Telecommunications and Transnationalism: The Polarization of Social Space

This article critically assesses the policy orientation, social impacts, and linkages of telecommunications in the United States within a government deregulated policy environment and an increasingly globalized economy. Deregulation has been driven by both ideological and technological demands, stemming from several political and economic transformations in the world economy, the collapse of state socialism in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and greater oligopolistic competition among transnational corporations. An expanded infrastructure of new digital information and communications technology (ICT) is the foundation of a worldwide political economic regime of accumulation. ICT increases command and control capabilities of large corporations, together with the mobility and liquidity of capital, making it essential to the restructuring of the world economy, the new international division of labor, and the creation of global "information city" networks. At the same time, government deregulation and rapid technological change are associated with a number of spatial, economic, and social dualisms.     

Cultural practices in Italian family conversations: Verbal conflict between parents and preadolescents

This work studies verbal conflict between parents and preadolescents through analysis of family dinnertime conversations. We move from the assumption that verbal conflict is an educational instrument of interaction and a tool of socialization. The aim of the research is to analyze the participants' strategies in situations of conflict and to highlight the relations between parents and preadolescents in these specific situations. The data collection methodology is mainly ethnographical: videotape recordings of Italian middle class family dinners (the families were selected as being dual career ones with two children) were fully transcribed and codified following the approach of Conversation Analysis. The results of the quantitative (by the use of the log-linear models) and qualitative analyses confirm the importance of verbal conflict in family context as a particular cultural strategy of relationships between parents and preadolescents. The analytical data underline the relations between different aspects of conflict and the pragmatic implications for all family members at dinnertime conversations.     

Recent advances in swollen-state NMR spectroscopy for the study of drying oils

The cross-linking processes of three drying oils (poppy, linseed, walnut), a class of organic compounds very important in the field of artworks, were studied by means of ¹H-NMR spectroscopy, following the change of the protons signals when oils are heated at 60 °C in the presence of air or nitrogen gas. This preliminary information is particularly important to identify the presence of drying oils within a solid painting film. We demonstrated that it was possible to study these films by swollen-state NMR, an innovative spectroscopy method that can directly analyze very small semisolid samples instead of solutions. The main advantages of this method are the short time of analysis, the possibility to analyze samples without any preliminary treatment, and the small quantity of the sample required. Therefore, swollen-state NMR technique was used to characterize three real painting films: in this way, we succeeded in recognizing in real paintings specimens the presence of drying oils employed as binders, avoiding any interferences due to other organic compounds acting as binding agents, like waxes or egg-yolk media.     

Data-driven estimates of global nitrous oxide emissions from croplands

Croplands are the single largest anthropogenic source of nitrous oxide (N₂O) globally, yet their estimates remain difficult to verify when using Tier 1 and 3 methods of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Here, we re-evaluate global cropland-N₂O emissions in 1961–2014, using N-rate-dependent emission factors (EFs) upscaled from 1206 field observations in 180 global distributed sites and high-resolution N inputs disaggregated from sub-national surveys covering 15593 administrative units. Our results confirm IPCC Tier 1 default EFs for upland crops in 1990–2014, but give a ∼15% lower EF in 1961–1989 and a ∼67% larger EF for paddy rice over the full period. Associated emissions (0.82 ± 0.34 Tg N yr^–1) are probably one-quarter lower than IPCC Tier 1 global inventories but close to Tier 3 estimates. The use of survey-based gridded N-input data contributes 58% of this emission reduction, the rest being explained by the use of observation-based non-linear EFs. We conclude that upscaling N₂O emissions from site-level observations to global croplands provides a new benchmark for constraining IPCC Tier 1 and 3 methods. The detailed spatial distribution of emission data is expected to inform advancement towards more realistic and effective mitigation pathways.     

Work-family conflict and facilitation among teachers in Israel and Switzerland

In this paper, we examine the attitudes toward integrating work and family in a sample of 247 teachers in Switzerland and Israel. More particularly, we focus on the national context’s role in mediating the relations between professional and private spheres. The data were collected by a questionnaire implemented and administered in the two countries. The analysis reveals differences between Israeli and Swiss teachers regarding the importance of attribution to life roles and their attitudes toward conflict and facilitation. Findings suggest new insights into the consideration of cultural elements in shaping the teachers’ attitudes toward the integration of family and work.

     

One year of anatomy teaching and learning in the outbreak: Has the Covid-19 pandemic marked the end of a century-old practice? A systematic review

At the end of 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic spread caused restrictions in business and social spheres. Higher education was also severely affected: universities and medical schools moved online to distance learning and laboratory facilities closed. Questions arise about the long-term effects of this pandemic on anatomical education. In this systematic review, the authors investigated whether or not anatomical educators were able to deliver anatomical knowledge during this pandemic. They also discuss the challenges that anatomical education has faced over the last year. The search strategy was conducted between July 2020 and July 2021. Two hundred and one records were identified, and a total of 79 studies were finally included. How best to deliver anatomy to students remains a moot point. In the last years, the advent of new technologies has raised the question of the possible overcoming of dissection as the main instrument in anatomical education. The Covid-19 pandemic further sharpened the debate. Remote learning enhanced the use of technologies other than cadaveric dissection to teach anatomy. Moreover, from the analyzed records it appears that both from students' perspective as well as teachers' there is a clear tear between those who endorse dissection and those who believe it could be easily overcome or at least integrated by virtual reality and online learning. The authors strongly believe that the best anatomy teaching practice requires the careful adaptation of resources and methods. Nevertheless, they support cadaveric dissection and hope that it will not be replaced entirely as a result of this pandemic.