Personal View Research Articles

How to Turn Politics Around: Things, the Earth, Ecology

In this article, I give a personal view of Bruno Latour’s work on the politics of ecology going back to his work during the early 2000s on the politics of things. Based on my exchanges with Latour over the years, from the time that I became his student in the late 1990s, I show how he developed his understanding of the politics of ecology through a critical engagement with early twentieth-century theories of a “politics of things,” notably the one developed by the pragmatist philosopher John Dewey. I propose that Latour, who was greatly inspired by Dewey’s book The Public and Its Problems, through his more recent work on climate change demonstrated that the ecological crisis poses a profound challenge to the pragmatist vision of material politics. This challenge led Latour to undertake a radical reconstruction of the very idea of ecological politics and envision what he calls a politics of the earth. In a second section of this essay, I articulate a related but different possibility for the reconstruction of ecological politics, one that I believe Latour saw clearly, but did not pursue. If we are to succeed in turning politics around ecology, we will need to engage much more deeply with feminist understandings of politics, which affirm materiality, embodiment, and connectedness as unavoidable political realities. This in turn enables us to appreciate the wider relevance for understanding the ecological crisis of the feminist critique of the bifurcation of politics, which Carole Pateman identifies as the underlying schema of modern democracy. I argue that it remains one of the main blocks on our ability to reenvision politics in ecological terms today. Part reflection, part criticism, and part homage, this article then argues that we should look for orientation in feminist politics of ecology, if we want to take further the work of Latour and many others for a politics of the earth.

El impacto de los problemas de aprendizaje en la autoimagen de los niños de educación primaria

Children with learning disabilities face academic challenges, and their difficulty to learn can be accompanied by rejection from their peers, and social isolation. Learning disabilities in children are a group of disorders, affecting the learning abilities of the children to acquire some or all of the capabilities needed for reading, writing, speaking, listening, reasoning or mathematics. Limited research has been conducted about the impact of learning disability on the self-image of children as they struggle to learn. Self-image is a subjective perception of oneself. This personal view consists of impressions built up over time of the image one has of oneself. Among the methods used in research to examine the self-image of children with learning disabilities are self-image questionnaires and personal construct elicitation methods. Research conducted examining the self-image of children, from the perspective of parents and teachers and that of the children themselves, using these methods, is described in this theory review. The findings from research have shown that many different factors may affect the self-image of children with learning disabilities. One of the factors is the influence of different methods of placing children with learning disabilities into an educational framework in various countries across the world. The benefits of including children with learning disabilities into regular schooling are explained and comparisons between the self-image of children with learning disabilities in special education frameworks and regular education are provided. The teaching methods used in the classroom was another factor that was found to affect the self-image of children with learning disabilities. A deeper understanding of the factors that impact the self-image of these children can facilitate the efforts to fulfill the special needs of children with learning disabilities and may lead to the development of a more positive self-image, despite the learning challenges that the children face.

Metal-Containing Formate Dehydrogenases, a Personal View.

Mo/W-containing formate dehydrogenases (FDH) catalyzes the reversible oxidation of formate to carbon dioxide at their molybdenum or tungsten active sites. The metal-containing FDHs are members of the dimethylsulfoxide reductase family of mononuclear molybdenum cofactor (Moco)- or tungsten cofactor (Wco)-containing enzymes. In these enzymes, the active site in the oxidized state comprises a Mo or W atom present in the bis-Moco, which is coordinated by the two dithiolene groups from the two MGD moieties, a protein-derived SeCys or Cys, and a sixth ligand that is now accepted as being a sulfido group. SeCys-containing enzymes have a generally higher turnover number than Cys-containing enzymes. The analogous chemical properties of W and Mo, the similar active sites of W- and Mo-containing enzymes, and the fact that W can replace Mo in some enzymes have led to the conclusion that Mo- and W-containing FDHs have the same reaction mechanism. Details of the catalytic mechanism of metal-containing formate dehydrogenases are still not completely understood and have been discussed here.

Analysis of the Optimal Use of Fabric Masks and Disposable Medical Masks During the COVID-19

Medical waste is one of the biggest concerns today due to the need to prevent COVID-19. How to properly handle the large amount of discarded disposable medical masks generated during and after the epidemic, fully understand the need for recycling and disposal of discarded masks, and accelerate the development of new technologies for value-added use have become important issues arising from the new crown epidemic and other respiratory infectious diseases, as well as an urgent requirement to protect the ecological environment. This paper outlines the materials of disposable medical masks and cloth masks, and analyses their impact on society and the environment from the perspective of their own characteristics, so as to give advice on how to choose masks. This paper compares cloth masks and traditional disposable medical masks, discussing the similarities and differences between them in terms of epidemic prevention, the environment, the economics of the product, the psychological burden on the public and the production of the company. The recommendations are based on the effectiveness of the two types of masks and their different handling methods. Finally, the challenges associated with the current use of masks are outlined and a personal view on the replacement of disposable medical masks with cloth masks is given. In the future, the government should expand the use of cloth masks by raising public awareness of the use of sustainable masks, in order to save resources and protect the environment. The aim of this paper is to reduce the environmental and socio-economic impact of masks by discussing the effectiveness, social and economic impact of the two types of masks, so that more people will be guided to use cloth masks.

Edwin Wilmsen (1932–2023): a personal view

Edwin Wilmsen (1932–2023): a personal view

In praise of physiotherapists: a personal view

Rosemary Johnson discusses her personal health journey and the role physiotherapists have played in helping her to overcome her health issues.

Autoimmune nodo-paranodopathies 10 years later: Clinical features, pathophysiology and treatment.

Autoimmune neuropathies are classified, on the basis of pathophysiology, as demyelinating or axonal. The term nodo-paranodopathy, introduced in 2013 to better categorize the neuropathies with antiganglioside antibodies and later expanded to include neuropathies with antibodies to nodal and paranodal axoglial complexes, characterizes disorders in which the nodal region is critical in the pathogenesis. These neuropathies, although presenting electrophysiologic demyelinating features do not show pathologic evidence of segmental demyelination, or, although being classified as axonal, can show reversible nerve conduction failure and rapid recovery contrary with the communal concept of an axonal neuropathy. In this personal view is reported, with a splitting approach, an update on autoimmune nodo-paranodopathies, classified according to the domains of peripheral nerve fiber, the target antigens and the antibody class and subclass involved. The clinical features, the electrophysiologic findings, the results of the immunopathological and ultrastructural studies, the pathophysiology and treatment are also described. The nodo-paranodopathy category integrates the clinical classification of autoimmune neuropathies and expands the traditional dichotomous demyelinating and axonal classification. It helps to a better systematization pointing to the domain and target antigens of the autoimmune process, it resolves conflicting pathologic and electrophysiologic findings, reconciles the contradiction that axonal neuropathies may be rapidly reversible, avoids taxonomical confusion and possible misdiagnoses. Finally this categorization, through the identification of the specific antibody and its prevalent class and subclass, clarifies the pathophysiological mechanisms and addresses to a more targeted therapeutic approach.

An Introduction to the Science of Information Transfer, Uncertainty, and a Personal View of Organizational Intelligence

An introduction to the concepts of entropy, information transfer, and the uncertainty in transfer of information is given. The specific target is information transfer in voice and speech. The entropies of a square wave, a sinusoid, and a sawtooth are calculated because these waveshapes approximate information carriers in vocalization. This is followed by a less-known concept that the increase of organizational intelligence gleaned from physical systems is proportional to the gradient of entropy. That leads to a multi-dimensional interpretation of diversity. Finally, a personal meta-physical extension is made to a universal reservoir of intelligence from which species can draw to advance civilizations.

Fieldwork placement reflection from a regional Pacific university during Covid-19

Since the Covid-19 pandemic begun, over 3.5 million people worldwide has been infected, more than 250.000 have died and unemployment rates have drastically increased. The tertiary education sector has been affected by this cruel disease. Placement experience during Covid 19 proved challenging for students and the social work team. It brought a lot of uncertainty, tested processes and systems, and unveiled new consideration. Experiences from Fieldwork Education provides a unique chance to reflect, to highlight lessons learnt, which became opportunities for the future, especially in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is important to note that this reflection is my personal view and not the Regional University’s views.

Soundscapes and the Urban Imagination of Hong Kong in the Works of Eileen Chang

This article discusses how Eileen Chang's works express the soundscape of Hong Kong and the significance of Hong Kong to her creation from the perspective of hearing. Chang's construction of Hong Kong's image took sound and acoustic senses as important media, linking “sound” with “memory”. Significant soundscapes can be divided into three categories, including the ‘city sounds’ of Hong Kong, the sounds of bombing in war, and the incomplete silence. The construction of soundscape implied the author’s psychological trauma and historical memory, and the aural experience ultimately fitted the “bleakness” theme of Eileen Chang’s creation, reflecting her personal view and understanding of the troubled world and life when she started writing in Hong Kong, a threshold space between civilization and barbarism, where cultures mingle.

Personal Teacher's View in Building Positive Student Behavior

This study analyzes the views of teachers in building positive behavior in students in the learning process of students at SMPN 30 Muaro Jambi. This type of research uses descriptive qualitative research so that the data obtained can be seen comprehensively. The subjects of this study were counseling teachers at SMP N 30 Muaro Jambi who were also the sample in this study using total sampling. The data collection technique in this study used interviews with 10 questions about how the guidance counselor views students in building positive behavior. Then analyzed by sorting how to build positive behavior from the largest to the smallest. From the results of this study it is known that the role of the counseling teacher is very important, from the results of the quantitative method we can find out that approximately 10% of students skip classes, 40% of students who lack discipline and 50% of students who play gadgets.

A new paradigm for classifying and treating HER2-positive breast cancer.

Because of the phenomenal success of treatment with monoclonal antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates targeting human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), most patients with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer (HER2+ BC) and some with limited metastatic diseases have been cured, and those who have not been cured have achieved significant improvements in overall survival, which has weakened the role of the TNM staging system in the prognosis of HER2+ BC today. Given that the disease is now highly curable, treatment conception, classification, and modalities should differ from those of cancer types with a poor prognosis. It is warranted to build a new paradigm for classifying and treating HER2+ BC. In our personal view, we suggest that the classification system should be based not only on traditional anatomy and cancer biology but also on available treatment regimens, their exceptional outcomes, and their toxicities. In this regard, we developed a new concise classification of HER2+ BC based on the TNM staging system, a review of the literature, research results, and our clinical experience, dividing the patients into four distinct groups: curable (lymph-node negative and small (≤3 cm) early breast cancer), do our best to cure (locally advanced or tumors >3 cm early breast cancer), hope for cure (local-regional recurrent, limited metastases, and exceptional responders), and incurable (metastatic breast cancer with poor performance status or non-exceptional responders). It will assist clinicians in developing an optimal treatment regimen at the outset, curing more HER2+ BC patients and improving their quality of life.

The impact of Covid-19 on consumer behaviour – lessons to be learnt from the Latin America real estate shopping centre sector

PurposeThe aim of this Real Estate Insight is to comment upon the impact of Covid on the shopping centre sector in the United States of America (USA) and lessons the USA can learn from Latin American shopping centres to survive and thrive.Design/methodology/approachThis Real Estate Insight will comment upon the real estate shopping centre sector. The nature of the “Insights” briefings mean that this is a personal view of the author based on her visit to over 70 shopping centres in Latin America, specifically Brazil, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Paraguay during her 2022 sabbatical.FindingsThis paper looks at shopping centre industry in a transitional post-Covid 19 marketplace and concludes that the shopping centres in Latin American have taken many steps to integrate themselves into the fabric of the community.Practical implicationsThe lessons learnt by owners of shopping centres in Latin America may help other investors with their management strategies in other centres globally.Social implicationsShopping is all about behaviour and social interaction. Vibrant centres encourage the community to use the centre as a focal point.Originality/valueThe value is to suggest strategies to help the shopping centre sector adapt, re-engineer change and thrive through challenging times.

Understanding and improving the language of business: How accounting and corporate reporting research can better serve business and society

Financial accounting, the core of corporate reporting, is often characterized as the ‘language of business’. Over the last roughly 100 years, and using an evolving set of theories, methods, and data, scholarly work in this area has been contributing to our understanding of this language and how to improve it. This paper seeks, first, to characterize the field with a focus on its evolution in the German-speaking area, where, like elsewhere, normative research traditions interested in improving practice have been making way for positivist approaches that seek a detached understanding of ‘what is.’ Second, we discuss the changing users and institutional parameters that are reshaping corporate reporting, followed by our personal view of ‘wicked’ societal problems and challenges that corporate reporting might be able to help alleviate. Finally, we discuss directions in which research might evolve in order to address these issues, in order to make corporate reporting more useful for serving not only economic actors, but also society and the environment more broadly.

Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) and Their Derivatives for Electrocatalytic Carbon Dioxide (CO2 ) Reduction to Value-added Chemicals: Recent Advances and New Challenges.

Excess CO2 can be effectively converted into valuable fuels and chemicals by electrochemical CO2 reduction, which can help establish a low-carbon emission economy and solve the current energy crisis. In recent years, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), as an emerging multifunctional material with porous structure, high chemical tunability and large specific surface area, has received increasing attention in the field of electrochemical CO2 RR. In this paper, we present a comprehensive overview of various MOFs and their derivatives as CO2 RR electrocatalysts and analyze their roles in the catalytic process from physical and chemical aspects. In addition, combining experiments and theory, this article also offers a personal view on the electronic structure modulation strategies to improve electrocatalytic performance. The article concludes with an analysis of the challenges in realizing MOFs and their derivatives for electrocatalytic CO2 RR applications.

Justus von Liebig

This is a short overview of the life and achievements of Justus von Liebig. Clearly, this can only be an incomplete and somewhat personal view of the author, who has been a professor of inorganic chemistry at Justus Liebig University since 2002. Having already been interested in the work of Liebig for many years, and with a strong connection to the Liebig Museum in Giessen, the author hopes to provide some useful information about this great chemist, one of the founders of modern chemistry. The reader should find many interesting, probably new, facts about Liebig’s major impact on chemistry, agriculture, nutrition, and pharmacology.

Current Concepts in the Diagnosis and Management of Adult Primary Immune Thrombocytopenia: Our Personal View.

Primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an acquired blood disorder that causes a reduction in circulating platelets with the potential for bleeding. The incidence of ITP is slightly higher in adults and affects more women than men until 60 years, when males are more affected. Despite advances in basic science, primary ITP remains a diagnosis of exclusion. The disease is heterogeneous in its clinical behavior and response to treatment. This reflects the complex underlying pathophysiology, which remains ill-understood. Platelet destruction plays a role in thrombocytopenia, but underproduction is also a major contributing factor. Active ITP is a proinflammatory autoimmune disease involving abnormalities within the T and B regulatory cell compartments, along with several other immunological abnormalities. Over the last several years, there has been a shift from using immunosuppressive therapies for ITP towards approved treatments, such as thrombopoietin receptor agonists. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has hastened this management shift, with thrombopoietin receptor agonists becoming the predominant second-line treatment. A greater understanding of the underlying mechanisms has led to the development of several targeted therapies, some of which have been approved, with others still undergoing clinical development. Here we outline our view of the disease, including our opinion about the major diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. We also discuss our management of adult ITP and our placement of the various available therapies.

Alexithymia and sensory processing sensitivity account for unique variance in the prediction of emotional contagion and empathy.

Empathy-the ability to identify and share another person's emotional state-is an important socio-emotional process arising, in part, from emotional contagion. In the current study, we assessed unique variance in emotional contagion and other empathy-related constructs accounted for by two personality traits, alexithymia and sensory processing sensitivity (SPS), when controlling for childhood emotional abuse and current depressed mood. A sample of 305 adults (M age = 20.1 years) watched brief film clips chosen to induce various emotional states. After each film, the participants rated how strongly they experienced each of nine different emotions. They then completed self-report measures of alexithymia, SPS, empathy-related constructs, childhood emotional abuse, and current mood. Those scoring high (vs. low) on SPS reported stronger primary emotions and a larger range of emotions when watching the films and were more apt to believe that their emotions matched those of the individuals featured in the films. They also scored higher on both self-oriented processes (such as the tendency to feel personal distress in tense situations) and other-oriented processes (such as perspective taking and empathic concern) related to empathy. Individuals scoring high (vs. low) on alexithymia reported feeling a larger range of emotions while watching the films but scored lower on other-oriented processes related to empathy. After controlling for SPS and alexithymia, current depressed mood predicted experiencing less varied reactions to mixed valence films that elicited strong feelings of embarrassment/humiliation, and less amusement when watching positive films. Childhood emotional abuse did not emerge as a predictor of emotional contagion or empathy. We propose that the strong and nuanced feelings elicited in those scoring high on SPS by observing others support their personal view that they are highly empathic. In contrast, by failing to closely examine their own mixed reactions to others, individuals with alexithymia may find it difficult to connect with, understand, and respond to others' feelings.

Beating crime or marking time? Crime research and crime policy: a personal view of the UK government’s approach

Beating crime or marking time? Crime research and crime policy: a personal view of the UK government’s approach

Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic response to strengthen undocumented migrant-sensitive health systems: case studies from four countries

Undocumented migrants are a vulnerable population group in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic due to increased risk of infection, severe morbidity, and mortality. In this Personal View, we analyze the COVID-19 pandemic responses, particularly vaccination campaigns, vis à vis undocumented migrants, and discuss lessons learned. Our empirical observations as clinicians and public health practitioners in Italy, Switzerland, France, and the United States are supplemented by a literature review, and presented through country case studies focusing on Governance, Service Delivery, and Information. We propose recommendations to capitalize on the COVID-19 pandemic response as an entry point to strengthen migrant-sensitive provisions into health system frameworks, by: providing specific guidance in health policies and plans; developing tailored implementation approaches with outreach and mobile services, with translated and socio-culturally adapted information, and engagement of migrant communities and third sector actors; and developing systematic monitoring & evaluation systems with disaggregated migrant data from National Health Service and third sector providers.