Catholique De Research Articles

3.D. Round table: Improving equity in health: Understanding and responding to health literacy as a social determinant

Abstract Evidence of a social gradient in health literacy has been found in all reported national population surveys in Europe. This workshop will examine the explanations for this social gradient and explore ways to optimise the contribution that health literacy makes in mediating the causes and effects of established social determinants of health. This will include consideration of practical approaches to improving health literacy in socially disadvantaged populations as a contribution to reducing health inequities within and across European countries. The workshop will explore the concept of critical health literacy and the potential to improve public awareness of and capacity to act on the wider social determinants of health. It will also draw upon existing evidence from interventions that demonstrate the feasibility of improving health literacy among higher-risk and diverse populations. This will include consideration of approaches to improving frontline professional skills and support; approaches to organizational and systems health literacy, working directly with people to develop critical skills in accessing, understanding and applying health information; and ensuring that in public health policy, priority is proportionate to need - reaching and engaging the population groups disproportionately affected by low health literacy. Recognising that research remains underdeveloped and the effects of interventions on health inequity are largely untested, the workshop will also consider where the most important research gaps exist and where future health literacy research should be prioritised. The workshop chair will provide introductory and summary remarks to the workshop. The co-chair will manage the panel discussion and audience participation in the workshop. The individual panel members will make 3-minute introductions to key issues from different perspectives examining the mediating and moderating role of health literacy in addressing the social determinants of health. The panel is made up of individuals from academic and policy roles and at different career stages who can offer complementary perspectives on these issues. Following the presentations, the co-chair will present some follow-up questions to the panel before engaging directly with the workshop participants for an open discussion scheduled to last for 30 minutes of the workshop. Key messages • Improving health literacy is not a panacea for entrenched inequities in health but can help moderate the impact on health of other social determinants and provide an important practical response. • Public health policy and practice intended to improve health literacy should prioritise reaching and engaging the population groups disproportionately affected by low health literacy. Speakers/Panelists Gill Rowlands Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK Stephan Van den Broucke Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium Ana Rita Pedro NOVA National School of Public Health, Lisbon, Portugal Christina Dietscher Austrian Ministry of Health, Vienna, Austria Susie Sykes London South Bank University, London, UK

Spatial analysis of disaster resilience research: A bibliometric study

We analyzed the global disaster resilience research literature to advance understanding of its geographical context. A key objective was to map the variation in disaster research resilience activity to identify hotspots and areas of less activity. The motivation is to reveal regional imbalances in resilience research and collaboration to contribute to the global narrative regarding marginalized regions. The methodology involves an in-depth examination of Web of Science (WoS) bibliographic data from 2010 to 2020, using keywords to develop a comprehensive perspective of disaster resilience research. Additionally, the study incorporates empirical data from the Emergency Events Data (EM-DAT) maintained by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Hazards at the Université Catholique de Louvain (CRED/UCLouvain) to provide context on the impact of disasters. A key innovation of this study is the Disaster Resilience Research Score (DRRS), a quantifiable metric to evaluate the state of disaster resilience research globally by country. The DRRS considers publications, citations, and institutional involvement to provide a well-rounded view of each country's contributions to the field. The results highlight the leading role in disaster resilience research of countries including the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy. However, there is a notable lack of research activity in countries such as Ecuador, Algeria, Kenya, Cambodia, and Myanmar, which also exhibit relatively high vulnerability to environmental hazards. Our findings indicate that countries identified as resilience hotspots predominantly collaborate within their country. This study highlights opportunities for strengthening collaborations between resilience research hotspots and locations less represented in the resilience research literature. It underscores the importance of identifying hot and cold spots to direct future research and foster a more equitable and sustainable response to climate change and hazards.

Assessing Functional Capacity in Directly and Remotely Monitored Home-Based Settings in Individuals With Chronic Respiratory Diseases: Protocol for a Multinational Validation Study.

Pulmonary rehabilitation is widely recommended to improve functional status and as secondary and tertiary prevention in individuals with chronic pulmonary diseases. Unfortunately, access to timely and appropriate rehabilitation remains limited. To help close this inaccessibility gap, telerehabilitation has been proposed. However, exercise testing is necessary for effective and safe exercise prescription. Current gold-standard tests, such as maximal cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) and the 6-minute walk test (6MWT), are poorly adapted to home-based or telerehabilitation settings. This was an obstacle to the continuity of services during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is essential to validate tests adapted to these new realities, such as the 6-minute stepper test (6MST). This test, strongly inspired by 6MWT, consists of taking as many steps as possible on a "stepper" for 6 minutes. This study aims to evaluate the metrological qualities of 6MST by (1) establishing concurrent validity and agreement between the 6MST and CPET, as well as with the 6MWT; (2) determining test-retest reliability in a home-based setting with direct and remote (videoconferencing) monitoring; and (3) documenting adverse events and participant perspectives when performing the 6MST in home-based settings. Three centers (Centre de recherche de l'Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec in Québec, Groupement des Hôpitaux de l'Institut Catholique de Lille in France, and FormAction Santé in France) will be involved in this multinational project, which is divided into 2 studies. For study 1 (objective 1), 30 participants (Québec, n=15; France, n=15) will be recruited. Two laboratory visits will be performed to assess anthropometric data, pulmonary function, and the 3 exercise tolerance tests (CPET, 6MWT, and 6MST). Concurrent validity (paired sample t tests and Pearson correlations) and agreement (Bland-Altman plots with 95% agreement limits) will be evaluated. For study 2 (objectives 2 and 3), 52 participants (Québec, n=26; France, n=26) will be recruited. Following a familiarization trial (trial 1), the 6MST will be conducted on 2 separate occasions (trials 2 and 3), once under direct supervision and once under remote supervision, in a randomized order. Paired sample t test, Bland-Altman plots, and intraclass correlations will be used to compare trials 2 and 3. A semistructured interview will be conducted after the third trial to collect participants' perspectives. Ethical approval was received for this project (October 12, 2023, in Québec and September 25, 2023, in France) and the first participant was recruited in February 2024. This study innovates by validating a new clinical test necessary for the development and implementation of new models of rehabilitation adapted to home and telerehabilitation contexts. This study also aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by contributing to augmenting health care service delivery (goal 3) and reducing health care access inequalities (goal 11). ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06447831; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06447831. DERR1-10.2196/57404.

Baby HABIT-ILE intervention: study protocol of a randomised controlled trial in infants aged 6–18 months with unilateral cerebral palsy

IntroductionResearch using animal models suggests that intensive motor skill training in infants under 2 years old with cerebral palsy (CP) may significantly reduce, or even prevent, maladaptive neuroplastic changes following...

DCB Bonding Energy Measurement Using Confocal IR Microscopy

Direct bonding is a widely used technique in the semiconductor industry. Many materials can be assembled and stacked together with this technique, enabling the fabrication of many useful structures. The direct bonding technique is, for instance, a major step of the Smart Cut ™ process flow enabling the industrial-scale production of Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) substrates [1][2]. Material diversification in the microelectronics industry (i.e. “More than Moore” approach) imposes new technological constraints. The substrate bonding process control has to be improved calling for more and more accurate bonding energy measurement protocols.In this work, a new technique is assessed in order to measure, at the wafer scale, direct bonding energies. It is derived from the standard Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) method [3] and uses interferometry in confocal IR laser source microscopy to measure crack openings (Fig. 1A) [4][5][6]. Such a bonding energy measurement protocol shows a better accuracy compared to other techniques (Fig. 1B & 1D). This is due to a better confocal microscopy resolution and the high intensity of the laser source. The elastic energy stored in bent wafers is obtained by measuring the beam curvature [7][8]. DCB deformation models are discussed from short-range crack opening to long distance beam-bending theories. Comparison is done between results from analytic models, Finite Element Model (FEM) and experiments (Fig. 1C).Near-bonding edge zone modeled with FEM simulation accurately matches experimental data. A new mechanical and universal bending model, valid at both small and large scales, is proposed. With this model, bonding energy extraction is then reduced to a simple scaling parameter extraction directly linked to the stored elastic strain energy (Fig 1C & 1D) [9]. This work opens prospects for deformation and bonding energy measurements in various configurations including bonded heterostructures, polymer, and metal bonding. [1] Bruel, Electron. Lett. 31, 1201 (1995).[2] K. Celler, A.-J. Auberton-Hervé, B. Aspar, C. Lagahe-Blanchard, and C. Maleville, in Wafer Bonding Applications and Technology, Springer Series in Materials Science, edited by M. Alexe and U. Gosele, Springer, Berlin (2004).[3] Maszara, G. Goetz, A. Caviglia, and J. B. Mckitterick, J. Appl. Phys. 64, 4943 (1988).[4] Wu, S. Gowrishankar, R. Huang et al., Int. J. Fract. 202, 1–19 (2016).[5] Gowrishankar, H. Mei, K. M. Liechti et al., Int. J. Fract. 177, 109–128 (2012).[6] Pallares, L. Ponson, A. Grimaldi, M. George, G. Prevot, and M. Ciccotti, Int. J. Fract. 156, 11–20 (2009).[7] Bertholet, “Measurement, optimization and multiscale modeling of silicon wafer bonding interface fracture resistance,” Ph.D. thesis (Catholique de Louvain, 2006).[8] Olbrechts, B. Lejeune, Y. Bertholet, T. Pardoen, and J.-P. Raskin, ECS Trans. 3(6), 279–289 (2006).[9] Colonel, A. Calvez, F. Fournel et al., J. Appl. Phys. 132, 215106 (2022). Fig. 1: A – (Top) Four pasted IR confocal microscope images acquired during the DCB testing (the vertical red dashed line shows the closing point’s fitted position). (Bottom) Air gap height measured as a function of pixel position.B – Simulated reflected intensity (left y-axis) and experimental reflected intensity (right y-axis), both as functions of the estimated distance from the closure point x. The vertical dashed grey line shows the real experimental closing point.C – Air gap height as a function of the position/thickness ratio (in log/log scales) for different analytical and numerical models and experimental data.D – Bonding energies including errors obtained with the standard length measurement method, the curvature interpolation method, the scaling method, or J-integral calculation from FEM as functions of the annealing temperature. Figure 1

Communicating Your Way Through Clashing Cultures

This article examines the handling of Socially Acute Questions (SAQs) in the English language classroom. SAQs have been described as complex and controversial issues that are considered acute in society, in research and professional domains, and in educational contexts. Although intercultural communicative competence (ICC) is being encouraged by our educational authorities, teachers feel at a loss as to how to achieve that learning outcome in their teaching-learning units (TLUs). Many of them have encountered problems and even conflict when trying to deal with SAQs. Even though they are struggling with a sense of frustration, they continue to consider that addressing such issues in their TLUs is key to 21st-century education. In this article, a customizable toolbox is proposed that second language (L2) teachers can draw from to foster and facilitate constructive intercultural dialogue when dealing with SAQs in their increasingly diverse English language classrooms. It starts off with a literature review providing perspectives on SAQs from transdisciplinarity, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), and the Pedagogy of Encounter. It continues with an introduction to safe spaces, brave spaces, and story circles, as well as an overview of relevant concepts from cross-cultural pragmatics. The methods section then gives a detailed action-research-driven account of a racist incident that occurred in the author’s intervention group, a conversation class at the language institute of Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Belgium. Drawing from the literature review as well as the case study, and in the absence of institutional support to handle SAQs appropriately, the article concludes with a proposal for a customizable SAQs toolbox, meeting the stakeholders’ (the L2 learners’ and teachers’) academic expectations as well as emotional needs. Little or no work has been done so far on how to deal with SAQs in tertiary education. The actionable roadmap proposed in this article tries to bridge that gap. Even though the case study focuses on racism in the English language classroom, the customizable toolbox can be adapted across languages, academic disciplines, and other forms of discrimination.

The Poverty of Radical Ecological Economics: A Critique of Clive Spash from the Viewpoint of the Austrian School

Abstract This paper delves into the work of Clive L. Spash, a British radical ecological economist well-known in his field who currently holds a professorship at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. We start with an examination of the principles of his “social ecological economics.” We then critically evaluate his attack on economic growth and his perspective on the standard economic models of climate change. Lastly, we explore his approach to science as a theoretical pursuit and his policy recommendations. The first version of this paper was given as a keynote lecture at the 7th Austrian Economics Meeting Europe, May 12-13, 2023, Université Catholique de l’Ouest, Angers, France, and a second version at the Summer University in Political Economy, July 20-22, 2023, Aix-Marseille University, France. I wish to thank the organizers of these conferences, and also the anonymous referees whose remarks have been taken into account to improve the paper.

Quantifying exchangeable base cations in permafrost: a reserve of nutrients about to thaw

Abstract. Permafrost ecosystems are limited in nutrients for vegetation development and constrain the biological activity to the active layer. Upon Arctic warming, permafrost thaw exposes large amounts of soil organic carbon (SOC) to decomposition and minerals to weathering but also releases organic and mineral soil material that may directly influence the soil exchange properties (cation exchange capacity, CEC, and base saturation, BS). The soil exchange properties are key for nutrient base cation supply (Ca2+, K+, Mg2+, and Na+) for vegetation growth and development. In this study, we investigate the distributions of soil exchange properties within Arctic tundra permafrost soils at Eight Mile Lake (Interior Alaska, USA) because they will dictate the potential reservoir of newly thawed nutrients and thereby influence soil biological activity and vegetation nutrient sources. Our results highlight much lower CEC density in surface horizons (∼9400 cmolc m−3) than in the mineral horizons of the active layer (∼16 000 cmolc m−3) or in permafrost soil horizons (∼12 000 cmolc m−3). Together, with the overall increase in CEC density with depth and the overall increase in BS (percentage of CEC occupied by exchangeable base cations Ca2+, K+, Mg2+, and Na+) with depth (from ∼19 % in organic surface horizons to 62 % in permafrost soil horizons), the total exchangeable base cation density (Ca2+, K+, Mg2+, and Na+ in g m−3) is up to 5 times higher in the permafrost than in the active layer. More specifically, the exchangeable base cation density in the 20 cm upper part of permafrost about to thaw is ∼850 g m−3 for Caexch, 45 g m−3 for Kexch, 200 g m−3 for Mgexch, and 150 g m−3 for Naexch. This estimate is needed for future ecosystem prediction models to provide constraints on the size of the reservoir in exchangeable nutrients (Ca, K, Mg, and Na) about to thaw. All data described in this paper are stored in Dataverse, the online repository of Université catholique de Louvain, and are accessible through the following DOI: https://doi.org/10.14428/DVN/FQVMEP (Mauclet et al., 2022b).

News from the European Journal of Therapeutics: A new issue and a new editorial board

News from the European Journal of Therapeutics: A new issue and a new editorial board

A Team for Unique Molecular Imaging Based in South Africa

AbstractThis invited Team Profile was created by the Ebenhan Lab (Professor Thomas Ebenhan and Professor Jan Rijn Zeevaart) at the Preclinical Imaging Facility, Nuclear Medicine Research Infrastructure (NuMeRI) NPC, Pretoria (South Africa) in collaboration with Arno C. Gouws, Professor Hendrik G. Kruger, and Professor Tricia Naicker from the Catalysis and Peptide Research Unit at the University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban (South Africa); Professor Olivier Gheysens from the Department of Nuclear Medicine, Cliniques Universitaires Saint‐Luc and Institute of Clinical and Experimental Research, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels (Belgium); and ProfessorThavendran Govender from the Department of Chemistry, University of Zululand, KwaDlangezwa (South Africa). Researchers at these institutes have a 10‐year track record of joint publications. The review written by this collaboration provides a summary of the relevant antibiotic‐derived PET radiotracers, grouped either by radiotracer development for infection imaging, or radio‐antibiotic PET imaging for pharmacologic drug characterization. The review includes a critical, in‐depth evaluation, addressing the challenges and pitfalls of developing antibiotic‐derived PET radiotracers as infection imaging agents. “Antibiotic‐Derived Radiotracers for Positron Emission Tomography: Nuclear or ‘Unclear' Infection Imaging?”, A. C. Gouws, H. G. Kruger, O. Gheysens, J. R. Zeevaart, T. Govender, T. Naicker, T. Ebenhan, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2022, e202204955.

A Team for Unique Molecular Imaging Based in South Africa.

This invited Team Profile was created by the Ebenhan Lab (Professor Thomas Ebenhan and Professor Jan Rijn Zeevaart) at the Preclinical Imaging Facility, Nuclear Medicine Research Infrastructure (NuMeRI) NPC, Pretoria (South Africa) in collaboration with Arno C. Gouws, Professor Hendrik G. Kruger, and Professor Tricia Naicker from the Catalysis and Peptide Research Unit at the University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban (South Africa); Professor Olivier Gheysens from the Department of Nuclear Medicine, Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc and Institute of Clinical and Experimental Research, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels (Belgium); and ProfessorThavendran Govender from the Department of Chemistry, University of Zululand, KwaDlangezwa (South Africa). Researchers at these institutes have a 10-year track record of joint publications. The review written by this collaboration provides a summary of the relevant antibiotic-derived PET radiotracers, grouped either by radiotracer development for infection imaging, or radio-antibiotic PET imaging for pharmacologic drug characterization. The review includes a critical, in-depth evaluation, addressing the challenges and pitfalls of developing antibiotic-derived PET radiotracers as infection imaging agents. "Antibiotic-Derived Radiotracers for Positron Emission Tomography: Nuclear or 'Unclear' Infection Imaging?", A. C. Gouws, H. G. Kruger, O. Gheysens, J. R. Zeevaart, T. Govender, T. Naicker, T. Ebenhan, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2022, e202204955.

R. Ross Holloway, 1934–2022

R. Ross Holloway, 1934–2022

Hand-Arm Bimanual Intensive Therapy Including Lower Extremities (HABIT-ILE) in adults with chronic stroke: protocol of a randomised controlled trial

IntroductionStroke causes multiple deficits including motor, sensitive and cognitive impairments, affecting also individual’s social participation and independence in activities of daily living (ADL) impacting their quality of life. It has...

Guest Editorial: Guest Editorial on Cryptanalysis of (NIST PQC) post‐quantum proposals

Public-key cryptography is now ubiquitous in our lives, protecting everyday interactions ranging from mobile and wireless communications to banking transactions, over-the-air software updates, electronic voting or digital car keys. However, almost the entirety of currently deployed public-key cryptography implementations rely on the hardness of integer factorisation or computing discrete logarithms, and both problems are known to be easy to solve using large-scale quantum computers. Whether such large-scale computers are years away, decades away or more remains to be seen, but since they would break the security of so many critical systems essentially overnight, preparing the transition from classical cryptography to so-called post-quantum primitives, which are believed to be secure even against quantum computers, is seen as necessary and urgent—particularly as updating existing systems is likely to be a lengthy process, and some systems rely on the security of cryptographic keys over long periods of time. In view of these challenges, starting in 2016, US standards institute NIST has been running a standardisation effort in order to come up with post-quantum encryption and signature schemes ready for deployment. The first four selected primitives have been announced in July 2022, with other schemes undergoing further analysis. Concurrently, other countries, such as the Republic of Korea, have launched similar standardisation processes. One of the difficulties involved in running such standardisation processes and selecting primitives is security estimation: in order to set parameters for candidate schemes and to make apple-to-apple comparisons between them, consistent security levels need to be defined, and evidence that the schemes achieve those levels needs to be provided. This is typically done by estimating the cost of the best attacks (both classical and quantum) against the proposed constructions. Cryptanalysis is thus an essential tool for design and standardisation. Not only does it allow to provide and progressively refine security estimates, it also sometimes eliminates entire schemes, plain and simple, by uncovering serious security flaws. Both applications of cryptanalysis have been extensively represented in the NIST standardisation process in particular. ‘Quantum Algorithms for Attacking Hardness Assumptions in Classical and Post-Quantum Cryptography’, by J.-F. Biasse, X. Bonnetain, E. Martin, E. Kirshanova, A. Schrottenloher and F. Song, on quantum cryptanalysis; ‘Recent Progress in the Security Evaluation of Multivariate Public-Key Cryptography’, by Y. Ikematsu, S. Nakamura and T. Takagi, on multivariate cryptography; ‘Lattice-Based Cryptosystems in Standardization Processes: A Survey’, by A. Wang, D. Xiao and Y. Yu, on lattice-based cryptography; and ‘Torsion point attacks on `SIDH-like' cryptosystems’, by P. Kutas and C. Petit, on isogeny-based cryptography. Since some post-quantum proposals rely on relatively new assumptions that have only received much scrutiny as part of the standardisation processes, their cryptanalysis is a fast-changing landscape. Very recent, dramatic developments include W. Beullens' cryptanalysis of the Rainbow multivariate signature, and W. Castryk and T. Decru's cryptanalysis of the SIKE isogeny-based KEM (along with several follow-ups). Both Rainbow and SIKE were serious contenders for eventual standardisation. Those surprising results, which appeared too late to be captured in this special issue, are thus further testimonies to the utmost importance of cryptanalytic work as part of standardisation efforts. We therefore hope that the contributions included in this special issue will be of great value to the community, insofar as they record, and present in an accessible way, important results towards the goal of obtaining secure and dependable standards for post-quantum cryptography. Data sharing not applicable to this article as no data sets were generated or analysed during the current study. Ayoub Otmani obtained a Ph.D. degree in Mathematics and its Applications from the University of Limoges (France) in 2002. He is currently Professor in Computer Science at University of Rouen Normandie. His research lies in coding theory and cryptography. Christophe Petit obtained a PhD in Cryptography at Université catholique de Louvain. He is now Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham and Université libre de Bruxelles. His research focuses on cryptanalysis and mathematical aspects of cryptography, particularly on isogeny-based cryptography. An alumni of ENS (Paris, France), Mehdi Tibouchi obtained his Ph.D. in computer science from Univ. Paris VII and Univ. Luxembourg in 2011. He is now distinguished researcher at NTT Corporation (Tokyo, Japan) and guest associate professor at Kyoto University (Kyoto, Japan). His research interests cover various mathematical aspects of public-key cryptography and cryptanalysis, particularly related to elliptic curves and Euclidean lattices.

Analiza tendencije učestalosti poplava u svetu

The paper deals with the hypothesis that floods in the last few decades recorded an extreme increase in frequency. As analysis of the number of events is the first step in the flood risk modelling, an empirical study was conducted based on data from the natural disaster database of the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. The Mann Kendall Trend Test is used to identify a tendency in a series (the number of floods from 1960 to 2022 in the world) by testing statistical hypotheses and a randomness check in its variations, i. e. determining whether the time series has a tendency. The test determined that the flood frequency tendency is statistically significant. Based on measures of representativeness of the tendency, standard error and mean average deviation, an exponential regression curve was chosen with a coefficient of determination of 0.8807. With a relatively high coefficient of determination value, the model gives a solid basis for predicting those events in the future, but this property could certainly be improved.

Call for Papers - 9th Multinational Energy and Value Conference ESG in the Energy Sector

You are cordially invited to submit your research papers for presentation consideration at the CEVI conference that will take place on May 11th-13th, 2023. This conference, hosted by the LIDAM group of the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), will be organized both in person and online and aims at bringing together academics and practitioners from all over the world to focus on timely energy finance and investments, financial performance, energy markets and valuation issues in the energy sector.

Notes on Contributors

Ron Ben-Tovim is a senior lecturer at Ben Gurion University's Department of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics, where he focuses on modern and contemporary war literature, with a special interest in trauma and disability studies. His book Poetic Prosthetics: Trauma and Language in Contemporary Veteran Writing is forthcoming via the Edinburgh University Press series Advances in Critical Military Studies.Sophus Helle is a postdoctoral researcher at Freie Universität Berlin. His research focuses on Babylonian epic poetry, especially Gilgamesh, and the Sumerian poems of Enheduana, both of which he has translated into Danish and English. His latest project explores the poetics of philology.Theresa Krampe is a doctoral researcher at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC) at Giessen University and a lecturer in media studies and media education at Osnabrück University, Germany. Her PhD project focusses on the forms and functions of metareference in videogames. Publications include “No Straight Answers: Queering Hegemonic Masculinity in BioWare's Mass Effect” (Game Studies 2018) and “The World Machine: Self-Reflexive Worldmaking in OneShot,” published in the edited volume Game | World | Architectonics (ed. Marc Bonner, Heidelberg UP 2021).Spencer Lee-Lenfield is a PhD candidate in the Department of Comparative Literature at Yale University. His other research has appeared or will soon appear in Modern Language Quarterly and the Proceedings of the Modern Language Association. His current dissertation research focuses on translation between Korean and English in the Korean diaspora.Stephanie Lotzow is a PhD candidate at the Giessen Graduate Centre for Humanities (GGK) and research assistant at the German Department of Justus-Liebig-University of Giessen, Germany. In her teaching, she focuses on critical media analysis in contemporary German culture. As speaker of the Game Studies Working Group at GGK, she organizes interdisciplinary workshops on the academic study of videogames. Her PhD project presents a ludo-narratological theory for analyzing forms and functions of perturbations in horror games.Marina Ludwigs is a docent at the English Department of Stockholm University. Her specializations include narratology, generative anthropology, Girard's Mimetic Theory, and philosophy of explanation in the humanities. She has recently worked with the questions of paradox and reverse causality. Her recent articles on this topic are “Hierarchical Thinking, Grammatical Structures, and the Originary Scene” (Anthropoetics, 2020) and “Retrieving the Paradox: Freud's Death Drive and the Originary Concept of Deferral” (Anthropoetics, 2022). She is currently working on an interdisciplinary project on the topic of events and eventfulness in literature and science.Jeremy Page is a Sydney-based designer, writer, and (currently) independent researcher, with particular interests in aesthetics, phenomenology, and the various ways in which philosophy intersects with poetry and the arts. He holds a BA with double majors in writing and philosophy, a master's of creative writing, a master's of research (English), and a PhD in English from Macquarie University, with a dissertation exploring the intersections of phenomenology, music, and contemporary American poetry. His creative and scholarly works have been published in Cordite, Meanjin, Journal of New Music Research, and Journal of Aesthetics and Phenomenology. He can be reached at jeremy.page1@hdr.mq.edu.au.Brian Richardson teaches at the University of Maryland. His most recent works include A Poetics of Plot for the Twenty-First Century: Theorizing Unruly Narratives (2019), Essays on Narrative and Fictionality: Reassessing Nine Central Concepts (2021), and Unnatural Narratology: Extensions, Revisions, and Challenges, coedited with Jan Alber (2020). His website is https://brianerichardson.weebly.com.Jan-Noël Thon is professor and chair of media studies and media education at Osnabrück University, Germany. Recent books include From Comic Strips to Graphic Novels (coedited with Daniel Stein, 2013), Storyworlds across Media (coedited with Marie-Laure Ryan, 2014), Game Studies (coedited with Klaus Sachs-Hombach, 2015), Transmedial Narratology and Contemporary Media Culture (2016), Subjectivity across Media (coedited with Maike Sarah Reinerth, 2017), Comicanalyse (coauthored with Stephan Packard, Andreas Rauscher, Véronique Sina, Lukas R. A. Wilde, and Janina Wildfeuer, 2019), and Comics and Videogames (coedited with Andreas Rauscher and Daniel Stein, 2021).Helena Van Praet is a teaching assistant in Dutch literature and PhD student in comparative literature at Université catholique de Louvain. Her research focuses on the experimental poetry of contemporary poets Rozalie Hirs and Anne Carson. Her articles have appeared in Canadian Literature, English Text Construction, and Studies in Canadian Literature/Études en littérature canadienne.

Correction: Mahmoudi et al. Solvent-Induced Formation of Novel Ni(II) Complexes Derived from Bis-Thiosemicarbazone Ligand: An Insight from Experimental and Theoretical Investigations. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22, 5337

We received a complaint from the Université Catholique de Louvain [...].

International collaboration to improve physiotherapists' training, Viet Nam.

Like most low- and middle-income countries, Viet Nam has a scarcity of rehabilitation professionals and lacks training programmes that meet international standards. In 2018, four Vietnamese medical universities, the Université Catholique de Louvain, the Université Libre de Bruxelles, the Humanity & Inclusion charity and World Physiotherapy agreed to collaborate on strengthening pre-service education for physiotherapists in the country. Viet Nam has a favourable environment for nurturing rehabilitation services and education: development funds have been available; government investment is increasing; and rehabilitation education has existed for many decades. The collaboration resulted in the establishment of: (i)a 4-year, competency-based, entry-level curriculum for physiotherapists (bachelor's degree); (ii)opportunities for continuing professional development; (iii)a 2-year master's programme for physiotherapy lecturers and clinical supervisors; and (iv)a national physiotherapy association. In addition, four students were supported in studying for PhD degrees. Strong collaboration and comprehensive and complementary interventions have laid the foundations for sustainable, high-quality, educational programmes for physiotherapists, which will improve access to, and the standard of, rehabilitation services in Viet Nam, thereby leading to better patient outcomes. Curricula for entry-level physiotherapy programmes should be competency-based, be actively managed by national educators and meet international standards while being responsive to local priorities. To strengthen the rehabilitation workforce, educators involved in teaching and supervising training programmes should have the skills and knowledge required. A national professional physiotherapy association should be established to provide continuing professional development for physiotherapists and to take part in international collaborations.

Environmental integration tool approach: Self-determined commitment and the adoption of pro-environmental behaviors.

This paper discusses the role of self-determined commitment in the methodological dynamics of the Environmental Integration Tool Producer (EIT Producer) and its potential impact on the adoption of pro-environmental behaviors by local economy actors in the Global South. This tool is part of the EIT Approach developed by Louvain Coopération, the NGO associated with Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium), which aims to support social actors in productivity and consumption activities in Africa, Andean America, and Asia. The aim is to highlight the conceptual and methodological elements of the OIE Producer, in order to understand the role of self-determined commitment in the expected ends and in the impact of the tool. The integration between economic development and the environment is a central issue in the challenges of contemporary global society. This article intends to contribute with answers to such challenges, especially with regard to the development of methodologies that are effective in governmental and non-governmental cooperation programs engaged for sustainable development.