Minority Position Research Articles

“We Were Put Out of Good Jobs”: Women Night Workers in New York and the Origins of the Women’s Equal Opportunity League

Abstract In the 1910s, U.S. social reformers advocated for labor laws to protect women who worked in factories. The laws included bans on women working at night. In New York, a small contingent of night-working women who had lost their jobs objected. Arguing that the laws were paternalistic and harmful, they formed the Women’s Equal Opportunity League. The group opposed all single-sex laws and ultimately won repeal of New York’s night work ban for printers, elevator operators, and transit workers. Night work was the stage on which reformers’ ideas about the greater good conflicted with arguments for women’s autonomy. Whether and what kind of work women should do at night was a conflict about class, motherhood, and self-determination. This article profiles three leaders of the Women’s Equal Opportunity League—printer Ella M. Sherwin, transit guard Margaret Hinchey, and streetcar ticket agent Mary A. Murray. All three were devoted union members whose opposition to women-only laws made them dissidents within their unions. They remained shift workers their entire lives while lobbying state legislatures and Congress to demand formal legal equality for women. Histories of the early Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) have emphasized the support of upper- and middle-class women. These working-class women, who had long opposed protective legislation, later demanded the ERA—not in spite of the prospect that it would nullify single-sex labor laws, but because they hoped it would. Theirs was a minority position, and paying attention to it reveals the complexity of class conflict at the root of a feminist dispute which persisted long into the twentieth century.

The Black Lives Matter Movement, Jewish Allies, and the Long Legacy of Black Anti-Zionism

Abstract: From the emergence of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, massive numbers of Jews, committed to resuming the Black-Jewish coalition of the civil rights era, became its avid allies. They failed to recognize that this alliance, which foundered and was sundered by the late 1970s, had increasingly been replaced by Blacks' identification with "their Brown Palestinian siblings," which rendered the conflict with Israel in stark racial terms. After the Six Day War, Black militants promoted a narrative that replaced Jews as a fellow oppressed group with Jews as iniquitous Zionists, who had established an illegitimate settler-colonial state that ethnically cleansed and victimized indigenous people of color—a narrative upon which their successors in the BLM movement drew heavily. With the rise of the BLM movement, the Black-Palestinian alliance was solidified—their wide divide on issues of race, gender, and homosexuality overridden by their shared anti-Zionism. In 2016, when the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), a constituent partner of the BLM umbrella organization, issued a policy platform identifying Israel as "an apartheid state," committing "genocide against the Palestinian people," leading Jewish organizations appeared confounded and dismissed these views as a minority position. Spokespersons of secular and religious Jewish associations condemned what they labeled BLM's "anti-Israel rhetoric," which they insisted was "totally unrelated" to the movement's "social justice work." They appeared to be unaware that far from mere "rhetoric," the denigration and delegitimization of the Jewish state had long been at or near the core of the anti-racist ideology propounded by the Black militants revered by BLM leaders and activists. Thus, in 2020, organizations allegedly "representing over half of Jewish people in America" published a statement that endorsed the BLM movement "unequivocally," while several of the signatories released additional statements condemning those Jews who had rejected the movement once it posted the policy platform. The Jewish community fractured over the issue of Black antisemitism, but unlike in earlier periods, far more Jews, identifying as "progressives," continued to support a movement whose leaders and activists espoused or tolerated antisemitism, albeit lightly cloaked in anti-Zionist garb.

Flow and Athletic Experts

AbstractPhilosophers frequently refer to ‘flow’ when discussing skill and expertise. This is especially clear when considering the ‘flow argument’ advocated by the Automatic view. Although the Automatic view is a minority position today, many philosophers and scientists endorse the flow argument or central parts of it. The present paper argues that the argument is implausible in the light of current psychological research. It proceeds in two steps. First, the paper argues that the psychological research does not suggest that flow is the only type of psychological state characteristic of optimal expert performance. Experts undergo different states, notably the state of clutch. Second, the paper argues that the psychological research does not suggest that flow states are devoid of conscious supervision in the form of conscious control, self-awareness, or task-related thoughts. Experts execute multiple conscious operations involved in attention control, motivational self-talk, and certain psychological mindsets while being in flow. These considerations oppose the two premises of the flow argument. Moreover, they correct misunderstandings of flow in the broader philosophical and scientific literature.

Between History and Phantasmagoria: Critical Nostalgic Lyricism in Alai's Poetry and Short Fiction

In his poetry and fiction, Alai creates a historiography of Eastern Tibet replete with the grandeur and magnificence of the past occasionally interposed with some oppressive cultural practices. It is a historiography motivated and energized by nostalgic lyricism, which helps locate and construct a symbolic Tibetan ethnicity. This article proposes that Alai's nostalgic lyricism critically reflects on the inversion of loss and the compensation of lack, thus articulating alternatives against the discontent of the present. In so doing, Alai formulates a minority position against the forces of deterministic historicism and discourse of linear modernity that have constantly placed the minority subject in modern China under threat of erasure.

Dynamics modeling and fault diagnosis of flexible thin-walled elliptical bearings in harmonic reducers

Harmonic reducers, crucial in industrial robots for their high load capacity and low friction, often rely on Flexible Thin-Walled Bearings (FTWBs). However, these bearings are particularly prone to failure due to the cyclic alternating stress loads they experience, stemming from their unique elliptical structure. This study presents a dynamic model for the Flexible Thin-Walled Bearing (FTWB) using a finite element approach. Stress distribution and motion characteristics were analyzed, revealing maximum stress at major and minor axis positions during operation. The model was tested under three conditions: normal, outer ring fault, and inner ring fault. A vibration test rig was constructed to gather real vibration signals, enabling model validation and analysis of vibration signal characteristics under different conditions. This research sheds light on the mechanisms of impact and fault signal generation in FTWBs, offering valuable insights for dynamic analysis and fault diagnosis in FTWBs and harmonic drives.

Full prediction of band potentials in semiconductor materials

A machine learning (ML) framework to predict the physical band potentials for a range of semiconductor materials, from metal sulfide, oxide, and nitride, to oxysulfide and oxynitride, is hereby described. A valence band maximum (VBM) model was established via the transfer learning of a large dataset of 2D materials (1382 samples, but with incorrect VBM potentials) onto a much smaller dataset of physically measured VBM for bulk 3D materials (87 samples) on a crystal graph convolutional neural network. This resulted in predictions with experimental accuracy (RMSE = 0.27 eV), which is a 3-fold improvement compared with ML trained on the physical dataset without transfer learning (RMSE = 0.75 eV). When combined with the bandgap prediction model (RMSE = 0.29 eV), a full prediction of conduction and valence band potentials can be made, which to the best of our knowledge, is the first for any ML framework. The variation of band potentials across low-index surfaces was predicted correctly and verified with reported physical potentials. In fact, the framework is able to capture variation in band potentials associated with minor atomic position alterations. Based on this, a general trend between surface atomic displacement and VBM shift was observed across various semiconductor materials. The model is not yet able to cope with major rearrangement of atomic sequence on surface layers, i.e., surface reconstructions, since it was not trained with such data but can be easily done so with specifically designed dataset. As an example application, the ML framework was used for the screening of potential photocatalytic materials for visible light water splitting. A total of 824 materials was successfully identified, including those experimentally-verified in the literature.

A technical tip for assessing leg length discrepancy in radiographs with windswept hips

Restoration of equal leg lengths is essential when performing total hip arthroplasty. Pre-operatively, surgeons should assess leg length discrepancy (LLD) on plain radiographs to help adequately plan their operation. Often the hips are in a minor windswept position on radiographs and this can make assessing LLD unreliable. We have devised a simple method for assessing LLD on plain radiographs in patients with windswept hips.

Comparative analysis of multiple consensus genomes of the same strain of Marek's disease virus reveals intrastrain variation.

Current strategies to understand the molecular basis of Marek's disease virus (MDV) virulence primarily consist of cataloging divergent nucleotides between strains with different phenotypes. However, most comparative genomic studies of MDV rely on previously published consensus genomes despite the confirmed existence of MDV strains as mixed viral populations. To assess the reliability of interstrain genomic comparisons relying on published consensus genomes of MDV, we obtained two additional consensus genomes of vaccine strain CVI988 (Rispens) and two additional consensus genomes of the very virulent strain Md5 by sequencing viral stocks and cultured field isolates. In conjunction with the published genomes of CVI988 and Md5, this allowed us to perform three-way comparisons between multiple consensus genomes of the same strain. We found that consensus genomes of CVI988 can vary in as many as 236 positions involving 13 open reading frames (ORFs). By contrast, we found that Md5 genomes varied only in 11 positions involving a single ORF. Notably, we were able to identify 3 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the unique long region and 16 SNPs in the unique short (US) region of CVI988GenBank.BAC that were not present in either CVI988Pirbright.lab or CVI988USDA.PA.field. Recombination analyses of field strains previously described as natural recombinants of CVI988 yielded no evidence of crossover events in the US region when either CVI988Pirbright.lab or CVI988USDA.PA.field were used to represent CVI988 instead of CVI988GenBank.BAC. We were also able to confirm that both CVI988 and Md5 populations were mixed, exhibiting a total of 29 and 27 high-confidence minor variant positions, respectively. However, we did not find any evidence of minor variants in the positions corresponding to the 19 SNPs in the unique regions of CVI988GenBank.BAC. Taken together, our findings suggest that continued reliance on the same published consensus genome of CVI988 may have led to an overestimation of genomic divergence between CVI988 and virulent strains and that multiple consensus genomes per strain may be necessary to ensure the accuracy of interstrain genomic comparisons.

Integration policies shape ethnic-racial majorities' threat reactions to increasing diversity.

Increasing ethnic and racial diversity often fuels feelings of threat among ethnic-racial majorities (e.g., self-identified white Americans and European nationals). We contend that these threat perceptions depend on the policy context. Across four studies, we test whether more inclusive immigrant integration policies attenuate ethnic-racial majorities' threat reactions. Studies 1 to 3 (n = 469, 733, and 1745, respectively) used experimental methods with white American participants in the United States. Study 4 (n = 499,075) used secondary analysis of survey data comparing attitudes of nationals in 30 European countries and measured the impact of actual changes in diversity and policies over 10 years. Our results show that integration policies shape threat reactions even in those situations when increasing diversity could be seen as the most threatening: when narratives highlight the majority's impending minority position or when diversity suddenly increases. When policies are more inclusive toward immigrants, ethnic-racial majority participants report less threat (or no threat) in response to increasing diversity.

Mind the Gap: Sexual Orientation Wage Gaps for Non-White and Immigrant Minorities in the United States

ABSTRACT A growing body of literature has found that sexual orientation and gender impact labor market outcomes, including earnings. This literature generally finds that gay and bisexual men earn less than heterosexual men. Despite being the highest earners among women, lesbians earn less than heterosexual men, and bisexual women earn the least. Far less research has explored intersectional disadvantages/advantages of being a lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) individual and belonging to other minority groups. Using data from the 2013 to 2018 US National Health Interview Survey, this paper explores whether being an LGB racial minority or LGB immigrant results in cumulative earning disadvantages/advantages. This study finds that regardless of race or immigrant status, gay men’s earnings did not statistically differ from white/US-born heterosexual men’s earnings. For white and US-born women, their earnings followed the same pattern, with lesbians earning the most, followed by heterosexual women, then bisexuals; however, for nonwhite women, bisexuals earned the most and lesbians earned the least. The results for immigrant sexual minorities were not statistically significant. These findings suggest that disadvantage/advantage is multilayered—sexual minorities who occupy multiple minority positions may experience different levels of disadvantage/advantage.

ВЫБОР МОДЕЛИ РАЗВИТИЯ СЕЛЬСКОГО ТУРИЗМА В РЕГИОНЕ ДЛЯ УСТОЙЧИВОГО РАЗВИТИЯ СЕЛЬСКИХ ТЕРРИТОРИЙ

At the present stage of development of the services market, tourism is becoming one of the most developing areas of activity, which requires constant improvement of quality, diversity of tourism offer and modernization of tourism infrastructure. In the context of scientific and technological progress, tourism, as an area that affects many different industries, serves as an important factor in the economic and socio-cultural development of rural areas. Russia occupies a minor position in the global tourism market. Despite the great tourism potential, its competitive advantage lies in the unique objects of architecture, culture, history and natural heritage, as well as in the national flavor of the country. Rural tourism can become one of the most important areas of economic development, which will contribute to the social, spiritual and economic development of Russian regions and the country as a whole. There is a necessity and need to bring domestic tourism services in line with modern world trends, to increase the competitiveness of Russian travel companies in the tourism services market. The Russian Federation has significant territorial potential and enormous opportunities for the development of large-scale tourism activities. According to the Strategy for the Development of Tourism in the Country until 2035, the main goal is the comprehensive development of the key competitive advantages of tourism in the Russian Federation, due to the presence of many points of attraction for domestic and inbound tourist flows. Due to the presence of a larger number of monuments of cultural, historical and natural heritage in Russia, there are prospects for the development of almost any type of tourism. In this situation, agricultural tourism is of particular importance as one of the most important factors in the sustainable development of rural areas and the agricultural sector.

Envisioning the future of agri-tourism in Ukraine: from minor role to viable farm households and sustainable regional economies

Agritourism is known to play a pivotal role when providing diversification of farm activities, making in such way for sustainable regional and local development. However, it should be stated that in Ukraine agritourism has not received proper attention in the pre-war and current period. This paper explores the landscape of agritourism in Ukraine across pre-war and current periods, assessing its potential for the country advancement. The research involves the analysis of data on agriculture and tourism obtained from the World Bank, Ukrainian authorities, and agritourism association leaders. We also delve into 62 Ukrainian legislative and program documents to highlight institutional barriers and existing issues. The findings reveal that agritourism occupies minor position within robust agricultural sector in Ukraine, accompanied by notable regulatory gaps, nevertheless it possesses significant institutional and policy implications. We demonstrate that fostering agritourism in Ukraine can play a vital role in enhancing the sustainability of farms by broadening their range of activities. This holds particular importance in the context of the post-war economic recovery in Ukraine. Agritourism, operating at the intersection of agriculture and tourism, has high potential to generate positive effects in Ukraine not only on the agricultural sector but also on the country sustainable development. As a result of the investigation, the paper substantiates possible institutional changes (at the macro-, regional, and local levels) necessary to relaunch agritourism in Ukraine successfully.

Queering the Postcolonial Auto/biography: Doubleness and Unspeakability in J. M. Coetzee’s Boyhood and Jamaica Kincaid’s My Brother

Examining representations of queer subjectivities as minor subjectivities, this essay compares J. M. Coetzee’s Boyhood and Jamaica Kincaid’s My Brother to investigate the emergence of queer postcolonial auto/biography in the late 1990s. The two texts use a similar hybridized form (a blurring of autobiography and third-person biography) to represent marginalized queer subjectivities in the postcolonial contexts of South Africa and Antigua, respectively. In doing so, they redefine the notion of the minor as an anti-colonial poetics and a non-normative lived experience. Both narratives, published in the same year (1997) and composed in the midst of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and after the end of Apartheid, engage with related themes of doubleness, secrecy, and unspeakability to reveal the double consciousness of queer figures silenced and rendered minor as a result of internalized shame through the taboo on non-heteronormative desires. This essay analyses the intersections between postcolonial and queer dimensions of minor subjectivities in order to understand how the minor position of the queer subject in postcolonial societies is pluralized through strikingly similar literary strategies. Coetzee and Kincaid offer new possibilities for world literature through the publication of queer postcolonial auto/biographies which celebrate, facilitate, and complicate the plurality of minor identities and narrative viewpoints – especially the minor subjectivities and poetics surrounding queer postcolonial lives.

NATIONAL MINORITIES IN THE LABOUR MARKET: ECONOMIC AND LEGAL STUDY

The article provides a comprehensive economic and legal analysis of the position of national minorities in the labour market. To do this, a comparative analysis of the socio-economic and legal status of national minorities is carried out and an analysis of the situation of national minorities in the labour market is conducted while taking into account real and declarative indicators of the level of employment, which were determined by the author's survey and field experiment. It has been proven that discrimination in the labour market is characteristic of certain, but not all, groups of national minorities, in particular, the Roma. It is believed that the efficiency of the labour market of national minorities also affects tax revenues and the distribution of social costs. Ensuring equal opportunities for these groups contributes to the creation of stable social conditions, reducing the costs of social assistance and increasing the efficiency of social capital. The study of the labour market of national minorities also takes into account the importance of socio-economic stability. The main causes of discrimination of representatives of ethno-national groups in the labour market are singled out, and economic and legal measures to stimulate inclusion in the labour market are defined. Through the author's survey and the field method of fictitious questionnaires, the discrimination of certain groups of national minorities in Ukraine, among them Moldovans and especially the Roma, was proven, and it was proved that the unemployment rate in the region provokes an almost proportional decrease in the number of responses from employers from representatives of national minorities. The field of employment was not a significant factor in indicating certain features of discrimination based on the field of the labour market.

GRUP KARARLARINDA AZINLIK ETKİSİ KAVRAMININ “12 KIZGIN ADAM” FİLMİ ÜZERİNDEN İNCELENMESİ

The aim of this study is to examine the group dynamics and decision-making process in the movie "12 Angry Men" with a micro-level critical discourse analysis. The study aims to explore the influence of a member within the group on collective decisions and the influence of the first advocate of face-to-face group discussion. The leadership behavior of Henry, the main character of the movie, influences the group despite being in a minority position, and provides a platform for discussion. By tackling different topics, Henry creates differences of opinion among the majority, thereby understanding the thinking of each member and shaping their speech. Henry's position in the group can be explained by his minority influence; because in the beginning only he did not comply with the majority by voting "not guilty". However, he later acted consistently in his decision, causing the group's thoughts and votes to change. This study provides an important example for understanding the complexity of group dynamics and communication and highlights the role of leadership in minority influence.

Cancellation of Article 55 of The Public Accountant Law by The Constitutional Court Decision

Disclosure of financial report findings from Public Accountants is the most important aspect of financial reports. Disclosure of findings can provide an easy understanding of report content for users to make informed decisions. The research conducted is normative legal research. The results of the study state that Public Accountants are in a subordinate and minor position due to the lack of protection for the exercise of their profession given the high legal threat. Even if it is true that the intent of the formulation of Article 55 letter a of the Public Accountants Law is to protect the public interest from the possibility of falsification or fraud perpetrated by an Accountant, the public's interests have been adequately protected by the provisions of the Criminal Code (delict of counterfeiting or fraud), so therefore the provisions of Article 55 letter a The aquo law is an exaggerated and even fantastic provision. Thus Article 55 letter a of the a quo law creates uncertainty in the law and contradicts the principle of lex certa which is the basic principle in criminal law of the inclusion of criminal sanctions as determined by Articles 55 and Article 56 of the a quo law in the perspective of humanistic criminal law is imprecise and irrational. Keywords: public accountant, cancellation, Constitutional Court's decision

The Missing Alternative Objection to Criminal Law Abolitionism

Criminal law abolitionists claim that legal punishment cannot be morally justified and that we should therefore abolish criminal law. While this is still a minority position in the current debate, the number of proponents has been increasing, and even opponents have developed a certain degree of sympathy for such claims in recent years. Yet one of the reasons many remain hesitant regarding the abolition of criminal law appears to be the lack of a thought-through alternative, in addition to abolitionists disagreeing considerably amongst themselves on what an alternative should look like. I will call this the missing alternative objection. To address this central concern, I will argue in this paper that the most prominent versions of abolitionism actually converge on the same alternative core to criminal law — even though they are driven by vastly different motivations. This core that current abolitionist theories converge on is two-fold: first, the claim that the state should compel offenders to provide restitution for the victim; second, the claim that restorative processes should be used wherever possible when addressing criminal wrongdoing. This common core is enough to reject the missing alternative objection.

Mechanisms of Legislative Oversight of the Federal Government in Austria. The Role and Functions of Commissions of Inquiry of the National Council

The paper aims to present the legal tools used by the Austrian legislature to exert control over the federal government and its members, particularly the role of the commission of inquiry and its position in the system. The assumed research hypothesis is that the scope and efficiency of legislative oversight of the executive in Austria have increased due to the strengthened position of the parliamentary minority. The key factor was the 2014 Constitutional Amendment allowing the opposition to propose issuing a commission of inquiry at the National Council. The paper consists of four parts. First, it describes the instruments of political control the Austrian parliament has at its disposal. Next, it analyses the application of the individual supervisory tools at the National Council in the years 2006–2021. The third part presents the procedure for issuing a commission of inquiry and its powers. The reflections are concluded by an analysis of the hitherto existing commissions of inquiry in the Second Republic in terms of their frequency, the scope of inquiry, proponents, and the duration and intensity of their work. The paper also seeks to answer the questions of the scrutiny potential of the National Council, the importance of commissions of inquiry in system practice in Austria and the possible political consequences of the changes to how the parliamentary commissions of inquiry are issued and how they function.

Robotic-Assisted Single-Position Prone Lateral Lumbar Interbody Fusion: Indications, Techniques, and Outcomes.

Robotic-Assisted Single-Position Prone Lateral Lumbar Interbody Fusion: Indications, Techniques, and Outcomes.

Imaging the warped dusty disk wind environment of SU Aurigae with MIRC-X

Context. T Tauri stars are low-mass young stars whose disks provide the setting for planet formation, which is one of the most fundamental processes in astronomy. Yet the mechanisms of this are still poorly understood. SU Aurigae is a widely studied T Tauri star and here we present original state-of-the-art interferometric observations with better uv and baseline coverage than previous studies. Aims. We aim to investigate the characteristics of the circumstellar material around SU Aur, and constrain the disk geometry, composition and inner dust rim structure. Methods. The MIRC-X instrument at CHARA is a six-telescope optical beam combiner offering baselines up to 331 m. We undertook image reconstruction for model-independent analysis, and fitted geometric models such as Gaussian and ring distributions. Additionally, the fitting of radiative transfer models constrained the physical parameters of the disk. Results. Image reconstruction reveals a highly inclined disk with a slight asymmetry consistent with inclination effects obscuring the inner disk rim through absorption of incident star light on the near side and thermal re-emission/scattering of the far side. Geometric models find that the underlying brightness distribution is best modelled as a Gaussian with a Full-Width Half-Maximum of 1.53 ± 0.01 mas at an inclination of 56.9 ± 0.4° and a minor axis position angle of 55.9 ± 0.5°. Radiative transfer modelling shows a flared disk with an inner radius at 0.16 au which implies a grain size of 0.14 μm assuming astronomical silicates and a scale height of 9.0 au at 100 au. In agreement with the literature, only the dusty disk wind successfully accounts for the near infrared excess by introducing dust above the mid-plane. Conclusions. Our results confirm and provide better constraints than previous inner disk studies of SU Aurigae. We confirm the presence of a dusty disk wind in the cicumstellar environment, the strength of which is enhanced by a late infall event which also causes very strong misalignments between the inner and outer disks.