Evaluating Learning for the Multiple Constituencies of Higher Education: A Call for Action, A Call for Research

[EN] This paper explores the rapidly changing world of higher education and the need for different ways to identify learner outcomes and evaluate student learning. In recent years, higher education has experienced significant demographic shifts in student populations. These shifts were the result of numerous variables including the increasing cost of higher education, the demand from business and industry to get people into high-demand occupations faster, and the decreasing number of individuals choosing post-secondary education immediately following high school. The year 2020 brought unprecedented challenges to the world with the pandemic caused by the coronavirus known as COVID-19. The pandemic accelerated the change that was already taking place in higher education. From how education was delivered to where it was delivered, higher education was forced to rapidly change a centuries-old model. This paper explores a tier one research university’s response to the changes in higher education by employing a proven process of mapping learning outcomes, assessing both new and prior learning using innovative technology, issuing microcredentials, and working with policymakers and employers to meet workforce demands.Debacker, D.; Dudek, J.; Patelis, T.; Kingston, N. (2021). Evaluating Learning for the Multiple Constituencies of Higher Education: A Call for Action, A Call for Research. En 7th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'21). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 615-622. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd21.2021.12981OCS61562

Accountability for the Rights of People with Psychosocial Disabilities: An Assessment of Country Reports for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has been identified as a milestone in human rights protection, offering people with psychosocial disabilities the opportunity to hold their governments accountable for the realization of their rights. To facilitate such accountability, the country reports produced under the CRPD reporting process should adequately reflect these persons' experiences and relevant positive or negative developments in the country. Our study used content analysis to review the extent and quality of reporting related to mental health and psychosocial disabilities in 19 country reports. The criteria used were based on provisions of the CRPD and on priorities identified by a steering committee of people with psychosocial disabilities. We found a wide variation in the quantity and quality of states' reporting, with an indication that this variation relates to countries' economic development. Increasing the participation of representative organizations of people with psychosocial disabilities is needed for state parties to fulfill their reporting obligations. While there has been progress in improving organizations of persons with disabilities capacity to be heard at the global level, our findings suggest low levels of participation in CRPD processes at the national level in many countries. State parties must actively include these groups to ensure implementation of the CRPD principles

Global variation in diabetes diagnosis and prevalence based on fasting glucose and hemoglobin A1c

Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) are both used to diagnose diabetes, but these measurements can identify different people as having diabetes. We used data from 117 population-based studies and quantified, in different world regions, the prevalence of diagnosed diabetes, and whether those who were previously undiagnosed and detected as having diabetes in survey screening, had elevated FPG, HbA1c or both. We developed prediction equations for estimating the probability that a person without previously diagnosed diabetes, and at a specific level of FPG, had elevated HbA1c, and vice versa. The age-standardized proportion of diabetes that was previously undiagnosed and detected in survey screening ranged from 30% in the high-income western region to 66% in south Asia. Among those with screen-detected diabetes with either test, the age-standardized proportion who had elevated levels of both FPG and HbA1c was 29-39% across regions; the remainder had discordant elevation of FPG or HbA1c. In most low- and middle-income regions, isolated elevated HbA1c was more common than isolated elevated FPG. In these regions, the use of FPG alone may delay diabetes diagnosis and underestimate diabetes prevalence. Our prediction equations help allocate finite resources for measuring HbA1c to reduce the global shortfall in diabetes diagnosis and surveillance

Worldwide trends in underweight and obesity from 1990 to 2022: a pooled analysis of 3663 population-representative studies with 222 million children, adolescents, and adults

Background Underweight and obesity are associated with adverse health outcomes throughout the life course. We estimated the individual and combined prevalence of underweight or thinness and obesity, and their changes, from 1990 to 2022 for adults and school-aged children and adolescents in 200 countries and territories. Methods We used data from 3663 population-based studies with 222 million participants that measured height and weight in representative samples of the general population. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends in the prevalence of different BMI categories, separately for adults (age ≥20 years) and school-aged children and adolescents (age 5–19 years), from 1990 to 2022 for 200 countries and territories. For adults, we report the individual and combined prevalence of underweight (BMI <18·5 kg/m2) and obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2). For schoolaged children and adolescents, we report thinness (BMI <2 SD below the median of the WHO growth reference) and obesity (BMI >2 SD above the median). Findings From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity in adults decreased in 11 countries (6%) for women and 17 (9%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 that the observed changes were true decreases. The combined prevalence increased in 162 countries (81%) for women and 140 countries (70%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. In 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity was highest in island nations in the Caribbean and Polynesia and Micronesia, and countries in the Middle East and north Africa. Obesity prevalence was higher than underweight with posterior probability of at least 0·80 in 177 countries (89%) for women and 145 (73%) for men in 2022, whereas the converse was true in 16 countries (8%) for women, and 39 (20%) for men. From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of thinness and obesity decreased among girls in five countries (3%) and among boys in 15 countries (8%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80, and increased among girls in 140 countries (70%) and boys in 137 countries (69%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. The countries with highest combined prevalence of thinness and obesity in school-aged children and adolescents in 2022 were in Polynesia and Micronesia and the Caribbean for both sexes, and Chile and Qatar for boys. Combined prevalence was also high in some countries in south Asia, such as India and Pakistan, where thinness remained prevalent despite having declined. In 2022, obesity in school-aged children and adolescents was more prevalent than thinness with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 among girls in 133 countries (67%) and boys in 125 countries (63%), whereas the converse was true in 35 countries (18%) and 42 countries (21%), respectively. In almost all countries for both adults and school-aged children and adolescents, the increases in double burden were driven by increases in obesity, and decreases in double burden by declining underweight or thinness. Interpretation The combined burden of underweight and obesity has increased in most countries, driven by an increase in obesity, while underweight and thinness remain prevalent in south Asia and parts of Africa. A healthy nutrition transition that enhances access to nutritious foods is needed to address the remaining burden of underweight while curbing and reversing the increase in obesit

Para-infectious brain injury in COVID-19 persists at follow-up despite attenuated cytokine and autoantibody responses

To understand neurological complications of COVID-19 better both acutely and for recovery, we measured markers of brain injury, inflammatory mediators, and autoantibodies in 203 hospitalised participants; 111 with acute sera (1–11 days post-admission) and 92 convalescent sera (56 with COVID-19-associated neurological diagnoses). Here we show that compared to 60 uninfected controls, tTau, GFAP, NfL, and UCH-L1 are increased with COVID-19 infection at acute timepoints and NfL and GFAP are significantly higher in participants with neurological complications. Inflammatory mediators (IL-6, IL-12p40, HGF, M-CSF, CCL2, and IL-1RA) are associated with both altered consciousness and markers of brain injury. Autoantibodies are more common in COVID-19 than controls and some (including against MYL7, UCH-L1, and GRIN3B) are more frequent with altered consciousness. Additionally, convalescent participants with neurological complications show elevated GFAP and NfL, unrelated to attenuated systemic inflammatory mediators and to autoantibody responses. Overall, neurological complications of COVID-19 are associated with evidence of neuroglial injury in both acute and late disease and these correlate with dysregulated innate and adaptive immune responses acutely

Global variations in diabetes mellitus based on fasting glucose and haemogloblin A1c

Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) are both used to diagnose diabetes, but may identify different people as having diabetes. We used data from 117 population-based studies and quantified, in different world regions, the prevalence of diagnosed diabetes, and whether those who were previously undiagnosed and detected as having diabetes in survey screening had elevated FPG, HbA1c, or both. We developed prediction equations for estimating the probability that a person without previously diagnosed diabetes, and at a specific level of FPG, had elevated HbA1c, and vice versa. The age-standardised proportion of diabetes that was previously undiagnosed, and detected in survey screening, ranged from 30% in the high-income western region to 66% in south Asia. Among those with screen-detected diabetes with either test, the agestandardised proportion who had elevated levels of both FPG and HbA1c was 29-39% across regions; the remainder had discordant elevation of FPG or HbA1c. In most low- and middle-income regions, isolated elevated HbA1c more common than isolated elevated FPG. In these regions, the use of FPG alone may delay diabetes diagnosis and underestimate diabetes prevalence. Our prediction equations help allocate finite resources for measuring HbA1c to reduce the global gap in diabetes diagnosis and surveillance.peer-reviewe

Consumer Awareness of and Preferences for Bio-active Lipid Enhanced Beef

This study investigates consumer attitudes toward functional foods in the context of CLA-enhanced beef products. The objectives of this study were to identify the following issues: 1) consumer awareness and attitudes towards nutrition, functional foods, and other emerging factors; 2) consumers´ major health concerns; 3) consumers´ beef consumption patterns; 4) the importance of health information and food labeling in affecting consumer purchasing decisions; 5) consumer attitudes, acceptance, and willingness to pay for CLA-enriched beef products; 6) and consumers´ demographic information. “Choice experiment” survey design methodology was used to collect the data. Choice experiments have become an important and recognized tool in marketing and non-market valuation research, and have several advantages over other research designs. The main advantage of choice experimentation is that it allows the analyst to separately identify the value of an individual attribute of a good. In this study, we utilized several small touch-screen computers that allowed us to bring our computer-based choice experiment study to eight supermarkets in four cities across Canada. 800 self-identified beef consumers participated in the survey. Key results include the following: i) Consumers think that food choices are important for preventing chronic disease and they are least concerned about the use of functional foods for disease prevention or health promotion; ii) The awareness of CLA is relatively low compared to Omega-3 and other nutrients and fats in foods; iii) In relation to meat with regular CLA content, respondents would pay $2.51/kg more and$2.74/kg more for meat with a CLA enhanced label and a CLA enriched label, respectively; iv) In comparison to all other respondents, respondents in Quebec appear to be willing to pay a higher a premium for meat with CLA enhanced or enriched labels; v) The consumer target segment for CLA enriched beef products can be characterized as health conscious consumers who are already familiar with CLA

Consumer Awareness of and Preferences for Bio-active Lipid Enhanced Beef

This study investigates consumer attitudes toward functional foods in the context of CLA-enhanced beef products. The objectives of this study were to identify the following issues: 1) consumer awareness and attitudes towards nutrition, functional foods, and other emerging factors; 2) consumers´ major health concerns; 3) consumers´ beef consumption patterns; 4) the importance of health information and food labeling in affecting consumer purchasing decisions; 5) consumer attitudes, acceptance, and willingness to pay for CLA-enriched beef products; 6) and consumers´ demographic information. “Choice experiment” survey design methodology was used to collect the data. Choice experiments have become an important and recognized tool in marketing and non-market valuation research, and have several advantages over other research designs. The main advantage of choice experimentation is that it allows the analyst to separately identify the value of an individual attribute of a good. In this study, we utilized several small touch-screen computers that allowed us to bring our computer-based choice experiment study to eight supermarkets in four cities across Canada. 800 self-identified beef consumers participated in the survey. Key results include the following: i) Consumers think that food choices are important for preventing chronic disease and they are least concerned about the use of functional foods for disease prevention or health promotion; ii) The awareness of CLA is relatively low compared to Omega-3 and other nutrients and fats in foods; iii) In relation to meat with regular CLA content, respondents would pay $2.51/kg more and$2.74/kg more for meat with a CLA enhanced label and a CLA enriched label, respectively; iv) In comparison to all other respondents, respondents in Quebec appear to be willing to pay a higher a premium for meat with CLA enhanced or enriched labels; v) The consumer target segment for CLA enriched beef products can be characterized as health conscious consumers who are already familiar with CLA.Consumer behavior, demand for novel food, functional foods, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy, Livestock Production/Industries, D12, I12, Q11,