In psychology there is a plethora of different measures and constructs. However, the literature also shows that many of these measures overlap and may even sometimes be redundant. Recognizing such overlap in measures is essential for consolidation and for moving the field forward. Accordingly, we suggest a role herein of the General Factor of Personality (GFP), which emerges from the correlations between specific personality dimensions and reflects a mix of desirable traits (e.g. being sociable, honest, and emotionally stable). It is argued and shown that the GFP is highly correlated with a wide range of psychological traits. We further postulate that this phenomenon provides a parsimonious way of looking at the overlap between many trait measures. This idea is discussed in light of the ongoing debate on the GFP in which some scholars suggest the general factor is substantive and relevant for understanding personality, whereas others consider it to solely reflect a measurement artifact. Irrespective of whether the substantive, artifact, or a mixed explanation of the GFP is adopted, overlooking the presence of a common general factor in psychological measures may, respectively, either impede the development of unifying theories of human behavior, or otherwise compromise measurement validity.
Background Growing hybrid and military threats are converging with health and care workforce poly-crises, placing increasing pressure on health system resilience. Objectives This study examines how European Union (EU) member states protect and prepare the workforce for health security threats and how these measures impact resilience. Methods A qualitative comparative assessment of EU health security policy and seven country cases was performed, including Czechia, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Romania. A structured topic guide informed data collection in April 2026, drawing on expert input and secondary sources. Results Since COVID-19, health security institutions and defence-related preparedness have expanded substantially across countries. Three broad patterns emerge within a new health security and resilience architecture shaped by health systems, defence strategies and workforce conditions, but also important common trends: workforce stability and resilience remain marginal within these emerging architectures and critical gaps in protection and preparedness, and priority of military-centred approaches threaten health system resilience. Discussion Investment in military-centred defence remains inefficient if not aligned with workforce resilience, including preparedness, physical and mental health protection, equity and gender equality. Key challenges for policymakers are to shift from military- and infrastructure-focused preparedness toward integrated strategies with the workforce as foundational pillar of critical security infrastructure and an operational indicator of resilience, and to build capacity for the implementation of new security policies. Conclusions The EU needs a coordinated workforce-centred strategy with a sustainable budget that strengthens preparedness, protection, governance capacity, research and implementation to improve resilience under crisis and defence conditions.
Public transit networks structure social and economic activities by bringing diverse populations together in shared spaces. This study examines the spatial relationship between faregate replacements and nearby crime patterns within the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Metrorail network in the District of Columbia, Montgomery County, and Prince George's County, Maryland. Faregate replacements were implemented system-wide across all 98 Metrorail stations between July 2023 and September 2024; however, the rollout was staggered, and precise completion dates were not uniformly documented for all stations. This study therefore uses the seven stations with verified replacement dates as treatment stations and uses propensity score matching (PSM) to select seven control stations based on pre-intervention property and violent crime levels to assess changes in nearby crime patterns following the intervention. These stations constitute the earliest confirmed interventions, allowing for a before-and-after comparison and a quasi-experimental design with temporal precision. We use a spatial analytical approach employing the weighted displacement quotient (WDQ) and negative binomial difference-in-differences (DID) models to analyze property and violent crime patterns between the pre- and post-intervention periods (2022 and 2024). This approach examines Census blocks in street-network buffers of 0-400 m, 400-800 m, and 800-1,200 m around stations. The results indicate statistically significant reductions in property crime within the 0-400 m treatment area, with weaker effects at greater distances from stations. In contrast, violent crime exhibited no statistically significant changes following faregate replacement, suggesting that the effects of access-control interventions may differ across crime types. This study highlights the significance of considering interventions in the built environment and, more broadly, underscores the need for urban policy to account for the broader social consequences of transportation design.
The results of the 2023 referendum on a permanent ban on oil extraction in Ecuador's Yasuni-ITT oil fields revealed a paradoxical outcome. Of Ecuador's 24 provinces, only the oil producing Orellana and Sucumbíos voted in favour of continued extraction. This result is paradoxical because these provinces have historically borne the brunt of oil extraction's negative environmental, economic and public health impacts. The paper brings this paradox into dialogue with the critical literature on extractive industries. It argues that while concepts such as 'commodities consensus' and 'extractive imperative' help explain why extractivism persists at the level of national decision-making, attempts at explaining why and how pro-extractive preferences are sustained at the local level have been limited. Using socio-economic indicators, the paper demonstrates that the populations of Sucumbíos and Orellana suffer from various forms of socio-economic marginalization. The paper argues that decades of co-existence with oil extraction processes has created an economic dependence within the communities, which can be described as 'extractivism of the poor'. It also argues that this dependence eliminates real and perceived alternative paths to development within the population of these two provinces, which accounts for their continued support for extraction.
As artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes the workplace, its impact on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has been examined primarily through the lens of what AI actually does (i.e., system design, outputs). This review shifts the focus to humans' subjective beliefs about AI, identifying mechanisms through which three dimensions of AI-beliefs (competence, warmth, and morality) may affect DEI goals: improving representation of underrepresented groups, closing career gaps across groups, and fostering inclusion. Our synthesis shows that, independently of what AI does, AI-beliefs can disadvantage underrepresented groups in some contexts, while creating opportunities for bridging human subgroups in others. This suggests that achieving DEI goals in AI-integrated workplaces requires attention not only to the properties and behavior of AI, but also to employees’ beliefs about AI itself.
