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In this article, Kate Collins begins by explaining how she discovered that "Hamilton: An American Musical," a Broadway show that incorporates a mix of musical genres: hip-hop, jazz, classic show tunes, and show-stopper numbers based on the life of Alexander Hamilton, could be brought into her teaching as a rich resource for her high school American literature classes. She provides an outline of what she named The "Hamilton" Listening Project in action, highlights key elements that make hip-hop music useful in teaching elements of poetry, and recommends using hip-hop to open the door to conversations about racial justice and antiracism in today's America. Overall, she makes the case that by including hip-hop music in English Language Arts (ELA) teaching, educators can make portions of American literature more engaging through the Listening Project unit she designed, and also energize both the teaching of poetry and conversations about topics such as diversity, history, race, and silences with their students.

Background and Purpose: Antipsychotics such as olanzapine are associated with significant metabolic dysfunction, attributed to gut microbiome dysbiosis. A recent notion that most psychotropics are detrimental to the gut microbiome has arisen from consistent findings of metabolic adverse effects. However, unlike olanzapine, the metabolic effects of lurasidone are conflicting. Thus, this study investigates the contrasting effects of olanzapine and lurasidone on the gut microbiome to explore the hypothesis of 'gut neutrality' for lurasidone exposure. Experimental Approach: Using Sprague–Dawley rats, the effects of olanzapine and lurasidone on the gut microbiome were explored. Faecal and blood samples were collected weekly over a 21‐day period to analyse changes to the gut microbiome and related metabolic markers. Key Results: Lurasidone triggered no significant weight gain or metabolic alterations, instead positively modulating the gut microbiome through increases in mean operational taxonomical units (OTUs) and alpha diversity. This novel finding suggests an underlying mechanism for lurasidone's metabolic inertia. In contrast, olanzapine triggered a statistically significant decrease in mean OTUs, substantial compositional variation and a depletion in short‐chain fatty acid abundance. Microbiome depletion correlated with metabolic dysfunction, producing a 30% increase in weight gain, increased pro‐inflammatory cytokine expression, and increased blood glycaemic and triglyceride levels. Conclusion and Implications: Our results challenge the notion that all antipsychotics disrupt the gut microbiome similarly and highlights the potential benefits of gut‐neutral antipsychotics, such as lurasidone, in managing metabolic side effects. Further research is warranted to validate these findings in humans to guide personalised pharmacological treatment regimens for schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) recurrence following surgical resection remains a significant clinical challenge, necessitating reliable predictive models to guide personalised interventions. In this study, we sought to harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to develop a robust predictive model for HCC recurrence using comprehensive clinical datasets. Methods: Leveraging data from 958 patients across multiple centres in Australia and Hong Kong, we employed a multilayer perceptron (MLP) as the optimal classifier for model generation. Results: Through rigorous internal cross‐validation, including a cohort from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), our AI model successfully identified specific pre‐surgical risk factors associated with HCC recurrence. These factors encompassed hepatic synthetic function, liver disease aetiology, ethnicity and modifiable metabolic risk factors, collectively contributing to the predictive synergy of our model. Notably, our model exhibited high accuracy during cross‐validation (.857 ±.023) and testing on the CUHK cohort (.835), with a notable degree of confidence in predicting HCC recurrence within accurately classified patient cohorts. To facilitate clinical application, we developed an online AI digital tool capable of real‐time prediction of HCC recurrence risk, demonstrating acceptable accuracy at the individual patient level. Conclusion: Our findings underscore the potential of AI‐driven predictive models in facilitating personalised risk stratification and targeted interventions to mitigate HCC recurrence by identifying modifiable risk factors unique to each patient. This model aims to aid clinicians in devising strategies to disrupt the underlying carcinogenic network driving recurrence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Single small primary liver cancers are curable with treatments such as surgical resection, ablation, and liver transplant; however, many patients initially receive trans-arterial chemo-embolisation (TACE), which is generally not considered a curative treatment in itself, and often go on to receive further follow-up treatments. Little is known regarding the outcomes of such patients compared to those who receive upfront ablation. Our real-world multi-centre study demonstrates that key survival outcomes are similar between those initially undergoing TACE and those receiving ablation after controlling for other key clinical variables and allowing for subsequent individualised treatment selection. Percutaneous ablation is recommended in Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stage 0/A patients with HCC ≤3 cm as a curative treatment modality alongside surgical resection and liver transplantation. However, trans-arterial chemo-embolisation (TACE) is commonly used in the real-world as an initial treatment in patients with single small HCC in contrast to widely accepted clinical practice guidelines which typically describe TACE as a treatment for intermediate-stage HCC. We performed this real-world propensity-matched multi-centre cohort study in patients with single HCC ≤ 3 cm to assess for differences in survival outcomes between those undergoing initial TACE and those receiving upfront ablation. Patients with a new diagnosis of BCLC 0/A HCC with a single tumour ≤3 cm first diagnosed between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2020 who received initial TACE or ablation were included in the study. A total of 348 patients were included in the study, with 147 patients receiving initial TACE and 201 patients undergoing upfront ablation. After propensity score matching using key covariates, 230 patients were available for analysis with 115 in each group. There were no significant differences in overall survival (log-rank test p = 0.652) or liver-related survival (log-rank test p = 0.495) over a median follow-up of 43 months. While rates of CR were superior after ablation compared to TACE as a first treatment (74% vs. 56%, p < 0.004), there was no significant difference in CR rates when allowing for further subsequent treatments (86% vs. 80% p = 0.219). In those who achieved CR, recurrence-free survival and local recurrence-free survival were similar (log rank test p = 0.355 and p = 0.390, respectively). Our study provides valuable real-world evidence that TACE when offered with appropriate follow-up treatment is a reasonable initial management strategy in very early/early-stage HCC, with similar survival outcomes as compared to those managed with upfront ablation. Further work is needed to better define the role for TACE in BCLC 0/A HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Eosinophilic oesophagitis (EOE) is a known cause of food bolus obstruction (FBO) with rising incidence and prevalence. Aims: To assess the rates of EOE in adult cases presenting with an FBO via prospective biopsy collection during index endoscopy. Methods: Oesophageal FBO cases requiring gastroscopy between February 2014 and January 2021 at a single institution with a unified policy to perform biopsies on FBO cases were analysed using medical records, endoscopy and histology. Statistical analysis was undertaken to compare those with and without EOE as their final diagnosis, including the timing of oesophageal biopsy and the season that cases presented. Results: One hundred ninety FBO presentations were analysed, 15 patients presented twice and one patient presented four times within the 7‐year study period. Men represented 72% of cases. A total of 78% of cases had biopsies collected at an index or scheduled follow‐up endoscopy. EOE was the cause of the FBO in 28% (53/190) of presentations. FBO secondary to EOE was more likely to occur in the spring and summer months (Australian September to March), with 39% (19 of 49) of cases presenting in spring attributable to EOE. Conclusion: EOE affects a significant proportion of patients presenting with FBO (28%); a high biopsy rate of 78% in FBO cases provides an opportunity for prompt diagnosis and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting with a brief description of the culminating participatory arts and dialogue event, "Don't[strikethrough] Talk With Strangers," the author then backtracks to describe the rationale and process for a new community engaged arts course centred on dialogic artmaking. The course was designed for undergraduate and youth artists with diverse social, cultural and artistic backgrounds to work in collaboration as part of an arts-based action research study. In particular, the author is invested in better understanding the meaning making and civic learning student artists gain from engaging in these distinct practices. Inspired by Grant Kester's conception of the dialogical aesthetic and his expansive views on the role of the artist that move away from self-expression towards facilitation of communication and exchange, this article shares the challenges, points of resistance and pedagogical insights gained from giving student artists, early in their education, a hands-on experience with such practices.

This contribution reviews how four European countries--England, Germany, France and the Netherlands--use the concept of competence in the process of developing vocational education and training. Competence in England is set in the context of the National Vocational Qualifications; in Germany within action competence and the approach to learning areas; in France within the "Emploi Type Etudie dans sa Dynamique" (ETED, translated by Cereq as "Typical Employment Studied in Its Dynamics") and the "bilan de competences"; and, in the Netherlands, the concept is strongly linked to the development of a competence-based qualification structure for senior secondary vocational education. The nature of this review is rather descriptive as it aims to present a comparison of the meaning and use of the concept of competence within these respective countries. It can be concluded that despite a certain amount of diversity, especially at the instrumental level, there is enough conceptual convergence within the four above-mentioned countries to posit some common principles of competence and competence-based VET. In a subsequent contribution, Mulder et al. (this issue) will present a more critical analysis of the literature on the competence concept and its use. To avoid unnecessary overlap, the list of references for this article will be included in that second critical literature review. (Contains 1 table.)

This contribution follows the descriptive review of Weigel, Mulder and Collins regarding the use of the competence concept in the development of vocational education and training in England, France, Germany and the Netherlands. The purpose of this contribution is to review the critical analyses brought forward by various authors in this field. This analysis also remarks on the most important theories and critiques on the use of the competence concept in the above-mentioned states. The systems of vocational education within the four states covered in this study are: the National Vocational Qualifications in England, the approach to learning areas in Germany, the ETED and the "bilan de competences" in France, and the implementation of competence-based vocational education in the Netherlands, and these are the respective focal points for the critical assessments of the competence concept presented here. These critiques encompass such aspects as the lack of a coherent definition of the concept of competence, the lack of a one-to-one relationship between competence and performance, the misled notion that employing the concept of competence decreases the value of knowledge, the difficulties of designing competence-based educational principles at the curriculum and instruction levels, the underestimation of the organizational consequences of competence-based education, and the many problems in the field of competence assessment. (Contains 1 table.)

The ability to map and monitor the macroalgal coastal resource is important to both the industry and the regulator. This study evaluates topo-bathymetric lidar (light detection and ranging) as a tool for estimating the surface area, height and biomass of Ascophyllum nodosum, an anchored and vertically suspended (floating) macroalga, and compares the surface area derived from lidar and WorldView-2 satellite imagery. Pixel-based Maximum Likelihood classification of low tide satellite data produced 2-dimensional maps of intertidal macroalgae with overall accuracy greater than 80%. Low tide and high tide topo-bathymetric lidar surveys were completed in southwestern Nova Scotia, Canada. Comparison of lidar-derived seabed elevations with ground-truth data collected using a survey grade global navigation satellite system (GNSS) indicated the low tide survey data have a positive bias of 15 cm, likely resulting from the seaweed being draped over the surface. The high tide survey data did not exhibit this bias, although the suspended canopy floating on the water surface reduced the seabed lidar point density. Validation of lidar-derived seaweed heights indicated a mean difference of 30 cm with a root mean square error of 62 cm. The modelled surface area of seaweed was 28% greater in the lidar model than the satellite model. The average lidar-derived biomass estimate was within one standard deviation of the mean biomass measured in the field. The lidar method tends to overestimate the biomass compared to field measurements that were spatially biased to the mid-intertidal level. This study demonstrates an innovative and cost-effective approach that uses a single high tide bathymetric lidar survey to map the height and biomass of dense macroalgae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]