Thinking through ruination: an introduction

Introduction and purpose of the study. Analysis of statistical data, dynamics of absolute and integrated indicators of anthropogenic and technogenic loading on the environment indicates that the ecological situation in Ukraine can be characterized as a crisis. In Ukraine, the ecological crisis is unfolding in the context of limiting natural resources, economic instability, exacerbating social and political problems, the lack of moral foundations in many members of society, and the intensive pollution of the human environment by negative factors, including mutagens and teratogens. Taking into account the above, the urgency of the problem of the interconnection of the environmental state of the environment and the state of health of the population is increasing.The hypothesis of scientific research. It is anticipated that the poorly investigated are the social consequences of environmental threats and challenges, and the state of social consciousness in the field of the environmental paradigm of health is not sufficiently taken into account.The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of negative environmental (anthropogenic) factors on the basic indicators of public health and the means of their elimination and minimization through bioprophylaxis and the formation of ecological consciousness. Methods of research: theoretical analysis, synthesis, comparison and comparison in order to determine the state of disclosure of the research problem in the scientific literature, quantitative indicator of the state of health of the population – health index, study of expert surveys.Results: the risks of negative environmental impact on human health are disclosed. The dependence of health and the environment on certain indicators is shown. The relationship between ecological factors and the development of modern diseases is revealed. The group of diseases related to the environmental impact have been analyzed. The leading role in etiology and pathogenesis of diseases of heredity and the state of the environment has been determined.Conclusions: The current ecological crisis in Ukraine is related to the influence of the complex of environmental and professional-production factors in combination with stress, neuro-psychological overloads. Today, there are many environmental challenges and threats that cause deterioration of physical and mental health, threatening the nation's gene pool. The deterioration of the environment leads to an increase in ecologically dependent chemical pathology and the emergence of new ecologically conditioned diseases.

RNA structure motifs contained in mRNAs have been found to play important roles in regulating gene expression. However, identification of novel RNA regulatory motifs using computational methods has not been widely explored. Effective tools for predicting novel RNA regulatory motifs based on genomic sequences are needed. We present a new method for predicting common RNA secondary structure motifs in a set of functionally or evolutionarily related RNA sequences. This method is based on comparison of stems (palindromic helices) between sequences and is implemented by applying graph-theoretical approaches. It first finds all possible stable stems in each sequence and compares stems pairwise between sequences by some defined features to find stems conserved across any two sequences. Then by applying a maximum clique finding algorithm, it finds all significant stems conserved across at least k sequences. Finally, it assembles in topological order all possible compatible conserved stems shared by at least k sequences and reports a number of the best assembled stem sets as the best candidate common structure motifs. This method does not require prior structural alignment of the sequences and is able to detect pseudoknot structures. We have tested this approach on some RNA sequences with known secondary structures, in which it is capable of detecting the real structures completely or partially correctly and outperforms other existing programs for similar purposes. The algorithm has been implemented in C++ in a program called comRNA, which is available at http://ural.wustl.edu/softwares.html

Recent Publications on Archaeological Ceramic Analyses and their Contributions to the Study of Ancient Pottery Technology

ABSTRACTCollective decision‐making is an essential part of day‐to‐day life for group‐living animals. These decisions can be unshared (e.g. leadership) or shared (e.g. consensus).Aquatic mammals face particular challenges when making collective decisions, including a three‐dimensional habitat that can make group coordination and collective navigation a challenge.We systematically reviewed literature on decision‐making in non‐human mammals by examining the types of collective decisions observed and hypotheses used to structure analyses.Most of the current literature was centred around terrestrial species, particularly within primates and artiodactyls. There are no collective decision‐making studies on aquatic mammal species outside of cetaceans. Both unshared and shared decision‐making have been reported in whales and dolphins, with leadership found in killer whalesOrcinus orcaand bottlenose dolphinsTursiopssp.and consensus decisions in sperm whalesPhyseter macrocephalus.Five recommendations for decision‐making research include: 1) clearly delineating the temporal components of decision‐making, 2) standardising research to allow for comparisons, 3) considering both shared and unshared decision‐making, 4) analysing decision‐making across behavioural contexts, and 5) avoiding anthropomorphic terminology.Future studies of collective decision‐making will help us better understand how non‐human mammals overcome environmental and contextual challenges – particularly in the case of aquatic species such as cetaceans, which face challenges related to their aquatic environment and exhibit phenomena such as mass strandings.

Editor's Introduction Andreea Deciu Ritivoi The current issue represents a double issue, as it includes a special section on narrative and ideology, guest-edited by Jan Alber, along with three other essays and a book review. Together, all twelve essays presented in this issue are concerned with the relationship between narrative and the world, between a narrative content of representation and the manner of representation. First, a word about the special section. In the past, Storyworlds has published guest-edited issues in an attempt to host more focused and complex investigations of particular topics, approached by several scholars from different angles. The special section on narrative and ideology engages with the question of ideology and its special, multi-layered connection to narrative. We have recently seen an increased interest in the relationship between narrative and ideology. In the 2018 collection of essays Ideology and Narrative, there is a strong emphasis on postcolonial narratives as a cultural site where ideology matters deeply. As Jan Alber explains, narratives allow us, as readers, to construct a set of beliefs and values (whether we attribute them to the characters or also to author-narrators broadly conceived) behind the story itself, and these beliefs and values are part of larger ideological systems. In this sense, narratives are deeply connected to ideologies without being reductively ideological. On the whole, the section on narrative and ideology subscribes largely, as Alber points out, to the assumption [End Page vii] of intentionalism. I refer the readers to Alber's elegant explanation of intentionalism in his introductory essay, but I also add to that David Herman's important observation that "the process of narrative understanding involves a strategic, always only partial mapping of textual cues onto storyworld dimensions, with the relative salience of textual affordances also being shaped by the particular uses to which the narrative is being put" (2013: 48). In reading stories, we read mind-sets and the worlds they envision. We make assumptions about the reasons behind a choice of character, description, or sequence of events. When we look at the storyworld through the eyes of a particular character, we understand, empathize with, and potentially approve, if not even adopt the behaviors and convictions of, that character. As Alber explains, "We do not merely engage in processes of mind reading to understand the minds of the characters; rather, we also construct a mind or consciousness behind the narrative as a whole. . . . [W]e then form hypotheses about this mind's intentions or what one might call the narrative's potential 'point'—and this 'point' is motivated by certain belief systems or ideologies" (12). The special section presented here covers a wide range of narrative texts to examine how particular narrative strategies in certain broader discursive contexts can achieve an ideological effect. The focus of the special section is not solely on literary texts, so this is not an effort at understanding the ideological function of literature (which has, of course, been already abundantly examined). One reason we are pleased to feature this special section is that, in keeping with the mission of the journal, it offers a nuanced and comprehensive illustration of narratogical analysis focused on formal but also contextual aspects of "generic textual structures," to use Dan Shen's phrase (2003: 147). Traditionally, narratology has focused on what Alber here calls "decontextualized structural properties" of a text (emplotment, e.g., could be considered such a property). More recent scholarship has made it clear that the "contextualized ideological belief systems," to use again one of Alber's apt phrases, ultimately determine not only the choice of a particular narrative technique. To understand the ideological force of a narrative, we must attend to rich contextualization [End Page viii] as well as thick descriptions of technique and form. The essays in this special section are exemplary in this regard. We hope that together, they will leave the reader pondering carefully the claim that systems of belief and textual features reinforce each other as they make it possible to access storyworlds and the mind-sets behind them. The rest of this issue elaborates and further tests this claim, starting with David Shumway's article, in which the author reflects...

I am pleased to introduce a special section of the International Journal of Eating Disorders (IJED) on improving support for parents with a child with an eating disorder (ED). The focus of the special section is a forum article by Wilksch (2023). The IJED uses the Forum article type for publishing proposals of novel approaches or solutions to gaps in research, practice, or policy. Building on findings from a parent survey he conducted in Australia, Wilksch highlights gaps in our knowledge of the needs and challenges parents experience from first realizing that their child has eating disorder symptoms and throughout their journey within the healthcare system. The topic is close to my heart. Having a sibling with severe and enduring anorexia nervosa has been a defining feature in my life. When consulted about my sister's severe weight loss, our pediatrician declared that the ailment could not possibly be anorexia nervosa. Mental illness, the doctor opined, did not occur in a “good family” such as ours. Eventually, my mother sought the advice of a psychiatrist. She returned from the appointment visibly shaken, having been harshly scolded for my sister's emaciated state, which the psychiatrist took as evidence of parenting failure and for which he offered no psychotherapeutic options. My sister's lengthy treatment history lacked any effort to involve my parents in treatment. By and by, my brother (a gastroenterologist) helped ease some of my parents' shame and guilt over what they thought was an “inability to properly feed” their child; anorexia nervosa was a brain disease, he explained, the cause for which parents bore no responsibility. In many countries, parents today have far improved options when requiring treatment for a child with an ED than were available to my family. Yet, Wilksch builds the case that we still must and can do far more to support parents. Wilksch proposes several broad strategies focused on more fully tapping the potential of parents as agents of change, expanding access to care, improving parents' experience within the healthcare system, and recognizing that parents deserve support as they experience the enormous burdens arising from supporting a child through ED recovery. Three invited commentaries and two perspective articles expand upon the ways in which the ED field could advance research, interventions, and policies to better support parents. Although each article makes its own distinct contributions, several common themes emerge. These include the importance of actively listening to parents as critical informants about their child's clinical state or recovery process and, equally importantly, the parents' own needs and concerns; the imperative of designing accessible services; the promise of technology to close gaps in service; and the recognition that parents are key allies not only in their child's treatment but also as valuable peer supporters to other families experiencing the challenge of a child with an eating disorder. I hope that this special section will stimulate research of, and advocacy for, improving support for parents across the full range of options proposed in the articles: parent-focused strategies, dissemination-focused strategies, and policy changes. I thank the contributing authors and am grateful to the peer reviewers of the articles in this special section. Special thanks to the Associate Editors Drs. Natasha Burke, Anja Hilbert, Kelly Klump, Tracey Wade, and Timothy Walsh for proposing commentary and perspective article authors. Ruth Striegel Weissman: Conceptualization; writing – original draft; writing – review and editing. None. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

6 - Linking energy homeostasis, exergy management, and resiliency to develop sustainable grid-connected distributed generation systems for their integration into the distribution grid by electric utilities

In this chapter, the authors analyse and discuss conceptual and methodological issues related to international benchmarking and its effect on educational policy and practice in selected European countries. Benchmarking is viewed as a process of comparing educational outcomes in schooling systems, identifying strengths and weaknesses and serving as a platform to identify best-practice examples, thus providing a foundation for school development and other improvements in the education system. Using data from international surveys, the authors compare educational outcomes over time for a sample of European countries, discuss recent trends and identify the main similarities/differences. The data on educational outcomes come primarily from the wide-ranging OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), as well as from other relevant sources of data on European education. The chapter is concluded with the lessons learnt from international benchmarking, in the context of challenges in the social and education environment of the selected European countries.

Micro‐ and macroparasites are a leading cause of mortality for humans, animals, and plants, and there is great need to understand their origins, transmission dynamics, and impacts. Disease ecology formed as an interdisciplinary field in the 1970s to fill this need and has recently rapidly grown in size and influence. Because interdisciplinary fields integrate diverse scientific expertise and training experiences, understanding their composition and research priorities is often difficult. Here, for the first time, we quantify the composition and educational experiences of a subset of disease ecology practitioners and identify topical trends in published research. We combined a large survey of self‐declared disease ecologists with a literature synthesis involving machine‐learning topic detection of over 18,500 disease ecology research articles. The number of graduate degrees earned by disease ecology practitioners has grown dramatically since the early 2000s. Similar to other science fields, we show that practitioners in disease ecology have diversified in the last decade in terms of gender identity and institution, with weaker diversification in race and ethnicity. Topic detection analysis revealed how the frequency of publications on certain topics has declined (e.g., HIV, serology), increased (e.g., the dilution effect, infectious disease in bats), remained relatively common (e.g., malaria ecology, influenza, vaccine research and development), or have consistently remained relatively infrequent (e.g., theoretical models, field experiments). Other topics, such as climate change, superspreading, emerging infectious diseases, and network analyses, have recently come to prominence. This study helps identify the major themes of disease ecology and demonstrates how publication frequency corresponds to emergent health and environmental threats. More broadly, our approach provides a framework to examine the composition and publication trends of other major research fields that cross traditional disciplinary boundaries.

AimAnorexia Nervosa (AN) is a complex and clinically challenging syndrome. Intended for specialist audiences, this narrative review aims to summarise the available literature related to assessment in the adult patient context, synthesising both research evidence and clinical consensus guidelines.MethodWe provide a review of the available literature on specialist assessment of AN focusing on common trajectories into assessment, obstacles accessing assessment, common presenting issues and barriers to the assessment process, the necessary scope of assessment, and tools and techniques. It describes the further step of synthesising assessment information in ways that can inform resultant care plans.ResultsIn addition to assessment of core behaviours and diagnostic skills, considerations for the expert assessor include the functions of primary care, systemic and personal barriers, knowledge of current assessment tools and research pertaining to comorbid pathology in AN, assessing severity of illness, role of family at assessment, as well as medical, nutritional and compulsory elements of assessment.ConclusionComprehensive assessment of AN in the current healthcare context still remains largely the remit of the specialist ED clinician. Assessment should remain an on-going process, paying particular attention to available empirical evidence, thereby reducing the gap between research and practice.

This paper offers a medical-education perspective that I will hope complement other disciplinary perspectives in examining the value of reflection for learning in tertiary education. The paper outlines some of the theoretical strands of reflective practice facilitated in a unique course subject for professionalism and patient safety, within the new spiral curriculum at Leeds University School of Medicine. The material presented in this paper outlines some of what is delivered during the medical students’ interactive sessions; this material is continually modified based on feedback from both students and learning facilitators. The paper discusses why both students and clinicians need to reflect, some of the theoretical dimensions and models and examples from the Leeds context of how reflective competence can be progressively developed over the course of an undergraduate program. The focus of the final section suggests directions for reflective practice in the future, where reflexivity takes the form of more collective endeavours requiring some change in culture and perceptions of professional identity. The paper concludes with the proposition that collaborative forms of reflection need to include more involvement of patients, interprofessional communities of practice and the use of learning from other disciplines; all of these require different levels of thinking and different ways of working. This journal article is available in Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice: http://ro.uow.edu.au/jutlp/vol13/iss2/6 Reflection in Medical Education Ken Hargreaves, University of Leeds, lkmhargreaves@btinternet.com Medical Education’s ultimate aim is to supply society with a knowledgeable, skilled and up-to-date cadre of professionals who put patient care above self interest, and undertake to maintain and develop their expertise over the course of a lifelong career. Swanwick and Buckley (2010, p.xv)

Since last few decades, the environmental challenges have been garnering severe attention from all the masses around the globe and have affected the political, social, legal as well as economical aspects at a considerably large scale. The environmental threats such as biomedical waste, textile waste, food waste, etc. have been hampering and posing threats to the living beings. An error in segregating and dumping the biomedical waste can taint the groundwater resources and may also pollute the air we breathe in. Several atmospheric discharges such as Nitrogen and Sulphur Oxide from the furnaces of the textile mills pose a threat to the workers and the environment. Only few of us contemplate the role played by the food waste in imposing grievous damage to the environment by the Methane gas which is released after it decomposes. Apart from the individuals, the corporate organizations have also played a major role in endangering the natural resources as well as the environment. This paper showcases the disproportionate penalties paid by the huge corporate organizations in lieu of the actual damage caused to the environment. The plight of the environment has been relieved through various national laws, international laws and policies. In some parts of the world, the mitigating policies have been implemented at a rapid pace while the other part still struggles for justice and environment friendly policies. This paper aims to highlight the role of the legislature and the judiciary in the evolution of the laws and policies pertaining to the environment.

Resource allocation is an important context in which children and adolescents learn about moral issues of equality, equity and fair exchange. Recent research has examined resource allocation in an intergroup context in an attempt to understand how group processes exert an influence upon the propensity to share fairly. This thesis extends existing knowledge by providing an in-depth examination of a key element of the intergroup world; namely, social norms. Specifically, how the ability to coordinate multiple social norms when allocating resources in a challenging intergroup context develops between middle childhood and adolescence. Chapter One provides an overview of literature regarding resource allocation in an intergroup context, as well as relevant theory. In Chapter Two when ingroup and outgroup norms of competition and cooperation were manipulated, participants coordinated multiple norms at the peer level when allocating resources. In Chapter Three, adolescents and young adults coordinated peer group and generic societal norms, whereas children relied predominantly on ingroup norms to guide their allocation. Chapter Four demonstrated age-related differences between children and young adults in understanding of group processes when evaluating ingroup members who deviated from a resource allocation norm. In Chapter Five children coordinated generic norms at the classroom level with ingroup norms in their allocation decisions. Finally, Chapter Six examined the influence of peer norms in a situation of intergroup inequality. Adolescents coordinated their understanding of relative advantage and group processes, whilst children allocated equally. Overall these studies demonstrate the development of resource allocation strategies that simultaneously coordinate peer level norms, generic societal norms, and contextual information. In Chapter Seven, the findings are discussed in the context of theory and potential explanatory mechanisms are explored.

Sustainable urban development has become an increasingly important topic in scientific and political agendas. “Smart and Sustainable Cities - 2018” continues the series of conferences, organized by RUDN University under the umbrella of Jean Monnet Project EDEMS, to discuss environmental, technological and socio-economical challenges and perspectives of sustainable urban development.

This volume is an analytical summary and a critical synthesis of research at the International Water Management Institute over the past decade under its evolving research paradigm known popularly as ‘more crop per drop’. The research synthesized here covers the full range of issues falling in the larger canvas of water-food-health-environment interface. Besides its immediate role in sharing knowledge with the research, donor, and policy communities, this volume also has a larger purpose of promoting a new way of looking at the water issues within the broader development context of food, livelihood, health and environmental challenges. More crop per drop: Revisiting a research paradigm contrasts the acquired wisdom and fresh thinking on some of the most challenging water issues of our times. It describes new tools, approaches, and methodologies and also illustrates them with practical application both from a global perspective and within the local and regional contexts of Asia and Africa. Since this volume brings together all major research works of IWMI, including an almost exhaustive list of citations, in one single set of pages, it is very valuable not only as a reference material for researchers and students but also as a policy tool for decision-makers and development agencies. This title belongs to WERF Research Report Series ISBN: 9781843391128 (Print) ISBN: 9781780402284 (eBook)