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This article examines the impact of journalistic censorship and the ensuing experience of “shame” on the development of Mark Twain’s critical humanistic writings, with particular emphasis on the Morning Call censorship episode. This analytical approach draws upon foundational theories developed by modern critical humanists, particularly Sartre’s existentialist reconceptualization of human agency, Foucault’s archeology of power systems, bell hooks’ concept of “oppositional gaze” and insights from contemporary critical racial theory regarding racial supremacy. The aim is to elucidate the conditions under which an exclusive self identity or a subject of power might engage in critical introspection of its own identity, thereby revealing how individuals maintain agency within de-individualized and institutionalized power structures. This article argues that the internalized gaze, instantiated through the mechanism of censorship, operates as a potentiate of power that engenders a profound sense of “shame” which serves as a critical juncture for Twain, prompting a thorough reassessment of the dialectical interplay between the self and the other. Twain’s meditations on the deleterious impacts of othering practices and exclusionary ideologies within humanistic discourse have given rise to a recurring motif of the “oppositional gaze” in his literary oeuvre, as particularly evidenced in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) and 3000 Years among the Microbes (1905). The case of Twain’s censorship incident and its aftermath demonstrate that the dual nature of power subjects, as both wielders and subjects of power, can enable internal self-criticism and reflection within humanistic and other ideological discourses.

By fitting the tilt in the path of the Orphan–Chenab Stream (OCS), we conclude that the current mass of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) within 30 kpc is (4.7–5.1) × 1010 M⊙. We note that the tidal radius of the LMC of this mass is 16.9 kpc, indicating that our measured mass approximates the current bound mass of the LMC. Previous measurements of the LMC mass based on fitting the observed path of the OCS through the Milky Way (MW) halo reported the total mass of the LMC. We show that because the closest approach of the LMC to the OCS, where the gravitational perturbation of the stream path is the highest, is about 20 kpc, the mass of the LMC outside 30 kpc is not constrained and depends entirely on the assumed radial profile at large radius. Our best-fit total mass varies between 4.5 × 1010 and 2.2 × 1011 M⊙ or more, depending on the presumed radial profile of the LMC. We also show that previous measurements of the mass of the LMC that used a particle-spray method to simulate the path of the OCS suffered from systematic error because they assumed that all particles were stripped from the dwarf galaxy at the tidal radius; N-body simulations show that particles are actually released from a range of distances from the center of mass of the OCS. In contrast, the choice of MW potential has little effect on the LMC mass estimated from the OCS.

This essay explores the sociopolitical and poetic dynamics that influenced the relay rewriting of Mark Twain’s “Cannibalism in the Cars” as it was transmitted from Japan to China. By adopting a transnational perspective and conducting a comparative textual analysis of the English original (1868), the Japanese version (1903), and the Chinese adaptation (1904), this study elucidates the complex interplay between rewriting practices and the prevailing ideological and poetic forces in Meiji Japan and Late Qing China. The study reveals how translation strategies, augmented by paratexts, shaped Twain’s reception in East Asia, aligning his narrative with the distinct ideological and poetic traditions of both countries. Despite sharing similar ideological underpinnings, the Japanese and Chinese rewriters employed divergent strategies, leading to varying implications. The Japanese version foregrounds class struggle in alignment with Meiji-era political discourse, whereas the Chinese translation, while initially adhering closely to its Japanese predecessor, ultimately transforms Twain’s narrative into a critique of societal brutality during the Late Qing period. These adaptations illustrate how rewriting serves as tools not only for cultural exchange but also for shaping and contesting national ideologies, highlighting the broader impact of cross-cultural literary transmission on the formation of political and social consciousness in East Asia.

In their article \"Suffering as Becoming: A Genealogy of Female Suffering in Chinese Myth and Literature,\" Peina Zhuang and Jiazhao Lin undertake a comparative study of three Chinese mythical and literary novels: the Chinese myths of Chang'eh, Ding Ling's Miss Sophie's (1928), and Bi Feiyu's novel The Moon Opera (1999). They focus on the point that the characterization of all three women (or female personae) is centered on their common act of taking some sort of medicine. However, they also historicize and politicize these three texts, setting them respectively in the contexts of the establishment of patriarchy in the Han Dynasty, the spread of colonialism at the beginning of the 20th century, and the sexual revolution that began with China's Reform and Opening Up in the 1970s. In this way, Zhuang and Lin delineate an encompassing, trans-historical genealogy of Chinese female suffering. Thus, rather than seeking a single model of female suffering in this context, they approach the issue genealogically. Here they make three main arguments. First, an emphasis on the ethical and political aspects of suffering distinguish Chinese female suffering from the female suffering found in most western cultures. Secondly, disease and death always seem to be closely associated with, indeed even to signify or symbolize, Chinese female suffering in Chinese myth and literature. However, the essence of this suffering may paradoxically be found in both the disintegration and the integration of political practice and ideology. Thirdly, far from this suffering being something essential, having a concrete form, it is rather a process of becoming other within the wider, more encompassing cycle of political destruction and reconstruction.

Jonathan Arac is one of the leading American post-modernists who once taught at Columbia University and served as Andrew W. Mellon Professor of English as well as the founding director of the Humanities Center at the University of Pittsburgh. He is considered to be one of the most notable \"New Americanists\" with an eclectic range of interests in literary theory, US literature (with an emphasis on the controversy of Huckleberry Finn). His research methods range from theoretical framing, cultural study to interdisciplinary study. This interview, which was conducted in oral and written form at the University of Pittsburgh from December 2019 to December 2020, touches upon such topics as Arac's academic connection with Chinese academia, the essence of literary theory and its relationship with cultural studies and interdisciplinary research. Arac perceives his studies on literary theory, \"new literary history,\" and cross-disciplinary research since the 1960s as an integrated whole which \"opens boundaries\" and \"extends our powers.\"

This article looks into the mapping of contemporary Chinese poetry from Obscure poetry (menglong shi) to post-Obscure poetry (hou menglong shi). With special attention to the creative practices of Bei Dao, the “nay nay-ism” (feifei zhuyi), and Han Dong whose works incorporate both modern and postmodern elements, we argue that contemporary Chinese poetry cannot be neatly defined by the western dichotomic discourses of modernism and postmodernism. Instead, it manifests an intricate and fascinating state of in-between-ness that challenges any reductionist labeling and linear periodization. Contemporary Chinese poetic scene exhibits enormous poetic diversity and vitality with entangling and disentangling poetic voices, styles and schools vying for visibility and credibility under the mixed influences of western modernism, postmodernism and traditional Chinese poetics. We are particularly interested in how contemporary Chinese poets maneuver and carve out this “in-between” arena for this peculiar poetic symbiosis.

By fitting the tilt in the path of the Orphan-Chenab Stream (OCS), we conclude that the current mass of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) within 30 kpc is \\(4.7\\)-\\(5.1 10^10\\) M\\(_\\). We note that the tidal radius of the LMC of this mass is 16.9 kpc, indicating that our measured mass approximates the current bound mass of the LMC. Previous measurements of the LMC mass based on fitting the observed path of the OCS through the Milky Way (MW) halo reported the total mass of the LMC. We show that because the closest approach of the LMC to the OCS, where the gravitational perturbation of the stream path is the highest, is about 20 kpc, the mass of the LMC outside of 30 kpc is not constrained and depends entirely on the assumed radial profile at large radius. Our best-fit total mass varies between \\(4.5 10^10\\) and \\(2.2 10^11\\) M\\(_\\) or more, depending on the presumed radial profile of the LMC. We also show that previous measurements of the mass of the LMC that used a particle-spray method to simulate the path of the OCS suffered from systematic error because they assumed that all particles were stripped from the dwarf galaxy at the tidal radius; N-body simulations show that particles are actually released from a range of distances from the center of mass of the OCS. In contrast, the choice of MW potential has little effect on the estimated LMC mass from the OCS.

Advances in satellite miniaturisation have led to a steep rise in the number of Earth-observation platforms, turning the downlink of the resulting high-volume remote-sensing data into a critical bottleneck. Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO) communication constellations offer a high-throughput relay for these data, yet also introduce intricate scheduling requirements. We term the associated task the Remote Sensing Data Transmission in Communication Constellations (DTIC) problem, which comprises two sequential stages: inter-satellite routing, and satellite-to-ground delivery. This problem can be cast as a Hybrid Flow Shop Scheduling Problem (HFSP). Unlike the classical HFSP, every processor (e.g., ground antenna) in DTIC can simultaneously accommodate multiple jobs (data packets), subject to two-dimensional spatial constraints. This gives rise to a new variant that we call the Hybrid Flow Shop Problem with Two-Dimensional Processor Space (HFSP-2D). After an in-depth investigation of the characteristics of this HFSP-2D, we propose a constructive heuristic, denoted NEHedd-2D, and a Two-Stage Memetic Algorithm (TSMA) that integrates an Inter-Processor Job-Swapping (IPJS) operator and an Intra-Processor Job-Swapping (IAJS) operator. Computational experiments indicate that when TSMA is initialized with the solution produced by NEHedd-2D, the algorithm attains the optimal solutions for small-sized instances and consistently outperforms all benchmark algorithms across problems of every size.

HighlightsThe hierarchical nanogrid-in-nanofiber-structured dual-type carbon-confined CoTe2 nanodots (CoTe2@NC@NSPCNFs) were synthesized via facile templates and an electrospinning approach.Hierarchical nanogrid-in-nanofiber structure effectively suppresses the volume change of CoTe2 and the shuttle of potassium polytelluride (K-pTex) through robust physical restraint and strong chemisorption.CoTe2@NC@NSPCNFs hybrid achieves ultralong lifespan potassium-storage performance over 3500 cycles, and the deep mechanisms underlying the evolution, dissolution, and shuttle of K-pTex have been clearly revealed.Metal tellurides (MTes) are highly attractive as promising anodes for high-performance potassium-ion batteries. The capacity attenuation of most reported MTe anodes is attributed to their poor electrical conductivity and large volume variation. The evolution mechanisms, dissolution properties, and corresponding manipulation strategies of intermediates (K-polytellurides, K-pTex) are rarely mentioned. Herein, we propose a novel structural engineering strategy to confine ultrafine CoTe2 nanodots in hierarchical nanogrid-in-nanofiber carbon substrates (CoTe2@NC@NSPCNFs) for smooth immobilization of K-pTex and highly reversible conversion of CoTe2 by manipulating the intense electrochemical reaction process. Various in situ/ex situ techniques and density functional theory calculations have been performed to clarify the formation, transformation, and dissolution of K-pTex (K5Te3 and K2Te), as well as verifying the robust physical barrier and the strong chemisorption of K5Te3 and K2Te on S, N co-doped dual-type carbon substrates. Additionally, the hierarchical nanogrid-in-nanofiber nanostructure increases the chemical anchoring sites for K-pTex, provides sufficient volume buffer space, and constructs highly interconnected conductive microcircuits, further propelling the battery reaction to new heights (3500 cycles at 2.0 A g−1). Furthermore, the full cells further demonstrate the potential for practical applications. This work provides new insights into manipulating K-pTex in the design of ultralong-cycling MTe anodes for advanced PIBs.

Heterotopic ossification (HO), often arising in response to traumatic challenges, results from the aberrant osteochondral differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Nevertheless, the impact of trauma‐induced inflammatory exposure on MSC fate determination remains ambiguous. In this study, the cellular diversity within inflammatory lesions is elucidated, comprising MSCs and several innate and adaptive immune cells. It is observed that quiescent MSCs transition into cycling MSCs, subsequently giving rise to chondrogenic (cMSC) and/or osteogenic (oMSC) lineages within the inflammatory microenvironment following muscle or tendon injuries, as revealed through single‐cell RNA sequencing (scRNA‐seq), spatial transcriptome and lineage tracing analysis. Moreover, these investigations demonstrate that neutrophils and natural killer (NK) cells enhance transition of quiescent MSCs into cycling MSCs, which is also controlled by M1 macrophages, a subpopulation of macrophages can also stimulate cMSC and oMSC production from cycling MSCs. Additionally, M2 macrophages, CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes are found to promote chondrogenesis. Further analysis demonstrates that immune cells promotes the activation of signaling transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) pathway and phosphoinositide 3 (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT) pathway in MSC proliferation and osteochondral progenitors’ production, respectively. These findings highlight the dynamics of MSC fate within the inflammatory lesion and unveil the molecular landscape of osteoimmunological interactions, which holds promise for advancing HO treatment. The dynamics of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) lineage specification and associated dynamic regulation is highlighted by immune cells during HO formation, i.e., an elaborate trajectory of MSCs is characterized during aberrant osteochondrogenesis and demonstrates that MSCs proliferation are regulated by M1 macrophages (M1), neutrophils, and natural killer (NK) cells via janus kinase (JAK)/signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) signaling and differentiation process, including chondrogenic MSC (cMSC) and osteogenic MSC (oMSC) production are determined by M2 macrophages (M2), CD4+ and CD8+ T cells via phosphoinositide 3 kinase (PI3K) /protein kinase B (AKT) signaling activation.