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Challenging diabetes mellitus-related stigma with targeted education
Diabetes mellitus is a highly prevalent chronic metabolic disorder that requires rigorous self-management to prevent complications and maintain health. Managing diabetes can also be psychologically challenging for those living with the condition, significantly affecting their mental health, particularly when diabetes-related stigma manifests as discrimination, social rejection and internalised shame. This article examines how diabetes-related stigma often stems from misconceptions about the condition, but nonetheless can adversely affect the self-care, physical health and quality of life of people living with the condition. The author explains how mitigating this stigma through targeted education, empathic communication and advocacy is essential and explores the pivotal role of nurses in reducing diabetes-related stigma
Preserving Differential Privacy in Deep Learning Based on Feature Relevance Region Segmentation
In the era of big data, deep learning techniques provide intelligent solutions for various problems in real-life scenarios. However, deep neural networks depend on large-scale datasets including sensitive data, which causes the potential risk of privacy leakage. In addition, various constantly evolving attack methods are also threatening the data security in deep learning models. Protecting data privacy effectively at a lower cost has become an urgent challenge. This paper proposes an Adaptive Feature Relevance Region Segmentation (AFRRS) mechanism to provide differential privacy preservation. The core idea is to divide the input features into different regions with different relevance according to the relevance between input features and the model output. Less noise is intentionally injected into the region with stronger relevance, and more noise is injected into the regions with weaker relevance. Furthermore, we perturb loss functions by injecting noise into the polynomial coefficients of the expansion of the objective function to protect the privacy of data labels. Theoretical analysis and experiments have shown that the proposed AFRRS mechanism can not only provide strong privacy preservation for the deep learning model, but also maintain the good utility of the model under a given moderate privacy budget compared with existing methods
Investor Sentiment and the Risk‐Return Relation: A Two‐in‐One Approach
Traditional finance theory posits a positive risk–return relation, but empirical evidence is inconclusive. Retail investor sentiment has long been viewed as a distorting factor, while more recently institutional investor sentiment is thought to play a role. We examine the separate and joint impacts of retail and institutional investor sentiments on the risk-return relation. We find, at both market and firm levels, the risk-return relation is more likely to be distorted by the two investor-type sentiments jointly, rather than separately. We further find a cross-sectional pattern, with the risk-return relation being more sensitive to investor sentiment for stocks with specific characteristics
Evaluation of a web-based intervention to optimize perinatal emotional wellbeing: A nested case-control study
Background/Objective: WazzUp Mama© is a remotely delivered web-based tailored intervention to prevent and reduce perinatal emotional distress, originally developed in the Netherlands. The current study aimed to evaluate the adapted WazzUp Mama© intervention in a Flemish (Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) perinatal population. Methods: A 1:3 nested case-control study was performed. A data set including 676 participants (169 cases/507 controls) was composed based on core characteristics. Using independent t-test and chi-square, the two groups were compared for mean depression, self and perceived stigma, depression literacy scores, and for positive Whooley items and heightened depression scores. The primary analysis was adjusted for covariates. Results: The number of positive Whooley items, the above cut-off depression scores, mean depression, perceived stigma, and depression literacy scores showed statistically significant differences between cases and controls, in favor of the intervention group. When adjusting for the covariates, the statistically significant differences between cases and controls remained for depression, perceived stigma, and depression literacy, for the positive Whooley items and for above cut-off depression scores. Conclusion: WazzUp Mama© indicates to have a moderate to large positive effect on optimizing perinatal emotional wellbeing, to positively change perceived stigma and to increase depression literacy
A horizon scan of issues affecting UK forest management within 50 years
Forests are in the spotlight: they are expected to play a pivotal role in our response to society’s greatest challenges, such as the climate and biodiversity crises. Yet, the forests themselves, and the sector that manages them, face a range of interrelated threats and opportunities. Many of these are well understood, even if the solutions remain elusive. However, there are also emerging trends that are currently less widely appreciated. We report here the results of a horizon scan to identify developing issues likely to affect UK forest management within the next 50 years. These are issues that are presently under-recognized but have potential for significant impact across the sector and beyond. As the forest management sector naturally operates over long timescales, the importance of using good foresight is self-evident. We followed a tried-and-tested horizon scanning methodology involving a diverse Expert Panel to collate and prioritize a longlist of 180 issues. The top 15 issues identified are presented in the Graphical Abstract. The issues represent a diverse range of themes, within a spectrum of influences from environmental shocks and perturbations to changing political and socio-economic drivers, with complex emerging interactions between them. The most highly ranked issue was ‘Catastrophic forest ecosystem collapse’, reflecting agreement that not only is such collapse a likely prospect but it would also have huge implications across the sector and wider society. These and many of the other issues are large scale, with far-reaching implications. We must be careful to avoid inaction through being overwhelmed, or indeed to merely focus on ‘easy wins’ without considering broader ramifications. Our responses to each of the challenges and opportunities highlighted must be synergistic and coherent, involving landscape-scale planning. A more adaptive approach to forest management will be essential, encouraging continual innovation and learning. The 15 horizon scan issues presented here are a starting point on which to build further research, prompt debate and action, and develop evidence-based policy and practice. We hope that this stimulates greater recognition of how our forests and sector may need to change to be fit for the future. In some cases, these changes will need to be fundamental and momentous
Influential factors of pro‐environmental behaviors among franchisees in the fast‐food sector
In spite of the increasing attention on environmental sustainability, there is a dearth of knowledge about franchisees' pro-environmental behaviors. This study aims to understand the factors that influence the extent to which franchisees engage in pro-environmental behaviors in the fast-food sector. The research is based on in-depth interviews with franchisees operating restaurants in the fast-food sector in France. The empirical evidence in this qualitative study shows how franchisees' pro-environmental behaviors can be explained as a result of organizational and personal factors, thereby extending the theory of planned behavior, norm-activation-model and organizational support theory within the franchising context. This study offers avenues for more research on green practices in franchising, as well as in the hospitality sector and other sectors such as retailing. It provides important implications for franchise practitioners in the fast-food sector on how to create a more environmentally sustainable business model. The findings offer the first known model of pro-environmental behaviors of franchisees
Severe dissociative experiences beyond detachment in a large clinical sample of inpatients with PTSD: Diagnostic and treatment implications
Introduction: The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) contains a dissociative subtype of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) characterized by depersonalization and derealization. Yet, there is evidence that dissociative symptoms in PTSD go beyond this kind of detachment dissociation and that some patients present with additional compartmentalization dissociation in the form of auditory-verbal hallucination, amnesia, and identity alteration. Methods: Hence, in this study, we examined latent profiles of childhood trauma (Childhood Trauma Questionnaire), PTSD (Impact-of-Event Scale-Revised), and pathological dissociation (Dissociative Experiences Scale-Taxon; DES-T) in a large sample of severely traumatized inpatients with PTSD (N = 1360). Results: Results support a three-class solution of the latent profile analysis with a PTSD class, a dissociative subtype class, and a third class characterized by more complex and more severe dissociative symptoms. Importantly, in our inpatient sample of patients with severe PTSD, the latter class was found to be the most prevalent. Both the exploratory character of our retrospective analysis of clinical routine data and the use of the DES-T limit the generalizability of our findings, which require methodologically more rigorous replication. Conclusion: In severe PTSD, dissociative symptoms beyond detachment are highly prevalent. Diagnostic and treatment implications are discussed
Review of Music Literacy Strand of the Oxford Music Analysis Conference (July 2023), Society for Music Analysis
This review provides a summary and discussion of the ‘Music Literacy’ strand (day 1) of the Society for Music Analysis's OxMAC conference (University of Oxford, July 2023). The review highlights how the ever-expanding range of musics currently studied in higher education calls for an increasingly multifaceted understanding of the term ‘music literacy’. This was explored at the conference through presentations focusing on diverse aspects of music literacy, including its relationship with music technology, popular music, music pedagogy, musical hermeneutics and musical traditions grounded in the concepts of vibration and timbre. The review contextualises these presentations by outlining how they relate to wider current debates within music education at a variety of levels as well as the agenda of the Society for Music Analysis
Cumulative risk exposure is associated with increased risk for PTSD but not depression or anxiety. Results from a UK clinical sample of children and adolescents
BackgroundChildhood adversity can include traumatic experiences and exposure to other risk factors; consistently predicting poorer psychosocial outcomes in adulthood. Relatively little research has investigated the impact of cumulative risk exposure in childhood. Using data collected in a specialist clinical setting, we investigated the associations between risk exposure, psychopathology and psychosocial functioning.MethodParticipants were children attending the Attachment and Trauma service at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London (N=132, M=10.25, SD=3.35). Data was collected via routine clinical practice during multi-disciplinary assessments. Data was collected on developmental and trauma history, psychopathology, and functioning (CGAS), using standardised measures, clinical interviews, and observations.ResultsAll children had experienced at least one risk factor, with 78% reporting multiple exposures, including witnessing interpersonal violence (52%), neglect (48%), and physical abuse (42%). Other risk exposures included exposure to alcohol (17%) and substances (24%) in-utero, as well as social risk factors such as multiple foster placements in some cases.In this sample, 65% of children met criteria for at least one psychiatric diagnosis (Anxiety = 31%, PTSD = 28%, Depression = 8%). High levels of functional impairment were found, with 52% of children falling into the highest categories of ‘obvious’ or ‘severe’ problems.Multiple risk exposure significantly predicted PTSD (OR 9.64 (1.1, 83.7)), but did not predict anxiety, depression, or functional impairment.ConclusionThis study highlights the rates of cumulative risk exposure in this clinical sample. The findings demonstrate the importance of detailed and accurate clinical assessments in ascertaining trauma histories in children with known histories of adversity and maltreatment. There are implications for assessment and treatment, such as the importance of clear guidelines on treating PTSD in children with complex trauma histories