Since the beginning of the COVID‐19 pandemic, there have been widespread conversations about the origins of the virus and who to blame for it. This article focuses on the online hate directed at ...Chinese and Asian people during the pandemic. Taking a critical discursive psychological approach, we analysed seven online threads related to COVID‐19 and China from two Finnish websites (Suomi24 and Ylilauta) and one US (8kun) site. We identified three discursive trends associated with dehumanising Chinese populations: ‘monstrous Chinese’, ‘immoral Chinese’ and ‘China as a threat’, which created different forms of dehumanisation on a continuum from harsher dehumanisation to milder depersonalisation. The animalistic metaphors, coarse language, humorous frames and conspiracy beliefs worked to rhetorically justify the dehumanisation of Chinese individuals, making it more acceptable to portray them as a homogeneous and inhumane mass of people that deserves to be attacked. This study contributes to the field of discursive research on dehumanisation by deepening our knowledge of the specific features of Sinophobic hate speech.
Following Pekrun's (2006) control-value theory of achievement emotions, we investigated carry-over effects and cross-lagged relationships between student-perceived teacher enthusiasm and humor and ...students' enjoyment and boredom both within and between university lectures. We used a latent state-trait approach to acknowledge the role of situational factors in this relationship. Data were collected from 559 university students (76% female, mean age 21.6 years) from seven different lecture courses. We assessed students' self-reported emotions and student-perceived teacher enthusiasm and content-related humor over a period of four lectures at three random points during each lecture course. The analyses revealed that all variables were influenced by previous measures within lectures; however, between lectures, only previous enjoyment and humor influenced the subsequent measure. When students experienced boredom, they perceived less teacher enthusiasm and humor. On the other hand, perceived teacher humor positively affected enjoyment within lectures.
•Investigation of the variance components of students' enjoyment and boredom.•Investigation of the variance components of perceived teacher enthusiasm and humor.•Application of univariate and bivariate STARTS models.•Examination of cross-lagged relations.
Purpose
This article aims to review the impact of detecting and quantifying intraocular biomarkers (liquid biopsy) in both aqueous and vitreous humor in eyes of people affected by diabetes mellitus.
...Methods
This is a detailed review about aqueous and/or vitreous humor sampling in human diabetic eyes for proteomic and/or metabolomic analysis contributing to the understanding of the pathophysiology and treatment effects of diabetic retinopathy.
Results
Aqueous and vitreous humor molecular biomarkers proved to be directly correlated to each other and valuable to study retinal conditions. Moreover, proteomic and metabolomic analysis showed that the biomarkers of neuroinflammation, neurodegeneration, and vasculopathy are detectable in intraocular fluids and that their concentration changes in different stages of disease, and in response to treatment of all diabetic retinopathy aspects, mainly diabetic macular edema and proliferative retinopathy.
Conclusions
Liquid biopsy offers the possibility to improve our knowledge of intraocular eye disease induced by diabetes mellitus. The exact quantification of intraocular biomarkers contributes to the precision medicine approach even in the diabetic retinopathy scenario. The diffusion of this approach should be encouraged to have quantifiable information directly from the human model, which may be coupled with imaging data.
Carla and I visited Allison, who lives near Atlanta, Ga., and the three of us took a day trip to northeast Georgia and the mountain town of Blue Ridge. Corny conductor We sat in an open rail car, no ...glass in the windows, with the seats repositioned for viewing to the side. The host in our car was a middle-aged man with a sense of humor drier than a cornfield where it hasn’t rained for three months.
AIMS:An observational study to determine the safety and efficacy of filtering surgery employing a microlumen aqueous drainage device (InnFocus MicroShunt), used intraoperatively with Mitomycin C, ...implanted alone or in combination with phacoemulsification.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:Single-site, prospective, nonrandomized study of 23 eyes that had failed maximum tolerated glaucoma medication, followed for 3 years. A MicroShunt was implanted ab externo through a needle tract under the limbus, draining aqueous from the anterior chamber to the scleral surface. Prespecified outcome measures includeintraocular pressure (IOP) control, with and without supplemental medication, success rate, medication use, and adverse events.
RESULTS:Fourteen patients received the MicroShunt alone and 9 with cataract surgery. At 1 (n=23), 2 (n=22), and 3 (n=22) years of follow-up; the qualified success rate (IOP≤14 mm Hg and IOP reduction ≥20%) was 100%, 91%, and 95%; mean medicated IOP was reduced from 23.8±5.3 to 10.7±2.8, 11.9±3.7, and 10.7±3.5 mm Hg, and the mean number of glaucoma medications/patient was reduced from 2.4±0.9 to 0.3±0.8, 0.4±1.0, and 0.7±1.1, respectively. The most common complications were transient hypotony (13%, 3/23) and transient choroidal effusion (8.7%, 2/23), all resolved spontaneously. There were no leaks, infections, migrations, erosions, persistent corneal edema, or serious long-term adverse events.
CONCLUSION:Surgery with the InnFocus MicroShunt transscleral aqueous drainage tube with Mitomycin C achieved IOP control in the low teens in most subjects up to 3 years of follow-up with only transient adverse events occurring within the first 3 months after surgery.
Investigating individual differences in humor has become a popular topic for personality research. Three approaches to humor-related styles were proposed in the literature, namely Craik, Lampert, and ...Nelson's (1996) five bipolar styles of humorous conduct, Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Larsen, Gray, and Weir's (2003) four humor styles, and Ruch, Heintz, Platt, Wagner, and Proyer (2018) eight comic styles. The present study aims to determine how many styles can be empirically distinguished by comparing the Humor Styles Questionnaire (Martin et al., 2003) and the Comic Style Markers (Ruch, Heintz et al., 2018) in a sample of 570 German-speaking adults. The findings showed redundancies among three scales, namely the affiliative, self-enhancing, and aggressive humor styles and the comic styles fun, benevolent humor, and sarcasm. One humor style (self-defeating) and five comic styles (nonsense, wit, irony, satire, and cynicism) were distinguishable between the two measures. Thus, these findings suggest that at least nine styles should be distinguished. Eventually, developing a comprehensive model and valid measures of individual differences in humor in cumulative research programs is needed to understand how humor unfolds in our everyday lives and how it can be applied effectively in interventions.
•Investigates the relationships between 4 humor styles and 8 comic styles•Results in a list of nine distinguishable humor-related styles•Redundancies among affiliative/fun, self-enhancing/benevolent, aggressive/sarcasm•Guides future research (e.g., models) and applications (e.g., trainings) of humor
This paper examines the construct validity of the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) – that is, whether scores on the scale adequately reflect adaptive or maladaptive humor use which is causally ...related to psychosocial well-being, and considers how research on distinct groups of people defined in terms of their style profiles can clarify the nature of the styles. A number of concerns about scale content are raised, including that coverage of relevant issues and wording of some scale items are problematic; rating scales used to assess humor use require revision; the extent of influence of non-humor components of the items is unclear; and the items associated with any style do not accurately indicate its motivation. Findings concerning style profiles indicate the same style can perform different functions for different people (relationship/stimulation seeking, or self-defense) and also differ from those typically observed in studies of HSQ convergent, divergent, and criterion validity. Further research should take into account the methodological issues discussed and focus on the style profiles and humor content and structure preferences of humor users
their audiences. Reasons to view the styles as predictive of but not causally related to psychosocial well-being are also provided.
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