Interdisciplinary Research Group Research Articles

Exploring the inter-connections between Alternative Agrifood and Seafood Networks for building food systems resilience

In the context of intensifying threats to food systems and a growing need for resilience, Alternative Agrifood Networks (AANs) and Alternative Seafood Networks (ASNs) have emerged as notable bright spots across North America. Collectively, AANs and ASNs comprise Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) - the micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises which are important, but often overlooked, actors in food systems. However, a critical limitation for food system resilience is that agriculture and fisheries remain chronically siloed in research, legislation, regulation, and advocacy. In this field report, we explore the opportunities and challenges of linking ASNs and AANs to build more resilient food systems. To do so, we draw on our experiences as an interdisciplinary group of food systems researchers and practitioners that came together in 2022 through the Agrifish Resilience project. Based on a series of reflective collaborative conversations that we held as a team, we share our key insights for building resilience across agriculture and fisheries focusing on three main themes: the role of ASNs and AANs in food system resilience, our perspectives on what resilience in food systems means, and prospects for collaboratively building resilience. We conclude by proposing the idea of boundary objects as a way of bringing ASNs and AANs together, with some examples of what this looks like in practice, and the role for interdisciplinary teams like ours.

Lessons Learned and Call for Action From Building an International Consensus on Social Return on Investment Modeling of Physical Activity and Sport.

The Social Return on Investment (SROI) model has been applied to physical activity and sports (PAS) inconsistently in the past. In order to demonstrate that PAS creates social value for society, consistent, scientific-based tools must be developed. In 2022, a group of interdisciplinary researchers started a project to standardize the application of SROI to global PAS activities. A Delphi study, informed by a systematic review on this topic, was used and the present commentary exposes the main conclusions. Six main lessons can be drawn from the process of building a global SROI applied to PAS: the methodology to measure the impact of PAS at the population level is different from the methodology applied to specific interventions; there is consensus on the impact in health; there is knowledge, but also unanswered questions on the impact of PAS in education; the impact of PAS in population well-being as a promising area; the of impact on crime and social capital requires more research; and there is controversy in the relationship between PAS, and environment, and climate change. A global SROI applied to PAS is a powerful tool to demonstrate how an active population can bring value to society. For this purpose, researchers and policymakers are called to action to fill in the gaps that remain open in order to build a robust model.

Integrating "nature" in the water-energy-food Nexus: Current perspectives and future directions.

Integrating "nature" in the water-energy-food Nexus: Current perspectives and future directions.

Optimizing Neurobehavioral Assessment for Patients with Disorders of Consciousness: Proposal of a Comprehensive Pre-Assessment Checklist for Clinicians.

Clinicians are challenged by the ambiguity and uncertainty in assessing level of consciousness in individuals with disorder of consciousness (DoC). There are numerous challenges to valid and reliable neurobehavioral assessment and classification of DoC due to multiple environmental and patient-related biases including behavioral fluctuation and confounding or co-occurring medical conditions. Addressing these biases could impact accuracy of assessment and is an important aspect of the DoC assessment process. A pre-assessment checklist was developed by a group of interdisciplinary DoC clinical experts and researchers based on the existing literature, current validated tools, and expert opinions. Once finalized, the checklist was electronically distributed to clinicians with a range of experience in neurobehavioral assessment with DoC. Respondents were asked to use the checklist prior to completing a neurobehavioral assessment. A survey was also provided to respondents to obtain feedback regarding checklist feasibility and utility in optimizing the behavioral assessments. Thirty-three clinicians completed the survey after using the checklist. Over half of the respondents were a combination of physicians, neuropsychologists, and physical therapists. All respondents served the adult DoC population and 42% percent had over ten years of clinical experience. Eighty percent reported they found the format of the checklist useful and easy to use. All respondents reported the checklist was relevant to preparing for behavioral assessment in the DoC population. Eighty-four percent reported they would recommend the use of the tool to other clinicians. The use of a pre-assessment checklist was found to be feasible and efficacious in increasing interdisciplinary clinician's ability to optimize the patient and environment in preparation for neurobehavioral assessment. Initial results of clinicians' perception of the utility of a pre-assessment checklist were positive. However, further validation of the tool is needed with larger sample sizes to improve representation of clinical use across disciplines and care settings.

Understanding patients’ emotional well-being, perceptions and concerns during an unprecedented deferment of arthroplasty: an Italian qualitative study

ObjectivesNearly 40 000 Italian patients had their arthroplasty postponed between March and May 2020 (lockdown period) and experienced a period of several months without knowing when surgeries would resume. The...

THE HERO CARE SURVEY: MEASURING THE UNMET NEEDS OF AMERICAN MILITARY VETERANS AND THEIR CAREGIVERS

Abstract Success in delaying long term institutional care (LTIC) depends on identifying unmet needs of Veteran-caregiver dyads and creating strategies to adequately support those needs. This symposium aims to enhance the understanding of the needs of Veterans and caregivers at high LTIC risk, to inform better planning of services and policy for Veterans and their caregivers. Our interdisciplinary group of researchers will use data from our prospective HERO CARE survey, fielded to 20,000 community-dwelling high-need, high-risk Veterans and their caregivers, to report on the epidemiology of their needs over time. We will review the survey’s socio-ecological framework; summarize survey responses from Veterans and caregivers (Dang, Chair), followed by an overview of the VA-funded Elizabeth Dole National Center for Veteran and Caregiver Research (EDCoE), under whose umbrella this survey was conducted. (Co-chair-Trivedi). We will describe unmet needs stratified by LTIC risk and compare racial/ethnic differences in the prevalence of unmet needs. (Garcia) The next speaker will describe the process of analysis of HERO CARE caregivers’ self-perceived preparedness for caregiving, awareness of resources and desire to institutionalize. (Desir) We will then describe key characteristics and preliminary findings for Veterans who report having a caregiver younger than age 25, an often-overlooked demographic of caregivers. (Kalvesmaki) Our last speaker will report on unmet needs and physical and emotional health of caregivers as they transition to survivors after the death of their care-recipient. (Bouldin) Finally, the discussant will synthesize the presentations and potential policy implications of the findings. (Leykum)

A Study on the Mechanisms of Mindfulness's Impact on Faculty Knowledge Sharing: Focusing on Interdisciplinary Research Groups in Chinese Universities

A Study on the Mechanisms of Mindfulness's Impact on Faculty Knowledge Sharing: Focusing on Interdisciplinary Research Groups in Chinese Universities

INTRODUCING A SERVICE DELIVERY MODEL TO OPTIMIZE HOME MODIFICATION OUTCOMES

Abstract Home modification services have become more widely available in response to the aging population’s growing need for accessible home environments. Despite this growth, the home modification service delivery process is not well-defined, leading to services that do not adequately meet the needs of older adults. To address this gap, the Service Delivery Subcommittee of the National Home Safety and Home Modification Work Group, led by the National Council on Aging and funded by the Administration for Community Living, developed a Home Modification Service Delivery Model. Using an iterative, consensus building approach, this group of interdisciplinary practitioners and researchers developed a model to describe the ideal home modification service delivery process based on evidence and expert perspectives. The model outlines the value of working in a transdisciplinary team, describes key providers and professionals to involve on the team, and their respective roles in the home modification service delivery process (i.e., intake, assessment, completion of modifications, and follow-up). An understanding of the complexity of home modification and awareness of the types of providers that can and should be involved across all phases of home modification can increase the likelihood that consumers will receive the right services at the right time to adequately meet their current and future needs, regardless of their background and point of entry to the process. The Home Modification Service Delivery Model sets a critical foundation for future research and implementation efforts in the community. This session will review the model, describe the development process, and highlight next steps.

Developmental Relationship-Based Interventions for Autistic Children

Interventions to support autistic children are often described as developmental, behavioral, or naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions; however, developmental approaches have not been well defined as a class of therapeutic intervention. We present the position of an interdisciplinary group of researchers and clinicians regarding the common features of developmental interventions. The term Developmental Relationship-Based Interventions (DRBI) is proposed as a useful way to represent this classification of interventions. The defining features of DRBI are: (a) a developmental framework based on a child’s innate motivation for social engagement and learning, and (b) a primary focus on supporting parent-child and other social interactions and relationships. Four strategies consistently used in DRBI are: Social Play, Sensitive Responding, Following the Child’s Lead, and Presenting Challenges. We also describe the features that differentiate DRBI from Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBI). The proposed description of DRBI may aid clinical decision-making, policy formation and research design.

The Influence of User-oriented Design Research on Framing

The concept of framing has been used as a creative and constructive tool in the design process. This study provides new insights into frames and framing as a tool for understanding disciplinary differences in multidisciplinary collaborations where design research is included. With an increasing focus on patient participation in the design of health and assistive technology, the importance of considering the users' perspectives cannot be overstated. However, bridging the gap between different disciplinary practices of framing problems that incorporate user experiences and values is a challenge. A case study of the (project name)(xxxx) research project was selected to investigate the practical implications of insights on mobility from a focus group interview with lower-limb prosthetic users. A follow-up ideation workshop with an interdisciplinary group of researchers from the project xxxx was used as the starting point for exploring different disciplinary perspectives. The research contributes to the concept on framing by demonstrating how examining relevant perspectives from the literature provides valuable insights into different ways of framing in the design process.

Sell not, TEL not

An interdisciplinary group of researchers designed an innovative mobile application (app) to support bioscience language proficiency among pre-registration nursing students. The app's design, which incorporated features for audition and speaking prompts, was a key factor in its effectiveness. The same pedagogical approach was applied to alternative topics within the unit in Moodle, the university’s learning management system (LMS). The intervention in both forms (IC) was trialled and evaluated in a pilot study with two consecutive student cohorts in 2023 (n1=631, n2=218). Student access to each form of the condition was measured via technology-provided user analytics. The intervention condition (IC) uptake was higher in its LMS form compared to the app form. However, there were more initial attempts of the standard condition (SC) than the IC overall, indicating a tendency towards novelty avoidance. This article highlights and discusses the challenges of implementing novel technology-enhanced learning (TEL) approaches, focusing on students as stakeholders. Recommendations are proposed to improve user uptake of TEL approaches by focusing on strategies to enhance students’ perceptions of the TEL’s utility. A consistent ‘sales pitch’ to students as stakeholders is suggested.

Back to the future - 20 years of progress and developments in photonic microscopy and biological imaging.

In 2023, the ImaBio consortium (imabio-cnrs.fr), an interdisciplinary life microscopy research group at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, celebrated its 20th anniversary. ImaBio contributes to the biological imaging community through organization of MiFoBio conferences, which are interdisciplinary conferences featuring lectures and hands-on workshops that attract specialists from around the world. MiFoBio conferences provide the community with an opportunity to reflect on the evolution of the field, and the 2023 event offered retrospective talks discussing the past 20 years of topics in microscopy, including imaging of multicellular assemblies, image analysis, quantification of molecular motions and interactions within cells, advancements in fluorescent labels, and laser technology for multiphoton and label-free imaging of thick biological samples. In this Perspective, we compile summaries of these presentations overviewing 20 years of advancements in a specific area of microscopy, each of which concludes with a brief look towards the future. The full presentations are available on the ImaBio YouTube channel (youtube.com/@gdrimabio5724).

Perspective: Food Access at Dollar Stores and Its Implications for Public Health—Report of a Workshop on Identifying Research Priorities

The rapid growth of dollar stores as retail sources of food in the United States is a phenomenon with implications for diets, nutrition, and well-being. We convened a broadly interdisciplinary group of researchers and experts from government and academia at the 2-day Food Access at Dollar Stores (FADS) workshop, held in Boston, MA in 2022. The event brought together economists, social scientists, public health researchers, and advocates to discuss the concerns and research questions raised by the growth of dollar stores and their increased role in food retail and access. In-person, moderated discussions on day 2 of the workshop generated a range of topics considered important for future research. A subsequent survey, using a modified Delphi approach, identified priority research areas. Nine research area categories emerged as a result of discussion at the FADS workshop and received prioritization from the experts: Local community impacts; Health and nutrition impacts; Policy and programs; Systemic issues – racism, poverty, and food access; Store offerings and locations; Shoppers and customers; Employees and employment; Corporate distribution, strategy, and marketing; and Dollar stores compared with other food sources. The growth of dollar stores as food retailers remains an under-researched area of study for food access and nutrition that requires interdisciplinary expertise and collaboration to understand.

Investing in the Future of Nursing: Insights From the AcademyHealth Interdisciplinary Research Group on Nursing Issues Preconference

Investing in the Future of Nursing: Insights From the AcademyHealth Interdisciplinary Research Group on Nursing Issues Preconference

Digital health and mobile health: a bibliometric analysis of the 100 most cited papers and their contributing authors

Aim: This study aimed to identify and analyze the top 100 most cited digital health and mobile health (m-health) publications. It could aid researchers in the identification of promising new research avenues, additionally supporting the establishment of international scientific collaboration between interdisciplinary research groups with demonstrated achievements in the area of interest. Methods: On 30th August, 2023, the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) electronic database was queried to identify the top 100 most cited digital health papers with a comprehensive search string. From the initial search, 106 papers were identified. After screening for relevance, six papers were excluded, resulting in the final list of the top 100 papers. The basic bibliographic data was directly extracted from WOSCC using its “Analyze” and “Create Citation Report” functions. The complete records of the top 100 papers were downloaded and imported into a bibliometric software called VOSviewer (version 1.6.19) to generate an author keyword map and author collaboration map. Results: The top 100 papers on digital health received a total of 49,653 citations. Over half of them (n = 55) were published during 2013–2017. Among these 100 papers, 59 were original articles, 36 were reviews, 4 were editorial materials, and 1 was a proceeding paper. All papers were written in English. The University of London and the University of California system were the most represented affiliations. The USA and the UK were the most represented countries. The Journal of Medical Internet Research was the most represented journal. Several diseases and health conditions were identified as a focus of these works, including anxiety, depression, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Conclusions: The findings underscore key areas of focus in the field and prominent contributors, providing a roadmap for future research in digital and m-health.

Who ought to look towards the horizon? A qualitative study on the collective social responsibility of scientific research

There is a growing concern for the proper role of science within democratic societies, which has led to the development of new science policies for the implementation of social responsibility in research. Although the very expression ‘social responsibility of science’ may be interpreted in different ways, many of these emerging policy frameworks define it, at least in part, as a form of anticipative reflection about the potential impacts of research in society. What remains a rather under-discussed issue is the definition of the bearer of the social responsibility of science. In other words, it is not clear who is supposed to engage in such an anticipative reflection, whether individual researchers or research groups. In the past few years, philosophers of science have begun to use qualitative research methods to fill the gaps between normative models of the organisation of ideal scientific communities and the reality of actual scientific practices. In this article, I follow this approach to discuss the issue of the collective dimension of the social responsibility of science. I rely on a qualitative study conducted on an interdisciplinary research group and I describe how group dynamics position individuals and distribute duties and roles, including social responsibility. Qualitative descriptions of the distribution of duties within actual research groups should inform the formulation of general prescriptive theories on the collective responsibility of science.

Health data social licence: An inclusive process to learn more about the perspectives of experienced public and patient advisors.

The term "social licence" has been used to describe which uses and users of health data the public supports - and under what conditions. From November 2022 to January 2023, Health Data Research Network Canada was funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada to explore whether there was consensus among experienced public and patient advisors on: (i) uses of health data that all members supported or opposed and (ii) what constitutes an essential requirement for a health data use or user to be within social licence. The project was conducted in English and French in collaboration with the Interdisciplinary Research Group in Health Informatics (GRIIS) at the University of Sherbrooke. It involved 20 public/patient advisor "participants" and an additional 13 public/patient advisors who served as peer-reviewers, all of whom had prior experience working in a health-related field and/or with health data. The process followed inclusive design principles in that it captured views held by the majority and minority of participants, including views expressed by only one or two participants. After two 2-hour facilitated sessions, participants agreed that it is within social licence for health data to be used (i) by healthcare practitioners to improve patient care, (ii) by governments and administrators to improve the health system, and (iii) by university-based researchers to understand disease and well-being. There was consensus opposition to (i) an individual or organisation selling someone else's identified health data and (ii) health data being used for a purpose that has no public or societal benefit. There was no consensus about what constitutes an essential requirement for a use or users of health data to be with social licence. The results of the process have been published in a non-peer-reviewed report co-authored with participants. This paper has been co-authored with a subset of the participants and peer-reviewers to present a high-level summary of the findings, methodological details, and templates to enable other groups to adapt the process to their own settings. It also presents the results of an anonymous evaluation of the process using the Public and Patient Engagement Evaluation Tool (PPEET), which were mostly positive and identified some areas for improvement.

Analysis of Pros and Cons in Using the Water–Energy–Food Nexus Approach to Assess Resource Security: A Review

The water–energy–food (WEF) nexus is drawing much attention in scholarly literature as a novel alternative to address complex resources and achieve resource security. The aim of this study is to analyze and review existing nexus studies to investigate the current status of nexus research worldwide. This study used a narrative review approach to provide a comprehensive overview on the WEF nexus using a variety of databases. It is indicated that the majority of studies in Asia and Africa focused on the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus. China and Brazil had the largest nexus research. Based on the existing literature, most of attention has been paid to food production. However, food consumption patterns and dietary change are rarely evaluated, and there is a lack of study on impacts of dietary change on the WEF nexus. Moreover, there is a lack of frameworks for the evaluation of the WEF nexus under dietary change scenarios. The major challenge of the nexus approach is data availability in crop production, which can be solved by using remote sensing data. There is a lack of standard and conceptual frameworks for nexus assessment and, then, an essential need to provide a new holistic and standard approach that be applicable worldwide to increase connections between researchers and decision makers, as well as the applicability of nexus approaches. Future research must couple the development of a holistic standard approach with experimental tests in different areas, involving interdisciplinary research groups able to carry out all the experimental activities, the numerical simulations, and the statistical analyses of climatic time series (in a climate change perspective) indispensable to demonstrate the real benefits of using a WEF-derived nexus approach.

Children Don't Like Eating What They're Supposed to Eat… A Study of Public Catering for Children in Hungary from a Historical Perspective

AbstractChildhood nutrition is an important element of lifestyle research, since the regularity and nutritional content of our meals as children, and the way in which they are eaten, determine our physical and mental health throughout our lives. Prior to 2018, there was no basic interdisciplinary research on this topic in Hungary, thus to fill the gap, an interdisciplinary research group was established in 2018 at the Institute of Ethnography, which carried out nationwide research. The present study is based on fieldwork undertaken by the author in two schools — the János Lenkey Primary School in Eger (formerly Primary School No. 1) and the Tamás Bolyki Primary School in Ózd — as well as a large amount of information gleaned from questionnaires and interviews. My research was also extended in terms of a historical and geographical perspective: I studied archival sources and expanded the field of my investigations by including Salgótarján, a research location familiar from my earlier research, which provided a vantage point alongside Ózd and Eger, as a third city typical of Northern Hungary. Public catering for children has undergone significant changes in the last six to seven years, although prior to this it had appeared relatively uniform, in line with the ingredients available at the time. The obligation to provide public catering and the general obligation to work, which began in the Rákosi era and culminated in the Kádár era, significantly changed family eating habits. Traditional elements typical of a particular locality disappeared as the globalization efforts of socialism were accomplished. The ever-decreasing amount of time devoted to preparing, cooking, and consuming food moved society in the direction of canteens, fast-food restaurants, and later, after the regime change, global fast-food chains. Education on proper nutrition is not currently part of academic teacher training, thus for want of a better alternative, teachers organize children's school meals based on their own experience and socialization or following the school's regulations (where they exist), without having a unified concept. The number of meals eaten at home has been reduced to light breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, with families mostly sitting down together at the table for dinner, when they often consume ready meals. Lack of contact with foodstuffs and with the person preparing the food has a negative impact on children's psychological development. Relying on extensive basic research and participant observation, and through the joint efforts of specialists from several fields of the social sciences, a significant improvement could be achieved in both public catering and education on healthy nutrition.

Opportunities for Interdisciplinary Research on School Catering

AbstractIn Hungary, about half of the 3–18 age group has regularly used school food service. This paper focuses on the operation and social embeddedness of school canteens and the at-home eating habits of the families involved. My conclusions are based on the findings of my interdisciplinary research group. Ethnographers from the RCH Institute of Ethnology and dietitians from the National Institute of Pharmacy and Nutrition have been studying school food from 2018 to 2023. We selected a few model settlements: in addition to the capital, Budapest, three smaller towns, and two villages. Through questionnaires, interviews, and fieldwork observations, we investigated cooking, serving, meal courses, meal time, eating habits, preferences, as well as the nutritional knowledge of students, teachers, kitchen staff, and parents. Our goal, among other things, is to collect best practices and facilitate communication between participants. Some examples from our research highlight the special role of the centrally regulated school food in local food culture, and difficulties with social and historical roots can occasionally hamper school lunches in becoming a socially accepted model of a healthy diet. The school canteen works best at sites where cooking takes place within the school premises. There is a strong connection between the kitchen staff and the teachers, and they work together in the interest of the children. The value of food and its appreciation is demonstrated by how it is treated and how it is talked about. Communication about food in the canteen should be based on food preparation at home, where parents and children work together. The operation of canteens has become particularly problematic following the measures introduced during the coronavirus pandemic. A sustainable, enjoyable canteen can only be realized through the regular communication of schools and school kitchens, as well as children and their parents. Our findings are presented to our respondents, along with providing them with a comparison of different examples.