A grounded theory analysis of the occupational impact of caring for a partner who has multiple sclerosis

Chronic progressive conditions such as multiple sclerosis impact engagement in and orchestration of daily occupations by people with the condition, and their family members. This qualitative study addressed the way in which multiple sclerosis can affect family life, particularly exploring how it affects the occupations of the partner of a person with the condition. The study involved in-depth interviewing and grounded theory analysis to explore the occupational nature of being a partner of someone who has multiple sclerosis. Findings reveal how partners’ occupations are affected over time, with occupational opportunities inspired by multiple sclerosis and occupational constraints provoked by the disorder, including nostalgia for an multiple sclerosis free existence, the transition to being a carer and an occupationally uncertain future

Special Issue on Visualisations in Historical Linguistics:Introduction

The advent of ever-larger and more diverse historical corpora for different historical periods and linguistic varieties has led to the impossibility of obtaining simple, direct-and yet balancedrepresentations of the core patterns in the data. In order to draw insights from heterogeneous and complex materials of this type, historical linguists have begun to reach for a growing number of data visualisation techniques, from the statistical, to the cartographical, the network-based and beyond. An exploration of the state of this art was the objective of a workshop at the 2018 International Conference on English Historical Linguistics, from whence most of the materials of this Special Issue are drawn. This brief introductory paper outlines the background and relevance of this line of methodological research and presents a summary of the individual papers that make up the collection

The diachrony of Mapudungun stress assignment

Stress assignment is one of the most widely-known and controversial aspects of present-day Mapudungun (aka Araucanian) phonology. Here, the diachrony of the phenomenon is explored based on the available written record spanning 1606–1936. Having surveyed these sparse but suggestive data, and contrasted them with present-day evidence, I suggest four distinct stages of development. Ultimately, I go on to argue that Mapudungun has undergone changes both to the morphological and metrical domains which determine stress assignment. At the level of the morphology, stress appears to have changed from marking the edge of verbal roots, to marking the edge of stems. In terms of metrical units, the apparent lack of weight-sensitivity in the earliest stages of the language is replaced by a decidedly weight-sensitive system towards the end. Finally, I argue that stress assignment in Mapudungun is subordinate to morpho-phonological transparency both synchronically and diachronically, allowing the position of stress to vary in order to highlight the morphology

The Search for Sustainable Development: The Need to Redesign Manufactured Products

Resumen La búsqueda de un desarrollo que sea sostenible ambientalmente implica aceptar la realidad de un mundo de recursos finitos y la necesidad urgente de repensar nuestros hábitos de consumo y, más aún, nuestros procesos manufactureros. Ya no podemos darnos el lujo de un proceso lineal de producción en el cual se extraen recursos, se procesan, se empacan, de distribuyen, se consumen, y se descartan. Este proceso genera dos graves problemas: escasez de recursos (y los picos petroleros, de minerales raros, de tierra agrícola e incluso agua lo demuestran con creces) y enormes problemas en la gestión de grandes y siempre crecientes desperdicios, algunos muy tóxico y contaminación. Esa concepción corresponde a una etapa adolescente en nuestra evolución colectiva como humanidad, de una creencia ciega en un crecimiento económico y demandas humanas ilimitadas, y reducida preocupación por los impactos ambientales de los procesos productivos. Hay que rediseñar los productos manufacturados para que, en su diseño, este previsto que al terminar su vida útil puedan ser todos sus componentes reutilizados o que sean biodegradables de manera natural. Al comprar un televisor uno no compraría la materia prima que lo compone, sino el servicio que ofrece y al terminar su vida útil, la empresa que lo produce debe retomarlo y ver cómo hace para reutilizar sus componentes. Varios países europeos están moviéndose en esa dirección con legislación que obliga a las empresas a retomar sus productos. Al hacer eso, entraríamos a una etapa de mayor madurez y responsabilidad en nuestros procesos manufactureros, de menor orgullo, más humildad y de reconocimiento de nuestra intrínseca dependencia de los ciclos vitales que sustentan la vida en la tierra. Tal vez sea uno de los principales desafíos de la era moderna. El libro de Braungart y McDonell, “De la Cuna a la Cuna” es, así como lo fue “Lo Pequeño es Hermoso” o “La Primavera Silenciosa”, un libro pionero en este sentido y un libro de referencia obligatoria para quienes estén interesados en la búsqueda de un desarrollo que sea sostenible ambientalmente. Abstract The search for a development process that is environmentally sustainable implies accepting the reality of a world of finite resources and the urgent need to rethink our consumer habits and, even more so, our manufacturing processes. We can no longer produce the goods that we need following a linear process, in which resources are extracted, processed, packaged, distributed, consumed and thrown away. This process generates two very serious problems: resource scarcity (the oil peak, rare minerals and agricultural land peaks and even increasing water scarcity demonstrate this) and the impossible management of ever-increasing quantities of waste, some highly toxic and severe contamination problems. This conception corresponds to an adolescent phase in our collective evolution, a phase of blind trust in a growth process and endless human demands, combined with a reduced preoccupation as to the environmental impacts of our productive processes. Our manufactured products have to be redesigned, so that in their design, when they finish their useful life, all their component parts can be reused or that they be biodegradable naturally. When buying a TV, one would not be buying the raw materials that went into its parts, but the service it happens to offer, and when finished its useful life, the enterprise that produced it would have to take it back and see how to reuse all its parts. Various European countries are moving in this direction, with legislation that would oblige the enterprises to retake their products. In doing this, we would enter a new phase in our collective evolution, of greater maturity and responsibility in our manufacturing processes, one with less hubris and more humility and recognition of our intrinsic dependency of the life-sustaining cycles on this earth. This may well be one of the main challenges of the modern era. Braungart & McDonell, in their trend-setting book “From Cradle to Cradle”, as was “Small is Beautiful” or “Silent Spring”, wrote a pioneer book in this sense, a book of mandatory reference to all who are interested in the search of a development process that is environmentally sustainable