bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A novel rat-tail model for studying human finger vibration health effects
Authors: Dong Ren G , Warren Christopher , Xu Xueyan S , Wu John Z , Welcome Daniel E , Waugh Stacey , Krajnak Kristine
Published: June 2023

It has been hypothesized that the biodynamic responses of the human finger tissues to vibration are among the major stimuli that cause vibration health effects. Furthermore, the finger contact pressure can alter these effects. It is difficult to test these hypotheses using human subjects or existing animal models. The objective of this study was to develop a new rat-tail vibration model to investigate the combined effects of vibration and contact pressure and to identify their relationships with the biodynamic responses. Physically, the new exposure system was developed by adding a loading device to an existing rat-tail model. An analytical model of the rat-tail exposure system was proposed and used to formulate the methods for quantifying the biodynamic responses. A series of tests with six tails dissected from rat cadavers were conducted to test and evaluate the new model. The experimental and modeling results demonstrate that the new model behaves as predicted. Unlike the previous model, the vibration strain and stress of the rat tail does not depend primarily on the vibration response of the tail itself but on that of the loading device. This makes it possible to quantify and control the biodynamic responses conveniently and reliably by measuring the loading device response. This study also identified the basic characteristics of the tail biodynamic responses in the exposure system, which can be used to help design the experiments for studying vibration biological effects.
Human Development – Friend or Foe to Environmental Ethics?
Authors: Dower Nigel
Published: June 2023

This article is premised on the assumption that in order for us adequately to protect our environment, significant adjustments need to be made to the ways we pursue and think about development – adjustments not merely to technologies but also to life-styles. In this respect the emphasis in much recent development literature on human development is to be welcomed as a useful corrective to definitions of development in terms of economic growth, though there is still a danger of anthropocentric assumptions. It is argued that, given suitable interpretations or conceptions of development and environment, environmental care can be, and should be, integrated into authentic human development. Proposals for such conceptual alignment stem both from seeing the relevant community in which development qua desirable change is to take place as the biotic community, and from seeing development as desirable change in the total environment, both natural and artificial, regarded as a social field of significance. Such conceptual adjustments are a significant part, but of course only a part, of what needs to be done to bring public policy more into line with proper care for the environment.
Environmental Justice through Improved Efficiency
Authors: Wenz Peter S.
Published: June 2023

Environmentalists can convince others to adopt nature-friendly policies through appeal to commonly-held values. Efficiency and justice are such values in industrial societies, but these values are often considered at odds with each other and with policies that preserve land and reduce pollution. The present paper analyses the notion of efficiency and argues that transportation policies that environmentalists favour – substitution of intercity rail and urban mass transit for most automotive forms of transport – are both efficient and just.
Uncertainty and Participatory Democracy
Authors: Pellizzoni Luigi
Published: June 2023

The article deals with some implications of radical uncertainty for participatory democracy, and more precisely for Participatory Technology Assessment (PTA). Two main forms of PTA are discussed. One is aimed at involving lay citizens and highlighting public opinion. The other is addressed to stakeholder groups and organisations, not only in terms of interest mediation but also of inclusion of their insight into a problem.

Radical uncertainty makes ‘intractable’ many environmental and technological issues and brings into question traditional and new approaches to policy-making. Its consequences are explored from the viewpoint of new science, deliberative democracy, and network governance. Radical uncertainty calls for a rethinking of the aims of public deliberation, and a reinterpretation of the divide between opinion- and position-oriented PTA. To look for a public opinion, understood as a shared principled view, can prove misleading, as can thinking of stakeholder participatory arrangements in the usual way. When facts and values overlap, and are deeply controversial, the only opportunity for mutual understanding may be to look for practical, ‘local’ answers, based on different positional insights. Moreover, radical uncertainty also affects interest determination and pursuit, and may enhance the opportunity of joint, inclusive, non-strategic issue definition and solution-devising.

This vision of public deliberation is consistent with the idea of network governance. However, fragmentation can affect the effectiveness and legitimacy of participatory policies. Trying to handle fragmentation from the top, as many suggest, is unlikely to be successful. A more promising endeavour is to foster deliberative settings which, although positioned at the level of ‘local’ and often contingent networks and commonalities, are open to include ‘Otherness’ – other contexts, other problem definitions, other concerns.
Justice and Natural Resources
Authors: Luper-Foy Steven
Published: June 2023

Justice entitles everyone in the world, including future generations, to an equitable share of the benefits of the world's natural resources. I argue that even though both Rawls and his libertarian critics seem hostile to it, this resource equity principle, suitably clarified, is a major part of an adequate strict compliance theory of global justice whether or not we take a libertarian or a Rawlsian approach. I offer a defence of the resource equity principle from both points of view.
Ecologically Sustainable Rural Development and the Difficulty of Social Change
Authors: Furze Brian
Published: June 2023

This article explores the importance of environmental perception in the context of alternative agrarian social relations. Because environmental perception is socially constructed, the article is concerned with how those with an alternative agenda for agrarian practice attempt change, and the likely difficulties faced due to the structural requirements and effects of the dominant paradigm of development. It explores the need for a clear model of change, both in its outcomes and its change strategies, and the difficulties that may be faced. The article draws on a case study of a rural landsharing collective in Australia to contextualize these broader issues, and considers some of the implications of the findings for instigating the broader concern of an ecologically sustainable agrarian practice based on permacultural design.
Intergenerational Justice and the Chain of Obligation
Authors: Howarth Richard B.
Published: June 2023

The actions and decisions taken by the present generation will affect not only the welfare but also the composition of future generations. A number of authors have used this fact to bolster the conclusion that the present is only weakly obligated to provide for future welfare since in choosing between futures of poverty and abundance, we are not deciding the welfare of a well-defined group of future persons but instead deciding which set of potential persons – the poor or the rich – will become actual. Provided that future generations have lives that are worth living, they will be grateful to us for bringing them into existence – or so the argument goes. In this paper, I argue that this position overlooks an important aspect of the intergenerational problem. We are obligated to provide for the actual children of today, who will in turn be obligated to provide for their children, and so forth from generation to generation. A chain of obligation is thus defined that stretches from the present into the indefinite future, and unless we ensure conditions favourable to the welfare of future generations, we wrong our existing children in the sense that they will be unable to fulfill their obligation to their children while enjoying a favourable way of life themselves.
The Political Economy of Environmental Movements: U.S. Experience and Global Movements
Authors: Everett Michael D. , Peplies Robert
Published: June 2023

In 1972 a public choice model predicted that the incipient environmental movement in the United States would grow but encounter overwhelming industrial opposition. Twenty years later we find the model overstated this opposition. Environmental pressure groups were able to pass substantial legislation, resist counter forces, and reduce most targeted pollutants. A revised public choice model predicts that the success of the present global environmental movement depends on (1) information flows between scientists and the public on the potential costs of deterioration, and (2) means for reducing the costs of regulation such as relying more on market incentives.
Sustainability: An Interdisciplinary Guide
Authors: Pezzey John
Published: June 2023

A definition of sustainability as maintaining ‘utility’ (average human wellbeing) over the very long term future is used to build ideas from physics, ecology, evolutionary biology, anthropology, history, philosophy, economics and psychology, into a coherent, interdisciplinary analysis of the potential for sustaining industrial civilisation. This potential is highly uncertain, because it is hard to know how long the ‘technology treadmill’, of substituting accumulated tools and knowledge for declining natural resource inputs to production, can continue. Policies to make the treadmill work more efficiently, by controlling its pervasive environmental, social and psychological external costs, and policies to control population, will help to realise this potential. Unprecedented levels of global co-operation, among very unequal nations, will be essential for many of these policies to work effectively. Even then, tougher action may be required, motivated by an explicit moral concern for sustainability. An evolutionary analysis of history suggests that technology and morality can and will respond to a clearly perceived future threat to civilisation; but we cannot easily predict the threat, or whether our response will be fast enough.
The Ethics of Environmental Holism and the Democratic State: Are they in Conflict?
Authors: Westra Laura
Published: June 2023

Environmental holism, with its demands for universality, appears to undermine the democratic rights of individuals, and of nation states within the international community. But these rights may better be viewed as means towards justice or other goods, rather than as ends in themselves. Where basic survival issues are involved, environmental ‘triage’ may be morally essential, and some checks on ‘populist’ democratic politics inevitable.
The Emperor's Old Clothes: The Curious Comeback of Cost-benefit Analysis
Authors: Adams John
Published: June 2023

Cost-benefit analysis is enjoying a resurgence. Despite its well documented failures in the past to cope with the environmental damage caused by major transport projects, and despite lack of progress in resolving the causes of these failures, Britain's Department of the Environment now proposes to apply it not just to projects, but to the formulation of policy. Curious.
Cabbages and Kings: The Ethics and Aesthetics of New Forestry
Authors: Mcquillan Alan G.
Published: June 2023

The advent of new forestry in the United States represents a traumatic shift in the philosophy of national forestry praxis, a broadening of values to include aesthetics and sustainability of natural ecological process. The ethics of traditional forestry are shown to be ‘Stoic utilitarian’ and positivist, while the ethics of new forestry adhere closely to the ‘land ethic’ of Aldo Leopold. Aesthetics in traditional forestry are shown to be modernist, and to have developed from, and in opposition to a Romantic aesthetic of the late nineteenth century. This transition is traced from the first U.S. landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted Sr., to the first U.S.-born forester, Gifford Pinchot. The language and precepts of new forestry are shown to parallel those of postmodernism, and the possibility of a broadened aesthetics of forestry, developed through postmodernist criticism, is outlined. The language of gardening is used as a model of forestry praxis, with traditional forestry adhering to the principles of vegetable gardening, while new forestry offers an opportunity to flesh out an entire spectrum of gardening genres.
Redefining the Good Life in a Sustainable Society
Authors: Milbrath Lester W.
Published: June 2023

The good life, as practised in modern society, not only is unsustainable but also is frequently not really good. Quality in living is necessarily subjective, it cannot be defined in physical terms, and can be found in many manifestations. The search for quality is conducted within ourselves and not in a shopping mall. Several suggestions for modes of living that provide quality but do not burden or injure ecosystems are presented. The condition of life systems on our planet demand that we cultivate simple lifestyles that are inwardly rich.
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o and the Search for a Populist Landscape Aesthetic
Authors: Binder Renee , Burnett G.W.
Published: June 2023

This essay examines how Ngugi wa Thiong'o, East Africa's most prominent writer, treats the landscape as a fundamental social phenomenon in two of his most important novels, A Grain of Wheat and Petals of Blood. Basing his ideas in an ecological theory of landscape aesthetics resembling one recently developed in America, Ngugi understands that ability to control and manipulate a landscape defines a society. Nostalgia for the landscape lost to colonialism and to the corrupting and alienating influences of international capitalism needs to be replaced by its progressive evaluation as it is reshaped by collective action for a new future. Alienation from, and loss of responsibility for, the land may be a major factor contributing to Africa's environmental problems. Ngugi's position casts doubt on professional land management's ultimate ability to influence the shape of the landscape in the face of the collective social will.
Coastal and Marine Conservation in Britain: Ecology and Aesthetics, Land and Sea
Authors: Cole-King Adam
Published: June 2023

The long standing division of official responsibility in Britain, between the scientific and aesthetic aspects of environmental conservation has obscured more fundamental distinctions within conservation, such as its many different objectives and ethical bases. Furthermore the traditional treatment of the coastline as an administrative boundary may have been expedient in the past, but for many conservation purposes is highly inappropriate. Public administration of conservation in Britain has recently been reorganised, but the question of the administrative status of the coast and sea has yet to be properly addressed. Consideration of the diverse needs of environmental conservation shows that traditional perceptions of the coast need to be radically reappraised.
Admiring the High Mountains: The Aesthetics of Environment
Authors: Haldane John
Published: June 2023

In recent years there has been a dramatic expansion of the range of studies, policy directives and initiatives concerned with the environment. For the most part these are unphilosophical, pragmatic responses to perceived threats of pollution and other forms of environmental degradation. However, they invariably presuppose certain conceptual and normative commitments, and the examination and evaluation of these has been a major concern of environmental philosophy. To date the primary focus of interest has been on ethical and political values, but there is a developing sense of the need to consider issues relating to the aesthetics of environment. After outlining a general philosophical structure for understanding the nature of aesthetic experience, its objects and values, a little known theory – that of Aquinas – is explained and defended.
The Boulder and the Sphere: Subjectivity and Implicit Values in Biology
Authors: Alpert Peter
Published: June 2023

Science is inherently subjective. The experience of dissertation research in ecology showed how intuitively derived hypotheses and assumptions define the questions one asks and the variables one measures, and how idealised forms and generalised types facilitate analysis but distort interpretation. Because these conceptual tools are indispensable to science, subjectivity is ineluctable. This has moral implications. Scientists are responsible for the particular abstractions they select and must therefore accept some moral responsibility for the way their results are used. Those who use scientific results have an equal responsibility to acknowledge the significance of the methods and not just of the conclusions. In biology, subjectivity may also have a positive side. A wide consensus of ecological biologists accept, on the apparently neutral grounds of accumulated study, a set of generalisations that society at large treats more as philosophical beliefs. This category of implicit values in biology holds much promise for improving our relations with nature and each other.
Tradeable CO2Emission Permits: Initial Distribution as a Justice Problem
Authors: Kverndokk Snorre
Published: June 2023

One characteristic of tradeable emission permits is that efficiency and justice considerations can be separated. While Pareto optimality is an accepted efficiency principle, there is not a consensus on a ‘best’ equity principle. In this article, conventional justice principles are used to evaluate alternative allocation rules for tradeable CO2permits, and a distribution proportional to population is recommended. Arguments against the population rule are discussed, especially those pertaining to political feasibility. While justice and political feasibility may indeed contrast, it still may be possible to emphasise the population rule in the future.
Biocentrism and Genetic Engineering1
Authors: Dobson Andrew
Published: June 2023

I consider the contribution that a biocentric perspective might make to the ethical debate concerning the practice of genetic engineering. I claim that genetic engineering itself raises novel ethical questions, and particularly so when confronted with biocentric sensibilities. I outline the nature of these questions and describe the biocentric basis for them. I suggest that fundamentalist opposition to projects of genetic engineering is unhelpful, but that biocentric claims should now be a feature of ethical consideration. I conclude, though, that while environmental ethicists can contribute powerfully to debates concerning the future of genetic engineering, the ultimate direction it takes is likely to be beyond their control.
The Precautionary Principle in Contemporary Environmental Politics
Authors: O'Riordan Timothy , Jordan Andrew
Published: June 2023

In its restless metamorphosis, the environmental movement captures ideas and transforms them into principles, guidelines and points of leverage. Sustainability is one such idea, now being reinterpreted in the aftermath of the 1992 Rio Conference. So too is the precautionary principle. Like sustainability, the precautionary principle is neither a well defined principle nor a stable concept. It has become the repository for a jumble of adventurous beliefs that challenge the status quo of political power, ideology and civil rights. Neither concept has much coherence other than it is captured by the spirit that is challenging the authority of science, the hegemony of cost-benefit analysis, the powerlessness of victims of environmental abuse, and the unimplemented ethics of intrinsic natural rights and inter-generational equity. It is because the mood of the times needs an organising idea that the precautionary principle is getting a fair wind. However, unless its advocates sharpen up their understanding of the term, the precautionary principle may not establish the influence it deserves. Its future looks promising but it is not assured.
Objectivity, Intrinsicality and Sustainability: Comment on Nelson's ‘Health and Disease as “Thick” Concepts in Ecosystemic Contexts’
Authors: Norton Bryan
Published: June 2023

Ecosystem health, as James Nelson argues, must be understood as having both descriptive and normative content; it is in this sense a ‘morally thick’ concept. The health analogy refers (a) at the similarities between conservation ecology and medicine or plant pathology as normative sciences, and (b) to the ability of ecosystems to ‘heal’ themselves in the face of disturbances. Nelson, however, goes beyond these two aspects and argues that judgements of illness in ecosystems only support moral obligations to protect them if they are attributed a ‘good of their own’. But this latter extension of the analogy flies in the face of ecological science, which has been forced to abandon organicism. If one separates the question of the warranted assertibility of environmentalists’ goals from the question of where values in nature are located, the search for an objective realm of value realism can be seen to be unnecessary.
Ecosystem Health: More than a Metaphor?
Authors: Rapport David J.
Published: June 2023

There is considerable discussion about the nature of the health metaphor as applied to ecosystems. One does not need to accept the analogy of ecosystem as ‘organism’ to reap insight into the diagnosis of ecosystem ills by applications of approaches pioneered in the health sciences. Ecosystem health can be assessed by the presence or absence of signs ecosystem distress, by direct measures of ecosystem resilience or counteractive capacity, and by evaluation of risks or threats from human activity and natural forces which may decrease the supply of ecological services. The focus of this essay is on what is and what is not implied by the ecosystem health metaphor. It also elaborates a research agenda for this emerging transdiciplinary science. One can argue that beyond the metaphor is the potential for systematic diagnosis of ecosystem ills, development of indicators of ecosystem health, development of early warning indicators of ecosystem dysfunction, development of diagnostic protocols and preventive strategies for maintaining ecological services.
Ecosystem Health: An Objective Evaluation?
Authors: Russow Lilly-Marlene
Published: June 2023

Some ecologists and philosophers have tried to develop a concept of ecosystem health that would support a more ‘objective’ means of evaluating an ecosystem. I argue (following Dale Jamieson) that the concept of health is itself too subjective to justify such an attempt, and then suggest that part of the problem is that the goal of achieving greater objectivity is itself unclear. I analyse and evaluate three different ways of drawing the distinction between subjective and objective evaluations as a first step towards clarifying that goal.
Ruralism or Environmentalism?
Authors: De-Shalit Avner
Published: June 2023

Recent works on the historical sources of the environmental movement neglect environmental philosophy. They therefore fail to distinguish between two different currents of thought: ruralism – the romantic glorification of rural life; and environmentalism – a philosophy which is based on scientific information, anti-speciesism and respect for all organisms. These works, therefore, mistakenly identify ‘political ecology’ with right-wing ideologies.
Possible Persons and the Problems of Posterity
Authors: Grey William
Published: June 2023

The moral status of future persons is problematic. It is often claimed that we should take the interests of the indefinite unborn very seriously, because they have a right to a decent life. It is also claimed (often by the same people) that we should allow unrestricted access to abortion, because the indefinite unborn have no rights. In this paper I argue that these intuitions are not in fact inconsistent. The aim is to provide an account of trans-temporal concern which resolves the prima facie inconsistency between commonly held intuitions about our obligations to future persons. I argue that our intuitions can be reconciled provided that we explicate obligations to the future in terms of impersonal principles subject to retroactive person-affecting constraints.
Strategies of Environmental Organisations in the Netherlands regarding the Ozone Depletion Problem
Authors: Pleune Ruud
Published: June 2023

Strategies of environmental organisations in the Netherlands regarding the ozone depletion problem have been analysed both at the cognitive level and at the operational level. The first objective of this analysis was to describe their strategies over a period of time. Secondly, it aimed to increase understanding of the linkage between cognitive and operational aspects of the strategies. The third objective was to find out to what extent strategies are constant features of an organisation and how far they are defined by particular problems. The results indicate that each of the organisations concerned with the ozone depletion problem adopted several different strategies, that the strategies of the organisations did not change much over time, and that there was no one-to-one linking of different aspects of the strategy of the organisations. Strategies seem largely to be defined by the problem encountered.
Preserving Old-Growth Forest Ecosystems: Valuation and Policy
Authors: Booth Douglas E.
Published: June 2023

If valuation processes are dualistic in the sense that ethical values are given priority over instrumental values, and if old-growth forests are considered to be valuable in their own right, then the cost-benefits approach to valuing old growth is inappropriate. If this is the case, then ethical standards must be used to determine whether preservation is the correct policy when human material needs and ecosystem preservation are in conflict. Such a standard is suggested and evaluated in the context of the policy debate over the preservation of spotted owl habitat in the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S.
Valuation as Revelation and Reconciliation
Authors: O'Riordan Tim
Published: June 2023

Valuation is portrayed here as a dynamic and interactive process, not a static notion linked to willingness to pay. Valuation through economic measures can be built upon by creating trusting and legitimising procedures of stakeholder negotiation and mediation. This is a familiar practice in the US, but it is only beginning to be recognised as an environmental management tool in the UK. The introduction of strategic environmental and landuse appraisal plans for shorelines, estuaries, river catchments and rural landscapes, combined with the mobilisation of protest around landuse proposals that are not seemingly justified on the basis of ‘need’ (incinerators, landfills, quarries, reservoirs, roads) suggest that a more legitimate participatory form of democracy is required to reveal valuation through consensual negotiation.
Attitudes and Issues Preventing Bans on Toxic Lead Shot and Sinkers in North America and Europe
Authors: Thomas Vernon G.
Published: June 2023

It is paradoxical that lead shot and fishing sinkers are still used widely, given society's understanding of lead contamination and avian lead toxicosis. The statutory action taken by governments varies from total bans on both lead products to no regulation of either shot or sinkers. Many government agencies and field sport organisations are reluctant to use the precautionary principle and the polluter pays principle and regulate use of available non-toxic substitutes. The attitudes of individuals towards their roles in environmental lead contamination and remediation reflect marked self-deception about the need for changes and the benefits to be derived from substitution. Fatal lead poisoning of highly symbolic, revered species such as British mute swans and American bald eagles promoted development of national regulations to ban lead shot and fishing weights. Despite the parallels between these countries’ reforms, there has been little parity between the banning of lead shot and fishing sinkers.
Attributing “Priority” to Habitats
Authors: Miller Chris
Published: June 2023

A close scrutiny of a European Community directive on habitats and of the statutory instrument by which it is implemented in Britain reveals small but nevertheless significant concessions towards an ecocentric approach. Planning law now allows interference in the habitats of protected species only when human interests are demonstrably overriding. Recent decisions of the European Court of Justice have given a very restrictive interpretation of the circumstances in which such interference may be permitted. The implications for further ecocentric influence in environmental law are discussed.
When Preservationism Doesn't Preserve
Authors: Schmidtz David
Published: June 2023

According to conservationism, scarce and precious resources should be conserved and used wisely. According to preservation ethics, we should not think of wilderness as merely a resource. Wilderness commands reverence in a way mere resources do not. Each philosophy, I argue, can fail by its own lights, because trying to put the principles of conservationism or preservation-ism into institutional practice can have results that are the opposite of what the respective philosophies tell us we ought to be trying to achieve. For example, if the wisest use of South American rainforests is no use at all, then in that case conservationism by its own lights defers to preservationism. Analogously, if, when deprived of the option of preserving elephants as a resource, Africans respond by not preserving elephants at all, then in that case preservationism by its own lights defers to conservationism.
Nature as Honorary Art
Authors: Appleton Jay
Published: June 2023

This paper addresses the apparent difficulty experienced by philosophers in applying the methodology of art criticism to the aesthetics of nature and uses the idea of ‘narrative’ to explore it. A short poem is chosen which recounts the ‘narrative’ of a simple natural process – the passage of day into night – and this is followed by a simplified critique illustrating how the poem invites questions relating to style, technique, subject, etc., leading to the query whether the art form (poem) can be dispensed with and the subject (nature) be left to tell its own story, using the ‘language’ of symbolism. The interface between art and science is reviewed particularly in the light of the ideas of John Dewey and what has happened since. The ‘symbolism of environmental opportunity’ is proposed as the key to crossing the arts/science boundary, and the question is raised whether the distinctiveness of nature is of paramount importance in this context. Various grounds for scepticism are examined, e.g. the danger of drawing inferences about human interaction with nature from the behaviour of other species.
Saving Nature, Feeding People and Ethics
Authors: Attfield Robin
Published: June 2023

Holmes Rolston's case for holding that it is sometimes right to let people starve in order to save nature is argued to be inconclusive at best; some alternative responses to population growth are also presented. The very concept of development implies that authentic development, being socially and ecologically sustainable, will seldom conflict with saving nature (sections 1 and 2). While Rolston's argument about excessive capture of net primary product is fallacious, his view should be endorsed about the wrongness of ‘development’ in areas where sustainable development is impossible, but not unqualifiedly endorsed about those areas where it is feasible (section 3). Important as policies promoting sustainable levels of population are, representing population growth as a cancer is misguided, and could engender indifference to suffering (sections 4 and 5). The neo-Malthusian paradigm (which makes population growth the cause of both poverty and environmental degradation) appears to conflict with a considerable body of empirical evidence; the kind of policies needed in Third World countries are ones which enlist people's energies for producing food and preserving nature alike (section 6).
Economic Valuation and Environmental Values
Authors: Prior Michael
Published: June 2023

The origins of both economic and philosophical value theory are examined and shown to be closely related. The status of neo-classical value theory is that it is internally flawed in any attempt to describe the real world. Cost-benefit analysis as it applies to the valuation of environmental agents relies upon the claim that this neo-classical theory has a particular status in optimal welfare maximisation and, therefore, suffers the same problems of internal consistency. Economic valuation of the environment is not a scientific process derived from external law but a social process relying upon social agreement. Alternatives to economic valuation are considered and may possess a more plausible social base. However, all environmental valuation is at odds with beliefs based upon the existence of objective and intrinsic values.
The Songlines of Risk
Authors: Jasanoff Sheila
Published: June 2023

Two decades of social and political analysis have helped to enrich the concept of risk that underlies the bulk of modern environmental regulation. Risk is no longer seen merely as the probability of harm arising from more or less determinable physical, biological or social causes. Instead, it seems more appropriate to view risk as the embodiment of deeply held cultural values and beliefs – the songlines of the paper's title – concerning such issues as agency, causation, and uncertainty. These values are incorporated into the formal methodologies, such as quantitative risk assessment, by which industrial societies assess risk. The meaning of risk accordingly varies from one cultural context to another, posing difficult problems for global environmental governance. The paper reflects on the role of science in promoting convergent perceptions of risk across disparate political cultures.
Can We Talk Ourselves into Sustainability? The Role of Discourse in the Environmental Policy Process
Authors: Rydin Yvonne
Published: June 2023

There has been a recent expansion of work within a variety of theoretical frameworks which looks at the role of discourses in policy and politics, much of it focused on environmental issues. Within this there is a particular category of polemical material which argues for discourse management and for managing discourse between actors towards achieving a particular goal, such as sustainable development. The paper examines the different ways in which the significance of environmental discourse is recognised and its influence analysed. It critically examines the claims made for normative discourse management and highlights the need to consider carefully the institutions through which environmental policy discourse is mediated.
Ovarian Mesonephric-Like Adenocarcinoma With Recurrent Liver Metastases: A Case Report with Analysis of Therapeutic Molecular Targets
Authors: Sugitani Ayumi , Ogawa Ayako , Yoshida Hiroshi , Kobayashi-Kato Mayumi , Kikkawa Nao , Tanase Yasuhito , Uno Masaya , Ishikawa Mitsuya , Kato Tomoyasu
Published: June 2023

Ovarian mesonephric-like adenocarcinoma (MLA) is a rare cancer subtype. We describe a patient with ovarian MLA wherein liver metastases developed 1 month after surgery. A phenotypic analysis of the tumor was performed to identify molecular therapeutic targets. A 53-year-old woman, without any symptoms, underwent uterine cancer screening. Transvaginal ultrasonography revealed an ovarian mass, and subsequent pelvic magnetic resonance imaging showed a 13 × 10 cm multicystic ovarian lesion with a solid part. No extra ovarian lesions were observed and a staging laparotomy was performed. Pathological examination revealed an MLA of the left ovary (stage IC1). The tumor comprised tumor cells in a tubular pattern with intraluminal eosinophilic material, as well as mixed glandular and papillary, cord-like, and solid patterns. Endometriosis was also observed. Immunohistochemically, the tumor cells were positive for PAX8, GATA3 (focal), TTF1 (focal), and CD10 (luminal) and negative for the estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and WT1. One month after surgery, computed tomography revealed multiple liver metastases. Additional immunohistochemistry for therapeutic targets revealed that the tumor cells were weakly positive for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (focal; score 1+), pan-tropomyosin receptor kinase-negative, programmed death-ligand 1-negative, and PMS2 and MSH6 intact. The companion homologous recombination deficiency test (MyChoice®) showed homologous recombination repair proficiency. These findings suggest that poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors and immune checkpoint inhibitors may not be effective treatment options. A literature review revealed that data on therapeutic targets in MLA are scarce. In summary, we report a patient with ovarian MLA showing an aggressive clinical course and the phenotypic analysis of the tumor may contribute to the identification of therapeutic targets for MLA.
The impacts of under-tourism and place attachment on residents’ life satisfaction
Authors: Pai Chen Kuo , Chen Haoran , Lee Timothy J , Hyun Sunghyup S , Liu Yumeng , Zheng Yanqi
Published: June 2023

The tourism industry is highly sensitive to negative environmental factors, as can be seen in the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, when many countries and regions shifted from over-tourism to under-tourism, resulting in the continuation of multiple serious impacts on destinations. To systematically reveal the specific impacts of under-tourism on tourism destinations, this study aims to (a) understand the impact of resident perceptions of under-tourism; (b) investigate the relationship between place attachment and resident perceptions of under-tourism, and (c) examine the relationships between the resident perception of under-tourism and life satisfaction. The perceived impacts of under-tourism are subdivided into positive economic impact, negative economic impact, positive social impact, negative social impact, and positive environmental impact, based on the triple bottom line and social exchange theory. The research was conducted with the involvement of 296 local residents and foreign workers in Macau. The findings show that place attachment has a positive impact on their perceived positive economic impact and positive social impact. Resident perceptions of positive economic impact, positive social impact, and positive environmental impact have a positive influence on their satisfaction with life, and negative economic impact and negative social impact have a negative influence on their satisfaction. Using the results of this study we expand the literature on social exchange theory in tourism, broaden the theory of resident perceptions of impact, and also provide relevant practical suggestions for destinations to recover and maintain sustainable development based on tourism.
Patient and provider perspectives on the use of patient portals during pregnancy and the postpartum period
Authors: MacEwan Sarah R , Fareed Naleef , Jonnalagadda Pallavi , Heffer Holly , Petrecca Abigail M , McAlearney Ann Scheck
Published: June 2023

Introduction

Interest in the use of patient portals to support prenatal and postpartum care is growing. This study was conducted to understand patient and provider perspectives about the impact of portal use during pregnancy and the postpartum period.

Methods

Interviews were conducted with 30 pregnant or postpartum patients and 15 obstetric care providers at an academic medical center that offers its patients access to an outpatient portal. Interview transcripts were analyzed deductively and inductively to categorize findings and identify emergent themes.

Results

Patients and providers described how use of a patient portal during pregnancy and postpartum impacted communication (by supporting convenient communication and access to information), care processes (by aiding appointment attendance and helping with medication management), and care experience (by reducing anxiety and promoting patient involvement). Interviewees provided suggestions to improve patient portal use in obstetric care including using portals to increase access to educational materials and supportive resources, to collect patient-generated data, and to increase patient involvement in postpartum care.

Discussion

Patient portals have particular value for patients’ use during pregnancy and the postpartum period due to the frequency of healthcare visits and the heightened attention to one's health during this time. There are opportunities to tailor portal content and functions to patients’ needs to improve communication, care processes, and care experiences for this patient population. Further improving the functionality of patient portals for patients’ use during pregnancy and the postpartum period has the potential to positively impact patient experiences and health outcomes.
Risk for colorectal cancer after computed tomography verified acute diverticulitis: A retrospective cohort study with long-term follow-up
Authors: Mäntymäki Leena-Mari , Grönroos Juha , Riskumäki Markus , Vahlberg Tero , Karvonen Jukka
Published: June 2023

Background and objective:

Colorectal cancer (CRC) can mimic acute diverticulitis and can thus be misdiagnosed. Therefore, colonic evaluation is recommended after an episode of acute diverticulitis. The aim of this study was to analyze the risk of CRC after computed tomography (CT) verified uncomplicated and complicated acute diverticulitis in short-term and, particularly, long-term follow-up to ensure the feasibility of the primary CT imaging in separating patients with uncomplicated and complicated acute diverticulitis.

Methods:

A retrospective cohort study was conducted in patients with CT-verified acute diverticulitis in 2003–2012. Data on CT findings and colonic evaluations were analyzed. The patients were divided into those with uncomplicated and complicated acute diverticulitis. Patient charts were reviewed 9–18 years after the initial acute diverticulitis episode.

Results:

The study population consisted of 270 patients. According to CT scans, 170 (63%) patients had uncomplicated acute diverticulitis and 100 (37%) had complicated acute diverticulitis. Further colonic evaluation was made in 146 (54%) patients. In the whole study population, CRC was found in 7 (2.6%) patients, but CRC was associated with acute diverticulitis in only 4 (1.5%) patients. The short-term risk for CRC was 0.6% (1/170) in uncomplicated acute diverticulitis and 3.0% (3/100) in complicated acute diverticulitis. No additional CRC was found in patients with complicated acute diverticulitis during the long-term follow-up and three cases of CRC found after uncomplicated acute diverticulitis had no observable association with previous diverticulitis.

Conclusions:

In short-term follow-up, the risk of underlying CRC is very low in CT-verified uncomplicated acute diverticulitis but increased in complicated acute diverticulitis. Long-term follow-up revealed no additional CRCs associated with previous acute diverticulitis, indicating that the short-term results remain consistent also in the long run. These long-term results confirm that colonoscopy should be reserved for patients with complicated acute diverticulitis or with persisting or alarming symptoms.
A systematic review of Spanish academic production in the field of social work
Authors: Chaves-Montero Alfonso , Vázquez-Aguado Octavio
Published: June 2023

This article is a systematic review of the Spanish scientific production in social work hosted in the Web of Science.

Findings

The article analyzes the current state of social work research in Spain. Since the creation of the European Higher Education Area, Spanish social work has had to meet university research requirements, including the publication of papers in journals indexed in the world's leading databases. Spanish scientific production is analyzed from its beginnings until 2020. The main findings were that most of such research that was published by Spanish social work academic was in Spanish, while other categories of authors, such as nonsocial work Spanish academic, publish more in English. Spanish-language journals were mostly indexed in Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), while those in English were in Journal Citation Reports (JCR) or Scopus, consistently receiving few citations. Women as main authors exceeded men in percentages of indexed articles. Bibliometric quality measures constructed with Scopus were slightly better than those with JCR. The most developed topics in the area were general and transversal issues such as immigration, social services, social intervention, and social policies.

Applications

The study demonstrates to Spanish social work researchers that they have greater likelihood of obtaining better quality indexes if they publish in English in JCR- and Scopus-indexed journals, resulting in enhanced academic career visibility.
Structural nonlinear damage identification based on the information distance of GNPAX/GARCH model and its experimental study
Authors: Zuo Heng , Guo Huiyong
Published: June 2023

In the structural health monitoring (SHM) of civil engineering, most of the structural damage is nonlinear damage, such as breathing cracks and bolt looseness. Under the excitation of external loads, the time-domain response data of the structure produced by these nonlinear damages have nonlinear features. In order to solve the time-domain nonlinear damage identification problem of complex structures, this paper proposes a nonlinear damage identification method based on the information distance of GNPAX/GARCH (general expression of system identification for linear and nonlinear with polynomial approximation and exogenous inputs/generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity) model. First, an order determination method based on Bayesian optimization to select the order of the GNPAX/GARCH model was proposed, and the GNPAX/GARCH model was established for damage identification. Then, the redundant structural items of GNPAX/GARCH model were removed by the model optimization method based on the structural pruning algorithm. Finally, the information distance of the GNPAX/GARCH model conditional heteroscedasticity series between the baseline state and test state was derived, and the structural damage source locations were determined according to the information distance. A three-story frame structure experiment and a stand structure experiment were used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results show that the proposed method can effectively identify the nonlinear damages caused by the component breathing crack and joint bolt looseness, verifying its robustness to the nonlinear damage identification of the multi-story and multi-span complex structures.