bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Automated detection of double nuclei galaxies using Gothic and the discovery of a large sample of dual AGN
Authors: Bhattacharya Anwesh , Nehal C P , Das Mousumi , Paswan Abhishek , Saha Snehanshu , Combes Françoise
Published: July 2023

We present a novel algorithm to detect double nuclei galaxies (DNG) called Gothic (Graph-bOosTed iterated HIll Climbing) – that detects whether a given image of a galaxy has two or more closely separated nuclei. Our aim is to test for the presence of dual/multiple active galactic nuclei (AGN) in galaxies that visually represent a DNG. Although galaxy mergers are common, the detection of dual AGN is rare. Their detection is very important as they help us understand the formation of supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries, SMBH growth and AGN feedback effects in multiple nuclei systems. There is thus a need for an algorithm to do a systematic survey of existing imaging data for the discovery of DNGs and dual AGNs. We have tested Gothic on an established sample of DNGs with a 100 per cent detection rate and subsequently conducted a blind search of 1 million SDSS DR16 galaxies (with spectroscopic data available) lying in the redshift range of z = 0 to 0.75. From the list of candidate DNGs found, we have detected 159 dual AGNs, of which 2 are triple AGN systems. Our results show that dual AGNs are not common, and triple AGN even rarer. The colour (u–r) magnitude plots of the DNGs indicate that star formation is quenched as the nuclei come closer and as the AGN fraction increases. The quenching is especially prominent for dual/triple AGN galaxies that lie at the extreme end of the red sequence.
The chemical evolution of the solar neighbourhood for planet-hosting stars
Authors: Pignatari Marco , Trueman Thomas C L , Womack Kate A , Gibson Brad K , Côté Benoit , Turrini Diego , Sneden Christopher , Mojzsis Stephen J , Stancliffe Richard J , Fong Paul , Lawson Thomas V , Keegans James D , Pilkington Kate , Passy Jean-Claude , Beers Timothy C , Lugaro Maria
Published: July 2023

Theoretical physical-chemical models for the formation of planetary systems depend on data quality for the Sun’s composition, that of stars in the solar neighbourhood, and of the estimated ’pristine’ compositions for stellar systems. The effective scatter and the observational uncertainties of elements within a few hundred parsecs from the Sun, even for the most abundant metals like carbon, oxygen and silicon, are still controversial. Here we analyse the stellar production and the chemical evolution of key elements that underpin the formation of rocky (C, O, Mg, Si) and gas/ice giant planets (C, N, O, S). We calculate 198 galactic chemical evolution (GCE) models of the solar neighbourhood to analyse the impact of different sets of stellar yields, of the upper mass limit for massive stars contributing to GCE (Mup) and of supernovae from massive-star progenitors which do not eject the bulk of the iron-peak elements (faint supernovae). Even considering the GCE variation produced via different sets of stellar yields, the observed dispersion of elements reported for stars in the Milky Way (MW) disc is not reproduced. Among others, the observed range of super-solar [Mg/Si] ratios, sub-solar [S/N], and the dispersion of up to 0.5 dex for [S/Si] challenge our models. The impact of varying Mup depends on the adopted supernova yields. Thus, observations do not provide a constraint on the Mup parametrization. When including the impact of faint supernova models in GCE calculations, elemental ratios vary by up to 0.1–0.2 dex in the MW disc; this modification better reproduces observations.
Constraints on tidal quality factor in Kepler eclipsing binaries using tidal synchronization: a frequency-dependent approach
Authors: Patel Ruskin , Penev Kaloyan , Schussler Joshua
Published: July 2023

Tidal dissipation in binary systems is the primary source for synchronization and circularization of the objects in the system. The efficiency of the dissipation of tidal energy inside stars or planets results in significant changes in observed properties of the binary system and is often studied empirically using a parameter, commonly known as the modified tidal quality factor (${Q_{\star }^{\prime }}$). Though often assumed constant, in general that parameter will depend on the particular tidal wave experiencing the dissipation and the properties of the tidally distorted object. In this work, we study the frequency dependence of ${Q_{\star }^{\prime }}$ for Sun-like stars. We parametrize ${Q_{\star }^{\prime }}$ as a saturating power law in tidal frequency and obtain constraints using the stellar rotation period of 70 eclipsing binaries observed by Kepler. We use Bayesian analysis to account for the uncertainties in the observational data required for tidal evolution. Our analysis shows that ${Q_{\star }^{\prime }}$ is well constrained for tidal periods >15 d, with a value of ${Q_{\star }^{\prime }}\sim 10^8$ for periods >30 d and a slight suggested decrease at shorter periods. For tidal periods <15 d, ${Q_{\star }^{\prime }}$ is no longer tightly constrained, allowing for a broad range of possible values that overlaps with the constraints obtained using tidal circularization in binaries, which point to much more efficient dissipation: ${Q_{\star }^{\prime }}\sim 10^6$.
On the nature of slowly rising interaction-powered supernovae
Authors: Moriya Takashi J
Published: July 2023

Some interaction-powered supernovae have long rise times of more than 100 d. We show that such long rise times are naturally expected if cirumstellar matters (CSM) have a flat density structure (s ≲ 1.5, where ρCSM∝r−s). In such cases, bolometric luminosities from the CSM interaction keep increasing as long as the CSM interacts with the outer layers of the SN ejecta. Thus, the rise time is determined by the dynamical time-scale in which the reverse shock propagates the outer layers of the SN ejecta, not by the time-scales in which photons diffuse in the CSM as often considered. Interaction-powered supernovae with very long rise times can be an important probe of extensive non-steady mass-loss in massive stars.
Y-Linked Copy Number Polymorphism of Target of Rapamycin Is Associated with Sexual Size Dimorphism in Seed Beetles
Authors: Kaufmann Philipp , Wiberg R Axel W , Papachristos Konstantinos , Scofield Douglas G , Tellgren-Roth Christian , Immonen Elina
Published: July 2023

The Y chromosome is theorized to facilitate evolution of sexual dimorphism by accumulating sexually antagonistic loci, but empirical support is scarce. Due to the lack of recombination, Y chromosomes are prone to degenerative processes, which poses a constraint on their adaptive potential. Yet, in the seed beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus segregating Y linked variation affects male body size and thereby sexual size dimorphism (SSD). Here, we assemble C. maculatus sex chromosome sequences and identify molecular differences associated with Y-linked SSD variation. The assembled Y chromosome is largely euchromatic and contains over 400 genes, many of which are ampliconic with a mixed autosomal and X chromosome ancestry. Functional annotation suggests that the Y chromosome plays important roles in males beyond primary reproductive functions. Crucially, we find that, besides an autosomal copy of the gene target of rapamycin (TOR), males carry an additional TOR copy on the Y chromosome. TOR is a conserved regulator of growth across taxa, and our results suggest that a Y-linked TOR provides a male specific opportunity to alter body size. A comparison of Y haplotypes associated with male size difference uncovers a copy number variation for TOR, where the haplotype associated with decreased male size, and thereby increased sexual dimorphism, has two additional TOR copies. This suggests that sexual conflict over growth has been mitigated by autosome to Y translocation of TOR followed by gene duplications. Our results reveal that despite of suppressed recombination, the Y chromosome can harbor adaptive potential as a male-limited supergene.
ʿAbdul Razzāq Kāshānī
Authors: Chamankhah Leila
Published: July 2023

ʿAbdul Razzāq Kāshānī (also Qāshānī, d. ah 735/1335? ce), the Iranian Sufi, exegete, commentator, and one of the most significant expositors of Ibn ʿArabī’s (d. ah 638/1240 ce) theoretical mysticism (ʿirfān-i naẓarī), is a stimulating figure for both Western and Iranian scholars. Kāshānī was also a pioneer figure for using Shiʿa sources, including Hadith, to read and interpret Akbarīan mysticism, an initiative that influenced mystics such as Sayyid Ḥaydar Āmulī (d. ah 787/1385 ce) to maintain that Shiʿism and Sufism have inherent unification and should be regarded as identical. Kāshānī’s correspondences with his peer ʿAlāʾ u-Dawlah Simnānī (d. ah 736/1336 ce), a critic of ʿirfān-i naẓarī and the doctrine of waḥdat al-wujūd, indicate his deep and first-hand familiarity with his master’s philosophical mysticism. As a prolific writer of some forty-five books and treatises, and a teacher whose circle initiated and trained Sufis such as Sharaf al-Dīn Dāwūd Qayṣarī (d. ah 751/1350 ce), he left an undeniable mark on later mystics and philosophers who all shared the robust legacy of Ibn ʿArabī. Kāshānī died sometime in or around ah 735/1335 ce, in Naṭanz and is buried there.
Nordic Laws
Authors: Sigurdsson Jon Vidar , Vogt Helle
Published: July 2023

By the end of the Viking Age, the Nordic region was divided between three kingdoms, all of which still exist in the early twenty-first century, albeit with very different borders, and Iceland. In Scandinavia, if we exclude the Sami language, a single vernacular language was spoken during the Early and the High Middle Ages: the so-called dönsk tunga or Danish tongue. The English word law originates from the Old Norse noun lög, plural lag. Lög also refers to a region, that is a territory united by the laws. Gulaþingslög, for example, covered the west coast and interior of Norway. In Scandinavia, there were probably about fifteen larger regional administrative regional law assemblies (lögþing) by the end of the Viking Age, with as many different laws. Denmark was unified before the Viking Age and had three lögþing. Denmark’s first national law was enacted in 1683. Sweden was unified in the twelfth century, but the eight/nine provinces kept their own laws until the middle of the fourteenth century, when they were replaced with a national law for the entire kingdom. Norway was unified in the eleventh century. Its four law regions gained a common law in 1274. The national law had to be accepted at the regional law assemblies, and were therefore called Gulathing Law, etc. According to Íslendingabók, written c. 1125, the first laws in Iceland, from c. 930, were modeled on the Gulathing Law. These laws, Grágás, were the law of the Free State, c. 930–1262/64. Between 1262 and 1264, Iceland became a tributary land under the king of Norway, and received two new law books, Járnsíða in 1271 and Jónsbók in 1281, the latter based on the Norwegian national law. The Swedish provincial laws were enhanced with local church law, which were local collections of canon law that covered local matters such as the church building and the support of the priest. The provincial laws in Norway also included church laws, however not the Norwegian national law. The situation was similar in Iceland: Grágás contain church laws, whereas Járnsíða and Jónsbók do not. In Denmark, the provinces of Zealand and Scania had church laws from the 1170s. However, unlike the other Nordic laws, they were not church laws in general. Instead, they regulated the gray area between the secular and the bishops’ jurisdiction. Most of the laws of the Nordic countries are written in the vernacular. The oldest manuscripts are from the thirteenth century.
Learned and Scientific Literature
Authors: Wolf Kirsten
Published: July 2023

The extant learned and scientific literature from medieval Scandinavia and Iceland is likely only a small portion of what once existed. It includes, but is not limited to, astronomical, encyclopedic, geographical, grammatical, and medical literature. With the exception of a number of the geographical works, some of the medical treatises, and the so-called Four Grammatical Treatises, this literature has received modest scholarly attention, probably because much of it is based on translations or adaptations of non-native works. Information about the literature is found primarily in encyclopedias and in introductions to editions of the various works.
Hagiography in the Byzantine Empire
Authors: Efthymiadis Stephanos
Published: July 2023

Hagiography is the literary genre represented by the texts written in honor of a saint or a group of saints and unfolding as shorter or longer accounts of their biography, martyrdom, and/or other manifestations of their confession of faith. Derived from the components hagios (saint) and graphe (writing), hagiography is a term coined by European scholarship, not a word used in the premodern era in the sense and implications it has acquired today. Hagiography as practiced in the Byzantine Empire had a long and rich history between the 4th and the 15th century. In Late Antiquity it emerged as a distinct genre, developing from simple forms to works of rhetorical sophistication and spreading into different parts of the eastern empire. The bulk of late antique hagiography produced there consists of texts written in Greek; yet Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, and Arabic also arose as languages of hagiography both inside and outside the borders of the Byzantine state, as an expression of Christianity in the lands where these languages were spoken. From the 8th century onward, and with the shrinking of the eastern empire, Greek acquired the monopoly on literature at large, a development that affected hagiography too. But Georgian and Slavonic texts were added to the production of eastern Christian hagiography, with a significant output including both translations from a Greek original and original works chiefly celebrating local saints. From the Byzantine millennium (330–1453) there are preserved upward of 2,500 Greek hagiographic texts. This estimate is based on the texts listed in the inventory of the Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca. Although in their majority they have been transmitted anonymously, a fair portion of those preserved with an author’s name derive from major figures of Byzantine letters. The most influential and perhaps most enigmatic among them was Symeon Metaphrastes. His reworking of earlier hagiographies in the late 10th century and the creation of a collection arranged according to the months of the church calendar (the Menologion) marked a turning point in the history of the genre and its dissemination in Byzantium.
Edinburgh
Authors: Allen Aaron
Published: July 2023

In 1995, Edinburgh was granted World Heritage Site status. Settlement is known to have been on Edinburgh’s Castle Rock since at least the late bronze or early iron age. Indeed, the defensibility of this site is a key theory as to why settlement would form atop a rocky outcrop, uphill and so far away from fresh water or the sea. Traditionally, Edinburgh Castle was known as the Maidens’ Castle because it could apparently keep safe the daughters of Pictish kings. This tradition certainly had currency when Braun and Hogenberg’s 16th-century atlas of towns, or Civitates Orbis Terrarium, labeled the castle, “Castrum puellarum.” While the veracity of this explanation is yet to be firmly established, it is much clearer that monarchy and trade played crucial roles in the ascendancy of Edinburgh. E. Patricia Dennison, in Holyrood and Canongate: A Thousand Years of History, records that the castle had been a royal residence since at least the reign of Malcolm III (r. 1058–1093), if not earlier (p. 2). By the reign of James III, it was the capital, as depicted in Michael Lynch’s chapter, “Edinburgh: 1. to 1650” (in The Oxford Companion to Scottish History, p. 218). While defense was a key consideration, trade also played an important role. The town had “royal burgh” status—and privileges—from at least the reign of David I (r. 1124–1153), but it was the capture of the larger Berwick-upon-Tweed by the English (especially in 1333, though it changed hands several times before 1482) that led to the wool trade moving north, and Edinburgh developing as the economic leader of Scotland’s burghs (ibid.). While suburban settlements, many of which were competing burghs or regality or barony, would offer alternatives to living in Edinburgh, corporatism and privilege encouraged residency within the town walls, leading to a densely packed built environment, despite the limited access to water. Milling developed along the Water of Leith, and deepwater port facilities were sought in the town of Leith on the Firth of Forth. While this short introduction simply cannot do justice to so important a city, the thematically structured bibliography in this article will point to more thorough assessments. After a note of general histories of Edinburgh, thematic sections explore the scholarship of religious, political, economic, social, cultural, legal, and medical histories of Renaissance and Reformation Edinburgh, followed by a selection of the archaeological reports of excavations undertaken in the Scottish capital. Additionally, there is a note on several important online repositories of primary and secondary sources. Many good studies of the capital have been written, but it is important to note the need for further work.
Andrea del Verrocchio
Authors: Neilson Christina
Published: July 2023

Andrea del Verrocchio was a leading artist in Renaissance Italy. Best known today as the teacher of Leonardo da Vinci, Verrocchio was a celebrated artist in his own right. Born in Florence c. 1435 to a family of artisans and laborers, Verrocchio spent most of his career in that city. He died in Venice in 1488, two years after he had moved there to make a bronze equestrian monument of the mercenary general Bartolommeo Colleoni. Verrocchio worked in an unusually wide variety of media. In sculpture he produced works in marble, wood, bronze, terracotta, and wax. He was also a draftsman, painter, and goldsmith. Most studies on the artist tend to focus on his art in sculpture and few consider his work in different media in dialogue. Yet the artist frequently used the tools and techniques from one medium in another. A closer look at Verrocchio’s tendency to work between and across media reveals an artist who is among the most experimental in 15th-century Florence, itself a major European center of artistic innovation. Verrocchio influenced many of the leading artists of the next generation, especially painters, some of whom trained with him. These included Leonardo da Vinci, Pietro Perugino, and Domenico Ghirlandaio, among many others. Verrocchio initiated many formal, stylistic, and technical innovations that were taken up by artists of the next generation and in succeeding centuries. His Christ and Saint Thomas shows the figures in dynamic and carefully choreographed poses. Thomas is positioned on a step outside the niche in which Christ is placed and turns to reach forward as if to touch Christ’s wound but does not. The careful placement of the figures in relation to each other and to the niche around them anticipates formal developments taken up by Baroque artists, such as Gianlorenzo Bernini. Verrocchio’s Putto with a Dolphin has an equally dynamic pose, with the putto positioned so that it spirals around a central axis, its twisting body inviting the viewer to move around it. This pose came to be known as figura serpentinata (literally “serpentine figure”), a compositional device of enormous influence adopted by leading artists of the sixteenth century, including the painter Leonardo and the sculptor Giambologna. Verrocchio recognized the tonal potential for drawing in black chalk and used it to create areas of sfumato (areas of smokiness) in his drawings, a technical innovation commonly attributed to his pupil Leonardo.
Hanuman
Authors: Saul Jeremy
Published: July 2023

Hanuman, formally recognized as a vānara, a class of monkey-like semi-divine beings, has been known in the Hindu literature of South Asia since his appearance in the Sanskrit epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which gradually took shape in the centuries immediately preceding and following the advent of the Common Era. In the Ramayana, Hanuman is praised as the exemplary devotee of Rama, the god Vishnu’s avatāra or manifestation on earth. Hanuman played a vital role in the struggle to win back Rama’s consort, Sita, after her abduction by the dastardly King Ravana of Lanka. Thus, esteemed as a heroic literary character, Hanuman’s renown spread wherever the Ramayana was adopted as an integral part of Sanskritic court life, even reaching parts of Southeast Asia. Additionally, beyond the confines of the court, Hanuman, as a physically invincible deity, began to attract devotion in popular practice in South Asia during an era of conflict among various rulers in the second millennium. Hanuman’s images thereupon became a common feature at small village shrines throughout the subcontinent, where he performed much like other folk deities, such as the Goddess, Bhairava (an angry form of Shiva), and ancestral and chthonic beings geared to villagers’ everyday needs. In the 16th century, one poet, Tulsidas, rewrote the Ramayana in an early form of Hindi prevalent in his time. Since then, that Hindi narrative has become the preeminent devotional literature for Hanuman. In the colonial era, Hanuman received somewhat muted attention from Brahmins and Western scholars, inasmuch as the latter more often regarded him as a demi-deity of lesser importance than the major canonical deities of Sanskrit literature that Brahmins upheld, such as Shiva and Vishnu (and Vishnu’s avatāras). But by the end of the 20th century, Hanuman had acquired enhanced cultural significance throughout India to the extent that one could now argue that he is among the most popular deities. This appraisal is based on Hanuman’s seemingly unmatched reputation for performing miracles, his frequent promotion as a heroic figure in ascendant Hindu nationalism, and the many new temples lately dedicated to him to an extent far beyond what we see for other deities. Along with this new prominence, one can see an escalation of popular literature and performance art in which Hanuman is accorded the highest level of affection. For this reason, any account of the literature of Hanuman necessarily tracks his historical trajectory of increasing popularity.
Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Hindu Nationalism
Authors: Katju Manjari
Published: July 2023

The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), a religio-nationalist organization formed in 1964, evolved with the ostensible purpose of protecting and preserving Hindu dharma. The central role in floating the VHP was played by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), itself a Hindu nationalist organization formed in 1925, which also closely handled VHP’s organizational work in its initial years. The VHP was visualized as a religious platform with a global (vishva) reach that would be an assembly of Hindu religious leaders and theologians of various Hindu monastic orders—the sadhus, sants, swamis, acharyas, and yogis—working to preserve the cultural specificity and distinct identity of Hindus. Its founders saw it as a leading ecclesiastical body of Hindus with a cultural authority that would mark and articulate the tenets of Hindu dharma. Its task was to strengthen Hinduness and samskaras (cultural and moral conduct with an emphasis on training in tradition and customary practices) among Hindus, especially those who were seen by it as gradually moving away from the Hindu fold, such as sections of the tribal communities in India and the Hindu diaspora. It saw Islam, Christianity, and communism as the three “alien ideologies” that posed a challenge to the survival of Hinduism by “luring” Hindus away from it. Associated with Hindu majoritarianism, the VHP leans toward right-wing nationalist standpoints that exclude the minorities of India, notably Muslims and Christians, from the national ambit and ideas of Indian citizenship. Its antagonistic standpoint vis-à-vis these two communities is particularly noteworthy. The VHP represents Hindutva (exclusive Hindu nationhood) in its quintessential form; it has been spearheading Hindutva campaigns as one of its main “spokes-organizations.” It built its campaigns elaborately and with much fanfare around certain Hindu religious myths and icons, foremost among them the Hindu deity Ram. It led a sustained campaign for the “liberation” (mukti) of Ramjanmabhoomi (believed by some to be the birthplace of Hindu deity Ram and a belief popularized by the RSS group of organizations) in the 1980s, making Ram a household name and Hindutva a known ideology. Its message to the Hindus was that the Nehruvian outlook of viewing all religions on a par and granting them equal rights in India was akin to appeasement of the Muslim community. It viewed this inclusive secular nationalism as misplaced and harming the country, but something that was suited to and taken forward by the Congress Party because of its “vote-bank” politics, especially among minorities that helped it (the Congress Party) consolidate its political position.
Christianity and Yoga
Authors: Stoeber Michael
Published: July 2023

Hindu postural yogas of hatha and kundalini have come into significant theological and practical dialogue with Christianity historically. These are physical-sensory oriented yogas, that can include: āsana (body postures and movements); mudra (hand positions); prāṇāyāma (breath meditations); mantra (sacred soundings or chanting); or yantra (mental imaging and visualization). Hatha and kundalini yogas are marked off from other categories of yoga: bhakti (worship and devotional self-surrender); karma (selfless action); rāja (meditative emphasis, centered on Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra); and jñāna (discriminating knowledge through meditation). However, some of the physical-sensory practices and theoretical contexts of hatha and kundalini can function as significant prerequisites, helpful supports, or grounding for the devotional or contemplative goals of these other yogas. Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra (3rd century ce) and its commentaries systematize popular ascetic techniques and contemplative methods of ancient yoga practices and theories, which were then creatively expanded or adapted into hatha and kundalini yogas, and influence, relate with, and contrast to, other yoga types. This article highlights comparative studies and dialogue of postural yogas with Christianity, but also includes references to jñāna and bhakti. Although Christian-Hindu encounters with Indian yogas occur centuries earlier, with the St. Thomas Christians, reliable and detailed records begin in the early 17th century. Christian missionaries studied Hindu texts and communicated aspects of their comparative learning and personal dialogue, while travel writers and Western journalists informed European and American Christians about various practices of Indian yogis-fakirs (ascetic yoga masters). Scholars, religion-theorists, and theologians of the 19th and 20th centuries wrote about yoga, interreligious dialogue occurred among monastics from the early 20th century, and influential gurus introduced various yogas more widely to the West. Historically, this interreligious dialogue and comparative study can be distinguished by three general approaches—though it also occurs without reference to these stances: In Exclusivism, persons of a religious tradition regard the theories and practices of the “Other” tradition suspiciously or pejoratively, as misguided, flawed, or spiritually distorted and dangerous, even while possibly drawing upon significant aspects of the Other’s tradition; Inclusivist-Fulfillment orientations claim both the limitations of the Other—especially in terms of ultimate spiritual ideals—but also acknowledge the positive support of its theories and practices in relation to the fulfilment of one’s own religious tradition, in some cases in extremely complimentary ways. Pluralistic theories grant independent authenticity to certain aspects of the theories, practices, and spiritual ideals of the Other, sometimes recognizing the possibilities of multiple religious participation and belonging or religious hybridity.
Brazilian Independence
Authors: Kraay Hendrik
Published: July 2023

In the 1820s, Emperor Pedro I’s so-called Grito do Ipiranga (7 September 1822) was constructed as the proclamation of Brazilian independence, and thus the country celebrated its bicentennial in 2022. While some historians have sought the origins of Brazilian nationhood and independence in the late colonial period, scholars now emphasize that the transfer of the Portuguese monarchy from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro in 1807–1808, in flight from the French invaders, set off the processes that led to independence. Prince-Regent João (João VI after 1816) opened Brazilian ports to trade with friendly nations, thereby effectively ending colonial economic relations. He established institutions of governance for the Portuguese empire in Rio de Janeiro, created the Kingdom of Brazil in 1815, and cultivated close ties with the elite of merchants, planters, and slave traders in the new capital’s immediate hinterland. In 1817, the monarchy repressed a liberal conspiracy in Portugal and a liberal-republican rebellion in Pernambuco, but victorious Portuguese liberals established a constitutional regime in 1820 and recalled João VI. As provincial elites declared their loyalty to the new regime, João VI accepted the constitution and departed for Lisbon, leaving his eldest son, Pedro, as regent in Rio de Janeiro. While the Portuguese Cortes (parliament) sought to establish a unitary government for the Portuguese empire, those who had benefited from the institutions of governance created in Rio de Janeiro threw their support behind Pedro, who consolidated his power over the course of 1821–1822 and increasingly defied Lisbon. He gradually drew support from more distant provinces and formally broke with Lisbon in the second half of 1822 (he was acclaimed Emperor Pedro I on 12 October). Fighting between supporters of Lisbon and Pedro’s allies continued in many of the northern provinces, especially Bahia, until well into 1823, and elites in Pernambuco resisted the new regime until 1824. Pedro convened, then closed, a constituent assembly in 1823 but subsequently granted a constitution for the new empire. Significant popular mobilizations and important changes in political culture characterized these years. Since the 1820s, the history of Brazilian independence has been written largely by Brazilians, with very few contributions by foreign historians, an indication of the Brazilian academe’s autonomy and vibrancy. The new political history of this period, dominant since the turn of the millennium, moves away from the Marxist structuralist approaches that characterized Brazilian scholarship in the second half of the twentieth century.
Environmental and Science Education: Overlaps and Issues
Authors: Dillon Justin
Published: July 2023

While concern for the impact of humans on the environment dates back many centuries, modern environmentalism really began in the second half of the 20th century. We are now very aware of a number of “wicked problems” that are complex and impossible to solve. Such issues, which are interrelated at different levels, include climate change, biodiversity loss, water security, and poverty. These problems can be better understood with a knowledge of science, but they are not just “scientific” issues—they require knowledge from many other areas across the arts and humanities as well as the broad range of scientific disciplines. This article focuses on environmental and science education and, where relevant, suggests links to other cognate areas. One way of thinking about environmental and science education is as the place where environmental education and science education overlap. This is quite a fluid space, intellectually, partly because environmental education is itself conceptualized in many ways. It is important to point out that we are not simply concerned with environmental science, rather, this article identifies a growing need to reconceptualize the relationship between science education and environmental education.
Accuracy in Journalism
Authors: Porlezza Colin
Published: July 2023

Offering accurate reporting is at the heart of journalism practice. Accuracy is therefore a fundamental norm in the journalistic profession. It is closely related to other key concepts, such as objectivity, truthfulness, trust, and credibility. Its importance is also reflected in the weight that is given to the concept when it comes to media self-regulation, for instance in press councils’ regulations or codes of ethics. Even if accuracy developed out of the concept of objectivity, being therefore of Anglo-American origin, it has become a universal rule that transcends different journalistic cultures. It also allows journalism to be distinguished from works of fiction. Accuracy is also an important criteria to determine the quality of news reporting. Particularly in digital journalism, where the accelerated news cycle requires immediacy and fast publication, news outlets often adopt the strategy “publish first and verify second,” although research has shown that the accuracy of journalistic reporting and trustfulness are related. However, offering accurate reporting is easier said than done because it raises epistemological questions of whether and how journalism is actually capable of depicting reality accurately and truthfully. Nevertheless, accuracy plays an important role in terms of a fact-based journalistic discourse, since it forces journalists and editors to check whether the conveyed facts are true or not. Particularly in times of dis- and misinformation, implementing a thorough fact-checking process becomes paramount, not only to verify information, but also to tackle the further spread of fake news. Research finds that fact-checking can help to correct disinformation, and many online fact-checking and verification services have thus been launched—even if some studies suggest that fact-checking might not always be effective or that it can even backfire. Research into news accuracy can look back on a long history of studies that originated in the United States in 1936. Since then, accuracy research has become an established research strand in journalism studies that yields regular publications. However, most studies focus on newspapers and the Western world, while research from the Global South is generally lacking.
Rhetoric and Social Movements
Authors: Foust Christina R.
Published: July 2023

US communication scholars turned to social movements in the 1950s to advance theory past its origins in public address. Social movements presented a multiplicity of voices that nonetheless could be heard as one collective demand. As protests against racism, sexism, and war erupted in the 1960s, rhetoric scholars recognized the need for theory and criticism to account for not only the varied number of people involved in social movements—but also the uninstitutionalized, non-normative demands or expressions made. Discourses emanating from intersectional feminism, liberal feminism, gay liberation, Black Power and civil rights protestors, demanded that we center power, privilege, and oppression as organized by social identities. Rhetorical theory was slow, in many ways, to heed this call, as work of the 1970s–1990s continued to rely on resource mobilization or organizational leadership models. However, trends in larger academic conversations influenced rhetorical theory, and “new social movement” study underscored the importance of identities to activism. By the 2000s, the term “social movement” fell out of favor. Instead, concepts such as counterpublics, outlaw rhetoric, vernacular discourse and rhetoric, resistance, emerged. Rather than offering generalizable contributions to “social movement rhetoric,” scholars turned to specific tactics in movements like feminism, HIV/AIDS activism, and the environmental movement, to theorize consciousness-raising, remembrance and polemics, and direct actions to prevent logging. As tactics grew increasingly mediated with the advent of digital technology through the 2000s—particularly “Web 2.0” applications like Facebook and Twitter, which appeared to fuel global actions in the 2010s—rhetoric scholars questioned how much the medium affected the message. Debates over technological determinism return us to questions invited in 1960s protests, such as whether or not “body rhetoric” (like the Black Panthers’ tactic of carrying of assault rifles into the California State Capitol) is effective and ethical. Social movement rhetoric scholars today follow historic protests against racism and a time of swift action against some prominent sexual harassers. As the dust continues to settle following the 2020 US presidential election, scholars are also taking stock of misinformation, echo chambers, and a number of actions which could be construed as right-wing populism and white supremacy. Finally, as youth activists lead the way out of resource intensive, toxic systems that have been oppressing so many/so much for so long, we may consider social movement rhetoric as an inspiration and blueprint for living life in alignment with life on the planet.
Studies on Academic Literacies in Spanish-Speaking Latin American and Brazilian Higher Education (2000–2019)
Authors: Moritz Maria Ester Wollstein , Narváez-Cardona Elizabeth
Published: July 2023

Studies and initiatives on reading and writing in higher education and professional settings have different traditions and disciplinary configurations around the world. Research and pedagogical initiatives intersect with traditions from language sciences and literary studies, and thus across regions and countries different academic professional communities (e.g., academic literacies, applied linguistics, language didactics, textual linguistics or writing studies) develop ownership regarding their study objects and simultaneously define such objects. Therefore, in the Americas is acknowledged this heterogeneity and hybridization; in particular, Central and South America studies embrace different academic influences that have been impacted, among other reasons, by Spanish and Portuguese language usage. Consequently, this difference is presented by organizing the publications as emerging from Spanish-speaking Latin America or Brazilian scholars mainly based on their publications disseminated in Spanish and Portuguese. In Spanish-speaking Latin America and Brazil, since 2000, the study of first and second language reading and writing in higher education have evolved from different trajectories associated with the fields in linguistics, applied linguistics, systemic functional linguistics, discourse analysis, genre studies, language didactics, and teacher education. The research contributions have been focused on (i) supporting democracy awareness and critical thinking; (ii) advocating and design pedagogical initiatives to overcome prior school flaws of undergraduates in reading and writing; (iii) describing learning academic genres (e.g., essays), and professional written genres (e.g., engineering reports); (iv) advocating and designing pedagogical initiatives to support disciplinary learning (e.g., writing-to-learn), and professional performances (e.g., writing-within-disciplines); (v) advocating and creating institutional sites as writing centers, peer tutoring, or ethnographic studies supporting access, inclusion, participation of non-traditional students (i.e., Indigenous and Black communities, first student generation); and, (vi) promoting internationalization. The wide range of the disciplinary roots studying reading and writing in higher education partly explains such diverse contributions accomplished in two decades. Furthermore, Spanish-speaking Latin American and Brazilian scholars of the diverse fields have incorporated frameworks of academic literacies to situate reading, writing, and communication practices in social, historical, and cultural realms. Academic literacy, therefore, considers language as a social practice as it considers the process of reading and writing in the higher education context, involving, also, particular forms of thinking, being, acting, and doing specific to the academic, disciplinary, and professional contexts.
Confucian Views of Children and Childhood
Authors: Chadwin Joseph
Published: July 2023

Despite the prominence of teachings pertaining to children in Confucianism, the specific study of Confucian views of childhood is a somewhat recent field. Despite this being a recent scholarly trend, one cannot deny the central role that views of childhood have historically had within Confucianism. Indeed, one could argue that the very core of Confucian doctrine is social harmony that begins at the level of the family. Within the family, parents and their children both play specific albeit interconnected roles. Grounded in the fundamental Confucian law of reciprocity, it is the parents’ responsibility to look after their children and ensure that they receive a moral education (a moral education that very much begins at the level of the household). Conversely, children, indebted to their parents, have a responsibility to learn and cultivate filiality. Thus, one finds that at the very core of Confucian views of childhood are the interconnected concepts of filiality and education.
Memory and Childhood
Authors: Pells Kirrily
Published: July 2023

The concepts of childhood and memory are interrelated. Memories of childhood are often deployed in popular discussions regarding understandings of what it means to be a child and the changing status of childhood in society. For example, both nostalgic and romanticized memories of the past and memories of trauma and abuse are evoked in assumptions of lost childhood innocence or the eroding of childhood as a time of freedom in contemporary society. Memories of childhood therefore not only shed light on the past, but also present individual and social preoccupations in terms of what is remembered (or forgotten) and how. While the study of adults’ memories of childhood, such as through memoirs and life history interviews, is well established, particularly in historical and cultural studies, it is only more recently that outside of developmental psychology, memory in childhood has emerged as a more significant research focus. Memory in childhood explores the role of children as memory-makers, holders, preservers, and translators, in relation to their own memories and also to the memories of others, whether intergenerational familial memories or wider public or collective memory, such as of conflict, colonialism, or environmental degradation. Here, the majority of research is interdisciplinary, situated at the intersection between memory studies and childhood studies with a focus on memory as an embodied, social, material, and political phenomenon and the ways in which memory shapes individual and collective actions, identities, and narratives. How the figure of the child is mobilized, by whom, and for what purposes are central questions in the politics of memory, particularly representations of children and childhood in memorials, narratives of nation-building, and educational initiatives. Studies of memory and childhood also raise ethical and methodological questions. Which children are remembered and how? Do adults’ memories of childhood have value in understanding childhood in the present? What methods can be used to explore the complexities, dynamics, and often intangible forms of memory in childhood, and what are the ethical implications involved? Considerations of memory and childhood are of interest not only to scholars in the fields of memory studies, childhood studies, and education, but also to practitioners in educational, museum, and cultural heritage sectors.
Social Media
Authors: Meikle Graham
Published: July 2023

Social media have made possible new kinds of relationships, politics, and entertainment. On the one hand, they have enabled billions of people to experience new forms of communication, community, and communion. But on the other, they are also profit-driven, data-mining corporations, whose core business model is often built around surveillance and the commercial exploitation of their users’ everyday lives. Researching and analyzing social media involves navigating between these two poles. Social media platforms have complicated earlier understandings of communication: they do not allow for simple distinctions between personal communication and public media. One way of approaching them is to start with their most basic affordances. So first, social media are those that any user can, in principle, use to say and make things for an audience. Second, that user can then choose to share the things they have said or made with others, whether with a restricted network of friends and followers, or with an unknowable audience. They can also share things that others have said or made, and may be prompted by the platform to do this. And third, such activities make the user visible to others, who become visible to them in turn, creating possibilities for connection, communication, and collaboration, but also for monitoring, surveillance, and exploitation. Some of the following selections address social media as part of wider discussions about digital media, culture, society, or politics. Other choices focus on individual social media apps or platforms. This bibliography provides some historical context for the emergence of social media and identifies key introductory overviews and core texts. It also introduces resources for investigating social media platforms and the life course; the relationships between these platforms and news and journalism; and the uses of social media in campaigns for social, cultural, or political change. There are sections on distinctive communicative aspects of social media, such as memes, remix, and trolling, and on some of the most important aspects of surveillance and visibility. The final section points to some broader contextual and emerging directions that situate social media within the wider digital media environment.