Cultural Divides Research Articles

Operationalizing competency-based assessment:Contextualizing for cultural and gender divides.

Following current trends, educational institutions often decide to use a competency framework as an overarching structure in their assessment system. Despite the presence of a common understanding of how different examinations can contribute to the decision on attaining a particular competency, a detailed mapping of the data points appears to be a challenging area that remains to be explored. Faced with the newly emerged task of introducing the assessment of the attainment of UAE medical students against the EmiratesMEDs competency framework, Dubai Medical College for Girls (DMCG) attempted to operationalise the designed concept in the assessment system considering the cultural and gender divide. We believe that health professionals who attempt to implement contextualized competency-based assessment could benefit from being acquainted with our experience. The article offers a step-by-step guide on contextualized competency assessment operationalization, describing building the team, working with consultants and faculty development, estimating institutional assessment capacity, mapping and operationalizing the maps by using both human recourses and the software. We also offer the readers the list of enabling factors and introduce the scope of limitations in the process of developing the competency-based assessment system. We believe that following the present guide can allow educators to operationalize competency-based assessment in any context with respect to local culture and traditions.

The drama of dialogue action in distinct discourse spaces

Abstract The article addresses the issue of intracultural dialogue between two strong political mindsets, liberal and conservative. This polarization is typical of contemporary cultural divides and emerges in the public sphere through mass media, often finding its outlet through humour, which may be treated as a mediating factor. It will be discussed on the example of a popular Polish humorous talk show broadcast on the public TV channel as compared to one broadcast on commercial television. The central finding of the study, seemingly replicable for other languages and television cultures, is the discovery of the central item on the discursive agenda, i.e., a worldview hiding in the conservative epistemic stance that assumes the authority of the journalists running the show.

From Reviews to Revenues Website Design’s Role in Converting Opinions into Purchase Intentions

<p><em>This research is to examine and investigate the relationship between online reviews, web design, and buying interest in the context of online commerce. The purpose of this study is to investigate and investigate the relationship between online reviews and web design. According to the findings of this research, which employs both qualitative and quantitative methods, user reviews posted on the internet are an important tool for reducing informational inequality. This, in turn, influences consumer trust, which in turn influences the decisions that consumers make when they are making purchases. Concerns, however, including a lack of trustworthiness and the potential of incorrect evaluations, argue for a stronger level of intervention. These concerns call for an intervention level that is stronger. In this context, web design appears as a powerful moderating factor, having the ability to improve purchase confidence and interest by giving an appealing appearance and clear navigation. This can be accomplished through the use of a website that is well-designed. The findings of this study have management implications that can assist the e-commerce business in the creation of customer-focused platforms, ethical content efforts, as well as technological and design breakthroughs that break new ground. These findings also provide a framework for additional research, such as an investigation into the consequences of phony reviews, studies that cross cultural divides, and the development of tools to manage reviews. In general, the findings of the study offer substantial new insights into the ways in which online evaluations and website design interact to form the experience of shopping online. In addition to this, the study offers direction for the development of best practices in this highly competitive and ever-changing sector of the economy.</em></p>

Translation and analogical reasoning

AbstractThis article argues that the dissemination of literatures across historical and cultural divides follow partly random analogical pathways, not least pushed by translations. By contrast, within traditional comparative literature hierarchical centre/periphery models for literary transmissions were to a large extent based on the idea of a unilateral influence moving from dominant source cultures and their canonical writers and texts to other cultures. With the aim of revising this model I will as necessary suggest analogical reasoning, understood as a bi‐directional and non‐hierarchical approach to literary dissemination as it is embedded in translatory, aesthetic and performative practices across languages and cultures. My examples are two: an early nineteenth‐century direct Danish translation from 1805 of William Shakespeare's Hamlet; and an early twentieth‐century case of cross‐media use of an indirect German translation of Chinese poetry in Gustav Mahler's symphonic work Das Lied von der Erde (1908–1909).

Promotive effect of phytosulfokine - peptide growth factor - on protoplast cultures development in Fagopyrum tataricum (L.) Gaertn

BackgroundFagopyrum tataricum (Tartary buckwheat) is a valuable crop of great nutritional importance due to its high level of bioactive compounds. Excellent opportunities to obtain plants with the high level or the desired profile of valuable metabolites may be provided by in vitro cultures. Among known in vitro techniques, protoplast technology is an exciting tool for genetic manipulation to improve crop traits. In that context, protoplast fusion may be applied to generate hybrid cells between different species of Fagopyrum. To apply protoplast cultures to the aforementioned approaches in this research, we established the protoplast-to-plant system in Tartary buckwheat.ResultsIn this work, cellulase and pectinase activity enabled protoplast isolation from non-morphogenic and morphogenic callus (MC), reaching, on average, 2.3 × 106 protoplasts per g of fresh weight. However, to release protoplasts from hypocotyls, the key step was the application of driselase in the enzyme mixture. We showed that colony formation could be induced after protoplast embedding in agarose compared to the alginate matrix. Protoplasts cultured in a medium based on Kao and Michayluk supplemented with phytosulfokine (PSK) rebuilt cell walls, underwent repeated mitotic division, formed aggregates, which consequently led to callus formation. Plating efficiency, expressing the number of cell aggregate formed, in 10-day-old protoplast cultures varied from 14% for morphogenic callus to 30% for hypocotyls used as a protoplast source. However plant regeneration via somatic embryogenesis and organogenesis occurred only during the cultivation of MC-derived protoplasts.ConclusionsThis study demonstrated that the applied protoplast isolation approach facilitated the recovery of viable protoplasts. Moreover, the embedding of protoplasts in an agarose matrix and supplementation of a culture medium with PSK effectively stimulated cell division and further development of Tartary buckwheat protoplast cultures along with the plant regeneration. Together, these results provide the first evidence of developing a protoplast-to-plant system from the MC of Fagopyrum tataricum used as source material. These findings suggest that Tartary buckwheat’s protoplast cultures have potential implications for the species’ somatic hybridization and genetic improvement.

Unveiling the tapestry of Arab American writings

Arab Americans living in the United States are represented in the intriguing and varied body of Arab American Literature. It is a diverse and significant body of writing that reflects the experiences and perspectives of Arab Americans in the United States. It explores powerful examples of how difficult it is to deal with identity, heritage, and belonging concerns in a diverse community. Arab American writers, from Ameen Rihani to Naomi Shihab Nye, have made creative contributions with their viewpoints, illuminating the rich tapestry of life in Arab America in everything from provocative novels to tender poetry and perceptive essays. However, Arab American authors have faced numerous challenges, including prejudice, stereotypes, language barriers, and limited publishing opportunities. Despite these obstacles, they have persisted in using their literary works as a means of self-expression, cultural preservation, and empowerment. To promote the visibility and acknowledgment of Arab American voices, readers, institutions, and literary communities must actively support and endorse Arab American authors and their work. Arab American Literature contributes to a more inclusive and interconnected society, dispelling myths and fostering empathy and understanding across cultural divides.

Od metropolii podzielonej do metropolii zjednoczonej – kształtowanie się tożsamości instytucji metropolitalnego zarządzania w kontekście relacji miast górnośląskiego obszaru metropolitalnego

The Upper Silesian conurbation is a unique area in Poland due to its polycentric nature, expressed in the interaction of a group of cities. The paper describes the transformation of the image of the “metropolis” in the Silesian Voivodeship, addressing the issues of complex relations between the cities of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Area. The results of the qualitative content analysis of strategic programs of the municipalities participating in the metropolitan union since 2017 highlighted two main categories of the concept of “metropolis” – a chance and a threat. Then, the selected aspects shaping the identity of the institution of metropolitan management were demonstrated based on the regional press discourse analysis. Thus, this paper explores a path of metropolitan integration of the municipalities in the face of the emergence of a new metropolitan institution – from rivalry tendencies based on the historical and cultural divisions of the region and the revival of local identities to conciliatory attitudes.

Zoo-bred female birds prefer songs of zoo-bred males: Implications for adaptive management of reintroduction programs

Understanding the factors affecting the success of animal reintroductions is crucial for facilitating endangered species recovery. Cultural differences between individuals from different animal populations can lead to assortative mating, whereby individuals prefer to breed within their own familiar cultural cohort. Assortative mating can hinder the assimilation of zoo-bred individuals into wild populations, so quantifying this risk becomes important for informing adaptive management strategies in conservation. We conducted mate choice experiments on zoo-bred female regent honeyeaters (Anthochaera phrygia) to assess whether they showed stronger behavioural responses to the familiar but abnormal songs of zoo-bred male regent honeyeaters than those of their wild counterparts or an interspecific control song. Female regent honeyeaters were no more likely to enter the playback aviary in response to the songs of zoo-bred males than those of wild males or a different species. However, females that did enter the playback aviary were significantly more likely to respond quickly, approach the speaker closely and remain in the playback aviary for longer in response to the songs of zoo-bred males than wild songs or control songs. Our study is the first to show experimentally that zoo-bred females prefer familiar, but abnormal, zoo-bred songs over unfamiliar wild-type songs. We suggest that assortative mating amongst released birds is a risk in reintroduced regent honeyeaters, given recent evidence that the breeding success of reintroduced pairs is low. Our study demonstrates how small-scale experiments conducted within applied zoo-breeding settings can yield useful information to refine husbandry techniques and reduce cultural divides between wild and reintroduced populations.

UNVEILING THE LABYRINTH OF INTERNET PHRASEOLOGY: NAVIGATING THE LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE OF THE DIGITAL ERA

Internet phraseology, the unique language used in online communication, has become an essential aspect of the digital era. This article provides a comprehensive exploration of Internet phraseology, unveiling its evolution, linguistic characteristics, and sociocultural implications. Drawing upon existing research and scholarly contributions, the literature review highlights the role of Internet phraseology in enhancing communication efficiency, its cultural significance in identity construction, and its impact on language innovation and cross-cultural dynamics. The discussion section delves deeper into the implications of Internet phraseology, emphasizing the importance of digital literacy and understanding in navigating its linguistic labyrinth. By embracing Internet phraseology and its dynamic nature, individuals can effectively engage in online communication, bridge cultural divides, and navigate the linguistic landscape of the digital era with confidence and understanding.

The other side of the coin: mesenchymal stromal cell immortalization beyond evasion of senescence.

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) are promising options to cellular therapy to several clinical disorders, mainly because of its ability to immunomodulate and differentiate into different cell types. Even though MSC can be isolated from different sources, a major challenge to understanding the biological effects is that the primary cells undergo replicative senescence after a limited number of cell divisions in culture, requiring time-consuming and technically challenging approaches to get a sufficient cell number for clinical applications. Therefore, a new isolation, characterization, and expansion is necessary every time, which increases the variability and is time-consuming. Immortalization is a strategy that can overcome these challenges. Therefore, here, we review the different methodologies available to cellular immortalization, and discuss the literature regarding MSC immortalization and the broader biological consequences that extend beyond the mere increase in proliferation potential.

New Perspective of Cultural Sustainability: Exploring Tourism Commodification and Cultural Layers

Commodification is an important research issue regarding cultural sustainability. This paper draws on the theory of cultural layers to understand tourism commodification and the development of local cultures. Through 76 days of field investigation and about 60 face-to-face interviews, this paper explores the characteristics of tourism commodification in festivals and rites related to sacrifices to Genghis Khan and the relationship between its five layers of commodification. Research findings reveal that commodification mainly occurs in the layers of artifacts and patterns of behavior. In addition, the process of tourism commodification does not necessarily follow the sequence of cultural division from the outside to the inside; instead, the deeper layer of commodification will inevitably drive the commodification of its outer circle, and different layers of commodification display different social problems as well. It is also found that this theory is suitable for other tourism commodification cases examined in existing studies. Taken together, analyzing tourism commodification through layered thinking can unveil the degree of commodification, offer an avenue to address the extant debate over the pros and cons of tourism commodification, and provide a basis for guiding the regulation of tourism commodification more effectively.

Bridging Divides: art and religion in the early AIDS pandemic.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, visual artists created a canon of work examining the illness experience of people living with AIDS. Largely forgotten today is a subset of this canon that simultaneously engaged AIDS narratives and religion, thereby dialoguing across political, cultural, and ideological divides. The artists who crafted these works created spaces of sanctioned discourse, drawing together sexual and religious histories in a manner reminiscent of the confessional as analyzed in Michel Foucault's work. This article rediscovers an archive rich in interdisciplinary illness narratives, arguing that the unearthed art pieces articulate four themes that interrogate the relationship between people with AIDS and religious traditions. In addition to furthering our understanding of a forgotten expression of AIDS illness narratives, this analysis provides insight into art's capacity to dialogue between communities in the setting of internal divisions. These lessons may aid us as we endeavor to understand the diversity, function, and applications of illness narratives in the setting of the politicized diseases of the 21st century, including COVID-19.

Breaking the Taboo: Ritual Impurity in Israeli and American Jewish Feminist Art

ABSTRACT: The article examines works by two Orthodox artists, an American, Mierle Laderman Ukeles (b. 1939) and an Israeli, Hagit Molgan (b. 1972), both concerned with the Jewish laws and rituals of niddah (menstruation) and tevilah (immersion). The analysis of the similarities and differences between works from two major Jewish centers, Israel and the United States, provides insight into how critical responses in works of art point to complex cultural divides. Scholars and curators of Jewish art tend to examine Jewish-Israeli art as distinct from Jewish art created elsewhere. Due to this disconnect, the relationship between Jewish-Israeli art and its patrons around the world has received little attention before now. Consequently, the discussion of art created in different spaces and times contributes to a richer, more contextualized understanding of diasporic art.

REVITALIZING THE BORDERLINES THROUGH ARCHITECTURE OF GREEN NETWORKING - CASE STUDY: BEIRUT, LEBANON

Borders are an essential part of cities and countries, and they can create both physical and cultural divides. Inner-city borders can lead to social isolation and inequality, which can contribute to tensions and conflicts. Borders around the world have become a symbol of conflict, racism, fear, inequity, and division. One single line could divide between opportunity and hope and poverty and oblivion. Accordingly, some borders create social isolation between various cultures in cities that increase socio-political problems and remove urban connectivity. Green networking involves using urban green spaces, such as parks and gardens, to connect different areas of a city and facilitate movement and interaction between people. This research aims to examine the impact of inner-city borders on social integration between different cultural groups by using green networking to break down barriers and promote social interaction. The study will contribute to a better understanding of how urban green spaces can promote social integration and reduce inequality in inner cities. The study will use scientific methodology, including site visits, experimental examinations, and analytical research, to provide a comprehensive understanding of the borderline area of research.

Mapping the cultural divides of England and Wales: Did the geographies of 'Belonging' act as a brake on British Urbanisation, 1851-1911?

Although both the analysis of regional culture and urbanisation are long-standing preoccupations in geography, few studies have considered the relationship between the two, the former traditionally being a topic in cultural geography, while the latter is usually interpreted and analysed as a process in economic geography. Taking evidence from the 1851-1911 censuses of England and Wales, this article analyses individual migration paths to identify stable regions of human interaction by applying a sophisticated community-detection algorithm. By accurately mapping the regions within which the majority of migration occurred between 1851 and 1911 and arguing that the stability of these geographies is evidence of more than just mutable communities but rather of persistent regional cultures, this article responds to previous studies that have sought to identify the cultural provinces of England and Wales. Indeed, by demonstrating that the regions bear a striking resemblance to those that have long been hypothesised as being distinct cultural provinces of England and Wales, this article empirically corroborates their existence. In order to further demonstrate that the regions constitute cultural provinces, this paper incorporates these boundaries into a spatial interaction model (SIM). The results of the SIM not only shows that the boundaries between the regions limited the number of migrants that crossed them-over and above that explained by control variables-and therefore represented the boundaries of cultural provinces, demarcating discrete regions of human interaction-but that such boundaries disproportionately restricted rural-urban migrants, thereby slowing the pace at which England and Wales urbanised. This paper therefore demonstrates that urbanisation should not only be interpreted as only an economic phenomenon, but a cultural one also, and that if urbanisation is to be fully understood, individuals' attachment to place as a component of their identity, ought to be formally incorporated into models of migration.

France, the United States, and the wokisme controversy

This article provides an analysis of recent French controversies on race, gender, and identity politics. It shows that debates on the influence of US-style wokisme bring out a series of essential questions pertaining to the nature of contemporary French society, culture, and politics. They reveal the changing face of a nation that is slowly but steadily adapting to an increasingly globalized and multicultural world order. They also evidence deep sociological and cultural divisions within French society. Finally, they show how a new form of American soft power has become an object of both fascination and anxiety among the French political elites and public.

COLLECTIVE AND SMART LEADERSHIP OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERS TO SCHOOL CULTURE AND ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AMONG SECONDARY CITY SCHOOLS DIVISION OF DASMARIÑAS

COLLECTIVE AND SMART LEADERSHIP OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERS TO SCHOOL CULTURE AND ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AMONG SECONDARY CITY SCHOOLS DIVISION OF DASMARIÑAS

Bridging the cultural divide in social discourse, Part 3: The challenges of practicing intellectual humility with deeply held political attitudes

Bridging the cultural divide in social discourse, Part 3: The challenges of practicing intellectual humility with deeply held political attitudes In this third of a five-article series in Open Access Government on the topic of intellectual humility (IH), Peter C. Hill explores why political attitudes have created a cultural divide that makes it difficult for many to be intellectually humble. In Parts 1 and 2 of this series ‘Bridging the Cultural Divide In Social Discourse', I contended that an IH orientation is motivated by a desire for accuracy which, in turn, reflects an inclination to understand more than to persuade or convince. In so doing, one must acknowledge and take ownership of his or her limitations of knowledge and understanding and, in the process, will value the contribution of others, including what one might learn from those with differing perspectives.

The trends in the spread of simple sequence repeats in the genomes of Schizophyllum commune

ABSTRACT Due to their high number and variety, simple sequence repeats in DNA are a valuable source of genetic markers widely used in population genetics, genetic diversity, and fingerprinting. Schizophyllum commune is a cosmopolitan basidiomycete and a valuable object for biotechnology and mycology. It is often used as a model organism in genetic and population studies. Numerous genome sequences of S. commune are available in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database, allowing for a meticulous study of the distribution of simple tandem nucleotide repeats in the genomes of different strains, based on their origin. Analysis of the average density of simple tandem repeats in the genomes of S. commune fungi reveals the division of cultures into groups based on the USA, Ru (Russian Federation), and EA (South Korea, Japan, China) populations. Intensive point mutations lead to the accumulation and dominance of mononucleotide (C)n and dinucleotide (CG)n motifs in fungal genomes. Results show that the GCT motif contributes more to the divergence of the Ru population, whereas CTC, GAG, and GGA motifs contribute to the divergence of the USA population. Strains MG53 (China) and IUM1114-SS01 (South Korea: Incheon) from the EA population occupy a separate position, mainly because of the CGA motif. The divergence in quantitative traits of motifs between populations provides evidence of the evolutionary transformation of fungal genomes under environmental factors.

Mick Moloney (1944–2022)

Mick Moloney (1944–2022)