Concerns over the resilience of individuals within communities impacted by extreme weather events have heightened in recent years due to the increasing frequency and intensity of these events. ...Individuals’ participation in communicative activities is an integral part of how they prepare for and respond to natural disasters. This study focuses on how individuals express resilience in social media posts from Twitter before, during, and after a regional flooding event in Colorado in 2013 (N = 210,303). Findings show that both negative and positive emotional responses spike at the start of the event, with positive emotions remaining high in the weeks following the event. Uses of language related to social connections, as well as references to home and work, increased during and after the event. Tweets used pronouns focused on the self during the event but shifted to pronouns focused on the collective after the event. This study points the importance of language for understanding the lasting impact extreme weather events can have on individuals, as well as when and how to reach individuals with information about recovery. The increased focus on collective language after the event provides an opportunity for calls to action in collecting and distributing shared resources.
Uncivil discourse is a growing concern in American rhetoric, and this trend has expanded beyond traditional media to online sources, such as audience comments. Using an experiment given to a sample ...representative of the U.S. population, we examine the effects online incivility on perceptions toward a particular issue—namely, an emerging technology, nanotechnology. We found that exposure to uncivil blog comments can polarize risk perceptions of nanotechnology along the lines of religiosity and issue support.
Summary Background Artemisinin-resistant falciparum malaria has arisen in western Cambodia. A concerted international effort is underway to contain artemisinin-resistant Plasmodium falciparum , but ...containment strategies are dependent on whether resistance has emerged elsewhere. We aimed to establish whether artemisinin resistance has spread or emerged on the Thailand–Myanmar (Burma) border. Methods In malaria clinics located along the northwestern border of Thailand, we measured six hourly parasite counts in patients with uncomplicated hyperparasitaemic falciparum malaria (≥4% infected red blood cells) who had been given various oral artesunate-containing regimens since 2001. Parasite clearance half-lives were estimated and parasites were genotyped for 93 single nucleotide polymorphisms. Findings 3202 patients were studied between 2001 and 2010. Parasite clearance half-lives lengthened from a geometric mean of 2·6 h (95% CI 2·5–2·7) in 2001, to 3·7 h (3·6–3·8) in 2010, compared with a mean of 5·5 h (5·2–5·9) in 119 patients in western Cambodia measured between 2007 and 2010. The proportion of slow-clearing infections (half-life ≥6·2 h) increased from 0·6% in 2001, to 20% in 2010, compared with 42% in western Cambodia between 2007 and 2010. Of 1583 infections genotyped, 148 multilocus parasite genotypes were identified, each of which infected between two and 13 patients. The proportion of variation in parasite clearance attributable to parasite genetics increased from 30% between 2001 and 2004, to 66% between 2007 and 2010. Interpretation Genetically determined artemisinin resistance in P falciparum emerged along the Thailand–Myanmar border at least 8 years ago and has since increased substantially. At this rate of increase, resistance will reach rates reported in western Cambodia in 2–6 years. Funding The Wellcome Trust and National Institutes of Health.
This paper investigates the relationship between scientists' communication experience and attitudes towards misinformation and their intention to correct misinformation. Specifically, the study ...focuses on two correction strategies: source-based correction and relational approaches. Source-based approaches combatting misinformation prioritize sharing accurate information from trustworthy sources to encourage audiences to trust reliable information over false information. On the other hand, relational approaches give priority to developing relationships or promoting dialogue as a means of addressing misinformation. In this study, we surveyed 416 scientists from U.S. land-grant universities using a self-report questionnaire. We find that scientists' engagement in science communication activities is positively related to their intention to correct misinformation using both strategies. Moreover, the scientists' attitude towards misinformation mediates the relationship between engagement in communication activities and intention to correct misinformation. The study also finds that the deficit model perception-that is, the assumption that scientists only need to transmit scientific knowledge to an ignorant public in order to increase understanding and support for science-moderates the indirect effect of engagement in science communication activities on behavioral intention to correct misinformation using relational strategies through attitude towards misinformation. Thus, the deficit model perception is a barrier to engaging in relational strategies to correct misinformation. We suggest that addressing the deficit model perception and providing science communication training that promotes inclusive worldviews and relational approaches would increase scientists' behavioral intentions to address misinformation. The study concludes that scientists should recognize their dual positionality as scientists and members of their community and engage in respectful conversations with community members about science.
Conflict in online discussions of science has the potential to polarize individuals’ perceptions of science, yet science communication scholarship has paid little attention to systematic study of how ...verbal attacks play out in online discussions of science. This study analyzes sarcasm and incivility in Twitter discussions of climate change during an extreme weather event (n = 4,094). We found instances of incivility and sarcasm were low overall. Incivility was used in association with political topics, and both incivility and sarcasm were used alongside skeptical perspectives of climate change and by those who mention right-leaning politics in their profiles.
Deep‐water corals are protected in the seas around New Zealand by legislation that prohibits intentional damage and removal, and by marine protected areas where bottom trawling is prohibited. ...However, these measures do not protect them from the impacts of a changing climate and ocean acidification. To enable adequate future protection from these threats we require knowledge of the present distribution of corals and the environmental conditions that determine their preferred habitat, as well as the likely future changes in these conditions, so that we can identify areas for potential refugia. In this study, we built habitat suitability models for 12 taxa of deep‐water corals using a comprehensive set of sample data and predicted present and future seafloor environmental conditions from an earth system model specifically tailored for the South Pacific. These models predicted that for most taxa there will be substantial shifts in the location of the most suitable habitat and decreases in the area of such habitat by the end of the 21st century, driven primarily by decreases in seafloor oxygen concentrations, shoaling of aragonite and calcite saturation horizons, and increases in nitrogen concentrations. The current network of protected areas in the region appear to provide little protection for most coral taxa, as there is little overlap with areas of highest habitat suitability, either in the present or the future. We recommend an urgent re‐examination of the spatial distribution of protected areas for deep‐water corals in the region, utilising spatial planning software that can balance protection requirements against value from fishing and mineral resources, take into account the current status of the coral habitats after decades of bottom trawling, and consider connectivity pathways for colonisation of corals into potential refugia.
Protection of deep‐water corals by networks of marine protected areas may not be effective if altered environmental conditions from climate change shift the distribution of their preferred habitat. Habitat suitability models incorporating future predictions of seafloor conditions identified areas of potential refugia for 12 deep‐water coral taxa at the end of the 21st century. For most taxa, these models predicted substantial shifts in the location of the primary habitat and decreases in its area. For instance, the Kermadec protected area currently provides crucial primary habitat for Enallopsammia rostrata (pictured), but such habitat in this area is predicted to shrink over time.
Artemisinin-based combination therapies are the first line of treatment for Plasmodium falciparum infections worldwide, but artemisinin resistance has risen rapidly in Southeast Asia over the past ...decade. Mutations in the kelch13 gene have been implicated in this resistance. We used longitudinal genomic surveillance to detect signals in kelch13 and other loci that contribute to artemisinin or partner drug resistance. We retrospectively sequenced the genomes of 194 P. falciparum isolates from five sites in Northwest Thailand, over the period of a rapid increase in the emergence of artemisinin resistance (2001-2014).
We evaluate statistical metrics for temporal change in the frequency of individual SNPs, assuming that SNPs associated with resistance increase in frequency over this period. After Kelch13-C580Y, the strongest temporal change is seen at a SNP in phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase, which is involved in a pathway recently implicated in artemisinin resistance. Furthermore, other loci exhibit strong temporal signatures which warrant further investigation for involvement in artemisinin resistance evolution. Through genome-wide association analysis we identify a variant in a kelch domain-containing gene on chromosome 10 that may epistatically modulate artemisinin resistance.
This analysis demonstrates the potential of a longitudinal genomic surveillance approach to detect resistance-associated gene loci to improve our mechanistic understanding of how resistance develops. Evidence for additional genomic regions outside of the kelch13 locus associated with artemisinin-resistant parasites may yield new molecular markers for resistance surveillance, which may be useful in efforts to reduce the emergence or spread of artemisinin resistance in African parasite populations.
Scholars are increasingly concerned with the potential for uncivil discourse to enhance political polarization in society (Mutz, 2006; Stryker, 2011). Political elites and partisans boost levels of ...incivility in news media (Muddiman, 2013), and people perceive higher levels of incivility in politics when individuals rather than issues are attacked (Stryker, Conway, & Danielson, 2014). The concerns over incivility extend to the online information environment, where nasty comments can harm healthy back-and-forth dialogue central to democracy that often happens in spaces such as newspapers (Coe, Kenski, & Rains, 2014; Meltzer, 2015). Early research shows that incivility in online comments can be a polarizing factor in how people perceive issues in media, particularly for individuals who hold stronger opinions before seeing the comments (Anderson, Brossard, Scheufele, Xenos, & Ladwig, 2014). In particular, incivility has been found to affect people’s perceptions of the content covered in news articles, a phenomenon dubbed the “nasty effect” (Anderson et al., 2014). It can also increase the perception that individuals in society hold polarized attitudes (Hwang, Kim, & Huh, 2014). Yet, we still do not fully understand how incivility in comments affects perceptions of the news stories themselves or the effect it can have on lines of political polarity in society. Here, we explore the effects of uncivil comments proximate to a blog post containing hard news content on individuals’ perceptions of media. We examine these effects across two controversial scientific issues—nuclear energy and nanotechnology—on perceptions of bias of the news blog post. We also examine how political ideologies are related to how people interpret incivility in online comments as it relates to perceptions of bias. In doing so, this study contributes to understanding of the polarizing nature of incivility. While this is a common concern in the literature, few have empirically tested whether online incivility heightens existing divisions in society. We find that perceptions of bias are greatest after seeing online incivility among politically conservative ideologues, providing evidence for the polarity of incivility in online comments.
•Misinformation permeates socio-ecological levels to influence vaccination behaviors.•Structural factors shape individual perceptions of the Health Belief Model.•Individuals rely on social networks ...and media sources in decision making.•Distrust in institutions and uncertainty generate reliance on misinformation.
Misinformation presents a critical concern for academic and public health discourse, particularly around vaccine response. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine hesitancy was responsible for decreased immunization uptake for vaccine-preventable diseases. Misinformation connected to the novel COVID-19 vaccine has further fueled vaccine hesitancy in Colorado and the United States. Our study brings together three different perspectives – physicians, public health professionals, and parents – to understand the impact of misinformation on vaccine uptake in Colorado. Our study proposes a framework for combining the Health Belief Model with the Socio-Ecological model to account for societal factors in healthcare decision making.
Semi-structured interviews and focus groups with public health professionals, physicians, and parents (n = 31) were conducted in late spring and summer 2022. Data were coded inductively using thematic analysis. Identified themes were deductively categorized according to the Socio-Ecological Model and Health Belief Model.
Using a theoretical framework that combined the Health Belief Model and the Socio-Ecological Model, we identified seven factors that influenced vaccine hesitancy in Colorado. Intrapersonal factors included routine vaccine hesitancy connected to perceptions of severity and susceptibility, efficacy, and benefits and barriers to vaccine uptake; interpersonal factors included social networks; institutional factors included mass mediated platforms, portrayals of uncertainty, distrust in institutional sources of information, and political influences in vaccine decision making; and structural factors included economic barriers behind vaccine hesitancy.
Our study provides a unique, triangulated, post-positivist perspective on the role of misinformation in vaccine hesitancy in Colorado. The findings provide evidence that misinformation is an important barrier to vaccination uptake and can permeate multiple socio-ecological determinants/characteristics to influence vaccination behaviors including intrapersonal, interpersonal, institutional, and structural levels. We introduce the Social Ecology of Health Beliefs and Misinformation Framework to account for how misinformation may interrupt vaccine uptake.
Abstract
Background
Appropriate use of available inpatient beds is an ongoing challenge for US hospitals. Historical capacity goals of 80% to 85% may no longer serve the intended purpose of ...maximizing the resources of space, staff, and equipment. Numerous variables affect the input, throughput, and output of a hospital. Some of these variables include patient demand, regulatory requirements, coordination of patient flow between various systems, coordination of processes such as bed management and patient transfers, and the diversity of departments (both inpatient and outpatient) in an organization.
Methods
Mayo Clinic Health System in the Southwest Minnesota region of the US, a community-based hospital system primarily serving patients in rural southwestern Minnesota and part of Iowa, consists of 2 postacute care and 3 critical access hospitals. Our inpatient bed usage rates had exceeded 85%, and patient transfers from the region to other hospitals in the state (including Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota) had increased. To address these quality gaps, we used a blend of Agile project management methodology, rapid Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles, and a proactive approach to patient placement in the medical-surgical units as a quality improvement initiative.
Results
During 2 trial periods of the initiative, the main hub hospital (Mayo Clinic Health System hospital in Mankato) and other hospitals in the region increased inpatient bed usage while reducing total out-of-region transfers.
Conclusion
Our novel approach to proactively managing bed capacity in the hospital allowed the region’s only tertiary medical center to increase capacity for more complex and acute cases by optimizing the use of historically underused partner hospital beds.
PDF
