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Narco-Democratization: Organized Crime and Political Transition in Bolivia
No full textNo abstract available
When waters turn against communities: unraveling water governance, security, and household well-being in hazard-prone coastal Bangladesh
Get PDFWater insecurity, intensified by climate change, environmental degradation, and unsustainable resource management, poses a significant threat to human well-being in coastal regions. This study examines the interrelationships among water governance, household well-being, and water security in southwestern Bangladesh. Using a multistage sampling approach, data were collected from 411 households across nine unions in the Khulna and Satkhira districts, illustrating acute vulnerabilities stemming from ineffective water management, saline intrusion, and inadequate infrastructure. Statistical analyses, including correlation, z-test, chi-square test, and regression, were employed alongside Generalized Structural Equation Modeling (GSEM) to assess the dynamics of water governance and its linkage with water security and well-being. The results suggest that trust, transparency, accountability, and service delivery are key determinants of effective water governance. As hypothesized, effective water governance was positively associated with both household well-being and water security, and higher water security further contributed to improved well-being. The study recommends strengthening coastal water infrastructure through community participation across all project phases, ensuring affordability, integrating resilient solar-powered purification systems, and promoting water-dependent livelihoods. These strategies can reinforce trust, transparency, and service delivery while improving the accessibility, quality, and safety of water for coastal communities
A systematic review to assess swallowing disorders in paediatric patients with sleep-disordered breathing
No full textSleep-disordered breathing (SDB) affects up to 5% of children and is associated with multiple systemic complications. Recent concerns over rare but fatal choking incidents in children with untreated obstructive SDB (oSDB) have developed interest in whether swallowing dysfunction is a contributing factor. This systematic review investigates whether there is evidence linking paediatric oSDB with swallowing disorders, excluding children with known neurological or craniofacial comorbidities. A systematic literature search was conducted across Embase, PubMed, CINAHL, and Cochrane databases (11th November 2024), using PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Studies were included if they involved children with oSDB and reported swallowing assessments. Exclusion criteria included non-English publications, patients with syndromic or craniofacial conditions, and studies lacking primary data. The risk of bias was assessed using ROBINS-I. Nine studies met the inclusion criteria. Reported prevalence of swallowing dysfunction ranged from 4% to 70%, with evidence of both oral-phase (e.g., atypical deglutition, reduced mastication) and pharyngeal-phase (e.g., choking, prolonged feeding) abnormalities. Outcome measures varied widely, with only two studies employing a validated swallowing tool. Three studies indicated that treatment of oSDB (adenotonsillectomy or myofunctional therapy) may improve swallowing symptoms. The quality of evidence was low, with most studies showing moderate to serious risk of bias. There is limited, low-quality evidence suggestive that children with oSDB are at increased risk of swallowing dysfunction. However, heterogeneity in definitions, assessment tools, and study design limits the ability to draw firm conclusions. Episodes of severe swallowing-related complications such as fatal aspiration or choking are rare but clinicians should consider swallowing issues in these patients. Further research with standardised, objective assessments is required to understand better the relationship between SDB and swallowing in children. Early evidence indicates that treated oSDB may improve swallow-related symptoms, but more studies are required before official practice recommendations. Overall, this systematic review highlights a possible link between oSDB and swallowing dysfunction emphasising the need for further objective research to guide clinical care for these patients
Antecedents of test automation adoption in DevOps continuous testing: a systematic literature review through the TOE framework
No full textBackground: The rapid evolution of software engineering has positioned DevOps practices and Continuous Testing (CT) as critical approaches for achieving speed, quality, and reliability in software delivery. Test automation is central to CT, yet its adoption remains inconsistent due to a complex interplay of technological, organizational, and environmental conditions. Objective: This study employs a systematic literature review guided by the Technology–OrganizationEnvironment (TOE) framework to identify, categorize, and synthesize the antecedents that influence the test automation adoption in DevOps continuous testing. Methods: Using the PRISMA protocol, 49 peer-reviewed studies published between 2015 and 2025 were systematically analyzed, yielding 61 distinct factors comprising 29 technological, 19 organizational, and 13 environmental antecedents. These factors were further consolidated into thematic clusters to enhance analytical clarity and reduce fragmentation. Results: The findings demonstrate that technological and organizational drivers, including relative advantage, compatibility, top management support, and employee competence, dominate the literature, while environmental influences such as competitive pressure, regulatory requirements, and vendor ecosystems are comparatively underexplored. This imbalance indicates that although the TOE framework is widely applied in technology adoption studies, empirical research has given greater attention to internal adoption enablers than to external pressures. By simplifying and synthesizing the factors into coherent sub-themes, this study contributes to both theory and practice by offering a structured lens through which test automation adoption can be examined in the DevOps CT context. Theoretically, it validates the relevance of TOE for analysing multidimensional adoption dynamics, while practically, it provides managers with evidence-based insights to prioritize critical factors when planning automation initiatives. Methodologically, it demonstrates the importance of transparent and replicable review processes for advancing cumulative knowledge. Conclusion: Overall, the study bridges fragmented findings into a coherent framework and strengthens understanding of adoption strategies in continuous testing environments
A critical response to the UK’s ‘Sullivan Review’ into sex and gender in research and data
Get PDFThis intervention argues that the UK Government-commissioned independent review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender (the ‘Sullivan Review’) implicitly promotes the erasure of trans and gender diverse people from research and data collection protocols and carries worrying implications for the inclusion of trans people within UK institutions and for critical social science research. Set in a context where trans and gender diverse people's rights are being rolled back in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, the Review attempts to install a singular model of binary, immutable, ‘biological’ sex as incontrovertible across data gathering on sex and gender across public bodies including government, universities, the health service and research organisations. It does so via appeals to science and to ‘clarity’, and by proposing to limit or even in certain cases remove default ethical review processes. The intervention argues that the Review can be situated within broader attempts to erase critical inquiry into the complex, intersectional production of social categories including sex, gender and sexuality, as well as inquiries that extend what ethical principles and governance involve. In sum, we contend that the Review carries deleterious consequences for geography and other social scientific disciplines and call upon scholars to refuse its vision and implications
Why do pedestrians get lost? A case study of personal, situational, and environmental factors in greater London
Get PDFDespite advances in route optimization and navigational technologies, pedestrians still face challenges navigating complex urban spaces. This study aims to identify and quantify the multidimensional factors that influence pedestrian navigation, with the focus on why people get lost. The collected data from an online survey in which 64 participants reported the locations and contextual information of their getting lost events. Building upon literature, expert interviews, and collected data, we identify and quantify 14 environmental, situational, and personal factors influencing pedestrian navigation. We utilize a dual-analytical approach that combines expert-led analytic hierarchy process (AHP) analysis with data-driven regression models to derive distinct weighting schemes for the factors. While the approach based on experts’ opinion (i.e. AHP) demonstrates that familiarity, self-orientation skills, and access to reliable navigation tools are the most important contributing factors, data-driven models additionally highlight the significance of environmental complexity, such as angular distance between exits and number of landmarks near decision points. Importantly, expert-led and data-driven methods reveal different but complementary influences on pedestrian navigation, underscoring the value of combining specialist knowledge with insights derived from observed data to improve our understanding and guide the creation of more navigable urban environments
E-cigarette use among adults with cardiometabolic conditions
Get PDFBackground:
Adults with cardiometabolic conditions are at high risk of smoking-related morbidity and mortality. However, little is known about patterns and predictors of e-cigarette use in this population.
Objectives:
The study therefore aims to examine the prevalence and predictors of current e-cigarette use among adults with cardiometabolic conditions.
Methods:
We analysed data from 6633 adults with cardiometabolic conditions who participated in the 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021 waves of the Scottish Health Survey. For this study, cardiometabolic conditions were defined broadly to include diabetes, high blood pressure, angina, heart attack, and stroke, as well as other physician-diagnosed cardiovascular conditions (irregular heart rhythm, heart murmur, and other heart conditions). Current e-cigarette use was defined as self-reported present use of an e-cigarette or vaping device. Firth penalised multivariable logistic regression was used to examine sociodemographic, behavioural, and health related predictors of e-cigarette use, reporting adjusted odds ratios (AORs), 95 % confidence intervals (CIs), and p values.
Results:
Overall, 5.2 % (95 % CI: 4.6–5.8) of adults with cardiometabolic conditions were current e-cigarette users, with prevalence ranging from 4.6 % (95 % CI: 4.0–5.2) among those with high blood pressure to 8.0 % (95 % CI: 6.1–10.5) among stroke survivors. E-cigarette use was more common in younger adults. Compared with those aged 16–24 years, adults aged 25–34 years (AOR 0.39, 95 % CI: 0.18–0.87, p = 0.021) and those aged 75+ years (AOR 0.05, 95 % CI: 0.02–0.12, p < 0.001) had lower odds of current e-cigarette use. Compared with never smokers, odds were substantially higher among current smokers (AOR 31.27, 95 % CI: 13.19–74.14, p < 0.001) and ex-smokers (AOR 39.65, 95 % CI: 18.06–87.06, p < 0.001). Reporting a desire to quit smoking was associated with higher odds of e-cigarette use compared with not wanting to quit or not smoking (AOR 2.12, 95 % CI: 1.38–3.25, p = 0.001). Higher odds were also observed among individuals with no educational qualifications (AOR 1.75, 95 % CI: 1.18–2.59, p = 0.005) and those reporting poor general health (AOR 1.36, 95 % CI: 1.04–1.77, p = 0.023). Sex, ethnicity, deprivation, psychological distress, and alcohol consumption were not significantly associated with use in the adjusted model.
Conclusions:
Among adults with cardiometabolic conditions, e-cigarette use was more common among younger adults, current smokers, ex-smokers, those who wanted to quit smoking, individuals with lower educational attainment, and those reporting poorer health. These findings suggest the need for clinicians managing patients with cardiometabolic conditions to address e-cigarette use in the context of smoking cessation and secondary prevention
Micromechanical analysis and theoretical modelling of non-orthogonal plastic flow for sand
No full textA systematic study on the non-orthogonal plastic flow of sand is conducted using discrete element modelling, where particles representing the shapes of Toyoura sand are used, enabling the quantitative prediction of material behaviour in triaxial compression. The direction of plastic strain increment obtained by stress probing is analysed with respect to the normal to memory surfaces, which are determined based on a newly developed method. Within the memory surface, the plastic strain increment is small and follows the direction of stress increment. When the stress state is on the memory surface, sand has much lower stiffness, and the plastic strain increment is controlled by both the current stress state and stress increment. A non-orthogonal flow rule for predicting the maximum plastic strain increment direction is evaluated. The underlying mechanism for non-orthogonal flow of sand is analysed by comparing with the plastic response of metal. A bounding surface framework for modelling the full stress-strain relationship is presented
Comparative effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of policies for provisioning rabies post-exposure vaccines
Get PDFIntroduction:
The burden of rabies remains high in low-income countries, where limited access to life-saving post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) leads to preventable deaths. Lack of evidence on the implications of PEP provisioning strategies impedes policy development. We evaluate three PEP strategies under consideration in Tanzania, comparing current limited access, improved access with free provision, and free provision combined with Integrated Bite Case Management (IBCM).
Methods:
We examined data from IBCM implementation on PEP delivery practices, healthcare-seeking, and rabies risk across four Tanzanian regions. Using these data within a decision tree model, we evaluate health outcomes and economic impacts of proposed PEP policies from the healthcare provider perspective, projecting vaccine requirements, costs, and deaths across Tanzania over a five-year period (2026–2030).
Results:
We project approximately 59,000 (95 % PI: 32,000–96,000) rabies exposures nationwide over five years. With this exposure risk, current PEP access leads to around 800 deaths annually (95 % PI: 400–1200). Improved PEP access increases patients starting PEP, driving vaccine requirements to around 24,000 (95 % CI: 14,000–34,000) vials per year and reducing deaths by >40 %. Introducing IBCM reduces total projected deaths over 2026–2030 from 2300 to 2000 while remaining highly cost-effective at $181 per death averted.
Conclusion:
Tanzania's current PEP practice fails to meet the demand for rabies prevention, leading to preventable deaths. Free PEP is a more effective alternative, and implementing IBCM would further strengthen the country's rabies response and accelerate progress toward the target to end human rabies deaths by 2030
Sustainable manufacturing of fully printed Zn/ZnO/CNT Schottky diodes on kraft paper
Get PDFThe escalating generation of electronic waste underscores the critical need for sustainable alternatives to conventional electronic technologies. Printed electronics emerge as a promising approach to address this issue by incorporating sustainable materials, implementing energy-efficient fabrication methods compatible with large-area manufacturing, and integrating end-of-life (EoL) strategies to minimize the environmental impact associated with waste management. In this work, we demonstrate fully printed Schottky diodes on kraft paper substrates fabricated using zinc (Zn) as a sustainable ohmic contact, zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles as the semiconductor layer, and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as the Schottky contact. The devices were manufactured using large area deposition processes at low-temperature and with vacuum-free printing techniques. The Cheung, Norde, and Mikhelashvili methods enabled the estimation of an effective Schottky barrier height of 0.75 ± 0.04 eV, a series resistance of 2.2 ± 1.5 kΩ, and a high ideality factor of 8.0 ± 1.4, which was corrected to 5.1 when it was voltage independent. These analyses also revealed the presence of trap states and the onset of a space-charge-limited current (SCLC) regime, with these electrical properties interpreted being considered and correlated with the morphological and structural characterizations. The diode exhibited a rectification ratio of (1.6 ± 1.2) × 103 and, in a proof-of-concept demonstration, successfully performed half-wave rectification, underscoring its potential for low-power and low-frequency sustainable electronic circuits on paper. Finally, life cycle assessments (LCA) showed the adopted manufacturing approaches and materials provide a lower impact route for fabricating sustainable diodes
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