The risk classification of barrier lake is the key to conducting emergency treatment in a scientific manner. Such difficulties are faced as short time for risk evaluation, complex evaluation indicators, difficulty in obtaining information quickly and quantifying index weights. Based on this, this paper constructs a quantitative risk classification model for barrier lakes based on D-AHP. On the basis of studies on nearly 100 cases of barrier lakes, an 8-factor evaluation index system and quantitative classification are proposed. The methods of rapid calculation of reservoir capacity curve of barrier lake and intelligent identification of particles on the surface of barrier body were developed, which realized the rapid acquisition of 8-factor evaluation index information in emergency environment. The D-AHP method dealt with inconsistent weight assignment to evaluation factors by experts, which helped achieve weight quantification of 8 factors. The risk assessment on15 barrier lakes such as Tangjiashan barrier lake show that the conclusion drawn with risk classification method proposed in this paper is basically consistent with that of the traditional table-lookup method. However, the table-lookup method ignores cumulative loss’s impacts on the risk level of barrier lakes, and considers the extremely severe loss of barrier lakes as a sufficient condition for the evaluation level to be grade I, and thus a deviation in the evaluation. The risk classification method proposed in this paper is more reasonable and reliable.

Plant-microbe interactions play a crucial role in shaping plant health and survival. In recent years, the role of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in mediating intercellular communication between plants and microbes has emerged as an intriguing area of research. EVs, serve as important carriers of bioactive molecules and genetic information, facilitating communication between cells and even between different organisms. Pathogenic bacteria leverage extracellular vesicles (EVs) to amplify their virulence, exploiting their cargo rich in toxins and virulence factors. Conversely, beneficial microbes initiate EV secretion to stimulate plant immune responses and nurture symbiotic relationships. The transfer of EV-packed small RNAs (sRNAs) has been demonstrated to facilitate the modulation of immune responses. Furthermore, harnessing the potential of EVs holds promise for the development of innovative diagnostic tools and sustainable crop protection strategies. This review highlights the biogenesis and functions of EVs in bacteria, and their importance in plant defense and paves the way for future research in this exciting field.

Background: Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) believe that diet is a key factor in the pathogenesis of their disease and in worsening their symptoms; they often follow restrictive diets that can lead to malnutrition, anxiety, and stress. Recent studies have found an association between eating disorders and IBD, particularly anorexia nervosa and ARFID (Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder). None of these studies report the association with orthorexia nervosa, that is the obsession with healthy and natural foods. Aim: to assess the risk of orthorexia nervosa in patients with IBD. Methods: 158 consecutive subjects were recruited, including 113 patients diagnosed with IBD and 45 controls. The Donini standardized questionnaire ORTO-15 was administered to assess the risk of orthorexia; clinical and demographic data were also collected. Results: patients with IBD have a prevalence of orthorexia of 77%, significantly higher than the 47% observed in the control group. In patients with IBD, the risk of orthorexia is associated with lower BMI and history of previous surgery. Conclusion: Many patients with IBD develop orthorexia nervosa that impacts the patient's psychological and social sphere, exposes them to a high risk of nutritional deficiencies, and affects quality of life. Further high quality studies are warranted to evaluate the clinical impact of orthorexia and its correlation with clinical features and frank eating disorders.

Extreme overvalued beliefs (EOB) are rigidly-held, shared beliefs that are the motive behind most acts of terrorism and mass shootings. EOBs are differentiated from delusions and obsessions. The concept of overvalued idea was first described by Wernicke and later applied to terrorism by McHugh. Our group of forensic psychiatrists (Rahman, Resnick, Harry) refined the definition as an aid in the differential diagnosis seen in acts of violence. The form and content of EOBs is discussed as well as group effects, conformity and obedience to authority. Religious cults such as: The People’s Temple, Heaven’s Gate, Aum Shinrikyo, Islamic State (ISIS) and conspiracy beliefs such as assassinations, moon-hoax and vaccine-induced autism beliefs are discussed using this construct. Finally, some concluding thoughts on countering violent extremism, including its online presence is discussed utilizing information learned from online eating disorder and consumer experience.

Clinical trials, by contributing to the development of diagnostics and to the search for modern, more effective, and safer therapies, have become one of the most important elements of the healthcare system. The aim of this study was to assess Poles' knowledge and beliefs about clinical trials. Methods: The survey was conducted among Poles aged 18 and over with the help of external company, Ariadna, which is an independent research panel. The questionnaire contained 22 questions, of which 13 questions concerned beliefs and attitudes towards clinical trials. Results: One thousand and seventy-nine participants took part in the study (N = 1079). The mean age of respondents was 44.96 years (SD = 16.30). Slightly more women (N = 568, 52.6%) than men (N = 511, 47.4%) took part in the study. Among the respondents, 86.5% (N = 933) were aware of clinical trials. The main sources of information about clinical trials were the media (53.8%) including the Internet (N= 355, 32.9%), TV (N = 175, 16.2%), press (N = 30, 2.8%) and radio (N = 21, 1.9%). 43.2% (N = 466) of respondents reported little knowledge of clinical trials, while more than three quarters (N = 805, 75.2%) said they would like to learn more about clinical trials. Most respondents (N = 879, 81.4%) agreed with the statement that participation in a clinical trial is completely voluntary, and more than half (N = 580, 53.7%) agreed with the statement that hospitals participating in clinical trials provide better healthcare. The statement that the results of clinical trials are made available to the public was disagreed with by 37.2% (N = 402) of participants. Only 30.3% (N = 327) of participants agreed that clinical trials should be conducted with children. Conclusions: Poles rate their knowledge of clinical trials as low and would like to learn more. To reach the largest possible group of Polish patients, parallel educational activities on multiple levels may have the best effect. Poles' knowledge of clinical trials is mainly based on commercial sources. Further studies in different groups, i.e., clinical trial patients and investigators, are needed.

Beliefs that maintain patriarchal principles may affect individuals’ willingness to avoid conflicts in their intimate partner relationships and eventually are likely to affect chances of intimate partner economic violence. Nonetheless, research has yet to fully explore these associations. This study used a sample of 321 adults in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community—a patriarchal and traditional culture—to examine associations in beliefs supporting patriarchal principles at the micro (gendered domestic roles), meso, and macro ( institutional power of men and inherent inferiority of women) levels; conflict avoidance and economic violence; and sex differences in these factors. Descriptive statistics were used to explore gender differences in research variables, and path analysis examined the correlations between research variables for men and women. Beliefs in patriarchal ideologies were moderate at all levels, although slightly higher among men. Men tended to avoid conflict with their intimate partner significantly more than women did. Beliefs in support of patriarchal ideologies predicted conflict avoidance, especially among women. Finally, in opposition to prior research findings, this study revealed nonsignificant sex differences in the prevalence of economic violence victimization. These findings, however, do not suggest that economic violence victimization is not rooted in sex issues. We discuss the findings and the meanings assigned to conflict avoidance by men and women while considering gender disparities of power and control. We suggest that the contribution of men’s tendency to avoid conflict likely moderated their chances to perpetrate economic violence.

Nanotechnology has applications in a variety of scientific specialties, encompassing health, technological devices, and now cosmetics under the generic term of nanocosmetics. Due to the improved particle qualities, such as color, transparency, and solubility, acquired at the nanoscale, nanotechnology significantly affects the cosmetic industry. Skin penetration mechanism depends heavily on the nanoparticles' physicochemical properties, including stiffness, hydrophobicity, size, and charge. An expanding industry that requires more research and development has been created by nanoparticle production technologies. Liposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, cubosomes, dendrimers, and other nanomaterials offer advanced skincare properties. Cosmetics made using nanotechnology have the advantages of product diversity, increased bioavailability of active compounds, and enhanced pleasing appearance of cosmetics with long-lasting benefits. The various cosmetic brands' utilization of various types of nanomaterials in their products is highlighted in this review.

Purpose: Arab Americans are one of the largest ethnic groups in the United States. The mental health of Arab Americans and opinions on mental health, however, remain understudied despite higher rates of mental illness and lower rates of treatment. Unique cultural conceptualizations of mental illness may generate stigma, contributing to disparities in treatment. This study aimed to assess the attitudes and perspectives of Arab Americans regarding mental illness in order to address barriers to treatment. Methods:Using an anonymous bilingual Qualtrics survey, we assessed Arab and non-Arab participants (n = 294; ages 18+) on their conceptualizations of the causes of mental illness and on their stigma towards mental illness and mental health treatments. Comparisons were performed between Arabs and non-Arabs, as well as among Arabs. Results:Compared to non-Arabs, Arabs reported higher average mental illness stigma and were more likely to rate psychiatric medications as addictive and unhelpful. Among Arabs, being Christian, male, and older (>29 years old) were each associated with higher stigma. Arabs were less likely than non-Arabs to believe in a biological explanation for mental illness. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate higher levels of stigma towards mental illness among Arab Americans, especially Christian, male, and older Arabs, potentially related to a weaker belief in a biomedical model for mental illness. These are among the first findings describing mental illness stigma and beliefs about mental health in an Arab American community and may inform future interventions providing culturally competent care to Arab Americans.

In all forms of folk beliefs, ancestor worship is a universal traditional belief form of the Vietnamese people. As a Vietnamese people, “everyone worships their ancestors, everyone worships their parents and grandparent”. Ancestor worship is a common belief in the whole country. It is a belief that expresses the deeply humanistic spirit of the Vietnamese people and has great values in human life. So, what is the nature of ancestor worship? What is the values of ancestor worship in life? And in the context of globalization, how has this the belief changed? This study focuses on analyzing the above contents, thereby highlighting the value of this belief in the spiritual life of Vietnamese people; to point out the positive and negative changes of this belief in the current period; from that, take the right measures to bring into play the positive and limit the negative side of those changes in the spiritual life of Vietnamese people.

In an era characterized by the ever-shifting landscapes of the digital realm, this paper intricately examines the interplay between digital culture, cultural dynamics, and beliefs in academia. Utilizing insights from cutting-edge language models, the study uncovers nuanced cultural expressions among Arts and Sciences students navigating the digital domain. Employing qualitative methods including interviews, observations, in-depth literature reviews, and thematic analysis, findings highlight digital interactions' transformative impact on cultural narratives and the potential of digital ethnography as a lens for understanding intricate cultural phenomena. This research enriches digital ethnography and cultural dynamics, offering fresh perspectives on the symbiotic relationship between digital culture and traditional beliefs, underscored by data from a maximum purposeful sampling of thirty (30) participants. Overall, this exploration emphasizes digital culture's dynamic role in shaping and reflecting cultural convictions, contributing to the understanding of cultural dynamics and evolving digital ethnography in the academic landscape.

Background and Objectives: Place the question addressed in a broad context and highlight the purpose of the study. Materials and Methods: Describe briefly the main methods or treatments applied, including the study population description. Results: Summarize the article’s main findings. Conclusions: Indicate the main conclusions or interpretations. The abstract should be an objective representation of the article, it must not) results. Meanwhile, exclusion criterion is incomplete data in medical record. For the analysis of continuous variables, a General Linear Model (univariate) was employed, with the predictors included specific Personality Disorder. The outcome being the PB, and covariates encompassed age, sex, education, clinical diagnosis, and depression score. Results: Six personality disorders, namely Paranoid, Schizoid, Histrionic, Avoidant, Dependent, and Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder, did not exhibit significant pathogenic beliefs. In contrast, the remaining four personality disorders demonstrated significant associations with specific pathogenic beliefs. Conclusions: While some personality disorders have specific beliefs, it's also common to have pathogenic beliefs that are not specific to their psychodynamic. It's essential to recognize specific pathogenic beliefs for each individual to be targeted for their psychotherapy.

There is a strong global demand for sulfate- free personal cleansing products. The objective of sulfate-free personal cleansing technology should not be aimed at the absence of “sulfate” wording in the ingredient listing, but on the true benefits to both people and the planet, including but not limited to safety, mildness, and sensory for the people perspective and renewability, low carbon footprint, low water footprint, biodegradability & sustainability for the planet perspective. In addition, some surfactants or their precursors contain 1,4-dioxane as a by-product in their manufacturing, which is a major safety concern. In this paper, several commonly used sulfate-free surfactants are compared based on a variety of desirable criteria from both the people and the planet perspective. There is also an important trend promoting green manufacturing processes using natural, renewable, safe, biodegradable & sustainable feedstocks to mitigate the challenges presented by climate change. It is concluded that the best options for the sulfate-free personal cleansing products of the future are glutamates for skin cleansing and alaninates for hair cleansing.

The representation of intelligence is achieved by patterns of connections among neurons in brains and machines. Brains grow continuously, such that their patterns of connections develop through activity-dependent specification with the continuing ontogenesis of individual experience. The theory of active inference proposes that the developmental organization of sentient systems reflects general processes of informatic self-evidencing, through the minimization of free energy, that may be described in information terms that are not dependent on a specific physical substrate. At a certain level of complexity, self-evidencing of living (self-organizing) information systems becomes hierarchic and reentrant, such that effective consciousness emerges as the consequence of a good regulator. These principles imply that an adequate reconstruction of the computational dynamics of an individual human brain is possible with a sufficient neuromorphic emulation.

The approach to the personal experience and previous ideas about Physical Education of future Primary Education teachers is a starting point of great interest for the teaching of the subject of Didactics of Physical Education. The study aims to investigate these prior beliefs and to verify to what extent this initial perception changes after taking the course on “Didactics of Physical Education”. A concurrent mixed-methods study was conducted, which included two data collection procedures: (1) a pre-experimental design with a single group featuring pre-test and post-test; (2) the analysis of students' autobiographical accounts of their school experience with physical education. The participants were students enrolled in the Bachelor’s degree program in Primary Education at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) who undertook the course last year. The results obtained reveal that after taking the subject of Didactics of Physical Education, students give greater value to more positive concepts of learning, socializing, participating, and playing, among others. Similarly, in the post-test, the assessment of concepts such as competitiveness and physical fatigue diminished. In their autobiographical memories, students associate good memories with relationships with classmates and the playful and socializing nature of the subject; and among the bad memories, they highlight the content related to physical performance, competitiveness, and lack of attention to the diversity of students and their individual characteristics.

Self-regulatory Self-efficacy belief (i.e., SRSE) represents a fundamental factor for adjustment in adolescence, as a vehicle to promote positive behaviors and protect youths from transgressions and maladjustment Bandura et al., 2003; LaRose et al., 2010). Research attested that, during adolescence, boys are more vulnerable to externalizing behaviors than girls, especially when they perceive themselves as scarcely capable of managing and orienting their behaviors, and when they possess impairments in impulsivity (Bandura et al., 2001; Muris, 2006). Previous studies firmly supported the key role of SRSE especially in the offline context in adolescence, but very few studies investigated its impact in the online context, although nowadays Internet represents one of the most significant environments for youths’ daily lives (LaRose et al., 2010; Favini et al., 2023). Thus, we aimed to examine the protective moderating role of SRSE in online and offline aggressive behaviors, beyond youths’ temperamental vulnerabilities, such as high levels of impulsivity. A sample of 318 Italian adolescents (Mage=15.21; SD=.51; 57% boys; 40% girls; 3% third gender) were asked to complete the Impulsivity Scale at Wave1, online and offline aggressive behaviors scales at Wave 2, and SRSE at Wave 2. Multiple-group-by-gender moderation model evidenced that, for what concerns online aggression, beyond the direct effects of impulsivity in boys and girls, SRSE directly affected online aggression and mediated the effect of impulsivity in girls. In contrast, impulsivity significantly affected offline aggressive behaviors only indirectly through the effects of SRSE, and SRSE directly influenced these behaviors in both genders. These results hold for the effects of youth’s age, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and years of education completed. This work preliminary evidenced that, contrary to previous studies which focused especially on the vulnerability of boys to aggressive conduct, impulsivity had direct effects on online aggressive behaviors in girls, and SRSE can protect adolescents of both genders in the online context, by predicting low online aggression, and represent a protective factor from the indirect effects that im-pulsivity impairments can have also in the offline context.

IgA nephropathy (IgAN) is a kidney disease that is characterized by the deposition of IgA (immunoglobulin A) in the kidney tissue, leading to inflammation and damage. This disease is a common chronic glomerulopathy that affects people worldwide (1). Therefore, it is crucial to identify factors that worsen the disease, monitor its activity, and predict appropriate treatments. Complement component 4d (C4d) is a protein that is involved in the activation of the complement system, which is a part of the immune system.

Wearable computing is a fast evolving segment of computing that includes smart watches, head mounted wearables such as Magic Leap headsets, Microsoft Hololens, and VR goggles from various vendors. In this report, we present ideas for a smart wearable device that also doubles as a virus protection device. Instead of using the filtering approach that is predominantly used by virus protection equipments such as face masks, we propose to use a computational approach where the device maintains an awareness of the real-time virus spread and use that information to steer the wearer away from the virus. As the wearable has a head enclosing design, viral infection can only happen through the air that is inhaled by the wearer. The objective of the smart wearable is to maintain a repository for clean air and switch the operating modes between stored and fresh air modes depending on the environmental conditions. It can augment this basic operating procedure by recycling the exhaled air to maximize it operating capacity (i.e., time duration for which it could supply the wearer with safe air) and by cleaning the stored air using UVC to further reduces the chance of infection. To maintain an awareness of the virus spread in the environment, the smart wearable will rely on an edge computing framework that will be distributed to cover areas frequented by people. The smart wearable will have modular design so that it can be reconfigured to add or subtract functionality that the wearer wants for a particular situation so that the design remains relevant even after the virus threat recedes.

Gender Identity Dysphoria (GID) is a condition characterized by a strong and persistent identification with the opposite sex. These people consider themselves victims of a sort of biological accident: "a soul in a wrong body". There are numerous theories on the origin of transsexualism: genetic, hormonal and psychological causes have been hypothesized, but those currently most accredited are the neuroanatomical ones. The cornerstones of hormone conversion therapy (Gender Affirming Hormone Therapy, GAHT) are feminizing hormones for transgender women (MtFs) and virilizing for transgender males (FtMs). GID can be present among adolescents and older people. For adolescents is now accepted reversible treatment of puberty withdrawal with hormones that stops the progression of pubertal development in the biological direction not accepted; for elderly people is suggested GAHT in reduced doses. Physicians should consider and discuss with people with GID about fertility preservation, general and cancer risks. We present also data of 127 transsexual patients enrolled at the Garibaldi-Nesima Andrology Clinic in Catania (Italy) from 2003 to 2020. To optimize the conversion treatment with sex hormones, transsexuals require long-term follow-up. GAHT must be performed by a doctor who is familiar with these problems. Therefore, the “do-it-yourself” trend and the lack of medical and laboratory checks over time should be absolutely discouraged. Before proceeding with the surgical sex reassignment, it is recommended to refer to an endocrinologist and psychologist or psychiatrist for a period of 2-3 years. The transition surgical conclusion process must be practiced by a quality surgical team.

Although research has long established that the interaction with the natural environment is associated with better overall health and well-being outcomes, the Western model mainly focuses on treating the symptoms. In Aotearoa-New Zealand, the Indigenous Māori have long demonstrated significantly more negative health outcomes than non-Māori. Little research has examined the causes compared to Western populations or the role of the natural environment in health outcomes for Māori. An exploration of rongoā Māori (traditional healing system) was conducted to ascertain the importance of landscape in the process of healing. Eight rongoā healers or practitioners took part in semi-structured narrative interviews from June to November 2020. Transcribed interviews were analysed using an interpretative phenomenological analysis and Kaupapa Māori techniques. The findings show how rongoā is underpinned by a complex set of cultural values and beliefs, drawing from the connection to wairua (spirit), tinana (body), tikanga and whakaora (customs and healing), rākau (plants), whenua (landscape) and whānau (family). Incorporating such constructs into the landscape can foster our understanding of health and well-being and its implications for conceptualising therapeutic environments and a culturally appropriate model of care for Māori and non-Māori communities.

We aimed at developing and validating a scale on the beliefs and attitudes of mental health professionals towards services users’ rights in order to provide a valid evaluation instrument for training activities with heterogeneous mental health professional groups. Items were extracted from a review of previous instruments, as well as from several focus groups which have been conducted with different mental health stakeholders, including mental health service users. The preliminary scale consisted of 44 items and was administered to 480 mental health professionals. After eliminating non-discriminant and low weighting items, a final scale of 25 items was obtained. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses produced a four-factor solution consisting of the following four dimensions; system criticism/justifying beliefs, freedom/coercion, empowerment/paternalism, and tolerance/discrimination. The scale shows high concordance with our theoretical model as well as adequate parameters of explained variance, model fit, and internal reliability. Additional work is required to assess the cultural equivalence and psychometrics of this tool in other settings and populations, including health students.

With many Americans eager to resume travel after prolonged restrictions from the coronavirus pandemic, car rentals are on the rise. According to Auto Rental News, “2021 U.S. Car Rental Revenue Climbs 21% Year-Over-Year” (Brown, 2021). In conjunction with increased car rental, and associated travel, we can expect to see an increase in cyber security and data privacy attacks. In the digital age, enterprises have a responsibility to protect consumers’ personally identifiable information (PII). As it pertains to rental vehicles, when consumers connect their mobile devices to a rental vehicle’s Entertainment and Infotainment System or utilize the built-in navigation feature, they do so, unbeknownst to themselves that the information from their devices is transferring to the vehicle, where it will remain, unless properly expunged from the system. A large majority of consumers are blissfully unaware that their PII is being stored, and how easy it would be for an adversary to potentially breach their data security and privacy. To expand upon this hypothesis, I conducted a further investigation on the subject, by partaking in the rental of three different vehicles, each belonging to a different manufacturer (Nissan, Chrysler, and Maserati), from three different vehicle rental companies (Enterprise, Hertz and Turo). I then, as a consumer, tested my hypothesis to determine if, I was able to easily breach the prior consumers’ data security and privacy by viewing devices that had previously connected to the vehicle, as well as any of the previous consumers’ personal information. The results were undeniable; the PII of the previous consumers is not protected.

Use of a multi-sensor approach can provide citizens a holistic insight in the air quality in their immediate surroundings and assessment of personal exposure to urban stressors. Our work, as part of the ICARUS H2020 project, which included over 600 participants from 7 European cities, discusses data fusion and harmonization on a diverse set of multi-sensor data streams to provide a comprehensive and understandable report for participants, and offers possible solutions and improvements. Harmonizing the data streams identified issues with the used devices and protocols, such as non-uniform timestamps, data gaps, difficult data retrieval from commercial devices, and coarse activity data logging. Our process of data fusion and harmonization allowed us to automate the process of generating visualizations and reports and consequently provide each participant with a detailed individualized report. Results showed that a key solution was to streamline the code and speed up the process, which necessitated certain compromises in visualizing the data. A thought-out process of data fusion and harmonization on a diverse set of multi-sensor data streams considerably improved the quality and quantity of data that a research participant receives. Though automatization accelerated the production of the reports considerably, manual structured double checks are strongly recommended.

Gender-based violence is considered a serious social and public health problem. Overcoming this situation implies a process that results in the favorable biopsychosocial rehabilitation, the resilient of women. The objective of this study was to analyze the tools, resources and personal and psychosocial mechanisms used by women survivors of gender-based violence. The design was an interpretative phenomenology. It carried out with 22 women who have overcome gender-based violence. Data was collected through personal interviews and narration. The results were grouped into four themes: "Process of violence", "Social resources for coping and overcoming GBV", "Personal tools for coping and overcoming GBV", and "Feelings identified, from the abuse stage to the survival stage". Several studies concluded that overcoming abuse is influenced by the women social network, and it can be the action of these people determining their survival to gender violence. Despite the recognized usefulness of these available resources, it would be desirable to strengthen them in order to be able to drive more women toward survival, assuming a strengthening of coping and overcoming, without forgetting the importance of other support mechanisms such as their family and group therapies.

Personal health data is acquired, processed, stored, and accessed using a variety of different devices, applications, and services. These are often complex and highly connected. Therefore, use or misuse of the data is hard to detect for people, if they are not capable to understand the trace (i.e., the provenance) of that data. We present a visualization technique for personal health data provenance using comics strips. Each strip of the comic represents a certain activity, such as entering data using a smartphone application, storing or retrieving data on a cloud service, or generating a diagram from the data. The comic strips are generated automatically using recorded provenance graphs. The easy-to-understand comics enable all people to notice crucial points regarding their data such as, for example, privacy violations.

Trait anxiety, emotion regulation strategies, and metacognitive beliefs influence executive functions (EF) and academic achievement. This study examines their interplay and impact on academic success. In total, 275 adolescents (10-17 years) and parents completed an online questionnaire assessing trait anxiety, emotion regulation strategies, metacognition, parent-reported behaviors related to executive functioning, and overall school average. Preliminary analyses confirmed consistency with existing literature for each variable and their interaction. Furthermore, we conducted a network analysis among the main variables. This analysis supports the need to pay more attention to reflective variables - maladaptive emotion regulation strategies and metacognitive beliefs about worry - when studying trait anxiety. These variables were linked to problematic executive functioning in adolescents. These latter had a negative link to academic achievement. This study offers innovative insights by investigating less-explored relationships in the scientific literature. It reveals high and significant correlations between metacognitive beliefs, maladaptive emotion regulation strategies and trait anxiety (r > .500, p < .001) but also between these variables and both executive functioning and academic achievement. These findings offer new perspectives for research and underscore the importance of holistically examining psychological factors related to academic success.

Personal protective equipment (P PE) rules must be respected and followed to the letter of healthcare professionals in Cameroon to avoid the transmission of infectious diseases. This research proposes solutions to the problems of non-adherence and non-compliance among healthcare workers in Cameroon towards PPE rules. Inadequate access to suitable PPE, discomfort when wearing PPE during poor quality, and a lack of training on correct PPE use are just a few of these obstacles amongst HCWs in Cameroon. Hospitals and healthcare facilities should prioritize offering thorough instruction on PPE use and pinpoint the need to adhere consistently to PPE rules to remove these obstacles. They should also ensure that all healthcare personnel have access to and a sufficient supply of the proper PPE. Through the organization of impromptu visits by surveillance teams to identify areas of support and training, there is a need for assistance from government bodies and public health groups in creating awareness of the security value of PPE use among healthcare professionals. There is a lack of PPE in health care settings in rural areas in Cameroon, thus a need for an adequate supply. Then can we put appropriate PPE policies and practices for HCWs in Cameroon, as they will keep to it.Healthcare professionals in Cameroon must comprehend that following PPE standards protects not just their selves from diseases but also their patients, coworkers, and communities. We are accountable for ensuring everyone's safety and well-being, and adhering to PPE regulations is an essential first step.

Irrational belief is a product of complex personality traits and Machiavellianism Intelligence. The present study is conducted to trace the significance of predictive nature of personality characteristics and Machiavellianism Intelligence (Mach Intelligence) on irrational beliefs among chronically ill older people. The research method is cross-sectional with correlational design, purposive sampling with a total of 200 chronically ill older people aged between 40–60 years with disease type such as Systemic lupus erythematosus, Complicated Diabetes, Glomerulonephritis and Chronic Heart Failure. The analysis revealed that personality characteristics and irrational belief subscales such as worrying, rigidity, problem avoidance and Mach Intelligence are significantly positively correlated; however, Emotional irresponsibility has significant negative correlation with personality characteristics and Mach Intelligence. Gender differences revealed that males are high on all the subscales of personality characteristics, irrational beliefs (except emotional irresponsibility) and Mach Intelligence as com-pared to female chronically ill older people. Predictive analysis also revealed that overall personality characteristics explained a total of 67% variance in irrational beliefs. Moreover, Mach Intelligence predicts irrational beliefs. Future health related recommendations should be planned accordingly.

This study aimed to examine the locus of control and epistemological beliefs of social 12 studies teacher candidates. The research, which adopted a survey model, was conducted with 550 13 social studies teacher candidates studying at 7 state universities in Turkey. The Locus of Control 14 Scale and the Epistemological Belief Scale were used to collect research data. Descriptive statistics, 15 independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Scheffe test, and correlation 16 analysis were employed in the data analysis process. When evaluating the research results, it was 17 determined that the teacher candidates generally responded to the locus of control scale at an “ap-18 propriate” level and to the epistemological belief scale at an “agree" level.” While no significant 19 difference was observed in the locus of control beliefs of social studies teacher candidates based on 20 gender, a significant difference was found in the sub-scale of belief in an unjust world. It has been 21 determined that female teacher candidates have a higher external locus of control belief. No signif-22 icant difference was observed in social studies teacher candidates’ locus of control beliefs regarding 23 their parents’ educational levels and grade level. However, there was a significant difference in the 24 sub-scale of belief in an unjust world regarding grade level. It was observed that there was a signif-25 icant difference in the epistemological beliefs of social studies teacher candidates regarding gender. 26 It was revealed that female teacher candidates had underdeveloped /immature epistemological be-27 liefs. No significant difference was found in the epistemological beliefs of teacher candidates based 28 on their parents’ educational levels or grade level. It has been observed that there is a weak but 29 positive significant relationship between the social studies teacher candidates’ locus of control and 30 epistemological beliefs and their sub-scales.

One of the special trends in health care is the increasing availability of data and services to the cloud, especially for convenience (for example, providing a complete patient medical record without interruption) and savings (for example, economic issues). Management of health care data). However, there are limitations to using common cryptographic prototypes and access control models to address security and privacy concerns in an increasingly cloudy environment. In this paper, we explore the potential and capacity of using China's Blockchain technology to protect health care data hosted in the cloud. We also explain the real challenges of such an approach and further research is needed. Health care is a highly data-dependent domain, with large amounts of data being created, published, stored and accessed daily. For example, data are created when a patient undergoes a number of examinations (such as computed tomography or computed tomography scans) and the data need to be sent to the radiologist and then to a physician. The visit results are then stored in the hospital, and then need to be accessed later by another physician at another hospital within the network. It is clear that technology can play an important role in improving the quality of care for patients (for example, using data analytics to make informed medical decisions) and potentially costing more by allocating resources more efficiently in terms of personnel, equipment, etc. , Reduce. For example, paper-based data extraction is difficult to extract into systems (for example, it is costly and may involve data entry errors), archiving them and accessing them as needed is costly. These challenges may cause medical decisions to be incomplete, requiring repeated tests for missing information or missing data stored in another hospital in another state or country (at the expense of increased costs and no convenience). (For patients) and so on. Because of the nature of the industry, it is important to ensure the security, privacy and integrity of health care data. As a result, there is definitely a need for a secure and secure data management system.

Low-cost personal exposure monitors (PEMs) to measure personal exposure to air pollution are potentially promising tools for health research. However, their adoption requires robust validation. This study evaluated the performance of twenty-one Plume Lab Flow2 (PLF) by comparing its air pollutant measurements, particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 μm or less (PM2.5), 10 μm or less (PM10), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), against several high-quality air pollution monitors under field conditions (at indoor, outdoor, and roadside locations). Correlation and regression analysis were used to evaluate measurements obtained by different PLFs against reference instrumentation. For all measured pollutants, the overall correlation coefficient between the PLFs and the reference instruments was often weak (r<0.4). Moderate correlation was observed for one PLF unit at indoor location and two units at roadside location, when measuring PM2.5, but not for PM10 and NO2 concentration. During periods of particularly higher pollution, 11 PLF tools showed stronger regression results (R2 values > 0.5) with one-hour and 9 PLF units with one-minute time interval. Results show that the PLF cannot be used robustly to determine high and low exposure to poor air. Therefore, the use of PLFs in research studies should be approached with caution if data quality is important to the research outputs.

With the abundance of conversations happening everywhere, dialogue summarization plays an increasingly important role in the real world. However, dialogues inevitably involve lots of personal pronouns, which hinder the performance of existing dialogue summarization models. This work proposes a framework named WHORU to inject external personal pronoun resolution (PPR) information into abstractive dialogue summarization models. To reduce time and space consumption, we further propose a simple and effective PPR method for the dialogue domain. Experiments demonstrated the superiority of the proposed methods. More importantly, we achieve new SOTA results on SAMSum and AMI datasets.

Although the positive relationship between religion and environmental behavior is well-argued, empirical research about the relationship between religion and public pro-environmental behavior is relatively lacking. This paper aims to explore the group differences in the influence of religion on public pro-environmental behavior and the mediating role of environmental risk perception in religion and public pro-environmental behavior. Using the Chinese General Social Survey data in 2013 for empirical analysis, this study’s results show that there are group differences in the impact of religion on public pro-environmental behavior. Women with religious beliefs are more willing to engage in public pro-environmental behavior than those without religious beliefs. Religious believers over the age of 45 are more willing to participate in public pro-environmental behavior than those without religious beliefs. Political participants with religious beliefs are more willing to practice public pro-environmental behavior than those without religious beliefs. In addition, we found that environmental risk perception can act as partial mediation in religious and public pro-environmental behavior. In other words, religious beliefs are deeply embedded in local political and social culture. In order to correctly understand the relationship between religion and public pro-environmental behavior, it is necessary to consider religion in a specific cultural background.

Background: Renewed measles outbreaks in recent years indicate that despite the routine availability of vaccines for a disease that is considered contagious, dangerous and deadly, many anti-vaccinationists do not vaccinate their children, which consequently endangers public health. This study aimed to investigate the factors that influence mothers to vaccinate their children, and whether the Health Belief Model (HBM) could predict compliance or non-compliance. Methods: This was a quantitative correlational research, utilizing a 40-item questionnaire administered to 181 mothers in Israel. Results: The findings indicated two main factors that affected mothers' intention to vaccinate their children against measles: first, their perception of the vaccine's advantages, and second, their perception of the severity of the disease. It was also found that the HBM variables significantly affected the intention to administer vaccines. Conclusion: Consequently, raising public awareness of the vaccine's advantages and importance to preventing mass infection, as well as attempts by the health system and practitioners to understand the motivations of anti-vaccinationists (including health beliefs and cultural sensitivities) could significantly increase the percentage of vaccinated children, and eradicate the measles epidemic.

Bacteriophages, viruses that are widespread throughout the world, are highly specific for bacteria, usually of a single species and often of a particular strain. After being discovered and isolated 100 years ago, their use, called phage therapy, was instituted in medicine two years later and quickly used around the world to treat various bacterial infections. In the West, phage therapy was overshadowed in the second half of the 20th century by antibiotic therapy, which was then thought to be the definitive solution. But because of the increase in bacterial resistance to antibiotics, the idea of using bacteriophages in medicine has been reawakened. The innumerable observations reported over the years in the literature constitute an invaluable experience. We and some of our colleagues have, in the last decade treated some patients compassionately. With the available documentation and our own experience we discuss the potential indications and limitations of phage therapy. The observation of the increasing number of therapeutic failures in the announced perspective of a post-antibiotic era, we believe, that the introduction of bacteriophages into the therapeutic arsenal seems conceivable today to two preconditions: that their production as biologic drug meets current regulatory standards and that the benefit-risk assessment was conducted in a modern setting. Phage therapy could be applied as a substitution or supplement to antibiotic therapy under multiple circumstances in different modes, precise indications and limits.

This essay is a personal insight based on my own experience in the Iberian Pyrenees, which addresses three situations common in paleoecological research, such as the verification of previously devised hypotheses (anticipation), the finding on unknown events in unstudied sites (discovery) and the finding of unexpected outputs in already known areas (serendipity). The account is concentrated on the value of the coring sites by themselves as generators of paleoecological knowledge, rather than on the actual findings, which are presented and discussed in the corresponding data papers. The main aim is to show that there is still much room for new findings, even in areas that have been surveyed for long time and are supposed to be well known, from a paleoecological perspective. Finally, some general lessons are derived and conceptualized.

Abstract: The present study seeks to investigate MNOs leadership style and how it influences their compassion competence and their personal level of compassion at work. This is a cross-sectional study carried out from December 2019 to May 2020 using the method of convenience sampling. The study involved 235 MNOs serving in Greek Military Hospitals. A single questionnaire containing Compassion at Work index, Compassion competence scale, and Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-5X), and socio-demographic and professional data, was used for data collection. A total of 400 printed questionnaires were distributed with a response rate of 58.75%. Data analysis was performed using the statistical package SPSS 22.0. The research showed that the transformational and transactional leadership styles coexist in the Nursing Corps of the Armed Forces with an average value of 2.72(SD=0.70)-2.95(SD=0.54) points and 2.47(SD=0.69)-2.74(SD=0.63) points respectively, while the passive style represented a very small percentage with an average subscale value of 0.88(SD=0.61)-0.94(SD=0.63) points. It was also found that both actual compassion at work and compassion ability had improved with the increase of transformational or transactional leadership style characteristics and amelioration of leadership outcome criteria. On the other side, a deterioration of these was observed with the increase of the passive leadership. Specifically, a higher score in the «Intellectual Stimulation» scale was associated with a higher level of compassion at work in the dimension «Experiencing the suffering of others» (p=0.010/SD=0.14), while higher values on the «Laissez-Faire Leadership» scale were associated with less compassion at work in the same dimension (p<0.001/SD=0.13). Also, a higher score on the «Contingent Reward» scale was associated with more compassion at work in the dimension «Takes appropriate action» (p=0.023/SD=0.16). Furthermore, higher values observed in the «Inspirational Motivation», «Individual Consideration» and «Extra Effort» scales were associated with a better communication ability (p=0.035/SD=0.09, p=0.022/SD=0.12, and p=0.042/SD=0.08 accordingly). Finally, a higher score on the «Effectiveness» scale was associated with higher sensitivity (p=0.049/SD=0.08). Teaching appropriate leadership behavior, promoting a culture of compassion, and continuing to train nurses to manage their emotions should be included in the infrastructure of nursing science.

Reciprocal Personal/Public Protection (RPPP) featured with source control is introduced, Mask Discriminating Mouth and Nose (MDMN) is employed to serve the purpose, which includes polymer based mouth cover with optional nose cover. The new knowledge that mouth is a primary, active and dominant source of the virus has been well established, which is the base of MDMN. Source classification and related source control tools are discussed, mouth cover is recommended as the tool prioritized to use. Liquid droplets is identified as a hard issue related to mask, liquid droplets, mask fitting, comfort and facial recognition constitute real challenges of mask in addition to efficiency, All of these have been addressed with MDMN. Comparisons between MDMN and masks/face covering are taken on four aspects: efficiency and efficacy, tolerance and comfort, cost and waste, and civil rights and public interest. Mouth cover is recommended to replace the face covering and act as both a personal tool and a public utensil, mouth cover with nose cover can provide better protection than N95 etc. RPPP with MDMN, could be an alternative for lockdown, a parallel strategy to vaccine, and a collectively living way during the pandemic era. MDMN, featured with high efficiency protection, high degree comfort, easy wearing, tight-fitting, easy facial recognition & communication, reusability, cost-effective, environment friendly and scale manufacturing more readily and widely etc., is a simple and sustainable solution, which is essential for ordinary people to keep wearing it properly for protection.

This paper examines the impact of stringent regulations on personal data protection on customer perception of data security and online shopping behavior. In the context of the rapidly expanding e-commerce landscape, ensuring the security of personal data is a complex and crucial task. The study of several legal frameworks, including Malaysia's compliance with EU regulations and Indonesia's Personal Data Protection Law, provides valuable insights into consumer data protection. The challenges of balancing data safeguarding and unrestricted movement and tackling misuse by external entities are significant and require careful consideration. This research elucidates the pivotal role of trust in e-commerce environments and the deployment of innovative e-commerce models designed to minimize personal data sharing. By integrating advanced privacy-enhancing technologies and adhering to stringent regulatory standards such as the GDPR, this study demonstrates effective strategies for robust data protection. The paper contributes to the academic discourse by providing a comprehensive framework that synergizes legal, technological, and procedural elements to fortify data security and enhance consumer trust in digital marketplaces. This approach aligns with international data protection standards and offers a pragmatic blueprint for achieving sustainable data security in e-commerce.

Resuscitation is one of the most stressful tasks in emergency medicine. The participation of medical professionals in this procedure can have specific effects on them. In the research, we wanted to find out what these effects are. A qualitative approach by conducting semi-structured interviews was used, and thematic data analysis of the recorded interviews was done. The collected data were transcribed verbatim with no corrections to the audio recordings. The computer program ATLAS.ti 22 was used for qualitative data analysis. Eleven male registered nurses were interviewed, with an average of 18.5 years of experience working in a prehospital environment (max. 32/min. 9). A total of 404 minutes of recordings were analyzed and 789 codes were found, which were combined into 36 patterns, and 11 themes. As the most stressful situa-tions, the interviewees pointed out the resuscitation of a child, familiar persons, conflicts with the environment, conflicts within the resuscitation team, non-functioning or insufficient equipment, complications during resuscitation, and resuscitating a person only for exercise. As positive effects, the interviewees cited successful resuscitations or their awareness that, despite the unsuccessful resuscitation, they did everything they could. Participation in these interven-tions has a specific positive or negative impact on the performers. The interviewees shared the opinion that they can cope effectively with resuscitation's adverse or stressful effects. Yet, de-spite everything, they allow the possibility of subconscious influences of this intervention on them.

The exposure to extreme temperatures in workplaces involves physical hazards for workers. A poorly acclimated worker may have lower performance and vigilance and may therefore be more exposed to accidents and injuries. Due to the incompatibility of the existing standards implemented in some workplaces and the lack of thermoregulation in many protective equipment, thermal stress remains one of the most frequent physical hazards in many work sectors. However, many of these problems can be overcome with the use of smart textile technologies that enable intelligent thermoregulation in personal protective equipment. Smart textiles can detect, react and adapt to many external stimuli. Interconnected sensors and actuators that interact and react to existing risks can provide the wearer with increased safety, protection and comfort. Thus, the skills of smart protective equipment can contribute to the reduction of errors and the number and severity of accidents in the workplace, and thus promote improved performance, efficiency and productivity.This review provides an overview and opinions of authors on the current state of knowledge on these types of technologies by reviewing and discussing the state of the art of commercially available systems and the advances made in previous research works.

Malaria is a serious infection affecting millions of people in Africa. Our study investigated the personal preferences and applications of antimalarial medicines in Ghana. Based on over 1000 questionnaires distributed in Ghana from January to May 2019, we noticed that although Western medications to fight this disease are widely available, most patients in Ghana prefer treatment with locally produced herbal remedies. This preference appears to be due to a combination of traditional venues for obtaining medicines “on the street” rather than in licensed pharmacies, trust in local and “green” products, extensive advertisement of such local products, and an inherent distrust of imported and synthetic or unnatural medicines. Going local and natural is a trend also observed in other countries across the globe, and adds to the acceptance or rejection of drugs regardless of their activity or toxicity. In fact, adverse side effects associated with herbal remedies, such as general weakness and swollen, sore mouth, do not seem to deter the respondents of this study in Ghana. We propose a combination of (a) increasing public awareness of the benefits of modern medicine and (b) an improvement and control of the quality of herbal remedies to raise the standard of malaria treatment in countries such as Ghana.

Although food retailers have embraced organic certified food products as a way to reduce their environmental loading, organic sales only make up a small proportion of total sales worldwide. Most consumers have positive attitudes towards organic food, but attitudes are not reflected in behaviour. This article addresses consumers’ attitude-behaviour gap regarding their purchase organic food and reports on how visualization of personal shopping data may encourage them to buy more organic food. Through the design of the visualization tool, the EcoPanel, and through an empirical study of its use, we provide evidence on the potential of the tool to promote sustainable food shopping practices. Sixty-five users tested the EcoPanel for five months and interviews were made with ten of these. The test users increased their purchase of organic food with 23%. The informants used the EcoPanel to reflect on their shopping behaviour and to increase their organic shopping. We conclude that the visualization of food purchases stimulates critical reflection and the formation of new food shopping practices. This implies that food retailers may increase sales of organic food through using a visualization tool available for their customers. In this way these retailers may decrease their environmental impact.

A large body of research has examined people’s attitudes toward mandatory vaccination to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. However, studies have yet to explore how Chinese people view the COVID-19 vaccine mandates, let alone placing such views in the country’s highly politicized context. On the other hand, facing the high pressure of loosening its zero-COVID policies amidst the worldwide practices of co-existing with the COVID-19 virus, the country has to improve its vaccination coverage quickly. In this situation, it is more than necessary to systematically investigate the Chinese public’s attitude to mandatory vaccination against the virus and the underlying determinants. The current study utilizes data from a national survey adopting quota sampling to analyze the Chinese public’s medical and non-medical considerations when judging compulsory COVID-19 vaccination. The study reveals that thanks to China’s successful lockdown policies, personal risk, and benefit perceptions did not dominate their views regarding vaccination mandates. Instead, conspiracy beliefs regarding the pandemic outbreaks, conspiratorial thinking, and nationalism more strongly predicted their willingness to accept mandatory vaccination. Given the potentially massive impacts of the COVID-19 infection, if China opens its door and loosens its strict quarantine restrictions, the Chinese public needs to be educated with more medically valuable and relevant information to improve their vaccination protection against COVID-19.

Digital Educational Recourses (DER) have undergone a rapid evolution and integration into the educational contexts. Teachers play a fundamental role in incorporating technology into their classrooms, so it is important to identify the value that teachers on DER and reflect on the implications for their practice. Through the qualitative methodology the necessary data is obtained with open-response inter-views with teachers. This dataset was analysed and categorised using AQUAD. The results suggest that teachers acknowledge the importance of integrating digital re-sources into their classrooms, although there was no consensus regarding the appropriate level at which to do so. Further the inter-views revealed that younger teachers tend to use more self-elaborated or selected resources. Teachers noted the benefits of using technology, especially in regard to maintaining student motivation, how-ever they also highlighted a number of extrinsic challenges and limitations. The results indicate there is a relationship between teachers’ perceptions and their practice, although this could be improved.

Adolescence is a stage of change and transition, which together with the COVID-19 situation, has been a huge source of vulnerability and facilitated the development of emotional disorders. This study aims to analyse internalising (anxiety and depression) and externalising (anger and aggression) symptoms in adolescence according to gender, as well as personal resources (self-esteem, social competence and integration, and awareness of problems) put in place as a mechanism of protection and coping after the situation of the pandemic. The study population encompassed 445 adolescents, of whom 230 were boys and 215 were girls, between the ages of 12 and 17. A self-reported Likert-type test was used. Findings indicate that girls show greater levels of internalising (anxiety and depression) and externalising problems (anger), finding no differences for the variable aggression between the two groups. Personal resources are closely linked to emotional symptomatology, providing a source of protection in both genders. The findings indicate a maladaptive pattern for adolescents that requires early intervention within the field of education.

Research found that those who believe sexual orientation is inborn have generally positive attitudes towards gay men and lesbians. However, other studies have also found that these beliefs could include negative eugenic ideas. This study aims to investigate the role of people’s beliefs about the aetiology of sexual orientation on attitudes towards adoption for both gay and lesbian couples. We hypothesized that this relationship would be mediated by sexual prejudice. To test the predictions, 256 Italian heterosexual participants were asked to answer to a scale about their beliefs regarding the aetiology of sexual orientation, sexual prejudice, and attitudes towards adoption by same-sex couples. Results confirmed that the relationship between aetiology beliefs and adoption support was fully mediated by sexual prejudice. These investigation results suggest that the belief that sexual orientation is controllable may serve to justify one’s prejudice and, in turn, result in a lower support for same-sex couples’ adoption.

The integration of connected autonomous vehicles into the transportation system introduces significant enhancements in driving experience and convenience. Yet, it simultaneously raises important concerns regarding the security and privacy of passenger data. As individuals increasingly depend on these connected vehicles, particularly rental cars with advanced infotainment systems, safeguarding their personal information becomes a paramount imperative, presenting significant challenges that must be addressed to maintain user trust and comply with privacy regulations. This paper investigates risks associated with personal information stored in connected vehicle technology, emphasizing the importance of robust security and privacy practices. In the advent of cyber threats and the need for data protection, we examine a risk management framework (RMF) as suggested by NIST, which aims to address these quintessential concerns preemptively. Our research moves beyond the limitations of manual safeguarding methods, supporting the necessity for an advanced automated technical solution. To address these issues, we introduce and meticulously assess the efficacy of “Vehicle Inactive Profile Removal” (VIPR), an innovative technical solution conceived to actively eliminate the risks and potential oversights that stem from the prevalent tendency of renters to leave personal data unerased in the infotainment systems of rented connected vehicles. We provide a thorough evaluation of VIPR through various scenarios, including vehicle return to a rental depot, subsequent rentals, and ridesharing contexts. Our proof of concept includes an array of experiments to demonstrate how VIPR proficiently and autonomously removes previous renters’ “Inactive” profiles from a simulated infotainment system. The results highlight how VIPR constitutes a critical step towards enhancing the privacy and security of personal data, thereby promoting a safer, more responsible use of connected vehicle technology in society.

The goal was to determine the personal, interpersonal, and sociocultural predictors of condom use among rural indigenous adolescents. Predictor variables were selected from Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory and Leininger's Transcultural Theory. The sample consisted of 419 Nahuas adolescents randomly selected from the total number of neighborhood blocks in a rural community in Puebla, Mexico. The instruments had acceptable psychometric characteristics (Cronbach alpha and validity scores). Multiple linear regression models were used. Results: 56.8% of participants were female, and 50.40 % were students. The mean age was M = 17.5 (SD = 0.97), and the majority (63%) identified as Catholic. Age at menarche/first ejaculation (β = -1.2, p = .038), attitude toward condom use (β = .13, p < .001), ethnic identity (β = .21, p < .001), and ability to negotiate condom use (β = .13, p < .003), predicted (R2 = 22.3) condom use. This study provides a basis for the integration of the cultural values of indigenous adolescents within interventions for sexual health promotion.

Road vehicles are a large contributor to Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) pollution. The routine road-side monitoring stations, however, may underrepresent the severity of personal exposure in urban areas, because long-term average readings cannot capture the effects of momentary, high peaks of air pollution. While numerical modelling tools historically have been used to propose an improved distribution of monitoring stations, ultra-high resolution Computational Fluid Dynamics models can further assist the relevant stakeholders in understanding the important details of pollutant dispersion and exposure at local level. This study deploys a 10 cm-resolution CFD model to evaluate actual high peaks of personal exposure to NOx from traffic, by tracking the gases emitted from the tailpipe of moving vehicles being dispersed towards the roadside. The investigation shows that a set of four Euro 5-rated diesel vehicles travelling at constant speed may generate momentary road-side concentrations of NOx as high as 1.25 mg/m3, with 25% expected increase for doubling the number of vehicles and approximately 50% reduction when considering Euro 6-rated vehicles. The paper demonstrates how the numerical tool can be used to identify the impact of measures to reduce personal exposure, such as protective urban furniture, as traffic patterns and environmental conditions change.

Facing the tasks and challenges going forward, a pilot of the Indonesian Naval Aviation Center was required to be brave in taking risks, especially in carrying out its main tasks, so it was expected that a pilot of the Indonesian Naval Aviation Center had intelligence, especially in finding appropriate solutions and alternatives to address every task challenges dynamics in situations that often changed quickly. The purpose of this study was to identify the personal character and performance that should be owned by the pilot of the Indonesian Naval Aviation Center. This research used a qualitative approach with a contextual and constructional meta-analysis study method. The results of this meta-analysis study concluded that in line with the essence of personal character that is defined as the personal aspects of a work that allows workers to achieve superior performance. These personal aspects include nature, emotive-motives, value systems, attitudes, knowledge, and skills, where the personal character would produce an optimal performance on a pilot of the Indonesian Naval Aviation Center.

The Attentional Control Theory (ACT) suggests that trait anxiety does not directly affect performance but may alter processing efficiency through the generation of compensatory strategies. However, the ACT does not describe the nature of these strategies, which could be reflective in nature. One hundred ten students (M = 20.12; SD = 2.10) completed questionnaires on trait anxiety, metacognitive beliefs, and emotion regulation strategies (ERS). They performed two working memory tasks: the digit span task from the WAIS-IV and an emotional n-back task. Anxiety, metacognitive beliefs, and maladaptive ERS were not linked to performance but were associated with longer response times. Additionally, participants using maladaptive ERS, such catastrophizing and rumination, made fewer negative commission errors and employed more strategies during the digit span. These findings support the role of the reflective level in influencing trait anxiety's impact on performance and emphasize considering metacognitive beliefs and maladaptive ERS for a comprehensive understanding of the ACT. Identifying these variables provides insights to optimize cognitive abilities and promote academic success.

COVID-19 virus has become a global threat to the human population and society. The virus which originated from China in December, 2019 has swept across continents in the world. Cameroon has been one of the countries with a high infectious rate in the recent period having a majority of the infectious cases in the Littoral region. Lack of awareness play a major role in the rise of COVID-19 cases. This paper examined the perceptions of the existence and spread of the COVID-19 virus in Wouri Division, Littoral Region of Cameroon. The study involved a qualitative survey designed by online questionnaires which were forwarded to the inhabitants of Wouri Division through e-mails and ‘WhatsApp’. The survey included the perception of the origin and existence of the COVID-19 virus, its mode of disease transmission, preventive and control measures. A total of 573 respondents were obtained (317 females and 256 males). From the results, although a greater proportion of the respondents showed knowledge towards the COVID- 19 virus existence, transmission and prevention that could lead to a reduction in the spread of the disease, our findings suggested that there’s more need for public sensitisation of the virus especially its method of transmission, control and prevention.

The number of AI applications in education is growing every day. One recent AI application in the educational sector is Chatbot technology, which is used to support teaching and administrative tasks. This document presents the design and implementation of a Chatbot called Tashi-Bot that helps applicants and university students to obtain information from an educational institution about certain academic and administrative processes. Among these are processes related to well-being, tuition, costs, admission, and other services. In order to design the Chatbot, an analysis of the state of the art, methodologies, and suitable tools was carried out, and a survey was conducted to discover the needs of users and their preferences in the use of a Chatbot for this specific purpose. Tashi-Bot was implemented on the SnatchBot platform and later deployed on a Telegram channel. In its evaluation, a final survey was carried out to check on the satisfaction of the users. The results suggest that Tashi-Bot could help applicants and university students to find information on academic and administrative processes with great certainty and without the need for human interaction. Tashi-Bot can be found at: https://web.telegram.org/#/im?p=@TashiE_Bot..

The modern era of polarimetric radar begins with radiowave propagation research starting in the early 1970s with applications to measurement and modeling of wave attenuation in rain and depolarization due to ice particles along satellite-earth links. While there is a rich history of radar in meteorology after World War II, the impetus provided by radiowave propagation requirements lead to high quality antennas and feeds. Our journey starts by describing the key institutions and personnel responsible for development of weather radar polarimetry. The early period was dominated by circularly polarized radars for propagation research and at S-band for hail detection. By the mid-to late 70s, a paradigm shift occurred which led to the dominance of linear polarizations with applications to slant path attenuation prediction as well as estimation of rain rates and inferences of precipitation physics. The period from early 1980s to 1995 can be considered as the “golden” period of rapid research that brought in meteorologists, cloud physicists and hydrologists. This article describes the evolution of this technology from the vantage point of the authors. Their personal reflections and “behind the scenes” descriptions offer a glimpse into the inner workings at several key institutions which cannot be found elsewhere.

This survey paper discusses the Cointegrated VAR methodology and how it has evolved over the last 30 years. The first section is a description of major steps in the econometric development of the CVAR model that facilitated serious real world applications. The next three sections are primarily methodological and discuss (i) difficulties and puzzles when confronting theory with the data, (ii) the formulation of a viable link between theory and the data, a so called theory-consistent CVAR scenario, and (iii) how all this was inspired by Trygve Haavelmo and his Nobel prize winning monograph "The Probability Approach to Economics". The next two sections discuss early applications of the Cointegrated VAR model to monetary transmission mechanisms, international transmission mechanisms and wage, price and unemployment dynamics. They report puzzling evidence, discuss the need for new theory, and propose a method for combining partial CVAR analyses into a larger macroeconomic model. The following sections propose a new, empirically-based, approach to macroeconomics in which imperfect knowledge based expectations replace so called rational expectations and in which the financial sector plays a key role for understanding the long persistent movements in the data. The last section argues that the CVAR can act as a "design of experiment for passive observations" and illustrates with several applications including unemployment dynamics under crises periods and aid effectiveness in South Saharan African countries.

Preconception lifestyle modification and reducing several known risk factors may have an influence on the future pregnancy outcome. The aim of the study was to analyse health behaviour and personal values, as well as to assess the relationship of these factors in women without children, in pregnant ones and in women who had already delivered babies. The questionnaire survey included Health Behaviour Inventory (HBI), Personal Value List (PVL) and the sociodemographic data and was conducted in 538 women. These women were divided into 3 groups: women who recently delivered (n = 235), pregnant women (n = 121) and childless women (n = 182). Pregnant women demonstrated a significantly higher level of declared health behaviours and also they rated higher subscales values "positive mental attitude" and "health practices" in comparison to women who recently delivered and to childless women. In all tested groups the highest rated personal value was "a successful family life", while the most appreciated symbol of happiness was "love and friendship". Our results suggest that the system of values and the perception of happiness symbols may influence women's health behaviours. Positioning “health” in the hierarchy of personal values as the most important one may facilitate introduction of healthy behaviours. This in turn could reduce several adverse pregnancy outcomes that are potentially modifiable with changing preconception health attitudes. Our results also identify several unanswered questions and highlights areas where new research is needed.

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) poses a significant health burden, yet the vaccine which successfully prevents HPV and its associated cancers remains underutilized. Nurses play a crucial role in patient education and advocacy for HPV vaccination. This study explores how knowledge, along with cultural, religious, and social beliefs, shapes the attitudes of Israeli nurses and nursing students toward the HPV vaccine and their advocacy efforts. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from August 2023 to January 2024 using an anonymous online questionnaire distributed via Facebook groups targeting Israeli nurses and nursing students. The questionnaire assessed demographic data, HPV-related knowledge, and attitudes toward HPV vaccination. Results: The study included 458 participants (229 nurses and 229 nursing students). Significant knowledge gaps were found, with 52% of participants incorrectly believing that the vaccine can cure existing infections and 47% mistakenly believing that it is administered in a single dose. Logistic regression revealed that nurses working in community settings were more likely to have positive attitudes toward HPV vaccination (OR=2.98, 95% CI: 1.84–4.85). Higher levels of HPV-related knowledge (OR=3.35, 95% CI: 2.10–5.35) and secular or traditional religious affiliations (OR=2.45, 95% CI: 1.52–3.97) were strongly associated with positive attitudes toward and advocacy for the vaccine. Conclusions: Targeted educational programs addressing knowledge gaps, especially those tailored to Israel's cultural and religious diversity, are crucial for empowering nurses and nursing students as advocates for HPV vaccination. Enhancing their understanding of HPV can increase vaccine uptake, reduce the incidence of HPV-related diseases, and strengthen public health initiatives in Israel.

Influenza in pregnancy is associated with elevated morbidity and mortality. Influenza vaccines are safe and effective in pregnancy. There are no Mexican surveys in physicians on knowledge, beliefs, and practices towards influenza and influenza immunization during pregnancy. A 32 questions cross-sectional and descriptive survey was conducted addressing general knowledge of influenza, as well as beliefs and practices regarding influenza vaccination during pregnancy among Mexican physicians responsible for prenatal care, traditionally Obstetricians (OBGYNs), and Family Physicians (FPs). A total of 206 surveys were available, 98 (47.6%) from OBGYNs, and 108 (52.4%) from FPs representing an estimated 2,472 daily pregnancy consultations. 54 from 206 (26.2%) weren´t aware that influenza is more severe during pregnancy, 106 from 206 (51.5%) ignored the potential side effects of influenza infection on the fetus, and 56.8% did not know when to vaccinate pregnant women. Pregnancy as a risk factor for developing influenza complications was known only by 99 from 206(48.1%), and 6.1 % believed that vaccination does not confer protection to the fetus. Current beliefs of Mexican OBGYNs and FPs for both influenza morbidity and mortality, and the importance of influenza vaccination during pregnancy, is suboptimal. Understanding drivers for beliefs should be assessed to improve influenza vaccination recommendations, as knowledge alone is not sufficient.

Nowadays, the development of civilization requires a vision of balancing the interests of employees and employers in the sphere of work as never before. Work-life balance is directly linked to social sustainability. The aim of this article is to analyse various dimensions of mutual enrichment of the professional and private life of an individual and to describe how positive experiences in professional and non-professional life influence the improvement of satisfaction, health and achievements, thus enabling the sustainable development of the individual. The conducted research was of a qualitative nature. Thematic exploration was used to analyse the findings of 34 in-depth interviews with experienced HR managers and employees at various levels of enterprises in Poland. The research shows that the work and personal life of the respondents interact, complement, and enrich in different ways, depending on the stage of the employee’s life. Habits developed by practicing a specific sport discipline or other type of hobby are helpful in the effective implementation of professional tasks. Also, non-professional interests, including communing with culture and art have a positive impact on professional activities. On the other hand, the respondents emphasized that thanks to their professional activities, specific to the type of work they perform, they are sometimes more extroverted, meticulous, organized and consistent when performing activities outside of work and in other aspects of private life.

With the onset of the COVID19 pandemic, information technology has played a critical role in healthcare. A broad spectrum of information technology tools and applications played an essential role to create awareness of the COVID19 vaccination drive and its health benefits. We use the COVID-19 Global Beliefs, Behaviors, and Norms Survey for analysis of prevalence and factors associated with vaccination drives among men and women aged 20-80 years in 60 countries worldwide. Our analysis of the global survey offers a unique perspective about the role of information technology associated with vaccination drives involving social norms and human behavior among 437,236 respondents. The international survey was organized using a pre-registered randomized experiment demonstrating the role of technology in reaching out to people based in diverse communities and evaluating their beliefs, behavior, and social norms. The study shows that vaccine acceptance can vary due to descriptive norms. Our analysis shows 65.06% of people all over the globe are willing to get vaccinated and a large proportion of the population thinks that the COVID19 pandemic is a viable threat to the community and preventive measures need to be taken including vaccination drives.

Although it may seem paradoxical, primary care and mental health professionals develop prejudices and discriminatory attitudes towards people with mental health problems in a very similar way to the rest of the population. The main objective of this project was to design, implement and evaluate two awareness interventions respectively tailored to reduce stigma and discrimination beliefs and attitudes towards persons with a mental health diagnosis among primary care (PC) and mental health (MH) professionals. These interventions were developed by Obertament, the Catalan alliance against stigma and discrimination in mental health. The TLC3 (Targeted, Local, Credible, Continuous Contact) methodology was adapted to the Catalan PC and MH professional contexts. Activists with lived experience of mental health diagnosis carried out awareness-raising interventions in PC and MH health centres. The efficacy of these interventions was evaluated using two prospective double-blind cluster-wait-list-randomized-controlled trial experimental designs. Stigmatizing beliefs and behaviours were measured with the Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Health Care Providers in primary care centres and with the Beliefs and Attitudes towards Mental Health Service users’ rights in mental health centres. Positive reductions in both PC and MH professionals’ stigmatising beliefs and attitudes were found in the 1-month follow-up, although a ‘rebound effect’ at the 3-month follow up was also detected. This emphasizes the importance of the continuity of the presence of anti-stigma activities and messages. Attrition rates where high, which can hamper the reliability of the results. Further follow-up studies should enquiry effects of long-term interventions aimed at reducing stigmatising beliefs and attitudes among primary care and mental health professionals.

The aim was to implement a value-promoting program (Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility, TPSR) and to assess its impact on students. Method: The program was applied for 8 months with 257 students from three secondary school centres (151 boys and 106 girls) with a mean of 15.97 years old (SD = 2.31). They were in three groups, 67 students (control group), 90 students receiving at least 60% of the total teaching time the value-promoting program (experimental group for global education, EG-GE) and 100 students (experimental group only for physical education, EG-PE). As main results improvements were found in the EG-GE for responsibility, psychological mediator index, self-determination index, resilience, climate and prosocial behaviours. In the EG-PE improved were observed in the self-determination index, classroom climate and prosocial behaviours. Female students and from EG-GE improve much more than males and from EG-PE. The outcomes in psychological variables can be higher if TPSR is applied to the whole subjects apart from physical education. These results are even more pronounced for female students in personal and social responsibility. It is worth highlighting the importance of coordinating educational institutions to facilitate the involvement of the greatest number of teachers.

The COVID-19 crisis has resulted in a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) [1]. COVID-19 is currently the leading cause of death in the United States[2]. Health care providers caring for COVID-19 patients or at high risk of being exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus benefit from a face shield to protect against aerosol droplets that could hit the face and minimize the chance of inadvertently touching the face with contaminated hands, and air filtration to filter out aerosolized SARS-CoV-2. Adapting commercially available full-faced snorkel masks has been proposed as an alternative to narrow the gap in PPE [3]. Here we explore a full-faced snorkel mask with commercially available particulate filters.

In recent years, research has noted the increasing prevalence of mental health problems among university students. The current mental health needs of the university population, along with the multitude of stressors they face, increase the importance of examining their psychological well-being and determining the personal resources that effectively promote it. In this context, the present research aims to analyze the role of psychological capital (PsyCap) and coping strategies as personal resources facilitating psychological well-being (PWB) of university students. Specifically, the mediating role of coping strategies (both adaptive and maladaptive) in the relationship between PsyCap and PWB is explored. The study involved 391 university students from Spain. The results found a partial mediation effect of adaptive coping strategies on the relationship between PsyCap and PWB. Likewise, PsyCap was shown to be a direct positive predictor of adaptive coping strategies and PWB, as well as a direct negative predictor of maladaptive coping strategies. Therefore, it is concluded that PsyCap serves as a valuable personal resource that enhances and strengthens PWB in university students, as well as adaptive coping strategies. PsyCap also decreases the tendency to engage in maladaptive coping strategies. Similarly, the use of adaptive coping strategies contributes to improving students' PWB.

As the COVID-19 pandemic begins to abate and national public health systems are treating the SARS-Cov-2 virus as endemic, many public health measures are no longer mandated, but remain recommended with voluntary participation. One of these is the wearing of fitted face masks, initially mandated to contain, or at least slow, the spread of SARS-CoV-2 which is primarily transmitted via aerosols emitted while breathing, coughing, or sneezing. While the habit of once wearing fitted face masks recedes into memory for much of the population, so does the knowledge of the various types of masks that were once en vogue. To create a record for the future, this paper provides the first comprehensive documentation of the nature and range of fitted facemasks that circulated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Corruption is a legal and moral contravention that generates great concern among nations due to its erosive effects on economic growth, democracy, governance, social equity and the integrity of culture. Therefore, it is necessary to know more about the multiple variables that produce and maintain this phenomenon. This article reports the results of an experimental investigation that sought to provide elements of judgment on the influence of the structure of personal values ​​on the willingness to bribe. For this, 12 couples of young university students of both sexes interacted through a game that simulated a relationship between a corrupter and a corruptible agent, with the help of a real-time communication system, mediated by an online platform, which allowed instant and bidirectional interaction. The couples were randomly constituted and played with each other under double blind. However, the interacting members of the dyad could share values ​​or vary in their axiological structure in such a way that, while one of them could manifest anti-corruption principles, the other's commitment was not so obvious. The results confirm the importance of the axiological structure of people in the facilitation or containment of the corrupt behavior. This article also reflects on the theoretical connotations of the relationships shown.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is characterized by motor deficits and a wide variety of non-motor symptoms. The age of onset, rate of disease progression and the precise profile of motor and non-motor symptoms display considerable individual variation. Neuropathologically, the loss of substantia nigra dopaminergic neurons is a key feature of PD. The vast majority of PD patients exhibit alpha-synuclein aggregates in several brain regions, but there is also great variability in the neuropathology between individuals. While the dopamine replacement therapies can reduce motor symptoms, current therapies do not modify the disease progression. Numerous clinical trials using a wide variety of approaches have failed to achieve disease modification. It has been suggested that the heterogeneity of PD is a major contributing factor to the failure of disease modification trials, and that it is unlikely that a single treatment will be effective in all patients. Precision medicine, using drugs designed to target the pathophysiology in a manner that is specific to each individual with PD, has been suggested as a way forward. PD patients can be stratified according to whether they carry one of the risk variants associated with elevated PD risk. In this review we assess current clinical trials targeting two enzymes, leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) and glucocerebrosidase (GBA), which are encoded by two most common PD risk genes. Because the details of the pathogenic processes coupled to the different LRRK2and GBA risk variants are not fully understood, we ask if these precision medicine-based intervention strategies will prove “precise“ or “personalized“ enough to modify the disease process in PD patients. We also consider at what phases of the disease that such strategies might be effective, in light of the genes being primarily associated with the risk of developing disease in the first place, and less clearly linked to the rate of disease progression. Finally, we critically evaluate the notion that therapies targeting LRRK2 and GBA might be relevant to a wider segment of PD patients, beyond those that actually carry risk variants of these genes.

Human footprint is having a unique set of ridges unmatched by any other human being, and therefore it can be used in different identity documents for example birth certificate, Indian biometric identification system AADHAR card, driving license, PAN card, and passport. There are many instances of the crime scene where an accused must walk around and left the footwear impressions as well as barefoot prints and therefore it is very crucial to recovering the footprints to identify the criminals. Footprint-based biometric is a considerably newer technique for personal identification. Fingerprints, retina, iris and face recognition are the methods most useful for attendance record of the person. This time world is facing the problem of global terrorism. It is challenging to identify the terrorist because they are living as regular as the citizens do. Their soft target includes the industries of special interests such as defense, silicon and nanotechnology chip manufacturing units, pharmacy sectors. They pretend themselves as religious persons, so temples and other holy places, even in markets is in their targets. These are the places where one can obtain their footprints easily. The gait itself is sufficient to predict the behaviour of the suspects. The present research is driven to identify the usefulness of footprint and gait as an alternative to personal identification.

Men of African ancestry suffer disproportionately from prostate cancer (PCa) than other racial groups in South Africa. Equally concerning is that black South African men generally present later with higher stage and grade of the disease than their non-black counterparts. Despite this, South African black men continue to have little uptake in PCa screening behaviors. The objective of the study was to explore knowledge and beliefs of PCa among black South African survivors. A sample of 20 prostate cancer survivors, with ages ranging from 67 to 85 years (meanage = 76yrs; SD = 5.3) were selected through purposive sampling and requested to participate in the study. Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured individual interviews, and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The findings demonstrated that black South African men had poor knowledge of PCa and that this may create an unfortunate system that preclude this population group from taking part in life-saving PCa screening services. The results highlight a need to elevate knowledge and awareness of PCa among black South African men and ultimately enhance screening practices.

This study investigates the impact of experienced contact on prejudiced attitudes toward individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID), examining beliefs in a just world (BJW) and social dominance orientation (SDO) as potential serial mediators. Data were collected from 224 university students (M = 23.02, SD = 2.48). Path analysis modeling assessed the structural relationships between the study variables. The findings revealed that experienced contact was negatively and significantly associated with BJW and SDO. Additionally, BJW and SDO fully mediated the relationship between experienced contact and overt prejudice. These findings underscore the influence of individual differences on attitudes toward individuals with ID, establishing a crucial foundation for future research and the development of interventions aimed at reducing prejudice and discrimination.

This paper presents the development of a novel anti-violence device titled "no pAIn" (an acronym for Never Oppressed Protected by Artificial Intelligence Nonviolence system), which harnesses the power of artificial intelligence (AI). Primarily designed to combat violence against women, the device offers personal safety benefits for individuals across diverse demographics. Operating autonomously, it necessitates no user interaction post-activation. The AI engine conducts real-time speech recognition and effectively discerns genuine instances of aggression from non-violent disputes or conversations. Facilitated by its Internet connectivity, in the event of detected aggression, the device promptly issues assistance requests with real-time precise geolocation tracking to predetermined recipients, for immediate assistance. Its compact size enables discreet concealment within commonplace items like candy wrappers, or within purpose-built casings, or as wearable accessories. The device is battery-operated. The prototype was developed using a microcontroller board (Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect), incorporating an omnidirectional microphone and Wi-Fi module, all at a remarkably low cost. Subsequent functionality testing, performed in debug mode using the Arduino IDE serial monitor, yielded successful results. The AI engine exhibited exceptional accuracy in word recognition, complemented by a robust logic implementation, rendering the device highly reliable in discerning genuine instances of aggression from non-violent scenarios

Transformative learning is an emerging and unique learning theory for adults. Foreign adult education scholars, represented by Mezirow, have produced significant research results in this field. However, research in this area in China is relatively lacking. This paper interprets the personal story of an English teacher through six stages and combines transformative learning theory to position the roles of adult learners in transformative learning. The author believes that adult learners today must take on six missions and play the roles of discerners, reflectors, communicators, integrators, aspirers, and resilient individuals in the transformative learning process.

Heart rate variability (HRV) is a measurement of the fluctuation of time between each heartbeat and reflects the function of the autonomic nervous system. HRV is an important indicator for both physical and mental status and for broad-scope diseases. In this review, we discuss how wearable devices can be used to monitor HRV, and we compare the HRV monitoring function among different devices. In addition, we have reviewed the recent progress in HRV tracking with wearable devices and its value in health monitoring and disease diagnosis. Although many challenges remain, we believe HRV tracking with wearable devices is a promising tool that can be used to improve personal health.

The years 2019 to 2022 are being marked by the pandemic resulting from a viral infection, COVID-19. The demand and use of PPE has never been so high and it is often discarded without considering the correct disposal route and the environmental impact that this type and volume of waste can generate. The aim of this study was to analyze the increased demand for PPE used during the pandemic and, consequently, the generation of these wastes. In addition to this analysis, it is extremely important to raise the discussion about the treatment of these residues and the possibilities of more ecological personal protection equipment, such as biodegradable or reusable ones. The extensive use of PPE, which is mostly plastics and is not easily degraded, mainly leads to its accumulation in landfills but, if disposed of incorrectly, it could reach marine environments, contributing to the formation of microplastics in the oceans. Therefore, this article also aims to relate these themes to the Sustainable Development Goals, as efficient management aligned with sustainable development goals is essential to mitigate these anticipated problems and ensure a more sustainable future.

Background: Active ageing is a multidimensional, relative, and context-dependent concept with different paths and outcomes. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore personal active ageing strategies in a specific context. Method: Following a directed content analyze procedure, we conduct semi structured individual interview with 39 elder (men and women) between the ages of 60-97 years that selected with purposeful sampling .data collection and analysis were concurrent. We analyzed the data from interviews, written narratives, and field notes using directed content analyze. The Reliability of data was fulfilled in accordance Lincoln and Guba criteria. We stopped data collection when no new concept was added and data saturation occurred. Results: Based on the experience of elders, we identified 5 categories: 1) Preventive 2) Coping 3) Internal self-control 4) Coherence maintenance strategies 5) Opportunity exploiting strategies. These described the active ageing strategies when encountering with age related change. Utilizing these strategies, the elder accompanied the life time. Conclusion: The finding suggests that active ageing is a continuous process in confronting age related change. The identified strategies can help to promote active ageing by familiarizing older with opportunities of life and training them in how to use these strategies.

Artisanal goldminers in Ghana are exposed to various levels and forms of health, safety and environmental threats. Without the required legislation and regulations, artisanal miners are responsible for their own health and safety at work. Consequently, understanding the probabilities of self-protection at work by artisanal goldminers is crucial. A cross-sectional survey of 500 artisanal goldminers was conducted to examine the probabilities of personal protective equipment use among artisanal goldminers in Ghana. The data was subjected to both descriptive and inferential statistics. Initial findings showed that personal protective equipment use among artisanal miners was 77.4%. Overall, higher probabilities of personal protective equipment use was observed among artisanal goldminers who work in good health and safety conditions as compared to artisanal miners who work in poor health and safety conditions. Also, personal protective equipment use was more probable among the highly educated artisanal goldminers, miners who regularly go for medical screening and the most experienced miners. Additionally, personal protective equipment use was more probable among artisanal miners who work in non-production departments and miners who work in the medium scale subsector. Inversely, personal protective equipment use was less probable among female artisanal miners and miners who earn more monthly income ($174 and above). To increase self-care and safety consciousness in artisanal mining, there is the need for a national occupational health and safety legislation in Ghana. Also, interventions and health promotion campaigns for better occupational conditions in artisanal mining should target and revise the health and safety related workplace programs and conditions

Introduction: The SARS-CoV2 pandemic has led to an worldwide shortage of Personal Protection Devices (PPD) for medical and paramedical personnel. Adaptation of commercially available snorkel masks to serve as full face masks has been proposed. Even not formally approved as PPD, they are publicized on social media as suitable for this use. Concerns about actual protection levels and risk of carbon dioxide (CO₂) accumulation while wearing them for extended periods made us perform a systematic testing of various brands, in order to verify whether they are as safe and effective as claimed. Methods: A ‘fit’ test was performed, analogous to gas mask testing. Respiratory safety was evaluated by measuring end-tidal CO₂ and oxygen saturation while wearing the masks in rest and during physical exercise. Masks were tested with 3D adaptors to mount regular bacterial-viral ventilator filters when available, or with snorkel openings covered with N95/FFP2 cloth. Results: Modified masks performed reasonably well on the fit test, comparable to regular N95/FFP2 masks. Not all ventilator filters are equally protective. For all masks, a small initial increase in end-tidal CO₂ was noted, remaining within physiological limits. Masks with specific adaptors (3D printed or provided by the manufacturer) are safer, have more flexibility and reliability than makeshift adaptations. Conclusions: These masks can offer benefit as a substitute for complete protective gear as they are easier to don and remove and offer full-face protection. They may be more comfortable to wear for extended periods. Proper selection of mask size, fit testing, quality of 3D printed parts and choice of filter are important.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is rapidly spreading across the world. In Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), 11 out of 26 provinces have been affected on 19 June 2020. The purpose of this study was to assess the public views, attitudes and beliefs related to the COVID-19 pandemic among the population of an unaffected city.Methods: This is a descriptive observational study conducted in an unaffected city using a questionnaire. Findings: A total of 769 people participated. The average age was 36 ±14 years. The sex ratio (male: female) was 1.6. The majority of respondents (97%) is aware of the existence of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is well informed about the signs of the disease, its severity and barrier measures, however few of them have adopted the change in habit and behavior in respect of the barrier measures. Lack of water for handwashing is the most common difficulty in complying with barrier measures (71%). The COVID-19 is considered as an artificial virus designed to reduce the world population by 26%, God’s punishment (22%). Only 36% of the participants are in favor of vaccination against COVID-19. Vaccine is, a western conspiracy to spread COVID-19 in Africa (38%), testing it on Africans (35%), sterilize Africans’ people (12%).Conclusions: Cities not yet affected by COVID-19 in DRC are aware of the existence of the disease, but insufficiently prepared to deal with it. It is important to increase awareness on barrier measures, combating false information, and improving regular water supply for regular handwashing.

Safety and health issues are growing concerns in the agricultural sector among farm-workers in South Africa. The current health pandemic arising from the corona virus has thrown these issues into the spotlight, and this study explored the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of using personal protective materials among farm-workers in the banana sector. Using a case study of 10 large farms in the lower south coast of South Africa, we utilized descriptive and inferential analysis to identify the demographic composition of farm-workers in the study area, examine their perception of specific personal protective materials, and determine the relationship between demographic characteristics and perception of personal protective materials. Farm-workers in the study area were found to be predominantly single black males aged between 36-55years, with no more than a primary education, with work experience of between 6-10 years and employed as unskilled farm-labourers. Perceived usefulness (83%) and perceived ease of use (79%) for personal protective materials was high. Respondents gender (p=0.012), marital status (p=0.029), level of education (p=0.035) and farm-work experience (p=0.008) were significant, while their age (p=0.057), population group (p=0.160) and work classification (p=0.203) were not found significant in determining perceived usefulness or perceived ease of use. Our study makes valuable contribution to the existing body of knowledge regarding farm-worker safety issues by exploring perception of personal protective materials.

Background: The healthcare workers are exposed to dangerous pathogen agents during the outbreak of the new coronavirus COVID-19. To minimize the risk of becoming infected by this virus, healthcare workers need to wear the most appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE). Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze the guidelines that the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend for the rational use of EPP to protect healthcare workers against the novel coronavirus COVID-19.Methodology: To learn how to effectively protect healthcare workers against the COVID-19, a detailed analysis and comparison of the WHO and CDC guidelines related to the proper use of personal protection equipment (PPE) in different healthcare settings was carried out. Results: The results of this study based on an analysis of PPE recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicated that the safety and protection of healthcare workers can be maximized if the guidelines suggested by these institutions are followed. In general, the WHO and CDC recommendations based on medical practices are similar, and depending on the healthcare activities and settings where the healthcare workers perform their work, suggest wearing medical/surgical facemasks, respirators, googles and face shields (eye protection), gloves, gowns and aprons. Conclusions: The protection and safety of the healthcare workers can be maximized during the outbreak of COVID-19 by following the WHO and CDC recommendations described in this study. The general guidelines offered by these institutions are similar and based on medical practices.

The American Civil War has been commemorated with a great variety of monuments, memorials, and markers. These monuments were erected for a variety of reasons, beginning with memorialization of the fallen and later to honor aging veterans, commemoration of significant anniversaries associated with the conflict, memorialization sites of conflict, and celebration of the actions of military leaders. Sources reveal that during both the Jim Crow and Civil Rights eras, many were erected as part of an organized propaganda campaign to terrorize African American communities and distort the past by promoting a ‘Lost Cause’ narrative. Through subsequent decades, to this day, complex and emotional narratives have surrounded interpretive legacies of the Civil War. Instruments of commemoration, through both physical and digital intervention approaches, can be provocative and instructive, as the country deals with a slavery legacy and the commemorated objects and spaces surrounding Confederate inheritances. Today, all of these potential factors and outcomes, with internationally relevance, are surrounded by swirls of social and political contention and controversy, including the remembering/forgetting dichotomies of cultural heritage. The modern dilemma turns on the question: In today’s new era of social justice, are these monuments primarily symbols of oppression, or can we see them, in select cases, alternatively as sites of conscience and reflection encompassing more inclusive conversations about commemoration? What we save or destroy and assign as the ultimate public value of these monuments rests with how we answer this question. In this essay, drawing from the testimony of scholars and artists, I address the conceptual landscape of approaches to the presentation and evolving participatory narratives of Confederate monuments that range from absolute expungement and removal to more restrained ideas such as in situ re-contextualization, removal to museums, and preservation-in-place.

Concerning the hippocampal mechanisms that simultaneously function to map environmental position and to generate episodic memories, a developing consensus emerged by the early 21st century. The hippocampus was recognized as embodying the primary location of personal narrative development, with the ability to create stable and coherent narrative largely representing the mental health of individuals. Determining recent advances regarding the relationship among the hippocampus, narrative, and mental health, a limited, six-database review was conducted for peer reviewed articles published since 2019. Of the 127 records located, 14 reports were included for study. The results support the necessity of creating and maintaining a stable and coherent narrative as fundamental to human mental health such that facts will be distorted in personal accounts, sleep will be disrupted, and DNA altered to retain one’s personal narratives. With narrative development fundamental to human mental health, a goal of interventions concerning hippocampal function and positive health outcomes is enhancing personal narratives in providing individuals with the ability to construct and recall those that are robust and effective. One such intervention that has proven successful in this regard, the Health Narratives Research Process, is outlined with its most recent results presented, offering opportunity for further such research.

The intention to repurchase is a key component in relationship marketing. However, minimal attention has been paid to how customers’ habitual behavior moderates the relationship between customers’ evaluation of benefits received from a service provider and the intention to revisit, specifically in a personal service business where customer-service provider interactions likely constitute the core of a sustainable relationship. To address this gap, the current study proposes and tests a comprehensive model to advance the theory of relationship marketing (RM) and additionally contributes to social exchange theory (SET) as well as the theory of repurchase decision-making (TRD) in the business service context. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to examine the relationships of the research model. Based on data collected from 482 customers on their perceptions of hairstylists, the empirical findings revealed that relational benefits significantly affect post-experience behavior-satisfaction, trust and relationship commitment, and subsequently boost the intention to revisit. Furthermore, habit as an unconscious factor moderates the paths between revisit intention and its determinants. Although several limitations exist, the findings practically and theoretically make a contribution to the literature on relationship marketing.

Following the well-known pandemic, declared on 30 January 2020 by the World Health Organi-zation, the request for new global strategies for the prevention and mitigation of the spread of the infection has come to the attention of the scientific community. Nanotechnology has often managed to provide solutions, effective responses, and valid strategies to support the fight against SARS-CoV-2. This work reports a collection of information on nanomaterials that have been used to counter the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In particular, the objective of this work is to illustrate the strategies that have made it possible to use the particular properties of nanomaterials, for the production of personal protective equipment (DIP) for the defense against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The hybrid personal cooling system (HPCS) consisted of ventilation fans and phase change materials (PCMs) covered with insulation pads is a promising wearable cooling system to mitigate heat strain and heat-related illnesses of occupational workers with heavy labor in hot environments. Effects of clothing characteristics (e.g., thermal resistance of insulation pads, latent heat and melting temperature of PCMs) on the thermal performance of the HPCS have been investigated in detail in our previous study. Apart from the aforementioned factors, environmental conditions, i.e., environmental temperature and relative humidity, also significantly affect the thermal performance of the HPCS. In this paper, a numerical parametric study was performed to investigate the effects of the environmental temperature and relative humidity (RH) on the thermal management of the HPCS. Five levels of air temperature under environmental RH=50% were chosen (i.e., 32, 34, 36, 38 and 40 ºC) to study the impact of environmental temperature on the HPCS’s cooling performance. In addition, four levels of environmental RH at ambient temperatures of 36 and 40 ºC were selected (i.e., 30, 50, 70 and 90%) to examine the effect of RH on cooling performance of the HPCS. Results show that high environmental temperatures could accelerate the PCM melting process and thereby weaken the cooling performance of HPCS. In the moderately hot environment (36 °C), the HPCS presented good cooling performance with the maximum core temperature at around 37.5 °C during excise when the ambient RH≤70%, whereas good cooling performance could be only seen under RH≤50% in the extremely hot environment (40 °C). Thus, it may be concluded that the maximum environmental RH for the HPCS exhibiting good cooling performance decreases with the increase in the environmental temperature.

Sexual issues and treatment side effects are not routinely discussed with men receiving treatment for prostate cancer and support to address these concerns is not consistent across settings. This study evaluates a brief e-learning resource designed to improve sexual wellbeing support and examine its effects on healthcare professionals’ sexual attitudes and beliefs. Healthcare professionals (n=44) completed an online questionnaire at baseline which included a modified 12-item sexual attitudes and beliefs survey (SABS). Follow-up questionnaires were completed immediately after the e-learning and at 4 weeks. Data were analysed using one-way, repeat measures ANOVAs to assess change in attitudes and beliefs over time. Significant improvements were observed at follow-up for a number of survey statements including ‘knowledge and understanding’, ‘confidence in discussing sexual wellbeing’ and the extent to which participants felt ‘equipped with the language to initiate conversations’. The resource was seen as concise, relevant to practice, and as providing useful information on potential side effects of treatment. Brief, e-learning has potential to address barriers to sexual wellbeing communication and promote delivery of support for prostate cancer survivors. Practical methods and resources should be included with these interventions to support implementation of learning and long-term changes in clinical behaviour.

The COVID-19 pandemic drew public attention back to the living conditions related to housing, access to green areas in close neighbourhood and nearby recreation. Several studies confirm that visiting green spaces improved the health and wellbeing in times of crisis. This representative study for the metropolitan area of Vienna, Austria’s capital, confirms the high relevance of contact with nature, particularly for citizens to cope with the negative consequences and perceived stress, anxiety, nervousness and many other negative symptoms experienced during the health crisis. It highlights the importance of nearby smaller but also medium to large scale green areas in cities for health and wellbeing of the population. Moreover, it specifically adds novel insights on age effects in use and perception of urban green spaces during COVID-19 pandemic. The online panel survey (n=1012) was conducted in summer 2021. In order to obtain a representative sample reflective of the population’s characteristics, a (stratified) random sample was selected by applying the quota method. The objective was to obtain a sample which represented gender, age and regional distribution of the population of the City of Vienna as well as the immediately surrounding local communities. Interestingly, particularly young people spent more time outside in green areas during the pandemic, discovered novel spaces for the first time and stated a high relevance of contact with nature for their wellbeing. Elderly people above sixty five, on the contrary, stayed more frequently at home. Significant differences are visible between the age groups also with regard to negative symptoms experienced in case of restricted access to green areas due to strict pandemic measures such as lockdowns and quarantine. All age groups, however, similarly acknowledged the importance of green areas for their physical, mental and emotional health in general during the pandemic.

The 2020 revision of South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) updated procedures for the use of medical data for research. The PIPA provision allowing “pseudonymized information” to be used without the consent of the data subject for scientific research introduced ambiguity regarding the applicability of the PIPA versus the Bioethics and Safety Act (BSA), which allows “anonymized information” to be used for research only after data-subject consent and IRB approval for human-subject research are obtained. The main points requiring clarification include the distinction between “human-subject” and “scientific” research, the definition of anonymization and pseudonymization, the requirements for data-subject consent, and the procedures for institutional review boards (IRBs) and data review boards (DRBs). After reviewing the legal concepts and processes, this article recommends clarification of the guidelines for the use of medical data in research by distinguishing the concept and, in the long run, categorizing medical data based on the degree of risk.

Quantitative research on positive aspects of work-life integration and the well-being of families with children with disabilities is scarce, especially in the national context. The aim of this study was to examine the contributions of some personal and environmental resources in explaining work-to-family (WFF) and family-to-work (FWF) facilitation and mental health of parents of children with disabilities residing in Croatia. The mediational role of WFF and FWF in the relationship between the resources and mental health was tested, while controlling for some general socio-demographic variables. A total of 571 employed parents of a child/children with disabilities completed an online self-assessment questionnaire. The results showed higher WFF (19%) was predicted by higher levels of social support at work, a higher level of education, posttraumatic growth (PTG) of personal strength, and recovery management. Higher FWF (46%) was predicted by higher levels of social support in the family, PTG of personal strength, the emotional regulation strategy of reorienting to planning, optimism, a lower age, the male gender, a greater number of children, and a higher level of education. A higher level of mental health (47%) was predicted directly by higher levels of optimism, recovery management, FWF, emotional regulation strategies of positive refocusing and planning, and a greater number of children, and indirectly by all the predictors of FWF, through a higher level of FWF (but not WFF).

The Particulate Matter (PM), particles of variable but small diameter could penetrate the respiratory system via inhalation, causing respiratory and/or cardiovascular diseases. This study aims to evaluate the association of environmental particulate matter (PM2.5) and black carbon (BC) with respiratory health and physical activity in users traveling by transportation modes over four roads in Bogotá. This was a mixed-method study, in 300 healthy participants, based on a convergent parallel design. Including a descriptive qualitative component focused on asserting the individual perception of air pollution by semi-structured interviews and a cross-sectional study measuring the individual exposure to PM2.5 and BC to evaluate the pulmonary function by spirometry. The analysis included concurrent triangulation and a Poisson regression. This study provides integration of air pollution exposure variables and respiratory health effects in different transport microenvironments. To our knowledge, this is the first mixed-methods study focused on PM2.5, BC, and respiratory health effects in a city above 2.000 meters above sea level.

Abstract: Increasing physical activity (PA) and personal and social values are two of the greatest demands in the current educational system. This study examined the effect of a hybrid pro-gramme based on the Personal and Social Responsibility Model and Gamification. A total of 58 students (13.89 years old, SD = 1.14) in two groups (Experimental and Control) participated dur-ing a complete academic year. Motivation, physical activity and sedentary behaviour were as-sessed though questionnaires. Physical fitness was evaluated using previously validated field tests. The results showed significant differences over time between EG and CG in afterschool physical activity (APA) at the weekend (p = 0.003), sedentary time (p = 0.04) and speed-agility (p = 0.04). There were no significant differences in motivation. Regarding the intervention, speed-agility (p = 0.000), strength (p = 0.000), agility (p = 0.000), cardiorespiratory fitness (p = 0.001), APA-weekend (p = 0.000), APA-week (p= 0.000) and sedentary time (p = 0.000) increased signifi-cantly in the EG. Speed-agility (p = 0.000), APA-weekend (p = 0.03) and sedentary time (p = 0.008) increased in the CG. The use of this hybrid program can be useful to produced improvements in physical fitness, physical activity and sedentary hevaviours. The use of a hybrid program based on teaching personal and social responsibility and gamification strategies, produced improvements in physical fitness, physical activity and sedentary behavior, but not in motivation variables. Further research is demanded in order to contrast this relevant findings due to the potential drawbacks and diversity found in the scientific literature among model-based practice.

This article propose a didactic, through games, tool based on information and communication technologies, in order to eliminate possible communication barriers and to promote the inclusion of students with hearing impairment in Physical Education classes. To this end, a dossier of traditional games has been developed. These are structured in turn into objectives, materials, organisation, graphic description and a QR code for each game. These codes are linked to different videos hosted on the YouTube platform, in which the explanation of the games, mentioned above, can be visualised graphically using sign language. The whole creative process is described in the article, as well as possible pedagogical applications of the use of the tools created for this purpose in other educational contexts.

The study investigates the determinants of mobile Internet banking adoption among Gen-Y in Malaysia. Align the issue of the study and research objectives, and the study underpinned Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as the main guideline or a blueprint to analyze the research model. The study applied survey research design and analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) under the PLS-SEM technique with SmartPLS 2.0. A total of 358 mobile internet banking users in Malaysia were random proportional selected as respondents and analyzed. Results from the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) revealed that perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, facilitating condition, and personal innovativeness in IT have significantly influenced the attitude of mobile internet banking adoption in Malaysia. Additionally, perceived ease of use and facilitating conditions found to have a significant influence on the perceived usefulness of Mobile Internet Banking. Lastly, facilitating conditions and personal innovativeness in IT are significantly influence the perceived ease of use of mobile internet banking among Gen-Y in Malaysia

Using low-cost portable air quality (AQ) monitoring devices is a growing trend in personal exposure studies enabling a higher spatio-temporal resolution and identifying acute exposure to high concentrations. Comprehension of results by participants is not guaranteed in exposure studies. However, information on personal exposure is multiplex, which calls for participant involvement in information design to maximise communication output and comprehension. This study describes and proposes a model of a user centred design (UCD) approach for preparing a final report for participants involved in a multi-sensor personal exposure monitoring study performed in seven cities within the EU Horizon 2020 ICARUS project. Using a combination of human-centred design (HCD), human-information interaction (HII) and design thinking approaches, we iteratively included participants in the framing and design of the final report. User needs were mapped using a survey (n=82), and feedback on the draft report was obtained from a focus group (n=5). User requirements were assessed and validated using a post-campaign survey (n=31). The UCD research was conducted amongst participants in Ljubljana, Slovenia and the results report was distributed among the participating cities across Europe. The feedback received made it clear that the final report was well-received and helped participants better understand the influence of individual behaviours on personal exposure to air pollution.

Background: Developing patient-centric baseline standards that enable the detection of clinically significant outlier gene products on a genome-scale remains an unaddressed challenge required for advancing personalized medicine beyond the small pools of subjects implied by “precision medicine”. This manuscript proposes a novel approach for reference standard development to evaluate the accuracy of single-subject analyses of metabolomes, proteomes, or transcriptomes. Since distributional assumptions of statistical testing may inadequately model genome dynamics of gene products, the so-called significant results of previous studies may artefactually conflate with real signals. Model confirmation biases escalate when studies use the same analytical methods in the discovery sets and reference standards, as corroboration of results leads to an evaluation of reproducibility confounded with replicated biases rather than a measure of accuracy. We hypothesized that developing method-agnostic reference standards using effect-size and expression-level filtering of results, obtained from multiple discovery methods that are distinct from the one evaluated, would maximize the evaluation of clinical-transcriptomic signals and minimize statistical artefactual biases. We developed and released an R package “referenceNof1” to facilitate the construction of robust reference standards. Results: Since RNA-Seq data analysis methods often rely on binomial and negative binomial assumptions to non-parametric analyses, the differences create statistical noise and make the reference standards method dependent. In our experimental design, the accuracy of 30 distinct combinations of fold changes (FC) and expression levels (EL) were determined for five types of RNA analyses in two different datasets. This design was applied to two distinct datasets: breast cancer cell lines and a yeast study with isogenic biological replicates in two experimental conditions. In addition, the reference standard (RS) comprised all RNA analytical methods with the exception of the method testing accuracy. To mitigate for biased optimization of the RS parameters towards a specific analytical method, similarity between observed results of distinct analytical methods were calculated across all methods (Jaccard Concordance Index). The greatest differences were observed across diametric extremes. For example, filtering out differentially expressed genes (DEGs) using a fold change < 1.2 leads to a 50% increase in concordance between techniques when compared to results with FC > 1.2. Combining this FC cutoff with genes with mean expressions > 30 counts leads to a 65% increase in concordance in comparison to genes with expression levels < 30 counts and with FC < 1.2. Conclusions: We have demonstrated that comparing accuracies of different single-subject analysis methods for clinical optimization requires a new evaluation framework. Reliable and robust reference standards, independent of the evaluated method, can be obtained under a limited number of parameter combinations: fold change (FC) ranges thresholds, expression level cutoffs, and exclusion of the tested method from the RS development process. When applying anticonservative reference standard frameworks (e.g., using the same method for RS development and for prediction), a majority of the concordant signal between prediction and Gold Standard (GS) cannot be confirmed by other methods, which we conclude as biased results. Statistical tests to determine DEGs from a single-subject study generate many biased results that require subsequent filtering for increasing their reliability. Conventional single-subject studies pertain to one or a few measures in one patient over time [1]and need a substantial conceptual framework extension in order to address the tens of thousands of measures in genome-wide analyses of gene products. The proposed referenceNof1 framework addresses some of the inherent challenges in improving transcriptome scale single-subject analyses by providing a robust approach to constructing reference standards. Github: https://github.com/SamirRachidZaim/referenceNof1

The objective of the present study was to apply an intervention program based on emotional ed-ucation and self-knowledge, in students of the degree in Education to verify changes in wisdom. For this, the 3S-WS questionnaire was administered before and after 8 weeks of intervention, an-alyzing aspects related to affective, cognitive and reflective wisdom. The sample consisted of 100 students (40 men and 60 women, aged between 20 and 29 years). After the intervention program, students improved reflective wisdom without difference between sexes. On the other hand, men had higher values in all variables than women. In conclusion, the program to improve personal development and self-awareness could be useful to improve wisdom (especially reflective wis-dom) in 3rd and 4th year students of the degree in Education, specializing in Physical Education. At the same time, it is intended that these students understand the foundations of the intervention so that in the future it can be replicated in their classrooms and contribute to the sustainable de-velopment of the 2030 Agenda.

Personal Mobility Vehicle (PMV) which has an inward tilting angle turns with the lateral force due to large camber angle, so it is necessary to consider the lateral movement of the tire vertical load axis during turning. Although the steering torque mechanism are very different from those of automobiles, there are not many examples which studied the steering torque mechanism of PMV. In this paper, based on the effects of six components force acting on the tires, a method for setting the steering axis specifications is derived, including the geometrical minimization of steering moment disturbance due to the vertical load reaction force during turning. Although, automobile tires have a significant ground camber angle when traveling on rutted roads, they do not have it on slant roads because the vehicle body tilts along the road surface. On the other hand, in PMV, the vehicle body always keeps upright when traveling both on slanted roads and on rutted roads. Therefore, the tires have ground camber angles on both types of road surface. We study the straight running ability under such road surface disturbances based on the geometrical minimization of steering moment disturbance due to the vertical load reaction force during turning. This straight running ability can be a remarkable strong point of PMV with an inward tilt mechanism.

The oncologic merits of laparoscopic technique for colorectal cancer surgery remain debatable. Eligible patients with non-metastatic colorectal cancer who were scheduled for an elective resection by only one surgeon in a medical institution were randomized to either laparoscopic or open treatment. During this period, total 188 patients received laparoscopic surgery and other 163 patients to open approach. The primary endpoint was cancer-free 5-year survival after operative treatment and secondary endpoint was the tumor recurrence incidence. We found there was no statistically significant difference between open and laparoscopic groups regarding average number of lymph nodes dissected, overall mortality rate, cancer recurrence rate or cancer-free 5-year survival. Nevertheless, laparoscopic approach was more effective for colorectal cancer treatment with shorter hospital stay and less blood loss despite operation time was significantly longer. Meanwhile fewer patients receiving laparoscopic approach developed postoperative urinary tract infection, wound infection, pneumonia or anastomosis leakage, which reached statistical significance. For non-metastatic colorectal cancer patients, laparoscopic surgery resulted in better short-term outcomes whether in total complications and intra-operative blood loss. Though there was no significant statistical difference in terms of cancer-free 5-year survival and tumor recurrence, we favor patients receiving laparoscopic surgery if not contraindicated.

Introduction: The academic landscape is increasingly recognizing the complex interplay of personal and professional responsibilities on scholarly productivity. For women scholars, particularly those with significant parenting duties, this balance is even more precarious. This study aims to explore how family responsibilities, personal vulnerabilities, and motivational theories such as Imposter Syndrome and Self-Determination Theory (SDT) influence the motivation to publish scholarly work. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for developing supportive mechanisms that can enhance academic productivity and personal fulfilment. Methods: Utilizing a Qualitative Evidence Synthesis (QES) framework, this study will systematically review and synthesize qualitative research on women scholars' experiences in academia, focusing on the challenges and motivators related to publishing. Data sources will include academic databases, grey literature, and first-hand narratives. Thematic analysis will be employed to identify key themes and patterns across the collected data. Results/Findings: Preliminary findings suggest that the dual demands of parenting—especially in extreme cases such as assuming responsibility for seven children—and academic work significantly impact women scholars' publishing activities. Personal vulnerabilities, including imposter syndrome and low self-efficacy, further exacerbate these challenges. However, the data also highlight resilience strategies and the potential for intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors to mitigate these effects. Discussion: The study underscores the nuanced impact of familial and personal factors on academic motivation. The preliminary findings suggest that addressing imposter syndrome and enhancing self-determination could be pivotal in supporting women scholars. The role of institutional policies and academic culture in either exacerbating or alleviating these challenges is also discussed. Significance: By elucidating the specific challenges and motivators for women scholars in publishing, this study will contribute to the development of targeted interventions and policies that support work-life integration and promote academic productivity. The insights that will be gained could inform mentorship programs, institutional support systems, and policy reforms aimed at fostering a more inclusive and supportive academic environment.

Underreporting is the main limitation of the spontaneous reporting systems. This study aims to reduce underreporting enhancing public participation in vaccinovigilance through an SMS-based reporting system integrated with electronic immunization registries (IRs). Using the VigiVax software, parents of vaccinated children aged 2 years or younger received a single SMS inquiry about adverse events following immunization (AEFI). Responses were collected, validated by health operators and integrated with the information on IRs. AEFI reports were automatically submitted to the Italian Pharmacovigilance system. Among 254,160 SMS messages sent, corre-sponding to 451,656 administered doses (AD), 71,643 responses were collected (28.2% response rate), 21,231of them (8.3%) reporting an AEFI. After seriousness assessment based on clinical criteria, 50 reports (0,24%) were classified as serious. Among these, causality assessment identi-fied 31 reports at least potentially related to the vaccination (RR: 6.86/100,000 AD). Febrile seizures following MMRV vaccination accounted for 11 of these 31 cases, with an incidence of 32 per 100,000 AD. No fatal outcomes were reported. Our findings support the highly favorable risk profile of pediatric vaccinations and the possibility to improve spontaneous reporting through the integration of digital technologies.