A MINDFUL PATHWAY TO FLOURISHING: MEDIATING EFFECTS OF SELF-COMPASSION AND VALUED LIVING IN COLLEGE STUDENTS

The aim of this study was to test a mindfulness model for flourishing along with mediating roles of self-compassion and valued living. Participants of the study were 327 undergraduate students (236 female, 91 male) with the mean age of 20.3 (SD=1.4). The results of path analysis yielded that mindfulness has positively direct relations with self-compassion and valued living. As well, the direct effects of self-compassion and valued living on flourishing were found positively significant. Both of the indirect paths from mindfulness to flourishing through self-compassion and valued living were also emerged statistically significant. The proposed model of mindfulness came by accounting for 37% of the variance of flourishing in the current study.  Article visualizations

The post-COVID-19 world : an asymmetric boom, a crippled recovery, and the Ukraine crisis

This paper aims to define the early post-COVID-19 era and answer the following research question; What are the influences of the Ukraine crisis on inflation in Europe from the perspective of the post-COVID-19 global financial world? The research is taken in two steps. The first step involved a detailed analysis of reports from international financial institutions and a detailed literature review. In the second step, interviews were taken with sector professionals. For analyzing the interview outcomes, qualitative content analysis was chosen as a method.The COVID-19 pandemic and stringent controls have impeded businesses' and consumers' production ability. In response to economic disturbances, several governments deployed enormous fiscal stimulus. This method increased consumption, which, when paired with a somewhat inelastic supply, resulted in supply chain bottlenecks and pricing pressures. Nonetheless, extensive public assistance was beneficial during this extraordinary crisis. Despite the potential for pricing pressures due to the investment, the enormous spending aided a solid economic rebound. As a result, GDP and employment rebounded historically, perhaps avoiding catastrophic effects. On top of this distorted economy, the war between Ukraine and Russia has put Europe under a severe energy crisis and an inflationary atmosphere. The European sanctions on Russia and the region's reliance on Russian imports for energy and industrial items have put pressure on the regional economy. These sanctions and the conflict caused a raw material scarcity and an energy crisis in Europe, resulting in an inflationary climate. Thus, while the epidemic and the Russia-Ukraine war are not the same types of disaster for Europe, they are both foreign shocks. As a result, they drive EU choices and develop various policies. This study aims to focus on the post-COVID-19 global financial landscape. A detailed literature review and reports from global institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCED), and the European Central Bank (ECB) were analyzed to determine the results. In the second phase, interviews were conducted with senior financial sector experts, senior economists, investment advisors, journalists, and policy advisors to provide insights. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the interviews. This was done by transcribing the interview data, rereading it and highlighting the essential parts in yellow, creating codes where necessary, and analyzing them by grouping them under headings. The interviews suggest that the foundations for a faster response to future crises should be laid, and the private sector should be included in this infrastructure. When developing the rules for this new era, the business world should be brought together and planning should be done by taking into account the necessary risk assessments. For this, it is essential to examine the obstacles the economy has faced since 2019, with the pandemic that started in Wuhan and has affected the whole world and deepened with the war between Ukraine and Russia. This paper describes how the global economy has been shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine and provides a summary for future research that seeks to contribute to the literature on macroeconomics, structural reforms, and political economy

Sprachsensibler Sachunterricht in der Grundschule – Beliefs von Studierenden am Beispiel des Wasserkreislaufs

Der Beitrag befasst sich mit Überzeugungen zum sprachsensiblen Sachunterricht in der Grundschule bei Studierenden des Grundschul- und Haupt-Real-Sekundar-Gesamtschul-Lehramtes in NRW, von denen ein Teil auch Sachunterricht bzw. ein naturwissenschaftliches Fach studieren. In einer Fragebogenstudie wurden die Teilnehmer*innen zu sprachlichen und fachlichen Voraussetzungen für die schriftliche Beschreibung des Wasserkreislaufs sowie zu Möglichkeiten bei der Vermittlung von fachlichen Inhalten in Bezug auf die Beschreibung des Wasserkreislaufs befragt. Die Ergebnisse werden inhaltsanalytisch und deskriptiv-statistisch ausgewertet und zeigen Unterschiede in Bezug auf Subkategorien zu Fachwissen und Fachsprache. Es werden Unterschiede in den schriftlichen Beschreibungen des Wasserkreislaufs deutlich, die von Studierenden selbst verfasst wurden. Für einen explorativen Vergleich werden Daten von Lehrkräften als Expert*innen und Texte von Drittklässler*innen hinzugezogen.The article deals with the beliefs of students about language-sensitive teaching in elementary school. These are students of primary school and secondary school in NRW, including some who additionally study general education or a scientific subject. In a questionnaire study, the participants were asked about the linguistic and technical requirements for the written description of the water cycle as well as possibilities for conveying technical content in relation to the description of the water cycle. The results are evaluated in terms of content analysis and descriptive statistics and show differences in relation to subcategories of specialist knowledge and technical language. Differences in the written descriptions of the water cycle, which the students themselves wrote, become clear. For an exploratory comparison, data from teachers as experts and texts from third graders are used

Subject-verb agreement dependency in Turkish Broca's aphasia:impairments in event occurrence and consequences for discourse-linking

Background: Inflecting the verb for agreement requires an intact discourse-semantic ability in addition to that for morphosyntax, since the use of person involves a link between the participants in the speech act and the morphosyntactic expression of this feature. Unlike the first person (the Speaker), the second person (the Addressee) requires additional discourse processing, termed "discourse-linking". Individuals with Broca's aphasia may have impaired discourse-linking, which may affect their ability to process second person pronouns and produce verb morphology for the second person. Aims: This study investigated whether the discourse-linking involved in processing second person pronouns contributes to sentence production deficits in Broca's aphasia. Methods & Procedures: The sample consisted of 16 Turkish individuals with Broca's aphasia (mean age: 54.8 years; SD: 14.0) who were matched in age with a control group of 16 neurologically intact Turkish individuals (mean age: 54.9; SD: 13.1). Each group completed a language task with first and second person singular or plural agreement conditions. Target agreement morphology was elicited using sentence-initial first and second person singular or plural pronouns. The plural (reference to a group) has a more complex discourse-representation than the singular (reference to an individual). Outcomes & Results: The group of individuals with Broca's aphasia showed the following production hierarchy: first person singular (highest accuracy rate) > first person plural > second person singular > second person plural (lowest accuracy rate). There was no discrepancy between test conditions for the control group. Conclusions: The discourse-linking involved in processing second person pronouns contributes to sentence production deficits and this deficit is exacerbated by plurality in Broca's aphasia. We suggest that cognitive-semantic intervention which focusses on the broader underlying impairment in deciphering event occurrence features (participant-time-location) could improve the use of the second person and other discourse-linked constructions (e.g., past time reference, object pronouns) which are selectively affected in Broca's aphasia

Widespread inter-individual gene expression variability in Arabidopsis thaliana.

A fundamental question in biology is how gene expression is regulated to give rise to a phenotype. However, transcriptional variability is rarely considered although it could influence the relationship between genotype and phenotype. It is known in unicellular organisms that gene expression is often noisy rather than uniform, and this has been proposed to be beneficial when environmental conditions are unpredictable. However, little is known about inter-individual transcriptional variability in multicellular organisms. Using transcriptomic approaches, we analysed gene expression variability between individual Arabidopsis thaliana plants growing in identical conditions over a 24-h time course. We identified hundreds of genes that exhibit high inter-individual variability and found that many are involved in environmental responses, with different classes of genes variable between the day and night. We also identified factors that might facilitate gene expression variability, such as gene length, the number of transcription factors regulating the genes and the chromatin environment. These results shed new light on the impact of transcriptional variability in gene expression regulation in plants

Mechanistische und kinetische Analyse des Wassereffektes auf die Aktivität und Selektivität in der oxidativen Kupplung von Methan an Metalloxid-Katalysatoren

Die oxidative Kupplung von Methan (eng.: oxidative coupling of methane, OCM) zu Ethan und Ethylen dient der direkten Gewinnung von Grundchemikalien aus Methan. Die Durchführung der Reaktion in Anwesenheit von Wasser bietet die Möglichkeit, die Katalysatoraktivität und die Produktselektivitäten zu erhöhen. Die Arbeit dient der Aufklärung der Rolle des Wassers zur Erhöhung der Katalysatoraktivität und der Produktselektivität. Aus der mechanistischen und kinetischen Analyse der katalytischen Daten konnten die Reaktionswege der Produktbildung in Ab- und Anwesenheit von Wasser hergeleitet werden

Prenatal multivitamin supplementation increases birth weight

Background: The aim of this study is to examine whether there is any positive impact of prenatal iron and vitamin supplementation on birth weight, and if this practice could be a cause of macrosomia.Methods: A total of 1,838 term pregnant women were included in this study and were divided into four groups: iron group (women having only iron supplementation), vitamin (women using only multivitamins), vitamin+iron (women using both iron and multivitamin preparations), and control group (women having neither iron nor vitamin supplements). Statistical analysis was performed to compare age, gravida, parity, hemoglobin, BMI and birth weight. Groups were compared in terms of macrosomia and correlation analysis carried out between demographics and birth weight.Results: The birth weight was significantly higher in the vitamin group and the vitamin+iron group than in the iron group and the control group. Vitamin supplementation increased the risk of macrosomia 3.9 times, while vitamin+iron usage increased the risk 4.8 times.Conclusions: Uncontrolled use of multivitamins and/or iron supplements may increase tendency for fetal macrosomia. The use of multivitamins and/or iron supplements by pregnant women must take into account maternal age, maternal diet and maternal BMI. Our findings support a reduction in the unnecessary use of vitamin and iron supplements in pregnancy, and a reversal of the trend to start vitamin and iron supplementation without any control. The increasing prevalence of obesity and excessive weight in pregnant women should be a warning against the uncontrolled usage of vitamins and iron during pregnancy