Search Results (12,402)

Objectives: The study assessed knowledge, attitude, and practices of dentists towards treating pregnant patients. Methods: It was based on a cross-sectional, electronically administered survey of a convenience sample of Russian dentists conducted between March and April 2025. Our questionnaire was developed based on international guidelines and previously published surveys and validated through expert review and pilot testing. It contains four sections: Demographics, Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice. The overall knowledge and attitude scores were calculated and compared across subgroups based on gender, specialty, and experience using the Kruskal–Wallis and Dunn’s tests. Spearman’s coefficient was calculated to reveal pair-wise correlations between knowledge, attitude, and age of the participants. Results: Overall, 403 dentists completed the questionnaire. The majority of the participants (53%) demonstrated fair knowledge about providing dental care throughout pregnancy. Female dentists had a significantly higher median knowledge score compared with that of males; orthodontists and prosthetic dentists showed lower knowledge scores than other specialists. All participants demonstrated a positive attitude toward treating pregnant patients; however, a considerable number of dentists agreed that they do not feel comfortable treating pregnant women and prefer not to do that. A large majority of dental practitioners (83%) indicated that they had treated pregnant women. Liability concerns (42%) and a lack of knowledge (24%) were reported as the main barriers for providing dental care to pregnant patients. Conclusions: It can be concluded that insufficient knowledge influenced by gender and specialty is one of the key barriers to the dental treatment of pregnant women, despite generally positive attitudes of the practitioners. Full article

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAPs), including ageism, of rehabilitation service providers regarding older adults with substance use disorders to examine the association between KAPs and ageism on the knowledge of rehabilitation providers and confidence in treating this population. Methods: An online survey was developed to assess providers’ familiarity with geriatric substance use disorders, attitudes towards aging, and perceived barriers to treatment. The survey included the Expectations Regarding Aging (ERA-12) tool to measure ageist attitudes. Data was collected from 25 rehabilitation healthcare providers across rehabilitation centers in North Carolina. Descriptive statistics and ERA-12 scoring were used to analyze the results. Results: Most (52.0%) respondents reported slight or moderate familiarity with specific risk factors for substance use disorders associated with older adults, and participants most commonly expressed ambivalence (48.0% indicated they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied) with their training on this demographic. Barriers included a lack of specialized training, limited availability of age-appropriate treatment programs, and resistance to change. Negative attitudes towards aging and substance use disorders were prevalent among respondents. Providers indicated a need for enhanced education, clinical guidelines, and access to geriatric-trained professionals. Discussion: The findings highlight a critical need for specialized training for rehabilitation providers to improve care for older adults with substance use disorders. Addressing ageism, increasing awareness, and enhancing provider education are essential to improving treatment outcomes. Implementing targeted training programs and specialized resources could significantly enhance the quality of care for this underserved population. Full article

Thrust vectoring technology significantly improves the manoeuvrability and environmental adaptability of unmanned aerial vehicles by dynamically regulating the direction and magnitude of thrust. In this paper, the principles and applications of mechanical thrust vectoring technology, fluidic thrust vectoring technology and the distributed electric propulsion system are systematically reviewed. It is shown that the mechanical vector nozzle can achieve high-precision control but has structural burdens, the fluidic thrust vectoring technology improves the response speed through the design of no moving parts but is accompanied by the loss of thrust, and the distributed electric propulsion system improves the hovering efficiency compared with the traditional helicopter. Addressing multi-physics coupling and non-linear control challenges in unmanned aerial vehicles, this paper elucidates the disturbance compensation advantages of self-disturbance rejection control technology and the optimal path generation capabilities of an enhanced path planning algorithm. These two approaches offer complementary technical benefits: the former ensures stable flight attitude, while the latter optimises flight trajectory efficiency. Through case studies such as the Skate demonstrator, the practical value of these technologies in enhancing UAV manoeuvrability and adaptability is further demonstrated. However, thermal management in extreme environments, energy efficiency and lack of standards are still bottlenecks in engineering. In the future, breakthroughs in high-temperature-resistant materials and intelligent control architectures are needed to promote the development of UAVs towards ultra-autonomous operation. This paper provides a systematic reference for the theory and application of thrust vectoring technology. Full article

The study investigates how Turkish science teachers view and understand skill-based questions (SBQs). SBQs aim to assess higher-order cognitive skills, such as critical thinking and problem-solving, in line with global standards like PISA and TIMSS. The data collected via the Word Association Test (WAT) revealed teachers’ conceptual frameworks and attitudes toward SBQs. The most frequently associated terms were ‘cognitive based’ and ‘culturally context consistency’. Teachers expressed mixed perceptions, with concerns about SBQs’ alignment with international standards, literacy, validity, and the stress they impose on students. Statistical analyses showed that teachers’ cognitive structures lack integration, indicating confusion and limited understanding. The findings highlight the need for enhanced teacher training, clearer guidelines and addressing the gaps between policy and practice. This study contributes to educational assessment reforms by emphasizing the importance of supporting teachers in using SBQs effectively. Full article

With 2.3 million people in the UK having experienced domestic abuse (DA) in the year ending March 2024, DA represents a severe public health issue. Public interest in DA remains high, with its importance and impact re-emphasised through recent legislative changes. Thus, educating the public about the predictors and consequences of DA and barriers to gaining support can both empower potential victims and enable them to recognise and support others. The CEASE Educational Programme is one such intervention, provided by UK-based DA charity RemediUK. This study employed semi-structured interviews and interpretative phenomenological analysis to explore the experiences of staff (n = 6) who had facilitated the CEASE Educational Programme. Two overarching themes relating to barriers to delivery were highlighted: (1) understanding participants’ lack of engagement, and (2) a desire to fill the gaps. Our findings indicate a need to explore how DA education can best target those who would benefit from it the most, and in doing so, identify attitudes and beliefs endorsing DA, and how to best educate those with personal experiences of abuse. Full article

This study examined how cognitive, affective, and sociocultural factors shape teachers’ readiness for inclusive education, focusing on the interplay between attitudes, emotional concerns, and self-efficacy. A survey of 149 elementary school teachers from diverse communities employed three validated instruments to assess these constructs. Overall, teachers expressed moderately positive attitudes toward inclusion and relatively high levels of self-efficacy, yet emotional concerns were consistently present. Importantly, correlational analyses revealed that emotional concerns fully mediated the relationship between attitudes and self-efficacy, underscoring the central role of affective dimensions in shaping teachers’ professional confidence. Teachers with prior training or direct experience with students with disabilities reported lower emotional concerns, suggesting the value of practice-based professional learning opportunities. Sociocultural differences also emerged, with differences across communities, pointing to the influence of communal norms on emotional readiness for inclusion. These findings highlight the need to reconceptualize teacher professionalism in inclusive education as integrating cognitive, emotional, and contextual dimensions. Implications include designing professional development programs that combine knowledge, practice, and emotional preparedness, alongside culturally responsive approaches tailored to minority communities. Full article

This study investigates hotel employees’ perceptions of AI-driven human resource (HR) management systems within the Accor Group’s properties across three major European cities: Paris, Berlin, and Amsterdam. These diverse urban contexts, spanning a broad portfolio of hotel brands from luxury to economy, provide a rich setting for exploring how AI integration affects employee attitudes and work–life balance. A total of 437 employees participated in the survey, offering a robust dataset for structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis. Exploratory factor analysis identified two primary factors shaping perceptions: AI Perceptions, which encompasses employee views on AI’s impact on job performance, communication, recognition, and retention, and balanced management, reflecting attitudes toward fairness, personal consideration, productivity, and skill development in AI-managed environments. The results reveal a complex but optimistic view, where employees acknowledge AI’s potential to enhance operational efficiency and career optimism but also express concerns about flexibility loss and the need for human oversight. The findings underscore the importance of transparent communication, contextual sensitivity, and continuous training in implementing AI systems that support both organizational goals and employee well-being. This study contributes valuable insights to hospitality management by highlighting the relational and ethical dimensions of algorithmic HR systems across varied organizational and cultural settings. Full article

Against the backdrop of the rapid proliferation of electric vehicles (EVs), gender-oriented behavioral mechanisms remain underexplored, particularly the unique pathways of female users in usage experience, value assessment, and purchase decision-making. This study constructs an integrated framework based on the Stimulus–Organism–Response (SOR) model, leveraging social media big data to analyze in depth how gender differences influence EV users’ purchase intentions. By integrating natural language processing techniques, grounded theory coding, and structural equation modeling (SEM), this study models and analyzes 272,083 pieces of user-generated content (UGC) from Chinese social media platforms, identifying key functional and emotional factors shaping female users’ perceptions and attitudes. The results reveal that esthetic value, safety, and intelligent features more strongly drive emotional responses among female users’ decisions through functional cognition, with gender significantly moderating the pathways from perceived attributes to emotional resonance and cognitive evaluation. This study further confirms the dual mediating roles of functional cognition and emotional experience and identifies a masking (suppression) effect for the ‘intelligent perception’ variable. Methodologically, it develops a novel hybrid paradigm that integrates data-driven semantic mining with psychological behavioral modeling, enhancing the ecological validity of consumer behavior research. Practically, the findings provide empirical support for gender-sensitive EV product design, personalized marketing strategies, and community-based service innovations, while also discussing research limitations and proposing future directions for cross-cultural validation and multimodal analysis. Full article

This study examined how partner characteristics contribute to gender-based violence (GBV) risk among women in Sub-Saharan Africa. Guided by two research questions—how partner characteristics influence GBV, and which characteristics are the strongest predictors—we tested four hypotheses regarding partner education, age difference, alcohol use, and controlling behaviours. Using nationally representative Demographic and Health Survey data from 25 Sub-Saharan African countries (2012–2022), we conducted descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate logistic regression analyses of 122,477 ever-married women aged 15–49. Findings revealed that partner characteristics significantly predicted GBV. Women with partners who had no education experienced higher GBV rates (31.6%) compared to those with partners who attained tertiary education (5.7%). Age differences of six years or more were associated with higher GBV prevalence (39.9%). Controlling behaviour emerged as the strongest predictor, with 87.7% of women with controlling partners reporting GBV. Alcohol use and frequency of drunkenness also strongly increased the odds of violence; women whose partners were often drunk had 6.75 times higher odds of emotional violence. These results confirmed the hypotheses and underscore the central role of partner characteristics in shaping GBV risks. Policy and programmatic interventions should address male alcohol misuse, promote gender-equitable attitudes, and expand women’s access to education. Targeting partner-level risk factors is essential for reducing GBV and advancing progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals in Sub-Saharan Africa. Full article

Unsafe disposal of unused and expired antimicrobial drugs increases their presence in the environment, thereby contributing to the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance. This study addressed the lack of sufficient data on unused and expired antimicrobial disposal practices among peri-urban residents in Ghana. This knowledge–attitude–practice (KAP)-based study offers context-specific insights to inform public health education and antimicrobial disposal policy interventions. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 310 residents in the Ho municipality using a well-structured questionnaire. Data was collected on the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of households on how they dispose of unused and leftover antimicrobials. Origin Pro 2022 software was used to analyze the data. Many respondents were males (n = 175, 56.5%) and aged between 18 and 30 years (n = 196, 63.2%). About 87.1% (n = 270) of the respondents agreed that improper disposal of unused antimicrobials could negatively affect the environment. Most of the respondents (71.9%, n = 223) had not received counseling on recommended antimicrobial disposal; 75.5% (n = 234) of respondents were not aware of institutions collecting unused or expired medicines; and 73.5% (n = 228) had never participated in a medicine-return program. Discarding antimicrobials into household trash bins was the most common way of disposal among respondents. The preferred sites to return unused/leftover antimicrobials were community pharmacies and hospitals. Although respondents showed some knowledge and positive attitudes toward safe antimicrobial disposal, further education is needed. Furthermore, most respondents disposed of antimicrobials in household trash, highlighting the need for take-back programs and community pharmacy-based collection. Incorporating disposal guidance into medication counseling and patient information leaflets can enhance awareness and promote appropriate practices. Full article

To address the challenges of insufficient response speed and robustness in optical attitude control systems under highly dynamic disturbances and internal uncertainties, a composite control strategy is proposed in this study. By integrating the proposed piecewise sliding control (P-SMC) with the improved active disturbance rejection control (ADRC), this strategy achieves complementary performance, which can not only suppress the disturbance but also converge to a bounded region fast. Under highly dynamic disturbances, the improved extended state observer (ESO) based on the EKF achieves rapid response with amplified state observations, and the Nonlinear State Error Feedback (NLSEF) generates a compensation signal to actively reject disturbances. Simultaneously, the robust sliding mode control (SMC) suppresses the effects of system nonlinearity and uncertainty. To address chattering and overshoot of the conventional SMC, this study proposes a novel P-SMC law which applies distinct reaching functions across different error bands. Furthermore, the key parameters of the composite scheme are globally optimized using the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to achieve Pareto-optimal trade-offs between tracking accuracy and disturbance rejection robustness. Finally, MATLAB simulation experiments validate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy under diverse representative disturbances. The results demonstrate improved performance in terms of response speed, overshoot, settling time and control input signals smoothness compared to conventional control algorithms (ADRC, C-ADRC, T-SMC-ADRC). The proposed strategy enhances the stability and robustness of optical attitude control system against internal uncertainties of system and sensor measurement noise. It achieves bounded-error steady-state tracking against random multi-source disturbances while preserving high real-time responsiveness and efficiency. Full article

Retrofitting existing buildings is regarded as a main driver of decarbonization, yet retrofitting activities are lagging behind their ambitious goals. This study explores 86 German construction practitioners’ perceptions of organizational, policy, and social challenges to sustainable retrofitting and how those perceptions relate to age, attitude, and their interaction. The primary analyses used OLS moderation models with HC3-robust standard errors and ordered-logit models, which served as robustness checks. Across outcomes, more pro-environment attitudes were associated with fewer perceived challenges, and older practitioners (41–56+) reported higher barrier perception. The attitude × age interaction results indicate that the protective link of attitude was weaker among older respondents, which was significant for policy and social challenges but only marginal for organizational challenges. The model fit was reasonable, at an Adj. R² between ≈0.56 and 0.72 with acceptable diagnostics. Our results suggest that even motivated professionals can feel constrained, especially among older, senior staff. Practical implications include early tenant engagement to enhance acceptance and foster internal organizational sustainability capacities. Policy instruments such as adult education programmes need to be leveraged to enhance sustainable construction capabilities and reinforce attitudes and behaviours toward sustainable retrofitting. More salient policy communications and guidance can contribute to increasing sustainability orientation and reducing perceived trade-offs with economic goals. Full article

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is characterized by disruptions in central nervous system functioning and existential crises, yet the mechanistic links between neurobiological processes and dimensions of life meaning and identity remain underexplored. The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between stress biomarkers (serotonin, cortisol, noradrenaline, and interleukin-12 [IL-12]) and existential attitudes (measured using the Life Attitude Profile (Revised) [LAP-R]) in mining rescuers, considering PTSD duration and participant age. This cross-sectional study included 92 men aged 18–50 years, divided into three groups: no PTSD (n = 28), PTSD ≤ 5 years (n = 33), and PTSD > 5 years (n = 31). Serum levels of four biomarkers and LAP-R scores across eight domains were evaluated. Statistical analyses employed nonparametric tests, including the Kruskal–Wallis test for overall group differences (with Wilcoxon r effect sizes for pairwise comparisons, Mann–Whitney U tests for post hoc pairwise comparisons, and Spearman’s rank correlations for biomarker–LAP-R associations. Age effects were assessed in two strata: 18–35 years and 36–50 years. Kruskal–Wallis tests revealed significant group differences (p < 0.001) for all biomarkers and most LAP-R domains, with very large effect sizes (r > 0.7) in pairwise comparisons for serotonin (control median: 225.2 ng/mL vs. PTSD ≤ 5y: 109.9 ng/mL, r = 0.86; vs. PTSD > 5y: 148.0 ng/mL, r = 0.86), IL-12 (control: ~8.0 pg/mL vs. PTSD ≤ 5y: 62.4 pg/mL, r = 0.86; vs. PTSD > 5y: ~21.0 pg/mL, r = 0.69), and LAP-R scales such as Life Purpose (control: 54.0 vs. PTSD ≤ 5y: 39.0, r = 0.78; vs. PTSD > 5y: 20.0, r = 0.86) and Coherence (control: 53.0 vs. PTSD ≤ 5y: 34.0, r = 0.85; vs. PTSD > 5y: 23.0, r = 0.86). The PTSD ≤ 5y group exhibited decreased serotonin, cortisol (median: 9.8 µg/dL), and noradrenaline (271.7 pg/mL) with elevated IL-12 (all p < 0.001 vs. control), alongside reduced LAP-R scores. The PTSD > 5y group showed elevated cortisol (median: ~50.0 µg/dL, p < 0.001 vs. control, r = 0.86) and normalized IL-12 but persistent LAP-R deficits. Older participants (36–50 years) in the PTSD ≤ 5y group displayed improved existential attitudes (e.g., Life Purpose: 47.0 vs. 27.5 in 18–35 years, p < 0.001), whereas in PTSD > 5y, age exacerbated biological stress (cortisol: 57.6 µg/dL vs. 36.1 µg/dL, p = 0.003). Spearman correlations revealed stage-specific patterns, such as negative associations between cortisol and Death Acceptance in PTSD > 5y (ρ = −0.49, p = 0.005). PTSD alters biomarker levels and their associations with existential dimensions, with duration and age modulating patient profiles. These findings underscore the necessity for integrated therapies addressing both biological and existential facets of PTSD. Full article

Masculinity norms and gender socialization play a critical role in shaping boys’ attitudes, behaviours, and interactions within society. In South Africa, historical legacies of colonialism and apartheid, coupled with deeply ingrained cultural and societal expectations, have contributed to rigid masculinity norms that emphasize dominance, emotional restraint, and aggression. These constructs not only influence boys’ development but also have significant implications for gender-based violence (GBV). This paper explores how norms of masculinity and processes of gender socialization among boys in South Africa shape attitudes and behaviours that contribute to gender-based violence (GBV). The central aim is to offer a critical theoretical synthesis and contextual analysis that informs the development of gender-equitable policies and interventions. Drawing on theoretical frameworks such as hegemonic masculinities, intersectionality, and social learning theory, this study examines how historical, cultural, and socio-economic factors shape gender socialization and influence boys’ developmental trajectories. Through an intersectional lens, this paper underscores the urgent need to challenge harmful masculinity norms and promote alternative models that encourage emotional expression, empathy, and equitable gender relations. Finally, it provides recommendations on how these harmful norms can be disrupted through educational, community, media, and policy-level reforms to foster healthier masculinity norms and reduce GBV in South Africa. Full article

This study investigates the decision-making process behind moving into a senior living community. Prospective residents were asked to identify the most important qualities of a happy, healthy, and engaged life, so called successful aging. Our effort resulted in a scale with 27 items reflecting seniors’ needs for successful aging. Building upon the Andersen’s model to predict the medical service utilization, this study developed the Needs of Successful Aging-Enabling-Psychosocial (N-SEP) model. The results showed the needs for successful aging have a positive effect on prospective residents’ attitudes and subjective norms, which in turn affect seniors’ decision to move. In addition, enabling factors were found to increase the perceived control, leading to a decision to move. This study benefits both senior living practitioners and academics who are interested in studying this fast-growing field in the future. Full article