#and elsevier would be higher

[chronotopes]

limited selection of journal publishers ranked solely by how easy it is to derive useful information for immigration cases from their websites

A tier: nature, cell press

B tier: ACS, RSC

C tier: elsevier, frontiers

D tier: wiley, IEEE

F tier: mdpi

[nursingwriter]

Lumb (2017) points out that postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) happen to be rather common and are associated with increased mortality amongst patients. In the present case, the patient presents with shortness of breath, pleuritic chest pain, and palpations. The most likely diagnosis in this case would be acute pulmonary embolism. This is more so the case given that as Ouellette (2020) points out, “the classic presentation of PE is the abrupt onset of pleuritic chest pain, shortness of breath, and hypoxia.” It would also be prudent to note that according to Blann (2015), clinical data indicates that a vast majority of pulmonary embolism cases are reported in the 60-70 year age group. The patient in question is 65-years-old. Pulmonary embolism could essentially be perceived as a venous thromboembolism that travels from the legs of a person to his or her lungs. One of the key symptoms that a person presents following the blockage of a pulmonary artery by a clot is shortness of breath. This is accompanied by pleuritic chest pain. According to Stein (2016), one leading cause of PE is surgery. In the scenario presented in this case, the problem could have occurred as a consequence of prolonged immobility (due to bed rest) following surgery. The patient had a total knee replacement 8 days ago. It is likely that he was confined to a bed following the said surgery. In the words of Merli, Awsare, and Baram (2020), “the incidence of pulmonary embolism appears to be significantly higher in blacks than in whites… mortality rates from pulmonary embolism for blacks have been 50% higher than those for whites…” (77). It is, however, important to note that the authors add that there has been a higher incidence of PE among whites than among other racial groups such as Native Americans and Asians. References Blann, A. (2015). Deep Vein Thrombosis and Pulmonary Embolism: A Guide for Practitioners. M&K Update. Lumb, M.A. (2017). Postoperative pulmonary complications. British Journal of Anesthesia, 118(3), 317-334. Merli, G.J., Awsare, B. & Baram, M. (2020). Pulmonary Embolism in the ICU. Elsevier Health Sciences. Ouellette, D.R. (2020). Does pulmonary embolism (PE) have a racial predilection? Medscape. https://www.medscape.com/answers/300901-8457/does-pulmonary-embolism-pe-have-a-racial-predilection Stein, P.D. (2016). Pulmonary Embolism. John Wiley & Sons.   Read the full article

[junior-scientist]

Package for a newbie

These are some helpful web bases for fresh students to write their first scientific report/essay perfectly.

For searching In high school, searching and getting information from web results by Google is acceptable. However, in the scientific environment, especially in colleges/universities or higher, web source information seems unreliable and unapprovable. So, how can you search for qualified sources?

"Google Scholar" is the best way to search for quality articles/reviews. Everything you need to do is search in the correct keyword. For example, if you want to know about CRISPR-Cas9 and its application in agriculture, your keyword needs to include "CRISPR-Cas9" and "agriculture".

For accessing the information The majority of scientific papers are required to pay before reading. If your institute doesn't support you to access these papers (like mine), the only solution is "Scihub".

You can easily access the "Scihub" website by Google.

Then, you have to copy the name/DOI of the paper/book and search it in Scihub. Based on my experience, DOI would be more convenient and quick.

Finally, you can download and read it freely.

You can check out other free download websites are the "Libgen" and the "Z-Library".

For automatically citing reference "Mendeley" is my best choice for this task.

First, you need to download "Mendeley" both on your laptop/computer and in Extension Chrome.

Next, you use Chrome to search your desire paper, lick to the NCBI/Elsevier web that contains the information of your desire paper.

Then, you can automatically save the exact details of the article by Mendeley in Chrome.

Finally, you open "Mendeley" on your laptop/computer to cite the reference to your work on Word.

For more detail, you should read the manual of "Mendeley".

The main advantage of "Mendeley" is its multiple formats for you to choose from. In addition, you can easily change between each format setting without any errors in your work. It is pretty convenient and effortless.

For grammar and other problems As a non-native English student, "Grammarly" is my savior. If you have the school email, you can have a 40% sale off the premium account (around $7.2/month). It can be reduced more if you share your account with your friends.

Another problem you have to concern when writing your work is plagiarism. Grammarly also has the feature to check this for you automatically. However, the best way is that you write everything in your own words in the first place.

That is all, and I hope this post gets you well.

[nglenvs3000]

Fractal Frenzy (wk. 9)

When I glanced at this week’s prompt, I felt a little pressure to be honest. You all want to know the most amazing thing I know about nature?! I didn’t know where to begin, and I wanted to provide something that would surely wow you all. The first thing that came to mind was how wondrous of a feeling nature can provide for you, it’s truly therapeutic and it goes unmatched. This is one of the most amazing things about nature in my opinion, but I can’t sum it up in a blog post for you – you must experience it for yourself. What I can do is provide you with some incredible science/math that will hopefully deepen your connection to nature and the universe around you. The science that I’m referring to is called fractals, and it’s also referenced as sacred geometry.

Enchanted Forest: Photography by Inge Johnsson. Can be retrieved from: https://pixels.com/featured/enchanted-forest-inge-johnsson.html

Have you ever heard of these terms? Fractals are self-similar patterns that repeat themselves at different levels of magnification – every small part resembles the whole.

A “simple” fractal (self-repeating pattern). Retrieved from Tumblr. 

As you can see in this gif, the pattern appears to be on an infinite loop, demonstrating a pattern inside a pattern inside a pattern, so on and so forth.

I’m sure you’re wondering how fractals play into nature. In one of my courses this semester, we discussed how nature organizes itself into fractals to “problem solve” (McCann, 2021). Fractals are ultimately formed by nature to fill empty space, which in turn can effectively add a dimension (McCann, 2021). Yes, you heard that right, fractal filling can drive additional dimensions. I thought this fact was wild when I learned it! You’ve probably heard your local hippie say at one point or another that we’re “multidimensional beings”; that we have access to dimensions higher than that of 3D (including 4D, 5D, 6D, all the way to 12D+). In my opinion, this logic is supported to a degree because us humans have fractals all throughout our bodies that are ever repeating. A perfect demonstration of this is our circulatory system – we have 60,000 miles of branching blood vessels and capillaries inside each of us (Elsevier, 2019).

Artwork by Matthew James Taylor that represents a branching network of blood vessels. Retrieved from: https://matthewjamestaylor.com/fractal-art

This amazes me not only because of the dimensional aspect, but because these fractals are found throughout all of nature. This implies that both humans and nature have the ability to produce internal dimensions through fractals. To me, it is proof that we are not separate from nature, but simply a part of it. Our bodies carry some of the exact same patterns and mathematical ratios that nature does.

A very well-known pattern that is found across humans and nature is the Fibonacci sequence. This pattern exists at all levels of creation: human body proportions, plants, crystal structure, the orbit of the planets, etc. It’s so amazing to me because as previously mentioned, it demonstrates that we are not separate from nature. Our bodies form the same patterns that plants and animals do, down to a mathematical level. Some people believe this proves that humans along with nature are all derived from the same source.

A closer look at the Fibonacci sequence. Retrieved from: https://mocomi.com/fibonacci-sequence/

This is a complex topic and I have merely touched the tip of the iceberg, so here are some additional sources if you’d like to dive deeper:

(1)  Fractals: a world in a grain of sand | Ben Weiss | TEDxVeniceBeach - YouTube

(2)  Fractals In Nature: Develop Your Pattern Recognition Skills In The Forest (diygenius.com)

(3)  (1) Fractals - Hunting the Hidden Dimension - YouTube

The next time you’re out in nature, look at all the beautiful fractals and patterns that surround you. Understand that you are a part of nature, and that nature is a part of you as well.

References

Beck, L. T., Cable, T. M., & Knudson, D. U. (2018). Interpreting cultural and natural heritage: For a better world. Sagamore-Venture Publishing.

Fahy, E. (2019). Blood Vessels: The 60,000 Mile Network Inside Us. Elsevier. Retrieved from: https://3d4medical.com/blog/blood-vessels-the-60000-mile-network-inside-us-anatomy-snippets

McCann, K. (2021). BIOL 3060: Communities, Populations and Ecosystems, lecture 3 notes [Fractals].

[cardiogirls]

Cardiovascular Disease and Physical Activity

Female involvement in sports and physical activity has long been undermined within research and health promotion in the past (Oguma & Shinoda-Tagawa, 2004). However, this lack of representation is unfortunate given the importance of physical activity and a healthy lifestyle for women's health. Surely, lifestyle factors (such as physical activity participation, minimal screen time, and avoidance of drugs, smoking, and alcohol) are incredibly influential for minimizing the already enhanced risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) within women (compared to men). For example, Chomistek et al. (2015) outlined the reduction of all-cause mortality due to cardiovascular disease, along with the incidence of cardiovascular-related health issues, to be minimized when women maintained recommended levels of physical activity! This is excellent news for women given the many unmodifiable factors that are currently contributing to higher CVD rates within the population, such as menopause, early menstruation onset, and contraceptives, to name a few (check out our previous posts for more information about these topics!). 

Now you may be wondering, what are the recommended levels of physical activity?

Adults are advised to obtain at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise per week, preferably in 10-minute bouts scattered throughout the week! 

Aerobic activity can include going for a walk, bike ride with friends or family, or having a dance break to your favourite song! Additionally, it is recommended that adults participate in muscle-strengthening activities (such as weight lifting) and avoid prolonged bouts of sitting (Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, 2021) 

Oguma and Shinoda-Tagawa (2004) described the impact of physical activity on cardiovascular disease in women as a "dose-response," meaning that the more physical activity you do, the more significant the reduction in CVD risk. However, they also found that inactive women would benefit from even a little bit of exercise. For example, even as little as one hour of walking per week can reduce a woman's risk of developing overall CVD (including decreased risk for stroke and coronary heart disease (Oguma & Shinoda-Tagawa, 2004)!

Overall, physical activity is a great modifiable lifestyle factor that can significantly reduce women's risk of cardiovascular disease! It is important for women to participate in weekly (and possibly daily) physical activity to help reduce their risk of developing CVD, the leading cause of death for women. 

P.S. Let us know your favourite way to get active in the comments!

P.P.S.  Press keep reading for a full list of references!

References

Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology. (2021). Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology. https://csepguidelines.ca

Chomistek, A. K., ScD, Chiuve, S. E., ScD, Eliassen, A. H., ScD, Mukamal, Kenneth J., MD, MPH, Willett, Walter C., MD, DrPH, & Rimm, E. B., ScD. (2015). Healthy Lifestyle in the Primordial Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease Among Young Women. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 65(1), 43-51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2014.10.024

Oguma, Y., & Shinoda-Tagawa, T. (2004). Physical activity decreases cardiovascular disease risk in women: Review and meta-analysis. Elsevier Inc. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2004.02.007

[trongdatnguyen]

Cũng thích cả bài này nữa

Topic: do we need a climate label?

I.               Introduction

The label is an important part of food products, which producers use to communicate their product’ characteristics to persuade consumers at a trading activity. The information on the product label often reflects and responds to the customers’ demands at a time. With the uprising consumers' concern about the environmental aspect of food products and production in recent years, the question of the need for a climate label is unavoidable. In this essay, reports and literature will be reviewed to answer and discuss the raising question.

II.             Literature review

In the modern world, consumers are provided with a fruitful amount of food choices due to technological advancements and the free market. Their consumption behavior is no longer determined solely by the availability of food to serve basic nutritional needs1. A wide range of foodstuff options allows the customer to make purchasing decisions not only to satisfy fundamental demands but also to reflect their lifestyle and beliefs2. Consequently, policymakers and food producers need to understand population demands towards foodstuffs to perform corresponding strategic approaches at their challenging positions. Concurrently, policymakers need to keep benefiting their citizens, and producers to stay relevant in their business as society progresses.

Under the customer-centered market, food producers utilize product labels as a response to consumers' demands in trading activities without their preliminary consumptions3. Thereupon, packaging has dual functions of protecting the food inside as well as conveying information from producers to consumers. The information existed in the product label can be mandatory, as an obligation to the officials' regulations, or non-mandatory as a producers' endeavor to persuade consumers to buy a product. Consequently, despite differences in legal status, this information functions as a cue to help customers making purchasing decisions depending on their preferences with certainty and willingness. For example, from 2014, European food producers are obliged to list potential allergens that existed in their product in the product label4. This implementation indirectly clarifies consumers' questions about how their health preferences would react to food products without actually trying. In a different circumstance, the voluntary addition of an organic production label assures consumers the product is associated with organic production. As such, consumers could consume according to their opposition towards GMOs, or preference toward nature with certainty.

In the modernity theory frameworks of consumption and production, the modification and implementation of product labels mentioned above is a part of the producer's business restructure in correspondence to customers' demands. Therefore, new customers' demands - which are formed by new societal ideology at the time - indirectly require new product labels, either mandatory or voluntary. For example, genetically modified food was introduced to the European market as early as 1996. However, only until consumers' confidence in science and technology started to impose an uprising contradiction GMO, European Commission released their official regulation toward food producers on the issue in 20035. From then, European producers need to put GMO are required to put GMO labels onto their products if it is associated with genetic engineering technology to any extent.

Meanwhile, the environmental aspect in food and food production is gaining more recognition from the European public in the last decades. Consequently, this aspect would potentially become the determining factor of the customer in their consuming activities in the future6. Therefore it is inevitable to suggest the addition of climate labels to food products, based on a certified and quantitative system, in response to the uprising customers' demands from this time on. In fact, as of now, several food companies have already implemented different versions of climate labels to their products such as Oatly, Estrella, Quorn7. Together with marketing strategies, their business gained exponential growth in the last few years. This observation alone not only suggest the producers' need to adopt climate label for future business but also signify the needs of a mandatory one from policymakers to help their people avoid confusion while making a purchasing decision.

III.           Discussions

The above reasoning suggests that the implementation of the mandatory climate label in the food industry is certain to happen. Two fundamental characteristics of this label can be predicted based on both current mandatory labels and voluntary climate labels. Firstly, it would be a quantification label like a nutrition label instead of an identification label like a GMO one. In reality, any production activity has its environmental impact, and more often, it is the most effective technology available for producers. Besides, laws and regulations are not higher and are conditioned by the development of technology as society progresses. Therefore, considering foodstuffs is environmentally good or bad may do more harm to the society than benefit them, which the purpose of the implementation. Secondly, it would cover the environmental impacts of a product in more than one aspect (figure 1). As such, different product from different production technologies which require different resources can be evaluated indifferently by the regulations.

For customers, the implementation of such a climate label implies few foreseeable benefits. Firstly, it satisfies customers' demands for a more environmentally friendly way of food consumption by giving them a tool to compare between products. Concerns about how their consumption behavior would impact the environment are resolved, paving way for more certain and enjoyable trading activities. Though this resolution is not the ultimate one because any production activity has its environmental impact, it would be the most effective tactic available. Secondly, the implementation helps customers consume at ease by guiding them through a matrix of voluntary climate labels in the market in the present. More often, these voluntary climate labels consider environmental aspects from different perspectives - namely carbon dioxide emission versus food milage. They are incomparable to each other. Consequently, consumers have been left with confusion while shopping, though their needs are responded to by food producers. In contrast, the implementation also suggests an obvious drawback for consumers.

For producers, the implementation is both the opportunity and the challenge for their businesses. A study conducted for the Swedish market suggests that consumers would pay more for food products with less GHG emitting8. Concurrently, Oatly, who has gained exponential growth in the last few years, famously adopts carbon dioxide emission number per product on their units and publicly promotes every producer to follow their paths. Though these case studies do not represent the whole European market, it suggests that climate labels can be used as a critical selling point for consumers in the future. On the other hand, the implementation forces them into a new technology race towards the most environmentally friendly production technique - which might remove small-cap companies. Moreover, it would also impose a challenge to businesses whose exporting foodstuffs as explained in the above paragraph.

IV.          Conclusions

To conclude, the need for a climate label in food products is inevitable and certain to happen in the future. It is because of the uprising importance of environmental aspects in consumers’ quality evaluation and the function of the product label is the producers’ responses to consumers’ needs. The future climate label would assemble fundamental characteristics of current mandatory product labels as well as voluntary climate labels circulating in the market. Furthermore, the implementation imposes more benefits than drawbacks to customers who consider the environmental aspect as the most determining factor in purchasing activities. Concurrently, producers would consider the implementation is both a challenge to their business structure and an opportunity to grow by new market demands.

V.              Tables and diagrams

Figure 1: Example of climate label based on nutrition label and voluntary climate labels

VI.           References

1.         Troth J. Ethical and environmental labelling of foods and beverages. In: Advances in Food and Beverage Labelling. Elsevier; 2015:151-175. doi:10.1533/9781782420934.3.151

2.         Wikström S, Jönsson H, Decosta PL. A clash of modernities: Developing a new value-based framework to understand the mismatch between production and consumption. J Consum Cult. 2016;16(3):824-851. doi:10.1177/1469540514528197

3.         Wyrwa J, Barska A. Packaging as a Source of Information About Food Products. Procedia Eng. 2017;182:770-779. doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2017.03.199

4.         European Parliament. Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft; 2011.

5.         European Parliament. General Food Law. Published online 2002.

6.         Dat N. Do the consumers take the environmental aspect into the evaluation of food quality? Published online 2021.

7.         Carbon Cloud. Carbon Cloud Customer Lists.https://carboncloud.com. Published 2021.

8.         Olof B. Different types of climate labels for food products. Published online 2009:71.

[and-then-there-were-n0ne]

Studies suggest that substantial global reductions in meat intake by 2050 could reduce agriculture‐related emissions on the order of 55 to 72 percent, with greater reductions from also reducing dairy and eggs. A global reduction in meat and dairy intake by 75 percent by 2050 could reduce emissions by 7.4 Gt, an amount greater than the emissions from the entire transportation sector in 2010 (7.0 Gt). These are conservative estimates since they do not account for the full spectrum of agriculture‐related emissions.

Source: report by the John Hopkins Center for a livable future , prepared in advance of the United Nations Conference of the Parties 21 (COP21) in Paris

more than 15,000 scientists from 184 countries agree that “promoting dietary shifts towards mostly plant-based foods” is among “examples of diverse and effective steps humanity can take to transition to sustainability.” among their named causes of the “current trajectory of potentially catastrophic climate change due to rising ghgs” is “agricultural production— particularly from farming ruminants for meat consumption.”

Source: World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice published in the journal BioScience in Nov. 2017 and thought to be the largest-ever formal support by scientists for a journal article (15,372 scientists from a range of scientific disciplines from 184 countries). Also reported on in VICE.

“to seriously fight climate change, more plant-based diets will be needed. our analysis shows if the world went vegetarian that cut in food-related emissions would rise to 63%. and if everyone turned vegan? a huge 70%.”

Source: Scientific research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), via Elsevier Food Science, Going Veggie Would Cut Global Food Emissions by Two Thirds and Save Millions of Lives

people who eat meat are responsible for almost twice as many dietary greenhouse-gas emissions per day as vegetarians and about two-and-a-half times as many emissions as vegans.

Source: Climactic Change journal, Dietary greenhouse gas emissions of meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans in the UK

targeting the fossil fuel industry alone is insufficient because “the agricultural emissions … may be too high. thus we have to take action in both sectors. […] we conclude that reduced ruminant meat and dairy consumption will be indispensable for reaching the 2 °c target with a high probability.

Source: Climatic Change journal, The importance of reduced meat and dairy consumption for meeting stringent climate change targets

“human consumption of meat and dairy products is a major driver of climate change, but this new paper finds that there is a major lack of public awareness and understanding of the link between eating meat and dairy and climate change.”

Source: Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, report Livestock – Climate Change’s Forgotten Sector: Global Public Opinion on Meat and Dairy Consumption

“if global trends in meat and dairy intake continue, global mean temperature rise will more than likely exceed 2° c, even with dramatic emissions reductions across non‐agricultural sectors. immediate and substantial reductions in wasted food and meat and dairy intake, particularly ruminant meat (e.g., beef and lamb), are imperative to mitigating catastrophic climate change. the urgency of these interventions is not represented in negotiations for climate change mitigation.”

Source: John Hopkins Center for a Livable Future

“climate taxes on meat and milk would lead to huge and vital cuts in carbon emissions as well as saving half a million lives a year via healthier diets, according to the first global analysis of the issue” done by oxford university’s the oxford martin programme on the future of food.

Source: Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food, as reported in the Guardian

“current dietary patterns high in animal products are incompatible with the aim of avoiding dangerous climate change. if left unchecked, the expected global rise in meat and dairy consumption… will leave agriculture to account for nearly the entire annual greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions limit foreseen for the mid-century.”

Source: European Commission

“livestock production is also a leading cause of climate change, soil loss, water and nutrient pollution, and decreases of apex predators and wild herbivores, compounding pressures on ecosystems and biodiversity.”

Source: Science of the Total Environment, Biodiversity conservation: The key is reducing meat consumption

“rising incomes and urbanization are driving a global dietary transition in which traditional diets are replaced by diets higher in refined sugars, refined fats, oils and meats. by 2050 these dietary trends, if unchecked, would be a major contributor to an estimated 80 per cent increase in global agricultural greenhouse gas emissions from food production and to global land clearing.”

Source: Nature – International Journal of Weekly Science, Global diets link environmental sustainability and human health

“producing meat creates more emissions than growing crops, as large amounts of cereals are grown to feed livestock.” “university scientists say the 360,000 tonnes of milk wasted in the uk each year creates greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 100,000 tonnes of co2. this is the same as is emitted by about 20,000 cars annually.” “halving the amount of chicken consumed in the uk and other developed countries to levels eaten in japan could significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions. this would be equivalent to taking 10 million cars off the road.”

Source: University of Edinburgh

“ the consumption of animal-sourced food products by humans is one of the most powerful negative forces affecting the conservation of terrestrial ecosystems and biological diversity. Livestock production is the single largest driver of habitat loss, and both livestock and feedstock production are increasing in developing tropical countries where the majority of biological diversity resides. […] the projected land base required by 2050 to support livestock production in several megadiverse countries exceeds 30–50% of their current agricultural areas. livestock production is also a leading cause of climate change, soil loss, water and nutrient pollution, and decreases of apex predators and wild herbivores, compounding pressures on ecosystems and biodiversity.”

Source: Science of the Total Environment, Biodiversity conservation: The key is reducing meat consumption http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969715303697

“This piece briefly highlights two things: (1) animal agriculture is a leading cause of many major environmental problems we face globally and domestically—most importantly, climate change; and (2) animal agriculture is too often left out of the policy discussion.”

Source: Georgetown Environmental Law Review, A Leading Cause of Everything: One Industry That Is Destroying Our Planet and Our Ability to Thrive on It   https://gelr.org/2015/10/23/a-leading-cause-of-everything-one-industry-that-is-destroying-our-planet-and-our-ability-to-thrive-on-it-georgetown-environmental-law-review/

“Using country-level data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, we estimate the growth in global food consumption by 2050, assuming that lower-income countries will consume more food overall and higher quantities of meat as economies grow. If 50 percent of the world’s population restricts their diet to a healthy 2,500 calories per day and reduces meat consumption overall, we estimate at least 26.7 gigatons of emissions could be avoided from dietary change alone. If avoided deforestation from land use change is included, an additional 39.3 gigatons of emissions could be avoided, making healthy, plant-rich diets one of the most impactful solutions at a total of 66 gigatons reduced.”

Source: Project Drawdown is a climate change mitigation project initiated by Paul Hawken and climate activist Amanda Joy Ravenhill. Central to the project is the compilation of a list of the “100 most substantive solutions to global warming.” The list, encompassing only technologically viable, existing solutions, was compiled by a team of over 200 scholars, scientists, policymakers, business leaders and activists; for each solution the carbon impact through the year 2050, the total and net cost to society, and the total lifetime savings were measured and modelled. Project Drawdown researchers ranked shifting a “plant-rich diet” as #4 of “the 100 most substantive, existing solutions to address climate change.”  

[nurrizkitazkiaaz-blog]

Depressed People: Family History and Drug/Alcohol Dependence Assignment #Week01: Getting your research project started

To complete on my research project, I decided to choose National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NESARC) datasets. My topic of interest is people who suffer major depression and seek if there any association between them and the family history of major depression.

I will also look if mostly the depressed people are addicted to alcohol/drugs.

 So, my research questions:

Is major depression associated to a family history?

Are depressed people more likely to be dependent to drugs/alcohol?

 Instead of using google scholar, I used Science Direct to help me find the references towards my research questions. I found a study done by van Oostrom et al in 2013[1], they found children of mothers with major depressive disorder (MDD) show stronger negative affective bias, a central cognitive dysfunction in MDD, than children with no ancestor suffered from depression. Other than that, Nierenberg et al in 2007 on their study found that people with positive family history of depression suffered the same thing in younger age of onset probands. Besides, they found that women tend to suffer with MDD twice as often if compared to men[2]. This conclusions of the research leads to a hypothesis of my 1st question research that major depression is associated to a family history especially female ancestor (i.e. mother) and women tend to suffer from MDD as twice to men.

Alcohol use disorders (AUD) study done by some researchers back in early 2000s have showed us that people with anxiety, depression, and stress suffer more addicted to alcohol and drugs than normal people. Because, they believe that drugs or alcohol would reduce their pain or negative emotions[3]. In addition, an AUD survey in 2015 in Hallgren study in 2018 found an inference that people with any mood disorder was 1.5 times higher addicted to drugs/alcohol compared to normal people[4]. My hypothesis is that people with MDD is much more to be alcohol or drugs dependence than normal people.

 These are variables I choose to help me answer my research questions from NESARC codebook:

Section 1: Background Information (Page 1)

Variable name (code, page)

Sex (SEX, 5)

Section 4A: Major Depression (Page 302)

Felt depressed, sad, blue, or down for 2 weeks? (S4AQ1, 302)

Suicide attempt? (S4AQ4A16, 305)

Did alcohol consume to improve mood? (S4AQ20A, 314)

Did medicine/drug consume to improve mood? (S4AQ21A, 314)

 Section 4B: Family History of Major Depression (Page 316)

Biological mother suffered from depression? (S4BQ2, 316)

References

[1]      I. van Oostrom et al., “Never-depressed females with a family history of depression demonstrate affective bias,” Psychiatry Res., vol. 205, no. 1–2, pp. 54–58, Jan. 2013, doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2012.08.004.

[2]      A. A. Nierenberg et al., “Family history of mood disorder and characteristics of major depressive disorder: A STAR*D (sequenced treatment alternatives to relieve depression) study,” J. Psychiatr. Res., vol. 41, no. 3–4, pp. 214–221, Apr. 2007, doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2006.02.005.

[3]      N. Fooladi, R. Jirdehi, and Z. Mohtasham-Amiri, “Comparison of Depression, Anxiety, Stress and Quality of life in Drug Abusers with Normal Subjects,” Procedia-Social Behav. Sci., vol. 159, pp. 712–717, 2014, doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.12.459.

[4]      M. Hallgren, “Exercise for Alcohol Use Disorders,” in Exercise-Based Interventions for Mental Illness, Elsevier, 2018, pp. 83–106.

[hub-pub-bub]

Last month, the University of California reached an impasse with one of the world’s biggest publishers of academic journals over whether the company’s publications would be included in the university’s digital library.

The university’s libraries have been spending more than $10 million a year to include Elsevier publishing company’s journals in their collections, and they wanted to reduce that amount. But the dispute was about far more than money. The UC system was also asking for universal free access to articles written by UC researchers and professors, arguing that keeping them behind a pay wall was antithetical to a free and open exchange of ideas.

Elsevier, a company that reported $3.3 billion in revenues with a 36% profit margin in 2018, has said it is still willing to negotiate on the access issue, but the UC system has ended discussions and no longer subscribes to Elsevier publications, saying the company would agree to the open access it wanted only if the UC system was willing to pay a higher subscription rate than in the past.

The dispute highlights the need for completely reinventing academic publishing to make important research accessible to all.

Until the 1960s, academic journals were typically published by universities or by professional societies. They were labors of love that existed to further scientific communication without a strong profit motive. At the time, universities were flush with funds and high overhead on federal grants provided extra revenues for library expansions.

Then, in the 1970s, for-profit publishers began offering to take over the journals from university presses, a marriage that the campuses and publishers found attractive: The universities were relieved of the responsibilities and expense of publishing the journals and the commercial publishers realized significant profits.

It soon became apparent, however, that the commercial partners had been given an unbalanced advantage that enabled them to make large profits with relatively little investment. Much of the editorial costs continued to be shouldered by university partners, who supplied editing and reviewing of papers for the journals. Moreover, the research reported in the journals had often received taxpayer funding and university support. The publishers physically produced the journals and reaped the profits.

Academic editors generally receive little or no compensation from publishers. To cover the time they devote to the journal, these editors are often given release time from teaching, which shifts the cost of their editorial services to the university (and to taxpayers in the case of public universities). Additionally, publishers benefit from the free labor of thousands of university professors and researchers who provide peer review of journal articles to inform editorial decisions. Peer reviewing without compensation is considered a responsibility for professors and other researchers.

After researchers contribute articles that have been improved by volunteer editors and peer experts, they are generally asked to sign a copyright transfer that gives ownership to the commercial publisher. Authors usually receive no payment for the articles.

And how do the publishers respond to this free labor? They take every opportunity to gouge the university community, charging high subscription fees that make it impossible for many university libraries to afford their products. Perhaps most egregious, although much of the research published in academic journals was paid for by universities, and sometimes by taxpayers, members of the public are often refused free access to important research findings because the publishers now hold the copyrights.

Congress has tried to help shift the balance. The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR) would have required free internet access to research articles resulting from taxpayer-funded research. The bill died in the House of Representatives in 2017, but it is expected to be reintroduced.

The current breakdown of communications between the University of California and Elsevier may help propel change. It is unlikely we will fully return to the university-controlled system of the 1950s and ’60s, but online publishing provides better and cheaper ways to share research results. University-based electronic publishing could allow universities to take back at least some of the development, production and distribution of academic journals, an enterprise more in line with the mission and culture of academic institutions than with that of for-profit publishers.

The most important beneficiaries of a change in scholarly publishing would be taxpayers. After all, they pay for research and should not have to pay a second time to read the results. The $45 million the University of California sends each year to academic publishers could be better used to produce higher quality in-house publications that would be accessible to all.

Robert M. Kaplan is a faculty member at Stanford University's Clinical Excellence Research Center and a professor emeritus at UCLA. He is a former editor-in-chief of Health Psychology and of the Annals of Behavioral Medicine.

[sylvanas-girlkisser]

 Random game design post based on recent warcraft fuckshit:

Okay so, when making a game you will almost certainly have something called “Player Experience Goals” (yes it’s shortened PEG). For smaller production and game jams these might not be verbalized, but if you’ve had any sort of formal game development education or you’re working for a giant company (like Blizzard) you will absolutely have them written out and posted to a whiteboard somewhere.

PEGs are basically a sort of sweeping generalization for what kind of experience you want the player to have while playing. So for example with the new God of War, that’s probably something like:

Player feels like a mythological warrior full of barely contained rage.

Player is invested in Artreus’ and Kratos relationship/mutual well being

Player is able to explore a vast and impressive fantasy world

Player sees the main characters change and undergo significant personal growth during the course of the story

Very vague/high level stuff, that should hopefully run through the entirety of the game.

The reason I bring this up is that in Warcraft there’s two reoccurring problems with regards to faction conflict oriented storylines:

Alliance: Is tired of all these storylines centering the horde

Horde Is tired of all these storylines portraying them as the villains and alliance as the good guys.

This problem of course stems partially from the way WoW fundamentally constructs its expansion: A problem arises in a far-off land and the heroes must go beat that problem into submission until the status quo is restored. (This is in itself a product of a horrendously colonialist approach to storytelling, but this post is getting too long already.) Which severely limits the kind of overarching stories you can tell.

Still, it’s not like this is an unsolvable problem, yes when you have the two faction structure, giving something to one side will always result in the other feeling. However a “Rage of Greymane” or whatever expansion would likely do a lot to make players feel the field has been leveled. But every time this perceived unevenness is brought up, some high level Blizzard creative or senior community manager shows up saying something like: “Well if both sides feel they are treated poorly that means they’re probably being treated equally :-)”

And I’m not about to argue that Blizzard has a sign that says “Make sure the players are angry” in bold capital letters, on all their whiteboards about planning future content. However I am willing to bet good money (like 3 USD) that they are under strict orders to make sure both factions feel treated equally. And well, they seem to have found the formula that works for that while still including the faction conflict in Mists of Pandaria, which is why you see a horde-centric narrative painting alliance as the good guys in every expansion since then.

I just feel like, when you’re Blizzard Fucking Entertainment, with your several thousand employees, and multiple household franchises, you could probably afford to take risks and aim higher than “both factions feel like we treat them worse than the other guys”.

It’s also distinctly possible the Warcraft team just doesn’t have a lot of people employed to understand and advocate for the player experience (A so called user experience (UX) person)

Source/If you wanna know more:

Barlog, C. (2019) Reinventing God of War. GDC. Retrieved from: https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1025786/Reinventing-God-of-War

Hagen, U. (2010) Designing for Player Experience How Professional Game Developers Communicate Design Visions. DiGRA. Retrieved from: http://www.digra.org/wp-content/uploads/digital-library/10343.03567.pdf

Fullerton, T. (2008) Game Design Workshop: A playcentric approach to creating innovative games (2nd ed.). Elsevier.

[kalinahugtype2]

Equity as a Lens Research

Studies across the world have revealed that creative expression can be used to improve memory and help those suffering with dementia. Art has unique benefits that often cannot be reciprocated through medicinal elements. Through creative research and studies, it has been discovered that viewing visuals has positive effects for those struggling with memory loss. Creative expression is a new but necessary way to help increase quality of life.

A study performed by Eekelaar, Camic, Springham in 2012 showed that “aesthetic responses associated with viewing visual art have recently been shown to have positive effects for people with dementia” (Eekelaar et al., 2012). The study involved patients viewing paintings in an art gallery. They also participated in an art-making response. The goal of this study was to see how looking at art could potentially affect cognition. The conductors of this research used audio recordings and content analysis to explore whether or not art viewing and making had an impact on episodic memory as well as verbal fluency. It was discovered that an enhancement of episodic memory could be formed and strengthened through responses to visual art. The effects on verbal fluency were not as notable, however. Family caregivers reported their family members with dementia had improved mood, confidence, and reduced isolation during the study. Further research needs to be done to discover the potential impacts of visual art and aesthetic stimulation for those with dementia (Eekelaar et al., 2012).

Another study done by James Rosier was conducted to examine the learning benefits of visual-art exposure. Research in the past has allowed people to discover that art education has beneficial effects for students involving their learning and memory. This research has not been performed as often on adults as it has on children. Rosier seeks to find out if similar conclusions would be found if the studies were to be done with adult participants. Rosier says, “the aim of the current study was to explore whether a beneficial relationship exists between art and memory for adults in the context of an experimental study” (Rosier, 2010). The participants were made to do one of four things: engage in creative art, view art, discriminate among visually presented shapes, and write a description of their current classes. To test whether or not art made an impact on memory, the students were given a series of words and then asked to recall those words in a task. The results concluded that the memory performance was higher for those who engaged in art condition (Rosier, 2010). Although this study was done by students, there is potential that similar results may be found for dementia patients and those suffering from memory loss. However, a proper conclusion cannot be made without research and studies to back the hypothesis up.

Mario F Mendez is another researcher interested in finding how art organizes and interprets perception. A look into the neurology of art was found through changes in art performance among dementia patients. Previous studies confirmed that visual art is experienced in the right hemisphere of the brain. Different parts of the brain are essential for a person’s artistic creativity. Mendez shares, “the right parietal region is critical for the visuospatial prerequisites of art, and the right temporal lobe integrates and interprets these percepts. The right temporal lobe appears necessary for extracting and exaggerating the essential features of an artistic composition” (Mendez, 2004). The left brain also impacts artistic expression by increasing attention to things such as visuospatial detail and semantic labeling. Mendez also says, “frontal-executive functions are also required for artistic expression, particularly right dorsolateral frontal initiation of a network for novelty-seeking behavior” (Mendez, 2004). To see if this data can be reciprocated with additional dementia patients, additional studies need to be performed. It is important to understand that one test does not always support the effects on all people with a memory impairing disease.

These three studies as well as many others reveal how art and creative expression can be used in order to improve memory for those suffering from dementia. As further research is conducted, it may be found that additional benefits are present in terms of bringing back past memories that were once thought to be lost and unrecoverable.

Works Cited

Eekelaar, C, et al. “Art Galleries, Episodic Memory and Verbal Fluency in Dementia: An Exploratory Study.” American Psychological Association, Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 2012, psycnet.apa.org/record/2012-05716-001.

Mendez, Mario F. “Dementia as a Window to the Neurology of Art.” Science Direct, Elsevier, 2 Mar. 2004, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306987704001707.

Rosier, James Tyler, "Art and Memory: An Examination of the Learning Benefits of

Visual-Art Exposure" (2010). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 436. https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/436

[mark7miller]

Creativity in Sport: Can it be taught?

Creativity may be defined as ability to produce original ideas and/or actions with flexibility and fluency. Originality refers to a novelty of creation. Flexibility is a production of different solutions for the same situation and fluency is a capability to produce such solutions effortlessly and quickly (Memmert, 2011).

As part of my blog, I was asked to design a training session that allowed players to be creative. I chose a multi-ball event that used an indoor football pitch and nets. Effect of Practising Soccer With Different Sized Balls Upon Performance, Retention and Transfer to Ball Reception (Raastad et al, 2015). The aim of this session was to investigate if making the skill acquisition phase more difficult or easier would enhance performance in soccer, and if this practice has a positive inter-task transfer effect to ball reception performance. 

The use of different sized balls forced the players, in a 3v3 format, to adapt at every stage and therefore they had to assess how they could pass, travel and shoot with each type of ball. The equipment I chose was a large yoga ball, a rugby ball, a tennis ball and a sponge dice; the only objective for the player’s to achieve was to attempt to score a goal. In order to achieve this, the player’s had to communicate; judge their passes (weight, accuracy and distance); and assess spatial awareness, to attack into. Each piece of equipment brought a different challenge and the use of team work and good communication were essential. 

One option in skill learning is to make the acquisition phase easier for the learner, and thereby believe that this will enhance transfer and retention performance (Schmidt & Bjork, 1992). This seems logical, because learners achieve on a high level of success during acquisition, and thereby this performance should pay off in intra task transfer and a retention test (Vickers, Livingston, Bohnert, & Holden, 1999). Another option is to create a more difficult learning environment that could lead to poorer performance during acquisition, but later can improve transfer and retention performance (Shea & Morgan, 1979). The feed back that I received from the session with degree students was that they really enjoyed it and that they had to think on their feet to be successful. I tried this session with my u9 football team and they loved it, with the same positive feedback and the session objective was achieved with all the different ball sizes.

It is important that developing creativity starts early in the childhood when plasticity of the brain, number and density of connections between neurons are very high (Wass, Scerif, & Johnson, 2012). Then creative thinking will be integrated into the player’s mind. Between age of 7 and 10 children are very susceptive to divergent thinking and ready for exploration (Memmert, 2011). Coaches should avoid too much structure in their exercises at the beginning and encourage children actively search for solutions, not just give solutions to them. Though such training sessions look less organised, only then creativity becomes natural. You can introduce structure and tactical discipline later.

How we make decisions in Sport                                    

Dual-processing theory in Psychology (Evans & Stanovich, 2013) suggests that in real life we process information and acting in two ways. One is automated, without demand of conscious attention, and we use it for well learned actions. Another way is for information and actions which demand consciousness for control. In real life we rarely use these ways separately and in most situations our actions are a combination of both ways (the most popular example is driving a car). The same is true for the sport’s field, so it would be reasonable to apply dual-processing theory there (Furley, Schweizer, & Bertrams, 2015).

The 3 forms of creativity: 

Solo

The individual has the intelligence and skill to be able to pull off audacious skills to overcome hurdles.

Spatial

The individual has the spatial awareness to give others a platform to perform. They recognise space on the field or court and how the team can exploit it.

Social

The individual has the social awareness to appreciate its impact on performance. They use this to communicate and develop relationships to give others the confidence and knowledge to perform.

The challenge for me as a coach is to elicit each individual’s creativity every time they take to the field of play (Bean, 2019).

Conclusion

Creativity is a skill that can be developed and a process that can be managed. It begins with a foundation of knowledge, learning a discipline, and mastering a way of thinking. We learn to be creative by experimenting, exploring, questioning assumptions, using imagination and synthesizing information (Naiman, 2019).

Unfortunately, standard coaching practice very often separates skills acquisition and decision making. When coaches teach technique, they often create artificial environment where objectives of technique’s implementation are vague and opposition and/or challenges are not presented. It makes learning easier at the start but later learners will be struggling with execution of these skills in real situations. To develop players and teams that are able to handle challenges and solve problems of their own accord, you must allow creativity the opportunity to prosper. As a coach, I must recognise the different forms in which creativity is shown and help players discover their potential to overcome difficult situations by striking a balance between creativity and over-complication (Bean, 2019).  Teaching games for creativity allows the players to enhance their decision making skills and assess whether the risk is worth the reward when attacking.

References

Bean, T (2019). 5 Tips to encourage creativity.

Accessed 06/02/2020

https://www.sportplan.net/drills/blog/5-tips-to-encourage-creativity-2019-04-03.jsp

Evans, J and Stanovich, K (2013). Dual-Process Theories of Higher Cognition: Advancing the debate. Perspectives on Psychological Science.

Accessed 06/02/2020.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1745691612460685

Furley, P; Schweizer, G and Bertrams, A (2015). The two modes of an athlete. Dual-process theories in the field of sport.

Accessed 06/02/2020.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271464131_The_two_modes_of_an_athlete_Dual-process_theories_in_the_field_of_sport

Memmert, D (2011). Sports and Creativity. German Sport University. Cologne. Elsevier.

Naiman, L (2019). Creativity at work

Accessed 06/02/2020

https://www.creativityatwork.com/design-thinking-strategy-for-innovation/

Raastad, O; Aune, T and Van den Tillaar, R (2015). Effect of Practising Soccer With Different Sized Balls Upon Performance, Retention and Transfer to Ball Reception.

Accessed 29/01/2020

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281081091_Effect_of_Practicing_Soccer_Juggling_With_Different_Sized_Balls_Upon_Performance_Retention_and_Transfer_to_Ball_Reception

Schmidt, R & Bjork, R (1992). New Conceptualizations of Practice: Common Principles in Three Paradigms Suggest New Concepts for Training. Psychological Science. 

Accessed 16/01/2020

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1992.tb00029.x

Shea, J & Morgan, R (1979). Contextual interference effects on the acquisition, retention, and transfer of a motor skill. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 5(2), P179–187.

Accessed 16/01/2020

https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.5.2.179

Vickers, J; Livingston, L; Umeris-Bohnert, S and Holden, D (1999). Decision training: The effects of complex instruction, variable practice and reduced delayed feedback on the acquisition and transfer of a motor skill. Journal of Sports Sciences. Issue 5

Accessed 06/02/2020

https://shapeamerica.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/026404199365876

Wass, S; Scerif, G and Johnson, M (2012). Training attentional control and working memory – Is younger, better? Developmental Review. Volume 32, Issue 4. P360-387

Accessed 06/02/2020

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0273229712000305

[solarpunk-gnome]

UC Office of the President Thursday, February 28, 2019 Share        

As a leader in the global movement toward open access to publicly funded research, the University of California is taking a firm stand by deciding not to renew its subscriptions with Elsevier. Despite months of contract negotiations, Elsevier was unwilling to meet UC’s key goal: securing universal open access to UC research while containing the rapidly escalating costs associated with for-profit journals.

In negotiating with Elsevier, UC aimed to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery by ensuring that research produced by UC’s 10 campuses — which accounts for nearly 10 percent of all U.S. publishing output — would be immediately available to the world, without cost to the reader. Under Elsevier’s proposed terms, the publisher would have charged UC authors large publishing fees on top of the university’s multi-million dollar subscription, resulting in much greater cost to the university and much higher profits for Elsevier.

“Knowledge should not be accessible only to those who can pay,” said Robert May, chair of UC’s faculty Academic Senate. “The quest for full open access is essential if we are to truly uphold the mission of this university.” The Academic Senate issued a statement today endorsing UC’s position.

Open access publishing, which makes research freely available to anyone, anywhere in the world, fulfills UC’s mission by transmitting knowledge more broadly and facilitating new discoveries that build on the university’s research and scholarly work. This follows UC’s faculty-driven principles on scholarly communication.

“I fully support our faculty, staff and students in breaking down paywalls that hinder the sharing of groundbreaking research,” said UC President Janet Napolitano. “This issue does not just impact UC, but also countless scholars, researchers and scientists across the globe — and we stand with them in their push for full, unfettered access.”

Elsevier is the largest scholarly publisher in the world, disseminating about 18 percent of journal articles produced by UC faculty. The transformative model that UC faculty and libraries are championing would make it easier and more affordable for UC authors to publish in an open access environment.

“Make no mistake: The prices of scientific journals now are so high that not a single university in the U.S. — not the University of California, not Harvard, no institution — can afford to subscribe to them all,” said Jeffrey MacKie-Mason, university librarian and economics professor at UC Berkeley, and co-chair of UC’s negotiation team. “Publishing our scholarship behind a paywall deprives people of the access to and benefits of publicly funded research. That is terrible for society.”

Elsevier was unwilling to meet UC’s reasonable contract terms, which would integrate subscription charges and open access publishing fees, making open access the default for any article by a UC scholar and stabilizing journal costs for the university.

“The university’s, and the world’s, move toward open access has been a long time in the making. Many institutions and countries agree that the current system is both financially unsustainable and ill-suited to the needs of today’s global research enterprise,” said Ivy Anderson, associate executive director of UC’s California Digital Library and co-chair of UC’s negotiation team. “Open access will spur faster and better research — and greater global equity of access to new knowledge.”

To learn more about UC’s efforts to establish open access, visit the UC Office of Scholarly Communication’s website.