Paradoxical Relationship Research Articles

I would rather be a cyborg than a Barbie: hyperfeminine nostalgia and patriarchal futurity in Barbie

I examine portrayals of digital media and technology in Barbie, analysing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) symbolism in conjunction with the film's thematic commentaries on gender and contemporary affects. I draw my theoretical framework from Tracey Mollet's conceptualisation of twenty-first-century American nostalgia and Donna Haraway's iconic discussion of the cyborg, tracing all appearances of digital screens and devices, media franchises, computer software and virtual platforms in the film. I demonstrate that Barbie consistently associates ICT with toxic masculinity and corruptive futures, while disassociating desirable feminine spaces and interactions from technological artifacts and their use. This gendered representation of technology is contextualised within two competing nostalgias portrayed in the film: a hyperfeminine, commercialised girlhood and a masculine, nationalist and patriotic past. Analysing the strategic placement of digital ICT across the film's settings – Barbie Land, the Real World and Kendom – I illuminate the paradoxical relationship between the film's selectively feminist message and its dichotomous portrayal of technology. This case highlights the challenges of portraying feminism without stakes in popular culture, evoking Sarah Banet-Weiser's observations of neoliberal girl-power narratives in the guise of feminism. Ultimately, I argue that the portrayal of technology in Barbie reinforces biological essentialism, revitalising archaic logics which fixate on the physical gendered body as the motivator for feminist solidarity; moreover, it overlooks the importance of digital spaces in feminist praxis and theory, complicating its status as a pop feminist film.

Antarctic tourism: regional ambassadors or last-chance tourists?

ABSTRACT Antarctic tourism doubled in the past decade to a record-high 104,076 visitors in 2023. Rapid growth has raised alarms about the environmental effects of tourism in a region already threatened by climate change. The term ‘last-chance tourism’ was coined to capture how tourist desire to experience destinations threatened by climate change drives industry expansion, while also accelerating environmental decline. Other researchers have found support for the industry-driven concept of ‘ambassadorship,’ which purports that post-travel, tourists experience an increased connection to, knowledge of, and passion for Antarctica, thereby becoming conservation advocates for the region. In this study, we examined the paradoxical relationship between last-chance tourism and ambassadorship. We conducted an online, post-cruise survey of passengers on board a small expedition vessel to Antarctica in the 2022–2023 astral summer to see how their perceptions and actions had changed, not just with regards to Antarctica, but also to environmental protection and conservation in general. While results support the claim that Antarctic tourists do transform into ambassadors, the efficacy of their advocacy is questionable, as few engaged in meaningful behavioral change. Results suggest the ambassador effect may need to be ‘activated’ in some way through shipboard lectures, increased access to information, or other activities.

Stationarity of the Special Relationship Between the Geographical Distribution of Body Size and Day Length in Japanese Adolescents: Spatial and Temporal Analysis Using a GTWR Model.

Northern Japanese children tend to have larger physiques; however, the underlying cause remains unknown. Previous geographical correlation analyses revealed an unusual trend; effective day length was negatively correlated with height and positively correlated with weight (adjusted for height). This paradoxical relationship suggests a thyroid hormone-like effect and possible photoperiodic response. This study aimed to determine whether this phenomenon remains consistent over time and across different regions of Japan. We used geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) to examine whether the relationship between height and effective day length, which differs from the relationship between weight and effective day length, varies by location and time. GTWR models each observation point separately, allowing for spatial and temporal variations. The analysis included the average height and weight data of children and adolescents by prefecture from 1989 to 2019, along with effective day length considering illuminance above 5000 lx derived from the agrometeorological grid square data. Height was used as the dependent variable, whereas weight and effective day length were used as independent variables. For height estimation, the coefficients of weight and effective day length were consistently positive and negative, respectively, although the regression coefficients showed minor geographical and temporal variations. The opposite correlation between height and effective day length and that between weight and effective day length were consistent. This suggests that the phenomenon is more likely driven by environmental factors than by economic or genetic influences.

High mechanical thrombectomy procedural volume is not a reliable predictor of improved thrombectomy outcomes in patients with acute ischemic stroke in the United States.

The volume of mechanical thrombectomy (MT) performed at hospitals is used as one of the criteria for advanced-level designation for stroke care. Our study sought to determine the relationship between annual MT procedural volume and in-hospital outcomes in acute ischemic stroke patients undergoing MT in the United States. We analyzed the National Inpatient Sample from 2016 to 2020. The hospitals were grouped into quartiles based on the volume of MT procedures performed within the calendar year. We compared the rates of routine discharge/home health care; in-hospital mortality, and post-treatment intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) between the quartiles after adjusting for potential confounders. Patients undergoing MT ranged from 15,395 in quartile 1 to 78,510 MT in quartile 4. There were lower rates of discharge home/self-care of 22.5%, 20.8%, and 20.8% for quartiles 2, 3, and 4, respectively, compared with 34.9% in quartile 1. The odds of ICH increased to 1.81 (p < 0.001), 1.84 (p < 0.001), and 1.98 (p < 0.001) among the quartiles from lowest to highest procedural volumes. The odds of home discharge/self-care decreased to 0.66 (p < 0.001), 0.60 (p < 0.001), and 0.63 (p < 0.001) among the quartiles from lowest to highest procedural volumes. The odds of in-hospital mortality increased to 1.92 (p < 0.001), 1.99 (p < 0.001), and 1.84 (p < 0.001) among the quartiles from lowest to highest procedural volumes. We observed a paradoxical relationship between adverse outcomes and the annual procedural volume of MT at the hospital presumably due to the higher severity of acute ischemic stroke treated at high-volume hospitals.

The Paradox of Physical Activity and Coronary Artery Calcification: Implications for Cardiovascular Risk.

The introduction of CT scans and the subsequent Agatston score in the 1990s drastically improved our ability to detect coronary artery calcification (CAC). This led to its incorporation into cardiovascular risk assessment guidelines set forth by organizations such as the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American College of Cardiology (ACC). Over time, these guidelines have evolved significantly, reflecting an increasing understanding of CAC. Physical activity has become a key factor in the management of cardiovascular disease. However, the relationship between physical activity and CAC remains complex. Although physical activity is generally beneficial for cardiovascular health, paradoxically, high levels of physical activity have been associated with elevated CAC scores. However, these higher CAC levels may indicate the presence of more stable, calcified plaques that provide protection against plaque rupture. These contradictory findings call for balanced interpretations that acknowledge the cardiovascular benefits of physical activity. This review examines the historical development of clinical guidelines for CAC, the paradoxical relationship between physical activity and CAC, and potential underlying mechanisms. It emphasizes the need for future research to utilize objective measures and consistent methodologies to better understand the relationship between physical activity and CAC.

May right heart failure cause pulmonary congestion in pulmonary arterial hypertension?

Abstract Aims Recent studies have shown that lung ultrasound-assessed pulmonary congestion is worse in heart failure when pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) is increased, suggesting a paradoxical relationship between right heart failure and increased lung water content. Accordingly, we wondered if lung ultrasound would reveal otherwise clinically silent pulmonary congestion in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Methods and results All patients referred for suspicion of PAH in a tertiary center from January 2020 to December 2022 underwent a complete diagnostic work-up including echocardiography, lung ultrasound and right heart catheterization. Pulmonary congestion was identified by lung ultrasound B-lines using an 8-site scan. The study enrolled 102 patients with idiopathic PAH (mean age 53±13; 71% female). WHO functional classes I, II and III were found respectively in 2, 52 and 46% of them. The N-terminal-pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) was 377 pg/mL [interquartile range, IQR 218, 906]. B-lines were identified in 77 out of 102 patients (75%), with a median of 3 [IQR: 1-5]. At univariable analysis B-lines were positively correlated to male sex, age, NT-proBNP, systolic PA pressure (sPAP), right atrial pressure (RAP), PVR, left ventricular end-diastolic volume and tricuspid annulus plane systolic excursion (TAPSE), and negatively to cardiac output and stroke volume. At multivariable analysis, RAP (p&amp;lt;0.001; Fig 1), TAPSE/sPAP (p=0.001), and NT-proBNP (p=0.04) were independent predictors of B-lines. Conclusion Lung ultrasound commonly discloses pulmonary congestion in PAH. This finding is related to right ventricle to pulmonary artery uncoupling, and may tentatively be explained by increased central venous pressure impeding lymphatic outflow.Figure 1

“Everything Kills Everything Else in Some Way”: An Ecocritical Reading of Human – Non-Human Relationships in Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea

ABSTRACT This article investigates the ecocritical implications of Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea (1952) by analyzing the main character's paradoxical relationship to the non-human world. The novella's aged and therefore untypical Hemingway protagonist, Santiago, is a remarkably compassionate, unselfish, and likeable character. What makes him likeable is his unprejudiced openness to the world, his love for animals as well as for human beings, and his own self-interrogation. He perceives the creatures of the sea as his friends and brothers, but nevertheless he kills them. The article argues that though Santiago reveals a bourgeoning environmental consciousness quite modern for its time, he also represents the blind spots humans have concerning their relation to the non-human world.

Postgrowth welfare systems: a view from the Nordic context

As production and supply chains rely on exploitative extraction of nature and labour, consumption levels (resource use) remain one of the main indicators of inequality, across and within national contexts. In times of ongoing climate crisis and rising levels of inequalities, welfare systems face the dual challenge of transforming economies to reduce their reliance on unsustainable industries as well as maintain and expand equitable distribution of public provision. In this keyword essay, we address three overlapping concerns to consider while envisioning sustainable welfare within the Nordic context: growth and its paradoxical relation with welfare; inequalities and notions of wellbeing; and possible alternatives to arrange provision systems.

Hans Jonas’s image theory

ABSTRACT This essay explores Jonas’s multifaceted and rich enquiries into the notion of image. In particular, it argues that reflecting on the “image” helps Jonas clarify the unique condition of human existence, where the twine of thought and being reveals a paradoxical (and yet crucial) relationship between time and eternity, change and permanence, immanence and transcendence. The employ of the interpretative device provided by the image enables a nuanced understanding of the human complexity which goes beyond the partial and reductive descriptions of relativistic immanentism, on the one hand, and immutable transcendence, on the other. By commenting upon its anthropological, aesthetic, and ethical significance, we propose that the study of Jonas’s thoughts on the image not only offers valuable insights into the philosophical understanding of such a fascinating object, but also sheds a new and interesting light on the unity of his oeuvre.

Past shadows and gender roles: Human elephant relations and conservation in Southern India

Some conceptual thinking about human-wildlife relations has lacked translations into empirical studies with an in-depth enquiry into social, cultural, economic and ecological aspects. This study explores human-elephant relations in a cohabited landscape in the Western Ghats of India, with a focus on 'more than conflict' relations. The Valparai plateau, in the Indian Western Ghats, is a landscape dominated by tea estates and remnants of rainforest fragments where human communities cohabit and closely interact with wildlife. We offer an empirical contribution on the variegated and paradoxical relation between care and fear, between empathy and hate and between the residents and elephants of Valparai. Where conflicts occur between elephants and humans, they have multiple meanings. Gender and unpleasant memories serve as drivers of negative attitudes towards wildlife. A conservation intervention based on engagement and collaboration with local people was perceived as highly effective. Preventive and mitigative, rather than reactive conflict mitigation strategies may have a significant role to play in maintaining the social carrying capacity of local communities towards elephants. We explore the many facets of human-elephant relations, and the numerous entanglements between them, thereby adding multiple layers to the extant knowledge of human-animal relations in the Western Ghats.

Integrated construction improving electrochemical performance of loadable supercapacitors based on porous cement-based solid electrolytes

Emerging integrated loadable supercapacitors (ILSs) are prominent candidates for zero-energy buildings with both load-bearing/energy storage capacity. However, the development of solid electrolytes with good mechanical and electrochemical performance remains a major challenge in realizing an integrated electro-mechanical system. Herein, the porous cement-based solid electrolytes (PCSEs) with the combined characteristics of high ionic conductivity and certain compressive strength are successfully developed by a facile “killing two birds with one stone” chemical foaming strategy using potassium iodide (KI) as the reaction modifier, and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and Portland cement as the foaming agent and substrate, respectively. The KI is introduced to balance the paradoxical relationship between ionic conductivity and compressive strength while improving the pseudocapacitance of the electrode. Benefiting from these intriguing integrated characteristics, the symmetrical ILS assembled with PCSE and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) electrodes can deliver a maximal energy density of 21.6 Wh kg−1 and a power density of 1106.2 W kg−1. Meanwhile, the ILS exhibits stable electrochemical behavior when withstanding external forces, which is a rarely studied aspect in other reports. Our results provide the basis for simple and universally applicable systems that fulfill the requirements of structural energy storage for civil engineering.

Navigating ChatGPT: catalyst or challenge for Indonesian youth in digital entrepreneurship?

PurposeThis study aims to explore both the drivers (performance expectancy and perceived usefulness of ChatGPT) and the barrier (effort expectancy) that Indonesian youth encounter when adopting generative AI technology, such as ChatGPT, as they pursue digital entrepreneurship.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilizes Hayes' Process Model to evaluate the proposed hypotheses through survey data collected from 518 Indonesian youth.FindingsThis study's findings highlight a paradoxical relationship that emerges when effort expectancy intersects with performance expectancy and perceived usefulness of ChatGPT. Specifically, we discovered that when young individuals perceive the adoption of generative AI technology as requiring significant effort, their motivation to engage in digital entrepreneurship is significantly enhanced if they also view the tool as highly useful and beneficial to their future business endeavors.Practical implicationsThe findings provide valuable insights for educators and policymakers focused on advancing digital entrepreneurship in developing nations through the integration of generative AI technology.Originality/valueOur study enriches an underexplored niche within the field of entrepreneurship by examining the intersection of Indonesian youth, generative AI technology and digital entrepreneurship. By incorporating the Expectancy-Value Theory, it brings a fresh perspective to the study of paradoxical relationships in contemporary research in this domain.

BRIC in flux: Understanding the influence of energy policy uncertainty on foreign direct investment flows

AbstractThis research investigates the intricate relationship between energy policy uncertainty (EGU) and foreign direct investment (FDI) within the BRIC economies over a comprehensive 27‐year period, spanning from 1996 to 2022. Employing advanced econometric techniques such as FMOLS and DOLS for regression analysis, the study unravels the nuanced impacts of EGU on both FDI inflows (IFD) and outflows (OFD). Drawing upon a comprehensive data set, the analysis reveals a significant negative correlation between EGU and IFD, indicating that heightened energy policy uncertainties deter foreign capital from entering BRICS nations. Contrarily, the study unveils a paradoxical positive relationship between EGU and OFD, suggesting that energy policy uncertainties stimulate the outflow of FDI, reflecting the adaptive strategies of multinational corporations navigating uncertainties. The study further explores the role of government effectiveness, labour force and financial sector development, shedding light on their positive influences on IFD and negative impacts on OFD. These findings underscore the importance of effective governance, a skilled labour force, and financial sector development in attracting and retaining foreign investments. This research contributes to the literature on energy policy, governance and FDI, offering policymakers and businesses nuanced insights into crafting strategies that enhance the attractiveness of BRIC nations for foreign investments. The study's findings have implications for shaping stable energy policies, improving governance effectiveness and fostering conditions conducive to sustained economic growth and development.

‘Ik bün all hier (I’m already here)’: modern pre-modernity or premodern modernity?

ABSTRACT This medievalist perspective reflects on the paradoxical relationship between Modernity and the Middle Ages, based on the author’s research into temporalities in the central Middle Ages. When dealing with modernity, she argues, medievalists encounter an ‘already here’-feeling on two instances: the medieval roots of everything modern, and the dynamics of historical development, typically attributed to modernity. This particularly concerns dealings with the future: While the idea of an open, malleable future may in fact be the characteristic feature of modernity, both ‘temporal consciousness’ and the shaping of the future are also characteristics of medieval temporalities. More precisely, different concepts of time can be distinguished among different social groups and spaces. Although they all ultimately operated within the framework of providential history, the future was conceived in very different ways and as something that could be planned. Medieval temporalities provide examples of alternative, non-linear concepts of time. However, we can only recognise and utilise the alterity of such concepts if we retain the concept of ‘modernity’, against which we can delineate the differences. Therefore, ‘the modern’ and ‘the medieval’ can only be thought of reciprocally.

Paradoxical relationship between inflammation-related molecules and postoperative complications after general anaesthesia.

Paradoxical relationship between inflammation-related molecules and postoperative complications after general anaesthesia.

The Afterlife of Energy

In the conclusion to her book The Birth of Energy: Fossil Fuels, Thermodynamics, and the Politics of Work, political scientist Cara Daggett considers “A Post-Work Energy Politics” in which she examines the historical coupling of energy and work—meaning human, waged work—in an invitation to disassociate their values and futures. The exponential power of fossil fuels animated the pipedream that powerful, inorganic slaves could substitute unfree human labor, ideas that have driven European imperialism. Fossil fuel systems did not lead, however, to a world beyond work. Rather, today’s “patriarchal slave states” continue to manage the project of putting the world to work through the maximization of productivity, and the subordination of racialized, immigrant, and gendered bodies—who would work for lower, or for no, wages. “The project of work,” Daggett argues, “is in tension with the project of life.” 1 And the rise of “work–life balance” is a mere tactic of governance in which the enemy is fatigue, exhaustion, and burn-out. She suggests, in turn, an alliance between post-carbon and feminist post-work politics and asks: what might it mean for energy politics to refer to the politics of ensuring public vitality? In order to advance a feminist revaluation of work, Daggett draws on Kathi Weeks’s The Problem with Work to outline a project that makes two utopian demands. One demand articulates a paradoxical relationship between the pragmatism of (present) demands and the speculative seeds of possibility; a second demand outlines a utopian form for such politics: partial, fragmented kin to the genre of the manifesto. Daggett concludes with an invitation that “a radical planet politics, if it seeks to contest ecomodernist claims, needs its own politics of pleasure.” 2 In an echo to Daggett’s invitation, the authors of this Educators’ Roundtable were invited to contribute a short text that picks up on the possibilities of a post-carbon, post-work politics.

Deconstructing nursing's paradoxical relationship with the concept of complexity.

Although nursing seems to understand itself and its practice as complex, the literature is less clear about what this actually means. While complexity is discussed as an attribute of nursing, it is also suggested that complexity in nursing remains misunderstood and poorly articulated, is devalued, is not considered as a measure of health outcomes and remains invisible. Despite the overarching lack of a definition, some nurse scholars have conceptualized complexity as a complex intervention. For these authors, complexity becomes a complex intervention defined as that which is composed of component parts interacting in a variety of ways that influence the delivery of and outcomes of health-related interventions for populations. Conceptualizing complexity as a complex intervention forces nursing to embrace and adopt a received interpretation of complexity as expressed through complexity theory and complexity science. While complexity theory may afford us some tools for thinking about complexity, when we deconstruct nursing complexity to explicitly determinate and quantifiable tasks, this artificially narrowed orientation to complexity reveals an oversimplified explanation of the complexities associated with nursing and serves to blind us to its real qualities. Through a consideration of complexity from a Western philosophical tradition, I demonstrate that when nursing adopts the received interpretation of complexity as a complex intervention, this perspective on complexity contains nursing epistemologically and ontologically. I offer an extended conceptualization of complexity framed upon the consideration that nurses assume complexity and do not reduce it; that nurses have the capacity to not be paralysed by complexity and have developed logics to mobilize it in productive ways. Mobilizing complexity through navigating paradox and contradiction shapes an orientation to complexity that embraces an extended epistemology. This extended epistemology is characterized by a 'yes/and' mindset that expresses the dynamic and generative relationship between forms of knowledge which reflects complexity that characterizes nursing.

Revealing the Visual Structure of the 1981 and 2019 Versions of Ratu Ilmu Hitam Film Posters

The horror film Queen of Black Magic, which is a remake of the film with the same title, was released in 1981 and 2019. This film was released with the same title, but with different characters. The 1981 version features Suzzanna as the horror queen as the main character, while the 2019 version does not feature Suzzanna and the main character is not famous. This film with the title black magic has become an iconic film, because it emphasizes the word science for horror stories. The word black, which is synonymous with magic, is juxtaposed with the word science, thus forming a paradoxical word relationship. The queen is a figure and incarnation of a ghost, which directly places the ghost in a noble and respected position. The posters for the two films have different designs because of the strength of the ideas, social and cultural atmosphere that exist in the two posters with the large distance between the years of release. This research aims to determine the differences in design concepts between two film poster designs. This analysis is based on Levi Strauss’s version of structuralism theory which reveals that the 1981 version of the Queen of Black Magic poster emphasizes the importance of Suzzanna as a figure or queen of horror who attracts public attention, while the 2019 version of the Queen of Black Magic poster emphasizes the exploration of the formation of visual elements that lead to the meaning of black magic.

A negative dialectics of climate change destruction: Reflecting on climate futures with Adorno

This paper offers a brief overview of the negative dialectical turn in Adorno's post-war writings when he began to give more serious attention to the type of ‘subjective possibilities’ generated by encounters with adversity. The analysis below explores the relevance of Adorno's work to current efforts to make sense of an increasingly felt contact with climate change harm. In particular, Adorno's insights on the paradoxical relationship that emerges between scenarios inspiring despair and hope for a better future. Rather than ignore contradiction and focus only on the possibilities and potentials that inhere in the good, Adorno's preference was to examine those that also emerge from a crisis ridden present. Similar to other Frankfurt School adherents, Adorno drew attention to an important distinction between inner and outer worlds and their critical mediation via the thinking process – the bridging of inner worlds of intuition, feeling, sense perception, the free flow of thought and imagination, and the outer world, episodes of violent destruction and ongoing change, noting how insights generated by the meeting of these worlds are never singular or straightforward in a positivist sense but are often marked by plurality, contradiction and transformation. The focus in this instance will be on how thinking about the climate present can also generate a thinking beyond to other possibilities (e.g. imaginaries of a future degrowth society). It will assess current moves to institutionalise new geo-engineering technologies to stabilise climate conditions and protect capitalism's growth imperative, noting how the contradictions inherent in such proposals can trigger a dialectical turn towards other futures and other relations with nature.

The Effect of Body Mass Index on Melanoma Biology, Immunotherapy Efficacy, and Clinical Outcomes: A Narrative Review.

Recent studies indicate that a higher body mass index (BMI) might correlate with improved responses to melanoma treatment, especially with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), despite the general association of obesity with an increased risk of cancer and higher mortality rates. This review examines the paradoxical relationship between BMI and clinical outcomes in melanoma patients by exploring molecular links, the efficacy of immunotherapy, and patient survival outcomes. Our comprehensive literature search across the PubMed and Embase databases revealed a consistent pattern: increased BMI is associated with a better prognosis in melanoma patients undergoing ICI treatment. This "obesity paradox" might be explained by the metabolic and immunological changes in obesity, which could enhance the effectiveness of immunotherapy in treating melanoma. The findings highlight the complexity of the interactions between obesity and melanoma, suggesting that adipose tissue may modulate the immune response and treatment sensitivity favorably. Our review highlights the need for personalized treatment strategies that consider the metabolic profiles of patients and calls for further research to validate BMI as a prognostic factor in clinical settings. This nuanced approach to the obesity paradox in melanoma could significantly impact treatment planning and patient management.