Thematic Dimensions Research Articles

Real, compared to what? Insertability of constrained realemes in Dave Eggers’ What is the What

The paper examines Eggers’ What is the What (2006) that has problematically been called an autobiographical novel and memoire, narrating Valentino’s chequered past as one of Sudanese Lost Boys. The text yields potential perspectives that demand scrutiny for understanding of the fascinating reciprocity between fictionality and historicity. The article engages theorizations of the complex coalescence offered by Zohar (1980) and McHale (1987) to benchmark the thematic dimensions of the selected text against the cutting-edge postulates. In addition, Valentino’s preface to the “novel”, engaging with the purpose of his collaborative working with Eggers, and Eggers’ essay “It was just boys walking” (2004), negotiating the genesis of the project, have also been used as a methodological touchstone. The analysis vindicates the correspondence between the fictional and the historical versions, albeit the author has fictionalized gaps of Valentino’s historicized life. Thus, Eggers’ text consummates blurring by encompassing both the thematic dimensions, fusing fiction and fact, and the structural schemas, mixing the techniques of different genre traditions, inasmuch as his work exhibits a hermeneutic playfulness found at the heart of the aesthetics of postmodern and 9/11 fiction.

Supporting Engagement in Restorative Justice: Towards an Understanding of “Ambivalent Proportionate Interest” (API) and the “Window of Tolerance” Through a Classification of Participants’ Motivations and Satisfactions

Restorative Justice (RJ) is a comprehensive model for addressing the expressive needs of offenders and victims. One of the sine qua non conditions is the collection of the participants’ consent. However, with the possibility of participating in a Restorative Justice program, offenders and victims are subject to an “Ambivalent Proportionate Interest” (API). This is a tension between the cognitive interest related to the perceived seriousness of the crime and the various emotional stakes (reliving, repercussions, proposed encounter). “API” means that Restorative Justice coaches must consider a “window of tolerance” in individuals during the proposal and preparation of the program. To best help participants and coaches, we question voluntariness here, not from a philosophical or legal point of view, but from a psychological perspective: we interviewed participants in a Restorative Justice program in the form of non-structured interviews and then categorized and quantified their expectations by thematic dimensions. We believe that knowledge of the structuring of participants’ expectations and satisfactions could help the facilitator in the initial collection of subjects’ needs.

Different by Culture

Abstract. This article suggests that the term “culture” can explain the heterogeneity of age(ing) in nursing homes as well as (dis-)similarities opposed to organizational parameters (e.g., size, location, ownership). It introduces an analytical tool for the systematic analysis of culture which encompasses 15 thematic dimensions grouping as conceptualizations of age(ing), social relationships, and care. Two nursing homes from an explorative project in Bavarian nursing homes are used for illustrating the tool’s possible applications: systematic description, explanation, and comparisons of locally effective cultures; determining ambivalences’ manifestations and sources. The article ends with a discussion of underlying implications of the findings for theory and praxis and the benefits and weaknesses of this study, connected with the hope to broaden the perception of nursing homes which are more than organizations designed to house older people safely; they are also culturally shaped places of social life.

Of Education, Humanism and Civilizational Progress: An Explorative Study of Jaya Prithvi Bahadur Singh’s Life and Work from the Perspective of ‘Global Intellectual History’

The Himalayas have long been perceived as a region at the margins between South Asia, Southeast Asia and Central Asia. Since the turn of the 21st century, however, the area received continuously more scholarly attention, particularly with regards to historiography and historical research. Researchers started to explore the manifold historical connections, entanglements, and interdependencies of the Himalayas with its neighboring regions and the rest of the world, which have long been disregarded due to the prevalence of implicit methodological nationalism, historiographical isolationism, and exceptionalism. Anticipating these changing perspectives, my paper explores the life and works of Jaya Prithvi Bahadur Singh in an attempt to render the global historical connections of the Central Himalayas further visible and enrich broader debates from the perspective of ‘Global Intellectual History’. At the intersection of this newly emerging discipline and the intellectual history of the Himalayas, my paper seeks to address the research questions: Who was Jaya Prithvi Bahadur Singh and why is his life and work relevant for a better understanding of the multifaceted historical entanglements of the Central Himalayas? I argue that Jaya Prithvi’s thoughts, specifically those on education, humanism, and civilizational progress will add new thematic dimensions, empirically diversify and, thus, broaden the scope of contemporary discourses on ‘Global Intellectual History’ as well as Himalayan History.

Towards a European framework for community engagement in higher education – a case study analysis of European universities

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the development and piloting of a novel European framework for community engagement (CE) in higher education, which has been purposefully designed to progress the CE agenda in a European context.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed framework was co-created through the European Union (EU)-funded project towards a European framework for community engagement in higher education (TEFCE). The TEFCE Toolbox is an institutional self-reflection framework that centres on seven thematic dimensions of CE. This paper follows the development of the TEFCE Toolbox through empirical case study analysis of four European universities and their local communities.FindingsThe findings in this paper indicate that the TEFCE Toolbox facilitates context-specific applications in different types of universities and socioeconomic environments. Incorporating insights from engagement practitioners, students and community representatives the TEFCE Toolbox was successfully applied in universities with diverse profiles and missions. The process facilitated the recognition of CE achievements and the identification of potential areas for improvement.Originality/valueDespite a range of international initiatives, there remains an absence of initiatives within the European higher education area that focus on developing tools to comprehensively support CE. The TEFCE Toolbox and case-study analysis presented in this paper address this gap in knowledge. The broader societal contribution and social responsibility of higher education have become increasingly prominent on the European agenda. The TEFCE Toolbox represents an innovative, robust and holistic European framework with the potential to support universities in reflecting upon their pursuit of addressing grand societal challenges, whilst promoting CE.

Multi-Level and Multiple Aspect Semantic Trajectory Model: Application to the Tourism Domain

Here we design a semantic trajectory model responding to specific needs expressed by tourism analyst experts. Thus, this model takes into account: (i) the description of sequences of imbricated semantic segments, (ii) the definition of enrichment data integrating spatial, temporal and thematic dimensions and (iii) the association of such data with positions or with trajectory segments. Each of these features is necessary for the processing and analysis of tourist mobility data, which we will detail. For validation purposes, we experiment our model on two outdoor mobility track scenarios computed in a processing chain. We also show that our model is generic and extensible thanks to two other scenarios on different datasets.

Creating a Typology of Health Service Regulation in Assisted Living

Research ObjectiveState agencies regulate Assisted living (AL), with a high level of within‐state variation in licensing and certification approaches. Differences between licenses within and across states can reflect differential access to health services and differences between resident populations by licensed setting type. We set out to develop an empirically driven typology of regulatory provisions for health service provision in AL residences and to use the typology to describe the prevalence of types of health service regulations within and across states. Furthermore, we designed this typology to facilitate future analyses of AL resident characteristics and outcomes across the regulatory approaches.Study DesignIn our earlier work, we analyzed and summarized regulatory requirements by AL license. We used this data to develop a typology using a mixed‐methods approach. We took an explanatory typology approach, as described by Elman, to identify thematic dimensions and regulatory domains describing the scope of health services regulated in AL settings. Then, we used our existing data to create a specificity score for each of the five dimensions and each of the 350 license types. Finally, we conducted a k‐means cluster analysis to identify groups of license types with a similar combination of dimension values.Population StudiedOur analysis included the regulations licensing AL for the 50 states and Washington DC.Principal FindingsWe identified five dimensions of health service regulation in AL which vary across states and license types. These dimensions describe whether each license: requires medication review, requires licensed nurse staffing, allows third party end‐of‐life care, allows skilled nursing, and allows medication administration. Using these dimensions and our existing dataset, we found six clusters of regulatory approaches to licensing health services in AL. We can describe each cluster with a distinct combination of high, mid, or low specificity in regulating each of the dimensions.ConclusionsTo understand variation, our team developed a typology of health services regulated by states across licensed AL environments. Between 11 and 15 states utilize each of the six clusters as an approach to licensing assisted living. We can now use these clusters of regulatory approaches in future research to both investigate the differences between these approaches and use these clusters as analytic groupings that may be more meaningful than grouping by state or geography.Implications for Policy or PracticeThese approaches to regulating health service provision in AL reflect how state policymakers and rule‐makers conceive of these different settings, and also how operators have chosen from the available licensing options. By grouping these licenses according to how prescriptive their regulations are for each of the identified dimensions, we have constructed types of AL licensing that can be used analytically. This typology of health services may better differentiate between types of regulated AL, allowing for more nuanced analyses that take into account within‐state variation.Primary Funding SourceNational Institutes of Health.

Focus of societal responsibility in the vision and mission statements of the United States pharmacy schools/ colleges

Objective: To assess the prevalence of societal responsibility languages and themes on education, research, and professional service in pharmacy programmes’ vision and mission statements. Methods: The authors collected the vision and mission statements of 142 pharmacy programmes by visiting each programme’s website. The statements were compiled and uploaded in NVivo 12. Deductive qualitative analysis and a topic extraction method with embedded principal component analysis (WordStat 8) were used to identify thematic dimensions of the statements. The number of programmes citing the respective themes were recorded. A Chi-square test was used to statistically analyse the prevalence of themes between the programme categories. Results: Education, research, professional practice, and societal service emerged as prominent themes. The prevalence of research, professional practice, and leadership themes was significantly higher in the vision statements of public programmes than private programmes. In the mission statements, the citation of a research theme was significantly higher in public programmes than private programmes. The citations of serving the diverse population and underserved population were very limited in the vision (6% and 5%) and mission statements (11% and 6%). Topic analysis conformed to the identified prominent themes and lack of societal responsibility theme in the mission statements. Conclusions: The prominent themes included education, research, and professional service to society at large. There is a distinctive lack of citations of societal responsibility towards underserved populations in the vision and mission statements.

Immigrant entrepreneurship motivation – scientific production, field development, thematic antecedents, measurement elements and research agenda

PurposeYears of research into immigrant entrepreneurship motivation (IEM) call for a synthesis of the field to note field developments and identify thematic antecedents and measurement elements. The paper aims to fill this literature review gap in IEM field. Improving existing analytical frameworks and establishing a research agenda are also goals of the research.Design/methodology/approachAdopting the PRISMA procedure, a systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted. This produced 53 IEM research papers (internationally, from 1974 to 2020) from a database search and other sources, each of which was reviewed based on extracted variables, findings and suggestions. A well-accepted entrepreneurial motivation model is used for thematic measurement analyzes.FindingsIEM research has gained attention over the past 25 years as to the number of publications, research foci and antecedent discoveries. The review suggests that there are six motivational thematic dimensions: individual characteristics, personal experiences and circumstances, personal values, business ideas and opportunities, goal-setting and self-efficacy and immigrant entrepreneurial ecosystem (IEE). The results also reveal a relationship between entrepreneurship motivations and the IEE which is one of the keys recommended future research strands.Research limitations/implicationsThis research contributes to entrepreneurship literature by providing a chronological timeline of IEM field development and antecedent discoveries. The review suggests applying the IEE and its associated components to investigate host and home countries’ interactive effects on IEM.Practical implicationsThe research provides guidance for policymakers and practitioners concerning available policy instruments and IEM determinants in addition to individual factors.Originality/valueThis study is the first SLR on IEM. It presents a holistic view of the IEM field.

Nexus between Water Security Framework and Public Health: A Comprehensive Scientific Review

Water scarcity, together with the projected impacts of water stress worldwide, has led to a rapid increase in research on measuring water security. However, water security has been conceptualized under different perspectives, including various aspects and dimensions. Since public health is also an integral part of water security, it is necessary to understand how health has been incorporated as a dimension in the existing water security frameworks. While supply–demand and governance narratives dominated several popular water security frameworks, studies that are specifically designed for public health purposes are generally lacking. This research aims to address this gap, firstly by assessing the multiple thematic dimensions of water security frameworks in scientific disclosure; and secondly by looking into the public health dimensions and evaluating their importance and integration in the existing water security frameworks. For this, a systematic review of the Scopus database was undertaken using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. A detailed review analysis of 77 relevant papers was performed. The result shows that 11 distinct dimensions have been used to design the existing water security framework. Although public health aspects were mentioned in 51% of the papers, direct health impacts were considered only by 18%, and indirect health impacts or mediators were considered by 33% of the papers. Among direct health impacts, diarrhea is the most prevalent one considered for developing a water security framework. Among different indirect or mediating factors, poor accessibility and availability of water resources in terms of time and distance is a big determinant for causing mental illnesses, such as stress or anxiety, which are being considered when framing water security framework, particularly in developing nations. Water quantity is more of a common issue for both developed and developing countries, water quality and mismanagement of water supply-related infrastructure is the main concern for developing nations, which proved to be the biggest hurdle for achieving water security. It is also necessary to consider how people treat and consume the water available to them. The result of this study sheds light on existing gaps for different water security frameworks and provides policy-relevant guidelines for its betterment. Also, it stressed that a more wide and holistic approach must be considered when framing a water security framework to result in sustainable water management and human well-being.

Exploring the barriers of patients with diabetic foot complications in China: a qualitative interview study.

BackgroundPatients with diabetic foot complications are associated with high rates of morbidity, disability, and mortality. Through findings of qualitative interviews with patients with this disease, we aimed to explore the barriers they encountered, provide evidence to improve the efficacy of medical services, discuss prevention and treatment strategies for future policymakers, and attract widespread attention from the Chinese society.MethodsPatients with diabetic foot complications were recruited from three tertiary hospitals in China between July to September 2020. Patients were included who had a clinical diagnosis of diabetic foot complications, were 18 years or older, spoke Chinese as their first language, and were willing to share treatment experiences. An interview guide was used during the in-person semi-structured interviews that lasted 20 to 50 minutes and were audio-recorded. Transcripts were analyzed for qualitative themes.ResultsForty-one patients (range, 38–79 years; 12 men, 29 women) were recruited. Data analysis indicated five thematic dimensions on barriers encountered by patients with diabetic foot complications: hospital visits, doctor-patient communication, mental burden, economic burden, and social support.ConclusionsPatients with diabetic foot complications face serious financial, mental, and social burdens in China. Future studies can use the five dimensions to help solve the existing problems and improve treatment outcomes of this patient population.

L’AGENTIVITÉ DES ENSEIGNANTS APRÈS UN MASTER DE FORMATION INTERNATIONALE : LES IMPLICATIONS SUR LE DÉVELOPPEMENT PROFESSIONNEL

Dans cet article, nous étudions l’agentivité des enseignants après leur participation à une maîtrise master de formation internationale en éducation à la recherche. 16 enseignants, originaires de divers pays africains, ont été soumis à un entretien semi-structuré à la fin d’un master de formation. Les données collectées ont été analysées qualitativement à travers des catégories thématiques. Les entretiens ont mis en lumière la façon dont les enseignants ont exprimé leur agentivité à la suite de leur participation au master de formation. A la fin du master, les aspects d’analyse de la perception d’agentivité pris en considération sont ceux en relation avec les choix professionnels, la communauté scholastique d’appartenance, les pratiques professionnelles acquises lors de la formation à la recherche ainsi que l’agentivité pour transformer les pratiques professionnelles personnelles et collectives.

Meta-Analytic and Meta-Thematic Analysis of Digital Storytelling Method

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of the digital storytelling method on academic achievement and various variables by examining the method in terms of meta-analytic and meta-thematic aspects. Therefore, meta-analytic and meta- thematic dimensions were used together in the study. Within the context of the meta-analytic dimension of the research, the data obtained from 34 studies meeting the criteria of inclusion from various databases were analyzed using Comprehensive Meta- Analysis Software (CMA) to examine the effect of digital storytelling method on academic achievement. On the other hand, in the meta-thematic dimension performed to complete the obtained data, qualitative findings were obtained by quoting common codes and themes from the qualitative studies. In this context, the general characteristics of the digital storytelling method, their contributions to the cognitive dimension, and difficulties encountered during application were addressed. According to the results of the research, the digital storytelling method has been found to have a significant positive effect on academic achievement. The results of the meta-thematic assessments revealed that the digital storytelling method had an effect on making the students gain several 21st-century skills such as creative thinking, effective communication, and research skills, and it facilitated learning, provided permanence, and positively affected academic achievement. Time limitation, limited internet access, technological insufficiency, technical problems, lack of technical knowledge and skills, and lack of technical support are some of the problems faced during the implementation.

COVID-19 and human rights: a new inseparable relationship

The COVID-19 pandemic is arguably the most severe pandemic of the last century and has completely transformed how people go about their lives. With a high infection rate and no known cure yet, different countries have had to adopt extraordinary measures to curtail the spread of the virus. In particular, multiple countries have imposed lockdowns. The lockdowns have inadvertently interfered with human rights previously enjoyed by people, such as freedom of movement and the right to food, water and sanitation.We conducted an exploratory, non-systemic review of peer-reviewed journal articles, published between 2015 and 2020. The explored databases included: Ebscohost, Google Scholar, Wiley, JAMA, Elsevier, Oxford, CDC and Medline/PubMed.Our review of the literature highlighted the importance of states adopting a human-rights-centric approach in their responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. Three main thematic dimensions of various nations’ responses to the Covid-19 were constructed to represent this review. The three are human rights, gender inequality and social stigma.Some of the reactions to the Covid-19 pandemic have brought about the infringement of human rights. While some of the measures are justified, there is a need to ensure that human rights are protected to prevent states of the world abusing executive orders and emergency powers. This need set aside, crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, usually affect men and women differently. Such crises may even exacerbate the existing gender inequalities in society. Therefore, this calls for governments to devise measures to protect vulnerable populations such as women and children during the pandemic.

Publicidad y representación de la mujer en revistas femeninas: una aproximación al caso de revista Eva

En este artículo se aborda la evolución que presenta la representación de la mujer a través de la publicidad inserta en revistas femeninas, tomado como referente, el caso de la revista chilena Eva, la que circuló entre los años 1943 y 1974, y que alcanzó un significativo liderazgo dentro de esta categoría de publicaciones en el ámbito editorial. Con este análisis se busca profundizar en dos dimensiones centrales del patrimonio gráfico y su relación en el imaginario de consumo femenino: lo formal y lo simbólico. En términos conceptuales se describen dos ámbitos que permiten comprender el desarrollo de la publicidad en este tipo de publicaciones. En primer lugar, el espacio editorial propio de la mujer, como consecuencia de los cambios culturales experimentados desde finales de siglo XIX y el consecuente nacimiento de un mercado editorial y de consumo propiamente femenino y, en segundo lugar, la creciente influencia de las agencias de publicidad en la promoción y difusión de los valores estético-culturales estadounidenses y de una sociedad de consumo a nivel internacional. A partir de un análisis tanto cuantitativo como cualitativo del corpus de piezas gráficas seleccionadas, se identificaron los principales rubros publicitados, los cuales se circunscriben a dos grandes dimensiones temáticas: la apariencia física de la mujer y el rol de dueña de casa-esposa. Sin embargo, estas dos dimensiones adquieren diferentes características través de tiempo, las que dan cuenta de una evolución en la representación de la mujer en tres niveles: la mujer que consume para ser vista y admirada por su belleza; la mujer que consume para conseguir un fin y, finalmente, la mujer que encuentra en el consumo un fin en sí mismo.

Development of the urban green space quality assessment tool (RECITAL)

The quality of green spaces could play a crucial role in green spaces’ health benefits and their underlying mechanisms. We developed and implemented the RECITAL: a multidimensional in situ quality assessment tool for urban green spaces, primarily to characterize quality aspects relevant to human health. The tool includes 90 items divided into eleven thematic dimensions. Applying RECITAL, we assessed the quality of 149 urban green spaces in Barcelona, Spain, and the obtained results showed overall good-to-excellent reliability. Decision-makers could use the quality scores generated by RECITAL to fine-tune the design and management of urban green spaces. Simultaneously, researchers could apply it to study how different quality aspects of urban green spaces would affect their potential to exert health benefits.

A rapid indicator-based assessment of foreign resident preparedness in Japan during Typhoon Hagibis

The paper narrates a pilot study to understand disaster preparedness among foreign residents living in Japan, using typhoon Hagibis as a reference. We empirically evaluated an individual disaster preparedness framework following the 72-h golden rule of disaster survival. The framework consisted of 14 variables, and responses were collected over a five-point Likert scale. In addition, six perceptive variables, which provided a self-evaluation of disaster preparedness against the native Japanese population, were also administered to 133 foreign residents. The data were subjected to exploratory factor analysis and multiple linear regression modeling to understand the thematic dimensions and association of perceptive variables that contribute towards disaster preparedness. Our results indicated three interlinked dimensions, namely, (a) Emergency preparation and awareness (b) Experiential learning, and (c) Training and exposure. Of these, ‘Emergency preparation and awareness’ and “Training and exposure” showed a statistically significant and positive association with several perceptive variables (particularly, the ability to seek neighborhood help, participation in community events, and the ability to receive local level disaster information). The paper concludes with several recommendations, of which, building a local support network for foreign residents and to disseminate local disaster-related information remains critical.

Sustainability Considerations in Water–Energy–Food Nexus Research in Irrigated Agriculture

Irrigated agriculture is essential to satisfying the globally increasing demand for food and bio-based products. Yet, in water scarce regions, water-use for irrigation aggravates the competition for the use of water for other purposes, such as energy production, drinking water and sanitation. Solutions for sustainable food production through irrigated agriculture require a systemic approach to assess benefits and trade-offs across sectors. Here, the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus has become an important concept in natural resource management. It has been conceptualized to analyze linkages and trade-offs between the three sectors, across temporal and spatial scales. However, the concept has so far mainly been conceptual, with little empirical evidence or proof of concept in real world cases. The objective of this paper was to take stock of the rapidly advancing literature on the WEF nexus in irrigated agriculture, and to analyze how the concept was actually implemented in research studies, and how the nexus between water, food and energy was actually dealt with. The study period ranges from 2011 to 2019, and includes 194 articles. Results showed that the WEF nexus is indeed very relevant in irrigated agriculture, and the respective literature makes up one third of all WEF nexus papers. Modeling and empirical research have caught up with conceptual synthesis studies during the last four years, thereby indicating that the WEF nexus concept is indeed increasingly operationalized. However, most studies addressed the WEF nexus from a perspective of either socioeconomic, technological or environmental categories, and they place one of the dimensions of water, food or energy into the foreground. To address sustainable development, there is a need to fully integrate across research disciplines and thematic dimensions. Such studies are only starting to emerge. These findings are an important evidence-base for future WEF nexus research on irrigated agriculture, in support of sustainable solutions for water scarce regions, especially in settings undergoing transformations.

¿Cuán preparados están los jefes técnicos para ejercer un liderazgo efectivo? Estudio de opinión a partir del Marco para la Buena Dirección y el Liderazgo Escolar

International evidence situates school leadership as the second most important factor for student learning. Educational national policies and research have given increased attention to school principals, evidenced by the creation of a national framework for good governance and school leadership, known in Spanish as the Marco para la Buena Dirección y el Liderazgo Escolar (MDBLE). However, there is a dearth of national research about school leadership from the perspective of the instructional coaches. In this context, this article evaluates the degree of preparation of these middle leaders to exercise an effective leadership derived from the MDBLE, based on a survey of 300 instructional coaches. The results reveal that less than 50% of these middle leaders have a solid understanding of the framework. Furthermore, while overall they consider themselves moderately prepared, there is heterogeneity in their perceptions of how well prepared they are to implement the framework, while most consider themselves highly prepared for some components and thematic dimensions, only 10% perceive themselves to be highly prepared for all components and dimensions of the framework. This evidence points out challenges for the improvement of school leadership through a strengthening of principal competences and better articulation between educational policies and the framework.

Spatial Data Lake for Smart Cities: From Design to Implementation

Abstract. In this paper, we propose a methodology for designing data lake dedicated to Spatial Data and an implementation of this specific framework. Inspired from previous proposals on general data lake Design and based on the Geographic information – Metadata normalization (ISO 19115), the contribution presented in this paper integrates, with the same philosophy, the spatial and thematic dimensions of heterogeneous data (remote sensing images, textual documents and sensor data, etc). To support our proposal, the process has been implemented in a real data project in collaboration with Montpellier Métropole Méditerranée (3M), a metropolis in the South of France. This framework offers a uniform management of the spatial and thematic information embedded in the elements of the data lake.