bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The potential for Q-methodology in promoting human rights and social justice: a case of social workers in practice research
Authors: O’Shea Johanna
Published: October 2024

This chapter explores the benefits of using Q-methodology, a systematic qualitative method of enquiry, for research on and for social justice. It draws upon research undertaken in Northern Ireland, which captures probation officers’ perspectives on risk assessment and risk management in their practice. Probation officers work with some of the most excluded, stigmatised and traumatised in society. The promotion of social justice-and human rights-focused practice is therefore fundamental to ethically sound social work practice. The Q-method process in this study provided a strong basis for transformative social research on ‘hard-to-reach’ issues. Several features of the Q-method process are highlighted as giving participants more of a sense of control over the research process. Q-method was found to be ideal in stimulating thought and discussion around macropolitical and structural issues, for example populist and punitive criminal justice policy versus human rights-and social justice-informed practice.
Reflecting as a pracademic in policy land: using research and practice to advance social justice in the hate crime policy domain
Authors: Taylor Seamus
Published: October 2024

This chapter outlines and analyses case studies in research and practice to advance social justice in the hate crime policy domains in Ireland, England and Wales. It highlights the challenges and opportunities for critical justice researchers in engaging with the policymaking process. It further highlights how in Western democracies the policymaking process deploys at most a liberal or on occasions a social liberal approach to social justice. Very few policymaking proposals reflect a critical social justice approach. Academics can contribute on occasion to policy reform rather than routinely to policy transformation. It is, however, important to retain a focus on changing societal and policy narratives so that better futures can not only be imagined but also realised.
Concluding thoughts
Authors: McGarry Kathryn , Bradley Ciara , Kirwan Gloria
Published: October 2024

Drawing this edited collection to a close, this chapter reflects on the key lessons arising from the various contributions as well as what these contributions mean for the story of research for social justice when taken together: the importance of a social justice lens; the imperative of a social justice ethic; the potential of creative methodologies and the value of meaningful participation and co-creation for social justice research for transformation both in, and as a result of, the research process. This collection calls for the recognition of the potential for knowledge building and the use of knowledge to advance or erode rights and explores roadmaps for how we can advance a social justice agenda through research.
Introduction
Authors: Sollund Ragnhild A. , Lie Martine S.B.
Published: October 2024

This chapter gives a brief introduction to International Environmental Law, specifically the CITES and Bern conventions, green criminology and the research project of which this book is part. An important issue for the CRIMEANTHROP project was animal rights that generally are absent in nature conventions, since ‘wildlife’ is accorded value first when a species has become endangered and, even under such circumstances, the protection accorded to individuals is minimal. Generally, freeborn animals (wildlife) are regarded as ‘nature’ rather than sentient individuals with interests. Human interest, whether in meat production or other objectification of animals as products, is constantly prioritized. Together, the contributions to this book provide a broad picture of the effects, or lack of effects, of international nature conservation conventions in protecting wildlife from harms and premature deaths caused by human action.
Legal Versus Illegal Hunts: A Species Justice Perspective on Wolf and Bear Theriocides in Norway
Authors: Lie Martine S.B.
Published: October 2024

Norwegian grey wolves and brown bears are endangered and critically endangered, respectively, in Norway. Although they are protected by the Bern Convention, which Norway ratified in 1986, they are victims of both legal and illegal theriocides (killings of animals by humans), through practices including illegal hunts, licensed hunts and killings in defence of humans or their animals. This chapter compares the legal and illegal predator hunts, based on analysis of verdicts from penal cases on illegal theriocides, and guidelines for legal hunts. Several similarities between the legal and illegal hunts are identified, which raises the question of whether the legal hunts are more justified than the illegal hunts from a species justice perspective – that is, whether they cause the victims less suffering.
The Norwegian Chain of Wildlife Treaty Effectiveness
Authors: Goyes David R.
Published: October 2024

For international agreements on wildlife protection to have an effect, several actors (collective and individual) must play their roles in a ‘chain’ that goes all the way from the global to the local. States must agree on the contents of the treaty, policymakers must change the national law, governments must allocate resources to implement the new agreement, and practitioners must familiarize themselves with the new rules and enforce them. This chapter, using Norway as a case study, examines the functioning of those links regarding two wildlife treaties: CITES (1973) and the Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (1979). It identifies malfunctioning in each of the links. This chapter contributes to studies of regime effectiveness.
We Only See What We Know: Animal Conservation and Human Preservation
Authors: Palermo Mark T.
Published: October 2024

Life has become a matter of policy and nature is commodified. Green economy promotes sustainable consumer behaviours, a contemporary oxymoron that hides new forms of consumerism.To truly be able to allow for non-human animal representation one must reconcile with the fact that we are arrogant parvenues compared to the rest of the natural world, sharing with it genes and finiteness alike, regardless of opposing thumbs and written language.Non-human animals are asymmetrically caught between advocacy, activism and academia and are the object of a polarized, and perhaps inevitable, anthropocentric cultural and political discourse related to a chronic us vs them or it vs the other position.In pre-religious and shamanistic cultures, the relationship with the natural world was pragmatic and invested with spiritual significance. Contrariwise, urbanization and ‘modernity’ is connected to a distancing from the natural world, vis-à-vis a dangerous underappreciation of human–nature interdependence, with all that entails.
Conclusion
Authors: Sollund Ragnhild A. , Lie Martine S.B.
Published: October 2024

The final chapter sums up the findings of the book. The contributions illustrate that the ways in which the conventions are implemented and enforced vary between countries. For example, in Spain animals who are confiscated as a measure to enforce CITES are not euthanized, as they are in Norway. Moreover, the protection that is accorded wildlife in Europe appears to be stronger in countries that are members of the European Union, through the Habitat Directive, than the protection that is offered through the Bern Convention, since the Habitats Directive has a more powerful enforcement apparatus. While all the time more research confirms the capacities of non-human animals, the value that is accorded to individual non-human animals and their interests still lags significantly behind. Although there are provisions in regards to animal welfare in CITES, and although wildlife is accorded intrinsic value in the Bern Convention’s preamble, the basis of these conventions is in both cases anthropocentric.
The Politics of Migrant Labour
Authors: Alberti Gabriella , Sacchetto Devi
Published: October 2024

The turnover of labour and its significance for workers and employers has usually been considered at the organizational level, as employer-led or individual exit behaviour. Only seldom has labour mobility been studied in relation to migration and the mobility practices of migrant workers across workplaces and communities. Drawing from labour process, the autonomy of migration, and social reproduction theories, as well as decades of qualitative research on migrant working lives, this book contributes to debates in employment relations by exploring the relationship between worker turn-over and international migration. Adopting a global and historical perspective, the authors explore how labour mobility is managed from the top by states and employers, and experienced and enacted by migrant workers from the bottom up, against the background of tighter migration policies and workplace controls. The authors challenge long-established approaches in industrial relations that see labour mobility as detrimental to the development of collective forms of voice in the workplace by showing how migrant workers’ mobilities as practices of refusal of precarious conditions may defy management strategies of control, the exploitation of workers’ insecurity, and their gendered and racialized position in the labour process. Uncovering both the individual and collective actions of migrants inside and outside the workplace, the book develops a new understanding of migrants’ everyday mobilities as creative and life-sustaining strategies of social reproduction and labour conflict, while envisaging new approaches to migration inside trade unions and social movements.
The Logistics of Living Labour
Authors: Alberti Gabriella , Sacchetto Devi
Published: October 2024

This chapter focuses on the ensemble of mechanisms, rationales, and infrastructures that shape contemporary cross-border migration, adopting an historical and multi-regional perspective. The authors draw from existing notions of ‘migrant labour regime’ (for example Bal, 2016), as developed in the context of semi-indentured labour in the Gulf countries, to show how the concerted action of multiple agents, including the state, employers, migrant networks, and temporary placement agencies, try to shape and regulate both the management of labour turnover across workplaces and the valorization of workers’ mobility across borders. They illustrate the ways in which different actors, forms, and logics of mobility have ambivalent consequences for the management of labour turnover. Based on historical examples such as guest worker schemes and colonial systems of migrant labour, up to the contemporary points-based and kafala systems as enforced by the transnational state, a recurrent relationship emerges between temporary migration programmes and the need to control labour turnover as a voluntary expression of mobility. Contemporary migrant regimes tend to adapt to both capital needs and the autonomy of migration, where the expansion of capitalist relations at the same time entraps and constrains, but also gives potential new leverage to mobile workers to improve their conditions.
Migrant Organizing
Authors: Alberti Gabriella , Sacchetto Devi
Published: October 2024

This chapter explores the conflicts around labour migration in the field of worker organizing. It firstly addresses the question of worker power in broad terms, to then consider how migration scholars have enriched past categorizations, including questions of migrant labour mobility, precariousness, and the relatively unfree labour relations that arise from immigration controls and temporary visas. Subsequently, we review the historical racialization of migrant labour and high turnover inside the labour movement, up to the contemporary literature on migrant workers in industrial relations and union attempts at integrating migrant workers, adopting ‘equal’ or ‘special treatment’ (Penninx and Roosblad, 2000). While across the Global North and South some unions appear to build significant alliances with civic actors to support temporary migrant workers, the question of whether migrants should be organized separately or integrated into institutional industrial relations bears testament to the ongoing biases within unions against the transiency of migrant labour. Drawing from research on grass-roots efforts at the self-organization of migrant workers inside and outside official unions, the chapter shows how the racialization and precarity of temporary migrant labour are being challenged from the bottom up by migrants, who at times succeed at winning their disputes despite their precarious conditions.
Two Areas of Law in Context and the Help-Seeker Journey
Authors: Creutzfeldt Naomi , Kyprianides Arabella , Bradford Ben , Jackson Jonathan
Published: October 2024

In Chapter 3, Two Areas of Law in Context and the Help-Seeker Journey, we provide the context for the pathways to SEND and pathways to housing. The help-seeker journey follows the person with a problem and legal need through different stages of seeking help, finding advice and reaching an ombuds or tribunal to resolve their problem. For housing we look at the advice sector, the Property Chamber and the Housing Ombudsman; and for SEND we look at the advice sector, the SEND Tribunal, the LGSCO and the PHSO. The emphasis on these institutions allows us to understand in some depth the effects of the pandemic, how such institutions managed to provide their services remotely, and what lessons can be learned for the AJS and the justice system more generally.
Pathways Through the AJS: Housing
Authors: Creutzfeldt Naomi , Kyprianides Arabella , Bradford Ben , Jackson Jonathan
Published: October 2024

Chapter 4, Pathways through the AJS – Housing, explores the pathways to redress available to people through mapping the ideal case help-seeker journeys for people with issues around housing to understand how access points have been compromised and which pathways to justice are difficult to negotiate or even blocked. The Housing Ombudsman and the Property Chamber provide redress for housing problems. In this chapter we will draw on interviews conducted with advice sector professionals, judges, case handlers and users to trace the help-seeker journey.
Exploring the Role of Procedural Justice in Tribunals and Ombuds
Authors: Creutzfeldt Naomi , Kyprianides Arabella , Bradford Ben , Jackson Jonathan
Published: October 2024

In Chapter 6, Exploring the Role of Procedural Justice in Tribunals and Ombuds, we draw on data and findings produced by our online experimental study. We consider the idea that experiencing procedural justice during tribunals and ombuds hearings is important not only in shaping legitimacy but also in influencing perceptions of outcome fairness, satisfaction and willingness to engage with the system in the future. We also assess whether the findings are different for online and offline proceedings.
Marginalized Groups and Unmet Legal Needs
Authors: Creutzfeldt Naomi , Kyprianides Arabella , Bradford Ben , Jackson Jonathan
Published: October 2024

Chapter 8, Marginalized Groups and Unmet Legal Needs, explores how the pandemic has affected access to advice and redress for marginalized groups. Already marginalized communities are likely to be affected the most by the pandemic. Yet, we know relatively little about how members of these groups are accessing the justice system and what can be done during and after the pandemic to improve their capacity to obtain advice, support and redress. The digital age has brought both opportunities and challenges to the access to justice landscape. While advancements in technology have made justice more accessible to some, they have also created barriers for others, especially those who are digitally and legally excluded. Our empirical data show that there is a need for inclusive justice that addresses the unmet legal needs of marginalized groups, provides support and guidance for legal needs and promotes knowledge and awareness of tribunals and ombuds. Additionally, procedural justice plays a crucial role in establishing legitimacy in the digital age, and communication that considers both the form and content can have a significant impact on the emotional experiences of service users. It is essential to consider the unique vulnerabilities and capabilities of different groups and aim towards creating a justice system that serves everyone, including the digitally and legally abandoned.
Assembling Comparison
Authors: Lewis Steven , Spratt Rebecca
Published: October 2024

This book introduces a Policy Mobilities and Assemblage Theory (PMAT) conjoined approach as a way to think differently about policy and do policy research in comparative education. Our purpose in bringing together policy mobilities and (Deleuzian-Guattarian) assemblage theory is to open up new lines of flight: to facilitate understanding policy through a lens attuned to movement, difference and becoming. This enables different answers to existing questions and different ways to ask these questions, including questions of ourselves as researchers and policy practitioners. It is in this vein that we present PMAT as an approach, not the approach. It is decidedly not something that is definitive, fixed and complete, but rather something that might help to open different lines of thinking and questioning. After detailing the key points of synergy between policy mobilities and assemblage theory, the book then delimits the key features of PMAT, presented as a series of four distinct but related Orientations for Thinking. Each orientation offers some specific research questions to help demonstrate how PMAT might be applied to a given research problem. The book concludes with reflections on the potential uses and limits of PMAT for the research of policy in comparative and international education.
Why Policy, Why Comparison?
Authors: Lewis Steven , Spratt Rebecca
Published: October 2024

This chapter introduces the main themes of the book. It discusses the long-standing concern in comparative and international education (CIE) as to what constitutes 'comparison' and the validity of our methods of comparing, particularly for understanding the mobility of education policy. The chapter argues that addressing the challenges and limitations that come from knowing through comparison requires a closer attention to the core onto-epistemic assumptions that inform both CIE and policy research and practice. It introduces the theoretical and methodological frameworks of policy mobilities and assemblage theory and provides initial justification for deploying these creatively together to understand education policy through a lens attuned to movement, difference and becoming. Moreover, it introduces the worked example of Pacific Regional Education Policy, which is used throughout the book to elucidate the theoretical and methodological offerings. The chapter ends with an explanation of what brought the authors to write the book and an overview of the book's structure.
What is Policy?
Authors: Lewis Steven , Spratt Rebecca
Published: October 2024

This chapter considers how the ontology of policy can be disrupted, thereby exploring how policy assemblage requires a focus on what policy does (or produces) in our worlds and why it does so, rather than simply describing which (pre-existing) components or actors comprise policy. This focuses on questioning and problematizing assumptions around what is policy; that is, rather than assuming policy has a fixed identity, one can ask instead what policy does to better understand what it is. Through concrete examples, the chapter shows how a conjoined policy mobilities and assemblage theory approach (PMAT) offers different ways of understanding the apparent inconsistencies in intentions, rationalities and outcomes in a given policy, which provides new insights into why we so often persist with policy that is 'known' to be ineffective at achieving its stated outcome, or else accept policy that may appear to be against our 'interests'.
How to Research Policy?
Authors: Lewis Steven , Spratt Rebecca
Published: October 2024

This chapter is concerned with how one might use policy mobilities and assemblage theory (PMAT) to empirically research policy movement, disrupting and problematizing assumptions around how to do policy research? Using Pacific regionalism in education policy as an illustrative example, the chapter highlights the methodological issues that researchers face when considering policy-as-a-problem without a definitive 'origin point' (when/where it started) or a clearly defined limit, which necessarily exceeds our limits of knowingness. The notion of 'in the middle' also foregrounds the entanglement of the policy research(er), and the socio-material constitution of the research(er), in ways that inevitably contribute to how policy-as-a-problem is sensed, experienced and (re)produced. As such, this chapter considers the thoroughly assembled and produced nature of policy, not to mention the policy research(er) that seeks to make sense of these empirical phenomena in different ways.
Representation: Disputable Claims, Contestable Concept
Authors: Castaños Fernando , Monsiváis-Carrillo Alejandro
Published: October 2024

In this chapter Castaños and Monsiváis-Carillo demonstrate how theoretical debate and disagreement over the meaning of representation stems from the fact that the concept is ‘essentially contestable’. Through a critique of prominent approaches to the concept, notably those by Pitkin and Pettit, the authors show how the representative claim approach is to be preferred in the context of this conceptual contestability. The chapter illustrates its argument via analyses of electoral contests that have had significant consequences for the dynamics of Mexico’s democracy.
Delivering Genuine Change and National Redemption: Representative Claims in Mexico’s 2018 Election
Authors: Monsiváis-Carrillo Alejandro , Castaños Fernando
Published: October 2024

This chapter adapts Saward’s notion of representative claim to study the electoral achievement of coalition Juntos Haremos Historia (We Will Make History Together, JHH), in the 2018 Mexican election. This coalition was led by Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional (Movement for the Regeneration of the Nation, MORENA), a new party founded by Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), who became its presidential candidate. JHH won the presidential election by a landslide. We argue that this result is a case of effective claim-making, based upon a populist and Messianic discourse in a context of widespread representative disaffection that developed after Mexico’s democratic transition. After noting how the representative claim perspective helps to understand how representation’s complexities unfold as part of democratic advance or deterioration, the chapter discusses the conditions that strengthened AMLO’s cause, in particular citizen disaffection with political parties and politicians. The chapter goes on to describe the winning claim-‘makers’: AMLO, MORENA and JHH. Finally, the chapter discusses the representative claims put forward by JHH and analyses the circumstances that made them effective and considers the risks to democracy associated with the emergence of a new dominant party and the new president’s populist discourse.
Afterword: The Travels and Travails of Political Representation
Authors: Saward Michael
Published: October 2024

This Afterword summarizes some of the main contributions to our understanding of the theory of representation and its practice to be found in the volume. It emphasizes the importance of detailed perspectives from authors located in, and writing from, the Global South, and notes several ways in which the chapters innovate around the idea of the representative claim.
The State and Industrial Relations: Debates, Concerns and Contradictions in the Forging of Regulatory Change in the UK
Authors: Lucio Miguel Martínez , MacKenzie Robert
Published: October 2024

This chapter examines the role of the state within industrial relations, an often underemphasized or at least narrowly defined social relationship deriving from governance institutions and systems of regulation. It explores sweeping yet contradictory transformations of the state under neoliberalism and themes of legitimacy, coordination and the marginalization of social and employment rights. The changing role of the state in the post-war period, the later influence of New Right governments from 1979 onwards, state intervention to curtail industrial action and the more recent state promotion of marketization are analysed, along with contemporary state-led projects of reform and innovation within the constraints of deregulation, austerity and labour market fragmentation.
Exploring ‘New’ Forms of Work Organization: The Case of Parcel Delivery in the UK
Authors: Moore Sian , Newsome Kirsty , Williamson Stefanie
Published: October 2024

In this chapter, the authors focus on new technology and the role of online platforms in terms of their impact on work and industrial relations. Themes of flexibility, work autonomy, digital technology and self-employment are explored with a highly illustrative case study of parcel delivery. This discussion begins by contextualizing the nature of parcel delivery in the UK, before considering the contractual status of delivery workers. Throughout the chapter, the authors highlight the relationship between such 'flexible' work, labour market segregation and inequality. The chapter outlines the contradictory relationship between digital technology and self-employment, and examines the implications for workers and industrial relations by considering the extent to which digital monitoring diminishes worker autonomy.
Design of a dual-focal-plane head-up display system using double freeform mirrors
Authors: Yang Tong , Xu Huiming , Zhou Lijun , Cheng Yinuo , Wu Zibo , Shang Shan , Cheng Dewen , Wang Yongtian
Published: October 2024

This paper presents the design of a dual-focal-plane head-up display (HUD) system utilizing double freeform mirrors. The system is specifically developed for automotive applications, aiming to enhance driving safety and experience by projecting vehicle information within the driver’s line of sight. Compared to the traditional WHUD, the ARHUD offers a broader field of view and a greater virtual image distance. If the ARHUD system has double focal planes, it can separately display basic and interactive driving information to drivers, which is currently a significant research direction in the ARHUD system design. The proposed design only uses double freeform mirrors and uses a single display source for both focal planes, thus reducing the overall system complexity, assembly difficulty, and cost. Detailed design methods and results are discussed, showcasing the system’s good imaging performance and compact structure, which provide valuable insights for the development of next-generation dual-focal-plane HUDs for vehicles. The proposed system demonstrates significant advancements in reducing fabrication and testing difficulties compared to traditional dual-focal-plane HUD designs. The study’s findings contribute to the future development of dual-focal-plane head-up display systems.
Investigation of laser phase noise tolerance in simplified coherent PON with subcarrier multiplexing
Authors: Fan Runzhe , Li Jie , Gong Zepeng , Shi Fan , Luo Ming , Li Xiang
Published: October 2024

In this paper, we experimentally investigate the laser phase noise tolerance for a 100 Gb/s/λ coherent passive optical network (PON) with simplified optical network units (ONUs) transceivers when distributed feedback (DFB) laser is used as the local oscillator (LO). In the proposed scheme, the digitally subcarrier-multiplexed (DSCM) signals are generated in the coherent transmitter at the optical line terminal (OLT) side based on Alamouti encoding in two polarizations and received by a single-polarization heterodyne receiver at the ONU side. The experimental results show that the power budget can achieve 34.2 dB and 33.9 dB after a 25 km standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) link when external cavity laser (ECL) and DFB lasers are used as the LOs at the ONU side. Polarization and carrier phase tracking schemes for the DSCM systems based on frequency domain pilot tones were used in digital signal process (DSP). At the same time, the frequency offset estimation and phase noise compensation algorithms are conducted using residual carriers. By choosing an appropriate width for the low-pass filter, the optimal performance for the phase noise compensation can be achieved. The pre-equalization operation at the OLT side is also verified for the subcarrier-multiplexed signals to provide better and flatter performances.
Respiratory monitoring via a nanoporous film-coated tilted fiber Bragg grating humidity sensor
Authors: Wu Jun , Shi Yufei , Fen Xijie , Zhou Jun , Dong Jie , Zhou Wen Jun , Shen Changyu
Published: October 2024

A humidity sensor for respiratory monitoring based on a tilted fiber Bragg grating (TFBG) functionalized with a nanoporous coating consisting of titanium carbide (Ti2C) and fullerene (C60) is proposed. By incorporating the C60 into Ti2C, a nanocomposite film with abundant three-dimensional porousness is coated on the TFBG surface. The nanocomposite film with strong hygroscopicity and desorption properties is highly sensitive to environmental humidity variations, where the induced refractive index changes of the coating result in the spectral responses of TFBG multi-resonances. Experimental results show that the sensitivity of the sensor is as high as 0.055 dB/%RH in the relative humidity range of 10–90%RH with the response and recovery time of 0.59 and 0.91 s, respectively. Furthermore, the humidity sensor was successfully used to perform in vivo respiratory monitoring of the humans.
Observation of spatiotemporal dynamics for topological surface states with on-demand dispersion
Authors: Zhang Zhanyuan , Lan Zhihao , Xu Pengbai , Wu Leiming , Chen Menglin L. N. , Sha Wei E. I. , Xu Yi , Qin Yuwen
Published: October 2024

Dispersion management in guided wave optics is of vital importance for various applications. Topological photonics opens new horizons for manipulating unidirectional guided waves utilizing edge states. However, the experimental observation of spatiotemporal dynamics for guided waves with on-demand dispersion in topological photonic crystal is an important issue awaiting exploitation. Herein, we experimentally investigate the spatiotemporal properties of topological surface states with on-demand dispersion, where they are supported by a truncated valley photonic crystal with surface modulation. We observe the electromagnetic dynamics of surface states with typical dispersions, where dynamical trapping of an electromagnetic pulse mediated by the unidirectional surface state with flat dispersion and backward beam routing using reversed dispersion properties are achieved in photonic crystal slabs. Both numerical and experimental results substantiate the ultimate dispersion management for topological surface states, which could pave new ways for the manipulation of electromagnetic waves on the surface of photonic devices.
Metasurfaces for multiplexing pencil-like beams with longitudinally inhomogeneous versatile polarization states and polarization-evolutive imaging
Authors: Tang Feng , Zhang Teng , Tan Zhiyu , Zang Xiaofei , Zhu Yiming , Zhuang Songlin
Published: October 2024

The manipulation of polarization in the longitudinal direction using metasurfaces introduces a new dimension for controlling polarization states. Previous research has primarily focused on creating a single beam with a linearly polarized state that varies along the optical path. Nevertheless, this unexplored territory offers vast opportunities for longitudinally polarization-variant applications. Here, we present and experimentally demonstrate an innovative approach that can transform the linearly polarized (LP) terahertz (THz) waves into multiple pencil-like beams, featuring diverse, longitudinally varying polarization behaviors. We characterize a series of metadevices capable of mimicking the longitudinal polarization evolution between two orthogonal LP states, i.e., circularly polarized (CP) states and hybrid-polarized states (elliptically and arbitrarily polarized states) (i.e., the evolution between orthogonal LP and CP states), in the longitudinal direction. In addition, we experimentally demonstrate a wide range of polarization-switchable imaging modalities in the propagation direction, which we term “polarization-evolutive imaging.” This work not only expands the role of polarization in imaging with multiplexed functionalities but also paves the way for developing other metadevices that can perform unique tasks such as ultrahigh-bandwidth data exchange and versatile light–matter interactions.
Psychometric properties of the Functional Literacy Questionnaire among Portuguese adolescents
Authors: Martins Raquel , Capitão Carolina , Feteira-Santos Rodrigo , Virgolino Ana , Santos Osvaldo
Published: October 2024

Background

Robust tools to assess self-reported adolescent functional health literacy are lacking. In Portugal, the only available tool is the Newest Vital Sign for Portuguese adolescents (NVS-PTeen), though presenting modest validity and reliability properties. A new instrument–the Functional Literacy Questionnaire (FLiQ)–was developed, inspired by the NVS-PTeen, but following the European Regulation for food labeling and targeting a balanced assessment of numeracy and verbal comprehension skills. This study aimed to evaluate several psychometric properties of the FLiQ when administered to Portuguese adolescents.

Methods

We conducted a longitudinal observational study with three phases: (1) Delphi panel with health literacy experts; (2) self-administration of FLiQ and NVS-PTeen to adolescents in 7th to 9th grades; and (3) re-administration of FLiQ four weeks after baseline, to the same group of participants.

Results

FLiQ’s content validity was excellent, with an Average-Content Validity Index of .95. Overall, 372 adolescents (50.3% girls) aged between 12–17 years (median age: 13) participated in the study. Of these, 150 completed the test-retest assessment. Internal consistency was good (Kuder-Richardson Fornula-20 = .70), as well as test-retest reliability (Intraclass Coefficient Correlation = .82). FLiQ total score was weakly correlated with the school year (rho = .174), and moderately with Portuguese (rho = .348) and Mathematics grades (rho = .333). Factor analysis indicated a two-dimension structure, reflecting numeracy and verbal comprehension skills. Item response theory analysis revealed differences in difficulty and discrimination capacity among items, all with adequate fit values.

Conclusion

FLiQ is a valid and reliable tool. It can be used to monitor functional health literacy levels in Portuguese adolescents.
Effect of ACE mutations on blood ACE phenotype parameters
Authors: Kryukova Olga V. , Korostin Dmitry O. , Belova Vera A. , Cheranev Valery V. , Repinskaia Zhanna A. , Uporov Igor V. , Dudek Steven M. , Kost Olga A. , Rebrikov Denis V. , Danilov Sergei M.
Published: October 2024

Background

Analysis of existing mutations of Angiotensin-I-Converting Enzyme (ACE) led us to hypothesize that the carriers of damaging ACE mutations (accompanied by low ACE levels) could be at risk for the development of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

Methodology/Principal findings

We quantified blood ACE levels in EDTA-containing plasma from 15 patients with 11 different heterozygous ACE mutations and estimated the effects of these mutations on ACE phenotypes, using a set of mAbs to ACE and two ACE substrates. We confirmed prior observations that the relatively frequent Y215C mutation in the N domain of ACE (present in ~1% of the population) is associated with both Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and reduced plasma levels of ACE (~50% of controls), indicating that it likely results in a transport-deficient protein. In addition, we identified another 4 mutations in both ACE domains (M118T, C734Y, V992M and V997M) which are also associated with decreased ACE levels in the blood, and, thus, could be putative risk factors for late-onset AD. One of these mutations, C734Y, is likely transport-deficient, while the other mutations appear to influence ACE catalytic properties. The precipitation of mutant M118T by mAb 2D1 and ACE mutant C734Y by mAb 3F10 increased 2-3-fold compared to native ACE, and therefore, these mAbs could be markers of these mutations. Also, we identified a mutation I989T, which is associated with increased ACE levels in the blood.

Conclusions/Significance

Conducting a systematic analysis of blood ACE levels in patients with ACE mutations holds promise for identifying individuals with low blood ACE levels. Such individuals may be at increased risk for late-onset AD. The patients with transport-deficient ACE mutations may benefit from therapeutic treatment with a combination of chemical and pharmacological chaperones and proteasome inhibitors, as was demonstrated previously using a cell model of the transport-deficient ACE mutation, Q1069R [Danilov et al, PLoS One, 2010].
Effect of mediolateral leg perturbations on walking balance in people with chronic stroke: A randomized controlled trial
Authors: Krause Alexa A. , Reimold Nicholas K. , Embry Aaron E. , Knight Heather L. , Jacobs Camden J. , Boan Andrea D. , Dean Jesse C.
Published: October 2024

Many people with chronic stroke (PwCS) exhibit deficits in step width modulation, an important strategy for walking balance. A single exposure to swing leg perturbations can temporarily strengthen this modulation. The objective of this parallel, double-blinded, randomized controlled trial was to investigate whether repeated perturbations cause sustained increases in step modulation (NCT02964039; funded by the VA). 54 PwCS at the Medical University of South Carolina were randomly assigned to one of three intervention groups: Control (n = 18), with minimal forces; Assistive (n = 18), pushing the swing leg toward a mechanically appropriate location; Perturbing (n = 18), pushing the swing leg away from a mechanically appropriate location. All intervention groups included 24 training sessions over 12-weeks with up to 30-minutes of treadmill walking while interfaced with a novel force-field and a 12-week follow-up period, with five interspersed assessment sessions. Our primary outcome measure was paretic step width modulation, the partial correlation between step width and pelvis displacement (ρSW). Secondarily, we quantified swing and stance leg contributions to step modulation, clinical assessments of walking balance and confidence, and real-world falls. Outcomes were analyzed for participants who completed all assessment sessions (n = 44). Only the Perturbing group exhibited significant increases in paretic ρSW, which were present after 4-weeks of training and sustained through follow-up (t = 2.42–3.17). These changes were due to improved control of paretic swing leg positioning. However, perturbation-induced changes in step modulation were not always significantly greater than those in the Control group, and clinical assessments were similar across intervention groups. Participants in the Perturbing group experienced a lower fall rate than those in the Control group (incidence rate ratio = 0.53), although our small sample size warrants caution. The present results indicate that perturbations can cause sustained modifications of targeted biomechanical characteristics of post-stroke gait, although such changes alone may be insufficient to change more complex clinical assessments.
Sonhar o porvir – uma educação para a responsabilidade/humanidade. No rastro de E. Levinas e de J. Derrida
Authors: Bernardo Fernanda
Published: October 2024

Apresentado no âmbito de um colóquio intitulado «Sobre as Diferenças: Filosofia, Cultura e Educação nas sociedades do século XXI», o texto deste artigo toma como incipit as sugestivas palavras de Margrethe Vestager – «Podemos ter novas tecnologias, mas não temos novos valores. […] A minha primeira prioridade será sempre o ser humano. A tecnologia deve servir-nos» – para, sem moralismo nem tecnofobia, se interrogar sobre o que deveria ser educar e ensinar para a vigília e a coragem solitária do pensamento, bem como para a dignidade de uma humanidade in-formada e responsável,  apresentando a responsabilidade (meta-)ética – como fonte e valor dos valores e como ethos e incondição de um humano finalmente digno do nome –  não só como a única responsabilidade à altura dos desafios do nosso tempo, mas também como a única a, lucidamente, permitir sonhar com a promessa de uma cultura e de um amanhã de paz, de bem-estar e de justiça crescente.
Além do Dogma e da Ideologia
Authors: Lobo Camila
Published: October 2024

Num sentido comum, o pensamento dogmático e/ou ideológico pode ser entendido como uma degeneração de formas de pensamento religioso e/ou político. Neste artigo, argumento que a filosofia tardia de Ludwig Wittgenstein permite fazer sentido desta ideia através das noções de “imagem do mundo” e de “dobradiças”, que explicam o modo como as nossas práticas racionais decorrem contra o pano de fundo de determinados compromissos não-epistémicos. Porque o valor de tais compromissos é dado pela sua capacidade de promover a agência racional, o pensamento dogmático e/ou ideológico distingue-se categorialmente de outras formas de pensamento religioso e/ou político e é condenável filosoficamente.
En un sentido común, el pensamiento dogmático y/o ideológico puede entenderse como una degeneración del pensamiento religioso y/o político. En este artículo, sostengo que la filosofía tardía de Ludwig Wittgenstein nos permite dar sentido a esta idea a través de las nociones de "imagen del mundo" y "goznes", que explican cómo nuestras prácticas racionales tienen lugar con el telón de fondo de ciertos compromisos no-epistémicos. Dado que el valor de tales compromisos viene dado por su capacidad de promover la agencia racional, el pensamiento dogmático y/o ideológico se distingue categorialmente de otras formas de pensamiento religioso y/o político y es filosóficamente condenable.
Le Corps Sensible
Authors: Paulo Costa João
Published: October 2024

Dans cette étude, nous cherchons à interroger et à creuser l’énigme du corps sensible en concevant l’affectivité comme la manière fondamentale d’être au monde dans la philosophie merleau-pontyenne. Notre étude vise à montrer que la chair agit comme l’«entre-deux» du corps sensible – que nous appelons le corps affectif-vécu (résonance affective-corporelle du monde en nous) – cristallisé dans la tonalité fondamentale de l’étonnement. Cette dimension affective de la pensée et de l’être constitue le fondement et le sens de toute l’expérience du monde de la vie. Nous explorons l’affectivité en tant qu’intentionnalité non-objectivante, forme universelle de l’être brut et réhabilitation ontologique du sensible. Ce parcours nous mène du corps esthésiologique au corps libidinal, ouvrant à une autre compréhension du sentir, du désir, de l’amour et de la pensée. Nous étendons cette exploration du sensible aux domaines de l’art, de la littérature et de la théologie, envisageant les possibilités d’une autre métaphysique et d’une force anonyme au cœur du monde. Notre recherche met à jour des aspects impensés de la philosophie de Merleau-Ponty, suggérant une perspective renouvelée sur les catégories métaphysiques et, de cette manière, peut-être en révélant son propre impensé. À travers ce travail de réflexion, nous traçons le chemin d’un corps sensible pensant, en ressentant l’étonnement infini devant « l’étrangeté du monde et des choses » ainsi que devant l’énigme de notre propre incarnation.
Ecofeminismo en el realismo mágico ecuatoriano: Bruna, soroche y los tíos y Más allá de las islas de Alicia Yánez Cossío
Authors: Ruiz Serrano Cristina
Published: October 2024

Alicia Yánez Cossío (Quito, 1928) es una de las escritoras ecuatorianas más prominentes y en su prolífica obra ha sabido plasmar la historia y los ricos contrastes de la sociedad de su país, creando textos cargados de crítica sociopolítica, ironía, y cuestionamiento de los discursos dominantes. Puesto que las cuestiones de género y la naturaleza juegan un papel primordial en las novelas mágicorrealistas Bruna, soroche y los tíos (1973) y Más allá de las islas (1980) de Yánez Cossío, en este artículo se analizan ambas obras a partir de las claves ecofeministas. El ecofeminismo, que ha surgido del acercamiento de las teorías feministas y ecologistas, arguye que la transformación social y la sostenibilidad medioambiental son imperativas para el futuro del planeta, pero solo serán posibles mediante la igualdad de género, la justicia y la empatía universal. A partir de este marco teórico, en Bruna, soroche y los tíos y Más allá de las islas se examinan los personajes femeninos y sus conflictos, la recreación de la naturaleza y los espacios, los cuidados y la sexualidad.
Tiranos y visionarios: el contraste del gobernante ideal en 1984 y El maravilloso mago de Oz
Authors: Caro Rodríguez Inmaculada
Published: October 2024

La literatura ha profundizado en la noción del gobernante ideal, presentando diversas facetas según el contexto y la visión del autor. En 1984 de George Orwell, se despliega un régimen totalitario bajo el yugo del Gran Hermano, quien impone su dominio absoluto mediante una vigilancia constante, la represión sistemática y la manipulación de la verdad. En contraste, en El maravilloso mago de Oz de Lyman Frank Baum se presenta al mago como el prototipo de líder ideal, inicialmente temido pero que se revela como un individuo común lleno de compasión y empatía. A través de la combinación de desafíos e ingenio, este líder demuestra que la verdadera guía no radica en la opresión, sino en la benevolencia y la capacidad para inspirar. Mientras que 1984 subraya los riesgos del autoritarismo, El maravilloso mago de Oz enfatiza tanto la relevancia de la empatía como la modestia en el liderazgo efectivo. Ambas obras invitan a una reflexión sobre las cualidades esenciales del gobernante ideal, subrayando que el ejercicio del poder debe estar imbuido de sabiduría y compasión para asegurar el bienestar colectivo. Esta dualidad literaria refleja así la complejidad y la importancia de ejercer el liderazgo en todas sus formas posibles.
Consideration of the Impact of COVID-19 Crises on Radiation Safety: Focus on Regulatory Systems and Related Activities
Authors: Lee Euna , Kim Chae-Eon , Chung Yoonsun
Published: October 2024

Background: The radiation safety regulation system, characterized by its critical and domestically tailored features, encountered unexpected challenges due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Accordingly, each country implemented diverse measures to ensure the continuous efficacy of its regulatory system. This study investigates the responses of five institutions concerning radiation safety, collecting data aiming to enhance preparedness through systematic procedure.Materials and Methods: The data were extracted from official documents or websites of respective regulatory bodies (RBs) that discussed their responses to the radiation safety regulation system from COVID-19. From this data, it was observed that each country responded uniquely based on its specific conditions.Results and Discussion: Due to the repercussions of COVID-19, the regulatory system faced challenges, particularly regarding on-site inspections. In response, many countries published COVID-19 annual reports, with a few set up dedicated websites addressing its impact on the radiation regulatory frameworks. This data observed the distinct and situation-specific approaches adopted by each country in response to the pandemic. Notably, several nations introduced digital technologies into their regulations, including remote systems and online methods, while also customizing their regulatory systems according to respective circumstances.Conclusion: A variety of responses from the national RB regarding the radiation safety regulation system after the outbreak of COVID-19 highlight the importance of crisis preparedness and indicate that the current regulatory system could be enhanced.