Communication studies cartography in the Lusophone world

Within the Lusophone community of over 250 million speakers only a minority developed a sense of belonging based on their common language, a phenomenon that is still very real today. According to the Mozambican writer, Mia Couto, Lusophony is not a ‘loud’ reality, rather a “luso-aphonic” one, that is, a place of low voices, no knowledge and no acknowledgement of the commonalities between themselves in this vast geographic and cultural space. Recognizing precisely this gap, Communication research associations in Lusophone countries (Lusocom) have promoted the setting up of a research cooperation network primarily between Portuguese and Brazilian researchers, and then extending it to the Galician community, and subsequently to the entire Lusophone space. This movement is based on the assumption that linguistic diversity enriches science and that science should be globally and contextually relevant. Lusophony can be discussed from various points of view, all related to the cultural identity of the Portuguese-speaking countries. I would like to explain my point of view, focused on the social status of language. Then, I will refer to the English language has a dominant language. Finally, I would like to point out some challenges that, from my perspective, the Lusophone research groups have to face in a global world dominated by English and anglo-saxon paradigms. My approach is in fact focused on the perspective of language, understood as a cultural manifestation, the expression of thought, a relational space, and an instrument of symbolic organization of the world. Such understanding is coincident with the symbolic power of language (Pierre Bourdieu’s theory), and with the post-colonial perspective which questions the domination, submission, subordination and control of peripheries, minorities, diasporas, migrants…(undefined)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Are the affluent prepared to pay for the planet? Explaining willingness to pay for public and quasi-private environmental goods in Switzerland

A large number of ‘environmental justice’ studies show that wealthier people are less affected by environmental burdens and also consume more resources than poorer people. Given this double inequity, we ask, to what extent are affluent people prepared to pay to protect the environment? The analyses are couched within the compensation/affluence hypothesis, which states that wealthier persons are able to spend more for environmental protection than their poorer counterparts. Further, we take into account various competing economic, psychological and sociological determinants of individuals’ willingness to pay (WTP) for both public environmental goods (e.g., general environmental protection) and quasi-private environmental goods (e.g., CO2-neutral cars). Such a comprehensive approach contrasts with most other studies in this field that focus on a limited number of determinants and goods. Multivariate analyses are based on a general population survey in Switzerland (N = 3,369). Although income has a positive and significant effect on WTP supporting the compensation hypothesis, determinants such as generalized interpersonal trust that is assumed to be positively associated with civic engagement and environmental concern prove to be equally important. Moreover, we demonstrate for the first time that time preferences can considerably influence survey-based WTP for environmental goods; since investments in the environment typically pay off in the distant future, persons with a high subjective discount rate are less likely to commit

Non-invasive dynamic near-infrared imaging and quantification of vascular leakage in vivo

Preclinical vascular research has been hindered by a lack of methods that can sensitively image and quantify vascular perfusion and leakage in vivo. In this study, we have developed dynamic near-infrared imaging methods to repeatedly visualize and quantify vascular leakage in mouse skin in vivo, and we have applied these methods to transgenic mice with overexpression of vascular endothelial growth factors VEGF-A or -C. Near-infrared dye conjugates were developed to identify a suitable vascular tracer that had a prolonged circulation lifetime and slow leakage into normal tissue after intravenous injection. Dynamic simultaneous imaging of ear skin and a large blood vessel in the leg enabled determination of the intravascular signal (blood volume fraction) from the tissue signal shortly after injection and quantifications of vascular leakage into the extravascular tissue over time. This method allowed for the sensitive detection of increased blood vascularity and leakage rates in K14-VEGF-A transgenic mice and also reliably measured inflammation-induced changes of vascularity and leakage over time in the same mice. Measurements after injection of recombinant VEGF-A surprisingly revealed increased blood vascular leakage and lymphatic clearance in K14-VEGF-C transgenic mice which have an expanded cutaneous lymphatic vessel network, potentially indicating unanticipated effects of lymphatic drainage on vascular leakage. Increased vascular leakage was also detected in subcutaneous tumors, confirming that the method can also be applied to deeper tissues. This new imaging method might facilitate longitudinal investigations of the in vivo effects of drug candidates, including angiogenesis inhibitors, in preclinical disease models

Electricity for Fluidics and Bio-Devices

International audienc