Metadata Technology Integration in Libraries

This chapter explores metadata technology integration as a panacea for effective learning in the 21st century libraries. The high influx of information resources into libraries necessitated a shift from printed to digitally web-based form of preserving and describing information, which affected users' access to information. This implies direct involvement of librarians in the cycle of influencers of open educational resources. In the review, ontology of metadata and repositories of learning object have demonstrated how UNESCO's proclamation about open educational resources has stimulated visible accessibility to information globally. Various ways of including librarians in the push for inclusive access to education have been highlighted.

The ‘uncorrupted’ Paradise: Religion and imperial epistemic violence on Pitcairn Island

This article analyses chapters from Amasa Delano’s Narrative of Voyages and Travels in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres (1817) and Rosalind Amelia Young’s Mutiny of the Bounty and Story of Pitcairn Island, 1790–1894 (1894) in the context of US American perception of Pitcairn Island’s cultural identity. It envisions both Delano’s account of the island and the Californian Seventh-day Adventists’ missionary work, as described by Young, as examples of epistemic violence. The latter derives from imperial misrepresentations of the islanders as well as an imposition of US American cultural identity upon them. The violence committed against Pitcairn’s community is discussed in connection to Delano’s self-proclaimed approach of non-intervention and his depiction of the islanders as Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s ‘children of nature’, as well as to the direct involvement of the Adventists who converted the islanders. This article tests whether Delano’s and the Adventists’ approaches are mutually exclusive or whether they represent two different visions of the same imperialist project to constitute Pitcairn Islanders as the colonial ‘Other’.

OP244 Tools And Experiences To Facilitate Effective Patient Participation In Health Technology Assessment

IntroductionIn 2017, a Patient Involvement Interest Group (PIIG) was created in the Spanish Network for Health Technology Assessment of the National Health System (RedETS) to facilitate and promote Patient Involvement (PI) in Health Technology Assessment (HTA). The PIIG proposed a decisional flowchart to guide researchers’ in decisions regarding PI methods in HTA. The flowchart proposed a combination of direct involvement and incorporation of patient-based evidence depending on the scope and the aims of the assessment.This work aims to present the flowchart and the results of the evaluation of the latest experiences in PI in HTA in RedETS (2018–2020), including direct-involvement and patient-based evidence.MethodsA survey was sent to the HTA researchers who implemented PI initiatives in RedETS assessments. The survey asked to describe their experiences, lessons learned, challenges and added value regarding the use of direct-involvement, systematic reviews (SR) and primary studies. A descriptive analysis was performed and the results were discussed in an online PIIG workshop.ResultsThirty-two assessments included direct PI, twenty-one SR synthesized qualitative and quantitative studies about patient experiences, values and preferences and eight included primary studies, mainly of qualitative design. Recruitment and the lack of methodological resources were the main barriers both for direct PI and primary studies. Relevance of the included studies was the main barrier for SR. Added value was found in all PI methods. Direct-involvement had an impact on the project plan and PICO definition, outcomes relevance, information about the health condition and treatments. SR contributed with relevant patient-based evidence, deeper assessment of patient experiences, values and preferences and implementation factors. Primary studies developed new or contextualized knowledge directly applicable to decision-making.ConclusionsThe PI flowchart has served to facilitate the incorporation of patient input in HTA reports. The different approaches implemented have allowed to provide relevant and well-grounded data in each report to inform decision-making in patient-centered healthcare provision, but it is necessary that specific training and resources are provided to enable adequate and timely implementation.

Participation and implementation in the decisional: procedure of basic criteria of participative democration

Considering that the participation of individuals and communities in public life at all levels – national, regional and local – is part of the fundamental values of democracy and that the direct involvement of the population, by virtue of its civic rights and obligations, is the essence of any democratic system. We conclude that the impact of participatory democracy in ensuring involvement is a matter of the impact of local and national authorities, which must assume a recognised leadership role in promoting population participation, and that the success of any process of democratic participation depends on the real commitment of these authorities. Recognition and strengthening of the role played by civil society, the main actor and driving force through groups and associations, in the development and support of a genuine participatory democracy.

The Economic Effects of Direct and Indirect Employee Involvement: Evidence From Corporate Social Responsibility Reports of Chinese Listed Companies

Employee direct involvement and indirect involvement have been identified as essential forms of an enterprise’s democratic management in the digital economy. Research on the complementary effects of direct and indirect involvement is still in a blank state in China, which limits the external validity and accumulation of employee participation theory. The present study aimed to investigate the complementary effects of employee direct involvement and indirect involvement on the firm’s financial performance. Although previous research suggests that the influence of employee direct or indirect involvement on corporate financial performance has been examined separately, it is unclear whether the association between employee direct involvement and indirect involvement is complementary or conflictual. Based on strategic human resource management theory, we semantically encode 2,680 corporate social responsibility reports and the annual reports of 268 state-owned listed enterprises published from 2014 to 2018 via content analysis method, and the economic effects of employee direct involvement and indirect involvement were concurrently measured. We use configuration theory to explore the complementary effects between employee direct involvement and indirect involvement. Our results reveal that (1) employee involvement in Chinese enterprises was unbalanced, (2) both employee direct involvement and indirect involvement were positively related to enterprise’s financial performance, and (3) there is a complementary effect between the two forms of employee involvement. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Active Contemporary Citizenship as a Research Mode

Active citizenship is a form of civil participation in which direct involvement is emphasized over distanced reflection. As such it seems to be in juxtaposition to the role of the researcher who is typically an external spectator and observes, documents, and analyzes phenomena from outside. This quality of remaining in a state of professional distance and scholarly reflection can pose a dilemma when the multitude of problems in the world is obvious and the need for direct intervention becomes undeniable. Are active citizenship and scientific enquiry opposing modes of participation or can they be complementary? For the duration of 11 months, we pursued a first-person study, seeking to deepen a sense of engagement with the challenges of the time while simultaneously maintaining our role as researchers. We aggregate our findings into four categories—“feelings,” “insights,” “changes in perspective” and the “wrestling to find a balance between inertia and conscience.” The results are contextualized within the broader literature of the self, pointing to facets of identity that encompass both a local and a global form of “active” or “contemporary” citizenship.

The Adipokine Component in the Molecular Regulation of Cancer Cell Survival, Proliferation and Metastasis

A hormonal imbalance may disrupt the rigorously monitored cellular microenvironment by hampering the natural homeostatic mechanisms. The most common example of such hormonal glitch could be seen in obesity where the uprise in adipokine levels is in virtue of the expanding bulk of adipose tissue. Such aberrant endocrine signaling disrupts the regulation of cellular fate, rendering the cells to live in a tumor supportive microenvironment. Previously, it was believed that the adipokines support cancer proliferation and metastasis with no direct involvement in neoplastic transformations and tumorigenesis. However, the recent studies have reported discrete mechanisms that establish the direct involvement of adipokine signaling in tumorigenesis. Moreover, the individual adipokine profile of the patients has never been considered in the prognosis and staging of the disease. Hence, the present manuscript has focused on the reported extensive mechanisms that culminate the basis of poor prognosis and diminished survival rate in obese cancer patients.

Political Participation of Santri in the 2017 Regional Elections in Nagan Raya Regency

This research deals with the participation of students in Islamic boarding schools (dayah), which tend to deepen religion so that political information is limited. This study aims to determine the political participation of students in Nagan Raya Aceh 2017. This research is important because it looks at the attitude of students in political power relations. The urgency of this research is to understand the political culture of the santri, which is not only seen from the Kyai as a determinant of political choices. This research uses a qualitative method of the case study approach. The results of this study indicate that the behavior of voters (santri) with the Michigan School approach where the political attitudes and choices are chosen is not only based on the leadership of the pesantren / santri but there is direct involvement by the participation of the students with three aspects.

“Every Thought and Dream a Nightmare”: Violence and Trauma Among Formerly Imprisoned Gang Members

Persons involved in gangs disproportionately participate in violence, as both victims and perpetrators. However, much remains unknown about the prevalence and consequences of violence exposure among adult gang members, particularly among those who have been incarcerated. We draw on semi-structured interviews with formerly imprisoned gang members to provide a contextualized account of the continuum of violence before, during, and after prison and illuminate the consequences of cumulative violence exposure among an understudied subgroup at greatest risk for violence. Findings show that adult gang members experience frequent and ongoing exposure to serious violence, as both victims and perpetrators, before, during, and after prison, and directly and vicariously. Although direct involvement in violence dissipated after prison, exposure to vicarious victimization was substantial and ongoing. In addition, respondents reported physiological and psychological consequences related to their chronic exposure to violence and trauma, including nightmares, anxiety, fear, anger, and hypervigilance.