Of Time, Renewal, and Scholarship: Volume 11 (2021) Wrapped

This editorial discusses the articles published and the activities undertaken by The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship during 2021, and calls for research system-wide cultural changes and wider contextual awareness in order to make scholarly communication fairer and up to the challenges of our time.

Using the automated Verasonics system for physical modeling of skeletal muscle biomechanics

The paper describes the use of the Verasonics research system for physical modeling of skeletal muscle biomechanics. The scheme of the acoustic system is described. The path of receiving and processing the signal is presented. A brief overview of the operation of software algorithms for the implementation of methods of ultrasound diagnostics is made. A mathematical model of skeletal muscle as a flat-layered medium is considered. The implementation of this model in the form of a fibers agar phantom is proposed. Using the Verasonics acoustic system shear velocities of physical fibers agar phantom were measured. Shear modules for agar and fibers were calculated. The obtained values are consistent with similar characteristics of native muscles and connective tissue fibers.

The Role of China’s Teaching Research System in Promoting Evidence-based Reform in Education: A Case Study of Jiangsu Province

Teaching research system is a unique professional community of education and teaching research in China. It is an important driving and leading force in promoting evidence-based reform in education in China. Using fifteen-year exploration of evidence-based reform in education in Jiangsu Province as a case, this paper presents the ways and characteristics of evidence-based reform in education in China, with a focused analysis of the role of teaching research system in the reform. Despite its uniqueness, China’s evidence-based reform in education can still contribute experience to its world counterpart.

Intrusion Alert Reduction Based on Unsupervised and Supervised Learning Algorithms

Security and protection of information is an ever-evolving process in the field of information security. One of the major tools of protection is the Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS). For so many years, IDS have been developed for use in computer networks, they have been widely used to detect a range of network attacks; but one of its major drawbacks is that attackers, with the evolution of time and technology make it harder for IDS systems to cope. A sub-branch of IDS-Intrusion Alert Analysis was introduced into the research system to combat these problems and help support IDS by analyzing the alert triggered by the IDS. Intrusion Alert analysis has served as a good support for IDS systems for many years but also has its own short comings which are the amount of the voluminous number of alerts produced by IDS systems. From years of research, it has been observed that majority of the alerts produced are undesirables such as duplicates, false alerts, etc., leading to huge amounts of alerts causing alert flooding. This research proposed the reduction alert by targeting these undesirable alerts through the integration of supervised and unsupervised algorithms and approach. The research first selects significant features by comparing two feature ranking techniques this targets duplicates, low priority and irrelevant alert. To achieve further reduction, the research proposed the integration of supervised and unsupervised algorithms to filter out false alerts. Based on this, an effective model was gotten which achieved 94.02% reduction rate of alerts. Making use of the dataset ISCX 2012, experiments were conducted and the model with the highest reduction rate was chosen. The model was evaluated against other experimental results and benchmarked against a related work, it also improved on the said related work.

Developing a model for health determinants research within local government: lessons from a large, urban local authority

Background: Socio-economic, cultural and environmental conditions strongly affect health across the life course. Local government plays a key role in influencing these wider determinants of health and levels of inequality within their communities. However, they lack the research infrastructure and culture that would enable them to develop an evidence-based approach to tackling the complex drivers of those conditions. Methods: We undertook a scoping project to explore the potential for, and what would be needed to develop a local authority research system for the City of Bradford, UK. This included identifying the current research landscape and any barriers and enablers to research activity within the local authority using qualitative individual and focus group interviews, a rapid review of existing local research system models, scoping of the use of evidence in decision making and training opportunities and existing support for local government research. Results: We identified four key themes important to developing and sustaining a research system: leadership, resource and capacity, culture, partnerships. Some use of research in decision making was evident but research training opportunities within the local authority were limited. Health research funders are slowly adapting to the local government environment, but this remains limited and more work is needed to shift the centre of gravity towards public health, local government and the community more generally. Conclusions: We propose a model for a local authority research system that can guide the development of an exemplar whole system research framework that includes research infrastructure, data sharing, research training and skills, and co-production with local partners, to choose, use, generate, and deliver research in local government.

The Relationship Between School Bullying and Subjective Well-Being: The Mediating Effect of School Belonging

In order to deepen people's understanding of how school bullying influences subjective well-being of students involved, this research system explores the relationship between school bullying, school belonging, and subjective well-being, and the data of students in mainland China (represented by Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang) participating in the PISA 2018 test were used for analysis. The results show that school bullying has a significant negative correlation between students' school belonging and subjective well-being. Besides, school belonging plays a part role in mediating the negative correlation between school bullying and subjective well-being of middle school.

Unplanned but well prepared: A reinterpreted success story of international agricultural research, and its implications

A recent study found that adoption rates of improved chickpea varieties were above 90 per cent in Andhra Pradesh, India. In this paper, we use a novel perspective to reconstruct and attribute how this outcome came about. The accepted success narrative is that the public international agricultural research system developed some excellent new chickpea varieties, which were well suited to local agro-ecologies, farming systems and cropping patterns, and highly appreciated by farmers. We argue that this narrative is incomplete, because it constitutes only a partial explanation of the confluence of factors that led to the outcome. We reconstruct the success story using a recent conceptual framework that decomposes the technological change process into four aspects: propositions, encounters, dispositions and responses (PEDR). We show that many of the factors which contributed to the spread of modern chickpea varieties in Andhra Pradesh lay beyond the control of the international agricultural research system, and operated across large spatial and temporal scales. In conclusion, we argue that the success of improved chickpeas in Andhra Pradesh underscores the value of basic plant breeding and research, which aim to produce public goods. We relate our analysis to current discussions about the future strategic direction of international agricultural research organisations and the CGIAR. Our argument implies a criticism of the drive to develop new varieties which conform to product profiles that are based on predictions of current and near-term demand. While that approach makes sense for product developers seeking to serve commercial markets, basic research is needed to create and diversify technical options, which anticipate a range of future needs that are hard to predict in the present.

Dynamics of Sharia Cooperative Regulation in Indonesia

The development of Sharia Cooperatives in Indonesia has experienced a significant increase. Islamic cooperatives are one of the alternatives for some members who will build cooperatives based on several sharia principles. The establishment of sharia cooperatives has encountered conflicts, which are not only in Law Number 25 of 1992 on Cooperatives but are also regulated in Law Number 1 of 2013 concerning Micro Financial Institutions. The formulation of the problem of this research is to find legal clarity in the registration and establishment of a sharia cooperative legal body. The research system used in reviewing the registration and establishment of the legal body of Islamic cooperatives uses normative legal research, which is called library research. From the results of this research, the establishment of a sharia cooperative legal body still refers to Law Number 25 of 1992 concerning Cooperatives as replaced by Law Number 11 of 2020 concerning Job Creation. This is because the Microfinance Institution Law only states that the cooperative is a form of MFI legal entity and does not control in detail the cooperative. This system uses statutory provisions as special legal material and is supported by secondary legal materials in the form of books and journal articles.