Bright Picture Research Articles

LOOKING THROUGH THE LENS OF READING COMPREHENSION IN ENGLISH EDUCATION: CATCH-UP FRIDAYS IN FOCUS

The main purpose of the study was to recognize the individuality of each student’s learning approach and classified students based on their reading levels. This thoughtful categorization enabled the school to tailor activities, ensuring that every student could participate in meaningful learning experiences on Catch-Up Friday. Schools paused regular classes to immerse the entire school in a reading-focused day. This study provided an opportunity for each kid, regardless of reading proficiency, to have a personalized plan for the day centered on the joy of reading. Activities were planned to meet the children’ reading levels. For novices, comfortable reading areas with bright picture books were built. Intermediate readers engaged in group reading sessions, while advanced readers were assigned more difficult topics. Teachers gave support suited to each student’s reading level throughout the day. In addition to academic catch-up, Catch-Up Friday aims to promote a love of reading. The primary focus of this study was the elementary program teachers who participated in catch-up Friday activities. Each member teaches in a particular public school in Davao City. These participants have been teaching reading for more than five years, and they are presently teaching in the 2023–2024 school year. Ten people in all are included in this study and will participate in a concentrated group discussion and in-depth interview. The information obtained from the IDI and FGD is meticulously documented and converted into an organized summary of the participants' answers. Three themes emerged from the data analysis: the significance of reading comprehension, the need to adapt one's reading techniques, and the imposition of strong incentive. KEYWORDS: Learning, strategies, comprehension, elementary, teachers, reading, education, program, intervention

The Importance of Brand Registration to Reduce Unfair Competition in the World of Trade

Objective: The purpose of this study is to find out the legal solution to the importance of trademark registration to reduce the occurrence of unfair competition in the world of trade and provide sanctions for parties who imitate and copy marks. Method: The Research methods carried out in a systematic way in carrying out analysis and data collection activities in striving for certain goals to be achieved are definitions for research, For the realization of this research, the method applied is the analytical descriptive method. The purpose of this method is intended to be able to deliver a bright picture as a whole, carry out an assessment of positive legal norms and dig deeper into legal facts. The type of research that is then also applied in this research is normative juridical. Results: With a multitude of product brands in the market, it often confuses consumers when making choices. Sometimes, consumers choose products based on their budget, leading to the circulation of many counterfeit brands with significantly lower prices but identical names and appearances to genuine products. This is what is referred to as a violation of trademark rights. Therefore, for a trademark to be valid, it needs to be registered. Registration is carried out to provide valid proof of ownership of the trademark, to challenge counterfeit brands in circulation, and to reject trademarks with identical appearances registered by others. Thus, trademark registration is conducted to obtain protection and legal certainty for a brand.

Preface

We were delighted with a high level of satisfaction and aspiration, indeed it’s a great privilege to recapitulate the 3rd International Virtual Conference on Sustainable Construction Technologies & Advancement in Civil Engineering, ScTACE 2022. ScTACE 2020 & ScTACE 2021 extends its journey by appending more noteworthy and top notch accessories. The third edition of ScTACE in collaboration with Indian Concrete Institute – Student Chapter is reinvigorated in December 2022, aims to provide collaborative opportunities for researches, academicians, engineers, industry practitioners with one accord to discourse and share their grounding, indagation about most aspects of sustainable solutions and deliberate over the challenges encountered in the explication of the solutions.The three day programme was excogitated with an even handed to the presenters as well as listeners with a bodacious array of 12 keynote and 5 invited guest speakers with prowess from IIT’s, NIT, IISc, renowned Universities and industry from India and overseas. The Conference beheld a noteworthy representation with 350 entrants from variegated institutions, organizations across the country and overseas made this 3rd conference of its kind-a truly conference in spirit. The varied genres of trending technologies or materials in constituent to the sustainability and the series of interactive sessions promoted the indefatigable spirit of 350 learners and encouraged their determination in adding an extra skill to their forte. 57 papers were presented with divaricated 5 parallel panels, formed to be the heart of the conference and provided ample opportunity for discussion that brought new perspectives as a stepping stone in the enhancement of knowledge and skill of those working in the field of civil engineering. The proceedings provided a written record of the synergy with 173 paper submission with 21% of acceptance rate (44 accepted papers) publishing in the IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering owing to the Peer Review Policy that represented a solid framework which emerge a new interaction in the fullness of time. The event ended with the unveiling of the conference sovereign leaving everyone’s experience with ScTACE-2022, a fruitful and long lasting one.All in all the plenary lectures, progress and presentations bridged the gap making it possible for the people to stay productive and learn or to get au courant with newfangled technologies or skills. We divulge our unfeigned delight to all the external chairpersons for their admirable serenity and accorded stupendous time for colloquy, elucidation of doubts mooted by the partakers. We take the entitlement in acclaiming all the keynote and guest expertise for their credence and immense deliberation that aided the budding graduates and professionals to hone their skills in the art of civil engineering and pursue their long-procrastinated passions. We are also honor-bound to profess our acknowledgement to the management of Shri Vishnu Engineering College for Women for its verve in lending a hand and believing that there should be no reason for people to stop learning new skills in the competitive times we live in. We would like to express our gratitude and appreciation for all the reviewers who helped us maintain the capacity constraints and high quality of manuscripts included in the proceedings. Equally or exceedingly we bestow our commendation to the support team, committee members, and student coordinators for their stance and idiosyncrasy in handling the contenders and making this conference viable.We promise to bring forth the same bright picture and charming landscape with the aforementioned support, participation and will continue to extend the success for a long time.Conference Chair Dr.Pala Gireesh Kumar Associate Professor & HOD Shri Vishnu Engineering College for Women List of Annexure - A, Annexure - B, Annexure - C, Annexure-D are available in the pdf.

EMOTIONALITY IN THRILLERS

The article is dedicated to the studying of emotions and emotional states of thrillers’ heroes. Emotions play one of the main roles in the life of every person; show the inner state, emotional experiences, attitude towards the surrounding and other things. Negative emotions, in their turn, help to go through the horrific moments in life, as far as they are the reflection of everything unknown and uncertain, what the person can encounter during the lifetime. The most profound and vivid representations of the emotional sphere of obscure and strange are given in works of fiction. Namely in thrillers the atmosphere of unknown and incomprehensible is represented fully and thoroughly, because the main aim of these novels is to surprise the reader, to cause negative and terrific feelings. The purpose of this thesis is to denote means of creation of terrific and obscure atmosphere in thrillers. Based on the analysis it was determined that the main means of the achieving the goal, which lies in the intimidation of the reader and the unexpected ending of the novel, are different stylistic means and devices, such as epithet, metaphor, antithesis, personification. They intensify the effect of the reading of the novel, present the bright picture in the reader’s imagination. The general atmosphere also plays an important role in the establishing of the necessary emotional state. Its creation is accomplished with the help of the general terrific images, descriptions of the outer world, constant remindings about the battle between good and evil, light and darkness. The triumph of the light is always determined in the semantics of lexemes with positive meaning, with the help of which the hope for the better future is represented. It was identified that the main means of creation of the general horrifying emotional state in thrillers are antithesis and personifications, which give life to the scary and dreadful notions, make them active participants of the general picture of the novel.

Assertive Action in Indonesian Debate Competition 2019

Students must be directed to express themselves positively, especially in expressing opinions and ideas, because they have a wide range of positive potential and bright pictures that can be used as alternative suggestions, especially regarding the problems currently experienced by Indonesia. This study analyzes assertive speech acts, forms, and functions in the 2019 Indonesian Debate Competition. This research is descriptive qualitative research using content analysis methods. The research subject under study was a debate competition video with the data object in the form of utterances showing the structure of assertive speech acts. This study's data collection techniques and procedures are documentation, recordings, and transcripts. The technique used to analyze the data is descriptive qualitative analysis. The findings show that news sentences as assertive speech acts have the highest intensity at 77.85%, imperative sentences at 12.14%, and interrogative sentences at 10%. Then states as a function of influential speech acts, which has the highest power of 26.42%, shows 22.14%, informs 17.14%, suggests 10.71%, and confirms 10.71%. This research is recommended to add to the general public's insight as a consideration of teaching materials for assertive speech acts at the tertiary and secondary levels.

Photobioacoustic methods in the correction of index indicators of autonomic tension and reactivity in children with frequent acute recurrent infections

Objective: to increase the effectiveness of treatment of children suffering from frequent acute recurrent infections by methods of photobioacoustic exposure. Research methods. The study of 140 children with frequent recurrent infections included the analysis of the data on developmental histories (form No. 026/u «Children’s Medical Card for School» and form 112/ «History of Child Development»), clinical complaints, vegetative indicators (Kerdo, Hildebrandt, and Baevsky-Parin indices), and enzyme immunoassay before and after the use of the photobioacoustic complex, which includes: biofeedback bioacoustic impact on the head area and LLLR on the projection of the cubital area and thymus. The vegetative indices were studied on the «Poly-Spectr» device of Neurosoft (Russia). LLLR was performed on the «Milta» (l=0.89 mcm) on the overhead projection area at a frequency of 80 Hz for 5 minutes and on the projection zone of the thymus at a frequency of 1500 Hz for 3 minutes, as responsible for immune support. The total duration was 8–9 minutes (children of 7–8 years — 5–8 minutes; children of 9–12 years — 8–9 minutes). Bioacoustic exposure on the head area was performed on the hardware-computer complex of acoustic correction (biofeedback bioacoustic correction) «SINKHRO-S» (Russia). Results: Subjective complaints of the children with frequent acute recurrent infections had a brighter picture than those of the children without an infectious factor. Gender-age differences in the children’s subjective complaints which correlated with the type of vegetative support and immune status were revealed. Conclusion: The developed photobioacoustic complex provides high correction of index indicators of autonomic tension, autonomic reactivity, and immune status in children with frequent acute recurrent infections. After a decrease of the high initial index vegetative indicators, the correlations between vegetative indices and autonomic tension were eliminated, which had a positive effect on the immune status and adaptive potential of children suffering from frequent acute recurrent infections.

A sociopragmatic account of religiosity and secularity in fictional narratives

AbstractThis paper investigates the religiosity/secularity dichotomy in Naguib Mahfouz’s novels, which is shaped by cultural narratives that convey his ideas. It analyzes a defined corpus of Mahfouz’s narratives that articulate his notions of religiosity/secularity. Through an interdisciplinary methodology combining the application of pragmatics, interactional sociolinguistics, and contextual analysis, it aims to determine Mahfouz’s potentiality for perceiving and narrativizing religiosity and secularity in twentieth-century Egypt. It discusses how Mahfouz adopts sociopragmatic techniques to give a bright picture of the secularist discourse but a negative one for the Islamist one presented as inevitably incapable, crude, schizophrenic and idiosyncratic. Mahfouz openly destabilizes the religious/secular dichotomy by juxtaposing religious and secular discourses in his early and later narratives, where he scrutinizes secularity, advocating it as the only way out of and uprooting, religiosity. The adoption of an interdisciplinary framework proves to be theoretically and empirically motivated in order to show how Mahfouz’s narratives reflect their originator’s own beliefs and those of the narrated society, including its value systems.

P‐12.11: Researching on Wide Color Gamut of TV Products

Liquid crystal display technology is widely used because of its advantages of light weight, environmental protection and high performance. Compared with the emerging organic light‐emitting display, the color performance of liquid crystal display needs to be further improved. Increasing color saturation, displaying bright pictures and pursuing more realistic picture quality is a trend of the development of liquid crystal display technology.

The effectiveness of the photobioacoustic complex in children with somatoform autonomic dysfunction suffering from frequent acute recurrent infections

Purpose: To optimize the treatment of children with somatoform autonomic dysfunction suffering from frequent acute recurrent infections with the use of physiotherapy methods. Research methods: The study of 140 children with somatoform autonomic dysfunction suffering from frequent recurrent infections included the analysis of the data on developmental histories (form № 026/in «Children’s Medical Card for School» and form 112/ «History of Child Development»), clinical complaints, functional (ECG and cardiointerval recording) and vegetative indicators (Kerdo, Hildebrandt, Baevsky-Parin indices) before and after the use of the photobioacoustic complex, which includes: biofeedback bioacoustic impact on the head area and LLLR on the projection of the cubital area and thymus. The ECG was performed on the device of the «Shiller» company (Switzerland) with a computer console for cardiointerval recording. The vegetative indices were studied on the «Poly-Spectr» device of Neurosoft (Russia). LLLR was performed on the «Milta» (l=0,89 mcm) on the overhead projection area at a frequency of 80Hz for 5 minutes and on the projection zone of the thymus at a frequency of 1500 Hz for 3minutes, as responsible for immune support. The total duration is 8–9 minutes (children of 7–8 years — 5–8 minutes; children of 9–12 years — 8–9 minutes). Bioacoustic effects on the head area were performed on the hardware-computer complex of acoustic correction (biofeedback bioacoustic correction) «SINKHRO-S» (Russia). Results: Parasympathicotonia (VI) was identified in 35% (18,5% of boys, 16,4% of girls); sympathicotonia (SA) — in 54,1% (28,5% of boys, 25,7% of girls); a mixed type of vegetative dystonia — in 10,9% (4,4% of boys, 6,5% of girls). Subjective complaints of children with somatoform autonomic dysfunction suffering from frequent recurrent infections had a brighter picture than those of children without an infectious factor. Gender-age differences in subjective complaints of children with somatoform autonomic dysfunction, which correlated with vegetative types: sympathoadrenal (SA), parasympathetic or vagoinsular (VI) and mixed (eutonia, C), have been identified. Conclusion: The developed photobioacoustic complex provides a high correction of index indicators of vegetative tension and vegetative reactivity in children with elevated Kerdo and Baevsky-Parin indices. After the reduction of these indicators, the elimination of correlations between them was noted, which positively affected the vegetative reactivity and parameters of myocardial bioelectrogenesis.

PREFACE

We were delighted with a high level of satisfaction and aspiration, indeed it’s a great privilege to recapitulate the two day National Virtual Conference. We are conscious on how the Corona pandemic has made a global impact and continued to hit majority of the sectors, with education being one of the most affected. At such a time the extended lockdown period has forced the education sector in India to rapidly evolve. Visibly, over the last few months education has changed dramatically with a considerable rise in e-learning, whereby teaching is executed remotely and on digital platforms. To succor people and to set up for success during this unique time, the Department of Civil Engineering of Shri Vishnu Engineering College for Women (Autonomous) organized a 2 day National Virtual Conference on Sustainable Construction Technologies & Advancements in Civil Engineering (ScTACE- 2020) in collaboration with Indian Concrete Institute – Student Chapter. The programme engendered a technically rewarding experience under the superintendence of Department of Civil Engineering on 9th and 10th October 2020 supported on Zoom platform, for productivity a way to create more meaning, stability and empowerment through all the chaos of change each of us face.The utmost goal and facet of ScTACE-2020 is to bring the academicians, engineers, industry researchers with one accord to discourse and share their grounding, indignation about most aspects of sustainable solutions and deliberate over the challenges encountered in the explication of the solutions. The two day programme was excogitated with an even handed to the presenters as well as listeners with a bodacious array of 11 keynote and 2 invited guest speakers with prowess from IISc, IIT’s, NIT, renowned Universities and Industry from India and overseas. The symposium beheld a noteworthy representation with 350 entrants from variegated institutions, organizations across the country and overseas made this 1st conference of its kind a truly conference in spirit. The varied genres of trending technologies or materials in constituent to the sustainability and the series of interactive sessions promoted the indefatigable spirit of 250 learners and encouraged their determination in adding an extra skill to their forte. 65 papers (49 papers were selected and shortlisted for publication upon reviewer’s decision) were presented with divaricated 12 parallel panels, formed to be the heart of the conference and provided ample opportunity for discussion that brought new perspectives as a stepping stone in the enhancement of knowledge and skill of those working in the field of civil engineering. The proceedings provided a written record of the synergy with 130 long and short papers with 55% of acceptance rate publishing in the IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering owing to the Peer Review Policy that represented a solid framework which emerge a new interaction in the fullness of time. The event ended with the unveiling of the conference sovereign leaving everyone’s experience with ScTACE-2020, a fruitful and long lasting one.All in all the plenary lectures, progress and presentations bridged the gap making it possible for the people to stay productive and learn or to get au courant with newfangled technologies or skills. We divulge our unfeigned delight to all the external chairpersons for their admirable serenity and accorded stupendous time for colloquy, elucidation of doubts mooted by the partakers. We take the entitlement in acclaiming all the keynote and guest expertise for their credence and immense deliberation that aided the budding graduates and professionals to hone their skills in the art of civil engineering and pursue their long-procrastinated passions during the lockdown. We are also honor-bound to profess our acknowledgement to the management of Shri Vishnu Engineering College for Women for its verve in lending a hand and believing thatthere should be no reason for people to stop learning new skills in the competitive times we live in. We would like to express our gratitude and appreciation for all the reviewers who helped us maintain the capacity constraints and high quality of manuscripts included in the proceedings. Equally or exceedingly we bestow our commendation to the support team, committee members, and student coordinators for their stance and idiosyncrasy in handling the contenders and making this conference viable.We promise to bring forth the same bright picture and charming landscape with the aforementioned support, participation and will continue to extend the success for a long time.

Symptom. Toxic story

Symptom. Toxic story

Eat This! How Fast-Food Marketing Gets You to Buy Junk (and How to Fight Back) by A. Curtis

Curtis, Andrea. Eat This! How Fast-Food Marketing Gets You to Buy Junk (and How to Fight Back). Illustrated by Peggy Collins. Red Deer Press, 2018.
 Andrea Curtis’s first children’s book was What’s for Lunch? What school children Eat around the World, and her latest book Eat This!: How fast Food marketing gets you to buy junk (and how to fight back) is written for the modern family. It talks about product placement, ads on the internet, the all-natural myth of orange juice and more. Even though this book is word-heavy (there is a glossary) there are bright colourful pictures, by Peggy Collins, accompanying almost every page. However, they cannot show the advertising of the actual products they want to talk about. So a box of frosted flakes becomes sugar rings with a tiger mascot, and any clown can represent McDonald's. 
 Intermittently, it has real-world examples of people fighting fast-food marketing around the world. For example, the Game Changer campaign in Australia, which focuses on the ads in cricket for junk food, alcohol, and gambling. At the end of the book, there is a list of things to try to challenge fast food and marketing strategies. Their goal is to get the reader engaged with what they have just read, offering examples such as potlucks that celebrate diversity, or observing your favourite show for product placement.
 There are also multiple facts sprinkled into the book like how part of Philadelphia's soda tax is used for improving parks, or how Peru has banned junk food in schools. Overall the book discusses an important topic that is all too relevant in the age of the internet. Better yet, its goal is getting children to engage with advertising in a critical way. Children will benefit from the book, as it explains how advertisers don’t always have our best interests at heart and can help open a dialogue with adults on the subject.
 Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 stars
 Reviewer: Kaia MacLeod
 Kaia MacLeod, a member of the James Smith Cree Nation, is an MLIS candidate at the University of Alberta. Her bachelor’s degree was in Film Studies, which she sometimes likes to call a degree in “movie watching,” she enjoys exploring how folklore is represented on film and in online content.

Ilanah Fhima and Dev S. Gangjee, The Confusion Test in European Trade Mark Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019, 278 pp, hb £125.00.

Ilanah Fhima and Dev S. Gangjee, The Confusion Test in European Trade Mark Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019, 278 pp, hb £125.00.

MarkeTrak 10 (MT10) Survey Results Demonstrate High Satisfaction with and Benefits from Hearing Aids.

The purpose of this article is threefold. First, it is to evaluate current rates of hearing aid satisfaction, in addition to the examination of factors that influence satisfaction rates. A second purpose is to evaluate the effects of hearing aid use on mental health and quality of life, from the consumer perspective. The third purpose of this article is to review the current status of the market in terms of usage and ownership. The usage statistics from MarkeTrak 10 answer questions such as what is the most common type of hearing aid style. And what types of hearing aid features are popular? The results of the usage statistics provide not only insight into the satisfaction and quality-of-life metrics but also information about marketplace trends. By fulfilling these purposes, strengths and weaknesses of the current hearing aid marketplace can be determined, guiding future technological and clinical practice developments. Survey results demonstrate the continued dominance of mini-BTE (behind the ear) hearing aids and high popularity of features, including wireless capabilities. Overall satisfaction rates are encouragingly high, driven by satisfaction with BTE instruments, especially those acquired in the past 5 years. Noted areas for improvement continue to be related to listening in noise and patient understanding of their hearing aids. Given the high levels of noted satisfaction, it is not surprising that the sample revealed significant hearing aid benefits, notably in a lower risk for depression, higher satisfaction listening in almost all environments, and improved quality of life on a regular basis. Together, these data provide insights into the factors that drive satisfaction, encourage industrial and scientific advancements in the identified areas of weakness, and paint a bright picture of the hearing aid market from the consumer perspective.

Medieval Bulgaria in the Context of Political Imagology

The article is a review of the book written by the famous Bulgarian medievalist P. Angelov. The work under review is a collection of articles published in different years and divided into four thematic blocks: Serbian-Bulgarian relations, medieval Bulgarian diplomacy, Bulgarians as seen by their neighbours, and other nations as seen by the medieval Bulgarians. The authors of this review think highly of the book. A significant part of its articles was published in the last five years, but even the earlier articles have still not lost their relevance. The long-term studies of P. Angelov recreate a fairly clear and bright picture of military and diplomatic contacts of Bulgaria and Serbia, Bulgaria and Byzantium, Bulgaria and other countries of the region in a rather broad historical perspective. Some of the debatable assumptions made by the author do not in the least detract from the significance of the work, but, on the contrary, contribute to a constructive scientific dialogue. In general, the new collection of works by P. Angelov, without a doubt, is scientifically relevant, makes a significant contribution to important fields of study, meets the modern international standards of scientific level and will certainly be in demand in the Russian and European scientific community.

Comments: Signs of Recovery

Editor's column After 3 tough years of cost cuts and downsizing, the oil industry is seeing signs of new life in a lower-price environment. Companies are hiring again, salaries have rebounded, and large producers are posting profits. The oil and gas industry is finally hiring and may begin to face worker shortages in some areas. Since oil prices crashed in 2014, more than 440,000 jobs in the industry have been cut worldwide. But next year, almost 90% of employers expect that staffing levels will either stabilize or increase in 2018, according to a survey by NES Global Talent and oilandgasjobsearch.com. Almost 60% of employers expect to recruit significantly over the next year. Of the companies that are hiring, 23% expect to increase their workforce by 5%, 19% plan to increase staffing by between 5 and 10%; and 17% expect to increase hiring by more than 10%. Almost half of employers expect salaries to rise. SPE’s annual industry salary survey also paints a brighter picture. Industry professionals reported average total compensation of $194,649 this year, a $9,000 increase from 2016 although still down from 2014 and earlier. Compared with 2016, mean base pay, other compensation, and total compensation all rose in 2017. Oil prices have finally crossed the $50/bbl threshold, with Brent over $60/bbl in mid-November. Rising prices, along with sharp cost cutting, are leading to operator profits. The supermajors—including ExxonMobil, Total, Chevron, Shell, and BP—all posted healthy third-quarter earnings and solid year-over-year improvement in cash flow and profits. In delivering their earnings, both BP and Shell said they would remain profitable even if oil prices dipped into the high-$40/bbl range. The large service companies, such as Schlumberger, Baker Hughes, and Halliburton, were more circumspect in their outlooks but see a foundation laid for better days ahead. OPEC also sees positive days ahead in its latest forecast. It predicts that global oil demand in 2018 will grow and that non-OPEC production will not increase as fast as previously thought. Along with its production cuts, that will continue to reduce excess oil in storage. OPEC, Russia, and a handful of other producers agreed to cut output by 1.8 million B/D, and compliance with the agreement has been stellar. OPEC’s report concedes that it did not kill off North American shale when it flooded the market with oil 3 years ago, and that shale will continue to see strong supply growth. A new International Energy Agency reports confirms OPEC’s conclusion on shale’s staying power. The IEA said the supply surge in shale output will lead to the largest gains in the history of the industry. By 2025, the US will match Saudi Arabia in oil production and surpass the former Soviet Union in gas output, according to its World Energy Outlook. The US oil industry “weathered the turbulent period of lower oil prices since 2014 with remarkable fortitude,” according to the report.

Virus-Based Devices: Prospects for Allopoiesis.

The assembly line is a commonly invoked example of allopoiesis, the process whereby a system produces a different system than itself. In this sense, virus production in plants is an instance of bio-enabled bottom-up allopoiesis because the plant host can be regarded as a programmable assembly line for the virus. Reprogramming this assembly line and integrating it into a larger lineup of chemical manipulations has seen a flurry of activity recently, with more sophisticated systems emerging every year. The field of virus nanomaterials now has several subdisciplines that focus on virus shells as assemblers, scaffolds for molecular circuitry, chemical reactors, magnetic and photonic beacons, and therapeutic carriers. A case in point is the work reported by Brillault et al. in this issue of ACS Nano. They show how two types of animal virus coat proteins can be simultaneously expressed and efficiently assembled in plants into a complex virus-like particle of well-defined stoichiometry and composition. Such advances, combined with the promise of scalability and sustainability afforded by plants, paint a bright picture for the future of high-performance virus-based nanomaterials.

Down the Ladder of Despair: The Holocaust Legacy of Itzhak Katzenelson

Holocaust historiography tries to offer a detailed and objective account of events, but it fails to grasp the inner world of its victims—those who perished and those who survived and carried its horrors in their souls. The hidden Holocaust is the dark abysses of the victims, their nightmares, and the despair they carry in their hearts to their last day, and in unclear ways pass it to the following generations. The archives of the Ghetto Fighters’ House Holocaust Museum at Kibbutz Lohamei HaGetaot in Israel holds the writings of the poet and educator Itzhak Katzenelson wrote during the Holocaust. His texts open a ‘door’ into the inner reality of the Holocaust, the shattered world of its victims. It is not scholarly historiographical writings, but rather a personal account of a sensitive person, a testimony, and interpretation of the real meaning of the Holocaust. Before World War II, Katzenelson was a gifted teacher, part of his family Hebrew education system in Łodź, a prolific writer, poet, and dramatist. Many of Katzenelson’s Hebrew poems became folk songs all over the Jewish Diaspora and in Palestine. His pre-war poetry was light, joyful, and childish in its character. His writings drew a bright picture of future Jewish life in the Land of Israel. His wartime writings were different, dominated by growing pain, rage, and finally despair. Before the war, Katzenelson mainly wrote in Hebrew, the revived language of the Jewish people. Then, as part of the Jewish population, struggling for life under the iron yoke of the German occupation, he wrote in Yiddish, identifying himself with the fate of his brethren. Katzenelson reached Warsaw in November 1939. In May 1940, he was ‘adopted’ by the ‘Dror’ (freedom) movement, becoming part of its underground educational and cultural work, offering words of consolation and hope to the ghetto people. However, as he witnessed the growing horrors of the Holocaust, including the loss of his own family, he could no longer give meaning to the terrible events and his life ended in total despair. On April 1943, Katzenelson and his remaining son Zvi moved to the Arian side of Warsaw, imprisoned by the Gestapo and sent to the Vittel camp in France. Vittel was the last stage of his writings before his deportation in April 1944 to Drancy and then to Auschwitz to his death. As we Follow Katzenelson’s writings in Warsaw and Vittel, we descend a spiritual ladder from words of hope, through spiritual resistance to the bottom of the abysses of despair. Gradually, the joyful prophet of life became the prophet of darkness and a total loss of meaning. In his last writings, Katzenelson is bitter, poison to the soul, and yet with a sensitive pen and open heart, Katzenelson takes his readers down into the deepest chasms of history, showing them the reality of the Holocaust and its true meaning.

From hope to dystopia

Purpose This paper aims to examine the dark flip side of the heightened dreams and wild expectations of development as a bright picture that accompanied the discovery of petroleum in politically unstable and donor-dependent Chad. Design/methodology/approach Data were elicited through local-level ethnography–participant observation, individual surveys and focus group discussion sessions with stakeholders on the impact of the Chad–Cameroon pipeline and petroleum development project. Findings While the “discourse of development” is about a better and new future, this new future, however, has a dark side: un/under-development, “backwardness”, corruption and patronage, leading to deeply entrenched poverty. Petroleum has become a discursive site where the competing discourses about development personified as the provision of material resources are played out. Originality/value The failure of petro-dollar-inspired development in Chad speaks to the mutually reinforcing nature of development decisions. Although firms need workers with specialized skills, workers will not acquire those skills in anticipation of employment opportunities. This disjuncture highlights the need for strategic complementarity in investment decision and coordination among economic agents. More than a decade later, the utopic dream of petro-dollar-inspired development as an aspiration is now characterized by a disconnect–environmental degradation, food insecurity, gendered and deeply entrenched poverty. This disjuncture demonstrates the need for a holistic impact assessment that involves different adaptive approaches and focus on a wide range of livelihood issues. Holistic evaluation on all programmes, plans, projects, policies and interventions will lead to the achievement of sustainable people-centred development that conserves the stewardship of nature.

Skoro Bałkany istnieją, lepiej ich nie wymyślać — między pragnieniem ucieczki do „EU-ropy” a „bałkanizacją Bałkanów”

Vesna Goldsworthy once stated that interest in the Balkans lasts as long as there are conflicts in the area. Furthermore, that interest is extremely superficial. Europeans prefer to fit inhabitants of the Balkans into lasting ‘popular’ stereotypes (clichés) rather than to become acquainted with them. On the one hand, the Balkan region is viewed as being the proverbial powder keg, an area suffering from the ‘eternal’ hatred of the nations inhabiting it and stained with the blood of their fratricidal strife; at the very least the region is a synonym of extreme retrogression and obscurantism, from whichonly European paternalism can save it. On the other hand—the brighter picture—the region is viewed almost like a ludic open-air folk museum, as in the films of Emir Kusturica. Those who are more inclined to hold the first view dream of the Balkans’ escape to ‘EU-rope’; the latter do not in principle oppose remaining in this idyllic land ‘flowing with rakia’. The aim of the article is to analyze the discourse concerning the Balkans in two dimensions of social life—politics and art.