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Social media, endometriosis, and evidence-based information : an analysis of Instagram content
No full textSocial media platforms are used for support and as resources by people from the endometriosis community who are seeking advice about diagnosis, education, and disease management. However, little is known about the scientific accuracy of information circulated on Instagram about the disease. To fill this gap, this study analysed the evidence-based nature of content on Instagram about endometriosis. A total of 515 Instagram posts published between February 2022 and April 2022 were gathered and analysed using a content analysis method, resulting in sixteen main content categories, including “educational”, which comprised eleven subcategories. Claims within educational posts were further analysed for their evidence-based accuracy, guided by a process which included fact-checking all claims against the current scientific evidence and research. Of the eleven educational subcategories, only four categories (cure, scientific article, symptoms, and fertility) comprised claims that were at least 50% or greater evidence-based. More commonly, claims comprised varying degrees of evidence-based, mixed, and non-evidence-based information, and some categories, such as surgery, were dominated by non-evidence-based information about the disease. This is concerning as social media can impact real-life decision-making and management for individuals with endometriosis. Therefore, this study suggests that health communicators, clinicians, scientists, educators, and community groups trying to engage with the endometriosis online community need to be aware of social media discourses about endometriosis, while also ensuring that accurate and translatable information is provided
Like parent, like child : MNCs' CSR and their foreign subsidiaries’ environmental footprint
No full textThis study examines how MNCs’ foreign subsidiaries respond to internal demands from the parent and external demands from the host and home institutions to determine their environmental footprint. Using a sample of subsidiaries of U.S. MNCs operating in China, we find that subsidiary environmental footprint is negatively related to parent environmental performance. We also find that the impact of parent environmental performance on subsidiary environmental footprint is weakened by the levels of legal system development, collectivism, and political system development in regions where MNC subsidiaries operate and is heightened by the strength of social capital and stringency of environmental regulations in regions where MNC headquarters are located. Our findings have implications for executives of MNCs and policymakers
"Talk to strangers!" : Omegle and the political economy of technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation
No full textThis article examines how technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation has flourished within the laissez faire regulatory frameworks of neoliberalism, and argues that political economy should play a more central role in theorising about child sexual abuse. Drawing on the case study of Omegle, a livestreaming website that matches strangers via webcam, the paper illustrates how deregulatory trends have produced an alignment between the sexual interests of child sexual abusers and the economic interests of some online service providers. The paper suggests that intersecting political ideologies and economic structures have increased opportunities for child sexual exploitation and decreased formal and informal controls, while recruiting paedophilic desires and exploitative subjectivities within processes of capital accumulation. The paper explores the implications of political economy for theories of child sex offending, which have typically focused on the psychological, social and legal dimensions of child sexual abuse while overlooking the role of capitalist structures and imperatives
Perspectives of people with dysphagia and their supporters on the potential for 3D food printing to improve mealtime-related quality of life
No full textPurpose: To understand the views of people with dysphagia and their supporters on the feasibility of using
3D food printing to improve the visual appeal of texture-modified foods and their mealtime experiences.
Materials and Methods: Nine people with dysphagia and four of their supporters engaged in a virtual
3D food printing experience and interview over Zoom# about their impressions and usability of the
printer and potential for it to improve their mealtime experiences. The in-depth interviews were analysed
using thematic analysis and usability heuristics.
Results: Four content themes in the interviews impacted on the feasibility of 3D food printing. They
related to the practicality, design acceptability, population suitability, and cost of 3D food printing.
Usability heuristic analysis revealed that print quality, user control, error prevention, and handling of food
consistencies would impact on use. Perceived low efficiency and increased time required to create food
shapes meant participants were cautious in their overall impressions of the role of the device.
Conclusion: After an immersive virtual experience with a 3D food printer, people with dysphagia and
their supporters identified a wide range of usability issues that would need to be addressed prior to
implementation and in the future design of user-friendly 3D food printers for people with dysphagia.
Future research should include people with dysphagia and their supporters in 3D food printer design and
implementation trials
South Asia
No full textThis chapter examines the development of public law in South Asia: a legal family that has been defined by its history of British colonialism and continued adherence to the common law legal tradition. It traces the evolution of constitutionalism in four countries – India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – since their independence from Britain, focusing on two common regional themes. The first is the judicialisation of politics through the adoption (or at least consideration) of the basic structure doctrine, which permits courts to define and enforce implicit limits on constitutional amendments. The second is the centralisation (and abuse of) executive power, which has imperilled democratic rule in all four countries. While neither of these developments is specific to South Asia, the interplay between them, resulting in separate spheres of unchecked judicial and executive domination, is perhaps unique to the region and warrants further attention from comparative scholars
Cool Christianity: Hillsong and the Fashioning of Cosmopolitan Identities
No full textWhen did Christianity become cool? How did an Australian church conquer the world and expanded into Brazil, a country with its own crop of powerful megachurches? In her exciting new book, anthropologist Cristina Rocha analyzes the creation of a transnational Pentecostal field between Brazil and Australia, two countries that have been peripheral in the history of Pentecostalism but which more recently have been at the forefront of new forms of global Pentecostalism. She shows how new and reconfigured forms Christianity in both the Global North and South are increasingly digitally mediated, engaged with youth and popular cultures, and involve new forms of consumption, branding, and identity. The Australian megachurch Hillsong has expanded globally through a Cool Christianity style that embraces pop music, digital media, spectacle, branding, and celebrity culture. Rocha follows young Brazilians from their budding Hillsong fandom, to their journey to Australia to join the church and study at its college, and on their return to Brazil. She argues that Brazilian middle-class youth join Hillsong to become cosmopolitan and to distinguish themselves from the Pentecostalism of the Brazilian poor. Notwithstanding Hillsong’s recent scandals, the megachurch offers them an alternative geography of belonging, where pastors speak English and Christianity is about love, ethics, rationality, autonomy, and more equal relations between congregants and pastors. Rocha makes a strong argument for the importance of the local in globalization studies, and the key roles of class, affect, and aesthetics for an understanding of the formation of religious subjectivities and communities
A CODE model bridging crowding in sparse and dense displays
No full textVisual crowding is arguably the strongest limitation imposed on extrafoveal vision, and is a relatively well- understood phenomenon. However, most investigations and theories are based on sparse displays consisting of a target and at most a handful of flanker objects. Recent findings suggest that the laws thought to govern crowding may not hold for densely cluttered displays, and that grouping and nearest neighbour effects may be more important. Here we present a computational model that accounts for crowding effects in both sparse and dense displays. The model is an adaptation and extension of an earlier model that has previously successfully accounted for spatial clustering, numerosity and object-based attention phenomena. Our model combines grouping by proximity and similarity with a nearest neighbour rule, and defines crowding as the extent to which target and flankers fail to segment. We show that when the model is optimized for explaining crowding phenomena in classic, sparse displays, it also does a good job in capturing novel crowding patterns in dense displays, in both existing and new data sets. The model thus ties together different principles governing crowding, specifically Bouma’s law, grouping, and nearest neighbour similarity effects
Marketing financial services in Africa : exploring the heterogeneous middle-class consumer across nine countries
No full textOur paper investigates how the heterogeneous structure of the middle class in sub-Saharan Africa influences its consumption of financial services, identifying drivers for their selection of these services. Implications for marketing practice are outlined. This research is an across-country city-based exploratory study in ten cities where structured questionnaires were used in interviews to obtain information from respondents over a period of 2 years. Our findings identify the importance of the financial realities of the three middle-class groups of the Accomplished, Comfortable and Vulnerable on their consumption of financial services and answer the question of what drives demand for these services. The three groups have varied spending and saving habits, perceptions of financial services and financial aspirations. We identify six key drivers for selecting services, namely availability, accessibility, affordability, status, security and trust. Technology is a key mediating variable of the marketing mix considerations. Marketing practice implications indicated a need for marketers to recognise the importance of the heterogeneity of the middle class and its influence on segmentation strategies. Opportunities for new approaches to new product development and marketing communication strategies that leverage the heterogeneity of the middle class are outlined. Marketers should also consider the varied influence of the drivers for the choice of financial services among the three groups. Our findings reinforce the need and potential that exist for financial services providers to improve the financial inclusion of previously marginalised consumers
Timing matters : unpacking the dynamics of project-based groups through exploring proxy efficacy and collective efficacy
No full textProject-based learning (PjBL) is used in classrooms around the world. During PjBL projects, students develop shared beliefs about the capabilities of their groups (collective efficacy) and fellow group members (proxy efficacy). Currently, knowledge about how these shared beliefs are associated with the performances of PjBL groups is limited. The central question addressed in this study concerns what role do collective efficacy and proxy efficacy beliefs have in the performances of PjBL groups completing science projects in school settings? Participants were 252 (46 female, 206 male) Grade 8 science students at two Catholic high schools in Sydney, Australia, randomly assigned to one of 63 project groups. Within each group, students were randomly assigned to one of 4 roles – coordinator, fixer, checker, or communicator. Data were self-reports and teacher summative assessments. Data collection occurred three times over a five-week period. Multilevel modelling was used to examine relationships between the study variables. This study found that proxy efficacy beliefs regarding the coordinator and communicator at the project midpoint had statistically significant associations with the performance of PjBL groups. It was also found that collective efficacy for group performance at Time 3 was associated with the performance of PjBL groups on the summative task. These findings provide novel insights into the role of efficacy beliefs in the performance of PjBL groups. A key takeaway is that beliefs about group members’ capabilities to fulfill their roles are important in the developing stages of projects, with shared beliefs about the group’s capabilities for high achievement becoming important in the latter stages of projects. As such, these findings should provide educators with information about when they should nurture certain types of efficacy beliefs over the duration of PjBL projects
A values-led approach to technological change
No full textIn this article, I argue that as technology advances at ever faster rates, it is imperative to approach each new technological development through the lens of core values. Criminal and community justice and higher education are discussed to highlight how technological developments can challenge our values and progress on parallel tracks. In community justice, technology has been most prominent in the utilization of electronic monitoring and tracking. EM was initially promoted as an alternative to custody but is increasingly utilized as an adjunct to custody, an extra element of punishment, or as an extra level of surveillance. It is important to interrogate the values of the use of this technology and the impact of monitoring on individuals and diverse and possibly disadvantaged groups. It is also important to study if the use of technology support inhibits rehabilitation. Higher Education has a long history of being challenged and disrupted by technology. Most recently, it is the use of Artificial Intelligence that has raised anxiety. If the skills and abilities that universities teach become redundant and how educators tell whether students are submitting assignments written by themselves are also important to research. The results of such discussions provide educational values in the purpose and nature of education