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Eating disorders (EDs) remain a major health concern, and their incidence has further increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the equally increasing demands on treatments and service provision and the high levels of relapse post-treatment, it is important that research explore novel and innovative interventions that can further support recovery for individuals with EDs. There is growing evidence that arts interventions are beneficial for recovery from EDs. This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of conducting a stand-up comedy course to support ED recovery.

The study used a qualitative interview study design to evaluate the recovery benefits of participating in stand-up comedy workshops for a pilot group of people in recovery from EDs (n = 10).

The comedy intervention was well-attended and had high acceptability and feasibility. For most individuals, participating in the course had a positive impact, including promoting personal recovery (PR) outcomes across all five elements of the CHIME framework. Unique assets of the course included providing participants with an opportunity to distance themselves from everyday worries of living with an ED; the opportunity to cognitively reframe situations by making them the object of humour; and providing a safe space to (re-)build a positive sense of self.

This is the first study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, that evaluates stand-up comedy workshops for ED recovery and further demonstrates the potential of arts interventions and the relevance of PR frameworks in this field.

This study aims to evaluate employment opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities in publicly traded companies in New Zealand.

The diversity and inclusion (DI) policies of 163 publicly traded companies listed on the New Zealand equity market were examined and compared to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reporting standards using content analysis with Leximancer software.

Only 1.84% of publicly traded companies met all of the GRI reporting standards and disclosed information about the proportion of employees with disabilities in their DI policies.

To the best of the researcher's knowledge, disclosure of inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities in publicly traded companies in New Zealand has not been studied. This study provides insights into the level of DI in the New Zealand equity market companies related to people with intellectual disabilities.

The Syrian refugee crisis is too big and complex for any single country to mount an adequate response. Mitigating the human tragedy, deciphering its root causes, and developing sustainable solutions require effective international collaboration. To teach collaboration of this kind to university students, researchers in the US, UK, and Lebanon used accessible communication technology in development of a Virtual Exchange in Global Health, connecting students in medical and allied health fields. Through a problem-based learning curriculum, students from Cardiff Metropolitan University in Wales and the Modern University for Business and Science in Beirut worked collaboratively to conduct desktop research on the crisis and develop a protocol to interview camp residents about the public health issues affecting them. Students in Beirut then conducted interviews and gathered 360-degree video footage of conditions in the camp, which students in the UK studied using low-cost Virtual Reality (VR) viewers. Student feedback provided preliminary indications that the problem-based learning methodology, including the immersive VR experience, contributed to the participating students’ intrinsic motivation to study the problem. The students collaborated in dividing and distributing tasks as well as in engaging with each other in a Joint Problem Space, and began to build relationships outside class, relationships that will serve them well as practicing professionals in the field of global health. These outcomes create warrant for further development of the program and suggest possibilities for deployment of this high impact model for teaching in other fields where complex problems require international collaboration.

This study investigates how a competitor orientation (knowledge of and acting on competitors' strengths and weaknesses) facilitates coopetition activities (collaboration with competitors), within networks of competing micro-sized, independent, family restaurants, owned by entrepreneurs from ethnic minority backgrounds.

An instrumental case study features data collected from interviews with 30 owners (as key informants) of micro-sized, independent, family-owned restaurants, in two urban clusters within the Midlands (UK). Specifically, the context involves restaurants offering South Asian cuisine and where the owner originated from the Indian sub-continent (Bangladesh, India or Pakistan). Secondary data were collected wherever possible. These two clusters (not named for ethics reasons) are highly populated by members of these respective ethnic communities; also, they contain a relatively large number of restaurants offering South Asian cuisine.

A competitor orientation facilitated strong coopetition-oriented partnerships comprised of extended family and intra-community members that helped enhance individual firms' performance, maintained family employment and sustained their cluster. It also helped owners develop subtle counter strategies where weak ties existed, such as via inter-community networks. For example, strategies attracted customers that were not loyal to a particular restaurant, or indeed, sub-ethnic cuisine (within Bangladesh, India or Pakistan, like the Punjab region). Subtle as opposed to outright counter strategies minimised retaliation, since restaurant owners wanted to avoid price wars, or spreading misinformation where the reputation of a cluster may suffer alongside the likely survival of individual businesses within that regional cluster.

Mixed evidence exists in earlier studies regarding the competitive rivalry in certain sectors where ethnic minority ownership is prominent; not least, restaurants located in regional clusters. However, this investigation considers the notion – what if some of these earlier studies are wrong? More specifically, does certain prior research under-represent the extent that rival entrepreneurs of an ethnic minority origin collaborate rather than compete for mutually beneficial purposes? New evidence emerges regarding ways in which a competitor orientation can influence the performance-enhancing nature of coopetition activities among business owners originating from both intra and inter-ethnic communities.

The purpose of this study was to get a baseline understanding of the state of reference services in urban public libraries in the United States.

The researchers surveyed all members of the Urban Libraries Council, a network of public library systems in urban centers across the country. The survey asked about their reference services, including how reference is offered, volume and types of questions and staff responsibilities. Participants were also asked how reference has changed in the past 5–10 years and what changes they anticipate in the future.

This study found that the vast majority of urban public libraries still maintain a physical reference desk, but most also offer reference services in other formats as well. Most libraries have seen numbers of reference questions decline. Reference staff members are engaged in instruction, programming and community outreach as well. Looking ahead, some libraries expect reference questions to continue to decline and demand for virtual services to increase.

Directors and reference staff of public libraries, especially those in urban and suburban settings, will find these results useful for benchmarking against their own experiences and for planning for future changes.

While discussions of changes in reference service and volumes of reference questions are plentiful, as are predictions of how these declines will impact reference services, there is little current research on the actual state of those services. This study fills a gap in the literature by providing a baseline overview of the reference services in urban public libraries.

The changing clinical landscape in psychiatry, both before and after the pandemic, has impacted students’ direct contact with psychiatric patients. It is imperative, therefore, that medical education keeps pace with evolving clinical pathways to ensure that clinicians are always appropriately trained not just for common presentations but also for low-prevalence, high-risk situations. Simulated-based training is well established. However, it is not without its limitations, many of which could be overcome with the use of virtual simulation. This study aims to analyse the use of virtual simulation within medical education to train clinicians in psychiatric assessments.

A scoping review was undertaken with a comprehensive literature search of the six most relevant online peer-reviewed databases, including PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Medline, EMBASE and Cochrane. All published papers in English that discussed simulation in teaching psychiatric assessments were included.

Virtual patients can be used for educational, diagnostic and therapy purposes attributable to advances in speech-recognition technology. Virtual simulations are well received and positively affect clinicians’ knowledge and skill development. Educational faculties should consider using virtual simulation technologies to improve learning outcomes. Further studies should enhance the fidelity and quality of virtual assessment simulation situations, mainly focusing on the virtual patient’s empathy, gesturing and body language to enable this evidence-based tool to be used effectively and efficiently for the benefit of future patient care.

The changing clinical landscape in psychiatry, both before and after the pandemic, has impacted students’ direct contact with psychiatric patients. This scoping review has reviewed the use of virtual simulation-based education to train clinicians for psychiatric assessments. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work has not been conducted before.

This commentary aims to define STOMP and STAMP, describes its history and evolution and the authors’ thoughts about future directions given the lack of clear evidence base for prescribing and deprescribing psychotropic medication given for behaviour thought to be challenging.

This commentary defines the authors’ clinical experience and personal thoughts about STOMP achievements and challenges for the future delivery.

This commentary details STOMP development to date and highlights the potential areas for further study and research to grow understanding, professional confidence and delivery.

This commentary highlights much of the currently accepted research and areas that have poor quality evidence or are of interest for future study. STOMP definition, especially of inappropriate prescribing, is key to redefining the work.

This commentary highlights the potential impact of STOMP and STAMP on prescribing rates and the need for better definition, processes and education for workforce development. There is a major need to understand the benefit of behavioural intervention to support the optimisation of medication.

This commentary builds on personal experience and current understanding to postulate considerations to further the delivery of STOMP and STAMP.

In 2020, Sports Illustrated proclaimed its “Sportsperson of the Year” as something dubbed “the activist athlete,” choosing five athletes – LeBron James, Breanna Stewart, Patrick Mahomes, Naomi Osaka, and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif – that represented the term. Like so many athletes who came before them, these athletes vividly demonstrate the potential of sport to shine a spotlight on critical issues in society, yet again solidifying how sport does not exist merely as some kind of escape, but is a major stakeholder in global campaigns for social justice.

This chapter historicizes the contemporary resurgence of athlete activism, largely connected to the reawakening of Black Lives Matters (BLM) in 2020, within what journalist Howard Bryant has called The Heritage, with athletes who acknowledge and accept the charge to use their spotlights for those who have none. From the turning point of the Mexico City Olympics in 1968, which saw collective movements of African-American athletes culminate in the powerful Black power protest by Tommie Smith and John Carlos, a protest that built upon the legacies of so many, to the ongoing debates that surround the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) Rule 50, athletes have long understood how sport serves not only as an integral part of society but also as an agent for change. Contemporary cries for athletes to “shut up and dribble” echo past claims that sport takes place on a level playing field that transcends politics. The history of sports demonstrates otherwise, as athletes embody every imaginable, intersectional, classification of political actor.