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Performance Characteristics of National Club Baseball Association Athletes Completing In-Season Elastic Resistance Training
No full textPurpose: The purpose of this study was to assess in-season physical performance metrics of National Club Baseball Association Athletes (NCBA) baseball players before and after a 6-week field-based elastic tubing resistance training intervention. Performance metrics included throwing velocity, isometric shoulder rotation strength, dynamic stability, muscular endurance, and range of motion (ROM). Method: A cohort of adult male NCBA athletes (n=13; 20.1±1.1years; 171.4±24.1cm; 77.0±10.5kg; all right hand dominant) enrolled in the 6-week biweekly intervention of seven upper extremity exercises. All exercises were completed with wrist-affixed elastic tubing prior to sport practices. Pre- and post-intervention testing included throwing velocity measured via pocket radar, isometric external rotation (ER) and internal rotation (IR) strength measured via handheld dynamometry (HHD), the Upper Limb Rotation Test (ULRT), Posterior Shoulder Endurance Test (PSET), and passive range of motion (PROM) for flexion, ER and IR measured via goniometer. Results: Twelve participants completed the intervention, and their data were used for pre- and post-intervention paired-sample t-test comparisons and Cohen’s dz effect size (ES) analyses. Players increased throwing side isometric ER strength at anatomical neutral shoulder position (Mean Difference, MD=25.8 N; pConclusion: Increases in rotational shoulder strength, dynamic stability, endurance, and PROM were noted post-intervention, while throwing velocity improved non-significantly. This study suggests that NCBA baseball players can enhance shoulder performance in-season with a resource-efficient resistance training program; however, additional intervention may be necessary to achieve significant gains in throwing velocity
Cultural Competence in Patient Care Coordination: Access to Care
No full textPurpose: This paper examines cultural competence in pharmacy patient care coordination, specifically focusing on access barriers faced by diverse patient populations and evidence-based interventions to address these challenges. Methods: A comprehensive literature review examined access barriers for Native American, African American, Asian American, and Hispanic American patient populations in pharmacy settings, identifying culturally competent interventions for their effectiveness in improving medication access. Results: Each population faces distinct barriers including geographic isolation for Native Americans, economic and transportation challenges for African Americans, language and cultural navigation issues for Asian Americans, and immigration-related concerns for Hispanic Americans. Effective interventions include telepharmacy services, mobile pharmacy programs, interpreter services, and community partnerships that address population-specific needs. Conclusions: Cultural competence in pharmacy care coordination is essential for reducing medication access disparities and improving health outcomes across diverse populations. Targeted, culturally responsive strategies can significantly enhance pharmaceutical care equity and should be implemented systematically in patient care coordination programs
The DNA Control Panel: Identifying Conserved Regulatory Elements in Differentially Expressed Genes
No full textPlant responses to heat stress involve changes in gene expression, and identifying conserved domains in promoters of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) is essential for understanding regulatory mechanisms. In this study, we analyzed 149 DEGs previously identified from transcriptomic analyses of two rice varieties, Cypress (heat-tolerant) and LaGrue (heat-sensitive), exposed to high night temperature ((HNT; 82.4 ± 1°F or 28 ± 1°C) (Kumar et al. 2022.Nature Scientific Reports DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs1832853/v1). Promoter sequences were analyzed using ElemeNT and MEME to identify core promoter motifs, their positions relative to the transcription start site (TSS), and statistical significance. Functional annotation revealed motif enrichment differences between up- and down-regulated genes, suggesting regulatory patterns underlying heat stress responses in rice
Challenges and Transformative Experiences in Promoting Glenn D. Paige’s Nonkilling Political Thought Among Anti-Nuclear Weapon Activists and Realists
No full textDecades ago, Glenn D. Paige challenged traditional political science by questioning the acceptance of killing and violence in politics, presenting nonkilling political science as an alternative framework. Since then, activists and researchers from different academic disciplines have joined the nonkilling movement, exploring how this new paradigm can be applied to fields like anthropology, sociology, peace education, psychology, economics, peace and conflict resolution studies, diplomacy, or international relations. Some scholars have also analyzed the experiences of peace activists and advocates of nonviolence. However, no prior research has focused specifically on scholars promoting nonkilling principles to anti-nuclear weapon activists and realists who often operate within frameworks that accept deterrence and the threat of mass destruction as necessary. To address this gap and give greater voice to nonkilling thought in the context of nuclear weapon risks, a qualitative phenomenological study was conducted using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The primary research question was: How do scholars describe their experiences promoting nonkilling perspectives to anti-nuclear weapon activists and realists? Sub-questions explored how these scholars became involved in the nonkilling movement, their perceptions of nonkilling and related concepts, and the meaning they assign to their engagement. Sixteen scholars from diverse backgrounds participated in semi-structured interviews conducted via Zoom. This study is particularly timely and essential, as the current global risk of nuclear weapon use has reached an alarming level. The findings suggest that while the path to promoting nonkilling in nuclear disarmament discourse is complex and often met with resistance, it holds transformative potential. Participants emphasized that nonkilling education can shift worldviews and open space for imagining a world free from tools of mass violence, including nukes. This study contributes to the emerging literature on nonkilling peace by highlighting the unique challenges and insights of those working at the intersection of nonkilling advocacy and nuclear disarmament.
Keywords: Anti-Nuclear Weapon Activists, Glenn D. Paige, Nonkilling, Nonkilling Peace, Nuclear Disarmament, Nuclear Realis
Peaceful Change Management: Cultivating Empathy and Curiosity to Foster Resilience and Trust in Healthcare
No full textThe ongoing evolution of healthcare, driven by technological advancements, necessitates equipping leaders with human-centered approaches to change management. This proposal examines the current responses to change within healthcare environments, addressing the underlying mechanisms that contribute to success or breakdown and emphasizes the imperative need for adaptive strategies from change leaders.
A human-centered approach incorporating emotional intelligence, the ADKAR change management model, and peace-focused leadership, can mitigate potential conflicts and foster a trust-based work environment. This research explores the theoretical framework of positive peace, underscoring the pivotal role of leadership in enhancing relational dynamics and addressing communication barriers. By focusing on relational dynamics, leaders can create an environment where open communication and trust are paramount, facilitating smoother transitions and fostering collective resilience against change-related stressors.
The study employs a comprehensive scoping review methodology to map the current landscape of change leadership interventions in healthcare. It focuses on interventions that leverage emotional intelligence and ADKAR principles to promote peace and psychological safety within healthcare settings. The objective is to identify strategies that align with the goal of fostering a peaceful approach to varied change management frameworks and understand the underlying mechanisms that contribute to their success. The authors aim to identify existing research gaps and provide insightful recommendations for integrating peace studies concepts into future change management frameworks.
By bridging the concepts of peace studies with practical change management strategies, this research aims to leader-led change management. This proposal highlights the importance of empathy and curiosity in change management, particularly within the dynamic and often high-emotion environments of healthcare. By adopting a peace-focused change management model, healthcare leaders can foster an environment of trust and promote a more resilient and secure work environment. This research aims to uncover the pathways through which leadership can drive positive change, contributing to the broader discourse on peace and conflict resolution within healthcare settings
How Global Peacebuilders Think: Policy Dialogue and System Change
No full textThe perspectives of global peacebuilders are under-examined, yet vital to understanding how global actors frame pathways to peace in conflict settings. Global peacebuilding actors – such as those engaged with United Nations and global peace consortiums - often play a critical role in bridging communication gaps between local, state, and international actors, yet bring their own set of assumptions to identifying the drivers of everyday peace in conflict-affected societies. This calls for innovative ways to clarify how global peacebuilders think about pathways to peace and conflict.
We convened four groups of global peacebuilding experts, engaging them with a visual, participatory approach known as Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping. Each group engaged in focus group discussion and drew a ‘mental map’ representing their consensus on the variables of importance and perceived causal drivers of everyday peace. The four maps represent visual data amenable for thematic analysis and semi-quantitative comparison. Simulation models illustrate divergent perspectives among global experts on what drives conflict and everyday peace. Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping thus enables stakeholder groups to visualize their assumptions, identify points of consensus or disconnect, and compare perspectives.
A lack of conceptual clarity – mapping peace and justice in ways that fail to be clear, cohesive, or even inclusive - is a challenge to policy, research, and programming work. We encourage policy-makers, practitioners, and researchers to conduct cognitive mapping exercises within and across global organizations. We exemplify an innovative way to promote dialogue, clarify understanding of policy-oriented and programmatic goals, and discuss system change for peacebuilding efforts
Defining Conflict Boundary Conditions: Violent Extremism and Quantum Ontologies
No full textViolent extremism is a complex phenomenon of interaction between the individual’s own needs and concept of identity, larger group dynamics based around functions of social violence, and those systems interacting with the State which is trying to manage its own monopoly on violence. These complexities can be observed when looking at two violent extremist groups in the West African Sahel (JNIM & Boko Haram) whose fighters identify reasons for joining as retribution for State violence, protection from the State, economic reasons, environmental stressors, and other cultural/community/sociological pressures. Ultimately these can be distilled to be centered around their perceived identity and belonging considerations, or lack thereof with the States they work to counter. Counter violent extremism strategies traditionally fail to accurately identify what this transition from non-radical to radical looks like, but what is the core epistemological reason? This article postulates that a misinterpretation or misunderstanding of meaning structures between the individual and the State is the largest culprit. To that, this argument suggests an alternative model of interpretation based on an analogous quantum mechanical model which ultimately provides clarity to the concept of a conflict boundary condition, or the physio-psychological transition between non-conflict and conflict. Using a Bohmian quantum mechanical model to interpret individual ideational entanglement (meaning making) with the State, webs of interconnected fields of meaning (analogous quantum fields) are identified. These fields are waves of type indeterminacy with which the individuals exchange information to identify their concept of meaning. Within the interpretation, this type indeterminate meaning is developed around Martin Heidegger’s concept of Dasein, or “being in the world” which is neutral until meaning is established. By measuring this information flow between the individual and the wave through concepts of the nation, or the idea of the State, via Benedict Anderson’s tripartite model, a rough sketch of these interacting fields is established. This in turn creates a new ontology via quantum methodologies which allow for an explication of dynamic entanglements of meaning making and society which further help to define the concept of the conflict boundary condition. If this dynamic can be better understood, interventions will be able to develop better resolution and conflict transformation mechanisms which build around these meaning structures
Understanding Incels from a Peace and Conflict Analysis Lens
No full textThe proposed panel will provide a brief history of the involuntary celibate, or incel, movement. It draws on data collected by two of the panelists as well as case studies about incels and their behaviors. It provides a review of the ideology and common terms used by incels online, or in what they call the manosphere. Additionally, the panel will address acts of crime and violence committed by incels, how they are depicted negatively in popular culture, and the difference between incels and female incelibates (femcels). The panel will also focus on how to approach studying incels from a peace and conflict analysis lens, emphasizing understanding, building community, and forgiveness
Integrating Peace and Conflict Studies into Haitian Public Universities: A Pathway to Social and Political Transformation
No full textFor several decades, Haiti has been facing a profound sociopolitical crisis marked by escalating violence, political instability, widespread assassinations, and the gradual collapse of the rule of law. This situation worsened significantly following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse on the night of July 6–7, 2021, plunging the country into a deep political and institutional void. In this environment of insecurity, heavily armed gangs have proliferated and now control over 85% of the metropolitan area, particularly Port-au-Prince, according to various reports, including those from the United Nations. These gangs subject the population to extreme forms of violence and killing, such as systematic rape, targeted killings, and arson attacks on homes, schools, healthcare facilities, and public infrastructure. Against this backdrop, a critical question arises: What role can Haiti’s public universities play in responding to the rise of gang violence and contributing to long-term peacebuilding? This question led to the development of a project that was submitted to the Université Publique du Sud-Est à Jacmel (UPSEJ), which is currently under consideration by nine other public universities across the country. The aim is to integrate peace and conflict resolution studies into public university curricula as a means to foster social and political transformation. It is anchored in two foundational pillars: the creation of a multidisciplinary Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, and the establishment of a chair dedicated to peace studies and peace education. Through academic engagement with concepts such as nonviolence, nonkilling, and a culture of peace, this initiative seeks to transform the university into an agent of positive change and community resilience. By equipping students, faculty members, and community leaders with tools for dialogue, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding, public universities can become key actors in addressing the root causes of violence and promoting a more just and peaceful Haitian society.
Keywords: public universities, peace education, Haiti, culture of peace