Faces Of Janus Research Articles

The faces of JANUS.

The faces of JANUS.

The two faces of Janus: educational pathways into and out of violent extremism in Norway

ABSTRACT The prevention of violent extremism in education has given rise to considerable policy debates in Norway. A key feature of this, illustrated in the growing stream of curricular and security policy reforms, is that these debates risk being disconnected from graspable elements in the social lives of young people. Using qualitative document analysis (QDA), this study analysis educational efforts to prevent violent extremism in Norway. The analysis suggests that interventions are structured according to reductionist thinking of cause and effect in which the individual is at the receiving end of security efforts. In particular, the dominant mode of preventing extremism is through therapeutic strategies aimed at helping vulnerable individuals becoming resilient to extreme ideologies and to help them respond to structural grievances. There is less attention on the role of social mechanisms including the reciprocal interplay between structural, social and individual factors in the analysed projects. Based on these findings, the study suggests the importance of exploring social processes in which extremism is engaged and resisted. Furthermore, it is argued that social movement theory (SMT) offers a promising way to understand the role of social processes in pathways into and out of extremism.

Blown Away: Extreme Wind Events Impact Grass Mortality

Understanding extremes in ecological change is critical given the anticipated increasing frequency of such events. This is especially true when extreme events trigger transitions to alternative stable states, as in drylands that have seen conversion from grass- to shrub-dominated states. We examined the responses of a Chihuahuan Desert community after record winds in 2019 killed grasses and reduced greenness. We argue that wind has two faces like Janus, aptly the Roman god of transitions, because it participates in change as both a forcing and a feedback and that, similarly, other types of extremes can alter the character of ecological interactions. Photo 1. Record-breaking wind in southern New Mexico in the spring of 2019 had major impacts on grass at the Jornada Long Term Ecological Research site in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The exposed roots of two Sporobolus spp. grasses are a result of these storms. Photo credit: G.S. Okin. Photo 2. In some cases, grasses, like the one on the left in this image, were able to green up following rain in the early summer. Other grasses appear to have been killed by the root exposure and sandblasting that occurred during the extreme wind events in the spring of 2019. Photo credit: G.S. Okin. Photo 3. UCLA undergraduate, Sarah Payne (shown here indicating the extent of root exposure on a native bunchgrass), conducted an NSF-supported summer research project that resulted in a publication of an article in Ecology. Photo credit: G.S. Okin. These photographs illustrate the article “The two faces of Janus: Processes can be both exogenous forcings and endogenous feedbacks with wind as a case study” by Sarah A. R. Payne, Gregory S. Okin, Abinash Bhattachan, and Michael R. Fischella published in Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3998

The two faces of Janus: Processes can be both exogenous forcings and endogenous feedbacks with wind as a case study.

Janus is the Romangod of transitions. In many environments, state transitions are an important part of our understanding of ecological change. These transitions are controlled by the interactions between exogenous forcing factors and stabilizing endogenous feedbacks. Forcing factors and feedbacks are typically considered to consist of different processes. We argue that during extreme events, a process that usually forms part of a stabilizing feedback can behave as a forcing factor. And thus, like Janus, a single process can have two faces. The case explored here pertains to state change in drylands where interactions between wind erosion and vegetation form an important feedback that encourages grass-to-shrub state transitions. Wind concentrates soil resources in shrub-centered fertile islands, removes resources through loss of fines to favor deep-rooted shrubs, and abrades grasses' photosynthetic tissue, thus further favoring the shrub state that, in turn, experiences greater aeolian transport. This feedback is well documented but the potential of wind to act also as a forcing has yet to be examined. Extreme wind events have the potential to act like other drivers of state change, such as drought and grazing, to directly reduce grass cover. This study examines the responses of a grass-shrub community after two extreme wind events in 2019 caused severe deflation. We measured grass cover and root exposure due to deflation, in addition to shrub height, grass patch size, and grass greenness along 50-m transects across a wide range of grass cover. Root exposure was concentrated in the direction of erosive winds during the storms and sites with low grass cover were associated with increased root exposure and reduced greenness. We argue that differences between extreme, rare wind events and frequent, small wind events are significant enough to be differences in kind rather than differences in degree allowing extreme winds to behave as endogenous forcings and common winds to participate in an endogenous stabilizing feedback. Several types of state change in other ecological systems in are contextualized within this framework.

Constituting the ‘object’ of science in Newton's Principia: the many faces of Janus

An interpretation of the opening sections of Isaac Newton's Principia is offered, in support of my contention that what is introduced there is a conceptual framework, constituting the object and formulating the task of rational mechanics, thus mediating a synthesis of mathematics and experiment/observation. I compare this view with the ‘law-constitutive’ solution of Brading (2012) to the ‘problem of bodies’. On this basis, I comment on one of the ‘tensions’ Biener and Schliesser (2017) discern in Newton's writings.

Identity Constructions of Healthcare Middle-Managers: Exploring the Two Faces of Janus

Based on an interpretive research design, this study responds to the need to understand the complexity of middle-managers organizational life in public healthcare. Middle managers are crucial to supporting the effective and efficient delivery of healthcare services. However, we know little about how they experience and respond to their managerial function, operating at the junction of top-down and bottom-up predicaments and the double professional and managerial role. Based upon interviews with heads of medical units, nurses and administrative staff in public healthcare hospitals, and the observation of managerial actions and interactions, we explored how heads of medical units define their work identities. Four middle manager configurations were found: puppet, foreman, integrator and process promoter. The influence of each configuration on interpersonal relationships and decision making is examined. The research results invite the reader to take a closer look at the two faces of middle managers in healthcare organizations, and how they identify their role and deal with organizational complexity.

“You can’t start a fire without a spark”. Enjoyment, anxiety, and the emergence of flow in foreign language classrooms

Abstract The present study adopted a mixed-methods approach using a convergent parallel design to focus on the role that positive and negative emotions have in the Foreign Language (FL) classroom on the ontogenesis of positive flow. Participants were 1,044 FL learners from around the world. They provided quantitative and qualitative data on FL enjoyment (FLE), classroom anxiety (FLCA) and experience of flow via an on-line questionnaire (Dewaele, Jean-Marc & Peter D. MacIntyre. 2014. The two faces of Janus? Anxiety and enjoyment in the foreign language classroom. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching 4. 237–274). FLE was a significantly stronger predictor of frequency of flow experience than FLCA. Further statistical analyses revealed that flow experiences are typically self-centred, infrequent and short-lived at the start of the FL learning journey and when the perceived social standing in the group is low. They become an increasingly shared experience, more frequent, stronger and more sustained as learners reach a more advanced level in their FL. What starts as an occasional individual spark can turn into a true fire that extends to other group members. The findings are illustrated by participants’ reports on enjoyable episodes in the FL classroom in which some reported complete involvement in an individual or collective task, merging of action and awareness, joyful bonding with classmates, intense focus and joy, loss of self-consciousness, sense of time and place.

N16 ‘Same storm, different boat’… Exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease, with or without shielding: a qualitative study

BackgroundDuring the Covid-19 pandemic, patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disese (IBD) were advised about shielding based on clinical risk assessment. We explored experiences of IBD patients who did or did not shield during three UK lockdowns.MethodsParticipants aged 18 years+ with a confirmed diagnosis of Crohn’s disease, Ulcerative Colitis or IBD-Unclassified, who had shielded or not during any lockdown period were recruited from Crohn’s and Colitis UK. Semi-structured online or phone interviews (captured February-May 2021) were audio-recorded, transcribed professionally, and analysed using thematic analysis.ResultsOf 43 participants, 24 shielded; median age 38 years (19–63 years); 27 (62.7%) females; diagnosed with Crohn’s Colitis (n=2), Crohn’s disease (n=21), Ulcerative colitis (n=18) and IBD-Unclassified (n=2). Median disease duration 13 years (0.6–36 years). Participants were assessed as high (n-=10), moderate (n=23) and low (n=10) risk. Four main themes emerged: Vulnerability and Risk; IBD Preparedness; The Two Faces of Janus and Transitions.Vulnerability and RiskThe ‘Clinically Extremely Vulnerable’ label caused alarm, despite bringing benefits. Conflicting information caused confusion; some made their own decision about risk which did not always match official advice. Participants felt vulnerable to higher risk caused by others’ behaviour. Some feared catching Covid.IBD PreparednessLiving with IBD prepared participants for shielding/social distancing. Many felt others now appreciated their usual world of periods of isolation and missing out on social events. Some realised the need to take their IBD more seriously.The Two Faces of JanusThe pandemic brought benefits and challenges to most participants. Working/studying from home often impacted positively on symptoms such as urgency and fatigue, as work and travel-related stresses eased. Loss of physical social contact with others was very distressing; many adopted new wellbeing activities to overcome social isolation. Few found the pandemic experience wholly positive.Transitionsthe experience of lockdown changed over time, as did shielding patterns. The easing of restrictions (March-June 2021) left shielding and non-shielding participants feeling confused, since they felt the risk remained. Some participants continued to shield or be socially distant, often mistrusting others to behave responsibly.ConclusionThe pandemic had positive and negative effects for shielding and non-shielding participants alike. Adherence to Government shielding and/or social distancing guidelines was threatened by rising concerns about mental health and wellbeing. Any patient, regardless of official risk status, may need support to re-integrate socially.

Janus kinase inhibitors and major COVID-19 outcomes: time to forget the two faces of Janus! A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) represents a global public health nightmare. The “cytokine storm,” the most prominent underlying pathophysiologic mechanism of this disease, can theoretically be targeted at several stages. Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors constitute a drug class that could ameliorate the inflammatory response and enhance antibody production. Herein, we aimed to evaluate the efficacy of JAK inhibitors in patients with COVID-19, performing the most updated relevant meta-analysis. We searched two major databases for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) enrolling adult patients with documented COVID-19 in the in-hospital setting, assigned either to JAK inhibitor treatment plus standard of care or standard of care alone. We set as primary efficacy outcome the endpoint of COVID-19 death on day 28 and as secondary efficacy composite outcome that of mechanical ventilation or initiation of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). We finally pooled data of interest from 4 RCTs in a total of 1338 subjects with documented COVID-19 infection, utilizing the following JAK inhibitors: baricitinib, ruxolitinib, tofacitinib, and nezulcitinib. Treatment with JAK inhibitor compared to control resulted in a significant reduction in the risk for COVID-19 death by 43%, while it also led to a significant decrease in the risk for mechanical ventilation or ECMO initiation by 36%. Herein, we demonstrate a clear benefit with JAK inhibitors added to standard of care in patients with COVID-19 in terms of risk reduction concerning major outcomes. Larger RCTs will elucidate their place in treatment armamentarium against COVID-19.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10067-021-05884-4.

Foreign language enjoyment: a longitudinal confirmatory factor analysis–curve of factors model

ABSTRACT In an attempt to measure the dynamic features of foreign language enjoyment (FLE), we adopted a longitudinal confirmatory factor analysis-curve of factors model (LCFA-CFM) approach to substantiate the validity of the original FLE scale (Dewaele and MacIntyre [(2014. “The Two Faces of Janus? Anxiety and Enjoyment in the Foreign Language Classroom.” Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching 4 (2): 237-274]) longitudinally and trace changes in this construct at different points of time in an English as a foreign language (EFL) course. This approach ensures measurement invariance over time and deals with second order latent variables. The data were collected from 437 adult EFL learners in four time phases using FLES and were analyzed by Mplus with LCFA-CFM. The model fit was accepted and the invariance of the latent factor was confirmed over time. The negative covariance between slope and intercept (second order latent variables) suggested that learners with lower initial FLE experienced a faster increase in FLE over time, as the mean of slope was larger than that of the intercept, which can be influenced by learner's motivation, changing attitude to L2 learning and the supportive role of the teacher. The key strength of this research lies in the longitudinal confirmatory factor analysis performed to capture the temporal growth of FLE and how it evolved through the L2 course.

Targeting the JAK2/STAT3 Pathway-Can We Compare It to the Two Faces of the God Janus?

Muscle cachexia is one of the most critical unmet medical needs. Identifying the molecular background of cancer-induced muscle loss revealed a promising possibility of new therapeutic targets and new drug development. In this review, we will define the signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) protein’s role in the tumor formation process and summarize the role of STAT3 in skeletal muscle cachexia. Finally, we will discuss a vast therapeutic potential for the STAT3-inhibiting single-agent treatment innovation that, as the desired outcome, could block tumor growth and generally prevent muscle cachexia.

The Two Faces of Janus: Why Thyrotropin as a Cardiovascular Risk Factor May Be an Ambiguous Target.

Elevated concentrations of free thyroid hormones are established cardiovascular risk factors, but the association of thyrotropin (TSH) levels to hard endpoints is less clear. This may, at least in part, ensue from the fact that TSH secretion depends not only on the supply with thyroid hormones but on multiple confounders including genetic traits, medication and allostatic load. Especially psychosocial stress is a still underappreciated factor that is able to adjust the set point of thyroid function. In order to improve our understanding of thyroid allostasis, we undertook a systematic meta-analysis of published studies on thyroid function in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Studies were identified via MEDLINE/PubMed search and available references, and eligible were reports that included TSH or free thyroid hormone measurements in subjects with and without PTSD. Additionally, we re-analyzed data from the NHANES 2007/2008 cohort for a potential correlation of allostatic load and thyroid homeostasis. The available evidence from 13 included studies and 3386 euthyroid subjects supports a strong association of both PTSD and allostatic load to markers of thyroid function. Therefore, psychosocial stress may contribute to cardiovascular risk via an increased set point of thyroid homeostasis, so that TSH concentrations may be increased for reasons other than subclinical hypothyroidism. This provides a strong perspective for a previously understudied psychoendocrine axis, and future studies should address this connection by incorporating indices of allostatic load, peripheral thyroid hormones and calculated parameters of thyroid homeostasis.

Wine Consumption and Oral Cavity Cancer: Friend or Foe, Two Faces of Janus.

The health benefits of moderate wine consumption have been extensively studied during the last few decades. Some studies have demonstrated protective associations between moderate drinking and several diseases including oral cavity cancer (OCC). However, due to the various adverse effects related to ethanol content, the recommendation of moderate wine consumption has been controversial. The polyphenolic components of wine contribute to its beneficial effects with different biological pathways, including antioxidant, lipid regulating and anti-inflammatory effects. On the other hand, in the oral cavity, ethanol is oxidized to form acetaldehyde, a metabolite with genotoxic properties. This review is a critical compilation of both the beneficial and the detrimental effects of wine consumption on OCC.

Diabetes and dementia - the two faces of Janus.

Patients with type 2 diabetes are at high risk for cognitive decline and dementia. Despite the limited data on the possible pathogenetic mechanisms, evidence suggests that cognitive decline, and thus dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, might arise from a complex interplay between type 2 diabetes and the aging brain, including decreased insulin signalling and glucose metabolism, mitochondrial dysfunction, neuroinflammation, and vascular disease. Furthermore, there is increasing interest on the effects of antidiabetic agents on cognitive decline. There are many studies showing that antidiabetic agents might have beneficial effects on the brain, mainly through inhibition of oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis. In addition, experimental studies on patients with diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease have shown beneficial effects on synaptic plasticity, metabolism of amyloid-β, and microtubule-associated protein tau. Therefore, in the present review, we discuss the effects of antidiabetic agents in relation to cognitive decline, and in particular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Cancer and RASSF1A/RASSF1C, the Two Faces of Janus

Although encoded by the same gene, RASSF1A and RASSF1C are two opposites in carcinogenesis; one is a tumor suppressor that is silenced in a plethora of cancers, while the other is an oncogene that remains unaffected. Here, we aim to understand why and to highlight their respective clinical implications.

Pathway to professionalizing health leadership in Canada: The two faces of Janus.

This article looks at the current state of health leadership in terms of expectations for professionalism: controlled entry, exit, and licensure/certification; a social contract to provide public services for the good of Canadians; and a unique body of knowledge and practice generally accepted. Looking to the future, and using the same three criteria, a compelling case for pursuing the professionalization of health leadership is made using LEADS as a roadmap. The article also outlines how to realize the professionalization of health leadership in Canada and why it is important to do so.

The Two Faces of Janus: Web Analytics Companies and the Shifting Culture of News

In Greek mythology, the God of Transitions, Janus, is usually represented as having two faces: one looking at the future and the other at the past, illustrating a change from one condition to the o...

What principle of difference for a truly egalitarian social democracy? Rereading Rawls after social democracy\u2019s failures

Social democracy based on welfare and the redistribution of social contributions is failing. The accumulation of wealth and the increase in inequalities are the two faces of Janus that social democracy has not been able to contain over the recent decades. In this context, it matters to discuss John Rawls’s influential difference principle. According to the maximin criterion put forth by Rawls, it does not suffice that no one becomes worse off; those who are worse off must also become better off than they are. Here, we note that the existence and growth of inequality find no opposition in the maximin rule. Despite appearances, strictly speaking it merely introduces a factor of social compensation, a sort of “assistencialism” to the victims of the greatest inequality. Even the most robust formulation of the principle of difference, according to which the greatest advantage to the less advantaged is indispensable, does not per se preclude an aggregate growth of inequalities. It seems clear that it was an egalitarian goal what Rawls had in mind in A Theory of Justice. Rawls’s critical comments on welfare capitalism must indeed not be forgotten—especially in his further explanations about the application of the principles of justice in a property-owning democracy. Here, as in liberal socialism, the dispersion of property, capital and resources prevents economic and political powers from being concentrated into the hands of a minority. However, the egalitarian aim does not strictly follow from the difference principle as stated, whether taken literally as an application of the maximin rule or inferring from its strongest formulation. A reformulation that does justice to the egalitarian aim of the principle of difference is, however, possible: namely, a degrowthist reformulation, truly requiring a degrowth in accumulation and inequalities, making explicit a brake clause that hinders the aggregate growth of inequalities. Such a degrowthist conception of the difference principle may justify some concrete rules that are able to enforce the egalitarian commitments of social democracy.

Crude oil inventories: The two faces of Janus?

In this article, we examine whether oil inventories react to oil demand and supply shocks as a buffer to the market, as a facilitation of speculative trading, or both. Unlike previous studies that discuss the role of inventories from the perspective of the relationship between inventory and price, this study derives speculative and buffer roles from the endogenous responses of inventory to demand and supply shocks. Global, US, and Cushing, Oklahoma inventories from January 2003 to June 2008 and January 2009 to May 2018 are compared from the aggregate to sub-aggregate levels. A sign-restricted structural vector autoregressive model is employed, and robustness verifications are added. Overall, while supply and demand shocks shift oil production and consumption, the buffer responses of inventories are found to be immediate for demand shocks but gradual for supply shocks, and the instantaneous speculative responses of the Cushing inventories are revealed.

Cuban Independent Documentary and Nonofficial Journalism: The Two Faces of Janus

For decades in Cuba, the official journalistic agenda has neglected or completely obliterated complex areas of the nation's socioeconomic and cultural fabric. These areas are being appropriated by a new generation of audiovisual creators and producers. They are interested in discovering and analyzing the complexities and problems of their immediate contemporaneity, with full autonomy from the official establishment. To this end, and thanks to the democratization of technological media, they have developed different and diverse discourses, fostering a true "para-journalistic" current or noninstitutional journalism, aimed at filling the conceptual aporia of the Cuban people. In this process, the documentary film genre has come to replace reporting, investigative reporting, and testimony when exploring, exposing, and deconstructing numerous alternative topics like sexuality, youth, religion, history, emigration, architectural ruin, the peasantry, the economic, and identity crisis, among others. The pessimistic, skeptical, iconoclastic, controversial, and dystopian tone of such documentary is nothing but the counterpart of the optimistic and excessively triumphalist idea of Cuba as constructed by the official media.