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The role of resilience in the relationship between intimate partner violence severity and ICD-11 CPTSD severity
Get PDFBackground: Resilience is a modulating factor in the development of PTSD and CPTSD after exposure to traumatic events. However, the relationship between resilience and ICD-11 CPTSD is not adequately understood in survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV).Objective: The aim of this study is to determine whether resilience has a mediating role in the relationship between severity of violence and severity of CPTSD symptoms.Method: A sample of 202 women IPV survivors completed self-rated questionnaires to assess CPTSD, severity of violence and resilience.Results: Mediation analyses indicated that there was a direct relationship between the severity of violence and the severity of CPTSD symptoms (β = .113, p<.001) and that there was a significantly inverse relationship between levels of resilience and the severity of CPTSD symptoms (β = -.248, p<.001). At the same time, there was no significant relationship between the severity of violence and resilience (β = -.061, p = .254).Conclusions: These findings suggest that resilience does not mediate the relationship between violence severity and CPTSD severity. Directions for future research are discussed
Toxic Fake News Detection and Classification for Combating COVID-19 Misinformation
Get PDFThe emergence of COVID-19 has led to a surge in fake news on social media, with toxic fake news having adverse effects on individuals, society, and governments. Detecting toxic fake news is crucial, but little prior research has been done in this area. This study aims to address this gap and identify toxic fake news to save time spent on examining nontoxic fake news. To achieve this, multiple datasets were collected from different online social networking platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. The latest samples were obtained by collecting data based on the topmost keywords extracted from the existing datasets. The instances were then labeled as toxic/nontoxic using toxicity analysis, and traditional machine-learning (ML) techniques such as linear support vector machine (SVM), conventional random forest (RF), and transformer-based ML techniques such as bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT) were employed to design a toxic-fake news detection (FND) and classification system. As per the experiments, the linear SVM method outperformed BERT SVM, RF, and BERT RF with an accuracy of 92% and -score, -score, and -score of 95%, 85%, and 87%, respectively. Upon comparison, the proposed approach has either suppressed or achieved results very close to the state-of-the-art techniques in the literature by recording the best values on performance metrics such as accuracy, F1-score, precision, and recall for linear SVM. Overall, the proposed methods have shown promising results and urge further research to restrain toxic fake news. In contrast to prior research, the presented methodology leverages toxicity-oriented attributes and BERT-based sequence representations to discern toxic counterfeit news articles from nontoxic ones across social media platforms
LGBT+ ballroom dancers and their shoes: Fashioning the queer self into existence
Get PDFThis article examines the role of dance shoes in LGBT+ ballroom dancers’ identity formation and expression on the dancefloor. Applying Entwistle’s (2015) ‘situated bodily practice’ to an analysis of ethnographic field notes and 35 interviews, I highlight that dancers’ performative constitution of subversive identities through reiterative mobilisation of the traditional symbolic values of dance shoes is influenced by the material. The article makes a key contribution to sociological knowledge on performativity through an introduction of materialities of place, bodies and artefacts into a close reading of reiterative acts. I argue that a closer look into performative acts is necessary for determining whether and how resistance is constituted, recognised and reproduced, taking into account how materialities interweave with discourse in order to give credit to subversive agents emerging in the micro-moments
“Like fighting a fire with a water pistol”: A qualitative study of the work experiences of critical care nurses during the COVID‐19 pandemic
Get PDFAimTo understand the experience of critical care nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic, through the application of the Job-Demand-Resource model of occupational stress.DesignQualitative interview study.MethodsTwenty-eight critical care nurses (CCN) working in ICU in the UK NHS during the COVID-19 pandemic took part in semi-structured interviews between May 2021 and May 2022. Interviews were guided by the constructs of the Job-Demand Resource model. Data were analysed using framework analysis.ResultsThe most difficult job demands were the pace and amount, complexity, physical and emotional effort of their work. Prolonged high demands led to CCN experiencing emotional and physical exhaustion, burnout, post-traumatic stress symptoms and impaired sleep. Support from colleagues and supervisors was a core job resource. Sustained demands and impaired physical and psychological well-being had negative organizational consequences with CCN expressing increased intention to leave their role.ConclusionsThe combination of high demands and reduced resources had negative impacts on the psychological well-being of nurses which is translating into increased consideration of leaving their profession.Implications for the Profession and/or Patient CareThe full impacts of the pandemic on the mental health of CCN are unlikely to resolve without appropriate interventions.ImpactManagers of healthcare systems should use these findings to inform: (i) the structure and organization of critical care workplaces so that they support staff to be well, and (ii) supportive interventions for staff who are carrying significant psychological distress as a result of working during and after the pandemic. These changes are required to improve staff recruitment and retention.Reporting MethodWe used the COREQ guidelines for reporting qualitative studies.Patient and Public ContributionSix CCN provided input to survey content and interview schedule. Two authors and members of the study team (T.S. and S.C.) worked in critical care during the pandemic
The Impact of Pfizer's Social Media Engagement During COVID-19
Get PDFThe aim of this article is to study the impact of social media engagement and public attention on Pfizer during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our study focuses on Twitter to investigate Pfizer's social media activity and engagement during the pandemic. We analyze different social media engagement metrics, such as conversation rates, speed of information diffusion, and public approval ratings. In addition, we use Google Trends to track changes in public attention toward pandemic-related keywords like “COVID-19” and “COVID-19 booster shot” and examine their relationship with Pfizer's stock returns. Our findings suggest that social media engagement during the pandemic had a significant positive impact on Pfizer's returns. Furthermore, we show that, while high levels of public attention toward COVID-19 and COVID-19 booster shot negatively impact Pfizer's returns, social media engagement has a positive incremental effect on the company's returns during periods of heightened public attention
Loneliness and Social Network Characteristics Among Older Adults with Hearing Loss in the ACHIEVE Study
Get PDFBackground: Hearing loss is linked to loneliness and social isolation, but evidence is typically based on self-reported hearing. This study quantifies the associations of objective and subjective hearing loss with loneliness and social network characteristics among older adults with untreated hearing loss. Methods: This study uses baseline data (N=933) from The Aging and Cognitive Health Evaluation in Elders (ACHIEVE) study. Hearing loss was quantified by the better ear, speech-frequency pure tone average (PTA), Quick Speech-in-Noise test, and hearing related quality of life. Outcomes were validated measures of loneliness and social network characteristics. Associations wereassessed by Poisson, negative binomial, and linear regression adjusted for demographic, health, and study design characteristics. Results: Participants were mean of 76.8 (4.0) years, 54.0% female, and 87.6% White. Prevalence of loneliness was 38%. Worse PTA was associated with 19% greater prevalence of moderate or greater loneliness (PR: 1.19.95% CI: 1.06, 1.33). Better speech-in-noise recognition was associated with greater social network characteristics (e.g., larger social network size [IRR: 1.04, 95% CI: 1.00, 1.07]). Worse hearing related quality of life was associated with 29% greater prevalence of moderate or greater loneliness (PR: 1.29, 95% CI: 1.19, 1.39) and worse social network characteristics (e.g., more constricted social network size [IRR: 0.96, 95% CI: 0.91, 1.00]). Conclusion: Results suggest the importance of multiple dimensions of hearing to loneliness and social connectedness. Hearing related quality of life may be a potentially useful, easily administered clinical tool for identifying older adults with hearing loss associated with greater loneliness and social isolation
Navigating Industry 5.0: A Survey of Key Enabling Technologies, Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities
Get PDFThis century has been a major avenue for revolutionary changes in technology and industry. Industries have transitioned towards intelligent automation, relying less on human intervention, resulting in the fourth industrial revolution, Industry 4.0. That is why IoT has been the researcher’s arena for quite some time. With Industry 4.0 still in motion, the world is on the verge of the 5ℎ industrial revolution, a relatively new concept with many unclear opinions regarding its potential benefits, challenges, opportunities, trends, and impact on society. There is a dire need for a broader and more critical perspective. This research paints a bigger picture of “What is happening?” and “What to expect?” during the transition phase of Industry 5.0. In this comprehensive review, we have addressed the stateof- the-art practices in Industry 4.0 and the transitional phase of Industry 5.0. We have highlighted the most promising key enabling technologies, trends, research topics, rising challenges, and unfolding opportunities that can help prepare society for this paradigm shift. The paper then surveys the work toward the outstanding key enablers, challenges, trends, and opportunities for the IoT evolution for Industry 5.0. To spur further avenues for researchers and industrialists, the paper offers conclusive insights at the end. In addition, the article has a precise set of research questions answered in consequent sections and subsections for the reader’s clarity
Digi-Infrastructure: Digital Twin-Enabled Traffic Shaping with Low-Latency for 6G Smart Cities
Get PDFDigital twin (DT)-based smart cities are anticipated to achieve seamless integration between physical and digital objects to satisfy an enormous number of users across all domains. Therefore, the infrastructure of 6G smart cities has become an important topic. Many types and data priorities exist in 6G smart cities; therefore, data traffic management is challenging. Current solutions may face challenges adjusting to swiftly evolving network circumstances and the unexpected rise of time-sensitive data. They require flexibility to handle non-periodic, unforeseen, and time-sensitive traffic, such as mission-critical applications. While current research explores the combination of Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) and 5G, the evolution to 6G also necessitates the integration of TSN and DT technology to achieve deterministic networking. Therefore, taking advantage of DT in data traffic management, we propose a DT-enabled traffic shaping architecture called Digi-infrastructure, consisting of an intelligent traffic shaper inspired by TSN. Our proposed shaper comprises two components: the first component is a frame classification method established on Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) to address the dynamic scheduling problem by minimising the end-to-end delay. The second component is an intelligent gate control mechanism that considers the time, queue status and specified transmission time of traffic classes according to priority based on latency requirements without using a gate control list or timing data gate control. Finally, our solution improves infrastructure connectivity, efficiency, and latency
Biodiversity net gain
No full textMandatory biodiversity net gain (BNG) is a new requirement in addition to existing biodiversity and wildlife planning policy. The 2019 impact assessment for the policy states that developers causing the most environmental damage should face the highest costs to steer development towards the least damaging areas and designs.A baseline survey maps the size, state and presence of differing patches of vegetation types on a development site using the UK Habitat Classification system. The BNG metric, set out in secondary legislation, is used to determine the value of these habitats in “biodiversity units”; the pre-intervention score. Using the metric, biodiversity gain plans demonstrate how the developer will deliver a minimum of a 10% gain in these units; the post development score. These planned units can be on the development site, off the development site or delivered through the purchase of statutory credits as a last resort.A 2024 NAO report found widespread support for mandatory BNG, but that implementation risks were also being raised. The majority of habitat creation and enhancement is projected to occur on development sites. Researchers suggest this may not deliver optimal outcomes for nature recovery objectives, and more holistic approaches are needed to restoring habitats strategically across landscapes are required. The NAO set out risks local authorities will not be able to discharge legal, compliance and enforcement obligations in relation to BNG, as a result of challenges such as insufficient access to ecological expertise
Valorization of diverse waste-derived nanocellulose for multifaceted applications: A review
Get PDFThe study underscores the urgent need for sustainable waste management by focusing on circular economy principles, government regulations, and public awareness to combat ecological threats, pollution, and climate change effects. It explores extracting nanocellulose from waste streams such as textile, paper, agricultural matter, wood, animal, and food waste, providing a detailed process framework. The emphasis is on waste-derived nanocellulose as a promising material for eco-friendly products. The research evaluates the primary mechanical and thermal properties of nanocellulose from various waste sources. For instance, cotton-derived nano-cellulose has a modulus of 2.04-2.71 GPa, making it flexible for lightweight applications. Most waste-derived nanocelluloses have densities between 1550 and 1650 kg/m 3 , offering strong, lightweight packaging support while enhancing biodegradability and moisture control. Crystallinity influences material usage: high crystallinity is ideal for packaging (e.g., softwood, hardwood), while low crystallinity suits textiles (e.g., cotton, bamboo). Nanocelluloses exhibit excellent thermal stability above 200 • C, useful for flame-retardant coatings, insulation, and polymer reinforcement. The research provides a comprehensive guide for selecting nanocellulose materials, highlighting their potential across industries like packaging, biomedical, textiles, apparel, and electronics, promoting sustainable innovation and a more eco-conscious future
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