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Autism spectrum conditions (ASC) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) have overlapping symptom profiles. Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) is an established treatment for self-harm and BPD, but little research has investigated the outcomes of DBT for ASC populations. This exploratory service evaluation aims to investigate the outcomes of a comprehensive DBT programme for adolescents with a diagnosis of emerging BPD and a co-occurring ASC diagnosis as compared to those without an ASC diagnosis.

Differences from the start to end of treatment in the frequency of self-harming behaviours, BPD symptoms, emotion dysregulation, depression, anxiety, the number of A&E attendances and inpatient bed days, education and work status, and treatment non-completion rates were analysed for those with an ASC diagnosis, and compared between those with an ASC diagnosis and those without.

Significant medium to large reductions in self-harming behaviours, BPD symptoms, emotion dysregulation and inpatient bed days were found for those with an ASC diagnosis by the end of treatment. There were no significant differences between those with an ASC and those without in any outcome or in non-completion rates. These findings indicate that DBT may be a useful treatment model for those with an ASC diagnosis, though all results are preliminary and require replication.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to report the outcomes of a comprehensive DBT programme for adolescents with an ASC diagnosis, and to compare the changes in outcomes between those with a diagnosis and those without.

Globally, hepatitis C treatment uptake is lower among people who are homeless or unstably housed compared to those who are housed. Understanding and addressing this is essential to ensure no one is left behind in hepatitis C elimination efforts. This study aims to explore peoples’ experiences of unstable housing and health care, and how these experiences influenced engagement in hepatitis C treatment.

Purposive sampling was used to recruit people with lived experience of injection drug use, hepatitis C and unstable housing in Melbourne, Australia. In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted and a case study approach with interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to identify personal experiential themes and group experiential themes.

Four people were interviewed. The precarious nature of housing for women who inject drugs was a group experiential theme, however, this did not appear to be a direct barrier to hepatitis C treatment. Rather, competing priorities, including caregiving, were personal experiential themes and these created barriers to treatment. Another group experiential theme was “right place, right time, right people” with these three elements required to facilitate hepatitis C treatment.

There is limited research providing in-depth insight into how personal experiences with unstable housing and health care shape engagement with hepatitis C treatment. The analyses indicate there is a need to move beyond a “one size fits-all” approach to hepatitis C care. Instead, care should be tailored to the needs of individuals and their personal circumstances and regularly facilitated. This includes giving greater attention to gender in intervention design and evaluation, and research more broadly.

The agricultural extension system in Indonesia has experienced its ups and downs in line with the sociopolitical dynamics of the country. This study examines the impact of access to agricultural extension on the adoption of technology and farm income of smallholder farmers in Banten, Indonesia.

This study uses a quasi-experimental research design to estimate the impact outcomes at the farm level, with methods that form part of the counterfactual framework.

Estimation results show that farming experience, off-farm income, irrigation, group membership, mobile phones and livestock ownership significantly affect extension access. The results of this main study show the important role of extension access to technology adoption and agricultural income. These studies found consistently positive and statistically significant effects of access to extension services on technology adoption and farm income.

The consistent positive and significant effect of extension access implies that public investment by the government in agricultural extension can optimize the potential impact on technology adoption and agricultural income, which also affects the distribution of the welfare of rural smallholder farmers.

Agricultural extension as a key to increasing technology adoption. However, the impact of access to agricultural extension in Indonesia has received less attention in terms of adoption and farm income.

The purpose of the study is to investigate how small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can effectively collaborate for eco-innovation using the business modes of innovation framework to emphasise three types of collaboration: “science, technology, and innovation” (STI), “learning by doing, using, and interacting” (DUI)-Vertical and DUI-Horizontal.

This analysis uses data from 838 SMEs in the Basque Country (2018–2020) to evaluate the effects of the three types of collaboration on eco-innovation. The authors employ a propensity score-based method to address potential bias associated with endogeneity in innovation studies.

The findings suggest that DUI-Vertical collaboration has a positive relationship with the development of product, process and marketing eco-innovation. Furthermore, DUI-horizontal collaboration is the most effective collaboration mode for SMEs, positively impacting their overall eco-innovation portfolio. Finally, STI collaboration is positively associated with product eco-innovation.

Policymakers should support SMEs by designing programmes that facilitate collaboration between competing firms to stimulate eco-innovation, but potential challenges of coopetition must be addressed. Rather than a generic, one-size-fit-all approach, SMEs' managers should identify the most appropriate partners corresponding to their specific eco-innovation goal, ensuring a more effective and targeted. Collaboration between science partners and SMEs should be reinforced by approximating the SMEs' needs more effectively.

This study contributes twofold. Firstly, the authors investigate whether the STI and DUI modes of innovation are determinant factors in the introduction of various types of eco-innovation. Secondly, the authors contribute to the literature on business modes of innovation by differentiating between DUI-Vertical (i.e. suppliers, customers and consultancy) and DUI-Horizontal (i.e. competitors) collaboration, thus highlighting the complexity of DUI collaboration forms.

In the era of big data, there is doubt about the significance of causal inference as a paramount scientific task in the social sciences. Meanwhile, data-mining techniques rooted in big data and artificial intelligence (AI) have infiltrated numerous aspects of social science research. This study aims to expound the criticality of discerning causal relationships – beyond mere correlations – and scrutinizes the ramifications of big data and AI in the identification of causality.

This study discusses the challenges and opportunities for causality identification in the era of big data under the framework of potential outcomes model and structural causal model.

First, even in the age of big data, correlations that lack interpretability, robustness and feasibility cannot substitute causality. Second, the richness of the sample size does not help solve the problem of systematic bias in the process of causal inference. Furthermore, current AI research targets correlations rather than causality, thus creating difficulties in advancing from observations to counterfactuals.

This study provides insights into the impact of big data era on causal inference in the social sciences, with a view toward enhancing the pool of theoretical concepts available to researchers in relevant fields and accurately guiding the direction of scientific research in these fields.

This paper aims at understanding the causes of low adoption of hybrid rice technology. The paper also assesses the impact of adoption of hybrids and modern varieties on crop yield, vis-à-vis the old or traditional varieties.

Using unit-level data from a large-scale survey of farm households (19,877 paddy cultivators), the authors applied multi-nomial regression method to understand the factors for adoption of hybrid rice and instrumental variable method of regression to estimate its impact.

The findings demonstrate that in India, hybrid rice is often grown on relatively poor soils, resulting in greater irrigation costs and for other inputs, such as fertilizers. Further, farmers' poor access to information on the traits of hybrid rice and the associated agronomic practices, as well as poor access to financial resources, hampers efforts to scale up its adoption. More importantly, the findings reveal that the relative yield advantage of hybrids over open-pollinated modern varieties is not large enough to incentivize the rapid adoption of hybrid rice technology.

Given the higher cost of hybrids than the inbred varieties, enhancing paddy cultivators' access to financial resources can accelerate the adoption of hybrid rice in India.

The study is based on unit level data from a large-scale, nationally representative survey of farm households, comprising a sample of 19,877 paddy cultivators, spread across states in India.

Many international radiology societies, including American College of Radiologists (ACR), have established guidelines for optimum forms and contents of medical imaging reports to ensure high quality and to guarantee the satisfaction of both the referring physician and the patient. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the criteria of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) reports in Jordan according to the standards of the ACR.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in early January 2021 for two weeks. An invitation letter was sent to 85 MRI centers of various health-care sectors in Jordan to participate in the study. Each invitee was requested to send at least ten different MRI reports. The study used a questionnaire containing the checklist of the latest edition 2020 of ACR’s practice parameter to communicate the diagnostic imaging results and the demographic information of the participating MRI centers. Seven basic elements were assessed for content-related quality of MRI reports, which are administrative data, patient demographics, clinical history, imaging procedures, clinical symptoms, imaging observations and impressions. Statistical analyses were used to evaluate the data.

Forty-one MRI centers participated in the study with 386 different MRI exam reports. The majority (92%) of the reports were computer-generated. Free texted unstructured reports and head-structured reports had an almost equal percentage of around 40%. Exam and radiologist demography as well as exam findings criteria were 100% available in all reports. The percentage of exam conclusion, and exam description and techniques were 2% and 4.9%, respectively (N = 368). There was a positive association between computer-generated reports and the presence of picture archiving and communication systems (PACS)/health information systems r = 0.443.

Structured and free text unstructured reporting were the common types of MRI exam reports in Jordan. Handwriting exam reporting existed in few MRI centers, particularly in those that had no PACS and radiology information systems.

A debate on whether new ventures should be supported with public funding is taking place. Adopting a position on this discussion requires rigorous assessments of implemented programs. However, the few existing efforts have mostly focused on regional cases in developed countries. To fill this gap, this paper aims to measure the effects of a regional acceleration program in a developing country (Medellin, Colombia).

The economic notion of capabilities is used to frame the analysis of firm characteristics and productivity, which are hypothesized to be heterogeneous within the program. To test these relationships, propensity score matching is used in a sample of 60 treatment and 16,994 control firms.

This paper finds that treated firms had higher revenue than propensity score-matched controls on average, confirming a positive impact on growth measures. However, such financial growth is mostly observed in service firms rather than other economic sectors.

Further evaluations, with a longer period and using more outcome variables, are suggested in the context of similar publicly funded programs in developing countries.

These findings tip the balance in favor of the literature suggesting supportive programs for high-growth firms as opposed to everyday entrepreneurship. This is an insight, especially under the context of an emerging economy, which has scarce funding to support entrepreneurship.

The transtheoretical model (TTM) has been applied to varying areas of physical health, e.g. diabetes. However, research into its applicability to psychotherapy is mixed. The TTM is applied through the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment (URICA). Investigating the utility of the URICA is needed to improve patient care and outcomes. This study aims to assess whether the URICA scores relate to patient outcomes; patient attendance; practitioner ratings of patient readiness, appropriateness, insight, motivation and potential for improvement; and to explore practitioner’s perspectives on the URICA.

Correlational methods were used to assess the relationship between the URICA and therapeutic outcome, attendance and practitioner-rated areas. Content analysis was used to analyse practitioner qualitative data.

The URICA did not correlate with either therapeutic outcome or attendance. A significant negative correlation was found between the URICA and practitioner-rated appropriateness of the referral. This means practitioners perceived individuals with lower URICA scores to be a more appropriate referral, despite the score indicating a reduced readiness to change. Qualitative categories included positive views, negative views, ambivalence and changes to measure and process. To conclude, the URICA does not explain a patient’s outcome or attendance. The URICA may not be appropriate to use in its current format in mental health services; therefore, assessing the TTM verbally may be more helpful.

This study provides research into suitability of using the URICA to assess the TTM and its applicability to attendance and outcome in psychological therapies.

Psychiatric patients’ post-treatment identities are one of the potent indicators reflecting the efficacy of the medical intervention. This study aims to explore how psychiatric patients construct their post-treatment social identities through a gender lens.

This study used a descriptive phenomenological approach, and in-depth interviews were undertaken on 29 informants with experience of psychiatric treatment for at least one year and who are in the remission stage. The lived experience of each informant was scrutinised, which covered how psychiatric post-treatment affects and alters their personal life, work and social relationships. Data collected were then analysed using thematic analysis.

The result found two mutually reinforced identities, namely, self-empowerment and resilience emerged from their experience with psychiatric post-treatment. Firstly, self-empowerment themes include acceptance of the disorders, meaningful choices, assertiveness and helping others. Such self-empowerment attributes enabled them to negotiate with the doctors during the treatment and also with their family members and partners. Secondly, psychiatric post-treatment allows them to be resilient; their good feeling of being liberated from the symptoms while allowing them to partake in a normal lifestyle. Meanwhile, gender differences were found to have diverse meaning-making that positively impacted their lives, particularly among female informants.

Firstly, the data collection was only made in two states in North Peninsular Malaysia; hence, it would be biased in this sense to generalize to a larger population. At the same time, a prevalent study could be undertaken to view the pervasiveness of mental illness among Malaysians. Secondly, the study did not investigate the social institutions that are linked to the relief of psychiatric patients in the country. Thus, there is a grey area on how at the systemic level aid is given to the patients and the impact of such action.

A rigour campaign on promoting mental health should be undertaken to create an inclusive environment for the patients. This is consistent with the aspiration of deinstitutionalization and the Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 agenda by the Malaysian government. This is a call for an allotment in special education, training, and funding, employment, housing and other aspects that are significant for their livelihood.

The findings discovered that their social environment primarily caused the depression suffered by the patients. The remark is particularly true for female informants who had very little control over their lives and bodies. Hence, health professionals should consider practicing cultural and gender-sensitive treatment for these patients. Such treatments are to avoid re-discriminating, or re-victimisation feelings to occur during the treatment.

Patients’ post-treatment social identity construction is seldom reported systematically through a gender lens. This study is one of the early efforts on gender lens that allow one to understand how it influences social structures and institutions, especially in the Malaysian realm.