Navigating interdisciplinary research:Historical progression and contemporary challenges

Interdisciplinary research plays a crucial role in addressing complex problems by integrating knowledge from multiple disciplines.This integration fosters innovative solutions and enhances understanding across various fields.This study explores the historical and sociological development of interdisciplinary research and maps its evolution through three distinct phases:pre-disciplinary,disciplinary,and post-disciplinary.It identifies key internal dynamics,such as disciplinary diversification,reorganization,and innovation,as primary drivers of this evolution.Additionally,this study highlights how external factors,particularly the urgency of World War II and the subsequent political and economic changes,have accelerated its advancement.The rise of interdisciplinary research has significantly reshaped traditional educational paradigms,promoting its integration across different educational levels.However,the inherent contradictions within interdisciplinary research present cognitive,emotional,and institutional challenges for researchers.Meanwhile,finding a balance between the breadth and depth of knowledge remains a critical challenge in interdisciplinary education.

The burden and psychosocial impact on immediate caregivers of patients with spinal cord injury in a tertiary health facility,Edo State,Nigeria

Objective:This study aimed to assess the burden and psychosocial impact of spinal cord injury on the immediate caregivers at a tertiary health facility in Benin City,Edo State.Materials and Methods:A descriptive cross-sectional survey design was adopted among 73 family caregivers in the neurological ward of a tertiary health facility using a structured questionnaire as instrument of data collection.Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression.Results:Findings revealed that an overall mean of 2.73 indicates that the burden on the caregivers was moderate with a moderate psychological impact(m=2.88)and a high sociological impact(m=3.12).Factors affecting the caregiving provided by immediate caregivers include social and household responsibilities(94.5%),financial situation(89.0%),family support(83.6%),and health status of the caregiver(80.8%).Age(odds ratio[OR]=5.67,95%confidence interval[CI]:1.23-27.17,P=0.027),education(OR=3.75,95%CI:1.05-13.39,P=0.041),and“others”(spouses,siblings,friends,or extended family members)(OR=3.167,95%CI:1.583-6.337,P=0.001)were predictors for high psychological impact while education(OR=0.074;95%CI:0.015-0.370,P=0.001)and caregiving role(OR=3.167;95%CI:0.1.583-6.337,P=0.001)high sociological impact.Conclusion:Majority of the caregivers experience moderate burden,moderate psychological impact,and high sociological impact.Understanding these factors is essential for developing targeted interventions and support services to address the unique needs of caregivers and mitigate the burden of caregiving on their psychosocial health.

Felski’s Literary Sociological Thought From the Perspective of Actor-Network Theory

The relationship between literature and society has been a subject of continuous exploration since the inception of literature itself.On the one hand,from Plato’s theory of mimesis onward,literature has consistently been viewed as a representation of social reality,positioning literature as subordinate to society.On the other hand,with the rise of structuralism and the New Criticism,certain schools of thought have focused exclusively on literature itself,deliberately overlooking the complex connections between literature and society.The growing tension between these two perspectives has increasingly placed contemporary literary studies in a polarized state,leading to a crisis in the legitimacy of literary scholarship.In response to this,Rita Felski’s exploration of the uses of literature embodies a new literary sociology that offers a way out of the current impasse in literary studies.

Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Education from Social Disciplinary Theoretical Perspectives

Disaster is a social phenomenon. The occurrence and impacts of disasters including the education sector can be studied through a social problem lens. This paper draws meaning and understanding of DRR education using the sociological disciplinary framework in a detailed qualitative case study of three schools as they responded to the devastating Gorakha earthquake in 2015 and other disasters in Nepal. This paper considers the three sub-disciplines of sociology: the sociology of disaster, the sociology of education and the sociology of education governance in a development context. These sub-disciplines are nested together to analyse social, political and historical factors and their relationships which are helpful to identify risks and vulnerabilities in the education sector in Nepal. These are the major areas to explore the disaster context and needs of context-specific education acts (hereafter DRR education) to minimise the potential risks of disasters. The article concludes that the social disciplinary framework is significantly useful to analyse DRR education provisions and implications of education governance to mobilise school in disaster preparedness, response and recovery.

提高英语四、六级阅读能力的前提和解题技巧

《大学英语教学大纲》明确规定要“培养学生具有较强的阅读能力”;《大学英语考试大纲》指出“阅读理解部分的目的是测试学生通过阅读获取信息的能力,既要准确,也要有一定的速度。”在各种英语测试中,阅读理解部分都占有不可替代的重要比例。

Dignity and its related factors among older adults in long-term care facilities:A cross-sectional study

Objectives:This study aimed to explore the dignity and related factors among older adults in long-term care facilities.Methods:Cross-sectional data were obtained from a sample of 253 Chinese older adults dwelling in long-term care facilities.Dignity among older adults was measured using the Dignity Scale,and its potential correlates were explored using multiple linear regressions.Results:Results showed that the total score of the Dignity Scale is 151.95±11.75.From high to low,the different factors of dignity among older adults in long-term care facilities were as follows:caring factors(4.83±0.33),social factors(4.73±0.41),psychological factors(4.66±0.71),value factors(4.56±0.53),autonomous factors(4.50±0.57),and physical factors(4.38±0.55).A higher score of the Dignity Scale was associated with higher economic status,fewer chronic diseases,less medication,better daily living ability and long-time lived in cities.Conclusion:Older adults with low economic status,more chronic diseases,and poor daily living ability,taking more medications,or the previous residence in rural areas seem to be most at low-level dignity in long-term care facilities and thus require more attention than their peers.

Quality of life after liver transplantation:State of the art

Quality of life(QoL) after deceased donor liver transplantation is increasingly recognized as a major outcome parameter. We reviewed recent publications in this rapidly evolving field in order to summarize recent achievements in the field and to define opportunities and perspectives for research and improvement of patient care. QoL does improve after liver transplantation according to a typical pattern. During the first year, there is a significant improvement in QoL. After one year, the improvement does stabilise and tends to decline slightly. In addition to the physical condition, different psychological parameters(such as depression, anxiety, sexual function) and sociodemographic elements(professional state, sex, marital state) seem to impact QoL. Opportunities for further research are the use of dedicated questionnaires and identification of influencing factors for QoL.

A Brief Reading of Max Weber's Great Works

As a sociologist and political economist who profoundly influenced social theory,social research,and the discipline of sociology itself,Max Weber is typically cited as one of the three principal architects of modern social science.His masterpiece,The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is considered as a founding text in economic sociology and sociology.The Protestant work ethic was a force behind an unplanned and uncoordinated mass action that influenced the development of capitalism,and the shaping of the spirit of capitalism in western world is an unexpected outcome of the Protestant ethic.

“反思社会学”,还是“反身社会学”--Reflexive Sociology汉译探析

对布迪厄思想关键词reflexive sociology,现至少有"反思社会学""反思性社会学""反观社会学""反身社会学""反身性社会学"等五种译法。鉴于"反思社会学"之"反思"混淆了reflexive和reflective,前者尚可译为"反身",后者除了"反思"再无词可译。使用"反思社会学"无异于让reflexive抢了reflective的地盘,而reflective在布迪厄著作中同样常见。reflexive本义即为"反身",且布迪厄赋予实践突出的意义,而实践仰仗行动者的身体。在汉语中,"身"有"我自己""你自己""他自己"之意,如"反求诸身";又有实践的意蕴,如"身体力行"。故建议使用"反身社会学"翻译reflexive sociology。

A Review of Environmental Sociology and the Sociology of Natural Resources:Insights for the Development of Environmental Sociology in China

Environmental sociology and the sociology of natural resources are two key subdisciplines of the sociological study on the interactions between nature and human society.Previous discussion on the relationships of these two fields has largely focused on their distinctions and synthesis in western(particularly American) academia.Environmental sociology emerged as an important sociological subdiscipline in China in the early 1990s and is under vigorous disciplinary construction at present.By contrast,the sociology of natural resources is still a novel term for most Chinese researchers.This article provides a systematic review of recent literature on the relationships between environmental and natural resource sociologies,which should provide important implications for the further development of environmental sociology in China.

Empirical Analysis on Sociological Factors for Underdevelopment of Rural Sports

Rural sports are weak parts in sports development of China.In the social environment of new socialist countryside construction and new urbanization advancing side by side,rural sports have great opportunities and serious challenges.Taking sports of Gannan old revolutionary base area as an example,this paper analyzed factors influencing rural sports from the sociological perspective,to provide measures and recommendations for sustainable development of rural sports.

Sociological Features of the Casualties from the 1996 M_S7.0 Lijiang Earthquake, Yunnan Province

A statistics analysis was conducted on the basic information about fatalities from the Lijiang MS7.0 earthquake in 1996. The factors include age, gender, educational background, occupation, cause of death, death place, etc. We found that even though deaths caused by the Lijiang earthquake had some common features with those from earthquakes in other places in China, it also showed some specific features because of the multiracial and economically-underdeveloped situation of Lijiang area. The results reached in the paper can serve as a reference for studying the features of casualties caused by future strong earthquakes in Yunnan, and for the delicate and human-oriented emergency treatment.

Quantitative Characteristics of Patentable Applications in Japan： An Analysis Using Bibliographic Information of Application Documents

This study examined Japanese patents in terms of the quantitative characteristics of application documents that resulted in the acquisition of rights in order to clarify the relationship between the features and patentability of applications. The groups of approved applications and those that had not been approved were compared for 12 variables： publication time lag; numbers of inventors, classifications, pages, figures, tables, claims, priority claims, countries for priority claims, cited patents, and cited non-patent documents; and median of citation age. Furthermore, the authors carried out the experiments in which patent applications were automatically classified into two groups by the machine learning method, random forests. As a result, statistically significant differences between the two groups were observed for the following variables （p 〈 .001）： the numbers of inventors, pages, figures, claims, priority claims, and countries for priority claims were significantly larger in the group of approved applications, while the time lag until publication was smaller. In particular, the publication time lag and the numbers of inventors, pages, and figures were variables representing the features that largely contribute to discriminating approved applications in the classification using random forests, which implies that these have relatively strong relationships with patentability.

Complex Systems Theory: Some Considerations for Sociology

This essay presents a reflection on the main implications of Complexity Theory for science in general, redefining and dispelling myths of traditional science, and Sociology in particular, suggesting a redefinition of Parsons’ classic concept of Social System, articulated around the property of self-maintenance of order rather than on its possible discontinuity and instability. It argues that Complexity Theory has established the limits of Classic Science, leading to a more realistic awareness of working and evolution mechanisms of Natural and Social Systems and showing the limits of our capacity to predict and control events. Dissipative structures have shown the creative role of time. Instability, emergence, surprise, unpredictability are the rule rather than the exception when systems move away from equilibrium (entropy), even if these processes are generated from a system’s deterministic working mechanisms. Therefore, we have come to realize how constructive the contribution of Complexity is, in regards to the long lasting problem of the relationship between order and disorder. Today, the terms of this relationship have been re-specified in its new configuration of inter-relationship link, according to a unicum which finds its synthesis in self-organization and deterministic chaos concepts. From this perspective, as Prigogine suggested, studies on Complex Systems are heading toward a historical, biological conception of Physics, and a new alliance between natural systems and living, social systems. Non-linearity, far from equilibrium self-organization, emergence and surprise meet at all levels, as this paper attempts to highlight. In Sociology, insights of Complexity Theory have contributed to a new way of thinking about social systems, by re-addressing some fundamental issues starting to social system, emergence and change concepts. The current social system conception as complex dynamical systems is supported by a profitable use of non-liner models (in particular, the Logistic map) in the study of social processes.

Trials and tribulations of playing the devil's advocate

Beginning with his student days at school and college, the author describes his training at Cambridge with special emphasis on his mentor Fred Hoyle. His early experience of participating in a controversy at Cambridge played a major role in giving him the confidence to defend his scientific ideas. All through his later life he chose areas that were not part of mainstream research. These included the steady state theory and later the quasi steady state cosmology, action at a distance, noncosmological redshifts, quantum conformal cosmology, etc. After being a founding member of the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy（IOTA） at Cambridge, the author joined the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research（TIFR） in Mumbai and later moved to Pune to set up the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics（IUCAA）. He briefly reviews his own work and ends by pointing out the difficulties a non-conformist scientist faces in his professional life. In the conclusion, he mentions his interests in science popularization and science fiction for which he has won awards and appreciation, including UNESCO’s Kalinga Prize.

The Management of Mental Health, and Service Networks in Italy

Madness has attracted and frightened for centuries,and talking about this means discussing how this diversity was built and managed in different social contexts and historical periods.Not all societies have had,and still have,the same relationship with madness.It is only with the affirmation of the Modern State,and of Capitalism,that the idea of“normality”indispensable to be able to conceive diversity as something dangerously distant and different from the norm takes over.In our post-modern society,people with mental illness in Italy can resort to specialists and social-health services.But the heterogeneous answers given after the approval of law 180 appear to be increasingly diversified.In this research,much attention will be paid to how the social and health services,located in different areas of Italy(Messina,Rome,Trento)face the current growing risk of social,housing and economic isolation of these fragile subjects.The aim of the research is to explore the possibility of a new relationship between the social-health service and the local community.On the one hand,research investigates what the contribution of the services could be.On the other what the spaces of protagonism and participation of the community could be in inclusion process account.In order to better understand the differences between these two dimensions,a qualitative research approach was chosen through the conduct of in-depth interviews.In this way it was possible to investigate:(1)the partial representations characteristic of the single individual,family members,operators and stackholders in general;(2)the services around the topic dealt with is articulated.From the first results of the research it emerges that the territory can no longer be considered as an abstract entity,but becomes the social space within which the construction of a new community welfare can and must take place.

An Example of an Investment Model That Makes Something Out of Nothing (Sort of): Implications for Building Applied Mathematical Models

Two related and under-studied components of modeling are: a) the process by which simplifying assumptions are derived;and b) the process by which tests of model validity are designed. This case study illustrates these processes for two simple investment models: a) a version of the model supporting classical portfolio theory;and b) a version of a mean-reverting model consistent with some of the tenets of behavioral finance. We perform a simulation that demonstrates that the traditional method of empirically assessing the performance of value investment strategies is underpowered. Indeed, the simulation illustrates in a narrow technical sense how to make something out of nothing;namely, how to generate increased returns while reducing risk. Analyzing the mechanism underpinning this counter-intuitive result helps to illustrate the close and sometimes unexpected relationship between the substantial assumptions made about the systems being modeled, the mathematical assumptions used to build models of those systems, and the structure of the experiments used to assess the performance of those models.

Plant Protection： The Risk Mitigation of Endocrine Disrupting Pesticides Use Demands the Shared Responsibility of All within the Agricultural System

The widespread use of agrochemicals and its possible negative impacts on humans and the environment remains a highly topical and controversial issue. Of particular concern here are chemicals that can disturb an organism＇s endocrine system. Referring to the precautionary principle, the objective of the research project start2 is to develop management strategies that help reduce possible risks for httmans and the environment of endocrine active agrochemicals. As an empirical basis we combined qualitative and quantitative methods and initiated two expert dialogues. Our findings underpin the well known fact that the use of agrochemicals is complex and dependent on more than the individual attitudes of farmers. Agricultural plant protection management is the collective product of a complex agricultural system, which encompasses treatment, marketing, industry and agricultural consultation as well as agricultural teaching institutions and relevant scientific disciplines. Successful management strategies for risk reduction in the context of hormonally active agrochemicals thus need to involve all actors within this system. The paper proposes a strategy that promotes participation by enabling learning processes among these actors.

Position and Perspective of Statistics in Sociology

The paper first gives a brief overview of the use of statistical methods in sociology in order to show the continuity and importance of these methods in the development of sociology as a science. Therefore, education of sociologists requires, among other things, training in statistical methods applicable in data processing and analysis in sociological research. Then the research continues with a comparative analysis of the curricula of undergraduate academic studies of sociology, and especially the presence of statistics teaching in them, in the Republic of Serbia and the neighbouring countries. Different programs of the Department of Sociology of the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad are analyzed together with the results of the students＇ evaluations for the academic years 2007/2008 and 2009/2010.

Social Network and Inter-Organizational Learning: The Case of a Brazilian Cooperative of Fish-Farmers

The inter-organizational learning approach has shown considerable growth in recent years. The concepts of trust and cooperation between individuals present in the New Economic Sociology (NES) approach of social relations emerge with great emphasis and are gaining prominence as a facilitator and propellant mechanism in transferring knowledge inside networks. This study aims to analyze the learning networks formed by fish-farmers organized into a cooperative to identify the characteristics of the network through structural analysis and identification of its critical actors. The study was performed with thirteen fish-farmers of a cooperative headquartered inMundo Novocounty, which is located inMato Grosso do Sulstate in the Midwest region of Brazil. Questionnaires and interviews with closed and open questions were used to collect the data. Measures of centrality (for individuals), density and reciprocity (in relations between individuals) were obtained from ORA software. The findings revealed that experience exchanges between fish-farmers, events participation, meetings attendance, speech audience and technical advice are the main forms of inter-organizational learning. Results suggest that the network has low levels of cohesion and that it is not taking advantage of its full potential. It was also found that there is a subgroup within the network that presents a high level of cohesion and shared learning based on cooperative informal relationships. Grounded in findings, suggestions for future research are presented.