Academic literature on the topic 'Other human society not elsewhere classified'

Aibo, Sony’s robodog, questions the relations between nature, technology, and society and directs the attention to the difficult and changing triad between machines, humans and animals. Located at the boundaries between entertainment robot, dog, and companion Aibo evokes the question which relationship humans and Aibo can have and which ethical issues are being addressed. Promoted by Sony as a ‘best friend’, it is useful to analyze Aibo within the theoretical framework of feminist philosopher and biologist Donna Haraway, who develops alternative approaches of companionships between humans and dogs. Therefore, I am going to ask how Aibo challenges the understanding of other life forms by humans and how concepts of friendship are at stake. Ethical questions about human perceptions of dogs in the age of doglike robots must be approached. However, Aibo itself follows no predefined category. Aibo does neither live in a merely mechanistic ‘elsewhere’ nor in the ‘elsewhere’ of animals but in an intermediate space, in a doubled diffracted ‘elsewhere’.

This article sets its investigative goal on determining the medical knowledge of medieval physicians from 1347-8 to 1351 concerning the causes of plague. As the plague killed a third of Europe’s population, the contemporary witness at the time perceived God as the sender of this plague to punish the human society. However, physicians separated the religious and cultural explanation for the cause of this plague and instead seek the answer to this question elsewhere. Developing on traditional medical knowledges, physicians classified the possible range of the plague’s causes into two areas: universal cause and individual/particular causes. In addition, they also sought to explain the causes by employing the traditional miasma-humoral theory. Unlike the previous ones, however, the plague during 1347-8 to 1351 killed the patients indiscriminately and also incredibly viciously. This phenomenon could not be explained by merely using the traditional medical knowledge and this idiosyncrasy led the physicians employ the poison theory to explain the causes of plague more pragmatically.

Indonesian Muslims are faced with the emergence of a small number of intolerant, exclusive, rigid Islamic groups and other groups that easily express hostility and carry out conflicts. On the other hand, Muslims are also faced with the emergence of an Islamic community that tends to be liberal and permissive. The two groups are classified as the extreme right (tatorruf yamini) and the extreme left (tatorruf yasari), which are against the ideal form of implementing Islamic teachings in Indonesia and even the world. In fact, Islam has very clearly taught about tolerance in religion, especially since Indonesia is a pluralist country that adheres to many religions. This study uses qualitative method. While the data collection is using literature study information. This research obtained several important findings that da'wah is an obligation that every Muslim should carry and convey in wise and wise ways. In the implementation of da'wah in a pluralist society, the method of da'wah bi al-hikmah must be put forward. The diversity or plurality of human life in various ways is sunnatullah. Living in a pluralistic society will exist if everyone understands each other, respects each other, and accepts each other.

AbstractThe four Arab Human Development Reports, 2002-2005, sponsored by the United Nations Development Program and written by over one hundred Arab scholars based in the Middle East and elsewhere, have attracted more attention and controversy than any other official studies of development in recent years. The Reports are controversial in at least two respects: First, they adopt a conception of development as freedom that excludes all economic variables. Second, they emphasize three major themes, building a knowledge society; expansion of political freedoms; and women's empowerment, that challenge in fundamental ways central features of institutional regimes and cultural and religious traditions in Arab societies. This paper is critical of the espousal of a form of egalitarian liberal democracy as a benchmark for formulating reform strategies in Arab societies, particularly given the role and influence of path dependence in explaining the status quo. This form of universalistic utopianism tends to discount the dramatic differences in performance amongst various Arab societies on a wide range of economic, social, and political indicators and fails to exploit the potential value of these differences in identifying and exploiting openings for feasible reform strategies.

Despite the omnipresence of artificial and natural light exposure, there exists little guidance in the United States and elsewhere on light exposure in terms of timing, intensity, spectrum, and other light characteristics known to affect human health, performance, and well-being; in parallel, there is little information regarding the quantity and characteristics of light exposure that people receive. To address this, the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, in the Division of Lung Diseases, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, held a workshop in August 2016 on circadian health and light. Workshop participants discussed scientific research advances on the effects of light on human physiology, identified remaining knowledge gaps in these research areas, and articulated opportunities to use appropriate lighting to protect and improve circadian-dependent health. Based on this workshop, participants put forth the following strategic intent, objectives, and strategies to guide discovery, measurement, education, and implementation of the appropriate use of light to achieve, promote, and maintain circadian health in modern society.

Human use language in their interaction in daily life to convey or deliver their thoughts and communicate with each other. This research belonged to the descriptive qualitative research to find out ecolexicons and the description of each ecolexicon based on the knowledge of community in Nagari Gunuang using triple dimension of social praxis. Based on data analysis and discussion found 30 words belonged to ecolexicons. Afterward, the data were classified into three categories biotic flora, biotic fauna, and abiotic. The researcher found 28 biotic lexicons, 22 of them are categorized as flora lexicons and 6 of them are categorized as fauna lexicons. On the other hand, abiotic lexicon was found only 2 by the researcher. Lexicons about biotic flora are considered as the most dominant type of ecolexicons that found. Among 22 biotic flora lexicons, 4 of them are classified as death words because it no longer used in daily life and unrecognized by the informant or society.

Purpose The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA 1998) was the model for South Africa’s Protected Disclosures Act 2000 and has been regarded as an exemplary piece of legislation in debates in other countries, for example, the Netherlands, New Zealand and some Australian states. However, in the light of international developments since PIDA 1998 came into force, in particular the principles contained in the Council of Europe Recommendation and the enactment of more sophisticated statutes elsewhere, it is contended that the UK legislation is no longer fit for purpose. The purpose of this article is to make suggestions for reform in the light of developments elsewhere. Design/methodology/approach This paper assesses the operation of PIDA 1998 (as amended) in the light of the case law and empirical research. Findings The paper makes detailed suggestions for reform in relation to both the law and practice of whistleblowing. Research limitations/implications The paper focuses on the main issues raised by the UK whistleblowing provisions. It has implications both nationally and internationally. Practical implications It is hoped that the recommendations will provoke thought about legislative reforms and changes in management practices. Social implications If the reforms suggested in the paper are enacted, it is expected that workers will be more confident about raising concerns about wrongdoing. This should benefit society generally in that economic inefficiencies can be dealt with and citizens can enjoy greater freedom of speech. Originality/value This review of the UK legislation over 19 years should be of value to academics, students, legal and management practitioners both at home and abroad.

In this article, we examine the macroeconomic parameter final consumption (FC) by assuming it is an indicator of human development; the latter, ultimately, determines the socio-economic conditions in society. The aim is to bind the aggregate final consumption to human needs. For this purpose, the methodology of the analysis grows up on two pillars: on the side of human needs we take Maslow's theory of motivation, and on the side of the economy, we take the product structure of total final consumption. By analogy, based on a theoretical analysis, we constructed a model, which describes the basic human needs classified by Maslow [1], in economic terms. We tested empirically the model, especially, the hierarchy of the five product categories of FC referred to basic human needs. Other hypotheses about relationships between this product structure of FC and the socio-economic standard are also under consideration

Subject of this article is exploration of relational patterns of young people: their beliefs, feelings, perceptions and experiences gained through relationships with other people in postmodern social context. The postmodern societies, including ours, share the same characteristics: production of uncertainty, neo-individualism and consequent loss of contact with another human being. The others are often objectivised - they should serve to fulfill our goals, while the possibility of an authentic human contact is reduced to a minimum. Although not clinically striking, these behavioural patterns - ways of adaptation to the uncertain social context, can not be classified as personally and developmentally beneficial. The goal of our analysis was to describe how our young people perceive the Other and how they interact with the others. The survey was conducted on 197 students of humanities faculties. In order to examine their beliefs and practices we used a structured questionnaire. Findings have shown that there is no room for optimism: most respondents are distrustful to others, living in the belief that they can rely solely on themselves, and the percentage of lonely ones is high. Having in mind the above, the need for further research on this subject has been recognized.

The Impact of Covid-19 on Society and Law: Selected Aspects of Polish and European Legislation In our research approach, we have focused on the negative influence of SARS-Cov-2 on European society and legislation. This topic concerns each one of us. The pandemic has become an enormous challenge for the legislator. We look at how recent regulations has been affecting functioning of society or respecting human rights, concluding that they were at risk with no sign of improvement. We discuss some key issues related to human rights and Polish legislation onCOVID-19, i.e. the Ordinance of the Minister of Health of 20 March 2020 or Regulations of the Council of Ministers of 31 March 2020. Those acts, for instance, included prohibitions on personal movement, with the exception of for the purpose of performing work and business tasks as well as satisfying necessary daily need, which was a major limitation of freedom. Closing most work places, in turn, violated second-generation human rights. We also mention the financial penalties and their unsuitability given other punishments for unlawful acts. In addition, we describe two ways of receiving fines, classified and characterised based on competent decision-making authorities. The new procedures entail extended prerogatives granted to the police. As result, the problem appears of interpretation of human rights as well as possible infringements of fundamental human rights. Our article contains a short description of difficulties related to the presidential election in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. To ensure a comprehensive analysis of therese arch problem, we have compared Polish legislation with legal solutions adopted by other counties.

"Research of a wide range of primary sources informs this work, including hitherto unstudied local union records, oral testimony, contemporary newspapers, government and employer reports. Conclusions reached in this dissertation are that while the founders of the local trade union movement shared a vision of improving the lot of workers in their employment and in the wider social context, and they endeavoured to establish effective structures and organisation to this end, their efforts were of mixed success. They succeeded eminently in improving and protecting the employment conditions of workers to contemporary expectations through effective exploitation of political and institutional channels and through competent and conservative local leadership. However, the additional and loftier goal of creating a better life for workers outside the workplace through local combined union action were much less successful, foiled not only by overwhelming economic difficulties, but also by a local sense of working-class consciousness which was muted by the particular social and cultural context of Rockhampton." -- abstract

"Investigates [Queensland] government documents relating to family inclusion and disability service provision using content analysis.... [and] explores the experiences of adult siblings of people with profound disability living in group home supported accommodation"--Abstract.

The current global sustainability crisis is a cultural crisis (Bokova, 2013; NASA, 2018). This crisis is due largely to the negative effects created by the amorphous nature of neoliberalism (Gittins, 2010; Latouche, 2010a; Washington, 2015). The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 2011) outlined seventeen goals sought to rectify this crisis. The practical realisation of these goals has proven elusive to those seeking social change as they navigate negative human behaviours in local social contexts. This research explored adult bullying behaviours as one way to examine the clash between neoliberal and sustainable systems and the dysfunctionalities found in this social dynamic at a local community level. Cross-case study research methodology generated qualitative data from economically focussed developments in two communities in regional Australia. The presence in each case study of social interactions between individuals advocating for the perpetuation of neoliberalism and people seeking sustainability aims guided the selection of cases for this research. This first case context was a community (Arendelle community) living, and co-existing, near a non-towered aerodrome. Historically a holiday destination, the community had a range of socio-economic groups and encompassed a number of nature reserves. The case begins in 2006 with the introduction of a regional aviation company moving into the area for the purpose of implementing a portion of an international aviation contract. The second case (Gumnut Landcare) was a semi-rural community near forest and protected natural areas. Evident in the daily life of the community was a high level of understanding and implementation of sustainability practices including many forms of sustainable eco-centric lifestyle. The area also had a European dairy farming history. This case began in 2001 with the initial negotiations to purchase a parcel of land for a community site development and the desire for a special interest group to develop much of the land for an 18-hole golf course. The cross-case analysis allowed the examination of issues that represented not only the comparison of adult bullying by those advocating neoliberal aims in each case but current topical concerns relating the impacts on elements of sustainability domains and achieving sustainability aims. This methodology and associated methods were suitable for a critical social constructionist form of interpretivist research. The data collection instruments included in-depth interviews (seven in the first case and six in the second); continual personal communication with key individuals in each case (a long-term RA committee member in Arendelle case and long-term permanent employee of Gumnut Landcare); documentary analysis of public, organisational and historical records; and researcher observations. This research contributed to the extension of our understanding of cross-case study research through the discovery of interconnected units of analysis. This strengthened the value of case study methodology in social-ecological research. A key concept that emerged in this research but was absent in the literature on social change towards sustainability, was the need for an understanding of human behaviours considered detrimental to achieving sustainability aims, in particular, adult bullying, and the skills to alleviate those behaviours. The research extended, therefore, on the theoretical understanding of adult bullying in the social-ecological contexts of sustainability at a local community level. Firstly, it extended on the literature that examines bullying in corporate settings by constructing a normalised pattern of bullying behaviour for business development at the community level. Secondly, three categories of social connections between bystanders who utilised bullying behaviours to support individual neoliberalists emerged in each case—minions, mates and linchpins. A deeper understanding of the perpetuation of this social normalisation of bullying transpired through the surfacing of the linchpin as a new type of bystander pivotal in linking the bullying events in both cases and these cases to the broader neoliberal system. The research contributed to greater theoretical clarity around the barriers to implementation of social change towards sustainability at the local community level. It filled a gap in the literature by providing a critical understanding of human behaviours detrimental to change towards sustainability, such as adult bullying behaviours, and their use to implement neoliberal aims. This included a heightened understanding of how community residents in both cases failed to identify or acknowledge the behaviours they experienced as bullying. The community residents’ lack of understanding of how bullying was normalised in the local context meant it was difficult for them to respond in ways that supported sustainable alternatives. This conundrum was exacerbated with the identification that some community members also lacked awareness that many of their everyday actions supported sustainability. This research provided a framework for future research into the social-ecological context of adult bullying behaviours in local community settings, particularly as they are manifested in the behaviours of those implementing neoliberal aims. Future research needs to extend on two knowledge bases in local communities. The first is local community identification and responses to alleviating neoliberal bullying. The second is a greater ability to identify, understand and safeguard sustainable behaviours at the community level. One avenue of future research identified was the development of community sustainability frameworks (CSFs) that incorporate these knowledge bases. These CSFs would need to be developed to coincide with the increased recognition that social change towards sustainability requires a transdisciplinary and in some communities a supradisciplinary approach to policy, research, and practice at all social levels.

Typically they are known as ‘smarks’, collectively they are known as the Internet Wrestling Community (IWC). This study of the mostly internet-based texts of the IWC shows that members of that informal alliance largely conform to the norms of fan culture and behaviour described in previous studies of fans in other entertainment genres. Celebrity is shown to be a product of publicity, promotion and fanaticism, and audiences connect with stars through involvement with the characters they portray and they identify with actualities as presented in the media. Fan culture involves obsession to know everything about the stars, worship and moral judgement. However, it is contended in this dissertation that there are factors that distinguish the IWC from other large fan groups. These arise in part from the unique format of pro-wrestling as a blend of theatrical and sporting product, and in part from the convergent technological ground that enables such a widely-disbursed, anarchic and yet cohesive body to exist and exert influence. It is argued that the collective intelligence of the IWC members who produce, filter and remediate all manner of source material from gossip, rumour and speculation, to news, to secret wrestling ‘insider’ information has forced the dominant industry player, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) to revaluate its production strategies. The role of the IWC in the breaking of kayfabe—the industry code of silence on the illusory aspect of wrestling—is highlighted. Using textual analysis technique this study focuses on the career rise and tragic downfall of former WWE performer Chris Benoit. It is contended that this wrestling veteran became a significant marketing image of the WWE’s global media empire as a direct result of the influence of the smarks of the IWC.

The Thesis explores the life situations of the three Mackay-based groups: Aboriginal, Torres Strait and South Sea Islander through oral history research and the lived experience of an Elder from each of these groups. Using a combination of oral and written approaches, the project seeks to document ongoing interactions between the three groups from the 1930s and assess their implications for culture, identity and mobility

Training and development programmes should form an important part of human resource management functions within all organisations. Such programmes are needed whenever organisational goals and objectives can be furthered by improved employee performance. In order to provide suitable content within these programmes, precise information about the training needs of staff must be obtained. In this study a survey instrument was developed and used for the determination of professional development needs of staff in a higher education institution undergoing major organisational change.

Despite the intense scholarly focus on leadership development in corporate settings, the importance of developing good leaders in police organisations has received scant attention. The dearth of scholarship on police leadership means that the distinctive demands of policing are often overlooked in addressing the question of unique leadership requirements. This gap also suggests that we do not yet understand how the characteristics of policing drive a need for tailored approaches to developing police leaders. This research addressed this gap in the literature by initially exploring how senior officers learn the art of leadership within an Australian policing context through interviews with jurisdictional experts (Study 1). The focus of this research then centred on commissioned officers within the Queensland Police Service (QPS) through a survey questionnaire (Study 2) and stakeholder interviews (Study 3). Drawing upon the literature and theoretical frameworks of leader development models, this investigation explored what development methods best advanced officers’ leadership together with other factors that facilitated or constrained their development. The research then centred on the extent to which recognised factors—such as the unique challenges of policing, the existence of feedback and the extent of support—lead to the enhancement of senior police leaders. Study 1 explored policy frameworks across eight (8) Australian police agencies that revealed each jurisdiction applied a unique approach to leader development, reflecting the parochial and independent way each agency administered its policing functions. In study 2 the survey questionnaire yielded a 61 percent response rate comprising officers who were predominately male, highly educated and mature (in age and service). Inherent cultural and organisational characteristics encouraged officers to adopt a “cradle to the grave” approach to their policing careers. In the final study, interviews with twenty (20) QPS commissioned officers revealed participants comprised a small cohort of survivors who had successfully navigated the politically charged police environment. This study highlighted officers’ journeys in acquiring their leadership was underscored by being contextually grounded within the difficult and challenging organisational milieu of policing. In addressing the research questions, the three studies, when analysed, broadly supported the 70:20:10 learning model which theorises leadership is primarily acquired by job experiences (70%) and to a lesser extent through relationships (20%) and via formal or structured learning (10%). This model did not present as a measured outcome which arose from allocating resources or priorities according to a clearly defined 70:20:10 outcome ‘rule’. Instead, the (approximate) 70:20:10 distribution of leadership learning was almost certainly the outcome of an interaction between the structure of the police leadership environment and the reality of the field. This research found on the job work was their primary “classroom” for learning leadership, with the majority of learning acquired through informal means (i.e. job experiences and relationships). However, the three components of the 70:20:10 process needed to be better articulated, planned and seamlessly integrated. In particular, more tangible and coherent links need to be developed between formal learning and informal learning and greater acknowledgement that informal learning requires the same levels of support and feedback to that supplied for formal learning. The research found superiors played a pivotal role in the leadership development process; either as facilitating or hindering an officers’ leadership. The findings revealed that many superiors were found wanting as role models with officers’ learning more about what leadership behaviours to avoid replicating; by observing the key characteristics of superiors who were bad role models (i.e. reverse role-modelling). Diverse cultural factors were found to hinder officers from advancing their leadership including the rank orientated and risk adverse culture and the powerful tradition of favouring management over leadership. Various macro-organisational characteristics also stymied officers’ development including the failure to integrate leadership development into the organisations’ infrastructure, evidenced by policies and frameworks that lacked strategic maturity and intent. The findings also broadly support the two-part leadership development model promoted by McCauley et al. (2010a). Within the fertile contextual milieu of policing, officers’ key characteristics were highlighted in the first component of the model. Commissioned officers were a highly homogenous group that were winners who had flourished within the unique developmental system and distinctive police culture. Their characteristics were critical in scaling the rungs of the highly competitive and occasionally brutal leadership ladder, including possessing warrior like skills that reflected the deeply entrenched macho police culture. The research also lent support to the second part of the model comprising vital elements of challenge, support (coupled with feedback), together with the pivotal elements of (i) leadership context with (ii) varied developmental experiences, moulded by challenge, feedback and support. The research highlighted that the quality and extent of support and feedback provided by superiors, coupled with their key characteristics proved instrumental in officers’ developing as leaders. Arguably more strategic roles played by senior leaders are part science and part art, however, the findings suggest there is relatively little “science”, (formal learning) and a great deal of art (on-the-job training). Officers were thrown into significant, ill-controlled and unpredictable challenges, often with a considerable lack of training and resources, and it was the on-the-job challenges that ultimately defined them as leaders. Another key issue that emerged was that officers were not being “developed” by the police service but had rather survived the difficulties thrown up by their work. This meant the nature of police “leadership development” resulted in survivors becoming leaders and the ad hoc system of police development may have inadvertently “weeded out” talented individuals. Superiors’ permeated this process by possessing a hopeful but ultimately naïve assumption that informal learning occurred naturally and by merely adopting a “set and forgot” approach would eventually culminate in officers’ automatically acquiring leadership capability. Such an approach reflects a “cream rises to the top” philosophy of leader development involving the misconception that the best talent will emerge regardless of the quality of developmental experiences provided. Finally, this program of research highlighted a conflict between how headquarters would like to see policing and police leadership training, and the reality of how officers acquired their leadership primarily in the field. At a senior level, police may well imagine or wish that the process was more structured and orderly, and governments require the process to be documented and predictable, but out in the field a battle is ongoing, despite the wishes of leadership. So there is a tension, or juxtaposition between a desire for order, and a reality of chaos in the police workplace which has implications for how leaders are developed.

Adaptive governance is defined by a focus on decentralized decision-making structures and procedurally rational policy, supported by intensive natural and social science. Decentralized decision-making structures allow a large, complex problem like global climate change to be factored into many smaller problems, each more tractable for policy and scientific purposes. Many smaller problems can be addressed separately and concurrently by smaller communities. Procedurally rational policy in each community is an adaptation to profound uncertainties, inherent in complex systems and cognitive constraints, that limit predictability. Hence planning to meet projected targets and timetables is secondary to continuing appraisal of incremental steps toward long-term goals: What has and hasn’t worked compared to a historical baseline, and why? Each step in such trial-and-error processes depends on politics to balance, if not integrate, the interests of multiple participants to advance their common interest—the point of governance in a free society. Intensive science recognizes that each community is unique because the interests, interactions, and environmental responses of its participants are multiple and coevolve. Hence, inquiry focuses on case studies of particular contexts considered comprehensively and in some detail.Varieties of adaptive governance emerged in response to the limitations of scientific management, the dominant pattern of governance in the 20th century. In scientific management, central authorities sought technically rational policies supported by predictive science to rise above politics and thereby realize policy goals more efficiently from the top down. This approach was manifest in the framing of climate change as an “irreducibly global” problem in the years around 1990. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established to assess science for the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The parties negotiated the Kyoto Protocol that attempted to prescribe legally binding targets and timetables for national reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. But progress under the protocol fell far short of realizing the ultimate objective in Article 1 of the UNFCCC, “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference in the climate system.” As concentrations continued to increase, the COP recognized the limitations of this approach in Copenhagen in 2009 and authorized nationally determined contributions to greenhouse gas reductions in the Paris Agreement in 2015.Adaptive governance is a promising but underutilized approach to advancing common interests in response to climate impacts. The interests affected by climate, and their relative priorities, differ from one community to the next, but typically they include protecting life and limb, property and prosperity, other human artifacts, and ecosystem services, while minimizing costs. Adaptive governance is promising because some communities have made significant progress in reducing their losses and vulnerability to climate impacts in the course of advancing their common interests. In doing so, they provide field-tested models for similar communities to consider. Policies that have worked anywhere in a network tend to be diffused for possible adaptation elsewhere in that network. Policies that have worked consistently intensify and justify collective action from the bottom up to reallocate supporting resources from the top down. Researchers can help realize the potential of adaptive governance on larger scales by recognizing it as a complementary approach in climate policy—not a substitute for scientific management, the historical baseline.

<em>Abstract.</em>—Efforts to achieve no net loss of productive capacity (PC) of fish habitat are failing in Canada and elsewhere. These growing losses, particularly in freshwaters, have a central role in ongoing global changes that threaten our future. Canada has a large share of global freshwater resources and hence a greater responsibility to help find solutions. For fish habitat, a preoccupation with habitat suitability, and other indices of that ilk, has diverted attention from self-sustaining fish populations, their productivity, and their fisheries. Symptoms of the problem are reviewed and a remedial approach is offered alongside analogies from comparable conservation and protection arenas such as fisheries, biodiversity, and human society. Many of the symptoms of failure arise from the primary focus of management efforts at the level of individual development activities while the remedies require a focus on more holistic ecosystem-level strategies. Implementation of these remedial approaches is considered.

This introductory chapter provides an outline of the structure and themes of the book, and describes how I became interested in this topic—through both personal and professional experiences. The chapter presents a brief overview of infertility and several assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), including new technologies (e.g., gene editing and CRISPR) and their history; recent statistics on use of these interventions in the United States and elsewhere; several relevant current policies, guidelines, and recent legal cases in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere (e.g., from the FDA, CDC, and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine [ASRM]) pertaining to sale and purchase of so-called third-party gametes (i.e., human eggs and sperm); costs and insurance coverage; ethical issues posed by ARTs (e.g., regarding eugenics); and other aspects of these treatments. The chapter also provides an overview of the qualitative methods used in the research that forms a basis of the book.

I attempt to look into the issue of the ranks of values comprehensively and progressively. Anti-values can be classified into the following six categories by ascending order: (1) the act of destroying the earth-of annihilating humankind and all other living organisms; (2) the act of mass killing of people by initiating a war or committing treason; (3) the act of murdering or causing death to a human being; (4) the act of damaging the body of a human being; (5) the act of greatly harming society; (6) all other crimes not covered by the above. Higher values can be classified into the following five categories in descending rank: (1) absolute values such as absolute truth, absolute goodness, absolute beauty and absolute holiness; (2) the act of contributing to the development and happiness of humankind; (3) the act of contributing to the nation or the state; (4) the act of contributing to the regional society; (5) the act of cultivating oneself and managing one's family well. Generally, people tend to pursue happiness more eagerly than goodness, but because goodness is the higher value than happiness, we ought to pursue goodness more eagerly. In helping people to get the right sense of values and to internalize it, education and enlightenment of citizens based on the guidance of conscience rather than compulsion will be highly effective.

Abstract This chapter considers the capacity of equality law to address exponential inequalities arising from intersecting crises, that is, when more than one crisis occurs simultaneously or in close succession. It examines the case of Hong Kong, which has, in recent years, experienced increasing inequalities arising from a democracy deficit, shrinking space for civil society, political and ideological polarization, and strict responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. This has played out against the backdrop of a vast wealth gap and shortage of affordable housing. These crises intersect in complex ways with negative implications for the aims of substantive equality. They have also occurred alongside, and been influenced by, global developments including the pandemic, the rise of authoritarian regimes and populist movements, and other threats to democracy and human rights. As such, insights from Hong Kong may inform strategies for dealing with the effects of crisis elsewhere. Multiple crises in Hong Kong have predominantly impacted groups facing intersectional disadvantage, including migrant domestic workers, refugees, mainland immigrants, and people of South Asian origin. Hong Kong equality law, however, is generally ill-equipped to prevent or remedy such complex disadvantage. The Hong Kong situation illustrates the importance of enhancing the participation of groups lacking political and social voice as a critical element of substantive equality. When a democracy deficit prevails, the general inability to participate, compounded by a worsening disproportionate lack of representation by marginalized communities, makes it even more difficult to advance equality claims.

In 2002, the extraordinarily wealthy inhumation burial of a single adult male was discovered less than 5 kilometres from Stonehenge in Wiltshire. The Amesbury Archer, as he soon came to be known, was buried sometime between 2380 and 2290 BC (Fitzpatrick 2011), and he was accompanied by an array of grave goods including three copper knives, a pair of gold ornaments, five Beaker pots, seventeen barbed and tanged arrowheads, two stone bracers, a shale belt ring, and a possible cushion stone for the working of metal objects. The appearance of single burials with grave goods at the beginning of the Chalcolithic has long been interpreted as indicating the emergence of an ideology of the individual (e.g. Renfrew 1974; Shennan 1982). The objects buried with the Archer have been viewed as a direct reflection of his wealth and status, and the discovery seems to support established views of Bronze Age society as increasingly hierarchical—dominated by individuals who drew political power from success in long-distance exchange, control over specialist technologies such as metalworking, and prowess in hunting and warfare (Needham 2000a; Needham et al. 2010; Sheridan 2012). It has frequently been recognized, however, that such evolutionist narratives in fact present a reductionist reading of the evidence (e.g. Petersen 1972; Petersen et al. 1975, 49; Brück 2004a; Gibson, A. 2004), and detailed evaluation of human remains from both mortuary contexts and elsewhere indicates considerable variability in the treatment and perception of the human body (Sofaer Derevenski 2002; Gibson, A. 2004; Brück 2006a; Fitzpatrick 2011, 201–2; Appleby 2013; Fowler 2013, ch. 4). We will return to consider the significance of grave goods in Chapter 3; here we will focus on the treatment of the body both in Bronze Age mortuary rites and in other forms of social and ritual practice. As we shall see, the bodies of the dead were manipulated in complex ways that indicate the existence of concepts of the self that differ profoundly from those familiar from our own cultural context.

In 1964, Dr. Barrows first introduced the standardized patients, who are individuals trained to imitate the pathological symptoms of the real patients, and involved them in teaching and clinical skills assessment for healthcare education. In recent decades, the application of the virtual patient has been rapidly grown and has been widely used in clinical or educational practice among residents, surgeons, or other medical professionals because the virtual patient is cost-effective and time-efficient [1]. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) collaborated with the Foundation of Research on Information Technologies in Society (IT’IS Foundation, Zürich, Switzerland) to produce a virtual family, which is a set of anatomical computer-aided design (CAD) models of adults and children [2, 3], and those CAD models are used in electromagnetic, thermal, and computer fluid dynamics simulations. However, the meaning of virtual patients or models has varied across the recent years and more and more researchers tried to categorize the terminology of virtual patients. In general, virtual patients can be classified into seven major types including: case presentation, interactive patient scenarios, virtual patient game, high fidelity software simulation, human standardized patients, high fidelity manikins, and virtual standardized patients [4]. The virtual patients discussed in this study can be classified as interactive patient scenarios, whose application includes clinical reasoning, surgical planning, and disease diagnosis.

1. IntroductionA report by the United Nations has revealed the number of older adults in the world is projected to reach 1.4 billion by 2030, and this number is expected to increase to 2.1 billion by 2050. This development will place enormous pressure on current healthcare and social protection systems. If life expectancy continues to rise while fertility constantly declines over many years. the ageing of the population will continue to throughout the world. The gigantic numbers of elderly people will place significant pressure on current systems of social protection and global health care. By 2024, it is expected to have nearly 400,000 people over the age of 80 in Hong Kong —a 24.8% increase over the figure recorded in 2014. 2. Problem StatementLike in other Asian cities, the population of Hong Kong exhibits a continuous ageing trend.The change in the population structure will need an improved housing policy and health care system and infrastructure in order to tackle these resulting social problems. The more older adults are living in the city, the greater the numbers of people who are living with dementia. 3. Older Adults Living with Mild Cognitive ImpairmentDementia is characterised by the loss of mental abilities,and by further degeneration over time.This condition is not inevitable, as the hallmark symptoms of cognitive deterioration are not considered to be a normal part of ageing. It is a typical biomedical disease that might appear when the brain is affected by some specific diseases, such as a series of small strokes damage the brain and cause confusion, speech problems and progressive loss of memory and cognition. This gradual decline in cognitive functions causes people to need extra support for daily living. A person who is having slightly problems with planning, reasoning and also remembering may be classified as having mild cognitive impairment (MCI). 4. Universal DesignUD (universal design) is classified as the practice of making things in ways that involve almost no extra cost, but offer attractive yet functional styles that are fulfilling all people, regardless of each individual’s ability or disability. UD addresses the complete span of functionality through making each element and space accessible to its deepest extent by careful planning at all different stages of a project. 5. Participant Observation An interpretive approach is adopted as a research paradigm for understanding the meanings that human beings attach to their experiences. For this study, a centre manager of the well-established Yan Oi Tong Elderly Community Centre recruited three older adults to participate for nine months. These people were living with MCI in a rural district. Prior to this study, these three elders engaged in a participative design workshop that was organised by the same researcher. The workshop had two sessions, and explored the participants’ latent needs concerning home decoration and product design for public housing.Observational visits were conducted with each participant every two weeks for a nine-month period. The participants are referred to as CH, CP and SK, and they were aged between 79 and 85 years old.6. DiscussionTheme 1: Fear of being alone.The participants described their experiences of facing loneliness. Although they felt that their memories were getting worse, they could still express how loneliness was one of the most difficult challenges that they had to face day-by-day. SK said that ‘I want to do my preferred activities,and don’t want to stay at home all the time!’ Theme 2: Recognition of incompetence.The older persons suffering from MCI believed that they were, to varying degrees, incompetent in dealing with day-to-day activities. As CP explained, ‘I have become useless and cannot remember things recently…’ Theme 3: Lack of neighbourhood spirit. For older people living alone in public housing, neighbours become the most reliable people after their families. Older participants reported that they commonly displaced their house keys due to their gradual memory loss. They had to make duplicate front door keys, and gave them to neighbours who they trusted.To deal with such problems, a product design or system could be pre-installed in housing facilities that would enable better communication or connection between neighbours, and allow older residents to become closer to others.7. ConclusionThis ethnographic study has investigated the latent, unfulfilled needs of older persons living with MCI. Building rapport with these older participants was an important step at the beginning of the study.This finding of “Fear of being alone”, “Lack of neighbourhood spirit”also revealed that regular visits by community centre staff and local social workers should be organised to provide older community members and stakeholders with more attention regarding their day-to-day activities and their relations to society as a whole in order to eliminate “Recognition of incompetence”.

In his book The Long Truce (Spence Publishing, 2001) the late A. J. Conyers argues that tolerance, as practiced in western democracies, is not a public virtue; it is a political strat- egy employed to establish power and guarantee profits. Tolerance, of course, seemed to be a reasonable response to the religious wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but tolerance based upon indifference to all values except political power and materialism relegated ultimate questions of meaning to private life. Conyers offers another model for tolerance based upon values and resources already resident in pre-Reformation Christianity. In this paper, we consider Conyer’s case against the modern, secular form of tolerance and its current practice. We examine his attempt to reclaim the practice of Christian tolerance based upon humility, hospitality and the “powerful fact” of the incarnation. Furthermore, we bring the late Conyers into dialog with Fethullah Gülen, a Muslim scholar, prolific writer and the source of inspiration for a transnational civil society movement. We explore how both Conyers and Gülen interpret their scriptures in order to fashion a theology and politi- cal ideology conducive to peaceful co-existence. Finally, because Gülen’s identity has been formed within the Sufi tradition, we reflect on the spiritual resources within Sufi spirituality that make dialog and toleration key values for him. Conyers locates various values, practices and convictions in the Christian message that pave the way for authentic toleration. These include humility, trust, reconciliation, the interrelat- edness of all things, the paradox of power--that is, that strength is found in weakness and greatness in service—hope, the inherent goodness of creation, and interfaith dialog. Conyers refers to this latter practice as developing “the listening heart” and “the open soul.” In his writings and oral addresses, Gülen prefers the term hoshgoru (literally, “good view”) to “tolerance.” Conceptually, the former term indicates actions of the heart and the mind that include empathy, inquisitiveness, reflection, consideration of the dialog partner’s context, and respect for their positions. The term “tolerance” does not capture the notion of hoshgoru. Elsewhere, Gülen finds even the concept of hoshgoru insufficient, and employs terms with more depth in interfaith relations, such as respect and an appreciation of the positions of your dialog partner. The resources Gülen references in the context of dialog and empathic acceptance include the Qur’an, the prophetic tradition, especially lives of the companions of the Prophet, the works of great Muslim scholars and Sufi masters, and finally, the history of Islamic civilization. Among his Qur’anic references, Gülen alludes to verses that tell the believers to represent hu- mility, peace and security, trustworthiness, compassion and forgiveness (The Qur’an, 25:63, 25:72, 28:55, 45:14, 17:84), to avoid armed conflicts and prefer peace (4:128), to maintain cordial relationships with the “people of the book,” and to avoid argumentation (29:46). But perhaps the most important references of Gülen with respect to interfaith relations are his readings of those verses that allow Muslims to fight others. Gülen positions these verses in historical context to point out one by one that their applicability is conditioned upon active hostility. In other words, in Gülen’s view, nowhere in the Qur’an does God allow fighting based on differences of faith. An important factor for Gülen’s embracing views of empathic acceptance and respect is his view of the inherent value of the human. Gülen’s message is essentially that every human person exists as a piece of art created by the Compassionate God, reflecting aspects of His compassion. He highlights love as the raison d’etre of the universe. “Love is the very reason of existence, and the most important bond among beings,” Gülen comments. A failure to approach fellow humans with love, therefore, implies a deficiency in our love of God and of those who are beloved to God. The lack of love for fellow human beings implies a lack of respect for this monumental work of art by God. Ultimately, to remain indifferent to the conditions and suffering of fellow human beings implies indifference to God himself. While advocating love of human beings as a pillar of human relations, Gülen maintains a balance. He distinguishes between the love of fellow human beings and our attitude toward some of their qualities or actions. Our love for a human being who inflicts suffering upon others does not mean that we remain silent toward his violent actions. On the contrary, our very love for that human being as a human being, as well as our love of those who suffer, necessitate that we participate actively in the elimination of suffering. In the end we argue that strong resonances are found in the notion of authentic toleration based on humility advocated by Conyers and the notion of hoshgoru in the writings of Gülen.

In the past 40 years, China has experienced the largest and fastest urbanization development in the world. The infrastructure, urban environment and medical services of cities have been improved significantly. The health impacts are manifested in the decrease of the incidence of infectious diseases and the significant increase of the life span of residents. However, the development of urbanization in China has also created many problems, including the increasing pollution of urban environment such as air, water and soil, the disorderly spread of urban construction land, the fragmentation of natural ecological environment, dense population, traffic congestion and so on. With the process of urbanization and motorization, the lifestyle of urban population has changed, and the disease spectrum and the sequence of death causes have changed. Chronic noncommunicable diseases have replaced acute infectious diseases and become the primary threat to urban public health. According to the data published by the famous medical journal The LANCET on China's health care, the economic losses caused by five major non-communicable diseases (ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, breast cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) will reach US$23 trillion between 2012 and 2030, more than twice the total GDP of China in 2015 (US$11.7 trillion). Therefore, China proposes to implement the strategy of "Healthy China" and develop the policy of "integrating health into ten thousand strategies". Integrate health into the whole process of urban and rural planning, construction and governance to form a healthy, equitable and accessible production and living environment. China is building healthy cities through the above four strategies. The main strategies from national system design to local planning are as follows. First of all, the top-level design of the country. There are two main points: one point, the formulation of the Healthy China 2030 Plan determines the first batch of 38 pilot healthy cities and practices the strategy of healthy city planning; the other point, formulate and implement the national health city policy and issue the National Healthy City. The evaluation index system evaluates the development of local work from five aspects: environment, society, service, crowd and culture, finds out the weak links in the work in time, and constantly improves the quality of healthy city construction. Secondly, the reform of territorial spatial planning. In order to adapt to the rapid development of urbanization, China urban plan promote the reform of spatial planning system, change the layout of spatial planning into the fine management of space, and promote the sustainable development of cities. To delimit the boundary line of urban development and the red line of urban ecological protection and limit the disorderly spread of urban development as the requirements of space control. The bottom line of urban environmental quality and resource utilization are studied as capacity control and environmental access requirements. The grid management of urban built environment and natural environment is carried out, and the hierarchical and classified management unit is determined. Thirdly, the practice of special planning for local health and medical distribution facilities. In order to embody the equity of health services, including health equity, equity of health services utilization and equity of health resources distribution. For the elderly population, vulnerable groups and patients with chronic diseases, the layout of community health care facilities and intelligent medical treatment are combined to facilitate the "last kilometer" service of health care. Finally, urban repair and ecological restoration design are carried out. From the perspective of people-oriented, on the basis of studying the comfortable construction of urban physical environment, human behavior and the characteristics of human needs, to tackle "urban diseases" and make up for "urban shortboard". China is building healthy cities through the above four strategies. Committed to the realization of a constantly developing natural and social environment, and can continue to expand social resources, so that people can enjoy life and give full play to their potential to support each other in the city.