bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Measure Learning Environments, Not Just Students, to Support Learning and Development
Authors: Paunesku David , Farrington Camille A.
Published: November 2021

Background

Young people are more likely to develop into effective learners, productive adults, and engaged citizens when their learning environments afford them certain kinds of experiences. For example, students are more likely to succeed when they experience a sense of belonging in school or experience schoolwork as personally relevant.

Purpose

How can schools systematically ensure they provide every one of their students with the important developmental experiences they need to succeed and thrive? To answer this question, we offer a conceptual framework that integrates insights from empirical literatures in education, psychology, and developmental science; innovations from early warning indicator methods; and our own experiences as researchers working in partnership with practitioners to build more equitable and developmentally supportive learning environments.

Research Design

Integrative Perspective

Recommendations

We posit that schools currently pay a great deal of attention to the results of effective learning (e.g., high test scores), but not nearly enough attention to the causes of effective learning (e.g., assignments that are relevant enough to motivate students). We propose that schools could foster learning and development more systematically and more equitably if they started to measure, not just downstream learning outcomes, but also the upstream developmental experiences that make those outcomes more likely to unfold.
Indicators to Assist in Addressing Equity through Policy Adoption
Authors: Connolly Faith , Durant Tracey L. , Durham Rachel E.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

The introduction of a racial equity policy provided an opportunity for one school district to examine its systems. The policy addressed structural inequity, as well as cultural literacy issues, internal personal biases, and other power dynamic differences in a historically impacted city. Researchers from a local research-practice policy partnered with the district Director of Equity to support the implementation of a racial equity policy that could be informed by data and research.

Purpose/Objective

The purpose of this study was to investigate if early warning indicators, specifically indicators of organizational readiness and a Director's leadership skills, could guide the implementation of a racial equity policy.

Research Design

The study explored using two instruments adapted from Adaptive Leadership to provide iterative feedback on the implementation of a new, challenging policy. Through development of an interview protocol that included potential leading indicators as well as qualitative prompts focused on readiness challenges and successes, the research team and Director met every three weeks to generate data and reflect on preliminary themes.

Findings/Results

The team found that the indicators of organizational readiness and leadership skill were helpful in informing on the current status and developing new ideas and scenarios to ease implementation of the policy. The qualitative data yielded themes highlighting critical tensions and focus areas essential for practitioners to consider when implementing a racial equity policy.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The primary implication of the study is that leaders and researchers need to focus on systems-level organizational work and the development of leadership skills. Leaders must anticipate district and school staff defaulting to technical rather than adaptive solutions, especially when addressing the goal of equity. While technical solutions are expedient and comfortable, they will not lead to true or continuous improvement. Moreover, the professional development work required is not singular or temporary, but rather embedded work, likely over many years. Also critical is team learning through authentic conversations making space for individuals’ lived experiences. A final step for developing systems-thinking is iteratively defining the metrics each office and school should be using to support this work formatively. As districts engage in such efforts, a focus on proximal, process-based measures will be more immediately helpful, particularly measures for staff, and not necessarily student data.
Envisioning the Future of TCR
Authors: Knight-Manuel Michelle G.
Published: November 2021

Leveraging the strengths of the journal, welcoming more inclusivity, and enhancing their digital presence animates new directions for engaging the broader national and international educational community in service of the public good.
They #Woke: How Black Students in an After-School Community-Based Program Manifest Critical Consciousness
Authors: Sulé V. Thandi , Nelson Michelle , Williams Tiffany
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Though Black Americans have long suffered under racial tyranny, they have made valiant efforts to subvert policies and practices that encroach on their humanity. Nevertheless, systemic racism has been virtually unyielding—creating both racial hierarchies and disparities in access to resources and wellness. Programs designed to address the condition of Black people, particularly Black youth, often employ deficit or dysfunctional logic, thereby ignoring the sociohistorical context in which Black youth navigate. Furthermore, not enough attention is given to the ways that culturally centered approaches ignite critical consciousness among Black youth in ways that are aligned with the tradition of the Black American abolitionist mindset.

Purpose

We build on the discourse on community-based youth programs and critical consciousness development by using frameworks that elevate race and culture in analyzing how Black youth make sense of their racialized experiences. Additionally, our explication challenges the overriding deficit focus of Black youth experiences within and outside school contexts by providing a nuanced view of Black youth agency.

Research Design

With critical race theory as the epistemic foundation, this study sought to foreground counternarratives among youth participants of a culturally centered, community-based program. Thus, we used semistructured interviews as our primary data source. Using a three-stage analytical process, we sought to understand if and how critical consciousness manifests within this youth community.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The study demonstrates the value of foregrounding African American culture and history to fortify the values of collectivism, self-determination, purpose, responsibility, empowerment, creativity, and faith among Black youth. The authors propose that educators collaborate with community-based Black culture and youth development experts to support dialogical, student-centered spaces that impart culturally centered knowledge about Black Americans. Furthermore, the authors advocate for professional development in asset-based pedagogies as a means to enhance belongingness among Black students.
Invisible Shifts in and Out of the Classroom: Dynamics of Teacher Salary and Teacher Supply in Urban China
Authors: Liu Ji , Xie Jin-Chen
Published: November 2021

Background

The remarkable economic growth in contemporary China is unprecedented, but scholars voice concerns regarding unintended consequences during this transitional phase. Of particular concern is the constant challenge to staff schools with highly qualified teachers.

Purpose

This study sets out to understand subtle yet consequential changes in schools during a sustained period of economic boom, through the lens of teacher occupational choice. This study contributes empirically to the teacher occupational choice literature by identifying the magnitude of lag in wage growth and returns to human capital in the teaching profession, and their critical relationship affecting high-ability workers’ career decisions.

Research Design

Using a nationally representative repeated cross-sectional data set spanning a quarter century (1988–2013), this study estimates Mincer earnings function regression models and multinomial probit regression models to assess wage differentials and heterogeneous rates of return to human capital in teaching and nonteaching sectors, in addition to untangling complex relationships between worker quality and observed occupational choice.

Findings

We documented several novel facts about teachers in contemporary urban China. First, we found sharp shifts in the relative career attractiveness of teaching, such that a 13% wage premium for teachers in 1988 dissipated over time and regressed to a 11% wage penalty in 2013, when compared with similar workers. Second, returns to tertiary education are markedly higher in nonteaching careers—about 11–15 percentage points more so than in teaching. Third, highly educated workers in younger cohorts are half as likely to become teachers relative to older cohorts, particularly in recent years.

Conclusions

The authors contextualize findings and discuss appropriate policy implications. Most importantly, holding back teacher wage levels from broader market prices has consequential effects on teacher supply. Policy makers need to reconsider existing forms of teacher compensation arrangements and develop sustainable wage dynamics that can attract and retain bright minds to enter and stay in teaching.
“When Things Get Messy”: New Models for Clinically Rich and Culturally Responsive Teacher Education
Authors: Ginsberg Alice , Gasman Marybeth , Samayoa Andrés Castro
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Many teacher education programs are trying to build partnerships with local schools to create ongoing opportunities for their candidates to observe and practice in authentic settings. Prior research on university–school partnerships, however, has found that the structure and design of these partnerships have a huge impact on whether they turn out to be mutually beneficial, meaningful, and sustainable. One of the most commonly cited challenges is the lack of regular communication, respect, and trust between university professors and PK–12 classroom teachers and administrators.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question

This article focuses on Blocks, an initiative in the teacher education program at New Mexico State University (NMSU). Candidates spend their entire day at a single elementary school site, alternating between coursework and clinical practice.

Research Design

We conducted qualitative interviews and focus groups with teacher education professors, teacher candidates, and classroom teachers and administrators in the Blocks program to understand the core components and strategies that buoyed its success, as well as the major challenges and opportunities inherent in such a transformative model.

Findings

Given that NMSU is a Hispanic-serving institution that already prioritized university–school–community relationships, we were also interested in how the Blocks model might be replicated in teacher preparation programs at predominantly White institutions. Key findings include that (1) Blocks is a nonhierarchical model based on mutual respect and full collaboration, wherein professors and classroom teachers are both viewed as having equally valuable knowledge about teaching and learning, and both parties share ownership of the success of the program; (2) candidates’ coursework and clinical practice are not simply held at the same site, but are strategically sequenced and integrated to raise real-time questions of practice and provide candidates with a more cohesive and authentic preparation for becoming teachers of record; and (3) candidates do more than “observe” or “student teach”; they are given meaningful, progressive, and scaffolded opportunities to be involved in lesson planning, coteaching, student assessment, parent conferences, and extracurricular activities, all of which help them develop stronger teacher dispositions and identities.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Key recommendations for teacher education include the importance of intentionality and mutual respect when designing and forging university– school partnerships, including ensuring that all participants have a clearly defined role and a valued voice in the process; that clear communication and opportunities for self-reflection are strategically built into the collaborative process; and that faculty are rewarded for work that takes place in community settings.
Universal Tropes and Salvation Hopes: Making up “International” Music Students in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
Authors: Ben Antía González
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Since the 1980s, the International Baccalaureate (IB) has gained popularity as an alternative to traditional public curricula, which public discourse frames as ill-equipped to prepare students for today's global market economy. Within this set of discourses, the IB emerges as a pedagogical tool for producing a new kind of “international” student who transcends the limitations of the traditional public school student.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

Using the IB's high school music curriculum, known as the Diploma Programme (DP), as an entry point, this article examines the kind of “international” student that the IB claims to produce.

Research Design

Informed by Foucault's notion of discursive subjectification, this study examines how the diploma music curriculum fabricates a particular kind of person: the diploma music student. Although the IB takes this subject position for granted, this study rests on the premise that diploma music students only become “thinkable” as such within certain sociohistorical conditions.

Data Collection and Analysis

I engage with a set of official IB documents designed to inform the practice of DP music teachers. I approach this literature as a power-laden dispositive of knowledge production. I examine statements that relate to the construct of the diploma music student based on both the possibilities they afford and the meanings they preclude. I pay special attention to how this curriculum fabricates divisions, distinctions, and comparisons.

Findings/Results

I argue that the IB's conception of the diploma music student as an independent thinker, an internationally minded person, and an individual committed to creating a better world reflects three cultural theses that coalesced during the European Enlightenment: the notions of reason, the nation, and progress. Through their recurrent treatment as “truth claims,” these tropes become naturalized. They enable the IB's notion of the diploma music student to emerge discursively as neutral and universal.

Conclusions/Recommendations

By pointing out some of the onto-epistemic systems that undergird the IB's conception of the diploma music student, I do not suggest that the IB should completely abandon those constructs. However, this curriculum's portrayal of modern Euro-American ways of being and thinking as universal is incompatible with its stated claims of ontological and epistemic universality and inclusivity. Alternatively, I suggest engaging with various ways of being and reasoning substantially and respectfully. In addition, it would be pertinent to consider how each onto-cosmo-epistemological system relates to other systems and the students vis-à-vis ongoing power-knowledge dynamics.
Introduction: Critical Social Justice across the Spectrum of Teaching and Learning: Theory and Practice in Communities and Classrooms
Authors: Coffey Heather , Boyd Ashley S.
Published: November 2021

This is the introduction to the Yearbook on Critical Social Justice Across the Spectrum of Teaching and Learning: Theory and Practice in Communities and Classrooms.
Chapter 2: Still Fighting for Ethnic Studies: The Origins, Practices, and Potential of Community Responsive Pedagogy
Authors: Tintiangco-Cubales Allyson , Duncan-Andrade Jeff
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

As the debate on what content should be included in Ethnic Studies continues, there has also been an exploration of what effective pedagogy in Ethnic Studies looks like. Community responsive pedagogy advances the work of critical pedagogy and culturally responsive pedagogy by centralizing a community's context in the education of children and youth. We use community to refer to the cultural, political, social, and economic spaces and places that shape student and family realities.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This chapter begins by drawing from the scholarship written about Ethnic Studies and the development of a pedagogy that is both responsive to students and centers their wellness. Building off the research on Ethnic Studies pedagogies, we offer a conceptualization of community responsive pedagogy (CRP). Community responsive leaders and educators transform climates, cultures, and curriculum to prioritize youth wellness (innerself, interpersonal, interconnectedness) through a focus on three domains of pedagogical practice: relationships, relevance, and responsibility.

Research Design

We begin with historicizing the origins of CRP in Ethnic Studies and then provide examples of how CRP can be applied. The chapter explores the three domains of CRP and provides examples from our previous studies to show how educators practice those domains to reveal the potential benefits for all students.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Ethnic Studies as a movement is community responsive. CRP has the potential to go beyond the Ethnic Studies classroom and reshape the way we understand education and its purpose. Ethnic Studies, and the community responsive teaching that sits at its pedagogical core, centers youth wellness. In this chapter, we reveal that (1) the protective nature of caring adult relationships acts as armor against future threats to a child's wellness, which is particularly important for youth living in the chronically stressful environments created by structural inequalities; (2) centering students, their families, their communities, and their ancestors, a relevant pedagogy acknowledges their stories as assets that provide cultural wisdom and medicine, along with pathways to freedom and justice—advancing Maslow's individualistic frame toward one that allows children to use their learning to develop a sense of concentric circles of interconnectedness (peers, school community, local community, larger society, and the world); and (3) schools and educators also have the responsibility to acknowledge and leverage student strengths to develop and maintain their well-being and overall achievement.
Chapter 4: Understanding Community through Critical Service-Learning: Preparing Future Teachers to Enact School Reform Principles that Empower Youth
Authors: Tinkler Alan , Tinkler Barri
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

A number of states across the United States are seeking to implement school redesign efforts to support greater equity and to empower youth. Because these initiatives require teachers to implement strategies they typically have not experienced as learners, there is a need for models to prepare them to enact these innovations. Research has shown that service-learning can provide a view into educational experiences that are different from what teacher candidates experienced in their own schooling.

Purpose/Focus of Study

The state of Vermont recently legislated school reform that includes three elements: (1) proficiency-based learning, (2) personalized learning, and (3) flexible pathways to graduation. Enacting these mandates requires fostering youth voice. When redesigning our courses to model these principles, we added a critical service-learning experience to a content literacy course in our teacher education program, providing one-on-one academic support to resettled refugee youth. This qualitative study explores the learning outcomes of that service-learning experience. In addition, this study examines how these learning outcomes relate to the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to enact school reform efforts focused on empowering youth.

Research Design

This interpretive study examines the critical service-learning experience embedded in a content literacy course. Candidates provided weekly academic support to resettled refugee youth in one of three community centers. There were 18 participants in the study. Data collection included reflection papers, an anonymous questionnaire, and interviews with selected participants.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Data analysis demonstrates that the service-learning experience (1) cultivated an awareness of individual learners, (2) increased the understanding of pedagogical practices for diverse learners, (3) fostered a sense of cultural humility, and (4) broadened understanding of the community. Taken together, these impacts help prepare future teachers to enact school reform in ways that empower youth.
Chapter 8: Wobbling with Culturally Proactive Teaching: Facilitating Social Justice through Youth Participatory Action Research with Middle School Students
Authors: Coffey Heather , Barnes Meghan
Published: November 2021

Background

American students represent diverse life experiences, languages, cultures, and community memberships. Given the relatively unchanged demographics of U.S. teachers (primarily middle-class, white females), it is important that teachers engage in culturally proactive pedagogy and design curriculum that both reflects their students’ culture and engages them in developing skills to be participants in a larger society.

Purpose

This chapter explores how three veteran eighth-grade English language arts teachers in a large middle school in the southeastern United States navigated Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) as a culturally proactive and socially just pedagogy and encouraged students to examine power, privilege, and oppression in literature, in informational texts, and in their local communities to identify ways they might change inequities.

Research Design

Findings from this qualitative study suggest that even veteran teachers often struggle to implement social justice and culturally proactive pedagogies.

Findings

These teachers wobbled with their own uncertainty about the differences between a more traditional pedagogy, where they drive the learning, and a critical pedagogy that places the students in charge of the direction of their learning.

Conclusion/Recommendations

From the findings, recommendations are made to teachers who grapple with incorporating socially just and culturally proactive pedagogies into their teaching.
Intimacy, Community and Doing House in Old Regime France
Authors: Hardwick Julie
Published: November 2021

This article explores how shared multi-purposes spaces shaped the productive and reproductive lives of young men and women. The open house nature of their community as a physical and conceptual structure profoundly impacted the ways in which young people met, experimented with intimacy, and took steps towards marriage. The multi-purpose and multi-residence buildings in which they lived and worked fostered intense interaction with neighbours and employers through shared spaces and fluid use of those spaces. Court cases from Lyon between 1660 and 1760 reveal that the ‘open house’ allowed young couples and their communities to watch, calibrate, regulate, discipline and care for youthful intimacy and its (reproductive) consequences.
Triangulating Labor, Capital, and Land: Italian Emigrant Colonization in Latin America and the Contradictions of US Hegemony, 1947–1953
Authors: Gaggio Dario
Published: November 2021

In the aftermath of World War II, Italy’s centrist leaders saw in the emerging US empire an opportunity to implement emigration schemes that had been in circulation for decades. Hundreds of thousands of Italian peasant farmers could perhaps be able to settle on Latin American and African land thanks to the contribution of US capital. This article examines the Italian elites’ obsession with rural colonization abroad as the product of their desire to valorize the legacy of Italy's settler colonialism in Libya and thereby reinvent Italy's place in the world in the aftermath of military defeat and decolonization. Despite the deep ambivalence of US officials, Italy received Marshall Plan funds to carry out experimental settlements in several Latin American countries. These visions of rural settlement also built on the nascent discourses about the ‘development’ of non-western areas. Despite the limited size and success of the Italian rural ‘colonies’ in Latin America, these projects afford a window into the politics of decolonization, the character of US hegemony at the height of the Cold War, and the evolving attitude of Latin American governments towards immigration and rural development. They also reveal the contradictory relationships between Italy's leaders and the country's rural masses, viewed as redundant and yet precious elements to be deployed in a global geopolitical game.
Does Managerial Use of Performance Information Matter to Organizational Outcomes?
Authors: Han Xu , Moynihan Donald
Published: November 2021

Public management scholars have made impressive strides in explaining managerial usage of performance information (PI). Does such PI use matter to performance? If so, what types of use make a difference? To answer these questions, we connect managerial self-reported behavior with objective organizational outcomes in Texas schools. We control for lagged comparative school performance and employ inverse probability weighting to mitigate endogeneity concerns. The results show that managerial use of PI is associated with objective indicators of performance, and that the type of use matters. In particular, school principals’ use of PI for strategic planning is positively associated with better high-stakes test scores. The findings suggest that maturity of performance management system can shape the relationship between managerial PI use and organizational performance, thereby contributing to a contingency-based understanding of the relationship between performance management and organizational performance.
Sulphur metabolism in colon cancer tissues: a case report and literature review
Authors: Fukuoka Hironori , Andou Tomohiro , Moriya Takeo , Narita Koji , Kasahara Ken , Miura Daisuke , Sekiguchi Yuji , Suzuki Shinsuke , Nakagawa Kazuya , Ozawa Mayumi , Ishibe Atsushi , Endo Itaru
Published: November 2021

Sulphur-containing compounds have been linked to colorectal cancer by factors such as the presence of methyl mercaptan in intestinal gas and long-term dietary intake associated with sulphur-metabolizing microbiota. Therefore, this current case report hypothesized that active sulphur metabolism in colorectal cancer results in the formation of sulphur compounds in the intestine and, thus, examined sulphur metabolites possibly associated with sulphur respiration in colon cancer tissues. The patient was a 73-year-old female that underwent laparoscopic right hemicolectomy for ascending colon cancer. During the surgery, colon cancer tissues and normal intestinal mucosa samples were collected. After optimizing the sample concentrations for homogenization (pre-treatment), the samples were stabilized using a hydroxyphenyl-containing derivative and the relevant metabolites were quantified using liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. The results showed that cysteine persulfide and cysteine trisulfide levels were higher in colon cancer tissues than in normal mucosal tissues. Thus, sulphur metabolism, possibly sulphur respiration, is enhanced in colon cancer tissues.
Be Still and You Will Know: A Mixed-Method Study on Solitude and Consideration of Future Consequences Among Youth in Rehabilitation
Authors: Poon Cyanea Y. S. , Chan Christian S. , Chau Pauline P. L. , Chan Chun-Yin
Published: November 2021

Although solitude is found to be undesirable to many, systematic practice of it can yield positive psychological outcomes. This mixed-method study explored the process and influence of solitude as a behavioral intervention among youths in a therapeutic community in Hong Kong. Qualitative interviews with 43 youths (67.4% male, mean age = 18.3) revealed that solitude facilitated growth in their sense of personal responsibility, increased perspective-taking, increased respect for rules, change in life attitudes, and growth in consideration of future consequences. A two-wave prospective study ( n = 79, 82.3% male, mean age = 17.4) further demonstrated perceived meaningfulness in solitude predicted an increase in consideration of future consequences, but not in other types of behavioral intervention. This study preliminarily demonstrated solitude has beneficial outcomes among high-risk youths, and meaning-making can facilitate this relationship.
The prevalence and characteristics of visceral autonomic symptoms among migraineurs: A population-based study
Authors: Togha Mansoureh , Martami Fahimeh , Jafari Elham , Ariyanfar Shadi , Hashemi Seyedeh Melika
Published: November 2021

Background

There is limited evidence about visceral autonomic symptoms in the different phases of migraine attack. We evaluated the prevalence of these symptoms in migraineurs before, during, and after headache attacks. In addition, the association between migraine characteristics and visceral autonomic symptoms was investigated.

Methods

A total of 605 participants who met the entry criteria were enrolled prospectively in this cross-sectional study. Participants were 18–60 years old and met the ICHD-3 criteria for migraine with or without aura. Information on the migraine symptoms was gathered from all participants in face-to-face interviews. A structured questionnaire was used to evaluate the related symptoms before, during, and after attacks. Migraine features of frequency, duration, and severity were also assessed.

Results

Considering all phases, the most commonly present visceral symptom was nausea (52.9%). About half of participants reported at least one visceral symptom before the onset of attacks. While, during and after attacks, 71% and 36% of participants reported such characteristics, respectively. Notably, the migraine headache in participants with visceral symptoms was longer during attacks compared to participants without them (24.4 ± 29.6 vs. 16.8 ± 19.8; P = 0.008). Additionally, subjects with positive visceral symptoms experienced more severe migraine attacks than participants without symptoms for both the premonitory (8 ± 1.7 vs. 7.6 ± 1.8; P = 0.02) and during-attack (8.01 ± 1.7 vs. 7.09 ± 1.9; P = 0.001) phases.

Conclusion

This study demonstrated that visceral symptoms were common in migraine sufferers not only during attacks but also in the premonitory and postdrome phases. Positive visceral symptoms were also associated with more burdensome headache attacks. Therefore, recognizing the phenotypic presentation of associated symptoms of migraine, especially during the pre-attack phase, could aid in early implementation of optimal management.
Preventive effect of greater occipital nerve block on patients with episodic migraine: A randomized double‐blind placebo‐controlled clinical trial
Authors: Malekian Nazila , Bastani Pouya B , Oveisgharan Shahram , Nabaei Ghaemeh , Abdi Siamak
Published: November 2021

Objective

Since the data regarding the efficacy of greater occipital in episodic migraines are rare, we aimed to examine the efficacy of greater occipital block in the prophylaxis of episodic migraines without aura and compare different injectable drug regimens.

Methods

In a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial, adult patients suffering from episodic migraines without aura were randomized to one of the following: triamcinolone, lidocaine, triamcinolone plus lidocaine, and saline. Patients were assessed at baseline, one week, two weeks, and four weeks after the injection for severity and duration of headaches and side effects.

Results

Fifty-five patients completed the study. Repeated measures ANOVA indicated that the severity and duration decreased significantly after the greater occipital block (P < 0.001, P = 0.001 respectively) in all four groups. However, there was no difference between groups at any study time points (P > 0.05). In paired sample T-test, only groups 2 and 3 with lidocaine as a part of the injection showed a significant decrease in frequency compared to the baseline (P = 0.002, P = 0.019). Three patients reported side effects with a possible association with triamcinolone.

Conclusion

Greater occipital block with a local anesthetic significantly decreases the number of attacks in episodic migraine, whereas no injection was superior to the placebo in regards to the duration and severity of the headaches. Trial Registration Information: Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (IRCT). Registration number: IRCT2017070334879N1. https://www.irct.ir/trial/26537 .
Morphological Evaluation of the Quadriceps Tendon Using Preoperative Ultrasound in Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction
Authors: Takeuchi Satoshi , Byrne Kevin J. , Kanto Ryo , Onishi Kentaro , Fu Freddie H.
Published: November 2021

Background:

An evaluation of quadriceps tendon (QT) morphology preoperatively is an important step when selecting an individually appropriate autograft for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. However, to our knowledge, there are no studies that have assessed the morphology of the entire QT in an ACL-injured knee preoperatively using ultrasound.

Purpose:

We aimed to investigate the morphological characteristics of the QT using preoperative ultrasound in ACL-injured knees.

Study Design:

Cross-sectional study; Level of evidence, 3.

Methods:

A total of 33 patients (mean age, 26.0 ± 11.5 years) with a diagnosed ACL tear undergoing primary ACL reconstruction were prospectively included. Using ultrasound, short-axis images of the QT were acquired in 10-mm increments from 30 to 100 mm proximal to the superior pole of the patella. The length of the QT was determined by 2 contiguous images that did and did not contain the rectus femoris muscle belly. The width of the superficial and narrowest parts of the QT, the thickness of the central and thickest parts of the QT, and the cross-sectional area at the central 10 mm of the superficial QT width were measured at each assessment location. The estimated intraoperative diameter of the QT autograft was calculated using a formula provided in a previous study.

Results:

There were no significant relationships between QT morphology and any of the demographic data collected. The length of the QT was less than 70 mm in 45.5% of patients (15/33). The width, thickness, cross-sectional area, and estimated intraoperative diameter of the QT autograft were significantly greater at 30 mm than at 70 mm proximal to the superior pole of the patella.

Conclusion:

Preoperative ultrasound may identify a QT that is too small for an all–soft tissue autograft in ACL reconstruction. Furthermore, harvesting a QT with a fixed width may result in autografts that are smaller proximally than they are distally. Assessing the morphology of the QT preoperatively using ultrasound may help surgeons to adequately reconstruct the native length and diameter of the ACL with a QT autograft.
A Goal-Directed Model of Collaborative Decision Making in Hospice and Palliative Care
Authors: Washington Karla T. , Demiris George , White Patrick , Mathis Holly C. , Forsythe John E. , Parker Oliver Debra
Published: November 2021

Hospice and palliative care teams face numerous barriers to the meaningful involvement of patients and families in medical decision making, which limits opportunities for exploration of the very values, preferences, and goals that ideally inform serious illness care. Researchers who develop and test interventions to address these barriers have noted the complementary utility of two existing models in supporting collaborative relationships between hospice and palliative care teams and the patients and families they serve: (1) the social problem-solving model, and (2) the integrative model of shared decision making in medical encounters. This paper describes the integration and extension of these two highly synergistic models, resulting in a goal-directed model of collaborative decision making in hospice and palliative care. Directions for practice innovation and research informed by the model are discussed at length.
Highly selective sulfonated Poly (arylene ether nitrile) composite membranes containing copper phthalocyanine grafted graphene oxide for direct methanol fuel cell
Authors: Ma Yan , Ren Kaixu , Zeng Ziqiu , Feng Mengna , Huang Yumin
Published: November 2021

To improve the performances of sulfonated poly (arylene ether nitrile) (SPEN)–based proton exchange membranes (PEMs) in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs), the copper phthalocyanine grafted graphene oxide (CP-GO) was successfully prepared via in situ polymerization and subsequently incorporated into SPEN as filler to fabricate a series of SPEN/CP-GO-X (X represents for the mass ratio of CP-GO) composite membranes. The water absorption, swelling ratio, mechanical properties, proton conductivity, and methanol permeability of the membranes were systematically studied. CP-GO possesses good dispersion and compatibility with SPEN matrix, which is propitious to the formation of strong interfacial interactions with the SPEN, so as to provide more efficient transport channels for proton transfer in the composite membranes and significantly improve the proton conductivity of the membranes. Besides, the strong π–π conjugation interactions between CP-GO and SPEN matrix can make the composite membranes more compact, blocking the methanol transfer in the membranes, and significantly reducing the methanol permeability. Consequently, the SPEN/CP-GO-1 composite membrane displayed outstanding tensile strength (58 MPa at 100% RH and 25°C), excellent proton conductivity (0.178 S cm−1 at 60°C), and superior selectivity (5.552 × 105 S·cm−3·s). This study proposed a new method and strategy for the preparation of high performance PEMs.
Erythropoietin alleviates acute lung injury induced by ischemia-reperfusion through blocking p38 MAPK signaling
Authors: Jia Ling , Cui Wenjing , Chen Jiao , Yang Jinghui , Xue Xiang , Cai Jianqin , Zhao Wei , Gao Wei
Published: November 2021

Erythropoietin (EPO) has antiapoptotic, antioxidative, and anti-inflammatory effects on ischemia tissues and protects against acute lung injury (ALI) induced by ischemia-reperfusion (I/R). p38 mitogen-activated protein kinases (p38 MAPK) signaling is involved in the processes of I/R-induced ALI. However, the interaction of EPO with p38 MAPK signaling in I/R-induced ALI has not been reported. To explore this issue, we constructed an I/R-induced ALI model in vivo and in vitro using Sprague Dawley rats and BEAS-2B cells. Some I/R rats and hypoxia-reoxygenation (H/R)–induced cells were treated with EPO, and the others were used as control groups. The injuries of lung tissues and cells were respectively assessed by inflammatory cytokine, morphologic changes, cell viability, apoptosis, and oxidative damage–related factors. Western blot determined key proteins in the p38 MAPK signaling. Results indicated that I/R induced the increase of inflammatory factors, lung weight, filtration coefficient, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid protein content, apoptosis, neutrophil, and lung peroxidation, and H/R caused cell growth inhibition, apoptosis, and oxidative damage-related factors’ release. EPO attenuated I/R-induced injury in vivo and in vitro. Furthermore, the increase of p-p38, p-JNK, and p-ERK1/2 in lung tissues and cells induced by I/R was downregulated by EPO. Moreover, both EPO and an inhibitor of p38 MAPK (SB203580) alleviated H/R-induced cell injury. Erythropoietin along with SB203580 had more obvious protection effects than EPO alone. Collectively, EPO alleviated I/R-induced ALI by blocking p38 MAPK signaling. The interaction mechanism of EPO with p38 MAPK signaling contributes to understanding the processes of I/R-induced ALI and provides new insights for the disease treatment.
Accounts Receivable: Payable Impact on Each Other with Special Reference to Financial Performance—A Study of Small Cap Companies
Authors: Mittal Sangeeta , Monika
Published: November 2021

Trade credit is important as a funding source for companies having a liquidity shortage. Trade credit comprises of both accounts receivable and payable. The financial literature has discussed the impact of accounts receivable or payable on a company’s financial performance. However, there is a lack of studies on the effects of accounts receivable and payable on each other and further its effect on the financial performance of small-cap companies. Financial performance is determined using the profitability and value of the company. The researchers examined the financial performance implications of offering and receiving trade credit for a sample of 193 BSE small-cap manufacturing companies in India during the period 2011–2019. Granger causality test, Levin, Lin and Chu Unit root test, correlation and regression have been used for data analysis. The finding suggested that accounts receivable influenced the use of accounts payable. The aftermath of accounts payables is that it negatively and significantly affected the profitability and had an insignificant relationship with the value of the company. The result implies that effective management of accounts receivable can influence the application of accounts payable that improves a company’s profits and value. The current study is useful for SMEs’ managers in determining the financial performance and capital structure.
International Scholarships and Southern Agency: An Ethnography of Alumni, Scholars, and Applicants
Authors: King Monty , Forsey Martin , Pegrum Mark
Published: November 2021

International scholarships are an established mode of aid distribution for many donor countries and a life-changing educational opportunity for recipients from the global South. This article draws upon ethnographic field research centred on Dili, Timor-Leste, focussing on case studies of a scholarship applicant, a scholar, and an alumnus. It employs the concept of Southern agency, investigating individual practices shaped by influences that both constrain and enable action, namely local infrastructure, family and kinship groups, literacies, and the colonial legacy. Scholarship places are limited and extremely competitive, while assigning a moral imperative for alumni to learn and return to contribute to local development, often resulting in the re-production of socially normed roles echoing the colonial era. The global upheaval in higher education resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic emphasises the need for alternative interventions in the global South, including greater investment in local higher education institutions, and online learning.
Mediating Effects of Coping Strategies on the Relationship Between Mental Health and Quality of Life Among Indonesian Female Migrant Workers in Taiwan
Authors: Pangaribuan Santa Maria , Lin Yen-Kuang , Lin Mei-Feng , Chang Hsiu-Ju
Published: November 2021

Introduction:

Mental health is a major concern among migrant workers worldwide. More than 200,846 female migrant workers in Taiwan are from Indonesia. The study’s purpose was to investigate mediating effects of coping strategies on the relationship between mental health problems and the quality of life (QoL).

Method:

This cross-sectional study was conducted in Taiwan. In total, 500 Indonesian female migrant workers completed four questionnaires. A mediation test was conducted to estimate direct and indirect effects.

Results:

Coping strategies, namely substance use, behavioral disengagement, denial, and religious dedication, partially mediated the relationship between mental health problems (depression, anxiety, and stress) and QoL among Indonesian female migrant workers in Taiwan.

Discussion:

Health promotion programs should be developed for Indonesian female migrant workers in Taiwan to help them detect and overcome their mental health problems. Interventions that facilitate effective coping strategies should be administered to improve their QoL.
A CBCT Study for Anatomic Variations of Osteomeatal complex in Patients With Cleft Lip and Palate
Authors: Göksel Sevde , Özcan İlknur
Published: November 2021

Objective

To evaluate the anatomy and variations of osteomeatal complex (OMC) by comparing patients with nonsyndromic cleft lip and palate (CLP) and control group.

Design

This case-control study was retrospectively analyzed using cone-beam computed tomography data.

Setting

Istanbul University Faculty of Dentistry Department of Dentomaxillofacial Radiology.

Patients

The study was conducted with 100 patients (44 females, 56 males) with CLP and 100 patients in the control group, which matched gender and age (with a maximum difference of 3 years).

Variables

OMC variations are grouped as follows: ethmoidal, conchal, uncinate process, and septal variations. Then, we evaluated the presence of these OMC variations and compared them between the two groups.

Statistical analysis

The McNemar's test was used to determine any significant differences between the groups for all indices at the 95% confidence level.

Results

The most common anatomic variation in this study was Agger nasi cell (97%) and concha bullosa (97%) in the patients with CLP, while Agger nasi cell was the most common variation (99%) in the controls. Moreover, the atelectatic uncinate process was the least observed variation in both groups (1%). The incidences of paradoxical concha (58%;42%), bifid concha (29%;11%), deviated nasal septum (92%;80%) were significantly higher in the CLP group ( p < 0.05).

Conclusions

The statistically significant results found when comparing OMC anatomy between the two groups reveal the importance of three-dimensional evaluation before functional endoscopic sinus surgery in patients with CLP.
Presentation and Management of Atypical Orofacial Clefts: A Single-Institution Experience for 13 Year Period
Authors: James O , Sabo VY , Adamson OO , Otoghile B , Adekunle AA , Adeyemo W.L , Ladeinde AL , Ogunlewe MO
Published: November 2021

This study reviews the craniofacial clefts that presented at a Nigerian tertiary health facility, highlighting our experience with the pattern of presentation and surgical care of these patients.

A retrospective review of the smile train database and medical records of all individuals who had been diagnosed with any of the Tessier craniofacial clefts and managed between 1st January 2007 and 31st December 2020 was done. The data were presented as numbers and percentages of cases.

The cleft clinic of a tertiary health facility and a major cleft referral center in South-West Nigeria.

Forty-five patients with craniofacial clefts were managed over the study period. 15.6% had associated syndromes, 2.2% had a family history of similar craniofacial cleft and 11% had a history of a possible teratogen. There were 21 (46.7%) middle clefts, 14(31.1%) lateral clefts and 10(22.2%) oblique clefts. The most common type of cleft was Tessier 0 while the Tessier 6 was the least common type. The median age at surgery was 10 months for male and 5months for female subjects, 15.3% complication rate was found in this study. Four patients had revision surgeries to correct residual deformities in this study.

The diverse presentations and occurrence of the rare craniofacial clefts present complex aesthetic and functional problems that require individualized often multidisciplinary care. The execution of a properly planned treatment will reduce complications and the need for revision surgeries.
Nonsedated Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Visualization of the Velopharynx in the Pediatric Population
Authors: Kotlarek Katelyn J. , Sitzman Thomas J. , Williams Jessica L. , Perry Jamie L.
Published: November 2021

Background

Non-sedated MRI is gaining traction in clinical settings for visualization of the velopharynx in children with velopharyngeal insufficiency. However, the behavioral adaptation and training aspects that are essential for successful pediatric MRI have received limited attention.

Solution

We outline a program of behavioral modifications combined with patient education and provider training that has led to high success rates for non-sedated velopharyngeal MRI in children.