scholarly journals Editorial: ‘More things in heaven and earth’

Philosophy ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-153
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
General Public ◽  
Daily Mail ◽  
Heaven And Earth ◽  
Over Time

Well, maybe not. It all depends on your philosophy, and perhaps a bit on heaven and earth too. Nothing, though, enrages the average philosopher these days more than the obdurate, even pig-headed refusal of the general public to abandon its belief in ESP and the paranormal. Most philosophers, even in Britain, do not read the London Daily Mail. So their breakfast-time composure will not have been ruffled by the report of its science correspondent on November 26th, 1997, that a survey of 6,238 mainly intelligent and mature Britons showed that 59% believed in ESP. Worse, those who believed were generally speaking no worse judges of the probability of coincidences than those sceptical of the claims of psychics, clairvoyants and the like. Furthermore, it appears that belief in the paranormal has not diminished over time to any great extent. Dr Susan Blackmore, who was responsible for the research for the survey commented that all this goes to show that science education ‘hasn't made any difference’.

Examining the Knowledge, Awareness, and Perceptions of Palliative Care in the General Public Over Time: A Scoping Literature Review

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 481-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priya Patel ◽  
Laura Lyons
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Palliative Care ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
General Public ◽  
The United States ◽  
Close Friend ◽  
Poor Knowledge ◽  
The Public ◽  
Scoping Literature Review ◽  
Over Time

Background: The field of palliative care (PC) is growing as the world population ages and burden of chronic diseases increases. Thus, it is important that the general public is knowledgeable about PC and the benefits PC provides. Objective: The aim of this study is to describe the public’s knowledge, awareness, and perceptions of PC and determine whether these have changed over time. Methods: A scoping literature review was conducted from 1968 to May 2019 using PubMed, EMBASE, and MEDLINE databases. Results: Thirteen studies met inclusion criteria that originated from the United States, Canada, Scotland, Italy, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom, Korea, and Sweden between years 2003 and 2019. Participants were adults and mostly younger than 64 years, women, and Caucasian. The majority of studies reported the public having poor knowledge (7/9 articles) and awareness (4/6 articles) of PC over the past 16 years. Top characteristics associated with increased levels of knowledge and/or awareness of PC included women (6/8 articles), age 40+ (6/8 articles), experience with a close friend and/or relative requiring PC (4/8 articles), and working in health-care and/or PC (4/8 articles). The most common perceptions of PC were associated with patients who have terminal illnesses and end-of-life care. Participants commonly received information about PC from the media, having a close friend or relative requiring PC, and working in a health-care setting. Conclusions: The public has poor knowledge and awareness about PC and several misperceptions exist. These findings have remained constant over time despite growth in the field of PC, which highlights the strong need for focused educational interventions.

A Saint of Our Own

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Sprows Cummings
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
American Culture ◽  
The United States ◽  
Panoramic View ◽  
Pope Francis ◽  
Heaven And Earth ◽  
The Church ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Over Time

Canonization, the process by which the Catholic Church names saints, may be fundamentally about holiness, but it is never only about holiness. In the United States, it was often about the ways in which Catholics defined, defended, and celebrated their identities as Americans. This book traces saint-seeking in the United States from the 1880s, the decade in which U.S. Catholics nominated their first candidates for canonization, to 2015, the year Pope Francis named the twelfth American saint in the first such ceremony held on U.S. soil. It argues that U.S. Catholics’ search for a saint of their own sprung from a desire to persuade the Vatican to recognize their country’s holy heroes. But Rome was not U.S. saint-seekers only audience. For the U.S. Catholic faithful, saints served not only as mediators between heaven and earth, but also between the faith they professed and the American culture in which they lived. This panoramic view of American sanctity, focused on figures at the nexus of holiness and U.S. history, this book explores U.S. Catholics’ understanding of themselves both as members of the church and as citizens of the nation—and reveals how those identities converged, diverged, and changed over time.

scholarly journals COVID-19 mortality rates for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-183
Author(s):  
Mark D. Davis ◽  
Scott Spreat ◽  
Ryan Cox ◽  
Matthew Holder ◽  
Kathryn M. Burke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Developmental Disabilities ◽  
General Population ◽  
General Public ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mortality Rates ◽  
Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities ◽  
Time Points ◽  
Probability Of Death ◽  
Over Time

People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) appear to have an increased probability of death from COVID-19 once infected. We report infection and mortality rates for people with IDD compared to the general population of eight states at two time points during the COVID-19 pandemic. Note that these eight states contain approximately 1/3 of the population of the United States. These data suggest individuals with IDD are less likely to be infected with the COVID-19 virus (5.62%) than the general public (7.57%). However, while mortality rates for both groups have declined over time, people with IDD are over twice as likely (2.29) to die from the infection as members of the general public.

scholarly journals Landscope: Fire The Force Of Life

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 275
Author(s):  
Kelli O'Neill
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
General Public ◽  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Environmental Movement ◽  
The Precautionary Principle ◽  
Australian Flora ◽  
Final Group ◽  
Over Time

The use of fire in Western Australia to manage forest ecosystems is contentious. There is huge disagreement between scientists, the environmental movement and members of the general public over the effects of prescribed burning. Some believe that the Australian flora and fauna has adapted to fire over time and needs it for their continued survival. Others perceive prescribed burning as damaging to biota. A final group of people thinks we should be applying the precautionary principle to prescribed burning. This disagreement is present due to the slim knowledge we have on fire and its management. No one really knows, how, when or if we should use prescribed burning.

Modelling health literacy on conceptualizations of scientific literacy

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 1210-1219
Author(s):  
Inga Ploomipuu ◽  
Jack Holbrook ◽  
Miia Rannikmäe
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Health Literacy ◽  
Health Education ◽  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
General Public ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Education For All ◽  
Educational Levels ◽  
Definition Of Health ◽  
Definition Of

Abstract This paper recognizes the need to promote health literacy as the goal of health education for all, at all educational levels. It particularly explores the meaning of health literacy, based on the literature and seeks to put forward a new meaning, applicable for the general public with further considerations for healthcare professionals. The vision and scope of health literacy is promoted as the goal for health education, reflecting on a comparison with scientific literacy (SL) and science education. A model is proposed interrelating health education, health literacy, science education and science literacy and discusses areas where health literacy is seen as having attributes beyond SL. A revised definition of health literacy is proposed.

OSNs as Cyberterrorist Weapons Against the General Public

2019 ◽  
pp. 265-279
Author(s):  
Nicholas Ayres ◽  
Leandros Maglaras ◽  
Helge Janicke
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Current Literature ◽  
General Public ◽  
Target Audience ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Terrorist Acts ◽  
National Infrastructure ◽  
Over Time

Conventional terrorism has been around for hundreds of years and even though its tactics and the weapons of choice have evolved over time as well as the use and deployment of weapons may have changed the root definition of terrorism has remained relatively untouched. With the advent of mass computing, cybercrime has increased year on year. This chapter will look at three differing viewpoints of cyberterrorism and its ultimate effects on society. Many industry and academic experts warn that it is only a matter of time before conventional terrorist acts will migrate to the digital arena in the form of cyberterrorism. Current literature suggests that a countries critical national infrastructure will be the main focus of attack for the cyberterrorist but this chapter will address another possible target for the cyberterrorist using a different type of cyber weapon: a mimetic virus. This chapter also looks at how a mimetic virus could use social media to spread throughout the target audience using what is known as Internet memes.

scholarly journals Development and Actionability of the Dutch COVID-19 Dashboard: Descriptive Assessment and Expert Appraisal Study (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Véronique L L C Bos ◽  
Tessa Jansen ◽  
Niek S Klazinga ◽  
Dionne S Kringos
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Health System ◽  
General Public ◽  
Target Audience ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Fitness For Purpose ◽  
Dutch Health ◽  
The Right ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Epidemiological Information

BACKGROUND Web-based public reporting by means of dashboards has become an essential tool for governments worldwide to monitor COVID-19 information and communicate it to the public. The actionability of such dashboards is determined by their fitness for purpose—meeting a specific information need—and fitness for use—placing the right information into the right hands at the right time and in a manner that can be understood. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to identify specific areas where the actionability of the Dutch government’s COVID-19 dashboard could be improved, with the ultimate goal of enhancing public understanding of the pandemic. METHODS The study was conducted from February 2020 to April 2021. A mixed methods approach was carried out, using (1) a descriptive checklist over time to monitor changes made to the dashboard, (2) an actionability scoring of the dashboard to pinpoint areas for improvement, and (3) a reflection meeting with the dashboard development team to contextualize findings and discuss areas for improvement. RESULTS The dashboard predominantly showed epidemiological information on COVID-19. It had been developed and adapted by adding more in-depth indicators, more geographic disaggregation options, and new indicator themes. It also changed in target audience from policy makers to the general public; thus, a homepage was added with the most important information, using news-like items to explain the provided indicators and conducting research to enhance public understanding of the dashboard. However, disaggregation options such as sex, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity and indicators on dual-track health system management and social and economic impact that have proven to give important insights in other countries are missing from the Dutch COVID-19 dashboard, limiting its actionability. CONCLUSIONS The Dutch COVID-19 dashboard developed over time its fitness for purpose and use in terms of providing epidemiological information to the general public as a target audience. However, to strengthen the Dutch health system’s ability to cope with upcoming phases of the COVID-19 pandemic or future public health emergencies, we advise (1) establishing timely indicators relating to health system capacity, (2) including relevant data disaggregation options (eg, sex, socioeconomic status), and (3) enabling interoperability between social, health, and economic data sources.

scholarly journals Review of the Volume ”Poveștile hărților. Istorie și geopolitică în țări ale uniunii europene” [The Stories of the Maps. History and Geopolitics in European Union Countries], Author: Cristian Sandache, Lumen Publishing House, 2016

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-76
Author(s):  
Mihai-Octavian Groza ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
General Public ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
Central Point ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Union Countries ◽  
Over Time

„Poveștile hărților. Istorie și geopolitică în țări ale Uniunii Europene” [The stories of the maps. History and geopolitics in European Union countries], published by Lumen Publishing House from Iași, Romania, in 2016, was born from the desire of the author, the historian Cristian Sandache, to offer the general public a set of essays, meant to clarify some issues related to the historical and geopolitical developments that have been experienced, at least over the last century, by some of the states that make up the European Union today. Having as a central point the map of each analyzed state and the changes it has undergone over time, but also the relations between the different states of Europe, the volume presents the "story", "destiny", but also "hopes/future" of Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Finland, Greece, Italy, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, France, Spain and Romania, stories that we will try to underline through the lines below.

An empirical examination of Wikipedia's credibility

First Monday ◽  
2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Chesney
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Base ◽  
General Public ◽  
Response Rate ◽  
Personal Knowledge ◽  
Research Staff ◽  
Empirical Examination ◽  
Perceived Credibility ◽  
Comprehensive Knowledge ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Destructive Methods

Wikipedia is an free, online encyclopaedia which anyone can add content to or edit the existing content of. The idea behind Wikipedia is that members of the general public can add their own personal knowledge, anonymously if they wish. Wikipedia then evolves over time into a comprehensive knowledge base on all things. Its popularity has never been questioned, although its authority has. By its own admission, Wikipedia contains errors. A number of people have tested Wikipedia’s accuracy using destructive methods, i.e. deliberately inserting errors. This has been criticised by Wikipedia. This short study examines Wikipedia’s credibility by asking 258 research staff with a response rate of 21 percent, to read an article and assess its credibility, the credibility of its author and the credibility of Wikipedia as a whole. Staff were either given an article in their own expert domain or a random article. No difference was found between the two group in terms of their perceived credibility of Wikipedia or of the articles’ authors, but a difference was found in the credibility of the articles — the experts found Wikipedia’s articles to be more credible than the non–experts. This suggests that the accuracy of Wikipedia is high. However, the results should not be seen as support for Wikipedia as a totally reliable resource as, according to the experts, 13 percent of the articles contain mistakes.

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