Two-part Process Research Articles

“It’s a Battle You Can’t Win”: Domination and Class Differences in Real-World Trust among Black Families

How does class affect one’s propensity to trust? Previous research finds higher-status actors express less trust than lower-status actors in interpersonal and institutional contexts. Scholars explain this finding as an outcome of structural dependence—when people have few alternative means for accessing valuable resources. In contrast, I find dependence inadequate to explain the relationship I observe between class and institutional trust among black families whose children were recommended for special education and other remedial program placement in an affluent, predominantly white school district. Drawing on retrospective interviews from a community ethnography, findings show that real-world trust decision processes also involve domination. Empirical studies of trust have overlooked the ways trustees—those being given trust—exercise power to achieve deference in trust exchanges, and how trustors—those placing trust in others—deploy their power to withstand trustees’ influence. I argue that trust might best be conceptualized as a two-part decision process, because class and other status resources affect trustors’ freedom to choose at two key junctures: (1) in weighing options and costs of trust errors, and (2) in communicating distrust in face-to-face interactions, where the potential for domination is high. Focusing on intersecting systems of power in authentic trust exchanges, this study shows how middle-class black trustors use symbolic resources to “go up against” the institutional power of educational experts and refuse placement, whereas working-class trustors consent to placement.

Stabilization of an iron ore tailings by-product with perlite waste geopolymer

In the field of engineering, sustainable solutions that can generate lower environmental impacts, either through material replacement or reuse, are increasingly sought after. In Brazil, in the geotechnical area, there is a demand to find solutions to avoid the disposal of tailings sludge destined for structures, following the recent dam ruptures of Fundao in 2015 and Corrego do Feijao in 2019. One of the recent investments is in the treatment of tailings, generating by-products. To improve the mechanical properties of these by-products, geopolymer utilization has been employed. Geopolymers are products resulting from reactions between aluminosilicate precursors and alkaline activators. The objective of this study is to evaluate the unconfined compressive strength of an iron ore tailings by-product stabilized with a geopolymer that utilizes perlite waste as a precursor and sodium hydroxide as an activator through a two-part alkali-activation process. Two molar concentrations of activators, 2M and 5M, and two sample compositions were evaluated: one with 20% geopolymer and 80% iron ore tailings by-product, and another with 30% and 70%. An increase in unconfined compressive strength was observed with higher concentrations of the activator solution and a greater percentage of geopolymer in material stabilization. Thus, it can be stated that the use of geopolymers in by-product stabilization is promising, but finding the optimal dosage and evaluating other variables such as curing time and temperature is necessary.

Embedding of a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian to emulate the von Neumann measurement scheme

The problem of how measurement in quantum mechanics takes place has existed since its formulation. Von Neumann proposed a scheme where he treated measurement as a two-part process— a unitary evolution in the full system-ancilla space and then a projection onto one of the pointer states of the ancilla (representing the ‘collapse’ of the wavefunction). The Lindblad master equation, which has been extensively used to explain dissipative quantum phenomena in the presence of an environment, can effectively describe the first part of the von Neumann measurement scheme when the jump operators in the master equation are Hermitian. We have proposed a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian formalism to emulate the first part of the von Neumann measurement scheme. We have used the embedding protocol to dilate a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian that governs the dynamics in the system subspace into a higher-dimensional Hermitian Hamiltonian that evolves the full space unitarily. We have obtained the various constraints and the required dimensionality of the ancilla Hilbert space in order to achieve the required embedding. Using this particular embedding and a specific projection operator, one obtains non-Hermitian dynamics in the system subspace that closely follow the Lindblad master equation. This work lends a new perspective to the measurement problem by employing non-Hermitian Hamiltonians.

PP40 Structuring Unstructured Medical Device Reimbursement In India

IntroductionAs India makes rapid strides towards universal health coverage, focusing on medical device reimbursement is key to ensuring patient access to device-based technologies. The nascent medical device reimbursement process offers a promising opportunity for interventions driven by a diverse group of stakeholders. We conducted policy research to capture these diverse perspectives and highlight key elements to develop a structured framework for reimbursement.MethodsThis research was a two-part process, including secondary research with expert interviews followed by policy research using focus group discussions (FGDs) through an online workshop with key stakeholders. We developed a white paper proposing changes to the reimbursement pathway, based on a benchmarking study of global markets and interviews with experts in the field. As a next step, key changes proposed in the white paper were deliberated upon by three focus groups (six to eight participants). Group participants were selected by quota sampling and represented key stakeholders in the reimbursement process. A discussion guide was used to capture participants’ opinions and an addendum to the white paper was released highlighting small, actionable, and impactful changes to the reimbursement process.ResultsFGDs with key stakeholders highlighted the need to establish a more structured, inclusive, and transparent process. Accordingly, we proposed key recommendations to the medical device reimbursement process in India. A first change is the creation of an online submission portal allowing different healthcare stakeholders to submit new technologies for consideration through a streamlined pathway. Secondly, we proposed enhancing evaluation transparency by improving availability of publicly shared information on the evaluation process, metrics, and assessment timelines. We also suggested adoption of adaptive health technology assessments to leverage existing evidence for faster, efficient decision-making.ConclusionsThrough this process, we created a pragmatic and concrete call for a stronger voice from care-providers and patient groups in the evaluation process. Consecutively, the proposed innovative framework introducing value-based incentives for implantable medical devices will be instrumental in enabling access to quality health care for poor patients. These strategies follow the principles of value-based care and will go a long way in achieving better health outcomes for the population. The scientific initiative has been made possible with the support of St. Jude Medical India Pvt Ltd (now Abbott).

Renal Amyloidosis: A Narrative Literature Review

Amyloidosis is a disorder in which soluble proteins aggregate and are deposited extracellularly in tissues as insoluble fibrils, causing progressive organ dysfunction. Amyloid fibril formation begins with misfolding of amyloidogenic precursor proteins. The fibrils have a characteristic appearance by electron microscopy and produce double refraction under polarized light when stained with Congo red dye. Classification of amyloidosis is based on the precursor proteins that form amyloid fibrils and the distribution of amyloid deposition both systemically and locally. The main form of systemic amyloidosis; AL amyloid, AA amyloidosis, ATTR amyloid. The kidney is the organ most frequently involved in systemic amyloidosis. Systemic amyloidosis may originate from anomalous proteins, such as immunoglobulin light chains or serum amyloid protein in chronic inflammation or may arise from hereditary disorders. The clinical manifestations of renal amyloidosis vary with the type of amyloid protein and the location and extent of amyloid deposition. Treatment of amyloidosis should be a two-part process; managing symptoms and reducing or stabilizing amyloid protein. Treatment of amyloidosis is focused on reducing the production of amyloidogenic proteins and inhibiting their aggregation.

Two-part onboarding for game-based learning environments

The trend of introducing game-based elements and mechanisms via game-based learning (GBL) and gamification is expanding in higher education, as is research on the elements of gamification design that contribute to their effects on learning. This paper presents a two-part onboarding process as a game-design element, analyzing its underlying mechanisms and potential effects on student learning through theoretical frameworks. First, we introduce a two-part onboarding intervention designed as part of introducing GBL in higher education. The intervention aims to address a challenge students face when taking a GBL module or course: namely, that venturing into a new digital platform often brings with it new and unfamiliar expectations of how students should act and interact in order to effectively engage with the course material as well as with their peers and instructors. Second, we describe two projects through which the intervention evolved to its current form. Third, we analyze and apply two theoretical frameworks—on semiotic domains and cognitive load—to examine the underlying mechanisms by which the intervention may be expected to affect student learning.

A novel hybrid process with a sustainable auxiliary approach concerning a biomass-fed solid oxide fuel cell and triple-flash geothermal cycle

Designing a multi-source system provides a higher performance from energy and economic viewpoints. Hence, an innovative two-part hybrid process with a sustainable auxiliary approach is proposed. The first part relies on a solid oxide fuel cell power plant feeding biomass fuel, and the second one utilizes a triple-flash geothermal cycle equipped with a domestic water heater, an ejector refrigeration cycle, and a water electrolysis unit responding to some urban utilities. The proposed system is analyzed from the energy, exergy, economic, and environmental standpoints. Besides, a multiple objective optimization is considered in four different scenarios to identify the most suitable optimum state. The system produces 3853 kW net power, 2158 kW cooling load, 1588 kW heating load, and 0.36 kg/h hydrogen, leading to 59.92% exergetic efficiency and 16.68 M$ net profit at the base condition. Accordingly, the steam turbines have the highest cost rate, and the ejector contains the highest exergy destruction rate. Also, the SOFC current density significantly impacts the total exergetic efficiency and exergy destruction rate. Eventually, the exergy-environmental scenario represents the best optimum state in which the exergetic efficiency, levelized total emission, and net profit are achieved at 64.82%, 0.2 ton/MWh, and 17.38 M$, respectively.

Effective Recruitment Strategies Utilized to Examine Dietary Practices of Blacks in New York City in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic

BackgroundBlack Americans have long been considered a hard-to-reach population for research studies, whether quantitative surveys or for clinical research. Studies have explored multiple rationales for why Blacks are hard to reach, and the explanations have included historical mistrust, the need to assess the benefits from participating in research, and the expense of spending time participating in research, among others. What has not been explored is the continuous merging of all individuals who identify as Black, particularly when exploring reasonings for a lower interest in participating in research. This paper addresses this issue by investigating the participation rate of individuals identifying as Black in New York City in a study exploring dietary practices as a predictor of colorectal cancer screening behavior. Participants were asked to self-report screening behavior, intent to screen, and dietary and other lifestyle practices. In this analysis, we discuss the unique experience encountered in recruiting Black American participants to participate in this study, particularly amid a worldwide pandemic of COVID-19.MethodsThe methodology for this study included a systematic review of the literature, a two-part recruitment process, and data analysis. The first part of the recruitment process involved registering individuals who were interested in participating in the study and consented to be contacted and reminded to come to the location where they were recruited on a scheduled date to complete the actual survey. With this part of the recruitment process, we engaged with n = 488 Black men and women between November 2019 and February 2020. The second part of the recruitment process utilized availability sampling outside of NYC subway stations and other high traffic areas as well as large community events. We engaged with n = 319 individuals. Total engagement with n = 807 individuals yielded a sample size for the survey of 504 completed surveys.ResultsOf the total engaged (n = 807), 14% declined to participate due to a lack of time, 11% chose not to participate in the study because the incentive was not enough to compensate for their time 0.02% declined due to not trusting institutions conducting research, and 0.03% did not feel comfortable understanding the questions due to a language barrier. We had a sample size of (n = 504) of the total 807 individuals engaged.ConclusionsRecruiting Black Americans into our colorectal cancer study did not prove to be challenging with the two-tiered model of recruitment that involved consistent engagement and having the primary researcher lead this recruitment process. Extracting within race differences is critical in demystifying the conclusion of numerous studies that African Americans specifically are hesitant to participate due to historical mistrust related to tragedies such as the Tuskegee Experiment and numerous other occurrences of African Americans being treated as guinea pigs for the advancement of research. This data contributes knowledge to this field regarding understanding recruitment challenges in the Black population, but further work needs to be conducted. Mistrust in this study primarily came from the individuals engaged in Caribbean neighborhoods, where many expressed more comfort with home remedies and bush doctors when asked about colorectal cancer screening and declined to participate. Innovative communication, qualitative research, and recruitment strategies tailored to the Caribbean population are needed in future studies to address this recruitment challenge that we experienced.

Two-part vowel modifications in Child Directed Speech in Warlpiri may enhance child attention to speech and scaffold noun acquisition.

Study 1 compared vowels in Child Directed Speech (CDS; child ages 25-46months) to vowels in Adult Directed Speech (ADS) in natural conversation in the Australian Indigenous language Warlpiri, which has three vowels (/i/, /a/, /u). Study 2 compared the vowels of the child interlocutors from Study 1 to caregiver ADS and CDS. Study 1 indicates that Warlpiri CDS vowels are characterised by fronting, /a/-lowering, f o -raising, and increased duration, but not vowel space expansion. Vowels in CDS nouns, however, show increased between-contrast differentiation and reduced within-contrast variation, similar to what has been reported for other languages. We argue that this two-part CDS modification process serves a dual purpose: Vowel space shifting induces IDS/CDS that sounds more child-like, which may enhance child attention to speech, while increased between-contrast differentiation and reduced within-contrast variation in nouns may serve didactic purposes by providing high-quality information about lexical specifications. Study 2 indicates that Warlpiri CDS vowels are more like child vowels, providing indirect evidence that aspects of CDS may serve non-linguistic purposes simultaneously with other aspects serving linguistic-didactic purposes. The studies have novel implications for the way CDS vowel modifications are considered and highlight the necessity of naturalistic data collection, novel analyses, and typological diversity.

Pelletization and properties of artificial lightweight geopolymer aggregates (GPA): One-part vs. two-part geopolymer techniques

Pelletization is currently the most-widely adopted method for the production of artificial geopolymer aggregates (GPA). However, as a newly-developed technology, there is still lack of fundamental research relevant to the influence of the pelletization techniques on the properties of the produced GPA. In this study, different alkalinity, precursor types and pelletization methods (i.e., one-part and two-part) for GPA production were investigated. Results showed that the pelletization efficiencies of almost all the mixes reached approximately 80%. In terms of GPA properties, the one-part GPA with the alkali concentration of 6% had lower oven-dried particle densities [1851 kg/m3 for highly-reactive fly ash (HRFA) and 1668 kg/m3 for lowly-reactive fly ash (LRFA)] than those of the corresponding two-part GPA (1905 kg/m3 for HRFA and 1705 kg/m3 for LRFA), and higher alkalinity (8%) would result in an even lower oven-dried particle density (1802 kg/m3 for HRFA) when one-part pelletization method was used. It was also found that the one-part GPA had a lower pellet strength than the two-part ones, due to the higher porosity observed in the XCT images. From the internal porosity of GPA in different XCT scanning layers, the two-part GPA showed a more uniform distribution of internal porosity compared with the one-part ones, indicating that the two-part pelletization process is more suitable for GPA production. Given the same alkali concentration (6%), the porosities of two-part GPA (1.0% for HRFA and 1.7% for LRFA) were lower than those of the one-part GPA (3.4% for HRFA and 3.2% for LRFA). The findings of this study can provide useful knowledge for the future industrialization of the pelletization technique in the GPA production.

PROTOCOL: Barriers and facilitators to stakeholder engagement in health guideline development: A qualitative evidence synthesis.

There is a need for the development of comprehensive, global, evidence-based guidance for stakeholder engagement in guideline development. Stakeholders are any individual or group who is responsible for or affected by health- and healthcare-related decisions. This includes patients, the public, providers of health care and policymakers for example. As part of the guidance development process, Multi-Stakeholder Engagement (MuSE) Consortium set out to conduct four concurrent systematic reviews to summarise the evidence on: (1) existing guidance for stakeholder engagement in guideline development, (2) barriers and facilitators to stakeholder engagement in guideline development, (3) managing conflicts of interest in stakeholder engagement in guideline development and (4) measuring the impact of stakeholder engagement in guideline development. This protocol addresses the second systematic review in the series. The objective of this review is to identify and synthesise the existing evidence on barriers and facilitators to stakeholder engagement in health guideline development. We will address this objective through two research questions: (1) What are the barriers to multi-stakeholder engagement in health guideline development across any of the 18 steps of the GIN-McMaster checklist? (2) What are the facilitators to multi-stakeholder engagement in health guideline development across any of the 18 steps of the GIN-McMaster checklist? A comprehensive search strategy will be developed and peer-reviewed in consultation with a medical librarian. We will search the following databases: MEDLINE, Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), EMBASE, PsycInfo, Scopus, and Sociological Abstracts. To identify grey literature, we will search the websites of agencies who actively engage stakeholder groups such as the AHRQ, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR), INVOLVE, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the PCORI. We will also search the websites of guideline-producing agencies, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, Australia's National Health Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the WHO. We will invite members of the team to suggest grey literature sources and we plan to broaden the search by soliciting suggestions via social media, such as Twitter. We will include empirical qualitative and mixed-method primary research studies which qualitatively report on the barriers or facilitators to stakeholder engagement in health guideline development. The population of interest is stakeholders in health guideline development. Building on previous work, we have identified 13 types of stakeholders whose input can enhance the relevance and uptake of guidelines: Patients, caregivers and patient advocates; Public; Providers of health care; Payers of health services; Payers of research; Policy makers; Program managers; Product makers; Purchasers; Principal investigators and their research teams; and Peer-review editors/publishers. Eligible studies must describe stakeholder engagement at any of the following steps of the GIN-McMaster Checklist for Guideline Development. All identified citations from electronic databases will be imported into Covidence software for screening and selection. Documents identified through our grey literature search will be managed and screened using an Excel spreadsheet. A two-part study selection process will be used for all identified citations: (1) a title and abstract review and (2) full-text review. At each stage, teams of two review authors will independently assess all potential studies in duplicate using a priori inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data will be extracted by two review authors independently and in duplicate according to a standardised data extraction form. The results of this review will be used to inform the development of guidance for multi-stakeholder engagement in guideline development and implementation. This guidance will be official GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) Working Group guidance. The GRADE system is internationally recognised as a standard for guideline development. The findings of this review will assist organisations who develop healthcare, public health and health policy guidelines, such as the World Health Organization, to involve multiple stakeholders in the guideline development process to ensure the development of relevant, high quality and transparent guidelines.

Evolution in two parts: as seen in a new fram ework for biology.

The case has been made that the-gene-centric approach to biology, which has prevailed over the past ~100 years, should be replaced by a fundamental framework based on the cell being a far from equilibrium complex dissipative system, regulated and governed by its phenotype (1, 2), the metaphor for which is a brain. This independent attractor (IA) model is a radical departure from the conventional view based on Wilhelm Johannsen's genotype-conception which has prevailed since 1910. In this prevailing paradigm the gene and the genotype are fundamental in accounting for inheritance, evolution, development, and morphogenesis: the phenotype, upon which natural selection is deemed to act, plays little or no role in these crucial aspects of biology. Here I discuss how the process of evolution might be viewed under the IA model. Based on empirical evidence, evolution can be seen as a two-part process, one part based on thermodynamics and resulting in increased resilience to perturbation of the cellular phenotype (conditioning), and the other part, based on agency exhibited by the evolving organisms. A crucial open question is: should we view the realisation of the phenotype as a matter for biochemistry, or physics.

How We See: The Light Microscope, Visual Routines, and the Microscopist

This paper addresses three critical aspects of analysis using the light microscope: 1) the human visual system, 2) the versatility of the light microscope, and 3) the importance of training and visual routines. The image of a particle produced by the light microscope is only an image, but it reveals important information about the shape, chemistry, and ontology of the particle. Changing the configuration of the microscope alters the image and provides additional information about the particle itself. While other analytical equipment generates graphs, tables, and charts, the microscope generates an image in the eye and brain of the microscopist. The microscopist is the detector for the microscope and the analyst of the signal generated by the detector. This is a two-part process. A fitting analogy is the concept of visual routines as used in the fields of computer vision and artificial intelligence. It refers to program modules that take raw images and process them into something intelligible. The term visual routines is being used here in this paper to address the relationship between the image generated by the retina, mental manipulation of the image, and by a specific configuration of the microscope. The microscopist needs to be trained to appreciate the analytical significance of different images of an object as the illumination system is changed. The addition of two polarizing filters to a transmitted brightfield image is one example. Understanding the light microscope as a sophisticated optical bench is part of the approach. Polarized light microscopy (PLM) and phase contrast microscopy (PCM) are limiting configurations but useful as two tools in the microscopist’s toolbox. There are many more transmitted light systems before even considering reflected light systems. An optimized light microscope is equipped with both a transmitted and reflected light system.

Return-to-sport following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction in team sport athletes. Part I: From initial injury to return-to-competition

There is a high incidence of non-contact anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in team sports, especially among adolescent females. This injury is associated with an increased risk of developing osteoarthritis later in life and a decrease in lifetime physical activity. Traditionally, return-to-sport (RTS) programs following ACL injury have focused on restoring the athlete's general health and tissue healing. We will propose a framework that views RTS as a two-part process: first, recovery of general health after ACL reconstruction (ACL-R) (rehabilitation) and then return to competition (RTC) after ACL-R, all of which occurs on a continuum. The objective of Part I is to stablish the foundation to propose an evidence- and experience-based guide on RTS following ACL reconstruction in athletes participating in team sports, specifically for later phases. First, we describe the causes of and risk factors associated with ACL injury. Next, we describe the specific characteristics of team sports that predispose athletes to ACL injury. Finally, we present a progressive framework to successfully return athletes to a pre-injury level of competition that also minimizes risk of reinjury. In Part II we will focus on how to put the proposed framework into practice when return team sport athletes to play following ACL-R.

3D Deep Learning for Anatomical Structure Segmentation in Multiple Imaging Modalities.

Accurate, quantitative segmentation of anatomical structures in radiological scans, such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computer Tomography (CT), can produce significant biomarkers and can be integrated into computer-aided assisted diagnosis (CADx) systems to support the interpretation of medical images from multi-protocol scanners. However, there are serious challenges towards developing robust automated segmentation techniques, including high variations in anatomical structure and size, the presence of edge-based artefacts, and heavy un-controlled breathing that can produce blurred motion-based artefacts. This paper presents a novel computing approach for automatic organ and muscle segmentation in medical images from multiple modalities by harnessing the advantages of deep learning techniques in a two-part process. (1) a 3D encoder-decoder, Rb-UNet, builds a localisation model and a 3D Tiramisu network generates a boundary-preserving segmentation model for each target structure; (2) the fully trained Rb-UNet predicts a 3D bounding box encapsulating the target structure of interest, after which the fully trained Tiramisu model performs segmentation to reveal detailed organ or muscle boundaries. The proposed approach is evaluated on six different datasets, including MRI, Dynamic Contrast Enhanced (DCE) MRI and CT scans targeting the pancreas, liver, kidneys and psoas-muscle and achieves quantitative measures of mean Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) that surpass or are comparable with the state-of-the-art. A qualitative evaluation performed by two independent radiologists verified the preservation of detailed organ and muscle boundaries.

Rape Appraisals: Class Mobility, Social Geography, and Sexual Morality Tales in Ghana, South Africa, and Rwanda

Interdisciplinary scholarship in violence and trauma studies suggest that a person’s interpretation of stressful events contours how the person will respond. It is through the two-part appraisal process that survivors determine how they will cope. This project utilizes an identity-based approach to demonstrate that survivors use group-based ideologies such as social class, geography, gender, sexuality, and, for some, race to appraise their accounts of violence, assess their coping strategies, and manage traumatic events. Using the cross-cultural accounts of 146 Black Ghanaian, South African, and Rwandan women rape survivors, the findings extend the appraisal approach by highlighting how survivors in this study utilized sexual morality tales to construct a variety of appraisal accounts to interpret their assaults and to justify their coping strategies. I call these appraisals opportunities, possibilities, limitations, and solidarities. These differing appraisals demonstrated that social milieu contours the psychological experience of violence and can engender both parallel and divergent interpretations across social class and cultural contexts. Last, the implications of these findings for comparative sexual assault studies, theories of traumatic coping, gender and development, and intersectionality are discussed.

Semi-supervised deep learning of source location and seabed class from unlabeled merchant ships in the shallow ocean

Understanding sound propagation in a shallow ocean environment is complicated but important for naval technologies. Some researchers are currently applying a variety of supervised deep learning methods, such as convolution neural networks, for either source localization or seabed classification. One of the costs of supervised learning is the requirement for large amounts of labeled data. In the present study, unlabeled data are used to train a Transformer model. Transformer-based models have demonstrated ability for predicting sequential data; examples are Google’s BERT and OpenAI’s GPT-3. In our technique, we train a transformer-based model in a twopart process. First, self-supervised learning is implemented using synthetic ship spectrograms for various shallow ocean environments. The model is trained as an encoder/decoder to perform sequence-to-sequence prediction. Second, the transformer model is fine-tuned to predict the source location and seabed class from a small set of labeled synthetic samples. Data samples measured during the Seabed Characterization Experiment 2017 are utilized as a testing dataset. The advantages of this approach are the ability to train a model with a larger variety of data, including the use of unlabeled data and data of variable input length.

Scoping review protocol on the use of social media for health research purposes

IntroductionMore than one-third of the world population uses at least one form of social media. Since their advent in 2005, health-oriented research based on social media data has largely increased...

Is the erythropoietin-erythroferrone-hepcidin axis intact in human neonates?

In a two-part process, we assessed elements of the principal hormonal pathway regulating iron homeostasis in human neonates. Part 1: Quantifying erythropoietin (Epo), erythroferrone (ERFE), hepcidin, and relevant serum and erythrocytic iron-related metrics in umbilical cord blood from term (n = 13) and preterm (n = 10) neonates, and from neonates born to mothers with diabetes and obesity (n = 13); Part 2: Quantifying serum Epo, ERFE, and hepcidin before and following darbepoetin administration. Part 1: We measured Epo, ERFE and hepcidin in all cord blood samples. Epo and ERFE levels did not differ between the three groups. Preterm neonates had the lowest hepcidin levels, while neonates born to diabetic women with a very high BMI had the lowest ferritin and RET-He levels. Part 2: Following darbepoetin dosing, ERFE levels generally increased (p < 0.05) and hepcidin levels generally fell (p < 0.05). Our observations suggest that the Epo/ERFE/hepcidin axis is intact in the newborn period.

"Blindness Gain" as Worldmaking: Audio Description as a New "partage du sensible"

"Blindness Gain" as Worldmaking:Audio Description as a New "partage du sensible" Marion Chottin and Hannah Thompson IN THIS ARTICLE we use our experiences of co-creating creative audio descriptions at the Musée du quai Branly in Paris to suggest that the worldmaking practices of challenge, collaboration, action, and dialogue offer a means to call into question the traditional ways of accessing museum and gallery content that still prevail in (French) society.1 We define "disability's worldmaking" in the museum or art gallery as a two-part process. First, we challenge the 'givenness' of the hierarchies, relationships, and assumptions that govern visitor experience in the museum. Second, we offer an alternative model of visitor engagement where active and dialogic co-creation provides an inclusive alternative to ocularcentric museum experiences. Together, these acts of worldmaking promise an alternative mode of being in the museum that suggests a new politics of access. By going beyond current understandings of 'inclusion,' our project does not limit itself to giving disabled people a museum experience analogous to that of non-disabled people. Instead, it explores and celebrates alternative modes of engaging with art that do more than merely echo normative museum experiences and which, more broadly, open up a new way of making society. Our definition of worldmaking is a counterpoint to Jacques Rancière's concept of "le partage du sensible" and is informed by the concept of "blindness gain." In Rancière's words, le partage du sensible as a political concept is "ce système d'évidences sensibles qui donne à voir en même temps l'existence d'un commun et les découpages qui y définissent les places et les parts respectives."2 Elsewhere, he elaborates on this definition, describing it as "la façon dont les formes d'inclusion et d'exclusion qui définissent la participation à une vie commune sont d'abord configurées au sein même de l'expérience sensible de la vie."3 In other words, according to Rancière, there is "une esthétique de la politique": the assignment of a place to each person in society is manifested through the sensory experience itself, and, for him, particularly in a division between visibility and invisibility; audibility and inaudibility: those who participate in public life are visible and audible, while those who do not are invisible and inaudible (kept hidden and silent within the private sphere). Given that, for Rancière, the realm of art is a privileged place of sensory experience, it is therefore also a privileged place for le partage du sensible, which expresses who has a place in society and who does not. We argue that, nowadays, it is in the museum [End Page 32] or art gallery that the dynamics of social inclusion and exclusion are most starkly played out. But Rancière does not include disabled people among the categories of people—like workers—who, according to him, are excluded from society by the very fact of their invisibility and inaudibility. Neither does he discuss how painting, an art considered supremely visual, produces invisibility, that is, the absence of blind or partially blind people from museums, nor does he consider how the other senses might play a role in reducing blind people's exclusion from art and society. The reasons for these various silences are obvious: by ignoring the domain of disability, Rancière does not perceive its invisibility, and hence the exclusion of disabled people; he thinks of le partage du sensible mainly in terms of visibility and invisibility, without thinking of moving beyond the presumed primacy of sight.4 In our work, we ask how people who are blind or partially blind gain access to the politically and culturally charged space of the museum or art gallery, so that they too can participate in acts of multi-sensory worldmaking and thus undermine le partage du sensible between those who are invisible and inaudible because they are blind, and those who are visible and audible because they are sighted. The theory of "blindness gain" is a reimagining of the notion of "deaf gain" theorized by Bauman and Murray.5 "Deaf gain" is a critical position and...