scholarly journals Flattening the curve is flattening the complexity of covid-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Boumans
Keyword(s):  
Political Leaders ◽  
Susceptible Population ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Natural Laws ◽  
Epidemic Curve ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Empirical Curve ◽  
Laws And Policies ◽  
Sociopolitical Influences

AbstractSince the February 2020 publication of the article ‘Flattening the curve’ in The Economist, political leaders worldwide have used this expression to legitimize the introduction of social distancing measures in fighting Covid-19. In fact, this expression represents a complex combination of three components: the shape of the epidemic curve, the social distancing measures and the reproduction number $$ \mathscr{R}_{0}$$ R 0 . Each component has its own history, each with a different history of control. Presenting the control of the epidemic as flattening the curve is in fact flattening the underlying natural-social complexity. The curve that needs to be flattened is presented as a bell-shaped curve, implicitly suggesting that the pathogen’s spread is subject only to natural laws. The $$ \mathscr{R}$$ R value, however, is, fundamentally, a metric of how a pathogen behaves within a social context, namely its numerical value is affected by sociopolitical influences. The jagged and erratic empirical curve of Covid-19 illustrates this. Although the virus has most likely infected only a small portion of the total susceptible population, it is clear its shape has changed drastically. This changing shape is largely due to sociopolitical factors. These include shifting formal laws and policies, shifting individual behaviors as well as shifting various other social norms and practices. This makes the course of Covid-19 curve both erratic and unpredictable.

The Dark Side of American Liberalism and Felony Disenfranchisement

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 1035-1054 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Fainsod Katzenstein ◽  
Leila Mohsen Ibrahim ◽  
Katherine D. Rubin
Keyword(s):  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
The Social ◽  
American Citizenship ◽  
American Liberalism ◽  
History Of ◽  
Laws And Policies ◽  
Felony Disenfranchisement

What can the disenfranchisement of people convicted of felonies tell us about the character of American liberalism? Felony disenfranchisement reveals a dark face of American liberal democracy that is distinct from two more familiar narratives: the Tocquevillean story of a triumphal and inclusionary liberalism and the “multiple traditions” account proposed by Rogers Smith that sees liberalism battling with racial and other exclusionary ideologies. The history of felony exclusion points to a third perspective: a hyphenate American liberalism (liberal-ascription; liberal-republicanism) in which an exclusionary politics is embedded within liberalism itself. We develop this argument with specific reference to the ways in which liberalism as an abstraction is reflected in concrete advocacy debates over reform, in court decisions, and in the legislative domain. We identify three strands of liberal argumentation—the conceptualization of discrimination that relies on intentionality; the paradigmatic liberal belief in the social contract; and the liberal-republican adherence to norms of individual responsibility. The three strands show how the purportedly universal and impartial liberal embrace of individuality, contract, and responsibility, that ostensibly transcends the ascriptive barriers of birth has nevertheless fostered laws and policies that buttress the boundaries of an exclusionary American citizenship.

scholarly journals Covid-19 transmission dynamics during the unlock phase and significance of testing

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abhijit Paul ◽  
Samrat Chatterjee ◽  
Nandadulal Bairagi
Keyword(s):  
Growth Rate ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Lower Growth ◽  
Epidemic Curve ◽  
Large Scale Testing ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
Lower Growth Rate

The pandemic disease Covid-19 caused by SARS-COV-2, which emerged from Wuhan, China, has established itself as the most devastating disease in the history of infectious disease, affecting 216 countries/territories across the world. Different countries have developed and adopted various policies to contain this epidemic and the most common were the social distancing and lockdown. Though some countries have come out of this pandemic, the infection is still increasing and remains very serious in the rest of the world. Even when the disease is not under control, many countries have withdrawn the lockdown and going through the phase-wise unlocking process, causing a further increment in the infection rate. In such a scenario, the role of the undetected class of infected individuals has become very crucial. The present study is an attempt to understand and estimate the possible epidemic burden during the unlock phase in the presence of an undetected class. We proposed a modified SEIR model and dissected the epidemiological status of different countries with the available data. With the initial establishment of the model with the epidemic data of four countries, which have already attained the epidemic peak, the study focused more on countries like India and the USA, where the epidemic curve is still growing, but the unlock process has started. As a straightforward result, we noticed a significant increase in the undetected and detected infected cases under the ongoing unlock phase. Under such conditions, our recalibration exercise showed that an increase in the testing could revert the existing growth rate of the infected cases to the lower growth rate of the lockdown period. Our present study emphasizes on the implementation of 3T principles, trace, test, and treat, to contain the epidemic. The significance of large scale testing in controlling the epidemic is true for both India and the USA though they have different socio-economic conditions. The use of repurposing drugs may further decrease the infected cases and help the disease controlling process. We believe our proposed strategy obtained through a mathematical model will help to make a better policy for the unlock phase.

scholarly journals “It’s Our Country”: First Nations’ Participation in the Indian Pavilion at Expo 67

2007 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Myra Rutherdale ◽  
Jim Miller
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Aboriginal Peoples ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Native Canadians ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Expo 67 ◽  
The Impact

Abstract This paper traces the history of Aboriginal people’s participation in national spectacle and argues that the Indian Pavilion at Expo 67 was unique in its assertion of the portrayal of Native/Newcomer relations. Historians have interpreted the impact of the Indian Pavilion as an event that awakened non-Native Canadians to both the plight of Aboriginal peoples and their increasing unwillingness to suffer in silence. The controversy over the contents and general argument of the Indian Pavilion followed soon after the release of the two-volume Hawthorn Report on the social and economic conditions First Nations faced, and operated just as the federal government was initiating a series of talks with First Nations leaders to forge a new policy towards First Nations. At the same time, there is little evidence that the Indian Pavilion, whatever succès de scandale it enjoyed, had a lasting impact on public opinion or policymakers. Where the experience of mounting, operating, and defending the Indian Pavilion did matter, however, was with First Nations themselves. Whether causation or coincidence, the newfound confidence and pride that underlay the creation of the Indian Pavilion was completely consistent with the positive demeanour of Aboriginal political leaders from the late 1960s on.

scholarly journals FRENCH CROSSINGS: II. LAUGHING OVER BOUNDARIES

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 1-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Jones
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Address ◽  
Ancien Regime ◽  
Lower Body ◽  
French Society ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Dangerous Object ◽  
Social Elite ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ancien Régime

ABSTRACTUnder the generic title, ‘French Crossings’, this Presidential Address explores the history of laughter in French society, and humour's potential for trangressing boundaries. It focuses on the irreverent and almost entirely unknown book of comic drawings entitledLivre de caricatures tant Bonnes que mauvaises(Book of Caricatures, both Good and Bad), that was composed between the 1740s and the mid-1770s by the luxury Parisian embroiderer and designer, Charles-Germain de Saint-Aubin, and his friends and family. The bawdy laughter that the book seems intended to provoke gave it its nickname of theLivre de culs(Book of Arses). Yet despite the scatological character of many of the drawings, the humour often conjoined lower body functions with rather cerebral and erudite wit. The laughter provoked unsparingly targeted and exposed to ridicule the social elite, cultural celebrities and political leaders of Ancien Régime France. This made it a dangerous object, which was kept strictly secret. Was this humour somehow pre- or proto-Revolutionary? In fact, the work is so embedded in the culture of the Ancien Régime that 1789 was one boundary that the work signally fails to cross.

Spread and control of COVID-19: A mathematical model

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. P. Misra ◽  
Omprakash Singh Sisodiya
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Model ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Transition Rates ◽  
Susceptible Population ◽  
Death Rates ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Stability ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Mathematical Model

A mathematical model is proposed in this paper to study the transmission and control of COVID-19. The mathematical model is formulated using system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The model includes disease-related parameters such as contact rate, disease-induced death rates, immigration rate and transition rates along with parameters for control measures such as implementation of social distancing practices, isolation and quarantine rates. From the stability analysis of the model, it is shown that if the social distancing is practiced by the large number of susceptible population, then the disease will not spread, and it may eventually die out. Further, it is derived from the analysis of the model that if most of the infected populations are isolated or quarantined, then the spread of the disease can be eventually controlled. However, from the analysis of the model, it is observed that if there is constant immigration of asymptomatic infected persons, then the disease will continue to spread and will remain pandemic. For controlling the disease, two more parameters, that is, vaccination and testing rates, are introduced in the original mathematical model and from the numerical analysis of this model, it has been shown that the control strategy involving vaccination and testing in combination can have synergistic effect for minimizing the COVID-19 infected cases.

The Social Origins and Provenance of the English Bishops during the Reign of Edward II

1959 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 51-79
Author(s):  
K. Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Early Career ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Origins ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Edward Ii ◽  
The Social ◽  
Complete Study ◽  
History Of

During the last twenty or twenty-five years medieval historians have been much interested in the composition of the English episcopate. A number of studies of it have been published on periods ranging from the eleventh to the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. A further paper might well seem superfluous. My reason for offering one is that most previous writers have concentrated on analysing the professional circles from which the bishops were drawn, and suggesting the influences which their early careers as royal clerks, university masters and students, secular or regular clergy, may have had on their later work as bishops. They have shown comparatively little interest in their social background and provenance, except for those bishops who belonged to magnate families. Some years ago, when working on the political activities of Edward II's bishops, it seemed to me that social origins, family connexions and provenance might in a number of cases have had at least as much influence on a bishop's attitude to politics as his early career. I there fore collected information about the origins and provenance of these bishops. I now think that a rather more careful and complete study of this subject might throw further light not only on the political history of the reign, but on other problems connected with the character and work of the English episcopate. There is a general impression that in England in the later middle ages the bishops' ties with their dioceses were becoming less close, and that they were normally spending less time in diocesan work than their predecessors in the thirteenth century.

Individual differences, social attention, and the history of the social motivation hypotheses of autism

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter C. Mundy
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Early Development ◽  
Emotional Development ◽  
Social Motivation ◽  
Social Attention ◽  
Social Emotional Development ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Precise Understanding ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

Abstract The stereotype of people with autism as unresponsive or uninterested in other people was prominent in the 1980s. However, this view of autism has steadily given way to recognition of important individual differences in the social-emotional development of affected people and a more precise understanding of the possible role social motivation has in their early development.

The problem of periodization of the history of religion

1997 ◽  
pp. 3-8
Author(s):  
Borys Lobovyk
Keyword(s):  
Religious Studies ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Religious Development ◽  
History Of Religion ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Role Of Religion

An important problem of religious studies, the history of religion as a branch of knowledge is the periodization process of the development of religious phenomenon. It is precisely here, as in focus, that the question of the essence and meaning of the religious development of the human being of the world, the origin of beliefs and cult, the reasons for the changes in them, the place and role of religion in the social and spiritual process, etc., are converging.

Early Cinema in Scotland

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Early Cinema ◽  
Popular Song ◽  
Feature Film ◽  
Local Newspapers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Production History ◽  
History Of ◽  
International Audience

This collection of essays, drawn from a three-year AHRC research project, provides a detailed context for the history of early cinema in Scotland from its inception in 1896 till the arrival of sound in the early 1930s. It details the movement from travelling fairground shows to the establishment of permanent cinemas, and from variety and live entertainment to the dominance of the feature film. It addresses the promotion of cinema as a socially ‘useful’ entertainment, and, distinctively, it considers the early development of cinema in small towns as well as in larger cities. Using local newspapers and other archive sources, it details the evolution and the diversity of the social experience of cinema, both for picture goers and for cinema staff. In production, it examines the early attempts to establish a feature film production sector, with a detailed production history of Rob Roy (United Films, 1911), and it records the importance, both for exhibition and for social history, of ‘local topicals’. It considers the popularity of Scotland as an imaginary location for European and American films, drawing their popularity from the international audience for writers such as Walter Scott and J.M. Barrie and the ubiquity of Scottish popular song. The book concludes with a consideration of the arrival of sound in Scittish cinemas. As an afterpiece, it offers an annotated filmography of Scottish-themed feature films from 1896 to 1927, drawing evidence from synopses and reviews in contemporary trade journals.

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