Conclusions

This chapter summarizes the empirical findings presented in the book, revisiting the theoretical framework developed throughout the book for understanding democracy’s contemporary crisis by focusing on popular conceptions of democracy. The chapter highlights the book’s theoretical and empirical contributions to pertinent literature regarding the key questions: Why is it that democracy, despite its documented popularity in societies around the world and supremacy in contemporary political discourse, appears to be in trouble. After reviewing the research findings presented in the book, the chapter draws some conclusions and presents some suggestions for future research.

Ocular Toxoplasmosis: No Stranger to the Masquerade Ball

Purpose: This article illustrates multiple atypical manifestations of ocular toxoplasmosis masquerading as acute retinal necrosis and vitreoretinal lymphoma. Methods: Two case presentations are discussed, and the body of pertinent literature is reviewed and discussed. Results: In these cases, an extensive workup and attention to history lead to the correct diagnosis and management. Conclusions: Aggressive cases of ocular toxoplasmosis may present in a variety of phenotypes that may mimic other vision- and potentially life-threatening conditions, particularly in a milieu of inadequate endogenous and exogenous antimicrobial defenses.

Florid Mesothelial Hyperplasia Associated with Abdominal Wall Endometriosis Mimicking Invasive Carcinoma

Florid mesothelial hyperplasia typically occurs in the pelvis, abdomen, or chest associated with an underlying neoplastic or inflammatory process. These lesions are of clinical significance because they can mimic a neoplasm. Early reports were published in the 1970s, but only a few case series of such lesions have been published in the gynecologic pathology literature. Here, we report a case of florid mesothelial hyperplasia with an infiltrative growth pattern, mimicking an invasive carcinoma. The lesion was associated with endometriosis forming a mass lesion in the abdominal wall. Histologically, tubular arrangements and nests of mesothelial cells, some with artifactual slit-like spaces, formed a stellate lesion adjacent to endometrial glands and stroma. Cytologic atypia was mild and reactive, and positive immunostaining for calretinin, WT-1, and cytokeratin 5 identified the lesion as mesothelial and benign. We describe in detail the histologic findings in this case and review the pertinent literature. We discuss the clinically importance of this diagnostic pitfall and the path to arriving at the correct diagnosis.

A review of the most impactful published pharmacotherapy-pertinent literature of 2019 and 2020 for clinicians caring for patients with thermal or inhalation injury

Keeping abreast with current literature can be challenging, especially for practitioners caring for patients sustaining thermal or inhalation injury. Practitioners caring for patients with thermal injuries publish in a wide variety of journals, which further increases the complexity for those with resource limitations. Pharmacotherapy research continues to be a minority focus in primary literature. This review is a renewal of previous years’ work to facilitate extraction and review of the most recent pharmacotherapy-centric studies in patients with thermal and inhalation injury. Sixteen geographically dispersed, board-certified pharmacists participated in the review. A MeSH-based, filtered search returned 1,536 manuscripts over the previous 2-year period. After manual review and exclusions, only 98 (6.4%) manuscripts were determined to have a potential impact on current pharmacotherapy practices and included in the review. A summary of the 10 articles that scored highest are included in the review. Nearly half of the reviewed manuscripts were assessed to lack a significant impact on current practice. Despite an increase in published literature over the previous 2-year review, the focus and quality remain unchanged. There remains a need for investment in well-designed, high impact, pharmacotherapy-pertinent research for patients sustaining thermal or inhalation injuries.

Transition Towns: An Intervention Method for Encouraging Pro-Environmental Behaviour Change

<p>Transition initiatives offer support for responding to potential environmental inconveniences, such as peak oil and climate change. As an alternative to the dominant approach of shocking people into helplessness and denial, transition towns seek to inform people of the issues and discover appropriate responses. To verify whether transition towns as a movement encourage pro-environmental behaviour change, three case studies (Aro Valley, Lower Hutt, and Nelson) were considered to determine motivations, barriers, and actions in transition town members. Nine face-to-face informal interviews as well as two focus groups were conducted to appreciate participant experiences. A thematic analysis of these case studies was conducted to determine the extent pro-environmental behaviour and encouragement from transition towns was having an effect. The aforementioned objectives were discussed against pertinent literature to determine whether transition towns empowered participants to change to pro-environmental behaviour. Transition towns offer practical behaviour change steps and a supportive social environment which empowers pro-environmental behaviour change and increases individual and community resilience for an uncertain future.</p>

Transition Towns: An Intervention Method for Encouraging Pro-Environmental Behaviour Change

<p>Transition initiatives offer support for responding to potential environmental inconveniences, such as peak oil and climate change. As an alternative to the dominant approach of shocking people into helplessness and denial, transition towns seek to inform people of the issues and discover appropriate responses. To verify whether transition towns as a movement encourage pro-environmental behaviour change, three case studies (Aro Valley, Lower Hutt, and Nelson) were considered to determine motivations, barriers, and actions in transition town members. Nine face-to-face informal interviews as well as two focus groups were conducted to appreciate participant experiences. A thematic analysis of these case studies was conducted to determine the extent pro-environmental behaviour and encouragement from transition towns was having an effect. The aforementioned objectives were discussed against pertinent literature to determine whether transition towns empowered participants to change to pro-environmental behaviour. Transition towns offer practical behaviour change steps and a supportive social environment which empowers pro-environmental behaviour change and increases individual and community resilience for an uncertain future.</p>

Eco-friendly for product design: A literature review

This study focused on the research of the concept and implementation of eco-friendly design-based products over the years. Pertinent literature was reviewed in order to develop a comprehensive table of the empirical studies that pointed to the numerous findings which are linked to this investigation. The summary from 23 previous studies identified some variables, including design product, concept, and results. From the data, pro-environmental design concepts that were kept hidden in eco-friendly goals were used in various fields such as education, health, and engineering. In addition to the discussion of findings and contributions of the previous research, this study identified the gaps in the featured literature and suggested potential topics for eco-friendly product design research. Thus, this study aimed to provide a brief review of how the variables in this research could encourage the implementation of eco-friendly concepts and practical values.

Wireless Sensor Networks in Agriculture: Insights from Bibliometric Analysis

This study investigates how wireless sensor network (WSN) applications in agriculture are discussed in the current academic literature. On the basis of bibliometric techniques, 2444 publications were extracted from the Scopus database and analyzed to identify the temporal distribution of WSN research, the most productive journals, the most cited authors, the most influential studies, and the most relevant keywords. The computer program VOSviewer was used to generate the keyword co-occurrence network and partition the pertinent literature. Findings show the remarkable growth of WSN research in recent years. The most relevant journals, cited countries, and influential studies were also identified. The main results from the keyword co-occurrence clustering and the detailed analysis illustrate that WSN is a key enabler for precision agriculture. WSN research also focuses on the role of other technologies such as the Internet of Things, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and unmanned aerial vehicles in supporting several agriculture activities, including smart irrigation and soil management. This study illuminates researchers’ and practitioners’ views of what has been researched and identifies possible opportunities for future studies. To the authors’ best knowledge, this bibliometric study represents the first attempt to map global WSN research using a comprehensive sample of documents published over nearly three decades.

BLOOD CYSTS OF THE CARDIAC VALVES IN ADULTS Review and analysis of published cases

Background and aim of the study: Blood cysts of cardiac valves are generally seen in newborns and infants and very rarely in adults. Although in most cases they are incidental findings they may be associated to severe cardiac or systemic complications. This study analyzes incidence, presentation and treatment of valvular blood cysts in adults. Methods: A review of the pertinent literature through a search mainly on PubMed and Medline was performed. Results: In patients ≥ 18 years of age, our search disclosed 54 patients with mitral blood cysts (mean age, 48±18 years), 9 with a tricuspid valve cyst (mean age, 67±15 years), 3 with a blood cyst on the pulmonary valve (age 31, 43 and 44 years) and 1 aortic valve cyst in a 22-year-old man. Most patients were asymptomatic while stroke, syncope or myocardial infarction occurred in 6 patients with a mitral valve cyst. Blood cysts were removed surgically in 70% of patients with a mitral cyst, in 55% with a tricuspid cyst and in all those with a pulmonary or aortic cyst. At histology the cyst wall was composed mainly by fibrous tissue and with the inner surface lined with typical endothelium. Conclusions: Blood cysts of cardiac valves are rare in adults but may cause life-threatening complications particularly when located on the mitral valve. For such reason surgical removal appears advisable, with low-risk procedures. Widespread use of multimodality imaging techniques will most likely increase the number of valvular blood cysts diagnosed also in adults.

The x and society syndrome

Half a century of behavioral, practice-oriented research in fields as diverse as politics, economy, law, and science has generated insights that improve our understanding of these fields’ workings considerably. Surveying the pertinent literature, however, also leads to a baffling finding: the social that this research sought to vindicate is not there. And this, the article shows, is no coincidence. Rather, it is a direct consequence of the middle range approach of theorizing this research both adopts and reflects; an artefact of a mode of analysis which makes the social into a derivative of an essential other: the topic under investigation. As a result, its meaning changes every time the analysis switches to a new field, to some other ‘x’. A proposal is made to fix this problem by drawing on general sociological theory, with whose help it can be easily avoided.