Authors’ response

Conclusion  The air of consensus in these reviews is, as McNaughton notes, methodological. The future of philosophical emotion theory is in synthesising what a wide range of science has to tell us and using this to reflect on the nature of mind in general. In this respect the philosophy of emotion has been seriously out of step with the rest of a very exciting contemporary scene in the philosophy of mind. Whatever the shortcomings of my own attempt to bring the philosophy of emotion into contact with the rest of the discipline, I predict that this ‘reclaimed land’ will prove fertile.     

Exploration of the Puerto Rico Trench in the mid-twentieth century: Today’s significance and relevance

The Puerto Rico Trench is a deep oceanic subduction zone that runs parallel with the northern coasts of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. It is the deepest place in the Atlantic Ocean with a maximum depth of approximately 8400 m. Discovered by the HMS Challenger Expedition in 1875, the depth of the trench increased multiple times in the ensuing 100 years with the onset of sonar usage. It is perhaps unique among the world’s deep trenches in that a series of unrelated but equally pioneering expeditions captured the true biological and geological characteristics of one of the deepest places in the world, observations that are still highly relevant today. Multiple deep water trawling campaigns and surveys using drop cameras and exploratory dives in a deep diving submersible provided great insight into the morphology of the trench, the types of habitat within the trench, the substrate, the food supply, and the diversity of species that inhabit these extraordinary depths. Many of these accounts are obscure and disparate, yet combined bear a remarkable similarity to recent work in other trenches. These unique and insightful accounts are collated and retold here alongside recent and comparable findings to contextualise these discoveries, prevent them from being forgotten, and keep the efforts of those involved to remain relevant as we continue to explore the deepest places of the world’s oceans.     

Role of Iron and Copper in the Pathogenesis of Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is an old age disorder of basal ganglia which involves oligomerization of α-synuclein protein and formation of intercellular inclusions known as “Lewy bodies” in substantia nigra and caudate nuclei in brain which is progressive in nature. It is second most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder characterized by tremor at rest, muscle rigidity, slowness of movement (bradykinesia, akinesia), and changes in posture (instability). Both excess and deficiency in levels of transition metals (especially iron, copper) can be detrimental to the central nervous system. Abnormalities in iron (Fe) and copper (Cu) metabolism have been reported to produce oxidative stress which is one of the major cause in pathogenesis of PD. In the present study 35 PD patients and 33 controls of Northern Indian population were included and serum levels of Fe, Cu and ceruloplasmin (Cp) were measured. Serum Fe (p < 0.01) and Cu (p < 0.01) levels were found to be significantly decreased in PD, whereas there was no significant change in Cp levels in PD patients as compared to controls. These results suggest the existence of a defect in iron which over the time, may hasten the entry of iron into the brain and decrease iron in the extracellular compartment in PD patients.     

Luciano Floridi’s philosophy of information and information ethics: Critical reflections and the state of the art

I describe the emergence of Floridi’s philosophy of information (PI) and information ethics (IE) against the larger backdrop of Information and Computer Ethics (ICE). Among their many strengths, PI and IE offer promising metaphysical and ethical frameworks for a global ICE that holds together globally shared norms with the irreducible differences that define local cultural and ethical traditions. I then review the major defenses and critiques of PI and IE offered by contributors to this special issue, and highlight Floridi’s responses to especially two central problems – the charge of relativism and the meaning of ?entropy’ in IE. These responses, conjoined with several elaborations of PI and IE offered here by diverse contributors, including important connections with the naturalistic philosophies of Spinoza and other major Western and Eastern figures, thus issue in an expanded and more refined version of PI and IE – one still facing important questions as well as possibilities for further development.     

Organisational ‘know-where’ and ‘know-when’: re-framing configurations and distributions of knowledge in organisations

This paper explores varying configurations of knowledge in organisations. A multi-dimensional framework of distinctive forms of knowledge is used to highlight different patterns of organisational knowledge, demonstrating their heterogeneity and variability – over time, in terms of depth of expertise, and their distribution within and between organisations. Common knowledge that is shared across an organisation accounts for only a small proportion of organisational knowledge, indicating that strategies to exploit this resource for competitive advantage will be constrained unless mechanisms are developed that enable access to and transfer of knowledge that is not yet shared or common.     

Issues in the management of embedded knowledge in project-based organizations: the project actor’s role

Knowledge management (KM) in project-based organizations has received substantial attention in recent years, as knowledge processes are insufficiently supported within the organization as a whole. This study specifically focuses on the project actor’s role in managing knowledge. From an actor’s perspective, the problems raised by knowledge embeddedness are identified as a key issue to link project knowledge and organizational knowledge. A conceptual framework is developed that addresses three different aspects of knowledge embeddedness: a relational dimension, a temporal dimension and a structural dimension. Three cases are studied, covering varying forms of organizations in different areas (a consulting firm, an R&D department and an industrial business unit). The results concerning the relational dimension indicate that project actors re-build the network of relationships supporting knowledge. Regarding the temporal dimension, and specifically in their professional field, actors frame professional knowledge related to their project experience. However, actors fail to surmount the problems raised by the structural dimension of knowledge embeddedness. The resulting recommendations for KM concern both Human Resource Management practices and organizational design.     

Effects of members’ response styles in an online depression community based on text mining and empirical analysis

The online depression community (ODC) has become a popular resource for people with depression to manage their mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study proposed a novel perspective based on response style theory to investigate whether depression individuals’ distractive and ruminative behaviors in ODC were related to social support received and co-rumination. Furthermore, we explored the influences of social support and co-rumination on suicidal behaviors using panel data set. We collected text data from 22,286 depressed users of a large ODC in China from March 2020 to July 2021, and conducted text mining and econometrics analyses to test our research questions. The results showed that depression users’ online ruminative behaviors had a positive relationship with the co-rumination and had a negative relationship with social support received. Besides, constructive distractive behaviors (i.e., providing social support to others) increased the support users received from others but had a negative relationship with co-rumination. Depression users' future suicidal behaviors are influenced by past received social support and co-rumination. The received social supports and co-rumination have a negative and positive influence on depression users' future suicidal behaviors, respectively. Our results enrich the application of response style theory in online medicine. They provide meaningful insights into behaviors that influence the acquisition of online social support and the incidence of online co-rumination in ODCs. This study helps relevant institutions to conduct more targeted online suicide interventions for depression patients.     

Between politics and prevention: A re-examination of China’s schistosomiasis control campaign in the 1950s

In the 1950s, China is widely regarded as having made great achievements in the control of schistosomiasis, also known as snail fever. Despite the success, efforts to prevent the disease did not fare well during the Reform period (1978–present). Given this, several key questions need to be addressed. Was the schistosomiasis control campaign a real success in the context of political fervor? Would a schistosomiasis control policy be successful only when it returns to the Maoist medical model, as Miriam Gross argues? Did schistosomiasis return as advertised, or was it never eliminated since the 1950s? In this article, I argue that (1) schistosomiasis control is widely regarded as a great success in an ecological sense, but as far as a long-term mechanism of control is concerned, an approach that relies exclusively on strong political intervention and mass participation may not be effective; (2) schistosomiasis control should first focus on the establishment of a sustainable, long-term mechanism, rather than a temporary, assault-style approach to the problem; and (3) from the 1950s to the present, the spread of schistosomiasis does not represent its return, but, rather, the failure of control efforts to eliminate it.     

The challenges of data usage for the United States’ COVID-19 response

During the coronavirus pandemic, policy makers need to interpret available public health data to make decisions affecting public health. However, the United States’ coronavirus response faced data gaps, inadequate and inconsistent definitions of data across different governmental jurisdictions, ambiguous timing in reporting, problems in accessing data, and changing interpretations from scientific institutions. These present numerous problems for the decision makers relying on this information. This paper documents some of the data pitfalls in coronavirus public health data reporting, as identified by the authors in the course of supporting data management for New England’s coronavirus response. We provide recommendations for individuals to collect data more effectively during emergency situations such as a COVID-19 surge, as well as recommendations for institutions to provide more meaningful data for various users to access. Through this, we hope to motivate action to avoid data pitfalls during public health responses in the future.