Exploring equity and inclusion in team-based learning: A critical pedagogy perspective

Supplemental material is available online at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0142159X.2026.2649941# .Background: Team-Based Learning (TBL) is widely used in medical education to promote active engagement, yet its structured format raises questions about how power, voice, and cultural inclusion are negotiated. Using a critical pedagogy lens can illuminate how students experience these dynamics. Methods: This mixed-methods study explored Year 2 international medical students’ experiences of inclusion, participation, and cultural responsiveness within a TBL-based curriculum. Forty-two students completed a 13-item survey, analysed descriptively, and 11 students participated in focus groups, analysed thematically. Results: Students valued TBL for fostering collaboration, critical thinking, and respectful peer dialogue. They also acknowledged the exposure to diverse perspectives in the TBL classroom and valued the agency to challenge and critique content peers and their educators. Educators were not consistently perceived as embedding culturally diverse examples and some students experienced participation barriers linked to language and accent. Conclusion: The TBL classroom embodied many aspects of critical pedagogy in practice; structures which promoted learner engagement through a dialogic process and reimagining the role of the educator as a facilitator for critical learning. However, while TBL offers a supportive structure for peer learning, inclusive and culturally responsive outcomes are not guaranteed. These depend on educator facilitation and intentional design that centres equity and critical dialogue. In order to achieve the emancipatory education envisioned by Freire, educators and institutions must commit to critical reflection, create safe dialogic spaces that value all learners’ voices, and intentionally disrupt power imbalances embedded in learning environments.The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article

Beyond Confessional Cultures: Identity and the Role of Silence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Interventions

Data Availability Statement: Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.This paper interrogates the confessional foundations of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work, which have emerged predominantly from Global North traditions rooted in Christian understandings of subjectivity. In such traditions, identity is asserted through self-declaration, visibility, and vocal articulation of difference, what we term a confessional culture. Drawing on Foucauldian critiques, we explore how this imperative to “confess” produces an extreme form of subjectivity that is paradoxically both overexposed and untrue to itself. In contrast, Global South contexts, particularly those shaped by Islamic epistemologies, offer alternative modalities of identity work rooted in subtlety, silence, and communal ethics. Here, the good is practiced rather than pronounced, and self-description can be experienced as disrespectful or even transgressive. By juxtaposing these divergent cultural logics, the paper challenges the universality of DEI frameworks that prioritize self-expression and visibility. It argues for the need to reimagine DEI practices that are attuned to silent negotiations of identity, relational forms of recognition, and implicit pathways to social change. In doing so, the paper offers a deeper, more culturally pluralistic understanding of co-existence, belonging, equity and inclusion beyond the confessional paradigm.This research was supported by a grant from the Carlsberg Foundation (Grant No. CF23-1184)

Guaiacol-enhanced laccase secretion by Trametes versicolor for lignin modification toward high-performance bamboo composites

Highlights: • Guaiacol-induced metabolic targeting enables precise lignin modification. • Selective lignin removal increases bamboo crystallinity. • β-O-4 cleavage raises phenolic hydroxyls, improving interfacial bonding. • Improved bamboo properties yield high-performance biocomposites.Data availability: Data will be made available on request.This study reports high-performance bamboo-based composites engineered through a biological eco-modification strategy involving targeted lignin depolymerisation. By leveraging guaiacol-enhanced Trametes versicolor pretreatment, we achieved substantial improvements in the mechanical properties and water resistance of bamboo-phenolic resin composites via efficient biological modification of Dendrocalamus sinicus. This targeted biological modification boosted laccase activity to 2566.28 U/L, selectively depolymerised lignin and hemicellulose (by 6.97% and 11.46%, respectively) while preserving the cell wall skeleton, increased the crystallinity of bamboo from 28.28% to 31.94%, and enhanced the surface reactivity of bamboo for subsequent resin bonding. This bioconversion enhanced bamboo's chemical reactivity via targeted lignin demethoxylation and β-O-4 bond cleavage, efficiently generating additional phenolic hydroxyl groups, while also improving surface wettability (contact angle reduced from 109.73° to 79.96°) to facilitate resin penetration. Consequently, the resulting composites exhibited superior fiber-resin interfacial bonding, leading to exceptional mechanical performance, with tensile strength reaching 286.65 MPa (40.2% higher than untreated controls) and bonding strength of 9.74 MPa (33.6% improvement). Furthermore, the composites demonstrated enhanced water resistance and interfacial stability, underscoring their suitability for load-bearing applications. This targeted lignin depolymerisation strategy directly optimises the bamboo-resin interface, offering a sustainable pathway for the industrial production of high-strength biocomposites and enabling the value-added utilisation of bamboo resources.The authors are grateful for the financial support from the Regional Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32260362), the Joint Project of Yunnan Agricultural Basic Research (202401BD070001–025), the Foreign Experts Project of Yunnan Province (202505AO120007), the Reserve Talent Project for Young and Middle-aged Academic and Technical Leaders of Yunnan Province (202405AC350033), and the 111 Project (D21027)

Concert electric guitar composition: Techniques, challenges and creative possibilities

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonThe growing presence of the electric guitar in contemporary art music highlights the need for a focused investigation into its compositional role. This thesis examines the instrument within what is here defined as the domain of the concert electric guitar, that is, the use of the electric guitar in notated, composer-led art music contexts. The thesis functions both as a musicological study and as a compositional resource. It is structured around a theoretical section, addressed to musicologists and composers, which analyses the development of the electric guitar in art music and the ambiguities between popular and concert practices from which the notion of the concert electric guitar emerges. A practical component, specifically directed at composers, complements this discussion. The latter includes annotated examples, original audio and video demonstrations, and a collection of nine studies and a fugue composed by the author, conceived as compositional case studies

Tides of tension: Exploring the blue economy through stakeholder narrations

Data availability: Data will be made available on request.The Blue Economy concept combines the views of oceans and seas as areas of economic growth, industrialization, and development, on the one hand, and as vulnerable marine ecosystems that need to be protected, on the other hand. Drawing on a concept driven by managerial practice in ocean-related industries, national and transnational institutions, and policymakers, this study applies abductive reasoning to explore the tension between these priorities and contribute to a holistic understanding of the Blue Economy. First, we establish the Blue Economy as a transitory research context in studies across multiple disciplines. Second, we describe it using three lenses from interdisciplinary literature: place, development, and sustainability. Third, we ground the Blue Economy in reality, using narrations around these lenses that we extract from data collected during four online workshops with diverse stakeholders. The narrations show how stakeholders deal with the conundrum arising from issues around ownership and control (place), the economic needs of countries and communities (development), and the quest for resilient ecosystems (sustainability). Finally, applying grid-group analysis to evaluate the narrations lays bare stakeholders’ antagonistic perspectives. We discuss techno-solutionism, localism, and transnationalism as at least temporarily acceptable responses to competing priorities that embrace the interplay between place, development, and sustainability and may inspire recommendations for policymakers.Paul Caussat received internal seedcorn funding for the organization of Workshop 3 and data transcription from CHRONOS – Center for Critical and Historical Research on Organization and Society at the School of Business and Management, Royal Holloway, University of London

Exploring how weight stigma relates to psychological distress, physical activity, and eating behaviors over time: a longitudinal study among young adults in Hong Kong

Data availability: The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the present study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.Supplementary Information is available online at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40337-026-01525-w#Sec32 .Plain English summary: Weight stigma, discrimination due to an individual’s body weight, is a public health concern. It has been found that weight stigma is harmful to an individual’s mental and physical health, and such negative impact may create a harmful cycle. However, there is little clear evidence that the cycle exists, especially among individuals from East Asia. To investigate this issue, a study followed young adults in Hong Kong to examine how weight stigma relates to mental health, eating behaviors, exercise habits, and weight changes. Young adults were surveyed over a one-year period across four timepoints; Time 1 (T₁; n = 345), T₂ (n = 253), T₃ (n = 233), T₄ (n = 235). Results indicated that relationships existed over time in the connections between (i) perceived stigma (awareness of stigma) and self-stigma (stigma towards oneself), and (ii) between self-stigma and perceived behavioral control. In summary, the rate of change of these variables did not correlate with changes in body mass index (BMI). However, self-stigma showed a negative association with BMI at later timepoints. Findings supported a clearer understanding of weight management and highlighted the harmful impact of stigma. The findings also showed significant issues with weight stigma in Hong Kong, emphasizing the need for improved public education and stigma reduction efforts. Further research is needed to determine whether weight stigma can be influenced by changes in weight.Background: Many researchers have expressed concerns that weight stigma may cause adverse health effects and worsen weight issues in a vicious cycle. However, empirical evidence evaluating this cycle is scarce, especially among Eastern Asians. The present study investigated the temporal associations among perceived weight stigma, weight-related self-stigma, psychological distress, perceived behavioral control, physical activity, eating behaviors, and body mass index (BMI) changes. Methods: A one-year longitudinal survey was carried out to explore if the weight cycle exists among young adults in Hong Kong. The study comprised 345 participants at Time 1 (T₁), 253 participants at T₂, 233 participants at T₃, and 235 participants at T₄. Participants completed self-reported psychometric instruments in an online survey. The analysis employed parallel process latent growth curve modeling and a random intercept cross-lagged panel model. Results: Temporal relationships existed in the connections between perceived stigma and self-stigma, and self-stigma and perceived behavioral control. A negative relationship between self-stigma and future BMI was found, whereas future self-stigma showed no significant association with previous BMI. Conclusion: The growth trajectories of the studied variables did not correlate with changes in BMI. However, self-stigma showed a negative association with subsequent BMI in a different model. Further research is needed to clarify whether weight stigma is impacted by changes in BMI.Open access funding provided by National Cheng Kung University. Jian-Han Chen is supported by the E-Da Hospital funding (EDAHP114007)

A communication-efficient distributed Retire with application to the analysis of multi-site air-quality distributed data

Data availability: The air-quality data from the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center is available from online site: https://archive.ics.uci.edu/dataset/501/beijing+multi+site+air+quality+data .Supplementary material: Supplementary data are available online at: https://academic.oup.com/jrsssc/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jrsssc/qlag005/8489473#supplementary-data .A multi-site city air-quality dataset should be considered distributed data as it is generated from multiple geographically dispersed sources, such as air quality sensors or monitoring stations. In various fields, distributed systems are increasingly employed to handle data collected from diverse sources, often resulting in datasets that are heavy-tailed, asymmetric, or heterogeneous. Robust expectile regression combines the computational efficiency of expectile regression with its robustness in handling heavy-tailed response distributions and outliers. This paper extends robust expectile regression to communication-efficient distributed systems and applies it to the analysis of multi-site air-quality datasets. The proposed distributed estimators achieve both computational and communication efficiency while delivering statistical performance comparable to global estimators, as demonstrated through both theoretical analysis and numerical experiments.This research was supported by the Research Project of Humanities and Social Sciences, Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. 25YJA910003); the National Social Science Fund of China (Grant No. 25BTJ041); the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2024YFA1013502); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. U23A2064, 12531013); the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (Grant No. LY24A010004); and the Chern Institute of Mathematics Visiting Scholar Program

Combined multi‐metric assessment of diaphragm contractile function in healthy humans: Feasibility, validity and reliability

Data Availability Statement: The data that support the findings of this study are shown in the figures, tables and supporting information.The combined use of subcostal ultrasonography and respiratory manometry represents a novel, integrative method for quantifying diaphragm contractile function (force, velocity and power). We evaluated the technical feasibility, construct validity and within-day test–retest reliability of this method during non-volitional, volitional and reflexive respiratory perturbations in healthy adults. Two independent cohorts were studied. In Experiment 1 (n = 10), diaphragm excursion (subcostal ultrasonography) and transdiaphragmatic pressure (Pdi, manometry) were measured during unilateral magnetic phrenic nerve stimulation (non-potentiated and potentiated twitches, paired stimuli at 10–100 Hz) and maximal sniffs. In Experiment 2 (n = 8), the same measurements were obtained during progressive CO2 rebreathing. All protocols were repeated after 20 min of rest. Diaphragm velocity and power were calculated as excursion/time and Pdi × velocity, respectively. Ultrasound analysis was successful in >95% of cases. Potentiated twitches elicited greater Pdi, excursion and power than non-potentiated twitches, with responses increasing at higher stimulation frequencies. Reliability improved with potentiation and high-frequency stimulation and was moderate to excellent for peak responses during sniffs and CO2 rebreathing (ICC3,k = 0.70–0.94) but poor for slope-based measures (ICC3,k ≤ 0.20). During CO2 rebreathing, excursion and velocity correlated strongly with inspiratory tidal volume (r = 0.83, P < 0.001) and mean inspiratory flow (r = 0.69, P < 0.001), respectively. These findings demonstrate that subcostal ultrasonography combined with manometry is a feasible, valid and reliable method for assessing diaphragm contractile function across non-volitional, volitional and reflexive perturbations. With further refinement, this integrated method has translational potential for mechanistic research and clinical application.None

Air Pollution in 88 US Metropolitan Areas: Trends and Persistence

Data Availability Statement: No new data were created or analyzed in this study.JEL Classification: C22; Q53; Q58.This paper analyses trends and persistence in air pollution levels in 88 US metropolitan areas using fractional integration methods. The results indicate that the differencing parameter d is higher than 0 in 38 of the series, which supports the hypothesis of long-memory behavior and implies that, although the effects of shocks are long-lived, they eventually die out. The highest degrees of persistence are found in the Fresno, Bakersfield, Bradenton and San Diego areas. On the whole, the gathered evidence indicates that regional differences in pollution levels are significant, with factors such as industrialisation history and extreme weather events playing a crucial role in their degree of persistence. This suggests that, in order to tackle pollution more effectively, federal environmental policies, such as the Clean Air Act, should be complemented by more targeted ones taking into account local characteristics.Prof. Luis A. Gil-Alana gratefully acknowledges financial support from the project from ‘Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades`Agencia Estatal de Investigación’ (AEI) Spain and ‘Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional’ (FEDER), Grant D2023-149516NB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033, and from an internal Project of the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria

Rethinking job demands–resources-based interventions for evolving work environments: a problematizing review

Purpose: The Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) theory is widely used for workplace interventions targeting well-being, satisfaction and burnout reduction. However, shifting work contexts raise questions about the adaptability of its core constructs. This paper aims to critically examine how JD-R theory has been applied in intervention design, with particular attention to the assumptions that may limit responsiveness across diverse organizational and cultural settings. Design/methodology/approach: Adopting a problematization review approach, we analyze 109 studies that employ the JD-R theory in the design of workplace interventions. Our review identifies underlying assumptions, conceptual tensions and the ways in which demands and resources have been interpreted across different contexts, roles and cultures. Findings: The review reveals that JD-R constructs are often treated as stable and universally applicable, thereby constraining adaptability. We highlight overlooked assumptions and tensions, proposing a taxonomy of interventions that emphasizes contextual sensitivity, design flexibility and cross-level integration. Practical implications: The proposed taxonomy offers organizations a framework for developing workplace interventions that better align with diverse employee needs and evolving work environments. Social implications: By promoting more sustainable and responsive workplace interventions, this study supports healthier and more equitable organizational practices, with potential benefits for employee well-being across diverse cultural and occupational contexts. Originality/value: This paper applies problematization review to JD-R interventions, offering a novel critique that highlights contextual variation and adaptability, while providing a practical taxonomy for future applications