bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Crumbled Cookies: Exploring E-commerce Websites’ Cookie Policies with Data Protection Regulations
Authors: Singh Nivedita , Do Yejin , Yu Yongsang , Fouad Imane , Kim Jungrae , Kim Hyoungshick
Published: December 2024

Despite stringent data protection regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and other country-specific laws, numerous websites continue to use cookies to track user activities, raising significant privacy concerns. This study aims to investigate the compliance of e-commerce websites with these regulations from a cookie perspective and explore potential variations in cookie policies across different countries. We conducted a comprehensive analysis of 360 popular e-commerce websites (44,323 cookies) across multiple countries, examining cookie attributes and their potential links to privacy and security breaches. Our findings revealed that 73% of third-party cookies function as tracker cookies, with around 40% breaching lifecycle regulations. Additionally, 85% are vulnerable to potential cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks, while only 349 out of 44,323 adhere to robust measures aimed at combating cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks. We also discovered instances of masquerading cookies, where third-party cookies disguise themselves as first-party cookies, enabling unauthorized user tracking without consent. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to comprehensively analyze the compliance of e-commerce websites with the GDPR, CCPA, and country-specific regulations concerning cookie policies across different jurisdictions. Our findings highlight the urgent need for uniform and consistent cookie policies across websites and jurisdictions, as well as robust enforcement mechanisms and increased transparency to ensure compliance with data protection regulations. This research contributes to the ongoing discourse on privacy protection and underscores the importance of addressing the challenges posed by insecure cookie practices in the e-commerce sector.
Relieving Overexposure in Information Diffusion Through a Budget Multi-stage Allocation
Authors: Ni Peikun , Guidi Barbara , Michienzi Andrea , Zhu Jianming
Published: December 2024

When information dissemination campaigns on Online Social Networking platforms are too aggressive, this can easily cause information overexposure. Overexposure can break through the psychological and physiological limits that the audience can tolerate, making it difficult for the audience to obtain reasonable cognitive concepts. For example, the overexposure of information referring to an object in a promotional campaign can lead to inflated expectations in individuals. Building on this, we introduce two indicators for individuals’ expectations and actual utility of the object and design a multi-stage triggered mechanism for seed individuals to explore the relieving overexposure problem in information diffusion. We build a multi-stage information diffusion model and characterize the evolution of individual expectations. We verify the hardness result of the relieving overexposure problem by budget multi-stage allocation, and the non-submodularity and non-monotonicity of the objective function. Addressing the non-monotonic and non-submodular set function, we provide a direct influence-oriented algorithm with a greedy approach. Extensive experiments are performed on four real networks to explore how model parameters and network properties affect the effects of multi-stage triggered strategies for seed individuals. Using the experiments, we found that the seed individual multi-stage incremental triggered strategy of dissemination campaign of information referring to an object shows better performance, and the lower the actual utility of the specific object, the more accurate the promotion strategy needs to be developed.
Consequence-based Clustered Architecture
Authors: Karunakar Shruthi , Kalayappan Rajshekar , Chandran Sandeep
Published: December 2024

We recognize that the execution of many dynamic instructions have no consequence on the overall execution of the program. For example, the execution of a correctly predicted conditional branch instruction, as well as all the instructions leading up to it, are inconsequential. We propose a clustered architecture that steers consequential instructions to the primary cluster, and inconsequential ones to the secondary one called the I-Pipe that is less capable and thereby, more area and power efficient. The proposed architecture also entails minimal inter-cluster communication, thereby greatly reducing the complexities of inter-cluster result buses. Such a steering policy also helps increase the performance as the consequential instructions do not face any interference from the inconsequential ones. We demonstrate a

\(42\% \)

area reduction as compared to a baseline single cluster (Tigerlake-based) architecture, a

\(18.5\% \)

power reduction in the SPEC CPU2017 suite (

\(13.7\% \)

power reduction in GAPBS), and a

\(5.15\% \)

performance uplift in the SPEC CPU2017 suite (

\(10.22\% \)

in the GAPBS suite).
Flexible and Effective Object Tiering for Heterogeneous Memory Systems
Authors: Kammerdiener Brandon , McMichael J. Zach , Jantz Michael , Doshi Kshitij , Jones Terry
Published: December 2024

Computing platforms that package multiple types of memory, each with their own performance characteristics, are quickly becoming mainstream. To operate efficiently, heterogeneous memory architectures require new data management solutions that are able to match the needs of each application with an appropriate type of memory. As the primary generators of memory usage, applications create a great deal of information that can be useful for guiding memory management, but the community still lacks tools to collect, organize, and leverage this information effectively. To address this gap, this work introduces a novel software framework that collects and analyzes
object-level
information to guide memory tiering. The framework includes tools to monitor the capacity and usage of individual data objects, routines that aggregate and convert this information into tier recommendations for the host platform, and mechanisms to enforce these recommendations according to user-selected policies. Moreover, the developed tools and techniques are fully automatic, work on standard Linux systems, and do not require modification or recompilation of existing software. Using this framework, this study evaluates and compares the impact of a variety of design choices for memory tiering, including different policies for prioritizes objects for fast memory tier as well as the frequency and timing of migration events. The results, collected on a modern Intel
®
platform with conventional DDR4 SDRAM as well as Intel Optane NVRAM, show that guiding data tiering with object-level information can enable significant performance and efficiency benefits compared to standard hardware- and software-directed data tiering strategies for a diverse set of memory-intensive workloads.
MasterPlan: A Reinforcement Learning Based Scheduler for Archive Storage
Authors: Chen Xinqi , Xu Erci , Mo Dengyao , Lu Ruiming , Wu Haonan , Ding Dian , Xue Guangtao
Published: December 2024

With the sheer volume of data in today’s world, archive storage systems play a significant role in persisting the cold data. Due to stringent cost concerns, one popular design is to organize disks into groups and periodically switch them to be powered on for serving user requests. Scheduling thus becomes critical for both CapEx and performance. Unfortunately, field results indicate that existing schedulers can be often suboptimal. Our further analysis suggests that the main reason is the mismatch between the ever-changing workloads and the fixed set of coarsely-configured parameters in current heuristic-based schedulers.

In this paper, we propose
MasterPlan
, a reinforcement learning (RL) based scheduler for archive storage systems. By identifying the unique characteristics of archive storage service, we design a state space and reward function for the RL agent.
MasterPlan
includes a continuous action encoding approach to guarantee efficient exploration, and a meta adaptation module to extract features of workload series. Experiments show that
MasterPlan
can achieve 1.25 × throughput, 2.16 × 99
th
latency and 1.47 × power draw improvement compared to existing solutions.
Spring School on Social XR organized by CWI
Authors: Cesar Pablo
Published: December 2024

ACM SIGMM co-sponsored the Spring School on Social XR, organized by the Distributed and Interactive Systems group (DIS) at CWI in Amsterdam. The event took place on March 13th --- 17th 2023 and attracted 33 students from different disciplines (technology, social sciences, and humanities). The program included 18 lectures, 4 of them open, by 20 instructors. The event was co-sponsored by the ACM Special Interest Group on Multimedia ACM SIGMM, making available student grants, and The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (https://www.beeldengeluid.nl/en). The event was part of the recently started research semester programmes of CWI.
Osteochondral Abnormalities on Three-Dimensional Ultrashort Echo Time MRI Scans Are Associated with Knee Cartilage Degradation
Authors: Lee Sunmin , Kim Yeo Ju , Lee Seunghun , Ryu Jeongah , Lee Ha Young , Jang Hyungseok , Tae Hui-Woon , Kim Jiyeong
Published: December 2024

Three-dimensional ultrashort echo-time MRI showed calcified cartilage and subchondral bone plate abnormalities that were associated with cartilage degradation and osteochondral junction abnormalities at knee proton-density fat-saturated MRI.
Analysis of Ultimate Support Pressure for Deep Buried Shield Tunnel in Sand Soil
Authors: Li Minkang , Wang Yuan , Dong Qi , Liu Sijin
Published: December 2024

The reasonable setting of support pressure stands as an important factor in ensuring the stability of the shield tunnel excavation face. Due to the presence of the soil arching effect, the methodology for definitively establishing the ultimate support pressure of active instability and failure in deep buried shield tunnel is not clear. In this study, the finite difference software FLAC3D is employed to simulate the failure process of excavation face instability and determine the ultimate support pressure at various burial depths for shield tunnel. The result shows that the ultimate support pressure of excavation face increases with the increased buried depth of the shield tunnel at first and then trends toward stabilization. Building upon a variety of theoretical analyses results, the failure mode of the excavation face assuming that the shear zone height is half the thickness of the covering soil and the theoretical formula for the calculation of the Terzaghi loose earth pressure revision are proposed. Comparative assessments are conducted by contrasting the revised theoretical value with results from the numerical simulation, the on‐site soil pressure monitoring data and the indoor gravity model test data. The result shows the revised calculation theory can calculate the ultimate support pressure for the excavation face of deep buried shield tunnel accurately and effectively.
A Model for Predicting Short‐Term Operating Speeds of Compact Passenger Vehicles on Interchange Ramps Within Urban Expressway Networks
Authors: Liu Tingyu , Zhang Lanfang , Li Genze , Wu Yating , Zhao Zhenyu
Published: December 2024

The prediction of operating speed plays a crucial role in road design and safety assessment, especially on complex urban expressway interchange ramps. This task is challenging due to various influences like road conditions, traffic dynamics, and driver behavior. This study aims to identify the optimal model configuration for predicting operating speeds on urban expressway interchange ramps. Three models are established: a short‐term operating speed model based on a generalized linear model (GLM), a GLM incorporating for spatial correlation (GLMS), and a deep neural network model considering spatial correlation (DNNS). Each model incorporates considerations for the impact of the plan, profile, and other facets of the interchange ramp in urban expressways. Naturalistic driving experiments are conducted in Shanghai, 70% for model calibration and 30% for validation. Comparative analysis shows that the DNNS model outperforms the others, effectively capturing speed fluctuations along the interchange ramp, demonstrating its robustness and generalization capabilities.
Epidemiology and Clinical Outcomes of Childhood Central Nervous System Cancers in a Large Low/Middle-Income Country Pediatric Oncology Center: A Report on 5,051 Kids
Authors: Maher Eslam , Kamal Mohamed , El-Ayadi Moatasem , Refaat Amal , Enayet Abdelrahman , El-Beltagy Mohamed , Eldebawy Eman , Taha Hala , Awad Madiha , Zaghloul Mohamed S.
Published: December 2024

Background:

Central nervous system (CNS) tumors are the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in children. Although most cases come from low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) where their prognosis is worse, few epidemiologic studies are conducted in these regions.

Methods:

We conducted a registry-based cohort study for childhood CNS tumors at Children’s Cancer Hospital, Egypt, over 15 years. Unified treatment protocols were implemented. Survival analyses were conducted using the Kaplan–Meier function. Cases were additionally annotated using the International Classification of Childhood Cancer-3 classification.

Results:

In total, 5,051 children ≤18 years of age were identified, accounting for 20% of all childhood cancers treated at Children’s Cancer Hospital, Egypt. The most common tumor sites were the posterior fossa (36.8%) and brainstem (17.7%). Pathologies were predominantly astrocytic (n = 1,360; 26.9%) and embryonal (n = 1,003; 19.9%) in origin. The 5-year overall survival (OS) and event-free survival for all cases were 64.6% and 51.8%, respectively. More specifically, 1,421 low-grade gliomas were identified, with a 5-year OS of 91.1%. Medulloblastoma (n = 801) recorded a 5-year OS of 66%. The entity with the worst prognosis was diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (n = 633), with a 5-year OS of 3.2%.

Conclusions:

We report on a large number of childhood CNS tumors from an LMIC. This study underscores the need to understand the burden of childhood brain tumors and its outcomes in resource-constrained settings.

Impact:

This study reports on the epidemiology and clinical outcomes of 5,000+ children with CNS tumors from a specialized LMIC center. Despite the lack of many sophisticated and advanced facilities, LMICs can improve the clinical end-results with experience and augmented efforts.
Circulating Tumor DNA Dynamics and Clinical Outcome in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Patients Undergoing Front-Line Chemotherapy
Authors: Ghidini Michele , Hahne Jens Claus , Senti Chiara , Heide Timon , Proszek Paula Z. , Shaikh Ridwan , Carter Paul , Hubank Mike , Trevisani Francesco , Garrone Ornella , Cappelletti Maria Rosa , Generali Daniele , Cattaneo Monica , Gnocchi Nicoletta , Donati Gianvito , Gobbi Angela , Grizzi Giulia , Lampis Andrea , Elghadi Raghad , Tanzi Giulia , Tomasello Gianluca , Ratti Margherita , Pinato David J. , Fassan Matteo , Vlachogiannis Georgios , Sottoriva Andrea , Cortellini Alessio , Passalacqua Rodolfo , Valeri Nicola
Published: December 2024

Purpose:

We tested whether circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) changes may be used to assess early response and clinical outcomes in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) undergoing first-line systemic anticancer therapy (SACT).

Experimental Design:

Eight hundred sixty-two plasma samples were collected 4-weekly from baseline (BL) until disease progression in patients with mCRC receiving first-line SACT. ctDNA was tested using tissue-agnostic next-generation sequencing panels. ctDNA normalization was defined as ≥99% clearance after 1 month of therapy (Mo1) in the three variants with the highest allele frequency in BL ctDNA.

Results:

Eighty-three paired samples from 75 patients were available for analysis. Twelve pairs (14.4%) showed no variants in either BL or Mo1. In the remaining 71 comparisons (65 patients), 37 (52.1%) showed ctDNA normalization at Mo1. Patients who cleared ctDNA had significantly longer overall (45.6 months) and progression-free survival (13.9 months) compared with nonnormalized patients [overall survival = 22.6 months (log-rank P = 0.01) and progression-free survival = 10.7 months (log-rank P = 0.036), respectively]. In addition, a higher response rate was observed in patients with ctDNA clearance (72.9%) compared with nonnormalized cases (38.2%). Longitudinal sequencing of at least four time points in patients with a progression-free survival of >10 months showed emerging variants in 47.8% of cases; in all these patients, the trajectory of these new “outlier” variants seemed in stark contrast with the clinical–radiological course of disease and the trend in other mutations.

Conclusions:

ctDNA clearance represents an early indicator of benefit from SACT in patients with mCRC; serial tracking of multiple variants is warranted to improve specificity and avoid misleading information due to the emergence of mutations of unknown clinical significance.
TEAD-Independent Cell Growth of Hippo-Inactive Mesothelioma Cells: Unveiling Resistance to TEAD Inhibitor K-975 through MYC Signaling Activation
Authors: Akao Ken , Sato Tatsuhiro , Mishiro-Sato Emi , Mukai Satomi , Ghani Farhana Ishrat , Kondo-Ida Lisa , Imaizumi Kazuyoshi , Sekido Yoshitaka
Published: December 2024

Inactivation of tumor-suppressive Hippo signaling pathway is frequently observed in mesothelioma, which leads to the activation of yes-associated protein (YAP) and TAZ (also known as WW domain–containing transcription regulator 1; YAP/TAZ) transcriptional coactivators. YAP/TAZ form complexes with TEAD family members, DNA-binding proteins, to activate transcription, which promotes cancer cell growth and proliferation. Recently developed TEAD inhibitors exhibit antitumor activity by inhibiting the formation of the transcription complex through binding to TEAD; however, the antitumor activity of TEAD inhibitors against mesothelioma remains to be fully elucidated. Here, we show that the TEAD inhibitor K-975 acts as a pan-TEAD inhibitor and selectively inhibits the binding of TEAD-binding proteins, especially YAP/TAZ, in mesothelioma cells. In studies using a panel of mesothelioma cell lines, K-975 showed a significant growth inhibitory effect on Hippo-inactivated mesothelioma cells, but some of these cell lines exhibited primary resistance to K-975. Differential gene expression analysis revealed that cells resistant to K-975 exhibited activation of MYC signaling in the presence of K-975, and cells overexpressed with MYC showed strong drug resistance, in vitro and in vivo. Our study revealed the features of a subset of mesothelioma cells that proliferate in a TEAD-independent manner and provides important insights for the successful development of therapeutic strategies for mesothelioma with Hippo pathway inactivation.
Therapy-Related Leukemia following Docetaxel Chemotherapy for Metastatic Hormone-Sensitive Prostate Cancer: A Case Report
Authors: Zhu Chen , Su Jian , Jin Zhenhua , Yuan Lin , Wei Yunfei , Xu Yan
Published: December 2024

Introduction: Docetaxel is the first-line drug that has been proved to improve the overall survival of men with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC). For patients who survive the prostate cancer, they may be at risk of secondary neoplasm, especially for the therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome or therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia (t-AML). Case Presentation: We reported a 44-year-old man with prostate cancer (cT4N1M1c) who developed t-AML following docetaxel chemotherapy. Typically, the t-AML in our case was characterized by an aberrant karyotype t(15;17)(q22;q21). Conclusions: This case is, to our knowledge, the first time to report a patient with mHSPC who developed therapy-related acute promyelocytic leukemia following docetaxel chemotherapy, suggesting that docetaxel might contribute to the induction of t-AML.
Relevancia y etnomatemática en la educación de niños indígenas del Cauca, Colombia
Authors: Campo-Fernández Jose Edgar , Tovar-Aguirre Alexander
Published: December 2024

(analytical)The low academic performance in mathematics of indigenous students is the focus of the study describedin this article. The authors examine the relevance of educational interactions between 11 ethno-educators and 249 primary school students in the indigenous community of Pueblo Nuevo (Cauca, Colombia). The goal of this research was to identify the relationship between classroom activities and students’ lives. The study used a mixed descriptive-exploratory approach that was mediated by observations and surveys, revealing that ethno-educational practices, to a small extent, draw on the interests of children and the cultural richness of the Nasa people. The authors conclude thattaking into account the voices of the children in curriculum planning, enhancing certain cultural practices and improving instructional design can improve the quality of mathematics education for children in rural and ethnic communities.
Participación infantil en el espacio público: discusión desde la ciudad de Valparaíso, Chile
Authors: Catalán-Catalán Mario
Published: December 2024

(analytical)
This article describes the development of a theoretical framework to understand the participation of children in territorial planning based on the logic of child leadership and exercising citizenship. The author designed a theoretical conceptual analysis that covers three components: (a) Children's right to the city and citizen participation; (b) Beliefs and attitudes regarding child leadership and participation; and (c) Geographies for children and their relationship with public space. The methodology involved a bibliographic review and analysis. The study’s theoretical contributions advocate for the design of methodological processes for research on childhood. These can facilitate relevant analysis for urban territorial planning contribute to the design of citizen participation for territorial planning instruments.
Native Valve and Native Neo-Sinus Remodeling Following Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement
Authors: Yoon Joshua , Gill Hacina , Jelisejevas Julius , Lai Althea , Khan Jaffar M. , Payne Geoffrey W. , Webb John G. , Sathananthan Janarthanan , Seidman Michael A. , Meier David , Sellers Stephanie L.
Published: December 2024

BACKGROUND:

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) pushes aside the diseased native aortic valve and creates a native neo-sinus bordered by the aortic root wall and the displaced native valve. There are limited data on the progression of native valve disease post-TAVR and no previous analysis of the native neo-sinus.

METHODS:

Native aortic valves and native neo-sinus explants obtained post-TAVR were evaluated histologically (hematoxylin and eosin, Movat pentachrome, and Martius Scarlet Blue stains) and by immunohistochemistry (TGF-β1 [transforming growth factor-beta 1], FAP [fibroblast activation protein], and ALP [alkaline phosphatase]) to assess disease mechanisms.

RESULTS:

Native aortic valves were obtained from 20 patients from 0 to 2583 days (7.08 years) post-TAVR. Native leaflets showed persistent calcific aortic stenosis-like disease activity with positivity for ALP and FAP. Native valve remodeling was observed as changes in architecture evident in explants >1.5 years, which was observed as crumpling of the leaflets. Disease activity was also present in native neo-sinuses with transcatheter heart valve implant durations >1 year with positive staining for TGF-β1, FAP, and ALP. Extensive native neo-sinus remodeling occurred with replacement and filling-in of this space with contiguous extracellular matrix, calcific deposits, and microvessels.

CONCLUSIONS:

Following TAVR, there is ongoing calcific aortic stenosis-like disease with architectural changes to native leaflets and extensive remodeling of the native neo-sinus, evidenced by replacement and contiguous filling-in of the native neo-sinus blood pool space with increasing implant duration. The dynamic nature of these tissues has potential implications for neo-sinus flow, valve degeneration, and re-intervention.
Maternal Hypertension Aggravates Vascular Dysfunction After Injury in Male Adult Offspring Through Transgenerational Transmission of N
6
-Methyladenosine
Authors: Zheng Dezhong , Jiang Jiayi , Shen Anna , Zhong Yixiang , Zhang Yi , Xiu Jiancheng
Published: December 2024

BACKGROUND:

Whether maternal hypertension contributes to the enhanced susceptibility to vascular remodeling in adult offspring through epigenetic mechanisms remains unclear. We aimed to address this gap in the literature using a transgenerational mouse model.

METHODS:

Gestational hypertension was induced in pregnant mice using chronic angiotensin II infusion. Blood pressure was monitored using the tail-cuff method. Two months post-delivery, an N
6
-methyladenosine epitranscriptomic microarray analysis was performed on the carotid arteries of second-generation mice. A unilateral carotid artery injury model was used to study the postinjury vascular response in vivo. Furthermore, carotid ultrasonography, immunohistochemistry, and molecular biological parameters were assessed in adult offspring.

RESULTS:

Exposure to maternal hypertension decreased the birth weight of live pups and increased the fetal death rate. Compared with normal offspring, adult offspring with hypertension had wire-induced injury that led to greater vascular remodeling, which was associated with aggravated inflammation imbalance, fibrosis, and oxidative stress. In addition, aberrant N
6
-methyladenosine methylation, increased N
6
-methyladenosine levels, and increased METTL3 (methyltransferase-like 3) expression were detected in the vessels of offspring with hypertension. Maternal METTL3 deficiency increased the birth weight of live pups with hypertension, improved vascular dysfunction, and alleviated vascular inflammation in adult offspring with hypertension after injury.

CONCLUSIONS:

Maternal hypertension can induce transgenerational transmission of enhanced susceptibility to vascular remodeling, and the possible underlying mechanism is associated with altered METTL3-mediated N
6
-methyladenosine methylation. Therefore, this study reveals the role of epigenetic effects across generations and provides new insights into vascular remodeling causes.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENERGY CONSUMPTION, CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: THE CASE OF BRICS-T COUNTRIES
Authors: Evren Sümeyra , Kaya Perihan Hazel
Published: December 2024

With industrialization, energy consumption is considered as an important input for development. It is also known that the increase in energy consumption of countries has an impact on growth. However, one of the most important problems for countries that are dependent on foreign energy is the current account deficit problem. The purpose of this study is to test this effect by using panel fixed effects and panel random effects models for BRICS-T countries. The data used in the analysis covers the period 1994 to 2021. According to the econometric findings obtained with the help of Driscoll-Kraay Standard Error Model Estimation, current account deficit has a negative and significant effect on economic growth, while energy consumption has a positive and significant effect on economic growth. This result supports the growth hypothesis that an increase in energy consumption increases economic growth. According to the causality test results, there is a bidirectional causality connection between energy consumption and economic growth. There is a unidirectional causal relationship from current account deficit to economic growth. However, there is no significant causality connection between energy consumption and current account deficit.
Beyond Derogations in the EU Crisis Regulation
Authors: Tan Nikolas Feith , Ineli-Ciger Meltem
Published: December 2024

The recent Pact on Migration and Asylum, a package of legislative and policy reforms to the European Union (EU) asylum acquis, introduces the concept of expedited procedures for asylum seekers likely to be in need of international protection. These procedures can be implemented under the new Crisis Regulation, which can be triggered in situations of crisis and force majeure. Generally, the Crisis Regulation foresees a range of problematic derogations from the EU asylum system, while the potential use of expedited procedures presents more protective options for granting asylum in crisis and force majeure situations. This article explores the possibility of implementing prima facie or manifestly well-founded procedures under the new Crisis Regulation, arguing for creative, flexible and scaled-up use of expedited procedures, drawing on international practice, to provide fast, fair and efficient procedures to recognise the status of refugees entering the EU in times of crisis.
Challenges for the Protection of Migrant Children
Authors: Vettorel Arianna
Published: December 2024

This paper sheds light on human rights violations suffered by unaccompanied migrant minors in Europe. In fact, notwithstanding the safeguards established by international conventions and European legal provisions (both within the Council of Europe and the European Union), this category of migrants is often not satisfactorily protected by European domestic authorities. This occurs because at times European domestic officers disregard age as attested by foreign official identity documents and because domestic procedures aimed at assessing age are conspicuously carried out in contrast with international and European safeguards, as highlighted by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the European Court of Human Rights. This paper suggests that, even in the lack of an express obligation, a duty to take foreign identity documents into consideration flows from international and European human rights laws; moreover, these legal safeguards should – quite urgently – shape domestic age assessment procedures.
Examining Nigeria’s Commitment to the International Criminal Court: A Response to Anya et al.
Authors: Arinze-Onyia Chuka
Published: December 2024

The International Criminal Court (ICC) plays a key role in ensuring accountability for crimes under international law. Supporting this critical mission of the Court is vital to its survival. Understanding this, Anya et al. in a recent paper examined the relationships existing between states and the ICC. They determine that states can have a relationship of either credible commitment to support the work of the Court or sham devotion. Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda, were studied and based on their analysis of selected data, the writers make predictions for each state’s future engagement with the Court. While the study is compelling, I argue that the predictions made in the end, particularly in relation to Nigeria, are based on flawed data. I attempt to contextualize some of their assertions, particularly regarding immunity, complementarity and jurisdiction. This article ultimately calls for a more nuanced approach to evaluating state behavior towards the ICC, emphasizing the importance of contextual factors beyond quantitative measurements.
Images and Religious History in Italy
Authors: Capriotti Giuseppe
Published: December 2024

The aim of this article is to present historical research conducted by Italian historians and art historians who have treated images as historical sources whose testimonial value is the same as that of written (literary and archival) sources. After a brief introduction into the origins of these methods and the development of the Warburgian approach in Italy, some pioneering works will be examined, followed by a selection of more recent studies by historians and art historians. The latter converge in the shared field of iconographic studies, which function as a dual historiographical periphery, shared by both historians and art historians. Although images have been used to explore different aspects of religious life, this essay will focus on the subtle dynamics of religious conflicts, both among Christians and between Christians, Muslims, and Jews.
Microstructural properties of Pacific yew as determined with SilviScan
Authors: Fox Galen O. , Schimleck Laurence R.
Published: December 2024

Pacific yew (Taxus brevifolia Nutt.) is a conifer from the northwestern United States with unusually dense and flexible wood. Because the wood of Pacific yew is not used at scale in the commercial industry, there has been no study of radial variation in wood properties or of the microstructural characteristics responsible for its atypical combination of high density and relatively low stiffness. Increment cores (12.5 mm in diameter) were obtained from 15 Pacific yew trees; SilviScan was used to observe patterns of radial variation in density, microfibril angle (MFA), and stiffness in the cores, and these patterns were compared to other conifer species. Observations included unusually dense wood with uncharacteristically low stiffness, a very slow decrease in density from pith to bark unlike any of the typical patterns of radial density variation reported for other conifers in North America, and an MFA that remained constant at its high initial value of approximately 35 degrees throughout the tree’s lifespan. Microstructural properties and macro characteristics were used to explore the ecological niche into which T. brevifolia fits, as it possesses features not shared by any other species of North American conifer.
Taxonomy, phylogeny and ecology of a new bambusicolous Resupinatus species (Agaricales, Resupinataceae) from Northern Thailand
Authors: CARPOURON JULIA EVA , APPADOO MICHÉE AKSHAY , CHOMNUNTI PUTARAK , RASPÉ OLIVIER
Published: December 2024

The exploration of the fungal diversity associated with bamboos in Northern Thailand has yielded a hitherto undescribed species, Resupinatus reviviscens sp. nov. It is characterized by brownish grey to dark grey basidiomata, basal hairs forming an off-white to yellowish grey subiculum-like felt and composed of hyphae that are thin-walled near the apex and thick-walled near the base, broadly ellipsoid to ellipsoid basidiospores, lack of cheilocystidia and presence of clavate pleurocystidia, and habitat on bamboo culms. Additionally, it has distinct ITS sequences and forms a supported species-level clade separated from other Resupinatus species as revealed by the ML phylogenetic analysis combining ITS and LSU sequences.
Bulbophyllum section Macrocaulia (Orchidaceae) in Vietnam
Authors: DANG MINH QUAN , AVERYANOV LEONID V. , MAISAK TATIANA V. , TRAN THI THUY NHAN , NGUYEN VAN CANH , WOOK UM SUNG , NGUYEN QUOC BAO , TRUONG BA VUONG
Published: December 2024

The paper presents an illustrated taxonomic survey of Bulbophyllum sect. Macrocaulia in the flora of Vietnam including a key to species identification, data on phenology, habitat, distribution and taxonomic notes for all accepted species. The estimated conservation status of these species in Vietnam is also discussed. Additionally, Bulbophyllum papilluliferum is described as a new species for science. The presence of B. ignevenosum in Vietnam is confirmed and documented correcting its long-standing misidentification as B. menghaiense or B. moniliforme.
1. An Introduction to Genetic Narratology
Authors: Van Hulle Dirk
Published: December 2024

This article introduces the field of genetic narratology, combining scholarly methods and research interests from genetic criticism and narratology. Research in this field is concerned with, on the one hand the genesis of narratives and on the other hand the narrativization of literary genesis. The first part of the essay focuses not only on the narrated but also on the unnarrated (analysing an omitted passage in Samuel Beckett’s Molloy). The second part investigates how the writing process is often the object of narrativization. Due to numerous circumstances, certain elements of the ‘making-of’ are emphasized, magnified, exaggerated, others are obscured or forgotten, either on purpose or by accident. This narrativization of literary geneses is just as much the object of scrutiny in genetic narratology as the genesis of narratives. While narratology is often mainly concerned with the reception of literary texts, this article focuses on their production, opening up new research perspectives on the workings of the creative imagination as it is documented in manuscripts, notes, drafts and other traces of the writing process.
2. Metagenesis
Authors: Kukkonen Karin
Published: December 2024

This article proposes that moments of metanarration and metafiction can make an important contribution to the project of a genetic, manuscript-oriented narratology. When literary texts reflect on their own madeness, this may be fictional invention, but it also can serve as a means to (re)focus the analysis of the manuscripts underlying the text. Metagenesis, I suggest, can be used to expand the genetic dossier and to bring manuscript genetics into further dialogue with narratology. It offers in particular the opportunity to draw on insights from embodied approaches to the study of narrative and literature, as well as bring manuscript genetics further into conversations around literary creativity. In the first section, then, I will define metagenesis and sketch out its place in an enlarged genetic dossier. In the second section, I propose an example analysis of two passages from Charlotte Brontë’s writings to demonstrate how metagenetics works in practice. The third section, finally, addresses theoretical and methodological challenges that may arise from such a dialogue between manuscript genetics, narratology and literary studies, and propose a number of ways in which they can be met.
5. Melville’s Cancelled Note-to-Self
Authors: Mascia Charles
Published: December 2024

This chapter explores the genesis of Herman Melville’s unfinished final prose work, the novella Billy Budd. To do so, it relies upon Hayford and Sealts’s Genetic Text Edition, and upon the Fluid Text Edition available on the Melville Electronic Library. Billy Budd tells the story of its titular protagonist, a sailor who is wrongfully accused of mutinous intent and, ultimately, is hanged. In the fragmented sections of its conclusion, Melville enumerates Billy’s afterlife in memory — revealing how variously and incorrectly others judge his innocence and interpret his fate. These final episodes, what Melville called the ‘ragged edge’ of the tale, dramatize the conflicting ways in which a reader might interpret the novella’s events. They focalize narrative unreliability and misreading as the author’s central themes.

Critics have written extensively on this topic, yet have seldom taken into account the text’s own base instability and, at times, incoherence. Incomplete, and corrupted by significant errors and inconsistencies in its manuscript, Melville’s story is not only about narrative disorder, it is also itself a disordered narrative. This chapter undertakes a genetic approach in order to untangle the oversights of an infirm artist from his intentionally ‘ragged’ effects, and to trace how the theme of narrative disarray gradually emerged in the messy process of composition. It argues that Billy Budd’s ‘ragged form’ and dramatization of misreading were not the initial crux of the novella. Rather, they emerged in the final stages of the revision process, as Melville increasingly cultivated textual disorder in the story and made unintentional errors in the manuscript text. I examine three crucial pieces of evidence: mid-stage revisions that replaced the simplicity of his initial coda with a triptych of competing narratives; the late addition of an explicit authorial comment about the inaccessibility of truthful resolution; and a cancelled note-to-self which reveals Melville identifying an unintended inconsistency, the result of his many additions, and choosing to preserve this textual disorder instead of correcting it. The chapter closes by calling for further genetic inquiry into Melville’s earlier, but similarly ‘ragged’ novella, Benito Cereno.
6. ‘The puzzle pieces fit too late’
Authors: Qu Claire
Published: December 2024

Castle Dor (1962), a novel adaptation of the Tristan legend begun by Arthur Quiller-Couch (‘Q’) and posthumously completed by Daphne Du Maurier, is an unusual subject of study for both the fields of narratology and genetic criticism. This chapter compares the novel’s MS and published versions to provide a survey of its narratological changes over time. It attempts to reveal how both authors work with the story constraints of the Tristan legend and how Du Maurier’s adjustments to the temporal setting, narrative framing, focalisation, and characterisation of the MS smooth out its tonal dissonances and minimise digressions, while maintaining much of Q’s voice and vision.
8. Drafting ‘Anon’ and Killing Anon
Authors: Phillips Joshua
Published: December 2024

This chapter examines the unfinished drafts of the literary history that Virginia Woolf worked on in the final year of her life, a project that Woolf variously termed ‘Reading at Random’ and ‘Turning the Page’ but which has come to be known by the dual title of ‘Anon’ and ‘The Reader.’ Specifically, this chapter posits that through its content and its form, the drafts of ‘Anon’ dramatize the work of genetic narratology, and doubly so. In the draft pages of her literary history, Woolf crafts a narrative for the genesis of literature in English and English as a literary language. The moment of English literature’s birth is the moment of Anon’s death: Woolf’s genetic narrative sees her figuration for the pre-literate oral tradition, Anon killed at the moment William Caxton begins to print books with authorial signatures. This incipit moment does not exist in one stable form. Rather, it is narrated multiple times in multiple drafts which attest to Woolf’s ongoing attempts to think through her literary history as she writes. First, this essay gives a brief overview of the corpus of drafts Woolf left at the time of her death. It then zooms in to examine various renditions of the moments at which Anon emerges and when Anon is killed. It reads across these variants, tracing the ways in which Woolf theorises and re-theorises the development of English literature and of English literary language as she drafts and redrafts the primal scene(s) of English literature. The fragments afford a vivid insight into Woolf’s slow thinking-through of English literary history. In so doing, they show the affordances of genetic narratology and the resources it can provide for reading literary drafts.
9. Beckett’s ‘Arabian Nights of the Mind’
Authors: Verhulst Pim
Published: December 2024

This chapter aims to illustrate how a study of the surviving draft material can inform a narratological analysis of Beckett’s radio play Cascando (1961). It first discusses how its abandoned false start foregrounds notions like ‘narration’ and the ‘unnarratable’. Next, it argues that the genesis of Cascando is marked by a shift from ‘denarration’ to the more radical act of ‘denarrativisation’, which at the same time coincides with a transmedial shift from text or script to audio recording. Lastly, it adopts a more intertextual approach to explore how the radio play deals with ‘narrative closure’ in relation to the One Thousand and One Nights (also known as the Arabian Nights) and Marcel Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu, two sources that Beckett was familiar with, as appears from his manuscripts, letters and library. The goal of the chapter is to demonstrate that genetic narratology can be applied not just to the ‘endogenesis’, but also the ‘exogenesis’ and ‘epigenesis’ of a literary work, i.e. its writing process, the external source material it uses, and its post-publication afterlife, which comprises translations in addition to revised editions. By combining these three levels, it becomes possible to understand how Beckett’s initial attempt to narrate the unnarratable gradually evolved, across versions, from a creative dead end into a never-ending story.
11. Also for Irony
Authors: Herman Luc , Krafft John M.
Published: December 2024

In what is perhaps the last letter to his editor about the rewriting of V. in 1962, a slightly exasperated Thomas Pynchon addresses the position of the historical chapter set on Malta: "I put 1919 at the end primarily because there's nowhere else to put it. Also for irony, (…) . If it could go better anywhere else I'd like to know." The chapter could easily have been given its rightful place in the chronology of historical chapters, so “there’s nowhere else to put it” sounds impulsive. Pynchon's declaration of "irony," on the other hand, can be developed as a serious reference to the metafictional effect created by putting "Epilogue, 1919," a relatively straightforward example of historical realism, at the end of a series of chapters in which the historical imagination runs riot. In this chapter, we consider an extraordinary last-minute change to the unobtrusive narratorial stance that characterizes the chapter as a whole.
12. You Don’t Get Scared of Monsters, You Get Scared for People
Authors: Neyt Vincent
Published: December 2024

This essay explores suspense in the context of the writing process of a classic suspense novel, Stephen King’s IT (1986). The methodology combines genetic criticism with a narratological analysis that focusses on pace, characterization, and focalization. King wrote three drafts of the novel between 1980 and 1985. The genetic dossier shows that only minimal alterations were required to the story events or their sequencing, but that King increased the length of the suspenseful scenes in the first half of the novel. Patterns in the revisions of these scenes reveal the importance the author identified in establishing a strong connection between the reader and the character in danger: the pace is lowered by giving more attention to the sensory experiences, the character traits, the direct speech and the thoughts and emotions of the focalizing characters. In King’s view, it is the readers’ connection with the protagonist in body and mind that grabs them and keeps them engaged.
14. ‘Indolence, interruption, business, and pleasure’
Authors: Sherry Kaia
Published: December 2024

This chapter is a genetic narratological evaluation of Helen DeWitt’s The Last Samurai (2000), utilising earlier versions of the text saved across fifty-two floppy discs. Focusing on DeWitt’s later additions of a ‘post-postmodernist’ breakage in form, including erratic capitalisation, numerals, and paragraph breaks, the author considers such interruption on the level of narrative and the broader conditions of cultural production. Comprised of two sections, this chapter begins with an assessment of aesthetic and paternal rupture in a draft titled ‘1LIBERAC,’ reflecting on Ludo’s quest to find his father. The second section, referencing the drafts ‘7S3.2’ (in 09-07-96), ‘7S3.2’ (in Backup Liberace) ‘7S3.2c’, ‘7S3.2e’, ‘7S3.3’, and ‘7S3.4’, contends with interruption as transmedial, examining DeWitt’s use of scenes from Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954) as interjection.
16. On the Value of Variants and Textual Genesis for Interpretation
Authors: Nutt-Kofoth Rüdiger
Published: December 2024

The article gives some hints to what extent narratology and scholarly editing could work together for the benefit of both knowledge fields. For example, narratology can be important for scholarly editing in two central editorial areas, namely (1) the text-critical constitution of the text, that means (a) the general question of textual order and (b) the specific question of a possible textual error, as well as (2) the editorial presentation of versions. Scholarly editing, in turn, can enrich narratology, if the latter, for example, takes greater account of the editorial representations of variance and textual genesis, in order to (1) gain insights into the linguistic and literary means used for (a) the creation of a certain narrative perspective, (b) the characterisation of the diegesis, (c) the basic structure of the development of the plot or (d) the assignment to a genre. In addition, the genesis of the text (2) can point out from a literary-historical point of view, which narrative methods are used to ascribe a text to the style of a specific literary period.