bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The evolutionary meaning of migraine
Authors: Pensato Umberto , Cevoli Sabina , Pierangeli Giulia , Cortelli Pietro
Published: December 2023

Introduction

Migraine’s astonishing prevalence and preserved genetic background contrast with the definition of a disease and the biological meaning of experiencing recurrent, severe headache attacks is still puzzling.

Methods

To provide a comprehensive explanation of the migraine evolutionary meaning, we review (i) the putative role of the autonomic nervous system in migraine attacks, (ii) the inter-ictal autonomic, functional, and metabolic signature of migraine patients, (iii) the bio-behavioral perspective of pain, and (iv) the allostatic perception of migraine chronification.

Results

Migraineurs have inter-ictal cortical hyperexcitability and metabolic dysfunction that predisposes to brain energetic imbalance. Multiple precipitating factors may lead to brain energy consumption over the migraine attack generation threshold. In response, the brain engenders adaptive, evolutionary conserved, autonomic-behavior responses through the antidromic activation of the trigeminovascular system. The sickness behavior and severe pain experienced during migraine attacks result in avoiding mental and physical activity, allowing brain energy restoration. Chronic exposure to stressors may result in an allostatic overload, leading to maladaptive chronic activation of these responses. In this bio-behavioral perspective, the chronification of migraine should be envisioned as a pathological process, whereas the migraine itself should not.

Conclusion

Migraine has an evolutionary (Darwinian) meaning.
Investigation of tool offset on the microstructure and mechanical properties of AA6061-T6/PC Friction Stir Butt Welding joint
Authors: Sun Yibo , Fu Wenru , Zhang Yuan , Yu Bo , Long Haiwei , Zou Li , Yang Xinhua
Published: December 2023

Conventional friction stir welding (FSW) is mostly applied to lap welding, which is suitable to join metal/polymer materials. In this paper, solid-state friction stir butt welding (FSBW) technology is utilized to bond the sheets with the plates of 2 mm thickness of 6061-T6 aluminum alloy (AA6061-T6) and polycarbonate (PC) in a joint design. The effects of tool offset on the temperature evolution, surface morphology, microstructural characteristics, and mechanical properties of the dissimilar joints are investigated. A sound dissimilar join with the average highest tensile strength of around 14.23 MPa is attained at the offset of 3.5 mm. Microstructural characteristics indicate an effective mechanical interlocking structure (Al anchor). The mixed fragments of polymer and metal are formed with a chaotic interface along the joint line, improving the mechanical properties of welding joints. Furthermore, a novel friction stir V shape butt welding (V-FSBW) is proposed to join dissimilar plates. The maximum tensile strength and improvement rate of the V-FSBW joint compared with conventional FSBW are 18.42 MPa and 29.4%, respectively. Results indicate that the tool offset significantly affects the welding joints, and V-FSBW can effectively increase the mechanical properties of the dissimilar AA6061-T6/PC joints.
Policing Motherhood, Controlling Families: Race, Reproductive Governance, and Trans Women’s Parenting Rights
Authors: Siegel Derek P.
Published: December 2023

Transgender people face multiple challenges to securing and maintaining parenting rights, yet most studies on trans parenthood focus exclusively on trans masculine people’s experiences and feature majority white samples. To address gendered and racialized gaps in knowledge, I conducted 54 semi-structured interviews with trans women in the United States, who parent or wish to parent, across race and class backgrounds. Using the intersectional frameworks of racialized transmisogyny and reproductive governance, I examine the barriers to parenting rights that trans women encounter in adoption and custody disputes. I find that judges and case workers use racist and anti-trans stereotypes when evaluating “parental fitness,” which (1) institutionalizes racialized transmisogyny in the law, (2) increases the regulatory power of legal institutions, and (3) reinforces dominant mothering ideologies. I also discuss how everyday people (i.e., partners and family members) co-construct the legal and symbolic meaning of motherhood, illustrating the centrality of trans reproduction to the policing of trans and other minoritized communities.
Effects of SRSD With Social Skills Prompts on the Writing Skills and Problem Behaviors of Students With Emotional and Behavioral Disorders
Authors: Werunga Robai N. , Lo Ya-yu
Published: December 2023

Teachers of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) often struggle with simultaneously meeting students’ writing and behavioral needs. Building on existing Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) literature, this study investigated the collateral effects of SRSD with social skills prompts on the writing outcomes and problem behavior of students with EBD. In a multiple probe across participants design study, we taught three upper elementary students with EBD opinion writing using the SRSD instructional framework. Outcome measures included the number of genre elements in participants’ written products, the length (i.e., total words written) and quality of written products, and the level of problem behaviors during 20-min observational sessions. Generalization measure involved the use of video prompts to determine the effects of SRSD on students’ overall writing outcomes. Post-SRSD data showed clear increases in the number of genre elements and length of written products for all participants. Additional holistic scoring revealed moderate improvements in the overall quality of written products across participants. Results on students’ problem behavior reduction were inconclusive. Implications for practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Translation, Cultural Adaptation, and Psychometric Validation of the European Portuguese Version of the Iceland-Expressive Family Functioning Questionnaire (ICE-EFFQ)
Authors: Gouveia Maria do Carmo Lemos Vieira , Sveinbjarnardottir Eydis Kristin , Rodrigues Maria João Barreira , Silva Rita Maria Lemos Baptista , Baptista Márcia Sílvia , Henriques Maria Adriana Pereira
Published: December 2023

A family’s experience of mental illness can change the family’s functioning. In clinical contexts, valid and reliable instruments that assess family functioning, therapeutic changes, and the effects of family nursing interventions are needed. This study focuses on the linguistic and cultural adaptation of the Iceland-Expressive Family Functioning Questionnaire (ICE-EFFQ) to European Portuguese and examines the psychometric properties of this instrument. A non-random sample of 121 Portuguese depressed patients and their relatives completed the questionnaire. Principal components analysis extracted 4 factors, explaining 55.58% of the total variance. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed acceptable adjustment quality indices. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was adequate for the global scale α = .86 and for the 4 subscales: communication α = .79, expression of emotions α = .68, problem-solving α = .71, and cooperation α = .61. The Portuguese version of ICE-EFFQ is a sensitive, valid, and reliable instrument for use with Portuguese families with adult members with depression and can be valuable in assessing these families’ expressive functioning, before and after intervention.
Eat, visit, love. World heritage list and geographical indications: Joint acknowledgement and consistency as drivers of tourism attractiveness in Italy
Authors: De Simone Elina , Giua Mara , Vaquero-Piñeiro Cristina
Published: December 2023

This paper investigates the influence of accreditations on tourism demand, namely, World Heritage List (WHL) designations and Geographical Indications (GIs). The analysis examines Italian data at the NUTS3 level spanning from 1999 to 2019. Contribution of the study is two-fold. Firstly, by utilizing a Difference-in-Differences model in conjunction with Propensity Score Matching (PSM-DiD), the study evaluates the impact of jointly recognizing both accreditations as a binary treatment (yes/no). Secondly, by employing Generalised Propensity Score Matching (GPSM) for continuous treatment, the study gauges how the impact of the two accreditations is contingent on the number of recognitions (consistency). These impact assessments concern both domestic and international tourists. Conclusions highlight the positive effects, encompassing tourism arrivals, overnight stays, and tourist expenditures, associated with both the combined recognition (PSM-DiD) and the consistency of accreditation (GPSM). These findings support the implementation of place-based policies promoting diverse local assets, notably cultural heritage and agri-food excellence.
Fire experiment and fire design method of U-shaped steel-concrete composite beams
Authors: Yang Weiqi , Yang Yuanlong , Liu Faqi , Chen Yohchia Frank
Published: December 2023

Four U-shaped steel-concrete composite beams (USCB) were designed and tested under the ISO-834 standard fire curve and distributed vertical load. The research parameters were the load ratio and shear connector form. The temperature distribution, fire resistance, and failure modes of the USCB specimen were investigated. The fire tests showed that the failure mode of the specimen is flexural damage and the connection interface between the flange and web of the composite beam remains intact. The temperature of the fire-resistance reinforcements is below 500°C when the specimens reached the fire resistance, which is in the early stage of material degradation and has high residual strength. The fire resistance increased (improve by 51%) with the decrease of load ratio (0.7 to 0.4) and was not affected by the shear connector form. Then a numerical simulation was applied to establish the temperature field model and fire resistance model of USCB, and the simulation results of the temperature field and fire resistance were in good agreement with the test results. The parameter analysis indicated that the load ratio, the diameter of fire-resistance reinforcement and fire protection layer have an obvious impact on the fire performance. Based on the heat transfer mechanism analysis, the temperature calculation methods for U-shaped steel, fire-resistant reinforcement and concrete were proposed. Moreover, a flexural bearing capacity calculation method for the USCB under the standard temperature rise curve is proposed, which can be applied to calculate fire resistance.
Risk factors for early ostomy complications in emergency and elective colorectal surgery: A single-center retrospective cohort study
Authors: Ayik Cahide , Bişgin Tayfun , Cenan Deniz , Manoğlu Berk , Özden Dilek , Sökmen Selman
Published: December 2023

Background and Aims:

The clinical significance of early ostomy complications has been emphasized worldwide, and the current evidence concerning the impact of emergency or elective surgery on ostomy complications is limited. This study aimed to investigate the effect of elective and emergency colorectal surgery on early ostomy complications and the risk factors associated with specific complications.

Methods:

A mandatory colorectal recording system for consecutive ostomy patients between 2012 and 2020 was reviewed retrospectively. Patient socio-demographics, ostomy-related variables, and early period ostomy complications were retrieved from the patient records. The chi-square test, t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and logistic regression were used to analyze the data.

Results:

The study cohort included 872 patients. At least one or more complications developed in 573 (65.7%) patients, 356 (63.6%) in the emergency group, and 217 (69.6%) in the elective group. When comparing emergency surgery to elective surgery, necrosis (7.4% versus 3.4%, p = 0.009), mucocutaneous separation (37.2% versus 27.1%, p = 0.002), and bleeding (6.1% versus 2.1%, p = 0.003) were more prevalent. Peristomal irritant contact dermatitis (PICD) (37.3% versus 26%, p < 0.001) was more common in elective surgery. Risk factors for PICD were comorbidity (p = 0.003), malignant disease (p = 0.047), and loop ostomy (p < 0.001) in elective surgery; female sex (p = 0.025), neo-adjuvant therapy (p = 0.024), and ileostomy (p = 0.006) in emergency surgery. The height of the ostomy (less than 10 mm) was a modifiable risk factor for mucocutaneous separation in both elective surgery (p < 0.001) and emergency surgery (p = 0.045).

Conclusion:

Early ostomy complications were more likely to occur after emergency colorectal surgery than in an elective setting. Patient- and ostomy-related risk factors for complications differed between elective and emergency surgeries.
Innovative innovation in journalism
Authors: Sixto-García José , López-García Xosé
Published: December 2023

Previous studies over the past 23 years have illustrated how the journalistic field has embraced innovative processes. While some of these processes were fully developed at that time, others were still in the process of development or implementation. An ad hoc analysis sheet was designed using innovation categories, where each item is assigned a score based on the level of innovation, ranging from low to high. This methodological instrument is proposed for the analysis of high innovation in news websites and it is applied to narratives, data journalism, audience involvement, co-creation, verification, ethics, corporate information and content distribution in the most widely consumed news sites across Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and Africa. What is discovered is that there are no more evolved trends in some regions than in others. Nevertheless, European and American sites offer a broader range of options compared to their African and Asian counterparts.
Migrant support volunteer tourism facing crises: Patchwork autoethnographies on Lesvos (Greece)
Authors: Di Matteo Giovanna , Daminelli Luca
Published: December 2023

The island of Lesvos serves as a symbol of migration in the Mediterranean. From 2015 onwards, a steady stream of volunteer tourists began working on the island. Between 2019 and 2022 various ‘crises’ such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the fire at the Moria camp, and the rise of the far right in Greece significantly altered living conditions for both refugees and volunteer workers on the island. The authors employ a comparative patchwork autoethnography to rethink participant observation to fit the pandemic era. Through a situated, relational, and more-than-representational analysis of autoethnographic material and the confrontation between the authors’ experiences, the aim of this paper is to investigate how migrant support volunteer tourism interacts with various simultaneous ‘crises’ ongoing on Lesvos. This led to a reimagining of the way we understand volunteer tourism over its ‘pro vulnerable’ approach.
Conspiracy Everywhere
Authors: Muirhead Russell , Rosenblum Nancy
Published: December 2023

Conspiracy seems to be everywhere, and not only in the United States, where the “rigged election” conspiracy led a US president to reverse the results of a national election. We consider what is distinctive about contemporary conspiracism and argue that the prevalence of fact-free conspiratorial narratives marks a shift from what Hofstadter called the “pedantic” style of conspiracy theory. We show how conspiracism today threatens democratic institutions and sketch how the articles in this volume (on conspiracism) advance our understanding of conspiracy and democracy.
Endovascular Aneurysm Repair Using Physician-Modified Fenestrated Endurant Contralateral Limb for Internal Iliac Artery Preservation
Authors: Tatsuishi Wataru , Shibuya Kei , Konishi Yasunobu , Oi Atsushi , Soda Takashi , Abe Tomonobu
Published: December 2023

Purpose: We developed a novel technique using a physician-modified fenestrated Endurant contralateral limb (Medtronic, Minneapolis, MN, USA) for iliac artery aneurysm repair and to preserve the internal iliac artery blood flow. Technique: To preserve the internal iliac artery, we developed a fenestration reinforced by a hydrogel coil in the Endurant contralateral limb with a preloaded wire. We employed a fenestrated repair approach with a physician-modified Endurant limb, along with the inclusion of Viabahn VBX as a bridging branch. The 0.025-in Radifocus guidewire was preloaded to deliver the sheath from the contralateral side, ensuring a reliable and straightforward cannulation of the internal iliac artery. The procedure was performed in 24 patients with common and/or internal iliac artery aneurysms. In total, 31 branch preservations were performed. The technical success rate was 100%, and no complications were observed after the 1-year follow-up. Conclusions: We believe that our procedure is safe, reliable, and effective in preventing ischemia in the internal iliac region. We believe our technique has the potential to broaden the range of anatomical indications for internal iliac artery-preserving procedures.

Clinical Impact

We developed a novel Endovascular aortic repair technique for internal iliac artery preservation using a physician modified Endurant contralateral limb. This procedure was safe and reliable for preserving internal iliac artery flow in 24 patients with common and internal iliac artery aneurysms. We believe that our technique has the potential to expand the anatomic indications for internal iliac artery preserving procedures.
Use of Photovoice in sub-Saharan Africa: Illustrations and Reflections From Research in Uganda
Authors: McMorrow Shannon , Musoke David
Published: December 2023

Photovoice is a qualitative, participatory research method with great potential for increased use across settings and disciplines in sub-Saharan Africa. The method originated over 30 years ago with two women researchers in reproductive health and has since been used across disciplines in diverse settings globally. Despite its origin within the social and cultural contexts of China in 1992, the method has been used predominantly in settings in the global North and West. There is ample opportunity to employ the method in sub-Saharan African contexts as a powerful, versatile research method. This paper highlights the current use of the photovoice research method in sub-Saharan Africa, with a specific focus on Uganda. We aim to demystify photovoice and advocate for more use of the method as a participatory approach in tackling major current transdisciplinary challenges across the globe. We introduce the method, describe the historical and philosophical underpinnings, illustrate use of the method through two examples of our photovoice research in Uganda, and discuss its challenges and benefits.
Memory studies and design? The mnemotopic approach
Authors: Galasso Clorinda Sissi
Published: December 2023

At the beginning of the fourth wave of memory studies, the relationship with design appears poorly explored, although the memory project is fundamental for the contemporary and interdisciplinary past reframing. From this perspective, the article proposes an intrinsic but not yet evident link between memory studies and communication design for the territory, a young discipline that has taken up the “stratified place” as its own specific dimension, focusing on its valorization and visual translation. This novel connection is highlighted by the mnemotopic approach in which place and memory coexist in a unique meaning formation, supporting the remembrance of the territorial experience. Through a lexical transfer of the term mnemotope, generally used in other fields of knowledge (e.g. cultural anthropology), to design, it becomes a performative concept integrated into processes and artifacts as an active part of project development. The mnemotope as a plural object of territorial interpretation, sailing from Nora’s lieux de memoire, passing through Assmann’s cultural memory reflections, and landing in communication design, can be adopted as an alternative interpretative criterion that not only proposes a resematization of the memory of places but can be considered as a real medium for exploring the past that can also operate on a didactic level by being included in experimental design courses. In this context, the article will show how the mnemotopic approach has been developed during my personal doctoral journey and pedagogically implemented by the DCxT research group of the Design Department of Politecnico di Milano.
Beyond presentism: Memory studies, deep history and the challenges of transmission
Authors: Kennedy Rosanne , Silverstein Ben
Published: December 2023

We take up the challenge to extend the ‘archive of mnemonic practices’ beyond recent histories of violence by facilitating a dialogue between scholarship on deep history and the fourth wave of memory studies, both emerging under the sign of the Anthropocene. In so doing, we engage with the problem of transmission as it has emerged in both fields. Works in cultural memory studies provide us with compelling ways of thinking through mediated practices of transmission, but they are limited by their focus on the recent past and on encultured technologies of memory that primarily reflect the European origins of the field. Studies of deep history, which engage transmission among Indigenous communities, by contrast, tend to rely on an account of transmission as precise replication, oftentimes over hundreds of generations. To reconsider and theorize mediated practices of transmission, we draw on the concept of the deep present as formulated within ethnomusicology. This term describes a present in which Aboriginal culture-work and performance both transmits memory of the deep past and evokes that deep past itself, activating it today. We consider two public installations as examples of remembrance of the deep past in urban Warrane/Sydney – bara by Judy Watson and Virtual Warrane by Brett Leavy – each of which is of Country in a way that connects memory over time and activates a deep present. We argue that these instances of memory in the deep present might offer ways of reconsidering the possibilities of a decolonizing future.
Memori melompat (‘jumping memory’): The mnemonic motion of Indonesian popular culture and the need for a local reframing
Authors: Arps Arnoud
Published: December 2023

The third phase of memory studies is considered to have taken memory into ‘the global age’, yet this article illustrates that in many ways, the nation has since been reinstated within a global context. This article critically scrutinises the idea that memory travels freely and shows that a straightforward mobility of cultural memory does not apply to every local context. In Indonesia, memory travels temporarily, briefly and not far. It therefore suggests more of a jump rather than a journey. As a demonstrative semantic device, the Indonesian term memori melompat (jumping memory) signifies cultural memory formation beyond the West. Nevertheless, the choice of an Indonesian term does not denote a uniqueness to Indonesia, but emphasises instead that Indonesian popular culture about the Indonesian War of Independence is indicative of the need for a local reframing of existing memory concepts to better understand contemporary engagements with the (colonial) past.
Trans theoretical approaches to memory and relatedness: Potentials and suggestions at the intersections of transgender studies and queer studies
Authors: Çalışkan Dilara
Published: December 2023

This article focuses on the question of, Can we study memory and its curious itineraries as spaces of kin-making? By focusing on the stories of trans mothers and trans daughters, this research aims to show how women with trans experiences play with the gendered and sexualized links between body, family, time, and memory. The article is organized into two main sections. The first part focuses on everyday practices and experiences of trans motherhoods and trans daughterhoods to illustrate how memory formation and memory transmission are crucial components in the construction of kin-ties and individual identity. Second, I turn my attention to the literature on transcultural and transgenerational memories, highlighting how scholars working across the fields of memory, kinship, and trans and queer studies enrich the scope of trans*. Engaging with trans* approaches to memory and relatedness, expands and plays with legal, political, and social experiences of spatial and temporal confinement while inviting us to attentively see lived experiences that unapologetically experiment with the links between memory and relatedness.
From dinosaurs to nuclear fallout: Multiple temporalities of scale in memory studies
Authors: Feldberg Olya
Published: December 2023

The purpose of this article is to explore potential avenues for the forthcoming “fourth wave” of memory studies, building upon existing theories of temporality in the field. By focusing on relative duration, particularly short-term versus long-term perspectives, it argues for the differentiation between objects of remembering, such as events and conditions, and modes of remembering, such as commemoration, legacy, and heritage. The article argues that our present moment is characterized by the proliferation of temporalities of various scales and the complex interplay between forms of memory and the scales against which it is constructed. This argument is illustrated by the different forms of the Chernobyl disaster remembering in Russia as well as Putin’s strategic use of historical analogies from the distant past. Finally, the article proposes an agenda for the politics of time, expanding the scope of the “politics of memory” to encompass the social construction of past, present, and future on different scales and their use by existing systems of power.
Towards Amazon-centred memory studies: Borders, dispossessions and massacres
Authors: Messina Marcello , Bento da Silva Francisco , Porto Ribeiro Letícia , de Araújo Souza Jairo
Published: December 2023

In this article, we take Erll’s important categorisation about the three different generations of memory studies scholars as a starting point in order to propose a chronotopical dislocation that envisages Amazonia as the epistemic spatiotemporal centre of our memory studies. In doing so, we account for a pluriverse of social and ethnic conflicts, border tensions, plurilingualisms, intersections of the human with the non-human – both in terms of nature as a sentient, self-determined being and in terms of the violent dehumanisation of racialised individuals and peoples – that point not only to heterogeneous spatial conceptions, but also to hardly conciliable (and yet commonly coexistent) temporalities. Considering both Erll’s mapping of a third generation of ‘transcultural’ memory scholars and Craps’ claims about a new wave of memory studies that goes ‘beyond anthropocentric modes of cognition and representation’, we argue that Amazon-centred memory studies intersect and embrace both these tendencies. After presenting a series of case studies revolving around the complex politics of memory regarding state massacres, contentious border narratives and forceful dispossessions in the region, we try to demonstrate that Amazon-centred memory studies are not exclusively applicable to a local, circumscribed reality – on the contrary, they constitute a model that may help us make sense of other geographical realities (e.g. the Mediterranean or Australia) or function as theoretical tools applicable to different disciplines.
Eosinophilic pericardial effusion and pericarditis in a cat
Authors: Wheatley Meagan Alisa , Shamoun John , Maggi Ricardo , Breitschwerdt Edward B , Sommer Samantha L , Cullen John M , Stowe Devorah Marks
Published: December 2023

Case summary

A 10-year-old domestic shorthair cat presented for lethargy, anorexia and labored breathing. Significant pleural and pericardial effusions prompted thoracocentesis and pericardiocentesis. Cytologic evaluation of the pericardial effusion revealed a highly cellular hemorrhagic, eosinophilic (12%) effusion, with many markedly atypical suspected mesothelial cells, interpreted as concerning for neoplasia. Thoracoscopic subtotal pericardiectomy and histology of the pericardium revealed predominantly eosinophilic inflammation with multifocal mesothelial hypertrophy and ulceration. A peripheral eosinophilia was not present on serial complete blood counts. Initial infectious disease testing was mostly negative. Toxoplasma gondii titers were most consistent with prior exposure, although reactivation could not be excluded. The owner’s medical history included a prior diagnosis of bartonellosis. Owing to the challenges of definitive Bartonella species exclusion, the cat was treated empirically with pradofloxacin and doxycycline, and a subtotal pericardectomy. There was improvement at first but pleural effusion recurred approximately 3 months after discharge. The cat was euthanized and a necropsy was not performed. Subsequent pericardial effusion Piroplasma/Bartonella/Borrelia droplet digital PCR detected DNA of Bartonella vinsonii subspecies berkhoffii, and peripheral blood culture and sequencing revealed a rare apicomplexan organism (90% homology with Colpodella species) of unknown clinical significance. Testing for filamentous bacteria and fungal pathogens was not performed.

Relevance and novel information

This case offers several unique entities – eosinophilic pericardial effusion and eosinophilic pericarditis of unknown etiology – and illustrates the well-known marked atypia that may occur in reactive and hyperplastic mesothelial cells, particularly of infrequently sampled and cytologically described feline pericardial effusion, supporting a cautious interpretation of this cytology finding.
Where are we when the community looks for us? A social network analysis of the self-organized network #TwitterFoodBank
Authors: Hoang Thanh Thi
Published: December 2023

Traditional crisis management approaches have often overlooked the role of community and nonprofit organizations. In this study, we investigated how nonprofits and communities contributed to problem-solving during crises through self-organization on social media. We applied social network analysis to 17,732 interactions using #TwitterFoodBank, a self-organized network emerged during the early stage of COVID-19 to address food insecurity. Our results highlighted the significant role of nonprofits in coordinating the community’s self-organized network. However, they also revealed a lack of coordination among these organizations in maintaining a viable network. These findings have valuable implications for nonprofits seeking to leverage the potential of online self-organized communities in crisis management.
Identifying Discrepancies in Gestational Diabetes Mellitus Postpartum Follow-Up During Care Transitions
Authors: Strelow Brittany , Herndon Justine , Ferrier Alex , McCormick Madysen , McMahon AnneMarie , Schlechtinger Emily , Shefa Deborah , Takagi Mark , McCoy Rozalina , Olson Rachel , O’Laughlin Danielle
Published: December 2023

Background:

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a common complication of pregnancy that carries lasting risks. For women who have a history of GDM, the risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) increases by 50 to 60%. To monitor and prevent the development of T2DM, guidelines suggest screening those with a history of GDM at 6-weeks and 3-years post-delivery. For patients with abnormal lab results at the 6-week mark, it is advised to complete lab work sooner, at the 1-year mark. Data suggests that these guidelines are not being followed globally, and most do not receive adequate screening for T2DM.

Methods:

A retroactive chart review of 203 women between 18 and 55 years old with a past medical history significant for GDM was conducted to determine if patients with GDM completed screening for T2DM at 6-week, 1-year, and 3-year timestamps post-delivery. Patient demographics (age, race, ethnicity, language), clinical characteristics (body mass index), provider gender, and whether prediabetes or T2DM developed were recorded. Patients who did not complete the required follow-up received educational materials via the online portal system, and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) screening tests were ordered.

Results:

Ninety days post-intervention, 38 patients (50%) completed the HbA1c screening test, which exceeded our goal of a 5% improvement. Age and BMI 1-year postpartum were found to be significant factors in whether a patient completed HbA1c screening, with 16/18 (89%) completing screening with a healthy BMI 1-year postpartum (18.5 ≤ BMI < 25.0) but only 11/41 (27%) completing screening for patients under 40 years with an unhealthy BMI 1-year postpartum. Of the 38 patients who completed HbA1c screening, 9 (23.7%) had abnormal screening results.

Conclusion:

Follow-up surveillance for T2DM among women with a history of GDM is poor. Electronic health records can be used to identify and rectify gaps in care. Dissemination of standardized educational materials and electronic order entry for patients improved screening between the handoff from obstetrics to primary care.
Challenging Interactions Between Patients With Severe Health Anxiety and the Healthcare System: A Qualitative Investigation
Authors: Brady Robert E. , Braz Armando N.
Published: December 2023

Objective:

Patients with severe health anxiety have complex interpersonal relationships with medical providers and others in their social context, often resulting in conflictual interactions with providers and perception of poor medical care. An adequate understanding of the causes and consequences of these interactions is lacking, particularly 1 informed by the experience of the patient. This study used qualitative methods to explore the development and maintenance of health anxiety from the perspective of patients with lived experience of coping with health anxiety and their interactions with the healthcare system.

Method:

We conducted qualitative interviews with 11 primary care patients purposely sampled to describe their experience living with health anxiety, provider interactions, and social and family interactions surrounding health and health anxiety. We extracted themes related to living with health anxiety and interactions with providers and other significant relationships.

Results:

Thematic content analysis revealed 5 themes including 3 causal themes, 1 response theme, and 1 theme reflecting factors that mitigate health anxiety. Causal themes included subthemes reflecting predisposing factors of the self, key stimulus events from patient learning history, and maladaptive social interaction factors. The response theme was comprised of 2 subthemes: logical conclusions and health anxiety symptoms. The mitigating factors theme included subthemes of a trusting care relationship and recognition of disconfirming evidence.

Conclusion:

The themes and constituent subthemes identified in this study largely map onto cognitive-behavioral theory of health anxiety, demonstrating alignment between patient experience and theory. The resulting model also identifies potential points of intervention in the developmental and maintenance process. We provide recommendations to maximize those points of intervention.
A Telemedicine Center Reduces the Comprehensive Carbon Footprint in Primary Care: A Monocenter, Retrospective Study
Authors: Schmitz-Grosz Krisztina , Sommer-Meyer Carsten , Berninger Philipp , Weiszflog Elsa , Jungmichel Norbert , Feierabend David , Battegay Edouard
Published: December 2023

Introduction:

Telemedicine reduces greenhouse gas emissions (CO2eq); however, results of studies vary extremely in dependence of the setting. This is the first study to focus on effects of telemedicine on CO2 imprint of primary care.

Methods:

We conducted a comprehensive retrospective study to analyze total CO2eq emissions of kilometers (km) saved by telemedical consultations. We categorized prevented and provoked patient journeys, including pharmacy visits. We calculated CO2eq emission savings through primary care telemedical consultations in comparison to those that would have occurred without telemedicine. We used the comprehensive footprint approach, including all telemedical cases and the CO2eq emissions by the telemedicine center infrastructure. In order to determine the net ratio of CO2eq emissions avoided by the telemedical center, we calculated the emissions associated with the provision of telemedical consultations (including also the total consumption of physicians’ workstations) and subtracted them from the total of avoided CO2eq emissions. Furthermore, we also considered patient cases in our calculation that needed to have an in-person visit after the telemedical consultation. We calculated the savings taking into account the source of the consumed energy (renewable or not).

Results:

433 890 telemedical consultations overall helped save 1 800 391 km in travel. On average, 1 telemedical consultation saved 4.15 km of individual transport and consumed 0.15 kWh. We detected savings in almost every cluster of patients. After subtracting the CO2eq emissions caused by the telemedical center, the data reveal savings of 247.1 net tons of CO2eq emissions in total and of 0.57 kg CO2eq per telemedical consultation. The comprehensive footprint approach thus indicated a reduced footprint due to telemedicine in primary care.

Discussion:

Integrating a telemedical center into the health care system reduces the CO2 footprint of primary care medicine; this is true even in a densely populated country with little use of cars like Switzerland. The insight of this study complements previous studies that focused on narrower aspects of telemedical consultations.
Effects of EFL Learners’ Perceived Social Support on Academic Burnout: The Mediating Role of Interaction Engagement
Authors: Liu Xiaohong , Zhou Mo , Guo Jidong
Published: December 2023

Social support is a significant environmental factor predicting academic burnout, but the underlying mechanism of structural relationship between these two variables needs further verification. Students’ perceived social support in the higher education environment is mainly from their teachers and peers. Taking 352 non-English undergraduates as respondents, this article explored the relationship between EFL learners’ perceived support from their teachers and peers, interaction engagement and academic burnout. Correlation analysis and structural equation modeling were employed to analyze the data collected through an online questionnaire survey. The research results showed that (1) Social support is negatively correlated with academic burnout; (2) Interaction engagement has a negative association with burnout; (3) Social support has a direct positive effect on interaction engagement; (4) Social support, mediated by interaction engagement, has an indirect effect on academic burnout. Understanding the above-mentioned mechanism that learners’ perceived support and interaction engagement influence academic burnout may be helpful for lessening academic burnout and improving performance in EFL leaning.
Factors Influencing Adoption of Pooled Rideshare An Explorative Study on User-Centered Design and Services
Authors: Gangadharaiah Rakesh , Su Haotian , Rosopa Elenah B. , Kolodge MS Kristin , Boor Lisa , Rosopa Patrick J. , Jia Yunyi , Brooks Johnell O.
Published: December 2023

The rise of real-time information communication through smartphones and wireless networks enabled the growth of ridesharing services. While personal rideshare services (individuals ride alone or with people they know) initially dominated the market, the popularity of pooled ridesharing (individuals share rides with strangers) has grown globally. However, pooled rideshare remains less common in the U.S., where personal vehicle usage is still the norm. Vehicle design and rideshare services may need to be tailored to user preferences to increase pooled rideshare adoption. A national U.S. survey ( N = 5,385) used exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to identify four key factors influencing riders’ willingness to consider pooled rideshare: comfort/ease of use, convenience, vehicle technology/accessibility, and passenger safety. Understanding and implementing these user-centered design principles and service-related factors may be critical for increasing the future use of pooled rideshare services in the U.S.
The Alignment Agenda: Examining the Movement to Bridge the Early Childhood and K–12 Sectors
Authors: Little Michael
Published: December 2023

There is a movement to improve alignment between the early childhood and K–12 education sectors, which I term The Alignment Agenda. This qualitative study provides an in-depth description of this agenda through analysis of data from interviews with 25 elites (e.g., state director of early learning) associated with the agenda and associated documents. The analysis focuses on (1) the problems with the status quo that necessitate alignment reform, (2) the nature of proposed alignment reforms, and (3) the challenges and facilitators of advancing the alignment reforms. Understanding how elites associated with the alignment agenda think about the movement, including key features of alignment reforms, has relevance for policy and practice because these individuals are closely—if not directly—involved in the process of policy development and implementation at the local, state, and federal levels. Further, attention to the topic of aligning the early childhood and K–12 education sectors is likely to increase in coming years as proposals for expansion of the early childhood education sector are adopted and implemented.
(HR) Manager in the Hot Seat: An Exercise to Practice Delivering (and Receiving) Performance Feedback
Authors: Johnson Natasha J.
Published: December 2023

Performance conversations are a critical and necessary part of performance management. Feedback is most effective when it is constructive and when it involves a dialogue rather than a monologue, but people often struggle with this skill. This activity includes an experiential exercise that applies a five-part process for performance feedback, appropriate for human resources, conflict management, and/or organizational behavior classes. Students identify performance-based issues, create a plan to address the issues, craft an email to their employee requesting a meeting, meet with and engage in a performance feedback conversation, and develop an improvement plan collaboratively with the employee. “Managers” and “employees” reflect on the effectiveness of the performance conversation. This five-part exercise can be used in an undergraduate- or graduate-level course. Recommendations for adapting the exercise to the online environment are included.
Digital Dilemmas and Exclusion of Marginals: A Trajectory from Paradox of Privacy to Poverty of Privacy
Authors: Ashok Gurram , Veerababu Donthagani
Published: December 2023

This article investigates the competing claims over privacy by the state and civil society as the digital dilemmas arise in the implementation of the Aadhaar Act, 2016 that poses a potential challenge to people’s right to privacy guaranteed under the Indian constitution. The objective is to examine how different sections, especially the marginals such as SC, ST, OBCs, minorities, and women perceive and practice privacy in enrolling for Aadhaar in India. This article has adopted a technique of ‘convenient sampling’ in conducting in-depth discussions with ‘open-ended questions’ during fieldwork in the Telangana state of India. The empirical evidence suggests that demographic factors such as class, caste, gender, and religion influence privacy in India. Further, the interpretation of the informants’ responses, on privacy and Aadhaar, indicates the prevailing ‘poverty of privacy’ rather than the ‘privacy paradox’ among the marginalized sections.
Impact of Informal Online Learning on the Lives of Tribal Women: An Ethnographic Study from Central India
Authors: Acherjee Ananya , Kasi Eswarappa , Hariharan R.
Published: December 2023

Technology has a significant impact on our daily lives. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, we were not adequately aware of the use of technology, either in academia or otherwise. After the pandemic, we have been forced to depend on technology for everything. Tribal women in India are deprived of their social, economic, and political rights. Hence, they are in rampant state of poverty and do not have minimum needs to survive. This prevents them from engaging in traditional learning activities. Despite of these limitations, few of them do possess android phones in order to fulfil their essential need of telephonic engagement with their friends and peers. However, it is through these devices that they can most conveniently engage in informal learning through technology and thus, informal technological learning is highly beneficial to tribal women. The article draws its inferences from both primary and secondary sources of data. The primary data is gathered through a field study among the Gond and Panika tribal women from Lalpur village of Pushprajgarh, Anuppur District of Madhya Pradesh. The village is an adjacent to IGNTU campus. The secondary data is gathered from published and unpublished sources, online materials, and other related literature from magazines, newspapers, and reports of government and non-government agencies. The thrust of the article is to explain the use of technology and its benefits to tribal women in their day-to-day life situations.
Gene Expression Profile Class Change in a Case of Aggressive, Recurrent Melanoma
Authors: Aye Jennifer , Gold Aaron , Rodriguez Belinda , Murray Timothy
Published: December 2023

Purpose: To report a novel case of a recurrent melanoma that had a change in its genetic expression profile (GEP) class over a 2-year period. Methods: This retrospective case study evaluated a patient with a recurrent uveal melanoma that changed classes from 1A to 1B. Results: A large melanoma was first treated with brachytherapy, and during that time genetic testing revealed a class 1A tumor. Two years later the tumor was noted to be enlarging, and the patient elected for enucleation. Subsequent GEP showed a class 1B tumor. Conclusions: An aggressive and large recurrent uveal melanoma that had changed from a class 1A to a class 1B tumor on subsequent GEP testing has never been reported before to our knowledge. It may imply that a recurrent or aggressive tumor has more mutations over time that could lead to a higher risk for metastasis. The natural course of a tumor’s GEP class should be explored further.
Ponesimod-Associated Macular Edema: Onset and Resolution
Authors: Singh Hartej , Patel Kush , Port Alexander
Published: December 2023

Purpose: To present a patient with cystoid macular edema (CME) associated with ponesimod use and offer suggestions for the management of this condition. Methods: A case report is presented. Results: A 75-year-old woman with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis had an unremarkable baseline ophthalmic examination prior to starting ponesimod. At her 9-month follow-up, an examination showed the development of CME in the left eye. The patient’s macular edema fully resolved after transitioning off ponesimod to an alternative systemic medication and starting treatment with a topical corticosteroid and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first case report discussing the entity and management of ponesimod-associated macular edema. Ponesimod cessation and concomitant topical therapy can result in successful resolution of macular edema.