Foraging for food futures:Co-speculating sustainable food futures through the context of supermarkets for food system transitions.

Currently, food systems are experiencing an unprecedented number of sustainability-related challenges spanning across social, ecological, economical and political dimensions. These have rendered the food system inadequate to foster human health while maintaining environmental stability. In order to enable transitions to resilient and sustainable food futures, we need to rethink our current ways of being. Consequently, this thesis aligns with the transition design principles that harness design's transformative potential. Transition design with its approaches of social practice theory and speculative design is explored through empirical research to critically investigate the present and speculate food futures. The empirical research, situated in the everyday context of supermarkets, investigates the practice of grocery shopping using social practice theory. The investigation helps identify opportunities for change and then engages multiple people in speculating alternative futures that take into account these opportunities. Two co-speculative workshops based on the combined principles of speculative design and participatory design create spaces for reflection and discussion to envision sustainable futures in the context of supermarkets.Their visions are presented in the form of 6 scenarios that narrate the future through the medium of storytelling. While social practice theory helps in moving beyond the individual-level analysis and the resulting opportunities identified challenge current structures and paradigms. The co-speculative workshops highlight the potential of bringing people together to imagine alternative futures. These have the potential to bring individual-level changes through engaging in future-oriented conversations and global-level changes through the principle of ‘scaling out’. The 6 scenarios present glimpses of the future that can further aid conversations and engagements with a larger audience and can be used by key decision-makers as a starting point for creating sustainability transition pathways

The Cybernetics Thought Collective: A History of Science and Technology Portal Project White Paper

This White Paper discusses the Cybernetics Thought Collective (CTC) team’s specific work to digitize a select portion of archival materials; investigate and experiment with natural language processing, named entity extraction, and machine learning software; begin investigating access interfaces for the portal; and ingest the digitized materials and machine-extracted metadata into the University of Illinois Library’s preservation repository and digital library. The pilot grant project enabled us to explore emerging methods for creating access to archival materials, which resulted in promising outcomes. In May 2018, the CTC team launched the prototype portal: ​https://archives.library.illinois.edu/thought-collective/​.National Endowment for the Humanities PW-253912-17Ope

Trauma from Occlusion: Practical Management Guidelines

Occlusal trauma is trauma to the periodontium from functional or parafunctional force’s causing damage to the teeth and its attachment apparatus by exceeding its adaptive and reparative capacities. Occlusal instability is a common cause for trauma from occlusion, resulting in numerous complications. It often leads to interference which reflexively shifts or slides the jaw forward on one or both the side to find a spot where most teeth come together. This action protects the teeth from injury caused by chewing on just one tooth. Overtime, this shift can cause a whole host of problems from TMJ pain, post restorative complications, headache, tooth sensitivity, recession, broken and loss of teeth and orofacial pain. These occlusal interferences and bite discrepancies are treatable with minimally invasive dentistry. Occlusal equilibration is a therapy that is used when the cause of trauma is due to occlusal instability. This involves the reshaping of the teeth where the improper biting surfaces are located. The key lies in decoding the cause, but often treatment is only directed towards the effects. Only a thorough evaluation and occlusal analysis will lead to a definitive diagnosis that will help in better anticipation of the damages

Prevalence and Determinants of Excessive Screen Viewing Time in Children Aged 3–15 Years and Its Effects on Physical Activity, Sleep, Eye Symptoms and Headache

Screen viewing time is the total time spent by a child on any digital/electronic device. The objective of the present study was to determine the prevalence and predictors of excessive screen viewing time in children in Ujjain, India. This cross-sectional, community-based study was conducted through a house-to-house survey using the three-stage cluster sampling method in 36 urban wards and 36 villages of Ujjain District, India. Excessive screen viewing time was defined as screen viewing for >2 h/day. The prevalence of excessive screen viewing time was 18%. Risk factors identified using the multivariate logistic regression model were age (OR: 1.63, p p = 0.004); parents’ perception about the child’s habituation to screen time (OR: 8.46, p p p p 2 h (OR: 5.17, p p = 0.012). This study identified multiple modifiable risk factors for excessive screen viewing time

Assessment of school readiness of children and factors associated with risk of inadequate school readiness in Ujjain, India : an observational study

Objective: School readiness is a condition or state indicating that the child is ready to learn in a formal educational set-up. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of and factors associated with school readiness in urban schoolchildren in Ujjain, India. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from February 2016 to March 2017. Two English-medium schools were conveniently selected. All children aged 5-7 years were eligible to participate. A subscale of Differential Ability Scales-Second Edition, namely 'school readiness scale', was used to assess school readiness in three major domains-early number concept, matching letter-like forms and phonological processing. Data on factors associated with school readiness were collected through parent interview. Quantile regression analysis was used to explore school readiness scores. Results: This study included 203 school-going children (105 boys and 98 girls) having a mean (SD) age of 67.7 (±0.51) months. The phonological processing and matching letter-like forms had 31.5% and 30.5% children, respectively, in lower quantiles (≤25th). The higher quantile (≥75th) scores were achieved for phonological processing and early number concept (47.7% and 44.8% children, respectively). The results of quantile regression showed negative association of school readiness scores with age of children, lower socioeconomic status and hospitalisation status, especially in the lower quantiles (≤25th). The 10th, 50th and 75th quantile scores were positively correlated with the increasing education status of the mother. Birth weight was positively associated with the median and higher quantile scores (≥75th). Conclusions: School readiness in a middle-class urban setting in India was negatively associated with lower age of the child, lower socioeconomic status, hospitalisation and positively correlated with increasing birth weight and maternal education. Lower quantile scores were achieved in matching letter-like forms, which measures complex visual-spatial processing, and phonological ability, which correlates with acquired verbal concepts. Focused interventions are needed to improve these skills