Blank Space Research Articles

Continuing colonialities through epistemic silences: law schools, law studies and avenues for transformation in Germany

ABSTRACT This contribution critiques the silences, omissions and slow reactions of German discourses regarding the deeper nuances of student-led global movements that seek to confront academic institutions’ complicity in colonial pasts and their role in perpetuating contemporary inequalities and the reinforcement of institutional and structural racism. The critique on the lack of epistemic disobedience in Germany then leads to an assessment of legal education, particularly international law studies, in order to demonstrate the complicity of this specific field as a vehicle of continuing colonialities of knowledge and power (even if unintended). Finally, the article puts forward recommendations for filling in the epistemic and pedagogical blank spaces to aid the transformation of international law studies in Germany and more generally, the global north. By so doing, it contends that the burden to decolonise legal studies, particularly international law studies, should be carried not solely by global south academic institutions but also by those in the global north, for a more united and thus effective fight against the rise of racism in Europe and beyond.

Chinese Art’s Influence on Roger Fry’s Aesthetics Formalism

Roger Fry was one of the greatest art critics of the 20th century, who promoted the rise and development of the Western modern art movement and constructed a set of modern aesthetics formalism and art criticism theories, exerting a huge influence on modern art. Despite the formation of Fry’s aesthetics formalism cannot be separated from the background of the transformation of Western cultural traditions, the influx of Chinese art into the West at that time also had an impact on Fry’s aesthetics formalism. Fry extracted and reinterpreted from Chinese art, forming a distinctive formalist aesthetic theory. In Fry’s various works, the influence of Chinese classical aesthetics can be seen, such as blank space, rhythm, and emotional expression. The research will explore the correlation between Roger Fry’s aesthetic formalism theory and Chinese art. The study will analyze how Chinese art was introduced into the West and how Roger Fry was influenced by Chinese art. It will focus some particular elements like rhythm and blank space, explore how Fry reinterpreted them and applied to modern art criticism theory, using his work “Cézanne: A Study of His Development” as an example.

Plotting the Blank Space Among Leadership, Job Crafting, and Career Development: An Integrative Review and Future Agendas for HRD

While leadership undeniably holds a substantial influence on subordinates’ work behaviors and career trajectories, the comprehensive exploration of these dynamics has remained limited. This integrative review aims to fill this gap by collectively examining the interplay among organizational leadership, employee job crafting, and career development. Our study analyzes and synthesizes findings from 47 selected empirical studies and presents an integrated model that suggests for the expansion of the current research landscape. This review further serves as a valuable guide for human resource development (HRD) professionals and practitioners. It also provides insights for designing effective approaches that enable leaders to fulfill crucial roles in facilitating employee job crafting and career development within organizational contexts.

Variations in CTAC batches from different suppliers highly affect the shape yield in seed-mediated synthesis of gold nanotriangles

The rapidly developing miniaturization in numerous fields require low-demanding but robust methods of nanomaterial production. Colloidal synthesis provides great flexibility in product material, size, and shape. Gold nanoparticle synthesis has been thoroughly studied, however, recent reports on mechanistic insights of crystal formation have been hindered by the numerous procedures and parameter optimization works. With every new study, scientists fill another blank space on the map of understanding anisotropic growth and find out the critical parameters. In the current work, we highlight the choice importance for surfactant supplier in achieving the gold nanotriangle formation. We systematically study the variation in the shape yield when utilizing five batches of cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC) from varied suppliers. Using analytical techniques, we search for deviations causing such variation, e.g. different impurity content. We found only a marginal effect of iodine contamination on the studied system, excluding this factor as decisive in contrast to what was proposed earlier in the literature, and leaving the high dependency of the yield to originate from yet unknown reagent characteristics. A deeper understanding of these factors would provide highly effective protocols lowering the reagent consumption and increasing the accessibility of nanomaterials manufactured in a sustainable manner.

Exploring the Influence of Object, Subject, and Context on Aesthetic Evaluation through Computational Aesthetics and Neuroaesthetics

Background: In recent years, computational aesthetics and neuroaesthetics have provided novel insights into understanding beauty. Building upon the findings of traditional aesthetics, this study aims to combine these two research methods to explore an interdisciplinary approach to studying aesthetics. Method: Abstract artworks were used as experimental materials. Based on traditional aesthetics and in combination, features of composition, tone, and texture were selected. Computational aesthetic methods were then employed to correspond these features to physical quantities: blank space, gray histogram, Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM), Local Binary Pattern (LBP), and Gabor filters. An electroencephalogram (EEG) experiment was carried out, in which participants conducted aesthetic evaluations of the experimental materials in different contexts (genuine, fake), and their EEG data were recorded to analyze the impact of various feature classes in the aesthetic evaluation process. Finally, a Support Vector Machines (SVMs) was utilized to model the feature data, Event-Related Potentials (ERPs), context data, and subjective aesthetic evaluation data. Result: Behavioral data revealed higher aesthetic ratings in the genuine context. ERP data indicated that genuine contexts elicited more negative deflections in the prefrontal lobes between 200 and 1000 ms. Class II compositions demonstrated more positive deflections in the parietal lobes at 50–120 ms, while Class I tones evoked more positive amplitudes in the occipital lobes at 200–300 ms. Gabor features showed significant variations in the parieto-occipital area at an early stage. Class II LBP elicited a prefrontal negative wave with a larger amplitude. The results of the SVM models indicated that the model incorporating aesthetic subject and context data (ACC = 0.76866) outperforms the model using only parameters of the aesthetic object (ACC = 0.68657). Conclusion: A positive context tends to provide participants with a more positive aesthetic experience, but abstract artworks may not respond to this positivity. During aesthetic evaluation, the ERP data activated by different features show a trend from global to local. The SVM model based on multimodal data fusion effectively predicts aesthetics, further demonstrating the feasibility of the combined research approach of computational aesthetics and neuroaesthetics.

Image Collage on Arbitrary Shape via Shape-Aware Slicing and Optimization.

Image collage is a very useful tool for visualizing an image collection. Most of the existing methods and commercial applications for generating image collages are designed on simple shapes, such as rectangular and circular layouts. This greatly limits the use of image collages in some artistic and creative settings. Although there are some methods that can generate irregularly-shaped image collages, they often suffer from severe image overlapping and excessive blank space. This prevents such methods from being effective information communication tools. In this article, we present a shape slicing algorithm and an optimization scheme that can create image collages of arbitrary shapes in an informative and visually pleasing manner given an input shape and an image collection. To overcome the challenge of irregular shapes, we propose a novel algorithm, called Shape-Aware Slicing, which partitions the input shape into cells based on medial axis and binary slicing tree. Shape-Aware Slicing,which is designed specifically for irregular shapes, takes human perception and shape structure into account to generate visually pleasing partitions. Then, the layout is optimized by analyzing input images with the goal of maximizing the total salient regions of the images. To evaluate our method, we conduct extensive experiments and compare our results against previous work. The evaluations show that our proposed algorithm can efficiently arrange image collections on irregular shapes and create visually superior results than prior work and existing commercial tools.

Spatiotemporal analysis and seasonality of tuberculosis in Pudong New Area of Shanghai, China, 2014–2023

BackgroundSpatiotemporal analysis is a vital method that plays an indispensable role in monitoring epidemiological changes in diseases and identifying high-risk clusters. However, there is still a blank space in the spatial and temporal distribution of tuberculosis (TB) incidence rate in Pudong New Area, Shanghai. Consequently, it is crucial to comprehend the spatiotemporal distribution of TB in this district, this will guide the prevention and control of TB in the district.MethodsOur research used Geographic Information System (GIS) visualization, spatial autocorrelation analysis, and space-time scan analysis to analyze the TB incidence reported in the Pudong New Area of Shanghai from 2014 to 2023, and described the spatiotemporal clustering and seasonal hot spot distribution of TB incidence.ResultsFrom 2014 to 2023, the incidence of TB in the Pudong New Area decreased, and the mortality was at a low level. The incidence of TB in different towns/streets has declined. The spatial autocorrelation analysis revealed that the incidence of TB was spatially clustered in 2014, 2016–2018, and 2022, with the highest clusters in 2014 and 2022. The high clustering area was mainly concentrated in the northeast. The space-time scan analysis indicated that the most likely cluster was located in 12 towns/streets, with a period of 2014–2018 and a radiation radius of 15.74 km. The heat map showed that there was a correlation between TB incidence and seasonal variations.ConclusionsFrom 2014 to 2023, the incidence of TB in the Pudong New Area of Shanghai declined, but there were spatiotemporal clusters and seasonal correlations in the incidence area. Local departments should formulate corresponding intervention measures, especially in high-clustering areas, to achieve accurate prevention and control of TB within the most effective time and scope.

Editing Arden: The Dramatis Personae List in As You Like It

ABSTRACT The first printed dramatis personae list for As You Like It appeared in Nicholas Rowe’s 1709 Works of Mr. William Shakespear. That list included an incomplete entry that described Rosalind’s father as the ‘Duke of ’, leaving a tantalising blank space where a geographical qualifier might be expected to appear. In a second issue of the edition of 1709, the incomplete entry was revised to read ‘Duke of Burgundy’. Yet, in a second edition of the play, printed later in 1709, the incomplete ‘Duke of ’ appeared again, and it appeared for a third time in 1714, in the revised third edition of Rowe’s Works. The 1714 dramatis personae list included another bold editorial revision: it contained an entirely new entry for a second ‘Clown’, suggesting that this second clown was distinct from the character we have come to know as Touchstone. This article traces the changes made to the dramatis personae lists of 1709 and 1714. It argues that these lists offer insights into early eighteenth-century critical responses to the play. The paper also shows that these lists, though often overlooked by modern editorial historians, anticipated later eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and twentieth-century debates about the play’s geography and about Touchstone.

‘[P]li sur pli, pli selon pli’: The Folding of Epistolary and Pictorial Space in Stéphane Mallarmé’s Les Loisirs de la Poste and James McNeill Whistler’s Thames Set Etchings

ABSTRACT Fascinated by the limits of poetic and aesthetic form, Stéphane Mallarmé and his friend James McNeill Whistler experimented with the contextual and framing elements of their works. Mallarmé's poems in Les Loisirs de la poste were written on envelopes and sent through the post, the quatrain replacing the address of the letter, while Whistler's portrayal of blank spaces and vertical lines in the Thames Set etchings manifests a folding aesthetic. Mallarmé's poems and Whistler's etchings enact a folding which disregards the poem-addressee and subject-frame distinctions and instead foregrounds the works' own status as verbal and visual media.

Controlled mitral valvuloplasty using steerable catheter- waist- formed balloon system: A clinical case series.

As the general population ages, the incidence of degenerative mitral stenosis (MS) among patients has increased. Percutaneous mitral valvuloplasty (PMV) has emerged as a well-established option for mitral rheumatic stenosis with specific characteristics. However, a blank therapeutic space must be filled with the treatment options for degenerative or rheumatic mitral stenosis in patients with many comorbidities and contraindication for valvuloplasty. We here present a comprehensive overview of the current possibilities, despite their scarce success. That is the reason why we propose a case series to facilitate a better understanding of our innovative technique in this challenging clinical context.

The Relationship Between The Hemodialysis Span and The Stress Level and Sleep Quality of Chronic Kidney Failure Patients In Hemodialysis Room At Tk. III Slamet Riyadi Hospital Surakarta

Hemodialysis will affect stress levels and sleep quality in chronic kidney failure patients. The longer a patient with chronic kidney failure undergoes hemodialysis therapy, the patient's stress level and sleep quality will worsen. The study aimed to analyze the relationship between the term hemodialysis and the stress level and sleep quality of chronic kidney failure patients at Tk.III Slamet Riyadi Hospital, Surakarta. The research adopted a quantitative descriptive analytical design with a cross-sectional approach. The sampling technique used total sampling with 57 respondents. Data collection methods utilized the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-42) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaires. The statistical test operated the gamma test. The results revealed the relationship between the term hemodialysis and stress levels and sleep quality with a p-value of 0.009 and 0.006. It inferred a relationship between the hemodialysis span, stress levels, and sleep quality. The correlation value between variables is 0.431 and 0.410. The longer the hemodialysis, the higher the stress level and the worse the patient's sleep quality (one blank single space line, 9 point font)

Experimental Investigation of Ductility in GFRP RC Beams by Confining the Compression Zone

Nowadays, building structures in corrosive environments requires some considerations. Being lightweight, high tensile strength, and corrosion resistance are the features that make fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) bars an alternative component for longitudinal steel reinforcement of concrete. On the other hand, the linear elastic behavior of FRP bars, alongside the brittle behavior of concrete, makes brittle members without considerable ductility. In this paper, the effect of compression region confinement with CFRP sheets on the FRP-reinforced concrete beams was experimentally investigated. Eight GFRP reinforced beams with 2 m length, including one reference beam and seven confined beams, were constructed and tested under a four-point bending test. Based on the type of confinement, specimens are categorized into four groups. Flexural behavior improvements, including load carry capacity, energy dissipation capacity, and ductility, were observed in at least one specimen of each confined group. According to the results, the specimen that was spirally confined with a 30 mm ribbon width and angle of 10° had the best total energy absorption up to about 110% improvement in comparison to the unconfined specimen. On the other hand, vertically confined specimens with 50 mm ribbon width showed the highest improvement in ductility indices and load carrying capacity up to 60% and 11% in comparison to unconfined specimens, respectively. Due to concrete compression zone fractures in flexural failure mode, the over-reinforce method is considered the design philosophy. Results indicate that regardless of the confinement type (discrete vertical, discrete spiral, or continuous spiral confinement), there is an optimal amount for width, blank space between ribbons, and depth of confinement to achieve the best flexural behavior.

Ethnic Identity and Traces of Culture: Pema Tseden in a Centenary History of Films

Abstract As a Tibetan indie filmmaker, Pema Tseden is endowed with an ethnic advantage. In his films, he focuses on the real-life conditions of Tibetans. Observing ethnic groups through the personal perspective of the individual, he profoundly contemplates the condition of Tibetan culture in the modernized world while reflecting on China through the geographical perspective of borderland. In terms of form, Pema Tseden’s films represent the unique features of Chinese film aesthetics and poetics by adopting special Tibetan images and the implicit narrative structure of blank space.

Filling the Blank Space: Branched 4-Nonylphenol Isomers Are Responsible for Robust Constitutive Androstane Receptor (CAR) Activation by Nonylphenol.

4-Nonylphenol (4-NP), a para-substituted phenolic compound with a straight or branched carbon chain, is a ubiquitous environmental pollutant and food contaminant. 4-NP, particularly the branched form, has been identified as an endocrine disruptor (ED) with potent activities on estrogen receptors. Constitutive Androstane Receptor (CAR) is another crucial nuclear receptor that regulates hepatic lipid, glucose, and steroid metabolism and is involved in the ED mechanism of action. An NP mixture has been described as an extremely potent activator of both human and rodent CAR. However, detailed mechanistic aspects of CAR activation by 4-NP are enigmatic, and it is not known if 4-NP can directly interact with the CAR ligand binding domain (LBD). Here, we examined interactions of individual branched (22NP, 33NP, and 353NP) and linear 4-NPs with CAR variants using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, cellular experiments with various CAR expression constructs, recombinant CAR LBD in a TR-FRET assay, or a differentiated HepaRG hepatocyte cellular model. Our results demonstrate that branched 4-NPs display more stable poses to activate both wild-type CAR1 and CAR3 variant LBDs in MD simulations. Consistently, branched 4-NPs activated CAR3 and CAR1 LBD more efficiently than linear 4-NP. Furthermore, in HepaRG cells, we observed that all 4-NPs upregulated CYP2B6 mRNA, a relevant hallmark for CAR activation. This is the first study to provide detailed insights into the direct interaction between individual 4-NPs and human CAR-LBD, as well as its dominant variant CAR3. The work could contribute to the safer use of individual 4-NPs in many areas of industry.

Kafka on the Page: On the Relationship of Drawings, Writing, and the Page in Franz Kafka’s Draftsmanship

This essay emphasizes Franz Kafka’s use of the page surface when analyzing the relationship between his draftsmanship and writing. The context of the page, including its size, orientation, margins, and blank spaces, becomes relevant when examining the mise en page, i.e., the placement of drawings and text on a page or sheet of paper. In the early twentieth century, the page and its characteristics, ranging from the materiality of the paper to the mise en page (the French term for “layout”), had been a focus in book design. However, in art history, this term is not commonly used to assess the composition of drawings, as often the type of paper, drawing instruments, or the paper’s color and receptivity to ink have been foregrounded. In literary studies, and mainly in genetic criticism that analyzes drafts and other preparatory documents in addition to the finalized text, the mise en page is also not of primary interest. In Kafka’s case, however, considering his use of the page surface extends existing analyses focusing on the text-image relationship regarding Kafka’s draftsmanship. Furthermore, this focus on the mise en page demonstrates that examining the page’s context can also enhance the study of sketches that other writers, such as Samuel Beckett and Paul Valéry, added to their texts.

Analysis of Text and Use of Chinese High School Mathematics Textbooks from the Perspective of Classroom Blank Space

Analysis of Text and Use of Chinese High School Mathematics Textbooks from the Perspective of Classroom Blank Space

Suggestion for Objective Evaluation of Comparative Pulse Diagnosis.

Pulse is a method of Korean medicine diagnosis and is an important clue to detect the organs, nature, and progress of the disease. Pulse examination is included in the basic examination of Korean medicine doctors, but there is no standardized method for diagnosing pulse although the types and methods of the pulse taking are briefly described in the literature, making it difficult to spread the examination method. In this regard, I would like to propose an objective evaluation method. Although the importance of pulse examination and the method of pulse examination are known in the literature, it is difficult for undergraduate students or inexperienced Korean medicine doctors to access it, so in this paper a method of marking the size of the pulse power in the blank space for objective evaluation was devised and presented. The size of the pulse power should be indicated using the 1-cell, 3-cell, or 5-cell method according to the left and right wrists and the cun, guan and chi on both sides. The method of pulse diagnosis is an important diagnostic method as a verification process for making a Korean medical diagnosis. The remaining Korean medicine diagnostic methods, including pulse diagnosis, also need to undergo objectification. It is believed that the objectification of these diagnostic methods will lead to an improvement in the treatment rate of Korean medicine.

Replying to Pharaoh’s Order


 
 
 It is a curious fact that the reverse surface of many of the so-called Amarna letters sent by Levantine rulers to the Egyptian pharaoh are completely blank or only partially inscribed. In this article, I establish the absolute and relative frequency of the phenomenon within this subcorpus of the Amarna letters. Next, I connect it to a particular type of letter sent by the Levantine rulers that I designate a “replies-to- an-order” letter and offer a suggestion as to why the Egyptian administration may have requested that these letters have blank space on the reverse surface. Finally, I consider one possible origin for the phenomenon in other cuneiform corpora and end the article with a few comments on directions for future research.
 
 

Himalayan Mountaineering, Imperial Masculinity and Altitude Records Before Everest

ABSTRACT Across the nineteenth century, European surveyors, explorers and mountaineers often sought to constitute the Himalaya as spaces of imperial duty, escape from civilisation, and manly experiences against and in nature. Rather than focusing on the homosociality of the better known climbing ventures of the twentieth century, this article instead considers the period before Mount Everest became the main prize. In particular, it examines an eclectic mix of Himalayan expeditions that made claims to the world ‘altitude record’: that is, the highest height ever climbed above sea level. The different ways that climbers discussed and doubted these record-seeking climbs in their accounts, and especially in talks at the Royal Geographical Society in London, provide a series of snapshots into manly self-fashioning around suffering and self-reliance at the edge of the British Empire. Here the masculinities of non-European guides and porters (especially Gurkhas) also always provided both a foil and a challenge. Ultimately, attempts on the altitude record reveal the way that casting the Himalaya as a space for the narration of masculine ideals and imperial expansion could be both mutually reinforcing and in conflict. Expressions of homosociality nevertheless also shifted across the nineteenth century, with the filling in of the last ‘blank spaces’ on the map seemingly narrowing the canvas for manly outdoor experiences. This was compounded by the way the Himalaya were constituted and maintained as spaces for manly experiences in part by the exclusion of women, even as women like Fanny Bullock Workman were themselves climbing towards record heights.

Probing fractal spatiotemporal inhomogeneity in a quantum walk

We investigate the transport and entanglement properties exhibited by quantum walks with coin operators concatenated in a space-time fractal structure. Inspired by recent developments in photonics, we choose the paradigmatic Sierpinski gasket. The 0-1 pattern of the fractal is mapped into an alternation of the generalized Hadamard-Fourier operators. This two-state coin-operator approach overcomes the intricacies caused by the utilization of high-dimensional coin operators required in prior studies of discrete-time quantum walks on fractals. In fulfilling the blank space on the analysis of the impact of inhomogeneity in quantum walk properties, specifically, fractal deterministic inhomogeneity, our results show a robust effect of entanglement enhancement as well as an interesting road to superdiffusive spreading with a tunable scaling exponent attaining robust superdiffusion, subballistic though. Explicitly, with this fractal approach it is possible to obtain an increase in quantum entanglement with reduced impact on standard quantum walk theoretical spreading. Alongside those features, we analyze further properties such as the degree of interference and visibility. The present model corresponds to an application of fractals in an experimentally viable setting, namely, the building block for the construction of photonic patterned structures. Published by the American Physical Society 2024