Search Results (730)

Threat activation or deactivation in the brain–body is associated with learned nocebo or placebo somatic effects induced by fake invasive medical–surgical procedures. Some functional somatic disorders (FSDs) originate as acute nocebo somatic effects and can become 30–50% of chronic somatic presentations to primary care physicians. Patients with FSD overutilize medical–surgical services, despite the lack of identified pathophysiology, and are at risk for morbidity from unintentional iatrogenic injury. The Conditioned Response Model (CRM) of learning postulates three innate mechanisms, modulated by trait hypnotizability, which drive placebo and nocebo somatic effects and FSD. The High Risk Model of Threat Perception (HRMTP) postulates 10 psychosocial risk factors that modulate threat perception, driving placebo and nocebo somatic effectsandbiologically embedded FSD. Psychosocial factors and the trait of high and low hypnotizability modulate threat and are postulated to reduce heart rate variability(HRV), inducing autonomic nervous system(ANS)dysregulation. Reduced HRV was found in a large (N = 6,891) sample of patients with FSD. A total of 50% of patients with FSD with chronic pain (n = 224) without identified pathophysiology had a Paradoxical Increase in hand Temperature (PTI) during experimental threat induction. The HRMTP predicts that PTI associated with ANS dysregulation is associated with the risk factor Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). This ACE prediction was independently confirmed. Learning predicts that threat activation by unconscious neutral stimuli (CS) can amplify nocebo and FSD and can negate placebo effects in clinician–patient relationships. Identifying psychosocial risk factors that modulate threat perception enables the diagnosis of FSD by inclusion and not simply by excluding pathophysiology. Full article

Pastoral livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa are under an increasing threat from climate change with arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) being especially vulnerable. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is widely promoted as a strategy for enhancing resilience among smallholder livestock farmers by improving productivity, increasing farmers’ incomes and strengthening adaptive capacity. However, CSA adoption rates among pastoralists remains low. While existing studies emphasise socio-economic and institutional factors, this study explores the often-overlooked behavioural dimensions, attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions, which critically influence adaptation decisions. Guided by the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), this study investigates the behavioural drivers of CSA adoption among 737 livestock farmers in Kenya’s ASALs. Using ordered probit regression and structural equation modelling–confirmatory factor analysis (SEM-CFA), the results reveal that attitudes and perceived behavioural control are significant predictors of farmer intention to adopt CSA practices, with perceived behavioural control being the most influential predictor. Farmers with a positive attitude and confidence in their ability to implement CSA practices are more likely to adopt them. The study findings suggest that efforts to promote CSA adoption should prioritise transforming attitudes and building practical confidence by increasing exposure to demonstration farms and implementing awareness-raising initiatives within pastoral communities. Full article

Drought is the single largest abiotic threat to soybean yield, yet the lectin genes that mediate drought perception and signaling in this crop have never been systematically mapped. We reanalyzed the public RNA-seq dataset GSE237798 (Williams 82 leaves, 7-day water withdrawal) with an updated fastp–HISAT2–featureCounts–DESeq2 pipeline and a curated catalog of 359 soybean lectin loci. Of the 127 lectin transcripts showing any drought-dependent shift, only 15 were stringently differentially expressed with substantial fold changes: 7 were upregulated and 8 downregulated. These genes span four families, GNA, legume, LysM and Nictaba-related lectins, and are heavily biased toward lectin receptor-like kinases (11 of 15), pinpointing the plasma membrane as the main control node. Gene Ontology enrichment highlights protein autophosphorylation and signal-transduction terms, and the inspection of AlphaFold models together with established lectin knowledge indicates that G- and L-type lectin domains have largely lost canonical carbohydrate-binding residues, whereas LysM and Nictaba proteins retain conserved folds compatible with ligand binding. The data expose a focused, modular lectin program rather than the broad activation often assumed: most soybean lectins stay silent under drought conditions, and only a defined subset toggles their expression, albeit mildly. Full article

Business models often transform due to adaptation in response to external changes. However, relatively little is known about what causes these types of adaptations. We suggest that threat-rigidity as well as prospect theory have the potential to explain what causes business model adaptation in response to gains and losses. Firm leaders’ inclination to adapt their business model is sensitive to risk that is perceived as a gain or a loss in the macro-economic environment. We apply threat-rigidity and prospect theories to examine the relationship between risk perception and business model adaptation. We also investigate if emotion has explanatory value for how managers adapt to business models. We test our hypotheses in a field experiment involving 95 Scandinavian managers. Here, we relate managers’ inclinations to adapt to different business models under different risk scenarios. The results reveal that, in general, managers are more risk seeking in gain scenarios than in loss scenarios. This finding is in line with the threat-rigidity theory. In addition, emotional style is found to relate more to risk aversion than to risk seeking in the domain of potential gain. We argue that emotional style has explanatory value for how managers adapt to business models, because emotions are key influencers on risk perception. Full article

Autonomous public transport (APT) is revolutionizing urban mobility by integrating advanced technologies, including electric autonomous buses and shared autonomous vehicles (SAVs). This paper examines the historical evolution of APT, from early automation efforts in the 1920s to the deployment of autonomous shuttles in contemporary cities. It highlights technological milestones, legislative developments, and shifts in public perception that have influenced the adoption of APT. The research identifies key benefits of APT, including enhanced road safety, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and improved cost-efficiency in public transport operations. Additionally, the environmental potential of SAVs to reduce traffic congestion and emissions is explored, particularly when integrated with renewable energy sources and sustainable urban planning. However, the study also addresses significant challenges, such as handling emergencies without human intervention, rising cybersecurity threats, and employment displacement in the transportation sector. Social equity concerns are also discussed, especially regarding access and the risk of increasing urban inequality. This paper contributes to the broader discourse on sustainable mobility, transportation innovation, and the future of smart cities by providing a comprehensive analysis of both opportunities and obstacles. Effective policy frameworks and inclusive planning are essential for the successful implementation of APT systems worldwide. Full article

In the face of increasingly severe cybersecurity threats, incomplete information and environmental dynamics have become central challenges in network attack–defense scenarios. In real-world network environments, defenders often find it difficult to fully perceive attack behaviors and network states, leading to a high degree of uncertainty in the system. Traditional approaches are inadequate in dealing with the diversification of attack strategies and the dynamic evolution of network structures, making it difficult to achieve highly adaptive defense strategies and efficient multi-agent coordination. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a multi-agent network defense approach based on joint game modeling, termed JG-Defense (Joint Game-based Defense), which aims to enhance the efficiency and robustness of defense decision-making in environments characterized by incomplete information. The method integrates Bayesian game theory, graph neural networks, and a proximal policy optimization framework, and it introduces two core mechanisms. First, a Dynamic Communication Graph Neural Network (DCGNN) is used to model the dynamic network structure, improving the perception of topological changes and attack evolution trends. A multi-agent communication mechanism is incorporated within the DCGNN to enable the sharing of local observations and strategy coordination, thereby enhancing global consistency. Second, a joint game loss function is constructed to embed the game equilibrium objective into the reinforcement learning process, optimizing both the rationality and long-term benefit of agent strategies. Experimental results demonstrate that JG-Defense outperforms the Cybermonic model by 15.83% in overall defense performance. Furthermore, under the traditional PPO loss function, the DCGNN model improves defense performance by 11.81% compared to the Cybermonic model. These results verify that the proposed integrated approach achieves superior global strategy coordination in dynamic attack–defense scenarios with incomplete information. Full article

This study investigates the psychological and emotional mechanisms underlying women’s reactions to breast cancer awareness advertisements through the dual lens of Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) and neuromarketing methods, addressing a gap in empirical research on the integration of biometric and cognitive approaches in health marketing. Utilizing a lab-based experiment with 78 women aged 40 and older, we integrated Facial Expression Analysis using Noldus FaceReader 9.0 with semi-structured post-exposure interviews. Six manipulated health messages were embedded within a 15 min audiovisual sequence, with each message displayed for 5 s. Quantitative analysis revealed that Ads 2 and 5 elicited the highest mean fear scores (0.45 and 0.42) and surprise scores (0.35 and 0.33), while Ad 4 generated the highest happiness score (0.31) linked to coping appraisal. Emotional expressions—including fear, sadness, surprise, and neutrality—were recorded in real time and analyzed quantitatively. The facial analysis data were triangulated with thematic insights from interviews, targeting perceptions of threat severity, vulnerability, response efficacy, and self-efficacy. The findings confirm that fear-based appeals are only effective when paired with actionable coping strategies, providing empirical support for PMT’s dual-process model. By applying mixed-methods analysis to the evaluation of health messages, this study makes three contributions: (1) it extends PMT by validating the emotional–cognitive integration framework through biometric–qualitative convergence; (2) it offers practical sequencing principles for combining threat and coping cues; and (3) it proposes cross-modal methodology guidelines for future health campaigns. Full article

Goji berry is widely consumed worldwide and holds substantial market value, yet its cultivation faces significant threats from the goji berry psyllid (Bactericera gobica). Chemosensory-related genes play critical roles in regulating insect behaviors, which makes them key molecular targets for the development of environmentally friendly pest control strategies. However, chemosensory genes in B. gobica have not been previously identified or characterized. In this study, we sequenced transcriptomes from the antennae and body tissues of male and female B. gobica and annotated genes associated with chemosensory functions. We identified 15 odorant-binding proteins (OBPs), 18 chemosensory proteins (CSPs), 3 sensory neuron membrane proteins (SNMPs), 26 odorant receptors (ORs), 8 gustatory receptors (GRs), and 32 ionotropic receptors (IRs). Transcriptome data and a quantitative real-time PCR confirmed the tissue-specific expression patterns of these genes, with several genes, including three BgobOBPs, eight BgobCSPs, one BgobOR, two BgobGRs, and two BgobIR, highly expressed in the antennae, suggesting their role in olfactory recognition. BgobGR1 was most highly expressed among GRs, indicating its important role in gustatory perception. We also identified gene BgobGR5 with differential expression patterns between females and males. Our study represents the first characterization of chemosensory genes in a Bactericera species. Full article

Aim: This study extends existing research by focusing specifically on the perceptions of hotel employees, a crucial yet often overlooked group of stakeholders in the adoption of new technologies within the hotel sector. The objective of this research is to investigate the perceptions of hotel employees in Hong Kong regarding the implementation of Metaverse hotels. This study emphasizes their evaluations of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with these establishments through a SWOT analysis. Ultimately, the study aims to provide recommendations for addressing technological challenges, supporting employees during the transition, and facilitating adaptation across the industry. Design/Methodology/Approach: A convenience and purposive sampling method is employed to investigate 20 participants, comprising hotel staff from various departments in the Metaverse hotel in Hong Kong. This study adopts a qualitative research design, utilizing semi-structured interviews to gather in-depth insights into the perceptions of the Metaverse hotel among these employees. Purposive sampling ensures that participants have relevant experience and familiarity with VR/AR technologies. Interviews, each lasting 45–60 min, were conducted in person, with informed consent obtained beforehand. Findings: The exploration of hotel employees’ perceptions of Metaverse hotels in Hong Kong underscores the innovative potential of these establishments to enhance operational efficiency and guest engagement, while also offering new training opportunities and streamlining daily tasks. However, employees express concerns about the potential erosion of personal interactions, which are crucial to the hospitality experience, and foresee significant technical and integration challenges. Despite these drawbacks, Metaverse hotels present distinctive opportunities for market differentiation, appealing to tech-savvy guests and generating new revenue streams that contribute to industry growth. Nonetheless, potential threats such as guest skepticism and challenges in industry adaptation highlight the necessity for cautious implementation and robust privacy measures. Balancing these aspects—strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats—will be pivotal for the successful integration of Metaverse technologies into the hotel industry. Theoretical/Practical Implications: Participants recognized that the Metaverse hotel could offer various potential benefits for both employees and businesses, such as enhanced operational efficiencies and new opportunities for guest engagement. Understanding the perceptions of hotel staff towards the Metaverse carries significant real-world implications for shaping policies, practices, and technologies that facilitate its operational success and market acceptance. Leveraging these insights enables the optimization of Metaverse’s advantages while mitigating associated risks and drawbacks. This study advances existing research by focusing specifically on the perceptions of hotel employees, a crucial yet often neglected group of stakeholders in the adoption of new technologies within the hospitality sector. By understanding the perspectives of hotel employees, this research provides valuable insights into the practical challenges and benefits of implementing Metaverse technologies in the hotel industry. Originality/Value: The Metaverse hotel is still relatively new and evolving, making it crucial to conduct research to understand how hotel staff perceive it. However, there is limited research specifically focusing on the perceptions of hotel employees regarding Metaverse hotels. This gap highlights the need for a comprehensive investigation into how employees perceive the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of implementing the Metaverse in hotels. Full article

This study analyses how early childhood teachers experience their local curricula-updating process provoked by the national policy changes. This is a relevant problem related to teachers’ agency, which is critical in supporting and developing curriculum policies or opposing them. The hermeneutic phenomenological approach (van Manen) was used to uncover the pre-reflective lived experiences of teachers through phenomenological interviews with 16 teachers. The lived experiences of local curriculum updates triggered by the national preschool curriculum guideline were a dualistic phenomenon manifesting as open and hidden voices of teachers. The open voices metaphor revealed the pre-reflective experiences increasing the openness of teachers to changes, while the hidden voices represented a pre-reflective experience of threat to established concepts and practices resulting in defensive reactions. These dualistic experiences appeared in five emergent categories: resonating body: vitality vs. freezing (Corporeality); teamwork during a critical moment: safe sustainability vs. uncertainty (Relationality); competing spatial perspectives: new possibilities vs. conflicting visions (Spatiality); altered perception of time: third wave vs. lost time (Temporality); and awakened existential questions: intentional self-reflection vs. conflict of roles (Existentiality). This paper highlights tensions between the national policies and the professional authenticity of teachers and the importance of teachers’ agency in the change context. Full article

Architecture can play a pivotal role in addressing the climate crisis by embedding sustainable design principles that reduce environmental impact and enhance resilience. Beyond ecological considerations, architectural interventions are crucial in developing structures capable of withstanding extreme weather events—and thereby mitigating the displacement of vulnerable populations. This study emphasizes the importance of tailoring architectural responses to the specific environmental challenges and evolving needs of rural communities. Drawing on the Perceived Values and Climate Change Resilience Dataset collected in Siaya County, Kenya, the research explores local perceptions of climate change and how these shape housing priorities. Among 300 respondents, 83% express concern about climate change, identifying drought as the most pressing environmental threat. The evolving desire for housing solutions that respond to specific needs highlights the need for more secure housing. This specifically calls for improvements in watertightness, pest resistance (especially against termites), and overall structural durability, as well as reducing maintenance effort, enabling houses to be enlarged, and improving their aesthetics. These findings provide critical insights into how rural populations in western Kenya are experiencing and responding to climate-related stressors. By foregrounding community perspectives, the study informs the development of adaptive, resilient, and contextually appropriate architectural solutions. It contributes to broader discourses on climate adaptation, vernacular design, and inclusive development strategies in Sub-Saharan Africa, reinforcing the imperative to align architectural innovation with both environmental imperatives and cultural realities. Full article

Agriculture plays a crucial role in discussions about environmental challenges because of its ecological footprint and high vulnerability to environmental shocks. To better understand the social and behavioral dynamics among food producers and their perceptions of climate change-related risks, this paper draws on forty-one in-depth, semi-structured interviews with farmers and ranchers in Colorado (USA). Leveraging the concept of social capital, the paper extends the concept analytically in a direction missed by previous research highlighting network structures, such as by focusing on its bonding, bridging, and linking characteristics. Instead, focus centers on the inclusiveness and diversity of values, beliefs, worldviews, and cultural orientations within those networks, arguing that these elements can be just as influential, if not more so in certain instances, than structural qualities. The concept of social capital heterogeneity is introduced to describe a network’s level of diversity and inclusivity. The findings do not question the importance of studying network structures when trying to understand how food producers respond to threats like climate change; an approach that remains useful for explaining social learning, technology adoption, and behavioral change. However, this method misses elements captured through a subjective, interpretivist perspective. With social capital heterogeneity, we can use social capital to explore why farmers and ranchers hold specific values and risk perceptions, peering deeper “within” networks, while tools like quantitative social network analysis software help map their structures from the “outside.” Additionally, social capital heterogeneity provides valuable insights into questions about “effective” agro-environmental governance. The paper concludes by discussing practical implications of the findings and reviewing the limitations of the research design. Full article

Background: Midwifery’s Intangible Heritage was officially recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization on 6 December 2023, highlighting that elements of midwifery knowledge and practice, shaped over generations, constitute cultural heritage worth safeguarding. While previous studies have investigated midwives’ perceptions of professional identity, none have done so within the explicit framework of MIH. Objective: this study explored how midwives and student midwives in Cyprus perceive the intangible heritage of their profession and how it relates to their shared professional identity. Methods: A qualitative descriptive study was conducted between April and July 2023. Three focus groups were held, involving 22 participants: 15 registered midwives and 7 student midwives. A semi-structured interview guide consisting of 10 questions was used, developed by the lead author (M.P.) based on the literature and improvisation and finalized with the research team (E.H., S.V., N.M.) after expert input. Thematic analysis was performed inductively to identify recurrent themes. Results: Four major themes emerged: (1) key elements of Midwifery’s Intangible Heritage and their transmission across generations; (2) a sense of shared professional identity; (3) perceived threats to the midwifery profession; and (4) midwives’ expectations for the future of the profession. Conclusions: The findings reflect the historical background of midwifery in Cyprus and its contrast with contemporary practice, particularly within the context of the overmedicalization of birth and societal perceptions of midwifery in the socio-cultural setting. Safeguarding Midwifery’s Intangible Heritage requires both empowering women to seek midwifery-led care and enabling midwives to practice autonomously within their full professional scope. In addition, policymakers and educational bodies must support the preservation of midwives’ core skills through targeted educational curricula, structured mentorship, and continuous professional development. Full article

The increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires pose serious threats to ecosystems, property, and human safety worldwide. Accurate semantic segmentation of wildfire images is essential for real-time fire monitoring, spread prediction, and disaster response. However, existing deep learning methods heavily rely on large volumes of pixel-level annotated data, which are difficult and costly to obtain in real-world wildfire scenarios due to complex environments and urgent time constraints. To address this challenge, we propose a semi-supervised wildfire image segmentation framework that enhances segmentation performance under limited annotation conditions by integrating multi-scale structural information fusion and pixel-level contrastive consistency learning. Specifically, a Lagrange Interpolation Module (LIM) is designed to construct structured interpolation representations between multi-scale feature maps during the decoding stage, enabling effective fusion of spatial details and semantic information, and improving the model’s ability to capture flame boundaries and complex textures. Meanwhile, a Pixel Contrast Consistency (PCC) mechanism is introduced to establish pixel-level semantic constraints between CutMix and Flip augmented views, guiding the model to learn consistent intra-class and discriminative inter-class feature representations, thereby reducing the reliance on large labeled datasets. Extensive experiments on two public wildfire image datasets, Flame and D-Fire, demonstrate that our method consistently outperforms other approaches under various annotation ratios. For example, with only half of the labeled data, our model achieves 5.0% and 6.4% mIoU improvements on the Flame and D-Fire datasets, respectively, compared to the baseline. This work provides technical support for efficient wildfire perception and response in practical applications. Full article

Fertility is considered a significant demographic concern, especially in relation to climate change. This study examines how awareness of climate change, measured by five subscales—climate-friendly behavior, knowledge, personal concern, attitude, and multiplicative action—affects fertility intentions, emphasizing the mediating role of threat perception. Data were collected through an online survey administered to a sample of 817 Palestinian citizens aged 18–49 residing in the West Bank. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized for the data analysis. The results revealed that climate change awareness does not directly affect fertility intentions. However, an indirect effect of climate change awareness on fertility intentions was observed, mediated by threat perception as an intervening variable. Individuals exhibiting increased awareness of climate change and perceptions of future risks demonstrated a greater likelihood of reducing their fertility intentions compared to others. Policymakers in the Palestinian territories should prioritize enhancing public awareness regarding climate change and its associated short- and long-term threats. Therefore, incorporating climate education and associated risks into fertility health programs is essential. Full article