, Zn and Al were among the highest metal traces found in the wood chips. As a result, Mn concentrations in three different samples of wood chips were 83.6 mg/L, 88.1 mg/L, and 80.9 mg/L, whereas Zn amounts were 38.8 mg/L, 40.2 mg/L, and 37.7 mg/L. Furthermore, the amounts of Al traces in the three samples were 28.2 mg/L, 29.6 mg/L, and 30.7 mg/L, respectively. The study also found that the highest metal trace in wastewater shows a proportional value to the highest concentration of heavy metals in wood chips. Therefore, it can be concluded that, even though the whole chipping production process is considered to be a dry process, the wastewater generated after cleaning surfaces, storage tanks and machinery, causes heavy metal leaching and contributes to the presence of heavy metals in wastewater.
Preliminary Assessment on Water Quality of Different Wastewater Using Solar Water Distillation Technique
Authors: Adlena Eliya Mazli Nur , Zafflina Mohd Zaki Zaizatul , Baharudin Fauzi
Published: May 2022

In rural and isolated areas, there are limited clean and fresh water sources, which could be an issue for the people living in those areas. The use of solar distillation is used to treat the wastewater as an alternative to the fresh water sources. Thus, this study will determine the water quality of two different wastewater using solar water distiller and evaluates whether the treated water comply to the standard limit of drinking water from the Ministry of Health, Malaysia (MOH). The stormwater and greywater were used as water samples for the study. The physical properties investigated were temperature, colour, and odour while the chemical properties were total dissolved solids (TDS), ammonia, chlorine, hardness and pH value. The performance of solar water distiller was examined by considering the quality as well as the quantity of treated water. The relationship between the surrounding temperature, humidity and the volume of water collected was observed and recorded. The physicochemical parameters of the water after the treatment lies within the standard of MOH. Thus, the results demonstrated that the solar water distiller has potential as an alternative sustainable water treatment method.
A study of processing and parametric optimization of wear-resistant AZ91-TiB2 composite fabricated by ultrasonic-assisted stir casting process
Authors: Kumar Dinesh , Thakur Lalit
Published: May 2022

In the present research, a lightweight and wear-resistant TiB2 reinforced AZ91D Mg metal matrix composite was developed using an ultrasonic-assisted stir casting process for aerospace and automobile applications. Stirrer speed, ultrasonic power, and TiB2 reinforcement concentration were considered the input process parameters, which were optimized with the help of Taguchi’s L9 orthogonal array, followed by grey relational analysis to develop the composite with high hardness and wear resistance. Pin-on-disc sliding wear testing was conducted to evaluate the wear resistance of the composites fabricated at different process parameter settings. SEM, EDS, and XRD examined the microstructure, wear mechanisms, elemental composition, and different phases in the developed composites. The microhardness of the specimens was determined using a Vickers microhardness tester. The results revealed that the process parameter setting with a stirrer speed of 400 rpm, 1500 W of ultrasonic power, and 3 wt% of TiB2 reinforcement concentration had the highest grey relational grade, which resulted in the development of a composite material exhibiting the high microhardness and minimum wear. The microstructural investigation revealed that the ultrasonic agitation of the liquid melt resulted in nearly uniform dispersion of the TiB2 reinforcement particulates in the composite. During the sliding wear test, the material removal in the composite specimens occurred due to the adhesion, oxidation, delamination, pull-out of reinforcement particles, and eruption of the Mg alloy matrix.
Investigation and finite element simulation on the MRR and tool wear of aluminium silicon alloy during turning process
Authors: Pritima D , Veerappan G , Azaath L Mamundi , Ravichandran M
Published: May 2022

In this study tool wear, cutting zone temperature, cutting forces, and material removal rate (MRR) were analysed using three different coating materials during the turning of high silicon aluminium alloy. The results that are derived on coating thickness were analysed in terms of specific coating materials from the proposed numerical investigation. Feed rate was also analysed with respect to output performance on tool wear, cutting temperature, MRR, and cutting forces. Decrease of 90% wear depth on the work piece was confirmed from titanium carbide coated with 3 microns (μm) coated tool and compared with Al2O3coated tool during the comparison study between coated tools. Cutting forces were determined with proper care and close observation. The highest tool wear of 0.00461 mm was observed using Al2O3coated tool thickness of 5 microns (μm). The lowest tool wear of 0.00043 mm was observed using TiC coated tool thickness of 3 microns (μm) with minimum cutting force of 74.31 N and also the highest MRR was obtained in the same. It was evident from the observation that the reduction of forces occurred using 2 microns (μm) coated tool on Al2O3leading to the drastic reduction in the thickness up to 67%. The value again reduced when compared with titanium carbide tool on the work piece metal. The analysis established the minimization of tool wear, cutting force, cutting temperature due to lower feed rates. But there was an increase in case of MRR due to lower feed rates. Al2O3coated cutting tool insert which has maximum tool wear was chosen for the experiment work and the simulations were carried out using Deform2D software. Tool wear length was compared by using SEM images and tool wear was discussed.
Cotton Famine Poetry: Technology, Trade, and Transatlantic Discourse
Authors: Rennie Simon
Published: May 2022

The Lancashire Cotton Famine of 1861–1865 (also known as “The Cotton Panic” or simply “The Distress”) was largely caused by the Union blockade of Confederate goods, including cotton, during the American Civil War. The economy of the highly industrialized English county of Lancashire was heavily dependent on cotton. The poetry associated with this crisis represents a demographically diverse documentation of emotional response, commentary, and reportage. Almost four hundred poems have been collated and analyzed on the database developed at the University of Exeter, but it is known that there are hundreds more still to be added to this collection, which have yet to be processed or even discovered. The bulk of the poems were recovered from local Lancashire newspapers and other UK publications, but there is also verse published in Australia, France, Ireland, and dozens from publications representing both sides of the American Civil War itself. Almost all of the poetry first saw the light of day in newspapers, and in Lancashire these publications were local to each of the mill towns affected by the crisis. Towns such as Bolton, Rochdale, Blackburn, Preston, and Burnley had grown exponentially in the decades up to the Famine, and their populations, in many cases newly literate, were served by discrete periodicals performing important municipal services as conveyors of news, opinion, entertainment, and advertising. In addition, almost all British newspapers in the 1860s featured a weekly poetry or literature column, and though they sometimes included verse from classic living or historical authors, they often encouraged readers to submit poetry for publication. Cotton Famine poetry provides a window into the feelings and opinions of ordinary people in reaction to one of the most concentrated periods of industrial economic distress in the latter half of the 19th century.
The Rise and Fall of “Shareholder Supremacy”: A Business History Perspective
Authors: Toms Steven
Published: May 2022

With shareholder supremacy, the board is accountable to all shareholders, including minorities, enforced by restrictions on managerial opportunism. The market for corporate control and scrutiny of diversified institutional investors provide the mechanisms for disciplining managers to act in shareholders’ interests. Along with legal protections for minorities, these mechanisms ensure the supremacy of shareholders as a stakeholder group. Shareholder value maximization, as a theory and a set of financial techniques, provides quantitative outputs that drive managerial behavior. From a historical perspective, shareholder supremacy is a late twentieth-century phenomenon according to these definitional characteristics. History also reveals that shareholders have exercised dominance in other ways and that their power as a stakeholder group has waxed and waned over time as the governance role of investors has changed. Shareholder supremacy can be asserted in a number of ways. Shareholder activism and transparent structures of accountability are sufficient conditions in some circumstances. The suitability of this model is dependent on market structure and favored where there are local monopolies or businesses that have a narrow scope of activities. Alternatively, shareholders as active institutional investors can play a dominant role utilizing the market for corporate control. Collaboration with board insiders committed to expansion by takeover and merger is crucial to the success of this model. Finally, and most recently, the complementary presence of the market for corporate control, diversified institutional investors, and minority protection underpins present-day shareholder supremacy. In this model, the use of a common valuation technique is crucial. History reveals differing routes to shareholder supremacy, which have followed from developments in the institutional structure of regulation and changes in shareholding patterns.
Social Movements and Climate Change: “Climatizing” Society From Within
Authors: Goodman James
Published: May 2022

Climate change brings profound challenges for social movements. The persistent failure to address climate challenges has driven a rapid “climatization” of politics. Spurred by the climate justice movement, social movements across a broad spectrum have become directly engaged with climate issues. Social movements are defined as groupings of people who act intentionally through an organization or via a network or even as a loose affiliation. They must have a collective identification and capacity for sustained action and participation. Their purpose often is to transform the conditions for social change as key agents in creating a “movement society” of mass political involvement. In doing so, social movements engage in a “metapolitics” of creating power and recreating society. Climate movements are increasingly being shown to have this effect. Recent research demonstrates that with climate change, there is a growing realignment in the social movement field to simultaneously address both climate concerns and social agendas. New forms of social agency are emerging under climate change, posing a new kind of climatized “movement society.” Arguably, as demonstrated by the limited efforts at developing international climate policy, mass mobilization on climate issues is a necessary element of any strategy to secure climate stability. Three broad fields of action are evident – politicising the impacts of climate change, contesting the causes, and advancing solutions. In each there is a widening field of agendas as climate concerns overwhelm existing social relations. Distinctive strategies emerge. First, there is growing collective identification among people affected by the impacts of climate change, now or anticipated, with a marked shift from climate advocacy to climate organizing, of acting “with,” not “for” those affected. Second, actions to challenge the legitimacy of the fossil fuel sector have escalated, materializing the causes of climate change in the fossil fuel cycle. With this, there is a move from abstract demands for emissions reduction to much more concrete demands for fossil fuel phase-out. Finally, in terms of solutions, there is a move from a focus on emission-reduction programs to wider policy agendas designed to transform social relations. Emissions reduction is no longer seen as a burden to be shared, but as part of wider social transformation, of benefit to all.
Models of Decision-Making Over Time
Authors: Cisek Paul , Thura David
Published: May 2022

Making a good decision often takes time, and in general, taking more time improves the chances of making the right choice. During the past several decades, the process of making decisions in time has been described through a class of models in which sensory evidence about choices is accumulated until the total evidence for one of the choices reaches some threshold, at which point commitment is made and movement initiated. Thus, if sensory evidence is weak (and noise in the signal increases the probability of an error), then it takes longer to reach that threshold than if sensory evidence is strong (thus helping filter out the noise). Crucially, the setting of the threshold can be increased to emphasize accuracy or lowered to emphasize speed. Such accumulation-to-bound models have been highly successful in explaining behavior in a very wide range of tasks, from perceptual discrimination to deliberative thinking, and in providing a mechanistic explanation for the observation that neural activity during decision-making tends to build up over time. However, like any model, they have limitations, and recent studies have motivated several important modifications to their basic assumptions. In particular, recent theoretical and experimental work suggests that the process of accumulation favors novel evidence, that the threshold decrease over time, and that the result yields improved decision-making in real, natural situations.
Language Rights, Racisms, and Language Education Policy in Angola
Authors: Manuel Nicolau
Published: May 2022

The issue of language is a fundamental factor for redressing social inequalities in education. Language is also central to policy measures and management reflections, on political events and social processes that are often not factored in education policy discussions in Angola. Critical stance affords a growing acceptance of teaching and learning as a complex situated social practice. Critical multiculturalism insights and perspectives on language rights enable theproblematization of the media of instruction policies and how existing education policies downplay the question of inequalities to access quality education based on social class and race in Angolan education. Language education policies in Angola represent colonial legacy. Lusotropicalism ideologies are often used to reinforce colonial social and cultural imaginaries that result in disenfranchised indigenous communities. Thus, in the context of globalization, in which immigration imposes rapid changes in the sociolinguistic landscape of the country, initiatives aiming to promote the use of African languages in education (acquisition planning) might provide an opportunity for people who viscerally suffer from the marginalization of these languages. However, the opportunity to carve out a space for candid debate on the issues of language, social class, and education are fraught with tensions due to the fact that the issue of language, education, and race remains a taboo that has not deserved any systematic attention on the part of the government and educationists in particular. Therefore, complementarity between literacy teaching in African languages and Portuguese might project African languages into the linguistic market, provide privileged planning opportunities, and develop an educational system toward bilingual and multilingual literacy. In the heyday of postnational ideologies, language diversity is an asset that needs to be harnessed through critical engagement and critical multicultural education, while recognizing the role that language plays in enabling and disabling both majority and minority groups to access social, cultural, and economic resources that are necessary for surviving in the increasingly commodified and globalized world.
Changing Perspectives on Adolescence(s)
Authors: Vadeboncoeur Jennifer A. , Padilla-Petry Paulo , Panina-Beard Natalia , Jhangiani Surita
Published: May 2022

While descriptions of transitions between childhood and adulthood have existed for millennia, “adolescence” was first defined as a universal developmental stage characterized by instability, conflict, and risk-taking in the early 20th century in American psychology. Research has challenged this view of adolescence—as a biologically determined, universal stage marked by turbulence—and has exposed the assumptions underlying its characterization. Much of this scholarship highlights limitations in the theoretical and methodological assumptions that form the foundation for how research was and is conducted, as well as the claims made from research. The lack of acknowledgment of the ways in which history, society, and culture influence definitions of adolescence and the persistence of historical biases against young people may mask the needs and interests of particular groups of young people and individuals.

Reviewing current research in the developmental sciences, with insights from various disciplines, highlights a growing awareness of the significance of interdisciplinarity and the limitations of the current body of scholarship. There is a significant need for theoretical and methodological perspectives that make visible the complexity of learning and developing into and through historical, social, and cultural environments, and the ways in which conditions specific to these environments impact children and youths. Even more urgent, however, is the need for approaches that attend to the ways in which dominant perspectives regarding culture, “race” and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and gender and sexuality are systematically woven into environments, creating different learning and developmental opportunities for youths.

Conceptualizing adolescences and inquiring into variations in the lived experiences of young people requires conceptual and methodological innovation, attention to the ways in which the conduct of research affects the outcomes of research, critical reflexivity on the part of researchers, and balancing research foci to include conducting research with young people as a method for understanding the experiences of groups of young people and individual youths in studies of participation and meaning-making. Cultural-historical approaches, emerging for almost a century, offer both theoretical and methodological advances for making visible how children and young people grow into and through their historical, social, and cultural environments. As individuals and their environments are inseparable, these approaches describe and explain how young people both shape and are shaped by the ecologies within which they are entangled. Further, these approaches acknowledge—and inquire into—the ways in which dominant perspectives regarding culture, “race” and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and gender and sexuality frame ecologies and are accommodated, resisted, and/or transformed by youths.
Facets of Quality in Qualitative Research
Authors: Larsson Staffan
Published: May 2022

How to judge the quality of a piece of research is a question that permeates academic work. A clear conception of quality is the backbone of the design and conduct of research, as well as the basis for supervision, manuscript review, and examination papers. Qualitative methodologies justify their usefulness through the development of more sophisticated interpretations of specific study objects than can be achieved within other methodologies. However, it is difficult to arrive at a decision concerning the quality of a piece of research because there are many aspects or facets to consider. Academics develop their competence for reaching decisions through experience, coupled with taking part in ways of reasoning about quality in qualitative research. Within this reasoning process there are a number of quality facets that should be considered. Each facet is grounded in various ways in different research traditions, and each has a foundational meaning but must also be assessed in relation to limitations. From the perspective of the text as a whole, one must consider whether it shows an awareness of the consequences of the research assumptions and other aspects of internal consistency. Ethical considerations are yet another facet. From a narrower perspective, the quality of the interpretation of empirical data must be able to capture rich meaning and present it in a structured way so that the interpretation can be clearly discerned. Another facet is how the interpretation contributes to existing knowledge about the issue or phenomenon that was studied. A classic question concerns the relation between an interpretation and the empirical basis, its credibility or validity. Here there are various facets to consider: Is the interpretation well anchored in data, and how do specific data fit when they are put together? Another facet is whether the interpretation opens up new ways of understanding an issue or process and whether more sophisticated action can result from embracing the interpretation. A proper evaluation of qualitative research should consider all facets; however, the ultimate appraisal rests on professional wisdom of the judge developed through experience and participation in deliberations related to what constitutes quality in academic texts. Determination of quality in qualitative research is not a mechanical process.
Jewish Merchants in the Indian Ocean Trade
Authors: Lambourn Elizabeth
Published: May 2022

The history of Jewish merchants in the Indian Ocean trade is a story in two parts. Before the modern period the scarcity of surviving material and textual sources causes this community’s history to wax and wane depending on the place and the period. Historians are left to grapple with the question of whether such microhistories can be read as paradigmatic. After 1500 a plethora of documents and material remains allow a far more detailed history and analysis, as well as across an expanded area. Especially after 1700, Jews from Europe and the Middle East entered colonial flows, joining long-standing Jewish communities along India’s western seaboard and in the Yemen, and in time establishing new businesses across the Horn of Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Far East. Academic research into these networks is sparse and quite dated until the colonial period, when a new wave of work integrating Jewish merchants into larger narratives occurred.
Housing and the Labor Market
Authors: Reed III Robert R.
Published: May 2022

Since the experiences of the housing boom and bust in the first decade of the 21st century, there has been growing interest in studying the connections between housing markets and labor market activity. Notably, a number of theoretical works have attempted to understand how housing tenure affects labor market outcomes. Interestingly, despite the inherent appeal of the logic that homeownership reduces worker mobility, much of this research does not predict that homeownership is associated with inferior outcomes when compared to renting. Thus, it is important to also examine the implications of homeownership empirically.

Although initially focused on macroeconomic studies looking at owner-occupation rates and unemployment across countries, the empirical literature expanded by introducing microeconometric research that examines an individual’s tenure status and labor market results. To begin, it appears that unemployed homeowners may not necessarily suffer from longer unemployment durations than other workers. Further, they may also be less likely to become unemployed; however, homeownership might be associated with lower wages because homeowners are limited in their job searches. In particular, homeowners suffering from negative equity seem to approach search efforts and job acceptance rates differently from other workers. Yet, such individuals are unlikely to default on their mortgages unless they experience adverse labor market shocks.
Monopsony Power, Race, and Gender
Authors: Farmand Aida , Ghilarducci Teresa
Published: May 2022

Most monopsony research leaves out the employer as an active agent. The cause of monopsony rests solely on the workers: Their idiosyncratic preferences, their lack of information, and their geographical isolation create the monopsony conditions. Employers are viewed as mainly passive and only choose to exploit their monopsony potential when the conditions allow. The theoretical passivity of employers leaves out a whole class of behaviors necessary to identify and understand the persistence of monopsony.

For instance, the models consider gender as a monopsony factor because wives and mothers are presumed to have intensely inelastic labor supply functions. Women’s attachment to children and the children’s schools and to their husband’s locational decisions means women are less likely to leave a geographical area to pursue a competitor’s better offer. Again, it is the woman’s idiosyncratic choices that allow for monopsony exploitation.

However, it is likely employers consciously use race and gender stratification to segregate and divide workers to create differential labor supply elasticities and, thus, create monopsony conditions to the firm. A firm would maintain practices that use race to allocate jobs and separate men from women workers to maintain divisions among the workforce. Moreover, government policies that make it difficult for workers to unionize, keep minimum wages low, and subsidize low-paid work through the earned income tax credit help employers create and maintain monopsony power among subaltern groups, nonwhite workers, and women. Future research on monopsony should focus on specific employers’ practices that create monopsony conditions such as providing firm specific childcare, perpetuating occupational segregations, limiting opportunities of promotion for women and nonwhite workers, and lobbying for the wage subsidy programs such as the earned income tax credit.
200 Years of International Relations in Brazil: Issues, Theories, and Methods
Authors: Belém Lopes Dawisson , Paulo Nicolini João , Carvalho Thales
Published: May 2022

The Brazilian field of international relations (IRs) has evolved over the course of two centuries. Since Brazil’s independence in 1822, international topics have deserved attention from local practitioners and scholars. The emergence of Brazilian standpoints about international affairs and of a Brazilian IR scholarship developed after the consolidation of similar fields in other Western countries. Multiple schools of thought held sway over local understandings, thereby leading to the formation of a different field as compared to characteristics of the Anglo-American mainstream. The institutionalization of the area has come about through the creation of scholarly departments and national government agencies. It all led to a unique combination of methods, theories, and issues being currently explored in the Brazilian branch of IR scholarship.