Resilience Improvement Research Articles

Report on a Case Study Process Evaluation of a HeartMath Intervention and Faith Following a Traumatic Experience

An initial study [1] was undertaken on a HeartMath intervention, focusing on coherence, resilience and faith following a traumatic experience. Quantitively, there were significant post-intervention positive improvements in physiological coherence, and improvements in resilience and faith, and, qualitatively, positive integrated thematic changes in experiences of sense of coherence, resilience and faith. Correlations revealed various Sense of Coherence Scale items correlated with Brief Resilience Scale and Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire items, and there were inter-related and overlapping experiences of sense of coherence, resilience and faith integrated themes and sub-themes. The first study’s recommendations included that a case study process evaluation of a HeartMath intervention and faith following a traumatic experience be undertaken. The aim was to identify causal, correlation and relationship mechanisms of change. For this case study, the sample consisted of five participants purposefully selected from the original cohort. Information from a qualitative questionnaire on before, during and after intervention experience of sense of coherence, resilience, faith and HeartMath, as well as the HeartMath intervention, were collected. Emerging causal, correlation and relationship mechanisms of change in the form of integrated themes and sub-themes are discussed.

Advancing tourism resilience and data science using multimodal data

ABSTRACT To address data selection bias in tourism research and objectively assess tourism resilience, this study uses the impact of COVID-19 on China’s tourism industry as a case. By using data from POI, UGC, nighttime lights, corporate revenue, and infections, the study develops a multimodal ‘city-enterprise-tourist’ data approach to analyze tourism resilience comprehensively. The multimodal approach disproves the assumed correlation between city size and tourism resilience during public crises while uncovering resilience differences within the tourism sector. As a result, the multimodal data method effectively avoids data selection bias and offers a detailed understanding of tourism resilience. The study highlights the importance of integrating diverse data sources and targeted resilience improvements in tourism resilience research. It provides a comprehensive framework for assessing the impact of public health crises on tourism, contributing to both data science and tourism resilience research.

Fault Tolerance Management Implementation from Medium-to-Large-Scale Networks

As network infrastructures grow in complexity, ensuring high availability and resilience becomes critical, especially for medium-to-large scale networks. This study focuses on the development and implementation of fault tolerance management within Software-defined networking (SDN) environments, aimed at minimizing downtime and enhancing network reliability. SDN’s centralized control and dynamic programmability provide an ideal framework for implementing efficient fault detection and recovery mechanisms. The proposed model leverages real-time monitoring, redundancy protocols, and adaptive rerouting strategies to mitigate the impact of node or link failures. Key components of the model include failover mechanisms, load balancing, and traffic rerouting algorithms, designed to maintain seamless network operations during failures. Through simulation and testing, the model demonstrates significant improvements in network resilience, reducing recovery time and ensuring uninterrupted service delivery. This research provides a comprehensive guide to implementing fault-tolerant networks using SDN, offering scalable solutions that can be adapted to various network sizes and configurations. The findings emphasize the potential of SDN to revolutionize fault management in modern network infrastructures, making it a crucial consideration for future network design and operations.

Integrating fintech and innovation in microfinance: Transforming credit accessibility for small businesses

The integration of fintech in microfinance is transforming credit accessibility for small businesses, especially those traditionally underserved by conventional financial institutions. Fintech solutions offer innovative pathways for microfinance institutions (MFIs) to streamline lending, reduce operational costs, and enhance credit risk assessment, making it easier and faster for small businesses to obtain funding. This review explores how digital lending platforms, blockchain technology, mobile wallets, and artificial intelligence (AI) are reshaping the microfinance landscape. By leveraging digital platforms, MFIs can simplify loan application processes and expand financial services to remote or unbanked areas, where small businesses often lack the collateral or credit history required by traditional lenders. Blockchain and smart contracts enhance transparency, security, and trust in transactions, while AI and machine learning provide advanced methods for assessing creditworthiness using alternative data. These innovations enable MFIs to adopt a more inclusive approach, reaching small businesses with customized financial solutions and enabling responsible lending practices. This review examines case studies from diverse regions to highlight the transformative effects of fintech integration on credit accessibility for small businesses, demonstrating tangible improvements in financial inclusion and economic resilience. Despite these advancements, challenges remain, including data privacy concerns, regulatory issues, and technological barriers in under-resourced areas. Addressing these issues through collaborative partnerships, regulatory frameworks, and digital literacy programs can maximize the impact of fintech-driven microfinance. Ultimately, integrating fintech into microfinance has the potential to drive sustainable economic growth, empowering small businesses to thrive and fostering a more inclusive financial ecosystem. This review advocates for continued innovation and supportive policies to strengthen fintech's role in advancing credit accessibility for small businesses globally.

The Impact of Reflective Practice on the Wellbeing and Competency of Supervisors and Frontline Staff in a nonprofit Community Youth Mental Health Provider

This study examined the impact of reflective practice consultations on staff in a nonprofit provider of youth mental health services in Calgary, Canada. Three groups of participants completed surveys and qualitative interviews: frontline staff (n = 10) and supervisors (n = 14) who participated in reflective practice consultations, and a control group of supervisors with no additional support (n = 10). Survey results indicated that supervisors who took part in the reflective practice consultations showed quantitative improvements in resilience and reflective practice self-efficacy. Qualitative interviews indicated that establishing trust and safety facilitated use of reflective practice while feeling overworked impeded use of reflective practice.

Descriptive Study on Kempo Martial Arts and Its Effects on the Students' Mental Resilience in SBS Young Entrepreneur School

This descriptive study explores the impact of Shorinji Kempo martial arts training on the mental resilience of students at SBS Young Entrepreneur School, Bekasi, Indonesia. Over two years, the school integrated Kempo into its curriculum to enhance students' self-discipline, adaptability, and psychological strength—qualities essential for academic, social, and personal success. Kempo, a martial art introduced to Indonesia in the 1960s, combines physical techniques with philosophical teachings that emphasize resilience and personal growth. The study aims to assess how Kempo training contributed to students’ mental resilience, focusing on stress management, emotional regulation, self-confidence, and overall psychological well-being. The research utilized a descriptive design, employing pre- and post-training interviews, questionnaires, and observations to assess students' progress. Findings indicate significant improvements in students' technical knowledge, physical fitness, and mental resilience. As students progressed through the training, they developed greater self-confidence, enhanced discipline, and stronger stress management abilities. The study also observed improvements in teamwork, focus, and adaptability, all of which contributed to the students' mental resilience. These findings support the hypothesis that martial arts training, specifically Shorinji Kempo, plays a significant role in fostering resilience, helping students navigate challenges both in and outside the training environment.

Music and Adolescent Mental Health: A Journey of Healing, Growth, and Self-Discovery

Music, as an emotional expression and adjustment tool, has a significant impact on the mental health of teenagers. Through a four-week experiment, this study explored the influence of music on teenagers' emotional state, psychological resilience, anxiety level, self-cognition and life satisfaction. The subjects were divided into experimental group and control group. The experimental group listened to healing music for 30 minutes every day, while the control group conducted quiet meditation activities. The mental health status of the two groups of teenagers was measured and compared by psychological scales such as PANAS, RS, STAI, self-concept and life satisfaction. The results show that the experimental group is significantly better than the control group in emotion regulation, psychological resilience improvement and self-cognition, which proves that music has the potential to promote the mental health of teenagers. This paper discusses the theoretical and practical significance of these findings.

WITHDRAWN: Comparing the Effectiveness of In-Person and Telehealth Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on Psychological Distress and Resilience in People Recovered from COVID-19: A Randomized Control Study

Background: In addition to the physical effects caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the disease is also associated with various psychological problems that have required research and clinical attention. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of in-person and telehealth cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) in people who have recovered from COVID-19. Methods: This study was a randomized controlled trial with a pre-post design, a control group, and a three-month follow-up. The statistical population consisted of patients who had recovered from COVID-19 in Tehran between 2022 and 2023. From this population, 45 patients were selected using a convenience sampling method and randomly divided into three groups: An in-person CBT group, a telehealth CBT group (15 patients in each), and a control group (15 patients). The in-person CBT group received 11 sessions, while the telehealth CBT group received 12 sessions. Research instruments included the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) and the Resilience Scale (RS). The data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance. Results: The results showed that although both treatments led to improvements in psychological distress (P < 0.01) and resilience (P < 0.01), the effectiveness of in-person CBT was greater and statistically significant. The effect sizes for depression, anxiety, stress, and resilience were 0.37, 0.38, 0.44, and 0.64, respectively. Conclusions: The results indicate that both in-person and virtual CBT lead to improvements in psychological distress and resilience in patients with a history of COVID-19, compared to the control group. However, the improvement rate was higher for in-person CBT compared to the virtual group. In-person CBT led to significant improvements in both psychological distress and resilience.

A NSGA-II-based approach for optimizing structural component pre-reinforcement to enhance cable-stayed bridge resilience

As critical transportation nodes, the resilience of cable-stayed bridges has always been a focal point of interest. This paper proposes an optimization decision framework for the pre-seismic reinforcement of cable-stayed bridges based on the NSGA-II algorithm, considering temporal, economic, and performance resilience. In this method, time, seismic resilience, and cost efficiency are used as resilience evaluation indicators for the pre-seismic reinforcement stage of cable-stayed bridges. Based on the NSGA-II algorithm, optimized results for the pre-seismic reinforcement sequence are provided. An actual cable-stayed bridge is used as an example to illustrate the effectiveness of this method. The results show that, when performance resilience is used as the primary objective function, the optimization achieved through this decision framework can reduce time by 2.0%, improve economic resilience by 17.9%, and enhance seismic resilience by 1.8%. If economic resilience is used as the primary objective function, time can be reduced by 2.5%, while economic resilience is increased by 43.1%, with a slight improvement in performance resilience (0.7%).

Peer mentoring program through a digital platform for people with systemic sclerosis: A feasibility study.

People with systemic sclerosis (SSc or scleroderma), a rare chronic autoimmune disease, often face significant physical and emotional challenges. Peer mentoring, where someone with similar lived experiences offers guidance and support, shows promise in enhancing the well-being of recipients and may benefit individuals with systemic sclerosis. This study aims to evaluate the feasibility and potential health effects of peer mentoring through a digital platform for people with systemic sclerosis. We conducted a one-group study to evaluate a 16-week peer mentoring program for people with systemic sclerosis. Mentors and mentees were matched by demographics and systemic sclerosis characteristics. Feasibility was evaluated using Orsmond and Cohn criteria: recruitment, data collection, acceptability, available resources, and participant responses to the program. Perceptions and usability of the peer mentoring program through a digital platform were assessed at week 16 (post-program). The health effects of peer mentoring were measured at baseline, week 8, and week 16. Five trained mentors and 15 mentees were enrolled. Each mentor was paired with 2-4 mentees. We found that peer mentoring through a digital platform was feasible, acceptable, and had good usability for both mentors and mentees. Mentees reported significantly less anxiety at week 16 (p < 0.001). Other improvements in fatigue, pain interference, depressed mood, and resilience were observed, but did not reach statistical significance. The peer mentoring program through a digital platform was well-received. Results provided preliminary support for the feasibility and potential health benefits of peer mentoring to enhance well-being in people with systemic sclerosis. Findings lay the groundwork for future peer mentoring research in systemic sclerosis.

Patterns and Predictors of Resilience in Frontline Nurses Before and After Public Health Emergencies: A Latent Transition Analysis.

To explore the stability of resilience among frontline nurses and to analyse the predictive role of internal and external factors on the patterns of resilience transformation in China during public health emergencies. The study used a longitudinal design and surveyed 258 frontline nurses at three different time points: February-March 2020 (T1), May-June 2020 (T2) and May-June 2022 (T3). The survey included the 10-item Connor-Davidson resilience scale, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and the Simple Coping Style Questionnaire. Latent profile analysis and latent transition analysis were used to examine the potential classes and changes. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was applied to evaluate the predictors of resilience transitions. The resilience of frontline nurses was divided into three categories: fragile group, general group and high resilience group. From T1 to T2, the general group exhibited the least stability, with a probability of maintaining its original latent state at 72.9%. Marriage and positive coping styles significantly impacted the transition between resilience categories. From T2 to T3, the fragile group showed the lowest stability, with a 74.9% likelihood of retaining its initial latent state. In this context, supportive hospital management (including psychological counselling, restful environments, and both spiritual and material incentives) and individuals' emotional regulation and sleep quality significantly affected the transition between resilience categories. These findings emphasise the necessity for early intervention. For frontline nurses, conducting initial assessments of resilience coupled with sustained hospital support is crucial for maintaining mental health and improving the quality of nursing care in public health emergencies. This study offers a fresh perspective for understanding the resilience of frontline nurses during public health emergencies. At the same time, it reveals the factors that promote or hinder the change in resilience among frontline nurses at both individual and organisational levels. This provides a theoretical basis for future resilience interventions and helps us formulate effective crisis management strategies to respond to future public health emergencies. For frontline nurses with diverse resilience characteristics and relevant transformation factors, a personalised multi-mode resilience improvement plan can be developed to mitigate public health emergencies' potential adverse psychological impact on frontline nurses, especially those in the fragile group. No patient or public contribution.

Putative risk and resiliency factors after an augmented training program for preventing posttraumatic stress injuries among public safety personnel from diverse sectors

ABSTRACT Mental health disorders are particularly prevalent among public safety personnel (PSP). Emotional Resilience Skills Training (ERST) is a cognitive behavioural training program for PSP based on the Unified Protocol for the Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders (i.e. Unified Protocol). The current study was designed to assess whether ERST is associated with reduced putative risk factors for mental disorders and increased individual resilience. The PSP-PTSI Study used a longitudinal prospective sequential experimental cohort design that engaged each participant for approximately 16 months. PSP from diverse sectors (i.e. firefighters, municipal police, paramedics, public safety communicators) completed self-report measures of several putative risk variables (i.e. anxiety sensitivity, fear of negative evaluation, pain anxiety, illness and injury sensitivity, intolerance of uncertainty, state anger) and resilience at three time points: pre-training (n = 191), post-training (n = 103), and 1-year follow-up (n = 41). Participant scores were statistically compared across time points. Participants reported statistically significantly lower scores on all putative risk variables except pain anxiety, and statistically significantly higher resilience from pre- to post-training. Changes were sustained at 1-year follow-up. The results indicate that ERST is associated with reductions in several putative risk variables and improvement in resilience among PSP.

A two-stage coordinated restoration scheme of hybrid AC/DC distribution grid considering cold load pickup and resilience enhancement

The ever-increasingly severe weather events have elevated the quest for resilience in distribution grids. Cold load pickup (CLPU), a common occurrence in buildings with thermostatically controlled loads (TCLs), generates a significant peak power demand when loads restart. With widespread TCLs distribution, the restoration speed and power level could be impacted by the conventional grid restoration scheme due to limited distribution generator (DG) capability and power supply paths. In this context, this paper proposes a two-stage coordinated restoration scheme based on the novel hybrid AC/DC distribution grid, encompassing the grid configuration level, information interaction level, and designed restoration flow. The typical delayed exponential model is used to characterize CLPU properties during extended outages. In the 1st stage, the contained coordinated restoration strategy decides the optimal load restoration sequence with CLPU concerned. Then, the grid loss optimization is carried out in stage 2 to generate the proper power reference for DGs and voltage source converters (VSCs) of hybrid grids. In case studies, four types of heterogeneous buildings with varied CLPU characteristics are deployed in the analyzed grid. It is verified that the proposed scheme could make effective aggregation and dispatching for multiple DGs, achieving an additional 11.3 h of total load support, a 16.5 % increase of DG utilization and an 11.7 % enhancement of the resilience index compared to the conventional restoration scheme. Furthermore, this scheme demonstrates adaptability for resilience improvement under varied temperatures and fault locations.

PROGRESS: the sectoral approach to cyber resilience

Each critical infrastructure and vital service represents a unique instance of a complex socio-technical–economic system. Resilience in complex systems is an emergent behaviour that occurs from interactions between components and is not easily predictable from understanding each component in isolation. Yet, cybersecurity practice and maturity models still focus on the robustness of separate components: organizational units, firms, or IT applications. Such a fundamental mismatch between theory and tools is among the causes of pervasive cyber insecurity. We introduce the sectoral capability maturity model to enable a comprehensive improvement of systemic resilience. The promoting global cyber resilience for sectors cyber-capability maturity model incorporates the science of complex systems, cybersecurity frameworks, and two decades of CIP operations experience. The model was successfully applied in resilience assessment projects in a dozen countries. Real-life experience emphasizes the benefits of the sectoral approach to cyber resilience: creating feedback loops within the sector, integrating supply chain and third-party risks, facilitating information flows between stakeholders, enabling cooperation with and among ministries, departments and other authorities, weighting in the links and processes between actors in cybersecurity issues. The established value of the sectoral approach calls for applications that will improve the resilience of essential services while lowering sector-wide cybersecurity expenditures.

Resilience assessment of power transmission system during wildfire disasters considering spread process

AbstractLarge‐scale wildfires can significantly reduce the air gap insulation resistance of high‐voltage transmission lines and cause chain tripping incidents. To assess the resilience of the power transmission system during wildfire, this paper proposes a resilience assessment framework for transmission system that considers the entire process of wildfire disaster. Firstly, a wildfire spread model, considering multiple influencing factors, is developed based on the cellular automaton. Based on the air gap breakdown mechanism during wildfires, the trip‐out probability of transmission lines is calculated, and various failure scenarios are obtained by using the Monte Carlo sampling. Secondly, considering the geographical location of failures, maintenance personnel schedules and restoration time, a power transmission system restoration model is established. Thus, a resilience assessment method for power transmission system during wildfire disasters is proposed. Finally, IEEE RTS‐79 transmission system is taken as an example to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed resilience assessment method. The results show that the proposed method can effectively calculate the wildfire spread tendency and transmission line's trip‐out probability. Furthermore, three typical resilience improvement measures are quantitatively analysed, which provides a quantifiable reference for the power sector to formulate prevention and recovery strategies for extreme wildfire disasters.

Meta-learning and proximal policy optimization driven two-stage emergency allocation strategy for multi-energy system against typhoon disasters

To achieve resilience improvement of the multi-energy system against typhoon disasters, this study designs a novel two-stage optimization framework that considers the emergency allocation of distributed resources under typhoon disasters to fully exploit the potential of distributed resources for resilience enhancement. Firstly, we formulate the emergency allocation of distributed resources as a Markov decision process. Then, a meta-learning-driven proximal policy optimization method is utilized to solve it. Different from that the existing reinforcement learning methods always ignore the unpredictable change caused by typhoon and keep multi-energy system dynamics invariant, limiting its control performance. The proposed method embeds meta-learning to fine-tune the pre-trained allocation policy to new tasks with high adaptability and few interactions. Finally, comparison results with other benchmark methods are carried out and shows that the proposed method can learn the appropriate resource allocation policy for multi-energy system and achieve better resilience enhancement, yielding fast application efficiency and good generalization ability for emergency fault conditions.

Improvement in Resilience of AES Design With Reconfigured CFB Mode Against Power Attacks

Improvement in Resilience of AES Design With Reconfigured CFB Mode Against Power Attacks

Enhancing Cybersecurity Resilience through Advanced Red Teaming Exercises and MITRE ATT&CK Framework Integration: A Paradigm Shift in Cybersecurity Assessment

As cybersecurity threats evolve at an alarming pace, conventional defense strategies are becoming progressively less effective. Addressing this urgent challenge, our study introduces a transformative approach to red teaming exercises by integrating the MITRE ATT&CK framework. This novel integration utilizes real-world attacker tactics and behaviors to create highly realistic scenarios that rigorously test defenses and reveal previously unidentified vulnerabilities. Our comprehensive evaluation confirms a significant enhancement in the realism and effectiveness of red teaming, leading to improved vulnerability identification and the generation of actionable insights for proactive remediation. This study uniquely contributes by providing a structured, data-driven methodology that not only aligns current defenses with emergent threat tactics but also promotes continuous improvement in cybersecurity resilience. Such advancements are crucial for organizations aiming to stay ahead of attackers and maintain robust cyber defenses in dynamic threat environments. The significance of this study lies in providing a structured approach to bolster cybersecurity resilience against evolving threats and offering a model for continuous defense improvement. Future research should explore the impact of such integration on long-term cybersecurity strategies.

Effectiveness of a resilience-building nursing intervention on psychological well-being in Arab community-dwelling older adults

BackgroundPsychological resilience plays a crucial role in the well-being of community-dwelling older adults. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a resilience-building nursing intervention on enhancing psychological well-being in this population. MethodsA randomized controlled trial was conducted with 84 community-dwelling older adults in Abha, Saudi Arabia. Participants were randomly assigned to either the intervention group (resilience-building nursing intervention) or the control group (standard care). Psychological resilience and quality of life were assessed using validated scales at baseline, post-intervention, and follow-up. ResultsThe intervention group showed significant improvements in psychological resilience (mean difference: +3.2, p = 0.001) and quality of life (mean difference: +5.4, p = 0.002) at follow-up compared to the control group. Factors influencing resilience included age, gender, socioeconomic status, health status, intervention exposure, community engagement, and living arrangements. ConclusionThe resilience-building nursing intervention effectively enhanced psychological well-being among community-dwelling older adults. Integrating such interventions into routine nursing care can promote holistic well-being and enable older adults to thrive within their communities.

Adaptive capacity of homeowners in Ghana to improve technical and social flood resilience

Increasing flood resilience involves the implementation of structural and non-structural measures by homeowners to comprehend adaptive capacity to the impacts to flood events. Analyzing homeowners’ technical and social capacity creates more knowledge and helps to understand how prepared a system is and what specific actions should be taken. This is the basis for recommending appropriate adaptation measures and increasing resilience. The study identifies homeowners’ social and technical capacity aspects in Ghana, West Africa, to effectively improve their resilience. Ghana is particularly vulnerable to flooding, and its flood risk management (FRM) strategy is gradually evolving to encompass a greater role for homeowners. To gain insight into the factors influencing homeowners' capacity to implement measures, a quantitative research design comprising a household survey was employed in three study areas (Accra, Kumasi, and White Volta) with 1,168 participating homeowners. The results offered insights into the high risk perception and respondents’ motivation, the significant challenges they face in coping with flood events, their limited knowledge of effective measures, and the heterogeneous implementation barriers and support needs across the region. Based on these findings, this paper outlines the practical implications, actionable steps, and sustainable strategies that can be employed with the FLOODLABELGHANA tool for resilience improvement.