Rejection of the status quo: Conspiracy theories and preference for alternative political systems.

Conspiracy theories introduce a democratic paradox, as belief in conspiracy theories predicts support for both democratic and non-democratic political systems. In this article, we explore whether democratic and anti-democratic attitudes, resulting from conspiracy beliefs, can be mutually exclusive. In Study 1 (United Kingdom, N = 293), we show that belief in conspiracy theories is associated with decreased support for representative democracy, and increased support for direct democracy, anarchism, and autocracy within the same individuals. In Study 2 (United States, N = 302, pre-registered), we experimentally show that the perceived presence of conspiracies is linked to an increased preference for direct democracy, anarchism, and autocracy and decreased support for representative democracy. Mediational analyses suggest that widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo and, less consistently, feelings of political cynicism mediate the relationships between conspiracy beliefs and (anti-)democratic attitudes. In Study 3 (United States, N = 400, pre-registered), we experimentally manipulate (dis)satisfaction with the status quo. Results indicate that rejecting the status quo increases support for direct democracy, anarchism, and autocracy and decreases support for representative democracy. Overall, our findings suggest that people who believe in conspiracy theories tend to favour both democratic and anti-democratic political alternatives, largely attributed to citizens' desire to change the status quo.

Who is chronically obese in Indonesia? The role of individual preferences.

Numerous studies have confirmed the relationship between individual risk and time preference and obesity. Nevertheless, none has studied the effect of these attitudes on chronic (long-term) obesity. This study used Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS) data from 16,366 individuals. It tracked their obesity status in 2007 and 2014 by calculating body mass index, the ratio between body weight and square of height. Besides the conventional risk-averse and risk-tolerant behaviour, the IFLS sample includes people who fear uncertainty related to the status quo bias. The ordered logit regression results show that past impatience, risk tolerance, and status quo bias behaviour (in 2007) are associated with transient or chronic obesity, while only current behaviour of status quo bias (in 2014) is associated with obesity. Furthermore, our study confirms that chronic obesity in Indonesia is prevalent among highly educated, high-income, and urban-centric individuals, exacerbated by impatience, risk tolerance, and uncertainty aversion. Thus, providing information on the risk of obesity and food calories, giving the incentive to avoid obesity, and improving the quality of built environments such as public parks, public transportation, and footpath could help prevent the rising obesity prevalence.

The emergence of young children's tolerance for inequality: With age, children stop showing numerically sensitive fairness.

One persistent and pernicious feature of outstanding social inequality is that even relatively extreme forms of inequality can be justified with reference to merit-based considerations. One key feature of fairness with respect to resource allocation is that it is numerically sensitive; greater (more extreme) inequalities are generally seen as less fair than less extreme ones. This work sought to document the emergence of numerically sensitive fairness in children aged 4 to 8 years. A total of 81 4- to 8-year-olds completed a series of within-participants fairness judgment trials in which they observed two characters receive either equitable or inequitable shares of resources-ranging from 50/50 (completely fair) to 0/100 (completely unfair)-in two contexts: one in which the two characters were described as working the same amount (equality context) and one in which one character was described as working harder than the other character (merit context). Children of all ages showed numerically sensitive fairness in the equality context. However, whereas younger children continued to show numerically sensitive fairness in the merit context, older children approved even relatively extreme inequalities when one person was described as working harder. This effect emerged with age, suggesting a double-edged sword to acquiring beliefs in merit-based fairness; as children get older, they may begin to accept even relatively extreme forms of inequality when presented in a merit context. Results are discussed with respect to the acquisition of meritocracy as a normative belief of fairness.

Research on the implementation status and path of digital party building in hospital grassroots organi-zations / 现代医院

With the continuous development of information technology,digital technology has become an important means of party building in hospitals.Through the necessity and challenges of the implementation of digital party building in hospital grass-roots organizations,this paper puts forward some feasible paths for hospital grass-roots organizations to use digital party building to realize party member management,promote party building culture,carry out online party member education,and hold party building activities,and puts forward relevant suggestions for the digital party building work of hospital grass-roots organiza-tions,so as to promote the overall upgrading of the efficiency and quality of digital party building in hospital grass-roots organiza-tions,and promote the improvement of hospital medical service level.

Impact of Actor's Initial State of Engagement in a Course of Action on Judgements of Post-decisional Regret and Joy: Revisiting Kahneman and Tversky (1982).

According to the phenomenon commonly known as action effect and vastly replicated across the judgment and decision-making literature, more regret is associated with decisions resulting from action than inaction. Action vs. inaction, however, might either refer to change vs. no change or doing something vs. not doing something. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of this variation in operationalization of action-inaction on the strength of action effect, for both positive and negative outcomes, across four different domains of employment, finance, education, and health. This was an experimental scenario-based study (N = 215) with four between-subjects conditions varying in outcome valence and the actor's initial state as either engaged or non-engaged in a particular course of action. Action effect was found to be stronger with respect to the initially engaged than the initially non-engaged decision-maker (ηp2 = .04), indicating that action as change results in a stronger action effect than action as doing something. The effect of the initial state was also moderated by domain. In addition, we both replicated and went beyond prior empirical literature regarding the effect of outcome valence and domain on action effect, with our findings being mostly consistent across joy and regret. Findings are discussed in light of the norm theory and its key concept of normality and contribute to the literature on moderators of action effect.

Impact of Actor’s Initial State of Engagement in a Course of Action on Judgements of Post-decisional Regret and Joy: Revisiting Kahneman and Tversky (1982)

According to the phenomenon commonly known as action effect and vastly replicated across the judgment and decision-making literature, more regret is associated with decisions resulting from action than inaction. Action vs. inaction, however, might either refer to change vs. no change or doing something vs. not doing something. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of this variation in operationalization of action-inaction on the strength of action effect, for both positive and negative outcomes, across four different domains of employment, finance, education, and health. This was an experimental scenario-based study (N = 215) with four between-subjects conditions varying in outcome valence and the actor’s initial state as either engaged or non-engaged in a particular course of action. Action effect was found to be stronger with respect to the initially engaged than the initially non-engaged decision-maker (ηp2 = .04), indicating that action as change results in a stronger action effect than action as doing something. The effect of the initial state was also moderated by domain. In addition, we both replicated and went beyond prior empirical literature regarding the effect of outcome valence and domain on action effect, with our findings being mostly consistent across joy and regret. Findings are discussed in light of the norm theory and its key concept of normality and contribute to the literature on moderators of action effect. (AU)

Asia-Pacific Leukemia Consortium: An innovative and collaborative initiative to improve care of leukemia and related diseases in the Asia-Pacific region.

The burden of leukemia and related diseases is rapidly growing in Asia. Currently, there is a paucity of regional collaborative groups/initiatives that focus exclusively on the management of leukemia in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. The Asia-Pacific Leukemia Consortium (APLC) was established on the 8 September 2021 to understand the status quo, unmet needs, and ways to improve the management of leukemia and related diseases in the APAC region. The APLC working group set up a group of experts from various countries (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China, and Australia) to discuss on the status of: (i) clinical trials; (ii) disease registry database; (iii) genetic and tissue repository; (iv) patient advocacy and care; and (v) disease prevention and education in the APAC region. Low levels of awareness about leukemia amongst the public, lack of financial support, and limited access to newly approved therapies were identified as barriers to the implementation of effective leukemia management in low- or mid-income Asian countries. Patients often enroll in clinical trials to gain access to novel/approved therapies. The APLC group aims to address the growing threat of leukemia through a collaborative approach to advance disease prevention, research, clinical trials, and education.

Factors affecting the scientific research ability and the corresponding countermeasures in clinical postgraduates.

BACKGROUND: Scientific research ability (SRA) is very important for clinical postgraduates. However, the factors affecting students' SRA are constantly changing with the development of medicine. The aim of this study was to investigate the current situation of SRA in clinical postgraduates and exploring the potential factors and the corresponding countermeasures under the background of new medical science. METHODS: A total of 133 postgraduates (first- or second-year) were investigated by questionnaire in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University. All results were analyzed by R software. RESULTS: In terms of the SRA, academic-degree postgraduate students (ADPSs) were significantly better than professional-degree postgraduate students (PDPSs) (P = 0.001), the students with scientific research interest were remarkably better than those without scientific research interest (P = 0.004), the students who mastered statistical analysis methods were more prominent than those who did not (P = 0.007), the students with paper-writing skills were obviously superior to those without it (P = 0.003), and the second-year students were notably better than the first-year students (P = 0.003). Stratified analysis by the above factors except the degree type showed no significant difference in the first-year postgraduates. In the second-year postgraduates, the ADPSs were remarkably superior to the PDPSs (P = 0.002), the students with scientific research interest were obviously better than those without scientific research interest (P = 0.014), the students with more time investment in scientific research were more prominent than those with less time investment in scientific research (P = 0.025), the students with paper-writing skills were notably superior to those without it (P = 0.031), and the students with plotting ability were better than those without it (P = 0.013). CONCLUSION: The important factors affecting the SRA of clinical postgraduates include the degree type, the grade of student, scientific research interest, time investment in scientific research, statistical analysis methods, paper-writing skills, plotting ability. In short, earlier systematic SRA training contributes to the improvement of SRA in clinical postgraduates, especially in PDPSs.

An empirical investigation of household's waste separation intention: A dual-factor theory perspective.

Waste separation at a household level could facilitate sustainable waste management. However, despite several efforts by the government, the adoption of household waste separation practices is still at a nascent stage. Therefore, we aim to study the factors affecting household waste separation intention (WSI). Drawing on Dual Factor Theory (DFT), two distinct sets of factors (enablers and barriers) were used to explain the WSI at the household level. This study also extended the Self Determination Theory (SDT) and Status Quo Bias (SQB) theory to broadly identify the factors and develop a conceptual model. The main study analyzed data from 494 respondents using a structural equation modeling approach. The result reveals that environmental concern, anticipated guilt, awareness of consequences, and health consciousness have a significant positive effect on WSI. In contrast, perceived inconvenience, information, and infrastructure barriers significantly negatively affect WSI. Additionally, gender and income partially moderated the studied relationships. The results offer key insights and implications for marketers and public policymakers.

The role of attention in status quo bias.

In many decision-making contexts, people often persist with their previous selections. This predisposition to choose to maintain a current (or previous) choice is referred to as the status quo bias (SQB). In this work, we propose that increased attention towards the status quo option-enabled by its visual salience-is a previously underappreciated driver of SQB. We base this hypothesis on three propositions: (1) the status quo bias option is often more visually salient relative to the non-status quo options on offer, (2) greater visual salience of an option biases attention towards that option, and (3) increased attention towards an option leads to that option being selected at greater rates. We examined the attention hypothesis among 6,854 participants in four studies. Studies 1 and 2 showed that increasing the visual salience of a non-status quo option (i.e., the type of visual salience often garnered by the status quo option) increased the selection rate of that option. Study 3 directly tested the hypothesis by lessening the visual salience of the status quo option. Doing so eliminated SQB. Study 4 replicated and extended the findings of Study 3 in a real-world decision context. Collectively, these studies suggest that the selection of the status quo may often be related to its salience relative to other available options.

Status Quo and Research Progress in Diagnosis and Treatment of Patients With Diabetes Mellitus and Chronic Kidney Disease / 中国医学科学院学报

As the incidence of diabetes mellitus is rapidly increasing worldwide,that of related complications,such as diabetic kidney disease(DKD),also increases,conferring a heavy economic burden on the patients,families,society,and government.Diabetes mellitus complicated with chronic kidney disease(CKD)includes DKD and the CKD caused by other reasons.Because of the insufficient knowledge about CKD,the assessment of diabetes mellitus complicated with CKD remains to be improved.The therapies for diabetes mellitus complicated with CKD focus on reducing the risk factors.In clinical practice,DKD may not be the CKD caused by diabetes.According to clinical criteria,some non-diabetic kidney disease may be misdiagnosed as DKD and not be treated accurately.This review summarizes the status quo and research progress in the assessment,diagnosis,and treatment of diabetes mellitus complicated with CKD and predicts the directions of future research in this field.

Study on the influencing factors of outpatient workload of doctors in a tertiary public hospital / 中华医院管理杂志

Objective:To investigate the workload of doctorsand its influencing factors in the outpatient department of a tertiary public hospital in Beijing, in order to provide references for further improvement of outpatient management.Methods:Data on outpatient workload and basic information of doctors in clinical departments of a tertiary public hospital in Beijing in 2022 were collected. Independent sample t-tests was used to analyze the differences in workload among doctors with different characteristics. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to identify the main factors influencing doctors′ outpatient workload. Results:In 2022, the number of patients treated by doctors in clinical departments per half day was 18.4±8.1, the duration of half-day treatment was 3.08±0.40 h, and the treatment time per visit was 11.93±5.19 min. The type of department was found to be a key factor affecting the number of patients, the duration of treatment, and the time per visit in outpatient care. The workload of surgical and internal medicine departments was significantly higher than that of other departments. The workload of doctors with less experience was significantly higher than that of more experienced doctors.Conclusions:The outpatient workload in tertiary comprehensive hospitals is heavy, and it is mainly influenced by the type of department and professional title. Different measures should be implemented for different department types by hospitals and health management departments to optimize the allocation of medical resources and effectively reduce the burden on doctors in tertiary public hospitals.

[Status Quo and Research Progress in Diagnosis and Treatment of Patients With Diabetes Mellitus and Chronic Kidney Disease].

As the incidence of diabetes mellitus is rapidly increasing worldwide,that of related complications,such as diabetic kidney disease(DKD),also increases,conferring a heavy economic burden on the patients,families,society,and government.Diabetes mellitus complicated with chronic kidney disease(CKD)includes DKD and the CKD caused by other reasons.Because of the insufficient knowledge about CKD,the assessment of diabetes mellitus complicated with CKD remains to be improved.The therapies for diabetes mellitus complicated with CKD focus on reducing the risk factors.In clinical practice,DKD may not be the CKD caused by diabetes.According to clinical criteria,some non-diabetic kidney disease may be misdiagnosed as DKD and not be treated accurately.This review summarizes the status quo and research progress in the assessment,diagnosis,and treatment of diabetes mellitus complicated with CKD and predicts the directions of future research in this field.

Investigation on status quo and influencing factors for donation coordination of organ donation coordinators / 器官移植

Objective To explore the important factors influencing organ donation willingness and coordination effect of organ donation coordinators. Methods A questionnaire survey was conducted among 349 national organ donation coordinators by convenience sampling, including 145 males and 204 females, aged 27 (23, 36) years. Multiple linear regression and disordered logistic regression were used to investigate the important factors influencing the willingness to donate organs and coordination effects. Results Among 349 organ donation coordinators, 146 (41.8%) were willing to donate organs, including 101 (28.9%) who had signed the consent card for organ donation. Adequate awareness of organ donation laws, high education level, marital experience, and good self-perceived health status all showed positive effects on organ donation willingness of organ donation coordinators (all P < 0.05). High income, long length of service as organ donation coordinators, full-time mode of employment, high willingness to donate organs, and adequate awareness of donation conditions and donation procedures all showed positive effects on the coordination effect of organ donation coordinators (all P < 0.05). Conclusions The willingness to donate organs is increased as the higher awareness of organ donation laws of organ donation coordinators, while enhancing the willingness to donate organs of organ donation coordinators exerts positive impact upon improving the coordination effect of organ donation coordination. Therefore, an all-round organ donation coordinator training system should be established to improve the success rate of organ donation advocacy and promote the development of organ donation.

Investigation and analysis of the current situation of radiation health technical services in China / 中国辐射卫生

Objective To investigate the current situation of radiological health technical service institutions and their technical services in China, and to provide a basis for better utilizing radiological health technical service resources and strengthening institutions’ capability building. Methods From October to December 2021, we conducted quality monitoring, ability comparison, capability building surveys, and other investigations on radiation health technical services to collect information on the qualifications and technical services of radiation health service institutions. The data were pooled and analyzed using SPSS software. Results By the end of 2021, there were 608 radiological health technical service institutions across China, with 47.0% of them located in the eastern region, and the percentage of institutions in the health system (42.6%) was less than that in the non-health system (57.4%). Institutions of grade A offered 62.3% of technical services, while institutions of grade B provided 37.7% of technical services; technical services provided by the non-health system and the health system accounted for 84.2% and 15.8%, respectively; institutions in the health system at the province, prefecture, and county levels offered 37.1%, 50.6%, and 12.3% of technical services, respectively. Conclusion In recent years, the proportion of institutions in the non-health system has increased significantly, but the proportion of institutions in the health system with radiological health qualifications is small, and the development is uneven in the numbers of institutions, technical services, and professional and technical personnel in the eastern, central, and western regions and at the province, prefecture, and county levels in China. It is necessary to further encourage and support health system institutions in strengthening capability building and applying for radiological health qualifications, and to increase construction and investment in the western region and at the district/county levels, in order to improve the overall capability and level of radiological health technical services in the country.

The current situation and influencing factors of kinesiophobia in patients after heart valve replacement surgery / 中国实用护理杂志

Objective:To investigate the current situation of kinesiophobia in patients after heart valve replacement surgery and to analyze its influencing factors, and to provide reference for the intervention research of patients with cardiophobia after cardiac valve replacement.Methods:Using cross-sectional survey method and convenient sampling method, 109 patients who underwent cardiac valve replacement surgery in department of cardiothoracic and vascular surgery of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region People′s Hospital from March 2021 to January 2022 were selected as the study subjects. The patients were surveyed with the general questionnaire, Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia and Visual Analogue Scale.Results:After heart valve replacement, the score of Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia was (46.90 ± 9.30) points. The score of Visual Analogue Scale was (5.83 ± 1.01) points. The score of Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia was positively correlated with the score of Visual Analogue Scale ( r=0.46, P<0.01). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that patient′s age, cardiac function level, left ventricular ejection fraction, pain were the main influencing factors of Kinesiophobia ( t values were -2.37-4.34, all P<0.05). Conclusions:Medical staff should understand and accurately assess the status of patient′s kinesiophobia after heart valve replacement surgery, identify high-risk groups of kinesiophobia, and take targeted nursing measures to effectively alleviate postoperative pain, thereby reducing the incidence of kinesiophobia in patients, helping patients to carry out early functional exercise, and prorroting physical recovery.

Haredi Fundamentalism in the State of Israel: How the status quo between state and religion provides ground for a modern religious counter-collective.

Since its establishment in 1948, the State of Israel, which defines itself as Jewish-nation state, has been providing Haredi Jewry, also known as ultra-Orthodoxy, with a vast autonomy in education, enabling the development of a Jewish "Society of Learning Men." This goes back to the Status quo regulations, which blocks the separation of state and religion in the country. In this framework, Haredi Jewry, which was nearly extinct after the Shoah, has developed into a striving and confident fundamentalist religious Jewish movement. At the same time, it has become the demographically most dynamic Jewish current. The influence of Haredi Jewry in Israel is crucial, for its leadership and its members do consider their isolationist, counter-acculturative, anti-modern moulding as the only authentic and "pure" form of Judaism, and they actively combat liberal Jewish interpretations or denominations. In this paper, a discussion about the definition of Haredism as fundamentalism will be provided. Furthermore, it will be argued that through the basic requirement of the Status quo between State and Jewish (orthodox) religion, the Haredi society's attempt to organize itself as a cultural and communal autonomy has been highly successful also against the background of the societal restrictions of this effort given the dependant relationship that has developed between the Haredi community and general Israeli society. As illustrations for this case study, the educational autonomy, the Haredi judicial power over Jewish and non-Jewish citizens and the struggle over the Shabbat regulations will be examined.

Social position and economic system justification in Canada: Implications for advancing health equity and social justice from an exploratory study of factors shaping economic system justification.

Objective: Many socio-economic reforms that could reduce health disparities are not implemented because people justify existing systems and fear changes thereto. This study aimed to identify socio-demographic factors associated with system justifying beliefs to better understand how they are maintained in Canada. In doing so, we hypothesized that (1) systems justification is a default cognitive position, buttressed by the palliative benefits of system-justification, (2) lack of success in a given system generally motivates people to doubt the legitimacy of that system, and (3) system-justifying beliefs are rejected only when the costs of doing so are low enough and/or the benefits are high enough to outweigh the innate needs-fulfillment benefits of system-justification. Methods: Testing these hypotheses, we recruited participants living in Canada, aged 16+, to complete an online survey after being recruited via paid social media advertisements. Multivariable regression models identified factors associated with Economic System Justification Scale (ESJS) scores. Explanatory variables included demographic measures of social position, self-rated health, and patterns of social inclusion. Results: Among 2,619 participants, system-justifying beliefs were wide-spread, with the average level of support across ESJS scale items exceeding 50%. Lower ESJS scores were associated with worse health, more loneliness, and lower socioeconomic status. Despite the pattern that marginalization erodes system-justification, several historically marginalized characteristics (e.g., non-white ethnicity and non-binary gender) were associated with relatively high system-justification, compared to matching privileged characteristics (e.g., white ethnicity; masculine gender). Conclusion: Supporting our hypotheses, we identify a general trend that social marginalization is associated with less system-justification. Those benefitting from the status quo (e.g., healthier, wealthier, less lonely) were more likely to hold system-justifying beliefs. However, some groups who are disadvantaged within the existing system reported higher system-justification-suggesting that system oppression may be a key moderator of the effect of social position on system justification.