Societal Concern Research Articles

A water-soluble small molecular fluorescent sensor based on phosphazene platform for selective detection of nitroaromatic compounds.

Nitro-aromatic compounds have a deleterious effect on the environment and they are extremely explosive. Therefore, societal concern about exposure to nitro-aromatic compounds encourages researchers to develop selective and sensitive detection platforms for nitro-aromatic compounds in recent years. In this paper, a new 100% water-soluble cyclotriphosphazene-based bridged naphthalene material (4) was prepared as a small molecule fluorescent sensor for ultra-selective detection of nitro-aromatic compounds. The chemical structure of 4 was extensively characterized by mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies (31P, 13C, 1H). The photo-physical properties of the newly developed sensing system were investigated by steady-state fluorescence and UV-Vis absorption spectroscopies. The fluorescence sensor behaviors were extensively evaluated after treatment with the most commonly used metal cations, anions, competitive aromatic compounds, saccharides, and organic acids. The developed fluorescent sensing system (4) demonstrated ultra-selective fluorescence "turn-off" signal change toward nitro-aromatic compounds while other tested competitive species caused negligible changes. To evaluate selectivity, time-resolved, steady-state 3D-fluorescence and UV-Vis absorption spectroscopies were used in fully aqueous media. Moreover, theoretical calculations (density functional theory and time-dependent density functional theory) were applied and discussed to identify fluorescence sensing mechanisms toward nitroaromatic compounds for the presented sensing system.

How to Protect Children? A Pragmatic Approach: On State Intervention and Children’s Welfare

If a child’s well-being is at risk of considerable harm within their own family, state institutions usually intervene. In severe cases, the parents’ right to rear is suspended. Cases of risk assessment and potential state intervention are decided within a conflict between parents’ rights and claims of children for protection. There is, we argue, a standard model of normative assessment underlying these decisions: It rests on premises rooted in classic liberal political philosophy, which is prevalent in many Western societies, such as a strong commitment to individualism, a separation of private and public, or a conceptualization of children as lacking the status of full right holders. We proceed in three steps. Based on cases in social work and child welfare offices, firstly, the article proposes an inductive approach to describe the problem. Second, we point out the most critical problems and shortcomings of the standard model. On this basis, third, we develop an alternative, pragmatistic perspective on child welfare and state intervention. It argues that child welfare must be understood more broadly as a societal concern than merely as a matter of the legitimacy of state intervention. A practice-oriented section follows to show what conclusions can be drawn from our alternative model.

The impact of impression construction consumption on social identity: a study on Chinese female professionals

PurposeExpenditures on beauty, fitness and body shaping by females have increased significantly in recent years. Most previous studies examined this from the psychological perspective of self-acceptance and self-liking. However, this phenomenon may also have social implications. This study aims to provide a profound understanding of the social environment for female professionals as well as actionable insights for the government and social institutions.Design/methodology/approachA research model was developed based on impression management and social identity theories incorporating impression management motives, impression construction consumption and social identity. A survey study of 419 Chinese female professionals was conducted to test the research model.FindingsThis study surveyed 419 Chinese female professionals and found that impression management motives significantly drove female professionals to spend on their faces and bodies for impression construction, which in turn contributed to the enhancement of their social identities in three dimensions: relational identity, public identity and collective identity.Originality/valueIn a male-dominated society, it has become a norm that females should be cautious about their facial appearance and body shape. Females are often forced to consume to attain physical attractiveness and to construct a favorable social image. This study shows that consumption for impression construction has become a frequently used strategy for impression management and identifies key areas of societal concern.

Cannabis vaping among high school seniors in adult-use, medical, and prohibited legal contexts

BackgroundVaping cannabis among adolescents has been increasing. Monitoring the Future (MTF) indicated in 2019 that past-month cannabis vaping among 12th graders underwent the second-highest single-year jump ever tracked by MTF for any substance in its 45-year history. These increases in adolescents who vape cannabis do not parallel declining general adolescent cannabis use trends. Nevertheless, research on cannabis consumption via vaping, especially among adolescents, has been substantially limited. MethodWe examined associations between legal contexts (prohibited, medical, and adult use) and vaping cannabis in the past year among high school seniors. In addition, associations between vaping cannabis and factors such as availability and acceptability were examined using secondary data from MTF (2020), with a sub-sample size of 556 participants (overall sample size: n = 3,770), using multivariate logistic regression models. ResultsWe found that high school seniors in medical states had higher odds of past-year vaping cannabis, but 12th graders in adult-use states were not significantly more likely to vape cannabis than those in prohibited states. Increased availability of vaping products and decreased risk perceptions in medical states may explain this relationship. Adolescents who perceived high risks associated with regular cannabis use had decreased odds of vaping cannabis. High school seniors reporting very easy access to cannabis cartridges had increased odds of vaping cannabis, regardless of legal context. ConclusionThese results contribute knowledge about contextual factors related to adolescent cannabis vaping, a relatively new technique of cannabis consumption for which there is growing societal concern.

Federated Learning Based Privacy Ensured Sensor Communication in IoT Networks: A Taxonomy, Threats and Attacks

Our daily lives are significantly impacted by intelligent Internet of Things (IoT) application, services, IoT gadgets, and more intelligent industries. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is anticipated to have a substantial impact on training machine learning algorithms on IoT devices without sharing data. As data privacy has become a serious societal concern, Federated Learning (FL) has emerged as a hot research area for enabling the collaborative training of machine learning models across many smart IoT devices while adhering to privacy constraints. Although, FL is utilized for preserving privacy in IoT networks, but it is also facing some challenges such as privacy, effectiveness, and efficiency. In this article, a taxonomy of FL-based IoT systems is proposed and an analysis of related works on FL-based IoT systems is presented. Further, a comprehensive study of various types of threats, attacks, and frameworks is done. In addition to this, a taxonomy on privacy-preserving FL techniques for IoT networks is also devised. Finally, the study is concluded by highlighting the various open research challenges in FL-based IoT networks.

Statistical-machine-learning-based intelligent relaxation for set-covering location models to identify locations of charging stations for electric vehicles

Europe strengthens its policies on climate change, green transition, and sustainable energy by addressing the high greenhouse-gas emissions in the transportation sector. Europe aims to reduce such emissions and reach a state of carbon neutrality by 2030 and 2050, respectively. This is feasible only if electric vehicles dominate the transportation sector. Paving the way for electric vehicle deployment on roads is subject to the provision of electric-vehicle-charging stations on the roads such that sufficiently good driving experience without any obstacles can be achieved. To address this timely societal challenge, we proposed a novel methodology by using the well-known facility-location-allocation methodology named set-covering location models with statistical machine learning and developed it for the problem settings of identifying electric-vehicle-charging station locations. Statistical machine learning was employed in the proposed model to more precisely identify and determine feasible coverage sets. We demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed model for the Capital Region of Denmark, where the green transition is part of the political agenda and is of severe societal concern, by using the newly collected main road transportation dataset.

The Linkage between Juvenile Delinquency and Progression of Socialization Under Social Psychology Perspective

The significant growth in adolescent delinquency over the last several years has raised the alarm, forcing many to consider what we can do in the face of this problem. The elements that contribute to the development of adolescent delinquency are multifaceted, both subjective and objective. Subjective variables for the creation of juvenile criminal psychology include a one-sided view of life and poor legal consciousness, immature cognitive structure, the dualism of emotional irritation and will, and mindless compliance. At the same time, poor family education, school education elements, and society’s negative effect are objective variables in the development of adolescent criminal psychology. Understanding the causes of juvenile delinquency and effectively preventing and regulating juvenile delinquency has become an essential societal concern that must be addressed in today’s society.

Pharmacists and pandemic misinformation.

Pharmacists have always had a responsibility to communicate evidence-based, accurate health-related information to patients and the public; traditionally, this is related to medicines in particular but increasingly this has broadened into many other areas such as public health advice and no more so than in the recent COVID pandemic. What the pandemic has highlighted in particular, however, have been concerns about the increasing influence of false beliefs and misinformation, particularly on the internet and social media.[1] Misinformation had been defined narrowly as the reporting of false information where there is no intention to harm others[2] but is also understood in terms of a different mechanism through which it is manifest such as rumours, urban myths, government, fiction and vested interests.[3] It represents a key public health and societal concern due to the effect that it can have, with an impact on the public (in terms of reduced vaccination uptake) but also contributing to health professionals’ incorrect beliefs.[4]

NURSING FACILITY QUALITY, CLOSURES, AND STAFFING

Abstract The quality of care provided in nursing facilities has long been a societal concern and an important focus of policy at the federal and state level. The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn increased attention to nursing facilities due to high infection and mortality rates as well as increased media attention on staffing shortages that have occurred in the wake of the pandemic. The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) and RTI International have recently completed a series of studies focused on nursing facility quality and staffing. This symposium will present the results of four of those studies. First, we will report the results of a study exploring states’ use of value-based payment (VBP) programs as part of their nursing facility Medicaid payment systems. Second, we will present the results of a study examining inappropriate discharges from nursing facilities. Third, we will report findings from a study that examined the factors associated with nursing facility closures. Finally, we will present findings from a study that explored the effect of the pandemic on nursing facility staffing. Together these studies provide important information about the state of nursing facilities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and suggest key areas of focus for policymakers.

Anti-social behaviour and economic decision-making: Panel experimental evidence in the wake of COVID-19

We systematically examine the acute impact of exposure to a public health crisis on anti-social behaviour and economic decision-making using unique experimental panel data from China, collected just before the outbreak of COVID-19 and immediately after the first wave was overcome. Exploiting plausibly exogenous geographical variation in virus exposure coupled with a dataset of longitudinal experiments, we show that participants who were more intensely exposed to the virus outbreak became more anti-social than those with lower exposure, while other aspects of economic and social preferences remain largely stable. The finding is robust to multiple hypothesis testing and a similar, yet less pronounced pattern emerges when using alternative measures of virus exposure, reflecting societal concern and sentiment, constructed using social media data. The anti-social response is particularly pronounced for individuals who experienced an increase in depression or negative affect, which highlights the important role of psychological health as a potential mechanism through which the virus outbreak affected behaviour.

Curbing texting & driving with advertising co-creation

Despite recent advances in technology and legislative action, texting while driving remains a major societal concern. This applied paper investigates the influence of active ad co-creation as a form of UGC that is effective at a) decreasing intentions to text while driving and b) promoting sharing of the ad with others. These effects emerge due to a positive effect of active ad co-creation on empowerment, which mediates the effects. Further, the findings indicate that partial ad co-creation is comparably effective to full ad co-creation, and collaborative (vs standard or competitive) ad co-creation can lead to even greater outcomes due to increased empowerment. Finally, we find that the positive influence of actively co-created ads wears out after about four weeks. The findings offer multiple theoretical and managerial implications within the domains of ad co-creation and UGC, especially related to boundary conditions in those areas as they relate to texting while driving.

Urban flooding response to rainstorm scenarios under different return period types

• A new urban rainstorm pattern design method. • Realization of design value of characteristic rainstorm elements in multivariate environment. • The effects of various return period definitions on urban flooding results. Urban flooding research cannot be overemphasized due to its environmental, economic and societal concern. Research on the response of urban flooding under different rainstorm scenarios would be conducive to the design of drainage projects, and helps the government department to master the waterlogging process in advance. Thus, this paper introduces a new rainstorm pattern designing method using Copula theory, Most-Likely design realization method and Monte Carlo simulation based on the rainfall data in a Chinese megacity, Zhengzhou. Furthermore, a coupled one-dimensional and two-dimensional hydrodynamic model, MIKE FLOOD, was used to determine the urban flooding response to various rainstorm scenarios. The results show that more than 75 percent of waterlogging disasters in Zhengzhou city were caused by short duration rainstorms within 3 hours, and the one-hour single-peak rainstorm process plays a main role. The rainstorm volume (RV) under Kendall return period type decreased significantly compared with the radical “Or” return period. And the RV under survival Kendall return period type was improved compared to the conservative “And” return period. Moreover, the rainstorm scenario corresponding to “Or” return period brought about the most serious waterlogging disaster, with the peak inundation volume of 1.8 × 10 5 m³ and the maximum water depth of 1.86 m.

Variation pumakkal formula against NPK levels of Household liquid waste organic fertilizer

More than industrial trash, household liquid waste is a societal concern caused by human activities. Using Pumakkal starters, this research turns domestic liquid waste into organic fertilizer. This research was conducted in several stages. The first was to make household waste liquid fertilizer with pumakkal formula P1 (3 bacterial isolates), P2 (6 bacterial isolates), P3 (9 bacterial isolates), P4 (12 bacterial isolates), P5 (15 bacterial isolates). The second was the test quality of household waste liquid fertilizers. The results showed the levels of NPK have quality standards of 2-6% with grades N (0,337), P (1,755), and K (3,818) at the highest treatment, and the values of N, P, K meet SNI. The C-Organic levels have a quality standard (minimum 10) with the value of 15,706 in the P5 treatment, and thus C-Organic exceeds SNI. The ratio level of C/N has a quality standard (≤25) with a value of 93,191 at the smallest P5 treatment compared to other treatments resulting in the ratio of C/N exceeding SNI. The pH has a quality standard (4-9) with a value of 6,176 on the P5 treatment, so the pH has met the SNI.

Gender mainstreaming research funding: a study of effects on STEM research proposals

AbstractPolicymakers increasingly try to steer researchers to choose topics of societal concern and to conduct research in ways that reflect such concerns. One increasingly common approach is prompting researchers to integrate certain perspectives into the content of their research, but little is known about the effects of this governance modality. We analyze 1,189 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics research proposals submitted to the Swedish Research Council which, starting in 2020, required all applicants to consider including the sex and/or gender perspectives in their research. We identify three overarching strategies upon which researchers rely (content-, performer-, and impact-centered) and analyze the ways in which researchers across disciplines motivate, through text, the inclusion or exclusion of these perspectives. Based on our findings, we discuss the scope of the desired effect(s) of a requirement of this kind.

Trust in artificial intelligence: From a Foundational Trust Framework to emerging research opportunities

With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), the issue of trust in AI emerges as a paramount societal concern. Despite increased attention of researchers, the topic remains fragmented without a common conceptual and theoretical foundation. To facilitate systematic research on this topic, we develop a Foundational Trust Framework to provide a conceptual, theoretical, and methodological foundation for trust research in general. The framework positions trust in general and trust in AI specifically as a problem of interaction among systems and applies systems thinking and general systems theory to trust and trust in AI. The Foundational Trust Framework is then used to gain a deeper understanding of the nature of trust in AI. From doing so, a research agenda emerges that proposes significant questions to facilitate further advances in empirical, theoretical, and design research on trust in AI.

Exploring the early manifestation of information poverty in young children

Information poverty is widely recognised as having a negative impact upon peoples’ health and wellbeing, and socioeconomic prosperity; however, whilst an issue of significant societal concern evidenced across a wide variety of adult groups and socioeconomic contexts, no studies have been previously undertaken with children. This appears a significant oversight given that many children across the globe are considered multi-dimensionally poor. This study thus sought to explore the possibility of information poverty amongst children. One hundred fifty-six children (aged 6–8) from five UK primary schools participated in a series of practical exercises exploring their information behaviours, and 34 parents and teachers were interviewed to provide further insights. Finding’s evidence self-protective information behaviours and unmet information needs amongst children aged 6–8; both characteristics of an impoverished information state. Whilst much can be explained in developmental terms (i.e. in relation to child age and emergent literacies), much can also be explained in information poverty terms encompassing issues of both information access and use. Notably, approximately half of our child participants considered themselves to be, in general, unsuccessful information seekers; and contrasts with the views of our adult participants who majority believed that children are, in general, successful information seekers. This paper provides the first evidence of information poverty in young children, and provides further insights into the role of parents in supporting their children’s information needs and shaping their developing information behaviours, with parental mediation of child media use appearing particularly problematic. Enduring inequalities in information access are also highlighted. Beyond call for further global research, a public communication campaign to increase awareness of child information poverty and contributory factors is recommended as an immediate priority.

A deep learning approach for detecting fake reviewers: Exploiting reviewing behavior and textual information

Ensuring the credibility of online consumer reviews (OCRs) is a growing societal concern. However, the problem of fake reviewers on online platforms significantly influences e-commerce authenticity and consumer trust. Existing studies for fake reviewer detection mainly focus on deriving novel behavioral and linguistic features. These features require extensive human labor and expertise, placing a heavy burden on platforms. Therefore, we propose a novel end-to-end framework to detect fake reviewers based on behavior and textual information. It has two key components: (1) a behavior-sensitive feature extractor that learns the underlying patterns of reviewing behavior; (2) a context-aware attention mechanism that extracts valuable features from online reviews. We rigorously evaluate each proposed module and the entire framework against state-of-the-art benchmarks on two real-world datasets from http://Yelp.com. Experimental results demonstrate that our method achieves state-of-the-art results on fake reviewer detection. Our method can be considered a tentative step toward lowering human labor costs in realizing automated fake reviewer detection on e-commerce platforms.

Parental Perspectives on Upholding Children’s Rights in the Context of Aggression toward Family/Caregivers in Childhood & Adolescence (AFCCA) in Canada

Aggression toward family/caregivers in childhood and adolescence (AFCCA) is a serious societal concern, yet it remains an under-researched area in Canada. Since existing studies elsewhere have focused primarily on its prevalence, risk factors and impacts, the child rights and family systems implications are less understood. This qualitative pilot study explored Canadian adoptive, kinship and customary caregivers’ considerations of their child’s rights to support and to be heard as they navigated the challenging context of their child’s aggressive behaviour towards them and other family members. The findings from interviews with 18 caregivers indicate that parental approaches were child-centred and trauma-informed as they sought to attend to the best interests of all children affected by AFCCA in their home. The results demonstrate the need for greater acknowledgment of AFCCA from a child rights perspective, and for comprehensive and non-biased family support services in order to fully meet the needs of all AFCCA-affected children and youth.

Towards a Holistic Perspective on Future Transportation Systems: A Swedish Case and a Conceptual Framework

Critical infrastructure systems—such as transportation—are the backbone of society. Infrastructure development can thus be acknowledged as a common societal concern in the field of governance, and its recognition as a policy problem is crucial to proper decision making. This study aims to build an in-depth understanding of the multi-level system concerned with transportation and applies a soft systems methodology to structure the investigation. The system analysis and conceptual modelling rests on publicly available documents and policies, group meetings and a workshop with stakeholders from the local, regional and national levels. The paper provides a thorough analysis of the Swedish transportation system through public policy and the perceptions of municipal officials. In addition, it proposes a novel conceptual framework of the transportation system, including a detailed discussion of stakeholders, activities and perspectives. Although transportation is vital for many stakeholders, improving only transport infrastructure does not guarantee regional growth. Therefore, the proposed framework constitutes a novel basis for constructive dialogue among concerned parties regarding improvements to transportation. Thereby, the paper provides an understanding of a society’s transportation system that can be used to inform agenda setting for critical infrastructure governance. Further discussion in the scientific community and with officials entrusted with public administration could further validate and deepen the proposed understanding of the perspectives and constraints in the examined context and beyond.

A pilot study evaluating the effectiveness of preventing railway suicides by mid-track fencing, which restrict easy access to high-speed train tracks

Background: Suicides in the railway system is a serious health, societal, and transportation concern. Restriction of the access to suicide methods in the form of different physical barriers is a promising approach for suicide prevention. Method: Mid-track fencing, which is fencing placed in-between the high-speed and commuter train tracks, was installed at one out of seven stations along a train line outside of Stockholm in the years 2013/2014. The number of suicides at the intervention station was compared to six other stations used as controls, over a total period of 20 years (2002–2021). Results: Suicides at high-speed tracks occurring at stations was the major cause of death on the investigated railway line. Prior to the year 2014, the intervention and control stations displayed similar time trends in the number of suicides. After installation of the mid-track fencing in 2014, there was a 62.5% reduction in the rate of suicides occurring at the intervention station. Compared to the six other control stations, the intervention station displayed a significant reduction in the number of suicides during the years 2014–2021 (OR = 0.14, 95%CI 0.013–0.95). Suicides at the railway lines in-between stations were not increased post-intervention. However, nearby control stations showed a 162% increase in suicides after the intervention, suggesting the induction of transfer effects. Conclusion: Mid-track fences restricting access to high-speed train tracks may have a large effect on reducing the number of railway suicides at intervention stations, but may also induce an increase in suicides at nearby stations without mid-track fences. Practical applications: Partial physical barriers such as mid-track fencing is deemed to be relatively easy and cheap to install (as compared to full barriers; e.g., full height platform screen doors) and should be considered at all stations on railway lines that have high-speed trains passing by.