Stakeholder analysis in the application of cutting-edge digital visualisation technologies for urban flood risk management: A critical review

© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Cutting-edge flood visualisation technologies are becoming increasingly important in managing urban flood risks, particularly from the perspective of stakeholders who play a crucial role in controlling and reducing the risks associated with flood events. This review study provides a comprehensive overview of stakeholder analysis in this context, highlighting gaps in current research and paving the way for future investigations. For this purpose, scientific literature and critical analysis are conducted based on identified relevant research works to map the mutual role of stakeholders in this context. This study categorises cutting-edge technologies into four groups - virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and digital twin - and explores their adoption in engaging various stakeholders across the five key stages of risk management: prevention, mitigation, preparation, response, and recovery. Results show that existing research has primarily concentrated on the support to water utilities and the communication with the general public. However, there is a noticeable gap in research regarding the comprehensive engagement of important stakeholders such as policy-makers, researchers, and insurance providers. Furthermore, the study highlights disparities in the involvement of stakeholders in damage assessment studies, particularly with a lack of representation from policy-makers and researchers. Finally, the study introduces the concept of overlooked key stakeholders and the interconnected impacts they have, which has received relatively little attention in previous research.Peer reviewe

Working capital management and firm performance in the hospitality and tourism industry

© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This is the accepted manuscript version of an article which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2022.103144The aim of this study is to provide empirical evidence concerning the effects of working capital on firm performance in the hospitality and tourism industry. We identify an inverted U-shaped relationship between working capital and firm performance. More specifically, the U-shaped relationship exists for accommodation, food and travel firms. In contrast, a positive linear relationship is valid for sport firms while changes in working capital have no effect on performance for gambling firms. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first empirical research study to extend cross-country analysis in respect of sub-hospitality and tourism industries to a worldwide context. The findings suggest that hospitality and tourism managers should consider the diversity of relationships between working capital and firm performance in sub-hospitality and tourism industries when deciding on an appropriate strategy for working capital management.Peer reviewe

A family of memristive multibutterfly chaotic systems with multidirectional initial-based offset boosting

© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This is the accepted manuscript version of an article which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chaos.2023.113518Memristors are commonly used to construct memristive chaotic systems with complex dynamics because of their strong nonlinearity and unique memory effects. In this paper, a simplified multi-piecewise memristor is applied for designing a family of memristive multibutterfly chaotic systems (MMBCSs). By coupling different numbers of the simplified multi-piecewise memristors into a modified Sprott C system, three MMBCSs are constructed. Theoretical analysis and numerical simulations show that the three MMBCSs can not only generate connected 1D(direction)-, 2D(plane)-, and 3D(space)-multibutterfly chaotic attractors (MBCAs), respectively, but also can respectively produce unconnected 1D-, 2D-, and 3D-MBCAs. Also, the number and position of butterfly attractors can be easily controlled by switching the memristor’s integer parameters and initial states, respectively. More importantly, the constructed three MMBCSs exhibit different initial-based offset boosting including 1D-, 2D-, and 3D-boosting behaviors, respectively. Especially, the 3D-initial-offset behavior is found in chaotic systems at the first time. Furthermore, we further implement the physical circuit of the three MMBCSs, and various typical dynamical behaviors are demonstrated by hardware experiments and Multisim simulations. Finally, a medical image encryption solution for online medical treatment is designed based on the proposed MMBCSs.Peer reviewe

Feasibility of Embedded Distributed Optical Fibre Sensors in Thermoplastic Composite Braided Beam Structure

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2022. This is the accepted manuscript version of an article which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10443-022-10053-0In this paper, consolidation monitoring and structural health monitoring (SHM) of a braided thermoplastic composite beam was performed using a distributed optical fibre sensor (DOFS). The DOFS was manually embedded into the braided preform before melt processing. The real-time strain and temperature data obtained during consolidation and cooling segments were correlated with phase transitions in the thermoplastic matrix. Post consolidation, the quality of the embedded DOFS was investigated using a micro-CT to reveal defects such as waviness and misorientation due to the crude nature of the adopted embedding technique. The manufactured beam was then subjected to repeated loading-unloading cycles in a flexure test. The strain developments along the embedded optical fibre length were comparable with the measurements from Digital Image Correlation (DIC), and further correlated with the post damage observations. Despite the crude method of embedding the optical fibre, the monitored data was useful for consolidation monitoring as well as SHM. This proved that DOFS could be embedded into composite structures without adding cost, time and complexity thus making them feasible for industrial applications.Peer reviewe

Understanding factors influencing the implementation of medicine risk communications by healthcare professionals in clinical practice: a systematic review using the Theoretical Domains Framework

© 2023 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. This is the accepted manuscript version of an article which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sapharm.2023.10.004Background Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are known to cause hospitalisation, longer hospital stays, as well as higher healthcare costs and mortality. Unrecognised ADRs are anticipated throughout the medicine lifecycle as, before the medicine reaches the market, clinical trials are conducted for a short period on a limited number of people, who might underrepresent the actual population. After the medicine reaches the market, emergent information that could affect its benefit-to-risk balance is usually shared by regulatory agencies and pharmaceutical companies through medicine risk communications. Medicines risk communications aim to prevent harm to patients by targeting their behaviour, knowledge, and attitudes, as well as those of health care professionals (HCPs). Despite their important role in translating these communications into their clinical practice, HCPs do not always adhere to the recommendations provided in risk communications. Measurement of medicine risk communications' effectiveness does not necessarily guarantee their implementation, cost-effectiveness, or transferability in real-world situations. To enhance the impact of drug regulatory interventions, implementation science has been encouraged. However, implementation science was not previously used to identify factors affecting HCPs' implementation of medicines risk communications. A recently widely used framework is the Theoretical Domain Framework (TDF). In this systematic review, the TDF was employed to categorise a range of different factors that could affect HCPs’ implementation of medicine risk communications within their clinical contexts. Methods The search strategy involved a set of predefined search terms and fifteen databases, such as EMBASE, PubMed, Web of Science and CINAHL PLUS. Searches were conducted from April to May 2018 and updated in June 2021 using PubMed, Scopus, and CINAHL PLUS. A second reviewer independently conducted the screening process of the initial search. The total number of records screened was 10,475. A study was included if it reported any factors influencing HCPs' uptake of medicine risk communications. Only studies with English or Arabic abstracts were included. Those studies that did not include pharmacovigilance-related medicine risk communications were excluded. Additionally, studies only assessing HCPs' practice or evaluating the effectiveness of risk minimisation measures were excluded. Likewise, studies related to occupational hazards, case reports, interventional studies, and studies not involving HCPs were excluded. In case the published information was insufficient to decide whether to include or exclude a study, the authors were contacted. Furthermore, the authors of seven eligible abstracts were contacted for full-text articles. The mixed method appraisal tool (MMAT) was used to evaluate the quality of the included studies. All included studies were assessed by one reviewer, and a total of 16 studies were assessed by two reviewers independently. Disagreements were resolved through discussion. Using thematic analysis and concept mapping, a narrative synthesis was performed, followed by a critical reflection on the synthesis process. This review presents the results of the concept mapping, which involved matching the identified factors to the TDF. Results A total of 28 studies were included. Eleven domains influenced HCPs' implementation of medicine risk communications. A large number of studies included factors related to the “Knowledge” domain (n = 23), followed by “Beliefs about Consequences” (n = 13), “Memory, Attention and Decision Processes” (n = 12) and “Environmental Context and Resources” domains (n = 12). Seven studies reported “social influences” and six studies included factors relating to “Goals”, followed by four studies involving factors related to “Social/Professional Role and Identity”. Underrepresented domains included “Emotion” (n = 2), “Beliefs about Capabilities” (n = 2), “Behavioural Regulation” (n = 1), and “Reinforcement” (n = 1). On the other hand, none of the identified factors were related to the “Skills”, “Optimism”, or “Intentions” domains. Except for “Beliefs about Consequences”, most studies contributing to the other three most commonly reported domains (“Knowledge”; “Environmental Context and Resources”; and “Memory, Attention and Decision Processes”) scored low (1 or 2 out of 5) on the MMAT quality assessment. Moreover, the same number of studies (n = 5) contributing to the “beliefs about consequences” domain had low (1 or 2 out of 5), and intermediate (3 out of 5) scores on the MMAT. Conclusion Medicines risk communications are important tools for disseminating information that may influence the benefit-to-risk balance of medicines. Even though HCPs are required to implement the recommendations of these communications, they do not always adhere to them. Using the TDF enabled the categorization of the range of factors that affect whether or not HCPs implement the recommendations provided in a medicine risk communication. However, most of these factors relate to four domains only (“Knowledge”; “Beliefs about Consequences”; “Memory, Attention and Decision Processes”; and “Environmental Context and Resources”). Additionally, most of the studies contributing to three of these four domains were of low quality. Future research should focus on using implementation science to identify target behaviours for actionable medicine risk communications. Regulators should use such science to develop cost-effective strategies for improving the implementation of medicines risk communication by HCPs.Peer reviewe

Impairments in psychological functioning in refugees and asylum seekers

© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Refugees are at increased risk for developing psychological impairments due to stressors in the pre-, peri- and post-migration periods. There is limited knowledge on how everyday functioning is affected by migration experience. In a secondary analysis of a study in a sample of refugees and asylum seekers, it was examined how aspects of psychological functioning were differentially affected. 1,101 eligible refugees and asylum seekers in Europe and Türkiye were included in a cross-sectional analysis. Gender, age, education, number of relatives and children living nearby, as well as indicators for depressive and posttraumatic symptoms, quality of life, psychological well-being and functioning, and lifetime potentially traumatic events were assessed. Correlations and multiple regression models with World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHODAS 2.0) 12-item version’s total and six subdomains’ scores (‘mobility’, ‘life activities’, ‘cognition’, ‘participation’, ‘self-care’, ‘getting along’) as dependent variables were calculated. Tests for multicollinearity and Bonferroni correction were applied. Participants reported highest levels of impairment in ‘mobility’ and ‘participation’, followed by ‘life activities’ and ‘cognition’. Depression and posttraumatic symptoms were independently associated with overall psychological functioning and all subdomains. History of violence and abuse seemed to predict higher impairment in ‘participation’, while past events of being close to death were associated with fewer issues with ‘self-care’. Impairment in psychological functioning in asylum seekers and refugees was related to current psychological symptoms. Mobility and participation issues may explain difficulties arising after resettlement in integration and exchange with host communities in new contexts.Peer reviewe

Perseveration and Shifting in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder as a Function of Uncertainty, Punishment, and Serotonergic Medication

© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc on behalf of the Society of Biological Psychiatry. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Background The nature of cognitive flexibility deficits in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which historically have been tested with probabilistic reversal learning tasks, remains elusive. Here, a novel deterministic reversal task and inclusion of unmedicated patients in the study sample illuminated the role of fixed versus uncertain rules/contingencies and of serotonergic medication. Additionally, our understanding of probabilistic reversal was enhanced through theoretical computational modeling of cognitive flexibility in OCD. Methods We recruited 49 patients with OCD, 21 of whom were unmedicated, and 43 healthy control participants matched for age, IQ, and gender. Participants were tested on 2 tasks: a novel visuomotor deterministic reversal learning task with 3 reversals (feedback rewarding/punishing/neutral) measuring accuracy/perseveration and a 2-choice visual probabilistic reversal learning task with uncertain feedback and a single reversal measuring win-stay and lose-shift. Bayesian computational modeling provided measures of learning rate, reinforcement sensitivity, and stimulus stickiness. Results Unmedicated patients with OCD were impaired on the deterministic reversal task under punishment only at the first and third reversals compared with both control participants and medicated patients with OCD, who had no deficit. Perseverative errors were correlated with OCD severity. On the probabilistic reversal task, unmedicated patients were only impaired at reversal, whereas medicated patients were impaired at both the learning and reversal stages. Computational modeling showed that the overall change was reduced feedback sensitivity in both OCD groups. Conclusions Both perseveration and increased shifting can be observed in OCD, depending on test conditions including the predictability of reinforcement. Perseveration was related to clinical severity and remediated by serotonergic medication.Peer reviewe

Thermal performance of an ice storage device for cooling compressed mine air in high-temperature mine refuge chambers

© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This is the accepted manuscript version of an article which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2023.121101Power outages and the risk of explosion in disaster areas make the temperature control in hot mine refuge chambers become extremely challenging. In this article, an ice storage cooling mine compressed air device with a volume of 1 m3 was newly developed for high-temperature mine refuge chambers. Both the ice storage performance and the compressed air cooling performance of the device were tested in a systematic manner. A full-size numerical model was established and validated against experimental data. The effects of the heat exchange tubes number, inlet air velocity and inlet air temperature on its thermal performance were analyzed in detail. Results indicate that: (i) the ice storage function is completed within 60 h with the ice being cooled to below -15 . (ii) When the number of heat exchange tubes is 18, the device achieves the best thermal performance with an ice melting rate of 85.02% within 96 h, and the average outlet temperature could be cooled to approximately 20 . (iii) increasing the inlet air temperature from 30 to 34 could increase the ice melting rate by 4.59%, and increasing the inlet air velocity from 5 to 15 m/s could increase the ice melting rate by 16.36%. the rational allocation of cold storage capacity by mixing air supply is the key to improving the utilization rate of the cold capacity and prolonging the effective temperature control time of the refuge chamber.Peer reviewe

Personalised care packages for people with rheumatoid arthritis: a mixed-methods study

© 2024 The Author(s). . Published by BMJ. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/Objectives Disease management in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) requires holistic assessment. We aimed to design personalised care packages suitable for people with RA. Methods This study was conducted using a mixed-methods approach and exploratory sequential design. Consensus workshops were held, involving people with RA and healthcare professionals (HCPs) treating them. Subsequently, an online survey sought views on future care packages for people with RA at relevant disease progression/stages, based on (1) results from previous quantitative data analyses (eg, socioeconomic/clinical factors), and (2) themes identified during workshops. Results Two conceptual care pathways were identified: (1) around the time of RA diagnosis, an early opportunity to influence the disease course; (2) for individuals with established RA, emphasising the importance of ‘the right MDT member at the right time’. Three care packages were suggested: (1) early care package (around RA diagnosis): introduction to MDT; (2) continuity of care package (established RA): primary/secondary providers; and (3) personalised holistic care package: integral to packages 1 and 2, implemented alongside allied health professionals. The survey received 41 responses; 82.9% agreed that people with RA need a consistent ‘early care package’ at diagnosis. 85.4% approved of additional care packages tailored to individuals’ clinical, psychological and social needs when moving to different stages of their long-term disease. Fleiss’ Kappa calculations demonstrated fair level of agreement among respondents. Conclusion Two care pathways, with three tailored care packages, were identified, with potential to improve management of people with RA. Future research will help to determine if such care packages can impact clinical (including patient-reported) outcomes.Peer reviewe

Biomarkers of Thrombotic Status Predict Spontaneous Reperfusion in Patients With ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction

© 2023 by the American College of Cardiology Foundation. Published by Elsevier. This is the accepted manuscript version of an article which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2023.03.388Background Spontaneous reperfusion, seen in ∼20% of patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), manifests as normal epicardial flow in the infarct-related artery, with or without ST-segment resolution, before percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The drivers mediating this are unknown. Objectives The authors sought to relate spontaneous reperfusion to the thrombotic profile. Methods In a prospective study, blood from STEMI patients (n = 801) was tested pre-PCI to assess in vitro, point-of-care, occlusion times (OT) and endogenous lysis times (LT). Spontaneous reperfusion was defined as infarct-related artery Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction flow grade 3 before PCI. Patients were followed for major cardiovascular events (death, myocardial infarction, or stroke). Results Spontaneous reperfusion was associated with a longer OT (435 seconds vs 366 seconds; P < 0.001) and a shorter LT (1,257 seconds vs 1,616 seconds; P < 0.001), lower troponin, and better left ventricular function. LT was superior to OT for predicting spontaneous reperfusion (area under the curve for LT: 0.707; 95% CI: 0.661-0.753; area under the curve for OT: 0.629; 95% CI: 0.581-0.677). Among patients with spontaneous reperfusion, those with complete, vs partial ST-segment resolution, had a longer OT (P = 0.002) and a shorter LT (P < 0.001). Spontaneous reperfusion was unrelated to clinical characteristics or pain-to-angiography times. Over 4 years, patients with spontaneous reperfusion experienced fewer major adverse cardiovascular events than those without (4.1% vs 10.6%; P = 0.013), especially in those with both spontaneous reperfusion and complete ST-segment resolution (1.5% vs 10.1%; P = 0.029). Conclusions We demonstrate a novel hematological signature in STEMI patients with spontaneous reperfusion, namely, decreased platelet reactivity and faster endogenous fibrinolysis, relating to smaller infarcts and improved survival. This finding indicates a role for modulating thrombotic status early after STEMI onset, to facilitate spontaneous reperfusion and improve outcomes.Peer reviewe