Specific Episodes Research Articles

The Moriscos of Salé and the Hispanic Monarchy: Power Agents and Identities to the West of the Strait of Gibraltar, 1631–1632

AbstractThis article examines the multiple frontiers between Maghrebi Islam and the southern European Catholic world by focusing on a very specific episode during the struggle for control of Rabat, capital of present-day Morocco. It addresses the problem of military and political control of the Strait of Gibraltar, which was closely linked to widespread corsair raids in the early seventeenth century. It also examines moriscos’ attempts to be allowed to return to Spain. The article points to the key importance of intermediaries and their linkages across borders at a time when both the Hispanic Monarchy and the Sa’adi kingdom were undergoing great difficulties. The strategic importance of the region transformed moments of crisis into opportunities, albeit failed ones, as intermediaries articulated their own interests with those of the king of Spain.

What’s in a Refusal? Methodological and Ethical Notes from an Ethnography of Mental Health Care in Rural Ghana

Drawing on fifteen months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2013 and 2022 on experiences of madness and practices of mental health care in rural southwestern Ghana, in this paper I propose to take as a point of departure, a specific episode in which the relatives of Fadhila—a girl I had first met at the psychiatric unit, where she was diagnosed as “psychotic”—refused to give consent to record an interview with me. The refusal was motivated by the strict instructions that Fadhila and her family were given by the traditional healer who was taking care of her: among many other things, the girl was not allowed to come close to any electronic device and her family felt it was unsafe to record an interview at their house. The refusal had to do with Fadhila being a “patient” as much as it had to do with another refusal: that of drugs and psychiatrisation. Indeed, the refusal had to do with spirits, the spirits that occasionally possessed Fadhila and were trying to make her a healer, according to her, her family members, and the traditional specialists they had visited. The refusal, however, may also have been a polite, indirect way to “withdraw consent”—to use the jargon of informed consent forms and ethics review committees. Though Fadhila and her family kept inviting me to their place, welcomed me warmly in subsequent occasions, and conversed with me about many things including the girl’s “condition,” that episode pushed me to reconsider the limits of formal consent and the need to constantly question it and re-establish it—a complex dynamic that sometimes the bureaucracy of “ethical clearance” processes in academia may contribute, paradoxically, to erase. Analysing this ethnographic episode in light of the powerful concept of ethnographic refusal introduced by Audra Simpson, I propose a reflection on the ethical and methodological implications of considering people as “sources” in ethnographies of madness and mental health.

The battles of the 108th Tank Division near Trubchevsk in the memoirs of M. T. Kalashnikov and other narrative sources.

The work is devoted to the study of narrative sources about the battles of the 108th tank division of the Red Army west of Trubchevsk on August 30 – 31, 1941. Central attention is paid to the memoirs of the famous Russian weapons designer M. T. Kalashnikov, who took part in this battle as part of the 216th tank regiment. In the work, fragments of M. T. Kalashnikov's memoirs, as well as memories of other participants in the events, on the one hand, and documentary sources, on the other, are subjected to comparative analysis. For example, among the documentary evidence one can name the log of combat operations of the 108th tank division, reports of its headquarters from September 4 and 6, 1941. Among the narrative evidence, the most important are the memoirs of L. G. Katz, an ordinary tankman of the 216th tank regiment, and the future general of tank forces, Soviet Union Hero I. N. Shkadov, in 1941 – chief of reconnaissance of the regiment. In addition, a number of memories of front-line correspondents are used. The author comes to the conclusion that, despite the fact that from a chronological point of view, M. T. Kalashnikov’s memoirs are completely unreliable, in detail they quite accurately reflect the reconstructed events of August 30-31. In particular, almost any specific combat episode of these memoirs can be compared with any specific message in the documents. In addition, the designer’s memories practically do not contradict the memoirs of other participants in the events. Moreover, as the experience of comparing narrative monuments has shown, M. T. Kalashnikov’s memoirs are the most voluminous and detailed among them. It should be recognized that no scientific reconstruction of the battles of the 108th Panzer Division is possible without taking into account this monument.

Therapy for the Dead: Working Clinically with Jung's Black Books and The Red Book.

With the 2020 publication of the facsimile edition of The Black Books, we have an opportunity to study the layers of C. G. Jung's creative writing process for the first time. In this paper, I explore Jung's practice of active imagination in relation to his fantasy dialogues with the dead during two specific episodes in 1914 and 1916. I discuss Jung's concept of the collective unconscious corresponding to the "mythic land of the dead" and I show how this idea develops in The Black Books and The Red Book, or Liber Novus, culminating in Septem Sermones ad Mortuos. I describe my work with a patient, who, in an early session, said she felt like the "living dead". I recount how the patient's experience of her own internal world began to change as we were able to wonder about the inner world of the patient's late mother and, together, to imagine her mother's lament. I consider the use of imagination when working with the concept of "therapy for the dead" (Hillman & Shamdasani, 2013, p. 164) in the context of intergenerational trauma.

The cultural and educational impact of Nobita in the Vietnamese context

This qualitative study delves into the cultural and educational impact of Nobita, a central figure in the Japanese anime series “Doraemon”, within the Vietnamese setting. Employing a qualitative approach, the research utilized a thematic analysis of specific episodes of “Doraemon”, combined with the Vietnamese viewers’ comments. The episodes were carefully selected to cover a range of scenarios depicting Nobita’s various challenges and interactions. A thematic analysis of viewer comments and selected episodes featuring Nobita was conducted, accompanied by insights from Vietnamese viewers. The objective was to discern how Nobita’s character aligns with, and at times contrasts with, Vietnamese cultural and moral norms. The findings unveil key themes: the cultural hybridization of Nobita’s character, the impartation of moral lessons, viewer identification with Nobita, and his influence on shaping children’s notions of responsibility and self-reliance. The study reveals how Vietnamese viewers, particularly children, actively engage with Nobita’s traits, resulting in a blend of Japanese and Vietnamese cultural elements. This refutes the conventional perspective of global media as a one-way cultural force, highlighting instead a reciprocal process of cultural interpretation and adaptation. Moreover, the research underscores Nobita’s significant role in moral education, illustrating that Vietnamese children do not just emulate but critically engage with his character through observational learning. This process extends beyond imitation, involving a deeper level of understanding and internalization of moral lessons. Furthermore, the study emphasizes Nobita’s role in fostering empathy and understanding, resonating with the universal aspects of human experiences and emotions. These findings offer insights into the intricate relationship between global media content and local cultural dynamics, underlining the influential role of media characters in shaping cultural perceptions, moral reasoning, and empathy in young audiences. The study contributes to the discourse on the impact of international media on local cultures, highlighting the potential of media content in bridging cultural gaps and aiding in child development.

A study on the impact of theater performing arts combined with drama arts on the stage in the context of big data

Abstract In this paper, based on the law of motion, combining the spherical coordinate system representation with the drama art of action feature recognition in the process of theatrical performance, the joint points of wrist, elbow and shoulder and the corresponding feature vectors as well as the school angular velocity are calculated. The affine invariant domain of feature matching is constructed, and the algorithms of dynamic frame difference merging and dynamic detection of human-computer interaction are applied to obtain similar feature components of the recognition of body movements and gesture commands in the process of theatrical performance. The harmony factor, emotion factor and contrast factor in the stage scene are used as evaluation parameters to derive the color evaluation function and keyframes of theatrical stage lighting combined with drama art. For the research purpose, the research on the stage influence of the theatrical performance of combining drama is designed, and the example analysis of the stage influence of the theatrical performance of combining drama is analyzed by using origin software. The results show that the level of the audience’s arousal dimension is significantly higher than its level in CSP, t(1, 29)=3.959, p<0.001, upper threshold (Engagement=0.38, Arousal=0.26), lower threshold (Engagement=0.35, Arousal=0.21), i.e., the specific performance episode for the audience to bring about significant emotional relaxation. Audience ratings of CAC were generally higher than their ratings of CSP, with differences ranging from 0.2 to 1.5. The mean times that subjects were in the “S(n)=1” state in the three modes were 219.86 (SD=60.62), 287.37 (SD=80.68), and 310.7 (SD=45.83), respectively. 45.83). This study greatly improves the impact of stage art and gives a whole new life to the combination of theater performance and drama stage art.

Triggers for freezing of gait in individuals with Parkinson's disease: a systematic review.

Freezing of Gait (FOG) is a motor symptom frequently observed in advanced Parkinson's disease. However, due to its paroxysmal nature and diverse presentation, assessing FOG in a clinical setting can be challenging. Before FOG can be fully investigated, it is critical that a reliable experimental setting is established in which FOG can be evoked in a standardized manner, but the efficacy of various gait tasks and triggers for eliciting FOG remains unclear. This study aimed to conduct a systematic review of the existing literature and evaluate the available evidence for the relationship between specific motor tasks, triggers, and FOG episodes in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PwPD). We conducted a literature search on four online databases (PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library) using the keywords "Parkinson's disease," "Freezing of Gait", "triggers" and "tasks". A total of 128 articles met the inclusion criteria and were included in our analysis. The review found that a wide range of gait tasks were employed in studies assessing FOG among PD patients. However, three tasks (turning, dual tasking, and straight walking) emerged as the most frequently used. Turning (28%) appears to be the most effective trigger for eliciting FOG in PwPD, followed by walking through a doorway (14%) and dual tasking (10%). This review thereby supports the utilisation of turning, especially a 360-degree turn, as a reliable trigger for FOG in PwPD. This finding could be beneficial to clinicians conducting clinical evaluations and researchers aiming to assess FOG in a laboratory environment.

Sanctions and the exchange rate in time

SUMMARY We test the predictions of recent theoretical studies of the impact of sanctions on the exchange rate. We build a database of exchange rates and sanctions spanning 1914–45 – an era when both large and small economies were targeted by multilateral sanction packages, facilitating comparisons with today’s Russian war episode. We estimate the dynamic response of the exchange rate in a panel of sanction episodes at weekly frequency using local projections, conditioning on the type of sanctions taken. We tease out mechanisms through which sanctions affect the exchange rate by estimating their effects on macroeconomic variables plausibly acting as transmission channels. Our estimates suggest that import restrictions, export restrictions, asset freezes and trade embargoes lead to exchange rate effects consistent with theory, though the precision of the measured effects varies across sanction type. These findings suggest that recent models of the effects of sanctions on the exchange rate do not just match developments in today’s specific Russia episode but have broader applicability. It follows that the direction of exchange rate movements is not an adequate metric of the success or failure of sanctions but a reflection of the type and scale of the measures taken.

Item-specific neural representations during human sleep support long-term memory.

Understanding how individual memories are reactivated during sleep is essential in theorizing memory consolidation. Here, we employed the targeted memory reactivation (TMR) paradigm to unobtrusively replaying auditory memory cues during human participants' slow-wave sleep (SWS). Using representational similarity analysis (RSA) on cue-elicited electroencephalogram (EEG), we found temporally segregated and functionally distinct item-specific neural representations: the early post-cue EEG activity (within 0 to 2,000 ms) contained comparable item-specific representations for memory cues and control cues, signifying effective processing of auditory cues. Critically, the later EEG activity (2,500 to 2,960 ms) showed greater item-specific representations for post-sleep remembered items than for forgotten and control cues, indicating memory reprocessing. Moreover, these later item-specific neural representations were supported by concurrently increased spindles, particularly for items that had not been tested prior to sleep. These findings elucidated how external memory cues triggered item-specific neural representations during SWS and how such representations were linked to successful long-term memory. These results will benefit future research aiming to perturb specific memory episodes during sleep.

Extreme precipitation causes divergent responses of root respiration to nitrogen enrichment in an alpine meadow

Grassland roots are fundamental to obtain the most limiting soil water and nitrogen (N) resources. However, this natural pattern could be significantly changed by recent co-occurrence of N deposition and extreme precipitations, likely with complex interactions on grassland root production and respiration. Despite this nonlinearity, we still know little about how extreme precipitation change nonlinearly regulates the responses of root respiration to N enrichment. Here, we conducted a 6-year experiment of N addition in an alpine meadow, coincidently experiencing extreme precipitations among experimental years. Our results demonstrated that root respiration showed divergent responses to N addition along with extreme precipitation changes among years. Under normal rainfall year, root respiration was significantly stimulated by N addition, whereas it was depressed under high or low water. Moreover, we revealed that both root biomass and traits (i.e. specific root length) were critical mechanisms in affecting root respiration response, but their relative importance changed with water condition. For example, specific root length and specific root respiration were more dominant than root biomass in determining root respiration response under low water, or vice versa. Overall, this study comprehensively reveals the nonlinearity of root respiration responses to the interactions of N enrichment and extreme water change. These new findings help to reconcile previously conflicting results that obtain in a specific episode of water gradient, with important implications for understanding grassland belowground carbon dynamics in facing combined N deposition and extreme precipitation events.

Neural network process simulations support a distributed memory system and aid design of a novel computer adaptive digital memory test for preclinical and prodromal Alzheimer's disease.

Growing evidence supports the importance of learning as a central deficit in preclinical/prodromal Alzheimer's disease. The aims of this study were to conduct a series of neural network simulations to develop a functional understanding of a distributed, nonmodular memory system that can learn efficiently without interference. This understanding is applied to the development of a novel digital memory test. Simulations using traditional feed forward neural network architectures to learn simple logic problems are presented. The simulations demonstrate three limitations: (a) inefficiency, (b) an inability to learn problems consistently, and (c) catastrophic interference when given multiple problems. A new mirrored cascaded architecture is introduced to address these limitations, with support provided by a series of simulations. The mirrored cascaded architecture demonstrates efficient and consistent learning relative to feed forward networks but also suffers from catastrophic interference. Addition of context values to add the capability of distinguishing features as part of learning eliminates the problem of interference in the mirrored cascaded, but not the feed forward, architectures. A mirrored cascaded architecture addresses the limitations of traditional feed forward neural networks, provides support for a distributed memory system, and emphasizes the importance of context to avoid interference. These process models contributed to the design of a digital computer-adaptive word list learning test that places maximum stress on the capability to distinguish specific episodes of learning. Process simulations provide a useful method of testing models of brain function and contribute to new approaches to neuropsychological assessment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Politics and eminent domain: Evidence from the 1879 California constitution

This paper explores the politics of eminent domain, using a specific historical episode: the enactment of the new California constitution in 1879. It presents evidence that the failure of a constitutional provision that would have codified eminent domain powers for water development resulted from a complex interchange of economic interests among farmers, miners, and urban residents. This evidence was manifested in delegate behavior on the floor of the constitutional convention in 1878, including various roll-call votes, which are subjected to an econometric analysis. The results have implications for the interpretation of legislative eminent domain decisions, and the degree to which economic development processes are shaped by the institutional environment in which they occur.

Do People Comment on Social Networks About Sexual Consent in TV Series? Rethinking Consent (or not) in Real Situations: Contributions from Debates in Social Media

AbstractScientific evidence has established that sexual consent can be expressed with more than only speech acts. Moreover, scientific analysis of other elements beyond speech acts reveals that coercion can be clearly indicated. Theories on communicative acts contribute to this debate, introducing three situations where these elements can occur: ones of physical, institutional, or interactive power. However, the public comments on these situations on social networks (Instagram, Twitter and Reddit) has not been analysed before. Within the framework of the Spanish competitive project Consent (PID2019-110466RB-I00), we conducted a novel study on the comments and reactions made around the communicative acts that prevent or facilitate the identification of sexual consent in specific episodes of television series aimed at young and adolescent audiences internationally. Social Media Analytics (SMA) with communicative content analysis with predefined codes was carried out on 1465 tweets about sexual consent on Twitter relating to 10 television series and movies watched internationally. The results show that when viewing these scenes, young people: (1) open debates (albeit few, as yet) around communicative acts beyond the verbal and nonverbal ones; (2) take a position against whoever coerces and (3) perceive that they will be able to avoid future situations of a lack of sexual consent by remembering the image discussed and the communicative acts that were in it. In doing so, the results can promote healthy discussions of sexual consent among youth through prevention programs and critical media literacy activities.

Variation of Circulating Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) in Depression: Relationships with Inflammatory Indices, Metabolic Status and Patients' Clinical Features.

This study seeks to offer a contribution to the method of subtyping major depressed patients by exploring the possible relationships between circulating brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), different peripheral inflammatory/metabolic markers in the blood and clinical characteristics. Thirty-nine patients, thoroughly diagnosed according to the DSM-5 criteria, underwent a comprehensive set of evaluations encompassing structured interviews, rating scales and a panel of blood tests. Correlation and comparison analyses were carried out by means of non-parametric statistical tests. Concurrently, a principal component analysis was performed to explain biochemical variance. The findings of our research unveiled that leukocyte counts, their ratios and other inflammatory parameters are positively correlated with depression scores. Moreover, we found variations within the BDNF pools of depressed patients. Specifically, higher levels of platelet-poor plasma BDNF (PPP-BDNF) were correlated with augmented inflammatory markers in patients showing specific episode characteristics, whereas reduced platelet BDNF (PLT-BDNF) provided a better indication of the changes that were linked to a diagnosis of long-term depression. Our findings suggest that PPP-BDNF and PLT-BDNF might differentiate depression conditions. They also imply usefulness in appraising peripheral biomarker profiles in patients for a deeper characterization of major depressive episodes. At the same time, it is plausible that they might constitute novel avenues for developing more tailored therapeutic strategies for patients with MDs.

First Provider Seen for an Acute Episode of Low Back Pain Influences Subsequent Health Care Utilization.

Costs associated with low back pain (LBP) continue to rise. Despite numerous clinical practice guidelines, the evaluation and treatments for LBP are variable and depend largely on the individual provider. As yet, little attention has been given to the first choice of provider. Early research indicates that the choice of first provider and the timing of interventions for LBP appear to influence utilization. This study sought to examine the association between the first provider seen and utilization. Using 2015-2018 data from a large insurer, this retrospective analysis focused on patients (29,806) seeking care for a new episode of LBP. The study identified the first provider chosen and examined the following year of medical utilization. Cox proportional hazards models were calculated using inverse probability weighting on propensity scores to evaluate the time to event and the relationship to the first choice of provider. The primary outcome was the timing and utilization of health care resources. Total health care utilization was lowest in those who first sought care with chiropractic care or physical therapy. Highest health care utilization was seen in those patients who chose the emergency department. Overall, there appears to be an association between the first choice of provider and future health care utilization. Chiropractic care and physical therapy provide nonpharmacologic and nonsurgical, guideline-based interventions. Their participation appears related to a decrease in immediate and long-term utilization of health care resources. This study expands the existing body of literature and provides a compelling case for the influence of the first provider on an acute episode of LBP. The first provider seen for an acute episode of LBP influences immediate treatment decisions, the trajectory of a specific patient episode, and future health care choices in the management of LBP.

New Personalities of Participants of the Russian Secret Societies of the 1810s–1820s: Touches to the Traditional Picture of the Decembrist Movement

This article presents the results of the study of the composition of secret societies and the military conspiracy of the Decembrists conducted by the author over 20 years. One of the main tasks of this work was to identify the unknown Decembrists who remained unnoticed during the government investigation and, for the most part, in historiography. The article considers members of secret societies and participants of the military uprisings of 1825–1826, little-known in literature and never previously identified. The relevance and academic significance of the reconstruction based on the extant source data consists in the development of existing ideas about the Decembrist movement. The author clarifies insufficiently studied specific episodes of the history of secret societies, adjusting the biographies of identified participants, including those known in a general historical context. The article examines the personalities of the newly identified members of secret societies (K. M. Poltoratsky, S. S. Lanskoy, I. M. Lyubovsky, P. A. Nabokov, F. S. Panyutin). The affiliation of the personalities considered to conspiratorial unions is associated with issues little-studied in the history of Decembrism: the involvement of persons endowed with high official status and public authority in the movement, the spread of the Decembrist society among provincial officials, the involvement in the movement of regimental commanders, who the initiators of the “southern uprising” (Chernigov regiment) relied on in their plans. Other cases discussed in the article explore the participation in Decembrist unions of representatives of the capital’s merchants, and naval officers, unnoticed by the investigation of the participants in the St Petersburg conspiracy of 1825. Special attention is paid to the evidence base; the author evaluates the reliability of documentary indications, verifies them against other evidence, and reveals the channels for obtaining information to the authors of the evidence, which makes it possible to conclude that the affiliation of identified persons with the Decembrist societies is substantiated by documents.

The influence of linear speed on the ability to change the direction of movement in elite female football players

The aim of this study was to show the influence of linear speed on the ability to change the direction of movement. Nineteen football players (16.90±2.28 years old) from the Serbian Super League participated in the research. Tests were performed to estimate speed: the linear speed at 5 m, 10 m, 20 m, and flying start at 10 m, and the 505 test for dominant and non-dominant leg, as well as CODS deficit, were applied to assess the ability to change direction. Using regression analysis, it was shown that linear speed has no statistically significant effect on the ability to change direction with elite female football players (P<0.05). In interpreting the results, several factors should be taken into account and the complexity of the linear speed relationship and the ability to change direction should be understood. The findings we gained from this research could influence the modification of training cycles, primarily strength, movement mechanics, and later more specific training episodes of football players.

Clarifying rupture: An authors’ reply

In our article, ‘Rupture: Towards a Critical, Emplaced, and Experiential View of Nature-Society Crisis’, we advocated for contextually rich and critical understandings of environmental crises and their catalytic effects. This authors’ reply responds to four commentaries whose authors raise helpful questions and insights. We first review the spatial and temporal connections between specific rupture episodes and ongoing processes of extraction and exploitation. We then discuss how the impacts of rupture disproportionately fall to those with the smallest contribution to the crisis. Third, we clarify how our contextually rich view of rupture differs from planetary analytics such as the Anthropocene. In terms of rupture's effects, we agree with comments that rupture does not simply represent a politics of hope but can strengthen authoritarian interests. Finally, we clarify what it means to ‘put rupture to work’.

Women in the Sky: Gender and Labor in the Making of Modern Korea

Women in the Sky: Gender and Labor in the Making of Modern Korea

Mission Accomplished? Balancing Market Growth and Moral Legitimation in the Fair Trade Moral Market

Mission Accomplished? Balancing Market Growth and Moral Legitimation in the Fair Trade Moral Market