**6. Discussion**

Because of the metallurgical activities carried out in the vicinity of Targoviste, which produced in time significant amounts of particulate matter with a high content of Pb, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni and

of loading of soils with heavy metals, the present study shows: (i) the horizontal distribution of heavy metals, depending on the prevailing direction of the air masses movement (wind Zn, the quality of agricultural soils is negatively influenced by the concentrations of heavy metals, which represent a risk of toxicity to humans. In order to evaluate the degree of loading of soils with heavy metals, the present study shows: (i) the horizontal distribution of heavy metals, depending on the prevailing direction of the air masses movement (wind rose) and (ii) vertical distribution to highlight the mobility of heavy metals into the soil profile, depending on the depth to which the plant roots can be found [15].

strated the very high mobility of Cu in the soil, mobility influenced also by the pH. Values of correlation between concentrations at different depths indicated weak Zn mobility on the soil

metal at values between 40 and 60%, strong mobility at values between 60 and 80%, and

Figure 16. Vertical mobility index (VMI) of heavy metals between the layers of the soil profile, statistically significant at 95% confidence level The mobility index of Sn was different depending on the depth. In the surface layer, this metal had a weak mobility; the correlation between the two layers (0-5cm and 5-20 cm) was very low. At greater depths, Sn mobility index was higher, indicated by the strong correlation of the concentrations at depths greater than 20 cm. Correlation of Pb concentration between layer of 0-5 cm and the other two layers was very low (<0.3). A strong correlation exists only between 5-20 cm and 20-40 cm depth which indicate a very strong mobility of Pb. The correlation between the concentrations of Co in the soil profile indicated a strong mobility of metal between the surface layer and underlying layers. The correlation between the Ni concentrations of different depths of soil profile is very strong,

**Figure 16.** Vertical mobility index (VMI) of heavy metals between the layers of the soil profile, statistically significant at

The mobility index of Sn was different depending on the depth. In the surface layer, this metal had a weak mobility; the correlation between the two layers (0-5cm and 5-20 cm) was very low. At greater depths, Sn mobility index was higher, indicated by the strong correlation of the concentrations at depths greater than 20 cm. Correlation of Pb concentration between layer of 0-5 cm and the other two layers was very low (<0.3). A strong correlation exists only between 5-20 cm and 20-40 cm depth which indicate a very strong mobility of Pb. The correlation between the concentrations of Co in the soil profile indicated a strong mobility of metal between the surface layer and underlying layers. The correlation between the Ni concentra‐ tions of different depths of soil profile is very strong, indicating a very strong mobility of Ni

The correlation between the concentrations of Mn in different depths of the soil profile is very strong, which indicated that a significant increase in the concentration of Mn in the upper layer will lead to an increase of Mn concentration also in the depth due to very strong mobility of this metal. The correlation between the concentrations of Cr in different depths of soil profile indicated a weak mobility of Cr between the surface layer and the middle layer of soil profile and a very strong mobility in the lower part of the soil profile. Correlations between the Mo concentrations were different on the soil profile: very weak in its upper layer and strong in the

Because of the metallurgical activities carried out in the vicinity of Targoviste, which produced in time significant amounts of particulate matter with a high content of Pb, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni and

98%

between 1st layer and 2nd layer between 2nd layer and 3rd layer

97%

The correlation between the concentrations of Mn in different depths of the soil profile is very strong, which indicated that a significant increase in the concentration of Mn in the upper layer will lead to an increase of Mn concentration also in the depth due to very strong mobility of this metal. The correlation between the concentrations of Cr in different depths of soil profile indicated a weak mobility of Cr between the surface layer and the middle layer of soil profile and a very strong mobility in the lower part of the soil profile. Correlations between the Mo concentrations were different on the soil profile: very weak in its upper layer

Because of the metallurgical activities carried out in the vicinity of Targoviste, which produced in time significant amounts of particulate matter with a high content of Pb, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni and Zn, the quality of agricultural soils is negatively influenced by the concentrations of heavy metals, which represent a risk of toxicity to humans. In order to evaluate the degree of loading of soils with heavy metals, the present study shows: (i) the horizontal distribution of heavy metals, depending on the prevailing direction of the air masses movement (wind

Distribution of Cu in the soil profile was given by the very strong correlation of the concentration of this element in the three layers of soil profile. High values of vertical mobility index were observed between the concentrations of Cu in the two underlying layers, which demonstrated the very high mobility of Cu in the soil, mobility influenced also by the pH. Values of correlation between concentrations at different depths indicated weak Zn mobility on the soil profile to depth of 20 cm and a very strong mobility between 20 and 40 cm.

profile to depth of 20 cm and a very strong mobility between 20 and 40 cm.

99%

78%

0% 50% 100% 150% 200%

88%

indicating a very strong mobility of Ni in soil which increased with depth.

and strong in the lower layers of soil profile.

**6. Discussion**

lower layers of soil profile.

**6. Discussion**

in soil which increased with depth.

very strong mobility at values higher than 80%.

94%

88% 71% 82%

89% 64% 39%

82%

62%

280 Environmental Risk Assessment of Soil Contamination

6% 17% 30%

Cu Zn Sn Pb Co Ni Mn Cr Mo

95% confidence level

1%

Previous studies have shown Targoviste area as an area of potential risk of heavy metal toxicity, along with other sources of pollution in Romania, as Copşa Mică, Deva and Baia Mare. This study presents the results of the concentration of heavy metals in soils near Targoviste, and are considered the high risk toxic metals such as Cu, Zn, Sn, Pb, Co, Ni, Mn, Cr, Mo. The analysis of horizontal distribution of heavy metals (Table 4) indicated that the agricultural soil in the vicinity of metallurgical unit were loaded with heavy metals concentrations exceeding several times the normal values and even alert threshold. Some values indicated concentra‐ tions of Cu and Zn even higher than in Copşa Mică [16] and Baia Mare [17].

Soils most affected by heavy metal pollution were those located on SV and V directions against the source of pollution, which are the predominant direction of air masses movement in the studied area. Also the other studied directions are characterized by concentration of heavy metals higher than normal limits, constituting a potential risk in the use of those soils in agriculture.

Analysis of vertical distribution of heavy metals indicated that high levels of heavy metals are caused primarily by industrial activity and less by the concentration of metals in the parent material. The concentration of all metals was higher in surface layer of soil (0-5 cm) because of deposition of particulate matter [21] and lower in the deeper layers of soil, possibly due to binding of metals to soil organic fractions (in the surface layer) that have slowed the metal mobility on the profile and decreased the transfer of metals to the underlying layers. Statistical analysis of correlations between the metal concentrations in soil and depth of the soil layer showed a negative correlation, which confirmed the hypothesis that the high concentration of heavy metals in soils from the industrial area of Targoviste, comes from a source of pollution and not from the parent material.

The metal mobility from the surface layers to the deeper layers can be explained on the basis of vertical distribution pattern of heavy metal. In order to measure the metal mobility on the profile of soil, a vertical mobility index (VMI) was calculated. This index indicated the extent to which that metal from a top layer of soil was transferred to the deeper layer by leaching and adsorption to soil particles. Depending on the type of soil, the mobility varies, promoting or inhibiting the rate of metal transfer from surface soil to groundwater, where the toxicity hazard is more difficult to control and the remediation actions are trickier. The most mobile heavy metals in investigated soils were Cu and Ni, with a mobility of 94 % and 89 % respectively, between the two layers from the surface of soil profile and a mobility of 98 % and 97 % respectively, between the two deeper layers. The hazard risk of these two metals to get into the groundwater was expressed by the high values of VMI. Also Mn and Co showed quite high values of VMI, which placed them as potential hazardous metals. Analysis of heavy metal mobility is important because once they reached the groundwater they present a greater risk to humans. Long-term exposure to high concentrations of these metals can cause serious illnesses in humans [4, 10, 11], and the intervention for remediation of soil is urgent, before the heavy metals will reach the groundwater.


[34] Macz-Pop GA,

Gonzalez-Paramas AM, Perez-Alonso JJ, Rivas-Gonzalo JC, New flavanolanthocyanin condensed pigments and anthocyanin composition in guatemalan beans (Phaseolus spp.). Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2006; 54: 536-542.

[35] Morata A, Gómez-Cordovés MC, Calderón F, Suárez JA, Effects of pH, temperature and SO2 on the formation of pyranoanthocyanins during red wine fermentation with two species of *Saccharomyces*. International Journal of Food Microbiology, 2006; 106: 123-129.

[36] Lu Y, Foo LY, Unusual anthocyanin reaction with acetone leading to pyranoanthocyanin formation. Tetrahedron Letters, 2001; 42: 1371-1373.

[37] Santos-Buelga C, Francia-Aricha EM, De Pascual-Teresa S, Rivas-Gonzalo JC, Contribution to the identification of the pigments responsible for the browning of anthocyaninflavanol solutions. European Food Research and Technology, 1999; 209: 411-415.

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Radiation Injury and Emergency Medicine

*James Shen, Linda Ding, Kevin O'Connor, Ameer Elaimy, Carla Bradford, Fenhong Liu, Abdulnasser Khalifeh, Suhong Yu, Harry Bushe, Jonathan Saleeby, Kenneth Ulin, I-Lin Kuo, Yankhua Fan, Maryann Bishop-Jodoin, Paul Rava and Thomas J. FitzGerald*


**6. The role of cholesterol**

Albi and Viola-Magni (2002) have demonstrated the presence of CHO in hepatocyte chromatin. Previous researchers have attributed many functions to CHO metabolism (Luskey 1988) and an increase in its concentration has been demonstrated in both cancer and proliferating cells (Rao 1986). In liver regeneration, the amount of chromatin CHO changes during the first 24 h. Two fractions were demonstrated in the chromatin fraction, one of which is a free fraction and the other that is only extractable after SMase or proteinase K digestion (Albi and Viola-Magni, 2002).

After partial hepatectomy, the bound CHO increased reaching a peak after six hours whereas the free CHO reached a peak only after 18 h. This may be explained as being due to the increased SMase activity and to the block of SM synthesis which favours the transformation of the bound CHO fraction to the free fraction.

At 24 h, SM synthase activity increased and the ratio between bound and free CHO returned to the normal value seen in the non-dividing hepatocytes.

It was demonstrated that inhibition of the melavonate-CHO pathway with nitrogen bisphosphate arrested the cells in S-phase with a reduction in the expression of cdk2 and cdk4, whereas the expression of cdk21 increased (Reszka et al. 2001). The role of CHO in liver regeneration may be linked to the stimulation of the activities of cyclin-dependent kinases. In order to clarify this point the analysis of cyclin behaviour, especially that of A and B1, during liver regeneration may be of interest.

### **7. The cell cycle**

#### **7.1 The behaviour of cyclin A and B1**

Cyclin A is present in normal liver and in sham operated rats. During liver regeneration, the behaviour of cyclin A and B1 expression was analysed by Splewak &.Thorgeirsson (1997). They showed an increased amount of both cyclin A and B1 between 12 h and 22 h post hepatectomy when the hepatocytes entered the G1-S phase transition as shown by the ten-

This enzyme system may also be involved with gene expression by controlling the transfer of RNA to the cytoplasm. After enzymatic digestion with DNase and RNase, it was possible to isolate a complex containing a small amount of DNA, RNA, proteins and PLs. The RNA is RNase insensitive and behaves as double-stranded RNA. There are only two PLs invloved,

The enzymes SMase, SM synthase and reverse SM-synthase are present. If the complex is treated with SMase, the undigested RNA becomes RNase sensitive. Therefore, the presence of SM appears to protect the RNA from digestion. SMase aids the digestion by causing a decrease of SM that returns to the normal value through the activation of SM-synthase that exploits the PC derived from phosphorylcholine. The amount of PC may be restored

The products of PL metabolism may act also as internal signals by activating other nuclear proteins such as PKC or favouring the synthesis of polymerases through the presence of PS

Albi and Viola-Magni (2002) have demonstrated the presence of CHO in hepatocyte chromatin. Previous researchers have attributed many functions to CHO metabolism (Luskey 1988) and an increase in its concentration has been demonstrated in both cancer and proliferating cells (Rao 1986). In liver regeneration, the amount of chromatin CHO changes during the first 24 h. Two fractions were demonstrated in the chromatin fraction, one of which is a free fraction and the other that is only extractable after SMase or proteinase K

After partial hepatectomy, the bound CHO increased reaching a peak after six hours whereas the free CHO reached a peak only after 18 h. This may be explained as being due to the increased SMase activity and to the block of SM synthesis which favours the

At 24 h, SM synthase activity increased and the ratio between bound and free CHO returned

It was demonstrated that inhibition of the melavonate-CHO pathway with nitrogen bisphosphate arrested the cells in S-phase with a reduction in the expression of cdk2 and cdk4, whereas the expression of cdk21 increased (Reszka et al. 2001). The role of CHO in liver regeneration may be linked to the stimulation of the activities of cyclin-dependent kinases. In order to clarify this point the analysis of cyclin behaviour, especially that of A

Cyclin A is present in normal liver and in sham operated rats. During liver regeneration, the behaviour of cyclin A and B1 expression was analysed by Splewak &.Thorgeirsson (1997). They showed an increased amount of both cyclin A and B1 between 12 h and 22 h post hepatectomy when the hepatocytes entered the G1-S phase transition as shown by the ten-

through the activation of the enzyme reverse SM-synthase (Micheli et al. 1998).

namely, SM and PC (Albi et al. 1996; Micheli et al.1998).

(Albi et al. 1991).

**7. The cell cycle**

**6. The role of cholesterol**

digestion (Albi and Viola-Magni, 2002).

transformation of the bound CHO fraction to the free fraction.

to the normal value seen in the non-dividing hepatocytes.

and B1, during liver regeneration may be of interest.

**7.1 The behaviour of cyclin A and B1**

fold rise in the cyclin mRNA level, its level remaining high between 24 and 48 h and returning to the normal value only after 72 h.

During S-phase, cyclin A is associated with p32cdk2 kinase, whereas during the transition G2-M it forms a complex with p34cdc2 (Pagano et al. 1992).

The mRNA levels of cyclin B1 and p34cdc2 behave in a similar manner remaining low for the S-phase period and increasing only after 20 h to reach a peak at 26 h. This is followed by a decline at 34 h with a new peak forming between 38 h and 44 h. The two peaks correspond to the G2-M phases of the first wave and second waves of the hepatocyte cell cycle.

The great majority of p34cdc2 is linked to cyclin B1 whereas only 25% is linked to cyclin A (Loyer et al. 1994). The presence of the phosphorylated form of cyclin A may represent an inactivation of this cyclin during the G2-M transition.

### **7.2 Cell cycle regulation by chromatin-associated phospholipids (Table 2)**

The increase in chromatin-bound CHO during the first six hours activates the kinases with PS favouring DNA polymerase alpha synthesis and PIP. At 12 h post-hepatectomy a transient increase of DAG is due to the hydrolysis of PI followed the activation of the chromatin enzyme PI-PLC.

The increase of DAG favours the translocation of PKC into the nucleus (Divecha et al. 1991). The synthesis of cyclin A increases as it complexes with p32cdk2 kinase. When the S-phase starts, a more consistent DAG peak is evident due to the hydrolysis of PC by the enzyme PC-PLC. At the same time, there is a decrease in SM due to the activation of SMase and consequently an increase in the free CHO present in the nucleus.

Table 2. Molecular events in relation to the time after hepatectomy

Possible Roles of Nuclear Lipids in Liver Regeneration 73

from external stimuli and may function as an internal balance. In fact, the increase in DAG due to PC hydrolysis stimulates SMase with the liberation of ceramide that may stimulate reverse sphingomyelin synthase to form new PC so favouring the liberation of DAG. On the

This internal clock appears to control cell activity favouring proliferation, differentiation when the cells remain in Go or apoptosis when the ceramide present is transformed into

It is clear from this that the role of phospholipids must be considered for a role in cell

Albi, E., Viola Magni, M.P., Lazzarini, R. & Gahan, P.B. (1991). *Chromatin phospholipid changes*

Albi, E., Mersel, M., Leray, C., Tomassoni, M.L. & Viola Magni, M.P. (1994). *Rat liver*

Albi, E., Micheli, M. & Viola Magni, M.P. (1996). *Phospholipids and nuclear RNA*. Cell Biol.

Albi, E. &Viola Magni, M.P. (1997a). *Chromatin neutral spingomyelinase and its role in hepatic*

Albi, E. & Viola Magni, M.P. (1997b). *Choline base exchange activity in rat hepatocyte nuclei and*

Albi, E. & Viola Magni, M.P. (1999a). *Sphingomyelin-synthase in rat liver nuclear membrane and*

Albi, E. & Viola Magni, M.P. (1999b). *Phosphatidylcholine-dependent phospholipase C in rat liver*

Albi, E. & Viola Magni, M.P. (2002). *The presence and the role of chromatin cholesterol in rat liver*

Albi, E., Pieroni, S., Viola Magni, M.P. & Sartori, C. (2003a). *Chromatin sphingomyelin changes*

Albi, E., Rossi, G., Maraldi, N.M., Viola Magni, M.P., Cataldi, S., Solimando, L.& Zini, N.

*cycle progression during rat liver regeneration*. J. Cell. Physiol. 197, 181-188. Albi, E. & Viola-Magni M.P. (2003c). *The metabolism of nuclear phospholipids in cell function and*

Albi, E. & Viola-Magni, M.P. (2004). *The role of intranuclear lipids.* Biology of the Cell 96, 657-

Albi E., Cataldi S. & Rossi G. (2008). *The nuclear ceramide/diacylglicerol balance depends on the*

Albrecht, J.H., Poon R.Y., Ahonen C.L., Rieland B.M., Deng C. & Crary C.S. (1998).

*in cell proliferation and/or apoptosis induced by ciprofibrate.* J. Cell. Physiol. 196, 354-361

(2003b). *Involvement of nuclear phosphatidylinositoldependent phospholipases C in cell*

*physiological state of thyroid cells and changes during UV-C radiation induced apoptosis*.

*Involvement of p21 and p27 in the regulation of CDK activity and cell cycle progression in*

other hand, the increase in SM reduces the ceramide present.

duplication regulation favouring the regeneration process in liver.

*chromatin phospholipids*. Lipids 29, 715-719.

*nuclear membrane*. Cell Biol. Intern. 21, 217-221.

*chromatin*. FEBS Lett. 460, 369-372.

*regeneration*. J. Hepatol. 36, 395-400.

Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 478, 52-58

*the regenerating liver.* Oncogene 16, 2141-2150

Intern. 20, 407-412.

*during rat liver development.* Cell Biochem. Funct. 9, 119-123.

*regeneration.* Biochim. Biophys. Res. Commun. 236, 29-33.

*chromatin*. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 265, 640-643.

*regulation*. Recent Res.Devel.Biophys.Biochem., 3, 45-63

Albi, E. (2011) *Role of intranuclear lipids in health and disease* Clin. Lipidol. 6,59-69

sphingosine.

**9. References**

667

However, the complexing of cyclin A with p32cdk2 kinase increased up to 22h i.e. the end of S-phase. After 18h, SM synthase activity increased with the increase in SM reducing the CHO free fraction and hence the activity of cyclinA.

Cyclin B complexing with p34cdc2 increased its activity so favouring the transition of G1-M phase. The phosphoinositides also decrease during S-phase leading to an inhibition of DNA synthesis through an increase in the activity of dephosphorylating enzymes (York and Majerus 1994). The small fraction of cyclin A complexed with p32 cdc2 is inactivated by phosphorylation, the cells progressing to G2-M (Splewak & Thorgeirsson 1997). The complex B-p34cdc2 also decreases followed by a second peak between 38-44 h posthepatectomy corresponding to the second mitotic peak.


When parents naturize such morality, they begin to actively assign extra homework to their children to fulfil their parental responsibility. The close supervision is often effective and increases the child's exam score. The more the children practice at home, the better they can do at solving specific types of questions in exams. As the children make progress under close supervision, the parents also acquire a sense of accomplishment and become proud of their contribution. When the supervision is too detailed and the extra work given to the children is too much, the children can also develop an aversion to studying and, in extreme cases, refuse to study at all. When their efforts fail to help the children progress in their studies, parents can become exhausted and anxious.They complain about why their children are so 'disobedient' (不乖*bu guai*), on the one hand, and are worried about the harsh competition their children might face in the job market in the future when they do not attain a tertiary education degree, on the other. Although close supervision of homework may cause intergenerational conflicts, all the parents I interviewed decided to adopt close homework supervision anyway. They all believed they knew their children the balance point and would stop before pushing the child to the limit.

# **Migrant parents and process of distant supervision via smart cameras**

While most non-migrant parents can sit beside their children at night and watch them write in person, migrant parents rely heavily, if not entirely, on monitoring technologies to supervise their children's study after school. Smart cameras are one of the most popular devices migrant parents use to supervise their children's homework and tutor them from afar.

*Picture 1: A smart camera standing on piles of tissue paper on the study desk on the left, and a screenshot of the livestreaming on the mother's phone on the right (photos taken in 2021 and are provided by Mrs Zheng to the author)*

Mr and Mrs Zheng are migrant professionals in Hangzhou. The husband is a wealth planner,and the wife runs a bakery. To supervise their left-behind 12-year-old son's study at night, the couple installed a smart camera above his study desk, which is compounded with an ultra-high-definition camera, AI figure track, 360-degree panoramic view, and a two-way online phone call. The monitoring camera is linked to an app on the parent's smartphone, so the parent could control the recording view of the camera, view the livestream as well as the recorded video, and talk to the child with the phone.

The son promised the mother that he would study after school from 18:30 to 22:00 every weekday. In the first two hours, he needs to finish school assignments. In the following half hour, he needs to report to the mother via the camera about what he has studied during the day. In the final hour, the mother would, firstly, go through the school assignments with the son, making sure he had finished all the tasks. Then the mother would accompany the son while he did extra maths assignments from an unpublished exercise book edited by a famous teacher in Hangzhou.

After he finished the extra work, the mother would show him the right answer. If the son could not understand the problem-solving process, he needed to ask the maths teacher the day after because the mother was unable to tutor him anymore as he moved to junior high school.

The time frame between 18:30 and 20:30 is a busy hour for bakeries in China, as many people buy cakes and bread as desserts to take home after work. Thus, during the first two hours, the mother usually relies on the AI report produced by the smart camera to monitor the child's homework writing process. Smart cameras nowadays are equipped with AI image processing technologies and can provide real-time analysis to the smartphone. The reports shows up as notice banners on the smartphone in short sentences that indicate the time point at which the son shows up in or leaves the room. When he comes and goes, the AI would also calculate how long he stayed or was absent. Accordingly, the mother could track the son's movements even without logging into the app and checking the livestreaming video on her own.

The time after involves higher levels of interpersonal communication as the number of customers reduces by 20:30 and the mother can finally take a rest after a long day of work. The mother and son go through school assignments together and discuss school life as if they were sitting in one room and sharing the moment face-to-face. The camera becomes an external eye and mouth for the mother, enabling her to see, communicate and interact with him across geographical distance. Although very tired, the mother insists on meeting with her son via the camera to check his homework.

In addition to the real-time mediated gathering via the camera, Mr and Mrs Zheng love to review their son's study videos during the day when they are not busy. The camera can upload the video to the cloud, where it will be stored for three days. The couple downloaded many of the son's studying videos locally on the phone and watch them again and again when they feel tired at work. Mrs Zheng once told me that "Everyone in the family works hard for a better life. Life is hard for everyone, but I am happy that my family is so united. I believe our days will get better and better." The mother felt relieved every time she watched her son study hard and the husband brings money back. Here, they also constitute a spatially dispersed parent-child striving team, a notion coined by sociologist Rachel Murphy (2020). Based on long-term field work in middle China, Murphy argues that the migrant parents and the left-behind children live their lives interdependently, and all contribute their hard work to the family goal of striving for a better life. The migrants' labour in the cities and the children's study in their hometowns are all real work that is underpinned by aspirations to bring about a better life for the family members. The idea of a striving team helps us to understand Mr and Mrs Zheng's relief when they saw their son's studying video. Studying hard is the son's way to contribute to the family's well-being andincrease the family's socialmobility.When the parents watch the son's study video, they also feel they are supported by the son, and the responsibility to make the family better is shared by him. This experience of cooperation creates a sense of togetherness and strengthens the bonds between the family members without requiring them to be physically close.

The experience of family communication via monitoring camera from the perspective of the left-behind son is more complex and mixed. The son, for example, hates the camera, but, at the same time, he is so reliant on the camera to give him a sense of being kept in his parents' heart and being missed. The son compared himself with his friends, who were also left-behind children but had been forgotten by their migrant parents. He concluded that his parents installed cameras on his study table to supervise his studies, ensure he was doing the right thing at the right time, and be accountable to him. As this boy lives far away from his parents and craves their attention, being monitored gives him the feeling of being loved and cared for.

In addition, the camera is the only direct way he could contact the parents. He does not have a mobile phone, because his parents are afraid that he might be distracted from studying and waste time on games on the phone. Thus, he needs the camera to contact his parents on his own. Although the boy has thought of uninstalling the camera several times, he has never once implemented this plan up to the date I talked to him. At the end of our conversation, the boy defined his temptation to remove the camera as an immature and impetuous thought and said: "The monitor does help me with my studies. [Long pause] It gives my parents reassurance. I guess it's the only way for me to show my filial piety at my age."

Not every child I encounter in China thinks like this boy.There were also children who attempted to break the camera and those who tried to hide from the camera by stacking books like a wall and hiding behind the books. But what is the same among these children is their mixed perception of the parents' distant monitoring practice. No matter how obedient or rebellious the children behave, all of them share a mixed feeling in the monitoring relationship, on the one hand, feeling cared about and, on the other hand, feeling distrusted. Surveillance is intimately entangled with care and love in the situation of parental migration and children staying at home. Smart cameras extend the parents' authoritative watch across time and space and enable careful surveillance that is both loving and scary in the eyes of the children. I will investigate this complexity in the following section through concepts of 'forced' and 'uncertain co-presence'.

# **Forced co-presence rooted in an unequal parent-child power relationship**

The children feel uncomfortable with the camera-facilitated distant homework supervision because they have lost control over their own presence. The use of smart cameras generates what I call 'forced co-presence', which depicts an unequal power relationship between the migrant parents and their stay-at-home children.

The story of Zheng's family shows that the stay-at-home son is forced to livestream his study to the migrant parents every day. He does not like doing homework under his parents' supervision for two main reasons. On the one hand, he has lost autonomy over his own time under smart monitoring. He cannot, for example, stop studying at night without parental permission. When he could not stay focused on study, the boy could not go directly to the bed and lie down for a while. Instead, he needs to press the talking button on the camera and report his tiredness to his parents and ask for a rest. If he stopped studying without a report in advance, he would be scolded or nagged about it repeatedly as soon as the parents found out from the recorded video. In order to get moments of respite, the boy has now learnt to take a secret rest by staring blankly at the exercise book and pretending to encounter and think about a difficult question. Deception is the only means that enables him to take back control of his own time, but, in the meantime, it often makes him feel immoral. He felt guilty for lying to his parents and being irresponsible in his own study. This is how he comments on his little trick:

My parents work hard outside to save money for my future education. I need to repay (报答baoda) them by studying hard. The hardship of studying is nothing compared to the hardship they go through in making money outside. I feel so angry why I can't learn all the time like the top students in my class. Believe it or not, I feel guilty regarding my parents when I pretend to study. I also know I do not study for my parents or for the teacher, I study for myself. So, it made me feel worse.

On the other hand, the boy felt distrusted by his parents during close homework supervision. At the time of the interview, the boy was thirteen years old and complained that his parents still supervised him like a preschool child. His development is constantly ignored by his parents and they often take away any credit for his study progress. He said hatefully:

I can study well without their supervision. I can do it myself. I don't need their so-called help. I will finish the homework without their supervision, and I can ask the teachers about the questions I don't understand. Why can't they leave me alone and let me be responsible for my own study?

The boy's experience resonates with many other children who are similarly supervised closely by their parents, whether distantly or in person. The parents check the children's homework and make sure they finished it correctly and well every night because they do not trust their children. They despise their children's self-management skills and ability to take the initiative in studying. As a result, these parents are always eager to become overly involved in their children's education.

Distant but close homework supervision in China is enabled by cheap and easily accessible smart cameras. A decade ago, migrant parents were technically unable to overparent their stay-at-home children across long distances. In the age of internet video calls and phone calls, children have the right to refuse the chat invitation at the beginning or hang up the phone when they no longer want to communicate. When the parents ask about their refusal, the children could make excuses about an unstable connection, being out of battery, and so on and so forth. In an earlier era of letter exchange, children could refuse more easily by writing shorter and less frequently to their parents. Nowadays, in cases of smart camera monitoring, the children do not have any excuse for refusing to be monitored. Firstly, the monitors are usually hung high on the wall or in the ceiling, making it impossible for small children to uninstall the camera. Even if they uninstall it, the grandparents who reside with them will reinstall it quickly on behalf of the parents. Secondly, the monitors work 24/7, and whenever the children enter the space of surveillance, their image is captured and transmitted immediately to the cloud.  Of course, the children could break the monitor, but it would be at the expense of irritating the migrant parents, failing to complete certain types of homework and being chastised by teachers at school, as many pieces of homework should be completed in collaboration with the parents, as discussed in the preceding section. The emergence of smart monitoring signals a retreat in intergenerational equality, because parents are technically able to force their children to listen to their nagging and stay monitored at a low cost, such as in face-to-face situations.

# **Uncertain co-presence determined by data synchronization**

The co-presence facilitated by smart cameras is as uncertain as Schrödinger's cat. The state of the co-presence is measured until the parents synchronize with the camera as they review the recorded video or read the message transmitted by the AI to their phone. Children cannot determine whether they are being watched or not by their parents when the former are doing homework. The camera-mediated co-presence exists in two states before the human-machine data synchronization, like the cat being both dead and alive before the box is opened in Schrödinger's famous thought experiment. By contrast, other forms of co-presence are more definite in generating a sense of togetherness. Physical co-presence, for example, is multi-sensational and can, thus, be clearly perceived by seeing, hearing or smelling. As for ambient co-presence in a polymedia environment (Madianou 2016), although the sense of togetherness is peripheral, individuals can perceive the presence of the distant other by seeing them put up new posts or noticing the little green dot

near their profile photo, which indicates that the friend is online. People would not question whether they shared the moment with other people on social media.

Compared with a definite experience of togetherness, the co-presence experience mediated by smart cameras is ambiguous for interactants. When the parents told the children they should be away for a while and come back later, the children could not determine whether they were still under their parents' watch as the camera continued to record, livestream and store the video. The camera functions as a loosely connected external eye and external brain for the parents. It is loosely connected because the linkage depends on the parents' intentional acts of data synchronization. In the case of distant homework supervision, it can either refer to the migrant parents reviewing the video on the cloud or reading the AI report on their phone later. Therefore, the migrant parents are both present and absent before they retrieve data from the camera. The interaction of watching and being watched, as well as the state of co-presence which took place at a prior time, are dependent on the act of parent-camera synchronization, which happens later. In this sense, it is very difficult for the children to perceive and experience co-presence with the parents at the exact moment of doing their homework under the camera.

This delayed certainty, which can be perplexing for the children being monitored, has significant negative emotional consequences for distant parent-child relationships, on the one hand, and lowers study productivity, on the other. According to interviews and informal conversations with the children, when they are unsure whether their parents are watching them, they become more anxious and less focused.They have wasted a lot of time guessing what their parents are doing, and are less able to concentrate on their homework. A nine-year-old girl shared her experience as follows:

She [the migrant mother] sometimes leaves without noticing me when I am doing homework. She always tells me she doesn't reply to me when I talk to her on purpose. Because she wanted to see if I could concentrate on my work when she is absent. I don't know if she was telling a lie. She can always check the video afterwards and tell me she was there. She could watch the monitoring video and pretend to be with me. I cannot stop talking to her to get feedback from her. She complains that I talk too much while doing homework. But I just want to make sure she is there. She doesn't understand me. She just criticizes me.

In camera-mediated homework supervision, the migrant parents can see and hear what the children are doing from the livestreaming video, but the stay-at-home children cannot see the migrant parents.They need to confirm the presence of their parents by talking to and hearing from them. The quality and quantity of information exchanged between the monitor and the monitored are unequal. The parents are so privileged that they often cannot understand the children's needs for confirming their co-presence. In this story, the mother takes the girl's attempt to seek confirmation of her presence as evidence of study wandering and criticizes the girl for not being focused on study. The girl feels wronged and misunderstood by her mother. Following the expression of grievance, the girl continued to share her complaints about her mother.

Talking does distract me from my homework. I agree. But I feel more uncomfortable and more distracted if I fail to get her response. When I receive her response, I feel so relieved and assured, and can go back to study immediately. So, my talking is not problem. Her not replying makes me unconcentrated.

The girl's complaint reveals a strong sense of insecurity about the long-distance parent-child relationship. Homework time was the only moment she could share with her mother for the day. She needs a definite sense of the mother's presence to perceive and confirm the mother's love and care for her. She needs the mother's full attention and, thus, feels anxious when the mother does not reply to her.The longer she experiences silence, the more she suffers from anxiety.

The 'uncertain co-presence' also has consequences for children's understandings of the human-machine relationship.When I watched the monitoring video posts on Weibo, I found preschool children often mixed up their parents with the monitoring camera. In one video, when a little boy fell while going up the steps between the yard and the house, he looked up and cried to the monitoring camera at the entrance: "Daddy I fell, I'm in pain, Daddy, Daddy……" This video has been widely distributed onWeibo and has aroused a strong sense of compassion for the left-behind children. Children at a young age could not discern humans from machines as they have been used to talking to the camera.This little boy thought the monitoring camera was his father and could comfort him and help him up when he fell. The boy thought the father saw his fall from the camera and would react to him immediately; however, the father could only see the whole process when he reviewed the recorded video late at night after work.The camera is more than a proxy in Baldassar's theory of proxy-copresence; it is tangible and incorporates the spirit of the absent father. The camera is also interactive and smart, giving the child the illusion that it is not only an object but a technical extension of the human father.The boy is disappointed and cries hard when the camera – in his understanding, it is his father – does not respond to him. In another story shared on Xiaohongshu, a mother reported that her threeyear-old daughter was angry with her migrant father when the daughter offered a piece of apple to the monitoring camera but the camera did not take it. People found this episode 'so funny' because good comedy is tragic at its core. The story is so sad because the girl could not distinguish the father from the camera, as the father always appears in the form of a voice from the camera. In the eyes of the little girl,

the camera is the father, and the father is the camera. She expected the camera to interact with her and take her apple, as the mother always does in these situations. Such disappointment is increasingly commonly experienced by small stay-at-home children in contemporary China raised under monitoring cameras.

# **Conclusion**

In this chapter, I have documented the use of smart cameras in distant homework supervision among translocal families in Eastern China. The ethnographic details show how education aspiration, parental responsibility and the school system interact to push the parents to be highly involved in their children's homework and study. In such a context, migrant parents should rely on technologies to recreate translocal spaces for homework supervision to fulfil their parental responsibilities and explore new ways of 'doing parent' at a distance.

However, the use of smart cameras deprived the stay-at-home children of the right to control their own presence and brought about what I call 'forced co-presence', which is deeply rooted in the unequal parent-child power relationship.  Furthermore, the use of smart cameras creates uncertainty about the state of co-presence. Without knowing whether the parents retrieve the data from the camera afterwards, the children cannot confirm whether they have been carefully monitored by the parents from afar. The uncertainty generates the children's need for immediate confirmation of their parents' invisible presence during the homework writing. It distracts them from concentrating on their studies and lowers their study efficiency.

I argue that the use of smart cameras makes the stay-at-home children insecure and feel untrusted. While close homework supervision eases migrant parents' anxiety over their children's study performance, it might also weaken the parent-child relationship at a distance.Therefore, the distant homework supervision I studied in this chapter highlights the precarious balance between responsible parenting and overparenting. It also expands on the concept of co-presence and sheds light on the effects of technology on translocal and transnational family relationship formation in digital and mobile societies. As smart monitoring was widely used in child and elderly care in many societies around the world during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, the terms 'forced co-presence' and 'uncertain co-presence' help us to see that smart monitoring has ambiguous consequences for 'doing family' at a distance.

# **Bibliography**

Zou, Wuying, Neil Anderson, and Komla Tsey. 2013. "Middle-class Chinese Parental Expectations for Their Children's Education." *Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences* 106: 1840–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.12.209.

# **The Class Diary of the Pandemic. Comics of the Transformations of the 'Presence' in Brazilian Schools during the COVID-19 Pandemic**

*João Pedro Rangel Gomes da Silva and Matheus Fred Schulze*

Abstract *The Class Diary is a lecture tool for registering the daily routine and the presence of students. In 2020 and 2021, we ethnographically investigated the transformations brought about by the pandemic through the stories of those particularly affected in the educational context: teachers and students. These stories were collected and illustrated as a diary that anthropologically explores the experience of having new ways of 'presence' in the pandemic. Each story has their own particularities but together they are crossed by interconnected experiences and sensations. The fear of the present shares space with the hope of change in the future. We were interested in the transformations that arose in teacher-student relations – at that moment exclusively online ones – that resulted in a new mode of 'presence' of these subjects, and consequently, a new way of experiencing their senses and the establishment of relationships. By appropriating the notion of Class Diary for the record of daily presence, we explored these records andtransformedthemintoillustrationsto sensitively comprehend and expressthis new sense of 'presence' experienced by our interlocutors. A virtual and everyday presence. A way of experiencing different moments, previously physically present, but now in an online environment.The ClassDiaryis seen as a registration of stories,feelings, andthe relationships between these subjects. But how to represent hope in the future, if the future was extremely uncertain to those facing that moment? Our challenge was to transform these stories into a comic book, without missingthe point of view of our interlocutors andthe miscellaneous sensesthat crossed them, seeking ways of expressing it artistically.*

Keywords *Comics; Pandemic; Education; Presence*

# **Introduction**

Programa de Extensão em Educação Política (PROEEP)<sup>1</sup> is an outreach program<sup>2</sup> in Political Education that aims to develop and disseminate educational content on politics, enabling people of all ages to participate in public life. Our group was created in 2019 as an initiative of undergraduate and master's students of the Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences of the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP),in a partnership with the Legislative Branch's School of Campinas, Brazil (ELECAMP). In this project, we carry out activities in the Youth Parliament, an initiative that receives elementary and high school students from public and private schools from all municipalities to simulate sessions of the city's legislative body.The students learn about all the processes within that space, from the creation of a bill to voting.

By the end of 2019, the project was fully linked to the partnership with the legislative body, but in the following year (2020) we could start executing different plans and ideas. However, with the pandemic, all these plans had to be changed, and the physical presence had to be transformed completely.The project migrated to the online environment, and we had to adapt to this new type of work and think about what we would do from there onwards since our main activity, the Youth Parliament, was paralyzed.

Therefore, we increased our content production for social networks, such as posts explaining some concepts and indicating artworks, books, and documentaries to help people think about political themes. We produced online courses and classes, prepared two board games about the Brazilian legislative process and a booklet about the elections in the country. Finally, during this period, we produced two editions of "The Class Diary of the Pandemic" book, which will be the theme of this paper.<sup>3</sup>

PROEEP is built by undergraduate, master's, and doctoral students from Unicamp, assembling various professional and training experiences. During the pandemic, we were included in a privileged space of one of the best universities in Latin America and faced several obstacles generated by the transfer of traditional faceto-face teaching to distance learning.These changes entailed profound transformations in several layers of our experience as university students, something that can

<sup>1</sup> PROEEP's social networks, productions, and work are available here: https://linktr.ee/PROE EP

<sup>2</sup> Outreach, alongside teaching and research, constitutes the three pillars of Brazilian public universities. The particularity of the outreach programs is the exchange of knowledge and collaboration between the university community and external society.

<sup>3</sup> They are not published yet. The first edition of The Class Diary of the Pandemic is available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gar2omXHq5Z61Yj2OLEEn4PeV7-01NM\_/view?usp=s hare\_link

be felt and made sense through our bodies, which had to suddenly adapt to a teaching-learning model that we were not used to. The consequences of these transformations are something that we seek to investigate through the reports of students and teachers of different levels of education.The impact of the pandemic was different across Brazilian institutions, and our university had more resources than other smaller educational institutions.

The notions of time and space gained other nuances due to the dynamics of distance learning.We no longer had the commute to the university, the conversationsin the corridors, theinteractionsin the classroom, the coffee breaks, the schedules, and the traditional evaluation methods.  The teaching-learning space suffered the most significant change, as there was no longer a physical place to go to and live our student life. The boundaries between home and the university/school space have become blurred over time.This blurring happened not only in our university experience but also in the reports of many students and teachers living this period.With these transformations, socialinequalities among students became evenmore evident. Some had all the gadgets and features they needed to comfortably carry on with the school year at home, but for many, there was a lack of internet, a computer, study space, and food.

As humanities students, these elements already caught our attention before, but we became even more interest when we were taking the place of teachers. In our education path at Unicamp, we can follow different areas, Anthropology, Sociology, Political Science, a bachelor's degree and or a teaching degree. Thus, some of our members were experiencing all this change from two different spectra: as a student and a teacher.

Our initial curiosity took the form of a desire to record what we did not see being registered. In the beginning, we looked for references, whether or not they were produced, and we came across materials that documented life stories of people who died of COVID-19. However, we wanted to make room for the stories of people living during the pandemic, more specifically teachers in elementary and high school.

We made an open call for reports to the project we called "The Class Diary of the Pandemic".What is a class diary? A class diary is a document used by teachers in the classroom, where they record the life and dynamics of that space,including the presence and participation of students and lesson planning.Thus, through these day-today reports during an unprecedented social-political scenario, we aimed to understand the changes and permanent situations from the perception of these individuals. We perceived something we felt in our own experiences regarding the notion of presence: what was considered to be present before was no longer possible in a period of social isolation.

Given the health and political emergency of the pandemic, we realized the importance of thoroughly investigating the experiences of those deeply affected individuals and the consequences for teaching, which cannot be understood until this day.Thus, we are guided by the observation and description of these stories, through processes of experimentation and sensitization with different modes of expression (text, sound, images, comics). We searched for details and connections of this experience with what is beyond it, although it does not seem so at first. Our goal was to leave the experience and go to the artistic expression of these stories, to allow the understanding of this historical moment.

On June 9, 2020, we launched our open call and contacted our network of acquaintances to collect these reports. The questions that guided these conversations included: Teacher, are you working through distance learning?; What digital platforms and lesson formats have you adopted?; How have students received them?; Have you adapted the topics in the classroom to address issues related to Covid-19? Which ones?; What challenges has the pandemic brought to the realization of your teaching work, inside and outside the classroom?

The answers that came to these questions were the most diverse and came in different formats. Some teachers felt more comfortable sending audio files, others preferred video files, and others sent texts. These open questions also provoked a reaction that we did not expect, which ended up bringing consequences to the development of the project. While some reports came full of details, others were very succinct and direct.

Another important point was the identity of these interlocutors. As they were active teachers, many of them felt more comfortable using pseudonyms to avoid any complications with their educational institutions; after all, their reports showed asymmetrical power relations between teachers, parents and the managers from the schools, conflicts, and criticism of the positions adopted by the schools. Aside from the pseudonyms, in some cases we needed to change the physical appearance of the characters, who, as a form of registration and as a tribute, were illustrated based on the actual participants. This request for anonymity appeared when we introduced the invitation to participate, a fact that made us add the possibility of anonymity to the other public calls we would post in our networks. An example of this is the report by teacher Maria Luiza, who requested the use of a pseudonym and a different representation in the drawings. She informed us that she preferred to remain anonymous for fear of being fired or having problems with the school.

The fear that the teachers shared with us is not banal. This feeling must be observed within the historical processes that Brazil has been through until today. The rise of a fascist and military government shortly before the pandemic in Brazil contributed to the establishment of a set of economic, political, social, and health crises with the arrival of the pandemic. In this context, there was a brutal deepening of social inequality, the establishment of genocidal policies by the federal government,

devaluation of teachers, a drastic reduction in funding at all levels of education, and the return of Brazil to the hunger map, among many other aspects that generated acute insecurity among us and our interlocutors.<sup>4</sup>

Our idea was to collect the reports, illustrate them, and then post them on our social networks,as a sequence ofimages that referred to each story.However, shortly before finishing this process, we were faced with the opportunity to launch them in book format, which led to adaptations to produce a comic book.This adaptation process will be better covered in the next section but mentioning this change is crucial to understand the choices we made in the construction of the second edition.

On 1 June 2021, we opened a call for submissions of reports to the second The Class Diary of the Pandemic. In this edition, we aimed to tell the stories of students in the ninth grade of elementary school, high school, college prep school, and adult education. This time, however, the collection method was different: we organized a form that should be completed by the student with some personal data, authorizations, contacts of their legal guardians, and a series of questions regarding the experience of students in the pandemic.

The construction of this form went through several stages because it would invite people of different ages. It had to be understandable and, at the same time, have a logic structure of questions – which were open and free – to ensure clear communication and wealth of details. The questions were the following: How did you feel when the pandemic began?; How has your daily routine been? How is school part of your routine?; What moments of face-to-face teaching do you not find in distance learning?What do you miss?; Tell us a memory or a story of yours about online teaching. When the pandemic is over, what do you think you will remember the most?; Which class do you most like to attend? Why?; Which class do you least like to attend? Why? Do you have access difficulties? How is the internet access at your home? Do you have a cell phone? Do you have a computer? What changes and difficulties have you experienced with the transition to online teaching?; How do you feel about your school, your friends, and your teachers? Has this relationship changed with the

<sup>4</sup> All these socio-political transformations can be seen in these newspaper articles: Alves, Lise. 2021. "Pandemic puts Brazil back on the world hunger map." The New Humanitarian, July 19, 2021. https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2021/7/19/pandemicputs-brazil-back-on-the-world-hunger-map; Lino Gomes, Nilma. 2020. "Racismo e novo coronavírus: armas mortíferas no Brasil." Nexo Jornal, July 4, 2020. https://www.nexojornal .com.br/ensaio/debate/2020/Racismo-e-novo-coronav%C3%ADrus-armas-mort%C3%ADf eras-no-Brasil; Ramírez Ramos, María Fernanda. 2023. "Genocide Of the Yanomami People in Brazil: An Announced Tragedy Involving Bolsonaro." LatinAmerika Post, February 2, 2023. https://latinamericanpost.com/43344-genocide-of-the-yanomami-people-in-brazil-an-ann ounced-tragedy-involving-bolsonaro; Rodrigues, Meghie. 2021. "Scientists reel as Brazilian government backtracks on research funds." Nature, October 22, 2021. https://www.nature.c om/articles/d41586-021-02886-9.

pandemic?; If you could leave a message for your future self about the learnings and discoveries you had during the pandemic, what would it be?; If you were to illustrate yourself, how would you draw yourself? (For example, curly hair, glasses, brown eyes, etc.); If you were to create a character based on yourself, what would his/her name be?

Furthermore, we organized workshops entitled 'Build this diary', where we presented the first edition of The Class Diary of the Pandemic, followed by a discussion about the importance of diaries and their place as historical records. In the workshops, we used Anne Franks (1952) "The Diary of a Young Girl" and the book by Carolina Maria de Jesus (1963) "Child of the Dark: The Diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus". The two diaries were selected as a reference because they have comic versions. In the activity, we used other materials of this genre, but we took these two as our main focus because they dialogue more directly with our work, both in the narrative genre and in the media used for its presentation.

The workshops were open for the community and happened in virtual spaces such as high school virtual classrooms and live broadcasts in Unicamp's event calendar, the Unicamp Open House (UPA)<sup>5</sup> .The main objective of these workshops was to present the reflections we developed throughout the construction of the first book and idealization of the second and to encourage students to participate and send their reports. By arguing about the importance of the record of a historical moment, we wanted them to understand the importance of their daily experiences and feel motivated to participate.

The result of this work, combined with the growth of the project on social networks and an increase in the number of partnerships, led to a much larger number of people and attracted more reports. While in the first edition we had 13 reports, in the second we received 136, of which we selected 13. The selection was made by the illustrators based on previous experience and the proposals established for the book. They selected some questions from the questionnaire in which the answers best dialogued with the proposal; then, those that presented distinct realities and perceptions among reports were selected so that we could represent heterogeneous experiences within an already selected group.

Unlike the first, which gathered the reports as individual stories, the idea of the second book was to build a narrative that connected the stories. Thus, our protagonists would be in the future doing a job of revisiting the past to understand the transformations caused by the pandemic in social life. They would do this through

<sup>5</sup> UPA is an annual event organized by Unicamp. In it, each institute of the university offers a special program to receive the general public. This program consists of activities prepared by the students and aims to present what is produced inside the university. One of the main focuses is to show high school students how the courses work, what is taught, etc. so that they can decide on the courses they intend to take in the future.

the reports and, as a consequence, show the similarities and differences of realities experienced during the same period, recorded by different individuals. Above all, this is an important historical record of our time, including the dynamics and political and social relationships involved in the experience of these subjects.

Two authors are crucial to comprehend our work, Merleau Ponty and Georges Didi-Huberman. Both address how we access the world through our bodies crossed by our emotions in this process.

Merleau Ponty (2004) in his lectures builds reflections on embodiment and how we access the world. He shows that there isn't a division between body and mind, emotion and reason. Merleau Ponty indicates that our access to the world is embodied – we are our senses, we don't use our senses. His reflections are important to think about what happens when students are obligated to interact only through videos, in the destitution of interaction moments related to day-to-day life in the classroom teaching-learning environment. This radical change is implicated in different embodied experiences, emotions, and sensations. This new experience is what we explored in our work.

Didi-Huberman (2016) makes a historical approach to how emotions in intellectual and philosophical history were faced as a demonstration of weakness, flaw, and powerlessness. From Plato to Kant, emotions are opposed to reason, and most of these philosophers considered reason the best thing. According to Didi-Huberman, emotions would also be opposed to action making a triple impasse: language impasse, emotional I became mute; Thought impasse, emotional I lose my references; Action impasse, emotional I cannot move.These intellectuals criticized emotions as something negative. In our project, we sought through these reports to comprehend what was being experienced during the pandemic, something that is intrinsically embodied and felled through our interlocutor's senses and emotions.

Didi-Huberman proposes to rethink the opposition between action and passion. For him, emotions are not only producers of an impasse but active gestures that provoke and move us. In this sense, emotions are movements and actions, a sensible knowledge capable of changing. Mobilizing Merleau Ponty, Didi-Huberman (2016, 28) explains: "It is an affective movement that 'owns' us, but which we do not 'possess' entirely since it is largely unknown to us".

We sought to appropriate these reports and transform them into comics. So, we could express how our interlocutors were being crossed by the pandemic. Which meant getting closer to their emotions and how this process happened through their bodies.

## **Comics**

During the idealization period of The Class Diary of the Pandemic project, we thought of some ways to express the stories we were interested in accessing and sharing. We started looking for references in May 2020 and came across several artistic productions, among them the Instagram account @reliquia.rum – which collected reports from family members of COVID-19 victims and made collages that represented those victims – and a book that gathered drawings by various artists about the experience in the pandemic. These references shaped both the idea of the project to collect reports and the way it would be presented. However, we believe that one of these references played a more significant role.

One of the most striking elements of this whole process was the fact that we, as researchers, were also experiencing the pandemic at the same time we were presenting other people's accounts of it.One of the illustrators, for example, began to do this type of art during the pandemic, since he inserted himself more deeply into the world of comics during the isolation period.This approach to comics also led him to read the comic version of Anne Franks "The Diary of a Young Girl" and this was the work that most inspired us to turn our stories into an illustrated series.

Comics and the process of drawing are a powerful medium. Nowadays, several productions have explored the many possibilities they offer. In anthropology itself, or the humanities, it is already possible to see a series of works in comics and also those that use the medium as a way of presenting themselves.<sup>6</sup>

In our view, the richness of this medium is in the infinity of possibilities generated by the combination of text and image; after all, even the absence of them can express different meanings on a page. Sylvia Caiuby Novaes (2014) writes about the power that photography and narrative would have to embrace experience if people contemplated and listened to them, respectively.We can transpose this reflection to comics when we think about the power of images allied to a narrative that, at the same time, guides the reader and invites them to interpret the message.

In 2014, Art Spiegelman, author and artist of "Maus: A Survivor's Tale" (1986), presented a lecture at Harvard's Sanders Theatre titled "What the %@&\*! Happened

<sup>6</sup> In the 2020 edition of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), two laboratories explored the relations between drawing and anthropology. The Laboratory "Drawing as Anthropology-Making" was about the use of comics in research, whose speakers, Letizia Bonanno (University of Kent) and José Sherwood Gonzalez (Manchester Metropolitan University), produced their dissertations in the format of graphic novels. The Laboratory "Artistic Explorations of Ageing and Technology: drawing as elicitation method" explored drawing as a method to examine experiences in social life. Many anthropologists and humanistic researchers also dwell on the role of drawing and its contribution to knowledge production. Such as Afonso and Ramos (2004), Azevedo (2016, 2017), Bonanno (2022), Hendrikson (2008), Ramos (2004), Sherwood González (2022) Taussig (2009, 2011).

to Comics?". He talked about the history of comics, from its beginning to that moment, and presented a sentence that caught our attention and made us reflect on the originality of our work and why comics made it so unique. According to Spiegelman "Comics are time turned into space" (Shao 2014).<sup>7</sup> Thinking about this possibility of transmutation between time and space opens several possible questions to understand these two fundamental categoriesin the history of Social Sciences.What times and spaces is the author referring to? How can we express the changes in the perception of time and space between our interlocutors? What is the relationship between the notions of presence, time, and space?

We can think of the working time involved in the process of drawing up such a project and turning it into the space of pages. Or, using the very reference of Maus, the time in which that, or those, stories passed converted into spaces on paper. However, what interests us is the existence of the different times – the time needed for production, the moment the author was living, the temporal space in which that story takes place, the time in which the reader finds themselves and is crossed by these stories – being transported and expressed in those small spaces between one panel and another. These gutters are vague spaces of time imagined by the reader. In addition, those stories gain space and materiality that will persist in time. This notion directly dialogues with those workshops we produced to collect reports for the second edition; it became increasingly evident that we needed to think of these materials as documents of their time, as living archives.

In The Class Diary of the Pandemic, we needed to produce the illustrations of each report every week so that the ready-made and published art would also become an invitation to new reports. These dynamics and the limitations imposed by social networks defined some of the aesthetic choices we made in the project. For example, we sought to represent as many elements present in the story as possible in one panel, so it was practically a semiotic exercise to put subtle details that summarized complex ideas of those stories. This was especially true in the first phase of the project, when we designed it to work as posts in our Instagram account (@proeep\_unicamp).

When we decided we would dig deeper into the rich material we had in hand and started working on the comic book, the possibilities increased. We could use more frames and formats other than the 1080x1080 pixels of an Instagram post, and we started to create longer dialogues between panels. This last aspect significantly altered the stories we were telling because the relationships between images and words could be expressed in a denser way, and through details we could approach the experiences of subjects.

<sup>7</sup> The material produced about this Spiegelman presentation is only available on news portals like this one: (Shao 05.12.2014) https://www.bostonmagazine.com/arts-entertainment/201 4/05/12/art-spiegelman-boston-what-happened-to-comics/.

It is precisely through the expressiveness of images and their relationships with the short text excerpts of the reports that readers would be able to apprehend the realities of the Brazilian educational context and its transformations during the pandemic. We chose to work these reports artistically in images because we believe in their communicative power to reveal nuances of social life that are difficult to grasp through written text alone. In speech, only one word can be said at a time, while in images a set of elements can be placed at the same time.

As Sylvia Caiuby Novaes exposes, images have a muted aspect of saying without speaking, inciting comments on what it evokes, without necessarily showing it visually. She points out how, "when the observer allows himself a dip in the image, it evokes and awakens in him feelings, memories and sensations about which he begins to talk" (Novaes 2014, 61).<sup>8</sup>

During the creative process, the production took on greater and greater proportions, and the painting of the panels demanded a lot of time. At some point, we had to decide whether we would make more panels or dedicate ourselves to painting. The choice was not easy; the colors were very important elements to tell those stories.Through them, we were able to create several nuances, such as determining the materials of which objects were made, hair colors and skin tones of characters, or the colors of the sky to circumscribe the moment of the day in which the action took place. Another possible element to represent with colors was the interaction with the lights emitted by electronic equipment, the main, if not the only, means of communication and contact between students and teachers at that time. All these elements need to be reimagined when we start using black and white, after all, these nuances need to be presented in different ways.

Below we present some images of the sketches produced throughout the construction of the two editions to show the elements we have been commenting on, in addition to some other details.

<sup>8</sup> From the original: "Quando o observador se permite um mergulho na imagem esta evoca e desperta nele sentimentos, lembranças e sensações sobre os quais começa a falar" (Novaes 2014, 61).

*Picture 1: Facial expression studies. Drawings by Matheus Fred Schulze.*

With a limited number of panels and following the previously mentioned logic of concentrating on as much information as possible, the use of facial expressions was essential. The characters needed to be expressive to show the emotions in the stories. In the sketch above, we see an example of facial expression studies that could be used in the reports.The need to use these pantomimes is also related to these new dynamics of presence in a scenario of social isolation. Most reports told a reality of difficult communication between students and teachers, always mediated by virtual spaces and affected by all the adversities to which this medium is subject. So we needed to tell these stories, mostly through moments of silence.

Another interesting element to analyze in the sketches is the way comics were structured.

*Picture 2 and 3: Sketches. Drawings by Matheus Fred Schulze.*

The picture 2is a one-page diagram of the first edition of the book. It was the first time of illustrators with this type of work, added to the challenge of adapting the reports to this new format. These aligned factors culminated in a structural choice that caused some problems. For example, some elements were not positioned, such as speech balloons for the drawing of a comic, which created a difficult scenario to work with.The second image shows the structure of a report for the second edition, and it is already possible to perceive the changes that the experience had produced.

Returning to the topic of using specific signs to express complex ideas in the painting, we need to consider that in all this artistic exercise there is the place of the artist. In our work, the choices to express all stories and subtle details present in each one were made by the illustrators. They expressed other people's pandemic experiences using their own experiences during that same period asinformant signs for reference on their artistic work.Therefore, from the elements that drew the most attention to stand out in the story to the way one imagines the plan of a house, its furniture, etc., they go through the artist's filter.

*Picture 4: "Maria Luiza". Drawings by Matheus Fred Schulze.*

For instance, in the report illustrated above, sent by Teacher Maria Luiza, we can see some interesting elements. At one point, she talks about the fact that she used a map, which she had at home, to explain the regions of Brazil and the state of São Paulo – following the proposed syllabus. We then added this element in the background of the space she uses to record her video lessons in the panel. It is not an element directly linked to the story, but through it we can tell she gives lessons that require the use of maps and where this report takes place, as the teacher is in that state.

The stacked books improvising a support for her cell phone was a way to show the precariousness and lack of structure that many teachers had to face. They had to adapt to remote teaching almost without any help from schools and the State. This was, in fact, the technique that the illustrator used when he needed to record some audiovisual material. The blackboard where the educator writes the alphabet is a reference to the fact that she needs to assemble extra content for some students.

In the last panel, we have several details of the report gathered. The computer withinternet connection problems while the teacher watches a video provided by the government of São Paulo. This reinforces the locality in which the story is inserted and presents the fact that the teacher is part of in the public education system.

Finally, there is a sticky note on the notebook saying "It is not a lesson!". In her report, Maria Luiza mentions she did not believe that this form of distance learning could be considered teaching. This direct and pertinent criticism of the situation could not be left out of the illustrations, even if briefly. This also informs us about the perceptions about presence, the so precious being together and crucial for pedagogical practice, which completely changed in the new dynamics established by the pandemic.

*Picture 5: "Valéria". Drawings by Matheus Fred Schulze.*

In Valéria's report, we can see other details. In the first panel, a magnifying glass on the cell phone is a narrative resource to show different access difficulties of each individual. Even with the lesson adapted to the online environment, with the use of a presentation, this format may remain inaccessible to some people.

In addition, the position of the comics builds a direct opposition between past and present, clearly showing the differences between these two moments. In person, the dialogue between teacher and students is much easier and more direct.The dynamics and perceptions of physical and online presence is a central point in this section of the report, where the teacher reveals difficulty in establishing connections with her students. Physical distance and access difficulties significantly compromise the teaching and learning process. Showing the opposition between past and present and reinforcing the changes and permanence between these two moments was very important for our work. Through this, we were able to show that realities had changed. Before the pandemic, the classes were synchronous at school, but with social isolation, this synchronicity was not possible for everyone anymore because of a lack of structure, such as a good internet connection and knowledge to use these call platforms, besides common issues that always happens on these virtual spaces. Also, with the pandemic, asynchronous classes were more spread inside educational institutions without training for teachers and students to learn how to deal with this new educational process.

The medium of comics allows us to do this in different ways, enhanced here by the richness of our reports. One of these ways and tools is the positioning of frames within the page. In this case, and several other moments, we used it to present elements, create sensations and intensify others, to tell these stories to our reader.

Finally, we have the issue of lack of structure again, reappearing with some health problems. Beyond the striking representation of bodies and gestures, the proximity between teacher and student to show something in a book is a counterpoint to the online experience with back pain and the need for magnifying glasses. The teacher did not have an adequate space in her home to work remotely, as represented by the use of an unsuitable chair for work, which ended up causing pain in the character.

*Picture 6: "Staphanie". Drawings by Matheus Fred Schulze.*

In the report above, we can see again the direct opposition between past and present, with the new dynamics experienced by the teacher. Her routine totally changed, as the following panels show. In her report, Stephanie told us she worked many more hours than before. This issue of changing the notion of working time during home office was very present in all reports. We represented it through three panels with colors, indicating morning, afternoon, and evening. This intense work routine sickened the teacher and forced her to change her routine again.

*Picture 7 and 8: "Tom". Drawings by Matheus Fred Schulze.*

We have Tom's report above. He is a teacher in a private school in the state of São Paulo. In a few lines, he narrated the transition process from face-to-face teaching to remote teaching and all the implications derived from this. Through the images, we can think of different aspects of this process of time/space transformation during the pandemic in teaching and learning environments.These changes go through learning how digital tools work and adapting to being within these spaces.The whole educational practice had to be changed, and this can be seen, for example, in the opposition between the three panels representing the tired and distressed looks in the classroom and the three panels of students with disabled Google Meet cameras.

The transformations and adaptations to the digital presence must also be perceived through bodies, as these phenomena affected all the senses of students and teachers. The senses and feelings of our interlocutors are expressed in the panels in their gestures: the teachers' tired looks, the student propped on the table, and the nostalgia of face-to-face teaching.

Finally, adaptations were not the same for everyone. Not all students had an adequate space for their studies and ended up having their experiences deeply impacted by the lack of structure during remote lessons.

# **Conclusion**

Throughout the development of our work, we were constantly concerned by the experiences of Brazilian students and teachers during the pandemic. Like our interlocutors, we were deeply impressed by the pandemic and its impact on the Brazilian social-political context. The effects of these transformations on the very notion of presence were present in all of us in the most varied ways, expressed in our bodies and our changed perceptions of time and space.Our goal with this work was to bring together this diversity of experiences and express them in a sensitive and intelligible way to a wide audience, promoting conversations and debates about this historical moment and its contemporary developments.

The artistic output of comics to tell stories stands out for enabling the expression of the senses and feelings of those who faced education during the pandemic. This artistic outputis a proper anthropologicalmovement,which starts from observation and description towards the details of what connects these stories with what is beyond the particular experiences during the pandemic.Through these reports and our comics, we can see similar senses and emotions shared between teachers and students about the class's environment transformations. Also, how synchronous and asynchronous ways of connecting students and teachers in virtual environments transformed the notion of presence. Our effort is to move out of experience towards expression.

# **Bibliography**

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_. 2005. *Maus. Historia Completa.*1st ed. Translated by Antonio de Macedo Soares. São Paulo: Quadrinhos na Cia.

Taussig, Michael. 2009. "What Do Drawings Want?" Culture, Theory and Critique, vol. 50, issue 2–3: 263–274.

\_\_\_\_\_. 2011. I swear I saw this. Drawings in fieldwork notebooks, namely my own. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.


**4. Conclusions**

Column studies were undertaken to investigate the effect of jute fibres on both the process of MICP and on properties of biocemented sand. Biocemented sand columns were produced in triplicates, containing sand and untreated jute fibres, sand and treated jute fibres and sand only as controls. The treated fibres immobilised a concentrated cementation medium, with the aim of enabling self-healing via MICP.

The results showed that the incorporation of jute fibres within a biocemented sand material significantly increased the unconfined compressive strength of this material when compared to biocemented sand without the jute fibres. This strength increase results from the contribution to strength properties of not just the fibres themselves, but also the increased amount of calcium carbonate precipitated in the columns containing jute fibres. On the basis of the results obtained the contribution to unconfined compressive strength increase by the fibres alone cannot be ascertained. In addition to increasing strength, the inclusion of fibres had a beneficial effect on the MICP process, improving efficiency of substrate conversion, likely as a result of sustaining the bacterial growth and, hence, urease activity. It is likely that bacteria had been absorbed by the jute and also adsorbed onto the surface of the fibres within the columns, and that this contributed to the positive findings. More investigation would be required to fully understand this effect. Tuson et al. [41] reported that bacterial systems used for sensing and responding to surfaces are still not well understood. Surface roughness of the fibres also appears to have added to this effect given the observed higher density of calcium carbonate crystals observed on the surface of roughened fibres. Renner et al. reported the significant influence of surface topography on bacterial adhesion [31].

A consequence of the fibre inclusions within the biocemented sand sustaining longer term activity of *Sporosarcina pasteurii* bacteria is the enabling of the continuation of the MICP process without the need for multiple injections of bacteria. This could reduce the cost of production of a biocemented sand material and would be beneficial where several treatments of cementation medium are required to achieve a low permeability and/or high strength.

The evaluation of self-healing effects and quantification of this has proved challenging, with only one column containing treated fibres showing any significant potential self-healing capacity. To achieve self-healing via MICP the cementation medium would need to be stored within the biocemented soil matrix for later release. Immobilisation may only be effective if a material embedded within the biocemented soil can retain sufficient cementation medium during the initial MICP treatment process. Therefore, a material which enables a su fficiently slow release of immobilised chemicals would be required. More testing is required on this aspect and alternatives such as encapsulation explored. A self-healing MICP system may be of particular interest and suitability for seepage control, such as within a dam core or within grouting. For this application, a su fficient amount of cementation medium treatments would need to be applied to achieve a very low permeability, which the addition of jute fibres may help to facilitate. It is then assumed the self-healing MICP process would be activated upon water ingress into this material should micro-cracking occur, to help prevent piping for example.

The results from the set of columns containing the treated fibres may give some insight into e ffects of pre-treating fibres prior to use in MICP applications. These fibres were subject to chemical treatment with the concentrated cementation medium, and also some additional heat treatment, while these fibres were dried at 50 ◦C. This is an area which could be explored further and had not been a focus of this study. This study could be further extended using recycled jute fibres. It is expected that surface roughness of recycled fibres may further promote fixing of bacteria to fibres, however, any processing treatment fibres have undergone, contamination of fibres and potential deterioration should also be taken into consideration.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, C.A.S.; data curation, C.A.S.; formal analysis, C.A.S.; investigation, C.A.S.; methodology, C.A.S.; resources, L.v.P.; supervision, L.v.P. and H.S.; writing—original draft, C.A.S.; writing—review & editing, L.v.P. and H.S. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded Cardi ff University School of Engineering and the Center for Bio-mediated and Bio-inspired Geotechnics (CBBG).

**Acknowledgments:** The authors acknowledge support by Arizona State University and the Center for Bio-mediated and Bio-inspired Geotechnics, at which this study has been completed as part of the first authors Ph.D. The first Author's Ph.D. stipend is funded by Cardi ff University School of Engineering. We further acknowledge the use of facilities within the Eyring Materials Center at Arizona State University.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.