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Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) have great potential in cell-based therapies and regenerative medicine due to their self-renewal and multipotency. hMSCs can be differentiated into several cell types, including adipocytes and osteblast. Conventional approaches for determining adipocyte formation include staining of lipid droplets (i.e., oil-red-O) during adipogenesis, which is time-consuming and uneconomical. Thus, there is an emerging need for a more effective and accurate approach to the prediction of adipogenic differentiation. Here, by combining live-cell imaging with a deep learning method, we developed a convolutional neural network-based approach to precisely predict lipid droplet formation during adipogenic differentiation of hMSCs. © 2023 IEEE.

(a) Situation faced: The Tour de France, with more than a century of history, provides great opportunities for raising awareness of socially responsible behaviors among citizens, not only from France but also from other regions in the world; (b) Action taken: The Tour de France is committed to the future. Responsible actions are deployed in three main axons: sustainable transportation, commitment with the charter of 15 eco-friendly commitments, and specific in-route measures; (c) Results achieved: Currently, the Tour de France is a leading sport event in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility. Their actions positively influence large social masses from all over the world; (d) Lessons learned: This case provides good examples of a socially responsible sport event that spreads messages to national and international spectators. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.

Although many White social workers engage in ongoing anti-racist actions, they may still be complicit in perpetuating and reinforcing racism and White Supremacy Culture. Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) social workers, activists, and scholars have described the numerous ways in which the harmful impacts of White Supremacy Culture appear in the well-intentioned efforts of White people who seek to be anti-racist. White social workers are thus responsible for engaging in intentional ongoing practices to identify, interrupt, and shift their interpersonal oppressive uses of power in their practice. The RE/UN/DIScover heuristic is an iterative, embodied set of three practices for working with one’s experiences of shame and internalized dominance, habitual not-seeing, and in-the-moment activations. Literature theorizing White Supremacy ideology and culture frames the description of the RE/UN/DIScover heuristic. This paper describes several heuristic applications, including prompts for engaging in REcover, UNcover and DIScover practices and two composite examples. These applications illustrate how to use the heuristic practices with dual awareness of self and one’s social work practice in the moment and over time. White social workers are encouraged to learn and use the RE/UN/DIScover heuristic practices to guide their efforts to more fully live into their anti-racist commitments in moments of not-seeing and moments of activation.

How We Take Action brings together practical examples of social justice in language education from a wide range of contexts. Many language teachers have a desire to teach in justice-oriented ways, but perhaps also feel frustration at how hard it is to teach in ways that we did not experience ourselves as learners and have not observed as colleagues. As a profession, we need more ideas, more examples, and wider networks of allies in this work. This book includes the work of 59 different authors including teachers and researchers at every level from Pre-K to postsecondary, representing different backgrounds, languages, and approaches to classroom practice. Organized into three sections, some of the chapters in this collection report on classroom research while others focus on key practices and experiences. Section I is entitled Inclusive and Empowering Classrooms. In this section authors take a critical approach to classroom practices by breaking with the status quo or creating spaces where students experience safety, access, and empowerment in language learning experiences. Section II, Integration of Critical Topics, addresses a variety of ways teachers can incorporate justice-oriented pedagogies in day-to-day instructional experiences. Social justice does not happen haphazardly; it requires careful, critical examination of instructional practices and intentional planning as instructors hope to enact change. Section III, Activism and Community Engagement, explores how teachers can empower students to become agents for positive change through the study of activism and constructive community engagement programs at local and global levels.

The dehumanizing effects of neoliberal, white dominant regulations, laws, policies, and cultural assumptions seep into the everyday practice of social workers in frontline and mid-level positions. Many social workers are learning various antioppressive practices and becoming aware of how microaggressions and other oppressive dynamics can manifest in workplaces but lack models to guide efforts for small-scale action. This article describes how the RE/UN/DIScover heuristic can be used to interrupt and shift oppressive processes during everyday moments of practice within organizations and systems by social workers and their interested colleagues who have some awareness of oppressive and antioppressive dynamics. The RE/UN/DIScover heuristic is an iterative set of three practices: (1) tend to self with compassionate REcover practices; (2) engage in curious, critical reflection to UNcover full understandings of the power dynamics, impacts, and meanings of specific challenges; and (3) DIScover and try out just, humanizing responses with creative courage, individually and with other colleagues. The heuristic uses a dual focus on self and situation with an ad hoc group of other colleagues to raise awareness; cultivate humanizing spaces; and implement antioppressive, relational responses. The article describes the heuristic practices and how to apply the heuristic with two composite practice applications.

Mounting evidence suggests that differential environmental exposures significantly contribute to a wide range of population health disparities. Adopting a life course approach to maternal and child health enables readers to uncover the mechanisms by which prenatal and early life environmental exposures potentially shape both short- and long-term physical and mental health outcomes. This chapter applies the life course approach to explore the adverse influences of environmental risk factors on maternal and child health. The following four case studies will be discussed: (1) the pervasive impacts of secondhand smoke; (2) the deleterious effects of lead exposure; (3) the development of asthma; and (4) the potential origins of autism spectrum disorder. The chapter also provides recommendations for programmatic and policy interventions to reduce the prevalence of four salient environmental hazards, including secondhand smoke, lead, air pollution, and pesticides, as well as proposed future directions in research regarding these exposures.

The aging population in the world constitutes one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century across social sectors; dental education is no exception. This review explored the status of geriatric dentistry teaching in Cuba and contrasted it with examples from international curricula and programs. Google Scholar, PubMed, Wiley, and Scielo databases were used to search for articles that address geriatric dentistry topics, focusing on undergraduate curricular issues and the management of postgraduate specialization. The findings highlight the need to update curricula and programs for dentistry studies in Cuba to improve the quality of dental care for the aging population. The evolution of training future Cuban graduates aims to meet the healthcare needs of older adults while preserving their quality of life. Additionally, the incorporation of new information and communication technologies has been observed during this process. © 2024, IGI Global. All rights reserved.

This study explores the link between cash holdings and performance outcomes in public restaurant companies in the United States, leveraging the critical role played by the industry context. We hypothesize that cash holdings have positive associations with both short-term and long-term firm performance in the restaurant industry. Our empirical analyses, based on fixed-effect regression models that control for all time-invariant variables, reveal that holding cash can improve performance in the restaurant industry, in support of our hypotheses.

The structure of blood vessels in the retina is a crucial factor in identifying and forecasting various eye diseases like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and other diseases. Therefore, detecting the structure of blood vessels from retinal fundus images is a critical field of research in healthcare. This study employed a novel deep learning model to segment vessels for different diseases, including Glaucoma, Diabetic Retinopathy (DR), and Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). We considered multiple transfer learning-based models and discovered that the ResNet-based U-Net architecture was the most effective for vessel segmentation, achieving the highest Dice Score above 84% for disease-agnostic, and 82%-84% for disease-specific conditions. We believe the proposed methodology will help to advance retinal vessel segmentation process and enhance the screening process of diseases based on retinal fundus images in clinical settings of Qatar Biobank as well as other biobanks across the globe. © 2023 IEEE.

Assessments of oral reading are widely used for screening, progress monitoring, and comprehensive evaluations. Despite the utility and technical adequacy of these tools, there are subgroups of students for whom measures of oral reading may be inappropriate. The first section of this article focuses on how tests of oral reading may underestimate word reading ability and reading fluency among four subgroups of students with speech, language, or learning difficulties. These include school-age students who demonstrate word-finding difficulties (which are common among students with a learning disability or developmental language disorder), developmental stuttering, childhood apraxia of speech, and pediatric dysarthria. The second section offers practical recommendations for more accurate assessment procedures, correct placement decisions, relevant professional learning activities, and strategic interdisciplinary teaming. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2023.

We have prepared CuS and CuS-rGO nanocomposites via the hydrothermal method. The physical properties of the synthesized materials were studied through x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The supercapacitor characteristics were evaluated by cyclic voltammetric and galvanostatic charge–discharge studies. The cyclic voltammetric studies conform the pseudocapacitive nature of CuS and CuS-rGO electrodes. The specific capacitance of CuS was obtained as 207, 150, and 97 F/g at a current density of 0.5, 5, and 20 A/g, respectively. The rGO-CuS nanocomposite showed improved specific capacitance of 350, 251, and 149 F/g at current densities of 0.5, 5, and 20 A/g, respectively. © 2023 Author(s).

Recently, the field of research exploring the links between neurodivergence and the LGBTQ+ community has grown. Many queer adults who were not diagnosed as children are just now receiving neurodivergent diagnoses. Nick Walker coined the term “neuroqueer” in 2015 to describe the intersection of being both neurodivergent and queer. “Neuroqueering” refers to the embodying and expressing of one’s neurodivergence in ways that also queer one’s performance of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and/or other aspects of one’s identity (Walker 2021). Considering the increase of queer representation in the outdoors, it is necessary to also address neuroqueering and its implications for the outdoor community. This conceptual article will address the connection between neurodivergence and the LGBTQ+ community, implications for the queer outdoors, and ways to include neuroqueer recreationalists and outdoor advocates in efforts to make the outdoors more equitable.

Public school secondary physical education needs support. One approach in assisting is to improve the next generation of preservice physical education teachers (PPETs). The purpose of the study was to explore PPET secondary physical education training through the secondary teaching methods course offered in two universities in the US. A total of 14 PPETs participated in the study. Qualitative methods were employed through a phenomenological framework. Semi-structured interviews were analyzed using constant comparative methods [Kolb (2012). Grounded theory and the constant comparative method: Valid research strategies for educators. Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies, 3(1), 83–86]. Two themes emerged: (a) PPETs have a stronghold on management, as they displayed feelings of high importance towards this topic, and (b) preparing for quality instruction when cooperating teachers are not, resulting in PPETs’ questioning the importance of lesson planning. PPETs views on the misalignment of university and district practices are troubling and suggest university and K-12 partnerships to be formed. Future research should examine ways to improve field experiences associated with these courses.