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Muscle composition (muscle volume and muscle fat infiltrate [MFI]) may provide insight into possible mechanisms underpinning chronic idiopathic neck pain, a common condition with no definitive underlying pathology. In individuals with chronic idiopathic neck pain > 3 months and age- and sex-matched asymptomatic controls, muscle volumes of levator scapulae, multifidus (including semispinalis cervicis), semispinalis, splenius capitis (including splenius cervicis), sternocleidomastoid and longus colli from C3 through T1 were quantified from magnetic resonance imaging, with between-group differences determined using linear mixed models, accounting for side (left or right), muscle, spinal level, sex, age, and body mass index (BMI). Individuals with pain had greater muscle volume (mean difference 76.8mm3; 95% CI 26.6–127.0; p = .003) and MFI (2.3%; 0.2–4.5; p = .034) of the multifidus compared to matched controls with no differences in relative volume, accounting for factors associated with the outcomes: muscle, spinal level, side (left had smaller volume, relative volume and MFI than right), sex (females had less volume and relative volume than males, age (older age associated with less relative volume and greater MFI), and BMI (higher BMI associated with greater muscle volume and MFI). Greater MFI in individuals with chronic idiopathic neck pain suggests a possible underlying mechanism contributing to neck pain. Perspective: These findings suggest MFI in the multifidus may be radiologic sign, potentially identifying patients with a less favourable prognosis. Future studies are needed to determine if MFI is a contributor to the development or persistence of neck pain, or consequence of neck pain.

This article focuses on the importance of establishing and maintaining relationships between teachers and students for the mutual benefit of both groups and explores this in one context during the Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning (ERTL) period in the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in 2020. Ten instructors of university English as a foreign language (EFL) academic writing were interviewed about their experiences during this period. All questioned the academic honesty and ethics of their students due to what seemed to be their impossibly rapid progress in linguistic complexity and correctness, and the depth of ideas expressed growing very quickly. Due to communication between teachers and students being limited to text-based messages on the Learning Management System, teachers were unable to investigate without potentially causing university disciplinary action to fall on their students. This led to a worsening of relationships and spiraling levels of distrust. Forty first-year students were then asked to submit three-minute videos explaining how they undertook their homework assignments during the 15-week semester. Participants reported using a variety of technological assistance, particularly Machine Translation (MT) and online grammar checkers, to prepare assignments for submission. Findings suggest that educating instructors about how appropriate usage of such technology can benefit student learning could help prevent misunderstandings about unethical technology usage. Similarly, by recognizing the value of the relationship between instructors and students, time can be spent on building and fostering these bonds.

This article explores how 40 first-year students in a compulsory English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course undertook written tasks during a semester suddenly undertaken online. The university in Japan described here provided on-demand lessons via the Learning Management System (LMS) during the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Students prepared three-minute reflective videos as part of their course work describing their strategies to improve their second language (L2) academic writing and their perceptions of how these strategies affected their learning. These videos were transcribed, coded, and analysed. The use of Machine Translation (MT) to proofread work before submission was used by 58% of the participants, of whom 45% report improved assignment grades and higher levels of confidence in their L2 writing skills. Results suggest that learners should be encouraged to use MT for this step in the L2 academic writing process.

Background: Chemsex is the use of illicit drugs—particularly methamphetamine, gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB), and gamma-butyrolactone (GBL)—to enhance sexual activity. Chemsex, which occurs primarily among communities of men who have sex with men (MSM), is associated with greater HIV risk behaviors, including multiple sex partners, group sex, condomless sex, and injection drug use. Despite evidence showing chemsex engagement among Malaysian MSM, there is a paucity of research on chemsex among MSM in Malaysia. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted through an online survey (August to September 2021) among 870 Malaysian MSM. Participants were recruited through targeted advertisements on social networks. We collected information regarding participants’ recent (

This chapter examines practical issues regarding Virtual Exchanges (VEs) for educational purposes in the university context and covers language use, cultural differences, time management, teacher collaboration, technology-related issues, assessment, and context specific factors. It charts the establishment of three academic collaborations between a university in Kyoto, Japan, and institutions in Asia, Africa, and Europe. The first collaboration follows a new hybrid model created at the Japanese university described here. In the Teaching Online Together (TOT) model, teachers in the Philippines interact with students in a tutorial style system to improve the students’ English presentation skills via video conferencing. The second project, with a university in Kenya, is modelled on the intercultural telecollaboration or Cultura-type exchange approach (O’Dowd, 2018). Students from the respective institutions work together asynchronously to complete tasks related to the development of intercultural understanding and sensitivity. The third collaboration, with a university in Belgium, follows a shared syllabus approach (O’Dowd, 2018) in which teachers create course materials for students who then work together both synchronously and asynchronously to achieve their goals.

Technology is changing traditional views of language teaching and learning, with generational and cultural differences influencing the ways that we interact with it. This paper describes an action research project undertaken at a university in Japan to understand how students use the Internet to prepare written assignments in L2, and the students’ and their instructors’ reactions towards this usage. Classroom observation and technology usage logs revealed that students use websites and applications to gather ideas at the start of the writing process, rather than coming up with ideas themselves. Thematic analysis of student journal entries suggests that many students disregarded the brainstorming method that they had been taught due to a lack of confidence either in their ideas or in their linguistic competence. Students did not identify this behaviour as dishonest, unlike 70% of the instructors interviewed. This mismatch in student and instructor views may lead to missed learning opportunities for the L2 writer.

This study applies social realist theory to the analysis of an ongoing online telecollaboration between Japanese undergraduate students in a classroom setting in Japan and Filipino teachers in an English conversation school in Cebu, the Philippines. The accepted goals of telecollaboration in an international context are the development of intercultural communication and linguistic skills. Analysis showed that, without guidance, the influence of Japanese educational policies on students, including a version of internationalisation known as kokusaika, can result in intracultural – rather than intercultural – communication. It is suggested that a focus on “small” – rather than “large” – culture may help address this issue in Japan, and improve intercultural and linguistic awareness.

African child-rearing has been documented as primarily social in nature and driven by community, responsibility, and respect for elders (Nsamenang B (1992) Human development in cultural context: a third world perspective. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE; Weisner et al. African families and the crisis of social change, Bergin and Garvey, Westport, CT, 1997). Socially distributed care is common and reflects strong kinship ties that serve as a social welfare system in times of need as well as the glue of teaching tradition. The practice of child migration (fosterage) in and out of kin networks in Namibia is prevalent, with as high as 40% of children not living with biological parents (Brown, Child Africa Interdisciplinary J 1:4–10, 2009; Ministry of Health and Social Services (MOHSS) [Namibia] (2003) Namibia Demographic and Health Survey 2000. Windhoek, Namibia: MOHSS). This chapter examines the cultural logic of child care in Africa, focusing on one variation of fosterage, okutekula, among the Ova-ambo in Northern Namibia. We explore how parents are using the practice to parent into both the formal and the informal economy. Theories of the economy of affection (Hyden, The economy of affection, In: African politics in comparative perspective, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp. 72–93, 2006) and social exchange theory (Molm, Coercive power in social exchange, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1997) help elucidate the motivations that guide parents in Namibia. Ethnographic fieldwork and survey data help to paint a portrait of the flexible and intuitive boundaries of okutekula in the face of rapid social change.