Search Results (48)

(1) Background: Workplace procrastination leads to missed deadlines and financial losses, necessitating a deeper understanding of its risk factors and inhibitors for effective interventions. This study aims to bridge the significant gap in the literature regarding the effects of Authentic Leadership (AL) on workplace procrastination behaviors, including soldiering and cyberslacking. AL, as a positive leadership style, is proposed as a key factor in mitigating procrastination by fostering a supportive work environment. Specifically, this research examines how AL impacts procrastination through two psychosocial risk factors—lack of supervisor support and lack of workgroup support—which are hypothesized to mediate this relationship. (2) Methods: Data were collected from 738 employees (62.9% women) who completed a survey. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was conducted to explore the direct relationship between AL and procrastination, and indirect relationships through support. (3) Results: The findings indicate that AL negatively impacts procrastination behaviors, with stronger effects on soldiering compared to cyberslacking. AL is also negatively associated with perceptions of a lack of support from both leaders and workgroups, with a stronger influence on leader support. Both lack of leader and workgroup support significantly predict soldiering but not cyberslacking. (4) Conclusions: This study highlights AL’s potential to mitigate workplace procrastination by reducing perceptions of insufficient support. Organizations should focus on AL training to promote leader authenticity and supportiveness while fostering strong support networks within workgroups to enhance productivity and reduce procrastination behaviors. These findings also contribute to understanding AL’s role in addressing workplace counterproductive behaviors. Full article

Black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens, BSF) is farmed worldwide to convert organic waste into usable biomaterials. Studies on the larval microbiome have been carried out to check for symbiotic or pathogenic microbes and their respective functions and fates. Some studies tested these microbes for industrial applications, while others tested the effects of exogenous microbes as probiotics or for substrate pre-processing to improve larval fitness, bioconversion rates, or nutritional qualities. This review examined all peer-reviewed literature on these topics to consolidate many disparate findings together. It followed the PRISMA guidelines for scoping reviews. The results found no evidence of globally conserved core microbes, as diet strongly correlated with gut microbiome, but some genera appeared most frequently in BSF larval guts worldwide regardless of diet. The gut microbes undoubtably assist in digestion, including pathogen suppression, and so microbial probiotics show promise for future investigations. However, the common gut microbes have not been explored as probiotics themselves, which would be a promising direction for future work. The impacts of BSF bioconversion on pathogens varied, so each rearing facility should investigate and manage their pathogen risks independently. The data summarized in this study provide useful reference points for future investigations into BSF–microbe interactions. Full article

Background/Objectives: Firefighters, tactical police officers, and warriors often engage in periodic, intermittent, high-intensity physical work in austere environmental conditions and have a heightened risk of premature mortality. In addition, tough decision-making challenges, routine sleep deprivation, and trauma exacerbate this risk. Therefore, identifying strategies to bolster these personnel’s health and occupational performance is critical. Creatine monohydrate (CrM) supplementation may offer several benefits to firefighters and tactical athletes (e.g., police, security, and soldiers) due to its efficacy regarding physical performance, muscle, cardiovascular health, mental health, and cognitive performance. Methods: We conducted a narrative review of the literature with a focus on the benefits and application of creatine monohydrate among firefighters. Results: Recent evidence demonstrates that CrM can improve anaerobic exercise capacity and muscular fitness performance outcomes and aid in thermoregulation, decision-making, sleep, recovery from traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), and mental health. Emerging evidence also suggests that CrM may confer an antioxidant/anti-inflammatory effect, which may be particularly important for firefighters and those performing tactical occupations exposed to oxidative and physiological stress, which can elicit systemic inflammation and increase the risk of chronic diseases. Conclusions: This narrative review highlights the potential applications of CrM for related tactical occupations, with a particular focus on firefighters, and calls for further research into these populations. Full article

Ballistic helmets are individual pieces of armor equipment designed to protect a soldier’s head from projectiles and fragments. Although very common, these helmets are responsible for several casualties due to their significant back face deformation and low ballistic resistance to projectiles. Therefore, to enhance helmet performance, studies have focused on the development of new materials and new ballistic protection solutions. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a new ballistic solution using thermoplastic-based matrices. The first matrix was based on high-density polyethylene (HDPE). The second matrix was based on HDPE modified with exfoliated montmorillonite (MMT). The main manufacturing processes of a thermoplastic-based ballistic helmet are presented, along with its ballistic performance, according to the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) standard 0106.01 and an investigation of its failure mechanisms via a non-destructive technique. All the helmets resulted in level III-A ballistic protection. The postimpact helmets were scanned to evaluate the back face deformation dimensions, which revealed that the global cone deformation was deeper in the HDPE than in the HDPE/MMT helmet. The failure analysis revealed an overall larger deformation area in the HDPE and HDPE/MMT helmet delamination zones in the regions with a large radius of curvature than in the zones with the lowest radius, which is in accordance with previous simulations reported in the literature. Full article

Dietary alternatives using insect-based products as an alternative for farm animal nutrition have been the object of study due to the high nutritional value of these feeds and the costs related to both their production and consequently their commercialization. Thus, the use of flies, especially larvae, has a high content of proteins and lipids (fat), as well as minerals and essential nutrients for development and growth, directly impacting the production of these animals, whether meat or milk. Therefore, the objective of this study was to compile data from the literature on the nutritional value of adults and larvae of Black soldier (Hermetia illucens) and housefly (Musca domestica) as a dietary alternative for animal feed. The Prisma checklist was used. After reviewing the data found in the literature, following the systematic review, it was noted that studies emerge that larvae of black soldier flies and domestic flies of the order Diptera obtain essential sources in the nutrition of ruminants, in addition to obtaining rapid digestibility, thus adhering to reproduction with high nutritional content, due to incident levels of protein, lipids, and minerals in M. domestica and Lucilia sericata, making it a target for inclusion in the diet of farm animals. In addition, it is concluded that both species are studied for their sustainable potential as well as for offering greater economic and nutritional viability when compared to ingredients present in production animal feed. Full article

The development of Ballistic Protection Vests (BPVs) has gained significant attention, particularly focusing on the design of Ballistic Protection Soft Panels (BPSPs), which are crucial to the overall size and configuration of these vests. Despite their critical role, there is a noticeable lack of a standardized design method for surface area patterns of BPSPs in the existing literature. The findings indicate that the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) standard 0101.06 Ballistic Test Templates (BTTs) are only partially applicable to the design of BPSP patterns. While the NIJ standard 0101.06 provides a useful framework, it requires adaptation to meet the specific needs of regional body types and the practicalities of BPV manufacturing. This research aims to address this gap by assessing the suitability of NIJ BTTs for the design of BPSPs and BPVs and to develop a standardized pattern design methodology along with a method for calculating the surface area of the soft amour prior to its creation. Results have to be achieved ready for the production of BPSP patterns tailored to the body types of regional soldiers while adhering to relevant standards and soldier’s physical comfort, thereby saving time and resources for manufacturers and researchers. In this study, we evaluated the applicability of the NIJ standard 0101.06 BTT for configuring these templates into the cutting patterns of BPSPs. To achieve this, patterns for BPSPs were designed and the feasibility of using NIJ BTTs for their configuration was analyzed. The research process involved a comprehensive literature review, an analysis of the dimensions of existing BPV soft panels, and a comparison with NIJ standard 0101.06 BTT. The design and scaling of the panel patterns were executed using computer-aided design (CAD) systems and evaluated through both physical fitting on mannequins and virtual fitting using the Clo3D program. The developed pattern-making methodology includes size specifications tailored to regional covers, incorporating a coefficient K identified to calculate the BPSP surface area prior to design. This approach not only ensures better fitting for the physical comfort and protection of soldiers but also saves time and resources in the manufacturing process of BPSPs. The proposed design methodology offers a significant step forward in standardizing BPSP patterns, promising enhanced protection and efficiency in BPV manufacturing. Full article

Ford Madox Ford famously intended his First World War tetralogy Parade’s End to have “for its purpose the obviating of all future wars”. But why do we engage in war to begin with? Modernist literature provides some provocative explanations. Ford’s Sylvia Tietjens, for example, proclaims that “You went to war when you desired to rape innumerable women. It was what war was for”. And in the very same year, Virginia Woolf’s shell-shocked Septimus Smith “went to France to save an England which consisted almost entirely of Shakespeare…” I argue that Ford’s understanding of the causality of war involves a strange combination of these two explanations in Parade’s End’s triangulation of seventeenth-century English literary tradition along with sexual and imperial conquest. While countless modernist novels exhibit a sensibility to the power of early modern poetry amidst battle, Parade’s End displays a particularly emphatic and extended focus on the relationship between poetic tradition and war. Soldiers of various ranks “talk…in intimate undertones about the resemblances between the Petrarchan and the Shakespearean sonnet form”, host timed sonnet competitions in the trenches, recurringly quote the seduction poetry of Marvell, and fantasize about George Herbert’s lifespan being “the only satisfactory age in England…yet what chance had it today? Or, still more, to-morrow?”. To answer this question, my own transtemporal study will use early modern scholarship to investigate seventeenth-century metaphysical poetry’s dual power to inspire and potentially obviate war. Much has been written on this tetralogy’s anti-linear plot but less on the broader temporality of its politico-literary vision. I contend that the metaphysical allusions of this text help Ford to show us the complexities of nationalism in the imperial conquest and imperial damnation that (early) modern aesthetics can catalyse. Full article

The latest trends in the field of the on-site detection of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) involve increasing the availability of point detectors to enhance the operational awareness of commanders and soldiers. Among the intensively developed concepts aimed at meeting these requirements, wearable detectors, gas analyzers as equipment for micro- and mini-class unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and distributed sensor networks can be mentioned. One of the analytical techniques well suited for use in this field is surface acoustic wave sensors, which can be utilized to construct lightweight, inexpensive, and undemanding gas analyzers for detecting CWAs. This review focuses on the intensively researched and developed variant of this technique, utilizing absorptive sensor layers dedicated for nerve CWAs’ detection. The paper describes the mechanism of the specific interaction occurring between the target analyte and the sensing layer, which serves as the foundation for their selective detection. The main section of this paper includes a chronological review of individual achievements in the field, largely based on the peer-reviewed scientific literature dating back to the mid-1980s to the present day. The final section presents conclusions regarding the prospects for the development of this analytical technique in the targeted application. Full article

The standard image of First World War soldiers is of men in open trenches: waiting to attack or be attacked; walking, sitting, sleeping, dead. Ford’s Parade’s End includes such scenes. But it is a different kind of image which predominates in his war writings and often produces its most memorable passages: images of houses or house-like shelters. The mind seeks protection in such structures; but they offer little security against the destructiveness outside, against the bombardments, gas, shrapnel, bullets. Ford wrote that the experience of war revealed: ‘men’s dwellings were thin shells that could be crushed as walnuts are crushed. … all things that lived and moved and had volition and life might at any moment be resolved into a scarlet viscosity seeping into the earth of torn fields […]’. This realisation works in two ways. The soldier’s sense of vulnerability provokes fantasies of home, solidity, sanctuary, while for the returnee soldier, domestic architecture summons war-visions of its own annihilation: ‘it had been revealed to you’, adds Ford, ‘that beneath Ordered Life itself was stretched, the merest film with, beneath it, the abysses of Chaos’. It is now customary to read war literature through trauma theory. Building on analyses of Ford’s use of repression, but drawing instead on object relations theory, I argue that Ford’s houses of war are not screen memories but images of the failure of repression to screen off devastating experiences. The abysses of Chaos can be seen through the screen or projected upon it. Attending to Ford’s handling of this theme enables a new reading of his war writing and a new case for its coherence. The essay will connect the opening of No More Parades (in a hut, during a bombardment) with the war poem ‘The Old Houses of Flanders’; the postwar poem A House; the memoir It Was the Nightingale (quoted above); and the otherwise puzzling, fictionalised memoir No Enemy, structured in terms of ‘Four Landscapes’ and ‘Certain Interiors’. Full article

The global surge in coffee consumption has led to the generation of significant amounts of spent coffee grounds (SCG), a by-product of the brewing process. If it is left unprocessed in the landfill, it will generate methane, one of the greenhouse gases, and therefore accelerate global warming. The intersection of SCG and its potential as a substrate for black soldier fly (BSF) larvae cultivation as one of the pathways for processing SCG becomes intriguing as we seek sustainable waste management solutions. The combination of both nutrition and toxic alkaloids (caffeine) makes SCG and/or other coffee parts intriguing for recycling (or upcycling) via BSF cultivation to generate insect protein. Due to its remarkable capacity to bioconvert organic waste into high-value proteins and fats, the black soldier fly, Hermetia illucens, has garnered attention in waste management and animal feed production. This comprehensive review sheds light on the recent development of using SCG as a substrate for BSF larvae. Full article

The objective of the present review was to evaluate the time-course of recovery of biochemical marker levels and physical performance after strenuous military training, and identify which biomarkers are affected. A systematic literature search was conducted using the databases MedLine (Ovid) and Web of Science (WoS) to identify studies until January 2023. Varying relevant search terms were used, related to military training, Special Forces, physical performance, and biomarkers. Records were based on strict inclusion and exclusion criteria. Twelve studies met the inclusion criteria and were selected for this review. A variety of physiological and psychological markers were measured, and military training lasted from 4 to 62 days, with recovery periods varying from 24 h to 6 weeks. Among these studies, full recovery was observed in two studies, while seven studies showed almost full (79–90%) recovery, and in three studies, 44–63% of markers recovered after the measured recovery period. However, in some studies, additional markers could be defined as recovered, depending on the criterion for recovery. In the majority of the studies, most of the measured variables recovered during the follow-up, but often, some variables remained unrecovered, and at times, only modest recovery was seen. It is important to point out that recovery duration depends on the duration and intensity of the military training stressor. Overall, resolution varies between the markers, and sometimes, recovery might not occur, even after prolonged recovery. Therefore, it is important to measure the recovery status of soldiers with both biomarkers and physical performance markers, especially after strenuous training, to maximize operational capability during prolonged missions. Full article

This article expands on a poem written by one of the central figures in modern Hebrew literature, Nathan Alterman (1910–1970), entitled “About a Senegalese Soldier” (1945). Providing the first English translation of this poem and its first (academic) discussion in any language, the article analyzes the poem against contemporary geopolitical, historical, and literary backgrounds. The article’s transdisciplinary approach brings together imperial and colonial studies, African studies, and (Hebrew) literature studies. This unexpected combination adds originality to mainstream postcolonial perspectives through which the agency of the Senegalese riflemen [Tirailleurs sénégalais] has been often discussed in scholarly research. By using a rich variety of primary and secondary sources, the article also contributes to a more elaborated interpretation of Alterman’s poetry. This is achieved through embedding the poem on the tirailleur in a tripartite geopolitical context: local (British Mandate Palestine/Eretz-Israel), regional (the Middle East), and international (France-West Africa). The cultural histories and literary traditions in question are not normally cross-referenced in the relevant research literature and are less obvious to the anglophone reader. Full article

Persons working in tactical occupations are often exposed to high-stress situations. If this stress is to be measured, an understanding of the stress outcomes used in these occupations is needed. The aim of this review was to capture and critically appraise research investigating subjective and objective outcome measures of physiological stress in tactical occupations. Several literature databases (PubMed, EMBASE, EBsco) were searched using key search words and terms. Studies meeting inclusion criteria were critically evaluated and scored by two authors using the Joanne Briggs Institute (JBI) critical appraisal tool. Of 17,171 articles, 42 studies were retained. The Cohen’s Kappa agreement between authors was 0.829 with a mean JBI Score of included studies of 8.1/9 ± 0.37 points. Multiple subjective and objective measures were assessed during a variety of high-stress tasks and environments across different occupations, including police officers, emergency service personnel, firefighters, and soldiers in the military. Common objective outcomes measures were heart rate, cortisol, and body temperature, and subjective measures were ratings of perceived exertion, and the Self Trait Anxiety Inventory. Often used in combination (i.e., subjective and objective), these outcome measures can be used to monitor stressors faced by tactical personnel undergoing on-the-job training. Full article

Aquaculture is growing rapidly as a food-producing sector and in recent years fishmeal prices have climbed more than two-fold on a global scale. This review of previous studies was performed to contribute to the extant literature on the aquaculture sector to aid cost reduction of aquafeeds by identifying substitute proteins that can replace fishmeal. The review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) using the SCOPUS and WOS (Web of Science), DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals), Academia, and PubMed Central databases. A total of 59 articles were included in the synthesis after screening for duplicates and articles that did not conform to the criteria. Results have shown that the 100% replacement of fishmeal with blood meal (BM) did not affect the growth of fish, nor did the 75% to 100% combination of poultry-by-product (PBM), feather meal (FEM), and BM. Moreover, a 10% replacement of fishmeal using seaweed (Gracilaria arcuata) had no adverse effect on the feed efficiency and growth performance of tilapia. Similarly, a 50% replacement of fishmeal using black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens), and a 25% replacement using soybean (Glycine max) also showed better results for fish growth. Our review shows that alternative protein can replace fishmeal in the aquaculture sector and reduce the cost of aquafeeds since alternative proteins are much cheaper than the usual fishmeal. Adoption of these alternative protein sources hinges on financial support, start-up incentives for companies, and ongoing studies on waste-to-feed production, which the government can also support. Full article

The topics of intergenerational trauma, resilience, and wellbeing as they relate to forced migration are receiving more attention in the arts and health literature. Yet, we know very little about how refugee-background young adults manage their psychosocial wellbeing when they grow up surrounded by stories of conflict, loss, and trauma. Achol has been writing poetry to represent and amplify the narratives of those around her (parents, family, and the South Sudanese community in Sydney, Australia). These stories are central elements of her lived experience and the diverse experiences of her community. Using collaborative poetic inquiry, this paper identifies key themes in one of her poems, My dad was, is a soldier, to illustrate how poetry is an important artistic mode of expression that can improve our understanding of intergenerational trauma, resilience, and wellbeing. Rather than conveying interview data through research poems, we place Achol’s poem at the centre of our collaborative poetic inquiry to gain new insights into refugee lived experiences. This paper contributes to contemporary debates on how artistic means enrich our knowledge of psychosocial wellbeing through trauma-informed, culturally safe, and decolonial research methods. Full article