scholarly journals A transdisciplinary approach to disease ecology: Emerging coronaviruses

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Ojeda-Flores ◽  
Paola Martínez-Duque ◽  
Rogelio Alonso Morales ◽  
Enrique Corona-Barrera ◽  
Oscar Rico-Chávez ◽  
...  

Humankind is currently facing the effects of an unparalleled pandemic that has impacted healthcare, social, and economic systems worldwide. Numerous studies have been published since the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak began in Wuhan, China. Most have focused on virology, epidemiology, pathogenesis, and therapeutic medicine, having been centered by reactive strategies to control the pandemic. Meanwhile, publications addressing the ecological, evolutionary, and anthropogenic drivers of virus emergence, and potential strategies to prevent future outbreaks have been sparse. Here, we highlight the necessity of complementary and transdisciplinary insight and methodologies from an integrated perspective to study emergent diseases. It is paramount to situate the consistently associated factors to understand the complexity of the current pandemic. Disease ecology can examine information to recognize the causes of emergence while appraising the role of interactions among pathogens, domestic animals, wildlife, and humans, integratively. Here we draw on a variety of disciplines and perspectives, from evolutionary biology, biogeography, ecology, molecular epidemiology and integrative health, to address the emergence of coronaviruses, with particular emphasis on SARS-CoV-2. We describe the process of the surfacing of zoonotic diseases, highlighting the interactions among wildlife, domestic animals, and humans, as well as the genetic, evolutionary, ecological, and anthropogenic processes that favor coronavirus epidemics and epizootics. We discuss specific results related to coronavirus investigations conducted in Mexico based on disease ecology methodologies. Finally, we describe alternative approaches for understanding and preventing future outbreaks and we suggest strategies to entice integrative and transdisciplinary research within the One Health/Ecohealth paradigm.

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward O'Boyle

In this article we address the following question: does culture play a role in economic behavior? We conclude that culture influences economic behavior in all three areas of economic activity: work, consumption, and leisure. Our proof lies not so much in replicating certain experimental results, but in documenting in real-world circumstances how culture influences economic behavior. Attention to the role of culture in economic affairs acknowledges that humans are more than the one-dimensional, autonomous, individuals, as premised in mainstream economics, whose very existence is temporal, whose role in economic affairs is strictly instrumental, and whose behavior is virtually the same across cultures. We have argued that humans are two-dimensional twice over. First, humans are individual beings and social beings: solitary and communal, self-made and culture-bound, autonomous and dependent, rational and emotional, self-centered and other-centered. Second, humans are both matter and spirit. The duality of the human person, rooted in individuality and sociality, affords an opportunity to unify economic theory wherein individuality is the focus of microeconomics and sociality is the center of macroeconomics. Putting the isolated individual at the very heart of economics closes down that opportunity and assures that mainstream economic theory will remain truncated indefinitely. The makeover of mainstream economics will take place once neo-classical economists accept that the ultimate end of economic systems relates not to maximum personal net advantage but to integral human development.


Itinerario ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.J. Marshall

In a by now classic definition, European expansion in the nineteenth century has been characterised as the integration of large tracts of the earth's surface into a world-economy dominated by Britain,. Distinctions are conventionally drawn between two processes of integration: on the one hand, the creation of new economies by European settlement in ‘empty’ lands of temperate climate, from which a thinly scattered indigenous population had been displaced, and, on the other, the subordination and partial development of existing economic systems in densely populated tropical areas. Migration from Europe clearly had a role in both processes. It was crucial to the first: economic integration of ‘new’ lands could hardly take place without it, or at least historically it has not done so. The role of European migration in the second process would appear to be more limited. Whites were only likely to be involved in productive processes of agriculture or manufacturing at the highest managerial levels or as technical experts, and much of the military and administrative underpinning deemed necessary for economic domination could be provided by Asian or African clerks and soldiers.


2018 ◽  
pp. 163-192
Author(s):  
Ivano Ciardelli ◽  
Jeroen Groenendijk ◽  
Floris Roelofsen

Chapter 9 compares inquisitive semantics with some other frameworks which have been proposed for the analysis of questions, in particular with alternative semantics (developed by Hamblin and Karttunen in the 1970s), partition semantics (developed by Groenendijk and Stokhof in the 1980s), and inquisitive indifference semantics (developed by Groenendijk and Mascarenhas in the 2000s). It is argued that inquisitive semantics preserves the essential merits of these previous approaches, while overcoming their main shortcomings. The chapter is also concerned with the division of labor between question semantics and other components of a general theory of interpretation, including a theory of speech acts and discourse pragmatics. It discusses the received view on what the role of a compositional semantic theory of questions should be within such a larger theory of interpretation, and compares it to the one taken in inquisitive semantics, which is argued to be more parsimonious.


2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabrina Pierucci ◽  
Olivier Klein ◽  
Andrea Carnaghi

This article investigates the role of relational motives in the saying-is-believing effect ( Higgins & Rholes, 1978 ). Building on shared reality theory, we expected this effect to be most likely when communicators were motivated to “get along” with the audience. In the current study, participants were asked to describe an ambiguous target to an audience who either liked or disliked the target. The audience had been previously evaluated as a desirable vs. undesirable communication partner. Only participants who communicated with a desirable audience tuned their messages to suit their audience’s attitude toward the target. In line with predictions, they also displayed an audience-congruent memory bias in later recall.


1961 ◽  
Vol 6 (02) ◽  
pp. 224-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. T Yin ◽  
F Duckert

Summary1. The role of two clot promoting fractions isolated from either plasma or serum is studied in a purified system for the generation of intermediate product I in which the serum is replaced by factor X and the investigated fractions.2. Optimal generation of intermediate product I is possible in the purified system utilizing fractions devoid of factor IX one-stage activity. Prothrombin and thrombin are not necessary in this system.3. The fraction containing factor IX or its precursor, no measurable activity by the one-stage assay method, controls the yield of intermediate product I. No similar fraction can be isolated from haemophilia B plasma or serum.4. The Hageman factor — PTA fraction shortens the lag phase of intermediate product I formation and has no influence on the yield. This fraction can also be prepared from haemophilia B plasma or serum.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-91
Author(s):  
Elena E. Rinchinova ◽  
Diyara A. Takumova ◽  
Irina I. Bochkareva

The article discusses main issues of organizing activities for the treatment of stray and street animals in the city of Novosibirsk. The important role of successful solving the problem of stray animals in ensuring environmental comfort and safety of the urban population is noted. Definitions of the concepts “stray animals” and “street animals” are given, the differences between them are emphasized. The main regulatory and legal documents governing the handling of stray and street animals are listed. The ways in which domestic animals get into a stray state are described briefly. The results of the collection and analysis of information on the activities of shelters for stray animals in Novosibirsk are described. The information on the quantitative indicators of the shelters are given. Conclusions on how to solve the problem of stray animals, relying on the latest regulations are drawn.


Author(s):  
Lidiya Derbenyova

The article explores the role of antropoetonyms in the reader’s “horizon of expectation” formation. As a kind of “text in the text”, antropoetonyms are concentrating a large amount of information on a minor part of the text, reflecting the main theme of the work. As a “text” this class of poetonyms performs a number of functions: transmission and storage of information, generation of new meanings, the function of “cultural memory”, which explains the readers’ “horizon of expectations”. In analyzing the context of the literary work we should consider the function of antropoetonyms in vertical context (the link between artistic and other texts, and the groundwork system of culture), as well as in the context of the horizontal one (times’ connection realized in the communication chain from the word to the text; the author’s intention). In this aspect, the role of antropoetonyms in the structure of the literary text is extremely significant because antropoetonyms convey an associative nature, generating a complex mechanism of allusions. It’s an open fact that they always transmit information about the preceding text and suggest a double decoding. On the one hand, the recipient decodes this information, on the other – accepts this as a sort of hidden, “secret” sense.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-223
Author(s):  
Ioan-Gabriel Popa

AbstractIn order to understand the principles of public procurement in Romania, it is necessary to analyze, on the one hand, the European directives that regulate the actual public procurement and, on the other hand, the context in which the European directives were adopted. Even with the directives in force, the more general provisions contained in the Treaty of the European Economic Community (EEC) in Rome, hereinafter referred to as the Treaty, are applied, as well as many more general principles of law that will guide the interpretation of these directives. The Treaty was adopted in Rome, in 1957 and became applicable from January 1, 1958. It is considered that the source of the principles of public procurement is the Treaty. Even if in Treaty contained no specific provisions regarding the field of public procurement, it reflects the principles and the general framework for the functioning of the single market, a market characterized through the prism of the fundamental freedoms established by the Treaty: the free movement of goods, services, capital and persons. As the field of public procurement is closely linked to the free movement of goods, this principle is promoted and implemented in the practice of this field based on the regulations, directives and decisions of the Community institutions. The role of the free movement of goods is to harmonize the relationships involved in the process of purchasing goods, but also to ensure the homogeneity, coherence and balance of this process.


2011 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-27
Author(s):  
Zoran Ivić ◽  
Željko Pržulj

Adiabatic large polarons in anisotropic molecular crystals We study the large polaron whose motion is confined to a single chain in a system composed of the collection of parallel molecular chains embedded in threedimensional lattice. It is found that the interchain coupling has a significant impact on the large polaron characteristics. In particular, its radius is quite larger while its effective mass is considerably lighter than that estimated within the one-dimensional models. We believe that our findings should be taken into account for the proper understanding of the possible role of large polarons in the charge and energy transfer in quasi-one-dimensional substances.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-99
Author(s):  
Vimbai Moreblessing Matiza

Dramatic and theatrical performances have a long history of being used as tools to enhance development in children and youth. In pre-colonial times there were some forms of drama and theatre used by different communities in the socialisation of children. It is in the same vein that this article, through the Intwasa koBulawayo performances, seeks to evaluate how drama and theatre are used to nurture children and youth into different developmental facets of their lives. The only difference which this article will take into cognisance is that the performances are done in a different environment, which is not the one used in the pre-colonial times. Although these performances were like this, the most important factor is the idea that children and youth are socialised through these performances. It is also against this backdrop that children and youth are growing up in a globalised environment, hence the performances should accommodate people from all walks of life and teach them relevant issues pertaining to life as they live it now. Thus the main task of the article is to spell out the role of drama and theatre in the nurturing of children and youth through socio economic and political development in Intwasa koBulawayo festivals.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document