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With growing internationalism, there is a shift in research patterns in developing countries, especially China and India, generating vital and contemporary research areas that are beginning to challenge the existing Western‐dominated research literature in social sciences. Yet, many of the new ideas within conceptual papers by the social sciences are not empirically validated, let alone operationalized. This is where the group concept mapping method can play a role in bridging the gap between phenomenal conceptualization and having an empirically valid model that can then be operationalized. The group concept mapping process involves five steps: create statements, sort statements, run multidimensional scaling (MDS) of sorted units, run cluster analysis, and label the clusters. This approach allows for the collective thoughts of a pre‐defined group to be collected and organized into a tangible output with academic rigor. This paper offers an overview of the group concept mapping methodology, discussing the processes of the method, how the method can be utilized fully within the business and broader social science context, and the strengths, weaknesses, and practical implications of group concept mapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) pose a challenge for achieving science that is both reproducible and replicable. The challenge is compounded in supervised models that depend on manually labeled training data, as they introduce additional decision‐making and processes that require thorough documentation and reporting. We address these limitations by providing an approach to hand labeling training data for supervised ML that integrates quantitative content analysis (QCA)—a method from social science research. The QCA approach provides a rigorous and well‐documented hand labeling procedure to improve the replicability and reproducibility of supervised ML applications in Earth systems science (ESS), as well as the ability to evaluate them. Specifically, the approach requires (a) the articulation and documentation of the exact decision‐making process used for assigning hand labels in a "codebook" and (b) an empirical evaluation of the reliability" of the hand labelers. In this paper, we outline the contributions of QCA to the field, along with an overview of the general approach. We then provide a case study to further demonstrate how this framework has and can be applied when developing supervised ML models for applications in ESS. With this approach, we provide an actionable path forward for addressing ethical considerations and goals outlined by recent AGU work on ML ethics in ESS. Plain Language Summary: Artificial intelligence and machine learning can make it hard to do science in a way that can be repeated. This can mean redoing a study in the exact same way to see if you can get the same or similar results (reproducibility) or trying to use the same study design on a new problem to see if the results are the same or similar (replicability). These types of scientific repetitions is important for developing robust knowledge, but is hard to do with certain types of machine learning that rely on data that were categorized by researchers. The researchers have to make decisions and categorize their data, which the machine learning algorithm then uses as a guide to make its own decisions. Generally, there is not enough information shared by the researchers about how these decisions were made to repeat the science or evaluate how good it is. In this paper, we provide a way to address these shortcomings. The approach and example we offer illustrates how to (a) create a rulebook that can be shared for how to make decisions and (b) quantitatively measure how consistent the researchers are at using that rulebook to make their decisions. Key Points: We provide a rigorous hand labeling procedure to improve the replicability and reproducibility of supervised machine learning (ML)Our case study and step‐by‐step guide clearly outline how the procedure can be appliedThe procedure is an actionable path forward for addressing ethical considerations and goals for ML development in Earth systems science [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: "Programme science" deploys scientific methods to address questions that are a priority to support the impact of public health programmes. As such, programme science responds to the challenges of making such studies: (1) feasible to undertake, (2) useful, (3) rigorous, (4) real‐world‐relevant, (5) informative, and undertaken by (6) equitable partnerships. The acronym "FURRIE" is proposed to describe this set of six challenges. This paper discusses selected HIV/STI (sexually transmitted infection) programme science case studies to illustrate how programme science rises to the FURRIE challenges. Discussion: One way in which programme science is made more feasible is through the analysis and interpretation of data collected through service delivery. For some questions, these data can be augmented through methods that reach potential clients of services who have not accessed services or been lost to follow‐up. Process evaluation can enhance the usefulness of programme science by studying implementation processes, programme−client interactions and contextual factors. Ensuring rigour by limiting bias and confounding in the real‐world context of programme science studies requires methodological innovation. Striving for scientific rigour can also have the unintended consequence of creating a gap between what happens in a study, and what happens in the "real‐world." Community‐led monitoring is one approach to grounding data collection in the real‐world experience of clients. Evaluating complex, context‐specific strategies to strengthen health outcomes in a way that is informative for other settings requires clear specification of the intervention packages that are planned and delivered in practice. Programme science provides a model for equitable partnership through co‐leadership between programmes, researchers and the communities they serve. Conclusions: Programme science addresses the FURRIE challenges, thereby improving programme impact and ultimately health outcomes and health equity. The adoption and adaptation of the types of novel programme science approaches showcased here should be promoted within and beyond the HIV/STI field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growing recognition of the unique advantages of reinforcement learning and genetic algorithms in addressing combinatorial optimization problems, this study aims to integrate these two methods to collectively tackle the classic combinatorial optimization challenge of the travelling salesman problem (TSP). The TSP stands as a quintessential combinatorial optimization challenge, tasked with determining the shortest path among designated cities. This paper introduces an innovative approach by amalgamating reinforcement learning's path selection prowess with genetic algorithms' global search strategy, aiming to uncover superior solutions in TSP. Specifically, the experiment employs a dual Q‐learning algorithm within reinforcement learning to identify multiple optimal paths, serving as progenitors for the genetic algorithm to further enhance performance. The paper meticulously outlines the problem modelling process, elucidating TSP instance definitions, descriptions, and precise objective function definitions. Experimental findings underscore the substantial enhancements achievable in TSP optimization through this comprehensive approach, offering a fresh perspective and methodology for tackling combinatorial optimization challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Two main problems the globe currently facing are migration and weather variation. Weather change has a significant impact on the agricultural industry, which affects the majority of poor people. There is a dearth of adequate methodological documentation when examining the relationship between weather variation, agricultural output, and migration. We aimed to identify methodological reporting difficulties by reviewing the quantitative literature on weather‐related migration through agricultural channels. Methods: A systematic evaluation was conducted using papers published between January 2010 and June 2022, indexed in the SCOPUS, PUBMED, and Google Scholar databases. Using inclusion/exclusion criteria, we selected 22 original research articles out of 18,929 distinct articles for review, in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. We extracted data from each study to understand how various concepts, research designs, and investigative techniques influence our understanding of migration patterns related to weather in the agricultural sector. Results: The majority (64%) of the study's data consisted of time series data. In 50% of the studies, secondary data were used. Additionally, 55% of these studies did not state the sample size. In 40% of the studies, model assumptions were fully adhered to, whereas in 36% of the studies, they were not followed at all. The majority of the articles used the Ordinary Least Squares technique, while about 41% applied the Two‐Stage Least Squares technique. Various tests were conducted across these studies, such as robustness checks (59.1%), endogeneity tests (31.8%), omitted variable bias tests (22.7%), sensitivity analyses (22.7%), and weak instrument tests (13.6%), to name a few. In the research we selected, the methodology section had various shortcomings and lacked organization. Furthermore, the justifications for deviations from model assumptions were unclear, potentially affecting the study outcomes. Conclusion: This study has important indications for researchers in studying climatic (weather) migration through agricultural channels besides for policymakers by giving a thorough review of the methods and techniques. Key points: Providing narrative insights on how various issues, research designs, and analytical techniques shape our understanding of the association between weather variation and migration via agricultural production.Providing a broad overview of the pertinent literature, covering 22 articles, as a complement to earlier studies.Our study has important ramifications for researchers studying climatic (weather) migration through agricultural channels as well as for policymakers by giving a thorough review of the methods and techniques currently used in this sector.Future studies on weather variation, agricultural production, and migration should use prudent and comparable models that capture whole climatic (weather) impacts on migration through mediating factors like agricultural production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Projecting future trends is emerging as a key focus of community‐based climate vulnerability assessments. In these mostly qualitative studies, understanding of current vulnerability processes is used as a basis for identifying who and what are vulnerable to future changes, where, and why, and characterizing the key drivers of vulnerability and how they might change. Few, if any, of these studies engage with approaches for validating findings, reflecting the difficulties of validating mostly qualitative projections of highly uncertain futures, absence of directly measurable vulnerability outcomes, and lack of data on vulnerability drivers. Given the challenges of projecting future trends, this absence undermines trust in such work and limits opportunities to learn. This paper illustrates, with examples, how validation can be incorporated into the study design of community‐based climate vulnerability assessments through: (a) examination of retrospective projections to assess projection skill, (b) evaluation of projections made for future time periods which have since passed for consistency with what actually happened, (c) comparison of projections with empirical research that attempts to understand and constrain the effects of climate change using observed effects of weather variation, and (d) incorporation of demonstrated "best practices" into projection development, such as acknowledgment of areas of uncertainty, integration of diverse viewpoints, and utilization of multiple sources of information. Plain Language Summary: Projections are widely used in a variety of fields to anticipate, identify, and characterize how the future may evolve, and have been a central feature in climate change research within the natural sciences. Their development and use to understand if and how communities are vulnerable to climate change, however, is more recent, with such work describing potential future climate vulnerabilities and the pathways leading to them, and are mostly developed within the social sciences. This paper argues that such "community‐based" work needs to look to the experience of other fields which have a wealth of experience of how to build trust and legitimacy into projection development processes. One such way is through projection validation, which in the context of largely qualitative community‐based work could include continually evaluating how well projections are performing as the future unfolds; evaluation of projections made for future time periods which have since passed for consistency with what actually happened and ensuring demonstrated "best practices" are incorporated into projection development, such as acknowledgment of areas of uncertainty, integration of diverse viewpoints, and utilization of multiple sources of information. Key Points: Projecting climate vulnerability at a community‐level is a rapidly growing area of researchThe importance of validating vulnerability projections is increasingly recognized in the literature although underutilized in practice, particularly within qualitative researchThere are opportunities to build external and internal validation approaches into processes through which community vulnerability projections are developed [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever since Germany's use of chlorine gas on the battlefields of Flanders during the First World War, modern warfare has become synonymous with gas warfare, its images an iconographic shorthand for a detached, humiliating, and dishonourable death, and the gas mask a modern symbol of memento mori, a reminder of our own mortality. The paper argues that a critical history of chemical weapons and protective technologies, which is firmly grounded in the historiography and pays particular attention to the wider political and scientific context and related complexities, can help to facilitate greater public understanding and a willingness among key stakeholders to prioritise a shared interest: the creation of a world free from chemical weapons once and for all. Through an extended book review of Peter Thompson's recent book The Gas Mask in Interwar Germany, the paper seeks to demonstrate that writing such a history of modern warfare poses distinct challenges. Across eight chapters, the book covers, among others, the history of the first attack with chlorine gas in 1915, the development of gas masks, the perceived fear of gas among soldiers, the role of doctors in treating gas casualties, the role and writings of "gas specialists", and, last but not least, the alleged realisation of a specific "Nazi chemical modernity", through which the author attempts to connect the subject matter with the Holocaust. Such a wide‐ranging, longue durée perspective can be fruitful if it is done with an attention to critical source analyses and balanced argumentation. Whether the book will inspire scholars to "rewrite the history of the twentieth century", as the author implies, remains to be seen, but its broad discussion about the perceived and real implications of chemical agents and other "invisible toxins" undoubtedly offers food for thought in an increasingly volatile and seemingly threatening world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to review how Science and Technology Studies (STS) has contributed to climate change mitigation research. We focus on large‐scale infrastructures as a key topic of both mitigation efforts and recent STS scholarship. The paper assesses the conceptual and methodological treatments in this field, uses literature evidence to identify research gaps, and suggests potential topics for future research. Our research firstly contributes to the use of STS approaches in the novel field of climate change mitigation infrastructure, asking how scholarship in the field has learned from STS and developed STS further. Second, we examine how infrastructures are approached in this literature and conclude that the reviewed works almost exclusively associate infrastructure with physical supply systems. This is paradoxical since several of them also advocate a socio‐technical perspective on infrastructures, which would require much more substantiation of the social aspects than they seem to provide. Third, we explore the fits between theoretical frameworks and methods in this field and discover a strong reliance on case studies, literature reviews, and theoretical‐conceptual discussions. This situation suggests that methodological advancements in STS infrastructure studies has still been untapped in this area. This article is categorized under:The Carbon Economy and Climate Mitigation > Decarbonizing Energy and/or Reducing Demand [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Study Design and Setting Results Conclusion This paper describes several automation tools and software that can be considered during evidence synthesis projects and provides guidance for their integration in the conduct of scoping reviews.The guidance presented in this work is adapted from the results of a scoping review and consultations with the JBI Scoping Review Methodology group.This paper describes several reliable, validated automation tools and software that can be used to enhance the conduct of scoping reviews. Developments in the automation of systematic reviews, and more recently scoping reviews, are continuously evolving. We detail several helpful tools in order of the key steps recommended by the JBI's methodological guidance for undertaking scoping reviews including team establishment, protocol development, searching, de‐duplication, screening titles and abstracts, data extraction, data charting, and report writing. While we include several reliable tools and software that can be used for the automation of scoping reviews, there are some limitations to the tools mentioned. For example, some are available in English only and their lack of integration with other tools results in limited interoperability.This paper highlighted several useful automation tools and software programs to use in undertaking each step of a scoping review. This guidance has the potential to inform collaborative efforts aiming at the development of evidence informed, integrated automation tools and software packages for enhancing the conduct of high‐quality scoping reviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically examines the tensions arising between Reception teachers' professional beliefs and knowledge, and the school readiness agenda in England. It scrutinises how the increasing academic expectations placed on children to ensure they are 'ready for school' may conflict with teachers' understanding of how young children learn, their pedagogical philosophies and classroom practices. In this paper, cultural‐historical activity theory (CHAT) is utilised as a methodological and analytical framework, specifically harnessing Engeström and Sannino's work on 'manifestations of contradictions'. This theoretical lens is applied to elucidate the specific contradictions that surface at the policy–practice interface and to explore how teachers navigate these conflicts and tensions. Data were gathered through interviews with two Reception teachers and analysed to identify four distinct contradiction categories: dilemmas, double binds, critical conflicts and conflicts. The findings make a critical contribution to ongoing debates about the implications of the school readiness agenda on teacher beliefs, professional knowledge and the impact on children. Furthermore, this paper extends an original contribution to the practical application of CHAT in Early Childhood Education (ECE) research and emphasises the utility of identifying linguistic cues as an effective strategy to reveal contradictions in textual data, thereby furthering understanding of policy–practice tensions in ECE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global challenges call for timely social--ecological transformation. There is a substantial amount of literature on social--ecological transformation, increasingly replacing and going beyond 'sustainability'. However, the concept itself is used very inconsistently. This paper aims at identifying and systematizing the strains of argumentation that encompass the social--ecological transformation. Adding German-speaking literature to the Anglophone debate, we systematize as we follow the concept's genesis to its varieties of use within context-based (spatial, temporal, and societal) disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary debates. Building on the various strands of contemporary use, this paper aims at contouring the epistemologies of the concept. Lastly, we illustrate the roles of geographical research approaches and the assigned methodology. We argue that the strands tend to drift apart and cannot be seen nor used as a singular uniform approach. We identify the key dimensions of how scholars use social--ecological transformation, unearthing underlying epistemologies. To conclude, we delineate key elements that geographical research on social--ecological transformation must address, laying the foundation for further scholarly debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will take as its starting point the premise that developing translational bioethics is a worthwhile endeavour. I will develop an account of translational bioethics and discuss what implications this would have for the wider discipline of bioethics and argue that this would be a useful development for bioethics. The paper will conduct a form of 'translational meta‐bioethics analysis', in the words of Bærøe. I will argue that if we are serious about instituting translational bioethics, then it will need to look and be organised in a very different way from current bioethics research, this will be a radically different form of bioethics from what we currently have. In this paper I will sketch what translational bioethics might look like. My proposal here is not that translational bioethics should supplant existing ways of doing bioethics, but rather that it should be an addition to it, another subdiscipline of bioethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Age is a key factor when dealing with language and speech disorders, as it entails a progressive loss of neuroplasticity even in healthy individuals. Apart from this, ageing also affects our word‐retrieval abilities, and thus, our discursive skills, particularly in people suffering from neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, descriptions and/or measures of communicative performance always need to be interpreted through the lens of variation across the lifespan. Aim: This paper's main objective is to create a general tutorial for researchers willing to start delving into discourse analysis, both in healthy and pathological ageing. Methods: An eight‐step tutorial on discourse analysis in the elderly is presented. Each of these steps starts with general recommendations and progresses to more specific topics that may be relevant when conducting this type of research. All of the steps have been extrapolated from an extensive literature review on discourse analysis. Main Contributions: This work presents an easy‐to‐follow, step‐by‐step tutorial on discourse analysis in the elderly. It is aimed at clinical researchers who are taking their first steps in discourse analysis.It may also be useful for those who are already familiar with the methodology but may be interested in reading a general overview on the topic. Moreover, it offers new insights into the following topics: types of research questions, advantages and disadvantages of the different research methodologies and ethical considerations for data production in clinical linguistics. Conclusions: Discourse analysis in the elderly is a highly complex issue that may require researching from different approaches and disciplines. This implies following a well‐planned and thorough process, which we have detailed through the following eight steps: (i) reviewing literature; (ii) formulating the research question; (iii) designing the study; (iv) producing data; (v) selecting technological tools for data treatment; (vi) transcribing the corpus; (vii) annotating the corpus and (viii) analysing and interpreting the results. What This Paper Adds: What is already known on the subject: Approaches in discourse analysis in elderly adults, and particularly, in people suffering from dementia have already been analysed by previous researchers and categorised into three main trends: the quantitative‐experimental approach, the qualitative‐naturalistic approach and an in‐between path, the quantitative‐naturalistic approach. Also, several handbooks on general discourse analysis have presented comprehensive revisions on potential resources and methodologies that can be applied to researching discourse in elderly populations. What this paper adds to existing knowledge: This paper takes these three main approaches and analyses how the most recent research on language in ageing and dementia fits into them. Furthermore, it reviews the advantages and disadvantages each of them may bring for beginners in the field of discourse analysis. Moreover, it adds some studies that may fit into a fourth approach: the qualitative‐experimental. This article also presents information about several of the main steps when analysing data from the pragmatic perspective: the formulation of the research question, data production and the transcription/annotation process. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?: This work has been devised for linguists who may want to read a systematization of the steps for analysing discourse in elderly populations. It may also be of interest to specialists from different fields such as speech therapy, psychology, gerontology or neurology who desire to start applying methods from discourse analysis in their work and aim to have a comprehensive scope of the main research trends within the field of clinical pragmatics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To apply a new evidence‐gathering methodology, called reverse systematic review (RSR), to analyse the influence of different continence classification criteria on urinary continence rates among open retropubic radical prostatectomy (RRP), laparoscopic RP (LRP) and robot‐assisted RP (RARP). Materials and Methods: A search was carried out in eight databases between 2000 and 2020 through systematic reviews (SRs) studies referring to RRP, LRP or RARP (80 SRs). All references used in these SRs were captured referring to 910 papers in an overall database called the 'EVIDENCE Database'. A total of 422 studies related to post‐RP urinary continence were selected for the final analysis, totalling 782 reports referring to 193 618 patients. Results: Overall, 206 (26.4%) reports for RRP, 243 (31.0%) reports for LRP, and 333 (42.6%) reports for RARP were found. Mean overall continence rates, respectively for RRP, LRP and RARP, were: 42%, 34% and 42% at 1 month; 62%, 64% and 65% at 3 months; 73, 77 and 79% at 6 months; and 81%, 85% and 86% at 12 months. The most used criterion was 'No pad' (53.3%), followed by 'Safety pad' (19.3%), 'Not described' (10.6%), and 'No leak' (9.9%). 'No pad' showed the lowest discrepancy in continence rates in each period compared to the overall average for each technique, demonstrating less ability to influence the final results favouring any of the techniques. Conclusion: The RSR demonstrated that the 'No pad' criterion was the most used in the literature and showed the lowest bias capable of influencing the results and favouring any of the techniques and is the fairest option for future comparisons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a meta‐analysis scoping study of doctoral dissertations completed in the last 20 years in one doctoral programme of Educational Leadership (EL) at a higher education institution in Texas, aiming at identifying topical foci, epistemology, methodology and main themes. Therefore, we systematically collected, documented, securitised and analysed completed dissertations following the steps identified by PRISMA guidelines. The review aimed to answer the following four questions: (1) What are the general trends of doctoral dissertations in the studied programme? (2) What is the topical foci of these dissertations? (3) What are the prevailing epistemological constructs and genres informing this work? (4) What are the gaps in this research focus within the scope of educational leadership and policy? Based on our analysis, four main key themes were identified: educational leadership and policy, public education, equity and social justice, and race and ethnicity. Further implications, utility of research and future dissertations in educational leadership in this programme and other similar programmes are fully discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predatory journals are a blemish on scholarly publishing and academia and the studies published within them are more likely to contain data that is false. The inclusion of studies from predatory journals in evidence syntheses is potentially problematic due to this propensity for false data to be included. To date, there has been little exploration of the opinions and experiences of evidence synthesisers when dealing with predatory journals in the conduct of their evidence synthesis. In this paper, the thoughts, opinions, and attitudes of evidence synthesisers towards predatory journals and the inclusion of studies published within these journals in evidence syntheses were sought. Focus groups were held with participants who were experienced evidence synthesisers from JBI (previously the Joanna Briggs Institute) collaboration. Utilising qualitative content analysis, two generic categories were identified: predatory journals within evidence synthesis, and predatory journals within academia. Our findings suggest that evidence synthesisers believe predatory journals are hard to identify and that there is no current consensus on the management of these studies if they have been included in an evidence synthesis. There is a critical need for further research, education, guidance, and development of clear processes to assist evidence synthesisers in the management of studies from predatory journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquatic systems are warming and exceeding upper thermal limits (UTLs) for many fish species, yet understanding how they inform resilience to climate change is challenging. Using Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) as a model, we conducted a systematic review involving 168 papers investigating UTL in five species. We found considerable variation in UTL among species, within species and across life stages; largely attributed to methodological approaches (e.g. CTmax/UILT, Aerobic/Cardiac Scope, Thermal Migration Barriers, Rearing Mortality, Thermal Preference/Avoidance). Given that each method has strengths and weaknesses owing to logistics, time scale and ecological realism, we offer a new framework for assessing vulnerability to warming that stresses the importance of considering UTL metrics in the context of intended use (i.e. the development of management guidelines, projections of future persistence and survival) and what aspect (physiological or behavioural) of thermal response a metric investigates. Comparing studies with identical UTL approaches revealed that within species, UTL was higher for populations historically encountering higher temperatures—suggesting local thermal adaptation. Within populations, UTL differed across the lifecycle, being highest in fry and lowest in embryo and migrating adults, but this was not universal. For spawning Pacific salmon, UTL has not been assessed and few studies have examined estuarine and marine stages. Ultimately, this data gap limits the life‐history thermal perspectives that can be drawn and may indicate a broader gap for all fishes, given that Pacific salmon are among the most well‐studied species. Our framework illustrates the inherent and methodological inconsistencies in UTL and offers a guide for how thermal limits can best be used to assess the warming tolerance and vulnerability of fishes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A paucity of qualitative research on sensitive topics that focuses on participants with intellectual disabilities leaves their views unexplored. This scoping review mainly aimed to provide an overview of qualitative data collection methods used in research involving participants with intellectual disabilities to explore death and dying. Method: A scoping review of primary research and methodological papers published between January 2008 and March 2022 was conducted. The PRISMA‐ScR checklist was followed. Results: We identified 25 articles utilising four data collection methods: interviews, focus groups, the Nominal Group Technique, and participant observation. Data collection trends were identified, including accommodations for participants with intellectual disabilities, visual media used as a facilitator, and reporting of distress protocols. Most participants had mild to moderate intellectual disabilities. Conclusions: The included studies demonstrate a flexible approach that relies on the use of multiple methods. Future research must adequately report study characteristics to ensure transparency and reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a research programme in linguistics that is founded on describing language as an emergent phenomenon. This paper clarifies how the core concept of emergence is deployed in this emergentist programme. We show that if one adopts the weak understandings of the concept of language emergence, the emergentist programme is not fundamentally different from the other non‐emergentist research programmes in linguistics. On the other hand, if one adopts the stronger understandings of emergence then the programme would have a unique character, but at the cost of some corollaries (philosophical, but not only) which the emergentist linguists would seemingly want to avoid. We show that if the emergentists accept those corollaries, the resulting hypothetical emergentist programme would be totally different from the emergentist programme in its present shape. We conclude that the emergentist programme, as it stands, should be either abandoned or reshaped in both theory and methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a feasibility study for an evaluation of a UK primary school‐based prevention programme that addresses multiple forms of abuse and neglect, identifying research design and ethical issues and exploring research practice. For this feasibility study, 194 children aged 6–11 years completed a baseline survey and 113 did so following the intervention. Eight focus groups were undertaken with 52 children and nine interviews with school staff. We highlight key considerations for conducting large‐scale mixed‐method research on sensitive topics with younger children, a focus that is largely absent from the extant research methods literature. The feasibility study showed that younger children can contribute their views on sensitive topics in ways that are measurable, replicable and reliable, contesting ideas that certain topics are too sensitive to explore with younger children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The endocrine pancreas is composed of clusters of cell groups called pancreatic islets. These cells are responsible for the synthesis and secretion of hormones crucial for glycemic homeostasis, such as insulin and glucagon. Therefore, these cells were the targets of many studies. One method to study and/or understand endocrine pancreatic physiology is the isolation of these islets and stimulation of hormone production using different concentrations of glucose, agonists, and/or antagonists of specific secretagogues and mimicking the stimulation of hormonal synthesis and secretion. Many researchers studied pancreatic physiology in murine models due to their ease of maintenance and rapid development. However, the isolation of pancreatic islets involves meticulous processes that may vary between rodent species. The present study describes a simple and effective technical protocol for isolating intact islets from mice and rats for use as a practical guide for researchers. The method involves digestion of the acinar parenchyma by intraductal collagenase. Isolated islets are suitable for in vitro endocrine secretion analyses, microscopy techniques, and biochemical analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conservation detection dogs (CDD) use their exceptional olfactory abilities to assist a wide range of conservation projects through the detection of target specimens or species. CDD are generally quicker, can cover wider areas and find more samples than humans and other analytical tools. However, their efficacy varies between studies; methodological and procedural standardisation in the field is lacking. Considering the cost of deploying a CDD team and the limited financial resources within conservation, it is vital that their performance is quantified and reliable. This review aims to summarise what is currently known about the use of scent detection dogs in conservation and elucidate which factors affect efficacy. We describe the efficacy of CDD across species and situational contexts like training and fieldwork. Reported sensitivities (i.e. the proportion of target samples found out of total available) ranged from 23.8% to 100% and precision rates (i.e. proportion of alerts that are true positives) from 27% to 100%. CDD are consistently shown to be better than other techniques, but performance varies substantially across the literature. There is no consistent difference in efficacy between training, testing and fieldwork, hence we need to understand the factors affecting this. We highlight the key variables that can alter CDD performance. External effects include target odour, training methods, sample management, search methodology, environment and the CDD handler. Internal effects include dog breed, personality, diet, age and health. Unfortunately, much of the research fails to provide adequate information on the dogs, handlers, training, experience and samples. This results in an inability to determine precisely why an individual study has high or low efficacy. It is clear that CDDs can be effective and applied to possibly limitless conservation scenarios, but moving forward researchers must provide more consistent and detailed methodologies so that comparisons can be conducted, results are more easily replicated and progress can be made in standardising CDD work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]