Claims Of Superiority Research Articles

Philosophy: The Lynchpin of Scientism

The intellectual legacies of Bacon and Descartes, as well as the Newtonian scientific tradition undoubtedly brought about an era of natural scientific research anchoring its ideal on objectivity that led to scientism. This hyper-belief in science and the subjugation of philosophy (and other sources of knowledge) has given rise to a complex scenario and gap, created by the inability of science to address other cosmic issues including metaphysical ones. The hegemony of science which mostly derives from the dominance of science in economic and social fields owing to its technological progress and advancements, has created problems that threaten man and morality. The issue is, is science still interested in the good of man if his existence and morality are jeopardized? Is the claim for the sole mantle of rationality by scientism, and the equation of science with reason itself still valid, given the multifarious irrational scientific productions against life like abortion pills, weapons of mass destruction, etc? Has science solved and answered all problems? Is it a perfect discipline and the only source of knowledge? It is against this backdrop that this paper, through expository and critical analysis unveiled the ambiguity, complexity, and illogicality of this scientific claim for superiority (scientism), concluding that science is not superior, and not the only way of knowing reality, but mainly engages itself in proffering solutions to the hydra-headed problems of the physical world which is a part in a whole. Philosophy still reigns supreme and goes deeper to guide and checkmate the excesses of science in order to strike a balance, and unravel metaphysical realities that are beyond the scope of science.

<i>Das unsichtbare Visier</i> – A 1970s Cold War Intelligence TV Series as a Fantasy of International and Intranational Empowerment; or, How East Germany Saved the World and West Germans Too

This article addresses a franchise of intelligence films in the former Communist East Germany. Under the general title Das unsichtbare Visier—The Invisible Visor—they were produced for television and very popular. In general, the Cold War East produced a rich array of its own intelligence heroes, which cannot be reduced to mere derivatives of Western models. Yet there were commonalities and interactions across Cold War divides. One of these common features that Visier shared with many intelligence films globally was the depiction of abroad as both an “invisible front” of dangers and temptations and an exciting realm of adventure and consumption. Visier could not but also be a fantasy about East German citizens encountering, withstanding, and also enjoying the dangers and temptations of the Western Cold War Other. This included their facing two peculiar challenges: a degree of international mobility unlike anything the vast majority of ordinary East Germans could experience and the West’s consumerism. Visier addressed both these issues through what we could describe as an essentially playful—and dis-playful—practical cosmopolitanism. A careful look reveals Visier as a rich artifact of Cold War popular culture, with complex messages. The image of the heroic East German agent included a running comment of compensatory wish fulfillment. Here were ideal East German citizens doing their duty and yet also getting a fair slice of the capitalist good life abroad that most of their compatriots could not reach. They also consistently punched above their weight vicariously for East Germany as a whole. Like Britain’s James Bond, these were agents of an at-best middling power doing major things in the world at large. And finally, perhaps most satisfyingly of all, they turned into gentle, benevolent guardian angels of hapless West German cousins, neatly reversing West Germany’s claims of superiority.

Demand Response Management of a Residential Microgrid Using Chaotic Aquila Optimization

In this paper, Chaotic Aquila Optimization has been proposed for the solution of the demand response program of a grid-connected residential microgrid (GCRMG) system. Here, the main objective is to optimize the scheduling pattern of connected appliances of the building such that overall user cost are minimized under the dynamic price rate of electricity. The GCRMG model considered for analysis is equipped with a fuel cell, combined heat and power (CHP), and a battery storage system. It has to control and schedule the thermostatically controlled deferrable and interruptible appliances of the building optimally. A multipowered residential microgrid system with distinct load demand for appliances and dynamic electricity price makes the objective function complex and highly constrained in nature, which is difficult to solve efficiently. For the solution of such a complex highly constrained optimization problem, both Chaotic Aquila Optimization (CAO) and Aquila optimization (AO) algorithms are implemented, and their performance is analyzed separately. Obtained simulation results in terms of optimal load scheduling and corresponding user cost reveal the better searching and constrained handling capability of AO. In addition, experimental results show that a sinusoidal map significantly improves the performances of AO. Comparison of results with other reported methods are also made, which supports the claim of superiority of the proposed approach.

Modern graph neural networks do worse than classical greedy algorithms in solving combinatorial optimization problems like maximum independent set

The recent work ``Combinatorial Optimization with Physics-Inspired Graph Neural Networks'' [Nat Mach Intell 4 (2022) 367] introduces a physics-inspired unsupervised Graph Neural Network (GNN) to solve combinatorial optimization problems on sparse graphs. To test the performances of these GNNs, the authors of the work show numerical results for two fundamental problems: maximum cut and maximum independent set (MIS). They conclude that "the graph neural network optimizer performs on par or outperforms existing solvers, with the ability to scale beyond the state of the art to problems with millions of variables." In this comment, we show that a simple greedy algorithm, running in almost linear time, can find solutions for the MIS problem of much better quality than the GNN. The greedy algorithm is faster by a factor of $10^4$ with respect to the GNN for problems with a million variables. We do not see any good reason for solving the MIS with these GNN, as well as for using a sledgehammer to crack nuts. In general, many claims of superiority of neural networks in solving combinatorial problems are at risk of being not solid enough, since we lack standard benchmarks based on really hard problems. We propose one of such hard benchmarks, and we hope to see future neural network optimizers tested on these problems before any claim of superiority is made.

RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCE AND THE COMMON GOOD: REFLECTION ON TOLERATION AND PARTICIPATION IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICA AND INDONESIA

This paper seeks to discuss the extent to which religious differences can contribute to the promotion of the common good. It asks if the religious difference is sufficient for the states and the societies to attain the common good across religious and ethical persuasions in multi-faith countries such as America and Indonesia. It is primarily an ethical-philosophical question but is also related to historical, sociological, anthropological, and political contexts. For many religious people, religious particularity and distinction – including its truth and superiority claims – is a significant element of identity and sense of morality, but religious difference alone is insufficient for attaining the common good. Religions provide motivations to act good or evil. Religions offer rich resources, be doctrinal, narrative, experiential and emotional, ethical, legal, social, material, or political, but because there are many, often conflicting religious and ethical values from within the same and across religious traditions, it is not enough for everyone to share their beliefs and accept each other’s exclusive claims. For religions to help improve the public good, religious agents have to negotiate their particular and distinct identities and universal moralities and reinterpret their beliefs and norms contextually in light of the plural societies in which they live. The governments should also allow multiple voices, including the religious, by ensuring toleration, freedom of conscience and worship, and right of assembly.

Clustering of UK universities based on the research productivity of psychology departments

Higher education institutions in the UK have organised into mission groups for the advocacy of shared interests and ideologies. Although research productivity is claimed as a key point of difference between these groups, this claim has received relatively little empirical scrutiny. The current study examined the clustering of UK universities based on the research productivity of academic psychologists. It found evidence for the Russell Group’s (RG’s) claim that it represents leading, research-intensive universities, at least with respects to the discipline of psychology. Productivity metrics of a representative sample of 1339 academic psychologists were extracted from Scopus and Scimago database and were averaged to derive department level productivity indicators. Results from cluster analysis provided evidence in favour of RG’s research superiority claim. Cluster level averages of the cluster comprising RG universities were approximately 50–300% higher than those of the cluster comprising non-RG universities. As anticipated, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge surpassed all others to form separate clusters representing an ‘elite’ within the RG.

Economic value-added (EVA) myths and realities: evidence from the Indian manufacturing sector

PurposeThe main aim of this paper is to examine the claim that economic value added (EVA) advocates its superiority over the traditional accounting-based financial performance measures, i.e. profit after tax (PAT), earnings per share (EPS), return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and return on investment (ROI) in the Indian manufacturing sector and at the same time, give empirical facts. It also tests and examines the information content of various performance measures and their relationship with stock returns.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses the sample of 534 Indian manufacturing companies from the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) during the period 2000–2018. Multiple regression models are applied to examine the information content of EVA and traditional performance measures in explaining shareholders’ returns.FindingsRelative information content tests revealed that traditional accounting-based measures such as EPS, ROE and ROA performed better than EVA in explaining the returns of Indian manufacturing companies. Incremental information content of EVA adds little contribution to information content above traditional performance measures. The claim of superiority of EVA over accounting-based measures in association with shareholder returns is proved invalid in Indian manufacturing companies.Originality/valueThis study concludes that EVA has no superiority over traditional accounting-based financial performance measures in explaining stock returns of Indian manufacturing companies. To achieve heftiness in outcomes, panel data are tested by using Breusch–Pagan–Godfrey (BPG) test for heteroskedasticity, Hausman’s test for fixed and random effect, variance inflation factor (VIF) test for multicollinearity and Durbin–Watson test for autocorrelation.

Latin Blackness in Parisian Visual Culture, 1852–1932 by Lyneise E. Williams

Reviewed by: Latin Blackness in Parisian Visual Culture, 1852–1932 by Lyneise E. Williams Lena Hill Lyneise E. Williams. Latin Blackness in Parisian Visual Culture, 1852–1932. New York: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2019. $130.00 (cloth); $34.95 (paper); $31.45 (eBook). Whoever thought Josephine Baker's banana skirt might represent a sly critique of the commercial inadequacy and declining colonial power of France? In Latin Blackness in Parisian Visual Culture, 1852–1932, Lyneise Williams begins her keen analysis of French visual interpretations of Latin American immigrants in Paris by provocatively rereading Baker's iconic fruity attire. Miguel Covarrubias, the Mexican designer of the skirt, had long challenged European claims of artistic superiority. Noting this, Williams traces the conspicuous increase in banana imports to France from the Caribbean from 1897 to 1924—drawing attention to the specific banana varieties that likely comprised Baker's skirt—to suggest Covarrubias's familiarity with banana commerce inspired his decision to drape an African American woman in a skirt that symbolically embodies a failure of French capitalism in the Spanish Americas compared to rising US commercial dominance. In other words, Williams argues that as a Latin American's creative work, Baker's heavily codified banana skirt symbolizes much more than primitive sexual potency. With this disruption of established readings of Baker as the French epitome of primitivist modern Black femininity, Williams provocatively poses the broader question her study probes: what do we miss about French depictions of modern identity when we fail to understand their aggressive regulation of popular interpretations of elite immigrants from Latin America arriving in Paris from 1852 to 1932? Williams recovers what she describes as the Parisian "Latinizing" tendency, or their application of visual strategies that justified their promulgation of the inferiority of the Spanish and Portuguese populations they encountered during the eighty-year period when France pursued control over Latin America. Focusing on three case studies, Williams patiently peels back the layers covering distinct Latin American figures to reveal the complicated projections Parisians developed to define these immigrants as Black outsiders regardless of their phenotypic appearance. With careful historical contextualization, Williams details the Parisian attempt to affix a tripartite marking of European, African, and Indigenous Indian ancestry to the Latin American arrivals they sought to exclude from French society. In building the foundation for her study, Williams returns to critical venues such as the 1855 Exposition Universelle to demonstrate the sometimes subtle but persistent methods Parisians employed to substantiate their disparaging characterization of Latin Americans. For instance, A. Marc's 1885 engraving of Francisco Laso's Habitante de las cordilleras del Perú (Inhabitant of the Peruvian Highlands) reveals how the French artist and critic A. J. Pay intentionally revises Laso's depiction of a figure who appears more distinctly indigenous and African than Laso's original portrayal of the character with a more pre-Colombian appearance. Turning to the stage, Williams examines the play Le Brésilien (The Brazilian) to trace the creation of the character Acapulco, a wealthy Brazilian coffee planter whose appearance and inelegant speech highlight his desperate need for French guidance to assimilate into high society. Photographs from the production show Acapulco with darkened skin and prosthetics that exaggerate his mouth and nose. Williams explains that the stereotype that emerged made a lasting impression on Parisian audiences that evolved into the development of the term "rastaquouère" which was an "over-the-top comically showy depiction of Latin Americans" (37). This derogatory characterization quickly migrated beyond the stage to magazine covers and other popular visual media. With this established stereotype, Williams devotes chapter 2 to a nuanced examination of Chocolat the clown, and in so doing she exposes the intricate blossoming of the seed planted by the rastaquouère. While a cursory consideration of Rafael Padilla's performance as Chocolat might place him in the well-established role of a Black minstrel or primitive, Williams investigates Chocolat's character in stage performances, silent films, and print advertisements to reveal the multifaceted ways Parisian audiences interpreted the clown over the years in different venues. Chocolat rose to fame as part of a pantomime duo with British performer George Footit, and for the most part, his character assumed...

Use of Topical Calcipotriol Plus 5-Fluorouracil in the Treatment of Actinic Keratosis: A Systematic Review.

Actinic Keratosis (AK) is a premalignant lesion that can progress to cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC). Topical 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) and imiquimod have been used for field-directed therapy for AK; however, their use is limited by intolerable skin reactions and long treatment durations. To assess current data on the efficacy, tolerability, and long-term effectiveness of topical calcipotriol plus 5-FU combination for the field-directed therapy of AK. The systematic review will include a critical evaluation of the available evidence. A systematic review of the literature was performed in August 2021 using the EMBASE and MEDLINE databases. Studies that assess the use of calcipotriol and 5-FU to treat actinic keratosis (AK) and cSCC prevention were included. In total, four studies met the inclusion criteria. Our final analysis included three articles. One clinical trial evaluated the efficacy of calcipotriol plus 5-FU in treating AK. Another clinical trial evaluated the long-term effect of calcipotriol plus 5-FU in prevention of cSCC. A retrospective study evaluated the use of calcipotriol plus 5-FU with cryotherapy. A limitation of this systematic review is the limited number of clinical trials that examine the combination of 5-FU plus calcipotriol in treating AK. The active control arm (Petroleum jelly plus 5-FU combination) is not equivalent to topical 5-FU monotherapy; hence, no superiority claim can be made vs topical 5-FU in terms of efficacy. Calcipotriol plus 5-FU reduced greater number of AKs in the treated area (25 cm2) when compared to 5-FU plus petroleum jelly, but only 27% of participants had complete clearance on the face at week-8. Calcipotriol plus 5-FU lowered the risk of cSCC on the face and scalp area over a 3-year period. Adequate and well-controlled studies are needed to compare the efficacy of calcipotriol plus 5-FU to 5-FU monotherapy, and other FDA-approved topical drugs such as imiquimod cream and tirbanibulin ointment. J Drugs Dermatol. 2022;21(1):60-65. doi:10.36849/JDD.6632.

Comparing Deep Models and Evaluation Strategies for Multi-Pitch Estimation in Music Recordings

Extracting pitch information from music recordings is a challenging but important problem in music signal processing. Frame-wise transcription or multi-pitch estimation aims for detecting the simultaneous activity of pitches in polyphonic music recordings and has recently seen major improvements thanks to deep-learning techniques, with a variety of proposed model architectures. In this paper, we compare different architectures based on convolutional neural networks, the U-net structure, and self-attention components. We propose several modifications to these architectures including self-attention modules for skip connections, recurrent layers to replace the self-attention, and a multi-task strategy with simultaneous prediction of the degree of polyphony. We compare variants of these architectures in different sizes for multi-pitch estimation, focusing on Western classical music beyond the piano-solo scenario using the MusicNet and Schubert Winterreise datasets. Our experiments indicate that most architectures yield competitive results and that larger model variants seem to be beneficial. However, we find that these results substantially depend on randomization effects and the particular choice of the training–test split, which questions the claim of superiority for particular architectures given only small improvements. We therefore investigate the influence of dataset splits in the presence of several movements of a work cycle (cross-version evaluation) and propose a best-practice evaluation strategy for MusicNet, which weakens the influence of individual test tracks and suppresses overfitting to specific works and recording conditions. A final cross-dataset evaluation suggests that improvements on one specific dataset do not necessarily generalize to other scenarios, thus emphasizing the need for further high-quality multi-pitch datasets in order to reliably measure progress in music transcription tasks.

Promoting Intergenerational Justice Through Participatory Practices: Climate Workshops as an Arena for Young People's Political Participation.

In the fall of 2019, Trøndelag County Council, Norway, organized a Climate Workshop for children and youth. The intention of the workshop was to include children’s and youth’s perspectives as a foundation for a policy document titled “How we do it in Trøndelag. Strategy for transformations to mitigate climate change”. The workshop involved a range of creative and discussion tools for input on sustainable development and climate politics. In this article, we aim to (1) describe and discuss innovative practices that include children and youth in policymaking related to climate action, and (2) discuss the theoretical implications of such policymaking in relation to children’s rights, young citizenship, and intergenerational justice. We employ a generational framework and perceive climate politics as inherently ingrained in intergenerational justice, where no generation has a superior claim to the earth’s resources, yet power is unfairly concentrated and accumulated among adult generations. We draw on contributions by various stakeholders involved: Two young workshop participants, two county council policymakers, and an interdisciplinary team of researchers from Childhood Studies and Design.

Use of Topical Calcipotriol Plus 5-Fluorouracil in the Treatment of Actinic Keratosis: A Systematic Review

Background: Actinic Keratosis (AK) is a premalignant lesion that can progress to cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC). Topical 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) and imiquimod have been used for field-directed therapy for AK; however, their use is limited by intolerable skin reactions and long treatment durations. Objective: To assess current data on the efficacy, tolerability, and long-term effectiveness of topical calcipotriol plus 5-FU combination for the field-directed therapy of AK. The systematic review will include a critical evaluation of the available evidence. Methods: A systematic review of the literature was performed in August 2021 using the EMBASE and MEDLINE databases. Studies that assess the use of calcipotriol and 5-FU to treat actinic keratosis (AK) and cSCC prevention were included. Results: In total, four studies met the inclusion criteria. Our final analysis included three articles. One clinical trial evaluated the efficacy of calcipotriol plus 5-FU in treating AK. Another clinical trial evaluated the long-term effect of calcipotriol plus 5-FU in prevention of cSCC. A retrospective study evaluated the use of calcipotriol plus 5-FU with cryotherapy. Limitations: A limitation of this systematic review is the limited number of clinical trials that examine the combination of 5-FU plus calcipotriol in treating AK. The active control arm (Petroleum jelly plus 5-FU combination) is not equivalent to topical 5-FU monotherapy; hence, no superiority claim can be made vs topical 5-FU in terms of efficacy. Conclusion: Calcipotriol plus 5-FU reduced greater number of AKs in the treated area (25 cm2) when compared to 5-FU plus petroleum jelly, but only 27% of participants had complete clearance on the face at week-8. Calcipotriol plus 5-FU lowered the risk of cSCC on the face and scalp area over a 3-year period. Adequate and well-controlled studies are needed to compare the efficacy of calcipotriol plus 5-FU to 5-FU monotherapy, and other FDA-approved topical drugs such as imiquimod cream and tirbanibulin ointment. J Drugs Dermatol. 2022;21(1):60-65. doi:10.36849/JDD.6632Topical Calcipotriol Plus 5-Fluorouracil

“Eurowhite” Conceit, “Dirty White” Ressentment: “Race” in Europe

This paper offers tools to rethink global critical insights on “race” in the contemporary structural transformation of European identity politics from the perspectives of postcolonial global historical sociologies. “Race” regimes rest on the following background assumptions: (1) The claim that humankind consists of a finite number of disjunct (non‐overlapping) “groups,” “populations” or, in the extreme, “races”; (2) The presumption that it is valid to arrange those “groups,” “populations” or “races” in a system of moral super‐ and subordination; (3) The contention that the resulting moral hierarchy forms a single constant, irrespective of socio‐historical contexts, criteria, or purposes of comparison; (4) Insistence that single, ahistorical/decontextualized hierarchy can be mapped on to body shape, skin pigmentation or other epiphenomenal “features” of “groups,” “populations,” or “races,” such that (5) “Whiteness” is always already at the top, “Blackness” is always already at the bottom of that hierarchy. This paper focuses on the workings of “Whiteness” as a moral‐geopolitical superiority claim, whose defining element is an ahistorical/decontextualized claim, indeed demand, for unconditional global privilege. “Whiteness” is an unfounded, un‐found‐able—hence eminently unstable and contested—identity category. It is a relational category whose core is fixed as a constant, inaugurating the “White” subject’s relations (“superiority”) to its constitutive outside. I introduce two conceptual innovations: “eurowhiteness”—result of an internal structuring of the category of “Whiteness” whose purpose is separating an even more exalted, even more superior “cultural” —“racial” distinction within the universe of “Whiteness” and “dirty whiteness”—to capture the epistemic position of quantitative undervalued, positions within the moral quasi‐community of “White” claims for global privilege, especially in their east European variants.

“The universal word speaks only in dialect”

AbstractPostcolonial theories announce an “exit”: the departure from the West as the world’s centre of gravity and from Eurocentric hegemonic claims of superiority, turning away from the universal, and placing unheard voices at the centre – those who are excluded from academic, public, and political discourse. Such stories and histories of the margins do not simply represent “other” stories from the “periphery.” Rather, the stories of the margins are constitutive for the history of Europe and the invention of European modernity. Today’s manifestations of global Christianity are no exception to these dynamics. There are various models of alternative universalisms and conceptions of unity, where the crucial questions are: who defines the unity of the churches and has the monopoly over interpretation and – related to this, but a little more radically – whether such a formulation of unity must necessarily repeat Western grammar or whether there are not entirely other grammars and epistemologies of unity. Postcolonial theories and postcolonial practices in particular offer promising perspectives in dealing with these questions.

Reframing cancer: challenging the discourse on cancer and cancer drugs\u2014a Norwegian perspective

BackgroundAs the range of therapeutic options in the field of oncology increases, so too does the strain on health care budgets. The imbalance between what is medically possible and financially feasible is frequently rendered as an issue of tragic choices, giving rise to public controversies around health care rationing.Main bodyWe analyse the Norwegian media discourse on expensive cancer drugs and identify four underlying premises: (1) Cancer drugs are de facto expensive, and one does not and should not question why. (2) Cancer drugs have an indubitable efficacy. (3) Any lifetime gained for a cancer patient is an absolute good, and (4) cancer patients and doctors own the truth about cancer. Applying a principle-based approach, we argue that these premises should be challenged on moral grounds. Within the Norwegian public discourse, however, the premises largely remain unchallenged due to what we find to be unjustified claims of moral superiority. We therefore explore alternative framings of the issue of expensive cancer drugs and discuss their potential to escape the predicament of tragic choices.ConclusionsIn a media discourse that has seemingly stagnated, awareness of the framings within it is necessary in order to challenge the current tragic choices predicament the discourse finds itself in. In order to allow for a discourse not solely concerned with the issue of tragic choices, the premises that underlie it must be subjected to critical examination. As the field of oncology advances rapidly, we depend on a discussion of its opportunities and challenges that is meaningful, and that soberly addresses the future of cancer care—both its potential and its limits.

Novel material for root-end applications for bio-allied sciences

Treating a patient with tooth pain is a multi-factorial process with many factors playing their role to warrant the success of the treatment procedure. One such important factor is to secure the root apex which is important for ensuring good prognosis in endodontics. Also in challenging situations like sealing a fractured root, resorbed apex, or an incompletely formed apex, the need of an intact root apex is much anticipated. Over the years, an array of novel products has been produced for root-end applications to achieve such a favorable condition. The objective of this review is to list and summarize such root-end materials. However, their merits, and claims of superiority over MTA, have to be ascertained via sustained research.

A Common Space of International Work: Disability Activism, Socialist Internationalism, and the Russian Union of the Blind

After the Second World War, blind activists in Eastern Europe were busy rebuilding their prewar advocacy movements and integrating them in the administrative structure and ideological apparatus of the emerging socialist states. As they set up their new national programs, these activists also attributed great significance to international cooperation. They recognized the value that could be derived from international relations not only with the Soviet Union but also across the entire socialist camp, and moved fast to build an intra‐socialist, shared space of blind advocacy. In particular, blind activists from East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary launched a series of initiatives aimed at cementing their commonality of goals and making the exchange of disability knowledge practically possible among them. These included International Sport Competitions of Blind Youth, blind vacationers' exchange programs, and formal agreements of cultural collaboration. All their international work, however, would have been of little use had the Russian Blind Union refused to be involved in it. Analyzing the personal letters, internal reports, and official public statements written by various Russian and East European blind activists, in this article I discuss the ways in which the Russian Blind Union entered the international scene of socialist blind activism and shaped its development. In the context of Khrushchev's broader shifts to revamp the domestic and international realities of Soviet life, Russian blind activists joined the network of contacts that their Eastern European colleagues had built and took up a commanding role in it. They began to use international work both to advance the propaganda goals of their government and to improve their own national advocacy movement. In doing that, they significantly augmented the meaning of socialist blind internationalism as a theater of cultural diplomacy, while also reinforcing its framing as a socialist learning space, an opportunity that would benefit the blind people of the socialist world. Their encounters with Eastern European colleagues allowed Russian activists to compare notes and expand their conceptual horizons; they exposed both the achievements and the limits of the Soviet approach to disability; and they suggested that there was much that Russians could learn from other countries. Studying these processes, historians can not only better assess Soviet claims of superiority and the paradoxes of socialist cultural exchanges, but also think about the specific meaning of these contacts for blind activist–a group that we rarely associate with internationalism during the Cold War. Ultimately, as I argue in this article, transnational socialist encounters taught Russian blind activists to balance their identity as state officers and cultural diplomats with their motives as disability advocates.

On predictability of solar irradiance

Fair forecast comparisons are exceedingly rare in the literature of solar forecasting. Since many published works have been operating under the condition “the proposed methods outperform the benchmarks,” it is unlikely that the actual advancement in solar forecasting science is indeed successive in that the latter works supersede the former. It follows that one must hold fast to skepticism on those model superiority claims until they can be truly justified. In order to quantify the real progress, one needs to not only employ formal verification methods but also make inquiries on predictability, which, even in the field of statistics, is a controversial topic. Although predictability on its own is hard to define, let alone to quantify, one logically attractive proxy is to examine the performance of a short-range forecasting method relative to that of an optimal long-range forecasting method. This strategy is reasonable on the account that a climatological forecast in the short-range horizon marks the worst-case scenario, by which the relative improvement due to an alternative forecasting method can be gauged: situations with high predictability correspond to large relative improvements, and that with low predictability correspond to low relative improvements. If this argument can be considered admissible, the remaining task is to examine what properties ought the short-range forecasting method possess. This paper proposes, in this regard, a new measure of predictability for solar irradiance.

Evaluating obsidian calibration sets with portable X-Ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) instruments

Available calibrations for obsidian transform X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectral data into analytical units such as parts per million or weight percent through complex algorithms built around known geologic rock references (USGS and NIST) or independent matrix matched sets (Bruker from MURR and PYRO from Yale) characterized by other analytical methods, complex physics-based models of atomic energy dispersion, or both. The current portable XRF (pXRF) industry uses two main part per million predictive methods: Lucas-Tooth empirical calibration (regression-based) and Fundamental Parameters with standards. These procedures are often exclusive to a given pXRF manufacturer and claims of superiority are often cited. In addition to these associations, obsidian calibration sets are also available to either create your own regression calibration or fine-tune a Fundamental Parameters algorithm using a post-processing slope correction, thus potentially complicating pXRF accuracy through unique user customizations beyond claims by the manufacturer. This paper reviews calibration methods and examines the accuracy of three in-use pXRF instruments with respect to calibration methods and obsidian calibration sets thereby independently evaluating claims of accuracy by manufacturers. Research of this kind serves to inform new users of how to evaluate and disclose instrument and calibration accuracy before the analysis of archaeological materials.

Seduction, Aggression, and Frenchness in LA VIE PARISIENNE (1914–1918)

The article retraces how the notion of cultural singularity in sexuality was constructed and weaponized in the most popular French illustrated periodical of the First World War. It argues that La Vie Parisienne’s sublimation of romantic love, sex, and Frenchness worked as a cultural tactic that, while helping the readership cope with a devastating historical disruption, undermined at the same time claims for social change. The close analysis of works by illustrator Chéri Hérouard uncovers how nationalism and anxieties of sexual dispossession contributed to integrate a fraught notion of women’s sexual consent to a broader claim of cultural superiority. This article provides a critical approach to popular and visual representations of heterosexual and non-conjugal norms of desire, seduction, and sexuality in wartime France. It also offers a historical example of how the racialization and nationalisation of gender relations, discussed as ‘Gallic singularity’ in recent scholarship, trivialises masculine aggression and produces the ambivalence long associated with the notion of women’s sexual consent in France.