Empowerment’s Influence on Resident Support for Tourism in rural Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

Rural sustainable tourism within CEE has been a promising diversification strategy and a relatively easily accessible means for rural households to achieve independence from the agriculture. Despite empowerment being a crucial component of this type of tourism few scholars have looked at how empowerment applies to rural societies within the post-communist EU member states. There has been some evidence of empowerment in the tourism context in those countries through exploratory studies, but they expose only some issues related to the implementation of participatory mechanisms in tourism decision-making and they are qualitative in nature. To further discuss the applicability of empowerment within CEE socio-political conditions, more research is needed to examine how residents perceive empowerment and how these perceptions relate to other core tourism constructs such as support for tourism. With this gap in mind, the first goal of this study is to test the cross-cultural validity of the Resident Empowerment through Tourism Scale (RETS) within the CEE country of Poland. The second goal is to evaluate how empowerment predicts residents’ support for tourism within a CEE context. Using a theoretical perspective that blends Social Exchange Theory with Weber’s Theory of Formal and Substantive Rationality, these non-economic empowerment dimensions will be coupled with a measure of resident perceptions of economically benefiting from tourism to see if Polish residents are more influenced by the economic benefits of tourism or the non-economic constructs of empowerment

Anticipatory anthropology – anthropological future study

The author deliberates the fusion of two disciplines – futurology and cultural anthropology. She tries to indicate some anthropological tools and methods which are suitable to deduce cultural future and advances a thesis that the future is nowadays an inevitable area of study for cultural anthropology. By making the critical analysis of social threats, hopes and by critical observation of contemporary cultural trends anthropologists are able to construct the possible view of future. The project, described in the text, aims at preparing for changes and proving that anthropology enables predicting the future of the culture

Effect of Hydrocortisone on Mortality and Organ Support in Patients With Severe COVID-19: The REMAP-CAP COVID-19 Corticosteroid Domain Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Evidence regarding corticosteroid use for severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is limited. Objective: To determine whether hydrocortisone improves outcome for patients with severe COVID-19. Design, Setting, and Participants: An ongoing adaptive platform trial testing multiple interventions within multiple therapeutic domains, for example, antiviral agents, corticosteroids, or immunoglobulin. Between March 9 and June 17, 2020, 614 adult patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 were enrolled and randomized within at least 1 domain following admission to an intensive care unit (ICU) for respiratory or cardiovascular organ support at 121 sites in 8 countries. Of these, 403 were randomized to open-label interventions within the corticosteroid domain. The domain was halted after results from another trial were released. Follow-up ended August 12, 2020. Interventions: The corticosteroid domain randomized participants to a fixed 7-day course of intravenous hydrocortisone (50 mg or 100 mg every 6 hours) (n = 143), a shock-dependent course (50 mg every 6 hours when shock was clinically evident) (n = 152), or no hydrocortisone (n = 108). Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary end point was organ support-free days (days alive and free of ICU-based respiratory or cardiovascular support) within 21 days, where patients who died were assigned -1 day. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model that included all patients enrolled with severe COVID-19, adjusting for age, sex, site, region, time, assignment to interventions within other domains, and domain and intervention eligibility. Superiority was defined as the posterior probability of an odds ratio greater than 1 (threshold for trial conclusion of superiority >99%). Results: After excluding 19 participants who withdrew consent, there were 384 patients (mean age, 60 years; 29% female) randomized to the fixed-dose (n = 137), shock-dependent (n = 146), and no (n = 101) hydrocortisone groups; 379 (99%) completed the study and were included in the analysis. The mean age for the 3 groups ranged between 59.5 and 60.4 years; most patients were male (range, 70.6%-71.5%); mean body mass index ranged between 29.7 and 30.9; and patients receiving mechanical ventilation ranged between 50.0% and 63.5%. For the fixed-dose, shock-dependent, and no hydrocortisone groups, respectively, the median organ support-free days were 0 (IQR, -1 to 15), 0 (IQR, -1 to 13), and 0 (-1 to 11) days (composed of 30%, 26%, and 33% mortality rates and 11.5, 9.5, and 6 median organ support-free days among survivors). The median adjusted odds ratio and bayesian probability of superiority were 1.43 (95% credible interval, 0.91-2.27) and 93% for fixed-dose hydrocortisone, respectively, and were 1.22 (95% credible interval, 0.76-1.94) and 80% for shock-dependent hydrocortisone compared with no hydrocortisone. Serious adverse events were reported in 4 (3%), 5 (3%), and 1 (1%) patients in the fixed-dose, shock-dependent, and no hydrocortisone groups, respectively. Conclusions and Relevance: Among patients with severe COVID-19, treatment with a 7-day fixed-dose course of hydrocortisone or shock-dependent dosing of hydrocortisone, compared with no hydrocortisone, resulted in 93% and 80% probabilities of superiority with regard to the odds of improvement in organ support-free days within 21 days. However, the trial was stopped early and no treatment strategy met prespecified criteria for statistical superiority, precluding definitive conclusions. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02735707

Radioactive waste as socio-technologicall hybrid in Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory

Przedmiotem, a zarazem podmiotem badań są promieniotwórcze odpady, wytwarzane szczególnie podczas produkcji energii w elektrowniach jądrowych. Autorka traktuje je jako jednego z kluczowych aktorów związanych z Programem Polskiej Energetyki Jądrowej. W tym celu posługuje się Teorią Aktora-Sieci Bruno Latoura. Za jej pomocą odtwarza argumenty przeciwników i zwolenników nuklearnej inwestycji. Pod kątem problemów związanych ze składowaniem odpadów radioaktywnych rekonstruuje zarówno ludzkich, jak i nieludzkich aktorów. Ujęcie wypalonego paliwa jądrowego w charakterze podmiotu o sile sprawczej wikła go w szerszą zbiorowość. Promieniotwórcze śmieci, choć tabuizowane, w rzeczywistości mają funkcję kulturotwórczą.The object and concurrently the subject of this study is radioactive waste; the byproduct of nuclear energy production. The author regards nuclear waste as a the key actors in the Polish Nuclear Power Program. Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory is adopted as the analysis framework. This theoretical framework is utilized to bring up arguments of supporters and opponents of the investment in the nuclear power plant. The author reconstructs both human and non-human actors in terms of their links to nuclear waste management. Regarding nuclear power waste as a subject with its own agency, involves this subject in a larger collective. Even though radioactive waste is exposed to tabooisation, in fact it has the power of creating culture

Between ecological time and the ecology of time in the culture of acceleration

Time and space are concepts that form an indivisible entity in the concept of ecological time. The process of separating these ideas in Anglo-American culture began along with the acceleration of technological development. It resulted in a quick, almost instantaneous rate of life, which affects destructively both individuals and general public. What is the main postulate of the ecology of time is to stop the negative effects of acceleration, and re-integrating the idea of time and space in the practice of everyday life

Anticipatory anthropology – anthropological future study

The author deliberates the fusion of two disciplines – futurology and cultural anthropology. She tries to indicate some anthropological tools and methods which are suitable to deduce cultural future and advances a thesis that the future is nowadays an inevitable area of study for cultural anthropology. By making the critical analysis of social threats, hopes and by critical observation of contemporary cultural trends anthropologists are able to construct the possible view of future. The project, described in the text, aims at preparing for changes and proving that anthropology enables predicting the future of the cultur