Contradictory Relationship Research Articles

Effective approaches to produce high performance single-walled carbon nanotubes/platinum based hybrid films by inserting thermoelectric material with high seebeck coefficient

The scarcity of highly conductive materials with solution-processable ability and the contradictory relationship between conductivity ( σ ) and Seebeck coefficient ( S ), have greatly limited the development of thermoelectric (TE) materials. To address these challenges, we propose a novel strategy from the following two aspects: 1) Highly conductive materials with solution-processable ability are achieved by simply combining platinum-based complexes with Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). Among them, SWCNT/Pt-4 manifests the highest σ (4166.3 S cm −1 ), which is among the highest for p-type SWCNT-based TE materials; 2) The TE material with high S is applied to the above system to overcome the restrictive relationship between S and σ . The optimized three composites display remarkably higher power factor (PF) than those of either two hybrids at room temperature, and the highest PF is achieved by SWCNT/(Ge 0.87 Pb 0.13 Te) 0.95 (Bi 2 Te 3 ) 0.05 /PtCl 4 (471.8 μW m −1 K −2 ) at 420 K. This strategy simultaneously improves the PF of SWCNTs by innovatively introducing a three-phase system in the composites. Our work opens up new material options for TE applications and provides a robust pathway to the development of high-performance TE materials. • Both the platinum and ligands played a dominate role in enhancing the σ of SWCNTs. • SWCNT/Pt-4 manifested the highest σ with the value of 4166.3 S cm −1 . • The combinations can induce a synergistic effect on the TE performance. • The highest PF (471.8 μW m −1 K −2 ) was achieved by three-phase composites at 420 K.

Transgender: A Useful Category?

Abstract This article seeks to start a discussion that may help us understand why the category “transgender,” created to include all trans* experiences, has excluded some. If “transgender” cannot fully include all trans* people, can it still be a useful category to adequately capture and analyze the lived experience of historical actors? It is in tracing back the genealogy of transgender, in the search for a name that could encompass the multiple and sometimes contradictory relationships between one's body and its social recognition, that we may attempt to discover why transgender has eclipsed terms such as transsexual and transvestite. The article first examines the parallels between recent debates in the historiographies of gender and transgender as terms that can express the complex social representation of bodies negotiated by language. Second, it studies how much a genealogy of transgender in the past reveals in fact a multiplicity of terms to express a realignment between body and a self that can be read by society. Ultimately, the author proposes the study of first-person narratives as the best way to comprehend the multiple terms used to express the diverse and sometimes contradictory identities an individual can embody.

At the Margins of Time and Place

At the Margins of Time and Place

Analisis Tingkat Minat Mahasiswa Universitas Syiah Kuala dalam Berwirausaha

Indonesia is known as a country with abundant natural resources and abundant human resources. However, in Indonesia the phenomenon shows a contradictory relationship between natural resource wealth and economic perfomance. It is still far behind developed and other resource rich countries. The basic factor of this phenomenon is caused by the quality of human resources. For example, when existing the high number of graduate job seekers is not commensurate with the growth rate of job vacancies required, then there occur problem such as unemployment. Thus, one of the best solutions to overcome this unemployment problem is to create jobs, one of which is entrepreneurship. The purpose of this study were to analyze the level of interest of Syiah Kuala University students in entrepreneurship and find out what factors most affect the interest of Syiah Kuala University students in entrepreneurship. This study used quantitative analysis methods described by descriptive statistics and Chi-Square analysis (Independency Test) using primary data obtained from online questionnaire the distributions. The results of this study indicated that the level of interest of Syiah Kuala University students in entrepreneurship is high with an index value of 81.31%.72,961.

Crossed effects of audio-visual environment on indoor soundscape perception for pleasant open-plan office environments

An open-plan office (OPO) layout promotes communication and teamwork among workers and provides flexibility in working; however, it also adversely affects work satisfaction, health, and worker privacy, leading to dissatisfaction and poor task performance. In this study, the subjective responses in an audio-visual OPO environment were analyzed to investigate the effects of the environment on indoor soundscape perception for designing pleasant OPOs. The outdoor environments of four OPOs with four different visual layouts were divided based on two conditions with different window views (good and bad views) to model eight visual stimuli. The auditory aspect was evaluated by computer simulation using three sound sources. For subjective assessment, virtual reality technology was employed with 24 audio-visual stimuli, and thirty-four subjects were asked to rate the perceived affective quality and overall quality. Task performance was quantified using auditory digit span tasks. The spatial preference decreased with the Loud, Variable, and Reverberant attributes and increased with the Bright, Orderly, and Wide attributes. For the same OPO soundscape, the window area ratio and floor area showed positive correlations with visual privacy, visual satisfaction, speech privacy, and sound satisfaction. However, work satisfaction and task performance exhibited contradictory relationships with the visual parameters. Furthermore, wide, open workspaces yielded high work satisfaction, whereas narrow, confined work spaces yielded high task performance. These results indicate that the relationship between work satisfaction and task performance must be considered for a balanced OPO design, providing practical guidance for designing pleasant OPO environments.

The Politics of Nostalgia: Postmodernism, Capitalism and Repetition in Tao Lin’s Taipei

ABSTRACT Twenty-first century culture is characterized by theories of succession connected to digital technology. These range from post-postmodern definitions of an “after” postmodernism, to attempts to imagine what a postcapitalist society might look like. In contrast, Tao Lin’s Taipei presents a seemingly counter-intuitive depiction of postmodern esthetics, using repetition to challenge contemporary theories of succession. I argue the novel’s apparently nostalgic depiction of postmodernism provides a vital way of considering the contemporary political function of postmodern esthetics through repetition. Textual repetitions of nineties grunge references, combined with blank fictional esthetics, generate a jarring dislocation of chronological time. Repetition depicts a disorientation characterized by postmodern esthetics, combined with a disorientation produced through their repetition in Taipei. The hopelessness Lin’s characters experience is not only articulated through postmodern esthetics, but is further intensified by their untimely repetition. The apparent displacement of postmodern esthetics within a digital context presents an elongated post-Cold War consumer capitalist culture, challenging theories of succession to fully account for a partially forgotten postmodern past. Taipei presents repetition as a way of accounting for the contradictory relation to postmodernism in contemporary American culture. Repetition therefore provides a politicized way of critically and textually navigating contemporary digital culture through postmodern esthetics.

Rethinking the Formation of Public Distribution System: A Class-Focused Approach

Using the methodology of overdetermination, class process of surplus labor as the entry point and socially determined need of food security, we deliver an alternative class-focused rendition of the public distribution system (PDS) in India. We first surmise our theoretical framework to infer that the overdetermined and contradictory relation of class and social needs matter for PDS. Beyond the reasoning of being pro-poor, fair, or wasteful, we deploy this framework to reinterpret the formation of Indian PDS in the 1960s. Its demonstration requires revisiting the historical condition that shaped capital’s passive revolution through the post-independence Indian state and its subsequent crisis arising out of the contradictions and conflicts in the class-need space. We argue that PDS signals a case of success and not failure of capitalism. JEL Classification: B41, B51, N45

A constructivist approach to Gambia-Senegal relations: Analysis of the ‘two states, one people’ and the ‘next-door enemy’ discourse

ABSTRACT Gambia’s foreign policy on Senegal under the presidency of Yahya AJJ Jammeh (1996–2016) is the focus of this article. The study relied on speeches, statements and communiqués as its source of data for analysis. Using constructivism as a general theory and discourse analysis as a framework of analysis, the work argues that the Gambia’s foreign policy towards its neighbour was built upon two main social constructs, namely ‘two states, one people’ and ‘next-door enemy’. Despite changes in the leadership in Senegal, it is argued that the Gambian leadership consistently constructed Senegal in the same way during this period. The article concludes that these two constructs explain the often contradictory relationship between the two countries. While the ‘two states, one people’ construct was used to argue for and build cordial relationships, ‘the next-door enemy’ construct was invoked to condemn Senegal and justify strained relations.

Triangulating Labor, Capital, and Land: Italian Emigrant Colonization in Latin America and the Contradictions of US Hegemony, 1947–1953

In the aftermath of World War II, Italy’s centrist leaders saw in the emerging US empire an opportunity to implement emigration schemes that had been in circulation for decades. Hundreds of thousands of Italian peasant farmers could perhaps be able to settle on Latin American and African land thanks to the contribution of US capital. This article examines the Italian elites’ obsession with rural colonization abroad as the product of their desire to valorize the legacy of Italy's settler colonialism in Libya and thereby reinvent Italy's place in the world in the aftermath of military defeat and decolonization. Despite the deep ambivalence of US officials, Italy received Marshall Plan funds to carry out experimental settlements in several Latin American countries. These visions of rural settlement also built on the nascent discourses about the ‘development’ of non-western areas. Despite the limited size and success of the Italian rural ‘colonies’ in Latin America, these projects afford a window into the politics of decolonization, the character of US hegemony at the height of the Cold War, and the evolving attitude of Latin American governments towards immigration and rural development. They also reveal the contradictory relationships between Italy's leaders and the country's rural masses, viewed as redundant and yet precious elements to be deployed in a global geopolitical game.

Exploring Spatial Variations in the Relationships between Landscape Functions and Human Activities in Suburban Rural Communities: A Case Study in Jiangning District, China.

There is a complicated and contradictory relationship between landscape functions and human activities, especially in the suburban rural communities of metropolises. Previous studies focused on human interference to landscape function, ignoring the impact of landscape functions on human activities. Hence, the present study is focused on the impact of landscape function (based on ecosystem services) on human activities in suburban rural communities of China. The study evaluated the intensity of human activities based on big data; furthermore, the authors analyzed the spatial distribution characteristics through spatial autocorrelation, and probed into the spatial variations in the relationship between human activities and landscape functions using ordinary least squares (OLS) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) models. The result indicates that there are obvious spatial distribution differences in the intensity of human activities in suburban rural communities; that is, the intensity decreases from the inner to the outer suburban areas. Positive influencing factors of human activities are construction area, bus station, road network density, and leisure entertainment, among which, construction area is the principal driver; cultural heritage, hydrological regulation, and provision of aesthetics are negatively or positively correlated with human activities in various regions. The results offer insights for the sustainable development of rural environment in suburban areas and the big data-driven rural research.

MR-Corr2: a two-sample Mendelian randomization method that accounts for correlated horizontal pleiotropy using correlated instrumental variants.

Mendelian randomization (MR) is a valuable tool to examine the causal relationships between health risk factors and outcomes from observational studies. Along with the proliferation of genome-wide association studies, a variety of two-sample MR methods for summary data have been developed to account for horizontal pleiotropy (HP), primarily based on the assumption that the effects of variants on exposure (γ) and HP (α) are independent. In practice, this assumption is too strict and can be easily violated because of the correlated HP. To account for this correlated HP, we propose a Bayesian approach, MR-Corr2, that uses the orthogonal projection to reparameterize the bivariate normal distribution for γ and α, and a spike-slab prior to mitigate the impact of correlated HP. We have also developed an efficient algorithm with paralleled Gibbs sampling. To demonstrate the advantages of MR-Corr2 over existing methods, we conducted comprehensive simulation studies to compare for both type-I error control and point estimates in various scenarios. By applying MR-Corr2 to study the relationships between exposure-outcome pairs in complex traits, we did not identify the contradictory causal relationship between HDL-c and CAD. Moreover, the results provide a new perspective of the causal network among complex traits. The developed R package and code to reproduce all the results are available at https://github.com/QingCheng0218/MR.Corr2. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Does industrial agglomeration affect the regional environment? Evidence from Chinese cities

This study examines the impact of industrial agglomeration on the regional environment using panel data of 13 prefecture-level cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region from 1998 to 2018. The empirical results show a strong spatial autocorrelation and a strong spatial lag and spatial error effect on the environmental pollution level in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The results further show that the manufacturing agglomeration significantly aggravates the regional pollution; service agglomeration significantly alleviates the regional environmental pollution; the synergistic agglomeration of manufacturing and service industry has a significant inverted "U" type relationship on the regional environmental pollution. More specifically, the development of synergistic agglomeration intensifies regional environmental pollution at the early stage, and after reaching the inflection point, synergistic agglomeration alleviates regional environmental pollution. The inflection point occurs when the level of synergistic agglomeration is around 2.85. At the same time, there is no significant spillover effect of synergistic agglomeration on neighboring regions after calculating the feedback effect. Study findings provide insights for promoting the strategy of "two-wheel-drive development" and alleviating the contradictory relationship between industrial development and environmental pollution.

Comparison of Lipid Profile in Patients With and Without Subclinical Hypothyroidism.

Introduction: Thyroid hormone affects lipid metabolism. Various studies have shown a contradictory relationship between lipid profile (LP) and subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH). Currently, there is a scarcity of regional data on the relationship between LP and SCH.Methods: This longitudinal study was conducted in the internal medicine and cardiology units of a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan from September 2019 to March 2021. A total of 900 participants, of either gender and between the ages of 40 to 70 years, were enrolled in the study. Blood samples were sent to the laboratory to determine lipid and thyroid parameters. Participants were divided into two groups based on the presence of SCH.Results: In our study, 179 (19.8%) participants had SCH. Total cholesterol (TC) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) was significantly higher in participants with SCH compared to participants without SCH (228.41 ± 35.21 mg/dL vs. 171.21 ± 30.21 mg/dL; p-value: <0.00001) and (131.65 ± 28.22 mg/dL vs. 89.26 ± 18.52 mg/dL; p-value: <0.0001), respectively.Conclusion: In conclusion, this study found an increased incidence of dyslipidemias in patients with SCH. It is associated with elevated TC and LDL levels, which are risk factors for cardiovascular disease and mortality.

Obesity and Breast Cancer: A Paradoxical and Controversial Relationship Influenced by Menopausal Status.

Breast cancer is the most common tumor in women worldwide, and an increasing public health concern. Knowledge of both protective and negative risk factors is essential for a better understanding of this heterogenous disease. We undertook a review of the recent literature and evaluated the relationship between obesity mediators and breast cancer development depending on menopausal status. Excess weight is now pandemic and has replaced tobacco as the main lifestyle-related risk factor for premature death. Although the prevalence of obesity/overweight has increased globally over the last 50 years, the potential harm attributable to excess fat has generally been underestimated. The relationship between overweight/obesity, breast cancer and overall risk appears to be highly dependent on menopausal status. Thus, obesity increases the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women but, conversely, it appears to be protective in premenopausal women. We evaluate the role of different clinical factors potentially involved in this seemingly contradictory relationship, including estrogen, mammogram density, adipokines, insulin-signaling pathway activation, and inflammatory status. A key focus of this review is to better understand the impact of body mass index and menopausal status on these clinical factors and, hence, provide some clarity into the inter-relationships involved in this controversial issue.

Constructing economic taxonomy reflecting firm relationships based on news reports

PurposeThis paper aims to propose a novel approach to constructing an economic taxonomy that demonstrates the complex relationships between firms, which are not fully revealed by traditional industry classification systems such as the NAICS or ICB.Design/methodology/approachBased on narrative economic theory, data from CNBC news reports between 01/01/2019 and 03/27/2019 regarding four selected firms, namely, Walmart, Amazon, Netflix and Boeing, were analyzed and coded as the basis to guide the construction of a firm-to-firm relationship taxonomy.FindingsThe relationships between firms are more complex than the simple relationships defined by the traditional classification systems with yes or no in terms of production process (NAICS) or major profit resource (ICB). Based on the sample firms, the authors proposed a four-layer hierarchical taxonomy framework that quantitatively reveals the inherent contradictory relationships between firms, which the authors defined as competition vs consistency. The proposed taxonomy framework is sufficiently flexible to accommodate complex relationships between firms, and it is also adaptable to new information. Under both the competition and consistency categories in the taxonomy model, more detailed subcategories are further coded into two more layers quantitatively to represent the firms' nuanced relationships.Originality/valueThis study provides a novel atheoretical approach to reveal complex firm relationships utilizing narrative text data gathered from news media. The framework of the firm relationship taxonomy constructed in this study provides an alternative and supplementary approach to the classical industry classification systems that can quantitatively specify comprehensive and dynamic connections between firms.

Multilayer graphene and β-Si3N4 whisker-reinforced porous Si3N4 ceramics by spark plasma incomplete sintering

Combining the advantages of spark plasma sintering (SPS) and incomplete sintering (IS) in preparation of Si3N4 ceramics, the spark plasma incomplete sintering (SPIS) was presented to fabricate porous Si3N4 ceramics. Considering balancing the contradictory relationship between the porosity and toughness, 1 wt% multilayer graphene (MLG) was incorporated into porous Si3N4 ceramics. Meanwhile, for the sake of compensating for the decrease in the hardness of porous Si3N4 ceramics induced by MLG, 0–8 wt% β-Si3N4 whisker (β-Si3N4w) were synergistically added. The element distribution, phase constitutions and microstructures of MLG/β-Si3N4w-reinforced porous Si3N4 ceramics were characterized by energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), x-rays diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The effects of β-Si3N4w content on porosity, hardness and fracture toughness of porous Si3N4-based ceramics were analyzed. Results indicated that the porosity of porous Si3N4-based ceramics reached 21%, and then decreased significantly after the β-Si3N4w content exceeded 4 wt%. The hardness of porous Si3N4-based ceramics obtained the maximum value 2.81 GPa when β-Si3N4w was added 8 wt%, which was 31.92% higher than monolithic porous Si3N4 ceramic. The mass transfer, diffusion and fusion induced by β-Si3N4w were considered to be the main responsible for the increase of hardness. The fracture toughness of specimen with 1 wt% MLG and 4 wt% β-Si3N4w was advanced to 3.14 MPa m1/2, which was 15.44% higher than monolithic porous Si3N4 ceramic. The markedly enhanced of the fracture toughness was attributed to the synergistic effects of crack deflection, pull-out and bridging resulted by MLG/β-Si3N4w.

Social reproduction theory revisited

Social reproduction theory names at least two distinct traditions, one of which has a long history in educational research. Social reproduction theory in education emerged out of a concern with education’s relationship to capitalist inequalities. By contrast, social reproduction feminism developed out of feminist interventions regarding the role of women’s unpaid care-work in the reproduction of capitalism. In this paper, we suggest that the renewed energy surrounding social reproduction feminism provides an opportunity to revisit social reproduction theorizing in education. We review the fields’ histories and ready the ground for an integrated framework. At the heart of this integration is a feminist analysis of reproductive labor in its contradictory relationship to capitalism. Expanding the analysis from the reproduction of capitalist relations to the reproduction of life under capitalism, this approach avoids the pitfalls of determinism and attends to students’ participation and teachers’ work in the contested labor of social reproduction.

Understanding L2 Demotivation Among Chinese Tertiary EFL Learners From an Activity Theory Perspective.

This study reports on the results of a qualitative inquiry on second language (L2) demotivation among 14 Chinese EFL learners from the perspective of Activity Theory. Semi-structured interviews were applied to collect data. Through the qualitative content analysis approach, this study found that L2 demotivation prevailed among the participants, influenced by an array of mediational factors including subject-mediated, rule-mediated, community-mediated, tool-mediated, and labour-of-division-mediated factors. The findings imply that L2 demotivation results from the contradictory relationship among the above mentioned factors in the activity system and is a socially mediational construct. The findings shed light on the formulating mechanism of L2 demotivation and provide insightful implications for overcoming the detrimental effect of demotivation in the Chinese EFL context and beyond.

Employee-Employer Interaction from the Specificity of Work Training Perspective

The rapid process of restructuring the value system and the fundamental reorganization of life as a whole, including professional life, highlights the major implications of the human group as a form of action and balance of the contradictory relationships manifested on a psycho-moral background at the organizational level. Therefore, at the organizational level, the man of the future, the new type man, the complex man, the organizational man, who will be characterized by the measure of his complexity, tending to identify with organizational objectives, will play a fundamental role. The characteristic of accepting the organizational objectives, pursuing their fulfillment, the man of the future, the employee of tomorrow, will highlight the inter-relationship between him and the organization in order to obtain the planned results. In such context, supported by the thesis regarding the usefulness of the existence of appreciable differences between individuals and motivational factors, managers can use flexible strategies to achieve organizational goals using maximum human and professional capabilities of employees, formed in formal working groups or in work teams.

Application of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Solid Organ Transplantation Recipients: A Systematic Review.

Solid organ transplantation (SOT) is a treatment method for end-stage organ diseases and improve their life quality, while using long-term immunosuppressant drugs (ISD) is needed to suppress the function of the immune system. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are a class of anti-tumor drugs that kill tumors by activating the autoimmune system. The primary objective of our systematic review is to investigate the risk factors for organ rejection and the efficacy of ICIs in solid organ transplantation recipients (SOTRs). We searched four databases to find relevant articles up to January 2021. A total of 61 articles involving 106 SOTRs met the screening criteria and were included in our systematic review. The collected data were statistical described, and the risk factors were analyzed by logistic regression. Forty-four patients (41.5%) developed host-versus-graft response (HVGR) after ICIs. mTOR inhibitors (pre-ICIs) (p = 0.069, OR = 0.377, 95% CI 0.132-1.078) and calcineurin inhibitors (post-ICIs) (p = 0.056, OR = 0.375, 95%CI 0.137-1.025) may help reduce the incidence of HVGR. Hormones (pre-ICIs) (p = 0.026, OR = 3.150, 95%CI 1.150-8.628) and anti-metabolites (pre-ICIs) (p = 0.022, OR = 3.214, 95%CI 1.185-8.720) may adversely affect the efficacy of ICIs. Only 35.6% of patients both responded well to ICIs treatment and did not develop HVGR. Our systematic review summarizes the use of ICIs in SOTRs and evaluates the efficacy of ICIs and the risk factors that induce HVGR. Through risk factor analysis, we found that mTOR inhibitors and calcineurin inhibitors may help to reduce the occurrence of HVGR;hormones and anti-metabolic drugs may have adverse effects on the efficacy of ICIs. In addition, there is a contradictory relationship between the occurrence of HVGR and the efficacy of ICIs.