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The question of the richness (or sparseness) of conscious experience has evoked ongoing debate and discussion. Claims for both richness and sparseness are supported by empirical data, yet they are often indirect, and alternative explanations have been put forward. Recently, it has been suggested that current experimental methods limit participants' responses, thereby preventing researchers from assessing the actual richness of perception. Instead, free verbal reports were presented as a possible way to overcome this limitation. As part of this approach, a novel paradigm of freely reported words was developed using a new metric, intersubjective agreement (IA), with experimental results interpreted as capturing aspects of conscious perception. Here, we challenge the validity of freely reported words as a tool for studying the richness of conscious experience. We base our claims on two studies (each composed of three experiments), where we manipulated the richness of percepts and tested whether IA changed accordingly. Five additional control experiments were conducted to validate the experimental logic and examine alternative explanations. Our results suggest otherwise, presenting four challenges to the free verbal report paradigm: first, impoverished stimuli did not evoke lower IA scores. Second, the IA score was correlated with word frequency in English. Third, the original positive relationship between IA scores and rated confidence was not found in any of the six experiments. Fourth, a high rate of nonexisting words was found, some of which described items that matched the gist of the scene but did not appear in the image. We conclude that a metric based on freely reported words might be better explained by vocabulary conventions and gist-based reports than by capturing the richness of perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the early expressive vocabulary development was investigated in a group of children with moderate hearing loss (HL). Size and development of expressive vocabulary from 18 30 months were analyzed and compared to a group of children with normal hearing (NH). For the children with HL, the impact of auditory variables on number of words were examined. The relationship of early consonant production to number of words produced of both groups were examined and the phonological complexity of reported words was compared between the groups. The results showed that children with HL (n = 8) produced a similar number of words as the NH (n = 8) at 18 months, but fewer at 24 and 30 months. Hours of HA use showed significant correlations to number of words. The number of different true consonants at 18 months for the whole group showed a significant relationship to number of words produced at 24 months. No significant differences were found between children with HL and NH children regarding phonological complexity of reported words. The findings indicate that the children born with moderate HL who were fitted with hearing aids (HAs) before 6 months of age are at risk in their development of expressive vocabulary. Full-time use of HAs and monitoring of early consonant use should be encouraged in the early intervention of this target group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although several quantitative studies have explored vaccine hesitancy, qualitative research on the factors underlying attitudes toward vaccination is still lacking. To fill this gap, this study aimed to investigate the general perceptions of COVID-19 vaccines among the Italian population with a qualitative approach. The sample included 700 Italian participants who completed an online survey. Open questions underwent a descriptive analysis for unveiling meaning categories, while differences in the prevalence of categories were calculated using chi-square or Fisher's exact tests. Vaccination was associated with the following seven main themes: 'safety', 'healthcare', 'vaccine delivery', 'progress', 'ambivalence', 'mistrust', and 'ethics'. Vaccinated individuals more frequently reported words related to the safety theme (χ2 = 46.7, p < 0.001), while unvaccinated individuals more frequently reported words related to mistrust (χ2 = 123, p < 0.001) and ambivalence (χ2 = 48.3, p < 0.001) themes. Working in the healthcare sector and being younger than 40 years affected the general perceptions of vaccination in terms of pro-vaccine attitudes. Unvaccinated individuals were more affected by the negative experiences of their acquaintances and manifested more distrust of scientific researchers, doctors, and pharmaceutical companies than vaccinated individuals. These findings suggest promoting collaborative efforts of governments, health policymakers, and media sources, including social media companies, in order to deal with cognitions and emotions supporting vaccine hesitancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter sheds light on the narrative strategies and techniques involving reported speech in Machiavelli's diplomatic records and historical writings. The focus is on the diplomatic correspondence of his 1502 mission to Cesare Borgia and on his Discourses on Livy. Analysis of the rhetorical devices that Machiavelli uses to report his own words and those of others shows that his letters and the Discourses exploited the intrinsically reconstructive nature of reported speech and its paradoxical communicative function: to maximize the perception of veracity through unrestrained manipulation. Two case studies will shed light on the relationship between fact and fiction and between information and its manipulation in early modern Italy. In particular, these relationships are captured by analyzing the interplay between, on the one hand, the communicative dynamics of diplomatic writings and, on the other, research into old historical texts and the writing of contemporary history. Machiavelli's writings demonstrate clearly that direct discourse could be used as a tool to reinforce the verisimilitude and credibility of a narrative. At the same time, his careful selection and manipulation of reported words exploited the persuasive force of the words of others to further his own line of argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Speech perception in noisy environments is enhanced by seeing facial movements of communication partners. However, the neural mechanisms by which audio and visual speech are combined are not fully understood. We explore MEG phase-locking to auditory and visual signals in MEG recordings from 14 human participants (6 females, 8 males) that reported words from single spoken sentences. We manipulated the acoustic clarity and visual speech signals such that critical speech information is present in auditory, visual, or both modalities. MEG coherence analysis revealed that both auditory and visual speech envelopes (auditory amplitude modulations and lip aperture changes) were phase-locked to 2-6 Hz brain responses in auditory and visual cortex, consistent with entrainment to syllable-rate components. Partial coherence analysis was used to separate neural responses to correlated audio-visual signals and showed non-zero phase-locking to auditory envelope in occipital cortex during audio-visual (AV) speech. Furthermore, phase-locking to auditory signals in visual cortex was enhanced for AV speech compared with audioonly speech that was matched for intelligibility. Conversely, auditory regions of the superior temporal gyrus did not show abovechance partial coherence with visual speech signals during AV conditions but did show partial coherence in visual-only conditions. Hence, visual speech enabled stronger phase-locking to auditory signals in visual areas, whereas phase-locking of visual speech in auditory regions only occurred during silent lip-reading. Differences in these cross-modal interactions between auditory and visual speech signals are interpreted in line with cross-modal predictive mechanisms during speech perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While Category Fluency (CF) is widely used to help profile semantic memory, item-level scoring (ILS) approaches to this test have been proposed to obtain indices that are less influenced by non-semantic supportive functions. We systematically reviewed the literature to test the hypotheses that (1) compared with healthy adults, individuals with a clinical diagnosis suggestive of neurodegeneration generate words of lower semantic complexity; (2) compared with young adults, older adults generate words of higher semantic complexity. We searched six databases (date of search: 8 December 2023) for studies that relied on CF and ILS methods, in normal ageing and in age-associated neurodegeneration. Thirty-four studies were shortlisted: 27 on neurodegenerative conditions; 7 on normal ageing. Risk of bias was evaluated via a published checklist. Data were presented via qualitative synthesis. Most studies reported words of lower semantic complexity in relation to at least one item-level feature in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzheimer’s dementia (AD), and other neurodegenerative diseases. Post-hoc meta-analyses focussing on the MCI/AD continuum confirmed an effect on words’ frequency (385 MCI/AD individuals and 350 controls; Hedges’s G = 0.59) and age-of-acquisition (193 MCI/AD individuals and 161 controls; Hedges’s G =  − 1.51). Studies on normal ageing, conversely, failed to demonstrate any overall effect. Most studies on MCI and AD have not relied on neurobiological diagnostic criteria. Moreover, only a small number of studies analysed ILS controlling for quantitative CF performance. Despite these two limitations, this study suggests that ILS can contribute to an in-depth characterisation of semantic memory in neurological ageing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the use of immersive Virtual Reality (VR) cave environments to investigate hypotheses concerning altered states of consciousness, creativity, and flexible thinking in archaeological contexts. Building on the premise that ancient humans used caves as sites for rituals involving altered consciousness, we recreated a virtual cave environment to simulate these experiences and examine their impact on participants' cognitive processes. Participants engaged in pareidolic tasks within both a virtual cave and a virtual open-space environment, allowing for comparative analysis of semantic network organization and subjective experiences. Our findings show that the cave environment elicited higher emotional arousal and spiritual engagement, as well as an improvement in the aspects of creativity and flexible thinking. These results suggest that VR can serve as a powerful tool in archaeology for reconstructing early humans' experiences and investigating their psychological and cognitive states, thus providing new insights into their use of caves for mind-altering or ritualistic purposes. This interdisciplinary approach contributes to both cognitive archaeology and the development of immersive VR technologies in scientific research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that identities and ideologies result from a complex interplay between various social, cultural and psychological factors, such as socialisation, shared experiences, cultural backgrounds and institutional practices in media, education and family. However, due to this tendency to focus on macro identity categories and macro-level ideological processes, more research is needed on how these categories and ideologies are co-constructed and operationalised within micro contexts, such as between friends. In doing so, we can explore the malleability of ideologies and identities as individuals (re)negotiate their beliefs and affiliations over time, often within micro, everyday activities. Using ethnographic methods and a practice approach to narrative, this paper shows how the analysis of conversational practices, specifically storytelling, can provide a window into the granular semiotic and discursive processes through which group identities and ideologies are (re)negotiated in mundane everyday discourse. The analyses of naturally occurring conversations between friends in Cape Town, South Africa, show that, through the use of constructed dialogue and other evaluative devices, interlocutors jointly negotiate complex alignments and positions in relation to a variety of social issues and ordinary occurrences, simultaneously and implicitly (re)establishing or (re)defining their group positionalities and ideologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess how self-compassion affects the psychological well-being of radiographers at work. Methods: An online survey was sent to radiology and radiotherapy departments in Rhône-Alpes, a region of France (from October 2021 to February 2022). The study is mixed: quantitative data, with closed questions and two validated scales, and qualitative data, with open questions aimed at assessing perceptions among radiologists as regards self-compassion. Results: A total of 253 radiographers (mean age 32.9 years), took part in this survey. Radiographers reported a poor level of well-being and a moderate level of self-compassion. We found a link between well-being at work and self-compassion. Gender, age, number of years of experience and the desire to receive training on well-being appear to have an impact on the level of self-compassion. The perception of self-compassion by radiologists is essentially positive. Conclusion: Particular attention should be paid to radiologists who are female, young, and with only a few years of experience. Self-compassion is a protective factor for radiologists and may help them take care of themselves to continue caring for others. Training related to self-compassion should be promoted in medical imaging departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to explore oncological doctor-patients experiences concerning the neoplastic disease. The study involved 20 Polish doctors with cancer. Respondents answered open questions related to cancer management and opinions about themselves as oncological patients. The results of the study indicate that doctor-patients deny their susceptibility to illness, which leads to prophylaxis ignorance. Many doctors diagnosed themselves with the disease, but they needed a clear verbal confirmation of the diagnosis by another physician. Respondents well assessed professional skills of doctor-colleagues. However, communication competencies of their doctors were assessed critically. Medical narratives may become an incentive to deepen the discourse on the quality of the relationship between a doctor and a doctor-oncological patient. They may also lead to further research on the anthropological, psychological, and sociological understanding of disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metacognition entails knowledge of one's own cognitive skills, perceived self-efficacy and locus of control when performing a task, and performance monitoring. Age-related changes in metacognition have been observed in metamemory, whereas their occurrence for hearing remained unknown. We tested 30 older and 30 younger adults with typical hearing, to assess if age reduces metacognition for hearing sentences in noise. Metacognitive monitoring for older and younger adults was overall comparable. In fact, the older group achieved better monitoring for words in the second part of the phrase. Additionally, only older adults showed a correlation between performance and perceived confidence. No age differentiation was found for locus of control, knowledge or self-efficacy. This suggests intact metacognitive skills for hearing in noise in older adults, alongside a somewhat paradoxical overconfidence in younger adults. These findings support exploiting metacognition for older adults dealing with noisy environments, since metacognition is central for implementing self-regulation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although several quantitative studies have explored vaccine hesitancy, qualitative research on the factors underlying attitudes toward vaccination is still lacking. To fill this gap, this study aimed to investigate the general perceptions of COVID-19 vaccines among the Italian population with a qualitative approach. The sample included 700 Italian participants who completed an online survey. Open questions underwent a descriptive analysis for unveiling meaning categories, while differences in the prevalence of categories were calculated using chi-square or Fisher’s exact tests. Vaccination was associated with the following seven main themes: ‘safety’, ‘healthcare’, ‘vaccine delivery’, ‘progress’, ‘ambivalence’, ‘mistrust’, and ‘ethics’. Vaccinated individuals more frequently reported words related to the safety theme (χ2 = 46.7, p < 0.001), while unvaccinated individuals more frequently reported words related to mistrust (χ2 = 123, p < 0.001) and ambivalence (χ2 = 48.3, p < 0.001) themes. Working in the healthcare sector and being younger than 40 years affected the general perceptions of vaccination in terms of pro-vaccine attitudes. Unvaccinated individuals were more affected by the negative experiences of their acquaintances and manifested more distrust of scientific researchers, doctors, and pharmaceutical companies than vaccinated individuals. These findings suggest promoting collaborative efforts of governments, health policymakers, and media sources, including social media companies, in order to deal with cognitions and emotions supporting vaccine hesitancy.

Coastal wetlands, often referred to as the 'kidneys of the Earth', have gained significant attention. However, they are increasingly affected by severe pollution and invasive species. Thus, ensuring green and sustainable methods for pollutant removal is of utmost importance. Biochar has demonstrated its unique advantages and benefits in coastal wetland remediation and management. In addition, the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in environmental fields has become increasingly prevalent, with the aim of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of environmental protection and resource management. However, the in situ remediation with AI-assisted biochar is still not well understood. This review adopts a problem-focused approach, analyzing and resolving problems to comprehensively review state-of-the-art biochar production, modification, and applications. This study aims to improve the remediation efficiency of sediment with combined pollution through the integration of AI systems. Moreover, the study highlights the positive effects of biochar on plant growth, microbial activity, and soil/sediment health, as well as its suitability for coastal wetland management, indicating that biochar holds great promise as an effective method for coastal wetland remediation and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the topic of writing royal lives from an interdisciplinary perspective which embraces questions of popular history and particularly historical fiction. Georgette Heyer (1902-1974) was a highly successful novelist of the twentieth century whose large oeuvre of historical fiction remains popular and in print to this day. While her name has become synonymous with lightweight historical romantic fiction, particularly set in Regency England, Heyer was a committed researcher with frustrated ambitions to be recognised as a more serious historical writer but desire for financial security as well as the commercial instinct of her publishers pressured her to focus her energies on regular productions of her popular romantic novels. However, it will be argued here that an abandoned project to write a biography of Princess Charlotte of Wales found an outlet in what is virtually a paratextual biography between mentions in several of Heyer's Regency Romances and especially in references, direct and indirect, in her 1961 novel A Civil Contract. It will be argued that this case study should encourage more analysis of historical fictions in Royal Studies, but also that it could provide an inspirational framework for creative practice for scholars in the field seeking to write royal lives as novels in a format with potential for high impact and commercial appeal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Colombiana de Psicología is the property of Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Departamento de Psicologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This intervention considers uneven development and social reproduction within racial capitalism. Social reproduction refers to the range of practices that form the conditions of possibility for the life of capital, as well as life and death within racial capitalism. This spans a range of institutions and networks within households, communities, states and across national borders as well as the labour practices, relations and organization that reproduce racial capitalism. Here, we examine the extraction of time, taking up theorizations across carceral geographies, postcolonial theory and Caribbean studies to demonstrate how coercive relations of social reproduction contribute to uneven development. In particular, we look at the role of the state in racial capital's capture of reproductive activities across our work on electric utilities in Atlanta, Georgia and extralegal land tenure on Jamaica's north coast. In bringing these distinct sites into conversation, we re-affirm the need to study uneven development by understanding how the circulation and accumulation of capital is imbricated with the production of hierarchies of all kinds of difference. We show how a conjunctural countertopography can reveal how state practices advance accumulation under conditions of widespread surplus lives, as capital wagers on captive life and premature death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the typographic form of Plowden's Commentaries within its legal, printing, and technological histories, demonstrating that its typographic appearance embeds complex tensions over the study and dissemination of the common law into its material form. There are legally relevant meanings in the shape of letters, beyond mere legibility, that are connected with the heritage of type design and print technologies. Within the context of debates over the propriety of early common law printing, this paper provides an examination of Plowden's typographic style as roman and humanist. Tracing the genealogy of roman and humanist letters that led to the ones used in Plowden's opening judgment, the typography of the Commentaries is connected to debates over the resistance of the common law (as an unwritten law) to humanism and Roman-style codification. Plowden's typographic register is thereby seen to encode the Latinate traditions to which the structure and custom of the English common law is opposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how a region in a developing country can trigger and strengthen the positive impacts of the Internet on farmers' income, using the case of flower and tree industry cluster in Shuyang County, Jiangsu Province, China. It finds that the combination of macro-level Internet popularization, micro-level Internet use, and local endowment conditions triggers the effect of the Internet on increasing farmers' income. The case also shows that the continuous enhancement of this effect is essentially because internal supply can adapt to the continuous online migration of external demand and make creative adjustments, thereby achieving the cumulative fit of internal supply and external demand. This study can provide empirical evidence from China for the digital dividend issue in rural areas of developing countries, and provide a reference for developing countries to promote the role of the Internet in empowering farmers and increasing their incomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Revealing how the mind represents information is a longstanding goal of cognitive science. However, there is currently no framework for reconstructing the broad range of mental representations that humans possess. Here, we ask participants to indicate what they perceive in images made of random visual features in a deep neural network. We then infer associations between the semantic features of their responses and the visual features of the images. This allows us to reconstruct the mental representations of multiple visual concepts, both those supplied by participants and other concepts extrapolated from the same semantic space. We validate these reconstructions in separate participants and further generalize our approach to predict behavior for new stimuli and in a new task. Finally, we reconstruct the mental representations of individual observers and of a neural network. This framework enables a large-scale investigation of conceptual representations. Revealing how the human mind represents information is a longstanding goal of cognitive science. Here, the authors develop a method to reconstruct the mental representations of multiple visual concepts using behavioral judgments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of face coverings can make communication more difficult by removing access to visual cues as well as affecting the physical transmission of speech sounds. This study aimed to assess the independent and combined contributions of visual and auditory cues to impaired communication when using face coverings. In an online task, 150 participants rated videos of natural conversation along three dimensions: (1) how much they could follow, (2) how much effort was required, and (3) the clarity of the speech. Visual and audio variables were independently manipulated in each video, so that the same video could be presented with or without a superimposed surgical-style mask, accompanied by one of four audio conditions (either unfiltered audio, or audio-filtered to simulate the attenuation associated with a surgical mask, an FFP3 mask, or a visor). Hypotheses and analyses were pre-registered. Both the audio and visual variables had a statistically significant negative impact across all three dimensions. Whether or not talkers' faces were visible made the largest contribution to participants' ratings. The study identifies a degree of attenuation whose negative effects can be overcome by the restoration of visual cues. The significant effects observed in this nominally low-demand task (speech in quiet) highlight the importance of the visual and audio cues in everyday life and that their consideration should be included in future face mask designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Noise-vocoded speech has long been used to investigate how acoustic cues affect speech understanding. Studies indicate that reducing the number of spectral channel bands diminishes speech intelligibility. Despite previous studies examining the channel band effect using earlier event-related potential (ERP) components, such as P1, N1, and P2, a clear consensus or understanding remains elusive. Given our hypothesis that spectral degradation affects higherorder processing of speech understanding beyond mere perception, we aimed to objectively measure differences in higher-order abilities to discriminate or interpret meaning. Using an oddball paradigm with speech stimuli, we examined how neural signals correlate with the evaluation of speech stimuli based on the number of channel bands measuring N2 and P3b components. In 20 young participants with normal hearing, we measured speech intelligibility and N2 and P3b responses using a one-syllable task paradigm with animal and nonanimal stimuli across four vocoder conditions with 4, 8, 16, or 32 channel bands. Behavioral data from word repetition clearly affected the number of channel bands, and all pairs were significantly different (p < 0.001). We also observed significant effects of the number of channels on the peak amplitude [F(2.006, 38.117) = 9.077, p < 0.001] and peak latency [F(3, 57) = 26.642, p < 0.001] of the N2 component. Similarly, the P3b component showed significant main effects of the number of channel bands on the peak amplitude [F(2.231, 42.391) = 13.045, p < 0.001] and peak latency [F(3, 57) = 2.968, p = 0.039]. In summary, our findings provide compelling evidence that spectral channel bands profoundly influence cortical speech processing, as reflected in the N2 and P3b components, a higher-order cognitive process. We conclude that spectrally degraded onesyllable speech primarily affects cortical responses during semantic integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book of Joshua is a book-length crux interpretum. Its cultivation of two concurrent narratives that contradict one another has fascinated commentators since antiquity. This is only one of its hermeneutically challenging features. Most modern commentaries attribute these features to an uneven process of redaction. Focusing on chapters 1–12, this essay argues that incongruity, ambiguity, and disjunction are essential elements of a rhetorical strategy in which form and content are imaginatively correlated, and that the text contains many cryptic clues that are necessary to elucidate its meaning. It contends that Joshua is the product of a bold literary innovation that is motivated by a sustained and uncompromising determination to unsettle facile assumptions about YHWH and Israel's history. It concludes that the book challenges us to re-evaluate not only the answers we thought it gave, but even the questions we ask of it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the constantly evolving career landscape, knowledge about human resource management practices could prove very beneficial for undergraduate college students who want to construct protean careers. With its broad content coverage, the introductory HR course is best suited to teach students about key HR functions and practices instrumental to their career outcomes. The current introductory HR course at the undergraduate level may fall short of this promise as it primarily caters to aspiring HR professionals. We propose to re-imagine the undergraduate introductory HR course from the perspective of students as future employees instead and illustrate the role of HR functions in career progression and how students could use HR knowledge to advance their careers that align with their values. We offer a detailed framework with updated learning goals and sample experiential activities for each major HR topic. We believe that the new approach will make the course more relevant to all students, which could improve learning outcomes and help students construct and manage their protean careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current work presents VocabStudy, a collection of natural language samples and children's vocabularies collected remotely by parents via a mobile phone application. The corpus contains 567,003 word tokens and represents 144 hours of speech over a period of six months from the language environment of 63 British toddlers aged 13 to 28 months. The corpus incorporates labeled speech samples of five typical routines: mealtime, bedtime, playtime, bathtime, and nappytime (i.e., diaper). To explore consistency and variability across these five linguistic contexts, topic modeling was employed. The topic most successfully detected as having a unique structure was mealtime, which was identified as such nearly 100% of the time; bathtime, nappytime, and bedtime were found to cluster together most of the time, suggesting that they have a similar language structure; playtime was correctly identified as such about 14% of the time. To validate the accuracy of parents marking the words that their child produced, the child's utterances found in the audio recordings were examined. About 18% of the vocabulary reported by parents appeared in the transcripts, and the reported vocabulary sizes were highly correlated with the number of unique words uttered by the children (ρ =.72, p < 001). The results suggest that most parents marked the words soon after their children start producing them (p <.001, d = 0.9). I discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using a mobile phone application as a method to collect children's data remotely, what worked to keep participants entering data, and what could have been done to avoid some issues encountered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers an analysis of Franz Kafka's dream from September 21, 1917, shortly before the October Revolution. Unlike his other father-related dreams, this dream portrays Kafka's father, Hermann, as humiliatingly impotent, a stark contrast to his usual portrayal as robust and vigorous. The context of this impotence is not physical activity, as in other dreams, but rather language and rhetorical persuasion.

Food pantry stigma among college students has been documented as an issue that impacts the utilization of resources but has not been deeply investigated. The objective of this study was to explore sources of food pantry stigma to identify different strategies to encourage food pantry use, which has the potential to positively alter methods on campuses. This mixed-methods study was a branched (separate questions and responses from both food pantry users and nonusers), 51-item, online, Qualtrics survey that sampled randomly selected students from a rural university (n = 3,000) and recruited using flyers posted in food pantries on campus. Reported results include demographic characteristics, use of on-campus food pantries, a validated food insecurity questionnaire, food pantry self-stigma, and an adapted measure of selfstigma of seeking help, and affirming or nonaffirming qualitative measures of food pantry stigma. Sentiment and keyword analyses were conducted by two researchers to analyze qualitative data to identify factors that influence food pantry stigma from food pantry users and nonusers. Quantitative data were analyzed with descriptive statistics. Qualitative data determined areas of stigma and aligned with the descriptive statistics on self-stigma and help-seeking measures. Among survey participants (n = 594), 35.7% of food-insecure students did not use food pantries. Users (M = 23.12, SD = 9.06) reported higher perceptions of food pantry stigma than nonusers (M = 15.79, SD = 3.85). Of the food pantry nonusers (n = 461), 322 identified the presence of stigma (69.85%). Sixty-six food pantry users (n = 97) identified the presence of stigma (68.04%). The keyword analysis highlighted potential influences of food pantry stigma among all participants including power hierarchy, financial burden, embarrassment, and feeling superfluous. This study highlights influences of stigma and places an emphasis on changing current approaches in campus food pantry implementation and dissemination. Future studies could investigate the barriers and solutions to current messaging and implementation of campus food pantries utilizing implementation science experts and frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Review of Sociology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In autocracies, low-capacity protest campaigns that lack material and political resources are common, but these weaknesses make them vulnerable to reneging – the deliberate failure to implement concessions as promised. Reneging is critical to how and whether protests actually influence policy. Why are some autocratic concessions to low-capacity campaigns undermined by reneging? I argue concessions are most likely to be implemented when they matter least for meaningfully altering policy. Concessions that provide isolated conflict resolution without constraining state actors elsewhere are more likely to be implemented, while reneging affects concessions that would constrain state agents elsewhere. I find support for this argument using an original dataset of low-capacity protest campaigns in Moscow, Russia, from 2013 to 2018, which includes a novel approach to concessions data. Additionally, I show that reneging is less likely when the campaign demobilizes after the concession, though the effect on constraining concessions is limited. I also address why campaigns about some issues, like labour disputes, experience less reneging, and show that concessions from higher levels of government are just as prone to reneging as lower levels. This article advances scholarship on authoritarian responsiveness and non-violent political control by highlighting reneging as an overlooked response to protest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, use of a second language (L2) has taken a central role in daily activities. There are numerous contexts in which people have to process information, acquire new knowledge, or make decisions via a second language. For example, in academia and higher education, English is commonly used as the language of instruction and communication even though English might not be students' native or first language (L1) and they might not be proficient in it. Such students may face different challenges when studying and learning in L2 relative to contexts in which they study and learn in their L1, and this may affect their metamemory strategies. However, little is yet known about whether metamemory processes undergo significant changes when learning is carried out in L2. The aim of the present study was to investigate the possible consequences on learning derived from studying materials in L2 and, more specifically, to explore whether the interplay between monitoring and control (metamemory processes) changes as a function of the language involved. In three experiments, we explored whether font type (Experiment 1), concreteness (Experiment 2), and relatedness (Experiment 3) affected judgments of learning (JOLs) and memory performance in both L1 and L2. JOLs are considered the result of metacognitive strategies involved in the monitoring of learning and have been reported to vary with the difficulty of the material. The results of this study showed that people were able to monitor their learning in both L1 and L2, even though they judged L2 learning as more difficult than L1. Interestingly, self-perceived difficulty did not hinder learning, and people recognized L2 materials as well or better than L1 materials. We suggest that this might be an example of a desirable difficulty for memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The primary aim was to assess the factor structure and establish measurement invariance across sex for the Perceived Vulnerability and Hardiness Scale. Participants: Sample 1 (N=377) and Sample 2 (N=401) were volunteers from six large southern universities. Methods: Iterative and collaborative survey-based focus groups were used to create the final version of the PVHS. Results: A two-factor model was identified through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The psychological hardiness subscale was found to positively correlate with hardiness and resilience, and negatively correlate with psychosocial functioning, depression, and anxiety. The vulnerability subscale was found to positively, strongly correlate with the anxiety, psychological vulnerability, and psychosocial functioning, and negatively correlate with the hardiness and resilience. Men and women interpreted the PVHS in an equivalent manner Conclusions: This brief measure provides researchers, counselors, and administrations a method for general assessment, intervention effectiveness, and evaluation of campus climates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green innovation is a key driving force in promoting the development of a low-carbon economy and society. However, previous studies have not paid enough attention to the influence of internal informal institutions on green innovation. To address this issue, this study conducts empirical tests by using a sample of A-share listed firms in China from 2013 to 2020. This study investigates whether and how carbon management strategies, as an important part of the internal informal institutions, promote corporate green innovation. The results show that carbon management strategies have a significant and positive impact on both the quantity and quality of green innovation. In addition, emphasizing meeting the needs of stakeholders and focusing on research and development (R&D) investment can significantly enhance the positive impact of carbon management strategies on green innovation. Furthermore, at the market level, carbon management strategies significantly boost green innovation in firms with larger market shares, which is enhanced by meeting stakeholder demands. At the firm level, state-owned enterprises pay attention to the mechanisms of both stakeholders' demands and R&D investment in driving green innovation. At the executive level, executive shareholding firms emphasize driving green innovation through R&D investment. Overall, these findings provide new evidence for the determinants of green innovation that have not been fully explored before through the perspective of internal informal institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research methodology constitutes the stem of most empirical studies, ranging from qualitative, quantitative, to mixed methods. In the course of conducting any study, the extensive knowledge of these practices is prerequisite, especially for novice researchers. Be it the least conventional type, mixed methods or triangulation has been grounded in theory since 1970s. It has become widely accepted as a way to improve the analysis and interpretation of findings (Denzin, 2010), as well as increase the validity of the outcomes (Creswell, 2014). Bearing in mind the valuable interest guaranteed by this latter, the present paper aimed at exploring the extent to which graduate students are familiar with triangulation in research, as translated in their knowledge about its types along with its previous use. This was carried out on 20 Moroccan graduate students coming from different universities through an open-ended/self-reported survey questionnaire done online. The results revealed 70% of the participants claimed familiarity with the concept of triangulation, while 30% reported no prior knowledge of it. Half of the participants reported prior use of triangulation in their theses/articles, master's degree dominating, while 'methodological triangulation' was the type mostly adopted. These findings count as a great foundation for future research aiming to investigate the reasons behind each result obtained. The answers of which will help connect the bridge of theory and practice accounting for research methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV) is a member of the Lyssavirus genus of the Rhabdoviridae family and is found in Australian bat species. It is of public health concern because of the rabies‐like syndrome it causes in humans, resulting in government health and wildlife agencies using varied communication approaches to inform targeted audiences about zoonotic risks associated with handling bats. Despite these warnings, the number of reports of human‐bat interactions remains high. This paper details a survey conducted to analyse the approaches utilised by a range of stakeholders to educate and communicate warnings to their target audiences. The survey focused on identifying the target audiences, communication methods used, along with the message frequency, content, and perceived effectiveness. Analysis of the top three messages delivered by stakeholders revealed that over half were information‐focused messages and over a third, instruction‐focused. Stakeholders identified the need to balance messaging about bat handling risks with information regarding the vulnerable status of bats and their environmental significance. Whilst the most common and (perceived) effective method of communication was one‐on‐one discussions, it was also identified to be ineffective for targeting mass audiences leading stakeholders to recognise the need to adapt to more efficient means of communication. The outcomes of this study may be useful to improve risk communication strategies regarding ABLV in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hearing loss in the elderly is a very common disease: it is estimated to affect up to a third of the population aged 65 years or more, and 50% of people over 75 years old. There is a growing amount of data concerning the association between hearing loss and cognitive decline. Various possible mechanisms at the basis of this association have been proposed, such as the "common cause hypothesis," the "cascade hypothesis," and the "cognitive load hypothesis." Critically reviewing the data is essential to highlight the features of the relationship between hearing loss and cognitive decline. Most of the hearing tests available should take into account that dementia or even just mild cognitive impairment (MCI) may lead to poor performance during examination. On the other hand, clinicians should also remember that tests used to assess cognitive function require an adequate hearing capacity. In this article we propose to analyze current diagnostic tests, treatment options, auditory processing, and rehabilitation strategies for hearing loss in the elderly in order to facilitate the management of this handicap in this fragile population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contest over the identity of the Church of England in the mid-seventeenth century is often conceived from a purely English perspective. This article suggests that considering its neglected European dimension offers a new and fruitful angle on events. It goes on to offer some indicative snapshots of moments when foreign Reformed perspectives and contributions were important. The Covenanter rebellion and arguments over English church reform in 1638-42 were moments when invoking the support of existing European religious authorities formed an important part of both sides' legitimization. In the civil war, competition for continental religious endorsement was avidly pursued by both sides, with mixed results, while royalists also toyed with foreign divines' redefinitions of episcopacy. Complex ways in which foreign Reformed authorities were manipulated into seeming to support the Restoration settlement are flagged. It is noted that Continental divines' own perspectives on English events were notably autonomous and conflicted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For successful actions in a fast, dynamic environment such as sports, a quick successful anticipation of a forthcoming environmental state is essential. However, the perceptual mechanisms involved in successful anticipation are not fully understood. This study examined the relationships between the magnitude of representational momentum (RM) as a forward displacement of the memory representation of the final position of a moving object (which implies that observers perceptually "see" a near future forthcoming dynamic environmental state) and the temporal and spatial anticipatory judgments of the opponent's high or middle kicks in taekwondo. Twenty-seven participants (university taekwondo club members and non-members) observed video clips of taekwondo kicks that vanished at one of 10 frame positions prior to the kick impact and performed three tasks consecutively: anticipatory coincidence timing (CT) with the arrival of kick impact, judgment of the kick type (high and middle kicks) by forced choice, and judgment of the vanishing frame position (measuring RM). Our results showed significant group effects for the number of correct kick-type judgments and the judgment threshold for kick-type choice (kick-typeJT), which was estimated in terms of individual psychometric function curves. A significant correlation was found between the magnitude of RM (estimated at kick-typeJT) and kick-typeJT, but not between the CT errors (estimated at kick-typeJT) and kick-typeJT. This indicates that the magnitude of RM may play an influential role in quick kick-type judgments, but not in coincidence timing while observing an opponent's kick motion. These findings suggest that subjective anticipatory perception or judgment of the future spatial state is vital to anticipatory actions under severe time constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Cancer-related cognitive deficits (CRCDs) are common among young adults (YAs) (ages: 18–39) with cancer and can be debilitating. We aimed to determine the feasibility and acceptability of a virtual Coping with Brain Fog intervention among YAs with cancer. Our secondary aims were to explore the intervention's effect on cognitive functioning and psychological distress. Methods: This prospective feasibility study involved eight weekly, 90-minute virtual group sessions. Sessions focused on psychoeducation on CRCD, memory skills, task management, and psychological well-being. The primary outcomes were feasibility and acceptability of the intervention evaluated through attendance (>60% not missing >2 consecutive sessions) and satisfaction (Client Satisfaction Questionnaire [CSQ] score >20). Secondary outcomes included the following: cognitive functioning (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Cognitive Function [FACT-Cog] Scale) and symptoms of distress (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System [PROMIS] Short Form–Anxiety/Depression/Fatigue) and participants' experiences using semistructured interviews. Paired t-tests and summative content analysis were used for quantitative and qualitative data analyses. Results: Twelve participants (five male, mean age = 33 years) were enrolled. All but one participant met feasibility criteria of not missing >2 consecutive sessions (11/12 = 92%). The mean CSQ score was 28.1 (standard deviation 2.5). Significant improvement in cognitive function as measured by FACT-Cog Scale was observed postintervention (p < 0.05). Ten participants adopted strategies from the program to combat CRCD, and eight reported CRCD symptom improvement. Conclusion: A virtual Coping with Brain Fog intervention is feasible and acceptable for the symptoms of CRCD among YAs with cancer. The exploratory data indicate subjective improvement in cognitive function, and will inform the design and implementation of a future clinical trial. ClinicalTrials.gov Registration: NCT05115422. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New plant breeding techniques may play an important role in improving food quality, global food security and sustainability. Previous breeding techniques have, however, met with substantial resistance from society. This study examined the role of associations and deliberation in the evaluation of breeding techniques. Breeding techniques studied included conventional breeding, gene-editing, genetic modification (cisgenesis and transgenesis), marker-assisted breeding and synthetic biology. By using focus group discussions that included individual tasks, we found that when participants relied on their spontaneous associations, gene-editing was evaluated similarly as genetic modification. However, after information provision and group discussion, gene-editing was preferred over genetic modification. Perceived naturalness was found to be the main reason for obtaining different levels of acceptance, not only between gene-editing and genetic modification but across all breeding techniques examined. These findings highlight the importance of associations and show that beliefs about naturalness remain crucial in understanding how consumers evaluate breeding techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how defendants indicted under the 1585 statute against seminary priests and Jesuits conducted their defences at trial. It explores why, although the indictment—for having returned to England after Catholic ordination overseas—accurately described defendants' actions, and although chances of acquittal were remote, many priests spent considerable effort defending themselves. The paper argues that strenuous efforts to make good a not-guilty plea illustrate Catholic engagement with the English polity and enabled Catholics both to acknowledge and to circumscribe its authority; also explored are refusals to plead, which were more common than studies of Catholic martyrs have usually recognised, and their motivation. Exploiting these multiple descriptions of low-profile (if not ordinary) criminal trials also enhances our understanding of how law and justice were perceived, and how they operated, during this relatively information-sparse period, and is thus of interest to historians of the law. The essay argues that examining trials of Catholics shows how legal proceedings can reveal dissidents' engagement with political authority, and how they negotiated its claims while maintaining the justice of their oppositional cause. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study examined the extent to which acoustic, linguistic, and cognitive task demands interactively impact listening effort. Method: Using a dual-task paradigm, on each trial, participants were instructed to perform either a single task or two tasks. In the primary word recognition task, participants repeated Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 words presented in speech-shaped noise at either an easier or a harder signal-tonoise ratio (SNR). The words varied in how commonly they occur in the English language (lexical frequency). In the secondary visual task, participants were instructed to press a specific key as soon as a number appeared on screen (simpler task) or one of two keys to indicate whether the visualized number was even or odd (more complex task). Results: Manipulation checks revealed that key assumptions of the dual-task design were met. A significant three-way interaction was observed, such that the expected effect of SNR on effort was only observable for words with lower lexical frequency and only when multitasking demands were relatively simpler. Conclusions: This work reveals that variability across speech stimuli can influence the sensitivity of the dual-task paradigm for detecting changes in listening effort. In line with previous work, the results of this study also suggest that higher cognitive demands may limit the ability to detect expected effects of SNR on measures of effort. With implications for real-world listening, these findings highlight that even relatively minor changes in lexical and multitasking demands can alter the effort devoted to listening in noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of the coroner in nineteenth century England suggest that inquests became increasingly medicalised. Much of this research was conducted in London. My research reveals that in Newcastle upon Tyne medicine did not dominate: the solicitor coroner used his skills and knowledge to maintain the legal focus of the inquest. This study reveals a fascinating dynamic between the legally qualified coroner and the local medical profession. In presenting an analysis of examples of the interactions between the Newcastle coroner and the medical profession, this article makes a significant contribution to scholarship on the relationship between medicine and law in the Victorian coroner's court. I offer insight into inquests in an important provincial town and discover that the coroner relocated the Newcastle court from official buildings to the public house, its traditional home. Rather than a story of increased medicalisation, the inquest in Newcastle was firmly the preserve of the law. The character and choices of an individual coroner are revealed to have a significant impact on the relationship between law and medicine in the coroner's court. I seek to encourage further research into the work of coroners, to develop a fuller picture of the inquest in the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]