Real Life Research Articles

Contraceptive risk events among family planning specialists: a cross sectional study

BackgroundProponents of abortion restriction cite advancements in contraceptive technology as a reason against the need for abortion care today, most recently through oral arguments in the Supreme Court of the United States case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. However, consistent and correct use of contraception requires reproductive health literacy. Our objectives were to quantify contraceptive risk events and assess contraceptive history and preferences among a population well-equipped to evade contraceptive risks, family planning specialists following initiation of their medical training. “Risk events” are defined as reported episodes of contraceptive failure, emergency contraception use and/or unprotected or underprotected intercourse.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study among current members of a professional organization of family planning specialists. Inclusion criteria included: status as a current or retired clinician, consensual penile-vaginal intercourse and personal or partner capacity to become pregnant since the start of medical training. Descriptive statistics were performed. This study was IRB exempt.ResultsAmong 229 respondents, 157 (69%) reported experiencing a contraceptive risk event since training. Twenty-nine (13%) respondents reported an occurrence within the last year. By category, 47% (108/229; 3 reported unknown) reported under- or unprotected intercourse, 35% (81/229) reported emergency contraception use, and 52% of participants (117/227; 2 unknown) reported known or suspected contraceptive failure. The mean number of contraceptive methods used was 3.7 (SD 1.7) out of the 13 methods listed. Almost all (97%) participants reported at least one method was not an acceptable option, with a mean of 5.6 (SD 2.7) of the 13 listed methods.ConclusionsThe majority of family planning specialists have experienced contraceptive risk events during times of active pregnancy prevention since their medical training. Contraceptive method change is common and most respondents were limited in the number of methods that were personally acceptable to them. Dialogue idealizing the role of contraception in minimizing or eliminating abortion need is simplistic and inaccurately represents the lived realities of pregnancy-capable individuals and their partners, including among those with exceptional contraceptive literacy and access.

Global influencers’ content creation strategies: Negotiating with platform affordances to practice vernacular creativity

We examine how globally oriented-influencers from India utilize specific strategies of content creation to negotiate with the dominant logic of platform affordances to engage with global audiences. It involves individual negotiations by the influencers with the platform affordances in creating content that foregrounds their cultural realities and aspirations while remaining relevant to global audiences. We do so by deploying the critical technocultural discourse analysis (CTDA) framework to understand influencers’ strategic choices and discursive practices as they interact and negotiate with the platform affordances. Our analysis shows two processes that help the influencers communicate their content to the global audience and sustain their local connections and followership: (1) Templatization: a process through which influencers from the global South attune themselves to the technological possibilities of the platform and utilize its features to produce content with a set of replicable patterns, formats, and practices; and (2) Cultural brokering: a negotiation strategy which allows the influencers to foreground and express their quotidian lived realities and cultural experiences in an increasingly globalized digital environment.

Bed confinement in old people-Aliterature review

Particularly older people are affected by mobility restrictions and can go through the process of gradually becoming bedridden. This can potentially lead to extensive consequences for the individuals involved, which must be considered in their care. To bundle nursing implications related to the phenomenon of being bedridden in the field of long-term care and to provide impulses for research in nursing science. Research in relevant specialist databases (2003-2023) based on the criteria of ascoping review. In Germany there is astandard for maintaining and promoting mobility that addresses bed and local confinements but German language studies on these phenomena are rare. In the international context, these issues are researched more intensively, focussing on risk factors for the development of immobility and the negative consequences for those affected. The publications focus on the reduction of these factors, while less attention is paid to the organization of life in bed and the participation and involvement of those affected. The complexity of the phenomenon is not fully illustrated in current research. In order to develop anursing perspective research projects that also include aspects of life in bed are acentral aspect in order to take greater account of the reality of bedridden people's lives and their potential for participation and involvement.

СУБЪЕКТИВНОЕ БЛАГОПОЛУЧИЕ НА РАБОЧЕМ МЕСТЕ: ПОДХОДЫ К МОНИТОРИНГУ САМОЧУВСТВИЯ ПЕРСОНАЛА

A direct correlation between the level of staff well-being and the company’s profitability has been proven by both foreign and Russian studies. However, one of the unresolved problems today remains the fact that well-being at work is still not considered as a factor and resource for the productivity and efficiency of employees. The reality of modern life highlights the need for a rapid rethinking of the nature and patterns of connections between well-being at work and the state of labour productivity, socio-economic assessments of this relationship, and the development of management and digital solutions for monitoring and maintaining an adequate level of staff well-being. The article presents the results of a survey of representatives of the expert community conducted by the authors to identify the current aspects of well-being at work, as well as a brief description of the concept of a digital service developed by the authors for monitoring the well-being of employees through self-assessment.

A Reflection on Modern Perspectives in Difficult Daughters of Manju Kapur

Literature is the timeless and boundless realm of human expressions and it deals with life from time immemorial and is endless as long as life exists. Literature encompasses different aspects and realms of life and it explores the reality of life in multiple ways and each theme and character reflects society and people. It is a perfect vehicle for social commentary and exploration of social issues, challenging norms and advocating for change. Feminism is a prominent topic in literature, addressing various issues related to women in traditional society. They endured prejudice and masculine chauvinism for many years. Manju Kapur is a well-known novelist who has been greatly influenced by modern perspectives. ‘Difficult Daughters’ (1998) by Manju Kapur is an excellent literary lens that examines the significant transitions from tradition to modernity. The women characters of Manju Kapur make an urge to a higher stage. They struggle hard to have identity, self-sufficiency and education. Kapur's work skillfully captures the complexities of socio-cultural transition, sacrifices and difficulties that come with the transition from tradition to modernity. Virmati's life starts to symbolize the social changes that Indian society went through in the mid-1900s. The present paper delves into how Kapur appeals to Modern Perspectives in‘Difficult Daughters’.

Digitization as a new reality under conditions of social instability

The article deals with the phenomenon of digitization as a new reality of today's economic and everyday life, its active development and expansion. Emphasizing the concept of the development of the digital economy and society long before the COVID-19 pandemic and large-scale war (for the period of 2018-2020), and therefore the approval of the National Economic Strategy until 2030, marked the place of Ukraine in the global context and determined the incentives for the further development of digitalization in order to achieve a competitive level of our country in the world. Participation in various world ratings for determining the degree of technological development, network readiness (NRI), innovation level (GII), and global competitiveness (GCI), etc. clearly shows the level of development of information and communication technologies in the country, allows you to assess its potential in this area, and shows its strongest and weakest points. The results of these assessments, published annually in reports, show the ability of our country to be among the top fifty countries of the world and to compete decently on the international market, if not in technical terms, then in the potential of human resources despite any negative circumstances and a long war. The article also talks about the benefits and potential risks of digitization in all areas (the danger of cyber threats, unemployment, digital inequality, of the artificial intelligence development, etc.). Emphasis on positives and negatives is relevant and important for strategic forecasts and planning, both in defeating the enemy on the battlefield and in further rebuilding the state and its competitiveness at the international level.

The experience of a dweller: exploring the concept of modernist planning in Ataköy housing

ABSTRACT Designed by local urban planners and architects in the 1950s, led by Italian architect Luigi Piccinato, the Ataköy housing in İstanbul has become a modernist landmark. While Ataköy satellite city has received criticism for its urban form and impact on the texture of urban life, in today’s globalised world, the specificity of place is often lost, and Ataköy satellite city can evoke and strengthen a sense of place and belonging. This article addresses the concept and experience of home in Ataköy and as experienced through autoethnographic analysis. Given the lack of an ‘insider’ understanding of home in the existing literature, this article makes a unique contribution to the literature by providing an autoethnographic account of Ataköy. The analysis illustrates that architecture and urbanism are more than just design fields, strategies or narratives generated by planners; they are lived realities experienced and felt by those who inhabit spaces. By considering my own lived experiences and those of the dwellers and incorporating these into placemaking, I aim to develop an ‘insider’ approach to evaluating housing design that transcends and integrates the deficiencies commonly identified in modernist environments. This approach helps to develop a more comprehensive understanding of housing in urban environments.

Human experts and Generative AI interaction: From real-world and real-life language learning diary-research app to a diary-learning app

Generative AI (GenAI) could be beneficial for instructional designers, expediting the design of educational mobile apps. One needed app, currently absent, is a digital diary for second and foreign-language learners to record their outside-classroom activities. Given the research and learning merits of keeping such diaries, a diary-research app (Langy) was previously developed to measure learners’ real-life (RL) and real-world (RW) language learning. This study aims to provide design guidelines to transform this app into a learning app based on the interaction with ChatGPT during this design process and examine the human-machine interaction. The prompt submitted to ChatGPT4 described the diary-research app and asked for suggestions on how to transform it into a diary-learning app. ChatGPT produced 14 suggestions, upon which the researchers deliberated. The mutually created design suggestions emerging from this reciprocal interaction provide a blueprint for the new diary-learning app, adding a new purpose of promoting RL and RW learning (in addition to measuring) and relevant features such as goal settings, gaming rewards, and reflective prompts. Three processes were revealed during the complementary human-machine interaction: 1. ChatGPT’s offered generic suggestions, which the researchers adapted to more specific app requirements. 2. The researchers linked between the ChatGPT’s suggestions and added theoretical grounds. 3. The researchers, in some cases, altered or completely negated the ChatGPT’s suggestions. This study contributes to the research field of language-learning diaries. Moreover, it contributes to our understanding of how GenAI can be used as an instructional designer to assist in the design of educational mobile apps.

THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL JUSTIFICATION OF THE SAPROPHYTIC THEORY OF CANCER

The aim of the work was to justify the theoretical and practical aspects of the saprophytic theory of cancer. In the medical section of the book “The Realities of Life”, published in 2009, I described this theory for the first time with some elements of theoretical and practical justification among all the theories of cancer origin. The saprophytic theory of cancer, the theory of the occurrence of cancerous tumors can be of great importance. In this theory the main importance in the initiation of carcinogenesis in the human body have saprophytic bacteria that live with us constantly. The saprophytic theory, as an etiological cause of cancer, may be important in the development of cancerous tumors. There is a significant amount of scientific research and clearly established facts that confirm the infectious origin, whether bacterial or viral, of a cancerous tumor. Cancer can be caused by a type of saprophyte that is practically unaffected by antibiotics. A microorganism that can cause cancerous disease, has the property of reducing the human antifungal immunity, has both the properties of a virus and a bacterium. It is possible that this virus, which settled in bacterium, combined its pathogenic properties for humans. Bacterium at the same time with virus, merging into one organism, into one unit, can contribute to the development of cancer. There is an opinion that the high temperature of the human body sometimes kills cancer cells. Microorganisms are the first step of the oncogenic process, they start it, cause it to appear, and in the future they may not participate in its development. It is likely that only at the first stage of cancer occurrence, we need to kill the microorganisms that are the cause of the cancer. Or we need to find a potential human enemy and create a universal vaccine against it, which will protect the human organism from cancer. Vaccine is not against cancer, but against a microorganism that causes cancer, releasing carcinogenic substances that start the cancer process in organs and tissues.

In Spiderman we trust: The influence of familiar media characters on the decision-making of primary school children

Children are increasingly active consumers in the media world and are thus confronted with a wide range of information. Making good decisions in such an environment is a major challenge. Weighting valid information in decision-making is an important skill that children must learn and apply. Yet, how do children weight information and which weights do they use? We developed a measuring instrument for children's weighting of advices by cue validity – the so-called Space Treasure Hunt. It is an easy to understand, child-friendly decision game. By anchoring it in the reality of children's media lives, we are able to assess the influence of familiarity and affect on children's decision making. During a treasure hunt in game situated in outer space, children are confronted with various characters who provide contradictory advice regarding where to find treasures. One of the advice-givers was an expert (valid cue), whereas the other advice-giver varied in terms of its media familiarity and affect. In our study (N = 372), we found that media familiar characters had a strong influence on children's decision-making. Media idols showed an assimilation effect, meaning that children followed the expert's advice the least often when it contradicted their media idol. Conversely, media familiar but less liked characters showed a contrast effect, meaning that children followed the expert's advice most often when it contradicted the media familiar, less liked character. Moreover, we found differences between children in terms of a three-way split: One third of the children, respectively, systematically followed the expert's advice, the media idol, or made their decisions unsystematically. We discuss how our results indicate the use of different weights in children's decision making.

From the United States to the United Kingdom: Hope, Blended Family Social Support, and Computer-Mediated Communication Amidst Chronic Illness

ABSTRACT This Defining Moments essay contributes to health communication scholarship regarding the role of religion/spirituality as a coping strategy during severe illness and the realities of providing social support in blended families. It also invites readers to reconsider the capacities and constraints of utilizing technology-mediated communication to provide support within close familial relationships. Finally, this narrative acknowledges the messiness of providing support in the evolving realities of family life and the complexity of “being there” for people we love when we cannot physically be present.

Indigenous land-based practices for climate crisis adaptions

Indigenous communities across Canada persist at the forefront of environmental and climate-related challenges, necessitating a concerted effort to integrate traditional Indigenous land-based knowledge and practices that inherently promote environmental protection and resilience. Using a decolonial feminist theoretical framework, this research centers on Indigenous community perspectives on the climate crisis and their land-based adaptions. Such an approach empowers Indigenous communities to reclaim agency over their narratives and shape research agendas congruent with their lived realities and aspirations. The study concludes by promoting the imperative of revitalizing traditional Indigenous land-based knowledge, practices and relationships with their ancestral lands. Despite emerging recognition within the scientific literature and international agreements, such as the Paris Agreement, of the significance of traditional Indigenous land-based knowledge, many climate mitigation and adaptation initiatives continue to overlook Indigenous participation at various decision-making junctures. Hence, this paper advocates the necessity for international frameworks to acknowledge and integrate traditional knowledge systems and Indigenous participation across national borders, fostering inclusive climate crisis solutions that resonate with Indigenous communities' perspectives and experiences.

Glitchy transnationalism: When queer migrants meet the state online

Abstract Drawing on ethnographic research I conducted between May 2022 and January 2024 with queer migrants in Athens, Greece, I offer the conceptualization of “glitchy transnationalism” as a corrective to the transnational promise of queer digital media—the notion that these platforms can seamlessly facilitate connections across national boundaries among queer individuals (e.g., Grindr). I explore how this promise falters for two queer migrant individuals, Ziri and Tilila—both of whom I interpret as encountering two glitches. I argue that understanding these perceived transnational “failures” as glitches showcases the interplay of factors such as legal status, migrancy, race, sexuality, and gender identity in shaping the lived realities of queer migrants within transnational digital spaces. Ultimately, this research underscores the relationship between state dynamics and digital media in the lives of queer migrants, urging scholars to adopt a lens that recognizes glitches as diagnostic of power dynamics within queer digital realms.

Decoding the gendered imaginary of cybersecurity careers: a social shaping of technology perspective

ABSTRACT Women account for less than one quarter of the global cybersecurity workforce. Encouraging more women into cybersecurity careers has been identified as one way to address persistent skills shortages in this crucial field. Using expert elicitation, this paper draws on in-depth interviews with 31 senior cybersecurity professionals in Australia to analyse the popular imaginaries that characterise cybersecurity careers. Applying social shaping of technology to examine the causes and effects of women’s low participation in cybersecurity careers, this paper finds that cybersecurity careers are characterised by gendered imaginaries that frame cybersecurity as the exclusive domain of ‘hackers-in-hoodies’, secretive male operators possessed of highly specialised technical knowledge. These imaginaries not only distort the lived reality of cybersecurity work, limiting the popular appeal of cybersecurity careers, they also shape how cybersecurity itself is defined, with gendered effects. This paper calls for a more expansive and inclusive definition of cybersecurity to broaden the appeal of this increasingly interdisciplinary field and ensure gendered consideration of cyber risk.

Notions of the visible and the invisible: visualising the otherness of women with invisible (gynaecological) illness

The invisible gynaecological condition, Endometriosis, is mostly viewed from a distorted frame of reference and with a negative connotation, influenced by societal factors such as expectations of the female body, misperceptions of illness and the way in which women are visually represented. Although a life-altering condition, acknowledging its many complexities is what is sought in honest representation of such lived experiences, exposing the visible and invisible, emic and etic perspectives. This written exchange between visual arts and design researcher, Bruce Cadle and designer-illustrator Micaela Scholtz, lays bare the facts and critically analyses the motivation for and influences incipient in visual research that expresses the lived experience of Endometriosis. The intention is to dispel the myths surrounding expectations of the female body and the lived realities of enduring invisible illness. This paper addresses aspects of the politics of health and the social understanding thereof, whilst emphasising the visualisation of illness through visual narrative methods and the autoethnographic voice. Essential to this research is that the visualisations of Endometriosis juxtapose the perceived/lived reality dichotomy intent on provoking understanding, empathic connection and opportunity for broader conversations onward.

Mapping and countermapping dispossession in Palestine

AbstractIn their claim to distance from reality, maps seek power from representation. Maps are constituted by a particular set of practices that are enmeshed within wider social relations. Maps, then, are a powerful vantage point for understanding the geometries of power. Under settler colonialism, geography is constantly reshaped and reconfigured by expansionist and eliminatory logics. Such is the case in Palestine, where Israeli settler colonialism has fragmented the map of historic Palestine into messily separated archipelagos. As Palestinian geographies are constantly being reconfigured under Israeli settler colonialism, can maps catch up? How do we locate Palestine on the map? I take up these questions by focusing on the 1948 and 1967 Palestinian territories as two spatio‐temporally differentiated locations of settler colonial spatial reconfiguration. Using a counter‐map designed by Palestinian artist Haya Zaatry, I highlight the importance of counter‐mapping in bringing into sharp relief the conjunctural layering of dispossession in Palestine. If dominant colonial maps are about the neat packaging of lived realities into dominant spatio‐temporal demarcations, counter‐maps are about highlighting the ghostly stories and embodied spatial practices and processes of living within and beyond such demarcations.

Latinx Youth as Linguistic Experts: Documenting Translanguaging Moments in Youth Participatory Action Research

ABSTRACT Drawing on Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) and translanguaging frameworks, the purpose of this study is to demonstrate how Latinx youth leverage their community knowledge and language practices in community-based research. Through a multimodal and ethnographic examination of the students engagement in youth-driven research this article highlights how language is central to the expertise they cultivate of their everyday socio-political worlds. Findings showcase how the youth in this study drew on their linguistic expertise alongside their community knowledge and sociopolitical awareness to make sense of the various components of the research process. Further, they document translingual practices that are reflective of the lived realities and of the multilingualism located within their community. Engaging in translingual practices throughout the YPAR project reflected authentic, joyful, and critical practices of meaning making throughout their inquiry. Implications for this study include co-designing linguistically transformative spaces for youth and the importance of recognizing the community knowledge and experience that shapes their linguistic practices.

Supported decision-making with persons with dementia: a scoping review protocol in partnership with lived experts

IntroductionThe United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities asserts that all persons with disabilities have the right to receive the support they require to participate in decisions...

The Pope of the Rain: The Extraordinary Solitude in the Media

The COVID-19 pandemic produced substantial and sudden changes in the reality of everyday life and in the collective construction of meaning. Questions arose: how should events occurring within an empty reality be broadcast? And, even before that, what structure is needed to make these events transmissible and interpretable, coping with the fact that they happen within a framework of lack of relationships and absolute silence? By analysing the worldwide live recording broadcast on 27 March 2020, commonly known as “the pope alone in Saint Peter’s Square during the pandemic”, this paper identifies a series of communicative solutions adopted by television. These range from making visible what should be hidden, to variously filling the emptiness by modifying the spatial colocation of the event, to an even more extreme solution, in which the emptiness remains as it is, and a rare semantic case occurs in which the sign coincides with its meaning. The latter is what I label the “pope of the rain” solution.

Innovatsioonid idaudmurtide preesterkonnas

This paper, based on the author’s field materials, focuses on the current state of the priesthood of the Trans-Kama (Eastern) Udmurts. It is shown that since the 1990s, with the revival of religious traditions, significant changes have taken place in the organization of the priests’ activities, dictated by the modern realities of life. The main criterion for their choice was the presence of positive moral qualities, in some cases their belonging to the “priestly family”.