Search Results (12)

Current structural barriers experienced by First Nations in Canada shape access and engagement for testing and treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections. This non-systematic informative review considers transdisciplinary perspectives, regional data, and published literature connecting context to the disproportionate HCV burden experienced by First Nations populations in the prairie provinces of Canada, and offers examples of participatory and community-led initiatives working toward the elimination of HCV as a public health threat. First Nations in Canada are disproportionately impacted by chronic HCV infection, with a reported rate of newly diagnosed HCV cases in First Nations communities five times the respective rate in the general Canadian population in 2022. This review explores the reasons underlying the disproportionate burden of HCV infection. Significant over-representation of First Nations in the Canadian Prairies is seen in the major risk categories for HCV acquisition, and the impact of these risk factors is aggravated by barriers to accessing healthcare services and medication coverage. These barriers stem from the legacy of colonialism, discrimination, disenfranchisement, and are exacerbated by stigmatization, victimization, and racism in the justice and healthcare systems. Other contributory factors that impede access to care include inadequate healthcare clinic staffing and infrastructure in First Nations communities, and significant geographical distances between First Nations reserves and laboratories, pharmacies, and treating/prescribing healthcare providers. Recent recognition of historical harms and early steps towards nation-to-nation reconciliation, along with support for culturally connected, holistic, and First Nations-led wellness programs, instill hope that elimination strategies to eradicate HCV infection in First Nations populations will be successful in Canada. Full article

The crafts sector, traditionally characterized by its adherence to heritage and small-scale familial enterprises, confronts an array of unprecedented challenges stemming from rapid technological advancement, globalization, climate change, and shifting demographics. This article presents a pioneering investigation into the profound and transformative effects of digitalization on the crafts sector, offering novel insights into the future trajectory of this industry. Through an explorative approach, we critically examine and interrogate the social imaginary underpinning the crafts sector, shedding light on the intricate interplay between tradition and innovation. Leveraging an inter- and transdisciplinary framework, our research brings together academics, experts, and practitioners from diverse regions in Italy and Austria to explore the nexus of digitalization and craft futures. We introduce three future scenarios for the crafts sector, each delineating varying degrees of digitalization and their potential implications. Employing a mixed-method approach encompassing expert interviews, a Delphi survey, focus groups, and scenario development, our study offers a comprehensive exploration of the multifaceted landscape of craft futures. Furthermore, through the visualization of these scenarios, we provide a tangible platform for envisioning and engaging with the myriad possibilities that lie ahead. By synthesizing innovative methodologies from future studies and social imaginaries with a specific focus on the crafts sector, our research offers a robust analytical framework for navigating the complex dynamics of digitalization and envisioning transformative futures. This paper not only illuminates the disruptive forces unleashed by digitalization but also provides strategic insights to inform future decision-making processes within the crafts sector and beyond. Full article

This qualitative interview study examines STEM integration in three diverse elementary schools through the eyes of the teachers and instructional coaches (n = 9) who facilitated the transdisciplinary Box Turtle Model-eliciting Activity (MEA). Prior to implementation, participants attended a full-day professional development workshop in which they experienced the MEA in school-based triads of principals, coaches, and teachers. The educators then implemented the MEA with elementary students from across multiple grade levels. We used the guiding principles of productive disciplinary engagement in our analysis of educator interviews to interpret participants’ perceptions of how an MEA encourages elementary students to (a) problematize real-world scenarios, (b) direct their own learning, and (c) collaborate through meaningful academic discourse. Educators also identified challenges to integrating STEM in elementary classrooms. The Box Turtle MEA offered more equitable access to STEM by positioning students as authorities and providing space for them to be accountable to themselves and others in solving an authentic, real-world problem. Full article

Convergence education, driven by compelling or complex socio-scientific problems, is an approach to bring cultural relevance into secondary STEM education. National trends show the need to increase the STEM workforce by leveraging educational research and innovative practices within the secondary level to increase student interest prior to graduating high school. We introduced CReST (Culturally Relevant STEM) in a US high school pilot study. Student participants included 276 Chemistry students and 19 World History I students. The study also engaged four (4) high school teachers in chemistry and social studies with the challenge of cultural heritage conservation through the lens of the (physicochemical) life cycle of mural paintings in Europe. Teachers were provided with (1) professional development; (2) a digital curriculum; and (3) modular kits for hands-on learning. The research focused qualitatively on the experiences from the teacher and students as well as quantitatively to assess whether there was an increase in student academic performance. We found a statistically significant gain with respect to Chemistry (4.0%) and World History (13.4%) content. Students and teachers responded with overwhelming positivity in individual and focus-group interviews. This amplifies the further need of convergent educational approaches in high school STEM education to enhance engagement and increase student learning. Full article

Calls for more integrated approaches to STEM have reached every sector of education, including formal and nonformal spaces, from early childhood to tertiary levels. The goal of STEM education as an integrated effort shifts beyond acquiring knowledge in any one or combination of STEM disciplines and, instead, focuses on designing solutions to complex, contextual problems that transcend disciplinary boundaries. To realize this goal, we first need to understand what transdisciplinary STEM might actually look and sound like in action, particularly in regard to the nature of student thinking. This paper addresses that need by investigating student reasoning during nonformal STEM-focused learning experiences. We chose four learning episodes, all involving elementary students working on engineering design tasks, to highlight the various ways transdisciplinary thinking might arise or not. In our analysis, we highlight factors that may have supported or hindered the integration of mathematical, scientific, technological, and engineering ways of thinking. For example, the nature of the task, materials provided, and level of adult support influenced the nature of student reasoning. Based on our findings, we provide suggestions for how to promote transdisciplinary thinking in both formal and nonformal spaces. Full article

The paper outlines the challenges municipalities face when it comes to dealing with flood disasters and identifies general concepts for smart solutions that address the challenges and help cities to improve their flood resilience. It follows a unique and novel transdisciplinary approach in that it condenses the scientific literature to the most salient concepts in the fields of big data, digital twins, and remote sensing and support. As for big data applications, their main improvement to conventional flood management stems from the integration of different data streams to improve situational awareness. Digital twins not only help to improve the speed and quality of management decisions by visualizing complex data in a simple and accessible way during a disaster; they can also simulate the evolution of a disaster while taking into account the unique characteristics and conditions of a city, thereby acting as a critical element of an early warning system. Remote sensing and support with UAV solve the problem of physical and informational access to a disaster zone. In conclusion, the paper shows that smart solutions can be of great benefit for flood management, and that cities should strive to enhance existing infrastructure and processes with digital technologies. Full article

Organ-on-chip (OoC) technology bridges the principles of biology and engineering to create a new generation of in vitro models and involves highly interdisciplinary collaboration across STEM disciplines. Training the next generation of scientists, technicians and policy makers is a challenge that requires a tailored effort. To promote the qualification, usability, uptake and long-term development of OoC technology, we designed a questionnaire to evaluate the key aspects for training, identify the major stakeholders to be trained, their professional level and specific skillset. The 151 respondents unanimously agreed on the need to train the next generation of OoC researchers and that the training should be provided early, in interdisciplinary subjects and throughout the researchers’ career. We identified two key training priorities: (i) training scientists with a biology background in microfabrication and microfluidics principles and (ii) training OoC developers in pharmacology/toxicology. This makes training in OoC a transdisciplinary challenge rather than an interdisciplinary one. The data acquired and analyzed here serves to guide training initiatives for preparing competent and transdisciplinary researchers, capable of assuring the successful development and application of OoC technologies in academic research, pharmaceutical/chemical/cosmetic industries, personalized medicine and clinical trials on chip. Full article

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a prototypical inflammation-associated loss of cognitive function, with approximately 90% of the AD burden associated with invading myeloid cells controlling the function of the resident microglia. This indicates that the immune microenvironment has a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of the disease. Multiple peripheral stimuli, conditioned by complex and varied interactions between signals that stem at the intestinal level and neuroimmune processes, are involved in the progression and severity of AD. Conceivably, the targeting of critical innate immune signals and cells is achievable, influencing immune and metabolic health within the gut–brain axis. Considerable progress has been made, modulating many different metabolic and immune alterations that can drive AD development. However, non-pharmacological strategies targeting immunometabolic processes affecting neuroinflammation in AD treatment remain general and, at this point, are applied to all patients regardless of disease features. Despite these possibilities, improved knowledge of the relative contribution of the different innate immune cells and molecules comprising the chronically inflamed brain network to AD pathogenesis, and elucidation of the network hierarchy, are needed for planning potent preventive and/or therapeutic interventions. Moreover, an integrative perspective addressing transdisciplinary fields can significantly contribute to molecular pathological epidemiology, improving the health and quality of life of AD patients. This review is intended to gather modifiable immunometabolic processes based on their importance in the prevention and management of AD. Full article

Sustainable tourism has grown rapidly in the last 35 years, both on the ground and as an area of academic study. However, the results of sustainable tourism development have proven to be mixed, with many unwanted outcomes stemming from its development in destinations around the world. Recent academic approaches to studying sustainable tourism development are increasingly turning towards social–ecological systems (SESs) thinking in order to embrace the inherent complexity and rapid change found in today’s world. This stems partly from an understanding that tourism is a complex social–ecological phenomenon, and that its success relies on understanding its dynamics in a given location. While SES approaches to understanding complex phenomena such as tourism are well-developed, they tend to be resource-intensive and unwieldy in rapidly changing environments, such as those found in sustainable tourism destinations. Therefore, we hypothesized that a novel form of concept mapping based on an SES perspective and the paradigm of resilience thinking could address limitations in conceptualizing and understanding sustainable tourism as part of a larger SES. In this paper, we outline our method thoroughly, then evaluate concept mapping by assessing its effectiveness as a rapid assessment tool that enhances systems understanding while being easy to use in the field, privileging local knowledge, and emphasizing relationships within the SES. We focus on the method and its applicability rather than the results of the maps themselves. Through a case study in Ometepe, Nicaragua, our results showed that concept mapping revealed key drivers and values within the SES and emphasized the value of participatory and transdisciplinary tourism research. Our study demonstrates that concept mapping is an effective method for rapidly assessing the complexity of a tourism destination in a manner that is accessible, adaptable, and achievable. Full article

Efficient transdisciplinary cooperation promotes the rapid discovery and clinical application of new technologies, especially in the competitive sector of oncology. In this review, written from a clinical-scientist point of view, we used glioblastoma—the most common and most aggressive primary brain tumor as a model disease with a largely unmet clinical need, despite decades of intensive research—to promote transdisciplinary medicine. Glioblastoma stem-like cells (GSCs), a special tumoral cell population analogue to healthy stem cells, are considered largely responsible for the progression of the disease and the mediation of therapy resistance. The presented work followed the concept of translational science, which generates the theoretical backbones of translational research projects, and aimed to close the preclinical gap between basic research and clinical application. Thus, this generated an integrated translational precision medicine pipeline model based on recent theoretical and experimental publications, which supports the accelerated discovery and development of new paths in the treatment of GSCs. The work may be of interest to the general field of precision medicine beyond the field of neuro-oncology such as in Cancer Neuroscience. Full article

This article analyzes STEM projects conducted in eight schools with children from 4 to 10 years old in southern Chile. The main purpose of the study was to describe and analyze how these projects can affect students’ and educators’ attitudes and create community capacities to tackle local socioecological challenges. We used an ethnographic design with an intentioned coding process of interviews and participant observations to summarize one year of collaborative and transdisciplinary project building. The results describe the main attitudinal changes of teachers and students and give evidence on how these projects create new links and foster collaborations with local actors and organizations that are usually sidelined from educational experiences. Examples of meaningful learning experiences to tackle sustainability challenges were systematized and shared, to inspire new initiatives, raise new voices, and promote active participation of the new generations to foster socioecological resilience. Full article

Current linguistics is biased towards considering as object of scientific study only verbal language, i.e., ordinary language whose basic entities are words, sentences, and texts. By having this focus, the crucial non-verbal semiotic contributions from acts of bodily communication are left out of consideration. On the face of it, this is a strange situation, because, phenomenologically, when observing a communicating dyad, what appears to the senses is a multimodal semiotic display–the interactants produce acts of total communication, the linguistic part of which has in fact to be disentangled from the integral semiotic behavior. That a human being should in the first place be conceptualized as a ‘talking head’, rather than a ‘communicating body’, stems from at least four historically interrelated fountains: ancient Greek philosophy with its emphasis on logos as meaning both rational mind and verbal language/speech as well as with its rejection of rhetoric (including body language); Cartesian dualistic rationalism where the body was the animal, mechanistic part of a human being, unworthy for the Geisteswissenschaften; Saussure’s formal structuralism with its defocusing of the individual’s performance, parole, and its high focus on societal langue; and Chomskyan linguistics with its neglect of actual, also bodily, performance, and its total focus on an ideal mental grammatical computational competence. With the recent philosophy (‘in the flesh’) of the ‘embodied mind’, time has now come for integrating the (linguistic) head with the (other part of the communicating) body and seeing communication as total communication of the whole body. This means that the communicating mind is no longer restricted to its ‘rational’ aspects but has to be conceived full-scale as integrating also all kinds of ‘irrational’ factors, like emotions and motivations. Another, no less important, implication of the above is that an individual’s ‘language faculty’ is to be understood rather as a faculty of total communication–verbal and non-verbal semiotic behavior is an integrated, multi-modal whole of total communication performed by whole human organisms. Cybersemiotics offers itself here as the meta-theoretical, transdisciplinary framework within which this new paradigm of total communication can be developed. Full article