Social relationships and activities following elimination of SARS-CoV-2: a qualitative cross-sectional study

Objectives To investigate how successfully SARS-CoV-2 elimination strategies fulfil their promise of allowing a return to a "normal" social life, and to identify obstacles and challenges that may inhibit the realisation of this goal. Design Qualitative cross-sectional survey. Setting New Zealand community cohort. Participants 1040 respondents entered the study (18-90 years, M = 48.18.11, SD = 15.52, 76% women). 966 completed the questions relevant to this article. Participants were recruited via online advertisement campaigns designed to maximise variation in the sample as far as practicably possible. Main outcome measures Thematic analysis of participants' narratives. Results A majority of participants reported that the elimination of SARS-CoV-2 had allowed their life to go back to being "more or less the same" as before the pandemic. A small number indicated the pandemic had inspired them to become more social following elimination. Nevertheless, a sizeable minority of respondents reported being less social, even many months after SARS-CoV-2 had been eliminated. This was often because of fears that the virus might be circulating undetected, or because the March-May 2020 lockdown had led to changes in relationships and personal habits that were not easily reversed. Becoming less social was associated with having an underlying health condition that heightened one's vulnerability to COVID-19 (p = 0.00005) and older age (p = 0.007). Conclusions Elimination strategies can successfully allow the public to return to a pre-pandemic "normal" - or reinvent and improve their social lives should they wish. However, such outcomes are not inevitable. Re-establishing social connections after elimination can sometimes be a challenging process, with which people may need support. Plans for providing such support should be an integral part of elimination strategies.

What Atheist Scientists Think about Science

Many scientists have an intuitive understanding of the word science but find defining it a challenge. Definitions of science provide insight into how atheist scientists demarcate science from religion and whether they believe there are limits to what science can explain. Narratives of atheist scientists emphasize science as a methodology, as a changing body of knowledge, and as the opposite of (religious) belief. A majority of atheist scientists reject the idea that science provides the only way to understand the world, but a sizeable minority assert that science can explain everything, including morals, consciousness, and nonscientific disciplines of knowledge.

The Relationship between US Adults’ Misconceptions about COVID-19 Vaccines and Vaccination Preferences

While mass vaccination has blunted the pandemic in the United States, pockets of vaccine hesitancy remain. Through a nationally representative survey of 1027 adult Americans conducted in February 2021, this study examined individual misconceptions about COVID-19 vaccine safety; the demographic factors associated with these misconceptions; and the relationship between misconceptions and willingness to vaccinate. Misconceptions about vaccine safety were widespread. A sizeable minority (40%) believed that vaccine side effects are commonly severe or somewhat severe; 85% significantly underestimated the size and scale of the clinical trials; and a sizeable share believed either that the vaccines contain live coronavirus (10%) or were unsure (38%), a proxy for fears that vaccination itself may cause infection. These misconceptions were particularly acute among Republicans, Blacks, individuals with lower levels of educational attainment, and unvaccinated individuals. Perceived side effect severity and underestimating the size of the clinical trials were both significantly associated with vaccine hesitancy.

Emerging Adult Sexual Behavior

By emerging adulthood, the majority of individuals have engaged in some types of sexual behavior. However, during this period there is considerable variability and change in the prevalence of recent sexual behaviors and their relationship contexts. This chapter reviews the literature on the prevalence of multiple sexual behaviors, focusing on data from nationally representative studies where possible. Findings suggest that most emerging adults engage in behaviors such as kissing, oral sex, and vaginal intercourse during emerging adulthood, with peak prevalence of these behaviors in the late twenties or early thirties. Other behaviors, such as partnered masturbation, anal sex, and kink behaviors are also practiced by a sizeable minority of individuals. Although many individuals engage in casual sex during emerging adulthood, most instances of sexual behavior occur in relationships. Differences in sexual behavior across several subgroups are discussed, with a particular focus on gender and sexual orientation.

Subcultures of Humiliation and Counter-Humiliation

Chapter 2 discusses the fact that jihadism cannot be solely attributed to the disaffected young Muslims. A sizeable minority of jihadis consists of converts (from 8 percent to more than 20 percent, according to the European countries), as well as middle-class Muslims. Nevertheless, male disaffected Muslim youth, mostly from the first and the second generations, living chiefly in ghettoized neighborhoods, represent the major part of the jihadis in Europe. They come from at least three types of “slum subculture” which are marked by poverty, humiliation, and discontent. These are: the European slum subculture proper, the subculture of religious introversion (Salafism and Tabligh), and the subculture of violent religious confrontation (jihadism). These themes of poverty, humiliation, and discontent are discussed at length in this chapter and are reflected in interviews presented throughout, which were conducted by the author with some of the young men affected by these conditions. Also discussed are the ways in which secular society and its social freedoms contribute to the frustration and discontent expressed by these individuals.

Sexual antagonism in haplodiploids

Females and males may face different selection pressures, such that alleles conferring a benefit in one sex may be deleterious in the other. Such sexual antagonism has received a great deal of theoretical and empirical attention, almost all of which has focused on diploids. However, a sizeable minority of animals display an alternative haplodiploid mode of inheritance, encompassing both arrhenotoky, whereby males develop from unfertilized eggs, and paternal genome elimination (PGE), whereby males receive but do not transmit a paternal genome. Alongside unusual genetics, haplodiploids often exhibit social ecologies that modulate the relative value of females and males. Here we develop a series of evolutionary-genetic models of sexual antagonism for haplodiploids, incorporating details of their molecular biology and social ecology. We find that: 1) PGE promotes female-beneficial alleles more than arrhenotoky, and to an extent determined by the timing of elimination - and degree of silencing of - the paternal genome; 2) sib-mating relatively promotes female-beneficial alleles, as do other forms of inbreeding, including limited male-dispersal, oedipal-mating, and the pseudo-hermaphroditism of Icerya purchasi; 3) resource competition between related females relatively inhibits female-beneficial alleles; and 4) sexual antagonism foments conflicts between parents and offspring, endosymbionts and hosts, and maternal-origin and paternal-origin genes.

Financial Conflicts of Interest of US-Based Authors in Neurology Journals

ObjectiveTo detail the scope, nature, and disclosure of financial conflicts of interest (COI) between the pharmaceutical and medical device industries (Industry) and authors in high-impact clinical neurology journals.MethodsUsing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Open Payments database (OPD), we retrieved information on payments from Industry to 2,000 authors from randomly selected 2016 articles in 5 journals. We categorized payments by type (Research, General, and Associated Research/institutional), sponsoring entity, and year (from 2013 to 2016). Each author's self-disclosures were compared to OPD-listed Industry relationships to measure discordance. Payments were manually reviewed to identify those from manufacturers of products that were directly tested or discussed in the article. We also quantified the prevalence and value of these nondisclosed, relevant COI.ResultsTwo hundred authors from 158 articles had at least one OPD payment. Median/mean annual payments per author were $4,229/$19,586 (General); $1,702/$5,966 (Research); and $67,512/$362,102 (Associated Research). Most neurologists received <$1,000/y (74.6%, 93.0%, and 79.5% for General, Research, and Associated Research, respectively), but a sizeable minority (>10% of authors) received more than $10,000 per year, and several received over $1 million. Of 3,013 payments deemed directly relevant to the article, 39.7% were not self-disclosed by the authors, totaling $3,379,093 ($1,446,603 General; $25,532 Research; $1,906,958 Associated Research).ConclusionIndustry-related financial relationships are prevalent among US-based physicians publishing in major neurology journals, and incomplete self-disclosure is common. As a profession, academic and other neurologists must work to establish firm rules to ensure and manage disclosure of financial COI.

Knowledge, attitudes and practices associated with the COVID-19 among slum dwellers resided in Dhaka City: a Bangladeshi interview-based survey

Background The emergent COVID-19 has impacted unprecedentedly to all classes of people. Slum-dwellers’ knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) toward COVID-19 are currently poorly understood. The present study aimed to investigate the KAP toward COVID-19 among slum dwellers resided in Dhaka City, Bangladesh. Methods A cross-sectional offline survey was carried out enrolling 406 slum dwellers (53.2% male; mean age = 44.9 years [SD = 12.1]; age range = 18–85 years) between August and September, 2020. The face to face interview was conducted to collect data from six selected slum areas in Dhaka City using convenience sampling. The questionnaire consisted of informed consent along with questions concerning observational checklists, socio-demographics and KAP. Results A sizeable minority were observed without wearing face masks during the survey periods (18.2%) and a vast portion (97.5%) without any hand protection. The mean scores of KAP were 6.1 ± 2.6 (out of 17), 12.3 ± 1.7 (out of 14) and 9.8 ± 1.6 (out of 12), respectively. Moreover, the KAP were strongly and positively correlated with each other. Conclusions The findings revealed that the majority of slum dwellers in Bangladesh have limited knowledge of COVID-19. Poor practices (i.e. face mask and hand protection) were directly observed during the survey. The findings suggest the immediate implementation of health education programs and adequate interventions.

Knowledge, attitudes and practices associated with the COVID-19 among slum dwellers resided in Dhaka City: A Bangladeshi interview-based survey

Background: The emergent COVID-19 has impacted unprecedentedly to all classes of people. Slum-dwellers' knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) towards COVID-19 are currently poorly understood. To investigate the KAP towards COVID-19 among slum dwellers resided in Dhaka City, Bangladesh. Methods: A cross-sectional offline survey was carried out enrolling 406 slum dwellers (53.2% male; mean age=44.9 years [SD=12.1]; age range=18-85 years) between August and September, 2020. The face to face interview was conducted to collect data from 6 selected slum areas in Dhaka City using convenience sampling. The questionnaire consisted of informed consent along with questions concerning observational checklists, socio-demographics, and KAP. Results: A sizeable minority were observed without wearing face masks during the survey periods (18.2%) and a vast portion (97.5%) without any hand protection. The mean scores of KAP were 6.1plus-or-minus sign2.6 (out of 17), 12.3plus-or-minus sign1.7 (out of 14), and 9.8plus-or-minus sign1.6 (out of 12), respectively. Moreover, the KAP were strongly and positively correlated with each other. Conclusions: The findings revealed that the majority of slum dwellers in Bangladesh have limited knowledge of COVID-19. Poor practices (i.e., face mask and hand protection) were directly observed during the survey. The findings suggest the immediate implementation of health education programs and adequate interventions.

Voice-Hearing and Personification: Characterizing Social Qualities of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations in Early Psychosis

Recent therapeutic approaches to auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) exploit the person-like qualities of voices. Little is known, however, about how, why, and when AVH become personified. We aimed to investigate personification in individuals’ early voice-hearing experiences. We invited Early Intervention in Psychosis (EIP) service users aged 16–65 to participate in a semistructured interview on AVH phenomenology. Forty voice-hearers (M = 114.13 days in EIP) were recruited through 2 National Health Service trusts in northern England. We used content and thematic analysis to code the interviews and then statistically examined key associations with personification. Some participants had heard voices intermittently for multiple years prior to clinical involvement (M = 74.38 months), although distressing voice onset was typically more recent (median = 12 months). Participants reported a range of negative emotions (predominantly fear, 60%, 24/40, and anxiety, 62.5%, 26/40), visual hallucinations (75%, 30/40), bodily states (65%, 25/40), and “felt presences” (52.5%, 21/40) in relation to voices. Complex personification, reported by a sizeable minority (16/40, 40%), was associated with experiencing voices as conversational (odds ratio [OR] = 2.56) and companionable (OR = 3.19) but not as commanding or trauma-related. Neither age of AVH onset nor time since onset related to personification. Our findings highlight significant personification of AVH even at first clinical presentation. Personified voices appear to be distinguished less by their intrinsic properties, commanding qualities, or connection with trauma than by their affordances for conversation and companionship.