Contributions and Blind Spots of Constructivist Norms Research in International Relations, 1980–2018: A Systematic Evidence and Gap Analysis

The study of international norms from a social constructivist perspective has been one of the major conceptual innovations to the discipline of international relations (IR) over the past forty years. However, despite the concept's ubiquity, there is only a limited understanding of the large-scale trends in research associated with its rise. This analytic essay interrogates conventional wisdom, using a dataset of 7,795 mainstream, English-language journal articles from the Teaching, Research and International Policy Journal Article Database, supplemented with data from Web of Science. How have international norms been studied substantively and methodologically, what are major contributions and blind spots, and which opportunities for future innovation might exist? Although norms research has historically helped expand the scope of issues covered in IR (e.g., gender issues and public health), others have evidence gaps relative to the broader discipline of IR (e.g., terrorism and public opinion). Over the years, the proportion of empirical studies has increased, while purely theoretical, epistemological, and methodological work and innovation have decreased. Despite calls for methodological pluralism, norms research is significantly more qualitative and conceptual than mainstream IR in general and far less multi-method. While more international and less US-based than IR in general, norms research in mainstream journals seems to be no closer to a “Global IR,” measured by regional focus and author affiliation. This suggests three promising avenues for future innovation: greater attention to specific substantive blind spots, more multi-method research, and increased attention to the agenda of Global IR. Beyond these individual insights, this review illustrates the general utility of complementing narrative literature reviews with ones based on quantitative data. It also provides a case study on conceptual proliferation and innovation in IR.

The Impact of COVID-19 Concerns on the Mental Health of Older Adults: A Rapid Review

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic continues to drastically impact older adults. Despite COVID-19 being linked to increased social isolation and loneliness, more research is needed on the psychological effects associated with older adults’ concerns of the pandemic. The current review explores associations between the COVID-19 Pandemic and older adults’ mental health to increase awareness and understanding. For this rapid review, empirical peer-reviewed source documents were identified through a computerized search using APA PsycInfo and Google Scholar bibliographical databases covering the years 2019 to 2021. The following keywords and combinations were used: “older adults,” “COVID-19,” and “mental health effects.” Relevant exclusion criteria were applied, and all related English-language journal articles were read. 47 articles met inclusion criteria. Eight associated COVID-19 stress with loneliness, anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, and poor psychological well-being, with three additional articles reporting elevations in women. Three articles revealed mixed findings regarding the impact of age on psychological variables. 13 articles evaluated changes among those with psychological/psychiatric diagnoses, and six explored physical activity and depression. Of the remaining articles, two concentrated on nutrition; seven examined routines, behaviors, and societal or risk perceptions; two evaluated coping mechanisms; and three examined emotional distress changes. Understanding COVID-19’s psychological impact on older adults will take time. This rapid review revealed mixed findings regarding COVID-19 related concerns on older adults’ psychological well-being, with multiple demographic variables uniquely impacting these outcomes. It is imperative that future research explore older adults’ risks and develop interventions related to the psychological impact of COVID-19.

Socioeconomic Deprivation and Dropout from Contemporary Psychological Intervention for Common Mental Disorders: A Systematic Review

Dropout during psychological intervention is a significant problem. Previous evidence for associations with socioeconomic deprivation is mixed. This study aimed to review the evidence for associations between deprivation and dropout from contemporary adult psychological interventions for common mental disorders (CMDs). Systematic review, narrative synthesis and random effects meta-analysis of peer-reviewed English language journal articles published June 2010–June 2020 was conducted. Data sources included medline, PsycInfo, databases indexed by web of science, ProQuest social science database and sociology collection, and the Cochrane Library, supplemented by forward and backward citation searching. Five studies were eligible for inclusion (mean N = 170, 68% female, 60% White Caucasian, 32% dropout rate, predominantly cognitive behaviour therapy/cognitive processing therapy). Narrative synthesis indicated an overall non-significant effect of deprivation on dropout. Meta-analytic significance of controlled (k = 3) and uncontrolled (k = 4) effects depended on the measure of deprivation included for those studies using more than one measure (controlled OR 1.21–1.32, p = 0.019–0.172, uncontrolled OR 1.28–1.76, p = 0.024–0.423). The low number of included studies meant sub-group comparisons were limited, despite some tentative indications of potential differential effects. A comparator set of excluded studies showed similar uncertainty. There was limited evidence that did not overall suggest a clear significant effect of deprivation on dropout from contemporary individual CMD interventions. However, more contemporary research is needed, as effects may vary according to clinical and methodological factors, and for dropout versus non-initiation.

Machine learning applications in tobacco research: a scoping review

ObjectiveIdentify and review the body of tobacco research literature that self-identified as using machine learning (ML) in the analysis.Data sourcesMEDLINE, EMABSE, PubMed, CINAHL Plus, APA PsycINFO and IEEE Xplore databases were searched up to September 2020. Studies were restricted to peer-reviewed, English-language journal articles, dissertations and conference papers comprising an empirical analysis where ML was identified to be the method used to examine human experience of tobacco. Studies of genomics and diagnostic imaging were excluded.Study selectionTwo reviewers independently screened the titles and abstracts. The reference list of articles was also searched. In an iterative process, eligible studies were classified into domains based on their objectives and types of data used in the analysis.Data extractionUsing data charting forms, two reviewers independently extracted data from all studies. A narrative synthesis method was used to describe findings from each domain such as study design, objective, ML classes/algorithms, knowledge users and the presence of a data sharing statement. Trends of publication were visually depicted.Data synthesis74 studies were grouped into four domains: ML-powered technology to assist smoking cessation (n=22); content analysis of tobacco on social media (n=32); smoker status classification from narrative clinical texts (n=6) and tobacco-related outcome prediction using administrative, survey or clinical trial data (n=14). Implications of these studies and future directions for ML researchers in tobacco control were discussed.ConclusionsML represents a powerful tool that could advance the research and policy decision-making of tobacco control. Further opportunities should be explored.

Effect of Vitamin D Deficiency on COVID-19 Status: A Systematic Review

One major micronutrient studied for its possible protective effect against the COVID-19 disease is vitamin D. This systematic review sought to identify and synthesize available evidence to aid the understanding of the possible effect of vitamin D deficiency on COVID-19 status and health outcomes in COVID-19 patients. Three databases (PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar) were systematically used to obtain English language journal articles published between 1 December 2019 and 3 November 2020. The search consisted of the terms (“Vitamin D,” OR “25-Hydroxyvitamin D,” OR “Low vitamin D.”) AND (“COVID-19” OR “2019-nCoV” OR “Coronavirus” OR “SARS-CoV-2”) AND (“disease severity” OR “IMV” OR “ICU admission” OR “mortality” OR “hospitalization” OR “infection”). We followed the recommended PRISMA guidelines in executing this study. After going through the screening of the articles, eleven articles were included in the review. All the included studies reported a positive association between vitamin D sufficiency and improved COVID-19 disease outcomes. On the other hand, vitamin D deficiency was associated with poor COVID-19 disease outcomes. Specifically, two studies found that vitamin D-deficient patients were more likely to die from COVID-19 compared to vitamin D-sufficient patients. Three studies showed that vitamin D-deficient people were more likely to develop severe COVID-19 disease compared to vitamin D-sufficient people. Furthermore, six studies found that vitamin D-deficient people were more likely to be COVID-19 infected compared to vitamin D-sufficient people. Findings from these studies suggest that vitamin D may serve as a mitigating effect for COVID-19 infection, severity, and mortality. The current evidence supports the recommendations for people to eat foods rich in vitamin D such as fish, red meat, liver, and egg yolks. The evidence also supports the provision of vitamin D supplements to individuals with COVID-19 disease and those at risk of COVID-19 infection in order to boost their immunity and improve health outcomes.

Derailment or Turning Point? The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Sustainability-Related Thinking

A pandemic has always been a milestone, forcing intellectuals to reassess the directions of development at their time. This fact has generated vivid debates about the possible reactions to the new situation, highlighting the vulnerability of current socio-economic structures as well as the need to reconsider the current way of development. The new challenge has created an unprecedented increase in academic publications. The aim of the current paper is to analyze the socio-economic aspects of the growing interest in the sustainability-related facets of the pandemic. Based on English language journal articles (n = 1326), collected on the Web of Science website, the authors analyze the different aspects of COVID-related discussions connected to sustainability. Applying the triangulation approach, the publications have been classified on the basis of their intellectual roots, co-occurrence of different words and strategic diagramming. Results highlight that, notwithstanding the remarkable number of papers, there is a strong need for the in-depth analysis of the long-term consequences in the fields of (1) health logistics and policy; (2) the future of education and work, based on experience and evidence; (3) the re-thinking of the resilience of large-scale supply systems; (4) global governance of world affairs, (5) the role of distant teaching, telecommunication, telework, telehealth, teleservices.

Perception, practice and proximity. Qualifying threats as psychological torture in international law.

Background: Fear is a central dimension of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment (hereafter ‘other ill-treatment’), particularly as a part of verbal or non-verbal threats. Adjudicators and policy-makers have grappled, arguably at a greater depth than with other methods of psychological torture, with the circumstances in which fear-based methods amount to torture or other ill-treatment. The pursuit of non-coercive standards of police interrogation has further underscored the need to better distinguish the prohibited from the permitted. Upon this background, this article reviews the existing jurisprudential and social scientific literature in formulating a lens through which fear-inducing methods could be better functionally conceptualised. Method: This article has identified, through systematic full-text search of databases, texts with keywords ‘threat’, ‘fear’, ‘coercion’, ‘intimidation’, ‘distress’, ‘anguish’ and ‘psychological pressure’. The identified texts, limited to English-language journal articles, NGO reports, court-cases and UN documents from 1950 to date, were then selected for relevance pertaining to conceptual, evidentiary and legal critique provided therein. Discussion: Whilst it is broadly recognized that the deployment of fear to inflict violence can amount to torture, methods of threats or coercion are not adequately conceptualized particularly at the lower end, i.e. routine interrogational torture. Here, principles pertaining to the legitimate use of force and minimum level of severity are used as functional guidelines to distinguish the prohibited from the permitted. The power, practice and proximity of state authorities to harm necessarily qualify threats as real, immediate and credible and therefore torturous.

Publication of a scientific article in for an english-language journal. Part 5

This article is the continuation of analysis and discussion from the book by Professor AI Nevorotin "Matrix phraseological collection: a manual for writing a scientific article in English". The Matrix phraseological collection is a kind of catalog of text samples. The samples were from articles selected from the leading English-language scientific journals and were systematized in such a way that when writing an article in English, Russian researchers are able easy to find examples suitable for his/her own work. Furthermore, the selected samples can be transformed accordingly saving the semantic and syntactic relations between the elements and, finally, be inserted into the text. The next, fifth, article of this series is devoted to the comparative evaluation of experimental findings. Particular attention is drawn to the description nuances of the biological processes' course. Preferred phrases and most relevant terms are presented.

SITASI INDONESIAN FISHERIES RESEARCH JOURNAL

Indonesian Fisheries Research Journal (IFRJ) adalah jurnal berbahasa Inggris bidang perikanan tangkap yang dapat diakses dan disubmit secara gratis oleh semua kalangan masyarakat yang membutuhkan data. Untuk tahapan menjadi jurnal internasional, IFRJ membutuhkan sitasi dari penulis yang menerbitkan di jurnal terindeks scopus sebagai persyaratan jurnal terindeks. Sumber data didapat dari laman scopus.com kemudian divalidasi, dianalisa dan dioleh menggunakan aplikasi micosoft Excel. Diharapkan dengan jumlah sitasi sebanyak 39 artikel dapat mewujudkan IFRJ sebagai jurnal yang bereputasi internasional.Indonesian Fisheries Research Journal (IFRJ) is an English-language journal in capture fisheries that can be accessed and submitted free of charge by all people who need data. For the international journal stage, IFRJ requires citations from authors who publish indexed journal scopus as a requirement for indexed journals. The data source was obtained from the scopus.com page andthen validated, analyzed and obtained using the Microsoft Excel application. It is hoped that the number of citations of 39 articles can make IFRJ a journal with international reputation.

A scoping review of studies exploring leisure-time physical activity in adults diagnosed with advanced cancer

Objectives Despite improving survival rates, people with advanced cancer face several physical and psychosocial concerns. Leisure-time physical activity (LPA) has been found to be beneficial after cancer diagnosis, but little is known about the current state of research exploring LPA in advanced cancer. Our objectives were to (a) map the literature examining LPA in people with advanced cancer, (b) report on the terms used to describe the advanced cancer population within the literature, and (c) examine how the concept of LPA is operationalized within the literature. Method Our scoping review followed Arksey and O'Malley's methodological framework. We performed a search of 11 electronic databases and supplementary sources (February 2018; database search updated January 2020). Two reviewers independently reviewed and selected articles according to the inclusion criteria: English-language journal articles on original primary research studies exploring LPA in adults diagnosed with advanced cancer. Descriptive and thematic analyses were performed. Results Ninety-two articles met our criteria. Most included studies were published in the last decade (80%) and used quantitative methods (77%). Many study populations included mixed (40%), breast (21%), or lung (17%) cancers. Stages 3–4 or metastatic disease were frequently indicated to describe study populations (77%). Several studies (68%) described LPA programs or interventions. Of these, 78% involved structured aerobic/resistance exercise, while 16% explored other LPA types. Significance of results This review demonstrates a recent surge in research exploring LPA in advanced cancer, particularly studies examining exercise interventions with traditional quantitative methods. There remains insufficient knowledge about patient experiences and perceptions toward LPA. Moreover, little is known about other leisure activities (e.g., Tai Chi, dance, and sports) for this population. To optimize the benefits of LPA in people with advanced cancer, research is needed to address the gaps in the current literature and to develop personalized, evidence-based supportive care strategies in cancer care.