bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Climate Change Communication in South Africa
Authors: Levi Sebastian
Published: November 2021

In South Africa, one of the world’s most carbon-intense economies and a society marked by gross social inequality, climate change is not a popular topic. As of 2018, more than half of the population had never heard of climate change and only one in five South Africans believed that human activities lead to global warming. The communication of climate change in South Africa is influenced by the notorious inequality that the country still suffers decades after the apartheid regime has ended. Few South Africans are able to live a life in prosperity and security on par with life in industrialized nations, more than half of the population are considered poor, almost a third of the population are chronically unemployed, and many work for carbon-intense industries.

The country’s prevalent inequality and its economic dependency on coal influence the way climate change is communicated and interpreted. Environmental NGOs, journalists, and scientists frequently set communication cues on climate change. However, their messages are largely circulated in newspapers catering to an urban and educated readership and resonate less with people living in rural areas or those who rely on employment in the coal and mining sector.

In South Africa, most people hear about climate change in mass media, but journalists frequently lack the resources and training necessary to investigate climate change stories or to interact with local scientists. Environmental NGOs, in contrast, provide easily comprehendible communication cues for unspecialized journalists and often share similar worldviews and demographic backgrounds with dedicated environmental reporters. However, because Black South Africans are underrepresented among environmental journalists and because many affordable local newspapers cannot afford to hire specialized reporters, climate change is covered mostly in high-quality English-language outlets to which most people have no access. Moreover, environmental NGOs are frequently accused of prioritizing abstract ecological concerns, like climate change, over the interests of the South Africans workers, a sentiment that is informed by the country’s history of racial injustice. Counterintuitively, living in a coal area is associated with higher climate change awareness and belief, likely because coal companies and trade unions conduct awareness-raising programs among their workers and because many residents experience the adverse impact of coal mining and combustion firsthand.
The Poliheuristic Theory of Crisis Decision Making and Applied Decision Analysis
Authors: Hakman Inbal , Mintz Alex , Redd Steven B.
Published: November 2021

Poliheuristic theory addresses the “why” and “how” of decision making. It focuses on how decision makers use heuristics en route to choice by addressing both the process and the choice related to the decision task. More specifically, decision makers use a two-stage process wherein a more complicated choice set is reduced to one that is more manageable through the use of these heuristics, or cognitive shortcuts. In the second stage, decision makers are more likely to employ maximizing and analytical strategies in making a choice. Poliheuristic theory also focuses on the political consequences of decision making, arguing that decision makers will refrain from making politically costly decisions.

While poliheuristic theory helps us better understand how decision makers process information and make choices, it does not specifically address how choice sets and decision matrices were created in the first place. Applied decision analysis (ADA) rectifies this shortcoming by focusing on how leaders create particular choice sets and matrices and then how they arrive at a choice. It does so by first identifying the decision maker’s choice set or decision matrix; that is, the alternatives or options available to choose from as well as the criteria or dimensions upon which the options will be evaluated. ADA then focuses on uncovering the decision maker’s decision code through the use of multiple decision models.

Combining poliheuristic theory with ADA allows researchers to more fully explain decision making in general and crisis decision making in particular. An application of poliheuristic theory and ADA to decision making pertaining to the Fukushima nuclear disaster reveals that even in this high-stress crisis environment decision makers followed the two-stage process as predicted by poliheuristic theory. More specifically, in the first stage, decision makers simplified the decision task by resorting to cognitive heuristics (i.e., decision making shortcuts) to eliminate politically damaging alternatives such as voluntary evacuation. In the second stage, decision makers conducted a more analytical evaluation of the compulsory evacuation options.
Autonomic Regulation of Kidney Function
Authors: Abdulla Mohammed H. , Johns Edward J.
Published: November 2021

A potential role for the renal innervation was first described in 1859 by Claude Bernard, who observed an increase in urine flow following section of the greater splanchnic nerve, which included the renal nerves. Subsequent studies provided little further clarity, leading Homer Smith in 1951 to declare that the renal innervation had little or no significance in controlling kidney hemodynamic or excretory function. However, since the 1960s, there has been increased attention to how the renal nerves may contribute to the deranged control of blood pressure and heart function cardiovascular diseases.

The efferent (sympathetic) nerves have neuroeffector junctions which provide close contact with all vascular and tubular elements of the kidney. Activation of the sympathetic nerves at the resistance vessels, that is, the interlobular arteries afferent and even arterioles, modulates both renal blood flow and glomerular filtration rate; at the juxtaglomerular granular cells, they cause renin release and subsequent angiotensin II generation, and at the tubules there is a neurally stimulated increase in epithelial cell sodium transport. Less is known of the role of the afferent nerves, which primarily innervate the renal pelvis, and to a lesser degree the cortex and medulla. Their role is uncertain but sensory information passing to the brain can influence renal efferent nerve activity, forming the basis of both inhibitory and excitatory reno-renal reflexes. Increasingly, it is perceived that in a range of cardiovascular diseases such as cardiac failure, chronic renal disease, and hypertension, there is an inappropriate sympatho-excitation related to alterations in afferent renal nerve activity, which exacerbates the disease progression. The importance of the renal innervation in these disease processes has been emphasized in clinical studies where renal denervation in humans has been found to reduce blood pressure in resistant hypertensive patients and to ameliorate the progression of cardiac and kidney diseases, diabetes, and obesity and hypertension. The importance of both systemic and renal inflammatory responses in activating the neurohumoral control of the kidney is a continuing source of investigation.
Education Policies in Argentina
Authors: Feldfeber Myriam
Published: November 2021

Argentina is a federal country that has 24 jurisdictions with relative autonomy to define their own policies and manage schools inside their territories; it is the responsibility of the federal government to establish national policies and coordinate and monitor their implementation in the national territory. Since the beginning of the 21st century, there have been national policies promoted by governments of different political natures: On the one side, the Kirchnerist governments from 2003 to 2015, within the framework of the so-called post-neoliberalism in Latin America. On the other side, the government of the Alianza Cambiemos 2015–2019 was an exponent of the conservative restorations in the area. The education policies implemented by these governments are rooted in divergent conceptions about the meaning of education, about rights, and about the responsibility of the nation to create the conditions within which rights can be actualized. Policies based on a conception of education as a social right are confronted with those old and new trends towards privatization and mercantilization of education, whose goal is to have education satisfy market demands.
The Interpretation of “Local” Literacy Practices through Ethnography
Authors: Pahl Kate , Rasool Zanib
Published: November 2021

Ethnography is a practice of inscribing local practice into texts, developed in the context of social anthropology. Local literacy practices often remain hidden, dependent on context and shaped by histories and cultures. Literacy is entwined with how lives are lived. Collaborative ethnography enables an approach that permits researchers to collaboratively develop research questions with participants and, rather than researching on people, researchers work with people as coresearchers. Local literacy practices are situated in homes and communities as well as within everyday contexts such as markets and mosques. Community literacy practices can be collaboratively understood and studied using this approach. Communities experience and practice diverse and multiple literacies, both locally and transnationally, and mapping this diversity is key to an understanding of the fluid and changing nature of literacies. Literacies can be understood as being multilingual, digital, transnational, and multimodal, thus expanding the concept of literacy as lived within communities. Threaded through this analysis is a discussion of power and whose literacy practices are seen as powerful within community contexts. Collaborative ethnography is a powerful methodology to excavate and co-analyze community literacy practices. Other methods that can explore local literacies include visual and sensory ethnography. Power sharing in terms of the design and architecture of the research is important for hearing voices and working equitably. There are many concepts introduced within, including the idea of literacy practices, the link between literacy and identity, the importance of an understanding of multilingualism, and the importance of situating literacy in communities.
Patterns, Trends, Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities in the Internationalization of Chinese Higher Education
Authors: Rong Xue Lan , Wang Shuguang
Published: November 2021

A theoretical model of positioned, positioning, and repositioning is used to conceptualize the evolving process of the internationalization of Chinese higher education and answer the following three questions: (a) How have the quantitative trends of Chinese students studying abroad and international students studying in China changed over the past 30 years? (b) What are the differences between Chinese students studying abroad and international students studying in China in recent years, in terms of the host and sending countries, the level of study, and the fields of study, and what do the differences mean when compared to those in other countries? (c) What are the challenges, opportunities, and strategies in the years to come? To answer the first question, a compilation of descriptive quantitative data is used from numerous large national and international data sources, which reports a long-term upward trend (with some fluctuations) of inbound international students in China and outbound Chinese international students around the world over the past 30 years. To answer the second question, using general international mobile student profiles for context, data were compared of inbound international students in China and the United States in terms of both level of study and field of study. These revealed imbalanced patterns: Chinese outbound students are more likely to be in certain fields (e.g., STEM, business) and at graduate levels, but international students in China are more likely to be undergraduate students and non-degreed students in the humanities and language studies. Based on the data for the first two questions, the issues are synthesized in order to present the opportunities and challenges regarding the continuation of China’s internationalization of its higher education, especially with respect to inbound international students. In terms of issues and opportunities, economic and other impacts (such as political, financial, and pandemic related) are highlighted and call China’s attention to maintaining and expanding the strengths of its higher education system while considering competition from neighboring countries. Six major challenges are identified in this area, and suggestions are provided.
Positive School Leadership Behaviors
Authors: Murphy Joseph , Louis Karen Seashore , Smylie Mark
Published: November 2021

To introduce and define the core behaviors of positive school leadership (PSL), we explore six positively anchored sets of work (supporting, developing relationships, establishing values, acting authentically, modeling, and enabling or empowering) that move us beyond the deeply ingrained negative and deficit roots that have defined schooling for over a century. The exploration of research primarily on positive organizational scholarship (POS) accomplishes this, showing that POS attends to the growth of others and helps grow and reinforce relationships that focus on personalization, trust, and caring. Additionally, PSL produces important outcomes, enhancing the cultural climate in schools in particular; however, it is also important to note that the current structure and culture of schooling create significant barriers to the implementation of PSL.
May 1968 in Africa: Revolt in Dakar
Authors: Gueye Omar
Published: November 2021

As in a number of other continents, Africa experienced a wave of student and union protests in May 1968. One of its epicenters was in Senegal, based at the University of Dakar, also known as the “eighteenth French university,” where students from France and almost all Francophone Africa were directed. The events of May 1968 in Senegal were primarily caused by local factors, although similarities with the global youth protest movement can also be found. Initially ignited by a student revolt over the conditions of scholarships, the movement spread to high school students and workers’ unions, gaining the support of the working classes, while the party-state relied on the army’s loyalty as well as the support of marabouts, the Muslim leaders. This in turn expanded the crisis, first from Dakar to other parts of the country, then from Senegal to the native countries of the students who had been arrested and expelled after the university campus had been stormed by the police. At the crossroads between an escalating student strike, a student movement infiltrated by political opposition or foreign influence, a rebellion against neocolonialism, as well as a sense of weariness due to difficult social and economic circumstances, May 1968 in Senegal resembled a protest against the personal power of President Senghor as well as a demonstration led by young people who, like their counterparts abroad, wanted to change the world. The national crisis, in a context of international turmoil and in interaction with global issues, ended on September 26, when the four-month high school strikes satisfactorily ended.
Business Cycles and Apprenticeships
Authors: Muehlemann Samuel , Wolter Stefan
Published: November 2021

The economic reasons why firms engage in apprenticeship training are twofold. First, apprenticeship training is a potentially cost-effective strategy for filling a firm’s future vacancies, particularly if skilled labor on the external labor market is scarce. Second, apprentices can be cost-effective substitutes for other types of labor in the current production process. As current and expected business and labor market conditions determine a firm’s expected work volume and thus its future demand for skilled labor, they are potentially important drivers of a firm’s training decisions.

Empirical studies have found that the business cycle affects apprenticeship markets. However, while the economic magnitude of these effects is moderate on average, there is substantial heterogeneity across countries, even among those that at first sight seem very similar in terms of their apprenticeship systems. Moreover, identification of business cycle effects is a difficult task. First, statistics on apprenticeship markets are often less developed than labor market statistics, making empirical analyses of demand and supply impossible in many cases. In particular, data about unfilled apprenticeship vacancies and unsuccessful applicants are paramount for assessing potential market failures and analyzing the extent to which business cycle fluctuations may amplify imbalances in apprenticeship markets. Second, the intensity of business cycle effects on apprenticeship markets is not completely exogenous, as governments typically undertake a variety of measures, which differ across countries and may change over time, to reduce the adverse effects of economic downturns on apprenticeship markets. During the economic crisis related to the COVID-19 global pandemic, many countries took unprecedented actions to support their economies in general and reacted swiftly to introduce measures such as the provision of financial subsidies for training firms or the establishment of apprenticeship task forces. As statistics on apprenticeship markets improve over time, such heterogeneity in policy measures should be exploited to improve our understanding of the business cycle and its relationship with apprenticeships.
Corporations, Health, and Global Politics
Authors: Freudenberg Nicholas
Published: November 2021

Since the mid-20 century, corporations have gained increasing political and economic power to shape the living conditions, lifestyles, governance processes, and environmental exposures that determine global patterns of health and disease. Globalization, the growth of the financial sector, deregulation, and increasing corporate control of science and technology have provided corporations with new power to influence the mechanisms that determine human and planetary health. A growing body of public health and social science scholarship analyzes how corporate use of this economic and political power has become a fundamental determinant of the most serious health crises facing the world. In response, governments, civil society groups and social movements have developed new strategies to challenge corporate power to shape global health governance, protect public health, and reduce health inequities.
Post-Hegemonic Regionalism
Authors: Riggirozzi Pía , Tussie Diana
Published: November 2021

The concept of post-hegemonic regionalism describes the scenario that has characterized Latin American regionalism in the last two decades. It first builds from Amitav Acharya’s work, in which he envisaged the end of United States hegemony and a world order of multiple leadership and power competitions, a scenario that he calls a “multiplex world.” To a large extent, post-hegemonic regionalism grew at odds with U.S. regional and hemispheric ambitions of market-led governance and in a context of weakened U.S. hegemony in Latin America. As a concept, denotes the region as a political space in which transborder governance is anchored in a new consensus about what cooperation and diplomacy is and is for, giving way to a reorganization of the regional scenario and the emergence of diverse efforts in new areas of cooperation. With this in mind, post-hegemonic regionalism is both a theory-based concept, contributing to a debate and a research agenda that branched out in the study of southern regionalism, as much as a manifestation of governance that re-signified and valued the regional space as one of action and contestation.
Cultural Heritage and Conflict in Africa
Authors: Ndoro Webber
Published: November 2021

Throughout history the continent of Africa has witnessed major conflicts and wars. Most of these conflicts have wreaked havoc in people’s lives and their socio-economic well-being. The nature of conflict on the continent has both indigenous and exogenous origins. Past colonial wars of occupation and the subsequent occupations generated conflicts and wars of its own. These led to the creation of what the so-called modern states that exist in Africa. Most of these creations by colonial powers were designed to serve their own interest. However, the wars and movements of independence also generated conflicts of their own. The modern states created during the colonial days are also the root cause of some of the conflicts today in Africa. The world conflicts during the Cold War also generated Africa’s own conflicts. The rise of extreme religious movements like Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), and their affiliates have taken advantage of the fragile states of Africa to cause destruction in the continent. All these conflicts have had an impact on the heritage of Africa and in some instances generated its own places of commemoration and remembrance.

With the creation of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s World Heritage Convention in 1972 and its efforts to protect heritage places, Africa has registered some of the places of remembrance and commemoration to the prestigious World Heritage list. Some of the sites registered are a result of conflict. But what concerns UNESCO is the management of the sites on its World Heritage list. Thirteen of these sites from the continent are on the danger list, largely due to the conflicts ravaging Africa. Through the 1954 Hague Convention, UNESCO has tried to ensure that African state parties adhere to the norms of protecting heritage in the event of a war or conflict between nations. Unfortunately most conflicts in Africa are not between conventional armies but largely internal through guerrilla warfare, thus limiting the application of the 1954 Convention.

Some of the conflicts in Africa that have had an impact on heritage have attracted attention from major powers in the world. For example, the conflict in Libya has had countries such as Italy, the United States, and France interested in protecting the heritage places there. In the same vain France has been attracted to the conflict in Mali, which threatens the famous sites of Timbuktu among others. In all these UNESCO has played a part in highlighting the need to protect heritage and in the case of Mali even successfully enlisted the International Court of Justice to prosecute the perpetrators of these attacks on heritage. In some cases, like in Nigeria with the Boko Haram attacks on the world heritage site of Sukur Cultural Landscape, there has been a deafening silence from either UNESCO or any other international organization or country.
Indigenous Anthropology
Authors: Perley Bernard
Published: November 2021

Indigenous anthropology is an emergent praxis of Indigenous knowledge production that can be vaguely translated and tentatively identified as approximating anthropological enquiry in the Western sense of the social science. The decolonizing practices by Indigenous scholars have outlined contours of critical Indigenous praxis that seek to liberate Indigenous communities from colonial and settler hegemonies of knowledge production, dissemination of knowledges, and the ongoing constraints colonial systems of systemic racism have imposed on Indigenous peoples as a global phenomenon. The growing call for a world anthropology inadvertently imposes an uncritical ventriloquism on Indigenous peoples who are attempting to contribute to the discipline of anthropology from the situated perspectives of diverse Indigenous communities.

The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) provided a catalyzing moment for a global Indigeneity that brings the diverse experiences together for mutual consultation and strategic planning. Indigeneity as a global phenomenon also creates the potential for the discipline of anthropology to shed its colonial roots and consider the prospects for a vibrant anthropology that truly reflects a shared human experience and does not privilege one knowledge over another.
White Workers and the American Civil War
Authors: Zonderman David A.
Published: November 2021

From the firing on Fort Sumter in April 1861 until the Confederacy surrendered in the spring of 1865, workers—North and South—labored long hours under often trying conditions at wages that rarely kept pace with wartime inflation. Though many workers initially voiced skepticism of plans for sundering the nation, once Southern states seceded most workers rallied round their rival flags and pledged to support their respective war efforts. The growing demand for war material opened employment opportunities for women and men, girls and boys, across the Union and Confederacy. Yet workers were not always satisfied with a job and appeals to back the boys in blue and gray without question. They often resisted changes pressed on them in the workplace—new technology, military discipline, unskilled newcomers—as well as wages that always lagged behind rising prices. Protests and strikes began in 1861 and increased in number and intensity from 1863 to the war’s conclusion. Labor unions, in decline since the depression of 1857, sprung back to life, especially in the war’s later years. Employers sometimes countered their employees’ increasing organization and resistance with industry associations that tried to break strikes and blacklist those who walked off their jobs. While worker discontent and resentment of “a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight” were common across the sectional divide, Northern workers exercised greater coordination of their resistance through citywide trade assemblies, national trade unions, traveling organizers, and labor newspapers. Southern workers tended to fight their labor battles in isolation from shop to shop and town to town, so they rarely built a broader labor movement that could survive the hardships of the postwar era.
Red Summer and Early 20th-Century Race Massacres
Authors: Collins Ann V.
Published: November 2021

Between the turbulent months of April and October 1919, racial violence reached a peak in the United States. Some twenty-six white-on-black massacres took place across the country. Author and civil rights activist James Weldon Johnson dubbed this terrible period the Red Summer as a way to characterize pervasive racial hostility and for the blood spilled in its wake. Yet, racial violence has had a long and painful history in the United States. From the moment enslaved Africans arrived in the New World, whites strove cruelly and systematically to maintain power and control over their bodies and labor. Indeed, many interactions between ostensible racial groups have centered on white hostility. A type of brutality that proved especially vicious took the shape of white-on-black race massacres. First appearing in the early 19th century and fading by the end of World War II, whites used these types of disturbances to deny African Americans progress and freedom. Destruction of black communities, massive bloodshed, and lynchings characterized these occurrences. The early 20th century, and particularly the Red Summer, marked a critical moment in the history of race relations of the United States—one that proved deadly to African Americans.
Khoja Isma’ilis in Canada and the United States
Authors: Karim Karim H.
Published: November 2021

Khojas constitute the predominant group in the Shi’a Nizari Isma’ili movement of Islam, globally and in North America. They are of South Asian ethnicities and belong to the 700-year old Satpanth tradition. Other groups attached to the movement are indigenous to Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and China. Khojas have led them in the formation of a diaspora spanning Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, and Australasia. This transnational religious collectivity holds Aga Khan IV, who ascended to leadership in 1957, to be its Imam in lineal descent from ‘Ali ibn ‘Abi Talib and Fatima, the Prophet Muhammad’s daughter. He has established a “Seat of the Imamat” (also designated a “Diwan”) in Lisbon, Portugal, and he resides in France, from where he provides religious and worldly guidance to followers around the world. The Imam appoints the leaders of the system of councils that govern the jamats (communities) in various countries. His non-denominational Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), which operates social, economic, and cultural programs, has become one of the world’s largest non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Elite Khoja families, particularly those of East African provenance, tend to dominate the leadership of the Imam’s institutions. They also have hegemony in the Canadian and American self-governance structures. As a group, Khojas are the wealthiest and most educated in the movement, offering substantial funding as well as professional and voluntary services to the Aga Khan’s institutional infrastructure. Their North American ranks provide a steady stream of monetary, physical, and intellectual resources for the Imam’s transnational programs.

However, a paradox lies at the heart of the movement. The Satpanth tradition and Khoja cultural identity has been in the process of marginalization since the early 20th century. A steady effort has sought to eliminate what are perceived to be “Hindu” aspects of the Khojas’ religious and cultural heritage. The movement’s research, educational and cultural bodies give minimal attention to Satpanth. An essentialized Isma’ili Muslim identity is favored over what was, since the movement’s earliest days, a pluralist pursuit of universal truth.
Buddhist Missionaries
Authors: Schedneck Brooke
Published: November 2021

Buddhists missionize in distinct ways by building on historical models, such as a concern with bringing knowledge and spreading teachings, as opposed to formal conversion and renunciation of previous religious beliefs. Academic scholarship tends to treat Buddhist missionization as a historical phenomenon. Yet it continues to be an important component of the tradition for Buddhists in the 21st century, motivating them to travel to spread the Buddha’s teachings to those who demonstrate curiosity. Because of Buddhists’ interest in conveying the dharma, they have often aligned the teachings with modern discourses, resulting in what scholars have called modern Buddhism. Buddhist missionaries have also argued that the dharma fits within contexts of social justice, which has been labeled engaged Buddhism. Examples of missionaries from East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the West, and world-famous monks such as the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh, demonstrate spreading the teachings is a major motivation. These figures formulate their message in modern or socially engaged frameworks, but the root of their activity is missionizing. The main message of contemporary Buddhist missionaries is that Buddhism is open and welcoming to everyone, one does not have to convert to practice within Buddhism, and the Buddhist teachings apply to everyone.
Mexico–Canada Economic Relations during the NAFTA Era
Authors: Zepeda Roberto
Published: November 2021

Canada is Mexico’s third largest trading partner in terms of the overall bilateral trade, and both countries have become strategic allies during the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) era, between 1994 and 2020. Canada, Mexico, and the United States have been members of the NAFTA since 1994. For both Canada and Mexico, the United States is their first trading partner, in terms of exports, imports, and foreign direct investment. NAFTA has paved the way for economic integration between Canada and Mexico during the period of this agreement. It is significant to highlight the notable expansion of Mexico’s exports to Canada, but also of Canada’s investment in Mexico. From a subnational perspective, the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, and Alberta are among Mexico’s most important trading partners. Economic relations between Mexico and Canada has also facilitated international cooperation from subnational governments and important interchanges in education, science, culture, and environment. Quebec is the only Canadian province with a general delegation in Mexico and representations in several subnational states. The Canadian province of Saskatchewan has established important agreements in education with government agencies and universities in Mexico. Relations between Mexico and Canada have strengthened during the NAFTA era. Not only central governments but also subnational governments define the characteristics and dynamics of this relation.
Gender Mainstreaming and Climate Change
Authors: Alston Margaret
Published: November 2021

Women and girls are disproportionately impacted by climate change, not because of innate characteristics but as a result of the social structures and cultural norms that shape gender inequalities. Feminist activists and transnational organizations continue to voice their concerns regarding the need for greater attention to gender inequalities in the context of climate change. Gender mainstreaming is a policy process designed to address the gendered consequences of any planned actions—the ultimate aim being to achieve gender equality. Gender mainstreaming emerged in the late 1990s at the Beijing Women’s Conference as a result of the frustrations of feminist activists and international nongovernmental organizations about the lack of attention to gender equality. Yet its implementation has been hampered both by a lack of vision as to its purpose and by ongoing tensions, particularly between those who espouse equality and those who support the mainstream. This has led to resistance to gender mainstreaming within departments and units that are charged with its implementation, and indeed a reluctance of key players to commit to gender equality. Yet there is still strong support for the original feminist intent from activists and researchers addressing the impacts of climate change. The transformational potential of gender mainstreaming is still viewed as a process that could address and challenge gender inequalities in the context of increasing climate challenges. However, there are barriers that must be overcome for the transformational potential of gender mainstreaming to be realized. These include equating climate justice with gender justice, ensuring that the radical feminist intent of gender mainstreaming is not co-opted by the neoliberal agenda of maximizing economic development over gender equality and women’s empowerment, and ensuring that organizations tasked with facilitating gender mainstreaming not only understand its intent but also address gender inequalities within their own organizational structures and practices.
Organizational Wellness
Authors: Grise-Owens Erlene , Miller J. Jay , Owens Larry W.
Published: November 2021

The profession of social work increasingly experiences the damaging impact of professional burnout, staff turnover, and compromised services. Organizational wellness involves planful efforts to address these concerns and promote employee well-being. A rationale for organizational wellness is articulated, including its value for social work. The evolving paradigm of a holistic, systemic approach to organizational wellness is then discussed. Next, how social work is ideally situated to lead organizational wellness efforts is detailed as an arena of macro practice and as providing a framework for designing and developing an organizational wellness culture. Using social work competencies, social workers can use this framework to provide leadership in conceptualizing, planning, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining organizational wellness. Further critical considerations underscore how this leadership promotes the profession’s mission, supports the profession’s viability, and establishes a vital arena for ongoing macro practice.
Futures Thinking
Authors: Nissen Laura Burney
Published: November 2021

Macro social work has a long tradition of emphasizing planning. This array of practices typically looks at important intersections of community needs, resources, policies, and well-being—all of which combine to reflect, guide, and support the aspirations of groups, organizations, and communities. Futures thinking and foresight practice are an important emerging, but underutilized, set of ideas and tools available to macro-level social work practitioners and scholars to better navigate rapidly changing practice ecosystems. They have the ability to update and multiply traditional planning approaches. Futures thinking and foresight practice can have applications in numerous areas of practice, including (a) equity practice, (b) community practice, (c) organizational practice, and (d) government/policy practice. Social work ethics is likely to continue adapting to the changing world.
The Functions of American Literary Criticism in the Present Moment: A Literary Historical Memoir
Authors: LeMenager Stephanie
Published: November 2021

The author traces her development as a scholar of the environmental humanities at the intersection of US/American, postcolonial, and decolonial studies in order to pursue the question of the function of American literary criticism in the present moment. This critical memoir presumes that any contemplation of disciplinary methods or futures reflects a politics of location, and it attempts to craft a site-specific reflection on methods.
Network-based integrative analysis of single-cell transcriptomic and epigenomic data for cell types
Authors: Wu Wenming , Zhang Wensheng , Ma Xiaoke
Published: November 2021

Advances in single-cell biotechnologies simultaneously generate the transcriptomic and epigenomic profiles at cell levels, providing an opportunity for investigating cell fates. Although great efforts have been devoted to either of them, the integrative analysis of single-cell multi-omics data is really limited because of the heterogeneity, noises and sparsity of single-cell profiles. In this study, a network-based integrative clustering algorithm (aka NIC) is present for the identification of cell types by fusing the parallel single-cell transcriptomic (scRNA-seq) and epigenomic profiles (scATAC-seq or DNA methylation). To avoid heterogeneity of multi-omics data, NIC automatically learns the cell–cell similarity graphs, which transforms the fusion of multi-omics data into the analysis of multiple networks. Then, NIC employs joint non-negative matrix factorization to learn the shared features of cells by exploiting the structure of learned cell–cell similarity networks, providing a better way to characterize the features of cells. The graph learning and integrative analysis procedures are jointly formulated as an optimization problem, and then the update rules are derived. Thirteen single-cell multi-omics datasets from various tissues and organisms are adopted to validate the performance of NIC, and the experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art methods in terms of various measurements. The proposed algorithm provides an effective strategy for the integrative analysis of single-cell multi-omics data (The software is coded using Matlab, and is freely available for academic https://github.com/xkmaxidian/NIC ).
Efficacy and safety of a dual-scan protocol for carbon dioxide laser in the treatment of split-thickness skin graft contraction in a red Duroc pig model
Authors: Li Jie , Ng Sally Kiu-Huen , Xi Wenjing , Zhang Zheng , Wang Xiaodian , Li Hua , Su Weijie , Wang Jingyan , Zhang Yixin
Published: November 2021

Background

Fractional CO2 laser plays an important role in scar management post split-thickness skin graft by loosening the graft contracture and restoring the smoothness of the surface. However, the optimal treatment protocol remains unknown. This study applied a dual-scan protocol to achieve both releasing and ablation of contracted skin graft. We comprehensively describe this treatment method and compare the efficacy and safety between this dual-scan method and the conventional mono-scan mode.

Methods

A hypercontracted scar model after split-thickness skin grafting in red Duroc pigs was established. All scars meeting the inclusion criteria were randomly divided into four groups: high fluence–low density (HF–LD), low fluence–high density (LF–HD), combined group and control group. The energy per unit area was similar in the HF–LD and LF–HD groups. Two laser interventions were performed at a 6-week interval. The efficacy of the treatment was evaluated by objective measures of scar area, release rate, elasticity, thickness and flatness, while the safety was evaluated based on adverse reactions and melanin index. Collagen structure was observed histologically. The animals were followed up for a maximum of 126 days after modeling.

Results

A total of 28 contracted scars were included, 7 in each group. At 18 weeks postoperatively, the HF–LD and the combined groups showed significantly increased scar release rate (p = 0.000) and elasticity (p = 0.036) and decreased type I/III collagen ratio (p = 0.002) compared with the control and LF–HD groups. In terms of flatness, the combined group was significantly better than the HF–LD group for elevations <1 mm (p = 0.019). No significant skin side effects, pigmentation or scar thickness changes were observed at 18 weeks.

Conclusions

Dual-scan protocol could achieve superficial ablation and deep release of contracted split-thickness skin graft in a single treatment, with similar contraction release and texture improvement compared to a single deep scan. Its main advantage is to restore a smoother scar appearance. Adequate laser penetration was necessary for the release of contracted scars.
Efficacy of Pharmacological Agents for Ulcerative Proctitis: A Systematic Literature Review
Authors: Caron Bénédicte , Sandborn William J , Panaccione Remo , Schreiber Stefan , Hart Ailsa , Solitano Virginia , Danese Silvio , Peyrin-Biroulet Laurent
Published: November 2021

Background

Ulcerative proctitis is a common and often highly symptomatic form of inflammatory bowel disease. We performed a systematic review to assess the efficacy of different therapies in the management of patients with ulcerative proctitis.

Methods

We identified randomized controlled trials in adults with ulcerative proctitis treated with oral or topical therapies for induction of response or remission, or prevention of relapse.

Results

A total of 32 randomized controlled trials were included [27 induction/2839 participants, five maintenance/334 participants]. Follow-up varied from 3 to 8 weeks for induction, and from 6 to 24 months for maintenance of remission. 5-Aminosalicylic acid [5-ASA] suppository was the most frequently evaluated treatment [14/32, 43.7%], followed by steroid enema [7/32, 21.9%]. Topical 5-ASA demonstrated effectiveness for induction of clinical response or remission and prevention of relapse in several studies. Combined topical steroids and 5-ASA was more effective than topical 5-ASA or topical steroids alone to induce response [100% of patients for combination vs 70% for beclomethasone alone and 76% for 5-ASA alone]. One observational study suggested azathioprine may be effective in patients with ulcerative proctitis. Only two cohort studies evaluated the efficacy of tumour necrosis factor inhibitors in ulcerative proctitis. Small molecules, anti-integrins and anti-interleukin therapies have not been evaluated in isolated ulcerative proctitis.

Conclusion

The role of topical 5-ASA as a treatment for ulcerative proctitis has been confirmed in this systematic literature review, for induction and maintenance of remission. Future trials are needed to investigate the efficacy of more recent and upcoming drug classes in patients with ulcerative proctitis.
18F-flurpiridaz positron emission tomography segmental and territory myocardial blood flow metrics: incremental value beyond perfusion for coronary artery disease categorization
Authors: Packard René R Sevag , Votaw John R , Cooke C David , Van Train Kenneth F , Garcia Ernest V , Maddahi Jamshid
Published: November 2021

Aims

We determined the feasibility and diagnostic performance of segmental 18F-flurpiridaz myocardial blood flow (MBF) measurement by positron emission tomography (PET) compared with the standard territory method, and assessed whether flow metrics provide incremental diagnostic value beyond relative perfusion quantitation (PQ).

Methods and results

All evaluable pharmacological stress patients from the Phase III trial of 18F-flurpiridaz were included (n = 245) and blinded flow metrics obtained. For each coronary territory, the segmental flow metric was defined as the lowest 17-segment stress MBF (SMBF), myocardial flow reserve (MFR), or relative flow reserve (RFR) value. Diagnostic performances of segmental and territory MBF metrics were compared by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) areas under the curve (AUC). A multiple logistic model was used to evaluate whether flow metrics provided incremental diagnostic value beyond PQ alone. The diagnostic performances of segmental flow metrics were higher than their territory counterparts; SMBF AUC = 0.761 vs. 0.737; MFR AUC = 0.699 vs. 0.676; and RFR AUC = 0.716 vs. 0.635, respectively (P < 0.001 for all). Similar results were obtained for per-vessel coronary artery disease (CAD) ≥70% stenosis categorization and per-patient analyses. Combinatorial analyses revealed that only SMBF significantly improved the diagnostic performance of PQ in CAD ≥50% stenoses, with PQ AUC = 0.730, PQ + segmental SMBF AUC = 0.782 (P < 0.01), and PQ + territory SMBF AUC = 0.771 (P < 0.05). No flow metric improved diagnostic performance when combined with PQ in CAD ≥70% stenoses.

Conclusion

Assessment of segmental MBF metrics with 18F-flurpiridaz is feasible and improves flow-based epicardial CAD detection. When combined with PQ, only SMBF provides additive diagnostic performance in moderate CAD.
Prediction of post-radiotherapy survival for bone metastases: a comparison of the 3-variable number of risk factors model with the new Katagiri scoring system
Authors: Sakurai Takayuki , Takamatsu Shigeyuki , Shimoyachi Nana , Shibata Satoshi , Makino Mikoto , Ohashi Shizuko , Taima Yoko , Minamikawa Risako , Kumano Tomoyasu , Gabata Toshifumi
Published: November 2021

We investigated patient survival after palliative radiotherapy for bone metastases while comparing the prognostic accuracies of the 3-variable number of risk factors (NRF) model and the new Katagiri scoring system (Katagiri score). Overall, 485 patients who received radiotherapy for bone metastases were grouped as per the NRF model (groups I, II and III) and Katagiri score (low-, intermediate- and high-risk). Survival was compared using the log-rank or log-rank trend test. Independent prognostic factors were identified using multivariate Cox regression analyses (MCRA). MCRA and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to compare both models’ accuracy. For the 376 evaluable patients, the overall survival (OS) rates decreased significantly in the higher-tier groups of both models (P < 0.001). All evaluated factors except ‘previous chemotherapy status’ differed significantly between groups. Both models exhibited independent predictive power (P < 0.001). Per NRF model, hazard ratios (HRs) were 1.44 (P = 0.099) and 2.944 (P < 0.001), respectively, for groups II and III, relative to group I. Per Katagiri score, HRs for intermediate- and high-risk groups were 4.02 (P < 0.001) and 7.09 (P < 0.001), respectively, relative to the low-risk group. Areas under the curve (AUC) for predicting 6-, 18- and 24-month mortality were significantly higher when using the Katagiri score (P = 0.036, 0.039 and 0.022). Both models predict survival. Prognostic accuracy of the Katagiri score is superior, especially in patients with long-term survival potential; however, in patients with short prognosis, no difference occurred between both models; simplicity and patient burden should also be considered.