Academic literature on the topic 'Moderated group discussions'

This article focuses on developing guidelines for the effective facilitation of avatar-based group discussions. This qualitative inquiry is guided by an investigation of (1) social affordances of avatar-based discussions, with an emphasis on social and physical presence, (2) strategies to help establish rapport with other avatars, and (3) the complexities of communication modalities (voice vs. text) in avatar-based discussions. The study also explores the benefits and challenges of participating in virtual discussions. The data originated from avatar-based discussion groups in Second Life moderated by expert hosts and co-hosts and were gathered through participant and non-participant observation. Guidelines for the effective moderation of avatar-based discussion groups are presented throughout the chapter, such as, creating a feeling of acceptance and non-judgment, communicating synchronously to support immediacy, demonstrating virtual sharing acts, using voice for humanized communication, showing social emotionality, and observing real-life social norms.

9615 Background: Discussions of life expectancy between men and oncologists are limited, in part, because of the potential adverse effect on psychological outcomes. However, appraisal of the cancer threat may enhance coping and improve psychological outcomes for some men with advanced cancer. Methods: We recruited 81 men with advanced cancer to complete surveys including coping (Mini-MAC), post-traumatic growth (PTGI), psychological outcomes (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale). Men and oncologists rated extent of discussions about life expectancy. Moderation was assessed with regression interactions and follow-up within group Pearson correlations. Results: Men reported a full (33%), brief (41%), or no (26%) discussion of life expectancy. Concordance was low. Only 23 (28%) agreed with oncologists about the extent of discussion. Among the 34 oncologists who reported having a full discussion, 16 (47%) of their patients reported having a brief discussion and 8 (24%) reported no discussion. Men who reported having a full discussion had significantly lower depression scores (mean = 2.8) than those who reported a brief or no discussion (mean = 4.6; p=.018). As expected, the extent of discussion moderated some of the relationships between coping style and outcomes. Helpless-hopeless coping was associated with greater depression only among patients who reported a full or brief discussion of life expectancy (n=61, r=.56, p<.0001). Interestingly, greater fatalism was associated with greater PTGI spiritual change among men who reported no or brief discussions (n = 54, r = .39, p = .004) and greater PTGI personal strength (n = 20, r = .63, p = .003) and PTGI appreciation of life (n = 20, r = .62, p = .003) among men who reported no discussion compared to men with full and brief or full discussion, respectively. Conclusions: Most men and oncologists reported discussions of life expectancy but there was little agreement on extent. Full discussions were not associated with depression; however this effect was moderated by coping styles. No significant financial relationships to disclose.

On 12 November 2014, Radcliffe Cardiology, in association with Arrhythmia & Electrophysiology Review (AER) journal, held a roundtable discussion in London, UK. The discussion held between an expert group of physicians was moderated by Professor A John Camm, a renowned authority in anticoagulation and atrial fibrillation. The meeting comprised a series of seven presentations and subsequent panel discussions on a range of topical issues related to the use of non-vitamin K antagonist (novel) oral anticoagulants (NOACs): real-world versus clinical trial data; once or twice daily dosing regimens; spot checks or monitoring for anticoagulation status; antidotes for NOACs; NOACs and dual antiplatelet therapy; NOAC treatment in chronic renal impairment; and choosing between NOACs. This paper summarises the presentations and presents key highlights from the subsequent discussions.

I became acquainted with email discussion lists when I subscribed to my first one, ‘ANE’ (ancient Near East), in September 1993; the discussions were so lively and informative that my colleague Paul Rehak and I thought there should be an Aegean counterpart for the Minoan-Mycenaean world. ‘AegeaNet’ was thus born on 1 December 1993, ‘a discussion and news group on the pre-classical Aegean world from Palaeolithic to Homer and beyond’. Three and a half years later, it is still growing with over 780 subscribers, archives (as of November 1995), and plans for more sophisticated services like digest and moderated versions.

With the dedicated work of the Preservation Working Group, GODORT wasable to present two programs at Annual 2017. The first one, “Government Information Preservation: Collections and Collaboration,” was cosponsored by the Federal Documents Task Force and featured discussions about collaborative approaches to collecting andpreserving government information in all formats. Susanne Caro moderated the discussion, and Anne Harrison (FEDLINK), Roberta Gebhardt (Montana Historical Society), Robbie Sittel (University of North Texas), and James R. Jacobs (Stanford University) presented on projects at the state and national levels.

Abstract To improve communication and collaboration among health professionals, interprofessional education (IPE) experiences have been offered to students through the Utah Geriatric Education Consortium (UGEC) with the support of long-term care (LTC) partners since 2017. The COVID-19 pandemic presented a unique challenge in delivering in-person IPE training. Here we describe adaptations and student outcomes with our Spring/Summer 2020 training sessions. Students (n=46) from health profession programs were recruited and enrolled in the sessions. A LTC partner helped plan two-hour remote training sessions to introduce students to current issues and health care team member roles in LTC. Moderated small group discussions regarding the 4 Ms Framework and a patient case were completed using virtual breakout rooms. A shared virtual document was used to guide discussions and record insights. Student participants (n=46) were primarily White (85%), female (70%), and enrolled in physical therapy (28%), nutrition (33%), and medicine (15%) programs. Thirty-one students completed post-course satisfaction surveys with Likert-scale and open-ended questions. Most students who completed the survey agreed or strongly agreed that the course was effective (85%) and engaging (81%), and will improve care (88%). Positive course aspects included: comprehensive information with speaker experiences and use of 4 Ms; course structure with moderated small groups; and interprofessional collaboration with common goals and multiple perspectives. Despite the challenges of COVID-19, an IPE experience was effectively delivered using video conferencing technology, community collaboration, and moderated small group discussions. The successes of this IPE delivery model will enhance engagement and accessibility of future gerontological workforce training.

ObjectivesThis paper examines the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on a disadvantaged group of financially poor mothers’ mental health conditions in Singapore during the phase of acute COVID-19 infection.DesignA mixed-method design is used. We conducted five focus group discussions with interviewers (n=39) who administered a third wave of survey questionnaire to 424 mothers from low-income families between June and September 2020. The focus group discussions gleaned observations by the interviewers on the risk and stress levels of the mothers during the period leading up to the height of COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, survey data from two time points—pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 pandemic height, measuring the relationship of mother’s job loss, income earner loss, marital status, number of children and, permanency of employment and mother’s hope levels with mother’s depression and anxiety were used to triangulate the observations from the focus group discussions.ResultsMajority of the interviewers did not observe any marked increase in stress levels. Correspondingly the quantitative data did not show any significant increase in depression and anxiety scores between wave 2 and 3 results. Qualitative data showed that numerous mothers were able to report different strategies in coping with the financial distress. The government COVID-19 support grants were cited by many as helpful in cushioning the financial stress. Comparing the quantitative measurements, the relationship between loss of income earner and mother’s depression and anxiety was moderated by marital status. In addition, the relationship between mother’s job loss and mother’s depression, as well as loss of income earner and mother’s anxiety, was moderated by mother’s hope.ConclusionWe speculate the relatively stable level of mental health state of financially poor mothers amidst the COVID-19 pandemic to their internal (psychological traits) resilience which is facilitated by the availability of resources in the social milieu through the COVID-19 support grants.

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into attitudes and perceptions about smoking during pregnancy, passive smoke exposure, barriers to quitting, and program preferences among women in a low-income, ethnically diverse setting. Design. Nine focus group discussions were conducted with African-American, Native American, and white women. Discussions were moderated by local residents who shared the same ethnic background as group participants. Setting. Discussions were held in neighborhood centers and clinics in an urban area. Subjects. A total of 57 women participated. Moderators recruited participants from within their social networks and from neighborhood programs. The informal process of recruitment did not allow calculation of response rates. Measures. A series of open-ended questions with selected probes was used to guide the conversation. Results. Participants were aware that smoking during pregnancy is harmful and were concerned to varying degrees about their smoking behavior. Most women who smoked took active steps to reduce the risks. Actions were frequently accompanied by beliefs that rationalized moderate levels of smoking. While concerned, women were uncertain about what constituted harmful, passive smoke exposure. Personal barriers to quitting included being around others who smoked, feelings of stress and boredom, addiction, and not believing smoking is dangerous enough. Participants tended to value pregnancy-related advice from female friends and relatives over advice from professionals. Conclusions. Results suggest that many women respond to warnings about smoking during pregnancy, but actions are not necessarily measured, in quit rates. Misconceptions about the risks may help to rationalize continued smoking. Subjects lacked knowledge about how best to reduce the risks of passive smoke. Educational efforts may be effective when directed at networks of women who share information. The nature of qualitative data collection prevents extrapolation of these results to a larger population.

Взаємодія між інститутами вищої освіти, ринком праці та соціально-демографічною групою молоді створює простір для виникнення конфліктів у суспільстві. Дана тенденція посилюється за рахунок впливу процесів глобалізації та інформатизації як на роботу вищенаведених соціальних інститутів, так і на ціннісну структуру молодих людей. Наслідки цього впливу, шляхи розв’язання наявних проблем та характеристику ролі вищої освіти в успішності працевлаштування було виокремлено на основі аналізу модерованих групових дискусій. Останні охоплювали молодь з різних міст України та дозволили виявити, що оцінки нею ролі вищої освіти вирізняються високою мірою дискутабельності. В свою чергу, це створює передумови для посилення ролі неформальної освіти в суспільстві загалом, та житті молоді зокрема.
The interaction between higher education institutions and the labor market, as well as the socio-demographic group of youth creates a space for conflicts in society. In addition, this trend is reinforced by the impact of the processes of globalization and informatization both on the work of the above-mentioned social institutions and on the value structure of youth. The consequences of this impact, ways to solve existing problems and a characterization of the role of higher education in job success were highlighted on the basis of an analysis of moderated group discussions. The latter covered youth from different cities of Ukraine and made it possible to identify that their assessments of the role of higher education are highly debatable. In turn, this creates the prerequisites for strengthening the role of non-formal education in society as a whole, and the life of youth in particular.

This study presents an overview of how community managers, a title encompassing all moderators of online discussion, handle their position in the discussion areas of a news website, whether that is embedded comments connected to stories or on message boards. The primary evidence, gathered through a structured interview, suggests that community managers are spending the majority of their time dealing with spam, off-topic comments, and harmful comments, typically either inappropriate language or personal attacks on other users. The prevalence of community managers as a position was found through the use of a survey to high-ranking members of newspapers across the United States. The survey showed that while most news organizations have sections that allow users to have their voice be heard, many of the sections are not being moderated for content. Many times, comments sections can turn inappropriate if left unchecked. The thesis contains some suggestions that community moderators should consider as they look to develop the most effective, open, and welcoming forum for user-generated content.
Department of Journalism

This chapter examines the methods adopted by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her French counterpart Raymond Poincaré to reduce the rate of inflation. Advocates of the two main groups of contemporary theories about inflation dynamics could have told Mrs. Thatcher that achieving that goal would be difficult. The first group consists of the “momentum” or “core inflation” theories, while the second group comprises the rational expectations-equilibrium theories. The chapter first provides an overview of the so-called Poincaré miracle before discussing Mrs. Thatcher's plan. It then considers the nature of the British government deficit, along with Britain's prospective revenues from North Sea oil that coincided with a simultaneous appreciation of the pound sterling. Finally, it compares Mrs. Thatcher's policies with respect to the coordination of monetary and fiscal policy with those of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

Eugenics has never held broad appeal in the Netherlands and is taken up far more enthusiastically in the Dutch East Indies. This article aims to investigate the characteristics of the racial and ethnic groups that inhabited the Indonesian archipelago, acclimatization, the consequences of crossbreeding, and the effects of rapid modernization. It discusses percieved threats to the quality of the Dutch population. It concerns the participation of eugenicists in public health discussions that focuses on the quality of the future population of the Netherlands. Tensions between racial and ethnic groups provide the main context for a growing interest in eugenics in the Dutch East Indies. This article discusses the main reason for the lack of success of the rather moderate eugenics movement in the Netherlands as related to the pillarization of Dutch society.

This chapter begins the story of 1970's “grand press blitz,” when a barrage of print stories on the movement set the stage for network news' first reports on women's liberation. It couples a discussion of all three networks' first, brief, hard news reports on feminist protest in January—the disruption of the Senate birth control pill hearings by a women's liberation group—with an extensive analysis of two series of lengthy soft feature stories on women's liberation broadcast by CBS and NBC in March and April. On one level, both network series created a sort of moderate middle ground of acceptable feminism anchored by their legitimation of liberal feminist issues related to workplace discrimination, but they diverged sharply in other ways that indicated key differences in their purposes and their imagined audiences. The CBS and NBC series provide a sort of baseline for national television representations of the movement in 1970; between them, they display the wide range of rhetorical strategies contained in early network reports. The CBS stories offered a generally dismissive and visually sensationalized narrative about the movement, particularly its radical contingent, displaying the gender anxiety assumed to afflict its male target audience. In contrast, the NBC series presented a generally sympathetic narrative about the movement's issues that unified radical and liberal concerns rather than using the latter to marginalize the former.

Nationalism: Past as Prologue began as a single volume being compiled by Ad Akande, a scholar from South Africa, who proposed it to me as co-author about two years ago. The original idea was to examine how the damaging roots of nationalism have been corroding political systems around the world, and creating dangerous obstacles for necessary international cooperation. Since I (Bruce E. Johansen) has written profusely about climate change (global warming, a.k.a. infrared forcing), I suggested a concerted effort in that direction. This is a worldwide existential threat that affects every living thing on Earth. It often compounds upon itself, so delays in reducing emissions of fossil fuels are shortening the amount of time remaining to eliminate the use of fossil fuels to preserve a livable planet. Nationalism often impedes solutions to this problem (among many others), as nations place their singular needs above the common good. Our initial proposal got around, and abstracts on many subjects arrived. Within a few weeks, we had enough good material for a 100,000-word book. The book then fattened to two moderate volumes and then to four two very hefty tomes. We tried several different titles as good submissions swelled. We also discovered that our best contributors were experts in their fields, which ranged the world. We settled on three stand-alone books:” 1/ nationalism and racial justice. Our first volume grew as the growth of Black Lives Matter following the brutal killing of George Floyd ignited protests over police brutality and other issues during 2020, following the police assassination of Floyd in Minneapolis. It is estimated that more people took part in protests of police brutality during the summer of 2020 than any other series of marches in United States history. This includes upheavals during the 1960s over racial issues and against the war in Southeast Asia (notably Vietnam). We choose a volume on racism because it is one of nationalism’s main motive forces. This volume provides a worldwide array of work on nationalism’s growth in various countries, usually by authors residing in them, or in the United States with ethnic ties to the nation being examined, often recent immigrants to the United States from them. Our roster of contributors comprises a small United Nations of insightful, well-written research and commentary from Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, China, India, South Africa, France, Portugal, Estonia, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the United States. Volume 2 (this one) describes and analyzes nationalism, by country, around the world, except for the United States; and 3/material directly related to President Donald Trump, and the United States. The first volume is under consideration at the Texas A & M University Press. The other two are under contract to Nova Science Publishers (which includes social sciences). These three volumes may be used individually or as a set. Environmental material is taken up in appropriate places in each of the three books. * * * * * What became the United States of America has been strongly nationalist since the English of present-day Massachusetts and Jamestown first hit North America’s eastern shores. The country propelled itself across North America with the self-serving ideology of “manifest destiny” for four centuries before Donald Trump came along. Anyone who believes that a Trumpian affection for deportation of “illegals” is a new thing ought to take a look at immigration and deportation statistics in Adam Goodman’s The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Deporting Immigrants (Princeton University Press, 2020). Between 1920 and 2018, the United States deported 56.3 million people, compared with 51.7 million who were granted legal immigration status during the same dates. Nearly nine of ten deportees were Mexican (Nolan, 2020, 83). This kind of nationalism, has become an assassin of democracy as well as an impediment to solving global problems. Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times (2019:A-25): that “In their 2018 book, How Democracies Die, the political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt documented how this process has played out in many countries, from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, to Recep Erdogan’s Turkey, to Viktor Orban’s Hungary. Add to these India’s Narendra Modi, China’s Xi Jinping, and the United States’ Donald Trump, among others. Bit by bit, the guardrails of democracy have been torn down, as institutions meant to serve the public became tools of ruling parties and self-serving ideologies, weaponized to punish and intimidate opposition parties’ opponents. On paper, these countries are still democracies; in practice, they have become one-party regimes….And it’s happening here [the United States] as we speak. If you are not worried about the future of American democracy, you aren’t paying attention” (Krugmam, 2019, A-25). We are reminded continuously that the late Carl Sagan, one of our most insightful scientific public intellectuals, had an interesting theory about highly developed civilizations. Given the number of stars and planets that must exist in the vast reaches of the universe, he said, there must be other highly developed and organized forms of life. Distance may keep us from making physical contact, but Sagan said that another reason we may never be on speaking terms with another intelligent race is (judging from our own example) could be their penchant for destroying themselves in relatively short order after reaching technological complexity. This book’s chapters, introduction, and conclusion examine the worldwide rise of partisan nationalism and the damage it has wrought on the worldwide pursuit of solutions for issues requiring worldwide scope, such scientific co-operation public health and others, mixing analysis of both. We use both historical description and analysis. This analysis concludes with a description of why we must avoid the isolating nature of nationalism that isolates people and encourages separation if we are to deal with issues of world-wide concern, and to maintain a sustainable, survivable Earth, placing the dominant political movement of our time against the Earth’s existential crises. Our contributors, all experts in their fields, each have assumed responsibility for a country, or two if they are related. This work entwines themes of worldwide concern with the political growth of nationalism because leaders with such a worldview are disinclined to co-operate internationally at a time when nations must find ways to solve common problems, such as the climate crisis. Inability to cooperate at this stage may doom everyone, eventually, to an overheated, stormy future plagued by droughts and deluges portending shortages of food and other essential commodities, meanwhile destroying large coastal urban areas because of rising sea levels. Future historians may look back at our time and wonder why as well as how our world succumbed to isolating nationalism at a time when time was so short for cooperative intervention which is crucial for survival of a sustainable earth. Pride in language and culture is salubrious to individuals’ sense of history and identity. Excess nationalism that prevents international co-operation on harmful worldwide maladies is quite another. As Pope Francis has pointed out: For all of our connectivity due to expansion of social media, ability to communicate can breed contempt as well as mutual trust. “For all our hyper-connectivity,” said Francis, “We witnessed a fragmentation that made it more difficult to resolve problems that affect us all” (Horowitz, 2020, A-12). The pope’s encyclical, titled “Brothers All,” also said: “The forces of myopic, extremist, resentful, and aggressive nationalism are on the rise.” The pope’s document also advocates support for migrants, as well as resistance to nationalist and tribal populism. Francis broadened his critique to the role of market capitalism, as well as nationalism has failed the peoples of the world when they need co-operation and solidarity in the face of the world-wide corona virus pandemic. Humankind needs to unite into “a new sense of the human family [Fratelli Tutti, “Brothers All”], that rejects war at all costs” (Pope, 2020, 6-A). Our journey takes us first to Russia, with the able eye and honed expertise of Richard D. Anderson, Jr. who teaches as UCLA and publishes on the subject of his chapter: “Putin, Russian identity, and Russia’s conduct at home and abroad.” Readers should find Dr. Anderson’s analysis fascinating because Vladimir Putin, the singular leader of Russian foreign and domestic policy these days (and perhaps for the rest of his life, given how malleable Russia’s Constitution has become) may be a short man physically, but has high ambitions. One of these involves restoring the old Russian (and Soviet) empire, which would involve re-subjugating a number of nations that broke off as the old order dissolved about 30 years ago. President (shall we say czar?) Putin also has international ambitions, notably by destabilizing the United States, where election meddling has become a specialty. The sight of Putin and U.S. president Donald Trump, two very rich men (Putin $70-$200 billion; Trump $2.5 billion), nuzzling in friendship would probably set Thomas Jefferson and Vladimir Lenin spinning in their graves. The road of history can take some unanticipated twists and turns. Consider Poland, from which we have an expert native analysis in chapter 2, Bartosz Hlebowicz, who is a Polish anthropologist and journalist. His piece is titled “Lawless and Unjust: How to Quickly Make Your Own Country a Puppet State Run by a Group of Hoodlums – the Hopeless Case of Poland (2015–2020).” When I visited Poland to teach and lecture twice between 2006 and 2008, most people seemed to be walking on air induced by freedom to conduct their own affairs to an unusual degree for a state usually squeezed between nationalists in Germany and Russia. What did the Poles then do in a couple of decades? Read Hlebowicz’ chapter and decide. It certainly isn’t soft-bellied liberalism. In Chapter 3, with Bruce E. Johansen, we visit China’s western provinces, the lands of Tibet as well as the Uighurs and other Muslims in the Xinjiang region, who would most assuredly resent being characterized as being possessed by the Chinese of the Han to the east. As a student of Native American history, I had never before thought of the Tibetans and Uighurs as Native peoples struggling against the Independence-minded peoples of a land that is called an adjunct of China on most of our maps. The random act of sitting next to a young woman on an Air India flight out of Hyderabad, bound for New Delhi taught me that the Tibetans had something to share with the Lakota, the Iroquois, and hundreds of other Native American states and nations in North America. Active resistance to Chinese rule lasted into the mid-nineteenth century, and continues today in a subversive manner, even in song, as I learned in 2018 when I acted as a foreign adjudicator on a Ph.D. dissertation by a Tibetan student at the University of Madras (in what is now in a city called Chennai), in southwestern India on resistance in song during Tibet’s recent history. Tibet is one of very few places on Earth where a young dissident can get shot to death for singing a song that troubles China’s Quest for Lebensraum. The situation in Xinjiang region, where close to a million Muslims have been interned in “reeducation” camps surrounded with brick walls and barbed wire. They sing, too. Come with us and hear the music. Back to Europe now, in Chapter 4, to Portugal and Spain, we find a break in the general pattern of nationalism. Portugal has been more progressive governmentally than most. Spain varies from a liberal majority to military coups, a pattern which has been exported to Latin America. A situation such as this can make use of the term “populism” problematic, because general usage in our time usually ties the word into a right-wing connotative straightjacket. “Populism” can be used to describe progressive (left-wing) insurgencies as well. José Pinto, who is native to Portugal and also researches and writes in Spanish as well as English, in “Populism in Portugal and Spain: a Real Neighbourhood?” provides insight into these historical paradoxes. Hungary shares some historical inclinations with Poland (above). Both emerged from Soviet dominance in an air of developing freedom and multicultural diversity after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. Then, gradually at first, right wing-forces began to tighten up, stripping structures supporting popular freedom, from the courts, mass media, and other institutions. In Chapter 5, Bernard Tamas, in “From Youth Movement to Right-Liberal Wing Authoritarianism: The Rise of Fidesz and the Decline of Hungarian Democracy” puts the renewed growth of political and social repression into a context of worldwide nationalism. Tamas, an associate professor of political science at Valdosta State University, has been a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and a Fulbright scholar at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. His books include From Dissident to Party Politics: The Struggle for Democracy in Post-Communist Hungary (2007). Bear in mind that not everyone shares Orbán’s vision of what will make this nation great, again. On graffiti-covered walls in Budapest, Runes (traditional Hungarian script) has been found that read “Orbán is a motherfucker” (Mikanowski, 2019, 58). Also in Europe, in Chapter 6, Professor Ronan Le Coadic, of the University of Rennes, Rennes, France, in “Is There a Revival of French Nationalism?” Stating this title in the form of a question is quite appropriate because France’s nationalistic shift has built and ebbed several times during the last few decades. For a time after 2000, it came close to assuming the role of a substantial minority, only to ebb after that. In 2017, the candidate of the National Front reached the second round of the French presidential election. This was the second time this nationalist party reached the second round of the presidential election in the history of the Fifth Republic. In 2002, however, Jean-Marie Le Pen had only obtained 17.79% of the votes, while fifteen years later his daughter, Marine Le Pen, almost doubled her father's record, reaching 33.90% of the votes cast. Moreover, in the 2019 European elections, re-named Rassemblement National obtained the largest number of votes of all French political formations and can therefore boast of being "the leading party in France.” The brutality of oppressive nationalism may be expressed in personal relationships, such as child abuse. While Indonesia and Aotearoa [the Maoris’ name for New Zealand] hold very different ranks in the United Nations Human Development Programme assessments, where Indonesia is classified as a medium development country and Aotearoa New Zealand as a very high development country. In Chapter 7, “Domestic Violence Against Women in Indonesia and Aotearoa New Zealand: Making Sense of Differences and Similarities” co-authors, in Chapter 8, Mandy Morgan and Dr. Elli N. Hayati, from New Zealand and Indonesia respectively, found that despite their socio-economic differences, one in three women in each country experience physical or sexual intimate partner violence over their lifetime. In this chapter ther authors aim to deepen understandings of domestic violence through discussion of the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of theit countries to address domestic violence alongside studies of women’s attitudes to gender norms and experiences of intimate partner violence. One of the most surprising and upsetting scholarly journeys that a North American student may take involves Adolf Hitler’s comments on oppression of American Indians and Blacks as he imagined the construction of the Nazi state, a genesis of nationalism that is all but unknown in the United States of America, traced in this volume (Chapter 8) by co-editor Johansen. Beginning in Mein Kampf, during the 1920s, Hitler explicitly used the westward expansion of the United States across North America as a model and justification for Nazi conquest and anticipated colonization by Germans of what the Nazis called the “wild East” – the Slavic nations of Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Russia, most of which were under control of the Soviet Union. The Volga River (in Russia) was styled by Hitler as the Germans’ Mississippi, and covered wagons were readied for the German “manifest destiny” of imprisoning, eradicating, and replacing peoples the Nazis deemed inferior, all with direct references to events in North America during the previous century. At the same time, with no sense of contradiction, the Nazis partook of a long-standing German romanticism of Native Americans. One of Goebbels’ less propitious schemes was to confer honorary Aryan status on Native American tribes, in the hope that they would rise up against their oppressors. U.S. racial attitudes were “evidence [to the Nazis] that America was evolving in the right direction, despite its specious rhetoric about equality.” Ming Xie, originally from Beijing, in the People’s Republic of China, in Chapter 9, “News Coverage and Public Perceptions of the Social Credit System in China,” writes that The State Council of China in 2014 announced “that a nationwide social credit system would be established” in China. “Under this system, individuals, private companies, social organizations, and governmental agencies are assigned a score which will be calculated based on their trustworthiness and daily actions such as transaction history, professional conduct, obedience to law, corruption, tax evasion, and academic plagiarism.” The “nationalism” in this case is that of the state over the individual. China has 1.4 billion people; this system takes their measure for the purpose of state control. Once fully operational, control will be more subtle. People who are subject to it, through modern technology (most often smart phones) will prompt many people to self-censor. Orwell, modernized, might write: “Your smart phone is watching you.” Ming Xie holds two Ph.Ds, one in Public Administration from University of Nebraska at Omaha and another in Cultural Anthropology from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, where she also worked for more than 10 years at a national think tank in the same institution. While there she summarized news from non-Chinese sources for senior members of the Chinese Communist Party. Ming is presently an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, West Texas A&M University. In Chapter 10, analyzing native peoples and nationhood, Barbara Alice Mann, Professor of Honours at the University of Toledo, in “Divide, et Impera: The Self-Genocide Game” details ways in which European-American invaders deprive the conquered of their sense of nationhood as part of a subjugation system that amounts to genocide, rubbing out their languages and cultures -- and ultimately forcing the native peoples to assimilate on their own, for survival in a culture that is foreign to them. Mann is one of Native American Studies’ most acute critics of conquests’ contradictions, and an author who retrieves Native history with a powerful sense of voice and purpose, having authored roughly a dozen books and numerous book chapters, among many other works, who has traveled around the world lecturing and publishing on many subjects. Nalanda Roy and S. Mae Pedron in Chapter 11, “Understanding the Face of Humanity: The Rohingya Genocide.” describe one of the largest forced migrations in the history of the human race, the removal of 700,000 to 800,000 Muslims from Buddhist Myanmar to Bangladesh, which itself is already one of the most crowded and impoverished nations on Earth. With about 150 million people packed into an area the size of Nebraska and Iowa (population less than a tenth that of Bangladesh, a country that is losing land steadily to rising sea levels and erosion of the Ganges river delta. The Rohingyas’ refugee camp has been squeezed onto a gigantic, eroding, muddy slope that contains nearly no vegetation. However, Bangladesh is majority Muslim, so while the Rohingya may starve, they won’t be shot to death by marauding armies. Both authors of this exquisite (and excruciating) account teach at Georgia Southern University in Savannah, Georgia, Roy as an associate professor of International Studies and Asian politics, and Pedron as a graduate student; Roy originally hails from very eastern India, close to both Myanmar and Bangladesh, so he has special insight into the context of one of the most brutal genocides of our time, or any other. This is our case describing the problems that nationalism has and will pose for the sustainability of the Earth as our little blue-and-green orb becomes more crowded over time. The old ways, in which national arguments often end in devastating wars, are obsolete, given that the Earth and all the people, plants, and other animals that it sustains are faced with the existential threat of a climate crisis that within two centuries, more or less, will flood large parts of coastal cities, and endanger many species of plants and animals. To survive, we must listen to the Earth, and observe her travails, because they are increasingly our own.

Abstract The concept of solidarity has received increasing attention in discussions about public health interventions, both as a possible justification for such interventions and as a possible motivating factors for individual action. This chapter provides an analysis of whether thinking through a lens of solidarity is likely to be helpful in devising strategies and policies to combat antimicrobial resistance. It first provides a critical overview of recent accounts of solidarity and argues that solidarity must be understood as a group based concept. It then applies this conception of solidarity to individual use of antibiotics through a case study of the antibiotic treatment of moderate and severe acne where it is argued that solidarity based thinking is valuable within a context of shared decision-making. Issues of policy making are then discussed and it is argued that basing a policy on solidarity on the one hand constrains the methods chosen to pursue public health goals, but that on the other hand solidarity may provide a strong and durable motivation to comply with such a policy. The limits of solidarity are explored in the final section and it is concluded that 1) the concept of solidarity does have an important role to play in thinking about public health, 2) considerations of solidarity can help us shape the goals and methods of public health policies in the area of antibiotics, and 3) that it is likely that solidarity may also be helpful in thinking through other contentious issues in public health.

This chapter reports on an exploratory case study investigating strategies to facilitate group discussions in Second Life, a three-dimensional virtual world. The purpose was to identify best practices for discussion facilitation in-world from the perspective of a virtual host and a discussion facilitator. A host and a facilitator moderated four virtual group discussions with 16 in-service teachers enrolled in a graduate technology class. The chapter discusses several themes that emerged from the host's and the facilitator's debriefings. Key themes include the need for a careful selection of the communication modality (text or voice or a combination), strategies to promote interactivity among the participants, the critical need for at least one facilitator in addition to the host, the need for clear ground rules for the participants, and clear guidelines for the host and the facilitator. Several challenges experienced during the process of facilitating these virtual events are discussed and recommendations are made to address these difficulties. This chapter is of interest to educators who are planning to substitute in-class group discussions with synchronous group discussions in-world.

Citizens are often accused of being disinterested and incapable of taking part in politics. This chapter demonstrates how deliberative mini-publics (DMPs) can be designed to address this issue, in a manner that conforms to norms of deliberative democracy. DMPs are, by design, venues that should facilitate balanced and critical deliberation among participants representing differing viewpoints. The design features of mini-publics, such as random selection and moderated small-group discussions, should thus at least to some extent correct potential biases in evidence. Mini-publics’ capacity for critical scrutiny can be further strengthened by specific design features that help participants to become more reflective in their own views.

The Trigeminal Neuralgia Association (now the Facial Pain Association) was formed in 1990 in the USA. A network of similar support groups exists around the world to educate both professionals and patients, raise awareness, and allow patients with trigeminal neuralgia to meet and provide mutual support and share information. These groups provide telephone and email helplines, giving 24-hour assistance. As technology has evolved, these groups now hold online meetings and provide moderated forums for discussion, but face-to-face contact is still vital, as demonstrated by feedback from local meetings and national and international conferences. Analysis of material posted on a UK members online forum shows how patients feel their experiences are validated and that the personal support they receive reduces their isolation and fear. Printed resources and websites can be shared with others for mutual understanding of this complex disorder, and to educate employers. The education gained from networking with others gives patients empowerment and enables them to work in closer partnership with their healthcare professionals.

In light of the failure of the preferred model to count as a collective agent on the strong or moderate accounts, this chapter turns to the citizen-exclusive state. It outlines the structure of two versions of the model—one accounting for the separation of powers and one including only the smallest group with decision-making power in government. It argues that the bigger group is characterized by two important features: it has a hierarchical power structure, and it includes ‘nested’ agency (some of its members are collective agents rather than individuals). The chapter concludes with a general discussion of whether this group has both agency and moral agency, and argues that it does.

This chapter provides detailed discussion of the Moss Side Defence Committee, through local and understudied national records and original interviews, which is often overlooked in discussions of 1980–1. The Defence Committee, formed to aid those arrested in relation to the disturbances, vehemently opposed the Greater Manchester County Council-established local inquiry into the Moss Side disturbances, and organised a boycott. It was later suggested that dichotomous local responses to state mechanisms allowed progress: that radical groups, such as the Defence Committee, ‘being noisy’ allowed moderates previously unattainable access to the authorities – but the extent to which this was a conscious tactic is debatable. The chapter ends by exploring unstudied interviews with residents and inquiry proceedings, demonstrating the high level of accusations of police misconduct not appearing in the inquiry report, and the continued discontent created by such exclusions.

A focus group1 is a meeting between a moderator or two and group of students, staff members, parents, or other stakeholders. In this meeting, the facilitator presents questions or raises certain issues, and the group members share their thoughts and perspectives. A facilitator or an assistant documents the main issues and points raised by the group members. A focus group is a great way to delve deeper into a specific topic, particularly one that was raised by the results of a survey. For example, if a survey showed an increase over the previous year in students reporting having things stolen, a focus group with students can then explore what types of items are being stolen, where they are being taken from, and any solutions students might suggest. A focus group could also be one of the first steps in developing a monitoring system. A focus group with parents can help identify issues of concern to parents. Then, based on the information, school leaders may design a survey that asks all the parents in the school how well they think the school is responding to their concerns. See Box 9.1 for tips on how to conduct a focus group. The participants in a focus group should represent the racial and ethnic make-up of the school, be balanced by gender, and should include those students or adults who are not typically the most outspoken about issues in the school. Diverse viewpoints are important, but it’s best not to include those who could potentially argue with each other and dominate the discussion. Be aware of issues of hierarchy and whether some participants are not engaging in the discussion or are not being genuine because of the presence of someone in authority. Eight to twelve people is usually a good size for a focus group, and about two hours is a good length of time— enough to cover six to ten substantive questions or topics. Less time is probably better if students are participating.

Sport fans rarely attend sporting events alone. While traditional consumer and sport fan behavior research often examines fans based on demographic characteristics, recent advances in understanding how sport fans co-create and co-consume sporting events provides substantial evidence that sports fans should be examined as tribal groups. Tribal sport fan groups can be identified based on seven dimensions, including membership; geographic sense of community; social recognition; shared rivalry; and shared knowledge of symbols, rituals and traditions, and people. In this research, these seven dimensions are used to classify sport fans (n=1505) through hierarchical and k-cluster analyses. The results of the cluster analyses using the seven dimensions suggest six unique clusters, labelled as (1) casual fans, (2) moderate remote fans, (3) moderate local fans, (4) local developing tribal fans, (5) remote tribal fans, and (6) tribal fans. A discussion of these six fan groups and the implications regarding associations with demographics and other important variables are provided.

Sport fans rarely attend sporting events alone. While traditional consumer and sport fan behavior research often examines fans based on demographic characteristics, recent advances in understanding how sport fans co-create and co-consume sporting events provides substantial evidence that sports fans should be examined as tribal groups. Tribal sport fan groups can be identified based on seven dimensions, including membership; geographic sense of community; social recognition; shared rivalry; and shared knowledge of symbols, rituals and traditions, and people. In this research, these seven dimensions are used to classify sport fans (n=1505) through hierarchical and k-cluster analyses. The results of the cluster analyses using the seven dimensions suggest six unique clusters, labelled as (1) casual fans, (2) moderate remote fans, (3) moderate local fans, (4) local developing tribal fans, (5) remote tribal fans, and (6) tribal fans. A discussion of these six fan groups and the implications regarding associations with demographics and other important variables are provided.

Background: Job satisfaction in healthcare is of special interest as has a direct relation with the quality of care provided to patients. It is affected by several factors including the nature of the work, level of educational preparedness and achievements. Objectives: This study aims to explore College of Pharmacy - Qatar University (CPH-QU) alumni’s satisfaction with employment and the profession, level of educational preparedness and achievements in the practice. Methods: A sequential exploratory mixed-method designs was adopted. Seven Focus Group (FG) discussions were performed and a self-reported survey distributed to all alumni graduated between 2011-2020. Results: A total of 135 alumni answered the survey (response rate 63%). Majority of respondents were non-Qatari (97%) and 52% of them were recent graduates and obtained doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) as an additional degree (58%). The study findings suggest that CPH alumni are moderately satisfied with the practice and the profession, and Qatari alumni are more satisfied. However, majority of them (44.55%) are not satisfied with the available opportunities for professional development. The level of satisfaction about achievements was significantly high only in the field of research and presentation activities. A general agreement about the level of educational preparedness was dominant, especially in clinical knowledge and skills and experiential training they received. Conclusion: The overall satisfaction about workplace and the profession in CPH-QU alumni is moderate and higher among Qatari graduates. Alumni agreed that they were well prepared to meet the practice requirements and mostly satisfied in achieving research and presentation related activities.

Evaluation procedures on an allowable axial flaw in a pipe for fully plastic fracture is provided by limit load criteria in Appendix C-5000 of the ASME Code Section XI. However, flaw evaluation for ductile fracture using EPFM (Elastic Plastic Fracture Mechanics) criteria is not provided for axial flaw in the Appendix. Methodology of the flaw evaluation for ductile fracture using EPFM criteria is discussing at the Working Group on Pipe Flaw Evaluation of ASME Code Section XI. Many failure experiments on axially flawed pressurized pipes made of moderate toughness materials had been performed at Battelle Columbus Laboratories. Semi-empirical equations for predicting failure stresses were developed from these experiments. This paper describes a derivation of load multiplier, Z factor, based on Charpy V notch upper shelf energy (CVN) from failure stresses for moderate toughness materials based on the experiments, and proposes a flaw evaluation procedure to determine allowable axial flaw for a ductile fractured pipe using the EPFM criteria.

Technology-based decisions in education are made on a daily basis. For some students, inclusive education is impossible without assistive and adaptive technologies. A study was conducted using the method “focus groups with one moderator”. The discussions explore the decision-making process for technology-based learning and the advantages and disadvantages of technology-based learning. The method provides an opportunity for individual and group intellectual and praxeological reflection on the discussed issues. The reflexive processes in the respondents allow to deduce the levels of their digital competence. The qualitative research was conducted with 65 inclusive teachers from secondary school and high school. The teachers participating in the study were selected according to a basic criterion: to make technology-based decisions for the implementation of inclusive processes in school. The main aspects for future analysis are mobility, accessibility, functionalities of technologies, application of the model of technology-based learning in inclusive education and factors that influence the decision-making process for choosing different spaces of technology-based learning. By making technology-based decisions the respondents create conditions for self-reflection about the application of technologies for the implementation of the processes of inclusive education. Reflexive analysis for technology-based decisions leads to increased intellectual, personal and praxeological reflection in the respondents. As a consequence of the increased manifestations of reflection in the respondents, conditions are created for personalized teaching and personalized learning in students, and personalized learning in turn paves the path of inclusive processes.

"The present study was conducted to explore the perception and views of primary care staff about Depression related Stigma and Discrimination. The Basic Qualitative Research Design was employed and an In-Depth Semi-Structured Discussion Guide consisted of 7 question was developed on the domains of Pryor and Reeder Model of Stigma and Discrimination such as Self-Stigma, Stigma by Association, Structural Stigma and Institutional Stigma, to investigate the phenomenon. Initially, Field Test and Pilot study were conducted to evaluate the relevance and effectiveness of Focus Group Discussion Guide in relation to phenomena under investigation. The suggestions were incorporated in the final Discussion Guide and Focus Group was employed as a data collection measure for the conduction of the main study. A purposive sampling was employed to selected a sample of Primary Care Staff (Psychiatrists, Medical Officers, Clinical Psychologists and Psychiatric Nurses) to elicit the meaningful information. The participants were recruited from the Department of Psychiatry of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) recognized Private and Public Sector hospitals of Lahore, having experience of 3 years or more in dealing with patients diagnosed with Depression. However, for Medical Officers, the experience was restricted to less than one year based on their rotation. To maintain equal voices in the Focus Group, 12 participants were approached (3 Psychiatrist, 3 Clinical Psychologists, 3 Medical Officers and 3 Psychiatric Nurses) but total 8 participants (2 Psychiatrists, 2 Medical Officers, 3 Clinical Psychologists And 1 Psychiatric Nurse) participated in the Focus Group. The Focus Group was conducted with the help of Assistant Moderator, for an approximate duration of 90 minutes at the setting according to the ease of the participants. Further, it was audio recorded and transcribed for the analysis. The Braun and Clarke Reflexive Thematic Analysis was diligently followed through a series of six steps such as Familiarization with the Data, Coding, Generating Initial Themes, Reviewing Themes, Defining and Naming Themes. The findings highlighted two main themes i.e., Determining Factors of Mental Health Disparity and Improving Treatment Regimen: Making Consultancy Meaningful. The first theme was centered upon three subthemes such as Lack of Mental Health Literacy, Detached Attachment and Components of Stigma and Discrimination. The second theme included Establishing Contact and Providing Psychoeducation as a subtheme. The results manifested the need for awareness-based Stigma reduction intervention for Primary Care Staff aims to provide training in Psychoeducation and normalization to reduce Depression related Stigma and Discrimination among patients diagnosed with Depression."

In March 2020, due to the pandemic situation from our country, the National lockdown was imposed for almost two months. Speech and language therapy field was very affected in this period of time and harsh decisions were to be taken. Children who strongly needed therapy were in the situation to either go on with the rehabilitation process in an online setting or to wait and postpone therapy sessions. The aim of this research is to present the situation in a SLT (speech and language therapy) private specialized center and to underline the advantages and the disadvantages of SLT online therapy after one year (from March 2020, till March 2021). In the beginning of March 2020, 37 children attended SLT sessions in this private center, 2 of them were recently assessed and they were supposed to begin therapy exactly on the first lockdown day. From all of them, 20 children (54 %) switch to online therapy sessions progressively. Starting with April 2020, after a three weeks break, 9 children diagnosed with mild to moderate speech and language disorders, switch from face to face to on-line. In May, 6 more children and in June another 5 children were brought back to therapy, even if we remained in an online setting. The other children, 17 (46%), either stopped all therapy sessions or began therapy in other centers that organized onsite therapeutic sessions after the lockdown period of time. At this present moment, in March 2021, at one year distance, the SLT center offers SLT services exclusively online, both assessment and therapy and the number of cases asking directly for online therapy is increasing daily (in March 2021, N=31). Results of this study, organized as focus-groups with 3 parents, 3 children and 3 therapists underlined that online SLT is very efficient as long as parents` involvement is high. The main advantages listed by all persons in the research, even by children are: easier to be more consistent; the attendance in the SLT sessions is definitely higher, parents can participate directly in these activities, resources are easily to be found. Among disadvantages, the fact that parents have to be very involved in this therapeutic process seems to be the most frequently listed. In discussions and conclusions of this study a profile of the online SLT users is about to be depicted, a profile related to the one found in specialized literature from the field.

This year’s sponsored, no holds barred health sciences lively lunchtime gathering was open to all. It began with greetings from luncheon sponsor, Rittenhouse. The moderator, Rena Lubker, introduced the session and provided introductory remarks about this year’s three presentations: a commentary on issues that keep us up at night; a report on considerations to make when leaving big deal licenses and entering into new, OA friendly arrangements; and more discussion about the impact of expansions on libraries of academic medical affiliation. All three topics provided fodder for lively discussion at the end. Ramune Kubilius provided her brief annual update on health sciences publishing world developments. Are there trends or commonalities in the issues that concern health sciences collection managers across institutions? Susan Kendall, editor of a recent book on 21st century collection management shared her thoughts on what keeps health sciences collection managers on their toes (or up at night). Audience members were invited to agree or disagree with her list. The ever-changing academic library and affiliated hospital relationship landscape was again explored at the Charleston health sciences-themed gathering. Jean Gudenas examined the effects of hospital mergers and acquisitions on academic libraries. She discussed the challenges with negotiating licensing changes quickly, the commitment to communication, and other matters essential to ensuring access to resources for the new affiliates. What goes into planning, preparing and actively shifting towards a more open access friendly landscape? How do consortia make decisions to leave or enter into deals on behalf of a multi-type academic library system? Are the interests of health sciences libraries represented? Sarah McClung shared examples of recent collections decisions made by the University of California libraries and what lessons can be imparted to other libraries, including those licensing in smaller groups or even solo.

<p>The design and construction of structures throughout history has too often been realized through the labor of enslaved people, both in the direct construction of these structures and in the procurement and fabrication of building materials. This is as true today as it was at the time of the pyramids.</p><p>Despite the challenges, the design and construction industries have a moral and ethical obligation to eradicate modern human trafficking practices. If done right, this shift will also lead to commercial advances.</p><p>Led by the Grace Farms Foundation, a Connecticut-based non-profit organization, a working group composed of design professionals, builders, owners, and academics has set out to eliminate the use of modern slaves within the built environment through awareness, agency, and tangible tools. Although inspired by the success of the green building movement, this initiative does not use the past as a template. Rather, we are committed to work with the most advanced tracking and aggregation technology to give owners, builders, and designers the tools they need to allow for clear and concise integration of real-time data into design and construction documents.</p><p>This paper summarizes the history of the issue, the moral, ethical, and commercial call to action, and the tangible solutions – both existing and emergent – in the fight against modern-day slavery in the design and construction industries.</p><p>Our intent is to present this material via a panel discussion. The panel will include an owner, an international owner’s representative, a builder, a big data specialist, an architect, an engineer, and a writer/academic who will act as moderator.</p>