Mediamusic (E-Journal)
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The Multilateral Trade and Monetary System in Peril:Can China replace the US at the IMF?
No full textFemale sex and femininity independently associate with common somatic symptom trajectories
No full textBACKGROUND: Multiple predictors have been associated with persistent somatic symptoms. However, previous studies problematically defined the persistence of symptoms, conflated participants' sex and gender, and focused on patient populations. Therefore, we studied associations between predictors, especially sex and gender, and longitudinal patterns of somatic symptoms in the general adult population. We also assessed whether predictors for persisting symptoms differ between sexes.METHOD: To identify developmental trajectories of somatic symptoms, assessed by the SCL-90 SOM, we used latent class trajectory modeling in the Dutch Lifelines Cohort Study [N = 150 494; 58.6% female; median time to follow-up: 46.0 (min-max: 22.0-123.0) months]. To identify predictors of trajectories, we applied multiple logistic regression analyses. Predictors were measured by surveys at baseline and a composite gender index was previously developed.RESULTS: A five-class linear LCGA model fitted the data best: 93.7% of the population had a stable symptom trajectory, whereas 1.5% and 4.8% of the population had a consistently increasing or decreasing symptom trajectory, respectively. Female sex predicted severe, stable symptom severity (OR 1.74, 95% CI 1.36-2.22), but not increasing symptom severity (OR 1.15, 95% CI 0.99-1.40). Femininity was protective hereof (OR 0.60, 95% CI 0.44-0.82 and OR 0.66, 95% CI 0.51-0.85, respectively). Merely a few predictors of symptom severity, for instance hours of paid employment and physical functioning, differed in strength between sexes. Yet, effect sizes were small.CONCLUSION: Female sex and femininity predict symptom trajectories. No large sex differences in the strength of additional predictors were found, thus it may not be clinically useful to distinguish between predictors specific to male or female patients of persistent somatic symptoms.</p
Training for the HandbikeBattle:an explorative analysis of training load and handcycling physical capacity in recreationally active wheelchair users
No full textPurpose(1) to analyze training characteristics of recreationally active wheelchair users during handcycle training, and (2) to examine the associations between training load and change in physical capacity.MethodsFormer rehabilitation patients (N = 60) with health conditions such as spinal cord injury or amputation were included. Participants trained for five months. A handcycling/arm crank graded exercise test was performed before and after the training period. Outcomes: peak power output per kg (POpeak/kg) and peak oxygen uptake per kg (VO(2)peak/kg). Training load was defined as Training Impulse (TRIMP), which is rating of perceived exertion (sRPE) multiplied by duration of the session, in arbitrary units (AU). Training intensity distribution (TID) was also determined (time in zone 1, RPE = 7).ResultsMultilevel regression analyses showed that TRIMPsRPE was not significantly associated with change in physical capacity. Time in zone 2 (RPE 5-6) was significantly associated with Delta VO(2)peak, %Delta VO(2)peak, Delta VO(2)peak/kg and %Delta VO(2)peak/kg.ConclusionTraining at RPE 5-6 was the only determinant that was significantly associated with improvement in physical capacity. Additional controlled studies are necessary to demonstrate causality and gather more information about its usefulness, and optimal handcycle training regimes for recreationally active wheelchair users.</p
Novel cryoballoon 180° ablation system for treatment of Barrett's esophagus-related neoplasia:a first-in-human study
No full textBackground The novel 180° cryoballoon (CbAS 180) enables semicircumferential treatment over a length of 3cm per application. This first-in-human study evaluates its feasibility, efficacy, and safety for the treatment of Barrett's esophagus (BE) neoplasia. Methods This multicenter study consisted of dose-finding and extension phases. Dose-finding started with the lowest dose possible (1.0mm/s). For each dose, six patients were treated circumferentially over a 3-cm length. The dose was increased until the median BE regression was≥60% without serious adverse events (SAEs). In the extension phase, the dose was confirmed in 19 new patients. The outcomes were technical success, BE regression after one treatment, and SAEs. Results 25 patients (median Prague C0M3) were included (6 dose-finding/19 extension). In two patients, the CbAS 180could not be applied because of unstable balloon positioning. The technical success rate was 96% (22/23). In the six dose-finding patients, the starting dose resulted in median BE regression of 94% (95% confidence interval [CI] 60%-97%) without SAEs and was thus considered effective. Overall median BE regression was 80% (95%CI 60%-90%). Conclusion Single-session CbAS 180seems feasible, safe, and effective, and is a promising technique for the treatment of patients with BE neoplasia. </p
The state of work-based learning development in EU higher education:Learnings from the WEXHE project
No full textGlobalisation, technological changes and the industry-to-service economytransition has produced dramatic changes in the labour market, thusaffecting higher education. It is no longer sufficient to provide studentswith disciplinary knowledge. Graduates are also expected to beadaptive, innovative and flexible. As these competencies are betterdeveloped in connection with practice, this implies modifications in thelearning design. In this context, work-based learning (WBL) emerges asa relevant approach as it provides students learning experiencesoriented for the appreciation of work and practical knowledge.However, several issues still restrain its expansion in the EuropeanUnion (EU). There is (i) a great disparity in WBL implementation amongEU countries which relates to educational cultures, (ii) a concentrationin certain disciplinary areas such as business and engineering, and (iii) alack of quality assurance. Drawing on reports and materials producedby the Erasmus+ project Integrating Entrepreneurship and WorkExperience into Higher Education (WEXHE), this paper explores theseissues by identifying differences in the level of implementation as wellas design and delivery of WBL in seven EU countries across fourdisciplinary areas. It then brings forward success factors and driversinstrumental to the further development of better WBL
The Christian Anti-Torture Movement and the Politics of Conscience in France
No full textThis article investigates how the concept of ‘conscience’ emerged as a battleground within the French Catholic Church and as a politicised concept with implications for ideas about rights. State-sponsored torture during the Algerian War (1954 -1962) prompted dissident Christians to pioneer the use of ‘individual conscience’ as a tool of resistance. The Christians of the anti-torture movement embraced the theologically-informed language of conscience alongside a French, secular tradition of rights drawn from the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The way that Catholic dissidents thought about rights transcended the secular-religious divide; while recognizing a liberal concept of rights coming out of the French Revolution, these Catholics also insisted upon the spiritual function of individual conscience as a check upon the state. Intra-Catholic debates about conscience thus reveal the political and theological diversity within mid-twentieth century Christianity, long assumed to have been dominated by actors on the political right, as well as the multiplicity of co-existing ways of speaking about and interpreting rights
The Trust Gap:Young People's Tactics for Assessing the Reliability of Political News
No full textIn theories about journalism's democratic remit, trust is generally regarded as a prerequisite for public connection: only when citizens believe the news, they will engage with it and act upon it to perform their citizenship. Trust seems even more important in today's digital society, where the destabilization of journalism institutions and proliferation of sources make the media ecology increasingly complex to navigate. This paper challenges such conceptualizations of media trust rooted in rationality and deliberateness. Based on two series of semistructured interviews with fifty-five young people from ten nationalities living in the Netherlands, conducted in 2016 and 2017, we develop a taxonomy of people's tactics when assessing the reliability of news. We explore what this means for how they value news and how such judgments, drawing on explicit and tacit knowledge, impact their news use. Rather than critically evaluating news through comparing and checking sources, users often employ more pragmatic shortcuts to approximate the trustworthiness of news, including affective and intuitive tactics rooted in tacit knowledge. Consequently, we argue that to fully understand how users deal with the complexity of trust in digital environments, we should not start from ideals of informed citizenship, but from people's actual practices and experiences instead
Development and validation of film stimuli to assess empathy in the work context
No full textA growing body of research suggests that empathy predicts important work outcomes, yet limitations in existing measures to assess empathy have been noted. Extending past work on the assessment of empathy, this study introduces a newly developed set of emotion-eliciting film clips that can be used to assess both cognitive (emotion perception) and affective (emotional congruence and sympathy) facets of empathy in vivo. Using the relived emotions paradigm, film protagonists were instructed to think-aloud about an autobiographical, emotional event from working life and relive their emotions while being videotaped. Subsequently, protagonists were asked to provide self-reports of the intensity of their emotions during retelling their event. In a first study with 128 employees, who watched the film clips and rated their own as well as the protagonists’ emotions, we found that the filmclips are effective in eliciting moderate levels of emotions as well as sympathy in the test taker and can be used to calculate reliable convergence scores of emotion perception and emotional congruence. Using a selected subset of six film clips, a second two-wave study with 99 employees revealed that all facet-specific measures of empathy had moderate to highinternal consistencies and test-retest reliabilities, and correlated in expected ways with other self-report and test-based empathy tests, cognition, and demographic variables. With these films, we expand the choice of testing materials for empathy in organizational research to cover a larger array of research questions
The hullabaloo of schooling:The influence of school factors on the (dis)continuation of lesson study
No full textThis study examines which school factors schools report influence their (dis)continuation of lesson study, a professional development initiative, and how after a four-year, cross-school lesson study project ends. To examine this, the framework on three types of school factors (features of employment, malleable school processes and fixed school characteristics) and the concept of organisational routines are used. Semistructured interviews were held with 21 teachers and 15 school leaders from the 14 schools who participated in the project. Findings show schools reported nine school factors that influenced their (dis)continuation of lesson study after the project: five features of employment (part-time appointment, turnover, (un)planned leave of absence, work location and beginning teachers), three malleable processes (policies on improvement, scheduling and school finances), and one fixed school characteristic (school size). School factors were reported to constrain schools from making lesson study a repeated practice in the school, performing its core features, and ensuring collective attendance. Two narrative portraits revealed that the simultaneous occurrence of school factors made continuing with lesson study especially complex and limited schools' ability to move beyond shortened and simplified initiatives to more rich and meaningful professional development.</p
School-Based Education Programs for Preparing Children for Natural Hazards:A Systematic Review
No full textSchools have a significant role in disaster education to children. This study investigates the research works about school-based education programs in order to discover challenges and best practices. We conducted a systematic review of English language papers published in peer-review journals.The search identified 2577 publications and 61 articles meeting selection criteria and included in the review. Reviewed studies indicated that disaster education in schools is effective but yet insufficient in many countries. Lack of equipment, financial resources, policy gaps, and teachers’ knowledge are common problems in programs. Main outcomes of this systematic review are showing methods used for health emergency preparedness of children of different ages and gender differences in school-based disaster preparedness, as well as the difference in their lifesaving skills in disasters.This study shows that some disaster education programs reported in the papers reviewed were not high-quality enough, which may lead to insufficient preparedness of children in disasters and consequently may put their health at risk, considering the increasing number of natural hazards