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This research explores Slovak-American identity formation through the Slovak Language Press in late 1800s and early 1900s North America. Publications like Jednota, Amerikansko-Slovenske Noviny, and Slovak v Amerike promoted literacy, political awareness, and shaped much of the Slovak-American identity. Remarkably, Amerikansko-Slovenske Noviny had more subscribers than all Slovak newspapers in Slovakia combined, and therefore also exerted a much greater impact on the Slovak-American identity. We also examine the contrast between the press’s portrayal of Slovak-American worldviews and the historical reality of their experience, as well as their current identity and worldview, as well as the enduring influence of Jednota, the oldest Slovak-English continuously published newspaper, on today’s Slovak-American identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under-investment in public service journalism has led to growing interest in the possibility of philanthropic support for the sector. Though long associated with non-profit journalism in North America, there is little tradition of philanthropy in UK journalism. This paper explains how recognition of public interest journalism as charitable can be achieved through more constructive interpretations of the existing law. Despite its initially conservative response, the Charity Commission has recently taken important steps towards recognising defined forms of journalism as charitable under the existing law. This paper reviews the democratic imperatives fulfilled by public interest journalism which justify such developments; and seeks to demonstrate how this framework for defining public interest journalism aligns with the public benefit requirement in charity law, opening up the possibility of new forms of charitably funded 'public benefit journalism'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No data addressing issues concerning disparities in participant and trial characteristics and trial outcome reporting have been established in clinical trials for H1-antihistamine-refractory chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU). To better harmonize and compare the different treatment interventions, we systematically evaluated the overall landscape of pharmacological treatments for H1-antihistamine-refractory CSU clinical trials published between 2000 and 2021. This systematic review included 23 randomized clinical trials involving 2480 participants from 22 countries. We found significant increases in the number of globally published and newly tested drugs, especially biologic drugs. Regarding relatively small trials, we found that people living with H1-antihistamine-refractory CSU who were identified as members of minority groups (non-white population), populations of regions other than North America/Europe, and populations of low- to lower/upper-middle-income countries are underrepresented. Most trials were designed to evaluate treatment efficacy and safety profiles; however, less than half of the included trials reported the patient's perspective in terms of patient-reported outcomes. Disparities in outcome reporting, including clinimetric tools for assessing treatment response and outcome sets, were observed. To close the evidence gap in H1-antihistamine-refractory CSU trials, strategies for improving trial and participant enrollment and standardizing core outcome sets for trial reporting are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing overdose and drug toxicity crisis in North America has contributed momentum to the emergence of safer supply prescribing and programs in Canada as a means of providing an alternative to the highly volatile unregulated drug supply. The implementation and scale-up of safer supply have been met with a vocal reaction on the part of news media commentators, conservative politicians, recovery industry representatives, and some prominent addiction medicine physicians. This reaction has largely converged around several narratives, based on unsubstantiated claims and anecdotal evidence, alleging that safer supply programs are generating a "new opioid epidemic", reflecting an emerging alignment among key institutional and political actors. Employing situational analysis method, and drawing on the policy studies and social science scholarship on moral panics, this essay examines news media coverage from January to July 2023, bringing this into dialogue with other existing empirical sources on safer supply (e.g. Coroner's reports, program evaluations, debates among experts in medical journals). We employ eight previously established criteria delineating moral panics to critically appraise public dialogue regarding safer supply, diverted medication, and claims of increased youth initiation to drug use and youth overdose. In detailing the emergence of a moral panic regarding safer supply, we trace historic continuities with earlier drug scares in Canadian history mobilized as tools of racialized poverty governance, as well as previous backlashes towards healthcare interventions for people who use drugs (PWUD). The essay assesses the claims of moral entrepreneurs against the current landscape of opioid use, diversion, and overdose among youth, notes the key role played by medical expertise in this and previous moral panics, and identifies what the convergence of these narratives materialize for PWUD and healthcare access, as well as the broader policy responses such narratives activate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern North American carnivorous mammal assemblages consist of species from a single clade: the Carnivora. Carnivorans once coexisted with members of other meat-eating clades, including the creodonts (Hyaenodontida and Oxyaenida). Creodonts, however, went extinct in North America during the late Eocene and early Oligocene, potentially due to niche overlap and resource competition with contemporary carnivorans. In this study, we employ a community ecology approach to understand whether the dietary niches of coexisting creodonts and carnivorans overlapped during the late Eocene (Chadronian North American Land Mammal Age), a time when creodonts were dwindling and carnivorans were diversifying. We quantify niche overlap based on inferences of diet from carnassial tooth shape estimated using Orientation Patch Count, Dirichlet's Normal Surface Energy, and linear dental measurements as well as from body mass for all species in the Calf Creek Local Fauna of Cypress Hills, Saskatchewan (Treaty 4 land). Although creodonts and carnivorans shared characteristics of their carnassial tooth shape, suggesting similar chewing mechanics and feeding habits, we find that marked differences in body size likely facilitated niche partitioning, at least between the largest creodonts and carnivorans. Calculations of prey focus masses and prey mass spectra indicate that only the smallest creodont may have experienced significant competition for prey with the coeval carnivorans. We suggest that the ultimate extinction of creodonts from North America during the late Eocene and Oligocene was unlikely to have been driven by factors related to niche overlap with carnivorans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1815 a cat hoax rocked Chester. Someone plastered the city with handbills offering to buy cats. Hundreds of cats were rounded up and delivered, yet there was no buyer to be found. In the resulting chaos, people were injured, and hundreds of cats were drowned. This story was widely reported at the time up and down Britain. Soon enough it was also told in newspapers and compendia of trivia across the anglosphere. Yet, the Great Chester Cat Hoax never happened; it was a journalistic invention which rapidly transformed into a widely believed urban legend. This did not, however, prevent copycat hoaxes from materialising as pranksters imitated the story, first in the British Isles and then later in North America. The press were instrumental in the evolution and spread of cat hoaxes, and pranksters soon utilised newspaper adverts to engineer new hoaxes. Press coverage of cat hoaxes also evolved, reflecting the changing role of the cat in urban society and emergent anti‐cruelty concerns. Finally, the article shows that the meaning of the hoax was tied to ideas regarding ignorance rooted in anti‐Hibernian attitudes, as well as gendered and working‐class stereotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]