Body Of Work Research Articles

Twenty years on from Developmental Plasticity and Evolution: middle-range theories and how to test them.

In Developmental Plasticity and Evolution, Mary-Jane West-Eberhard argued that the developmental mechanisms that enable organisms to respond to their environment are fundamental causes of adaptation and diversification. Twenty years after publication of this book, this once so highly controversial claim appears to have been assimilated by a wealth of studies on 'plasticity-led' evolution. However, we suggest that the role of development in explanations for adaptive evolution remains underappreciated in this body of work. By combining concepts of evolvability from evolutionary developmental biology and quantitative genetics, we outline a framework that is more appropriate to identify developmental causes of adaptive evolution. This framework demonstrates how experimental and comparative developmental biology and physiology can be leveraged to put the role of plasticity in evolution to the test.

Sentinel protist taxa of the McMurdo Dry Valley lakes, Antarctica: a review

High-latitude meromictic lakes such as those in the Antarctic McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) harbor aquatic ecosystems dominated by the microbial loop. Within this habitat, which is limited year-round by light and nutrients, protists, or single celled eukaryotes, play outsized roles in the food web as the dominant primary producers and the apex predators. Thus, the MDV lake ecosystem represents an ideal system to study the role of sentinel protist taxa in carbon and nutrient cycling. The perennially ice-covered lakes are part of the McMurdo Long Term Ecological Research (McM LTER; mcmlter.org) established in 1993. In this review we will highlight the diversity and trophic roles of the MDV lake protist community and compare environmental factors driving spatiotemporal patterns in key protist taxa in two lakes within the McM LTER, Lakes Bonney and Fryxell. We will then discuss lessons learned from manipulated experiments on the impact of current and future climate-driven environmental change on sensitive protist taxa. Last, we will integrate knowledge gained from 25 years of lab-controlled experiments on key photosynthetic protists to extend our understanding of the function of these extremophiles within the MDV aquatic food webs. Our research group has studied the distribution and function of the MDV microbial community for nearly two decades, training the next generation of scientists to tackle future problems of these globally significant microbes. This review article will also highlight early career scientists who have contributed to this body of work and represent the future of scientific understanding in the Anthropocene.

Modelling the centrifugal mixing process of minced meat to optimise the production of chopped meat semi-finished products

One of the most important problems in ensuring the quality of mincemeat preparation in the production of sausages is the effective structuring of components and mixing of their ingredients. To solve this problem, researchers added a multifunctional admixture based on whey protein in the process of centrifugal mixing of the components, which determined the composition of the factor space of the investigated process. Based on the results of the research, the effective content of whey protein, sodium alginate, and soy fiber in the developed recipe was proven, which showed high characteristics in terms of fat-retaining and moisture-retaining ability, digestibility, pH level – activity, and other parameters. The developed formulation made it possible to improve the general indicator of the balance of amino acids in the product and increase the functional-technological and quality parameters of the developed products. The physical and mechanical characteristics of the obtained meat product were evaluated based on the results of physical and mathematical modelling. Modelling was carried out using Federman-on-Buckingham's second similarity theory and the "dimension theory" method, which allows the processing of the obtained experimental data in the form of a criterion equation, which was compiled using Froude, Euler, and Sherwood criteria. The purpose of this study was to obtain dependencies between such process factors as product density, the coefficient of dynamic viscosity of the technological medium, the ultimate shear stress, the change in the concentration of the main impurities of lactic acid in the raw material, the value of the diffusion coefficient and the coefficient of mass transfer in the loading mass, the weight of one load of products, the angular frequency of rotation of the screws of the minced meat mixer, the radius of the rotating working bodies, the characteristic size of the products after grinding. Using the complex criterion equation and the developed program, we find a recommended set of operating mode parameters for preparing minced meat under the conditions of centrifugal influence on the mixing process and the action of the specified factors.

Cellular patterning and cyto-architectural organization of the skin of electric catfish (Malapterurus electricus, Siluriformes) with a particular emphasis on its ampullary electroreceptor

The functional morphology of the skin of Malapteruridae is presumably evolved to cope with a diversified range of ambient physiological, environmental, and behavioral conditions. Herein, we firstly characterized the microstructures and intriguing patterning of the skin of twelve adult electric catfish (Malapterurus electricus, Malapteruridae) using histological, histochemical, immunofluorescent, and ELISA standard methodology. The skin comprises three sequentially–oriented layers: the epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis with a significantly increased thickness of the former. The epidermis contains four types of cells: the surface epithelial cells, mucous cells, granular cells, and club cells. We defined distinctive ampullary electroreceptors in the outer epidermis that possess flask-shaped sensory crypt containing electroreceptor cells together with vertical collagen rods. Dermis and hypodermis are composed of connective tissue; however, the former is much more coarse and dense with comparable reactivity for Masson–Goldner trichrome (MT). Placing our data in the context of the limited body of previous work, we showed subtle changes in the expression of mucin subunits together with cytoskeletal fractions of collagens, myosin, F-actin, keratins, and tubulins. Taken as a whole, our results convincingly showed that the skin of M. electricus shares some structural similarities to other Siluriformes, however, it has some functional modifications that are implicated in protection, defense, and foraging behavior.

Comparative Legislative Research as Gerhard Loewenberg Saw It

Abstract This article attempts to capture the fundamental conclusions of Gerhard Loewenberg’s comparative legislative research. As an early leader in the field, Loewenberg focused on comparative legislative research in his scholarship throughout this career, producing a significant body of work on the topic. This article may be viewed as a tribute but carries a great deal of relevance for legislative studies. It highlights enduring questions not only about research in the field of legislative studies as Loewenberg saw them, but also his preoccupation with unlocking the puzzles surrounding the core substantive issues of legislative concern. A careful analysis of Loewenberg’s research shows key advances as well as notable shortcomings of comparative legislative studies over the last several decades.

Towards sustainable assessment formats in language teaching: testing integrated skills with portfolio-based tasks

In this paper, we share our experience of using portfolio-based tasks to assess integrated skills in German and Spanish language modules at level C1. The modules, delivered during the academic year 2022-23, are part of the institution-wide language provision at Durham University, which means that students come from various disciplines different from Modern Languages.
 The assessment system we have used is based on the principles of flexibility and choice. Throughout the year, students build up a body of work where they record and reflect on the experiences of a person living in a country where the target language is spoken. The portfolio contains both formative and summative submissions, so that students can benefit from the feedback received for formative tasks to fine-tune their summative work. In this regard, the system involves a combination of assessment for learning and assessment as learning. Every submission integrates different language skills, as well as transferable skills such as decision-making, autonomy, creativity, critical thinking and intercultural knowledge. Besides adding authenticity to the assessment tasks, the development of these skills is aligned with the principles of education for sustainable development (AdvanceHE, 2021).
 At the end of the paper, we explain what we have learned from the use of this assessment system, as well as the aspects that we would like to enhance and those that we would need to improve in future editions.

Primary Business Value System and Disclosures Paradigm Shift: A Literature Review

The study sought to contribute to the general body of knowledge and research work in primary business value system (PBVS). The research work also aimed to establish the most prominent types of values from the literature and ascertain how PBVS elements are interconnected, their disclosure and impact on business performance. The concept of business values as a system is relatively new. However, this paper’s purpose is to bridge the various pieces of PBVS knowledge in literature by systematically reviewing a collection of articles on the subject and drawing valuable conclusions relating to the various paradigms or schools of thought. The researcher, for this study, identified and critically reviewed thirty (30) old and recent articles on PBVS that were gathered from highly recognized and profiled research databases, including Google Scholar, Research Gate and Elsevier (database), Persistent themes on the prevalent forms of BVS, their interconnectedness in a business establishment. It became clear that defining PBVS exists because of the systematic connectedness of the core values. There is enough evidence from the literature that when implemented well, PBVS yields effective connectedness of the core values to render a company a unity whole and consequently, make business sense.

The Construction of Space in Ulysses, a Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Dubliners by James Joyce

Scholars in the field of literature often focus on analysing narratives, with particular attention given to how time organisation contributes to conveying meaning. However, comparatively less consideration has been given to the exploration of spatial dimensions. This is gradually changing due to two significant shifts. Firstly, geographers, influenced by a cultural perspective, have started examining the interplay between artefacts and their environments. Their research on landscape design, architecture, and urban structures highlights how physical spaces reflect cultural dynamics and political ideologies. Additionally, there's a growing body of work exploring the geography of creativity, investigating the relationship between localities and the socio-cultural factors driving innovation, whether economic or artistic. Taking its cue from these areas, this research paper will explore Dublin's significance as an inspirational setting for Joyce, its geography as a site for the reproduction of social hierarchies, and its landscape as affected by contested political representations between Britain and Ireland. These investigations will transcend the traditional boundaries of Geography, intersecting with broader spatial theories influenced by postcolonial and postmodern perspectives.

Editorial: Language and Law

Initiated against the backdrop of the NWU Faculty of Law's inaugural "Justice in Practice" colloquium in March 2022, this collection of articles represents an independent and meticulously scrutinised body of work. While inspired by the colloquium's overarching theme, each contribution has undergone a rigorous, blind peer review process, ensuring scholarly rigor and individual merit. The colloquium served as a catalyst for exploring unchartered territories in language and law research, emphasising the global South's unique perspective enriched by multilingualism and multiculturalism. In the complex tapestry of human society, the dynamic interplay between language and the legal domain emerges as a dynamic and evolving field demanding scholarly exploration and understanding.

Digest: The importance of genetic background in bacterial evolution.

How does genetic background influence a population's evolutionary response to an environmental change? Which traits are selected for and how quickly does the population adapt? Filipow et al. (2024) address these questions by exploiting the natural genetic variation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterium often found in the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients. They find that while genetic background influences the rate of phenotypic evolution, it does not alter the evolutionary outcome. Their findings contribute to a growing body of work that connects genetic background to future evolvability.

Imperial algorithms: Contemporary manifestations of racism and colonialism.

In this special issue, we invited contributions that critically examined issues of imperialism, colonialism, power, justice, etc. to expand the canon of anticolonial scholarship and critical scholarship in community psychology. Our two objectives were: (1) to build on the canon of anticolonial and critical race scholarship to cultivate an empirical and theoretical body of work and conceptual frameworks about racism and colonialism within the field of community psychology and (2) to unpack the different manifestations of racism in society from the lens of community psychology and reflect on the implications of these varied forms of injustice in the contemporary moment. Rooted in African epistemology and methodology (Martin, 2012), we find the concept of the algorithm to serve as a potent metaphor for the ways in which these oppressive structures operate given the prevalence of algorithms in our daily lives and the algorithm is symbolic of the information age and predictive powers that seem to govern society beyond conscious control. In this sense, imperial algorithms are these structures, patterns, processes, and procedures that perpetuate imperialism. These imperial algorithms manifest as neo-colonialism, surveillance, social engineering, carcerality, reality warping of contemporary racism, health disparities exacerbated by COVID-19, and environmental grids of oppression.

Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Dairy Consumption Trends: An Empirical Investigation of Accounting Data in China.

The COVID-19 pandemic may have had a negative impact on dairy consumption trends. Many dairy products are perishable and have relatively high income elasticity, causing their susceptibility to market fluctuations in general, including those specifically caused by the pandemic. However, the pandemic has also brought some other prospective possibilities. For example, during the pandemic, people paid more attention to nutrition and health issues and increased the number of meals prepared and eaten at home. In consideration of the particular circumstances during the pandemic, the Chinese government issued several policies to promote the population's dairy consumption, and the Chinese dairy cattle sector actively implemented the policy of "guarantee price, quality, and supply". These factors may have caused the Chinese population to increase their consumption of dairy products during the pandemic. Before the pandemic, the consumption of dairy products in the Chinese population showed an overall upward trend. The question addressed in this study is how has COVID-19 affected dairy consumption trends during the pandemic? This study uses accounting data from the Chinese dairy cattle sector to empirically analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on dairy consumption trends through economic theories and translog revenue function. Our study found that COVID-19 increased consumers' consumption of dairy products in China, but those people experiencing poverty may still have experienced inadequate dairy intake. This study has contributed to the body of work in this area in the literature and provides response strategies for the dairy cattle sector and the authorities.

Socially disruptive technologies and epistemic injustice

Recent scholarship on technology-induced ‘conceptual disruption’ has spotlighted the notion of a conceptual gap. Conceptual gaps have also been discussed in scholarship on epistemic injustice, yet up until now these bodies of work have remained disconnected. This article shows that ‘gaps’ of interest to both bodies of literature are closely related, and argues that a joint examination of conceptual disruption and epistemic injustice is fruitful for both fields. I argue that hermeneutical marginalization—a skewed division of hermeneutical resources, which serves to diminish the experiences of marginalized folk—does not only transpire because of conceptual gaps, but also because of two other kinds of conceptual disruption: conceptual overlaps and conceptual misalignments. Hence, there are multiple kinds of conceptual disruption that can be usefully studied through the normative lens of epistemic injustice. Technology can play different roles vis-a-vis epistemic injustices, both as a causal trigger of conceptual disruption, but also as a mediator of hermeneutical resources. Its role is normatively significant, in particular because socially disruptive technologies can have different epistemic implications for different groups: they may amplify the epistemic resources of some groups, while diminishing those of others.

DRIFT ALIGNMENT: ASTRONOMY, CELESTIAL NAVIGATION, AND THE US-MEXICO BORDER

Drift Alignment is an ongoing body of work that engages the complex and contested history of the US-Mexico border through the practices of astrophotography and celestial navigation. My primary motivation for this work has been an examination of both the material and ideological conditions that led to the formation of the border, as well as its lasting relationship with colonialism, and the tragic consequences of immigration enforcement. Throughout the series, works oscillate between attempts at precision and its inverse — both subjective experience and mathematical error — to build a more poetic understanding of the region and its inhabitants. Photographic and video works in the series are based on a combination of archival information related to the border surveys during the mid-nineteenth century, eighteenth century Spanish missionary activity, and contemporary GIS data for migrant deaths in southern Arizona. Other work was produced during extended visits to sites that are tied to my past and present connection with the border, as well as historically significant locations that point to the shifting ways of perceiving and understanding of the lands of the American southwest.

TREVOR PAGLEN’S BORDER ABSTRACTIONS IN THE AGE OF MACHINE VISION

Over the past two decades, machine vision and artificial intelligence (AI) have become integrated into many aspects of daily life, and with machines generating images for other machines, humans are no longer at the centre of the image world. To explore the implications of the age of machine vision, this article focuses on a selection of work by American artist Trevor Paglen made between 2008 and 2018. It examines the significance of the US-Mexico border region as a site of his investigations and the role of abstraction in repositioning machine vision within the human-centred visual language of art. The article shows how Paglen’s body of work turns toward the nonhuman to consider what it means to make images when representation is no longer primarily a site for the construction of meaning by humans but is also a field of data for analysis by machines. It explores how Paglen conveys the interplay between different models of vision with an aesthetic sensibility that develops from the history of photography but signals the breakdown of representational photography. His work highlights the contested space of the US-Mexico border region as a key site in a surveillance infrastructure that depends on a new regime of vision and offers a space to reflect on what it means to live in a world where most images are now made by and for machines.

Reframing Revolution and Solidarity: Photography and Visual Culture in ospaaal Poster Art (1967–1990)

Abstract This article analyses the uses of photography in the posters produced and distributed by the Organisation of solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America (ospaaal) between 1967 and 1990. Founded during the Tricontinental Conference of 1966, ospaaal was active until 2019 and had as one of its main tasks the creation of propaganda materials helping promote causes supported by the Cuban government across the three continents. The organisation produced over 300 posters distributed globally along with its official magazine, the Tricontinental. We combine thematic and visual perspectives in examining how ospaaal posters published during the Cold War period made use of photography. Our goal is to understand how ospaaal contributed to a reframing of ‘solidarity’ and ‘revolution’ through tricontinental lenses. The article is structured to provide an overview of how the organisation utilised photography in its poster production, to demonstrate how this body of work is connected to inter-war photographic traditions and contemporary left-wing visual culture, and to reflect on ospaaal’s contributions to revolutionary iconography.

Discursive Legitimation: An Integrative Theoretical Framework and Agenda for Future Research

In recent years, we have seen a proliferation of research on discursive legitimation, which has shed light on how legitimacy is established through communication. However, this body of work remains fragmented, and there is a need to synthesize and develop a more comprehensive and in-depth theoretical understanding of this vibrant area of research. This article aims to address this need by providing an integrative theoretical framework and outlining an agenda for future research. The framework encompasses five key elements of discursive legitimation: strategies, positions, foundations, temporality, and arenas. Drawing on this framework, we present a research agenda that highlights key topics related to these elements along with theoretical and methodological considerations cutting across them. Our contribution lies in conceptualizing discursive legitimation as a multifaceted and dynamic phenomenon, offering a complementary framework to existing models and paving the way for future studies, and placing discursive strategies—which have been the focus of prior research—in context by highlighting the critical role of key discursive elements in enabling or constraining legitimation processes.

ON THE ISSUE OF THE COMPREHENSIVE IMPACT OF NEGATIVE AND HARMFUL FACTORS ON THE OCCURRENCE OF OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES

Most of the time, a person spends indoors, and up to 40 % of this time is spent at their workplace. Therefore, the environmental conditions, whether at home or at work, have a significant impact on the human body and their performance. The modern world is influenced by more than a hundred real existing negative factors that affect industry, daily life, and the natural environment. According to the standards defined in DSTU-N B A.3.2-1:2007 “Occupational Safety Standards. Guidelines for Identifying Hazardous and Harmful Factors and Protection Against Their Impact in Production”, environmental factors are divided into several groups: physical, chemical, biological and psychophysiological. The presence of these factors affects the health and safety of individuals while performing their professional duties. The purpose of the article. Conducting a comprehensive analysis of the impact of negative and harmful factors on the occurrence of occupational diseases in the workplace with the aim of developing recommendations for improving working conditions and preventing occupational diseases. Conclusion. 1. A comprehensive approach is necessary to address the tasks of creating safe working conditions and providing a normal working environment for enterprise personnel. 2. The significant complexity of the comprehensive impact of harmful factors on production workers requires the provision of optimal working conditions and the preservation of workers' health. 3. It is important to study the combined effect of various production environment factors on the worker's body in manufacturing processes involving high temperatures. 4. The assessment of working conditions in areas with elevated thermal radiation is not yet complete because it does not consider qualitative characteristics of thermal radiation, such as spectral composition, vector energy distribution, the influence of splashes, and particles of molten metal, and the operating mode of heat radiation sources. 5. Based on the analysis of collected data in the workshops of petrochemical and metallurgical enterprises, it has been found that the most dangerous and challenging working conditions, with limited research from the standpoint of working conditions, are the workplaces and areas with elevated thermal radiation, where sanitary norms are exceeded by more than 100 times. 6. Quantitative and qualitative characteristics of excessive thermal radiation, such as spectral composition (direct and transformed radiation) and vector distribution, as well as the influence of splashes and particles of molten metal, were not taken into account when addressing protection from thermal radiation. 7. There is currently no unified methodology for researching working conditions and developing recommendations for their improvement.

The sanctity of decoding: Reframing Hebrew literacy in the United States and Europe

Aims and Objectives: This article explores the challenges Jewish children face in educational programs teaching about Judaism and Jewish culture located in the United States and Europe. Students learn to decode Hebrew but not to read for comprehension, which conflicts with other types of literacy learning they encounter throughout their education in school and at home. Methodology: The study is based on long-term participant observation at two religious education programs, one in the United States and one in Luxembourg. Data and Analysis: A language socialization lens was applied to coded fieldnotes to bring findings into conversation with each other. Findings: Following initial frustrations stemming from a mismatch between American and European schooled literacy expectations and Hebrew decoding, students came to understand Hebrew as a distinctive sacred language. This allowed them to reconceptualize decoding as a successful and meaningful form of literacy and to see themselves as competent Hebrew users and members of a broader Jewish community. Originality: Existing studies primarily focus on sacred languages and literacies oriented around supporting connections with the divine. This study contributes to the existing body of work by illustrating religious literacy education aimed at cultivating communal and religious identification. Implications: This study provides evidence that decoding of sacred texts without comprehension of lexico-semantic content can be a meaningful form of literacy that enables religious members to affirm and do community without explicit reference to divine relations. It argues for a distinctive form of bilingualism in which the sacred language and talk about it work together to create meaningful religious learning.

Visions for Merrie England: A Survey Examination of Royalist Views and Beliefs in the English Civil War

The English Civil War was the outlet for years of frustration against the status-quo political regime, and allowed, in the chaos, the expression for a variety of beliefs and values. One of the many factions in the conflict were the Royalists, those for one reason or another, supported the rule of Charles I. Despite the vast amount of research in the English Civil War, little attention is given to the Royalist views and beliefs and the common image that arises is a group defined by nepotism, elitism, and corruption. This survey seeks to recover a more complete image of Royalist perspective in the era of conflict by examining a variety of primary published sources, such as books, pamphlets and poetry, from a variety of people with differing statuses and lives. This analysis of said primary sources yields the Royalists own views and conceptions of beliefs that complicate and challenge the typical assumptions about Royalism and its adherents. In doing so, it adds to a growing body of work examining all levels and sections of belief within England and provides a more nuanced image of the political situation at the time.