How does the family become an instrument of authoritarian political control? This article theorizes Emotional Proxy Repression, a form of authoritarian control whereby states mobilize family members to pressure activists through emotional appeals, achieving demobilization while evading accountability. Drawing on 25 interviews with Chinese feminist activists, social media posts and movement archives, this analysis reveals three emotional mechanisms—the invocation of familial obligation, the weaponization of care, and the mobilization of shame—through which family members produce acute psychological harm, sustained exhaustion, and political withdrawal. These dynamics are shaped by patriarchal family structures and gendered expectations, making this form of repression particularly effective against Chinese women activists. The study contributes to understanding the expanding and evolving repertoire of authoritarian coercion, and the concrete manifestation of how public and private forms of oppression converge.
Abstract While design–build (DB) use and relevant experience have increased over the past years, the performance of DB projects has not improved significantly. The literature has compared performance across diverse delivery methods and construction sectors; however, the impact of procurement and contract options on DB performance remains underexplored. To address this gap, this study aims to (1) compare cost and time performance for DB projects across two construction sectors, and (2) examine the impact of procurement process and contract type on cost and time performance across sectors. To address the research objectives, this work analyzes data from 127 projects in the transportation and water and wastewater sectors using descriptive statistics and significance tests, such as Kruskal-Wallis and chi-square. Results indicate that transportation DB projects exhibit higher cost and time overruns, performing worse than water and wastewater projects, albeit the differences are not statistically significant. Across all projects, contract type showed no significant impact on cost performance, while procurement process influenced cost, with best-value projects experiencing higher overruns. Time performance, however, remains insensitive to the examined procurement and contracting options. Findings suggest that the procurement process may influence cost outcomes more than contract type and can inform programmatic changes on DB procurement for project owners.
This study presents a highly efficient and accurate approximate method based on a convergence acceleration parameter to approximate a nonlinear multidimensional aggregation population balance equation. Optimal tuning of the acceleration parameter significantly enhances solution quality over extended temporal domains and overcomes key limitations of existing approaches. Deeper mathematical insight is provided through a discussion of the existence of the proposed approach within the framework of a nonlinear aggregation model. Convergence analysis and error estimates are established using the fixed point theorem and the contractive mapping principle, thereby proving the existence of solutions to the aggregation model. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed approach are demonstrated by computing approximate solutions for the number density function and its moments for physically relevant kernels. For analytically tractable kernels, results are validated against exact solutions. For complex size-dependent kernels, including polymerization, Ruckenstein–Pulvermacher, and shear kernels, the obtained results are compared with the existing finite volume scheme, homotopy analysis method, and optimal decomposition method. The results show that the proposed approach achieves higher accuracy in capturing number density functions and their integral moments while requiring significantly fewer series terms than existing methods.
Engineering salt particle structure to fabricate hollow salts has emerged as a promising strategy for enhancing saltiness perception, with potential applications in sodium reduction. However, fabrication of bioactive-loaded hollow salts generally relies on oil-phase-assisted routes. Herein, an oil-free strategy was developed for preparing capsaicin (CAP)-loaded hollow salts (HS) via ethanol-assisted pre-dispersion of CAP in a conjugate solution, followed by high-shear dispersion, ultrasonication, and spray drying. Conventional oil-containing hollow salts (HS-Oil) were included as a reference system for comparative evaluation. Compared with HS, HS-Oil exhibited increased D3,2 and D4,3 values (from 13.90 to 16.55 μm to 17.95 and 20.08 μm, respectively), along with an increased specific surface area (from 2.09 to 2.68 m2 m−3). In terms of powder properties, HS exhibited poorer flowability and higher hygroscopicity than HS-Oil, whereas both samples exhibited comparable NaCl release behavior. Sensory evaluation showed that HS-Oil achieved the highest saltiness and salty aftertaste, but also exhibited more pronounced off-odor and slightly lower overall acceptability than HS, consistent with its greater accumulation of lipid oxidation-related volatiles after heating. An ex vivo formulation retention assay on porcine tongue further supported the sensory results. Overall, this study establishes an oil-free fabrication route for CAP-loaded hollow salts and clarifies the structural and saltiness-related differences between oil-free and oil-containing systems.
Today, ocean circulation is characterized by southward-flowing North Atlantic Deep Water and northward-flowing Antarctic Bottom Water, with a mixture of water masses filling the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Also, a Southern Hemisphere supergyre (i.e., an inter-basin wind-driven current) facilitates exchange of water among South Pacific, Indian, and South Atlantic Oceans subtropical gyres. The ocean circulation in the Eocene was different. Here we present new benthic foraminiferal oxygen and carbon stable isotopes (delta O-18(bf) and delta C-13(bf)) from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1090 (Agulhas Ridge) spanning the middle and early late Eocene that extend a published late Eocene-early Oligocene record (Pusz et al., 2011, https://doi.org/10.1029/2010pa001950) into a time characterized by the evolution of the Drake Passage and Tasman Gateway. The comparison of the Site 1090 combined data set with delta O-18(bf) and delta C-13(bf) from the Southern, Atlantic, and sub-Antarctic Indian Oceans confirms the presence of a water mass with higher delta O-18(bf) at depths <2,000 m and a water mass with lower delta O-18(bf) at depths >2,000 m, as already reported. We interpret these signals to be evidence of a deep supergyre at depths <2,000 m transporting salty higher delta O-18(bf) waters originating from the Indian Ocean into the Southern and eastern South Atlantic Oceans. Cold waters that formed around Antarctica spread northward, bathing sites >2,000 m. As the Drake Passage and Tasman Gateways opened and deepened and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current developed, deep-water formation became more prominent at higher latitudes, while the supergyre became restricted to shallower depths.
