bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Anatomy of news consumption on Facebook
Authors: Schmidt Ana Lucía , Zollo Fabiana , Del Vicario Michela , Bessi Alessandro , Scala Antonio , Caldarelli Guido , Stanley H. Eugene , Quattrociocchi Walter
Published: March 2017

Significance

Social media heavily changed the way we get informed and shape our opinions. Users’ polarization seems to dominate news consumption on Facebook. Through a massive analysis on 920 news outlets and 376 million users, we explore the anatomy of news consumption on Facebook on a global scale. We show that users tend to confine their attention on a limited set of pages, thus determining a sharp community structure among news outlets. Furthermore, our findings suggest that users have a more cosmopolitan perspective of the information space than news providers. We conclude with a simple model of selective exposure that well reproduces the observed connectivity patterns.
Hunter-gatherer residential mobility and the marginal value of rainforest patches
Authors: Venkataraman Vivek V. , Kraft Thomas S. , Dominy Nathaniel J. , Endicott Kirk M.
Published: March 2017

Significance

Hunter-gatherers are notable for their high levels of mobility, but the ecological and social cues that determine the timing of camp movements (residential mobility) are poorly understood. Using models from foraging theory, we found that, for one population of hunter-gatherers, camp movements coincided with the point at which resource acquisition declined to a critical threshold level, but before local resources were completely depleted. These results suggest that hunter-gatherer residential mobility is constrained in a predictable fashion by rates of local resource depletion.
Glyoxylate detoxification is an essential function of malate synthase required for carbon assimilation in
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Authors: Puckett Susan , Trujillo Carolina , Wang Zhe , Eoh Hyungjin , Ioerger Thomas R. , Krieger Inna , Sacchettini James , Schnappinger Dirk , Rhee Kyu Y. , Ehrt Sabine
Published: March 2017

Significance

A better understanding of essential processes in
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
(
Mtb
) is required for the development of new chemotherapeutics. Isocitrate lyase (ICL) and malate synthase (MS) function in the glyoxylate shunt, a pathway required by
Mtb
to metabolize fatty acids (FAs). Here, we demonstrate that
Mtb
MS enables growth and survival on fatty acids through its ability to simultaneously detoxify a metabolic byproduct arising from the initial assimilation of acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA), glyoxylate, while assimilating a second molecule of acetyl-CoA. We further show that MS depletion during acute and chronic mouse infections kills
Mtb
. These studies expand our fundamental understanding of the glyoxylate shunt and biologically validate MS as an attractive drug target in
Mtb
.
Cas9-mediated genome editing in the methanogenic archaeon
Methanosarcina acetivorans
Authors: Nayak Dipti D. , Metcalf William W.
Published: March 2017

Significance

Methanogenic archaea play a central role in the global carbon cycle, with profound implications for climate change, yet our knowledge regarding the biology of these important organisms leaves much to be desired. A key bottleneck that hinders the study of methanogenic archaea, especially those within the genus
Methanosarcina
, results from the time-consuming and often cumbersome tools that are currently available for genetic analysis of these microbes. The Cas9-mediated genome-editing approach for
Methanosarcina acetivorans
described in this study addresses this major constraint by streamlining the mutagenic process and enabling simultaneous introduction of multiple mutations. This work also sheds light on the distinct properties of homology-dependent repair and nonhomologous end-joining machinery in Archaea.
Amino acid oxidation of the D1 and D2 proteins by oxygen radicals during photoinhibition of Photosystem II
Authors: Kale Ravindra , Hebert Annette E. , Frankel Laurie K. , Sallans Larry , Bricker Terry M. , Pospíšil Pavel
Published: March 2017

Significance

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) damage the D1 and D2 reaction center proteins of Photosystem II in a process known as photoinhibition. Photoinhibition is an unavoidable consequence of excitation energy transfer and electron transport. The ROS responsible for oxidative damage, the sites of ROS production, and the residues oxidatively modified have not been determined. In this work, we identify HO
•
as being produced on both the oxidizing and reducing sides of the photosystem. O
2
•−
also appears to be produced at either Pheo
D1
or Q
A
. Additionally, residues on the D1 and D2 proteins were identified that are oxidatively modified during a photoinhibitory timecourse. Finally, we propose plausible pathways for the propagation of protein oxidation events in the D1 and D2 proteins.
Myosin filament activation in the heart is tuned to the mechanical task
Authors: Reconditi Massimo , Caremani Marco , Pinzauti Francesca , Powers Joseph D. , Narayanan Theyencheri , Stienen Ger J. M. , Linari Marco , Lombardi Vincenzo , Piazzesi Gabriella
Published: March 2017

Significance

This paper represents a major advance in understanding intrinsic heart beat regulation, because it provides an integrated view of the Frank–Starling law that combines mechanical, structural, and energetic aspects of heart performance. We show that mechanosensing in the myosin filament adjusts the number of myosin motors recruited from the off, ATP hydrolysis-unavailable state to the systolic force. In this way, the energetic cost of the heart beat is tuned to the end systolic pressure–volume relation. These results elucidate a plausible mechanistic link between the mutations that affect the structure of the myosin filament and cause hypercontractility and/or loss of contractile efficiency and dysregulation of the control by the stress-sensing mechanism on the state of the myosin motors.
Unified reduction principle for the evolution of mutation, migration, and recombination
Authors: Altenberg Lee , Liberman Uri , Feldman Marcus W.
Published: March 2017

Significance

Evolution by Darwinian natural selection can not only shape how organisms survive and reproduce, but also affect transmission of genetic and other information between generations. Modifier-gene models for the evolution of information transmission have revealed a universal tendency for more faithful transmission to evolve in populations at equilibrium where natural selection is balanced by errors in information transmission. This is shown to be a very general property of models that include mutation and migration under selection and recombination under selection on diploids. The breadth of this reduction principle focuses attention on the departures from its mathematical assumptions, which may explain those biological phenomena of information transmission between generations for which the reduction principle fails.
Deep-sea vent phage DNA polymerase specifically initiates DNA synthesis in the absence of primers
Authors: Zhu Bin , Wang Longfei , Mitsunobu Hitoshi , Lu Xueling , Hernandez Alfredo J. , Yoshida-Takashima Yukari , Nunoura Takuro , Tabor Stanley , Richardson Charles C.
Published: March 2017

Significance

Most DNA polymerases initiate DNA synthesis by extending a preexisting primer. Exceptions to this dogma are recently characterized bifunctional primase–polymerases (prim–pols) that resemble archaeal primases in their structure and initiate DNA synthesis de novo using only NTPs or dNTPs. We report here a DNA polymerase encoded by a phage NrS-1 from deep-sea vents. NrS-1 has a genome organization unlike any other known phage. Although this polymerase does not contain a zinc-binding motif typical for primases, it is nonetheless able to initiate DNA synthesis from a specific DNA sequence exclusively using dNTPs. Thus, it represents a unique de novo replicative DNA polymerase that possesses features found in DNA polymerases, primases, and RNA polymerases.
Metallacycle-cored supramolecular assemblies with tunable fluorescence including white-light emission
Authors: Zhang Mingming , Yin Shouchun , Zhang Jing , Zhou Zhixuan , Saha Manik Lal , Lu Chenjie , Stang Peter J.
Published: March 2017

Significance

Light-emitting materials have been widely studied for their promising applications in chemical and biological science. Here we report three phenanthrene-21-crown-7 functionalized fluorescent Pt(II) rhomboidal metallacycles which were then converted into fluorescent supramolecular oligomers by reacting with a bis-ammonium linker. One of these constructs shows concentration-dependent fluorescence in a wide color range, where orange emission at high concentration and blue emission at low concentration was observed. Moreover, at a concentration of 29 µM the same ensemble emits white light that has emerged from the integration of the complementary orange and blue color from the metallacycles and linker, respectively. This study shows how light-emitting materials can be obtained by the proper implementation of multiple orthogonal interactions in a single process.
Vitrification as an Alternative Approach for Sperm Cryopreservation in Marine Fishes
Authors: Cuevas-Uribe Rafael , Hu E , Daniels Harry , Gill Adriane O , Tiersch Terrence R
Published: March 2017

The Southern Flounder Paralichthys lethostigma is a high-value species and a promising aquaculture candidate. Because sperm volume can be limited in this species (<500 µL), new sperm cryopreservation methods need to be evaluated. Vitrification is an alternative to conventional slow-rate freezing, whereby small volumes are cryopreserved at high cooling rates (>1,000°C/min). The goal of this work was to develop a standardized approach for vitrification of Southern Flounder sperm. The specific objectives were to (1) evaluate thawing methods and vitrification solutions, (2) evaluate the postthaw membrane integrity of sperm vitrified in different cryoprotectant solutions, (3) examine the relationship between membrane integrity and motility, and (4) evaluate the ability of vitrified sperm to fertilize eggs. From the vitrification solutions tested, the highest postthaw motility (28 ± 9% [mean ± SD]) and membrane integrity (11 ± 4%) was observed for 20% ethylene glycol plus 20% glycerol. There was no significant difference in postthaw motility of sperm thawed at 21°C or at 37°C. Fertilization from vitrified sperm in one trial yielded the same fertilization rate (50 ± 20%) as the fresh sperm control, while the sperm from the other two males yielded 3%. This is the first report of fertilization by vitrified sperm in a marine fish. Vitrification can be simple, fast, inexpensive, performed in the field, and, at least for small fishes, offers an alternative to conventional cryopreservation. Because of the minute volumes needed for ultrarapid cooling, vitrification is not presently suited as a production method for large fishes. Vitrification can be used to reconstitute lines from valuable culture species and biomedical models, conserve mutants for development of novel lines for ornamental aquaculture, and transport frozen sperm from the field to the repository to expand genetic resources.
VCNet: vector-based gene co-expression network construction and its application to RNA-seq data
Authors: Wang Zengmiao , Fang Huaying , Tang Nelson Leung-Sang , Deng Minghua
Published: March 2017

Motivation

Building gene co-expression network (GCN) from gene expression data is an important field of bioinformatic research. Nowadays, RNA-seq data provides high dimensional information to quantify gene expressions in term of read counts for individual exons of genes. Such an increase in the dimension of expression data during the transition from microarray to RNA-seq era made many previous co-expression analysis algorithms based on simple univariate correlation no longer applicable. Recently, two vector-based methods, SpliceNet and RNASeqNet, have been proposed to build GCN. However, they failed to work when sample size is less than the number of exons.

Results

We develop an algorithm called VCNet to construct GCN from RNA-seq data to overcome this dimensional problem. VCNet performs a new statistical hypothesis test based on the correlation matrix of a gene–gene pair using the Frobenius norm. The asymptotic distribution of the new test is obtained under the null model. Simulation studies demonstrate that VCNet outperforms SpliceNet and RNASeqNet for detecting edges of GCN. We also apply VCNet to two expression datasets from TCGA database: the normal breast tissue and kidney tumour tissue, and the results show that the GCNs constructed by VCNet contain more biologically meaningful interactions than existing methods.

Conclusion

VCNet is a useful tool to construct co-expression network.

Availability and Implementation

VCNet is open source and freely available from https://github.com/wangzengmiao/VCNet under GNU LGPL v3

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Atherosclerotic plaque vulnerability in the statin era
Authors: Nilsson Jan
Published: March 2017

Life style changes and improved medical therapy have decreased cardiovascular mortality in many countries over the last decades. This has been accompanied by changes in disease characteristics including more non-ST segment elevation myocardial infraction and less vulnerable plaques as assessed by histological analysis of surgical specimens. However, many patients with established disease still suffer from recurrent cardiovascular events in spite of treatment with state-of-the-art-therapy including statins. It is likely that this reflects a state of the disease in which statins control the pro-inflammatory effects of lipids allowing other statin-unresponsive disease mechanisms to become increasingly important. If this assumption is correct it means that patients with established disease with time will get insuffient protection by current therapies alone. Against this background it is critical to reach a better understanding of alternative mechanisms for plaque vulnerability. Examples of such mechanisms include altered patterns of blood flow caused by plaque stenosis resulting in down-regulation of the anti-inflammatory and anti-thrombotic signals in the endothelium, impaired vascular repair associated with diabetes and plaque inflammation driven by cholesterol crystals, infectious pathogens as well as autoimmune responses against modified plaque components. Novel biomarkers and other diagnostics are needed to establish the clinical importance of these mechanisms as well as to determine how they are affected by current treatments. Consequently, there will also be a need for development of new treatments targeting these mechanisms and that can act in concert with current therapies.
Subsistence harvesting by a small community does not substantially compromise coral reef fish assemblages
Authors: Martin Tyson S. H. , Connolly Rod M. , Olds Andrew D. , Ceccarelli Daniela M. , Fenner Douglas E. , Schlacher Thomas A. , Beger Maria
Published: March 2017

Fisheries usually first remove large predators before switching to smaller species, causing lasting changes to fish community structure. Reef fish provide essential protein and income for many people, and the impacts of commercial and high-intensity subsistence fishing on reef fish are well documented. However, how fish communities respond to low levels of subsistence fishing using traditional techniques (fishing for food, few fishers) is less well understood. We use three atolls in the Marshall Islands as a model system to quantify effects of commercial and subsistence fishing on reef fish communities, compared to a near-pristine baseline. Unexpectedly, fish biomass was highest on the commercially-fished atoll where the assemblage was dominated by herbivores (50% higher than other atolls) and contained few top predators (70% lower than other atolls). By contrast, fish biomass and trophic composition did not differ between pristine and subsistence-fished atolls – top predators were abundant on both. We show that in some cases, reefs can support fishing by small communities to provide food but still retain intact fish assemblages. Low-intensity subsistence fishing may not always harm marine food webs, and we suggest that its effects depend on the style and intensity of fishing practised and the type of organisms targeted.
Involvement of reactive oxygen species in ionizing radiation–induced upregulation of cell surface Toll-like receptor 2 and 4 expression in human monocytic cells
Authors: Yoshino Hironori , Kashiwakura Ikuo
Published: March 2017

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are pattern recognition receptors that recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns and are indispensable for antibacterial and antiviral immunity. Our previous report showed that ionizing radiation increases the cell surface expressions of TLR2 and TLR4 and enhances their responses to agonists in human monocytic THP1 cells. The present study investigated how ionizing radiation increases the cell surface expressions of TLR2 and TLR4 in THP1 cells. The THP1 cells treated or not treated with pharmaceutical agents such as cycloheximide and N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) were exposed to X-ray irradiation, following which the expressions of TLRs and mitogen-activated protein kinase were analyzed. X-ray irradiation increased the mRNA expressions of TLR2 and TLR4, and treatment with a protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide abolished the radiation-induced upregulation of their cell surface expressions. These results indicate that radiation increased those receptors through de novo protein synthesis. Furthermore, treatment with an antioxidant NAC suppressed not only the radiation-induced upregulation of cell surface expressions of TLR2 and TLR4, but also the radiation-induced activation of the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) pathway. Since it has been shown that the inhibitor for JNK can suppress the radiation-induced upregulation of TLR expression, the present results suggest that ionizing radiation increased the cell surface expressions of TLR2 and TLR4 through reactive oxygen species–mediated JNK activation.
Past, Present, and Future of Neurosurgery in Uganda
Authors: Haglund Michael M. , Warf Benjamin , Fuller Anthony , Freischlag Kyle , Muhumuza Michael , Ssenyonjo Hussein , Mukasa John , Mugamba John , Kiryabwire Joel
Published: March 2017

Neurosurgery in Uganda was virtually non-existent up until late 1960s. This changed when Dr. Jovan Kiryabwire spearheaded development of a neurosurgical unit at Mulago Hospital in Kampala. His work ethic and vision set the stage for rapid expansion of neurosurgical care in Uganda.

At the beginning of the 2000s, Uganda was a country of nearly 30 million people, but had only 4 neurosurgeons. Neurosurgery's progress was plagued by challenges faced by many developing countries, such as difficulty retaining specialists, lack of modern hospital resources, and scarce training facilities. To combat these challenges 2 distinct programs were launched: 1 by Dr. Benjamin Warf in collaboration with CURE International, and the other by Dr. Michael Haglund from Duke University. Dr. Warf's program focused on establishing a facility for pediatric neurosurgery. Dr. Haglund's program to increase neurosurgical capacity was founded on a “4 T's Paradigm”: Technology, Twinning, Training, and Top-Down. Embedded within this paradigm was the notion that Uganda needed to train its own people to become neurosurgeons, and thus Duke helped establish the country's first neurosurgery residency training program.

Efforts from overseas, including the tireless work of Dr. Benjamin Warf, have saved thousands of children's lives. The influx of the Duke Program caused a dynamic shift at Mulago Hospital with dramatic effects, as evidenced by the substantial increase in neurosurgical capacity. The future looks bright for neurosurgery in Uganda and it all traces back to a rural village where 1 man had a vision to help the people of his country.
Individual- and Organizational-Level Consequences of Organizational Citizenship Behaviors
Authors: Mackenzie Scott B. , Podsakoff Nathan P. , Podsakoff Philip M.
Published: March 2017

Although the effects of organizational citizenship behaviors on individual-level and organizational-level outcomes have been well documented in the literature, far less is known about the theoretical mechanisms that explain these effects, or the boundary conditions that influence their strengths. Thus, for the purposes of this chapter, after providing a brief summary of the effects of OCB on individual- and organizational-level outcomes, we identify the theoretical mechanisms through which OCBs are believed to produce their effects, and the individual, group, supervisor, task, organizational, and cultural/environmental characteristics that moderate these effects. In addition, we also suggest how several prototypical forms of OCB (helping, sportsmanship, and voice) might be related to these mediators and how the relationships between these different forms of OCB and individual- and organizational-level outcomes might be influenced by these moderators.
New Evidence on Trust and Well-Being
Authors: Helliwell John F. , Huang Haifang , Wang Shun
Published: March 2017

Data from three large international surveys—the Gallup World Poll, the World Values Survey and the European Social Survey—are used to estimate income-equivalent values for social trust, with a likely lower bound equivalent to a doubling of household income. Second, the more detailed and precisely measured trust data in the European Social Survey (ESS) are used to compare the effects of different types of social and political trust. While social trust and trust in police are most important, there are significant additional benefits from trust in three aspects of the institutional environment: the legal system, parliament and politicians. The total well-being value of a trustworthy environment is estimated to be larger than that flowing from social trust alone. Third, the ESS data show that being subject to discrimination, ill-health or unemployment is much less damaging to those living in trustworthy environments. These resilience-increasing features of social trust hence lessen well-being inequality by channeling the largest benefits to those at the low end of the well-being distribution.
Media and Communication
Authors: Briggle Adam , Christians Clifford G.
Published: March 2017

“Media and Communication” surveys the historical development and present form of multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary studies of media and communication. It begins with a brief historical sketch of media and communication in order to indicate the kinds of phenomena motivating the studies. This sketch indicates that the four primary drivers of interdisciplinarity are present in this field. Media and communication are (1) inherently complex, (2) raise questions that are not confined to a single discipline, (3) pose societal problems that transcend the academy, and (4) are tightly linked to new technologies. Indeed, media and communication studies are motivated in large part by the complex questions and social changes brought about by new technologies.
Systems Thinking
Authors: Strijbos Sytse
Published: March 2017

Systems thinking was launched by Ludwig von Bertalanffy and others in the 1950s as an interdisciplinary movement with a broad and bold scientific program. The movement attempts to overcome the dominating mechanistic world picture and related reductionism in the sciences which is regarded as one of the main causes of the problems of the modern world. This chapter discusses the sixty-year history of systems thinking and sketches some main lines of its three domains: systems science, systems approach in technology and management, and systems philosophy. This interdisciplinary movement has stimulated fruitful theory formation in the first mentioned domain, although it has not succeeded in achieving its original far-reaching goals. Furthermore, integrative, interdisciplinary systems approaches in technology and management have become well accepted. Finally, recent developments signal a return to the intellectual-spiritual roots of the systems movement aiming for a renewal of its scientific agenda.
Interdisciplinarity in Research Evaluation
Authors: Huutoniemi Katri , Rafols Ismael
Published: March 2017

The evaluation of interdisciplinary research is complicated by ambiguity about what interdisciplinarity is and what it should be. The question is topical, as evaluation plays an important role in how science is being shaped and changed today. The chapter performs a meta-analysis of the concept of interdisciplinarity in research evaluation, and gives an epistemic account of what would be involved in such evaluations. First, it discusses the various ways interdisciplinarity can add value to the disciplinary organization of academia and their respective implications for research evaluation. Second, it provides tools for mapping and measuring these value-added properties and illustrates what kind of evidence they can convey to research evaluations. The combined examination of values and indicators enables a more differentiated understanding of what exactly to look at when evaluating interdisciplinary research—and more generally, how to design research evaluations from an interdisciplinary point of view.
Doctoral Student and Early Career Academic Perspectives on Interdisciplinarity
Authors: Dooling Sarah , Graybill Jessica K. , Shandas Vivek
Published: March 2017

This chapter focuses on the experiences of graduate students and early career academics who conduct interdisciplinary research and teaching. It offers practical advice to guide multiple participants (individuals, departments, institutions, disciplines) to navigate the benefits and challenges of participating in interdisciplinary research and teaching. The chapter concludes with reflections on the increasing calls for interdisciplinarity in the context of reduced funding for public universities and the rise of interdisciplinary programs at private liberal arts colleges.
The Military-Industrial Route to Interdisciplinarity
Authors: Fuller Steve
Published: March 2017

This chapter considers from both a historical and philosophical standpoint the role of war and commerce in motivating interdisciplinary research, typically against the “normal science” grain of academia. This kind of interdisciplinarity is best described as “use-inspired basic research,” which makes creative use of synergies between relatively uncommunicative academic literatures, or “undiscovered public knowledge.” The Rockefeller Foundation and DARPA are the two major institutional exemplars of this form of interdisciplinarity, which is fairly described as “Mode 2” or “triple-helix” knowledge production. The chapter stresses the adventurous, indeed “creatively destructive” character of this research, which typically leaves a lasting impression on both academia and society as a whole—be it for good or ill. In this context, the career of Fritz Haber—a man steeped in not only philosophy and the physical sciences but also war and commerce—is considered as exemplifying the Janus-faced character of this type of interdisciplinarity.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus on Thucydides
Authors: de Jonge Casper C.
Published: March 2017

Thucydides was very popular among Roman rhetoricians and historians of the first century bce. The Greek critic Dionysius of Halicarnassus, however, criticizes Thucydides for his unnatural style and his inappropriate treatment of subject matter. This chapter explains Dionysius’ criticisms by taking into account the later writer’s rhetorical perspective on the writing of history, as well as the character of his Roman audience, which included the addressee of the treatise, the historian Quintus Aelius Tubero. Dionysius’ criticisms of Thucydides’ anti-Athenian attitude ( Letter to Pompeius 3.15), and his apparently conflicting praise (On Thucydides 8.1) of Thucydides’ commitment to the truth can be reconciled if we take into account Dionysius’ concept of “truth,” his intended audience, and his rhetorical concept of historiography.
Thucydides on the Four Hundred and the Fall of Athens
Authors: Wolpert Andrew
Published: March 2017

Book 8 shows why Thucydides was right to conclude that the Sicilian defeat was not enough to cause Athens to lose the Peloponnesian War. Fear and delay prevented the Athenians from responding effectively to the revolts breaking out throughout the empire and caused them to succumb to civil war. In contrast to the Athēaiōn Politeia, which suggests that the Four Hundred came to power because the Athenians doubted the merits of their democracy, Thucydides presents the oligarchs as opportunists who seized control when Athens was most vulnerable. Once the Athenians had realized the oligarchs could not win the war, their regime collapsed and the Five Thousand came to power. Thucydides saw in the intermediate regime a way to move beyond past extremism, but the Four Hundred left behind a residue of distrust and suspicion that the Athenians could not overcome.
Thucydides, Epic, and Tragedy
Authors: Joho Tobias
Published: March 2017

Despite initially acknowledging the deep gulf between his concern with the truth and the fanciful compositions of the poets, Thucydides is strongly influenced by the examples of Homer and Attic tragedy. Three areas of influence can be distinguished. First, Homer and the tragedians provide fundamental structural principles: Thucydides adopts Homer’s solution to narrating simultaneous strands of events, follows Homer’s example in heightening suspense, and learns from both Homer and tragedy to generate unity through narrative patterning. By adopting Homeric and tragic features, Thucydides infuses his narrative with a specific tone: tragic irony and reversals create an atmosphere of eerie inevitability, Homeric “Almost episodes” underscore the fragility of human endeavors, the Homeric emphasis on factual precision heightens Thucydides’ tone of objective pathos. Third, Thucydides’ allusions to specific Homeric and tragic episodes, besides demonstrating Thucydides’ engagement with Homer and tragedy, reveal his persisting distance from his poetic models.
Was Thucydides a Political Philosopher?
Authors: Balot Ryan
Published: March 2017

Although he is not ordinarily interpreted as a philosopher, Thucydides enters into conversation with the canonical political philosophers by engaging with the question of the good life lived within a well-ordered society. Displaying the conceptions of the good society presented by leading Athenians and Spartans, Thucydides emphasizes their illusory, self-destructive qualities. If those political leaders are at least qualified utopians, then Thucydides is an anti-utopian who views human history as a world of war. Thucydides’ History highlights the suffering caused by the tendency of human beings, and especially political leaders, to aggrandize themselves. In the absence of durable customs, laws, and political institutions, we can hope, at most, for a decent life supported by resilience and guided by political prudence. More ambitious political aspirations will inevitably cause greater harm than benefit.
Adult Community Choruses
Authors: Avery Susan
Published: March 2017

When considering teaching and conducting diverse populations in community choirs, one must begin with discussions of the phenomenon itself: a description of the term, a brief history of adult singing ensembles in the United States, and an exploration into the many types of community choirs and issues such as age, gender, exclusivity, purpose, and goals. Examined research on these issues is organized into large topics such as adult learning theories (music literacy and learning styles) and adult physiological concerns (untrained adult singers’ vocal mechanisms and aging voice issues). Personal identity growth or creation as individual musicians must be taken into account, as well as social implications of ensemble identity (among group members and by external community members). Finally motivation for joining and remaining in community choirs will be part of this chapter. That necessary phenomenon is examined through lenses such as choral repertoire preference, social needs, and personal goals fulfillment.
Teaching and Conducting Diverse Populations
Authors: Denison Craig
Published: March 2017

This chapter examines how social delineations of boys’ singing inform the boychoir conductor’s choices for vocal technique, programming, and rehearsal procedure. The introduction identifies structural elements that delineate a boychoir from other types of choirs, especially in the United States, with its traditions of multistage maturity level singers across different vocal registers. Once established, the chapter examines signature programming, rehearsal, and performance norms, with attention to the intersection of traditional and contemporary practices. Following a consideration of the boychoir community and its relationship to the community-at-large, the chapter closes with the concluding assertion of a boychoir pedagogy that synergizes the handling of different levels of boychoir development (especially voice changes) and adult and boy meanings of boys’ singing.
The Gang Mentality of Choirs
Authors: Harley Arreon
Published: March 2017

Choirs function very similarly to street gangs in that they have the power to radically transform lives, especially those of poor at-risk youths. Adolescents join gangs for the same reason adults join a choral community—to meet their needs. Often in the inner city, neither the familial unit nor the schools and community centers can provide the holistic solutions necessary to meet students’ needs, forcing them to go elsewhere. This chapter examines ways that choirs fulfill those needs, showing how several choral programs provide and/or supplement four basic needs according to the hierarchy of needs of Abraham Maslow (namely physiological, safety, love/belonging and esteem) and lead adolescents to a healthy and constructive place of self-actualization. Most importantly, this chapter explores how and why choral music has the power to transform lives of disenfranchised youths, preparing them for higher education and lives that contrast with their upbringing.
Vocal Pedagogy in the Choral Rehearsal
Authors: Cottrell Duane
Published: March 2017

One of the primary endeavors of choral conductors is the facilitation of good choral tone, which is largely dependent upon the vocal technique of the individual singers. This chapter examines principles of historical vocal pedagogy, discussing their correlation with modern scientific research, and present suggestions for practical implementation of specific techniques in choral rehearsals. The chapter discusses four primary areas of vocal pedagogy in choral rehearsals: first, the significance of laryngeal position in choral singing; second, principles of resonance in singing and their impact on the choral sound; third, a discussion of breath support in choral singing; and fourth, principles of phonation and vocal production for singers in a choral setting. Each of these four discussions contain practical suggestions for the application of specific practices and exercises that will strengthen the vocal technique of choral singers.
The Social Construction of Self-Esteem
Authors: Hewitt John P.
Published: March 2017

Contemporary conceptions of self-esteem emphasize the person’s acceptance by self and others, the evaluation of performance, social comparison, and the efficacy of individual action as the important roots of self-esteem. The present analysis treats these elements, not as psychological universals, but as rooted in the competing themes of American culture. The discourse of self-esteem enables the person’s understanding of individuality versus community, striving for success versus self-acceptance, or the quest for happiness as a future state versus contentment with one’s present lot. The experience of self-esteem is here conceived as grounded in mood. Self-esteem provides a means of interpreting mood, which encourages and inhibits conduct in various situations. Mood is a response to positive and negative experiences; self-esteem is a construction of mood fitted to a culture and its themes. The analysis considers how self-esteem binds the person to cultural emphases and examines the limitations of self-esteem as a goal.
The Role of Personal Control in Adaptive Functioning
Authors: Thompson Suzanne C.
Published: March 2017

A sense of personal control helps people maintain emotional stability and negotiate their way through life. People foster this by focusing on reachable goals, creating new avenues for control, and accepting difficult-to-change circumstances. Perceived control need not be realistic in order to have beneficial effects. Research suggests that those from more collectivist cultures may derive less benefit from a sense of personal control, relying instead on a socially derived sense of control. Interventions to enhance personal control include programs that bolster coping skills, give options to participants, encourage attributions to controllable factors, and focus on empowerment. Future research should include longitudinal studies that examine disconfirmations of control and the value of maintaining vs. relinquishing control following a traumatic event. More attention is also needed on cultural differences in perceived control, the effects of illusory control on health-promotion behaviors, and interventions to increase perceived control in everyday life.
Opinion Mining and Sentiment Analysis
Authors: Breck Eric , Cardie Claire
Published: March 2017

Opinions are ubiquitous in text, and readers of online text—from consumers to sports fans to news addicts to governments—can benefit from automatic methods that synthesize useful opinion-oriented information from the sea of data. In this chapter on opinion mining and sentiment analysis, we introduce an idealized, end-to-end opinion analysis system and describe its components. We present methods for classifying documents and text passages according to their sentiment as well as methods that perform more fine-grained extraction of opinion expressions, their holders and their targets. We also address supplementary tasks of opinion lexicon construction, opinion summarization, opinion-oriented question answering, multi-lingual sentiment analysis and compositional approaches to phrase-level sentiment analysis.
Disciplinary Perspectives on Skill
Authors: Bryson Jane
Published: March 2017

Skill is a ubiquitous term but it is not always commonly understood. This chapter demonstrates that our understanding of skill varies, often as a reflection of our disciplinary interests. Three cross disciplinary lenses are used to examine varying views of skill: its meaning, acquisition, utilisation, recognition, and impact. These lenses: political economy of skill; skill as an organisational resource; and learning theory, enable an exploration of economic, political science, sociology, industrial relations, human resource management, organisation studies, education and psychology perspectives. It is argued that rather than a single or even cross-disciplinary view, multiple perspectives on skill are essential to effective policy development and positive influence on individual and social wellbeing.
A Working Lifetime of Skill and Training Needs
Authors: Schmid Günther
Published: March 2017

This chapter provides an overview of the key factors shaping individuals’ skill formation challenges and options by referring to the growing literature of ‘Transitional Labour Markets’ (TLMs) that examines the changing links between work and life beyond standard employment relationships. It starts by clarifying the key problems that must be addressed for understanding the skill formation challenges and highlights the need for a life course as opposed to a life cycle framing of the issue. A short overview of the TLM approach and a brief sketch of the main challenges of skill-capacity formation over the life course in Europe follow. The bulk of the chapter then examines the key issue of how risks associated with investing in the development of individuals’ skills capacities are shared. The paper concludes by reflecting on the utility of seeing working life as being centrally concerned with lifelong learning.
The Individual Benefits of Investing in Skills
Authors: Holmes Craig
Published: March 2017

This chapter considers returns to the individual from investing in skill. It describes the earnings and employment outcomes of people who have completed different levels of formal education across different countries, and goes on to consider the possible causal mechanisms at work. The methodology for estimating wage returns is critically discussed. Whilst much attention has been devoted to considering ability bias, other issues have received less attention. In particular qualifications or amounts of time spent studying are imperfect proxies for skills produced. Furthermore estimates from wage regressions are almost invariably interpreted through the lens of human capital theory -- the existence of a wage premium indicates that the productivity has increased due to the educational investment. Alternative interpretations are considered. These include the possibility that the premium represents a reward for obtaining a job on a fixed distribution of jobs -- in other words winning a positional competition race. Such possibilities raise several concerns. These include under-utilisation, both of general skills and of skills acquired through work-based training programmes, low marginal returns relative to average returns, and a widening and more risky distribution of payoffs.
Theorizing Skill Formation in the Global Economy
Authors: Lauder Hugh , Brown Phillip , Ashton David
Published: March 2017

Over the past half century a range of theories has been developed to understand the nature of skill, its development and relationship to the economy. These theories have often been competing, with fundamentally different assumptions about the production of skills and their relationship to society. However, recent changes in the nature of economic globalization have raised questions about these theories and their applicability to the present context. In this paper we critically evaluate the dominant skill formation theories and outline an alternative approach that takes into account fundamental changes in the global labour market.
Employment Systems, Skills, and Knowledge
Authors: Lam Alice , Marsden David
Published: March 2017

Learning by doing represents a major component of both workforce skills and organisational capabilities. Consequently, the boundaries of skills result from the interaction between organisational and labour market factors which shape employment systems. This chapter explores how skill systems are shaped, on the one hand, by the demands of different knowledge structures, whether they are predominantly individual or distributed, and whether they are codified or tacit, and on the other, by patterns of governance of employment relationships. It is argued that an economically productive relationship depends upon aligning knowledge types and organisational forms with suitable frameworks for the exchange of labour services. These pressures result in the development of four broad types of knowledge and skill systems outlined in the chapter. It goes on to examine how the spread of project-based and more transient employment relationships is changing the nature of skills and the organisation of job-related knowledge.
Approaches to Skills in the Asian Developmental States
Authors: Sung Johnny , Raddon Arwen
Published: March 2017

The developmental state model was proposed in the early 1990s as a better means of understanding the mechanisms underlying the rapid growth of the Asian Tiger economies, when compared to classic economic models. The national skills systems of South Korea and Singapore are examined in order to consider how the Asian developmental state approach has worked in practice. It is shown that, whilst the state identifies and firmly guides the direction of economic development, the market plays a fundamental role in the concrete delivery of long-term economic objectives. Within this approach, education and training act as a vehicle to achieve broader economic and social development goals. Examples are used to consider how these systems changed throughout the industrialisation process. We reflect on some of the challenges faced over time, which have put the long-term viability of the developmental state approach in question. Most notable is the gradual erosion of the state’s ability to lead capital and labour in order to achieve long- rather than short-term goals, particularly in the face of globalisation.
Current Challenges
Authors: Keep Ewart
Published: March 2017

This chapter explores the major challenges facing skills policy across the developed world. These include uneven demand for skills, the dangers of over-qualification and poor skills utilisation, occupational change leading to polarised job structures, cuts in public spending and the integration of skills policies into wider economic development and workplace innovation. It argues that traditional models of policy are coming under massive pressure, not last in terms of finding the public money to power them, and that the law of diminishing returns is starting to bite as over-supply meets congested occupational labour markets. As a result, there are now divergent policy pathways, with some countries continuing with traditional supply-led models, while others are devoting far more attention to how to boost demand for education and training and improve skill utilisation and productivity. The days of the traditional human capital accumulation model may be numbered.
Introduction
Authors: Buchanan John , Finegold David , Mayhew Ken , Warhurst Chris
Published: March 2017

While there are diverse perspectives on skills and training, the divergence in disciplinary outlooks is not as great as it once may have been. Important new knowledge has identified the nature and importance of demand side factors like skill utilisation and the social determinants of skill development and outcomes. Despite this analytical flourishing, the reality of who pays for skills is becoming more narrowly defined as a ‘personal benefit’, the cost burden of which is shifting from businesses and nation states to individuals. The chapter finishes by noting while huge structural shifts in skill demand and supply are intensifying, the outcomes of these developments will depend on how skills are defined and the costs of skill development distributed. These will be settled at national and sectoral/regional level. Consequently, while the forces of change appear to be converging around the globe, the diversity in skill systems is set to continue – but in different forms.
Accreditation and Assessment in Vocational Education and Training
Authors: Stanley Gordon
Published: March 2017

Vocational education and training has emerged from traditional industry and technical training into a vigorous post-compulsory education sector focused on satisfying the ever-changing demands of today’s employers. This chapter considers issues around the accreditation and regulation of providers and the assessment and certification of outcomes. Quality and comparability of outcomes has been a common concern for regulatory regimes. The front-end emphasis of training assessors and the requirement for workplace assessment contexts is designed to align with employer needs. However there are legitimate concerns about the consistency of judgments. Competency based assessment (CBA) has been the dominant assessment model and contrasts with the traditional assessment approach in general education. However the more recent standards-referenced assessment movement in the latter sector suggests ways in which assessment approaches are converging. Employability and 21st century skills reinforce the interest in developing generic skills in all sectors of education.