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The purpose of this study is to examine the significance of incorporating diverse lived experiences and identities through culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) in promoting sustainability, cultural diversity and the integration of various perspectives and worldviews rooted in identity and lived experience in sustainability education at Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC).

A case study approach using Geneva Gay’s (2002) CRP framework was used to investigate the role of CRP in sustainability education at CCAC. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data collected from eight interviews and 67 survey respondents, who participated in a larger exploratory study focusing on education-related sustainable development goals objectives in technical and vocational education and trainings.

The findings indicate that implementing CRP in sustainability education fosters a culturally diverse learning environment, leading to enhanced cultural competence, critical thinking, global citizenship and academic achievement. Best practices and potential benefits of integrating diverse lived experiences and identities using CRP are also identified.

The small sample size may limit the generalizability of the findings. To address this limitation, future studies could use larger and more diverse samples to confirm the findings of this study. Additionally, the study was conducted at a single institution, which may limit the transferability of the findings to other institutions. Future studies could replicate this study at different institutions to determine the generalizability of the findings. Another limitation is the reliance on self-reported data, which may be subject to social desirability bias. To address this limitation, future studies could use a mixed-methods approach that includes both qualitative and quantitative data sources.

This study highlights the need for community colleges to prioritize diverse faculty and staff recruitment, provide CRP and diversity training and establish partnerships with community organizations. By implementing these recommendations, institutions can enhance sustainability education, promote cultural competence and foster critical thinking among students, ultimately contributing to a more inclusive and equitable learning environment.

The integration of diverse lived experiences and identities using CRP in sustainability education can lead to a more culturally diverse and socially inclusive society. By fostering cultural competence, global citizenship and critical thinking in students, community colleges can empower them to address global challenges and contribute to achieving a sustainable and equitable future for all.

This paper contributes to the understanding of the role of CRP in promoting sustainability and cultural diversity in CCAC and education. It highlights the significance of including diverse perspectives and worldviews rooted in identity and lived experience in sustainability education, offering practical recommendations for integrating CRP in educational institutions.

In high-temperature regions (tropical regions) temperatures rises in summer, which affects the performance of asphalt pavement. Therefore, we must consider the conditions of asphalt pavement, especially in these regions. This study aims to investigate the influence of high temperature on the stability performance of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and crumb rubber powder (CRP) modified hot mix asphalt (HMA) using Marshall design parameters and rutting test.

In this study, three HMA mixtures with 4 per cent HDPE and 15 per cent CRP, 5 per cent HDPE and 10 per cent CRP, and 6 per cent HDPE and 5 per cent CRP concentrations were used for the Marshall stability test and dynamic stability (rutting test) at 60-75°C, and water stability test at 60°C.

The results showed that when test temperature was increased from 60°C to 75°C, the Marshall stability and dynamic stability of three HDPE- and CRP-modified HMA mixtures decreased, and these three HDPE- and CRP-modified HMA mixtures have a good moisture damage resistance. Of the three HMA mixtures with different HDPE and CRP concentrations, HMA mixtures with 5 per cent HDPE and 10 per cent CRP concentration exhibit optimal Marshall stability, dynamic stability and water stability.

This study showed the effects of high-temperatures changes on the stability performance of HDPE- and CRP-modified HMA mixtures.

This paper aims to answer two key questions focused on increasing the understanding of consumer relationship proneness (CRP) and its role in customer relationship management. First, is CRP linked to trust and other relationship outcomes (e.g. customer share, adherence)? Second, does the nature of the service exchange (transactional versus relational) affect the association between CRP and commitment and trust?

Data were collected in three contexts: 270 travel industry call center customers, 345 insurance agency clients, and 897 patients responded to our surveys about their business relationships.

Structural modeling analysis and t‐statistic comparisons revealed that CRP is associated with trust and other important outcomes (i.e. share of customer and adherence) and that the nature of the service exchange moderates the association between CRP and commitment and trust. Specifically, as the nature of the service exchange moves from transactional to relational, the influence of CRP on commitment and trust strengthens.

Because CRP cannot be inferred from commonly measured variables, including measures of CRP, is important for relationship marketing and customer relationship management researchers.

Managers need to seek a greater understanding of individual consumer differences and to identify CRP in order to better manage customer relationships.

This paper is the first to report a direct association between CRP and trust. It is also the first to report the moderating influence of relationship type on the association between both CRP and commitment and CRP and trust.

Past research on the immigrant health paradox suggests that children with immigrant parents may have a health advantage over those with US-born parents, especially if the parent is a recent immigrant. Other research emphasizes the social and economic challenges children with immigrant parents face, in part due to disadvantaged social class and racial/ethnic positions. Underlying physiological changes due to chronic stress exposures among children in immigrant families is one potential health disadvantage that may not yet be apparent in traditional health measures. To explore these biological disparities during childhood, I use national biomarker and survey data from the National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES) (N = 11,866) to evaluate parent nativity and educational status associations with low-grade inflammation, indicated by C-reactive protein (CRP), in children ages 2–15 years. I find that children with an immigrant parent, and particularly a low-educated immigrant parent, have higher CRP, net of birth, body mass index (BMI) and other factors, than children with a US-born parent with either a low or higher education. Comparing children with low-educated parents, those with a foreign-born parent have higher predicted CRP. The findings from this study provide new evidence that children living in immigrant families in the US may be facing higher levels of chronic stress exposure, as indicated by the increased risk of low-grade inflammation, than those with US-born parents. The physiological changes related to increased risk of inflammation, could set children in immigrant families on pathways toward mental and physical health problems later in the life course.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a standardized, psychometrically sound instrument for the emerging construct of change recipient proactivity (CRP), using a deductive approach.

Using a systematic item-development framework as a guide (i.e. item generation, questionnaire administration, item reduction and scale evaluation) and based on a sample of 414 white-collar employees, this paper discusses the development and validation of an instrument that can be used to measure change recipient’s proactive behavioral responses to planned change efforts.

Results suggest that our proposed CRP scale is internally consistent (reliable) and valid in that it is conceptually distinct from, yet empirically correlated with neighboring constructs such as affective commitment to change, readiness for change and proactive personality.

The findings illustrate that change recipients can demonstrate proactive behaviors in response to change efforts. However, this study’s contribution is only a first step, requiring further theoretical and methodological refinement of the scale in different contexts.

The deductive nature of our study resulted in a comprehensive and domain-specific scale assessing recipients’ proactive responses to organizational change efforts. This opens doors to empirical studies on examining the conditions under which change recipients “may” step outside the boundaries of passivity to respond positively and proactivity to organizational change efforts.

In this paper the co-authors, educators and organizers working together in a liberatory curriculum development organization (People's Education Movement Chicago), put forth a conceptualization of Critical Race Praxis (CRP) in education as it applies to K-12 curriculum and education writ large. They take Yamamoto's (1997) premise seriously in that they need to spend less time with abstract theorizing and more time in communities experiencing injustice.

The co-authors utilize critical race counterstory methodologies to analyze and (re)tell their experiences building and supporting justice-centered curriculum bound in CRP. In doing so, they share narratives that illuminate their individual and collective experiences navigating the gratuitous violence of white supremacy and other forms of structural oppression, and their work to center justice in and out of K-12 schools.

The findings provide examples of organizational praxes within the tenets of CRP (Conceptual, Material, Performative and Reflexive). For People’s Education Movement Chicago the conceptual conditions of their praxes begin with an intersectional analysis of schooling, education, and life. Within the CRP tenant of the material, the co-authors share experiences that detail their continuous political education and offer seven emergent ways of being and building to bound the material change they seek to create through their work. Next, the co-authors share their insights on the performative tenet, with a focus on curriculum, which creates learning experiences that support people to remember social movements and develop within them the curiosity and agency to act on their findings in ways that center justice and transformation. Finally, the findings related to reflexivity focus on the authors’ internal practices as a collective. The authors place process over product which, as they articulate, is a must if they are to produce a vital harvest for communities they work with and for.

The authors conclude the article with the following offerings useful to P-20 educators, researchers, school administrators and community members advancing more just educational futures: a commitment to the on the groundwork, situating social justice as an experiential phenomenon, the utilization of interdisciplinary approaches, collaborative work and capacity building, and a commitment to self and collective care.

As P-20 teachers, community workers, organizers, caregivers and education scholars of color building together in a K-12 curriculum development organization, the authors suggest that now is the moment to pivot away from the rhetoric of “we don't do CRT” and into work that constructs paths toward praxes bound in the tenets of CRP.

This paper aims to reveal the influence of the presentation of online product information (POPI) on consumer attitudes in the context of online buying digital products.

Two main experimental designs are used to collect data. The ANOVA, t-test and Bootstrap methods are applied to check hypotheses.

Findings of Study 1 indicate that if the POPI is combined with different types of celebrity endorsement (CE) (real vs virtual), the self-brand connection will be changed and further influence consumer attitudes toward digital products. Study 2 verifies the diverse moderating effects of the type of virtual CE. The CRP (central-route presentation) online product information with SVCE (super-realistic-digital virtual CE) can decrease consumer attitudes, while the PRP (peripheral-route presentation) online product information with AVCE (anthropomorphic virtual CE) can enhance consumer attitudes.

E-commerce enterprises should optimize the current layout of POPI by considering diverse matchings between POPI and CE to increase consumer attitudes. Moreover, marketers could make various schemes of POPI considering (virtual) CE and self-brand connection.

Findings contribute to understanding the relationship between POPI and consumer attitudes considering the mediation of self-brand connection and the mediations of virtual/real CE. Additionally, this study bridges the gap between research on virtual CE and business practices.

As the supply chain is a highly integrated infrastructure in modern business, the risks in supply chain are also becoming highly contagious among the target company. This motivates researchers to continuously add new features to the datasets for the credit risk prediction (CRP). However, adding new features can easily lead to missing of the data.

Based on the gaps summarized from the literature in CRP, this study first introduces the approaches to the building of datasets and the framing of the algorithmic models. Then, this study tests the interpolation effects of the algorithmic model in three artificial datasets with different missing rates and compares its predictability before and after the interpolation in a real dataset with the missing data in irregular time-series.

The algorithmic model of the time-decayed long short-term memory (TD-LSTM) proposed in this study can monitor the missing data in irregular time-series by capturing more and better time-series information, and interpolating the missing data efficiently. Moreover, the algorithmic model of Deep Neural Network can be used in the CRP for the datasets with the missing data in irregular time-series after the interpolation by the TD-LSTM.

This study fully validates the TD-LSTM interpolation effects and demonstrates that the predictability of the dataset after interpolation is improved. Accurate and timely CRP can undoubtedly assist a target company in avoiding losses. Identifying credit risks and taking preventive measures ahead of time, especially in the case of public emergencies, can help the company minimize losses.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate an interdisciplinary system of targeted student supports, drawing from social and emotional learning (SEL), culturally responsive practices (CRP) and positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS). While these approaches are not often synthesized in research literature, innovative educators are integrating multiple theories and practices to achieve better outcomes for students.

The paper uses a descriptive, participatory case study method, including quantitative and qualitative data from a three-year period. The author was a participant in the change process, as well as an observer documenting the outcomes. The case study takes place in a Spanish/English bilingual elementary school.

PBIS was a strong influence in the three-year systems change process, due in part to the availability of free, research-based tools. The educators adapted PBIS practices to incorporate SEL, and CRP approaches in several instances. Quantitative data show the increase in PBIS implementation fidelity and one student’s progress with a targeted intervention. Qualitative data illustrate the creative, interdisciplinary and contextualized adaptations made by the team.

Guidance is available for educators seeking to implement SEL, CRP and/or PBIS approaches in isolation. To a lesser extent, integrated models are emerging in the literature. There is a need for more descriptive, real-world case examples of how these approaches are implemented and adapted in practice. This study provides educators with one example that can offer examples and implications for practice.

Clinical evidence has suggested that alpha-lipoic acid (ALA), a potent antioxidant, seems to have some effects on inflammatory process. However, these results are equivocal. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of association between ALA and serum C-reactive protein (CRP) level by pooling the results from clinical trial studies.

Relevant studies were identified by systematic literature search of PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Sciences and Cochrane library up to September 2016 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating the impact of ALA supplementation on CRP. The pooled data were summarized as weighted mean difference (WMD) and 95 per cent confidence interval (CI). Effect sizes of eligible studies were pooled using random- or fixed-effects (the DerSimonian–Laird estimator) depending on the results of heterogeneity tests.

Of 212 papers, 15 were eligible RCTs according to inclusion criteria. The selected studies comprised 1,408 cases and 457 controls. The dose of ALA supplement ranged from 300 to 1,200 mg, and the duration of follow-up was from 1 to 48 weeks. ALA supplementation significantly reduced the levels of circulating CRP (WMD: −0.088, 95 per cent CI: −0.131, −0.045, p < 0.001) with significant heterogeneity (I² = 73.4 per cent, p < 0.001). Populations with age younger than 50 years (PMD: −0.060 mg/dl), receiving doses less than 600 mg/day (PMD: −0.057 mg/dl), having cardiovascular disease (PMD: −0.105 mg/dl), hemodialysis (PMD: −0.209 mg/dl), diabetes (PMD: −0.021 mg/dl) and otherwise healthy subjects (PMD: −0.045 mg/dl) were sources of heterogeneity.

This meta-analysis of RCTs suggests that ALA supplementation seems to significantly reduce circulating CRP level.