bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
AME+Cyber: Evaluating the online delivery of a holistic cyber-related talent development program
Authors: Desmet Ophelie , Crimmins Danielle , Seigfried-Spellar Kathryn C. , Gentry Marcia
Published: November 2021

The present study used an explanatory mixed-method design to examine the effects of the Achievement Motivation Enhancement (AME)+Cyber enrichment program and teachers’ perception of procedures and outcomes in the context of emergency remote teaching, including online and hybrid formats, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three teachers implemented the program with 57 students in grades 9 through 12. To evaluate the program, we combined change score analysis of pretest and posttest data on academic self-perception, self-regulation, goal valuation, cyber-related interest, as well as descriptive interpretative analysis of interview data. We found the online learning format was more effective than the hybrid format for the affective and cognitive outcomes. Qualitative findings suggested pedagogical concerns and struggle with online learning due to emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, centered around a lack of student engagement and interaction that appropriate levels of training and practice could remedy. Implications and future research suggestions are discussed.
Putting a face to a name: Telephone contact as part of a blended approach to probation supervision
Authors: Dominey Jane , Coley David , Devitt Kerry Ellis , Lawrence Jess
Published: November 2021

This article is about the experience of telephone supervision from the perspective of practitioners. It is set in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, which changed and challenged the nature of probation supervision and required service users and supervisors to communicate remotely, using the telephone, rather than by meeting face-to-face. The article explores some of the impacts and consequences of telephone contact and examines the extent to which this approach has a part to play in future, post-pandemic, ways of working.

The article draws on findings from a research project examining remote supervision practice during the pandemic. Fieldwork (comprising an online survey and a series of semi-structured interviews) was conducted between July and September 2020 in three divisions within an English community rehabilitation company. The article reinforces the importance of face-to-face work in probation practice but suggests that there is scope to retain some use of telephone supervision as part of a future blended practice model. Further thinking about telephone supervision might consider these three themes identified in the research: remote working limits the sensory dimension of supervision, relationships remain at the heart of practice, and good practice requires professional discretion.
Creating Meaningfulness in Public Service Work: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Public and Nonprofit Managers’ Experience of Work
Authors: Robichau Robbie W. , Sandberg Billie
Published: November 2021

Public service work and public-serving institutions are evolving by incorporating neoliberal modes of working more and more. Contemporary research oftentimes neglects to account for these changes in how we understand public service work, however. This article draws on the meaningfulness in work and public service motivation literature to explore how public service workers are making sense of their work and work environments to create meaningful work experiences under evolving conditions. The findings from 45 interviews with public and nonprofit managers are presented and compared. The changing world of work has implications for how public and nonprofit workers narrate and find meaningfulness in work but not what they find meaningful about their work. The findings suggest that both public and nonprofit workers create positive meaningfulness in work but in dissimilar ways. The findings also suggest that organizational leaders play a substantial part in workers’ meaningfulness-making process. The findings hold theoretical and practical implications for understanding the role workplaces and organizational leaders play in workers’ experience of meaningful public service work.
Power Dynamics and Corporate Power in Governance Processes: Evidence From U.S. Environmental Governance Systems
Authors: Ba Yuhao
Published: November 2021

Prior research has documented involvement of government and civil society actors in governance processes, but has largely neglected a key player: corporate business interests. Combining insights from social-ecological systems, organizational systems theory, theories of governance and power, interest group rule-making participation, and non-state alternative environmental governance, we examine corporate involvement and power in environmental governance systems. Drawing on a sample of Twitter messages about fuel economy standards, posted between 2012 and 2020, we offer a sector-level discourse analysis of corporate power and its interaction with the sociopolitical environment. The results suggest that business interests are gaining increasing power in the participation arena of U.S. fuel economy governance processes. The results likewise indicate corporations’ response to a changing political landscape in the U.S. Taken together, our analysis advances current scholarship on power dynamics in governance processes and on empirical assessment of power, offering implications for governance system design and implementation.
GRSTAPS: Graphically Recursive Simultaneous Task Allocation, Planning, and Scheduling
Authors: Messing Andrew , Neville Glen , Chernova Sonia , Hutchinson Seth , Ravichandar Harish
Published: November 2021

Effective deployment of multi-robot teams requires solving several interdependent problems at varying levels of abstraction. Specifically, heterogeneous multi-robot systems must answer four important questions: what (task planning), how (motion planning), who (task allocation), and when (scheduling). Although there are rich bodies of work dedicated to various combinations of these questions, a fully integrated treatment of all four questions lies beyond the scope of the current literature, which lacks even a formal description of the complete problem. In this article, we address this absence, first by formalizing this class of multi-robot problems under the banner Simultaneous Task Allocation and Planning with Spatiotemporal Constraints (STAP-STC), and then by proposing a solution that we call Graphically Recursive Simultaneous Task Allocation, Planning, and Scheduling (GRSTAPS). GRSTAPS interleaves task planning, task allocation, scheduling, and motion planning, performing a multi-layer search while effectively sharing information among system modules. In addition to providing a unified solution to STAP-STC problems, GRSTAPS includes individual innovations both in task planning and task allocation. At the task planning level, our interleaved approach allows the planner to abstract away which agents will perform a task using an approach that we refer to as agent-agnostic planning. At the task allocation level, we contribute a search-based algorithm that can simultaneously satisfy planning constraints and task requirements while optimizing the associated schedule. We demonstrate the efficacy of GRSTAPS using detailed ablative and comparative experiments in a simulated emergency-response domain. Results of these experiments conclusively demonstrate that GRSTAPS outperforms both ablative baselines and state-of-the-art temporal planners in terms of computation time, solution quality, and problem coverage.
Dihydroartemisinin inhibits IL-6-induced epithelial–mesenchymal transition in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma via the miR-130b-3p/STAT3/β-catenin signaling pathway
Authors: Sun Yajing , Lu Xiuying , Li Hui , Li Xiaoming
Published: November 2021

Objective

To explore whether dihydroartemisinin (DHA) can block interleukin (IL)-6-induced epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC).

Methods

The expression of SLUG, signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), and microRNA (miR)-130b-3p was measured. In addition, a dual-luciferase reporter assay was performed to examine the interaction of miR-130b-3p with STAT3.

Results

We found that IL-6 can promote EMT and invasion in LSCC cells, whereas DHA can inhibit these two processes. However, DHA alone does not influence EMT and cancer invasion. Furthermore, DHA upregulated miR-130b-3p, which can downregulate STAT3 and β-catenin protein expression and decrease the activity of the IL-6/STAT3 signaling pathway. Moreover, we found that miR-130b-3p can target STAT3 directly.

Conclusions

DHA can block IL-6-triggered EMT and invasion in LSCC, and during these processes, DHA increases miR-130b-3p expression to decrease the activation of the IL-6/STAT3 and β-catenin signaling pathways. These findings may provide new insights into strategies for suppressing and even preventing LSCC metastasis.
Common neural bases for processing speech prosody and music: An integrated model
Authors: Proverbio Alice Mado , Piotti Elisabetta
Published: November 2021

Do speech and music understanding share common neural mechanisms? Here, brain bioelectrical activity was recorded in healthy participants listening to music obtained by digitally transforming speech into viola music. Sentences originally had a positive or negative affective prosody. The aim was to investigate if the emotional content of music was processed similarly to the affective prosody of speech. EEG was recorded from 128 electrodes in 20 healthy students. Participants had to detect rare neutral piano sounds while ignoring viola melodies. Negative affective valence of stimuli increased the amplitude of frontal P300 and N400 components of ERPs, while positive valence enhanced a late inferior frontal positivity. Similar markers were previously found for the processing of positive versus negative music, vocalizations, and speech. Source reconstruction showed that negative music activated the right superior temporal gyrus and cingulate cortex, while positive music activated the left middle and inferior temporal gyrus and the inferior frontal cortex. An integrated model is proposed of a possible common network for processing the emotional content of music, vocalizations, and speech, which might explain some universal and relatively innate brain reaction to music.
At the intersection of belief and practice: A mixed-methods study of elementary general music educator praxis
Authors: Salvador Karen , Svec Christina , Glaser Jessica , Sierzega Amy , Broadway Alice
Published: November 2021

Recent research describing the practices of specialist elementary general music teachers and students is limited, and few research studies specifically examine how practicing music educators think about their music teaching practices. In this mixed-methods case study, we bridged these areas of research by examining music educators’ expressed beliefs about music teaching and learning in light of descriptive analysis and hierarchical linear models (HLM) of time sampling data of their teaching practices in elementary music classrooms. Participants ( N = 7) shared beliefs that everyone is musical and that music educators must therefore create an environment in which children develop their musicianship by singing, moving, and playing. Time sampling data indicated that teachers spent most of their time talking, while students spent most of their time sitting still and silent. Children in younger grades spent significantly more time in movement activities than those in older grades. HLM analyses provided predictive implications for teachers’ use of singing and movement. In this article, we present findings from qualitative analysis of planning artifacts, reflections, and interviews and from HLM of time sampling data, and discuss potential meanings for music teaching and music teacher education.
‘A woman and now a man’: The legitimation of sex-assignment surgery in the United States (1849–1886)
Authors: Sudai Maayan
Published: November 2021

Throughout much of recorded history, societies that assigned rights and duties based on sex were confounded by people with unclear sex. For the sake of maintaining social and legal order in those contexts, legal systems assigned these people to what they figured was the ‘most dominant’ sex. Then, in mid-19th century United States, a new classification mechanism emerged: sex-assignment surgery, which was imagined by some surgeons to ‘fix’ one’s physical and legal sex status permanently. Other surgeons, however, fiercely opposed the new practice. This article traces the controversy around sex-assignment surgery through three high-profile cases published in US medical journals from 1849 to 1886. Its central argument is that the more general effort to transform surgery into a scientific field helped legitimate the practice of sex-assignment surgery. Although such surgery was subject to intense moral criticism because it was thought to breach the laws of men and nature, over time, these concerns were abandoned or transformed into technical or professional disagreements. In a secondary argument, which helps explain that transformation, this article shows that surgeons gradually became comfortable occupying the epistemic role of sex-classifiers and even sex-makers. That is, whereas sex classification was traditionally a legal task, the new ability to surgically construct one’s genitals engendered the notion that sex could be determined and fixed in the clinic in a legally binding manner. Accordingly, I suggest that surgery became an epistemic act of fact-making. This evolution of the consensus around sex-assignment surgery also provides an early origin story for the idea of sex as plastic and malleable by surgeons, thus offering another aspect to the history of plastic sex.
Inscriptions of resilience: Bond ratings and the government of climate risk in Greater Miami, Florida
Authors: Cox Savannah
Published: November 2021

In recent years, credit rating agencies have begun to incorporate a municipality's resilience and vulnerability to climate change into their US municipal bond rating methods. Drawing on the case of Greater Miami resilience planning and Science and Technology Studies-inspired work on inscriptive devices, I investigate how this incorporation practically happens, and how it shapes the ways that Greater Miami governments attempt to govern climate risk through resilience investments. What “counts” as resilience there, I suggest, is increasingly an effect of the observational practices of rating agencies. However, the still-emergent status of resilience as an object of knowledge among rating agencies and Greater Miami governments means that resilience retains a degree of plasticity, allowing government officials and residents alike to mobilize the term for different purposes and toward different ends. In tracing the emergent relations between rating agency practice on climate risk and local government resilience investments, the paper makes two contributions to scholarship in economic and urban geography. First, it illuminates the ways that extra-local practices of expert valuation shape the local construction of environmental fixes. Second, it offers insights into how one of the key actors of the 2007–2008 financial crisis is beginning to lay the epistemic groundwork for future economic crises and inequalities in and between cities, this time as they relate to climate change impacts and a city's supposed resilience and vulnerability to them.
Characteristics of headache during and/or after coronary intervention: A prospective observational study
Authors: Lu Chenglong , Zhang Leyi , Liu Cuixiang , Wang Zhifeng , Zhang Ran , Wang Lin , Yang Ying , Meng Fanchao , Yu Shengyuan , Liu Ruozhuo
Published: November 2021

Introduction

Headache during and/or after coronary intervention is common but has received little attention from cardiologists and neurologists. The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence, risk factors, and possible mechanism of coronary intervention-related headache.

Methods

Using a prospective observational design, we identified consecutive patients with coronary intervention from May 2020 to August 2020. Patients were followed up with questionnaires immediately after coronary intervention and 24 h, 72 h, 1 week and 2 weeks after the intervention.

Results

In total, 94 patients were enrolled, and 71 patients ultimately completed the 2-week follow-up. Among 71 patients, headache developed during and/or after coronary intervention in 18 (25.4%) patients. Two different types of headache related to coronary intervention were observed: One during and another after coronary intervention. Headache characteristics are described in detail. A history of previous headache was an independent risk factor for coronary intervention-related headache ( p < 0.01).

Conclusions

Coronary intervention-related headache has an incidence of 25.4%, and previous headache history was an independent risk factor. Moreover, considering that there are no relevant diagnostic criteria, it is suggested that the definition of coronary intervention-related headache should be established in the International Classification of Headache Disorders.
Recent Legal Developments: Criminal Justice Decisions of the United States Supreme Court, 2020 Term
Authors: Hemmens Craig , Dalton Cortney , Dollar Christopher
Published: November 2021

In this paper we review and analyze the criminal justice-related decisions of the 2,020 term of the United States Supreme Court. We also provide a summary of the Court’s voting patterns and opinion authorship. Thirteen of the Court’s 57 decisions touched on criminal justice. There were significant decisions involving the Fourth Amendment, the Eighth Amendment, and federal criminal statutes. Each of these is discussed in turn.
Assessment of in situ properties of municipal solid waste with a large-diameter borehole method
Authors: Hartwell John , Mousavi M Sina , Eun Jongwan , Bartelt-Hunt Shannon
Published: November 2021

A Municipal Solid Waste Borehole Assessment (MBA) was developed to assess in situ geotechnical properties of municipal solid waste (MSW) during the boring of gas extraction well construction. A Large-Diameter Borehole Caliper (LDBC) was lowered into the borehole to measure the diameter and record the condition of the wall by time-lapse video photography. The results indicated that the borehole experienced significant radial compression with depth following completion. Radial compressions amounted to approximately 7.5% at 9.14 m, 10% at 21.3 m and 11% at 27.4 m below ground surface. The bulk modulus was estimated by using the captured volumetric strains and reported lateral earth coefficients, and the results showed that it increases with increasing depth. For MSW, the bulk modulus increased up to 13.4 MPa in a linear trend with depth. The unit weights of MSW were obtained using three diameter readings from LDBC, auger barrel outside diameter and outer cutting bit outside diameter. The results showed that the diameter based on outer cutting bit yielded realistic unit weights (5.08–9.68 kN m–3) due to unrealistic calculated saturations by other two assumed diameters. The borehole assessment with LDBC was shown to be an efficient and valuable means for characterising MSW and effectively designing gas extraction wells. The research provided a means to assess the waste mass with accuracy at great depths by directly observing and measuring borehole condition.
Circadian Rhythm in Feeding Behavior of Daphnia dentifera
Authors: Pfenning-Butterworth Alaina C. , Amato Kristina , Cressler Clayton E.
Published: November 2021

Circadian rhythms enable organisms to mediate their molecular and physiological processes with changes in their environment. Although feeding behavior directly affects within-organism processes, there are few examples of a circadian rhythm in this key behavior. Here, we show that Daphnia have a nocturnal circadian rhythm in feeding behavior that corresponds with their diel vertical migration (DVM), an important life history strategy for predator and UV avoidance. In addition, this feeding rhythm appears to be temperature compensated, which suggests that feeding behavior is robust to seasonal changes in water temperature. A circadian rhythm in feeding behavior can impact energetically demanding processes like metabolism and immunity, which may have drastic effects on susceptibility to disease, starvation risk, and ultimately, fitness.
A Qualitative Exploration of the Teaching- and Learning-Related Content Nursing Students Share to Social Media
Authors: Giroux Catherine M. , Moreau Katherine A.
Published: November 2021

Background: Social media have many applications in health professions education. The current literature focuses on how faculty members use social media to supplement their teaching; less is known about how the students themselves use social media to support their educational activities. In this study, this digital artifact collection qualitatively explored what educational content nursing students shared with their social media accounts. Methods: A total of 24 nursing students’ Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts were followed over 5 months. A modified directed content analysis was conducted weekly and at the end of the data collection period, using two cycles of inductive and deductive coding. Results: This study demonstrated that nursing students used social media to combat isolation, to consolidate course content, to share resources, and to better anticipate the transition to practice as a new nurse. Conclusions: Faculty members can capitalize on social media platforms to help nursing students explore nursing roles and identities while learning about and enacting professional online behaviours.
Theorizing Regulation-in-City for Homeless People’s Subaltern Strategy and Informality: Societalization, Metabolism, and Classes With(out) Housing
Authors: Hayashi Mahito
Published: November 2021

This paper aims to expand critical urban theory and spatialized political economy through developing a new, broad-based theoretical explanation of homelessness and the informal housing of the deprived in public spaces. After reviewing an important debate in geography, it systematicallyreasserts the relevance of class-related concepts in urban studies and, mobilizing post-determinist notions, it shows how a class-driven theory can inform the emergence of appropriating/differentiating/reconciliating agency from the material bedrock of urban metabolism and its society-integrating effect (societalization). The author weaves an urban diagnostic web of concepts by situating city-dwellers—classes with(out) housing—at the material level of metabolism and then in the sociopolitical dynamic of regulation, finding in the two realms urban class relations (enlisted within societalization) and agency formation (for reregulation, subaltern strategies, and potential rapprochement). The housing classes are retheorized as a composite category of hegemonic dwellers who enjoy housing consumption and whose metabolism thus appears as the normative consumption of public/private spaces. Homeless people are understood as a subaltern class who lacks housing consumption and whose metabolism can produce “housing” out of public spaces, in opposition to a hegemonic urban form practiced by the housing classes. These urban class relations breed homeless–housed divides and homeless regulation, and yet allow for agency’s creative appropriation/differentiation/reconciliation. This paper avoids crude dichotomy, but it argues that critical urban theory can productively use this way of theorization for examining post-determinist urban lifeworlds in relation to the relative fixity of urban form, metabolic circuits, and class relations.
Racism and the Case for Reparations: A Response to Michael Banner
Authors: Chike Chigor
Published: November 2021

Racism, that is, the idea that White people are innately superior to people of other ethnicities, especially Black people, is a lie that supported slavery and the slave trade. That lie continues to shape all our lives today including our attitude to the issue of paying reparations to the enslaved. Not only was the original idea of a hierarchy or races a lie, but other falsehoods have been used to hide the atrocities and injustices that were committed based on that first lie. Further, the hold of racism on human society is maintained by a distortion of the issue that results in White people having a visceral reaction to the subject.
The Sermon on the Mount and Christian Ethics in the Nazi Bible
Authors: Buesnel Ryan
Published: November 2021

In 1939, scholars associated with the pro-Nazi Thüringian German Christian movement founded a research institute dedicated to the task of removing the legacy of Judaism from Christianity. The mission of the Institute for the Study and Elimination of Jewish Influence on German Church Life was to render Christianity acceptable within the antisemitic and militarized climate of National Socialism. This task required purging Christian theology of Jewish influence, a feature evident in the Institute's version of the New Testament titled The Message of God. This publication aimed to transform the religious experience of ordinary German believers and would eventually sell over 200,000 copies. This article examines material in this text as it relates to the Sermon on the Mount and concludes that, despite the apparent incongruity between Nazi ideology and New Testament ethics, the editors of the so-called ‘Nazi Bible’ believed their task to be guided by Christian ethical principles.
High Induction of IL-6 Secretion From hUCMSCs Optimize the Potential of hUCMSCs and TCZ as Therapy for COVID-19-Related ARDS
Authors: Lo Huei-Yu , Cheng Shun-Ping , Huang Jing-Long , Chang Kuo-Ting , Chang Yu-Lung , Huang Chien-Hsun , Chang Chia-Jen , Chiu Chien-Hua , Chen-Yang Yui Whei , Chan Chin-Kan
Published: November 2021

Biological and cellular interleukin-6 (IL-6)-related therapies have been used to treat severe COVID-19 pneumonia with hyperinflammatory syndrome and acute respiratory failure, which prompted further exploration of the role of IL-6 in human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell (hUCMSC) therapy. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were responders cocultured with hUCMSCs or exogenous IL-6. A PBMC suppression assay was used to analyze the anti-inflammatory effects via MTT assay. The IL-6 concentration in the supernatant was measured using ELISA. The correlation between the anti-inflammatory effect of hUCMSCs and IL-6 levels and the relevant roles of IL-6 and IL-6 mRNA expression was analyzed using the MetaCore functional network constructed from gene microarray data. The location of IL-6 and IL-6 receptor (IL-6R) expression was further evaluated. We reported that hUCMSCs did not initially exert any inhibitory effect on PHA-stimulated proliferation; however, a potent inhibitory effect on PHA-stimulated proliferation was observed, and the IL-6 concentration reached approximately 1000 ng/mL after 72 hours. Exogenous 1000 ng/mL IL-6 inhibited PHA-stimulated inflammation but less so than hUCMSCs. The inhibitory effects of hUCMSCs on PHA-stimulated PBMCs disappeared after adding an IL-6 neutralizing antibody or pretreatment with tocilizumab (TCZ), an IL-6R antagonist. hUCMSCs exert excellent anti-inflammatory effects by inducing higher IL-6 levels, which is different from TCZ. High concentration of IL-6 cytokine secretion plays an important role in the anti-inflammatory effect of hUCMSC therapy. Initial hUCMSC therapy, followed by TCZ, seems to optimize the therapeutic potential to treat COVID-19-related acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
Towards a Rational Balanced Pancreatic and Islet Allocation Schema
Authors: Kandeel Fouad , El-Shahawy Mohamed , Singh Gagandeep , Dafoe Donald C. , Isenberg Jeffrey S. , Riggs Arthur D.
Published: November 2021

Allocation of donated organs for transplantation is a complex process that considers numerous factors such as donor, organ and candidate characteristics and practical issues such as geography. Whole pancreas and isolated islet transplantation are lifesaving for certain individuals with diabetes. Herein, we suggest a revised allocation schema that matches donor characteristics with candidate medical condition while allowing for geographic considerations. It is hoped that adoption of this schema will shorten allocation time, decrease organ waste and optimize the parity between organ donor characteristics and candidate state of health.
Bioenergetics of Islet Preparations in a Pilot Clinical Trial of Peri-Transplant Hydroxychloroquine for Autologous Islet Transplantation
Authors: McDowell Ruth E. , Ali Khawla F. , Lad Saloni , San Martin Vicente T. , Bottino Rita , Walsh Matthew , Stevens Tyler , Wilke William , Kirwan John P. , Hatipoglu Betul
Published: November 2021

The inflammatory response is an obstacle to success in both allogeneic and autologous islet transplantation. In autologous islet transplantation (AIT), however, the recipient is also the donor, permitting pretreatment of donor/recipient for a controlled duration prior to transplantation. We sought to exploit this feature of (AIT) by pretreating donor/recipients with chronic pancreatitis undergoing total pancreatectomy and autologous islet transplantation (TPAIT) to test the hypothesis that peri-transplant treatment with the FDA-approved anti-inflammatory hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) improves graft function. In this randomized placebo-controlled pilot clinical study, patients ( n = 6) were treated with oral HCQ for 30 days prior to and 90 days after TPAIT. In vivo islet function was assessed via Mixed Meal Tolerance Testing before HCQ treatment, 6- and 12-months after surgery. In vitro islet bioenergetics were assessed at the time of transplantation via extracellular flux analysis of islet preparation samples from the clinical trial cohort and six additional patients ( n = 12). Our study shows that HCQ did not alter clinical endpoints, but HCQ-treated patients showed greater spare respiratory capacity (SRC) compared to samples from control patients ( P=0.028). Glycolytic metabolism of islet preparations directly correlated with stimulated C-peptide secretion both before and after TPAIT ( P=0.01, R 2=0.489 and P=0.03, R 2=0.674, respectively), and predicted in vivo islet function better than mitochondrial metabolism of islet preps or islet equivalents infused. Overnight culture of islet preparations altered bioenergetic function, significantly decreasing SRC and maximal respiration ( P<0.001). In conclusion, while HCQ did not alter clinical outcomes, it was associated with significantly increased SRC in islet preparations. Bioenergetic analyses of islet preparations suggests that culture should be avoided and that glycolysis may be a more sensitive indicator of in vivo islet function than current metrics, including islet oxygen consumption and islet equivalents infused.
Electroacupuncture for the treatment of perimenopausal syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Authors: Zhong Zhiyan , Dong Haoxu , Wang Hui , Huang Yao , Huang Dongmei , Huang Guangying
Published: November 2021

Objective:

To assess the efficacy, comparative effectiveness and safety of electroacupuncture (EA) in the treatment of perimenopausal syndrome (PMS).

Methods:

Nine databases were searched until June 2019. Only relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of EA for PMS were included.

Results:

Twelve trials involving 746 women were included. EA and hormone therapy (HT) did not significantly differ in terms of effective rate (risk ratio (RR) = 0.98, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.93 to 1.04), Kupperman index (KI) (mean difference (MD) = −0.25, 95% CI = −0.76 to 0.26) and serum levels of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) (MD = −3.80, 95% CI = −11.59 to 3.98) or luteinizing hormone (LH) (MD = −2.51, 95% CI = −10.72 to 5.70). Serum estradiol (E2) levels were significantly lower in EA versus HT groups (MD = −60.58, 95% CI = −71.93 to −49.23). Compared with sham EA, EA had a significantly greater effect on reductions in KI (MD = −4.71, 95% CI = −6.57 to −2.86) and hot flushes score/24 h (MD = −2.43, 95% CI = −2.93 to −1.93). There were no significant differences between EA and manual acupuncture (MA) in terms of effective rate (RR = 1.14, 95% CI = 0.98 to 1.33) or serum FSH (MD = −2.87, 95% CI = −29.65 to 23.91), LH (MD = 2.73, 95% CI = −9.65 to 15.11) or E2 (MD = 26.80, 95% CI = −12.06 to 65.65). However, it seemed that EA had a better effect than MA on KI (MD = −2.44, 95% CI = −4.80 to −0.08). Subgroup analyses indicated that EA may have more of a benefit in the pre-menopausal state (hot flushes score/24 h: MD = −1.66, 95% CI = −3.49 to 0.17) compared to post-menopause (p > 0.05).

Conclusion:

The effect of EA appeared broadly similar to HT and MA in the treatment of PMS, although EA-associated reductions in KI were superior to MA and sham EA, suggesting effects beyond placebo. The evidence base is limited by a small number of eligible studies, risk of bias and clinical/statistical heterogeneity, limiting our ability to draw firm conclusions. As such, additional larger scale, high-quality RCTs are needed.
Comparing Rape Myth Acceptance Among Police Trainees and Medical Students: A Preliminary Danish Validation of the Updated Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale
Authors: Skov Marie , van Mastrigt Sarah , Jensen Andreas V.
Published: November 2021

Identifying rape myths among criminal justice and medical professionals is central to preventing secondary victimization. We present the first preliminary Danish validation of McMahon and Farmer’s updated Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance scale using samples of police and medical trainees. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses result in a 14-item, four-factor measure that demonstrates acceptable model fit, satisfactory convergent and discriminant validity, and good internal consistency. Although reported rape myth acceptance is generally low in both samples, some subscale scores vary across professional groups, thereby identifying specific targets for intervention in different occupational contexts. Further tests of the scale are recommended.
How to create flow experience during travel: The role of destination attributes
Authors: Karasakal Sezer , Albayrak Tahir
Published: November 2021

Despite numerous studies investigating flow experience in the adventure tourism context, there is a lack of research concentrating on tourists’ flow experience during travel. This study aims to explore the relationships amongst destination attribute perceptions, flow experience (consisting of focus attention, time distortion, and loss of self-consciousness components), and satisfaction variables. By adapting a quantitative research method, 938 data were collected from British, German, and Russian tourists visiting Antalya, Turkey. The study results reveal that destination attribute perceptions significantly affect flow experience components, which influence tourist satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications of the study findings are discussed, and some recommendations concerning future research are provided.
Sustainability transformations, environmental rule of law and the Indian judiciary: Connecting the dots through climate change litigation
Authors: Gill Gitanjali N. , Ramachandran Gopichandran
Published: November 2021

There is an urgency to address societal challenges due to earth's environmental crisis and its capacity to sustain human well-being. In this context, ‘transformations towards sustainability’ move to centre-stage and are increasingly institutionalised within global scientific and policy discourses. Sustainability transformations involve reorientation and restructuring of governance processes and actions. Though the governance of transformation involves multiple actors, this article examines the role of the judiciary in steering a transformation process towards a sustainable and equitable future. Judicial intervention, as a strategic tool, can effect change in human action thereby enabling transformative changes. Drawing on social science literature, the article offers a novel interdisciplinary analysis of illustrative Indian climate change legal decisions located within the sustainability transformations discourse underpinned by the environmental rule of law. The Indian judiciary, noted for expansive thinking, and acting as a ‘lever of transformation’, is slowly addressing climate cases. These cases categorised as – climate conscious, climate accountability and climate futurity – reflect progressive cumulative outcomes, albeit incremental, but they nevertheless enable conditions for transformative change.
Considering the concept of the ecological civilization for conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity under the umbrella of the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction instrument
Authors: Hasan Sabrina
Published: November 2021

In exploring how the concept of ecological civilization can be applied to maintain adequate marine environmental governance for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity, the article first highlights the existing issues concerning conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity. It then suggests that ecological civilization can contribute as a norm to formulate the principles and approaches as well as to set goals and targets under the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction instrument.
Ioane Teitiota v New Zealand (advance unedited version), CCPR/C/127/D/2728/2016, UN Human Rights Committee (HRC), 7 January 2020
Authors: Bhardwaj Chhaya
Published: November 2021

A 2019 decision by the Human Rights Committee concerning the status of Teitiota and his family as “climate change refugee” in New Zealand has become a hotspot for discussion concerning application of the principle of non-refoulement under human rights treaties. The decision concludes that there may be circumstances where the principle of non-refoulement under human rights treaties may apply to people fleeing climate change in their country of origin, if the people are able to provide evidence on “imminent threat to life.” While the Committee did not recognize Teitiota and his family as climate change refugees, under Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, it also ruled that this case may open pathways for application of non-refoulement in future. The author analyzes the key elements of the decision, while also highlighting that the Committee failed to apply the “best interest of the child” principle under analysis of Article 6.
Reconceptualising the role of the child portfolio in assessment: How it serves for ‘assessment as learning’
Authors: Yılmaz Arif , Aras Selda , Ülker Ayça , Şahin Figen
Published: November 2021

Although the concept of assessment as learning has important educational and practical implications, the utilisation and creation of contexts for assessment as learning in early childhood education are contemporary issues that need to be clarified. The overall goal of this work is to reconceptualise the role of the child portfolio as a tool for promoting assessment as learning in early childhood education. This theoretical framework provides some conceptual insights into children's agency in the learning and assessment process through the use of child portfolios. The main issue addressed is the progressive use of the child portfolio, which comprises observations of classroom experiences, documentation of these observations, revisiting learning experiences and a celebration of children's achievements. These aspects are discussed along with arguments that raise the question of how portfolios can act as catalysts for assessment as learning. This article further advocates that the multidimensional processes of creating a child portfolio may be considered a promising context for promoting autonomy, self-regulation, metacognition and reflection in early childhood education.
Helping higher education students succeed: An examination of student attributes and academic grade performance
Authors: Flom Jacalyn M , Green Karen Y , Wallace Steven
Published: November 2021

Academic grade performance can be influenced by individual attributes, including motivation, attitudes, and beliefs. These attributes can be manifested by current events, such as technology or world events. Through a survey-based study using validated measures coupled with student grade performance at three instances during their tenure in higher education, we document that attributes common to current students influence academic grade performance differently for higher versus lower performers. Among other findings, we identify that higher performing students’ grade performance is positively affected by the attributes: fear of punishment and distributive justice; while lower performing students’ grades were not affected by those attributes. We provide practical recommendations for faculty to help influence attributes in order to potentially improve academic grade performance. Indeed, this study has important implications for those involved in fostering student success.
Examining the Relationship Between Food Insecurity and Academic Performance: Implications for Diversity and Equity in Higher Education
Authors: Mechler Heather , Coakley Kathryn , Walsh-Dilley Marygold , Cargas Sarita
Published: November 2021

In recent years, researchers have increasingly focused on the experience of food insecurity among students at higher education institutions. Most of the literature has focused on undergraduates in the eastern and midwestern regions of the United States. This cross-sectional study of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students at a Minority Institution in the southwestern United States is the first of its kind to explore food insecurity among diverse students that also includes data on gender identity and sexual orientation. When holding other factors constant, food-insecure students were far more likely to fail or withdraw from a course or to drop out entirely. We explore the role that higher education can play in ensuring students’ basic needs and implications for educational equity.
Reexamining Social Media and Socioemotional Well-Being Among Adolescents Through the Lens of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Theoretical Review and Directions for Future Research
Authors: Hamilton Jessica L. , Nesi Jacqueline , Choukas-Bradley Sophia
Published: November 2021

Social media has rapidly transformed the ways in which adolescents socialize and interact with the world, which has contributed to ongoing public debate about whether social media is helping or harming adolescents. The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified both the challenges and opportunities of adolescents’ social-media use, which necessitates revisiting the conversation around teens and social media. In this article, we discuss key aspects of adolescent social-media use and socioemotional well-being and outline how these issues may be amplified in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We use this as a springboard to outline key future research directions for the field, with the goal of moving away from reductionist approaches and toward a more nuanced perspective to understand the who, what, and when of social-media use and its impact on adolescent well-being. We conclude with a commentary on how psychological science can inform the translation of research to provide evidence-based recommendations for adolescent social-media use.
Consenting patients for elective procedures during the pandemic: Are we consenting for risk of nosocomial COVID-19 infection
Authors: Menakaya CU , Durand-Hill M , Okereke O , Eastwood DM
Published: November 2021

Introduction: Nosocomial COVID-19 increases morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing surgical procedures. This study assesses the consenting process in patients admitted for surgical procedures with regard to risks of contracting nosocomial COVID-19 infection during the three lockdown periods in the United Kingdom.

Methods: Retrospective review of consecutive surgical patients admitted to our tertiary referral centre for surgical procedures during the lockdown periods in the United Kingdom. Data from our hospital’s electronic theatre database cross-referenced with the online surgical operative, admission and discharge records were reviewed by three independent reviewers.

Discussion: A total of 180 patients (104 males and 76 females) were studied. No patients tested positive perioperatively for COVID-19. The first lockdown had a significantly larger proportion of consultants consenting (P < 0.001). Surgeons consented patients for risk of COVID-19 infection in 34.4% of cases, COVID-19-related illness in 33.9%, inpatient Intensive Care Unit (ITU) admission secondary to COVID-19 infection and risk of death due to COVID-19 in 0.0% and risk of death secondary to inpatient COVID infection in 1.1%.

Conclusion: As surgical activity continues and COVID-19 persists, surgeons should be vigilant and ensure proper documentation for consent regarding COVID-19-related complications in line with the Royal College of Surgeons of England guidelines.
The “Magnificent Seven Errors” in Forensic Autopsy Practice: The Italian Context
Authors: Scendoni Roberto , Fedeli Piergiorgio , Cannovo Nunzia , Cingolani Mariano
Published: November 2021

According to the Italian legal system, forensic autopsies are performed by a medical doctor specialized in legal medicine, otherwise known as a medicolegal expert (MLE), who has a range of very complex responsibilities. Indeed, the quality of forensic autopsy activity is always questioned in courts of law; incorrect assessments are dangerous because they can jeopardize the validity of a criminal investigation and thus affect the outcome so that a real culprit may be acquitted or an innocent person convicted. Nonconformities also discredit the professionalism of the specialist who performs the autopsy. The work of a MLE implies a series of assignments and duties that should be given constant consideration, but when certain aspects of this activity are underestimated or overlooked, this can lead the expert to make mistakes with irreparable consequences for the judicial investigation. In this article, for the first time, we present a summary of seven known errors related to autopsy activity following death by unnatural causes, with the purpose of alerting MLEs who work under the Italian judicial system to the potential dangers of such errors. These relate to: oversights in autopsy technique, incorrect collection of photographic and video material, unauthorized attendance at the autopsy, missing/mistaken reporting at any stage of the forensic activity, failure to notify the party forensic consultant, using histological or toxicological nonaccredited laboratories for forensic activities, and lack of observance of the chain of custody.