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Social relations are embedded in material, cultural, and institutional settings that affect network dynamics and the resulting topologies. For example, romantic entanglements are subject to social and cultural norms, interfirm alliances are constrained by country-specific legislation, and adolescent friendships are conditioned by classroom settings and neighborhood effects. In short, social contexts shape social relations and the networks they give rise to. However, how and when they do so remain to be established. This paper presents network ecology as a general framework for identifying how the proximal environment shapes social networks by focusing interactions and social relations, and how these interactions and relations in turn shape the environment in which social networks form. Tie fitness is introduced as a metric that quantifies how well particular dyadic social relations would align with the setting. Using longitudinal networks collected on two cohorts each in 18 North American schools, i.e., 36 settings, we develop five generalizable observations about the time-varying fitness of adolescent friendship. Across all 252 analyzed networks, tie fitness predicted new tie formation, tie longevity, and tie survival. Dormant fit ties cluster in relational niches, thereby establishing a resource base for social identities competing for increased representation in the relational system. • We present an ecological framework for studying relational dynamics in defined social settings. • Selection pressures operating at different timescales constrain relational activities and shape attainable outcomes. • Tie fitness quantifies a tie's alignment with a setting. Fitness predicts new relation formation, survival, and longevity. • Clusters of fit ties establish relational niches in which social identities can compete for increased representation in the relational system. • Network ecology draws attention to the processes that drive tie selection and the strictness of ecological constraint, the coevolution of relational norms with the proximal environment, and the evolving salience of social identities over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores four elements integral to effective leadership in libraries: investing in relationships, communicating effectively, encouraging self-determination, and learning from our collaborators. Based on the author's experience leading in libraries, and integrating scholarship from fields such as organizational studies, the article asserts that librarians in leading positions can positively impact their organizational cultures. By understanding that the construction of social reality is a collaborative process, librarians work to nurture inclusivity and self-determination among colleagues and coworkers. The article posits that relationships are the defining characteristic of our leadership and calls for librarians to develop this aspect of their professional work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various scholars have studied the increasing occurrence of toxic, often large-scale arguments over allegedly offensive behaviour in both public and private discourse arenas. However, what is meant by offence itself is rarely discussed at length in linguistics and communication studies, and little systematic work has been dedicated to how offence is taken and reported on across different contexts and in different modes of communication. The aims of this special issue are to examine how interactants and observers of interaction take offence across different communicative settings and sociocultural contexts, to consider the moral and relational implications of taking or reporting offence, and to highlight what a pragmatics-based perspective can add to research on offence and its relationship with morality. • Shows how people take offence across different settings and sociocultural contexts. • Examines the moral and relational implications of taking offence. • Scrutinises the relationship between offence and morality. • Discusses what a pragmatics perspective brings to research on offence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study embraced the state-of-the-art Branchformer series architecture within the realm of automatic speech recognition, supplanting the widely utilized Conformer architecture. This substitution offers an innovative remedy tailored to audio-visual speech recognition tasks. Building upon the Branchformer architecture, enhancements were made, culminating in the proposal of the Relational-Branchformer (R-Branchformer). The convolutional attention relation module was innovatively incorporated to augment the connectivity between the local and global branches by meticulously considering their interrelations and interplays. Consequently, this module facilitates the mutual embedding of local and global contextual information, ultimately leading to a substantial enhancement in model performance. Our model was grounded in the utilization of the connectionist temporal classification (CTC) loss, wherein intermediate CTC losses were incorporated between blocks. Moreover, through the reference and enhancement of the gated interlayer collaboration module, which superseded the inter CTC module, the conditional independence assumption intrinsic to the CTC model was effectively relaxed. As a consequence, this augmentation markedly bolstered the overall performance of our model. Furthermore, the audio-visual output enhancement module was proposed, which adeptly assimilates information from both audio and visual modalities to enrich the representation of audio-visual information. Consequently, the R-Branchformer model achieved remarkable word error rates of 1.7% and 1.5% on the LRS2 and LRS3 test sets, respectively, exemplifying its state-of-the-art performance in audio-visual speech recognition tasks. • First application in audio-visual recognition tasks. • Interactively fuse global information and local information. • Effectively integrate text information with modal information. • Introducing Audio-Visual Output Enhancement for richer model outputs. • Rigorous evaluation shows state-of-the-art noise robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the impact of two pilot leadership development workshops. It tests the potential of an evidence and Place-based transformational Leadership Development (P-BLD) framework for building leader and leadership capabilities across sectors and for acting as a catalyst for collaborative action within an Intersectoral Urban Violence Prevention program (IUVP) in Nakuru County, Kenya. The P-BLD framework deliberately surfaces and works with the inherent tensions in intersectoral collaboration. By challenging assumptions, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours it has started to overcome a history of distrust and engender a mindset shift amongst participants. It is argued that the P-BLD framework and IUVP are mutually reinforcing which when merged have increased potential for developing an advanced state of collaboration, a stronger sense of common purpose and collective empowerment. The evidence from this research and practice demonstrates the validity of applying this approach to support peace builders in reducing violence across different countries and other policy areas where there is a shared intersectoral and territorial context. This strongly supports Lee et al.'s (2016: S24) contention that some of Latin America's most violent areas have achieved considerable reductions in urban violence by focusing on "places , people and behaviours" which means changing inter-relational attitudes and values. • Clear evidence that intersectoral and territorial based P-BLD and IUVP are mutually reinforcing. • Strong signs that participating leaders are taking first step towards a real shift in mind-sets. • Evidence of initiated trust building between traditionally opposed sectors. • Proof of first building blocks for collaborative understanding & collective action established. • Positive impact of applying P-BLD framework to challenging policy contexts in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Some people with learning disabilities experience harassment, fear and anxiety in cities. • People move along regular routes and avoid certain areas and people, and seek out sites of inclusion. • People actions and encounters with others, plus local and wider contexts shape experiences of the city. Disabled people experience significant social discrimination and spatial exclusion in their everyday lives in the city. In recent years, discriminatory acts have increasingly been labelled as 'hate crimes'. We argue that hate crime's association with harassment and violence has obscured the more common prejudicial attitudes and actions, which create anxiety and fear. Further, the paper seeks to shift the disability hate crime discourse from its present focus on individual victimisation, to the micro and local spaces, social relations and wider socio-political contexts, within which these acts emerge. We set out a critique of hate crime discourse, offering instead a relational interpretation of people's experiences of place, drawing on aspects of non-representational theory. We argue that everyday movements through the city and encounters with others, produce senses of anxiety and precarity, as well as experiences of belonging, in the context of structural disablist attitudes. The paper draws on a collaborative research project in a city centre in Scotland, using a methodology of walking interviews and focus groups. The findings are presented in four themes, illustrated by qualitative GIS mapping: (i) recorded and experienced hate crime and harassment in the city; (ii) routes into and mobility within the city; (iii) spaces of fear and anxiety, and inclusion and welcome; and (iv) encounters and relations with others. We conclude by arguing that a relational approach, examining the dynamic unfolding or emergence of people's embodied and emotional experiences and encounters (both negative and positive), in a range of contexts, is a significant contribution to the hate crime debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The local is a critical scale in the organisation of spatial economy, but is often interpreted within regional arrangements and situated as component rather than distinctive unit of production. Employing a relational reading, this analysis reframes the interpretation of local economies by positioning the local as a point of convergence for economic activities and actors rather than a bounded unit. Focused on localities considered marginally represented through evolving regional policies, the analysis applies a case study of southern Staffordshire, UK to examine how the local converges embedded spaces of economic governance and economic production. It argues rescaling in these spaces has extended the spatial integration of the local. This integration can be understood through the dynamic convergence of centralised policy mechanisms, regional resource management, market patronage, and firm-level practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) equalities is not uniform, but varies locally and regionally as well as nationally. Research has long focused on large metropolises, with the assumption that work to improve LGBT equalities will mostly take place in these areas. However, a growing body of geographic research attests to positive LGBT experiences in rural areas, and calls for further attention to LGBT lives and equalities in hitherto neglected towns. In this paper I detail public sector LGBT equalities work which occurred in the areas of Hastings, Rother and wider East Sussex, through a Participatory Action Research (PAR) project involving a partnership of local public services, LGBT communities, activists and academics from 2010 to 2013. I aim to show that public sector LGBT equalities work is intimately connected with a relational logic of rural/urban, and that this logic can result in some areas being overlooked when it comes to public sector LGBT equalities. Bringing a burgeoning literature on geographies of LGBT equalities together with rural geographies, I advance discussions of progressive public sector equalities work beyond the urban and explore how relational geographies of ‘the rural’ and ‘the urban’ might come together with the discourses of public sector equalities work. Acknowledging the continued importance of discursive rural/urban binaries with regard to LGBT equalities in neglected rural areas, I also explore the slippery ways in which such imaginaries adhere and do not adhere to particular areas. These slippery geographies can result in areas being overlooked in terms of LGBT equalities work. Finally, I point out the importance of other alternative geographic imaginaries relevant to LGBT lives and communities which rural/urban binaries may render less visible. In doing so, this paper, explores the complex relational geographies of how the urban and the rural emerge through discourses of public sector LGBT equalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from a large case project in Norway, a research gap was identified concerning analyses of experiences in the use of different relational contract models. This study explores the experiences with relational contracts in large infrastructure projects in selected countries. We looked at what types of contracts were applied, why these, what were the experiences, and what contract strategies will be used in the future. Based on findings of this study, it is not easy to identify patterns in factors that influence the choice of contract. Rather, it seems that each country’s selected approach is incidental. Each country selected approach after experts advocated a certain model or practitioners who have applied a certain model. We observed that targeted countries could somehow be grouped in two. In Sweden and Denmark relational contracts seem to be more about attitude rather than formal contract regulations. In the UK, Finland and the Netherlands relational contracts seem to be more dependent on formal contract regulations. The future trend seems to be a more widespread the use of relational contracts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CSA is prevalent internationally and its negative impact can continue in adulthood. India has a high prevalence of child maltreatment. The present study recorded the ‘recovering’ experiences of adult survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA) in India and developed a clinically applicable framework of recovery. Qualitative semi-structured individual interviews were conducted. Transcripts were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to identify recurrent themes. A total 20 adult survivors were interviewed. Results identified four core stages/processes of ‘moving on from CSA’ based on the descriptions provided by participants in India: The Affected Self - Keeping the Self Together; Accurate Symbolisation; Activation of the Recovering Self; Re-connection, Integration and Growth. We have developed the first survivor-centred relational growth – based model of recovery from CSA in India and potentially internationally. The findings support relational approaches to treatment and service delivery. A clear recovery process within and outwith services has been identified, thus emphasising the need for psychosocial support for facilitating personally meaningful recovery within the community through consistent practice. The findings have implications for continuing professional development (CPD), training, supervision, social reform, service delivery and policy as well as self-recovery of adult survivors. It is recommended to include relational approaches in working with survivors in India and internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates and presents the narratives of Taiwanese women who have reached the young-old stage. The narrative interview method was used for data collection from 12 Taiwanese women. After analysing the recurring themes emerging from the women's life histories, it is found that the meanings of these Taiwanese women's narratives could not be finalised according to traditional Confucian norms. These women rebelled, resisted, and resumed authorship to make changes to their lives in a patriarchal society. The women were reflexive, and had constant struggles. The findings also reveal a prominent characteristic of Taiwanese culture that emphasises relationships. The women were able to pursue their dreams to involve themselves in self-care, leisure, aesthetic activities, and classes for their personal growth and pleasure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social impact can be understood as the real or perceived, intended or unintended, relational and agentic consequences that emerge from organizational decisions or actions for individuals, communities, and societies. Inherent here is the recognition that social impact aligns with consequences, whether it be on individuals, communities, and societies, and that these consequences stem from organizational decisions and behaviors. Drawing on wider social impact scholarship, this paper identifies two approaches—instrumental and consumer—that have provided lenses on how organizations make decisions about social impact and related consequences, and the level of involvement stakeholders have in these decisions. This paper proposes that the understanding of social impact should evolve to reflect the relational worldview advocated in the public relations discipline, which is one that emphasizes the importance of organizations, individuals, and communities contributing to a fully functioning society. A relational lens shows that social impact can be understood as changes—whether they be intended or unintended, anticipated or unanticipated, positive or negative—in the way people live, experience, sustain, and function within their society, resulting from organizational decisions and consequent behaviors as co-determined by organizations and their stakeholders. The relational approach requires the adoption of a relational perspective on identifying, predicting, evaluating, managing, and reporting on social impact, operationalized via the seven-step Relational Framework of Social Impact conceptualized in this paper. While social impact is a relatively new term in the public relations literature, this paper highlights how public relations scholarship is well placed to enrich the social impact discipline due its emphasis on fostering a fully functioning society. • Social impact can be considered from instrumental, consumer, and relational approaches. • This paper advocates for a relational approach, in line with tenets of a fully functioning society. • Relationally, the nature and extent of social impact and responses to it are co-determined by organizations and their stakeholders. • The seven-step Relational Framework of Social Impact guides public relations practitioners to identify, predict, evaluate, and measure an organization's social impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is a link between partnering and effective knowledge transfer. Analyzing the key factors that enable partnering, there are reasons to believe that partnering may help to promote effective knowledge transfer in projects. Collaboration, open communication, and trust are some partnering elements that imply effective knowledge transfer and, consequently, lead to successful outcome. The findings will drive practitioners to a greater awareness of partnering practices and assist in promoting effective knowledge transfer in partnering projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family farms play an important role in the European countryside, yet their number is steadily declining. This raises the question of what conveys resilience to family farms, i.e. the ability to persist over the long-term through buffering shocks and adapting to change. Within the current approaches to farm resilience, we distinguish between two perspectives: the first focuses on material structures and highlights the role of farm types and ecological dynamics. The second focuses on actors and highlights that farmer agency and wider social forces also play important roles. We argue that a third perspective, one focusing on relations, has the potential to overcome both the structure/agency and the ecological/social dichotomies. Indeed, a relational approach enables a closer analysis of how ecological and social processes interact to undermine or strengthen resilience. The approach also allows to identify the different relationalities that are enacted within a specific context, foregrounding diversity in farming. Furthermore, it highlights that relations are continuously made and remade, putting the emphasis on change, and on the wider patterns that enable or constrain change. A relational approach would thus contribute to overcoming a one-sided focus on states and stability, shifting attention to the patterns of relations that enable transformational change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The sustainable livelihoods approach has become a key framework for academic research and in policy circles. • The sustainable livelihoods approach has also been widely critiqued. • Responding to these critiques but recognising its strengths, this paper sets out a sustainable livelihoods framework for the 21st century. This paper proposes a reformulation of the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF) fit for the 21st century. The article explores the rise and usage of the original SLF, highlighting how its popularity among development practitioners emerged both from its practical focus, and its depoliticization of wider shifts in the development landscape at the time. Distilling the various critiques that have emerged around the use of the SLF and sustainable livelihoods approaches, the article highlights problems of theory, method, scale, historical conceptualisation, politics, and debates on decolonising knowledge. It further explores two key shifts in the global development landscape that characterise the 21st century, namely the impacts of climate change on rural livelihoods, and the shifts wrought by globalisation, before highlighting the structural and relational turns in critical development literature. In speaking to both historical critiques and more recent debates, we present a SLF for the 21st century, foregrounding a structural, spatially-disaggregated, dynamic and ecologically-coherent approach to framing rural livelihoods. We offer a framework and not an approach, hoping that that our SLF leaves open the possibility for different theoretical traditions to better work with emerging rural livelihoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In software development, migration from a Data Base Management System (DBMS) to another, especially with distinct characteristics, is a challenge for programmers and database administrators. Changes in the application code in order to comply with new DBMS are usually vast, causing migrations infeasible. In order to tackle this problem, we present NoSQLayer, a framework capable to support conveniently migrating from relational (i.e., MySQL) to NoSQL DBMS (i.e., MongoDB). This framework is presented in two parts: (1) migration module; and, (2) mapping module. The first one is a set of methods enabling seamless migration between DBMSs (i.e. MySQL to MongoDB). The latter provides a persistence layer to process database requests, being capable to translate and execute these requests in any DBMS, returning the data in a suitable format as well. Experiments show NoSQLayer as a handful solution suitable to handle large volume of data (e.g., Web scale) in which traditional relational DBMS might be inept in the duty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on our experience, we present the sporadic, complementary, bi-relational, and tri-relational approaches to academia–industry cooperative teaching. We suggest the tri-relational approach, in which the relations do not simply refer to how the teachers’ expertise and actions interrelate but also to how the teachers’ expertise and knowledge relate to student knowledge. Without a tri-relational account of cooperative teaching, the process will generally ignore the required integration and communication, which instead will be minimised or marginalised and thus fail to focus on how knowledge is presented to students in relationally constitutive ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Although surveys have identified that women are generally highly satisfied with maternity care provision, those aspects of care that women highlight as most important for achieving satisfaction and a satisfactory maternity care experience have not been reported. The aim of this study was to investigate how women understand and experience their maternity care and to report which aspects of care women highlight as most important. Methods This large qualitative study explored women's expectations and experiences of maternity care provision. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 53 women experiencing maternity care in a range of tertiary, regional, rural, remote hospitals and midwife-led practices in the state of New South Wales, Australia during 2011-2012. Included in the interview schedule was the question 'What 3 aspects would you see as most important for delivery of maternity care?' Descriptive analyses of entire transcripts and responses to the question on most important aspects of care were undertaken. Results Descriptive analyses of women's responses identified 5 important aspects of care: woman-focused care, staff qualities, systems and facilities, family-focused care and continuity of care/information. First-time mothers were more likely to identify woman-focused care, staff qualities and continuity of care/information as important aspects than multiparous mothers. Urban and regional mothers highlighted staff qualities as having greater importance for satisfaction with their care while rural and particularly remote women nominated systems and facilities as important. Conclusions Our study showed that women from a range of settings are more concerned with staff and relational issues than facilities. Differences in perceptions among primiparous versus multiparous women, at different stages of pregnancy and among women from rural and remote compared to urban settings highlight the need to include women with a diversity of experience when trying to understand the aspects of maternity care most important to women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Studying face apart from im/politeness will benefit theory and research in interpersonal pragmatics. [•] Emic conceptualizations of face have potential to provide important insights into etic theorizing. [•] Face Constituting Theory provides a culture-general theory amenable to culture-specific construal. [•] Face Constituting Theory accommodates the Japanese emic conceptualization of face. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

How 'the patient' is imagined has implications for ethical decision-making in clinical practice. Patients are predominantly conceived in an individualised manner as autonomous and independent decision-makers. Fields such as genomic medicine highlight the inadequacies of this conceptualisation as patients are likely to have family members who may be directly affected by the outcome of tests in others. Indeed, professional guidance has increasingly taken a view that genetic information should, at times, be regarded as of relevance to families, rather than individuals. What remains absent from discussions is an understanding of how those living through/with genomic testing articulate, construct, and represent patienthood, and what such understandings might mean for practice, particularly ethical decision-making. Employing the notion of 'linked lives' from lifecourse theory, this article presents findings from a UK-based qualitative longitudinal study following the experiences of those affected by the process and outcomes of genomic testing. The article argues that there is a discord between lived experiences and individualised notions of 'the patient' common in conventional bioethics, with participants predominantly locating their own decision-making within the matrix of linked lives in which they are embedded. In the quest to gain 'answers', many took an intra or intergenerational view, connecting their own experiences to those of past generations through familial narratives around probable explanations, and/or hopes and expectations for the health of imagined future generations. The article argues that a re-imagining of 'the patient', that reflects the complex and shifting nature of patienthood, will be imperative as genomic medicine is mainstreamed. • How 'the patient' is imagined has implications for ethical decision-making. • Genomic medicine shows the shortcomings of individualised notions of 'the patient'. • Instead, a 'linked lives' lens highlights the ensembles of relationships affected. • Participants reported more collective inter/intra-generational views of patienthood. • Re-imagining patienthood beyond the individual is vital as genomics is mainstreamed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: current individualistic ideas of autonomy and decision making do not fit within the context of decision-making in the midwife--woman relationship. This article critically explores current issues around decision-making and proposes a relational decision-making model for midwifery care. Design: qualitative prenatal and postnatal interviews around decision-making within childbirth in general, and the third stage of labour in particular. Participants: eight midwife--woman pairs in urban settings in New Zealand. Findings: a range of relational, social and political factors that are not present within existing decision-making models were highlighted. The themes included ontological and philosophical influences on decision-making; uncertainty, vulnerability and relational trust; and socio-political and cultural influences. Inconsistencies in knowledge arising from social, cultural and familial considerations as well as identities, beliefs, values, conversations, and practices were found to produce uncertainties around potential courses of action, expected consequences and outcomes. 'Unplanned' birth experiences decreased client autonomy and increased vulnerability thereby intensifying relational trust within decision-making. The political context may also open up or close down possibilities for decision-making at both national and local levels. Conclusion: decision-making for women and midwives is influenced by complex human, contextual and political factors. This study supports a relational model of decision-making that is embedded in understandings of choice as 'entangled'. A relational model enables consideration of how factors such as identity projects, individual practices, the organisation of maternity care, local hospital cultures, medicalised childbirth, workforce shortages, funding cuts and poverty shape the way in which care decisions are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The ability to identify faces is of critical importance for normal social interactions. Previous evidence suggests that early visual deprivation may impair certain aspects of face recognition. The effects of strabismic amblyopia on face processing have not been investigated previously. In this study, a group of individuals with amblyopia were administered two tasks known to selectively measure face detection based on a Gestalt representation of a face (Mooney faces task) and featural and relational processing of faces (Jane faces task). Our data show that – when relying on their amblyopic eye only – strabismic amblyopes perform as well as normally sighted individuals in face detection and recognition on the basis of their single features. However, they are significantly impaired in discriminating among different faces on the basis of the spacing of their single features (i.e., configural processing of relational information). Our findings are the first to demonstrate that strabismic amblyopia may cause specific deficits in face recognition, and add to previous reports characterizing visual perceptual deficits associated in amblyopia as high-level and not only as low-level processing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The European Scanning System, developed to analyse nuclear emulsions at high speed, has been completed with the development of a high level software infrastructure to automate and support large-scale emulsion scanning. In one year, an average installation is capable of performing data-taking and online analysis on a total surface ranging from few m2 to tens of m2, acquiring many billions of tracks, corresponding to several TB. This paper focuses on the procedures that have been implemented and on their impact on physics measurements. The system proved robust, reliable, fault-tolerant and user-friendly, and seldom needs assistance. A dedicated relational Data Base system is the backbone of the whole infrastructure, storing data themselves and not only catalogues of data files, as in common practice, being a unique case in high-energy physics DAQ systems. The logical organisation of the system is described and a summary is given of the physics measurement that are readily available by automated processing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Many years of research related to fuzzy logic and fuzzy set theory extensions to relational databases have not lead to stable implementations, standardized languages or fuzzy relational database application development tools and methods. The main goal of this paper is the modelling and the implementation of a set of tools that allow usage of fuzzy logic enriched with priorities in relational database applications. In order to achieve that goal, at first, the relational data model is extended with the elements of fuzzy set theory. After that, a fuzzy extension of the SQL query language, called the PFSQL, is defined. An interpreter for that language is integrated inside an implementation of the fuzzy JDBC driver. An implementation of the CASE tool for modelling of fuzzy relational database schemas rounds up a set of tools for the implementation of Java fuzzy database applications. In this sense, this paper presents a step towards a methodology for the fuzzy relational database application development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this commentary, we reflect on the challenges of incorporating gender and sex into health research and funding and discuss some of the strategies we have employed in our efforts to overcome them. We write from our vantage point within Institute of Gender and Health, one of the 13 institutes that comprise the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Canada’s national health research funding agency. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Current environmental and health challenges require us to identify ways to better align aesthetics, ecology, and health. At the local level, community gardens are increasingly praised for their therapeutic qualities. They also provide a lens through which we can explore relational processes that connect people, ecology and health. Using key-informant interview data, this research explores gardeners’ tactile, emotional, and value-driven responses to the gardening experience and how these responses influence health at various ecological levels (n = 67 participants, 28 urban gardens). Our findings demonstrate that gardeners’ aesthetic experiences generate meaning that encourages further engagement with activities that may lead to positive health outcomes. Gardeners directly experience nearby nature by ‘getting their hands dirty’ and growing food. They enjoy the way vegetables taste and form emotional connections with the garden. The physical and social qualities of garden participation awaken the senses and stimulate a range of responses that influence interpersonal processes (learning, affirming, expressive experiences) and social relationships that are supportive of positive health-related behaviors and overall health. This research suggests that the relational nature of aesthetics, defined as the most fundamental connection between people and place, can help guide community designers and health planners when designing environment and policy approaches to improve health behaviors. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The human hippocampus is known to play an important role in relational memory. Both patient lesion studies and functional-imaging studies have shown that it is involved in the encoding and retrieval from memory of arbitrary associations. Two recent patient lesion studies, however, have found dissociations between spared and impaired memory within the domain of relational memory. Recognition of associations between information of the same kind (e.g., two faces) was spared, whereas recognition of associations between information of different kinds (e.g., face-name or face-voice associations) was impaired by hippocampal lesions. Thus, recognition of associations between information of the same kind may not be mediated by the hippocampus. Few imaging studies have directly compared activation at encoding and recognition of associations between same and different types of information. Those that have have shown mixed findings and been open to alternative interpretation. We used fMRI to compare hippocampal activation while participants studied and later recognized face-face and face-laugh paired associates. We found no differences in hippocampal activation between our two types of stimulus materials during either study or recognition. Study of both types of paired associate activated the hippocampus bilaterally, but the hippocampus was not activated by either condition during recognition. Our findings suggest that the human hippocampus is normally engaged to a similar extent by study and recognition of associations between information of the same kind and associations between information of different kinds. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This article proposes a philosophical approach to Child and Youth Care research that is congruent with the underlying epistemological assumptions of relational practice. We address two issues with respect to using research, and practice strategies and skills in Child and Youth Care practice: relational epistemology as a basis for CYC practice (which includes research), and the nature of relational inquiry. We argue that relational inquiry is the backbone of conducting Child and Youth Care practice whether it is inquiry that fosters learning for the purpose of service or for the purpose of creating knowledge. This is an initial inquiry that we hope will stimulate further scholarly dialogue and debate on relational-based inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Previous work indicates an essential role of the basolateral amygdala in stimulus-reward learning and the dorsal hippocampus in spatial learning and memory. The goal of the present, experiments was to examine the involvement of the amygdala and hippocampus in performance of tasks requiring stimulus-reward and spatial/relational learning and memory processes in the retrograde direction. Accordingly, this series of experiments tested the effects of temporary, inactivations directed at the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala or dorsal hippocampus on the, expression of a conditioned place preference (CPP) task or a spatial navigation water task. The results, of Experiments 1a and b showed that inactivations of the amygdala impaired the expression of a, previously acquired CPP but did not impair the expression of a learned spatial response required for, accurate performance of a spatial navigation task. The results of Experiments 2a and b showed that, inactivations of the dorsal hippocampus impaired expression of a learned response required for the, accurate performance of a spatial navigation task but did not impair the learned response required for, the expression of a CPP. Taken together, the results showed a functional dissociation between the, effects of amygdala or hippocampal dysfunction on the expression of these different classes of tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objectives: Narrative inquiry is one form of qualitative research that is burgeoning within the human sciences. However, in sport and exercise psychology little attention has been given to this approach. In this article, we seek to rectify this situation by offering an understanding of what narrative inquiry can be. Results: In order to begin to better understand what narrative inquiry as a methodology can be, and gain some theoretical purchase on a difficult field without aiming for a final answer, we first define narrative. Next, a distillation of guiding assumptions and characteristics are offered. Finally, some reasons as to why narratives may be of benefit for the field of sport and exercise psychology are highlighted. Conclusion: Narrative inquiry is a useful and important way of theorising and doing research in the domain of sport and exercise psychology. It should not, however, be taken up or practised simply because it is new or fashionable. Informed, principled, and responsible choices must be made by researchers and applied professionals about why and when they might engage with narrative inquiry should they wish to do so. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The paper offers a provocation to the geographies of health in relation to one of our governing concepts, that of wellbeing. The paper brings together government survey data from the United Kingdom with other published research into a critical argument that the dominant ways of conceptualising and practising subjective wellbeing have become toxic and harmful to wellbeing outcomes. The paper argues that a 'hyper-individualised and thwarted self' and 'supermarket model' of social resources for individual wellbeing underpins the contemporary dominant understanding of subjective wellbeing. This approach neglects wider spatial and temporal considerations such as inequality, inter-generationality and sustainability, and the rise of wellbeing as a technology of soft capitalism. The paper discusses the potential for relational approaches from the social sciences to provide a more 'wholesome tonic' to current understandings of subjective wellbeing that might rehabilitate its capability to do helpful rather than harmful work and argues for an ethical obligation to sustain critical engagement. • The dominant understanding of subjective wellbeing creates negative consequences. • Direct effects reduce wellbeing; indirect effects neglect importance issues. • This dominant approach reflects and supports a political economy of soft capitalism. • Centring the relational, social and interdependent fails to gain policy traction. • Struggling to reframe subjective wellbeing is an ethical imperative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The period since the end of the Cold War has presided over a dramatic expansion in the number of multilateral peacekeeping operations (PKOs). Yet individual states have varied significantly in their enthusiasm for peacekeeping and, moreover, demonstrated a greater propensity to participate in operations located in certain countries than others. Our contribution in the present paper is to provide new insights into how geography underpins these spatial variations. Uniquely, we make use of a geographically disaggregated dataset of multilateral PKOs, which allows us to capture various dyadic linkages between sending and receiving countries. Our results confirm previous work indicating that more democratic countries are more likely to participate in PKOs, but extend these findings by showing that countries'' commitment to human rights has a similar positive influence. We also show that aspects of spatial proximity (physical distance, same region) and relational proximity (colonial ties) between potential sending and receiving states raise the likelihood of participation. Yet we find that two relational variables widely discussed in the literature as possible correlates of peaceful interactions – bilateral trade and joint membership of intergovernmental organisations (IGOs) – have no statistically discernable influence on countries'' involvement in particular PKOs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Patients with schizophrenia have pronounced deficits in memory for events—episodic memory. These deficits severely affect patients'' quality of life and functional outcome, and current medications have only a modest effect, making episodic memory an important domain for translational development of clinical trial paradigms. The current article provides a brief review of the significant progress that cognitive neuroscience has made in understanding basic mechanisms of episodic memory formation and retrieval that were presented and discussed at the first CNTRICS (Cognitive Neuroscience Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia) meeting in Washington, D.C. During that meeting a collaborative decision was made that measures of item-specific and relational memory were the most promising constructs for immediate translational development. A brief summary of research on episodic memory in schizophrenia is presented to provide a context for investigating item-specific and relational memory processes. Candidate brain regions are also discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We compared the reasoning performance of patients with frontal-variant frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) with that of patients with temporal-variant FTLD and healthy controls. In a picture analogy task with a multiple-choice answer format, frontal-variant FTLD patients performed less accurately than temporal-variant FTLD patients, who in turn performed worse than healthy controls, when semantic and perceptual distractors were present among the answer choices. When the distractor answer choices were eliminated, frontal-variant patients showed relatively greater improvement in performance. Similar patient groups were tested with a relational-pattern reasoning task that included manipulations of one or two relations and both perceptual and semantic extraneous information. Frontal-variant patients showed performance deficits on all tasks relative to the other subject groups, especially when distracted. These results demonstrate that intact prefrontal cortex (PFC) is necessary for controlling interference from perceptual and semantic distractors in order to reason from relational structure. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The genome sequences of three Brucella biovars and of some species close to Brucella sp. have become available, leading to new relationship analysis. Moreover, the automatic genome annotation of the pathogenic bacteria Brucella melitensis has been manually corrected by a consortium of experts, leading to 899 modifications of start sites predictions among the 3198 open reading frames (ORFs) examined. This new annotation, coupled with the results of automatic annotation tools of the complete genome sequences of the B. melitensis genome (including BLASTs to 9 genomes close to Brucella), provides numerous data sets related to predicted functions, biochemical properties and phylogenic comparisons. To made these results available, αPAGe, a functional auto-updatable database of the corrected sequence genome of B. melitensis, has been built, using the entity-relationship (ER) approach and a multi-purpose database structure. A friendly graphical user interface has been designed, and users can carry out different kinds of information by three levels of queries: (1) the basic search use the classical keywords or sequence identifiers; (2) the original advanced search engine allows to combine (by using logical operators) numerous criteria: (a) keywords (textual comparison) related to the pCDS''s function, family domains and cellular localization; (b) physico-chemical characteristics (numerical comparison) such as isoelectric point or molecular weight and structural criteria such as the nucleic length or the number of transmembrane helix (TMH); (c) similarity scores with Escherichia coli and 10 species phylogenetically close to B. melitensis; (3) complex queries can be performed by using a SQL field, which allows all queries respecting the database''s structure. The database is publicly available through a Web server at the following url: http://www.fundp.ac.be/urbm/bioinfo/aPAGe. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Storing and querying XML documents using a RDBMS is a challenging problem since one needs to resolve the conflict between the hierarchical, ordered nature of the XML data model and the flat, unordered nature of the relational data model. This conflict can be resolved by the following XML-to-Relational mappings: schema mapping, data mapping and query mapping. In this paper, we propose: (i) a lossless schema mapping algorithm to generate a database schema from a DTD, which makes several improvements over existing algorithms, (ii) two linear data mapping algorithms based on DOM and SAX, respectively, to map ordered XML data to relational data. To our best knowledge, there is no published linear schema-based data mapping algorithm for mapping ordered XML data to relational data. Experimental results are presented to show that our algorithms are efficient and scalable. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This study examined contributions of the hippocampus, amygdala and perirhinal cortex to memory. Rats performed a cover task, and changes to stimulus identity or relationships were used to test incidental memory. Rats with hippocampal damage showed deficient responses to relationship changes, but demonstrated knowledge of the position and identity of the target object. They over-focused on the most predictive stimuli, and failed to acquire associations including surrounding cues. Rats with amygdala damage responded to changes involving distal stimuli, and showed deficient responses to novel objects and object relationships. These rats may be highly reliant on relational representations, resulting in a reduced salience for individual novel stimuli. Rats with perirhinal damaged responded to novel stimulus relationships and distal cues, but showed deficient responses to novel objects, suggesting that changes in identity had reduced salience. Implications for declarative and conjunctive hippocampal theories are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The authors argue that the fragmentary model of consciousness implied in the term ‘self-deception’ has provided the chief metaphor for explaining the apparent discrepancies that can arise between the evaluation of a motivated observer and the evaluation of a less interested external observer. Though self-deception models have explained these discrepancies in terms of both a dualistic opaque consciousness and in terms of cognitive and affective processes, all of these accounts seem to rest on the same essential fragmentation of the psyche. The authors argue that a relational model of consciousness, one that claims the indissolubility of cognition and affect, object and perception, and of past, present, and future can account for the apparent discrepancies involved in the paradigmatic cases of self-deception in a more parsimonious and phenomenologically faithful way than more objectivist and fragmented accounts of self-deception. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Existing commercial database management systems offer little or no functionality to handle the complexity of geoscience data—and other environmental science data—particularly in respect of missing and partially missing (incomplete or imprecise) data items. The emphasis of both the relational theorists (Codd, Date, and others) and the developers of database systems is on commercial applications where only rudimentary treatment of missing data is required, in the form of NULLs, and even these are not handled properly by the SQL language. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The attentional template is often described as the mental representation that drives attentional selection and guidance, for instance, in visual search. Recent research suggests that this template is not a veridical representation of the sought-for target, but instead an altered representation that allows more efficient search. The current paper contrasts two such theories. Firstly, the Optimal Tuning account which posits that the attentional template shifts to an exaggerated target value to maximise the signal-to-noise ratio between similar targets and non-targets. Secondly, the Relational account which states that instead of tuning to feature values, attention is directed to the relative value created by the search context, e.g. all redder items or the reddest item. Both theories are empirically supported, but used different paradigms (perceptual decision tasks vs. visual search), and different attentional measures (probe response accuracy vs. gaze capture). The current design incorporates both paradigms and measures. The results reveal that while Optimal Tuning shifts are observed in probe trials they do not drive early attention or eye- movement behaviour in visual search. Instead, early attention follows the Relational Account, selecting all items with the relative target colour (e.g., redder). This suggests that the masked probe trials used in Optimal Tuning do not probe the attentional template that guides attention. In Experiment 3 we find that optimal tuning shifts correspond in magnitude to purely perceptual shifts created by contrast biases in the visual search arrays. This suggests that the shift in probe responses may in fact be a perceptual artefact rather than a strategic adaptation to optimise the signal-to-noise ratio. These results highlight the distinction between early attentional mechanisms and later, target identification mechanisms. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Classical theories of attention suggest that attention is guided by a feature-specific target template. In recent designs this has been challenged by an apparent non- veridical tuning of the template in situations where the target stimulus is similar to non-targets. The current studies compare two theories that propose different explanations for non-veridical tuning; the Relational and the Optimal Tuning account. We show that the Relational account describes the mechanism that guides early search behaviour, while the Optimal Tuning account describes perceptual decision-making. Optimal Tuning effects may be due to an artefact that has not been described in visual search before (simultaneous contrast). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A deficit-oriented discourse dominates child protection workforce research with worker distress including burnout and vicarious trauma predominating. Recent Australian research challenges this discourse through new understandings of worker resilience, with potential benefits for service quality and workforce retention, warranting consideration of this alternative lens. This Australian longitudinal, qualitative study explored child protection worker perceptions and experiences of resilience to inform understandings of worker resilience, and implications for worker functioning and workforce retention. Participants were a purposive sample of 24 front-line child protection workers, in seven locations, from the state-based statutory child protection agency in Queensland, Australia. Using semi-structured, in-depth interviews, this longitudinal, qualitative study utilised a reflective approach drawing on participant understandings and experiences. The thematic analysis via NVivo utilized theory informed a priori coding as sensitizing concepts, which was further developed through inductive coding drawing meaning from participant data. With resilient workers maintaining effective practice over extended periods, findings highlighted the importance of reflective practice and relationship-based approaches to well-being and retention. Support for these practice approaches through supervision, peer support, and the organization were significant contributors. Participant-identified influences on resilience informed a relational-reflective framework, which recognizes the significance of reflective practice and the relational context to resilience, and how this is experienced. Given the common deficit-oriented discourse of worker distress in child protection, this study and the framework presented have relevance for workers, managers and organizations by reconceptualizing how resilience can be promoted to further workforce retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper addresses crisis communication shortcomings of oil companies working in the Nigerian delta region. The anticipatory model of crisis communication is blended with the public relations relational perspective to demonstrate how oil companies have responded to crises in the delta region in a manner contrary to what would be consistent with these perspectives. The result has been persistent turmoil in the region and significant distrust of the organizations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Direct exploitation of resources, climate change, and land pollution drive marine degradation. Influencing these drivers are political, cultural and economic systems, which are guided by people's values, beliefs, and behaviours. To tackle this conservation challenge and make oceans more sustainable, we need to understand how people think and act in relation to marine issues. This article examined marine value orientations, beliefs and personal norms. Self-administered questionnaires were randomly delivered to coastal residents in Newfoundland, Canada (n = 776, response rate = 49 %). The structural equation model predicted 86 % of the variance in personal norms. Newfoundland residents felt a moral obligation to act in favour of a healthy ocean when they care for the ocean (relational value), felt responsible for their actions, and were aware of the negative impacts of humans can have on marine environments. Relational, instrumental, and intrinsic value orientations were also related to knowledge of human impacts on the ocean. The results imply that efforts aimed at inspiring people to engage in sustainable behaviours should be grounded on relational values, such as care and concern for the ocean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]