The Art of Letting Go: Transforming Participatory Research on Adaptation Practices Among Local Livestock-Keepers in East Africa in Times of Covid-19

Participatory action research (PAR) puts high emphasis on the interaction of the research participants. However, with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, the central role of researchers in participatory research processes had to be questioned and revisited. New modes of PAR developed dynamically under the new circumstances created by the pandemic. To better understand how Covid-19 changed the way PAR is applied, we analyzed PAR in agricultural research for development carried out in the Programme for Climate-Smart Livestock Systems (PCSL) implemented by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) at five research sites in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Uganda. To understand how PAR changed in a component on adaptation research in the PCSL we facilitated a reflexive study with livestock keepers and researchers to document their experiences of PAR during the Covid-19 pandemic. The analytical framework focuses on highlighting the core characteristics and the underlying ethos of PAR in this case study. The lessons learnt in the process of adapting to the realities of doing participatory research in the middle of a pandemic provide important arguments for further amalgamating the PAR philosophy into similar research designs. The onset of the pandemic has led to a further decentering of the researcher and a shift of the focus to the citizen, in this case the local livestock keeper, that made it more participatory in the stricter interpretation of the term. Letting go of controlling both narrative and implementation of the research will be challenging for researchers in many research fields. However, this shift of power and this transformation of research methodologies is inevitable if the research should remain relevant and impactful. Ultimately, the transition into a Covid-19 future and the awareness that similar pandemics could dramatically interrupt our lives any time, will have an impact on how projects are designed and funded. More long-term funding and less pressure on providing immediate results can build community trust and ownership for research at a local level.

Media Richness, Knowledge Sharing, and Computer Programming by Virtual Software Teams

Software programming is a task with high analyzability. However, knowledge sharing is an intricate part of the software programming process. Today, new media platforms have been adopted to enable knowledge sharing between virtual teams. Taking into consideration the high task analyzability and the task characteristics involved in software development, the question is if the media richness of the current media platform is effective in enabling knowledge sharing among these virtual teams? An exploratory research was conducted on a software company in Denmark. The data was gathered was analyzed qualitatively using narrative analysis. This paper concludes, based on the case being investigated, that rich media does not fit the task characteristics of a software programmer. It further concludes that Media richness does affect knowledge sharing in these virtual teams. This is because the current lean media actually enables knowledge sharing as it fits the core characteristics of the software programming process.

DOMESTIC TOURIST SATISFACTION: IMPLICATIONS FOR “ONE COMMUNE ONE PRODUCT” ECO-TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN THE MEKONG DELTA OF VIETNAM

Eco-tourism being one of six groups of OCOP products plays a key role in the rural economic development. However, there are limited empirical evidences on the impacts of destination attributes of OCOP tourism on tourist satisfaction. Thus, the objective of this current study is to investigate the impacts of OCOP eco-tourism destination attributes on tourist satisfaction. The study conducted face-to-face interviews with 200 eco-tourists and employed exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression. The study found that the shared social and environmental responsibilities - core characteristics of OCOP tourism have the highest effect on tourist satisfaction. The study also provides some policy implications for sustainable development of OCOP eco-tourism destinations in the Mekong Delta.

The environment of intrafamilial offenders – A systematic review of dynamics in incestuous families

The aim of this study was to identify family characteristics and dynamics relevant to the initiation and maintenance of intrafamilial child sexual abuse. An understanding of essential characteristics of the affected families could help to prevent such crimes. In order to provide an overview of the current state of research, a literature review based on the PRISMA criteria was conducted. For the research in the databases PsycInfo and PSYNDEX, predetermined criteria and search terms were used. Fifteen relevant articles from 1991 to 2020 were identified. The studies examined perpetrator-victim relationships, the role of the mother, the relationship between the parents and characteristics of the families in which child sexual abuse took place. Relevant core characteristics of incestuous families are dysfunctional, violent, and conflictual relationships between the parents, and between parents and children. However, these factors are often not specific to intrafamilial abuse. Only six articles published after 2000 were identified. Little evidence for each individual construct was found, so the effects should not be overestimated. Further research on intrafamilial child sexual abuse is necessary.

MicroRNA-like snoRNA-derived RNAs (sdRNAs) promote castration resistant prostate cancer

We have identified 38 specifically excised, differentially expressed snoRNA fragments (sdRNAs) in TCGA prostate cancer (PCa) patient samples as compared to normal prostate controls. SnoRNA-derived fragments sdRNA-D19b and -A24 emerged among the most differentially expressed and were selected for further experimentation. We found that overexpression of either sdRNA significantly increased PC3 (a well-established model of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC)) cell proliferation, and that sdRNA-D19b overexpression also markedly increased the rate of PC3 cell migration. In addition, both sdRNAs provided drug-specific resistances with sdRNA-D19b levels correlating with paclitaxel resistance and sdRNA-24A conferring dasatinib resistance. In silico and in vitro analyses revealed that two established PCa tumor suppressor genes, CD44 and CDK12, represent targets for sdRNA-D19b and sdRNA-A24 respectively. This outlines a biologically coherent mechanism by which sdRNAs downregulate tumor suppressors in AR- PCa to enhance proliferative and metastatic capabilities and to encourage chemotherapeutic resistance. Aggressive proliferation, rampant metastasis, and recalcitrance to chemotherapy are core characteristics of CRPC that synergize to produce a pathology that ranks 2nd in cancer-related deaths for men. This study defines sdRNA-D19b and -A24 as contributors to AR- PCa potentially providing novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets of use in PCa clinical intervention.

DISTRIBUTIONS OF AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS WORKLOAD

Mental workload is a well-known concept with a long development history. It can be used to examine students’ attitudes at the end of the educational process and compare them in groups or separately. However, building a continuous workload profile across the range of task complexity increase is still an urgent issue. All four groups of methods used to define mental workload have such flaws for the workload profile construction process as significant time requirements, single value processing and post-processing of the received results. Only one of them can be used without modifications to construct the operator’s attitude chart (profile) regarding the workload range and it doesn’t operate with more reliable absolute values. To resolve this problem, a special workload assessment grid was developed, considering the advantages of a subjective group of methods and seven core characteristics. The reasoning for grid axes choice, threshold values, and question formulation were provided. Statistics were calculated for the full sample, different grades, and educational institutions. Comparison of the received responses with referential values, cross-comparison between institutions and different grades were performed. The results contribute to such important aspects of workload, as redlines, workload profiling, and operator’s comparison.

Early development of primary care networks in the NHS in England: a qualitative mixed-methods evaluation

ObjectivesPrimary care networks (PCNs) were introduced in the National Health Service (NHS) in England in 2019 to improve integrated care for patients and help address financial and workforce sustainability issues in general practice. The purpose of this study was to collect early evidence on their implementation and development, including motivations to participate and what enables or inhibits progress. This paper considers the core characteristics of PCNs, and how this informs their management.DesignA qualitative mixed-methods rapid evaluation was conducted across four case study sites in England, informed by a literature review and stakeholder workshop. Data collection comprised interviews, non-participant observation of meetings, an online survey and documentary review.ResultsGeneral practitioners (GPs) are motivated to participate in PCNs for their potential to improve patient care, enable better coordinated services and enhance financial and workforce sustainability within primary care. However, PCNs also have an almost mandatory feel, based on the national policy context and significant financial incentives associated with joining them. PCNs offer potential to bring GPs together to work towards common goals, deliver national priorities and respond rapidly to local needs.ConclusionsPCNs face similar challenges to other meso-level primary care organisations internationally, as they respond to local and national priorities and operate in a context of multiple goals and interests. In managing these organisations, it is important to find a balance between local and national autonomy, decision making and control.

Deconstructing Buddhist Extremism: Lessons from Sri Lanka

This article argues that it is not Buddhism, per se, but rather Buddhist extremism, that is responsible for violence against relevant out-groups. Moreover, it suggests that the causes of Buddhist extremism, rather than being determined solely by textual and scriptural justifications for out-group violence, are rooted instead in the intersection between social psychology and theology, rather than organically arising from the latter, per se. This article unpacks this argument by a deeper exploration of Theravada Buddhist extremism in Sri Lanka. It argues that religious extremism, including its Buddhist variant, is best understood as a fundamentalist belief system that justifies structural violence against relevant out-groups. A total of seven of the core characteristics of the religious extremist are identified and employed to better grasp how Buddhist extremism in Sri Lanka manifests itself on the ground. These are: the fixation with maintaining identity supremacy; in-group bias; out-group prejudice; emphasis on preserving in-group purity via avoidance of commingling with the out-group; low integrative complexity expressed in binary thinking; dangerous speech in both soft- and hard-modes; and finally, the quest for political power, by force if needed. Future research could, inter alia, explore how these seven characteristics also adequately describe other types of religious extremism.

Popular Sovereignty versus State Sovereignty: Haiti, Popular Equality and the Birth of the Neocolonial State

Through a review of the two works below, I discuss how the Saint Domingue/Haiti Revolutions clarify the history of the opposition between popular sovereignty and state sovereignty. The people and the state developed as distinct political actors throughout the nineteenth century in particular. The former constructed a completely new society founded on egalitarian norms influenced by African cultures. The latter failed to establish its sovereignty and reverted to a colonial form, thus illustrating the core characteristics of the neocolonial state now widespread in the Global South in general and in Africa in particular.