The aim of this study is to determine if the offspring of mothers with obesity, present disorders in the expression of genes related to atrophy or protein synthesis in the muscle and if these disorders are modified with the (−)-epicatechin (Epi) treatment. Six male offspring per group were randomly assigned to the control groups [C and offspring of maternal obesity (MO)] or the Epi intervention groups, Epi treatment for 13 weeks (C + Epi long or MO + Epi long), or Epi administration for two weeks (C + Epi short or MO + Epi short). The effect of Epi in the gastrocnemius tissue was evaluated, analyzing mRNA and protein levels of Murf1, MAFbx, Foxo1, NFkB, and p70S6K-alpha. After the analysis by two-way ANOVA, we found an influence of the Epi long treatment over the model, by decreasing the Murf1 gene expression in both groups treated with the flavonoid (C + Epi long and MO + Epi long) (p = 0.036). Besides, Epi long treatment over the NFκB expression, by decreasing the fold increase in both groups treated with the flavonoid (C + Epi long and MO + Epi long) (p = 0.038). We not find any interaction between the variables or changes in the MAFbx, Foxo1 mRNA, neither in the phosphorylated/total protein ratio of NFκB, Foxo1, or p70S6K-alpha. In conclusions, treatment with a long protocol of Epi, reduces the mRNA of the muscle atrophy genes Murf 1 and NFkB, in the gastrocnemius muscle; however, these changes are not maintained at protein level.

Numerous studies have analyzed various aspects of English language teaching to uncover discriminatory employment practices within the field. However, there is a gap in the research regarding the discourses present in school-managed teacher recruitment websites (TRWs), particularly in the field of private online language education (POLE). This study aims to address this gap by investigating how the preferred online English teacher is characterized and what benefits they are promised when visiting these webpages. Using critical discourse analysis, the author analyzed the textual elements of 32 TRWs of online English schools operating in six major markets in Asia. The findings reveal that although a few schools show signs of relatively fair policies and emphasize professional qualifications, most of them appear to exploit native-speakerism through their application requirements and compensation policies that often favor only some groups. The implications emphasize the benefits of creating equitable employment opportunities and professionalizing POLE by leveraging the qualifications and experience of teachers from diverse backgrounds, while ensuring fair compensation. Finally, this study provides practical strategies for present and prospective online teachers on how to take advantage of the opportunities of digital language work while contributing to the attainment of equity in the industry.

Although calls to decolonise International Relations (IR) have become more prominent, the endeavour becomes infinitely more complex when searching for concrete approaches to decolonise IR knowledge production. We posit that decolonising IR, a global counter-hegemonic political project to dismantle and transform dominant knowledge production practices, must be enacted according to context-specific particularities. Contexts shape practices of epistemological decolonisation, since knowledge hierarchies are enacted and experienced – and must be challenged and dismantled – differently in different sites. Yet although acknowledged as important, contexts are understudied and under-theorised. This raises several questions: how do contexts matter to IR knowledge production, in what ways, and with what effects? This article disaggregates six contexts in IR knowledge production – material, spatial, disciplinary, political, embodied, and temporal – and explores how they impact academic practices. We bring together hitherto-disparate insights into the role of contexts in knowledge production from Global IR, Political Sociology, Feminist Studies, Higher Education Studies, and Critical Geopolitics, illustrating them with empirical evidence from 30 interviews with IR scholars across a variety of countries and academic institutions. We argue that an interrogation of the inequalities produced through these contexts brings us closer towards developing concrete tools to dismantle entrenched hierarchies in IR knowledge production.

Guided by Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical approaches of symbolic capital and symbolic violence, this article examines the everyday mechanisms of ‘otherising’ language practices in schools that reinforce racism against marginalised youths in Sweden. The empirical material is based on focus group discussions and individual in-depth interviews with youths with migrant backgrounds in Sweden. The stories told by the participants in this study indicate how young people with immigrant backgrounds are discursively racialised and otherised as a group that does not belong to Swedish society, through the articulation of negative opinions, attitudes, and ideologies as part of established colonial discourses. It is argued that the marginalisation of migrants in Sweden, which is a consequence of social policy, has even resulted in utilisation of a marginalised language — one that deviates from the majority language in several different ways.

Research has shown experimentally that if children are taught to use language to create distance (socially, physically, and temporarily) when they revisit a potentially traumatic experience they reduce the intensity of their emotions. Building on this, this study was carried out to explore whether children with better spatial skills are better at such downregulation because of their very aptitude in understanding the concept of distance. Using data from a general-population birth cohort in the UK, the study examined the bidirectional association between emotional dysregulation and spatial ability among children aged 5 and 7 years. The findings reveal a significant reciprocal relationship even after adjusting for family, contextual, and individual confounders including verbal ability: spatial skills at age 5 years were inversely related to emotional dysregulation at age 7 years, and conversely, greater emotional dysregulation at age 5 years was associated with poorer spatial ability at age 7 years. The two paths were equally strong and there was no evidence of differences between them on the basis of sex. Our results suggest that enhancing spatial abilities could be a potential avenue for supporting emotion regulation in middle childhood.

By integrating the theory of purposeful work behavior with the person-environment (P-E) fit literature, we employ a bilateral approach to examine how employee-supervisor congruence in purposeful work striving (i.e., achievement striving) influences employee voice behavior via an internal motivation mechanism (i.e., organizational identification). Using polynomial regressions with response surface modeling, we analyze data from 827 employees and their 197 supervisors in two studies. The results show that achievement-driven employees are more likely to speak up when employee-supervisor achievement striving is congruent, regardless of whether it is high or low. Furthermore, employee-supervisor congruence in achievement striving enhances employees’ felt oneness with the organization and organizational identification, which in turn fuels their voice behavior. We conclude with theoretical and practical implications.

The rates of anxiety and depression increase across adolescence, many experience recurrence after treatment, yet longitudinal studies examining promotive factors are scarce. We prospectively examined the role of the promotive factors structured style, personal and social competencies, family functioning, and social resources in homotypic and heterotypic continuity and discontinuity of anxiety and depression across three years in a clinical sample. Participants were adolescents with anxiety or depressive disorders aged 13–18 years at T1 (N = 717, 44% initial participation rate) and aged 16–21 years at T2 (N = 549, 80% follow-up participation rate). At T1, diagnoses were collected from medical records and participants responded to questionnaires. At T2, semi-structured diagnostic interviews were conducted. Higher levels of all promotive factors were associated with reduced probability of anxiety or depression three years later. The promotive factors were not associated with homotypic continuity of anxiety, whereas personal competence beliefs, social competence, and, less strongly, family functioning were associated with reduced homotypic continuity of depression and heterotypic continuity from depression to anxiety. Analyses with interaction terms did not indicate moderation by the promotive factors. Our findings suggest that bolstering promotive factors may be vital for increasing treatment success and preventing recurrence of anxiety and depression in the transition toward adulthood.

Expertise exists among all communities of educational practitioners at all levels and in all national contexts. By identifying expert practitioners, learning from them and valuing their professional competence, researchers can support, promote and build upon sustainable, embodied, holistic models of quality in ways that have direct relevance for the classroom, the curriculum and wider educational goals. Yet, despite its potential as a field of research, there have been relatively few studies involving expert language teachers to date. After a brief historical background, this article makes the case for language teacher expertise research, noting its high ecological validity, its great practical utility, its ability to bridge the research–practice divide and its potentially positive impact on teaching communities. Key methodological considerations are also discussed, including defining expertise, identifying expert teachers and looking beyond the limits of subject-specific pedagogy to understand the whole practitioner in their sociocultural context. The article then proposes a framework for future teacher expertise research that spans diverse methodologies. Six example research tasks from within this framework are proposed, each justified and exemplified, incorporating suggestions for research design that are intended to encourage both experienced and novice researchers to engage with teacher expertise as a promising domain for future investigation.

The dramatic shifts in policies and practices of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) over the course of its tumultuous 75-year history underscore the decisive importance of political leadership. Institutionally, China closely resembles other former and surviving Communist regimes. Operationally, however, its dynamic patterns of governance reflect the shifting concerns of a succession of visionary Communist Party leaders.