“You can’t un-ring the bell”: a mixed methods approach to understanding veteran and family perspectives of recovery from military-related posttraumatic stress disorder

Background Military-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a complex diagnosis with non-linear trajectories of coping and recovery. Current approaches to the evaluation of PTSD and treatment discontinuation often rely on biomedical models that dichotomize recovery based on symptom thresholds. This approach may not sufficiently capture the complex lived experiences of Veterans and their families. To explore conceptualizations of recovery, we sought perspectives from Veterans and their partners in a pilot study to understand: 1) how Veterans nearing completion of treatment for military-related PTSD and their partners view recovery; and 2) the experience of progressing through treatment towards recovery. Methods We employed a concurrent mixed methods design. Nine Veterans nearing the end of their treatment at a specialized outpatient mental health clinic completed quantitative self-report tools assessing PTSD and depressive symptom severity, and an individual, semi-structured interview assessing views on their treatment and recovery processes. Veterans’ partners participated in a separate interview to capture views of their partners’ treatment and recovery processes. Descriptive analyses of self-report symptom severity data were interpreted alongside emergent themes arising from inductive content analysis of qualitative interviews. Results While over half of Veterans were considered “recovered” based on quantitative assessments of symptoms, individual reflections of “recovery” were not always aligned with these quantitative assessments. A persistent narrative highlighted by participants was that recovery from military-related PTSD was not viewed as a binary outcome (i.e., recovered vs. not recovered); rather, recovery was seen as a dynamic, non-linear process. Key components of the recovery process identified by participants included a positive therapeutic relationship, social support networks, and a toolkit of adaptive strategies to address PTSD symptoms. Conclusions For participants in our study, recovery was seen as the ability to navigate ongoing issues of symptom management, re-engagement with meaningful roles and social networks, and a readiness for discontinuing intensive, specialized mental health treatment. The findings of this study highlight important considerations in balancing the practical utility of symptom severity assessments with a better understanding of the treatment discontinuation-related needs of Veterans with military-related PTSD and their families, which align with a contemporary biopsychosocial approach to recovery.

Applications of Surfactants and Nanoparticles in Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes

The surfactant injection is considered as the EOR (Enhanced Oil Recovery) with the highest potential to recover oil from reservoirs due to its ability to reduce interfacial forces into the porous medium. However, the adsorption of this type of chemical on the surface of rocks is the main problem when a surfactant injection project is applied since the surfactant molecules would rather be placed on rock minerals instead of being the oil–water interface. Based on this fact, this chapter would be discussed the significance of surfactant injection as an EOR method, the types of surfactants used, the main mechanism and parameters involved in the surfactant adsorption on the rock, and its consequences in oil recovery. Likewise, the addition of nanoparticles to inhibit the adsorption of surfactants is another topic that will be covered as a novel technology to improve the efficiency of the EOR process.

Research of the Russian Labor Market and Peculiarities of Human Resources in the Period of Economic Restoration in a Pandemic

This article examines the current state, operating conditions and forecasts for the development of the Russian labor market after the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. The growth of the gross domestic product was revealed in July 2021, compared to July 2020. It was noted that the most important factor in the recovery and further development of economic activity in the first half of 2021 was the consumer demand of the population. General trends in the labor market are showing positive dynamics, and the process of increasing real wages has continued. The recovery processes brought workers' cash incomes closer to the indicators of 2019. It was noted that the development of the labor market in the near future will be based on the implementation in the Russian Federation of a state program called "Promotion of employment of the population", in addition, national projects have been developed: "Demography", "Small and medium-sized businesses and support for individual entrepreneurial initiative".

Integrating Biologging and Behavioral State Modeling to Identify Cryptic Behaviors and Post-capture Recovery Processes: New Insights From a Threatened Marine Apex Predator

Multisensor biologging provides a powerful tool for ecological research, enabling fine-scale observation of animals to directly link physiology and movement to behavior across ecological contexts. However, applied research into behavioral disturbance and recovery following human interventions (e.g., capture and translocation) has mostly relied on coarse location-based tracking or unidimensional approaches (e.g., dive profiles and activity/energetic metrics) that may not resolve behaviors and recovery processes. Biologging can improve insights into both disturbed and natural behavior, which is critical for management and conservation initiatives, although challenges remain in objectively identifying distinct behavioral modes from complex multisensor datasets. Using white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) released from a non-lethal catch-and-release shark bite mitigation program, we explored how combining multisensor biologging (video, depth, accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers), track reconstruction and behavioral state modeling using hidden Markov models (HMMs) can improve our understanding of behavioral processes and recovery. Biologging tags were deployed on eight white sharks, recording their continuous behaviors, movements, and environmental context (habitat, interactions with other organisms/objects) for periods of 10–87 h post-release. Dive profiles and tailbeat analysis (as a standard, activity-based method for assessing recovery) indicated an immediate “disturbed” period of offshore movement, displaying rapid tailbeats and an average tailbeat-derived recovery period of 9.7 h, with evidence of smaller individuals having longer recoveries. However, further integrating magnetometer-derived headings, track reconstruction and HMM modeling revealed a cryptic shift to diurnal clockwise-counterclockwise circling behavior, which we argue represents compelling new evidence for hypothesized unihemispheric sleep amongst elasmobranchs. By simultaneously providing critical information toward conservation-focused shark management and understudied aspects of shark behavior, our study highlights how integrating multisensor information through HMMs can improve our understanding of both post-release and natural behavior, especially in species that are difficult to observe directly.

Applying Salutogenesis in Vocational Rehabilitation Settings

Rehabilitation services are more closely and directly linked to maintaining and regaining positive health lost by illness and by pathogenic side effects of health care than the provision of cure or care. There even exists some professional understanding that rehabilitation should start with the beginning of treatment and be integrated into treatment processes and not just follow after discharge of patients. But even the WHO definition of rehabilitation has a pathogenic bias by focusing on disabilities of people or on disabled people and not addressing their abilities explicitly. Therefore, salutogenesis still has to offer something and has an added value to rehabilitation as a supportive intervention for recovery processes.Within the wider field of rehabilitation, this chapter has a specific focus on vocational work-oriented rehabilitation, which is a combination of medical, psychological, social, and occupational activities with the goal of enabling a timely return to work after sickness absence. For that the chapter highlights how salutogenesis can be related to the design and implementation of vocational rehabilitative services. A summary of descriptive and intervention research is given on the impact of the sense of coherence (SOC) as a moderator on processes and outcomes of rehabilitation programs and on the influence of these programs on the development of the SOC. Recommendations for further research with more complex longitudinal designs are given.

Circular Economy of Construction and Demolition Waste: A Literature Review on Lessons, Challenges, and Benefits

Conventionally, in a linear economy, C&D (Construction and Demolition) waste was considered as zero value materials, and, as a result of that, most C&D waste materials ended up in landfills. In recent years, with the increase in the awareness around sustainability and resource management, various countries have started to explore new models to minimize the use of limited resources which are currently overused, mismanaged, or quickly depleting. In this regard, the implementation of CE (Circular Economy) has emerged as a potential model to minimize the negative impact of C&D wastes on the environment. However, there are some challenges hindering a full transition to CE in the construction and demolition sectors. Therefore, this review paper aims to critically scrutinize different aspects of C&D waste and how CE can be integrated into construction projects. Reviewing of the literature revealed that the barriers in the implementation of CE in C&D waste sectors fall in five main domains, namely legal, technical, social, behavioral, and economic aspects. In this context, it was found that policy and governance, permits and specifications, technological limitation, quality and performance, knowledge and information, and, finally, the costs associated with the implementation of CE model at the early stage are the main barriers. In addition to these, from the contractors’ perspective, C&D waste dismantling, segregation, and on-site sorting, transportation, and local recovery processes are the main challenges at the start point for small-scale companies. To address the abovementioned challenges, and also to minimize the ambiguity of resulting outcomes by implementing CE in C&D waste sectors, there is an urgent need to introduce a global framework and a practicable pathway to allow companies to implement such models, regardless of their scale and location. Additionally, in this paper, recommendations on the direction for areas of future studies for a reduction in the environmental impacts have been provided. To structure an effective model approach, the future direction should be more focused on dismantling practices, hazardous material handling, quality control on waste acceptance, and material recovery processes, as well as a incentivization mechanism to promote ecological, economic, and social benefits of the CE for C&D sectors.

RESSEARCH OF VARIANTS FOR ORGANIZING THE SUPPLY CHAIN OF AVIONIC EQUIPMENT TO MAINTAIN THE SERVICEABILITY OF AVIONICS OBJECTS

The presented study deals with the organization of supply chains for spare serviceable avionics equipment from the perspective of decision makers, heads of instrument-making enterprises. An extremely important issue is the determination of key parameters of avionics spares objects. On the basis of the conducted research, the element base of the serviceable avionics equipment facilities and conditions of operation, recovery of serviceability are considered. Due to the complexity of approaches to avionics objects, the article provides a fixation of key parameters, defines the distinctive features of exactly the avionics spare serviceable avionics equipment, which will determine new requirements and conditions of building the future supply chain. As a result of the conducted research, the article presents a classification of methods for calculating serviceable avionics equipment, based also on the theory of recovery processes. On the basis of the performed system approach to the objects of avionics inventory and spare parts management, examples of supply chain organization variants are given. The presented research is of practical significance both when designing a new chain of supply of spares, and when modernizing the existing supply chains for spare serviceable avionics equipment.

Personal recovery and its challenges in forensic mental health: systematic review and thematic synthesis of the qualitative literature

Background There has been a call for a framework to guide recovery-oriented practices in forensic mental health services. Aims This study aims to examine personal recovery and its challenges in forensic mental health settings in relation to the established framework for personal recovery in mental illness: connectedness, hope, identity, meaning and empowerment (CHIME). Method This study is an updated and expanded systematic review and thematic synthesis of the qualitative literature. A systematic search of six electronic databases (Web of Science, Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL, EMBASE and SocIndex) was carried out in January 2019, using the terms [Recover*] AND [Forensic OR Secure] AND [Patient* OR Offend* OR Service User*]. Only studies that included service user's own perceptions and were published from 2014 onward were included in the review. Data were examined with thematic synthesis and subsequently analysed in relation to the CHIME framework. Results Twenty-one studies were included in the review. Findings suggest that some adjustments to the original CHIME framework are needed for it to be more relevant to forensic populations, and that an additional recovery process regarding feeling safe and being secure (safety and security) could be added to CHIME, providing the CHIME-Secure framework (CHIME-S). Specific challenges and barriers for forensic recovery were identified and found to represent the opposite of the recovery processes defined by CHIME (e.g. hopelessness). Conclusions We present the CHIME-S as a framework for the personal recovery processes of forensic mental health service users. The CHIME-S may guide the recovery-oriented work of forensic mental health services.

Use of serious games in medicine: a literature revision

It is noticeable that more and more medical professionals have been searching for strategies to keep people engaged both in the recovery processes (cognitive or physical) and in the teaching part. It is possible to observe that the insertion of Serious Games has been offering this innovative possibility, which allows the development of new possibilities for several areas of knowledge. This study aims to carry out a review on the use of Serious Games in Medicine, exploring how the method has been used. The methodology used was a systematic review. Articles published from 2015 to 2020 in indexed in three databases such as IEEE, Scopus, Scielo, among others, were searched. If used correctly, the Serious Games can help in the rehabilitation process of patients affected by some sequelae caused by stroke (CVA - Cerebral Vascular Accident), and also in the rehabilitation process of people with degenerative problems. It was also possible to observe that SG can be used as motivating and engaging tools for medical students.