Public open space exposure measures in Australian health research: a critical review of the literature

Numerous studies have shown associations between public open space and a variety of health outcomes. Yet the extent to which firm conclusions and planning policy recommendations can be drawn from this body of work depends on how public open space availability has been measured and reported. Other researchers have highlighted potential issues with the way that public open space has been measured but have not systematically assessed the extent of this problem. This paper provides a comprehensive critical review of studies of public open space and health conducted in Australia to identify and compare public open space measurement and data treatment. Our analysis showed wide variation in how public open space was measured, as well as a lack of consistency in reporting public open space exposure measures and under‐reporting of measurement methods. We find that such tendencies limit how much these studies can be compared and contrasted with each other. The corollary of that finding is that without more detailed reporting of exposure measures, it will be difficult to establish an evidence base that informs planning for healthy, liveable environments. In response, we develop and present a checklist for reporting public open space exposure to address this challenge.     

The feminization of governance in rural communities in Poland: the case of village representatives (sołtys)

The main aim of this article is to analyze the drivers behind the feminization of the position of village representative in Poland and to discuss the possible consequences of this process. This article is based on a qualitative empirical study conducted in 10 communes located in different regions of Poland and varied in terms of women's participation in local public life. The results of my research show that the most significant factors of the feminization of the function of village representatives are social and cultural changes, as well as weakening of this position in the current system of local administrative institutions. Research has shown no striking differences in terms of types of initiatives or modes of functioning by women and men. Of significance, on the other hand, is the diversity of views on gender equality and, in particular, the activities of women in local public life. In the communes characterized by a significant presence of female village representatives and commune councilors, the women's public activities are more accepted and appreciated than in the communes, where women in such positions were in a minority.     

Thinking without the ‘circle’: Marine plastic and global ethics

Marine plastic has received significant attention as a spectacle of consumer waste and ecosystemic fragility, but there has been little discussion of its ethical implications. This essay argues that marine plastic poses a direct challenge to the basic frameworks of global ethics. These frameworks are dominated by the image of the ‘circle’, an abstract boundary intended to separate ‘humanity’ from the rest of the universe and insulate it against harm. However, this article argues that marine plastic undermines the ‘circle’ in two ways. First, it embodies conditions of ‘hyper-relationality’, including entanglement and the properties of toxicity, that penetrate the boundaries of ‘the circle’. Second, it exerts ‘forcefulness’, but at scales that radically exceed the dominant spatio-temporal dimensions of ‘the circle’. By virtue of these features, marine plastic thoroughly penetrates the boundaries of ‘the circle’, making it impossible to expel harm beyond its boundaries. Although this essay focuses on marine plastic, its core argument can also be fruitfully applied to other phenomena that share similar material, scalar, spatio-temporal and relational features (for instance, atmospheric particulate, nuclear waste and nitrate pollution). The essay concludes by exploring the alternative ethical possibilities that marine plastic and similar phenomena prompt: in particular, a responsive ethos based on a sense of shared vulnerability and exposure.     

The geographical and ethical origins of neoliberalism: The Walter Lippmann Colloquium and the foundations of a new geopolitical order

Observers tend to overlook the early neoliberalism that derived from the “Lippmann Colloquium” organised in Paris in 1938. Analysis of the discourse produced and books published at this founding moment shows that neoliberalism was then presented as a geopolitical doctrine aimed at redressing the spatial fragmentation of the world into States. The means to achieve this, according to this first neoliberalism, was by implementing what, in 1978, M. Foucault called “governmentality”: a multiscalar political system based on the submission of territories to the transnational discipline of a multilateral free division of labour. This thinking was very similar to the convictions of a number of political leaders who, from the 1940s onwards, were involved in creating a new international order uniting Western Europe and the United States, the foundations of which had many similarities with the principles of the first neoliberalism.     

雍正、乾隆朝引见绿营武官分析

文章依据雍正、乾隆朝引见绿营武官的履历档案,分析了这一时期绿营武官的籍贯、民族等问题,并比较雍正、乾隆两朝的变化特点。揭示了旗人特别是满人的选官特权在乾隆朝更明显,任职比例大幅攀升,任职层级提高,且多在战略要地任职。陕甘籍官员以功绩、福建籍官员以水师技能也分享了选官特权。乾隆朝武官人事渐显因循化趋势,循资任职比例增多,避籍制度宽松、年龄增大。通过对出兵记录的分析,估算了这一时期出兵西北、西南和台湾的比例。     

民族英雄的尺度：《白话本国史》教科书案研究

1935年,国民党上海市党部以吕思勉《白话本国史》"丑诋岳飞,推崇秦桧"为由而责令修改;有人以此控告商务印书馆与吕思勉,法院决定不起诉。《白话本国史》中的岳飞叙述,不利于在民族危机中激发民族意识来抵抗日本侵略;但其中反军阀思想,有利于国民党加强中央权力,又为南京政府所需要。该案的处理方式反映了国民党政府对民族英雄叙述的尺度:尊崇岳飞为民族英雄,突出其反抗外族侵略的一面,希望借助其抗金形象来振发国民志气;同时把岳飞叙述限制于抗金事迹中,弱化其武将身份,警惕其对军阀政治的影响,以加强国家统一。     

Public Policy and the Idea of the Vietnamese State: The Cultural Political Economy of Domestic Water Supply

Using Rural Water Supply (RWS) policy practices as a case study, this article shows that the disjunction between implementation as formally conceived and informally practised is not a question of ineffective policy cycle dynamics, but rather an inherent feature of Vietnam’s Cultural Political Economy. Drawing on critical realist approaches to social and state theory, we argue that formal and informal RWS policy practices, as a set of two interconnected spheres, serve as key, separate but connected, mechanisms for reproducing the distribution of material resources (primarily through the informal sphere) and the hegemony of ideas (primarily through the formal sphere) in Vietnamese society. We conclude that the formal, administrative practices of RWS policy are primarily to be understood in their function of reproducing the idea of the state and state legitimacy. RWS administrative practices function to sustain the core social and political order in Vietnam as institutionalised in “the state”, rather than being primarily oriented to improving rural water supply. The findings raise questions for donor-supported programs that focus on formal administrative institutions and practices for improving the performance of the water sector.     

Mineralogical and Chemical Characterization of Roman Slag from the Archaeological Site of Castra (Ajdovščina,Slovenia)

This study deals with the mineralogical and chemical characterization of archaeometallurgical material from the Roman archaeological site of Castra (Ajdov??ina, western Slovenia). Samples were initially analysed via optical microscopy and X‐ray powder diffraction, with the composition of individual phases then determined using scanning electron microscopy coupled with electron‐dispersive spectroscopy, and Raman microspectroscopy. Chemical investigation was carried out by using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy to measure the major element content. The results showed that the slag originated from iron smithing operations, with calcium‐rich olivines, as well as wuestite and leucite, the most abundant phases. The investigated slags were also found to be characterized by significantly high lime levels, which probably promoted the formation of the calcium‐rich olivines.     

Physical Properties of Cement-Based Paste and Mortar With Dehydrated Cacti Additions

This article presents results for the physical characterization of mortar cubes fabricated with botanical (green) dehydrated additions such as nopal (Opuntia ficus indica) and aloe vera. A total of 84 mortar cubes were fabricated with and without these natural additions and tested for a period up to 900 days. Mortar without such additions served as controls. The natural dehydrated additions, nopal and aloe vera, were mixed with CPO cement (the name used in Mexico for type I Portland cement) at different percent replacements (0%, 1%, 2%, and 4%). To characterize physical properties of such mixtures, four tests were performed at ?900 days: total void content, compressive strength, ultrasound wave propagation, and wet electrical resistivity. Marginal improvements were observed within the dehydrated aloe vera replacement mixtures. Dehydrated nopal additions did increase the physical performance of the mortar with time.