Racial reckoning, resistance, and the revolution: A call to community psychology to move forward

This article introduces a special issue of the American Journal of Community Psychology that features racial reckoning, resistance and the revolution in the context of a syndemic, the historical subjugation of communities of Color (COC) to racial hierarchies and the coronavirus (COVID-19). More specifically, this special issue underscores the need for community psychology and other allied disciplines to address this syndemic facing COC. The special issue delivers on the stories of the lived experiences from researchers and community members as it relates to COVID-19 and COC. Twelve articles are illuminated to challenge the field to create social change.

COVID-19 and vulnerable populations

At the time of this special issue, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the leading cause of death in the United States and has contributed to millions of deaths worldwide. The world had no idea how the pandemic was going to impact our lives. COVID-19 exposed the inequities in our world and the individuals that were most impacted by it: vulnerable populations. Vulnerable populations may be defined as those living in poverty, living with disability, and racial, ethnic, sexual, and gender minorities. Additionally, as community psychologists we understand that the impact of inequities do not appear singlehandedly since as human beings we do not exist in a vacuum and there are multiple factors that create our level of health and well-being. Therefore, the idea of examining COVID-19 in a syndemic framework allows us to explore how a synergistic epidemic (i.e., the aggregation of two or more concurrent or sequential epidemics or disease clusters in a population with biological interactions) exacerbates the prognosis and burden of disease, which can impact vulnerable populations simultaneously. The main goal of this special issue concentrates on how COVID-19 had a synergistic impact on vulnerable populations and how these populations reacted and coped with these events.

Causal Mediation Analysis in Single Case Experimental Designs: Introduction to the Special Issue

This special issue of Evaluation and the Health Professions is dedicated to methods for causal mediation analysis in Single Case Experimental Designs (SCEDs). Mediation analysis is used to identify intermediate variables that transmit the effect of the independent variable on the outcome. Until recently, mediation analysis was mostly confined to between-subjects designs and panel studies with few exceptions. Consequently, most of the developments in causal mediation analysis have also been restricted to such designs. In applied health research, SCEDs have been used to evaluate total effects of treatments on outcomes of interest. Providing researchers with the methods for evaluating causal indirect effects for individual participants can lead to important improvements in diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. This special issue includes articles that describe advanced quantitative methods for testing mediators in SCEDs, propose and test approaches that allow for relaxing statistical assumptions that may not hold in real data, and illustrate mediation analysis for a single participant in real and simulated SCEDs data.

Introduction to the special issue on the efficacy and effectiveness of couple and family interventions: Evidence base update 2010-2019

This is the fourth Journal of Marital and Family Therapy (JMFT) special issue on the efficacy and effectiveness of couple and family therapy. Articles in this issue review studies published from 2010 to 2019 on couple and family interventions for prevalent mental and behavioral disorders and health conditions. The final article on mental health disparities tracks progress in the field and emphasizes the need for additional attention. In the current article, we provide a description of our methodological approach for the special issue and an overview of the state of the evidence for couple and family interventions across the conditions reviewed. We also offer recommendations to inspire researchers to further expand the empirical support for couple and family interventions to address pressing public health needs.

Molecular insights into psychedelic drug action

A confluence of factors has renewed interest in the scientific understanding and translational potential of psychedelic drugs such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), mescaline, and psilocybin: the desire for additional approaches to mental health care, incremental progress in basic and clinical research, and the reconsideration and relaxation of existing drug policies. With the United States Food and Drug Administration's designation of psilocybin as a "Breakthrough Therapy" for treatment-resistant depression, a new path has been forged for the conveyance of psychedelics to the clinic. Essential to the further development of such applications, however, is a clearer understanding of how these drugs exert their effects at the molecular level. Here we review the current knowledge regarding the molecular details of psychedelic drug actions and suggest that these discoveries can facilitate new insights into their hallucinogenic and therapeutic mechanisms.

Sex differences in the brain

This special issue of Cognitive Neuroscience focuses on sex differences in the brain. Berchicci, Bianco, and Di Russo found ERP auditory cortex activity was larger in females than males during sound perception. Spets, Fritch, Thakral, & Slotnick reported greater fMRI activity during high- versus low-confidence spatial memory in males than females within the lateral prefrontal cortex and other brain regions. Using fMRI resting-state data, Murray, Maurer, Peechatka, Frederick, Kaiser, and Janes observed females spent more time in transient dorsal attention/occipital/sensory-motor network states and males spent more time in transient salience network states, and de Lacy, Kutz, and Calhoun found that brain dynamism (transitioning between brain states) was correlated with anxiety/depression in males and drive/novelty-seeking/self-control in females. Kurth, Gaser, and Luders predicted the sex of girls and boys with an 80.4% accuracy using a classifier based on anatomic (MRI) data. In a discussion paper, Spets and Slotnick conducted an fMRI meta-analysis that revealed greater male than female long-term memory activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex, visual processing regions, and the parahippocampal cortex, and argued against the claim there is reporting bias in sex-differences studies. In response to this discussion paper, commentaries were written by Cahill; de Lacy; Hausmann; McGlade, Rogowska, and Yurgelun-Todd; Sneider and Silveri; Tejavibulya and Scheinost; Wiersch and Weis; Young and Compère. It is hoped that these findings will help motivate a shift in the field to consider sex as a factor in cognitive neuroscience studies.

Overview of special issue on current advances in Brazilian biomedical and anatomical sciences

This special issue of The Anatomical Record honors the bridges of knowledge and communications between Brazil and the United States in Anatomical Science, Healthcare, and Medical Education. The volume is organized in two sets of manuscripts: the first one stems from presentations of Brazilian colleagues in the latest iteration of the Building Bridges outreach initiative-a meeting entitled Building Bridges Back to Back, held at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in December of 2019; the second, is a compilation of selected papers submitted independently to The Anatomical Record, authored by Brazilian researchers. All abstracts in this volume are featured in English and in Portuguese, and the opening piece is fully available in both languages. This bold and innovative addition represents the commitment of The Anatomical Record to support and help grow our bridges; it is a gesture of utmost respect and appreciation for our people and our culture. Together, our efforts to advance the knowledge in basic, translational, and clinical sciences, to expand our connections, and to build on our relationships across boundaries becomes a reality. This is an introduction and an overview of the manuscripts contained in this very special issue.

The psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic: an introduction to the special issue

This paper briefly introduces the Special Issue "The Psychological Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic." In doing so, it first outlines the initial call for papers and some of the general contours of the issue before then offering a terse summary of the larger themes offered in each of the six papers included in this volume. Some final summary remarks and larger suggestions for additional work in this area are also noted.

Introduction to Special Issue on AfroLatinidad: Theory, Research, and Practice

AfroLatinidad: Theory, Research, and Practice focus on ways for scholars and practitioners to center AfroLatinidad in theory, research, and practice. In recent years, there has been an increased acknowledgement of the racial diversity among Latinxs in the U.S. and Latin America, including the recognition of AfroLatinxs. However, there remains a significant gap in scholarship output as it relates to AfroLatinxs in the psychological research. This special issue is the first publication dedicated to AfroLatinxs in a leading national ethnic minority psychology journal and represents a significant advancement regarding representation, inclusion, and analysis of AfroLatinx populations in the psychological, educational, developmental, and social research. AfroLatinxs are likely to experience oppression within the non-Latinx and Latinx community due to their phenotypical characteristics (e.g., skin color, facial features, hair texture). It is therefore critical that researchers and practitioners utilize scholarly inquiry to understand the unique issues faced by members of this community. Rooted in intersectionality theory and building on additional frameworks that center race in the Latinx experience, the invited contributors examine how colorism, racism, and other forms of oppression impact the lives of AfroLatinxs. In this introduction, an overview of the events leading to this special issue is presented, followed by a description of the historical and contemporary racial landscape in the U.S. and Latin America in regard to AfroLatinxs, highlighting the ongoing sociopolitical challenges facing this population.

Introduction to the special issue on Ophthalmic Genetics: Vision in 2020

In this special issue of the American Journal of Medical Genetics, Part C, we explore the ever-expanding field of Ophthalmic Genetics. The eye is unique among organs for its accessibility to physical examination, permitting exploration of every tissue by slit lamp microscopy, ophthalmoscopy, and imaging including color and autofluorescent photography, ultrasound, optical coherence tomography (OCT), electrophysiology, and adaptive optics confocal and scanning laser ophthalmoscopy. This accessibility permits a variety of surgical and nonsurgical treatments, including the first FDA-approved gene therapy, voretigene neparvovec-rzyl for RPE65-associated Leber Congenital Amaurosis. In this issue, we sought to provide a survey highlighting how heritable ophthalmic disorders are recognizable and accessible to clinical geneticists as well as ophthalmologists.

Preparative scale mass spectrometry: A brief history of the calutron

Calutrons were developed in the laboratory of E. O. Lawrence at the University of California at Berkeley. They were a modification of the cyclotrons he had invented and used in his Nobel Prize-winning investigations of the atomic nucleus. At the time their construction was undertaken, calutrons represented the only certain means of preparing enriched uranium isotopes for the construction of a fission bomb. The effort was successful enough that every atom of the 42 kg of ²³⁵ U used in the first uranium bomb had passed through at least one stage of calutron separation. At peak production, the first stage separators, α tanks, yielded an aggregate 258-g/day ²³⁵ U enriched to about 10 at. % from its natural abundance level of 0.72 at. %. The second stage separators, β tanks, used the 10 at. % material as feedstock and produced a total 204-g/day ²³⁵ U enriched to at least 80 at. %. The latter, weapons grade, material was used in fission bombs. Under typical operating conditions, each α tank operated at a uranium beam intensity at the collectors of approximately 20 mA and each β tank at a beam intensity of approximately 215 mA at the collectors. Bulk separation of isotopes for bomb production ceased in 1945. Since that time calutrons have been used to separate stable isotopes, but on a more limited scale than wartime weapons production. Stable isotope separations since 1960 have taken place using one modified β tank.

Introduction to a special issue on kidney development and disease

Enriching our understanding of the anatomy of the kidneys, in development, health, and disease, has been the primary focus of Professor John Bertram's distinguished research career to date. Among other notable achievements, his landmark analyses of nephron number in over 400 human kidneys (the Monash Series), and his refinement of stereological techniques for renal structural analyses, have proven him an international leader in renal anatomy research. In this Special Issue, we (some of John's collaborators, colleagues, and former students) celebrate John's career with a series of 20 review and original research articles relevant to his expertise: (a) renal anatomy, physiology, and pathology, (b) kidney development, podocyte biology, and applications of renal stem cells, (c) renal developmental programming, and (d) contemporary methodologies in renal research; his accomplishments as a Head (Chair) of an Anatomy Department are also illustrated. We hope that this collection will serve as both an important resource, and a source of inspiration, to renal anatomy researchers and educators alike.

How Do We Meet the Challenges of Assessing and Managing Concussion?

Despite advances in the assessment, diagnosis, prognosis, and management of the patient with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) or concussion, the condition continues to frustrate clinicians and researchers. The November 2019 special issue of the Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy (JOSPT) supports and represents an interdisciplinary approach to assessment, management, and treatment of mTBI/concussion. The articles further highlight the evolving role of the physical therapist throughout the clinical course post concussion. It is with gratitude to the authors who contributed to this special issue of JOSPT that we present the evidence and practices currently available to clinicians in the assessment and treatment of mTBI/concussion. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2019;49(11):766-767. doi:10.2519/jospt.2019.0107.

"Cheese: Technology, Compositional, Physical and Biofunctional Properties:" A Special Issue

The objective of the present editorial to critical synopsize articles that make up the Special Issue “Cheese: Technology, Compositional, Physical and Biofunctional Properties.” The published research papers are multidisciplinary studies which refer to some of the most important sub-topics of Cheese Science and Technology. They present the results of experimental studies and analyses that can be further exploited by academia and cheese producers.

Development of clinical genetics in Asia

This Special Issue on Clinical Genetics in Asia highlights a collection of articles showing the growth, development, and current status of clinical genetics in Asia. In this Introduction, the Guest Editors share on the themes of this issue to provide useful insights into the rapid growth of genomics and clinical genetics in this region. The contents of this Issue cover a range of topics from the history and development of clinical genetics in Asia to studies on disorders with clinical significance or phenotype differences in the Asian populations to the status of precision medicine. The goal is to provide a glimpse of how significantly the field of genetics in Asia has developed in recent years with the aspiration that this can serve as a catalyst to increase international collaboration and cooperation in combating genetic diseases. We hope that this issue shows Asia's readiness and willingness to be a part of more international conversations about genetics in future.

Leone Spiccia Memorial Issue

Leone Spiccia will be remembered as an outstanding scientist with a warm and generous personality. At the time of his death he was at the pinnacle of his scientific career with much more yet to be achieved. However, his legacy will continue to inspire new exciting science. Leone's scientific research was truly multidisciplinary and his friends and colleagues honour his memory with this special issue.

New Materials and Approaches for Advanced Optoelectronics

An optoelectronic odyssey: ChemPlusChem presents its special issue on "New Materials and Approaches for Advanced Optoelectronics", guest-edited by Pedro Coto and Rubén Costa. This issue features top-quality contributions covering new blue-emitting coordination complexes, perovskites, nanocarbon-based hybrids, metal-organic frameworks, hybrid metal oxides, and small molecules.

Caring for Care Workers

Carework-the paid and unpaid work in healthcare, education, childcare, mental health, elder care, families, and social services-is linked by the social and ethical obligation to care for vulnerable populations and is a major economic sector and important source of employment internationally. This special issue of New Solutions focuses on understanding working conditions and workplace health and safety in carework professions and for seeking solutions to these dilemmas. As members of the Carework Network Steering Committee, we reflect on the importance of the topics raised in this special issue and describe next steps for carework research and scholarship.

Global Dermatology: Learning from the Past but Still Learning from the Best?

If we try to draw conclusions about events, analyse data or results (in one or a certain area) and clarify our unknown points in standard or non-standard ways, this leads to the transfer of experience from one area to another. How do we want to follow guidelines, while the most of the obligatory laws are not followed, for example? The aim of prescriptions or recommendations in medicine, for example, (or the laws of a country that do not usually apply to particular classes or castes, as well as business rules) is to give guidance on how it would be appropriate to help people or ourselves (as we have already mentioned) and the people themselves. Unfortunately, this behaviour is also characteristic of developed societies that dictate the rules and try to help … to people, as well. If we come deeper into the system of mutual aid in medicine, it is unfortunate that sometimes the condition of this kind of "ecosystem" (or any of the ecosystems described) is worse than the best tragic-comedy. Unfortunately, the "ecosystem of medicine" is also subordinate and slaves somehow to the stronger "ecosystems" as politics and business and is dependent on them, but for evil or good, these ecosystems have glimpsed at times, no matter what are the motives, which provoke them! And they are most often … once again personal. Although in a number of Eastern European countries, it was unthinkable to even undesirable until recently, that dermasurgery and dermatooncology to be part of modern dermatological societies, the insatiable thirst for growth of young specialists, as well as the impact of Western schools, on their formation as a kind of new hope proved to be stronger in the formation of dermatosurgery, not only all over the world, but also in particular in the Balkans and Bulgaria. These units are gradually being introduced as an indispensable part of any modern clinic, and this part guarantees the best results (in patients with dermatosurgical or dermatooncological needs). The globalisation of dermatology and dermatological science has led to the introduction and involvement of additional auxiliary units, based on a more global concept of the interdisciplinary concept that encompasses psycho-neuroendocrine dermatology which provides a good explanation for some unexplained diseases, such as vitiligo, for example.

Novel Aromatics: From Synthesis to Applications

Amazing aromaticity: ChemPlusChem is pleased to present its special issue on novel aromatic compounds, guest-edited by Nazario Martín and Yoshito Tobe. This project was initiated following the 2015 ISNA-16 meeting held in Madrid and the issue features top-quality contributions covering synthesis, properties and applications of acenes, annulenes, azulenes, fullerenes, oligo(thiophene)s, and porphyrin/phthalocyanines.

Biofest: Bioinspired Chemistry, Biomaterials and Bioelectrochemistry

Bio, bio, bio! This issue features the latest advances in bioinspired chemistry, biomaterials and bioelectrochemistry. Containing both original research and informative review articles, it is a must read for those committed to a multidisciplinary approach to these bio-orientated fields/topics.

Metabolic Syndrome and Oxidative Stress: A Complex Relationship

The worldwide epidemic of obesity is a major public health concern. Obesity is a major risk factor for noncommunicable diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, clustered in the so-called metabolic syndrome (MS). Other main chronic illnesses are promoted by excessive body weight, including cancer and neurodegenerative pathologies, both affecting a number of people worldwide. In recent years, the primary role of an excess of reactive oxygen species (oxidative stress) resulting from altered redox control in the etiology of all of these pathologies has been unveiled. Interestingly, it appears that oxidative stress is both the cause and the consequence of obesity and associated disorders. This Forum features reviews that recapitulate the current knowledge on the link between oxidative stress and MS in the physiopathology of different biological systems. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 26, 429-431.

Introduction to the special issue: behavioral interventions to enhance academic outcomes

The purpose of Behavior Modification's special issue on academics is to feature a collection of studies involving behavioral interventions designed to improve academic outcomes. Studies published in this special issue address a variety of academic subjects (e.g., reading, science, social studies) for students with learning, emotional, behavioral, and developmental disabilities. A total of three rigorous literature reviews and six well-designed intervention studies are presented. The studies included in the special issue clearly illustrate the potential benefit of behavioral interventions designed to improve academic performance and related behaviors (e.g., task engagement, school readiness).

What's in a game? Future directions for the assessment and treatment of drinking games

This conclusion reviews the critical issues raised by the papers in this Special Issue on Drinking Games, with an eye toward directions for future research and the development of palliative interventions. In particular, this conclusion highlights the significance of individual-level characteristics that are associated with drinking game risk, the social context in which these games take place, and methodological considerations for studying both the individual and the context as they unfold as part of drinking game practices. Given both the ubiquity of these games in North American college drinking life, and the substantial hazards with which these games are associated, interventions that may reduce harmful outcomes are needed but have not yet been developed. Issues relevant to the development of such interventions are considered.

The Loss of a Prominent Scientist: Detlef Schröder

Schröder Special Issue: This collection of papers is dedicated to the memory of our friend and colleague Detlef Schröder, who we honor with this selection of top-quality science.

Contributions to the Content Analysis of Gender Roles: An Introduction to a Special Issue

This special issue on gender-related content analysis is the second of two parts (see Rudy et al. 2010b). The current special issue is more diverse than was the first in the number of countries that are represented and in the variety of media genres and content types that are included. The primary aim of this paper is to outline some of the contributions of the individual papers in this second special issue. Some of these advancements and innovations include (a) examining underresearched measures, countries, time spans, sexual orientations, and individual media programs; (b) addressing both international and intranational differences in gender-role portrayals; (c) comparing multiple content formats within the same media unit; (d) updating past findings to take into consideration the current media landscape; (e) employing established measures in novel ways and novel contexts; (f) uncovering limitations in established intercultural measures and media-effects theories; (g) suggesting variables that could predict additional differences in gender-role portrayals; (h) adopting virtually identical methods and measures across distinct content categories in order to facilitate comparisons; (i) conducting multiple tests of a given hypothesis; (j) examining, from multiple perspectives, the implications of racial differences in gender portrayals; and (k) examining the implications of underrepresentation of women and the perspectives that women hold. In addition to the original content-analytical research presented in this special issue, two reviews, one methodological and the other analytical, offer recommendations of procedures and perspectives to be implemented in future research.

The Context of Current Content Analysis of Gender Roles: An Introduction to a Special Issue

The aim of this paper is to provide context for the quantitative content analyses of gender roles that are to be included in both parts of this special issue. First, a timeline of historical uses of the content analysis methodology is presented. Second, research objectives that frequently drive content analysis of gender roles are described; these include: to support feminist claims, to compare media with real life, to predict effects on audiences, and to detect effects of media producers on content. Third, previous content analyses published in Sex Roles and other gender-focused journals are reviewed and categorized in terms of medium, genre, time span, gender, and nationality. Finally, contributions of each of the articles in this special issue are outlined.

Intrinsic dynamics of heart regulatory systems on short time-scales: from experiment to modelling

We discuss open problems related to the stochastic modeling of cardiac function. The work is based on an experimental investigation of the dynamics of heart rate variability (HRV) in the absence of respiratory perturbations. We consider first the cardiac control system on short time scales via an analysis of HRV within the framework of a random walk approach. Our experiments show that HRV on timescales of less than a minute takes the form of free diffusion, close to Brownian motion, which can be described as a non-stationary process with stationary increments. Secondly, we consider the inverse problem of modeling the state of the control system so as to reproduce the experimentally observed HRV statistics of. We discuss some simple toy models and identify open problems for the modelling of heart dynamics.