scholarly journals Beautiful destruction

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-49
Author(s):  
Vanessa Cirkel-Bartelt
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Scientific Misconduct ◽  
Popular Literature ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Large Audience ◽  
Headline News ◽  
Near Future

Though the term ‘science fiction’ was coined somewhat later, the early twentieth century saw an enormous rise in an interest in technological tales set in the near future, mirroring a general awareness of the growing importance of science. Hans Dominik was one of the most prolific – and successful – German authors of this kind of popular literature. According to estimates millions of copies of his books have been sold, making Dominik’s work an interesting case study illustrating the sorts of ideas about science that German-speaking audiences entertained. Being a trained engineer and a public relations officer by profession, Dominik drew heavily on scientific topics that were headline news at the time and yet he also managed to create something new on the basis of these. One of the methods he employed was the use of religious motifs and topoi. Dominik magnified the relevance of scientific enterprises and depicted the consequences of science – or scientific misconduct, rather – as the beginning of a catastrophe, or even an apocalypse. By the same token, Dominik often introduced the figure of the scientist as a protagonist who would save the world. Thus Dominik was able to draw the attention of a large audience to concepts of the use of atomic energy or nuclear weapons – to name only two – and their creative or destructive potential, decades before such devices were technically feasible.

Science Fiction and Administrative Truths: The Short Story and Novella as Administrative Cases

Public Voices ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Nolan J. Argyle ◽  
Lee M. Allen
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
Organizational Complexity ◽  
Professional Career ◽  
Playing Field ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Hands On

Pre-service and in-service MPA students share a common desire for hands-on, real world instruction related to their professional career goals, leading to a pedagogic discounting of fiction as an appropriate tool for analyzing and "solving" problems. However, several factors weigh heavily in favor of using science fiction short stories and novellas in the MPA classroom setting. These include the need for interesting case scenarios exploring various administrative issues; leveling the playing field between the two types of students by de-emphasizing the use of "contemporary" cases; access to literature that explores the future shock of increasing organizational complexity; and the desirability of Rorschach type materials that facilitate discussion of. values and administrative truths. The discussion proceeds by tracing the development of the case study technique, its advantages and disadvantages in the classroom, addressing the utility of "fiction" as an educational resource, and showing how the science fiction literature has matured to the point where it can be applied in all of the major sub-fields of public administration. Several outstanding examples are detailed, and a thorough bibliography is provided.

Augmenting Healthcare with Human-Centered Technologies

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Moehle ◽  
Jessica Gibson
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Precision Medicine ◽  
Economic Factors ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Business Cases ◽  
Self Driving Cars ◽  
High Level ◽  
Near Future

“Robotics”, “Artificial Intelligence”, and “Machine Learning” have become an almost impossibly broad amalgam of terminologies that span across industries to include everything from the cotton gin to self-driving cars, and touch a broad range of biotechnology and med tech applications.  We address the spread of these transformative technologies across every interpretation of the analogy, including the spectrum ranging from practical, highly economic products to inventive science fiction with speculative business cases.  In this two-part article, we first briefly overview the high-level commonalities between historically successful products and the economic factors driving adoption of these intelligent technologies in our current economy.  In doing so, we focus heavily on “Augmentation” as a central theme of the best products historically, now, and in the near future.  In the second part of the article, we further illustrate how “Augmented Intelligence” can be applied to biotech. This is done through a mini-case study, or a detailed practicum, on Ariel Precision Medicine, to illustrate how “Augmented Intelligence” can be applied to precision medicine currently.

Japanese Childhood Vaccination Policy

2010 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER DOSHI ◽  
AKIRA AKABAYASHI
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
Childhood Vaccination ◽  
Vaccination Policy ◽  
Vaccination Rates ◽  
Childhood Vaccine ◽  
Mandatory Vaccination ◽  
Ethical Tension

The ethical tension in childhood vaccination policies is often framed as one of balancing the value of choice with the duty to protect. Because infectious diseases spread from person to person, unvaccinated children are usually described as putting others around them at risk, violating a perceived right to be protected from harm. Editors of Lancet Infectious Diseases recently argued against mandatory vaccination, reminding us that the resort to mandatory vaccination as a means of achieving high vaccination rates is still very much a topic of Western vaccine debates. The nation of Japan offers an interesting case study in childhood vaccination policy, as it has an entirely voluntary (opt-in) system that achieves high vaccination rates. In this paper, we offer an overview of Japanese childhood vaccine policy, suggest some ways to contextualize and understand how a voluntary system achieves high vaccination rates, and speculate on what the future of Japanese vaccination policymaking and government–public relations may hold.

2018 Fiji Election Results: Patterns of Voting by Provinces, Rural-Urban Localities, and by Candidates

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Haruo Nakagawa
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
The Political ◽  
Quantitative Analyses ◽  
Election Results

Akin to the previous, 2014 event, with no data on voter ethnicity, no exit polls, and few post-election analyses, the 2018 Fiji election results remain something of a mystery despite the fact that there had been a significant swing in voting in favour of Opposition political parties. There have been several studies about the election results, but most of them have been done without much quantitative analyses. This study examines voting patterns of Fiji’s 2018 election by provinces, and rural-urban localities, as well as by candidates, and also compares the 2018 and 2014 elections by spending a substantial time classifying officially released data by polling stations and individual candidates. Some of the data are then further aggregated according to the political parties to which those candidates belonged. The current electoral system in Fiji is a version of a proportional system, but its use is rare and this study will provide an interesting case study of the Open List Proportional System. At the end of the analyses, this study considers possible reasons for the swing in favour of the Opposition.

Prinsip Kearifan Lokal dalam Pengembangan Strategi Kehumasan pada Pemerintah Daerah Kabupaten Bandung

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-248
Author(s):  
Betty Tresnawaty
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Local Knowledge ◽  
Case Study Approach ◽  
West Java ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Positive Image ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Public Relations Strategy

Public Relations of the Bandung Regency Government realizes that its area has a lot of potential for various local wisdom and has a heterogeneous society. This study aims to explore and analyze the values of local knowledge in developing public relations strategies in the government of Bandung Regency, West Java province. This study uses a constructivist interpretive (subjective) paradigm through a case study approach. The results showed that the Bandung Regency Government runs its government based on local wisdom. Bandung Regency Public Relations utilizes local insight and the region's potential to develop a public relations strategy to build and maintain a positive image of Bandung Regency. The impact of this research is expected to become a source of new scientific references in the development of public relations strategies in every region of Indonesia, which is very rich with various philosophies.Humas Pemerintah Kabupaten Bandung menyadari wilayahnya memiliki banyak potensi kearifan lokal yang beragam, serta memiliki masyarakatnya yang heterogen. Penelitian ini bertujuan menggali dan menganalisis nilai-nilai kearifan lokal dalam pengembangan strategi kehumasan di pemerintahan Kabupaten Bandung provinsi Jawa Barat.  Penelitian ini menggunakan paradigma interpretif (subjektif) konstruktivis melalui pendekatan studi kasus. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa Pemerintah Kabupaten (Pemkab) Bandung menjalankan pemerintahannya berlandaskan pada kearifal lokal. Humas Pemkab Bandung memanfaatkan kearifan lokal dan potensi wilayahnya untuk mengembangkan strategi humas dalam membangun dan mempertahankan citra positif Kabupaten Bandung.Dampak penelitian ini diharapkan menjadi sumber rujukan ilmiah baru dalam pengembangan strategi kehumasan di setiap daerah Indonesia yang sangat kaya dengan beragam filosofi. 

A Compact Embodiment of Pluralities and Denial of Origins: Atwood’s The Year of The Flood

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 141
Author(s):  
Rana Sağıroğlu
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Margaret Atwood ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The World ◽  
Narrative Techniques ◽  
Why Questions ◽  
Near Future

Margaret Atwood, one of the most spectacular authors of postmodern movement, achieved to unite debatable and in demand critical points of 21st century such as science fiction, postmodernism and ecocriticism in the novel The Year of The Flood written in 2009. The novel could be regarded as an ecocritical manifesto and a dystopic mirror against today’s degenerated world, tending to a superficial base to keep the already order in use, by moving away from the fundamental solution of all humanity: nature. Although Atwood does not want her works to be called science fiction, it is obvious that science fiction plays an introductory role and gives the novel a ground explaining all ‘why’ questions of the novel. However, Atwood is not unjust while claiming that her works are not science fiction because of the inevitable rapid change of 21st century world becoming addicted to technology, especially Internet. It is easily observed by the reader that what she fictionalises throughout the novel is quite close to possibility, and the world may witness in the near future what she creates in the novel as science fiction. Additionally, postmodernism serves to the novel as the answerer of ‘how’ questions: How the world embraces pluralities, how heterogeneous social order is needed, and how impossible to run the world by dichotomies of patriarchal social order anymore. And lastly, ecocriticism gives the answers of ‘why’ questions of the novel: Why humanity is in chaos, why humanity has organized the world according to its own needs as if there were no living creatures apart from humanity. Therefore, The Year of The Flood meets the reader as a compact embodiment of science fiction, postmodernism and ecocriticism not only with its theme, but also with its narrative techniques.

Toward a Philosophical Approach of the Hermeneutics of the Qur’an

2006 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-34
Author(s):  
Aliaa Ibrahim Dakroury
Keyword(s):  
Modern Technology ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
Philosophical Approach ◽  
True Meaning ◽  
Flow Of Information ◽  
The Relationship

Although claims questioning whether religious sacred books can be “translated” or not have been heard for quite some time, they have increased with the emergence of globalization and the increasing openness and flow of information due to modern technology. In the context of the relationship between hermeneutics and communication, one could argue that interpreting the Qur’an is an interesting case study for many reasons. Among them is the number of debates and discourses that have been raised both for and against its translation. Another reason, perhaps one of the largest barriers according to some religious Muslim groups, is that the Qur’an is fundamentally revealed and written in Arabic, and, therefore, its true meaning cannot be translated into another language. Certain verses, such as “It is a Qur’an in Arabic, without any crookedness (therein): in order that they may guard against evil” (28:39), have been presented to support this argument.

Statistical approach for describing failures and lifetimes of water mains

1998 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 209-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianhua Lei ◽  
Sveinung Sægrov
Keyword(s):  
Data Base ◽  
Ductile Iron ◽  
Counting Process ◽  
Statistical Approach ◽  
Process Models ◽  
Average Lifetime ◽  
Maintenance Practice ◽  
Water Mains ◽  
Near Future

This paper demonstrates the statistical approach for describing failures and lifetimes of water mains. The statistical approach is based on pipe inventory data and the maintenance data registered in the data base. The approach consists of data pre-processing and statistical analysis. Two classes of statistical models are applied, namely counting process models and lifetime models. With lifetime models, one can estimate the probability which a pipe will fail within a time horizon. With counting process models one can see the deteriorating (or improving) trend in time of a group of “identical” pipes and their rates of occurrence of failure (ROCOF). The case study with the data base from Trondheim municipality (Norway) demonstrates the applicability of the statistical approach and leads to the following results: 1). In the past 20 years, Trondheim municipality has experienced approximately 250 to 300 failures per year. However, the number of failures per year will significantly increase in the near future unless better maintenance practice is implemented now. 2). Unprotected ductile iron pipes have a higher probability of failures than other materials. The average lifetime of unprotected ductile iron pipes is approximately 30 to 40 years shorter than the lifetime of a cast iron pipe. 3). Pipes installed 1963 and 1975 are most likely to fail in the future; 4) The age of a pipe does not play a significant role for the remaining lifetime of the pipe; 5). After 2 to 3 failures, a pipe enters a fast-failure stage (i.e., frequent multiple between failures).

Management of Optic Neuritis in Ayurveda - A Special Case Report

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr. Harsha S. ◽  
Dr. Mamatha KV.
Keyword(s):  
Optic Nerve ◽  
Optic Neuritis ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Vision Loss ◽  
Specific Treatment ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
Treatment Modalities ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Special Case

The optic nerve carries visual information from your eye to your brain. Optic neuritis is when your optic nerve becomes inflamed. Optic neuritis can flare up suddenly from an infection or nerve disease. The inflammation usually causes temporary vision loss that typically happens in only one eye. Those with Optic neuritis sometimes experience pain. As you recover and the inflammation goes away, your vision will likely return. There are no direct references in our classics regarding optic neuritis but can be contemplated as a condition by name Parimlayi Timira. The specific management as such is not cited but a transcendence approach can be done with adopting the treatment which has the ability to pacify the already occurred pathology and prevent the further development of the disease. One such interesting case study on Optic neuritis is elaborated here where in specific treatment modalities (Shodana, Shamana and Kriyakalpas) played role in pacifying the condition.

Drivers of Investment in Commercial Real Estate Sustainability: 2006–2018

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-155
Author(s):  
Michael Brooks ◽  
J.J. McArthur
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Real Estate ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Building Energy ◽  
Business Case ◽  
Commercial Real Estate ◽  
Building Energy Efficiency ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Near Future ◽  
Asset Managers

We investigate the factors (“drivers”) that motivated investment in energy efficiency in commercial real estate office buildings over the 2006–2011 and 2012–2017 period, and looking forward from 2018 in the context of growing concern over carbon emissions around the world. These insights were collected from large Canadian asset managers through interviews conducted in 2017 and 2018. Key findings were that (1) organizations noted an increasing number of factors driving investment decisions over the three periods; (2) cost drivers (payback period and anticipated financial returns) were the top two drivers in 2006–2017; (3) public relations factors became significantly more important looking forward, with brand (reputational impact) as the top-ranked driver and tenant attraction tied for third place; and (4) mitigation against risks such as resilience and anticipated compliance consistently increased in importance. This study contributes to a comprehensive understanding of past, present, and near-future sustainable real estate investment priorities, changing owner behaviors, and the perceived business case for building energy efficiency investments.

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