Mitchell College

Exacerbations associated with bronchiectasis with or without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are often associated with generation and accumulation of excessive mucus in the airways of the lungs. Not only can mucus plugs reduce the perfusion of oxygen to the alveolar gas exchange region but they also serve as a location for opportunistic bacterial/viral infection. Delivery of inhaled medications to treat receptors associated with the underlying COPD distal to the obstructed airways can be restricted or prevented altogether. This narrative review examines clinical evidence published mainly since 2004 for the use of oscillating positive expiratory pressure (OPEP) as a drug-free airway clearance therapy (ACT) for patients experiencing COPD with or without bronchiectasis. OPEP therapy is considered as a preventative measure in between exacerbations and to clear the airways during severe exacerbations. The review is intended to assist clinicians involved with COPD-bronchiectasis management, given the increased awareness of the advantages of OPEP therapy in clinical practice guidelines.

Purpose The nature of work hotel staff perform is demanding and is likely to prompt high levels of work-related stress. Hotel support staff are an ideal population to inform about work-related stress in hotels. This study explored how hotel support staff perceive the leadership style of their managers their experiences while working under managers with different levels of mental health literacy. Design/methodology/approach This study was informed by the mental health and wellbeing ecological model as a theoretical framework and followed a rigorous methodological approach. This study aimed to gain insight into different types of leadership styles and mental health literacy among managers in hotels as perceived by staff. Using a qualitative research design, this study identified hotel support staff's perceived work-related stress under managers with different leadership styles. The study also explored how hotel support staff perceived the mental health and wellbeing literacy of their managers. Semi structured interviews from 18 participants were analysed through Atlas Ti using the framework method. Findings This study identified transformative leadership style to be supportive of hotel support staff's wellbeing and reduced work-related stress. The study recommends managers in hotels include enhancing their mental health and wellbeing awareness by upskilling. It is recommended that senior executives and hotel industry enable a working environment that supports staff's mental health and wellbeing. Originality/value This study aimed to explore how hotel support staff perceive the leadership style of their manager and to explore the experiences hotel support staff report working under managers with different levels of mental health literacy. The study's recommendations address a present research gap of practical suggestions that improve work culture in a post-pandemic time for hotels. The recommendations may be considered valuable in developing workplace policies and governance to improve workplace culture with lower levels of work-related stress.

Abstract Previous research on a transition in human evolution has been befuddled by the complexity of adaptive culture and made little effort toward empirical tests. We resolve these problems with a novel and testable theoretical mechanism. First, we explain how a differential in adaptive capacity between genetic and cultural inheritance could drive an evolutionary transition in both inheritance and individuality (ETII). We elaborate the ETII hypothesis and show it can resolve the prior debates, such as why genetic group selection is not a necessary precondition to transition. Next, we develop quantitative metrics of evolutionary transition in both phenotype and fitness to measure movement along this transition. We evaluate available evidence and find that patterns in gene–culture coevolution lend credence to the possibility of an ongoing transition. Finally, we derive a set of testable predictions and outline an agenda for future research.

Since early 1990s, the Arctic Ocean and surrounding seas have been witnessing a dramatic increase in geophysical and geological data acquisition related to the following major activities: (i) academia- and state-funded research; (ii) United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) research; and (iii) industry-related hydrocarbon exploration programmes. The major advances have been related to the use of ice – capable research vessels assisted by icebreakers as research platforms, allowing use of a broad range of data-gathering tools to acquire a wealth of atmospheric, ice, ocean and sub-bottom data over relatively short periods of time. The data quality has increased greatly due to advances in the offboard towing equipment, GPS positioning, satellite communication and computing. In this chapter we provide a brief overview of geophysical data acquisition and geological sampling campaigns in the Arctic since 1990. Enclosure F is a part of this chapter, portraying locations of multichannel seismic reflection, wide-angle refraction profiles, sonobuoys, ocean-bottom seismometers and sampling sites including drilled wells. The corresponding metadata have been compiled in two tables in this chapter.

Background: The increasing accessibility and utility of gadgets among adolescents raise growing concerns about their impact on health, particularly sleep patterns. Excessive gadget use, especially during nighttime, has been linked to various sleep disturbances in school-aged children. Purpose: This study aimed to determine the relationship between excessive gadget use and sleep pattern disturbances among students at SMP Negeri 14 Bandar Lampung in 2024. Methods: A cross-sectional analytical survey was conducted involving 282 students from the 7th and 8th grades. Stratified random sampling was used, and data were collected using a structured questionnaire assessing gadget use and sleep quality. The Chi-square test was employed to evaluate the statistical association between the variables. Results: Among the respondents, 62.1% exhibited moderate gadget use, while 55.7% experienced moderate insomnia. The analysis revealed a statistically significant association between the level of gadget usage and the severity of sleep disturbances (p < 0.001). Notably, students with high gadget use were more likely to report insomnia symptoms. Conclusion: The findings underscore a significant correlation between excessive gadget usage and disrupted sleep patterns among adolescents. Early intervention through parental guidance and institutional policies is essential to mitigate the adverse effects of gadget overuse on student health and academic performance.

ABSTRACT During the initial years of the COVID-19 pandemic, mask mandates became the fulcrum of hostile public conflicts concerning the nature of health risk, individual choice, mutual responsibility, and public trust in scientific institutions. While officials insisted that masking was the most effective way to reduce the asymptomatic spread of the coronavirus, antimask protesters contested the possibility that seemingly healthy people could transmit a potentially deadly virus. To evidence their claims of uncompromised health, protesters often engaged in exaggerated corporeal spectacles. Rhetoricians have productively shown how antimask protests served as discursive grounds for stabilizing cultural anxieties over hegemonic social scripts concerning race, gender, and neoliberal notions of civil liberties. This essay extends these efforts by considering what antimask protests reveal about the limitations of discourse-based rhetorical theories of risk to address what I theorize as visceral certainty in one’s health. Embracing a materialist lens, I analyze three viral antimask protests, attending to how protesters use breath, gesture, and body fluids to reject COVID-19 risk. I argue that antimask performances, as a form of embodied protest rhetoric, offer compelling examples of how dominant presumptions about what it feels like to be healthy constrain and overwhelm popular and scientific abilities to communicate health risks in the context of asymptomatic illness. As such, they demonstrate how the body participates in the enactment and asymmetrical distribution of risks in the public sphere.

With radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer, there may be associated long-term postoperative sequalae: urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction (ED). It is important to predict the functional recovery of erections for better patient counselling and timely treatment of ED. This systematic review looks at imaging parameters to predict the recovery of erectile function (EF) after laparoscopic or robotic prostatectomy. A systematic search was performed to capture publications from January 2000 up to December 2023 (PROSPERO; Registrations ID CRD 42022359557). The considered studies applied an imaging parameter obtained by any form of imaging modality and in any operative phase (pre- or intraoperative) to assess the potential impact on EF after surgery. An essential criterion was a formal EF assessment at both baseline and postoperatively, by means of a validated questionnaire. A total of 8 studies met our inclusion criteria. We categorised the studies based on the imaging modality into three groups: MRI (n = 4), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) (n = 2), and intraoperative ultrasonography (n = 2). Preoperative MRI parameters were, firstly, dynamic contrast enhancement of prostatic tissue measured as ratio of change of contrast from baseline to 120 s (Ratio120) showing weak correlation to postoperative IIEF5 scores (r = 0.31; p = 0.044), and secondly, area of neurovascular bundle (NVB) was a predictor of EF recovery on univariate analysis (odds ratio = 1.30; P = 0.001). Bony pelvic dimensions, prostate surface area, and fascial thickness measured on MRI did not show correlation with EF scores. Two studies using DTI were included, with one showing the change in the number of periprostatic nerve fibres before and after surgery, which also demonstrated a correlation with the change in EF scores (r = 0.35; P < 0.05). While the other study using DTI showed the change direction of the periprostatic nerve fibres before and after surgery measured as a value of functional anistropy, it showed a weak negative correlation to postoperative EF scores on the left (r = -0.66120; p = 0.0006) and right (r = -0.420068; p = 0.0456). Additionally, intraoperative ultrasound assessment of the NVB, such as the number of visible vessels within the NVB, has also been shown to correlate (r = 0.34, p = 0.0001) with postoperative EF. Our systematic review could not identify an imaging parameter strongly correlated with EF recovery. Enhancement of the prostate on mpMRI and intraoperative ultrasound might be worth investigating through better-designed studies. More research is needed to establish which parameters can reliably predict EF post-prostatectomy to best inform the patient and mitigate the risk.

ABSTRACT The goal of the current article is to conduct a widescale empirical investigation on the (in)efficacy of Harman’s single-factor test by showing that the approach is insensitive to aspects of research design known to influence common method bias (CMB). Our systematic literature review of 1,619 sources demonstrates that the amount of variance explained by the first factor of Harman’s single-factor test does not differ between cross-sectional and multi-wave, single-source and multi-source, or mono-method and multi-method studies. We instead find that extraneous aspects of studies influence the amount of variance explained, including the number of studied indicators and retained factors. These results therefore suggest that Harman’s single-factor test is not a reliable assessment of CMB, and we hope these results prevent future researchers from applying the analysis. Our discussion concludes with alternative suggestions for identifying and addressing CMB, such as the application of sophisticated research designs and marker variable techniques.