Burning Question Research Articles

An Apportionment of Arsenic and Iron Contamination of Tube-well Groundwater with Possible Health Risk in Bangladesh

Underground tube-well water is one of the most important sources of pure drinking water in the world. Drinking water contamination with heavy metals (iron and arsenic) is a burning question nowadays for public health and also environmental perspectives. Our present task is for determination of iron and arsenic concentration in ground tube-well with possible health risk in Bangladesh. The water samples were collected from Tangail district of Bangladesh during January 2017. Iron and arsenic concentration were analyzed by using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. Iron concentration ranged from 4.483 to 20.698 mg/l where arsenic concentration was obtained from <0.001 to 0.01969 mg/l in the studied samples. Arsenic concentration for most of the samples and all iron samples were higher than the maximum permissible level of World Health Organization due to drinking these water. Iron is a heavy metal may cause serious health risk to study area people. In Bangladesh, permissible limit of iron is 0.3-1.0 mg/l, whereas WHO standard level is 0.3 mg/l. All the samples were exceeded the standard levels of iron. A range of 20 to 60 times higher iron concentration reported than permissible limits in tube-well water of the study area. These higher iron concentrations found in the study area may be harmful to those people who are consuming the water from these sources on regular basis and they may pose a high health risk. Thus, to overcome this problem, the consumers should not drink groundwater containing higher amounts of iron, and they should find other sources or replace the tube-well or treat the water for drinking and other domestic and household purposes.

Der Zauberberg , un roman (déjà) démocratique ? Petit essai de géologie romanesque

Conceived as a pessimistic short story of sanatorium, The Magic Mountain became a &#8220;Zeitroman&#8221;. This poetic change accompanies a political evolution in favour of democracy and republic. How may we interpret the link between this philosophical change and this poetic turn&#8197;? Does the final version of the novel eliminate the initial project&#8197;? Which relation does the novel maintain with the satire of the democracy&#8197;?The Magic Mountain demonstrates that there may be elective affinities between the novel as a literary genre and the democracy as a political system.Certainly the novelists continues his satire of the &#8220;Zivilisationsliterat&#8221; through the character of Settembrini&#8239;: the limits of the democratic world view (its naivety, its dead angles) are never hidden. But the novel doesn&#8217;t limit itself to this satire.The disputationes between Settembrini and Naphta highlight how complicated the novel&#8217;s axiology is. From an intellectual point of view, Settembrini&#8217;s apology of the democracy appears even more vulnerable&#8197;; from a moral point of view, Naphta turns out to be an hideous counterparty of the deserving humanist and educator. Thus the humanist is endowed with an ethical, if not intellectual superiority.The axiology shows itself even more complicated after the entrance of Peeperkorn, the irrational and charismatic personality of which gathers both Settembrini and Naphta in democratic side. In this way the definition of the democracy evolves&#8239;: it refers no more to a &#8220;substantial&#8221; idea of mankind or to a political ideal, but mainly to pluralism and freedom of opinion. From this point of view the polyphonic novel is the most appropriate medium of the democratic era.Certainly the novelist underlines the limits of this experience of the &#8220;deliberative democracy&#8221; within the framework of a sanatorium&#8239;: the debates become aporetic logomachy, without other results than increasing violence and death. The real stage is not in the Byzantine fight of the ideologists, as reminds it the final &#8220;thunderclap&#8221;. But we cannot conclude from it that the irony of the novelist limits itself to a position of skepticism or neutrality. On the contrary, this irony is a propedeutic to democratic relativism and to plurality. Are these democratic virtues able to overcome the relentless enemies of the democracy&#8197;? That is the burning question of the interwar period.

Knowledge fusion based on the group argumentation theory in Web 2.0 environment

SummaryPeople can present their viewpoints on hot topics freely in the age of Web 2.0. But the different knowledge background and diverse perspectives of individuals lead to deficient description of things. Accordingly, how to integrate personal knowledge into collective knowledge in the environment of Web 2.0 and give a complete description of things is a burning question. Traditional knowledge fusion approaches cannot do well in structured representation of knowledge and quantitative calculation simultaneously and therefore cannot make knowledge fusion at an operational level. In this paper, we propose the knowledge element model to formalize the structured knowledge representation in Web 2.0 environment. On the basis of this, the cognition viewpoints of group members to something in Web 2.0 environment are abstracted into different knowledge element versions. Then, for the attributes on which members have divergences within all the knowledge element versions, the corresponding group argumentation tasks are designed. By utilizing the proposed consensus state model, whether or not the attributes belong to the knowledge element could be determined. And then, the attribute set of the knowledge element could be defined. Accordingly, knowledge fusion is achieved in the environment of Web 2.0. An experimental study demonstrates the viability and effectiveness of the proposed approach.

How cognitive engagement fluctuates during a team-based learning session and how it predicts academic achievement

The objective of the paper is to report findings of two studies that attempted to find answers to the following questions: (1) What are the levels of cognitive engagement in TBL? (2) Are there differences between students who were more exposed to TBL than students who were less exposed to TBL? (3) To which extent does cognitive engagement fluctuate as a function of the different activities involved in TBL? And (4) How do cognitive engagement scores collected over time correlate with each other and with academic achievement? The studies were conducted with Year-1 and -2 medical students enrolled in a TBL curriculum (N=175, 62 female). In both studies, six measurements of cognitive engagement were taken during the distinct TBL activities (preparation phase, individual/team readiness assurance test, burning questions, and application exercises). Data were analysed by means of one-way repeated-measures ANOVAs and path modelling. The results of the repeated-measures ANOVA revealed that cognitive engagement systematically fluctuated as a function of the distinct TBL activities. In addition, Year-1 students reported significantly higher levels of cognitive engagement compared to Year-2 students. Finally, cognitive engagement was a significant predictor of performance (β=.35). The studies presented in this paper are a first attempt to relate the different activities undertaken in TBL with the extent to which they arouse cognitive engagement with the task at hand. Implications of these findings for TBL are discussed.

Excursions Through Emptiness: Interwar Travel Writing on Northern Australia

ABSTRACTDuring the interwar years, Australians grew increasingly anxious about their sparsely populated north. They had moral qualms about leaving land idle; they felt uneasy about international criticism of their lacklustre efforts in the tropics; they feared a stronger, more resolute nation might rob them of their under-utilised heritage. While anxieties intensified, there was an efflorescence of travel writing on northern Australia, as cars and aeroplanes made this part of the continent a little more accessible. Like other travel writers, those on northern Australia in the interwar years did not confine their narratives to what they did and what they saw. They commented on the burning questions of the day: on what the future of the north might hold and whether Australia’s northern lands could sustain a prolific white population. This article explores a range of representations of northern Australia in the travel literature published between the two world wars, with particular attention to the varied assessments of Australia’s tropical environments and the racial misgivings that disconcerted attempts to envisage an all-white north.

The role of biomarkers in the diagnosis and risk stratification of acute coronary syndrome.

Coronary artery disease is a growing concern. Although traditional biomarkers, such as troponins and creatine kinase, play a central role in the diagnosis, risk stratification and management of coronary artery disease, they are unable to detect myocardial ischemia in the absence of necrosis. Therefore, early detection of ischemia in patients presenting with acute coronary syndrome still remains a burning question. High-sensitivity troponin is evolving as a reliable biomarker in this regard and has been absorbed into clinical practice. Biomarkers are currently the focus of immense interest as it not only helps with diagnosis and management but also helps to understand the pathophysiology of the disease process. In addition, analysis using a multimarker strategy has also proven to be a very useful tool in risk stratification. This review will focus on the biomarkers and its application in the diagnosis and risk stratification of acute coronary syndrome.

Der Hochseilakt der Mediation: eine internationale Perspektive

2017 is a milestone. Forty years after the Pound Conference in the United States, at which Professor Frank Sander shared his vision of ADR and the Multi-Door Courthouse, the Global Pound Conference (GPC) in 2017 has completed its inaugural tour around the globe. In this article written in German, the author draws a balance and reflects on mediation today as well as burning questions of the future.

L’apprentissage des rencontres interreligieuses

Based in Jerusalem, The Elijah Interfaith Institute, founded and presided by Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gottstein, organizes meetings of religious leaders in a spirit of dialogue and collaboration. The chosen themes include points of doctrine and burning questions for inter-religious relations. These meetings rely on the working papers of specialists of six traditions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism). Updated, these essays are now edited in a new collection. (…)

Assessment of Hydrologic Alterations in Elbe and Rhine Rivers, Germany

In light of recent anthropogenic-induced climate change, a burning question at present is how these changes influence the water regime of rivers, which are of vital importance for humans as well as for biota. In this study, we investigate the changes in the hydrologic regime of two major German rivers, Elbe and Rhine, after the middle of the 20th century. Here, we use the widely adopted Range of Variability Approach (RVA) method on daily streamflow data from five (Elbe) and seven (Rhine) hydrological stations to determine the variability and spatial pattern of hydrologic alterations. We discuss the potential effect of climate change on the water regime of these two rivers, as well as other potential causes. For both rivers, we find that some hydrologic parameters are highly altered, especially the number of reversals, indicating higher variability. The highest impact is found at Ems hydrological station on Rhine River. The order of affected hydrological stations follows mostly the downstream course of both rivers. Our study indicates that the hydrological behavior of Elbe and Rhine Rivers has altered since the middle of the 20th century, a probable consequence of climate change. These hydrologic alterations can lead to undesirable ecological effects on local biota.

A metaphorical approach to higher education engagement as a liminal and creative free space amid supercomplex and paradoxical dual demands

Amid the “continual pandemonium” (Barnett in Smith, 2000:np) of supercomplex competing imperatives, the burning question about the social relevance and impact of universities has become a significant postmillennial concern in higher education. This article explores some of the associated challenges and dynamics and considers ‘higher education engagement’ (broadly defined to mean any interaction between a university and any of its identified communities, both internal and external) as a liminal space for approachability, collaboration and creation, both within and beyond the traditional structures of higher education institutionalisation and disciplinary and methodological silo’s. The article uses three metaphors of space and placement for integrated paradoxical ‘both-and’ thinking in order to conceptualise and articulate the potential of engagement as a liminal creative free space in higher education today. The metaphors are the shifting fulcrum, the agora and heterotopic anxiety. All three resonate with the ideas of paradoxical simultaneous situatedness (localisation) and mobility (globalisation) amid supercomplexity and boundary-challenging liminality, as inherent qualities of the contemporary academic engagement project and the postmillennial higher education landscape with its associated dual demands of globalisation and localisation.

Peer Review – the future is here

Several divergent standpoints are hosted under the umbrella of Peer Review. Authors, who wish to see the results of scrupulous work published, in the anticipation of career promotion or secure funding. Editors, who are under pressure to identify sound and novel research. Reviewers, who try to fit a thoughtful and time-consuming process within busy schedules, often receiving no credit for it. And Publishers competing in a transforming landscape of fast and abundant science publishing. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Opening the Case of theiPad: What Matters, and Where Next?

AbstractDigital literacies abound in playing a foundational role in the rhythm and pattern of our lives, yet debates continue about how to harness them to teach and learn literacy. In an effort to humanize digital literacies, this department column offers a vast array of topics, from participatory work that pushes educators and researchers to communicate in local and global spaces to ways of redefining core reading and literacy skills through a screen‐based, multimodal logic. This column also provides a venue for research and practical applications that depict technology use as a part of the fabric of being human. The column helps educators reconceptualize the ways that children learn with technology, media, and new communication systems; honors educator success stories and burning questions and issues; and reimagines literacy futures.

PBPK Modeling - A Predictive, Eco-Friendly, Bio-Waiver Tool for Drug Research.

The world has witnessed growing complexities in disease scenario influenced by the drastic changes in host-pathogen- environment triadic relation. Pharmaceutical R&Ds are in constant search of novel therapeutic entities to hasten transition of drug molecules from lab bench to patient bedside. Extensive animal studies and human pharmacokinetics are still the "gold standard" in investigational new drug research and bio-equivalency studies. Apart from cost, time and ethical issues on animal experimentation, burning questions arise relating to ecological disturbances, environmental hazards and biodiversity issues. Grave concerns arises when the adverse outcomes of continued studies on one particular disease on environment gives rise to several other pathogenic agents finally complicating the total scenario. Thus Pharma R&Ds face a challenge to develop bio-waiver protocols. Lead optimization, drug candidate selection with favorable pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, toxicity assessment are vital steps in drug development. Simulation tools like Gastro Plus™, PK Sim®, SimCyp find applications for the purpose. Advanced technologies like organ-on-a chip or human-on-a chip where a 3D representation of human organs and systems can mimic the related processes and activities, thereby linking them to major features of human biology can be successfully incorporated in the drug development tool box. PBPK provides the State of Art to serve as an optional of animal experimentation. PBPK models can successfully bypass bio-equivalency studies, predict bioavailability, drug interactions and on hyphenation with in vitro-in vivo correlation can be extrapolated to humans thus serving as bio-waiver. PBPK can serve as an eco-friendly bio-waiver predictive tool in drug development.

NEW BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT: The Future: A Very Short Introduction, by Jennifer M. Gidley

A shining utopia or our worst fears realised – what does the future have in store for us? From the beginning of time, humans have been driven by both a fear of the unknown and a curiosity to know. We have always yearned to know what lies ahead, whether threat or safety, scarcity or abundance. Throughout human history, our forebears tried to create certainty in the unknown, by seeking to influence outcomes with sacrifices to gods, preparing for the unexpected with advice from oracles, and by reading the stars through astrology. As scientific methods improve and computer technology develops we become ever more confident of our capacity to predict and quantify the future by accumulating and interpreting patterns form the past, yet the truth is there is still no certainty to be had. In this Very Short Introduction Jennifer Gidley considers some of our most burning questions: What is "the future "? Is the future a time yet to come, or is it a utopian place? Does the future have a history? Is there only one future or are there many possible futures? She asks if the future can ever be truly predicted or if we create our own futures - both hoped for and feared - by our thoughts, feelings, and actions, and concludes by analysing how we can learn to study the future. Jennifer Gidley has extensive experience in the futures studies field, combining scholarly research, academic teaching, and leadership of the World Futures Studies Federation (UNESCO Partner). She was re-elected as President in 2013 for a second four-year term to lead 300 expert futures researchers, teachers and professional practitioners from over 60 countries. Jennifer has held academic positions in Australia at Southern Cross (1995-2001); Swinburne (2003-2006); and RMIT (2008-2012); and holds visiting academic posts in Europe. Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable. Publication Date: 23rd March 2017 | 9780198735281 | Paperback | £7.99 For more information about this title please contact Katie Stileman (E: Katherine.Stileman@oup.com, T: 01865 353344)

An Employment Stance on Taking a Knee

At the commencement of the 2016 NFL season, Colin Kaepernick, one of the quarterbacks for the San Francisco 49ers, and Megan Rapinoe, midfielder for the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team, among other professional athletes, began exercising their First Amendment freedom of speech by kneeling during the national anthem before their respective professional league games as a protest to promote awareness for social injustice and police brutality. The protests immediately sparked politicalcontroversy, and the persisting nationwide social injustice debate was brought into the conversation of a multibillion dollar industry: professional sports. However, the burning question that has yet to be addressed in the endless hoursof media coverage and political opinions is what actions the San Francisco 49ers, U.S. Women’s Soccer, and other sports and entertainment organizations legally may take against athletes and entertainer-employees who are exercising their First Amendment freedom of speech rights. The public outcry has focused on the rights of the individuals, but are they entitled to behave at will without repercussions in their employment? This article will explore the legal landscape concerning the First Amendment’s freedom of speech within the employment arena involving athletes, entertainers, and organizations, as well as anticipate social and legal consequences for all parties involved.

Why the Quantum?

One of the burning questions within quantum foundations is “Why the Quantum?” — what makes quantum theory special, singling it out from the space of possible theories?

Motivating EFL learners using Self-Determination Theory

This paper discusses the relevance of self-determination theory in motivating adult learners of English as a foreign language in Ecuador.&#x0D; EFL class provides a unique and fascinating opportunity to test out 21st century ways of learning because English is not so much a content subject (as grammar teachers would have us believe) as a medium in itself. Students should be playing, experimenting and creating…and that will be the answer to every teacher’s burning question: “How do I get my students motivated?”&#x0D; Self-Determination Theory seeks to discover which elements are necessary for intrinsic motivation, and without which, intrinsic motivation is rendered difficult to achieve. Researchers Deci and Ryan (1985) have discovered that the three key elements are autonomy, competence and relatedness.&#x0D; In this paper I will show how it can be possible, within the basic framework of the traditional classroom paradigm, to enable EFL learners to feel these three emotions. This does not, of course, guarantee that students will feel intrinsically motivated to learn English, but I submit that redesigning teaching methodologies to reflect these concepts will go a long way toward helping students feel better about learning English as a foreign language.&#x0D; Many educators, in an attempt to understand intrinsic motivation are turning to the psychology of gaming because people play games out of pure intrinsic motivation. That is, there are “rewards” and “punishments” within the world of the game, but since these have no meaning in the “real” world, the question becomes what makes people want to do things? And of course, how can we harness that to use in the classroom, ie: how can we make students want to learn?&#x0D; Self-Determination Theory is not a panacea. Applying its principles will not magically create intrinsic motivation where none exists. However, what has been discovered is that autonomy, competence and relatedness are three elements without which intrinsic motivation cannot exist. That is, we as teachers cannot make our students feel intrinsically motivated to learn English, but we can remove obstacles that impede their feeling that way.&#x0D; I will show how to provide students with greater autonomy over their learning, and how doing so will enable them to work more productively. I will show how the feeling of competence can be enhanced by subtle changes to our grading techniques. Finally, I will show how the sense of relatedness is the key to mastering English and being able to use it as a truly global language.

Brain Games and Knife Play

At a time when effective science communication seems more necessary than ever before, Pint of Science is a very welcome initiative. Nestled cosily in the upstairs of The Rose and Crown (London, UK) on May, 15, 2017, science fans filled the room for the opportunity to hear two exciting talks on the latest advances in cancer research, to ask the experts those burning questions, and to justify a Monday night pint.

Literacy and Imagination: Finding Space in a Crowded Curriculum

AbstractDigital literacies abound in playing a foundational role in the rhythm and pattern of our lives, yet debates continue about how to harness them to teach and learn literacy. In an effort to humanize digital literacies, this department column offers a vast array of topics, from participatory work that pushes educators and researchers to communicate in local and global spaces to ways of redefining core reading and literacy skills through a screen‐based, multimodal logic. This column also provides a venue for research and practical applications that depict technology use as a part of the fabric of being human. The column helps educators reconceptualize the ways that children learn with technology, media, and new communication systems; honors educator success stories and burning questions and issues; and reimagines literacy futures.

International Aspect of Legal Regulation of Corruption Offences Commission on the Example of Law Enforcement Agencies and Banking System of Ukraine

The article analyzes the legislation such countries as Ukraine, the Russian Federation (hereafter – RF) and the Republic of Belarus, norms of which provide a system of measures to combat corruption as well as responsibility for such kind of offences. Moreover the article considers such burning question as counteraction of such kinds of offences and also different legislative approaches on the definition of ‘corruption’ in the countries mentioned above. We consider the criminal-legal norms as provided in the Criminal Code of Ukraine, establishing the responsibility for obtaining of unlawful benefit by the officials. We study the provisions of the current legislation of Ukraine aimed at prevention of corruption in the society. The special attention is given to the concepts of ‘illegal benefit’ and ‘bribe’, the key differences of these terms are defined. Also an attention is paid to the terms ‘officials’ and ‘law enforcement officials’. This article also discusses some features of committing crimes by the officials of the banking institutions. It is noted that the committing of such crimes is the problem promoting the destabilization of the banking system. The underlying mechanisms and the high latency of these crimes, being made mostly by organized criminal groups, entail negative consequences for the economy of each individual country and in general all over the world. It should also be noted that the basic principles and methods of dealing with corruption offences were identified in the work as well as a vector of legal regulation of every particular state in the defined area which is the basis of their anti-corruption policy. Furthermore comparative analysis of the administrative and criminal offences, which relate to corruption in RF, Ukraine and Belarus, was carried out. As a result of carrying out the analysis it became obvious that availability of uniform system of corruption offences classification for RF, Ukraine and Belarus is not significant and the legislation of each of the investigated countries provides differentiated approaches in understanding this question. Also we shall note, that not each of the designated states makes exhaustive list of offences that refer to corruption that undoubtedly complicates studying an actual condition of corruption in the country. A great share of attention in the article was paid to the studying of types and volumes of penalties for corruption acts. It was conducted a comparative characteristics of species and rigidity of penalty for corruption offences. As a conclusion of the study common and distinctive features of the anti-corruption legislation in Ukraine, RF and Belarus were highlighted. The conclusions are made that researched issues not lose its relevance because of periodic committing of corruption offences by the officials of law enforcement agencies and banking institutions.