The role of healthcare provider ownership in shaping health system performance remains contested. An umbrella review was conducted to synthesise evidence on the relationship between healthcare provider ownership and performance in high-income countries. Systematic reviews were included that examined performance of healthcare providers based on ownership status. Searches yielded 1,862 results, with 31 systematic reviews meeting the inclusion criteria, and one further systematic review identified through grey literature searches. Following the exclusion of 10 reviews classified as low-quality and two previous umbrella reviews both published in 2014, 20 reviews were eligible for data extraction and synthesis. Inconsistent evidence was found across reviews between healthcare provider ownership and several performance indicators including health outcomes, technical efficiency, and patient satisfaction. Private hospitals tend to serve wealthier patients, select less complex or costly patients, and charge higher payments for care than public comparators. Private for-profit (FP) providers of hospital and long-term care generally had poorer workforce outcomes than private not-for-profit or public providers, including reduced staffing levels, higher workloads, and lower job satisfaction. Private PF hospitals and nursing homes had improved financial performance based on revenues or profit margins. Our findings underscore the need for nuanced regulatory responses to the expansion of private FP provision within publicly funded systems.

Governments across the world are leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to render services to citizens. Emerging economies are not left behind in this transformation but remain a gaping distance behind in their integration into public-sector service delivery compared to the private sector. To ensure the effective integration of AI services by government agencies to serve citizens, it is necessary to understand the constellation of factors driving user adoption of AI. Therefore, this study answers the question: how can government-initiated AI services be successfully accepted by citizens? Leveraging non-probability sampling, a snowball sample of 245 tertiary student-workers from across Ghana was surveyed to solicit their knowledge, attitudes, readiness, and use intentions towards AI-enabled government services. The data were analysed using FsQCA and complemented by PLS-SEM to confirm the findings. The findings reveal four unique configurations, summarised into two broad groups; AI enthusiasts and AI sceptics that drive AI adoption in government services. Positive readiness factors, such as knowledge of AI and optimism towards AI, characterise AI enthusiasts. In contrast, those described as AI sceptics still adopt government AI services despite their reservations and general distrust. AI sceptics are a delicate group that sit at the boundary between adoption and rejection, requiring special attention and strategies to orient them towards adoption. The study recommends effective education and trust-building strategies to foster AI adoption in government services. The findings are essential for driving the efficient implementation of AI-enabled services among working-class citizens in emerging economies.

Patients with chronic liver disease (CLD) often experience hypozincemia. The clinical factors associated with hypozincemia have not been established. We investigated clinical factors that may be useful to predict hypozincemia in patients with CLD. The serum zinc levels CLD patients were measured; Study 1 investigated the predictive factors of hypozincemia, and Study 2 was performed to validate the factors identified in Study 1. Study 1 included 197 participants, of whom 28 and 106 had serum zinc levels <60 µg/dL and <80 µg/dL, respectively. A multivariate analysis revealed that serum zinc levels <60 µg/dL or <80 µg/dL were associated with the albumin–bilirubin (ALBI) score and serum albumin level. A receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed that the ALBI score ≥ −1.83 and the serum albumin level ≤3.3 g/dL were the cut-off values for a serum zinc level <60 µg/dL, whereas the ALBI score ≥ −2.44 and the serum albumin level ≤3.6 g/dL were the cut-off values for a serum zinc level <80 µg/dL. In Study 2 (n = 177), the diagnostic accuracy rates for serum zinc <60 µg/dL were 81.9% for the ALBI score and 75.1% for the serum albumin level, and those for serum zinc <80 µg/dL were 70.1% for both parameters. Together these findings indicate that the ALBI score may serve as a predictive factor of hypozincemia in CLD patients.

The use of metaphors, whether linguistic or visual, has been shown to enhance advertisement effectiveness, and sensory marketing research highlights the positive effects of appealing to consumers’ sensory perception. Synaesthetic metaphors, which involve metaphor and sensory experiences, are ideal for studying the effects of both metaphor and (multi)sensory cues in advertisements. We experimentally tested the hypothesis that the presence of (linguistic and/or visual) metaphor and the evocation of multiple senses will enhance advertisement appreciation and the intention to purchase the advertised product. We manipulated eight print advertisements, each of which was presented in the following conditions: (1) visual and linguistic synaesthetic metaphor; (2) linguistic but no visual synaesthetic metaphor; (3) visual but no linguistic synaesthetic metaphor; and (4) neither visual nor linguistic synaesthetic metaphor. Each advertisement was also rated for its multisensoriality, that is, its association with the five basic senses. Results partly supported the hypothesis, showing that advertisements with both visual and linguistic synaesthetic metaphors and those perceived as more multisensory were most appreciated. However, purchase intentions were not influenced by either metaphor or multisensoriality. This indicates that higher aesthetic appreciation does not necessarily translate into higher purchase intentions, suggesting the need for further research into additional influencing factors.

Professor Stephan Harbarth obtained his medical degree from the University of Munich in 1993. He completed postgraduate training in internal medicine and infectious diseases in both Munich and Geneva. After serving as a clinical research fellow in infectious diseases at Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), he pursued postgraduate studies in epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, earning a Master of Science in Epidemiology in 1999. He continued his research activities at Children’s Hospital of Harvard Medical School until 2001.

In April 2007, he was appointed Attending Physician in the Infection Prevention and Control Service (SPCI) at HUG and also served as a consultant in the Infectious Diseases Service. He became head of the SPCI in October 2022.

A Privat-docent at the Faculty of Medicine since 2006, Professor Harbarth was appointed Associate Professor in 2010 and Full Professor in 2018. His research focuses on the epidemiology and prevention of antibiotic-resistant infections, as well as on antibiotic stewardship. A renowned expert in this field, he serves on numerous national and international expert committees. His work has received multiple awards, including the prestigious Robert Koch Award in 2022 for hospital hygiene and infection prevention.

His research group focuses on clinical and epidemiological studies aimed at addressing key issues related to the control of acquisition, transmission, and infection by multidrug-resistant organisms, as well as the associated clinical and public health burden. His work on the impact and control of nosocomial transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBL)-producing organisms has significantly improved strategies to combat these pathogens. His additional research interests include the molecular epidemiology of emerging bacteria, pharmaco-epidemiology and antibiotic optimization, and the rapid diagnosis of severe infections. He has been involved in several large-scale, EU-funded studies (REVERSE, ECRAID, COMBACTE) and led the major European project “Drive-AB,” which coordinated over 20 public and private partner institutions across 12 European countries to address this public health threat.

Professor Stephan Harbarth was included in the Highly Cited Researchers™ 2022 list.

In many countries, women participate in politics at lower rates than men. This gap is often most pronounced among young adults. Civic education programs that provide non-partisan political information are commonly used to try to close this gender gap. However, information alone rarely reduces the gap and sometimes exacerbates it. We extend the literature emphasizing the psychological resources women need to participate by evaluating whether embedding efficacy-promoting messages within civic education reduces gender disparities in participation. In collaboration with Zambian civic organizations, we implemented a field experiment before national elections that randomly assigned urban young adults to an information-only course or the same course with efficacy-promoting messages. We find that the efficacy-promoting course substantially increased young women’s political interest and participation, narrowing gender gaps across a wide range of behavioral and attitudinal outcomes. We discuss the study’s implications for theories of political participation and the design of civic education.

The leptomedusa Dichotomia cannoides is reported for the first time from the Red Sea, extending its known distribution beyond the western Atlantic and western Pacific Ocean. Five specimens were documented in the northern Gulf of Aqaba, and one was collected for molecular analysis. In situ photography was used to extract diagnostic characters and natural habitus. DNA barcoding of the mitochondrial COI gene showed 98.03% identity with D. cannoides from Florida. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed its placement within D. cannoides, distinct from related leptothecate taxa. This finding increases the number of Leptothecata species recorded in the region to 15. The delayed detection of D. cannoides in the Red Sea may be due to its small size, limited seasonality or a recent introduction via ballast water or hull fouling. The species remains known only from its medusa stage. We further discuss how environmental DNA may help uncover its life cycle and those of other hydrozoans.

This study examines the future temporal reference (FTR) system among Francophones and Anglophones speaking English in Kapuskasing, Ontario. Previous studies have shown that in Laurentian French, the go future is the preferred variant, and the strongest determinant of variant choice is polarity: negatives strongly favor the inflected future. In Canadian English, the go future has no polarity effect and there is robust variation with will, highlighting a key contrast in the underlying constraints between the French and English FTR systems. The results show that while older Anglophones pattern in tandem with known studies of English, Francophones, as well as young Anglophones, exhibit the polarity contrast of the French system, even though they are speaking English. We suggest that these results may stem from social alignment between Francophones and Anglophones driven by increasing linguistic and social symmetry in the community, as well as increasing positive affect toward French in Kapuskasing.

Using a comparative reading of Antigone and Iphigenia, the paper illuminates how differing modes of finality within a political moment can be construed along gender lines. For feminine characters whose political life never experiences a birth while ensconced in the Athenian apparatus of male political oppression, understanding how Antigone and Iphigenia both become politically born by entering a mode of finality aids in pinpointing one of the very few agentic methods available to women in ancient Athens. Through a careful understanding of Greek tragedy, the place of women in Ancient Athens, and a discussion of views of gender during the time, the paper offers a multi-disciplinary view, understanding the text for what it is within a contemporary reading of gender. What does Antigone’s suicide imply about gendered power inside a political situation and what does Iphigenia’s sacrifice take away? Antigone’s suicide effectively makes her a masculine actor in the eyes of an Ancient Athenian spectator while Iphigenia’s sacrifice is uniquely feminine. This paper also represents preliminary work into the importance and significance of persons who are politically cornered but have open to them an intentional mode of finality.