Seeing Guns to See Urban Violence: Racial Inequality & Neighborhood Context

Guns are central to the comprehension of the racial inequalities in neighborhood violence. This may sound simple when presented so plainly. However, its significance derives from the limited consideration that the neighborhood research paradigm has given guns: they are typically conceived of as a background condition of disadvantaged neighborhoods where violence is concentrated. Instead, I argue that guns belong at the forefront of neighborhood analyses of violence. Employing the logic and language of the ecological approach, I maintain that guns must be considered as mechanisms of neighborhood violence, with the unequal distribution of guns serving as a critical link between neighborhood structural conditions and rates of violence. Furthermore, I make the case that American gun policy should be understood as a set of macrostructural forces that represent a historic and persistent source of disadvantage in poor Black neighborhoods.

Noise Attenuation Effects on Speech Recognition of Cochlear Implant Users Inside Helicopters

BACKGROUND: The speech recognition levels of cochlear implant (CI) users are still incompatible with ICAO hearing requirements for civil aviation pilots testing in the noisy background condition of the helicopter cockpit. In this study, we evaluated noise attenuation effects on speech recognition in the same background condition.METHODS: The study involved the evaluation of 12 Portuguese-speaking CI users with post-lingual deafness and with a pure tone average up to 35 dB HL between 500 and 2000 Hz and up to 50 dB at 3000 Hz on at least one of the ears, and of three normal hearing pilots (controls). We performed speech recognition tests using sentences, numbers, and disyllables for all participants through the VHF radio. The assessment took place inside a helicopter with engine on, using three setups: 1) with headset without the active noise cancellation; 2) activating the noise cancellation system of the headset itself; and 3) connecting the speech processor directly to the helicopter radio system.RESULTS: The headset active noise-cancellation improved only the recognition of sentences. The direct connection system compared to the headset without anti-noise attenuation significantly improved all the recognition tests. The median for numbers was 90%, but the best score for disyllables recognition was 56%.DISCUSSION: The noise attenuation resources proposed in this study improved the CI users speech recognition when exposed to the noisy helicopter cockpit. However, speech recognition of CI users still did not meet the standards of ICAO, which requires at least 80% for understanding disyllables in the speech in noise test.Caldeira JMA, Goffi-Gomez MVS, Imamura R, Bento RF. Noise attenuation effects on speech recognition of cochlear implant users inside helicopters. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2021; 92(11):880-885.

Identifying Fragmented Reading and Evaluating Its Influence on Cognition Based on Single Trial Electroencephalogram

Background: The use of social media daily could nurture a fragmented reading habit. However, little is known whether fragmented reading (FR) affects cognition and what are the underlying electroencephalogram (EEG) alterations it may lead to.Purpose: This study aimed to identify whether individuals have FR habits based on the single-trial EEG spectral features using machine learning (ML), as well as to find out the potential cognitive impairment induced by FR.Methods: Subjects were recruited through a questionnaire and divided into FR and noFR groups according to the time they spent on FR per day. Moreover, 64-channel EEG was acquired in Continuous Performance Task (CPT) and segmented into 0.5–1.5 s post-stimulus epochs under cue and background conditions. The sample sizes were as follows: FR in cue condition, 692 trials; noFR in cue condition, 688 trials; FR in background condition, 561 trials; noFR in background condition, 585 trials. For these single-trials, the relative power (RP) of six frequency bands [delta (1–3 Hz), theta (4–7 Hz), alpha (8–13 Hz), beta1 (14–20 Hz), beta2 (21–29 Hz), lower gamma (30–40 Hz)] were extracted as features. After feature selection, the most important feature sets were fed into three ML models, namely Support-Vector Machine (SVM), K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), and Naive Bayes to perform the identification of FR. RP of six frequency bands was also used as feature sets to conduct classification tasks.Results: The classification accuracy reached up to 96.52% in the SVM model under cue conditions. Specifically, among six frequency bands, the most important features were found in alpha and gamma bands. Gamma achieved the highest classification accuracy (86.69% for cue, 86.45% for background). In both conditions, alpha RP in central sites of FR was stronger than noFR (p < 0.001). Gamma RP in the frontal site of FR was weaker than noFR in the background condition (p < 0.001), while alpha RP in parieto-occipital sites of FR was stronger than noFR in the cue condition (p < 0.001).Conclusion: Fragmented reading can be identified based on single-trial EEG evoked by CPT using ML, and the RP of alpha and gamma may reflect the impairment on attention and working memory by FR. FR might lead to cognitive impairment and is worth further exploration.

Synchronicity of Condition Factor with Reproductive Development in Rainbow Snakehead (Channa bleheri Vierke, 1991)

Background: Condition factor is an important factor to determine the general well being of any species. It is influenced by different factors like feeding, age of the fish, season, development of gonads etc. Reproductive development on other hand is a crucial factor in determining the condition of fish as gonad weight has certain impact on increasing the weight of fish as well as the condition of the fish. The experiment was thus to determine whether there is any synchronicity of reproductive development in the near threatened snakehead Channa bleheri with respect to its condition factor value.Methods: The condition of C. bleheri was closely monitored based on lenth-weight data round the year. The gonadal development of the species was determined calculating the Gonado-Somatic Ratio (GSR) as well as histological observation of the gonads.Result: It was found that the value of condition factor was directly proportional to the gonadal development which signifies the importance of gonad development in determining the fish condition. As there are many established factors that determine a fish condition, the inputs drawn out from the reproductive development can help to determine the condition of the fish.

Understanding Ki Hadjar Dewantara’s educational philosophy

This article aims to describe the philosophy proposed by Ki Hadjar Dewantara ing ngarsa sung tuladha, ing madya mangun karsa, tut wuri handayani interpreted using Schleiermacher’s hermeneutics. By doing grammatical and psychological interpretation, the authors explored issues on understanding how the philosophy affected Ki Hadjar Dewantara’s life. It was done by apprehending the background condition, which inspired his vision, thinking framework, and other related thinking concept. Ki Hadjar Dewantara’s vision is an educational concept, which implements local wisdom in the middle of the harsh life of colonialism. The philosophy of Ki Hadjar Dewantara comes from the meaningful local wisdom that both teacher and leader should be in the front performing model or example, in the middle to build intention, and behind to motivate learners/public.

Causation, Explanation, and the Metaphysics of Aspect

This book aims to answer the following questions: what is the difference between a cause and a background condition? What is it to manifest a disposition? Can dispositions be extrinsic? What is the most basic kind of causation? And, what might a structural explanation be? Each chapter takes up a subset of these questions; the chapters are written to be readable independently. The answers defended rely on three ideas. Two of those ideas use a distinction from the study of lexical aspect, namely the distinction between stative verbs and non-stative verbs. The first idea is that events go with non-stative verbs, in the sense that “If S, then an event occurred in virtue of the fact that S” is true when the main verb in the clause going in for “S” is non-stative. The second is that acting, doing something, goes with non-stative verbs, in the sense that “In Ving X did something” is true iff V is a non-stative verb. The third idea is about levels of explanation: “(A because B) because C” does not entail “A because C.”

A Theory of Background Conditions

The common view about background conditions is that the difference between causes and background conditions is pragmatic, drawn in language not the world. This chapter defends an alternative view, on which the difference is metaphysical, drawn in the world not in language. This alternative says that something is a background condition to C’s causing E iff it is a state (rather than an event) that is a reason why C caused E. This theory is used to answer the question of what it is to manifest a disposition; briefly, something manifests a disposition to M in C if its having that disposition is a background condition to the Cing causing the Ming.

What it is to Possess a Reason

This chapter defends the book’s official view of possession. It starts by arguing that meeting the epistemic condition is not sufficient for possession. There are cases where one meets the epistemic condition but fails to possess because one does not appreciate the normative relevance of the fact in question. The bulk of the chapter is dedicated to spelling out what it takes to adequately appreciate normative relevance. Arguments are given against subjective reason accounts and Humean accounts. It is argued that what it is to possess a reason is to be in a position to manifest knowledge about how to use the reason as the reason that it is. Finally, it is argued that meeting the epistemic condition is a background condition for being in a position to manifest the relevant know-how.

The Arab Spring and Democratization; Why is Syria Different?

The Arab Spring is the momentum of the rise of the political power in the Middle East. It brought hope to have political power, namely democracy. So the people power demanded democracy for their life. Syria is one of the states impacted by the Arab Spring where the regime is shaken by this political turbulence.In this paper, it’s said that the democratization in Syria failed before the successfulness of the people in overthrowing Assad’s regime. Syria is different from Tunisia which succeeded in consolidating democracy. Syria is also different from Egypt which succeeded in consolidating democracy and passing background condition, even though failed in the prefatory fase (second step of the democratization). Here, it’s found that one of the factors why the democratization in Syria failed is the foreign intervention. Two biggest states are contesting in having influence and control in Syria, those are United States of America and Russia.Keywords: Arab Spring, Democracy, failure, foreign intervention, Syria, AbstrakArab Spring merupakan momentum kebangkitan kekuatan politik di Timur Tengah. Momentum tersebut membawa harapan berupa munculnya demokrasi. Dengan demikian, selama berlangsungnya Arab Spring, rakyat terus berupaya mendesak pemerintah agar demokrasi diterapkan. Suriah merupakan salah satu negara yang terkena dampak Arab Spring. Tulisan ini menyebutkan bahwa proses demokratisasi di Suriah telah gagal sebelum jatuhnya rezim Assad. Suriah berbeda dengan Tunisia yang berhasil dalam konsolidasi demokrasi. Suriah juga berbeda dengan Mesir yang berhasil dalam konsolidasi demokrasi dan melewati kondisi latar belakang, meskipun gagal dalam fase Pendahuluan (langkah kedua dari demokratisasi). Dari sini, telah ditemukan bahwa salah satu faktor kegagalan demokratisasi di Suriah ialah adanya intervensi asing. Terdapat dua terbesar negara besar yang bertarung dalam mendapatkan pengaruh dan kontrol di Suriah, yaitu Amerika Serikat dan Rusia.Kata Kunci:Arab Spring, Demokrasi, Intervensi Asing, Kegagalan, Suriah.