Search Results (36)

At the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, a significant component of the MD curriculum involves written narrative reflections on topics related to professional identity in medicine, with written feedback provided by their in-person longitudinal facilitators (LFs). However, it remains to be understood how generative artificial intelligence chatbots, such as ChatGPT (GPT-4), augment the feedback process and how MD students perceive feedback provided by ChatGPT versus the feedback provided by their LFs. In this study, 15 MD students provided their written narrative reflections along with the feedback they received from their LFs. Their reflections were input into ChatGPT (GPT-4) to generate instantaneous personalized feedback. MD students rated both modalities of feedback using a Likert-scale survey, in addition to providing open-ended textual responses. Quantitative analysis involved mean comparisons and t-tests, while qualitative responses were coded for themes and representational quotations. The results showed that while the LF-provided feedback was rated slightly higher in six out of eight survey items, these differences were not statistically significant. In contrast, ChatGPT scored significantly higher in helping to identify strengths and areas for improvement, as well as in providing actionable steps for improvement. Criticisms of ChatGPT included a discernible “AI tone” and paraphrasing or misuse of quotations from the reflections. In addition, MD students valued LF feedback for being more personal and reflective of the real, in-person relationships formed with LFs. Overall, findings suggest that although skepticism regarding ChatGPT’s feedback exists amongst MD students, it represents a viable avenue for deepening reflective practice and easing some of the burden on LFs. Full article

This study examines how major newspapers in South Korea and China portrayed national crisis management during the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach that combines quantitative content analysis with qualitative interpretation, this study systematically analyzes news frames and editorial tones across various phases. The qualitative analysis further clarifies the quantitative results. Editorials from The Chosun Daily, Hankyoreh, People’s Daily, and Ming Pao covering the period from 1 January 2020, to 31 March 2023, were reviewed. The research categorizes the pandemic into three distinct phases: the global spread of COVID-19, vaccine rollout, and living with the virus. It applies three news frames: crisis response, international relations, and responsibility attribution. In the initial phase, most newspapers focused on the crisis response frame, highlighting national mobilization and social solidarity. Notably, The Chosun Daily emphasized the international relations frame with the strongest critical tone. The crisis response frame continued to dominate in the second phase, accompanied by an increasingly critical tone. In the final phase, as the pandemic began to stabilize, the international relations frame significantly declined due to fewer global differences in pandemic responses. The results suggest that the media’s portrayal is influenced by political orientation and approaches to crisis management perspectives. Full article

In an increasingly competitive global tourism context, territorial branding plays a key role in enhancing the visibility, identity, and resilience of regions. This study focuses on the Algarve, a region in southern Portugal, and investigates how innovation and competitiveness are reflected in its digital communication strategy. Using a mixed-methods approach, this research combines the quantitative analysis of 689 social media posts published in 2024 on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube with the qualitative content analysis of 38 documents and the official website of Algarve. The findings reveal a coherent and visually appealing brand narrative centred on the coastal identity of the Algarve, complemented by content related to nature, gastronomy, and cultural heritage. Instagram stands out as the most engaging platform, particularly when posts adopt a participatory tone, emotional storytelling, and references to specific locations. However, only 6.4% of the content surpassed the 1% engagement threshold, suggesting limited audience connection. The website presents a broader thematic range but under-represents intangible heritage and local products.The Algarve brand successfully projects an aspirational image based on landscape and leisure but would benefit from greater content diversification, enhanced stakeholder integration, and expanded narrative strategies to strengthen digital engagement and destination competitiveness. Full article

Background/Objectives: Aquagym is a form of practicing aerobic gymnastics to stay fit, which is constantly progressing in line with the dynamics of market growth and the fitness industry, bringing benefits to physical and mental health. The purpose of the study was to identify the level of popularity of this sport among people aged 20–65 years and to highlight the benefits of practicing aquagym. Methods: This quantitative research study was designed to use a structured questionnaire to collect data from 150 participants. The sample was chosen to reflect various age groups and to ensure representativeness for the general population interested in physical activity. Participants were divided by gender into two age categories, under 45 and over 45, in order to examine differences in preferences and perceptions between these age segments. For the analysis of between-group differences, we used the Chi-Square and Cramer’s V tests, and for the profile of respondents, a Two-Step Cluster Analysis was applied. Results: Regarding knowledge of the aquagym concept, there is a notable discrepancy between females and males, with significantly more women (54%) than men (18%) stating that they are familiar with this concept. Among the perceived benefits of water gymnastics, most responses indicate maintaining muscle tone (25% women and 14% men) and a fun way to stay fit (20% women and 11% men). Young people under 45 years of age tend to attach more importance to the social and entertaining aspects of aquagym. As for the improvement in quality of life by practicing water gymnastics, a large number of respondents (82%) rated this contribution with a score of 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale, meaning that the positive impact of this activity was highly appreciated. Conclusions: Aquagym lessons are perceived as both an effective form of exercise for health improvement and a means of socialization. The outcomes of the study highlight the opportunity to continuously promote and develop gymnastics in the aquatic environment as an accessible and enjoyable form of physical activity for all ages. Full article

Background/Aims: The pelvic floor muscles are important structures involved in pelvic floor tone, pelvic organ support, and continence. The aim of this study was to perform an update on the pelvic floor muscle structure and function alterations of women with pelvic floor dysfunctions. Methods: A systematic search was undertaken in two electronic databases, PubMed/Medline and Ovid Discovery to find manuscripts (in English), published between 1 January 2002 and 31 July 2022, including all clinical studies using the following search terms: “muscle” or “extracellular matrix *” and “pelvic floor dysfunction *”. All clinical trials, observational, or animal studies examining the muscle and reporting pelvic floor dysfunction as a primary outcome were included. Case reports, literature reviews, conference papers and theses, and unpublished data were excluded. To ensure that no eligible articles were overlooked, the reference lists of all included papers underwent manual scrutiny. The bias level was estimated using Newcastle–Ottawa Scale (NOS) for cohort and case-control studies. A qualitative synthesis was performed. Results: The significant qualitative and quantitative heterogeneity between the studies did not allow for a quantitative analysis. Of the 30 articles selected with a total of 5592 women, 15 referred to the analysis of structural muscle defects, which included 3365 participants with urinary incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, fecal incontinence, cistocele, rectocele, and sexual dysfunction; 10 manuscripts referred to the study of pelvic floor muscle function with a population of 2042 women, such as urinary incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, fecal incontinence, and sexual dysfunction; and 5 papers evaluated cellular and/or molecular changes affecting the pelvic floor muscles, like urinary incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, and rectocele, which included a total of 185 participants. Women with pelvic floor muscle defects are at greater risk of pelvic floor dysfunctions, and inversely, women with pelvic floor dysfunctions have more pelvic floor muscle defects than women without pelvic floor dysfunctions. These patients demonstrate a reduction in muscle tone, contraction strength, and resistance, a compromised neuromuscular activity, and an alteration of the normal composition and organization of the muscle cells. Conclusions: Women with pelvic floor dysfunction have anatomical muscle defects, disturbance of muscle function and cellular changes involving muscle cells and nerve fibers. Full article

This study introduces the Audit Risk Sentiment Value (ARSV), a novel audit risk proxy that leverages sentiment analysis to address limitations in traditional audit risk measures such as audit fees (LNFEE), audit hours (LNHOUR), and discretionary accruals (|MJDA|). Traditional proxies primarily capture quantitative dimensions, overlooking qualitative insights embedded in audit report narratives. By systematically analyzing sentiment and tone, ARSV captures nuanced audit risk dimensions that reflect the auditor’s risk perception. The study validates ARSV using a dataset of South Korean firms listed on the KOSPI from 2018 to 2023. The results demonstrate the ARSV’s superior explanatory power, as confirmed through the Vuong test, showing consistent performance across binary and continuous measures of explanatory language. ARSV bridges the gap between qualitative and quantitative audit risk assessments, offering significant benefits to auditors, regulators, and investors. Its ability to enhance the interpretability of audit reports improves transparency and trust in financial reporting, addressing stakeholder demands for actionable, forward-looking information. Furthermore, ARSV aligns with global trends emphasizing sustainability and accountability by integrating qualitative insights into audit practices. While this study provides robust evidence supporting ARSV effectiveness, its focus on South Korean firms may limit its generalizability. Future research should explore ARSV application in diverse regulatory and cultural contexts and refine the sentiment analysis tools using advanced machine learning techniques. Expanding ARSV to include other unstructured data, such as management commentary, could further enhance its applicability. This study marks a significant step toward modernizing audit methodologies, aligning them with evolving demands for comprehensive and transparent financial reporting. The empirical analysis reveals that ARSV outperforms traditional audit risk proxies with significantly higher explanatory power. Specifically, ARSV achieved a pseudo R² of 0.786, compared to 0.608 for LNFEE, 0.604 for LNHOUR, and 0.578 for |MJDA|. The Vuong test results further validate ARSV superiority, with Z-statistics of −12.168, −12.492, and −9.775 when compared against LNFEE, LNHOUR, and |MJDA|, respectively. The model incorporating ARSV demonstrated a 62.454 F-value and an Adjusted R² of 0.599, highlighting its robustness and reliability in audit risk assessment. These quantitative metrics underscore ARSV’s effectiveness in capturing qualitative audit risk dimensions, offering a more precise and informative measure for stakeholders. Full article

Background/Objectives: The influence of media on the public opinion, especially regarding health topics, is profound. This study investigates how Spanish media may reinforce a positive image of dietary supplements for children, potentially leading to harmful health attitudes and behaviors. Methods: The researchers conducted a quantitative content analysis of 912 news articles from Spanish media outlets discussing dietary supplements for children between 2015 and 2021. They used a frequency analysis and a proportion comparison to analyze variables such as the reach of news, tone of news, mentions of health professional consultation, association with natural products, media specialization, intertextuality, and headline mentions. Results: The study found a 60% increase in publications discussing dietary supplements for children during the study period. The content analysis indicates that these articles predominantly present dietary supplements in a positive light, often without robust scientific evidence. Furthermore, many do not emphasize the need for medical consultation, which may contribute to unsupervised consumption, particularly among minors. This highlights the critical importance of professional guidance when considering dietary supplements for children. Additionally, the frequent emphasis on the “natural” attributes of these products raises concerns regarding consumer perceptions and potential safety risks. Conclusions: The study reveals a problem regarding the portrayal of dietary supplements for children in Spanish media. The overly optimistic image, lack of scientific basis, and failure to recommend medical supervision may contribute to unsupervised consumption among minors, risking their health due to misinformed decisions influenced by media portrayal. Full article

The integration of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in higher education has opened new avenues for enhancing academic writing through student–chatbot interactions. While initial research has explored this potential, deeper insights into the nature of these interactions are needed. This study characterizes graduate students’ interactions with AI chatbots for academic writing, focusing on the types of assistance they sought and their communication style and tone patterns. To achieve this, individual online sessions were conducted with 43 graduate students, and their chatbot interactions were analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methods. The analysis identified seven distinct types of assistance sought by students. The most frequent requests involved content generation and expansion, followed by source integration and verification, and then concept clarification and definitions. Students also sought chatbot support for writing consultation, text refinement and formatting, and, less frequently, rephrasing and modifying content and translation assistance. The most frequent communication style was “requesting,” marked by direct appeals for assistance, followed by “questioning” and “declarative” styles. In terms of communication tone, “neutral” and “praising” appeals dominated the interactions, reflecting engagement and appreciation for chatbot responses, while “reprimanding” tones were relatively low. These findings highlight the need for tailored chatbot interventions that encourage students to seek AI assistance for a broader and more in-depth range of writing tasks. Full article

This study examined the relationship between climate change advocacy on TikTok and knowledge, attitude, and adaptation practices among TikTok users in Nigeria. This study employed quantitative methods, using content analysis and cross-sectional survey approaches to generate data. An API tool was used to scrape 342 TikTok videos, out of which 16 videos with comprehensive information about climate change were purposively selected, and 381 survey participants were purposively selected from 23.84 million TikTok users in Nigeria. The data were presented in simple frequency tables, while the Pearson’s Correlation analysis was conducted on the survey data acquired to draw inferences. The results of the content analysis suggest that users in Nigeria have contributed a little in providing comprehensive climate advocacy content on TikTok; most of available videos emanated from official sources and projected the anthropogenic nature of the climate crisis but denoted a pessimistic and alarming tone, which may induce despair and outright disregard for the messages. The survey results depict limited exposure to climate change content on TikTok, even though the knowledge of climate change was adequate. More so, polarised perceptions and attitudes, and maladaptive practices in tree planting as well as plastic and household wastes management were observed. The correlation coefficients show a negative and statistically non-significant correlation between exposure to climate advocacy on TikTok and knowledge, attitude, and adaptation practices, but there is a positive but insignificant relationship between the perception of climate change advocacy on TikTok and adaptation practices. These findings suggest the need for more intentional policies that will drive positive attitudinal changes and adaptation practices among young people in Nigeria. Full article

This study aimed to analyze the determinants of disclosure tone (DT) in the Saudi business environment during the last nine years. In addition, it tested the impact of earnings management and accounting conservatism on this tone. The study followed a mixed-method approach, “quantitative and qualitative”, to explore the relationships used for the content analysis to analyze the annual reports of a sample of 88 Saudi-listed firms from 2014 to 2022. The results of the study found that there is a positive impact of dividend yield on disclosure tone. Conversely, both firm size and leverage do not have a significant impact. Moreover, earnings management as an accounting practice has a curvilinear effect on disclosure tone, and accounting conservatism as a generally accepted principle positively influences disclosure tone. Full article

Audio steganalysis has been little explored due to its complexity and randomness, which complicate the analysis. Audio files generate marks in the frequency domain; these marks are known as fingerprints and make the files unique. This allows us to differentiate between audio vectors. In this work, the use of the Goertzel algorithm as a steganalyzer in the frequency domain is combined with the proposed sliding window adaptation to allow the analyzed audio vectors to be compared, enabling the differences between the vectors to be identified. We then apply linear prediction to the vectors to detect any modifications in the acoustic signatures. The implemented Goertzel algorithm is computationally less complex than other proposed stegoanalyzers based on convolutional neural networks or other types of classifiers of lower complexity, such as support vector machines (SVD). These methods previously required an extensive audio database to train the network, and thus detect possible stegoaudio through the matches they find. Unlike the proposed Goertzel algorithm, which works individually with the audio vector in question, it locates the difference in tone and generates an alert for the possible stegoaudio. In this work, we apply the classic Goertzel algorithm to detect frequencies that have possibly been modified by insertions or alterations of the audio vectors. The final vectors are plotted to visualize the alteration zones. The obtained results are evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively. To perform a double check of the fingerprint of the audio vectors, we obtain a linear prediction error to establish the percentage of statistical dependence between the processed audio signals. To validate the proposed method, we evaluate the audio quality metrics (AQMs) of the obtained result. Finally, we implement the stegoanalyzer oriented to AQMs to corroborate the obtained results. From the results obtained for the performance of the proposed stegoanalyzer, we demonstrate that we have a success rate of 100%. Full article

This research aims to analyse the work of two international information verification agencies on TikTok—MediaWise and Politifact—according to their evolution, approach, content, and format. To this end, a quantitative approach has been used with an inductive content analysis with nominal variables, which offers specific nuances adapted to the unit of analysis. In a first phase, an empirical analysis was carried out, focusing on the measurement and quantification of the number of publications and interactions of the audience, from the time Fthey started operating on this platform until 31 December 2023. The total number of posts extracted was N > 704, which generated N > 4,166,387 user responses. In a second phase, an in-depth content analysis of all the posts published by these two agencies in four months (October and November 2021 and October and November 2023) was carried out, allowing us to analyse their evolution, but also to compare the two agencies in terms of approach, themes, and style. The most important findings show that both agencies adapt the style and narratives to this social network through the use of dynamic resources, a casual and informal tone, and elements of humour. In addition, both contribute to public reason through different strategies: MediaWise focuses on media literacy and Politifact on verification, using resources, effects and content in line with that purpose. Finally, we observe a downward evolution in terms of reach and impact on the audience, as well as a lower dynamism in 2023 than in 2021, which opens the door to future lines of explanatory research that delve deeper into possible causes. Full article

We used quantitative text analysis to examine conversations in a series of online support groups attended by care partners of people living with rare dementias (PLWRD). We used transcripts of 14 sessions (>100,000 words) to explore patterns of communication in trained facilitators’ (n = 2) and participants’ (n = 11) speech and to investigate the impact of session agenda on language use. We investigated the features of their communication via Poisson regression and a clustering algorithm. We also compared their speech with a natural speech corpus. We found that differences to natural speech emerged, notably in emotional tone (d = −3.2, p < 0.001) and cognitive processes (d = 2.8, p < 0.001). We observed further differences between facilitators and participants and between sessions based on agenda. The clustering algorithm categorised participants’ contributions into three groups: sharing experience, self-reflection, and group processes. We discuss the findings in the context of Social Comparison Theory. We argue that dedicated online spaces have a positive impact on care partners in combatting isolation and stress via affiliation with peers. We then discuss the linguistic mechanisms by which social support was experienced in the group. The present paper has implications for any services seeking insight into how peer support is designed, delivered, and experienced by participants. Full article

Transparency in financial reporting is crucial for maintaining trust in financial markets, yet fraudulent financial statements remain challenging to detect and prevent. This study introduces a novel approach to detecting financial statement fraud by applying sentiment analysis to analyse the textual data within financial reports. This research aims to identify patterns and anomalies that might indicate fraudulent activities by examining the language and sentiment expressed across multiple fiscal years. The study focuses on three companies known for financial statement fraud: Wirecard, Tesco, and Under Armour. Utilising Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques, the research analyses polarity (positive or negative sentiment) and subjectivity (degree of personal opinion) within the financial statements, revealing intriguing patterns. Wirecard showed a consistent tone with a slight decrease in 2018, Tesco exhibited marked changes in the fraud year, and Under Armour presented subtler shifts during the fraud years. While the findings present promising trends, the study emphasises that sentiment analysis alone cannot definitively detect financial statement fraud. It provides insights into the tone and mood of the text but cannot reveal intentional deception or financial discrepancies. The results serve as supplementary information, enriching traditional financial analysis methods. This research contributes to the field by exploring the potential of sentiment analysis in financial fraud detection, offering a unique perspective that complements quantitative methods. It opens new avenues for investigation and underscores the need for an integrated, multidimensional approach to fraud detection. Full article

Migraine pathogenic pathways may selectively target the cochlea. A qualitative and quantitative analysis of cochlear symptoms in migraine patients without vestibular migraine and/or Méniere’s disease was conducted. We examined 60 consecutive patients with history of cochlear symptoms, including fullness, tinnitus, and hearing loss. Patients were divided into two groups based on migraine history: M (migraine) and nM (no migraine). The incidence of migraine was compared to a homogeneous control group with dysfunctional and inflammatory dysphonia without cochlear symptoms. The type, time of onset, recurrence, bilaterality of symptoms, and hearing threshold were analyzed. The incidence of migraine was significantly higher (p = 0.04) in patients with cochlear symptoms than in the control group. The onset of symptoms is significantly earlier (p < 0.05) in the presence of migraine. The fullness, recurrence, and bilaterality of symptoms are associated with migraine in a statistically significant way (p < 0.05). Pure tone audiometry shows a statistically significant increase in the hearing threshold (500–1000 Hz) in group M. Based on developing findings, cochlear migraine may be considered as a novel clinical entity, like vestibular migraine. It would be the expression, in the absence of vertiginous symptoms, of a selective suffering of the anterior labyrinth by known operating mechanisms of migraine. Full article