Issues Of Primary Concern Research Articles

Identifying Root Causes: Evaluation of a Program to Engage Youth in a Social Justice Approach to Tobacco Control.

Movements designed to engage youth in tobacco control have been an important part of tobacco prevention for decades. Today, young people are increasingly diverse, and their primary issues of concern are gun control, racism, mental health, and climate change. To engage today's young people, tobacco control programs need to draw connections between youth's identities, top issues, and tobacco. UpRISE is a social justice youth tobacco control movement that engages diverse youth in identifying the root causes of youth nicotine use. In 2018-2019, 21 youth-serving organizations and schools hosted youth coalitions. Coalitions engaged in a six-session workbook called "Getting to the root cause," and adults were provided training and reflective supervision. Pre/post surveys with youth participants (n = 180) and end-of-year interviews with adult facilitators (n = 22) were used to assess outcomes. The primary outcomes were supportive adult relationships, youth voice in decision-making, anti-tobacco industry attitudes and beliefs, psychological empowerment, critical consciousness, and global belief in a just world. Quantitative measures of supportive adult relationships, youth voice in decision-making, psychological empowerment, and anti-tobacco industry attitudes and beliefs all increased significantly over time (p < .0001, p < .0001, p < .0001, p = .0034, respectively). Critical consciousness and global belief in a just world did not change significantly. During interviews, adults reported learning how: to engage in youth-adult partnerships, the tobacco industry abused its power, to engage in critical reflection about power. Adults also felt empowered. UpRISE may be a promising approach to increase racially diverse youth's engagement in social justice-oriented tobacco control efforts that advance equity.

Early modern Iberian empires, global history and the history of early globalization

AbstractThis essay discusses the main lines of current research on the social and economic history of the early modern Iberian worlds. It then goes on, in light of recent debates, to make the case for the value of a purposeful dialogue between global history and imperial history. The issues of primary concern here are the extent to which lateral, inter-regional relations in the Iberian worlds dominated vertical relations connecting particular areas to Madrid or Lisbon; how power and agency on local scales may be integrated into accounts of flows and interactions on larger scales; the ways in which the history of the Iberian empires through a global prism breaks with pre-existing nationalistic narratives; and whether or not the decentralized component of these empires was unique to them. Finally, examples are detailed of how Iberian imperial history can provide a fruitful basis for a polycentric history of globalization. The examples given take heart from critical engagement with the Great Divergence paradigm, the new analytical potentialities of global ecological history, the constructive and destructive impact of globalization upon empires, and the importance of studying the history of empires comparatively.

Global Poverty and the Politics of Redistribution: An Institutional Approach

The politics and ethics of redistribution has been the primary issue of concern in the contemporary political theory, especially in the cosmopolitan traditions. Liberal cosmopolitans consider it one of the necessary measures/methods to bring in global equality and addressing some specific issue of global moral concerns like global poverty, climate change etc. But within cosmopolitan traditions there is no consensus about the framework of distribution or redistribution and another issue of debate is around the plausibility of the framework or model. The proposed paper is a humble attempt to explore the possibilities of an institutional design to alleviate global poverty through redistribution?

Retrospective review of enquiries to the Québec diving medicine call centre: 2004 through 2018.

The Centre de Médecine de Plongée du Québec (CMPQ) established a bilingual 24-hour dive emergency call line and diving medicine information service in 2004. The toll-free number (888-835-7121) works throughout Canada. Calls and emails (cmpq.cisssca@ssss.gouv.qc.ca) are answered by a CMPQ coordinator or on-call hyperbaric physicians and other consultants as needed. We reviewed 15 years of activity. Details of phone calls and email enquiries to the centre were reviewed individually and compiled into a database. Data were analysed to characterise contact volume and issues addressed. Contacts were categorised into five groups: information only (INF); medical opinion required (MOP); medical issue after the critical period of urgency had passed (PUR); current urgent but not immediate life-threatening issue (NLT); and immediate life- or health-threatening issue (ILT). Data presented as mean (standard deviation) or percentage. A total of 3,232 contacts were made from May 2004 through December 2018: 19 (SD 8) per month [215 (70) per year]. Primary issues of concern were: emergency planning (20%); technical (not medical/physiology) questions (16%); otorhinolaryngological (12%); and decompression sickness-related (7%). Categorisation was 52% INF, 28% MOP, 13% PUR, 7% NLT, and 0.1% ILT, with 0.2% lacking sufficient detail to categorise. The nature of the diving activity of interest was determined in 67% of cases: 48% (n = 1,039) professional; 46% (n = 1,008) recreational; and 1% (n = 11) breath-hold. The call centre serves as a resource to the community, providing information on health and safety for diving in addition to being available to assist with emergent needs.

Resilience Assessment Workshops: A Biocultural Approach to Conservation Management of a Rural Landscape in Taiwan

Local and indigenous communities play a crucial role in stewardship of biodiversity worldwide. Assessment of resilience in socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS) is an essential prerequisite for sustainable human–nature interactions in the area. This work examines application of resilience assessment workshops (RAWs) as a biocultural approach to conservation management in Xinshe SEPLS, Hualien County, Taiwan. RAWs were conducted in 2017–2018 in two indigenous communities—Amis Fuxing Dipit Tribe and Kavalan Xinshe Paterongan Tribe—as a part of an ongoing multi-stakeholder platform for the “Forest–River–Village–Sea Ecoagriculture Initiative” (the Initiative). Objectives of the study include (1) performing a baseline landscape resilience assessment in two communities and identifying their common and varying concerns and priorities, and (2) eliciting a community-driven vision for enhancement of the landscape resilience based on adjustments to the action plan of the Initiative. Assessment methodology employs 20 indicators of resilience in SEPLS jointly developed by the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) and Biodiversity International; an “Explain–Score–Discuss–Suggest” model is applied. Results show that the communities’ primary issues of concern and adjustments to the action plan are related to biodiversity-based livelihoods, transfer of traditional knowledge, and sustainable use of common resources. The study concludes that this approach has a high potential to help facilitate nature-based solutions for human well-being and biodiversity benefits in Xinshe SEPLS.

Impact of WWII dumpsites on Saipan (CNMI): heavy metal status of soils and sediments.

A number of dumpsites occur on the island of Saipan and in the surrounding coastal waters. Many of these sites date back to the immediate post WWII clean-up period and contain a variety of wartime wastes. Metallic debris is generally the most visible waste material and commonly includes bomb fragments, artillery shells, bullets, and other military hardware. In this investigation, we examined the heavy metal status of soils from around several of these dumpsites and in any obvious drainage pathways leading from them to the coast. Sediments were also taken for analysis from a number of coastal discharge points and three submerged sites. Metal enrichment was evident for one or more elements in deposits from two of the three submerged sites and 24 of the 32 land-based sites visited. Copper, Pb, and Zn were the most commonly encountered contaminant metals with levels well in excess of 1000μg/g(-1) in several instances. Elevated Hg and Cd concentrations were also relatively widespread throughout the study area although levels of each element seldom exceeded 1.0 and 10.0μg/g(-1), respectively. Silver, another element of toxicological concern, was only occasionally detected despite registering a high of 42μg/g(-1) at one particular site. The metal data were weighed against established benchmarks formulated for the protection of human and ecological health. Implications of the findings and issues of primary concern are briefly addressed.

Assessing Energy Security Using Indicator-Based Analysis: The Case of ASEAN Member Countries

Using indicator-based assessment, this study examines the energy security of nine Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries to see how it has evolved over the past 12 years and identifies a country-specific energy security context for each country. The assessment uses 42 energy security indicators, which can be separated into five components: overall energy balance, socio-economic aspect, domestic energy resources, overseas energy demands and resources, and diversification of energy supply. The findings show different energy security situations among ASEAN member nations that are a result of national energy contexts, specifically uneven economic and energy infrastructure developments. The context, at a national level, affects the connotation of energy security and the interpretation of the indicators, which reflects different primary issues of concern regarding energy security. At the international level, due to the diversity, the interconnection of intra-regional energy markets could contribute to energy self-reliance of the region. Adversely, the difference could hinder the prospect of cooperation due to the lack of consensus on shared value.

The Limits of Moral Maturity

In Analects 15.19 Confucius states, “The profound person is concerned with lacking ability; [he] is not concerned with others not recognizing him.” 1 In seeming contrast to this, in Analects 15.20 Confucius states, “The profound person worries that he will leave this generation without his name being praised.” While Amy Olberding does not explicitly discuss these two passages in her article, her primary issue of concern is entangled with such a comparison—namely, how do we make sense of Confucius’ dismissal of prosaic goods such as a reputation on the one hand, while at the same time taking into account his concern (or complaints) with not achieving them on the other? Said somewhat differently, how do we understand Confucius’ statements that say, for instance, “[I] do not resent heaven” (Analects 14.35), while also giving due attention to his more spontaneous remarks in the narrative depictions of his life that say things such as, “Heaven has forsaken me” (Analects 11.9)? Olberding addresses this issue by referring to two pre-theoretical sensibilities associated with the good life—those “elements that contribute to our personal happiness and well-being,” which she calls “the desirable”; and the “character and conduct that we... esteem worthy of admiration,” which she calls “the admirable” (Olberding 2013: 419). She explains that these two sensibilities can, in fact, come apart in the complexities of life. The figure of Confucius, as found in the Analects, is intriguing because he has “unknotted the tangle of desires in a self-conscious decision to seek his primary good in the admirable” (Olberding 2013: 427). In other words, when recognizing his limitations on achieving the desirable, Confucius prioritizes the admirable. Moral maturity, the central concept of Olberding’s article, is the means by Dao (2015) 14:567–572 DOI 10.1007/s11712-015-9468-4

Efficient Data Access for Location-Dependent Spatial Queries

When the mobile environment consists of light-weight devices, the loss of network connectivity and scarce resources, e.g., low battery power and limited memory, become primary issues of concern in order to efficiently support portable wireless devices. In this paper, we propose an index-based peer-to-peer data access method that uses a new Hierarchical Location-Based Sequential (HLBS) index. We then propose a novel distributed Nearest First Broadcast (NFB) algorithm. Both HLBS and NFB are specifically designed for mobile peer-to-peer service in wireless broadcast environments. The system has a lower response time, because the client only contacts a qualified service provider by accessing the HLBS and quickly retrieves the data to answer the query by using NFB. HLBS and NFB design the index for spatial objects according to the positions of individual clients and transfer the index in the order arranged so that the spatial query can be processed even after the user tunes the partial index. Hence, this design can support rapid and energy-efficient service. A performance evaluation is conducted to compare the proposed algorithms with algorithms based on R-tree and Hilbert-curve air indexes. The results show that the proposed data dissemination algorithm with the HLBS index is scalable and energy efficient in both range queries and nearest neighbor queries.

Sudden death as a late sequel of Kawasaki disease: Postmortem CT demonstration of coronary artery aneurysm

Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute, self-limited vasculitis of unknown etiology that primarily affects the coronary artery (CA) and presents during childhood. The characteristic coronary arterial lesion of KD is an aneurysm. Ischemic heart disease derived from a CA aneurysm is experienced approximately two decades after the onset of acute KD. In recent years, the primary issue of concern has been asymptomatic adults with a CA aneurysm caused by undiagnosed KD. We present a case of sudden death as a late KD sequel in a young adult. A postmortem CT scan revealed a coarse calcification of a left anterior descending CA aneurysm, which was confirmed at the time of autopsy. A postmortem CT scan is useful in cases of sudden death where the detection of a calcified CA aneurysm would suggest to the forensic pathologist that the deceased suffered from a late sequel of KD. The use of screening postmortem CT scans for young people may detect cases of unsuspected CA aneurysms, raising the possibility of untreated KD.

Wiindigoo Sovereignty and Native Transmotion in Gerald Vizenor's &lt;em&gt;Bearheart&lt;/em&gt;

In the study of American Indian literatures, the rise of criticism focused on literary nationalism, with its emphasis on tribal-specific approaches to literary study, the sovereignty of Native nations, and claims to tribal homelands, would seem to herald the displacement of Gerald Vizenor’s work from a central position in the American Indian literary canon. Indeed, Vizenor has been criticized for failing to address or for actively subverting in his creative work and criticism these issues of primary concern to literary nationalists. Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, one of the earliest and most ardent proponents for a nationalist perspective in American Indian Studies, identifies Vizenor as “a major voice” in what she calls “mixedblood discourse,” characterized by “an aesthetic that is pathetic or cynical, a tacit notion of the failure of tribal governments as Native institutions and of sovereignty as a concept, and an Indian identity which focuses on individualism rather than First Nation ideology” (“American Indian Intellectualism” 124–25). Sean Kicummah Teuton, arguing for a tribal realist approach to identity formation and knowledge production, sees Vizenor writing from the zone of the trickster in his poststructural criticism, which seems to reject any normative claims to American Indian identity, history, and land: “[D]isconnected from a distinct culture and land, it ultimately cannot support a coherent Native identity, nor protect actual Native territories.” Moreover, Teuton claims that Vizenor’s “ahistorical trickster fiction,” such as his novel Bearheart, “provides little guidance on how to construct one’s own Native selfhood,” and instead

Targeting vaccination against novel infections: risk, age and spatial structure for pandemic influenza in Great Britain

The emergence of a novel strain of H1N1 influenza virus in Mexico in 2009, and its subsequent worldwide spread, has focused attention to the question of optimal deployment of mass vaccination campaigns. Here, we use three relatively simple models to address three issues of primary concern in the targeting of any vaccine. The advantages of such simple models are that the underlying assumptions and effects of individual parameters are relatively clear, and the impact of uncertainty in the parametrization can be readily assessed in the early stages of an outbreak. In particular, we examine whether targeting risk-groups, age-groups or spatial regions could be optimal in terms of reducing the predicted number of cases or severe effects; and how these targeted strategies vary as the epidemic progresses. We examine the conditions under which it is optimal to initially target vaccination towards those individuals within the population who are most at risk of severe effects of infection. Using age-structured mixing matrices, we show that targeting vaccination towards the more epidemiologically important age groups (5–14 year olds and then 15–24 year olds) leads to the greatest reduction in the epidemic growth and hence reduces the total number of cases. Finally, we consider how spatially targeting the vaccine towards regions of country worst affected could provide an advantage. We discuss how all three of these priorities change as both the speed at which vaccination can be deployed and the start of the vaccination programme is varied.

Evaluating the Role of Pt and Pd Catalyst Morphology on Electrocatalytic Methanol and Ethanol Oxidation

We have investigated the relative efficiency of Pt and Pd catalysts, in the structural formats of nanoporous solids and planar metallic surfaces, for the electro-oxidation of methanol and ethanol in acidic and basic aqueous solutions. There are two issues of primary concern in this comparison. These are the surface area of the two catalyst structures and the crystalline morphology of the metals. We find that the nanoporous solids of Pt and Pd afford greater electro-oxidation efficiency and increased catalytic stability relative to the corresponding planar metallic surface for methanol and ethanol. The increase in current density for the Pt nanoporous solid was greater for basic conditions than for acidic conditions. Although both metals provided increased catalytic activity relative to that of the corresponding planar metal, the reactivity of Pt was greater for methanol, while Pd exhibited greater reactivity for ethanol. Our data point to the utility of nanoporous solids for use as catalytic media.

Research Ethics in a Business School Context: The Establishment of a Review Committee and the Primary Issues of Concern

This paper describes the establishment of and the issues experienced by the Research Ethics Committee (REC) of a Business School within a University in Ireland. It identifies the issue of voluntarily given informed consent as a key challenge for RECs operating in a Business School context. The paper argues that whilst the typology of ethical issues in business research are similar to the wider social sciences, the fact that much research is carried out in the workplace adds to the complexity of the REC deliberations. The use of deception in the design of research studies, pestering the local community and the potential for harm to the researcher are also discussed briefly in the context of business research. The experiences of the authors’, two of whom have served as respective chairpersons of the business school REC since its inception in addition to being members of the university level REC, inform the discussion.

The Deal Structuring Stage of the Venture Capitalist Decision‐Making Process: Exploring Confidence and Control*

This exploratory study examines the deal structuring stage of the venture capitalist decision‐making process. Here, the primary issues of concern are investor confidence and potential control of a venture in relation to the level of financing the investor provides and the structure with which the funding is delivered. Confidence comes in support of the entrepreneur, the venture itself, or a combination of the two, prior to capital transfer, but after the initial “invest or not invest” decision has already occurred. Findings support a multicriteria perspective of the pre‐investment decision‐making process and a distinct difference between entrepreneur confidence and venture confidence in the deal structuring stage.

Time to Deliver: Past Due

The XVI International AIDS Conference had its own essence that differentiated it from previous meetings. This meeting was characterized by the presence of well-known individuals from foundations international organizations the media pharmaceutical companies nongovernmental organizations activists HIV-positive persons health care professionals researchers and others concerned with HIV/ AIDS. Absent as notable exceptions were politicians currently in office. Melinda Gates and the two Bills (Gates and Clinton) and United Nations envoy Stephen Lewis gave stirring speeches. The impact of HIV/AIDS on women was recognized with more than 100 sessions devoted to women. And although the conference organizers are to be congratulated for so much that was right about the conference there are some areas requiring further attention. In the conference summaries one never saw addressed issues of primary concern to nurses. For example symptom management is given short shrift. Truth in advertising requires that I mention that this is an area of my research. I am not saying that my research should have been mentioned. I am stating that none of the studies in this area seemed on the radar screen of those completing the summaries. This contributes to the invisibility of nursing. (excerpt)

Reforming the legal environment of business in Sub‐Saharan Africa: Moderating effects on foreign direct investment

Purpose: This paper discusses some of the contending issues in the legal environment of business in Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) as they relate to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Given that ‘fear of national laws’ has been consistently cited as a major factor inhibiting foreign investments in the region, this paper argues that ‘arbitration/alternative dispute resolution’ (A/ADR) offers a strategically complementary adjudicative system to mitigate this adverse perception. Design/methodology/approach: Based on a synthesis of the literature, the paper, first, outlines the emerging A/ADR‐driven trends in global business. From this premise, it focuses the market transition challenges facing SSA and identifies the disparate regional legal systems, with their backgrounds and origins in common, civil and Islamic laws, as primary issues of concern. Findings: Apart from lacking uniformity in application, the legal strictures have made the resolution of legal and contractual obligations much more cumbersome and expensive, thereby discouraging significant FDI flow to SSA. Research limitations/implications: The need to secure the confidence of investors by reforming the law and the adjudication process appears compelling. However, the socio‐cultural considerations that should naturally embed effective arbitral protocols are not addressed in this paper. Originality/value: A/ADR mechanism is not presently a key feature in the legal environment of business in SSA. However, it is likely to prove a more functional adjudication process than the procedural formalities of litigation. By its characterization, this approach promotes the creative implementation of a “home‐grown” frame work for commercial dispute resolution, thus avoiding the drudgeries of litigation but at the same time providing the needed catalysts for enabling FDI.

Outpatient clinic for genetic counseling and gene testing of retinoblastoma.

We report on the genetic counseling and gene testing of patients with retinoblastoma who visited the National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, from April 1997 through September 2003. During this period, 73 probands visited the clinic, and gene testing was performed in 51 individuals. Germline mutations of the RBI gene were detected in 20 individuals (39%); the frequencies were 82% (9/11) in bilateral/familial retinoblastoma, 50% (2/4) in unilateral/familial retinoblastoma, 50% (8/16) in bilateral/nonfamilial retinoblastoma, and 5% (1/20) in unilateral/nonfamilial retinoblastoma. Gene testing is indicated in the medical practice of hereditary retinoblastoma for familial risk assessment, while prior counseling is important for an understanding of the risks and benefits of gene testing. With improvements in patient prognosis, counseling for adult survivors is increasing in importance. Assessment of genetic risk to the offspring and prevention of secondary cancer are the primary issues of concern. Presymptomatic diagnosis of infants is effective for the proper assessment of the genetic risk and for making follow-up schedules for the detection of the tumor at an early stage.

Teaching Is Part of Legal Education

In my contribution to this discussion or the Arthurs Report twenty years later, I want to talk briefly about the teaching aspect of legal education. I want to be emphatic in my focus on teaching because I fear that teaching is increasingly diminishing as an object of our attention and as a subject of our scholarly work. I fear that, for many of us, teaching is becoming a less and less significant part of our discussions, our hirings, our preoccupations, our energy … To me, this is both short-sighted and sad, particularly for those of us who are committed to a law and society approach to legal education. If we are committed to social change, then education, in the form of teaching and learning, is critically important – that is, what we teach and how we teach, and what we model as teachers and thinkers are important instigators and promoters of change. I make this assertion of a lack of serious interest in law teaching despite the fact that there have been a number of Canadian forums on legal education recently. However, admissions and administrative matters largely overshadowed teaching as issues of primary concern and discussion in the two forums that I attended. I do not think these forums generated the kind of on-the-ground, in-our-work-places re-energization and rethinking of legal education and specifically about teaching that was perhaps hoped for.

ASSESSING STUDENT ATTITUDES TOWARD ANIMAL WELFARE, RESOURCE USE, AND FOOD SAFETY

The purpose of this study was to determine if participation in a program addressing contemporary issues in animal agriculture had an effect on the students attitudes towards animal welfare, resource use, ' and food safety. The students in this study were participants in the Pennsylvania Governor's School for Agricultural Sciences (PGSAS). Within the five-week PGSAS program, students completed a two-week unit titled “Contemporary Issues in Animal Agriculture. " Three main issues were examined: animal welfare, resource use, and food safety as they relate to animal agriculture. The students ranked food safety as the primary concern with resource use second, and animal welfare third. Scholars with agricultural backgrounds rated specific issues as more beneficial to society than did scholars without agricultural backgrounds. Within the food safety area, both groups identified microbial contamination as the primary issue of concern. With regard to resource use, deforestation was ranked first, and in the animal welfare area, the pre-course issue of greatest concern was providing shelter. Upon completion of the course, within the animal welfare area, animal transportation became a topic of increased concern for both groups. Overall results showed decreased concern after the course by both groups of scholars.