Search Results (145)

As agricultural marketization deepens, market risks have become a key factor affecting rural household livelihoods, while the trend toward differentiation among rural households has further exacerbated heterogeneity in resource allocation strategies and risk-coping capabilities across different groups. Based on field survey data from 763 rural households in the border areas of Yunnan Province, this study employs a combination of the Target MOTAD model and OLS regression to analyze the optimal production mix, resource utilization efficiency, and determinants of agricultural income for different types of farming households. Empirical results indicate that capital shortages are the primary factor constraining the full utilization of agricultural resources and farmers’ income growth; non-agricultural households, through proactive risk management, demonstrate significantly stronger risk resilience than agricultural households; and differences in the income structures of these two types of households drive them to adopt differentiated risk response strategies. Based on these findings, this study proposes the following optimization pathways: First, enhance rural households’ ability to accumulate capital to overcome the bottlenecks of resource idleness and income growth; second, promote moderate-scale agricultural operations to improve resource utilization efficiency; third, implement differentiated risk response strategies based on the heterogeneous characteristics of farming households. This research provides theoretical references and practical foundations for optimizing resource allocation among rural households in Yunnan’s border regions and enhancing agricultural risk-response capabilities. Full article

In the context of intensified trade frictions and frequent financial market fluctuations, assessing the risk resilience of strategic emerging industries holds significant strategic value. Based on quarterly data from 2010 to 2025, this study empirically examines the time-varying and asymmetric shock effects of trade policy uncertainty and financial stress on the profitability of China’s strategic emerging industries using the TVP-VAR-SV model. The study finds that China’s strategic emerging industries exhibit significant asymmetric resilience differences when facing different external shocks, specifically demonstrating stronger trade resilience and weaker financial resilience. The shocks brought by trade uncertainty typically show short-term pain followed by rapid recovery, with the negative impact being largely eliminated within two quarters and subsequently turning into positive growth, reflecting outstanding recovery capability. In contrast, the impact of financial stress on corporate profitability has a profound long-tail effect, with negative disruptions often persisting for more than two years before gradually dissipating. This contrast indicates that trade policy uncertainty and financial stress affect industrial resilience through asymmetric response patterns in terms of impact intensity and persistence. Over time, as autonomy and controllability have improved, the industry’s defensive ability to cope with trade frictions has significantly strengthened, yet credit tightening and liquidity pressure in the financial sector remain the core threats to its profitability recovery. This study not only reveals the asymmetric resilience paths of strategic emerging industries under different external shocks but also provides empirical evidence and policy recommendations for the future improvement of the technology–finance system and the construction of a more resilient domestic industrial chain. Full article

This exploratory study examines how journalists in/coordinating investigations use a chatbot designed to reduce power asymmetries during remote work. Twelve freelancers across Africa, Europe, and India tested Obruche, a chatbot advisor covering risk mitigation, pay equality, tension de-escalation, and intellectual property protection. Drawing on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, semi-structured interviews were coded for Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Facilitating Conditions, and Social Influence. Results show journalists gravitate towards chatbots that are cognisant of their location-specific challenges and able to provide information that facilitates access to media outlets or peers for future collaborations. Next-best-action responses that expanded user queries or offered role-play scenarios also left journalists feeling supported, less lonely, and not judged. However, the chatbot’s female persona, scepticism of artificial intelligence, and chatbot novelty may reduce user acceptance. Obruche’s potential areas of intervention are linked to eight types of organisational power. The chatbot mainly assisted journalists to confront or rebalance Control of Knowledge and Information, and Control of Scarce Resources, aiding users’ Ability to Cope with Uncertainty. This research contributes to recent qualitative studies on journalists’ well-being by demonstrating how chatbots can mitigate power imbalances between dispersed teams of journalists. The benefits and concerns presented may inform future designs of similar team-mediation chatbots. Full article

Background: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental condition with increasing prevalence of adult diagnoses in Denmark. ADHD is characterized by inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness. Conventional treatment is primarily pharmacological. Many adults with ADHD face challenges in maintaining structure in daily life and have an increased risk of developing stress, anxiety, and depression. Winter bathing is gaining popularity and is associated with improvements in mood, sleep quality, and the ability to handle stress. Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore how winter bathing was experienced to affect the mental well-being of five adults diagnosed with ADHD. Methods: A qualitative research design was used, with participant observation and semi-structured interviews with five participants in April 2025. Additional data were obtained through interviews with a psychologist and an ADHD mentor. Empirical data were thematically analysed, followed by theoretical analysis. Results: Six themes were revealed: Mental calmness: peace of mind and relief from racing thoughts; Bodily awareness and connection to the body; Joy: sustained positivity; Nature: essential for motivation and general mind–body calmness; Coping with and managing everyday life better; and Winter bathing as a supplement or alternative to medication for anxiety, depression and ADHD. Conclusions: Five adults with ADHD experienced winter bathing as a meaningful and motivating non-pharmacological intervention that strengthened their mental well-being and quality of life. Winter bathing promoted general mind–body calmness, sustained joy, bodily connection, and mental coping, and was used as a supplement or alternative to medication. Nature emerged as a key motivational factor enhancing presence and well-being. Full article

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become a major global public health challenge, and widely residual disinfectants in the environment are one of the key drivers of bacterial AMR development. This study aimed to investigate the inductive effects of three commonly used disinfectants—benzalkonium bromide (BAB), glutaraldehyde (GTA), and povidone-iodine (PVP-I)—on the resistance of Escherichia coli (E. coli), as well as the resultant bacterial phenotypic and genetic alterations. Three disinfectants frequently detected in clinical and environmental settings were selected as the research objects: first, their bactericidal efficacy against environmental bacteria was determined; subsequently, a concentration-increasing gradient approach was adopted to systematically explore the evolutionary patterns of E. coli resistance under the stress of sub-inhibitory concentrations (SICs). After induction, the bacterial resistance levels to disinfectants and various antibiotics, growth characteristics, and biofilm-forming ability were detected, and combined with whole-genome analysis to investigate genetic-level changes. The results showed that all three disinfectants could enhance E. coli resistance to themselves (12–48-fold) and antibiotics, and the induced antibiotic resistance exhibited favorable genetic stability. Among them, BAB induced the strongest resistance, with the most significant increase in resistance levels to multiple antibiotics (16–64-fold); GTA had the weakest inductive effect, only slightly enhancing bacterial resistance to a small number of antibiotics. Notably, all induced strains exhibited reduced growth rates yet markedly enhanced biofilm-forming capacity, alongside acquired genomic structural variations. Their gene functions displayed shared adaptive signatures in coping with environmental stress, while core pathogenicity-associated genes remained conserved. This study demonstrates that inducing E. coli using environmentally relevant low concentrations of disinfectant residues as initial induction doses drives the evolution of bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR), with distinct resistance induction risks among the three disinfectant types. These findings offer critical insights for standardizing disinfectant application, mitigating the transmission of bacterial AMR, and underscore the imperative of interdisciplinary collaboration to tackle the environmental risks posed by disinfectant residues. Full article

Background: Parental loss in childhood is a significant developmental risk factor, underscoring the need for evidence-based knowledge to guide support. Although social responses play a central role in children’s adjustment to loss, little is known about how parentally bereaved children in Israel experience social support in school. Methods: This qualitative study examined how parentally bereaved children in elementary and middle school experience social responses in the school context. Thirty-six participants were interviewed: 20 children who participated in dyadic interviews with their 16 surviving parents. Linguistic analysis, combined with Grounded Theory, was used to analyze the data. Results: Peer support was found to lie on a continuum ranging from support, through an unintentional lack of support, to deliberate nonsupport (teasing). These patterns shaped children’s experiences of returning to school, their sense of belonging, and their ability to share their grief. Conclusions: The findings, discussed in light of the Dual Process Model of Coping with Bereavement, highlight the crucial role of peers in children’s adaptation to parental loss. Developing evidence-based knowledge in this area may inform policy change and tailored school-based training to promote optimal support for parentally bereaved children. Full article

Toxic romantic relationships, a popular term referring to intimate partner violence (IPV) characterized by psychological, physical, and sexual violence, are a growing concern among young people. This pilot study aimed to preliminarily validate the vignette task on IPV, the “Mind 4 partner abuse” task, and to investigate the cognitive patterns and emotional profiles concerning IPV. Our research involved 228 university students from the University of L’Aquila who participated in an online psychoeducational program to raise awareness of the risks of IPV. Participants completed the “Mind 4 partner abuse” task, which included five vignettes depicting escalating violence in relationships. The task assessed participants’ emotional responses (anger, anxiety/fear, sadness, shame/guilt) and cognitive responses (functional-assertive or dysfunctional) to each vignette. In addition, for convergent validation, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) was administered to assess empathic abilities. Five distinct factors were identified: active coping and legal awareness (ACLA), emotional distress (ED), assertiveness and autonomy defense (AAD), assertive reaction and self-empowerment (ARSE), and refusal of public humiliation and dignity assertion (RDA). One factor out of the five, emotional distress (ED), identified a dysfunctional cognitive pattern. The instrument showed a good convergent validity with the IRI. The correlation analysis showed that the IRI personal distress scale was negatively associated with ACLA and positively associated with ED. The IRI Empathic Concern scale was positively associated with RDA. In the dysfunctional cognitive pattern, as measured by the “Mind 4 Partner Abuse” vignette task, the ED factor was positively correlated with anxiety, sadness, shame, and guilt. The potential of the vignette task to identify high-risk cognitive profiles is promising, but it has yet to be confirmed. Given the limitations of the study, the findings offer only preliminary indications of cognitive patterns in young adults and their perceptions of romantic relationships, as assessed through a psychoeducational intervention. Further research with larger and more diverse samples, as well as more robust task designs, is necessary before firm conclusions can be drawn. Full article

Background: Compassion fatigue (CF) is a state of emotional and physical exhaustion in the caregiving relationship, which can negatively impact patient safety and quality of care. Maternity care professionals are particularly vulnerable to CF due to their continuous empathetic engagement with patients in an unpredictable, high-stress work environment. Despite its significance, research on CF in maternity care is limited. The aim of this study is to explore experiences of CF among maternity care professionals. Methods: A thematic analysis of semi-structured in-depth interviews was conducted. The sample consisted of seven midwives and three gynecologists from different hospitals and outpatient care in Flanders (Belgium). Results: Experiences, risk factors and protective factors were identified as three organizing themes and further refined into 12 subthemes. Participants showed limited familiarity with the term CF but recognized its symptoms, including emotional exhaustion, reduced empathy, and a diminished ability to provide care, ‘as one normally would’. Key risk factors included high workload, emotional strain from ‘energy-consuming’ patients, fear of errors, and administrative burden. A supportive team environment, compassion satisfaction (CS), job autonomy and personal coping skills were identified as protective factors. Participants emphasized the need to recognize and address signals of CF. Conclusions: CF among maternity care professionals is underrecognized but appears to impact both caregiver well-being and patient care quality. Interventions should target awareness, team communication, psychological safety, and organizational context. A multilevel approach—combining individual, team, and systemic strategies—is needed to sustainably mitigate CF in maternity care. Full article

Existing studies on adaptive capacity often focus on isolated theoretical aspects of the concept, without offering practical tools for climate policy. Moreover, gaps remain in integrating public participation into adaptation strategies and in extending research beyond specific climate-related threats, such as flooding. Current climate adaptation plans usually rely on public statistics, which are not accurate enough to reflect adaptive capacity at the local level. Improving such plans requires incorporating local knowledge and adequately addressing the needs of vulnerable groups. This article proposes a survey-based tool for measuring social adaptive capacity, providing policymakers with detailed insights into a community’s ability to cope with climate change. The tool was tested while developing a climate adaptation plan for a medium-sized city in Poland. A total of 238 responses were analysed, applying basic and non-parametric statistical methods across four key variables: risk perception of climate change, perceived adaptive capacity, adaptation motivation, and adaptation behaviour. Findings revealed that residents were aware of climate change and believed in the necessity of adaptation. To translate this awareness into sustainable action, local authorities should raise individual responsibility, offer technical and financial guidance, provide various forms of financial assistance, and strengthen social capital, which could increase participation in grassroots initiatives. Full article

Background: Pancreatic cancer (PC) remains one of the deadliest malignancies, with long-term survival often reliant on early detection through surgery and chemotherapy. Unfortunately, the late-stage presentation of the disease contributes to its poor prognosis, leading to an increased focus on surveillance for high-risk individuals (HRIs) to facilitate earlier diagnosis. Despite the growing implementation of such programmes globally, there is a lack of longitudinal studies examining the benefits of PC surveillance, particularly regarding the well-being of participants. The study aimed to evaluate the distress experienced by HRIs 3-years after engaging in PC screening at Verona Pancreas Institute and to describe which participant characteristics contributed to the increase in stress. Methods: This is a longitudinal follow-up (FU) of a previously published cohort. HRIs with heredo-familial predisposition undergoing PC surveillance with MRCP and a clinical visit were re-evaluated from 2019 to 2023 in the same psychological assessment using Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced (COPE) and The Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) 3 years after the baseline assessment. The FU assessments were conducted by a clinical psychologist via telephone after the radiological and clinical evaluations were made. Results: Of the 54 HRIs initially evaluated, ten did not respond to phone contacts. The remaining 44 HRIs, of whom 29 (65.9%) were female, with a mean age of 56.1 years (SD = 10.2), agreed to participate in a FU psychological assessment. After 3 years, the participant exhibited an increase in stress levels (PSS—T0 mean 14.8; T1 mean 16.9), a decrease in problem-solving abilities (GSES—from 32.02 to 28.09, p < 0.01), a deterioration in adaptive capacity to the situation (COPE total score from 64.0 to 61.39, p = 0.05), and a reduction in perceived social support (MSPSS—T0: 4.59; T1: 4.27, p = 0.02). A significant decrease was also observed in the use of denial (from 2.84 to 2.32; p = 0.02). Based on the psychological characteristics of the 44 HRIs, stratified according to PSS reassessed at FU, 3 distinct clusters were identified: (a) Normal Stress (32% of the sample): HRIs with a PSS score < 14; (b) Stable Clinical Stress (46% of the sample): HRIs with PSS at FU > 14 and PSS at baseline > 14; (c) New Clinical Stress (22% of the sample): HRIs with PSS at FU > 14 and PSS at baseline < 14. After 3 years of surveillance for PC, 67% of the total study sample (Stable Clinical Stress group and New Clinical Stress group) exhibited high perceived stress. Over the course of the 3 years, 7 HRIs (15.9%) lost a family member due to PC. Conclusions: The data suggest the need to include psychological care pathways within the surveillance programmes. These insights can enhance existing literature and aid in creating comprehensive surveillance programmes for PC, addressing all care aspects, including mental health. Full article

The frequency and intensity of floods increase with global climate change. Strengthening the resilience of farmers to disasters, in particular to mitigate flood risks, has become an important policy issue. Increasing the livelihood resilience of farmers to enhance their disaster preparedness has become the main form of coping with flood risk. However, few studies have explored the correlation between farmers’ livelihood resilience and disaster preparedness. Using data from a survey of 540 rural households conducted in July 2021 across nine towns in three counties in Sichuan Province, we construct an indicator system for evaluating the farmers’ livelihood resilience in flood risk areas. The relationship between farmers’ livelihood resilience and their disaster preparedness is studied using the tobit model. The results show that farmers’ livelihood resilience is composed of multiple dimensions, with self-organization capacity scoring the highest (0.541), followed by learning ability (0.303), and buffer capacity scoring the lowest (0.223). Additionally, the level of trust in society and the possibility of suffering from floods in the research area have a noticeable positive effect on farmers’ decision-making related to disaster preparedness. The more farmers trust in society and the greater the likelihood of exposure to flood risk is, the more they tend to be prepared for risk avoidance. Furthermore, farmers’ livelihood resilience is positively associated with their overall disaster preparedness. Specifically, both buffer capacity and learning ability influence emergency disaster preparedness and knowledge and skill preparation; self-organization capacity affects only knowledge and skill preparation. These results suggest procedures to enhance farmers’ livelihood resilience and further strengthen preparedness for disasters such as floods. Full article

Hyperthermal environments are encountered in many situations, and significant heat stress can exacerbate the fatigue perception of individuals and potentially threaten their safety. Heat acclimation (HA) interventions have many benefits in preventing the risk of incidents. However, whether HA interventions in specific environments can cope with other different hyperthermal environments remains uncertain. In this study, forty-three young male participants were heat-acclimated over 10 days of training on a motorized treadmill in a fixed hyperthermal environment, and they were tested in different hyperthermal environments. Physiological indices (rectal temperature (T_r), heart rate (HR), skin temperature (T_sk), and total sweat loss (M_sl)) and subjective perception (rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and thermal sensation votes (TSVs)) were measured during both the heat stress test (HST) sessions and HA training sessions. The results show that HR and T_sk significantly differed between pre- and post-heat acclimation (p < 0.05 for all) following the acclimation program. However, after heat acclimation training, the reduction in T_r (ΔT_r) was more notable in lower-ET* environments, and M_sl showed distinct changes in different ET* environments. The RPE and TSV decreased after HA interventions, although the difference was not significant. The results indicate that HA can effectively reduce the peak of physiological parameters. However, when subjected to stronger heat stress, the improvement effects of heat acclimation on human responses will be affected. In addition, HA can alleviate physiological thermal strain, thereby reducing the adverse effects on mobility, but it has no effect on the supervisor’s ability to perceive the environment. This study suggests that additional HA training can reduce the risk of activities in high-temperature environments but exhibits different effects under different environmental conditions, indicating that hot acclimation suits have selective effects on the environment. This study provides recommendations for additional HA training before high-temperature activities. Full article

In the face of evolving digital technologies, all industries have undergone radical changes. Similarly, the construction industry needs to apply digital technology to improve the existing Supply Chain (SC), which has problems such as the inefficient collaboration among various links, the poor ability to cope with risks, the higher costs, the waste of resources and pollution, etc., and to adapt to the development of the digital era. Prefabricated Construction (PC), with their advantages of having a high efficiency and being energy-saving, can help improve the above problems and promote the sustainable development of the construction industry. Therefore, this review uses a combination of scientific bibliometrics and a qualitative analysis to search a total of 129 works of literature on the application of digital technologies in Prefabricated Construction Supply Chain Management (PCSCM) for the period of 2015–2024 included in the Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed databases. After visualization and analysis in Citespace v6.3.1.0 and VOSviewer v1.6.20.0, it was found that most of the literature focuses on the economic benefits of cost reduction and efficiency, while there are fewer studies on the topic of sustainable development. Therefore, this study summarizes the current status of the application of digital technologies in PCSCM, addressing the lack of attention to environmental benefits in the existing studies and the limitations of the current research. Creatively, it proposes recommendations that will help PCSCM achieve sustainable development in the future, and points out that the construction industry must break through the limitation of focusing only on its own economic interests to realize the vision of a harmonious coexistence between human beings and nature. Full article

Climate change has negatively impacted species worldwide. Ectotherms, including reptiles, are at particular risk of local extirpation. Numerous reptile species vary in their climate response across latitude and altitude; therefore, understanding how climate change impacts populations is vital. Thermoregulation trades off with hydroregulation; therefore, both must be included when investigating response to microclimate. Here we investigated behavioural responses to temperature and relative humidity in three latitudinally distinct lineages of Tiliqua adelaidensis, a cryptic, burrow-dwelling endangered lizard endemic to South Australia. A monthly field-based approach distance method was adopted in the spring of 2022 in the wild and at a southerly trial translocation site. The behaviour of wild northern latitude lizards was linked with the microclimate, prioritising surface activity under moderate conditions. Wild and translocated northern lizards reduced approach distance and were only observed on the surface when base-of-burrow humidity was high, suggesting a plasticity lag or limit for this population. There was some evidence of translocation acclimatisation; however, our results suggest acclimatisation may take longer than two years and may vary with latitude of origin. While lineages may be limited in their ability to adjust to increasing temperatures under climate change, these lizards may cope with translocation as a mitigation strategy in the longer term. Full article

Under the goal of “dual carbon”, the power market and carbon market are developing synergistically, which is strongly promoting the transformation of the power system in a clean and low-carbon direction. In order to realise the synergistic optimisation of multi-virtual power plants, economic and low-carbon operation, and the reasonable distribution of revenues, this paper proposes a multi-VPP power–carbon sharing operation optimisation strategy considering multiple uncertainties. Firstly, a cost model for each VPP power–carbon sharing considering the uncertainties of market electricity price and new energy output is established. Secondly, a multi-VPP power–carbon sharing operation optimisation model is established based on the Nash negotiation theory, which is then decomposed into a multi-VPP coalition cost minimisation subproblem and a revenue allocation subproblem based on asymmetric bargaining. Thirdly, the variable penalty parameter alternating directional multiplier method is used for the solution. Finally, an asymmetric bargaining method is proposed to quantify the contribution size of each participant with a nonlinear energy mapping function, and the VPPs negotiate with each other regarding the bargaining power of their electricity–carbon contribution size in the co-operation, so as to ensure a fair distribution of co-operation benefits and thus to motivate and maintain a long-term and stable co-operative relationship among the subjects. Example analyses show that the method proposed in this paper can significantly increase the revenue level of each VPP and reduce carbon emissions and, at the same time, improve the ability of VPPs to cope with uncertain risks and achieve a fair and reasonable distribution of the benefits of VPPs. Full article