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Changing demands in society and the limited capabilities of health systems have paved the way for robots to move out of industrial contexts and enter more human-centered environments such as health care. We explore the shared beliefs and concerns of health workers on the introduction of autonomously operating service robots in hospitals or professional care facilities. By means of Q-methodology, a mixed research approach specifically designed for studying subjective thought patterns, we identify five potential end-user niches, each of which perceives different affordances and outcomes from using service robots in their working environment. Our findings allow for better understanding resistance and susceptibility of different users in a hospital and encourage managerial awareness of varying demands, needs, and surrounding conditions that a service robot must contend with. We also discuss general insights into presenting the Q-methodology results and how an affordance-based view could inform the adoption, appropriation, and adaptation of emerging technologies.

Background Psychotic symptoms, including delusions, are prevalent in Alzheimer's disease and depression, where they are associated with poorer outcomes. Cognitive Load Theory posits that depression impairs cognitive function by increasing rumination and negative thought patterns, depleting cognitive resources. The role of delusions as a mediator between depression and cognitive outcomes remains unexplored. Methods Using data from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC), we examined the mediating role of paranoid delusions in the relationship between depression severity and cognitive outcomes. Data were collected from 14,588 participants during their first visit to an Alzheimer's Disease Center (March 2015‐Dec 2024, NACC Version 3). Cognitive function was evaluated using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Depression severity was proxy‐reported by caregivers using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire (NPI‐Q), while paranoid delusion severity was self‐reported based on beliefs about others stealing or planning harm. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to estimate direct, indirect, and total effects while adjusting for covariates informed by a theoretical framework. These covariates included sex, age, race, education, body mass index, living arrangement, independence, residence type, alcohol and tobacco use, diabetes, heart failure, hypertension, and stroke. Model fit was assessed using root mean square error, comparative fit index, and standardized residuals. Results Participants had a mean age of 69.3 years, with 57.4% female, 78.5% White, 17.5% Black or African American, and 4.0% from other racial groups. The average MoCA score was 23 (median = 24, SD=5.8). Overall, 26% had mild or greater depressive symptoms, and 4.6% exhibited mild or greater delusions. Delusion prevalence increased with depression severity: 1.3% in those without depressive symptoms, 7.7% in mild, 14.5% in moderate, and 28% in severe depression. Depression severity was significantly associated with delusions (β=0.092, p <0.001), poor cognitive outcomes (β=−0.79, p <0.001), and indirectly via delusional severity (β_indirect=−0.188, p <0.001). Delusions mediated 19.3% of the total effect of depression severity on cognitive outcomes. The SEM model demonstrated an excellent fit. Conclusions The poorer cognitive outcomes in patients with depression are partially mediated through delusions. Given the observational design, this needs to be confirmed through prospective studies and may provide an avenue to improve cognitive outcomes in patients with depression.

The constant rise in the prevalence of major depressive disorder calls for new, effective, and accessible interventions that can rapidly and effectively reach a wide range of audiences. Recent developments in the digital health domain suggest that dedicated online platforms may potentially address this gap. Focusing on targeting ruminative thought, a major symptomatic hallmark of depression, in this study we hypothesized that delivering a digital health-based intervention designed to systematically facilitate thought progression would substantially alleviate depression. The study aims to investigate the efficacy of a novel digital intervention on the reduction of depressive symptoms. This intervention was designed as an easy-to-use gamified app specifically aimed to facilitate thought progression through intense practicing of associative, semantically broad, fast, and creative thought patterns. A randomized clinical trial was conducted, comparing changes in depression symptoms between participants who used the app in the intervention group (n=74) and waitlist control group (n=27) over the course of 8 weeks. All participants filled out a battery of clinical questionnaires to assess the severity of depression at baseline and 4 and 8 weeks after starting the study. These primarily included the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 as well as the Positive Affect Negative Affect Scale-Negative Affect Score, Ruminative Response Scale, and Symptoms of Depression Questionnaire. Additional questionnaires were implemented to assess anxiety, positive affect, anhedonia, and quality of life. The results indicate that across multiple clinical measurements, participants in the intervention group who played the gamified app showed greater and faster improvement in depressive symptoms compared with their waitlist control counterparts. The difference between the groups in MADRS improvement was -7.01 points (95% CI -10.72 to -3.29; P<.001; Cohen d=0.67). Furthermore, the difference in improvement between groups persisted up to 4 weeks posttrial (MADRS differences at week 12: F =6.62; P=.003; ηp =0.21). At the end of the trial, participants who played the app showed high interest in continuing using the app. The results demonstrate that a gamified app designed to facilitate thought progression is associated with improvement in depressive symptoms. Given its innovative and accessibility features, this gamified method aiming to facilitate thought progression may successfully complement traditional treatments for depression in the future, providing a safe and impactful way to enhance the lives of individuals experiencing depression and anxiety. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05685758; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05685758.

Caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often report higher rates of depression and the related negative thought patterns that may precede a clinical diagnosis. These negative thought patterns are referred to as depressive cognitions. Depressive cognitions are exacerbated by child problem behaviors (CPB) but may be impacted by parental resilience. The current study examines relations between CPB and depressive cognitions and the role of resilience as a moderator among caregivers of children with ASD (n = 287) and a sample of caregivers of children who are typically developing (n = 207). Significant positive associations were found between CPB and depressive cognitions for caregivers of children with ASD and who are typically developing. A moderation analysis revealed that, among the ASD sample, the model accounted for 33% of the variance in caregiver depressive cognitions (R2 = 0.33, SE = 35.52, p  < 0.001). The interaction of child problem behaviors and caregiver resilience on caregiver depressive cognitions was statistically significant ( B  = − 0.016, SE = 0.007, p  = 0.037), thus resilience was a significant moderator, for caregivers of children with ASD. Resilience serves as a protective factor in the relationship between child problem behavior and caregiver depressive cognitions for caregivers of children with ASD only. This finding highlights the importance of assessing and supporting resilience among caregivers of children with ASD. Interventions addressing child behavior would benefit from additional components to bolster caregiver resilience to enhance caregiver mental health and protect against depressive cognitions.

Purpose More people are living longer with stage IV cancer due to advances in cancer treatments. However, individuals living with advanced cancer must navigate unique day-to-day challenges and experiences that may be incompletely understood by their health care team. This study aims to better understand the activities, decisions, and experiences that characterize a “good day” versus a “bad day” for individuals living with advanced cancer. Methods Twenty participants with stage IV cancer completed semi-structured interviews which involved rating the quality of their day as well as characterizing their experiences and activities during the day. Participants were also asked to describe a theoretical “very good day” versus a “very bad day” for them personally, as well as advice they would give to another patient with advanced cancer about how to make a day better. Thematic analysis was used to analyze interview transcripts and identify common themes across participants. Results Interviews revealed that “good days” were associated with feeling like oneself before cancer, bringing oneself to engage in activities that bring wellness and joy, feeling connected to others, feeling accomplished, and practicing positive thought patterns. On the other hand, loss of control, uncertainty/unpredictability, disruptive physical symptoms, negative experiences with health care, and inability to reach one’s goals were common on “bad days.” Conclusions This qualitative study highlighted common themes in what defines good and bad days living with stage IV cancer. Understanding individual values and priorities may help care teams support people with advanced cancer to optimize their quality of life and functioning and navigate treatment decisions.

Purpose>In the era of big data, people are more likely to pay attention to privacy protection with facing the risk of personal information leakage while enjoying the convenience brought by big data technology. Furthermore, people’s views on personal information leakage and privacy protection are varied, playing an important role in the legal process of personal information protection. Therefore, this paper aims to propose a semi-qualitative method based framework to reveal the subjective patterns about information leakage and privacy protection and further provide practical implications for interested party.Design/methodology/approach>Q method is a semi-qualitative methodology which is designed for identifying typologies of perspectives. In order to have a comprehensive understanding of users’ viewpoints, this study incorporates LDA & TextRank method and other information extraction technologies to capture the statements from large-scale literature, app reviews, typical cases and survey interviews, which could be regarded as the resource of the viewpoints.Findings>By adopting the Q method that aims for studying subjective thought patterns to identify users’ potential views, the authors have identified three categories of stakeholders’ subjectivities: macro-policy sensitive, trade-offs and personal information sensitive, each of which perceives different risk and affordance of information leakage and importance and urgency of privacy protection. All of the subjectivities of the respondents reflect the awareness of the issue of information leakage, that is, the interested parties like social network sites are unable to protect their full personal information, while reflecting varied resistance and susceptibility of disclosing personal information for big data technology applications.Originality/value>The findings of this study provide an overview of the subjective patterns on the information leakage issue. Being the first to incorporate the Q method to study the views of personal information leakage and privacy protection, the research not only broadens the application field of the Q method but also enriches the research methods for personal information protection. Besides, the proposed LDA & TextRank method in this paper alleviates the limitation of statements resource in the Q method.

Fear of happiness represents the negative feelings that emerge as one apprehends or experiences the positive emotion of happiness. This experience is intrinsically related to intolerance of uncertainty, the apprehension of the unknown, and symptoms of anxiety. While all of these factors are common among the Lebanese population, especially given the hardships it has been through for the past few years, no research has yet studied all three of them in Lebanon. Therefore, this paper tackles the role of fear of happiness as a mediator between intolerance of uncertainty and anxiety among Lebanese adults. The present study is a cross-sectional investigation that recruited 905 Lebanese adults, of which 60% were women, with a mean age of 29.90 years. Fear of happiness partially mediated the association between prospective and inhibitory anxiety and anxiety; higher prospective/inhibitory anxiety was significantly associated with higher fear of happiness and directly associated with higher anxiety. Finally, fear of happiness was significantly and directly associated with higher anxiety. Interventions such as cognitive behavioral therapy and educational programs that tackle these factors may be beneficial to these individuals to relieve symptoms of anxiety and to tackle other negative thought patterns.

Purpose The study explores the connection between foresight and Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods in a community within an environment of social instability in Colombia. It aims to contribute to research on aligning these methods for future-shaping, with the goal of enhancing shared governance, peer learning and collective learning among traditional decision-makers and local communities in emerging countries. The study seeks to foster a community of social actors who are likely to engage constructively in strategic dialogues. To enhancing shared governance and learning a hybrid model is synthesized, combining foresight and computational intelligence. Design/methodology/approach The case study explores the integration of computational intelligence and foresight through Gaston Bachelard's (Bachelard, 1936) phenomenology concept of ante-perception. The mathematical representation of the cone of scenarios provides a structured way to explore multiple future pathways, allowing communities to visualize and compare different trajectories and make informed decisions amid uncertainty. The model facilitates critical reflections on present assumptions, deepening insights into future scenarios. Ante-perception challenges traditional approaches to foresight by encouraging a break from established experiences, allowing for novel insights into possible futures. When enriched by computational intelligence, this reflective process is further strengthened by quantitative approach scenario modeling. Findings This research develops and tests a proposal that includes the logic and methods for constructing a mathematical representation of the cone of scenarios. This process, which is interactive and deliberative, is driven by anticipation and combines qualitative and quantitative approaches within a context of high uncertainty. By combining the critical reflection facilitated by ante-perception with the predictive power of computational intelligence, the model allows communities to transcend established thought patterns and explore innovative future possibilities. This integrative approach helps them envision and work toward social self-transformation. Research limitations/implications The article aims to identify the creation of scenarios in contexts of high uncertainty, to respond to the needs of communities in emerging countries to manage change. Practical implications This article explores a novel approach to using foresight for address collective intelligence by developing a shared future vision in high-uncertainty contexts within local communities in emerging countries. The application of the hybrid model demonstrates that foresight is a key innovative social tool for developing long-term strategic reflection and planning for territories. Social implications In developing long-term reflective processes, explaining phenomena, mechanisms and correlations requires the use of value judgments. This set of value judgments requires a representation that facilitates their treatment, helps to account for their behavior during the inference process to form a shared future vision. Consequently, ensuring the recognition of the opinions of local communities through participatory discussion spaces and their subsequent refinement, from a technical perspective, aims to illustrate the development of this social construction process. While similarities exist, differences add value through a transfer process, often subconscious. This process stimulates collective learning and builds capacities as knowledge is developed through inquiry, evaluation, interpretation and generalization. Originality/value This research provides a unique hybrid model that fosters collective learning and engagement by integrating local community perspectives with advanced computational intelligence methods. By facilitating both reflective and quantitative approach future-shaping, it offers a practical framework for addressing uncertainty while empowering communities to shape their own futures. It underscores the importance of recognizing local community views through bottom-up participatory discussions, thereby widening the stakeholder community to active engagement in addressing broader societal issues. The case study focuses on community collaboration in Puerto Gaitán, a Colombian municipality.

The article addresses the methods of creating the names of Upper Silesian gastronomic stablishments exemplified by 241 names motivated by appellatives, assigned to categorie’s evaluative exponents. The article is aimed at: 1) revealing the axiological perception of reality in the creation of names of Upper Silesian gastronomic establishments, which, containing evaluative exponents in their bases, evoke particular associations in the addressees, and 2) capturing the distinctive (in terms of structure/meaning) names of the discussed type and determining their communication functions. In order to isolate (sub)regional tendencies in the creation of evaluative names of catering establishments, an attempt was made to compare them with the names of the same category existing in other geographical areas. The selection of the research concept was based on the assumption that proper names motivated by appellatives can be considered as evaluative linguistic signs, and the evaluative properties contained in their bases reveal the thought patterns and evaluation models specific to a particular micro-community of the region. The analysis of marketing chrematonyms motivated by evaluative appellative vocabulary was made with reference to axiological semantics and the method of semantic fields. The regional and commercial determinants accompanying the acts of their creation were also taken into account.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to engage with, and elicit insights from, Merv Neal, a laughter professional, on the use of laughter to benefit mental health. Design/methodology/approach This case study is presented in two sections: a biography of Merv Neal, followed by a ten-question interview with him. Findings Many insights on laughter are shared. Merv lists five benefits for mental health: laughter brings you into the present moment; laughter is a distraction; laughter breaks negative thought patterns; laughter silences the inner critical voice; and laughter brings joy. Research limitations/implications This is a personal narrative, albeit from someone who has professionally used laughter to support mental health issues for over 15 years. Practical implications Laughter can be beneficial to support mental health. More evidence for its impact on mental health is needed. Prescribing laughter has been largely overlooked as a way to harness laughter for mental health to date. Investigating how and when to prescribe laughter for mental health is recommended. Social implications Mental health issues can vary enormously, but loneliness is often involved. Encouraging social laughter is therefore important, including, surprisingly perhaps, by also practicing laughing alone. Laughter, accessible to all, presents itself as a free and easy way to support community mental health. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first case study and interview with a long-standing laughter professional on the topic of laughter and mental health.