Personal Viewpoint Research Articles

Coding, SDGs and Education: How Canada is preparing the next generation for global citizenship - An interview with Zoë Decker

The interview is with Zöe Decker, Masters in Geology, a professional working with the Global Goals after a diverse study experience in Canada, Iceland and South Africa. Zöe now shared the mission of teaching digital literacy to all kids with the organization which she works for Kids Code Jeunesse. In the interview, she gives her personal viewpoints on coding, SDGs and education explaining how Canada is preparing the next generation for global citizenship. During the interview much of the work, mission and goals of Kids Code Jeunesse is explained.

Creating a Mind Genomics Wiki for Non-Meat Analogs

In the past few decades, several negative aspects of excess meat consumption have been identified, ranging broadly from health to environment to consumer rejections of meat analogs. At the same time, however, several new meat alternatives have emerged such as algae, insects, and cultured meat, which all present a sustainable option to reduce meat consumption. The paper assesses the psychology of the “everyday” for meat-free products, focusing on how consumers in two specific markets in the USA (California, New York) respond to messages about four specific topics involving meat-free products. These four are sensory characteristics, possible usage in products, health aspects, and environmental aspects, respectively. Each study with 100 or more respondents used experimental design of messages (Mind Genomics) to understand the degree to which the respondents reacted positively or negatively to the 16 messages in each of the four studies. The data suggest that focusing on the Total Panel or on geography, gender, or age will not reveal the dramatically different mind-sets existing in each of the four topics. We introduce the notion of the PVI, personal viewpoint identifier, to help the researcher uncover these mind-sets, and help communicate effectively with each mind-set about meat analogs or help recruit these individuals to participate in further studies.

The moral compass in The COVID-19 era: The line between empathy and eagerness of the young surgical generation. A multidisciplinary point of view from first year residents (PGY-1)

The COVID-19 pandemic has been affecting surgical residents in many ways and to varying degrees. While the senior surgical residents have been facing a drastic decrease in the operation time, the junior surgical residents have been exposed to an increased number of beside procedures. However, both of them have been affected by an increased exposure to deaths. This sudden exposure to this amount of deaths can, and has been, greatly impressing mostly the young surgeon generation, still green and impressionable. PGY-1 residents have been balancing emotional confusion between the eagerness of learning new procedures and the anguish coming from facing the loss of patients that they have been trying so hard to save day by day. This situation is leading to an increase in burn-out cases, mostly from the general physicians and health care providers. The real effect of this emotional distress is still unknown and it will be topic of further studies once situation is resolved. This article is described using a multidisciplinary approach, giving a PGY-1 personal point of view and an inner philosophical prospective.

How to Humanize Technology in Smart Cities

The article describes a personal point of view on the relationships between technology innovations in smart cities and how they are used for the benefits of the residents. Are they technologically or humanly characterized? Are we able to humanize technology for the need of the residents? Addressing my point of view, first of all, I have to confess that I belong to the “x” generation and therefore a gap divides me from updated technologies that are born almost every minute around the globe. Second, this is not a research paper or data analysis. Third, an additional set of questions will focus on the direction/s technology is pushing the interfaces with city residents. The paper argues that citizen-centered humanized approach for the future of smart cities is needed for shifting technology- centered to human and social considerations

Community pharmacy: a crucial enabler in creating the effectiveness study environment in the Salford Lung Studies.

ObjectiveCreating an environment that supports conditions of routine clinical practice and enables an effectiveness trial design with a pre‐licensed medicine is extremely challenging. Here, we summarise our experiences and achievements with engaging and mobilising community pharmacies in and around Salford, United Kingdom, in the Phase III effectiveness Salford Lung Studies (SLS).MethodsThis article provides the authors’ personal experiences and viewpoints on community pharmacy involvement in the SLS.Key findingsMore than 130 community pharmacies were enabled, and >2500 pharmacy staff trained, for involvement in the SLS. Key to community pharmacy participation in the SLS was the formation of the SLS Pharmacy Steering Group (PSG), contributing to study oversight, and the development of a pharmacy standard operating procedure document, the major principle of which was to ensure minimum disruption to the normal medicine dispensing process while ensuring compliance with regulations, guidelines, good clinical practice and requirements for pharmacovigilance. The high level of commitment and collaboration of community pharmacy in the SLS demonstrated a willingness to work together and take on additional and novel roles beyond their everyday commercial functions for the benefit of patients, despite normally competing for prescription business.ConclusionsThe involvement and integration of community pharmacy as a key partner in the SLS was pivotal in securing the delivery of these world‐first clinical effectiveness studies. To our knowledge, this has not been previously achieved in a study of a pre‐licensed maintenance therapy for a common disease in primary care.

AN ACADEMIC WRITING NEEDS ANALYSIS OF CZECH UNIVERSITY GRADUATE STUDENTS

The present paper presents the results of a needs analysis conducted among Czech students involved in a Master’s degree programme English Language Teacher Education. The aim was to identify their academic writing needs on the basis of a needs analysis questionnaire and a linguistic analysis of their written discourse in order to find out whether there are divergences between their ‘wants’ and ‘lacks’ (Hutchinson & Waters 1987). The results indicate that the students’ previous tuition at Bachelor’s level focused primarily on lexico-grammatical features of academic style such as text organizing devices, academic vocabulary, grammatical structures and citation styles. However, other areas essential to writing a successful Master’s thesis, such as evaluation and interpretation of results, conveying personal viewpoints and communicating with the reader or acknowledging research limitations, were ascribed a somewhat lower importance by the students, suggesting the existence of a divergence between the students’ ‘wants’ and ‘lacks’. The findings concerning the students’ perception of the writing process also concur with the finding of the authors’ previous research (Dontcheva et al. 2020) into the Theme zone in Czech students’ Master’s theses, which has indicated that Czech Master’s students tend tooveruse textual Themes expressed by linkers and underuse interpersonal Themes realised by stance devices.

Barking Up the Wrong Tree: On Control, Transformative Experiences, and Turning Over a New Leaf

Abstract I argue that we do not intentionally and rationally shape our character and values in major ways. I base this argument on the nature of transformative experiences, that is, those experiences which are transformative from personal and epistemological points of view. The argument is roughly this. First, someone who undergoes major changes in her character or values thereby undergoes a transformative experience. Second, if she undergoes such an experience, her reasons for changing in a major way are inaccessible to her beforehand. Third, if such reasons are inaccessible beforehand, she cannot act on them and thus cannot rationally and intentionally shape her character or values. I also explore some consequences of my argument, especially those related to control and responsibility.

Fatiga laboral, mediante la aplicación del SOFI-SM en bomberos mexicanos

Introducción: La fatiga física o muscular es la disminución de la capacidad física del individuo debida a una tensión muscular estática, dinámica o repetitiva. La fatiga laboral en los bomberos es un fenómeno que no ha logrado controlarse o disminuirse. Por lo que se requiere caracterizarla para diseñar programas de prevención.
 Objetivo: Determinar la prevalencia de fatiga laboral en bomberos de Guadalajara, Jalisco.
 Métodos: Estudio cuantitativo, transversal, de tipo analítico, realizado en el 2018. Se realizó una encuesta con el instrumento SOFI-SM (Inventario sueco de fatiga ocupacional) para evaluar la fatiga laboral. Posteriormente se realizó un análisis bivariado con la fatiga y las variables de edad, sexo, escolaridad, estado civil, antigüedad y turno.
 Resultados: La fatiga laboral física fue la predominante con un nivel inadecuado para un 64.2% de la población estudiada; solamente se encontró asociación significativa con el turno.
 Conclusión: Se encontró un nivel alto de fatiga en los bomberos, en tres niveles: Nivel inadecuado con acciones aconsejadas, Nivel inadecuado con acciones prioritarias y Nivel inaceptable. Este nivel de fatiga podría causar una limitación funcional, una baja de rendimiento y quizá la toma de malas decisiones, lo que en esta población podría resultar catastrófico desde el punto de vista social, laboral y personal. Se recomienda generar intervenciones basadas en una visión preventiva de la fatiga laboral en los bomberos, para lograr un adecuado control o una disminución de su incidencia, tomando en cuenta las necesidades y recursos disponibles en esta población.

Utilization of deceased donors during a pandemic: argument against using SARS-CoV-2-positive donors.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) has rapidly become an unprecedented pandemic that has impacted society, disrupted hospital functions, strained health care resources, and impacted the lives of transplant professionals. Despite this, organ failure and the need for transplant continues throughout the United States. Considering the perpetual scarcity of deceased donor organs, Kates et al present a viewpoint that advocates for the utilization of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19)–positive donors in selected cases. We present a review of the current literature that details the potential negative consequences of COVID‐19–positive donors. The factors we consider include (1) the risk of blood transmission of SARS‐CoV‐2, (2) involvement of donor organs, (3) lack of effective therapies, (4) exposure of health care and recovery teams, (5) disease transmission and propagation, and (6) hospital resource utilization. While we acknowledge that transplant fulfills the mission of saving lives, it is imperative to consider the consequences not only to our recipients but also to the community and to health care workers, particularly in the absence of effective preventative or curative therapies. For these reasons, we believe the evidence and risks show that COVID‐19 infection should continue to remain a contraindication for donation, as has been the initial response of donation and transplant societies.

Quantitative Imaging Enters the Clinical Arena: A Personal Viewpoint.

The National Cancer Institute's Quantitative Imaging Network (QIN) has thrived over the past 12 years with an emphasis on the development of image-based decision support software tools for improving measurements of imaging metrics. An overarching goal has been to develop advanced tools that could be translated into clinical trials to provide for improved prediction of response to therapeutic interventions. This article provides an overview of the successes in development and translation of new algorithms into the clinical workflow by the many research teams of the Quantitative Imaging Network.

Perspectives of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease research: a personal point of view

Rational government of patient fluxes from primary care to hepatology clinic is a priority of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) research. Estimating pre-test probability of disease, risk of fibrosis progression, and exclusion of competing causes of liver disease must be addressed. Here we propose a novel taxonomic classification of NAFLD based on hepatic, pathogenic and systemic features of disease in the individual patient. The variable course of disease in any given patient remains a clinical enigma. Therefore, future studies will have to better characterize the role of genetic polymorphisms, family and personal history, diet, alcohol, physical activity and drugs as modifiers of the course of disease and clues to the early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma. A better understanding of these, together with a taxonomic diagnosis, may prompt a more accurate personalization of care. For example, understanding the putative role of psycho-depression in NAFLD promises to revolutionize disease management in a proportion of cases. Similarly, sex differences in outcome and response to treatment are insufficiently characterized. More studies are awaited regarding those forms of NAFLD which occur secondary to endocrine derangements. The intersections between NAFLD and the lung must better be defined. These include the bi-directional associations of NAFLD and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and sleep apnoea syndrome, as well as the totally unexplored chapter of NAFLD and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Finally, the therapeutic roles of intermittent fasting and anticoagulation must be assessed. In conclusion, over the last 20 years, NAFLD has taught us a lot regarding the pathogenic importance of insulin resistance, the limitations of correcting this in the treatment of NAFLD, the root causes of diabetes and the metabolic syndrome, sex differences in disease and the role of nuclear receptors. However, the overwhelming COVID-19 pandemic is now expected to reset the priorities of public health.

Reflection session in the ‘Basics of Biology Learning’ Lecture: Pre-service Biology Teacher’s Perspective in Choosing Learning Method/Model

<p class="Abstract">This study was done during the reflection session at the end of the ‘Basics of Biology Learning’ lecture. In the lecture, the students learned about many types of learning methods and models. The study was carried out to strengthen the learning material. The research problem is related to pre-service teaching students’ confusion about choosing a learning method/model. The objective of this study is to obtain information from pre-service biology teachers’ perspectives about choosing a learning method and model within a biology lesson. Their preferences of learning methods and models was based on their reasoning. The subjects of this study were five biology pre-service teaching students who attended the lectures for one semester. The interview method was used in this study; interviews were based on one open-ended question to allow the teachers to express their personal viewpoint. The result showed that, as biology teachers, their preferred methods were the discussion method, scientifical model (inquiry and problem based learning) and cooperative learning. Based on the results, the teachers’ learning method and model preferences depended on their reasoning and the way the lecturer presented the material during the lecture. At the end of the lecture, as a conclusion, there was a reflection session to find out more about students’ perspective regarding their learning during the session.</p>

여행의 기록에 나타난 문인의 자아 인식

Up to the present time, research of travel notes of China has been mainly focused on analyzing the contents of the work and studying geography or customs about the travel destinations in the work. In addition, in this research trend, the author of travel notes has been mainly focused on personal life and literary style separated from his work. This study attempts to access travel notes with a critical mind as to how actively the author reveals his personal point of view as he transits his experience of travel into the record, and in what ways the author becomes a subject who leads the narrative. To prove this, this study first explored why the authors in the Song dynasty chose the genre of travel notes as a style best fit for their writings modeled after their own face, and examined in what form their self‐perception was revealed in the real works through representative travel notes at the time of Song dynasty, such as Lu You’s ≪Rushuji≫ and Fan Chengda’s ≪Wuchuanlu≫. In the middle of the course of a dynamic journey, Lu You and Fan Chengda ceaselessly observed, felt, and recorded their small daily lives, their honest feelings, and their interests in the works. Although the way of description did not yet escape from coarseness and monotony, this extraordinary and peculiar experience could have led them to the ‘completion of the journey’ of regaining themselves.

Spinal Dysraphism in the Last Two Decades : What I Have Seen during the Era of Dynamic Advancement.

Compared to any other decade, the last two decades have been the most dynamic period in terms of advances in the knowledge on spinal dysraphism. Among the several factors of rapid advancement, such as embryology during secondary neurulation and intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring, there is no doubt that Professor Dachling Pang stood high amidst the period. I review here the last two decades from my personal point of view on what has been achieved in the field of spinal dysraphism, focusing on occult tethered cord syndrome, lumbosacral lipomatous malformation, terminal myelocystocele, retained medullary cord, limited dorsal myeloschisis and junctional neural tube defect. There are still many issues to revise, add and extend. Profound knowledge of basic science is critical, as well as refined clinical analysis. I expect that young scholars who follow the footsteps of precedent giants will shed bright light on this topic in the future.

COVID-19: A global transplant perspective on successfully navigating a pandemic.

The COVID‐19 pandemic has rapidly evolved and changed our way of life in an unprecedented manner. The emergence of COVID‐19 has impacted transplantation worldwide. The impact has not been just restricted to issues pertaining to donors or recipients, but also health‐care resource utilization as the intensity of cases in certain jurisdictions exceeds available capacity. Here we provide a personal viewpoint representing different jurisdictions from around the world in order to outline the impact of the current COVID‐19 pandemic on organ transplantation. Based on our collective experience, we discuss mitigation strategies such as donor screening, resource planning, and a staged approach to transplant volume considerations as local resource issues demand. We also discuss issues related to transplant‐related research during the pandemic, the role of transplant infectious diseases, and the influence of transplant societies for education and disseminating current information.

COVID-19 infection in children

COVID-19 infection in children

Vestibular cognition: State-of-the-art and future directions

ABSTRACT Vestibular information has been traditionally considered as a specialized input for basic orienting behaviours, such as oculo-motor adjustments, postural control and gaze orientation. However, in the past two decades a widespread vestibular network in the human brain has been identified, that goes far beyond the low-level reflex circuits emphasized by earlier work. Because this vestibular cortical network is so widely distributed, it could, in principle, impact multiple neurocognitive functions in health and disease. This paper focuses on the relations between vestibular input, vestibular networks, and vestibular interventions by providing the authors’ personal viewpoint on the state-of-the-art of vestibular cognitive neuropsychology, and its potential relevance for neurorehabilitation.

Communicating to Drive Sustainability-A Worked Example with Wind Power

We demonstrate the knowledge-development power of the emerging science of Mind Genomics, doing so by a study of appeals to fund a wind-power project in Texas. The paper focuses on the method, analyses, results, and application of the findings, showing what can be learned and implemented with the easy-to-do and affordable, iterated studies offered by Mind Genomics. Two groups of respondents evaluated 24 vignettes, comprising different combinations of 16 messages about wind power opportunities and benefits for the State of Texas. The first group of 51 respondents evaluated vignettes about wind-power, rating the vignettes on regarding whether they understood the messages and would recommend what they read. The second group of 50 respondents estimated the unit price of a share of stock based upon the messages in the vignette. The analysis linked the ratings to the presence/absence of each message. Two new-to-the-world mind-sets emerged, those focusing on the benefits to Texas, and those focusing on what specific actions must be taken. The mind-sets suggest different ways that people have of dealing with information in which appeals are embedded. Study 2 reaffirmed these two mind-sets when economic judgments were substituted for opinions. The paper incorporates the PVI, the personal viewpoint identifier, a technology to assign a new person to one of these two mind-sets, thus expanding the scope of the research from a study of a single population to the possible identification of the mind-sets in the general population around the United States or even around the world.

Is it morally permissible for general practitioners to disclose their opinion on a woman\u2019s decision on abortion?

BackgroundThis paper considers ethical dilemmas arising where a patient asks their General Practitioner for advice and their personal opinion regarding whether or not to have an abortion. Patients often seek their General Practitioner’s advice regarding treatments and procedures, which may occasionally lead to the General Practitioner facing a difficult dilemma of whether to share their personal opinion with their patient. As General Practitioners are more accessible as the first point of contact for patients and often have a closer relationship with them, they may be particularly exposed to such situations. Additionally, the significance of abortion as a sensitive topic and the fact the General Practitioner may have their own personal viewpoint on its morality may make it particularly difficult for them to know how to respond to such a request.Main textThis paper explores the difficulties arising in such a situation and considers whether it could ever be ethically justifiable for General Practitioners to express their opinions on such a matter. We consider the duties of a doctor, and highlight the need for clearer guidance for healthcare professionals on managing tensions in their professional boundaries between their personal moral views and their professional responsibilities. A range of ethical viewpoints are considered to explore how a doctor might ap, in particular the principle of autonomy, virtue ethics, and consequentialism.ConclusionsThis article recognises that a General Practitioner in a situation such as this faces many ethical challenges. We propose that offering their opinion to the patient where specifically requested may be morally justifiable. A virtue ethics approach in particular requires that the General Practitioner applies practical wisdom to make this decision, and where they do disclose their opinion ensure this is done so in such a manner that it does not harm the patient and promotes flourishing. We encourage GPs and other healthcare professionals to consider their own moral perspectives on sensitive issues such as abortion, and reflect on how their moral viewpoints have the potential to influence their practice. In doing so, we hope clinicians can be better should they be faced with a situation such as this.

Twitter as a sentinel tool to monitor public opinion on vaccination: an opinion mining analysis from September 2016 to August 2017 in Italy

ABSTRACT Social media have become a common way for people to express their personal viewpoints, including sentiments about health topics. We present the results of an opinion mining analysis on vaccination performed on Twitter from September 2016 to August 2017 in Italy. Vaccine-related tweets were automatically classified as against, in favor or neutral in respect of the vaccination topic by means of supervised machine-learning techniques. During this period, we found an increasing trend in the number of tweets on this topic. According to the overall analysis by category, 60% of tweets were classified as neutral, 23% against vaccination, and 17% in favor of vaccination. Vaccine-related events appeared able to influence the number and the opinion polarity of tweets. In particular, the approval of the decree introducing mandatory immunization for selected childhood diseases produced a prominent effect in the social discussion in terms of number of tweets. Opinion mining analysis based on Twitter showed to be a potentially useful and timely sentinel system to assess the orientation of public opinion toward vaccination and, in future, it may effectively contribute to the development of appropriate communication and information strategies.