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Objective. The goal is to consider the phenomenon of value-affective polarization of large social groups, to analyze the methodological foundations of the study of this phenomenon in Russia and abroad, as well as some empirical results in the study conducted by the authors. Background. Due to the global changes taking place in the world in the context of rapid scientific and technological progress, as well as the emergence of new means of information exchange, conditions have arisen in many countries, including Russia, for the manifestation of the phenomenon of value-affective polarization of the population. The study of this phenomenon is an extremely urgent problem, since it allows not only to describe the psychological mechanisms of political confrontation in society, but also to develop approaches to assess its development and reduce negative consequences. Study design. The article examines the attitude of respondents with different types of value polarization to the most significant political events in Russia against the background of stressful social events, such as the conduct of a special military operation and partial military mobilization. Participants. Russian sample: 548 people with higher education (60% women, 40% men), aged 21 to 47 years (M = 34,8; SD = 8,6). Measurements. Developed on the basis of the IAT (Implicit Association Test) test, a methodology that evaluates implicit (hidden or unconscious) political attitudes (IPA). The Big 5 methodology and questionnaire for assessing current events in Russia and abroad and the likelihood of their occurrence in the future. Results. A connection has been established between the results of the IPU and the direct answers of the respondents to the questionnaire questions. After the announcement of partial military mobilization in both polar subgroups ("loyal" and "disloyal"), the number of people who do not trust the Russian media, which cover events taking place on the territory of Ukraine, increased. At the same time, the level of patriotic sentiment among the population as a whole has increased. It is shown that as polarization develops, there is a tendency to irrationality of judgments of representatives of opposing parties. After the announcement of the SMO, the opinions of the respondents of the polar groups on some issues either did not change, or became more solid and pronounced. Conclusions. Currently, there is no reason to believe that the value polarization of the Russian population has a pronounced tendency to transform into affective polarization, but such a danger exists. The problem discussed in the article has not been sufficiently studied in Russian social and political psychology, however, the development of an appropriate methodology and theory, as well as methods and techniques, will allow us to study this phenomenon more deeply and effectively.

Introduction. Meaning-in-life orientations and self-reflection are important indicators of the regulation of personal meanings. In a modern rapidly changing society, individuals do not fully manage their lives due to the influence of various uncertainty factors. The COVID-19 pandemic that began in early 2020 and swept across the world is considered a global factor of uncertainty. The increased uncertainty of life associated with the pandemic is an additional stressor. This paper represents a first effort in obtaining empirical data on gender characteristics of teachers’ meaning-based regulation in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. This paper reports the results of an empirical study of differences in meaning-in-life orientations and self-reflection among teachers before and during the pandemic as different conditions of information uncertainty in their lives. Methods. The study was conducted among female teachers of secondary schools in the Rostov region in March 2017 (n = 53) and in October 2020 (n = 43), i.e. before and during the pandemic, which can be considered different conditions of information uncertainty in their lives. We used the following psychological assessment tools: (a) the Meaning-in-Life Orientations test by D. A. Leont'ev and (b) the Self-reflection Questionnaire by I. A. Stetsenko. Results. We observed an increase in all means of both tests during the pandemic, compared to the pre-pandemic values. Differences in all parameters are statistically significant (according to the Mann–Whitney U test). Discussion. Our findings indicate that the pandemic represents a surmountable stressor for the homogeneous acmeological category of female teachers surveyed in this study. Information uncertainty contributes to constructive restructuring of the processes of meaning-based regulation and psychological adaptation, which leads to an increase in the level of meaningfulness of life orientations and self-reflection among the respondents.

Forests worldwide are experiencing increasingly intense biotic disturbances; however, assessing impacts of these disturbances is challenging due to the diverse range of organisms involved and the complex interactions among them. This particularly applies to invasive species, which can greatly alter ecological processes in their invaded territories. Here we focus on the pine wood nematode (PWN, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus), an invasive pathogen that has caused extensive mortality of pines in East Asia and more recently has invaded southern Europe. It is expected to expand its range into continental Europe with heavy impacts possible.Given the unknown dynamics of PWN in continental Europe, we reviewed laboratory and field experiments conducted in Asia and southern Europe to parameterize the main components of PWN biology and host-pathogen interactions in the Biotic Disturbance Engine (BITE), a model designed to implement a variety of forest biotic agents, from fungi to large herbivores. To simulate dynamically changing host availability and conditions, BITE was coupled with the forest landscape model iLand. The potential impacts of introducing PWN were assessed in a Central European forest landscape (40,928 ​ha), likely within PWN’s reach in future decades.A parameter sensitivity analysis indicated a substantial influence of factors related to dispersal, colonization, and vegetation impact, whereas parameters related to population growth manifested a minor effect. Selection of different assumptions about biological processes resulted in differential timing and size of the main mortality wave, eliminating 40%–95% of pine trees within 100 years post-introduction, with a maximum annual carbon loss between 1.3% and 4.2%. PWN-induced tree mortality reduced the Gross Primary Productivity, increased heterotrophic respiration, and generated a distinct legacy sink effect in the recovery period. This assessment has corroborated the ecological plausibility of the simulated dynamics and highlighted the need for new strategies to navigate the substantial uncertainty in the agent’s biology and population dynamics.

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Abstract Background Individuals’ stress in responding to the current COVID-19 pandemic may be exacerbated by information uncertainty driven by inconsistent, unverified, and conflicting news from various sources. The current study aims to test if information uncertainty during the COVID-19 outbreak was related to acute stress disorder (ASD) over and above other psychosocial stressors. Methods An anonymous online survey was conducted with 7800 college students throughout China from January 31 through February 11, 2020. Existing scales were modified to measure ASD and six potential stressors including information uncertainty during the COVID-19 outbreak. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to assess the unique association of information uncertainty with ASD. To minimize the effect of large sample size and also to get a sense of whether the effects of information uncertainty were similar to people at the center of the epidemic, we repeated the hierarchical regression among 10% of the students who were randomly selected from the entire sample (“10% random sample”; n = 780) and 226 students from Hubei Province where the outbreak started. Results Information uncertainty was highly prevalent among the respondents (64%). It was significantly associated with ASD beyond other key variables and potential stressors across three samples. In the hierarchical regression among the entire sample, demographic variables accounted for 9.4% of the variance in ASD. The other five stressors added 5.1% of the variance. The information uncertainty (β = .159; p

Background: Using federal funds from the 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services funded the 2011-2021 Medicaid electronic health record (EHR) incentive programs throughout the country., Objective: Identify the market factors associated with Meaningful Use (MU) of EHRs after primary care providers (PCPs) enrolled in the Florida-EHR incentives program through Adopting, Improving, or Upgrading (AIU) an EHR technology., Research Design: Retrospective cohort study using 2011-2018 program records for 8464 Medicaid providers., Main Outcome: MU achievement after first-year incentives., Independent Variables: The resource dependence theory and the information uncertainty perspective were used to generate key-independent variables, including the county's rurality, educational attainment, poverty, health maintenance organization penetration, and number of PCPs per capita., Analytical Approach: All the county rates were converted into 3 dichotomous measures corresponding to high, medium, and low terciles. Descriptive and bivariate statistics were calculated. A generalized hierarchical linear model was used because MU data were clustered at the county level (level 2) and measured at the practice level (level 1)., Results: Overall, 41.9% of Florida Medicaid providers achieved MU after receiving first-year incentives. Rurality was positively associated with MU ( P <0.001). Significant differences in MU achievements were obtained when we compared the "high" terciles with the "low" terciles for poverty rates ( P =0.002), health maintenance organization penetration rates ( P =0.02), and number of PCPs per capita ( P =0.01). These relationships were negative., Conclusions: Policy makers and health care managers should not ignore the contribution of market factors in EHR adoption., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Evaluating information quality online is increasingly important for healthy decision‐making. People assess information quality using visual interfaces (e.g., computers, smartphones) with visual cues like aesthetics. Yet, voice interfaces lack critical visual cues for evaluating information because there is often no visual display. Without ways to assess voice‐based information quality, people may overly trust or misinterpret information which can be challenging in high‐risk or sensitive contexts. This paper investigates voice information uncertainty in one high‐risk context—health information seeking. We recruited 30 adults (ages 18–84) in the United States to participate in scenario‐based interviews about health topics. Our findings provide evidence of information uncertainty expectations with voice assistants, voice search preferences, and the audio cues they use to assess information quality. We contribute a nuanced discussion of how to inform more critical information ecosystems with voice technologies and propose ways to design audio cues to help people more quickly assess content quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]