bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
O papel da mulher e do caipira na construção de sentidos e identidades urbanas
Authors: Freitas Débora
Published: April 2016

A partir do trabalho desenvolvido pela Orquestra Feminina Viola de Saia, este artigo discute a cultura como mediadora da construção de subjetividades, de sentidos e de novas identidades. Em uma seara tipicamente masculina – música caipira e viola – nove mulheres apresentam um trabalho que sofre claras influências de suas raízes familiares. Isso acontece em um ambiente muitas vezes hostil à manutenção das tradições caipiras, o meio urbano. O trabalho da orquestra só se torna possível a partir do sentimento de igualdade social que este tipo de ação desperta nas integrantes do grupo, que veem na cultura a possibilidade da formação de um espaço de conflitos.
Tarsila do Amaral: ensaio sobre “Brasilidade”
Authors: Souza e Silva Dalmo De Oliveira
Published: April 2016

O ensaio busca discutir o conceito de brasilidade, envolvendo as matrizes portuguesas, indígenas e africanas no discurso e no repertório modernista – inaugurado pela Semana de Arte Moderna de 1922. Nesse sentido, levanta o repertório de Tarsila do Amaral e sua participação nos movimentos Pau-Brasil e Antropofágico, tendo como ponto de análise a tela Abaporu, 1928 – obra inspiradora do movimento antropofágico e síntese da construção de uma brasilidade inerente à concepção moderna.
A comunicação bilíngue do bairro da liberdade
Authors: Souza Marco , Saito Cecília
Published: April 2016

Este artigo analisa o Bairro Oriental no Bairro da Liberdade na cidade de São Paulo para mostrar como a utilização espacial dessa extensão específica aparece como uma dimensão resultante das relações estabelecidas entre espaço e indivíduo através de valores culturais.
Human consumption of a vagrant South American Fur Seal Arctocephalus australis (Carnivora: Otariidae) in Brazil
Authors: Siciliano S. , Barbosa-Filho M. L.V. , Oliveira L. R.
Published: April 2016

The South American Fur Seal Arctocephalus australis is one of the most widely distributed South American otariid species. In Brazil, during austral winter months specimens of A. australis are regularly found along the Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina coasts. Occasionally, vagrants have been recorded along the southeastern coast but rarely moves north of Rio de Janeiro, at 23°S. On 01 May 2015, fishermen noticed in the surf zone an unidentified large animal in Ilhéus, Bahia, northeastern Brazil. Severely wounded, it was still alive when first spotted. Numerous shark bites were observed in the rostrum and flippers, the peduncle was severely lacerated and the intestines were protruding. The specimen was identified as an adult of South American Fur Seal based on the combination of the characteristic coloration of the pelage, head shape, body size, the relatively large eye size, and mainly due to the pronounced three cusped teeth in post canines. Fishermen decided to butcher the carcass and share the meat among their companions. The present record, however, is of special concern as human consumption South American Fur Seal seems to be unusual in Brazil. Pieces of meat were shared among fishermen. In addition, small pieces of blubber were used as bait in the local shark long-line fishery. Consumption of an injured and presumably weak marine mammal carcass points to an increasing risk of contact between potentially harmful viruses, bacteria and fungi and humans. This note represents an alert to public health specialists and wildlife authorities in Brazil. It calls the urgency of an outreach campaign advertising to the potential risks of ingesting bushmeat either from land or aquatic sources.
The day range and home range of the Eastern Hoolock Gibbon Hoolock leuconedys (Mammalia: Primates: Hylobatidae) in Lower Dibang Valley District in Arunachal Pradesh, India
Authors: Sarma Kuladip , Kumar Awadhesh
Published: April 2016

This paper presents the findings of a study conducted on the Eastern Hoolock Gibbon Hoolock leuconedys in Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary and outside to the south of the park, Arunachal Pradesh, India investigating the daily path length (DPL) and home range used by the species in two forest areas with different disturbance gradients.  The four habituated groups of H. leuconedys in fragmented and contiguous forest areas, two groups in each of the forest types, showed considerable variation in their DPL ranging from 6.59m to 1019.01m with a mean distance of 192.75m (SE = ±26.48) in 73 full day observations.  Although the mean DPL was recorded with very little variation across the seasons in both the forest types, it was significantly different from fragmented forest.  Similarly, the home range size also varied among the groups and was estimated as the maximum for Group D (24.62ha) followed by Group E (16.28ha) in contiguous forest and Group B (2.49ha) and Group A (1.09ha) in fragmented forest.  Also, there was a distinct seasonal pattern of home range used by all the study groups with largest seasonal home range in monsoon  and pre-monsoon season in fragmented and contiguous forest respectively.  The DPL and home range of H. leuconedys in Arunachal Pradesh has been highly affected by forest fragmentation and/or canopy discontinuity which makes the species vulnerable to hunting, predation by feral dogs and hawks and ultimately local extinction.  Thus, the findings of the present research evoke the question of long term survival of the species in fragmented forests.
Parasitoids (Hymenoptera) of leafminer flies (Diptera: Agromyzidae) from Bangladesh
Authors: Mazumdar Santosh , Bhuiya Badrul Amin
Published: April 2016

The objective of this study was to determine hymenopteran parasitoids attacking leafminers (Agromyzidae: Diptera) in Bangladesh.  Four parasitoid species, viz. Chrysocharis pentheus (Walker), Neochrysocharis formosa (Westwood) and Cirrospilus sp. belonging to family Eulophidae and Opius sp. under family Braconidae of the order Hymenoptera are reported as new to the fauna of Bangladesh.  All parasitoids were reared from three agromyzid flies namely Liriomyza sativae Blanchard, Melanagromyza obtusa Mallochand and Ophiomyia phaseoli (Tryon).
Preconception Cardiovascular Risk Factor Differences Between Gestational Hypertension and Preeclampsia
Authors: Egeland Grace M. , Klungsøyr Kari , Øyen Nina , Tell Grethe S. , Næss Øyvind , Skjærven Rolv
Published: April 2016

Preconception predictors of gestational hypertension and preeclampsia may identify opportunities for early detection and improve our understanding of the pathogenesis and life course epidemiology of these conditions. Female participants in community-based Cohort Norway health surveys, 1994 to 2003, were prospectively followed through 2012 via record linkages to Medical Birth Registry of Norway. Analyses included 13 217 singleton pregnancies (average of 1.59 births to 8321 women) without preexisting hypertension. Outcomes were gestational hypertension without proteinuria (n=237) and preeclampsia (n=429). Mean age (SD) at baseline was 27.9 years (4.5), and median follow-up was 4.8 years (interquartile range 2.6–7.8). Gestational hypertension and preeclampsia shared several baseline risk factors: family history of diabetes mellitus, pregravid diabetes mellitus, a high total cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (>5), overweight and obesity, and elevated blood pressure status. For preeclampsia, a family history of myocardial infarction before 60 years of age and elevated triglyceride levels (≥1.7 mmol/L) also predicted risk while physical activity was protective. Preterm preeclampsia was predicted by past-year binge drinking (≥5 drinks on one occasion) with an adjusted odds ratio of 3.7 (95% confidence interval 1.3–10.8) and by past-year physical activity of ≥3 hours per week with an adjusted odds ratio of 0.5 (95% confidence interval 0.3–0.8). The results suggest similarities and important differences between gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, and preterm preeclampsia. Modifiable risk factors could be targeted for improving pregnancy outcomes and the short- and long-term sequelae for mothers and offspring.
The New Educational Accountability: Understanding the Landscape of Teacher Evaluation in the Post-NCLB Era
Authors: Steinberg Matthew P. , Donaldson Morgaen L.
Published: April 2016

In the past five years, teacher evaluation has become a preferred policy lever at the federal, state, and local levels. Revisions to teacher evaluation systems have made teachers individually accountable for student achievement to a greater extent than ever before. We describe and analyze the components, processes, and consequences embedded in new teacher evaluation policies in all fifty states, the twenty-five largest school districts, and Washington, DC. We contextualize these policies by basing our analysis in prior research on teacher evaluation, and examining key comparisons between state and district policies, including their treatment of teachers in tested and untested subjects with career and beginning teachers. We find notable differences in how states and the largest districts have structured evaluation policies for all teachers and, in particular, for early career teachers compared with their more veteran counterparts, and for teachers in nontested grades and subjects compared with those in tested grades and subjects.
Analyzing Evolutionary Optimization in Noisy Environments
Authors: Qian Chao , Yu Yang , Zhou Zhi-Hua
Published: April 2016

Many optimization tasks must be handled in noisy environments, where the exact evaluation of a solution cannot be obtained, only a noisy one. For optimization of noisy tasks, evolutionary algorithms (EAs), a type of stochastic metaheuristic search algorithm, have been widely and successfully applied. Previous work mainly focuses on the empirical study and design of EAs for optimization under noisy conditions, while the theoretical understandings are largely insufficient. In this study, we first investigate how noisy fitness can affect the running time of EAs. Two kinds of noise-helpful problems are identified, on which the EAs will run faster with the presence of noise, and thus the noise should not be handled. Second, on a representative noise-harmful problem in which the noise has a strong negative effect, we examine two commonly employed mechanisms dealing with noise in EAs: reevaluation and threshold selection. The analysis discloses that using these two strategies simultaneously is effective for the one-bit noise but ineffective for the asymmetric one-bit noise. Smooth threshold selection is then proposed, which can be proved to be an effective strategy to further improve the noise tolerance ability in the problem. We then complement the theoretical analysis by experiments on both synthetic problems as well as two combinatorial problems, the minimum spanning tree and the maximum matching. The experimental results agree with the theoretical findings and also show that the proposed smooth threshold selection can deal with the noise better.
Adulthood as Action
Authors: Cook Emma E.
Published: April 2016

Before the 1990s, Japanese routes to adulthood appeared to be well structured and strongly linked to the school-to-work transition and other status transitions, such as marriage, parenthood and home ownership. However, with significant changes in employment practices, a weakening of school-to-work transitions, and the rapid increase of the irregular labour market to 38.2 % in 2012, there exists a greater acknowledgement of a diversity of routes into the world of employment and adulthood. Freeters, part-time workers aged between 15–34 who are neither students, nor housewives, have been at the epicentre of these discussions. By drawing on participant observation and interviews conducted since 2007, this paper explores male freeters’ understandings of adulthood through their views on employment, responsibility, meaning and action. It argues that male freeters’ focus on adulthood as constituted through action rather than as the successful result of status transitions is reconfiguring ideas of adulthood in contemporary Japan.
Sharing Responsibility for un Targeted Sanctions
Authors: Tzanakopoulos Antonios
Published: April 2016

International organizations often lack operational capacity, but may command significant normative power over States. By contrast, States have organs with significant operational capacity. Adoption of sanctions by the un Security Council under Chapter vii of the un Charter would remain a dead letter without enlisting the capacity of States to implement these measures on the ground. The un and its member States may thus both contribute to a single harmful outcome when sanctions are wrongful. International responsibility for this is shared in practice, as demonstrated by recent developments in domestic and regional international courts: States are held responsible by domestic or regional international courts, and are forced to disobey the Security Council in order to comply with their human rights obligations. In turn, the States put pressure on the Security Council to reform the offending regime, forcing the un to comply with its own international obligations.
Fausto E. Barbo, João Luiz Gasparini, Antonio P. Almeida, Hussam Zaher, Felipe G. Grazziotin,Rodrigo B. Gusmão, José Mário G. Ferrarini & Ricardo J. Sawaya (2016)Another new and threatened species of lancehead genus Bothrops (Serpentes, Viperidae) from Ilha dos Franceses, Southeastern Brazil. Zootaxa 4097 (4): 511–529.
Authors: Barbo Fausto E. , Gasparini João Luiz , Almeida Antonio P. , Zaher Hussam , Grazziotin Felipe G. , Gusmão Rodrigo B. , Ferrarini José Mário G. , Sawaya Ricardo J.
Published: April 2016

N/A
Objective Airport Warnings over Small Areas Using NLDN Cloud and Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Data
Authors: Holle Ronald L. , Demetriades Nicholas W. S. , Nag Amitabh
Published: April 2016

Lightning can have a significant impact on ground-crew and other operations at airports, resulting in a cascade of delays beyond the immediate locations. Measures of these impacts have not been presented previously in a comprehensive approach for a variety of factors. Prior approaches typically used lightning data within outer observation radii of varying sizes to anticipate cloud-to-ground (CG) flashes in a smaller inner warning area such as an airport. The goal of this paper is to address issues related to the balance between safety and the efficiency of lightning warnings for such situations. The first of two topics addressed in this study is to examine the value of adding cloud pulses to CG strokes. The detection efficiency of the U.S. NLDN for cloud pulses increased to about 50% by late summer 2013, so NLDN data during the entire 2014 summer are considered at 10 locations. Verification is performed for the occurrence of NLDN-detected CG strokes at the airports. Cloud pulses were found to improve the 2-min probability of detection by 13% compared with CG strokes only. The second topic of the study is the reduction of the inner warning area from the size of an entire airport to a small section of the airport, from a radius of 4.8 to 0.5 km. The probability of detection with a 2-min lead time increases to over 0.90 for the smaller area, while the false alarm ratio also increases substantially when CGs plus cloud pulses are included.
Reliability, Validity, and Usability of Data Extraction Programs for Single-Case Research Designs
Authors: Moeyaert Mariola , Maggin Daniel , Verkuilen Jay
Published: April 2016

Single-case experimental designs (SCEDs) have been increasingly used in recent years to inform the development and validation of effective interventions in the behavioral sciences. An important aspect of this work has been the extension of meta-analytic and other statistical innovations to SCED data. Standard practice within SCED methods is to display data graphically, which requires subsequent users to extract the data, either manually or using data extraction programs. Previous research has examined issues of reliability and validity of data extraction programs in the past, but typically at an aggregate level. Little is known, however, about the coding of individual data points. We focused on four different software programs that can be used for this purpose (i.e., Ungraph, DataThief, WebPlotDigitizer, and XYit), and examined the reliability of numeric coding, the validity compared with real data, and overall program usability. This study indicates that the reliability and validity of the retrieved data are independent of the specific software program, but are dependent on the individual single-case study graphs. Differences were found in program usability in terms of user friendliness, data retrieval time, and license costs. Ungraph and WebPlotDigitizer received the highest usability scores. DataThief was perceived as unacceptable and the time needed to retrieve the data was double that of the other three programs. WebPlotDigitizer was the only program free to use. As a consequence, WebPlotDigitizer turned out to be the best option in terms of usability, time to retrieve the data, and costs, although the usability scores of Ungraph were also strong.
Using Bifactor Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling to Test for a Continuum Structure of Motivation
Authors: Howard Joshua L. , Gagné Marylène , Morin Alexandre J. S. , Forest Jacques
Published: April 2016

This paper explores the nature of workplace motivation by testing the continuum structure of motivation proposed by self-determination theory through the application of relatively new and advanced methodological techniques. Specifically, we demonstrate the usefulness of the overarching bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling framework in organizational psychology and discuss implications of such models over more traditional confirmatory factor analyses. This framework is applied to responses obtained from 1,124 Canadian employees who completed a multidimensional measure of workplace motivation. The results support a continuum of self-regulation and illustrate the importance of accounting for quality of motivation in addition to its global quantity. Indeed, the results showed that specific types of motivation explained variance in covariates over and above the variance already explained by the global quantity of self-determination. The current study further demonstrates the limitation of the commonly used relative autonomy index and offers alternate conceptualizations of human motivation.
Joining the dots on sexual exploitation of children and women: A way forward for UK policy responses
Authors: Coy Maddy
Published: April 2016

A combination of high profile cases, enquiries and a steadily building research evidence base has seen sexual exploitation of children (CSE) gain prominence and urgency as a policy issue in the UK. This has followed a paradigm shift that frames CSE as a form of abuse and distanced it from exploitation through prostitution and the sex industry. In turn this has resulted in a focus on the vulnerability of individual young people rather than structural inequalities that connect CSE with sexual exploitation of adult women, despite the multiple similarities and overlaps. A gendered analysis has disappeared from view, leading to men who pay for sex with young people becoming invisible. The article reviews policy approaches to CSE and explores the links between exploitation of girls and of adult women, concluding that those concerned with stopping sexual exploitation should support calls for policymakers to address those who pay for sex.
“Date someone your own size”
Authors: Collisson Brian , Howell Jennifer L. , Rusbasan David , Rosenfeld Emily
Published: April 2016

We assessed whether people express more prejudice and discrimination toward mixed-weight couples (i.e., romantic partners with dissimilar body mass indexes [BMIs]) than matched-weight couples. In Study 1, people rated mixed-weight couples less favorably than matched-weight couples. In Study 2, people acted as matchmakers; they chose to pair potential relationship partners on the basis of similar BMI and body size. Mixed-weight couples were perceived as poorer matches than matched-weight couples. In Study 3, people offered advice to a person dating a mixed-weight or matched-weight partner. Men and women dating a mixed-weight, rather than matched-weight, partner were advised to go on less active, public, and expensive dates, display less physical affection, and delay introductions to close others. In Study 4, perceived relational inequity, prejudice toward mixed-status relationships, in general, and system justification motives moderated mixed-weight prejudice. Implications for couples are discussed.
(Re)defining the Narrative
Authors: Goings Ramon B.
Published: April 2016

Using Harper’s anti-deficit achievement framework as a theoretical guide, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate the academic and social experiences of four nontraditional, high-achieving, Black male undergraduates attending one historically Black university. Findings show that the participants were intrinsically motivated to succeed in college to make a better future for themselves and their families. Support from their peers, family, and children also played a role in their success. Last, the university cultivated a campus environment that affirmed the participants’ identities as Black males and nontraditional students. These findings present a counternarrative to deficit-oriented research about Black males generally and nontraditional Black male collegians specifically.
Stall inception induced by the volute tongue at centrifugal compressor inlet
Authors: Yang Ce , Wang Yingjun , Tong Ding , Yang Changmao , Li Yanzhao
Published: April 2016

The stall and surge directly impact on the safety and reliability of compressors. The spike-type and modal-type stall inception exist in compressors. At present, few studies pay attention to the stall inception of centrifugal compressor, such as the formation reason for the stall inception and the action by the volute tongue on the stall precursor. This paper investigated the stall characteristics of a high-speed small-flow centrifugal compressor and illustrated the relationship between the volute tongue and the location of stall inception. In addition, the mechanism of stall inception was also clarified. Both the analysis of initial flow structures and the comparison of the frequency spectrum characteristics at different monitoring points show that the spike-type stall occurs at about 115° circumferential position in this centrifugal compressor. The nonaxisymmetric geometry structure of the volute leads to the uneven circumferential pressure distribution. The blockade effect of the volute tongue results in high static pressure area near the volute tongue. The disturbance caused by high static pressure adversely propagates into the diffuser, resulting in the static pressure peak value at different radii. As the pressure peaks adversely migrate to the impeller inlet and induce the leading edge spillover near the corresponding blade, the spike-type stall occurs. Therefore, the volute tongue both induces the stall inception and determines the circumferential position of the stall inception at the centrifugal compressor inlet.
Parents’ Views of Failure Predict Children’s Fixed and Growth Intelligence Mind-Sets
Authors: Haimovitz Kyla , Dweck Carol S.
Published: April 2016

Children’s intelligence mind-sets (i.e., their beliefs about whether intelligence is fixed or malleable) robustly influence their motivation and learning. Yet, surprisingly, research has not linked parents’ intelligence mind-sets to their children’s. We tested the hypothesis that a different belief of parents—their failure mind-sets—may be more visible to children and therefore more prominent in shaping their beliefs. In Study 1, we found that parents can view failure as debilitating or enhancing, and that these failure mind-sets predict parenting practices and, in turn, children’s intelligence mind-sets. Study 2 probed more deeply into how parents display failure mind-sets. In Study 3a, we found that children can indeed accurately perceive their parents’ failure mind-sets but not their parents’ intelligence mind-sets. Study 3b showed that children’s perceptions of their parents’ failure mind-sets also predicted their own intelligence mind-sets. Finally, Study 4 showed a causal effect of parents’ failure mind-sets on their responses to their children’s hypothetical failure. Overall, parents who see failure as debilitating focus on their children’s performance and ability rather than on their children’s learning, and their children, in turn, tend to believe that intelligence is fixed rather than malleable.
Neural Representations of Physics Concepts
Authors: Mason Robert A. , Just Marcel Adam
Published: April 2016

We used functional MRI (fMRI) to assess neural representations of physics concepts (momentum, energy, etc.) in juniors, seniors, and graduate students majoring in physics or engineering. Our goal was to identify the underlying neural dimensions of these representations. Using factor analysis to reduce the number of dimensions of activation, we obtained four physics-related factors that were mapped to sets of voxels. The four factors were interpretable as causal motion visualization, periodicity, algebraic form, and energy flow. The individual concepts were identifiable from their fMRI signatures with a mean rank accuracy of .75 using a machine-learning (multivoxel) classifier. Furthermore, there was commonality in participants’ neural representation of physics; a classifier trained on data from all but one participant identified the concepts in the left-out participant (mean accuracy = .71 across all nine participant samples). The findings indicate that abstract scientific concepts acquired in an educational setting evoke activation patterns that are identifiable and common, indicating that science education builds abstract knowledge using inherent, repurposed brain systems.
A new likelihood approach to inference about predictive values of diagnostic tests in paired designs
Authors: Tsou Tsung-Shan
Published: April 2016

Intuitively, one only needs patients with two positive screening test results for positive predictive values comparison, and those with two negative screening test results for contrasting negative predictive values. Nevertheless, current existing methods rely on the multinomial model that includes superfluous parameters unnecessary for specific comparisons. This practice results in complex statistics formulas. We introduce a novel likelihood approach that fits the intuition by including a minimum number of parameters of interest in paired designs. It is demonstrated that our robust score test statistic is identical to a newly proposed weighted generalized score test statistic. Simulations and real data analysis are used for illustration.
In science communication, why does the idea of a public deficit always return? The eternal recurrence of the public deficit
Authors: Cortassa Carina
Published: April 2016

After several years of loud and clear rejection, the idea of a public cognitive deficit insistently reappears in the agenda of Science Communication and Public Understanding of Science studies. This essay addresses two different kinds of reason – practical and epistemic – converging at that point. In the first part, it will be argued that the hypothesis of the lack of knowledge among laypeople and its controversial relationships with their interests and attitudes towards science prevails because it is an intuitive and optimistic way to frame the gap between science and society and, therefore, to cope with its causes and consequences. In the second part, a deeper level of reasons will be examined, in order to show that the persistence of the idea has its roots in the objective epistemic asymmetry between scientists and the public, the scope of which is not always properly judged. To recognize this asymmetry as a previous condition for their interactions may help to surpass the byzantine debate: deficit yes or no and open up original questions for the field, summarized in the closing remarks.
On the energy harvesting via doubly curved piezoelectric panels
Authors: Sayyaadi Hassan , Rahnama Farhad
Published: April 2016

This article presents an analytical solution for power output from a doubly curved piezoelectric energy harvester. The energy harvester is made of an elastic core layer coupled with one or two surface-bonded piezoelectric layers. Five mechanical equations of motion together with Gauss’s equation are derived on the basis of first-order shell theory and solved simultaneously for simply supported mechanical boundary conditions. The influence of structural damping is taken into account using Rayleigh damping. The electromechanical frequency response functions that relate the power output and circuit load resistance are identified from the exact solutions. Finally, the performance of the system is analyzed extensively for different parameters such as type of energy harvester including unimorph and bimorph panel in series or parallel connections of piezoelectric layers, circuit load resistance, geometrical parameters, and material properties of core and piezoelectric layers.
A shape memory alloy rod element based on the co-rotational formulation for nonlinear static analysis of tensegrity structures
Authors: Faroughi Shirko , Haddad Khodaparast Hamed , Friswell Michael I , Hosseini Seyed Hamed
Published: April 2016

In this article, a shape memory alloy rod element is derived based on the co-rotational formulation. In the co-rotational approach, the rigid body modes are removed from the total deformations by employing a local coordinate system at element level, and hence, the major part of geometric nonlinearity is isolated. The linear shape memory alloy rod element is developed using a shape memory alloy constitutive model together with the small strain framework employed by the co-rotational approach. The one-dimensional shape memory alloy model is adopted to calculate both the pseudo-elastic response and the shape memory effects. The new formulation is exploited to perform static analysis of tensegrity structures in order to study the accuracy and robustness of the proposed element and its capability to describe the structural response of shape memory alloy devices.
A cost-effective impedance-based structural health monitoring technique for steel structures by monitoring multiple areas
Authors: Na Wongi S , Park Ki-Tae
Published: April 2016

Throughout the ages, ensuring structural safety has always been a vital task as civil infrastructures deteriorate due to the surrounding environment with time. Although various non-destructive techniques exist nowadays for maintaining the structural integrity, most of the techniques require expensive equipment with highly trained experts. In addition, onsite techniques may require a downtime period of the structure, causing inconvenience for the public. The purpose of this study is to introduce a cost-effective, impedance-based health monitoring approach using the electromechanical impedance technique. Since one device with a piezoelectric material is used to monitor a single area, this can be extremely costly when covering large areas such as bridges and buildings. To overcome this problem, a technique is introduced in this study for one device to monitor multiple areas, significantly reducing the equipment cost when covering large areas.
Large transformations with moderate strains of tensile membrane structures
Authors: Beatini Valentina , Royer Carfagni Gianni
Published: April 2016

Using a classical non-linear theory, we analytically investigate possible ways for transforming the shape of a curved elastic membrane while keeping it tensioned and moderately strained. This is a critical issue because, as a rule, membranes must be considerably stretched in order to avoid wrinkling and slackening. If the final configuration is fixed, the membrane can be cut and formed according to the final shape, but this cannot be done if more configurations, considerably distant from one another, have to be achieved. Nevertheless, we propose large transformation movements that can be obtained starting from flat membranes while maintaining their strain as limited. We discuss in detail the paradigmatic example of the hyperbolic-paraboloid-shaped membrane. These opportunities are suitable for applications of transformable architecture because they do not require excessive tensioning, compatible with the strength of materials used for this kind of structures.
Intact Context-Dependent Modulation of Conflict Monitoring in Childhood ADHD
Authors: Bluschke Annet , Chmielewski Witold X. , Roessner Veit , Beste Christian
Published: April 2016

Objective: Conflict monitoring is well known to be modulated by context. This is known as the Gratton effect, meaning that the degree of interference is smaller when a stimulus–response conflict had been encountered previously. It is unclear to what extent these processes are changed in ADHD. Method: Children with ADHD (combined subtype) and healthy controls performed a modified version of the sequence flanker task. Results: Patients with ADHD made significantly more errors than healthy controls, indicating general performance deficits. However, there were no differences regarding reaction times, indicating an intact Gratton effect in ADHD. These results were supported by Bayesian statistics. Conclusion: The results suggest that the ability to take contextual information into account during conflict monitoring is preserved in patients with ADHD despite this disorder being associated with changes in executive control functions overall. These findings are discussed in light of different theoretical accounts on contextual modulations of conflict monitoring.
Desperately seeking fixedness: Practitioners’ accounts of ‘becoming doctoral researchers’
Authors: Hay Amanda , Samra-Fredericks Dalvir
Published: April 2016

We draw upon the concept of liminality to explore the experiences of practitioners enrolled on a UK Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) programme. We analyse 20 practitioners’ reflective journals to detail how the Doctor of Business Administration liminal space was negotiated. More specifically, we describe how practitioners deal with their struggles of identity incoherence or ‘monsters of doubt’ which are amplified in the Doctor of Business Administration context owing to the complex nature of the separation phase of liminality. We identify three broad methods deployed in this endeavour – ‘scaffolding’, ‘putting the past to work’ and ‘bracketing’ – which evidence practitioners ‘desperately seeking fixedness’. We make three contributions. First, we provide empirical insights into the experiences of the increasingly significant, but still under-researched, Doctor of Business Administration student. Second, we develop our understandings of monsters of doubt through illustrating how these are negotiated for learning to progress. Finally, we contribute to wider discussions of ‘becoming’ to demonstrate the simultaneous and paradoxical importance of movement and fixedness in order to learn and become.
Sumak Kawsay, coloniality and the criminalisation of violence against women in Ecuador
Authors: Tapia Tapia Silvana
Published: April 2016

This article asks if the incorporation of Sumak Kawsay, a concept from Andean philosophy, into the Constitution of Ecuador, has impacted the legal regulation of violence against women. It examines the trajectory of penal reform in the field of domestic violence and suggests that the decolonial shift in the Constitution has failed to significantly disrupt the dominant framework of penality in which gender violence regulation is inscribed. At the same time, feminist demands have been reframed through the formations of criminal law and the dominant political discourse, resulting in provisions that reproduce a positivistic logic and a family protection rationality, with problematic consequences for women’s access to justice on the ground. If securing success in legal reform entails translating emancipatory demands into established and unchallenged penal paradigms, the potential of decolonial notions is overshadowed by the language, formalities and underlying assumptions of criminal law.
Development and antiultraviolet properties of epoxidized styrene–butadiene–styrene nanofibers loaded with nanometer titania dioxide
Authors: Tao Xuchen , Hu Chenggong , Xu Zhenzhen , Zhu Meifang , Xie Maobin , Li Yi , Li Gang
Published: April 2016

The epoxidized styrene–butadiene–styrene nanofibers, which were prepared by epoxidation of the styrene–butadiene–styrene in toluene with peroxyformic acid generated in situ, were successfully embedded with nanometer titania dioxide by electrospinning. The optimum blended electrospinning parameters on preparing the nanometer titania dioxide/epoxidized styrene–butadiene–styrene fibers were obtained. The morphology and antiultraviolet property of nanometer titania dioxide/epoxidized styrene–butadiene–styrene composite fiber were examined using scanning electron microscope and an antiultraviolet transmission tester according to American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC183-2004) standard. The scanning electron microscope results showed that nanometer titania dioxide and the epoxy group could lead to the cementation of electrospinning fibers. The ultraviolet protection factor of rutile nanometer titania dioxide/epoxidized styrene–butadiene–styrene fiber membrane is the largest one of the four fiber membranes. The epoxidized styrene–butadiene–styrene nanofibers embedded with nanometer titania dioxide have great potential in the applications of antiultraviolet textiles.
Digital Media, Power, and Democracy in Parties and Election Campaigns
Authors: Chadwick Andrew , Stromer-Galley Jennifer
Published: April 2016

The role of digital media practices in reshaping political parties and election campaigns is driven by a tension between control and interactivity, but the overall outcome for the party organizational form is highly uncertain. Recent evidence contradicts scholarship on the so-called “death” of parties and suggests instead that parties may be going through a long-term process of adaptation to postmaterial political culture. We sketch out a conceptual approach for understanding this process, which we argue is being shaped by interactions between the organizations, norms, and rules of electoral politics; postmaterial attitudes toward political engagement; and the affordances and uses of digital media. Digital media foster cultures of organizational experimentation and a party-as-movement mentality that enable many to reject norms of hierarchical discipline and habitual partisan loyalty. This context readily accommodates populist appeals and angry protest—on the right as well as the left. Substantial publics now see election campaigns as another opportunity for personalized and contentious political expression. As a result, we hypothesize that parties are being renewed from the outside in, as digitally enabled citizens breathe new life into an old form by partly remaking it in their own participatory image. Particularly on the left, the overall outcome might prove more positive for democratic engagement and the decentralization of political power than many have assumed.
Induction of Monocular Stereopsis by Altering Focus Distance: A Test of Ames’s Hypothesis
Authors: Vishwanath Dhanraj
Published: April 2016

Viewing a real three-dimensional scene or a stereoscopic image with both eyes generates a vivid phenomenal impression of depth known as stereopsis. Numerous reports have highlighted the fact that an impression of stereopsis can be induced in the absence of binocular disparity. A method claimed by Ames (1925) involved altering accommodative (focus) distance while monocularly viewing a picture. This claim was tested on naïve observers using a method inspired by the observations of Gogel and Ogle on the equidistance tendency. Consistent with Ames’s claim, most observers reported that the focus manipulation induced an impression of stereopsis comparable to that obtained by monocular-aperture viewing.
Association of statin use and stress-induced hyperglycemia in patients with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction
Authors: Yan Chen , Qin Ma , Juan Yang S , Tao Li Y , dong Gao M , Zechun Zeng , Chun Yang X , Liang Cong H , Yin Liu , Kang Meng
Published: April 2016

Background

Only a few information is available on the risk of stress hyperglycemia following acute myocardial infarction after statin use. We investigate the association of stress-induced hyperglycemia following statin use in patients with acute myocardial infarction.

Methods

An observational analysis of 476 consecutive patients who suffered acute myocardial infarction was carried out. All selected patients were divided into diabetes mellitus and non-diabetes based on the presence or absence of diabetes. The cardiac incidence of in-hospital and stress-induced hyperglycemia was recorded.

Results

Among patients with stress hyperglycemia in non-diabetes mellitus subgroups, the average fasting plasma glucose values in statin users were higher than in non-statin users (P < 0.05). But in diabetes mellitus subgroups, the average fasting plasma glucose did not have a significant difference between statin users and non-statin users (P > 0.05). In non-diabetes mellitus patients, the incidence of stress hyperglycemia with statin therapy was significantly higher than with non-statin therapy (P = 0.003). But in diabetes mellitus patients group, there is no significant difference in incidence of stress hyperglycemia between patients with statin therapy and patients without statin therapy (P = 0.902).The incidence of heart failure and in-hospital mortality of acute myocardial infarction in patients with stress-induced hyperglycemia was significantly higher than in non-hyperglycemia patients (P < 0.05).

Conclusion

Statins are related to higher stress hyperglycemia and cardiac incidences after acute myocardial infarction.
Gauging aging: Expert and public understandings of aging in America
Authors: Lindland Eric , Kendall-Taylor Nathaniel , Haydon Abigail , Fond Marissa
Published: April 2016

Understanding how people make sense of social issues is a fundamental aspect of communications research. In this piece, we apply theory from psychological anthropology to provide a new perspective on this core feature of communication and argue for the importance of considering culture in applied communications research. Drawing on a study of the implicit understandings and patterns of reasoning that Americans use to think about the process of aging and older adults, we show how the theory of cultural models can be applied to arrive at a deeper view of the ways in which members of the public make meaning of aging issues. We discuss the implications of this research for those communicating about aging and other social and scientific issues. The article provides information on public understanding that is directly pertinent to those communicating about aging and demographic change in the United States.
Collective action frame and cultural context: A study of the anti-express-rail-link movement in Hong Kong
Authors: Xia Ying
Published: April 2016

Existing framing analysis has centered on the internal dynamics of framing, focusing on the relationship between collective action frames and the ‘interpretative schema’ of individual participants. The external relationship of framing to the broader cultural context has largely been neglected. How does the cultural context influence the forming and transforming of collective action frames? This study addresses this question by analyzing the framing process of the anti-express-rail-link movement in Hong Kong. Its findings indicate that the cultural context affects the efficiency of collective action frames. On the one hand, collective action frames that align with mainstream values of the cultural context may mobilize more participants than those associated with marginal values. On the other hand, marginal cultural values that participants managed to bring forward into public discourse via the actions of a movement may, in turn, further transform the existing cultural context. Thus, while cultural context affects the formation of a collective action frame, the latter also plays a constructive role for the former.
The separation of officials from local staff: The logic of the Empire and personnel management in the Chinese bureaucracy
Authors: Zhou Xueguang
Published: April 2016

This article contrasts and examines two distinct modes of personnel management practice in the Chinese bureaucracy: (1) the historical pattern of the separation of officials from local staff ( guanli fentu); (2) the contemporary pattern of stratified mobility ( cengji fenliu) among officials across levels of administrative jurisdiction. I argue that these two patterns, albeit distinct, have been rooted in the same institutional logic of governance in China, which is discussed and explicated in light of ‘the logic of the Chinese Empire’, especially in terms of the principal–agent problems associated with the scale of governance, the complementary roles of formal and informal institutions, and the shift between symbolic and substantive authority in central–local government relationships. The personnel management practices and the resulting mobility patterns have provided stable institutional bases for central-local government relationships, and they have set limits to the downward reach of the state and the upward reach of local interests, and helped shape distinctive institutional practices in governing China.
A Comparison of Corporate Governance Practices in State-owned Enterprises and Their Private Sector Peers in India
Authors: Subramanian S.
Published: April 2016

In India, Corporate governance norms were prepared with the assumption that firms were controlled by private players. However, in India, there are many firms that are majority-owned by the State or the government. Literature on corporate governance has highlighted the differences in the governance practices of government- and private-owned enterprises. But the parameters on the basis of which such differences emerge have not been studied. This article attempts to fill in the research gaps by analyzing the corporate governance practices of State-owned enterprises, known as public sector undertakings (PSUs), and family-owned enterprises in the Indian context by using the case study method. Five PSUs along with five family-owned private sector enterprises were selected for the study and their board practices were compared. The findings indicate significant differences in the board structure and the director’s compensation structure of PSUs and family-owned firms. These findings suggest that policy-makers need to consider the State ownership issue separately while making corporate governance norms.
A primal-dual fixed point algorithm for minimization of the sum of three convex separable functions
Authors: Chen Peijun , Huang Jianguo , Zhang Xiaoqun
Published: April 2016

Many problems arising in image processing and signal recovery with multi-regularization and constraints can be formulated as minimization of a sum of three convex separable functions. Typically, the objective function involves a smooth function with Lipschitz continuous gradient, a linear composite nonsmooth function, and a nonsmooth function. In this paper, we propose a primal-dual fixed point (PDFP) scheme to solve the above class of problems. The proposed algorithm for three-block problems is a symmetric and fully splitting scheme, only involving an explicit gradient, a linear transform, and the proximity operators which may have a closed-form solution. We study the convergence of the proposed algorithm and illustrate its efficiency through examples on fused LASSO and image restoration with non-negative constraint and sparse regularization.