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As the population ages, promoting good health maintenance practices has become an important strategy in many health systems. Regular general health checks detect common diseases and empower older adults to monitor their physical health. Yet the service uptake rate is low. Previous reviews have identified intervention methods to improve the uptake rate, but the overall effectiveness of these interventions remains unclear. This review aims to determine the overall effectiveness of the interventions used to improve general health check uptake and identify the behavior change techniques used in these interventions. Literature searches were conducted in four electronic databases in August 2020 and updated in May 2021. Six randomized controlled trials were included in this review. Seven intervention types were identified, including enhanced invitation letters, telephone invitation, question-behavior-effect questionnaire, financial incentive, leaflet, pre-notification, and SMS reminder. Overall, the interventions are effective, with an odds ratio of 1.21, and a 95% confidence interval between 1.09–1.33. Fifteen behavior change techniques were identified using the Behaviour Change Technique Taxonomy (v1). The findings suggest that the current interventions implemented in invitation methods are effective in improving the general health check uptake rate, but there are still opportunities to further improve the uptake rate by considering other intervention types. Future studies could consider how other intervention types could be implemented alone or with the enhanced invitation methods to maximize the service uptake rate. The systematic review protocol is registered on PROSPERO (ref: CRD42021221041).

Background Visual decline is inevitable in older adults. Utilizing preventive vision care can mitigate major risk factors, yet the uptake rate remains suboptimal globally. Barriers to seek preventive eye care were identified in the literature. However, the understanding of these barriers was limited by the quantitative approach, hindering the opportunity to suggest specific strategies to improve service uptake. This qualitative aimed to identify the factors influencing the decision-making process of older adults to use preventive vision care. Methods This was a qualitative study guided by the grounded theory approach. Purposive sampling was used to recruit the subjects. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 community-dwelling adults aged 65 years or above in Hong Kong. Data were transcribed and constant comparison techniques were used for data analysis. Results The core theme revealed a decision-making process of being difficult in “prioritising and fitting preventive vision care into the existing health service utilization” for older people when deciding the utilization of preventive vision care. Five sub-themes were identified to explain the low preventive vision care utilization. Specifically, in absence of past preventive vision care utilization experience, most rely on other “previous health service utilization” to guide their judgment. “Low perceived preventive vision care needs” were due to perceived low disruption of symptoms in daily practices and lack of social cues. “Low perceived self-efficacy of service utilization” was due to limited information on service availability, limited social support, limited health literacy, and financial concerns. Unfulfilled “service expectation” also lowered their motivation to use preventive vision care. Discussion This study found that multiple factors influenced the decision-making process and reduced the motivation of subjects to use preventive vision care. Future interventions could exploit the benefit of social influences on the identified factors so that preventive vision care can smoothly fit into the ongoing healthcare use. Adopting a longitudinal qualitative perspective would enrich understanding the reasons for not using preventive vision care.

Despite the mounting research on gender inequality in the workplace, progress toward gender parity in organizational practice has stalled. We suggest that one reason for the lack of progress is that empirical research has predominately focused on the antecedents and manifestations of gender inequality in the workplace, paying inadequate attention to the solutions that could potentially improve gender equality and women’s experiences at work. Indeed, we report here that less than 5% of the relevant studies published in preeminent management, psychology, and diversity journals since the turn of the century identify practical interventions for solving gender inequality in organizations. To advance gender equality at work, we argue that a paradigm shift from problem to solution is critical and urgent. Using ecological systems theory (EST; Bronfenbrenner, 1977) as our guiding framework, we present an integrative review of gender equality interventions spanning across the management, psychology, and feminist literature over the past two decades at the ontogenic system, interpersonal microsystem, and organizational microsystem levels of analysis. We subsequently provide an overview of domains not currently addressed in extant research – meso-, macro-, and chronosystems – and identify future research directions to spur progress towards workplace gender equality.

The 2016 U.S. Presidential election presented a unique opportunity to study gender and leadership. Using the social identity theory of leadership (Hogg 2001) as a guiding framework, we sought to understand the effect of social identities—gender and political affiliation—on voters’ evaluations of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in this election. We surveyed 440 participants’ attitudes toward female leaders, political affiliation, level of media exposure, and their evaluations of Clinton’s charisma and effectiveness in Study 1. Results indicate that female voters, those with favorable attitudes toward female leaders, and Democrats were more likely to support Clinton; these relationships were strengthened by media exposure. Contrary to predictions, gender attitudes and political affiliation did not have a significant interaction effect on evaluations of Clinton. In Study 2, we conducted a content analysis of the media’s portrayal of Clinton on both ends of the political spectrum. Our findings revealed that partisan news outlets with opposite political leanings did significantly differ in their portrayal of Clinton’s prototypicality and competence as a leader. As a result, media coverage acted to magnify the role of political affiliation in voters’ evaluations of Clinton’s suitability for the highest political office. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The COVID‐19 pandemic is an unprecedented public health crisis that poses a challenge to humanity. Drawing on the stress and coping literature, we argue that people around the world alleviate their anxiety and stress induced by the pandemic through both prosocial and ‘self‐interested’ hoarding behaviours. This cross‐cultural survey study examined the pushing (threat perception) and pulling (moral identity) factors that predicted prosocial acts and hoarding, and subsequently psychological well‐being. Data were collected from 9 April to 14 May 2020 from 251 participants in the United Kingdom (UK), 268 in the United States (US), 197 in Germany (DE), and 200 in Hong Kong (HK). Whereas threat perception was associated positively with both prosocial acts and hoarding, benevolent moral identity was associated positively with the former but not the latter behaviour. We also observed cross‐cultural differences, such that both effects were stronger in more individualistic (UK, US) countries than less individualistic (HK, DE) ones. The findings shed light on the prosocial vs. self‐interested behavioural responses of people in different cultures towards the same pandemic crisis.

The 2016 US Presidential Campaign was followed worldwide due to the dynamic nature of the candidates and the controversy surrounding them. This study takes a unique look at the candidacy of Donald Trump through the eyes of his followers. Using both qualitative data collected from campaign speeches and quantitative data collected from followers, our study examines (1) the positive/negative valence of the rhetoric used by both presidential candidates and (2) the relationship between follower characteristics, perceived threat of social groups, and attributions of charisma and effectiveness to Donald Trump. The results of this study suggest that Trump’s rhetoric was significantly more negative, hostile, and aggressive than Clinton’s. In addition, quantitative analyses show a direct relationship between followers’ attitudes toward gender and attributions of charisma and effectiveness to Trump. Finally, followers’ perceived threat of social groups mediated relationships between follower self-esteem, romance of leadership, gender attitudes, and attributions of charisma and effectiveness to Trump. Our results shed further light on the important role that follower characteristics and perceptions play in predicting social constructions of leadership and attributions of charisma. Implications for both organizations and scholars of leadership are discussed.

A sedentary lifestyle is now known as a critical risk factor for accelerated aging-related neurodegenerative disorders. In contract, having regular physical exercise has opposite effects. Clinical findings have suggested that physical exercise can promote brain plasticity, particularly the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex, that are important for learning and memory and mood regulations. However, the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. Animal studies reveal that the effects of physical exercise on promoting neuroplasticity could be mediated by different exerkines derived from the peripheral system and the brain itself. This book chapter summarizes the recent evidence from clinical and pre-clinical studies showing the emerging mediators for exercise-promoted brain health, including myokines secreted from skeletal muscles, adipokines from adipose tissues, and other factors secreted from the bone and liver.

A sedentary lifestyle is now known as a critical risk factor for accelerated aging-related neurodegenerative disorders. In contract, having regular physical exercise has opposite effects. Clinical findings have suggested that physical exercise can promote brain plasticity, particularly the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex, that are important for learning and memory and mood regulations. However, the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. Animal studies reveal that the effects of physical exercise on promoting neuroplasticity could be mediated by different exerkines derived from the peripheral system and the brain itself. This book chapter summarizes the recent evidence from clinical and pre-clinical studies showing the emerging mediators for exercise-promoted brain health, including myokines secreted from skeletal muscles, adipokines from adipose tissues, and other factors secreted from the bone and liver.

Autotelic personality is a constellation of dispositional attributes that facilitate engagement and enjoyment in daily activities. However, there is no existing measurement directly capturing the attributes of autotelic personality that are identified in the literature. In the three studies reported here (total

This study examines the relationship between emoticons and emotions, specifically, exploring the roles of emoticons on emotional representativeness, awareness and management. This study hypothesizes that the combination of text and emoticons has the greatest effect on emotion representativeness, awareness and management. Also, the effect of emoticons is moderated by the users’ emotions. A 3 (emotions: joy/fear/sadness) × 3 (message patterns: using emoticons only/using text only/emoticons plus text) factorial experimental design was adopted in this study. 154 participants were recruited from a private college in Hong Kong and they were randomly assigned to one of the nine conditions. The results showed that there was no significant main effect of message patterns on emotional representativeness, awareness and management. The main effect of emotions was only significant for emotional management. The interaction effects between emotions and message patterns were also insignificant. This study provides some new insights to understand the roles of emoticons in expressing emotions in Instant Messenger.

we aimed to investigate the accuracy of liver (LSM) spleen stiffness measurement (SSM) with transient elastography (TE) to predict varices in the presence of non-selective beta-blockers (NSBB).In this cross-sectional study of consecutive patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and cirrhosis, all patients underwent TE and upper endoscopic examinations. LSM and SSM in predicting varices in patients receiving and not receiving NSBB were evaluated.Altogether 144 CHB patients (29 receiving NSBB; 35 with any varices, 31 and 11 with esophageal and gastric varices, respectively) were recruited. Their mean LSM and SSM were 13.3 ± 9.0 kPa and 32.8 ± 19.2 kPa, respectively. The correlation between LSM and SSM was better in the NSBB subgroup (r = 0.525, P = 0.003) than its counterpart (r = 0.329, P 0.001). The area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of LSM and SSM for any varices was 0.675 and 0.685 (P = 0.002 and 0.001), respectively. SSM of 18.9 kPa had a negative predictive value of 92.1% and negative likelihood ratio of 0.27 for ruling out any varices; and SSM of 54.9 kPa had a positive predictive value of 56.5% and a positive likelihood ratio of 4.05 to rule in varices. The AUROC of LSM for varices was 0.742 and 0.549 in patients with or without NSBB, respectively; the corresponding AUROC of SSM was 0.572 and 0.603, respectively.SSM only has modest accuracy to predict varices independent of NSBB use. An SSM cutoff value of 18.9 kPa may be adopted to achieve a high negative predictive value to rule out varices.

Leadership research continues to grow at an increasing pace. Yet, conceptual ambiguities exist and theories of leadership remain fragmented. This paper provides a conceptual framework to situate an...

Cytokine transforming growth factor (TGF) is involved in regulation of tissue repair after injury. More recently, TGF-beta1 codon 10 gene polymorphism has been shown to be associated with circulating TGF-beta levels. We tested whether TGF-beta1 genotype polymorphism was predictive of renal allograft function decline.The study population consisted of 129 consecutive cadaveric or living related renal transplant recipients at our center between 1985 and 2001. The recipient TGF-beta1 genotype polymorphism was determined from peripheral blood leucocytes DNA. The primary endpoint was rate of glomerular filtration rate decline between the first year and the third year of transplant.Baseline glomerular filtration rate as estimated by MDRD study equation at 1 year measured 50+/-17 mL/min/1.73 m2. At the end of the 3-year follow-up period, 52 patients (40%) experienced biopsy-confirmed acute rejections. Frequency and severity of allograft rejection did not differ with TGF-beta genotypes. However, the decline in glomerular filtration rate was significantly greater in Leu/Leu (TT) than Leu/Pro (CT) recipients, 6.3+/-16.9 mL/min/1.73 m2 versus 0.1+/-10.2 mL/min/1.73 m2, p=0.04.Our results demonstrate that recipient TGF-beta1 codon 10 Leu/Leu homozygosity is a potential risk factor of kidney allograft function decline.

Traditionally, the measuring or monitoring system of manufacturing industries uses sensors, computers and screens for their quality control (Q.C.). The acquired information is fed back to the control room by wires, which - for obvious reason - are not suitable in many environments. This paper describes a method to solve this problem by employing the new Bluetooth technology to set up a complete new system, where a total wireless solution is made feasible. This new Q.C. system allows several line scan cameras to be connected at once to a graphical user interface (GUI) that can monitor the production process. There are many Bluetooth devices available on the market such as cell-phones, headsets, printers, PDA etc. However, the detailed application is a novel implementation in the industrial Q.C. area. This paper will contain more details about the Bluetooth standard and why it is used (nework topologies, host controller interface, data rates, etc.), the Bluetooth implemetation in the microcontroller of the line scan camera, and the GUI and its features.