A network under stress: using embeddedness to understand uncertainty management and resilience in campus emergencies

Persistent school shootings have generated ongoing pressure to assess and enhance crisis communication effectiveness via strategies such as resilience-building and post-crisis restoration. A network perspective offers a robust, multilevel approach for examining complex information flows among community, campus, and individual actors affected by crises. Drawing on relational and structural embeddedness and Uncertainty Management Theory, we offer nine propositions that help explain structural and relational changes in a network over time. Although theoretically driven, these propositions are primarily functional, offering practical implications for safety officials and administrators trying to understand, prepare for, and respond to crises. Thus, we suggest measures and recommendations to improve information flow, uncertainty management, and resilience before, during, and after a crisis.     

Effect of iron deficiency on developing rat brain

Iron deficiency evolves, slowly through several stages. Early iron deficiency caused a depletion in iron stores as shown by a reduction in the levels of hepatic non heme iron (44%) in the 7 days old pups born to iron deficient mothers. The hemoglobin levels and PCV (packed cell volume) were significantly reduced only after the age of three weeks. The activities of GABA (γ-amino butyric acid) shunt enzymes viz. GDH, GAD and GABA-T (glutamate dehydrogenase, glutamate decarboxylase and GABA-transaminase, respectively) and GABA content were found to decrease during gestation and/or lactation iron deficiency at 1 week (wk), 2wk, 3wk and 4wk of age in the developing rat brains. However GABA binding showed a significant increase at different age groups. The iron deficiency during lactational exposure showed significant alteration in most of the parameters only at the age of 3 weeks onwards. On rehabilitation with iron supplemented diet for 2 weeks, these altered parameters could not attain corresponding control values. A prolonged iron deficiency causing alterations in GABA may lead to neurological and behavioral alterations.     

Mosaic Recombination Inflicted Various SARS-CoV-2 Lineages to Emerge into Novel Virus Variants: a Review Update

Human Coronaviruses (hCoVs) belongs to the enormous and dissimilar family of positive-sense, non-segmented, single-stranded RNA viruses. The RNA viruses are prone to high rates of mutational recombination resulting in emergence of evolutionary variant to alter various features including transmissibility and severity. The evolutionary changes affect the immune escape and reduce effectiveness of diagnostic and therapeutic measures by becoming undetectable by the currently available diagnostics and refractory to therapeutics and vaccines. Whole genome sequencing studies from various countries have adequately reported mosaic recombination between different lineage strain of SARS-CoV-2 whereby RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) gene reconnects with a homologous RNA strand at diverse position. This all lead to evolutionary emergence of new variant/ lineage as evident with the emergence of XBB in India at the time of writing this review. The continuous periodical genomic surveillance is utmost required for understanding the various lineages involved in recombination to emerge into hybrid variant. This may further help in assessing virus transmission dynamics, virulence and severity factor to help health authorities take appropriate timely action for prevention and control of any future COVID-19 outbreak.     

New evidence concerning school accountability and mathematics instructional quality in the no child left behind era

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability - Using longitudinal data from the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) era, I applied regression techniques and found a positive association between...     

Communication potential of pictorial illustrations

Summary As readability studies have investigated factors which influence the reading difficulty of verbal text, so this study has been a beginning attempt to isolate the factors which influence the communication potential of illustrative material. It is interesting to note that as readability researchers have found a correlational relationship between idea density (number of different ideas per number of running words) and reading difficulty, so this study has shown an inverse relationship between complexity of an illustration and its effectiveness in communicating clearly. Similarly, as readability studies show that we must use words that are familiar to the reader, so we must present visual concepts in terms of the background of experience of the intended viewer. And as in constructing effective textual material we must organize our material logically, eliminating the unnecessary, so we must simplify the design of illustration, taking care, of course, not to lose the essential. In this study the author presents some important insights into the factors that influence the communication potential of pictorial illustrations. Seth Spaulding is a program specialist of the Ford Foundation's field staff, currently advising the Burma Translation Society in Rangoon, Burma.     

From Journalism to Information: The Transformation of the Knight Foundation and News Innovation

Amid the digital disruption for journalism, the U.S.-based Knight Foundation has made a highly publicized effort to shape the nature of news innovation. This growing influence raises questions about what it is trying to accomplish for mass communication and society. This qualitative case study shows how and why the Knight Foundation has sought to change journalism by renegotiating its boundaries. Namely, by downplaying its own historical emphasis on professionalism, the foundation has embraced openness to outside influence—for example, the wisdom of the crowd, citizen participation, and a broader definition of “news.” These rhetorical adaptations have paralleled material changes in the foundation's funding process, typified by the Knight News Challenge innovation contest. In recent times, the foundation has undergone a further evolution from “journalism” to “information.” By highlighting its boundary-spanning interest in promoting “information” for communities, the Knight Foundation has been able to expand its capital and influence as an agent of change among fields and funders beyond journalism.