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Researchers who cross a discipline may experience culture shock at the different worlds of science and medicine. This paper outlines the differences in concepts and philosophies and in presentation styles. The acute difficulties when attempting to read or write works in different disciplines are also addressed, as well as the differences in perceptions and values when approaching written works in unfamiliar branches of academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This WASP (Write a Scientific Paper) Best Practice Guidelines (BPG) will wrap up all of the aspects pertaining to qualitative analyses as well as some more theoretical aspects of paper writing. These include types of studies and their importance in the hierarchy of evidence base as practiced in medicine. In addition, two papers review very practical aspects of paper writing including which journals to target (and why), and realistic methods for dealing with editors. Another paper also deals with fraud and hoax in science. Since the next BPG collection pertaining to WASP will deal with qualitative methods of analysis, by way of introduction to different ways of doing things, this collection will also review the practical differences between writing and presentation in the humanities and in the sciences. A paper will also very briefly review interdisciplinarity, including the depiction of interdisciplinarians as envisaged in future, in the (albeit speculative) science fiction genre. A final paper will demonstrate several precepts that have been highlighted over these BPGs, utilising as a practical example, a novel study that uses past requirements in order to estimate anticipated trends in cardiology service requirements at Mater Dei Hospital, Malta. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: To what extent have postmodernism and research modalities which fundamentally question the notion of the objective researcher impacted on the production of Ph.D. theses in the humanities and social sciences? This paper examines the visual and verbal representations of the writerly self through the title pages, tables of contents and introductory chapters of a corpus of 20 recent Ph.D. theses in History and Sociology from an Australian university. While affirming the dominance of the topic-based thesis macrostructure in the social sciences and humanities, it subjects the topic-based thesis category to greater scrutiny, presenting a case for the emergence of a New Humanities Ph.D., marked by its construction of a reflexive self, unable to write with the classic detachment of positivism. The paper briefly considers the implications for disciplinarity and postgraduate pedagogy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents a new method for generating artworks that extends the classical anamorphic archetype to use freeform reflective and refractive media and 3D surfaces instead of images. The methodology uses a mix of raytracing and surface deformation techniques to determine the proper deformation the object should undergo to be corrected by the optical tool once viewed by the observer in a specific location. Our approach also includes an optimization process that modifies the point of view and the location of the target image to avoid unwanted optical effects or occlusions. We successfully tested our technique on several practical examples and employed it to produce actual artworks. • A new method to construct anamorphic sculptures using general optical media. • Characterized the main problems arising in general anamorphosis. • A simple system to allow the artist to create anamorphic art installations. • We created real-world art installations in international exhibitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to discuss the features and development trends of China Academic Social Sciences and Humanities Library's (CASHL) internet-based document delivery service, examine the journal usage patterns of CASHL member libraries and determine the time range trends of documents requested by users. Ten years of the CASHL's document delivery service transaction data (about 860,000 items) were extracted, cleaned, integrated, and analysed. Journal use pattern is more decentralised and individualised. Request rates for older papers are continuing to increase. The different types of member libraries have large differences in terms of research requests and use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electronic literature and digital literary publishing have grown rapidly in scope and volume in the past decade, and humanities librarians face the formidable challenge of capturing the full output of works of literature for current and future users, and determining how best to provide access to those works. This paper details the findings of the Virtual Verse in the Library project, which sought to investigate the impact of digital publishing on the access, reception, discovery, and preservation of poetry. The paper focuses on the results of the study's survey and interviews with academic librarians, and explores how library services, collections, and outreach can address the needs of students and faculty involved with digital literary publishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper will examine two cases studies regarding collection development within Florida Gulf Coast University's Archives and Special Collections to highlight the department's efforts to curate collections that challenge gender and cultural bias. Librarians can influence the common historical perspective by collecting primary resources, such as oral histories, that challenge established norms. In recent decades, librarians have sought more diverse and inclusive collections to augment the resources available to scholars and storytellers. Oral histories are a powerful resource capable of providing valuable and differing perspectives of history and the human experience. This paper will discuss the rewards and challenges of collecting, cataloguing, and providing access to two oral history collections: a collection of ethnographies regarding sexual assault (S(he) Will Fade) and a collection of testimonies from people who dealt with the reality of abortion pre- and post-Roe v. Wade (Histories of Choice). The case studies address the importance of academic institutions' engagement with such collections, faculty and students' role in the collection of the oral histories, potential legal issues, and the impact of letting their voices be heard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predatory journals, which are a major concern of the academic community, generally do not properly fulfill the reviewing and editorial processes which are the most important pillars of scientific communication. In line with the principle of the accumulation of science, the papers that have not been faithfully reviewed in these journals cause a bad effect on the scholarly communication. In this study, the impact of 17 journals with addresses in Turkey in Cabells' Predatory Report (formerly Cabells' Journal Blacklist) to the literature were examined. For this purpose, the journal and article level descriptive statistics were examined for the aforementioned journals, and analyses were made for the citations from the papers published in the journals indexed in the Web of Science citation database. A total of 3427 papers were published in these journals, which started to be published between 2010 and 2015, and 389 citations were made to these papers from the journals listed in the WoS. Such highest citations come from Turkey (24.16%), then China (7.20%) addressed papers. In addition, although there are no papers in fields such as art, humanities and physics, it has been seen that there are citations to papers from these fields. This is important in terms of showing the widespread impact of science. A paper published without serious peer review in any predatory journal affects all fields of science in terms of its method, findings and discussions. Therefore, to reduce the misleading or false effect of predatory journals on the literature, a more skeptical behavior should be displayed about citing the papers published in these journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A persona represents a group of target users that share common behavioural characteristics. The personas method, an approach to systems design, has been receiving significant attention from practitioners. However, only anecdotal evidence currently exists for the effectiveness of personas and there have been criticisms about its validity as a scientific approach to research. This paper attempts to demonstrate how incorporating personas may lead to better understand the information needs of humanities scholars. Humanities scholars in an advanced ICT environment in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan are sampled as a case. Previous studies show that the humanities scholars have a significant negative relation with ICT use; they are using it less than scientists and social scientists, and they demonstrate a significantly higher use of library facilities than other academics. There is also a lack of up-to-date international research on the humanities scholars' information needs that takes into account recent rapid increases in the availability of ICT infrastructure, especially the Internet. As such, the objective of this study is to understand the information needs of humanities scholars and the effect of the electronic environment on their information seeking behaviour using personas. This study is conducted within a conceptual framework based on an integration of existing models of information-seeking behaviour, along with additional new elements representing the information context environment, such as languages, decision to seek and format of information resources. The four personas that were uncovered in this study may be able to effectively communicate the actual information needs of the humanities scholars through the personal narrative, name, and face, which continuously will remind the academic library of what their users really want and need from their services. This study also lays the foundation for future research by identifying variables of interest, and building construct validity through the themes of information needs that emerged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past half century, how we conceive of design research has changed significantly, as indeed have the boundaries of influence of the design profession. This paper takes an entirely personal perspective of the author and will discuss the change in the nature of design research through the lens of a career in design education and, especially, in the author's endeavours to develop design research as a respected discipline working with and alongside, science, social sciences and the arts and humanities. It will look at the social, economic and political drivers that have influenced design research in the UK but also globally, and at where this has taken design, in terms of research both within and beyond the design profession. • Traces developmental moves in design research. • Design research has moved from process and methods to systems and services. • Design research has moved from disciplines to challenges. • Design research can help us address complex global and local challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a qualitative study of the employment of digital tools, resources and services by social researchers in the UK and has a twofold aim. First, it presents the employment of digital means of research work from the stage of designing the research through to data collection and dissemination of the research results. Second, it assesses the complexity and multiplicity of digital tools, resources and services used in research as well as the complexity and range of such usage, also providing explanations as to why researchers in different disciplines use in different ways and for different purposes digital technologies of various ranges and degrees of complexity. The paper concludes that there are certain commonalities and differences in researchers' practices with digital technologies and that such practices are largely driven by researchers' expertise combined with associated disciplinary traditions and etiquette. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on nuclear technologies has been largely driven by a detachment of the 'technical content' from the 'social context'. However, social studies of science and technology - also for the nuclear domain – emphasize that 'the social' and 'the technical' dimensions of technology development are inter-related and co-produced. In an effort to create links between nuclear research and innovation and society in mutually beneficial ways, the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre started fifteen years ago a ‘Programme of Integration of Social Aspects into nuclear research’ (PISA). In line with broader science-policy agendas (responsible research and innovation and technology assessment), this paper argues that the importance of such programmes is threefold. First, their multi-disciplinary basis and participatory character contribute to a better understanding of the interactions between science, technology and society, in general, and the complexity of nuclear technology assessment in particular. Second, their functioning as (self -)critical policy supportive research with outreach to society is an essential prerequisite for policies aiming at generating societal trust in the context of controversial issues related to nuclear technologies and exposure to ionising radiation. Third, such programmes create an enriching dynamic in the organisation itself, stimulating collective learning and transdisciplinarity. The paper illustrates with concrete examples these claims and concludes by discussing some key challenges that researchers face while engaging in work of this kind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé Nous assistons actuellement à une inflation du nombre de journaux scientifiques et du nombre d’articles publiés dans des revues indexées. En pratique, 60 % des articles sont cités moins de 2 fois et donc probablement jamais lus. Sachant que les financements des auteurs scientifiques dépendent de leurs publications, tout les encourage à publier, et ce quelle que soit la portée de leurs résultats. On observe par conséquent l’émergence de techniques visant à amplifier artificiellement le nombre et l’impact des articles publiés. Cet article détaille quelques-unes de ces techniques : le perroquettage , le saucissonnage , le marketing, les co-auteurs « stars » fantômes, la mise en ligne précoce des articles acceptés, l’organisation en cartels, la multiplication des revues de littérature, et la disparition progressive des cas cliniques. Dans le paysage de la recherche biomédicale, la psychiatrie se situe extrêmement bien par rapport aux autres disciplines médicales. En effet, plusieurs revues en psychiatrie et en neurosciences possèdent des facteurs d’impact parmi les plus élevés des revues médicales. Malheureusement, la psychiatrie n’échappe évidemment pas aux dérives décrites précédemment. Des pistes sont proposées dans cet article pour pouvoir sortir de cette impasse et bénéficier d’une évaluation rénovée de la qualité scientifique. Enfin, la question des sciences humaines est également discutée en lien avec les processus de publication actuels. We’re currently witnessing an inflation of the number of scientific journals and of papers published in indexed journals. Indeed, 60 % of papers are cited less than twice and so probably are never read. Because the financing of scientific authors is based on their publications, everything encourages them to publish always more, and this regardless of the significance of their results. So emerging techniques to artificially boost the number and the impact of papers appear. We detailed here some of these key techniques: self plagiarism, salami slicing, marketing, famous ghost co-author, early online preview of accepted articles, cartels organization, proliferation of literature reviews, and gradual disappearance of clinical reports. Mapping the landscape of the biomedical research, psychiatry is extremely well-positioned compared to other medical disciplines. Indeed, many journals in psychiatry and neurosciences have impact factors among the highest of medical journals. Unfortunately, psychiatry is not immune to the drifts developed above. Ideas are proposed in this article to get out of this impasse and benefit from a renewed scientific quality assessment. Finally, the question of the humanities is also discussed in relation to the existing publication process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper submits the philosophical case for establishing ‘technosphere science’ that draws on results of many other disciplines, reaching from physics to the social sciences and humanities. I present claims about the type of entities that are studied by technosphere science and their causal relationships, and introduce central organizing concepts, such as ‘information’ and ‘function’. Agency is no longer seen as a property exclusive to humans, but as being distributed in networks of ontologically diverse entities. Technosphere science draws on various uses of the concept of ‘networks’ across disciplines, such as scaling laws and builds on a universal evolutionary framework that generalizes over biological evolution. In this perspective, the economy is the medium by which human action becomes functional relative to the reproduction and growth of the technosphere. I conclude with showing how human autonomy and ethical commitments remain possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese texts contain the essence of traditional Chinese culture and humanistic spirit, although they are obscure and difficult to understand. The integration of e-books into language learning can play a positive role and improve reading comprehension because of the diversified support tools and features of multimedia interaction in e-books. Therefore, this study investigated the teaching of classical Chinese with a combination of e-books, reciprocal teaching, and mind mapping; the effects of this approach on reading comprehension and knowledge sharing were explored. The sample consisted of two tenth-grade classes of a vocational school. Both groups received the reciprocal teaching strategy with mind mapping. The control group received traditional paper books; the experimental group received e-books. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were used in this study. The results were as follows. (1) Classical Chinese reading comprehension aspect: The experimental group performed more satisfactorily than did the control group, indicating that the integration of the e-book resulted in this measurable improvement by enhancing learners’ reading comprehension. (2) Knowledge sharing aspect: The pretest and posttest scores significantly differed between the experimental and control groups, indicating that diversified support tools can promote knowledge sharing. (3) Mind-mapping aspect: the scores of the whole structure (color and image), association skills, and the contents of the articles were more satisfactory in the experimental group than in the control group. (4) Learners had a positive attitude toward the combination of e-books, reciprocal teaching, and mind mapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy makers have made repeated calls for integration of human and natural sciences in the field of climate change. Serious multidisciplinary attempts began already in the 1950s. Progress has certainly been made in understanding the role of humans in the planetary system. New perspectives have clarified policy advice, and three insights are singled out in the paper: the critique of historicism, the distinction between benign and wicked problems, and the cultural critique of the ‘myths of nature’. Nevertheless, analysis of the IPCC Assessment Reports indicates that integration is skewed towards a particular dimension of human sciences (economics) and major insights from cultural theory and historical analysis have not made it into climate science. A number of relevant disciplines are almost absent in the composition of authorship. Nevertheless, selective assumptions and arguments are made about e.g. historical findings in key documents. In conclusion, we suggest to seek remedies for the lack of historical scholarship in the IPCC reports. More effort at science-policy exchange is needed, and an Integrated Platform to channel humanities and social science expertise for climate change research might be one promising way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper we apply an Environmental Extended Input–Output (EEIO) model to calculate the Carbon Footprint (CF) of the Norwegian University of Technology and Science (NTNU). Results show that the CF of NTNU is very significant with an average contribution of 4.6 tonnes per student. In particular, the purchase of large amounts of equipment and consumables for scientific use is found to be an important contributor to this. In the paper we also derive per-department CFs, enabled by the standardized structure of the financial accounting system used by the university. Results show large variations in the CF of the different faculties. Social Science and Humanities have a significantly lower CF per student compared to Natural Science, Engineering, and, in particular, the Faculty of Medicine. The single most important CF contributing input to the university is, however, allocated to the property department regarding the use of energy and other building related activities. Also, the CF structures of the departments/faculties show large differences that indicate that different mitigation strategies are needed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper considers how epistemic analyses (Birkin and Polesie, 2011; Foucault, 1970, 1990a, 1990b) may assist with the development of sustainability economics (Bartelmus, 2010; Baumgärtner and Quaas, 2010a, 2010b; and Söderbaum, 2011) and the capability approach (Ballet et al., 2011; Martins, 2011; Rauschmayer and Leßmann, 2011; Scerri, 2012). It was the French social theorist Michel Foucault (1926–1984) who coined the term “episteme” to refer to the “possibility of knowledge” that determines the development of thought and knowledge in a given period. For Foucault epistemes were the “buried” foundations of knowledge that his epistemic “archaeology” could unearth. In 2007, Foucault was identified as the most cited author of books in the humanities by Thomson Reuters' ISI Web of Science. This paper begins with a brief definition and description of epistemic analyses. A summary analysis of the Modern episteme and neoclassical economics is then provided and this is followed by outline evidence for the emerging episteme. Finally the opportunity is considered for the emerging episteme to reinforce and enhance sustainability economics and the capability approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the urban transdisciplinary research of the Northlake Collective, a multidisciplinary group of graduate students in the University of Washington's Lake Union Laboratory. Through a series of place-based investigations, we explored a small slice of Seattle ultimately seeking to engage the public through an online digital humanities portal. The broader goal of our work and this paper is to address how we, as a team of emerging scholars, understand and investigate ‘cities’ in the current century as both networked at the global scale and dynamic places for everyday interactions and processes. The paradoxes and complexity inherent to understanding the ‘city’ and how to address these concerns led us to develop a framework that might enrich grounded urban theory through the ‘enabling constraints’ of place, technology and public. The productive character of these three concepts, combined with the practical constraints and interrelationships they bring to bear, allowed us to deepen our work and produced the context for our research of Northlake. We propose this tripartite framework for exploring the contemporary city via the structure afforded by transdisciplinary, born-digital collaborations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A basic premise of hyphenated history-and-philosophy-of-science is that theories of scientific change have to be based on empirical evidence derived from carefully constructed historical case studies. This paper analyses one such systematic attempt to test philosophical claims, describing its historical context, rationale, execution, and limited impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents an analysis of the major generic structures of empirical research articles (RAs), with a particular focus on disciplinary variation and the relationship between the adjacent sections in the introductory and concluding parts. The findings were derived from a close “manual” analysis of 433 recent empirical RAs from high-impact English-language journals in 39 disciplines in the fields of engineering, applied sciences, social sciences and the humanities. This analysis reveals that while many empirical RAs follow the “standard” Introduction–Method–Results–Discussion (IMRD) pattern, this structure is not the default option for organizing such studies. The findings indicate that the most frequently used structural pattern is Introduction–Literature Review–Method–Results and Discussion–Conclusion (ILM[RD]C). The other prominent patterns found in the corpus are IM[RD]C, IMRDC, ILMRDC and ILMRD. The paper identifies and highlights the importance of the sections that are not fully accounted for in the conventional IMRD framework, namely the Literature Review (L), the merged (as opposed to separated) Results and Discussion [RD], and the Conclusion (C). The paper concludes by discussing the implications of the study for academic writing research as well as the design of RA writing courses and materials for research students and early-career academics. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper considers why linguistics, unlike many fields in the humanities and social sciences, has not undergone a “rhetorical” or “reflexive” turn – why it has paid little attention to the language of linguistics. It considers Chomsky’s antipathy to rhetoric, exemplified by his statement that “the best rhetoric is the least rhetoric,” as symptomatic of a wider condition in linguistics, namely a reluctance to consider linguistic discourse as an object of self-reflexive scrutiny. The paper proposes that Chomsky’s work is shaped by a continual flight from rhetoric and reflexivity, by the desire to arrive at a language-independent explanation of language. It considers how this denial of rhetoric proceeds in large part through adoption of a distinctively “ocularcentric” rhetoric that privileges transparency and immediacy, and effaces the linguistic and rhetorical dimensions of knowledge production. The paper considers what a more reflexive, rhetorically self-conscious linguistics might look like. It provides three examples of emerging research in linguistics that are rhetorically self-conscious and attend to the figurative, suasive and formative aspects of disciplinary discourse. The paper considers “strong” and “light” forms of rhetorical self-consciousness, and describes the possible implications of each for linguistic inquiry. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is ‘to revision’ our approach to women''s use of drugs – which means to let go of how we have seen in order to construct new perceptions. Women use a variety of substances for a range of reasons, including pleasure. Yet, women who experience problems are left feeling stigmatised, marginalised and demoralised. The paper includes three inter-related discussions. First, two co-existing approaches to drug use, the classical and the postmodern, are explained. Second, after demonstrating how the postmodern approach is more valuable for the development of a gender-sensitive perspective, I will, with special reference to drug use, explain the complexities of two contemporary concepts, gender and embodiment. Here, I attempt to generate a deeper appreciation of these concepts in the postmodern approach. Third, I ask, ‘How can we develop a gender-sensitive, harm reduction approach’? The contention is that while harm reduction philosophies are admirable, these need to be gender-sensitive in order to be effective. A multi-levelled, ‘gender-sensitive’ view of harm reduction is put forward, as harm reduction is examined at the subjective, treatment, relationship, occupational and leisure levels. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

To explore humanities scholars' perceptions and uses of newspapers as an information source, a study was conducted with Croatian researchers and academics in history and linguistic departments at universities and research institutes. This paper presents only a portion of the findings: those from respondents in the field of linguistics. The study began with the general assumption that newspapers are a relevant information source for scientific research in the humanities, but their potential is not fully exploited because of limited access to newspaper collections and search options. An additional assumption was that newspapers are especially important in linguistics research because they reflect the evolution of and changes in a language and provide information on the relations between a language and its socio-political context in a certain place and time. The results partially confirmed these assumptions, showing a clear divide between those who perceive newspapers as an important research source and those who do not. In addition, respondents expressed the need for better technological solutions, but they do not always use those already available to them. The results also show perceptions of the value of and actual use of newspapers; information behavior related to newspapers (e.g., type and format of newspapers used, type of information need in newspapers, motivation for newspaper use, employed search strategies, and approaches to managing information from newspapers); and the challenges researchers face in using newspapers. The results contribute to analyzing the information needs and behavior of a specific newspaper user group, and provide data which can aid in the development of innovative services based on newspaper collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores social scientists' and humanities (SSH) scholars' integration within the academic medical research environment. Three questions guided our investigation: Do SSH scholars adapt to the medical research environment? How do they navigate their career within a culture that may be inconsistent with their own? What strategies do they use to gain legitimacy? The study builds on three concepts: decoupling, doxa, and epistemic habitus. Twenty-nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with SSH scholars working in 11 faculties of medicine across Canada. Participants were selected through purposeful and snowball sampling. The data were analyzed by thematic content analysis. For most of our participants, moving into medicine has been a challenging experience, as their research practices and views of academic excellence collided with those of medicine. In order to achieve some level of legitimacy more than half of our participants altered their research practices. This resulted in a dissonance between their internalized appreciation of academic excellence and their new, altered, research practices. Only six participants experienced no form of challenge or dissonance after moving into medicine, while three decided to break with their social science and humanities past and make the medical research community their new home. We conclude that the work environment for SSH scholars in faculties of medicine does not deliver on the promise of inclusiveness made by calls for interdisciplinarity in Canadian health research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ancient paintings are valuable for historians and archeologists to study the humanities, customs and economy of the corresponding eras. For this purpose, it is important to first determine the era in which a painting was drawn. This problem can be very challenging when the paintings from different eras present a same topic and only show subtle difference in terms of the painting styles. In this paper, we propose a novel computational approach to address this problem by using the appearance and shape features extracted from the paintings. In this approach, we first extract the appearance and shape features using the SIFT and k AS descriptors, respectively. We then encode these features with deep learning in an unsupervised way. Finally, we combine all the features in the form of bag-of-visual-words and train a classifier in a supervised fashion. In the experiments, we collect 660 Flying-Apsaras paintings from Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, China and classify them into three different eras, with very promising results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Grammatical gender is a complex feature of natural languages. [•] The paper discusses ways to assess the degree of complexity of individual gender systems. [•] The complexity of gender systems can differ along three dimensions: gender values, assignment rules and morphological expression. [•] Domains differ in whether or not complexity equals difficulty in language acquisition. [•] Higher complexity of expression facilitates rather than hinders acquisition [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Conflict and chaos are prevalent in health care, and perhaps especially in palliative care. Typically, our point of entry into our patients'' lives is often at the moment of conflict, discord, or intense suffering. Despite this, little in our formal training as clinicians teaches us how to be present for this suffering. Much has been written about the process of communication with regard to giving bad news, handling family meeting conflicts, and negotiating shifting goals of care, but little has been addressed about how to train the clinician to be present with the dissonance and suffering. In this paper, we explore how music, art, and literature teach us how to stay in moments of tension. In turn, lessons on how to learn to lean into the dissonance of many palliative care encounters are extrapolated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper establishes the foundation of new systems’ Consolidity Theory using the Arithmetic Fuzzy Logic-Based Representation approach for investigating the internal behavior of systems operating in fully fuzzy environment. Consolidated systems are defined as being stable at the original state, but due to fuzzy variations in their inputs or parameters tend to react accordingly in a manner leading to maintaining their consolidity and strength, or vice versa. Under the new theory, systems are classified into consolidated, neutrally consolidated or unconsolidated type based on their output fuzziness reaction to combined input and parameters fuzziness action. The systems’ Consolidity Theory is demonstrated by several examples of mathematical functions of different dimensionalities, control theory and Predator-Prey populations’ dynamics. The suggested Consolidity Theory is illustrated to be an effective tool for revealing the inner property of systems and predicting their hidden behavior when operating in fully fuzzy environment. Monitoring and control of systems’ consolidity through forward and backward fuzziness tracking are suggested during systems’ operation, for avoiding their drifting to possible unwanted unconsolidated domains. It is shown that the analysis will lead at the end to determining the system’s consolidity index that could be regarded as a general basic internal property of the system. Such systems’ consolidity concept can also be defined far from fuzzy logic, and is applicable to the analysis and design of various types of linear, nonlinear, multivariable, dynamic, etc., systems in real life in the fields of basic sciences, evolutionary systems, engineering, biology, medicine, economics, finance, political and management sciences, social sciences, humanities, and education. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper analyzes the claim that the Left Vienna Circle (LVC) offers a theoretical and historical precedent for a politically engaged philosophy of science today. I describe the model for a political philosophy of science advanced by LVC historians. They offer this model as a moderate, properly philosophical approach to political philosophy of science that is rooted in the analytic tradition. This disciplinary-historical framing leads to weaknesses in LVC scholars’ conception of the history of the LVC and its contemporary relevance. In this light, I examine the claim that there are productive enrichments to be gained from the engagement of feminist philosophy of science with the LVC, finding this claim ill-formulated. The case of LVC historiography and feminist philosophy of science presents a revealing study in the uses and ethics of disciplinary history, showing how feminist and other perspectives are misconceived and marginalized by forms of disciplinary self-narrativizing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Within a global trend of the anglicization of academic publishing, in the humanities and social sciences (HSS) publication in indigenous languages, nevertheless, in many contexts, continues to thrive. Given that the overall anglicization of academic publishing tends to be negotiated at the local level, this study seeks to discover how a potentially competing relationship between English and Chinese might be manifested in the context of China. Focused on the praxis of Chinese HSS academics writing for scholarly publication, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 academics across a range of HSS disciplines at an elite research-based university in China. The study sought to find out, firstly, how and to what extent English is used among these participants, and, secondly, what their attitudes are towards the official policy of encouraging more international publication (in English). The findings, based on this limited sample, suggest that Chinese will most likely retain its dominant position as the language of research and publication for Chinese HSS scholars, but that international publication in English will nevertheless increase. The paper concludes by suggesting that, to facilitate visibility of peripheral scholarship on the part of scholars such as the participants in this study, efforts can be made from both the periphery and the center. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper presents the results of a survey of English Academic Style Manuals conducted between 2004 and 2007, designed to establish whether English Academic Discourse is sufficiently well-defined as a concept to be useful for translation research. Although, with the current emphasis on genre and disciplinary differences, it is fashionable today to speak of Academic Discourses in the plural, the survey revealed a remarkable consensus as regards general principles, methods of textual construction, and the kinds of grammatical and lexical features to be used. This suggests the existence of a common framework underlying all EAD, thereby supporting the claim made by Systemic Functional linguists that there is an ‘essential continuity between humanities and science as far as interpreting the world is concerned’ (Martin, J.R. (1993). Technicality and abstraction: language for the creation of specialized texts. In M.A.K. Halliday & J.R. Martin (Eds.), Writing science: Literacy and discursive power. (pp. 203–220) Pittsburgh & London: University of Pittsburgh Press). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper is the product of the wave modelling community and it tries to make a picture of the present situation in this branch of science, exploring the previous and the most recent results and looking ahead towards the solution of the problems we presently face. Both theory and applications are considered. The many faces of the subject imply separate discussions. This is reflected into the single sections, seven of them, each dealing with a specific topic, the whole providing a broad and solid overview of the present state of the art. After an introduction framing the problem and the approach we followed, we deal in sequence with the following subjects: (Section) 2, generation by wind; 3, nonlinear interactions in deep water; 4, white-capping dissipation; 5, nonlinear interactions in shallow water; 6, dissipation at the sea bottom; 7, wave propagation; 8, numerics. The two final sections, 9 and 10, summarize the present situation from a general point of view and try to look at the future developments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Scholars have long been interested in the relationship between the amount of consensus in an academic field and the amount of scholarly production. In this paper, I describe previous theory and research that suggest four possible relationships between the amount of scholarly production and the degree of consensus. These relationships are tested with data on the content of 50 sub-debates in the field of bioethics from 1973 to 1995. I find support for the conclusion that increased consensus leads to increased scholarly production. I conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for the humanities in general and bioethics in particular. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper explores how the physicist John Tyndall transformed himself from humble surveyor and schoolmaster into an internationally applauded icon of science. Beginning with his appointment as Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution in 1853, I show how Tyndall’s worries about his social class and Irish origins, his painstaking attention to his lecturing performance and skilled use of the material and architectural resources of the Royal Institution were vital to his eventual success as a popular expositor and ambassador for science. Secondly I explore the implications of Tyndall’s ‘popularity’ with respect to debates over the meaning and value of scientific ‘popularisation’. In support of recent work challenging diffusionist models of science communication, I show how Tyndall’s interactions with his audiences illustrate the symbiotic relationship between producer and consumer of ‘popular’ science. By examining the views of Tyndall’s critics—notably the ‘North British’ group of physicists—and his defenders and rivals in the domain of popular scientific lecturing, I show that disputes over Tyndall’s authority reflected anxieties about what constituted popular science and the transient boundaries between instruction and entertainment. The term ‘popularisation’ enjoyed many different uses in these debates, not least of all as a rheorical device with which to either exalt or destroy a scientist’s credibility. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the 1720s the antiquary and Newtonian scholar Dr. William Stukeley (1687–1765) described his friend Isaac Newton as ‘the Great Restorer of True Philosophy’. Newton himself in his posthumously published Observations upon the prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John (1733) predicted that the imminent fulfilment of Scripture prophecy would see ‘a recovery and re-establishment of the long-lost truth’. In this paper I examine the background to Newton’s interest in ancient philosophy and theology, and how it related to modern natural philosophical discovery. I look at the way in which the idea of a ‘long-lost truth’ interested others within Newton’s immediate circle, and in particular how it was carried forward by Stukeley’s researches into ancient British antiquities. I show how an interest in and respect for ancient philosophical knowledge remained strong within the first half of the eighteenth century. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

William Whiston was one of the first British converts to Newtonian physics and his 1696 New theory of the earth is the first full-length popularization of the natural philosophy of the Principia. Impressed with his young protégé, Newton paved the way for Whiston to succeed him as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in 1702. Already a leading Newtonian natural philosopher, Whiston also came to espouse Newton’s heretical antitrinitarianism in the middle of the first decade of the eighteenth century. In all, Whiston enjoyed twenty years of contact with Newton dating from 1694. Although they shared so much ideologically, the two men fell out when Whiston began to proclaim openly the heresy that Newton strove to conceal from the prying eyes of the public. This paper provides a full account of this crisis of publicity by outlining Whiston’s efforts to make both Newton’s natural philosophy and heterodox theology public through popular texts, broadsheets and coffee house lectures. Whiston’s attempts to draw Newton out through published hints and innuendos, combined with his very public religious crusade, rendered the erstwhile disciple a dangerous liability to the great man and helps explain Newton’s eventual break with him, along with his refusal to support Whiston’s nomination to the Royal Society. This study not only traces Whiston’s successes in preaching the gospel of Newton’s physics and theology, but demonstrates the ways in which Whiston, who resolutely refused to accept Newton’s epistemic distinction between ‘open’ and ‘closed’ forms of knowledge, transformed Newton’s grand programme into a singularly exoteric system and drove it into the public sphere. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Through an exploration of the theory of the avant-garde, this paper explores the task for nursing in the new humanities of the 21st Century. Drawing on the theory of the avant-garde in general and the work of the French philosopher Jacques Derrida in particular, it argues that nursing must always return to its basic principles, that of the human condition (humanitus). But in doing so, it must also consider its place at the table of the humanities that are undergoing profound changes in western capitalist societies both in the education and practice sectors. It is through its connection with the humanities that the notion of the avant-garde is used to introduce the concept of reconnaissance—thinking again. The purpose and usefulness of this approach for nursing lies in the argument that progress or improvement, whether it be in some aspect of care or professional issue, always involves returning to something, to think of something in a new way. Thus, although nursing still has certain issues to resolve (which I attend to below), thinking through these issues with reference to the avant-garde gives ground for optimism, towards a future that is not yet determined. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• E-mail questionnaire survey among humanities researchers. • Exploratory analysis of research production and communication. • Identification of research styles and stylistic differences between disicplines. • Discussion of new and applied style of humanities research. The general expansion of the fields of research and higher education in Europe in the second half of the twentieth century provided the conditions of possibility for disciplinary formation in the humanities and the other major fields of science. New disciplines formed, sometimes through upgrading of non-scientific practices, sometimes from differentiation or combination of existing disciplines. Did the new disciplines introduce new styles of research? Adopt existing ones? Or both? In the present paper, we explore the practices through which research is produced and communicated in the humanities in the early-twenty-first century. Based on an e-mail questionnaire survey among researchers at Danish universities, museums, libraries and archives, we identify four styles of humanities research: 1) a quantitative, 2) a qualitative, 3) a basic and, more surprisingly perhaps, 4) an applied style. The applied style is defined, among other things, by research communication to and collaboration with public authorities and private companies. The analysis suggests that the applied style of humanities research was introduced by new disciplines, including anthropology, educational studies, film and media studies and, to some extent, interdisciplinary fields of study. Another new discipline, history of ideas, adopted existing and more basic styles of humanities research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the emergence of the doctoral thesis as a research genre and traces the development of thesis types and their macrostructures over time. We do this by examining the first doctorates that were awarded in English-medium universities and comparing them with doctorates that have been awarded more recently at the same universities. The data on which the study is based is a set of 100 PhDs. The study found there was change in Science-based doctorates where some of the early PhDs were written in ways that were less recognisable compared with how they are written today. There was continuity, however, in Humanities doctorates in that both the early and recent theses were all topic-based in a way that continues through to today. There was, in addition, a preference for particular thesis types at some of the institutions in particular areas of study. The findings contribute to our understanding of research genres and have implications for how we teach thesis and dissertation writing in different areas of study as well as what we advise students are appropriate choices to make as they are writing their theses and dissertations. The study is also of relevance to people working in the area of higher education more broadly and especially those with an interest in doctoral writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While economic and environmental aspects of civil engineering have attracted the greatest attention among contemporary academy, its social side has frequently been set aside. However, the social impact that infrastructures have is huge and its analysis and understanding are fundamental. At the same time, social aspects such as culture or human behaviour can have significant effects during the different stages of the lifecycle of infrastructures. Therefore, a better understanding of the connections between civil engineering and society can help to better adapt infrastructures to their contexts, as well as minimise their negative impacts; as a result, this understanding can bring about infrastructures that are more socially sustainable. The scarce studies that have assessed the connection between society and civil engineering have considered this relationship as unidirectional. The real scenario is not so simple. The analysis of this relationship needs to be interdisciplinary, and it is in this context that this paper addresses the analysis of infrastructures and of social sciences from a sociotechnical point of view. We draw on the interrelationships found to propose a conceptual framework with the main objective of providing both practitioners and academics with tools to carry out more sustainable and context-adapted decisions. We classify the fields of civil engineering and social sciences into several different subfields, namely six for infrastructures (transport, water, energy, environment, urban planning and buildings) and twelve for social sciences (culture and history, behaviour and mind, communication and interaction, socioeconomics, juridical sciences, life and health, politics, social problems, social groups, ethics and philosophy, arts and education and innovation). Afterwards, we review the existing literature at the intersection between the various categories. We conclude proposing a framework that can support decisions and actions made at different levels and working areas. The framework includes guidelines for a more holistic consideration of the interaction between infrastructures and society in key activities whereby an improved understanding of the effect of this relationship is often required. The guidelines provide a description of different key areas and can be applied to a wide variety of actions ranging from the development of university curricula to the social impact assessment of projects. Image 1 • The dual relationship between civil engineering and social sciences is studied. • Politics and vulnerability are the most studied social areas in civil engineering. • Transport is the most studied civil engineering area from a social perspective. • Infrastructure projects should consider social aspects during all their lifecycles. • A framework and future research directions are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The potential applications of narrative within medical practice are attracting increased interest. In particular, personal narratives afford rich insights into how encounters with cancer and the associated provision of care are experienced, understood and represented. Such first-person accounts are practically useful in indicating improvements to cancer care and politically significant in providing a means to enable the patient voice and legitimising experiential knowledge alongside a biomedical paradigm. However, personal narratives are necessarily and always constructed in particular social and political contexts and through existing ‘meta-narratives’ relating to cancer, health, illness and a flourishing life. The present paper first examines work on personal cancer narratives to critically review the opportunities for narrative within cancer care. We then reflect on the crucial role of meta-narratives of cancer as framings within which personal narratives can be both enabled and constrained. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]