Protection or Restriction: An Analysis of the Blind Massage Policy for Employment Rights of Persons With Visual Impairments in China

Introduction The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities identified the Chinese blind massage policy as “reserved employment” in its Concluding Observations in 2012. In response, this paper reviewed the policy on blind massage in China and discussed its effectiveness and social impact. Methods: Adopting a historical perspective, this paper describes the development stages of the blind massage policy in China. It reveals the social construction process of the blind massage policy. Government data were provided to help analyze the positive and negative effects of the policy according to the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Results: The blind massage policy is a national strategy involving semi-reserved employment to improve the low employment rate of people with visual impairments in China. It promoted employment of people with visual impairments at the start, but, as the system of the blind massage gradually took shape, it restricted these individuals from choosing a career freely. The blind massage policy has resulted in deep-rooted social prejudices, and it demonstrates disability-based discrimination and charity-oriented practices. Discussion: The Chinese blind massage policy is discriminatory and does not reflect the modern concept of disability rights advocated in the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Implications for practitioners: The Chinese government needs to promote institutional reforms to provide better education and employment for people with visual impairments to change the limited content of vocational training and eliminate discriminatory policies.

The Ways of Things: Mobilizing Charismatic Objects in Oberammergau and Its Passion Play

The mobilization processes initiated by the medieval practice of Christian pilgrimage do not only concern the journeys of human travellers but also of things. The transport of objects to and from pilgrimage sites derives from a pre-modern concept of charisma as a specific kind of energy that can be transferred to things and substances. This mutual mobilization of humans and things can be described as the entangled processes of charismatic charging and re-charging; we argue that this pre-modern logic of contiguity and contagion has survived the multiple transformations of individual travel until today. Even travel dispositives of the 20th and 21st centuries presuppose kinds of situational and spatialized charisma involving human and non-human agents. We illustrate this by the example of the world-renowned Oberammergau Passion Play with its unique playing continuity from the early 17th century onwards. We argue that by taking objects home from elevated places, situational and site-specific charisma can be taken home. To describe the relationship between travel by pilgrims, the mobility of objects, and the mutual charismatic charging of elevated places and things, we propose three perspectives on the material remains of elevated situations. In addition to relics and souvenirs, we propose ‘spolia’ as a third category which allows for the description of discontinuity and transformation in practices of elevating things.

Assessing the impact of supply chain agility on operational performances-a PLS-SEM approach

Purpose This study aims to examine the effect of supply chain agility (SCA) on operational performance (OP) measurements of steel manufacturing firms. It also investigates the role of cost efficiencies concerning enhance OPs. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on an experimental research design by collecting data from responses 398 responses of key officials of India’s steel manufacturing firms. Analyses are carried to explore this modern concept with the help of Smart-partial least square (PLS) version 3.3.2 with confirmatory factor analysis and PLS structural equational modelling. Findings SCA factor (SCAF) directly has influenced the firm’s OP. It also represents cost efficiencies that have partial mediation between the SCAF and OP. The impact of cost efficiencies on OPs is strongly significant as compared to the impact of SCAF on cost efficiencies. Practical implications Management teams in the manufacturing industry should stress the role of SCA as a comprehensive concept in responding to market needs in a volatile environment. SCA reflects one of its winning strategies in today’s dynamic and competitive world. Managers must thoroughly know the ramifications of agility to develop a mechanism for determining the procedures and identifying inequality in SC operation. Originality/value This study speaks explicitly about the linkage between SCAF, OP, CE. It is an addition to the existing theories of RBV. Enhancements in OP measurements, specifically performance and flexibility, will lead to better firm performance. study conceptualizing the complementing effects of SCA (IS capability) and OPs and second cost efficiencies play positive partial mediating effect in between the link. The achievement of SC agile is especially a critical approach to Boost customer satisfaction and differentiate market position.

Teachers and students opinion regarding updated MBBS curriculum 2012 in a teaching hospital.

The modern concept of a curriculum originally derived from the Latin word for a race course. Undergraduate medical education is part of a continuum of education and training.The new curriculum is structured to provide a balance among learning opportunities through integrated teaching system. This study was carried out to explore the views of teachers and students regarding the current undergraduate medical curriculum. This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted between October 2019 to October 2020 among the teachers and students of a private medical college and hospital (MH Samorita medical collegesandhospital) in Dhaka Bangladesh. The sample size were 100 in total. Most of the participants suggested for changes in overall existing MBBS curriculum. Highest satisfaction was seen in content related to learning objectives that were 90% and highest dissatisfaction was seen in Phase distribution of subjects that were 89%.However, they were satisfied with present pattern of course content, objectives, evaluation system and carry on system. Teachers and students evaluation may prove useful if analyzed further to overcome the shortcomings of existing MBBS curriculum. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Education Vol.13(1) January 2022: 27-32

Terrorist Attacks in Western Europe: A Counter-Terrorism Medicine Analysis

Background: The modern concept of terrorism has its roots in the “old continent” of Western Europe, more specifically in France, during the “Reign of Terror” period of the French Revolution. At the time, this form of state terror had a positive connotation: it was a legitimate means of defending the young state. While no single accepted definition of terrorism exists today, it is universally considered an attack on both state and society. The health care impacts of terrorist attacks often extend disproportionally beyond the casualty toll, but the potential for such events to induce mass casualties remains a concern to Disaster Medicine and Counter-Terrorism Medicine (CTM) specialists. Method: Data collection was performed using a retrospective database search through the Global Terrorism Database (GTD). The GTD was searched using the internal database search functions for all events which occurred in Western Europe from January 1, 1970 - December 31, 2019. Years 2020 and 2021 were not yet available at the time of the study. Primary weapon type, country where the incident occurred, and number of deaths and injured were collated. Results were exported into an Excel spreadsheet (Microsoft Corp.; Redmond, Washington USA) for analysis. Results: A total of 15,306 events were recorded in Western Europe out of a total of 201,183 events world-wide between the years 1970 and 2019 inclusive. This resulted in a total of 5,548 deaths and 17,187 injuries. Explosives were used as a primary weapon/attack modality in 8,103 attacks, followed by incendiary attacks in 3,050 events and firearm use in 2,955 events. The use of chemical, biological, radiation, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons was rare and only accounted for 47 events. Conclusion: From 1970 through 2019, 9.11% of all terrorist attacks occurred in Western Europe. Compared to global trends of attack methodologies in the same study period, the use of explosives as a primary attack modality in Western Europe was similar (52.94% in Western Europe versus 48.78% Global). Firearm use was comparatively low (19.31% versus 26.77%) and the use of CBRN as an attack modality was rare (0.30% versus 0.20%). The United Kingdom, Spain, and France accounted for over 65% of all terrorist attacks and over 75% of terrorism-related deaths in Western Europe.

Modern concept of a new group of retinal vasculitis

Retinal vasculitis is a rare condition that occurs both in systemic severe diseases and as an adverse event of intraocular drug injections. With the emergence of new anti-VEGF drugs, a number of international authors report on the occurrence of retinal occlusive vasculitis, which led to a decrease in visual acuity. The review presents possible pathogeneses of this condition, approaches to its diagnosis and an algorithm for managing the patients with occlusive vasculitis.

Innovative braking system for high-speed 80-foot platform

The article discusses technical solutions for the creation of an effective design of a brake system for high-speed longwheelbase platforms intended for the transport of containers, as well as for the development of a fundamentally new brake equipment for the pneumatic, electro-pneumatic and mechanical parts of the brake system. Modular braking equipment for the pneumatic and electro-pneumatic parts of the high-speed platform braking system, compactly located under the platform frame, provides technical compatibility when controlling platform brakes as part of not only a high-speed freight train of permanent formation, but also in trains for other purposes, regardless of the location of the platform in the composition of the train. The performance of the braking equipment of each platform in motion and in the parking lot is monitored using pressure sensors and an electronic unit that processes the readings of the sensors and transmits information to the locomotive via one of the wire lines of the electro-pneumatic brake. The brake rigging used on the high-speed platform is arranged in the design of three-axle bogies and provides doublesided pressing on the wheels with typical composite brake pads, automatic regulation and maintenance of the standard clearances between brake pads and wheels. The proposed promising technical solutions make it possible to continuously diagnose the parameters of the brakes of each platform as part of a permanent train, display them on the locomotive monitor and transmit them to the dispatch centers of the Russian Railways infrastructure. Thanks to this, the braking effciency can be increased and the safety of train traffc can be ensured while increasing the permissible travel speeds. In the modern concept of digitalization of the infrastructure of Russian Railways, which provides for the creation in 2021–2025 (and in the future until 2030) of cars in which intelligent technologies should be applied, the braking system of a high-speed platform can be considered as the basis for creating a digitally controlled train — one of the key elements of the digital railway.

Fibromyalgia: transformation of views

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a mystery of modern rheumatology. Despite the high prevalence of FM according to special epidemiological studies, clinicians make this diagnosis rarely. The modern concept of fibromyalgia was created by Smythe and Moldofsky in the mid-70s. They introduced a new term «fibromyalgia», thereby emphasizing that this condition is more due to pain syndrome than inflammation of connective tissue. A disturbance of sensory information processing in the central nervous system (dysfunction of the pain system with the formation of central sensitization, CS) plays a key role in the pathogenesis of FM. Clinical manifestations of FM include chronic widespread pain associated with a wide range of psychosomatic disorders (sleep disorders, cognitive disorders [fibro fog], anxiety, depression, fatigue, morning stiffness, etc.). The diagnostic criteria for fibromyalgia have undergone significant changes. The latest FM diagnostic criteria were developed by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) in 2016. According to the ACR (2016) FM criteria, a diagnosis of FM does not exclude the presence of other clinically important illnesses. Concomitant FM among patients with rheumatic diseases (RD) occurs 2–3 times more often than in the general population. Diagnostics and treatment of FM are extremely difficult for clinicians, it is especially difficult with comorbidity of FM with RD. Therefore, FM requires a multidisciplinary approach within a biopsychosocial model of pain syndrome: the treatment of a patient with RD and FM should combine anti-inflammatory therapy with a complex of methods (medications and nondrug therapy) used for FM therapy. The diagnostics of comorbid FM in patients with RD will allow for personalized and more effective analgesic therapy.

Marx's Philosophy and the Rule of Law in the Context of Establishing the Rule of Law in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The paper discusses the relationship between Marx's philosophy and the rule of law. The classical view of Marxism and the rule of law tells us that these are opposite notions. In this paper, the author presents different views in the context of the relationship between Marx's philosophy and the rule of law in relation to the classical Marxist view of the rule of law. Also, the author in this paper shows that Marx'sunderstanding of the rule of law does not necessarily contradict the modern concept of the rule of law, and also, Marx's understanding of the rule of law is related to the problem of building the rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The author conveys Marx's critique of 'law' as a critique of the process of building the rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition, the author shows that Marx's critique of 'law' is not necessarily an obstacle to the implementation of the modern concept of the rule of law.

The Outline of Constitutional Regulations on the Freedom of Conscience and Religion in Poland

Freedom of conscience and religion is one of the fundamental freedoms of person. This freedom is a constitutionally registered freedom and its exercise, like its constitutional guarantees, is the foundation of the modern concept of a democratic state’s rule of law. At the same time, the concept of a democratic rule of law is a source of limitations for this freedom, implemented in the spirit of European standards. The regulation of the freedom of conscience and religion under the Constitution of the Republic of Poland is a relatively extensive regulation, showing its own specificity, rooted in the experiences of the past, undemocratic political reality. Freedom of conscience and religion cannot be considered solely in the sphere of the psyche and in the sphere of privacy. On the contrary, it has an important public-law dimension. The issue taken up is closely related to the freedom of worldview, which determines both the behavior of the individual towards himself and the behavior of the individual towards other people and towards the community. The author presents and analyzes the regulation in question against the background of the principles determining the position of churches and religious associations in the state and their relations with the state.