Enhancing Resiliency Research Articles

Enhancing resiliency and optimizing readiness in military personnel through psychological flexibility training: design and methodology of a randomized controlled trial.

Enhancing resiliency and optimizing readiness in military personnel is a high priority for the U.S. Department of Defense. Most military resiliency-enhancement programs are evidence-informed interventions. However, few randomized studies have demonstrated efficacy of any intervention or training program to enhance resiliency and prevent the development of psychological health symptoms in military personnel when exposed to operational stressors. This manuscript provides an overview of the theoretical foundation, research design, and research methods of a preventive intervention trial designed to evaluate the efficacy of a training program to enhance resiliency and prevent psychological health symptoms in military personnel. The resiliency training intervention is based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), an evidence-based intervention with broad empirical support for improving functioning in those living with psychological and medical conditions. This study will evaluate the efficacy of a two-day training program based on ACT for fostering psychological flexibility, the central target in ACT, for enhancing resiliency, and for preventing the development of psychological health symptoms. The research participants will be a non-clinical population of active duty military personnel (N = 600). The ACT-based training program (n = 300) will be compared to a military resiliency training as usual, known as Master Resilience Training (n = 300). Assessment measures will be administered at the baseline assessment, after training, prior to a military deployment, and after returning from a deployment. Qualitative interviews will be conducted to provide feedback on the training program.Clinical Trial Registration: NCT05094115.

Enhancing Resiliency and Productivity of Flood Prone Coastal Rice Farming through Integrated Organic-Biofertilizers and Crop Management for Climate Change Adaptation

Coastal rice farming is vulnerable to climate change, including flooding and extreme weather events. To enhance resilience and productivity, innovative approaches are essential. A study investigated the effects of soil amendment and biofertilizers on rice yield. The findings showed that the use of halotolerant rice varieties and the application of soil amendment and biofertilizers can serve as a primary strategy for flooded rice farming. Sustainable farming practices can empower coastal communities to better adapt to climate change and improve the sustainability of rice production.

Enhancing Resiliency of Integrated Space- Air-Ground-Sea Networks with Renewable Energies: A Use Case After the 2023 Türkiye Earthquake

Enhancing Resiliency of Integrated Space- Air-Ground-Sea Networks with Renewable Energies: A Use Case After the 2023 Türkiye Earthquake

Positive Psychology Themes in Interviews of Children With Atopic Dermatitis: Qualitative Study

BackgroundAtopic dermatitis is a pruritic chronic condition associated with significant sleep disturbance, inattention, and sometimes behavioral problems. Enhancing resiliency in children with atopic dermatitis may promote coping strategies to improve quality of life. Positive psychology is one strategy that can be used to strengthen resiliency.ObjectiveOur objective was to identify positive psychology concepts mentioned by children with atopic dermatitis and their parent to inform strategies to strengthen resiliency in children with atopic dermatitis.MethodsA total of 20 patient-parent dyads were interviewed to share their experience with atopic dermatitis to help develop a novel psychologic intervention for atopic dermatitis. Patients were 8 to 17 years old and diagnosed with atopic dermatitis. Trained coders analyzed transcripts using a coding dictionary developed based on Seligman’s PERMA (positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment) model of positive psychology. The frequency of unprompted mentions of PERMA themes and relevant quotations was captured. Transcripts were also separately coded for resiliency, which is the ultimate goal of PERMA.ResultsPositive psychology concepts were mentioned by 100% (20/20) of children and 95% (19/20) of parents. Engagement and relationships, both negative and positive aspects, were the most common unprompted PERMA themes mentioned by children (14/20, 70%) and parents (13/20, 65%). Emotion elicited the most negative comments from children (19/20, 95%) and parents (17/20, 85%). When analyzed for resiliency, 8 participants were identified with at least one resiliency code. On average, participants with a resiliency code mentioned PERMA concepts 9.1 (SD 4.7) times compared to those who mentioned none (mean 5.9, SD 4.6) (P=.14). When participants were stratified by disease severity, on average, more positive psychology concepts were mentioned by patients with mild atopic dermatitis (mean 13, SD 3.0) than those with moderate symptoms (mean 6.2, SD 4.9) or severe symptoms (mean 6.1, SD 4.0) (P=.03).ConclusionsAmong PERMA themes, engagement and relationships are the two most commonly mentioned categories for children with atopic dermatitis. Strategies targeting PERMA such as affirmations and positive reframing may improve psychosocial well-being and resiliency in pediatric atopic dermatitis. Future directions will look at incorporating “positive medicine” into atopic dermatitis treatment to not only relieve symptoms but also strengthen positive aspects of life.

A Review and Taxonomy on Fault Analysis in Transmission Power Systems

Enhancing resiliency in a power grid system is one of the core mandates of electrical distribution companies to provide high-level service. The power resiliency research community has proposed numerous schemes, to detect, classify, and localize fault events. However, the literature still lacks a comprehensive taxonomy of these schemes which can help advance future research. This study aims to provide a compact yet comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art solutions to fault analysis in transmission power systems. We discuss fault types and several fault-analysis methodologies adopted by relevant research works, propose a novel framework to classify these works, and highlight their strengths and limitations. We anticipate that this brief review would be helpful as a literature review and benefit the research community in choosing suitable techniques for fault analysis.

How resilient were we in 2021? Results of a LinkedIn Survey including biomedical and pharmaceutical professionals using the Benatti Resiliency Model.

Enhancing resiliency should elevate innovation and efficiency in biomedical research and development (R&D); however, compared with other professions, data on practice of resilience is lacking. Using the Benatti Resiliency Model (5 anchors: Well‐Being, Self‐Awareness, Brand, Connection, and Innovation), we surveyed professionals, including those in biomedical and pharmaceutical R&D. A structured LinkedIn questionnaire (March 16–May 23, 2021), surveyed each model anchor using five categories. One hundred fifty‐eight participants (~6% student/trainee, 18%, 27%, and 49% in 1–5, 5–15 or >15 years post‐terminal degree) took the survey (90 in biomedical and pharmaceutical R&D). Over 50% chose “always”/“often” across questions, except external influence or engagement. The question with one of the lowest “always” scores (~15%) was “I get feedback on my influence and impact in my career” in Brand, highlighting areas for leadership development and coaching. In the anchor of Well‐being, nutrition and stress management also received some lowest “always” scores (~15% for both). Connection and Innovation scores trended slightly higher in biomedical and pharmaceutical R&D. No students/trainees chose “always” in Brand, indicating evolution of brand maturity over time. Self‐ and survey‐assessed resiliency scores were associated (r s = 0.37, p < 0.0001). Our survey yielded actionable insights on Resilience, including “best practices” through an open‐ended question for one thing most useful to boost resilience in the survey and is the first application of the Benatti Model for crowdsourced research.

The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in Enhancing Resiliency and Quality of Life Among Multiple Sclerosis Patients: A Randomized Clinical Trial Study

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, common, and progressive disease of the nervous system, and the affected individuals suffer from its complications throughout their lives and experience different physical and emotional disorders. Objectives: The present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and cognitive-behavioral ‎therapy (CBT) in enhancing resiliency and quality of life among MS patients. Methods: This randomized clinical trial was carried out on 30 MS patients referred to the Department of Neurology in Baqiyatallah Hospital (Tehran, Iran) during February 19 to September 1, 2017. The patients were randomly assigned to three groups: (1) ACT (n = 10, 8 sessions, 90-minute weekly‎ sessions), (2) CBT (n = 10, 10 sessions, 90-minute weekly‎ sessions), and (3) control group (n = 10, no sessions). The resilience and quality of life were measured in pre-test and post-test phases and 1.5 months after treatment using the Connor-Davidson Resilience and Multiple Sclerosis Impact Scales, respectively. Repeated measurement ANOVA and SPSS Software (version 24) were used in this study to analyze the collected data. Results: The study sample consisted of 30 MS patients (mean age = 31.7 ± 5.7, 60% female and 57% married). The three groups were homogeneous in terms of demographic and baseline variables. The results demonstrated that both ACT and CBT had the same effectiveness in increasing resiliency (mean difference in CBT = 0.9 vs ACT = 0.8 (P = 0.882); CBT = 0.9 vs. Control = -1.4 (P = 0.004); ACT = 0.8 vs. Control = -1.4 (P = 0.0041)) and quality of life (mean difference in CBT = 2.9 vs ACT = 3.1 (P = 0.051); CBT = 2.9 vs. Control = 0.6 (P = 0.002); ACT = 3.1 vs. Control = 0.6 (P = 0.014)) among the MS patients so that the participants’ post-test and follow-up scores increased significantly compared to the pretest scores. Conclusions: The present study results indicate that ACT and CBT can equally enhance resiliency and quality of life among MS patients.

Enhancing resiliency of perishable product supply chains in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak

ABSTRACT Globally, countries are struggling to fulfil customer demands due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on perishable food supply chains (PFSCs). This study aims to analyse the factors influencing PFSCs during the pandemic and improve their resiliency. This is essential as some factors discourage the productive execution of PFSCs and decrease organisational performance, thus lowering stakeholder satisfaction. This study has been conducted in two phases. The first phase, through extensive review and discussion with experts, identifies the influencing factors related to supply chain (SC) disturbances in PFSCs. In the second phase, a hybrid method i.e. g-DANP, a combination of grey-decision making trial and evaluation laboratory and analytic network process, is employed to develop a hierarchical structure to measure their influence. The proposed framework is validated with a case of the current COVID-19 outbreak. The study revealed that factors, restriction on import-export and fear of violation of social distancing guidelines, are the primary ‘cause’ group factors; whereas, price variation of perishable products and panic buying and stockpiling are the crucial ‘effect’ group factors affecting the PFSCs. The findings also enrich existing literature by providing analytical support to relationships between various factors affecting PFSCs during the pandemic.

Enhancing Resiliency Feature in Smart Grids through a Deep Learning Based Prediction Model

Background: Enhancing the resiliency of electric power grids is becoming a crucial issue due to the outages that have recently occurred. One solution could be the prediction of imminent failure that is engendered by line contingency or grid disturbances. Therefore, a number of researchers have initiated investigations to generate techniques for predicting outages. However, extended blackouts can still occur due to the frailty of distribution power grids. Objective: This paper implements a proactive prediction model based on deep-belief networks to predict the imminent outages using previous historical blackouts, trigger alarms, and suggest solutions for blackouts. These actions can prevent outages, stop cascading failures and diminish the resulting economic losses. Methods: The proposed model is divided into three phases: A, B and C. The first phase (A) represents the initial segment that collects and extracts data and trains the deep belief network using the collected data. Phase B defines the Power outage threshold and determines whether the grid is in a normal state. Phase C involves detecting potential unsafe events, triggering alarms and proposing emergency action plans for restoration. Results: Different machine learning and deep learning algorithms are used in our experiments to validate our proposition, such as Random forest, Bayesian nets and others. Deep belief Networks can achieve 97.30% accuracy and 97.06% precision. Conclusion: The obtained findings demonstrate that the proposed model would be convenient for blackouts’ prediction and that the deep-belief network represents a powerful deep learning tool that can offer plausible results.

Advanced Metering Infrastructure: Reducing Water Loss, Improving Security, and Enhancing Resiliency

Key TakeawaysA pilot study was conducted to understand the use of advanced metering infrastructure in a neighborhood northeast of Atlanta, Ga.The dashboard system displayed locations of flows and pressures as well as alerts that the team flagged for further investigation.The usage and pressure data from the pilot project allowed detection and remediation of leaks on both sides of the meter.

149. Enhancing Resiliency of Juvenile Justice-Involved Youth

Youth involved in the juvenile justice system experience a disproportionate burden of trauma and stress. Few programs exist that focus on enhancing resiliency in this population. We are implementing a strengths-based, anti-oppression yoga and mindfulness program at a juvenile detention center with the goal of helping incarcerated youth build self-regulatory skills and self-efficacy to use mindfulness strategies. The purpose of the present study is to demonstrate the feasibility and acceptability, as well as preliminary effectiveness, of implementing a yoga and mindfulness program in a juvenile justice setting.

Editors' note: Residency Training: Enhancing resiliency in our residents: Combining the principles of business and neurobiology

In “Residency Training: Enhancing resiliency in our residents: Combining the principles of business and neurobiology,” Llinas et al. discussed business and neuroscientific perspectives on burnout and resiliency. They noted that sleep deprivation, stress, and depersonalization contribute to frontal lobe exhaustion leading to burnout, but that activities that promote spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical renewal can prevent burnout. Robbins applauds the authors for discussing burnout prevention strategies, rather than focusing on treatment of burnout. He further notes that the use of patient satisfaction scores to assess physician performance can contribute to burnout, particularly because these scores can be influenced by a number of factors external to the physician themselves. Llinas agrees that ungrateful patients demoralize physicians and adds that interactions with unprofessional colleagues and patients also lead to burnout. As there are many other factors that can cause burnout, further research is necessary to explore how to minimize burnout and enhance resiliency. In “Residency Training: Enhancing resiliency in our residents: Combining the principles of business and neurobiology,” Llinas et al. discussed business and neuroscientific perspectives on burnout and resiliency.

Reader response: Residency Training: Enhancing resiliency in our residents: Combining the principles of business and neurobiology.

I read with interest Llinas et al.1's article that discussed burnout and resiliency. I appreciate the authors' emphasis on the primacy of systemic changes to address the problem, such as increasing opportunities for recognition and rewarding activities.

Author response: Residency Training: Enhancing resiliency in our residents: Combining the principles of business and neurobiology.

I thank Dr. Robbins for the comment on our Residency Training article.1 We agree with the concept that patients that appear ungrateful contribute to burn out. It does not serve as a victory, even if great effort and time is put into treating them.

Enhancing Resiliency and Delivery of Bridge Elements using Ultra-High Performance Concrete as Formwork

A feasibility study of the use of ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) shell as a formwork is presented. The core concept of the research, developed by the first author, is prefabrication of UHPC shell which acts as a stay-in-place formwork. In the proposed approach, after transporting the UHPC shell to site, the construction of structural elements is completed by placing reinforcing cage inside the UHPC shell and post-pouring with normal concrete. The superior properties of UHPC provide excellent means to enhance the service life of bridge elements, while eliminating the need for assembling or stripping of formwork. As a proof of concept, a combination of experimental and numerical studies was conducted, results of which are reported here. Before conducting experimental work, numerical study in the form of finite element analysis was carried out to investigate performance of shell during placement of the normal concrete. To provide a baseline comparison between UHPC shell formwork and conventional methods, two test specimens were constructed and tested under three-point load setup. The shell test specimen demonstrated flexural strength, 14% greater than an equivalent normal strength concrete specimen. The UHPC shell test specimen failure occurred by debonding of shell at the interface and development of a large crack in the shell. The shell test specimen exhibited improved levels of ductility before failure. The preliminary analysis demonstrated that the idea is feasible and useful for accelerated bridge construction applications.

Enhancing network resources utilization and resiliency in multi-domain bandwidth on demand service provisioning using SDN

This paper presents a solution to increase bandwidth utilization and to reduce the time necessary to recover from network failures in multi-domain bandwidth on demand service provisioning. The proposed solution is based on software-defined networking (SDN) in order to implement novel traffic engineering (TE) techniques. In fact, most standards development organizations and researchers agree that the logically centralized control plane and high programmability of SDN can revolutionize TE with novel and powerful strategies. In this context, the dynamic path computation (DynPaC) framework, relies on the OpenFlow SDN protocol to provide resilient layer 2 services with bandwidth guarantees within OpenFlow domains. In order to make DynPaC support multi-domain service provisioning, it has been extended with an additional operational mode and REST API calls, making it fully compliant with the Network Services Interface-Connection Service protocol. In this way, DynPaC can behave as a network resource manager (NRM) in the network services framework. As a result, the presented solution is the first OpenFlow-enabled NRM with resiliency capabilities that implements novel TE strategies that enhance the utilization of network resources. In order to validate the proposal, it has been implemented using the ONOS network operating systems and several tests have been conducted using diverse service demand patterns. The obtained results show that DynPaC is suitable to be used as an NRM and that the number of accepted services increases thanks to the flow reallocation mechanism included in the framework, achieving in this way a better utilization of network resources.

Residency Training: Enhancing resiliency in our residents: Combining the principles of business and neurobiology.

Burnout is a syndrome defined by 3 principal components: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and diminished feelings of personal accomplishment.1 Burnout negatively affects patient care, affects patient safety, and results in deleterious effects on practitioners.2 A recently published article reports that 73% of neurology residents describe at least one symptom of burnout.3

A systematic review of school‐based interventions and their outcomes for youth exposed to traumatic events

AbstractYouth exposed to traumatic events are at higher risk for negative developmental outcomes, including low academic performance, poor social skills, and mental health concerns. To best address these risks, school‐based intervention services, and trauma‐informed practices can be provided. The goal of this study was to systematically review the intervention research conducted on school‐based trauma interventions, with specific attention to examine intervention effectiveness, feasibility, and acceptability across studies. It was found that feasibility and acceptability are not frequently examined, though the data available showed that Enhancing Resiliency Amongst Students Experiencing‐Stress (ERASE‐Stress) and school‐based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) had high rates of fidelity; and school‐based CBT had high levels of acceptability. The review also examined demographic variables and found that U. S.‐based research reported racially/ethnically diverse samples, and most samples were from low‐income populations. Most studies examined youth exposed to war‐ and terror‐related traumas or natural disaster‐related traumas. Additionally, this review provides future directions for research and reveals the need for further research on intervention feasibility and acceptability. A brief description of practice recommendations based on prior research has also been included. It also exposes the need for studies that examine various student demographic variables that are currently not examined and consistency in rating scale use in school‐based trauma intervention research.

Enhancing resiliency and promoting prosocial behavior among Tanzanian primary-school students: A school-based intervention.

Children in Sub-Saharan Africa are living under chronic adversity due to poverty, serious health issues, physical and sexual abuse, and armed conflicts. These highly stressful conditions have deleterious effects on their mental health and socio-emotional adjustment. Since many children lack adequate access to mental health care, culturally adapted school-based resiliency programs could provide a resource to scaffold their development and promote their mental health. This study evaluated the efficacy of a universal school-based intervention in enhancing the resiliency of Tanzanian primary school children and cultivating prosocial behaviors. A total of 183 students from grades 4 to 6 were randomly assigned to either the 16-session "ERSAE-Stress-Prosocial (ESPS)" structured intervention or to a Social Study curriculum (SS) active control group. The original ESPS program was adapted by Tanzanians mental health professionals who modified the program based on local idioms of distress and indigenous practices. Students' resilience was evaluated before, after and 8 months following the intervention by assessing social difficulties, hyperactivity, somatization, level of anxiety, prosocial behaviors and school functioning as well as academic achievements and disciplinary problems. There was significant improvement on all outcome measures for the ESPS group compared to the control group post-intervention and at the 8-month follow up. The ESPS intervention was equally effective on most measures for students experiencing different adversity levels. The results indicate that a culturally adapted universal school-based intervention can be effective in enhancing Tanzanian students' resiliency and promoting prosocial behaviors. Should these results be replicated and found enduring, the modified ESPS could be a valuable mental health-promoting intervention in other low-income countries.

Enhancing resiliency for elderly populations : Shelter-in-place planning and training at facilities serving elderly populations through the Rhode Island Senior Resiliency Project

Elderly populations are disproportionately affected by disasters. In part, this is true because for many older adults, special assistance is needed to mitigate the consequences of disasters on their health and wellbeing. In addition, many older adults may reside in diverse living complexes such as long-term care facilities, assisted living facilities and independent-living senior housing complexes. Planning for each type of facility is different and the unique features of these facilities must be considered to develop readiness to deal with disasters. Based on this, the Rhode Island Department of Health established the Senior Resiliency Project to bolster the level of resiliency for the types of living facilities housing older adults. The project involves performing onsite assessments of energy resources, developing site-specific sheltering-inplace and energy resiliency plans, and educating and training facility employees and residents on these plans and steps they can take to be better prepared. Based on the feasibility of conducting these activities within a variety of facilities housing older adults, the project is segmented into three phases. This paper describes survey findings, outcomes of interventions, challenges and recommendations for bridging gaps observed in phases 1 and 2 of the project.