bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Why Do University Students in Pakistan Confront Problems In Spoken English?
Authors: Urwat Muhammad Salman , Nadeem Muhammad , Zafar Mohammad , Khan Raza Ullah
Published: July 2022

Language is a mode of communication between individuals. In Pakistan, English is learned as a second language. The main objective of this study was to identify the problems faced by university students in spoken English. The study was conducted at NUST Balochistan Campus in a time frame of three months. This study was design to evaluate the factors confronted by university students in their spoken English. Total 9 factors are lack of confidence in speaking the English language, non-availability of words to express feelings, fear of making mistakes when speaking the English language, lack of motivation in students to speak English language were identified, and questionnaires were circulated among seven hundred (700) university students. 500 students submitted their complete responses. Their responses were analytically analyzed. After analysis of data, this study revealed that the problem faced by university students are Lack of Confidence in Speaking the English Language with a score of 3.731 and was ranked on the top, followed by Lack of Vocabulary with score of 3.692, Fear of Making Mistakes When Speaking English Language with a score of 3.654, Lack of Motivation in Students in Speaking English Language with a score of 3.50, feeling Nervous in Speaking English Language in Public with a score of 3.462, feeling Shy when Speaking English Language with a score of 3.269, committing Common Grammar Mistakes While Speaking English Language with a score of 3.231, concerning problem of Difference of Syntax with a score of 2.923 and Lack of English Teachers with a score of 2.923. It is concluded that the university students in Pakistan confronts serious problems in spoken English, thus these problems should be solved by acting effectively.
Differential expression of CBFA2/RUNX1 translocation partner 2 in cancers of the breast.
Authors: Mamoor Shahan
Published: July 2022

Breast cancer affects women at relatively high frequency (1). We mined published microarray datasets (2, 3) to determine in an unbiased fashion and at the level of the transcriptome genes most differentially expressed in the primary tumors of patients with early-onset breast cancer. We found significant differential expression of the gene encoding CBFA2/RUNX1 translocation partner 2, CBFA2T2, when comparing primary tumors of the breast to the tissue of origin, the normal breast: in women aged 45 and younger, and women aged 70 and higher. CBFA2T2 was also differentially expressed in the brain metastases of patients with brain metastatic breast cancer. CBFA2T2 mRNA was present at significantly higher quantities in tumors of the breast as compared to normal breast tissue. Analysis of human survival data revealed that expression of CBFA2T2 in primary tumors of the breast was correlated with recurrence-free survival in patients with basal subtype breast cancer, demonstrating a relationship between primary tumor expression of a differentially expressed gene and patient survival outcomes influenced by PAM50 molecular subtype. CBFA2T2 may be of relevance to initiation, maintenance or progression of cancers of the female breast.
Sürdürülebilir eğitim ekolojisi olarak açık ve uzaktan öğrenme
Authors: Hamutoğlu Nazire-Burçin , Bozkurt Aras , Erdoğan Bayram-Zafer
Published: July 2022

Bu çalışmada Sürdürülebilir Kalkınma Amaçları’nın (SKA) 4. olan eğitimde sürdürülebilirliği sağlamak amacına Açık ve Uzaktan Öğrenme (AUÖ) uygulamalarının eğitimde eşitlik, adalet, hakkaniyet ve demokrasi gibi temel değerler bağlamında nasıl desteklediği tartışılmıştır. Eğitimde açıklık felsefesinin ekosistem düşüncesini nasıl beslediği ele alınmış ve devamında özellikle sürdürülebilirliği ve kalkınmayı sağlamak için küresel boyutta yürütülen projeler bağlamında ortak paydalar açıklanmıştır. AUÖ uygulamalarına yön veren açıklık felsefesinin özellikle yeni binyıl ile beraber uygulamaya konulan küresel kalkınma projeleriyle ortak paydaya sahip olduğu görülmektedir. Bu çalışma bağlamında ele alınan küresel projelerin özellikle eğitimde açıklık, erişilebilirlik ve eşitlik kavramlarına vurgu yaptığı görülmektedir. Genel anlamda eğitim sistemlerine yönelik yapılan değerlendirme geleneksel eğitim sistemlerinin bu değerleri sağlayabilmek için dönüşüm sürecine girmesi gerektiğini; bunu yapmak için ise özellikle ulusal boyutta stratejik planlama yapılması gerektiğini göstermektedir. AUÖ bağlamında bahsi geçen kavramların zaten alanın temel referans noktaları olduğu, bununla beraber eğitimde açıklığı yaygınlaştırmak ve eğitimde açıklıktan ilham alan bir öğrenme ekosistemi ve bu ekosistem içerisinde yaşam boyu öğrenmeyi destekleyecek bir öğrenme kültürü oluşturulması gerektiği düşünülmektedir. Bu çalışma, AUÖ’nin kavramsal derinliğini sürdürülebilir eğitim politikaları ve kalite güvencesi ile ilişkilendirerek; öğrenme ekolojisini öğrenme ortamlarının dinamikleri doğrultusunda ilgili pedagojik yaklaşımlar ve yaşam boyu öğrenme temelinde incelenmesi ile AUÖ’de sürdürülebilir bir ekoloji oluşturmanın gerekliliğine ilişkin kapsam sunması açısından önemlidir.
Do cells have working memory?
Authors: Mindsponge AISDL
Published: July 2022

The flexibility of receiving/prolonging/switching signals in this cellular mechanism can provide valuable insight when examining the complex information processing dynamics of the brain or human society following the mindsponge mechanism. ***** For more information, please visit: https://mindsponge.info/posts/29 *****
An application of the stress-diathesis model: A review about the association between smoking tobacco, smoking cessation, and mental health
Authors: Taylor Gemma M.J. , Treur Jorien
Published: July 2022

Background: Worldwide, approximately 24% of all adults smoke, but smoking is up to twice as prevalent in people with mental ill-health. There is growing evidence that smoking may in fact be a causal risk factor in the development of mental health disorders, and that smoking cessation leads to improved mental health. Methods: In this scholarly review we have: (1) used a modern adaptation of the Bradford-Hill criteria to bolster the argument that smoking could cause mental ill-health and that smoking cessation could reverse these effects, and (2) by considering psychological, biological, and environmental factors, structured the evidence to-date into a classic stress-diathesis model. Results: Our model suggests that smoking is a psychobiological stressor, but that the magnitude of this effect is mediated by the individuals’ diathesis to develop mental ill-health and other vulnerability and protective factors. We explore biological mechanisms that underpin the model, such as tobacco induced damage to neurological systems and oxidative stress pathways. Furthermore, we discuss evidence indicating that it is likely that these systems repair after smoking cessation, leading to better mental health. Conclusion: Based on a large body of literature including experimental, observational, and novel causal inference studies, there is consistent evidence showing that smoking can negatively affect the brain and mental health, and that smoking cessation could reverse the mental ill-health caused by smoking. Our model suggests that smoking prevention strategies have a role in preventing mental illness as well as physical illness.
Diplomacy Online: A Case of Mistaking Broadcasting for Dialogue
Authors: Roos Carla Anne , Utz Sonja , Koudenburg Namkje , Postmes Tom
Published: July 2022

Discussions on social media have been considered a contributing factor to the increasing polarization the Western world is witnessing. In this study, we use automated and manual coding to analyze diplomatic behavior in online discussions and its consequences for polarization dynamics. We analyze Reddit forums with differing norms: reddits known for civil debate (N = 4594), reddits considered incivil discussion spaces (N = 2126), and reddits dedicated to social support (N = 1401). The automated content analysis shows diplomatic behavior in all forums, but diplomacy does not affect the subsequent discussion. The manual discourse analysis reveals why: discussions consist of disjointed statements rather than dialogic exchange, which makes diplomacy inconsequential. These results have consequences for the field. First, evidence of online polarization needs to be studied very closely, because what appears to be polarized dialogue might actually be a string of personal viewpoints broadcasted in a shared space. Second, the usefulness of automated content analysis in studying interaction dynamics is limited because of difficulties distinguishing broadcasting from dialogue.
Attention Checks in Decisions From Experience: The Case of Checking Experiments
Authors: Roth Yefim , Yakobi Ofir
Published: July 2022

Can online participants be compared to laboratory subjects. In the five studies (Ntotal = 1519) reported in this article, we comprehensively compared the behavior of online attentive and inattentive participants; i.e., those who passed or failed a simple attention check. The findings show that in a decisions from experience paradigm (i.e., a multi-trial repeated choice task), even one simple attention check is sufficient to differentiate between attentive and inattentive participants. The validity of this separation is further evidenced in the significant difference in the reported conscientiousness measure.The results fully replicated three previously run lab studies for the attentive participants, but not for the inattentive participants. This highlights the importance of using attention checks to avoid spurious conclusions. There are three explanations for the behavioral differences between the attentive and inattentive participants. Attentive participants exhibited a pre-disposition towards checking. They also had a greater likelihood of noticing distinct outcomes. Finally, the inattentive participants tended to behave more randomly. When checking was beneficial, these three effects pointed in the same direction, leading to a major difference between participants. When checking was detrimental, these effects cancelled each other out, resulting in similar checking rates and indistinguishable behavior.
Individual Differences in Contingencies Between Situation Characteristics and Personality States
Authors: Kuper Niclas , Breil Simon Mats , Horstmann Kai Tobias , Roemer Lena , Lischetzke Tanja , Sherman Ryne A. , Back Mitja D , Denissen Jaap J. A. , Rauthmann John F.
Published: July 2022

Contingencies between situational variables and psychological states have been proposed as key individual difference variables by many theoretical approaches to personality. Despite their relevance, the basic properties, nomological correlates, and factor structure of individual differences in contingencies have not been examined so far. We address these fundamental questions in five studies with overall N = 952 participants and N = 32,052 unique assessments. Individual differences in situation characteristic – state contingencies (SCSCs) between DIAMONDS situation characteristics and Big Five personality states were examined in everyday life. SCSCs showed substantial variation across participants, and individual differences in them were moderately reliable (average meta-analytic reliability = .47) and short-term stable (average meta-analytic latent stability = .43). They were weakly and inconsistently related to average personality states, self-reported personality traits, subjective happiness, and socio-demographic variables across studies. However, there were meaningful intercorrelations among SCSCs that could be described by four factors: contingencies involving (1) positive states and situational problems, (2) positive states and situational rewards, (3) thinking/work and requirements of thinking/work, and (4) neurotic states. Overall, our findings support the notion of SCSCs as potentially important individual difference variables, and we sketch future lines of research on contingencies.
Contingency in Child-Caregiver Naturalistic Conversation: Evidence for Mutual Influence
Authors: Hallart Charlie , Peirolo Morgane , Xu Zihan , Fourtassi Abdellah
Published: July 2022

To be able to hold conversations with people around them, children need to learn contingency, i.e., the ability to contribute to a dialog with relevant utterances. We study this skill in the context of child-caregiver naturalistic interactions, using question-initiated sequences as units of analysis. While much of previous work has focused on the caregiver or on the child, here we study contingency in the dyad as a whole, allowing for a deeper understanding of how interlocutors influence each other.
Schema-based predictive eye movements support sequential memory encoding
Authors: Huang Jiawen , Velarde Isabel , Ma Wei Ji , Baldassano Christopher
Published: July 2022

When forming a memory of an experience that is unfolding over time, we can use our schematic knowledge about the world (constructed based on many prior episodes) to predict what will transpire. We developed a novel paradigm to study how the development of a complex schema influences predictive processes during perception and impacts sequential memory. Participants learned to play a novel board game (“4-in-a-row”) across six training sessions, and repeatedly performed a memory test in which they watched and recalled sequences of moves from the game. We found that participants gradually became better at remembering sequences from the game as their schema developed, driven by improved accuracy for schema-consistent moves. Eye tracking revealed that increased predictive eye movements during encoding, which were most prevalent in expert players, were associated with better memory. Our results identify prediction as a mechanism by which schematic knowledge can improve episodic memory.
Quick natural cure-alls: Portrayal of traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine in Serbian online media
Authors: Lazić Aleksandra , Petrović Marija , Branković Marija , Zezelj Iris
Published: July 2022

To describe how Serbian online media cover the topic of traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine (TM/CAM), we conducted a content analysis of 182 articles from six news and six magazine websites, published July–December 2021. Biologically based treatments, predominantly herbal products framed as Serbian or Russian folk medicine, were the most common (70.9%, 205/289 practices). The practices were often presented as general health enhancers (18.4%, 71/386 claims); other common reasons given for the use of TM/CAM were to alleviate respiratory problems, boost the immunity, and detox. The tone was overwhelmingly positive, with most of the positive articles (82.4%, 145/176) neglecting to present information on potential harms of TM/CAM use. Few articles provided a recommendation to speak with a healthcare provider (13.6%, 24/176); in contrast, the recommended dosage was often explained (59.7%, 105/176). TM/CAM practitioners (15.9%, 28/176) and conventional medicine practitioners (12.5%, 22/176) were most commonly cited sources. Articles tended to appeal to TM/CAM’s tradition of use (65.3%, 115/176), naturalness (45.5%, 80/176), and convenience (40.9%, 72/176), used pseudoscientific jargon (59.7%, 105/176), and failed to cite sources for the claims that TM/CAM use is supported by science (22.2%, 39/176). Much of the information provided in Serbian online media seems to be uncritical, with a potential for misleading consumers.
Lying, Tell-Tale Signs, and Intending to Deceive
Authors: Krstic Vladimir
Published: July 2022

Arguably, the existence of bald-faced (i.e. knowingly undisguised) lies entails that not all lies are intended to deceive. Two kinds of bald-faced lies exist in the literature: those based on some common knowledge that implies that you are lying and those that involve tell-tale signs (e.g. blushing) that show that you are lying. I designed the tell-tale sign bald-faced lies to avoid objections raised against the common knowledge bald-faced lies but I now see that they are more problematic than what I initially thought. Therefore, I will discuss these lies in more detail, refine the existing cases, and resolve some anticipated objections. I conclude that tell-tale sign bald-faced lies are genuine lies not intended to deceive.
Domesticating gangsters? Home/work conflicts in South Korean family drama gangster film
Authors: Plaice Mark R.
Published: July 2022

Gangster films are largely an urban genre set in the mean streets of metropolitan ganglands. A significant proportion of South Korean gangster films depart from this spatial convention, however, setting their central family or romance plots in the domestic space of the apartment. This article addresses the question of why we find gangsters in domestic space in South Korean cinema and examines what the domestic setting ‘does’ to the gangster film. The Show Must Go On (2008) is discussed in detail to exemplify the ways that questions of masculinity, gendered family role performance and class anxieties are crystallized around domestic space. What emerges in this spatial shift is a new sub-genre, the ‘family drama gangster film’. This form combines elements of the traditional gangster narrative with family melodrama, producing tension between the conflicting obligations of the gangster towards gang and family. The article concludes that the family drama gangster film emerged as a response to a conjunction of socio-economic and film industry factors and became a vehicle through which conflict between competing ideologies of Korean familism is negotiated, mostly resolving in favour of affective familism.
Carbohydrates-A Brief Deliberation with Bio-aspect
Authors: Khadka Yagya Rath
Published: July 2022

Carbohydrate is an organic molecule having carbon, hydrogen and oxygen as chief elements. It is mostly sugary in taste and categorized in three different types according to the presence of carbon numbers in the molecule. It bears two different functional groups i.e. aldehyde (-CHO) and ketone (>CO) with different spatial configuration, resulting different isomers. Amongst many of the roles, one of the most important is the formation of structural formation of RNA and DNA. Metabolic activities like glycolysis (pathway to convert glucose to pyruvate), citric acid cycle (final oxidative pathway for carbohydrate, fats and amino acids), gluconeogenesis (synthesis of glucose from non-carbohydrate precursors), glycogenesis (synthesis of glycogen from glucose in presence of ATP) and glycogenolysis (degradation of stored glycogen) are the major functions. Carbohydrate undergoes various mechanism by which necessary product are formed, as a result human body easily function and synthesize many compounds within the human body. Obesity, diabetes mellitus, hypoglycemia are some disease condition arose due to high level of carbohydrate concentration in the body.
Common Illness with an Uncommon Course- In Adolescents use HEADSS
Authors: Arunprasath Thasma Santhanakrishnan , Venkat Ramanan Padmasani , Arun Karthik K
Published: July 2022

Adolescence is a period of emotional instability, during which high risk behavior including experimentation with drugs is common. Clinical manifestations of substance abuse and its withdrawal may mimic common illnesses. We report an adolescent who presented with acute dysentery with unusual course. HEADSS screening revealed psychosocial stressors leading to cannabis addiction. The child was diagnosed to have cannabis withdrawal. He was referred to the de-addiction clinic. HEADSS is a useful tool to identify risk factors and protective factors in adolescents. HEADSS screening during each interaction and early intervention when needed must be an essential component of adolescent health care.
Albuminuria in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: a Single Center Cross-Sectional Study
Authors: Ghimire Pukar , Upadhyay Hari Prasad
Published: July 2022

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is one of the commonest non-communicable diseases in Nepal and is associated with long term microvascular and macro vascular complications. Detection of albumin in urine is the earliest recognizable feature in the development of proteinuric diabetic nephropathy. This study aims to study the prevalence as well the determinants of albuminuria in patient with Type 2 diabetes mellitus visiting the medical OPD of College of Medical Sciences-Teaching hospital.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study done from January to June 2022 among Type 2 diabetes patients presenting to medical OPD for the comprehensive diabetes management. Relevant epidemiological, clinical and laboratory data were obtained. Urine dipstick test was done to screen for albuminuria. The prevalence and determinants of albuminuria were studied.
Results: Study among 360 patients with mean age of 58.5 + 10.9 years and the mean duration since the diagnosis of diabetes of 6.8 + 5.5 years, showed that the prevalence of albuminuria was 33.3%. Albuminuria in these patients was found to have significant association with age (P<0.001), duration since diagnosis of diabetes (<0.001) and HbA1c (P<0.001). No significant association of albuminuria was found with gender (P=0.087), hypertension (P=0.063) and previous use of Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/ Angiotensin II receptor blockers. (P=0.217)
Conclusions: Albuminuria is highly prevalent among our cohort of diabetic patients. Increasing age, longer duration since diagnosis of diabetes and higher HbA1c are the factors significantly associated with it.
Evaluation of POSSUM Score for Outcome Prediction in Patients undergoing Major Gastrointestinal Surgery in Population of Central Nepal
Authors: Belbase Narayan Prasad , Khatiwada Sagar , Koirala Nishnata , Prasad Upadhyay Hari , Bhujel Sushim , Shah Bikash
Published: July 2022

Introduction: The POSSUM score is one of the several risk scores to predict postoperative morbidity and mortality in the surgical domain.This study was designed to assess the validity of POSSUM scoring system in patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgeries in our setup and to analyse the outcome and compare the observed and expected values.
Methods: An analytical cross sectional study was conducted among 100 patients in the Department of Surgical Gastroenterology after taking ethical approval from COMS-IRC. Data was analysed using SPSS -20 via descriptive and inferential statistical tools. p-value <0.05 was considered statistical significant.
Results: Using POSSUM score the expected morbidity was 54% and mortality was 21.47%.The observed morbidity was 54% and mortality was 13%. The observed to expected (O: E) morbidity was 1.03 and mortality was 0.61 and there was no statistically significant difference between observed and expected value. The area under curve for POSSUM mortality score was 0.896 and the sensitivity and specificity of POSSUM score to predict mortality was 93.2 and 83.9 respectively.
Conclusions: POSSUM score is a good mathematical tool in predicting morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgeries.
Keywords: gastrointestinal surgeries; central Nepal; expected morbidity and mortality; observed morbidity and mortality; POSSUM score.
Trends and Determinants of Unmet Need For Contraception among Married Female Youth in Nepal
Authors: Lamichhane Kamala Devi
Published: July 2022

The unmet need for contraception continues to be high among married female youth in Nepal even though the accessibility of contraceptive methods and people's consciousness has been enhanced significantly. This study intends to identify the trends of unmet need for contraception for 15 years and its determinants. Because the trends of unmet need for contraception and its influencing factors among female youth are not exclusively studied in Nepal. The main data sources for the study are Nepal Demographic and Health Surveys (NDHS) 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016. The sample sizes from the NDHSs are 2,573 in 2,001; 2,389 in2006; 2,552 in 2011; and 2,287 in 2016. Logistic regression analysis is applied to examine the factors that affect the unmet needs. During 15 years, the unmet need for contraception has decreased marginally in Nepal but is quite high (32%) among married female youth especially adolescents. There is only a nominal percentage (2.1) point decline from 34.1 in 2001 to 32.2 percent in 2016. Socio demographic factors such as married female youth's age, age of cohabitation, total living children, spousal separation, youths’ education, their husbands’ occupation, and wealth status are the evident determinants of the unmet need for contraception among female youth in Nepal. The nation’s family planning program has to be made to communicate effectively the needs of various specific groups: youth couples who are living together, educated, Muslims, poor, and living in rural areas where unmet need is high.
FORMULASI CRACKERS MOCAF DENGAN PENAMBAHAN TEPUNG UDANG REBON SERTA KARAKTERISTIKNYA
Authors:   Program Studi Ilmu dan Teknologi Pangan, Universitas Trilogi, Ramadhani Widya , Indrawan Indri , Seveline Seveline
Published: July 2022

A cracker is a snack processed by fermentation method, has a layered, and crunchy texture. Mocaf can be used as an alternative to wheat flour with aim to reduce flour import and to promote food-protein diversification with additon of rebon shrimp (Acetes sp) in the production of crackers. The study aimed to find out and analyze the best organoleptic formulation and physicochemically against mocaf crackers with the addition of rebon shrimp flour. This study used Completely Randomized Design with five treatments and duplo. The data was analyzed using the ANOVA test (α = 0.05) and further tests were using the Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT). Organoleptic and physicochemical (yield, texture, moisture, ash, protein, and crude fiber content) analysis based on the best organoleptic results. The study used mocaf and rebon shrimp flour with F1 (95%:5%), F2 (90%:10%), F3 (85%:15%), and F4 (80%:20%) and a control (FK) only flour. The results showed that the best cracker based on organoleptics in taste, aroma, color, texture, and aftertaste is F3. The best physicochemical analysis on F3 had yield value 80.72%, hardness 1770.21 gf, water content 2.08%, ash content 5.74%, protein content 7.64%, and crude fiber content 1.95%.
PRODUKSI BEBERAPA VARIETAS TEMBAKAU LOKAL PADA TANAH REGOSOL DI KABUPATEN GARUT
Authors:   Balai Pengkajian Teknologi Pertanian, Dianawati Meksy , Kusyaeri Hamdani Kiki
Published: July 2022

in Garut Regency. The study was conducted in Sukakarya Village, Samarang District, Garut Regency, West Java Province from April to August 2017. The study used a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with 4 varieties and 6 replications. The local varieties used are Kedu Hijau, Kedu Omas, Kedu Nani, and Kenceh. Data were analyzed by F test and continued with Duncan's Test and Correlation Test at 95% confidence level. The results showed that the production of local tobacco varieties that were resistant to bacterial wilt (Kedu Hijau and Kedu Omas) was higher than that of varieties that were susceptible to bacterial wilt (Kedu Nani and Kenceh). Narrow-leaved bacterial wilt-susceptible varieties had higher yields than broad-leaved varieties, while broad-leaved bacterial wilt-resistant varieties had higher yields than narrow-leaved varieties. Production was influenced by leaf weight, leaf thickness, and leaf length by 92%, 89% and 53%, respectively.
PENGARUH METODE PENANAMAN HIDROPONIK DAN KONVENSIONAL TERHADAP PERTUMBUHAN TANAMAN SELADA ROMAINE DAN PAKCOY
Authors:   Program Studi Agroekoteknologi, Universitas Trilogi, Qhoiriyah Cahyanda Rosa
Published: July 2022

Cultivation of vegetables with the hydroponic method is able to produce plants with better quality values and is efficient in land use when compared to conventional ones. The comparison regarding the production and effectiveness of nutrient uptake between the two cultivation systems appears to be little studied. This study aimed to determine the effect of the planting method on the growth of romaine lettuce (Lactuca sativa) and pakcoy (Brassica rapa) through hydroponic and conventional methods. The study used a randomized block design (RBD) with two factors. The first factor is the cultivation method, namely conventional and hydroponic, while the second factor is the type of vegetable commodity, namely romaine lettuce and pakcoy. The results showed that hydroponic cultivation of romaine and pakcoy lettuce was able to absorb nutrients well, because it was proven that the results of parameters such as plant height, number of leaves, fresh weight and biomass content were superior. Hydroponic cultivation on romaine lettuce was 5.08 cm higher than conventional. Likewise, the hydroponic pakcoy was 9.12 cm higher than the conventional pakcoy. Hydroponic romaine lettuce has 3.39 leaves more than conventional, the same result also occurs in pakcoy plants. Meanwhile, fresh weight and biomass content of romaine lettuce and pakcoy in hydroponic systems are better than conventional systems.
Trouble In/Troubling The Contact Zone: Representations Of Mexico’s Article 33 in Jordi Soler’s La ultima hora del ultimo día and los rojos de ultramar
Authors: Voisine Alexander
Published: July 2022

The literature produced by Spanish exiles living in Mexico after the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) has created important inroads to analyze the complicated relationships between the exiles and their Mexican hosts. Jordi Soler’s novels Los rojos de ultramar (2004) and La última hora del último día (2007) differ from past works regarding the Spanish exile in Mexico by starkly depicting the complexity of the historicized relationship between foreigner and citizen in Mexico in colonial terms and by assuming distinct literary forms. In particular, the books’ centralization of Article 33—a Constitutional article in Mexico that allowed the executive branch to expel foreigners without due process—offers new avenues of analysis into the interlaced structures of law, xenophobia, and xenophilia. This article seeks to read Article 33 in the context of colonial and anticolonial dynamics at the time the exiles depicted in the novels arrived in Mexico, permitting a deeper examination of Mexico’s relationship with its foreign-born population. The article ends with a gendered analysis of the invocation of Article 33 in the “contact zone” depicted in the books, illuminating the relationship between citizenship, coloniality, exile, and illuminating the relationship between citizenship, coloniality, race, exile, and heteropatriachal nationalism.
China’s Evolving Diaspora Engagement Policy: Transnational Linkages And Stakeholder Perceptions
Authors: Tan Yan , Liu Xuchun
Published: July 2022

China’s profound demographic and socioeconomic transitions over the last four decades have led to significant changes in its diaspora: increased numbers, different destinations, and diversified reasons for emigration. The national diaspora policy has undergone many shifts since China’s momentous economic reforms and opening to the world in 1978; but policy now converges on a multifaceted and intrinsically transnational system of engagement in the service of soft power. Studies have so far stressed domestic interests, drawing insights primarily from policy documents; but this article seeks to broaden the perspective, using a transnationally oriented framework to assist investigation of factors that range beyond the domestic. Using in-depth interviews with a variety of key informants and stakeholders, we systematically analyze features in four core policy dimensions that incorporate both international and domestic dynamics: diaspora institutions, dual citizenship, talent recruitment, and soft power. Finally, we explore implications for development (economic, sociocultural, educational) in both China and host countries. We draw the conclusion that China’s diaspora policy is shaped by a constellation of transnational factors—such as changing global and regional power structures, and competition in talent-recruiting and talent-retaining in the new technological era. China now deploys multi-scale linkages across several dimensions, expanding from economic to sociocultural and political spheres, to engage its diaspora effectively. Finally, these policy developments not only shape China’s internal development but also influence global sentiment, bringing new dynamics to bear global power relations.
« C’est l’histoire d’un ange que tante Anna m’a racontée » : à propos du Palais japonais et du Voilier de cristal de José Mauro de Vasconcelos
Authors: Bidaud Samuel
Published: July 2022

Cet article a pour but de rapprocher et d’analyser deux récits de l’écrivain brésilien José Mauro de Vasconcelos (1920-1984), à savoir Le palais japonais (O Palácio Japonês) et Le voilier de cristal (O Veleiro de cristal), publiés en 1969 et 1973 respectivement. Tout en soulignant la singularité de ces deux livres, nous montrons qu’ils partagent une même trame narrative et se font écho en ce qui concerne certains passages et descriptions. En outre, leurs personnages principaux se caractérisent par leur souffrance, à laquelle ils cherchent à échapper par leur imaginaire. Les deux récits peuvent enfin être lus comme des allégories religieuses, racontant l’histoire de deux êtres qui affrontent la mort et à qui des amis sont envoyés pour les aider dans ce passage. Alors que dans Le palais japonais le petit prince Tetsuo emprunte plusieurs traits à Jésus, dans Le voilier de cristal, c’est le tigre Gabriel qui fait référence à l’archange du même nom. Nous nous efforçons, par la comparaison de ces deux livres, de faire ressortir des éléments qui constituent le cœur de la poétique de Vasconcelos.
Selfish Giants and Child Redeemers: Refiguring Environmental Hope in Oscar Wilde’s and Clio Barnard’s The Selfish Giant
Authors: Maclear Kyo
Published: July 2022

In this paper, I explore how stories of lost and broken worlds have been tied to hopes about the redemptive possibilities of a new generation. I historicize and complicate the idea of children as environmental stewards of an imagined planetary future. I investigate the issue further by examining the particular figure of the child redeemer and our “investment in the image of the child as a sign of the future, as defence against loss of significance in the world” (Lebeau 179). Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant and Clio Barnard’s recent film adaptation of Wilde’s book will be the objects of my discussion. Barnard’s film, set in the post-industrial landscape of Bradford, England, offers child protagonists who unsettle the familiar fantasy of redemption and invite us to think past sentimental and nostalgic arguments for ecological preservation (premised on preserving an unjust world as it is). While it is important not to topple the myth of childhood innocence only to resurrect another myth of childhood agency, I am interested in these moments of refusal and how they point to the limits of a sentimental ecology.
The Missing B Word: Compulsory Binarization and Bisexual Representation in Children’s Literature
Authors: Coletta Jennifer
Published: July 2022

This project uses some LGBTQ youth’s social media posts and Allison Weir’s framework for identification-with identity politics to analyze and evaluate bisexual representation in YA literature. The essay posits that bisexual characters are often erased in literature because of common stereotypes and what the author calls “compulsory binarization,” or the assumption that a character is either gay or straight unless otherwise labelled. To combat this, the essay suggests that a superb bisexual YA novel first include a clear naming of bisexuality within the text; in addition, effective bisexual representation should challenge normative binaries and stereotypes.
“International Friendliness” and Canadian Identities: Transnational Tensions in Canadian Junior Red Cross Texts, 1919-1939
Authors: Glassford Sarah
Published: July 2022

As the youth wing of the Canadian Red Cross Society, the Junior Red Cross (JRC) program of the 1920s and 1930s aimed to teach school-aged children and youth habits of good health, good citizenship, and service to others. Inspired by a transnational ethic of humanitarianism, the program tried to build international ties of friendship between JRC members in Canada and those elsewhere, while shaping Canadian Juniors in a particular mould of national citizenship. Through an examination of adult and child contributions to the national JRC magazine, and the portfolios Juniors created to send overseas, this article explores the tensions inherent in the national and transnational lessons conveyed by adult JRC leaders as well as the ways young Canadians embraced, modified, or rejected those perspectives.
Only Connect: Children’s Literature and Its Theory in the Extended Present
Authors: Hunter Madeleine
Published: July 2022

While an unfolding backlash against globalization has resulted in a tightening of the borders that police our movement through space, the borders that structure our temporal experience have been made newly porous by technologies that alter the terms of our presence in that space. This paper argues that our current condition of ubiquitous connectivity—our constant interconnection and integration into larger flows of information and communication—has brought about a paradoxical anxiety of disconnection that finds expression in the field’s growing “kinship” movement. In the digital age, instantaneous communication butts up against infinite information, giving birth to the extended present—a temporality in which the borders of the now seem to be both ever diminishing and expanding. What does this mean for the temporal alterity that subsists between adult and child as theoretical constructs? What happens to the adult-child relationship in the age of the constant update? This paper examines to what extent the field’s current turn toward models that emphasize similarity—or “kinship”—over difference constitutes an attempt to reaffirm a continuity between past and present that is threatened by the rise of new media technologies, and ponders what the attempt to cohere our disparate temporalities into the present might mean for the future of the field and those on whose behalf it proposes to speak.
L’humour dans Les nouveaux contes d’Amadou Koumba de Birago Diop et La belle histoire de Leuk-le-lièvre de Léopold S. Senghor et Abdoulaye Sadji
Authors: Diop Nene
Published: July 2022

Au Sénégal, les contes ont une vocation ludique et didactique et constituent un discours collectif avec comme fonction de recueillir, de transmettre et d’assurer la sauvegarde de l’héritage culturel. L’humour dans les contes, objets de notre étude, constitue donc un outil de communication facilement accessible et disponible pour aborder certains thèmes considérés comme difficiles voire trop sérieux pour les enfants. Dans notre analyse nous démontrons que, pour Birago Diop, et Leopold S. Senghor et Abdoulaye Sadji, la satire, l’humour malicieux, les cousinages à plaisanterie et les jeux de mots ne sont que d’importants moyens, parmi d’autres, de raconter et d’illustrer la société et la complexité de ses réalités. De par leurs contes, ils ont su créer des oeuvres originales mettant en évidence et en valeur l’importance du mouvement de la Négritude et contribuer pertinemment aux efforts de réhabilitation et de redynamisation des cultures, des us et coutumes sénégalaises. Face aux défis de notre monde d’aujourd’hui empreint de tensions liées à des formes d’inégalités et de discriminations sociales à fortes connotations raciales, les messages et leçons de conduite, de morale et d’équité si généreusement légués par nos prolifiques auteurs ne peuvent être qu’appréciés.
Displaying North Korean Children: From Local to Global Memories
Authors: Grzelczyk Virginie
Published: July 2022

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) looms large in international political and security spheres because of its harsh domestic dictatorship as well as its pursuit of nuclear weapons. It is a country that is difficult to access physically because of its controlled borders, and the evolution of North Korean society is clouded by the propaganda that is routinely dispatched by the government. As a result of the state’s focus on militarization and regime survival, specific population groups are often ignored in broader debates about North Korean society, yet they provide important insights into the paradoxical nature of the North Korean society; children are one such group. While there is plenty of evidence, gathered by NGOs and IGOs, that North Korean children suffer from both physical and emotional violence in North Korea, they are also celebrated and revered by the government: the Mangyongdae Children’s Palace in Pyongyang, for instance, is seemingly dedicated to children’s after-school activities and well-being. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in the DPRK during International Children’s Day in 2019, this article examines the place of children in the construction of North Korean national identity and exposes how children are both celebrated and utilized to become “memorable,” supporting the North Korean government’s survival goals via large-stage installations such as the gymnastic Mass Games.
The Mirror Staged: Images of Babies in Baby Books
Authors: Nodelman Perry
Published: July 2022

This essay focuses on the many “baby books” currently available that consist mainly of photographs of of other images of babies, and considers how these images might represent replications or restagings of the mirror stage and function as versions of the Ideal-I for their implied baby viewers. As images of actual children, the photographs in these books represent what most adult viewers take to be the most realistic representations of babyhood possible––the way babies actually look, which, in the context of Lacan’s Ideal-I, might better be understood as the way babies are actually supposed to look as currently understood. In terms of conventional adult assumptions about how baby viewers might look at and understand these images in relation to themselves, these images quite literally restage the mirror stage––show the baby an image of a baby to identify with and see as what it ought to be itself. By considering the implications of a number of photographs and other images of of babies in baby books, the essay explores what these books tell their implied baby reader/viewers about what it means to be a baby, and about what is the right kind of baby to be.
Ophélie de Charlotte Gingras: évolution du personnage pivot d’un roman intimiste pour adolescents
Authors: Falaise Geneviève , Noël-Gaudreault Monique
Published: July 2022

En appliquant les critères dégagés de recherches théoriques sur les personnages, nous avons effectué une analyse de contenu d’Ophélie de Charlotte Gingras. Publié en 2008, ce roman québécois pour la jeunesse correspond à notre définition d’un roman intimiste, puisqu’il met en scène une adolescente marginale qui dévoile, au moyen de son journal, son mal-être ainsi que les moyens qu’elle choisit pour y remédier. En raison de la possibilité de s’identifier à une narratrice qui évolue et de la présence d’un adolescent porteur d’un message de tolérance, cette œuvre est susceptible d’influencer positivement les conceptions des élèves du secondaire.
Disturbing Thoughts: Representations of Compassion in Two Picture Books Entitled The Island
Authors: Dudek Debra
Published: July 2022

Two picture books titled The Island, one written and illustrated by Armin Greder and the other written by John Heffernan and illustrated by Peter Sheehan, address the treatment of refugees in Australia and function as an allegory for any situation in which a community mistreats an outsider. Readers bear witness to unethical behaviour by a group that is offset by the compassionate actions of an individual. The books differ in the means by which they position readers to evaluate individual actions, while inviting a similar response: that compassion is a necessary aspect of social justice and human (and creature) flourishing.
“Old-Fashioned and Forward-Looking”: Neo-Liberalism and Nostalgia in the Daring Books for Girls
Authors: Gannon Susanne , Gonick Marnina , Lampert Jo
Published: July 2022

In this paper, we examine The Daring Book for Girls and its follow-ups for their constructions of gender. We suggest that, as examples of how neo-liberalism finds its way into notions of proper girlhood, the books provide intentional and unintentional “lessons” to their readers in how to perform themselves in these times. In both the American and the Australian edition of the initial text, girls are instructed in complex ways to be the right kind of girl: enterprising with a do-it-yourself (DIY) attitude, tolerant of diversity, and nature-loving. Through the constructions of girls as “good citizens” by rules and strict boundaries, the books present to readers a highly nostalgic version of girlhood while simultaneously serving as a pedagogical manual for neo-liberal times.
“A Copy of a Copy of a Copy”: Productive Repetition in Fight Club
Authors: Mitchell Kevin
Published: July 2022

There are two types of repetition: one that repeats based on identities and one that repeats differences. While the former is the common-sense view that understands difference to be the difference between two substantial things, the latter argues that, against this common-sense interpretation of repetition, it is difference itself that repeats and that, in fact, it is a failure to repeat identically that defines this latter version. Through an analysis of Deleuze’s conception of repetition as a repetition of difference in itself, this paper interprets Fight Club as a vehicle for addressing the question of how it is possible for something new to arise out of a seemingly stifling world of repetition and concretized identities. Given Deleuze’s ontology of immanence, fictional characters are no less real than flesh-and-blood people and, therefore, it is argued that alternative readings are actually offered up by the text itself, and not imposed by the reader from a transcendent point of view. In other words, literary texts are opened up to their own immanent becoming, a becoming that eventuates not only in the altering of the terms of the text, but, given the plane of immanence, in the reader as well.
Oh, Golly, What a Happy Family! Trajectories of Citizenship and Agency in Three Twentieth-Century Book Series for Children
Authors: Heath Michelle Beissel
Published: July 2022

This article explores three British picture-book series that were created out of children’s playthings: Florence and Bertha Upton’s Dutch Doll and Golliwogg series, Enid Blyton’s Noddy series, and Allan Ahlberg’s Happy Families series. These series span the twentieth century, giving snapshots of politically and culturally charged intersections between childhood and citizenship. Considered together, they highlight a narrowing in scope of agency from notions of global citizenship early in the century to local, community-based citizenship rooted in village authority, economic ties, and fiscal responsibility at mid-century to citizenship based on familial interests and the social family unit at the end of the century.
How to Be Yourself: Ideological Interpellation, Weight Control, and YA Novels
Authors: Karlin Dorothy
Published: July 2022

This essay looks at images of disability in Shaun Tan’s The Lost Thing. The character of the lost thing, lost inside a world that clearly will not let it belong, represents the unrepresentable, while the boy narrator displays subtle depictions of cognitive difference. The lost thing’s body is incomprehensible for the very reason that it is so unlike the bodies of others. Although it may be tempting to read the boy narrator as dispassionate or as too emotionally detached because of his involvement with this uniform world, the protagonist gladly assists his new friend. As a different kind of thinker, the boy also does not quite fit in his world, even as he is not entirely separate from it.