Search Results (254)

Background/Objectives: Conventional blood collection can be challenging in a non-clinical or home-based setting. In response, vacuum-assisted lancing devices for capillary blood collection (typically from the upper arm) have gained popularity to broaden access to diagnostic testing. However, these devices are often costly relative to the reimbursement rate for common laboratory testing panels. This study describes the design and evaluation of Comfort Draw™, a simplified and economical vacuum-assisted capillary blood collection device. Methods: Comfort Draw™ was evaluated by 12 participants in a preliminary study and by 42 participants in a follow-up study. Metrics assessed included the following: vacuum pressure of the device, skin temperature generated by the Comfort Draw prep warmer, blood collection volume, and analytical accuracy (for 19 common serum-based analytes). Results: Acceptable blood volume (>400 µL) and serum volume (>100 µL) were collected by Comfort Draw in 85.5% and 95.1% of cases, respectively. Seventeen of the nineteen analytes examined were within CLIA acceptance limits compared to matched venous samples. Self-reported pain scores associated with Comfort Draw collection averaged 0.39 on a scale from 0 to 10. Conclusions: In this preliminary clinical study, Comfort Draw was found to be a valid and relatively painless method for collecting capillary blood specimens. The device’s simple design and lower cost could enable broader applications compared to more complex alternative capillary blood collection devices. Full article

Current technological development has made the Internet and new technologies increasingly present in people’s lives, expanding their opportunities but also potentially posing risks for dysfunctional use. This study aims to identify psychopathological factors associated with dysfunctional ICT use, extending the evidence beyond the well-established relationships with mood disorders to include personality disorders (i.e., cluster C in particular). A total of 711 participants (75.70% female; Mage = 28.33 years, SD = 12.30) took part in the data collection. Firstly, the results showed positive correlations between higher levels of addictive patterns for the Internet, social networks, smartphones and applications, and video games and higher levels of borderline symptoms as assessed by the Borderline Symptom List 23—Short Version. Moreover, scores reflecting high addictive patterns also positively correlated with general narcissistic traits as indicated by the total score of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory 13—Short Version and those specifically described by its Entitlement/Exploitativeness dimension, as well as with higher levels of almost all the personality traits assessed by the Personality Inventory for DSM 5—Brief Form (i.e., negative affectivity, detachment, disinhibition, and psychoticism). These findings broaden the still scarce body of evidence on the relationship between personality disorders and dysfunctional ICT use, which, however, needs to be further explored. Full article

Historical cross-sectional approaches examining cognitive aging consistently reveal a pattern of steady decline on nonverbal problem-solving, speeded tasks, and maintenance on verbal tasks. However, as measures developed and broadened the factor structure to align with Cattell–Horn–Carroll (CHC) theory, and age ranges were extended from 75 to 90 years, a more nuanced approach to cognitive aging emerged. The present study, using the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Fifth Edition (WAIS-5), examined the cognitive aging process through a cross-sectional approach. WAIS-5 normative sample data (aligned with the 2022 U.S. census) were obtained from the test publisher. The sample included adult participants aged 20–24 through 85–90 (n = 1660), which were mapped into 11 age groups. Using post-stratification weighting to control for educational attainment, cognitive decline was observed throughout aging; verbal skills were maintained longer than other abilities, while processing speed declined steadily and rapidly from young adulthood to old age. Working memory was vulnerable to the aging process but demonstrated slower patterns of decline than the other vulnerable abilities. Fluid reasoning and visual spatial skills (although aligning with separate CHC broad abilities theoretically) were strikingly similar in their pattern of decline across a person’s lifespan. Results are highly consistent with the large body of cross-sectional research conducted during the previous generation by Salthouse and his colleagues, as well as other teams of researchers. Full article

This paper is based on our engagement in a cross-sector network in Leeds, UK, taking local climate action. It draws on in-depth engagements with participants in this network, to explore how they negotiate being in, while at the same time wanting to push beyond, a climate emergency. We found three emergent trends: a reworked interpretation of the climate emergency through longer-term, holistic, historically grounded, and politicised definitions; novel forms of disruptive, collaborative place leadership that could help respond to this longer emergency; and a value-based focus on a reparative ethics of self-care, people-care, and Earth-care that foregrounds climate justice and accountability to frontline communities. We end by recommending that place-based actors can enhance the effectiveness of their collective action by broadening emergency definitions, developing politics and strategy, and supporting values-based climate justice and equity. Full article

The underlying tension between national park development and local community interests presents a significant challenge for contemporary ecological governance. Resident empowerment (RE) is increasingly recognized as a crucial pathway to mitigate this tension and achieve effective national park governance (NPG). However, the intrinsic mechanisms through which RE influences NPG have not been thoroughly explored in existing research. Drawing on the practice of government–resident interaction in China’s national parks, this paper investigates how the decentralization of power can balance the dual goals of environmental protection and social development. Using Three-River-Source National Park as a case study, we employ an ordered Logit regression model to examine the impact of RE on NPG. The study finds that RE is significantly and positively associated with NPG. Its influence is primarily mediated through three mechanisms: an identity effect (enhancing community belonging), an income effect (improving livelihood capabilities), and an environmental effect (strengthening participation in and perception of ecological conservation). Based on this empirical analysis, we recommend policies that further expand residents’ decision-making and management rights and broaden participation channels, thereby promoting the sustainable development and social equity of NPG. Full article

With the need to ensure equitable and inclusive computer science (CS) education for K-12 students, much effort has been devoted to promoting secondary CS teachers’ practices and pedagogies. However, there is a lack of focus on elementary teachers’ experiences, especially those of teachers of color. This study stands at the intersections of Black/African American teachers teaching at an elementary school with a majority of historically underrepresented and economically disadvantaged students (Black/African Americans and Hispanic/Latinx). Using a basic qualitative approach with constant comparative analysis, this study revealed important insights regarding the professional growth manifested by six teachers of color over the course of computer science professional development and classroom implementation. Data analysis revealed five main themes reflecting the teachers’ growth: (1) Teachers reported positive outcomes including improved understanding, confidence, and intentions regarding CS integration as a result of attending PD; (2) Teachers demonstrated enhanced abilities to use a variety of tools and resources in CS teaching after PD; (3) Teachers discussed various pedagogies, including culturally and personally responsive pedagogical practices, and racial awareness to promote inclusive instruction in the classroom and used strategies to promote personal relevance more than the collective cultural values or beliefs in CS teaching specifically; (4) Teachers reported having ongoing reflections on how they can implement successful CS-integrated instruction with their enhanced knowledge and beliefs; (5) Positive student outcomes were both reported by the teachers and observed by the researchers as a result of teachers’ experimentation, which gave the teachers more confidence to enact CS teaching. Areas for improvement were also identified. This paper discussed the important implementations of fostering professional growth in teachers of color for broadening minoritized students’ participation in computing. Full article

The Language, Culture, and Knowledge-building through Science (LaCuKnoS) project tests and refines a model of science teaching and learning that brings together current research on the role of language in science communication, the role of cultural and community connections in science engagement, and the ways people apply science knowledge to their daily decision making. One key component of the model brings families together as co-learners and co-teachers through family learning experiences. We describe our work to promote more robust family conversations about science in our lives within an existing research practice partnership, using a two-tiered qualitative conversational analysis to compare the family conversations that result from three family engagement models: (a) family science festivals; (b) family science workshops; and (c) family science home learning. More specifically, this paper addresses the question: How do families describe and evaluate science in their lives and communities during family conversations that occur during each of these three engagement models? Discourse analysis using the appraisal dimension of systemic functional linguistics highlights the affective components of families evaluating science in their lives, as well as how each model provided unique affordances for different communicative goals. These findings are used to propose a set of design principles to guide the continued exploration of community-sustaining and family-centric models of family engagement as a key strategy for broadening science participation. Full article

Academic procrastination is a prevalent issue among children, often linked to poorer developmental outcomes. Prior research has uncovered cognitive, motivational, and dispositional antecedents of procrastination, yet its emotional correlates remain underexplored. Given the central role parenting plays in children’s emotional development, examining the emotional pathways through which parenting influences academic procrastination may deepen the understanding of emotional processes underlying academic development. Grounded in the Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions, the present study examined the extent to which emotional resilience and school emotional engagement mediate, both individually and sequentially, the relationship between perceived positive parenting styles and academic procrastination in children. Drawing on three waves of data, this study employed structural equation modeling to assess a chain mediation model. The sample comprised 728 primary school students (Mage = 9.84, SD = 0.77, 49.22% female, range = 8 to 12 years) from Guangzhou, China. Participants completed the assessment at three time points (i.e., November 2021, May 2022, May 2023). The results reveal that perceived positive parenting styles significantly predict lower levels of academic procrastination. Both emotional resilience and school emotional engagement independently mediate the relationship between positive parenting style and academic procrastination. Moreover, this relationship is sequentially mediated by emotional resilience and school emotional engagement. While the mediation effect sizes were relatively small, the study identifies the emotional mechanism through which the perceived positive parenting influences children’s academic procrastination. The preliminary findings contribute to a richer understanding of the emotional underpinnings of academic procrastination and propose potential directions for future research and intervention. Full article

Background: Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) lipidomics is a subset of spatially resolved techniques wherein lipids are detected by mass spectrometry, allowing their multiplexed detection and acquiring position-correlated spectra along a tissue section. Rapid advances in the field provide solid evidence demonstrating how specific and regulated lipid distribution is in any biological context. Objectives: Herein, we describe the MSI, particularly matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI-MSI), challenges and advantages in defining human lung pathophysiology, particularly in lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, leading causes of death. Methods: MALDI-MSI analysis of lung tissue sections at 25 μm of lateral resolution allowed associating specific lipid profiles with the main tissues present and independently assessing the impact on lipid composition of smoking, chronic inflammation, and lung cancer. Results: Consistent with MALDI-MSI studies in tumor epithelia, arachidonic acid-containing phospholipids increased, agreeing with its role as a precursor of numerous bioactive molecules participating in cell differentiation and malignization. Next, a gene expression dataset of epithelial human non-small cell lung cancer samples was analyzed using system biology approaches, revealing that, consistent with the most relevant changes in lipid profiles, the network dominated by the tumor-associated module included genes tightly involved in phosphatidylinositol and sphingolipid metabolism. Hence, despite the intrinsic difficulties entailed by lung tissue handling, the results strongly encourage future analysis at higher lateral resolutions so that the lipidome changes associated with each lung cellular type, even subtype, could be fully mapped. Therefore, MALDI-MSI lipidomics definitively broadens the options, some still rather unexplored, to delve into pathophysiology at the cell-type level. Full article

Background/Objectives: Lower-limb muscle function is traditionally assessed with tests like the five times sit-to-stand test (5STS) and the 30-s chair stand test (30CS). The ADR Encoder, a linear transducer, measures power and velocity during the sit-to-stand test. This study aimed to validate its use as functional indicators of muscle function in older adults. Methods: A cross-sectional study with 114 participants (mean age: 72.92 ± 4.97 years) was conducted. The 5STS, 30CS, power, and speed were measured using the ADR Encoder. Participants were categorized into frail, pre-frail, and robust groups according to the FRAIL Scale. Criterion, intraobserver, and interobserver validity were assessed. Results: Strong correlations (r > 0.7; p < 0.001) were found between power, speed, and both 5STS and 30CS. The interobserver intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for speed was 0.90 and the intraobserver ICC was 0.85. For power, the interobserver ICC was 0.88 and the intraobserver ICC was 0.79, all statistically significant (p < 0.001). Significant differences in power (7.78 W vs. 11.26 W; p < 0.001) and speed (0.40 m/s vs. 0.58 m/s; p < 0.001) were observed between frail and non-frail participants. Conclusions: The ADR Encoder is a valid, reliable tool for measuring power and speed in older adults. Its strong correlations with the 5STS and 30CS demonstrate its clinical relevance, with high reproducibility across observers and time points. Its application in diverse clinical and community settings could broaden its utility in geriatric functional assessment. Full article

Citizen science (CS) is increasingly recognized as a complementary approach for addressing soil health challenges—including erosion, pollution, nutrient imbalances, and biodiversity loss—by harnessing public participation to broaden spatial and temporal data collection. This review synthesizes findings from the following: (i) a systematic analysis of peer-reviewed literature and grey sources, (ii) a database of 96 CS initiatives compiled by the European PREPSOIL project, and (iii) questionnaire surveys and workshops conducted in five Living Labs across Europe. Our analysis indicates that volunteer-driven monitoring can enhance the volume and granularity of soil data, providing critical insights into parameters such as organic carbon content, nutrient levels, and pollutant concentrations. However, persistent challenges remain, including inconsistencies in data validation, volunteer attrition, and concerns regarding digital literacy and data privacy. Despite these challenges, ongoing efforts to standardize protocols, integrate remote sensing and sensor-based validation methods, and employ feedback mechanisms improve data reliability and participant engagement. We conclude that sustained capacity-building, transparent data governance, and stakeholder collaboration, from local communities to governmental bodies, are essential for fully realizing the potential of citizen science in soil conservation. This work is framed within the context of the European Soil Mission, and CS is demonstrated to meaningfully support sustainable land management and evidence-based policymaking by aligning public-generated observations with established scientific frameworks. Full article

Communication of newborn screening (NBS) results often fails to provide clear explanations of NBS screen results to parents. Understanding existing NBS workflows is vital for improving NBS follow-up. We sought to describe a diverse range of state NBS programs as a starting point for designing tools to improve NBS follow-up, using the example of hemoglobinopathy traits. At a workshop of the 2023 Association of Public Health Laboratories NBS Symposium, participants filled out a survey and modeled their state workflows. Salient features were extracted and synthesized by state. A subset of models was member checked. Representatives from 19 U.S. states participated in the workflow analysis. Mail was overwhelmingly relied upon to convey the results. NBS programs differed by point of first contact with parents and degree of reliance on third parties. A participatory approach is useful for the rapid preliminary documentation of existing NBS program diversity and opportunities and challenges to improve patient education and follow-up. Future work should broaden the analysis to additional entities or individuals, particularly parents and caregivers. Full article

Investigating how facial movements can be used to characterize and quantify speech is important, in particular, to aid those suffering from motor control speech disorders. Here, we sought to investigate how facial action units (AUs), previously used to classify human expressions and emotion, could be used to quantify and understand unimpaired human speech. Fourteen (14) adult participants (30.1 ± 7.9 years old), fluent in English, with no speech impairments, were examined. Within each data collection session, 6 video trials per participant per phoneme were acquired (i.e., 102 trials total/phoneme). The participants were asked to vocalize the vowels /æ/, /ɛ/, /ɪ/, /ɒ/, and /ʊ/; the consonants /b/, /n/, /m/, /p/, /h/, /w/, and /d/; and the diphthongs /eI/, /ʌɪ/, /i/, /a:/, and /u:/. Through the use of Python Py-Feat, our analysis displayed the AU contributions for each phoneme. The important implication of our methodological findings is that AUs could be used to quantify speech in populations with no speech disability; this has the potential to be broadened toward providing feedback and characterization of speech changes and improvements in impaired populations. This would be of interest to persons with speech disorders, speech language pathologists, engineers, and physicians. Full article

Interventions have been designed to close achievement gaps in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) disciplines and to remedy the “leaky STEM pipeline”. However, there has been little focus on designing complementary interventions that seek to broaden the youth population who “enter the STEM pipeline”. The current work aims to broaden STEM engagement in youth by developing a STEM intervention using unrecognized forms of cultural capital. These novel, basketball-based interventions were designed to engage a naturally occurring population of youth with pre-existing interest in sports but low levels of pre-existing STEM interest, ranging from the 2nd to the 12th grades. These interventions utilized sports as a venue for informal STEM learning across three variations: a single-hour event, a one-day clinic, and a multi-day camp. Participants’ interest in pursuing a STEM career significantly increased across all three variations of the STEM intervention. Notably, these effect sizes were descriptively larger for programs of longer duration and were significantly stronger for students who reported playing basketball prior to the program. The current work introduces a novel STEM education intervention that has been shown to be repeatedly successful in utilizing students’ pre-existing interest in sports as a bridge to STEM engagement. Full article

In many types of embodied skills instruction, the learnables—that is, the local and jointly negotiated foci of instruction—emerge from a combination between a pre-existing lesson plan and the spontaneous interaction between teacher and student. Through the analytical lens of Conversation Analysis, this paper investigates the interspecies instruction setting of horse-riding lessons and shows how here, it is not only the human teachers and learners that determine the emergence of new learnables but also the horses. Horses’ actions can initiate new courses of action in a lesson, and horses can thus become interactional partners in the instructional project. Horse-led learnables can be initiated in at least three ways: through horses’ displays of mental or physical states that pre-date the instruction sequence; through actions that respond to local contingencies of the instruction sequence; and through actions that respond specifically to the rider’s actions. In the last case, their responses become diagnostic of the rider’s mistakes. In all three cases, the human participants take their cue from the horse and base new learnables on horses’ actions. Human-led learnables can be adjusted, changed, replaced, or abandoned completely in response to horses. The study broadens the emerging field of interspecies pragmatics to include instructional interactions involving the triad of human–human–horse triad. Full article