Azusa Pacific University

Pastors face burnout due to the myriad of roles and stressors in pastoral ministry (Adams & Hough, 2017, Pastoral Psychology, 66(2), 147–175). Mindfulness-based interventions have been shown to improve emotional regulation and stress management (Proeschold-Bell et al. 2023 Journal of Primary Prevention, 34(6), 439–453). The purpose of this study was to determine if a 6-week Christian mindfulness intervention of 10 audio-based Christian mindfulness modules delivered by email on a weekly basis to a diverse sample of pastoral clergy would improve mindfulness state and reduce burnout. The researchers used an experimental study design comparing pre- and post-scores of a wait-list control group to an intervention group to determine the effectiveness of the Christian mindfulness intervention for pastors on mindfulness state, as measured by the Mindful Attention and Awareness Scale (MAAS), and on burnout, as measured by the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI). ANCOVA tests were conducted separately for both the MAAS and CBI. Open-ended questions assessed motivations of pastors to stay or leave the ministry. Results indicate that pastors’ mindfulness state significantly improved after the 6-week Christian mindfulness intervention when compared with the wait-list control. However, pastors’ burnout scores did not show any significant improvement at post-test; they reported low burnout scores overall at both pre- and post-test. A majority of the pastors (90%) in this study identified a sense of calling or purpose in their role. Discussion on the benefits of mindfulness for pastors follows, as well as on the meaning of pastors’ calling as a positive factor worth further investigation.

The objective of this study was to examine the influence of relative hamstring flexibility and lumbar extensor strength on lumbar flexion during a stoop lift. Lumbar flexion during stoop lifting has been associated with increased bending stress and load on the lumbar spine. The potential impairments that contribute to a flexed lumbar lifting posture during stoop lifting are unclear. Forty-nine healthy individuals (27 females and 22 males) between the ages of 18 and 40 participated. Strength of the lumbar extensors was measured with a motor-driven dynamometer, and relative hamstring flexibility was estimated with the passive knee extension test. Peak lumbar flexion and pelvis anterior rotation were quantified with 3D motion capture during a stoop lift. There was a positive correlation between relative hamstring flexibility and peak pelvis anterior rotation angle during the stoop lift ( r = .544, P < .001). Meanwhile, there was a negative correlation between middle lumbar spine peak flexion and relative hamstring flexibility ( r = −.538, P < .001) and a negative correlation between lumbar extensor strength and lower lumbar peak flexion ( r = −.288, P = .045). Individuals with decreased strength and limited relative hamstring flexibility tended to exhibit increased lumbar flexion during stoop lifting.

This exploratory study examined U.S. college students’ ( N = 1003) self-reported coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic, perceived impact of the pandemic on social support, and their associations with perceived physical and mental health. Participants were recruited from 146 institutions across the U.S. in years 2020–2023. Both quantitative and write-in data were collected, with the latter inductively coded to identify common coping strategies and experiences of social support. A wide array of coping strategies were found, with social engagement and physical activity consistently being the most popular, while students reported feeling distanced from others and experiencing decreased support from friends due to the pandemic. Physical health was positively linked to such coping strategies as physical activity and work in some years, whereas mental health had limited but positive associations with such coping strategies as social engagement and schoolwork, as well as with perceived increased social support, especially from friends.

The advancement of a healthcare discipline is reliant on the discipline’s ability to produce rigorous scholarship activities and products. The healthcare disciplines, especially nursing, are facing ever-changing priorities as shortages loom and exhaustion permeates the climate. Empirical public health priorities during the pandemic have dominated professional healthcare literature and global health communications. This article offers ethical implications for the discipline of nursing as it seeks the advancement of scholarship. Topics include straight-thinking issues surrounding national policy statements on nursing and medicine, the big data movement, and the evolutionary return of competency-based nurse education.

Results of meta-analyses are of interest not only to researchers but often to policy-makers and other decision-makers (e.g., in education and medicine), and visualizations play an important role in communicating data and statistical evidence to the broader public. Therefore, the potential audience of meta-analytic visualizations is broad. However, the most common meta-analytic visualization – the forest plot – uses non-optimal design principles that do not align with data visualization best practices and relies on statistical knowledge and conventions not likely to be familiar to a broad audience. Previously, the Meta-Analytic Rain Cloud (MARC) plot has been shown to be an effective alternative to a forest plot when communicating the results of a small meta-analysis to education practitioners. However, the original MARC plot design was not well-suited for meta-analyses with large numbers of effect sizes as is common across the social sciences. This paper presents an extension of the MARC plot, intended for effective communication of moderate to large meta-analyses ( k = 10, 20, 50, 100 studies). We discuss the design principles of the MARC plot, grounded in the data visualization and cognitive science literature. We then present the methods and results of a randomized survey experiment to evaluate the revised MARC plot in comparison to the original MARC plot, the forest plot, and a bar plot. We find that the revised MARC plot is more effective for communicating moderate to large meta-analyses to non-research audiences, offering a 0.30, 0.34, and 1.07 standard deviation improvement in chart users’ scores compared to the original MARC plot, forest plot, and bar plot, respectively.

Purpose Rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is a prevalent and debilitating injury typically arising from aberrant biomechanics during landing or deceleration tasks. Pain‐related fear, a component of kinesiophobia, has been associated with poor functional outcomes and altered movement patterns in individuals with ACL reconstruction (ACLr), however, the influence of pain‐related fear on landing mechanics remains unclear. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of pain‐related fear on landing movement patterns in a population of ACLr and healthy females. Methods Thirty‐two females (15 recreationally active with a history of ACLr and 17 recreationally active with no history of ACLr) took part. Participants performed five trials of a drop jump (DJ) task (Baseline), underwent a pain stimulus (PS) familiarization task utilizing an electrical stimulus to induce pain‐related fear, and performed a subsequent round of DJs while under threat of PS (PS‐threat). Lower extremity and trunk kinematics, ground reaction force (GRF) data and muscle activation were analyzed. Results At baseline, ACLr participants scored higher (21 ± 5.5) on the TSK‐11 compared to healthy participants (17 ± 3.4) ( p = 0.007). For both groups, the PS intervention significantly increased pain‐related fear (ACLr p < 0.001; Healthy p < 0.001). When comparing baseline to PS‐threat trials, ACLr participants experienced a significant increase in peak GRF ( p = 0.005), decreases in hip ( p = 0.003) and knee ( p = 0.005) flexion, decreased contact time ( p = 0.006) and decreased muscle preactivation for all muscles tested ( p < 0.05). Healthy participants experienced significant increases in peak GRF ( p = 0.014) and decreased hip ( p = 0.005) and trunk peak ( p = 0.004) flexion. Conclusions Pain‐related fear alters landing biomechanics in healthy and ACLr females. This may implicate pain‐related fear as a contributor to movement alterations commonly associated with ACL injury risk. Level of Evidence Level III.

Background/Aims Since the emergence of generative AI (GenAI) in fall 2022, its impact on higher education has been significant yet under‐researched, leading to mixed reactions among nurse educators, ranging from enthusiasm to skepticism. A preliminary search of seven databases found no scoping reviews specifically that addressed nurse educators' concerns about using GenAI. Therefore, this study aims to map the existing literature on nurse educators' concerns regarding the use of GenAI in nurse education. Inclusion Criteria Included are any types of sources (peer‐reviewed and nonpeer‐reviewed) in English and from any country and were authored by an academic nurse educator that reported on “academic nurse educators,” and “artificial intelligence” (such as GenAI, Generative AI, ChatGPT, large language models) in nursing education. Articles that did not report “nurse educator concerns,” or were focused on clinical practice were excluded. Methods This protocol (see PRISMA‐P in Appendix 1) establishes the study parameters for the planned scoping review, which will be conducted from April to July 2024. We will follow Joanna Briggs Institute, a comprehensive methodology, to ensure a rigorous approach. The final review will include relevant literature from eight academic databases published from Fall 2022 through April 2024. Data will be reported using the PRISMA‐ScR checklist and flow diagram (2020) along with other visual diagrams to add validity to our findings. An inductive analysis approach will be used to code the evolving data, identify recurring themes, and pinpoint potential gaps in the literature. Results The final scoping review will present the search results, the study inclusion process, and the data analysis. Conclusion Our planned review will potentially provide crucial insights into nurse educators' concerns on using GenAI, pinpointing gaps within the literature, and providing direction for future research. Review Registration This protocol was registered on May 8, 2024, on Open Science Framework (OSF). The registry number is OSF.IO/SZ8WR. This registration ensures the transparency and credibility of our research process, as it provides a public record of our study design and methods.

Women are widely assumed to be more talkative than men. Challenging this assumption, Mehl et al. (2007) provided empirical evidence that men and women do not differ significantly in their daily word use, speaking about 16,000 words per day (WPD) each. However, concerns were raised that their sample was too small to yield generalizable estimates and too age and context homogeneous to permit inferences beyond college students. This registered report replicated and extended the previous study of binary gender differences in daily word use to address these concerns. Across 2,197 participants (more than five-fold the original sample size), pooled over 22 samples (631,030 ambient audio recordings), men spoke on average 11,950 WPD and women 13,349 WPD, with very large individual differences (<100 to >120,000 WPD). The estimated gender difference (1,073 WPD; d = 0.13; 95% CrI [316, 1,824]) was about twice as large as in the original study. Smaller differences emerged among adolescent (513 WPD), emerging adult (841 WPD), and older adult (−788 WPD) participants, but a substantially larger difference emerged for participants in early and middle adulthood (3,275 WPD; d = 0.32). Despite the considerable sample size(s), all estimates carried large statistical uncertainty and, except for the gender difference in early and middle adulthood, provide inconclusive evidence regarding whether the two genders ultimately speak a practically equivalent number of WPD, based on the preregistered ±1,000 WPD regions of practical equivalence criterion. Experienced stress had no meaningful effect on the gender difference, and no clear pattern emerged as to whether the gender difference is accentuated for subjectively rated compared with objectively observed talkativeness.

Higher education institutions are facing challenging fiscal environments that require an examination of practices from the perspective of efficiency and effectiveness. While many institutions have taken similar approaches to resolving budgetary predicaments, examining the effect of these decisions on students should be one of the first considerations when evaluating a budget cut or shift in educational practice. This chapter explores the impact of extreme cost‐cutting in the academy through a lens of dehumanization in an effort to identify the ways in which student learning and success are impacted. The chapter concludes with considerations for those in higher education leadership.

Objectives Autonomic regulation has been identified as a potential regulator of pain via vagal nerve mediation, assessed through heart rate variability (HRV). Non-invasive vagal nerve stimulation (nVNS) and heart rate variability biofeedback (HRVB) have been proposed to modulate pain. A limited number of studies compare nVNS and HRVB in persons with chronic pain conditions. This systematic review compared interventions of nVNS and HRVB in adults with long-standing pain conditions. Methods PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, SPORTDiscus, Google Scholar, and Cochrane library were used to retrieve the randomized controlled trials for this review between the years 2010 and 2023. Search terms included chronic pain, fibromyalgia, headache, migraine, vagus nerve stimulation, biofeedback, HRV, pain assessment, pain, and transcutaneous. Results Ten full-text articles of 1,474 identified were selected for full qualitative synthesis, with a combined population of 813 subjects. There were n = 763 subjects in studies of nVNS and n = 50 subjects for HRVB. Six of the nine nVNS studies looked at headache disorders and migraines (n = 603), with two investigating effects on fibromyalgia symptoms (n = 138) and one the effects on chronic low back pain (n = 22). Of the nVNS studies, three demonstrated significant results in episode frequency, six in pain intensity (PI) reduction, and three in reduced medication use. The HRVB study showed statistically significant findings for reduced PI, depression scores, and increased HRV coherence. Conclusion Moderate to high-quality evidence suggests that nVNS is beneficial in reducing headache frequency and is well-tolerated, indicating it might be an alternative intervention to medication. HRVB interventions are beneficial in reducing pain, depression scores, use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication, and in increasing HRV coherence ratio. HRVB and nVNS appear to show clinical benefits for chronic pain conditions; however, insufficient literature exists to support either approach.

The purpose of this research was to examine the utilization of artificial intelligence (AI) in organization development (OD) through a comprehensive review of existing literature. We also propose potential avenues for future research on AI in OD. We conducted a systematic literature review of 68 studies on AI in OD based on Cummings and Worley's four OD categories (i.e., human process, human resource, strategic change, and technostructural interventions). We first summarized and analyzed key information about how AI is implemented in OD contexts, and then examined the underlying theories or theoretical frameworks utilized in OD studies focusing on AI. We examined the application of AI in OD, potential ethical concerns, and recommendations for future research and practice using AI in OD. The paper concludes with discussion and implications for research and practice.

Paradox is living phenomenon that provides insights into straight thinking and diverse human experiences important to the discipline of nursing from a nursing philosophical theory-based approach. The author here delves into the metaphorical experience of living on the edge and the paradoxical concepts that assist the discipline in its thinking about artificial intelligence. Possible ethical implications of utilizing artificial intelligence from a humanbecoming ethos of understanding is utilized. The metaphorical implications for future disciplinary priorities are presented.

In the opening of CD II /1, Barth expounds his theological epistemology anchored in the grace of God and (thereby) the concomitant readiness of humanity for grace. In doing so he propounds a “Christian anthropology” of “blessed radical needfulness” that explicates God’s creational intention for humanity, the turn of humanity to sin, and humanity’s redemption in Jesus Christ. Although the significance of this positive anthropological proposal has suffered in critical discussion, a renewed look at its function discloses it to be decisive for Barth’s understanding of how we as humans know God and how we understand ourselves and/or salvation.

Myanmar has experienced more upheaval and crisis in the past decade than perhaps any of the other nations currently members of the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN). The impact of the twin crises of COVID and the February 1, 2021 military coup, on the heels of massive educational reforms in Myanmar, has created a crucible in which teachers are forging a new vision of education that is more just, inclusive, and critical. Educators, and most notably English language teachers, have joined others to claim agency in this process, demonstrating resilience during and after the COVID crisis, resistance to the military junta following the coup, and innovation in reimagining and reforming pedagogy and education. This article focuses on the English language educators of Myanmar, drawing from interviews that the author conducted in Myanmar every 2 years from 2015 to 2024. Four of the five data sets have been examined in previously published studies (Wong, 2017; Wong et al., 2019; Wong et al., 2024; Wong & Kareng, 2023). The research questions for this study are the following: (1) How did the experience of the twin crises of COVID and the 2021 coup impact English language educators in Myanmar in terms of their identity, agency, and pedagogy? (2) What can we learn about resistance and resilience in crises from the experience of these educators over the past decade? This retrospective multisite, multiyear study of “snapshots” of teachers in Myanmar before, during, and after the two major events of COVID and the coup provides valuable insights on how the crucible of crisis can lead to transformations in who we are (our identity), how we respond (our agency), and what and how we teach (our pedagogy).

The digital revolution has made communication both a substructure and superstructure in the neoliberal and emerging global political-economic order which touches the world of sports (football) activities in Africa too. Development communication theorizing and policymaking must be repositioned to address these new realities. Using cultural-critical analyses, this research analyzes the role of development communication policymaking in promoting sustainable development in Africa, which would also impact on sports activities such as football in Africa. It adopts a decolonial approach to theorizing the relationship between development of communication policy and culture change in the age of digital media, glocalization, and multipolar global power systems. It critiques the impact of global trends such as Brexit, U.S.-China Trade Wars, global climate change, rise of illiberal democracies, globalist/anti-globalist movements, etc., on Saharan Africa’s economic, cultural, and political future and renaissance. It proposes pathways of development communication theorizing, to help realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of building strong political, social, cultural, and economic institutions in Africa and beyond.

Purpose Self-leadership theory predicts that specific self-leadership practices will enable individuals to better accomplish their goals. However, little is known about the role that these practices play in conventional leadership (leading or influencing others). This study compares leaders to non-leaders (N = 318) in nonprofits and examines both the extent to which self-leadership practices are employed and the strength of beliefs concerning their importance. Design/methodology/approach Online survey of two groups: leaders and non-leaders of nonprofit organizations. Findings Leaders practiced self-goal setting (d = 0.47) and self-observation (d = 0.45) more than non-leaders. Non-leaders practiced more self-reward (d = 0.33) and self-punishment (d = 0.37) than leaders. The only differences in belief concerning the importance of the self-leadership practices were due to leaders believing self-goal setting (d = 0.46) and self-observation (d = 0.36) were more important than non-leaders did. Research limitations/implications If self-leadership practices contribute to leadership effectiveness or emergence, this study indicates that goal setting and self-observation (monitoring progress toward goals) may contribute positively to the leadership of others, whereas self-reward and self-punishment may contribute negatively. Practical implications Self-leadership may not be as important to the leadership of others as is often claimed or implied. Originality/value This is the first study to look at how self-leadership practices differ between leaders and non-leaders.