Collaborative Work in Museum Folklore and Heritage Studies: An Initiative of the American Folklore Society and Its Partners in China and the United States

Since 2007, the American Folklore Society has pursued a partnership project with the China Folklore Society. Diverse in activities and extensively participated in, the endeavor is known as the China-US Folklore and Intangible Cultural Heritage Project. In this peer-reviewed report, one sub-project within this umbrella effort is reviewed. The Collaborative Work in Museum Folklore and Heritage Studies sub-project continued the project's established exchange practices and added a program of material culture and heritage studies research

The Benefits and Costs of Cybersecurity Risk Reduction: A Dynamic Extension of the Gordon and Loeb Model

This article develops a dynamic extension of the classic model of cybersecurity investment formulated by Gordon and Loeb. In this dynamic model, results are influenced by the rate at which cybersecurity assets depreciate and the rate of return on investment. Depreciation costs are lower in the dynamic model than is implicitly assumed in the classic model, while the rate-of-return threshold is higher. On balance, the user cost of cybersecurity assets is lower in the dynamic model than is implicitly assumed in the classic model. This difference increases the economically efficient size of the cybersecurity system in value terms, increasing the efficient level of risk reductio

Towards Wider Framings: World-Systems Analysis and Folklore Studies

This article situates folklore studies in relation to the approach to social research known as world-systems analysis. In doing so, the work also serves as an evocation of world-systems analysis of potential usefulness for the practice of folklore research and for further thinking about the articulation of the field with others in the human or social sciences. Even if folklorists choose not to embrace a world-systems framework, it is valuable to position folklore studies within the matrix of social science disciplines that this perspective sees as important to the rise of the modern capitalist world-system. This positioning relates to interpretations of world history, but also to debates about the future status of the disciplines. While world-systems analysis is only one among several approaches to exploring the human experience in broad greater-than-local contexts, it offers a useful instance for a larger effort to work out more far-reaching modes of work in folkloristics

The Recall Decision Exposed: Auto Recall Timing and Process Data Set

Problem Definition. There is a concerted effort across multiple academic disciplines to understand the recall decision-making process. Specifically, what steps does a manufacturer take following a product defect discovery and resulting in the product recall decision? This effort has often been limited to case studies within a particular manufacturer largely due to the absence of consistent and comparable data across firms. Methodology/Results. This data paper provides a foundation for future research on recall decisions by processing and coding textual disclosures on 2,120 recalls initiated in the United States by 27 automobile manufacturers from 2009-2018. For each recall, the data set provides the time the firm took to make the recall decision by comparing the defect awareness date to the recall decision date, whether the recall is associated with a supplier, the number of events in the recall decision-making process, and the date and description of each event. Managerial Implications. Not only can this data enhance product recall research by providing key recall decision-making variables unavailable in related research, an additional indication of the value of our data set also comes from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the automobile regulator in the United States. We held discussions with a senior leader at the NHTSA’s Recall Management Division related to this data set. This discussion revealed that the NHTSA does not have these data in an analyzable form and that they would be interested in using our data set for its reports, such as the NHTSA’s biennial reports to the U.S. Congress. This signal suggests that regulators, as well as researchers, practitioners, and other safety advocates may find our data set useful

On Cultural Appropriation

This article starts from the premise that cultural appropriation is a key concern for folklorists and ethnologists, as well as for many of the communities with which they engage and partner, but that it is also one that has received relatively little attention of a general conceptual sort. This is true despite the ubiquity of cultural appropriation discussions in popular media, public culture, and informal scholarly conversation. Drawing on the work of these fields, an ideal-type conceptualization of cultural appropriation is offered, one that situates it as one among a range of modes of cultural change. For cultural appropriation, the key neighboring modes are diffusion, acculturation, and assimilation. The article also briefly addresses cultural appropriation as it is often situated vis-à-vis conceptions of, and processes related to, cultural property and cultural heritage. This heuristic emphasizes the metacultural discourse that marks instances of cultural appropriation as well as the inequality often characterizing the parties to such episodes

Basketry among Two Peoples of Northern Guangxi, China

In this article, the authors introduce the present-day basketry practices found among two minority nationalities populations living today on the northern borders of China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region: the Baiku Yao of Lihu Yao Ethnic Township in Nandan County and the Dong of Tongle Miao Ethnic Township in Sanjiang Dong Autonomous County. The manufacture, marketing, and use of varied basketry forms is discussed for each of these groups, setting up a concluding comparison that situates these basketry practices in relation to more celebrated textile arts heralded within the People’s Republic of China’s extensive system of intangible cultural heritage promotion

Mixtape Maker

A creative final exercise that invites students to synthesize literature, music, and visual art

Mapping the co-evolution of artificial intelligence, robotics, and the internet of things over 20 years (1998-2017)

Understanding the emergence, co-evolution, and convergence of science and technology (S&T) areas offers competitive intelligence for researchers, managers, policy makers, and others. This paper presents new funding, publication, and scholarly network metrics and visualizations that were validated via expert surveys. The metrics and visualizations exemplify the emergence and convergence of three areas of strategic interest: artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and internet of things (IoT) over the last 20 years (1998-2017). For 32,716 publications and 4,497 NSF awards, we identify their topical coverage (using the UCSD map of science), evolving co-author networks, and increasing convergence. The results support data-driven decision making when setting proper research and development (R&D) priorities; developing future S&T investment strategies; or performing effective research program assessment

Fault Angle Control on Potential Seismic Slip in the Illinois Basin Region

The possibility of reactivation of faults due to enhancement of pore pressure in rocks surrounding faults and fractures in the deep subsurface is a challenge associated with injection practices. Reactivation can result in induced seismicity, some of which may be significant enough to be felt or even damaging. Of the key factors that influence the propensity for fault slippage—pore pressure, orientation of the stress tensors, and frictional coefficient orientation of the fault plane—only the last factor can be assessed for its contribution to the possibility of reactivation. This investigation assesses a simplified version of fault orientation relative to the stress tensors and ranks the propensity of movement as a three‐level risk (high, medium, and low). Fault segments in the fault systems located within the Illinois basin and surrounding portion of the eastern Midcontinent are assigned a risk based on their relative orientation to the principal horizontal stress. Horizontal stress tensors are arrayed relative to the fault segments in two different manners: a generalized single value for the average stress orientation (N60°E for the entire domain), and a locally specific orientation of the stress tensors based on an inversion of earthquake fault‐plane solutions and stress indicators (⁠30×30  km cells across the domain). Comparison of the results of these two methods of portraying the angle of the maximum horizontal stress tensor relative to the fault segment orientation reveals several areas of divergence in assigned fault‐slip risk. These changes are especially apparent within portions of the Wabash Valley of southwestern Indiana and the Shawneetown‐Rough Creek fault system of western Kentucky and southern Illinois. The assessment of fault‐slip risk potential based on fault orientation relative to the orientation of the principal horizontal stress is improved by incorporating local stress tensor orientations over a single regional value