Renewed Perspective Research Articles

Do faculty members matter in corporate entrepreneurship in Kuwaiti higher education institutions?

PurposeThe adoption of an entrepreneurial posture supports higher education institutions (HEIs) in their quest for growth. The present study examines the role faculty members play in adopting an entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in HEIs within the Kuwaiti academic context and aims to assess whether this orientation contributes to fostering corporate entrepreneurship in their institutions.Design/methodology/approachPrimary data were collected to study the relationship between faculty EO and the EO of their respective HEI. Empirical research was conducted based on a questionnaire completed by 341 engineering and business faculty members employed at Kuwaiti universities and colleges. The research model was tested and validated using structural equation modelling (SEM).FindingsThe results show a positive relationship between the faculty EO and corporate entrepreneurship in HEIs, which was negatively moderated by human resource management (HRM) practices. These findings emphasise the need for HEIs in Kuwait to evolve their HRM practices towards enhancing innovation, proactiveness and risk-taking amongst faculty.Originality/valueThis study highlights the strategic renewal perspective in HEI-EO and how faculty initiatives can support it.

Mitochondrial dysfunction at the cornerstone of inflammatory exacerbation in aged macrophages.

Immunosenescence encompasses multiple age-related adaptations that result in increased susceptibility to infections, chronic inflammatory disorders, and higher mortality risk. Macrophages are key innate cells implicated in inflammatory responses and tissue homeostasis, functions progressively compromised by aging. This process coincides with declining mitochondrial physiology, whose integrity is required to sustain and orchestrate immune responses. Indeed, multiple insults observed in aged macrophages have been implied as drivers of mitochondrial dysfunction, but how this translates into impaired immune function remains sparsely explored. This review provides a perspective on recent studies elucidating the underlying mechanisms linking dysregulated mitochondria homeostasis to immune function in aged macrophages. Genomic stress alongside defective mitochondrial turnover accounted for the progressive accumulation of damaged mitochondria in aged macrophages, thus resulting in a higher susceptibility to excessive mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) leakage and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Increased levels of these mitochondrial products following infection were demonstrated to contribute to exacerbated inflammatory responses mediated by overstimulation of NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome and cyclic GMP-ATP synthase (cGAS)-stimulator of interferon genes (STING) pathways. While these mechanisms are not fully elucidated, the present evidence provides a promising area to be explored and a renewed perspective of potential therapeutic targets for immunological dysfunction.

Ghostly ruins: conflict memories, narratives, and placemaking among Lebanese diasporas in Montreal

ABSTRACTThe memory of past conflicts remains largely obliterated among the Lebanese diasporas in Montreal. Nonetheless, it invariably resurfaces in public performance of the Lebanese identity in the city as well as in people’s life stories. This ambivalent interplay underlines the role of remembrance and forgetting among diasporic populations in the construction of their local attachment to their places of residence. Stories as well as silences become ways of negotiating one’s presence and belonging. Building on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Montreal between 2017 and 2019, this contribution approaches war memories from a renewed perspective. Instead of examining their role in the mobilization and transformation of group boundaries, it resituates the politics of traumatic memories among Lebanese diasporas in the everyday negotiation of their presence in Montreal. In doing so, this article unravels how memory practices in diasporic lifeworlds also open creative imaginations that contest essentialized conceptions of identity and belonging.

Re-understanding well-being in the Global South: a literature review and conceptual synthesis

PurposeThe significance of well-being in social development policy and practice is increasingly acknowledged by scholars and practitioners worldwide. Nevertheless, when examining well-being within the context of Global South trends, existing conceptualisations seem to yield incongruent indicators. Given the background, this paper aims to synthesise theoretical and empirical literature on well-being to foster an understanding of well-being in contemporary Global South.Design/methodology/approachThis article reviews the now large literature on the well-being in the Global South. The article begins with a discussion of the contributions of state-of-the-art developments in well-being studies, a realm experiencing remarkable growth in social policy studies. It then turns to the prominent well-being constructs that have garnered considerable attention within the literature, with an examination of the Global North and Global South context followed by reinterpretation of these concepts to facilitate a comprehensive study of well-being beyond the realms of welfare states. Concluding the narrative, a succinct outline of potential pathways for future research is presented in the final section.FindingsThe review reveals that the concept of well-being in the Global South does not necessarily deviate entirely from the prevailing belief that the region is fundamentally distinct from the Global North on a conceptual level. The authors have discovered that three core dimensions of well-being, namely objective, subjective and relational, are observable across societal boundaries due to the diffusion of knowledge and social and cultural practices that have progressively aligned them with Global North-style modernisation. An exception arises in the relational aspect, where the attainment of positive collective relationships precedes individual happiness to some extent. The paper advances a renewed perspective on well-being, portraying it as a situational, interconnected, collective undertaking and continuous process. These approaches empower the researchers to address the overarching question of which analytical foundations can most effectively uncover the intricacies of well-being in diverse and contemporary circumstances.Originality/valueThis paper helps the researchers to address the overarching question of which analytical foundations can most effectively uncover the intricacies of well-being in diverse and contemporary circumstances, thereby facilitating future enhancements in social policy design.

Optimizing Process-Improvement Efforts for Supply Chain Operations under Disruptions: New Structural Results

Rampant disruptions have probed the fragility of supply chains: Renewed perspectives and comprehensive operational models are needed to enhance resiliency and sustainability in business. This paper proposes a new inventory management model that explicitly integrates process improvement efforts to improve supply chain sustainability through the better use of capital (materials, assets, and technology) and labor (workforce and know-how). Under a desired service-level constraint, we study reducing setup (fixed) costs when they are expressed in terms of economic production functions of two (input) decision variables: the level of capital (e.g., process change, and technology investments) and the level of labor required. This research is motivated by lean manufacturing practices, which rely on shaping the operating environment and operating optimally within that business environment. Based on mathematical modeling and analysis, we provide closed-form optimality expressions and structural results that lend themselves to decision insights. In particular, we provide, along with illustrative numerical examples, results on the sensitivity of setup-reduction efforts to demand rates, variability, and explicit expressions for determining the required labor and capital resources. A generalization of the model for carbon emissions is also presented.

Transitional Domesticity: Collectivisation and Fractionalisation in Peer-to-Peer Digital Citizenry Learning from Socio-Innovations of Chinese-Asian Historical Contexts

AbstractCollectivisation, as a socio-innovation, is an incremental part of history that has much to teach on questions of asset commoning. Such notions can provide renewed perspectives in understanding today’s peer-to-peer (p2p) economy and its influence on housing ownership models, which are constituting new forms of domesticity. This study understands domesticity as processes of collectivisation and de-collectivisation, and questions its conceptualisation as universal and invariant. It compares the transitioning moments by which a new governing body is instituted within recent-historical Chinese-Asian contexts, including mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. These moments were often postcolonial, full of changes, uncertainty, crisis, and anticipation; these contexts were unprecedented in scale, density, and cultural collision; in common, these were junctures of socio-innovation in land distribution that fashioned different forms of citizenry. By looking at these instances of innovation with situated thinking and against their historical–cultural backgrounds, the findings in this study reflect on the design of socio-technological systems, the potential consequences of our design interventions, and what “innovation” may mean given the complexity of transitional challenges. Putting together cosmopolitan and vernacular histories, the historiography presented is a collage of card game narratives, archived posters, news headlines, statistical figures, and literature. This journey through events of socio-innovation from the twentieth century till recent decades reveals how the history of governance has always been a question of cultivating collective actions, one way or another, and today’s p2p economy is simultaneously collectivising and fractionalising such socio-economic exchanges in digital citizenry.

Analysis of the Driving Mechanism of Land Comprehensive Carrying Capacity from the Perspective of Urban Renewal

After a period of rapid development, the process of urbanization in China has gradually shifted from “scale expansion” to “enhanced quality”. The scarcity of urban land resources has created constraints on resources and economic development. This paper examines the carrying capacity of urban land resources from the perspective of urban renewal. A conceptual model of the driving mechanism of land comprehensive carrying capacity is constructed, incorporating six dimensions and 22 indicators, including urban renewal and urban ecology. Through questionnaire surveys and structural equation modeling, feedback data are analyzed, and measurement models, structural models, and mediation effects are examined to analyze the causal paths of factors in different dimensions on the comprehensive carrying capacity of urban land. The research results indicate that all six dimensions in the conceptual model have a direct positive impact on the land carrying capacity. In terms of direct effects, the influencing factors are ranked in descending order of magnitude as follows: urban development, urban disaster prevention and mitigation capacity, infrastructure development, urban renewal, social economy, and urban ecology. In terms of overall effects, factors are ranked in descending order of magnitude as follows: urban development, social economy, urban ecology, urban renewal, urban disaster prevention and mitigation capacity, and infrastructure development.

Caring in Nursing Education: The Role of the Educator

The following phenomenological hermeneutic study investigated the perception and modeling of caring by 13 experienced nurse educators toward nursing students within the classroom setting. Three influences in the nurse educator’s world were entitled versus engaged students, large versus small classrooms, and struggle versus support from the university. The following themes emerged from the textual analysis: embodied caring, why we care, developing a rhythm of caring, influences on caring, and caring communication. The unique contribution of this research brings a renewed perspective on caring. Caring is the essence of nursing and should be the focal point of nursing education.

Trajectories within international academic mobility: a renewed perspective on the dynamics and hierarchies of the global higher education field

With an ever-growing number of students and academics in physical or virtual circulation around the world, issues related to academic mobility have taken centre stage in interpretations of the internationalisation of higher education. This mobility and its implications have been approached from multiple perspectives, from host and home countries’ internationalisation strategies to individual experiences or the formation of transnational knowledge networks. Using the international higher education study trajectories of research active Mexican academics as a case study, this paper focuses on the under researched relationship between trajectories of South-North mobility and the stratification of the global HE field. It reveals how shifting patterns of individual study trajectories as well as overlapping sequences of study migrations from home countries contribute in no small measure to consolidating or destabilising the position of host countries within the field of global higher education, and therefore to its stratification.

Accounting and Social Media: A Structured Literature Review and Research Avenues

Purpose: Over the last ten years, social media gradually gained an increasingly active and relevant role in social and economic and corporate contexts. Particularly, social media plays a key role in accounting issues such as corporate strategy, corporate disclosure towards stakeholders, balance sheet and reporting. Thus, social media has become the easiest and most immediate way for companies to make execution of strategies and disclosure information and in general manage several accounting issues. In this scenario, this paper has the purpose to investigate the relationship between accounting and social media to draft emerging research paths and future avenues of research understanding what role social media is playing in companies and their value. Design/Methodology/Approach: We adopted the structured literature review (SLR) to draft emerging issues and future avenues in this field. This methodology contributes to identifying research trends and future research directors (Di Vaio et al.,2021; Secundo et al.,2020; Popay et al.,2006; Jesson and Lacey., 2020). Investigating relevant literature, we selected the range of keywords to compose the research query, we validated our results on Scopus database using the operator “TITLE-ABS-KEY”. In Line with our purpose we limited research query only to “final” documents published in “English” between 2018 and 2022. We conducted a not grey analysis identifying 206 articles about the theme of accounting and social media.Findings: Our analysis provides results on emerging issues and avenues in this research stream. Emerging issues are directed towards the relationship among accounting and social media, the effect of social media on the company system, how social media can serve a strategic level in the company, the role of social media in the organizational system, how social media are regarded by investors and so on. Originality/value: Our research contributes to increase the study on accounting and social media to offer readers a renewed perspective of study drafting the future research avenue.

Fueling the Tumor Microenvironment with Cancer-Associated Adipocytes

Despite their abundance throughout the body, adipocytes are often ignored for their contributions within the tumor microenvironment (TME). However, their role in fueling cancer is becoming increasingly apparent as interest in the TME has seen remarkable advances in recent years. A seminal study by Dirat and colleagues highlighted the essential impact of the peritumoral adipose tissue in breast cancer progression and was among the first to demonstrate that tumor cells can reprogram adipocytes within their immediate niche to adopt unique characteristics. These "cancer-associated adipocytes" (CAA) were found to exchange cytokines and lipids with tumor cells, leading to their metabolic rewiring and acquisition of proinflammatory and invasive phenotypes. These important discoveries have represented a breakthrough in understanding the bidirectional metabolic dialog between adipocytes and tumor cells, and have contributed renewed perspectives on the functional contributions of adipocytes within the TME. Moreover, the effects of CAA may be further amplified in the setting of obesity as lipids dramatically accumulate, providing insights into the link between breast cancer and its more advanced clinical state in obese conditions. Thus, the different molecular actors involved in the dialog between tumor cells and CAA represent promising therapeutic targets that may have particular relevance in improving prognosis in obese patients with cancer. See related article by Dirat and colleagues, Cancer Res 2011;71:2455-65.

Establishment of an Antiplasmodial Vaccine Based on PfRH5-Encoding RNA Replicons Stabilized by Cationic Liposomes.

Nucleic acid-based vaccines have been studied for the past four decades, but the approval of the first messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic opened renewed perspectives for the development of similar vaccines against different infectious diseases. Presently available mRNA vaccines are based on non-replicative mRNA, which contains modified nucleosides encased in lipid vesicles, allowing for entry into the host cell cytoplasm, and reducing inflammatory reactions. An alternative immunization strategy employs self-amplifying mRNA (samRNA) derived from alphaviruses, but lacks viral structural genes. Once incorporated into ionizable lipid shells, these vaccines lead to enhanced gene expression, and lower mRNA doses are required to induce protective immune responses. In the present study, we tested a samRNA vaccine formulation based on the SP6 Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) vector incorporated into cationic liposomes (dimethyldioctadecyl ammonium bromide and a cholesterol derivative). Three vaccines were generated that encoded two reporter genes (GFP and nanoLuc) and the Plasmodium falciparum reticulocyte binding protein homologue 5 (PfRH5). Transfection assays were performed using Vero and HEK293T cells, and the mice were immunized via the intradermal route using a tattooing device. The liposome-replicon complexes showed high transfection efficiencies with in vitro cultured cells, whereas tattooing immunization with GFP-encoding replicons demonstrated gene expression in mouse skin up to 48 h after immunization. Mice immunized with liposomal PfRH5-encoding RNA replicons elicited antibodies that recognized the native protein expressed in P. falciparum schizont extracts, and inhibited the growth of the parasite in vitro. Intradermal delivery of cationic lipid-encapsulated samRNA constructs is a feasible approach for developing future malaria vaccines.

Mapping Spirituality in the Art of Sook Jin Jo

Abstract Korean-born artist Sook Jin Jo has produced a multidisciplinary array of sculptural installations for over three decades. Her primary materials consist of discarded wooden furniture, abandoned industrial materials, and trees from the natural environment. The assemblages, installations, and public art projects from these materials offer a renewed perspective on art. Sook Jin Jo broadens her philosophical interpretation of art by transforming crude objects into significant art. Her materials are taken from various resources not only to create original visual forms, but also to convey profound meaning in our everyday lives. In the context of “Being is born of Non-Being,” the artist’s spiritual and philosophical views are deeply connected to Taoism, which is coherent with Zen Buddhism. Meditation Space (2000) invites people to contemplate nature in a manner that resonates as a sacred space. Jo’s recent distinguished works have comprehensively synthesized the pieces she has done so far. In Art House (Art + Architecture) and Art House Chapel II (Art + Architecture), two nondenominational chapels extend beyond institutional religions. Her work profoundly touches the meaning of spirituality and harmony that embraces the history of the sites she utilizes within the art context. Jo’s site-specific works correspond to the healing of human beings and society rather than being aligned with traditional religious beliefs.

Research on Renewal and Sustainable Development of Old Urban Blocks

From the perspective of urban renewal, this paper takes the old factory area of Liuzhou City as an example, and renovates and develops the old blocks that need to be replaced by functions. This work uses scientific theories to guide the renewal and transformation, and takes the principle of seeking truth from facts and people-oriented as the principle of renewal and transformation, and realizes the transformation and renewal through various means. In addition, the culture of workers has been reshaped, the industrial memory has been revived, and the importance of renovation and sustainable development of old urban districts has been clearly explained, all of which meet the requirements of urban ecology and green, healthy and sustainable development.

REVISITING THE ROMER’S HYPOTHESIS AND OPENNESS AND INFLATION RELATIONSHIP FOR PAKISTAN

The substantial economic integration coupled with the increased inflation becomes serious dilemma for developing economies. Inflation has recently emerged as the major economic issue, making it necessary to investigate the additional causes of this issue. This study revisited the age-old subject of how openness affects inflation, utilizing time-series data from 1990 to 2021 for Pakistan. Primary goal of study is to investigate Romer hypothesis and relationship between openness as well as inflation in Pakistan using Co-integration analysis. Other explanatory variables are the growth of real agriculture value added, an average annual growth rate of money, and quasi-money and openness of economy. Though openness and inflation have a positive long-run relationship, there is no evidence of a short-run relationship, refuting Romer's argument for Pakistan. Present study offered signifncant information through results and support from previous studies in reaching the conclusion about inflation and its main reasons behand. Additionally, it offers renewed perspectives on how inflation is affected by global economic integration and how it thus undesarbaly influenced the financial growth from different dimensions that further hinders sustainable development.

404 Utopia Not Found: Cyberpunk Avatars in Samanta Schweblin's Kentukis

AbstractScience fiction criticism has long attended the relationship between form and utopian thought. However, increased study of Latin American narratives has allowed for a return to foundational science fiction theories with renewed perspective. While critics have recognized the tendency of Latin American science fiction to slip between genres, a trend termed the “slipstream phenomenon,” there has been little analysis of its impact on utopian imagination. As a result, we miss one of the region's most unique contributions to broader science fiction traditions. In response, this article locates Samanta Schweblin's Kentukis (2018) within the legacies of cyberpunk and argues that the novel uses slipstream to establish and dismantle a series of classic utopian horizons by shifting its genre identity. In doing so, this work identifies a turn in recent Latin American science fiction that metacritically questions the ability of science fiction form itself to imagine a utopian horizon beyond global capitalism.

A study of residents’ intentions to participate in the renovation of older communities under the perspective of urban renewal: evidence from Zhangjiakou, China

ABSTRACT Community renovation involves energy conservation and emission reduction while fostering the process of urban renewal as a sustainable method of building upgrading. However, weak resident participation is the greatest obstacle to its development. This study aims to explore the psychology of the residents’ participation to stimulate their intention to participate. By combining the theory of planned behaviour with the norm activation model theory and government incentives, we collected data from 353 residents using a questionnaire and tested it using structural equation modelling. The findings suggest that government incentives, perceived behavioural control and personal norms all directly influence residents’ intentions to participate, with government incentives being the most significant influencing factor. Therefore, residents’ intentions to participate were driven by both rational and moral factors. Moreover, subjective norms and awareness of consequences had no significant effect on personal norms. Finally, the total mediating effect of subjective norms on personal norms and the moderating effect of low-income cohorts were verified. Thus, this study is a reference for the government and the community to improve the residents’ participatory statutes enhance their sense of belonging and the intention of various groups to participate and provide impetus to the urban renewal process.

Urban Remote Sensing with Spatial Big Data: A Review and Renewed Perspective of Urban Studies in Recent Decades

During the past decades, multiple remote sensing data sources, including nighttime light images, high spatial resolution multispectral satellite images, unmanned drone images, and hyperspectral images, among many others, have provided fresh opportunities to examine the dynamics of urban landscapes. In the meantime, the rapid development of telecommunications and mobile technology, alongside the emergence of online search engines and social media platforms with geotagging technology, has fundamentally changed how human activities and the urban landscape are recorded and depicted. The combination of these two types of data sources results in explosive and mind-blowing discoveries in contemporary urban studies, especially for the purposes of sustainable urban planning and development. Urban scholars are now equipped with abundant data to examine many theoretical arguments that often result from limited and indirect observations and less-than-ideal controlled experiments. For the first time, urban scholars can model, simulate, and predict changes in the urban landscape using real-time data to produce the most realistic results, providing invaluable information for urban planners and governments to aim for a sustainable and healthy urban future. This current study reviews the development, current status, and future trajectory of urban studies facilitated by the advancement of remote sensing and spatial big data analytical technologies. The review attempts to serve as a bridge between the growing “big data” and modern urban study communities.

Environmental Factors for the Advancement of Teachers’ Self-Efficacy in Professional Development

There is a shifting paradigm in gifted education from person-based approaches (i.e., identifying giftedness) to process-based approaches (i.e., transacting giftedness). This new framework is centered on enriching educational opportunities that will make the process meaningful (i.e., gifted) to everyone in a setting. However, little is known about how this renewed perspective can be applied in teacher professional development. In line with the socio-ecological models, our study aims to identify the best appropriate model to describe teacher self-efficacy (i.e., the dependent variable in the study) as professional development from an ecological perspective and to propose an ecologically intelligent school (EIS) for the advancement of self-efficacy. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed to create a model using TALIS 2018 dataset. Afterward, indices of goodness-of-fit criteria were examined for each model. The results indicate that there is a complex ecological background, in that various factors affect the dependent variable. Model 3 was determined as the most suitable model that can be proposed as an ecologically intelligent school (EIS) for the advancement of self-efficacy. The factors within the three layers of the socio-ecological model-communication with teachers, communication with students, school climate, and feeling valued by the national level-altogether created an appropriate model explaining teacher professional development, regarding self-efficacy.

The determination of policy issuance to stop investigation in the perspective of the renewal of Indonesian criminal law procedure

This study aimed to reveal the philosophical basis and the impact of removing judgement for termination of research based on the perspective of Indonesian criminal procedure law renewal, as well as the implication of releasing determination for termination of the investigation in law enforcement efforts. This study used empirical methods by using primary data. Primary data were the observation of the implementation of the policy in releasing a determination for termination of the investigation. The result showed that the philosophical foundation of the need to formulate policy still needed to be revised to realise the law’s general goals. The formulation policy on the authority of the Police Investigator to issue the Provision Letter for Investigation Cancellation is carried out by changing or revising, or adding the power of the Police Investigator in cancelling the investigation. Then, the juridical implication of the issuance of the Provision Letter for Investigation Cancellation (SKP2) by the Police Investigator for the law enforcement effort is that it strengthens the exercise of the duties and responsibilities of the Police Investigator in solving the case and facilitating the attainment of the goals of the law.