Search Results (15,382)

Background/Objectives: Psychiatric inpatient care is characterised by power asymmetries between care providers and care receivers. Despite international guidelines and policies promoting autonomy, involvement, and empowerment, these ideals remain challenging to implement in clinical practice. Psychiatric self-admission has been developed to strengthen autonomy; however, its implementation may challenge established power structures, professional roles, and responsibilities within mental healthcare settings. This study aimed to explore stakeholder perspectives on power transfer during the implementation of psychiatric self-admission in Scandinavia. Methods: A qualitative multi-source study was conducted using semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews, and document collection. Interviews were conducted with 36 participants involved in the development and implementation of self-admission in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Additionally, approximately 250 documents were gathered. The documentary material was analysed alongside the interviews and focus groups to provide an understanding of the implementation of self-admission models and how power transfer was represented within these processes. The analyses were inspired by methods in qualitative content analysis and document analysis. Results: Findings on stakeholder perspectives on power transfer during implementation revealed a tension reflected in two subthemes: ‘Responsive and Responsible’, where self-admission was viewed as a necessary response to needs that the healthcare system was unable to address, and ‘Unsafe and Unsound’, where self-admission was associated with uncertainties and risks related to losing control. Conclusions: Implementing psychiatric self-admission, which involved challenging traditional power relations in healthcare, was permeated by trust, distrust, and fear. The findings highlight the need to address stakeholders’ concerns related to safety and professional responsibility. Full article

Portable handheld bioprinters represent a transformative advancement in personalized skin regeneration, bypassing the logistical constraints of stationary lab-based systems by enabling real-time, in situ fabrication of bioengineered constructs directly within the wound bed. This review aims to evaluate the current state of their development and clinical translation. One of the foci is placed on the stringent physicochemical requirements for bioinks, where we examined the critical balance between bioadhesion—facilitated by functional groups—and mechanical cohesion necessary for maintaining structural integrity during deposition, while RGD motifs are considered primarily as promoters of integrin-mediated cell adhesion. Preclinical studies have demonstrated promising effects of bioprinted constructs on wound healing and tissue organization; however, human evidence for handheld and direct in situ skin bioprinting remains limited, and clinical efficacy has yet to be established in controlled studies. Nevertheless, widespread adoption is hindered by inferior printing fidelity relative to stationary counterparts, a lack of standardized GMP-compliant bioink production, and regulatory ambiguity that impedes clear classification as either medical devices or biologics. Practical barriers, including intraoperative sterility assurance and operator training, also remain unresolved. Looking ahead, we discuss how the convergence of, in particular, artificial intelligence for real-time wound morphometry, closed-loop process control, and smart, self-healing biomaterials promises to surmount these obstacles. We conclude that these synergistic innovations may propel handheld bioprinters from experimental prototypes toward clinical tools with the potential to reshape reconstructive surgery and emergency wound care, although their clinical value will require validation in appropriately designed human studies. Full article

A distribution feeder is built meshed and operated radially, so at any instant it occupies one of a combinatorial family of topologically radial configurations. We show that this family, weighted in the natural maximum-entropy way, is a determinantal point process whose kernel is the transfer-current matrix of the network, and we read that kernel in the operator’s language: the probability that a line section is energised equals its own self transfer-current factor, Foster’s sum rule is the trace identity, and the covariance of two switching states is minus the square of their normalised transfer current. Independent faults leave the feeder exactly within this family for any number of faults, whereas no restoration mechanism ignorant of the section resistances can return it there; among those that can, one is canonical, being the unique mechanism that reverses the fault, and its weight is the section’s transfer-current factor in the post-fault network with everything still energised shorted. We show, and report, that these weights are a structural diagnostic and not a repair priority. The maintained feeder is solved in closed form, and an exact transport equation prices what a reinforcement programme costs the feeder’s ability to reconfigure. The central spanning-tree and sector identities are verified against exhaustive enumeration; the dynamical and sensitivity statements are checked by exact master-equation computations and finite differences. Full article

The proliferation of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) presents a systemic paradox within complex socio-technical systems: while enhancing efficiency, AGI may subvert human autonomy through comfort-based alignment rather than overt coercion. Although algorithmic management research has theorized surveillance-based control—the “Iron Cage”—it has largely overlooked the voluntary erosion of autonomy driven by algorithmic nurturing and its recursive feedback loops. This study proposes the Algorithmic Nurturing Perspective (ANP) by synthesizing five foundational behavioral theories—bounded rationality, expectancy theory, prospect theory, goal-setting theory, and social information processing theory—reinterpreted within the AGI context. ANP elucidates how AGI systemically reconfigures socio-technical systems through three self-reinforcing causal feedback loops: the automation of choice, the externalization of emotional regulation, and isolation from social reality. We derive eight propositions illustrating how these mechanisms trigger individual-level cognitive dependence and systemic regression, which subsequently emerge as organizational-level pathologies, including learning myopia, leadership degeneration, and declining strategic decision quality. By introducing the “Golden Cage” as a novel conceptual lens, the ANP shifts the AI governance discourse from an “efficiency-vs-coercion” framework to an “autonomy-vs-compliance” paradigm. We further propose Cognitive Friction Design as a multilevel balancing intervention to mitigate these risks. As a self-contained theoretical contribution, this framework stands independently of any single empirical test while remaining falsifiable: a mechanism-differentiated system dynamics simulation demonstrates the internal coherence of the proposed feedback structure, and proposition-by-proposition falsification conditions specify the empirical pathway for causal verification in future research. We further identify balancing-dominant conditions under which algorithmic assistance may enhance, rather than erode, human autonomy. Full article

Background/Objectives: Energy drinks are marketed to adolescents as products that enhance alertness, concentration, and physical or sports performance, yet their use may also represent a visible marker of sleep debt and a potential contributor to disrupted 24 h behavioral patterns. This narrative review examines evidence linking energy drink consumption with adolescent sleep disturbance and considers implications for obesity risk, cognition, and physical activity. Methods: Targeted literature searches were conducted in PubMed/MEDLINE, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, and reference lists to identify reviews, consensus statements, policy documents, and adolescent-relevant observational or experimental studies. Evidence was synthesized narratively and classified as strong, moderate, limited, or hypothesis-generating according to study design, consistency, age specificity, and directness to the proposed pathway. Results: The strongest evidence supports associations between energy drink use and short or poor-quality sleep, and between sleep dimensions and adolescent adiposity. Experimental adolescent studies support links between sleep restriction, food choice, reward processing, cognition, and self-regulation. Evidence linking energy drink use directly to reduced physical activity is weaker and likely depends on timing, context, and user subgroup. Sugary and sugar-free products require separate interpretation: sugar-containing drinks may contribute directly to energy intake, whereas sugar-free products may still disrupt sleep through caffeine and may not remove behavioral risk. Conclusions: Energy drink use should be considered not only as caffeine or sugar exposure, but also as a screening cue for sleep debt, fatigue, sedentary behavior, and physical activity readiness. Reducing energy drink use alone is unlikely to resolve adolescent sleep debt; multifactorial interventions that combine caffeine-timing guidance, sleep hygiene, screen management, physical activity support, and policy-level access strategies are needed. Full article

Advanced seismic hazard assessment frameworks rely on stochastic models which include aftershock production in the form of branching or self-exciting point processes. Such empirical constructs are based on debated statistical laws observed across catalogs of natural seismicity, which lack a derivation from first principles. Here, we derive the statistics of aftershock production in a generalized mean-field model of avalanche dynamics with static random thresholds and bimodal relaxation. The number of direct aftershocks is statistically characterized as a renewal counting process accounting for Borel-distributed refractory intervals. At the large-number limit, the expected number of aftershocks is proportional to the size of the parent event with a characteristic scale linearly depending only on the branching parameter governing refractory intervals, whereas the variance follows a distinct parabolic dependence with the same parameter. This model provides a rationale for the overdispersion in aftershock production observed in field data with respect to the Poissonian offspring numbers of standard Hawkes models, but it cannot explain the ubiquity of self-similar aftershock production found in catalogs and lab experiments. Full article

The integration of AI into everyday life, across work and leisure, constitutes a significant driver of social innovation, reshaping interaction, communication, learning processes, and knowledge organisation, as well as the management of work and organisational activities. Increasingly oriented towards users’ needs, AI systems are learned and instructed to support not only cognitive but also emotional demands. In higher education, AI represents a transformative force, enhancing institutional efficiency across research, teaching, and third-mission activities. However, its adoption raises critical ethical concerns and highlights the importance of digital literacy in fostering soft competences. These are essential to promote awareness, self-regulation, and a critical, responsible use of AI technologies. Key questions remain regarding the extent of AI integration within universities, its ethical regulation, and its role in supporting academic and administrative practices. This article offers an initial overview through the analysis of 30 global case studies conducted within a European Commission-funded project. Building on Escudero’s theoretical framework of Imperfect AI, the analysis of the research findings highlights the discrepancies between the macro-social perspective on the ethical integration of AI within institutions and the meso- and micro-social perspectives on its effective integration into the everyday practices of institutional actors. Full article

Laboratories play a critical role in engineering education by bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical applications. Dedicated laboratory stands serve as essential platforms for experiential learning, enabling students to interact directly with real or simulated systems. These stands enable a deeper understanding of complex engineering concepts and, at the same time, support the creation of essential skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and system integration. While physical laboratory stands provide a rich learning experience, their large-scale implementation can be both technically and financially challenging. In this context, virtual laboratory environments based on virtual prototypes offer a valuable complementary approach by improving access to practical learning while providing greater flexibility and reducing implementation costs. This paper presents the development of a virtual laboratory stand implemented using Simscape and designed for use in the teaching process in mechatronics engineering. The developed virtual prototype materializes a Segway-type self-balancing mobile robot and is used as a teaching tool in the lab activity of the control systems course. The educational effectiveness of the proposed virtual laboratory stand was evaluated by comparing students’ perceptions with those of a conventional analytical-model-based laboratory activity. The collected questionnaire data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the Mann–Whitney U test. Students using the virtual laboratory reported consistently higher ratings than those using the analytical model, with statistically significant differences observed in three questionnaire items. These findings suggest that the proposed virtual laboratory stand enhances students’ learning experience and provides a valuable complementary approach for teaching control system design in mechatronics. Full article

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is increasingly recognized as a condition in which psychological processes play an important role in disease management, adaptation, and clinical outcomes. Although research has identified a growing number of relevant psychological constructs, these have largely been investigated independently, limiting understanding of their interactions with behavioral and biological processes. This contribution discusses the principal conceptual gaps that currently constrain theoretical integration and proposes an integrative psychobiological framework in which individual and contextual factors, psychological processes, self-management behaviors, and biological and metabolic dimensions are conceptualized as components of a dynamic and temporally embedded system. The framework emphasizes potentially mediated, moderated, and reciprocal pathways whose relative contribution may vary across individuals, life stages, and the disease trajectory. By providing a structure through which these processes can be jointly operationalized and empirically investigated, this perspective may support more coherent research strategies and help identify individual and evolving assessment and intervention priorities in diabetes care. Full article

Background/Objectives: Substance use disorders are common in the prison population and are associated with relapse and criminal recidivism, yet qualitative evidence on recovery capital and family support within Eastern European penitentiary systems remains limited. This study explored how incarcerated men with a history of substance use perceive initiation, withdrawal, recovery, and the role of family support as a recovery capital resource. Methods: A qualitative descriptive study was conducted in a Romanian penitentiary with 50 definitively sentenced men with self-reported substance use history, selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, without audio recording due to institutional security regulations, and reconstructed in detailed written notes validated through member checking, then analyzed using inductive thematic analysis via consensus-based double coding (initially coded by the first researcher and reviewed by a second researcher, with discrepancies resolved through discussion), until thematic saturation was reached. Results: Six themes were identified: initiation of use influenced by peer groups, socioeconomic vulnerability, and criminogenic environments; effects initially perceived as beneficial, followed by progressive deterioration; severe withdrawal and denial of dependence; cognitive mechanisms sustaining use, including externalization of responsibility; the dual role of the family as both a risk and a protective factor; and a recovery process marked by ambivalence toward abstinence, in which family support, employment, and prosocial relationships were central. Abstinence during incarceration was frequently perceived as maintained under institutional constraint rather than as internally motivated recovery. Conclusions: In this single-prison sample, recovery extended beyond abstinence, suggesting the need to strengthen personal, social, and family recovery capital. The findings, which require confirmation in larger samples, support exploring integrated prison–community continuum-of-care interventions centered on addiction treatment, family involvement, and post-release support. Full article

This study proposes a new method for the topological synthesis of principal component projections and hydrogeochemical stoichiometric equality lines on self-organizing map (SOM) component planes to assess groundwater chemistry forming factors and quality in the Pleistocene unconfined aquifer of the Southern Bug and Sinyukha interfluve area, Ukraine. The hydrogeochemical characteristics clustered by the SOM were further examined using the graphical cross-validation method. The groundwater dataset used in the analysis consisted of 10 parameters (i.e., pH, total dissolved solids, $\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{a}}^{2+}$, $\mathrm{M}{\mathrm{g}}^{2+}$, $\mathrm{N}{\mathrm{a}}^{+}$, ${\mathrm{K}}^{+}$, $\mathrm{H}\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{O}}_3^{-}$, $\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{l}}^{-}$, $\mathrm{S}{\mathrm{O}}_4^{2-}$, and $\mathrm{N}{\mathrm{O}}_3^{-}$) from 91 samples collected during the dry season. Subsequently, for SOM construction, we utilized six log-ratio relationships of milliequivalent ion concentrations. Based on the results, the hydrogeochemical groundwater data were classified into three clusters, which revealed three water types and processes controlling their chemistry: salinity driven by sulfate inputs (Cluster 1), highly salinity driven by nitrate-chloride and sulfate pollution (Cluster 2), and relatively fresh water governed by natural carbonate dissolution and silicate weathering (Cluster 3). The salinity types were identifiable in the northern part of the study area, characterized as the primary zone of initial intense pollution. High salinity types were identified in the eastern and southeastern parts of the territory (with delayed water exchange), whereas relatively fresh types were identified in the central part (with active water exchange) as well as in the western and southwestern parts. Modeling confirmed that extensive sulfate, nitrate, and chloride contamination led to anthropogenic degradation of the aquifer system. Full article

In Christianity, the tree symbolizes both human and divine life and is closely associated with wisdom and with the knowledge of good and evil, whose root is love. This article examines the symbolism of the tree with a twofold aim. First, and more extensively, it explores the process of secularization that transformed the understanding of life and wisdom in the early modern period through a comparative analysis of the symbolism of the tree in Augustine, Sabunde, and Descartes. Second, it offers a brief reflection on the contemporary world, the legacy of modernity, in which the human condition has come to be represented by figures that contrast sharply with the symbolism of the tree: the castaway, the vagabond, and the tourist. Drawing on the symbolism of the tree and the thought of Augustine, Sabunde, and Descartes, the article examines three fundamental dimensions of human existence: self-knowledge; the human relationship with nature, with others, and with God; and, finally, the articulation between the active and the contemplative life. Full article

Background and Objectives: Clinical risk management is essential to patient safety. Nurses are strategically positioned to identify unsafe conditions, near misses, and adverse events. This study assessed nurses’ knowledge of selected clinical risk management definitions, perceptions of patient safety, and self-reported experience of patient-safety event reporting in a cardiovascular hospital in Southern Italy. Methods: A cross-sectional anonymous survey was conducted among registered nurses using a structured questionnaire. Knowledge was measured through a 0–4 index based on correct answers regarding safety culture, near miss, sentinel event, and incident reporting. Perceived overall patient safety was analyzed as an ordinal outcome, and ever reporting of patient-safety events as a binary outcome. Multivariable regression models explored associated factors. Results: The study included 88 nurses; 75.0% were female, and the median age was 47 years (IQR 37–54). Overall, 77.3% reported previous updating on risk management. The median knowledge index was 3 (IQR 2–4), and 62.5% answered at least three of four items correctly. Patient-safety culture domains received high importance scores, with medians ranging from 9 to 10. Overall patient safety was rated as good, very good, or excellent by 63.6% of respondents, and 61.4% had reported at least one patient-safety event. Knowledge was associated with gender and years of professional experience. Higher perceived safety was associated with perceived technological adequacy and patient confidence in care. Conclusions: Beyond the setting-specific findings, the study illustrates how combining factual knowledge, perceived safety, reporting experience, and locally relevant process indicators may support organizational diagnosis and help identify areas requiring more focused quality-improvement assessment. Full article

The first divider in the feedback path of a frequency synthesizer runs at the full oscillator frequency and so constrains the speed and the power of the loop. Current-mode logic reaches high speed but draws a constant bias current independent of switching activity, whereas an all-digital, fully static-CMOS divider draws only dynamic and leakage current at the cost of far greater timing sensitivity to process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) variation. This paper presents a wide-range all-digital multi-modulus divider in 22 nm fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FDSOI) technology, together with the methodology that makes the digital approach robust. The chain exhibits three distinct PVT failure modes, setup at the slow corners, hold at the fast-cold corner, and collapse of the internal clock duty cycle at the skewed corners; each is identified analytically and closed by a scheme combining back-gate body bias, a per-stage programmable delay trim, and a systematic integral-nonlinearity trim. Characterization is by post-layout simulation over a 45-point corner matrix, with the applied back-gate rail voltages and trim codes reported for every point. The divider covers $N=$ 8 to 127, reaches $39.5$ GHz at the typical corner, and holds a worst-case $33.0$ GHz across the corner box against a 33 GHz target that the uncompensated chain misses at the slow and skewed low-supply corners (SS, SF, and FS at $0.72$ V). A paired Monte Carlo campaign of 100 samples with process and mismatch variation, run at the binding corner, raises the yield at the target from 39% uncompensated to 72% with a single global back-gate setting and 99% with a per-die setting. At the target the divider consumes $5.3$ mW at $N=127$ ($6.2$ GHz/mW) with $35.2$ fs of additive jitter in a $0.005$ ${\mathrm{mm}}^2$ core. The bias and trim settings are chosen by an external search and applied as fixed per-corner values; the monitors, controller, and bias generator that an autonomous implementation would require are specified but not designed, so the work demonstrates externally calibrated corner closure rather than a self-contained compensation system. Full article

Background: Postpartum body concerns have been consistently associated with greater maternal psychological distress, although the psychological processes associated with this relationship remain insufficiently understood. This study examined whether self-criticism (inadequate self and hated self) and self-reassurance mediate the association between postpartum body concerns and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 540 Portuguese mothers of infants aged 2 weeks to 24 months. Participants completed measures of postpartum body concerns, the Forms of Self-Criticizing and Self-Reassuring Scale (FSCRS), and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales–21 Items (DASS-21). Parallel mediation analyses with bootstrap estimation (5000 samples) were performed. Results: Greater postpartum body concerns were associated with higher depression, anxiety, and stress, as well as greater self-criticism and lower self-reassurance. Significant indirect associations involving self-relating styles were observed for depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms. For anxiety and stress, the direct associations between postpartum body concerns and symptoms were no longer statistically significant after accounting for the three mediators. Inadequate self showed the strongest indirect associations, particularly for stress, while hated self and self-reassurance also showed significant indirect associations across all three models. Conclusions: Self-criticism and self-reassurance may represent candidate psychological processes involved in the associations between postpartum body concerns and psychological symptoms. Longitudinal research is needed to further examine their potential role in postpartum psychological adjustment. Full article