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Background Hispanic adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D) have suboptimal access to continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). Widening access to and increasing uptake of CGM for Hispanic adults with T1D are warranted. Objective This randomized controlled trial (RCT) will evaluate the feasibility of a federally qualified health center (FQHC) CGM intervention and assess for an intervention signal in patient outcomes. Methods A mixed methods, pragmatic pilot RCT will be used. A total of 30 adult Hispanic patients with T1D will be recruited from 4 FQHC sites allocated to provide the intervention (n=2) or control (n=2) conditions. At intervention sites, participants must be willing to use CGM for 3 months and have a willing adult family member participate in the study. Guided by the socioecological model, our intervention has three levels: (1) individual (culturally sensitive CGM information, motivation, and skills acquisition), (2) family or social networks (integration of the core Hispanic values of familismo and collectivismo to leverage family and peer support for CGM uptake), and (3) health care provider levels with CGM training using Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes). Intervention participants (n=15) will receive a culturally sensitive CGM intervention with 4 weekly intervention sessions (coattended by a family member), followed by 7 peer support group sessions over 6 months. Control participants will receive a self-monitoring of blood glucose control condition over a 6-month period. Study feasibility will be assessed in terms of recruitment, enrollment, retention, adherence, study procedures and implementation, and acceptability with mixed methods. We will collect physiological (eg, glycated hemoglobin and CGM metrics) and psychosocial (eg, depression, quality of life, social support, and interpersonal processes of care) outcome data. Feasibility data will be analyzed using content analysis and univariate or bivariate statistics. Linear and generalized linear mixed modeling will assess intervention signals and clinically meaningful differences from baseline to 3 and 6 months. Results Funding for this project was secured in September 2022. As of May 2024, recruitment commenced following formative qualitative data collection on the social determinants of health and CGM uptake in Hispanic adults with T1D (N=32). Our community advisory board informed protocol modifications by reviewing qualitative findings, collaborating on related intervention refinement, and advising on cultural sensitivity methods. Conclusions Guided by the socioecological model, our novel FQHC CGM intervention will provide feasibility and outcome data to guide a full-scale RCT. Our intervention model has unique potential to widen CGM access and increase CGM uptake in low-income Hispanic adults with T1D while improving outcomes for this vulnerable population. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06487962; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06487962 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) PRR1-10.2196/60583

An investigation of the issues affecting the teaching of Shakespeare in non-elite public universities and private liberal arts colleges in the US, combined with a set of imaginative responses to those problems.Shakespeare in Tempestuous Times investigates the place of Shakespeare where almost all US students encounter his work-at non–elite public universities and small liberal arts colleges. Increasingly, these students are taught by contingent or overstretched tenured professors. Growth in higher education has been constant over the past fifty years, fueled by democratization. But lately, democratization has lost its allure: higher education is too expensive, too politicized, and students and families think hard about the investment. And now higher education faces another daunting challenge, a demographic cliff, beginning in 2026: a reduction of approximately 15% in the college-age cohort in the decade following. Already over the past ten years, for-profit institutions have failed, small non-profit four-year colleges have closed, and many public state systems have consolidated. More will follow. How do professors cope aboard what feels like a sinking ship? This volume offers answers to that question, while assessing the limits of those answers by highlighting the structural constraints we face. Colleagues are becoming generalists, or even do not teach literature at all; Shakespeare, long considered untouchable, now struggles to survive; Shakespeareans, too. This is the hand we are dealt, which we must play whether we acknowledge it, see it as a double bind, or choose to ignore it altogether. On the Titanic, the orchestra played familiar, upbeat pieces as the ship went down, trying to prevent panic. Heroic, true, but what this volume explores is whether preventing panic by reciting what's familiar is the answer we need.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk stratification often relies on anthropometric measures that do not fully reflect central adiposity or differences across populations. The Body Roundness Index (BRI) is a body-shape indicator that may improve assessment of cardiometabolic risk, but evidence from large national cohorts remains limited. This study analyzed harmonized data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS, 2015) and the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES, 2005–2016) to examine the relationship between BRI and prevalent CVD. Participants were grouped into quartiles of BRI, with the highest quartile serving as the reference. Weighted multivariable logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), with sequential adjustment for demographic and clinical covariates. Subgroup analyses were performed to evaluate heterogeneity across population strata, and an extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) model was applied to assess the relative importance of BRI and other predictors. In both cohorts, individuals with CVD were older and had higher prevalences of hypertension and diabetes, whereas BRI distributions differed between cohorts. Lower BRI quartiles were associated with greater odds of CVD. Compared with Q4, Q1 was associated with increased CVD risk in CHARLS (OR 1.73, 95% CI 1.14-2.68; p=0.012) and NHANES (OR 1.82, 95% CI 1.44-2.30; p<0.001). These findings suggest that lower BRI is associated with higher CVD risk and may complement conventional anthropometric measures in population-based cardiovascular risk assessment.

This study has been designed to explore the leading countries and continents in open access (OA) initiatives regarding OA journals, indexing of journals in Web of Science and Scopus, institutional repositories (IRs), OA policies, and leading universities in OA initiatives worldwide. It compares and analyses the OA initiatives of the leading continents and countries of the world and, importantly, of Pakistan and its neighbouring leading countries in OA initiatives. This study relies on two research methods: a narrative literature review and a survey of the websites. The websites’ survey of the Registry of Open Access Repository, the Directory of Open Access Journals, and the Repository of Open Access Repository Mandates and Policies was also conducted to meet the objectives of the study. It was exposed that the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Poland, Germany, Russia, Turkey, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Iran, and so forth have emerged as leading contributors in OA initiatives in terms of OA journals, IRs, and OA policies in their respective continents. The majority of universities of the leading countries in OA initiatives have adopted the Green model of OA to prompt the OA publishing paradigm for a wider readership, more citations, and free access to scholarly literature. In the Pakistani neighbourhood, Iran was leading in OA initiatives, followed by India, China, Pakistan, and so forth. The present study is a comprehensive exploration of the prevalence of OA landscape geographically in leading countries and continents in terms of OA journals, indexing of journals in Web of Science and Scopus, IRs, OA policies, and leading universities in OA initiatives worldwide and with respect to Pakistani neighbouring leading countries. This study may encourage the developing countries, policymakers, higher educational institutions, and universities to adopt the OA initiatives by competing with leading contributors in OA initiatives.

Baryon quantum number is found to be conserved since baryogenesis in the early Universe. Conventionally, each fractionally charged valence quark is understood to carry one-third of a baryon number. An alternative hypothesis posits that baryon number is ...

This paper aims to help practitioners by suggesting a conceptual method to influence and enhance critical character traits. It also serves as a foundation for future empirical studies on the same topic.This work presents a conceptual framework designed for practical application, and it extrapolates new applications of theories authored by Bandura.Five key entrepreneurial traits are identified based on a review of recent studies that suggest correlations with entrepreneurial intention and success. One trait, namely, self-efficacy, is the subject of a theory and empirical testing on methods to enhance it. The other four traits – including conscientiousness, a need for achievement, an internal locus of control and risk propensity – are discussed as perhaps being capable of influence through the same method.This study is ripe for practical applications, but it invites additional empirical testing as this paper presents only a concept. The findings require viewing the constructs through a lens that – while tested and wisely accepted in the scientific community – has detractors and flaws. The biggest limitation is the application of a theory designed to change a belief to changing a personality trait.This paper presents a practical framework for people seeking to become entrepreneurs or to enhance their success as entrepreneurs. It provides a method for enhancing one key trait – namely, self-efficacy – and it suggests applying this same strategy to other identified traits. At a minimum, it encourages an understanding and appreciation of some constructs associated with entrepreneurship.Entrepreneurship is a socially-desirable activity. It is not only a goal for individuals but also for communities and countries who may measure their productivity in terms of jobs, money or innovation.The paper pulls primarily from existing studies, but it presents a new theoretical framework ready for practical application and future study.

This study has been designed to determine the perceived challenges of the editors of the Higher Education Commission (HEC)-recognized OA and non-OA journals in Pakistan regarding OA publishing. This study used a quantitative research approach and used a survey method to collect data from the editors of all 329 HEC-recognized OA and non-OA journals in Pakistan. A majority of the respondents exposed ‘no academic and monetary reward for the editorial staff; and ‘insufficient financial resources for OA publishing’ as enormous challenges for OA journal publishing. A majority of the respondents of non-OA journals were of the view that insufficient facilities for training and guidance for OA journal publishing and the reluctance of the editorial board to initiate OA publishing were the major reasons for not following OA journal publishing. This study may draw the attention of policymakers to address the challenges faced by Pakistani journals’ editors.

This study examines whether national digital technological readiness moderates the relationship between national sustainability performance and supply chain logistics performance. Using a panel of 157 countries across six biennial waves from 2010 to 2023 (N = 850), with every predictor measured two years before the wave it explains, drawn from the World Bank Logistics Performance Index (LPI), the World Bank Sovereign ESG indicators, and the UNCTAD Frontier Technology Readiness Index (FTRI), we estimate a hybrid within-between panel model that separates durable cross-country differences from within-country change, with sustainability performance measured through three separately constructed environmental, social, and governance dimensions. Sustainability performance relates positively to logistics performance between countries, and the association strengthens with readiness. The association becomes statistically significant only above a readiness threshold on the FTRI scale, below which every low-income country in the sample falls. The moderating effect is driven by the social and governance dimensions rather than the environmental dimension. It operates on the sub-dimensions that domestic institutions govern, most notably customs and infrastructure, while disappearing for international shipping. The between-country interaction remains stable across alternative moderator definitions, alternative measure constructions, an expanded control set, and a permutation placebo test. This moderation follows the continuous level of readiness rather than income group boundaries. Grounded in Dynamic Capabilities Theory, the findings suggest that digital readiness functions as the capability through which sustainability investments translate into realized logistics performance, and they locate a readiness threshold with direct implications for the sequencing of development policy.

This study evaluates the viability of deep learningbased super-resolution (SR) for enhancing real-time video streaming. We compare a traditional HEVC-compressed streaming pipeline against an AI-assisted framework that transmits lowresolution video and reconstructs high-resolution output at the client using the Efficient Sub-Pixel Convolutional Neural Network (ESPCN) algorithm. The evaluation spans multiple resolutions (1080p to 4K), motion types, and processing methodologies (subprocess vs. frame-by-frame). Experimental results indicate that while AI-assisted streaming significantly reduces transmission bandwidth, it introduces substantial computational overhead, with completion times increasing by over 300% compared to traditional methods. Furthermore, quality assessments using PSNR and VMAF metrics reveal that most AI-assisted streams failed to meet the target quality range (30–50 dB PSNR), with high-resolution 4K streams experiencing up to 24.58% frame loss during real-time inference. These findings highlight critical performance barriers in utilizing current SR algorithms for standard consumer-grade real-time video delivery.

Abstract In this interdisciplinary interview, multilingual poet Dinara Rasuleva reflects on her ongoing projects that investigate the partial loss and creative resurgence of her native Tatar. She discusses the role of poetic form, sound, sensory memory, and cross-linguistic experimentation in rebuilding a language affected by migration and historical suppression. Drawing on perspectives from linguistics and literary studies, the interview highlights the intersections between first language attrition, mixed-language poetics, and contemporary political conditions surrounding minoritized languages.

This study examined whether maintaining the first language (L1) or experiencing dominant language shift affects second-language (L2) speaking proficiency. Twenty-four Russian-English bilinguals were divided into a bilingual maintenance group and a dominant language shift group based on self-reported L1 proficiency. To avoid monolingual bias, all comparisons were made between bilingual speakers. Participants produced spontaneous narrative speech using picture books, and their L2 output was analyzed for fluency, lexical diversity, and syntactic complexity. Across all measures, no statistically significant differences emerged between the groups. Individuals who maintained their L1 performed similarly to those who had lost their L1, indicating that continued engagement with the L1 does not impede L2 oral development. Maintaining the L1 did not yield any measurable benefits, as these participants did not perform better than those in the dominant language shift group. These findings contribute to a more nuanced, domain- and usage-specific understanding of the linguistic interdependence hypothesis and the common underlying proficiency model, indicating that although L1 maintenance does not impede L2 performance, L1 loss may not compromise the development of everyday L2 speech.