Short Narratives Research Articles

It’s a battlefield! A thematic analysis of narratives shared in Cape Town emergency departments

BackgroundThe Emergency Department(ED) team need to make sense of an ever-changing dynamic environment. The stories people tell about everyday occurrences are central to how sense-making occurs. These stories also contribute...

Communicating the dialog between painting and music with a mobile application

Contemporary visual artists often collaborate with musicians and composers to enrich their artworks and provide multisensory viewing experiences by leveraging the power of digital technology. In this paper, we present our approach to follow in their footsteps by creating a mobile application that provides “mixed-media interpretations” for a variety of visual artworks and music pieces, spanning over different time eras, with the objective to reflect the creative dialog and multifaceted interaction between their creators through time. Targeting the broader public, we attempt to capture a variety of interconnections between works of visual arts and music that may be of interest and are comprehensible to people with varying levels of knowledge on art or music, including not only inspirational but also personal and social relationships among the artists. We provide a six-layered conceptual model to ease the description of the content produced to that end while reporting several concrete examples. Then, we focus on how to communicate and digitally mediate the intertwined and often intricate interconnections in a concise way, proposing a “three-act” story scheme to progressively display short narratives on screen, combined with music reproduction on the mobile device. Finally, we explore the potential of the proposed approach through a user study with 15 participants and report a series of promising key findings, whereas also discussing future directions and pointing out open issues.

Confessional Cross-Pollination: Basel Humanists as Suppliers of Lutheran and Catholic Exempla

Basel humanists shaped religious discourse beyond the Reformed sphere through their collections of exempla, short narratives designed to illustrate a moral or doctrinal message. Because scholars of early modern exempla typically focus on either Lutheran or Catholic exempla collections, the role of Reformed compilers as mediators between confessions has been obscured. This article uses methods from the field of digital humanities and corpus linguistics to examine the lasting influence of Theodor Zwinger (1533–1588), Conrad Lycosthenes (1518–1561), and Johannes Herold (1514–1567) on Lutheran and Catholic exempla collections in a newly quantitative way. Using the concordance software AntConc, this study identifies numerous citations that demonstrate that Zwinger and Lycosthenes facilitated confessional cross-pollination of exemplary narratives from the mid-sixteenth through the early eighteenth century. Although citations of Zwinger, Lycosthenes, and Herold are more frequent in Lutheran exempla collections, the existence of several Catholic editions of Zwinger’s Theatrum vitae humanae indicates that Catholic readers also valued Zwinger’s work. This examination showcases the vital role of Swiss humanists in cross-confessional networks of information exchange and religious discourse in early modern Europe.

Transient susceptibility to interference at event boundaries impacts long-term memory of naturalistic episodes

ABSTRACT During ongoing narratives, event boundaries trigger processes relevant for subsequent memory. Previous work has shown that novel, unrelated input presented at an event boundary can retroactively interfere with short-term retention of the preceding event. This interference was attributed to a perturbation of offset-related processes taking place within seconds after encoding and supporting the binding of elements into a coherent event memory. However, the temporal specificity of this memory interference and whether its impact extends to longer retention delays has not been addressed. Here, participants viewed either individual or pairs of short narrative movie clips. Susceptibility to interference at event boundaries was probed by presenting the second clip either immediately after the first, or with a 2s encoding delay. In free and cued recall, after 20 min and 24 h, only memory for movie clips that were immediately followed by a second clip was reduced compared to clips shown in isolation. Intact offset-related processes (as indexed by successful recall of the first movie) did not negatively affect encoding of the subsequent clip. Together, these results indicate that the 2s time-window immediately after an event is relevant for successful consolidation and long-term retention of memory.

Dissidence of Ahmet Şerif Şerefli: The Trauma of the «Revival Process»

The article explores the destructive effects of forced Bulgarianization on the identity of a national minority, illustrated by the life and career of Ahmet Şerif Şerefli, a Bulgarian writer of Turkish descent who endured the ‘Revival Process’ policies in the 1980s. The analysis focuses on excerpts from his memoir «We Were Born Turks and Died as Turks» and his essay collection «First and Foremost, They Shackled Our Thoughts». These works highlight the significance of the Turkish language and Turkish identity. Şerefli’s memoirs argue that maintaining one’s native language is crucial for preserving Turkish identity amidst attempts to distort it. The memoirs serve as a means of articulating, processing trauma, and striving to repair a fractured identity. The writer’s traumatic experiences are reflected both thematically and structurally in his memoirs, which resemble a series of short epic narratives without chronological order, forming a mosaic of stories about life in Bulgaria, imprisonment, and Şerefli’s musings on his craft, the fate of his people, language, and identity. This fragmented structure underscores how trauma influences the way memories are expressed.

A qualitative study of hermeneutic analysis in individuals with schizophrenia, psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses writings on selected narratives.

INTRODUCTION: Understanding individuals with schizophrenia is an essential but challenging phenomenon in psychiatry. This study proposes a reevaluation of the nature of therapeutic communication among individuals with schizophrenia, psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses by interpreting their writings on the same written narratives through a hermeneutic analysis. In this study, employing a qualitative descriptive methodology utilising hermeneutic analysis, participants read the five narratives, wrote down their opinions on each narratives and answered nine questions to express their own personal writing experiences. Participants from each group acted as both 'readers' and 'authors' while rewriting the selected five short narratives based on their own sense of readings. The expression, rewriting refers to the act of reading and written interpretations of participants and researchers in this study. While individuals with schizophrenia primarily focused on the text (narrative) in their readings and writings, psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses tended to focus on reader (themselves) in their interpretations. Although reading should be approached as a process of discovery rather than merely seeking predetermined knowledge, psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses read the narratives as if the author were a patient or as the signs of an illness. The results point to the need for psychiatrists/psychiatric nurses to develop new perspectives and skills in understanding and interacting with individuals with schizophrenia.

Incorporating Patient Values in Large Language Model Recommendations for Surrogate and Proxy Decisions.

Surrogates, proxies, and clinicians making shared treatment decisions for patients who have lost decision-making capacity often fail to honor patients' wishes, due to stress, time pressures, misunderstanding patient values, and projecting personal biases. Advance directives intend to align care with patient values but are limited by low completion rates and application to only a subset of medical decisions. Here, we investigate the potential of large language models (LLMs) to incorporate patient values in supporting critical care clinical decision-making for incapacitated patients in a proof-of-concept study. We simulated text-based scenarios for 50 decisionally incapacitated patients for whom a medical condition required imminent clinical decisions regarding specific interventions. For each patient, we also simulated five unique value profiles captured using alternative formats: numeric ranking questionnaires, text-based questionnaires, and free-text narratives. We used pre-trained generative LLMs for two tasks: 1) text extraction of the treatments under consideration and 2) prompt-based question-answering to generate a recommendation in response to the scenario information, extracted treatment, and patient value profiles. Model outputs were compared with adjudications by three domain experts who independently evaluated each scenario and decision. Automated extractions of the treatment in question were accurate for 88% (n = 44/50) of scenarios. LLM treatment recommendations received an average Likert score by the adjudicators of 3.92 of 5.00 (five being best) across all patients for being medically plausible and reasonable treatment recommendations, and 3.58 of 5.00 for reflecting the documented values of the patient. Scores were highest when patient values were captured as short, unstructured, and free-text narratives based on simulated patient profiles. This proof-of-concept study demonstrates the potential for LLMs to function as support tools for surrogates, proxies, and clinicians aiming to honor the wishes and values of decisionally incapacitated patients.

The Effect of Word Decoding and Oral Language Skills on the Written Composition of Short Narratives

Purpose: This study examined the effect of decoding and oral language skills on the written composition of short narratives among first-grade children at the end of the academic year.Methods: A total of 55 first graders participated in the study. To qualify for the study, participants were required to score at or above 80 on a nonverbal intelligence test. All participants were administered assessment of written composition, word decoding, receptive vocabulary, semantic relation vocabulary, and sentence comprehension. Pearson correlation and multiple stepwise regression were conducted.Results: The results showed the written composition of short narratives was significantly correlated with word decoding, receptive vocabulary, semantic relation vocabulary, and sentence comprehension. In the multiple stepwise regression, word decoding and receptive vocabulary predicted a significant amount of variance in the written composition of short narratives.Conclusion: These findings demonstrated that word decoding and vocabulary knowledge have a significant effect on written composition of short narratives in the early stage of writing development. Word decoding and vocabulary should be considered for assessment and intervention for children in the early stage of writing.

Dietary protein, amino acids and type 2 diabetes mellitus: a short review.

Diabetes is a widespread metabolic disorder and results from insulin resistance and impaired insulin secretion. Modifiable factors like diet, physical activity, and body weight play crucial roles in diabetes prevention, with targeted interventions reducing diabetes risk by about 60%. High-protein consumption, above the recommended intake of 0.8 g/kg body weight per day, have often explored in relation to diabetes risk. However, the relationship between dietary protein and diabetes is multifaceted. Observational studies have linked high total and animal protein intake to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, particularly in obese women. Elevated levels of branched-chain amino acids (BCAA), which can result from dietary intake, protein breakdown, as well as an impaired catabolism, are strong predictors of cardiometabolic risk and insulin resistance. With several mechanism linking BCAA to insulin resistance. On the other hand, intervention studies suggest that high-protein diets can support weight loss and improve cardiometabolic risk factors. However, the impact on insulin sensitivity and glucose homeostasis is not straightforward. Proteins and amino acids stimulate both insulin and glucagon secretion, influencing glucose levels, but chronic effects remain uncertain. This short narrative review aims to provide an update on the relationship between increased dietary protein intake, amino acids, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, and to describe protein recommendations for type 2 diabetes.

Revisiting Pulmonary Sclerosing Pneumocytoma.

Pulmonary sclerosing pneumocytoma (PSP) is a quite rare tumor outside Eastern countries. This rarity, together with a wide histological appearance, makes its correct identification a diagnostic challenge for pathologists under the microscope. Historically, PSP was considered a vascular-derived neoplasm (sclerosing hemangioma), but its immunohistochemical profile clearly supports its epithelial origin. No specific molecular fingerprint has been detected so far. This short narrative revisits the clinical, histological, immunohistochemical, and molecular aspects of this tumor, paying special attention to some controversial points still not well clarified, i.e., clinical aggressiveness and metastatic spread, multifocality, the supposed development of sarcomatoid change in a subset of cases, and tumor associations with lung adenocarcinoma and/or well-differentiated neuroendocrine hyperplasia/tumors. The specific diagnostic difficulties on fine-needle aspiration cytology/biopsy and perioperative frozen sections are also highlighted. Finally, a teaching case of tumor concurrence of lung adenocarcinoma, neuroendocrine lesions, and PSP, paradigmatic of tumor association in this context, is also presented.

COVID-19 vaccine rumour and resistance in Indonesia: Analysing vaccine hesitancy and cultural myths circulated on online platforms

BackgroundRumours and misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine have been massively circulated on social media platforms, ranging from misleading information, hoaxes, and conspiracy theories to exaggerating stories mixed with the circulation of cultural myths regarding the vaccine. MethodsThis study examines the contents of social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and WhatsApp posts, also sourced from other Indonesian online portal news and mainstream media websites. ResultsThis research identifies quantitatively several rumours, misleading information, conspiracy theories, and other misinformation, resistance, and rejection toward issues related to the COVID-19 vaccine from March to April 2021. We then combine it with an analysis of the narratives of vaccine resistance and cultural myths that have made people hesitate or apathetic in participating in national vaccine programs by the Indonesian government. ConclusionSourced from the content analysis of this study, we categorised some themes such as vaccine development, availability, access, morbidity, mortality, harmful excesses, safety, and efficacy, both contained and presented in short narratives, visual graphics, memes, and cartoons. This study suggests that these rumours, misleading stories, and myths, may result in the Indonesian public's vaccine resistance and hesitancy, especially since May the Indonesian government stopped distributing the Astra Zeneca vaccines and the controversial issue regarding the availability of ‘Vaccine Nusantara’ (term as ‘Archipelago Vaccine’). This situation may influence the public's attitude to distrust the government and be distracted by misinformation about the vaccination program. Moreover, we see that cultural beliefs and religious stances have made complicated the hesitancy and resistance of the public against the COVID-19 vaccine.

Towards a Deeper Understanding of the Short Story Narrative Structure, Visions, and Form in Arabic Literature

Towards a Deeper Understanding of the Short Story Narrative Structure, Visions, and Form in Arabic Literature

A Short Narrative Review on the Delays in Tuberculosis Care in Odisha

A Short Narrative Review on the Delays in Tuberculosis Care in Odisha

The Sound/Image Cinema Lab, Long Way Back (dir. Brett Harvey): developing working principles for crewing feature film production with higher education students

Since 2009, students, graduates and staff from the School of Film and Television at Falmouth University in the UK have collaborated with professional partners in the development and production of over 20 short and feature-length narrative and documentary films, within the Sound/Image Cinema Lab research centre. This article makes use of a Sound/Image Cinema Lab co-production with Cornwall-based production company o-region – Long Way Back, directed by Brett Harvey, released in 2022 – as a case study to demonstrate both the successes of, and the challenges faced by, the Lab within a higher education environment. Interviews with staff, students and professional crew participants are used to contextualise the principles of work-integrated learning, and the processes that have sustained institutional support for professionally led film production framed by pedagogic practice.

Is there evidence for using ketamine among individuals with dementia?

The aim of this short narrative review was to evaluate the existing literature regarding the clinical use of ketamine among individuals with dementia, especially those with behavioral disturbances. PubMed, Cochrane, and Ovid (Embase, APA PsycINFO, and MEDLINE) databases were searched for abstracts using the search terms "ketamine" AND "dementia." Only articles describing the use of ketamine in individuals with dementia were included. Articles that did not include individuals with dementia, did not use ketamine, were published in a non-English language, primarily described animal studies, or were reviews were excluded. Three case reports met the inclusion criteria. One described the use of subcutaneous ketamine for depression, one described the use of intramuscular ketamine for acute agitation, and one described the use of S-ketamine as anesthesia during electroconvulsive therapy for depression and catatonia. No significant adverse effects were reported in any of the cases. Although the use of ketamine in the treatment of depression and agitation associated with dementia has potential, the current evidence remains limited. High-quality prospective studies are needed to confirm the observations of these case reports before ketamine can be used to treat behavioral disturbances in individuals with dementia.

Mengidentifikasi Dan Memaknai Paribasa Bali Pada Cerpen Gedè Ombak Gedè Angin Pupulan Sawelas Carita Cutet Basa Bali Karya I Made Suarsa

Paribasa is used in everyday life to convey the ideas and emotions of the Balinese people, as evidenced by the short narrative Gedé Ombak Gedé Angin by I Made Suarsa and other Balinese discourses. Furthermore, I Made Suarsa's short novel Gedé Ombak Gedé Angin employs Balinese paribasa to convey moral, ethical, and social critique principles that serve as a set of guidelines for daily life. The purpose of this study is to identify the various forms and interpretations of Balinese paribasa in I Made Suarsa's short novel Gedé Ombak Gedé Angin.The present study employs many theoretical frameworks, including the theories of identification, meaning, short stories, Balinese paribasa, and sorts of Balinese people. Using interviews and literature study techniques, this study is qualitative in nature. The study's findings indicate that: (1) There are two varieties of Balinese paribasa in the short narrative "Lahru Kangkang Tinibanin Udan Sawengi." (2) Three different kinds of Balinese paribasa are mentioned in the short novel "Gedé Ombak Gedé Angin" The short novella "Mati Maha Prawiréng Rana" features three distinct varieties of Balinese paribasa. The short novella "Stri Ngarania, Apuy Padania" features two distinct varieties of Balinese paribasa.included five interpretations of the Balinese paribasa in I Made Suarsa's short story Gedé Ombak Gedé Angin

Short video narratives, brand equity dimensions and horti-tourism patronage: does real-world video matter?

Short video narratives, brand equity dimensions and horti-tourism patronage: does real-world video matter?

Encountering Animals Cultivates Meaningful Shared Experiences Between Children and Parents

ABSTRACT Childhood nature experiences – particularly those shared with caregivers – have consistently, over decades of research, been linked to children’s health, as well as their developing environmental commitments. Notably, animal interactions have been shown to play key roles in children’s psychological wellbeing and their developing conservation concerns. We investigated nature experiences children share with their parents, with a particular focus on those that involve interactions with animals. Parents (n = 49) of young children completed a written survey in which they provided a short narrative describing a significant experience in nature that they had shared with their child. The narrative accounts were systematically coded and interrater reliability was attained. The qualitative findings offer a rich account of nature experiences that children and parents share. Three broad themes were identified – (1) Typology of Nature Experiences, (2) Psychosocial Factors, and (3) Relational Bonding – and are illustrated and discussed within the context of promoting healthy childhood relationships with their caregivers and the wider natural world.

The suffering of students in physical education. Unsettling experiences and situational conditions

ABSTRACT Background The state of research on unsettling experiences of students in physical education can be characterized as fragmented. The available studies focus on select emotions (e.g. fear), specific forms of discrimination (e.g. ableism), or different types of social interactions (e.g. bullying). In this way, the state of research reveals different aspects of students’ suffering in physical education (PE) in a puzzle-like manner, while systematic investigations of the overall picture of PE as a complex meaningfully structured phenomenon remain open. Purpose The study presented in this paper aims to systematically capture the breadth of unsettling PE experiences by taking different perspectives of students into account, while also doing justice to PE in its situational logic. Based on a social constructivist approach, the following research questions will be addressed: (1) What kind of experiences are interpreted as unsettling by students in PE? (2) Which situational conditions are associated with students’ unsettling PE experiences? Methods A qualitative research approach based on written short narratives was employed to answer the research questions. Current and former secondary school students (N = 677) from Germany participated. Grounded theory coding methods and sequential analysis were used for the data analysis. Results Our data indicates a wide range of students’ unsettling PE experiences (e.g. public humiliation, social exclusion, and forms of violence). On a supra-individual level, two major categories of unsettling PE experiences were identified: (1) The vulnerability of the students perceived through revealed inadequacies and (2) the social oppression of the supposedly ‘lazy, weak and unfit’. Students’ experience of vulnerability can be traced back to situations of physical exposure and performance failure while their experience of social oppression draws back to suppressive actions by teachers and fellow students. For each of these categories, we identify typical ways in which students deal with their unsettling experience. On a structural level, a hierarchizing culture of PE that fosters unsettling experiences is revealed. Discussion As a central strength, our study can provide condensed explanations for the emergence and consequences of unsettling PE experiences from the students’ perspective. Our findings relate to and enrich existing discourses regarding the situational emergence of vulnerability, overarching mechanisms of marginalization, and the hierarchizing culture of PE as a basis for social oppression. It is particularly tragic that affected students feel left alone and can hardly escape harmful situations, which perpetuates their suffering. Thus, pedagogical concepts that emphasize students’ diversity and the dismantling of hierarchies are needed and should be advanced further.

Spontaneous side-taking drives memory, empathy, and author attribution in conflict narratives

In two studies, we introduce the concept of spontaneous side-taking (SST) to describe how people initially align themselves in a conflict. The effects of side-taking in established conflicts are well studied, such as empathetic engagement and polarization. However, there is less known about how people spontaneously choose sides in situations without prior allegiances. To study these neglected effects of SST, we use two-character narratives to present participants with new conflicts in which they have no initial vested interest. These short narratives describe acts of aggression and detail the victimization of one character by another. Through two studies, we find: (1) victim characters receive greater attention and are remembered better; (2) victim characters receive more empathy; (3) victim characters are more likely to be viewed as the authors of conflict narratives; (4) and that side-taking flexibility diminishes after the first side-taking choice. This last finding means that there is a tendency for SST to stick over time. Overall, these findings demonstrate how victimization triggers and sustains side-taking in narratives by enhancing memory of and empathy for the victim.