The concept of complexity is gaining recognition as a useful framework for theorising and examining multifactorial, widespread health issues. Since it is also an apt descriptive tool for issues that ...are complicated and multifactorial, exploring the complexity of health systems and public health problems can provide valuable insights about the nature and extent of the challenges faced by policy makers and practitioners. This research set out to explore qualitatively perceptions of responsibility for healthy eating.
Data consisted of eight corporate and government documents (on responsibility and health), starting with the 2007 Foresight report on obesity (the first key public health report in the UK to explicitly use a complex systems framework); eight focus groups with a variety of members of the public; and 18 interviews with key representatives at the public health–food system nexus, from the food industry, government, and non-governmental organisations. A Foucauldian discourse analysis was conducted on the dataset to investigate relevant themes.
Complexity portrayed diet–health problems, especially obesity, as so multilayered and difficult as to render them insurmountable. Additionally, complexity was routinely used to divert emphasis from diet-specific interventions, such as altering the food environment, to related but conspicuously non-food interventions, such as the sponsoring of physical activity schemes. An unexpected finding was how the notion of complexity in the more usual sense (ie, complicated and multifactorial) emerged from the data as a discursive device.
The very act of labelling a system or problem as complex can function discursively to frame it as burdensome and unmanageable. Although this framing may have some validity, it has also become a convenient rhetorical tool—a smokescreen that justifies a lack of policy action to address public health challenges. Within discourse, complexity functions both as a call to unified action, and as a means of justifying inaction by government and the corporate sector. As public health researchers, we must therefore be careful and clear about how we use the term complexity, and the contradiction warrants further investigation.
This research was funded by Queen Mary University of London and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine as a PhD scholarship (to NS).
Incorrect organic waste management can lead to several environmental and health threats. The literature shows that municipalities are adopting several strategies to reduce the improper disposal of ...organic waste. In 2019, Florianópolis, Brazil, became the first Brazilian state capital to approve a law on mandatory organic waste separation and composting, the Florianópolis composting law (FCL). Nevertheless, the successful implementation of this new regulation relies on acceptance among urban stakeholders and civil society. The role of social acceptance has not been investigated when dealing with new waste management regulations. To this end, 37 qualitative interviews with local stakeholders were conducted to determine the key factors influencing the acceptance of the FCL by analyzing stakeholders' perceptions of the relevant risks, benefits, hindering and promoting factors. The results show that the law could represent an important first step toward a sustainable municipal solid waste management system; however, several risks may arise in the absence of adequate monitoring systems. These risks are mainly linked to water contamination and health issues due to harmful insect proliferation. Furthermore, even though Florianópolis society seems culturally open, the lack of infrastructure and investments in the city could hinder the effectiveness of the law. Strategies for improving the law's effectiveness should be focused on supporting the existing formal and informal composting initiatives that have become widespread in recent decades. This could lead to a decentralized organic waste management system that empowers local initiatives and reduces the initial costs of implementing new composting systems and increases the separation rates at the household level.
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•Stakeholders perceive benefits as well as risks related to the new policy (FCL).•Main perceived risks are: environment contamination and tax increase.•Main perceived benefits are: fertilizer provision and public costs reduction.•Supporting a decentralized waste management model can reduce initial FCL costs.•Well planned infrastructures and investments can support FCL effectiveness.
This study aims to analyze research trends on a scientific approach in physics learning. The qualitative method used is a bibliometric analysis using the Vos Viewer application. The data was obtained ...through the Scholar search using Publish or Perish application. A total of 198 research articles were collected with a publication range of 2017-2022. The research in 2017 was 24 articles; in 2018, there were 28 articles; in 2019, there were 45 articles; in 2020, there were 51 articles; in 2021, there were 45 articles; and in 2022, there were five articles. The data obtained is stored in the form of RIS and then analyzed using the Vos Viewer application. Based on the analysis result, it can conclude that the research themes that need to be explored further in the scientific approach to learning physics are students’ science process skills, projects, discovery, and active learning.
Carbon-based quantum particles, especially spherical carbon quantum dots (CQDs) and nanosheets like graphene quantum dots (GQDs), are an emerging class of quantum dots with unique properties owing to ...their quantum confinement effect. Many reviews appeared recently in the literature highlighting their optical properties, structures, and applications. These papers cover a broad spectrum of carbon-based nanoparticles, excluding a more detailed discussion about some important aspects related to the definition of carbon-based particles and the correlation of optical and electrochemical aspects in relation to sensing and biomedical applications. A large part of this review is devoted to these aspects. It aims, in particular, to act as a bridge between optical and electrochemical aspects of carbon-based quantum particles, both of which are associated with the electronic nature of carbon-based quantum particles. A special focus will be on their use in electroanalysis, notably their benefits in redox, and in electrochemical analysis with emphasis on their application as sensors. Electroanalysis is an easy and cost-effective means of providing qualitative and quantitative information of a specific analyte in solution in a time scale of some minutes. The integration of carbon-based quantum particles into these detection schemes as well as their incorporation into composite nanomaterials have largely improved detection limits with possibilities for their integration in aspects ranging from point-of-care devices to personalized medicine. This review will focus on some of these aspects while also covering the nanomedical aspects of carbon-based quantum particles, ultimately correlated for such developments.
Carbon-based quantum particles, especially spherical carbon quantum dots (CQDs) and nanosheets like graphene quantum dots (GQDs), are an emerging class of quantum dots with unique properties owing to their quantum confinement effect.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a massive disruption in the way traditional higher education institutions deliver their courses. Unlike transitions from face-to-face teaching to blended, online or ...flipped classroom in the past, changes in emergency remote teaching –a temporary shift of instructional delivery to an alternate remote delivery mode due to crisis circumstances– happen suddenly and in an unplanned way. This study analyzes the move to emergency remote teaching at the School of Telecommunication Engineering (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid), and the impact of organizational aspects related to unplanned change, instruction-related variables –class size, synchronous/asynchronous delivery– and use of digital supporting technologies, on students' academic performance. Using quantitative data of academic records across all (N = 43) courses of a bachelor's degree programme in Telecommunication Engineering and qualitative data from a questionnaire delivered to all (N = 43) course coordinators, the research also compares the academic results of students during the COVID-19 pandemic with those of previous years. The results of this case study show an increase in students' academic performance in emergency remote teaching, and support the idea that organizational factors may contribute to successful implementation of emergency remote teaching; the analysis does not find differences across courses with different class sizes or delivery modes. The study further explores possible explanations for the results of the analysis, considering organizational, individual and instruction-related aspects.
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