The gendered dimensions of the anti-mask and anti-lockdown movement on social media

This paper examines the anti-mask and anti-lockdown online movement in connection to the COVID-19 pandemic. To combat the spread of the coronavirus, health officials around the world urged and/or mandated citizens to wear facemasks and adopt physical distancing measures. These health policies and guidelines have become highly politicized in some parts of the world, often discussed in association with freedom of choice and independence. We downloaded references to the anti-mask and anti-lockdown social media posts using 24 search terms. From a total of 4209 social media posts, the researchers manually filtered the explicit visual and textual content that is related to discussions of different genders. We used multimodal discourse analysis (MDM) which analyzes diverse modes of communicative texts and images and focuses on appeals to emotions and reasoning. Using the MDM approach, we analysed posts taken from Facebook and Instagram from active anti-mask and anti-lockdown users, and we identified three main discourses around the gendered discussion of the anti-mask movement including hypermasculine, sexist and pejorative portrayals of “Karen”, and appropriating freedom and feminism discourses. A better understanding of how social media users evoke gendered discourses to spread anti-mask and anti-lockdown messages can help researchers identify differing reactions toward pandemic measures

Synthetic opioids: a review and clinical update

The term ‘opioids’ refers to both the natural compounds (‘opiates’) which are extracted from the opium poppy plant ( Papaver somniferum) and their semi-synthetic and synthetic derivatives. They all possess relatively similar biochemical profiles and interact with the opioid receptors within the human body to produce a wide range of physiological effects. They have historically been used for medicinal purposes, their analgesic and sedative effects, and in the management of chronic and severe pain. They have also been used for non-medicinal and recreational purposes to produce feelings of relaxation, euphoria and well-being. Over the last decade, the emergence of an illegal market in new synthetic opioids has become a major global public health issue, associated with a substantial increase in unintentional overdoses and drug-related deaths. Synthetic opioids include fentanyl, its analogues and emerging non-fentanyl opioids. Their popularity relates to changes in criminal markets, pricing, potency, availability compared to classic opioids, ease of transport and use, rapid effect and lack of detection by conventional testing technologies. This article expands on our previous review on new psychoactive substances. We now provide a more in-depth review on synthetic opioids and explore the current challenges faced by people who use drugs, healthcare professionals, and global public health systems

Bots as Active News Promoters: A Digital Analysis of COVID-19 Tweets

In this study, we examined the activities of automated social media accounts or bots that tweet or retweet referencing #COVID-19 and #COVID19. From a total sample of over 50 million tweets, we used a mixed method to extract more than 185,000 messages posted by 127 bots. Our findings show that the majority of these bots tweet, retweet and mention mainstream media outlets, promote health protection and telemedicine, and disseminate breaking news on the number of casualties and deaths caused by COVID-19. We argue that some of these bots are motivated by financial incentives, while other bots actively support the survivalist movement by emphasizing the need to prepare for the pandemic and learn survival skills. We only found a few bots that showed some suspicious activity probably due to the fact that our dataset was limited to two hashtags often used by official health bodies and academic communities

Efeitos negativos e limitações da gamificação no período entre 2005 e 2020: uma revisão sistemática da literatura

A gamificação tem sido definida como a aplicação de elementos de jogo a contextos que não são de jogo (Deterding et al, 2011), de forma a promover comportamentos nos indivíduos (Hamari & Koivisto, 2015). A investigação acerca da gamificação tem sido desenvolvida numa perspetiva de procura de benefícios em áreas como o marketing, a gestão e a educação (Rodrigues, Oliveira & Rodrigues, 2019). Porém, constata-se uma lacuna na literatura relativamente a uma investigação que contemple o lado negativo da gamificação e as suas potenciais limitações. O objetivo geral deste estudo consistiu em compreender os efeitos negativos e limitações da implementação da gamificação ou de elementos de jogo mencionados na literatura científica de diversas áreas. Para tal, elaborou-se uma revisão sistemática da literatura cobrindo 86 textos científicos publicados entre 2005 e 2020 em revistas científicas de ranking maior ou igual a Q2. Utilizou-se o Leximancer para extrair os principais temas e conceitos abordados. Constatou-se que os temas “gamification”, “aprendizagem”, “desempenho”, “comportamento” e “marca” foram os mais explorados pelos investigadores no período analisado. Os conceitos “marca”, “efeitos”, “contexto” e “comportamento” são aqueles que mais se relacionam com o conceito “negativo”, que se associa também com os conceitos “controlo” e “desempenho”. Detetou-se que a gamificação tem, sim, um lado negativo, que está dependente do contexto e que se manifesta principalmente no âmbito de situações de aprendizagem. A base teórica construída neste estudo permitirá a investigação sobre os fatores contextuais que limitam a eficácia da aplicação da gamificação em situação de aprendizagem.Gamification has been defined as the usage of game elements in non-game contexts (Deterding et al, 2011), to promote certain behaviours in individuals (Hamari & Koivisto, 2015). Since it is a recent, gamification has been research from a benefit search point of view in areas like marketing, management and education concept (Rodrigues, Oliveira & Rodrigues, 2019). However, there is a lack of transversal studies about the negative side of gamification and its potential limitations. The main purpose of this study was to understand the negative effects and limitations of the implementation of gamification or gamified elements, mentioned throughout scientific literature of several areas. We have thus performed a systematic review of literature covering 84 scientific texts published between 2005 and 2020 in scientific journals of Q2 or higher. We then used Leximancer to extract the main themes and concepts considered. We concluded that “gamification”, “learning”, “performance”, “behaviour” and “brand were the main themes underlying the investigation conducted in the analysed period. Moreover, “brand”, “effects”, “context” and “behaviour” are the closest concepts to “negative”, which is also associated with “control” and “performance”. We confirmed gamification does have a negative side, which depends on the context and is mainly present in learning situations. The theoretical basis brought by our study allows for future investigation on the context factors that hinder the efficacy of gamification in learning situations