Abstract
How do government rhetoric and propaganda affect mass reactions in international crises? Using two scenario-based survey experiments in China, one hypothetical and one that selectively ...reminds respondents of recent events, we assess how government statements and propaganda impact Chinese citizens’ approval of their government's performance in its territorial and maritime disputes. We find evidence that citizens disapprove more of inaction after explicit threats to use force, suggesting that leaders can face public opinion costs akin to audience costs in an authoritarian setting. However, we also find evidence that citizens approve of bluster—vague and ultimately empty threats—suggesting that talking tough can provide benefits, even in the absence of tough action. In addition, narratives that invoke future success to justify present restraint increase approval, along with frames that emphasize a shared history of injustice at the hands of foreign powers.
Objective: Male veterans delay posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment and are less likely to engage in help-seeking behaviors or receive adequate mental health treatment. Male veterans face ...additional stigma seeking mental health care due to traditional masculine ideologies perpetuated by military culture. This study presents the perspectives of male veterans accessing Veterans Affairs (VA) PTSD services, focusing particularly on help-seeking behaviors and barriers to care. Method: Semistructured interviews were conducted with 13 United States male veterans seeking treatment in VA primary care. Qualitative data analysis was coded using Atlas.ti, and thematic analysis was used to develop and refine themes. This study is part of a larger study examining veterans' initiation of PTSD treatment. Results: Findings indicate that male veterans in this sample may be reluctant to initiate PTSD care due to stigma, distrust of the military or mental health care, and a desire to avoid reliving their trauma. Significant others may encourage help-seeking behaviors among this population. Veterans also reported a need for mental health services that address PTSD from noncombat trauma and from military sexual trauma (MST). Conclusions: Findings indicate that male veterans face unique challenges accessing mental health services and may benefit from increased VA services focused on MST and noncombat specific PTSD.
Clinical Impact Statement
Future VA posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) interventions should consider aspects of hegemonic masculinity perpetuated by military culture that are harmful to male veterans seeking mental health treatment. Additional mental health resources focused on noncombat specific PTSD and military sexual trauma (MST) are needed in Veterans Affairs (VA) primary care.
With the future of liberal internationalism in question, how will China's growing power and influence reshape world politics? We argue that views of the Liberal International Order (LIO) as ...integrative and resilient have been too optimistic for two reasons. First, China's ability to profit from within the system has shaken the domestic consensus in the United States on preserving the existing LIO. Second, features of Chinese Communist Party rule chafe against many of the fundamental principles of the LIO, but could coexist with a return to Westphalian principles and markets that are embedded in domestic systems of control. How, then, do authoritarian states like China pick and choose how to engage with key institutions and norms within the LIO? We propose a framework that highlights two domestic variables—centrality and heterogeneity—and their implications for China's international behavior. We illustrate the framework with examples from China's approach to climate change, trade and exchange rates, Internet governance, territorial sovereignty, arms control, and humanitarian intervention. Finally, we conclude by considering what alternative versions of international order might emerge as China's influence grows.
•Information received from social media may have different meanings and social implications for consumers.•Social influences and perceived information quality positively relate to the consumer’s ...social shopping intention.•Social interactions affect social influence and perceive information quality, and in turn the social shopping intention.•High involved consumers are likely to devote to systematic information processing.•In contrast, lowly involved consumers tend to rely on heuristic cues.
Online social media is transforming the way customers communicate and exchange product information with others. Consumers increasingly rely on the opinions and recommendations from social media members when making purchasing decisions. However, information received from social media may have different meanings and social implications for consumers. Based on the theory of informational social influence and heuristic-systematic model (HSM), we develop a model to understand the relative importance of informational social influence, normative social influence, and perceived information quality on the consumer’s social shopping intention under different levels of product involvement. The results of the structural equation modeling (SEM) using a sample of 503 consumers in the Facebook brand fan pages indicate that social influences have a greater impact on the consumer’s social shopping intention than perceived information quality. Three social interactional factors (perceived similarity, familiarity, and expertise) have a positive effect on social shopping intention via the mediation of informational, normative social influence and perceive information quality. The multiple-group analysis suggests that high product-involved consumers are motivated to exert more cognitive effort to evaluate the product information. In contrast, low product-involved consumers are more susceptible to informational social influence. We draw on these findings to offer implications for researchers and practitioners.
Despite the importance of tendons and ligaments for transmitting movement and providing stability to the musculoskeletal system, their development is considerably less well understood than that of ...the tissues they serve to connect. Zebrafish have been widely used to address questions in muscle and skeletal development, yet few studies describe their tendon and ligament tissues. We have analyzed in zebrafish the expression of several genes known to be enriched in mammalian tendons and ligaments, including scleraxis (scx), collagen 1a2 (col1a2) and tenomodulin (tnmd), or in the tendon-like myosepta of the zebrafish (xirp2a). Co-expression studies with muscle and cartilage markers demonstrate the presence of scxa, col1a2 and tnmd at sites between the developing muscle and cartilage, and xirp2a at the myotendinous junctions. We determined that the zebrafish craniofacial tendon and ligament progenitors are neural crest derived, as in mammals. Cranial and fin tendon progenitors can be induced in the absence of differentiated muscle or cartilage, although neighboring muscle and cartilage are required for tendon cell maintenance and organization, respectively. By contrast, myoseptal scxa expression requires muscle for its initiation. Together, these data suggest a conserved role for muscle in tendon development. Based on the similarities in gene expression, morphology, collagen ultrastructural arrangement and developmental regulation with that of mammalian tendons, we conclude that the zebrafish tendon populations are homologous to their force-transmitting counterparts in higher vertebrates. Within this context, the zebrafish model can be used to provide new avenues for studying tendon biology in a vertebrate genetic system.
Abstract
Restoring forest cover is a key action for mitigating climate change. Although monoculture plantations dominate existing commitments to restore forest cover, we lack a synthetic view of how ...carbon accumulates in these systems. Here, we assemble a global database of 4756 field-plot measurements from monoculture plantations across all forested continents. With these data, we model carbon accumulation in aboveground live tree biomass and examine the biological, environmental, and human drivers that influence this growth. Our results identify four-fold variation in carbon accumulation rates across tree genera, plant functional types, and biomes, as well as the key mediators (e.g., genus of tree, endemism of species, prior land use) of variation in these rates. Our nonlinear growth models advance our understanding of carbon accumulation in forests relative to mean annual rates, particularly during the next few decades that are critical for mitigating climate change.
Our objective was to review the characteristics, current applications, and evaluation measures of conversational agents with unconstrained natural language input capabilities used for health-related ...purposes.
We searched PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, PsycInfo, and ACM Digital using a predefined search strategy. Studies were included if they focused on consumers or healthcare professionals; involved a conversational agent using any unconstrained natural language input; and reported evaluation measures resulting from user interaction with the system. Studies were screened by independent reviewers and Cohen's kappa measured inter-coder agreement.
The database search retrieved 1513 citations; 17 articles (14 different conversational agents) met the inclusion criteria. Dialogue management strategies were mostly finite-state and frame-based (6 and 7 conversational agents, respectively); agent-based strategies were present in one type of system. Two studies were randomized controlled trials (RCTs), 1 was cross-sectional, and the remaining were quasi-experimental. Half of the conversational agents supported consumers with health tasks such as self-care. The only RCT evaluating the efficacy of a conversational agent found a significant effect in reducing depression symptoms (effect size d = 0.44, p = .04). Patient safety was rarely evaluated in the included studies.
The use of conversational agents with unconstrained natural language input capabilities for health-related purposes is an emerging field of research, where the few published studies were mainly quasi-experimental, and rarely evaluated efficacy or safety. Future studies would benefit from more robust experimental designs and standardized reporting.
The protocol for this systematic review is registered at PROSPERO with the number CRD42017065917.
BACKGROUNDThe presence and reactivation of chronic viral infections, such as EBV, CMV, and HIV, have been proposed as potential contributors to long COVID (LC), but studies in well-characterized ...postacute cohorts of individuals with COVID-19 over a longer time course consistent with current case definitions of LC are limited.METHODSIn a cohort of 280 adults with prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, we assessed the presence and types of LC symptoms and prior medical history (including COVID-19 history and HIV status) and performed serological testing for EBV and CMV using a commercial laboratory. We used covariate-adjusted binary logistic regression models to identify independent associations between variables and LC symptoms.RESULTSWe observed that LC symptoms, such as fatigue and neurocognitive dysfunction, at a median of 4 months following initial diagnosis were independently associated with serological evidence suggesting recent EBV reactivation (early antigen-diffuse IgG positivity) or high nuclear antigen (EBNA) IgG levels but not with ongoing EBV viremia. Serological evidence suggesting recent EBV reactivation (early antigen-diffuse IgG positivity) was most strongly associated with fatigue (OR = 2.12). Underlying HIV infection was also independently associated with neurocognitive LC (OR = 2.5). Interestingly, participants who had serologic evidence of prior CMV infection were less likely to develop neurocognitive LC (OR = 0.52).CONCLUSIONOverall, these findings suggest differential effects of chronic viral coinfections on the likelihood of developing LC and association with distinct syndromic patterns. Further assessment during the acute phase of COVID-19 is warranted.TRIAL REGISTRATIONLong-term Impact of Infection with Novel Coronavirus; ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04362150.FUNDINGThis work was supported by NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases grants (3R01AI141003-03S1, R01AI158013, and K24AI145806); the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital Department of Medicine and Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine; and the UCSF-Bay Area Center for AIDS Research (P30-AI027763).
Supporting elementary preservice teachers' development of a science teacher identity provides a way to address challenges of low self-efficacy, self-confidence, and pedagogical content knowledge in ...science. Meaningful teaching experiences in student teaching placements and field-based science methods courses provide opportunities for preservice teachers to develop their identities as science teachers and deepen their understandings of social justice issues in science. This collective case study examined how the teacher and science teacher identities of three elementary preservice teachers, and their becoming social justice teachers, developed during their first semester of student teaching after taking a one-semester science methods course. The study drew on subject matter teacher identity, positioning theory, and social justice science teacher identity. Preservice teachers' personal identities and histories, university coursework, positioning in their student teaching classrooms, and opportunities to authentically teach were identified as mediating influences on the development of their teacher and science teacher identity, as well as their perceived ability to teach science for social justice. The study has implications for understanding the ways in which student teaching experiences, including how cooperating teachers position student teachers, support or work against reform-oriented science teacher identities developed through university coursework.
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