High Aspirations Research Articles

Modelling ambitious climate mitigation pathways for Australia's built environment

• We model operational and embodied GHG emissions for Australia's built environment. • The scope includes residential and commercial buildings. • A high ambition scenario delivers a 94% reduction in emissions compared to BAU. • Includes renewables, electrification, efficiency and material replacement. • Novel pathways analysis highlights options for net zero and net negative emissions. Achieving net zero operational and embodied greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the built environment is recognised in Australia and globally as a key strategy to address climate change and achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, gaps in knowledge remain regarding potential national pathways to achieve this outcome in Australia. This study further extends and applies a national-scale integrated macroeconomic simulation model to explore coherent pathways to net zero emissions in the built environment sector by 2050. The scope of the study includes residential and commercial buildings and both operational and embodied emissions. It applies scenario analysis incorporating different levels of climate ambition, including a shift to renewable energy, electrifying buildings, improving energy efficiency and replacing carbon-intensive materials. We find that a high ambition scenario (Scenario 2) delivers a 94% reduction in GHG emissions by 2050 when compared against business-as-usual, placing a net-zero target within reach. Improvements on Australia's SDGs performance are also attained. Through subsequent pathways analysis we find that achieving net zero or even net negative operational and embodied emissions is feasible with more ambitious action in key areas, including increasing the share of mass-timber buildings and reducing end-of-life losses in sequestered carbon.

Do high aspirations lead to better outcomes? Evidence from a longitudinal survey of adolescents in Peru

Using a novel panel survey of relatively poor urban Peruvian adolescents, we explore the link between educational aspirations and propensity to invest in the future. Aspirations comprise hope and agency. We find remarkably high educational aspirations, even among relatively poor individuals and adolescents who were exposed to negative shocks, suggesting high levels of resilience. We also find high occupational aspirations and aspirations to migrate. High-aspiration respondents were also more likely to invest in their education and avoid risky behaviors. These are associations as we do not have enough data to establish causality, although we were able to control for within-person traits. Aspirations are stable over time and positively associated with personality traits such as self-efficacy and life satisfaction, which help explain their persistence over time. Our findings complement those of other recent studies that highlight the role of personality traits in addition to cognitive skills in long-term educational, health, and socioeconomic outcomes.

Reaching out to the hard-to-reach: mixed methods reflections of a pilot Welsh STEM engagement project

Despite years of targeted interventions, young people experiencing socio-economic deprivation are still under-represented in those studying STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects post-16 and in higher education STEM pathways. We surveyed 61 young people who had participated in the S4 programme in South Wales, UK, and interviewed three of their teachers. Using the theoretical lens of science capital, we asked them about the S4 programme, and their views of science and education in terms of aspirations, attainment, and social obstacles. Whilst widely outdated, a ‘deficit model’ of aspiration raising still guides STEM outreach policy in Wales and we consider the answers to our survey in light of this. Broadly, our participants are enthusiastic and ambitious, and confident in their abilities in both science and wider skill areas. However, we found certain aspects of ambition were linked to socio-economic status. For example, whilst most young people we surveyed aspire to go university, those who do not cite different reasons depending on their socio-economic status. Despite high aspirations around science and education, teachers cited low literacy and numeracy, household poverty, entrenched generational unemployment, rural isolation, disabilities, caring responsibilities, and teenage pregnancy as barriers to higher education for their pupils. Importantly, S4's intervention had the greatest impact with those in the extremes of socio-economic deprivation, particularly in terms of bolstering existing science and education aspirations and increasing the ‘thinkability’ of attending university. Our findings contradict accepted thinking on science and education aspirations in that rather than participation in higher education being motivated by a lack of science and education aspiration or the discourse of family habitus ("people like us"), young people seem to be starkly aware of the very real socio-economic obstacles. We found no poverty of science and education aspiration in the participants we surveyed, and encourage a policy move away from the deficit model of raising science and education aspirations that will take a more nuanced view of widening access to STEM education and higher education in general in Wales.

Educational aspiration of high school children from single parent families

The recent increase in single parent families affecting the educational aspiration among children. The present paper examines the educational aspiration of high school children from single parent families of Dharwad taluk which was conducted during 2019-2020. A total of 240 children were selected from urban (n=120) and rural (n=120) areas of Dharwad taluk through purposive sampling technique. A self structured questionnaire was used to collect the demographic characteristics of children. Mazumdar Educational Aspiration Inventory (2004) was used to assess the educational aspiration among children. Socio-economic status scale by Aggarwal et al. (2005) was used to measure the socioeconomic status of children. The study outcomes highlighted that, educational aspiration was significantly associated with locality of children. Urban children had high educational ambitions than rural children. Gender was associated significantly with educational ambitions in both areas. Age was not associated significantly with children in both the areas. Girls had high aspirations than boys in both urban and rural areas. Ordinal position was not associated significantly with educational aspiration of children in both areas. Study further showed that children residing status was associated significantly with educational ambitions of children in both regions indicating that children residing with their mothers had high educational aspirations than their counterparts. Socio-economic status showed significant difference with educational ambitions of children in both the regions which points out that children with poor socio-economic status had low educational aspiration than children with upper socio-economic status. The study showed that nearly 24 percent of children need intervention programme to improve their educational attainment and ambitions.

Unmet Aspirations and Urban Malaise

This article analyses the gap between human aspirations concerning self-enhancement and corresponding outcomes in ten western European countries. Utilizing individual data for 14,300 respondents from the European Social Survey, four self-enhancement gap metrics are created: (1) the Ambition gap; (2) the Success gap; (3) the Wealth gap; and (4) the Authority gap. The findings suggest that subjective well-being (SWB) appears to be higher in rural than in urban communities. One reason for lower SWB among urban residents relates to their higher aspirations in certain areas of life. However, urban areas are apparently able to meet the financial expectations of their inhabitants far better than rural areas are, whereas an unmet craving for, e.g., success in rural areas appears not to affect SWB at all. Overall, there is a strong association between unmet aspirations and lower satisfaction with life. The added value of this paper is that it goes beyond existing explanations of the reasons behind urban malaise in developed economies.

Возрастные особенности ролевых ожиданий и притязаний в браке у лиц с разным уровнем личностной зрелости

The paper considers the correlation of marriage role expectations and aspirations with indices of personality maturity of people of three age groups. The study has revealed that young people with high personality maturity level have high role expectations and aspirations in a social sphere. In the middle-aged group subjects with mature personality have high role expectations and aspirations in emotional and psychotherapeutic sphere of family relationships. Subjects with mature personality from the oldest age group showed high role expectations and aspirations in personality self-identification. The study has revealed that people with low personality maturity level have lower level of role expectations in parental relationship sphere than those in other age groups with the same level of personality maturity. In general, people with low personality maturity level in any age group have more non-standard marriage role expectations and aspirations than the ones with high personality maturity level.

Post-high-school pathways: The role of dispositional beliefs and aspirations

Are non-cognitive factors affecting youth's educational pathways after high school graduation? What differentiate college-going students who enroll in a 4-year public, 4-year private not-for-profit, or 2-year public institution in the United States? The study employs the Education Longitudinal Survey of 2002 to examine the role of student aspirations and dispositional beliefs toward education as key determinants of college participation and type of first postsecondary institution attended within 10 years of high school graduation. The study uses the Theory of Planned Behavior to operationalize dispositional beliefs. Study findings show that in addition to student achievement and high school context, dispositional beliefs and educational aspirations play significant role on student post-high-school pathways, but without removing the systemic outcome differences related to socio-demographic factors.

Chinese pharmaceutical market development strategy: Ukrainian prospects

The modern pharmaceutical industry is characterized by high innovation and margins; it is a powerful geopolitical means of influence. The author analyzes the features of the Chinese pharmaceutical industry, which has shown significant progress in recent years. There are also obstacles to its further development, which are related, in particular, to political factors. The author describes the transformation processes of the modern Chinese pharmaceutical ecosystem. The main focus of accelerated growth is based on domestic consumption and biotech startups: the direction of government and corporations is new drug technologies, search for new therapeutic targets, and development of innovative molecules. A feature of the Chinese pharmaceutical market is the dominance of domestic companies and the predominance of the hospital segment over pharmacy. Generic drugs account for 94,6% of the drug portfolio, but Chinese pharmaceutical manufacturers’ high ambitions to be global players are encouraging active research, and a system of guaranteed early-stage funding from private and public funds contributes to this. The strategic partnership with Chinese manufacturers helps not only to finance research activities, but also entering to a large Chinese market. The cooperation of Ukrainian pharmaceutical manufacturers with Chinese partners is mainly based on importing raw materials (API) to produce medicine. The raw material safety in the conditions of geopolitical cataclysms should become a critical point for Ukrainian pharmaceutical manufacturers. For Chinese partners who have visited Ukrainian enterprises many times before and understand the advantages of Ukraine’s geographical location, its scientific background for joint research, and the prospects of further integration with EU countries, localization in Ukraine could bring additional strategic benefits. The study aims to analyze the transformation processes of the modern pharmaceutical industry in China, its place in global production processes and supply chains, and characterize the prospects for the further strategic development of Chinese biopharmaceuticals in domestic and foreign markets. The study benefits the Ukrainian pharmaceutical manufacturers interested in developing cooperation with Chinese companies, including in joint research activities.

МАРКЕТИНГОВІ ТРЕНДИ РИНКУ ЕЛЕКТРОННОЇ ТОРГІВЛІ КОМП’ЮТЕРНИМИ ІГРАМИ В ПОСТПАНДЕМІЧНИЙ ПЕРІОД

The article considers the phenomenon of the video game industry growth as the latest trend in the development of the e-commerce market for digital products in the post-pandemic period. The latest technologies and the active promotion of the Internet usage have contributed to the emergence of a new type of games – video games. Video games are gradually replacing regular games and have a direct impact on how Internet users fill their free time, as they offer an expanded range of products and services, both gaming and non-gaming. Features of incomes volumes change in various directions of the entertainment industry for understanding of a share of video games in the general volume of its growth are outlined. The increase in interest in video games has been found to be due to a structural shift in the entertainment industry caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the forced self-isolation of most people around the world. The global costs of video games by types of devices were analyzed, which allowed to form an understanding of the increased interest of users in games presented in a format available for use on smartphones. In 2019, consumers spent $149 billion (excluding equipment) on video games, compared to $35 billion in 2004. The distinctive features of the demographics of gamers in the United States are listed, which can be taken as a basis for marketing research of e-commerce of computer games in other countries. The peculiarities of the marketing campaign of the company "CD Project RED" – a well-known giant on the market of development and implementation of computer games are researched. The key problem of "CD Project RED" management has been extremely high ambitions and the scale of statements that cannot be fulfilled on practice. As a result of marketing activities, gamers' expectations were so high that it was impossible to create a game that would satisfy the excitement that the company's marketers have been creating for eight years. Understanding the mistakes in marketing activities has already allowed the management of "CD Project RED" to smooth out the financial consequences of the previous failure. Unlike most sectors of the economy that suffered from the effects of forced downtime during the COVID-19 pandemic, the gaming sector "went against the flow" and found opportunities where other sectors suffered losses.

The Province of Affliction: Illness and the Making of Early New England by Ben Mutschler

Reviewed by: The Province of Affliction: Illness and the Making of Early New England by Ben Mutschler Sarah E. Naramore The Province of Affliction: Illness and the Making of Early New England. By Ben Mutschler. American Beginnings, 1500–1900. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020. 374 pages. Cloth, ebook. Ben Mutschler begins The Province of Affliction with a deceptively simple question: “how did sickness figure in the larger scheme of daily affairs” (3) for New Englanders during the long eighteenth century? The answer requires a consideration of the social and economic disruption that illness brought to individuals, families, and communities. Disease in this world was not simply a biological condition or medical matter between doctor and patient; the temporary absence of one person spiraled to affect those who nursed them back to health, limited the economic productivity of a family, and forced a community to assume responsibility for those who could not care for themselves. Mutschler suggests that New England’s community-based care eventually morphed into formal state-level care systems in the nineteenth century. His book thus roots large structural transformations in the history of small communities by drawing important connections between the response to illness and the shifting role of the state. Throughout the book, Mutschler maintains a central metaphor: that the state of illness (or affliction) should be understood as its own province. He writes that illness was “a cultural province . . . lying outside but still close to a state of health” and “resembles other cultural provinces in the eighteenth century, especially in its creativity in negotiating a world where high ambitions clashed with stark limitations” (11). The book’s opening scene demonstrates Mutschler’s approach by exploring the illness of young Henry Drinker in Philadelphia. Drawing on the entries in the diary of his mother, Elizabeth, Mutschler highlights how Henry’s weeks of sickness and recovery altered family relationships and expectations. During this time, Henry was removed from the normal pattern of life in the Philadelphia household, while also creating additional responsibilities for those around him—he thus inhabited a distinct place outside the daily life of his family while simultaneously remaining part of it. Duties of care fell especially to his mother, and Henry’s ill health took a heavy emotional toll on her until he started to convalesce. His illness also shaped the very community he was detached from: though the Drinkers had the resources to manage most of Henry’s care, they did call on the assistance of friends and family to support the household in Henry and Elizabeth’s absence. This domino effect of illness touching multiple lives, Mutschler argues, lies at the heart of eighteenth-century responses to disease. Mutschler uses the Drinker episode as an introduction to his broader discussion. As he argues, the ability to care for the sick acted as a mark [End Page 163] of family competency—the ability to support a household through the labor of that household—which was the social and economic goal of many eighteenth-century families. But at the same time, he stresses, even the most functional families relied on the broader community to fulfill additional requirements of care. Such interactions were more evident in New England than Pennsylvania, according to Mutschler, due to the former region’s “cutting-edge developments . . . , [which demanded] adherence to public health laws that privileged community welfare over the individual. Such developments were elusive elsewhere in British North America” (4). The collection of people and institutions within New England’s province of affliction forms the core of Mutschler’s analysis and allows him to break down historiographical barriers between histories of medicine, family, society, and economics; as he argues, illness cannot be separated from social and economic life, and ignoring illness impoverishes our understanding of the era. Mutschler divides his eight chapters into four sections, with each section highlighting different levels of family and community involvement in illness and moving from the smallest social circles to the largest. While the first chapters orient the reader in the language and experiences of the eighteenth-century patient as well as the economic lives of small communities, subsequent chapters discuss how families, communities, and ultimately the state responded...

The First World War as a Turning Point: The Impact of theYears 1914–1918 on Church and Mission (with Special Focus on the Hermannsburg Mission) ed. by Frieder Ludwig

Reviewed by: The First World War as a Turning Point: The Impact of theYears 1914–1918 on Church and Mission (with Special Focus on the Hermannsburg Mission) ed. by Frieder Ludwig Marcus Felde The First World War as a Turning Point: The Impact of theYears 1914–1918 on Church and Mission (with Special Focus on the Hermannsburg Mission). Edited by Frieder Ludwig. Berlin: Lit Verlag, 2020. 236 pp. This book originated in a symposium in Hermannsburg on the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. The purpose was to consider the impact of that war on German missions overseas and the churches planted by their work. These writings are of personal interest because I served fourteen years in the part of Papua New Guinea (PNG) which once was known as "Kaiser-Wilhelmsland." It is not difficult to see in the PNG church the effects of actions taken against German missions during the First World War and again during the Second World War. German missionaries in New Guinea were from Rhenisch and Neuendettelsau organizations rather than the Hermannsburg Mission, but they faced similar difficulties and had similar outcomes. "New World" missionaries were one answer to the dilemmas created in the "Third World" when the "Old World" went to war. Philip Jenkins opens the volume by showing how people and their governments made use of religion during World War I both for legitimation and for comfort; it was pervasive and powerful. But he ends his essay with an aphoristic quip (a play on the title of a Goya painting) which seems to contradict his thesis: "The sleep of religion brings forth monsters" (48). Is he blaming the horrors of World War I on a dearth of religion, after arguing that religion was pervasive throughout? Is he advocating for any and all religions? One declaration made me wince: "The good news for the churches was that the war did not kill religion" (38). Perhaps his 2014 book The Great and Holy War made clearer distinctions? Perhaps in it he had room to explore also the faith-based revulsion many Christians felt and feel about warfare? Martin Tamcke, Volker Metzler, and Rolf Hosfeld opened my eyes to a neglected part of history: troops, local officials, and citizens massacred about 200,000 Christians in the Urmia region of Assyria (now parts of Iran and Turkey) during World War I. (This is distinct from the better known massacre of Armenians.) What [End Page 96] a horrible dilemma Germans faced. They had a relationship with those "Nestorian" Christians through mission work. Their government was allied in war with a largely Muslim nation (the Ottoman Empire) which used the cover of war to purge violently Christians who traced their faith heritage back to the fourth century. Kevin Ward brings a British perspective on the nexus of war and mission and its ramifications for Anglican missions in Africa. "The war called into question 'German' assumptions of European cultural superiority and 'British' delusions of imperial splendour, but it certainly did not automatically end them" (122). He points out that the war followed closely the 1910 World Missionary Conference, damaging (perhaps fatally?) its high aspirations for the Christianization of the world. Adam Jones and Fritz Hasselhorn perceive a silver lining to the deleterious effect of the war on German missions in Africa. During and after the war, at first of necessity and then intentionally, missionaries were moved to yield authority to the people they had come to serve. A new and necessary trend had only begun. "While the missionaries were used to be[ing] 'in the position of little kings with their congregations,' in the future they should feel 'part of the whole.'" (140) [Emphasis is in the 1903 letter of Egmont Harms, director of the Hermannsburg Mission.] Essays by Hagos Abrha, Iris Leung Chui Wa, Pui Yee Pong, and Jayabalan Murthy ensure some balance, representing not the mission societies but the churches that grew from (and despite) their efforts. Two of those essays look at Hong Kong and one at India, British territories where German missionaries were regarded as hostiles. Like the other essays, they offer both "facts on the ground" and thoughtful reflection about mission work...

On Class Difference in Educational Aspirations and Educational Expectations: A CUCDS‐Based Social Analysis

Educational aspirations under an ideal state and educational expectations based on reality have an important impact on children’s academic development, but distinct differences between them exist. On the basis of distinguishing the differences between the two, using the national data of Tsinghua University’s China Urbanization and Child Development Survey (CUCDS), this article endeavors to explore the inequality of educational aspirations and expectations from the perspective of class and urban‐rural areas, and lay out the influencing factors of educational aspirations, expectations, and the difference between them. It is found that Chinese parents generally have high aspirations for their children’s education. There is no distinct class difference in “high hopes for children’s bright future.” However, in the sense of educational expectations, there are distinct class differences, which are deeply rooted in socioeconomic status and closely related to education level, family type, family structure, and family economic status, as well as children’s academic performance.

A review of the relationship between parental involvement and children's academic achievement and the role of family socioeconomic status in this relationship

Based on Bronfenbrenner's (1986) ecological system theory, Bourdieu's (1997) concept of cultural capital and Coleman's concept of social capital, the present study has examined the relationship between parents' involvement in their children’s education and their academic achievement as well as the role the socioeconomic status plays in this relationship. Results obtained from a re-examination of 42 studies published between 2003 and 2021 revealed that there was a positive correlation between parental involvement and academic achievement of children. Parental involvement at home and at school, such as parents’ reading to their children at home, providing encouragement and support for learning, maintaining high aspirations and expectations for their children’s education and academic success, establishing communication, discussing school issues with their children, all have positively impacted the academic achievement of children. Socio-economic status (SES) affected the relationship between parental involvement and school success of children and played a mediating role in this relationship. Children of families with higher socioeconomic status made better use of their parents' involvement thanks to their parent’s greater cultural capital. Nevertheless, the educational involvement that parents with lower socioeconomic status can demonstrate is important in that it reduces or eliminatates the disadvantages that children from poor and lower educated families may encounter and the risk of academic failure. The impact of increased parental involvement on poor and lower SES children was greater, and these children made better use of parental involvement and were able to boost their academic achievement to a certain extent.  &nbsp

The Economic Dimension of Labour Migration Cauvery Delta Zone in Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: Majority are international migrant and interstate migrants, majority (75%) of the respondents in the age groups (21 to 40) migrated to different places like Thiruppur, Coimbatore, Chennai, Kerala and Saudi, Arabia, Dubai, Mascot, Malaysia, and Singapore. Main reasons for migration are low wages, unemployment debt due to failure in agriculture due to lack of rains, more employment opportunities in the destination place and more jobs and a handsome salary which leads to improvement of the living conditions.Such pull and push factors encourage emigration to high-income countries experiencing labour shortages. Emigration has different impacts on sending country and destination country. Low wages and rain-fed agriculture in the native place have been found the economic factors leading to migration, while poverty, poor civic amenities, leading a poor life, high aspirations and demonstration effect were social and psychological factors resulting to migration. Lesser storage of water in delta region consequent on insufficient rainfall in the catchment area does not allow the farmers to Cauvery Delta Zone. Keywords: Labor migration, Employment, income and Cauvery Delta Zone

Land for housing: Quantitative targets and qualitative ambitions in Dutch housing development

The struggle of cities to achieve quantitative housing objectives can partly be explained by the struggle to cope with increasing value conflicts with other (qualitative) policy objectives, including the realization of affordable housing, climate adaptive areas, inclusive neighborhoods, and high-quality public spaces. In public debate in the Netherlands, too high ambitions and a ‘piling-up’ of policy objectives are often mentioned as causes of non-conformance of quantitative housing objectives. However, despite such non-conformance, a plan or policy may still function well by informing the decision-making process and invoking scrutiny of conflicting objectives. This paper aims to understand how municipalities cope with the implementation of housing developments with pluralistic policy objectives. Therefore, the performance of the policy objective to accelerate the production of housing is studied by exploring how value conflicts between this quantitative and qualitative objectives are addressed. A survey among Dutch municipalities and two additional in-depth case studies reveal that the non-conformance of the acceleration of the housing production not only results from exogenous processes, but is also a result of accumulating policy decisions favouring qualitative ambitions. The case studies reveal that municipalities especially struggle with trade-offs between qualitative and quantitative objectives. This result shows the relevance of additional research that focus on value conflicts in public policy implementation processes.

Influence of Social Networks on the Transformation of Youth Values in Social Isolation

The decline in live social contact during the Covid-19 pandemic is driving an increase in the demand for social media communication. This study is an in-depth continuation of an earlier study on the topic of self-esteem and value orientations of youth. A survey was conducted and helped to determine the values ​​of life that are broadcast on social media profiles and are actively welcomed by students in Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Tik Tok: independence, high aspirations, health and beauty, material values. The high level of activity of the respondents in social networks was investigated and the medium level of Internet addiction was determined. The respondents revealed the level of conformity and individual-typological personality traits. The students are characterized by a high level of anxiety and tension. The conformity level helps to identify the individuals who are most vulnerable to the effects of social media. The terminal and instrumental values ​​of students are investigated: health and beauty, material values, entertainment, family life, self-confidence, love, freedom, rationalism, Irreconcilability to shortcomings, independence, self-control and high claims. Correlation links were found in the indicators of conformism / nonconformism / Internet addiction and value orientations of the individual. Work in groups was carried out with the aim of abandoning a set of social masks, selected taking into account the expectations of others. The work is based on the metaphor of diminution from Slavic myths and fairy tales.

Upright epiglottis prevents aspiration in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma post-chemoradiation.

NPC is the most widely found malignant tumor in the head and neck region in Indonesia. Chemoradiation therapy for NPC can induce swallowing disorders (dysphagia) that adversely affects a patients quality of life. This study aimed to assess the swallowing process by flexible endoscopic evaluation of swallowing in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma after chemoradiation. Thirty-nine patients with NPC who had chemoradiation therapy more than one month previously underwent flexible endoscopic evaluation of swallowing and were assessed for oral transport time, sensation, standing-secretion, pre-swallowing leakage, residue, penetration, aspiration, and silent aspiration. The most common structural abnormalities were an upright and swollen epiglottis (89.4%), poor oral hygiene, and velopharyngeal closure defects (56.4%). This examination also revealed a mild degree of standing secretion (38.5%) and aspiration (10.3%). No penetration was observed in 64.1% of the patients, and no silent aspiration was observed in any of the patients. A severe degree of residue (45.7%) was observed when administering oatmeal, while the residue was mild to moderate when administering gastric rice, crackers, and milk. The residue changed to a mild degree (32.3%–51.4%) in all food administrations after the watering maneuver. The highest penetration was noted after oatmeal administration (42.8%), and the highest aspiration was found after milk administration (8.6%). Standing secretion in almost all patients was caused by hyposensitivity of the hypopharynx. Persistent residue and hyposensitivity of the hypopharynx led to aspiration. The low percentage of aspiration and silent aspiration might have been caused by the upright and swollen epiglottis that prevented aspiration. Poor oral hygiene and a dry mouth led to prolonged oral transport. Therefore, most patients had hypopharyngeal abnormalities in the form of a swollen and upright epiglottis. Secretion and food residue were also detected. Drinking helps to expedite the swallowing process by facilitating oral phase transport and reducing residues.

Exploring family language policymaking of internal migrant families in contemporary China: negotiating habitus, capital and the social field

ABSTRACT Drawing on semi-structured interviews with six Chinese migrant families with children aged 12–15 years old, this qualitative study uses a Bourdieusian lens to probe how the historically lived and migration experiences of Chinese internal migrant parents construct their paradoxical beliefs in children’s English learning and informs their family language practice. The discursive process of constructing family language policy (FLP) reveals how migrant parents negotiate between changing habitus and the newly acquired capital during migration to Shanghai. Findings indicate that the migrant parents acknowledge the value of English in the linguistic market and hold high expectations and aspirations of their children’s English education. However, their historically constructed language ideologies constrain their engagement in children’s English learning and hinder their FLP decision-making. The urban field’s prevailing social and educational norms of promoting children’s learning English as a foreign language to enhance cross-cultural communication and attain academic success has its transformative power, which enables migrant parents to adjust their understanding of English learning and encourages them to facilitate the same for their children at home. The present study proposes a theoretical model to conceptualise the FLP construction in internal migrant families. Implications of the findings for different stakeholders have been discussed.

Early-Onset Neonatal Sepsis: Role of C-Reactive Protein, Micro-ESR, and Gastric Aspirate for Polymorphs as Screening Markers.

Introduction Early-onset neonatal sepsis is a major cause of morbidness and death in newborn children. Its timely diagnosis is usually a challenge in developing countries like India. Aim To study the efficacy of C-reactive protein (CRP), micro-ESR, and gastric aspirate for polymorphs in the diagnosis of early-onset neonatal sepsis. Materials and Methods This study included sixty term and preterm children, inborn and referred cases. The children who presented before day seven of life with clinical suspicion of sepsis or who were at high risk of developing sepsis were included. These were further investigated. Significant values for screening tests were taken as C − reactive protein > 0.6 mg/dl, micro-ESR—after 1 hour, fall in the column of blood in capillary tube was measured, and result was taken as mm fall in 1 hr, and gastric aspirate for polymorphs > 5 polymorphs/HPF. Sepsis screen positive result was 2 or more positive tests. The statistical evaluation was done using Fisher, and ANOVA tests using SPSS 20.0 version. Results Sixty children were included in the study with forty as the referred ones. Most of them had tachypnea (45%). CRP showed high sensitivity, whereas micro-ESR and gastric aspirate for polymorphs showed high specificity. Conclusions Neonatal sepsis screening is required for the detection of infection as the blood culture report may not be positive in all the cases, and even if positive, the result takes few hours. CRP showed high sensitivity, whereas micro-ESR and gastric aspirate for polymorphs showed high specificity independently as well as when combined.

How (in)elastic is the demand for short-sea shipping? A review of elasticities and application of different models to Swedish freight flows

ABSTRACT Despite high ambitions, policies for a modal shift in Europe have largely been unsuccessful. Part of the explanation relates to the inelasticity of freight transport demand. Understanding the demand elasticity of freight transport is important to design and appraise policies for external cost reductions in the transport sector. There have been many studies focused on estimating the elasticity of demand for short-sea shipping, a mode which policy makers have often aimed to strengthen to facilitate a modal shift from road freight. The objective of this review is to build upon the available literature by presenting and comparing estimated elasticities and to demonstrate the state of evidence through the application of two methodological approaches. Our review shows that there is a surprising degree of variation in elasticity estimates, part of which can likely be explained by differing methodological approaches. Applying a deterministic cost-minimising freight transport model and a stochastic multinomial logit approach based on responses from the Swedish Cargo Flow Survey, we demonstrate the inelasticity of Swedish maritime freight flows and provide suggestions for future research and policy discussions. For future studies of maritime transport demand elasticities to arrive at reliable and policy-relevant results, we highlight the need for combined and pluralistic methodological approaches and an increased use of real-world data.