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  • Objective: Recent epidemiological research has found food insecurity to be a growing public health concern among college students. This study investigated food insecurity, mental health, and substance use behaviors among state university undergraduate students. Study Design: Cross-sectional survey. Methods: This was a secondary data analysis of the Student Health Survey. Undergraduate participants ( n = 589) completed the paper-based survey, which had an 84% response rate overall. Results: Approximately 38.5% of students were considered food insecure, 24.8% experiencing low food security, and 13.8% experiencing very low food security. Having a diagnosis of depression, experience of depressive symptoms, and marijuana use in the past 30 days were associated with food insecurity. Conclusion and Implications: Food insecurity is a serious health concern for college students. The results of this study indicate collocating food security and counseling services may enhance existing student resources to better support students facing food and nutrition insecurity, substance use, and depression.

  • BACKGROUND: Growing evidence supports the superior benefits of exposure to mother's own milk (MOM) in reducing prematurity-related comorbidities. Neonatal exposure to donor human Milk (DHM) is a suitable alternative when MOM is insufficient or unavailable. However, the same protective composition and bioactivity in MOM are not present in DHM. Additional evidence is needed to justify and inform evidence-based practices increasing MOM provision while optimizing adequate use of DHM for premature infants. PURPOSE: A systematic review of the literature was conducted to determine differences in neonatal outcomes among premature infants exposed to predominately MOM versus DHM. METHODS/SEARCH STRATEGY: Databases including PubMed, CINAHL and Cochrane were searched (2020-2021) using the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis) guidelines. Evidence was classified using the John Hopkins evidence-based practice levels and quality of evidence. RESULTS: Eleven studies met inclusion criteria. Studied neonatal outcomes included ( a ) growth parameters (n = 8), ( b ) neonatal morbidities (n = 6), and ( c ) gut microbiome (n = 4). Overall, evidence suggests DHM exposure is beneficial but not equivalent to MOM feeding. Compared with DHM, greater doses of MOM are ideal to enhance protection primarily related to infant growth, as well as gut microbiome diversity and richness. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Standardized and evidence-based practices are needed to clearly delineate optimal use of DHM without undermining maternal and neonatal staff efforts to support and promote provision of MOM. IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH: Additional evidence from high-quality studies should further examine differences in neonatal outcomes among infants exposed to predominately MOM or DHM in settings using standardized and evidence-based feeding practices.

  • The study aims to suggest a model for attitudes towards inclusive education that will yield a good fit across different countries. Moreover, we aim to explore the effect of years of teaching experience, educational work level of teachers, and the highest degree completed by teachers on teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion across different countries. A demographic scale and the ATTAS-mm were applied to 908 teachers employed in schools of general education or who offered parallel support and/or resources in five different countries (Greece, the UK, the USA, Malaysia, and Turkey). CFA suggested a 4-factor solution, which included the cognitive, affective, and behavioral factors that have been previously introduced by Gregory and Noto (2012), and a fourth factor, labeled overall attitudes towards teaching all students. In the cognitive factor, the UK had the most positive attitudes. TU, MA, and GR enrolled in the same cluster, and the USA had the least positive attitudes. In the affective factor, GR had the most positive attitude. MA and the USA enrolled in the same cluster and TU and the UK had the least positive attitudes. A similar pattern is observed for the behavioral factor with GR having the most positive attitude. TU and MA enrolled in the same cluster, and the USA and the UK had the least positive attitudes. Finally, years of teaching experience, educational work level, and the highest degree completed have a significant effect on teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion in all countries. Providing feedback for future research is the focal point of the discussion part. © 2022, Associação Brasileira de Psicologia.

  • A multi-stage biometric verification system serially activates its verifiers and improves performance-cost trade-off by allowing users to submit a subset of the available biometrics. In the heart of a verifier in multi-stage systems lies the concept of ‘reject option’ where a reject region is used to identify a bad quality test sample. If the match-score falls inside the reject region, no binary (genuine/impostor) decision is made in the current stage and the verifier in the next stage is activated. Recent studies have demonstrated a significant promise of the ‘symmetric rejection method’ in choosing a suitable reject region for multi-stage verification systems. In this paper, we delve into the symmetric rejection method to gain more insights into its error reduction capabilities. Specifically, we develop a theory which mathematically proves that the symmetric rejection method reduces the false accept rate and false reject rate. Then, we empirically validate our theory. Results show that the symmetric rejection method significantly reduces the error rates, both the false accept rate and false reject rate. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature.

  • While the ocean space has long been ignored by social sciences, the past 15 years have witnessed an increased interest in the marine environment by scholars in Human Geography. The academic literature on the blue economy, almost non-existent a few years ago, is now burgeoning. The academic debate has offered some critical assessment of blue economy initiatives, but more needs to be done to address the true place of environmental protection within a blue economy, and to put people at the centre of concerns and analyses. Of particular concern, is the ambiguity of the blue economy concept and the confusion over its social and environmental sustainability, which can ultimately result in harmful practices. An important question is then how should social scientists in general and geographers, specifically, engage with these debates, and in particular how should the potential human and social costs of the blue economy be investigated and addressed while assuring justice and fairness? The papers presented here share the vision that environmental sustainability, justice and equality should be at the heart of the blue economy; not just conceptually, but practically too. The papers pursue efforts to identify blue economy risks and the mechanisms through which they occur; assess the place of inclusion and participation in a sustainable blue economy; define what blue economy policies should include to drive just and sustainable practices; and identify where the dominant understandings of the blue economy and its priorities are coming from. In other words, they put considerations of justice and broader cultural structures at the centre of their concerns and analysis. They also highlight the need to bypass geographical boundaries and gain insights from other disciplines and methodologies to grasp such an encompassing concept, and foster not just a blue economy with social justice, but a blue economy for social justice.

  • Tversky and Kahneman (1981) told participants to imagine they were at a store about to purchase an item. They were asked if they would be willing to drive 20 min to another store to receive a $5 discount on the item's price. Most participants were willing, but only when the original price of the item was small ($15); when the original price was relatively large ($125), most said they would not drive 20 min for a $5 discount. We examined this framing effect in 296 participants, but instead used a psychophysical-adjustment procedure to obtain quantitative estimates of the discount required with different (a) item prices, (b) delays until the item's receipt, and (c) opportunity costs (in “driving” vs. “delivery” tasks). We systematically replicated Tversky and Kahneman's results, but also extended them by showing a substantial influence of opportunity costs on the consumer discounts required. A behavioral model of delay discounting—additive-utility theory—accounted for 97% of the variance in these consumer discounts.

  • Many schools of social work around the United States of America wrote anti-racism statements because of the recent murders of Black and Brown people. In this contribution, the authors describe a challenging and tense discussion of racism and anti-racism leading to a group process about oppression and anti-oppression in the social work profession. For some, the urgency to address racism led to tactics and strategies that got in the way of social workers engaging in anti-oppressive practices. While the structure of higher education often reinforces traditional hierarchies of power, the profession of social work calls us to promote our core values of social justice, integrity, and the importance of human relationships as we strive for an anti-oppressive future. Consequently, social work faculty may experience role conflict as we navigate these tensions. We believe it is important to harness and process such discomfort as we critically examine the power dynamics within our own department, and our own profession. This voluntary, ad hoc group, composed of a diverse group of faculty members, provides space for ongoing mutual aid, consciousness raising, appropriate discomfort, and accountability. If anti-racism is the goal, then anti-oppression is how we get there.

  • INTRODUCTION: Adult sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) cease feeding and migrate to spawning streams where males build nests, undergo final sexual maturation, and subsequently produce and release large quantities of bile acid pheromones that attract mature females. These animals are predicted to rearrange their metabolic pathways drastically to support their reproductive strategies, presenting advantageous opportunities to examine how sex and the maturation processes affect metabolism. OBJECTIVES: The objective is to investigate the metabolic differences between sexes and maturation states in sea lamprey that support changes in physiological functions. METHODS: We compared plasma metabolomes of spawning and prespawning sea lamprey in both sexes using both non-targeted and targeted metabolomics approaches using UPLC/MS-MS with electrospray ionization in both positive and negative modes. The data were processed using Progenesis QI, Compound Discoverer and XCMS softwares for alignment, peak picking, and deconvolution of the peaks. Principle component analyses (PCA) and partial least squares discriminant analyses (PLS-DA) were performed using SIMCA and Metaboanalyst softwares to identify discriminating features, followed by fragmentation matching with extensive database search and pathway mapping. RESULTS: The pheromonal bile acid biosynthesis was upregulated significantly in males compared to females. Spermiating males further upregulated bile acid biosynthesis by altering amino acid metabolisms, upregulating cofactors and nucleotide metabolisms, but downregulating carbohydrate and energy metabolisms. CONCLUSION: Plasma metabolomes are sex- and maturation-dependent and reflect the special metabolic demands at each life stage and reproductive strategy.

  • Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a pervasive disorder with an incidence estimated at 5–14 percent among adults aged 30–70 years. It carries significant morbidity and mortality risk from cardiovascular disease, including ischemic heart disease, atrial fibrillation, and cerebrovascular disease, and risks related to excessive daytime sleepiness. The gold standard for diagnosis of OSAS is the polysomnography (PSG) test which requires overnight evaluation in a sleep laboratory and expensive infrastructure, which renders it unsuitable for mass screening and diagnosis. Alternatives such as home sleep testing need patients to wear diagnostic instruments overnight, but accuracy continues to be suboptimal while access continues to be a barrier for many. Hence, there is a continued significant underdiagnosis and under-recognition of sleep apnea in the community, with at least one study suggesting that 80–90% of middle-aged adults with moderate to severe sleep apnea remain undiagnosed. Recently, we have seen a surge in applications of artificial intelligence and neural networks in healthcare diagnostics. Several studies have attempted to examine its application in the diagnosis of OSAS. Signals included in data analytics include Electrocardiogram (ECG), photo-pletysmography (PPG), peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO2), and audio signals. A different approach is to study the application of machine learning to use demographic and standard clinical variables and physical findings to try and synthesize predictive models with high accuracy in assisting in the triage of high-risk patients for sleep testing. The current paper will review this latter approach and identify knowledge gaps that may serve as potential avenues for future research.

  • In addition to traumas that heterosexual and cisgender people experience, queer and transgender people face a heterosexist and cissexist culture, in which marginalization and trauma against them is normalized or minimized. In this chapter, the experience of hate crimes and violence, relational and interpersonal trauma, religious based-trauma, and sociocultural and political-based trauma are covered in relation to how it impacts Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Queer (LGBTQ) people. Clinical and counseling implications are discussed. The increase in mental health challenges is explained via the minority stress model. Implications for diagnosis and trauma-informed practices for queer and transgender people are discussed. Additionally, the role of the mental health professional as a social justice advocate is explored, including how social justice frameworks can be incorporated in the counseling environment. © 2023 Springer Publishing Company, LLC and 2012. All rights reserved.

  • The objective of this investigation was to compare isokinetic strength, countermovement jump and drop jump variables between high-contributors and low-contributors within NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s lacrosse athletes. Men’s (N=36) and Women’s (N=30) NCAA Division I lacrosse athletes completed strength testing of the quadriceps and hamstring across three speeds (60°·s−1, 180°·s−1, 300°·s−1), countermovement and drop jumps. To determine the discriminative ability of select lower-limb strength and power characteristics participants were categorized as high-contributors (Males N=18, age=20.3±0.4 yrs, height=183.9±5.5 cm, mass=90.8±5.8 kg; Females N=15, age=20.8±0.8 yrs, height=169.3±6.7 cm, mass=64.1±7.2 kg) or low-contributors (Males N=18, age=19.5±0.2 yrs, height=184.1±5.6 cm; mass=87.9±8.1 kg; Females N=15, age=19.7±0.2 yrs, height=169.8±7.0 cm, mass=62.9±7.7 kg ) based upon the number of games the participants competed in during the regular season. Within the male cohort, moderate significant (p−1 (d=0.69) and peak power in countermovement jump (d=0.68). Within the women’s cohort a large (d=0.87) significant difference (p−1. Hamstring strength and lower-limb power are important strength measures for lacrosse performance and should be prioritized in training prescription for lacrosse athletes.

  • At a time of substantial interest in the Blue Economy, it is surprising that sustainability dilemmas and justice components are not well integrated within its academic discourse or policy arena. Reviewing a number of existing U.S. coastal and marine policies, we identify that justice and equity components are essentially missing and advocate for a comprehensive policy framework for a just and inclusive transition for the Blue Economy. Looking forward, we review and critique the policy proposal of Elizabeth Warren’s Blue New Deal. While the current state of the Blue New Deal remains uncertain, we indicate that such a policy framework would integrate justice, equity and inclusivity as part of operationalising the Blue Economy. Given the proposal for a Blue New Deal is relatively new, we propose a research agenda to explore how comprehensive policy frameworks may seek to place justice and inclusivity at the centre of the Blue Economy.

  • We report on the use of label-free, native fluorescence (NFL) spectroscopy and machine learning (ML) algorithms to study the correlation of relative tryptophan levels with prostate cancer aggressiveness. Three extensively studied prostate cancer cell lines were used; PC3, an aggressive, androgen-resistant line, with a high tendency to metastasize in vivo, DU-145, a less aggressive cancer cell line, also androgen-resistant, and LNCaP, an androgen sensitive line, which has a low tendency to metastasize. Using an excitation of 300nm, differences in the NFL spectral profiles from these cell lines were found to correlate with changes in the relative concentrations of tryptophan and reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH). The use of ML may present a powerful tool for the assessment of the likelihood of a cancer to metastasize. This technique could aid in the decision whether to use highly aggressive adjuvant chemotherapy or radiation therapy after surgical resection of a prostate cancer.

  • Connecticut’s Tony Award–winning Hartford Stage reopening with Eugene O’Neill’s only comedy, Ah, Wilderness!, was a historic event. It marked Melia Bensussen’s debut as a director at Hartford Stage. Bensussen had already been in place as its first woman artistic director in October 2019, but began her tenure overseeing other directors’ work. The theater’s forced closing in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic delayed her joining the theater’s directing pool. Ah, Wilderness! had already been cast and was ready to begin rehearsals when the shutdown occurred.The fall 2021 opening for Bensussen’s directorial debut might have been guided by fate, as October 16 is Eugene O’Neill’s birthday. O’Neill had a fascination with fate and destiny stemming from his deep and tangled roots in Connecticut. Ah, Wilderness! is the comedic and fantastical version of the playwright’s youthful days in the Nutmeg State, while Long Day’s Journey Into Night is the tragic and more accurate version. What unites the two plays is that they both take place in the waterfront Monte Cristo Cottage, a historic landmark in New London.The choice to reopen Hartford Stage with Ah, Wilderness! was also historic because to attend the performance one had to present proof of a COVID vaccination or a recent negative test and wear protective facial masking—something that became a common practice nationally and internationally when COVID protocols were established. Once cleared, the audience was permitted to enter the auditorium, where they were treated to a more recognizable theatrical experience. Visible on the theater’s spacious thrust stage were portions of an abstract set designed by James Noone, hidden, for the most part, behind a white sheet-like curtain. On the stage’s foreground were furnishings draped with individual sheets. The abandoned and ghostly look was ably enhanced by lighting designer Wen-Ling Liao’s stark lighting, which signaled a death or an abandonment on the stage and in the entire theater facility itself.Also symbolic was the initial music selected to mark Hartford Stage’s reawakening. As the house lights were raised, individual singers could be heard repeatedly singing, two words and notes, a cappella. The words were “I am.” The unique arresting declaration was quickly followed by the proud entrance of the remaining cast and some crewmembers, joyfully marching though the auditorium. They headed toward the stage’s thrust, also singing “I am” until they all broke into a full rendition of the famous Americana song “Yankee Doodle Dandy” —an apt choice, the play occurs on the Fourth of July. But the melody and words “I am” signified even more because the music and lyrics were written by the iconic stage Irishman George M. Cohan, who portrayed Nat Miller in the original production of Ah, Wilderness!, which premiered on Broadway on October 2, 1933.As the actors entered, the white drop curtain rose to reveal a super-size—and not entirely historically accurate—skeletal set that served as a universal environment. Its main purpose was to represent the Miller family home, and its secondary purpose was to eventually represent the act 4, scene 2 lakeside woods where Richard Miller, the play’s central young lead (Michael Boatman), and his teenage love interest, Muriel McComber (Brittany Anikka Liu), meet under full moonlight to confess their undying love. The cast continued singing while they removed the white coverings from the furniture. Their actions were a reminder that the Monte Cristo Cottage was the O’Neill family’s summer home. In this way, the Miller family’s initial actions echoed the O’Neills’ annual return. Once the 1906 period furniture pieces were fully visible and lit with warm stage lighting, the delightful summertime period costumes designed by Olivera Gajic could be appreciated in their proper context.Throughout the production’s exposition and early conflicts, the audience was introduced to an American family and a New London community compatible with racial norms of the twenty-first century. Unlike the original Broadway production and many productions since, the cast was multiracial, an appropriate reflection of contemporary times. As Nat Miller, Boatman maintained a demeanor of gentle but firm moral force when addressing challenges to his integrity as a newspaper editor, familial rebellions against his patriarchal authority, and the antics of the none-too-skilled maid, Norah (Annie Jean Buckley). As the play unfolds, it becomes apparent that Nat and his devoted wife Essie (Antoinette LaVecchia) are raising four children: Arthur (Antonio Jose Jeffries), Richard (Jaevon Williams), Tommy (Miles Lowe), and Mildred (Katerina McCrimmon). Nat has also assumed the responsibility of caring for several relatives including his single sister, Lily (Natascia Diaz), and his wife’s hopelessly alcoholic brother, Sid Davis (McCaleb Burnett). Boatman wisely and lovingly guided his family and his rebellious teenage son, Richard, with a loving, measured pace. The actor shouldered his character’s purpose, leading to the climactic moments when O’Neill’s goal becomes apparent. As a playwright aiming to bring classical stature to American playwrighting, O’Neill intended to write a comedy of substance. He did not want to write his only comedy by ending it with a happy and sentimental resolution. Instead, O’Neill concludes Ah, Wilderness! with philosophical reflections on the importance of familial loyalty and everlasting love.A clear choice of director Bensussen was to craft her production as an ensemble piece rather than as a star vehicle for a leading role, as it has often been: Cohan (1933), Jason Robards (1988), Geraldine Fitzgerald (1969 and 1973), and Colleen Dewhurst (1988). As a result, there were numerous memorable performances by actors with secondary speaking roles: Tanner Jones as Wint Selby, Stuart Rider as the protective Bartender, Joseph Adams as Macomber and the Salesman, and Liu, doubling as Belle, all made brief but standout appearances at unexpected moments. Diaz in the principal role of spinster Lily Miller imbued her character with a poignant dignity, a feat made more impressive by the fact that, in some productions, this character can arc toward the melodramatic and comically belittling.An informative post-show talk-back took place on November 6, with Bensussen, Beth Wynstra, and Steven Bloom, the latter two representing the Eugene O’Neill Society’s board of directors. During the conversation, Bensussen noted pitfalls she found in the writing of Miller family matriarch Essie Miller and acknowledged cutting some of the character’s dialogue to make her seem less scatterbrained. The result was a less dominant but more mature rendering of the character.In choosing to direct Ah, Wilderness!, Bensussen demonstrated her prowess as a stage director and her appreciation for the home-grown legacy of America’s only Nobel Prize–winning playwright. She also lovingly reawakened the dormant Hartford Stage.

  • This paper reports a two-part study examining the relationship between fear of missing out (FoMO) and maladaptive behaviors in college students. This project used a cross-sectional study to examine whether college student FoMO predicts maladaptive behaviors across a range of domains (e.g., alcohol and drug use, academic misconduct, illegal behavior). Participants (N = 472) completed hard copy questionnaire packets assessing trait FoMO levels and questions pertaining to unethical and illegal behavior while in college. Part 1 utilized traditional statistical analyses (i.e., hierarchical regression modeling) to identify any relationships between FoMO, demographic variables (socioeconomic status, living situation, and gender) and the behavioral outcomes of interest. Part 2 looked to quantify the predictive power of FoMO, and demographic variables used in Part 1 through the convergent approach of supervised machine learning. Results from Part 1 indicate that college student FoMO is indeed related to many diverse maladaptive behaviors spanning the legal and illegal spectrum. Part 2, using various techniques such as recursive feature elimination (RFE) and principal component analysis (PCA) and models such as logistic regression, random forest, and Support Vector Machine (SVM), showcased the predictive power of implementing machine learning. Class membership for these behaviors (offender vs. non-offender) was predicted at rates well above baseline (e.g., 50% at baseline vs 87% accuracy for academic misconduct with just three input variables). This study demonstrated FoMO’s relationships with these behaviors as well as how machine learning can provide additional predictive insights that would not be possible through inferential statistical modeling approaches typically employed in psychology, and more broadly, the social sciences. Research in the social sciences stands to gain from regularly utilizing the more traditional statistical approaches in tandem with machine learning.

  • Despite significant advancements in science and technology, religion continues to influence human lives. The twentieth-century perspectives from social sciences, influenced by the secular hypothesis, mainly highlight the negative influence of religion on human progress and practically ignore its influential and positive impact on various fields of knowledge/disciplines. In this paper, we have examined literature from politics, economics, and psychology to understand religion’s impact on these disciplines and vice versa. We find that religion’s contribution to human society in the 20th and 21st centuries has been mostly positive, especially in education, healthcare, social justice, economic growth, ethics, and initiatives for eradicating inequality and injustice. For instance, religion provides effective coping measures and strategies when humans face uncertainties and catastrophes and facilitate comfort, confidence, and emotional wellness. Further, we realised that (i) the contemporary research literature in social sciences generally highlights the interaction between religion and various fields of knowledge in a unidirectional way —i.e., religion influencing disciplines and not how disciplines influence religion, and (ii) that it fails to reveal a more complex multidirectional and circular relationship between religion and social sciences. This paper proposes ways to bring together social scientists and religious scholars to facilitate the much-needed discussion on the multidirectional relationship between religion and social sciences, thereby paving the way toward the well-being of individuals and social transformation. © 2022 Journal of Dharma: Dharmaram Journal of Religions and Philosophies (DVK, Bangalore),.

  • As part of a comprehensive effort to characterize the nearest stars, the CHIRON echelle spectrograph on the CTIO/SMARTS 1.5 m telescope is being used to acquire high-resolution (R = 80,000) spectra of K dwarfs within 50 pc. This paper provides spectral details about 35 K dwarfs from five benchmark sets with estimated ages spanning 20 Myr–5.7 Gyr. Four spectral age and activity indicators are tested, three of which aligned with the estimated ages of the benchmark groups—the Na i doublet (5889.95 and 5895.92 Å), the Hα line (6562.8 Å), and the Li i resonance line (6707.8 Å). The benchmark stars are then used to evaluate seven field K dwarfs exhibiting variable radial velocities for which initial CHIRON data did not show obvious companions. Two of these stars are estimated to be younger than 700 Myr, while one exhibits stellar activity unusual for older K-dwarf field stars and is possibly young. The four remaining stars turn out to be spectroscopic binaries, two of which are being reported here for the first time with orbital periods found using CHIRON data. Spectral analysis of the combined sample of 42 benchmark and variable radial velocity stars indicates temperatures ranging from 3900 to 5300 K and metallicities from −0.4 < [Fe/H] < +0.2. We also determine for main-sequence K dwarfs. Ultimately, this study will target several thousand of the nearest K dwarfs and provide results that will serve present and future studies of stellar astrophysics and exoplanet habitability.

Last update from database: 3/13/26, 4:15 PM (UTC)

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