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Characteristics and smoking behaviors among patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) in South Africa.
Get PDFIntroduction: Cigarette smoking is an independent risk factor for drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB), highlighting the importance of developing effective smoking cessation strategies tailored to specific contextual insights.The aim of this study was to assess the smoking behaviours, cessation attempts, and associated factors among patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB). Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in three specialized DR-TB public hospitals in the KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. Data were collected using a structured interviewer-administered questionnaire adapted from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey. 196 participants (172 males, 24 females) with an average age of 36.13 years ± 10.27 SD were included. Results: The study found 172 of the 196 participants to be male. The mean age of the participants was 36.13 years ± 10.27 SD, with 182 between the ages 21 and 50 years old. 64% had completed secondary level of education, followed by 21% who had primary schooling. 63% were unemployed. Of the participants, 95.3% smoked daily: 36.2% within five minutes of waking, 25.5% within 30 min, and 31.1% within one hour. Manufactured cigarettes were used by 84.8%, while 21.8% preferred self-rolled cigarettes. Only 64% disclosed their smoking behaviour upon hospital admission. In the past year, the following reasons were given for attempts to quit smoking, TB diagnosis (111/196), health concerns (44/196), and personal factors (20/196). Conclusion: The findings underscore the urgent need for targeted smoking cessation interventions integrated into DR-TB care, emphasizing consistent counselling, improved disclosure of smoking behaviors, and enhanced education on smoking risks to support patients in quitting
Effective Capacity of Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access with Finite Blocklength for Low-Latency Communications
Get PDFIn this paper, we focus on investigating the link-layer rate within a non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) system operating in the finite blocklength (FBL) regime, specifically designed for short-packet communications. By leveraging the effective capacity (EC) framework, latency and reliability in FBL, encompassing parameters such as the block error probability and the delay outage probability, are analyzed for two scenarios, namely, system operation with multiple NOMA pairs and the two-user NOMA operation. Closed-form expressions for the EC in the two cases are derived by assuming that transmissions are subject to Rayleigh fading and adopting a practical path-loss model. Numerical results are provided to validate the analytical findings, and to highlight the impact of the transmit signal-to-noise ratio, the blocklength, the delay exponent, and the block error probability, on the EC and the delay outage probability. Furthermore, various pairing configurations are investigated and demonstrate that the paired NOMA set attains the highest total EC for users experiencing substantial differences in their channel conditions
Coalition Government and the Electoral Consequences of Legislative Organization
No full textVoters are increasingly turning away from governing parties in parliamentary elections, with junior parties in coalition governments often bearing the brunt of the electorates’ dissatisfaction. Can the design of legislative institutions help parties mitigate the electoral costs of governing? We suggest that in systems with strong legislative committees, junior coalition parties are better positioned to protect their party’s policy brand from being eroded, which in turn helps insulate them from the electoral costs of governing. Analyzing data on legislative committees and party-level electoral outcomes in 36 European and OECD countries 1990-2019, we find that stronger parliamentary committee systems associate with harsher electoral costs for the prime minister's party but reduced electoral costs for junior coalition parties. Our findings suggest that the structure of legislative institutions in parliamentary systems can have significant electoral implications, including relatively positive outcomes for smaller governing parties
The Need for Judicial Interpretation of the Infanticide Act 1938
Get PDFIt is widely accepted that the purpose of the Infanticide Act 1938 is to offer mercy for women who kill their infants while ‘the balance of her mind was disturbed’ due to birth/lactation. However, to date there is limited judicial interpretation of the statute and debate continues as to whether the disturbance of mind must be based on medical evidence of a bio-psychiatric illness. Recent cases indicate women are now finding it difficult to make use of infanticide, especially where the victim is newborn, thus clarification on the meaning of this law is urgently needed. Drawing on statutory interpretation and supported by in-depth historical analysis of the law and Parliament's intent, we argue that the Infanticide Act can and should be interpreted to include social factors that lead women to fatally harm their infants in early motherhood, and should not require a mental disorder diagnosis. In this regard, we highlight the need for a gender-sensitive approach to statutory interpretation which takes account of the history and context of this crime, and lived realities of women who kill their babies. Such an interpretation not only provides just outcomes in these cases, but also re-establishes the purpose of the legislation and clarifies interpretation. In applying the rules of statutory interpretation, we identify the significant role of the socio-historical context of legislation, particularly for older statutes that are rarely used. The article finishes with a brief exploration of the potential for statutory reform.</jats:p
The individual and the collective: the politics of becoming for and with others
Get PDFThis paper explores twin aspects of Hans Asenbaum’s discussion in The Politics of Becoming: Anonymity and Democracy in the Digital Age. It first, and briefly, considers what democratic subjectivity connotes for Asenbaum. Here, it focuses on the relation between the production of democratic political subjectivity and democratic practices of self-constitution. Its main goal, however, is to examine Asenbaum’s understanding of disidentification and, in particular, the relation he envisages here between the individual and the collective. It asks whether disidentification might entail not a politics of becoming but a politics of becoming with others
The politics of artificial intelligence supply chains
Get PDFThe rising demand for generative artificial intelligence (AI) is fueling the growth of extractive supply chains to build and power the infrastructures this technology demands. However, there is ambiguity within the scholarly literature about what constitutes an AI supply chain. By connecting discussions across disciplinary boundaries, this article proposes a novel theoretical framework to conceptualise the AI supply chain as consisting of four inter-connected spheres of ‘AI infrastructure’, ‘AI preparation’, ‘AI deployment’ and ‘e-waste’. It adopts the case study of OpenAI’s ChatGPT to map one such example of an AI supply chain. In so doing, it analyses emerging forms of political contestation and resistance, revealing how the development of these supply chains gives rise to political issues of supply chain opacity, an increasing concentration of actors and power and new forms of coalitional politics. The article contributes to our understanding of AI systems through the development of a more holistic approach that examines end-to-end AI production as an iterative process, providing a new perspective on the journey of material flows within these logistical networks
Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration in the Ecology of School Principals: A Multitrait-Multimethod and Nomological-Network Examination of the BPNSFS
No full textSchool leaders face intensifying demands, creating a leadership crisis. We apply Self-Determination Theory (SDT) to examine how leaders’ basic psychological needs operate under constrained autonomy—formal authority amid persistent external controls. Using survey data from 1,950 Australian school leaders, we offer a substantive–methodological reflection that (a) extends validation of the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (BPNSFS) with novel methods and (b) demonstrates SDT’s relevance to demanding leadership roles.
We validate the BPNSFS two-facet structure—three needs (autonomy, competence, relatedness) crossed with two valences (satisfaction, frustration)—across two waves via a 3×2 multitrait–multimethod (MTMM) design with time as method. We then link this structure to a nomological network of 64 workplace variables spanning job demands, resources, well-being, and burnout. Our substantive–methodological synergy supports four propositions:
• Satisfaction and frustration are separable and differentially predict well-being and ill-being;
• Active need thwarting and frustration, especially of autonomy, relates more strongly to ill-being than merely insufficient satisfaction;
• Demands map more strongly to frustration, while resources align more strongly with satisfaction, consistent with the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model and SDT’s dual process model;
• Content-specific patterns emerge—autonomy relates to voice and justice, competence to efficacy, and relatedness to collegial support.
Across bivariate and multivariate (orthogonal-contrast) tests, autonomy frustration predicts burnout and intent to leave, whereas autonomy satisfaction predicts professional commitment and well-being—evidence of a constrained-autonomy paradox in which leaders have formal authority but limited practical discretion—extending SDT through methodological synergy in service of theoretical development
Call me a woman or a PhD, why a woman PhD? An exploration of gender-biased and gender-inclusive language in Chinese.
Get PDFThis thesis investigates asymmetrical representations of women in Chinese. It examines attitudes toward sexist and nonsexist language, and perceptions of gender-neutral versus gender-marked representations of social roles. Focusing on default and female-marked representations of women, the research targets young adults born after China’s Reform and Opening-up (1980–2004) and living in mainland China. Study 1 presents the first empirical data on attitudes toward sexist and inclusive language in Mainland China. Using an adapted Chinese version of the Inventory of Attitudes Toward Sexist/Nonsexist Language – General. It also explores how age, sex, and gender beliefs influence these attitudes. Findings show younger participants in this study favouring language reform and gender-inclusive language more strongly. Women generally hold more positive attitudes than men, likely driven by different motivations in adopting or resisting gender-inclusive language. Study 2 examines perceptions of redundant gender-marked nouns when referent sex is explicitly shown. A sentence-rating experiment tested acceptability across conditions, analysing how noun stereotypes and participants’ gender beliefs shape evaluations. Female-marked nouns were generally more accepted than male-marked ones, with only male-marked forms influenced by stereotypes. Participants with stronger egalitarian beliefs preferred gender-neutral forms, linking asymmetrical acceptance to both stereotypes and social attitudes. Study 3 explores how gender-neutral and female-marked terms shape perceptions of women in male-dominated professions. A between-participant experiment measured recall accuracy, achievement evaluations, and expectations for women and self. Results highlight the benefits of female-marked forms in increasing visibility and expectations, while revealing complex effects of short-term and long-term exposure to counter-stereotypical women, participants’ sex, and gender beliefs on perceptions of gender representations. Collectively, this thesis bridges sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics, offering foundational insights into how gender and social beliefs shape language perceptions in Chinese
Global data empires: Analysing artificial intelligence data annotation in China and the USA
Get PDFAs the two leading countries in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, China and the United States largely rely on separate AI infrastructure and data annotation ecosystems. Studies have focussed almost exclusively on data annotation associated with American and European companies, limiting our understanding of how this contrasts with the Chinese development of AI. This article provides a comparative analysis of the political economy of the Chinese and American/European AI data annotation ecosystems, focusing on the role of the state and the practice of outsourcing to data annotation institutions. It finds that while the US state plays a protectionist role concerning AI infrastructure such as semiconductors and data centres, it adopts a laissez-faire approach to data annotation. The Chinese state, however, understands it has a comparative advantage in data and invests heavily in its own data ecosystem while maintaining stringent regulations for Chinese tech companies. Secondly, many US companies outsource data annotation work to business process outsourcing centres and digital platforms, whereas Chinese companies maintain these activities in-house or, through a process of ‘inland-sourcing’, send this work to ‘third-tier’ cities in Chinese provinces to data labelling bases, often jointly managed by local government and private companies
Proposing a Model for the Evaluation of the Iranian Maternal Mortality Surveillance System: A Mixed Method Study
Get PDFObjectives: The introduction of a suitable subjective model is the first step in drawing up an evaluation plan. This research was conducted to design an evaluation model for the National Maternal Mortality Surveillance System (MMSS) in Iran. Materials and Methods: This mix method study was carried out in four phases. Firstly, the current status of the Iranian MMSS was analyzed, and secondly, various sources of information were examined to identify the guidelines on the evaluation of public health surveillance systems. The guidelines were compared to identify the evaluation steps and the actions required at each step. In addition, the components of the initial model were identified using an expert panel and through considering the results of previous phases. Two rounds of the Delphi method were employed to determine acceptance or rejection of the extracted components. Results: The obtained model includes four axes: (a) the description of the surveillance system (b) the general evaluation planning (c) implementation of the evaluation and (d) post-evaluation follow-ups. Some components of this model are: the purpose and operation of the system, triggers, purpose and objectives of the evaluation, data collection methods and tools, the method of presenting the findings and giving feedback. Conclusions: This model presents different indicators concerning the importance of the system, questions and indicators for the evaluation of system features, standards for assessment the quality of the evaluation activities, and other important components. Using this information to design the evaluations can lead to comparable evaluation results