In girl . (2008) and Pipeline (2018), Megan Mostyn-Brown and Dominique Morisseau raise awareness about mental illness, gender, and race issues and create empathy through their effective use of interior monologues, simultaneous monologues, literary allusions, minimal stage directions, and lyrical descriptions. Setting their stories in schools, campuses, and single-parent households and engaging in conversations on parenting and education, these two rising playwrights appeal to young generations and older audiences and break down color and class lines. While presenting characters with compassion, Mostyn-Brown and Morisseau describe situations realistically and urge readers and audiences to pay attention to problems that plague our youth because they can lead to tragic outcomes. The authors ultimately carve spaces in our society and public discourse and foreground urgent issues of American young adults that require awareness, communication, transparency, dialogue, support, and constructive legal, social, emotional, and educational solutions.
French Guiana is France’s largest overseas territory, accounting for 1/6th of mainland France. French Guiana has the highest fertility rate in France and Latin America. However, infant mortality, especially neonatal mortality, remains 2.6 times higher than in mainland France. Preeclampsia was found to be the most important pregnancy-related condition contributing to preterm birth in the primary analysis of risk factors for preterm birth in French Guiana. Therefore, by analyzing the Registre des Issues de Grossesse de Guyane (RIGI), we sought to better describe this condition and understand its risk factors in our area. A retrospective and comparative study was conducted using 2014–2020 data from the RIGI, which describes 53,522 viable births (≥22 weeks of amenorrhea) in all four perinatal facilities in French Guiana. The RIGI is performed by midwives after patients’ delivery. It records data up to two hours postpartum. During the study 12.9% of children were born preterm at less than 37 WA (weeks of amenorrhea). 4.5% of the study population had preeclampsia, of which almost half, 49.5%, were expected to deliver prematurely. The Afro-Caribbean population has a higher risk of preeclampsia than the white population, more than double that of the caucasians. Despite adjustment for place of birth, there are spatial heterogeneities in preeclampsia, with an increased risk for residents of towns in western French Guiana. In conclusion, preeclampsia is a major cause of preterm birth and morbidity in French Guiana. The great heterogeneity between populations and geographical areas requires specific blood tests such as angiogenic balance or still heavy metal assays.
This study examines the relationship between parent‐perceived social isolation and aggressive behaviors in primary school children, with an emphasis on the mediating role of emotional-regulation problems and anger-control problems, as measured by the Sistema de Evaluación de Niños y Adolescentes (SENA). Data were analyzed from 1363 students (54.6% girls; M age = 10.00, SD = .79) in fourth to sixth grade in northern Chile using structural equation modeling (SEM). Direct and mediated relationships were evaluated while controlling age, sex, and nationality. Parent‐perceived social isolation predicted problems in anger control ( β = .09, p = .04) but did not predict emotional-regulation problems. Anger‑control problems were strongly associated with aggression ( β = .91, p < .01) and served as a significant mediator between parent‑perceived social isolation and aggressive behavior (indirect β = .13, p = .01), whereas emotion‑regulation difficulties showed no mediating effect. The final model accounted for 62.1% of the variance in aggression, highlighting sex differences in which boys exhibited higher levels of anger and aggression. These findings underscore the central role of anger control as a linking pathway between parent‐perceived social isolation and aggression, emphasizing the need for interventions that involve families, enhance early identification of signs of social withdrawal, and promote support networks to mitigate the negative effects of isolation.
Malnutrition among children and pregnant women remains a major public health concern in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. This study aimed to develop and evaluate fortified infant flours using broken rice, peanuts, soybeans, and Moringa oleifera leaf powder as a cost‑effective nutritional strategy for vulnerable populations. Four formulations were developed: F1 (100% broken rice, control), F2 (60% broken rice, 15% peanuts, 20% soybeans, 5% Moringa oleifera ), F3 (40% broken rice, 20% peanuts, 20% soybeans, 10% Moringa oleifera ), and F4 (30% broken rice, 25% peanuts, 30% soybeans, 15% Moringa oleifera ). Physicochemical properties, including bulk density, swelling capacity, water absorption, and oil absorption, were analyzed. Sensory evaluation was also conducted to assess consumer acceptability. F4 had the highest protein and fat content, reflecting the greatest energy value. Significant differences ( p < .05) were observed among formulations in bulk density, swelling capacity and water absorption, while oil absorption remained relatively constant. Sensory evaluation revealed that porridge made from F3 was the most appreciated in terms of taste, texture and overall acceptability, despite F4 being nutritionally superior. These formulations may improve food security and child nutrition but need validation, sensory enhancement, and addressing practical, cultural, and scalability challenges.
This article presents the systematization of an international research project between the Universities of Cuenca, Ecuador, and KU Leuven, Belgium, and how records were kept of the process and lessons learned beyond the specific content and results of the project. The project focuses on research-based learning as an approach to support tourism as a means of sustainable development in southern Ecuador. The initiative encourages the application of critical thinking and involves professors, students, communities, and decision-makers. The systematization process relies on verification documents, such as minutes, reports and recordings, which evidence the decision-making and implementation processes to elaborate the project successfully over several years. Through the systematization, it is evident how learning and cooperation relationships have been produced and how a platform has been developed to facilitate research, dissemination and transfer. Therefore, the experiences obtained through this systematization are valuable and transferable to other development projects and research teams.
There is broad agreement that attention is guided not only by current goals and stimulus salience but also by selection history – experience-driven biases that influence what is attended and what is ignored. A central claim within this framework is that selection history gives rise to automatic attentional biases and thus constitutes a source of guidance distinct from goal-directed control. Recently, however, several authors have questioned whether such biases – particularly those induced by statistical learning – are truly inflexible, implicit, and independent of working memory resources. Here, we revisit the empirical evidence pertaining to the automaticity of attentional biases driven by statistical learning. We argue that when attentional guidance is isolated from post-selective processes and methodological confounds are controlled for, the evidence remains consistent with the view that selection history based on statistical learning does not exhibit any of the three hallmarks of goal-directed attention. We note that to refine our understanding of attentional guidance future research should remain open to the possibility that other selection-history phenomena may align with some but not all of the characteristics of goal-directed control.
Haitian women experience high rates of cervical cancer and are more likely to be diagnosed at advanced stages. Although the HPV vaccine is effective in preventing cervical cancer, limited data exists regarding factors influencing HPV vaccine uptake among Haitian women. Our study explored HPV vaccination knowledge, awareness, and intentions through the domains of cultural worldviews and risk perception among Haitian immigrant and migrant women who recently arrived to the United States. These qualitative data are from a larger exploratory sequential mixed-methods study evaluating HPV vaccination intention among Haitian immigrant and migrant women. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with N = 25 participants. Interviews contained questions exploring health beliefs and knowledge, women’s cervical cancer experiences, cultural worldviews, affective evaluations of cervical cancer risk perception, and HPV vaccination intention. Qualitative descriptive methodology using thematic analysis was employed for data analysis on Atlas.ti software. HPV vaccination knowledge and awareness were exceptionally low in our sample. Women endorsed maintaining cultural practices and beliefs upon migrating to the U.S. which shaped their decision to engage in health promotion behaviors. In response to affective risk perception, women believed that the unpredictability of cervical cancer increased their susceptibility to the disease. Participants endorsed cervical cancer as a fatal illness, with this perception being partly driven by superstitious beliefs toward cervical cancer, along with women’s prior experience with the health system in Haiti. These factors demonstrated potential relevance toward women’s decision making to engage in HPV vaccination behaviors. Culture, affective risk perception, and past experiences may be relevant toward Haitian women’s decision making to engage in HPV vaccination practices. Our results underscore the importance of using alternative methods in understanding HPV vaccination intention and scaling up HPV vaccination efforts for Haitian women both in the U.S. and in Haiti.
This study utilizes Black feminist thought and funds of knowledge as conceptual frameworks for understanding how Assata, an African American doctoral student, scholar-activist and single mother attending a predominantly White institution in the Midwest, learned to resist oppression and racial tropes beginning with her adolescence until the point of pre-doctoral study. This study draws from the research traditions of hermeneutic phenomenology as the methodological and analytical approach. Findings indicated that the most salient foundations of Assata’s racial agency, a desire to tackle racial issues in both public and private discourse, stemmed from her racial identity, being separated from her community, respectability politics and violence. Suggestions for policy and practice are discussed.