Social Concern Research Articles

Internet addiction-induced brain structure and function alterations: a systematic review and meta-analysis of voxel-based morphometry and resting-state functional connectivity studies.

Internet addiction (IA) is a growing social concern and has been intensively studied in recent years. Previous imaging studies have shown that IA may impair brain structure and function, but with no robust conclusions. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies in IA. Two separate meta-analyses were conducted for voxel-based morphometry (VBM) studies and resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) studies. All meta-analyses were performed using two analysis methods activation likelihood estimation (ALE) and seed-based d mapping with permutation of subject images (SDM-PSI). The ALE analysis of VBM studies revealed less gray matter volume (GMV) in the supplementary motor area (SMA) (1176 mm3), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) (one cluster size is 744 mm3 and the other is 688 mm3), and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) (624 mm3) in subjects with IA. The SDM-PSI analysis showed less GMV in the ACC (56 voxels). The ALE analysis of rsFC studies showed stronger rsFC from posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) (880 mm3) or insula (712 mm3) to the whole brain in subjects with IA; however, the SDM-PSI analysis revealed no obvious rsFC alteration. These changes may underlie the core symptoms of IA, which include emotional regulation disorder, distraction, and impaired executive control. Our results reflect the common features of neuroimaging studies related to IA in recent years and may potentially help inform the development of more effective diagnostic and treatment approaches.

Add-On Treatment with Passiflora incarnata L., herba, during Benzodiazepine Tapering in Patients with Depression and Anxiety: A Real-World Study.

Chronic and inappropriate benzodiazepine intake represents an important health and social concern worldwide. The aim of our study was to investigate the effectiveness of P. incarnata L., herba, in reducing benzodiazepine misuse in a real-world population of depressed and anxious patients in a long-term treatment with benzodiazepines. We conducted a retrospective naturalistic study on 186 patients undergoing benzodiazepine downtitration, 93 with the addition of a dry extract of P. incarnata L., herba (Group A), and 93 without any add-on treatment (Group B). Regarding the benzodiazepine dosage variation in the two groups, a repeated measure ANOVA showed a significant effect of time (p < 0.001), group (p = 0.018), and time x group interaction (p = 0.011). We found a significantly higher rate, i.e., of 50%, reduction in Group A vs. Group B at 1 month (p < 0.001) and at 3 months (p < 0.001) and complete benzodiazepine discontinuation at 1 month (p = 0.002) and at 3 months (p = 0.016). Our findings suggest the role of P. incarnata as an effective add-on treatment during benzodiazepine tapering. These findings highlight the need for further studies to better investigate the promising properties of P. incarnata in the management of such a relevant clinical and social issue.

Predicting the use of visually oriented social media: The role of psychological well-being, body image concerns and sought appearance gratifications

The present study examined the antecedents of visually oriented social media use based on the Transactional Model of Social Media and Body Image Concerns. Specifically, we studied how self-esteem, depressive symptoms, body dissatisfaction, and appearance consciousness within the social media context are, via two social media gratifications (i.e., appearance related self-validation and social comparison), related to the use of visually oriented social media platforms (i.e., Instagram and Snapchat). Based on data from a two-wave panel survey among 1852 social media users aged 13–25, we found that appearance consciousness and high self-esteem were significant predictors of the gratifications self-validation and social comparison. Increased body dissatisfaction also predicted social comparison. Appearance consciousness and self-esteem indirectly predicted the selection of visually oriented social media platforms via self-validation. These findings enhance our theoretical understanding of visually oriented social media use and its underlying mechanisms.

Lorca's El sueño de la vida: Metatheatrical Subversion, Social Concern, and the Audience's Experience

Lorca's El sueño de la vida:Metatheatrical Subversion, Social Concern, and the Audience's Experience Andrew A. Anderson The single extant Act I of El sueño de la vida (1935–1936) combines socio-political concerns, expressed more explicitly here than Lorca had ever done before, with experiments in metatheatre that are in some senses more extreme than those found in any of his previous plays. Metatheatrical features include a broken fourth wall, "plants" in the audience, actors who lapse in and out of character or change character, powerful sound effects emanating from outside the auditorium, and reported events occurring off stage that finally engulf the theatre at the end of the act. At the same time, the work's themes involve social inequality and injustice, radical politics (left and right), religion, and the pressing need for major economic and cultural change. These two distinct threads intertwine in the idea of revolution and in the relation of the theatre with, and impact on, real life that is envisaged and advocated by the text. While previous criticism has rightly stressed the play's many unusual features, it has not fully recognized the many odd occurrences, uncertainties, and internal inconsistencies that permeate the script and hence serve to subvert any univocal interpretations.1 In turn, this underlying and pervasive ambiguity creates an unsettling effect that is ultimately disruptive of the status quo. The action takes place inside a theatre, extending to both the stage and the auditorium, meaning that, in any given production, the performance space as well as the area where the audience is seated function simultaneously as the overall setting where the scenes of the play unfold. This fact alone blurs, indeed almost obliterates, the distinction between the real and the fictional, creating an effect highly reminiscent of Tamayo y Baus's Un drama nuevo. There, similarly, in the second part of Act III, [End Page 129] the nineteenth-century Madrid theatre serves imaginatively as the space where the Elizabethan-era tragedy is performed, and the Spanish audience passively plays the part of the groundlings watching it, creating a confusion that is only partly clarified by the character of Shakespeare in his closing speech. In the case of El sueño de la vida, the basic circumstances surrounding the action are even less clear. There are two plausible possibilities, though neither serves to integrate and explain all the details that we eventually encounter. The first scenario that can be imagined is that the audience has gone to see a performance of a more or less conventional play, one whose title is never revealed.2 However, the Autor hijacks that day's performance and, improvising, turns it into something completely different. Consequently, the audience's expectations are unfulfilled, as is conveyed in some of the comments made early on by the married couple Espectador 1.º and Espectadora 1.ª (Lorca 139–43). The second is that this would be the opening night of a new play about which very little is known in advance. Again, the audience members attend the premiere with their usual expectations of being entertained but are confounded when they encounter an entirely disconcerting presentation that breaks almost all the prevailing theatrical norms, and which has been carefully planned out in advance by the Autor. No curtain rises at the beginning of the play. Rather the Autor comes out on stage with a "Telón gris" (137) behind him. One might reasonably assume that this was the front or house curtain —"No voy a levantar el telón"— (137), but subsequent stage directions cast doubt on this. At different points three painted curtains are lowered; all of them appear to be backdrops, and the third is specifically identified as such (139; 149; "telón de fondo," 153; cf. also the reference to "telones pintados," 149). Either the draft manuscript is lacking the indication for the grey curtain to be raised (though it is unclear what would be the appropriate moment for this to happen), or else it needs to be imagined as situated considerably further back in the stage space, to allow for these three curtains to cover it and each other in turn. The Autor...

Is social appearance anxiety a reason for rejecting a hearing aid in geriatric patients?

Hearing impairment is a global health problem due to its impact on quality of life and communication problems between individuals. Hearing aids are the recommended intervention, but use of hearing aids is low. In this study, the effect of social appearance anxiety on the decision to use a hearing aid was investigated. The study comprised 107 individuals aged 65-81 years who were offered hearing aids due to bilateral severe or moderate sensorineural hearing loss. The patients were divided into three groups, according to their hearing aid preferences and usage decisions. Social appearance anxiety scale was applied to all patients. The mean age of the 107 patients included in the study was 70.19±5.35 years. The social appearance anxiety scores of those who did not want to use a hearing aid were much higher than those of whom desired to use a behind-the-ear or in-canal hearing aid. The social appearance anxiety scores of the patients who wanted to use in-canal hearing aids were also higher than the group who wanted to use behind-the-ear hearing aids. In this study, which focused on the hearing aid candidate group who had never obtained a device, rather than why they stopped using a hearing aid, it was assumed that social appearance concern was relevant in the phase of receiving a hearing aid.

A study on the positive influence of positive psychology on college students’ ability to resist pressure in the epidemic environment

BackgroundThe psychological problems of college students are the focus of social concern and hot discussions. Influenced by the epidemic, college students’ study, life and employment have been affected to a certain extent. Schools should strengthen mental health education to improve college students’ ability to resist pressure and help students improve their ability to adapt to society. Positive psychology can help students improve their mental health by guiding their mental activities and tapping their own strengths. In the process of using positive psychological knowledge to intervene with college students, self-help incentive training and personality cultivation can help students understand their own mental health problems. Therefore, in the psychological health education of colleges and universities, we can consider taking these two methods to carry out psychological intervention on college students, so as to improve the students’ ability to withstand pressure.Subjects and MethodsIn the experiment, 360 college students who meet the requirements were randomly selected in colleges and universities through a questionnaire survey as the research objects of mental health problems. There are 187 boys and 173 girls, with an average age of (20 ± 2) years. The 360 college students were randomly divided into the intervention group and the control group, 180 in each. The intervention group used positive psychological thinking for psychological intervention, while the control group did not take any psychological intervention measures. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was selected as the test scale of college students’ compressive capacity, and SPSS23.0 was used to analyze the score results.ResultsThe score of the PSS scale is shown in Table 1. It can be seen from the table that after the intervention group received the psychological intervention, their problem-solving and rationalization abilities were significantly improved (P &lt; 0.05), and their withdrawal emotions were significantly reduced (P &lt; 0.05).Table 1.PSS scoreTest contentBeforeAftertPSolve the problem0.78±0.210.82±0.252.0910.027Self-reproach0.80±0.310.78±0.150.3680.792Seek help0.62±0.180.67±0.221.6820.063Fantasy0.82±0.210.80±0.170.780.579Retreat0.85±0.260.75±0.272.3190.013Rationalization0.76±0.190.88±0.323.4970.005ConclusionsThe results show that after the intervention of positive psychology, the psychological pressure resistance of college students has been significantly improved, which helps to improve the level of mental health of college students, so as to better solve many psychological problems caused by the epidemic.

The Influence of Social Networking on Adolescents' Social Willingness

The development of adolescents has become a hot topic of social concern. With the continuous development and expansion of the Internet, the popularity of social networking has greatly increased. Teenagers have become the main users of online social media applications, but some negativity on the Internet is more likely to have a bad influence on immature teenagers. This research mainly discusses the relationship and mechanism of adolescents' use of social networks, network social efficacy, and network interpersonal relationships. This paper utilized methodology of face-to-face interview, and analyzed under the theoretical frame of Flow Theory. The research draw a conclusion that there were 5 negative effects of the Internet on young people: addicted to online games, addicted to online dating, internet porn addiction, addicted to online information collection, and computer addiction.

Social concern in Jagdish Chandra Mathur's play 'Konark'

Jagdish Chandra Mathur's play 'Konark' is considered a powerful play in the history of Hindi plays. In this the highest peaks of narrative and craftsmanship have been touched. In this drama, on the one hand, artistic life-values have been inaugurated, that is, the principle of 'art for art' is published; On the other hand, at the same time, there is also a grand upsurge of social consciousness suppressing the artistic values. Post-prasad Hindi plays can be divided into these four categories on the basis of thematic expression – historical-mythological themes, mythological themes, themes related to contemporary social concerns and folk-cultural themes. The play 'Konark' may appear to be historical from a gross point of view, but the rainbow colors of 'imagination' have been more scattered in it than 'history'. In the presented research paper, while analyzing the content of the play 'Konark', we will discuss the indicative points of social concerns on the ground of the narrative.&#x0D; Abstract in Hindi Language:&#x0D; हिंदी नाटकों के इतिहास में जगदीशचन्द्र माथुर का ‘कोणार्क’ नाटक एक सशक्त नाटक माना जाता है। इसमें कथ्य और शिल्प-विधान के उच्चतम शिखरों को स्पर्श किया गया है। इस नाटक में एक ओर कलावादी जीवन-मूल्यों का उद्घाटन हुआ है अर्थात् ‘कला कला के लिए’ वाले सिद्धान्त का प्रकाशन मिलता है; दूसरी ओर, उसके साथ ही कलावादी मूल्यों को दमित करते हुए सामाजिक चेतना का भव्य स्फुरण भी देखने को मिलता है। प्रसादोत्तर हिंदी नाटकों को विषयगत अभिव्यक्ति के आधार पर इन चार श्रेणियों में विभाजित किया जा सकता है-ऐतिहासिक-पौराणिक विषय, मिथकीय विषय, समकालीन सामाजिक सरोकारों से सम्बद्ध विषय और लोक-संस्कृतिपरक विषय। ‘कोणार्क’ नाटक स्थूल दृष्टि से देखने पर भले ही ऐतिहासिक प्रतीत होता है, परन्तु उसमें ‘इतिहास’ से अधिक ‘कल्पना’ के इन्द्रधनुषी रंग ही अधिक विच्छुरित हुए हैं। प्रस्तुत शोधालेख में हम ‘कोणार्क’ नाटक की अन्तर्वस्तु का विश्लेषण करते हुए कथ्य के धरातल पर सामाजिक सरोकारों के सूचक बिंदुओं का विवेचन करेंगे।&#x0D; Keywords: मिथक, सरोकार, कलावादी सिद्धान्त, सांस्कृतिक संकट।

Social media links with social capital to trust in healthcare facilities: empirical evidence from Bangladesh

PurposeThe paper aims to investigate the most influential social media information sources to trust in healthcare facilities. The article shows a valuable point of reference for understanding how social media becomes the casting of social capital.Design/methodology/approachThis paper has taken 660 responses from the people who used social media for healthcare information in the mid of 2020 during the pandemic. The people were approached through different social media groups. The paper conducted structural equation modelling (SEM). The result has shown that with the instigating power of social capital where people put trust in social media information during pandemics.FindingsThe findings demonstrated that personal sources, government organisations and healthcare professionals are the most influential sources of social media. In order to effectively ensure the encompassing provision of COVID-19 health services, this article argues that social capital considerations establish trust between healthcare facilities seeking community to healthcare information providers.Research limitations/implicationsThis research has signified that social cohesion and concern for community welfare instigated people to engage in social media communication. The inherent social capital belongings influence people to trust the sources of health information from selected sources that appear on social media.Practical implicationsHealthcare policymakers may utilise this intense feeling of belongingness and cohesion of social capital and use social media platforms to spread health-related information.Originality/valueThe study shows social capital has the strength to entice people into healthcare-seeking behaviour. In this era, social capital is reformulated to digital social capital through social media and strongly affects people's trust.

What Is Polluting Delhi’s Air? A Review from 1990 to 2022

Delhi’s annual average PM2.5 concentration in 2021–22 was 100 μg/m3—20 times more than the WHO guideline of 5 μg/m3. This is an improvement compared to the limited information available for the pre-CNG-conversion era (~30%), immediately before and after 2010 CWG (~28%), and the mid-2010s (~20%). These changes are a result of continuous technical and economic interventions interlaced with judicial engagement in various sectors. Still, Delhi is ranked the most polluted capital city in the world. Delhi’s air quality is a major social and political concern in India, often with questions regarding its severity and primary sources, and despite several studies on the topic, there is limited consensus on source contributions. This paper offers insight by reviewing the influence of Delhi’s urban growth since 1990 on pollution levels and sources and the evolution of technical, institutional, and legal measures to control emissions in the National Capital Region of Delhi.

Will to power: Revaluating (female) empowerment in ‘fitspiration’

ABSTRACT Female empowerment has long been a prominent social concern in Western culture. With the rise of social media, the quest for female empowerment has become embodied in self-presentational practices, occurring conspicuously throughout the Instagram fitness subculture: ‘fitspiration’. Here, female empowerment is merged with the body-centrality inherent to fitness, and the self-sexualization that has become characteristic of both photo-based social media in general, and fitspiration in particular. Meanwhile, an extensive body of research highlights numerous detrimental effects of self-sexualization on women. Evidently, something seems awry with the implied proposition ‘sexualization as empowerment’. Drawing on Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy of power and its relationship to human flourishing, this article aims to critically examine the conception of female empowerment expressed in fitspiration and to conceptualize a philosophically compelling reformulation of universal human empowerment. I argue that what is commonly conceived of as female empowerment in trends like fitspiration—delineated in its explicit relationship to sexualization—may be seriously flawed. Rejecting this understanding in favor of a Nietzschean universal alternative may prove beneficial to individuals both within and without the contemporary fitness culture.

The importance of the ecology of infectious diseases in the context of Chytridiomycosis and COVID-19

Pathogenic microorganisms and viruses are components of ecosystems. They have constructed endemic interrelationships with specific host species throughout the history of coevolution The spillover of pathogens from natural habitats into other areas causes encounters between the pathogens and new hosts that have never evolved immunity or resistance. The result is a rapid spread of “Emerging Infectious Disease” (EID). During the acceleration of globalization, humans and societies have come to be the targets of infectious diseases caused by pathogens that have emerged from natural habitats. In the past few years, the newest EID, SARS-CoV-2, has spread throughout the world and has caused serious harm to human health and welfare. With the growing social concern about the risks of the EID pandemic, there has been discussion that the destruction of biodiversity and environmental changes are closely related to the EID pandemic. There is a need to rethink the importance of conserving biodiversity if humans are to control the risk of pathogenic viruses and live in harmony with them.

Guardianship from being present: the moderation of mindfulness in the longitudinal relationship of loneliness to quality of life and mental health problems among the oldest old.

Since the pace of population aging is getting faster than in the past, the population aging has been a serious social concern. The Quality of life (QOL) of the older adults, especially the oldest old, and their mental health problems need more public attention, for the purpose of enhancing their late well-being. Therefore, the current study aims to investigate the longitudinal relationship between loneliness to quality of life and mental health problems, considering the moderation effect of mindfulness among the oldest old. A total of 457 Chinese oldest-old completed questionnaires measuring mindfulness, loneliness, QOL, and mental health problems at baseline, and completed QOL and mental health problems again at six-month follow-up. Results showed that the longitudinal positive association between loneliness and mental health problems was significant (r = .401, p < .01). Nevertheless, loneliness was positively correlated with QOL (r = .242, p < .01). Additionally, mindfulness significantly moderated the association between loneliness and mental health problems. Specifically, higher mindfulness was associated with a weaker longitudinal relationship between loneliness and mental health problems. However, mindfulness did not moderate the relationship between loneliness and QOL. These findings indicated that loneliness can be a risk factor of mental health problems, and mindfulness can buffer the adverse effect of loneliness on mental health problems among the oldest old. Limitations and implications were discussed.

Mitochondrial Alterations in Prostate Cancer: Roles in Pathobiology and Racial Disparities.

Prostate cancer (PCa) affects millions of men worldwide and is a major cause of cancer-related mortality. Race-associated PCa health disparities are also common and are of both social and clinical concern. Most PCa is diagnosed early due to PSA-based screening, but it fails to discern between indolent and aggressive PCa. Androgen or androgen receptor-targeted therapies are standard care of treatment for locally advanced and metastatic disease, but therapy resistance is common. Mitochondria, the powerhouse of cells, are unique subcellular organelles that have their own genome. A large majority of mitochondrial proteins are, however, nuclear-encoded and imported after cytoplasmic translation. Mitochondrial alterations are common in cancer, including PCa, leading to their altered functions. Aberrant mitochondrial function affects nuclear gene expression in retrograde signaling and promotes tumor-supportive stromal remodeling. In this article, we discuss mitochondrial alterations that have been reported in PCa and review the literature related to their roles in PCa pathobiology, therapy resistance, and racial disparities. We also discuss the translational potential of mitochondrial alterations as prognostic biomarkers and as effective targets for PCa therapy.

Innovative human resource management measures to improve the competitive ability of state-owned enterprises

With the rapid development of China's economy, the reform and innovation of state-owned enterprises have become a hot issue of social concern. As an important part of the core competitiveness of enterprises, the innovation and development of human resources management is not only an important guarantee for state-owned enterprises to maintain vitality and creativity and enhance market competitiveness, but also an important guarantee for state-owned enterprises to be invincible in market competition and achieve sustainable development. Therefore, state-owned enterprises should take human resource management as the core of strategic innovation and development strategy change, giving full play to its advantages while further improving operational efficiency. In this paper, human resource management is the core of research and analysis, and the current situation and problems of human resource management in state-owned enterprises are analysed, studied and discussed, and then strategies and methods to improve the competitiveness and innovative development of state-owned enterprises are proposed.

Comparison of Herding Effect Between Developed Countries and Developing Countries

How to properly invest in the stock market is a hot issue of social concern, and some studies have shown that the herding effect will have a certain impact on the market stability and market efficiency of the stock market, and the herding effect between countries with different levels of development can be studied in more depth. The research topic of this paper is the study of herding effects in countries with different levels of development. The research methodology of this paper is as follows: developed and developing countries are divided into two categories, and four countries, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, and Indonesia, are selected to explore the causes and effects of the herding effect in developed and developing countries, respectively. The study found that the herding effect was more pronounced in developing countries compared to developed countries. The herding effect is more pronounced in developing countries because of the relatively imperfect construction of financial markets, the lack of financial literacy of the people, and so on, so these internal factors lead to the herding effect. In contrast, developed countries need to pay more attention to the herding effect caused by external influences such as epidemics and financial crises.

Text mining attitudes towards climate change: Emotion and sentiment analysis of the Twitter corpus

Abstract Media such as Twitter has become a platform for contemporary Americans to express their opinions and allow for reaction to public opinion. Climate change is a topic of ongoing social concern. Machine-automated processing facilitates big data analysis and is suitable for analyzing a large corpus of tweets. This paper uses R tools to conduct sentiment calculation and emotion analysis on the tweet corpus from 2015 to 2018 to present the overall tendency of citizens’ attitudes toward climate change topics. The keyword analysis finds that people focus on the message’s source; CLIMATE CHANGE and GLOBAL WARMING make an association. Supporters express FEAR and SURPRISE about extreme weather and opponents’ behavior, while opponents show ANGER, DISGUST and SADNESS about politicians manufacturing climate change stories about which they have no real feelings. This study also reveals that the automatic annotation tools are still inadequate, with limited emotion lexicon and identification of negation and sarcasm.

Out-of-school hours care places in Xi’an City of China: location choice, spatial relationships, and influencing factors

sAffected by the burden reduction policy, out-of-school hours care places have become a hot issue of social concern. Taking Xi’an out-of-school hours care places as a research case, this paper discusses its location choice, spatial relationships and influencing factors using methods such as text analysis, spatial analysis, and mathematical statistics. The results show that: (1) the distribution of out-of-school hours care places in Xi’an is closely related to the community and schools. The names mostly use words such as “sunshine,” “teacher,” and “love,” which are mainly distributed on the lower floors (one to three floors), of which the first floor accounts for the largest proportion. (2) The high-value areas of out-of-school hours care places are mainly concentrated in the Lianhu District, Yanta District, Xincheng District, and the north Chang’an District. Their distribution has obvious directionality, showing a “northeast-southwest” trend, and the global spatial autocorrelation is positively correlated. (3) The spatial pattern of out-of-school hours care places is basically consistent with that of primary and secondary schools, and most of them are located within 1000 m of it. (4) The influencing factors mainly include the distribution of primary and secondary schools, residential areas, population density, house rent, and policies.

Application of Different Wastes in Soil Improvement in Mining Area

The treatment and utilization of fly ash, coal gangue and straw has become one of the focus issues of social concern. Rational utilization of solid waste to improve agricultural soil is one of the important ways to improve its comprehensive utilization level. This paper summarizes the application of different solid wastes as soil conditioners in soil improvement, and discusses the main problems and countermeasures in soil improvement, in order to provide scientific basis for the utilization of solid wastes as resources.

Efficient Procedure for Induction Somatic Embryogenesis in Holm Oak: Roles of Explant Type, Auxin Type, and Exposure Duration to Auxin

Holm oak is the dominant tree species in the Mediterranean climate. Currently, worrisome degradation of its ecosystems has been observed, produced, among other factors, by changes in land use, extreme weather events, forest fires, climate change, and especially the increasingly frequent episodes of high tree mortality caused by “oak decline”, which has brought with it a social concern that transcends the productive interest. Breeding and conservation programs for this species are necessary to ensure the prevalence of these ecosystems for future generations. Biotechnological tools such as somatic embryogenesis (SE) have great potential value for tree improvement and have been shown to be highly efficient in the propagation and conservation of woody species. One challenge to this approach is that SE induction in holm oak has not yet been optimized. Here, we present a new reproducible procedure to induce SE in holm oak; we evaluated the responsiveness of different initial explants exposed to different types, concentrations, and durations of auxin. SE rates were significantly improved (37%) by culturing nodal segments for two weeks in induction medium. In addition, a significant auxin–genotype interaction was observed.