Search Results (7,894)

Much of the interoception literature assumes that people can accurately detect their heart rate, stomach contractility, muscle tension, and other biological cues. This is not true. Instead, interoception is an active integrative psychological process where the feeling of one’s internal state emerges from physiological signals, contextual cues, and the social and cultural experiences of living in a body. Thinking of interoception this way shifts the focus from measuring accuracy at detecting biological signaling to studying lived experience. One such experience is the widespread objectification of women’s bodies. Living in a body that is chronically evaluated creates a particular form of self-consciousness. Here, we propose that self-objectification redirects attention toward the body, potentially reshaping both the allocation of attention to internal sensations and their interpretation and thereby offering a theoretical account of paradoxes in the interoception literature, such as women’s lower detection accuracy but higher symptom reporting, and mismatches between subjective and physiological reports of menopausal hot flashes. We consider implications for women’s health, including reproductive health, ACL injury risk, and chronic pain. Our framework suggests that “feeling like a woman” reflects an interoceptive experience shaped significantly by objectification, with important consequences for well-being. Full article

Background/Objectives: Diet and mental health constitute two significant modifiable factors affecting Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). The present exploratory study explores potential interrelationships between mental health and eating patterns in IBD patients in Greece. Methods: A mixed-methods approach was followed. Two hundred and eighty-three individuals living with IBD in Greece (n = 110 UC, n = 173 CD) participated in an online questionnaire survey examining demographic characteristics, anxiety, depression, and dietary attitudes. Fourteen semi-structured interviews explored the lived experiences of diet, mental health, and disease among IBD patients. Results: Quantitative study revealed that 45.77% of patients scored above the clinical cutoff for anxiety (GAD-7 ≥ 10) and 48.37% for depression (PHQ-9 ≥ 10). Patients with UC exhibited a significantly higher prevalence of moderate to severe anxiety (54.5% vs 37.0%, p = 0.004) and depression (54.5% vs 42.2%, p = 0.042) compared to CD. Disordered eating attitudes were present in 27.22% of the total sample, with no significant differences between diagnostic groups (p = 0.985). Thematic analysis revealed three overarching themes, namely (a) ‘life in two phases: IBD impact on health’, (b) ‘mental health and diet interplay—their perceived impact on IBD’ and (c) ‘coping strategies for managing IBD’. Conclusions: Our findings highlight the dynamic interplay among diet, mental health, and IBD experience. The study underscores the importance of developing holistic biopsychosocial interventions integrating medical, dietary, and psychological components for IBD management. Full article

Tourism and hospitality organisations in remote, highly seasonal Arctic and sub-Arctic destinations face persistent workforce instability, multicultural team dynamics, and well-being risks that threaten service reliability and organisational continuity. Previous research has focused mainly on destination- and community-level resilience, while giving less attention to how resilience is built within tourism organisations through everyday workforce-related practices. This study examines people-centred organisational resilience through a qualitative comparative design in two northern contexts: Iceland and Finnish Lapland. The empirical material comprised semi-structured interviews in Iceland and interviews, organisational documents, and field observations in Finnish Lapland, collected in autumn 2025. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings identify four recurring resilience mechanisms: leadership under seasonal and environmental pressure; employee experience across employment phases; living conditions and belonging; and ethical governance. Here, “mechanisms” refers not simply to broad topics but to organisational processes through which recurring practices support resilience in remote, highly seasonal tourism settings. Together, these mechanisms show that resilience in remote tourism is built not only through operational flexibility or crisis response, but through people-centred organisational practices that support continuity, coordination, safety, and trust across seasons. The study contributes a workforce-centred extension of resilience theory in tourism and offers a comparative account of how these mechanisms operate across two northern tourism settings. Full article

As a key figure among Japanese American artists, Yasuo Kuniyoshi attracted scholarly attention for his melancholic paintings produced during and shortly after the Second World War. Many of his works from this period portrayed somber figures in masks painted in muted color palettes. Kuniyoshi also placed his figures in bleak circus or carnival settings, imbuing these traditionally festive settings with an air of sadness. As many scholars argued, Yasuo’s solemn postwar paintings reflected the artist’s disillusionment with American society after he was labeled an “enemy alien” as a Japanese artist living in the U.S. during the Pacific War. While his postwar paintings have been extensively studied, his lithographic works remained overlooked due to their scarcity. This paper examines Kuniyoshi’s two postwar lithographs, Carnival and Mask, which follow the same carnival motifs as his late-life works, but represent a departure from his earlier artistic principles. Through the close analysis of the artist’s two lithographs and comparison to contemporary paintings, this paper argues that Kuniyoshi’s lithographs function as reflexive records of his paintings, serving as platforms for him to experiment with new artistic techniques and themes. Furthermore, examining the lithographs in the context of the artist’s full oeuvre, this paper will highlight how Kuniyoshi blurred the boundaries between artistic mediums, mirroring his broader efforts to navigate the challenges of postwar identity and artistic expression. Full article

Background/Objectives: Diet is implicated in the high burden of mental health on society, and research examining associations between these two fields is growing. However, qualitative explorations are lacking, especially within culturally diverse settings. This study aims to explore the beliefs on the mechanisms of the relationship between diet, food systems, and mental health, and the lived experience of such, through a case study of one Caribbean Small Island Developing State, to inform culturally grounded public health strategies that integrate nutritional and psychological well-being. Methods: Fifteen interviews with food system stakeholders and five focus groups with the general public were conducted. Transcripts were analyzed using a grounded theory approach with a critical realist epistemological stance. Results: Four major categories centered on beliefs of mechanistic effects of diet on mental health, as well as broader perspectives of the relationship between food systems, food experiences, and mental health. Participants believed that (1) unhealthy diets of processed and chemically treated foods contribute to poor mental health and that (2) food insecurity is a key threat to mental health, but they also believed that (3) consumption of locally produced foods and (4) residing in agricultural communities can be beneficial to mental health. Conclusions: Participants recognize that diet influences mental health through physiological, social, and structural pathways, but this connection is threatened by rising dependence on imported, processed foods. Along with complementary quantitative research, the findings highlight the potential of expanding nutritional health literacy and clinical guidance and strengthening local food systems and traditional diets for mental well-being among Caribbean Small Island Developing States. Full article

Contemporary social theory has extensively examined how structural arrangements shape social life, yet the mediating processes through which structural conditions are translated into lived experience remain insufficiently conceptualised. This article addresses this gap by developing an analytical framework that reconceptualises social position as a mediating configuration through which social reality becomes experientially organised. Rather than treating position as a fixed location within social hierarchies or as a subjective standpoint, the article conceptualises it as a historically sedimented relational formation that structures perception, normativity, affect, and practical orientation. On this basis, the article advances an analytical model in which inequality is understood not only as a structural distribution of resources and power, but also as an experiential organisation of social relations, shaping how constraints, opportunities, and recognition are encountered in everyday life. Subjectivity and agency are analysed as emerging within positionally structured relations of power and mediation, rather than as pre-social or purely individual capacities. By articulating social position as a constitutive form of mediation, the article contributes to sociological analysis by clarifying how structure, history, and subjectivity are internally articulated within lived social experience, offering a conceptual framework that moves beyond dualist accounts of structure and agency. Full article

Wearable sensor-based human activity recognition (HAR) has gained growing significance in healthcare monitoring and assisted living systems. Although considerable advances have been made in classifying dynamic movements, stationary activities—such as sleeping, driving, and watching TV—remain difficult to distinguish owing to their weak sensor signatures and limited discriminative cues. This paper presents the multi-scale hybrid attention temporal network (MHAT-Net), a deep learning framework whose key architectural novelty lies in the parallel (non-sequential) dual-pathway temporal modeling: a BiGRU branch and a transformer encoder branch operate simultaneously on the same spatially encoded representation, combined via a learnable attention-based fusion module. This design targets the underexplored problem of distinguishing stationary activities from weak inertial sensor signatures. The architecture is built upon three integrated components: (1) a multi-branch CNN with kernel sizes three, five, and seven combined with channel attention for adaptive spatial feature extraction across multiple temporal scales; (2) parallel bidirectional gated recurrent unit (BiGRU) and transformer encoder pathways for jointly capturing short-range sequential patterns and long-range temporal correlations; and (3) an attention-driven fusion module that adaptively weights the outputs of both temporal branches. The model was assessed on a publicly available benchmark comprising three motionless activity categories collected from 25 participants via smartphone sensors. In 5-fold cross-validation, MHAT-Net attained 97.42% (±4.69%) accuracy with accelerometer data and 92.31% (±0.31%) with gyroscope data, substantially exceeding the accuracies of five baseline architectures: CNN, LSTM, BiLSTM, GRU, and BiGRU. Ablation experiments identified multi-scale spatial feature extraction as the most influential module (2.21–2.47% contribution), followed by the hybrid temporal modeling components. Cross-modality analysis confirmed that accelerometer signals yielded richer discriminative content for stationary activities, while MHAT-Net sustained consistent performance across both sensor types. The proposed integration of multi-scale spatial encoding, hybrid temporal modeling, and multi-level attention gives MHAT-Net the ability to reliably detect subtle activity-specific patterns, establishing a new benchmark in wearable sensor-based recognition for comprehensive daily behavior monitoring. Full article

Household rainwater tanks (HRWTs) have re-emerged globally as a decentralised strategy to address water scarcity, climate variability, and increasing urban water demand. In several jurisdictions, including New South Wales, Australia, rainwater tanks have been chosen to meet the mandatory potable water reduction target in new residential developments for nearly two decades; however, growing evidence indicates persistent underutilisation and variable performance in practice. Despite their recognised benefits in reducing potable water demand, mitigating stormwater runoff, and enhancing urban resilience, the global HRWT research landscape remains fragmented across disciplinary and thematic boundaries. This paper presents a multifaceted review, defined here as an approach that synthesises multiple perspectives on the topic. It integrates systematic mapping of peer-reviewed literature with a critical thematic analysis across four dominant research domains: technological and design innovation, policy and governance frameworks, environmental performance, and social–behavioural dimensions. The findings reveal a strong research focus on technical optimisation, while policy effectiveness, environmental trade-offs, and household-level behavioural factors receive comparatively uneven attention. Regulatory and incentive-based instruments are shown to produce inconsistent outcomes, shaped by local institutional capacity to design, implement, enforce, and sustain programs, as well as by climatic context and household acceptance. Environmental assessments identify both benefits and burdens, including energy use, treatment requirements, and operational complexity. Social and behavioural studies indicate growing acceptance of household rainwater tank (HRWT) systems. However, financial constraints, local conditions, and ongoing maintenance demands continue to influence adoption and performance. A key insight from this review is the limited attention given to households’ lived experiences, particularly how users adopt, adapt, operate, and maintain HRWT systems over time. This gap constrains progress across technical, policy, environmental, and social dimensions and risks cycles of early policy uptake followed by stagnation. The review highlights the need to integrate household perspectives into future research, policy design, and industry practice to improve system performance, user experience, and the long-term contribution of HRWTs to sustainable urban water management. Full article

Autistic people experience social stigma, which involves facing negative or false social stereotypes. A prevalent stereotype of autism in society is that it is a male condition, which has led to most traditional representations of autism across different types of media (e.g., characters in films and TV) being predominantly male-focused. In this study, a group of autistic women and/or non-binary people were recruited to speak about how they perceived media representations of autism, as their gender identities did not fit this traditional gendered stereotype. Participants shared their experiences through group discussions and a zine-making activity, where they created different forms of artwork that were then compiled into an independent community booklet and displayed in an exhibition in Central Scotland. Participants’ group discussions and descriptions of their artwork were analysed using IPA techniques, yielding two experiential themes. Participants discussed negative experiences with dehumanising media accounts of autism, which displayed autistic people as a stereotypical ‘other’, as well as positive experiences with humanised media accounts, which prioritised autistic lived experience in a more authentic and relatable way. Our findings highlight that the media can positively impact autistic people’s lives when representations centre on autistic lived experience, which fosters connectedness, autonomy, and self-understanding. Alternatively, this impact can be harmful when media accounts are stigmatising and dehumanising, which generates significant material and subjective challenges. Full article

Mitochondrial dysfunction is a hallmark of aging and age-related physical decline in people living with HIV (PLWH) who experience accelerated aging. This pilot study investigated the relationships between platelet mitochondrial function, physical performance, and body composition in older, sedentary PLWH compared with older, sedentary HIV-negative controls. Platelets have the potential to act as minimally invasive and easily accessible biomarkers for systemic mitochondrial bioenergetics and may serve as a practical biomarker in aging-related research. We analyzed correlations between mitochondrial parameters, protein levels, and measures of physical performance and body composition in a cohort of predominantly African American men (n = 7 PLWH, n = 7 controls). Body composition was assessed using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), and exercise capacity through VO₂ peak and strength tests. Platelet mitochondrial bioenergetic parameters were measured by oxygen consumption rates (OCR) and extracellular acidification rates (ECAR). Key mitochondrial proteins SIRT3, COXII, DRP1, and OPA1 were evaluated by Western blotting. The PLWH and HIV-negative control groups were similar in age and cardiorespiratory fitness. In PLWH, basal OCR and ATP-linked respiration showed strong positive correlations with VO₂ peak (r = 0.874, p < 0.05 and r = 0.862, p < 0.05, respectively) and negative correlations with BMI (r = −0.856, p < 0.05 and r = −0.849, p < 0.05, respectively). SIRT3 emerged as a potential key player, demonstrating strong positive correlations with basal OCR (r = 0.804, p < 0.05), ATP-linked respiration (r = 0.787, p < 0.05), and VO₂ peak (r = 0.970, p < 0.001), and negative correlations with BMI (r = −0.830, p < 0.05) and fat mass (r = −0.827, p < 0.05) in PLWH. Analyses focused on within-group associations in PLWH because bioenergetic measures were obtained using different Seahorse platforms in PLWH and controls, precluding valid direct quantitative comparisons between groups. Our findings provide evidence for significant associations between platelet mitochondrial bioenergetics, specific mitochondrial proteins (particularly SIRT3), and key physical attributes in older, sedentary PLWH. These preliminary findings suggest that platelets may serve as minimally invasive biomarkers of systemic mitochondrial health, contribute to our understanding of mitochondrial function in HIV-associated accelerated aging, and inform future interventions to enhance mitochondrial function and improve health outcomes in this vulnerable population. However, results should be interpreted cautiously given the small sample size and exploratory design and should be considered hypothesis-generating rather than definitive. Larger, demographically more diverse studies that include HIV-negative controls are needed to validate these associations and determine their clinical relevance. Full article

Introduction: HIV remains a public health concern despite several decades of effort. In sub-Saharan Africa, where political, environmental, and economic challenges persist, progress toward “Getting to Zero,” including zero new infections and zero HIV-related deaths, has been significantly slow. Although sub-Saharan Africa has seen the successful implementation of HIV/AIDS interventions across behavioral, biomedical, and structural approaches, there has been limited focus on housing insecurity—the inability to access safe, affordable, and stable housing—and mental health among people living with HIV, despite the critical role of housing insecurity in overall health and well-being. Therefore, this study explores how housing insecurity shapes mental health experiences among PLHIV in Kisumu. Methods: Using a qualitative approach, we purposively recruited 70 individuals from households participating in the Pamoja community-based organization’s Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) project. We then conducted in-depth interviews (IDIs) with 30 participants and 4 focus group discussions (FGDs) with 40 adult participants living with HIV (ALHIV). Audio-recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim, translated from Luo into English, and uploaded to Atlas.TI v.23, a qualitative data analysis software. We then performed thematic analysis guided by grounded theory. Results: Our findings showed that housing insecurity was a significant issue for individuals living with HIV. The majority of participants experienced heightened feelings of worry, shame, fear, anxiety, stress, and depression, which negatively impacted their adherence to HIV treatment and care. While some participants showed resilience through acceptance and disclosure, limited resources and ongoing insecurity heightened vulnerability to mental health issues. Discussions: These findings underscore the importance of housing in HIV care programs and offer valuable insights for practitioners and policymakers. The findings highlight the need to incorporate housing stability and mental health support into HIV programs. Full article

With a focus on how both traditions influence identity, memory, and lived spirituality in African contexts, this article examines the theological and cultural interactions between Christianity and African Traditional Religion (ATR). This study highlights the ongoing interaction between ATR and Christianity as two significant systems ingrained in African life, notwithstanding the continent’s religious diversity. In Africa, religion and culture are inextricably linked, influencing social customs, moral standards, and a sense of community but also constantly changing due to personal experience. African spiritual systems were frequently disregarded by missionary Christianity in the past, which led to conflicts that still exist in modern African Christianity. The importance of ancestors, rituals, and supernatural beliefs all of which are still fundamental to the worldviews of many African Christians are areas where these conflicts are especially noticeable. This article makes the case for a positive theological approach that acknowledges ATR as an essential tool for African Christian identity rather than as a rival or subpar system, drawing on the idea of inculturation. The article illustrates how African spirituality serves as a storehouse of collective memory and identity over generations by delving into issues of ancestry, ritual, and spiritual mediation. Additionally, it offers a liberative and dialogical theological concept that promotes understanding between Christianity and ATR. Such an approach not only bridges spiritual divides but also contributes to the development of a contextually grounded liberation theology that affirms indigenous knowledge systems while remaining open to global theological discourse. Full article

This study examines the transformation of the Balaton region in Hungary from a traditional tourist destination into an international retirement migration destination for older adults from Western Europe. Migration theories and models are applied to illustrate the relationships between migration and development and to explore how tourism, lifestyle aspirations, and socio-economic factors influence the settlement decisions of older migrants. Empirical findings suggest that prior tourism experience can mitigate the uncertainty associated with migration and foster belonging. However, many retirees move to Hungary with limited knowledge of the country, relying on social networks and real estate agents for information. These retired migrants also utilize local services and infrastructure, including healthcare and community spaces, which shape their daily lives and help them integrate into the community. The migration of older adults stimulates the development of peripheral rural areas through real estate purchases, renovations, and small-scale entrepreneurial activities, particularly in the accommodation sector. This challenges the traditional perception of older-age migrants as inactive. Full article

The present work examines a severe, long-lived bow echo in South China during 12–13 April 2016 and investigates the favorable factors for its strength and longevity using a series of 20 cloud-resolving ensemble experiments. Analysis of observational data indicated that this system developed near a surface front under unstable and favorable conditions with dynamic uplifting by approaching troughs at 500–700 hPa. After formation, it propagated rapidly toward the east–southeast across South China and made landfall in Southern Taiwan. The ensemble used four different datasets as initial and boundary conditions and started at five different initial times, whereby comparing the better-performing members with worse ones, four key factors promoting its strength and longevity were identified: (1) A stronger and moister low-level southwesterly flow to the south of the front to enhance convergence and moisture flux at the leading edge—where a stronger inflow with higher equivalent potential temperature (θ_e) values could feed into the bow echo—leading to a stronger and taller updraft and overall more abundant hydrometeors and rainfall; (2) stronger northwesterly to westerly winds near 700 hPa and thus stronger low-level vertical wind shear, resulting in a stronger rear inflow jet (RIJ), bookend vortices behind the bow apex, and, eventually, a faster propagation speed; (3) a deeper low to the northeast of the bow echo near 850 hPa, where its circulation also helped to bring in low-θ_e air from farther away and enhance the RIJ and cold pool; and (4) a convective initiation location farther to the east in a more favorable environment, with higher θ_e and a faster speed to remain in such a better environment. Helped by the above factors, the bow echo in the present case could reach the observed severity and long duration (~15 h) through interactions and reinforcement among its structural components, including the tilted updraft/downdraft, the low-level inflow and stratiform region, the RIJ and bookend vortices, and the cold pool and gust front. Full article

Background/Objectives: Nursing students are often exposed to bullying in clinical settings. Bullying in a practice environment is an important issue that causes psychological, physical, and mental health problems in nursing students. However, in South Korea, few qualitative studies have examined bullying among nursing students in clinical practice environments. This study aimed to explore the lived experiences of bullying among South Korean nursing students during clinical practice. Methods: A qualitative descriptive study using a semi-structured interview guide was employed to collect data from nursing students in a focus group. Overall, three focus groups were used, with seven students in each group comprising males and females. The sample size was based on data saturation and saturated on three focus group discussions, giving a sample size of 21. Purposeful sampling was used to select students who had completed one or more semesters of clinical practice (six credits, 270 h) from two nursing colleges. Interviews were conducted in May 2025. Data were analyzed using Colaizzi’s method. Results: A total of 23 meaning units, 14 themes, and 7 thematic clusters were identified. Seven overarching thematic clusters emerged: (1) exposure to harsh speech; (2) experiencing physical harm; (3) being considered a sexual object; (4) disrespected as a nursing student; (5) assigned tasks beyond an individual’s capabilities; (6) restricted educational opportunities corresponding to clinical practice objectives; and (7) discriminatory treatment due to healthcare professionals’ prejudice. Conclusions: These findings highlight the need for raising the awareness of bullying and applying the strategies to prevent bullying and protect nursing students during clinical practice. Full article