Researching the intercultural: intersubjectivity and the problem with postpositivism

In intercultural communication studies, the positivist preoccupation with objectivist, essentialist, solid large cultures has been replaced by a postmodern recognition that the intercultural is liquid and ideologically constructed. However, a postpositivist resistance to this paradigm change, while recognizing the dangers of essentialism, continues to be objectivist and fails to address the intersubjective nature of the ideological construction of culture. This results in a soft essentialism. This methodological failure of postpositivism is driven by a neoliberal technicalized commodification of quantitative and qualitative methods that does not address the subjective implicatedness of researchers. It therefore prevents an understanding of the liquid nature of the intercultural and sustains the neo-racist implications of essentialism. An example of this is commodifying international students as culturally problematic to serve a quantifiable notion of intercultural competence. The methodological flaws of postpositivism can only be avoided by means of an approach to researching cultural groups in which large culture concepts such as nation are viewed as one of many possible, emergent, ideologically constructed variables rather than as the starting point for research

Gas Sorption and Luminescence Properties of a Terbium(III)-Phosphine Oxide Coordination Material with Two-Dimensional Pore Topology

The structure, stability, gas sorption properties and luminescence behaviour of a new lanthanide-phosphine oxide coordination material are reported. The polymer PCM-15 is based on Tb(III) and tris(p-carboxylated) triphenylphosphine oxide and has a 5,5-connected net topology. It exhibits an infinite three-dimensional structure that incorporates an open, two-dimensional pore structure. The material is thermally robust and remains crystalline under high vacuum at 150 degrees C. When desolvated, the solid has a CO2 BET surface area of 1187 m(2) g(-1) and shows the highest reported uptake of both O-2 and H-2 at 77 K and 1 bar for a lanthanide-based coordination polymer. Isolated Tb(III) centres in the as-synthesized polymer exhibit moderate photoluminescence. However, upon removal of coordinated OH2 ligands, the luminescence intensity was found to approximately double; this process was reversible. Thus, the Tb(III) centre was used as a probe to detect directly the desolvation and resolvation of the polymer.Welch Foundation F-1738, F-1631National Science Foundation 0741973, CHE-0847763Chemistr

Carbohydrate mouth rinse improves resistance exercise capacity in the glycogen-lowered state

The effect of carbohydrate mouth rinse (CHO MR) on resistance exercise performance is equivocal, and may be moderated by carbohydrate availability. This study determined the effect of CHO MR on low-load resistance exercise capacity completed in a fed but glycogen-lowered state. Twelve resistance-trained men (age: 22±4 years; height: 1.79±0.05m; weight: 78.7±7.8kg; bench press 1-RM: 87±21kg; squat 1-RM: 123±19kg) completed two fed-state resistance exercise bouts consisting of 6 sets of bench press and 6 sets of squat to failure at 40% 1-RM. Each bout was preceded by glycogen-depleting cycling the evening before, with feeding controlled to create acute energy deficit and maintain low muscle glycogen. During resistance exercise, participants rinsed with either a 6% CHO MR solution or a taste-matched placebo (PLA) between sets. Total volume workload was greater with CHO MR (9354±2051kg vs. 8525±1911kg, p=0.010). Total number of repetitions of squat were greater with CHO MR (107±26 vs. 92±16, p=0.017); the number of repetitions of bench press were not significantly different (CHO MR: 120±24 vs. PLA: 115±22, p=0.146). This was independent of differences in feeling or arousal. CHO MR may be an effective ergogenic aid for athletes completing resistance exercise when in energy deficit and with low carbohydrate availability. Novelty • CHO MR can increase low-load resistance exercise capacity undertaken in a glycogen-lowered but fed state. • This effect was driven by a greater number of repetitions-to-failure in the squat – using muscles lowered in glycogen content with exhaustive cycling on the evening prior to resistance exercise – but not bench press

Block and thread intercultural narratives and positioning: conversations with newly arrived postgraduate students

This paper considers how, in the process of positioning that is implicit in every interaction, all of us employ multiple and often competing narratives when we talk about cultural identity and our relationships with new cultural environments. In interviews with newly arrived postgraduate students about their experience of travelling to study abroad, the students employ competing block and thread narratives. Block narratives represent an essentialist discourse of culture. As such, they are easily converted into cultural prejudice by blocking the possibility for understanding and sharing at the point of tolerating an Other who can never be like ‘us’. These are default narratives because of the way in which we are brought up in our societies within a global positioning and politics. Thread narratives instead support a critical cosmopolitan discourse of cultural travel and shared meanings across structural boundaries that act against cultural prejudice. Threads need to be nurtured as alternative forms of engagement. Therefore, there is a place for the researchers to intervene with their own thread narratives. This intervention is both allowed within and supported by an understanding that researchers join with their participants in the creative intercultural events of the interview

‘I already have a culture.’ Negotiating competing grand and personal narratives in interview conversations with new study abroad arrivals

In an interview with a postgraduate student about her intercultural experience of recently arriving for study abroad, it was found that the two researchers and the student were engaged in a mutual exploration of cultural identity. The in- terview events became conversational and took the form of small culture formation on the go in which each participant employed diverse narratives to project, make sense of and negotiate expression of cultural identity. The stu- dent shifted between personal narratives drawn from her particular cultural trajectories and splintered from grand narratives of nation and global position- ing, between non- essentialist threads and essentialist blocks. The researchers learned from her and intervened to facilitate shifts to non-essentialist threads, drawing on narratives from their own personal cultural trajectories, but some- times also falling into essentialist blocks splintered from grand narratives. The roles of ideology and competing essentialist and non-essentialist discourses of culture were implicit in these negotiations, as were the personal agency of the student as she responded to the constraining conflicts, structures and hierarchies encountered through the events she spoke about. Rather than providing a picture of intercultural assimilation and integration, interculturality is revealed as a hesitant and searching negotiation, sometimes of vulnerability, wrong-footedness and occasional assault on identity

PhD students, interculturality, reflexivity, community and internationalisation

Interviews with a small group of doctoral students at a British university indicate that the students feel that the programme provides an environment within which they develop interculturality through reflexive engagement with the PhD community and in some cases with the participants in their research. Significant here is that they are interpretivist, constructivist qualitative researchers within a larger university community of qualitative researchers where there is a shared reflexivity that is at the core of interculturality. They also bring with them existing cultural complexity with which to engage, build on, make reflexive sense of and resolve in this experience. This complexity which they all share make it difficult to consider them differently as 'international' or 'home' students, which are revealed as inappropriately divisive labels within an intercultural community. Where there are apparent issues with English as a second or other language among some of the students, it is realised that this represents a broader struggle, shared with all students, regarding self-expression in writing. These findings demand cultural belief in whatever backgrounds the students come from. This belief impacts on how we understand internationalisation and the nature of academic knowledge and process

Rapid export of waters formed by convection near the Irminger Sea's western boundary

The standard view of the overturning circulation emphasizes the role of convection, yet for waters to contribute to overturning, they must not only be transformed to higher densities but also exported equatorward. From novel mooring observations in the Irminger Sea (2014–2016), we describe two water masses that are formed by convection and show that they have different rates of export in the western boundary current. Upper Irminger Sea Intermediate Water appears to form near the boundary current and is exported rapidly within 3 months of its formation. Deep Irminger Sea Intermediate Water forms in the basin interior and is exported on longer time scales. The subduction of these waters into the boundary current is consistent with an eddy transport mechanism. Our results suggest that light intermediate waters can contribute to overturning as much as waters formed by deeper convection and that the export time scales of both project onto overturning variability. Plain Language Summary The deep ocean can regulate the Earth's climate by storing carbon and heat. At high latitudes, waters are cooled by the atmosphere and sink, but they can only be successfully stored in the deep ocean if they are exported toward the equator. In this study, we analyze new mooring observations in the Irminger Sea to investigate the cooling and export of high‐latitude waters. In addition to the well‐documented waters that are cooled in the center of the Irminger Sea, we find that saltier waters are cooled near the western boundary current. Both of these water types make it into boundary current and are exported. Our observations are consistent with the dynamics of swirling eddy motions. The eddy transport process is more effective for the waters cooled near the boundary current, implying that cooling near boundary currents may be more important for the climate than has been appreciated to date

Park characteristics, use, and physical activity: A review of studies using SOPARC (System for Observing Play and Recreation in Communities)

The System for Observing Play and Recreation in Communities (SOPARC) can obtain information on park users and their physical activity using momentary time sampling. We conducted a literature review of studies using the SOPARC tool to describe the observational methods of each study, and to extract public park use overall and by demographics and physical activity levels. We searched PubMed, Embase, and SPORTDiscus for full-length observational studies published in English in peer-reviewed journals through 2014. Twenty-four studies from 34 articles were included. The number of parks observed per study ranged from 3 to 50. Most studies observed parks during one season. The number of days parks were observed ranged from 1 to 16, with 16 studies observing 5 or more days. All studies included at least one weekday and all but two included at least one weekend day. Parks were observed from 1 to 14 times/day, with most studies observing at least 4 times/day. All studies included both morning and afternoon observations, with one exception. There was a wide range of park users (mean 1.0 to 152.6 people/park/observation period), with typically more males than females visiting parks and older adults less than other age groups. Park user physical activity levels varied greatly across studies, with youths generally more active than adults and younger children more active than adolescents. SOPARC was adapted to numerous settings and these review results can be used to improve future studies using the tool, demonstrate ways to compare park data, and inform park promotions and programming

A Comparison Of 3,4,6A,7,10,10A-Hexahydro-7,10-Epoxypyrimido 2,1-A Isoindol-6(2H)-One And 2-(2-Aminoethyl)-3A,4,7,7A-Tetrahydro-1H-4,7-Epoxyisoindole-1,3(2H)-Dion E: Structural And Reactivity Differences Of Two Homologous Tricyclic Imides

The crystal structures of 3,4,6a,7,10,10a-hexahydro-7,10-epoxypyrimido[2,1-a]isoindol-6(2H)-one, C11H12N2O2, and 2-(2-aminoethyl)-3a,4,7,7a-tetrahydro-1H-4,7-epoxyisoindole-1,3(2H)-dione, C10H12N2O3, two tricyclic imides, show one and two molecules in the asymmetric unit, respectively. Intermolecular hydrogen-bonding interactions are observed in both compounds.National Science Foundation (grant No. CHE-0741973)The Welch Foundation (grant No. F-1631)National Science Foundation (grant No. CHE-0847763)ChemistryBiochemistr

A PROTEÇÃO PROCESSUAL DA POSSE NOS CONFLITOS COLETIVOS INTERÉTNICOS

Os conflitos étnicos entre o homem branco europeu e os povos autóctones pela posse dos territórios, estão presentes em todos os continentes do planeta,desde os inuits da região circumpolar aos maoris da Nova Zelândia, passando pelos papuas insulares da Indonésia até alcançar os índios das Américas. Embora sejam perenes e universais, suas causas, consequências e soluções ainda são pouco exploradas pelas ciências sociais e pela antropologia jurídica. A compreensão desse embate secular pela ocupação da terra é o fio condutor dessa pesquisa, adotando-se como método investigativo o levantamento histórico, filosófico, sociológico e jurídico do direito de posse e propriedade, desde sua legitimação pelo direito de conquista e da guerra justa, até sua conformação nos regimes constitucionais democráticos atuais. Uma primeira aproximação com o tema revela que a legislação lusitana da colônia e do império jamais cogitaram atribuir direitos possessórios ao índios, ou mesmo a restituição do domínio de suas terras, servindo apenas a um veículo político de embuste e dominação. A teoria do indigenato de João Mendes Junior (1912), ao invocar um direito nativo congênito, não encontrou acolhimento no direito positivo. A Constituição Federal de 1988, embora reconhecendo aos índios o direito a uma organização social, uma identidade étnica e um habitat, vinculou a posse usufrutuária da terra a fatos objetivos,subordinados a ocupação tradicional e habitação permanente, anteriores a 05.10.1988. Interpretações influenciadas pelos conceitos da antropologia, sem o rigor jurídico-dogmático, passaram a admitir o ressurgimento de comunidades indígenas extintas, reivindicando terras com ocupação consolidada por não-índios. Essas etnogêneses resultaram em um imediato processo sistêmico de invasões (retomadas) de propriedades rurais, muitas delas expropriadas antes mesmo dos procedimentos legais de demarcação. A agressão à posse e à propriedade sem observância dos preceitos constitucionais, entre eles o devido processo legal, transferiu ao judiciário a solução desse litígio estrutural de largas proporções, motivando a multiplicação de tutelas possessórias interditais. Ponderadas as razões sociais, políticas, ideológicas e jurídicas que circundam essa disputa coletiva, o manejo dos instrumentos processuais são a garantia de concretude dos direitos fundamentais envolvidos. Ao final será possível verificar que ciência processual possui mecanismos de mediação dessa tensão campesina coletiva, seja para garantir aos indígenas a posse de seus territórios tradicionais reconhecidos pelo Estado, seja para repelir agressão injusta ao patrimônio dos não índios. Palavras chave: Direito processual civil. Ações possessórias.Posse indígena. Conflitos de etnia. Direito de propriedade. Função social da posse