bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Bending, Breaking and Adhering to Rules of Contemporary Jewish Practice in Finland
Authors: Illman Ruth , Czimbalmos Mercédesz , Pataricza Dóra
Published: November 2022

This article draws on an ongoing research project that seeks to document ethnographically everyday Jewish life in Finland today. Based on the framework of vernacular religion, it approaches religion “as it is lived” (Primiano 1995) and analyses the many expressions and experiences of rules in day-to-day Jewish life as part of complex interactions between individuals, institutions, and religious motivations. Historical data, institutional structures and cultural context are put in dialogue with individual narratives and nuances, described as “self-motivated” ways of “doing” religion.

In this article, we seek to investigate what a vernacular Jewish approach to making, bending, and breaking rules amounts to in a community where increasing diversity and deep-reaching secularity contest and reshape traditional boundaries of belonging. What rules are accepted, adopted and appropriated as necessary or meaningful for being and doing Jewish? Our analysis traces how static values and conceptions of “Jewishness” give way to more flexible subjective positions as our interviewees struggle to find religiously and culturally significant models from the past that can be subjectively appropriated today. Both everyday quandaries and existential questions influence their ways of crafting vernacular religious positions. Focusing on formal and personal rituals related particularly to family life and foodways, the article shows how rules are revisited and refashioned as the traditional boundaries between sacred and secular, gendered practices and ethnic customs, are transgressed and subjective combinations are developed.

Keywords: vernacular Judaism; Jews in Finland; ethnography; religion and rule; kashrut; Jewish family life; Jewish rituals
Forum: Theology and the Anthropology of Christian Life
Authors: Kauppinen Anna-Riikka
Published: November 2022

We are glad to launch a new format of a dialogic book review symposium with Joel Robbins’s (2020) Theology and the Anthropology of Christian Life. With contributions from anthropologist Minna Opas, theologian Mika Vähäkangas, and a response from Robbins, this is the first instalment of dialogic encounters on books that cross disciplinary boundaries. Similar to Robbins’s (2020: 13) notion of ‘transformative dialogue’ between anthropology and theology, this new format takes dialogue to be at the heart of the art and practice of book reviewing. In future instalments, we invite scholars from different disciplines to comment on books written by anthropologists from the point of view of their interdisciplinary transformative potential, including the limits of this potential to be actualized in the present. At the core, we are interested in anthropological concept formation at the interface of fieldwork and other disciplines, and how anthropological concepts have influence beyond anthropological theory. If you have suggestions on books that you would like to propose for a dialogic book review symposium, please get in touch.
Features of the Functioning of Verbs of the Lexico-Semantic Group of Physical Impact on an Object as a Part of Comparative Constructions (by the Material of the Yakut Language)
Authors: Kharabaeva Victoriya Ivanovna
Published: November 2022

The research aims to identify the features of the functioning of verbs of the lexico-semantic group of physical impact on an object as a part of comparative constructions using the material of the Yakut language. Scientific novelty is accounted for by the fact that the study of the functioning of comparative constructions expressed by verbs of various semantic subgroups in Yakut linguistics is a previously unexplored topic. The researcher considers the most common comparative constructions with verbs of the lexico-semantic group of physical impact on an object belonging to the following subgroups: verbs of pressure, touch, changing the position of an object, damaging and striking. As a result of the research, it has been found that comparisons with verb forms are used mainly when describing a person’s mental state. Verb forms are also often used to compare a person’s appearance and objects of the environment with any action, contribute to a vivid and colourful depiction of reality.
Critical Reception of Mass Culture in the Creative Work of K. I. Chukovsky and the English Literary Tradition
Authors: Bakhnova Yuliya Anatolievna
Published: November 2022

The research aims to try to assess the influence of the English literary tradition on the formation of the author’s concept of mass culture in Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky’s critical works. The paper considers the origins of the writer’s interest in mass culture phenomena, examines critical works devoted to various aspects of this phenomenon in England and Russia and development of this topic in the Russian literary and critical thought. While working as a special correspondent in England, K. I. Chukovsky gets acquainted with publications analysing trends in the field of mass culture. The writer explores various aspects of this phenomenon and continues to develop this topic upon returning to Russia. Scientific novelty of the paper is accounted for by the lack of research on this topic, since despite the fact that trends in the field of mass culture were a leading motif of many articles and books written by Korney Ivanovich, the influence of the English literary tradition on the formation of the writer as a critic has not yet been an object of independent study. The research findings have shown that Russia and England became two singular complementary spheres that offered a model of creativity that was relevant for the writer, since thanks to his work as a correspondent in England, K. I. Chukovsky found original topics and unconventional ways to share them with his readers.
Vienna of the First Half of the XIX Century through the Eyes of Travelling Narrators
Authors: Loshakova Galina Alexandrovna , Smirnova Lyudmila Evgenievna
Published: November 2022

The study aims to discover the similarities and differences in the perception of Vienna by travelling narrators in travelogues by Adalbert Stifter, Charles Sealsfield, Heinrich Laube dedicated to the metropolitan city of Vienna. There are a huge number of works dedicated to Vienna, the capital of Austria, a metropolitan city, one of the centers of culture. The works of the selected authors form the tradition of the “urban Viennese text”. Many basic topoi are formed in the discourse. Among the authors are the mentioned writers of the Restoration period in Germany and Austria. They present the travelling narrators who first arrived in the capital to the reader in their travelogues. The study is novel in that it is the first to include German-speaking authors who differ significantly in their individual styles in one literary series. The factor of the writers belonging to the same historical epoch, Restoration, and to the same Biedermeier literary school was chosen as the basis for the inclusion. It is the first time that the attention of literary researchers has been drawn to the literary specifics of Heinrich Laube’s “Travel Novellas” (1847). The results of a literary overview of the travelogues have shown that there is a significant difference in the narrators’ perception of Vienna. A. Stifter’s narrator notices the hustle and bustle. St. Stephen’s Cathedral is tragically interpreted by him as a symbol of death. Ch. Sealsfield’s Vienna is a city of imperial absolutism. H. Laube brings the reader back to the traditional idea of Vienna as a city of levity and fun. The iconic figure of Metternich evokes respect from the narrator.
Ideas about Fish in the Traditional Culture of the Forest Yukaghir (by the Materials of Language, Ethnography and Folklore)
Authors: Prokopeva Praskovya Egorovna
Published: November 2022

The study aims to describe the traditional ideas of the Forest Yukaghir about fish based on the materials of language, ethnography and folklore. Scientific novelty lies in the systematisation of these data, introduction of new information on the ethnography and folklore of the Yukaghir into scientific use. As a result of the study, it has been shown that linguistic and ethnographic materials on the Forest Yukaghir indicate the great importance of fishing in their life. In the non-fairytale and fairytale prose of the Yukagir related to the ichthyofauna, mythological representations associated with the theme of birth are found, the reasons for the acquisition of certain features by fish are explained, folklore and mythological characteristics of individual fish are given; in small genres of folklore, there is an indication of the images of fish in fairy tales, a comparison based on an external feature; in song folklore reflecting the worldview and way of life of fishermen, fish are a marker of ancestral territories, a symbol of natural abundance.
Structural Classification of Parallel Fragments of Du Fu’s Poem “Lament on the Defeat at Chen Tao”
Authors: Skvortsov Arseny Vladimirovich
Published: November 2022

The aim of the study is to provide a structural classification of parallel fragments of Du Fu’s poem “Lament on the Defeat at Chen Tao”. Scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that a parallelism analysis of this poem based on an immediate constituents analysis of its lines has not been carried out before. As a result of the study, it has been shown that the work under consideration contains parallel fragments characterised by vertical and horizontal symmetry. These types of symmetry complement each other without any predominance of one over the other. Two fragments parallel in the horizontal direction have global symmetry, whereas all fragments characterised by vertical symmetry are local, being on one side of the caesura. Parallel fragments make up 69.6% of the total number of characters in the poem. As for figurative and expressive means, parallelism dominates, being complemented by four epithets.
Functioning of the Song about the Motherland “Transvaal” in Children’s Literature of the Soviet Period (1927-1987)
Authors: Krayushkina Tatiana Vladimirovna
Published: November 2022

The research aims to identify the specifics of the functioning of the song “Transvaal” in children’s literature of the Soviet period. The research is novel in that it is the first to consider the functioning of “Transvaal”, using the material of children’s prose, and its interaction with other intertextual components. The paper studies the features of the inclusion of “Transvaal” in the text, examines the influence of the song on the formation of the system of motifs and images and the plot, sheds light on the interaction of “Transvaal” with other intertextual components. The allusion “Transvaal” is presented in L. I. Dobychin’s short story “Leshka” realised in an instrumental performance, while paraphrasing functions in L. A. Kassil’s short story “Transbalt”; the song is connected with the emotional state of the characters in both works. As for N. V. Verzakov’s novella “Hot bullet, fly”, “Transvaal” serves to create the character’s image and is an element of the cultural field. As a result, the researcher has determined the influence of the system of motifs and images and the plot of the song on the formation of the said system and the plot in the analysed prose, the creation of a special emotional plan. It has been proved that “Transvaal” is actively used by the writers in depiction of authentic contexts - historical, cultural, social.
Karkey Nerbyshev’s Journal in the Context of Studying the Writer’s Personality
Authors: Cheltygmasheva Larisa Viktorovna , Chochieva Alyona Sergeevna
Published: November 2022

The purpose of the study is to identify the personality traits and creative appearance of the famous Khakass writer and journalist Nikolai (Karkey) Trofimovich Nerbyshev using the materials of the writer’s unpublished journal. The paper describes the content of the journal, which recorded the events that took place in the writer’s life from 1976 to 1984. Scientific novelty lies in introducing into scientific use Karkey Nerbyshev’s journal, stored in the manuscript collection of the Khakass Research Institute for Language, Literature, and History in folder No. 2245, as a most valuable source of research on his personality. As a result, it has been proved that Karkey Nerbyshev’s journal is an important material not only for obtaining new information about the writer’s life and creative work but also for studying his personal qualities, value system, views, as well as his assessment of the creative work of 1980s Khakass writers.
Simple Verbs in the Ossetian and Persian Languages in a Comparative-Contrastive Aspect
Authors: Kudzoeva Anjela Fedorovna , Changizi Ehsan , Abdollahi Musa
Published: November 2022

The aim of the research is to identify common and unique features of simple verbs in the modern Ossetian and Persian languages. Scientific novelty lies in taking a comprehensive approach to studying the issue: the peculiarities and common features of verb stems, infinitive forms, formation of causative forms, structural and word-formation types of simple verbs in the Ossetian and Persian languages are described. As a result, it has been proved that regular and irregular verbs in the Ossetian and Persian languages have more similarities than differences. Thus, Persian regular verbs form the past tense stem by attaching the suffix -d or -id to the present tense stem, while similar stems in the Ossetian language have the suffix -t or -d; irregular verbs are characterised by the same number of vowel or consonant alternations in the present and past tense stems. It has been found that the Ossetian simple verb does not have a structural and word-formation type equivalent to Persian similar-to-regular verbs. It has turned out that preverbs in the Ossetian language are combined not only with verbs of action and movement and possess aspectual and deictic meanings in addition to spatial meanings.
Memoirs as a Speech Genre of Autobiographical Prose (by the Material of the German Language)
Authors: Subbotenko Svetlana Sergeevna
Published: November 2022

The aim of the study is to determine the communicative functions of the speech genre “memoirs” and analyse their implementation at the intra-textual and textual levels. The work is carried out within the framework of the genre-stylistic theory of the text. The typological difference between memoirs and other genres of autobiographical prose is considered. The stylistic characteristics and types of memoirs are analysed. The classification is based on the personality of the author of memoirs, which affects the degree of literary treatment of the text. Particular attention is paid to the communicative functions of this speech genre that underlie the intra-textual and grammatical-syntactic characteristics of the speech genre. Scientific novelty lies in determining the variable specificity of the structure and intra-textual logical-speech connection (a variety of compositional-speech forms), which has an organising significance for the grammatical-syntactic design of the speech genre “memoirs”. As a result, it has been found that there is a trend towards the predominance of evaluative and analytical communicative functions in the speech genre “memoirs”, which manifests itself in the dominant role of logical-speech connections organising the speech genre through the varieties of the compositional-speech forms “description” and “reasoning”.
Dialexemes in the Mirror of Translation (by the Example of the English and Russian Languages)
Authors: Aleksandrova Elena Sergeevna , Sytina Nadezhda Aleksandrovna
Published: November 2022

The paper deals with a category of words (dialexemes) that represents a difficulty in translating as they may generate a false association in the native language, resulting in translation mistakes. The paper determines the types of dialexemes in English news reports and the methods of their translation into Russian. The aim of the research is to identify translation specificities of dialexemes. Scientific novelty lies in the fact that the study of 95 dialexemes revealed that 60 lexical units were completely false (different in semantics from a Russian incorrect translation), 35 words were partially false (phonetically, graphically and semantically identical to a Russian word in one of its meanings); the main methods of translating dialexemes were analysed. The research findings have shown that the most frequently used method of translating dialexemes into Russian is the choice of equivalent due to the polysemy of most English words. Nevertheless, when the equivalent does not fully reflect the meaning of the original word in the specific context, a number of translation transformations (analogue selection, grammatical replacement, omission, addition, specialisation, generalisation, and modulation) are used.
Functioning of Toponyms in Modern English-Language Discourse
Authors: Kondrashova Vera Niсkolaevna , Shustrova Elena Nickolaevna
Published: November 2022

The aim of the study is to identify the characteristic features of the use of toponyms in various types of speech acts in modern English-language discourse in order to determine their interactive functions in speech communication. Scientific novelty of the work lies in identifying the communicative and interactive characteristics of statements containing toponyms. As a result, it has been found that toponyms are mainly used in response statements expressing disagreement, refusal, negative reaction. The most characteristic is the use of toponyms in response to information, which is expressed in three types of comments: evaluative, emotionally evaluative and expressively figurative. Toponyms are widely used in the combined speech acts of complaint, reproach, threat. It has been determined that macrotoponyms and toponyms of other countries often convey a negative assessment, expressing the culturological opposition “us - them”. To convey a neutral or positive assessment, toponyms of one’s own country are usually used. Toponyms have a great stylistic potential and are used by communicants in comparisons, hyperboles, metaphors, precedent statements, allusions.
Genre Diversity of Ural Speculative Fiction of the Early XX Century
Authors: Khoruzhenko Tatiana Igorevna
Published: November 2022

The aim of the study is to identify the genre varieties of science fiction that developed in Russian regional literature in the early XX century. The paper examines the texts of Ural writers: “The Thunderstorm of the World” by I. Ryapasov, “On Another Planet” by P. Infantiev and “The Ethereal Vortex” by N. Novikov; analyses the genre varieties to which the published texts belong. The paper argues that three genre varieties developed in Russian literature at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries (adventurous speculative fiction, scientema and adventurous-philosophical speculative fiction), later combined into the term “science fiction”. Examples of scientema can be found in I. Ryapasov’s and N. Novikov’s works, at the same time, P. Infantiev’s novel can be attributed to adventurous-philosophical speculative fiction, since it explores the idea of contact with the Other. Scientific originality of the study lies in carrying out a genre analysis of the works by Ural science fiction writers published from 1901 to 1914, which has not been carried out before. As a result, it has been proved that one can find examples of all genre varieties of “science fiction” in early XX century Russian literature, two of which are represented in the creative work of regional authors. At the same time, the paper concludes that the romantic traditions of speculative fiction also had a significant impact on the development of speculative fiction at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries.
THE ILLUSION OF WELL-BEING IN THE TRIPOLAR WORLD
Authors:   University of Craiova, Doctoral School of Sciences, Field of Geography, 13st, Alexandru Ioan Cuza St., 200585, Craiova, Romania, DIACONESCU Luca
Published: November 2022

The US set the tone for modern development with ingenious tactics whereby the economy produces little and grows much, dominating the world market worker. Now, the European Union giving up industry, is trying to copy its strategy, but with a delay that can endanger the entire European Union, while China remains with the old strategy held by : Germany, the USSR or Japan in the past, of industrialization and production in mass for domestic and foreign markets. The three areas hold more than 20 trillion US dollars, being the mega-powers of the current world, while the rest of the states, with three exceptions (Japan 5 trillion, Great Britain and India each 3 trillion) have values below 2.5 trillion : Brazil, Russia, Canada, Australia and so on.
Filling the Gap of the Dublin System: A Soft Cosmopolitan Approach
Authors: Cellini Marco
Published: November 2022

This paper analyses the European legislation on asylum, the so-called ‘Dublin System’, finding three main issues affecting it a) the allocation of refugees between member states; b) the differences between member states in the treatment of asylum seekers and asylum applications; and c) the differences in the rights granted to the refugee status across member states. In addition, it examines the European Agenda on Migration that represents the official response of the EU to the present crisis. In the last section, it presents some proposal aimed to improve the European managing of refugees and asylum seekers. Following a moderated cosmopolitan approach, I propose the establishment of a limited citizenship for refugees that might be thought as a temporary citizenship conditioned to the possession of the refugee status. At this particular citizenship, one may apply different rights, but to face the issues encountered, it may be sufficient to connect to it only the freedom of movement and residence throughout the EU. I argue that such a policy would have a number of advantages and could at least partially solve the issues currently present in the European asylum policy.
Far Beyond the Treaties’ Clauses: The European Parliaments’ Gain in Power, 1952-1979
Authors: Roos Mechthild
Published: November 2022

The European Parliament (EP) can be considered the boldest advocate for ever more European integration. Its members (MEPs) have been pushing for broad Community competences in economic, social and financial policy matters from the EP’s first years of existence – a time in which member states struggled to agree on mere political rapprochement in major parts of the above-mentioned areas, and also a time in which the EP had, according to the Communities’ founding treaties, few parliamentary powers. This paper aims to show that despite the minor role assigned to it by the treaties, the EP developed into a de facto co-legislator long before the Single European Act (SEA), the Treaties of Maastricht and Amsterdam, being able to amend Council regulations and directives, and exercising a certain level of control not only over the Commission, but also the Council through non-binding instruments such as questions, which both institutions regularly answered. Different strategies will be assessed through which the MEPs aimed to gain more parliamentary power. Based on these analyses, the paper seeks to refute dominant theories of the EP as a fairly powerless talking shop prior to its first direct elections in 1979, demonstrating that treaty basis and political reality differed remarkably.
The Bureaucratic Growth of the European Union
Authors: Pegan Andreja
Published: November 2022

This article explores supranational activism on the example of bureaucratic growth in the institutions of the EU - operationalised as the number of staff members. The main question is to what extent are the numbers of staff employed in the EU institutions and bodies dependent on member states and their decisions to increase the functions of the EU through either treaty changes or the ratifications of accession treaties. To answer this question, two hypotheses are tested based on time-series data collected from the EC/EU annual budgets (1959-2016). The first hypothesis predicts an incremental growth of staff in EU institutions and bodies. The second hypothesis tests whether member states decisions to reform treaties and ratify accession treaties affect the number of staff members in EU institutions and bodies. Results show that the growth of EU staff has not been gradual and that decisions which are under the control of member states partially impact the growth of EU staff. Decisions and willingness of member states as well as EU institutions are needed to affect the number of staff members in the EU.
Beyond mere ‘consultation’: Expanding the European Committee of the Regions’ role
Authors: Schönlau Justus
Published: November 2022

The Committee of the Regions is commonly seen as a ‘minor’ part of the EU’s policy-making system, but its institutional development and action offer interesting examples of the strategies used to actively expand the body’s role. By tracing how the CoR is developing its institutional capacity, pushing the boundaries of its consultative mandate and deploying activities beyond its formal role, the article illustrates the institutional activism which characterizes much of the development of the EU institutional structure.
Review "Cathleen Kantner’s War and intervention in the Transnational Public Sphere: Problem-Solving and European Identity Formation"
Authors: Dawson Grant Malcolm
Published: November 2022

This MS is a short review (949 words) of the above noted book.
Current Challenges for the Implementation of Constitutional Reform on Judiciary in Ukraine on its Way towards European Integration
Authors: Mykhailiuk Galyna
Published: November 2022

The reform of the judiciary is a key conditionality imposed by the EU, IMF and other donors to Ukraine (UA). Significant reforms of the judicial system approved by the Parliament on 2 June 2016 should gradually take effect over the coming months and years. A new Supreme Court, a strengthened system of evaluation, monitoring and appointing judges should come into being. It is the first Supreme Court selection of such scale in history. Never before had there been any competition for the UA Supreme Court. Judges, lawyers and academics were able to compete. Video streaming has been available at all testing stages, with the exception of the psychological test. On paper the independence of the judiciary should be strengthened. How far UA authorities in fact do so will depend on further actions, including the adoption of additional legislation. While the onus is on them to make these reforms work, the EU and the rest of the international community will also need to make an input sometimes on the basis of close observation of the process by taking targeted action to ensure that the reforms move in the right direction.
Activities of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) during the Georgian-Abkhaz Conflict in the 1990s
Authors: Jürgenson Aivar
Published: November 2022

The article deals with the activities of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) in mediating the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict both during the war (1992–1993) and after it in the 1990s. These activities of UNPO were mainly coordinated from the Estonian city of Tartu, where the UNPO Tartu Coordination Office was located. The task of the Office was to organize the work of the UNPO on the territory of the former Soviet Union. Many of the regional meetings of the UNPO, which discussed the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, took place in different Estonian cities in the 1990s. The article analyses also the UNPO’s missions in the conflict area. The documents of the UNPO Tartu Coordination Office, which are compiled in Tartu, were used as the main sources.
Mark Antony’s Funeral Speech in Terms of Aristotle’s Rhetorical Devices & Persuasive Modes in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: A Stylistic Study
Authors: Aziz Fatima
Published: November 2022

Abstract

   This article concentrates on the skills of making the political as well as the social speech of Mark Antony at the funeral of Julius Caesar. Antony was one of the Roman strong leaders who had a strong personality in his own right. Thus, he manifested his ability of oration as a noble man to persuade, then, to manage the madding crowd about the righteous of his political and social steps. Mark Antony had shown this ability by the use of certain persuasive strategies and techniques such as Repetition, Rhetorical questions, Alliteration, Irony, Metaphor, Hyperbole and Diction. However, his use of persuasion   differ dramatically throughout his speech, i.e. the contrast between the beginning stage of his speech and its end, is much the same as the distinction between the base of a mountain and its summit. The elegance of this speech is that Antony achieve his goal and made people perceived him without turning out and communicating it. The results show that, he uses the same techniques as being more persuasive techniques than others such as Alliteration, Rhetorical Questions, Repetition, Irony, Metaphor, Hyperbole and Diction. It can be said that persuasion is a social and a political situation based.
PENGARUH MEDIA SOSIAL TERHADAP PERUBAHAN SOSIAL MASYARAKAT DI INDONESIA
Authors: Pesik Anggreiny Veronika
Published: November 2022

Perkembangan teknologi merupakan perbedaan kepada masyarakat. Lahirnya media pola perilaku kekuatan sosial media masyarakat berubah budaya, etika dan norma yang baik ada indonesia dalam angka populasi besar yang berbeda budaya, suku ,ras, agama berbagai kemungkinan perubahan sosial.dari berbagai hampir semua kalangan dan kelompok umur orang indonesia menggunakan media sosial sebagai mendapatkan salah satu dana dan menyebarluaskan informasi kepada masyarakat. Media sosial adalah media daring, pengguna dapat dengan mudah bergabung, berbagi, dll. Membuat konten untuk blog, jaringan ,dll. Jejaring sosial, forum, dunia maya.mrupakan salah satu bentuk media sosial, paling sering digunakan masyarakat di seluruh dunia.
Statistical learning across passive listening adjusts perceptual weights of speech input dimensions
Authors: Hodson Alana J. , Shinn-Cunningham Barbara , Holt Lori L.
Published: November 2022

Statistical learning across passive exposure has been theoretically situated with unsupervised learning. However, when input statistics accumulate over established representations – like speech syllables, for example -- there is the possibility that prediction derived from activation of rich, existing representations may support error-driven learning. Here, across five experiments, we present evidence for error-driven learning across passive speech listening. Young adults passively listened to a string of eight beer - pier speech tokens with distributional regularities following either a canonical American-English acoustic dimension correlation or a correlation reversed to create an accent. A sequence-final test stimulus assayed the perceptual weight – the effectiveness – of the secondary dimension in signaling category membership as a function of preceding sequence regularities. Perceptual weight flexibly adjusted according to the passively-experienced regularities even when the preceding regularities shifted on a trial-by-trial basis. The findings align with a theoretical view that activation of established internal representations can support learning across statistical regularities via error-driven learning. At the broadest level, this suggests that not all statistical learning need be unsupervised. Moreover, these findings help to account for how cognitive systems may accommodate competing demands for flexibility and stability: instead of overwriting existing representations when short-term input distributions depart from the norms, the mapping from input to category representations may be dynamically – and rapidly – adjusted via error-driven learning from predictions derived from internal representations.
How Flexible is Cognitive Control? (Mouse)Tracking Conflict Adaptation Across Context Similarities
Authors: Potamianou Hera , Bryce Donna
Published: November 2022

Exerting cognitive control to remain on-task and reach our goals is a crucial skill, as is the ability to flexibly adapt our responding in rapidly changing environments. The dynamics of cognitive control are typically studied by examining how participants process stimuli that contain competing relevant and irrelevant information in so-called conflict tasks. Adjustments in performance following the experience of conflict, also termed conflict adaptation, suggests a certain degree of flexibility in the deployment of cognitive control. The present study investigated to what extent conflict adaptation effects transfer across trials of the same and different tasks in three online mouse-tracking experiments. Adaptations of the Simon and Stroop tasks were combined to create different levels of context similarity between the paired tasks. Based on a previous literature review (Braem et al. 2014, Frontiers in Psychology), across-task conflict adaptation was expected only in the most and least similar contexts. In contrast to our hypothesis, conflict adaptation effects were observed in at least one measure in all three experiments. To our surprise, task order also seemed to impact the size of across-task conflict adaptation effects. The heterogeneity in the current results highlight the importance of applying sensitive measurement tools to evaluate conflict adaptation and suggest that the occurrence of across-task conflict adaptation may be conditional on more than just shared relevant and irrelevant dimensions.
Behavioral Markers of Psychotic Disorders: Using Artificial Intelligence to Detect Nonverbal Expressions in Video
Authors: Martin Elizabeth A , Lian Wenxuan , Oltmanns Joshua R. , Jonas Katherine , Samaras Dimitris , Hallquist Michael , Ruggero Camilo , Clouston Sean , Kotov Roman
Published: November 2022

Emotional deficits in psychosis are prevalent and difficult to treat. In particular, much remains unknown about facial expression abnormalities, and a key reason is that expressions are very labor-intensive to code. Artificial intelligence measures of non-verbal expressions (nveAI) can remove this barrier. The current study sought to increase understanding of facial expression abnormalities in psychotic disorders by using nveAI. Changes of facial expressions and head position of participants—39 with schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder (SZ), 46 with other psychotic disorders (OP), and 108 never psychotic individuals (NP)—were assessed via FaceReader, a commercially available automated facial expression analysis software, using video recorded during a clinical interview. We first examined the behavioral markers of the psychotic disorder groups and tested if they can discriminate between the groups. Next, we evaluated links of behavioral markers with clinical features (symptoms, functioning, and physical performance) controlling for group membership. We found the SZ group was characterized by significantly less variation in neutral expressions, happy expressions, arousal, and head orientation compared to NP. These markers discriminated SZ from NP well (AUC=.79, sensitivity=.79, specificity=.67) but discriminated SZ from OP less well (AUC=.66, sensitivity=.77, specificity=.46). We also found significant correlations between clinical features and all behavioral markers (particularly happy expressions, arousal, and head orientation), except disgust. Taken together, these results suggest that nveAI can provide useful behavioral markers of psychosis, which could improve research on non-verbal expressions in psychosis and, ultimately, enhance treatment.
No reliable effect of task-irrelevant cross-modal statistical regularities on distractor suppression
Authors: Jagini Kishore Kumar , Sunny Meera
Published: November 2022

Our sensory systems are known to extract and utilize statistical regularities in sensory inputs across space and time for efficient perceptual processing. Past research has shown that participants can utilize statistical regularities of target and distractor stimuli independently within a modality either to enhance the target or to suppress the distractor processing. Utilizing statistical regularities of task-irrelevant stimuli across different modalities also enhances target processing. However, it is not known whether distractor processing can also be suppressed by utilizing statistical regularities of task-irrelevant stimulus of different modalities. In the present study, we investigated whether the spatial (Experiment 1) and non-spatial (Experiment 2) statistical regularities of task-irrelevant auditory stimulus could suppress the salient visual distractor. We used an additional singleton visual search task with two high-probability colour singleton distractor locations. Critically, the spatial location of the high-probability distractor was either predictive (valid trials) or unpredictive (invalid trials) based on the statistical regularities of the task-irrelevant auditory stimulus. The results replicated earlier findings of distractor suppression at high-probability locations compared to the locations where distractors appear with lower probability. However, the results did not show any RT advantage for valid distractor location trials as compared with invalid distractor location trials in both experiments. When tested on whether participants can express awareness of the relationship between specific auditory stimulus and the distractor location, they showed explicit awareness only in Experiment 1. However, an exploratory analysis suggested a possibility of response biases at the awareness testing phase of Experiment 1. Overall, results indicate that irrespective of awareness of the relationship between auditory stimulus and distractor location regularities, there was no reliable influence of task-irrelevant auditory stimulus regularities on distractor suppression.
A novel image database for social concepts reveals preference biases in autistic spectrum in adults and children
Authors: Soto David , Salazar Amaia , Elosegi Patxi , Walter Antje , Rodríguez-Armendariz Ekaine , Petrolini Valentina , Vicente Agustín
Published: November 2022

Human beings display the extraordinary ability of grasping and communicating abstract concepts. Yet, no standardised instruments exist to assess this ability. Developing these tools is paramount for understanding abstract representations such as social concepts, with ramifications in educational and clinical settings. Here, we developed an image database depicting abstract social concepts varying in social desirability. We first validated the image database in a sample of neurotypical participants. Then, we applied the database to test different hypothesis regarding how social concepts are represented across samples of adults and children with autism spectrum condition (ASC). Relative to the neurotypicals, we did not observe differences related to ASC in identification performance of the social desirability of the concepts, nor differences in metacognitive ability. However, we observed a preference bias away from prosocial concepts that was linked to individual autistic traits in the neurotypicals, and higher in ASC relative to the neurotypicals both in adults and children. These results indicate that abstract representations such as social concepts are dependent on individual neurodevelopmental traits. The newly developed image database thus provides a standardised assessment tool for investigating the representation of abstract social concepts in the fields of psycholinguistics, neuropsychology, neuropsychiatry and cognitive neuroscience, across different cultures and languages.
Fintech, Data, Innovation and Privacy in Hong Kong
Authors: Skoric Marko M. , TSE Chun Hong , Kasadha Juma , Jeremy Pui
Published: November 2022

Through a combination of semi-structured expert interviews, desk research, attendance and records of fintech talks and seminars, and a survey of 1170 Hong Kong residents, this reports provides key insights on data protections, innovations and perceptions particularly in the domain of fintech in Hong Kong.
"Just Questions": Grievance articulation among anti-trans organizations on Twitter
Authors: Kychenthal Skye
Published: November 2022

Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism (TERF) or Gender Criticial (GC) feminism is an anti-trans hate movement using the guise of radical feminism. It focuses on support of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Heterosexual individuals (particularly women) meanwhile actively excluding trans individuals and specifically trans-feminine individuals. Trans individuals have been defined as a sort of boogie-man within TERF and GC ideology, as is the case with other prominent anti-trans groups, and is the target of wide-spread delegitimization efforts. This article hopes to add to existing literature on the topic, by exploring the main grievances articulated by Gender Critical communities. Through gathering the Twitter posts of three prominent TERF and Gender Critical accounts from Twitter’s API, and subsequent analysis using LDA (Latent Dirichlet allocation), I will test the hypothesis that TERFs and Gender Critical individuals online are radicalized and further polarized through a few key thoughts and ideas (focus on reactions of disgust, fear, and anger; a false belief of GCs being silenced, a perception of a pervasiveness of trans women in societies institutions), and that these subsequent ideas are used to delegitimize trans individuals.
Assessment of Sexual Dimorphism in Mandibular Ramus: An Orthopanoramic Study
Authors: Koju S. , Maharjan N. , Rajak R. R. K. , Yadav D. K. , Bajracharya D. , Ojha B.
Published: November 2022

Background Mandible is the largest and strongest bone of the face, is very durable, and hence remains well preserved than many other bones. In cases of mass disasters where an intact skull is not found, the mandible may play a vital role in sex determination as it is the most dimorphic bone of the skull. Morphometric analysis of mandibular ramus provides highly accurate data to discriminate sex. This can be accomplished by the use of panoramic radiography which is widely available and is used routinely to assess the mandibular structures.

Objective To evaluate and compare the various parameters of the mandibular ramus and to determine the usefulness of the mandibular ramus as an aid in sex determination.

Method Orthopantomograms of 140 samples (70 males and 70 females) were collected from the archives and traced manually on matte acetate tracing paper. Various parameters of mandibular ramus were measured on the right and left sides. The obtained measurements were subjected to discriminant function analysis.

Result Mandibular measurements on the right side were greater than on the left side. However, only the ramus breath (minimum and maximum) and projective height of ramus were statistically significant (p < 0.05). All the measurements were higher for males than females. F-statistic values indicated that the highest sexual dimorphism was seen with the projective height of ramus and least with minimum ramus breath.

Conclusion Mandibular ramus measurements can be a useful tool for gender determination and can be an essential tool in forensic science especially when there is damaged or partially preserved mandibles and may be helpful for medico-legal purpose in Nepal.
Capability Level Analysis of IT Governance Using COBIT 5 on Continuity and Availability Of Services (Case Study: LMS Spada Wimaya)
Authors: Putri Dyah Anggraini Kartika , Juwairiah Juwairiah , Kodong Frans Richard
Published: November 2022

Purpose: This study aims to assess the capability level to determine the condition of the capability level as-is, to-be, gap analysis and provide recommendations for improving IT governance in the continuity and availability process of LMS Spada Wimaya service. Design/methodology/approach: The capability level assessment refers to the COBIT 5 Process Assessment Model (PAM) assessment criteria with the research stages adopting the COBIT 5 Assessment Process Activities. Findings/result: Based on the urgency and problems that occur in LMS Spada Wimaya related to the continuity of service availability, the appropriate COBIT 5 enterprise goals are chosen, namely Business Service Continuity and Availability which describes in achieving the vision and mission goals of UPN "Veteran" Yogyakarta related to the procurement of LMS Spada Wimaya. The process of mapping results is prioritized based on impact and importance. The results of the assessment of the current capability level (as-is) in the BAI06, DSS03, DSS05, and MEA01 processes are at level 2 with the expected target capability level (to-be) at level 3 with a gap level of 1. DSS01, DSS02, and DSS04 are at level 1 with a target capability level (to-be) expected at level 3 with a gap level of 2. output criteria, setting performance goals and targets, making Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), conducting performance assessments to ensure compliance. Originality/value/state of the art: This study has the same focus as previous research, which is measuring the ability of the IT governance level with the criteria for the COBIT 5 Model Assessment Criteria (PAM), but is implemented in a different case study and the focus of the process is in accordance with the results of mapping the alignment of organizational goals with COBIT 5 IT goals according to urgency and problems that describe in achieving the vision and mission of the object of research.
IMPROVEMENT OF HANDWRITING JAVASCRAFT IMAGE QUALITY AND SEGMENTATION WITH CLOSING MORPHOLOGY AND ADAPTIVE THRESHOLDING METHODS
Authors: Riyandi Arif , 'Uyun Shofwatul
Published: November 2022

Tujuan: Perbaikan kualitas citra yang putus-putus atau terlalu tipis pada aksara jawa tulisan tangan menggunakan operasi morfologi dan mengumpulkan dataset secara otomatis dari proses cropping dengan metode Connected Component Labeling.Perancangan/metode/pendekatan: Menerapkan metode operasi morfologi dalam perbaikan citra putus-putus dan metode connected component labeling untuk membantu cropping dalam mengumpulkan dataset secara otomatis.Hasil: Hasil uji coba dengan beberapa kernel yang berbeda antara operasi morfologi opening dan operasi morfologi closing terpilih operasi morfologi closing dengan kernel (45,45) pada bagian dilasi dan kernel (37,37) pada bagian erosi. Hasil dari segmentasi yang terpilih lanjut ke cropping dengan bantuan metode connected component labeling dan klasifikasi convolutional neural network yang diterapkan untuk mengklasifikasi citra aksara jawa dengan baik. Akurasi yang diperoleh adalah sebesar 94,27 % pada proses klasifikasi menggunakan data training dan akurasi 84,53% pada proses klasifikasi menggunakan data validasi.Keaslian/ state of the art: Pengujian dari operasi morfologi opening dan operasi morfologi closing dengan masing-masing 6 kernel berbeda pada proses segmentasi citra aksara jawa untuk perbaikan kualitas citra. Pengumpulan dataset secara otomatis dari hasil cropping citra dengan bantuan metode connected component labeling dan hasil dataset yang terkumpul diklasifikasi untuk masing-masing citra aksara jawa.