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Co-designed resources to improve sleep health in young shiftworkers: a qualitative study
Get PDFIntroduction: Shiftwork contributes to poor sleep and circadian disruption, leading to adverse health outcomes. With a high number of young adults (18–25 years) engaging in shiftwork, exposure to these health challenges can occur from early adulthood. Therefore, there is an urgent need for age- and career-stage-appropriate resources focused on sleep health to mitigate poor health outcomes as early as possible. Given the absence of such resources, this study aimed to develop tailored, evidence-based sleep health materials for young shiftworkers. Methods: A participatory approach was employed, with co-designers (n = 48) attending 1–2 online workshops to develop sleep health resources for young shiftworkers. Co-designers included young, experienced, and previous shiftworkers, workplace health and safety experts, and science communications specialists, who worked alongside academic experts. Workshops explored which sleep health topics co-designers believe are important for young shiftworkers. Reflexive thematic analysis of workshop transcripts identified key themes, which were aligned with current scientific evidence, forming both the structure and content of the resulting sleep health resources for young shiftworkers. Results: Analysis of workshop transcripts identified five themes: sleep science, impacts of poor sleep, habits impacting sleep, strategies to improve sleep, and recommendations for workplaces. Themes were populated with evidence-based information to develop a website, a pictorial infographic, an animated video, and a social media presence. Discussion: Tailored, evidence-based sleep health resources for young shiftworkers were co-designed, with qualitative data elucidating individual and work-related sleep health themes. Future studies should evaluate the resources to determine their impact on knowledge and behaviour
Grand challenges for human factors and ergonomics
Get PDFContemporary society faces a growing set of complex global issues representing significant human health, well-being, and sustainability threats. Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE) has a critical role to play in responding to these issues; however, there remain a set of grand challenges that require resolution. This paper presents and discusses six grand challenges for HFE and related key research thrust areas for each of the challenges. The grand challenges are (1) Evolution in Societal Thinking; (2) Future of Human Work in Industry 5.0; (3) Climate Change and Sustainability; (4) Future of Education and Training; (5) Future of Personalized Health, and (6) Life, Technology, and the Metaverse. These grand challenges and key research thrust areas were derived by twenty HFE professionals who are the authors of this paper. The implications of these grand challenges for education, training, research, and implementation of HFE principles and methods for the benefit of humankind are discussed
Learning about the Transit Passenger Experience from Microblogging Posts
Get PDFTransit agencies often track delays and malfunctions but may overlook riders’ real-time social experiences. To fill this gap, we analyzed 559 tweets from 2020 to 2023 that captured personal accounts of public transport use. Using thematic analysis, we found that 74% of posts criticized other passengers’ behavior, far outweighing comments on transit ride quality, such as complaints about delays (25%). Notably, 86% of tweets expressed negative sentiment, though some highlighted exceptional service. These findings demonstrate that interpersonal dynamics are a key contributor to riders’ experiences and illustrate the nature of the interactions that riders like and dislike
Early electronic journals: A preservation survey
Get PDFIn 1994, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) published a print directory containing information on every electronic journal that could be identified, anywhere in the world. Thirty years later, this study surveys the current availability and preservation status of those 443 journals. While a significant number of these journals are no longer available, the results indicate that independent preservation efforts by individuals and small groups were a major factor in preserving many of the remaining publications. This study uses the preservation survey method to assess the preservation environment for these journals, and also to build an online directory of the journals to assist researchers in locating these often-overlooked innovators of electronic scholarly communication
Gray matter volumetric changes in tinnitus: The impact of hearing loss and severity
Get PDFTinnitus is a phantom auditory sensation that commonly co-occurs with hearing loss. Both tinnitus and hearing loss can impact the quality of life, emotional well-being, and cognitive functioning of the affected individuals. While previous studies have highlighted structural alterations in hearing loss and/or tinnitus, the fundamental neural mechanisms underpinning tinnitus severity remain poorly understood. In this study, we conducted a voxel-based morphometry to investigate gray matter (GM) volume differences among groups of participants with varying tinnitus severity and hearing status, and controls within a large sample. We observed reduced GM volume in the left anterior insula and right planum polare in participants with hearing loss, regardless of their tinnitus status, compared to normal hearing controls. We noted decreased GM volume in the bilateral anterior and posterior insula for those with tinnitus and normal hearing compared to a normal hearing control group. Further, the tinnitus with hearing loss group showed decreased GM volume in the left planum polare, left inferior temporal gyrus, bilateral anterior temporal gyri, and right superior frontal gyrus compared to the normal hearing control group, suggesting a combined effect of hearing loss and tinnitus. While tinnitus severity did not show a significant overall effect, there was a significant positive correlation between tinnitus distress and GM volume in bilateral planum polare. Our findings enhance the understanding of structural brain changes related to hearing loss and tinnitus, and advance the overall knowledge of tinnitus pathophysiology, which can contribute to the development of more effective treatments for tinnitus
Translanguaging-informed beliefs and practices of Spanish-English middle school bilingual teachers upon completion of an online professional development
Get PDFAs part of a U.S. Department of Education grant, we developed over 60 hours of online professional development (OPD) modules in Spanish. This mixed methods study: (1) explores Spanish-English middle school bilingual teachers’ (MSBTs\u27) shifts in language ideologies before and after completing the OPD, and (2) investigates if and how OPD resources support implementation of practices that reflect translanguaging pedagogy. Data sources include pre- and post-OPD survey results and semi-structured interviews. The two surveys were analyzed based on their scales; the interviews were analyzed iteratively using inductive and deductive codes. Survey analysis showed positive shifts in MSBTs’ beliefs and increased confidence regarding their ability to implement culturally and linguistically responsive instruction. The participants evidenced the use of knowledge and tools from the OPD to overcome filters (Bacon, 2020) to translate their language ideologies into practice
Temporal Reversibility of Reactive Systems Out of Equilibrium: Molecular Dynamics Simulation
Get PDFThe second law of thermodynamics states that entropy production in macroscopic systems is non-negative, reaching zero only at thermodynamic equilibrium. As a corollary, this implies that the state trajectory of macroscopic systems is inherently time-irreversible under out-of-equilibrium conditions. However, over the past half-century, various studies have shown that this principle does not universally apply to the composition sample paths of certain isothermal reactive systems. Theoretical frameworks leading to this surprising observation primarily focus on perfectly homogeneous systems (often referred to as zero-dimensional systems), which inherently exclude the effects of local fluctuations. This oversimplification may account for the paradoxical theoretical predictions. In the absence of relevant experimental data, this paper seeks to explore this phenomenon through microscopic simulations
International Collaboration to Explore Elements for an Effective Residential Childcare Workforce
No full textResidential childcare workers provide critical support to vulnerable children around the world. Building and maintaining a qualified residential childcare workforce is challenged by myriad forces, the foremost of which is recruiting and retaining staff for valuable work often misaligned with available compensation; making individual qualifications at hiring; ongoing training; supervision; and data support systems to monitor performance critical for quality care. This study explored the similarities and differences among these essential elements of staffing across distinct programs: Youth Education Centers (YEC) in Poland, CiudadEscuela Muchachos (CEMU) in Spain, and the Boys Town Family Home Program (BTFHP) in the United States. Using an autoethnographic approach, the authors, who are a diverse team of practitioners and researchers, provide insights guided by personal experience about the programs as they compared and contrasted program training and evaluation manuals and materials, job descriptions, etc. The focal programs shared several similarities, most notably prioritizing children’s dignity. However, notable differences also offer possible solutions for region-specific challenges in building and sustaining a qualified residential childcare workforce. Future implications for ongoing international collaboration to establish training standards are discussed
Sustaining Mission-Driven Publishing in Politically Constrained Environments: The Case of CEU Press
No full textThe Central European University (CEU) created its Press in 1993 in Budapest, Hungary, in a climate of hope and the rising of democracy in the former Eastern European block. Many of the early publications mirror this atmosphere. Titles that were unimaginable to be published before found an outlet and reached readers all around the world, especially in the USA.
Fast forward 30 years, and the political situation has changed dramatically. The degree giving educational program of CEU was driven out of Hungary by the Fidesz government. The values championed by both CEU and the press are not in accordance with Hungary’s administration. Nevertheless, CEU Press, still with a presence in Budapest, continues to publish books in the humanities and social sciences with little regard to whether or not they will please the authorities. Instead, CEU Press puts marginalized voices in the spotlight through offering various Open Access options, like the \u27Opening the Future\u27 model. All of this is a community effort. It involves courageous authors and editors who continue to bring forward important research as well as the support of libraries around the world.
Against this background, how is it possible to continue mission-driven publishing in a climate of political pressure? Can (self-)censorship be avoided or minimized? What are our responsibilities towards authors when publishing a book becomes a risk? What opportunities does Open Access offer for authors and readers in a threatened democracy? In our presentation, we will address these questions and share our experience to hopefully inspire others
Converse of Ptolemy’s Theorem
No full textIn The Almagest, we found the original Ptolemy’s theorem and its proof, and we compared it to “Ptolemy’s theorem” written in two modern geometry textbooks. They are different in that the new ones include the “converse” of the original one. We noticed the hypothesis of the “converse” can be interpreted in two ways. Using this as our motivation, we establish a new theorem related to Ptolemy’s theorem in this note as follows: If four distinct points A, B, C, D are given in the three-dimensional space so that ABC is a triangle, and if |AB||CD|+|AD||BC|=|AC||BD|, then the points A, B, C, D are not only on the same plane, but ABCD is also a cyclic quadrilateral