Unsustainable Growth,Hyper-Competition,and Worth in Life Science Research: Narrowing Evaluative Repertoires in Doctoral and Postdoctoral Scientists’ Work and Lives

There is a crisis of valuation practices in the current academic life sciences, triggered by unsustainable growth and “hyper-competition.” Quantitative metrics in evaluating researchers are seen as replacing deeper considerations of the quality and novelty of work, as well as substantive care for the societal implications of research. Junior researchers are frequently mentioned as those most strongly affected by these dynamics. However, their own perceptions of these issues are much less frequently considered. This paper aims at contributing to a better understanding of the interplay between how research is valued and how young researchers learn to live, work and produce knowledge within academia. We thus analyze how PhD students and postdocs in the Austrian life sciences ascribe worth to people, objects and practices as they talk about their own present and future lives in research. We draw on literature from the field of valuation studies and its interest in how actors refer to different forms of valuation to account for their actions. We explore how young researchers are socialized into different valuation practices in different stages of their growing into science. Introducing the concept of “regimes of valuation” we show that PhD students relate to a wider evaluative repertoire while postdocs base their decisions on one dominant regime of valuing research. In conclusion, we discuss the implications of these findings for the epistemic and social development of the life sciences, and for other scientific fields.     

Tweeting Facts,Facebooking Lives: The Influence of Language Use and Modality on Online Source Credibility

The present study examines how language use (e.g., personalized vs. depersonalized language) and modality (e.g., tweets vs. Facebook status updates) influence source credibility interdependently. A total of 257 participants read personalized or depersonalized health messages embedded in mock-up tweets or Facebook status updates. The results show that users perceive depersonalized tweets as more credible than depersonalized status updates posted on Facebook. On the other hand, personalized status updates on Facebook generate higher credibility judgments than personalized tweets. The findings are discussed in light of the MAIN model as well as the preconceived user expectations and communication norms of social media.     

Religious Pluralistic Language in a Computer-Mediated Context: Effects of Intergroup Salience and Religious Orientation

This study investigated the degree to which religious pluralistic language varies as a function of the intergroup salience of a context and religious orientation. Based on a 2 (Religious Salience of Context) × 3 (Religious Salience of Topic) experimental design, participants (N = 239) were instructed to compose an e-mail to an interactional partner based on the randomly assigned condition. Messages were coded for religious pluralistic language, and participants completed measures of religious orientation and evaluations of the conversational partner. Modest effects were found for both intergroup salience of the context and topic as well as religious orientation.     

To Plan,or Not to Plan,Is There Even a Question? A Select Annotated Bibliography of Urban Studies Periodicals Focused on Planning

A bibliography of periodicals focused on planning within the urban studies field is presented. The bibliography contains scholarly, trade, and popular titles. Each entry contains identical categories of information (where each category is applicable), including an annotation. The bibliography is meant to aid in collection development in this subject area.     

A Publisher Perspective: How One Publisher is Responding to the Changing World of Scholarly Communication

For this talk, Marks was tasked with summarizing the important trends in scholarly publishing in 45 minutes. The speaker reflected on the rapid changes that have occurred in journal publishing, which followed more than 300 years of relatively slow progress. Marks discussed key technology trends such as data curation, Open Access (OA) mandates, and the changes occurring in the global landscape of scholarly communications and library budgets. Wolters Kluwer Health has been responding to these trends with new publishing experiments including a Platinum OA model in emerging markets. Marks discussed the ways that publishers and libraries need to alter their traditional practices and instill a focus on their customers and communities.     

Eating disorder prevention initiatives for athletes: A review

A substantial amount of evidence suggests that collegiate and elite athletes involved in weight-sensitive sports are at greater risk of developing eating disorders (EDs) than the general population. With the limited effectiveness of treatment for EDs, prevention of EDs has been broadly considered in the literature. The present paper reviewed the existing literature on ED prevention programmes for athletes in order to determine the current status of prevention programmes and recommend future directions. The available literature suggests that selective, primary interventions with multiple targets and an interactive multimodal approach appear most effective. Current challenges in the field, including lack of longitudinal research, hesitation by the sport community to be involved in ED research and poor cross-field communication and collaboration, are also explored. The lack of dissemination of evidence-based prevention programmes and the simultaneous promotion of prevention programmes that have not yet been empirically examined are also discussed. Based on these observations future directions are recommended.     

Colorectal cancer detection in an asymptomatic population: fecal immunochemical test for hemoglobin vs. fecal M2-type pyruvate kinase

Introduction

Screening programs for colorectal cancer (CRC) are mainly based on a first-line fecal immunochemical test for hemoglobin (FIT). Fecal M2-type pyruvate kinase (M2-PK) has been evaluated in clinical settings showing promising results for early CRC detection. However, the impact of fecal M2-PK assessment on the performance of first-round CRC screening programs is not known. We investigated whether fecal M2-PK alone or in combination with FIT may improve CRC screening efficacy in the general population.

Materials and methods

A total of 1027 asymptomatic subjects (median age 66 [59-74] years; females 504 [49.1%]), identified through the general practitioners’ rosters, were invited for the collection of 2 fecal samples for FIT and M2-PK evaluation. Participants with at least positive one fecal test were referred for colonoscopy. Quality indicators for screening performance were calculated and analyzed using Fisher’s exact test.

Results

Overall, 572 subjects underwent both FIT and M2-PK assessment (participation rate 55.7%): 93 participants showed positive results for at least one test (positivity rate 16.3%). Only 10 patients were positive for both tests. Attendance rate to colonoscopy was 86.0% and a total of 65 adenomas and 7 cancers were detected. Combined use of FIT and fecal M2-PK permitted the identification of 18 more neoplasm (25%) without improving colonoscopy workload, as deduced by the comparable number needed to scope (P = 0.402).

Conclusion

The addition of M2-PK testing to FIT offers the potential to detect additional neoplasms that either do not bleed or only bleed intermittently without reducing participation rate and without increasing endoscopy workload.Key words: biomarker, colorectal cancer, occult blood, M2-type pyruvate kinase, screening