Broad Intent Research Articles

Priorities for protected area expansion so nations can meet their Kunming‐Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework commitments

AbstractAs part of the Kunming‐Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (K‐M GBF), signatory nations of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) aim to protect at least 30% of the planet by 2030 (Target 3). This bold ambition has been widely celebrated and its implementation seen as pivotal for the overall success of K‐M GBF. However, given that many CBD signatory nations prioritised quantity (e.g., area) over quality (e.g., important areas for biodiversity) when attempting to meet their 2010 CBD Aichi protected area commitments, it is critical that nations focus on protecting those terrestrial, inland waters and marine areas that have the best chance of halting and reversing biodiversity loss and thus contribute to Goal A of the K‐M GBF. Here we provide a review on the type of areas that nations need to prioritise when implementing Target 3 that relates to area ‘quality’: areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, are effectively conserved and managed through ecologically representative, well‐connected and equitably governed systems. We show that data is available for 12 distinct biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service elements that can be mapped and, if conserved, will (with appropriate management) help meet the broad intention of Target 3. We highlight examples of the planning methods available that can be utilized so these areas can be targeted for protection. We discuss issues related to trade‐offs regarding how to prioritise amongst them as well as to operationalise some of the vaguer concepts like ‘representation’ and ‘ecosystem functions and services’ so that they achieve the best outcomes for biodiversity.

Deconstructing the Metanarratives of China’s Engagement with the African Continent: African Agency and Competing Narratives

China’s relationship with the African continent has faced extensive critique over the past few decades, with most explanations broadly falling under the umbrella of three metanarratives: a ‘developing partner’, an ‘economic competitor’ or a ‘hegemonic actor’. 1 Although these labels help to make intelligible the broad intentions of China’s interaction on the continent, they unwittingly gloss over the importance of choice and agency that the African nations continue to hold in deciding their future trajectories. Essentially, deconstructing these narratives to uncover the principal characteristics of China’s approach to the African continent is the central puzzle of this study. The study further questions the extent to which the agency of African nations determines their relationship with China. This article essentially proposes that while each of the three descriptions provides an insight into the various facets of the Sino-African relationship, none of them captures the whole picture, and instead, China’s approach to the African continent is best understood by its pragmatism, which is guided by its political aspirations and economic objectives. Furthermore, the study argues that the agency of each African nation also plays a part in shaping how China’s pragmatic approach further translates into one of the three metanarratives. The article relies on an inductive exploration of its central research question and uses a variety of sources, which include data from international institutions and governments, government releases and secondary literature, amongst others.

Delay in timing and spatial reorganization of rainfall due to urbanization- analysis over India’s smart city Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar is the first designed ‘smart city’ in India and has experienced rapid urbanization since 2000. The question undertaken in this study is to assess if there is a change in the rainfall over this rapidly urbanizing region, and if so, what are the characteristics of the change? The broader intent is to understand if the change in urbanization and rainfall are interlinked? The India Meteorological Department (hourly station and daily gridded) and Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (3-hourly) datasets are analyzed for the 1980–2018 period (39 years) for different seasons separately. Wavelet and trend analysis reveal that precipitation intensity has increased over the study period. The assessments of the hourly rainfall data show an interesting feature. There is a decrease in the midnight to early-morning rain, with a corresponding increase in the late-afternoon to midnight rainfall. The increase in the rainfall is preferentially downwind and on the east side of the city. A supervised classified land use land cover map of the Bhubaneswar region is developed for 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2019 using Landsat imagery to compute the urban sprawl. The urban area and population density over Bhubaneswar is increasing with time. Analysis of the LULC and rainfall data indicates that the rainfall over urban regions and the shift in the timing of rains to evenings is highly correlated with the urban sprawl.

Strategic management accounting in Bulgarian manufacturing SMEs

Analyzing the strategic aspects of managerial accounting in the context of reporting in industrial SMEs is a critical management issue. This paper aims to present the main results of an empirical study on this topic among some SMEs from the knitwear industry in the southern part of Bulgaria. Analytical and synthesis methods, descriptive statistics, and comparison techniques are used for this study. All the companies studied have been on the market for more than ten years and have experienced and well-trained managers and other characteristics that imply the availability of managerial reporting/accounting and the application of adapted models for strategic planning in SMEs. The analysis is intended to draw basic conclusions about the application of strategic management accounting in SMEs. In addition, the authors’ broader intention is to propose ideas for improving the strategic management reporting techniques that could be useful for management, especially in cases where strategic planning has been implemented. The authors find that the owners or managers of SMEs in Bulgaria are not aware of some features of management accounting that could be useful for their business, especially for strategic planning. It is believed that the range of services offered by external accounting organizations limits the level and thus the role of management accounting information for strategic management. Observations show that some models and techniques that could be good indicators of high risk of business failure are not applied because of the limited information base.

Undisciplining the university through shared purpose, practice, and place

Interdisciplinary scholarship and education remains elusive at modern universities, despite efforts at both the individual and institutional levels. The objective of this paper is to identify the main motivations that bring different disciplines together in joint research and identify some of the obstacles to that coming together. Here we propose that shared purpose (why do I participate?), practice (how do we interact?), and place (where do we interact?) are, in descending order, the most important drivers for what we call “undisciplinary” research in an interaction of different disciplines. Through unstructured workshops we found the choice of participants (who participates?), aspects of time (when do we interact?), and especially the research topics and focus (what are we working on?), to be less important for individual faculty engagement. Metaphor analysis obtained during a charrette-style workshop with 13 faculty from multiple disciplines suggested “inter-epistemological ways of knowing” rather than fields of study to move us from disciplinary to interdisciplinary to undisciplinary scholarship and education. Specifically, the broad intent (why do we participate?) was found to increase the impact of undisciplinary approaches that served as drivers for engagement. These lessons learned from a series of workshops were put to the test at an experimental center that clarified the importance of both synchronous and asynchronous interactions in a common space large enough to allow these and located outside the university. Despite the valuable insights gained in what undisciplinary interaction may look like in a center, it remained clear that space design must start by mapping out why and how individuals in different disciplines may want to interact at a given institution to generate buy-in and build the foundation for continuous refinement of an institutional strategy.

Comparing Teacher Priorities and Student Uptake in EMI Lectures: An Exploratory Study

English medium instruction (EMI) has been increasing in higher education with broad intentions of stimulating internationalization and cross-cultural learning experiences. This form of education presents opportunities and challenges for teachers and students alike. Key challenges involve various levels of second language (L2) speaking and listening abilities among teachers and students operating in EMI contexts. This exploratory study therefore examines the relationship between the main ideas two EMI lecturers in Sweden intended for their students to learn during lectures and the main ideas that EMI students report learning in the same lectures. Prior to six lectures, the teachers summarized to the researcher the main ideas to be included in the respective lecture. Immediately following the lecture, students provided their own summaries of the main ideas. A keyword analysis comparing the teachers’ intended messages and students’ reports shows that students may not be recognizing and acquiring the main ideas that the teacher intends. Further analysis distinguished two sub-groups of students: those with self-reported Swedish as a first language (L1) and those with self-reported L1s other than Swedish. A binomial proportion test showed that L1 impacted the amount of lecture main idea key words reported by the students in this study. The paper closes with a pedagogic perspective encouraging EMI lecturers to monitor student uptake on a regular basis and adjust their lecture delivery to support better learning and retention of content delivered via EMI.

From The Editors Desk…

Our editorial team has always endeavoured not just to improve the quality of the manuscripts but also to help the authors improve their writing skills. Depending upon the type of manuscript we recommend standard guidelines like the CONSORT, PRISMA, STROBE, CARE and STARD. We also recommend IMRaD format while writing the manuscript. The Introduction, which is around 3-4 paragraphs, should be structured from generalities to the specific elaborating what the shortcomings are in published literature and what void the current research would fill. The authors must understand that the “aim” is the broader intent, while the “objectives” are the more specific steps which one plans to achieve. The Material and Methods section needs to be detailed to such an extent that any researcher planning to replicate the study can do so with accuracy. In this section, the study design, the study setting, inclusion and exclusion criteria, sample size, interventions, outcome measures and statistics are elaborated. The results section provides outcome data about primary and secondary measures as well as the contrast between groups wherever applicable. Avoid presenting same result data in multiple formats as well as interpreting the results in this section. The discussion part compares the results with existing literature, analyses the strengths and limitations of the study and at the same time explain the practical implications as well as future research directions. Finally, at the end a summary of the concluding findings should be provided and whether they support your initial research hypothesis. Last but not the least, the author must remember the criticality of the abstract. Most reviewers and editors as well as readers base their initial judgement based on this short paragraph. Structured abstracts are preferred with relevant subsections. Authors must understand the significance of keywords, MeSH terms as well as how to do proper referencing. Writing medical literature is an art which needs to be groomed at an early stage. Competency develops as one writes more & more. We hope this editorial will help authors understand how to ensure that their article is selected, printed, and finally appreciated by the readers. We end this editorial with a remembrance to a few of our dearest fellow Orthopaedicians whose demise shall leave a lasting void in Odisha Orthopaedics. Dr Prabhakar Mohanty, Dr Bijay Kumar Sadangi, Dr Binay Aggarwal and Dr Smarajit Pattnaik will always be in our cherished memories. Dr Satya Ranjan Patra Editor – In – Chief

From The Editors Desk…

Our editorial team has always endeavoured not just to improve the quality of the manuscripts but also to help the authors improve their writing skills. Depending upon the type of manuscript we recommend standard guidelines like the CONSORT, PRISMA, STROBE, CARE and STARD. We also recommend IMRaD format while writing the manuscript. The Introduction, which is around 3-4 paragraphs, should be structured from generalities to the specific elaborating what the shortcomings are in published literature and what void the current research would fill. The authors must understand that the “aim” is the broader intent, while the “objectives” are the more specific steps which one plans to achieve. The Material and Methods section needs to be detailed to such an extent that any researcher planning to replicate the study can do so with accuracy. In this section, the study design, the study setting, inclusion and exclusion criteria, sample size, interventions, outcome measures and statistics are elaborated. The results section provides outcome data about primary and secondary measures as well as the contrast between groups wherever applicable. Avoid presenting same result data in multiple formats as well as interpreting the results in this section. The discussion part compares the results with existing literature, analyses the strengths and limitations of the study and at the same time explain the practical implications as well as future research directions. Finally, at the end a summary of the concluding findings should be provided and whether they support your initial research hypothesis. Last but not the least, the author must remember the criticality of the abstract. Most reviewers and editors as well as readers base their initial judgement based on this short paragraph. Structured abstracts are preferred with relevant subsections. Authors must understand the significance of keywords, MeSH terms as well as how to do proper referencing. Writing medical literature is an art which needs to be groomed at an early stage. Competency develops as one writes more & more. We hope this editorial will help authors understand how to ensure that their article is selected, printed, and finally appreciated by the readers. We end this editorial with a remembrance to a few of our dearest fellow Orthopaedicians whose demise shall leave a lasting void in Odisha Orthopaedics. Dr Prabhakar Mohanty, Dr Bijay Kumar Sadangi, Dr Binay Aggarwal and Dr Smarajit Pattnaik will always be in our cherished memories. Dr Satya Ranjan Patra Editor – In – Chief

Positive Health dialogue tool and value-based healthcare: a qualitative exploratory study during residents’ outpatient consultations

ObjectiveTo explore how residents experienced the application of the Positive Health dialogue tool (PH-tool) during outpatient consultations and its influence on the delivery of value-based healthcare (VBHC).DesignQualitative study using non-participant...

Broad Specifications and Intent to Use: Is the EU Trade Mark System Credible?

Abstract An assessment of the credibility of the EU trade mark system in the light of the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Case C-371/18 Sky v SkyKick leads to the following conclusions: the decisions that lack of clarity and precision of specifications of goods and services is not a ground of invalidity and that partial bad faith when applying to register a trade mark leads to partial invalidity are unsurprising; the decision that applying to register a trade mark without intending to use it can amount to bad faith, at least in some circumstances, is an important step forward that gives national courts a tool with which to combat unjustifiably broad specifications of goods and services; but the jury is still out with regard to the EU trade mark system’s acceptance of broad terms such as ‘computer software’ in specifications.

Role of yttrium-90 selective internal radiation therapy in the treatment of liver-dominant metastatic colorectal cancer: an evidence-based expert consensus algorithm.

Surgical resection of colorectal liver metastases is associated with greater survival compared with non-surgical treatment, and a meaningful possibility of cure. However, the majority of patients are not eligible for resection and may require other non-surgical interventions, such as liver-directed therapies, to be converted to surgical eligibility. Given the number of available therapies, a general framework is needed that outlines the specific roles of chemotherapy, surgery, and locoregional treatments [including selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT) with Y-90 microspheres]. Using a data-driven, modified Delphi process, an expert panel of surgical oncologists, transplant surgeons, and hepatopancreatobiliary (HPB) surgeons convened to create a comprehensive, evidence-based treatment algorithm that includes appropriate treatment options for patients stratified by their eligibility for surgical treatment. The group coined a novel, more inclusive phrase for targeted locoregional tumor treatment (a blanket term for resection, ablation, and other emerging locoregional treatments): local parenchymal tumor destruction therapy. The expert panel proposed new nomenclature for 3 distinct disease categories of liver-dominant metastatic colorectal cancer that is consistent with other tumor types: (I) surgically treatable (resectable); (II) surgically untreatable (borderline resectable); (III) advanced surgically untreatable (unresectable) disease. Patients may present at any point in the algorithm and move between categories depending on their response to therapy. The broad intent of therapy is to transition patients toward individualized treatments where possible, given the survival advantage that resection offers in the context of a comprehensive treatment plan. This article reviews what is known about the role of SIRT with Y-90 as neoadjuvant, definitive, or palliative therapy in these different clinical situations and provides insight into when treatment with SIRT with Y-90 may be appropriate and useful, organized into distinct treatment algorithm steps.

Educating Desire: Conversion and Ascent in Dante’s Purgatorio

In Cantos 17 and 18 of the Purgatorio, Dante’s Virgil lays out a theory of sin, freedom, and moral motivation based on a philosophical anthropology of loving-desire. As the commentary tradition has long recognized, because Dante placed Virgil’s discourse on love at the heart of the Commedia, the poet invites his readers to use love as a hermeneutic key to the text as a whole. When we contextualize Virgil’s discourse within the broader intention of the poem—to move its readers from disordered love to an ordered love of ultimate things—then we find in these central cantos not just a key to the structure and movement of the poem, but also a key to understanding Dante’s pedagogical aim. With his Commedia, Dante invites us to perform the interior transformation which the poem dramatizes in verse and symbol. He does so by awakening in his readers not only a desire for the beauty of his poetic creation, but also a desire for the beauty of the love described therein. In this way, the poem presents a pedagogy of love, in which the reader participates in the very experience of desire and delight enacted in the text. In this article, I offer an analysis of Virgil’s discourse on love in the Purgatorio, arguing for an explicit and necessary connection between loving-desire and true education. I demonstrate that what informs Dante’s pedagogy of love is the notion of love as ascent, a notion we find articulated especially in the Christian Platonism of Augustine. Finally, I conclude by offering a number of figures, passages, and themes from across the Commedia that provide fruitful material for teachers engaged in the task of educating desire.

Deconstructing comparative sport policy analysis: assumptions, challenges, and new directions

ABSTRACTDespite progress within comparative sport policy analysis over the past two decades and advancements within the broader comparative sociology literature, comparative analysis within sport policy/management remains limited and challenging. Furthermore, there is a dearth of literature that explicitly addresses the philosophical, methodological, and practical challenges of comparing sporting nations. We address this shortcoming by developing a framework to interrogate the philosophical assumptions and methodological approaches of comparing sporting nations. In doing so, we review the current state of comparative sport policy research and elaborate on the challenges and limitations of conducting comparative sport policy analysis. Thus, we seek to deconstruct the theory and method of comparative sport policy research by exploring its underlying assumptions and challenges. Ultimately, our broader intention is to reengage and reinvigorate scholarly debate surrounding the philosophical and methodological approaches of comparing sporting nations.

Challenging Institutional Norms to Improve Local-Level Policy for Health and Health Equity Comment on "Health Promotion at Local Level in Norway: The Use of Public Health Coordinators and Health Overviews to Promote Fair Distribution Among Social Groups".

The article by Susanne Hagen and colleagues on Health Promotion at Local Level in Norway discusses actions by municipal governments to assess and address heath inequities within their respective regions, as required under the Norwegian Public Health Act (PHA). Although the broad intent of the Norwegian government is to encourage action on social determinants of health (SDH), Hagen et al find that many of the initiatives undertaken by municipalities ‘tend to cash out as single, targeted initiatives,’ and focus on individual behaviours. In this commentary, I use the concept of place-based policy and ideas from policy theory on the institutional behaviours of public policy agencies and services, to discuss reasons behind this narrowing of perspective and policy action. I argue in favour of an alternative approach involving public agencies and services supporting processes of community-led action and social change.

Além do Centro-Sul: por uma história da população colonial nos extremos dos domínios portugueses na América (projeto integrado)

O projeto concernente a esta nota de pesquisa associa nos seus objetivos os interesses de vários pesquisadores que constituem o Grupo de Pesquisa Demografia & História, vinculados a diversos centros de pesquisa e programas de pós-graduação. Em síntese, a nossa intenção mais ampla é estabelecer as bases para a discussão dos regimes demográficos da população brasileira no passado. Com essa finalidade, estamos nos concentrando em “salvar” a memória populacional contida nas atas paroquiais de algumas freguesias selecionadas.

Multimodal meaning-making during play in two Northern Canadian Indigenous kindergarten classrooms

This research explores young Indigenous children’s multimodal meaning-making to carry out social intentions in dramatic and construction/materials play settings. The participants are two teachers and 21 children from two Northern Canadian Indigenous communities. Underpinned by social semiotic theory, the research involves inductive analyses of six videos of children’s play. Our findings show a richness in Indigenous children’s meaning-making, as they used verbal and non-verbal modes to carry out 26 specific social intentions that we grouped into four broad social intention categories: Getting Along, Expressing Emotion/Interest, Satisfying Own Needs and Directing. The social intention carried out most frequently was showing interest in an activity. Participating children were more likely to use non-verbal modes, particularly in construction/materials play contexts. They also combined verbal and non-verbal modes to achieve their social intentions, but did not use verbal modes exclusively. When children used verbal modes to any great extent, it was primarily in a dramatic play context where the teacher took a role in children’s dramatic play. Our research indicates a need for greater attention by educators, curriculum developers and researchers to multimodal meaning-making in Indigenous children’s play, given the cultural importance of non-verbal communication and participating Indigenous children’s remarkable multimodal meaning-making during play.

Transcendence Un-Extra-Ordinaire: Bringing the Atheistic I Down to Earth

I examine challenges to images of a personal god definitive for normatively policed theism (often called “traditional theism”), questioning whether a subject can be conscious of a transcendent being. I examine the challenges to show that disappointment with such images calls for rethinking terms like “transcendence” in horizontal rather than vertical registers. Through this, I indicate an irony in yearning for transcendence, one in which there is movement toward—rather than beyond—the utterly ordinary. We will see that such un-extra-ordinary transcendence makes a difference once difference is no longer determined under the hegemony of what Levinas calls “the atheistic I.” I bring together resources from feminist philosophies and Asian religions both to elaborate on the nature of the atheistic I and to rehabilitate a redeeming appreciation of the ordinary. My hope is to ameliorate disempowered estrangement by indicating ways the ordinary generates, not inhibits, becoming. However, my broader intent is to contribute to shifting sands in contemporary philosophy of religion due to recent calls for diversifying the field by including multiple religions, questioning the centrality of belief, and engaging multiple methods relevant in religious studies.

Engaging nonscience majors in urban ecology: Recommendations for course design

Courses in urban ecology are increasingly being offered in higher education to advance students’ understanding of the relationships between humans, their built environment, and ecosystem services and functions. Yet despite the social and scientific importance of issues related to urban development, and the potential to actively engage students in biological topics relevant to their daily lives, few urban ecology courses have been developed and taught at the introductory level. This article describes an introductory nonscience majors’ urban ecology course that was designed and implemented to align with recent reform calls aimed at improving undergraduate biology education. The broader intent of this manuscript is to outline the design process and highlight resources and instructional strategies that may inform the efforts of faculty interested in teaching introductory or advanced urban ecology courses. Information on lecture topics, sample readings, and in-class activities is presented. The course emphasizes active learning and focuses on developing core scientific competencies and higher level thinking skills that encourage students to be inquisitive, analytical, and creative in the learning of ecological concepts. The described course is designed as a traditional 3-credit hour course with no formal laboratory component; however, the content and configuration of the urban ecology course would align well with a dedicated laboratory.

Exploring the Cause of Game (Derived) Arousal: What biometric accounts of player experience revealed

The function of this paper is to present research findings that ordinarily would never see the light of day, not because they have no value or significance, but they might seem marginal and less significant given the main focus of the research conducted. When studying player experience, there is value in widening the focus of research to avoid attributing too much value to one kind of experience over others. The findings presented here come from a much larger three-year research study into player experiences with games containing violence. The broad intent of the study was to query the strong association between effects research and responsive regulation measures (game classification). The research was guided by the idea that exploring “the extent to which the public’s perception of causal links between game playing and various social ills’ might be ‘moderated or even undermined by [knowledge of] how players actually respond to and negotiate their way through the content and characteristics of the medium” (OFLC, 2009, p. 24). To do this, the research employed a mixed methodology to examine player experience (as introduced in Schott et al., 2013a). The study produced a number of data points in order to characterize the multi-dimensional nature of players’ experiences. This paper focuses specifically on the outcome of utilizing a biometric measure (GSR) as a guide for determining which aspects, from game experiences that required hours of game play, should be assessed for their significance. The value of employing GSR as a textually neutral method for detecting which aspects of a game had an impact on players is assessed.

Preferential Trade Agreements

The WTO stifles the possibility of developing countries to utilize trade as a means to economic growth and development. Requirements to implement WTO rules are at odds with development ideals- and countries simply try to implement these rules in such way that can give them more opportunities, profits and contribution to the attainment of development goals. One important trend in recent years in the field of trade policy is the proliferation of preferential trade agreements (PTAs). Normally, PTAs provide for greater levels of liberalization among the parties than what the countries may have committed to at the WTO in terms of tariffs or services liberalization. The new generation of PTAs tend to contain disciplines which go beyond relevant WTO disciplines, or regulate issues in respect of which there are no WTO disciplines. One example is the agreement that the European Union has signed with South-East European countries. This agreement deviate from the purely trade-focused purpose but it includes other broader intentions. But still many developing countries are addressing the fact that they are not benefiting from the WTO system and they are claiming that the cost of adjustment to its rules is higher than the advantage of being part of the WTO. One of the main problems addressed by developing countries is the reciprocity of the market access concession. The WTO should face this problem and try to find suitable solutions with minor costs for the members. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2015.v4n3s1p436