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The ongoing transition from chemical hazard and risk assessment based on animal studies to assessment relying mostly on non-animal data, requires a multitude of novel experimental methods, and this means that guidance on the validation and standardisation of test methods intended for international applicability and acceptance, needs to be updated. These so-called new approach methodologies (NAMs) must be applicable to the chemical regulatory domain and provide reliable data which are relevant to hazard and risk assessment. Confidence in and use of NAMs will depend on their reliability and relevance, and both are thoroughly assessed by validation. Validation is, however, a time- and resource-demanding process. As updates on validation guidance are conducted, the valuable components must be kept: Reliable data are and will remain fundamental. In 2016, the scientific community was made aware of the general crisis in scientific reproducibility—validated methods must not fall into this. In this commentary, we emphasize the central importance of ring trials in the validation of experimental methods. Ring trials are sometimes considered to be a major hold-up with little value added to the validation. Here, we clarify that ring trials are indispensable to demonstrate the robustness and reproducibility of a new method. Further, that methods do fail in method transfer and ring trials due to different stumbling blocks, but these provide learnings to ensure the robustness of new methods. At the same time, we identify what it would take to perform ring trials more efficiently, and how ring trials fit into the much-needed update to the guidance on the validation of NAMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The legitimacy crisis of Iran's clerical state may be at a tipping point: its fading Islamist façade and crumbling republican pretensions can no longer disguise its mismanagement and failures at governance. With the public more attuned to the hypocrisy and corruption of the ruling elite, the Islamic Republic has been plagued by a succession of popular uprisings. Its characteristic response has been violence, draconian repression, and the intensification of securitisation. But the more it focuses its efforts at self-preservation, the more it risks eroding its veneer of legitimacy. The centralisation of power around an increasingly autocratic Supreme Leader, the obsequiousness of elected institutions, and the kleptocracy of unelected entities, have contributed to disillusionment even among core supporters. Concerted efforts at marginalising Iran's non-Islamic heritage, and subsuming Iranian national identity into a Pan-Islamist Shia ideology, also raise questions about whom the Islamic Republic regards as its true constituency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A surprising feature of Brexit has been the united front the EU-27 presented during post-referendum negotiations. This membership crisis arrived when the EU had been facing multiple overlapping political and economic crises revealing deep cleavages both between and within member states. How did negotiations prevent a widening politicisation of European integration? In this article a novel dataset is used, containing national and European newspaper Brexit coverage between 2016 and 2020 to establish how negotiating stances were formed in key EU institutions and five influential member states: Ireland, Spain, France, Germany and Poland. The results indicate that the European Commission could maintain a strong, centralised negotiating position over Brexit because the preferences of these member states were mutually inclusive, their negotiating stances aligned, and each national case was subject to generally low levels of domestic politicisation. As a result, while Brexit shocked the EU, its immediate fallout could be contained even during uncertain times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introduction to the special issue recalls the alarm raised in EU capitals and Brussels after the UK's in-out referendum delivered a Leave vote in June 2016. The fear was of a domino effect and the further fragmentation of an already divided EU. Seven years later, it is clear that there was rapid attrition of Eurosceptic triumphalism, and the EU-27 showed remarkable unity. This required a sustained collective effort to contain a membership crisis and maintain the EU polity. Yet, the issue contributors challenge the notion that the alarm was unfounded and explain why this counter-factual did not materialise, even though potential for future membership crises of different sorts was revealed. Theoretically, this supports an understanding of the EU as a polity that is fragile, yet able to assert porous borders, exercise authority over a diverse membership, and mobilise a modicum of loyalty when the entire integration regime is under threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intensive home treatment (IHT) has shown to be a feasible alternative to hospitalization for the management of acute psychiatric episodes, but there are no real-world studies assessing if patients with a first IHT use it again for the management of their recurrences. The objectives of this retrospective cohort study were to map the use ofacute treatment resources after the implementation of IHT in our territory through the establishment of trajectories of management, and to disentangle if there are profiles of patients who fit better each trajectory. We included the first 1000 episodes admitted to IHT, of which we selected those that corresponded to the first IHT of a patient (index admission). Trajectories after the index admission were: (T-A) absence of use of acute resources, (T-B) only IHT, and (T-C) at least one hospitalization. Follow-up ranged from 6 months to 6 years. We calculated the frequency of each trajectory and performed univariate analyses searching for associations between trajectory and clinical factors. Among those patients with psychiatric history (N = 659), 66.2% followedT-A, 11.2% T-B, and 22.6% T-C. The probability of following T-C was higher for patients with a psychotic disorder (pBonf = 0.018) and with previous hospitalizations (pBonf < 0.0001). Among those patients without psychiatric history (N = 168), 82.7% followed T-A, 6.6% T-B, and 10.7% T-C. The probability of following T-B was higher for those with a higher severity at the index admission (pBonf = 0.028). This study shows that some -or even all- recurrences of some subjects were successfully managed with IHT, providing real-world evidence for its use in acute psychiatric conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civilian-led, non-police crisis response services – which attend mental health crises that previously had received uniformed police response in many jurisdictions – have multiplied substantially alongside widespread calls for 'de-tasking' of police. Yet, these services inevitably engage in forms of 'policing' in both practical and sociological terms, if we understand policing to involve reducing harms and maintaining order under the shadow of police (state coercive) power. Seeing the rapid expansion of these services as the birth of a new organisational field, following organisational and institutional theories, this paper delineates possible futures of these services as they coalesce into increasingly isomorphic forms. The paper then considers the potential bases of legitimacy, organisational ethos and accountability that will develop around these services, and sets out challenges that the organisational field will face if it is to avoid becoming an extension of 'the police'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to examine whether leadership style affects the professional satisfaction of employees in the field of hospitality and specifically in luxury hotels in Greece. A quantity survey was conducted measuring the characteristics and behavior of leaders, and employee satisfaction. The originality of the article derives from the thorough study of the individual forms of leadership's effect on job satisfaction in Greek luxury hotels, presenting existing organizational data during a strenuous period of pandemic and financial crisis leading to significant changes in the internal and external environment of hotel companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of the dynamics of foreign exchange rates is of paramount importance to economic policy makers for developing countries like India that depend on foreign exchange to meet a large part of their import obligations. This paper uses the concepts of entropy to study the regularity/irregularity of the returns from the Indian Foreign exchange (forex) markets particularly during periods of economic instability. We use the Approximate Entropy and Sample Entropy statistics which measure the level of repeatability in the data are used to quantify the randomness in the forex returns for four major currencies namely the US Dollar, the British pound, the EURO and the Japanese Yen with respect to the Indian Rupee from the time period 2006 to 2021. These statistics are chosen as they are both statistical measures for assessing the randomness or regularity of time series data and enable researchers to objectively evaluate the degree of randomness present in the returns series and understand the crucial underlying patters or behaviors. In this research we look at two periods of major financial upheavals, the subprime crisis also known as the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) during 2006-2007 and the recent Covid-19 pandemic during 2020-2021. Our empirical results overwhelmingly confirm our working hypothesis that regularity in the returns of the major Indian foreign exchange rates increases during times of financial crisis. This is evidenced by a decrease in the values of the sample entropy and approximate entropy before and after/during the financial crisis period for the majority of the exchange rates. Our empirical results also show that Sample Entropy is a better measure of regularity than Approximate Entropy for the Indian forex rates which is in agreement with the theoretical predictions. Understanding the returns from foreign exchange rates during financial crises has important policy implications for various stakeholders, including market participants, policymakers, and regulators. It enables them to formulate better risk management and hedging strategies. It also helps policy makers in crisis management and contingency planning and safeguard the stability of the financial system. Exchange rate movements are interconnected across global markets, and crises often have cross-border implications. Collaborating on crisis management strategies across countries can help foster stability in international markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how looming planetary crises become present in the lived experiences of future female workers, and how such experiences condition performances of viable subjectivity. Drawing on interview data from a longitudinal study of young women's education and career aspirations, the paper zooms in on moments where concerns about planetary crises were felt in informants' everyday lives. We augment Judith Butler's writings on loss with Karen Barad's concept of "intra‐action" to theorize these moments as experiences of loss in which constitutive dependencies and entanglements—otherwise repressed and invisible—touch young women's lives. Against this theoretical backdrop, we trace how such experiences interrupt performances of neoliberal work subjectivity and thereby create a potential for alternative agencies grounded in an ethics of entanglement. The paper thus contributes new insights into young women's complex performances of viable work subjectivity, showing how more sustainable and collective ways of performing the self emerge. As such, we offer researchers and professionals working with and around young women a nuanced understanding of how young women contest and exceed notions of neoliberal individualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic, as an ongoing societal crisis, compounds pre‐existing intersectional inequalities. Since the start of this crisis, those on the margins—women, single parents, LGBTQ+, Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic peoples—and those living in precarity and poverty found themselves increasingly "othered." As a group of academics who encounter gendered reality in disparate ways, we unite through this paper to prioritize a collective ethic of care as a counter‐narrative to the "business as usual" rhetoric that endures as our oppressive reality. In responding to this special issue, a (dis)embodied alterethnographical text is offered, encompassing four evocative reflections on symbolic annihilation to "unmute" our individual voices. We present an inclusive discussion to connect our disconnected otherness, collectively resisting the dominant, patriarchal narratives, through non‐linear, "messy writing." Our contribution is threefold. First, we empirically contribute to dismantling heteronormative binarism by reclaiming our collective voices as a loud rebuttal to hegemony. Second, through collective conceptualizations of gendered crisis, we problematize theorizing gender from a unified conceptual lens to demonstrate the importance of an inclusive approach to feminism. Finally, a collective discussion of our cumulative experiences, contributes to the writing differently agenda, subverting the limitations of the encountered gender binaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the extent to which the COVID‐19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic directed the attention and resources of the international community away from peacebuilding, and the potential impact of this on conflict‐affected environments. It draws from a global survey, interviews, and conversations with peacebuilding practitioners, publicly available information on peacebuilding funding, and real‐time data on conflict events from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. The paper argues that resources and attention have 'pivoted' away from peacebuilding to tackle the threat presented by COVID‐19, and that this can—but does not always—adversely affect conflict dynamics. It contends that this pivoting belies the interconnectedness of crises, leads to 'forgotten crises' and escalating threats, and exposes deficiencies in peacebuilding funding and, more broadly, preparedness and crisis response. Crises do, however, provide opportunities for reflection and change, including how to address these deficiencies and, in so doing, advance more efficient, effective, and ethical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay combines text and images in the style of a graphic novel to animate the lively and dynamic processes of a qualitative research approach that I call the collective creation of performed fiction. This is a form of projective storytelling in which participants draw on their own experiences to create and perform composite stories. Using fiction helps them avoid revealing sensitive details of their personal lives. The examples shared here are drawn from a long-term engagement with a group of youth in Old Havana, Cuba, where historic geopolitical tensions and emergent economic crises are interrupting the imagined futures of the young. This brief contribution documents key differences between three creative mediums used in this work (street theatre, film and animation), and addresses their varied capacities to mitigate the risks of self-disclosure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the interplay between populism and crisis from a comparative perspective. While the dominant literature largely takes crisis for granted, and thus neglects its underlying nature, we undertake a detailed investigation of the crisis of representation in Turkey and the 2009 Greek crisis. Adapting Benjamin Moffitt's model of the populist performance of crisis to Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) (Turkey) and Tsipras' Syriza (Greece), we argue, first, that the ideological core of populist parties plays a crucial role in almost all stages of the populist performance of crisis. Second, we show that structural political – economic conditions put certain limits on the populist performance of crisis. Finally, we suggest that Moffitt's model needs to be revised in light of our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Algeria faces a renewed conjunction of political-economic crisis and widespread popular discontent. Making sense of the current situation requires a careful consideration of the social structure of accumulation that governs the country's domestic affairs. This institutional arrangement has undergone a notable transformation since the previous crisis of 2015–16, but it continues to be inimical to sustained growth and stable governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comprehensive diagnosis of an organization's preparedness for a crisis requires an examination of its climate beyond the influences from the management. This study emphasizes the crucial role employees play in establishing and maintaining a climate that will survive crises by examining the function of promotive and prohibitive voice in fostering a culture of safety. The current study proposed a model in which employee promotive and prohibitive voices impact organizational crisis preparedness through the mediation of organizational safety culture. 329 working adults participated in the study through answering an online questionnaire on MTurk. The data were consistent with the proposed path model, demonstrating the critical role that employee voice plays in creating a culture of safety, which ultimately leaves an organization adequately or inadequately prepared for a potential crisis event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ethnicisation of election and the concomitant diffusion of violence has been widely explored in the literature on Kenyan presidential elections. However, the critical character of the elections has been understudied, especially as it concerns the depth and intensity of involvement occasioned by the realignment of political actors. Oftentimes, this has resulted in the emergence of fundamental changes in power dynamics. This study drew insights from Key’s critical elections theory to analyse the 2022 Kenyan presidential election. Relying on primary and secondary sources, the study contends that the election exhibited critical characteristics owing to the economic crisis and the accompanying hardship on Kenyans, which united the poor electorate behind then-candidate William Ruto. The election revealed a sharp alteration in the pre-existing cleavage within the electorate and a profound readjustment in power relations as Key’s theory posited. This was amply demonstrated by Raila Odinga’s alliance with Uhuru Kenyatta, his old political foe, and Ruto’s populist campaign tenor – hustlers versus dynasties. We argue that the hustler narrative transcended primordial identity because it resonated with the poor electorate irrespective of their ethnicity. Therefore, it is the dynastic realignment and Ruto’s pro-poor campaign strategy that effectively set the tone for a critical election. We concluded that despite the seemingly subpar performance of President Ruto, he is still the candidate to beat in the 2027 presidential election if Odinga wins the African Union Chairmanship election in 2025. This study contributes to the growing body of literature on presidential elections in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Background Methods Results Conclusion This study examines perceptions of change in intimate relationships among partnered, immigrant women in New York City during the first year of the COVID‐19 pandemic. We pay close attention to how structural oppression, particularly related to undocumented immigration status, shaped women's experiences with their intimate partners during a period of social upheaval.COVID‐19 has exacerbated many existing structural inequities and subsequent stressors that have been shown to have an adverse effect on intimate relationships, including increased economic instability and mental health distress. Immigrant women may be particularly vulnerable to relationship strain because of intersecting social and structural inequities.We draw on in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews among a heterogenous sample of 22 women with varied legal status from Latin America, South and East Asia, and the Middle East.Findings reveal three primary pathways through which structural inequities shaped women's experiences with intimate partnership strain, including financial and material scarcity; uneven caregiving burdens; and constrained access to support in situations of violence and abuse.Our analysis demonstrates ways that structural oppression, particularly driven by exclusionary immigration laws, influences intimate partner relationships through the legal status of immigrant women. Understanding how structural oppression shapes immigrant partnerships is essential for the field of family demography and for family‐serving professionals in referring clients to resources and services, as well as helping women explore sources of resilience and coping within their families and communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The economic crisis that began in 2008 has severely affected Southern (Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain) Western European (SWE) countries of Western Europe (WE) and may have affected ongoing efforts to eliminate viral hepatitis. This study was conducted to investigate the impact of the economic crisis on the burden of HBV and HCV disease. Methods: Global Burden of Diseases 2019 data were used to analyse the rates of epidemiological metrics of HBV and HCV acute and chronic infections in SWE and WE. Time series modelling was performed to quantify the impact of healthcare expenditure on the time trend of HBV and HCV disease burden in 2000–2019. Results: Declining trends in incidence and prevalence rates of acute HBV (aHBV) and chronic HBV were observed in SWE and WE, with the pace of decline being slower in the post-austerity period (2010–2019) and mortality due to HBV stabilised in SWE. Acute HCV (aHCV) metrics and chronic HCV incidence and mortality showed a stable trend in SWE and WE, whereas the prevalence of chronic HCV showed an oscillating trend, decreasing in WE in 2010–2019 (p < 0.001). Liver cancer due to both hepatitis infections showed a stagnant burden over time. An inverse association was observed between health expenditure and metrics of both acute and chronic HBV and HCV. Conclusions: Epidemiological metrics for HBV and HCV showed a slower pace of decline in the post-austerity period with better improvement for HBV, a stabilisation of mortality and a stagnant burden for liver cancer due to both hepatitis infections. The economic crisis of 2008 had a negative impact on the burden of hepatitis B and C. Elimination of HBV and HCV by 2030 will be a major challenge in the SWE countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is it foolish to talk or write about hope in the face of widespread existential crises? Our answer is ‘no’. On the contrary, hope is more necessary the bleaker things become. In this article, we explore hope as a practice. Influenced by the abolition geography of Ruth Wilson Gilmore, we build on John Holloway's argument that such practices start from ourselves, where we are and our own capacities, and overflow that which contains us. We write as resident‐activists within three community organisations in the place we live in. Extending existing geographical literature, we show how our resident‐activism is distinct from, yet also entangled with, scholar‐activism and the struggles, contradictions and potential solidarities found in the UK's marketised universities. This way of working can itself be seen as a practice of hope. The article further explores practices of hope that emerge within the three organisations. Though emplaced, these practices are not confined in space or time, drawing rather on history as a resource and connecting with broader national and international processes. The article concludes by using Holloway's concept of rage‐joy to bring together practices of hope across the three organisations and among us as resident‐activists and participants in industrial action over pay, casualisation, workloads, equalities and pensions in UK universities. The result is a capacity to see the human in each other, a necessary step in resisting resurgent fascist politics and addressing existential crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the phenomenon of ‘sellers’ inflation’, that is to say, the increases in consumer prices as a result of firms’ decision to increase their selling prices as much as possible in the aftermath of the war in Ukraine. This analysis focuses also on central banks’ responses to such inflationary pressures, which monetary authorities have been trying to limit with several increases in their policy rates of interest. The paper explains the major shortcomings of this monetary policy strategy and its negative consequences for a number of economic agents. The last section puts forward an alternative economic policy stance, proposing in particular a series of ‘green’ monetary policy interventions to address these inflationary pressures in the general interest for the common good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration in mitigating health crises that arise from wildlife-human interaction. It highlights the need for integrating data and knowledge from various fields, such as medicine, biology, epidemiology, and decision sciences, to develop a unified system for global ecosystem monitoring and management. The authors emphasize the significance of bridging the gap between academic research and practical implementation, particularly in the field of controlling infectious diseases. They propose a holistic approach that combines mathematical modeling, indigenous knowledge, decision sciences, and extended realities to prevent future pandemics and reduce the impact of wildlife diseases on human health. [Extracted from the article]

From the 2009 sovereign debt crisis to the 2022 Russian full-scale war in Ukraine, the EU has experienced a succession of intersecting crises, or a ‘polycrisis’. We examine how this polycrisis has impacted the EU's role in security and defence. While the EU's competences in security and defence have long suffered from disagreements among member states, they have shown notable developments since Brexit, and most importantly, since the 2022 war in Ukraine. We make a two-step argument to shed light on why the polycrisis has had these differentiated effects over time. The first move we make is to unpack the polycrisis to explain why and when an increase in competences may take place. We single out two crises that offer pathways for positive politicisation, leading to increased cooperation and competences: an external military threat and an internal crisis in the form of the loss of a major veto player. In a second step, we argue that the existence of an alternative organisation, NATO, helps us explain where and what cooperation can take place. Shared military threats can lead to complementary rather than substitutive empowerment at least during the duration of the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

‘Forgotten crises’ constitute a permanent background to any present and future global humanitarian and development efforts. They represent a significant impediment to promoting lasting peace given concurrent catastrophes exacerbated by climate change. Yet, they are routinely neglected and remain unresolved. Building on critical and feminist approaches, this paper theorises them as forgotten sites of local knowledge production. It asks: what is local knowledge of and from forgotten crises? How can it be recovered and resignified, and what lessons can such knowledge provide at the global level? Drawing on examples from the intersections of conflict, disasters, and pandemics in the Philippines, the paper makes a case for valuing local knowledge arising from forgotten crises because of its potential contribution to adapting global humanitarian and development systems to address crises on multiple fronts. Such epistemic margins are generative of vantage points that can present a fuller account of how different crises interact and how best to respond to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is the ‘defining issue of our time’ and human societies face extraordinary and growing hazards that threaten public safety, social cohesion, and the economy. Heatwaves, wildfires, droughts, floods, and coastal erosion are projected to increase in frequency and severity and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has long called upon societies around the world to urgently improve their capacity ‘to moderate or avoid harm’. In this essay, we call on policing actors and researchers to embrace this call and urgently consider how emerging and existential threats attributed to climate change may impact the regulation and protection of social order around the world. We argue that aligning the mentalities, functions, and capabilities of policing institutions and networks with ‘whole-of-society’ or systemic attempts to promote ‘adaptive governance’ is vital for governing security in the Anthropocene, characterised by ‘dissolving boundaries between humans and nature’. From both an institutional and systemic standpoint this shift is necessary however, police agencies and policing systems may lack the inclination or capacity to make this transition and may even actively resist or obstruct transformative agendas. We argue that the concept of ‘adaptation’ offers a potentially productive vehicle for navigating this emergent policing frontier, and for getting from where we are, to where we might want to go. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with David Omand, former United Kingdom's (UK) first Security and Intelligence Coordinator and played a key role in developing the UK's CONTEST counterterrorism strategy, is presented. Topics discussed include the factors that influenced Omand to writh the book "How to Survive a Crisis: Lessons in Resilience and Avoiding Disaster," the diference between a crisis, an emergency, and a disaster, and how can leaders prepare for the personal test that crisis will bring.

Control commands established by Chinese local governments to tackle COVID-19 proved effective in containing its spread nationwide. The primary interest in this contribution is to uncover the mechanism underlying the effectiveness of a control command established by Qingdao municipality in managing COVID-19. We conclude that the combination of five conditions, namely, task immersion, qualified team members, flexible organizing, high swift trust, and high operational representation, is sufficient to result in effective temporary organizing. Our study contributes to the policy and governance literature through adding building blocks to the explanation regarding the effectiveness of temporary organizations in managing crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on Euroscepticism tends to portray parties opposing European integration or criticising the European Union (EU) as a family of Eurosceptic parties (either hard or soft). Recent literature, however, offers empirical evidence on the ambivalence and diversity of the EU critique. What is still unclear are the reasons behind the chameleonic nature of Euroscepticism and the implications that this may have for the EU critique and the changes proposed about EU policy or institutions. The present article addresses this question exploring the role of EU crises to capture the changing nature of Euroscepticism and suggests that it is related to contextual pressures on the political debate around the EU. The paper develops this argument and illustrates it through the analysis of the Alternative für Deutschland in Germany, covering the EU crises of the last decade, including the recent period of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine invasion. Drawing on a corpus of party manifestos and speeches between 2013 and 2022, this study shows that there are three main frames used by the party to criticise the EU. It also concludes that these frames involve distinct political implications for the EU critique and the alternative proposals presented by the party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore the perceptions of domestic and foreign entrepreneurs (businesspeople and/or managers) operating in Greece towards the spatial diffusion of FDI effects caused by the privatization programme implemented by the Greek government after an economic crisis. In particular, it investigates whether attracting foreign direct investors through the ongoing privatization programme could be a policy tool for the country's recovery from the prolonged 2008 global economic crisis. To that end, it presents the results of a multinomial logistic regression model based on survey data from a significant sample of domestic and foreign investors in Greece. The key finding of this study suggests that the positive effects of FDI on the recovery of Greece from the economic crisis are more likely to benefit the country's economy as a whole than only the local economy in which the FDI is located. This finding is stronger for entrepreneurs who are (moderately) optimistic about the role of the privatization programme in attracting the interest of foreign investors than others. Overall, there is evidence that FDI attraction policies can help all Greek regions to recover from an economic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the 2008 financial crisis, policymakers in advanced economies employed unconventional economic interventions that were meant to be short-term but continued for more than a decade and were followed by unconventional interventions in non-financial markets. What causal mechanisms connect short-term unconventional interventions with long-term policy change? By developing a constructivist-evolutionary framework, we suggest that employing unconventional policy ideas for the sake of securing the pre-crisis growth regime, in a volatile economic environment, has repeatedly failed policymakers' expectations. The gap between expectations and outcomes expanded the policy space for unconventional policy ideas, and activated an evolutionary process, through which expanding 'temporary' interventions have been adopted in additional areas, became hard to reverse and modified macroeconomic priorities. A comparative process-tracing analysis of two case studies – the UK and Israel – demonstrates how short-term employment of innovative policy ideas and long-term change in economic policy are tightly connected via causal ideational evolutionary mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to discern the ontological assumptions of the financial regulatory paradigm to clarify the meaning of a paradigm shift and the significance of the macroprudential turn in global financial regulation. An ontological understanding of financial markets is a key requirement to understand the hard core assumptions of the financial regulatory paradigm because the conflation of distinct ontologies makes it impossible to maintain the internal coherence of the financial regulatory paradigm. In terms of the ontological assumptions of the financial regulatory paradigm, the macroprudential turn in global financial regulations after the 2008 financial crisis fell short of leading to a paradigm shift in global financial regulation since it brought about an explanatory rather than ontological change. Macroprudential ideas rejected the explanatory reductionism of existing microprudential regulation without abandoning its ontological individualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a case study of the dynamic of securitisation of asylum seekers and migrants in Poland since 2015. It uses a unique case of the external actor – the Belarussian government – not merely threatening to escalate the pre-existing situation but actively constructing it by creating new migration flows and forcibly pushing asylum-seekers and migrants into the EU. By reconstructing the discourse and practice of the securitising actor and the intervention of the external actor, the paper shows that the pre-existing securitisation of asylum seekers and migrants in Poland was instrumentalised by the external actor, which led to the further development and intensification of the securitising policies and practices and their justifications. The analysis contributes to our understanding of the securitisation process in the moment of the context change as triggered by an exogenous factor – an intervention by the external actor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses factors that contributed to the resilience of HIV and addiction treatment/care facilities in Ukraine during its war with Russia. Topics discussed include Ukrainian health care workers' dedication and treatment of patients despite the Russian invasion, the presence of a supportive working environment wherein clinical directors recognize the contributions of clinicians and health care staff, and recommendations to improve and maintain the capacity for HIV and addiction care.

World leaders are increasingly turning to social media to engage in crisis signaling. This raises important questions about the effects of emerging communication technologies on international politics. In particular, are threats issued via social media seen as more or less credible than those issued through traditional channels such as government press releases? Using survey experiments fielded both on unique samples of foreign policy experts in the United States, India, and Singapore and on US public samples, we find that threat medium generally generates no significant difference in perceived credibility among national security experts and members of the public. Put differently, tweeted threats are not seen as "cheaper talk" than threats issued through more traditional channels. This project extends work on crisis signaling, elite decision-making, and the domestic politics of international relations by taking into account an increasingly common technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theories of crisis bargaining suggest that costly signals can enhance the credibility of one's coercive threats. In particular, engaging in conspicuous military mobilizations or demonstrations of force are thought to communicate one's resolve in a crisis. Yet, there is disagreement about why this might be the case. One set of theories emphasizes the hand-tying political and reputational effects of visible military action. A different collection of theories argues that mobilizations create bargaining leverage by shifting the balance of power in favor of the mobilizing side. This article uses new data on coercive threats in international crises to discriminate between these two explanations. It makes two key contributions. First, it presents systematic evidence that military mobilizations during a crisis bolster the effectiveness of compellent threats. Second, it demonstrates that such signals are likely effective because they alter the local balance of military power, not because of their political effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present text starts off by discussing the conditions of psychoanalytic approach to culture and society. It explores how a transfer of the method to nonclinical fields can take place and the role theory plays in this process. Engaging with Freud's "The dissolution of the Oedipus complex" three elements are emphasized: dealing with sexual difference, the après coup in the threat of castration and the undiscovered nature of the female genitals. This is used to underscore the significance of recognizing that which is not familiar when dealing with ideas of decline and existential crises. In an "Oedipus complex of apocalypse" it is crucial to consider how difference and negativity can be dealt with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The objective of this systematic review is to describe the scientific evidence for the Suicide Crisis Syndrome (SCS), a presuicidal cognitive and affective state consisting of five symptomatic dimensions: entrapment, affective disturbance, loss of cognitive control, hyperarousal, and social withdrawal. The aim of this article is to summarize the emerging literature on the SCS and to assess the extent to which a uniform syndrome can be assumed. Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted in three different databases (PubMed, PsycInfo, and Google Scholar) using the search terms "Suicide Crisis Inventory," "Suicide Crisis Syndrome," "Narrative Crisis Model of Suicide," and "Suicide Trigger State." Results: In total, 37 articles from 2010 to 2022 were identified by search criteria. Twenty‐one articles published between 2017 and 2022 were included in the systematic review. All but three studies were conducted in the United States and examined clinical samples of adult high‐risk psychiatric in‐ and outpatients. Sample sizes ranged from N = 170 to 4846. The findings confirm the unidimensional structure of the proposed disorder and support the predictive validity for short‐term suicidal behavior above and beyond suicidal ideation. Conclusion: Despite the promising predictive validity of the SCS, a precise prediction of future suicidal behavior remains difficult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Referring to recent discussions on the challenges the concept of the Anthropocene poses for humanities and literary representation, this article investigates N. K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy as a narrative that addresses the crisis of imagination, in particular with respect to memory. Examining the tensions between individual, collective, and planetary memory, I read Jemisin's novels as an attempt to direct attention to the systemic exploitation of both marginalized minorities and the environment as a key ethical problem of the Anthropocene, which necessitates rethinking the relationship between humanity, climate change, and the planet in the face of the forthcoming crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• New panel dataset of Marxist variables for 43 countries from 2000 to 2014. • Dataset includes rates of surplus value, composition of capital, shares of productive activity, and profit rates for the global economy. • The paper tests Marx's hypotheses on economic development at the world level. • Marx was right at the global level: capital intensity rises faster than exploitation rate, and the global profit rate declines. • Productive capital relocated to China, and unproductive activity increased in developed countries. We assess Marx's hypotheses about capitalist development on a global scale by constructing a new dataset of Marxist variables (profit rates, exploitation rates, composition of capital, and shares of productive activity) for 43 major economies, derived from world input-output data and national accounts in the 2000–2014 period. Consistent with Marx's hypotheses, the average profit rate declines at the world level, between countries, and within countries. The global rate of exploitation increases until 2008 but stagnates after the financial crisis, while capital intensity continued to increase. At the cross-country level, rich countries became increasingly dominated by unproductive activity. China absorbed much of the world's productive activity and kept the labor share of value added roughly constant at the world level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the structural change in both central-northern and southern Italy, focusing on its implications for productivity dynamics and its micro-economic determinants. We document three main results. First, between 2001 and 2018, the deindustrialization process involved both areas; however, in the southern regions it mostly started after the financial crisis. In the South, the employment shares in low knowledge-intensive services increased more than in the central-northern area, whereas those in high knowledge-intensive services increased less markedly. Second, structural change slowed down productivity growth in the central and northern regions, but had no role in the productivity fall in the South. Finally, in central and northern Italy, employment growth was driven by the net creation of jobs among incumbents and larger firms. In contrast, employment dynamics in the southern regions largely reflected the process of firms entering and exiting the market, in particular in less knowledge-intensive service sectors, and in young and smaller enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crizanlizumab, a monoclonal antibody against P-selectin, has been shown to reduce vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs) compared to placebo in patients ≥ 16 years with sickle cell disease (SCD). However, there have been rare reports of patients experiencing severe pain and subsequent complications within 24 hours of crizanlizumab infusions. These events are defined as infusion-related reactions (IRRs). Informed by current literature and clinical experience, a group of content experts developed clinical guidelines for the management of IRRs in patients with SCD. We used the RAND/University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) modified Delphi panel method, a valid, reproducible technique for achieving consensus. We present our recommendations for managing IRRs, which depend on patient characteristics including: prior history of IRRs to other monoclonal antibodies or medications, changes to crizanlizumab infusion rate and patient monitoring, pain severity relative to patient's typical SCD crises, and severe allergic symptoms. These recommendations outline how to evaluate and manage IRRs in patients receiving crizanlizumab. Future research should validate this guidance using clinical data and identify patients at risk for these IRRs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crowdfunding emerged as a flexible method of financing various projects during the financial crisis but has since developed into a fully fledged financing instrument that requires special attention from the academia and legislators. The purpose of this study is to perform a quantitative analysis of the up-to-date crowdfunding research employing bibliometric analysis. We have used data from the Scopus database and have extracted a number of 1951 research papers. Using VOSviewer software, we have looked into the yearly research production, the categories in which the studies fall, citation records, highly cited authors and papers, most prolific authors and country of origin in crowdfunding. We grouped keywords into clusters and identified emerging trends. We then revealed the thematic progression of the occurring keywords into four time ranges. We find that crowdfunding research has been growing steadily from 2006 to date, with a particular focus on business and finance. The most productive countries are highly developed economies, but other countries have started exploring crowdfunding, too. The most cited references are published between 2013 and 2016, which is when the bases of this stream of research have been established. We finally discuss the theoretical and practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a major debt crisis occurs in a listed company, the stock prices of related enterprises may also fluctuate sharply, resulting in the spread of debt risk to more enterprises. Taking the stocks of listed companies as network nodes, we constructed a complex stock market network over three periods of time through the logarithmic return rate of stocks for the three periods of prophase, metaphase, and anaphase of the debt crisis. We studied the topological characteristics of the network and destructiveness over the three periods. Finally, the minimum spanning tree was used to construct a network and the community structure of the network. The empirical analysis took the debt crisis of the China Evergrande Company as an example to analyze the impact of its major debt crisis on the Chinese stock market. The research findings were as follows: First, the debt crisis increased the inter-industry connections within the network, that is, the correlations between enterprises in different industries was enhanced. Second, the closeness of the cross-industry connections increased the connectivity efficiency of the network, but compared with the other two periods, the debt crisis in the metaphase was less stable. Third, community research showed that in the metaphase of the debt crisis, the enterprises became the core nodes of the network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The economic crisis imposed changes to afford necessities like food, housing, and healthcare, leading to a decline in the physical and mental health of the population. Objectives: This study assessed the impact of the economic crisis on Lebanese adults' health-related Quality of Life (QoL) and the predictors of lower scores. Methods: A cross-sectional study targeted 561 adults using a uniform questionnaire for data collection and a Short Form 8-item survey. Results: The sample comprised 77.9% females and 22.1% males. More than half of the sample reported a decrease in their income compared to the period before the crisis, and most participants reported that the economic turmoil highly impacted their access to healthcare services (63.0%), medication (51.5%), and food (56.5%) in addition to other necessities. Participants had lower Mental Component (MC) than Physical Component (PC) scores (55.5 and 69.0, respectively). Those highly impacted by the economic crisis in accessing medication had 1.76 times higher odds of lower PC scores than others (OR 1.76, 95% CI: 1.07–3.21). As regards the impact of the economic crisis on the MC scores, significantly higher odds of a lower MC score were noted among those highly impacted by the economic crisis in terms of access to medication (OR 2.12, 95% CI: 1.14–3.95), to food (OR 1.79, 95% CI: 1.1.12–2.87), and encountering water shortage (OR 1.65, 95% CI: 1.01–2.71). Conclusion: Lebanese adults' QoL suffered physically and psychologically amid the economic crisis. The study underscores the need for accessible and affordable essential healthcare services and necessities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creativity is considered a global ability and crucial for ordinary-daily and special (e.g., science, aesthetic) activities. In this paper, from the position of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), we expand the debate about the creativity crisis and hypothesize that the noted crisis is only the tip of the iceberg represented by the crisis of the postmodern' incoherent mind, reflecting the crisis of self-realization as a leading activity in the individualistic epoch. By investigating creativity as an original functionality of the mind, two key titles are stressed. One is the halting of the activity system; two, it is the inconsistency between the objective meanings sphere and the subjective sense-making sphere. Both titles represent the epistemological rupture embedded in the mainstream culture and praxis rooted in the internal contradictions of individualism and post-modernism as worldview and practices, leading the mind to close its eyes on the contradictions which are the crucial source of grasping the internal content (abstraction and generalization) of the given experience, hence, a crucial source of creativity. Thus, it is considered that not only creativity is in crisis, but also the coherence of the mind as well, as an extreme result of the shattered postmodern existence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crisis line responders initiate emergency dispatches by activating 911 or other local emergency services when individuals are determined to be at imminent risk for undesired outcomes. This study examined the association of characteristics, psychiatric diagnoses, and somatic symptoms with emergency dispatches in a national sample. Veterans Crisis Line data were used to identify contacts (i.e., calls, texts, chats, emails) that were linked with medical records and had a medical encounter in the year prior to contact. Hierarchical logistic regression clustered by responders was used to identify the association among demographics, psychiatric diagnoses, and somatic disorders, and emergency dispatches. Analyses examined 247,340 contacts from 2017 to 2020, with 27,005 (10.9%) emergency dispatches. Odds of an emergency dispatch increased with each diagnosis (three diagnoses Adjusted Odds Ratio [AOR] (95% CI) = 1.88 [1.81,1.95]). Odds were highest among individuals with substance use disorders (SUD) (alcohol AOR (95% CI) = 1.85 [1.80,1.91]; drugs AOR (95% CI) = 1.63 [1.58, 1.68]), which may be a result of intoxication or overdose during contact, requiring further research. Having more psychiatric and somatic conditions was associated with greater odds of an emergency dispatch, indicating that comorbidity contributed to the need for acute care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Article PDF first page previewGraphGraphCloseBy Sean McCannReported by Author [Extracted from the article]

Article PDF first page previewGraphGraphCloseBy Bruce BarnhartReported by Author [Extracted from the article]

Drawing upon 152 in-depth qualitative interviews with residents in Austria carried out in the first year of the pandemic, this article discusses how people's experiences with COVID-19 policies reflect and reshape state–citizen relations. Coinciding with a significant government crisis, the first year of COVID-19 in Austria saw pandemic measures justified with reference to a biological, often medical understanding of health that framed disease prevention in terms of transmission reduction, often with reference to metrics such as hospitalisation rates, etc. Instead of using this biomedical frame, our interviewees, however, drew attention to biopsychosocial dimensions of the crisis and problematised the entanglements between economy and health. We call this the emergence of a biosocial notion of citizenship that is attentive to psychological, social and economic dimensions of health. Insights into the biosocial nature of pandemic citizenship open a window of opportunity for addressing long-standing social injustices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether, following a prolonged health crisis, the offer of a tourist destination coupled with the use of health and safety protocols at the destination, influences brand equity and intention to visit. Specifically, it (a) examines whether the indoor/outdoor activity offers influence brand equity and intention to visit, (b) demonstrates whether health and safety protocols influence brand equity and intention to visit, and (c) tests whether there is a moderating effect by the use of health and safety protocols in destinations specializing in indoor, rather than outdoor, activities. The study is based on an experimental design in which the type of offer (out/indoor activities) and the use of anti-covid protocols versus their non-use were manipulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]