Position In History Research Articles

Knowledge Dissemination and Social Functions: The Multiple Roles of Shanghai Libraries in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China

This study focuses on the multi-dimensional function of Shanghai libraries in academic exchange and social functions from the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China. Through the analysis of the social dynamic changes of Shanghai in this historical period, the first thing is to outline the social evolution of the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, and reveal the role of Shanghai as an important city in China. Then, the paper reviews the development of Shanghai Libraries since its establishment in detail, and emphasizes its cornerstone position in the collection, storage and cataloguing of document resources, especially its effectiveness in promoting the popularization of national education and promoting international cultural communication. In addition, the paper further discusses its function as a public place for leisure study, as well as its role in promoting social enlightenment and urban historical and cultural inheritance. By reflecting on the function and limitation of Shanghai Libraries in the historical moment and evaluating it from a fair and impartial perspective, this can provide historical reference for the construction and forward-looking planning of modern libraries. To sum up, Shanghai Libraries plays a key role in the central zone of knowledge circulation. In fact, it is a cultural institution that drives social innovation. In the long river from the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, its historical position is irreplaceable.

Explorative Binary Gray Wolf Optimizer with Quadratic Interpolation for Feature Selection.

The high dimensionality of large datasets can severely impact the data mining process. Therefore, feature selection becomes an essential preprocessing stage, aimed at reducing the dimensionality of the dataset by selecting the most informative features while improving classification accuracy. This paper proposes a novel binary Gray Wolf Optimization algorithm to address the feature selection problem in classification tasks. Firstly, the historical optimal position of the search agent helps explore more promising areas. Therefore, by linearly combining the best positions of the search agents, the algorithm's exploration capability is increased, thus enhancing its global development ability. Secondly, the novel quadratic interpolation technique, which integrates population diversity with local exploitation, helps improve both the diversity of the population and the convergence accuracy. Thirdly, chaotic perturbations (small random fluctuations) applied to the convergence factor during the exploration phase further help avoid premature convergence and promote exploration of the search space. Finally, a novel transfer function processes feature information differently at various stages, enabling the algorithm to search and optimize effectively in the binary space, thereby selecting the optimal feature subset. The proposed method employs a k-nearest neighbor classifier and evaluates performance through 10-fold cross-validation across 32 datasets. Experimental results, compared with other advanced algorithms, demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

MUSIC IN PHILOSOPHICAL AND RELIGIOUS CONCEPTS OF CHINESE AND JAPANESE CULTURES

The article is devoted to the historical position of music in the philosophical and religious doctrines of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism prevalent in Chinese and Japanese societies. The theoretical basis of the study is the ancient written monuments “Shi Jing” and “Kojiki”. The distinctive features of the musical art of Chinese and Japanese cultures, which continue to carry the rich heritage of past generations, are presented. The question of mutual in uences between the two countries and, as a consequence, the impact of Chinese culture on the formation of Japanese music is considered. The conclusion is made about the similarity of some provisions of many ancient cultures, in particular, about the existence of belief in the magical power of music aimed at overcoming the natural laws of nature. In China and Japan this myth was developed in the belief that music is able to transmit the powerful force of the human heart, re ect the interconnection of people and nature, demonstrate the naturalness of events.

Resource Valuation of Kalilingseng-Cave Manganese Mining Site as a Tourist Destination Using the Travel Cost Method

General Background: Kalilingseng Cave, a former Dutch-era manganese mine in Kulon Progo, has untapped potential for educational and cultural tourism. Specific Background: Despite its historical and aesthetic value, the cave remains underdeveloped as a tourist site, lacking comprehensive economic valuation. Knowledge Gap: Prior research has not addressed the cave's economic potential as a tourism destination, leaving a gap in understanding its full value. Aims: This study aims to evaluate the tourism potential of Kalilingseng Cave using SWOT analysis and estimate its economic value through the Travel Cost Method (TCM). Results: The SWOT analysis highlights the cave’s accessibility and proximity to public facilities. TCM results show an average WTP of IDR 67,000.00, with annual economic benefits of IDR 21,775,000.00. Novelty: This research uniquely integrates SWOT and TCM to assess the tourism potential of an abandoned mining site. Implications: Proper development could make Kalilingseng Cave a sustainable tourist destination, benefiting the local economy and supporting geotourism education. Highlights: Tourism Potential: Kalilingseng Cave's historical and aesthetic value positions it as an educational and geotourism destination. Economic Valuation: The Travel Cost Method reveals an annual benefit of IDR 21,775,000.00 from visitors, indicating potential for community development. SWOT Insights: The SWOT analysis highlights strengths like accessibility and opportunities for geotourism while addressing weaknesses such as poor air circulation and lack of official management. Keywords: Ex-Manganense Mining, Kalilingseng, SWOT, Travel Cost Method

‘Six of one’: conflict vs control in the policing of intimate partner violence

ABSTRACT Challenging the historical attitude that intimate partner violence (IPV) is not police business has been identified as key to effective police response. This attitude draws on the wider cultural assumption that IPV is situational and based on interpersonal conflict – a belief compounded by media coverage and certain theoretical approaches. The coercive control model counters this view, framing the majority of IPV as a power differential established through a deliberate pattern of threat and control. Coercive and controlling behaviour (CCB) was criminalised in England and Wales in the Serious Crime Act 2015. The offence describes a pattern of behaviour – rather than the discrete incidents – and subverts ingrained beliefs about the causes of IPV. This qualitative research draws on in-depth interviews with officers and victim-survivors in a force in the north of England. Critical discourse analysis examines police attitudes and culture as embedded within the wider context. A key finding is that police response officers commonly approach IPV as situational and arising from mutual conflict rather than investigating for evidence of CCB. The lack of nuanced understanding of control mechanisms and their effects often leads to exasperation with repeat callers and failure to ‘dig deeper’. However, officers who recognise the subtleties of CCB contribute to an empowering effect on victim-survivors, an outcome not formally recognised by policing processes. To equip officers for effective and supportive response, officer development should address the embedded assumption of conflict and focus on CCB as underlying the majority of IPV rather than existing as a distinct offence.

Hurston’s Art of Controversy in Dust Tracks on a Road

Zora Neale Hurston’s autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road, has generated controversy since its publication in 1942. Critics either dismiss the work for its alleged celebration of liberal individualism and its denial of race consciousness, or else they argue that the book deconstructs its apparent meanings or is essentially ironic in tone. Countering such polarized reactions, this essay takes seriously Dust Tracks’ overt sentiments by placing them in the context of the abstract humanism that developed at midcentury to understand the particular forms of Hurston’s transracial universalism, based on patterns of likeness and relationality. Moreover, by appreciating the ways this discourse fails—as evidenced in the many textual contradictions and inconsistencies of Dust Tracks—we gain a fuller sense of a process in which universalist ideals bear the marks of Hurston’s personal and historical position as a Black woman in a racist society.

Enhancing the Graduate Medical Education Clinical Learning Environment Through Community of Practice Forums.

An optimal clinical learning environment (CLE) is associated with improved learning and patient care outcomes. Significant concerns exist about the state of the CLE in graduate medical education (GME). Research suggests GME programming falls short in interpersonal aspects of training that promote trainee engagement and psychological safety. Furthermore, published educational interventions in the CLE lack adequate theoretical backing to inform a rational approach to interventions in the CLE that could address these important problems.The authors apply the 2002 work of Etienne Wenger on communities of practice (COP) to address these GME CLE concerns. To distinguish this COP intervention from earlier theoretical work on COPs, the authors refer to this management concept as "COP forums." COP forums favorably influence the GME CLE through effects that complement experiential learning in patient care. COP forums support trainee psychological safety, mentorship from near peers, and opportunities to innovate-effects that can serve as a counterbalance to the time pressures, hierarchy, and compliance culture often experienced in the clinical environment. Deliverables of COP forums, including practice innovation and trainee self-efficacy, can favorably impact organization-wide performance and engagement.This article describes the historical position of COP forums in the evolution of COP theory and outlines the basic structure and function of COP forums. It contrasts COP forums to other COP-related concepts to explain their relevance to the GME CLE. Examples of innovative GME COP forums illustrate the structure and function of these interventions. Finally, the authors call for more research on the impact of COP forums on the GME CLE. To avoid confusion, such scholarship must account for the ongoing evolution of the larger COP framework and target specific dimensions of the theory most pertinent to the medical education research question at hand.

Rally around the flag? Explaining changes in Swedish public opinion toward NATO membership after Russia's invasion of Ukraine

After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Sweden changed its historic position of non-alignment and applied for membership in the NATO military alliance. This decision coincided with a shift in public opinion in favor of NATO membership, in what has been described as the largest and fastest shift in public opinion that has ever been measured in Swedish history. We examine two aspects of this “rally around the flag effect” to explain this change, the effect of the crisis event itself and the effect of political elite influence by analyzing within-individual changes of a Swedish university student population at three different time points. We find that after the Russian invasion but before the decision was made to join NATO, public opinion was still split with roughly 40% still opposed. However, after the decision was made to apply for membership to the alliance many people changed their position (32%), either making up their minds or switching position entirely. We show that these changes were likely in response to the decision to join, and that they were moderated by individuals’ previously established political preferences.

Assessing Mutual Fund Performance in China: A Sector Weight-Based Approach

In many financial markets across the globe, full historical position disclosure is not required of mutual funds, or it is subject to prolonged delays, often due to regulatory restrictions. This makes measuring fund manager performance based upon the stock-picking and market-timing skills from past literatures impossible. This study introduces a new methodology utilizing sector weight analysis to estimate the stock-picking and market timing skills of 198 Chinese equity mutual fund managers. Within-sample predictions confirm that the new measures are robust and reliably identify fund managers who outperform their peers, suggesting that this method may be useful in other institutional settings where the full historical position of funds is unavailable. Fund managers with lower stock picking or market timing skills are more likely to improve their skills in the following period, which suggests that manager skills develop and change over time. Finally, our analysis reveals that fund managers with higher stock picking skills are significantly less likely to be replaced, thereby enjoying greater job security.

A metaheuristic algorithmic framework for solving the hybrid flow shop scheduling problem with unrelated parallel machines

The hybrid flow shop scheduling problem (HFSP), as a realistic extension of the classical flow shop scheduling problem, widely exists in real-world industrial production systems. In practice, the fact that machines are unrelated is important and cannot be neglected. This study focuses on the HFSP with unrelated parallel machines (HFSP-UPM) to minimize the makespan. To address this problem, a hybrid representation that combines single-sequence coding and full-sequence coding is developed to search for solution space that is not covered by common encoding methods. An initialization block integrating random heuristic strategies is proposed for improving the quality of the initial sparrow swarm. To improve the diversity of a sparrow swarm further, a perturbation block embedded with a set of historical best positions and an enhancement strategy are developed. A critical set based local search block is designed for high-intensity local exploitation of promising regions when necessary. Several benchmark cases from the literature as well as some randomly generated instances characterized by the distribution of real data from factory studies are employed to participate in the test. The test results reveal the effectiveness of the proposed perturbation block and local search block. Compared to state-of-the-art metaheuristic algorithms, the enhanced sparrow search algorithm (ESSA) demonstrates higher convergence accuracy when handling instances. The value of the gap between a solution found by the ESSA and a feasible solution found by the mixed-integer programming (MIP) model can reach 0.6%.

The making of the “transitional generation”: language politics, writing diaspora and strategic integration of Chinese students in post-war Australia

PurposeThis article explores the overlooked experiences of Chinese students in Australia from the White Australia Policy era to the post-war period. It argues that the emerging post-war transitional generation faced racial discrimination and geopolitical challenges, leading to the establishment of student societies and collaborations with religious groups and NGOs. Through writing and publishing in the 1950s and 1960s, they challenged rigid ethnic identities, shaping their ethnic identities, national belonging, language practices, and community involvement amidst historical contexts. Their narratives vividly depict a generational awakening, highlighting complex processes of integration and acculturation into a new societal landscape.Design/methodology/approachThis paper employs historical discourse analysis using Chinese student magazines and bilingual archives to explore language and identity evolution among Chinese students in 1950s’ and 1960s’ Australia. It contextualizes ethnic, cultural, and linguistic identity transformations and examines how language politics and diaspora writings shaped integration strategies. The study highlights education and language politics' transformative roles in redefining cultural belonging and fostering community cohesion within the diaspora amid shifting socio-political contexts.FindingsThe findings of this study reveal that the concept of the “transitional generation” highlights integration as a dynamic process involving ongoing dialogue, identity negotiation through language, and the redefinition of cultural boundaries. Through analysis of three student-centered magazines – Murhun, Asiana and East Wind – it becomes evident how Chinese students in Australia navigated ethnic, cultural and linguistic identities. Murhun used bilingual content to strengthen solidarity and political engagement among Chinese readers, while Asiana employed English to connect Asian students with Australian society and globally. East Wind facilitated a diverse expression of identity, challenging singular notions of “Chineseness” and promoting cultural integration. These insights reflect a transformative period where Chinese students reshaped their historical position, fostering autonomy and challenging stereotypes like “Yellow Perils”.Originality/valueThis paper examines the often-overlooked experiences of post-war Chinese students in Australia, emphasizing their profound influence on immigration history and shifting public perceptions of Asian immigrants. It introduces the concept of the “transitional generation” to address research gaps and highlight the nuanced complexities of integration, respecting the diverse experiences and identities within this dynamic student community. Emphasizing dynamic negotiation and shared experiences, the study underscores how Australia’s diverse Asian communities have transformative potential. Integration extends beyond adaptation, fostering inclusive spaces for identity negotiation, thriving NGOs and enriching Australia’s social fabric with resilience, diversity and cultural vibrancy.

An improved gray wolf optimization algorithm solving to functional optimization and engineering design problems

As a newly proposed optimization algorithm based on the social hierarchy and hunting behavior of gray wolves, grey wolf algorithm (GWO) has gradually become a popular method for solving the optimization problems in various engineering fields. In order to further improve the convergence speed, solution accuracy, and local minima escaping ability of the traditional GWO algorithm, this work proposes a multi-strategy fusion improved gray wolf optimization (IGWO) algorithm. First, the initial population is optimized using the lens imaging reverse learning algorithm for laying the foundation for global search. Second, a nonlinear control parameter convergence strategy based on cosine variation is proposed to coordinate the global exploration and local exploitation ability of the algorithm. Finally, inspired by the tunicate swarm algorithm (TSA) and the particle swarm algorithm (PSO), a nonlinear tuning strategy for the parameters, and a correction based on the individual historical optimal positions and the global optimal positions are added in the position update equations to speed up the convergence of the algorithm. The proposed algorithm is assessed using 23 benchmark test problems, 15 CEC2014 test problems, and 2 well-known constraint engineering problems. The results show that the proposed IGWO has a balanced E&P capability in coping with global optimization as analyzed by the Wilcoxon rank sum and Friedman tests, and has a clear advantage over other state-of-the-art algorithms.

Progressive prediction: Video anomaly detection via multi‐grained prediction

AbstractVideo Anomaly Detection (VAD) has been an active research field for several decades. However, most existing approaches merely extract a single type of feature from videos and define a single paradigm to indicate the extent of abnormalities. A coarse‐to‐fine three‐level prediction is built by integrating different levels of spatio‐temporal representations, better highlighting the difference between normal and abnormal behaviors. First, an object‐level trajectory prediction is proposed to model human historical position using a graph transformer network. Subsequently, skeleton‐level prediction is achieved by incorporating the positional information from the trajectory prediction. More importantly, based on the predicted skeleton, a skeleton‐guided pixel‐level region prediction is performed. A novel Skeleton Conditioned Generative Adversarial Network (SCGAN) is designed to explore the correlation between skeleton‐level and pixel‐level motion prediction. Benefiting from SCGAN, the prediction of human regions is contributed by both coarse‐grained and fine‐grained motion features. This three‐level prediction, namely Progressive Prediction Video Anomaly Detection (P3VAD), enlarges the prediction error on irregular motion patterns. Besides, a pixel‐level analysis method is proposed to achieve Background‐bias Elimination (BE) and denoise the predicted region. Experimental results validate the effectiveness of P3VAD on the four benchmark datasets (ShanghaiTech, CUHK Avenue, IITB‐Corridor, and ADOC).

Креативные взгляды на вызовы российскому бизнесу в условиях турбулентности мирового порядка

The article examines the issues of opening up opportunities for Russian business in the context of geopolitical turbulence in a historical perspective. Approaches to the assessment of the main indicators characterizing the world hegemony are considered. The trend of changes in the GDP of the most influential countries from the historical position of the world order, as well as the dynamics of changes in the quality of life of the population of successful modern countries, in order to find the causes of the turbulence of the world order and analyze modern events, is studied. The analysis of the economic situation for entrepreneurship in the Russian Federation and Belarus, based on official statistical data, is carried out. The actions of the public sector are analyzed and creative approaches and tools are proposed, the use of which will contribute to the development of business structures, which will serve as a basis for creating new jobs and organizing modern production processes. The provisions of Russia’s economic security in the new system of a multipolar world are formulated.

Interrogating Covid-19 Protocols and Policing in Nigeria: Implications of Government Distrust and Service Failure (2019 – 2022)

The study examined covid-19 protocols and policing in Nigeria, with implications of government distrust and service failure, 2019 – 2022. Specifically, the study interrogated how government’s attitude to healthcare delivery undermined covid-19 protocols and policing in Nigeria; and how multidimensional poverty in the country undermined Nigeria’s lockdown protocols and policing in the fight against the virus. By adopting documentary method of data collection, expost facto research design and securitisation theory, the study found that government’s historical attitude towards healthcare delivery for its citizens led to the failure of its covid-19 protocols and policing, as result of the poor compliance of citizens. The study further found that multidimensional poverty among Nigerians led to the undermining of governments lockdown measures and guidelines during the pandemic. This were borne out of the citizens’ distrust of their government who have hoarded palliatives meant to cushion the effect of the pandemic. The study concluded and recommended amongst others, that the government must invest in quality healthcare by increasing its spending and budget allocations to the healthcare sector. It must also ensure that it desist from playing politics with palliatives meant to help cushion the effect of the pandemic on its citizens.

Multi-strategy learning-based particle swarm optimization algorithm for COVID-19 threshold segmentation

With advancements in science and technology, the depth of human research on COVID-19 is increasing, making the investigation of medical images a focal point. Image segmentation, a crucial step preceding image processing, holds significance in the realm of medical image analysis. Traditional threshold image segmentation proves to be less efficient, posing challenges in selecting an appropriate threshold value. In response to these issues, this paper introduces Inner-based multi-strategy particle swarm optimization (IPSOsono) for conducting numerical experiments and enhancing threshold image segmentation in COVID-19 medical images. A novel dynamic oscillatory weight, derived from the PSO variant for single-objective numerical optimization (PSOsono) is incorporated. Simultaneously, the historical optimal positions of individuals in the particle swarm undergo random updates, diminishing the likelihood of algorithm stagnation and local optima. Moreover, an inner selection learning mechanism is proposed in the update of optimal positions, dynamically refining the global optimal solution. In the CEC 2013 benchmark test, PSOsono demonstrates a certain advantage in optimization capability compared to algorithms proposed in recent years, proving the effectiveness and feasibility of PSOsono. In the Minimum Cross Entropy threshold segmentation experiments for COVID-19, PSOsono exhibits a more prominent segmentation capability compared to other algorithms, showing good generalization across 6 CT images and further validating the practicality of the algorithm.

A Luang-Szigetek helyi bölcsessége: A ‘Hygeralay’ történeti aspektusai

This research aims to identify hygeralai from a historical aspect as one of the local types of local knowledge that lives in the indigenous community of Luang Island, Maluku Province, Indonesia. This research uses a qualitative research method with a historical approach. Data collection techniques in this research through in-depth interviews, field observations and literature studies. The analysis technique used in this research is historical analysis. The results of field research show that the etymology of hygeralai began as a sign of identity, a sign of ownership, a sign of territorial boundaries and used by the ancestors of Luang Island at that time. In its development, it underwent changes related to several attributes and organization when Protestant Christianity entered. The results of exploration in the field show that the etymology of hygeralai is also influenced by the environment and geography. This is evidenced by its affiliation with one of the plants that grow on Luang Island, the koli tree. From this affiliation material, it is also important to display the position of Luang Island in the division of flora in Indonesia according to Wallacea and Weber line. Thus, we can analyze the history of plant movements used by the ancestors in etymology of hygeralai. The hygeralai research results from this historical position are then compared in general with other terms in Maluku related to environmental and natural resource management. The results of this research contribute to local history, especially the management of natural resources based on local wisdom in coastal communities and border areas.

Integration between spirituality and psychology in the transformation of body, mind, and soul of the human person with an encounter with the divine

This study delves into the dynamics between theology and psychology, exploring the historical attitudes held by practitioners in each field. Historically, psychology has often overlooked the role of religion in shaping human behaviour and cognition, leading to a fragmented understanding of the human experience. The neglect of spirituality has limited the effectiveness of psychological research in addressing the complex interplay between mind, body, and soul. This study adopts a literature review methodology drawing from psychology, theology, and neuroscience. Data analysis revealed a significant correlation between religious beliefs/practices and human adaptation, highlighting the importance of integrating religious factors into psychological research paradigms. Moreover, recent developments suggest increasing recognition of the interface between religion and psychology, indicating promising collaboration and further exploration opportunities. The study recommends fostering greater collaboration and dialogue between psychology and theology. By synthesising insights from psychology and theology, practitioners, policymakers, and researchers can develop more holistic interventions that promote human flourishing and facilitate individuals' spiritual growth. Therefore, future research should explore and deepen the synergies between psychology and theology, aiming to cultivate a more profound understanding of human nature and harness the transformative power of spirituality in enhancing the overall quality of life.

Shoreline Changes and Sediment Transport along Nhat Le Coast, Vietnam

One of the most beautiful beaches in Northern Vietnam, Nhat Le, has recently experienced severe erosion as a result of the ensemble interaction of natural factors, such as tropical cyclones, extreme weather events, and human activities. Consequently, negative impacts on tourism and social and economic development have been recorded. This paper aims to provide a deep understanding of the changes in shoreline and longshore sediment transport at Nhat Le estuary based on two modules of LITDRIFT and LITLINE of the LITPACK software package combined with geospatial analysis. The rate of change statistics is calculated using the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) from 30-year multi-temporal satellite data (1989-2019) for multiple historical shoreline positions. The Module of LITDRIFT is employed to estimate sediment transport and the shoreline position calculated from the LITLINE module. These data are then compared with measured topographic data and satellite images. Wave climate conditions are incorporated into the LITDRIFT module to identify the volume of sediment transport along the coast on seasonal and annual bases. The results illustrate that a mean erosion rate of about 2 m per year was observed in the southern sandspit of Nhat Le from 1989 to 2019. This rate reaches 4.5 m per year during 2009-2019.

The Non-Believing Jew: A Historical Survey of Judaism’s Engagement with Atheism

Abstract How important is atheism for Jewish history and Jews for the history of atheism? Modern Jewish histories have tended to focus on Jewish secularization rather than atheism, and historical surveys of atheism in the West have tended to neglect the Jewish experience which is subsumed in the Judeo-Christian tradition. It is possible to make the case that the secularization narrative privileges social change over Jewish intellectual engagement with non-belief, and that just as Jewish and Christian conceptions of theism differ, so do their atheisms. Jewish historical attitudes towards atheism are complicated and have shifted over time. Here, skeptical tendencies, that is, attitudes and ideas that would be associated later with atheism, will be considered alongside claims about atheism per se.