Major Movements Research Articles

Through the Colonial Lens: Images of Alaska Native Peoples in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

In the late twentieth century Alaska Native people became politically involved in a major land claims movement, leading to a renaissance in traditional music and dance practices. Today, in the twenty-first century, there are two strong revitalization movements – Indigenous languages and body art. As Alaska Native people shed the Western neoliberal and neocolonial vestiges of the past, the use of body art and regalia are central to the Indigenist postcolonial twenty-first-century lived experience. As Indigenous scholars revisit eighteenth- and nineteenth-century documents written during the colonial period, it is evident that major changes took place due to colonization. In particular, the erasure of body art and traditional body decoration and clothing. The collection of paintings, engravings, and etchings of Indigenous peoples made by Russian artists such as Mikhail Tikhanov (1789–1862) illustrate the body art, clothing, and hairstyles from the early nineteenth century. The colonial portraits provide a window onto the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century visual images of several different Alaska Native communities. After the 1867 Treaty of Cession, in which Russia “sold” its Alaskan holdings to the United States, American Christian missionaries, epidemic diseases and boarding schools began to further erase language(s), body art, and ceremony. The paper incorporates the impact of colonialism on Alaska Native people and how this impacted cultural practices, such as body art, and the current re-emergence of traditional body art in the twenty-first century.

Dateline 1977: The LHRT as Connective Tissue

Dateline 1977: The LHRT as Connective Tissue

British Hymn Books for Children, 1800–1900: Re-tuning the History of Childhood by Alisa Clapp-Itnyre

Reviewed by: British Hymn Books for Children, 1800–1900: Re-tuning the History of Childhood by Alisa Clapp-Itnyre Hugh Morrison British Hymn Books for Children, 1800–1900: Re-tuning the History of Childhood. By Alisa Clapp-Itnyre. London and New York: Routledge, 2016. xviii + 306 pp. Alisa Clapp-Itnyre's British Hymn Books for Children is a standout product of the long-running Routledge (formerly Ashgate) "Studies in Childhood, 1700 to the Present" series. It is a self-confessed "labor of love" (xv). Clapp-Itnyre clearly brings to her scholarship musical expertise along with a deep affinity for the subject matter. As a result, readers interested in the history of music will certainly be drawn to this book and gain much from it. Just as importantly, however, it is also a significant scholarly contribution that offers new interdisciplinary insights and avenues of enquiry. It sits squarely within childhood studies, but with the added conviction that "our traditional marginalization of children's hymnody outside the fields of literature, musicology, art history, even history, makes those fields of study incomplete" (11). Culturally and geographically situated in nineteenth-century British (mainly English) Protestant hymn production, the book makes three major claims: that children's hymns constituted a "genre" that was "integral to the fabric of Victorian childhood experience"; that their "hymn singing was a context for immense empowerment of Victorian children"; and that "children's hymn-book production intersected with major aesthetic movements of the period . . . [thus deepening] our understanding of the aesthetic network for children and adults" (6). From all of this, she argues, "an empowered [albeit complex and historicized] singer emerges" (6). To advance this broad argument, the book is divided into clearly focused chapters that are each effectively organized around selected emphases or transitions. Chapters move from thinking about classed or gendered juvenile communities shaped by the act of singing; to the relationship between hymns and literature for children; to the ambiguities between designations of "adult" [End Page 311] or "child" thrown up by hymn collections; to visual representations of children in hymn books; to children as both subjects and agents of reform through various singing traditions; and finally to the ambiguities apparent in hymns that invoked images of childhood death, dying and children of life. Each chapter provides a mixture of critical and careful analysis (across and between a broad spectrum of published hymn books) and close reading (of selected hymns or groupings of hymns as case studies), augmented by such other primary sources as diaries, contemporary fiction and children's epigraphic traces. At each point, Clapp-Itnyre necessarily brings those sources into conversation with wide-ranging secondary scholarship, discerning larger historical or historiographical questions and issues thrown up by the source material. Where appropriate, readers are given helpful nineteenth-century context—for example, English educational developments and reforms (chapter 1), key missionary and philanthropic/social reforming movements (chapter 5), and adult attitudes towards children and death (chapter 6)—because in each case trends in children's hymn writing or singing either point to or are explained by larger historical processes. In her analysis she is also keen to elucidate nuances or to explicate how hymns as literature might disrupt previously accepted notions of childhood or periodization. Three examples will suffice. Hymn singing could be both divisive, socially or gender-wise (chapter 1), but at the same time it at least brought different groups together mentally: "they all sang many of the same hymns" (51) and children's hymns moved "fluidly between class contexts" (52). Similarly, hymn content points to "cracks in the continuum" (58) of nineteenth-century juvenile representations, from the supposed negation to later reification of the child in fictional literature (chapter 2). And the presence of cross-over hymns in adult or child collections (chapter 3) potentially complicates how we understand Victorian concepts of age as a category. At the same time, they suggest that "Victorians truly treasured their children, bestowing upon them the richness of their own 'adult' hymn tradition. . . . To treasure their children was, in more cases than not, to lift the child up to the adult in theology, music, and poetics" (136–37). While well-constructed, this book is not always easy...

Prostaglandin D2 Controls Local Blood Flow and Sleep-Promoting Neurons in the VLPO via Astrocyte-Derived Adenosine.

Prostaglandin D2 (PGD2) is one of the most potent endogenous sleep-promoting molecules. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms of the PGD2-induced activation of sleep-promoting neurons in the ventrolateral preoptic nucleus (VLPO), the major nonrapid eye movement (NREM)-sleep center, still remains unclear. We here show that PGD2 receptors (DP1) are not only expressed in the leptomeninges but also in astrocytes from the VLPO. We further demonstrate, by performing real-time measurements of extracellular adenosine using purine enzymatic biosensors in the VLPO, that PGD2 application causes a 40% increase in adenosine level, via an astroglial release. Measurements of vasodilatory responses and electrophysiological recordings finally reveal that, in response to PGD2 application, adenosine release induces an A2AR-mediated dilatation of blood vessels and activation of VLPO sleep-promoting neurons. Altogether, our results unravel the PGD2 signaling pathway in the VLPO, controlling local blood flow and sleep-promoting neurons, via astrocyte-derived adenosine.

Redefining Bradykinesia.

Redefining Bradykinesia.

From Yewwu Yewwi to #FreeSenegal: Class, Gender and Generational Dynamics of Radical Feminist Activism in Senegal

Feminists protesting gender-based violence and state violence have been instrumental to contesting the status quo and the shifting discourses, modes of organizing, and registers of protest in Senegal. Some 40 years after the emergence of Yewwu Yewwi, a major feminist movement, Senegalese feminists have returned to radical feminist organizing, despite increasing anti-gender backlash. In this essay, I draw on interviews with feminist activists and politicians between 2013 and 2022 to analyze the March 2021 protests in Senegal in light of previous protests. I argue that the intertwined dynamics of class, gender, and generation are critical to understanding the protests. I do this following the example of some feminist academics who have used intersectionality as a method, theory, and research agenda (Collins and Bilge 2016; Mohammed 2022). Innovations in protest strategies have allowed activists to overcome generational and ideological divides between feminist and women’s rights organizations, as well as within feminist movements, and to resist strategic alliances between patriarchal and political powers.

Figure-Ground Segmentation and Biological Motion Perception in Peripheral Visual Field.

Biological motion perception is a specific type of perceptual organization, during which a clear image of a moving human body is perceptually generated in virtue of certain core light dots representing the major joint movements. While the processes of biological motion perception have been studied extensively for almost a century, there is still a debate on whether biological motion task performance can be equally precise across all visual field or is central visual field specified for biological motion perception. The current study explores the processes of biological motion perception and figure-ground segmentation in the central and peripheral visual field, expanding the understanding of perceptual organization across different eccentricities. The method involved three different tasks of visual grouping: (1) a static visual grouping task, (2) a dynamic visual grouping task, and (3) a biological motion detection task. The stimuli in (1) and (2) were generated from 12-13 dots grouped by proximity and common fate, and, in (3), light dots representing human motion. All stimuli were embedded in static or dynamics visual noise and the threshold value for the number of noise dots in which the elements could still be grouped by proximity and/or common fate was determined. The results demonstrate that biological motion can be differentiated from the scrambled set of moving dots in a more intensive visual noise than static and dynamic visual grouping tasks. Furthermore, in all three visual tasks (static and dynamic grouping, and biological motion detection) the performance was significantly worse in the periphery than in the central visual field, and object magnification could not compensate for the reduced performance in any of the three grouping tasks. The preliminary results of nine participants indicate that (a) human motion perception involves specific perceptual processes, providing the high-accuracy perception of the human body and (b) the processes of figure-ground segmentation are governed by the bottom-up processes and the best performance can be achieved only when the object is demonstrated in the central visual field.

Automatic Railway Gate Controlling and Smart System of Railway Gate Crossing system

In India, the major ways of transportation used are roads and railways, many a times the both are crossing over. For the smooth running of both, there are over bridges are used where there are major movement of vehicles. And in some places there are gates provided for controlling the crossover of both and other major cases none is provided that lead to accidents. In a big populated country like India, accidents are a daily crisis that is being faced by the people. Most of these accidents are road accidents, few percentages of these accidents occur on the railway level crossings

Losing the Way or Running Off? An Unprecedented Major Movement of Asian Elephants in Yunnan, China

In 2021, an unprecedented major movement of Asian elephants in China aroused the curiosity of hundreds of millions of people around the world. For research objectives, we firstly reproduce the movement route of Asian elephants and reveal their geographical spatial characteristics and landscape characteristics using multisource data; secondly, we reveal the reason for this Asian elephant movement. We found Asian elephants went far beyond the northernmost movement boundary from past years. Most of the areas along the movement route fell within the higher accessibility to road traffic. Over the past 20 years, the rubber and tea areas of Xishuangbanna and Pu’er have increased by 91.1% and 120.1%, respectively, from 2005 to 2019. Asian elephants spent 18 days in areas with suitable food, but relatively low vegetation coverage. The 2021 movement was most likely a “purposeful” trip rather than a “detour”. The elephants chose the most rewarding way to move forward, which showed they are far smarter than we thought. They may have left to find food due to exhausted food supply. The expansion of rubber and tea plantations has caused the habitat of Asian elephants to shrink, which was one of the reasons for the northward movement of them.

What they say, what they do and how they do it: An evaluation of the energy transition and GHG emissions of electricity companies

The electricity sector is a critical player in combating climate change through the energy transition. Therefore, companies in the sector should align their policies and actions with the world's major environmental movements, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Paris Agreement. This paper assesses the energy transition and GHG emissions mitigation by the electricity sector using Paris Agreement targets and evaluates the impact of SDGs and science-based targets adoption on their decarbonization. From 2017 to 2019, we evaluated 39 global electricity companies using their sustainability reports and the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) based on Paris Agreement global warming scenarios of 1.5 °C and well-below 2 °C (WB2°C). We discovered that all companies prioritize climate change actions, with 87% linking these actions to at least one SDG. When analyzing whether GHG emission reductions were in line with either Paris Agreement scenario, this figure dropped to 51%. Companies with SBTi met the 1.5 °C and WB2°C targets at a rate of 92% compared to 32% of companies without SBTi. We concluded that SDG adoption had no effect on mitigation results and that companies with SBTi performed significantly better in terms of emissions reduction and transition to renewables, although there was no proof of causality. These findings can help with the adoption of more effective policies for the implementation of SDGs and their prioritization in the sector, as well as encourage emission targets based on consolidated methodologies to guide companies' actions.

Activation mechanism of the M5 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor.

The muscarinic acetylcholine receptor family are class A G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that help facilitate the actions of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine throughout the body. Because the M5 subtype (M5R) is exclusively expressed on dopaminergic neurons in the mesolimbic pathway, it is emerging as an attractive therapeutic target for treating addictive disorders. However, the lack of crystal structures on the intermediate and active conformations of the receptor has hampered the design of potent antagonist and agonists. Therefore, this study will explore the active, intermediate, and inactive conformations of an apo- M5R by running 300 ns Gaussian accelerated molecular dynamics (GaMD) simulations on the modelled active state of the receptor (PDB ID: 6OIJ). The active apo-M5R is expected to transition into the intermediate and inactive states because (1) muscarinic receptors are constitutively active but prefer the inactive state in the absence of agonists, and (2) GaMD simulations lower the energy barriers between protein conformations. Principal component analysis will be performed on the trajectories to identify the major movements of the protein during deactivation/activation, while the subregions involved in the transitions will be determined using community network analysis. The expected movements of the M5R include the outward displacement of TM6 and extension of the TM3 into the cytoplasm. Mutagenesis studies on the M5R also suggest that IL2 and IL3 are involved in G-protein coupling, so these loops are speculated to adopt distinct conformations in each conformation. The obtained intermediate and active conformations and the insights on the activation mechanism will aid further drug design initiatives to relieve addictive disorders.

The Radical in Ambedkar: Critical Reflections

The Radical in Ambedkar: Critical Reflections

Post Mining Ground Deformations Transition Related to Coal Mines Closure in the Campine Coal Basin, Belgium, Evidenced by Three Decades of MT-InSAR Data

Spatio-temporal ground-movement measurements and mappings have been carried out in the Campine coalfield in Belgian Limburg since the closure of the mines to document post-mining effects. MT-InSAR measurements are compared to groundwater head changes in the overburden and to height data from the closest GNSS stations. Radar interferometry is used to estimate the extension and the velocity of ground movements. In particular, the MT-InSAR technique has been applied to SAR acquisitions of the satellites ERS-1/2 (1991–2005), ENVISAT (2003–2010), COSMO-SkyMed (2011–2014), and Sentinel-1A (2014–2022). The images were processed and used to highlight a switch from subsidence to uplift conditions in the western part of the coal basin, while the eastern part had already been affected by a rebound since the beginning of the ERS-1/2 acquisitions. Following the closure of the last active colliery of Zolder in 1992 and the subsequent cease of mine-water pumping, a recharge of mine-water aquifers occurred in the western part of the basin. This process provoked the change from subsidence to uplift conditions that was recorded during the ENVISAT period. In the center of the coal-mining area, measured uplift velocities reached a maximum of 18 mm/year during the ENVISAT period, while they subsided at −12 mm/year during the ERS-1/2 period. Mean velocities in the western and eastern parts of the coalfield area have decreased since the last MT-InSAR measurements were performed using Sentinel-1A, while the Zolder coal mine continues to rise at a faster-than-average rate of a maximum of 16 mm/year. The eastern part of the coalfield is still uplifting, while its rate has been reduced from 18 mm/year (ERS-1/2) to 9 mm/year (Sentinel-1A) since the beginning of the radar–satellite observations. Time-series data from the two GNSS stations present in the study area were used for a local comparison with the evolution of ground movements observed by MT-InSAR. Two leveling campaigns (2000, 2013) were also used to make comparisons with the MT-InSAR data. The station’s measurements and the leveling data were in line with the MT-InSAR data. Overall, major ground movements are obviously limited to an extension of the actual underground-mining works and rapidly diminish outside of them.

Universality, Black Lives Matter, and the George Floyd Uprising

ABSTRACT This article offers a theoretically informed case study of the George Floyd Uprising that emerged in May 2020. In addition to analyzing details of the uprising, it illustrates the ways in which particular uprisings can register at the level of the universal. I make this point through a critical engagement with theories of universality offered by Slavoj Žižek, Alain Badiou, and Todd McGowan, whose work helps us to theorize universality in its concrete and singular manifestation. Along the way, I show how adjacent work in the Black radical tradition, social movement studies, and the critical social sciences at large can also enter a constructive dialogue with these approaches to universality. Using theory and data, the case study illustrates how this insurgent act embodied the striving towards universal human dignity and liberation. It is long overdue for the humanistic social sciences to revisit and reengage the concept of universality. By doing so, we may generate better social theory, and better understand major movements for social change in the twenty-first century.

Stretchable Semi-Interpenetrating Carboxymethyl Guar Gum-Based Composite Hydrogel for Moisture-Proof Wearable Strain Sensor.

Wearable strain sensors of conductive hydrogels have very broad application prospects in electronic skins and human-machine interfaces. However, conductive hydrogels suffer from unstable signal transmission due to environmental humidity and inherent shortcomings of their materials. Herein, we introduce a novel moisture-proof conductive hydrogel with high toughness (2.89 MJ m-3), mechanical strength (1.00 MPa), and high moisture-proof sensing performance by using dopamine-functionalized gold nanoparticles as conductive fillers into carboxymethyl guar gum and acrylamide. Moreover, the hydrogel can realize real-time monitoring of major and subtle human movements with good sensitivity and repeatability. In addition, the hydrogel-assembled strain sensor exhibits stable sensing signals after being left for 1 h, and the relative resistance change rate under different strains (25-300%) shows no obvious noise signal up to 99% relative humidity. Notably, the wearable strain sensing is suitable for wearable sensor devices with high relative humidity.

Old Time String Band: Sound, vision, and memory in the work of Stanley Greaves

ABSTRACT Guyanese artist Stanley Greaves (1934–present) stands among the Caribbean’s leading creative figures, with a diverse production stretching across seven decades and incorporating painting, sculpture, and illustration, alongside poetry and music. His career encompasses associations with many of Guyana’s major cultural personalities and movements, including artist ER Burrowes and the Working People’s Art Class, novelists Wilson Harris and Edgar Mittelholzer, and poet Martin Carter. Despite its significance, his work attracts little analysis outside the Caribbean. This essay provides an extended investigation into one of Greaves’s most important and personal paintings, Old Time String Band (1977), through the overlapping thematics of sound, vision and memory. Based on extensive correspondence with Greaves, it explores the working class foundations of his creative practices across sonic, visual and material spheres, using memory as a primary tool to illuminate essential cross-overs and transnational resonances within Guyana’s artistic and musical cultures from pre-Independence to postcolonial eras.

LEADERSHIP IN A YOUTH MOVEMENT AS A TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE

This study discusses the social leadership of counselors in youth movements in Israel and its contribution to social engagement, both for themselves and the members of the movements. The study method is qualitative, in which six senior counselors (branch managers) from two major youth movements in Israel participated: The Scouts and BneiAkiva. The study provides a glimpse into the world of youth in Israel who participate in youth movements. The study shows how the quality of leadership of the counselors, empowers and advances social goals and contributes to community engagement from which everyone benefits. The study can contribute to the field of education by perceiving the leader as both a teacher and an educator.

긍석 김진만의 항일독립운동

Kim Jin-man has been one of the representative literary painters of the 20th century who has established his art world through Sagunja painting and Gimyeongjeolji painting and influenced the flower bed for a long time since he had academic ability. In order to restore the independence of the Japanese colonial eran people and achieve national independence, he started the Reconstruction Achievement Friendship Association and the “Daegu Pistol Incident”. He was a representative anti-Japanese independence activist in Daegu in the 1910s who promoted the anti-Japanese independence movement. His anti-Japanese independence movement was inherited over three generations. Soon, he continued to his grandson Kim Il-sik, following his sons Kim Young-jo and Kim Young-ki. Through this, the Kim Jin-man family established the overall image of the three major independence movements. In addition, the three major independence movements of the Kim Jin-man family were consistent with the chang e in the route of the anti-Japanese independence movement in Japanese colonial era. The three major independence movements of the Kim Jin-man family have great implications for the direction that our society should view and predict even today in the 21st century.

Environmental Footprint of Covid-19 in India: Short Term ‘Green Effect’ but Long Run Pitfall

The outset of novel coronavirus namely SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 first came into the limelight in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and was soon declared a ‘global pandemic’ by W.H.O. in March 2020 after realizing its highly infectious and transmission capability and its potential to develop severe pneumonia-like respiratory infection amongst the humans. This declaration along with the rising number of COVID-19 infected cases and deaths globally led to the complete locking down of countries and cities, thereby limiting all unnecessary human movement and activities by way of imposition of strict measures to control and minimize the spread of the virus. This study reveals that this sudden halt of all major activities and movement resulted in providing a much needed temporary short-term relief to the environment from excessive exploitation at the hands of humans which has caused alarming levels of environmental pollution and GHG emissions, particularly in India. However, on the downside, it has also added a substantial burden on the environment by creating a panic-like situation leading to more than usual waste generation and an enormous challenge of its effective management and disposal which is most likely to persist in the longer run. On the whole, this review points out that years of damage done to the environment cannot be undone by although crucial but short-term relief resulting from such a temporary halt of activities. In the wake of this situation, an attempt has been made to discuss the future challenges that lie ahead of us and recommend possible solutions based on a holistic integrated planning approach which is the need of the hour to tackle the pertinent issue.

Making sense of Lebanon’s approach to the (non-)securitisation of Syrian refugees: a political economic perspective

Lebanon hosts an extraordinarily high number of refugees, and according to a widespread conviction nourished by Lebanon’s political class, they constitute a burden to the country. Thus, an explanation is needed for the fact that – contrary to many European political economies – on the domestic level, neither the central government nor organised social actors have made major attempts to securitise the refugees. Securitisation, ie the presentation of an issue as an existential threat through speech acts in order to legitimise the application of extraordinary measures, did take place, but the primary target audience was international actors. Lebanese authorities took extraordinary measures against Syrian refugees, and societal discrimination against them does exist, but both phenomena are not primarily the outcome of securitising speech acts. This paper proposes an explanation for Lebanon’s particular response to the immigration of Syrian refugees, thereby questioning that this constitutes a burden to Lebanon while highlighting that, by dramatising the ‘refugee crisis’, the Lebanese government aimed at receiving political rents. The main reason why no major political party or social movement put Syrian immigration high on the agenda is that, apart from the political class, assertive social segments of Lebanon’s society also gained from the presence of refugees.