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The widespread adoption of technology-based assessments during the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated concerns about the digital divide, given global disparities in digital access, connectivity, and coping strategies. This systematic review was intended to assess how the use of technology-based assessments has affected the education system's functioning in pre-college education, compared to traditional assessments. It covered 34 countries from 34 full-text English sources in 2018-2022. A total of 12 assumptions were tested, corresponding to six hypotheses about the learning, educating, and management facets associated with the use of technology-based assessments. Our findings revealed mixed evidence about technology-based assessments in reducing cheating, enhancing learning, supporting monitoring, improving instruction, and reducing non-teaching workload. However, strong evidence supported the assumptions that technology-based assessments improve measurement precision, interpretability, engagement, interaction, and teacher-parent communication. Limited but positive evidence supported the assumptions that technology-based assessments may reduce the cost and time of test administration.

Applying Culture and Appreciative Education lenses, this qualitative study, eliciting detailed descriptions, examines six North American adult and higher education scholars' lived learning experiences and insights gained from their academic collaborations in and with the East. Our findings indicate that participants hold unique international collaboration experiences with commonalities. Most participants experienced language and cultural barriers in real-time, on-site collaborations that they would not have considered otherwise without these experiences. Many differences made them realize the fundamentals for intercultural collaborations. They consciously learned to reposition with appreciative mindsets and co-construct goals and solutions with counterparts. All participants indicated that transnational contexts enable profound reflective and authentic learning, renewed understandings of cross-cultural sensitivity, and different ways of thinking and doing. This study demonstrates that international collaborations promote adult learning with self-awareness for a new dimension of global learning and cultural competency in the internationalization of adult education.

Flame retardants are globally distributed contaminants that have been linked to negative health effects in humans and wildlife. As top predators, marine mammals bioaccumulate flame retardants and other contaminants in their tissues which is one of many human-imposed factors threatening population health. While some flame retardants, such as the polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE), have been banned because of known toxicity and environmental persistence, limited data exist on the presence and distribution of current-use alternative flame retardants in marine mammals from many industrialized and remote regions of the world. Therefore, this study measured 44 legacy and alternative flame retardants in nine marine mammal species from three ocean regions: the Northwest Atlantic, the Arctic, and the Baltic allowing for regional, species, age, body condition, temporal, and tissue comparisons to help understand global patterns. PBDE concentrations were 100–1000 times higher than the alternative brominated flame retardants (altBFRs) and Dechloranes. 2,2′,4,5,5′-pentabromobiphenyl (BB-101) and hexabromobenzene (HBBZ) were the predominant altBFRs, while Dechlorane-602 was the predominant Dechlorane. This manuscript also reports only the second detection of hexachlorocyclopentadienyl-dibromocyclooctane (HCDBCO) in marine mammals. The NW Atlantic had the highest PBDE concentrations followed by the Baltic and Arctic which reflects greater historical use of PBDEs in North America compared to Europe and greater industrialization of North America and Baltic countries compared to the Arctic. Regional patterns for other compounds were more complicated, and there were significant interactions among species, regions, body condition and age class. Lipid-normalized PBDE concentrations in harbor seal liver and blubber were similar, but HBBZ and many Dechloranes had higher concentrations in liver, indicating factors other than lipid dynamics affect the distribution of these compounds. The health implications of contamination by this mixture of compounds are of concern and require further research. [Display omitted] • Flame retardants were found in seals and cetaceans from populous and remote regions. • Thirty-eight old and new brominated and chlorinated compounds were detected. • The Northwest Atlantic species had higher PBDE concentrations than other regions. • Concentrations were influenced by species, region, age, year, and body condition. • Health implications of contamination by chemical mixtures needs more study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The taxonomy of Nyssa (Nyssaceae) in China is confused and uncertain due to differing views about how many species should be recognized, and a scarcity of good morphological differential characters. In the present study, we examined 52 morphological characters from up to fifty accessions each of six of the seven species recognized in the Flora of China: N. yunnanensis, N. javanica, N. sinensis, N. shangszeensis, N. shweliensis and N. wenshanensis. Based on both principal coordinate analysis and UPGMA cluster analysis, N. yunnanensis and N. javanica were both morphologically distinct. However, acces sions of N. sinensis, N. shangszeensis, N. shweliensis and N. wenshanensis were intermixed in both analyses and could not be discriminated from each other. Sequence data from nuclear ITS and the chloroplast regions trnH-psbA, rps16r-f, trnL-rps32F, trnS-G and trnL-F were used to further analyze the Nyssa species listed above, together with N. aquatica and N. sylvatica from North America. All analyses of the DNA data using maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods strongly supported the monophyly of Nyssa. Within Nyssa, N. yunnanensis and N. javanica were resolved as sister species, which were genetically distinct. The other four Chinese taxa were barely differentiated by molecular data, with only N. shangszeensis and N. wenshanensis weakly supported as monophyletic. Hence, based on morphological and molecular data, we recommend that N. shangszeensis, N. shweliensis and N. wenshanensis be reduced to synonyms of N. sinensis, and only N. sinensis, N. yunnanensis and N. javanica be recognized for Flora of China. The American N. aquatica and N. sylvatica were sister species in the cpDNA but not in the ITS analyses, indicating possible reticulate evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The objective of this study was to estimate the risk of contralateral breast cancer in BRCA1 and BRCA2 carriers; and measure the extent to which host, family history, and cancer treatment-related factors modify the risk.Patients and Methods: Patients were 810 women, with stage I or II breast cancer, for whom a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation had been identified in the family. Patients were followed from the initial diagnosis of cancer until contralateral mastectomy, contralateral breast cancer, death, or last follow-up.Results: Overall, 149 subjects (18.4%) developed a contralateral breast cancer. The 15-year actuarial risk of contralateral breast cancer was 36.1% for women with a BRCA1 mutation and was 28.5% for women with a BRCA2 mutation. Women younger than 50 years of age at the time of breast cancer diagnosis were significantly more likely to develop a contralateral breast cancer at 15 years, compared with those older than 50 years (37.6 vs 16.8%; P=0.003). Women aged <50 years with two or more first-degree relatives with early-onset breast cancer were at high risk of contralateral breast cancer, compared with women with fewer, or no first-degree relatives with breast cancer (50 vs 36%; P=0.005). The risk of contralateral breast cancer was reduced with oophorectomy (RR 0.47; 95% CI 0.30-0.76; P=0.002).Conclusion: The risk of contralateral breast cancer risk in BRCA mutation carriers declines with the age of diagnosis and increases with the number of first-degree relatives affected with breast cancer. Oophorectomy reduces the risk of contralateral breast cancer in young women with a BRCA mutation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate estimation of the spatial-temporal variation of the maximum gross primary productivity (GPPmax) of vegetation is of great significance for predicting carbon fluxes and vegetation-climate feedback. In this study, the GPPmax estimation models were constructed based on driving variables derived from the MODIS enhanced vegetation index (EVI) and land surface temperature (LST) time series data using a stepwise regression analysis. The models were calibrated and validated with the observed GPPmax from 145 FLUXNET sites with 734 site-year data from 2000 to 2014. The GPPmax estimates and the changes in their trends at the global scale were also compared with other GPPmax products from the vegetation photosynthesis model and the eddy covariance-light use efficiency model. The results showed that the GPPmax for both forest and non-forest vegetation types were estimated well, with R2 of 0.47–0.86 and 0.47–0.95 and relative root mean square error of 10.14–35.14% and 11.25–30.02% for calibration and validation data, respectively. Summer EVI and spring EVI and LST played important roles in explaining the variation in GPPmax. The GPPmax estimates from this study and the changes in their trends were highly correlated with GPPmax estimates from the vegetation photosynthesis model, with R2 > 0.70 for most vegetation types. The GPPmax significantly increased in western North America, northern Europe, and eastern China, but decreased in tropical regions. This study concluded that the variation in GPPmax for various vegetation types on a global scale can be accurately estimated based on MODIS EVI and LST time series data, which provides a simple but effective way for large-scale estimation of GPPmax. • We built GPPmax estimation models from MODIS EVI/LST data using stepwise regression. • GPPmax for both forest and non-forest vegetation were estimated well. • Summer EVI and spring EVI and LST were important in explaining variations in GPPmax. • This method accurately estimated variations in GPPmax for vegetation globally. • Long-term change trends in GPPmax from different products were different. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to estimate the reduction in risk of ovarian, fallopian tube, or peritoneal cancer in women with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation after oophorectomy, by age of oophorectomy; to estimate the impact of prophylactic oophorectomy on all-cause mortality; and to estimate 5-year survival associated with clinically detected ovarian, occult, and peritoneal cancers diagnosed in the cohort., Patients and Methods: Women with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation were identified from an international registry; 5,783 women completed a baseline questionnaire and ≥ one follow-up questionnaires. Women were observed until either diagnosis of ovarian, fallopian tube, or peritoneal cancer, death, or date of most recent follow-up. Hazard ratios (HRs) for cancer incidence and all-cause mortality associated with oophorectomy were evaluated using time-dependent survival analyses., Results: After an average follow-up period of 5.6 years, 186 women developed either ovarian (n = 132), fallopian (n = 22), or peritoneal (n = 32) cancer, of whom 68 have died. HR for ovarian, fallopian, or peritoneal cancer associated with bilateral oophorectomy was 0.20 (95% CI, 0.13 to 0.30; P < .001). Among women who had no history of cancer at baseline, HR for all-cause mortality to age 70 years associated with an oophorectomy was 0.23 (95% CI, 0.13 to 0.39; P < .001)., Conclusion: Preventive oophorectomy was associated with an 80% reduction in the risk of ovarian, fallopian tube, or peritoneal cancer in BRCA1 or BRCA2 carriers and a 77% reduction in all-cause mortality., (© 2014 by American Society of Clinical Oncology.)

Women with a BRCA1 mutation face a high lifetime risk of breast cancer. It is unknown to what extent environmental factors modify the inherent genetic risk. If women from different countries, but with similar mutations, experience different levels of cancer risk, nongenetic risk modifiers are likely to be present. Study subjects were a cohort of 1477 women with a BRCA1 mutation, from Canada (n = 358), the United States (n = 256) and Poland (n = 863). The women were followed for a mean of 4.3 years and 130 incident cases of breast cancer were recorded. Annual cancer incidence rates were calculated, and based on these, penetrance curves were constructed for women from North America and Poland. In a Cox proportional hazards model, residence in Poland, versus North America, was associated with an adjusted hazard ratio of 0.54 (95% CI 0.34-0.86; p = 0.01). The risk of breast cancer to age 70 was estimated to be 49% for women from Poland and 72% for women from North America. Among women with BRCA1 mutations, the risk of breast cancer in women who reside in Poland is less than that of women who reside in North America. The reasons for the difference are unknown, but this observation suggests that environmental factors or genetic modifiers are important in determining risk., (Copyright © 2011 UICC.)

Women with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation have an elevated risk of breast cancer and of contralateral breast cancer. In this study, we estimate the risk of non-synchronous ipsilateral breast cancer after a diagnosis of breast cancer in BRCA carriers and evaluate the effects of various treatments on this risk. Patients were 396 women with stage I or stage II breast cancer with an intact ipsilateral breast and for whom a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation had been identified in the family. Patients were followed from the initial diagnosis of cancer until the first of ipsilateral mastectomy, ipsilateral breast cancer, death or last follow-up. The 5-year actuarial risk of ipsilateral breast cancer was 5.8% (95% CI 3.2-8.4%) and the 10-year risk was 12.9% (95% CI 8.7-17.1%). Subjects who received chemotherapy had a significantly lower risk of ipsilateral breast cancer compared to those who did not receive chemotherapy (RR 0.45; 95% CI 0.24-0.84; P = 0.01). Radiotherapy was associated with a reduced risk of ipsilateral breast cancer (RR 0.28; 95% CI 0.12-0.63; P = 0.002). Oophorectomy was associated with a significant reduction in the risk of ipsilateral breast cancer (RR 0.33; 95% CI; 0.13-0.81; P = 0.02). On average, following a diagnosis of breast cancer, the annual risk of ipsilateral breast cancer risk in BRCA mutation carriers is 1.2% per year. For women treated with chemotherapy, radiation therapy or oophorectomy the risk is low, compared to women who did not receive any of these treatments.

A founder allele in the CHEK2 gene (1100delC) has been associated with an elevated risk of breast cancer. This allele is responsible for the majority of CHEK2-associated breast cancers in women from northern European countries; however, within Europe, it seems to be rare in countries that are close to the Mediterranean. The frequency of the 1100delC allele has not been measured in non-White populations. We measured the frequency of the CHEK2 founder allele in 3,882 breast cancer patients and 8,609 controls from various countries. The allele was not seen among Asian patients (from Pakistan or the Philippines) and was present in 1 of 155 cases from Brazil. Among White women, the allele was present in 1.5% of 825 familial cases of breast cancer and in 0.7% of 1,106 patients with nonfamilial breast cancer. The allele was equally frequent in Jewish and non-Jewish patients. We estimate that the CHEK2 1100delC allele is associated with an odds ratio of 2.6 for breast cancer, which corresponds to a lifetime risk of approximately 24% in Ontario.