Critical View Research Articles

Pectus repair after prior sternotomy: clinical practice review and practice recommendations based on a 2,200-patient database.

The minimally invasive repair of pectus excavatum (MIRPE) is widely accepted as a method of pectus excavatum (PE) repair. Repair is rarely performed in patients with a history of median sternotomy. A feared complication of this procedure is iatrogenic cardiac injury; the risk of injury in patients with prior sternotomy is especially high due to the development of post-surgical retrosternal adhesions, which obscures the "critical view" during MIRPE. A 14-center review reported the incidence to be as high as 7% after analyzing 75 patients with history of sternotomy who underwent MIRPE. Little literature exists on how to best prepare for MIRPE in patients with prior sternotomy. A review of the literature and a retrospective review of over 2,200 patients who underwent MIRPE at our institution was performed to analyze 9 patients who underwent MIRPE after prior sternotomy. Iatrogenic cardiac injury occurred in 2 patients. Given the infrequency in our experience and the low numbers reported in the literature, statistical conclusions cannot be drawn. However, prudent strategies based on this experience include thoracoscopy, routine sternal elevation, direct sub-xiphoid retrosternal dissection, coordination with cardio-thoracic surgeons, preparation for cardio-pulmonary bypass, and massive transfusion protocol availability to optimize surgical outcomes in patients undergoing MIRPE with a history of sternotomy.

Critical View on Reliability of One-sample t-Test as a Tool for Business Decision-making

A lot of organizations rely on t-test and hypothesis testing to determine if they can bank on the observation results, they are obtaining, or if it is just unexpected luck or random happenstance. Small businesses find this statistical technique to be an economical and precise way to compare observations or two population groups for numerous different scenarios without resorting to expensive live test scenarios. From testing employee job satisfaction by gender to better understanding economic growth in one city compared to another to identifying if a certain customer segment spends more on specific products, the t-test is a useful statistical technique for businesses. This research suggests a structured analysis aimed to find out the limitations of the one-sample t-test. The results obtained prove that typical characteristics of business processes and the commonly used techniques in empirical research have significant influence on the reliability of the classic one-sample t-test for decision-making, and its nominal error probability is underestimated. In these regards, a set of simple and effective recommendations is given for researchers and decision-makers in order to avoid fatal mistakes in their activities. This piece fills the gap, which is important for further research in economic and managerial statistics.

Perceptions of Young Women Who Engage in Anal Sex: A Sociological Inquiry

Despite data suggesting that anal sex is increasingly common among heterosexual individuals, women who engage in anal sex have had little attention in academic scholarship beyond medical fields. Research on anal sex is typically androcentric, with many key studies examining the dynamics of male-male sexual practices. Moreover, research reporting anal sex among young women is often accompanied with concerns around coercion and health risks. Taking a critical view, we argue that normative assumptions about anal sex may obscure or ignore other ways that women and others might engage in anal sex, and, given the emphasis on harm reduction, may obscure a range of reasons for involvement in anal sex. Through focus groups and individual interviews with a range of individuals (n=20) including sexual health practitioners and young people, aged 19-56 years, our qualitative pilot study generated detailed discussion on (1) how anal sex is perceived in general (‘what’ practices constitute anal sex, who might be involved, and why), and (2) specifically how it is perceived in relation to young women. This paper focuses on the second area and three resultant analytic themes: why women may engage in anal sex, women’s bodies and gendered agency, and sexual literacy. We conclude that meaningful sex and relationships education and sexual health services could usefully adopt a more nuanced appreciation of the range of practices that can comprise anal sex, and that some young women engage in anal sex for a variety of reasons (beyond coercion) including pleasure, bodily autonomy and relationship dynamics.

Does Black Lives Matter support moderate the effect of procedural justice on legitimacy? Testing the procedural justice invariance thesis

PurposeProcedurally just policing positively affects legitimacy regardless of differences in some demographic and neighborhood characteristics. Yet, less is known about how critical citizen views of police influence the effect of procedural justice on legitimacy. Citizen Black Lives Matter (BLM) support is an indicator of views toward police and provides a useful measure to test the procedural justice invariance thesis. The purpose of this study is to examine if BLM support moderates the effect of procedural justice on legitimacy.Design/methodology/approachData from a survey experiment of Americans (n = 363) are used to explore whether BLM support moderates the effect of procedural justice on legitimacy.FindingsResults suggest BLM support is negatively associated with encounter-specific perceptions of police legitimacy and provides tentative evidence suggesting BLM support moderates the effect of the decision-making element of procedural justice on legitimacy. Specifically, the interaction suggests that at higher levels of BLM support, procedurally unjust decision-making reduces legitimacy. However, there was little erosion of legitimacy among BLM supporters during procedurally just encounters.Originality/valueThis study tests the procedural justice invariance thesis in a BLM context. Results support an association between BLM support and encounter-specific perceptions of police legitimacy and provide preliminary evidence that the effect of procedural justice on legitimacy may vary by levels of BLM support.

A lived experience or a reason? From an ethics debate to contemporary culture

Karol Wojtyła’s debate with Max Scheler is multi-faceted. One of the central issues here is the dispute over the role of a lived experience and a reason in the structure of moral action. What is the starting point for providing an answer to the moral appeal directed at the human person? Is it a lived experience of an axiological quality called ‘value’ or a rational reason in which the value experienced is only one of the elements? Scheler is essentially in favour of the former scenario: the value carries sufficient power to pull the subject into action. And while his efficacy does not completely disappear here, it is fundamentally dominated by the axiological content (and attraction) of the value. Wojtyła takes a critical view of the German philosopher’s position, and states its inadequacy in the formation of mature moral action. A lived experience of a value is important, but it is not enough. The axiological experience moves the person, and contains an extraordinary force motivating one to undertake a specific act. However, without the participation of reason, it can be misguided and even inadequate. A person has to visualise, and to some extent objectivise the lived value for it to become the object of rational evaluation. Wojtyła’s dispute with Scheler is not just a marginal discussion between two European thinkers, within the hermetic philosophical debate of the 20th century. Indeed, it is part of the perennial questions as to what morality is, what role it plays in human life, and to what extent human beings influence the realisation of moral good and evil. The debate can also be a kind of lens affording a better view of the essence of contemporary disputes concerning both morality and culture. The diminishing and marginalisation of reason (especially in the strong, metaphysical version) in various spheres of life is striking. The tension between the culture of feeling and the culture of thinking is discernible and must prompt a debate. Karol Wojtyła shows what shape such a debate could take, and that it could be enriching for the entirety of contemporary culture.

사이보그적 존재들을 통해 본 포스트휴먼의 몸 짓기

Mapping Posthuman body through Cyborg beings is a research project that examines the meaning of the posthuman through monster- like figures and cyborg beings, often used as symbolic representations of a cyborg in Korean performance art. The project manifests a critical view of transhumanism, which adheres to the same dichotomous division emphasized by humanism, and examines the posthuman being as “materially embodied, embedded in the environment, and intertwined with the world” as well as the ‘worlding-with’ method as a mode of posthuman existence. In particular, she turns to Donna Haraway's concept of the cyborg as the theoretical framework to explore how cyborg politics, which transcends the traditional, dichotomous thinking of the West and breaks down its boundaries, has developed within the trajectory of Korean art history. Research focuses on the bodies that get reconstructed at every moment within relationships by the act of blurring boundaries and suggests that we contemplate the meaning of our interactions with others and the sense of solidarity within the context of post- humanism in the post-COVID-19 era.

THE END OF THE HUMAN RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD AND NUTRITION

In front of the relevant theme of the right to adequate food and nutrition, we seek, through bibliographical and documental research, to understand its complexity and its framework as a fundamental human right, according to a critical, plural and counter-hegemonic perspective. The relevance of the theme is based on the serious state of food insecurity that permeates, in particular, the Brazilian reality, requiring understanding the complexity of the concept of the right to adequate food and nutrition, its normative prescriptions and food sovereignty. The main objective is to critically and counter-hegemonically understand the human right to adequate food and nutrition. Specific objectives are to investigate: (1) the foundations of the human right to adequate food and nutrition; (2) the normative provisions guaranteeing the right under study; and (3) the critical reading of human rights and their relationship with the right to adequate food and nutrition. As for the methodology, bibliographical and documentary research is used, starting from dialectical historical materialism and the critical theory of human rights. It’s concludes that the effectiveness of the human rights to adequate food and nutrition goes through food sovereignty, in the sense of providing not only food, but culturally adequate food for the uniqueness of the population being treated, according to a critical view of this right as a human right.

Young Non-Voters and Ethnic Tribune Politics in Northern Ireland: Beyond Apathy and Engaged Scepticism

Little is known about young non-voters’ appraisals of ethnic tribune politics in Northern Ireland. This article draws attention to how some young non-voters in Northern Ireland actively challenge such representational strategies, while others are reluctant to express critical views regarding party politics, despite their interest in a range of broadly political issues and dissatisfaction with aspects of social life. The article accounts for these findings by reworking existing conceptualisations of youth political engagement to include consideration of those who are not apathetic, engaged sceptics or conservatives. This permits a more nuanced understanding of the position of youth within the Northern Ireland electorate.

Charities, altruism and becoming business-like: tensions and contradictions

PurposeThere is a longstanding debate over the role of modern business methods in the contemporary non-profit organisation (NPO). Critics of business practices assert that they may undermine the missions of NPOs. The aim of this paper is to contribute to this debate. Many accounting researchers have shifted research focus to concepts such as trust and crises. These are important topics. But they may overshadow practices which are taken for granted as accepted practice which does not merit re-examination.Design/methodology/approachThis qualitative project is based on an initial survey followed by comparative case studies of three NPOs. The researchers have used both interviews and documentary analysis in this study.FindingsThe contention that the adoption of business-like practices undermines the fundamental aim of altruism of NPOs is challenged by the findings of this paper. The very concept of altruism is not a single unifying concept in NPOs – it is a contested idea. However, and most importantly, in this research there is no evidence of mission drift by NPOs which adopt business practices. This research highlights the way many NPO CEOs are mission-driven but also pragmatic bricoleurs in their consideration of new business practices. Most importantly, these case studies demonstrate a variation in practices within the participating organisations. This raises challenging questions about a receptive context for the adoption of new business practices which are explored in this paper.Research limitations/implicationsThe case studies in this paper are from the UK, and further studies in different operating contexts in other countries would be useful. In particular, the finding that the fundamental ethos of NPOs is not challenged by being business-like merits further research. There is also scope for further research on what constitutes a receptive context for the adoption of new business practices by NPOs.Practical implicationsThis study reveals the potential significance of NPO boards, particularly non-executive directors, in the shaping of organisational practices. There is evidence in this study of NPOs recruiting business experts for purposes of legitimation. But this study also shows how business expertise can be mobilised to enhance NPO performance by bricoleurs in NPO who are highly motivated individuals who will adopt useful business practices to hand if they improve charity outcomes.Social implicationsThe NPO organisations are motivated by the desire to make a difference to the lives of people who are vulnerable or disadvantaged. This study has interesting implications for managers and directors of NPOs on their effectiveness.Originality/valueThis study challenges the critical view that becoming more business-like undermines the fundamental ethos of altruism in NPOs. This is an important finding, but this study also reveals the recruitment of business expertise by NPOs purely for purposes of legitimation. However, these legitimating practices differ from the well-established view of isomorphism in the field of NPOs and suggests that, on the contrary, there is a variation in practice within the NPO field which has important implications for donors, regulators, directors and managers of NPOs.

Young People's Attitudes towards Democracy and Political Participation: Evidence from a Cross-European Study

AbstractSome scholars warn about democratic disaffection of young people potentially leading to processes of ‘democratic deconsolidation’. Conversely, others interpret young people's preference for non-conventional forms of participation as a manifestation of democratic renewal. We surveyed respondents from nine European countries and analysed differences in attitudes of opposition to democracy across age groups and how these preferences shape political mobilization. Our findings show that the youngest adult group is no less supportive of liberal democracy than older age groups. Second, although attitudes of opposition towards democracy decrease political mobilization, this association is independent of age. Thus, young people's critical views of democracy rarely translate into apathy for democracy. Finally, our results provide insights into intra-generational democratic attitude differences by showing how young people's individual attributes are likely to crystallize into different value configurations and patterns of democratic engagement over time but within specific contexts.

Hardening the EU core-periphery lines, 2009–2019: Dependency, neoliberalism, welfare reformation and poverty in Greece

The paper holds a critical view on EU austerity policies, with particular emphasis given to Greece. It is maintained that the main causes for the implementation of neoliberal reforms should be examined in the manner with which the Greek economy has developed in relation with the European capitalist division of labor as a peripheral economy. Greece is approached as intimately conditioned by a multifaceted institutional structure of dependencies that outstrips the country's ability to exercise economic policy for its own social interests. Essentially built upon the premises of a core-periphery dependency paradigm, the periodic post-war reconfigurations of the EU architectural design offered enough room to the formation of a stricter policy framework along these lines. By developing a set of differentiated indices on European poverty, the devastating consequences of the belated neoliberal reformation of the country's welfare state are highlighted. All calculations are based on microdata sets of EUSILC surveys.

Sochařská dílna rodiny Kitzingerů v Milešově

This article aims to introduce and intestigate the Kitzinger family of sculptors, who created sculpture art in Litoměřice, Milešov, Děčín and other places. Based on both archival sources and critical view at their art in Milešov, we can see in much clearer shapes how this family, including father Abrahám (I.) and two sons Mikuláš and Abrahám (II.) Felix, operated in this region for decades between 40s to 80s of 17th century. Until nowadays we can observe their work in both Milešov castle and parish church, Litoměřice Plague Column and Děčín Castle Garden. From these preserved works it is clear that they not only represented the style of leading Prague sculptor Johann Georg Bendl, but according to author’s opinion the father or also both his sons precised their skills in one of the Saxony sculptor families such as the Böhme family, Christoph Dehne or the Walther family. Next to the wide range of different commissions and high social status of their patrons and commissioners what is even more fascinating is the time, when these works were created, i. e. 70–80’s 17th century, when they appeared on the regional scene with highly advanced style, which can be by its quality compareable only within whole Czech Kigdom, if so.

Polemical criticism of the “catholic” and non-canonical early Christian Epistles

The article deals with the “Catholic Epistles” from the New Testament and other texts written by Christian authors in the epistolary genre supposedly before the year 130 CE from the point of view of the polemical criticism, its main principles have been discussed in the previous article of this series. The aim is to define the theses which the early Christian authors argued with and to reconstruct as much as possible the currents within the early Christianity which left no texts of their own. In addition, it discusses the questions of the break between Christianity and Judaism.

Reforming work patterns or negotiating workloads? Exploring alternative pathways for digital productivity assistants through a problematization lens

Digital trace data can be used to capture organizational practices in granular detail and enable the automation of a wide range of managerial tasks. One example is Digital Productivity Assistants (DPA) that harness digital trace data about knowledge workers’ performance and make targeted suggestions for how to improve and optimize their work patterns. Previous research shows that despite benevolent intentions to increase workers’ wellbeing, DPA tend to introduce novel forms of exploitation and control. Inspired by Michel Foucault’s philosophical strategy of ‘problematization,’ which emphasizes how practices are constructed in the form of problems that subsequently shape certain solutions, this paper takes a critical yet constructive view of DPA. Specifically, we conduct a genealogical reading of the DPA tool, Microsoft MyAnalytics, to investigate the problematics that have structured its emergence, as well as how its uses imply certain discursive commitments to philosophical and ethical questions. In the prevailing discourse, DPA cast digital trace data as a learning opportunity and thereby commit to individualizing the responsibility for handling the paradoxical nature of increasingly fluid work arrangements. Conversely, in our account of the history of MyAnalytics, we uncover a ‘lost discourse’ committed to trace data as a resource that can help knowledge workers negotiate excessive workloads. We propose the problematization lens as a way critically to articulate alternatives and speculate about instantiations of digital technology that today seem ‘unthinkable’.

Between trust and resentment: Examining competing views toward the police in Latino neighborhoods

ABSTRACT In this paper, I examine citizen-police interactions in Latino communities near the US-Mexico border. Drawing on evidence from sixty-one in-depth interviews with residents, activists, and nonprofit workers living in San Diego, I explore Latinos’ perceptions of the police. Interview data, in conjunction with observational evidence from work with community-based organizations, revealed heterogeneity in the views of Latinos toward the police. Some Latino residents were skeptical of the police and resented policing practices, including sobriety checkpoints, vehicle seizures, and investigatory stops that targeted people concerning documentation status or prior system involvement, while other Latino residents trusted the police and their efforts to reduce crime. Yet still, some Latino residents expressed critical and positive views about the police. Interview data also highlight the financial, psychological, and social strain of local police practices on Latinos who have uncertain status or live in mixed-status households. These findings underscore the centrality of the criminal legal system in the lives of many Latinos and draw attention to heterogeneity in their experiences with, and views about, the police.

Global Health Perspectives on Race in Research: Neocolonial Extraction and Local Marginalization.

Best practices in global health training prioritize leadership and engagement from investigators from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), along with conscientious community consultation and research that benefits local participants and autochthonous communities. However, well into the 20th century, international research and clinical care remain rife with paternalism, extractive practices, and racist ideation, with race presumed to explain vulnerability or protection from various diseases, despite scientific evidence for far more precise mechanisms for infectious disease. We highlight experiences in global research on health and illness among indigenous populations in LMICs, seeking to clarify what is both scientifically essential and ethically desirable in research with human subjects; we apply a critical view towards race and racism as historically distorting elements that must be acknowledged and overcome.

Post_production. architectural design and the landscape of de-industrialisation

Industrial facilities have been dispersed across the American and European landscapes since the early Nineteenth century. Also, their activity encouraged the growth of a vast global network of logistical, mining, and agricultural infrastructures. Yet, since the late 1960s, a significant number of productive sectors have been gradually dismantled as a result of technical advancement, obsolescence, and changes in industrial regulations. The repurposing of “brownfields”, as abandoned industrial sites have been dubbed, became a topic of discussion in the architectural community. In the 1980s, this circumstance presented an amazing opportunity to modernise the layout of Western cities. Yet, contemporary critical views on the nature and effects of industrialism, societal transformations, and awareness of the environmental crisis at the turn of the Twentieth century call for refocusing the architectural discussion regarding brownfields. In this essay, case studies are examined and set against the backdrop of an expanding conversation in architecture regarding sustainability.

Iqbal’s Intellectual History: A Research Study

Iqbal's intellectual history is full of various qualities. It is difficult to identify the location of Iqbal's thoughts and poems or their sources. What are the main characteristics of Iqbal's mind and thought? What was Iqbal's thinking style? How did Iqbal's mind and thought set evolutionary goals? What was Iqbal's point of view regarding thought and philosophy? And with which chain of thought was his special relationship? The critics of Iqbal believe that he got Faizan E Nazar from the East, while there is another group that says that Iqbal's ideas are derived from the West. While some people say that Iqbal's thought and vision was not the East or the West, but his own creation. It may be misleading to conclude by presenting the views of a few critics. This article highlights various aspects of Iqbal's history.

A critical view on the role of scale and instrumental imaginaries within community sustainability transitions research

AbstractResearch has recently focused on various under‐the‐radar sustainability‐oriented community initiatives to understand and support bottom‐up dynamics of social‐ecological change. While community initiatives vary widely, research on them tends towards an instrumental perspective: a will‐to‐upscale. While exploring possibilities for expanding (some of) the practices and impacts of sustainability‐oriented projects and organizations, we argue for a more cautious approach to instrumentalising community initiatives. We develop our argument around four recurring issues we identify in the literature: (1) conceptual imprecisions; (2) privileging of novelties; (3) politics of urgency; and (4) outwards orientation. In response to these critiques, and leaning on geographical theories of scale, we outline our caution. At its core, this approach is a ‘literacy of scaling’ where scaling functions as a tactic subordinate to the community.

Absolutization of human rights as a threat to the statehood and the welfare of society. Part I. The general theoretical foundations of the concept of human rights: the critical view

The article is devoted to the critical understanding of the general theoretical foundations of the concept of human rights.
 It was found that human rights are not «natural and inalienable». The authors say that the appearance of the concept of human rights only in the epoch of the bourgeois revolutions in Europe indicates the non-universal character of human rights and the violent way of their affirmation. It was emphasized that taking into account the variety of theories of the origin of the state and of the main modern concepts of the state, human rights, which are closely connected only with the theory of the legal state and the civil society, may not be recognized as the only one true super-idea and super-value. It is noted that the historical experience of the existence of the privileged and oppressed population strata in the pre-modern era proves that a person can exist without formal confirmation of all the fullness of his rights, and this fact indicates that human rights are determined by the factors of historical development, and not by their «natural, eternal and inalienable character».
 The authors show the controversial character of human rights as well as the contradiction of their absolutization to the main features of the objective law. The authors say that different political ideologies (liberalism, conservatism and socialism) differently evaluate the human rights due to that circumstance that they reflect the interests of the different social classes and appear on the different stages of the social development, so, firstly, internal inconsistency is characteristic to the concept of human rights and, secondly, human rights depend on the level of the material and spiritual development of the society and state.
 The authors pay attention to the variety of ideas about the essence, content and consequences of the social contract and a certain limitation of the «natural freedom» of a person under the conditions of state existence. It was noted that the absolutization of human rights is the result of an uncritical perception of some provisions of the theory of the social contract, and not only does not reflect the multifaceted nature of its provisions, but also completely ignores other theories of origin and the main modern concepts of the state. The authors say that human rights are derived from the level of material and spiritual development of society, therefore, for an adequate understanding of their essence, it is necessary to take into account the historical and general theoretical regularities of the formation and functioning of political and legal phenomena, which testify that, in fact, the scope and content of human rights in a certain era directly depend on the will of the state, etc.