bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
General Knowledge of Engineering Specializations
Authors: Jaafar Hassan Faisal , Alwan Suroor Ahmed
Published: March 2021

Iraq suffers from a great confusion between engineering disciplines at several levels among the decision-makers. This resulted from the great development in engineering sciences, which generated many overlaps between the engineering specializations and this problem leads to a bigger problem represented in the quality of the engineering product. This puts us in front of a goal which is the necessity to provide a general knowledge culture in the community that prevents them from mixing between engineering specialties, and to reach such a goal we need a logical analysis of the elements of the problem, as finding general knowledge of engineering specializations will reduce many engineering problems and in all stages of engineering work. Accordingly, this problem can be solved by educating several groups in society, including the citizen, the official and the engineer, in addition to academic disciplines other than engineering. Thus, engineering culture or general engineering knowledge is the basis for obtaining an engineering product of low cost and good quality.
Investigating the Effects of Nano Ceramics based Pack Cementation Coatings on Properties of some Biomedical Ti Alloys
Authors: Ali Zainab Zuhair , Al-Hasani Fatimah J
Published: March 2021

Titanium has a unique ability to bind with bone and living tissue, making it an ideal material for orthopedic implants such as knee and hip replacements. The objective is focused on studying the influence of Nano ceramic powder (70%ZrO2 with Y2O3) on different base titanium alloys produced by powder technology technique (Ti-pure, Ti-45%Ni, Ti-10%Co, and Ti-30%Ta) with pretreated surface of implant samples . From XRD patterns, there was no indication that other phases contain any of the diffraction patterns present in samples after (Zro2and Y2o3) deposition. The microstructure observation of all samples showed that both Nano zirconia and yttria were distributed in samples surface and covered, which produced a high modification in morphology of surface. There was considerable increase in hardness value after pack cementation process. It is evident that the porosity percent of the samples after Nano ceramic deposition largely decreased. The results showed that using chemical pre surface treatments and powder technology method was useful to gain adhere and homogenous deposition layer.
Determination of the theoretical trajectory of a tractor at a turn
Authors: Belyaev A N , Orobinsky V I , Shatsky V P , Trishina T V , Sheredekin V V , Vysotskaya I A , Zavrazhnov A I , Mikheyev N V
Published: March 2021

The most complete idea of the stability of the curvilinear motion of a tractor is given by the nature of the change in the trajectory of motion of its kinematic center and the coordinates of the turn: the abscissa and ordinate of the headland, showing both the transverse and longitudinal deviations of the machine-tractor unit, including those determining its productivity and the required quality of agricultural operations. According to the operating conditions, the methods of motion of the unit are chosen, both on the main array of the field and on the headland. The paper presents explicit equations for the analytical calculation of the theoretical coordinates of the points of the kinematic center trajectory of the tractor when it performs a circular loopless rotation, which allowed determining the theoretical trajectory of a complete cycle of circular loopless rotation of a tractor depending on the following parameters. These parameters are as follows: design - base, distances between the axes of the pivots, maximum angles of rotation of the internal wheels; operational - forward speed of a tractor, the angular speed of the steered wheels in the transverse plane. The author made the attempt to analyze and compare the most universal ways of turn: the front steered wheels and the front and rear steered wheels by turning them in different directions relative to the core.
Laboratory stand for studying the interaction of rubbing bodies in a magnetic field
Authors: Antipin D Ya , Vorobiev V I , Gorelenkov A I , Bondarenko D A
Published: March 2021

The paper presents the basic principles for the implementation of experimental studies of the tribological characteristics of friction pairs, taking into account the effect of a magnetic field on them. It has been established that modern experimental studies are carried out on laboratory units using powerful tools to analyze the data obtained, which makes it possible to study the structures of systems by changing the properties of materials under the influence of external factors and wear processes. Taking into account the influence and further research in tribo-conjugated metal bodies (for example, a wheel-rail) of such factors as magnetostriction, external magnetic field (constant, alternating, pulsed), current (direct, alternating, pulsed) passing through the contact, acting both separately, and in various combinations, the design of an experimental laboratory installation was proposed and implemented. The installation allows testing with two types of friction sliding and rolling with sliding. To measure the friction force (friction coefficient), a 6-wire bridge circuit is used, which is described in the article. The paper shows a diagram of a noise-immune strain-gauge circuit of the installation, which allows a significant level of interference during research. Due to the fact that the friction coefficient with a change in temperature can vary over a wide range, the proposed installation implements a method for automatic temperature compensation in the contact zone of tribological samples. The use of thermocouples is proposed as temperature sensors. The signals from the thermocouples of the installation are transmitted to a measuring device consisting of an analog-to-digital converter and a personal computer. The proposed laboratory setup allows for a wide range of tribological testing studies and monitoring of processes in the friction zone exposed to the magnetic field.
Computer simulation of heat transfer processes in aircraft landing gear braking mechanisms
Authors: Deren E A , Volkhonsky A E , Konoval D V
Published: March 2021

Landing gear brakes – multi-disc brakes, as the responsible mechanism of the aircraft, must have the lowest possible weight and dimensions, high performance, increased service life and reduced life cycle cost. Solving these problems will reduce the design and development cycle of multi-disc chassis brakes. To perform the calculations, a computer mathematical model based on the use of the finite element method is proposed, replacing the classical version of the calculation based on currently used mathematical models, taking into account the heating of the aircraft landing gear braking mechanism, which will increase the speed, accuracy of calculations and reduce their labor intensity. We have developed a computer mathematical model of heat transfer processes occurring in the friction elements of multi-disc landing gear braking systems at the second stage of landing using the COMSOL Multiphysics program. Based on the calculations performed using this model, it is possible to take into account the influence of various system parameters such as the number of friction disks, their diameter and thickness, the medium in the interstitial space, the size of the solver grid on the maximum heating temperature of the brake mechanism, the cooling rate, the calculation time and the calculation error. On the basis of the obtained experimental data, we can conclude about the preferable construction of the brake mechanism. For example, it is possible to produce friction plates, steel with application to the surface of the composite friction material, allowing it to maintain the necessary friction and thus reduce the dimensions and maximum temperature, wet-disc brakes. The results of this work can be applied not only in the aviation industry, but can also be used to calculate the mechanisms of multi-disc oil-loaded brakes, which are used in agricultural, forestry, construction, quarry and other special equipment. In future work, the developed model will allow carrying out calculations taking into account the changes of material properties depending on temperature, refining the geometry of the brake mechanism, taking into account periods of reverse thrust engines and aerodynamic brakes.
Optimization of traffic flows to increase the capacity of urban unsignalized junctions
Authors: Pospelov P I , Kostin S V , Martyakhin D S , Komarova T K
Published: March 2021

Regular studies of traffic flows allow obtaining the actual parameters of the vehicle movement. Field observations using unmanned aerial vehicles help to optimize the research due to the wide capture field of the video camera, which allows comprehensively assessing traffic flows simultaneously utilizing all approaches to the intersection. When designing a road network, it is necessary to determine the capacity of all its elements. The characteristic elements are unsignalized intersections and junctions, the capacity of which largely depends on the intensity of the main and secondary directions, the behavior of drivers and the adoption by drivers of intervals between cars of the main traffic flow when entering the intersection.
Control of the servo drive and the regulating body of the software
Authors: Konstantinova M V , Guseva E A , Kondrat’ev V V , Kolosov A D
Published: March 2021

This paper presents control of the servo drive and the regulating body of the software complex “Automated process control system for the associated production of concentrates of nanostructures MD1 and MD2”. The developed algorithm is designed to control a two-position valve with an electric drive by “open / close” commands. It allows to carry out: control in manual and automatic mode, control of extreme positions and excess torque on the drive shaft; blocking of work in automatic mode with a command to close; determination of the priority of the close command; delay when reversing to stop the drive.
Modeling the sunflower seeds separation process in air-sieve grain-cleaning machines
Authors: Priporov I E , Kurasov V S , Samurganov E E , Shepelev A B
Published: March 2021

In modern seed-cleaning machines, pneumatic systems have been widely used in recent years. To minimize costs in pneumatic systems of seed-cleaning machines, while increasing performance and improving the functional efficiency, it is necessary to improve their constructive and technological parameters. Improving pneumatic system parameters requires the development of a methodology for modeling the processes of airflow motion for their qualitative characteristics. To improve the efficiency of the vertical pneumatic channel of air-sieve grain-cleaning machines, it has been proposed to modernize it, which will improve the quality of separation of sunflower seed heap in it. The device and technological process of operation of a modernized air-sieve grain-cleaning machine of the MVU-1500 type in sorting a heap of sunflower seeds are presented. The movement of the components of a sunflower seed heap in a vertical pneumatic channel of an air-sieve grain-cleaning machine of the MVU-1500 type is examined and the proportionality coefficients of the airflow for the components of a sunflower seed heap are determined. The obtained values of the theoretical proportionality coefficients of the airflow for the components of a sunflower seed heap vary widely depending on the composition (organic impurity – 0,015≤k≤0,061; seeds of the leading crop – 0,120≤k≤0,162; broken seeds – 0,096≤k≤0,115 and hulled seeds – 0,134≤k≤0,153). Mathematical modeling of the technological process of the improved air-sieve grain-cleaning machine of the MVU-1500 type makes it possible to increase the efficiency of the vertical pneumatic channel by 15-20% without deteriorating the quality of the material itself, as a result of which the specific energy consumption of the process will decrease.
Optimization of the sunflower seeds extrusion process in obtaining sunflower cake
Authors: Priporov I E , Shepelev A B
Published: March 2021

One of the promising directions is the use of the design of the extruder working bodies, where the implemented method of compaction, movement with the timely withdrawal of sunflower cake in a bulk form, is applied. Based on the results of experimental studies using the planning method, a mathematical model of the extrusion process was obtained, which describes the specific energy consumption of the extruder in obtaining sunflower cake. The centerpoints of the experiment are located in the study area, which makes it possible to establish the optimal parameters of the factors for their various combinations. The analysis of two-dimensional sections in interaction with each other makes it possible to determine the optimal values of all the factors under study: the material temperature at the exit - t = 133.67 °C; the extrusion auger winding pitch - h = 7.58 mm; the matrix die hole area - S = 323,89 mm2. With these values of the factors, the minimum specific energy consumption of the improved extruder E = 69.06 kW-h/t compared to serial ones is ensured due to the implementation of the intake and the extrusion augers connected in sequence in the form of a catenoid. This includes the joints of the sections in the form of a parabola according to the normal distribution law, the tops of the conical head in the form of a parabola, which shows that the material is not damaged when leaving the conical head, and affects its mass and density.
Increasing the efficiency of the wireline in the drilling rig lifting complex
Authors: Suleimanov R I , Khabibullin M Ya , Zaripova L M , Davydov A Yu
Published: March 2021

The article deals with optimizing the work of the wireline system of the drilling rig. It reveals the characteristic failures and breakdowns of the elements of the wireline system. Based on the analysis the authors proposed to optimize the wireline system of drilling rig BU 300 EUK with 5×6 string-up by forcibly changing the involved the crown block and the wireline block sheaves to more optimal 4×5 string-up.
Selection of the drilling fluid density as specified with the expected deformation of the cross-section of the well
Authors: Zainagalina L Z , Bulyukova F Z
Published: March 2021

During inclined and horizontal drilling, the cross-section of the well is deformed in the form of uneven displacement of its walls, which is one of the reasons for tightening and tool sticking. To limit the displacement of the walls, it is proposed to adjust the density of the drilling fluid taking into account the elastic properties of the rock and the angle of curvature of the well.
Fast diffusion on noncompact manifolds: Well-posedness theory and connections with semilinear elliptic equations
Authors: Grillo Gabriele , Muratori Matteo , Punzo Fabio
Published: March 2021

We investigate the well-posedness of the fast diffusion equation (FDE) on noncompact Riemannian manifolds. Existence and uniqueness of solutions for

L
1

L^1

initial data was established in Bonforte, Grillo, and Vázquez [J. Evol. Equ. 8 (2008), pp. 99–128]. However, in the Euclidean space, it is known from Herrero and Pierre [Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 291 (1985), pp. 145–158] that the Cauchy problem associated with the FDE is well posed for initial data that are merely in

L

l
o
c

1

L^1_{\mathrm {loc}}

. We establish here that such data still give rise to global solutions on general manifolds. If, moreover, the radial Ricci curvature satisfies a suitable pointwise bound from below (possibly diverging to

−
∞

-\infty

at spatial infinity), we prove that also uniqueness holds, for the same type of data, in the class of strong solutions. Besides, assuming in addition that the initial datum is in

L

l
o
c

2

L^2_{\mathrm {loc}}

and nonnegative, a minimal solution is shown to exist, and we establish uniqueness of purely (nonnegative) distributional solutions, a fact that to our knowledge was not known before even in the Euclidean space. The required curvature bound is sharp, since on model manifolds it is equivalent to stochastic completeness, and it was shown in Grillo, Ishige, and Muratori [J. Math. Pures Appl. (9) 139 (2020), pp. 63–82] that uniqueness for the FDE fails even in the class of bounded solutions when stochastic completeness does not hold. A crucial ingredient of the uniqueness result is the proof of nonexistence of nonnegative, nontrivial distributional subsolutions to certain semilinear elliptic equations with power nonlinearities, of independent interest.
Close Reading
Authors: Byron Mark
Published: March 2021

Close reading describes a set of procedures and methods that distinguishes the scholarly apprehension of textual material from the more prosaic reading practices of everyday life. Its origins and ancestry are rooted in the exegetical traditions of sacred texts (principally from the Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, Christian, Zoroastrian, and Islamic traditions) as well as the philological strategies applied to classical works such as the Homeric epics in the Greco-Roman tradition, or the Chinese 詩經 (Shijing) or Classic of Poetry. Cognate traditions of exegesis and commentary formed around Roman law and the canon law of the Christian Church, and they also find expression in the long tradition of Chinese historical commentaries and exegeses on the Five Classics and Four Books. As these practices developed in the West, they were adapted to medieval and early modern literary texts from which the early manifestations of modern secular literary analysis came into being in European and American universities. Close reading comprises the methodologies at the center of literary scholarship as it developed in the modern academy over the past one hundred years or so, and has come to define a central set of practices that dominated scholarly work in English departments until the turn to literary and critical theory in the late 1960s. This article provides an overview of these dominant forms of close reading in the modern Western academy. The focus rests upon close reading practices and their codification in English departments, although reference is made to non-Western reading practices and philological traditions, as well as to significant nonanglophone alternatives to the common understanding of literary close reading.
Literature and the Senses
Authors: Dugan Holly
Published: March 2021

Sensory studies is an interdisciplinary field connecting insights from history, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, religion, literature, and art to the scientific study of human perception. Though research in this field draws upon a wide variety of methodologies and focuses on different historical periods and geographical areas, it is unified through a core tenet: that the human sensorium is as much a cultural, historical, and aesthetic phenomenon as it is an environmental and a biological one. Social mores, geographies, religious beliefs, and individual abilities shape perception in uniquely cultural ways. Put more succinctly, sensory studies, as a field, argues for the cultural study of the senses and the sensuous study of culture. And language is squarely at the center of scholarly questions about perception; literary studies thus provides useful methodological tools for understanding not only how we represent visceral experiences (such as sensation) to others through language but also how these strategies have changed over time. The study of literature and the senses emphasizes the important role of language in representing visceral experience and the important role of aesthetics and history in shaping literary representations.
Frugality in Emerging Organizations: A Psychological Perspective of Resourcefulness in Entrepreneurship Contexts
Authors: Michaelis Timothy L. , Pollack Jeffrey M. , Carr Jon C.
Published: March 2021

The act of being resourceful is a commonly displayed behavior in the process of entrepreneurship. For example, entrepreneurs are known to share resources with competitors, utilize their social networks to attract capital, exchange favors for resources, engage in resource bootstrapping behaviors, repurpose and/or recombine existing resources for new purposes (i.e., bricolage), and sometimes pivot from one opportunity to another following available resource options given current situational constraints (i.e., effectuation). Currently, research on the topic of resourcefulness in the entrepreneurship literature assumes these aforementioned resourceful behaviors are attributed to a limited resource environment rather than also originating from within the entrepreneur. Frugality is a new concept in the field of entrepreneurship that suggests entrepreneurs will also enact resourceful behaviors because of their own self-regulatory processes; that is, entrepreneurs will engage in resourcefulness behaviors as a preference rather than as a forced reaction to their external resource environment. Thus, frugality represents an individual-level antecedent of resourcefulness behaviors that is not bound to the conditions of necessity-based entrepreneurship. This is important as frugality opens the door for numerous future research directions in the context of both necessity-based and opportunity-based entrepreneurship. Frugality is defined as one’s general preference to (a) conserve resources and (b) apply an economic rationale in the acquisition of resources (i.e., assessing the opportunity cost of newly acquired resources). Research in the consumer behavior literature highlights that frugality is a culturally driven trait preference, whereby one is willing to sacrifice in the short term to achieve longer-term, idiosyncratic goals. Despite a large amount of research on frugal consumer behavior, there has yet to be a systematic inquiry into how frugality more broadly influences the process of new venture creation and organizations. Empirical research highlights that frugal entrepreneurs tend to engage in higher amounts of bricolage and effectuation, thus representing a promising new topic for better understanding the process of entrepreneurship. Although it is expected that future inquiry regarding frugality in entrepreneurship will naturally orient toward the topic of resourcefulness, it is also expected that frugality will relate to numerous other important topics such as entrepreneurial well-being, opportunity recognition, opportunity exploitation, and new venture growth. Considering the novelty of frugality in entrepreneurship, and management literature generally, it would benefit future research to systematically explore both the upsides and downsides to being frugal as it relates to value creation activities.
History and Importance of Mountain Observatories in Alpine Climate
Authors: Ludewig Elke
Published: March 2021

Mountain observatories have played an important role in developing scientific research since the 18th century. These alpine observatories have been used by numerous scientists who have carried out a wide range of investigations, and have thus been able to establish significant meteorological findings. They were established to better understand atmospheric properties, such as dynamics, and are now used for climate and environmental science in addition to astronomy. The data measured at mountain observatories provide information on the climatic conditions of certain alpine regions and show that even more high-altitude stations are needed to better understand climatic and environmental changes in the 21st century.
Family and Justice in Political Philosophy
Authors: Olsaretti Serena
Published: March 2021

Political philosophers’ interest in the family—understood as a unit in which one or more adults discharge a socially and legally recognized role as primary carers of their children—has given rise to a rich and multifaceted body of literature. Some of the questions philosophers address concern justice and the family, specifically, that is, they concern the competing claims of individuals once it is acknowledged that, as well as being citizens, individuals have all been members of families as infants, and may be members of families as parents, and that how the family is structured and run has a profound impact on the prospects and opportunities of infants and of their parents, and on some interests of society as a whole. Two main sets of questions about the family and justice are as follows.

The first set of questions concerns what the family owes society as a matter of justice, that is, how the family can and should help realize, or how it may hinder the achievement of, independently formulated demands of justice. One such demand is that of equality of opportunity: philosophers have debated whether the existence of the family necessarily threatens pursuit of equality of opportunity for children, and what may, or should, be done about this. They have offered a variety of diagnoses of the problem and solutions to it, depending on their views about the legitimacy of parental partiality and about the value of the parent–child relationship. Another demand of justice that may be in tension with the family is the demand not to diminish the fair shares of one’s fellow-citizens. Whether prospective parents must constrain their freedom to found and raise a family in light of considerations about the environmental impact that their having and rearing children will have for future generations, for example, is a growing concern among philosophers.

The second set of questions about the family and justice concern what society owes families—that is, what citizens owe to one another as a matter of justice, insofar as they are actual or potential members of families. While there is widespread agreement that adults have a right to parent—and to parent their biological children, in particular—and that children have a right to be raised in families and typically by their biological parents, there is a wealth of different views regarding the grounds of these rights. The views differ depending on whether they appeal to people’s interests in freedom, or in well-being, or both, in order to justify access to the family. Whether, besides having the right to access the family, parents also have claims to having society share in the costs of having and raising children, is a further question that political philosophers have examined and on which they have offered diverging answers.
Ethnic Inequality and Coups d’État
Authors: Bodea Cristina , Houle Christian
Published: March 2021

A coup d’état is an all-around consequential event, and coups remain frequent in sub-Saharan Africa. Historically, ethnic inequality—the measure of income disparities at the level of ethnic groups—has been paid little attention as a potential cause of coups and other types of regime breakdown. More work exists on the relationship between ethnicity broadly construed and coup d’état, and in particular the role of unequal access to the military for different ethnic groups and the role of ethnic exclusion from political power. Our own work presents a theory that links “between” and “within” ethnic group income inequality to coup d’état initiated by ethnic groups. The argument is that high income and wealth inequality between ethnic groups, coupled with within-group homogeneity, increases the salience of ethnicity and solidifies within-group preferences vis-à-vis the preferences of other ethnic groups, increasing the appeal and feasibility of a coup. Empirical findings from sub-Saharan Africa support the main theoretical claim linking ethnic inequality to coup d’état. Additional evidence from sub-Saharan Africa and a larger global sample are consistent with the causal mechanisms. More remains to be researched in this area, however. Directions for future research include looking at the access of ethnic groups to the military, the intervening role of natural resources in the calculus of ethnic groups, and the role of ethnic inequality in incumbent takeovers.
Ukraine: Democratizing Civil–Military Relations in the Midst of Conflict
Authors: Ulrich Marybeth P.
Published: March 2021

Ukraine’s civil–military relations continue to democratize in the midst of its ongoing conflict with Russia. Ukraine’s progress in its political, economic, and military reforms is linked to the development of its civil–military relations, which, in turn, can be a catalyst for further advances in democratization and the application of the national power so essential to it prevailing in its existential struggle to preserve its national independence and fledgling democracy. However, Ukraine’s challenging geopolitical hand has limited its democratic and economic development postindependence. Prior to the war with Russia, due to the Ukraine swaying between the liberal democracies of Europe and the lure of authoritarian Russia, the conflicting interests of stakeholders from the disparate camps limited Ukraine’s ability to break decisively toward either one. The Euromaidan protests, followed by Russia’s annexation of Crimea and incursion into the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine propelled Ukraine onto a pro-Europe path. However, the legacy of Soviet-era bureaucracy, weak political culture, and scarce resources have limited the country’s progress. Key elements of democratic civil–military relations, such as meaningful civilian oversight within the relevant ministries and parliamentary defense committees, are still insufficiently present. So far, the combined impact of limited progress in the development of democratic institutions, poor economic performance, insufficiently mitigated corruption, and war in eastern Ukraine has held the country as a whole back from achieving the results of the higher-performing postcommunist states in the region. However, the Zelensky administration has a clear mandate and the parliamentary majority to implement its vision for Ukraine.

Ukraine’s civil–military relations are an important aspect of its strategic success. Political–military and societal–military cooperation and coordination can serve as the catalysts needed to bridge crucial divides and reinforce the parallel reforming tracks of democratic, economic, military, and cultural development and institution-building.
Gender and the Military in Western Democracies
Authors: Carreiras Helena
Published: March 2021

Military institutions have been considered “gendered organizations” because gender is persistently related therein to the production and allocation of material and symbolic resources. Western states’ militaries consistently, even if unevenly, display three basic traits through which gendering occurs: the existence of structural divisions of labor and power along gender lines, organizational culture and ideology based on a distinction between masculinity and femininity, and patterns of interaction and identity formation that reflect these structural and ideological constraints.

Although women’s representation has been growing, and women have been accessing new roles, positions, and occupations in unprecedented numbers, their participation is statistically limited and substantially uneven. Notable differences between countries also exist. At a macro-sociological level, factors that explain these differences relate to the degree of convergence between armed forces and society, external political pressures, military organizational format, and the level of gender equality in society at large.

From a micro-sociological perspective, research shows that, because of their minority situation and less valued status in an organization normatively defined as masculine, women still have to face the negative consequences of tokenism: performance pressures, social isolation, and role encapsulation. However, this research also highlights two important conclusions. The first is that there is significant variation in individual and organizational responses depending on context; the second, that conditions for successful gender integration depend on specific combinations of structural, cultural, and policy dimensions: the existence or absence of institutional support, changes in the composition of groups, increase in the number of women, type of work, occupational status, level of shared experience, changing values of younger cohorts, and quality of leadership.

The Women, Peace and Security agenda, evolving from the approval of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000, has become the major reference framework to evaluate progress in this respect at both domestic and international levels. Despite the existence of an extremely robust set of norms, policies, and instruments, and the recognition of their transformative potential, results have been considered to lag behind expectations. Improving implementation and enhancing gender integration in the military will require context-sensitive and knowledge-driven policies, the reframing of an essentialist discourse linking women’s participation in international missions to female stereotypical characteristics, and greater congruence between national policies and the international agenda.
Comparative Abortion Law and Politics
Authors: Sommer Udi , Forman-Rabinovici Aliza
Published: March 2021

Public debate rages around the world as to if and when a woman has a right to access abortion services. Though abortion policy has become more permissive over time in various places, there are still many countries with severe restrictions. The variety in state abortion policies at the state and regional levels reflects the different religious, cultural, and political attitudes toward this issue.

Literature on this topic engages with larger theoretical debates within the study of public policy. That includes definitions of morality policy and determinants of feminist policy. Researchers continue to search for the ideal way to compare permissiveness of abortion policy in light of the extensive variation, conditions, and caveats that exist within abortion legislation. A number of variables, including female political representation, dominant religious groups in the country, and women’s movements have emerged as central correlates with permissiveness of abortion policy. The difference between de jure abortion law and de facto access also constitutes an important part of abortion policy research.
History and Systems of Critical Psychology
Authors: Teo Thomas
Published: March 2021

Critical psychology comprises a broad range of international approaches centered around theories and practices of critique, power, resistance, and alternatives of practice. Although critical psychology had an axial age in and around the 1970s, many sources can be found decades and even centuries earlier. Critical psychology is not only about the critique of psychology, which is a broader historical and theoretical field, but about doing justice in and through theory, justice with and to groups of people, and justice to the reality of society, history, and culture as they powerfully constitute subjectivity, as well as the discipline and profession of psychology. Doing justice in and through psychological theory has a strong basis in Western critical approaches, representing a privileged position of reflection in Euro-American research institutions. Critical psychologists argue that traditional psychology is missing its subject matter and hence is not doing justice in methodology, and its practices of control and adjustment are not doing justice to the emancipatory possibilities of human agency or human science. Critical psychologists who are attempting to do justice with and to human beings are not neglecting the onto-epistemic-ethical domain, but are instead focusing on people, often marginalized or oppressed groups. Critical psychologists who want to do justice in history, culture, and society have argued that traditional psychological practice means adaption and adjustment. This means that not only subjectivity, but also the discipline and profession of psychology need to be connected with contexts. Psychologists have attempted to conceptualize the relationship between society and the individual, as well as the ability of humans not only to adapt to an environment but to change their living conditions and transform the status quo. This conceptualization also means providing concrete analyses of how current society, based in neoliberal capitalism, not only impacts individuals but also the discipline of psychology. Despite the complexities of critical psychology around the world, critical psychologists emphasize the importance of reflexivity and praxis when it comes to changing the conditions of social reality that create mental life. Given that subjectivity cannot be limited to intra-psychological processes, critical psychologists attend to relational and structural societal realities, requiring inter- and transdisciplinarity in the discipline and profession.
Environmental Crime in Latin America and Southern Green Criminology
Authors: Rodríguez Goyes David
Published: March 2021

Latin America has been the site of extensive raw material extraction ever since its colonization by Europeans in the late 15th century. Throughout this period, large-scale resource extraction and associated practices—agroindustry, deforestation, disposal of waste and dangerous substances, industrial fishing, mining, and wildlife trafficking—have been the cause of widespread environmental crime and social conflict in Latin America, harming ecosystems and human and nonhuman species. Environmental degradation has simultaneously triggered further crimes such as the establishment of illegal markets and the creation of monopolies that control natural resources. Furthermore, environmental victimization has heightened social conflict in Latin American societies.

Latin American criminologists began paying attention to environmental destruction and socioenvironmental conflicts in Latin America in the 1970s, but anglophone criminologists paid little if any attention to these criminologists for at least four decades. But the recent maturation of Southern green criminology has seen an increased focus of criminological research on environmental crime in Latin America. Latin American criminologists have exposed instances of primary, secondary, and tertiary green crimes in Latin America, and by so doing they have added depth to the formulations of anglophone green criminologists.

Southern green criminology is concerned with the sociocriminological study of environmental crime in the Global South, while being attentive to (a) the legacy of colonization and North–South and core–periphery divides in the production of environmental crime, (b) the epistemological contributions of the marginalized, impoverished, and oppressed, and (c) the particularities of the contexts of the Global South. Southern green criminologists are currently producing innovative academic knowledge about the causes of, consequences of, and potential responses to environmental crime in Latin America.
Synesthesia and Sensory Processing
Authors: Rinaldi Louisa J.
Published: March 2021

Synesthesia is a neurodevelopmental condition that causes 4.4% of the population to experience the world differently. For these individuals certain stimuli (e.g., letters of the alphabet) trigger a secondary experience (e.g., color perception). This process is automatic and remains consistent over time. Tests for measuring synesthesia have successfully built on this principle of synesthetic associations being consistent over time, and using this method a number of studies have investigated the heritability of the condition, cognitive differences that synesthetes have compared with non-synesthetes, and the neurological architecture of synesthete brains. These measures have largely focused on adult synesthetes for whom the condition is already fully developed. Since 2009 researchers have begun to also investigate childhood synesthesia, which has helped to advance our understanding of how this condition emerges. Drawing on both adult and child studies, we can better understand the neurological and cognitive implications of a lifetime of experiencing synesthetic associations.
Central Auditory Processing
Authors: Rauschecker Josef P.
Published: March 2021

When one talks about hearing, some may first imagine the auricle (or external ear), which is the only visible part of the auditory system in humans and other mammals. Its shape and size vary among people, but it does not tell us much about a person’s abilities to hear (except perhaps their ability to localize sounds in space, where the shape of the auricle plays a certain role). Most of what is used for hearing is inside the head, particularly in the brain. The inner ear transforms mechanical vibrations into electrical signals; then the auditory nerve sends these signals into the brainstem, where intricate preprocessing occurs. Although auditory brainstem mechanisms are an important part of central auditory processing, it is the processing taking place in the cerebral cortex (with the thalamus as the mediator), which enables auditory perception and cognition. Human speech and the appreciation of music can hardly be imagined without a complex cortical network of specialized regions, each contributing different aspects of auditory cognitive abilities. During the evolution of these abilities in higher vertebrates, especially birds and mammals, the cortex played a crucial role, so a great deal of what is referred to as central auditory processing happens there. Whether it is the recognition of one’s mother’s voice, listening to Pavarotti singing or Yo-Yo Ma playing the cello, hearing or reading Shakespeare’s sonnets, it will evoke electrical vibrations in the auditory cortex, but it does not end there. Large parts of frontal and parietal cortex receive auditory signals originating in auditory cortex, forming processing streams for auditory object recognition and auditory-motor control, before being channeled into other parts of the brain for comprehension and enjoyment.
Tools of Conviviality: Art in the Postcolonial Imagination
Authors: McCarthy Cameron
Published: March 2021

Key arguments regarding the relationship between postcolonial art and aesthetics and the emancipatory imagination have implications for pedagogical and curriculum reform in the era of globalization. Postcolonial art, aesthetics, and postcolonial imagination are, and invoke paths through and exceeding, dominant traditions of thought in critical thinking on the status of art. These dominant critical traditions have led us to what Cameron McCarthy calls the “forked road” of cultural Marxism and neo-Marxism: the antipopulism of the Frankfurt School and Habermas and their contemporary affiliates versus the populism of the Birmingham School of Cultural Studies and those insisting on the nearly virtuous engagement of the First World working classes with contemporary consumer culture. These approaches have tended, McCarthy maintains, to generate critical apparati that silence the historically specific work of the colonized inhabitants of the Third World and the periphery of the First.

In beckoning curriculum and pedagogical actors in a different direction, toward postcolonial art and aesthetics, McCarthy argues that the work of the postcolonial imagination dynamically engages with systems of domination, authority over knowledge, and representation, destabilizing received traditions of identity, association, and feeling, and offering, in turn, new starting points for affiliation and community that draw on the wellspring of humanity, indigenous and commodified. Key motifs of postcolonial art (literature, performance art, sculpture, and painting) illuminate organizing categories or new aesthetic genres: counter-hegemonic representation, double or triple coding, and utopic and emancipatory visions. These ethically informed dimensions of postcolonial art and aesthetics constitute critical starting points, or tools of conviviality, for a conversation over curriculum change in the tumult of globalization and the reassertion in some quarters of a feral nationalism.
A Re-Examination of Key Curriculum Debates and Directions in South Africa
Authors: Soudien Crain , Chisholm Linda
Published: March 2021

The key issue with which the South African debate around curriculum reform has been concerned, as has been the case in many countries around the world, is what should be at its core. There is agreement in this debate that the curriculum should deal with South Africa’s apartheid legacy of exclusion and that it should prepare young people for the complexity of living in a new modern world order. There is little agreement, however, about what counts as valuable knowledge for meeting these purposes. In the process, as the new curriculum has been developed and revised, multiple schools of thought have emerged. Two, however, have taken clear form: social realism and social constructivism. The former took issue with what they described as post-modern relativism in the new curriculum. The target of their critique was the lost opportunity to affirm the importance of what they called “powerful knowledge.” The new curriculum manifested a susceptibility, in its weak delineation of the boundaries of different disciplines, to the prominence of everyday knowledge. What children needed to learn was powerful knowledge that contained understandings of the deep grammars, restricted codes, and specialist areas of knowledge. In response, constructivists argued, through concepts such as “funds of knowledge,” that South African children inhabited a world of multiple knowledges and that it was important that they were able to valorize the legitimacy of these knowledges, including indigenous forms, in their formal learning experiences. The debate is ongoing and reaches into the heart of policymaking in South Africa.