bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effect of Stillage Pretreatment During a Coupled Scoria-Supported Anaerobic Digestion Followed by Aerobic Degradation
Authors: Gebreeyessus Getachew Dagnew , Mekonnen Andualem , Chebude Yonas , Asaithambi Perumal , Sreekrishnan Trichur Ramaswamy , Alemayehu Esayas
Published: February 2021

The objective of this study was to evaluate the treatment efficiency of a coupled stillage anaerobic digestion, which was performed in scoria-packed continuous reactors and following aerobic degradation. The optimum organic loading rate was determined for the continuous anaerobic digestion of a molasses ethanol distillery stillage with and without wet air feed pretreatment. The pretreatment of the molasses ethanol distillery stillage brought a significantly higher chemical oxygen demand removal in anaerobic digestion with an increased loading rate of 2000 mg/L d when compared with the raw stillage. The results also showed a complete removal of the biological oxygen demand following the coupling of anaerobic digestion with aerobic degradation. During the later stillage aerobic treatment, 68% of the chemical oxygen demand was removed within 8 hours of retention time. Despite the color, the removal of organics in stillage due to integrating wet air pretreatment, continuous anaerobic digestion, and aerobic degradation was successful. The pretreatment and hybrid technique also appears as a promising technique toward the sustainable management of stillage, thereby meeting discharge limit set for the ethanol industry by regulators.
Quality of Life and Glycemic Control in Saudi Children with Type 1 Diabetes at Different Developmental Age Groups
Authors: Babiker Amir , Al Aqeel Bothainah , Marie Sarah , Omer Hala , Bahabri Aban , Al Shaikh Adnan , Zahrani Nada , Badri Motasim , Al Dubayee Mohamed , Al Alwan Ibrahim
Published: February 2021

Background:

Children with type 1 diabetes (T1D) at different stages of development have age-specific needs, which can influence their perception of quality of life (QoL). In our study, we aimed to emphasize these age-specific needs and assess the perception of QoL in Saudi children with T1D, as well as their parents correlating QoL scores with children’s glycemic control.

Methods:

This is a cross-sectional study in which children with T1D and their parents from 2 tertiary institutes in Saudi Arabia have answered a standard diabetes-specific QoL questionnaire (PedsQL™ 3.0 diabetes module, translated in Arabic). We also reported glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) results for these children within a month of completing the questionnaire. The QoL total aggregate and domain scores for self (children) and proxy (parents’) reports were compared and correlated with children’s HbA1c.

Results:

A sample was 288 self and proxy reports from 144 children with T1D of 3 age groups: 5 to 7 years (7%), 8 to 12 years (49%), and 13 to 18 years (44%), and their parents. QoL differed significantly between self and proxy reports in the total aggregate and domain scores ( P-values range from .02 to <.001). The impact on QoL was significantly higher in female patients ( P = .043). Insulin pump users had better HbA1c ( P = .007), and HbA1c level was worse in those who intended to fast at Ramadan ( P = .005).

Conclusion:

Children with T1D at different developmental age groups perceive QoL differently than their parents. Adjusting management as per age-specific challenges could potentially improve these children’s QoL and glycemic control.
Developing and spreading leadership across levels: The facilitating and constraining role of context
Authors: Ciuk Sylwia , Schedlitzki Doris
Published: February 2021

Leadership development programmes increasingly encourage plural forms of leadership to counteract the pitfalls of individualistic approaches. This paper contributes to our understanding of the role of context in developing and spreading leadership across hierarchies. Working within an omnibus approach to context, previous research has highlighted the role of institutional forces in the emergence of distributed leadership in the public sector, yet so far neglected the influence of the discrete organisational context. Drawing on an in-depth case study of a private sector organisation trying to recover from a turbulent past through an in-house leadership development initiative, we show how the omnibus and discrete organisational contexts jointly facilitate and constrain the development and spread of leadership and how they are instrumentalised in this process. We surface how social and political dynamics associated with socio-material relationships and institutional arrangements, together with wider omnibus forces, influence the aim of an in-house leadership development programme and its potential to impact perceptions and practice of distributed leadership in organisational settings. We argue that a nested approach to context – encompassing the interconnected omnibus and discrete contexts – is required for a deeper understanding of the factors that facilitate and constrain the development and spread of leadership.
Case study: A survey of perceived noise in Canadian multi-unit residential buildings to study long-term implications for widespread teleworking
Authors: Andargie Maedot S. , Touchie Marianne , O’Brien William
Published: February 2021

Trends of urbanization, densification, and telework all point to increasing exposure to ambient noise for workers. With the lockdown policies implemented in response to COVID-19, a research opportunity to study perceived noise exposure for teleworking arose. This paper presents the results of a survey on noise issues in multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs) and the consequent effects on occupants' well-being and productivity during the lockdown. Responses were collected from 471 MURB occupants across Canada. The results show that, despite the decrease in environmental noise, many are annoyed by outdoor noise, particularly from traffic and construction activities, and indicated that it affects their ability to work. Effects on ability to work from home were more frequently reported for indoor noise sources particularly airborne and impact noises coming from neighboring suites. Our findings, however, show that noise coming from occupants in the same suite (i.e. roommates and family) present the biggest issue. The findings indicate that existing noise conditions in MURBs might not be suitable for a permanent large-scale implementation of teleworking.
Autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation as a first-line disease-modifying therapy in patients with ‘aggressive’ multiple sclerosis
Authors: Das J , Snowden JA , Burman J , Freedman MS , Atkins H , Bowman M , Burt RK , Saccardi R , Innocenti C , Mistry S , Laud PJ , Jessop H , Sharrack B
Published: February 2021

Background:

Autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT) is an effective treatment for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) who have highly active disease, despite the use of standard disease-modifying therapies (DMTs). However, the optimal time for offering AHSCT to patients with ‘aggressive’ MS is yet to be established.

Objectives:

The objective was to explore the safety and efficacy of AHSCT as a first-line DMT in patients with ‘aggressive’ MS.

Methods:

All patients with ‘aggressive’ MS who received AHSCT as a first-line DMT in five European and North American centres were retrospectively evaluated.

Results:

Twenty patients were identified. The median interval between diagnosis and AHSCT was 5 (1–20) months. All had multiple poor prognostic markers with a median pre-transplant Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score of 5.0 (1.5–9.5). After a median follow-up of 30 (12–118) months, the median EDSS score improved to 2.0 (0–6.5, p < 0.0001). No patient had further relapses. Three had residual magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) disease activities in the first 6 months post-transplant, but no further new or enhancing lesions were observed in subsequent scans.

Conclusion:

AHSCT is safe and effective as a first-line DMT in inducing rapid and sustained remission in patients with ‘aggressive’ MS.
Differential effects and discriminative validity of motor and cognitive tasks varying in difficulty on cognitive–motor interference in persons with multiple sclerosis
Authors: Veldkamp Renee , Kalron Alon , Baert Ilse , Hämäläinen Paivi , Tacchino Andrea , D’hooge Mieke , Giffroy Xavier , Van Geel Fanny , Raats Joke , Coninx Karin , Van Wijmeersch Bart , Feys Peter
Published: February 2021

Background:

Cognitive–motor interference (CMI) has been well recognized in persons with multiple sclerosis (pwMS); however, there are limited data on effects of task difficulty.

Objective:

Examine (1) the effects of motor and cognitive tasks varying in difficulty on the magnitude of CMI and (2) the discriminative validity of CMI between pwMS and healthy controls (HC).

Methods:

Nine cognitive–motor dual-task (DT) conditions (combinations of three cognitive and three walking tasks) were examined. Outcome measures were DT-performance and dual-task cost (DTC) of gait parameters and correct answers. Task differences and overall group-effects were analysed by mixed model analysis, plus the Wilcoxon signed-rank tests or multivariate analysis of variances (MANOVAs), respectively.

Results:

Task effects were examined in 82 pwMS (Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS): 3.3 ± 1.0) and discriminative validity in a subsample (35 pwMS and 33 HC). Motor-DTC and DT-performance were affected by difficulty of both the cognitive task ( p < 0.001) and the walking condition ( p ⩽ 0.002), while cognitive-DTC only varied between cognitive tasks with a large difference in difficulty ( p ⩽ 0.005) and not between walking conditions ( p ⩾ 0.125). None of the DTCs differed between groups.

Conclusion:

CMI, and especially motor performance, is affected by difficulty of the DT. Although pwMS performed worse on the tasks than HC, none of the DT-conditions showed a discriminative DTC.
Operationalization of a frailty index in patients with multiple sclerosis: A cross-sectional investigation
Authors: Belvisi Daniele , Canevelli Marco , Baione Viola , Buscarinu Maria Chiara , Pellicciari Giulia , Fantozzi Roberta , Creta Armando , Cecchi Gianluca , Cola Gaia , Nicoletti Carolina Gabri , Cortese Antonio , De Giglio Laura , Tartaglia Matteo , Crisafulli Sebastiano Giuseppe , Bruno Giuseppe , Ferraro Elisabetta , Marfia Girolama Alessandra , Centonze Diego , Salvetti Marco , Conte Antonella
Published: February 2021

Background:

Frailty is an age-related status of increased vulnerability to stressors caused by the accumulation of multiple health deficits. This construct may allow to capture the clinical complexity of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Objective:

To investigate the relationship between frailty and the clinical manifestations of MS.

Methods:

Patients with MS were consecutively enrolled at five tertiary dedicated services. Disability and fatigue were assessed. The phenotypes of MS were also identified. Frailty was measured using a frailty index (FI), computed by cumulatively considering 42 age-related multidimensional health deficits.

Results:

Overall, 745 MS patients (mean age = 48.2 years, standard deviation = 11.7 years; women 68%) were considered. The median FI value was 0.12 (interquartile range = 0.05–0.19) and the 99th percentile was 0.40. FI scores were associated with MS disease duration, disability, fatigue, as well as with the number of previous disease-modifying treatments and current symptomatic therapies. A logistic regression analysis model showed that FI score was independently associated with the secondary progressive phenotype.

Conclusion:

Frailty is significantly associated with major characteristics of MS. The findings of the present cross-sectional investigation should be explored in future longitudinal studies.
The frequency and characteristics of MS misdiagnosis in patients referred to the multiple sclerosis centre of Catalonia
Authors: Midaglia Luciana , Sastre-Garriga Jaume , Pappolla Agustín , Quibus Laura , Carvajal René , Vidal-Jordana Angela , Arrambide Georgina , Río Jordi , Comabella Manuel , Nos Carlos , Castilló Joaquin , Galan Ingrid , Rodríguez-Acevedo Breogan , Auger Cristina , Tintoré Mar , Montalban Xavier , Rovira Àlex
Published: February 2021

Background:

Multiple sclerosis (MS) misdiagnosis may cause physical and emotional damage to patients.

Objectives:

The objective of this study is to determine the frequency and characteristics of MS misdiagnosis in patients referred to the Multiple Sclerosis Centre of Catalonia.

Methods:

We designed a prospective study including all new consecutive patients referred to our centre between July 2017 and June 2018. Instances of misdiagnosis were identified, and referral diagnosis and final diagnosis were compared after 1 year of follow-up. Association of misdiagnosis with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings, presence of comorbidities and family history of autoimmunity were assessed.

Results:

A total of 354 patients were referred to our centre within the study period, 112 (31.8%) with ‘established MS’. Misdiagnosis was identified in eight out of 112 cases (7.1%). MRI identified multifocal white matter lesions, deemed non-specific or not suggestive of MS in all misdiagnosed cases. Patients with MS misdiagnosis had more comorbidities in general than patients with MS ( p = 0.026) as well as a personal history of autoimmunity ( p < 0.001).

Conclusion:

A low frequency of MS misdiagnosis was found in our clinical setting. Multifocal non-specific white matter lesions in referral MRI examinations and the presence of comorbidities, including a personal history of autoimmunity, seem to be contributing factors to misdiagnosis.
How and why party position estimates from manifestos, expert, and party elite surveys diverge: A comparative analysis of the ‘left–right’ and the ‘European integration’ dimensions
Authors: Ecker Alejandro , Jenny Marcelo , Müller Wolfgang C , Praprotnik Katrin
Published: February 2021

This paper examines the validity of three approaches to estimate party positions on the general left–right and EU dimensions. We newly introduce party elite data from the comprehensive IntUne survey and cross-validate it with existing expert survey and manifesto data. The general left–right estimates generated by elites and experts show a higher congruence than those derived from party manifestos; neither measure clearly materializes as more valid regarding EU positions. We identify which factors explain diverging estimates. For instance, disagreement among experts has greater impact than their mere number. The substantial centrist bias of the manifesto estimates persists even when alternative documents are used to substitute manifestos. Low response rates among elites have no systematic detrimental effect on the validity of party position estimates.
Tourism and economic growth: Multi-country evidence from mixed-frequency Granger causality tests
Authors: Enilov Martin , Wang Yuan
Published: February 2021

This article provides new global evidence for the causal relationship between international tourist arrivals (TA) and economic growth (EG). The analysis considers 23 developing and developed countries and covers the period from January 1981 to December 2017. The causal relationship between TA and EG is determined using a bootstrap mixed-frequency Granger causality approach adopting a rolling window technique to evaluate its stability and persistency over time. Empirical results show that causality is time-varying in both the short-term and the long-term. We illustrate our results by constructing a new global connectivity index (GCI). The GCI shows that international TA remain a leading indicator for future EG in a global perspective, especially during the global financial crisis (GFC). Our findings suggest that tourism sector plays an important part in the future EG in developing countries after the GFC. Similarly, the period after the GFC is characterised by one of the highest values of the tourism-led EG in developed countries according to the GCI; however, this effect is temporal and quickly eradicates. Overall, we find that tourism sector in developing countries remains a primary contributor to future EG, which is not the case in developed countries.
Tourism and economic resilience
Authors: Watson Philip , Deller Steven
Published: February 2021

The current coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has exposed the sensitivity of tourism- and hospitality-dependent regional economies to external shocks. While the negative impacts of external shocks on these economies have been widely studied, the resiliency of these tourism- and hospitality-dependent regions to recover from such shocks is less well understood. In this study, we model how dependency on tourism and hospitality activity influences regional economic resiliency. Using US county-level resiliency data, we find that, overall, greater dependency reduces rates of resiliency. Allowing for spatial heterogeneity in the underlying relationship, we do find pockets within the United States, where greater dependency enhanced economic resiliency. This latter result suggests that the location and nature of the tourism and hospitality industry matter and blanket generalizations might lead to incorrect policy interpretations.
Building participatory counternarratives: Pedagogical interventions through digital placemaking
Authors: Frith Jordan , Richter Jacob
Published: February 2021

Places are filled with stories, with histories that shape how people understand the nature of a place. Places are unique sets of trajectories – each with a story – coming into contact. However, just as much as places are defined by their histories, they are also shaped by the histories that are forgotten, or far too often, actively suppressed through dominant narratives. After all, dominant media of spatial, public memory – for example, plaques and public monuments – often reproduce dominant narratives of a place, narratives created by the powerful. This project examines how digital placemaking can be deployed through locative technologies to push back on dominant spatial narratives and make places more polyvocal in consequential ways. In particular, through a project at Clemson University, we examine how locative storytelling applications can help students intervene in traditional narratives of place to engage with social justice and alternative histories.
Raynaud’s phenomenon and related vasospastic disorders
Authors: Choi Eunjung , Henkin Stanislav
Published: February 2021

Raynaud’s phenomenon, which is characterized by episodic digital pallor, cyanosis and rubor upon exposure to cold environment or to stress, is relatively common, although the prevalence depends on the climate. Still, it is under-diagnosed, under-treated, and often confused with other conditions. Primary Raynaud’s phenomenon (i.e., Raynaud disease) must be distinguished from secondary Raynaud’s phenomenon (i.e., Raynaud syndrome) as long-term morbidity and outcomes differ vastly between the two conditions. Additionally, the practitioner must differentiate between Raynaud’s phenomenon and related vascular disorders, such as acrocyanosis, pernio, and livedo reticularis. In this article, we review differences between the conditions and suggest an approach to diagnosis and treatment strategy for these disorders.
Traditional Inequalities and Inequalities of Tradition: Gender, Weddings, and Whiteness
Authors: Carter Julia
Published: February 2021

The (British) white wedding offers a unique lens for studying a number of social and cultural phenomena from practices of intimacy, consumption, and romance to macro level studies of economics, value, and exchange. The wedding also represents an ideal focus for studying the intersection of intimacies and inequalities as it acts as a location for the practice and performance of intimacy which simultaneously encapsulates historical and contemporary gender, race, and class inequalities. These inequalities are often upheld, celebrated even, in the name of ‘tradition’ in relationships, marriage, and weddings. This article aims to interrogate this notion of tradition to understand how, rather than being a neutral concept, it is used to reproduce and reinforce existing gender inequalities, middle-class values, and privileging of Whiteness. The argument in this article draws on 3 years of research on weddings including interviews and ethnographic observations. I conclude that while wedding traditions may have become increasingly reflective of democratic choices, they retain traditional inequalities in their representation and conceptualisation.
Exploring mono/multilingual practices on the CELTA course: What trainers say
Authors: Gallagher Fiona , Geraghty Catherine
Published: February 2021

This article examines mono- and bi/multilingual practices on the University of Cambridge CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) course. This course is generally considered to be one of the most popular and widely-recognized initial teacher education programmes in English language teaching worldwide. The article describes a small research project which explored the views of 77 CELTA trainers in relation to the use of the first language (L1) in English language teaching and centred on how this issue is addressed on the teacher training courses they worked on. The study included trainers who use English either as an L1 or as a second language (L2) and both monolingual and bi/multilingual participants. Respondents worked in shared-L1 (where learners share a common language other than English) and in multilingual teaching and training contexts. The need to develop a theoretical framework in relation to L1 use in English language teaching and for a more explicit and considered focus on this issue on the CELTA course was identified, so that both trainers and trainee-teachers can make informed pedagogic decisions around L1 use in their teaching and professional practices. Findings also point to the need for wider discussion within the CELTA community on issues relating to the traditionally monolingual and one-size-fits-all orientation of the course and to the potential added-value of language teachers and educators who bring bilingual skills and perspectives to the classroom, particularly non-native English speakers.
Taking one for the team: Partisan alignment and planning outcomes in England
Authors: Clegg Liam
Published: February 2021

Does partisan alignment affect sub-national political units’ performance? When testing for a partisan alignment effect, local authority planning processes represent a ‘hard case’. Formally, decision-making processes are insulated against political considerations, and there is a mis-match between national party commitments to expand house-building on the one hand, and pressure on local councillors from residents opposing new developments on the other. I find that, in general, partisan alignment brings an increased propensity to approve large residential planning applications. This suggests councillors’ willingness to ‘take one for the team’ by prioritising national over local interests. Consistent with ‘party politics of housing’ insights, inter-party variation sees an altered effect in left-wing constellations, which display lowered approval propensities. In addition to these substantive extensions to scholarship on partisan alignment effects, the insights presented into the drivers of variation in local authority planning outcomes contribute to the pressing tasks of understanding and addressing the chronic under-supply of new housing within the English housing system.
Aerodynamic optimization design of single-layer spherical domes using kriging surrogate model
Authors: Qiu Ye , He Haiyun , Xu Chen , San Bingbing
Published: February 2021

This paper aims to provide an aerodynamic optimization procedure to improve the aerodynamic performance of single-layer spherical domes, by coupling the kriging surrogate model with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and finite element analysis (FEA). Firstly, a series of wind tunnel tests on the mean pressures and wind-induced behavior of a single-layer spherical latticed shell, were carried out to investigate the effect of dome geometric parameters. Then, the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations and RSM turbulence model were utilized for simulating the wind loads on spherical domes, and the numerical results are validated with experimental data. On this basis, the single-objective aerodynamic optimization of spherical domes based on ordinary kriging surrogates has been carried out to find out the optimal geometric parameters (rise/span and wall-height/span ratios). The objectives were minimizing the highest mean suction and the maximum vertical displacement, respectively. The optimization results showed that the optimal design of spherical domes exhibits a reasonable aerodynamic performance improvement compared with the near optimal solutions. In addition, the highest mean suction and the maximum vertical displacement can be reduced by decreasing the wall-height of the dome, and a good trade-off between the two objectives can be achieved by selecting suitable dome geometric parameters.
A practical method for seismic response analysis of nonlinear soil-structure interaction systems
Authors: Huang Caigui , Gu Quan , Huang Surong
Published: February 2021

Soil–structure interaction (SSI) plays an important role in the analysis of seismic structural responses. This study significantly extends an efficient linear SSI analysis method presented previously by the authors and co-workers to realistic nonlinear SSI systems, that is, systems with nonlinear soil, nonlinear structures, and flexible foundations (e.g. single- or multiple-pile foundations). The flexible foundations lying on half-space nonlinear soil are represented by frequency-dependent compliance functions that are fitted numerically instead of obtained by closed-form solution. These functions are then transferred to the time domain using the discrete-time recursive filtering method. A non-iterative algorithm is applied to guarantee the boundary conditions between soil and structure, that is, the displacement continuity and force equilibrium between them. The proposed method is implemented on an open-source FE software framework, called OpenSees. The accuracy and efficiency of the extended coupling method are investigated in detail through the seismic response analyses of typical soil–foundation–structure systems while considering the cases of linear or nonlinear soil, linear or nonlinear structures, and single- or multiple-pile foundations. Results show that the extended coupling method is significantly faster than the traditional FE method and provides acceptably accurate solutions for SSI systems with linear or low-to-moderate nonlinear soil. The paper provides a method for fast evaluation of nonlinear SSI effects in seismic structural response analysis.
Quantification of aerodynamic forces for truss bridge-girders based on wind tunnel test and kriging surrogate model
Authors: Li Huan , He Xuhui , Hu Liang , Xu Guoji
Published: February 2021

This study presents an investigation to quantify the aerodynamics of truss bridge-girders via wind tunnel test and kriging surrogate model. Currently, the conventional methods documented in design specifications only take into consideration the mean drag force at null attack angle. To gain an in-depth understanding on the aerodynamics of truss bridge-girders, experiments on simplified bridge-girder models with various geometric parameters were carried out in uniform flow. A total of 15 truss bridge-girder models with aspect ratio (the ratio of width to height) B/D = 1.0, 1.3, 1.6, 1.9, and 2.2, solidity ratio (the ratio of projected to envelope areas) Φ = 0.20, 0.25, 0.30, 0.35, and 0.40, and two typical truss topologies (Warren and Pratt trusses) were examined in the most concerned range of wind angle of attack α = [–6°, 6°]. These truss bridge-girder models cover most of the high-speed railway bridges widely used in China. Experimental results show that the truss topology has limited effects on the aerodynamics of truss bridge-girders, whereas the effects of α, B/D, and Φ are significant. Based on these wind tunnel results, the ordinary kriging surrogate model was utilized to approximate the aerodynamics of truss bridge-girders. In using this model, aerodynamic force values for test cases can be interpolated with zero variance and uncertainties in unsampled design zones where geometric parameters can be quantified with Gaussian variance.
Leisure time activities and biomarkers of chronic stress: The mediating roles of alcohol consumption and smoking
Authors: Wang Senhu , Li Lambert Zixin , Zhang Juan , Rehkopf David H.
Published: February 2021

Aims:

Previous research found an association between leisure time activities such as arts and cultural activities and self-reported health over the life course—a measure prone to response bias. This study tested the relationship between arts and cultural activities and allostatic load, a biomarker of chronic stress, and examined risky health behaviors, including alcohol consumption and smoking, as possible mediators.

Methods:

The sample consists of 8948 adults from the second wave of the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study, which is representative of the British population. The cross-sectional association between arts and cultural activities and allostatic load was tested with negative binomial models, and the mediation roles of alcohol consumption and smoking in the association was tested with the Karlson–Holm–Breen (KHB) decomposition method.

Results:

Frequent participation in arts, frequent attendance of cultural events, visits to museums or galleries, and visits to historical sites have negative associations with allostatic load. The associations are mediated by lower frequency of alcohol drinking and smoking.

Conclusions:

Cultural capital may promote health by reducing the frequency of health risk behaviors such as drinking alcohol and smoking. Future research and public health policies should consider whether cultural capital acts as a social determinant of health to promote healthy leisure activities over the life course.
The Gender Pain Gap: gender inequalities in pain across 19 European countries
Authors: Bimpong Kweku , Thomson Katie , Mcnamara Courtney L. , Balaj Mirza , Akhter Nasima , Bambra Clare , Todd Adam
Published: February 2021

Aims:

Chronic pain is increasingly considered to be an international public health issue, yet gender differences in chronic pain in Europe are under-examined. This work aimed to examine gender inequalities in pain across Europe.

Methods:

Data for 27,552 men and women aged 25–74 years in 19 European countries were taken from the social determinants of health module of the European Social Survey (2014). Inequalities in reporting pain were measured by means of adjusted rate differences (ARD) and relative adjusted rate risks (ARR).

Results:

At the pooled pan-European level, a greater proportion of women (62.3%) reported pain than men (55.5%) (ARD 5.5% (95% confidence intervals (CI) 4.1, 6.9), ARR 1.10 (95% CI 1.08, 1.13)). These inequalities were greatest for back/neck pain (ARD 5.8% (95% CI 4.4, 7.1), ARR 1.15 (95% CI 1.12, 1.19)), but were also significant for hand/arm pain (ARD 4.6% (95% CI 3.5, 5.7), ARR 1.24 (95% CI 1.17, 1.30)) and foot/leg pain (ARD 2.6% (95% CI 1.5, 3.8), ARR 1.12 (95% CI 1.07, 1.18)). There was considerable cross-national variation in gender pain inequalities across European countries.

Conclusions:

Significant gender pain inequalities exist across Europe whereby women experience more pain than men. The extent of the gender pain gap varies by country. The gender pain gap is a public health concern and should be considered in future prevention and management strategies.
Development of the workplace inclusion questionnaire (WIQ)
Authors: Sveinsdottir Vigdis , Johnsen Tone Langjordet , Fyhn Tonje , Opsahl Jon , Tveito Torill Helene , Indahl Aage , Eriksen Hege Randi , Reme Silje Endresen
Published: February 2021

Aims:

To develop a questionnaire to examine attitudes among employees and managers to include people with various health problems into their work group, and to test the questionnaire in one relevant population within the labour market.

Methods:

A questionnaire was developed through a process involving discussions in a scientific forum and pilot testing with group discussions. The final questionnaire, which was tested in a survey study of managers and employees in 33 Norwegian kindergartens ( N=485), contained 10 short case stories followed by questions concerning workplace inclusion. The case stories described individuals with musculoskeletal and mental disorders, as well as individuals with potentially stigmatising behavioural history and lifestyle, and control cases. Risk ratios with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to compare the case stories. Cases with high risk ratios had an increased risk of not being included compared to a control case.

Results:

Attitudes for workplace inclusion varied between the different case stories. Cases portraying mental illness had the highest risk ratios, indicating that employees and managers are less likely to include people with mental illness than people with musculoskeletal illness. Furthermore, unspecific or chronic illness had higher risk ratios than specific and acute illness. The most important barriers also varied between case stories.

Conclusions:

The workplace inclusion questionnaire fulfills the need for a quantitative measure of attitudes to include individuals with various health problems into the workplace. Comparison of risk ratios showed clear differences between case stories, indicating that the workplace inclusion questionnaire is a valuable tool to measure the variance in workplace inclusion.
Diffusion characteristics of the industrial submicron particle under Brownian motion and turbulent diffusion
Authors: Li Chengjun , Wang Hanqing , Yu Chuck Wah , Xie Dong
Published: February 2021

The industrial release of submicron aerosol particles at workplace could cause undue health effect on workers. To effectively capture and remove airborne particles, we need to study the characteristics of various interactive particle motion forces (drag force, Brownian force, Saffman lift force, etc.) and the dispersion of these aerosol particles in indoor air. In this study, the dominant force of submicron particles was determined by calculating the acting forces with different particle sizes. Then, a Discrete Particle Model (DPM) was used to calculate the trajectory of particle movement in turbulent thermal plume flow. Horizontal dispersity ( DH) was defined to evaluate the horizontal diffusion of the particulate matter. The impact of different particle diameters, heat source temperatures and initial relative velocities on DH was investigated. This study showed that the main acting forces for submicron aerosol particles were drag force, Brownian force, Saffman lift force and thermophoresis force. Brownian force cannot be ignored when the particle diameter was below 0.3 µm, which would promote the irregular movement of particles in space and enhance their diffusion ability. The smaller the particle size, the higher the heat source temperature and the lower the particles' initial velocity would lead to the increase of DH.
A path forward for Swedish drug policy?
Authors: Goldberg Ted
Published: February 2021

Aims and premise:

The primary aims of this article are to: describe some major aspects of the theoretical basis of the Swedish drug policy model, present alternative theoretical understandings which may pave the way for changes in drug policy, depict some problems with the Swedish model, introduce the primary principles for “the experimenting society”, and give concrete examples of when these have/have not been applied in Sweden.

Some findings:

Sweden’s predominantly biochemical approach should be replaced by a biopsychosocial model. The idea that all non-medical consumption of drugs is abuse is counterproductive. Differences between recreational and problematic consumers are discussed. The question of people’s motives for taking drugs has not been incorporated into Swedish drug policy. The stepping-stone hypothesis is examined. It was found that recreational and problematic consumption do not co-vary, indicating that these are two essentially different phenomena.

Conclusion:

After four decades with the current Swedish drug policy model we are further from our pronounced goal of striving towards becoming a drug-free society than when we started. Access to, and demand for, drugs has continually increased, and our drug policies have caused serious collateral damage. Consequently, there is good reason to re-think the course we have chosen. The Swedish version of the war on drugs has failed to achieve its goals and it is time to make peace. It is time to accept that we will never be drug-free and therefore must learn to live with narcotics. As nobody knows what is the best way to achieve this, we should approach the task with humility. We need to put prestige aside and become “the experimenting society”; that is, one that would vigorously try out possible solutions and make stringent, multidimensional evaluations of outcomes. When the evaluation of a reform shows it to have been ineffective or harmful, we should try other measures.
Moving from an era of open appendectomy to an era of laparoscopic appendectomy: A nationwide cohort study of adult patients undergoing surgery for appendicitis
Authors: Kleif Jakob , Thygesen Lau Caspar , Gögenur Ismail
Published: February 2021

Background and objective:

During the last decades, laparoscopic surgery has been introduced as an alternative to open surgery. We aimed to examine to what extent laparoscopic surgery has replaced open surgery for appendicitis in an entire nation during the last two decades. Second, we examined the effects of shifting to laparoscopic surgery for appendicitis on different quality indicators such as length of postoperative stay and mortality. We also examined age as a predictor of 30-day mortality.

Methods:

During the period 2000 to 2015, all adult patients with appendicitis and surgical removal of the appendix were identified in the Danish National Patient Register. Demographics, type of surgery, time of surgery, and duration of postoperative stay were retrieved form Danish National Patient Register. Vital status was retrieved from the Danish Civil Registration System.

Results:

A total of 58,093 patients underwent surgery for appendicitis. In 2000, a total of 274 out of 3717 (7.4%) had a laparoscopic appendectomy, and the postoperative stay was 55 (iqr: 35–88) h and 30-day mortality was 0.91%. In 2015, a total of 3995 out of 4296 (93.0%) had a laparoscopic appendectomy, and the postoperative stay was 16 (iqr: 9–56) h and 30-day mortality was 0.40%. Age as a predictor of 30-day postoperative mortality had an area under the curve of 0.93 (95% confidence interval: 0.92; 0.94).

Conclusions:

In Denmark, the standard surgical procedure for appendicitis has changed from open surgery to laparoscopic surgery during the period 2000–2015. At the same time, duration of postoperative stay and 30-day mortality has decreased.
Incorporating patient concerns into design requirements for IoMT-based systems: The fall detection case study
Authors: Nikolaidou Mara , Kotronis Christos , Routis Ioannis , Politi Elena , Dimitrakopoulos George , Anagnostopoulos Dimosthenis , Djelouat Hamza , Amira Abbes , Bensaali Faycal
Published: February 2021

Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) systems are envisioned to provide high-quality healthcare services to patients in the comfort of their home, utilizing cutting-edge Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and medical sensors. Patient comfort and willingness to participate in such efforts is a prominent factor for their adoption. As IoT technology has provided solutions for all technical issues, patient concerns are those that seem to restrict their wider adoption. To enhance patient awareness of the system properties and enhance their willingness to adopt IoMT solutions, this paper presents a novel methodology to integrate patient concerns in the design requirements of such systems. It comprises a number of straightforward steps that an IoMT designer can follow, starting from identifying patient concerns, incorporating them in system design requirements as criticalities, proceeding to system implementation and testing, and finally, verifying that it fulfills the concerns of the patients. To showcase the effectiveness of the proposed methodology, the paper applies it in the design and implementation of a fall detection system for elderly patients remotely monitored in their homes.
Feature selection with ensemble learning for prostate cancer diagnosis from microarray gene expression
Authors: Gumaei Abdu , Sammouda Rachid , Al-Rakhami Mabrook , AlSalman Hussain , El-Zaart Ali
Published: February 2021

Cancer diagnosis using machine learning algorithms is one of the main topics of research in computer-based medical science. Prostate cancer is considered one of the reasons that are leading to deaths worldwide. Data analysis of gene expression from microarray using machine learning and soft computing algorithms is a useful tool for detecting prostate cancer in medical diagnosis. Even though traditional machine learning methods have been successfully applied for detecting prostate cancer, the large number of attributes with a small sample size of microarray data is still a challenge that limits their ability for effective medical diagnosis. Selecting a subset of relevant features from all features and choosing an appropriate machine learning method can exploit the information of microarray data to improve the accuracy rate of detection. In this paper, we propose to use a correlation feature selection (CFS) method with random committee (RC) ensemble learning to detect prostate cancer from microarray data of gene expression. A set of experiments are conducted on a public benchmark dataset using 10-fold cross-validation technique to evaluate the proposed approach. The experimental results revealed that the proposed approach attains 95.098% accuracy, which is higher than related work methods on the same dataset.
Investigating prison suicides: The politics of independent oversight
Authors: Aitken Dominic
Published: February 2021

This article examines the institutional arrangements in place to investigate prison suicides in England and Wales, focusing on inquiries by the Prisons & Probation Ombudsman and coroners’ inquests. The first half of the article is empirical, and draws on a set of elite interviews with Prisons & Probation Ombudsman investigators, senior coroners and other professionals involved in prison oversight. The latter half of the article is theoretical, and interprets prison suicide investigations as an example of broader trends of counter-democracy and depoliticisation. I provide a general theoretical overview of these concepts, and argue that Prisons & Probation Ombudsman investigations and coroners’ inquests operate according to a technocratic logic of independence, neutrality and rationality. The article concludes that prison suicide investigations are narrowly concerned with the factual details and administrative minutiae of individual cases, at the expense of more open ended, less manageable questions about the politics of punishment.
Austerity, the state and common sense in Europe: A comparative perspective on Italy and Portugal
Authors: Alves de Matos Patrícia , Pusceddu Antonio Maria
Published: February 2021

In this article, we examine the making of austerity as common sense, located at the intersection of state interventions and the everyday practices and moral logics through which austerity emerges as an acceptable livelihood possibility for individuals, households and communities. Our argument is based on a comparative analysis of austerity in Italy and Portugal, with a focus on popular austerities among working-class households in two post-industrial towns. With the aim of addressing the conundrum of the pervasiveness of austerity, we emphasise the relevance of Gramsci’s notion of common sense to expand the anthropological theorisation of austerity as a hegemonic project combining coercion and consent, capable of reconfiguring the state, and as a field of contradictions integral to the very making of common sense. We argue that austerity regimes become operative through the deployment of institutional coercive practices, moral arguments and the ideological co-optation of historical legacies of austerity embodied by ordinary people in their livelihood praxis.
Regional news audiences’ value perception of local news
Authors: Park Sora , Fisher Caroline , Lee Jee Young
Published: February 2021

Local news outlets are under threat in the digital era, and many are closing or merging with other news media due to the loss in advertising and audiences. A sustainable business model to replace traditional dependence on advertising has not yet been established. This paper examines one aspect of the business – audience payment – to explore the viability of online news subscription models in the context of local news. An online survey of 2038 news consumers in regional Australia was conducted in 2019 to examine regional news audiences’ perception of the value of news as a social good and their willingness to pay for it. The results show that interest in supporting a new online local news outlet was largely determined by community-oriented values such as a sense of belonging, the ability to share the news with others, and the loss of a local news service, rather than the actual content. However, the quality of the journalism content was positively related to the audiences’ willingness to pay. Trust in local news and existing local news consumption were important factors in determining both the interest in supporting local news and their willingness to pay for it. These findings highlight the tension between the social and financial value of regional news and the obstacles facing entrepreneurs hoping to address the growing news gaps in regional communities.
Selecting lifestyle entrepreneurship recovery strategies: A response to the COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Dias Álvaro Lopes , Silva Rui , Patuleia Mafalda , Estêvão João , González-Rodríguez Maria Rosario
Published: February 2021

The devastating context of the Covid-19 pandemic has created a new reality in which tourism has practically come to a standstill, a situation that must be reversed. This study focuses on the revitalization of businesses run by lifestyle entrepreneurs, a very significant class, of pivotal importance in innovation in the tourism sector. Specifically, this study aims to identify the most relevant indicators to select the recovery strategies of these entrepreneurs. Using the Delphi method combined with the Q-sort technique, a ranking of the indicators was produced on the basis of input from a panel of 26 senior managers and academics. The top five indicators were: creativity and innovation, level of innovation, qualification, startups number, and turnover volume. Findings reveal that the priority is on innovation and the qualification of the entrepreneurs. Only afterward do the traditional indicators of competitiveness of tourist destinations emerge.