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Mediating Role of Self-Efficacy in the Association Between Fatigue and Depressive Symptoms in Females with Rheumatoid Arthritis
No full textBackground and Objectives: Extant research on the relationship between fatigue and depression in people with rheumatic diseases portrays a divergent picture. While caring for persons with this medical condition, one issue that represents individual confidence in carrying out specific tasks, namely self-efficacy level, has attracted significant attention. Yet, the information regarding whether self-efficacy may pose a clue linking these two major symptoms is still unknown. The aim of this study, therefore, is to examine whether self-efficacy mediates the association between fatigue and depressive symptoms among persons with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Materials and Method: A cross-sectional study of 224 females with RA from a hospital in Taiwan was conducted between January and October 2023. We then distributed anonymous self-reported questionnaires instructing participants to provide information on their demographic characteristics, levels of fatigue, self-efficacy, and depressive symptoms. The bootstrap via PROCESS macro in SPSS was executed to analyze if self-efficacy would mediate the effect of fatigue on emergence of depressive symptoms. Results: For those participants captured at baseline, a negative association was noted between fatigue and self-efficacy, as well as between self-efficacy and depressive symptoms.
Results of the mediation analysis revealed a remarkable indirect effect of fatigue on depressive symptoms through self-efficacy, with a regression coefficient of 0.21 (95% confidence intervals: 0.06–0.37). Conclusions: This work extends current understanding of the roles that fatigue and self-efficacy play in predicting depression among people with RA and further clarified the potential mediating role of self-efficacy in buffering against depressive symptomatology. Interventions that extend from the management of fatigue and further incorporate the improvement of self-efficacy sense into the stereotypical therapy should greatly mitigate the distressing symptoms for patients with RA
Teaching with the Electronic Literature Collection Volume 4
No full textThis article surveys the four ELCs – Electronic Literature Collections (2006- 2022), reviews pedagogical approaches to teaching ELCs, and situates ELCs and electronic literature pedagogy into higher education’s course management systems. ELCs’ increasing accessibility serves its global audience and centers the ethical values of diversity, equality, and inclusion. The ELC4’s user experience design manifests these values. The article discusses the history of the Collections’ experience design. Volume Four (2022) expanded reader accessibility and linguistic diversity by including video playthroughs and collecting 132 works from 42 author nationalities in 31 languages. This article surveys those evolving design changes. It engages a robust literature review of global electronic literature pedagogy. It features suggestions for thematic clusters of ELC4 works in a variety of subjects including literature, media studies, critical AI, identity theories and bibliotherapy. It concludes with a discussion of how electronic literature pedagogy fits within higher education’s ecosystem
Translating Soil Salinity to Agricultural Salt Stress: Key Salt-Tolerance Mechanisms for Agrohydrologic Models
No full textSummary:
Salt stress has a detrimental impact on crop yield and survival rates, which salt-tolerant cultivars can resist through numerous adaptive mechanisms. Most models of salt stress impacts on productivity and water use employ empirical or simplified schemes to represent salt-adaptive traits. However, with an increased understanding of these physiological tolerance mechanisms and emergent measurement techniques for monitoring key salinity dynamics, the potential for developing mechanistic agrohydrological models of the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum has grown. This perspective highlights strategies for modeling salt tolerance mechanisms, including root system architecture adaptation, salt filtration, adaptation of plant hydraulics, ion compartmentalization, and stomatal responses, to improve model representation and prediction. Incorporating these mechanisms into dynamic models can help inform management strategies and biotechnological cultivation, increasing long-term salt stress resilience within salt-affected agricultural systems
A New Era of Zines: Taking Lessons From the Past to Combat Intellectual and Political Fascism
No full textZines have long functioned as a way to circumvent the traditional gatekeepers of news, art, mainstream narratives, and publishing. They are largely non-commercial, and their emphasis is to put the means of production and distribution directly into the hands of the individual. Although their roots are in DIY, proletariat culture, they are now the subject of study in museums, libraries, and higher education, and have been co-opted by big brands, media outlets, and publishing houses—the institutions they originally sought to undermine.
In their most authentic form, zines have represented free thinking and speech, while giving individuals and communities a rallying point for questions of identity, meaning, and socio-political mobilisation. This paper seeks to determine the ways in which zines have been absorbed into mainstream culture, examining the extent to which they continue to serve as tools for challenging dominant narratives, cultivating community and identity, and driving grassroots activism. Further, it will discuss the future of zines in an American landscape increasingly shaped by heightened censorship and government surveillance across digital forms of media.
Through this, I hope to contextualize zines as a powerful tool for political change and to assess the extent to which, in the pre-digital era, they fomented political activism, formed communities, and allowed people to express themselves in opposition to dominant narratives. I intend to offer an avenue of hope in the coming years and to provide readers with a path to meaningful resistance against AI-driven surveillance that is making online political activity unsafe
Roadkill Scavenging Behavior of White-Throated Magpie-Jay (cyanocorax Formosus) in Northwestern Costa RicaComportamiento De Carroñeo En Carretera De La Urraca Copetona (cyanocorax Formosus) En El Noroeste De Costa Rica
No full textCorvids are opportunistic omnivores and facultative scavengers, but there are no direct records of Cyanocorax species scavenging on carrion. We documented opportunistic feeding behavior of the White-throated Magpie-Jay (Cyanocorax formosus) on a road-killed Common Pauraque (Nyctidromus albicollis) in northwestern Costa Rica. On 25 August 2023, we observed three White-throated Magpie-Jays feeding on the carcass of a Common Pauraque, likely killed by collision with a vehicle, along a gravel road near the Taboga Forestry Reserve. This provides de first documented evidence of the White-throated Magpie-Jay scavenging on roadkill, and of carrion consumption by a Central American corvid. Given the White-throated Magpie-Jay\u27s adaptability and its opportunistic nature as an omnivorous predator, this species may exploit roadkill as a readily available food source
Building Adaptive Capacity Through Community Visioning
No full textEast Portland represents one of Oregon’s most diverse communities. This rich cultural tapestry reflects the strength and resilience of communities who have built vibrant neighborhoods despite facing systemic exclusion and displacement. This project focuses on community engagement efforts undertaken in collaboration with the Rosewood Initiative, a community-based organization operating in East Portland. However, the legacy of discriminatory policies and practices has created concentrated challenges in East Portland, which have relegated many residents to areas with inadequate infrastructure, limited access to services, and heightened exposure to environmental hazards. Climate change intensifies these challenges, with East Portland experiencing more severe urban heat island effects and facing greater risks during extreme weather events. This project builds upon significant previous work by MURP students. These studies, combined with ongoing community engagement efforts, provide a strong foundation for developing a comprehensive resilience hub vision that reflects community needs and aspirations
dwelling
No full textdwelling explores the network of connections between time, the self, and physical space. People and place are layered, and memories haunt these blurred spaces. Poems follow several lines of questioning: what lingering presence does abuse leave in the body and in the home? Is it possible to inhabit and share space with these presences, and if so, what does that mean for identity, relationships, and safety? Through repetition, image, and syntax, dwelling constructs a maze, enacting the conflicting desire to both linger in memory and run from it, holding the haunting beauty of grief and loss alongside anger and alienation
The Effects of TFEα and Promoter Sequence on Early Events in Archaeal Transcription Initiation
No full textExpression of genes is dependent on promoter sequences in DNA, which direct transcription by RNA polymerase. Transcription factors interact with promoters and RNAP and are often conserved and are essential for proper gene expression. In this thesis, a functional region of archaeal TFEα, homologous to eukaryotic TFIIEα, has been identified, and specific amino acids in these regions have been determined to have significant importance in TFEα\u27s ability to promote transcription in early initiation. All three Domains of life encode a 16S rRNA promoter, which is responsible for production of the 16S portion of ribosome. Transcription with this promoter is not well studied in Archaea but have been well studied in E. coli. It has been demonstrated that interactions with the essential, conserved transcription factor, TFB1, vary between gdhP and the 16S rRNA promoter from Pyrococcus furiosus. These experiments will provide a clearer understanding of the regulation of early transcription initiation, and identify critical differences between promoter sequences, as well as mutations in an essential transcription factor in P. furiosus that are required for function
Beyond Opacity: Distributed Ledger Technology As a Catalyst for Carbon Credit Market Integrity
No full textThe 2015 Paris Agreement paved the way for the carbon trade economy, which has since evolved but has not attained a substantial magnitude. While carbon credit exchange is a critical mechanism for achieving global climate targets, it faces persistent challenges related to transparency, double-counting, and verification. This paper examines how Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) can address these limitations by providing immutable transaction records, automated verification through digitally encoded smart contracts, and increased market efficiency. To assess DLT’s strategic potential for leveraging the carbon markets and, more explicitly, whether its implementation can reduce transaction costs and enhance market integrity, three alternative approaches that apply DLT for carbon trading were taken as case studies. By comparing key elements in these DLT-based carbon credit platforms, it is elucidated that these proposed frameworks may be developed for a scalable global platform. The integration of existing compliance markets in the EU (case study 1), Australia (case study 2), and China (case study 3) can act as a standard for a global carbon trade establishment. The findings from these case studies suggest that while DLT offers a promising path toward more sustainable carbon markets, regulatory harmonization, standardization, and data transfer across platforms remain significant challenges
Abolition and Social Work: Dismantling Carceral Logics to Build Systems of Care
No full textSocial work has historically operated as an extension of the carceral state, embedding policing, surveillance, and punishment into youth-serving institutions under the guise of care. This paper examines carceral seepage—the infiltration of punitive logics into social work practice—across child welfare, education, and juvenile legal, revealing how these systems function as interconnected circuits of criminalization rather than support. Using abolitionist frameworks, we critique social work’s complicity in punitive interventions and address common concerns about safety, scalability, and sustainability. Instead of reforming oppressive institutions, we argue for a fundamental transformation of social work, advocating for non-carceral models such as community-led crisis response, restorative justice, and mutual aid. By divesting from punishment and investing in collective care, abolitionist social work can move beyond harm reduction and toward genuine liberation