Key Areas Of Agreement Research Articles

Obesogens and Obesity: State-of-the-Science and Future Directions Summary from a Healthy Environment and Endocrine Disruptors Strategies Workshop

On September 7 and 8, 2022, Healthy Environment and Endocrine Disruptors Strategies, an Environmental Health Sciences program, convened a scientific workshop of relevant stakeholders involved in obesity, toxicology, or obesogen research to review the state of the science regarding the role of obesogenic chemicals that might be contributing to the obesity pandemic. The workshop’s objectives were to examine the evidence supporting the hypothesis that obesogens contribute to the etiology of human obesity; to discuss opportunities for improved understanding, acceptance, and dissemination of obesogens as contributors to the obesity pandemic; and to consider the need for future research and potential mitigation strategies. This report details the discussions, key areas of agreement, and future opportunities to prevent obesity. The attendees agreed that environmental obesogens are real, significant, and a contributor at some degree to weight gain at the individual level and to the global obesity and metabolic disease pandemic at a societal level; moreover, it is at least, in theory, remediable.

India-ASEAN Relations: The Utility and Limits of a Norm-Based Approach

Central to India–ASEAN relations have been a consistent equivalence between their similar core principles and outlooks, which have served as a shared value-based footing upon which the two entities have built and enhanced their relations. These underlying sets of norms inform their diplomatic dealings with each other, and stem from principles and practices critical to their foundational identities and experiences. This article investigates and evaluates the historical roots of these norms and then utilizes them as an analytical vehicle with which to trace the growing strategic convergence typifying present-day India–ASEAN relations. Drawing upon constructivist accounts that emphasize the role played by history, culture, identity and learning, the article considers the key areas of agreement in relations, and how a value-based form of analysis provides an essential lens through which to better understand material factors structuring their relations. It also underlines the analytical value and empirical richness that a norm-based approach provides for analyzing specific sets of norms in a specific state-to-multilateral interaction.

Towards Treaty on Business and Human Rights: Key Areas of Agreement

Current legal framework does not properly address the impact that transnational corporations have on human rights. In response to that in 2014 the UN Human Rights Council established an open-ended intergovernmental working group with a mandate to elaborate an international legally binding instrument to regulate activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises. Although this decision was strongly contested and initially there was very little consensus on what such a treaty should entail, much effort has been invested to improve the content of the proposed treaty and gather the necessary support for its adoption. The aim of this article is to analyse the progress made in negotiating the treaty and to find any essential areas of agreement between different stakeholders. To achieve that aim, historical and analytical research methods have been primarily used. The study finds that two crucial areas of agreement exist – on the regulatory targets and regulatory model – that allows for real negotiations to begin. Keywords: consensus, human rights, transnational corporations, treaty on business and human rights

Measuring intangible outcomes can be problematic: The challenge of assessing learning during international short-term study experiences

Short-term international study experiences, or study tours, aim to increase students’ global awareness, educate and empower them to be productive global citizens, and contribute to their future employability. Learning outcomes from study tours often include intangible personal characteristics or soft skills, as opposed to specific disciplinary skills and knowledge, and yet, these are not easily identified. Using an iterative Delphi process, this study aimed to understand the pedagogical experience of tour leaders (experts) and assist in future development of effective assessment. Findings include four key areas of agreement among the experts: (1) both discipline-based knowledge and the acquisition of intangible personal characteristics are important learning outcomes and are considered to be almost equally important, (2) assessment almost always occurs on tour, (3) formative assessment for learning is predominantly used (rather than learning for summative assessment to test the learning), and (4) facilitated reflection is an important way to encourage learning during a study tour. Yet, the findings also reveal uncertainty about assessing outcomes that include intangible personal characteristics and soft skills. The article concludes with pedagogical implications and recommendations for future research.

What food knowledge ensures school leavers are capable of healthy food practice?

Background Food consumers in the western world face many complex issues that can impinge on their current and future health. The aim of this research was to identify areas of agreement regarding the basic food knowledge required by young adults for healthy living. Method Interviews were conducted using open-ended questioning to gain a cross-section of health professionals' perspectives regarding the basic food knowledge required by young adults for healthy living. Results Key areas of agreement generated from the interviews included a need for school leavers to understand: nutritional aspects of food, food preparation and cooking skills, food safety, how to read labels, understanding of production, processing and food distribution, how to shop for food on a budget, understanding seasonal variations in food, understanding food marketing, moral and ethical issues associated with food. Conclusions This study produced a rich understanding about what food-related professionals considered necessary components of food knowledge for school leavers.

European IPF Patient Charter: unmet needs and a call to action for healthcare policymakers.

Patient advocacy groups play an important role in supporting patients with chronic diseases and promoting better care. The aim of this patient-physician initiative was to gather perceptions from European idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) patient advocacy groups regarding inequalities and unmet needs in IPF care, in order to develop a Patient Charter to advocate for better care.In total, 11 European patient advocacy groups were interviewed regarding the care of patients with IPF in their countries. Interview feedback was presented to a Working Group including patient advocacy group representatives and IPF specialists; key areas of agreement were developed into the European IPF Patient Charter.The interviews identified five key themes that fed into the final Charter: the need for improved diagnosis, treatment access, holistic care, disease awareness and palliative care. The final Charter was endorsed by patient advocacy groups and presented to 26 Members of the European Parliament in September 2014. It has received >8900 signatures to date.This patient-physician initiative highlights the inequalities and unmet needs in IPF care across Europe, and demonstrates how this insight can inform the development of a Patient Charter, designed as a call to action for healthcare policymakers to drive improvement in European IPF care.

Agency, Capacity, and Resilience to Environmental Change: Lessons from Human Development, Well-Being, and Disasters

Human agency is considered a key factor in determining how individuals and society respond to environmental change. This article synthesizes knowledge on agency, capacity, and resilience across human development, well-being, and disasters literature to provide insights to support more integrated and human-centered approaches to understanding environmental change. It draws out the key areas of agreement across these diverse fields and identifies the main points of contestation and uncertainty. This highlights the need to consider subjective and relational factors in addition to objective measures of capacity and to view these as reflexive and dynamic, as well as differentiated socially and temporally. These findings can help distinguish between coping, adaptation, and transformation as responses to environmental and other stressors.

Emotions and affect in recent human geography

This paper seeks to examine both how emotions have been explored in emotional geography and also how affect has been understood in affectual geography. By tracing out the conceptual influences underlying emotional and affectual geography, I seek to understand both the similarities and differences between their approaches. I identify three key areas of agreement: a relational ontology that privileges fluidity; a privileging of proximity and intimacy in their accounts; and a favouring of ethnographic methods. Even so, there is a fundamental disagreement, concerning the relationship – or non-relationship – between emotions and affect. Yet, this split raises awkward questions for both approaches, about how emotions and affect are to be understood and also about their geographies. As importantly, mapping the agreements and disagreements within emotional and affectual geography helps with an exploration of the political implications of this work. I draw upon psychoanalytic geography to suggest ways of addressing certain snags in both emotional and affectual geography.

A Model Hypothesizing the Effect of Leadership Style on the Transfer of Training

The purpose of this paper was to undertake a comprehensive review of Kirkpatrick’s four-level evaluation model. Included was a brief discussion on the additions that have been suggested by critics attempting to make it more responsive to training practitioners’ needs as well as researchers’ inquiries. Also included is a contrast of Kirkpatrick’s model with the expanded model offered by Holton (1996) and a discussion of several key areas of agreement with his model as well as areas of concerns with Holton’s criticism of Kirkpatrick’s four-level model. This article also discussed the relationship of two key factors, not widely examined in the transfer of training literature that could impact the transfer of training to the workplace, namely trainee attributes and the supervisory role in training transfer as affected specifically by a manager’s degree of transformational leadership. A model depicting the balance between these two factors on training transfer was presented in an attempt to assist training professionals seeking to further understand the effects of this interaction on training transfer. Several recommendations were suggested to help training practitioners. Finally several recommendations were given for future studies.

Network management architectures and protocols: problems and approaches

Key areas of agreement and disagreement in the network management community are presented using the evolving open systems interconnection network management architecture as an informal guide. A key observation is that the open-networking community has apparently settled on a management model that places management information base (MIB) on each network node and manages these MIBs remotely with application level protocols. Various network systems based on this model are examined, along with some systems that use alternative management architectures. >

The use of family assessment and feedback in ongoing family therapy

Abstract The Family Environment Scale (FES) is being used clinically to facilitate assessment, intervention and evaluation of change in family therapy. This paper illustrates the use of the scale by providing case descriptions of two typical families. Discussion of each family member's real and ideal family environment serves to identify key areas of agreement and disagreement about actual and desired aspects of family functioning. This semi-structured procedure can focus each therapy session on specific interpersonal issues and encourage each family member to take an active part in discussing problems and formulating goals.