Future Campaigns Research Articles

Konformationeller Austausch eines Liganden in der Bindetasche eines Proteins auf der Mikrosekundenzeitskala

AbstractDie experimentelle Erfassung möglicher interner Dynamik eines Liganden ohne Isotopenmarkierung im proteingebundenen Zustand ist grundsätzlich schwierig. Hohe Temperaturfaktoren aus Kristallstrukturen können statische Heterogenität nicht von Bewegung unterscheiden, zudem können für symmetrische Bewegungen selbst bei niedrigsten B‐Faktoren schnelle Bewegungen vorhanden sein. Hier zeigen wir die sowohl in Lösung als auch im Kristall experimentell beobachtete interne μs‐Dynamik eines nicht‐isotopenmarkierten Liganden, während dieser mit hoher Affinität an das Enzym humane Carboanhydrase II (hCAII) gebunden ist. Der sprunghafte Wechsel zwischen den Rotameren der Benzolgruppe des Liganden verursacht sowohl in Lösungs‐ als auch Festkörper NMR mit schneller Rotation um den magischen Winkel 1H R1ρ Relaxationsdispersion, für die mittels Molecular Dynamics (MD)‐Simulationen mechanistische Einblicke erhalten werden. Die experimentelle Erfassung von konformationellem Austausch in gebundenen Liganden in Lösung und im Festkörper könnte einem besseren Verständnis von Wirt‐Gast‐Interaktionen in Biologie und supramolekularer und medizinischer Chemie dienen.

Assessing The Effectiveness Of Public Health Campaigns In Promoting Healthy Behaviors


 
 
 
 Background: Campaigns for public health have a critical role in influencing health-related behaviors and fostering community wellness. The purpose of this study is to evaluate how well different public health initiatives can impact and maintain good behavioral changes in a range of demographic groups. The study tries to find effective techniques that have shown long-lasting benefits on behavior modification by synthesizing empirical evidence from multiple campaigns. Moreover, it explores the significance of cultural competence and customizing messaging for demographic segments to augment campaign effectiveness and resonance.
 Methodology: The study measures the immediate and long-term effects of public health campaigns using both quantitative and qualitative assessments. Utilizing focus groups, surveys, and longitudinal research, the behavioral impact is evaluated over time while taking possible external impacts and confounding variables into account. The study also looks at how social media and technology might be combined to maximize campaign participation and reach.
 Conclusion: The purpose of this research's findings is to give public health professionals, legislators, and campaign designers useful information. The study helps to improve future public health campaigns by identifying evidence-based techniques and filling in the gaps in existing approaches. This leads to a more thorough comprehension of properly promoting and sustaining healthy behaviors within various demographics.
 
 
 

How College Students React to COVID Vaccine PSAs: An Experimental Investigation

We explore how political and psychological factors condition the effectiveness of PSAs promoting COVID-19 vaccines. Targeting college students, we utilize a pretest-posttest experiment to examine how different PSAs (emotional, informational, and humorous) influence students’ emotional reactions and assessments of the PSAs. Further, we assess whether the PSAs are able to influence learning and persuasion. We find certain PSAs are more effective at changing people’s attitudes about the COVID-19 vaccine and the impact of these messages depends on people’s political and psychological predispositions. The informational PSA produces learning, regardless of students’ receptivity to pro-vaccine messaging. However, the humorous and emotional PSAs encourages learning only for those who are already receptive to the vaccine. These findings have implications for future public health campaigns aimed at college students, suggesting PSA campaigns developed to battle new health crises should be launched quickly before people develop strong attitudes about the emerging crisis.

A new framework for indoor air chemistry measurements: Towards a better understanding of indoor air pollution

This paper reports on the findings from INDAIRPOLLNET (INDoor AIR POLLution NETwork), a recently completed European COST Action network. INDAIRPOLLNET ran from September 2018 to March 2023 with more than 200 indoor and outdoor air quality scientists from universities, large and small companies, and research institutes around Europe and beyond. The expertise of our interdisciplinary network members covered chemistry, biology, standardisation, household energy, particulate matter characterisation, toxicology, exposure assessment, air cleaning, building materials, building physics and engineering (including ventilation and energy), and building design. The aim of INDAIRPOLLNET was to design a framework for future indoor air chemistry field campaigns, building on our improved understanding of indoor air chemistry. The main focus of our network was to better understand the sources, transformations and fate of chemical pollutants found in the air in buildings. In this paper, we present the main findings from our network, which include a call for greater spatial and temporal coverage of measurements indoors, the need for standardised techniques for indoor measurements and the impact of occupants on indoor air quality. We also present a checklist of building parameters that should be measured in any future indoor air campaign. Finally, we present our new framework, focusing on 5 key research areas: reactivity in indoor environments; mapping organic constituents indoors; the role of the occupant in indoor air chemistry; indoor modelling studies and novel materials and technologies indoors. We hope this framework will be of use to the indoor air quality community, enabling healthier buildings for the future.

Impact of Actively Offering Influenza Vaccination to Frail People during Hospitalisation: A Pilot Study in Italy.

Despite the worldwide recommendations for influenza immunisation, vaccination coverage for patients exposed to the highest risk of severe complications is still far from the optimal target. The need to take advantage of alternative methods to provide vaccination is essential. This study presents a hospital-based strategy which offers influenza vaccination to inpatients at discharge. This study was conducted during the 2022-2023 influenza season at the University Hospital of Palermo. A questionnaire was administered to identify the determinants for the acceptance of influenza vaccination in the frail population. Overall, 248 hospitalised patients were enrolled, of which 56.1% were female and 52.0% were over 65 years of age. The proportion of patients vaccinated against influenza during hospitalisation was 62.5%, an increase of 16% in influenza vaccination uptake among frail people in comparison with the previous influenza season (46.8% vaccinated during the 2021-22 influenza season). Factors significantly associated with vaccination acceptance were the following: to have received influenza vaccine advice from hospital healthcare workers (OR = 3.57, p = 0.001), to have been previously vaccinated for influenza (OR = 3.16 p = 0.005), and to have had a low level of education (OR = 3.56, p = 0.014). This study showed that offering influenza vaccination to hospitalised patients could be an effective strategy to increase vaccination coverage in the most vulnerable population, and these findings could be useful for planning and improving future influenza vaccination campaigns.

Vendors’ perceptions on the bushmeat trade dynamics across West and central Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons learned on sanitary measures and awareness campaigns

In West and central Africa, the bushmeat trade is a major societal issue with contrasting implications on biodiversity, health and economy. With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, bushmeat trade markets were hit by national bans of various amplitude and poorly apprehended socio-economic consequences. We studied perceptions on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related governmental measures on the bushmeat trade dynamics through questionnaires addressed to 377 vendors across three West and central African countries. We showed that bushmeat vendors constitute a professional category engaged in profitable, long-term careers. Vendors generally agreed that the pandemic had a negative impact on their activities and the number of clients. However, we observed large discrepancies among national trade dynamics. Côte d’Ivoire was hardly hit by the bushmeat ban and perceived governmental measures as rather negative, whereas Cameroon generally did not report a temporary stop of bushmeat activities and engaged in the stockpiling of pangolin meat (the most trafficked wild mammals in the world), and Benin suffered from a weakened supply chain. Because such differences are rooted in the geography and political agenda of each country, predicting the impact of mitigation measures on the global dynamics of bushmeat markets might be an unrealistic task if national specificities are not considered. West and central African vendors generally did not believe that pangolins were involved in the pandemic, for the reason that people have always been eating pangolins and have never been sick. Given that genomic mechanisms can quickly turn a harmless viral strain into an emerging infectious disease, we recommend that future awareness campaigns through television and social networks –the main media consulted by vendors– also include education on microbial evolution and host shift.

The mortality experience of disabled persons in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic.

New data from the Social Security Administration suggest there were 260 000 excess deaths in the United States among current or former disability beneficiaries during the first 22 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. These beneficiaries accounted for 26% of all excess deaths in the United States during this period. The pattern of deaths among disabled beneficiaries corresponds closely to known milestones in the pandemic's history. Disabled beneficiaries in New York, particularly those residing in institutions, had extremely elevated mortality with the onset of the pandemic in the spring of 2020. Across all regions in the United States, mortality among disability beneficiaries increased sharply with the onset of the winter of 2020-2021 and with the emergence of the Delta and Omicron variants in 2021. Elevated mortality was observed for persons with intellectual, mental, and physical impairments. Future public information campaigns about vaccines and other measures may be more successful if they include specific efforts to directly target disability beneficiaries. In addition, clinical trials and other research should consider including disabled persons as specific study groups as the severity of their underlying health impairments is likely comparable to that of persons of advanced age.

Culturally Tailored Anti-Smoking Messages: A Randomized Trial With U.S. Sexual Minority Young Women

IntroductionThis study evaluated effects of exposure to culturally tailored anti-smoking ads versus control ads on quitting intentions, cigarette purchase intentions, and tobacco industry perceptions among young adult, cisgender and transgender, sexual minority women (SMW). Study designAn online randomized controlled experiment with 1-month longitudinal follow-up was conducted. Setting and participants2,214 U.S. SMW ages 18-30 were recruited via online survey panels (The PRIDE Study and Prolific), social media ads and posts, and HER dating app ads. Data were collected in 2021-2022. InterventionParticipants were randomly assigned to receive up to 20 tailored ads containing LGBTQ+ branding versus 20 control ads without LGBTQ+ branding over 4 weeks. Both conditions used identical anti-smoking statements and photographs (including several photographs of individuals who self-identified as SMW). Main outcome measures1-month follow-up intention to purchase cigarettes, intention to quit, marketing receptivity, pro-industry attitudes, and pro-industry beliefs were measured. Analyses were conducted in 2022-2023. Linear regression models predicted outcomes at 1-month follow-up with the randomized arm, adjusted for baseline measures of each outcome and stratified by smoking status (those who currently smoked and those who did not smoke). ResultsAmong those who smoked, follow-up intention to quit increased and intention to purchase cigarettes, marketing receptivity, pro-industry attitudes, and pro-industry beliefs decreased versus baseline in both arms. Follow-up pro-industry beliefs were significantly lower (B=-0.331, 95% CI -0.652, -0.010, p=0.043) in the tailored versus control arm, adjusted for baseline beliefs. Among those who did not smoke, marketing receptivity, pro-industry attitudes, and pro-industry beliefs decreased versus baseline in both arms. Follow-up outcomes did not differ significantly between arms. ConclusionsThese findings can inform future anti-smoking campaign development to reduce cigarette smoking-related disparities among young adult, cisgender and transgender, sexual minority women and serve as the basis for developing similar ads for other LGBTQ+ audiences. Trial RegistrationThis study was registered in ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04812795) .

Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, awareness creation and risk communication of Covid-19 pandemic amongst non-literate population in South-West Nigeria: Lessons for future health campaign.

Risk communication of Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria appeared to be urban-centered with the dominant use of social media, print communication and other controlled media. In such times of public health emergencies, non-literate population could be vulnerable as a result of their limited understanding of the nature of such health risk. Therefore, the study seeks to investigate the extent to which Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) communicated the risk of Covid-19 disease to non-literate population in its public health campaign during the pandemic in South-West Nigeria. The study adopts risk communication theory which advances the approach communication should take during public health emergencies. Using descriptive cross-sectional mixed methods research design, a sample of 420 respondents were purposively selected from 6 towns in the rural areas of Lagos, Oyo and Osun states to examine the level of awareness on Covid-19 pandemic among non-literates. In addition, NCDC risk communication on Covid-19 for non-literate population were analyzed from 3 Jingles in Yoruba language as well as 9 flyers designed for Covid-19 disease from NCDC websites. Results showed that NCDC awareness creation on Covid-19 disease for non-literates in Southwest achieved significant success as a result of the medium used in creating awareness. Specifically, radio was highly rated among majority of the respondents (60.4%) followed by health workers (19.8%) as channels that created understandable message on Covid-19 safety protocols. Further findings on Jingles content revealed that all Covid-19 safety protocols were communicated in Yoruba language for Southwest populace. However, NCDC fall short in communicating Covid-19 risk effectively for non-literates in Southwest as jingles only buttressed the Covid-19 safety protocols and symptoms as well as the need to comply, without educating the masses on the dreadful nature of the disease and its dynamics. Though flyers designed by the NCDC communicated risk to an extent, nevertheless, graphics and symbols on Covid-19 disease were complimented by words in English language only, which could be difficult for non-literates to decipher. Based on the findings, the study recommends that public health agencies need to educate non-literate population about the nature of a disease more than creating awareness about the outbreak of a disease, and such education should be strategic, context-specific, and evidence-based.

Chinese Americans' Information Sources on, Preferred Types of, and Satisfaction with COVID-19 Vaccination.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 87% of Asian Americans had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of July 2023. The purpose of this study is to identify the sources of information, preferred vaccine types, and levels of satisfaction related to COVID-19 vaccination among Chinese Americans, the largest subgroup of Asian immigrants living in the U.S. Our survey data were collected from 241 Chinese American early adopters of the COVID-19 vaccine, who completed at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in June 2021. Our results indicated that their major information sources regarding COVID-19 vaccination included health officials and authorities, local news, family/friends/co-workers, social media platforms, and healthcare professionals. More than half of the participants expressed a preference for the Pfizer-BioNTech (New York, U.S.) vaccine based on the primary considerations of safety, efficacy, credibility of the developer, and availability. A majority of the participants felt satisfied with their experience of receiving the COVID-19 vaccination. Participants with higher levels of self-efficacy and subjective norms related to receiving the COVID-19 vaccine were more likely to express satisfaction with the vaccination. These findings provide valuable insights into Chinese Americans' information sources, vaccine preferences, and satisfaction levels regarding COVID-19 vaccination. This knowledge can help guide future vaccination interventions and campaigns.

Systematic Quantification and Assessment of Digital Image Correlation Performance for Landslide Monitoring

Accurate and reliable analyses of high-alpine landslide displacement magnitudes and rates are key requirements for current and future alpine early warnings. It has been proved that high spatiotemporal-resolution remote sensing data combined with digital image correlation (DIC) algorithms can accurately monitor ground displacements. DIC algorithms still rely on significant amounts of expert input; there is neither a general mathematical description of type and spatiotemporal resolution of input data nor DIC parameters required for successful landslide detection, accurate characterisation of displacement magnitude and rate, and overall error estimation. This work provides generic formulas estimating appropriate DIC input parameters, drastically reducing the time required for manual input parameter optimisation. We employed the open-source code DIC-FFT using optical remote sensing data acquired between 2014 and 2020 for two landslides in Switzerland to qualitatively and quantitatively show which spatial resolution is required to recognise slope displacements, from satellite images to aerial orthophotos, and how the spatial resolution affects the accuracy of the calculated displacement magnitude and rate. We verified our results by manually tracing geomorphic markers in orthophotos. Here, we show a first generic approach for designing and optimising future remote sensing-based landslide monitoring campaigns to support time-critical applications like early warning systems.

Different roles of interpersonal trust and institutional trust in motivating older adults to receive COVID-19 vaccines in Singapore

Since the approvals of several vaccines against COVID-19 by the World Health Organization, a large body of research has studied the determinants of individuals' intention to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in a variety of societies. Vaccine intention is a complex construct rooted in the social context that informs the decision-making process. The underlying reasons for older adults' intention to receive the vaccination is even more important to health authorities in societies with large proportions of older adults. In this paper, we interview 27 women over age 55 in Singapore about their COVID-19 vaccine decision-making. Using a social-ecological framework of trust, we identify factors at both individual and institutional levels that build or undermine trust and underlie older women's decisions to receive COVID-19 vaccinations in an authoritarian regime. Findings show that both interpersonal trust and institutional trust contribute to vaccine uptake, however, trust can also contribute to delays in vaccination. Moreover, a sizable minority of respondents report that they were vaccinated not because of institutional trust, but because they felt compelled to do so. The results shed light on directions for future vaccination campaigns.

Intersect of Money Laundering and Electoral Crimes in the Context of Election Campaign Finance

This paper aims to analyze the intersection between the PPTPPU Law and the Election Law in the context of election campaign funding, compare money laundering arrangements in the PPTPPU Law and the Election Law, and recommend ideal arrangements for handling money laundering in the context of future election campaign funding. The intersection between the PPTPPU Law and the Election Law regarding the provisions prohibiting receiving money from criminal acts has raised legal issues, namely which law should be applied, since both are special laws, furthermore this will also lead to different arrangements in each law. - the law, as well as PPATK not being involved in the handling of money laundering, which has been transformed into an election crime under the regime of the Election Law. The problem continues with the unregulated prohibition of giving election campaign fund contributions originating from criminal acts in the Election Law, and this shows the inconsistency of legislators in adopting the concept of money laundering into the Election Law. The method used is the normative legal research method. The results of the study show that based on the lex specialist systematic principle, the law that is applied is the Election Law. The Election Law does not stipulate active money laundering provisions, only regulates passive money laundering, while the PPTPPU Law regulates both; in the future, it is necessary to formulate active money laundering provisions in the Election Law.

“Human or not?” The Effect of Using Different Types of Anthropomorphic Virus on Sense of Fear and Behavior Intention: The Moderating Effect of Regulatory Focus

<p>Covid-19在短時間內透過口沫傳染迅速傳播導致了許多國家經濟大亂、恐慌並引起了人民的恐慌。病毒帶來的威脅性與高風險傳染使得人心惶惶更加恐懼且公衛宣導效果不彰。本研究欲以病毒外觀擬人化與人類外觀擬人化探討不同類型的擬人化會如何對恐懼感以及行為意圖產生影響，同時探討調節焦點對病毒擬人化之恐懼感影響。本研究採用實驗法進行，病毒擬人化 (病毒外觀擬人化vs人類外觀擬人化)之單因子實驗設計，有效樣本為191份，干擾變數調節焦點為量表檢測調節焦點類型。結果為人類外觀擬人化較容易引起高度恐懼感且對於行為意圖會有較顯著之影響。最後當自我調節焦點為促進型焦點，人類外觀擬人化會引起較高程度之恐懼感則與本研究之預期走向相反。以上結果期許可以用於未來公衛宣導以及學術研究上能有進一步之探討上有所幫助。</p> <p> </p><p>In a short period, Covid-19 rapidly spread through droplet transmission, causing economic turmoil and panic in many countries, leading to widespread fear among the public. The threatening and highly contagious nature of the virus intensified people’s anxiety, and public health campaigns showed limited effectiveness. This study aims to explore how different types of anthropomorphism, the appearance with human traits and the appearance with virus traits, impact sense of fear and behavioral intentions. Additionally, the study investigates the moderating effect of regulatory focus on the fear induced by anthropomorphizing the virus. The research adopts a single-factor experimental design (virus appearance: appearance with human traits vs. appearance with virus traits). The study includes 191 valid samples, with regulatory focus as the moderating variable, measured by a scale to identify the type of regulatory focus. Results indicate that human anthropomorphism is more likely to evoke a high level of sense of fear and significantly influence behavioral intentions. Unexpectedly, when the regulatory focus is promotion-oriented, human anthropomorphism causes a higher level of fear, contrary to the anticipated direction of the study. These findings are expected to contribute to future public health campaigns and academic research by providing insights for further exploration.</p> <p> </p>

Public Awareness on Oral Cancer: A Population- Based Study in Asturias.

Through awareness campaigns, we can change the patient's abilities to detect oral cancer at an early stage and their ability to seek help. To focus these campaigns, we need to know the level of knowledge of the population and its interest in learning about this disease. The aim of this study was to assess the level of oral cancer awareness in Asturias and the interest of the population in learning about this pathology. A representative community-based survey was carried out online using Google Forms®. Responses were transferred to a Microsoft Excel and analysed using the R-program. The relationship between two qualitative variables was studied using Pearson's Chi-square test or Fisher's test. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to determine which factors are associated with knowledge of oral cancer. We found that those having over 50 years and being health professionals are more likely to know about the existence of oral cancer. Almost 85.1% of participants mentioned tobacco as a risk factor, only 39.8% identified alcohol. The ulcer was the most frequently recognized alarm sign (70.6%). The primary care physician was chosen as the first option for consultation by the 56.5% of the sample. Only 12.4% of the participants reported knowing how to self-examine their mouth. The number of views of a video of how-to self-inspection oral cavity displayed at the end of the questionnaire increased in a 39.38% during our study period. This survey showed a worrying lack of awareness and knowledge about oral cancer among the population of Asturias, especially among those under 50 years old. The interest shown in increasing their knowledge, give us hope in the success of future awareness campaigns.

Acceptability of aspirin for cancer preventive therapy: a survey and qualitative study exploring the views of the UK general population

ObjectivesAspirin could be offered for colorectal cancer prevention for the UK general population. To ensure the views of the general population are considered in future guidance, we explored public perceptions...

Patient satisfaction with community pharmacy COVID-19 vaccination in Northern Ireland

Abstract Introduction Northern Ireland’s community pharmacies have contributed substantially to the COVID-19 response, with over 436,000 COVID-19 vaccines administered since March 2021. Community pharmacy has an established role across the UK in delivering influenza vaccination programmes. Research has found that community pharmacy vaccination can increase vaccine availability and uptake and is highly valued by patients1, and although European studies have demonstrated high satisfaction with community pharmacy COVID-19 vaccination services2, further studies are required that are applicable to a UK context. Aim This evaluation aimed to measure user satisfaction with the HSC community pharmacy COVID-19 vaccination service, reasons why users chose community pharmacy for vaccination, and user attitudes towards service quality in three key quality domains of patient-centredness, professionalism, and privacy. The findings aimed to inform recommendations for service improvement for future vaccination campaigns. Methods Following ethical approval from Keele University School of Pharmacy & Bioengineering Research Ethics Committee, a cross-sectoral survey of individuals accessing COVID-19 vaccination from 61 participating community pharmacies was carried out between 20th September 2022 and 3rd December 2022. Voluntary participation was offered to all individuals accessing COVID-19 vaccination from pharmacies purposively chosen as representative of the community pharmacy network. Respondent views on service quality and overall satisfaction were collected anonymously via a Microsoft Forms questionnaire. The results were analysed for overall satisfaction and across three quality domains of patient-centredness, professionalism and privacy identified from the literature as mattering most to users of pharmacy services3. The results were reported using descriptive statistics including frequencies, percentages, skewness and measurements of central tendency. The findings informed the development of five key recommendations for future service improvement. Results 135 patients completed the online questionnaire. Overall patient satisfaction was extremely high, with 100% of respondents indicating they would recommend the service to friends and family and that they would return to a community pharmacy for COVID-19 vaccination. 96% of participants cited convenience, trust, ease of access and time spent at the pharmacy as reasons they chose community pharmacy for vaccination. Respondents were very satisfied with the quality of the service provided across the domains of patient-centredness, professionalism and privacy. Over 95% of participants were very satisfied with the quality of the service, professionalism of the vaccinator and caring of the pharmacy team, however only 73.2% of respondents were very satisfied with the standard of the consultation room. Discussion/Conclusion Overall satisfaction with community pharmacy COVID-19 vaccination in Northern Ireland is very high. Participants largely chose to access vaccination from community pharmacies for reasons of convenience, trust, ease of appointment and time spent at the pharmacy. Users are very satisfied with service quality in terms of patient-centredness, professionalism and privacy. Although generalisation is limited due to relatively small sample size, underrepresentation of some geographical areas and the potential for selection bias arising from voluntary participation and use of online questionnaires, this evaluation still provides a framework for continued quality improvement and a detailed perspective on user attitudes towards community pharmacy COVID-19 vaccination that has informed the development of recommendations for service improvement.

Assessing the Effects of Medical Information on Parental Self-Medication Behaviors for Children's Health: A Comparative Analysis.

Background and Objectives: Health professionals have voiced concerns about the danger of self-medication in times of growing use of over-the-counter medicines and, in some contexts, the unregulated selling of them. Previous research has examined the incidence of parental self-medication as well as the use and abuse of antibiotics without medical advice. However, these studies have limited evidence on the role of family doctors and the perceived severity of self-medication in the case of parents. Based on the Health Belief Model, our research tested the effects of exposure to medical information on the parents' attitudes toward self-treating their children, without medical advice. Specifically, we aimed to assess whether exposure to information warning about the risks of treating children without a medical prescription influences parents' attitudes toward administering medicines to their children without medical advice. Materials and Methods: 210 parents engaged in the study, and were divided into two groups. One group was exposed to educational materials related to the perils of self-medication and the second one was not. All participants answered the same questionnaire and the answers were compared between the two groups. Results: The results showed that our respondents evaluated the practices of self-medication negatively (a higher score indicates a more negative evaluation), especially when it came to treating their children without medical advice (3.91 ± 1.04 for unexposed and 3.98 ± 1.08 for exposed). However, their attitudes towards self-medication varied depending on their beliefs about administering certain medications. Both those exposed to the warning information and those who were not exposed have agreed that they are unable to avoid treatment of their ill child without medical advice. Conclusions: In general, our respondents evaluate negatively the practices of self-medication, especially the treatment of their children without medical advice. Therefore, future health education campaigns need to be targeted specifically, with messages that guide how to act in particular cases depending on the medication used and the child's condition.

Packed to the Brim: Investigating the Impact of Highly Responsive Prefixes on Internet-wide Measurement Campaigns

Internet-wide scans are an important tool to evaluate the deployment of services. To enable large-scale application layer scans, a fast, stateless port scan (e.g., using ZMap) is often performed ahead of time to collect responsive targets. It is a common expectation that port scans on the entire IPv4 address space provide a relatively unbiased view as they cover the complete address space. Previous work, however, has found prefixes where all addresses share particular properties. In IPv6, aliased prefixes and fully responsive prefixes, i.e., prefixes where all addresses are responsive, are a well-known phenomenon. However, there is no such in-depth analysis for prefixes with these responsiveness patterns in IPv4. This paper delves into the underlying factors of this phenomenon in the context of IPv4 and evaluates port scans on a total of 161 ports (142 TCP & 19 UDP ports) from three different vantage points. To account for packet loss and other scanning artifacts, we propose the notion of a new category of prefixes, which we call highly responsive prefixes (HRPs). Our findings show that the share of HRPs can make up 70% of responsive addresses on selected ports. Regarding specific ports, we observe that CDNs contribute to the largest fraction of HRPs on TCP/80 and TCP/443, while TCP proxies emerge as the primary cause of HRPs on other ports. Our analysis also reveals that application layer handshakes to targets outside HRPs are, depending on the chosen service, up to three times more likely to be successful compared to handshakes with targets located in HRPs. To improve future scanning campaigns conducted by the research community, we make our study's data publicly available and provide a tool for detecting HRPs. Furthermore, we propose an approach for a more efficient, ethical, and sustainable application layer target selection. We demonstrate that our approach has the potential to reduce the number of TLS handshakes by up to 75% during an Internet-wide scan while successfully obtaining 99 % of all unique certificates.

SAX J1810.8−2609: an outbursting neutron star X-ray binary with persistent spatially coincident radio emission

ABSTRACT Here, we report on joint X-ray and radio monitoring of the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary SAX J1810.8−2609. Our monitoring covered the entirety of its ${\sim }\, 5\,$ month outburst in 2021, revealing a temporal correlation between its radio and X-ray luminosity and X-ray spectral properties consistent with a ‘hard-only’ outburst. During the outburst, the best-fitting radio position shows significant variability, suggesting emission from multiple locations on the sky. Furthermore, our 2023 follow-up observations revealed a persistent, unresolved, steep spectrum radio source ${\sim }\, 2\,$ yr after SAX J1810.8−2609 returned to X-ray quiescence. We investigated potential origins of the persistent emission, which included an unrelated background source, long-lasting jet ejection(s), and SAX J1810 as a transitional millisecond pulsar. While the chance coincidence probability is low (${\lesssim }\, 0.16~{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$), an unrelated background source remains the most likely scenario. SAX J1810.8−2609 goes into outburst every ${\sim }\, 5\,$ yr, so monitoring of the source during its next outburst at higher sensitivities and improved spatial resolutions (e.g. with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array or Square Kilometre Array) should be able to identify two components (if the persistent emission originates from a background source). If only one source is observed, this would be strong evidence that the persistent emission is local SAX J1810.8−2609, and future monitoring campaigns should focus on understanding the underlying physical mechanisms, as no neutron star X-ray binary has shown a persistent radio signal absent any simultaneous X-ray emission.