Conservative Perspective Research Articles

Experimental analysis of one-way composite steel deck slabs voided by circular paper tubes: Shear strength and moment–shear interaction

In order to improve structural efficiency, environmental performance, and constructability, a new type of one-way composite voided slab system (TUBEDECK) has been recently proposed which combines profiled steel decks with cast-in-situ RC slabs. Because eliminating concrete volume to optimize flexural strength can significantly reduce the shear strength of nonprestressed concrete or composite slabs without shear reinforcement, a clarification of the shear resistance capacity is required. In this study, shear tests on a total of 12 specimens were conducted with slab thickness, the presence or absence of voids and/or steel decks, and tension reinforcement ratio as variables. The results show that combined flexure and shear dominated the behavior of both voided (V) slabs and TUBEDECK (TD) slabs, and web-shear cracking did not affect strength. Predicted shear strength based on the minimum web width was too conservative. Conversely, the shear strength prediction equations, which were proposed on the basis of the real cross-sectional area of concrete, predicted the capacity of both V slabs and TD slabs from a reasonably conservative perspective. A discussion on the influence of moment–shear interaction is also included, and an interaction design model is proposed in a further investigation.

Pessimismo e política: conservadorismo e crítica social a partir de Schopenhauer

A relação entre política e pessimismo, ou mais precisamente, entre a possibilidade de mudança social e política, por um lado, e a rejeição metafísica dessa mesma possibilidade, por outro, tem sido marcante na recepção da filosofia de Schopenhauer desde o século dezenove. Por um lado, uma vasta gama de autores mobilizará argumentos pessimistas que ou coincidem ou se inspiram em Schopenhauer para defender uma perspectiva imobilista e conservadora da política e, por outro, vários autores se valerão de argumentos presentes na filosofia de Schopenhauer como uma denúncia das condições de iniquidade e injustiça da vida nas sociedades modernas capitalistas. Por essa razão, é possível de fato destacar tanto uma “direita schopenhaueriana” quanto uma “esquerda schopenhaueriana”. No presente artigo procurarei apresentar um quadro geral da recepção da filosofia de Schopenhauer no que diz respeito ao ideário propriamente político, partindo de uma análise do vínculo entre seu pessimismo e sua filosofia política e desembocando nos diversos usos do pessimismo feitos para justificar as mais diversas posições políticas.

Gender, Families, Social Change, and the Rural–Urban Discourse: “The Polish Peasant in Europe and America” as a Study of Fears and Fantasies Related to Modernisation

The aim of this article is to reread The Polish Peasant in Europe and America as a representation of the fears and modernisation fantasies of its era. I analyse the patterns of gendered family relations and ideals of femininity and masculinity constructed by Thomas and Znaniecki within the framework of rural–urban discourses. As I will show, in The Polish Peasant we find huge contradictions between the liberal and conservative perspectives presented. On the one hand, the authors introduce the concept of “organisation – disorganisation – reorganisation,” which is supposed to be scientific and thus non-ideological. On the other hand, the authors’ patterns of interpreting empirical data show numerous gender bias and patriarchal schemes. As a result the authors create an opposition in which whatever is rural is the cradle of authenticity, of naturalised national and gendered family values, and whatever is urban is dangerous and demoralising due to escaping the former strong rural social control. In The Polish Peasant the authors thereby construct the “morally healthy” model of a national and patriarchal rural community of families untouched by individualisation and women’s emancipation. Such a model had a patriarchal division of gender roles within a religiously devout, strong (meaning indissoluble), multi-generational family. In The Polish Peasant we can find both a nostalgia – which was typical of its era – for a “pre-modern,” rural, conservative civilisation, and worry about the moral health of women in the urban world. However it is an ambivalent nostalgia accompanied by a conviction of the inevitability of social change.

Motivation Perspectives on Opening up Municipality Data: Does Municipality Size Matter?

National governments often expect municipalities to develop toward open cities and be equally motivated to open up municipal data, yet municipalities have different characteristics influencing their motivations. This paper aims to reveal how municipality size influences municipalities’ motivation perspectives on opening up municipality data. To this end, Q-methodology is used, which is a method that is suited to objectify people’s frames of mind on a particular topic. By applying this method to 37 municipalities in the Netherlands, we elicited the motivation perspectives of three main groups of municipalities: (1) advocating municipalities, (2) careful municipalities, and (3) conservative municipalities. We found that advocating municipalities are mainly large-sized municipalities (>65,000 inhabitants) and a few small-sized municipalities (<35,000 inhabitants). Careful municipalities concern municipalities of all sizes (small, medium, and large). The conservative municipality perspective is more common among smaller-sized municipalities. Our findings do not support the statement “the smaller the municipality, the less motivated it is to open up its data”. However, the type and amount of municipality resources do influence motivations to share data or not. We provide recommendations for how open data policy makers on the national level need to support the three groups of municipalities and municipalities of different sizes in different ways to stimulate the provision of municipal data to the public as much as possible. Moreover, if national governments can identify which municipalities adhere to which motivation perspective, they can then develop more targeted open data policies that meet the requirements of the municipalities that adhere to each perspective. This should result in more open data value creation.

Fading Modeling in Maritime Container Terminal Environments

In this paper, an analytical model for slow and fast fading effects in maritime container terminals is derived, from fitting distributions to the results of measurements performed in an actual operational environment. The proposed model is composed of a set of equations, enabling to evaluate fading statistical distribution parameters for different system and environments conditions, as a function of frequency, base station antenna height, and average height of container stacks in a deepwater container terminal. The model's coefficients were obtained from a multivariate linear regression of the fitted distributions parameters, allowing to evaluate the different statistical distribution parameters with a negligible mean error and a standard deviation of the error less than 0.65 dB. It is observed that a good fitting is obtained for slow fading with the Lognormal Distribution, the standard deviation ranging in [1.40, 4.81] dB, while fast fading is well modeled by the Nakagami Distribution with the standard deviation ranging in [0.43, 1.26]. Hence, in a conservative perspective, values of 5 and 1.3 dB are proposed to characterize slow and fast fading, respectively.

Rabbit Weddings, Animal Collectives, and the Potentialities of Perverse Reading: Children’s Literature and Queer Worldmaking in A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo

Abstract This article examines the queer and youth worldmaking frameworks implemented in Jill Twiss and E. G. Keller’s A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, a satirical picture book presented by Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Both a critique of Mike Pence’s history of antiqueer politics and an exploration of matters such as democracy, queer kinship, and same-sex marriage, Marlon Bundo has been approached both as an effective critique of the current administration and as a “tired” political satire. This discussion explores the picture book’s ideological frameworks through the implementation of “perverse” forms of reading. It further highlights how Marlon Bundo connects to a history of children’s picture books aimed at critiquing conservative perspectives towards marriage, and demonstrates how the book is queerer and more generative than it may seem on the surface. Through an exploration of the picture book’s queer dynamics and its stance on notions such as difference, kinship, and collectivity, readers can better appreciate Marlon Bundo’s queerness regardless of its normative ending, and more effectively understand how this text partakes in a queer worldmaking project, in that it creates affinities and forms of kinship that traverse the boundaries of species, age, and readership.

Pseudo-Historicism and Architecture: The New Ottomanism in Turkey

ABSTRACTThe changes within temporality, the rise of presentism, and the emergence of ersatz nostalgia as the cultural consequences of late capitalism are producing a pseudo-historicist perspective as a way of dealing with the past. This article claims that the rising interest in the Ottoman Past in Turkey under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) is not just the product of the conservative cultural perspective of the ruling party but also the result of the pseudo-historicism produced by the long-term transformation of the Turkish society since the 1980s. This article takes the architectural production as an exemplification to illuminate the pseudo-historicist perspective in the Turkish context, because architecture appears as the most important terrain which reflects the development of this interest in the Ottoman past due to its characteristic as a profession closely knitted with the economy, and its representational power mirroring the cultural.

Sustainable interventions in historic buildings: A developing decision making tool

Abstract Integrating multi-criteria approaches for reducing greenhouse gas emissions while, at the same time, ensuring long-term maintenance of existing buildings, is a challenge that needs to be faced by both the present and future generations. The core objective of this paper is to integrate a life cycle approach within the framework of building conservation principles to help decision makers dealing with “green” maintenance and adaptation interventions of historic buildings. The proposed approach identifies conservation principles to respect, it considers low, medium, high levels of intervention, and it analyses the impact of interventions in terms of emissions and energy consumptions that should be compensated – while the historic building is in use – with on-site renewables. The method, in the whole, allows the comparison of different intervention scenarios and the selection of the most sustainable one over a long-term management perspective of the historic building. The benefits are twofold: under the conservative perspective, for helping in choosing the right time of interventions, in reducing the decay rate, in using materials that endure longer and are compatible with existing fabrics; under the environmental perspective, for helping in reducing the carbon footprint, in supporting conservation needs through a minimal intervention approach, and in encouraging materials reuse and renewable energy systems.

Investigating Turkish university students\u2019 attitudes towards refugees in a time of Civil War in neighboring Syria

Thousands of refugees have immigrated to Turkey because of the current Civil War in neighboring Syria. This is causing tensions between refugees and locals. These increasingly negative attitudes towards the incoming victims of conflict are of particular interest. The present study, therefore, aimed at determining the premises of the emergence of such negative attitudes. The research sample consisted of university students who all studied at various faculties at Cumhuriyet University in the Turkish province of Sivas. Data were collected by the Attitude Scale Towards Refugees, the Patriotism Attitude Scale, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, and the Cirhinlioğlu Religiosity Scale. Data were analyzed by Independent Sample t-tests as well as using Stepwise Regression Analyses. Results showed that the feeling of empathy correlated negatively with negative attitudes towards refugees, while blind patriotism, religiosity, and having nationalist/conservative orientations, correlated positively. Men were found to be more negative than women. The feeling of empathy was the most prominent factor in predicting the nature of attitudes towards refugees. Religious doctrine and distancing oneself from conservative and patriotic perspectives appeared to be effective in potentially preventing the development of negative attitudes. In conclusion, research results are discussed in the light of relevant literature.

Secularism and liberalism in contemporary Argentina: Neoliberal responses, initiatives, and criticisms of Pope Francis

The role of Jorge Bergoglio as the head of the Catholic Church has provoked political positioning in Argentina, which reveals new forms of articulation between secularism and politics. While progressive sectors connected to the Kirchnerist government initially viewed Pope Francis and his theology of the people with mistrust, they currently see him as an ally in the defence of social initiatives. From the conservative perspective, the trajectory has been exactly the opposite. Although they initally saw the Pope as an ally to help undermine populism, they soon discovered serious obstacles in the way. As a response, they raised the banner of laïcité and called into question the close relationship between politics and the Catholic Church. In this context, we will analyse the reactions, initiatives, and critical arguments, which surfaced around this limited secularism in political life, the mass media, and public space. In other words, we will observe a displacement in which social conservatism is not necessarily of a Catholic fundamentalist variety, and neoliberalism launches its own secularising tradition.

Ambientalismo e liberdade

A presente nota trata de uma abordagem conservadora do meio ambiente, associada à ideia de liberdade e pleno desenvolvimento humano. Recuperamos uma série de casos paradigmáticos de responsabilidade social dos proprietários rurais e industriais pelo meio ambiente, que demonstrem a necessidade de internalização dos custos ambientais ao processo produtivo. Esperamos demonstrar, assim, que as chamadas questões ambientais podem ser abordadas diante de uma perspectiva social conservadora.

Aner Govrin, Conservative and Radical Perspectives on Psychoanalytic Knowledge: The Fascinated and the Disenchanted

Aner Govrin, <i>Conservative and Radical Perspectives on Psychoanalytic Knowledge: The Fascinated and the Disenchanted</i>

A large comparison of integrated SAR/QSAR models of the Ames test for mutagenicity$

ABSTRACTResults from the Ames test are the first outcome considered to assess the possible mutagenicity of substances. Many QSAR models and structural alerts are available to predict this endpoint. From a regulatory point of view, the recommendation from international authorities is to consider the predictions of more than one model and to combine results in order to develop conclusions about the mutagenicity risk posed by chemicals. However, the results of those models are often conflicting, and the existing inconsistency in the predictions requires intelligent strategies to integrate them. In our study, we evaluated different strategies for combining results of models for Ames mutagenicity, starting from a set of 10 diverse individual models, each built on a dataset of around 6000 compounds. The novelty of our study is that we collected a much larger set of about 18,000 compounds and used the new data to build a family of integrated models. These integrations used probabilistic approaches, decision theory, machine learning, and voting strategies in the integration scheme. Results are discussed considering balanced or conservative perspectives, regarding the possible uses for different purposes, including screening of large collection of substances for prioritization.

The Messiah and the Great Architect: On the Difference Between the Messianic and the Utopian

ABSTRACT This articles criticizes utopian thinking—but not from the conservative perspective, seeing human society as inherently flawed and unable to progress, morally and politically. It opposes utopia in the name of messianic philosophico-theological heritage, often confused with the utopian strain or overshadowed by it. Today, mostly thanks to Derrida and his own philosophical version of “messianicity” derived from Abrahamic religions, though by no means reducible to them—the messianic idea is undergoing a revival. The article examines this revival as an interesting alternative to utopian thinking: equally optimistic anthropologically and politically, yet free of certain “architectonic” aspirations that Derrida criticizes as too strongly rooted in the “social ontology” and thus defending the political status quo. What Bloch and Derrida propose is a serious investment in the “objective fantasy,” not to be fully actualized but operative as a spectral source of “in-spiration” in the progressive transformation of social laws.

Central European states from a conservative perspective in the period 1990–2004

CENTRAL EUROPEAN STATES FROM A CONSERVATIVE PERSPECTIVE IN THE PERIOD 1990–2004The post-communist transition of Central European States the V4 countries and their neighbours, when speaking about a broader Central Europe took place in the last decade of the 20th century until the years 2002 and 2004, when the V4 countries were allowed to access the EU and NATO. In this case, the term transition accounts for changes in the political status of states, a transi­tion period in which basic pillars of the state — political system, the market economy, replaced the centrally-planned economy, the security and agenda of human rights, were assessed by new criteria. It was a complicated process that had to be reflected from the perspective of science and research, but also it had to be accepted from the perspective of citizens who did not always perceive the changes in a positive way. Central Europe lacked public discussion, a space that was supposed to be dedicated to the supporters of integration, but also to opposing opinions in order to make transparent attitudes, objections, but mainly, to introduce comprehensible projects of further development. To­day many theoreticians from Western Europe view the absence of public discussion to be a serious lack of planning in the preparation period. Mainly future positive benefits were presented, liberalism as the best solution of economic problems was unilaterally preferred. Little attention was given to possible impacts of the other ideological or theoretical concepts, e.g., conservatism, which puts an emphasis on the important role of the state, traditions, paternalism, and other aspects, which could, at first sight, operate as controlling mechanisms, even barriers to liberalism and integration. At that time, conservatism seemed to be an outdated ideology. But in practice, the situation was different. Conservative parties, and particularly the conservative perspective of reality, became an essential way of problem solving. The article aspires to explain some aspects of the impact of conservatism on the positive process of transition and transformation in Central Europe.

A Conservative Critique of Blacksburg

This article presents a conservative rejoinder to the Blacksburg perspective inviting a more discursive elaboration on the overlaps between key conservative thinkers, such as those from Michael Oakeshott, and portions of the Blacksburg view, specifically from the works of John Rohr and Charles T. Goodsell. We posit a conservative perspective that would contest three points in the Refounding texts. The article concludes by elaborating on the generative role that a discussion between the Refounders and key conservatives plays in positing new avenues for administrative theory and addressing challenges to the discretionary power of civil servants in a constitutional democracy.

A Prospective Cohort Study of AIS Patients with 40° and More Treated with a Gensingen Brace (GBW): Preliminary Results.

Introduction:There is a growing resistance from patients and their families to spinal fusion surgery for scoliosis. Due to inconclusive evidence that surgery has a long-term effect on scoliosis and/or improves the quality of life for patients with scoliosis, there is a need to extend the conservative perspective of treatment to patients with curvatures greater than 40 degrees. For that reason, a prospective cohort study was initiated to determine the effectiveness of the Gensingen brace (a Cheneau-style TLSO) in preventing progression in skeletally immature patients.Materials and Methods:Since 2011, fifty-five patients have been enrolled in this prospective cohort study. This report includes the mid-term results of twenty-five of these patients, who have a minimum follow-up of 18 months and an average follow-up of 30.4 months (SD 9.2). The twenty-five patients had the following characteristics at the start of treatment: Cobb angle: 49° (SD 8.4; 40º-71º); 12.4 years old (SD 0.82); Risser: 0.84 (SD 0.94; 0-2). A z-test was used to compare the success rate in this cohort to the success rate in the prospective braced cohort from BrAIST.Results:After follow-up, the average Cobb angle was 44.2° (SD 12.9). Two patients progressed, 12 patients were able to achieve halted progression, and eleven patients improved. Angle of trunk rotation (ATR) decreased from 12.2 to 10.1 degrees in the thoracic spine (p = 0.11) while the ATR decreased from 4.7 to 3.6 degrees in the lumbar spine (p = 0.0074). When comparing the success rate of the BrAIST cohort with the success rate of patients in this cohort, the difference was statistically significant (z = -3.041; p = 0.01).Conclusion:Conservative brace treatment using the Gensingen brace was successful in 92% of cases of patients with AIS of 40 degrees and higher. This is a significant improvement compared to the results attained in the BrAIST study (72%). Reduction of the ATR shows that postural improvement is also possible.

THE STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY IN CRITICAL EDUCATION

O texto aborda os desafios que atualmente se fazem presentes para a construção da democracia na educação. É apontada a necessidade de que se busque duas disposições para que a democracia possa ser vivida: que haja um reposicionamento, ou seja, que o mundo seja visto sempre pela perspectiva dos despossuídos; e que o mundo seja visto de forma relacional, ou seja, que se busque sempre analisar e entender as relações de poder e as contradições que estruturam as instituições e sociedades. O artigo termina enfatizando que a luta constante pela vivência da democracia na educação é o que mantém os sujeitos vigilantes contra as narrativas que apontam as perspectivas conservadoras como inevitáveis.

Ética e formação profissional em Serviço Social: do conservadorismo à emancipação

Resumo A partir da leitura crítica dos currículos de Serviço Social, desde 1936 até as diretrizes curriculares de 1996, este artigo objetiva analisar a direção social e a perspectiva ética presentes na trajetória de oito décadas de formação em Serviço Social. Através de pesquisa documental, retoma os dez currículos da primeira escola de Serviço Social, passando pelos quatro currículos mínimos aprovados nacionalmente, até as atuais diretrizes curriculares. Reconstitui o caminho percorrido por uma formação embasada numa perspectiva conservadora à importante inflexão de construção de uma perspectiva emancipatória. Aponta considerações acerca dos desafios postos ao atual projeto político pedagógico, em especial no que se refere à necessária efetivação da transversalidade da ética na formação das assistentes sociais.

Passive innovation resistance – a conservative consumer perspective

PurposeMore research is required into the underlying reasons for passive innovation resistance. This paper aims to propose that consumers who passively resist innovation may merely be conservative in nature and explore a conceptual framework that could explain and predict such behaviour.Design/methodology/approachTheories from the political sciences, social psychology and marketing were studied in trying to understand why some consumers are more conservative in nature and how their attitudes may affect their thoughts, feelings and actions in the marketplace.FindingsConsumers may develop conservative attitudes, such as a need for cognitive closure, nostalgia, authoritarianism, a social dominance orientation, ethnocentrism and an anti-hedonic approach towards life to combat their fear of ambiguous situations and chaos associated with deviance from in-group values. Ultimately, these attitudes may influence consumer behaviour, such as being brand loyal, unwilling to try new options and preferring nostalgic products that would lead to lower levels of ambiguity and less disruption of the status quo. Conservative consumers may also act as authoritarian parents, prefer to purchase durable materialistic products, support locally manufactured goods and refrain from purchasing products for purely hedonic pleasure in an attempt to preserve their in-group values.Originality/valueThe proposed framework offers more insight into the nature and consequences of passive innovation resistance and may serve as a starting point for further exploration on the fundamental characteristics of conservative consumers. The research findings may also assist marketers in managing their new product innovations strategies more successfully.