National Home Research Articles

Involving patients and the public in research using linked confidential patient information without consent: a case study on the COloRECTal cancer data Repository (CORECT-R)

Objective and ApproachIn 2017, the charity Cancer Research UK funded a UK Colorectal Cancer Intelligence Hub to create the COloRECTal cancer data Repository (CORECT-R). This was intended to be a single research data system that links all datasets across the UK relevant to colorectal cancer and makes them available for research. As the four home nations (i.e. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) have distinct data governance policies, data access and linkage has proven challenging. It has not yet been possible to create a UK-wide resource, hence limiting the potential of the data available. To address this, the Hub has recently sought to gain new governance approvals to link data from the four home nations. As part of this process, we aimed to investigate public acceptability of using confidential patient information (CPI) without consent in CORECT-R. ResultsSeventy-five participants from a diverse background attended one of four online consultation sessions. Participants raised a number of issues and concerns, including ensuring transparency in the access and use of CPI by academic and commercial partners, and being well-informed of how to opt-out. With open communication and explanation of our approach, participants gave almost unanimous support on the intended CPI use. ImplicationsInnovation and collaboration between researchers, data custodians and the public are essential to drive responsible and meaningful uses of population data. We showed an exemplar of embedding patient and public involvement in designing data linkage research. Key areas identified from the sessions will form the basis of future consultations.

Can awareness reduce (and reverse) identity-driven bias in judgement? Evidence from international cricket

Competitions often suffer from biased judgments by officials tied to their social identities. In international cricket, home nation umpires favoured home teams, but neutral umpires were introduced successfully to address this bias. However, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the return of home umpires, creating a natural experiment amid heightened scrutiny, modern technology, and sometimes empty stadiums. Consistent with the predictions of our behavioural model, we find no evidence of in-group bias during the pandemic; instead, we observe evidence of over-compensation. The pre-pandemic home team advantage in ‘leg before wicket’ decisions vanished, with home umpires seemingly favouring the away opposition, compared with neutral umpires in the period before, especially in more marginal or difficult decisions. This suggests that awareness and scrutiny can not only eliminate identity-driven judgement bias but may even reverse it.

Immigration Narrative and Home Prices

This study characterizes the relationship between U.S. National Home Prices and Immigration Narrative as portrayed on TV news. Integrating Narrative Economics and Natural Language Processing (NLP) sentiment analysis, I analyze a large dataset of 1.96 million TV news transcripts spanning July 2009 to December 2023 to capture the sentiment of the Immigration Narrative. Immigration Narrative Sentiment and U.S. Home Prices are associated. One standard deviation orthogonalized shock to the sentiment Granger-causes a statistically significant and economically meaningful increase in the Case–Shiller U.S. National Home Price. The cumulative increase is equivalent to about 26 percent of the average monthly change during the sample period. Moreover, the effect of a shock to the Immigration Narrative Sentiment on Home Prices is permanent, suggesting that the Immigration Narrative contains fundamental information about Home Prices not captured by standard economic variables. Conversely, there is no evidence that Home Price variation affects Immigration Narrative.

A critical endeavour? Supporting teachers’ journeys towards critical engagement with curriculum in physical education through cross-border dialogue

ABSTRACT For decades, scholars have advocated for critical perspectives in Physical Education (PE), encouraging more creative and inclusive ways of thinking about and doing PE. Unfortunately, this critical work has had limited impact on how PE is conceptualised – within curricula or by teachers - both in the United Kingdom (UK) and internationally. As such, there is a pressing need to consider how we might advance this agenda. Working with PE teachers from across the four home nation of the UK (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales), we organised a series of workshops to enable PE teachers from across these contexts to reflect on and discuss their respective curricula. This novel approach – of engaging in cross-border dialogue - was found to have potential for fostering critical thinking around PE curricula. Indeed, teachers were supported to begin thinking more critically through learning about other curriculum contexts and considering alternative possibilities for PE and their learners – though persistent challenges around blocks of activity and teaching games were acknowledged. We argue that these teachers are on the (challenging) journey of becoming critical, but time and support is necessary to interrogate prevailing discourses in PE and allow new ways of thinking to emerge.

إرث بلفور: بريطانيا والصهيونية والطريق المثير للجدل إلى قيام إسرائيل

The research provides an overview of the rise of the Zionist movement, starting from the establishment of the Jewish Colonial Society in 1891 by Maurice de Hirsch, leading to the formation of the World Zionist Organization and the creation of the Jewish National Fund in 1901. It discusses the controversial debates over the location of a Jewish homeland, including the Uganda Scheme, and the advocacy for Palestine by figures like Herzl. The impact of World War I on the Middle East was influenced by the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 and the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which supported the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. The British Mandate in Palestine, established after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, had significant impacts on Jewish immigration, Arab displacement, and the road to statehood. The United Nations eventually issued a resolution in 1947 to divide Palestine into two states, one for Jews and one for Arabs. This was accepted by Jews but rejected by Arab states. Great Britain's actions towards the end of the mandate aimed to frustrate the establishment of the Jewish state envisioned by the United Nations plan. Drawing on primary and secondary sources from esteemed archives such as the British Library and personal accounts, this research seeks to elucidate the complex historical backdrop, contextualizing key decisions and conflicts that ultimately shaped the creation of the State of Israel. The analysis aims to provide nuanced insights into divergent perspectives held by Palestinians and Israelis regarding the resolution of this enduring conflict, rooted in a legacy of geopolitical manoeuvring and ideological fervour.

Prevalence of probable sarcopenia in home parenteral nutrition (PN) patient attending to intestinal failure clinic in a national home parenteral nutrition center

Prevalence of probable sarcopenia in home parenteral nutrition (PN) patient attending to intestinal failure clinic in a national home parenteral nutrition center

Heterogeneous interfaces in 3D interconnected networks of flower-like 1T/2H Molybdenum disulfide nanosheets and carbon-fibers boosts superior EM wave absorption

With the wide application of electromagnetic waves in national defense, communication, navigation and home appliances, the electromagnetic pollution problem is becoming more and more prominent. Therefore, high-performance, and low-density composite wave-absorbing materials have attracted much attention. In this paper, three-dimensional (3D) network structures of flower-like 1T/2H Molybdenum disulfide nanosheets anchored to carbon fibers (1T/2H MoS2/CNFs) were prepared by electrostatic spinning technique and calcination process. The morphology and electromagnetic wave absorption properties were tuned by changing the content of flower-like MoS2. The optimized 1T/2H MoS2/CNFs composite exhibits superior electromagnetic wave absorption with minimum reflection (RLmin) of −42.26 dB and effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) of 6.48 GHz at 2.5 mm. Multi-facts contribute to the super performance. First, the uniquely designed nanosheet and 3D interconnected networks leads to multiple reflection and scattering of electromagnetic waves, which promotes the attenuation of electromagnetic waves. Second, the propriate content of CNFs and MoS2 with different phase regulates its impedance matching characteristic. Third, Numerous heterogeneous interfaces existed between CNFs and MoS2, 1T and 2H MoS2 phase results in interface polarization. Besides, the 1T/2H MoS2 rich in defects induces defect polarization, improving the dielectric loss. Furthermore, the electromagnetic wave absorption performance was proved via radar reflectance cross section simulation. This work illustrates 1T/2H MoS2/CNFs is a promising material for electromagnetic absorption with wide bandwidth, strong absorption, low density, and high thermal stability.

Pollution Havens in South-East Asia: Examining Japanese Multinational Enterprises in the Philippines

Pollution Havens in South-East Asia: Examining Japanese Multinational Enterprises in the Philippines

The tempest within: the origins and outcomes of intense national emotions in times of national division

Theories of intense national emotions have focused on affection for the home nation and antagonism for national others but overlooked antagonism for fellow nationals. The article introduces a comprehensive theory of intense national emotions. It first discusses the sources of the potential energy stored in national identities, pointing to a combination of two factors: the nation is at once potent due to its capacity to shield against existential threats and precarious due to its dependence on the reproduction of contested narratives. The article then explains that events that—through a construction process elaborated in the text—seem to threaten or promise to alter perceived core elements of the nation (i.e., “nation-disrupting events”) evoke intense emotions. Next, the article explains why some periods of "hot" nationalism increase national division rather than unity. The conclusion proposes a promising direction for future research on intense national emotions as a mechanism of eventfulness.

Association of Medicare Home Health Ratings With Older Adult Fall Injuries: An Instrumental Variables Analysis

ObjectivesTo understand the role of high-quality home health care for fall prevention. DesignA 100% sample of national Medicare claims and home health survey data (2015-2017) were used to assess fall injuries and receipt of a fall risk assessment among recently hospitalized Medicare fee-for-service home health users aged ≥66 years. Subanalyses examined patients by prior fall history status and hospital admission diagnosis type (eg, neurologic, respiratory, cardiovascular, infection, and orthopedic diagnoses). An instrumental variables design addressed potential endogeneity in home health care use by patient fall risk. Setting and ParticipantsHome health agencies and Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries. MethodsMultivariate regression and instrumental variables. ResultsAmong 962,610 patients with hospital discharges to home health, being treated by home health agencies with the highest star ratings in a person's zip code was associated with a 1.8–percentage point (ppt) (95% CI: 0.1, 3.5; P = .03) higher likelihood of receipt of fall risk assessment. There was no overall change in 30-day (−0.6 ppt, 95% CI: −1.3, 0.1; P = .09), 15-day (−0.3 ppt, 95% CI: −0.0.8, 0.2; P = .35), or 7-day fall injury risk (−0.2 ppt, 95% CI: −0.5, 0.1; P = .22), but a 1.9-ppt (95% CI: −3.9, −0.02; P = .048) lower 30-day fall injury risk for individuals with a history of falls. Effects were directionally similar by diagnosis type. Conclusions and ImplicationsFall injury risk is reduced at higher-rated home health agencies. Star ratings may be adequate indicators of quality for key outcomes not explicitly measured in the ratings.

"The Children Are Not Controllable Because They Follow Western Values" - Narratives of the Parenting Experiences of African Immigrants in Alberta, Canada.

African immigrants are moving to high-income nations such as Canada in greater numbers in search of a better life. These immigrants frequently struggle with several issues, including limited social support, shifts in gender roles/status, cultural conflicts with their children, and language barriers. We used participatory action research (PAR) to gather data about Sub-Saharan African immigrants residing in Alberta, Canada, with a focus on their viewpoints, difficulties, and experiences of parenting children in Canada. We contextualized our study and its findings using both postcolonial feminism and transnationalism approaches. Study findings show African immigrant parents place a high priority on respect between generations. The absence of assistance, conflicts caused by culture, and language barriers are notable difficulties they encountered in parenting. An additional factor is a lack of acquaintance with and comprehension of the culture of their new home nation. Several implications stem from our findings, including the need for interventional research that explores effective, culturally relevant strategies for enhancing parenting among African immigrants. Our findings demonstrate the need for culturally sensitive policies and practices that support the transition and integration of African immigrant families into Canadian society. It is imperative for health care providers and policy makers to develop and revise culturally appropriate policies that take into consideration the importance of African immigrants in destination countries. Adopting culturally relevant policies and practices will improve the wellbeing of this growing but underprivileged minority of Canadians.

Environmental regulation, outward foreign direct investment, and China’s green total factor productivity

AbstractIncreasing green total factor productivity (GTFP) is currently the primary goal of sustainable development worldwide. GTFP not only reflects the efficiency of economic expansion but also encompasses resource consumption and pollution. This research enhances the current understanding of GTFP by indicating that aside from reverse technology spillovers, labor mobility, and changes in industrial structure, additional factors, such as environmental regulations, exert a dynamic function in shaping the influence of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) on the GTFP of the home nation. The empirical findings indicate that OFDI has a single threshold effect on GTFP, and the negative effect increases with the reinforcing of environmental control. The main impact comes from home country’s changes in green technology (GTC) rather than changes in green efficiency. Additionally, environmental regulation has a positive moderating effect on OFDI, the moderating effect of environmental regulation in western regions is more pronounced in promoting the home country’s GTC. It is imperative to take into account regional variations and devise distinct policies for eastern, central, and western regions.

The environmental impact of the zero energy ready home program on manufactured housing

Manufactured homes, which are built in the factory and shipped to the site, provide economical housing for more than 20 million Americans. To improve energy measures and facilitate deployment of renewable energy systems to achieve net zero energy in manufactured homes, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) made public the Zero Energy Ready Home (ZERH) National Program Requirements for manufactured housing in 2022. To understand how these changes will impact the environment and the building’s durability, life cycle assessment and hygrothermal simulations were carried out for a standard manufactured home design and two ZERH designs in Knoxville, Tennessee. The embodied carbon and operational emissions were compared for the standard design and two ZERH designs for a service life of 60 years. Operational emissions were determined using the Building Energy Optimization tool, BEopt, and durability assessment was carried out using WUFI Pro. Life cycle assessment was performed in accordance with ISO 14040 using Athena’s Impact Estimator for buildings. Results indicate that the investment in embodied carbon of the zero energy ready homes is small relative to the savings in operational emissions. The increase in embodied carbon in the zero energy ready homes is offset by the reduction in operational emissions compared to the standard home for the first year of operation. With an investment of 59 kg CO2 eq in embodied carbon, the reduction in operational emissions is approximately 680 kg CO2 eq after one year compared to a construction that meets the prescriptive performance of the building code for manufactured housing.

Britain and the League of Nations: Was There Ever a Mandate for Palestine?

Upon capturing Palestine in December 1917, Britain assumed the role of belligerent occupant, and therefore, it had no power to alter the legal order of the country, which it nonetheless did in 1920. In order to grant itself full power of governance over Palestine, Britain drew up the “Mandate for Palestine,” a document in which it declared its aim of promoting a Jewish “national home” in Palestine. This article examines this and other documents from the 1920s to argue that Britain did not have the legal grounding to alter its status as belligerent occupant, and that the League of Nations never took a position on Jewish territorial rights or on the legality of Britain’s governance of Palestine. It argues further that the United Nations misread this history in 1947 when it took the Mandate for Palestine as a commitment of its predecessor to Jewish territorial rights in Palestine, and thus, as a basis for recommending the partition of Palestine.

International Law as a Means of Globalization, Business Internationalization and Global Economy: A Mechanism with Proclivities

This paper analyzes, describes and presents the relationship and effects between globalization and the international law. Historically, between globalization and international law, there is a dialectical relationship, both have been intertwined for more than the end of the twentieth century and the last phase of globalization. Globalization has come up with major changes at the international level and distribution of power between different actors of the international society. It has impacted and shaped the World Wide system of law with implicit ambitions. The research questions are: “Are there any interconnection between international law, globalization and internationalization? How does international law affect global economy?” The used methodology of research focused on a literature review, the United Nations charter of international law and qualitative descriptive analysis. The results show that doing business with individuals from other nations focuses on the activities of individuals that are governed with the context of global economy starting from the applicable rules to industries in the home country or nation. International law provides a background, assurance, confidence and a means or mechanism by which individuals can trade or do business with regard to goods and services, to start with the utility of law is based upon first international relations, and the way countries relate to each other, particularly with regard to trade of goods and services between those nations. Doing business with individuals from other nations focuses on the activities of individuals that are governed with the context of global economy starting from the applicable rules to industries in the home country or nation. In Conclusion, international law has got a high contribution to the insights of global economy, globalization and internationalization processes especially for companies. There is a huge interconnection between Globalization, Internationalization that is important for global economy and international law.

On-Air, Off-Balance: Detecting and Examining Media Biases in Filipino Sportscasting

With sports gaining global acclaim and recognition, media outlets have extensively covered a myriad of sporting events with a particular emphasis on international tournaments. In the digital age, media is crucial for disseminating news and shaping audience perspectives especially in sportscasting where local sportscasters tend to show affection and allegiance to their home nation by providing more airtime and positive commentaries to athletes representing their country. Such an approach shortchanges the viewers’ right to unbiased and diverse perspectives. Hence, it is imperative for media outlets, particularly during live sports broadcasts, to adeptly navigate and manage biases, given the significant impact of nationalistic positioning on sports media. In this study, the researchers analyzed the language employed by sportscasters in the local media coverage of the games of the Philippines Men’s Basketball Team, also known as Gilas Pilipinas, during the FIBA World Cup 2023. Following a mixed-method approach, the study sought to understand how sportscasters detect and manage media biases through corpus analysis. The investigation involved identifying prevalent forms of media biases within the study corpus, focusing on lexico-semantic, discourse, and pragmatic constructions that serve as indicators of these biases. The study findings indicated that all the analyzed sports broadcasts contained evident manifestations of media biases. Moreover, it was revealed that Filipino sportscasters exhibited a range of media biases favoring Gilas Pilipinas, and that the media biases in their utterances were affected by the phenomenon of nationalistic positioning that raises concerns about fairness and impartiality. Consequently, the frequency of these biased expressions in sportscasters' utterances was found to be contingent upon the specific context, varying with the situation. Furthermore, these biases can be identified through specific linguistic cues and features. This paper underscores the importance of fostering a more equitable sportscasting environment while simultaneously fortifying language and media education initiatives.

Sleep, Stress, and Cardiometabolic Health in Women of Childbearing Age with Overweight and Obesity.

Sleep is important for health, but its relationship to cardiometabolic health in women of childbearing age remains unclear. Furthermore, stress, unmet basic needs, and lack of physical activity may be related to disrupted sleep and poor cardiometabolic health in women of childbearing age and these relationships may differ by ethnicity. The purposes of this study were to investigate the relationship between sleep, markers of cardiometabolic health, stress, unmet basic needs, and physical activity in women of childbearing age with overweight or obesity and identify if these relationships differed between women that identified as Latino/Hispanic and non-Latino/Hispanic ethnicity. A secondary cross-sectional analysis was conducted using baseline data from a trial that embeds healthy eating and activity into a national home visiting program, Parents as Teachers. The sample was stratified based on self-reported ethnicity (Hispanic/Latino or non-Hispanic/Latino). Pearson's and Spearman's correlations were used to determine bivariate relationships among sleep, cardiometabolic variables, stress, unmet basic needs, and physical activity. Two hundred seventy-six women, 46% of whom identified as Hispanic/Latino, were included in the analysis. Body mass index (BMI) was significantly correlated with sleep disturbance (ρ = 0.23, p = 0.01) in women who identify as Hispanic/Latino. Stress was positively related to sleep disturbance, sleep duration, and unmet needs for both groups of women. BMI was correlated with unmet basic needs in women who identified as non-Hispanic/Latino (ρ = 0.25, p = 0.01). Our results suggest that sleep, stress, and basic needs are important in understanding cardiometabolic health in women of childbearing age and these relationships differ depending on ethnicity. Clinical Trial Registration Number: NCT03758638.

Playing nice in the face of bigotry: Bassem Youssef and Islamophobia in the United States

Famous for an iconoclastic brand of political satire in Egypt, where he bravely challenged multiple authoritarian regimes, Bassem Youssef fled his home country in 2014 to avoid political persecution. Now located in Los Angeles, his move to the United States has had significant consequences on Youssef’s style of comedy as he has had to strike a balance between appealing to his host culture (the U.S.) while acting as a representative of his home nation (Egypt), which in turn illuminates the significant challenges of political satire when the comedian is an immigrant, living in exile. I analyze Youssef and his approach to Islamophobia through a critical framework articulated by Homi Bhabha and his depiction of the stereotype as a source of phobia and fetish. Youssef’s example illustrates how the context of immigration affects this formula as he balances two goals: an aspirational sense to belong and an intention to ridicule an ideology that treats immigrants, Arabs, and Muslims with suspicion. His chief strategy is to confront bigotry with an ironic cheery disposition, in essence replicating the ‘happy immigrant’ trope. I discuss the strengths and limitations of the device, especially in the context of a country whose president fought to enact a ban on Muslim immigrants.

Coaching Transitions Across Borders: The Pursuit of Individuals Advancing Coaching Careers in the Competitive Global Landscape of Olympic Sports

Intensified international competition for sporting success has facilitated coaches’ cross-national migration, which constitutes a space for coaches’ career transitions and development. This paper examines elite coaches’ international migration as part of coaching career transitions within the context of the global sporting arms race. Using a qualitative case study design, data were generated from documents and semistructured interviews with six South Korean coaches who had moved to Western nations to coach national teams in two Olympic sports. The analysis reveals an underlying mechanism of the coaches’ international mobility: dual imbalances existing between the sending and receiving countries—one in the levels of sporting performance; and the other in the perceived levels of modernisation in coaching cultures and sports systems. The migration opportunities were created by the performance imbalance between the home nation and destinations amid the structural context of the global sporting arms race. However, equally important is the individuals’ strategic initiative to seize the opportunities for their career development and mitigate the perceived modernisation imbalance in coaching practices. By highlighting coaches’ agentic capacity to navigate their career pathways within the global context, this study contributes to the literature on both international coach migration and coaching transitions.

A Study Of Emotional And Cultural Longing Of India In Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter Of Maladies

Indian diasporic writings made its milestone passage with the works of Salman Rushdie, Bharati Mukherjee, Jhumpa Lahiri, Amitav Ghosh, Rohinton Mistry, and Vikram Seth who earned popularity while dwelling abroad. One of the significant parts of these writers is that they compose transcendently the encounters of displacement. They have given more strength to the exploration with a geological disengagement but additionally a diasporic consciousness towards their home nation. Jhumpa Lahiri is one of the renowned writers of the Indian Diaspora. She possesses a critical spot in world writing. Her works manage the subjects of migration, uprooting, loss of personality, conflict of societies, profound edifices, human relations, and correspondence hindrances. In the current paper, four brief tales from the collection Interpreter of Maladies (1999) are considered for examining her sensibility towards India and Indianness. The meaning of the work as a diasporic brief tale collection lies unequivocally in the writer's endeavor to take advantage of the basic pressure when one lives between two universes and two societies.