Late Lessons from Early Warnings: Toward Realism and Precaution with Endocrine-Disrupting Substances

The histories of selected public and environmental hazards, from the first scientifically based early warnings about potential harm to the subsequent precautionary and preventive measures, have been reviewed by the European Environment Agency. This article relates the “late lessons” from these early warnings to the current debates on the application of the precautionary principle to the hazards posed by endocrine-disrupting substances (EDSs). Here, I summarize some of the definitional and interpretative issues that arise. These issues include the contingent nature of knowledge; the definitions of precaution, prevention, risk, uncertainty, and ignorance; the use of differential levels of proof; and the nature and main direction of the methodological and cultural biases within the environmental health sciences. It is argued that scientific methods need to reflect better the realities of multicausality, mixtures, timing of dose, and system dynamics, which characterize the exposures and impacts of EDSs. This improved science could provide a more robust basis for the wider and wise use of the precautionary principle in the assessment and management of the threats posed by EDSs. The evaluation of such scientific evidence requires assessments that also account for multicausal reality. Two of the often used, and sometimes misused, Bradford Hill “criteria,” consistency and temporality, are critically reviewed in light of multicausality, thereby illustrating the need to review all of the criteria in light of 40 years of progress in science and policymaking

Lymphotoxin-α Gene and Risk of Myocardial Infarction in 6,928 Cases and 2,712 Controls in the ISIS Case-Control Study

Lymphotoxin-α (LTA) is a pro-inflammatory cytokine that plays an important role in the immune system and local inflammatory response. LTA is expressed in atherosclerotic plaques and has been implicated in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease (CHD). Polymorphisms in the gene encoding lymphotoxin-α (LTA) on Chromosome 6p21 have been associated with susceptibility to CHD, but results in different studies appear to be conflicting. We examined the association of seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) across the LTA gene, and their related haplotypes, with risk of myocardial infarction (MI) in the International Study of Infarct Survival (ISIS) case-control study involving 6,928 non-fatal MI cases and 2,712 unrelated controls. The seven SNPs (including the rs909253 and rs1041981 SNPs previously implicated in the risk of CHD) were in strong linkage disequilibrium with each other and contributed to six common haplotypes. Some of the haplotypes for LTA were associated with higher plasma concentrations of C-reactive protein (p = 0.004) and lower concentrations of albumin (p = 0.023). However, none of the SNPs or related haplotypes were significantly associated with risk of MI. The results of the ISIS study were considered in the context of six previously published studies that had assessed this association, and this meta-analysis found no significant association with CHD risk using a recessive model and only a modest association using a dominant model (with narrow confidence intervals around these risk estimates). Overall, these studies provide reliable evidence that these common polymorphisms for the LTA gene are not strongly associated with susceptibility to coronary disease

Children’s access to beneficial information in Arab states: Implementation of Article 17 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Egypt, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates

In theory, the multiple platforms and transnational nature of digital media, along with a related proliferation of diverse forms of content, make it easier for children’s right to access socially and culturally beneficial information and material to be realised, as required by Article 17 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Drawing on data collected during research on children’s screen content in the Arab world, combined with scrutiny of documents collated by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which monitors compliance with the CRC, this paper explores how three Arab countries, Egypt, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates, presented their efforts to implement Article 17 as part of their periodic reporting on their overall performance in putting the CRC into effect. It uncovers tensions over the relationship between provision, participation and protection in relation to media, reveals that Article 17 is liable to get less attention than it deserves in contexts where governments keep a tight grip on media, and that, by appearing to give it a lower priority, all parties neglect the intersection between human rights in relation to media and children’s rights

Modeling the Total Allowable Area for Coastal Reclamation : a case study of Xiamen, China

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2013. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Ocean & Coastal Management 76 (2013):38-44, doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2013.02.015.This paper presents an analytical framework to estimate the Total Allowable Area for Coastal Reclamation (TAACR) to provide scientific support for the implementation of a coastal reclamation restriction mechanism. The logic of the framework is to maximize the net benefits of coastal reclamation subject to a set of constraints. Various benefits and costs, including the ecological and environmental costs of coastal reclamation, are systematically quantified in the framework. Model simulations are developed using data from Tongan Bay of Xiamen. The results suggest that the TAACR in Tongan Bay is 5.67 km2, and the area of the Bay should be maintained at least at 87.52 km2.The study was funded by the National Oceanic Public Welfare Projects (No. 201105006) and the Fujian Natural Science Foundation (No. 2010J01360

Repurposing NGO data for better research outcomes: A scoping review of the use and secondary analysis of NGO data in health policy and systems research

Background Non-government organisations (NGOs) collect and generate vast amounts of potentially rich data, most of which are not used for research purposes. Secondary analysis of NGO data (their use and analysis in a study for which they were not originally collected) presents an important but largely unrealised opportunity to provide new research insights in critical areas including the evaluation of health policy and programmes. Methods A scoping review of the published literature was performed to identify the extent to which secondary analysis of NGO data has been used in health policy and systems research (HPSR). A tiered analytic approach provided a comprehensive overview and descriptive analyses of the studies which: 1) used data produced or collected by or about NGOs; 2) performed secondary analysis of the NGO data (beyond use of an NGO report as a supporting reference); 3) used NGO-collected clinical data. Results Of the 156 studies which performed secondary analysis of NGO-produced or collected data, 64% (n=100) used NGO-produced reports (e.g. to critique NGO activities and as a contextual reference) and 8% (n=13) analysed NGO-collected clinical data.. Of the studies, 55% investigated service delivery research topics, with 48% undertaken in developing countries and 17% in both developing and developed. NGO-collected clinical data enabled HPSR within marginalised groups (e.g. migrants, people in conflict-affected areas), with some limitations such as inconsistencies and missing data. Conclusion We found evidence that NGO-collected and produced data are most commonly perceived as a source of supporting evidence for HPSR and not as primary source data. However, these data can facilitate research in under-researched marginalised groups and in contexts that are hard to reach by academics, such as conflict-affected areas. NGO–academic collaboration could help address issues of NGO data quality to facilitate their more widespread use in research. Their use could enable relevant and timely research in the areas of health policy, programme evaluation and advocacy to improve health and reduce health inequalities, especially in marginalised groups and developing countries

Public Policies and Work Integration Social Enterprises: An International Perspective

This proposal is based on a sample of country analyses, prepared under the framework of the International Comparative Social Enterprise Models project (ICSEM). A central aim of ICSEM is to compare social enterprise models across the world. One particular field of Social Enterprise - WISEs or Work Integration Social Enterprises - has become increasingly recognised as being emblematic of the dynamics of social enterprises and now constitutes a major sphere of their activity globally. The major objective of WISEs is to integrate the disabled and other disadvantaged groups, including the long-term unemployed, back into the labour market and society through a productive activity. Relations between WISEs and public policies are a key issue explored in each of the papers of the panel. Historical analysis shows that civil society has contributed to the development of public polices and that these policies, in turn, have shaped the types of social enterprises (SEs) that emerged at a country level, in particular WISEs, the central focus of this panel (Nyssens, 2006). WISEs are shown to be pioneers in promoting the integration of excluded persons through a productive activity and incrementally have evolved as a tool for implementing national labor market policies (Spear, Defourny, Favreau, Laville, 2001). However, the extent to which WISEs are recognized and incorporated into welfare state policy varies across countries and the dialogue between them has not always been smooth. Indeed, the nature of the accommodation between the views of WISEs and those of public bodies on the contested nature of WISEs’ mission is not always easy.. WISE are usually viewed as multiple-goal organizations; they mix social goals, connected to their specific mission to benefit the community (the integration of people excluded from the labor market through productive activity but also in some cases other goals linked to community development such as supply of services to elderly people, children and recycling goods); economic goals, related to their entrepreneurial nature; and socio-political goals, given that many SEs are rooted in a “sector” traditionally involved in socio-political action. However, public policies used by WISEs now shape (at least partially) their objectives and practices narrowing their role to that of a tool of active labor market policy. Competitive pressures also shape their behavior as WISEs sell their products in markets where they are in competition with profit-making enterprises. The panel explores how populations of WISEs in different country contexts have emerged and shifted in their identities over time in relation to changing public policies at the national level. These country-based articles will provide an illustration of the historical development of the sector at a country level, the relationship of WISEs with national policy processes, and some of the main challenges and successes of the secto

Atribución de responsabilidad a los perpetradores de violaciones de derechos humanos: acercamiento a los criterios de análisis de la agentividad.

En este análisis de las descripciones sobre violaciones de derechos humanos, adoptaremos un enfoque discursivo a la agentividad como un concepto que establece una relación de causalidad entre una acción, el agente, o sea el perpetrador, y el paciente, o sea la víctima (De Cock y Michaud Maturana, 2014; 2018), a fin de analizar cómo se representa la responsabilidad por dichas violaciones. En español, se puede ocultar al agente de distintas maneras, como con el uso de la construcción impersonal con “se”, de la voz pasiva sin complemento de agente o de nominalizaciones. Sin embargo, para estudiar la agentividad en contextos de abusos a los derechos humanos, no es suficiente analizar la presencia o ausencia del agente (De Cock y Michaud Maturana, 2014; 2018). De hecho, el analista tiene que considerar otros criterios que influyen en la agentividad. El análisis de la agentividad en discursos sobre violaciones de derechos humanos puede contribuir a la comprensión de temas sociales más amplios como la construcción de la memoria. De hecho, permite estudiar la atribución de responsabilidad a los perpetradores, dado que la agentividad se asocia comúnmente en lingüística con las nociones de intencionalidad, consciencia de acción y responsabilidad (Villalba Ibáñez, 2017; Yamamoto, 2006). Un agente explícito puede en efecto ser considerado como responsable de sus acciones, y, en contextos tabúes, la agentividad puede por lo tanto representar cierta amenaza a la imagen (Pizarro Pedraza & De Cock, 2018). En consecuencia, su análisis es bastante interesante en contextos donde la atribución de responsabilidad es sujeto de controversias, como en contextos de violaciones de derechos humanos. Varios autores se han interesado a este tema. Se destacan los trabajos de Achugar (1999; 2007; 2009), que se interesa al discurso militar en el contexto de la Dictadura cívico-militar uruguaya (1973-85), y de De Cock y Michaud Maturana (2014; 2018), que analizan el informe Rettig, publicado después de la Dictadura de Pinochet en Chile (1973-90). El presente estudio analiza por su parte la agentividad en un contexto contemporáneo, a saber, en un corpus constituido por textos que relatan los abusos cometidos durante las protestas sociales que estallaron en Chile en 2019. En su análisis del Informe Rettig, De Cock y Michaud Maturana (2014; 2018) identifican cinco niveles de agentividad basándose en tres criterios, a saber, la expresión que identifica al perpetrador, la función sintáctica de esta referencia y la transitividad del verbo. Según los autores, el primer nivel caracteriza las oraciones en las cuales el agente es sujeto de un verbo activo, mientras que el último nivel caracteriza las oraciones en las cuales el agente está totalmente ausente. No obstante, esta tipología ha sido desarrollada para un tipo de discurso específico que sólo relata casos de muerte. En otro análisis (Pécher, 2021), hemos hallado la necesidad de desarrollar una tipología de agentividad que podría aplicarse a un corpus más amplio que incluye otros tipos de violaciones de derechos humanos. En esta contribución, queremos por lo tanto desarrollar una tipología de agentividad que se basaría en los criterios siguientes: la presencia o ausencia del perpetrador, y, si está presente, el tipo de referencia (es decir, si es explícita o implícita y qué tipo de información aporta acerca de la identidad del perpetrador) y su función sintáctica. En esta presentación, nos dedicaremos a la explicación en detalle de estos criterios

Prototypical equivalence and lexical learning

Lexis is an important aspect of language learning. In fact, it has been claimed that to know a language is to know its vocabulary. While such a statement may not be completely accurate, it is still true that for learners of a foreign language to be able to communicate adequately, a “massive vocabulary expansion” (Kelly 1991: 257) is necessary. However, a number of pitfalls are associated with lexical learning. One of them has to do with the difficulty of establishing equivalences between words in the mother tongue (L1) and words in the target language (L2). For one thing, lexical equivalences between two languages are far from being perfect (see e.g. Van Roey 1990 for a comparison of French and English). For another, learners often establish incorrect equivalences, a case in point being the field of false friends, where confusion is created by the formal resemblance between semantically different words (cf. Granger & Swallow 1988). For applied purposes, the comparison of lexis in two languages has often relied on native data in the two languages, and especially, in recent years, on parallel corpora containing texts in one language and their translation, by expert translators, in the other language. The so-called Integrated Contrastive Model (Granger 1996), for example, uses parallel corpus data in order to study the equivalence (or lack thereof) between two words or phrases cross-linguistically and thus make claims about transfer-related phenomena. Such an approach, however, neglects a crucial factor, namely the cognitive dimension of lexical learning. Following Kellerman (1977, 1979), it will be argued that the learner’s perception of the target language is an important issue to consider and that equivalences established in the learner’s mental lexicon are more informative than objective equivalences when it comes to the study of essentially cognitive phenomena such as transfer. These two measures, objective equivalence in the languages and subjective equivalence in the learner’s mental lexicon, will be compared to each other using parallel corpus data on the one hand and elicitation data on the other hand. While the corpus data will make it possible to determine the most frequent equivalent of a polysemous word in the other language, the elicitation data will give access to the equivalent perceived as the most prototypical one by learners, by asking them to give the first equivalent that comes to mind in their L1 when prompted for a L2 word (or the other way round). Using several case studies, it will be shown that prototypical equivalence may account for problems found in the learner’s production better than corpus data alone could