Mean Divergence Research Articles

The Vernacularisation of Human Rights Discourse in Myanmar: Rejection, Hybridisation and Strategic Avoidance

ABSTRACT Violence against Muslim minority communities in Myanmar has brought the issue of human rights to international and domestic attention. Burmese democratic leaders, activists and Buddhist monks have attracted sharp international criticism for their seemingly neglectful responses to widespread human rights violations. Yet little attention has been directed towards understanding how these leaders make sense of “human rights.” This article argues that the shift in international attention from the problem of military authoritarianism to the marginalisation of religious minorities precipitated new ways in which human rights has been given meaning by Burmese Buddhist political and religious leaders. Examining their use of human rights language through interviews conducted between 2016 and 2017, we highlight contrasting responses to “human rights.” Some respondents rejected human rights language outright, while others imparted the phrase with their own meaning, presenting a variety of hybridised visions of human rights that sometimes supported, rather than opposed, the exclusion of Muslim minorities. Finally, others strategically avoided human rights language as they sought to promote human rights aims amidst popular rejection of the discourse. These findings highlight the importance, for actors seeking to promote human rights in Myanmar, of sensitivity towards divergent meanings of human rights.

Divergent Interpretations and Inter-Organizational Relations of Halal Product Guarantee Policy in Indonesia

The emergence of the issue of halal products, both in the form of food and services, has also led to competition regarding the certification of halal products. Studies on competition between certification bodies have been carried out, but these studies do not focus on the competition that occurs in Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia which is a big market for the halal industry. In Indonesia, the implementation of the regulation of Halal Product Guarantee (HPG) in Law No. 33 2014 still raises problems, including the related issue of inter-organizational relations. This article discusses the relations between organizations based on the interpretation of each party related to the Halal Product Guarantee policy, and the consequences arising from it. This article used new institutional theory, and a semiotics approach as analysis of verbal signs and gestures raised by each of the parties. This article argued that the interpretations of each organizational actor towards the new halal certification policy in Indonesia are driven by different institutional reasons/logics, resulting in contradictions, even conflicts related to the relationship between organizations implementing the policy. The difference in meaning, especially in the connotative meaning, shows the difference in institutional logic. Thus, there is a divergence in meaning. Therefore, it is important to equate significance (meaning/interpretation) to each of the institutions related to Halal Product Guarantee in order to realize the implementation of the regulations properly.

Lévy flights of photons with infinite mean free path.

Multiple scattering of light by resonant vapor is characterized by Lévy-type superdiffusion with a single-step size distribution p(x)∝1/x^{1+α}. We investigate Lévy flight of light in a hot rubidium vapor collisional-broadened by 50 torr of He gas. The frequent collisions produce Lorentzian absorptive and emissive profiles with α<1 and a corresponding divergent mean step size. We extract the Lévy parameter α≈0.5 in a multiple-scattering regime from radial profile of the transmission and from violation of the Ohm's law. The measured radial transmission profile and the total diffusive transmission curves are well reproduced by numerical simulations for Lorentzian line shapes.

‘The Pictures Which We Publish To-Day Are Fearful to Look Upon’: The Circulation of Images of Atrocity During the American Civil War

This article explores the circulation of photographs of prisoners of war that were taken at the US General Hospital in Annapolis, Maryland in 1864. More specifically, it considers the publication of these images as wood engravings in Harper’s Weekly’s illustrated newspaper as part of a broader network of photographic circulation, and the circulation of images of atrocity during the American Civil War. This project follows recent interventions in photographic history that have emphasised reproduction and circulation, and that have decentred the photographic print as the primary site for the production of meaning. By examining the multiple visual and narrative contexts in which photographs of the Annapolis prisoners appeared, including as wood engravings in Harper’s Weekly, this article reveals how divergent meanings were ascribed to the images, as both the press and the public sought to make sense of the prisoners’ deterioration and to use their images for political purposes. Ultimately, the article employs circulation as a methodology to understand how audiences used photographs to make sense of the seemingly ineffable trauma and devastation of the American Civil War. This project also demonstrates how Harper’s Weekly relied upon an existing public archive – of text and images, particularly cartes de visite – to report the news and to further its rhetorical position. It is important to highlight that the images in this article are disturbing. They show men in states of significant emaciation and were presumably taken without full consent. These pictures are shown as part of an effort to understand the ways in which images of atrocity were circulated in the nineteenth century, and, as such, requires that we consider the appropriateness of publishing and exhibiting such images both then and now. A question of care and of an ethics of looking must be at the forefront of this critical engagement.

What is the Meaning of Proofs?

The origins of proof-theoretic semantics lie in the question of what constitutes the meaning of the logical connectives and its response: the rules of inference that govern the use of the connective. However, what if we go a step further and ask about the meaning of a proof as a whole? In this paper we address this question and lay out a framework to distinguish sense and denotation of proofs. Two questions are central here. First of all, if we have two (syntactically) different derivations, does this always lead to a difference, firstly, in sense, and secondly, in denotation? The other question is about the relation between different kinds of proof systems (here: natural deduction vs. sequent calculi) with respect to this distinction. Do the different forms of representing a proof necessarily correspond to a difference in how the inferential steps are given? In our framework it will be possible to identify denotation as well as sense of proofs not only within one proof system but also between different kinds of proof systems. Thus, we give an account to distinguish a mere syntactic divergence from a divergence in meaning and a divergence in meaning from a divergence of proof objects analogous to Frege’s distinction for singular terms and sentences.

Megadiversity in the Ant Genus Melophorus: The M. rufoniger Heterick, Castalanelli and Shattuck Species Group in the Top End of Australia’s Northern Territory

This study contributes to an understanding of megadiversity in the arid-adapted ant genus Melophorus by presenting an integrated genetic, morphological and distributional analysis of diversity within the M. rufoniger group in the 400,000 km2 Top End (northern region) of Australia’s Northern Territory. An earlier study of the Top End’s ant fauna lists eleven species from the M. rufoniger group, but a recent revision of Melophorus described the taxon as a single species occurring throughout most of the Australian mainland. CO1 sequences were obtained for 120 Top End specimens of the M. rufoniger group, along with a specimen from just outside the Top End. We recognize a total of 30 species among the sequenced specimens from the Top End, based on marked CO1 divergence (mean &gt; 9%) in association with morphological differentiation and/or sympatric distribution. The sequenced specimen from just outside the Top End represents an additional species. Our unpublished CO1 data from other specimens from elsewhere in monsoonal Australia indicate that all but two of the 30 sequenced Top End species are endemic to the region, and that such diversity and endemism are similar in both the Kimberley region of far northern Western Australia and in North Queensland. The total number of species in the M. rufoniger group is potentially more than the 93 total species of Melophorus recognized in the recent revision. It has previously been estimated that Melophorus contains at least 1000 species, but our findings suggest that this is a conservative estimate.

Plant functional diversity mediates indirect effects of land-use intensity on soil water conservation in the dry season of tropical areas

Land-use intensification has led to biodiversity loss, which affects ecosystem properties and services by altering plant functional traits. However, the mechanistic pathways through which land-use intensity (LUI) affects ecosystem services across functional traits and ecosystem properties remain unclear. We studied the relationships among LUI, plant functional traits, ecosystem properties, and soil water conservation in tropical Hainan Island, China, where land-use changes, biodiversity loss, and seasonal drought have had severe impacts. Soil water conservation was represented by two complementary processes, namely soil water retention (SWR) and soil water capture (SWC). SWR and SWC were observed along a LUI gradient after 27 rainfall events (14 light, 10 moderate, and 3 heavy). We quantified the direct and indirect effects of LUI, the community-weighted mean (CWM) and functional divergence (FDvar) of water-related plant functional traits (tree height, leaf thickness, specific leaf area, and leaf dry matter content), and ecosystem properties on SWC and SWR using Bayesian structural equation models. The results showed that LUI did not affect SWC and SWR directly but presented indirect impacts via functional traits and ecosystem properties. Importantly, tree height FDvar mediated the most important indirect effect of LUI on both SWC and SWR. Tree height FDvar indirectly affected SWC through ecosystem properties, while the direction of the effect changed from negative to positive with increasing rainfall intensity, and promoted SWR directly and indirectly by increasing litter fall and soil organic matter. Our results further provide evidence of an indirect effect of LUI on soil water conservation primarily through tree height FDvar. Loss of functional diversity of plant height caused by LUI resulted in a decrease in SWR and SWC, indicating that seasonal drought causes increased impacts. The results emphasize that maintaining functional diversity of tree height in tropical land use is conducive for soil water conservation to mitigate increased intensity of seasonal drought predicted under climate change.

Comparative Analysis of Summer Upwelling and Downwelling Events in NW Spain: A Model-Observations Approach

Upwelling and downwelling processes play a critical role in the connectivity between offshore waters and coastal ecosystems, having relevant implications in terms of intense biogeochemical activity and global fisheries production. A variety of in situ and remote-sensing networks were used in concert with the Iberia–Biscay–Ireland (IBI) circulation forecast system, in order to investigate two persistent upwelling and downwelling events that occurred in the Northwestern (NW) Iberian coastal system during summer 2014. Special emphasis was placed on quality-controlled surface currents provided by a high-frequency radar (HFR), since this land-based technology can effectively monitor the upper layer flow over broad coastal areas in near-real time. The low-frequency spatiotemporal response of the ocean was explored in terms of wind-induced currents’ structures and immediacy of reaction. Mean kinetic energy, divergence and vorticity maps were also calculated for upwelling and downwelling favorable events, in order to verify HFR and IBI capabilities, to accurately resolve the prevailing surface circulation features, such as the locus of a persistent upwelling maximum in the vicinity of Cape Finisterre. This integrated approach proved to be well-founded to efficiently portray the three-dimensional characteristics of the NW Iberian coastal upwelling system regardless of few shortcomings detected in IBI performance, such as the misrepresentation of the most energetic surface dynamics or the overestimation of the cooling and warming associated with upwelling and downwelling conditions, respectively. Finally, the variability of the NW Iberian upwelling system was characterized by means of the development of a novel ocean-based coastal upwelling index (UI), constructed from HFR-derived hourly surface current observations (UIHFR). The proposed UIHFR was validated against two traditional UIs for 2014, to assess its credibility. Results suggest that UIHFR was able to adequately categorize and characterize a wealth of summer upwelling and downwelling events of diverse length and strength, paving the way for future investigations of the subsequent biophysical implications.

Stand structural attributes and functional trait composition overrule the effects of functional divergence on aboveground biomass during Amazon forest succession

Two competing ecological hypotheses, i.e., the niche complementarity (NCH) and the mass ratio (MRH) hypotheses, have been proposed to explain how stand structural complexity, functional trait diversity and composition simultaneously determine aboveground biomass in natural forests. Here, we hypothesized that the effects of stand structural attributes and functional trait composition overrule the effects of functional diversity on aboveground biomass during tropical forest succession. We tested different linear mixed-effects models to determine the effects of abiotic (i.e. nutrients and soil texture), taxonomic (i.e. woody species richness and composition), stand structural (i.e. stem count and maximum tree diameter), and functional attributes (functional divergence and composition). The functional attributes were based on functional divergence (FDvar) and community-weighted mean (CWM) trait values of wood density (WD). We collected data using 45 sample plots (20 m × 50 m) established in four old-growth and second-growth forests with varied stand stages from three sites in the northern region of Amazonas State, Venezuela. The MRH model showed that CWM-WD had a strong direct positive effect on aboveground biomass, followed by a positive effect of maximum tree diameter, but had a weak positive relationship with soil fertility and FDvar-WD. Our study suggests that low trait diversity and high CWM-WD and maximum tree diameter determine high levels of aboveground biomass, which could be concentrated in species with larger diameters and high wood density. We conclude that stand structural attributes and functional dominance override the effects of FDvar of WD on aboveground biomass, and hence, it is important to test the mutual effects of functional diversity and composition when exploring the effects of functional traits on forest functioning.

Endoscopic Optical Coherence Tomography for Evaluation of Success of Tympanoplasty

After tympanoplasty, it is often challenging to differentiate between different causes of a remaining air bone gap (ABG). Optical coherence tomography (OCT) offers a new approach for combined morphologic and functional measurements of the tympanic membrane and adjacent parts of the middle ear. Thus, it provides valuable diagnostic information in patients with a reduced sound transfer after middle ear surgery. A patient with history of tympanoplasty and a persistent ABG was investigated with endoscopic OCT before revision surgery. The oscillation behavior and the thickness of the reconstructed tympanic membrane was determined. The oscillation amplitudes of the inserted prosthesis were compared to a finite element model simulation and to the clinical findings and the audiometric data of the patient. OCT measurements showed a reduced oscillation amplitude of the prosthesis while revealing an aerated middle ear and good coupling of the prosthesis. Transfer loss measured by OCT showed a similar progression as the ABG measured by pure-tone audiometry with a mean divergence of 4.45 dB. Endoscopic OCT is a promising tool for the evaluation of tympanoplasty outcome. It supports established otologic diagnostics and can help differentiating between different causes of conductional hearing loss.

An analysis of green infrastructure in municipal policy: Divergent meaning and terminology in the Greater Toronto Area

The concept of green infrastructure has been rapidly adopted by several disciplines and is increasingly appearing in policy discussions. While the use of the term has recently expanded, there is no single definition of green infrastructure. To date most of the research examining green infrastructure in policy has occurred in Europe and the US, and to a lesser extent Asia, highlighting differences in the term’s meaning between these regions. Green infrastructure has also recently become part of policy discourse in Canada, but it is unclear how widespread its use is or how it is being defined in a Canadian policy context. This study examines inclusion of the term ‘green infrastructure’, and the broader ideas it represents, in municipal policy through a content analysis of 81 municipal plans from the 25 municipalities in the Greater Toronto Area (Ontario, Canada). Examined plans includes those addressing land use, urban forests, stormwater and other relevant sectors. We found that the term appears in 30 % of the examined municipal plans, with three distinct definitions used: living green infrastructure, non-living green infrastructure and ‘greening’ gray infrastructure. Closely related terms (e.g., low impact development) and incorporation of the concept of green infrastructure without using the specific term are more common than direct references to green infrastructure. The variety of terminology and definitions incorporated into the municipal plans raise questions about potential confusion around basic policy goals associated with green infrastructure.

Biological identification of ascidians from Vizhinjam Bay, southwest Coast of India using CO1 gene sequences

Ascidians are ecologically important components of marine ecosystems, yet the taxonomy and diversity of ascidians remain largely unexplored. Only <60% of reported ascidian species in India have been taxonomically described and identified and the rest of the species remain unidentified due to uncertainty in the morphology-based identification. We explored the usefulness of CO1 gene sequences for molecular level identification and mtDNA data in assessing phylogenetic relationships of 15 ascidian species. The mean sequence divergences within and among the species fell into the mean divergence ranges found in ascidian group. Species that are most similar grouped together formed a cluster. Clusters of species in a clade indicate that the species are closely related. Species that are highly divergent formed a separate branch. This study has concluded that the CO1 gene sequence is an effective tool to ascertain the molecular taxonomical studies on ascidians.

Review: “Cultures of Milk”

Andrea S. Wiley explores the material and cultural characteristics of milk in the United States and India, illuminating how each country’s distinctive political, economic, religious, and historic context produces divergent meanings attached to dairy.

Biases in Structure Functions from Observations of Submesoscale Flows

AbstractSurface drifter observations from the LAgrangian Submesoscale ExpeRiment (LASER) campaign in the Gulf of Mexico are paired with Eulerian (ship‐borne X‐band radar) data to demonstrate that velocity structure functions from drifters differ systematically from Eulerian structure functions over scales from 0.4 to 7 km. These differences result from drifters oversampling surface convergences and regions of intense vorticity. The first‐, second‐, and third‐order structure functions are calculated using quasi‐Lagrangian (drifter) and Eulerian data from approximately the same location and time. Differences between quasi‐Lagrangian and Eulerian structure functions are attributed to two forms of bias. The first bias results from the mean divergence or vorticity of the background flow creating nonzero first‐order structure functions. This background bias affects both quasi‐Lagrangian and Eulerian data when insufficiently time‐averaged. It severely biases the drifter third‐order structure functions but is smaller in Eulerian structure functions at both second and third order. This bias can be corrected for using lower‐order structure functions. The second form of bias results from drifters accumulating in regions with flow statistics that differ from undersampled regions. This accumulation bias is diagnosed by identifying the dependence of the Eulerian structure functions on divergence and vorticity as well as scale. Together, both biases suggest that caution is needed when interpreting second‐order drifter statistics and that linking raw third‐order drifter statistics to energy fluxes is often erroneous in ocean data: Even with background correction and sufficient time‐averaging, drifters overestimate the Eulerian estimate of the third‐order structure function by up to a factor of 5 when signs are consistent.

Discontinuous continuity: Structural change and its (divergent) meanings in Latin American structuralism and neo-structuralism

This paper analyses the continuities and discontinuities regarding the concept of structural change in Latin American structuralism and neo-structuralism and considers the global context in which these ideas and their variations are produced. In this sense, the transformations of capitalism from 1950 onwards are taken into account as are the diagnoses and strategies promoted by the ECLAC to ultimately achieve structural change through structuralism and neo-structuralism. How the role of the state is conceived in each of these contexts and the consequences derived from state intervention to promote the structural change are also analysed.

Putting urban context in the debate. Bibliometric approaches from the meta-analysis of scientific literature

espanol?Por que es primordial, en un mundo de multiples, complementarias y a veces divergentes significaciones, la concepcion de “contexto urbano”? Aquel constituye el cuestionamiento central de este articulo que revisa las sucesivas definiciones de dicho concepto, emanadas de publicaciones cientificas asociadas a disciplinas como arquitectura, estudios urbanos, entre otros.Se propone una metodologia basada en un analisis bibliometrico para examinar la presencia conceptual del contexto en las investigaciones de entre 1977 y 2017. Se constata que la utilizacion del vocablo, de uso frecuente, ha terminado por oscurecer el potencial de este termino. Los resultados sugieren, ademas, que el contexto urbano ha sido empleado en la produccion cientifica atendiendo a las realidades particulares de cada pais, sin llegar a un acuerdo en sus variables. Ademas, se ha aplicado sin definir esas realidades particulares. EnglishWhy is the definition of urban context essential, in a world of multiple, complementary and, sometimes, divergent meanings? This is the central question of the article. This work reviews the successive definitions of this concept, that emerge from the scientific databases of publications from areas such as architecture and urban studies, among others. It has been stated that the frequent use of this term has ended up confusing its potential. A methodology based on a bibliometric analysis is proposed to examine the conceptual presence of the context in research between 1977 and 2017. The results suggest that urban context has been used in scientific production to face the particular realities of each country, without reaching an agreement on its variables. In addition, it has been applied without defining these realities.

The “Levels” Problem in Assessing Organizational Climate: Evidence From the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey

The Federal Employees Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) has gained prominence as the primary vehicle through which agencies assess the work-related attitudes of their employees. Within the discipline, the FEVS results have proven a fertile source of data on the job-related attitudes of public employees. However, concerns have been raised with the instrument and with how the FEVS data has been used by scholars. This article highlights a concern with the use of ambiguous terms which impede interpretation of the FEVS results. An investigation in partnership with officials from the regional office of a federal agency confirmed the divergent meanings respondents assign terms such as “my organization” and brought to the fore the extent to which, in large organizations, employee attitudes are distinctive to the units to which they belong at different hierarchical levels. The literature on organizational climate provides a useful framework within which the phenomenon can be understood and analyzed.

The meaning of meat: (Un)sustainable eating practices at home and out of home

Many sociological accounts of life in the 21st century include reflections on the dissolution of distinctions between the public and private sphere, aided by social media and information technology. In this paper, we argue that everyday practices around the consumption of food continue to display strong home/out-of-home divisions, especially regarding the consumption of meat and its deeply rooted social meanings. Using data from a German online survey on food preparation and consumption practices, we report and critically examine empirical evidence of significant differences between public and private food consumption. In addition to divergent meanings, we pay particular attention to environmental impacts related to the resource implications of eating in or out. For many, eating out in a restaurant means to treat oneself to something special. Cultural links between eating meat and the celebration of special occasions, the role of meat as a signifier of hospitality, and meat consumption as an expression of high social status leads to considerable resource implications for the practice of eating out and hosting guests. This, in turn, throws up interesting questions regarding the (in)effectiveness of sustainable food campaigns, many of which have hitherto ignored the distinction between public and private consumption. We conclude by arguing for strategies that connect the consumption of plant-based dishes to already established social practices such as hosting guests, barbecuing or celebrating special occasions.

Computational and experimental investigation of a weakly diverging ion beam source

This paper presents the idea of space debris removal by the ion beam. The main part of this idea is the ion source on the board of the spacecraft. The ion beam should be narrow, with small half-angle of divergence - about 2°. Angle of divergence means that in there are 95% of ions in this angle. Authors show the concept of the slotted ion optic system. Based on calculation, the construction of the ion optic was designed and tested as part of the laboratory model of the ion source. The results obtained during the experimental testing verified the possibility of using an ion source of such type as an ion injector, which can be installed on board a next-generation spacecraft for the removal of space debris objects.

Companions of Arterial Compliance in Male and Female Heart Failure Patients

Arterial compliance (C) is defined as the ratio of stroke volume (SV) to pulse pressure (PP). Reflecting a major risk factor in terms of overall vascular stiffness, the estimation of C is clearly of clinical importance. As SV and PP each refer to a difference, their numerical values leave some uncertainty which can only be compensated by considering the Pythagorean mean. Therefore we explore the impact of these companion metrics, denoted as SVC and PPC, respectively.We retrospectively analyze the sex‐specific impact of SVC and PPC in heart failure (HF) patients, using central (aortic) pressure, combined with ventricular volume determinations by 2D angiocardiography. After obtaining informed consent, data were collected in 197 HF patients (130 men) who underwent cardiac catheterization at the Cardiovascular Center in Aalst (Belgium). SV is calculated as end‐diastolic volume (EDV) minus end‐systolic volume (ESV).Average indexed (i) SVi = 50.46 (±19.65) mL/m2 and average PP = 71.53 (± 27.09), resulting in average C = 0.80 (± 0.45) mL/mmHg.m2. However, PP and PPC are higher (P&lt;0.0001) in women compared to men, yielding 84.8 ± 29.9 vs 64.7 ± 22.7 mmHg, and 167.8 ± 34.1 vs 150.0 ± 26.6 mmHg, respectively. SVi (P=0.45) and SViC (P=0.15) are not different for the sexes. Apart from sex‐related differences it is also important to consider the vast ranges occupied by the companions: 31.4 to 220.4 mL/m2 for SViC, and 79.9 to 282.3 mmHg for PPC. This divergence means that the isolated use of C only provides an incomplete presentation.In terms of hemodynamics the PPC can be interpreted as mean arterial pressure (MAP), as the two yield high correlations: R=0.948 for men and R=0.950 for women. Thus, PP and MAP emerge as complementary metrics. The SViC can be identified as a surrogate measure of preload, as this metric correlates with EDVi, yielding R=0.852 for men and R=0.952 for women. Therefore, plotting SVi versus its companion is similar to creating an ensemble‐based Starling curve.For women ESVi is smaller (P=0.003) than in men, implying that all derived metrics such as effective arterial elastance, ejection fraction, SViC and ventriculo‐arterial coupling are affected in a sex‐specific manner.We conclude that compliance data should be interpreted in a sex‐specific manner, and that the isolated use of C precludes full insight if the contributions of associated companions are neglected.Arterial compliance can be defined as the ratio of stroke volume index (SVi) to pulse pressure (PP). As SVi and PP are differences between paired measurements, it is required to consider their companion, derived from the Pythagorean mean. This figure illustrates the distribution of the companions in 197 heart failure patients.Figure 1