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Background: Despite known benefits of breastfeeding and challenges medical trainees face lactating at work, research specific to Canadian surgical trainees is lacking. Our objectives were to examine existing breastfeeding and lactation policies, query experiences and opinions of surgical trainees and program directors, and propose a comprehensive policy for programs nation-wide. Methods: A multi-disciplinary team developed this two-part study. The scoping review used database and grey literature searches to find North American policies covering surgical residents. The survey study queried lactating Canadian surgical trainees and program directors about experiences and barriers, support provided, and interest in a breastfeeding and lactation policy. Results: Ten policies were found. None comprehensively addressed lactation space and supplies, break times, supports, and resident responsibilities. Among ten PD survey respondents: 60% were female, 70% had lactating trainees during their tenure, 40% discussed lactation accommodations, and all were willing to instate a policy. Among 24 trainees: 45% met breastfeeding goals, 74% stopped breastfeeding prematurely due to work barriers, and 88% had little workplace support. Almost all trainees (96%) wanted a policy. Conclusion: There is opportunity and appetite for a more comprehensive breastfeeding and lactation policy for Canadian surgical residents. Our policy highlights important areas where trainees can be better supported to meet breastfeeding goals.

Abstract To meet the increasing global demand for food, feed, fibre and other plant‐derived products, a steep increase in crop productivity is a scientifically and technically challenging imperative. The CropBooster‐P project, a response to the H2020 call ‘Future proofing our plants’, is developing a roadmap for plant research to improve crops critical for the future of European agriculture by increasing crop yield, nutritional quality, value for non‐food applications and sustainability. However, if we want to efficiently improve crop production in Europe and prioritize methods for crop trait improvement in the coming years, we need to take into account future socio‐economic, technological and global developments, including numerous policy and socio‐economic challenges and constraints. Based on a wide range of possible global trends and key uncertainties, we developed four extreme future learning scenarios that depict complementary future developments. Here, we elaborate on how the scenarios could inform and direct future plant research, and we aim to highlight the crop improvement approaches that could be the most promising or appropriate within each of these four future world scenarios. Moreover, we discuss some key plant technology options that would need to be developed further to meet the needs of multiple future learning scenarios, such as improving methods for breeding and genetic engineering. In addition, other diverse platforms of food production may offer unrealized potential, such as underutilized terrestrial and aquatic species as alternative sources of nutrition and biomass production. We demonstrate that although several methods or traits could facilitate a more efficient crop production system in some of the scenarios, others may offer great potential in all four of the future learning scenarios. Altogether, this indicates that depending on which future we are heading toward, distinct plant research fields should be given priority if we are to meet our food, feed and non‐food biomass production needs in the coming decades.

Mathematics word-problems continue to be an insurmountable challenge for many middle school students. Educators have used pictorial and schematic illustrations within the classroom to help students visualize these problems. However, the data shows that pictorial representations can be more harmful than helpful in that they only display objects or persons while neglecting the spatial relationships between those components (Hegarty & Kozhevnikov, p. 686). Research supports schematic diagrams that highlight spatial relationships and focus on related information within the problem (Hegarty & Kozhevnikov, 1999; van Garderen & Montague, 2003). In addition to these strategies, educators have used heuristics (systematic scripted procedures to solve word problems) as a way to provide structure and routine to a variety of word problems. This review of the literature found varying results for the use of some heuristics being implemented in present-day classrooms. On the other hand, both visual-spatial diagrams and heuristics have demonstrated value in middle school special education classrooms. These findings support the further use and research of visual-spatial representations and problem-solving heuristics in order to solve mathematics word problems.

Abstract The growing world population and global increases in the standard of living both result in an increasing demand for food, feed and other plant‐derived products. In the coming years, plant‐based research will be among the major drivers ensuring food security and the expansion of the bio‐based economy. Crop productivity is determined by several factors, including the available physical and agricultural resources, crop management, and the resource use efficiency, quality and intrinsic yield potential of the chosen crop. This review focuses on intrinsic yield potential, since understanding its determinants and their biological basis will allow to maximize the plant's potential in food and energy production. Yield potential is determined by a variety of complex traits that integrate strictly regulated processes and their underlying gene regulatory networks. Due to this inherent complexity, numerous potential targets have been identified that could be exploited to increase crop yield. These encompass diverse metabolic and physical processes at the cellular, organ and canopy level. We present an overview of some of the distinct biological processes considered to be crucial for yield determination that could further be exploited to improve future crop productivity.

IntroductionEvolving aging societies, ongoing digitalisation and circumstances of COVID-19 are changing living conditions for growing older. There is an increased urgency to view public health with a focus on integrating people of all ages into the matrix of opportunities afforded in their communities. This study initiates the conceptualization of an intergenerational, age-friendly living ecosystem (AFLE) to enhance public health planning.MethodologyA participatory study was conducted using a multi-methods approach. Six virtual co-creation sessions (n = 35–50 participants), alongside a mainly open-ended INTERGEN survey designed specifically for this study (n = 130) were conducted to conceptualize multilevel ideas for building intergenerational age-friendly places using Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems model. At the height of COVID-19, virtual applications (Zoom, Moodboard) and case studies, creative methods (drawing, photography, storytelling and spotlight sessions) were applied to engage academic and non-academic participants between ages 5 – 80+ years, across eight countries. Sessions were video-recorded with visual themes captured by a graphic facilitator. The survey covered issues of multigenerational interactions; intergenerational and age-friendly place features; place safety; and necessary stakeholders required for creating intergenerational and age-friendly places. Data were reflexively analyzed using a team approach to thematic analysis.ResultsFindings present both the thematic analysis of Virtual Co-creation Camps (VCCs) and the INTERGEN survey results. These findings are addressed in three overarching categories that highlight the necessary characteristics of AFLEs as suggested by the VCC participants and survey respondents: (i) Sensory factors: feeling and emotion as starting points for physical design; (ii) Physical and digital factors in designing AFLE spaces and places; and (iii) Socio-cultural factors: tackling ageism and exclusion as part of the solution.DiscussionThe analysis resulted in a pathway toward enhanced understandings on how multi-generations can better interact with fluctuating organizational domains (industry, voluntary, academic and public sectors) in urban and rural settings to facilitate intergenerational connectivity. Through processes of co-creation, an AFLE proof of concept and roadmap for public health planning was developed to support and provide opportunities for people as they age to reap the socioeconomic benefits of their local and virtual communities and help them become well integrated, valued and contributory members of society.

IntroductionDespite its rapid worldwide adoption as an efficient mutagenesis tool, plant genome editing remains a labor-intensive process requiring often several months of in vitro culture to obtain mutant plantlets. To avoid a waste in time and money and to test, in only a few days, the efficiency of molecular constructs or novel Cas9 variants (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-associated protein 9) prior to stable transformation, rapid analysis tools are helpful.MethodsTo this end, a streamlined maize protoplast system for transient expression of CRISPR/Cas9 tools coupled to NGS (next generation sequencing) analysis and a novel bioinformatics pipeline was established.Results and discussionMutation types found with high frequency in maize leaf protoplasts had a trend to be the ones observed after stable transformation of immature maize embryos. The protoplast system also allowed to conclude that modifications of the sgRNA (single guide RNA) scaffold leave little room for improvement, that relaxed PAM (protospacer adjacent motif) sites increase the choice of target sites for genome editing, albeit with decreased frequency, and that efficient base editing in maize could be achieved for certain but not all target sites. Phenotypic analysis of base edited mutant maize plants demonstrated that the introduction of a stop codon but not the mutation of a serine predicted to be phosphorylated in the bHLH (basic helix loop helix) transcription factor ZmICEa (INDUCER OF CBF EXPRESSIONa) caused abnormal stomata, pale leaves and eventual plant death two months after sowing.

The health care needs and service experiences of higher education students require more research attention, given the increase in students who have a long-term illness, medical condition, or disability ('condition'). It is also important to consider the experiences of rising numbers of international students. This exploratory qualitative study used face-to-face interviews and the common-sense model of self-regulation to investigate students' perceptions and coping behaviours, in a higher education institution in the UK. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Twenty students who self-identified as having a condition were interviewed. This study adds depth to the understanding of the connections between students' health-related experiences and their personal, academic, and post-graduation aspirations and the support needs of students, including international students. To optimise institutional support, innovations in partnerships with local care organisations and within the university, staff training about conditions, peer mentorship, and information outreach especially to international students, should be considered., Author(s): Rayna Rogowsky [sup.1] , Anita Laidlaw [sup.1] , Gozde Ozakinci [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.11914.3c, 0000 0001 0721 1626, School of Medicine, University of St Andrews, , KY16 9TF, [...]

Background: Inconclusive evidence supporting referrals from health professionals to gym-based exercise programmes has raised concern for the roll-out of such schemes, and highlights the importance of developing links between healthcare settings and community-based opportunities to improve physical activity (PA) levels. Aim: This study aimed to identify methods, and explore barriers and facilitators, of connecting primary care patients with PA opportunities from the perspectives of both health professionals (HPs) and patients, using the example of jogscotland. Design & setting: An exploratory study utilising semi-structured interviews with primary care patients (n = 14) and HPs (n = 14) from one UK NHS board was conducted. Method: Patient and HP transcripts were analysed separately using thematic analysis. Potential methods of connection were identified. The Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, behavioural (COM-B) model and theoretical domains framework (TDF) were employed to facilitate identification of barriers and facilitators for connecting primary care to community jogscotland groups. Results: Three methods of connecting patients to community-based groups were identified: informal passive signposting, informal active signposting, and formal referral or prescribing. Barriers and facilitators for patient connection fell into five TDF domains for HPs and two COM-B model components for patients. Conclusion: For patients, HPs raising the topic of PA can help to justify, facilitate, and motivate action to change. The workload associated with connecting patients with community-based opportunities is central to implementation by HPs. Integrative resource solutions and social support for patients can provide a greater variety of PA options and the vital information and support for connecting with local opportunities, such as jogscotland.

Teachers commonly categorize students as visual or auditory learners. Despite a lack of empirical evidence, teaching to a student’s perceived learning style remains common practice in education (Pashler et al., 2009). Having conducted an extensive review of the literature, Pashler et al. (2009) noted, “...very few studies have even used an experimental methodology capable of testing the validity of learning styles applied to education” (p. 105). Rogowsky et al. (2015) published the first study following the experimental design prescribed by Pashler et al. Focusing specifically on the visual/auditory dichotomy, Rogowsky et al. (2015) examined the extent to which learning style predicts comprehension and retention based on mode of instruction. Their study has been noted as “The only study located through the systematic literature search across six different databases and the screening of more than 1000 records that was totally aligned with Pashler’s criteria” (Aslaksen and Loras, 2018, p. 3). The caveat to the 2015 study is that it was conducted with adult learners. The current study uses the same design and methodology as its predecessor, but on a school-aged population, making it the first of its kind. Consistent with earlier findings with adults, results failed to find a significant relationship between auditory or visual learning style preference and comprehension. Fifth graders with a visual learning style scored higher than those with an auditory learning style on listening and reading comprehension measures. As such, and counter to current educational beliefs and practices, teachers may actually be doing a disservice to students by using resources to determine their learning style and then tailoring the curriculum to match that learning style.

Abstract Background Maize is well known for its exceptional structural diversity, including copy number variants (CNVs) and presence/absence variants (PAVs), and there is growing evidence for the role of structural variation in maize adaptation. While PAVs have been described in this important crop species, they have been only scarcely characterized at the sequence level and the extent of presence/absence variation and relative chromosomal landscape of inbred-specific regions remain to be elucidated. Results De novo genome sequencing of the French F2 maize inbred line revealed 10,044 novel genomic regions larger than 1 kb, making up 88 Mb of DNA, that are present in F2 but not in B73 (PAV). This set of maize PAV sequences allowed us to annotate PAV content and to analyze sequence breakpoints. Using PAV genotyping on a collection of 25 temperate lines, we also analyzed Linkage Disequilibrium in PAVs and flanking regions, and PAV frequencies within maize genetic groups. Conclusions We highlight the possible role of MMEJ-type double strand break repair in maize PAV formation and discover 395 new genes with transcriptional support. Pattern of linkage disequilibrium within PAVs strikingly differs from this of flanking regions and is in accordance with the intuition that PAVs may recombine less than other genomic regions. We show that most PAVs are ancient, while some are found only in European Flint material, thus pinpointing structural features that may be at the origin of adaptive traits involved in the success of this material. Characterization of such PAVs will provide useful material for further association genetic studies in European and temperate maize.

With advancing technology, there is increasing interest in differences between listening versus reading comprehension or doing both simultaneously. Ninety-one participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups that received the same instructional material (the preface and a chapter from a non-fiction book), but each in a different input modality (digital audiobook, e-text, dual modality). After completing the material, participants took the same comprehension test in written form to establish both immediate comprehension (Time 1) and 2-week retention (Time 2). No statistically significant differences were found for any analyses pertaining to effects of the three different instructional conditions on comprehension at Time 1 or Time 2. Additional analyses showed that both males and females in each condition recalled an equal amount of information, regardless of whether they listened to an audiobook, read from an electronic tablet, or both listened and read simultaneously (dual modality).

An editorial is presented the higher risk of suicide among female nurses compared to other occupational groups, highlighting limitations in current suicidology paradigms that overlook contextual and systemic factors relevant to nurses' experiences. It critiques individualized and medicalized approaches within suicidology research, advocating for a feminist critical suicidology perspective that considers broader social.

While it is hypothesized that providing instruction based on individuals' preferred learning styles improves learning (i.e., reading for visual learners and listening for auditory learners, also referred to as the "meshing hypothesis"), after a critical review of the literature Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer, and Bjork (2008) concluded that this hypothesis lacks empirical evidence and subsequently described the experimental design needed to evaluate the meshing hypothesis. Following the design of Pashler et al., we empirically investigated the effect of learning style preference with college-educated adults, specifically as applied to (a) verbal comprehension aptitude (listening or reading) and (b) learning based on mode of instruction (digital audiobook or e-text). First, participants' auditory and visual learning style preferences were established based on a standardized adult learning style inventory. Participants were then given a verbal comprehension aptitude test in both oral and written forms. Results failed to show a statistically significant relationship between learning style preference (auditory, visual word) and learning aptitude (listening comprehension, reading comprehension). Second, participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups that received the same instructional material from a nonfiction book, but each in a different instructional mode (digital audiobook, e-text), and then completed a written comprehension test immediately and after 2 weeks. Results demonstrated no statistically significant relationship between learning style preference (auditory, visual word) and instructional method (audiobook, e-text) for either immediate or delayed comprehension tests. Taken together, the results of our investigation failed to statistically support the meshing hypothesis either for verbal comprehension aptitude or learning based on mode of instruction (digital audiobook, e-text).

Genome editing technologies have progressed rapidly and become one of the most important genetic tools in the implementation of pathogen resistance in plants. Recent years have witnessed the emergence of site directed modification methods using meganucleases, zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs), transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), and clustered regularly interspaced short palindrome repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9). Recently, CRISPR/Cas9 has largely overtaken the other genome editing technologies due to the fact that it is easier to design and implement, has a higher success rate, and is more versatile and less expensive. This review focuses on the recent advances in plant protection using CRISPR/Cas9 technology in model plants and crops in response to viral, fungal and bacterial diseases. As regards the achievement of viral disease resistance, the main strategies employed in model species such as Arabidopsis and Nicotiana benthamiana, which include the integration of CRISPR-encoding sequences that target and interfere with the viral genome and the induction of a CRISPR-mediated targeted mutation in the host plant genome, will be discussed. Furthermore, as regards fungal and bacterial disease resistance, the strategies based on CRISPR/Cas9 targeted modification of susceptibility genes in crop species such as rice, tomato, wheat, and citrus will be reviewed. After spending years deciphering and reading genomes, researchers are now editing and rewriting them to develop crop plants resistant to specific pests and pathogens.