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Community Education, Populism and Deliberative Democracy
No full textPolitics have been transformed by populism in this past decade resulting in political culture becoming increasingly polarised and angry. This article aims to better understand populism by drawing on a range of perspectives in fields such as political sociology, psychology and psychoanalysis. The article accounts for populism’s rise by exploring factors such as financial crises, changing demographics, especially in relation to education, and the transformative impact of social media on political culture. The article also considers the role of emotive reasoning in shaping populism and political persuasion more broadly. Drawing on ideas associated with Jurgen Habermas, the article argues that deliberative democracy, when applied to learning environments in community education, provides a way of making politics less polarised and angry and more deliberative and dialogical. 
Opioid receptors in GtoPdb v.2025.1
Get PDFOpioid and opioid-like receptors are activated by a variety of endogenous peptides including [Met]enkephalin (met), [Leu]enkephalin (leu), β-endorphin (β-end), α-neodynorphin, dynorphin A (dynA), dynorphin B (dynB), big dynorphin (Big dyn), nociceptin/orphanin FQ (N/OFQ); endomorphin-1 and endomorphin-2 are also potential endogenous peptides. The Greek letter nomenclature for the opioid receptors, μ, δ and κ, is well established, and NC-IUPHAR considers this nomenclature appropriate, along with the symbols spelled out (mu, delta, and kappa), and the acronyms, MOP, DOP, and KOP [126, 103, 94]. However the acronyms MOR, DOR and KOR are still widely used in the literature. The human N/OFQ receptor, NOP, is considered \u27opioid-related\u27 rather than opioid because, while it exhibits a high degree of structural homology with the conventional opioid receptors [310], it displays a distinct pharmacology. Currently there are numerous clinically used drugs, such as morphine and many other opioid analgesics, as well as antagonists such as naloxone. The majority of clinically used opiates are relatively selective μ agonists or partial agonists, though there are some μ/κ compounds, such as butorphanol, in clinical use. κ opioid agonists, such as the alkaloid nalfurafine and the peripherally acting peptide difelikefalin, are in clinical use for itch
SLC28 and SLC29 families of nucleoside transporters in GtoPdb v.2025.1
Get PDFNucleoside transporters are divided into two families, the sodium-dependent, concentrative solute carrier family 28 (SLC28) and the equilibrative, solute carrier family 29 (SLC29). The endogenous substrates are typically nucleosides, although some family members can also transport nucleobases and organic cations [1]
Introducing Ubuntu to Property Law: A Case for Environmental Stewardship
Get PDFIn this paper, I make the following arguments. First, I contend that the dominant understanding of property has adverse environmental ramifications. This dominant understanding is predicated on the right to exclude over a thing. Under a political economy that prizes capitalism and individualism, this has contributed to deleterious climate change and unsustainable practices. Secondly, I sketch the normative content of ubuntu as a legal philosophy. Ubuntu is notoriously difficult to define and has shifting meanings. However, this does not denude its significance. It remains an attractive relational, multi-dimensional worldview of ‘African ontological values of interconnectedness, common humanity, collective sharing, obedience, humility, solidarity, communalism, dignity, and responsibility to one another.’ Thirdly, I propose ubuntu as an alternative legal philosophy to underpin our understanding of property. Under ubuntu, property ownership is seen as custodianship, with responsibility for future generations. This contrasts with individual ownership (with the right to exclude), where the owner has unfettered rights to exploit the resource. Custodial ownership necessitates sustainable practices that ensure the long-term viability of the resource.
A Palimpsestic Narrative Of The Chinese Settlement In Calcutta: Spatial Indicators Of Assimilation, Exclusion And Gradual Disappearance
Get PDF“Self-imposed invisibility is the distinct characteristic of Kolkata\u27s Old Chinatown today” (Bose, 2016). Yet, their presence in the city is strongly felt through the Chinese breakfast street of Tiretta bazaar, hand-made leather shoe-shops in Bentick Street, Chinese owned beauty parlours and laundromats, and the week long festivities of the Chinese New Year. Though the diaspora has maintained a cultural specificity by means of temples, clubs, schools and newspaper presses, their aspiration to assimilate is evident in their built environment. In Calcutta, the often-overlooked stories of the Chinese settlements highlight a hidden side of the city\u27s architecture. Through the spatial study of the two Chinatowns – Cheenapara, within the CBD, and Tangra, on the outskirts – this study explores the indicators of assimilation and assertion of identity of the Chinese diaspora in the city.
It delves into the hidden, yet pivotal spatial practices that reveal a complex interplay of inclusion, exclusion, and displacement—factors often overshadowed by the physicality of architecture. The essay is the result of the research conducted during my master\u27s program in Architectural History and Theory from CEPT University, India, under the guidance of Dr. Sonal Mittal. The research foregrounds the intangible heritage of the Chinese in Calcutta, through a meticulous exploration of archival documents and histographical maps. By transcending the traditional architectural narrative that prioritizes tangible outcomes, this paper argues for a recognition of the invisible actants—stories, myths, and archived narratives—that mold the unseen architecture of community identity and memory. Through this lens, the paper contributes to an understanding of architecture not merely as a physical artifact but as a repository of underrepresented narratives and contested heritage, challenging the borders of conventional architectural discourse and advocating for a broader, more inclusive historiography that recognises forgotten labours and decolonial approaches
An Analysis of the Restricted Euler Problem Using Symplectic Integrators
Get PDFThe Three-Body Problem is far from fully solved despite centuries of effort. The restricted Euler Problem is a special case in which two bodies are fixed in place, resulting in two Poisson-commuting conserved quantities, allowing the system to be fully integrable by the Liouville-Arnold theorem. We analysed the restricted Euler problem using an order-4 symplectic integrator, which conserves the Hamiltonian. We used this integrator to simulate the restricted Euler problem and recovered known orbits from the literature
Mending Little Hearts ‘For Life’? Promises of a Cure and Experiences of Chronicity in a Context of Unequal Access to Paediatric Heart Surgery
No full textCongenital heart defects (CHDs) are the most common type of major birth defects worldwide. Yet globally, access to high quality treatment is very limited and uneven with most patients living in places without adequate diagnostic or treatment. Based on ethnographic engagement with Beninese and Togolese children undergoing surgical treatment in Switzerland through a humanitarian medicine programme, this paper explores the multiple temporalities and experiences of chronicity at play in the lived experiences of families with children with CHDs in a context of profound health inequalities. These temporal experiences encompass the various promises of a cure made to them, ensuring continued investment in their child’s health, experiencing a sense of rebirth, and navigating the potential risks of future complications. The article highlights how families facing CHDs in underserved regions encounter distinct forms of chronicity compared to those in more privileged areas. It identifies four kinds of chronicity in the families’ lived experiences: symptom-related, procedural, follow-up, and emotions-related
Expanding Horizons, Deepening Engagement
Get PDFThis editorial reflects on a period of institutional growth and editorial transition at HIMALAYA, the journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies. Amid recent regional upheavals—including the May 2025 escalation between India and Pakistan—the journal reaffirms its commitment to rigorous, inclusive scholarship on the Himalayan region. Strategic developments such as the adoption of the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform, a publishing partnership with the University of Edinburgh, and expanded print access through IngramSpark have significantly increased the journal’s global reach and accessibility. The editorial welcomes new team members who mark a generational and geographic expansion of HIMALAYA\u27s editorial vision. These include Associate Editor Dr. Shubham Sapkota (University of Colorado Boulder); Reviews Editor Dr. Zezhou Yang (Asia Research Institute, NUS); and in-region Assistant Editors Heidamteu Zeme (IIT Delhi), Gulal Salil (independent artist), and Yatin Batra (University of Delhi). Fatma Matar, a master\u27s student in visual anthropology at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, has also recently joined the team as Assistant Editor. This issue features contributions on ritual performance, visual repatriation, agricultural imaginaries, linguistic justice, and archival critique, exemplifying the journal’s evolving commitment to multimodal, interdisciplinary, and regionally grounded scholarship
Using Behavioural Science to Support Open Research Behaviour Change
Get PDFChanging open research behaviour is hard! Drawing from behavioural science provides an approach that is evidence-based to guide efforts to change behaviour. Specifically, the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW; Michie et al., 2014) was developed to support the design and implementation of behaviour change interventions, and has been applied to a wide range of behaviours. Central to the BCW, is the COM-B model, which outlines how Behaviour is influenced by three broad factors: Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation. The first step in implementing the BCW, is to use the COM-B model to undertake a ‘behavioural diagnosis’ of the target behaviour. By doing this behavioural diagnosis, the prominent influences on behaviour can be identified and strategically targeted for change. Researchers in health psychology have advocated for the use of mthe BCW to inform interventions to support increased engagement in open research behaviour (Norris & O’Connor, 2019).
The Directorate of Research Engagement and Impact in Moray House School of Education and Sport at the University of Edinburgh are aiming to support researchers to engage in open research practices, in line with the University Open Research Roadmap, and emerging REF PCE guidance. In this talk, we outline how we have used behavioural science to inform this approach through data collection and analysis to identify priority areas for focus and implementatio
Peer Community in Neuroscience: Making Publishing Inclusive and Efficient Through Free Preprint Peer-Review
No full textIncentives to have work peer-reviewed by traditional journals are problematic for a globally inclusive research community. The process of years-long delays in sharing new results, on ultimately paywalled venues, builds walls within research communities and is very costly. Many research fields could achieve much more with less through rapid, limitless sharing. In this talk, I discuss an operational solution to the peer-review component, Peer Community In (PCI) (https://peercommunityin.org/) which is a community of active researchers peer-reviewing and acting as editors to recommend publicly accessible preprints. This low-cost system is operated from core funding of the PCI organization, allowing cost of use to authors and readers to remain completely free. The resulting diamond open access, journal-independent, refereed, and recommended preprints can be submitted to journals along with the review reports, thus constituting a preprint-review-curate model.
PCI currently includes 19 subject specific platforms [https://peercommunityin.org/current-pcis/], has the support of over 200 institutions/universities, and has won several open science awards. New PCIs can be launched in fields that are not represented yet, and to give insight into this process, I discuss our experience launching PCI Neuroscience. Our usage statistics show thatthe use of PCI is increasing in several fields in the sciences and humanities, demonstrating the usefulness and need for grass-roots-up communities within open research