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Comprehensive effects of sediment dredging on environmental risk and bioavailability of heavy metals from the sediment of Lake Taihu, China
No full textThe comprehensive effects of environmental dredging on heavy metals (HM) are still uncertain. This study comprehensively evaluates the long-term effects of dredging on the environmental risk and bioavailability of HM (Cu, Ni, Zn, Pb, Cd, Cr, and As) in Lake Taihu, China, by comparing simulated dredged treated (D) and undredged (UD) sediment cores under in-situ conditions for one year. Threshold effect level (TEL), geological accumulation index (Igeo), potential ecological risk index (RI), and ratios of secondary phase and primary phase (RSP) methods were used to assess the environmental risk of sediment HM; and the diffusive gradient in thin-films (DGT) technique was applied to assess the bioavailability of sediment HM. The results indicate that Cd was the most polluted metal assessed by the Igeo and RI method, and that dredging significantly reduced the total content of sediment HM, particularly for Cu, Zn, and Cd, and its Igeo and RI index, but caused a slight effect on its fractionation and distinct effect on RSP index. These indices changed independently and seasonally. Porewater analysis suggested higher HM concentrations in summer and winter may cause corresponding deterioration in overlying water. DGT analysis suggested a large proportion of metal-DOM complexes and showed that dredging reduced the bioavailability of Ni, Cd, and As but had a mixed impact (effective and/or ineffective impact varied with seasons) on other metals. These findings highlight the complexity of dredging effects on sediment HM dynamics, underscoring the importance of seasonal monitoring and multi-geoengineering techniques targeted at total and specific metals
Brain Re-Engineering Concept and Reimagination: Strategy for Early Career Academics in Agriculture and Food Systems Research
Get PDFWith environmental changes hard to predict, we must turn to innovation in agriculture technology. The agriculture sector is strategic, primary and real upon which all other sectors directly or indirectly depend. The study examined Early Career Academics (ECA s) involvements as they employ the pillars of brain re-engineering concept and reimagination (BRECR) in building the food systems of Africa, how to alter their perceptions with the aim to encourage them in agriculture to proffer plausible ways to building the ensuing food systems of the future, while also bearing notable risks from economic and social inequities, among other issues. The BRECR strategy hinges on swapping the wrong perception the younger generation nurse about agriculture and the how the recent scientific and technological advancements to building food systems initiatives, driving efficiency and increased food production, job creation, provision of raw materials for industry, providing outstanding foreign exchange earnings through international trade, among other benefits. Data was collected from six institutions of higher education to support that BRECR strategy can be enhance ECA s in food systems research and study results further urges as well as stimulated ECA s to employ the BRECR pillars which borders on perception-change, ideation and entrepreneurship, technology and sustainability
Perfectionism, burnout, and depressive symptoms in youth soccer players: Moderation by empowering and disempowering climates
Get PDFYouth soccer players face considerable pressure as they pursue a successful career in the sport. Research shows that some players navigate these pressures better than others, with the immediate coaching environment also playing a key role. The aim of the current study was to (1) examine the relationship between different perfectionism subtypes and burnout and depressive symptoms in youth soccer players, and (2) examine if perceptions of empowering and disempowering climate moderated these relationships. Two-hundred and sixty-six youth male soccer academy players completed measures of perfectionism, burnout, depressive
symptoms, and empowering and disempowering climate. Moderated regression analyses typically supported the hypotheses of the 2 x 2 model and differentiated between subtypes for burnout and depressive symptoms. A more empowering climate also decreased one aspect of burnout – devaluation - in three of four subtypes. The findings show that some perfectionism subtypes are associated with higher burnout and depressive symptoms in youth soccer, and an empowering climate might help reduce burnout for most subtypes
Sharing an example of neurodiversity affirmative hiring
Get PDFHiring processes often unintentionally disadvantage neurodivergent candidates by expecting neuro-normative performances without due scrutiny of their merits. We offer reflections as a neurodiverse research group on our experiences of hiring a researcher colleague, while aligning with compassionate and neurodiversity affirmative frameworks. We make recommendations informed by our learning through this process. Ultimately, we are motivated to enable every candidate to demonstrate their abilities to perform the essential tasks of the job, whilst minimising nonessential, and often unspoken, social, sensory, and thinking performances. Our hiring decisions differed from default practices by sharing responsibility for the interview process, making explicit the value of personal and professional experiences of neurodivergence, providing choice of interview format, allowing the uncertainty of an encounter, providing honest feedback, and minimising an expectation of neurodivergent disclosure or aesthetic diversity. We readdressed these details to enable each candidate to best represent themselves and minimise learnt and ableist conventions. This Perspective offers a novel, critical reflection on recruitment, occupying both the hiring employer and candidate perspectives. We invite further scrutiny from researchers and hiring organisations on decisions that can unintentionally marginalise and stigmatise neurodivergent candidates, and on actions that can enable genuine equal opportunity for employment to all
Reflections on Lucy O'Donnell's 'our little earthbound tales' and the art of holding a likeness.
Get PDFO’Donnell’s self-portrait miniature collages, made from comic books found in a box of childhood keepsakes, contemplate memories of uncertainty, pregnancy without birth and un-becoming.
Drawing upon 16th to 19th century portrait miniature collections held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, O'Donnell's work reminds us of the keepsake uniqueness of the tactile physical likeness.
our little earthbound tales positions such haptic uncertainties as the art of holding. Made in a deliberately understated size that fits in the palm of a hand ‘to be held and viewed closely’i, O’Donnell’s self-portraits speculate on the open-ended narrative of maternal attachmentii. Such playful encounters invite narratives of un-becoming to be held and caressed – just like mothers hold their children's hands – and to be shared with others, fostering a ‘lasting psychological connectedness between human beings’
The Experiences and Perceptions of First Contact Practitioners in Primary Care—A Qualitative Systematic Review
Get PDFBackground: First Contact Practitioners (FCP) have developed as a more advanced physiotherapy clinical role delivering specialist MSK services in GP practice settings. They aim to support GPs in effectively managing increasing patient workloads. As FCPs are now a more established NHS role, it is important to understand how these clinicians perceive their roles to guide and support future service development. Aims: To review the current evidence regarding the experience of FCPs in the UK. To understand how FCPs perceive their role. To gain an insight into FCP practice which can inform future primary research studies. Method: A systematic review of FCP primary qualitative research studies. Multiple database and grey literature search with screening following PRISMA guidelines. Qualitative critical appraisal and analysis used tools and frameworks from the Joanna Briggs Institute. Results: The review reports on 11 included studies which informed the creation of six key concepts impacting upon FCP role experience and perceptions. These were complexity, competency and role development, role understanding, job satisfaction, wellbeing and burnout and service delivery. Conclusion: FCP clinicians feel broadly positive about their roles, although they report a clear risk of burnout and associated negative impact on their wellbeing. Job satisfaction is linked to adequate training and developing the competencies required to manage patients in an environment of clinical uncertainty. Having access to regular clinical mentorship is a key requirement and FCPs must adapt to the specific demands of work in a GP practice environment
Sense of place and micro-business vulnerability to extreme weather in China
Get PDFMicro-businesses are highly vulnerable to the impact of extreme weather. However, business and management research has primarily focused on larger organizations or tended to rely on evidence from developed countries. The concept of place is reduced to physical location and space. This research explores the role of a broader concept of place that encompasses sensemaking. The objective is to examine the relationship between sense of place and the vulnerable characteristics of business. Structured interviews were conducted with 300 owners and operators of micro-businesses operating in three Chinese coastal cities. Results have identified multiple linkages between attributes of sense of place and business vulnerability. While these linkages do not demonstrate complete coherence, place identity shows the strongest explanatory power. New directions for future research are discussed, concerning the multidimensionality of the concept of place beyond materiality and spatiality, and the dynamic relationship between place and vulnerability accumulation
‘Transposed’: Luis Puenzo’s La Peste (1992) and the danger of inaction, and inevitability
No full textThis chapter seeks to explore the significance of Puenzo’s film, and to an extent the source novel by Albert Camus, for a world in the grasp of the COVID-19 pandemic. The monster here is viral and memetic, replicating, repeating and unstoppable, but by the same token, Puenzo, by transposing Camus’ anti-Fascist Nazi-critique from the 1940s into the 1990s, suggests that the enemy is a timeless failure to communicate and the helplessness that people experience in the face thereof
Authoritarian environmentalism 2.0: An incremental transition of environmental governance in China
Get PDFThe recent policy practice in China has shown nuanced differences from previous accounts of authoritarian environmentalism. The emerging discourse of green transformation shows dual tendencies for (re-)centralizing and decentralizing environmental institutions. Our understanding of authoritarian environmentalism in China requires an update. We review the recent policy practice and the scholarly literature to advance a modified framework of authoritarian environmentalism. Using the Central Environmental Inspection Teams and emissions trading schemes as examples, we highlight the coordinated practice of strengthening state control while strategically using mass mobilization and market mechanisms. We argue that non-state actors and bottom-up tools are being absorbed into the politics of (re-)centralization. The centralizing state accommodates a limited range of participatory and decentralizing elements in an attempt to modernize the governance system. Our modified framework recognizes the mutually reinforcing authoritarian and liberal elements, and sheds light on the broader trends of environmental governance in China
