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BackgroundEuropean health care systems regard information and communication technology as a necessity in supporting future health care provision by community home care services to home-dwelling older adults. Communication technology enabling synchronous communication between 2 or more human actors at a distance constitutes a significant component of this ambition, but few reviews have synthesized research relating to this particular type of technology. As evaluations of information and communication technology in health care services favor measurements of effectiveness over the experiences and dynamics of putting these technologies into use, the nuances involved in technology implementation processes are often omitted. ObjectiveThis review aims to systematically identify and synthesize qualitative findings on the uses and experiences of synchronous communication technology for home-dwelling older adults in a home care services context. MethodsThe review follows the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) 2020 checklist for reporting. We conducted a cross-disciplinary search in 5 databases for papers published between 2011 and 2023 that yielded 4210 citations. A total of 13 studies were included after 4 screening phases and a subsequent appraisal of methodological quality guided by the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme tool. From these, prespecified data were extracted and incorporated in a 3-stage thematic synthesis producing 4 analytical themes. ResultsThe first theme presented the multiple trajectories that older users’ technology acceptance could take, namely straightforward, gradual, partial, and resistance laden, notwithstanding outright rejection. It also emphasized both instrumental and emotional efforts by the older adults’ relatives in facilitating acceptance. Moving beyond acceptance, the second theme foregrounded the different types of work involved in attempts to integrate the technology by older users, their relatives, and health care providers. Theme 3 highlighted how the older users’ physical and cognitive conditions formed a contextual backdrop challenging this integration work, together with challenges related to spatial context. Finally, consequences derived from taking the technology into use could be of a both enabling and complicating nature as integration reconfigured the way users related to themselves and each other. ConclusionsThe acceptance and integration of synchronous communication technology for older adults involves multiple user groups in work tending to the technology, to the users themselves, and to each other through intergroup negotiations. This review’s original contribution consists of its attention to the dynamics across different user groups in deriving consequences from using the technology in question, in addition to its assertion that such consequences may be both intentional and unintentional. We argue that our findings may be used to provide nuance to policies addressing—and practices taking place in—contexts that involve similar user technology constellations to the ones explored in this paper. Trial RegistrationPROSPERO CRD42023414243; https://tinyurl.com/wrha6j3f

This article contributes to the sociology of education and technology by providing a cultural analysis of scepticism towards new technologies in school, using reactions to the telepresence robot 'AV1' as its case. AV1 is designed to connect 'homebound' students with their 'school-based' teachers and classmates. Despite its idealistic purpose, the robot has been met with significant scepticism by Norwegian school workers. To understand why, the article proposes the novel concepts of 'educational purity' and 'technological danger' to highlight the shared beliefs that underlie school workers' concerns. We find that school workers see AV1 as threatening key ideals of schools being pedagogically oriented, physically copresent and bounded institutions -- all concerns that reflect widespread ideas about how technologies tend to (not) function within educational contexts. In highlighting these symbolic tensions between new technologies and schools, the article sets a course for future studies into the cultural sociology of education and technology.

'Homebound' children are unable to attend school for illness-related reasons. To lessen their predicament, schools have begun experimenting with 'telepresence robots' that can enable remote participation. While promising, we know little about the use of telepresence robots in practice. To begin to redress this, we draw on 159 semi-structured interviews to explore the experiences of 37 child users of the robot 'AV1' in Norwegian schools. The children's experiences varied, with some benefitting greatly and others not getting any benefit from using the robot. To explain these variations, we reconstruct the robot's "critical component structure" -- that is, the assembly of sociomaterial elements that determines whether and how the robot works in practice. We also explore the benefits of using the robot when these critical components align. In so doing, we provide in-depth knowledge about the potential and prerequisites of using telepresence robots in schools -- to the benefit of users, producers and scholars of telepresence technology.

The overall aim of this scoping review is to present empirical studies regarding how the Nordic model has been investigated in relation to management in international companies. The subse quent objective is to discuss the model’s robustness regarding internationalization. The question raised is how the Nordic model, in relation to management, is configured in empirical studies undertaken in international corporations. Using systematic literature searches to examine peer- reviewed articles published between 2000 and 2022, 15 out of 972 studies were eligible for a full review. Primarily, one facet of the model was investigated: workplace democracy. Foreign-owned companies operating in Nordic countries partly adopted the model, whereas the model was implemented to some extent in Nordic-owned companies abroad. Management’s support and employee involvement were considered important. This review indicates that there is pressure on the model, although it has extended beyond the Nordic border and appears to be adaptable to global working life.

Artikkelens hensikt er å bidra til økt innsikt i faktorer som har betydning for at barnehagen skal fungere som læringsarena for studenter ved arbeidsplassbasert barnehagelærerutdanning (ABLU). ABLU-studenter arbeider i barnehage parallelt med studiene. Gjennom utdanningsløpet opplever de kontinuerlige grensekryssinger mellom å være student og assistent, samt en grensekryssing fra assistent til barnehagelærerrollen. Resultatene baseres på kvalitative data fra fokusgruppeintervju. Problemstillingen er: Hvordan kan barnehagen være en støttende læringsarena i ABLU-studenters grensekryssinger? Funnene viser til utfordringer studentene møter underveis i grensekryssingene, primært knyttet til å synliggjøre og bruke fagkunnskapen sin på egen arbeidsplass under utdanningsløpet. Støtte og forventningsavklaringer fremtrer som nødvendige faktorer for at barnehagen skal fungere optimalt som læringsarena når studentene utvikler profesjonsidentitet og krysser grenser mellom ulike praksisfellesskap i praksislandskapet. ENGLISH ABSTRACT “I feel like I’m somewhere in between.” Crossing boundaries in workplace-based early childhood teacher education This article aims to investigate factors regarding learning environment for students in Workplace-Based Early Childhood Teacher Education (ABLU). ABLU students are working in kindergarten simultaneously with their studies. Throughout the educational process, they continuously experience the shifts between being a student and a kindergarten assistant in the same community of practice, as well as the shift from being an assistant to being a kindergarten teacher. The results are based on qualitative data from focus group interviews. The topic in question is: How can the kindergarten as a learning environment be of support in ABLU students’ border crossing between different roles in kindergarten settings? The findings refer to challenges the students encounter during these changes of roles, primarily related to the opportunities to make their professional knowledge visible and applicable in their own workplace during their education. There appear to be two necessary factors for kindergarten to function optimally as a learning environment when the students develop a professional identity and cross boundaries between roles. These two factors are support and clarification of expectations.

Nervous systems are endowed with rapid chemosensation and intercellular signaling by ligand-gated ion channels (LGICs). While a complex, bilaterally symmetrical nervous system is a major innovation of bilaterian animals, the employment of specific LGICs during early bilaterian evolution is poorly understood. We therefore questioned bilaterian animals’ employment of acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs), LGICs that mediate fast excitatory responses to decreases in extracellular pH in vertebrate neurons. Our phylogenetic analysis identified an earlier emergence of ASICs from the overarching DEG/ENaC (degenerin/epithelial sodium channel) superfamily than previously thought and suggests that ASICs were a bilaterian innovation. Our broad examination of ASIC gene expression and biophysical function in each major bilaterian lineage of Xenacoelomorpha, Protostomia, and Deuterostomia suggests that the earliest bilaterian ASICs were probably expressed in the periphery, before being incorporated into the brain as it emerged independently in certain deuterostomes and xenacoelomorphs. The loss of certain peripheral cells from Ecdysozoa after they separated from other protostomes likely explains their loss of ASICs, and thus the absence of ASICs from model organisms Drosophila and Caenorhabditis elegans. Thus, our use of diverse bilaterians in the investigation of LGIC expression and function offers a unique hypothesis on the employment of LGICs in early bilaterian evolution.

The overall aim of this scoping review is to present empirical studies regarding how the Nordic model has been investigated in relation to management in international companies. The subsequent objective is to discuss the model's robustness regarding internationalization. The question raised is how the Nordic model, in relation to management, is configured in empirical studies undertaken in international corporations. Using systematic literature searches to examine peerreviewed articles published between 2000 and 2022, 15 out of 972 studies were eligible for a full review. Primarily, one facet of the model was investigated: workplace democracy. Foreign-owned companies operating in Nordic countries partly adopted the model, whereas the model was implemented to some extent in Nordic-owned companies abroad. Management's support and employee involvement were considered important. This review indicates that there is pressure on the model, although it has extended beyond the Nordic border and appears to be adaptable to global working life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores a translation process of Nordic workplace democracy by using an empirical case study of a Norwegian company setting up a subsidiary company in the US. The paper con- tributes to existing accounts of how ideas and practices in international companies are translated from one institutional context to another by focusing on the role of agency in translation processes. Drawing on advances in Scandinavian institutional theory, the findings show how employees from the source context acted as skilled translators in the new local context and helped to close the skills-gap between employees with and without experience of workplace democracy. In addition, the US managers had work experience from the company in Norway as well as from the US. The employees’ and managers’ complementary contextual knowledge represented important institutional bridging skills in the process of reproducing workplace democracy in the new local setting. However, during the translation process, some of the elements in the workplace democracy model were discussed and modified. This demonstrates how the organizations’ approach can change over time, from a reproducing to a modifying mode.

Bacterial canker, caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae and pv. morsprunorum, is one of the most important diseases of stone fruit trees (Prunus spp.). The pathogen infects buds, flowers, fruitlets, leaves and shoots, from which the disease spreads to the branches, boughs and trunks, causing necrosis and cankers. The efficacy of different chemical and biological products for the control of bacterial canker on stone fruit trees was tested in 2018–2021. The experiments were conducted in sour cherry, plum and sweet cherry orchards in central Poland. Foliar application of the tested preparations was performed three times a season. The biological efficacy of the tested products in the control of bacterial canker was evaluated on sour cherry on the basis of infected leaves and fruits and on plum and sweet cherry on the basis of infected leaves. The highest efficacy was observed for products containing various forms of copper—copper oxide, copper oxychloride and copper hydroxide—as well as fertilizers with copper gluconate and the fungicide Luna Care 71.6 WG (fluopyram and fosetyl-Al). However, the biological preparations were significantly less effective. The conducted studies showed that preparations based on copper gluconate can be a valuable alternative to typical copper fungicides.

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Anticipation is a fundamental aspect of social life and, following Weber, the hallmark of social action—it means trying to take others' responses to our actions into account when acting. In this article, we propose and argue the relevance of anticipation to the sociological study of diagnosis. To that end, we introduce and elaborate on the concept of diagnosing by anticipation. To diagnose by anticipation is to consider diagnoses as cultural objects imbued with meaning, to anticipate how others will respond to their meaning in situ and to adapt the choice of diagnosis to secure a desired outcome. Unlike prognosis, which seeks to predict the development of a disease, diagnosing by anticipation entails seeking to predict the development of a case and the effect of different diagnostic categories on its trajectory. Analytically, diagnosing by anticipation therefore involves a shift in diagnostic footing, from trying to identify what the case is a case of, to trying to identify which diagnosis will yield the desired case trajectory. This shift also implies a stronger focus on the mundane organisational work of operating diagnostic systems and coordinating case trajectories within and across social systems, to the benefit of the sociology of diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Theory' is a seminal term in sociology. Sociologists tend to ask that articles, chapters and monographs are 'theoretical', 'develop theory' or 'make a theoretical contribution'. Yet, as demonstrated in Gabriel Abend's 2008 article 'The Meaning of 'Theory', it is generally unclear what sociologists mean when they talk about theory. Abend distinguishes seven different meanings sociologists tend to impute to 'theory' and argues that no single definition can usefully capture these substantively different meanings. Counter to Abend, we propose and defend a minimal and versatile theory of theory, which does capture the important common denominators in sociologists' various uses of the term theory. The major strengths of our proposal are that it enables informed and synthetic discussion and fosters reflexivity about differences and similarities between different types of theory. Our minimal theory of theory thus serves as an invitation to a broader conversation about theory in sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores a translation process of Nordic workplace democracy by using an empirical case study of a Norwegian company setting up a subsidiary company in the US. The paper contributes to existing accounts of how ideas and practices in international companies are translated from one institutional context to another by focusing on the role of agency in translation processes. Drawing on advances in Scandinavian institutional theory, the findings show how employees from the source context acted as skilled translators in the new local context and helped to close the skills-gap between employees with and without experience of workplace democracy. In addition, the US managers had work experience from the company in Norway as well as from the US. The employees' and managers' complementary contextual knowledge represented important institutional bridging skills in the process of reproducing workplace democracy in the new local setting. However, during the translation process, some of the elements in the workplace democracy model were discussed and modified. This demonstrates how the organizations' approach can change over time, from a reproducing to a modifying mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: European health care systems regard information and communication technology as a necessity in supporting future health care provision by community home care services to home-dwelling older adults. Communication technology enabling synchronous communication between 2 or more human actors at a distance constitutes a significant component of this ambition, but few reviews have synthesized research relating to this particular type of technology. As evaluations of information and communication technology in health care services favor measurements of effectiveness over the experiences and dynamics of putting these technologies into use, the nuances involved in technology implementation processes are often omitted. Objective: This review aims to systematically identify and synthesize qualitative findings on the uses and experiences of synchronous communication technology for home-dwelling older adults in a home care services context. Methods: The review follows the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) 2020 checklist for reporting. We conducted a cross-disciplinary search in 5 databases for papers published between 2011 and 2023 that yielded 4210 citations. A total of 13 studies were included after 4 screening phases and a subsequent appraisal of methodological quality guided by the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme tool. From these, prespecified data were extracted and incorporated in a 3-stage thematic synthesis producing 4 analytical themes. Results: The first theme presented the multiple trajectories that older users' technology acceptance could take, namely straightforward, gradual, partial, and resistance laden, notwithstanding outright rejection. It also emphasized both instrumental and emotional efforts by the older adults' relatives in facilitating acceptance. Moving beyond acceptance, the second theme foregrounded the different types of work involved in attempts to integrate the technology by older users, their relatives, and health care providers. Theme 3 highlighted how the older users' physical and cognitive conditions formed a contextual backdrop challenging this integration work, together with challenges related to spatial context. Finally, consequences derived from taking the technology into use could be of a both enabling and complicating nature as integration reconfigured the way users related to themselves and each other. Conclusions: The acceptance and integration of synchronous communication technology for older adults involves multiple user groups in work tending to the technology, to the users themselves, and to each other through intergroup negotiations. This review's original contribution consists of its attention to the dynamics across different user groups in deriving consequences from using the technology in question, in addition to its assertion that such consequences may be both intentional and unintentional. We argue that our findings may be used to provide nuance to policies addressing—and practices taking place in—contexts that involve similar user technology constellations to the ones explored in this paper. Trial Registration: PROSPERO CRD42023414243; https://tinyurl.com/wrha6j3f [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]