Strict Focus Research Articles

Advancements in Imaging for the Diagnosis of Wake-up Stroke.

The concept of wake-up stroke (WUS) as a distinct subtype of acute ischaemic stroke, characterized by an uncertain onset time, traditionally resulted in the exclusion of patients from intravenous thrombolysis treatment. Advancements in neuroimaging have prompted a shift in the approach to intravenous thrombolysis treatment, moving away from a strict focus on the onset time window toward consideration of the tissue time window. This paradigm shift has expanded the opportunity for a larger cohort of patients with WUS to receive timely and effective treatment, ultimately leading to improved prognosis. This study reviews the WUS pathogenesis and the progress of various imaging diagnostic techniques to clarify the WUS onset time and select the optimal treatment plan.

The Value of Small Samples to Groups and Teams Research: Accumulating Knowledge across Philosophies of Science

The large increase in the average sample size of team studies published in premier management journals over the past decade is concerning. A strict focus on large samples suppresses the study of many teams, particularly less prominent ones; for example, teams in small or medium-sized enterprises, teams in unique contexts, teams containing underrepresented minorities, and teams adopting new technologies. It also impedes our collective understanding of teams by devaluing work relying on philosophies of science that do not prioritize large samples. Large samples allow positivists to establish relationships between constructs. Yet, contextualized, rich data from as few as just one team can help constructivists uncover lived experiences or could be studied by critical realists to identify mechanisms underlying social systems of active agents. In this paper, we review how these three philosophies of science view sample size, addressing how and when small samples are beneficial. Importantly, research from all three traditions is necessary to build an in-depth, practical understanding of teams. We also describe five specific ways small sample research can contribute to team science and lay out four general recommendations for assessing the value of sample size in team research. Throughout, we maintain that scientific progress is collective and pluralistic. A sole reliance on large samples threatens this goal.

Towards a framework of critical thinking for assessing EAP speaking

As one of the fundamental skills of the 21st century, critical thinking (CT) is a topic of considerable interest within the domain of assessing English for academic purposes (EAP). Recent literature on EAP instruction and assessment indicates that EAP has evolved beyond a strict focus on language improvement to encompass discourse competence and broader academic literacy development, with CT playing an important role in academic communication. A fundamental consideration in educational assessment is the construct that defines the knowledge, skills, or abilities to be assessed. However, CT has not received due attention in the research literature on EAP speaking assessment, thus raising a legitimate concern about its underrepresentation in the academic speaking construct. This study draws on Macqueen's (2022) distinction between theoretical, stated, perceived, and operationalized assessment constructs, with an aim to describe the EAP speaking assessment construct by including the concept of CT. By establishing alignment between what the literature indicates (theoretical), what assessment requires (stated), and how people understand assessment (perceived), a CT assessment framework is proposed to reflect how test takers experience it (operationalized). Our study contributes to a more nuanced conceptualization of CT in the context of EAP speaking, with implications for EAP speaking test development.

Conflicts of Interest in Nutrition: Categorical Thinking and the Stigma of Commercial Collaboration

There is a high level of concern about the possible influence of commercial organizations on food-related research and professional bodies, including regulatory and advisory panels. This has contributed to an increased emphasis on the declaration and management of conflicts of interest (CoI) in the reporting, evaluation, and application of research in nutrition science. However, common perceptions of CoI in nutrition, and procedures for declaring and managing these, often lack intellectual rigor and consistency. This commentary highlights 3 main issues related to CoI in nutrition, particularly the emphasis on industry-related CoI relative to other sources of conflict and bias. 1) Considerations of CoI in nutrition are largely limited to financial or collaborative links to the food industry, disregarding other important sources of influence such as intellectual allegiances or nonindustry financial and professional incentives. 2) Associations with industry incur ad hominem, often punitive stigmatization of individuals and their research, and inappropriate downgrading or exclusion of evidence. This disproportionately affects expertise in the food and agricultural sciences, in which commercial collaborations are widely encouraged. 3) These practices and related approaches to managing CoI are applied without due consideration of the nature of the conflicts and activities involved, the qualifications of individuals, or the availability of other, objective methods and guidance for assessing research quality and risks of bias. Overall, recognition of the nature and range of CoI in nutrition and approaches to their identification and management lack consistency and balance. A singular and strict focus specifically on industry-related CoI may paradoxically exacerbate rather than mitigate imbalance and bias in the field. This commentary outlines the underlying issues and the need for more comprehensive and nuanced approaches to the assessment, reporting, and management of CoI in nutrition.

The Transmission of Cumulative Cultural Knowledge — Towards a Social Epistemology of Non-Testimonial Cultural Learning

ABSTRACT Cumulative cultural knowledge (CCK), the knowledge we acquire via social learning and has been refined by previous generations, is of central importance to our species’ flourishing. Considering its importance, we should expect that our best epistemological theories can account for how this happens. Perhaps surprisingly, CCK and how we acquire it via cultural learning has only received little attention from social epistemologists. Here, I focus on how we should epistemically evaluate how agents acquire CCK. After sampling some reasons why extant theories cannot account for CCK, I suggest that things aren’t as bleak as they might look. I explain how agents deserve epistemic credit for how CCK is transmitted in cultural learning by promoting a central need of their social group: the efficient and safe transmission of CCK. A good initial fit exists between this observation and Greco’s knowledge-economy framework. Ultimately, however, Greco’s account doesn’t straightforwardly account for CCK because of its strict focus on testimony. I point out two issues in the framework due to this focus. The resulting view advocates giving epistemic credit to agents when they act to promote their communities’ epistemic needs in the right way and highlights the various ways in which agents come to do this.

Communities of Practice and the Buddhist Education Reforms of Early-Twentieth-Century China

Over the course of only a few decades during the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, part of mainstream Buddhist education underwent a striking shift in China. From being a secluded practice within monastery walls taught by monastics for monastics with a strict focus on Buddhist scripture, it became one where monastics and laypeople study together, guided by teachers, both monastic and lay, studying a curriculum of both Buddhist and secular subjects. Although general reforms within the Buddhist community of the times received considerable scholarly attention, the topic of education development was discussed in only a few instances. Therefore, the present article sets out to explore why this radical methodological shift happened, and more concretely, how the individual learning trajectories of the reforms’ leading actors, and their involvement in specific communities, influenced the way the reforms unfolded. The author analyses the work and life of three generations of Buddhist reformers, namely the layman Yang Wenhui, and the monastic masters Taixu, Hsing Yun and Cheng Yen, employing Étienne Wenger’s social theory of learning. The theory’s main assertion that communities of practice provide the main fora of learning for individuals, and its description of the concrete ways in which this learning takes place can provide new insights regarding the specific unfolding of late-nineteenth to early-twentieth-century Buddhist education reforms in China.

Tobacco Control in Denmark: How the Ugly Duckling Turned into a Swan.

The implementation of tobacco control policies has been a neglected topic in tobacco research. A comprehensive Tobacco Action Plan including plain packaging, a point-of-sale display ban, a ban on characterizing flavors (in products other than cigarettes), a strengthening of the promotion and marketing ban, a ban on the sale of novel nicotine products to minors, smoke-and nicotine-free-school hours in all-schools with minors, and a significant increase in tobacco tax, was adopted in Denmark in 2019. Eleven people involved or very close to the advocacy process were invited, two did not respond and nine attended our research center. We used the nominal group technique, a consensus method, to identify the most important driving factors for passing the Tobacco Action Plan. The round-robin identified 39 driving factors merged into 13 in the clarification phase. In the ranking phase, participants agreed on seven factors that they perceived have strongly influenced the political will to strengthen national tobacco control comprehensively. The most important factors were national data and evidence, a nationwide alliance with broad partnerships, a strict focus on young people, continuous media coverage, intensive lobbying by many different advocates, making it a community agenda-not a political one, and effective professional campaigns. Our findings agree with experiences from other countries that significantly improved tobacco control. The Danish strategy, including a nationwide alliance with broad partnerships, had a high influence on the political agenda. In this study, there was a consensus that seven factors strongly influenced the political will to comprehensively strengthen the national tobacco control in Denmark in a short time: national data and evidence; a nationwide alliance with broad partnerships; a strict focus on children and young people; continuous media coverage; intensive lobbying by many different advocates; making it a community agenda-not a political one, and effective professional campaigns. This is consistent with findings from other countries.

Оцінка ефективності підходів до побудови етапу спеціалізованої базової підготовки в рукопашному бою

Topicality. The rational construction of the training process involves its strict focus on the formation of the optimal structure of competitive activity. The stage of specialized basic training occupies a special place in the training program of athletes, where the emphasis is placed on the disciplines and types of programs for professional preparing athletes in the future. Methods. Theoretical analysis and generalization of special scientific and methodical literature, pedagogical observations, conversations, surveys and questionnaires of trainers, generalization of the best professional experience and practices. Research Results. The issue of structure and content improvement of the educational and training process at various stages of the long-term training of athletes is not new, but it is clearly urgent. That is why at the current stage of hand-to-hand combat (HTH) development, it is especially important to solve the issue of the training program improvement at the basic training stage, which is highly decisive for the athletes` choice of the discipline and type of program. Conclusions. It has been established that the specialized basic training stage is decisive for the future athletes` professional preparation, the choice of the discipline and the type of program which they will use in the future. The lack of program recommendations at sports schools` documents that are based on general theoretical provisions and tasks, leads to errors in the training procedure construction and a decrease in its effectiveness. Building an optimal training athlete` program is possible on the basis of correcting and changing sports schools` training program, applying the latest methods, tools and management technologies, taking into account the features that characterize the third stage of multi-year improvement.

Beliefs About the Future – How What Will Have Been Decides on How We Are Justified

"The importance of the justification of our beliefs is a long-debated question. The question of how our memory beliefs are justified, however, is a question we have usually neglected as our memory does not seem to draw much attention to itself. As long as it works, we do not even notice that we use it most of the time. In my opinion, the question of how our memory beliefs are justified, however, should play a bigger role in the philosophical debate. The reason for this claim is that most of our beliefs are memory beliefs. A position I will argue for in this paper. Based on empirical findings in Cognitive Science, I will explain that our memory is not only involved in forming beliefs about the past but more controversially in forming beliefs about the present, in reasoning processes and even more controversially in forming beliefs about the future. If beliefs about what has been, about what is the case in the present and even about what will have been the case in the future are memory beliefs, reconsidering our strict focus on the justification of mere beliefs seems to be a change in debate worth considering. Keywords: Memory, Philosophy of Memory, Belief, Cognitive Science, Epistemology of Memory, Philosophy of Cognitive Science"

Threat-Based Simulation of Data Exfiltration Toward Mitigating Multiple Ransomware Extortions

Network-based attacks and their mitigation are of increasing importance in our ever-connected world. Often network-based attacks address valuable data, which the attacker either encrypts to extort ransom or steals to make money reselling, or both. After the infamous WannaCry and NotPetya ransomware attacks in 2017, companies stepped up their cyber defenses. More emphasis was placed on backup and recovery processes so that even when files were destroyed, organizations had copies for quick recovery. However, cyber criminals have also adapted their methods. Instead of simply encrypting files, double extortion ransomware now exfiltrates the data first, before encrypting it. As a consequence, the early detection and prevention of data exfiltration is one of today’s major challenges of institutions connected to the Internet. If attempts to illegal data exfiltration are successfully detected, the attacked institution should address a probable subsequent encryption attack step as well. In particular, valuable business assets must be checked for unauthorized access and need to be protected. However, due to the bulk of network traffic and persistent data, automation is a key requirement to successfully defend contemporary threats. The main goal of this article is to present a concept and its initial evaluation to achieve automation of data exfiltration mitigation in a targeted manner. Our concept consists of two main steps. Based on recognized international approaches used in cyber threat intelligence, an automatic procedure on the base of the MITRE Adversarial Tactics, Techniques Common Knowledge (ATT&CK) framework for deriving current threats with respect to data exfiltration is presented in the first place. In the spirit of the Digital Threats: Research and Practice (DTRAP) forum, a practical approach is chosen in addition to the theory in this manner. Our evaluation reveals that we are able to automatically identify the most relevant recent risks of unauthorized data exfiltration. In our second step, we present the design of a simulation gear based on the attacks extracted from the MITRE ATT&CK framework. The aim is to simulate the greatest threats before they actually occur in the operational environment. The strict focus on the threats of data exfiltration characterizes our solution and makes our approach an ideal addition to existing solutions. We provide an evaluation of this initial simulation concept and its underlying technology for the implementation to show that we are on the right track.

From Night to Light: Harmony as Allegory in Die Zauberflöte

Abstract: Mozart's final opera, Die Zauberflöte , wields visual and musical metaphor to deliver possibly the most effective allegory of Enlightenment themes ever achieved in Austrian art. Supported by a systematic tonal analysis, this article reviews, integrates and expands upon decades of scholarly research on this opera, with a strict focus on the thematic symbolism of its harmonic elements. By unifying disparate sources and providing an independent overview of tonality throughout the two acts of Die Zauberflöte , this study aims to foment subtler appreciation of Mozart's application of harmonic contrasts. Special attention is devoted to the manner in which the symbolic meaning of such contrasts evolves together with the opera's dominant themes, to build a formidable musico-dramatic metaphor of a fundamental narrative of European Enlightenment—the philosophical struggle of reason against ignorance.

Reframing caring for parents who struggle with substance-use disorders.

Nancy Suchman and the colleagues she influenced have produced ground-breaking and attitude-challenging work in understanding how parenting and substance use come together. Dr Suchman and her colleagues make the claim that there is nothing about a substance-use disorder that precludes effective and sensitive caring for children especially with interventions that focus on the parent-child relationship. Suchman's legacy is to highlight how substance use as an illness pulls individuals away from important, caring relationships and limits their giving themselves to those relationships. Restoring the salience of caring relationships and of the individual's ability to care may be as impactful on their substance use as a strict focus on the reduction of drug use and achieving abstinence.

Understanding conflict among experts working on controversial species: A case study on the Australian dingo

AbstractExpert elicitation can be valuable for informing decision‐makers on conservation and wildlife management issues. To date, studies eliciting expert opinions have primarily focused on identifying and building consensus on key issues. Nonetheless, there are drawbacks of a strict focus on consensus, and it is important to understand and emphasize dissent, too. This study adopts a dissensus‐based Delphi to understand conflict among dingo experts. Twenty‐eight experts participated in three rounds of investigation. We highlight disagreement on most of the issues explored. In particular, we find that disagreement is underpinned by what we call “conflict over values” and “conflict over evidence.” We also note the broader role played by distrust in influencing such conflicts. Understanding and recognizing the different elements shaping disagreement is critical for informing and improving decision‐making and can also enable critique of dominant paradigms in current practices. We encourage greater reflexivity and open deliberation on these aspects and hope our study will inform similar investigations in other contexts.

MODERN APPROACHES TO VOIT DIAGNOSTICS AND VOJT THERAPY

The article evaluates the use of Vojt diagnostics and Vojt therapy during rehabilitation in modern conditions for adults and children.
 Reflex-locomotor therapy was developed by Vaclav Vojta as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool. At the very beginning of the study, V. Vojta described two different motor complexes, reflex crawling and reflex turning, which are triggered by adequate location and stimulation of the corresponding trigger zones. Due to this activation, a global reflex response is triggered, which contains innate motor programs associated with locomotion patterns in human ontogeny (rolling, crawling, walking).
 To date, neurokinesiology according to Vaclav Vojta allows to diagnose impaired motor development in children from the newborn period, even before the absence of clear neurological symptoms during a classic examination, and to prescribe early therapy.
 The essence of Vojt diagnostics is not only passive observation of the child, but also an active examination method using appropriate functional tests (loads, provocations). And Vojta therapy is a neurophysiological method used to obtain reflex responses in muscles after stimulation of certain activation zones. Such therapy stimulates the brain through selected areas of the body, activating stored innate motor programs that are exported as coordinated movement and contraction of trunk and limb muscles.
 The novelty of V. Vojt contribution in this field lies in the strict focus on genetically determined, species-specific movement development programs. The existence of ideal patterns of movements as a basic characteristic of human motor behavior to date is practically not reflected in the problems of motor rehabilitation in general, that is, the standard given "by nature" or determined by evolution still remains largely unknown, therefore the purpose of this study is to assess the impact the approach of Vojt diagnostics and Vojt therapy in the rehabilitation of children and adults in modern conditions.
 Vojta described 10 different zones that are available for stimulation of movement patterns of reflex locomotion. Light pressure on a specific stimulation zone (muscle or bone) and resistance to the current movement is used to induce an involuntary motor response from the patient and to perform certain movement patterns.
 The best results of Vojt therapy are achieved when the patient has not yet developed and established any so-called replacement movement patterns. In patients with established "substitute motor activity", the goal of treatment is to activate and maintain physiological movement patterns, as well as to reduce unestablished abnormal movement patterns and integrate them into normal movement processes, until the mastery of conscious movement activity is completed.
 In the beginning, Vojta therapy was used to rehabilitate children with movement disorders and infants at risk of developing cerebral palsy. Years later, this method was successfully applied to adults with neurological and movement problems.
 Today, Vojta therapy is used for various pathologies and in different age groups, from infants to adults, and is a safe and effective conservative alternative method of rehabilitation.

Umerziehung durch rote Bibliotheken: SED-Bibliothekspolitik 1945/46 bis zum Ende der 1960er Jahre

Umerziehung durch rote Bibliotheken: SED-Bibliothekspolitik 1945/46 bis zum Ende der 1960er Jahre

A work in progress: antimicrobial stewardship in solid organ transplant patient populations.

To review recent medical literature addressing antimicrobial stewardship in solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients. Few studies with a strict focus on SOT patients have been published to date. Team-based antimicrobial stewardship interventions in SOT populations do have beneficial impacts on antimicrobial stewardship-relevant outcomes. Several studies have compared SOT-specific antibiograms to widely accepted hospital antibiograms; these studies all have found important differences in resistance rates among bacterial pathogens. Novel biomarkers like virome monitoring for assessing the net state of immunosuppression hold promise for individualized antimicrobial stewardship interventions. SOT patients are an understudied population with respect to antimicrobial stewardship interventions. Current antimicrobial stewardship interventions for SOT patients are largely extrapolated from studies in general patient populations and may not accurately reflect SOT-specific infection risks or outcomes. Antimicrobial stewardship interventions do impact SOT-relevant care goals but require significantly more research to achieve the depth and reach of antimicrobial stewardship interventions developed for general populations.

Ряд причин нежелания работать в организациях проектного типа

Reviewing a body of work presents unique opportunities for making a theoretical contribution. Review articles can make readers think theoretically differently about a given problematic field. The purpose of this editorial is to propose to continue further study of the described problem. The topic of the theoretical article is whether employees are in projects, program and portfolio who do not want to work in such type of the organizations initially (before being involved in the project), or perhaps unwillingness to participate/work in some projects has appeared during execution of any project processes. Causes/reasons, or the vital necessity due to which the such kind of category of personnel is in the temporary organization, for example: availability, or lack of project management standards, financial needs, there is no other work for this period, etc. What is the percentage of employees in projects has the necessity to work in projects for any reasons. Does this percentage of employees negatively impact the success of projects and like the consequence on the programs and portfolios? It is important to note that the strict focus of this work is directed significantly to those category of employees who do not want to be / work in project sphere and the impact of the personnel group on processes, elements and results as an any projects as more larger organizations.

Repeated cross-sectional sampling of pigs at slaughter indicates varying age of hepatitis E virus infection within and between pig farms

Humans can become infected with hepatitis E virus (HEV) by consumption of undercooked pork. To reduce the burden of HEV in humans, mitigation on pig farms is needed. HEV is found on most pig farms globally, yet within-farm seroprevalence estimates vary considerably. Understanding of the underlying variation in infection dynamics within and between farms currently lacks. Therefore, we investigated HEV infection dynamics by sampling 1711 batches of slaughter pigs from 208 Dutch farms over an 8-month period. Four farm types, conventional, organic, and two types with strict focus on biosecurity, were included. Sera were tested individually with an anti-HEV antibody ELISA and pooled per batch with PCR. All farms delivered seropositive pigs to slaughter, yet batches (resembling farm compartments) had varying results. By combining PCR and ELISA results, infection moment and extent per batch could be classified as low transmission, early, intermediate or late. Cluster analysis of batch infection moments per farm resulted in four clusters with distinct infection patterns. Cluster 1 farms delivered almost exclusively PCR negative, ELISA positive batches to slaughter (PCR−ELISA+), indicating relatively early age of HEV infection. Cluster 2 and 3 farms delivered 0.3 and 0.7 of batches with intermediate infection moment (PCR+ELISA+) respectively and only few batches with early infection. Cluster 4 farms delivered low transmission (PCR−ELISA−) and late infection (PCR+ELISA−) batches, demonstrating that those farms can prevent or delay HEV transmission to farm compartments. Farm type partly coincided with cluster assignment, indicating that biosecurity and management are related to age of HEV infection.

How Artificial Intelligence Enhances Human Learning Abilities: Opportunities in the Fight Against COVID-19

This paper widens the focus on how artificial intelligence (AI) can foster the learning abilities of human actors, adopting a wider view with respect to a strict focus on tasks and activities. The interaction between AI and human learning has not been investigated in service research. Placing its theoretical roots in work by Huang and Rust [Huang MH, Rust RT (2021) Engaged to a robot? The role of AI in service. J. Service Res. 24(1):30–41.] in service research and on Bloom’s revised taxonomy in education studies [Anderson LW, Krathwohl DR, Airasian PW, Cruikshank KA, Mayer RE, Pintrich PR, Raths J, Wittrock MC (2001) A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Longman, London).], this study offers an integrative framework for the ways AI enhances human learning abilities. Some cases in the context of COVID-19 offer insightful illustrations of the framework.

Labor mobility in a monetary union

Internal migration flows are endogenously driven by relative labor market performance in a New Keynesian DSGE model of a monetary union calibrated to U.S. data. When labor markets are competitive, a strict focus on stabilizing unionwide inflation remains close to optimal. With search and matching frictions in regional labor markets, labor mobility across state borders introduces additional trade-offs for optimal monetary policy since workers do not internalize the full effects of their individual migration decisions. But when monetary policy is suboptimal, a mobile labor force helps to close inefficiency gaps in regional labor markets following region-specific shocks. Putting some weight on labor market outcomes in a simple instrument rule enhances welfare more when labor is mobile.