1,721,341 research outputs found
Pleasing the 'Bubble:' Abe Shinzo's Strategic Self-Exhibition on Facebook
Full text linkNot only is Abe Shinzo on the way to becoming Japan's longest-serving Prime Minister in the country's history. With more than 1 million followers on Twitter and slightly less than 600 hundred thousand fans on Facebook, he is by far the most successful Japanese political leader on social media. Commentators have described Abe's turn to social networking services (SNS) as a "revenge" against "traditional" media against the background of a growing use of SNSs by other major Japanese political actors. At any rate, particularly through Facebook, combining text and pictures of himself on and off duty, Abe has successfully established his own mode to communicate with and "exhibit" himself to voters, citizens and the global community of netizens. This paper aims to address the following research question: on which themes and key concepts is this "presentation of the self" based? In other words, how is the Prime Minister communication staff constructing Abe's "social" image and to which audience is this aimed? Based on Goffman's theorization and later application of his work on the study of online social interactions, this paper illustrates the strive to ensure the consistency of Abe's use of the SNS with previously expressed concepts and ideas (e.g., in the 2006 book "A Beautiful Country"), with the aim of pleasing the "bubble" of like-minded individuals constituting Abe's (online) support base, and avoid issues that might possibly harm the Prime Minister's reputation. Abe's Facebook activity (a combination of text and pictures) during a critical time in his second tenure (2017), in which he faced cronyism allegations while coping with gaffes and scandals involving cabinet members, provided a case in point for multimedia content analysis
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 evolution: How mutations affect XBB.1.5 variant
No full textA cross-sectional audit of benzodiazepine use among general practice patients.
No full textIn order to assess how many general practice patients take benzodiazepines for long periods, a cross-sectional audit of clinical practice was conducted. During a 3-day census period, 26 general practitioners in the area of Bergamo, Italy, entered into the study every patient who was taking benzodiazepines. The prevalence of use of this class of drugs was 14.0\% (CI 12.5-15.7), while the prevalence of daily use for 12 months or more was 4.7\% (CI 3.8-5.8). Finally, the prevalence of very long-term use of benzodiazepines, i.e. those taking these drugs for more than 10 years, was 0.65\% (CI 0.34-1.14). Compared to non-long-term users, long-term users were older (OR 2.38, CI 1.39-4.08) and had a lower level of education (OR 2.40, CI 1.04-5.54). In addition, insomnia was associated with long-term use of this class of drugs (OR 1.82, CI 1.02-3.24). These findings provide evidence that the long-term use of benzodiazepines is an important issue in everyday general practice and that this calls for precise management tactics
Is the competition between variants the end of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pandemic? A journey from Wuhan to XBB.1.16
Full text linkThe World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated 780 million severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections and approximately 6.9 million deaths related to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as of March 2023 (https://covid19.who.int/). These numbers have allowed COVID-19 infection to be ranked as one of the most important pandemics in terms of prevalence and mortality in recent human history, causing widespread fear and concern for global health security
The new phase of pandemic: Are BA.2.75 and BQ.1 competitive variants? An in silico evaluation
No full textHydrological aspects of the Mesoscale Alpine Programme: findings from field experiments and simulations
No full textThe Mesoscale Alpine Programme (MAP) was a unique initiative to improve the understanding of processes
involved in orographically influenced precipitation events and in the related emergence and mitigation of floods in
the Alps. This study presents a summary of the results from investigations of hydrological relevance in areas to the
south (Lago Maggiore watershed) and north (Ammer watershed) of the Alps. A special focus is given to the 1999
Special Observing Period (SOP) experiment. MAP has been an important dialogue platform between the hydrological
and meteorological communities. A common goal has been the verification and the assessment of errors and sources of
uncertainty of new coupled techniques for flood forecasting in mountainous environments. The ensemble multi-model
error in the hydrometeorological forecast, two days in advance, was 30% of the observed peaks and 15% of the observed
runoff volumes, on average. To provide some insight on the relative importance and priority of observation strategies of
hydrological factors such as soil moisture and reservoir volume in contributing to the flood intensity, the MAP project
‘Hydrology’ focused also on the role and magnitude of water storage in reservoirs. The presented analyses indicate that
for the investigated basins and flood events, the storage reservoirs may retain, on average, up to 10% of the event runoff
volume and are key elements contributing to the mitigation of peak runoff. The observed variability of soil moisture
is large and therefore it has been confirmed that severe difficulties remain in instrumental monitoring of soil moisture in
mountainous environments. The sensitivity of floods to soil moisture in the physio-geographic context analysed here seems,
however, to be minor, due to the shallow soil layer covering the underlying rocks and the relatively high permeability of
soils which reduce the ‘hydrological memory’ of the soil cover in the mountain basins investigated
Global burden of new-onset hypertension associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection
No full textSeveral reports documented a specific effect of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on blood pressure (BP), during and after the acute phase of infection. Clinical studies demonstrated that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with an increased risk of a persistent increase in BP requiring a new or intensified anti-hypertensive treatment during hospitalization. The picture is further complicated by the evidence from large databases showing an increased risk of new-onset hypertension in COVID-19 survivors on the long term. To further elucidate the epidemiological burden of this phenomenon, we performed a pooled analysis of 4 studies reporting crude incidence rates of new-onset hypertension among COVID-19 patients and contemporary controls. Overall, COVID-19 was associated with a 65% increased risk of new-onset hypertension when compared with controls (p<0.0001); furthermore, incidence of new-onset hypertension was 9% and 5% among COVID-19 patients and controls, respectively. In both the acute phase and recovery from infection, the interaction between spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2 and angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors remain the most plausible mechanism explaining the raise in BP (ranking new onset hypertension as one of the most prevalent cardiovascular sequelae of COVID-19). In this area of research, it is worth to mention that new variants of SARS-CoV-2 exhibit specific mutations in the spike protein that promotes entry into viral cells via ACE2. Thus, the enhanced spike affinity for ACE2 of new variants has the potential to increase the risk of new-onset hypertension when compared with the original Wuhan strain
Hydrological aspects of the Mesoscale Alpine Programme: finding from field experiments and simulations
No full textProc. International Conference on Alpine Metorology, Zagreb 23-27 Ma
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