Scientific Research Articles

Dos and don'ts for conducting mediation analysis: A commentary with practical tips to avoid common problems.

Purpose: Mediation analyses allow for exploration of causal mechanisms that explain how a predictor is related to an outcome. Tests of mediation are fundamental to addressing some of the most consequential questions in rehabilitation science. In recent decades, the development of easy-to-use analytical tools has made conducting statistical tests of mediation more accessible to researchers. Unfortunately, there are persistent problems in the conceptual underpinning of many tests of mediation. Even in cases where the statistical analyses are correctly run, problems with the underlying rationale for the mediational analysis will render the results inconsequential, in the best case, or misleading, in the worst case. Method: In this commentary, I summarize the uses of mediation analysis and through a series of six main types of errors provide practical, plain language guidance ("Dos and Don'ts") for conducting a conceptually robust mediation analysis. Results: The "Dos and Don'ts" laid out in this commentary highlight that there are persistent issues with lack of understanding of mediation, confusion about the differences between moderation, mediation, and covariates, lack of strong theoretical justification for mediation, and lack of attention to methodological issues (e.g., measurement) in many mediation analyses. Conclusions: Promoting the use of mediation analysis in rehabilitation research will advance theory and effective practice in our field. Researchers undertaking mediation analysis are encouraged to prioritize developing a strong theoretical framework that justifies use of mediation analysis, ensuring study methodology supports and enables tests of mediation, as well emphasizing a strong statistical approach to conducting the test of mediation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Effect of protein acetylation on capacitation of stallion sperm

Sperm capacitation is considered the main factor limiting conventional in vitro fertilization (IVF) in horses. A recent scientific breakthrough in sperm processing for IVF in horses has resulted in embryos and foals being produced; however, various aspects of the IVF process remain to be fully elucidated. Lysine acetylation has been shown to play a role in sperm capacitation in several species and the objective of this study was to detect and evaluate this process in the horse. Ejaculates of two stallions were collected and incubated in different conditions with deacetylase inhibitors to induce a hyperacetylation state. Although lysine acetylation was successfully detected in all experimental groups, sperm hyperacetylation could not be induced following incubation with deacetylase inhibitors. In addition, no hyperactivation was detected by kinematic sperm evaluation and tyrosine phosphorylation increased only in the positive control group. Treatments with high doses of deacetylase inhibitors increased acrosome reaction indicating a possible connection between induction of acrosome reaction and protein acetylation. Future studies investigating the effect of longer incubation periods with different doses of deacetylase inhibitors are warranted to elucidate the ability of protein acetylation to induce capacitation of stallion sperm.

Sida cordifolia Linn- An widely used herbs in the village of Falta, west Bengal, India: Pharmacological evaluation of antiepileptic activity of root extract of Sida cordifolia Linn.

As per the observation of the social work activitist it was found that the raw extract of the root of Sida cordifolia Linn. Are been used by some old people in the village of Falta Block of South 24 PGS district of West Bengal, India to treat epileptic attack on some villagers. The identified plant were collected and handed over the research scientists for the further study. The dried coarse powder of the root of Sida cordifolia Linn. Were soxheleted successively with petroleum ether (PESC), methanol (MESE), with boiled water (AESC) and the epileptic study was performed on the Albino mice using 100 and 300 mg/kg body weight of PESC, MESE and using clonazepam as standard using Maximum Electroshock induced seizure model and result depicted that PESC exhibited a significant antiepileptic effect at both low and high doses where as MESC exhibited the significant antiepileptic effect only at high dose. Hence, the petroleum ether extract may be chosen to be more effective than that of the methanol extract.

Sustainability of Oral History: A Case of SRK Pulo at Kampung Semarang

History is data regarding historical instances of human activity. This study anticipates the cultural memory around the primary school, SRK Pulo, which was relocated while retaining its previous name. One of the ancient Malay settlements along the Sarawak riverbank in Kuching is called Kampung Pulo. Questions are being asked about the SRK Pulo, its origin and other related histories to acknowledge. Further study, especially oral history inquiries, might help clear up any lingering questions regarding a historical truth or knowledge gap. For the benefit of future research, the cultural memory of intangible cultures needs to be preserved and documented through oral history research. To highlight historical local stories as the major focus in a qualitative manner, this study utilised Husserlism in Transcendental Phenomenology (TPh). The positive takeaways from oral history investigations into the genesis of SRK Pulo could serve as a guideline for the younger generation to respect and learn from the past to establish evocative living in the future. The sustainability of indigenous peoples in preserving their sociocultural ways of life and oral traditions depends on this study.

Translational science and related disciplines.

Translational research moves scientific discoveries and innovations across the development spectrum for a particular target or disease, trying to bridge in a multidisciplinary fashion the gap between laboratory scientific discoveries and practical, real-world applications in medicine and in healthcare. Translational research aims to move research findings across settings, specific languages, methodologies, and study designs, from laboratory to clinical practice and ultimately into community- and population-level health benefits. In contrast, translational science is a distinct field, which evolved over time toward a systematic study and practice of operationalizing the translation of content from one language, ecosystem, environment, contextual landscape, culture, discipline, area, or domain into another. It involves systematic and transdisciplinary integration of knowledge from basic science, clinical research and population science to improve human health, better longevity, and to ensure disease- and disability-free lives. Translational science often uses knowledge, operational frameworks, and specific capabilities borrowed from other specialties, disciplines, and fields such as operations management, implementation and dissemination science, quality improvement and management, project management, public health, intervention science, change management and leadership, decision science, design thinking, functional design, data science, communication and marketing science, etc. The main goal of this article is to open a series of thematic reviews in this journal, introducing the reader to the main definitions, contingencies, touchpoints, and overlapping areas between translational science and these related specialties, disciplines, and fields of study. Transdisciplinary capabilities borrowing from these related specialties can create a robust translational science machinery for health systems, research organizations, and innovation hubs.

BiodiViz: Leveraging NER and RE for Automated Knowledge Graph Generation in Biodiversity Research

In biodiversity research, the integration of machine learning and data visualization is increasingly important for uncovering valuable insights from academic literature. This study introduces an innovative knowledge graph application, BiodiViz, designed to translate intricate text into intuitive visual representations, fostering a deeper comprehension of biodiversity relationships. BiodiViz uses the top-performing Named Entity Recognition (NER) and Relation Extraction (RE) models to automatically generate a comprehensive knowledge graph for biodiversity research. The NER model extracts and categorizes entities like organisms, phenomena, and habitats, while the RE model identifies relationships such as "have," "occur in," and "influence" from the BiodivNERE dataset (Abdelmageed et al. 2022). These entities and relationships are organized into nodes and edges within a graph. Researchers input text into BiodiViz, producing a visual knowledge graph that simplifies the analysis of complex biodiversity data, reducing manual effort and enhancing efficiency. Named Entity Recognition & Relation Extraction BiodiViz leverages advanced Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT)-based Large Language Models (LLMs) (Rogers et al. 2020), fine-tuned specifically for NER and RE tasks using the BiodivNERE dataset. The fine-tuning process involved various models, including BERT (Devlin et al. 2019), ELECTRA (Clark et al. 2020), and BiodivBERT (Abdelmageed et al. 2023). These models were evaluated for performance using the results of their F1-score as the main metric, which is the harmonic mean of precision (the proportion of true positive results among all positive predictions) and recall (the proportion of true positive results among all actual positives), with BiodivBERT achieving an F1-score of 77.16% for the NER task, while BERT excelled in the RE task with an F1-score of 81.28%. Rigorous hyperparameter optimization further enhanced the performance of BiodivBERT in the RE task by 3.38%. The BiodivNERE corpora by Abdelmageed et al. (2022) were used to fine-tune several models for NER and RE tasks in the biodiversity domain. The first corpus from the BiodivNERE corpora is BiodivNER, which is a gold standard dataset (manually labelled test corpora) for evaluating NER tasks. The fine-tuning process employed the token classification method from the Hugging Face library (Hugging Face 2023b), which assigns labels to each token in a sequence. Experiments were conducted with a batch size of four, meaning the model processes four examples/rows of data at a time before making an update to improve its learning. This is due to the constraints of the NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3060 graphics processor. (NVIDIA 2024) Model performance was evaluated using the seqeval library (Nakayama 2018), focusing on accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 scores. For text classification, the second corpus, BiodivRE, was utilized, following previous research recommendations to explore fine-tuning settings for BiodivBERT. Hyperparameter optimization (Feurer and Hutter 2019) was conducted using Hugging Face’s Trainer API with an Optuna backend (Hugging Face 2023a), concentrating on learning rate and the number of training epochs (i.e., the number of complete passes through the entire dataset during model training). The BiodiViz Knowledge Graph Application The fine-tuned NER and RE models with the best F1-scores—BiodivBERT and BERT, respectively—were integrated into the knowledge graph application. Fig. 1 illustrates the flowchart of the application pipeline. Each sentence in the input text will go through the NER model to identify and label the entities within the sentence. Subsequently, these labeled entities, together with the original sentence, will be input into the RE model. The RE model will analyze every pair of entities for a potential relation and output the type of relation they share. The application will then utilize this data to create a graph with appropriate labels and color-coding. An example of the application's user interface with the knowledge graph is shown in Fig. 2. This study highlights the practical application of machine learning and data visualization in advancing biodiversity research, emphasizing the importance of developing user-friendly tools to support scientific exploration and discovery. The BiodiViz application, including the code and resources, is available on GitHub*1, providing an accessible tool for biodiversity researchers to streamline their analyses.

Science diplomacy in the European and Latin American and Caribbean research infrastructure collaboration

Abstract Research infrastructures (RIs) are crucial for scientific progress, innovation, and global development, necessitating international collaboration due to their complexity and cost. Science diplomacy (SD) plays a vital role in facilitating policy design, resource pooling, and governance for effective collaboration in RIs. Multinational cooperation in RIs provides financial relief and access to advanced technology and promotes cutting-edge research, benefiting scientific development and socioeconomic growth. This article explores the role of SD in European-Latin American and Caribbean (EU-LAC) RI collaboration, underscoring the importance of diverse and equitable inter-RI collaboration. The study addresses challenges in EU-LAC collaboration, emphasizing the unequal development of RIs and the need for political support. Through interpretive policy studies and stakeholder interviews, the research contributes to formulating an ideal type and a feasible scenario for sustainable collaboration, discussing policy implications and highlighting the pivotal role of SD in successful international RI partnerships.

4.L. Skills building seminar: Skills building seminar: Enhancing your elevator pitch: persuading a policymaker in seconds

Abstract Numerous public health researchers aim to influence evidence-based policymaking with their scientific discoveries. However, bridging the gap between research and policy remains a significant challenge. While researchers excel in data analysis and publishing, effectively communicating with policymakers requires additional skills. One crucial skill is the ability to succinctly present research findings, such as in an elevator pitch. In this seminar, top-scoring abstract presenters will have the opportunity to convey their work in just 60 seconds to a panel of policymakers and politicians. Through a hands-on approach, both presenters and attendees will learn, as each pitch receives immediate feedback from the panel. Are they interested? Do they remember the key message? And if all goes well, do you get an invitation to come back and present more of your work? Since several years the European Public Health Association (EUPHA) has been organising skills-building seminars on the elevator pitch. Building forward on those previous five successful and well-attended workshops, the current workshop will follow up on this series and take forward where the previous editions ended. Lessons learned at the previous elevator pitch workshops: - Have a clear ask (keep it simple) and show enthusiasm. - Appeal to the policymaker’s own interests and priorities. - Spell out how action will be beneficial for the policymaker. - Be aware of upcoming elections. - Build a relationship with the assistants of politicians. - Consider the ‘policy window’. - Make the comparison with the policy plan. - Propose an action the politician should undertake. - Identify the relevant stakeholders and groups affected by the problem. For this sixth edition we take the elevator pitch to the next level. Whereas previous editions allowed pitches up to 2 minutes, the current seminar will set the timer at 60 seconds. The previous editions showed that keeping the pitch very short was more successful. The session will be wrapped up by a key note with reflections on the pitches exercise and linking this to what the literature says about influencing healthy policy making. Key messages • The elevator pitch is a useful skill to have for public health researchers to facilitate the outcomes of their research feed into health policies. • There are numerous tools available to effectively communicate public health messages to policymakers and promote evidence-informed policy making. Speakers/Panelists Charlotte Marchandise EUPHA

Exploring the professional discourse on environmental social work: a descriptive content analysis of selected publications from Germany and the US

Climate change and its disproportionate impacts on vulnerable groups have prompted the social work profession to become increasingly involved in environmental justice issues. Academic discourse on environmental social work has surged in the last decade, but limited studies examine its implementation by practitioners or information dissemination by professional organisations. Translational research highlights the crucial role of professional associations in informing practitioners of new scientific discoveries and practice paradigms. This qualitative content analysis compares a small selection of articles and podcast episodes published through the professional associations of social workers in the US (the National Association of Social Workers) and Germany (the Deutscher Berufsverband für Soziale Arbeit e.V.), respectively, focusing on environmental social work and its implications for the social work profession. The findings suggest that publications from both countries use similar arguments for proving the relevance of climate change issues for the profession but diverge considerably in their focus on how environmental social work should be applied.

Empowering youths through citizen science to address health inequalities in adolescence

Abstract Citizen Science (CS) stands as a beacon of hope in the fight against inequalities in adolescent health, revolutionizing scientific research by involving individuals from diverse backgrounds. Unlike traditional methods, CS transcends academic boundaries, fostering inclusivity and collaboration irrespective of age, nationality, or social status. This approach has gained momentum in adolescent health research, empowering young people as co-researchers from project inception, thereby reducing disparities in health knowledge and access. Studies demonstrate its efficacy in enhancing empowerment and health literacy among participants. YouthChronic is an example of how CS can mitigate health inequalities among adolescents. The project ensures active participation in every research stage by engaging adolescents with chronic conditions as citizen scientists. Open-ended questions facilitate detailed responses, while participation in analysis and dissemination enhances their research involvement and sense of ownership. Through initiatives like YouthChronic, CS is reshaping the research landscape, making it more relevant and impactful to bridge the inequality gap. Young Citizen Scientists’ views on their participation: “As part of YouthChronic, we felt like our experiences with chronic conditions were finally being heard. The researchers were cool-they listened to us, let us be flexible with our participation, and even taught us some research skills. Learning from other peers’ experiences made us feel less alone and gave us new insights. But it’s frustrating that we’re limited by resources. We have big ideas, like running an advocacy campaign, but we need funding to make them happen”. In conclusion, by actively involving adolescents in the scientific process through CS initiatives like YouthChronic, we can reduce inequalities in adolescent health, empower marginalized voices, and pave the way for a brighter, more inclusive future in scientific exploration and discovery.

Precisely Prepared Hierarchical Micelles of Polyfluorene-block-Polythiophene-block-Poly(phenyl isocyanide) via Crystallization-Driven Self-Assembly.

The precise preparation of hierarchical micelles is a fundamental challenge in modern materials science and chemistry. Herein, poly(di-n-hexylfluorene)-block-poly(3-tetraethylene glycol thiophene) (poly(1m-b-2n)) diblock copolymers and polyfluorene-block-polythiophene-block-poly(phenyl isocyanide) triblock copolymers were synthesized using a one-pot process via the sequential addition of corresponding monomers using a Ni(II) complex as a single catalyst for living/controlled polymerization. The crystallization-driven self-assembly of amphiphilic conjugated poly(1m-b-2n) led to the formation of nanofibers with controlled lengths and narrow dispersity. The block copolymers exhibited white, yellow, and red emissions in different self-assembly states. By using uniform poly(1m-b-2n) nanofibers as seeds, introducing the polyfluorene-block-polythiophene-block-poly(phenyl isocyanide) triblock polymer as a unimer in the seed growth process, and adjusting the structure of the poly(phenyl isocyanide) block and the polarity of self-assembly solvent, A-B-A triblock micelles, multiarm branched micelles, and raft micelles were prepared.

Precisely Prepared Hierarchical Micelles of Polyfluorene‐block‐Polythiophene‐block‐Poly(phenyl isocyanide) via Crystallization‐Driven Self‐Assembly

The precise preparation of hierarchical micelles is a fundamental challenge in modern materials science and chemistry. Herein, poly(di‐n‐hexylfluorene)‐block‐poly(3‐tetraethylene glycol thiophene) (poly(1m‐b‐2n)) diblock copolymers and polyfluorene‐block‐polythiophene‐block‐poly(phenyl isocyanide) triblock copolymers were synthesized using a one‐pot process via the sequential addition of corresponding monomers using a Ni(II) complex as a single catalyst for living/controlled polymerization. The crystallization‐driven self‐assembly of amphiphilic conjugated poly(1m‐b‐2n) led to the formation of nanofibers with controlled lengths and narrow dispersity. The block copolymers exhibited white, yellow, and red emissions in different self‐assembly states. By using uniform poly(1m‐b‐2n) nanofibers as seeds, introducing the polyfluorene‐block‐polythiophene‐block‐poly(phenyl isocyanide) triblock polymer as a unimer in the seed growth process, and adjusting the structure of the poly(phenyl isocyanide) block and the polarity of self‐assembly solvent, A‐B‐A triblock micelles, multiarm branched micelles, and raft micelles were prepared.

THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE OIF IN POLITICAL MATTERS IN THE REPUBLIC OF CONGO FROM 1981 TO 2021

The Organization Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) has played an important role in shaping the political landscape of the Republic of Congo over the four-decade timeframe. The study employed a historical and qualitative research approach, focusing on the analysis of political cooperation between the OIF and the Congo from 1981 to 2021. The research used a literature review to explore historical events, political reforms, and the impact of OIF's involvement in Congo's political landscape. The data were analyzed through thematic analysis, identifying key themes related to the political evolution of Congo, the organization's role in fostering democracy, peace, and human rights, and its outcomes of their collaboration. The analysis concludes that OIF has played a significant role in the promotion of democracy and peace in Congo through various initiatives.

Comparative Historical Analysis in Political Theory

AbstractTwo important methodological debates in political theory concern (i) the place of historical research and interpretation in normative inquiry; and (ii) the importance of comparing different cultural traditions of political thought. The first question animates a long-standing controversy over the relative importance of ‘history of political thought’ versus ‘philosophy’ in political theory, while the second has been central to the recent growth of ‘comparative political theory’. Despite both debates being concerned, in fundamental ways, with history and comparison, they have remained surprisingly disconnected from broader debates in the humanities and social sciences about the use of comparative history and, in particular, of the prominent methodological approach in political science known as ‘comparative historical analysis’. This may reflect the fact that the debates over history of political thought and comparative political theory have fundamentally revolved around thought—history as the history of thought and comparison as the comparison of thought—whereas comparative historical analysis is more centrally focused on the study of political behaviour. In this paper I suggest that this neglect of comparative historical analysis in political theory represents a missed opportunity. Like other forms of social scientific inquiry, comparative historical analysis can yield important empirical knowledge for political theorists. But I wish to more ambitiously suggest that comparative historical analysis can also be adapted for conducting normative political theory itself. I summarise the key features of comparative historical analysis for political theorists, and explain how its use of historical cases can supplement both the use of imaginary thought experiments and the study of contemporary politics. I then delineate three specific ways in which comparative historical analysis might be used to support normative inquiry: deductive testing, inductive construction, and casuistic elaboration. All three, I argue, can help meet recent calls to bring the study of real political behaviour more centrally into political theory research.

From amoeboid myosin to unique targeted medicines for a genetic cardiac disease

The importance of fundamental basic research in the quest for much needed clinical treatments is a story that constantly must be retold. Funding of basic science in the USA by the National Institutes of Health and other agencies is provided under the assumption that fundamental research eventually will lead to improvements in healthcare worldwide. Understanding how basic research is connected to clinical developments is important, but just part of the story. Many basic science discoveries never see the light of day in a clinical setting because academic scientists are not interested in or do not have the inclination and/or support for entering the world of biotechnology. Even if the interest and inclination are there, often the unknowns about how to enter that world inhibit taking the initial step. Young investigators often ask me how I incorporated biotech opportunities into my otherwise purely academic research endeavors. Here I tell the story of the foundational basic science and early events of my career that led to forming the biotech companies responsible for the development of unique cardiac drugs, including mavacamten, a first in class human β-cardiac myosin inhibitor that is changing the lives of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients.

O violão na imprensa carioca dos oitocentos

This article aims to reveal how newspaper archives can support musical history research by providing an important tool for developing and covering themes focused by Brazilian musicology. The presence of the classical guitar in Rio de Janeiro is highlighted beginning in the 1840s in the hands of foreign artists, who fostered the development of the city’s nineteenth-century musical life, a busy agenda of musical performances that allows us to become acquainted with the guitar’s repertoire, which was composed of original works and especially transcriptions of opera arias.

Enhancing the diversity and productivity of scientists in aging research: contributions of the Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research, 2018–2023

ABSTRACT The Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR) is a flagship education, training, and development program of the National Institute of Health (NIH), and the National Institute on Aging (NIA) focused on increasing the number and diversity of researchers in aging. We sought to assess the program’s contributions to geriatric and gerontology education by examining the scientific productivity of 294 RCMAR scientists who received pilot funding from the program during the last complete grant cycle, 2018 to 2023. Across the 18 funded sites, the scientists obtained 53 NIH grants and 29 NIA-specific grants. They published 281 manuscripts, of which 141 were noted as direct outcomes of the pilot funding and support received through the program. Findings indicated that the RCMAR program in its last cycle succeeded in promoting education and scientific career development of researchers from diverse backgrounds and researchers focused on health disparities to conduct transdisciplinary social and behavioral aging research.

Physiologists as medical scientists: An early warning from the German academic system.

"Medical scientists" are postgraduate investigators who are engaged in biomedical research, and either hold a biomedical PhD or are qualified in medicine but do not participate in patient care. Medical scientists constitute ~40% of staff at medical faculties and >90% at nonuniversity medical research institutions in Germany. However, medical scientists in Germany face limited long-term career prospects and a lack of dedicated training and support programmes. They also face time limits on their career progression arising from national academic employment legislation, and imminent reforms by the German government are likely to make this worse. Nevertheless, recent developments in the educational landscape including the introduction of increasingly focused MSc, pre-PhD, and doctoral programmes to train medically aware basic scientists, as well as improved general recognition of the roles and relevance of medical scientists in health research, are encouraging. Physiologists have taken essential steps to improve the recognition of medical scientists in Germany by introducing a "specialist physiologist" qualification; this initiative could be applied to support medical scientists in other fields and countries. In this review, we describe the particular challenges facing medical scientists in Germany and make recommendations that may apply to other academic systems.

Translating discovery science: White fathers' racial socialization practices with their biological Black biracial sons

AbstractObjectiveTo examine the racial socialization practices of White fathers with their biological Black and White biracial sons.BackgroundSocializing children of color to live in a society where they may experience discrimination is an essential part of parenting. This may be challenging for White fathers with Black biracial sons because of their different lived experiences, which can be harmful to their sons.MethodA phenomenological approach was used to conduct 10 in‐depth, semistructured interviews with a sample of White fathers with biological Black biracial sons. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data.ResultsFour racial socialization practices were identified: (a) talking to son about his racial/cultural heritages, (b) exposing son to his racial/cultural heritages, (c) exposing son to environments that are diverse, and (d) talking to son about discrimination.ConclusionFamily professionals can work with White fathers to help them overcome any challenges they may encounter to socialize their Black biracial sons to navigate society as a man of color.ImplicationsFamily practitioners and school personnel can promote and encourage the attendance of parenting programs that focus on discussing discrimination with children and strategies parents can use to develop a healthy multiracial identity in children. Religious leaders can encourage diversity with International Day celebrations and facilitate discussions with congregants about racial inequality.

Always Almost There: Perspectives on Mixed Methods Research in Higher Education

Always Almost There: Perspectives on Mixed Methods Research in Higher Education