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Rooted in critical pedagogy and situated learning theory, this collaborative self-study examined how six teacher educators from different institutions worked to improve their culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) and activism practice. Data sources included participants' weekly journals, critical friends' feedback, and field notes and audio-video recordings of virtual meetings. Through constant-comparative analysis, three major themes emerged: we engaged in recursive cycles of (re)conceptualizations of CSP and activism, our evolving conceptualizations (re)shaped our practice, and we built a communal responsibility-a deep seated commitment to the success of all group members. This study suggests collaborative critical reflection on CSP and activism is beneficial to practitioners, including teacher educators.

In natural languages and in experimental studies of artificial language learning, case marking of grammatical arguments is more likely to be used in languages with flexible word order due to an efficiency trade-off between production effort and communicative accuracy. However, experimental evidence suggests that language learners are less efficient when there is a social bias in favour of a group whose productions are inefficient. Here, we examine the impact of autistic traits on efficient communication. We find that autistic people's use of case in the absence of a social bias is comparative to their neurotypical peers. However, we also find evidence that autistic people adhere more to social biases; they increase production effort in order to behave more like the group they are biased towards. We argue that some autistic people may be more likely to adhere to a social bias as a result of learnt social behaviours. More generally, these results underscore the importance of studying more diverse populations in language evolution research.

Activism is a term used frequently within and beyond educational settings, but the term is not always clearly defined. Using content analysis of over 150 picturebooks depicting activism, we strive to provide specificity to what activism is and make it tangible for readers and teachers. Through content analysis, we investigate key themes, characters, and actions in these books. From this analysis, we present a framework of head, heart, and world books. This framework illuminates the nuances of what activism can be from every day to transformative actions in making communities, local and global, a more equitable place. The article emphasizes the importance of using a variety of picturebooks on activism in classrooms to empower teachers and children to think critically about texts and be changemakers in the world.

This multi-institutional, collaborative self-study explores how teacher educators learn to embed new literacies (NL) in teacher education coursework. Utilizing collaborative self-study methodology, seven faculty engaged in a year-long collaborative study focused on the incorporation of NL in preservice teacher education courses, meeting regularly over the course of the year to share reflections, provide feedback to one another, and continually revise course and assignment designs related to NL. Data sources included recordings of collaborative planning meetings, written reflections, annotated teaching artifacts, notes and transcripts from partner and whole group recorded Zoom sessions and post-meeting reflections. The findings describe diversity in both conceptualizing and teaching NL, parallels between teacher educators', preservice teachers' and P-12 teachers' challenges integrating NL into their teaching, and institutional barriers to collaborative study, curricular revision, and the use of new technologies. The authors discuss these findings in relation to the potential value of multi-institutional study groups and collaborative self-study as a methodology for helping support literacy teacher educators' ongoing learning.

Vision is the primary sense humans use to evaluate and respond to threats. Understanding the biological underpinnings of the human threat response has been hindered by lack of realistic in-lab threat paradigms. We established an immersive virtual reality (VR) platform to simultaneously measure behavior, physiological state, and neural activity from the human brain using chronically implanted electrodes. Subjects with high anxiety showed increased visual scanning in response to threats as compared to healthy controls. In both healthy and anxious subjects, the amount of scanning behavior correlated with the magnitude of physiological arousal, suggesting that visual scanning behavior is directly linked to internal state. Intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) recordings from three subjects suggested that high-frequency gamma activity in the insula positively correlates with physiological arousal induced by visual threats and that low-frequency theta activity in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) negatively correlates with physiological arousal induced by visual threats. These findings reveal a key role of eye movements and suggest that distinct insula and OFC activation dynamics may be important for detecting and adjusting human stress in response to visually perceived threats.

This article investigates one undergraduate's path towards critical literacy around racial inequalities as a result of engaging with, reading, and discussing a challenging children's novel during a book study with peers. Using Cultural Historical Activity Theory, the author examines the personal and cultural resources the students brought to the experience, the stances she developed while engaging in the book, and the contextual resources that mediated her understanding of racial inequalities. This article further investigates how educators can leverage challenging texts in classrooms to support critical literacy development around societal issues.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with disparate health and educational outcomes. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to determine the relationship between ACEs and academic performance among U.S. children and adolescents. A total of 20 articles were included for a descriptive synthesis and 11 articles were included in the quantitative synthesis. Among the 11 studies, we found a weak, negative correlation between ACEs and academic performance. Further research is needed to explore all the potential adverse exposures that could impact academic outcomes and factors that might mediate the effects of ACEs on academic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper delves into the responses of two preservice teachers (PTs) in a book club on children's literature depicting activism and critical social issues. Through multiple sessions of reading, reflecting on, and discussing activism in various picturebooks, the PTs grappled with their own beliefs and connections to activism. Employing Bahktin's theory of authoritative discourse(s) and a lens of #CurriculumSoWhite, we examine how the two PTs navigated the discourses of neutrality and apolitical teaching with an imposing discourse around activism in education. These frames together highlight the pervasiveness of whiteness in education. Findings indicate how the PTs engaged in the zone of conflict and created their own discourse of being a "good" teacher in both these spaces. While trying to save face in the imposing discourse of activism, the study amplifies the pervasive presence of whiteness in teaching and teacher education, unveiling how PTs navigate or appeal to these discourses in their reflections. The significance of this research lies in highlighting the complex negotiation of authoritative discourses and the implications for fostering transformative pedagogies centered around activism and critical social issues in the classroom. It underscores the need for longitudinal work in fostering communities of teachers prepared to challenge authoritative discourses of whiteness and embrace justice-oriented pedagogies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for alternative biomarkers of reproductive potential in the pork industry is apparent as the current selection approach for sow fertility is not keeping up with the improvement of other productionrelated traits. To date, the vaginal microbiome has been overlooked as a source of potential biomarkers of sow fertility status. We aimed to elucidate a possible divergence of the vaginal microbiome between sows of differing fertility status and identify possible microbial biomarkers that classify the fertility potential of a sow. Microbial DNA was extracted from vaginal microbiome samples originating from highly reproductive sows (HRP, n = 41) with the number of piglets born alive ≥ 13 or infertile sows (INF, n = 22), that failed to become pregnant after two rounds of consecutive artificial insemination. Our 16S rRNA sequencing results revealed significant (P < 0.05) beta diversity divergence at the family and genus taxonomic levels between HRP and INF vaginal communities. INF vaginal communities displayed significantly greater (P < 0.05) alpha diversity at both the family and genus levels and had a significantly (P < 0.05) greater number of unique OTUs identified at the genus level. The composition of the vaginal microbiome diverges between HRP and INF sows, with INF sows experiencing a disruption of their communities via the colonization of opportunistic pathogens reducing the abundance of normal microbiota seen in HRP. The genera Streptococcus, Lachnospiraceae XPB1014 group, Staphylococcus and Treponema were selected to test as potential biomarkers due to their univariate significance, contribution to partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and selection in a recursive feature elimination model (RFE). The resultant support-vector machine model was diagnostic (achieving an ROC-AUC = 0.86), supporting the selected biomarkers as diagnostic markers for sow fertility status. Overall, there was an apparent shift from a normal vaginal microbiota in HRP sows to a dysbiotic vaginal microbiota in INF sows dominated by potentially pathogenic, more anaerobic and short-chain fatty acid (SCFA)-producing microbiota that may play damaging and pro-inflammatory roles in the vaginal canal. Lactobacillus, known to be the dominant genus in a majority of healthy human vaginal microbiomes, was not the dominating genus in either INF or HRP vaginal microbiomes, suggesting the uniqueness of pig vaginal microbiomes. This also emphasizes the need for pig-specific vaginal microbiome research. Investigations regarding the application of the potential vaginal microbial biomarkers identified in this study to a large, novel population of sow and gilt vaginal microbiome samples to test their on-farm accuracy are underway. In addition, the mechanistic and physiologic role of SCFAs and the bacteria that produce them in the sow vaginal microbiome should be further investigated to understand how they may influence or be a product of fertility status [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective:Consumer wearable devices allow physical activity to be measured objectively, which can be useful in remote cardiovascular disease management. This review aimed to summarize the effects of using wearable devices to monitor physical activity/adherence to physical activity in adults with cardiovascular disease. Methods:The review used The Cochrane Overview of Reviews Methodology. The databases searched were PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, the date of the last search was October 12, 2021. Risk of bias was assessed using the AMSTAR-2® tool. Results:Of the 767 records, we identified 6 systematic reviews (SRs) and meta-analyses (MA) that met our inclusion criteria. The individual SRs did not consistently favor the use of wearables, but the MA syntheses each found significant effects, favoring wearable devices in measures, including mean steps per day and mean time spent completing moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. The MA on adherence to cardiac rehabilitation (CR) found greater adherence to CR with the use of a mobile app than with no app support. Summary:Within this review, there were SRs demonstrating no difference and reviews indicating a positive impact with the use of wearables for physical activity/adherence measures in individuals with cardiovascular conditions, with no studies demonstrating a negative impact. The six SR/MAs included had methodological flaws, which introduced potential biases. Additionally, the MAs included a small number of studies, which limits their generalizability. The protocol for this review was registered on PROSPERO, the international prospective register of systematic reviews (#CRD42021286699). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]