Construction Of Relations Research Articles

Taking Part in Transnational Martyrdom: Construction of Interdenominational and Interreligious Relations in Lithuanian Christian Persecution Discourse

The paper presents an analysis of the discursive construction of Christianity and interdenominational and interreligious relations in the Christian persecution discourse of Lithuanian Catholic anti-genderist groups. The analysis is based on a case study of the discourse developed by Tomas Viluckas in his news portal, Laikmetis (laikmetis.lt), which was operationalised by the Christian Professional Union. The analysis shows that not only does religion have an influence on gender politics, but current debates on gender politics in broader society also shape religion and interreligious relations. Public debates on the ratification of the Istanbul Convention in Lithuania fuelled the perceived relevance of the idea of Christian persecution. This discourse highlighted the multidenominational nature of Christianity and challenged the dominant vision of the national Catholic Church as the sole defender of what is imagined as the traditional Lithuanian family, even if the hierarchy of religious communities in Lithuania features the Roman Catholic Church at the top.

Eco-friendly Architecture in Developing African Countries: Design and Self-construction of a Playground in Kenya

Developing countries can seize the opportunity to direct their development by freeing themselves from the mistakes of already developed countries and rooting it towards environmental, economic, and social sustainability. The research has identified a method described in phases that becomes the guarantor of an eco-friendly architecture, which starts from the resources of the territory, enhances them, and returns cyclical processes to the territory that becomes the driving force of development. An initial phase of acquisition of knowledge about the territory is followed by an analysis of its criticalities and potential. Based on these results, the definition of the harvest map (tangible and intangible resources) is conducted, which also includes related construction solutions and the analysis of compatibility with the current production system, to improve it. This method was applied to a case study in Kenya, through the construction of a playground in the external area of a school located in an area adjacent to Makongeni Village, Malindi, Kenya. The playground was built with local wood and waste tires, involving the teachers and students both in the design and construction phases. Eco-friendly architecture can become a driving force for sustainable development. The development of a production system based on local resources makes it possible to produce jobs, with an increase in the well-being of the population, specializing local companies and workers to the detriment of foreign companies and imported materials.

Labor Market and Class Struggle from the Perspective of Marxist Political Economy

Within the viewpoint of Marxist political economy, inequalities in the labor market are regarded as products of class struggle under the capitalist system. These inequalities reflect the relatively disadvantaged position of the working class, who often face low wages, unstable working conditions, and exploitation. These injustices not only reflect economic structures but also deeply influence the construction of social status and power relations. Studying the organizational forms of the working class within this theoretical framework holds significant importance. Labor unions, as organizations representing workers' interests, undertake the responsibility of advocating for better working conditions and wages. Union organizations engage in collective actions, such as strikes and demonstrations, demonstrating the solidarity and strength of the working class, challenging the authority of the capitalist system.

Relativization of Noun Phrase in Ho language

This paper examines the syntax of nominal modification in the Ho language, with a specific exploration of relativization. Relative constructions across languages, and even within a particular language, manifest different strategies, such as participial relative clauses, internally headed relative clauses, and externally headed relative clauses. The analysis presented here focuses on participial and correlative clauses, aiming to derive a common logical form for equivalent sentences. Furthermore, the study aims to illustrate the diverse positions that can be modified by both participial and correlative clauses in accordance with the Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy. As posited by Keenan and Comrie (1977), this hierarchy hierarchically relativizes different noun phrase positions as a universal sequence: subject > direct object > indirect object > oblique object > object of genitive > object of comparison. Therefore, this paper seeks to assess the validity of this hierarchy in both participial and correlative clause constructions in the Ho language.

Rational Sentence Interpretation in Mandarin Chinese.

Previous work has shown that English native speakers interpret sentences as predicted by a noisy-channel model: They integrate both the real-world plausibility of the meaning-the prior-and the likelihood that the intended sentence may be corrupted into the perceived sentence. In this study, we test the noisy-channel model in Mandarin Chinese, a language taxonomically different from English. We present native Mandarin speakers sentences in a written modality (Experiment 1) and an auditory modality (Experiment 2) in three pairs of syntactic alternations. The critical materials are literally implausible but require differing numbers and types of edits in order to form more plausible sentences. Each sentence is followed by a comprehension question that allows us to infer whether the speakers interpreted the item literally, or made an inference toward a more likely meaning. Similar to previous research on related English constructions, Mandarin participants made the most inferences for implausible materials that could be inferred as plausible by deleting a single morpheme or inserting a single morpheme. Participants were less likely to infer a plausible meaning for materials that could be inferred as plausible by making an exchange across a preposition. And participants were least likely to infer a plausible meaning for materials that could be inferred as plausible by making an exchange across a main verb. Moreover, we found more inferences in written materials than spoken materials, possibly a result of a lack of word boundaries in written Chinese. Overall, the fact that the results were so similar to those found in related constructions in English suggests that the noisy-channel proposal is robust.

Embedded and Adjoined Relative Clauses in Ancient Egyptian

Ancient Egyptian “virtual” relative clauses are analysed, following certain earlier proposals, as syntactically adjunctive constructions similar to so-called adjoined relatives found especially in various Australian Aboriginal languages. The structural behaviour of the said type of relative clauses differs markedly from that of the “real” relative constructions, which (in attributive use) are argued to be embedded as constituents of their antecedent NPs.

The Shape of Πίστις in 1 Corinthians: How Faith Receives, Boasts, and Discerns

This article considers the contribution of 1 Corinthians to debates about the nature of πίστις in Paul. In conversation with studies of 1 Corinthians that argue for relational, participatory, and communal constructions of πίστις, this article engages in a close exegesis of key passages of the epistle to highlight receiving, boasting, and discerning as important and salient features of faith.

Kugelianism in the Discourse of Theater Scandal (Ukraine, the First Quarter of the Twentieth Century)

The article explores the concept of theatre journalism, promoted from the end of the 19th century by Aleksandr Kugel and his publication, as well as the influence of Kugel, his media and the authors recruited by him on the expansion of the press and the instigation of the conflict between the press and the theatre. As an editor, Kugel gathered a quantitatively significant group of theatre journalists around his publication, the practice of which is considered not as an isolated case, but as a trend in theatre journalism that spread due to Kugel’s influence — Kugelianism. The methodology of the reconstruction of this model is based on the identification of focal points in Kugel’s publishing practice — conflicts between the press and the theatre, which took shape of theatre scandals or, as Kugel usually called them, “incidents,” in the unfolding of which he took an active part. The basic component of Kugelianism was the discourse of scandal, together with the structuring of the cultural space according to imperial models and the consistent construction of such relations between the press and the theatre, in which theatre journalism had to occupy a dominant position. Kugelianism stands out among the conceptual foundations of theatre journalism as it is marked by subjectivity, the presumption of one’s own taste and reliance solely on the journalist’s authority; granting criticism the status of an independent art form; impressionism as a stylistic ideal; imprudence of the journalist’s publicly expressed judgments, regardless of the form in which they are made public; “patriotic apoliticism” (protection of the foundations of the “Russian World”), as well as paradoxical inconsistency — the rejection of antiSemitism alongside consistent Ukrainophobia. The article outlines the role of Kugelianism in the formation of provincial self-identification in the Ukrainian theatre culture and defines the internal connection between the discussions that took place at the time among the Russian intelligentsia: about the crisis of the intelligentsia (about the intelligentsia and inteligentshchyna, i.e. pseudointelligentsia) and about the relationship between the press and the theatre.

Hubert Treiber and the Sociology of Law of Max Weber: From the Ideal Types of Legal Rationality to the Plurality of Law

Abstract Hubert Treiber has established himself as one of the world’s leading scholars of Weber, in particular of his Sociology of Law. Especially, Treiber defends Weber’s decisive contribution to legal pluralism, comparable to Eugen Ehrlich’s, although from a quite different perspective. Indeed, it is not possible to analyse Weber’s distinction between state and non-state law (a central distinction for legal pluralism) without taking into consideration what he means, sociologically, by “law” on the one hand and by “the state” on the other. Weber’s ideal typical construction of social relations under the category “law” requires an Archimedean point, which is the formal rationality of law, closely associated, at the end of an historical development, with the efforts of legal abstraction and systematisation by the proponents of Pandectism in modern Germany. In the following text, linked to some of Treiber’s major works, the author addresses first Weber’s analysis of the rationalities of law, and then deals with the question of the plurality of law, as these two aspects are closely intertwined.

HIV Information Avoidance, HIV Stigma, and Medical Mistrust among Black Sexual Minority Men in the Southern United States: Associations with HIV Testing.

Uptake of HIV testing is a critical step in the HIV prevention and treatment care cascade. Barriers to HIV testing, however, remain and innovative research in this area is warranted to improve uptake of testing. As such, we investigated the role of HIV information avoidance - a novel construct potentially related to HIV testing. We analyzed this construct in relation to other factors known to impact HIV testing, namely HIV stigma and medical mistrust. Multiple linear regression analyses indicated that HIV information avoidance was negatively associated with HIV testing, while medical mistrust was positively associated with HIV testing. HIV testing stigma was not associated with HIV testing. This work contributes to the developing literature on HIV information avoidance and its relationships with HIV stigma and HIV testing uptake. Further, these findings can inform HIV testing interventions which often do not focus on HIV information avoidance. Future research on the mechanisms of information avoidance that are amenable to intervention, and the temporal ordering of the relationship between information avoidance and HIV testing is warranted.

Shear performance and failure mechanism of brass pins considering the temperature effect

Premature shear failure of the brass pin often occurs during downhole tool operation, which has a serious impact on subsequent completion operations. Therefore, in order to explore its failure mechanism, the pin shear test considering temperature effect was designed and implemented in this paper to study the shear performance of different numbers of brass pins under different heating temperatures. Experimental data were fitted to obtain the continuous shear load–temperature curves for six, eight, and ten pins. The shear sections and the failure mechanism of the pins at different temperatures were observed by scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that the number of pins and temperature significantly affected the shear load of the brass pin. At room temperature, as the number of pins was increased, the shear load increased by 31.60% (six to eight) and 24.76% (eight to ten). Taking six pins as an example, the increase in the heating temperature from 22°C to 190°C decreased the shear load of the pin by 17.68%. The brass pin exhibited prominent plastic failure characteristics. Moreover, the shear section at room temperature was dominated by the shear band, which has a higher failure energy absorption capacity. As the temperature was increased, the area of fracture zone gradually increased, and consequently, the toughness and plasticity increased. This study provides a reference for the use of brass pins in downhole tools and reduces the possibility of premature shearing and related construction waste.

Reconceiving vulnerabilities in relations of care how to account for and deal with carers’ vulnerabilities

While carers’ vulnerability has often been neglected in the literature, the recent COVID-19 pandemic brought this issue to the fore. This article explores why it has been so often ignored and how could it be dealt with differently. It does so in the form of a philosophical and conceptual investigation illustrated by various examples and situations, related primarily, but not exclusively, to the COVID period.Criticising a property-based view, and based on examples of carers' vulnerability during the pandemic, our investigation suggests that carers' vulnerability is relationally constructed and played out on multiple interwoven dimensions that may contradict each other. Our examples also suggest that the relational construction of vulnerabilities is socially and organisationally mediated, calling for the development of social and organisational forms of mediation that may help carers deal with their vulnerabilities. Second, and rather counterintuitively with regard to the COVID-period, we question the negative valence usually associated with vulnerability and analyse how this affects ways of dealing with carers’ vulnerabilities and the co-creation of care.Finally, following Gilson (2014), we propose an ambivalent, relational conception of vulnerability, considered as ‘openness to affectation by’ and offer some theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, this conception also allows us to consider such openness as an ability that may nurture carers' ‘response-ability’. It also allows us to develop specific relational ethics for and in care relationships. Practically, this re-conceptualisation may help carers better embrace and process their vulnerabilities, including responses to negative affectations following exposure to carees. It may also facilitate their ‘reception’ of carees, and help co-create and adapt responses to carees' calls, thus avoiding paternalistic responses.

The relationships between relative age effect, personality constructs and achievement level in soccer.

Youth soccer academies are challenged with the constant recruitment process of young talented players to select those who will achieve long-term success as an athlete. Youth soccer academies strive to enhance the physical and technical skill development as well as personality development of talented players because psychological characteristics play a crucial role in players' future success in their transition to professional soccer. The least mature players and relatively young players may have a greater need to possess superior technical/tactical or psycho-behavioral skills than those relatively older counterparts because of the higher selection rates of early maturing players. Due to RAEs, a significant decrease in the overall quality of professional soccer teams might be observed because of the loss of talent of physically smaller, but psychologically stronger and more versatile relatively young players who possess proper technical and tactical attributes at an early age. The first objective of this study was to examine any possible relationship between RAE and personality constructs. A second objective was to identify factors and effects that can help in the further improvement of talent selection and equal opportunities for elite youth soccer players based on their underlying RAE. The third objective was to consider the impact of RAE on long-term career development. In this retrospective observational study, 151 elite youth soccer players between 15 and 18 years of age were first grouped in birth quartiles. Personality constructs were then assessed, using a combination of observations, interviews, and a self-assessment questionnaire. Next competition level after 8 years was evaluated to identify RAEs, differences in personality characteristics and opportunities to reach professional soccer player status between relatively older vs. younger players. A clear significant RAE was observed for the whole database (Q1 = 38.4% vs. Q4 = 13.9%) with OR of 2.61 (χ2 = 19.46, p < 0.01, r = -0.85). Relatively young players had higher median scores on personality constructs such as self-confidence (p = 0.04), while relatively old players had higher median scores on personality constructs such as team orientation (p = 0.03). In the long term, more players of the youngest birth quartile were signed as professional players (76.2%), compared with relatively old players (46.6%). 65.0% of the 20 players had the highest total score on personality constructs developed as a professional soccer player, vs. 35.0% of the 20 players with the lowest scores. In conclusion, this study showed not only further evidence of the RAE but also provided evidence supporting "the underdog hypothesis" in national elite youth teams. Relatively young players were also more likely to get higher value senior professional contracts in the long term. We propose that this may be due to the relatively young players developing superior psychological skills and technical expertise to compensate for their early physical disadvantage. This in turn suggests the need for greater awareness of the importance of personality constructs in the future development of youth elite soccer players. Therefore, the crux of the issue is how youth soccer academies elicit the "best of both worlds" ie. moderating RAE whilst also gaining the benefits of the underdog hypothesis by creating the right environment for every player to develop to their full potential in elite youth soccer academies.

“But I Hate Him Just the Same”: On the Rise of Concessive Markers with Same

Concessivity in English is often associated with structures like Although it was hot, she went running. Although introduces a subordinate clause. There are also several markers of concessivity associated with coordinate structures, among them, all the same and nevertheless. The development of coordinate markers of concessivity has received little attention. Here I compare the histories of three markers that arose from expressions of identity: all the same, just the same, and at the same time. All arose at various times in Late Modern English. Rich rhetorical contexts for the development of concessive uses of all the same ‘exactly the same’ are attested in corpora. Contexts for the later development in the US of just the same are less rich, and analogy to all the same is probable. Both came to be well entrenched in concessive use and are used in clause-final as well as clause-initial and occasionally clause-medial position. By contrast, at the same time functions only marginally as a concessive. It is also used as an elaborator and is not attested in clause-final position. Data are analyzed from the perspective of Diachronic Construction Grammar. Implications for some current debates are discussed, specifically for establishing when a construction has come into being, what kinds of contexts enable this emergence, and what level of abstraction is appropriate for analysis of sets of related constructions. Finally, some modifications of hypotheses about position of connectives relative to the clause are suggested.

Transnational counterterrorism assemblages: the case of preventing and countering violent extremism in Mali

ABSTRACT This article explores how the threat of terrorism has been addressed at the policy level by offering a fine-grained analysis of a specific preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) project implemented in Mali between 2018 and 2021 by a composite mix of international and national practitioners. Despite the current and almost complete detachment from the international and European security community, Mali has been, for a long time, a critical actor in the construction of what we identify as a transnational counterterrorism assemblage. This paper specifically focuses on three parts of the process leading to the assemblage: (1) the context and the political opportunities behind its creation, (2) how a specific north/south epistemic community of experts and practitioners has emerged in Mali and shaped the cognitive, normative and practical dimensions of the policy field and finally (3) the mechanisms at work in the practice of counterterrorism, from design to implementation on the ground. In doing so, the article contributes to the existing academic debate by problematising received interpretations of P/CVE as a north to south transfer of policy priorities and schemes of action. We show how current P/CVE activities are, rather, defining new social standards and practices of security elaborated at the intersection of the north/south divide. We finally offer some reflections on the unexpected consequences of such a construction in relation to the following national and international political crisis of the country.

구어체 발화 동사 ‘얘기하다’ 구문 연구

Based on the analysis of corpus, this article aims to examine various construction of the utterance verb ‘얘기하다' that mainly used in spoken language and describe its characteristics. To this end, various '얘기하다' construction were divided into basic construction that can assume the counterpart of the utterance and other construction that do not assume the counterpart of the utterance. Again, in the basic syntax, the meaning of the noun '이야기(story)' was expanded by dividing it into self- and other syntax and citation syntax. In other construction, we examined the pattern in which the meaning of '얘기하다' as a general utterance verb occurs as a construction that limits the manner of speech or indicates the result of the utterance. We also compared '얘기하다' with other related construction. Through this, it was shown that '얘기하다' was a colloquial utterance verb that expanded its meaning in the meaning of the noun 이야기(story)' and developed into a general utterance verb similar to '말하다'.

Will the US and China Go to War over Taiwan?

The Taiwan issue has always been the most controversial topic in US-China relations. Moreover, the Taiwan Strait is often considered the most likely site of a military confrontation between the United States and China. The issue of Taiwans sovereignty has been the subject of questions and controversy regarding the ownership of Taiwans regime and sovereignty in the aftermath of the Second World War and the Communist Civil War. This paper analyses the political, economic, and cultural reasons for the establishment of diplomatic relations between the US and China. From the perspective of the construct of international relations, although the Taiwan issue is a dispute, the current analytical perspective suggests that whether China and the US will go to war in Taiwan will always exist, but to a greater extent it will be resolved through economic warfare, political approaches, and other means.

Development and validation of an instrument to measure social capital in disadvantaged neighborhoods

Abstract Background Building social capital within communities is an integrated element and outcome of the Supersetting approach, but knowledge on how to measure it within a disadvantaged urban context remain scarce. The Objective To develop, test, and validate a questionnaire-based instrument to measure social capital among adult citizens living in a disadvantaged neighborhood. The study is done in Tingbjerg - a disadvantageous urban neighborhood. Methods/theory The development of the instrument is based on the social cohesion approach from within the theory of social capital and takes place in three phases. 1) Development including specification of a theoretical model of structural and cognitive social capital with indicators, development of items, and content validity of the items by experts. 2) Testing of developed items including face validity by conducting individual and focus groups interviews with Tingbjerg residents, translation into five languages and subsequent data collection among all 2567 adults living in Tingbjerg. 3) Statistical evaluation to test for dimensionality, reliability and validity. In case of suboptimal performance of the instrument, modifications may be applied, and the updated instrument re-evaluated. Findings Evaluations obtained from experts and residents will be analyzed and used to reduce and modify items included in the instrument. The questionnaire's dimensional structure will be explored with confirmatory factor analysis and its reliability with Cronbach alpha. Convergent validity will be tested through testing the association between social capital and a construct of social relations. Concurrent validity will be tested through testing the association between social capital and measures of self-assessed health and life quality. Conclusions An instrument to measure social capital in disadvantaged neighborhood will be presented at the conference. Recommendation of the instrument will depend on the evaluation of the study findings.

From data to theory

Abstract The semantic classification of over 2,200 constructions in the Russian Constructicon has emerged objectively from empirical analysis. The resulting semantic classification comports with and goes beyond frame semantics, revealing complex patterns of related constructions verified against corpus data and by a panel of native speakers. Our model of a constructicon can inform and complement existing approaches with additional findings. We detail our discovery procedure and the semantic relationships that link constructions. While our methods and findings are based on a single language, they can serve as a basis for cross-linguistic comparison in the field of Construction Grammar and constructicography research.

Reducing Indigenous suicide: Recognizing vital land and food systems for livelihoods.

Colonial trauma poses a significant risk to the physical, intellectual, and mental health of Indigenous youth and young adults. Education and mental health scholars are increasingly concerned about the emotional wellbeing of young people, particularly as rates of suicide have increased across the United States. With interest in identifying the unique contextual dynamics involved in understanding Indigenous suicide, this work considers characteristics related to colonialism that may uncover strategies for both educators and mental health practitioners that address disparities. Drawing on a larger ethnographic study, this inquiry asks how settler encroachment upon Indigenous land and food systems is related to death by suicide from the perspective of Cowichan Tribes members. Comprehensive semi-structured interviews were conducted (n = 21); each interview was audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed deductively based upon a priori suppositions related to settler colonial theory. Cowichan members' narrated explanations for suicide rooted in disruptions to (1) relationships with the land and (2) traditional food systems. They described how settler encroachment infringed upon their subsistence way of living and introduced incongruent constructions of nature-culture relations (e.g., humans as distinct and separate from the natural world). Settler futurity is secured through the arrogation of territorial dominance coupled with physical or conceptual acts of erasure, placing Indigenous lives and lifeways at risk. One outcome of the disruption to Indigenous collective capacities is a dramatic increase in Indigenous suicide.