Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lived Experiences of Newly Admitted to Long-Term Care Facilities among Older Adults with Disabilities in Taiwan

This study aimed to explore the lived experiences of Taiwanese older adults with disabilities newly admitted to long-term care facilities (LTCFs). A descriptive phenomenological method was used. Colaizzi’s method analysis of 15 participant interviews revealed six themes: “living here is a last resort”, “I don’t like it but still have to live here”, “my needs are not understood”, “looking forward to emotional support”, “practicing the way of survival”, and “trying to make myself better”. The older adults were admitted to the LTCF as they or their family members could not take care of themselves due to their disability. Participants explained their new life in the LTCF was like a prison, it was not easy for their needs to be understood. They used self-adjustment and established relationships with staff in the LTCF in order to live a stable life. They lived their lives with silence and alertness to practice the way of survival. They strived to make themselves better through rehabilitation, taking good care of their bodies, and finding their focus and value of life. It is important to pay attention to the care needs as well as life adjustment problems for newly older adults with disabilities in order to assist them in opening up new life experiences in LTCFs.
Does It Matter Who You Live with during COVID-19 Lockdown? Association of Living Arrangements with Psychosocial Health, Life Satisfaction, and Quality of Life: A Pilot Study

Background: Living arrangements might greatly impact psychosocial health and quality of life, particularly during the COVID-19 lockdown. This pilot study aimed to examine the association of different common living arrangements with psychosocial health, life satisfaction, and quality of life among Chinese adults during the COVID-19 lockdown. Methods: An anonymous online survey was conducted using convenience sampling through the WeChat application in February 2020. Mental health (Patient Health Questionnaire-2, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2, post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, Patient Health Questionnaire-15, and meaning in life), social health (UCLA-3), quality of life (EQ5D and EQ-VAS), and life satisfaction were measured. Linear regression models were used. Result: The study included 1245 adults (mean age: 34.14 ± 10.71) in China. Compared to other living arrangements, participants who “live with partner and children” or “live with partner, children and parents” were more likely to have better outcomes of mental health, social health, quality of life, and life satisfaction. Participants who “live with parents or grandparents” or “live with partner” were more likely to have better health outcomes compared with those who “live with children” or “live alone”. Conclusion: Living with a partner, children, and/or parents could be a protective factor against poor psychosocial health during lockdown and quarantine.
Cognitive Workload Assessment of Prosthetic Devices: A Review of Literature and Meta-Analysis

Limb amputation can cause severe functional disability for the performance of activities of daily living. Previous studies have found differences in cognitive demands imposed by prosthetic devices due to variations in their design. The objectives of this article were to 1) identify the range of cognitive workload (CW) assessment techniques used in prior studies comparing different prosthetic devices, 2) identify the device configurations or features that reduced CW of users, and 3) provide guidelines for designing future prosthetic devices to reduce CW. A literature search was conducted using Compendex, Inspec, Web of Science, Proquest, IEEE, Engineering Research Database, PubMed, Cochrane, and Google Scholar. Forty-three studies met the inclusion criteria. Findings suggested that CW of prosthetic devices was assessed using physiological, task performance, and subjective measures. However, due to the limitations of these methods, there is a need for more theoretical and model-based approaches to quantify CW. Device configurations such as hybrid input signals and use of multimodal feedback can reduce CW of prosthetic devices. Furthermore, to evaluate the effectiveness of a training strategy for reducing CW and improving device usability, both task performance and subjective measures should be considered. Based on the literature review, a set of guidelines was provided to improve the usability of future prosthetic devices and reduce CW.
Green Synthesis of Nanoparticles Using Bio-Inspired Systems and Electrically Conductive Pattern Fabrication through Laser-Direct Writing

Systems existing in nature have evolved to operate efficiently over a long period of time, enabling efficient material transformation and processing. These natural systems provide hints for the synthesis of metal nanoparticles through efficient electron generation and transport towards metal ions for the reduction process. In this study, based on the efficient electron transfer mechanism between tryptophan (Trp) in the living body, the possibility of advanced silver patterning on flexible substrates has been presented through laser-direct writing. Irradiation of a low-power laser on the precursor induces the reduction of silver ions to nanoparticles. The sintering of these generated nanoparticles induces a silver conductive pattern by a photothermal/chemical reaction. The method of this study has strength as it supports the possibility of conductive pattern fabrication on various substrates (e.g., glass and PDMS) using a silver-based organic ink with low laser power compared to the conventional nanoparticle-based sintering method. It also suggests its suitability to various applications in terms of sophisticated pattern fabrication with minimized substrate denaturation.
Synthesis and Preliminary Evaluation of the Cytotoxicity of Potential Metabolites of Quinoline Glycoconjugates

The design of prodrugs is one of the important strategies for selective anti-cancer therapies. When designing prodrugs, attention is paid to the possibility of their targeting tumor-specific markers such as proteins responsible for glucose uptake. That is why glycoconjugation of biologically active compounds is a frequently used strategy. Glycoconjugates consisting of three basic building blocks: a sugar unit, a linker containing a 1,2,3-triazole ring, and an 8-hydroxyquinoline fragment was described earlier. It is not known whether their cytotoxicity is due to whole glycoconjugates action or their metabolites. To check the biological activity of products that can be released from glycoconjugates under the action of hydrolytic enzymes, the synthetically obtained potential metabolites were tested in vitro for the inhibition of proliferation of HCT-116, MCF-7, and NHDF-Neo cell lines using the MTT assay. Research shows that for the full activity of glycoconjugates, the presence of all three building blocks in the structure of a potential drug is necessary. For selected derivatives, additional tests of targeted drug delivery to tumor cells were carried out using polymer nanocarriers in which they are encapsulated. This approach significantly lowered the determined IC50 values of the tested compounds and improved their selectivity and effectiveness.
Development towards a focus variation based micro-co-ordinate measuring machine

The increasing number of small and fragile parts that are being manufactured using micromachining technology has raised the demand for co-ordinate measurement machines (CMM) that can measure on a micro- and millimetric scale without contacting the part, thus avoiding damage to the surface of the part. These instruments are expected to measure on a micro- and millimetric scale with a measuring uncertainty in the nanometre range. A number of techniques used for contactless surface measurements exist, such as the focus variation (FV) technique, which have the ability to perform measurements on the micro- and millimetric scale in a short amount of time. These instruments may have the potential to be implemented in a non-contact micro-CMM platform. [Continues. ]
Educating EVs to Improve Bone Regeneration: Getting Closer to the Clinic

The incidence of bone-related disorders is continuously growing as the aging of the population in developing countries continues to increase. Although therapeutic interventions for bone regeneration exist, their effectiveness is questioned, especially under certain circumstances, such as critical size defects. This gap of curative options has led to the search for new and more effective therapeutic approaches for bone regeneration; among them, the possibility of using extracellular vesicles (EVs) is gaining ground. EVs are secreted, biocompatible, nano-sized vesicles that play a pivotal role as messengers between donor and target cells, mediated by their specific cargo. Evidence shows that bone-relevant cells secrete osteoanabolic EVs, whose functionality can be further improved by several strategies. This, together with the low immunogenicity of EVs and their storage advantages, make them attractive candidates for clinical prospects in bone regeneration. However, before EVs reach clinical translation, a number of concerns should be addressed. Unraveling the EVs’ mode of action in bone regeneration is one of them; the molecular mediators driving their osteoanabolic effects in acceptor cells are now beginning to be uncovered. Increasing the functional and bone targeting abilities of EVs are also matters of intense research. Here, we summarize the cell sources offering osteoanabolic EVs, and the current knowledge about the molecular cargos that mediate bone regeneration. Moreover, we discuss strategies under development to improve the osteoanabolic and bone-targeting potential of EVs.
How Do Chinese People View Cyberbullying? A Text Analysis Based on Social Media

The rise of cyberbullying has been of great concern for the general public. This study aims to explore public attitudes towards cyberbullying on Chinese social media. Cognition and emotion are important components of attitude, and this study innovatively used text analysis to extract the cognition and emotion of the posts. We used a web crawler to collect 53,526 posts related to cyberbullying in Chinese on Sina Weibo in a month, where emotions were detected using the software “Text Mind”, a Chinese linguistic psychological text analysis system, and the content analysis was performed using the Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic model. Sentiment analysis showed the frequency of negative emotion words was the highest in the posts; the frequency of anger, anxiety, and sadness words decreased in turn. The topic model analysis identified three common topics about cyberbullying: critiques on cyberbullying and support for its victims, rational expressions of anger and celebrity worship, and calls for further control. In summary, this study quantitatively reveals the negative attitudes of the Chinese public toward cyberbullying and conveys specific public concerns via three common topics. This will help us to better understand the demands of the Chinese public so that targeted support can be proposed to curb cyberbullying.
Epstein-Barr Virus Load Correlates with Multiple Sclerosis-Associated Retrovirus Envelope Expression

pHERV-W ENV and syncytin-1, the envelope proteins of the human endogenous retrovirus W family (HERV-W), have been proposed as etiological factors for MS development. In addition, herpesviruses, such as the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and the human herpesvirus 6A/B (HHV-6A/B), have been also strongly associated with the disease. This work aims to study the possible link between viral loads and antibody titers against EBV and HHV-6A/B and the pHERV-W ENV/syncytin-1 protein/gene expression. For this purpose, we conducted a 12-month longitudinal study involving 98 RRMS patients. Peripheral blood samples were obtained from each patient. Serum antibody titers against EBV and HHV-6A/B were determined by ELISA, while viral loads were analyzed using qPCR. HLA MS-related alleles were also genotyped. pHERV-W ENV/syncytin-1 protein and gene expression levels in immune cells were assessed by flow cytometry and qPCR, respectively. We found that the 12-month variation of the pHERV-W ENV gene expression levels positively correlated with the variation of the EBV viral load, especially in those patients with high baseline EBV loads. Therefore, these results could support previous studies pointing to the transactivation of pHERV-W ENV by EBV. However, further studies are needed to better understand this possible relationship.
Local magnitude calibration of seismic events in the West Rand, Far West Rand, and Klerksdorp-Orkney-Stilfontein-Hartebeesfontein gold mining areas

Richter magnitudes for seismic events were calibrated for use as a Local magnitude scale in the West Rand (WR), Far West Rand (FWR), and Klerksdorp-Orkney-Stilfontein-Hartebeesfontein (KOSH) gold mining areas. Richter magnitudes are currently calculated from seismograms recorded by local surface cluster networks using tabulated calibration values for Southern California, published in 1958. The Richter (1958) model is incorrect for distances of less than 30 km and should be applied only to crustal earthquakes in regions with similar attenuation properties to those of Southern California. When compared to the South African National Seismograph Network (SANSN), the cluster networks, on average, overestimate seismic event magnitudes by approximately 0.1 of a magnitude unit. A calibrated Local magnitude scale was derived by means of a multiple regression analysis between the Local magnitudes reported by the SANSN and the largest zero-to-peak trace amplitudes measured on the cluster network horizontal seismograms, after modelling the attenuation of the seismic waves as these progress from the epicentre to the station position. Magnitudes reported by individual stations for the same event show a significant scatter around the average magnitude owing to the near-surface amplifications of the seismic waves at the recordings sites. Average magnitude should be estimated using as many magnitudes of individual stations as possible to ensure an accurate estimate. Larger event magnitudes should be compared with those recorded by the SANSN.
3D Hybrid Waveform Inversion With GPU Devices

When waveform inversion is performed in the LaplaceFourier domain, wave propagation should be described through Laplace-Fourier domain modeling. However, because the modeling operator matrix organized by a complex-valued angular frequency is not satisfied with the positive definite, direct matrix solvers or iterative matrix solvers supporting nonsymmetrical linear systems should be used. In this study, 3D 2-order time-8-order spacedomain wave modeling with finite-difference stencils is employed in the waveform inversion instead of 3D complex-valued frequency-domain modeling, and the Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) architecture is used for higher speedup instead of the traditional CPU architecture. In this paper, Laplace-Fourier-domain waveform inversion with time-space wave modeling is called hybrid waveform inversion. To verify the feasibility of this technique, the waveform inversion is performed on the A1 line of the synthetic SEG/EAGE 3D salt model and 3D wide-azimuth real exploration data.
Side-Length-Independent Motif (SLIM): Motif Discovery and Volatility Analysis in Time Series—SAX, MDL and the Matrix Profile

As the availability of big data-sets becomes more widespread so the importance of motif (or repeated pattern) identification and analysis increases. To date, the majority of motif identification algorithms that permit flexibility of sub-sequence length do so over a given range, with the restriction that both sides of an identified sub-sequence pair are of equal length. In this article, motivated by a better localised representation of variations in time series, a novel approach to the identification of motifs is discussed, which allows for some flexibility in side-length. The advantages of this flexibility include improved recognition of localised similar behaviour (manifested as motif shape) over varying timescales. As well as facilitating improved interpretation of localised volatility patterns and a visual comparison of relative volatility levels of series at a globalised level. The process described extends and modifies established techniques, namely SAX, MDL and the Matrix Profile, allowing advantageous properties of leading algorithms for data analysis and dimensionality reduction to be incorporated and future-proofed. Although this technique is potentially applicable to any time series analysis, the focus here is financial and energy sector applications where real-world examples examining S&P500 and Open Power System Data are also provided for illustration.
Environmental sound classification based on pitch shifting

Environmental sound classification (ESC) is a challenging problem. Environmental sound classification is different from traditional music classification and speech classification because of its non-stationary characteristics. The use of convolutional neural network (CNN) to classify environmental sound is faced with the problems of unequal audio data sample length and single data, which leads to the generation of overfitting and low classification accuracy. In order to solve these problems, we proposed a waveform stretching method to solve the problem of unequal audio length, and adopted the audio data enhancement method with pitch shifting to prevent the over-fitting phenomenon caused by the single data. Log-Mel features are extracted and classified using an improved Lenet network. Our experimental results show that the proposed method achieves 95.65% accuracy on Urbansound8K.
Circuit breaker condition assessment through a fuzzy-probabilistic analysis of actuating coil's current

Circuit breaker (CB) is a component providing significant electrical protection for power transmission and distribution systems. Hence, an effective condition monitoring system for the CBs is of imminent importance. This study presents a fuzzy-probabilistic-based condition assessment algorithm to assess the CB operation performance by monitoring its trip/close coil current (C.C.), and suggests a simple yet effective condition assessment tool. The C.C. patterns are acquired by measurements carried out on 60 CBs (72.5 kV, SF6) under faulty and normal conditions. To intelligently assess the CB's operating state (i.e. normal, alarm and emergency), in terms of its reliability, the optimum C.C. features with minimum interdependence were obtained. Furthermore, a fuzzy-probabilistic method is proposed based on the results of the statistical analyses of the features. The feasibility and applicability of the proposed method in CB condition assessment is verified against the experimental measured data.
A mathematical model analysis of marriage divorce

HAILEYESUS TESSEMA1,∗, ISSAKA HARUNA2, SHAIBU OSMAN3, ENDESHAW KASSA4 1Department of Mathematics, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia 2Pan African University Institute of Basic Sciences, Technology and Innovation, Nairobi, Kenya 3Department of Basic Sciences, School of Basic and Biomedical Sciences, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ghana 4Department of Mathematics, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Debre Markose University, Debre Markose, Ethiopia
Active Play Social Network Change for Mexican-Heritage Children Participating in a Father-Focused Health Program

ABSTRACT Background Physical activity (PA) is beneficial for physical, mental, and emotional health; however, Latinx children report lower PA levels. Scholars have called for a renewed focus on fathers to promote child health. Purpose This study examines changes in Mexican-heritage child active play networks through participation in a father-focused family-centered health program. Methods Families (child aged 9–11, mother, and father) from colonias participated in a six-week healthy eating and active living program. Children reported up to five people they actively played with most before and after the program, their relationship, frequency with which they played with the person, and what they did most often with that person. Results Children (n = 42, M age = 9.79, SD = 1.01; 54.8% girls) reported a mean of 3.79 people in their network before and 4.24 people after the program. Children reported significantly more frequent active play with others after the program. Girls reported significantly more frequent active play with others when compared to boys; however, boys were significantly more likely to increase their frequency of active play with others. Discussion Results indicate family-centered father-focused programs could increase active play with networks. Translation to Health Education Practice Incorporating elements of co-participation in active play may increase frequency of active play.
A seed morphometry study of selected species of Bulbophyllum and Dendrobium (Orchidaceae) in relation to their dispersals

Abstract. Aprilianti P, Handini E, Puspitaningtyas DM. 2021. A seed morphometry study of selected species of Bulbophyllum and Dendrobium (Orchidaceae) in relation to their dispersals. Biodiversitas 22: 5564-5571. Bulbophyllum and Dendrobium are the two largest genera of Orchidaceae. The seed morphometry studies of Bulbophyllum and Dendrobium, mainly from Southeast Asia are still poorly reported. The research aimed to characterize seeds micromorphometry of selected species of Bulbophyllum and Dendrobium, namely Bulbophyllum graveolens, B. macranthum, B. phalaenopsis, Dendrobium bicaudatum, and D. bifalce in relation to their dispersal mechanisms. Twenty seeds of each species were studied using light and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Qualitative characters, such as seed shape, testa cell shape, wall structure, and its orientation and quantitative data, such as seed and embryo were analyzed. The results showed that the shape of the seeds of all the species was fusiform. The testa cell walls were smooth and covered by waxes. The anticlinal walls were raised and thickened. Bulbophyllum and Dendrobium can be differentiated in the orientation of testa cells, which is spirally oriented in Bulbophyllum and parallel to the long axis in the Dendrobium. There are no large variations in seed and embryo volume as well as seed air space (SAS) in different taxa. The SAS value can be used to predict the dispersal mechanism and distribution area of the orchid species. Unfortunately, the SAS values are not always positively correlated with the distribution area and other factors inhibit the spread of the species.
Image-Based Learning Using Gradient Class Activation Maps for Enhanced Physiological Interpretability of Motor Imagery Skills

Brain activity stimulated by the motor imagery paradigm (MI) is measured by Electroencephalography (EEG), which has several advantages to be implemented with the widely used Brain–Computer Interfaces (BCIs) technology. However, the substantial inter/intra variability of recorded data significantly influences individual skills on the achieved performance. This study explores the ability to distinguish between MI tasks and the interpretability of the brain’s ability to produce elicited mental responses with improved accuracy. We develop a Deep and Wide Convolutional Neuronal Network fed by a set of topoplots extracted from the multichannel EEG data. Further, we perform a visualization technique based on gradient-based class activation maps (namely, GradCam++) at different intervals along the MI paradigm timeline to account for intra-subject variability in neural responses over time. We also cluster the dynamic spatial representation of the extracted maps across the subject set to come to a deeper understanding of MI-BCI coordination skills. According to the results obtained from the evaluated GigaScience Database of motor-evoked potentials, the developed approach enhances the physiological explanation of motor imagery in aspects such as neural synchronization between rhythms, brain lateralization, and the ability to predict the MI onset responses and their evolution during training sessions.