General Resilience Research Articles

Brain Tumor Detection and Classification Using MRI Images

Abstract: Brain tumors pose a serious health risk, and prompt and precise identification is essential for successful treatment. This article describes an automated method employing convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to identify and categorize brain cancers in MRI images. The dataset that was used consists of 7,023 MRI scans that were obtained from three different sources: the Br35H dataset, the SARTAJ dataset, and the fig share repository. Four classes are identified from the images: pituitary tumors, gliomas, meningioma’s, and no tumor. With the use of this improved dataset, the CNN model was created and trained, ultimately attaining a 97.5% test accuracy. Moreover, class-wise analysis showed that the precision values for pituitary tumors were 96.1%, 98.8%, 96.1%, and 98.6%, respectively, with equivalent recall rates of 94.7%, 95.4%, 100%, and 99% for gliomas, meningioma’s, and no tumors. With values of 0.966 for gliomas, 0.957 for meningioma’s, 0.994 for no tumor, and 0.975 for pituitary tumors, the F1-scores demonstrate the general resilience of the model. These findings show that the suggested CNNbased method is effective in assisting with brain tumor diagnosis from MRI scans, providing radiologists and other medical practitioners with a useful tool. In order to improve diagnostic accuracy, future study may entail enhancing the model even further and investigating the integration of other imaging modalities

How did the depression and anxiety levels of older New Zealanders change during the COVID-19 pandemic?

ABSTRACT There has been widespread concern about the mental health impact of the global COVID-19 outbreak. Fears have been raised that depression and anxiety among older people may have increased in the pandemic, and that adverse health behaviours, such as increased alcohol use and decreased physical activity, may have contributed to the mental health decline. This study aimed to examine changes in depression, anxiety, alcohol use and physical activity scores of people aged 55 and older in New Zealand over the initial months of the pandemic. The sample included 3,171 people who responded to wave 7 (August-November 2018) and wave 8 (June-September 2020) of the Health, Work and Retirement Study. Analyses were carried out using paired t tests and multilevel mediation modelling. There was no evidence of significant changes in depression or anxiety. Alcohol use and physical activity were shown to decrease significantly, albeit to a small degree, and there was evidence of an indirect effect of time on depression via physical activity. These findings suggest a general resilience among older people 3 to 6 months into the pandemic. However, increased attention should be paid to promoting physical exercise among older people, as a means of decreasing depression risk.

Association of Resilience-Related Life Experiences on Variability on Age of Onset in Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Disease.

It remains unknown whether the associations between protective lifestyles and sporadic dementia risk reported in observational studies also affect age at symptom onset (AAO) in autosomal dominant Alzheimer disease (ADAD) with predominant genetic influences. We investigated the associations between resilience-related life experiences and interindividual AAO variability in ADAD. We performed a longitudinal and confirmatory analysis of the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network prospective observational cohort (January 2009-June 2018, follow-up duration 2.13 ± 2.22 years), involving clinical, CSF, and lifestyle/behavioral assessments. We performed a 2-pronged comprehensive resilience assessment in each cohort. Cohort 1, incorporating the general resilience definition (cognitive maintenance [Clinical Dementia Rating = 0] despite high pathology), included carriers during the periods of significant CSFp-tau181 variability and grouped into resilience/resistance outcome bins according to the dichotomous pathologic and cognitive statuses, subcategorized by the estimated years from expected symptom onset (EYO). Cohort 2, focused on ADAD-specific genetically determined time frame characterizing the onset predictability, included asymptomatic participants with available preclinical lifestyle data and AAO outcomes and grouped into delayed or earlier AAO relative to the parental AAO. Associations of cognitive, CSFp-tau181, and lifestyle/behavioral predictors with binary outcomes were investigated using logistic regression. Of 320 carriers (age 38.19 ± 10.94 years, female 56.25%), cohort 1 included 218 participants (39.00 ± 9.37 years, 57.34%) and cohort 2 included 28 participants (43.34 ± 7.40 years, 71.43%). In cohort 1, 218 carriers after -20 EYO, when the interindividual variability (SD) of CSFp-tau181 first became more than twice greater in carriers than in noncarriers, were grouped into low-risk control (asymptomatic, low pathology, n = 103), high-resilience (asymptomatic despite high pathology, n = 60), low-resilience (symptomatic despite low pathology, n = 15), and susceptible control (symptomatic, high pathology, n = 40) groups. Multivariable predictors of high resilience, controlling for age and depression, included higher conscientiousness (odds ratio 1.051 [95% CI 1.016-1.086], p = 0.004), openness to experience (1.068 [1.005-1.135], p = 0.03) (vs. susceptible controls), and agreeableness (1.082 [1.015-1.153], p = 0.02) (vs. low resilience). From 1 to 3 years before parental AAO (cohort 2), the multivariable predictor of delayed AAO, controlling for CSFp-tau181, was higher conscientiousness (0.916 [0.845-0.994], p = 0.036). Among the cognitively and socially integrated life experiences associated with resilience, measures of conscientiousness were useful indicators for evaluating resilience and predicting future dementia onset in late preclinical ADAD.

The Mediating Role of Resilience in the Relationship Between Self-Efficacy and Demographic Variables in Parents of Children with Cystic Fibrosis

Objective: In genetic diseases such as Cystic Fibrosis, parental self-efficacy is an important variable that increases the child’s compliance with treatment. The aim of this study is to determine the mediating role of resilience in the relationship between self-efficacy and demographic variables in parents of children with Cystic Fibrosis. Methods: The participants of the research were 269 children with Cystic Fibrosis and their parents living in Turkey. Parents were reached via WhatsApp communication tools of the Cystic Fibrosis Association (KIFDER). The data of the research were gathered online between September 1 and December 20, 2020. Child with Cystic Fibrosis and Parent Identification Form, General Self-Efficacy Scale and Resilience Scale for Adults were used as data collection tools. Descriptive statistics and linear regression were utilized to analyze the data, while Hayes’ PROCESS was utilized to analyze the mediating role. Results: Demographic variables that predict parents’ self-efficacy; It was determined as the number of children, maternal income level, gender and the need for information about Cystic Fibrosis. Parents’ mean self-efficacy score was 30.00±.62. Self-perception (β=.252,SE=.054,95%Cl [0.144-0.360],p

Coping strategies adopted by caregivers of children with autism in the Limpopo Province, South Africa

Background: Emotion- and problem-focused coping strategies are frequently employed by caregivers of autistic children to increase their general well-being and resilience to the stress of raising the child. Although these strategies cannot directly address the situation, it is useful for handling stressful situations that cannot change.Objectives: The study seeks to explore and understand the emotion- and problem-focused strategies that caregivers use to cope with the challenges of raising a child with autism.Method: This was a qualitative, exploratory and descriptive research study. Twenty-eight caregivers were purposive-convenient sampled from the public special schools where their autism spectrum disorder (ASD) children are schooling. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather data, which were then transcribed and subjected to thematic analysis.Results: Positive emotion-focused strategies include positive reappraisal, reframing and acceptance. Negative emotion-focused strategies include denial, emotional release, cognitive distortion, self-isolation, overprotection, negative self-talk, punishment and religion. Problem-focused coping strategies include active and adaptive coping, peer group, professional support and social support.Conclusion: The coping methods that have been identified can be integrated into intervention programmes and serve as a guide for specialised institutions that offer more extensive knowledge and assistance to families who are caring for children with ASD.Contribution: The study contributes to understanding the emotion- and problem-focused strategies adopted by rural caregivers in managing their emotions, interpretation of the situation and adjusting to the demands of raising an autistic child.

The Relationship Between Grit, Resilience, and Career Identity in Nursing Students

purpose: An attempt was made to understand the grit, resilience, and career identity of nursing students in an urban area and to identify the factors that influence their career identity. Methods: The data collected was analyzed using the IBM SPSS 29.0 program. The general characteristics, grit, resilience, and career identity were calculated using descriptive statistics. Grit, resilience, and career identity according to general characteristics were analyzed using independent t-test and ANOVA, correlations between grit, resilience, and career identity were analyzed using Pearson’s correlation coefficients, and factors affecting career identity were analyzed using hierarchical regression analysis. Results: The results of this study showed that the degree of major satisfaction (β=0.46, p=.003) in model 1 and resilience (β=0.63, p<.001) in model 2 were found to be significant factors affecting career identity. The explanatory power increased to 25.7% in Model 1 and 61.4% in Model 2. Conclusion: We recommend further research to develop and test the effectiveness of a resilience promotion program to improve career identity among nursing students.

A General Resiliency Enhancement Framework for Load Frequency Control of Interconnected Power Systems Considering Internet of Things Faults

A General Resiliency Enhancement Framework for Load Frequency Control of Interconnected Power Systems Considering Internet of Things Faults

Shaping the general resilience of green infrastructure through integrating structures, functions, and connections

Global climate change has necessitated the implementation of green infrastructure that is resilient in a manner of sustainable development. The current understanding of green infrastructure resilience is hindered by the divergence of generic properties and performance in adapting to uncertain disturbances. This study develops an operational methodology that integrates structural and functional properties of green infrastructure, and their connections to shape the general resilience. A further empirical study is conducted in the context of Shenzhen City, where the effectiveness of resilient connections is correlated with the distribution of waterlogging. We demonstrate that green infrastructure present different levels of resilience in terms of its structural composition and functional performance. The Shenzhen city shows a high capacity to maintain soil retention stability, but a feeble capacity regarding water yield and gross primary productivity. The resilient connections of green infrastructure are highly centralized, with a few pivotal nodes performing a high degree of connectivity. It shows that a total of 52.2% of resilient lines are identified as belonging to the fourth level but linking the majority of the nodes. Enhancing the general resilience of green infrastructure could facilitate its adaptation to specific disturbances such as waterlogging. When correlated the resilient connections of green infrastructure with the distribution of waterlogging, a distance of 1.6 km from the waterlogging points is significantly identified where the residuals of the entropy index display the lowest variance. As the distance increases, the composite entropy index initially decreases and then increases. We suggest that the alignment of generic properties and specified performance of green infrastructure is essential in the pursuit of sustainable development.

The relationship between socioeconomic status, medical accessibility, hope and psychological resilience of caregivers of children with chronic kidney disease in China: structural equation model

BackgroundChronic kidney disease (CKD) is the third most common cause of death after cancer and heart disease. The continuous treatment of children with CKD was greatly challenged during the COVID-19 pandemic, which significantly impacted the CKD children’s prognosis and the caregivers’ psychological status. However, the influence mechanism of socioeconomic status, medical delay duration, traffic pressure, and online consultation duration on caregivers’ hope and psychological resilience still lacks relevant evidence.MethodsThis study investigated the general social information, hope, and psychological resilience of 247 caregivers with CKD in 13 provinces of China in March 2020. Factor analysis and an exploratory Structural Equation Model ( SEM ) were used to find the best-fit model, and Bootstrapping was used to calculate the 95% CI of indirect effects.ResultsThe factor analysis obtained four common factors, namely, socioeconomic status (annual family income, education, and career stability), medical accessibility (online consultation duration, medical delay duration, and traffic pressure), hope (positive attitude, positive action, and intimate relationship) and psychological resilience (optimism, tenacity, and strength), with the cumulative contribution rate of 65.34%. Bootstrapping obtains the socioeconomic status β = 0.30 (95% CI [0.14, 0.47], P = 0.002), medical accessibility β = 0.31 (95% CI [0.12, 0.47], P = 0.002), and hope β = 0.40 (95% CI [0.27, 0.52], P = 0.002) has a direct impact on psychological resilience of CKD children caregivers, followed by medical accessibility β = 0.20 (95% CI [0.10, 0.38], P = 0.001) and hope β = 0.23 (95% CI [0.16, 0.32], P = 0.001) plays a mediating role between socioeconomic status and psychological resilience. The indirect impact effect β = 0.35 (95% CI [0.25, 0.50], P = 0.001) is greater than the direct impact effect β = 0.30 (95% CI [0.14, 0.47], P = 0.002).ConclusionsSufficient attention should still be given to children with immunodeficiency after the COVID-19 pandemic, such as CKD, to avoid infection of deadly. Secondly, the government should vigorously develop Primary medical institutions to ensure efficient treatment of severe patients in tertiary hospitals; Finally, the professional literacy of medical workers in remote diagnosis and treatment should be improved to enhance the country’s emergency response capacity for similar major public events and the requirements for normalised epidemic prevention and control.

Exploring the relationship between vulnerability and adaptation of rural households: disaster resettlement experience from rural China

In the face of environmental deterioration and to improve human welfare, China’s Shaanxi provincial government has launched one of the largest disaster shelter and resettlement projects in history. In assessing the likely success of this project, it is important to measure the vulnerability and adaptation of rural households in areas where the population experiences ecological and livelihood vulnerability. Based on 657 rural questionnaires collected in southern Shaanxi relocation zones, this study explores four categories of relationship between vulnerability and adaptation based on two aspects of livelihood resilience, namely specific resilience and general resilience. A multinomial logistic regression model is employed to investigate the influence of disaster resettlement on these categories. The analysis finds that: (1) there is a connection between these categories and household livelihood strategies, and rural households are more likely to adopt non-agricultural strategy or livelihood diversification strategy; (2) the livelihood resilience of relocated households is significantly higher than that of non-relocated household, with specific resilience being the main reason for the difference; (3) participation in disaster resettlement, centralized resettlement, and high relocation subsidies are not conducive to belonging in the “low vulnerability–high adaptation” category, while voluntary relocation is conducive to being in this category. These results have significant ramifications for China and other developing national disaster resettlement programs. It is critical for resettled households to reduce livelihood vulnerability and improve adaptive capacity.

Interventions for resilient nature‐based solutions: An ecological perspective

Abstract Nature‐based solutions (NbS) have emerged at the science, policy and practitioner interface to address environmental challenges facing society. NbS involve people working with nature to protect, restore or manage ecosystems. Yet NbS vary to the extent they support biological diversity which has implications for ecological resilience. We reviewed how ecological resilience has been conceptualised in the NbS literature. The literature included reference to both resilience to specific disturbances and general resilience to future environmental change. We found reporting of resilience mechanisms was limited except for afforestation efforts where there is increasing recognition of the role of species diversity in contributing to resilience. Reporting was limited for resilience mechanisms that operate within species and populations (e.g. genetic diversity) and at the landscape scale (e.g. connectivity). Resistance was overlooked despite the prevalence of NbS intended to address climate change. From the broader ecological literature, we distilled resilience mechanisms that have been identified for native and experimental ecosystems and suggested interventions for the emergence of resilience mechanisms in NbS. Synthesis. Interventions to conserve biodiversity such as retaining and restoring ecosystems, are critical given that biodiversity, within and across scales of biological organisation, underpins several ecological resilience mechanisms in NbS.

Radiation versus environmental degradation in unencapsulated metal halide perovskite solar cells

Abstract Here, the radiation hardness of metal halide perovskite solar cells exposed to space conditions versus the effects of environmental degradation are assessed. The relative response of the constituent layers of the architecture to radiation is analyzed, revealing a general resilience of the structure when assessed across varying proton energy levels and fluences. However, despite the tolerance of the structure to irradiation, sensitivity to environmental degradation is observed during the transit of the device between the radiation and characterization facilities. Experimental evidence suggests the NiO x /perovskite interface is particularly sensitive to the effects of humidity and/or temperature exposure, while the irradiation of the devices appears to induce thermally activated annealing: improving the solar cells upon radiation exposure.

A Bayesian approach to reveal the role of psychological factors on turnover intention among nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic

BackgroundTurnover intention is considered a significant challenge for healthcare and treatment organizations. The challenging conditions of treating COVID-19 patients and the physical and mental stress imposed on nurses during the pandemic may lead them to leave their jobs. The present study aimed to determine the role of psychological factors (general health, mental workload, work-family conflicts, and resilience) on turnover intention using a Bayesian approach during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsThe present cross-sectional study was carried out during the winter of 2021 at three hospitals in Khuzestan Province, Iran. To collect data for this investigation, 300 nurses were chosen based on Cochran’s formula and random sampling technique. Seven questionnaires, including General Health, Mental Workload, Work-Family Conflict, Resilience, Job Stress, Fear of COVID-19, and Turnover Intention Questionnaires. Bayesian Networks (BNs) were used to draw probabilistic and graphical models. A sensitivity analysis also was performed to study the effects of the variables. The GeNIe academic software, version 2.3, facilitated the examination of the Bayesian network.ResultsThe statistically significant associations occurred between the variables of fear of COVID-19 and job stress (0.313), job stress and turnover intention (0.302), and resilience and job stress (0.298), respectively. Job stress had the highest association with the fear of COVID-19 (0.313), and resilience had the greatest association with the work-family conflict (0.296). Also, the association between turnover intention and job stress (0.302) was higher than the association between this variable and resilience (0.219). At the low resilience and high job stress with the probability of 100%, the turnover intention variable increased by 20%, while at high resilience and low job stress with the probability of 100%, turnover intention was found to decrease by 32%.ConclusionIn general, the results showed that four psychological factors affect job turnover intention. However, the greatest impact was related to job stress and resilience. These results can be used to manage job turnover intention in medical environments, especially in critical situations such as COVID-19.

Dimensions of hospital resilience emphasized during the COVID-19 pandemic response: A systematic review.

Hospitals must maintain their effective operations during and after disasters. Due to the current increase in disasters, hospital resilience has drawn scholarly attention. This study aimed to review studies on the changes in the definition of hospital resilience after COVID-19, build a conceptual framework for careful measurement, and identify the main dimensions of hospital resilience emphasized during the COVID-19 pandemic. The initial phase of this study was a systematic review of articles published before the COVID-19 pandemic to extract the hospital resilience-related dimensions for the second phase. The second phase involved text-mining articles published both before and after the emergence of COVID-19. In the systematic review phase, 12 databases were searched from 2006 to January 2020, including Scopus, Web of Science, MEDLINE through PubMed, Embase, ERIC, ProQuest, the Cochrane Library, Emerald, Springer, Science Direct/ELSEVIER, Google Scholar, and SID (for Persian language papers). Then, after COVID-19, articles published in these databases between January 2020 and May 2022 were evaluated using text mining. During the systematic phase, 17 out of 1530 papers published before COVID-19 were synthesized to collect components of hospital disaster resilience. These identified components were the inputs for the text-mining phase. The text mining on pre-COVID papers resulted in six clusters, with the highest weight (0.65) belonging to general resilience and disaster preparedness, while in the post-COVID text mining phase, including 70 papers, 8 clusters have been identified, with the highest weight cluster (0.78) focusing on the mental and psychological aspects of resilience among healthcare workers. Following the COVID pandemic, scholarly attention has shifted to the more personal dimensions of hospital resilience, including psychological resiliency. It seems necessary for policymakers to focus more on the individual and psychological resilience of hospital staff.

Economic, Social, and Environmental Factors Impacting Resilience and Disturbances of Lithuanian Family Farms

Climate change, changes in the natural environment, changing markets, price volatility, etc. pose tension and threats to the future of European Union farms. The uncertain future of family farms requires farm resilience—the ability to survive, adapt, and grow in the face of turbulent change. The limited resilience of family farms has become an important concern for rural and agricultural policy. The main goal of this work is to identify disturbances affecting Lithuanian family farms, assess their influence, investigate the general resilience of Lithuanian family farms, propose measures to reduce the vulnerability of farms, and increase the general resilience and sustainability. We used a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods to conduct the research. Survey research was conducted using a semi-structured expert interview in which various types of variables were collected. The survey questionnaire, consisting of 38 groups of questions, was sent by email to 500 randomly selected family farmers in January 2024 and collected in the same month. The statistical analysis of the data from the 205 duly filled-out questionnaires was carried out using correlation analysis. In this article, we apply the concept of general resilience of the family farm in the direction of robustness, adaptability, and transformability. We identify the main factors influencing the general resilience of the family farm and study the main attributes of the resilience of family farms. We find some links between family farm characteristics, vulnerability factors, and general resilience capabilities, and we make several proposals to increase family farms’ resilience. The obtained results prove that higher education, larger farm sizes, higher agricultural sales, and employment of permanent workers are associated with better resilience. Furthermore, increasing environmentally friendly practices positively impacts resilience. Older farms and farmers, longer durations of farming activity, and risk-averse behaviors tend to decrease resilience. Due to local and global circumstances, economic and social changes have occurred very quickly in recent years, so the results obtained in the study may not be valid in the long term. Similar surveys after several years will be necessary to study the resilience of Lithuanian farms, including deeper economic analyses that evaluate factors such as price sensitivity, the level of farm debt, and market access.

Rethinking resilience: a regression analysis study of the experiences of refugee and immigrant youth in Montreal

PurposeRefugee and immigrant youth (RIY) experience multifaceted challenges, but also have the potential to become resilient. Most of the existing literature focuses on the challenges these RIY face with limited attention to their agency and resilience. This study aims to assess the factors that predict RIY’s resilience among refugee and immigrant youth in Montreal, Canada.Design/methodology/approachA sample of 93 RIY in Montreal was surveyed. A questionnaire consisting of validated scales was used for data collection.FindingsThe study found a positive correlation between educational level, personal resilience and relational resilience (p < 0.001). However, ethnicity did not have a significant correlation with the participant’s general level of resilience (p > 0.001). Cultural, religious, family, community ties, age and time lived in Montréal were found to be predictors of general resilience, relational resilience and personal resilience of the RIY (p < 0.001).Originality/valueThe study concluded that factors such as cultural, religious and community ties are major predictors of the resilience of RIY in Montreal. Hence, the need for mental health practitioners and resettlement organizations that work with RIY to focus on reconceptualizing resilience to incorporate the cultural, religious and community ties of RIY. This will help in developing services and programs that are culturally sensitive and effective in fostering the resilience of RIY.

Factors affecting psychological resilience, self-efficacy and job satisfaction of nurse academics: A cross-sectional study.

The study aimed to determine the factors affecting psychological resilience, self-efficacy and job satisfaction in nurse academics. Nurse academics follow an emotionally and mentally intense career path, along which they are required to balance many different roles and responsibilities, including teaching, research and guidance. However, in some cases, this equilibrium is disrupted and may cause functional disruptions; in achieving this balance, resilience, self-efficacy and job satisfaction play important roles. The data of this cross-sectional study were collected between January and April 2023, and 446 nurse academics were included in the study. The Descriptive Characteristics Information Form, Brief Psychological Resilience Scale (BPRS), General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) and Job Satisfaction Scale (JSS) were used to collect the research data.We adhered to the STROBE checklist for reporting. A significant positive relationship was found between general self-efficacy levels and psychological resilience and job satisfaction levels. There is a significant positive relationship between job satisfaction levels and age, total years of service, psychological resilience and general self-efficacy levels. In addition, it has been noted that family relationships, friend relationships and academic title factors were effective on the nurse academics' psychological resilience, self-efficacy and job satisfaction levels. Managers can play an important role in increasing the psychological resilience, self-efficacy and job satisfaction levels of nurse academics by developing strategies for these effective factors. Governments need to ensure that nurse academics have an appropriate career framework that enables them to balance the competing demands on their time and that they have adequate mentoring and support in the early stages of their careers to enable them to adapt to working life as a nurse academic.

ОСОБИСТІСНІ ДЕСКРИПТОРИ ЗРІЛОСТІ ГРОМАДЯНСЬКОЇ ІДЕНТИЧНОСТІ СТУДЕНТІВ

The purpose of the article is to theoretically and empirically study the personal descriptors of students' civic identity maturity. Methods. The study used psychodiagnostic methods for determining personality characteristics (the Big Five by R. McKrae and P. Costa, the locus of control test by J. Rotter, the stress level test by V. Shcherbatykh), as well as the methodology for diagnosing the level of maturity of civic identity by I. Petrovska. The methods of statistical data processing were correlation, comparative and cluster analysis. The sample of the researchers consisted of students of humanitarian specialties of 1-5 courses of universities in Lviv. Results. The correlation analysis showed that the largest number of correlations is formed by such indicators of civic identity as general maturity and resilience. Indicators of civic identity maturity are directly related to personal characteristics: conscientiousness, neuroticism, stress level (direct relationship), external locus of control, extraversion (inverse relationship). The resilience of civic identity is related to the level of stress and the localization of control. Cluster analysis showed that civic identity resilience was a parameter for dividing respondents into two subgroups. Individuals with a low level of civic identity resilience are characterized by low levels of extraversion, high levels of conscientiousness, neuroticism, and stress, as well as internalization of the locus of control. Individuals with a high level of civic identity resilience are characterized by a high level of extraversion, low levels of conscientiousness, neuroticism and stress, as well as a high level of locus of control externalization. Conclusions. The maturity of civic identity is related to such personal parameters as introversion, conscientiousness, neuroticism, high stress level, and internal locus of control. An inverse relationship between resilience and maturity of civic identity was found, which means that the characteristic feature of the latter is not rigidity but flexibility. Individuals with a high level of civic identity resilience are characterized by a high level of extraversion, low levels of conscientiousness, neuroticism and stress, as well as a high level of external locus of control.

Breeding for resilience in finishing pigs can decrease tail biting, lameness and mortality

BackgroundPrevious research showed that deviations in longitudinal data are heritable and can be used as a proxy for pigs’ general resilience. However, only a few studies investigated the relationship between these resilience traits and other traits related to resilience and welfare. Therefore, this study investigated the relationship between resilience traits derived from deviations in longitudinal data and traits related to animal resilience, health and welfare, such as tail and ear biting wounds, lameness and mortality.ResultsIn our experiment, 1919 finishing pigs with known pedigree (133 Piétrain sires and 266 crossbred dams) were weighed every 2 weeks and scored for physical abnormalities, such as lameness and ear and tail biting wounds (17,066 records). Resilience was assessed via deviations in body weight, deviations in weighing order and deviations in observed activity during weighing. The association between these resilience traits and physical abnormality traits was investigated and genetic parameters were estimated. Deviations in body weight had moderate heritability estimates (h2 = 25.2 to 36.3%), whereas deviations in weighing order (h2 = 4.2%) and deviations in activity during weighing (h2 = 12.0%) had low heritability estimates. Moreover, deviations in body weight were positively associated and genetically correlated with tail biting wounds (rg = 0.22 to 0.30), lameness (rg = 0.15 to 0.31) and mortality (rg = 0.19 to 0.33). These results indicate that events of tail biting, lameness and mortality are associated with deviations in pigs’ body weight evolution. This relationship was not found for deviations in weighing order and activity during weighing. Furthermore, individual body weight deviations were positively correlated with uniformity at the pen level, providing evidence that breeding for these resilience traits might increase both pigs’ resilience and within-family uniformity.ConclusionsIn summary, our findings show that breeding for resilience traits based on deviations in longitudinal weight data can decrease pigs’ tail biting wounds, lameness and mortality while improving uniformity at the pen level. These findings are valuable for pig breeders, as they offer evidence that these resilience traits are an indication of animals’ general health, welfare and resilience. Moreover, these results will stimulate the quantification of resilience via longitudinal body weights in other species.

The principle of cascadic prosilience—Assessment of territorial recovery strategies after disrupted regional infrastructure systems in Iraq

This paper presents an assessment approach to fostering socioeconomic re-development and resilience in Iraqi regions emerging from the destruction and instability, in the aftermath of the war conflict in Iraq. Focusing on the intricate interplay of logistics infrastructure and economic recovery, the present study proposes a novel framework that integrates general resilience insights, data analytics, infrastructure systems, and decision support from Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). We draw inspiration also from historical cases on “creative destruction” or “Blessing in Disguise” (BiD) phenomena, like the post-WWII reconstruction of Rotterdam, so as to develop the notion of stepwise or cascadic prosilience, analyzing how innovative logistics systems may in various stages contribute to economic rejuvenation. Our approach recognizes the multifaceted nature of regional resilience capacity, encompassing both static (conserving resources, rerouting, etc.) and dynamic (accelerating recovery through innovative strategies) dimensions. The logistics aspect spans both the supply side (new infrastructure, ICT facilities) and the demand side (changing transportation flows and product demands), culminating in an integrated perspective for sustainable growth of Iraqi regions. In our study, we explore several forward-looking strategic future options (scenarios) for recovery and reconstruction policy factors in the context of regional development in Iraq, regarding them as crucial strategic elements for effective post-conflict rebuilding and regeneration. Given that such assets and infrastructures typically extend beyond a single city or area, their geographic scope is broader, calling for a multi-region approach. By leveraging the extended DEA approach by an incorporation of a super-efficiency (SE) DEA approach so as to better discriminate among efficient Decision-Making Units (DMUs)—in this case, regions in Iraq—our research aims to present actionable and effective insights for infrastructure investment strategies at regional-governorate scale in Iraq, that optimize efficiency, sustainability and resilience. This approach may ultimately foster prosperous and stable post-conflict regional economies that display—by means of a cascadic change—a new balanced prosilient future.