Unique Means Research Articles

The Function and Meaning of "Kulkul" in Balinese Society: A Case Study in Batuaji Kawan Traditional Village, Tabanan (A Cultural Linguistics Review)

Purpose: This research was conducted to analyze the communicative function of language and the meaning of kulkul in Balinese society.
 Research methods: Data were collected using interview and observation methods with the help of note-taking techniques, then analyzed using descriptive-qualitative methods. This study uses the Cultural Linguistic Theory which is synergized with the Theory of Language Functions to analyze the function of kulkul and the Social Semiotics Theory to analyze the meaning of kulkul.
 Results and discussion: Kulkul in Balinese society has a communicative function of language: informational, directive, aesthetic, and phatic. Based on this function, kulkul implies odalan (religious ceremony at the temple), kepancabhayan (crush), baya pati (rage), sangkepan/peparuman (meeting) or ngayah (mutual cooperation), and kelayusekaran (death of residents). Kulkul also has a sacred function, namely as a sign of a religious ceremony at the temple.
 Implication: As a marker of Balinese culture (local wisdom), kulkul is a linguistic phenomenon, especially sign language which has a unique function and meaning.

Disseminating evidence in medical education: journal club as a virtual community of practice

BackgroundThis study explores the impacts of the Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics (COMSEP) Journal Club, a unique means of providing monthly professional development for a large international community of pediatric undergraduate medical educators. In particular, we sought to establish member engagement with the Journal Club, identify factors impacting member contributions to the Journal Club, and determine perceived benefits of and barriers to participation as a Journal Club reviewer.MethodsUsing an established Annual Survey as a study instrument, six survey questions were distributed to members of COMSEP. Items were pilot tested prior to inclusion. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square analysis..ResultsOf 125 respondents who completed the survey, 38% reported reading the Journal Club most months or always. Level of engagement varied. Reasons for reading included a topic of interest, keeping up to date on medical education literature, gaining practical tips for teaching and implementing new curricula. Motivators for writing a review included keeping up to date, contributing to a professional organization, and developing skill in analyzing medical education literature, with a minority citing reasons of enhancing their educational portfolio or academic promotion. The most commonly cited barriers were lack of time and lack of confidence or training in ability to analyze medical education literature.ConclusionAs a strategy to disseminate the latest evidence in medical education to its membership, the COMSEP Journal Club is effective. Its format is ideally suited for busy educators and may help in members’ professional development and in the development of a community of practice.

공존의 관점으로 바라본 고전문학 기반 웹툰의 매체 전환 양상과 의미

This study aims to analyze the webtoons <Barojabneun Soonaebo> and <My Roommate is a Gumiho> to examine the media transition pattern and meaning from the perspective of ‘coexistence’. Both works depict aspects of the coexistence of human and dehuman beings. This description can convey the value and necessity of coexistence in moving toward the post-human era. In addition, it is expected to be a more resonant delivery method as it uses the classical literature, which implies Korea's own perception. Like this media transformation will enable classical literature to revive in the modern world and maintain its own vitality and values, while also using classical literature works to create modern contents that contains Korea's unique meanings and values.

Neural basis for fasting activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.

Fasting initiates a multitude of adaptations to allow survival. Activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and subsequent release of glucocorticoid hormones is a key response that mobilizes fuel stores to meet energy demands1-5. Despite the importance of the HPA axis response, the neural mechanisms that drive its activation during energy deficit are unknown. Here, we show that fasting-activated hypothalamic agouti-related peptide (AgRP)-expressing neurons trigger and are essential for fasting-induced HPA axis activation. AgRP neurons do so through projections to the paraventricular hypothalamus (PVH), where, in a mechanism not previously described for AgRP neurons, they presynaptically inhibit the terminals of tonically active GABAergic afferents from the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) that otherwise restrain activity of corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH)-expressing neurons. This disinhibition of PVHCrh neurons requires γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)/GABA-B receptor signalling and potently activates the HPA axis. Notably, stimulation of the HPA axis by AgRP neurons is independent of their induction of hunger, showing that these canonical 'hunger neurons' drive many distinctly different adaptations to the fasted state. Together, our findings identify the neural basis for fasting-induced HPA axis activation and uncover a unique means by which AgRP neurons activate downstream neurons: through presynaptic inhibition of GABAergic afferents. Given the potency of this disinhibition of tonically active BNST afferents, other activators of the HPA axis, such as psychological stress, may also work by reducing BNST inhibitory tone onto PVHCrh neurons.

Water-assisted strong underwater adhesion via interfacial water removal and self-adaptive gelation.

In nearly all cases of underwater adhesion, water molecules typically act as a destroyer. Thus, removing interfacial water from the substrate surfaces is essential for forming super-strong underwater adhesion. However, current methods mainly rely on physical means to dislodge interfacial water, such as absorption, hydrophobic repulsion, or extrusion, which are inefficient in removing obstinate hydrated water at contact interface, resulting in poor adhesion. Herein, we present a unique means of reversing the role of water to assist in realizing a self-strengthening liquid underwater adhesive (SLU-adhesive) that can effectively remove water at contact interface. This is achieved through multiscale physical-chemical coupling methods across millimeter to molecular levels and self-adaptive strengthening of the cohesion during underwater operations. As a result, strong adhesion over 1,600 kPa (compared to ~100 to 1,000 kPa in current state of the art) can be achieved on various materials, including inorganic metal and organic plastic materials, without preloading in different environments such as pure water, a wide range of pH solutions (pH = 3 to 11), and seawater. Intriguingly, SLU-adhesive/photothermal nanoparticles (carbon nanotubes) hybrid materials can significantly reduce the time required for complete curing from 24 h to 40 min using near-infrared laser radiation due to unique thermal-response of the chemical reaction rate. The excellent adhesion property and self-adaptive adhesion procedure allow SLU-adhesive materials to demonstrate great potential for broad applications in underwater sand stabilization, underwater repair, and even adhesion failure detection as a self-reporting adhesive. This concept of "water helper" has potential to advance underwater adhesion and manufacturing strategies.

Thermodynamic Modeling and Experimental Data Reveal That Sugars Stabilize Proteins According to an Excluded Volume Mechanism.

We present a new thermodynamic model to investigate the relative effects of excluded volume and soft interaction contributions in determining whether a cosolute will either destabilize or stabilize a protein in solution. This model is unique in considering an atomistically detailed model of the protein and accounting for the preferential accumulation/exclusion of the osmolyte molecules from the protein surface. Importantly, we use molecular dynamics simulations and experiments to validate the model. The experimental approach presents a unique means of decoupling excluded volume and soft interaction contributions using a linear polymeric series of cosolutes with different numbers of glucose subunits, from 1 (glucose) to 8 (maltooctaose), as well as an 8-mer of glucose units in the closed form (γ-CD). By studying the stabilizing effect of cosolutes along this polymeric series using lysozyme as a model protein, we validate the thermodynamic model and show that sugars stabilize proteins according to an excluded volume mechanism.

Intermolecular and Electrode-Molecule Bonding in a Single Dimer Junction of Naphthalenethiol as Revealed by Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Combined with Transport Measurements.

Electron transport through noncovalent interaction is of fundamental and practical importance in nanomaterials and nanodevices. Recent single-molecule studies employing single-molecule junctions have revealed unique electron transport properties through noncovalent interactions, especially those through a π-π interaction. However, the relationship between the junction structure and electron transport remains elusive due to the insufficient knowledge of geometric structures. In this article, we employ surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) synchronized with current-voltage (I-V) measurements to characterize the junction structure, together with the transport properties, of a single dimer and monomer junction of naphthalenethiol, the former of which was formed by the intermolecular π-π interaction. The correlation analysis of the vibrational energy and electrical conductance enables identifying the intermolecular and molecule-electrode interactions in these molecular junctions and, consequently, addressing the transport properties exclusively associated with the π-π interaction. In addition, the analysis achieved discrimination of the interaction between the NT molecule and the Au electrode of the junction, i.e., Au-π interactions through-π coupling and though-space coupling. The power density spectra support the noncovalent character at the interfaces in the molecular junctions. These results demonstrate that the simultaneous SERS and I-V technique provides a unique means for the structural and electrical investigation of noncovalent interactions.

Sztuka Tajemnicy. „Metafantastyka” albo teoria literatury fantastycznej Stefana Grabińskiego

The subject of the article is a pioneering in Poland critical conception of the fantastic developed by highly esteemed prewar author of the fantastic literature, Stefan Grabiński. The crucial, remarkable comments referring to fantastic literature were comprised by Grabiński in his extensive essay entitled On fantastic literature. The dissertation in question was never published in whole, however, to find its issue while his life in merely two short parts of it in press edition. In the first part of the article the archival documents were used (mainly the letters) which enabled the reconstruction of puzzling history of the manuscript of said essay now probably lost forever. In the second part, basing on the published parts of the essay, as well as other critical statements of the Polish writer, the main aspects of Grabiński’s theory were discussed. Upon the profound analyses made therefrom it appeares that Grabiński perceived and gave the fantastic genre a unique meaning and value, notably owing to its specific privileged language exposing metaphysical expression of the Mystery. The writer managed to depict in accurate, innovative and convincing way the character of fantastic literature, both in terms of historical and anthropological origin of this kind of literary creativity, and its aesthetics, social and philosophical attributes what makes these researchers innovative and even anticipativewith reference to the corresponding studies of postwar literature theoreticians of fantastic genre (e.g. L. Vax, R. Caillois, T. Todorov). Discursive statements on the issue of fantastic literature of Grabiński are further related to much wider phenomenon which was focused on developing critical analysis of fantastic literature in Poland in the first decades of the twentieth century.

Rule-Based Safe Probabilistic Movement Primitive Control via Control Barrier Functions

In this paper, we develop a novel and safe control design approach that takes demonstrations provided by a human teacher to enable a robot to accomplish complex manipulation scenarios in dynamic environments. First, an overall task is divided into multiple simpler subtasks that are more appropriate for learning and control objectives. Then, by collecting human demonstrations, the subtasks that require robot movement are modeled by probabilistic movement primitives (ProMPs). We also study two strategies for modifying the ProMPs to avoid collisions with environmental obstacles. Finally, we introduce a rule-base control technique by utilizing a finite-state machine along with a unique means of control design for ProMPs. For the ProMP controller, we propose control barrier and Lyapunov functions to guide the system along a trajectory within the distribution defined by a ProMP while guaranteeing that the system state never leaves more than a desired distance from the distribution mean. This allows for better performance on nonlinear systems and offers solid stability and known bounds on the system state. A series of simulations and experimental studies demonstrate the efficacy of our approach and show that it can run in real time. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Note to Practitioners</i> —This paper is motivated by the need to create a teach-by-demonstration framework that captures the strengths of movement primitives and verifiable, safe control. We provide a framework that learns safe control laws from a probability distribution of robot trajectories through the use of advanced nonlinear control that incorporates safety constraints. Typically, such distributions are stochastic, making it difficult to offer any guarantees on safe operation. Our approach ensures that the distribution of allowed robot trajectories is within an envelope of safety and allows for robust operation of a robot. Furthermore, using our framework various probability distributions can be combined to represent complex scenarios in the environment. It will benefit practitioners by making it substantially easier to test and deploy accurate, efficient, and safe robots in complex real-world scenarios. The approach is currently limited to scenarios involving static obstacles, with dynamic obstacle avoidance an avenue of future effort.

위헌심사기준으로서 헌법 제22조 제2항의 의미와 내용

Article 22, Paragraph 2 of the Constitution stipulates that “the rights of authors, inventors, scientists, and artists are protected by law”. Despite being a provision that has continued since the Constitution's establishment, there has not been enough discussion in the constitutional academic community regarding its normative meaning and function, relationship with other fundamental rights, especially property rights, and concrete criteria for constitutionality review. Recently, in a case in which the Court reviewed the constitutionality of Article 9 of the Copyright Act, Article 22, Paragraph 2 of the Constitution was applied. As a result of this decision, discussions on the normative meaning of Article 22, Paragraph 2 of the Constitution and its standard for constitutionality review were triggered in the constitutional law academia. These discussions are mostly related to whether Article 22, Paragraph 2 of the Constitution has a unique meaning and performs an independent function, its normative meaning, and the concrete standard for constitutionality review. However, many ambiguous aspects remain. Therefore, this article examines the normative contents of Article 22, Paragraph 2 of the Constitution. The composition of this article is as follows. First, as a starting point, the meaning and limitations of the decision of the Court are examined. Second, by examining the US Supreme Court's doctrine about the copyrights clause and related discussions, this article seeks applicability of it to the interpretation of the Korean Constitution. Third, based on this, it critically reviews the recent discussions in constitutional law academia and offers the contents of Article 22, Paragraph 2 of the Constitution as a standard for constitutionality review.

Song Folklore as a Basic Component to Form the National and Cultural Residence Area of Ukrainians

The author proposes the theory that the national and cultural habitat of Ukrainians is determined by musical and folklore sources. It is noted that the scientific analysis of folklore expresses the subject's world picture and the system of his sociocultural orientations, provides an opportunity to understand the transformation and historical sociodynamics, to determine the main system-forming meanings of culture and national culture in particular. Attention is focused on the cultural understanding of the essential content of the categories "national-cultural space", "folklore" and "musical folklore" as a type of folk artistic culture, which is based on the ethnicnational picture of the world. It was found that, gaining experience, the nation creates its own history, which is filled with its own unique meanings, inherent exclusively to its field of culture, which is characterized by certain values and special rules of interpretation. Musical folklore as some national modus in the traditional culture of Ukrainians forms the value and behavioral guidelines of the representatives of this community. The national-ethnic picture of the worldview and understanding of the meaning of being is defined as a single cognitive orientation, which is a non-verbal, implicit expression of understanding by members of each society of the "rules of life" determined by social, natural and supernatural forces. Ukrainian musical folklore is characterized as a type of culture that expresses the national picture of the world structure and the valuenormative system of people's life, the national-cultural habitat of Ukrainians. The picture of the world is considered as a representation of the surrounding reality, a feature of its perception, which is determined by the unity of subjective and objective conditions and factors of the formation of the national-cultural landscape. The significance of the musical and folklore concept in the formation of the main value orientations of the Ukrainian nation has been proven. Attention is drawn to the scientific rethinking of the content of traditional concepts of cultural creation in the context of its national mode. An art-critic analysis of the musical-folkloric component in the rituals of Ukrainians is presented.

Micelle-Mediated Sonogashira Coupling for DNA-Encoded Library Synthesis.

DNA-Encoded Libraries (DELs) are becoming widely established as a hit identification strategy for drug discovery campaigns. Their successful application relies on the availability and efficiency of the reactions that can be carried out on DNA. These reactions should proceed with high conversion to the desired product and have a broad substrate scope to synthesise chemically diverse and drug-like DELs. The Sonogashira coupling provides a unique means of coupling an sp-hybridized carbon centre to an aryl halide and methods to achieve this reaction on DNA are highly desirable. We report the application of our micellar technology for on-DNA chemistry to the Sonogashira reaction. This method gives highly efficient conversions for the coupling of (hetero)aromatic and aliphatic alkynes to (hetero)aryl iodides and bromides allowing the preparation of highly diverse DELs.

Contracts for the purchase of affordable housing: concepts, legal nature and features

In Ukraine, the right of individuals – citizens to housing is constitutionally enshrined, which can be realized both by purchasing such an object of civil relations in ownership and in use. As of today, the issues of providing housing for the citizens of Ukraine have become particularly acute due to the fact that many of them lost it due to the criminal war against our state. These issues have become especially relevant due to the declaration of our state as a social state, because under such conditions, Ukraine must help its citizens to acquire rights to this category of property. For some reason, as of today, the most common basis for acquiring housing rights is the contract itself, which remains unique means of regulating legal relations in European private law.&#x0D; The concept of housing in Ukraine is provided in a number of normative legal acts of various levels of legal force, among which, of course, the Civil Code of Ukraine and the Housing Code of Ukraine that occupy a special place. Affordable housing is built and those being built with state support, residential buildings (complexes) and apartments. State support for the construction of affordable housing consists in the payment by the state of 30 percent of the cost of construction (purchase) of affordable housing and/or the provision of a preferential mortgage housing loan.&#x0D; Contracts for the purchase of this category of housing are sales contracts, that is, they belong to the group of transactions on the transfer of property into ownership. At the same time, by their legal nature, these are consensual, paid, bilateral and fixed-term (usually up to 12 months). In the case of investing in objects of unfinished construction, under certain conditions, such contracts may have a risky nature. Also, it is worth noting separately about: the specific subject composition of these contracts, the obligation to comply with the requirements regarding their form and specifics of execution.

Advances in Functionalized Nanomaterial‐incorporated Biosensing Platforms for Detecting Cancer Biomarkers during Biopsies

AbstractSensors incorporating nanomaterials are being studied with great interest in the field of diagnostics given their high‐sensitivity and accuracy due to the unique advantages of nanomaterials. Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in humans, with its early detection significantly reducing the risk of death and improving treatment prognosis. The gold standard for the early diagnosis of cancers is pathological and genetic analysis of tumor biopsy specimens. Unfortunately, standardization of techniques for separating and quantifying biomarkers from tumor biopsies requires more sensitive, accurate, and rapid early detection techniques. The development of biosensing platforms utilizing various functional nanomaterials is expected to realize the isolation and detection of biomarkers, thereby enabling rapid and accurate early cancer diagnosis. Therefore, this review aims to explore cutting‐edge nanomaterials that fall within the scope of highly sensitive analytical technology biosensor platforms to introduce the transducer platform of biosensing systems using functionalized nanomaterials for the selective recognition and detection of signal‐specific cancer biomarkers. It will pave the way for highly precise cancer detection, providing a unique means to carefully monitor the different types of biopsy sample of patients.

Race to the Summit: Impact of a Social Media-based Exercise Competition on Physician Physical, Psychological, and Emotional Well-being

BackgroundIn the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and with increasing non-clinical demands on physician time and effort, the health care community is experiencing disproportionate rates of burnout. Oncologists, specifically, frequently endure challenging situations of caring for terminally ill patients who require emotional support along with intricate medical care. In response, various well-being initiatives for physicians have emerged, predominantly focusing on education or wellness opportunities. However, most these programs are institution-based and not accessible to the physician community as a whole. The effect of physical exercise, particularly team-based activity, on physician well-being and burnout has been postulated but not rigorously studied. We therefore seek to formally investigate whether team-based exercise programs can facilitate collective well-being by enabling physicians to address burnout collectively rather than individually.MethodsThis prospective study will involve the two-month voluntary team-based multi-sport competition, ACRO Race to the Summit, which will track total exercise minutes logged across various forms of physical activities during the racing period of January 1st, 2023- February 28th, 2023. A pre/post survey design will be used to investigate the potential impact of such collective activity on radiation oncology physician well-being. Included in both surveys, a set of 25 multiple-choice questions based on the validated Stanford Medicine well-being survey and the IPAQ (International Physical Activity Questionnaire) will focus on physical activity level and psychological and emotional well-being in the work place. The post-race survey will include additional questions meant to evaluate participants' perceived impact of the competition on these categories.ResultsPrimary endpoints will assess change in pre- and post-survey metrics related to level of physical activity, and psychological and emotional well-being at work. Secondary endpoints will examine perceived value of team-based exercise in cultivating well-being.DiscussionWe anticipate that the results from this survey may inform commentary on the role of collective, inclusive exercise as a tool to combat physician burnout. Moreover, the study may provide insight into existing trends in physical activity, and psychological and emotional well-being in the radiation oncology community. Formation of and investment in non-institution, non-work related teams may prove to be a unique means of addressing burnout by strengthening a sense of community within the field as a whole. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and with increasing non-clinical demands on physician time and effort, the health care community is experiencing disproportionate rates of burnout. Oncologists, specifically, frequently endure challenging situations of caring for terminally ill patients who require emotional support along with intricate medical care. In response, various well-being initiatives for physicians have emerged, predominantly focusing on education or wellness opportunities. However, most these programs are institution-based and not accessible to the physician community as a whole. The effect of physical exercise, particularly team-based activity, on physician well-being and burnout has been postulated but not rigorously studied. We therefore seek to formally investigate whether team-based exercise programs can facilitate collective well-being by enabling physicians to address burnout collectively rather than individually. This prospective study will involve the two-month voluntary team-based multi-sport competition, ACRO Race to the Summit, which will track total exercise minutes logged across various forms of physical activities during the racing period of January 1st, 2023- February 28th, 2023. A pre/post survey design will be used to investigate the potential impact of such collective activity on radiation oncology physician well-being. Included in both surveys, a set of 25 multiple-choice questions based on the validated Stanford Medicine well-being survey and the IPAQ (International Physical Activity Questionnaire) will focus on physical activity level and psychological and emotional well-being in the work place. The post-race survey will include additional questions meant to evaluate participants' perceived impact of the competition on these categories. Primary endpoints will assess change in pre- and post-survey metrics related to level of physical activity, and psychological and emotional well-being at work. Secondary endpoints will examine perceived value of team-based exercise in cultivating well-being. We anticipate that the results from this survey may inform commentary on the role of collective, inclusive exercise as a tool to combat physician burnout. Moreover, the study may provide insight into existing trends in physical activity, and psychological and emotional well-being in the radiation oncology community. Formation of and investment in non-institution, non-work related teams may prove to be a unique means of addressing burnout by strengthening a sense of community within the field as a whole. Disclosure: Schutz: None LaVigne: None Everett: None Lally: None Jaboin: None

Structural and semantic features and national specificity of English and Russian proverbs with the meaning "foresight", "caution".

The subject of this study is the structural and semantic features of English and Russian proverbs with the meanings of "foresight", "caution". Proverbs with the meanings "foresight", "caution" have not been sufficiently studied in terms of revealing their meaning and describing their structural and semantic characteristics. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that for the first time the general and unique meanings of English and Russian proverbs of this thematic group were considered in a comparative aspect, as well as an analysis of syntactic structures and a semantic analysis of the lexical components of proverbs and an analysis of figurative and expressive means reflecting their national and cultural identity were made. The results of the study can be used in the process of teaching English, as well as the basis for a deeper comparative study of the proverbs of the two languages of this thematic group. The study used descriptive and comparative methods, functional-stylistic analysis, structural and syntactic analysis. In the course of the analysis, we revealed the following pattern: in most of the presented thematic groups there are proverbs close in meaning that are not equivalents. They use the same syntactic structures (imperative sentences, complex sentences with subordinate conditions, time clause, subordinate concessions and subordinate attributive clauses, syntactic compression: ellipsis, incompleteness of sentences, non-conjunction, as well as complex sentences with an adversative meaning) and similar expressive techniques (antithesis, comparison, oxymoron, tautology, allegory, metaphor, including personifying metaphor), while differing in lexical content (emotional and expressive, evaluative vocabulary, vocabulary associated with the realities of everyday life, zoonyms, somatisms, archaisms). These differences are due to the peculiarities of climate, life, traditions, as well as the environment of their occurrence, which, on the one hand, indicates the universality of human experience, and on the other hand, indicates the national specificity of the thinking of the two peoples.

A Twitter-Based Comparative Analysis of Emotions and Sentiments of Arab and Hispanic Football Fans

Twitter is one of the best online platforms for social interaction, introducing unique means of story-telling through tweets and enabling multiple approaches to the analysis of their content. This study was motivated by the increasing practice of incorporating Twitter into cultural studies and the research gap in Twitter-based cultural studies between emerging nations. This research aims to examine the emotional and sentimental cultural traits of Arabic and Hispanic viewers of a specific football match, as shown through their tweets, regardless of their distinct languages, to determine whether cultural diversity can be noticed in online interaction. Hundreds of tweets from both communities were translated into English as an intermediate language and then evaluated and contrasted using machine learning (ML) models. According to the research, Arabs are more collectivistic (as opposed to individualistic) and, as a result, exhibit less emotional arousal than Hispanics, which was partially supported by the collected Twitter data. This demonstrates how Twitter could play a key part in cultural research, and, therefore, this study contributes to cross-national comparative cultural research. We demonstrate that our method can also be used to evaluate the quality of machine translation based on how effectively it captures the emotions and sentiments of original languages.

The self-perceived age of GenX women: prioritising female subjective age identity in marketing

PurposeThis study aims to examine the phenomenon of self-perceived age (SPA) identity for Generation X (GenX) women in the UK. Squeezed between the more ubiquitous “boomer” and “millennial” cohorts, and now with both gender and age stigma-related challenges, this study looks to provide insights for understanding this group for marketing.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts an existential phenomenological approach using a hybrid structured/hermeneutic research design. Data is collected using solicited diary research (SDR) that elicits autoethnographic insights into the lived experiences of GenX women, these in the context of SPA.FindingsFor this group, the authors find age a gendered phenomenon represented via seven “age frames”, collectively an “organisation of experience”. Age identity appears not to have unified meaning but is contingent upon individuals and their experiences. These frames then provide further insights into how diarists react to the stigma of gendered ageism.Research limitations/implicationsSDR appeals to participants who like completing diaries and are motivated by the research topic. This limits both diversity of response and sample size, but coincidentally enhances elicitation potential – outweighing, the authors believe, these constraints. The sample comprises UK women only.Practical implicationsThis study acknowledges GenX women as socially real, but from an SPA perspective they are heterogeneous, and consequently distributed across many segments. Here, age is a psychographic, not demographic, variable – a subjective rather than chronological condition requiring a nuanced response from marketers.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first formal study into how SPA identity is manifested for GenX women. Methodologically, this study uses e-journals/diaries, an approach not yet fully exploited in marketing research.

Quantifying and modeling curved thrust fault-propagation folds at different scales

Classical models of fault-related folds, which invoke planar faults, are inappropriately applied in many instances, as curved faults are commonly observed in nature. The application of classical planar fault models for such folds hinders the assessment of the geometric relationship between these features and the quantification of crustal shortening during faulting and folding. Our study, for the first time, attempts to establish fundamental geometric relationships for curved thrust fault-propagation folds by examining the geometries and kinematics of three contractional structures at different scales. By relating the deformation of backlimb to the underlying curved thrust with an integrated algorithm incorporating forelimb trishear and backlimb shear, we successfully reproduced most of the fold geometry with a smoothly curving backlimb and an abrupt forelimb. We discovered that the deformation of folded backlimb is a combination of limb rotation and kink-band migration. This unique deformation mechanism means that curved faults do not experience greater slips (less than 2%) compared to planar faults of similar dips. Although the introduction of minor curvature in the fault trajectory cannot have a significant impact on shortening, our results emphasize that the choice of fault geometry is crucial for the deformation of folded backlimb and landform surface. We then combine our new work with previous studies and find that the arc angle distributions of curved thrust fault-propagation folds at different scales are in the range of ∼30°–∼60°, which is important for reasonable constraints on the geometry of deep faults in the absence of detailed seismic controls. Finally, our study further suggests that introducing area-depth strain analysis prior to the modeling analysis could minimize the assigned uncertainty in interpretation and test the validity of kinematic models in determining balanced structures.

In Situ Synchrotron X-ray Scattering Investigation of Cathodic ZIF-8 Deposition on Graphite Using 3D-Printed Cells

Electrochemical approaches provide unique means to fabricate thin films of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). However, the kinetics of electrochemical MOF deposition has not been quantitatively investigated so far. In this study, we report the first in situ measurements of electrochemical MOF growth using transmission synchrotron X-ray scattering. Electrochemical cells based on poly(lactic acid) with two windows were fabricated using fused-deposition modeling. The resulting three-dimensional (3D)-printed cells, the surface of which was coated with paraffin wax to prevent solvent percolation through the polymer material, were used to monitor the cathodic growth of zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) on graphite in a methanol solution containing ZnCl2 and 2-methylimidazole (Hmim) at different cathodic potentials. The resulting time-resolved X-ray diffraction data showed a gradual increase in crystal size with negligible changes in crystal orientation during the cathodic ZIF-8 deposition. More importantly, the time-resolved data provided a means to quantitatively assess the kinetics of the cathodic ZIF-8 growth using the Gualtieri model, revealing that the cathodic potential and Hmim concentration affected crystal growth kinetics but not nucleation kinetics. These ZIF-8 samples exhibited changes in X-ray diffraction patterns after being washed with methanol and dried in air, indicating that in situ measurements are essential to investigate mechanisms behind MOF electrodeposition.