Abstract Intra-system water quality varies across a water distribution system, and large, unexpected shifts in consumer demands can create changes in the spatio-temporal dynamics of water flows and water quality. Exposure to poor water quality leads to negative health outcomes, and households that seek to avoid tap water and use bottled water as an alternative source of water can bear a substantial cost. This research applies a sociotechnical agent-based modeling framework, the COVID-19 social distancing and tap water avoidance agent-based model (COST-ABM) to explore how intra-system changes in water quality lead to poor water quality and issues with affordability for households and neighborhoods. COST-ABM simulates the movement of individual agents to and from home, work, and leisure locations under decisions to social-distance and the purchase of bottled water under decisions to avoid tap water. For scenarios of changing demands associated with social distancing, water age is exacerbated, which leads to tap water avoidance. COST-ABM assesses equity based on the total cost of tap and bottled water as a percentage of income for low-income households. COST-ABM is applied for a synthetic case study that was developed to represent Clinton, North Carolina. A synthetic hydraulic model is created using street maps to place pipes and nodes, well locations to place water sources, and building types to determine demands. Household demographics are distributed to represent the population of Clinton based on census data. Results demonstrate spatial changes in water quality that lead to tap water avoidance and economic inequities. Emergent results demonstrate that inequities among demographic groups do not emerge, but that inequities emerge across income groups and water quality at nodes. The sociotechnical modeling approach that is developed in this research applies COST-ABM to identify and quantify inequities in drinking water quality and water affordability in piped distribution systems. This work focuses on demand changes associated with pandemic scenarios and can be applied to assess equity in water for other demand shifting scenarios, such as extreme weather events, adoption of decentralized water systems, and working from home.

Negative control outcomes (NCOs) are useful tools for hidden bias detection, but empirical evidence validating NCOs for COVID-19 is lacking. To address this gap, we examined the blinded phase of the randomized, placebo-controlled Coronavirus Vaccine Efficacy (COVE; NCT04470427) trial of the mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine. We confirmed that acute respiratory illness with a positive test for a non-SARS-CoV-2 respiratory pathogen on a multiplex PCR panel was a valid NCO for COVID-19, considering that it was unaffected by vaccination (vaccine efficacy, VE=3.3% (95% CI, -22.3 to 23.6)) yet strongly associated with COVID-19 (odds ratio=2.95 (95% CI, 2.00, 4.24)). Subsequently, we leveraged non-SARS-CoV-2 infections to detect bias in time-varying VE estimates from COVE's blinded and booster phases. Balanced incidence of non-SARS-CoV-2 infection between vaccinated and unvaccinated COVID-19-free risk sets suggested low selection bias in VE estimates of two-dose mRNA-1273 against COVID-19 during the blinded phase (VE=92.5% (95% CI, 88.8, 94.9) 14days post-dose-two, stable for 5months). In COVE's booster phase, higher non-SARS-CoV-2 incidence was observed after the single booster (intensity ratio, IR=2.38 (95% CI, 1.75, 3.25) 14days post-boost), suggesting that booster VE estimates may underestimate the true VE against COVID-19. Our findings demonstrate the potential of off-target infections for unraveling complex biases in COVID-19 vaccine studies. Trial registration: NCT04470427, https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04470427.

ABSTRACT Ostracism, being ignored and excluded, thwarts the fundamental need to belong and has significant psychological and social consequences. Influenced by Kipling D. Williams’s seminal work, our research on ostracism has primarily focused on its negative consequences and uncovered underlying mechanisms and moderators. First, we reviewed our findings around the three stages (i.e. reflexive, reflective, and resignation stages) outlined by Williams’s temporal need-threat model. Next, we discussed potential approaches to alleviate adverse consequences of ostracism by drawing from our findings on mediating and moderating factors in four categories: need fortification, reframing ostracism experience, addressing negative outcomes, and bolstering individual resilience. Finally, we proposed future research directions regarding potential interventions to mitigate the negative outcomes of ostracism.

Purpose The COVID-19 pandemic broke out in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. In February 2020, countries responded to the pandemic by issuing guidelines to maintain social distancing, including enforcing lockdowns. Organisations were required to have their employees work from home (WFH), which had both positive and negative outcomes. During this pandemic, employees were embedded/stuck at home in the lockdown, and as people were forced to WFH remotely, a key question emerged: How does working from home - along with job embeddedness, supervisor’ listening perception, turnover intention and motivation-affect together simultaneously on turnover behaviour in such a context. This paper main aim is to examine that. Design/methodology/approach Five hypotheses were formulated for this research. Data were drawn from an online survey of 126 professional IT employees of a global high-tech firm in the first COVID-19 lockdown in Israel. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to test the hypotheses (via PROCESS) along with a sensitivity power analysis. Discriminant and convergent validity through a series of confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to evaluate the model. Findings The main findings indicate that embeddedness (“stuckness”) decreases turnover intention, and that turnover intention mediates the job embeddedness–decision to leave relationships. Intent to leave mediated the embeddedness–actual turnover relationship only for individuals with a low level of job motivation. Finally, a significant moderated–mediating effect of embeddedness on actual turnover through turnover intention for individuals who rated their supervisors’ listening as high but had low motivation was found. These findings offer important insights for managers of high-tech firms aiming to improve employee retention and reduce turnover behaviour. Finally, it was found that WFH strategy that was used during the COVID-19 pandemic (that might create quiet quitting) and is still used in the labour market and the high-tech sector is not significantly related to IT employees’ turnover intention and hence will not prevent intent to leave and probably turnover behaviour in the IT sector. The findings are discussed considering the literature. Originality/value This paper emphasises the findings of full remote work/WHF in the high-tech sector among engineers in lockdown conditions on turnover behaviour. No research examined it under full closure conditions of the COVID-19 when employees were forced to WFH only and work only remotely while they did not work hybrid and cannot do that because of the lockdown. Bloom et al. (2024, p. 1) found that “hybrid work improved reduced quit rates by one-third”. However, in contrast to that research, this study checked the impact of hybrid work and not full WFH and also with a different study population. Thus, it seems that to fully WFH where employees were forced to work entirely remotely and cannot work hybrid, there is a different impact on IT employees’ turnover. Additionally, WFH setup did not moderate or mediate the embeddedness–turnover intention/resigning relationship. Thus, indirectly encouraging embeddedness can assist in retaining IT employees and preventing turnover behaviour. Employees’ motivation level moderates the relationship between embeddedness and intent to leave at varying levels. Finally, listening moderates motivation’s significant moderated mediation effect on the relationship between embeddedness and intent to leave. These results extend the turnover literature.

Publication Disparity in Lymphomatous Hematologic Radiation Oncology.

Drawing causal conclusions about nonrandomized exposures rests on assuming no uncontrolled confounding, but it is rarely justifiable to rule out all putative violations of this routinely made yet empirically untestable assumption. Alternatively, this assumption can be avoided by leveraging negative control outcomes using the control outcome calibration approach (COCA). The existing COCA estimator of the average causal effect relies on correctly specifying the mean negative control outcome model, with a closed-form solution for the main exposure effect. In this article, we propose a doubly robust COCA estimator of the average causal effect that relaxes this modeling requirement and permits effect modification through covariate-exposure interaction terms. The doubly robust COCA estimator uses correctly specified exposure and focal outcome models to protect against biases from an incorrectly specified negative control outcome model. The ability to obtain unbiased point estimates and inferences is empirically evaluated using a simulation study. We demonstrate doubly robust COCA using a publicly available dataset to evaluate the effect of volunteering on mental health. This method is practical and easy to implement and permits unbiased estimation of causal effects even amid uncontrolled confounding.

Attenuated learning rates for negative outcomes in substance use disorders: A replication and extension of prior longitudinal computational modeling results.

Dampened social motivation in dysphoria: the role of negative social expectancies and internal causal attribution style.

Adolescent use of cannabis in the United States is on the rise. Multiple toxicities and negative outcomes are possible with chronic or heavy cannabis use, including cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS). This study analyzes a population of adolescent emergency department patients with cyclic vomiting onset after cannabis use, with a hypothesis that use patterns or biomarkers may offer insights into diagnostics, pathophysiology, or management of this disease. This pilot prospective observational cohort study recruited pediatric emergency department patients aged 14 to 21 years with symptomatic cyclic vomiting onset after chronic cannabis use, and reassessed them at an asymptomatic follow-up visit. Cannabis use patterns were assessed with validated questionnaires, and blood profiles of cannabinoid metabolites and essential minerals and B vitamins were quantified and compared. We screened 869 adolescent ED patients and enrolled ten participants. All participants (n=10) had cannabis use disorder (n=9) or hazardous cannabis use (n=1) by the Cannabis Use Disorders Identification Test-Revised, and participants reported withdrawal symptoms when attempting to discontinue cannabis. There were significant differences in 11-hydroxy-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol between index [median 0.6ng/mL (IQR: 0, 2.6)] and asymptomatic follow-up visits [median 4.2ng/mL (IQR: 1.2, 10.1)]. Median vitamin and mineral concentrations were within reference ranges. Symptomatic adolescent patients with suspected CHS had evidence of cannabis use disorder and had significantly lower blood concentrations of 11-hydroxy-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol when symptomatic. Further research is needed to better explore the pathophysiology and diagnostics in adolescent CHS, and exploration and treatment of cannabis use disorder should be considered in these patients.

Purpose Drawing on social information processing theory, this study aims to examine how the effects of leader forgiveness on employees' taking charge vary contingent upon employees' perceived overqualification, operating through both positive (state gratitude) and negative (psychological entitlement) pathways that create a double-edged sword effect. Design/methodology/approach Using a two-wave time-lagged design, we collected data from 356 leader-employee dyads and tested hypotheses through multi-level path analysis and the Monte Carlo method. Findings For highly overqualified employees, leader forgiveness increases psychological entitlement, subsequently reducing their taking charge. Among employees with low perceived overqualification, leader forgiveness fosters state gratitude, thereby enhancing taking charge. Practical implications Organizations should apply leader forgiveness within structured frameworks with clear accountability standards. They should cultivate appreciation cultures to promote state gratitude, foster collectivist atmospheres to minimize psychological entitlement and optimize person-job fit through comprehensive recruitment and job redesign to effectively manage perceived overqualification. Originality/value This study advances the literature by revealing the dual effects of leader forgiveness on employees' taking charge through both cognitive and emotional mechanisms. It integrates social information processing theory to highlight these pathways and identifies perceived overqualification as a key moderator, offering insights into when leader forgiveness produces positive or negative outcomes.

Background: Gender-based violence (GBV), a pressing public health concern in Nigeria, leads to various negative outcomes among young people, particularly for young girls and women. These include trauma, unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and social stigma, negatively impacting the health of the population. This systematic review aimed to synthesize current research on the prevalence and factors influencing GBV among youths and adolescents in Nigeria. Methods: Following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines, we conducted a thorough search of databases such as PubMed and Google Scholar for relevant articles. We included observational studies that reported the prevalence and contributing factors to GBV or intimate partner violence in Nigeria. A risk of bias assessment was then conducted using the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklists. Data extraction was then carried out to capture relevant information, and a narrative synthesis was used to summarize the findings. Results: The study findings revealed a relatively high prevalence of GBV among Nigerian youths and adolescents. Key contributing factors include economic vulnerability, societal attitudes, limited access to formal education, and insecurity. Health outcomes of gender-based violence reported in the studies include unwanted pregnancies, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder among survivors. Conclusion: The high prevalence of GBV among Nigerian youths highlights an urgent need for targeted interventions. Addressing contributing factors, such as economic vulnerability and harmful societal attitudes, is essential to improve the health outcomes of survivors and reduce the incidence of GBV in the country.

Interventions to Promote Pediatric Shared Decision-Making and Child Engagement in Primary Care: A Systematic Review.

Appetizing food cues most consistently relate to men's same-day loss of control eating.

Impact of Postoperative Anemia and Transfusion in Patients Undergoing Complex Endovascular Aortic Aneurysm Repair.

Epidemiological studies have identified an inverse association of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol with cardiovascular risk. Preclinical studies have shown that HDLs also exhibit cardioprotective functions in cultured cells and animal models. However, large, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials of HDL-raising agents have failed to reduce cardiovascular events in humans. Despite this negative outcome, glycaemic control was considerably improved in the patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who were recruited into these trials. This finding indicated that HDLs might have anti-diabetic functions. This was shown to be the case in cell studies and animal studies, which have established that HDLs and apolipoprotein A1, the main HDL apolipoprotein, improve pancreatic β-cell function and increase insulin sensitivity. On the other hand, diabetes mellitus adversely affects the structure, anti-diabetic functions and cardioprotective functions of HDLs. These complex, closely linked relationships, which are undoubtedly worthy of further investigation, form the focus of this Review.

Aspirin attenuates tramadol-induced conditioned place preference: involvement of cytokines, antioxidant enzymes, and apoptosis.

Weak influence of light and time of day on transcriptional response to SAV3 infection in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) smolts.

Factor structure of allostatic load biomarkers: Associations with puberty and disadvantage.

Professional autonomy in pharmacists: Independence within interdependence.

Comparison of digital behavioral interventions to prevent alcohol misuse among adolescents ages 12 to 19: A randomized clinical trial protocol.