The evolution of public attention in acute kidney injury and continuous renal replacement therapy: trends analysis from 2004 to 2024.

Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) and the need for Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) are critically important health concerns. This study analyzes global and regional Internet search queries to understand public attention in AKI and CRRT over time. Methods: We used Google Trends™ to analyze search queries for AKI and CRRT from January 2004 to March 2024. The study examined global trends and detailed insights from the United States, including state-by-state breakdowns. We identified patterns, peaks of attention, and temporal trends in public attention, comparing regional variations across the US and top-ranking countries worldwide. Results: Global attention in AKI peaked in October 2022, with Portugal, Zambia, and Spain showing the highest regional attention. Within the United States, peak attention was in February 2008. Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia were the top states that paid attention to AKI. Attention in CRRT peaked globally in March 2024. South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain have led the global attention to CRRT. In the United States, peak attention was in April 2020. West Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky showed the highest state-specific attention in CRRT. Conclusions: This study reveals significant temporal and geographical variations in online search patterns for AKI and CRRT, suggesting evolving public attention to these critical health issues. This knowledge can guide the development of targeted public health initiatives, enhance medical education efforts, and help healthcare systems tailor their approach to improving awareness and outcomes in kidney health across diverse populations.

Awareness of Burn Injury Prevention and First Aid Management Among Adults in Jazan, Saudi Arabia.

BACKGROUND: Burn injuries represent a significant public health concern, with the effectiveness of preventive measures and first aid largely dependent on public knowledge. This study aimed to evaluate the awareness of burn injury prevention and first aid management among adults in Jazan, Saudi Arabia. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was administered to adults in Jazan using a structured questionnaire. The survey assessed participants' knowledge of burn causes, preventive strategies, and first aid practices. Responses were analyzed to gauge the level of awareness and identify gaps in knowledge. RESULTS: Among the participants (n = 400), 71.3% (n = 285) recognized hot liquids as a primary burn hazard, 27.4% (n = 109) identified electricity, 97.0% (n = 388) cited fire, and 53.8% (n = 215) acknowledged chemicals. In terms of preventive measures, 61.6% (n = 246) understood the importance of following manufacturer safety guidelines, 78.8% (n = 315) knew to keep chemicals out of children's reach, 72.4% (n = 289) were aware of the need to wear gloves, and 61.6% (n = 246) recognized the necessity of avoiding the storage of unnecessary chemicals. For first aid practices, 91.8% (n = 367) knew to use water, 50.8% (n = 203) would seek medical attention, 22.6% (n = 90) would cover burns, and 20.3% (n = 81) considered pain management important. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate a strong awareness among adults in Jazan regarding burn injury causes, prevention, and first aid practices. Despite this, gaps remain in specific first-aid responses and comprehensive safety measures. Targeted educational initiatives could address these gaps and enhance burn injury prevention and management.

Municipal solid waste management in Lagos State: Expansion diffusion of awareness.

This study examined the role of waste management authorities in promoting public awareness of municipal solid waste management (MSWM) through the lens of the expansion diffusion theory (EDT). EDT emphasizes the spread of new ideas and practices within a society through various communication channels and distinct individuals within each system. We employed a mixed-method approach using 116 survey responses from Lagos residents and five semi-structured in-depth interviews. Our findings reveal the need for a more structured approach to create public awareness of MSWM, considering the distinct groups of residents in Lagos and their responses to innovation and knowledge diffusion. We propose four pillars on which waste management authorities in developing countries can sustain their MSWM awareness campaigns, as well as an awareness campaign strategy flowchart. Our findings add to the expanding body of research on public awareness and participation in MSWM, emphasizing the critical role that waste management authorities can play in fostering sustainable waste management awareness and practices.

Awareness, attitude, and acceptance of post placental intra uterine contraceptive device (PPIUCD) among women in Jordan.

AIM: To assess the awareness, attitude, and acceptance of the Post Placental Intra Uterine Contraceptive Device (PPIUCD) as an immediate long-acting contraceptive method among Jordanian women. METHODS: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted at King Abdulla University Hospital among women attending antenatal clinics after 20 weeks of gestation between January 2020 and May 2021. One thousand and 30 women had completed a structured questionnaire in Arabic. RESULTS: Only 41.4% of the sample was aware of the PPIUCD. The attitude toward PPIUCD after a brief introduction was 56.3%. Women who had used interval IUCD were 5.82 times more likely to express a positive attitude toward PPIUCD, while postgraduate women were 1.35 times more prone to show the same attitude. Only 34% accepted PPIUCD if offered, whereas the main barrier to acceptance was the false fear of extra complications in 34.5% of the sample. The rate of unintended current pregnancy was 35.8%, where 53.4% were using natural methods. CONCLUSIONS: The rate of awareness of PPIUCD is low among women in Jordan. Antenatal introduction encourages attitude toward PPIUCD.

Childhood language development and alexithymia in adolescence: an 8-year longitudinal study.

Alexithymia (difficulties identifying and describing feelings) predicts increased risks for psychopathology, especially during the transition from childhood to adolescence. However, little is known of the early contributors to alexithymia. The language hypothesis of alexithymia suggests that language deficits play a primary role in predisposing language-impaired groups to developing alexithymia; yet longitudinal data tracking prospective relationship between language function and alexithymia are scarce. Leveraging data from the Surrey Communication and Language in Education cohort (N = 229, mean age at time point 1 = 5.32 years, SD = 0.29, 51.1% female), we investigated the prospective link between childhood language development and alexithymic traits in adolescence. Results indicated that boys with low language function at ages 4-5 years, and those who later met the diagnostic criteria for language disorders at ages 5-6 years, reported elevated alexithymic traits when they reached adolescence. Parent-reported child syntax abilities at ages 5-6 years revealed a dimensional relationship with alexithymic traits, and this was consistent with behavioral assessments on related structural language abilities. Empirically derived language groups and latent language trajectories did not predict alexithymic traits in adolescence. While findings support the language hypothesis of alexithymia, greater specificity of the alexithymia construct in developmental populations is needed to guide clinical interventions.

Knowledge Attitude and Practices Regarding Dental Fluorosis among Saudi Subpopulations: A Questionnaire-based Study.

AIM: This study aims to examine the awareness, attitudes, and perceptions towards dental fluorosis in Hail, Saudi Arabia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was an epidemiological study with a descriptive cross-sectional design. Participants meeting the inclusion criteria were recruited from Hail, Saudi Arabia, through a convenient non-probability sampling strategy. The study planned to recruit at least 400 participants. However, (n = 419) was obtained during the 2 months of data collection. Data for the present study was collected using a validated questionnaire via Google form by disseminating it to the targeted population using non-probability snowball sampling through various social media platforms. The questionnaire comprised three parts including demographics (6 questions), a knowledge-related section comprised of (6 questions), and attitude relation portion (14 questions). RESULTS: The majority of participants (n = 369, 88.1%) were willing to undergo treatment for dental improvement. Additionally, most respondents (n = 389, 92.8%) advocated for government participation in preventive programs and emphasized the importance of raising public awareness. Furthermore, a significant proportion (n = 401, 95.7%) expressed interest in launching mass public health campaigns to prevent dental fluorosis. Females showed significantly higher awareness levels. CONCLUSION: The study highlights significant sociodemographic influences on awareness and attitudes towards dental fluorosis. While age, nationality, and income showed no impact, gender and education were significant factors. Despite gaps in knowledge, there was strong support for preventive measures. Esthetic concerns were evident, with high rates of dental consultations and recognition of social stigma. Targeted interventions are needed to address knowledge gaps and promote preventive measures, considering sociodemographic differences and broader social implications. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The findings could be the cornerstone for promoting preventive measures and improving consultation behaviors, ultimately enhancing the overall management and prevention of dental fluorosis in the community. How to cite this article: Siddiqui AA, Alanazi YA, Almagdawy EA, et al. Knowledge Attitude and Practices Regarding Dental Fluorosis among Saudi Subpopulations: A Questionnaire-based Study. J Contemp Dent Pract 2024;25(5):405-410.

Anticipating multisensory environments: Evidence for a supra-modal predictive system.

Our perceptual experience is generally framed in multisensory environments abundant in predictive information. Previous research on statistical learning has shown that humans can learn regularities in different sensory modalities in parallel, but it has not yet determined whether multisensory predictions are generated through a modality-specific predictive mechanism or instead, rely on a supra-modal predictive system. Here, across two experiments, we tested these hypotheses by presenting participants with concurrent pairs of predictable auditory and visual low-level stimuli (i.e., tones and gratings). In different experimental blocks, participants had to attend the stimuli in one modality while ignoring stimuli from the other sensory modality (distractors), and perform a perceptual discrimination task on the second stimulus of the attended modality (targets). Orthogonal to the task goal, both the attended and unattended pairs followed transitional probabilities, so targets and distractors could be expected or unexpected. We found that participants performed better for expected compared to unexpected targets. This effect generalized to the distractors but only when relevant targets were expected. Such interactive effects suggest that predictions may be gated by a supra-modal system with shared resources across sensory modalities that are distributed according to their respective behavioural relevance.

Evaluation of the Smokeless Tobacco Awareness, Attitude, and Response Knowledge (STAARK) Scale With Integrated Risk Assessment for Tailored Intervention.

Background Smokeless tobacco (SLT) use, particularly gutkha, is prevalent in India, with cultural acceptance contributing to widespread use, especially among tribal populations. Despite awareness programs, there is limited assessment of their effectiveness, leading to continued vulnerability, even among educated groups. This study aims to evaluate public health strategies by developing and validating the SLT Awareness, Attitude, and Response Knowledge (STAARK) scale, which assesses knowledge and attitudes post-awareness programs on SLT usage through questionnaires, identifying vulnerable individuals, and enabling targeted interventions to reduce SLT use and associated health risks, particularly through integrated risk assessment (IRA). Methods This study was performed during an SLT awareness program in Nagaland, utilizing a comprehensive survey to assess participants' demographics, knowledge, and attitudes. The STAARK score was calculated by combining normalized attitude and knowledge scores, ranging from 0 to 10, categorizing participants' comprehension and attitudes toward SLT usage awareness. The obtained scores were assessed twice for consistency evaluation of the scale, and vulnerable individuals were subjected to IRA for targeted intervention recommendations. Reliability and correlation analyses were performed, with Cronbach's alpha validating the scale's internal consistency. Results About 182 participants took up the assessment, with only 180 completing the survey among the population attending the awareness program. Demographic data revealed a diverse participant group, with ages ranging from 13 to 42 years. The survey assessed participants' knowledge and attitudes toward SLT, scoring them on a 0-10 scale for knowledge and a 10-60 scale for attitude. The STAARK scale was developed to combine these scores, providing a comprehensive measure of participants' understanding and attitudes toward SLT. The mean STAARK score was 5.27 with an observed lower limit of 2.40 and an upper limit of 6.50 in the responded population. Reliability testing using Cronbach's alpha showed acceptable internal consistency, though attitude had a weaker correlation with the overall STAARK score compared to knowledge. In a follow-up assessment with 88 participants, the STAARK score averaged 5.10, reinforcing the initial findings. The risk assessment of 17 participants with STAARK scores above six identified varying levels of risk, with most falling into the low- or moderate-risk categories. The study highlights the importance of targeted interventions to address SLT usage, particularly in populations with lenient attitudes toward its consumption. Conclusions The STAARK scale can serve as a key tool for evaluating SLT awareness programs by assessing participants' knowledge and attitudes and identifying high-risk individuals requiring personalized interventions for SLT usage cessation. It standardizes the assessment, enabling comparison across groups and times, and helps identify individuals with lenient attitudes toward SLT for targeted interventions. Its reliability ensures consistency, and by tracking changes in scores before and after programs, it assesses impact and guides future improvements. The STAARK scale is crucial for personalized, evidence-based public health efforts to reduce SLT use. However, eradicating SLT requires ongoing commitment, adaptability, and a focus on long-term outcomes to translate knowledge into lasting change.

Which Variables Better Predict Phonemic Awareness of First Grade Primary School Students?

The purpose of the research was to discover which variables better predict phonemic awareness. Socioeconomic status (SES), quality of parent-child interaction (PCI), screen time (DST), visual-spatial ability (VSA), and mathematical reasoning (MR) were included as independent variables in the model, while phonemic awareness (PA) was the dependent (outcome) variable. The research was designed as correlational research. A total of 556 first grade primary school students were recruited into the research sample upon approval by their parents. In the analytic procedures, supervised machine learning was adopted and data were analyzed through classification and regression trees (CART) by using rprart, rpart.plot, tidyverse, dplyr, ggplot2, and corrplot packages in R. Results of data analysis indicate that MR, PCI, and VSA can predict PA, while SES and DST are not predictors. Findings of the research were discussed along with intelligence theories and practical implications were noted for teachers and researchers.

Awareness of middle ear pathologies in South Africa: Towards a primordial preventive audiology.

BACKGROUND:  Public awareness of auditory pathologies, has been explored in the literature. However, there is limited evidence regarding public awareness of middle ear pathologies and their risk factors in South African communities. OBJECTIVES:  The aim of this study was to describe public awareness regarding middle ear pathologies and their associated risk factors in the community of Giyani, Limpopo province, South Africa. METHOD:  A quantitative cross-sectional survey design was conducted among 94 adults aged 18 years and older living in Giyani, Limpopo province. A questionnaire was used to collect data. Descriptive statistics was used to summarise the data, while a Chi-squared test was used to determine if there is any association between awareness and independent variables with categorised outcomes. RESULTS:  Adults aged between 18 and 65 years participated in this study. Most participants were aware of aural itchiness (71.3%) and pain (35%) as symptoms related to middle ear pathologies. The use of cotton buds (51.1%) and other illnesses (35.5%) were primarily reported as risk factors for middle ear pathologies. There were varied responses with regard to awareness of which professionals manage middle ear pathologies, indicating a general lack of awareness. No statistically significant association was found between the dependent and independent variables (p  0.005). CONCLUSION:  The study indicated a general lack of public awareness regarding middle ear pathologies and their associated risk factors among Giyani community.Contribution: The study raises implications for public awareness campaign that educates communities about middle ear pathologies, risk factors and social determinants of health associated with these pathologies.

ACA-Net: adaptive context-aware network for basketball action recognition.

The advancements in intelligent action recognition can be instrumental in developing autonomous robotic systems capable of analyzing complex human activities in real-time, contributing to the growing field of robotics that operates in dynamic environments. The precise recognition of basketball players' actions using artificial intelligence technology can provide valuable assistance and guidance to athletes, coaches, and analysts, and can help referees make fairer decisions during games. However, unlike action recognition in simpler scenarios, the background in basketball is similar and complex, the differences between various actions are subtle, and lighting conditions are inconsistent, making action recognition in basketball a challenging task. To address this problem, an Adaptive Context-Aware Network (ACA-Net) for basketball player action recognition is proposed in this paper. It contains a Long Short-term Adaptive (LSTA) module and a Triplet Spatial-Channel Interaction (TSCI) module to extract effective features at the temporal, spatial, and channel levels. The LSTA module adaptively learns global and local temporal features of the video. The TSCI module enhances the feature representation by learning the interaction features between space and channels. We conducted extensive experiments on the popular basketball action recognition datasets SpaceJam and Basketball-51. The results show that ACA-Net outperforms the current mainstream methods, achieving 89.26% and 92.05% in terms of classification accuracy on the two datasets, respectively. ACA-Net's adaptable architecture also holds potential for real-world applications in autonomous robotics, where accurate recognition of complex human actions in unstructured environments is crucial for tasks such as automated game analysis, player performance evaluation, and enhanced interactive broadcasting experiences.

Living with Mental Illness.

Objective: The situation of patient's relatives is still not broadly studied in psychiatry. Their needs are often overlooked. Method: We developed a digital questionnaire concerning the patient's sociodemographic, disease-related, and family-related data and had the patient's therapist fill it out. The patients included (N = 1766) were persons hospitalized on a selected date. Results: One-third of patients had at least one relative with mental illness, prior treatment, or need for treatment. The main diagnoses in relatives were affective, substance use, and somatoform disorders, often in concordance with their index patient. Teenage patients had the most affected relatives. The therapists of the minors included were better informed about their familial situation, whereas the therapists of the 30-59-year-olds knew the least. Conclusions: The comparably lower rate of affected relatives in adults stems most likely from underassessment and needs further investigation.

Examining stigma in experiences of male breast cancer patients and its impact as a barrier to care: a narrative review.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Male breast cancer (MBC) accounts for nearly one percent of all diagnosed breast cancer (BC). In the United States alone, there were 2,670 MBC reported cases and 500 fatalities in 2019. In addition to the general challenges faced by patients to diagnose and treat cancer, MBC patients experience stigma from the medical community and their own feelings of embarrassment. The presence of stigma has a negative impact on the quality of life and psychological outcomes of MBC patients. This narrative review investigates current research on the presence of stigma in the diagnosis and care of MBC patients, and the role of stigma as a barrier to care. METHODS: Current literature on MBC and stigma was found through a search of PubMed and Google Scholar. The search strategy consisted of keywords related to "male breast cancer, stigma, awareness, experiences, and social support". Studies published from January 2005 to April 2024, that were retrievable and written in English, were included in this review. KEY CONTENT AND FINDINGS: Several studies have supported that MBC patients experience stigma due to the lack of awareness in the medical community, and feelings of embarrassment felt by the patients. This stigma is seen through insufficient guidelines on MBC diagnosis and treatment and a lack of male-specific information for BC. These topics of stigma act as barriers to care, as they lead to psychological distress (e.g., anxiety and depression) and delayed diagnoses. Current studies suggest addressing the lack of information and awareness of MBC and implementing screening procedures to mitigate the negative impact of stigma. CONCLUSIONS: This review highlights the presence of stigma in the care of MBC patients and its distressing effects on patients. There is a need for increased awareness among the medical community to improve diagnosis and treatment of MBC patients, to allow for more equitable care. Future therapies should focus on the viability of routine screening programs for male patients and addressing the gap of male-specific information.

Racial Biases Associated With Pulse Oximetry: Longitudinal Social Network Analysis of Social Media Advocacy Impact.

BACKGROUND: Pulse oximetry is a noninvasive method widely used in critical care and various clinical settings to monitor blood oxygen saturation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, its application for at-home oxygen saturation monitoring became prevalent. Further investigations found that pulse oximetry devices show decreased accuracy when used on individuals with darker skin tones. This study aimed to investigate the influence of X (previously known as Twitter) on the dissemination of information and the extent to which it raised health care sector awareness regarding racial disparities in pulse oximetry. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the impact of social media, specifically X, on increasing awareness of racial disparities in the accuracy of pulse oximetry and to map this analysis against the evolution of published literature on this topic. METHODS: We used social network analysis drawing upon Network Overview Discovery and Exploration for Excel Pro (NodeXL Pro; Social Media Research Foundation) to examine the impact of X conversations concerning pulse oximetry devices. Searches were conducted using the Twitter Academic Track application programming interface (as it was known then). These searches were performed each year (January to December) from 2012 to 2022 to cover 11 years with up to 52,052 users, generating 188,051 posts. We identified the nature of influencers in this field and monitored the temporal dissemination of information about social events and regulatory changes. Furthermore, our social media analysis was mapped against the evolution of published literature on this topic, which we located using PubMed. RESULTS: Conversations on X increased health care awareness of racial bias in pulse oximetry. They also facilitated the rapid dissemination of information, attaining a substantial audience within a compressed time frame, which may have impacted regulatory action announced concerning the investigation of racial biases in pulse oximetry. This increased awareness led to a surge in scientific research on the subject, highlighting a growing recognition of the necessity to understand and address these disparities in medical technology and its usage. CONCLUSIONS: Social media platforms such as X enabled researchers, health experts, patients, and the public to rapidly share information, increasing awareness of potential racial bias. These platforms also helped connect individuals interested in these topics and facilitated discussions that spurred further research. Our research provides a basis for understanding the role of X and other social media platforms in spreading health-related information about potential biases in medical devices such as pulse oximeters.

Depression and Anxiety Among COVID-19 Patients Admitted to a "Red Zone" Intensive Care Unit: Do the Factors of Self-Awareness of Somatic Health, Anxiety, and Depression Contribute to the Course of Sars-Cov-2 Infection?

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of depressive disorders in the general population increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between history of anxiety and depressive disorders and COVID-19 outcome, hospitalization and severity of anxiety and depression, and whether such relationships are explicable by direct impact of the disease. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We conducted a questionnaire survey among 98 inpatients in the Department of Infectious Diseases of the Clinics of Samara State Medical University. The self-report questionnaire consisted of 120 items, including socio-demographic characteristics of participants, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, with items reflecting subjective feelings about the COVID-19 pandemic. We used one-factor analysis of variance to compare between groups for those indicators that conformed to a normal distribution, and the chi-square test (χ2) or Fisher's exact test to analyze group differences in the distribution of categorical variables was used. RESULTS: The mean (SD) total score on the STAI anxiety scale among hospitalized patients (51 (10.1)) significantly exceeded that of the COMET-G control group (44.9 (11.7) (H=22.8, p<0.001). There was a similar difference in the severity of depression as measured by the CES-D scale (23.4 (12.6) versus 18.0 (11.8), H=15.2 and p<0.001). In contrast to the general population, there were no statistically significant differences in anxiety and depression severity in the matched samples 52 subjects fulfilling the criteria of age, gender, and general perception of health condition. CONCLUSIONS: Anxiety and depression scores among ICU (red zone) inpatients significantly exceeded the scores observed in the COMET-G general population group. Our study did not confirm expected relationship between symptoms of anxiety and depression (based on questionnaire response) and the risk of severe course of COVID-19 (e.g. hospitalization) in matched samples, but proved that the factor of self-awareness of health state may be related to the COVID-19 course severity. Future research would benefit from clinical interview of inpatients and follow-up monitoring of affective disorders to specify whether anxiety and particular type of depression (e.g., anxious) are selectively related to the severity of COVID-19 course and risks of affective disorders persistence after somatic recovery. The accumulation of mental disorders with age, and the bidirectional association of mood disorders and infectious diseases should be considered when assessing the risk factors.

Nursing students' knowledge of working with D/deaf and hard of hearing patients: Evaluation of a deaf awareness elearning package.

AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate a newly developed Deaf awareness e-learning package with nursing students at one university in Wales, UK. BACKGROUND: D/deaf and hard of hearing communities face a multitude of barriers when accessing and receiving healthcare leading to under diagnosis of health conditions and poorer health outcomes in general. Lack of awareness, teaching, and exposure to the D/deaf and hard of hearing populations during health care professional training programmes has been shown to contribute to this health disparity. DESIGN: A descriptive cross-sectional design was used with two cohorts of undergraduate nursing students at one university in Wales, UK who were invited to undertake a Deaf awareness eLearning package developed with D/deaf communities in Wales. METHODS: Nursing student engagement and course completion were monitored, and evaluation survey questionnaires were implemented. RESULTS: The Deaf awareness eLearning package evaluation showed engagement with over 400 nursing students, who scored the package an overall mark (1 to 5 stars) of 4.72 out of 5. In total, 227 nursing students completed the eLearning package and received the certificate. Students reported finding the eLearning package very interactive, easy to navigate, thought the three-hour length was about right. However, we would like to know more about factors that influence student non-engagement and dropout. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that eLearning Deaf awareness programs can be successful in increasing knowledge and confidence around communicating with D/deaf and hard of hearing patients for nursing, with potential benefits for wider rollout across wider health and care student and staff populations. REGISTRATION NUMBER: Grant number: 101010662\737073]. TWEETABLE ABSTRACT: D/deaf and hard of hearing patients experience barriers in healthcare so health professionals need accessible Deaf awareness training. Our eLearning model shows promise.

Risk communication and public response to potential radiation emergencies in New York City.

Public knowledge and awareness about radiation (both natural and manmade) tend to be low, while perceived risk of radiation tends to be high. High perceptions of risk associated with radiation have been linked to the affect heuristic and general feelings of dread, which are often not proportionate to actual risk. For example, studies routinely show that members of the public rate the risk of radiation from nuclear power plants as significantly higher (and riskier) than radiation from medical X-rays. This disconnect can have implications for adoption of protective actions during a potential radiation emergency and the perceived efficacy of these actions. This study explores how risk communication efforts influence public risk perceptions, intended protective action, and perceived efficacy of those actions. Using unique data from a survey of New York City adults, we analyze how information provision using different formats-no information, an infographic, an informational video-impact perceptions and response to a hypothetical radiation emergency. We hypothesize that respondents who receive some information, either through the infographic or the video, will have higher perceived efficacy and are more likely to take protective action. Findings suggest that providing information about what to do during a radiation emergency has a statistically significant impact on both perceived efficacy and adoption of protective action. Respondents who saw the informational video were most likely to say that they would take the correct protective actions and had the highest perceived efficacy, followed by those who saw the infographic.

Awareness and Knowledge of Tobacco Use and Its Relation to Oral Cancer Among Patients Visiting Stomatology Teaching Hospital.

Background: Oral cancer (OC) is a major global health issue, with tobacco use being one of the most significant preventable risk factors. Despite its strong association with OC, public awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco remains limited. This study aims to evaluate the awareness and knowledge of tobacco use related to oral cancer among patients referred to the Stomatology Teaching Hospital. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted at the Stomatology Teaching Hospital of Kabul University of Medical Sciences (KUMS) between January 1 and July 30, 2023. Using a convenience sampling method, the study included 435 patients aged 15 to 76 years. Logistic regression analysis was employed to determine factors associated with tobacco use, and the data were analyzed using SPSS version 26.0. Results: Participants were divided into two groups: tobacco users and non-tobacco users. Most of them were young (18 to 30 years old) with a significant difference in oral cancer knowledge between the two groups (p < 0.001). Cigarettes were the most common tobacco type among users (62.1%), which was also statistically significant (p < 0.001). Tobacco users were 3.04 times more likely to have knowledge about oral cancer (OR: 3.04, p < 0.001, 95% CI: 1.93-4.80), indicating a significant association. Conclusion: The study reveals a general lack of awareness about oral cancer in our study population, particularly regarding specific risk factors. To improve awareness, it is essential for both public awareness campaigns and dentists to play a more active role in educating the public about oral cancer.

Diversity ideologies in organizations.

This review examines diversity ideologies as influential tools for managing intergroup relations in organizations. Drawing from over two decades of scholarship, we consider our evolving understanding of what diversity ideologies are, how they manifest, and what consequences they have. Diversity ideologies are multi-level constructs that can be espoused or enacted. They are a blueprint for how individuals and organizations should respond to social group differences. We distinguish between awareness and blindness ideologies, and their roles in shaping individual and group experiences. Finally, we describe how the effectiveness of these ideologies is contingent on the group targeted, the nature of the context, and individual differences. Overall, our synthesis of extant literature highlights how diversity ideologies both shape and are shaped by organizational environments.