Determinants of Public Opinion Toward Gender-Affirming Surgery in the United States.

Purpose: National polling data indicate that Americans support the right of transgender persons to undergo gender-affirming surgery (GAS). It remains unknown whether public perceptions of GAS differ depending on patient subpopulations, anatomical site, or insurance coverage and whether the public widely believes that transgender people will regret GAS. Methods: We built a Qualtrics™ survey derived from an online validated 2017 Ipsos survey and distributed it to American adults through Amazon Mechanical Turk. Associations of demographic characteristics with perception of GAS were determined using multinomial logistic regression. Results: Respondents (n=312) were predominantly non-Hispanic White (69.2%), held a bachelor's degree (64.7%), and reported an annual income of $25,000 to $74,999 (64.4%). Approximately half of respondents identified as socially liberal (50.3%); 34.0% as socially conservative; and 15.7% as neither. Respondents supported a right to GAS independent of anatomy and insurance. Support for transgender children (62%) was less than for adult transgender men (84%) and women (83%). Despite supporting a right to GAS, respondents agreed that transgender adults (67%) and children (74%) would regret GAS. Education was the strongest predictor of support for GAS rights. Socially conservative respondents were significantly more likely than nonideological or liberal respondents to believe that transgender people would regret GAS. Conclusion: This large online sample of American adults with diverse ideologies demonstrated support for GAS independent of anatomical site and insurance. Support of GAS for transgender children is robust, although lower than support for adults. Despite broad support, most laypersons believe that transgender people would regret GAS.

Voters and the IMF: Experimental Evidence From European Crisis Countries.

IMF interventions are often associated with rising political discontent in countries where the Fund intervenes. Studies examining this relationship, however, face the challenge of disentangling the impact of the IMF from the impact of the crisis that triggered the intervention. To address this challenge, we conduct survey experiments in Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain and directly assess how voters evaluate the costs and benefits of an IMF intervention. We find that voters believe that the crisis will more likely be solved when the IMF intervenes, but they are also critical of the corresponding loss of national sovereignty. Because the former consideration, on average, dominates their assessment, IMF interventions increase the support of voters for unpopular economic policies. Nonetheless, cross-country differences suggest that continued public support for intervention hinges on the IMF's ability to deliver on its promise to help resolve the crisis.

Understanding societal challenges: a NeurotechEU perspective.

Futuristic universities like The NeurotechEU and the technological innovations they provide will shape and serve society, but will also require support from society. Positive attitudes about neuro-technologies will increase their reach within society and may also impact policy-making, including funding decisions. However, the acceptability rates, especially of invasive neuro-technologies, are quite low and the majority of people are more worried than enthusiastic about them. The question therefore arises as to what neuro-technological advances should entail. In a rare effort to reach out to the public, we propose to conduct a trans-national survey with the goal to better understand the challenges of our NeurotechEU nations. We aim to compare and contrast our nations specifically with respect to their perspectives on neuro-technological advances, i.e., their needs for, interests in, access to, knowledge of and trust in neuro-technologies, and whether these should be regulated. To this end, we have developed the first version of a new tool-the Understanding Societal Challenges Questionnaire (USCQ)-which assesses all six of these dimensions (needs, interest, access, knowledge, trust, and policy-making) and is designed for administration across EU/AC countries. In addition to trans-national comparisons, we will also examine the links of our nations' perspectives on neuro-technological advances to demographic and personality variables, for example, education and socio-economic status, size of the residential area, the Big Five personality traits, religiosity, political standings, and more. We expect that this research will provide a deeper understanding of the challenges that our nations are facing as well as the similarities and differences between them, and will also help uncover the variables that predict positive and negative attitudes toward neuro-technological advances. By integrating this knowledge into the scientific process, The NeurotechEU may be able to develop neuro-technologies that people really care about, are ethical and regulated, and actually understood by the user.

Five years of discourse related to Indonesia tobacco control reform: a content analysis of online media coverage.

BACKGROUND: In 2017, Indonesia initiated the amendment of its 11-year-old tobacco control regulation (PP 109/2012) to reduce smoking among youth, but the process was stalled. The proposed changes in the regulation include a full ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship (TAPS), increasing health warning label (HWL) size and regulating electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes). This study analysed the arguments and actors for and against the PP 109/2012 amendment in online media articles. METHOD: Content analysis of 326 online articles reporting on the PP 109/2012 amendment published from 2018 to 2023, retrieved from the Tobacco Watcher platform. We coded articles for statements supporting or opposing the amendment (position statement), content of the arguments used to support (supporting argument) and oppose (opposing argument) the amendment, actors presenting the arguments and tobacco control measures. We iteratively reviewed and coded data and presented the frequency of categories. RESULTS: Of 332 position statements, 53.3% were against the amendment. The main categories of supporting arguments (N=1448) included smoking trends (21.1%), health implications (16.6%), science-based evidence (9.6%) and protecting the population (9.2%). Opposing arguments (N=1413) emphasised the tobacco farmers' welfare (16.6%), impact on the industry (16.4%) and current regulation is sufficient (11.0%). Supporting actors were predominantly health-related entities and government officials (89.3%), while 62.1% of opposing actors included trade and Islamic groups, the tobacco industry and front groups. HWLs, e-cigarette/heated tobacco product regulation and TAPS were the main (77.8%) tobacco control measures mentioned in the proamendment arguments, while HWLs, TAPS and cigarette sale restrictions were the dominant (79.3%) tobacco control measures in anti-amendment arguments. CONCLUSION: Indonesia's tobacco control reform faced opposition by false claims primarily from industry allies, resulting in a 5-year delay in enactment. Future tobacco control media advocacy must address these claims and emphasise the alignment of economic interests with public health goals.

The Legality of Labor and Perceptions of Deservingness of Rights and Services for Sex Workers.

Access to social services like healthcare, education, housing, and welfare are integral to creating an equitable society. While many populations inherently benefit from these services, sex workers are often denied these rights and services because of the nature of their work. The purpose of this study was to examine perceptions of deservingness of sex workers for a wide range of rights and services. This study distinguished those attitudes across legal and illegal forms of sex work, identified attitudinal and demographic correlates associated with those perceptions, and examined potential interactions between respondents' gender and age. Participants included a nationwide sample of adults from the USA (n = 549). Results indicated that participants perceived legal sex work as more deserving of rights and services compared to illegal sex work. Perceptions of deservingness were associated with attitudes toward abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, and perceptions of government legitimacy. Overall, older individuals were less willing to extend rights and services to sex workers and women were more likely to perceive sex workers as deserving of rights and services. There was an interaction between gender and age. For illegal sex work, gender differences in perceptions converged as participants aged, whereas for legal sex work, gender differences were exacerbated with age, with men reporting particularly restrictive perceptions of deservingness.

Factors Influencing Public Attitudes and Willingness to Utilize Telepharmacy Services in the UAE.

Background: Telepharmacy, utilizing telecommunications to dispense pharmaceutical products and deliver patient care, offers numerous benefits for both the public and pharmacists. Previous research on exploring attitudes and willingness to use telepharmacy services has primarily focused on pharmacists rather than the general population. Aim: This study is aimed at assessing the attitudes and willingness of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) population to utilize telepharmacy services and identifying the factors influencing their inclination to use these services. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a survey was distributed using convenience and snowball sampling to individuals aged 18 or older across the UAE through various social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp. The survey domains included sociodemographics, attitudes, and readiness to utilize a telepharmacy service. A binary logistic regression analysis was conducted to investigate the variables associated with participants' willingness to utilize telepharmacy in the future. Results: In total, 963 individuals participated in the study. Participants showed overall positive attitudes towards telepharmacy, with 70.9% believing that telepharmacy saved time and effort. While only 32% of the participants acknowledged that numerous telepharmacy services were available for use in the UAE, most were interested in using telepharmacy services in the future (79.2%). Participants who had higher attitude scores (AOR = 1.147, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.11-1.18) and those who had used these services previously (AOR = 3.270, 95% CI: 1.692-6.320) were more interested in using telepharmacy services in the future. Conclusion: Forthcoming healthcare strategies should focus on expanding the availability of telepharmacy services throughout various regions of the country. This expansion will facilitate the broader utilization of these services and ultimately contribute to improved health outcomes.

Understanding Support for Municipal Political Parties: Evidence from Canada.

The province of Ontario, Canada, has a longstanding history of non-partisanship in municipal elections. In this distinctive context, we report results on citizen attitudes toward municipal partisanship using a survey of eligible voters in Canada's most populous province. Using a mixed-methods approach, we focus on three interrelated research questions. First, how much does citizen support for municipal parties depend on the type of party under consideration? Second, what reasons do citizens provide for their preference for either municipal political parties or independents? Finally, what are the correlates of support for municipal parties? We find little support for municipal political parties, and that many voters have sophisticated reasons for preferring either independents or parties. We also identify several factors associated with support for parties. These results provide an in-depth picture of attitudes on municipal partisanship in Ontario, and suggest that public opinion may provide an overlooked mechanism that maintains Ontario's non-partisanship.

To use or not to use electronic cigarettes? Reasons for use, stopping use and their behavioural sequelae among Mexicans who smoke.

INTRODUCTION: Reasons for using and stopping the use of e-cigarettes and their associations with transitions in nicotine product use are relatively unknown in countries with e-cigarette bans, such as Mexico. METHODS: Data comes from an open cohort of people who smoke in Mexico, surveyed every 4 months from November 2018 to November 2021. Those who smoked and used e-cigarettes at time t (n=904 individuals, 1653 observations) were categorised at 4-month follow-up (t+1): (1) continued 'dual use', (2) exclusive smoking, (3) exclusive use of e-cigarettes or neither product. For people who formerly used e-cigarettes at time t (n=332 individuals, 372 observations), follow-up categories were: (1) continued exclusive smoking; (2) re-initiated e-cigarette use. Multinomial and logistic models regressed follow-up status (ref=status at time t) on reasons for using or stopping e-cigarette use, respectively, at time t, adjusting for covariates. RESULTS: The most prevalent reasons for current e-cigarette use were 'they were less harmful to others' (40.5%) and 'enjoyable' (39.0%). Those who reported using e-cigarettes because they were less harmful to others (Adjusted Relative Risk Ratio (ARRR)=0.67), more enjoyable (ARRR=0.52), could help them to quit smoking (ARRR=0.65), or to control weight (ARRR=0.46) were less likely to return to exclusively smoking. Among people who formerly used e-cigarettes, lack of satisfaction was the primary reason for stopping e-cigarette use (32%) and those who reported this were less likely to start using e-cigarettes again at follow-up (Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR)=0.58). CONCLUSIONS: Specific reasons for using and stopping e-cigarettes predict changes in smoking and e-cigarette use, and targeting these beliefs could promote desired behaviour changes.

Improving responsible Media Reporting on Student Suicide to Reduce Negative Public Opinion: Text Mining Based on Sina Weibo in China.

The aims of this study were to explore whether student suicide reporting is consistent with media recommendations for suicide reporting; analyze public opinion and sentiments toward student suicide reports. A keyword search was performed on the WeiboReach platform. This study included 113 student suicide report posts and 176,262 readers' comments on suicide news reports. Hierarchical generalized linear modeling was used to analyze the relationships between adherence to reporting recommendations and negative emotions in readers' comments. None of the media reporting of student suicide was consistent with all of the media recommendations for suicide reporting. Netizens were less likely to post negative comments when the reports describe the suicide method used (OR 1.169, 95% CI 1.022∼1.337), and not specifying the cause of suicide was a protective factor for public negative emotion (OR 0.799, 95% CI 0.707, 0.905). The findings suggest improving responsible media reporting on student suicide to reduce negative public emotion.

Doctors' voices generate support for abortion care: Results from a nationally representative survey.

OBJECTIVES: We tested abortion messaging to develop evidence-based communication recommendations for doctors who provide abortion care. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted an online survey in a nationally representative sample of 1215 people, using National Opinion Research Center's Amerispeak Panel. We surveyed participants before and after viewing two brief videos featuring doctors who provide abortion care speaking about their work. Doctors' comments were grounded in strategic communications and applied psychology research, and emphasized caregiving roles, avoided political-sounding punditry, and acknowledged abortion's complexities. We assessed participants' characterizations of doctors, and how these characterizations impact support for abortion restrictions and views on abortion legality. We analyzed pre-post data using descriptive statistics, t tests, and multivariable regression. RESULTS: Postmessaging more participants endorsed positive descriptors of doctors who provide abortion care (p < 0.001, t = 8.99); fewer endorsed negative descriptors (p < 0.001, t = 10.32). Increased postmessaging endorsement of positive descriptors predicted declines in support for abortion restrictions (adjusted odds ratio = 1.69, p < 0.01); decreased endorsement of negative descriptors did not. After messaging, 37% of respondents said their views of doctors who provide abortion care made them less likely to support abortion restrictions, compared to 14% before (p < 0.001, t = -6.9). After messaging, there was more overall support for legal abortion and less for abortion being mostly illegal (46% to 48% and 24% to 22%, p < 0.001; t = -4.11). CONCLUSIONS: When doctors who provide abortion care use messaging recommendations that include speaking about abortion's complexities and avoiding political-sounding punditry, they generate more support for legal abortion and less for restrictions. IMPLICATIONS: The voices of doctors who provide abortion care shape public opinion. When doctors speak from caregiving perspectives, avoid punditry, and acknowledge abortion's complexities, they generate more support for legal abortion and less for restrictions. However, audiences may not be aware a priori that ideas of doctors shape their views.

The dynamic feasibility of resisting (R), accepting (A), or directing (D) ecological change.

Ecological transformations are occurring as a result of climate change, challenging traditional approaches to land management decision-making. The resist-accept-direct (RAD) framework helps managers consider how to respond to this challenge. We examined how the feasibility of the choices to resist, accept, and direct shifts in complex and dynamic ways through time. We considered 4 distinct types of social feasibility: regulatory, financial, public, and organizational. Our commentary is grounded in literature review and the examples that exist but necessarily has speculative elements because empirical evidence on this newly emerging management strategy is scarce. We expect that resist strategies will become less feasible over time as managers encounter situations where resisting is ecologically, by regulation, financially, or publicly not feasible. Similarly, we expect that as regulatory frameworks increasingly permit their use, if costs decrease, and if the public accepts them, managers will increasingly view accept and direct strategies as more viable options than they do at present. Exploring multiple types of feasibility over time allows consideration of both social and ecological trajectories of change in tandem. Our theorizing suggested that deepening the time horizon of decision-making allows one to think carefully about when one should adopt different approaches and how to combine them over time.

La viabilidad dinámica de resistir (R), aceptar (A) o dirigir (D) el cambio ecológico Resumen Las transformaciones ecológicas ocurren por el cambio climático, lo que representa un reto para los enfoques tradicionales para decidir en torno a la gestión de tierras. El marco resistir­aceptar­dirigir (RAD) ayuda a los gestores a considerar cómo responder a este reto. Analizamos cómo la viabilidad de las opciones para resistir, aceptar y dirigir cambia de manera compleja y dinámica con el tiempo. Consideramos cuatro tipos distintos de viabilidad: regulatoria, económica, pública y de organización. Nuestro comentario está basado en la revisión bibliográfica y los ejemplos que existen, pero por necesidad tiene elementos especulativos ya que la evidencia empírica sobre esta estrategia emergente de gestión es escasa. Esperamos que las estrategias de resistir se vuelvan menos viables con el tiempo conforme los gestores encuentren situaciones en las que resistir no es viable de forma ecológica, económica, pública o por regulación. Al igual esperamos que cada vez más los marcos regulatorios permitan su uso, si el costo disminuye, y si el público los acepta, los gestores verán cada vez más viables las estrategias de aceptar y dirigir que las que utilizan actualmente. La exploración de varios tipos de viabilidad a lo largo del tiempo permite considerar las trayectorias sociales y ecológicas del cambio en conjunto. Nuestra teoría sugiere que profundizar en el horizonte temporal de las decisiones permite que se analice con cuidado sobre cuando se deben adoptar enfoques diferentes y cómo combinarlos con el tiempo.

Beyond Legal Boundaries: Public and Clinician Perspectives on Treatment Withdrawal in Infants With Poor Neurological Prognosis.

BACKGROUND: Despite medical advancements in neonatal survival rates, many children have poor neurological outcomes. Because the law in Korea restricts the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment to only cases of imminent death, treatment discontinuation may not be an option, even in patients with poor neurological prognosis. This study investigated the opinions of the general population and clinicians regarding life-sustaining treatment withdrawal in such cases using hypothetical scenarios. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study on the general population and clinicians using a web-based questionnaire. The sample of the general population from an online panel comprised 500 individuals aged 20-69 years selected by quota sampling. The clinician sample comprised 200 clinicians from a tertiary university hospital. We created hypothetical vignettes and questionnaire items to assess attitudes regarding mechanical ventilation withdrawal for an infant at risk of poor neurological prognosis due to birth asphyxia at 2 months and 3 years after the incidence. RESULTS: Overall, 73% of the general population and 74% of clinicians had positive attitudes toward mechanical ventilator withdrawal at 2 months after birth asphyxia. The proportion of positive attitudes toward mechanical ventilator withdrawal was increased in the general population (84%, P < 0.001) and clinicians (80.5%, P = 0.02) at 3 years after birth asphyxia. Religion, spirituality, the presence of a person with a disability in the household, and household income were associated with the attitudes of the general population. In the multivariable logistic regression analysis of the general population, respondents living with a person with a disability or having a disability were more likely to find the withdrawal of the ventilator at 2 months and 3 years after birth asphyxia not permissible. Regarding religion, respondents who identified as Christians were more likely to find the ventilator withdrawal at 2 months after birth asphyxia unacceptable. CONCLUSION: The general population and clinicians shared the perspective that the decision to withdraw life-sustaining treatment in infants with a poor neurological prognosis should be considered before the end of life. A societal discussion about making decisions centered around the best interest of pediatric patients is warranted.

Public opinion on alcohol policies in Sri Lanka.

Background: Alcohol imposes a significant burden on health, social and economic systems in Sri Lanka. In the present economic crisis taxes on alcohol provides necessary revenue increases. Yet, the perception of the public on alcohol policies in Sri Lanka is not well explored. Objectives: This opinion survey was conducted with the aim to understand the public's awareness on alcohol harm, alcohol industry influences, barriers and facilitators for implementing alcohol control policies in Sri Lanka, and the level of public support for alcohol policies, particularly taxes on alcohol products. Methods: A street intercept survey among 997 participants (with a ratio of 2:1 for males and females) selected through a cluster sampling method responded to an interviewer administered questionnaire. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to determine associations and a p < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Among the respondents, 36.1% have consumed alcohol at least once in their lifetime and 29.1% have consumed alcohol during the past 12 months with a significant gender difference (females - 2.8%; males- 43.4%; p < 0.001). Significant proportions of both men (81.4%) and women (71.8%); p < 0.017 agreed that policy measures to reduce alcohol consumption would benefit the government including a significant proportion (73.8%, p < 0.008) of alcohol users. The vast majority -72.8%- agreed that increasing alcohol prices would help address the alcohol consumption problem in Sri Lanka. Moreover, only 30.8% of men and 44.3% of women agreed that the government's alcohol laws are currently strong enough to protect people from alcohol harm. The regression analysis revealed that men are 2.43 times more in agreement with the statement that "policy measures aimed at reducing alcohol consumption can benefit the public" as compared to women. However, individuals aged 50-64 years are 40% less likely to agree with this statement as compared to 18-33 years. Conclusion: The majority of the public, including people who consume alcohol, are supportive of improving alcohol related policies, including taxes, and acknowledge negative impact of alcohol consumption on the country. This presents a clear opportunity for Sri Lanka to strengthen and enforce the alcohol related policies to protect and improve public health.

Public comfort with the use of ChatGPT and expectations for healthcare.

OBJECTIVES: To examine whether comfort with the use of ChatGPT in society differs from comfort with other uses of AI in society and to identify whether this comfort and other patient characteristics such as trust, privacy concerns, respect, and tech-savviness are associated with expected benefit of the use of ChatGPT for improving health. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed an original survey of U.S. adults using the NORC AmeriSpeak Panel (n = 1787). We conducted paired t-tests to assess differences in comfort with AI applications. We conducted weighted univariable regression and 2 weighted logistic regression models to identify predictors of expected benefit with and without accounting for trust in the health system. RESULTS: Comfort with the use of ChatGPT in society is relatively low and different from other, common uses of AI. Comfort was highly associated with expecting benefit. Other statistically significant factors in multivariable analysis (not including system trust) included feeling respected and low privacy concerns. Females, younger adults, and those with higher levels of education were less likely to expect benefits in models with and without system trust, which was positively associated with expecting benefits (P = 1.6 × 10-11). Tech-savviness was not associated with the outcome. DISCUSSION: Understanding the impact of large language models (LLMs) from the patient perspective is critical to ensuring that expectations align with performance as a form of calibrated trust that acknowledges the dynamic nature of trust. CONCLUSION: Including measures of system trust in evaluating LLMs could capture a range of issues critical for ensuring patient acceptance of this technological innovation.

Birthdate-based commercial tobacco sales restrictions: will 'tobacco-free generation' policies advance or delay the endgame?

Endgame thinking means transitioning from merely trying to 'control' the tobacco epidemic to developing plans and measures to bring it to an end within a specific time, by changing the underlying dynamics that have created and perpetuated it for more than a century. Among the innovative policies characterised as 'endgame' policies are so-called 'tobacco-free generation' or 'smoke-free generation' policies, which prohibit sales of some or all tobacco products to individuals born on or after a particular date. Such birthdate-based sales restrictions (BSR) have intuitive appeal, largely because they do not appreciably disrupt the status quo of retail sales, which continue unchanged for all those born before the designated cut-off date. They also hold the potential for further denormalising tobacco use and sales by anticipating the long-term end of tobacco sales. In this Special Communication, we analyse BSR policies through an endgame lens and propose questions that should be discussed in jurisdictions considering them. We suggest that this policy has potential underexamined pitfalls, particularly related to equity, and that if enacted, it should include policy guardrails and be part of a package of endgame measures.

Police body-worn cameras and privacy: Views and concerns of officers and citizens.

Police body-worn cameras (BWC) have been lauded for their potential to increase transparency and accountability by documenting officers' actions and interactions with citizens. However, despite their widespread use in recent years, several law enforcement agencies have been hesitant to adopt this technology because of privacy concerns. This article explores the views of police officers and citizens from the Canadian province of Quebec towards the use of BWCs. Specifically, it seeks to: (a) understand how officers feel about being monitored by BWCs and (b) assess citizens' privacy concerns towards police BWCs. A mixed-method research design was used, including interviews and focus groups with 78 police officers, including 46 officers from four pilot sites, and a telephone survey of 1609 residents from the same sites. The results show that officers are concerned about the potential effects of BWCs on their privacy and the privacy of the public. One major area of concern is the impact it may have on their work performance and the use of adaptative measures that support them in carrying out challenging duties. By contrast, most citizens have no reservations about being recorded by a BWC. Certain individual characteristics-such as age and perceptions of the police-however, were associated with heightened privacy concerns. Without neglecting citizens' privacy, this study provides insights into the development of BWC policies that preserve officers' right to privacy and ability to fulfill their duty.

Public Support for Tobacco Endgame Policies: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

INTRODUCTIONS: An increasing number of countries are adopting the tobacco endgame goal. High levels of public support can accelerate momentum towards implementing tobacco endgame policies. We aimed to conduct a systematic review of public support for tobacco endgame policies and to examine the geographical distribution of studies, support among key populations (adolescents and young adults, people who smoke), and the association between survey design and support. METHODS: We searched Embase, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar for studies published from 2013 onwards. Google was used to search the grey literature. The reference lists of included articles were hand-searched. Studies were included if they reported the proportions of people supporting one or more endgame policies. Risk of bias was assessed using the JBI checklist for prevalence studies. RESULTS: Forty-seven articles were included. Aotearoa/New Zealand and the United States were the countries with the most studies (n=11, respectively). Three-level meta-analyses showed the highest support for mandating a very low nicotine content in tobacco products (76%, 95% CI 61-87%). Meta-regressions were performed to assess the associations of population subgroup and survey design with support levels. The level of support was lower among people who smoke compared to the general population (ß range: -1.59 to -0.51). Support for some policies was lower when neutral or don't know response options were included. CONCLUSIONS: Public support for most tobacco endgame policies was high. IMPLICATIONS: Assessing public support can assist with progressing tobacco endgame policies. Policies that are widely supported by the public may be more politically feasible to implement. Qualitative studies and trial studies can further inform communication and implementation strategies for tobacco endgame policies.

Forensic DNA database and criminal investigation in the Sahel region: a need to update the national security policy?

Ongoing terrorist attacks in the Sahel region call for strengthening the security system by using human DNA identification technology. In this context, public opinion must be considered when establishing solid standards and universal safeguards for one of the most invasive forms of surveillance and profiling. For this purpose, we gathered internet users' opinions in Burkina Faso (a country located in the Sahel region) on the use of DNA technology to support criminal investigations. The results revealed that 91.7% (431) of the 470 participants believed that this technology is currently necessary for the Burkina Faso's criminal justice system. However, the respondents expressed concerns about the custody and management of a national forensic DNA database. In this particular security setting, the public opinion of this study may provide leaders and political policymakers with clues for considering genetic fingerprints and implementing an national forensic DNA database to support criminal investigations in Burkina Faso whilst also considering the ethical implications.

Opinion of teenagers on smoking-free policy in public places and its determinants - evidence from a global youth tobacco survey in five European countries.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: Smoking-free policies protect non-smokers from the negative effects of smoking, but many young adults still use products containing nicotine. The aim of this article is to analyze the factors that influence young people's attitudes towards the ban on smoking in public places. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Data were obtained from a representative sample of young adults aged 13-15 from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) conducted in the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Logistic regression analysis was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: At least a quarter of the adolescents were exposed to cigarette smoking, about 40% have parents who smoke and over 50% declared that they have peers who smoke. A higher proportion of adolescents have knowledge about the harmful effects of second-hand smoking (62.6-71.9%), but at least one-fifth of young people are still exposed to the marketing of tobacco products. Compared with current smoking, those with never smoked were significantly associated with positive attitude toward to restricting smoking in all five analyzed countries, with an AOR= 4.74 (95% CI: 3.61-6.23), AOR=4.33 (95% CI: 2.32-8.07), AOR=2.85 (95% CI: 2.19-3.70) and AOR=2.45 (95% CI: 1.65-3.64), respectively. Gender, age, smoking, exposure to second-hand smoke, knowledge about the harmful effects of smoking, anti-smoking education, seeing people using tobacco and exposure to tobacco marketing, were significantly associated with the attitudes of young people towards restricting smoking in public places. CONCLUSIONS: The study provides useful information on factors that should be taken into account when planning anti-smoking strategies so that young people are able to resist the pressure to use tobacco products.

On manipulation by emotional AI: UK adults' views and governance implications.

With growing commercial, regulatory and scholarly interest in use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to profile and interact with human emotion ("emotional AI"), attention is turning to its capacity for manipulating people, relating to factors impacting on a person's decisions and behavior. Given prior social disquiet about AI and profiling technologies, surprisingly little is known on people's views on the benefits and harms of emotional AI technologies, especially their capacity for manipulation. This matters because regulators of AI (such as in the European Union and the UK) wish to stimulate AI innovation, minimize harms and build public trust in these systems, but to do so they should understand the public's expectations. Addressing this, we ascertain UK adults' perspectives on the potential of emotional AI technologies for manipulating people through a two-stage study. Stage One (the qualitative phase) uses design fiction principles to generate adequate understanding and informed discussion in 10 focus groups with diverse participants (n = 46) on how emotional AI technologies may be used in a range of mundane, everyday settings. The focus groups primarily flagged concerns about manipulation in two settings: emotion profiling in social media (involving deepfakes, false information and conspiracy theories), and emotion profiling in child oriented "emotoys" (where the toy responds to the child's facial and verbal expressions). In both these settings, participants express concerns that emotion profiling covertly exploits users' cognitive or affective weaknesses and vulnerabilities; additionally, in the social media setting, participants express concerns that emotion profiling damages people's capacity for rational thought and action. To explore these insights at a larger scale, Stage Two (the quantitative phase), conducts a UK-wide, demographically representative national survey (n = 2,068) on attitudes toward emotional AI. Taking care to avoid leading and dystopian framings of emotional AI, we find that large majorities express concern about the potential for being manipulated through social media and emotoys. In addition to signaling need for civic protections and practical means of ensuring trust in emerging technologies, the research also leads us to provide a policy-friendly subdivision of what is meant by manipulation through emotional AI and related technologies.