Women in pediatric neurosurgery

Pediatric neurosurgery is an ever-evolving field, and at the heart of it are talented and hardworking neurosurgeons who harness technology and research to enhance the standard of neurosurgical care for children. Recent studies have found that female neurosurgeons tend to choose a career focused on pediatric neurosurgery more than other subspecialties. However, the achievements and contributions of women in pediatric neurosurgery are not well known. To address this, an international working group of pediatric neurosurgeons was established from the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS) Women in Neurosurgery (WINS) group and Pediatric Neurosurgery Committee. The working group reviewed the current literature and collected information through personal communications with the global WINS network. Despite the increasing number of women entering neurosurgical training, the number of female pediatric neurosurgeons is still a mere handful worldwide. In this article, the authors summarize the current status of female pediatric neurosurgeons across the globe, highlighting their achievements as well as the gender bias and challenges that they face at every level of progression of their career. A better organized pediatric neurosurgery workforce, with more female representation and mentorship, would encourage future generations of diverse genders toward a career in this field.

Troubled Pedagogies and COVID-19: Fermenting New Relationships and Practices in Early Childhood Care and Education

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed vulnerabilities, tensions, and possibilities in the Canadian early childhood education and care system. This paper experiments with the metaphor of fermentation to critically reflect on the ways we, as ECEC postsecondary instructors, were challenged in upholding our pedagogical commitments. Through retrospective analysis of emails, meeting notes, and other personal communications, we examine and describe how our work and pedagogical thinking with students has been contaminated by COVID-19. We highlight the need to refigure relationships to the troubling events and reconceptualize contamination as a potent opportunity to pedagogically ferment practices in the postsecondary classroom through which living and learning well can flourish.

Update on the invasion status of the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile (Mayr, 1868), in Madrid, a large city in the interior of the Iberian Peninsula

New geolocated records of the invasive ant Linepithema humile (Mayr, 1868) are added to the previous references for the city of Madrid and its surroundings, and the possible causes of the occurrence and permanence of this species in urban areas are discussed. The data collection corresponds to a series of samplings carried out for the last three years in green areas of the city, bibliographic searches, citizen science platforms and personal communications. To date, eleven locations in the urban area of Madrid and four points outside the city have been registered. The city of Madrid is undergoing a colonisation by the Argentine ant, although it is not widespread yet, since observations over time and space are isolated and apparently unrelated. However, this species has a great capacity to disperse and establish new colonies, mainly human-mediated through the transport of goods, plants, gardening tools, etc. Considering the numerous colonizable urban green areas in the city that can provide the necessary conditions for its expansion, the Argentine ant should not be underestimated, and immediate action is strongly recommended.

Generation, characterization, and environmental implications of solid waste and its management in the Everest region

Managing solid waste is becoming a rather challenging task in remote areas, including the Mt. Everest region in Nepal, due to its cold climate, complex topography, and extreme environmental factors. Using published and unpublished literature and personal communications to key informants, this paper analyzes the situation of solid waste management in the Everest region as it relates to increasing tourism and possible environmental implications in the region. The study revealed that combined efforts from people of all levels associated with the mountain region would create a circular waste management system. The paper also reports the existing practices and planned activities for the essential process such as source segregation of waste, collection, use of material recovery facility, and recycling which could lead to sustainable solid waste management in the Everest region and beyond with similar context.

Enthymemes Online

The final chapter addresses current issues in news and social media, as well as the tandem problems of public trust in journalism, democratic institutions, and everyday personal communications inaugurated by digital media’s proliferating resources for fabrication and obfuscation. After introducing a cognitive-rhetorical model for identifying promotional enthymemes online, this chapter carefully considers the ways in which media criticism is taught in higher education; it questions traditional methods of interrogation and deconstruction that individualize the ethics of media engagement and have the potential to breed further mistrust within already trust-poor cultures. Alternative modes of analysis are considered for their pedagogical merits, including the uses of postcritique and surface readings of media texts. Ultimately, I make the case that there is an imperative to guide a hopeful, forward-looking, normative search for solutions in our classrooms, in addition to describing the political problems we currently confront. The alternative is to prescribe a disempowering culture of suspicion for the next generation, who will be the inheritors of a fraught media ecology that scholars continue to document as it unfolds.

The Snowden Phone: A Comparative Survey of Secure Instant Messaging Mobile Applications

In recent years, it has come to attention that governments have been doing mass surveillance of personal communications without the consent of the citizens. As a consequence of these revelations, developers have begun releasing new protocols for end-to-end encrypted conversations, extending and making popular the old Off-the-Record protocol. New implementations of such end-to-end encrypted messaging protocols have appeared, and several popular chat applications have been updated to use such protocols. In this survey, we compare six existing applications for end-to-end encrypted instant messaging, namely, Signal, WhatsApp, Wire, Viber, Riot, and Telegram, most of them implementing one of the recent and popular protocols called Signal. We conduct five types of experiments on each of the six applications using the same hardware setup. During these experiments, we test 21 security and usability properties specially relevant for applications (not protocols). The results of our experiments demonstrate that the applications vary in terms of the usability and security properties they provide, and none of them are perfect. In consequence, we make 12 recommendations for improvement of either security, privacy, or usability, suitable for one or more of the tested applications.

An Analysis of the Influence of Electable(s) on Democracy in Pakistan (1988-2019)

This paper explores the impacts and influence of electable(s) on parliamentary democracy in Pakistan during the last three decades (1988-2019). The paper argues that Alavi’s state power structure, dominated by civil-military bureaucracy, has undergone a change in the last few decades. New forces like intermediate class, a segment of superior courts’ judges and some of the politicians known as electable(s) have been able to occupy space in the Pakistani state power structure. This paper argues that electable(s) remain connected with the powerful establishment only for the purpose to obtain their personal interests at the cost of weakening parliamentary democracy in Pakistan. Data is collected through personal communications with a diverse group of people having expertise in their respective fields

Reception, translation and cultural context

Summary The initiatives to publish an English translation of the influential Sémantique structurale (1966) by linguist and semiotician A. J. Greimas (1917–1992) provide an instructive case study for the reception of a work in new contexts. The efforts underscore the importance of (dis)connections between cultures’ intellectual traditions and trends, putting in play the relations between continental and American linguistic structuralism, generative semantics, cognitive linguistics, and “French” (post)structuralism throughout the human sciences. The projects also point up the significance of timing and of standards for translation quality – and the possibilities for controversy. In addition to published research, this study draws from archival documents and personal communications with Greimas, his translators and editors, and other principals involved.

COVID-19 pandemic and role of libraries

PurposeThe purpose was to address the role of libraries in the worst-case scenario, with specific reference of developing countries like Pakistan.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on the author's observations, readings, and personal communications with colleaguesFindingsThe paper provides a viewpoint on how a developing country like Pakistan has been dealing with the situation and highlights the opportunities provided by this unusual situation. It highlights that various stakeholders have realized the need to bridge the digital divide in order to meet future challenges.Practical implicationsThe paper is limited generally to developing countries and specifically to Pakistan. It establishes the dire need for innovative approaches in library services to meet the seen and unforeseen challenges. If suggestions are considered, then the libraries may be in a better position to serve under challenging circumstances.Originality/valueThis is an original work written to address the worst-case scenario of a developing country.