Controversial Research Articles

Contingent (dis)agreement and emotional expressiveness in online responsive discourse

This article focuses on culturally diverse university students’ online (dis)agreement with affective expressions in English as a lingua franca (ELF). A private intercultural group on the social media site Facebook was used for the online discussions. This study analyzed online participants’ comments on controversial sociopolitical issues about the TikTok ban and the Mulan boycott. Through content analyses of online responsive discourse, a range of discursive strategies used by the participants to express (dis)agreement were identified. The participants tended to give contingent (dis)agreements with mitigating expressions and supporting grounds, and the moderators frequently used reported speech, gave opposite opinions, and questioned the claims for alternative positionings. Discourse-pragmatic analyses of emoji-mediated communication also revealed creative and diverse uses of emojis and other nonverbal interactional resources in the coconstruction of humorous discourse and transformation between positive and negative affect stances. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of ELF users’ pragmatic and emotive capability to participate in the online social argumentative practice of affective stance-taking.

From After School Specials to After School Threesomes: Industrial Shifts in the Depiction of Sex on Teen TV and its Formation of the Sex Positive Teen Girl

A rash of teen TV shows that deal with stories and depictions of sex explicitly and graphically prove a marked change from the overtly pedagogical approach teen television shows of the past took to tackling controversial issues. Utilizing industry interviews to understand this shift, I argue that series include progressive rhetoric, specifically sex positive rhetoric lifted from the popular feminist movement, in their stories of teen sexuality in order to mitigate controversies that inevitably crop up in public discourse whenever teen sexuality is represented. In so doing, such series shape the potential and parameters of teen girl sexuality. This framing provides for a more capacious spectrum of sexuality for girls, namely in more nuanced and more frequent depictions of queer sexuality and sexually agentive girls. Yet it also highlights the dangers their sexuality poses living in a patriarchal world, subsequently upholding framings of caution and boundaries around girlhood sexuality.

Social Justice, vulnerability and English Language teaching: the use of Didactic Sequences and possibilities of articulation with Socio-Discursive Interactionism

Socio-discursive Interactionism (SDI) has offered a solid ground for inquiry in Applied Linguistics over the past decades, and it has enabled researchers to investigate different aspects of language teaching (BRONCKART, 2003; 2006; 2010; CRISTOVÃO; STUTZ, 2011; MAGALHÃES, CRISTOVÃO, 2018; among others). As English teachers, we claim that teaching this language can maintain or interrupt deeply forged social injustices (BRAGA; VÓVIO, 2015). Therefore, working from an SDI perspective implies the incentive to develop a critical conscience and awareness of textual and contextual features of the uses of language in a text. Therefore, this paper aims to present three studies from an SDI perspective that embraced similar themes and discuss how they converge in terms of their discussion on social vulnerability, social justice, and English teaching. We present some of the possibilities the SDI perspective poses for a language education that is socially responsible and encourages students to speak up. The results of the analysis show that there is fertile terrain for the development of Language Capacities (DOLZ; NOVERRAZ; SCHENEUWLY, 2004) when controversial issues such as social justice and social vulnerability are part of the activities designed for English teaching.
 Keywords: Social justice; social vulnerability; social projects; socio-discursive interactionism, English teaching.

Fermatean Fuzzy Group Decision-Making Based CODAS Approach for Taxation of Public Transit Investments

The provision of public goods is always a controversial issue in many aspects. Even some additional financial resources can provide public transit systems, the tax revenues constitute a significant part of the investments in practice. Yet, governments should make an important decision regarding tax schemes. This article focuses on how to identify the best tax scheme to finance public transit investments. A three-phase Fermatean fuzzy group decision-making approach is developed to solve the highlighted problem. Qualifications and experience of experts are considered to distinct their reputations. A Fermatean fuzzy direct rating method is introduced to evaluate criteria importance. A Fermatean fuzzy combinative distance-based assessment method is formulated to assess tax schemes. The study provides valuable policy implications and decision-making guidelines using a real-life case. The results show that beneficiaries of public services should pay more, and tax collectors are encouraged to use progressive tax schemes instead of the equal distribution of the cost to the taxpayers. The sensitivity analysis to changes in the threshold parameter is given. The comparative analysis with all state-of-the-art Fermatean fuzzy set based multicriteria decision-making methods is provided. The Fermatean fuzzy group decision-making approach is highly robust and reliable. The approach can solve other public transportation problems.

The geomorphology and neotectonics of the Vaalputs Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility site, Namaqualand, South Africa: Palaeoseismological and geodynamic implications

Abstract The safe disposal of radioactive waste products remains a challenging and controversial issue, yet their burial in a stable geological environment is the option favoured by most countries. Past investigations of the Vaalputs facility in South Africa’s semi-arid Bushmanland Plateau demonstrated its suitability for the disposal of low-level, short-lived (<300 years) radioactive waste, but also the need for more data on hazardous seismotectonic and climatic processes for the potential storage of longer-lived spent nuclear fuel. We review and then provide new information on the regional geomorphological and morphotectonic features of the Bushmanland Plateau, focusing on pedogenic features and compressive shear fractures in the trenches excavated over the past two decades. The fractures, provisionally dated between ~75 ka and ~46 ka, resemble east-verging thrust faults of limited horizontal displacement (≤1 m) and die out at depths of 4 m. Having discounted a pedogenic origin, the shear fractures likely represent stress relief structures triggered by the seismogenic reactivation of one of the Quaternary active faults in the area. The most likely candidate is the Santab Fault Zone (SFZ), which has a strike length ≥20 km and a throw of up to ~5 m at its closest point (8 km) to the Vaalputs site. Regional remote sensing and off-site investigations in the Bushmanland Plateau relate the neotectonic episodes at Vaalputs and environs to a late Pleistocene climax of the Namaqualand seismic source zone. This zone is characterised by the Wegener Stress Anomaly, a long-lived ~northwest-southeast oriented compression that, at its apex in the Late Santonian, caused large scale folding and thrusting not only in Bushmanland and parts of central-southern Namibia, but also swept across the entire African plate.

Late Neoarchean plume-induced crust-mantle interaction and crustal reworking: Evidence from the Jianping Complex, North China Craton

The Archean basement of the North China Craton (NCC) is predominantly composed of 2.6–2.5 Ga lithological assemblages, while the tectonic regime that governed the formation and evolution of these Neoarchean basement rocks has been a controversial issue. Based on field relationships, petrographical features, whole-rock chemistry and zircon Hf isotope data, diverse late Neoarchean granitoids exposed in the Jianping Complex of the NCC are categorized into TTGs, sanukitoids and potassic granites. Their petrogenesis are associated with partial melting of metabasalts, melting of metasomatized mantle, and melting of crustal lithologies including tonalite and metasediments, respectively. Zircon U-Pb results suggest that different types of Neoarchean granitoids in the Jianping Complex are nearly coeval with crystallization ages of ∼ 2.54–2.52 Ga and metamorphic ages of ∼ 2.49–2.48 Ga. New Hf isotopic data reveal that these granitoids show positive εHf(t) values, with the tonalitic gneisses of εHf(t) values closer to the depleted mantle than those of granodioritic gneiss, sanukitoids and potassic granite. This result reflects potentially more enriched source for other granitoids than the tonalitic gneisses, which is linked with increasing level of crustal-mantle interaction and crustal reworking the late Neoarchean. Integrating other evidence from geochemical, structural and metamorphic studies, it is inferred that the plume activities play an important role in the emplacement of late Neoarchean granitoids in the Jianping Complex, with TTGs formed through the partial melting of juvenile crust induced by plume activity, sanukitoids produced from melting of metasomatized mantle resulted from sagduction process, and potassic granites formed by reworking of earlier crustal lithology caused by sustained underplating of mantle material. Overall, we interpreted that the late Neoarchean crustal growth and crustal-mantle interaction in the Jianping Complex can be attributed to upwelling of mantle plume and potential sagduction process in a vertical tectonic regime.

K voprosu o mandatnoj sisteme Ligi Nacij: vzglyad iz XXI v.

The mandate system of the League of Nations was created as a compromise between the colonial interests of the victorious powers and the new ‘internationalist’ principles in international relations. It therefore had the same “inherent flaws” as the new organization as a whole. Despite a number of undoubtedly progressive provisions enshrined in Article 22 of the League's constitution, its implementation faced problems due to a lack of clear powers and mechanisms to curb abuses. As a result, its relevant bodies had to rely primarily on the “internationalization” of controversial issues, publicity and moral pressure from the international community to curb the arbitrariness of the mandatorial powers.

The standards of the foreign defendants notification in the economic disputes resolution

Notification of a foreign defendant is of fundamental importance for the effective realization of the right to a fair trial. At the same time judicial practice identifies controversial issues concerning the assessment of such notification. In the new geopolitical conditions, the situation is complicated by the sanctions imposed by the states, thus reinforcing the relevance of the research. The purpose is to examine the standards of foreign defendants’ notification established in the Russian court practice, as well as to analyze the sanctions impact on the conventional notification mechanisms on the example of one of the high-profile cases. The authors rely on general scientific research methods (analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, dialectical method) and special methods (formal legal, comparative legal). The article concludes that in the Russian court practice a different standard - the so-called standard of effective notification based on evidence of the actual awareness of the party about the foreign proceedings - is formed as a counterbalance to the strictly formal standard of notification. The authors note that the standard of effective notification, fulfilling its useful function, should not lead to unjustified refusal to follow the international conventions on foreign persons notification. These conventions retain their binding effect including exclusive situations where they should be applicable. The authors conclude that it is necessary to clarify both the conditions for effective notification standard application and the requirements for the effective notification standard. The sanctions have affected the application of notification mechanisms: Russian courts recognize a foreign court request to notify a Russian sanctioned person as contrary to public policy in a situation where an anti-suit injunction on a foreign proceeding was previously issued.

Vaidik Hriday

Hriday also called, with lesser generality, the Heart,occupies a central place in the life and cosmos.In the Vedic tradition it is at the centre stage, right from the very beginning, but unfathomable to not only the common people, but Vedic Rishis or seers. In the Veda, Hriday is equated to Divine, manas, cosmos both micro and macro, the non-living and living being, and to Brahman. Whole of the cosmos is interlinked with the central core, the Hriday. Even in Ayurveda and modern medical sciences, Hriday has been a controversial issue. With consensus, Brain and Hriday, share almost equal claims to be synonymous to Hriday.

Main Trends in the Development of Economic Relations Between Japan and People’s Republic of China in the XXI Century

This article is devoted to the study of economic relations between Japan and the PRC in 2000–2020. The main indicators of bilateral trade, its structure, indicators of bilateral foreign direct investment between Japan and the PRC are presented and analyzed in the article. An assessment of the current state of Japanese-Chinese economic relations was given, factors affecting their development over the past 20 years were determined using the method of generalization of research materials, methods of comparative and correlation analysis of data, analytical method of information processing. The authors conclude that during the period under review, economic cooperation between Japan and China in trade and investments is expanding and strengthening, and their economic interdependence is increasing. The interest of Japanese corporations in carrying on business and opening branches in the PRC is indicated as the main factor of development. Political instability in bilateral Japanese-Chinese relations is indicated as a deterrent. The authors emphasize that in order to further increase the successful and stable development of economic partnership, the two states need to take specific steps for the purpose of political rapprochement and finding a compromise on controversial issues.

Communicating Your Way Through Clashing Cultures

This article examines the handling of Socially Acute Questions (SAQs) in the English language classroom. SAQs have been described as complex and controversial issues that are considered acute in society, in research and professional domains, and in educational contexts. Although intercultural communicative competence (ICC) is being encouraged by our educational authorities, teachers feel at a loss as to how to achieve that learning outcome in their teaching-learning units (TLUs). Many of them have encountered problems and even conflict when trying to deal with SAQs. Even though they are struggling with a sense of frustration, they continue to consider that addressing such issues in their TLUs is key to 21st-century education. In this article, a customizable toolbox is proposed that second language (L2) teachers can draw from to foster and facilitate constructive intercultural dialogue when dealing with SAQs in their increasingly diverse English language classrooms. It starts off with a literature review providing perspectives on SAQs from transdisciplinarity, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), and the Pedagogy of Encounter. It continues with an introduction to safe spaces, brave spaces, and story circles, as well as an overview of relevant concepts from cross-cultural pragmatics. The methods section then gives a detailed action-research-driven account of a racist incident that occurred in the author’s intervention group, a conversation class at the language institute of Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Belgium. Drawing from the literature review as well as the case study, and in the absence of institutional support to handle SAQs appropriately, the article concludes with a proposal for a customizable SAQs toolbox, meeting the stakeholders’ (the L2 learners’ and teachers’) academic expectations as well as emotional needs. Little or no work has been done so far on how to deal with SAQs in tertiary education. The actionable roadmap proposed in this article tries to bridge that gap. Even though the case study focuses on racism in the English language classroom, the customizable toolbox can be adapted across languages, academic disciplines, and other forms of discrimination.

What causes threats directed at the president?

AbstractWhat puts the president in the crosshairs of threats? By examining a new data set of threats made against the president in the incoming White House mail from 1961 to 1965, this study argues that domestic and international events, especially politically controversial issues, serve as a provocation for political threats. We find that outside civil rights events more than approval or economic conditions drive threats to the White House. Although limited in time span, the implications of this study suggest that specific events, some of which the White House has little control over, spur increased threats made against the president.

Russian ecosystems participant banks: specifics of activity, growth and development opportunities

New realities of social development dictate the need to transform established business models into a modern format. This trend has not bypassed the banking sector: a number of credit institutions have outlined a further strategy for their development within the framework of an ecosystem model of doing business, with varying degrees of participation of banks in the activities of such platforms noted.The work examines the main controversial issues about the essence of ecosystems, as well as the prerequisites for their formation in the national financial market, identifies the reasons for the transition of banks from a traditional business model to an ecosystem one, defines specific criteria for classifying organizations as an ecosystem, and identifies the features of the functioning of the largest national ecosystems built with direct participation of Russian commercial banks, their comparative characteristics were made. It is concluded that the transformation of the traditional banking business model into an ecosystem one opens up new opportunities for credit institutions for growth and development.

Linguacultural Framework for Developing Master’s Students’ Bilingual Rhetorical and Polemical Competences

The development of core humanitarian competencies is one of the crucial issues of modern university humanitarian education, including, in particular, bilingual rhetorical and polemical competences, without which an individual will be unableto take part successfully in international discussions and debates on socially sensitive topics and controversial issues in the humanities. And, although in the new millennium, a number of research studies have tried to open the door to the world of discussions and debates to Russian university students, using for educational purposes this or that format of international discussions or debates, nevertheless, an analysis of the theoretical and applied results of these pedagogical searches, as well as a methodological analysis of rhetoric syllabi and Russian & foreign course-books clearly indicate that students are left in the dark about important sociocultural and linguo-cultural features of international discussion and debate formats. As a result, some Master’s students’ classroom debate experiences do not make them really capable of interacting with representatives of other cultural and linguistic communities in international discussions and debate settings. It seems that the first step to improve this didactic situation is to specify linguocultural components of bilingual rhetorical and polemical competences (in terms of knowledge, skills, sociopsychological attitudes, abilities and personal characteristics of an individual who is able to act as a successful polemist and participant in modern online and offline discussion) on a linguo-didactic analysis of the Euro-Atlantic formats of international discussions and debates as linguocultural phenomena. The paper gives an insight into the author’s vision of a component structure of the above-mentioned general humanitarian competencies in the context of the communicative actionoriented and sociocultural approaches to designing a Master’s degree programme of bilingual communicative education through Russian and foreign languages.

The Issue of Synonymy between the Words Al-Hulm and Al-Ru’ya in Surah Yusuf: A Quranic Semantics Study

The issue of synonymy in the Holy Qur'an is one of the important controversial issues between scholars and those working with the Qur'an and its sciences, ancient and modern. Some scholars prove the occurrence of synonymy in the Qur'an by the difference in the two words and the meaning being the same, and some of them deny its occurrence by the complete lack of synonymy between the two words. It is one of the synonymous words in the Qur'an, including Al-Hulm and Al-Ru'ya. This study aims to clarify and answer detailed implications in the meaning of the words Al-Hulm and Al-Ru'ya in Surah Yusuf. The type of this study is a desk study to obtain facts about the semantic meaning between these two words using the descriptive and analytical approach to solve study problems. The results of this research are that the semantic study reveals great secrets and wondrous wisdom that can only be imagined by those who contemplate this great miracle of the Qur'an. The words al-Hilm and al-Ru'ya have synonymy and context comparison. Regarding synonymy, these two words have the same meaning: dream. Meanwhile, in a comparative context, the verses in al-Ru'ya show dreams and are revelations sent down by Allah SWT to His Prophet and can be interpreted. As for al-Hilm in context, it has no meaning and does not require interpretation, and it is associated with Satan, and it is not permissible for Muslims to talk about it because it is part of Satan's play.

Canon of Sacred Texts among the Old Believers and Organization of Religious Life in the Communities

The article addresses the problem of Old Believers’ reasoning for organizing religious life in the communities. It focuses on a unique attitude toward the texts, which had an almost sacred status. The author outlines a process of formation of the canon of the Old Believers’ sacred texts in the second half of the 17th century. This canon included fragments from authoritative manuscripts and printed editions that provided foundational arguments for the opponents of the church reform in any disputes, primarily related to the reformation of the rite and liturgical practice of the Russian Orthodox Church. The author also indicates a process in the first quarter of the 18th century associated with the Old Believers’ continued attempts to find citations to expand the canon of sacred texts. The article analyzes the analysis of miscellany compiled by the Vyg Old Believers in the first quarter of the 18th century. It contained fragments of texts that several generations of defenders of the Old Rite had selected. From their perspective, these texts testified to the justness of their views on controversial issues of religious life. The contents of this miscellany, given in the appendix to the article, show how citations of these texts used to be practical tools to resolve debatable issues related to theology, rites, and liturgy, as well as the organization of everyday religious life in the communities. The miscellany's compilers were keen to find texts that strengthened their positions and enabled their disciples to defend the Old Rite in debates with official church representatives and within the religious and social movement. The article concludes by arguing that the Old Believers’ canon of sacred texts was significantly expanded in the first quarter of the 17th century to include fragments of texts, which covered not only issues of theology, liturgy, and rituals but also the organization of the communities’ everyday life (for instance, performing occasional Christian services when no priest is around).

Some Controversial Issues of Understanding Constitutional Values as the Basis for the Content and Implementation of the Russian Federation State Programs

This article is devoted to the consideration of a number of controversial issues related to the understanding of constitutional values as the basis for the content and implementation of state programs of the Russian Federation. The article substantiates the possibility and necessity of understanding constitutional values as the basis for the content and implementation of state programs; a model of the relationship between constitutional values and government programs in the context under study is outlined. The author highlights the problematic aspects of this relationship and formulates his own views on how to overcome them. In conclusion, a reasonable conclusion is made about the complexity and multidimensionality of the process of implementing constitutional values in the content of state programs of the Russian Federation and the resulting need for a deep scientifi c understanding of this process.

Dreadful fun or environmental management? Agreements and disagreements around wild boar hunting in Uruguay

ABSTRACT This work constitutes an approach to hunting management in Uruguay. We have focused on wild boar hunting, the most widespread form of recreational hunting in this country. We explored the connections and discrepancies between the different actors based on a qualitative study conducted with conservationists, animal rights groups, nature managers, and hunters. The informality of hunting and the lack of population studies on wildlife were the main concerns raised while hunting with dogs was the most controversial issue. These results allowed us to propose some potential management actions to improve hunting management: issuing a hunting license, regulating hunting with dogs, developing collaborative wildlife monitoring, promoting new technologies within the framework of ethical hunting, and developing a realistic and effective poaching control.

The effect of electric current on dislocation activity in pure aluminum: A 3D discrete dislocation dynamics study

Introducing electric current into metals and alloys to improve their ductility and to reduce the hardening tendency has been widely adopted. Nevertheless, how the electricity affects the plastic deformation of those materials remains a critical issue with controversial opinions. To clarify the material plastic deformation subjected to electric current, or the so-called electroplastic behavior, an in-depth understanding of the dislocation evolution during that process is vital. From that motivation, three-dimensional dislocation dynamics simulations were carried out to explore the dislocation behavior during the uniaxial tensile deformation of pure aluminum with the introduction of electric current. The scattering process between electrons and dislocations was first captured by a physical model. The electron wind force and local heat effect were quantitatively analyzed by figuring out the momentum and the energy transferred during the interaction of electrons and dislocations respectively. The dislocation density evolution, the activation of different slip systems and the dislocation distribution were further analyzed based on the simulations. The dislocation density in the [111] direction is revealed to increase more significantly than [101] and [001] directions with the introduction of electric current. The results show that the current can reduce the flow stress by promoting the activation of the difficult-to-move dislocations. The activation effect reduces the dislocation tangling tendency and leads to more uniform dislocation distribution. Therefore, a reduction of the flow stress can be observed in EAT comparing to TAT, via the discrete dislocation dynamics simulations even though the dislocation densities are similar. The simulation results are also confirmed by the EAT and TAT experiment results and TEM observations.

Exploring public acceptance of nuclear waste in Taiwan, China: investigating the impact of perceived risks and benefits of nuclear energy

Nuclear energy has become a complicated and controversial issue. The public perception of controversial issues in general has an influential role in this policy debate. With representative data (N = 1,933) from Taiwan, China, this study explores the factors that influence public acceptance of nuclear waste facilities and suggests a moderating mediation model of their acceptance. This study finds that public acceptance of nuclear waste facilities is typically a psychological perception issue, rather than a political one which is quite different from public acceptance of nuclear energy. In addition, this study finds that perceived environmental justice is a significant variable in the relationship between risk perception of nuclear waste and public acceptance of nuclear waste facilities. Further, this study also summarizes a moderated mediation model of the public’s acceptance of nuclear waste facilities and reveals the risk perception of nuclear energy weakens, while the benefit perception of nuclear energy strengthens the relationship between the risk perception of nuclear waste facilities and public acceptance of nuclear waste facilities. Furthermore, a substitutional relationship between the risk perception of nuclear energy and the risk perception of nuclear waste facilities was identified. Policy implications based on the empirical results are also discussed.