Showing papers by "Boston College published in 2023"

Omitted Response Treatment Using a Modified Laplace Smoothing for Approximate Bayesian Inference in Item Response Theory

Abstract: This article applies the approach of adding artificially created data to observations to stabilize estimates to treat missing responses for cases in which students choose to omit answers to questionnaire or achievement test items.This addition of manufactured data is known in the literature as Laplace smoothing or the method of data augmentation priors. It can be understood as a penalty added to a parameter's likelihood function. This approach is used to stabilize results in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) analysis and implemented in the MGROUP software program that plays an essential role in generating results files for NAEP.The modified data augmentation approach presented here aims to replace common missing data treatments used in IRT so it can be understood as special deterministic cases of data augmentation priors that add fixed information to the observed data, either by conceptualizing these as adding a fixed form to the likelihood function to constant represent prior information or by understanding the augmentation as a conjugate prior that ‘emulates’ non-random observations.

Challenging the Classical View: Recognition of Identity and Expression as Integrated Processes

Abstract: Recent neuroimaging evidence challenges the classical view that face identity and facial expression are processed by segregated neural pathways, showing that information about identity and expression are encoded within common brain regions. This article tests the hypothesis that integrated representations of identity and expression arise spontaneously within deep neural networks. A subset of the CelebA dataset is used to train a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) to label face identity (chance = 0.06%, accuracy = 26.5%), and the FER2013 dataset is used to train a DCNN to label facial expression (chance = 14.2%, accuracy = 63.5%). The identity-trained and expression-trained networks each successfully transfer to labeling both face identity and facial expression on the Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces dataset. This study demonstrates that DCNNs trained to recognize face identity and DCNNs trained to recognize facial expression spontaneously develop representations of facial expression and face identity, respectively. Furthermore, a congruence coefficient analysis reveals that features distinguishing between identities and features distinguishing between expressions become increasingly orthogonal from layer to layer, suggesting that deep neural networks disentangle representational subspaces corresponding to different sources.

The Prussian Spirit of the Land: Fighting Fascism and Legitimating Annexation in Soviet Kaliningrad, 1947–1953

Abstract: This chapter shows how local Soviet officials mobilized the rhetoric of antifascism to justify the Soviet annexation of the Kaliningrad region (formerly German Königsberg). Local authorities initially appealed to antifascism to legitimate Soviet rule when relating both to the remaining German civilian population and newly arriving Soviet citizens. The contents of antifascism were malleable, however: while initially adopted to incorporate Germans into the socialist system, antifascist rhetoric was later used to exclude Germans by scapegoating them as “fascist” obstacles to postwar reconstruction. This chapter argues that in order to fully stake claim to the new territory during the resulting expulsion of the German population, Soviet local officials and new Soviet settlers appealed not only to antifascism but also, despite no previous Soviet or Russian settlement, to ancient inheritances and ethnic primordialism. The Kaliningrad case shows the important interplay between the languages of antifascism and ethnic primordialism in postwar expulsions and annexations.

On the Propagation of Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances From the Hunga Tonga‐Hunga Ha'apai Volcano Eruption and Their Possible Connection With Tsunami Waves

Abstract: We report our analysis of ionospheric disturbances from the 15 January 2022 Tonga volcano eruption, using GPS data from the International GNSS Service network and ionosonde data in the Australian sector. Wave fluctuations with amplitudes of ∼1 TECU and altitude variations of ∼100 km were observed in the GPS and ionosonde data, respectively. In near-field region around Tonga shortly after the eruption, our analysis reveals that the ionospheric disturbances had an azimuthally anisotropic velocity profile, with a peculiar minimum in southwestward direction. Close resemblance is identified between the velocity profile of near-field ionospheric disturbances and the Tonga tsunami, suggesting a coupling between water and atmospheric waves. In far-field, the disturbances propagated at ∼300 m/s, circling the globe for at least three days and possibly until 21 January 2022, in agreement with several previous reports of the event. Arrival times of ionospheric disturbances observed by GPS receivers and ionosondes provide consistent picture.

Applying First-Best Principles of Taxation—What to Tax and How

Abstract: Chapter 11 presents a wide-ranging discussion of the ability-to-pay principle of taxation, with the U.S. personal income tax serving as the application. Topics include the debate over Haig–Simons income versus consumption as the ideal tax base, Young’s approach to vertical equity in accordance with the equal-sacrifice principle, Auerbach’s proposal for the retrospective taxation of capital, indexing the income tax for inflation, and Kaplow’s proposal for taxing human capital.

Faith Formation in Light of Vatican II

Abstract: Abstract Gravissimum Educationis, the document of Vatican II that most explicitly addresses Catholic education, attends primarily to Catholic schools. At the same time, that document and this chapter look to the broader context of continuing the Christian tradition across generations. Two key motifs present in the documents of the council serve as the framework for tracing the contemporary understanding of faith formation of adults, youth, and children as it has evolved in the decades following Vatican II: (1) theological anthropology with the emphasis on the human being as graced, as relational, and as called to solidarity with all of the created order, particularly the most vulnerable and the oppressed; and (2) evangelization as the fundamental mission of the Church and all its members. Tracing the implications of these two themes, this chapter includes implications for catechesis/faith formation and sets out questions that shape the future of religious education.

A social/cultural constructivist perspective on learning “problems”

Abstract: Intense debates about school achievement and the problem of school failure are common in academic and political discussions. Commonly, school failure is seen as a failure of individuals who lack the ability, effort or motivation to succeed. This paper considers an alternative, social constructivist framework to consider the problem of school failure. From this perspective, school failure is ultimately accomplished in communities inside the institution of schooling. This social/cultural perspective suggests that the remedy to school failure lies in reshaping relationships and school structures congenial to the needs of individual children. This all begins with the presumption that all children, regardless of their background or achievement lever, are thoughtful, interesting and competent people. The assumption is that in being treated competently, children will respond by acting competent.

Introduction

Abstract: How do different constitutional and political systems manage religious diversity? Given shifting patterns of personal and group piety, does the concept of secularism have meaning across space and time? How have different states and political arrangements coped with religions and religious traditions that have challenged liberal or secular principles? Are certain constitutional and political traditions – whether formally committed to secularism, such as France, Turkey, and India, or one combining high levels of religiosity with great religious diversity, such as in the U.S. – better or worse at accommodating religious believers and treating fairly majority and minority faiths? The scholars who examine Comparative Secularisms in this book confront these questions in historical perspective, considering critically the normative ideas and alternative political arrangements that govern religion’s relation to politics – as Michael Walzer discusses in the foreword – and to the public and private spheres.

An Application of Externality Theory

Abstract: Chapter 8 concludes the coverage of externalities with an analysis of consumption–production externalities using global warming as an example. After developing the general model, the chapter considers a number of specific topics related to global warming, including the use of taxes versus marketable permits to reduce CO 2 emissions, defensive antipollution strategies, the UN’s attempts to engage all nations in a coordinated effort to reduce global warming, and the problems with long-lived externalities.

General Production Rules in a Second-Best Environment

Abstract: This chapter concludes our survey of second-best public expenditure theory by exploring some fairly general propositions about government production in an environment made second best because of distorting taxation. A major goal of the chapter is to integrate our previous results on second-best tax theory with second-best public expenditure theory. The chapter presents the Diamond—Mirrlees result that production should be efficient under optimal taxation and Boadway’s analysis of the optimal government production rules under nonoptimal distorting taxation. Boadway’s analysis incorporates both efficiency and equity considerations in the design of the optimal production rules. The Diamond—Mirrlees and Boadway papers provide foundational results for applied cost-benefit analysis.

The Role of Grants-in-Aid in a Federalist System of Governments

Abstract: Chapter 28 begins with the theory of grants-in-aid and presents the standard efficiency argument to correct for cross-jurisdiction spillovers of externalities resulting from imperfect correspondences. The chapter then presents LeGrand’s prescription for fiscal equalization, an equity argument. The remainder of the chapter is empirical and focuses on issues related to the estimation of the demand for state and local services and grants-in-aid. Topics covered include the median voter model, Tiebout bias, the flypaper effect and various explanations for it, and Chernick’s analysis of the response to project grants.

Nurturing the Literacy Lives of Boys of Color During COVID-19

Abstract: When school buildings closed suddenly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, educators relied on families more than ever to mediate their children's learning. This yearlong case study details the narratives of 14 Black and Latinx families as they negotiated literacy practices with their teenage sons during remote schooling. This study finds that families bolstered their sons’ literacies through dimensions of family literacy care, a notion developed by the author to describe the material, emotional, embodied, and digital mentoring exchanged between caregivers and boys around literacy practices at home. Entangled in these narratives are the complex ways that families enacted their roles as caregivers and teachers during the pandemic, and in turn, how boys acquiesced to and resisted their parents’ attempts at family literacy care. These findings texture and advance the field of family literacy scholarship to understand better the varied ways boys orient toward (and away from) texts in their family context.

International Public Finance

Abstract: Analysis of the international implications of public expenditure and tax policies began in earnest in the mid-1980s and has since become a major line of research in public sector economics. The literature on international tax and expenditure issues is now so large and varied that a single chapter cannot begin to do it justice. Chapter 29 focuses on two of the main lines of research in the literature, both concerning taxation: the taxation of mobile capital and how multinational enterprises can exploit differences in nations’ tax policies to reduce their tax liabilities. The main goal is to highlight the models used to explore these issues. Many excellent surveys of the broader literature already exist and are noted in the chapter. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the destination-based cash flow tax, which would solve most of the problems discussed in the chapter.

Networking Voices of Dissent: Korea-Japan Civic Alliance and Transnational Solidarity for Anti-Olympic Movement

Abstract: Over the last few years, an alliance of Asian civic activists has developed around a shared opposition to the Olympic Games. This paper illustrates the recent Japanese and South Korean social activists’ networks for Olympic resistance and anti-Olympic movements. Social, environmental, and sport-related NGOs and activist groups in Japan and Korea collaborated on Olympic resistance for the 2018 PyeongChang and 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. This chapter draws on the collaboration history of Japanese and Korean NGOs, including Japan’s earlier transpacific alliance with Rio Olympic resistance groups. We also gather public messages and performances from pressure groups and interviews with activists. We examine and highlight previously unconsidered non-Western Olympic resistance; the alliance networks’ diverse forms of public opposition, protest, and Olympic criticism; and strategies in Korea and Japan to protest the staging of athletic mega-events. Today we are witnessing what could be called international anti-Olympic movement, which gained momentum and continuity through the networking of Rio-PyeongChang-Tokyo activists. Through Olympic resistance as a social movement, the Korea-Japan civic activists collectively posed significant challenges to government practices and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) with articulated demands to change and eliminate violence and exploitation caused by the Olympics.

Contributions to the Phenomenology of the Smile: Disruption during a Pandemic

Abstract: This paper investigates the meaning of the smile and how various kinds of disruptions motivate its thematization. In so doing, it broaches experiences in the recent pandemic, as the masked face disrupts the givenness of the smile. Indeed, the paper claims that such a situation affords the possibility of becoming even more attentive to the conditions of meaningfulness at a global scale. It evidences such a claim by first tracing some essential points of the meaning of meaning via the analysis of intentionality in the work of Edmund Husserl and Bernard Lonergan; then, it reviews the classic treatment of the smile’s meaning by Frederick Buytendijk, along with Lonergan’s further clarification of how an pre-thematic or elemental relation between persons conditions the phenomena; it concludes by suggesting how various sorts of disruption might motivate the smile’s thematization, especially in phenomenology’s inquiry back to the elemental dimension of meaning.

The Problem of Externalities—An Overview

Abstract: Chapter 5 introduces the next three chapters on externalities. Its two main objectives are to indicate the externalities that require government intervention and to present the general equilibrium model of social welfare maximization that is used to analyze externalities.

Photoredox‐Catalyzed Labeling of Hydroxyindoles with Chemoselectivity (PhotoCLIC) for Site‐Specific Protein Bioconjugation

Abstract: We have developed a novel visible-light-catalyzed bioconjugation reaction, PhotoCLIC, that enables chemoselective attachment of diverse aromatic amine reagents onto a site-specifically installed 5-hydroxytryptophan residue (5HTP) on full-length proteins of varied complexity. The reaction uses catalytic amounts of methylene blue and blue/red light-emitting diodes (455/650 nm) for rapid site-specific protein bioconjugation. Characterization of the PhotoCLIC product reveals a unique structure formed likely through a singlet oxygen-dependent modification of 5HTP. PhotoCLIC has a wide substrate scope and its compatibility with strain-promoted azide-alkyne click reaction, enables site-specific dual-labeling of a target protein.

Progression of myopic maculopathy in patients with myopic traction maculopathy after vitrectomy

Abstract: To compare the progression of myopic maculopathy with or without vitrectomy in patients with myopic traction maculopathy (MTM).Seventy-seven eyes with MTM were classified into either the observation group (n = 38) or the vitrectomy group (n = 39). Progression of myopic maculopathy was assessed with fundus photography using infrared images. Progression within stage was evaluated as an increase in the area of atrophic lesions on infrared images using ImageJ software. The rate of progression was compared using the paired t -test.The mean follow-up period was 60.0 ± 47.5 months. The initial mean stage of myopic maculopathy for the observation group was 1.86 ± 0.86, and it progressed to 2.00 ± 0.83 ( P = 0.023) at the last visit. For the vitrectomy group, the stage progressed from 1.82 ± 0.96 to 2.05 ± 1.09 ( P = 0.011). Four eyes (10.5%) in the observation group showed progression at 87.3 months, and seven eyes (17.9%) in the vitrectomy group showed progression at 31.3 months.Surgery in patients with MTM may accelerate the progression of myopic maculopathy. Therefore, care should be taken when considering surgery for patients with MTM.

The Equality Policy Paradox: Gender Differences in How Managers Implement Gender Equality–Related Policies

Abstract: Drawing on data from an ethnographic study of the introduction and implementation of a flexible work policy intended in part to improve gender equality at a STEM professional organization, I develop grounded theory on how managers’ gender shapes their implementation of such initiatives. I identify an equality policy paradox in which women managers, who openly support gender equality, are more likely than men managers to limit the policy. This apparent contradiction between intentions and actions is reconciled through an interactional role-based mechanism. Specifically, in this setting women managers encounter barriers to developing technical expertise, client relations, and respected authority. They respond by engaging extensively with subordinates, which allows them to effectively manage by brokering information (as an alternative to technical and client-facing tasks) and cultivating cooperation (as an alternative to formal authority). The policy undermines these interdependent activities; reflecting this, women managers generally oppose it. Men managers tend not to experience these constraints, and they focus on technical and client-related tasks that are largely independent of subordinates. The policy maintains these activities; reflecting this, they implement it. By identifying the equality policy paradox and the mechanism underlying it, this study advances theory on managers’ implementation of equality-related practices and policies as well as theory on gender and management.

Neuropsychology of Aggression in Psychopathy and Sociopathy: Insights for the Treatment and Study of Antisocial Personality Disorder

Abstract: Misunderstanding, stigmatization, and fascination abound in western culture concerning the concepts of psychopathy and sociopathy. These concepts are often used interchangeably—and erroneously—to describe violent or aggressive behavior in humans. These concepts tend also to be hurled as insults at individuals assumed to exhibit a lack empathy, impulsive decision making, and violent behavior. Psychopathy and sociopathy, however, are two concepts that describe different etiologies of the same mental health condition: antisocial personality disorder. This chapter bifurcates between the neurobiological origins of psychopathy and sociopathy, contributing to the destigmatization of a broadly misunderstood mental health condition. This chapter also explores recent findings from functional magnetic resonance imagery studies that analyze neurophysiological activity germane to psychopathy and sociopathy. Using these terms, students, clinicians, and researchers have access to a language that outlines correlations in neural substrate activity between genetic antisocial personality disorder (psychopathy) and epigenetic antisocial personality disorder (sociopathy). These terms might also serve to enhance treatment outcomes, as they implicate discrete neural substrates that have the potential to be treated using psychotherapeutic and psychopharmacological interventions.

Optimal Federalism

Abstract: Chapter 26 considers how to assign the various allocational and distributional government functions to the different government levels within the federalist hierarchy to avoid potential incompatibilities and destructive competition among the governments. It highlights George Stigler’s prescription for assigning allocational functions to the lowest level of government, consistent with efficiency, and argues that all levels of the government have to participate in resolving the issue of the optimal income distribution to maintain an unambiguous meaning of social welfare maximization under federalism.