Articles In Issue Research Articles

The following article for this Special issue was published in a different issue

AbstractWeissheimer A, Pham J, Tong H, Akyalcin S. Esthetic outcomes in orthodontics through digital customization with a lingual appliance system. J Esthet Restor Dent. 2024;36(9):1267‐1280. doi:10.1111/jerd.13244https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jerd.13244

Theoretical Approaches to Communicative Practices in the Study of Intergenerational Communication and Aging.

Intergenerational communication and aging is a thriving interdisciplinary, methodologically diverse field having significant implications for understanding the aging process. This opening article to the special issue provides a brief overview of this research domain, with particular attention to theoretical practices within it. Communication accommodation theory (CAT) is introduced given it has provided a foundation for other well-cited models of communication and aging. In so doing, a couple of the CAT principles are elaborated, based on recent work on age meta-stereotyping and intergroup felt understanding. CAT is also a component of the influential "communication ecology model of successful aging" and, after exploring some of its tenets, its visually schematic representation is elaborated as well as connections speculated regarding its relationship with the communicative lives of SuperAgers. Thereafter, highlights emerging from the articles in this special issue that follow are drawn out.

Digital Communication in work and family life in Europe

ABSTRACT This special issue brings together innovative research on the use and implications of digital communication in work and family life. It examines the context dependence of the use of digital communication and the consequences for work-family integration and conflict in a comparative design. It also broadens the perspective to new technological developments. The editorial gives an overview of the existing literature and presents the main findings of the articles in this special issue. It also provides initial descriptive information on digital communication with children, parents, line managers and colleagues, based on the initiated module on ‘Digital Social Contacts in Work and Family Life’ in the European Social Survey Round 10. There are apparent differences across European countries, social groups (age, gender, migration background, class) and with respect to the inclusion in the labor market (in paid employment, working from home, occupational status). Overall, the special issue demonstrates that digital communication in work and family life is interrelated, is inherent to gendered strategies to combine work and family, and is also a matter of digital skills, emotional and physical closeness and the institutional context. Work-family conflict enhancing implications are identified but do not seem to be an indispensable attribute.

Functional ecology of plant communities as a guide for vegetation management

Plant functional traits determine how individual plants cope with varying environmental conditions, and extensive literature supports their role in influencing ecosystem properties. The study of plant functional traits could help the prediction of species responses to disturbances and environmental change, thus providing invaluable knowledge to refine conservation strategies of species and vegetation. However, applications of functional ecology for vegetation management are still underrepresented.The articles in this Special Issue of FLORA offer cutting-edge insights on the variation of plant traits and ecological strategies in response to environmental drivers, such as anthropogenic disturbance, climate and land use change. The results demonstrate how trait-based approaches can be used for the prediction of climate and land use change impacts on vulnerable sets of species or on biogeochemical cycles, reinforcing the concept that functional plant ecology can help identify the most effective procedures for vegetation management, such as the choice of mowing intensity in grasslands or planning vegetation recovery after wildfires.Our knowledge of plant trait coordination at the community level is still undefined, especially concerning the integration of above- and belowground traits. This represents a missed opportunity for vegetation management, especially considering that a complete understanding of the dynamics of the entire ecosystem is crucial for complete understanding of ecosystem properties. Since plant functional traits can represent a straightforward tool for monitoring changes in ecosystem structure and functions, their use could support vegetation monitoring as required by different programs of nature conservation. It would be useful to embrace a perspective that integrates plant traits with systematic conservation planning, ensuring effective and sustainable conservation efforts.

ChatGPT in language teaching and learning: Exploring the road we’re travelling

This introduction to the special issue examines the integration of ChatGPT and similar generative AI technologies in language teaching and learning. It examines the rapid evolution of AI tools since 2022, with particular focus on their applications in educational settings and the mixed responses they have generated among educators and learners. While some educators embrace these tools for their potential to automate and enhance instructional tasks, others express concern over issues such as academic integrity, accuracy, and potential job displacement. This special issue explores various perspectives on the use of ChatGPT, including its benefits in providing non-judgmental feedback, aiding material creation, and enhancing language practice, alongside challenges like ethical use, student over-reliance, and the evolving digital literacy demands for both teachers and students. The collection of articles in this special issue seeks to balance the hype with practical insights and offers a framework for understanding the nuanced impacts of generative AI on second language education.

ChatGPT in language teaching and learning: Exploring the road we’re travelling

This introduction to the special issue examines the integration of ChatGPT and similar generative AI technologies in language teaching and learning. It examines the rapid evolution of AI tools since 2022, with particular focus on their applications in educational settings and the mixed responses they have generated among educators and learners. While some educators embrace these tools for their potential to automate and enhance instructional tasks, others express concern over issues such as academic integrity, accuracy, and potential job displacement. This special issue explores various perspectives on the use of ChatGPT, including its benefits in providing non-judgmental feedback, aiding material creation, and enhancing language practice, alongside challenges like ethical use, student over-reliance, and the evolving digital literacy demands for both teachers and students. The collection of articles in this special issue seeks to balance the hype with practical insights and offers a framework for understanding the nuanced impacts of generative AI on second language education.

Of strong swords and fine scalpels: Developing robust clinical principles to cut through heterogeneity.

This is an invited commentary article for the special issue. The main thesis is that an effective strategy for computational psychiatry to handle the (possibly intrinsic) heterogeneity of psychiatric disorders is to focus on developing clinical principles rather than solely precision medicine. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The other narratives of architecture

The other narrative of architecture expands possibilities of architectural design methods that pay attention to other temporalities, realities, and subjects of architecture. The collection of articles in this ARSNET issue provides investigations that revisit how narratives exist as the basis of architectural experience and design methods. Technological advancements create tools, platforms, and living needs that enable different ways of revealing, producing, and speculating architectural narratives. Through this issue's investigation of the other narratives, alternative situations of architecture are reconstructed.

Development and inequality: A long‐run view

AbstractWe provide a comprehensive review of the literature on the drivers of long‐run development and inequality, and new datasets for their study. Three distinct elements emerge in the 10 articles of this special issue that broadly characterize the field. First, development should be understood from a multidimensional perspective and when considering long‐run patterns a wide array of indicators must be used, ranging from material living standards to health, education, and gender. Second, the construction of widely used development metrics has to be critically reviewed to arrive at more accurate narratives of how the world developed. Third, the drivers of development and global inequalities are best analyzed and understood from a long‐term perspective. Some sweeping trends with major consequences for countries and regions alike took many years to unfold, such as the emergence of the modern state, or the implementation of large‐scale education reforms. In sum, this special issue shows that global inequalities are the result of long‐term persistent forces that have operated through periods of decades (and centuries), involving institutional change, demographic processes, and cultural persistence (among others). A better understanding of patterns and explanatory factors of development over the long term is key to tackle current‐day challenges for development and inequality.

Conclusion: addressing the labor shortage problem in the hospitality and tourism industries

PurposeThe main objective of this theme issue is to investigate the potential of cutting-edge technologies like AI, robotics and other innovative solutions to mitigate the skilled labor shortage crisis in the Hospitality and tourism (H&T) industries.Design/methodology/approachThis conclusion draws upon the collective insights from the articles in this thematic issue, providing a comprehensive overview of the key findings and their implications. A thorough analysis and discussion of the results are presented, offering a synthesis of the research and its significance for the hospitality and tourism industry.FindingsThis thematic issue examines the profound impact of automation and artificial intelligence on the tourism and hospitality industries, where advancements in technology are juxtaposed with the challenge of skill shortages. The special issue explores the application of AI and automation in operations, training and development as well as the need for a balanced approach to innovation and service delivery standards. As AI transforms the industry, this issue highlights the imperative for hotels and similar establishments to strike a delicate balance between technological innovation and preserving exceptional guest experiences.Originality/valueThis theme issue presents a comprehensive analysis of the key discussions on the strategic use of technology in the hospitality and tourism industries. The articles demonstrate the significance of these advancements in expanding our knowledge and driving innovation, ultimately benefiting various stakeholders in the sector. As these technologies continue to evolve at a rapid pace, it is crucial for industry professionals, decision-makers and researchers to understand their applications, benefits and challenges in order to effectively address the pressing issue of labor shortages in the hospitality and tourism industries.

Neighborhood Residents in Vulnerable Circumstances: Crisis, Stress, and Coping Mechanisms

The editorial introduces the articles in this thematic issue, which provides a multifaceted analyses on how residents of vulnerable neighbourhoods cope with stressful circumstances and various crises. The aim is to understand daily survival at the neighbourhood level amid rapidly changing conditions. The articles present both quantitative and qualitative analyses that make detailed observations of agency, resilience, and community in diverse sociocultural contexts.

Hidden histories of science and medicine: spirit mediumship and the ‘psychology without a soul’

Mental health professionals working with the dying and bereaved may occasionally feel that a belief in the mind’s persistence after death can function as an important coping device for some of their patients. To facilitate an unbiased reading of the empirical articles in this thematic issue, this essay therefore uses the history of a particularly contested area of ‘survival research’, spirit mediumship, to highlight widely forgotten but pivotal historical contexts and complexities which have failed to inform and balance standard academic receptions of empirical approaches to the mind’s hypothetic survival of death. After sketching diametrically opposed attitudes to mediumship by the founders of modern psychology, William James and Wilhelm Wundt, and psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler’s defences of research with mediums against the dismissive stance exemplified by Emil Kraepelin and Henry Maudsley, I conclude that standard interpretations of any open-minded scientific interest in mediumship and survival research as wishful thinking are asymmetrical and psychologically simplistic.

Amenities and housing market dynamics: Implications for population change, urban attractiveness, innovation, and productivity

This introductory essay aims to provide a comprehensive overview of a collection of 17 articles, previously published in the Urban Studies journal, now consolidated as a ‘virtual special issue’. The articles contribute to numerous strands of what has, over the decades, become an extremely voluminous literature concerning the interplay between population change and productivity within cities. It is important to acknowledge that the volume of this literature makes it effectively impossible to summarise effectively in a single essay. This article instead presents a contextual overview, a glimpse into the various thematic strands arising from the literature, and an introduction to each of the selected virtual special issue articles themselves. It briefly highlights the unique contributions of these articles to the overarching objective of the Urban Studies journal, which is to advance our understanding of the urban condition. Yet, it is also worth noting that the literature does not neatly segregate into distinct strands. Indeed, several contributing authors within the virtual special issue rightly emphasise the significant interdependencies between population change, migration patterns, specialisation, firm location, urban and natural amenities, agglomeration economies, and productivity. This essay attempts to progress logically from one strand to another, with a specific focus on labour and housing markets, as well as transportation costs or systems, as mediators of these complex relationships. Finally, the essay concludes by bringing attention to several strands of future inquiry that might prove fruitful and would be of interest to the readership of this journal.

Introduction: Studying Work Regulation Processes Beyond the Formal/Informal Divide

This introduction provides an outline of what an approach to work regulation processes beyond the formal/informal divide might look like. The first section briefly reviews the different approaches to informal economies that have been developed since the early 1970s. The second section takes a step back from this literature to draw attention to the intellectual and political weaknesses of the concept of informal economy. Building on this critique, the third section proposes avenues for studying work regulation processes beyond the formal/informal divide. To conclude, the fourth section highlights the contributions that the articles of this special issue bring to the analysis of work regulation and labour dynamics in Africa.

Mental Models and Cognitive Frames in International Business

The modern international business (IB) landscape is characterized by complexity, uncertainty, and rapid change, making effective decision-making more crucial than ever. Such decisions are made by managers who use mental models and cognitive frames to interpret and act on information. The role such cognitive tools play in shaping how managers perceive opportunities, assess risks, and navigate unfamiliar environments cannot be overstated. The four articles in this special issue of AIB Insights aim to address this issue by examining how mental models and cognitive frames influence decision-making in IB, offering both theoretical insights and, more importantly, practical advice for practitioners.

Shared anthropology of the Middle East: Essays on media in honor of Faye Ginsburg

AbstractThe articles in this special issue are the outcome of the panel: “Papers in Honor of Faye Ginsburg: Visual and Media Anthropology in the Middle East,” which was held virtually for the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings of November 2021. The reach of Ginsburg's work as well as her mentorship through the creation of NYU's Graduate Program in Culture & Media has shaped the ethnography of media and visual anthropology across a diversity of geographic regions. In this particular issue, we bring together scholars of SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa, a term that more broadly encompasses what is often referred to as the Middle East) whose projects are deeply influenced by Ginsburg's scholarship on shared anthropology, collaborative media practices and cultural activism. This introduction includes excerpts from a conversation with Ginsburg.

Collective Impact-Strengthening the Science and Practice of Implementation Support: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Training and Technical Assistance Centers.

We introduce the second of two special issues that examine the science and practice of implementation support with takeaways for training and technical centers (TTACs). Major goals of both issues were to provide: rationale, concepts, and tools for evaluating training and technical assistance (TTA); an evidence-base for TTACs; and greater understanding of what is required to close the research-practice gap. To achieve these ambitious goals, we encouraged submissions from a broad array of individuals and groups involved in TTA. The seven articles in this second issue were written by a diverse mix of individuals affiliated with TTACs, federal agencies, research-oriented think tanks, and implementation scientists whose focus is on advancing the TTA literature. We felt that the collective wisdom garnered from their experiences would complement the first issue (June 2024) and collectively forge ahead and provide a vision of what is to come. We also thought it would be useful to provide perspectives on what it looks like when readers could examine both issues as a whole. Therefore, we included five commentaries-from the two editors and esteemed colleagues-who help provide a holistic perspective on the present and future of the science and practice of implementation support.

The Inquiry Initiative and “Opportunity Gaps”: Collaborative Research Structures and Challenging Inequities in Teacher Education

ABSTRACT While academic conferences and professional associations were amongst those societal structures that were immediately (and arguably forever) changed by the pandemic , many – including this article’s authors and this special issue’s editors – would argue that long before the pandemic, the static structure of professional conferences had made them decidedly less relevant to their members and their fields. In response, in 2022 the Association of Teacher Educators launched the Inquiry Initiative, aiming to develop a novel form of collaborative research structure, uniting teacher education scholars and practitioners to examine and address “opportunity gaps” in education. In this introductory article to this special issue, we explore these professional association contexts and teacher education research circumstances in an effort to help readers understand the unique set of factors that have resulted in this edition of The New Educator. We share a concise history of academic conferences in the US; we situate this history in a brief literature review on collaborative research structures. We outline the elements of the Initiative as it has been implemented over the course of the last three years, concisely detailing the nature of the “opportunity gaps” focus of the first Initiative, and offering short summaries of the articles in this special issue, considering their connections to the “opportunity gaps” topic. We conclude with a reflection on the nature of academic scholarship in the US and the need for and place of such alternative collaborative structures in the service of these research endeavors.

Cities and climate change in developing countries

An increasing proportion of greenhouse gas emissions is coming from urban areas, particularly in developing countries with low- and middle-income economies. While the major challenge for transitions into climate-friendly urban areas in developed countries is the reduction of their consumption footprints, the key factor for advancing the urban climate agenda in developing countries is the link between climate change and the achievement of various Sustainable Development Goals, as these countries struggle with “old problems,” including the provision of basic services and the need to raise incomes. Thus, the contributions of the articles of this special issue explore two main aspects: the understanding of the impacts of climate change in its various dimensions, and the responses and solutions cities have adopted to tackle climate change.

Introduction to the Special Issue: The Lives (and Futures) of Black Children and Youth

Abstract As social science scholarship on Black children and youth continues to expand and to explore their experiences, there remains a need to investigate how families, communities, relationships, and social institutions impact their experiences. The theme for this special issue is inspired in part by our consideration of Black children’s and youths’ present realities and their futures. The editors of this volume are interested in creating space to analyze and theorize the radical possibilities for Black children to flourish in a world that typically ignores, marginalizes, and dismisses their plights and their promise. Privileging the agency of Black youth, the articles in this special issue provide nuanced accounts of how they make sense of many aspects of their lives and futures.