How to Live on Mars With a Proper Circadian Clock?

Intrinsic circadian clocks generate circadian rhythms of physiology and behavior, which provide the capabilities to adapt to cycling environmental cues that result from the self-rotation of the Earth. Circadian misalignment leads to deleterious impacts on adaptation and health in different organisms. The environmental cues on the interplanetary journey to and on Mars dramatically differ from those on Earth. These differences impose numerous adaptive challenges, including challenges for humans’ circadian clock. Thus, adaptation of circadian rhythms to the Martian environment is a prerequisite for future landing and dwelling on Mars. Here, we review the progress of studies associated with the influence of the Martian environment on circadian rhythms and propose directions for further study and potential strategies to improve the adaptation of the circadian clock for future Mars missions.

Adaptive challenges of curriculum implementation for enhancing medical student resilience at Showa University in Japan

It has been consistently reported that medical students experience a high rate of psychological morbidity, depersonalization, and low personal accomplishment around the world. Under the circumstances, resilience-enhancing programs have been gathering attention and partially implemented even in Japan. However, most of the programs just imitate resiliency programs in North America even though studies have indicated that there are cultural differences between East Asia and North America in the capacity to cope with a stressful situation. The presenters investigated what factors might affect the similarities or differences in the perception of resilience among experienced palliative care physicians in Canada and Japan in 2017-2018. This study showed that Japanese physicians are more likely to rely on “Relationships” with other persons such as family members, friends, mentors or colleagues; in contrast, Canadian physicians tended to be more focused on individual factors such as “Autonomy” and “Confidence”. As a result, the presenters at Showa University School of Medicine in Japan have implemented a progressively advancing resiliency program in a passed manner for the 1st through 6th year medical students as part of a new curriculum. This represents one of the most drastic revisions of curriculum in the school’s history. This presentation will introduce a course for resiliency programs as part of a new curriculum, including course description, course content, educational objectives, instructional strategies and the tips for the classroom teaching and learning.

Changes in limiting factors for forager population dynamics in Europe across the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition

Population dynamics set the framework for human genetic and cultural evolution. For foragers, demographic and environmental changes correlate strongly, although the causal relations between different environmental variables and human responses through time and space likely varied. Building on the notion of limiting factors, namely that the scarcest resource regulates population size, we present a statistical approach to identify the dominant climatic constraints for hunter-gatherer population densities and then hindcast their changing dynamics in Europe for the period between 20kyBP to 8kyBP. Limiting factors shifted from temperature-related variables during the Pleistocene to a regional mosaic of limiting factors in the Holocene. This spatiotemporal variation suggests that hunter-gatherers needed to overcome very different adaptive challenges in different parts of Europe, and that these challenges vary over time. The signatures of these changing adaptations may be visible archaeologically. In addition, the spatial disaggregation of limiting factors from the Pleistocene to the Holocene coincides with and may partly explain the diversification of the cultural geography at this time.

Adaptive leadership of doctors during COVID-19

Purpose This study aims to examine the adaptive leadership of doctors during COVID-19 to understand the leadership competencies required for adaptive events. Design/methodology/approach Phenomenology-based qualitative design was used. Data were collected from six doctors from the state of Kerala, India using semi-structured interviews. Findings Five themes were identified. The first theme, core leadership shows that doctors perceive leaders as educators, learners and social beings. The second theme, adaptive challenges, describes the ambiguous pandemic-related challenges that doctors are facing including, unusual occupational demands, information overload, sociocultural issues and personal intricacies. The third theme reflects that for doctors, adaptive work during the pandemic included – new learning to address unique issues, changing perspectives and establishing and maintaining a safe and engaging workplace environment. The fourth theme describes the adaptive leadership competencies such as regulating distress, providing direction, maintaining disciplined action, fostering collaboration, empowering, understanding organizational linkages, strategic vision and communication skills. The fifth theme elucidates the lacunae in leadership training as perceived by the doctors. Research limitations/implications The findings can help in developing and enhancing competency frameworks for doctors’ adaptive leadership. Originality/value This is one of the earliest studies to systematically examine components of adaptive leadership for doctors during COVID-19 and identify associated competencies.

Using a Theoretical Framework in a Qualitative Metasummary About Fatigue Adaptation After Stroke

We describe how we used a theoretical framework, Adaptive Leadership Framework for Chronic Illness (ALFCI), to complete a qualitative metasummary in a scoping review of 26 articles. We abstracted and grouped qualitative findings relevant to fatigue adaptation in stroke survivors using constructs of the ALFCI as 4 main themes: 1) adaptive challenges, 2) adaptive work, 3) adaptive leadership and collaborative work, and 4) technical challenges and technical work. We found that stroke survivors encountered different aspects of challenges (e.g., physical dysfunction vs. mental distress) and utilized various adaptive work (e.g., conserving energy vs. restructuring normality) as well as what stroke survivors needed from healthcare professionals (e.g., basic knowledge about fatigue). The ALFCI provides a useful lens to synthesize qualitative findings regarding fatigue adaptation and therefore researchers can target different problems that need to be tackled for stroke survivors, care partners, or healthcare professionals, respectively.

The Episcopal Church

Recent data provide cause for concern in areas of decline for mainline denominations generally, and the Episcopal Church in particular. There are also significant opportunities evident from trends in the data. Information gleaned from the 2020 FACT survey, particularly the qualitative data that focus on sources of concern and pride, can help to illuminate the complexity of the adaptive challenges we face as a church. This analysis of the data highlights the complexity of the challenges, while also pointing to hope and possibility for the future.

Violence Resembling Terrorism: Adaptive Challenges and Technical Problems in First Responder Collaboration

In situations that involve violence resembling terrorism (VRT), flexible management and collaboration between authorities are the keys to successful operations. As previous researches have stated, poor communication and poor procedures are the main challenges. All challenges should be divided into adaptive challenges and technical problems, in order to gradually help the first responders to conquer them. If their differences are not recognised, first responders tend to try and solve adaptive challenges wrongly by using technical measures. In this paper, the selected incidents are examined through a multiple-case study. The findings are tied to Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky’s model of adaptive challenges and technical problems. It is concluded that without adequate training and guidelines, first responders tend to maintain old practices, which can compromise the efficiency and safety of rescue operations.

Adaptive Challenges and Family Support: Patient Self-Management during Treatment for Chronic Hepatitis C

The authors describe a family’s adaptive challenges and adaptive work during a family member’s treatment for Chronic Hepatitis C. We audiorecorded index and final clinical visits and interviewed participants (patients and providers) following the visits. We interviewed by telephone and reviewed medical records over the course of treatment. Transcripts were analyzed using directed content analysis. Three themes were identified: family adaptive challenges, patient-described aspects of family members’ adaptive challenges, and family adaptive work. There were four subthemes related to family adaptive work. The adaptive leadership framework for chronic illness provided direction for future family intervention.

The Generative Change Model: Creating the Agile Organization While Dealing With a Complex Problem

The generative change model identifies the underlying process that has produced success in a variety of Dialogic Organization Development (OD) and large group intervention cases. It works with widespread stakeholder engagement and self-organizing properties of human systems, to create rapid, transformational change. It appears better suited to managing complex, adaptive challenges than traditional planned change. The paper briefly describes the model and explains one aspect of it in more depth, the use of purpose, instead of vision, to guide the change process.