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Conjoined first (atlas) and second (axis) cervical vertebrae in an eastern wapiti (Cervus canadensis canadensis) from the Angel Site (1000-1400 CE, Indiana, USA)
Get PDFAtlantoaxial abnormalities are rarely documented among wild animals. Many defects of segmentation in the spine are hereditary in domestic species and humans. Here, we present a block vertebra in an eastern wapiti (Cervus canadensis canadensis) from the Angel Site (12Vg1) in southern Indiana (USA) dating to 1000–1400 CE. Diagnosis used macroscopic and radiographic examination. Evidence of inflammatory response and eburnation point to functional compromise. Recorded pathologies of this nature are underrepresented in the past and present. We suggest this specimen from an adult wapiti species represents a female as this condition would have been more debilitating in an antlered stag limiting the possibility of living well into adulthood
The Right to Citizenship of Rohingya children of Bangladeshi descent under international human rights law
Get PDFSince the outbreak of violence and persecution against Rohingyas in 2017 they have been fleeing Myanmar and taking refuge in Bangladesh. A significant number of them are married to a Bangladeshi citizen and their children are entitled to Bangladeshi citizenship by descent. However, these Rohingya children are not being registered as Bangladeshi citizen. As a result, a significant number of Rohingya children have become stateless. As Bangladesh is not a party to the statelessness conventions statelessness of these Rohingya children cannot be legally addressed under these conventions. This article explores citizenship right of these Rohingya children outside of these conventions. It argues that, although Bangladesh is not a party to the statelessness conventions it is a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and other international human rights treaties under which it is obliged to grant citizenship status to the Rohingya children born to a Bangladeshi parent
The Geopolitics of Deplatforming:A Study of Suspensions of Politically-Interested Iranian Accounts on Twitter
Get PDFSocial media companies increasingly play a role in regulating freedom of speech. Debates over ideological motivations behind suspension policies of major platforms are on the rise. This study contributes to this ongoing debate by looking at content moderation from a geopolitical perspective. The starting premise is that US-based social media companies may be inclined to moderate content on their platforms in compliance with US sanctions laws, especially those concerned with the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List. Despite the release of transparency reports by social media companies, we know little about the scope of the problem and the impact of suspensions on political conversations. I tracked 600,000 users who follow Iranian elites on Twitter. After accounting for alternative explanations, the results show that Principlist (conservative) users and those supportive of the Iranian government are significantly more likely to be suspended. Further analyses uncover the types of discussions that are being suppressed as a result of these suspensions. Although the exact mechanism at hand cannot be decisively isolated, this paper contributes to building a better understanding of how governments can influence conversations of geopolitical relevance, and how social media suspensions shape political conversations online
Does Ipsilateral Remapping Following Hand Loss Impact Motor Control of the Intact Hand?
Get PDFWhat happens once a cortical territory becomes functionally redundant? We studied changes in brain function and behavior for the remaining hand in humans (male and female) with either a missing hand from birth (one-handers) or due to amputation. Previous studies reported that amputees, but not one-handers, show increased ipsilateral activity in the somatosensory territory of the missing hand (i.e., remapping). We used a complex finger task to explore whether this observed remapping in amputees involves recruiting more neural resources to support the intact hand to meet greater motor control demands. Using basic fMRI analysis, we found that only amputees had more ipsilateral activity when motor demand increased; however, this did not match any noticeable improvement in their behavioral task performance. More advanced multivariate fMRI analyses showed that amputees had stronger and more typical representation-relative to controls' contralateral hand representation-compared with one-handers. This suggests that in amputees, both hand areas work together more collaboratively, potentially reflecting the intact hand's efference copy. One-handers struggled to learn difficult finger configurations, but this did not translate to differences in univariate or multivariate activity relative to controls. Additional white matter analysis provided conclusive evidence that the structural connectivity between the two hand areas did not vary across groups. Together, our results suggest that enhanced activity in the missing hand territory may not reflect intact hand function. Instead, we suggest that plasticity is more restricted than generally assumed and may depend on the availability of homologous pathways acquired early in life.</p
Morphological and molecular evidence for considering Xylocopa nigrocincta as the senior synonym of Xylocopa suspecta (Apidae: Xylocopini)
Get PDFXylocopa nigrocincta Smith, 1854, and Xylocopa suspecta Moure & Camargo, 1988, are two nominal species within the subgenus Neoxylocopa and have a sympatric geographic distribution in South America. While X. nigrocincta is recognized by the presence of reddish metasomatic bands, X. suspecta is entirely black. Although morphologically distinct in terms of metasomal band colour, other morphological characters suggest that both species could be the same evolutionary entity and therefore synonymous. The aim of this research was to review both nigrocincta and suspecta morphotypes using an integrative approach (morphological and molecular) to evaluate if they are truly two different evolutionary lineages. Females of both species were obtained from field collections and museums, representing a large part of their morphotype distribution. Additional diagnostic characters of the external morphology were investigated, such as metasomal band colour, metasomal punctuation, wing colours, and apical regions of the basitibial plate. Mitochondrial gene sequences (COI and CytB) were used for phylogenetic reconstructions. Our results showed that both nigrocincta and suspecta morphotypes are undistinguished based on morphology, although the metasomal band colour, together with the geographic distribution, revealed the presence of three distinct morphogroups, including an intermediate one with a variable number of reddish bands. Nonetheless, the three morphogroups are not supported by molecular data and therefore represent intra-specific variations. In conclusion, our results do not support the hypothesis that the two nominal species are distinct evolutionary lineages, and we propose a synonym between X. nigrocincta and X. suspecta
Unfolding dispositifs:Attempts at digital business education in North Korea
Get PDFScholars have drawn attention to educational spaces as sites of contestation and struggle. Researchers have increasingly scrutinised the power structures and relations that shape educational spaces, particularly in the mobilisation of education to further the economic competitiveness of nation-states. Adopting a dispositif lens, our ethnographic study examines digital business education in a North Korean university. In doing so, we uncover the unstable interplay between a dispositif of paternalist care and a dispositif of discipline, which are both required by the regime to control the development of new digital capabilities, examining the techniques used to develop and restrict digital education. In conclusion, our paper develops new understanding of how digital capabilities, through education, are simultaneously enabled and constrained, and how dispositifs differentially unfold across spac
How does Team Learning from Failure Facilitate New Product Performance? The Double-edged Moderating Effect of Collective Efficacy
Get PDFLearning from failure can foster innovation, but how a new product development (NPD) team’s learning from failure affects new product performance requires more insights. In particular, the question remains on how collective efficacy, which discerns team members’ belief to achieve desired goals, affects team learning from failure towards improving new product performance. Using social cognitive theory complemented by sensemaking and attribution theories, we examine the effects of NPD teams’ (experiential and vicarious) learning from failure on new product performance and the moderating effects of collective efficacy on these relationships. With survey data collected from 398 responses within 152 NPD teams in Chinese high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises, we find that both experiential and vicarious learning from failure enhance new product performance in terms of speed to market and product innovativeness. Further, as collective efficacy increases, the positive effect of experiential learning from failure on speed to market is strengthened. However, the positive effect of vicarious learning from failure on product innovativeness is weakened. Our results suggest that NPD teams can benefit from experiential and vicarious learning from failure to improve new product performance but must pay attention to the double-edged effect of collective efficacy
Are Right-wing Populists More Likely to Justify Political Violence?
Get PDFDo individuals with right-wing populist ideologies have higher violence-justification attitudes than those supporting different political ideologies? While the literature has confirmed the association between political violence and populism, research on which components of populist ideologies relate to individual attitudes towards political violence is relatively scarce. Based on 18 European democracies, this research note examines whether right-wing populist individuals are more likely to justify political violence to pursue their political goals. The analyses reveal that right-wing populists are generally more likely to justify political violence compared to mainstream voters and non-voters. Additionally, left-wing populist voters also support political violence, although the effect size is comparatively smaller. This indicates that voters’ radicalisation depends on populist ideologies rather than left-right ideological distinctions. The effect among right-wing populists depends on city residence, gender and immigration status. Subsequent analyses suggest that right-wing populists’ attitudes towards violence are not conditional on nativism or anti-immigration perceptions. These findings contribute to the general understanding of the nature and consequences of populism
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