The Clear Line in Comics and Cinema

The “clear line”, a term coined in 1977 by Dutch essayist and artist Joost Swarte, has become shorthand in the field of comics studies for the style originally developed by Hergé and the École de Bruxelles. It refers to certain storytelling strategies that generate a deceptively simple, lucid, and hygienic narration: in Philippe Marion’s words, it is a style “made out of light, fluidity and limpid clarity”. By cataloguing and critically analysing clear line comics from historical and theoretical perspectives, this book offers a new outlook on the development of the style in the 20th and 21st centuries, especially focused on the context of the European bande dessinée. In addition, it pioneeringly expands the concept of “clear line” to other artistic domains by introducing and defending its transmedial use, which is particularly relevant for the understanding of the oeuvres of certain filmmakers of the 20th century working in the postwar period, such as Yasujirô Ozu in Japan, Jacques Tati in France and Frank Tashlin in the United States. The Clear Line in Comics and Cinema is therefore a key theoretical work for both bande dessinée enthusiasts and comics scholars, as well as a fundamental contribution to present-day film studies and transmedial narratology.

Host related factors determine co-occurrence patterns between pathogenic bacteria, protozoa, and helminths in populations of the multimammate mouse, Mastomys natalensis

Advances in experimental and theoretical work increasingly suggest that parasite interactions within a single host can affect the spread and severity of wildlife diseases. Yet empirical data to support predicted co-infection patterns are limited due to the practical challenges of gathering convincing data from animal populations and the stochastic nature of parasite transmission. Here, we investigated co-infection patterns between micro- (bacteria and protozoa) and macroparasites (gastrointestinal helminths) in natural populations of the multimammate mouse (Mastomys natalensis). Fieldwork was performed in Morogoro (Tanzania), where we trapped 211 individual M. natalensis and tested their behavior using a modified open-field arena. All animals were checked on the presence of helminths in their gastrointestinal tract, three bacteria (Anaplasma, Bartonella, and Borrelia) and two protozoan genera (Piroplasma and Hepatozoon). Besides the presence of eight different helminth genera (reported earlier), we found that 21% of M. natalensis were positive for Anaplasma, 13% for Bartonella, and 2% for Hepatozoon species. Hierarchical modelling of species communities was used to investigate the effect of the different host-related factors on these parasites infection probability and community structure. Our results show that the infection probability of Anaplasma and Bartonella was higher in adults than juveniles. We also observed that females and less explorative individuals had a higher infection probability with Bartonella. We found limited support for within-host interactions between micro-and macroparasites, as only animals infected with Bartonella were significantly more likely to be infected with Protospirura, Trichuris, and Trichostrongylidae helminths.

From Bureaucratic Discipline to Self-Actualization: Using Marx and Foucault to Critique the Demand for Better Work Rather Than Less Work

This essay brings together Karl Marx’s alienation critique with Michel Foucault’s theoretical work on technologies of power to examine the demand for self-actualizing work. I argue that many of the themes in Marx’s writings appear frequently in the human relations management literature and are later incorporated by New Public Management. However, Foucault’s work is shown to complement and extend Marx’s initial alienation analysis, and then to highlight the reliance of human relations management on disciplinary technologies. Lost in the demand for better work is a more radical vision of harnessing machinery to bring about a post-work society.

Dangerous Liaisons?

Entrepreneurship is an essential engine for economic growth and innovation. During the last two decades, there has been a lot of academic interest in this kind of activity but only recently has research attention been devoted to the ethical problems encountered by entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. In this chapter, the authors highlight the ethical issues inherent to family firms. Intrapreneurs in a family business face uniquely moral problems related to fundamental fairness, succession process, copyright and brand use, and other challenges. For example, younger generations in family firms face a tricky balancing act between their loyalty to their families and finding new ventures or spin-offs based on the current business. This theoretical work aims to present some contemporary research in entrepreneurial ethics, examines the kinds of ethical dilemmas entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs face, identifies significant research topics and methodological approaches, and discusses possible directions for future research.

Rules of Program Behavior

We propose a framework for identifying, organizing, and communicating learning objectives that involve program semantics. In this framework, detailed learning objectives are written down as rules of program behavior (RPBs). RPBs are teacher-facing statements that describe what needs to be learned about the behavior of a specific sort of programs. Different programming languages, student cohorts, and contexts call for different RPBs. Instructional designers may define progressions of RPB rulesets for different stages of a programming course or curriculum; we identify evaluation criteria for RPBs and discuss tradeoffs in RPB design. As a proof-of-concept example, we present a progression of rulesets designed for teaching beginners how expressions, variables, and functions work in Python. We submit that the RPB framework is valuable to practitioners and researchers as a tool for design and communication. Within computing education research, the framework can inform, among other things, the ongoing exploration of “notional machines” and the design of assessments and visualizations. The theoretical work that we report here lays a foundation for future empirical research that compares the effectiveness of RPB rulesets as well as different methods for teaching a particular ruleset.

Evolution of Social Learning with Payoff and Content Bias

There has been much theoretical work aimed at understanding the evolution of social learning; and in most of it, individual and social learning are treated as distinct processes. A number of authors have argued that this approach is faulty because the same psychological mechanisms underpin social and individual learning. In previous work, we analyzed a simple model in which both individual and social learning are the result of a single learning process. Here, we extend this approach by showing how payoff and content biases evolve. We show that payoff bias leads to higher average fitness when environments are noisy and change rapidly. Content bias always evolves when the expected fitness benefits of alternative traits differ.

Second-Law Analysis of a Double-Effect Evaporator with Thermal Vapor Compression

In this paper, we present a steady-state analysis of a double-effect evaporator with thermal vapor compression (MED-TVC) installed in the Tunisian Chemical Group (GCT) factory. A thermodynamic model including mass and energy balances of the system is developed and integrated in a Matlab program. The model resolution yields to the determination of the operating parameters of the plant and the Gain Output Rate (GOR) was found to be roughly equal to 5. In a second step, the simulation results served to conduct a second law analysis of the unit. The performance criterion used in this analysis is the second law efficiency, i.e., the ratio of the least theoretical work of separation to the actual work input to the plant. The second law efficiency was found to be 2.4%. The distribution of the irreversibility between the different components of the plant was, in addition, assessed. As a conclusion, it was established that the most irreversibility occurs in the thermo-compressor which contributes with more than 50% to the global imperfection and which presents an exergy efficiency of less than 77%. The remaining irreversibility comes from the three exchangers (the two evaporators and the condenser) with an average contribution of 16%. As it is very difficult to introduce modifications into an existing unit, we assume that the importance of the results is not limited to the studied unit. They serve, rather, as an aid to the future design of a MED-TVC plant.

Growth kinetics and power laws indicate distinct mechanisms of cell-cell interactions in the aggregation process

Cellular aggregation is a complex process orchestrated by various kinds of interactions depending on its environments. Different interactions give rise to different pathways of cellular rearrangement and the development of specialized tissues. To distinguish the underlying mechanisms, in this theoretical work, we investigate the spontaneous emergence of tissue patterns from an ensemble of single cells on a substrate following three leading pathways of cell-cell interactions, namely, direct cell adhesion contacts, matrix mediated mechanical interaction, and chemical signalling. Our analysis shows that the growth kinetics of the aggregation process is distinctly different for each pathway and bears the signature of the specific cell-cell interactions. Interestingly, we find that the average domain size and the mass of the clusters exhibit a power law growth in time under certain interaction mechanisms hitherto unexplored. Further, as observed in experiments, the cluster size distribution can be characterized by stretched exponential functions showing distinct cellular organization processes.

Disasters and the Theory of Emergency Management

Disasters and the theory of emergency management are vibrant subjects for scholars. Researchers have focused on a variety of topics, including the definition of disasters, human behavior in extreme events, the nature of emergency management, ways to make the profession more effective, the pros and cons of various paradigms, and new areas of research. In studying these subjects, scholars have employed a variety of methods, including observation, field research, and comparison, among others. Findings from research reveals that humans are responsible for disasters and that vulnerability must be reduced. Studies reveal that antisocial behavior is less likely to occur than more common activities to support victims of disasters. The principles of emergency management have been elaborated, and scholars have argued that the phases of disasters are more complex that initially meets they eye. Research also reveals that bureaucratic approaches to emergency management are based on false assumptions and are too rigid. Scholarship also explores how to make emergency management functions more effective, and a number of articles have been written to explore paradigms to guide research and practice. Theoretical work on disasters and emergency management has examined planning, improvisation, and spontaneous planning. Research has also explored humanitarian logistics, the use of social media, the scholarship of teaching and learning, cultural competency and the culture of preparedness. Going forward, more research is needed on the complexity of disasters and the use or impact of technology in emergency management. A greater understanding of public health emergencies is warranted due to the challenges of Covid-19.

A review of continuum damage and plasticity in concrete: Part I – Theoretical framework

In the past few decades, extensive research on concrete modeling to predict behavior, crack propagation, microcrack coalescence by utilizing different approaches (fracture mechanics, continuum damage mechanics) were investigated theoretically and numerically. The presented paper aims to review the theoretical work of continuum concrete damage and plasticity modeling in part I of the work. The detailed theoretical work is presented with some of the supporting work related to multiscale modeling and phase-field modeling is also part of this paper. Few other applications related to rate-dependent models and fatigue in concrete are also discussed. In part II of this work, the review of numerical work limited to finite element is presented. Some open issues in concrete damage modeling and future research needed are also discussed in part II.