bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Past, Present, and Future: Perspectives on the Development of an Indigenous Science Communication Agenda in Nigeria
Authors: Sesan Temilade , Ibiyemi Ayodele
Published: January 2024

As African countries race to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, policy makers and governments have realised the need to design new policies that cater to the immediate and future needs of their citizenry. Many of these policies, though well intentioned, have largely ignored homegrown science communication; yet science itself is not inclusive or effective without a decisive agenda that is appropriate for local contexts. This chapter examines the state of science communication in Nigeria and offers perspectives on the development of a locally relevant science communication agenda. Critical points in the development of the science, technology, and innovation agenda in Nigeria and, indeed, Africa, correspond to the occurrence of major shifts in history. The wave of pan-Africanism that swept through the continent in the period leading to independence and the period immediately after it inspired a new wave of Afrocentric policies that seemed set to put science and, by extension, science communication on a transformative path unencumbered by the age-long tendency to refract African scientific endeavour through European lenses. This chapter provides an overview of past and present developments on the Nigerian scene with regard to the casting of a national vision for science communication and highlights opportunities for deepening inclusion and relevance towards the goal of building a transformative national science communication agenda for the future.
Indigenous Science Discourse in the Mainstream: The Case of ‘Mātauranga and Science’ in New Zealand Science Review
Authors: Mercier Ocean Ripeka , Jackson Anne-Marie
Published: January 2024

Over two decades, researchers and scientists in Aotearoa New Zealand seeking public funding for their work have been invited to situate their research in relation to Vision Mātauranga (VM) policy. VM recognises that ‘Māori success is New Zealand’s success’, and the policy has been an important driver in indigenising the Aotearoa New Zealand research sector. Sector-wide moves to acknowledge dual knowledge systems mean that researchers are increasingly called upon to communicate science in ways that reference or make space for mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge), but the capacity to do this in the non-Māori science community is uneven. In 2018, the editor of New Zealand Science Review, a peer-reviewed journal of the New Zealand Association of Scientists, sought to address ‘an acknowledged void in the understanding of many in the present research community’ regarding mātauranga Māori and VM policy. Subsequently, between 2019 and 2020, the co-authors worked with New Zealand Science Review to guest edit two special issues, entitled ‘Mātauranga and Science in Practice’. The work of 100 contributors, mostly Māori, across 15 original contributions was published online and print copies widely distributed. Topics spanned multiple disciplines, reflecting the variety and depth of Māori-led research. We sought ways to undo Eurocentric legacies in research publishing through various aspects of our editorial process. This contribution describes this, shining light on how we experienced communication of Indigenous science in this forum but also analysing our process within a new ‘kaupapa Māori knowledge governance framework’. We highlight ongoing European dominance and identify barriers to the epistemic liberation of Māori knowledge in science communication. We simultaneously celebrate Māori advancement in science on the path towards equitable and innovative transformation. We suggest that broader recognition of mātauranga and Indigenous knowledges as governed knowledge systems will militate against token and extractive approaches within science communication.
Falling from Normalcy? Decolonisation of Museums, Science Centres, and Science Communication
Authors: Belhorma Mohamed
Published: January 2024

Communication plays a critical role in the hegemonic gaze upon colonised cultures in museums. This chapter aims to present some of the Eurocentric narratives within science communication and cultural interpretation through the lens of normalcy and normative gaze. The chapter will highlight salient theories that explain this sense of normalcy that lulls science communicators into being comfortable with the absence of Indigenous epistemological content in displays or interpretations. This normalcy has been created in part by the cultural imperialism of colonisation. The constant application of latent dominance created a new normal that conveys the superiority of the coloniser. It also entails a sense of estrangement from such normalcy by the very groups that are excluded through its wholesale application – alienation in the cultural context such as isolation from any positive learning, not being a reference, and very often being the embodiment of everything that opposes normalcy. The colonised lack access to their heritage and receive the narrative of their own heritage from a coloniser’s point of view. The decolonial process of detaching science communication from dominant normativity has been made challenging by its very nature – normativity as established by cultural imperialism and defined as comfortable and unquestioned (Wekker, 2016). Often, it is accompanied by a feeling of innocence that eases detachment (Wekker, 2016). Racial grammar (Said, 1993) explains how the centrality of Western culture deeply structures science communication, which in turn organises and hierarchises knowledge to create an ‘epistemology of ignorance’ (Mills, 1997) that generates a supremacist narrative within science communication and cultural interpretation. The chapter concludes with the recommendation that museums, science centres, and science communicators in the West should display and acknowledge science from other civilisations and their corresponding epistemic traditions and worldviews without framing them from the dominant normalcy, as a crucial evolution towards decolonisation and transformation in these institutions and the field.
The Battle for Britain – and Beyond
Authors: Clarke John
Published: January 2024

The concluding chapter reflects back on some of the organising themes of the book and its approach to conjunctural analysis. It explores the relevance of particular ideas taken from Gramsci that have been used to address the present moment: the conjuncture, interregnum and counter-hegemonic possibilities. I consider some of the ways in which the current field of the political is being shrunk and rendered inhospitable. In response, I explore lines of thinking opened out by geographers in terms of ‘countertopographies’ and topological ‘power-geometries’. The chapter concludes by considering how the practices of reimagining, repairing and rearticulating might be ways of approaching the challenge of creating other futures.
Information Warfare Against Drag Queen Storytime
Authors: Ellis Justin R.
Published: January 2024

This chapter analyses the mutual constitution of online [and in-person] hateful conduct against Drag Queen Storytime childhood literacy events in the US, and related conduct in Australia and the UK. The digiqueer focus of this chapter is to analyse the conflation of ‘Christian’ and ‘national’ ideology that pairs individual morality and national strength with the notion of sexual purity. This conflation is used as justification to censor fluid gender expression through hybrid protest. In doing so, the chapter documents the direct and indirect violence used to chill gender-fluid expression, including vilification, harassment, intimidation, alleged assault and malicious property damage, vexatious litigation, and antagonistic legislative proposals that restrict resourcing of public libraries and threaten librarians with jail terms. The chapter contributes to a growing body of literature that conceptualizes the link between men’s rights activist group subcultures within the broader ‘manosphere’, and how they may encourage and propagate violence.
Atmospheres of Eco-Justice Resistance During the Pandemic
Authors: Di Ronco Anna
Published: January 2024

Chapter Three shifts the focus to visual and performative eco-justice resistance during the pandemic, specifically attending to their ‘affective atmospheres’ and the powerful messages and radical possibilities they often convey. Drawing on the flexible approach of Sumartojo and Pink (2018), the author uses three autoethnographic exercises to reflect on a number of affective atmospheres of resistance to which she attuned during fieldwork. These exercises show that being in atmospheres of eco-justice resistance bears a transformative potential: it enables the sharing of knowledge of eco-justice harms and also fosters imagination of new radical possibilities for the city of the future. The chapter contributes to the burgeoning field of ‘critical sensory criminology’ (McClanahan and South, 2020) and to the criminological literature on affective atmospheres, demonstrating the importance of studying atmospheres of resistance within green critical criminology. It concludes with suggestions for future green critical sensory criminological research on eco-justice resistance and their atmospheres.
Moving between Frustration and Anger
Authors: Carman Mary
Published: January 2024

Frustration is widely recognised to be central to many cases of moral anger in a political context, yet little philosophical attention has been paid to it. In this chapter, I offer a much-needed philosophical analysis of frustration, working primarily with the example of the recent South African student protests. By developing a deeper philosophical understanding of frustration and its connections to moral anger, I argue that the movement between the two has a couple of important aspects. First, the movement involves a transformation from simply responding to some opposition to viewing that opposition as wrongfully imposed by an agent; second, in the cases that are my focus, the movement is a response to a persistent opposition that is compounded by an erosion of trust, confidence and hope within a moral community, which ultimately changes the very nature of the opposition into a form of wrongdoing. These aspects allow us to assess the appropriateness of the movement, thereby developing a rich analysis of moral anger arising out of frustration in a political context.
Contesting the Politics of Negative Emotions in Educational Policy Making: A Ban on Asylum Seekers’ School Visits in Finland
Authors: Pyy Iida , Leiviskä Anniina , Mansikka Jan-Erik
Published: January 2024

In this chapter, we analyse a recent case of educational policymaking in the city of Oulu in Finland. The case concerns a ban on asylum seekers’ visits to local schools and day-care centres. Our primary aim is to study the role that negative political emotions play in the decision making process of our case. We primarily utilise Martha Nussbaum’s work on political emotions as our analytical framework. We propose that our case exemplifies a type of backlash politics, where policymaking is motivated by negative emotions and based on ethnic or racial group stigmatisation, with the result of abandoning collectively established democratic values and guidelines. Our case also illustrates how, by creating a culture of fear, the type of policymaking exemplified by our case can significantly diminish the possibilities of democratic institutions, such as the comprehensive school, to reinforce social cohesion and reduce social inequalities in society. Accordingly, we suggest that negative political emotions might have problematic consequences for democratic values and decision making processes. Finally, we propose an alternative course of action for addressing asylum seekers’ visits to Finnish schools: we particularly emphasise the importance of following established democratic procedures in political decision making and also argue for the reinforcement of positive political emotions as a long-term educational objective.
Peace through Participation: The Colombian Experience
Authors: Jaramillo-Marín Jefferson , López-Lizarazo Luz Mery , Ruiz-Galvan Adriel , Bishop Matthew Louis , Díaz-Arévalo Juan Mario , Kanai Juan Miguel , Lombard Melanie , Rushton Simon , Shesterinina Anastasia , Shesterinina Anastasia , Turton Helen Louise
Published: January 2024

This chapter situates the emergence of new forms of community-led participatory peacebuilding in relation to the wider Colombian peace process. During the implementation of the peace agreement, shortcomings with the mechanisms that were designed to enable popular participation became increasingly apparent: they were top-down, their constitution and purpose was not always clear, and their outcomes often failed to live up to the hopes of those communities most affected by conflict. In response, many communities – including in the two regions examined in this book – seized the initiative, convening their own spaces for dialogue based on their own experiences, needs and aspirations.
Introduction
Authors: Destradi Sandra
Published: January 2024

The Introduction outlines the relevance of the phenomenon of ‘reluctance’ in world politics. It introduces the main puzzle of the book, which is: why are international actors, including powerful states, often reluctant in their foreign policies? It discusses existing research in related fields and shows the substantial gap in the existing literature in International Relations (IR) and Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA), which have not addressed the phenomenon of reluctance so far. Finally, it provides an outline of the book.
Germany’s Mixed Approach: Not Always a Reluctant Hegemon
Authors: Destradi Sandra
Published: January 2024

This chapter focuses on Germany’s approach to the management of crises in Europe’s extended neighbourhood since 2009, that is, since the moment when the Eurozone crisis catapulted Germany back into the centre of European politics. The analysis addresses Germany’s role in the Libya crisis (2011) and the Ukraine crisis (2014–15). It finds that Germany was clearly reluctant concerning military intervention in Libya, which was mainly driven by difficulties in domestic preference formation related to normative tensions. In the case of the Ukraine crisis of 2014–15, the German government displayed a very different approach, showing an entirely new determination and willingness to shed its foreign policy reluctance. It was able to do so because the government articulated clear domestic preferences and could overcome competing international expectations by crafting a common European position on sanctions against Russia.
Conclusion
Authors: Destradi Sandra
Published: January 2024

This chapter summarizes the key findings of the book. It highlights the relevance of the study of reluctance for the fields of International Relations (IR) and Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA), and discusses some of the potential consequences of reluctance. It also outlines a number of fields in which further research is needed.
India’s Caste Structure
Authors: Shome Parthasarathi , Shome Parthasarathi
Published: January 2024

This chapter analyses the emergence of caste and untouchability in India and their ramifications for poverty and inequality. It points to India’s worsening caste separation despite constitutional guarantees against untouchability and protection of entry to public education and jobs. Caste remains the certificate for dominant castes to discriminate against lower castes in work, housing, movement, marriage and education resulting, effectively, in upper caste entitlements. This has direct impact on earning capacities. Data reveal lower castes occupy a lower share of the top income decile.
Caste structure comprises four main categories from priests to menials. The origin of caste is contestable. It cannot be attributed to Indo-Aryan Persia. Caste was categorized in purusha sukta, oldest among ancient texts circa 1200 BCE. Subsequent texts sharpened caste occupations, rituals and consequences of polluting caste mixes. Buddhism appeared and temporarily rid India of caste until the re-emergence of Hindu dynasties. Young widows were burnt alive on funeral pyres of deceased husbands at the diktat of brahmin priests even during eighteenth century. British rule further sharpened caste divisions through the judiciary and censuses. Caste continues with an important role in contemporary politics.
A Theoretical Understanding of Rohingyas and Rohingyas in the Media
Authors: Ullah AKM Ahsan , Chattoraj Diotima
Published: January 2024

Set against widespread refugee problems, and those of the Rohingyas in particular, this chapter proposes a thorough theory of refugees that places a premium on endogenous elements, including political and religious motivations. It also demonstrates how the media’s framing of the issue affects the perception of it. This chapter emphasizes the importance of understanding media framing in trying to comprehend the larger implications of mass communication, since it offers an alternative to the ‘objectivity and bias paradigm’. This chapter also delves into the history of human rights and the current predicament of the Rohingya people, as well as a number of important historical events that have affected the evolution of the Rohingya situation.
Recommodifying Discard
Authors: Gregson Nicky
Published: January 2024

In this chapter, the focus is on the recommodification of wastes in historical and global perspective. It begins by looking at textile recycling in historical and contemporary perspective. Taking the historical long view shows the importance of certain economic conjunctures if markets in goods containing a large proportion of recycled content are to prosper. It also highlights the challenges such goods face from primary manufacturers. Those challenges have not gone away, as the subsections on mechanical, biological and chemical innovation demonstrate. As the chapter shows, the core challenge facing innovation-centred solutions to ‘problem wastes’ that seek to turn them into secondary resources is not so much the technical one – of turning them into something that can be used – but economic. It is one of the reasons why the global trade in wastes persists, and why the recommodification of wastes remains an activity concentrated largely in Asia and other parts of the global South. The chapter closes with a reflection on the push to encourage more recycled content in manufactured goods in advanced economies, highlighting the challenges that ‘shoddification’ brings.
Future Directions
Authors: Gregson Nicky
Published: January 2024

This chapter identifies three major areas of systemic challenge for consumers and policymakers, and their potential for policy intervention. Each of the challenges is embedded in the arguments made in the book. They are offered as a means to start a different set of conversations around the global municipal waste problem and how to tackle it. Unlike current waste policy, none of these challenges starts from waste. Rather, they start with what generates waste. So each challenge is embedded in different ways in the relationships between waste, consumption and economies. In each case, the focus is on what needs to change in these relationships if we are to get serious with tackling global waste and, at the same time, ensure that action with regard to waste connects more strongly with both the decarbonization agenda and increasingly digitally mediated economies. At the heart of this is the need to recapture the category of discard from the category of waste.
Interstate Leadership, Moral Realism, and their Critics
Authors: Xuetong Yan , Yuanyuan Fang
Published: January 2024

The study of international leadership gained momentum when Donald Trump became the president of the United States in 2017. Consequently, international relations (IR) moral realism benefited greatly from those studies. There is a growing consensus that interstate leadership plays a central role in preserving international stability and prosperity even though scholars define leadership through different aspects, such as power, social contracts, and influence. The nine contributors to this book differ in how they define morality and on the methodology of analysing the effects of morality in relation to environmental constraints; nonetheless, they all believe it is important to incorporate the study of morality into IR analysis. I argue for an instrumental definition of leadership morality inspired by the traditional Chinese belief of dedao duozhu, shidao guazhu (a just cause enjoys abundant support while an unjust cause finds meagre support). The other eight authors contribute liberalist, neoliberalist, constructivist, Confucianist, neoclassical realist, institutionalist, and political psychology critiques.
Ideal Morality and Realist Interest of Moral Realism
Authors: He Kai
Published: January 2024

This chapter suggests that Yan’s ‘moral realism’ is a path-breaking realist theory, which integrates ancient Chinese philosophy, historical and contemporary cases, and modern international relations (IR) theory. It explains the rise of great powers and the transformation of the international order. It highlights the key role of political leadership in explaining why only a few rising powers can succeed while others cannot. Political leadership can also account for the changing international power configurations, norms, orders, and systems. There are three issues that Yan’s moral realism might need to clarify further: the conceptualizations of morality and political leadership, the interactions and mechanisms between state leadership and international leadership, and the holistic view of norms and leadership. These three issue areas can be seen as an opportunity for other scholars to further explore in order to advance moral realism as a new IR theory in the future.
Moral Realism and Sino–American Relations
Authors: Larson Deborah Welch
Published: January 2024

As China increases its power and influence on the world stage, many wonder how its rise will affect the US-dominated world order. Moral realism suggests that much will depend on the quality of the leadership on both sides. China is pursuing an economic strategy of influencing business transactions and is trying to achieve dominance in advanced technologies. While Sino–American competition over market share and technology is peaceful, an inadvertent conflict might break out in the maritime realm due to unclear red lines and security dilemma dynamics. Consistent with moral realism, China is trying to promote new non-liberal norms through the Belt and Road Initiative while the Biden administration is emphasizing values in its foreign policy and the ‘power of example’ as well as leadership in forging a NATO partnership opposed to the Russian war in Ukraine.
Dereliction of Responsibility: Japan’s ‘Liberal Leadership’ in the 2016–20 Rakhine Crisis
Authors: Black Lindsay
Published: January 2024

Chapter 6 details Japan’s response to the plight of the Rohingya people in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. Since Myanmar’s democratization process began, the Rohingya were subject to increasing acts of violence and depredation at the hands of Myanmar’s military forces, culminating in an exodus of Rohingya refugees to neighbouring Bangladesh. Assessing the violence levelled against the Rohingya, the UN condemned the Myanmar military and Aung San Suu Kyi’s government for perpetrating crimes against humanity. Despite this, the Japanese government continued to work with the Myanmar authorities in pursuit of their economic aims and watched on as the refugee crisis unfolded. The ongoing Rohingya refugee crisis exemplifies how hollow Japan’s ‘value diplomacy’ rhetoric has been. This case raises important questions about who Japanese policy makers deem to be human; how lines are drawn between ‘insurable’ people in the developed world and those excluded, ‘uninsurable’ people of the developing and underdeveloped worlds.
Urban Entrepreneurialism: The Emergence of the Cultural Economy
Authors: Hollands Robert G.
Published: January 2024

The chapter begins with a summary of David Harvey’s general work on understanding the capitalist city and looks at how he utilizes Marx’s theory of capitalist accumulation for understanding urban development. It then turns more specifically to his notion of urban entrepreneurialism. Particularly relevant are governance strategies for developing the ‘spatial division of consumption’ in cities – namely the idea of producing urban advantage though enabling the cultural and creative economy. In addition to analysing the features and contradictions of the entrepreneurial city and providing some varied case study examples, the chapter also assesses the value of Harvey’s position. In doing so it explores the degree to which we can envisage thinking beyond entrepreneurial models. Examples of this include participatory alternatives afforded through what has been called the ‘new municipalism’ and a discussion of the ‘Fearless Cities Network’.
The Ethics of Making Information Matter
Authors: Kaufmann Mareile
Published: January 2024

What ethos informs engagement, and what possibilities for activity are realized in making? What material effects play out in informationalization? What matters? When we theorize and study different information practices one thing becomes clear: in this dance of information, infrastructures, tools, and ourselves, it makes a difference what matter gains liveliness and how. What information is generated, how matter matures, decomposes and re-emerges, and at what point it stops being a possibility (Steyerl, 2013) creates effects for everyone involved. Ethics is central to the ensemble of this ‘spiral dance’ (Haraway, 1991: 181). Or to put it differently: what matters is ultimately an ethical concern. Ethics is present making: it implies the act of doing something consciously. It involves the ethicality of making something of consequence, contributing to something that matters. As a result of that, ethics is also present in matter. It is embodied in the very materiality that emerges and exhibits agency. In our case, the ethicality of materials can refer to what kind of information appears and how a tool performs normativity, values, and sometimes very concrete understandings of the world. This ethicality is not merely about morality and responsibilities, but about co-creative values and ‘ethical forces that operate like analytic frames for ongoing experiments with intensities that need to be enacted collectively’ (Braidotti, 2019: 158). This book’s argument is thus also relevant to ethical considerations: the ethics of making matter are performed in collective, embodied material practices that acknowledge passing (Braidotti, 2019), and transience, but also make anew.
Gradations of Citizenship: Of Radical Agrarian Citizens and Transitional Justice Bureaucracies
Authors: Weber Sanne
Published: January 2024

This chapter describes how both survivors and ex-combatants express a feeling of being second-class citizens, because of the lack of basic state services. Their citizenship practice has also changed over time, from active or even radical to passive. This is reinforced by the ways in which Colombia’s reparation and reintegration function. These processes prioritize the handing out of short-term support, on the condition of attending meetings and signing attendance sheets. This turns people into passive recipients dependent on ineffective state support, rather than promoting their long-term capacities to improve their own lives, through citizenship skills. This diminishes the transformative potential of these processes and reinforces gender stereotypes.
Multi-wavelength confocal displacement sensing using a highly dispersive flat-field concave grating
Authors: Zhao Jiaqi , Cheng Haobo , Feng Yunpeng , Yan Saisai , Cheng Weizhe
Published: January 2024

A multi-wavelength confocal displacement sensor based on a flat-field concave grating (FFCG) was proposed and designed; the large dispersion and small volume of the FFCG make it an ideal candidate for replacing the complex dispersive lens group. The designed displacement sensor was calibrated by displacement meter, and the characteristics were measured. Consequently, for the proposed displacement sensor, the displacement range of 6.8 mm was measured with the R-square linearity evaluation coefficient of 0.998, and the sensitivity preceded 17.1 nm/mm. The resolution of the displacement sensor was characterized by 70 µm, as well as a full width at half maximum (FWHM) fluctuating around 1.63 nm, indicating high precision and accuracy in displacement measurement. Moreover, the stability and reliability of the sensor were verified within 20 min, with no significant wavelength shifts, and gentle power fluctuations of 557.73 counts at 520 nm and 563.67 counts at 545.05 nm, respectively.
Squeezing as a resource for time series processing in quantum reservoir computing
Authors: García-Beni Jorge , Luca Giorgi Gian , Soriano Miguel C. , Zambrini Roberta
Published: January 2024

Squeezing is known to be a quantum resource in many applications in metrology, cryptography, and computing, being related to entanglement in multimode settings. In this work, we address the effects of squeezing in neuromorphic machine learning for time-series processing. In particular, we consider a loop-based photonic architecture for reservoir computing and address the effect of squeezing in the reservoir, considering a Hamiltonian with both active and passive coupling terms. Interestingly, squeezing can be either detrimental or beneficial for quantum reservoir computing when moving from ideal to realistic models, accounting for experimental noise. We demonstrate that multimode squeezing enhances its accessible memory, which improves the performance in several benchmark temporal tasks. The origin of this improvement is traced back to the robustness of the reservoir to readout noise, which is increased with squeezing.
Efficient synchronous retrieval of OAM modes and AT strength using multi-task neural networks
Authors: Meng Pinchao , Zhuang Jiabao , Zhou Linhua , Yin Weishi , Qi Dequan
Published: January 2024

Encoding information using OAM beams as carriers greatly alleviates the capacity crisis in communication systems. When transmitted through the atmospheric channel, OAM beams are influenced by the random fluctuations in the refractive index caused by atmospheric turbulence, resulting in phase distortion and intensity dispersion of the beams, leading to severe signal interference. Due to the high randomness of atmospheric turbulence, it is essential for OAM mode recognition methods to have good stability to ensure communication quality. We establish an equivalence relationship between the continuous dynamics system and the network unit RUEM, ensuring its stability through theoretical derivation and numerical experiments. We propose a multitask neural network model, OATNN, embedded with RUEM to achieve efficient simultaneous recognition of turbulence intensity in atmospheric turbulence environments and OAM modes in free-space optical communication systems. Numerical experimental results show that under four turbulence intensity levels, the network achieves a recognition accuracy of 99.37%, and for ten modes, the recognition accuracy is 99.05%. Additionally, we explore the performance of this network in a 2000m channel transmission scenario.
Generation of arbitrary vector vortex beams on a higher-order Poincaré sphere using a double-exposure polarization-multiplexed hologram
Authors: Kumar Singh Sumit , Notte Shun , Yamaguchi Ryuki , Kinashi Kenji , Tsutsumi Naoto , Sakai Wataru , Awatsuji Yasuhiro , Jessie Jackin Boaz
Published: January 2024

The existing methods for the generation of arbitrary vector vortex beams often involve complex optical setups or intricate fabrication methods. In this Letter, we propose a novel, to the best of our knowledge, and simplified approach for the efficient generation of vector vortex beams using a polarization-multiplexed hologram fabricated on an azo-carbazole polymer using a simple double-exposure technique. The hologram generates a vector vortex beam when simply illuminated by a collimated beam and also allows for a seamless traversal across the entire higher-order Poincaré sphere (arbitrary vortex beam generation) just by modulating the polarization of an illuminating beam.
Spatial resolution enhancement in holographic imaging via angular spectrum expansion
Authors: Chae Byung Gyu
Published: January 2024

Digital holography numerically restores three-dimensional image information using optically captured diffractive waves. The required bandwidth is larger than that of hologram pixel at a closer distance in the Fresnel diffraction regime, which results in the formation of aliased replica patterns in digital hologram. From the analysis of sampling phenomenon, the replica functions are revealed to be the components of higher angular spectra of hologram. A undersampled hologram consists of the moire patterns formed by the modulation of original function by complex exponential function. There is a one-to-one correspondence between the replicas in both real and Fourier spaces. The acquisition methods of high-resolution images over a wide field view are proposed on the basis of the expansion process of angular spectrum by using replicas. Only the captured hologram with low numerical aperature or low resolution restores a high-resolution image when using an optimization algorithm. Numerical simulations and optical experiments are performed to investigate the proposed scheme.
From water to land: Evolution of photoreceptor circuits for vision in air
Authors: Baden Tom
Published: January 2024

When vertebrates first conquered the land, they encountered a visual world that was radically distinct from that of their aquatic ancestors. Fish exploit the strong wavelength-dependent interactions of light with water by differentially feeding the signals from up to 5 spectral photoreceptor types into distinct behavioural programmes. However, above the water the same spectral rules do not apply, and this called for an update to visual circuit strategies. Early tetrapods soon evolved the double cone, a still poorly understood pair of new photoreceptors that brought the “ancestral terrestrial” complement from 5 to 7. Subsequent nonmammalian lineages differentially adapted this highly parallelised retinal input strategy for their diverse visual ecologies. By contrast, mammals shed most ancestral photoreceptors and converged on an input strategy that is exceptionally general. In eutherian mammals including in humans, parallelisation emerges gradually as the visual signal traverses the layers of the retina and into the brain.
A missense mutation in the highly conserved TNF-like domain of Ectodysplasin A is the candidate causative variant for X-linked hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia in Limousin cattle: Clinical, histological, and molecular analyses
Authors: Krull Frederik , Bleyer Martina , Schäfer Jana , Brenig Bertram
Published: January 2024

Ectodysplasin A related hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (XLHED) is a well-studied fetal developmental disorder in mammals that mainly affects ectodermal structures. It has been identified in a variety of species, including mice, rats, dogs, cattle, and humans. Here, we report the clinical, histological, and molecular biological analyses of a case of XLHED in Limousin cattle. An affected Limousin calf showed pathognomonic signs of ectodermal dysplasia, i.e. sparse hair and characteristic dental aplasia. Histopathologic comparison of hairy and glabrous skin and computed tomography of the mandible confirmed the phenotypic diagnosis. In addition, a keratoconjunctivitis sicca was noted in one eye, which was also confirmed histopathologically. To identify the causative variant, we resequenced the bovine X-chromosomal ectodysplasin A gene (EDA) of the affected calf and compared the sequences to the bovine reference genome. A single missense variant (rs439722471) at position X:g.80411716T>C (ARS-UCD1.3) was identified. The variant resulted in an amino acid substitution from glutamic acid to glycine within the highly conserved TNF-like domain. To rule out the possibility that the variant was relatively common in the cattle population we genotyped 2,016 individuals including 40% Limousin cattle by fluorescence resonance energy transfer analysis. We also tested 5,116 multibreed samples from Run9 of the 1000 Bull Genomes Project for the said variant. The variant was not detected in any of the cattle tested, confirming the assumption that it was the causative variant. This is the first report of Ectodysplasin A related hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia in Limousin cattle and the description of a novel causal variant in cattle.
How to choose the intraocular lens power calculation formulas in eyes with extremely long axial length? A systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Li Xiaoyu , Wang Xiaodong , Liao Xuan
Published: January 2024

Objective

To evaluate the accuracy of 10 formulas for calculating intraocular lens (IOL) power in cataract eye with an axial length (AL) of more than 28.0 mm.

Methods

We searched scientific databases including PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science and Cochrane Library for research published over the past 5 years, up to Sept 2023. The inclusion criteria were case series studies that compared different formulas (Barrett II, EVO, Kane, Hill-RBF, Haigis, Hoffer Q, Holladay 1, SRK/T, Holladay 1 w-k and SRK/T w-k), in patients with extremely long AL undergoing uncomplicated cataract surgery with IOL implantation. The mean difference (MD) of mean absolute error (MAE) and the odds ratio (OR) of both the percentage of eyes within ±0.50D of prediction error (PPE±0.50D) and the percentage of eyes within ±1.00D of prediction error (PPE±1.00D) among different formulas were pooled using meta-analysis.

Results

A total of 11 studies, involving 1376 eyes, were included to evaluate the 10 formulas mentioned above. Among these formulas, Barrett II, EVO, Kane, and Hill-RBF demonstrated significantly lower MAE values compared to SRK/T. Furthermore, Kane and Hill-RBF had lower MAE values than EVO. Additionally, Barrett II and Kane yielded significantly lower MAE values than Haigis while Hill-RBF showed significantly lower MAE values than Holladay 1. Moreover, Hill-RBF showed the highest values for both PPE±0.50D and PPE±1.00D, followed by Kane. Both EVO and Kane had higher values of PPE±0.50D and PPE±1.00D compared to Haigis and SRK/T.

Conclusion

The Wang-Koch adjusted formulas and new-generation formulas have shown potential for higher accuracy in predicting IOL power for cataract patients with extremely long AL compared to traditional formulas. Based on the current limited clinical studies, Hill-RBF and Kane formulas seem to be a better choice for eyes with extremely long AL.
Optimization design of fiber rubber asphalt gravel sealing layer based on fatigue crack resistance test
Authors: Lei Jun’an , Zhao Fujing , Wang Yuanyuan , Su Haicheng
Published: January 2024

Crack is one of the main diseases of pavement structure. In order to improve the anti-reflective crack ability of pavement, fiber rubber gravel sealing layer is proposed as the stress absorbing layer. In view of the shortcoming that Mcleod design method can not be associated with road performance, a sealing layer optimization design method based on fatigue crack test is proposed. Firstly, the reinforcement effect of fiber on rubber asphalt was studied through force ductility testing. Secondly, the optimum dosage of fiber, asphalt and gravel was optimized through fatigue cracking resistance test. Finally, the cracking resistance of fiber rubber gravel seal was verified through fracture energy test. The results show that fibers can significantly increase the maximum tensile force and strain yield energy of rubber asphalt, and basalt fiber has the best reinforcement effect. The most obvious effect on cracking resistance performance in the sealing layer is the amount of fiber, followed by the amount of asphalt, and finally the amount of gravel. The optimized material combination with the best crack resistance is 120g/m2 fiber, 14kg/m2 gravel and 2.4kg/m2 rubber asphalt, and the fatigue resistance times can reach 19532 times. The fracture energy of the composite pavement treated by the optimized sealing layer is nearly double that of the non-treated pavement structure, and it has a good anti-crack effect.
Introduction: Making Worlds in the Pluriverse
Authors: Dávila Patricio , Langlois Ganaele , Leitão Renata , Leitão Renata
Published: January 2024

In 1996, the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas (Mexico), formed by peoples of Mayan descent, declared that in “the world we want, everybody fits. The world we want is a world in which many worlds fit.” Since then, their vision of “a world where many worlds fit” has given rise to the concepts of the pluriverse and pluriversality. The concept of the pluriverse has gained interest worldwide with texts such as Design for the Pluriverse, Constructing the Pluriverse, A World of Many Worlds, and Pluriverse: A Post-Development Dictionary, bringing broader attention to the work done by many activists, peasant, and Indigenous groups in Latin America and beyond. It is no surprise that the concept of the pluriverse has been embraced in non-Western parts of the world. In turn, our special issue asks: What is the pluriverse in North America, arguably one of the centres of Western, Eurocentric power? The artistic and scholarly contributions that make up this special issue investigate the crossroads, the encounters, the divergences and convergences that build new possible worlds, and the friction of incommensurabilities, in a North American context, and illustrate the potential worlds that we, as humans, non-humans, and more-than-humans alike, could share.
“Making Worlds in the Pluriverse” Panel, at Congress, January 12, 2023
Authors: Dávila Patricio , Langlois Ganaele , Leitão Renata
Published: January 2024

This summary introduces a series of excerpts that appear intermittently throughout the issue. These excerpts are transcriptions from a moderated panel on the topic of the pluriverse, held on 31 May 2023 at Congress, Canada’s largest annual conference of humanities and social science scholars.
Making Worlds in the Pluriverse Panel at Congress: “Survival through the Pluriverse”
Authors: Hong Julio
Published: January 2024

This is a select transcript from a moderated panel titled “Making Worlds in the Pluriverse” held as part of Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences 2023 at York University in Toronto.
Iz Öztat: Underbelly
Authors: Hanson Matt A.
Published: January 2024

Underbelly, by Iz Öztat, is an exhibition that ran from February to May at Zilberman Istanbul, and featured themes from across the artist’s oeuvre musing on queer sculpture and art history through a variety of media, including video, installation, drawing and writing. This review examines and critiques the role of the artist’s biography and identity in the production and archiving of their work, foregrounding issues of cultural heritage and personal intimacy despite divisions of nationality, gender, and other limitations to the canonization of non-Western perspectives on the fringes of Europe. Öztat’s alter ego, ghost and muse, the character Zisan, parallels her own narratives of exile, as the fictive daughter of an Armenian photographer who flees Istanbul in 1915 and whose presence embodies forgotten victims of genocide, patriarchy and nationalism.
Informaciones contradictorias respecto a la compatibilidad con la lactancia materna de la vacuna frente al nuevo coronavirus
Authors: Pérez López Alba Isabel , Llinares Ramal Sandra , Segura Barrachina Sara , Bosch Marco María Teresa , Ferrándiz Mares Claudia , Jareño Roglán Enrique Jesús , Albert I Ros Xavier
Published: January 2024

Introducción: Al inicio de la vacunación frente al SARS-CoV-2, se dieron una serie de informaciones contradictorias respecto a su compatibilidad con el embarazo y la lactancia (ficha técnica, medios de comunicación, sanitarios…) que pudieron generar dudas o decisiones inapropiadas a las madres lactantes con posibilidad de recibir la vacuna.
Objetivo: Analizar las decisiones que tomaron las madres respecto a la vacunación y la lactancia, y el origen de la información que pudo influir sobre esas decisiones.
Pacientes y métodos: Encuestas realizadas entre abril y mayo de 2021 a través de formularios on-line, a 280 madres que, mientras estaban amamantando, habían tenido opción de vacunarse frente a la COVID.
Resultados: En 45 casos se tomaron decisiones inapropiadas en función de informaciones contrarias o contradictorias sobre la compatibilidad de la vacuna con la lactancia: en 2 casos destetaron y 43 decidieron no vacunarse. 204 madres se vacunaron y siguieron amamantando, 66 pese a recibir informaciones contradictorias y 138 recibiendo la información apropiada. La información favorable a la compatibilidad se recibió principalmente a partir de fuentes especializadas en lactancia y la desfavorable a partir de los medios de comunicación (prensa, televisión, internet, etc.). Desde el ámbito sanitario se dieron el 52 % de las informaciones favorables y el 48 % de las desfavorables.
Conclusiones: Pese al rápido pronunciamiento de las sociedades científicas a favor de la vacunación en madres lactantes, durante los primeros meses se dieron con frecuencia informaciones contrarias o contradictorias al respecto, que pudieron condicionar decisiones inapropiadas como no vacunarse o destetar.
Effect of low-temperature plasma-treated bentonite on rubber compounds properties
Authors: Mičicová Zuzana , Pajtášová Mariana , Ondrušová Darina , Božeková Slavomíra , Ďurišová Silvia , Janík Róbert
Published: January 2024

The influence of low-temperature plasma modification of bentonite on the dynamic-mechanical properties and vulcanization of rubber mixtures was examined. EDX, FTIR and TGA analysis were used to evaluate the filler. IR spectra of modified bentonite indicate lower intensity of the bands associated with OH groups and water. TGA confirms a smaller weight loss of samples subjected to plasma treatment, which also proves a lower water content in the mineral, confirming the effectiveness of the plasma treatment used.
Queer Oz
Authors: Pugh Tison
Published: January 2024

L. Frank Baum’s novels revel in queer, trans, and other transgressive themes. Best known for his Oz series, Baum produced a staggering number of additional titles under pseudonyms including Laura Bancroft, Suzanne Metcalf, and Schuyler Staunton, among others. Envisioning his fantasy works as progressive fictions, Baum aspired to create in the Oz series “a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.” More than thematically progressive, his works are often sexually progressive as well, with surprisingly queer and trans touches that reject standard narrative paths of heteroerotic love and marriage. From these foundations, this volume also addresses the queer undercurrents of Oz’s cannibalistic themes, the contributions of illustrator John R. Neill to Baum’s queer visions, the homosocial desires flourishing in the Boy Fortune Hunter series (credited to “Floyd Akers”), and the queer intersection of genre and familial desire in the Aunt Jane’s Niecesseries (credited to “Edith Van Dyne”). Baum’s fictions are of foundational significance to any canon of queer children’s literature, yet today’s readers cannot overlook the derogatory views expressed about people of various races and ethnicities, which requires an ethically informed intersectional perspective to engage more productively with cultural works of the past. In its breadth, scope, and detail, Queer Oz: L. Frank Baum’s Trans Tales and Other Astounding Adventures in Sex and Gender promises to transform readers’ views of the author, his fictions, and the queer themes bubbling beneath the surface of early twentieth-century children’s literature.