bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Current Trends in Deep Learning
Authors: Yang Yushu
Published: May 2023

This paper provides an overview of the current artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques, including Convolutional Neural Networks(CNN), Adversarial and Generative Techniques, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Reinforcement Learning(RL). The paper discusses the background, applications, and future trends of these techniques, highlighting their potential for solving real-world problems. The purpose of the paper is to illustrate the trends that are emerging in these areas, as well as the challenges that must be addressed in order to fully realize their potential. By identifying several key areas, this paper concludes the future research and development.
REACHING RETIREMENT AGE BY OLDER PERSONS. TRENDS AND CHALLENGES
Authors: Uścińska Gertruda
Published: May 2023

Each year, over 300,000 persons retire from the labour market in Poland. This is a worrying phenomenon especially in the light of the population ageing. It causes a loss for the economy of valuable labour resources, which are increasingly scarce. It also puts a heavy burden on public finance with the payment of an increasing number of old-age pension benefits. Retiring early immediately after obtaining entitlement or within a few months after this occurrence increases a risk of poverty. Pensions in Poland are generally low; the amount of the calculated benefit increases significantly with each additional year of work and payment of old-age insurance contributions. The article describes the issues related to the possibility of encouraging persons who have obtained the entitlement to an old-age pension to remain in the labour market and defer claiming the benefit. Based on the results of the Institute of Labour and Social Studies research project on mitigating the effects of the pandemic among high-risk groups, the author analysed the main reasons for retirement of persons at pensionable age and the motives indicated by them for continuing employment or returning to the labour market. On this basis, using selected elements of the support model developed in the cited project, solutions have been identified that may without the need to raise the statutory retirement age reduce the outflow of persons at retirement age from the labour market.
EFEITO DA GRANULOMETRIA NAS PROPRIEDADES FÍSICO- MECÂNICO, MORFOLÓGICAS E ESTRUTURAIS DE COMPÓSITOS DE PEAD RECICLADO E FIBRAS DE SISAL
Authors: Faria Albertran Dias , Barros Gabriel de Sousa , Da Silva Gabriela de Oliveira , Dos Santos Monica Cristina Celestino , Libano Elaine Vidal Dias Gomes , Pereira Patricia Soares da Costa
Published: May 2023

O descarte de resíduos plásticos representa uma ameaça ao meio ambiente devido ao longo tempo de degradação. A busca por alternativas que visam a diminuição dos impactos ambientais causados pela geração destes resíduos vem crescendo constantemente. Uma das alternativas é a reciclagem ou a reintrodução desses materiais através da obtenção de materiais compósitos. O polietileno (PE) é um dos materiais que constitui um grande volume de resíduos poliméricos, enquanto a fibra de sisal vem sendo utilizada como reforço em plásticos nos últimos anos. Desta forma, nesse trabalho foram obtidos compósitos de PEAD reciclado e fibras de sisal. As fibras utilizadas foram separadas conforme sua granulometria e foi utilizada a concentração de 5% de fibra para todas as variações granulométricas. Os materiais processados por extrusão foram caracterizados quanto ao índice de fluidez (MFI, ASTM D1238-13), densidade (ASTM D792-13), dureza (ASTM D2240–10), ensaio de temperatura de amolecimento (VICAT), difratometria de raios X (XRD), resistência ao impacto e microscopia eletrônica de varredura (MEV). Os resultados mostraram um aumento no MFI e na dureza e uma redução na densidade. Os valores obtidos no ensaio de temperatura de amolecimento VICAT acompanharam, tendencialmente, os resultados obtidos no ensaio de dureza. A incorporação da fibra, independentemente do tamanho, causou interferência na cristalinidade da matriz polimérica e promoveu uma mudança na superfície dos compósitos. A resistência ao impacto diminuiu com a inserção da fibra de sisal independente da granulometria da fibra.
Rutine i emocije nastavnika kao strukturacijski element obrazovnog sustava tijekom nastave na daljinu
Authors: Degač Đurđica , Vukić Jana
Published: May 2023

Nagli prelazak na nastavu na daljinu 2020. godine zbog pandemije bolesti COVID-19 od nastavnika je zahtijevao proces prilagodbe stvaranjem novih nastavnih rutina, koji je bio popraćen složenim emocionalnim iskustvom, dok su nastavnici istodobno pokušavali živjeti svoj profesionalni i osobni život. Pozivajući se na Giddensovu teoriju strukturacije s fokusom na procese rutinizacija i regionalizacije interakcija te Turnerovu analizu integracijskih procesa i uloge emocija u njima, u radu se ukazuje na važnost održavanja rutina radi ontološke sigurnosti i socijalne integracije te na relevantnost emocija tijekom nastave na daljinu. U radu se ispituje (i) kako su oblikovane i regionalizirane nastavne rutine te (ii) kakve su pozitivne i negativne emocije nastavnici doživjeli tijekom razdoblja provođenja nastave na daljinu u susretima i interakciji s različitim akterima. U analizi su korištene kvalitativne metode, odnosno analizirani su intervjui provedeni 2020. godine s 32 predmetna učitelja i nastavnika, a kao metoda analize korištena je deduktivno-induktivna tematska analiza. Prodiranje javnog u osobni prostor nastavnika, uspostavljanje rutina i emocionalna iskustva teme su konstruirane tijekom analize, pri čemu su identificirane i podteme. U radu se pokazuje da su očuvanje starih i stvaranje novih rutina te (pozitivne) emocije i očekivanja u interakcijama potencijal koji može omogućiti prevladavanje kriznih ili izazovnih situacija poput nastave na daljinu, ponekad tako da se narušava razgraničenje javnog i privatnog. S druge strane pojava negativnih emocija i dugotrajnih negativnih emocionalnih stanja na mikrorazini upućuju na, iz perspektive nastavnika, neadekvatnu valorizaciju njihova rada od viših institucionalnih razina te predstavljaju potencijal za dezintegracijske procese.
(Un)doing Feminisms Their Own Way
Authors: Ždralović Amila , Popov Momčinović Zlatiborka
Published: May 2023

This article examines women's activism and feminism in Bosnia and Herzegovina, focusing on marginalised women's groups and organisations that are often excluded from academic research and international donor interests. The theoretical section presents the main characteristics of the development of women's organisations in post-war BIH, addressing the problem of NGO-isation of activism and feminism, which marginalises groups of women and organisations that do not belong to prominent liberal feminist organisations that pursue gender mainstreaming. Qualitative research based on in-depth interviews and analysis shows that these organisations mostly focus on the local level to meet diverse, specific, and sometimes urgent needs of women (e.g., Roma women, rural women, impoverished as well as women in small local communities) facing particular challenges while doing so. Although most of them do not clearly profess a feminist identity, they are aware of the patriarchal context, especially in their local communities, and their interpretations are mostly in line with the feminist ethics of care. However, the lack of organisational capacity, sustainable funding, and a clear feminist agenda in their work undermine their critical potential to be triggers for social change.
Pengaruh K3, Lingkungan Kerja, dan Shift Kerja terhadap Kinerja Karyawan PT. XYZ
Authors: Putri Agil Aninda , Munang Aswan , Nurisusilawati Isnaini
Published: May 2023

PT. XYZ adalah salah satu perusahaan produksi kayu lapis yang berada di Purbalingga. Kinerja karyawan merupakan salah satu aspek penting dalam sebuah perusahaan. Banyak faktor yang dapat mempengaruhi kinerja karyawan antara lain adalah K3, lingkungan kerja, dan shift kerja. Upaya peningkatan kinerja agar dapat menjadi karyawan yang berkualitas dan bekerja dengan baik, maka PT. XYZ perlu memperhatikan K3, lingkungan kerja, dan shift kerja. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendapatkan pengaruh K3, lingkungan kerja, dan shift kerja terhadap kinerja karyawan bagian produksi PT. XYZ, dan pengolahan data nya menggunakan metode regresi linier berganda. Hasil analisis data menggunakan regresi linier berganda didapatkan persamaan nya yaitu Y = 8,535+ 0,281X1 + 0,191 X2 + 0,393X3 + e dari hasil tersebut menunjukkan bahwa K3, lingkungan kerja, dan shift kerja berpengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap PT. XYZ dengan Adjusted R Square sebesar 0,270 (27%) sedangkan sisanya 0,73 (73%) dipengaruhi oleh variabel lain yang tidak diteliti.
The Life of Madie Hall Xuma
Authors: Hendricks Wanda A.
Published: May 2023

Madie Beatrice Hall, a prominent southern Black American, sailed out of New York City in April 1940 on a ship headed to Cape Town, South Africa, to marry Alfred Bitini Xuma, a South African physician who would be elected president of the African National Congress (ANC) eight months later. She carried with her the nurturing and training of two activist parents, a devotion to the tenets of African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, an unwavering commitment to service, and nearly three decades of public activism in her hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a Jim Crow city that became the largest manufacturer of tobacco products in the world. Although challenged and constrained by the global conflict that became World War II, Madie Hall Xuma centered herself in South Africa’s Black community and became one of the country’s most potent and persuasive transnational forces. She raised money for the struggling ANC, developed Zenzele Clubs that attracted Black women throughout South Africa and linked them to Black American activist women, and became president of the African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL). After the war ended in 1945, she embarked on several lecture tours in the United States to fortify ties between Black South African women and Black American women, called on Black and white Christians to assist Black South Africans, and spoke out against the institutionalization of apartheid. For more than a decade, she defied apartheid policies of racial segregation and ignored the South African government’s steady march toward global isolation. Hall Xuma encouraged and nurtured the alliance between Zenzele Clubs and the white South African Council of World Affiliated YWCA and secured the powerful position as the first Black president of the South African Council. And as the first Black woman from South Africa elected to the Executive Committee of the World Young Women’s Christian Association (World YWCA), one of the largest women’s organizations in the world, she crafted a model of how to shape transnational policies dedicated to securing equality for women and girls around the globe.
Introduction
Authors: Hendricks Wanda A.
Published: May 2023

The introduction contextualizes and situates Madie Hall Xuma’s historical significance in American history, southern history, South African history, Black women’s history, women’s history, transnational studies, and world history. It explores the dynamic interplay between her prominence in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and as a Black American woman residing in South Africa. The introduction also presents the individuals, events, and ideologies that influenced her life and shaped her activist identity, highlights her religious commitment to Christian service, illuminates the ways in which she integrated Black women into the YWCA movement globally, establishes her legacy of training women and girls to be leaders, and promotes her advocacy for peace and human rights.
“Women Are Awakening”
Authors: Hendricks Wanda A.
Published: May 2023

Social reform organizations like Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) had rooted themselves in Winston-Salem in the first decade of the twentieth century to mobilize and harness white women’s voluntary work and by the end of the second decade solidified a place among Black female activists. Chapter 3 demonstrates how the gendered face of Jim Crow shaped the entre of Black female reform activists like Madie Hall into voluntary social reform organizational culture. It also illustrates the ways in which Black activist women like her utilized the relationships cultivated with prominent white female activists to advance agendas in their own segregated female organizations and expand their role in the public sphere.
The Bridge between Jim Crow and Apartheid
Authors: Hendricks Wanda A.
Published: May 2023

Chapter 4 explores the significance of Madie Hall’s moved to New York City to attend Columbia University Teachers College during the Great Depression. She was welcomed by friends she had known in Winston-Salem and those who had spent more than a decade in South Africa, and the city became both the metaphorical and the actual bridge to a new life. She engaged in the bustling educational, social, and cultural milieu of the city; resided in International House with hundreds of students from around the world; and met physician Alfred B. Xuma. He was South African, American educated, and vice president of the All-African Convention, a political organization that led the opposition to the oppression of Black South Africans.
“If I Had Wings I Would Truly Fly Over”
Authors: Hendricks Wanda A.
Published: May 2023

Geographical distance shaped the unconventional courtship between Madie Hall and Alfred Xuma and allowed Hall to refashion many of the courtship traditions that typically defined the lives of elite Black American women. This chapter delves into the mechanics of a courtship that took root in New York City, sprouted through correspondence penned on three continents, and solidified because of an abiding commitment to a mission of service. Chapter 5 also demonstrates that when Hall agreed to marry Alfred Xuma and set sail out of New York City Harbor in the middle of World War II to Cape Town, South Africa, she was embarking on the fulfillment of a personal and professional journey that had been more than a decade in the making.
The Italian Opera Singers in Mozart's Vienna
Authors: Link Dorothea
Published: May 2023

The book examines the voices and casting practices of singers in late eighteenth-century Italian opera as exemplified in Vienna’s court opera, 1783-91, with the aim of obtaining greater insight into the singers who created or sang in Mozart’s Da Ponte operas. The investigation into the singers’ voices proceeds on two levels: that of understanding them in terms of the vocal-dramatic categories employed in opera at the time and that of creating vocal profiles for individual singers from the music composed expressly for them. The singers are further examined for their positions in the Vienna company and their careers on the European stage. Insofar as the book covers the company’s operation, it is also a history of Josephine opera. It examines the establishment and management of the court opera company, the vocal-dramatic categories in which singers were classified, and the court theatre’s musical sources for the casting information they contain. A key finding is that the prima donna is the singer most critical to the company. The four examined here are Nancy Storace, Anna Morichelli, Luisa Laschi, and Adriana Ferrarese. Further, although Emperor Joseph maintained an opera buffa company, he tended to engage singers who could sing gran canto, which went hand in hand with the cultivation of mixed-genre opera.
Classification of Operatic Roles, Voice Types, and Singing Styles
Authors: Link Dorothea
Published: May 2023

Based largely on the physician Benedetto Frizzi’s treatise on late eighteenth-century opera singers, this chapter discusses the six vocal-dramatic categories in which singers were classified: the musico, the serious female singer, the serious tenor, the mezzo carattere, the comic female singer, and the buffo caricato. Although voice types are only incidentally mentioned in contemporary writings, baritone, tenor, and contralto are discussed here for their particular meaning. It finds that the baritone voice had no independent existence in opera, but a singer possessing such a voice could assume both mezzo-carattere and buffo-caricato roles. The eighteenth-century tenore contraltini, unlike the modern tenor, was trained in the castrato method. The term contralto is occasionally encountered but only in passing without elaboration. Opera seria and opera buffa entailed their own style of singing.
Nancy Storace: The Company Stabilizes, 1784–85
Authors: Link Dorothea
Published: May 2023

The chapter shows how in giving Benucci a three-year contract, Emperor Joseph was committing himself to keeping the Italian company. It discusses the leading composers Giovanni Paisiello and Giuseppe Sarti, and the former being given the first big opera commission. Giuseppe Viganoni was engaged to sing the primo mezzo-carattere roles, thereby freeing up Mandini to sing buffo-caricato roles. The local singer Caterina Cavalieri comes into focus as a second-rank singer. Mid-season, the second-tier prima donna Luisa Laschi made her debut but only slightly lessened Storace’s load as prima donna.
Nancy Storace’s Exuberant Year, 1786–87
Authors: Link Dorothea
Published: May 2023

This chapter discusses how Nancy Storace resumed singing most of the prima-donna roles in the Italian opera company at the Viennese court. Celeste Coltellini was replaced by the returning Luisa Laschi. New singers in the company included the superstar tenore Domenico Mombelli, who came from opera seria, and Dorothea Sardi Bussani. At the end of the season, Storace departed for London.
Adriana Ferrarese: Portents of Change, 1790–91
Authors: Link Dorothea
Published: May 2023

The chapter discusses how under Leopold II the Italian opera company at the Viennese court initially continued as it had under Joseph II, although its fare changed noticeably. All but one of the six new operas that season were imported from Naples in preparation for the prolonged visit of the Neapolitan royal family. Adriana Ferrarese was cast in the prima-donna roles. Luigia Villeneuve continued to sing secondary and altra prima-donna roles, both comic and serious, as needed. The Neapolitanization of the opera company was completed at the end of the season with the engagement of the Neapolitan prima buffa Irene Tomeoni Dutillieu and the termination of Ferrarese, Da Ponte, and Count Rosenberg.
Marianne Meets the Mormons
Authors: Belnap Heather , Cropper Corry , Lee Daryl
Published: May 2023

Why would journalist Louis Veuillot tell Sainte-Beuve in 1867 that “rational science must inevitably lead the world to Mormonism”? How could feminist Olympe Audouard characterize Mormons as “cosmopolitan and free thinking” in 1869? What led satirist Jules Demolliens to quip in 1881 that France should “adopt the law of the Mormons”? And why would French conservatives mock Victor Hugo for not accepting two young Mormon brides in 1883? Marianne Meets the Mormons: Representations of Mormonism in Nineteenth-Century France analyzes depictions of the new American religion in French texts produced in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and shows how the French co-opted Mormonism as a screen upon which to project their own cultural dilemmas. It examines hundreds of never-before-studied images, newspaper articles, novels, and plays to show how Mormonism-as-an-idea functions in a non-American context; it also looks at how an emergent foreign religion exposes French anxieties around the key nineteenth-century issues of religion, politics, socialism, gender, marriage and divorce, the family, and colonialism. By decentering the idea of Mormonism from its original American context and studying how it operated in a distant ideology, Marianne Meets the Mormons nuances the conventional notion that the modern French state emerged from a tug-of-war between secular forces and Catholicism by telling the story of how a small, foreign faith tradition was instrumental in conceptualizing modern France.
“La Loi nouvelle”
Authors: Belnap Heather , Cropper Corry , Lee Daryl
Published: May 2023

The rise of Romantic Socialism in France across the turbulent July Monarchy and Second Republic led French writers to place Mormonism among the radical utopian movements agitating for a response to the Social Question. This chapter analyzes key writings by anarchist and geographer Élisée Reclus, who conjured Mormons as a threat to the state; naturalist Jules Rémy, whose travel narrative Voyage au pays des Mormons provided a seminal eyewitness account; and economist Jean Reybaud, whose Études sur les réformateurs contemporains devoted its longest chapter to Mormons alongside others on Saint-Simonians, Fourierists, and Icarians. Mormon polygamy and collectivist economics were taken seriously as both a successful social model and a dangerous threat to religion, family, and property.
Mormonism, Masculinity, and the Woman Question in Second Empire France
Authors: Belnap Heather , Cropper Corry , Lee Daryl
Published: May 2023

This chapter explores how the social construction of gender in France’s Second Empire afforded comparison with feminine and masculine models of identity in Mormonism: frontier masculinity and the male psyche of leaders, such as Joseph Smith and Brigham Young on the one hand, and female social types, such as negligent mothers or subversive Amazons and Bluestockings on the other. Sources include the first book-length studies of Mormonism, images by Cham and Albert Robida, and the original French illustrations in the translation of the American exposé Female Life Among the Mormons analyzed against well-known images by Daumier and salon paintings by Ingres, Delaroche, and Girodet. The chapter concludes by analyzing feminist Olympe Audouard’s writings on Mormon womanhood drawn from her travel to Utah.
From Page to Stage
Authors: Belnap Heather , Cropper Corry , Lee Daryl
Published: May 2023

During the second half of the nineteenth century, the place of women within the Mormon faith was frequently exploited by the French as a means to debate the Woman Question in their own country. Mormons featured prominently in Albert Robida’s illustrated novels Saturnin Farandoul and Le Vingtième siècle, and their imagined way of life provided fodder for the exploration of women’s roles, present and future, in society. Similarly, satirical theatrical productions, such as Les Douze femmes de Japhet and Berthelier chez les Mormonnes which took Mormonism and its controversial practice of polygamy as its focus, provided a productive space for the French to address their own cultural anxieties and aspirations regarding the rights and roles of women and the figure of the New Woman.
“Ces mœurs sont bien les nôtres!”
Authors: Belnap Heather , Cropper Corry , Lee Daryl
Published: May 2023

Jean Elisabeth Pedersen has argued that the contours of the modern French family were defined “not only in parliament, in the periodical press … but also, especially, at the theater.” In fact, the specter of the polygamous Mormon family appears in all three of these venues in Third Republic France: politicians debating the shape of the family wonder if divorce will “lead to Mormonism,” journalists discussing the ramifications of divorce declare, “Long live the Mormons!”, and playwrights evoking contemporary questions about marriage, divorce, and infidelity frequently feature Mormons on the stage. Writing about Mormons allowed French writers to obliquely raise questions about the nature of the family, the place of illegitimate partners and children, and the role of marriage.
Exotic Mormons and the French Colonial Project
Authors: Belnap Heather , Cropper Corry , Lee Daryl
Published: May 2023

As Third Republic France accelerated colonial expansion in Africa and Asia under the guise of its “civilizing mission,” French writers and illustrators used the Mormon colonization of the American West to measure the success and failure of their own enterprise, especially in Algeria. This age of racist scientific theories cast the exoticized Mormons of the American West, a fascination for the Geographical Society of Paris, as Jews or Muslims, seeing in the Utah Territory the growth of a fictional multiracial polygamous society. Opérettes, vaudevilles, and illustrated novels exploited colonialist tropes to capture the frequent conflation of Third Republic colonialism and Mormonism.
“La Fin du Mormonisme”
Authors: Belnap Heather , Cropper Corry , Lee Daryl
Published: May 2023

Though French writers were wrong in their predictions of Mormonism’s quick demise, they were correct that the American religion would not long hold the interest of the French public. After the trial of Reed Smoot, the French wrote relatively little about the LDS Church. But before that, Mormonism was a necessary touchstone to facilitate working through questions surrounding gender, marriage and desire, colonialism, socialism, and more. For the French, Mormonism carried out a function similar to that carried out by folklore: it justified French attitudes and behaviors, enabled a mode of self-questioning, and gave voice to cultural desires and anxieties.
“Strong Winds and Widow Makers”
Authors: Beda Steven C.
Published: May 2023

Like much of the industrialized world, timber country changed dramatically in the 1970s. Chapter 6 documents those changes and explores how they altered the relationship between workers and environmentalists. Although attention is paid to demographic and economic changes in timber country, the focus is on culture. Popular culture increasingly shaped the way middle-class environmentalists of the late twentieth century convinced many environmental activists that the rural working class was one of the largest barriers to saving the forests, setting the stage for the environmental conflicts to come.
Traditional or Digital: It’s All Hand-Drawn (1989–1990)
Authors: Lescher Mary E.
Published: May 2023

Chapter 2 demonstrates how the Florida studio began operating in much the same way as Walt Disney’s studio during the 1930s and 1940s, primarily utilizing hand-drawn cel animation. This chapter presents a comparative analysis of two films that demonstrate the initial departure from that pipeline, the simultaneous production of The Prince and the Pauper (1990), a featurette distinguished as the last cel animation created at Disney, and The Rescuers Down Under (1990), the first feature-length film produced entirely with the new Computer Animated Production System (CAPS). While much of today’s scholarship focuses on the dominance of computer-generated imagery (CGI), this chapter is interested in identifying the interconnectivity and hybridity of the two working processes, hand-drawn and computer, as artists relied on the best of both methods. The computer initially occupied a supporting role in the animation creation process instead of a starring one.
Postscript
Authors: Lescher Mary E.
Published: May 2023

The postscript gives some details of what happened with Walt Disney Feature Animation after the close of the Florida studio, including the acquisition of Pixar in 2006. Also, the animation industry in general is showing signs of hand-drawn animation returning to prominence, although artists are now drawing directly into the computer (via tools like the Cintiq) rather than on cels.
Dream Books and Gamblers
Authors: Schlabach Elizabeth Schroeder
Published: May 2023

This book uncovers the labor of Black women in Chicago’s informal economy during the twentieth century, highlighting their roles in an illegal lottery called “policy gambling.” Charting their work in Chicago’s gambling industry from the upper-class echelons, where policy queens sat, to the very bottom, where policy writers, clerks, and pickup women worked very hard for little pay, this book shows that policy provided Black women with remarkable opportunity. Many women backed legitimate businesses with policy work or supplemented undesirable domestic labor with earnings from policy gambling. Policy also created work for women in the supernatural economy, where they were consulted as mediums and where their images were used on numerous dream books to access the hottest number combinations. However, policy exposed Black women to new levels of policing. Surveillance was a constant in their lives, evoking a pattern of disruption and economic instability. Black women did not succumb these pressures but instead capitalized on the dualities caused by their work in policy.
Chicago’s First Policy Queens
Authors: Schlabach Elizabeth Schroeder
Published: May 2023

This chapter explores the history of policy queens through the lens of two women competing for a fortune: Elizabeth Slaughter and Eudora Johnson (later Binga). They were the subject of nearly every Chicago parlor—Black or white—throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The chapter presents their divergent strategies to leverage policy wealth while keeping their respectability intact before the Great Migration. Their different paths were defined by the emerging definition of “policy queen.” Their lives provide vital glimpses into what it meant to be a woman rising in social status on Chicago’s South Side, what the small number of women in a similar position could hope to attain, and how precarious that position was when one was visibly associated with policy gambling.
Chicago’s Most Famous Policy Queen
Authors: Schlabach Elizabeth Schroeder
Published: May 2023

This chapter presents the life of Harriett Jones and maintains that her life challenges conventional ideas about Black working women in Chicago as well as recasting definitions of being a policy queen. Her sons, the Jones brothers, became notorious for their economic influence, but she was rarely associated with their success. The press relegated her to the background, and this appears to be by Harriett’s design. Records from the Kefauver Committee, a special commission of the U.S. Senate that existed from 1950 to 1951 to investigate organized crime, reveal her as the architect of the Jones policy empire. Furthermore, as a policy queen she reveals how policy played a crucial role in her family’s strategies during the Great Depression regardless of respectable status.
Quinoa
Authors: Seligmann Linda J.
Published: May 2023

This ethnography examines efforts to expand quinoa production for export in Huanoquite, one dynamic agrarian district in the Cusco region of the Andean highlands of Peru. Consumed by millions of people because of its healthful properties, quinoa has been cultivated by Indigenous Quechua farmers of the Andes for millennia. Based on the author’s long-term fieldwork over forty years, part 1 offers a backdrop to understanding the quinoa boom, showing how Huanoquite’s agrarian history and infrastructural and development projects, initiated by state and parastatal agencies, have been experienced by villagers. It takes account of the effects of neoliberalism, enduring racism, gender dynamics and discrimination, generational dynamics, and meanings of development. Part 2 turns to the quinoa project, discussing quinoa’s properties, its cultivation and processing, food politics surrounding its promotion and consumption; obstacles to its expansion, and why quinoa cultivators, consumers of quinoa, and government agencies entertain divergent assumptions regarding food security, sustainability, and food sovereignty. The final chapter addresses villagers’ resistance to mining activities that will pollute the entire region’s water supply on which its agriculture depends. Through a close analysis of the quinoa boom, the book shows the tensions between an ontology of pragmatic spirituality that grounds Quechua Indigenous villagers’ efforts to keep their world in balance and affective and economic modes of extraction that threatens the sustainability of their lives.
The Power and Seduction of Infrastructure
Authors: Seligmann Linda J.
Published: May 2023

This chapter looks at the power of infrastructure and its intervention in choices Huanoquiteños face. Changes in roads and communication technology over the last half-century have been as important as agrarian policies in transforming the livelihoods of Huanoquiteños. Improved infrastructure between Huanoquite and the tourist mecca and market nexus of Cusco has permitted far more connections among people, places, and goods, and more entrepreneurial opportunities. However, Quechua meanings and uses of place, regional space, and health have also been called into question. Villagers have become aware that many state improvements in their vicinity have taken place because of the state’s support of mining concessions, thus overshadowing positive changes underway.
To Be Strong and Healthy
Authors: Seligmann Linda J.
Published: May 2023

This chapter highlights the voices, aesthetics, and activities of women with respect to quinoa and also how and why their perspectives are often ignored. Analysis of brochures, documents, and advertisements promoting, and branding quinoa also shows why, internationally, certain properties of quinoa and quinoa preparation have gained in popularity and how ideologies about Peru’s Indigenous people shape their discourse and content. New ways of thinking about and preparing quinoa have circulated, but how people interact with food is underpinned by their views of what is healthy, good for the body and other entities of the universe, and desires for particular foods. Tourism and Peru’s acclaim as a destination of gastronomical delights with Indigenous roots colors how quinoa and other Indigenous foodstuffs are regarded in ways that overlap but also contrast with how Indigenous inhabitants view and consume them.
Relationships between socio-emotional skills and stress, anxiety and depression disorders in education professionals in the COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Adrião Silvia , Reichert Richard Alecsander , Simoes Amanda , Machado Tayssa , Micheli Denise De
Published: May 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated several challenges worldwide in different spheres of society, including education. This study examined the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on teaching routine, its associated stress, anxiety, and depression disorders, and how educators' social-emotional skills are related to these disorders. The main hypothesis was that social-emotional skills have a significant protective effect on psychological problems, suggesting that they should be developed to reduce the prevalence of these disorders. Method: An online survey was conducted through a questionnaire sent to educators of Basic Education and Higher Education from all over Brazil. Results: Based on data from 231 education professionals, it was found that most participants had mild to moderate levels of stress, extremely severe levels of anxiety, and normal levels of depression. Participating teachers reported an abrupt and intense change in work routine during quarantine, but also demonstrated elevated levels of positive thinking, emotional self-control, ability to cope with stress, collaboration, openness to the new and another, and good self-management. It was also found that the more social-emotional skills, the lower the total rates of disorders. Conclusion: The results suggest that social-emotional skills were important factors for better coping with the pandemic, but that health and well-being involve other elements in addition to skills. It is expected that these findings can support intervention strategies aimed at professionals in the field of education.
Melhorando a Efetividade de Projetos de Desenvolvimento de Software através de uma Abordagem Híbrida: Uma análise de resultados e impactos
Authors: Vieira André Fernandes , Lima Antônio Casanova Junior da Silva , Carr Caroline Nunes
Published: May 2023

O objetivo deste artigo é analisar a adoção de abordagens híbridas que combinam elementos das metodologias ágeis e tradicionais, a fim de maximizar as chances de sucesso de projetos de desenvolvimento de software. A pesquisa realizada utilizou a metodologia hipotético-dedutivo com base em revisões bibliográficas. Ambas as metodologias possuem características únicas que podem se adequar melhor a um determinado projeto. No entanto, os obstáculos na conciliação das metodologias ágeis e tradicionais baseiam-se nas dificuldades que cada metodologia propõe em relação à outra. Portanto, é essencial considerar as particularidades de cada metodologia e avaliar sua aplicabilidade em relação às necessidades e requisitos do projeto em questão. O modelo híbrido é uma opção ideal, pois combina o melhor de ambas as metodologias.
Incidencias con incertidumbre. Su aplicación a La teoría de los efectos olvidados
Authors: Rubín Carlos N.
Published: May 2023

La Teoría de los Efectos Olvidados es un modelo utilizado con éxito en trabajos de investigación de diferentes campos del conocimiento. Trata el concepto de incidencia con formalidad científica, estudia el efecto que produce un conjunto de entidades sobre otro o sobre sí mismo, procesa la matriz de incidencias y, finalmente, advierte al investigador sobre las eventuales inconsistencias halladas en las valuaciones de incidencias. Las valuaciones pueden ser del tipo binario, endecadario, intervalos de confianza o tripletas de confianza.
Este trabajo trata un caso concreto de aplicación, donde introduce el concepto de incertidumbre en cada incidencia y la expresa con un par ordenado de variables: la primera expresa la máxima presunción y la segunda expresa la incertidumbre asociada a la primera. Es decir, la segunda variable es la probabilidad subjetiva que la primera sea cierta. Se definen y utilizan los Números R, que permiten convertir el par ordenado de variables en una tripleta de confianza.
La incorporación de la incertidumbre permite procesar la confiabilidad de cada valuación. La omisión de la incertidumbre considera a todas las valuaciones con certeza y desaprovecha una información disponible.
Hoy existen sistemas que se alimentan de información generada por la mente humana, lo cual involucra conceptos blandos, susceptibles de ser valuados en efecto y en incertidumbre. De esta forma, se podrían desarrollar modelos de toma de decisiones en temas referidos a medio ambiente, corrupción, sostenibilidad, seguridad, educación, pobreza, bienestar, derechos humanos, inversiones, encuestas, riesgo en general.
Effects of controlled ovarian stimulation regimens on top-quality blastocyst development and perinatal outcomes with the freeze-all strategy: A retrospective comparative study
Authors: Bhor Sachin Ashok , Nakayama Kaname , Ono Hirofumi , Iwashita Toshiko , Kinoshita Koichi
Published: May 2023

Objective: This study aimed to determine the effect of ovarian stimulation regimens on the top-quality blastocyst development rate and perinatal outcomes with the freeze-all strategy.Methods: A retrospective comparative cohort analysis of 149 in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles using the freeze-all strategy was conducted. The IVF cycles were stimulated with either a gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist or clomiphene citrate along with gonadotropin based on the patient’s serum anti-Müllerian hormone level. Oocyte retrieval, fertilization, and embryo culture were performed following standard procedures. All good-quality blastocysts were cryopreserved and used for frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FET) in subsequent cycles. The fertilization, blastulation, and top-quality blastocyst development rates were calculated. The perinatal outcomes of FET cycles, gestational period, and birth weight were assessed.Results: The main outcome of this study was the top-quality blastocyst development rate, and the secondary outcomes were perinatal parameters (e.g., gestational period and birth weight) between the stimulation regimens. Despite the higher number of usable-quality embryos in the antagonist group, the blastocyst development rate remained comparable (p=0.105). Similarly, perinatal outcomes were comparable in subsequent FET cycles (p=0.538).Conclusion: These findings suggest that the choice between antagonist and clomiphene citrate with gonadotropin as stimulation in controlled ovarian stimulation regimens may not affect the top-quality blastocyst development rate. The IVF outcomes (e.g., clinical pregnancy, miscarriage, and live birth rates) remained unaffected in subsequent FET cycles. Unlike fresh embryo transfer, the birth weight and gestational length were not associated with prior controlled ovarian stimulation regimens when the freeze-all strategy was used.
Relationship between hematologic parameters related to systemic inflammation and insulin resistance-associated metabolic parameters in women with polycystic ovary syndrome
Authors: Cho Minkyung , Kim Suji , Chun Sungwook
Published: May 2023

Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the associations between hematologic parameters related to systemic inflammation and insulin resistance-associated metabolic parameters in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Methods: Eighty-two women between the ages of 18 and 35 years who were diagnosed with PCOS were included in this study. A 2-hour 75-g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was administered to all study participants; fasting and postprandial glucose and insulin levels were measured simultaneously during the 2-hour OGTT. Hematologic parameters were derived from a standard complete blood count and a differential count of fasting-state blood samples. The correlations between hematologic parameters and insulin resistance-associated clinical and metabolic parameters were evaluated using the Spearman rank correlation and partial correlation coefficients. Hematologic parameters related to systemic inflammation were compared between the two groups, categorized by the presence or absence of insulin resistance.Results: Significant differences in the absolute neutrophil count, absolute monocyte count, platelet count, and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio were found between the insulin-resistant group and insulin-nonresistant group. Correlation analysis found that all hematological parameters, except for the platelet-lymphocyte ratio, were associated with at least one insulin resistance-associated metabolic parameter. However, these significant correlations between hematological and metabolic parameters were attenuated after controlling for the effects of other covariates using partial correlation analysis.Conclusion: The association between hematologic parameters indicative of systemic inflammation and insulin resistance-associated metabolic parameters seems to be strongly influenced by other anthropometric covariates in women with PCOS.
Analysis of Basic Education Policies Related to Facilities and Infrastructure
Authors: Firman Firmansah , Ida Bagus Putu Arnyana
Published: May 2023

The process of analyzing education policy and providing facilities and infrastructure in educational units lack facillities and infrastructure preparation in the school environment can result in not carrying out the learning process effectively and efficiently. That way, policymakers and stakeholders are expected to be able to think through, describe, and identify the process of preparing facilities and infrastructure carefully to support the continuity of education. This research departs from field observations so as to obtain various solutions. With various sources of factual data as support in compiling scientific work and obtaining data from scientific literature such as journals and reading books using the library research method. The analysis used a qualitative research approach; the technique of collecting data was by observing at school and reviewing the literature. Focusing on the purpose of procuring infrastructure facilities can influence the learning process and the implementation of effective learning, so it is deemed necessary to analyze good educational policies even though there are obstacles and challenges financially. For example, from the results of the learning survey for the 2020–2021 school year, there are around 50% of students whose parents are financially constrained, so they ask for a reduction in school fees. The realization of learning depends on the extent to which schools, through educational policy analysis, describe and identify the facilities and infrastructure that need to be prepared. Government participation is determined by its policies in providing educational facilities.
The Potentials of Biosurfactants as Anti-Inflammatory and Anti-Viral Agents Against Covid-19: A Mini Review
Authors: IBRAHIM LAWAL  , AMINU YUSUF FARDAMI  , BELLO SULEIMAN , HABIBU AISHA , MUHAMMAD SANUSI ZAINAB
Published: May 2023

Infection due to strain of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS COV2) has grown to be of global public health significance. Biotechnology uses living organisms such as microbes to produce metabolites like biosurfactants. Biosurfactants are ampiphilic surface active biomolecules that were proven to have therapeutic function against some groups of microbes including viruses. They also have anti-inflammatory potential through their interaction with viral membranes and macromolecules to decrease cytosolic phospholipase A2, which is the beginning of an anti-inflammatory response, and are recognized structurally by toll-like receptors (TLR-2), which are released when neutrophils are stimulated. They can also play vital role in aiding the human body to have inflammatory response. The functional groups of biosurfactants interact with the viruses membrane structure. Some groups of biosurfactants cause physiochemical processes that render viruses inactive. Therefore it can generally be understood that biosurfactants destroy the virus's envelope and the viral membrane's structures. The principle behind biosurfactant’s anti viral property is due to the hydrophilic properties that are within the acetyl groups. Additionally, the hydrophobic properties of biosurfactant are also important in making it to have antiviral activity. These activities of biosurfactants against viruses make it to be potential anti-inflammatory and anti-viral agents against Covid-19. Therefore this paper is aimed to produce a mini review on the anti-inflammatory and anti-viral potential against Covid-19. And the review also highlights some of the desirable properties and benefits of biosurfactants as anti-corona viruses.
Assessing the Role of Sustainable Construction Practices in the One Belt One Road Initiative: A Comparative Analysis of China and Southeast Asian Countries
Authors: Bin Ai
Published: May 2023

This conceptual paper examines the role of sustainable construction practices in the One Belt One Road Initiative, with a focus on the comparative analysis between China and Southeast Asian countries. The study explores policy frameworks, technological advancements, market trends, and institutional capacities in promoting sustainable construction within the context of the initiative. The analysis reveals that both China and Southeast Asian countries have demonstrated a commitment to sustainable development through the implementation of green building standards and certification systems. China has showcased advancements in integrating renewable energy technologies and adopting innovative construction techniques, while Southeast Asian countries are gradually adopting advanced technologies. The market trends indicate a growing demand for green buildings and sustainable infrastructure in both regions. Institutional capacities vary, with China establishing research institutions and certification bodies, while Southeast Asian countries are in the process of strengthening their institutional frameworks. The findings suggest opportunities for collaboration and knowledge sharing within the initiative. The implications highlight the potential for environmental protection, economic growth, and social development through sustainable construction practices. The paper concludes with recommendations, including fostering international cooperation, providing capacity building programs, and promoting policy incentives to maximize the potential of sustainable construction in the One Belt One Road Initiative.